John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word I.THE APOSTLE ASSERTS THE OF CHRIST. 1. His name: the Word. (1) He is the chief subject of Revelation--the Word of promise--the substance of all shadows, types, and prophecies. (2) The medium of God’ s communications with the world. To Him the Father communicates Himself in counsel; He, as the Wisdom of God, communicates the Father’ s counsels to men. 2. His eternity. Not “ from,” but “ in,” the beginning. 3. His distinct personality and co-existence with the Father. II. THE APOSTLE HIS BY TO CHRIST’ S PRE- TO THE WORLD. 1. The worlds and the things in them are not eternal. Reason teaches us that there must have been a first cause. 2. All things were made by the Word (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). 3. He Himself was not made; therefore cannot be a creature, however exalted, such as Socinians, Mohammedans, and Arians represent Him. 4. Every form of life is in Him, of whatever rank, from inanimate matter up to rational and spiritual man. 5. All light proceeds from Him. 6. The restoration of the ruined is by Him. Souls in the darkness of death are illumined and revived by Him. (A. Beith, D. D.) I. THE OF THE WORD TO GOD, as possessing the Divine nature and existing with God before creation. II. THE OF THE WORD TO THE , as its Creator. III. THE OF THE WORD TO MEN, as being the source of life and light to them. IV. THE OF THE WORD TO FALLEN , as shining in the darkness, though the darkness comprehended it not. (W. Perkins.) Practical reflections I. WOULD WE KNOW THE OF SIN? Let us read these verses. If no one less than the Eternal God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, could take away the sin of the world, sin must be a far more abominable thing in the sight of God than most men suppose. If Christ is so great, then sin must indeed be sinful! II. WOULD WE KNOW THE OF A TRUE ’ S FOR HOPE? Let us often read these verses. Let us mark that the Saviour in whom the believer is bid to trust is nothing less than the Eternal God, One able to save to the uttermost all that come to the Father by Him. He that was “ with God,” and “ was God,” is also “ Emmanuel, God with us.” (Bp. Ryle.) Christ and God “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). As the translation ofthis passage cannot be improved, and the words are plain, no verbal exegesis is required. The subject is Christ and God, and we are here taught I. THAT CHRIST IS THE ETERNAL OF GOD. “ In the beginning was the Word” --the Logos. He is not a word but the word. As the Revealer, this Word is distinguished 1. By its faithfulness. Christ is the exact exponent of the Divine intellect and heart. 2. By its fulness. Other words only speak part of God. 3. By its forcefulness. Human words are sometimes powerful, they are not always air; they are sometimes a force. God’ s words in nature are mighty. II. THAT CHRIST IS THE ETERNAL SELF OF GOD. “ And the Word was with God.” The expression implies that He had a conscious existence distinct from the Absolute One. He was with Him. He that is with me is not me. 1. Christ was with Him in the sense of agreement. There was a perfect concurrence. 2. Christ was with him in the sense of contact. Never out of His presence, living in His light, breathing His inspirations. III. THAT CHRIST IS THE ETERNAL SELF OF GOD. “ And the Word was God.” 1. “ He was God” in form. Deep, it would seem, in the constitution of moral soul, is the craving for some form of God. As He appears in the universe, He transcends the limits of human vision. Christ is the form He has assumed; the form in which, in all probability, He appears to His intelligent universe as well as to man. 2. “ He was God” in action. Through Him the eternal volitions are carried out and realized. He is the Actualizer of God’ s eternal ideas. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The Word made flesh A fourfold contrast. I. In respect of ESSENCE. Word and flesh. The first suggests pure spirituality, power, eternity; the second materiality, weakness, mortality. II. In respect of . In the beginning the Word was. In time the Word was made flesh. The eternal becomes an infant of days. He who was in the beginning, and had.no beginning, has also an existence numbered by every year that passes away. III. In respect of . “ With God” ; “ among us.” In perfect holiness and blessedness; acquainted with grief and beset by sin. In the bosom of the Eternal Father, receiving and returning infinite love; and in the arms of a human mother, soon to taste the hatred and cruelty of man. IV. In respect of NATURE. The supreme contrast. He who was God became man. In man are united spirit and matter, angel and brute, seraph and clay. But what extremes meet in Christ! Creator and creature, eternity and time; and these in unbroken union. (W. Perkins.) The Word I. The of the Word. 1. By the phrase “ in the beginning” is to be understood eternity. Had St. John said “ before” the beginning, he would have presented eternity under the laws of time, a mistake as grave as to describe the Infinite under the conditions of the finite. But mounting up higher than time and space, he leads us to the calm where God dwelleth. 2. Four times he repeats the word “ was” ; which (1) Joined with “ beginning,” makes the idea of eternity dawn upon the mind in all its awful grandeur. (2) Joined to “ with God,” involves a contrast with verse 3. The sun, moon, and stars in the beginning “ were made” ; the Word in the beginning “ was.” His existence and theirs consequently differ radically. (3) Joined to “ God” contrasts with verse 14. “ In the beginning was the Word” ; in the fulness of time “ the Word was made flesh.” 3. Christ always existed as the Word. It was not in the course of history that He became the Word. In His pre-existence Jesus Christ is God speaking to Himself; in His post-existence God speaking to us. The same word He speaks to Himself and to us; therefore it has the same meaning on the Divine as on the human side. II. The of the Word. 1. The Word was “ with God” in respect of personality. Omnipotence is eternally in God; Jesus Christ is eternally with God--a mode of speech signifying distinct, but not separate, personal subsistence. God spent eternity in self-communion; but He so far transcends us in the power of thinking that His ideas become realities. His one thought becomes a Word consubstantial with Himself. 2. He was with God in respect of complacency. God took unspeakable delight in His Word, for in Him He beheld His own portraiture, without defect, fault, or flaw. God, as Father, infinitely, eternally, loves the Son. This intense love the Son cherishes towards the Father. He was not simply with, but “ towards,” God. He had His face, so to speak, turned fully towards Him, returning all the wealth of thought and affection poured upon Him. With the perfect thinker the perfect Word reflects back the perfect thought. A further idea still lurks here. The Word was “ at home” with God. Christ in His preexistent state never felt restrained or ill at ease as an inferior with a superior, but as a loving child with an indulgent father Proverbs 8:22-31); not as a subject in the presence of his monarch, or a creature in the presence of his Creator, but as an equal in the society of his friend. 3. He was with God in respect of counsel or purpose. (1) In respect of creative counsel. All things were gathered together in the pre-existent Christ (Revelation 3:4; Colossians 1:15-16). (2) In respect of redemptive purpose. In the centre of the earth all the mountains meet. In the centre all terrestrial objects stand together. Similarly Christ is the centre of the plan of our salvation (Ephesians 1:3-4). III. The proper of the Word. 1. “ Was God” implies co-equality. Two persons may be in amicable fellowship, whilst in nature and standing the one may be inferior to the other. (1) As Mediator, indeed, in His state of humiliation, Christ was the Father’ s subordinate and servant; wherefore He says, “ My Father is greater than I.” (2) But as He is the Second Person in the Trinity, St. John teaches His equality with the Father. The idea of perfect sonship excludes that of subordination. The man of forty is as much a son as a child of four; the fact of sonship is undiminished, but subordination is gone. But Jesus Christ is from the first a perfect Son, and therefore on a footing of equality with the perfect Father. (3) The Son being thus equal with the Father, God will have no occasion to repeat His Word. The perfect revelation is summed up in one word--Jesus Christ. 2. “ Was God” teaches consubstantiality. “ The Word was with God” ; there it is God with the article denoting the Father’ s person; here without the article indicating substance, being. The Son can never be the Father; but is of the same essence as.the Father--of the same, not of like; homo-ousia, not homoiousia. 3. Let us therefore hold fast the doctrine once delivered to the saints. Beware of running away with the notion that all the intellects are opposed to orthodoxy. The acute intellects may be, but the profound intellects, which see far and deep, are not. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The Word 1. As the mental work in man is the thought of the mind by which the mind holds converse with itself insensibly--that is, without effort and without passion or emotion--and is the perfect image and similitude of the mind from which it proceeds, so does the Son derive a free and unseen origin from the Father, being His express image and similitude. 2. As the mind holds converse with itself by its own thought and cogitation, and sees and knows itself and all things by means of this thought, so does the Father see Himself as in a mirror in the person of His Son. 3. As the intellectual, immaterial word abides in man’ s mind, so does the Divine Word abide and remain in the bosom of the Father. (W. Denton, M. A.) 1. Where the Word was--in the beginning. 2. Where the Word was--with God. 3. What the Word was--God. (Beaux Amis.) The resemblance between the Written and the Personal Word I. CHRIST IS DIVINE-HUMAN. 1. He assumed into union with His Godhead a human soul, a human body, and an animal nature. He hungered, thirsted, was fatigued, and had as real a need of meat, drink, and sleep as other men. 2. He grew, not only in stature, but in wisdom. 3. As regarded His human mind, He knew not the time of the consummation of all things. 4. He was as much mixed up with the manifold, humbling, petty details of daily life as any of us. 5. But every now and then there flashed rays of that glory which He had with the Father before the world was. II. THE WRITTEN WORD IS DIVINE-HUMAN. 1. Its Divine element is twofold. (1) Inspiration, which pervades the whole of it. (2) Revelation, which characterizes the most important parts of it--the creation, the whole range of prophecy, the law, the gospel. 2. It is perfectly human--a fact attested by the variety of its style. It is coloured with the human mind, affections, experiences, reasonings. 3. This human element gives the Scriptures that geniality which wakens so many chords in our hearts, and which makes us find them such a sympathetic book. If they spoke only the tongues of angels they might reveal to us mysteries, impress and even scare us, but where would their comfort be? 4. Like the Personal Word, the Written Word, though both human and Divine, is but one book; inasmuch as all its treatises were given by inspiration of one Spirit, who did for them what the living soul does for the animal frame--gave them a regular organization and development which makes the Bible truly and really one body. III. THE PERFECT OF THE WRITTEN WORD ITS BRING WITH , AS THE WRITTEN WORD WAS. Hence the weaknesses of its human language and thought. 1. In censuring sin it speaks with a fidelity which our false delicacy does not relish, and which no uninspired preacher would dare to imitate. 2. Frequently the writers descend to matters of comparatively local, temporal, and mundane interest. 3. They were unacquainted with scientific truth. 4. In many points they give a handle to the misconstructions of enemies. IV. THERE IS A GROWTH OF HOLY EXACTLY TO THE GROWTH OF THE WORD. 1. Prophecy is built up stone upon stone on the foundation of the original promise (Genesis 3:15). This promise is handed over to Abraham in an enlarged and expanded form (Genesis 12:3). When Abraham’ s family branches out into twelve tribes, Judah is selected as the tribe in which the promise should run (Genesis 49:8; Genesis 49:10). As soon as an earthly kingdom is established, David is indicated as the king on whose throne Messiah should sit (2 Samuel 7:12-16). 2. The Written Word is ever developing itself from Genesis to Revelation. In Genesis you have the dawn of Divine knowledge and thought; in the New Testament you have its noontide blaze. God, Christ, morality, the Fall, justification, sanctification are not seen as clearly in the Old Testament as in the New, nor in the earlier books of the Old as in the later. Yet from first to last it is the very Word of God, as Jesus is; as much exalted above other books as He is by His Divinity above other men. V. IT ALL THE OF ITS EXALTED AND ORIGIN, It abounds in passages of supernatural sublimity, foresights, revelations of heaven, oracles which seem to vibrate with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. Like the Personal Word, the Written Word rises up in meek majesty to make those who approach it with hostile intent go backward and fall to the ground; upon it descends the holy dove; over it hangs the bright cloud; it quickens human souls; it says to the stormy sea of the human heart, “ Peace, be still” ; before it the demons of lust, pride, covetousness, worldliness, quake and flee. As both in His generation and resurrection and ascension Jesus was declared to be Divine, so both at its commencement, when it stoops down to inaugurate the narrative of earth, and at its close ascends to heaven again and exhibits man purged from all stain, so the Written Word is declared to be the Word of God with power. VI. IF CHRIST WERE NOT HUMAN, WE SHOULD NOT HAVE THE OF HIS ; IF THE WERE NOT HUMAN, THEY COULD NOT COME HOME AS THEY DO TO HUMAN HEARTS AND . Let us therefore regard them with but one whir the less affectionate veneration. There could be no trial of faith if they presented no difficulties. To what shall we go if we give them up? (Dean Goulburn.) The heavenly analogy of the connection of speech with reason Man’ s reason was formed in the image of God, and our Lord is called the Word; these are the two Scriptural intimations which guide us into part of the truth respecting the Divine nature. 1. Reason involves a thing distinct from itself, namely, speech, or the power of communicating the processes of reason, so that whosoever has the faculty of reason has in that faculty the faculty of speech or the Word. 2. Though reason wraps up speech in itself, yet we can conceive of reason as energizing latently, and of the faculty of speech as having no exercise. 3. Neither reason nor speech can make any claim to priority of existence; they are twin faculties, born at the same instant. Now listen to what the Catholic Church has gathered from the Scripture respecting the nature of God. I. There is a TRINITY IN UNITY, that is, more than one Person in the Divine nature. Man’ s spirit, the Bible says, was made in the image of that nature. In man’ s spirit there are two faculties, reason and speech. The second Person in the Divine nature goes by the name of the Word, that is, He stands to the first in the same relation as that in which utterance stands to understanding. II. St. John intimates that THERE WAS A PERIOD WHEN, although both blessed Persons existed, yet THE SON WAS IN THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER; when, though the Word was, yet the Word came not forth. That is like reason, with the faculty of speech latent in it, not put forth. III. THE MAJESTY OF THESE PERSONS IS CO-ETERNAL. The administration of this in the human spirit is the twin birth of reason and speech. Speech, then, in the nature of man, represents Christ in the nature of God. What a value and a dignity does this impress on human speech! When you reason and communicate to others the result you adumbrate in the limits of a finite nature, the nature of the Infinite One. Shall any child of man, then, degrade this faculty of speech to vain and profane and unclean communications? (Dean Goulburn.) The relation of this revelation with that of Gen 1:1-31. which is an introduction to the story of the first man, as this is an introduction to the story of the second Man, the Lord from heaven. The great words are the same in both cases, though they have evidently deepened in their later use--the beginning, God, the Word , all things, light, darkness,life, to be, to become. While the evangelist begins with creation, he goes very far beyond, and consequently uses many words that were not needed in Genesis, but are indispensable to his purpose, such as law, grace, truth, faith, sons of God and sin. As in Genesis, God is taken for granted. There is no attempt to prove that He is, and there is no notice taken of any denial that He is. With a grand daring of disregard, as if there could be no controversy on such a subject, the paragraph proceeds on the assumption that He is, as beyond question, like a postulate or axiom. (J. Culross, D. D.) Controversy about Christ This verse is an unanswerable argument against three classes of heretics. It confutes 1. The Arians, who regard Christ as a Being inferior to God. 2. The Sabellians, who deny any distinction of Persons in the Trinity, and say that God sometimes manifested Himself as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as the Spirit, and that the Father and the Spirit suffered on the cross. 3. The Socinians and Unitarians, who say that Jesus Christ was not God, but man, a most holy and perfect man, but only a man. (Bp.Ryle.) A notable conversion A memorable hour arrived in the history of a youth belonging to an honourable French family in the second half of the sixteenth century. Though scarcely fifteen years of age, he had been led by blind guides to unbelief, and the dragon’ s teeth, sown on an unguarded field, had already begun to produce their destructive harvest. His godly father, deeply concerned for his salvation, placed a New Testament in his room, and offered the silent prayer that he might take it and read it. The son did so. His eye rested accidentally upon a passage which, according to his own words, so affected him that he “ suddenly felt the Divinity of the subject, and, together with the majesty, also the power of the words that so infinitely surpassed the flow of all human eloquence. My whole body was convulsed,” he continues, “ my soul was confounded, and I have been so affected this whole day that I have scarcely been conscious of my own identity.” It was not quite twenty-five years after this remarkable event that he was preaching the Gospel of the Reformation at Antwerp, while the light from the blaze of the funeral pile which was consuming his companions in faith shone against the windows of the hall where he preached. And when the pestilence that raged in Leyden in 1602 numbered him among its victims, it was universally acknowledged and lamented that a shining light had set. This young man was the celebrated Professor Francis Junius, and the passage which was the power of God to his salvation was John 1:1. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.) The nature of Christ perfectly similar and equal to that of the Eternal Father 1. This subject yields m importance to none. The views we take of it will influence those we take of all other doctrines, and must terminate in results which affect God’ s glory. 2. Our state of mind should be one of perfect neutrality. The slightest prepossession is incompatible with the love of truth. 3. The language of the Scriptures must be taken in its obvious signification, just as the Jews took John 10:30; John 15:13. 4. Should this doctrine be clearly taught, no difficulty can affect its certainty or ought to affect our faith. 5. The lines of proof are five. (1) Divine names are given to Christ. (2) Divine attributes are ascribed to Him. (3) Divine works are wrought by Him. (4) Divine relations are sustained by Him. (5) Divine worship is demanded by and paid to Him. The line suggested by our text is the first. I. Christ is called JEHOVAH (John 12:37; cf. Isaiah 6:1-10). II. GOD (Romans 9:5; Hebrews 1:8). III. GREAT GOD (Titus 2:3). IV. TRUE GOD (1 John 5:20). V. MIGHTY GOD (Isaiah 9:6). VI. GOD OF ISRAEL (Exodus 24:9-10; Psalms 68:17-18; Ephesians 4:8). In reference to these instances: 1. Has any other received such appellations. 2. Compare these appellations with the religious state of the Jews at the time of Christ. They were strict monotheists, as were Christ and the apostles. If, therefore, it was intended to convey the idea of Christ’ s Divinity, no better terms could have been used; but if to convey the idea that He was a mere man, they are totally misleading. 3. Compare these appellations with the state of the Pagan world. They were idolaters, and Christ’ s design and that of His apostles was to deliver them from idolatry. A strange method was employed if Christ were a mere creature. 4. Examine whether events have justified the notion which the prophets gave if Christ be not God. It was predicted that He should utterly abolish idols, and has He not done so? 5. The supposition that the Deity of Christ was taught by the Saviour and His apostles will alone enable us to account for His rejection. Conclusion: 1. Is the Deity of Christ a doctrine of Scripture? Then how is the accuracy of His precepts ratified? How entire the proof of their conformity to the will of God! 2. Is the Saviour possessed of a Divine nature? How absolutely, therefore, is He able to scrutinize our professions of His gospel! 3. The same truth also invites the utmost confidence in His declarations of mercy and offers of pardon. (J. F. Denham.) On books 1. What is it which makes men different from all other living beings we know of? Is it not speech--the power of words? The beasts may make one another understand many things, but they have no speech. 2. But where did this power of uttering thoughts come from? The beasts have been on the earth as long as man, and yet they can no more speak than they could when they were created. But Adam could speak at once, and could understand what God said to him. Who gave him that power but Jesus, the Word who was in the beginning with God, and lighteth every man that cometh into the world? 3. By Christ the Word God has spoken to man in all ages. It was He whom Moses and the seventy elders saw, for “ no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him. He put rote David’ s mouth those glorious Psalms. “ The Lord … hath put a new song into my mouth.” He, as the Word of God, came unto the prophets. When He became incarnate, He spake as never man spake. And since then He has given to all wise and holy poets, philosophers, and preachers the power to speak and write the wonderful truths they have thought out. 4. Ought not the knowledge of all this (1) make us better and wiser; (2) make us reverence the Bible; (3) reverence all good books? Except a living man, there is nothing more wonderful than a book, a message from a human soul thousands of miles away which can amuse, terrify, comfort, teach us. Why is it that neither angels, nor saints, nor evil spirits appear now to speak to men as they once did? Because we have books by which Christ’ s messengers and the devil’ s can communicate with us. If they are good and true, they are the message of Christ, the Teacher of all truth. If they are false and wicked, we ought to fear them as evil spirits loosed among us. This is an age of books, a flood of writings of all sorts is spreading over the world. We ought not to stop that. It is God’ s ordinance. It is of His grace and mercy that we have a free press. It was dearly bought. The men who died to buy us this liberty knew that it was better to let in a thousand bad books than to shut out one good one, for a grain of God’ s truth will outweigh a ton of the devil’ s lies. We cannot silence evil books, but we can take care what we read, and that what we let others read shall be good and wholesome. (Charles Kingsley, M. A.) The Word of Scripture concerning the beginning I. THE OLD WORD IN THE NEW LIGHT. II. THE NEW WORD ON THE OLD BASIS. (Lange.) I. AS THE GREAT BETWEEN AND TIME. II. AS THE GREAT UNION BETWEEN AND TIME. (Lange.) What is gained by defending the eternal pre-existence of Jesus Christ Much every way. The Revealer of God being eternal, He is competent to give the world an eternal revelation--a re, elation of eternal truth, a revelation of the eternal God. Moses and others might serve as organs of the Old Testament revelation, for the religion they established was temporal, designed to last only “ till the time of reformation.” In the nature of things a temporal revealer can only found a temporal religion; you must have an everlasting Revealer to make known the everlasting gospel. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The origin of the term “ Logos,” or Word The claims of Philo to be regarded as the source of St. John’ s doctrine have been largely advocated. But I. IT IS NOT CERTAIN THAT JOHN WAS WITH PHILO OR THE GNOSIS. 1. The relations which existed between Ephesus and Alexandria. 2. The assumption that Apollos carried over the Philonian doctrines. 3. The statement that Cerinthus drew the germs of his doctrine from an Alexandrian source. And 4. The circumstance that Neoplatonism had spread widely amongst the Hellenistic Jews only make it probable that John was acquainted with Philo, but cannot be regarded as establishing it. II. WITH THE OF THE TERM LOGOS, THE GOSPEL NOT A TRACE OF , which is remarkable if John began its composition under the influence of that celebrated master. The number of parallels between the philosopher and the evangelist are at the most four, and these are confined exclusively to the prologue. III. THE LOGOS OF PHILO IS FROM THAT OF JOHN. 1. It is impossible to determine whether the former is a person or an attribute, or a personification, whereas the latter is distinctly personal. 2. The former is not Divine in the sense that the latter is. Philo gives the name of δεύτεροςθεὸς to the Loges only metaphorically, whereas John calls Him θεὸς in the strictest didactic sense. 3. The former is a metaphysical conception; the latter an object of religious contemplation. 4. The former has no real connection with human history and salvation such as the latter has. IV. IT WAS FOR JOHN TO HAVE TO PHILO FOR THIS . 1. In the Hebrew Scriptures we have the germs of the doctrine. (1) In Genesis 1:1-31. creation is attributed to so many separate voices or spoken words of Elohim. What if John purposed to represent the uncreated Loges as the personal Being by whom these creative words were altered? (2) The Maleach Jehovah who appeared as God’ s messenger, who announced His will (Genesis 15:1), and who, if distinguished from Him Genesis 16:11), was identified with Him (Genesis 16:13; Genesis 19:16; Genesis 32:30), would unquestionably prepare the way for such a conception as John’ s. (3) The creative activity assigned to the Word of Jehovah (Psalms 33:6-9) would tend to foster the notion. (4) The personification of wisdom (Proverbs 8:22-31) would further serve to develop the idea. 2. In the Chochmah writings of the Post-Exilian Period, which carried on and perfected the tendency already begun, John would find another contributory source to the doctrine. In these the transition from an impersonal to a personal Sophia is an accomplished fact (Wisdom of Sir 1:1; Sir 1:4; Sir 24:3; Sir 42:9; Wisdom of Solomon, 7:25, 26, 22); and the Chaldee Targumists substitute for Elohim and Jehovah Memra da Yeya, a personal being who served as the permanent agent or representative of God, and who was identified with the Shekinah and the Messiah. 3. While Christ never employed the term, an examination of His utterances concerning His person might easily suggest the propriety of using it. Without alluding to John 5:38; John 14:24; John 17:14, the aspect m which Christ’ s person, character, and work are here contemplated is that of one who has come with the Divine words of truth and life, and the transition must have seemed natural and easy from Christ as the speaker of God’ s words to Him as God’ s spoken Word Himself. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ the Word of God What is a word? It is a thought in the depths of the heart made audible to a second person. If Christ be the Word of God, He is God’ s love sounding in the language of mankind, God’ s truth reverberating among the centuries as amid the corridors of a grand temple, God’ s justice revealed to our comprehension. Once this orb was a bright mirror which reflected God’ s image, but sin darkened it, and it is dim. Once the rolling of its waves, the murmurings of its streams, the noise of its winds, was the word of God; but sin has laid its hand upon all its heartstrings and deadened and disordered its vibrations. Christ is now what the world once was, and more than the world was--God’ s love, God’ s truth, audible to men. So that in hearing Christ speak I hear God; in seeing Christ’ s portrait I see God’ s; in seeing the picture of Christ delivered in the gospel I see all that is comprehensible of the High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity and the praises thereof. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The Word was with GodThe Divine Father and Son Ask the sun if ever it were without its beams. Ask the fountain if ever it were without its streams. So God was never without His Son. (Arrowsmith.) God not solitary God did not spend the everlasting ages in sublime, solitary, masterly inactivity. He had a Word with Him, equal to Himself, the reflex image of His own person. That God from everlasting loved is an idea with which we are all familiar enough; it is the prominent idea in the correlates Father and Son. But in the text Jesus Christ is presented, not as the Son, but as the Word; accordingly the main idea is not God as love, but God as mind. Not only God loved from eternity, but He thought from eternity; He thought as intensely as He loved. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The Word was GodThe Deity of Christ an impossible invention Imagine yourselves in the position of St. John.. “ Think of any one whom you have loved and revered in past years. He has gone; but you cling to him more earnestly in thought and affection than while he was here. His words, haunts, phrases, handwriting, likeness, are for you precious and sacred. Others may be forgotten, but one such memory cannot fade. But can we conceive it possible that after any lapse of time we should express our reverence and love by saying that our friend was superhuman? Can we imagine ourselves incorporating our recollection with some current theosophic doctrine elevating him to the rank of a Divine hypostasis? And if Jesus was merely human, St. John’ s statements about Him are among the most preposterous fictions which have imposed on the world. They were advanced with a full knowledge of what they involved. St. John was convinced as profoundly as we are of the truth of the unity of God, and of the interval which separates the highest of creatures from the Creator. And if we are not naturally lured to deify our friends, neither was St. John. If Jesus had been merely human, He would have felt as we feel about a beloved lost friend. In proportion to our belief in our friend’ s goodness, and to our reverence for his character, is the strength of our conviction that we could not do him a more cruel injury by entwining a blasphemous fable around the simple story of his life. This deification of Jesus by St. John would have been consistent neither with his reverence for God nor his loyalty to his merely human teacher. St. John worshipped the jealous God of Israel; and he has recorded the warning he received against worshipping the angel of the Apocalypse. If Christ had not really been Divine, the real beauty of His human character would have been disfigured by any such exaggeration, and Christianity would assuredly have perished within the limits of the first century. (Canon Liddon.) The Divinity of Christ revealed in the Gospel of John I remember once talking with a lady who said she did not believe Jesus was the Son of God, although she believed He was a good man, and admired very much the teaching He had left. Strangely enough, I found her (with all the beautiful inconsistency of a woman’ s mind, and that inconsistency is frequently very beautiful and much better than the logical consistency of man’ s mind) particularly fond of the sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of St. John; such, for instance, as “ In My Father’ s house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you.” “ Now,” I said, “ will you go home and read again the Gospel of St. John, and cross out every word that intimates He is Divine, and say you don’ t believe that and that?” She thought it would be a good idea, and I gave her little Testament and told her to mark and cut it as much as she liked. She came back in a week, as she had promised. “ Well, how did you get along?” “ I didn’ t get along at all. The truth is, I found I had to cross out the whole of the first chapter, and I began to think, ‘ If it’ s like this, what’ ll become of the beautiful promises and sayings?’ so I stopped and cried, ‘ Lord, I see it is so. I accept Thee as Son of God, my Lord and my God.’” (Dr. Pentecost.) The term Word applicable to Christ A person officiating as a medium of correspondence between the throne and its functionaries or subjects might be styled the word; or the person who should carry the command of a general to those who should see them executed. Such an one might also be styled the word, as standing in a mid-position between the person holding supreme command and those set under authority. No transference of words from a general to a special signification could be more easy and even striking than this. If, then, we assume that the person invested with mediatorial attributes and relations is called in several passages of Scripture “ the Word,” or “ the Word of the Lord,” because His official position is analogous to the examples just given or to others which human experience suggests, is there not a manifest propriety in its being used in this instance? and could the whole compass of language supply us with a second term in all respects so suitable as this--the Word? (G. Steward.) Christ the true God Two gentlemen were once disputing on the Divinity of Christ. One of them, who argued against it, said, “ If it were true, it certainly would have been expressed in more clear, unequivocal terms.” “ Well,” said the other, “ admitting that you believe it, were authorized to teach it, and allowed to use your own language, how would you express the doctrine to make it clear and indubitable?” “ I would say,” replied the first, “ that Jesus Christ is the true God.” “ You are happy,” rejoined the other, “ in the choice of your words, for you have happened to hit upon the very words of inspiration. John, speaking of Jesus, says, ‘ This is the true God and eternal life.’” Christ is God The commencement of Christian work in Japan happened thus: An American lady, of the name of Prince, interested herself in the country, and four or five missionaries were sent out, but only occupied themselves in the translation of the Scriptures. After some time this lady offered to teach English to a young Japanese, and gave him the Gospel of St. John to translate. Shortly after, it was observed that he became very agitated and restless, walking up and down the room constantly. At last he could contain himself no longer, and burst out with the question, “ Who is this Man about whom I am reading--this Jesus? You call Him a Man, but He must be a God.” Thus the simple word itself had forced on him the conviction that Jesus Christ was indeed God. John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.This repetition teaches I. HOW LITTLE ABLE WE ARE TO THIS GREAT MYSTERY, which we can but take in by little and little, and must put that together, as children do letters, syllables, and words, till we attain a more full understanding thereof, for our comfort and salvation. II. HOW MUCH AND OFTEN IT IS TO BE UPON to study again and again, as having more in it than will be seen at first view; and when they have found most in it, yet there is infinitely more to be found in that inexhaustible fountain. III. That believers may read ALL THAT TENDER-, compassion, mercifulness, and sympathy which is in Him, TO BE NOT A MAN’ S ONLY, and in our kinsman, but in Him who is also the eternal God, whose thoughts and purposes are eternal and immutable, like Himself. IV. That believers may see THE WISDOM AND LOVE OF GOD, who has found a way of reconciliation of lost man BY THE SAME IN NATURE AND ESSENCE, WHO IS THE PARTY . (G. Hutcheson.) The Word which was in the beginning a testimony I. To the ETERNAL , as the ground of all things. II. To the ETERNAL SPIRIT--Light--as the law of all things. III. To the ETERNAL LOVE, as the kernel of all things. IV. To the ETERNAL LIFE, as the life of all things. (Lange.) The Word in His exaltation over time He I. IN THE founded all things. II. IN THE MIDDLE executed all things; that He may, III. IN THE END, judge all things. (Lange.) The eternity of Christ an argument for His oneness with the Father Does the radiance of the sun proceed from the substance itself of the sun or from some other source? Any one not deprived of his senses must needs confess that it proceeds from the substance itself. Yet, although the radiance proceeds from the sun itself, we cannot say that it is later in point of time than the subsistence of that body, since the sun has never appeared without its rays. It is for this reason that St. Paul calls Him “ Brightness” Hebrews 1:3), setting forth thereby His being from God and His eternity. (Chrysostom.) The value of Scripture repetitions Repetitions have divers uses in Scripture. In prayer they argue affection. In prophecy they note celerity and certainty. In threatenings they note unavoidableness and suddenness. In precepts they note a necessity of performing them. In truths, like that before us, they serve to show the necessity of believing and knowing them. (Arrowsmith.) “ With God” These words express the co-existence, but at the same time the distinction of person. They imply relation with, intercourse with. (Comp. the “ in the bosom of the Father” of John 1:18, and “ Let us make man” of Genesis 1:26 “ Throned face to face with God,” “ the gaze ever directed towards God,” have been given as paraphrases, and the full sense cannot be expressed in fewer words. The “ with” represents “ motion towards.” The Being whose existence is asserted in the “ was” is regarded as distinct, but not alone, as ever going forth in communion with God. (Comp. the use of the same word “ with” in Matthew 13:56; Matthew 26:15; Mark 6:3; Mark 9:19; 1 Corinthians 16:6-7; Galatians 1:18; Galatians 4:18.) (H. W.Watkins, D. D.) Christ and the Creation The old Gnostic Christians held that the world was not created by the Great God, “ but by Demiurgus, a spirit descending from the AEons, which were themselves derived from the Deity.” John’ s statement stands in direct antagonism to this. From this we infer I. THAT CHRIST IS OLDER THAN THE . The worker must be older than his productions. II. THAT CHRIST IS GREATER THAN THE . As the architect is greater than his building, the author than his work, the artist than his productions, Christ is greater than the universe. 1. Greater in extent. But Christ’ s being extends beyond the limits of the universe. 2. Greater in force. 3. Greater in beauty. III. THAT CHRIST IS OWNER OF THE . Production gives the highest right to possession. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 1:3 All things were made by Him The Christian doctrine of creation I. THE OF THE HEATHEN : obviating the eternity of matter. II. THE OF THE JEWISH of the Shekinah: clearly pronouncing the personal life of love in God as it enters into the world. III. THE OF THE SOUND of scientific investigation: man the final cause of things; the God Man the final cause of man. IV. THE VERDICT OF THE SPIRIT respecting the derivation of the world from a non-spiritual source: materialism. (Lange.) The Christian features in all things I. The instinct of dependence, as an impulse towards the upholding Word. II. The NATURAL, SELF- instinct, as the impulse towards freedom (Romans 8:1-39.). III. The , WORLD-FORMING instinct, as an impulse towards unity. IV. The instinct, as the impulse to rise in the service of the Spirit. (Lange.) Christ the Creator I. As He is the efficient cause of all. II. As He is the pattern by which all were made. III. As all things are created by the Godhead, and the Word was God. (Cornelius a Lapide.) The universal creatorship of Christ I. HIS NAME WITH ALL , PAST AND PRESENT. 1. It furnishes the key to the dark problems of nature and providence. 2. It gives to science and Christianity a common foundation. (1) Science reveals the eternal power and Godhead of the Word. (2) Christianity the means of mercy to fallen man through the Word. (3) Each a compartment of one great fabric reared to the glory of God. Science the outer court: admire and adore. Christianity the holy place: kneel, pray, praise (Hebrews 4:16). II. AFFORDS TO FAITH THE AND . “ His every word of grace is strong,” etc. III. THE WITH . Christ cares for the humblest of His creatures (Psalms 104:27; Matthew 7:11). IV. THE FUTURE WITH A HOPE (Revelation 21:1; Revelation 21:5). (Van Doren.) The relation of Christ to the created universe All things are I. IN Him. All archetypal forms and sources of creative life eternally reside in Him. II. BY Him. He is the one Producer and Sustainer of all created existence. III. FOR Him. He is the end of created things. Living for Him the explanation and law of every creature. (Van Doren.) The creative power of the Word See 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2. Observe 1. God revealed Himself through His Son before the Incarnation. 2. To be a Creator the Word had to be God. 3. Matter is not eternal: the universe has an intelligent personality back of it, as architect, builder, and sustainer. 4. The stars are a manifestation of Christ, as well as the Bible: we see Him in natural as in revealed religion. 5. The Being who made all things is worthy of being trusted with the absolute work of making and sustaining our characters. (A. H. Moment.) The universe a revelation of Christ The creation of a single atom would have been a revelation of Him: how much more is this great universe! A man is always greater than his work; no architect, for example, ever put his whole self into the noblest building he designed; even so the Word is greater than the universe which He has called into being. Still, so far as it goes, it reveals Him to us. To the eye of childhood this world into which we are born is beautiful and strange, and marvellous past expression. Not less so to the intelligent and thoughtful manhood. If the romance is gone, as the summer dew from the grass at noon, the real wonder only becomes more overwhelming. (J. Culross, D. D.) God in nature To the infidel, Nature’ s voices are but a Babel din. Trees rustle, and brooks babble, and winds blow; but there is no meaning in their sound. To the Christian, all speak of God; and if it were not for the dimness of the natural eye, he might see His host of angels at their ministry. The tree stretches out its arm, laden with fruit, like the arm of God. The morning sprinkles him with dew, as with holy water; and he is sung to sleep at evening with songs like the lullaby of earthly parents to their children. (H. W. Beecher.) Divine designs open to us in creation When I was in the galleries of Oxford, I saw many of the designs of Raphael and Michael Angelo. I looked upon them with reverence, and took up such of them as I was permitted to touch as one would take up a love token. It seemed to me these sketches brought me nearer the great masters than their finished pictures could have done, because therein I saw the minds’ processes as they were first born. They were the first salient points of the inspiration. Could I have brought them home with me, how rich I should have been! how envied for their possession! Now, there are open and free to us, every day of our lives, the designs of a greater than Raphael or Michael Angelo. God, of whom the noblest master is but a feeble imitator, is sketching and painting every hour the most wondrous pictures--not hoarded in any gallery, but spread in light and shadow round the whole earth, and glowing for us in the overhanging skies. (H. W. Beecher.) The Creator must be Divine To create, to call something out of nothing--be it a dying spark or a blazing sun, a dewdrop cradled in a lily’ s bosom, or the vast ocean in the hollow of God’ s hand, mole-hill or mountain, the dancing motes of a sunbeam or the rolling planets of a system, a burning seraph or a feeble glow-worm, one of the ephemera that takes wing in the morning and is dead at night, or one of the angels that sang when our Lord was born; whatever be the thing created, the power to create is God’ s, the act of creation His; and therefore, since Paul says that Jesus Christ created all things, he cannot mean to depose our Lord from the throne of Divinity, and lower God’ s only begotten Son to the level of a created being. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Creation the work of God Creation is the work of God: “ without Him was not anything made that was made.” He only can create. The architect can rear a cathedral, the sculptor can cut forms of symmetry and grace from marble, the painter can depict life on his canvas, the machinist can construct engines that shall serve the nations; but not one of them can create. They work with materials already in existence. They bring existing things into new combinations; this is all. God alone can create. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The greatness of the universe a testimony to the greatness of Christ 1. We look around us upon the infinite variety of productions which the earth brings forth--their use, their goodness, their beauty; we sweep the eye of imagination over ocean and continent, hill and plain, lake and stream, corn-land and forest, sahara and paradise; we mark the changes produced by day and night, and the succession of the seasons; we listen to the music of nature--the boom of ocean dashing on the shore, the wind in the forest, the tinkling of the hidden moorland rill; we think of the countless tribes of living and sentient beings that inhabit earth along with us; we think of man with his marvellous endowments; we think of the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places; we listen to all that science can tell us of the subtle agencies that pervade creation and the laws which bind all beings together. 2. Then, standing on earth as on a promontory, we look upwards and outwards. Beneath the nether sky, with its cloud and scenery, and its sunrise and sunset hues of beauty, there are illimitable realms of space, studded with worlds moving harmoniously in close ravelled maze. These heavens were vast and glorious to the eye of the Chaldean gazer thousands of years ago; how have their vastness and glory grown to us since then! The globe which is our dwelling-place is one of the smallest planets wheeling round one of the lesser suns. It is conceivable that only our own little world might have hung solitary in immensity; but the space swept by the telescope teems with solar systems compared with which ours is insignificant. In the Milky Way alone are millions of suns, the nearest of which requires years to dart its light to us, though light travels two hundred thousand miles during the single vibration of a pendulum. In the presence of that immensity, our globe is but as a grain of sand on the seashore. 3. Leaving the realms of space, with the help of geology, let us look back on the realms of time. Since our world became the theatre of life, ages on ages have run their course, for the duration of which we have absolutely no measure. The universe in its vastness, wonder, and divine beauty, and in all the evolutions through which it has passed during countless ages, lay first of all in His mind--if one may say so--as the grand cathedral was in the brain of the architect ere its foundation-stone was laid; it took all that we see, and all that science discloses, and all that mystery still hides, to express His creative idea. How great, then, must the Maker be! How wise, good, glorious! (J. Culross, D. D.) Christ’ s creative knowledge A quaint countryman, telling of his thorough knowledge of the people of his vicinity, said boastfully, “ I know all these people as well as if I’ d made ‘ em.” That statement of his covered a great deal of ground, whether it were true or were only a suggestion of a truth. No man can understand a complicated piece of mechanism like the man who made it. And there was never so complicated a piece of mechanism on earth as the average man or woman. At the best, every man or woman is a bundle of contradictions; and the closest human friend is puzzled at times over some new phase of those contradictions in his friend. Only He who made that puzzle can know its parts in all their relations and in all their workings. What a comfort in the thought that our Friend of friends knows us as well as if He made us; knows us because He did make us--for “ all things were made by Him.” (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Christ’ s presence in His creation He is not a Master who, like a carpenter or builder, when he has prepared a house or ship, leaves the house for its owner to dwell in, or commits the ship to the mariners that they may traverse the sea in it, and he himself goes whither he may. No; God the Father has begun and finished all things by His Word, and preserves it also continually by the same, and remains with His work until He wills that it shall no longer exist (John 5:13). As we were made by Him without our assistance, so also we cannot be preserved of ourselves. Thus here, were all to understand that all things created are preserved, in being otherwise they would not long remain created. (Luther.) The confidence inspired by Christ’ s creatorship If without Christ nothing was made, then nothing made by Him can do any injury to His kingdom. Fear loves to make exceptions; it allows all else to be innocuous; only that one thing which is directly in view appears to threaten danger. This is met with the assurance that all things, without exception, were made by the Word; therefore every fear is unreasonable to Him who has the Word on His side. If to be made, and to be made by Him, are the same thing, there can be no enemy that is to be feared, either in heaven or in earth. (Hengstenberg.) What was not, and what was made by Christ Many, wrongly understanding “ without Him was nothing made,” are wont to fancy that “ nothing” is something. Sin, indeed, was not made by Him; and it is plain that sin is nothing, and men become nothing when they sin. An idol also was not made by the Word, and an idol is nothing. Therefore these things were not made by the Word; but whatever was made in a natural manner, whatever belongs to the creature, from an angel even unto a worm. What more excellent than an angel among created things? What lower than a worm? But an angel is fit for heaven, the worm for earth. He who created also arranged. If He had placed the worm in heaven, thou mightest have found fault; and if He had willed that angels should spring from decaying flesh, thou mightest have found fault. And yet God almost does this, and He is not to be found fault with. For all men born of the flesh, what are they but worms? And of these worms God makes angels. (Augustine.) John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.The life which Christ lived was so radiant that it fills our lives with light. It was God-life, without pause or interruption. I. CHRIST THE TRUE LIFE. 1. A life of the highest knowledge. “ No man knoweth the Father but the Son.” “ By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.” Any life, to be strong and influential, must have a mighty grasp of the highest truths. The highest knowledge is that of the moral nature of God, the spiritual nature of man, and the true nature of the relations between God and man. This knowledge is threefold in its contents, and is the blended result of the perceptions of the intellect, heart, and conscience. Neither alone can reach it; for to obtain even glimpses of it we must be elevated above the uncertainties of the intellect, the selfishness of the heart, and the bewilderments of conscience. “ This is life eternal” ; and Christ possessed it in its fulness, because He had this knowledge in absolute fulness and certainty, and came to bear witness to it, and thus to bridge over the gulf which the greatest geniuses had failed to span. 2. A life of perfect love. Knowledge the most perfect is only one element. Love is the grandest form of life, because it includes all the other virtues, which without it are nothing. Consider the infinite difference between the sentiments we cherish towards Shakespeare and Christ. We admire and wonder in the one case; we admire and worship in the other. The one added immensely to our literature and our knowledge; the other created a new religion and discovered a God of greater goodness than the world had ever known, because the key-note of His life was sacrifice and its crown the cross. 3. A life of perfect doing. The greatest life is that in which the grandest ideas, emotions, and actions are perfectly blended. Such was His life. Human nature is ordinarily so poor, that often the men with large emotional natures have a difficulty in keeping themselves pure, and are not great in ideas, and vice versa. Consider the life that must have been in Christ. Not to insist on the wonderful quantity of work that Christ did! Look at its transcendant quality, the nature of His acts and their motive. II. THE LIFE OF CHRIST IS THE LIGHT OF MEN, because it Isaiah 1. A glorious revelation. His life, composed of the highest knowledge, etc., was a revelation. It is not speculation that can teach us the highest religious truth, but that truth embodied in a life. We live in an age which denies or questions the truths which for nineteen centuries have constituted the hope of the Church. What is God, man, life, destiny? Some are able to answer these questions off-hand by turning to their systems of theology. But men will continue to ask them, unsatisfied with such ready-made, second-hand answers; and the only answers that will carry any sufficient weight of evidence are those obtained by men who understand the life and death of our Lord. He is the light of the world, the revelation of the Father, and of what man may become. But we cannot perceive the light or enter into the revelation if we stand out of personal relation to Him. 2. A great quickening power, like the sun. We know how one human life will act upon another. If we place ourselves in the light of Christ’ s life, we shall soon begin to realize a change in our thoughts, hearts, conscience, and will. (C. Short, M. A.) The life and the light Where Christianity is not, there are darkness and death; where Christianity is, there are light and life. Myriads of men testify that some Divine power in Christianity has made them new creatures. These are facts of Christian history, present results of Christian experience. We are not the apologists of a discredited or doubtful cause; we press the arguments on those who oppose. Christianity is a fact that must be accounted for. One branch of the argument is the practical influence of Christ, His fitness and fulness as the life and light of men. I. THERE IS FOR THE IN THE VERY AND FORM OF SUCH A . 1. It is one of those profound and pregnant statements characteristic of the Christian writings, and especially of St. John. How is it that these simple chroniclers attained to ideas more spiritual, profound, and luminous than those of the greatest philosophers? Whence these conceptions of Christ, so unique, that no other was ever imagined like Him, and yet so congruous and vital that men confess and worship Him? 2. Not only profoundness, but peculiarity of meaning in this conception of Christ and His work. It might have been written yesterday, in the light of Christian history, so exact and adequate is the representation of the peculiar facts and influence of Christ’ s work. (1) It roots all the religious powers of Christianity in the person of Christ. The way of life not taught by, but life was in Him. Not that His words gave light, but His life. (2) The life and light of all men are in Him. Not merely that He lived, but was the fountain whence every stream of life flows; and all the light that shines about our lives and illumines our souls, bringing the life and knowledge of God. (3) The life was the source of the light. In the world’ s darkness, He, the living Mediator, stands an incarnate, luminous manifestation of God; so that whoever looks on Him sees wondrous revelations. Just as all things upon the earth’ s surface are physically enlightened when it turns towards the sun, so are all men spiritually enlightened as they turn towards Him. II. WHAT LIGHT THE LIFE OF CHRIST THROWS ON THE GREAT OF LIFE AND DESTINY. We speculate on these problems, and call ourselves theologians; we try to resolve them by practical experiments, and call ourselves moralists. But how perplexed the theology; how uncertain the morality! What human thought has thrown any light upon them? In Christ the only solution of them lies. 1. Has God given us a supernatural revelation of His character and will? It is sufficient to point to Christ. The life is its own light. It is the greatest miracle of history. The impression of perfect goodness is produced by every word and manifested feeling; perfect holiness blends with perfect tenderness into an excellency which has neither defect nor excess. Christ’ s innocence, contrary to ours, was marked by no ignorance. Virtues almost incongruous blend in Him--greatness and gentleness, holiness and pity, strength and sympathy. He is nobler than the greatest man, tenderer than the gentlest woman. He commands not only the homage of the good, but of the wise. His intellectual character is as great as His moral. The very conception of His kingdom is a miracle--a spiritual, holy, catholic kingdom of God, the consummation of which should be the conversion and service of a whole world. Does not this marvellous life solve the problem of Divine manifestation? Who could have invented it? With it before us, to ask for proofs of the truth of Christianity is as reasonable as to ask at noonday for astronomical proofs of the sun. 2. Men are perplexed with the question of human sin. Wherever they are found they are conscious of wrong-doing. Philosophers and poets of all ages recognize it and lament over it; and the religious problem of every age in the face of it is, “ How Shall a man be just with God?” What human philosophy has furnished a solution? What can appease my awakened conscience, the memory of a guilty life? Not a mere general assurance of God’ s mercy. I recognize something beside mercy, even an inflexible righteousness. And just in proportion as I believe in that, my hope is disabled. It is only when Christ is offered as the Mediator between a holy God and sinful men that light is thrown on the problem. When He is recognized as having been offered as a propitiation for human guilt, then God is seen to be just, and the justifier of the ungodly. His salvation respects every requirement of the Divine government, and satisfies every demand of our moral nature. How can this salvation be a personal experience? In Christ is the answer. The same cross which honours the Divine law attracts human hearts, and through Him I receive the atonement. 3. Next comes the problem of human character; its degradation, unholiness, selfishness, and shame. What hope is there for man’ s moral future? Apart from Christ, none. In Him is the only regenerating power to be found. (1) Through Him we receive the great teaching and gift of the Holy Spirit. With the teaching of holiness, comes a Divine power to enable it. Man wanted moral light, but moral life also. Quickened from death in trespasses and sins, he has the power of spiritual vision given him; he sees the blessed light. But (2) he has in Christ the ideal of holiness, and after what a perfect and noble life he has to strive. This model we may imitate, and be ever approaching that peerless example. (3) Christ in His sympathetic brotherhood encourages us not to despair at failure and gives us grace which strengthens. 4. There is the problem of human sorrow. But suffering is relieved from its anathema, exalted into sacrifice, converted into a gospel, and made the minister of the noblest perfection in the human life of Christ. 5. There is the problem of death. But Christ has brought life and immortality to light. Even death becomes a gospel to immortal men; the transition from this darkness to that light, this sinfulness to that holiness, this sorrow to that blessedness. (H. Allen, D. D.) The life and light of men I. THE SUBLIME . In its ultimate origin all life is mysterious. It must rest on an eternal life. The Divine life the only true life. “ In Him life was.” In us dependent, continually becoming. The text a contradiction if employed of a mere man. The life in Christ was the life of the Spirit. Reason leads us to the conception of a continually ascending life, vegetable, animal, rational. Revelation adds the spiritual--the life of inspired men, of fellowship with God, of angels of Christ who had the Spirit without measure. His was the life of God--perfect purity, ceaseless activity, infinite love. II. THE . The life was the light of men. 1. In paradise. Man walked in it and saw God face to face. 2. Then followed a long period during which the light shone on chosen men, places, institutions. Light in the midst of gross darkness. The heathen world was full of evil. Some light shined here and there. 3. When the fulness of time came the life was the light of men. Power, gladness, graciousness, adaptation, acceptability of the gospel represented in the analogy of light in darkness. Light calls out energies, helps growth, reveals faces, turns bloom to fruit, and fruit to perfection. Life and light intimately blended. 4. What was wanted then is wanted now; light of men as well as of man; in communities, nations, individual heart and conscience. Light in the household--among dark anxieties, sorrows, desolation. Light in the prospects of mankind--a bright future the outcome of the light of Jesus. Light on the sepulchre--not now a mere sombre monument of fallen pride, but affection’ s memorial written in the language of hope. The life will reappear, and we shall appear with Him and be like Him, and so be ourselves that life and light of men. (R. A. Redford, M. A.) Christ the life and light of men I. IN HIM WAS LIFE. God is self-existent. Every being but He had a beginning. Every other being, therefore, must have been created. All life which had a commencement must be derived and not inherent. Christ’ s life was un-derived and inherent. Therefore He was Divine. II. THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN. John does not declare it to be the life of men; which would be true. Every tribe of animated existence draws its life from God: But man placed above beasts and birds. The difference consists in deriving life from the Word and having the life which was in Him as our enlivening, illuminating principle in us. This light is that which enables man to walk in a wholly different region from the beasts which perish, penetrating the wonders and scanning the boundaries of the universe, while other creatures are limited to a single and insignificant province. This light is the soul: reason, judgment, conscience. If this soul be eclipsed man is morally and spiritually blind. It is a fine testimony to this light when we find it described as the life which was from all eternity in the Word. It gives a majesty to reason and a dignity to conscience when a man realizes that these are part of the life of his Creator. The man who debases them debases no earthborn or perishable thing. The Word endowed human nature with His own life; hanging up in its chambers a lamp, and continually feeding the flame with the flashings of His own eternity. Shall this lamp be substituted now that it has been fractured, its light dimmed, for the Word Himself? Or shall we boast ourselves free from all need of Him just because there glows in us a principle derived from Him? The strangest spectacle is that of a man taking reason and rejecting Christ as his guide, fancying that in directing himself by the shining of his own spirit he shows himself independent of Christ. Man shows his ignorance of creation in putting scorn on redemption. He draws from the Word those very energies by which he would prove himself independent of the Word. The intellectual capacities were Christ’ s shinings into the uncorrupted, even as our pardon, and renewal, and acceptance into the depraved and ruined. What gave virtue to His sacrifice was that the Self-existent died, and that which gave this worth was emphatically our light. Reason still burns brightly, conscience is not quenched, and immortality is assured because the Word who never had a beginning consented to be born; the Word who never can end consented to die. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christ the life and light of men I. He is LIFE--the Living One, as opposed to dying men. II. He is the LIFE; for all things exist in the Word, which is the idea of all things living. III. He is the CAUSE AND SOURCE OF NATURAL LIFE to all; the Maker of all things, from whom life has been communicated to all things living; and He is also the sustainer of that life which at the first He imparted; both the giver and the preserver of life to all. IV. He is the CAUSE AND SOURCE OF LIFE; the grace and the glory of all God’ s faithful children; commencing this life by the communication of His grace, and so bestowing upon men faith, hope, and charity; perfecting this life by the communication of His glory, in which we shall enjoy the beatific vision of God. (W. Denton, M. A.) Christ the life and light of individual men I have seen one out of whom had gone all heavenly resemblance, and in whom all rudeness, coarseness, profanity, worldly lusts were incarnate. There was no pressure that inclined him downward, to which he did not yield. Had his soul been of stone, it could not have been less responsive to the Divine solicitations. There was not a function in him which was not petrified on its heavenward side; there was not a capacity in him that did not, so far as righteous action goes, lie dead. Well, mark now; one night, while he was lying on his bed, the Lord, in the shadow of the darkness--not violently, but still as the stillness around and above his bed, more dreadful, perhaps, because of the stillness; perhaps more gentle because of it--drew near to this dead soul; breathed on it once, gently took its hand and said, Soul, arise! And that dead soul felt strange currents run through all its frame; felt the thrill of Divine life charge through its veins, until the frozen current melted, ran, became warm, began to throb, and life came into it--life to stand, to move; and that dead soul arose and stood before the Lord, and then full of rapture bowed down and worshipped. And, ever after--for I knew him well--that man lived a life that took knowledge of all God’ s mercies, a life as innocent as the bird’ s is that has no beak nor talons, and cannot wound nor strike, but can only sing; yea, as innocent as the little stream that has no deep, dark places in it, into which children can fall, unawares, and be drowned, but which runs clear and cool, shallow and safe--content to minister to the roots of flowers that fringe it, and be drunk up of thirsty cattle and labouring men. So he lived his life, I say, and in him I saw what regeneration meant: what the life that Christ said He was, meant. (W. H. H. Murray.) Christ the light and life of nature and of grace If I walk the fields of science and nature gives up one secret after another, and if I then turn to the sublimer mysteries of grace, and study the amazing record of the winning back of this earth from the bondage of corruption, they are not different beings to whom the different investigations prove me debtor. Whilst led by reason across the spreadings of space, and enabled by intellect to take the span and the altitude of the architecture of God, I owe all to the Word just as truly as when I feel myself strengthened to east off evil. As a rational being I owe everything to the Word; as a redeemed being I owe everything to the Word. His the intelligence by which I may count the stars; His the atonement through which I may be furnished for life. His the memory in which I can treasure truth and the righteousness in which I may come before God. His the judgment by which I can weigh conflicting propositions as well as the intercession by which I can be sheltered from wrath. His the imagination by which I can wander through immensity; His the purchasing of the inheritance for outshining all I can conceive. If, then, because of redemption I adore the Word made flesh, shall I not, because endowed with reason, magnify the Word as the Self-existent? If as a redeemed creature I give thanks to the Word that He humbled Himself and became obedient unto the death of the Cross, shall not I as a rational creature pour forth this grateful tribute to the Word: “ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” ? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christ’ s influence as the light and life most productive to-day Never was there a time when there was so much of Christ in the world as now, because the human race was never so largely in a condition to accept the Divine activity, and to be rendered productive by it. As the sun never had such harvests as now, so there never were such harvests of the Sun of Righteousness. As there is more raised in the State of Illinois in a year now than there was in ten thousand years before the prairies were brought into a state of cultivation, so the products of morality and spirituality are more abundant than they ever were before. In proportion as the minds of men are cleared and rendered susceptible to the activity of the Divine mind, human inspiration is increased individual by individual, family by family, nation by nation. (H. W. Beecher.) The difference between life and light I. In the SON OF GOD. II. In THE WORLD III. In MAN. IV. In the LIFE. (Lange.) The life a light of men I. In man: consciousness. II. FOR man: the works of God as the signs and words of God. III. man: Christ the light of the life. (Lange.) Christ was the light and life of men in that He delivered men from ignorance, unbelief, and vice, and from the ruin and misery which are their invariable attendants; and brought them to the knowledge of Divine things, to faith and holiness, and to that temporal and eternal happiness with which these are inseparably connected. This change He effected I. BY HIS , which is of Divine efficacy, not only for enlightening, but for purifying and transforming the soul, and imparting consolation and happiness. II. BY HIS , LIFE AND DEATH. For these were the clearest revelation of God, the benevolence of His nature, and His paternal love to men, of the Saviour, and His great and glorious work, of the dignity of man, and the certainty of a state of immortal existence beyond death and the grave. III. BY HIS EXAMPLE. The example 1. Of His holiness, which gave evidence and efficiency to His doctrine. 2. Of His “ sufferings, and the glory that should follow,” in which He is our pattern (2 Timothy 2:11; Romans 8:17; Romans 8:29). IV. BY HIS . Shedding down the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, instituting baptism, the Lord’ s Supper, the Christian ministry, public worship, and other religious exercises, which are the most effectual means for banishing ignorance, and unbelief, impiety, and misery from the earth, and for the diffusion and establishment of knowledge and faith, virtue and genuine happiness among men. Thus extensive is the signification, whilst the primary idea is that of felicity, to which He leads men in many ways. (C. G. Tittman, D. D.) Christ’ s life she light of men It was not the wisdom of Christ’ s words, nor the splendour of His works that filled those three years and a half with great event; it was He, the life that was in Him; and with all that was stimulating in His discourses, startling in His works of wonder, and harrowing in His sufferings, the life that was in Him would be quite as likely to issue in effects that would be healing, when its creeping forth was a quiet and stealthy one, just as it is the light, not the lightning that best fills the earth with radiance; not the hurricane, but the gentle breath out of the south that stirs air and sea and standing corn into most healthful play, and not the deluge but the rain that drops upon the furrows with most of fertility. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.) Life in Christ To know the scope of the Word, we begin with life in its lowest and simplest forms, as it is seen in the Arctic moss or the ooze brought up from the sea-depths by the Challenger. Even in such lower forms the physiologist cannot tell us what life is, nor the microscopist, nor the chemist, nor the wisest philosopher. They can tell us the signs of it, and the laws according to which it is continued or extinguished; but that is about all. From the lowest and simplest we pass upwards, through one order of being after another, till we come to man, in whom life reveals itself so much more marvellously, in sense, intellect, emotion, conscience, will. We mark how different a thing it is in different cases: to the unlettered peasant and the man of profound and various culture; to the playful child and the grey-haired saint, ready to enter the perfect kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. In this passage the term “ life “ is not to be restricted to any single province, wide or narrow, “ physical,” “ moral,” “ spiritual,” or “ eternal,” but is to be taken in the whole breadth of its significance. Besides the marvel and mystery of life in its nature and infinitely various forms, there is also its immensity of volume--all that is, all that has been, in air, and earth, and sea. As an illustration of the impossibility of dealing with this aspect of the ease, a single fact may be selected from the microscopic researches of Ehrenberg: one cubic inch of the hardened clay called tripoli he found to contain between forty and fifty thousand millions of the silicious fossil shells of infusoria. In presence of such a fact our minds are utterly helpless to conceive the extent of life even in this little globe that we inhabit. All the life of creation, so vast in its sum, so wonderful and glorious, from the life that lasts only a summer evening to that of the archangel who bows before the eternal throne --all that life, the Evangelist tells us, “ was in Him.” He is the Fount whence it has all proceeded. Being in Him, the outcome was a necessity. If there is life in the vine, it comes out in branch, and leaf, and grape cluster. So with the life that was in the Word: it has come out in the vast and varied life of creation. Because in Him was life, therefore this is a living world, and not a mere material and ponderable ball, or a world of automatons, destitute of understanding and volition. All the life of which we have any knowledge is the out-blossoming and fruiting of the life that was in Him. (J. Culross, D. D.) Life in Christ There is a project for turning the great desert of North-Western Africa into an inland sea by cutting through the bank which separates its vast depressed surface from the Atlantic; so that large existing populations may be reached, and new towns and fertile country may fringe the then obliterated wilderness of death with smiling contentment and prosperity. It may be but a scientific romance. But it points to the holy privilege and blessed service of the Christian Church. Our Master says: “ Speak the words of this life. Cut through the bank of ignorance and prejudice and worldliness and sin, and admit upon the vast spiritual deadness of the world, the rolling tide of a pure and immortal life, that souls and churches and nations may spring up in the freshness of gospel life, and wear the everlasting beauty of Him who has redeemed them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. And lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end.” (W. H. Jackson.) God’ s self-revelation through life I. THIS OPENS UP TO US GOD’ S LIVING WAY OF MAKING HIMSELF KNOWN TO US. The Bible is the record and interpretation of a way of creation and life, which leads from the promise of the beginning on and on, with a purpose never given up, and toward a goal never lost from sight, and against all human gravitation downward from its high intent until it completes its course in that one sinless life through which God shines--the true light. God has been present as a living power in man’ s life, as the educating and redemptive power in Israel, as the grace and truth of life in Jesus Christ. II. THIS GOD’ S WAY OF OUR LIVES. Christ entering into human life is its light. He lights up all our history. Other lights of human kindling illumine but portions of our life, and all go out in death. But there is no phase of our nature, no need of our common humanity, no possibility of our love and hope which His life does not purify and irradiate. God with us in our life is alone adequate to human nature. Shall I not trust myself to the life which meets at every point my life? The real gospel thus is God’ s life through Christ touching our life and making it new. It has Divine right in the midst of the business of the world. It cannot, without disloyalty, be divorced from common life, sundered from its vital relation to the trade, the politics, and the conduct of men. Jesus Christ brought the kingdom of heaven down to the streets of Capernaum, and what the Church wants is to bring His life through the relations of society around the whole circumference of human life. III. ONLY THROUGH LIVES IN REAL WITH GOD AND CHRIST ARE WE TO RECEIVE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Not that the mystery of God in Christ is not to be the subject of theological inquiry, but that we are to learn Christian truth, first and best of all in the school where Jesus came to teach it--the school of real life. Our best light always is the kindling of the life into truth. Through life to knowledge is the Christian way. As God has come home to man through the life of Christ, so are we to draw near unto God through the Christian life. If we will live Christ-like lives doubt not that God will reveal His truth and His goodness through them. (Newman Smyth.) The joy of living I. All men desire to live. Life, if it be healthy, is joyful. All lives created of God are happy, for He is happy. II. This instinct to live is OF OUR DIVINE ORIGIN AND QUALITY. However stained and defiled, the image within us is not wholly forgetful of its origin. Within us lingers a sentiment which forbids life to despair of itself. Hence out of the fulness and joyfulness of life springs the conception of immortality. III. We know that all life is of God, that of the bee, the bird, the dog, and other wonderful and fine expressions of life. But finer and more wonderful THE LIFE WHICH HE INTO THE SPIRIT OF FALLEN MAN. The new birth is the waking up of dormant faculties, the resurrection of buried powers. Then power comes to the man, spiritual, soul power. The man’ s life becomes Divine in its harmonies. He begins to grow. IV. This new life WIDENS THE RANGE OF . V. ALL LIFE HATES DEATH. We sympathize with the falling leaf, weep over the dying friend, in spite of all the natural and spiritual knowledge which recognizes in death the gate of life. But what must God feel as He beholds the death of the soul. VI. THE JOY OF LIVING IS FOUND IN THE PURE AND PROPER OF THE LIFE. The life of Christ, therefore, or growth into a life like to the one He lived, is a growth into joy. VII. ALL HUMAN LIVES THAT ARE NOT SELF- ARE GROWING TOWARDS . The old aches cannot always last, or the old pains for ever sting us. So there is a hand somewhere that shall take all weakness up, and wipe all tears away. (W. H. H. Murray.) God’ s living light There are three words around which we may group our thoughts of Christ. I. MAN. These words touch and lay bare the distinctive necessity of man’ s nature. When that nature awakes to the true knowledge of itself it becomes conscious of needing the direction and sustenance of a higher life. We do not attain satisfaction when we seek it on a level with the animal creation, although we belong to it. Nothing is plainer than man’ s need of God. He must have relation to the inexhaustible and changeless; and if he is to receive a light that can shine on the problems of his own being, that light must be a life. II. . The text reveals the distinctive provision of Christianity. God is the creator of this deep necessity, and He has made it not to mock it, but to satisfy it. “ God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” Christ is exhibited not as some gorgeous pageant to be admired, nor as a carefully filled museum to be wondered at; He is a new communication from the Eternal Father. And the design of the Christian faith is not grasped by us, nor its provision enjoyed until we see all its avenues leading up to the disclosure that our Lord came to give life. The unique life has established itself as the light of men, wise to guide and safe to follow. The distinctive need of man is met by the distinctive power of Christ. III. . These words provide us with a Divine test of the value of all churches and Christian work. As the life is men’ s light, so “ holding forth the Word of Life” is the Christian’ s duty. To this test we must bring our schools, societies, literature, methods, principles. None of them are good unless they serve His purpose, as lamp-stands from which the life of Christ can shine more widely and brightly upon the hearts of men. (W. H. Jackson.) Life in Christ I. CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE AS HE IS THE CREATOR OF . 1. This is true in the widest sense. 2. He is Creator, not by delegation, but as Principle. 3. This claim He vindicated in His miracles. II. CHRIST IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE AS HE IS THE OF HUMAN . 1. This is the one rational explanation of His death. 2. Redemption is by price. 3. Redemption is also by power. III. MAN’ S TRUE LIFE IN HIS UNION WITH CHRIST. 1. There is no true human life apart from God. 2. This true human life we forfeited by sin. 3. But we recover it in Christ. (Homiletic Magazine.) The light of life I. THAT THIS LIFE IS ITS OWN . 1. For life is a resisting force. (1) Inanimate things are submissive to the forces of nature. Thus a stone is obedient, without resistance, to the law of gravitation. (2) But things of life resist the mechanical forces. Thus even a blade of grass pushes its way upwards through the resisting soil, in the direction opposite to that of gravitation. As we ascend in the scale of life, these resistances become more remarkable. The eagle darts sun-ward, in every stroke of its pinion resisting and triumphing over the force of gravitation. (3) Men who are spiritually dead are like the stone or the feather, under the control of worldly fashion and sinful influences. They are “ carried captive by the devil at his will.” (4) Men who are spiritually alive resist and vanquish these influences. To do this the more effectually they avail themselves, by prayer, of the promised help of God. So, like the eagles, they mount sun-ward (cf. Isaiah 40:31) . Thus spiritual life is its own evidence. 2. Life is an appropriating force. (1) A living animal seizes the vegetables around it and appropriates them as food for its nourishment. A dead animal is a prey to the chemistry of nature. (2) Life is an appropriation, even in the vegetable form. The root of the plant performs functions analagous to those of the animal stomach, absorbing from the soil, digesting, and elaborating the juice which nourish its stem and branches. The leaves perform functions analogous to the twigs. (3) The Christian will avail himself of the means of grace, public, domestic, private. He is not in them, like the formalist, a mere observer of what is passing. He is in them as feeder. 3. Life is a propagating force. (1) Let a stone be buried, and after thousands of years it will be found as it was. Witness the Nineveh marbles. Let an acorn be buried; it will germinate and develop into an oak. (2) So the germ of religious life unfolds into the maturity of Christian manhood. It exerts a propagating influence upon the spirits of other men. (3) The waste of life in nature is enormous. So is the waste of spiritual life in the Church. The failure of the propagating energies of spritual life is serious. II. THAT THIS LIFE LIGHTS UP . 1. Life touches everything into beauty. (1) During winter the face of nature is dreary. (2) But what beauty is comparable to that of holiness which springs from spiritual life? The beauty of the saint is the reflection of the image of God. It is seen in the integrity that cannot be bribed. It is seen in the magnanimity of sacrifice. It is seen in the tenderness of kindly sympathy. 2. Life illuminates the chambers of the tomb. (1) It prevents not the dissolution of the body. The saintliest die. (2) But while spiritual life prevents not physical dissolution, it modifies death into sleep. The Christian “ sleeps in Jesus.” The sleeper expects an awakening. (3) The labourer sleeps expecting not only to awake, but to awake refreshed. So does the Christian worker. No more weariness. 3. Life is the germ of immortality. (1) The spiritual life here is the power of an endless life hereafter. The principle is even more than the promise of immortality. (2) Hence “ the kingdom of heaven is within you.” “ The heaven of heavens is love.” (3) Christ is eternal life. Having Him, we have eternal life (cf. John 3:16; John 5:24; John 11:25; John 14:6; John 1:1-2; John 5:11-12; John 5:20). (Homiletic Magazine.) Christ the pre-eminent and illuminating Life I. HIS LIFE WAS PRE-EMINENT. “ In Him was life.” 1. “ In Him was life” without beginning. Life in all other existences had a commencement. 2. “ In Him was life” without dependence. 3. “ In Him was life” without limitation. All other life has its limits, not so with His. His is without limit (1) As to kind. In His life were the germs and archetypes of all other life, material and spiritual. (2) As to amount. All other life is circumscribed. (3) As to communicativeness. (4). As to duration. II. HIS LIFE WAS . “ And the life was the light of men.” Christ’ s life, whatever its variety and fulness, had all a moral character, for He was a moral Being. There are several things taught here concerning His life as light: 1. That His life was “ the light of men.” 2. That this light was heralded by the Baptist. 3. That this light become available by faith. 4. That this light is the true light of “ every man” (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christians the reflectors of this light There is a little church on a lonely hill-side where they had neither gas nor lamps, and yet on darkest nights they hold Divine service. Each worshipper, coming a great distance from village or moorland home, brings with him a taper and lights it from the one supplied and carried by the minister of the little church. The building is thronged, and the scene is said to be “ most brilliant!” Let each one of our lives be but a little taper--lighted from the life of Christ, and carrying His flame--and we shall help to fill this great temple of human need and human sin with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. The life of Christ will be the new sunshine of the world. “ Men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed” ; universal man shall receive “ God’ s Living Light.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ living A missionary in China stated that on one occasion a number of persons who were hearing him, mostly women, manifested the greatest astonishment when he told them that the God he worshipped and wished them to worship was a living God. Uttering an exclamation peculiar to themselves when much surprised, they said, “ The foreigner’ s God is better than ours--ours has no life.” Christ the universal light The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’ s joy. The lonely pine on the mountain top waves its sombre boughs and cries,” Thou art my sun.” And the little meadow violet lifts its cup of blue, and whispers with its perfumed breath, “ Thou art my sun.” And the grain in a thousand fields rustles in the wind, and makes answer, “ Thou art my sun.” (H. W. Beecher.) Christ a living Saviour A Smyrna native agent came across a Turk from some town in the interior, who showed considerable acquaintance with the Christian Scriptures. He said he had long studied the gospel, and had once nearly got into trouble through it. He was called before the authorities for reading Christian books, but before judgment was passed upon him he begged to be allowed to ask a question. Permission having been granted, he said, “ I am travelling; I come to a part where the road branches off in two ways; I look around for some direction and discover two men; one is dead, the other alive. Which of the two am I to ask for advice--the dead or the living?” “ Oh, the living, of course! “ all cried out. “ Well,” he added, “ why require me to go to Mahomet, who is dead, instead of to Christ, who is alive?” “ Go, go about your business!” were the words with which he was dismissed. Christ’ s influence in relation to human cooperation You cannot tell how much is done by the pure shining of His light and the emission of this life, and how much by your own receptivity, bier is it necessary. Christ fructifies and stimulates the original and moral faculties and makes them productive. If I take a plant out of a cellar where it has grown etiolated, and without chlorophyl, and put it where the light will shine upon it, and when it turns green, will you tell me what part of the green is plant and what part sun? I would say that the sun developes this chlorophyl by injecting itself, so to speak, into the leaf. So that the light and the life cooperate with the faith, the love, the receptivity of the individual who receives them. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ’ s influence known by its fruits What is the evidence that the sun is active? The fact that every root is sprouting. What is the evidence that the sun has brought summer? The fruits of summer. What is the evidence that the sun has been shedding down upon the earth its light and warmth and ripening power? The flavour of the fruit. Bring me an apple. If it is hard and acid I know that it is the product of a rainy sunless summer. Bring me another, and if it is mellow and full of sugar and aroma, I know that the sugar and aroma do not come out of the ground, but from where there was light and, heat. And I can judge of the influence, under which nations have been unfolded by the nature of the fruit they produce. Show me a nation developing coarse animation, and I will show you a nation that has not been true to the light. On the other hand, show me an individual, a family, a community that yields the products of a higher moral nature, and I will pronounce that higher moral nature to be the result of the life and light of men. (H. W. Beecher.) John 1:5 The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not How different men receive the light 1. Some merely receive it to evidence their own darkness. 2. Some by outward profession merely. 3. Others receive and impart it as lights which are lighted by the true light. (W. Denton.) Darkness and light I. THE . 1. Of falsehood. 2. Of hatred. 3. Of death. II. THE LIGHT IN CONTEST WITH THE ; or, the progress of revelation in the sinful world. 1. The light shining in the darkness (the shaded, coloured light). 2. The light breaking through the darkness. 3. The meridian of gospel day. (Lange.) Christ’ s pre-incarnate activity I. SHINING IN THE . Darkness points to the Fall. Had the union between man and the Loges continued, His life would have streamed in light around the souls of men, inspiring them with truth and arraying them in purity. But man severed the connection. Turning from the light, he chose a sphere of darkness. Nevertheless, the light continued to penetrate the dark atmosphere of ignorance and sin which thickened round man. II. BY THE . Though the light kept on shining through (1) the teachings of nature; (2) the intuitions of conscience; (3) the Mosaic system and the prophets; yet men had not hold of the light, because 1. They did not fully understand it. 2. Because they did not see it. 3. Because they did not deserve it. 4. Because they hated it. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The manifestations of the light of the Word in darkness I. The light shone in the of men. A man without a conscience has never been born: never amidst the dreariness of heathenism--a faculty to distinguish right from wrong, to know that the SupremeBeing is pleased with righteousness and angered at wrong-doing, and that sin will be punished. But this light shone in darkness. Conscience persuades resistance of evil passions, but inclination quenches the light. Conscience warns respecting the future, but is silenced by the gratification of the present. Conscience reminds of allegiance owing to a Creator, but the inducements of other masters drown its voice. II. glows with radiations of its Maker. But its illumination has to enter that darkest of spots, the human heart, where it is opposed by mists of passion, clouds of ignorance, the night of unwillingness to know God. Hence, in spite of the light, men abandoned themselves to every kind of unrighteousness and fell into most degrading superstitions. III. THE was derived from immediate revelation. The Eternal Word shone upon man, as soon as he had transgressed, in the promises of deliverance and institutions of worship. But when men multiplied they forgot their ancestral religion while retaining some of its features, disguised and debased, but recognizable. Hence the universal prevalence of sacrifice and the hope of salvation. In every age and district of heathenism the light has thus shone, so that men, in the midst of their idolatries, are witnesses that a revelation has been vouchsafed. This light, too, preserved in the legends of paganism o! the Fall, Deluge, etc. Yet the slaves of superstition comprehended not the light. IV. THE TYPES AND FIGURES OF THE LAW sent forth rays converging towards the Sun of Righteousness, which, in the fulness of time, was to cross man’ s horizon. Yet the understanding of the Jews was so cloudy, and their hearts so gross, that they substituted the type for the antitype. V. What can be declared of those who are privileged with the full shining of THE GOSPEL? The theology of conscience, creation, tradition, type, fade away from the revelation of these last days. The true light now shineth. How? Men are insensible to it. By placing men under a variety of dispensations God would prove that no amount of light will suffice to illuminate fallen creatures unless the Holy Spirit purge the sight. The sun may be in the heavens, but if the light in us be darkness, we shall not be illumined by his beams. The Holy Spirit alone can remove that darkness. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Darkness and blindness If persons who can see are shut up together with others who are blind, in a perfectly dark room, the seeing and the blind are in the same situation; no object is perceived by any, no colours discerned; but if light is introduced into the room, there is then a wonderful difference. To those who are endowed with sight, every object appears in its true form and just colouring; but to the blind all things remain as they were; they are in darkness still; and this because the darkness is in themselves. So it is with the outward revelation of Divine truth: while it is withheld, all are in darkness, but it may shine not only on those who live, and are awake, and can see, but also on the dead, and on the sleeping, and on the blind. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) Men in darkness There are some vines that never actually come to the surface; they can scarcely be called vines--they are roots, rather, whose home is in the earth. They feed on the loam, and not on the sunshine. Grow as much as they may, they are never anything but a prolongation of fibres. They are earth-eaters; they live in the soil and they die in the soil. They add nothing to the beauty of the landscape; and among the higher orders of life and growth their names are never mentioned. So it is with some men; they are only human roots, that might become men. They live underground. All the fibres of their lives suck in earthiness. Their growth is all lateral. They spread out on all sides. They are never lifted up into moral and spiritual expression. They are of the earth, earthy. They die where they lived, and God alone knows what becomes of them. We only know that the Divine life is not in them, and, therefore, the Divine destiny cannot be. For there is no destiny that does not germinate here. (W. H. H. Murray.) The dense darkness of the period when the true light appeared At no time was it so universal or so deep. All the powers and principles of the world had been tried to the uttermost, and found utterly wanting. The religion of heathenism had stretched to that extent that, according to Varro, there were three hundred different gods in Rome alone. The Romans had consummated their idolatry by deifying their emperors and great men, and so had degraded themselves to the basest form of man-worship. The Greeks had speculated in religion till they had brought themselves to a conviction and acknowledgment of their ignorance, as testified in their altar inscribed at Athens, the very seat of religion (Acts 17:22 διεσιδαμονεστερους) and learning, “ to the Unknown God.” Their wisdom and philosophy had burnt itself out; and there was no longer any one of their successive schools of doctrine, however formerly dogmatic, which now had an ascendency even among themselves. The Eclectic school had selected something from each of them, and in so doing had condemned them all; and even thus it had not obtained a privilege for itself; for so each person was, of course, at liberty to make his own selection; and so every one in effect condemned every other, and no one gave to any other, or obtained for himself, any respect. The Powers of the world were also in their last stage, both of greatness and corruption. The Babylonian empire was represented by a golden head; the Persian by a breast of silver; the Grecian by thighs of brass: and now the Roman had swallowed up all other nations, and was become universal; but its substance was iron; it was the last of the worldly empires; it was tottering to its fall with its own weight and immensity; it was but feet and toes, base, divided, corrupted, and diseased, and was about to crumble into ruins. The religion of the Jews had also run its course, and had at this time fermented into a new separation. The general mass had corrupted itself. The law of ceremonies had lost its own small portion of life--vegetable life--and had become a more dead letter only, graven in stone, as obstinate and immovable--a withered and dry tree--yet still raising its barren and leafless branches with proud and pompous pride, and self-conceit, and defiance: but its barrenness had procured it disrespect and distrust, and men refused to shadow under its shadowless top, and even its own vitality was denied and disregarded by the Sadducees. At the same time a spiritual seed had been sown, not resting in the letter; not branching from the now spiritless trunk; but, though small, and lowly, and young, and tender, having yet the real principle of life within it, and meet for the digging, and pruning, and watering of the husbandman. At this time, in the fulness of preparation and unpreparedness, of superstition and infidelity, of ignorance and learning, of power and weakness, of evil and good, of hope and unbelief, Christ came in the flesh; the Sun of light and life was embodied, to convince and dispel the darkness, to lighten the ignorance, to overcome the power, to consume the dry tree, to vivify the green tree, to divide between day and night, between the good and evil, to rule over the one, to condemn and expel the other. (S. R. Bosanquet.) God’ s candles are and have been ever shining This world has never been given over to the unchallenged reign of darkness: there have always been souls wherein the life has been kindled, and through whom it has shot its rays into the world’ s gloom--God’ s candles lighted and placed according to His own will. In this respect the Father of lights has never been left without witness. (J. Culross, D. D.) The condition of receiving the light It is a fact in physical nature that the sunlight passes through empty space, and neither warms nor lights it. Climb up to the top of the highest mountains at noonday, and the stars come out. The air is thin--it is therefore dark; we see only by as much light as is intercepted. So with your car. That alone is music which you hear. That is pleasure which you feel. That which your nerve does not report to you does not exist. It is precisely so in morals. There must be something to intercept the light, or that light itself is nothing. It was so with Christ. He was an infinite light. He sat there where there was no soul. They do not know He was God. It is so to-day. He sits among men. He is not God to those who only call Him God. You teach a man nothing if you only teach him to do that. The souls that intercept His rays, to them He is God. There is not one to whom all of God is revealed, because there is no soul that can intercept all there was in Jesus. The light still shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. Have whatever soul we may, there is ever more soul to be gained. Even Paul said the one yearning of his soul was to apprehend that for which also he was apprehended. (Octavius Perinchief.) The historical parallel to the truth of the text This fact respecting Christ, that His light shone in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, hath its parallel in history respecting all truth. All the substances of nature, and all their laws, have been in being, certainly, ever since man has existed. Why did man not see them? Steam has been a fact ever since heat was first applied to water. How was it that man knew it not? The electric current has passed round this earth ever since the earth was made. How is it man but yesterday discovered it? Facts as plain as the daylight have been staring man in the face, sporting with him, and he sat there in his blindness and knew them not. To-day, endless facts, things we sadly need, are across our path; we are stumbling over them, and yet see them not. Coal lay in the earth, how many years? oil, how many centuries? Men needed them both. Why are they but now found to be serviceable? We say that things come just as man wants them. That is true. God must look in very pity upon us. Our misfortune is, we want not yet the tithe of what He is rich enough to give: “ The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Men are everywhere hunting fortunes. Where are they hunting them? With the old muck-rake. Why not open the eye? Why not introduce ourselves to some of the wonders that are yearning to make themselves known to us? We think a man is crazy when he begins to see. (Octavius Perinchief.) The light needed Pythagoras admitted the necessity of Divine interposition to teach man his duty. Zenophanes died at the age of nearly one hundred years, and is said to have thus expressed himself: “ Oh, that mine were the deep mind, prudent and looking to both sides! Long, alas I have I strayed on the road of error, beguiled, and am now hoary of years, yet disposed to doubt and distraction of all kinds; for, wherever I turn to consider, I am lost in the One and All.” Heraclitus, after all his researches, asserted that “ Vain man hath no accurate knowledge which is possessed alone by the God, but that man learns from the God as the boy does from the man.” Socrates saw and confessed his ignorance, and deplored the want of a superior direction. Aristotle’ s last prayer was, “ I entered the world corruptly, I have lived in it anxiously, I quit it in perturbation.” Cicero confessed that no excellence could exist without a celestial afflation. Hierocles and Seneca tell us that but by the help of God no man can become either good or prosperous; so that he who would repudiate the necessity of a Divine revelation to lead him by the Holy Spirit into all truth arrogates a power which the greatest reasoners of ancient times disclaimed. Without Christ--darkness Varro, a Roman writer of the first century, B.C., states that, in his day, he had been at the pains to collect the various opinions on the question, “ What is the true object of human life?” in other words, “ What is the supreme good? He had reckoned up as many as three hundred and twenty different answers. How needful is Divine revelation, and how essential to those who are starting in life, that a heavenly guide should teach them the true end and purpose of earthly existence! The darkness of the natural mind A good many years ago, in Washington, there were two Congressioners who met once every week to talk about the immortality of the soul; but they despised the Bible. They found no comfort. Their time expired, and they went home. Years passed along. They both visited Washington at the same time, and happened to meet at the president’ s levee. They saw each other at a great distance across the room. They pressed their way through the crowd until they came to each other, and, after years of absence, the first thing that one said to the other was: “ John, any light?” “ No light.” Then this one accosted the other, and said: “ Henry, any light?” “ No light.” They said nothing more; they parted to meet at the judgment. Oh, are there any who have swung off from this grand old gospel of Jesus Christ, thinking to find rest for their soul? Have you found comfort, peace, joy, heaven? From a score of souls there comes up to me the cry to-night, “ No light! no light!” (T. deWitt Talmage.) Christ is full of light Going into a village at night, with the lights gleaming on each side of the street, in some houses they will be in the basement and nowhere else, and in others in the attic and nowhere else, and in others in some middle chamber; but in no house will every window gleam from top to bottom. So is it with men’ s faculties. Most of them are in darkness. One shines here, and another there; but there is no man whose soul is luminous throughout. But Christ presented a perfect character. Every room in His soul was filled with light. He is light. (H. W. Beecher.) An alternative rendering “ The darkness overcame it not.” Sin did not succeed in extinguishing the inner light. “ The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord” --a candle lit by God’ s own breath. When man fell the candle was sadly bruised, but it did not blow out. The great fundamental truths God planted in man continue to shine despite sin and its grievous consequences. Accordingly the darkness of the Fall was not complete--complete, I mean, in the sense that it could not be blacker; a little light was still continuing to glimmer--candle-light, if you like, but light all the same. Much talk is indulged in concerning original sin, though not quite as much as in former years; but we ought also to speak of original light, a light deeper and more primitive even than our sin. Do I not believe in the total depravity of the race? Yes, in the sense that every power is more or less tangled, that every faculty is more or less corrupt. No, in the sense that the derangement could not be greater, that the putridity could not be more advanced. The confusion and depravity here are great, but in hell they are considerably greater. So far a little light doubtless glimmers in the soul of every man on his coming into this world; the golden beams of the Sun of Righteousness are to be seen playing in the mental faculties of childhood. “ The light shineth in darkness” --the darkness of our fall--“ and the darkness overcame it not” ; the light still burns. But if the darkness did not overcome the light, on the other hand the light did not overcome the darkness. In the other world, the world prior to the Incarnation, the light and the darkness confronted each other without making much impression one on the other. The darkness did not conquer the light, neither did the light conquer the darkness; and if the light is to win the victory, it must receive an ample increase, and this increase we find in the gospel of Jesus Christ. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) John 1:6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John The forerunner I. THE MISSION OF THE BAPTIST. 1. It was immediately connected with the appearance of the Word in the flesh. 2. It was of God. And as His mission so his name. 3. It had as its special end to testify of Christ. 4. Its aim was to bring sinners to believe in Christ. This was not merely God’ s intention, but his own desire. All true ministers have the same object. 5. It contemplated “ all” to whom he addressed himself. II. THE BETWEEN CHRIST AND JOHN. 1. A current error was corrected. Men thought John the Christ. He confessed himself only the friend of the Bridegroom, the witness-bearer of the Light. 2. This correction vindicated the proper glory of Christ. All honour to the witness, but the glory of the light cannot be given to another. 3. In the marked distinction between the forerunner and Him “ who coming after him was preferred before him,” overweening thoughts of mere instruments, however valuable, are reproved. 4. John’ s honour consisted in his proclamation of his Master’ s glory. Nor was this honour denied him. Ministers are esteemed for their works’ sake. 5. The distinction in Christ’ s case from John and all His ministers is that He is “ the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (A. Beith, D. D.) The mission of John and of Christ I. THE TRUE NATURE OF A ’ S OFFICE. 1. Ministers are not priests or mediators. 2. They are not agents into whose hands men may commit their souls, and carry on their religion by deputy. 3. They are witnesses (Acts 1:8; Acts 2:40; Acts 20:21). II. ONE WHICH OUR LORD TOWARDS MANKIND. As light. 1. He is the centre and source of all spiritual illumination, warmth, life, health, growth, beauty, and fertility. 2. He shines for the common benefit of mankind--for high and low, rich and poor, Jew and Greek. 3. He is free to all. III. THE OF MAN’ S NATURAL HEART. 1. Christ was in the world invisibly long before He was born Colossians 1:17). Yet He was neither known nor honoured. 2. But Christ came visibly into the world when He was born at Bethlehem and fared no better. His own rejected Him. IV. THE VAST OF ALL WHO RECEIVE CHRIST AND BELIEVE ON HIM. 1. The privileges are those of children. 2. These privileges are to be possessed by faith (Galatians 3:26). 3. Are we sons of God? Have we the marks of Sonship. 4. Do we desire to be sons of God? Then we must receive Him as Saviour. (Bp. Ryle.) The ministry of men I. A special way whereby Christ shineth to the world, and helpeth the world to know Him, is the OF MEN; whereby 1. He condescendeth to our weakness, who could not endure more glorious instruments. 2. Trieth our obedience and acknowledgment of His authority in the weak messengers. 3. Maketh manifest that the excellency of the power whereby they do so great things is of Him. II. OF CHRIST MUST NOT RUN UNSENT, but ought to have a calling from God, either extraordinary (in extraordinary times and cases) or ordinary; as being that which will afford them matter of courage in undertaking their work, of comfort under difficulties, and of hope of success; for so John was a man sent from God; to wit, in an extraordinary way, as Christ’ s forerunner. III. WILL IN A MOST LIVELY WAY THAT GRACE OF GOD WHO HAVE GRACE AND FAVOUR BY IT. And it is a sweet thing when men prove answerable to these names and titles which Scripture giveth them because of their Christian profession; for this forerunner’ s name was John, a name given by the angel, which signifieth one to whom the Lord had been gracious that he might actively proclaim the same to others, and a name to which John’ s carriage was answerable. IV. THE CHIEF AND SPECIAL END OF A , is to point out Christ in His excellences and usefulness to lost men, to declare Him in His person, offices, and benefits, how He should be believed in, served or suffered for; John came to bear witness of Christ in His glorious excellency, and as He is the light of dark man, in his comforts and directions. V. ARE TO PREACH CHRIST WITH AND in not adding or diminishing with boldness and constancy. VI. THE END AND SCOPE OF A ’ S and preaching, is, and should be, to bring self-condemned sinners to believe in Christ; his preaching of the law and wrath is in order to that, and to bring men to see their need of Christ, and should be joined with the doctrine of the gospel; his preaching of the doctrine of sanctification and holiness should be joined with the doctrine of faith in Christ, from whom virtue floweth for that end. (G. Hutcheson.) The witness of the Light I. His . “ There came” --suggesting origination, commencement, dependence, mutability, decay, in opposition to the Word whose creature He was (verse: 3). II. His NATURE. “ A man.” Parted from the Word who was God: although honoured by the near relationship in which he stood to the Word as instrument, minister, herald, and forerunner. III. His NAME. “ Jehovah is gracious” --a fitting designation of one whose birth was a gift of grace (Luke 1:18), whose manhood was the flower and fruit of grace (Luke 1:80), and whose life work was to be a publisher of grace (Luke 1:76). IV. His MISSION. 1. In its character, prophetic. 2. In its authority, Divine. 3. In its work, witness-bearing. 4. In its object, saving. V. His TO THE LIGHT. 1. Negatively. 2. Positively (John 1:8). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The personality of John I image to myself a man of calm, saintly look, with eyes that seemed, to pierce the invisible, moving men not by his wild gesticulations, but by the deep solemnity of his spirit, the simple, fearless truth he spoke, and his appeal to the Messianic longings and hopes which then prevailed. Withdrawn from the luxurious world, with its enervating and selfish influences, he had lived to the age of thirty among the mountains west of the Dead Sea, preparing in solitude for the brief but great work of his life. He is, however, no hermit cut off from his fellowmen and taking no interest in their affairs, but a keen observer and discerner; and at the appointed hour he steps suddenly forward, crying to the nation, “ Repent,” “ Behold the Lamb of God!” (J. Culross, D. D.) The character of John The Baptist was characterized by I. . If ever there was a man unlike the little reed that gives itself to be tossed by the wind (Matthew 11:7) it was John. Your strong man is self-conscious. He has presided over the slow and painful elaboration of his character. He has looked on with satisfaction at the stiffening of his moral fibre into steel, and knows what it is worth. Humility has never been a feature of strong Jewish natures. Yet this strong man says, “ He that cometh after me is stronger (ισχυρότερος) than I.” II. . Yet like David in God’ s presence declaring, “ I will be base in my own sight,” so the Baptist exclaims, “ Whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.” III. Above all, PURITY. An effective moral teacher must in purity of manhood stand upright. Never could he have brought men to repentance if he had not himself repented. The words “ generation of vipers” would have been a mere scream of impotent rage if he had not crushed the serpent in his own heart. Yet, in the presence of Jesus, that pure soul seems black like the waters of a mountain lake in the neighbourhood of the newly fallen snow. The baptism of water he knew; of the baptism of fire, searching and sifting to the marrow, he recognized the need--“ I have need to be baptized of Thee.” (Bp. Alexander.) John 1:7 The same came for a witness.A witness is wanted in the period of ignorance and darkness. Such a witness is the moon, which reflects a borrowed portion of light from the sun, and so assures us of him; but when the sun itself arises, himself becomes invisible, and as not existing. His borrowed light also is temporary and changeable. It waxes and wanes, and is sometimes full, and round, and perfect almost as the sun himself; at other times it diminishes and decays, and dies away till it is invisible. So the prophets had the Holy Spirit by time and by measure; and sometimes they were bright and luminous, and shone, as it were, with a celestial and perfect brightness; but then at other times, again, the Spirit in them declined and departed, and left them only the dark lump, waiting till its office should again return, of reflecting some greater or less portion of the sun’ s own proper rays, and invisible till illuminated. But when the sun itself arose upon the world, this should be the sign of him. The light by which he shone should be his own; and should be in himself, and inherent in him. When the Spirit of God should descend upon him; when the hitherto unembodied light should find this rest, and take this place and station--the embodied Sun of Righteousness, and the light and life, the Divinity itself should be incarnate--then, this Spirit of God, the Godhead itself so united to man, should be the sign of the expected Messiah and the witness himself become extinct, in this the last triumphant exercise of his office and witness, (S. R. Bosanquet.) The witness of the light Does the light then need that witness should be borne to it? Is not light its own evidence? Yes, if men have eyes to see; but because they lay in the darkness and slumber of sin, it was necessary to arouse them, and to give testimony to the true light, distinguishing it from all false lights that could only lure to death. In an obvious sense, “ the law and the prophets” formed a great system of “ witness” to the coming One Acts 10:43; Romans 3:21-22); but it required completing, and John’ s ministry was the completion of it--the grand close of the prophetic symphony. The morning star, day’ s harbinger, bears witness of the sun, by shining in his light; and so also does the mountain top, kindled with the first rays of morning, to the dwellers in the deep valley beneath, or the far-stretching plain. But John’ s testimony went beyond even this: he not merely preceded the Messiah, closing the prophetic line, but, having first aroused the nation by that cry, “ Repent,” he actually introduced and named Him to Israel. (J. Culross, D. D.) The force of testimony Testimony is like an arrow shot from a longbow; the force of it depends on the strength of the hand that draws it. Argument is like an arrow from a cross-bow, which has equal force though shot by a child. (Lord Bacon.) John 1:8 He was not that Light The personality of the Baptist I. John the Baptist was WELL BORN. The best Jewish blood flowed in his veins. Hereditary forces are the conservative forces of society. Voice, stature, longevity, mental and moral qualities descend from one generation to another. It is not true, however, that inherited tendencies necessarily make character. If this were so there could be no advance or retrogression. A child could be no better, no worse than his parent. Every mind is an original power for good or evil. Still, be thankful, Timothy, that Eunice was your mother; John, that Zacharias and Elizabeth were your parents. II. He was WELL TRAINED. Jewish homes did not let go the training of children. Training tells more than birth in formation of character. Faith, reverence, obedience, courage, humility, are elements of a soldierly training. Let a child see love illustrated at home, and if he cannot be scolded into the Lord’ s ranks he may be won. III. He was A MAN OF COURAGE (Matthew 3:1-10). Witness his treatment of the dominant Jewish parties and Herod. This was a real quality, not an affectation. Ask for no trimmers in the pulpit. In the long run the brave man is popular. IV. He was A MAN OF (verses 29-36). How hard for one preacher to be overshadowed by another, not in some remote town, but round the corner! Let every man do his level best, and, if beaten honourably, rejoice in another’ s success. V. He was A MAN OF DOUBT. But he took his doubts to Jesus, and had them resolved. Doubter, let Jesus speak for Himself. (B. J. Hoadley.) The danger of mistaking John for Christ To mistake the forerunner for the Messiah, the Baptist for the Christ, the man for the Lord, was not the first characteristic blunder of the Church against her Divine Head. It repeated Eve’ s mistake of her firstborn for the firstborn of God. If we had not seen the subsequent errors of the Church, we should have been almost tempted to count John’ s statement unnecessary, perhaps gratuitous, that the Baptist was “ not that Light.” The only true relation of any ordinance is that of testimony to Christ. At the point where an ordinance ceases to testify of Christ, there it begins to betray Him. Then the betrayal of a Judas is followed by the denial of a Peter. The agency of priestcraft is at the bottom in either case. A false apostle sells, false priests buy, and Christ is crucified between them. The symbol of the thirty pieces of silver is, the nominal Christian barters to the nominal Jew the Divine reality. And so it has been in all ages and with every heresy. You cannot reconcile priestcraft and Christ-craft: they are the antagonism of God and mammon. The process is in every case essentially the same, confounding the testifier with the thing testified. Men began first to mingle representative rites with spiritual realities, then inseparably to unite them, and lastly to identify forms with the spiritual facts which they symbolized. Hence arose the transubstantiation of one sacrament, and the transpiritualism of the other. Transubstantiation, which identifies the Lord’ s body with the bread and wine which He appointed as its symbolic testifiers, and transpiritualism, which identifies the baptism of the Spirit with that of water, are cognate heresies. The ordinance, in either case, displacing the Ordainer, the form neutralizing the fact, and compelling us to protest against sacramentalism on behalf of the sacraments, as well as on the part of the Saviour, that sacramental elements are “ not that Light, but sent to bear witness of that Light.” (J. B. Owen, M. A.) The secondary light The brightest light which the hand of man can enkindle is instantly paled when the sun shineth in his strength. Beautiful indeed is that secondary light when shining alone, and not beautiful only, but precious, exceedingly to men who without it would be in darkness; yet, could it speak, it would say, “ I am but a spark of another fire; your admiration of my splendour will cease when you see the sun.” Such is the speech of the most luminous men. Our light is lunar, not solar, or solar only because Christ is in us; and according to the measure of our capacity He sheds His glory through our life. (J. Parker, D. D.) A witness to the Light He is content to claim for his master as for himself the noblest human work, “ to bear witness of that Light.” No one may add to it; all may, in word and life, bear witness to it. Every discovery in science and advance in truth is a removal of some cloud which hides it from men; every noble character is bearing it about; every conquest of sin is extending it. It has been stored in mines of deepest thought in all ages. The heedless puss over the surface unconscious of it. The world’ s benefactors are they who bring it forth to men as the light and warmth of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. (H. W. Watkins, D. D.) The exact position of John in relation to Christ Just as when we see some object lit up by the sun’ s beams, we are aware that the sun has risen, though we may not be able actually to see him ourselves; and just as a man, however weak may be his power of sight, at any rate is able to look at a mountain or tree shone upon by the sun, though he may not yet be able to look at the glorious luminary itself; so in like manner did John give light to those who as yet were not able to look at Christ, and through him, while he acknowledged that his light was that cast upon him by the rays of another, the shining and enlightening One Himself was perceived and recognized. (Augustine.) Other witnesses to Christ besides St. John Was the saying less true of Jeremiah preaching beside the temple that was to be desolate, of Ezekiel preaching by the river of Chebar? Was it less true of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, of St. Paul at Antioch? Was it less true of Bernard, of Francis of Assisi, of Luther, of any man who in later days has awakened men out of the slumber of death? What can be said of each except this, “ The same came for a witness” ? What would each have said of himself but this, “ I am not that Light, but am come to bear witness of that Light” ? (F. D. Maurice.) The true glory of John John is something truly great, of vast merit, of exceeding grace, placed on a high eminence. Admire him we must, but how? as a mountain height, which, unless irradiated by the sun, abides in darkness. Therefore raise your thoughts to Him, who illumines this mountain top, elevated for the very purpose of first receiving the light, and so of imparting it to your eyes otherwise pained with so great a glare. John was a light lighted; Christ was a light-giving Light. (Augustine.) John 1:9 That was the true Light The true Light which lighteth every man I. CHRIST IS THE TRUE LIGHT. This is seen when we reflect that 1. He is the source of all the knowledge we have of the Divine Being--His relation to us, His infinite love, and the wonderful plan of salvation He has devised. 2. He is the source of all the knowledge we have of the life beyond. 3. He is the source of all the consolation we experience under the pressure of trial. II. HE EVERY MAN. 1. The general direction which the beams of the true Light are here directed to take is a marvellous instance of His condescension. The noble chandelier which floods the throne-room of the palace with its dazzling light throws not a single ray into the murky gloom of the squalid courts not far away. That Christ, the true Light, should dart His beams downwards to this abiding-place of sin is part of the wonderfulness of the gospel which we preach. 2. To Him we owe the gift of reason, which is one of the two great foundation stones of natural religion. 3. He has placed within us the gift of conscience--God’ s eye and voice, a witness against ourselves. 4. The proclamation of the gospel in every land. III. THE TRUE LIGHT IS MADE EVIDENT FROM THE WORKING OF HIS SPIRIT AND GRACE. (H. W. Price.) . Christ’ s light is I. The light of NATURAL REASON, which He has given us to cultivate and improve, for the benefit of ourselves and others, especially in the great concerns of religion. This light, which even the Gentiles had, was sufficient to have led them to the knowledge of the true God, and, by the visible works of the creation, to understand His “ eternal power and Godhead” Romans 1:10). II. The light of . By this light His will has been made known to us in the Holy Scriptures; the religion of nature commenced revealed; and the lesser light of natural reason was not extinguished by, but absorbed in, revelation. This further light was typified to us by the Shechinah in the tabernacle, and by that bright cloud by day and pillar of fire by night which conducted the Israelites through the wilderness. III. The light of the GOSPEL: and this is represented by that noblest and brightest of all the heavenly luminaries, the Sun; Christ Himself, who is therefore styled “ the Sun of Righteousness,” having now arisen on His Church “ with healing in His wings.” This is the light which constitutes our present day. IV. The last and most perfect light of all will be that of GLORY, which shall never set, nor ever change. But this light none shall ever behold who neglect the use of those lesser lights, who advance not gradually from reason to revelation, from revelation to faith, from faith to glory. (Wogan.) The arrival of the Light I. Its NATURE. “ True,” not the genuine as opposed to the false, but the substantial, the essential, the original, the permanent, as opposed to the shadowy, phenomenal, derived, transitory. II. Its . Set forth 1. Intensively, it lighteth. 2. Extensively, as reaching to every man, i.e, to all mankind, in the sense that its light exists for all, and to some degree shines on all, and to all souls who inwardly admit its beams. III. Its , described as 1. Coming into the world, i.e, in process of passing from a Divine and Eternal into a human and temporal mode of existence, and 2. Coming into His own, i.e, as unfolding His glory before the theocratic people. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The true Light I. He is light, the true light in opposition to all the false lights of the Gentiles. II. He is REAL light, true in opposition to ceremonial types and shadows. III. He is light, true in opposition to all light that is borrowed, communicated, or participated from another. IV. He is light, true in opposition to all that is ordinary and common. (Arrowsmith.) Christ the Enlightener Jesus Christ enlightening every man I. FROM WITHIN, i.e, in the intuitive conceptions of the mind. 1. This light is internal, shining in the mental constitution of every man. What was life in the Word pre-incarnate was light or reason in men. 2. This light is innate in every man. “ That was the true Light which lighteth every man as he cometh,” etc., is a translation of many scholars. God takes care to write His name on the soul of every man; human nature bears the sign-manual of its Maker in its deepest constitution . 3. This light is Divine, the same in its nature as that which illuminates God Himself. The light proceeding from the sun is the same as that which resides in the sun. 4. This light is persistent. It continues to shine notwithstanding the Fall and its consequences “ lighteth,” present tense. II. FROM WITHOUT, in the revealed doctrines of Christianity. 1. It is a supernatural light: not unnatural, or contranatural, for the most perfect correspondence obtains between the natural and the supernatural. Railway companies often possess running powers on each other’ s property, and the natural and the supernatural often run their trains on each other’ s lines. The latter is only an extension of the former. 2. It is a perfect light: true, i.e, the complete as opposed to the imperfect, the full as opposed to the partial. Christ is this; not a ray wanting. You may see God through the creation, but you may see Him in Jesus Christ. 3. It is a universal light. (1) It enlightens every man that cometh into the world. The perfect is always universal. “ Go ye into all the world.” The Sun of Christianity is as all-pervasive as the sun of nature. (2) It enlightens every man that goeth out of the world. It can penetrate the blackest recesses of the dark mountains along which you are descending, and dissipate the mist of the swelling flood, and illumine your way right into the unseen. (3) It enlightens the world into which you are going. “ The Lamb is the light thereof.” (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The Light of the world There has been a threefold revelation of the Word. I. THROUGH NATURE. “ In the beginning,” before there was ear to hear or mind to understand--the mind of God was speaking with itself. There was a Word. Then 1. The Word is spoken of as bringing the world into being, i.e, God’ s Word found utterance in creation. A word is an expression or a work. The most expressive of all are not those which the lips speak. The American sculptor gazed upon the sky upon a summer’ s morning. He went about haunted with the memory of it. It was a necessity for him to express it. Had he been a poet he would have thrown it into words; a painter, on canvas; an architect, into a building; but being a sculptor his thoughts and syllables were expressed in stone. This world is God’ s sculptured work whereby He speaks out Himself. 2. This creation is a pervading immanence. “ He was in the world.” Creation is not the work of a Divine watchmaker, who winds it up, leaves it to go by itself, interfering now and then in great emergences called miracles. He is in the world, the life of all that is. The world is the form of which Christ is the Personality. The beauty of the sea-shell and of the field-flower is the loveliness of God. The world is an everlasting anthem hymning God’ s secrets. II. THROUGH MAN. 1. Universally: “ lighteth every man.” Just as the sunlight shines on all, more intensely in the tropics, more feebly at the poles, yet shines on all. Your reason and conscience are the God within you. Thus the Fathers spoke of the wisdom of Plato and others as the unconscious Christ within them. Thus, too, in the Old Testament rulers and judges are called “ gods” John 10:35-36). 2. Specially: “ He came to His own.” The distinction is between those who received the light common to every man and those who received the special illumination which entitled them to be His own--the Jewish people, the inspired people. Inspiration is God’ s acting on man’ s higher spirit--his worship and reverence. There is an inspiration of genius, but the inspiration of the prophet is another thing altogether. The Jews were not great statesmen, artists, scientists; but the thought of God, the sanctity of duty, moral and spiritual truth were in them as in no other nation on earth. III. THROUGH THE . God manifested Himself not through what Jesus taught or spoke, hut through what Jesus was and did. 1. Christ was not a transient theophany like the burning bush, the Angel of the Covenant, or the Shechinah glory. 2. But God Himself in man and with man for ever. The application is (1) That all that can be known of God is through a revelation. The light of revelation is not contrary to, but complementary of, the light of nature. (2) That revelation is progressive. In the world; with the world; made flesh. In the world unconsciously in nature; nearer in man; nearest in Christ; the time is coming when He will be still nearer, “ when we shall see Him as He is.” (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Christ the Light of all the living I. EVERY MAN COMES INTO THE WORLD WITH A LIGHT IN HIM. Dim in infancy, but ready to be fanned by educational influences; dark in heathenism., but glimmering amongst fogs of superstition. This light reflects 1. On social obligation. Every man has the sense of right and wrong. 2. On religious worship: the sentiment of a God is universal. 3. On future retribution: reference to a future life of reward and punishment instinctive. That all men have their light is clear (1) From history. Its rays may be seen in the best heathen, in their sacred books, and even amongst the most degraded tribes. (2) From the Word of God (Romans 1:1-32.). It is absurd to deny its existence because it burns dimly under the glass of ignorance, and never throws a false hue on duty and destiny, etc. Any light is better than darkness. A manuscript may contain truth, although part may be torn away. II. THE LIGHT IN EVERY MAN IS FROM CHRIST. This fact 1. Exalts Christ as the Creator of souls (John 1:2). He puts this inextinguishable light in them. 2. Reveals the responsibility of heathens. They are not in utter darkness. It is amongst them in these elements of truth by living up to which they may be accepted of God. Thus heathen salvation is not independent of Christ. 3. Furnishes an argument for the congruity of Christianity with human nature. Both the natural and the gospel light come from one source in Christ and harmonize with each other. 4. Supplies a motive to extend the light of the gospel Although Christ gave men natural light, He saw their need of a higher light, and became flesh and died to give it. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ our revealing Light I once spent a night on Mount Righi, and there was nothing visible for a rod from my window. But when the morning broke, the icy crowns of the Jungfrau and the Schreckhorn began to glitter in the early beams. They had been there all the night, waiting for the unfoldings of the dawn. Even so have all God’ s laws of the material universe and all His purposes of redeeming mercy through Jesus Christ been in existence from the beginning. They only waited for the dayspring of discovery. And one of the most delightful occupations of a devout mind is to watch the unfoldings of God, and to drink in new truths as He gradually reveals them. (Theodore L. Cuyler.) Jesus our Light A visitor went one cold day last spring to see a poor young girl, kept at home by a lame hip. The room was on the north side of a bleak house. It was not a pleasant prospect without, nor was there much that was pleasant or cheerful within. Poor girl I what a cheerless life she has of it, he thought, as he saw how she was situated; and he immediately said to himself, what a pity it was her room was on the north side of the house. “ You never have any sun,” he said; “ not a ray comes in at these windows. That I call a misfortune. Sunshine is everything; I love the sun.” “ Oh,” she answered, with the sweetest smile, “ my sun pours in at every window, and even through the cracks.” The visitor looked surprised. “ The Sun of Righteousness,” she said, softly--“ Jesus. He shines in here and makes everything bright to me.” Who could doubt her? She looked perfectly happy. Yes! Jesus shining in at the window can make any spot beautiful and any home happy. Christ the interpreter of human life I. HOW FAR IS THIS TRUE? Is it not rather sin which explains it? Its facts meet us everywhere, and sum up the life of the individual and the nation. We see them and feel their curse. But do they explain all? Are there not stirrings of the awakened conscience, longings of the soul for its lost innocence, better hopes, holier resolves, efforts to lay hold of God? Whence have these come? From the Light. Sin, so far from interpreting life, is its confusion. “ The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” But sin has obscured it all; caused its power and promise to be wasted, changed its blessing into a curse, quenched its light in darkness. A saved soul--that is consistent; a lost soul--there is bewilderment in the very thought. We cannot understand our own being till Christ gives us light; then our darkness passes, and the true light shineth. II. It is not only true that salvation in Christ is the end which alone makes human life intelligible--THE LAW OF LIFE IN CHRIST IS THE LAW TO WHICH WE WERE MADE. The self-devoted Saviour is “ the Light which lighteth every man.” Men resolve every motive into selfishness. Men are always seeking, it is said, to please, themselves. But this only confuses. There is an impulse of self-denial which cannot thus be explained away. The father labouring for his little ones, the mother watching over her sick child’ s couch, do this for love’ s sake, and not to please themselves. The patriot denies himself for his country’ s good; we are often ashamed of our comforts when we reflect on the wants of others. The impossibility of living a life wholly selfish, the inspirations of pity, the passion for self-devotedness find their explanation in Christ. In Him we see the self-devoted life, the only true and blessed life for man. As Christ was it would be well for us all to be; that is what God would have us all be. All falls into harmony now; this is the true light. III. If we turn from the quenchless impulse of devotedness to the IMPULSE OF WORSHIP; if we ask how it was that amidst the degradations of heathenism and the corruption of the Jews, faith itself did not die out; if we ask how it was that though philosophers often seemed on the verge of proclaiming that all religion was only a fiction useful for civil government, men could not rid themselves of reverence; if we ask how it was that in even the worst superstitions of idolatry something may be often seen which strangely suggests to us the gospel revelation; again we are reminded that Christ, “ the true Light which lighteth every man,” was in the world. He would not let them sink into utter godlessness. He preserved in them some little longing for the true, awoke in them some dissatisfaction with the false. IV. FROM THE CROSS COMES THE LIGHT WHICH THE DEEPEST AND MOST FACTS IN HUMAN LIFE. The selfishness of pride is crushed as we recognize ourselves saved not by our own righteousness, but by Him that bore our curse. We have murmured that we should bear a doom for Adam’ s sin: Christ bore the doom for Adam and for us. We have murmured at our birth into a state of sin and suffering. But Christ was born into it for us. Our Christian life is interpreted here. If we are restless amid our pleasures, if we cannot be happy, if we are yearning to be better, it is because the Word is within us pleading with us to receive Him. If we have not been allowed to sink amidst temptations, to rest in a life of ungodliness, and if there be in us purer feelings and holier aspirations, these seek their fulfilment in Christ. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) The natural light in man God prints His own name, He stamps some great universal truths on the mind of every man as he cometh into the world. Men are like so many volumes, continually issuing from the Divine press; and if nothing else be written on them, the name of the Author and Printer is indisputably engraved on the title-page. I do not say that the name is very legible at first, especially since the soul has been soiled by sin, but that it is there is to me a demonstrated truth. Take a sheet of white paper; write on it your own thoughts--your good thoughts or your bad thoughts, just as you please--and underneath your own signature and address. Is that all that is to be read off the paper? Nay; hold it up to the light, and you will behold the name of the manufacturer in watermarks. You may write on it what you like and as you like; but you will never rub off the name of the maker. Your name is on it, but his name is in it. Thus God has written His name in watermarks on the raw material of the soul. You may write on it, the world may write on it, the devil may write on it; but God has written in it--He has deeply stamped His name into the soul in its first make. The idea of God is a lighted lamp hung up in the dome of every man’ s soul as he cometh into the world, a lighted lamp flashing forth its penetrating and comforting beams in all directions. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Light before Christ came We must not suppose that all light of faith, of hope, of justice, of purity, of truth, first dawned on the world when Christ came. God has been in the world ever since there was one, and whatever there is that is noble and good proceeded from the inspiration of the Divine mind working upon the human soul, on all nations, in every age, and under the ministrations of the truth as it is in Jesus. He that brought life and immortality to light was neither supine nor slumbering, but was working everywhere before His appearance, and whatever light of truth there has been at any time has come from Him. When, however, He came in bodily form, He came to interpret what only life and conduct can interpret. (H. F.Beecher.) Christ the efficient Light The earthly sunlight only illumines eyes that see, but Christ the true Light enlightens the eyes of the blind; He is at once the Eye and Light of the world. (Brenz.) Light dawning upon man Standing far down in the darkness of an icy valley, I once witnessed a sunrise in the Alps. The first beam struck the summit of Monte Rosa, and looked like a vivid crimsom spot amid a deep gloom; and then the rising dawn fired the summits of mountain after mountain, and floated in a river of broadening gold down through snowy slopes, until at last the hills and the valleys and the pine forests seemed to shout aloud, and clap their hands, as they were flooded irresistibly with the rejoicing light. Even so, He who is the Light which enlighteneth every man dawned with an infinitude of blessing upon a dark and guilty world. (Archdeacon Farrar.) . Christ the true Light That only is “ light” which lighteth another; and that, therefore, which should “ light” everybody is the True, Original, Primal “ Light.” Nature teaches it. You cannot conceive of “ light” which does not emit. It must propagate itself. The moment that “ light” does not shed itself, it is gone out. There is no propagation in darkness. Darkness is naked. A dark room does not darken a light room; but a light room will lighten a dark one. And the more “ light,” the more it brightens--up to that Perfect “ Light” which “ lights” everything. The sun “ lights” the whole world. Christ is the Sun of God’ s moral system. When the world was four days old, God gathered all the “ light” --which vibrated and was diffused in the atmosphere--into one great centre: or, more accurately, He made for all that “ light” one great reflector to “ rule the day” ; then He made another reflector for the sun--the moon, “ to govern the night.” When the world was four thousand years old He gathered all moral and spiritual “ light” --of the law, of prophecy, of grace, of love, of hope--which was scattered and indistinct before, into one grand depository; or, more accurately, He gave a perfect mirror, to give back all His own lustre and glory, to be the ruler and arbiter of the Gospel Day (Hebrews 1:1). And then God made a reflector of that Divine luminary--the Church; the Church, to catch and disseminate its rays in a dark world; the Church, to rule and govern the world’ s night. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) The safety of the Light The night is of the darkest; the moon has hid her face behind the swift-rolling clouds, and not a star ventures to peep out upon what is going on far below on earth. Her anchor weighed and sails broadly spread, a noble ship moves steadily on her way, her captain on the bridge, her trusty steersman at the helm, the watch at their posts. We hear the low, firm word of command, and feel the movement of the vessel responding slowly to her rudder as her course is changed in obedience to the indications of the chart, or in consequence of the observations of the look-out. Now she rounds a rocky headland, and, passing from its shelter, enters a narrow strait, on which, in striking contrast to the gloom behind, a flood of brilliant light is cast from the lighthouse which stands in the centre of that short but dangerous channel, whence it sends forth guiding rays to help mariners who pass through from one great sea to another beyond. The light makes the channel safe; let it be removed, and, striking against the rocky isles which stud the strait, the brave ship, in vain effort to escape, will beat out its life. Do you ask me on what map you will find this channel marked? what are the names of the two seas which it connects? I will tell you. The name of the ocean on the one hand is Eternity; the name of the ocean on the other hand is Eternity; the name of the channel is Life, and its Light is Jesus Christ. Without Him we perish; but with Him, overcoming the perils of the passage, we reach at last the great and wide sea of the Father’ s infinite love. (H. W. Price.) Christ the Light of the future world Into the impenetrable darkness of the hereafter He alone has entered; only His sacred feet have trodden that awful path of gloom. We read, a little time ago, of some of our English officers exploring a subterranean cavern never yet visited by man--how they groped, and climbed, and crawled for hundreds of yards into the darkness that was but feebly lit up by the glimmer of their tapers. They pressed onward in spite of every difficulty, till an impassable obstacle prevented their further progress, and the gallant explorers had to return. They might have perished in their perilous enterprise, and left their bones to moulder in their unknown charnel-house till the resurrection morn; or they might have threaded their way through mazy intricacies until, at last, they came again within the welcome sight of daylight, and emerged from their underground wanderings on the other side of the mountain. The Great Explorer passed right through! The Founder of our Faith came out of death into a fuller and more glorious life than He laid down when He yielded up His spirit. It is from Christ--messenger from the land of light and love, victor over death and the grave, that we learn all we know of the home beyond, of the many mansions, of the place prepared, of the thrones, and of the crown. (H. W. Price.) Christ the Light of every man How can this be true when there are, and always have been, so many who live on still in darkness? First, it was God’ s intention that “ light” should be all-pervasive, and it does not make that intention untrue if, through the negligence of His people--to whom it was committed to carry it out--it has not yet taken place. The orb of day is not less the “ light” to the universe, because you choose to eclipse it with your little hand. Neither is Christ less “ the true Light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” because they, to whom it was given, have not transmitted its beams. But, evil as things are now, it is impossible to calculate what may be the indirect rays of “ light” which have reached, from the gospel, through the whole earth. There is a twilight of truth in almost every superstition and every error. Is that dim twinkle a refraction from the cross? (Sermons by the Monday Club.) God the Light of life When we grasp a truth, and the exquisite pleasure of knowing what is true abides with us like a noble guest; when we conquer a selfish or worldly desire and lie down to rest on the goodness we have won and feel at peace; when in the golden summer-time we pass through the happy woodland and hear the stream and the trees talk to one another, and the beauty that flows into the eyes and ears kindles its instructive fire in our hearts; when we give love or pity or kindness to those that need it, and the quick thrill of heavenly joy, such as the shepherd feels when he finds his lost sheep, swells the heart--what is it that we feel? We feel not only ourselves but God within us. His is the truth, the goodness, His the beauty and the tenderness, and His the joy. He is mingled with us then. His light and life make our light and our life. It is more or less in all men, it is of different kinds in different men, but it shines in all. One may hold it in a soul which is a palace for the crowned Truth to dwell in; another may keep it in a soul which is a ruined cabin where many an outlawed thought and many a felon feeling dwells: but its eternal fire burns in both--in one as brightly as the sun, in the other dimly as in the dying star. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.) John 1:10-11 He was in the world The treatment of Christ by men I. By the WORLD. 1. They were in a condition in which they might have known much of Him. He made the world and preserved it and was in it. Yet there was no proper recognition of Him. 2. This ignorance of Christ was the sin of the world, and it is its sin now, a sin for which there is no excuse. In addition to creation and providence we have revelation. II. By His own. 1. Who are His own. In a sense (1) All mankind by the right of creation; (2) The converted by the right of redemption and adoption; (3) As distinguished from both these, the Visible Church. That its members are His own arises from their possession of advantages peculiarly distinctive--the oracles of God--the ordinances of the kingdom. They are in covenant. Christ is under engagement to grant to them eternal life: they are under engagement to seek that gift and accept it. (a) Virtually such was the covenant at Sinai. Christ engaged to bring His own to Canaan, through their obedience to the law by which they were to live. They engaged to go up and possess their inheritance in reliance on Him. The covenant was typical as well as temporal, and typified a spiritual salvation. (b) Israel violated this covenant, by the rebellion in the wilderness, and by slowness of heart to understand its moral meanings. (c) This covenant has passed away, the substance of its shadows having come, but thousands like Israel are false and perfidious to the new and better covenant: they have the profession without the power of godliness. 2. He came to His own. (1) This was unsolicited by them, the kindness and consideration were all His. (2) He came to them in the wilderness and at various periods of their history, but they rejected Him. 3. He came as the Incarnate Word, and they received Him not. Is this also true of the Visible Church to-day? The unconverted hearers of the gospel are more guilty than the Jews, and will therefore he visited with a heavier condemnation. (A. Beith, D. D.) The rejection of the Light I. AND PRIOR TO THE BY THE WORLD. The world knew Him not, which was 1. Inexcusable (Romans 1:20). 2. Unnatural, since those who lived and moved and had their being in Him should have known Him who made them (Psalms 103:22). 3. Heinous. The non-recognition less intellectual than moral, arising not from failure to discern, but from want of inward affinity to the light John 3:19; Ephesians 4:18; Job 24:13). 4. Prophetic, since it foreshadowed Christ’ s reception by Israel with the outlook towards which it is here introduced. II. AND DURING THE PERIOD OF HIS BY HIS OWN, i.e, by the Jews, whose rejection of Him, besides sharing the criminality incurred by the world, displayed 1. Monstrous ingratitude. He selected them for no peculiar excellence on their part, and vouchsafed centuries of gracious teaching and discipline to prepare them to recognize and embrace Him. 2. Shamefaced robbery. Christ presented Himself as the Heir claiming His inheritance (Matthew 21:38); as a Master (Matthew 25:14) only to find His possessions forcibly withheld from Him, and Himself cast forth and killed. 3. Incorrigible wickedness. They could not discern the signs of Messiahship in Him. 4. Dire infatuation, for in rejecting Him they thrust from themselves the kingdom of God, and missed the true vocation of their race. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ rejected by the world His own world rejected Him, as a rebel country might reject a lawful and beneficent king. The very work of His hands, that which was indebted to Him for its very being, refused to recognize Him. (G. J. Brown, M. A.) The world Corrupted mankind are called the world, because they love the world more than their Creator. Through love, we make something our dwelling-place; and therefore what we have made by our love to be our dwelling-place, from that we have deserved to be called. (Augustine.) The world knew Him not. Let us give the largest scope to these words. If you apply them to the world of matter, I need not say that matter can never interpret spirit. God cannot be known in the charity and richness of His inward nature by anything that matter represents. Nor can men whose whole intercourse with matter either disprove or affirm the invisible and inward truth of Christ. Neither does the race know Him: for they are seeking to live by bread alone. Three-fifths of the world live as the sheep, the ox, and the swine do. The heavens to them contain little unless it be some terror that superstition interprets. They cross the plain of life, with heads down, as herds of cattle cross the prairie browsing as they go. They live for and by the senses. They know not the God who created them, and sustains and blesses them. (H. W. Beecher.) The non-recognition of Christ When Ulysses returned with fond anticipations to his home at Ithaca, his family did not recognize him. Even the wife of his bosom denied her husband--so changed was he by an absence of twenty years, and the hardships of a protracted war. In this painful condition of affairs he called for a bow which he had left at home. With characteristic sagacity he saw how a bow so stout and tough that none but himself could draw it, might be made to bear witness on his behalf. He seized it. To their surprise and joy, like a green wand lopped from a willow tree, it yields to his arms, it bends till the string touches his ear. His wife, now sure that he is her long lost and lamented husband, throws herself into his fond embraces, and his household confess him to be the true Ulysses. If I may compare small things with great, our Lord gave such proof of His Divinity when He, too, stood a stranger in His own house, despised and rejected of men. He bent the stubborn laws of nature to His will. He proved Himself Creator by His mastery over creation. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Genius unrecognized When Verdi the celebrated musician first made application for admission as a student at the Conservatoire Musicale at Milan, he was rejected by the director, Francesco Basily, on the ground that “ he could make nothing of the new comer, who showed no disposition for music!” How this early verdict was reversed is a matter of notorious history. (H. O. Mackey.) Recognition Some literary reputations are like fairies, in that they cannot cross running water. Others, again, are like the mystic genii of the “ Arabian Nights” which loom highest when seen afar. Poe, e.g., is more appreciated in England than at home; and Cooper is given a higher rank by French than by American critics. (Matthews.) Judgment by contemporaries Contemporary judgment is least of all judicial. The young forestall novelty itself. The old mistrust or look backward with a sense of loss. It is hard for either to apply tests that are above fashion; we adopt, as lightly as formerly we contemned, a fashion that at last we avow we rightly interpret. (E. C. Stedman.) God present but unknown “ I have swept the heavens with my telescope and have found no God.” (E. C. Stedman.) God unrecognized in His own world Sir Isaac Newton had among his acquaintances a philosopher who was an atheist. It is well known that the illustrious man, who takes the first rank as a mathematician, natural philosopher, and astronomer, was at the same time a Christian. He had in his study a celestial globe, on which was an excellent representation of the constellations and the stars which compose them. His atheist friend, having come to visit him one day, was struck with the beauty of tiffs globe. He approached it, examined it, and, admiring the work, he turned to Newton and said to him, “ Who made it?” “ No one!” replied the celebrated philosopher. The atheist understood, and was silent. (Christian Age.) Christ is often near but unknown Every faculty of the soul, if it would but open its door, might see Christ standing over against it, and silently asking by His smile, “ Shall I come in unto thee?” But men open the door and look down, not up, and thus see Him not. So it is that men sigh on, not knowing what the soul wants, but only that it needs something. Our yearnings are home-sicknesses for heaven; our sighings are for God, just as children that cry themselves asleep away from home, and sob in their slumber, know not that they sob for their parents. The soul’ s inarticulate meanings are the affections yearning for the Infinite, and having no one to tell them what it is that ails them. (H. W. Beecher.) He came to His ownChrist’ s coming and rejection I. IN WHAT SENSE HE CAME TO HIS OWN, AND HIS OWN HIM NOT. He came as the long-expected Messiah (Haggai 2:7; John 4:26), answering all the characters given Him as such in the Old Testament. 1. He came as Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 35:4; Isaiah 40:9-10). His testimony to this effect was confirmed by exercising the authority of God (1) by forgiving sins (Matthew 9:2); (2) by healing the sick (Matthew 8:3); (3) by raising the dead (Mark 5:41; John 11:43), (4) by calming the storm (Mark 4:39). But so far were His own from receiving Him that they accounted Him a “ sinner” (John 9:24), a “ deceiver” (Matthew 27:63), “ mad” and possessed of the “ devil” (John 10:20). 2. He came as the Prophet like unto Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15), whom He resembled in many things. But they rejected Him because His doctrine contradicted their prejudices, censured their vices, and laid a restraint on their dominant lusts. 3. He came as High Priest and Mediator between God and man, typified by Aaron; but they, depending on being Abraham’ s seed, on circumcision, the priesthood, and expiations of their law, received Him not. 4. He came as Redeemer and Saviour (Isaiah 59:20; Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 24:7), but not seeing their want of redemption (chap. 8:33), and having no desire for spiritual blessings, they received Him not. 5. He came as King (Psalms 2:6; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Zechariah 9:9), to rescue them from their enemies, and govern them with good laws. But as His kingdom was not of this world they rejected Him (John 19:13; John 19:15; John 18:40, Luke 19:14). II. IN WHAT SENSE IT IS THAT WE SHOULD RECEIVE HIM We receive His name, and therefore receive Him by profession; the Scriptures, as declaring His will; His ordinances: but do we receive Him in all the offices and characters He sustains? 1. Acknowledging Him as a Divine Teacher, do we learn and practise His precepts? 2. Acknowledging that He is Mediator, do we rely on His atonement and intercession? 3. Confessing Him to be all-sufficient Redeemer, do we glorify Him in our body and spirit, which are His? 4. Do we in reality as well as in profession receive Him as our King? It is implied in these questions that we received (1) His doctrine as the rule of our faith, experience, and practice; (2) His merits as the ground of our confidence; (3) His Spirit, without which we are none of His; (4) His example as our pattern; (5) His exaltation as the ultimate object of our desire. III. THE GREAT THEY ATTAIN WHO RECEIVE HIM 1. They are unspeakably near to Him as made sons of God by regeneration John 5:1). 2. They are dear to Him above all others. They are favoured with access to Him, taken under His protection, and assured of a great reward. (J. Benson.) Christ’ s coming to His own The Jewish nation was “ His own,” by choice (Deuteronomy 7:6); by purchase (Exodus 19:4-5); by covenant (Deuteronomy 26:18); and by kindred (Hebrews 2:16). (F. H.Dunwell, B. A.) Christ rejected by His own people He came unto His own things, and His own people received Him not. He was as a householder coming to his own house and being kept out by his own servants. What is the earth but one great apartment in the house of God! Its furniture (its hills and valleys, and rivers, fruits and flowers, and harvest fields) is Jesus Christ’ s, for, apart from Him, was not anything made that was made: yet when He came to His own house His ownership was denied by the servants who had been put into temporary possession by His own power and grace. (J. Parker, D. D.) The Advent The coming of Christ had I. AN OBJECT. 1. Men had lost sight of God. Some had lost it. Others had never had it. All were destitute of it except a small class of Hebrew believers. Three kinds of sin had blinded, corrupted, usurped the human soul. (1) Self-admiration,which makes a rebel of the intellect; (2) Self-will of the conscience; (3) Self-indulgence of the passions. Curiosity was all that was left as the highest aim in science; war, in enterprise; and a sensuous enthusiasm for the beautiful in art. Alexandria, Rome, and Athens represented these three ambitions. 2. In losing God, man had lost himself. Faith in God and the dignity of man went down together. With Divine worship fell human rights and liberties. Seneca stood for the world’ s idea of learning; Caesar, for its idea of politics; Corinth, for its idea of pleasure. 3. The object of the Advent, therefore, was to restore to man his God and Father, and himself. II. A METHOD. Not by creating a religious capacity, but by quickening men with trust and love. 1. Not first by a book: that would have reached not one in ten thousand, nor him in his heart. 2. Not chiefly by oral instructions, which have to be certified to the understanding before they can inspire faith. 3. Not by a mere creature-image of Deity, for that would have been only adding another to the old Pantheon of idolatries. 4. This infinite goodness, this One Spirit of God, must come in a life. Christ must be the Son of the Father; must touch humanity and enter into it; must wear its flesh; must lift its load; must partake its experience; must be tempted with it; must be seen, nay, felt, suffering for it. This will complete the manifestation. This will be, not an education, not an inspiration, not a human self-elevation, which neither history nor logic hints at; but a coming of Heaven to earth; a theophany, or manifesting of God. This is perfect compassion, and effectual relief. This gets the sundered souls together. Even stolid and blinded eyes will behold their Lord. This will move, and melt, and convince of sin, and arouse to holiness. III. A MOTIVE. There could be but one (John 3:16). (Bp. Huntington.) The Advent of Christ. I. THE GREAT ADVENT; OR, THE ARRIVAL OF THE HEIR. 1. The illustrious personage described. (1) The Word of God; implying personality, intelligence, eternity, divinity. (2) The Creator of the universe. (3) The life and light of men; the source of whatever mental, moral, or spiritual truth ever entered into the soul of man. (4) The heir of Israel and humanity. He came into His own possessions. (a) Into the world which by reason of His creatorship was His. (b) Unto Israel, the special creation of His grace, and His peculiar treasure. 2. The manner of His coming pictured. He came (1) Voluntarily. The Baptist was sent; Christ came. (2) Opportunely. In the fulness of the times; the time pre-appointed by God; the time pre-eminently adapted for a new religion. The false faiths had been tried and found wanting. The Mosaic economy had served its purpose. The Roman power had provided a means of universal communication, and Greece a universal language. (3) Graciously. To communicate the life and the light without which neither Israel nor humanity could be saved. It would not have been surprising had He come to condemn rather than to save. (4) Unostentatiously. We might have anticipated an advent in great power and glory.: instead of that it was in the form of a servant. II. THE ; OR, THE OF THE HEIR. Israel’ s conduct representative of the world’ s. This rejection was 1. Symbolized at His birth. “ No room for Him in the inn.” Manger for His cradle. 2. Experienced throughout His life. “ Despised and rejected of men.” Calumniated as a wine-bibber, a blasphemer, an impostor, a confederate of Beelzebub, and persecuted and scorned. 3. Confirmed by His death. “ Away with Him” ! “ Crucify Him” ! Learn (1) The amazing condescencion of Christ. (2) The supreme claim of Christ. (3) The wickedness and danger of the unbelief which rejects Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Jesus of Nazareth the true promised Messiah No Scripture has so directly and immoveably stood in the way of opposers of Christ’ s divinity, from Socinius backwards, than this chapter. In the text we have I. CHRIST’ S COMING INTO THE WORLD. 1. The person who came. The Second Person in the Trinity, whose infinity makes the act of His coming miraculous. But Christ, who delighted to mingle mercy with miracle, took a finite nature, so that what was impossible to a Divine nature was done by a Divine Person, and being made man could do all that a man could do except sin. The endeavour to account for this mystery has been the source of all heresy, both of hypothesis and denial. 2. The state and condition from which Christ came. From the bosom of the Father, a state of eternal glory, joy, and Divine communion. How great the humiliation from this to that of a crucified malefactor! And yet it was perfectly voluntary. 3. To whom He came. Everything was “ His own” by creation, possession, and absolute dominion; but the Jews were His by (1) The fraternal right of consanguinity; and (2) Churchship, as selected by Him. That it was Palestine and not Rome He came to was of His sovereign mercy. 4. The time at which He came. When they were at their worst. (1) Nationally. Only a remnant left, and that under a foreign yoke; when to be a Jew was a mark of infamy. (2) Ecclesiastically. When most corrupt, hypocritical, sceptical. In this we may see (a) the invariable strength of Christ’ s love; (b) the immoveable veracity of God’ s promise. II. CHRIST’ S BEING COME. May we not expect for Him a magnificent reception, a welcome as extraordinary as His kindness, especially when we consider His purpose? But His own received Him not. This is not strange. The Jews only followed the common practice of men, whose.emulation usually preys on those superior to them. 1. The grounds of His rejection. (1) Christ came not as a temporal prince, which frustrated their carnal hopes. They therefore derided “ the carpenter’ s son.” (2) They supposed that He set Himself against the law of Moses by His spiritual interpretations, human exceptions, and exposures of rabbinical glosses. 2. The unreasonableness of these grounds. (1) He came to be not a temporal prince, but (a) a blessing to all nations, which is inconsistent with the idea of a warrior Messiah. This is the burden of prophecy (b) of a low, despised estate (Psalms 22:1-31; Isaiah 53:1-12.) (2) He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it. The ceremonial law was fulfilled and passed away, therefore, of itself. 3. The reasons which should have induced them to receive Him. (1) All the marks of the Messiah appeared in Him. (2) His whole behaviour was a continued act of mercy and charity. Conclusion: The Jews are not the only persons concerned in this guilt, but also all vicious Christians. (R. South, D. D.) The ingratitude of man I. THE PEOPLE AMONGST WHOM OUR LORD DWELT WERE GUILTY OF TOWARDS HIM. 1. It was an act of distinguished favour our that He should be born among them; yet they rejected Him, which was a high-handed act of national ingratitude. 2. Special cases occurred involving still greater ingratitude. (1) Among them were many whom our Lord healed. Strange ingratitude that a man should owe his eyes to Him and yet refuse to see in Him the Saviour; should owe to Christ his tongue and be silent in the great Physician’ s praise. (2) He fed thousands of hungry persons: yet they followed Him, not for Himself, but for what they could get out of Him. (3) When He acted as a teacher they tried to murder Him. 3. The further our Lord went on in life the more ungratefully was He treated. He forgot Himself and gave Himself away that He might seek and save the lost; and yet men strove to take away His life which was more valuable to them than to Him. 4. At last that evil generation had its way with Him and crucified Him. 5. When He rose and tarried for forty days to minister blessing, they first doubted and then invented an idle tale to account for it. 6. In this ingratitude those who were nearest to Him had a share. One denied Him, and all forsook Him and fled. II. WE ALSO HAVE BEEN TO OUR LORD. 1. Those who are most indebted to Christ’ s love and grace--believers. (1) Every sin is ingratitude since Christ suffered for it and came to destroy it. (2) The setting up of any rival on His throne in the heart, when Christ is dethroned in favour of wife, child, friend, ambition, pleasure, wealth, is base ingratitude. (3) The same is true when we lose large measures of grace; when the Holy Spirit admits us into peculiar nearness to God and we act inconsistently. (4) And so the little service we render and our lukewarm love. Christ’ s love is like the ancient furnace which was heated seven times hotter; ours like the solitary spark which wonders within itself that it is yet alive. (5) The rare consecration of our substance is another case in point. Our gifts to His poor, His Church, missions, are an insult to Him. (6) How base is our ingratitude when we neglect His commands and have to be driven to obedience. 2. There are those whose ingratitude is even greater. (1) Those who refuse to trust Him, in spite of gospel announcements, loving invitations, the evident manifestation of Christ. (2) Those who oppose Him, jest at His gospel, and treat His people with indignity. What evil has He ever done you? When has He given you an ill word or look? It is to His silence that you owe your life. There is no chivalry in such conduct as this. 3. Those from whom, above all others, such conduct ought not to have proceeded. (1) Children of pious and sainted parents. (2) The restored from sickness. III. WHAT THEN? What comes out of all this? 1. Let us appreciate our Saviour’ s sufferings. 2. Admire our Saviour’ s love. 3. Apply the cleansing blood which can take away the scarlet sin of ingratitude. 4. Learn how to forgive. Christ loved men none the less for their ingratitude. 5. Judge how we ought to live in the light of this subject: devote ourselves entirely to Him. In conclusion, what will become of the finally ungrateful? (C. H.Spurgeon.) His own There are two ways of belonging to another: unwilling and inevitable, or willing and hearty. You may belong to a nation by birth, and dislike it; to a family, from dependence or self-interest, and care for no welfare in it; to a university, and be out of harmony and out of temper with its administration. But so you cannot belong to the brotherhood that is of the body of Christ. You must be in sympathy both with the brotherhood and its head. The legal ownership you cannot help; it brings no animation and no comfort. By your creation you are the Lord’ s; His to be disposed of, to live or die, to be judged. The business of your new heart, “ receiving Christ,” is to change this reluctant belonging for the closer and grateful loyalty of affection; the legal bond for the gracious one of faith. (Bp. Huntington, D. D.) The coming and rejection of the light The light came into men’ s hearts as into its proper native dwelling-place. The Word from whom that light issued asserted His right over all the feelings, instincts, impulses, and determinations of these hearts, as over His own rightful domestics and subjects. But the light was repelled; the rightful Ruler was treated as an intruder by these domestics and subjects. There was anarchy and rebellion where there should have been subordination and harmony. A usurper had reduced those into slavery who would not have the service which is freedom. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Christ rejected His own were those who believed with Him in the Scriptures; the teachers of Israel, those who had been trained for His reception. The peasants of Galilee knew Him and received Him when He fed them; for the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’ s crib. He was rejected by those who were the most rigorously orthodox; by the men who believed that their whole life should expend itself in maintaining the temple and its worship. The last days of Christ, the illustrious days of His controversy, were spent with the best, the highest, the most moral of all the people then upon the globe; and they knew Him not. The poor knew Him, and followed Him; the blind know Him, and cried out to Him; the dead knew Him, and came to life; but the armour-bearers of the then regnant faith--the priests, the teachers--looked upon Him with blank faces, and treated Him as a pretender, a traitor, and slew Him. Is the Christian spirit any more acceptable to-day? Is the policy of Christian nations saturated with blood, and bearing every insignia of the cross imbued with that spirit? Are all pompous churches, with all forms of superstition connected with their worship, and full of symbols of Him who came not to destroy but to save--are they truly Christian? Listen to the Te Deum when men knee deep in blood come back with victory on their banners. See the government of most Christian nations; how degraded have been the empires over which they have ruled. See how the Christian nations of Europe lie over against each other, like hungry lions waiting only for an opportunity to spring! What Christian nation, looking at its past history and present policy, can be said to have received Christ? (H. W. Beecher.) Christ still rejected As John writes, there was an advent and a rejection: a bodily advent, a bodily crucifixion: the image and outer form of the Word that was from the beginning, the ever-living Emmanuel, the Christ that comes to-day. If He is rejected to-day, it is by the pride and fashion and self-indulgence of to-day. It is our compromising consciences, it is our well-dressed sensuality, it is our commercial cunning, it is more literary conceit, it is our making merchandise of men and of men’ s virtue, our covering up cruelty, and calling it patriotism; dishonesty, and calling it regular trade; hollowness and mutual flattery, and calling it good society; prayerless self-idolatry, and calling it a rational religion--it is these things that prepare and build His cross, and crucify Him afresh. (Bp. Huntington, D. D.) John 1:12-14 As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God St. John’ s first view of Christ the key to his Gospel I. These verses THE OF ST. JOHN. In this point of view the order of time is different from the order of the statements. The several steps are these 1. The apprehension of the glory of Jesus, 2. The receiving Him and believing on His name. 3. The effect of the power to become sons of God. This agrees with the actual experience of the evangelist. 1. He sees Jesus as pointed out by the Baptist. But where was the glory? (1) That of “ the Lamb of God.” (2) The revelation of grace and truth in him. God’ s infinite love, holiness, justice: His own self-sacrifice. 2. He goes home with Jesus and gave himself up to His gracious influences, believed on His name. 3. What followed we know. He became a son of God. II. THIS THE , , AND SPIRIT OF THE GOSPEL. 1. It serves to account for the subordinate place which miracles and Christ’ s external life generally hold in it. John’ s grand purpose, as marked by his own experience, was to illustrate the self-commending glory of Christ as the Word and only-begotten of the Father, that those who had never seen Him with the eye of sense might come to the blessedness of those who had not seen and yet had believed. 2. It serves to account for the prominent place which the inner life of Christ and the manifestation of His Sonship-glory occupies here. The two grand pivots on which the Gospel turns are Christ the LIGHT, and Christ the LIFE. Christ the Light, revealing the Father and all that concerns the Father; Christ the Life, communicating by the Spirit a new life to men so as to make them God’ s sons. Its twofold purpose is to set forth Christ as the Incarnate Word and Only Begotten, full of grace and truth; and also the reception of Christ, the believing on His name as the commencement of the new life of sonship. Thus it is that so much prominence is given to Christ’ s relation to the Father on the one hand, and to the fellowship of Christ with His people on the other. 3. From these considerations we see the groundlessness of the objections against the Johannian authorship of the Gospel. Given John’ s conversion, as here shadowed forth, and his warm, fervid nature, his life of Jesus could not well have been any other than it is. III. THE MORE GENERAL OF THE SUBJECT, as setting forth the essential glory of Christ and the glory communicated to all who, by receiving Him, become sons of God. 1. What is the connection between the two? That there is a connection is seen in the difference between John and his companions and the mass of the Jews. The one perceived His glory, the other saw it not. To the one He appeared a miserable pretender, to the other the Eternal Son. Moreover they recognized in Him the Saviour that taketh away the sins of the world. They received Him, and then the standing and spirit of sonship became theirs. 2. How is it that this view of Christ’ s glory is followed by such effects? (1) By such means we see our emptiness, guilt, and misery. (2) But He invites us to Him, tells us of His fulness, pardon, grace, asks us to receive Him and let Him put forth His power. (3) Must we not welcome Him? The blessed change is wrought in the very act of seeking it. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.) Receiving Christ and becoming sons I. CHRIST WHO HAS COME INTO THE WORLD SEEKS TO THE HEART as a lawful and everlasting tenant. The Christ in the book, in the creed, in the church, effects but little for us. Christ in the heart becomes all our salvation and desire. II. THE OF CHRIST IN THE HEART IS BY SENSING. 1. There is a natural sonship pertaining to all men; for we are all His offspring. 2. There is a special, redemptive, restored sonship bestowed on those who receive Christ. 3. All that pertains to this sonship is supernatural. Adam was not a son by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, but by the will of God; and a restored son is as marvellous a creation as Adam. III. THIS SONSHIP A NEW BIRTH AND TO THE HIGHEST . There is nothing higher than being admitted to sonship with God. What we want is not some new spiritual dignity, but the recognition of this exalted condition. IV. TRUE FAITH IS HERE AND . 1. Faith in receiving. Christ comes into the believer. Christ without does not save, but Christ within. 2. Faith is evidenced by the opening of the eyes to see the glory of Christ, and the affiliation to God which follows. V. GOD HERE ALL THE PRAISE. 1. The power and the will are of God. Ascribe to Him the wisdom and the glory. 2. The Christ whom we receive is God’ s “ unspeakable gift.” 3. Faith and its attendant privileges are by power bestowed by God. (S. Martin.) The connection between receiving Christ and becoming sons I. These two things are connected IN RESPECT OF GOD; it is the will of God that all should believe in Christ, and He has appointed the mediation of Christ as the channel through which all should receive salvation, and all that is necessary for its attainment. II. These things are connected IN RESPECT OF CHRIST: for, in consequence of what He has done, all may become the sons of God, and, may be enriched with all the blessings of His grace. III. They are connected IN RESPECT OF MEN: all who would obtain salvation must receive Jesus Christ as the only Saviour. (C. C.Tittman, D. D.) That act by which we do effectually apply Christ to our own souls I. THE NATURE OF THIS OF CHRIST. 1. No man can do this in the darkness of natural ignorance. If we know not His nature and offices we do not take, we mistake Christ. The receiving act of faith, then, is guided by knowledge. 2. This receiving of Christ implies the assent of the understanding to the truths of Christ in the gospel--His Person, offices, incarnation, satisfaction--which assent, although it is not saving faith, is its groundwork. This is more than conjecture or opinion, it is belief. 3. This also implies hearty approbation, liking, and estimation; yea, the very acquiescence of our souls in Christ as the most excellent remedy for wants, sins, and dangers (1 Peter 2:7). There are two things in Christ which must gain the approbation of the soul. (1) That it can find nothing unsuitable to it in Christ as it does find in the best creatures--no weakness, pride, inconstancy, or passion. He is the altogether lovely. (2) That it can find nothing wanting in Christ necessary or desirable. In Him is the fulness of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 4. It consists in the consent and choice of the will; and this is the opening of the heart and stretching forth of the soul to receive Him (see Christ’ s complaint, John 5:40, and Ephesians 1:19). 5. The respect that this act of acceptance has unto the terms upon which Christ is tendered to us in the Gospel. Faith answers the gospel offer, as the impress on the wax does the engraving on the seal (1 Corinthians 15:11). There is no receiving Christ but on His own terms. (1) He is offered sincerely and really, and is received with a faith unfeigned 1 Timothy 1:5). (2) He is offered entirely, and is received in all His offices as Christ Jesus the Lord (Acts 16:13). (3) He is offered exclusively, and the soul singly relies on Him (Acts 1 Corinthians 3:11), and not partly on His righteousness and our own. (4) He is offered freely as the gift, not the sale of God (John 4:10;Isaiah 55:1.; Revelation 22:17). So the believer comes to Him with an empty hand. (5) He is offered orderly. First His Person, then His privileges (Romans 8:32), so the believer does not marry His portion first. II. THIS IS THE AND SAVING ACT OF FAITH. 1. The faith which gives the soul right and title to spiritual adoption, with all the privileges and benefits thereof, is true saving faith. 2. That only is saving faith which is in all true believers, in none but true believers, and in all true believers at all times. III. THE OF THIS ACT OF FAITH (2 Peter 1:7; JmsJohn 6:29). 1. Considered qualitatively it has the same excellency that all other precious graces have. It is the fruit of the Spirit. It is singled out to receive Christ. As it is Christ’ s glory to be the door of salvation, so it is faith’ s glory to be the golden key that opens that door. (1) It is the bond of our union with Christ (Ephesians 3:17). (2) It is the instrument of our justification (Romans 5:1). (3) It is the spring of our spiritual peace and joy (Romans 5:1; 1 Peter 1:8-9). (4) It is the means of our spiritual livelihood and subsistence. Take away faith and all the others die (Galatians 2:20). (5) It is the great scope and drift of the Gospel to get men to believe. The urgent commands aim at this (1 John 3:23; Mark 1:14-15; John 12:36). Hither, also, look the great promises and encouragements (John 6:35-37; Mark 16:16). The opposite sin of unbelief is everywhere threatened (John 16:8-9; John 3:18; John 3:35). IV. : 1. For information: If there be life in receiving Christ, there must be death in rejecting Him. 2. If faith be accepting Christ, then there are fewer believers among professors than were thought to be, and more believers than dare conclude themselves such. 3. Those who have the least degree of saving faith, have cause for ever to admire the bounty of the grace of God to them therein (Ephesians 1:3). 4. For examination: (1) The antecedents of faith--illumination (Acts 26:18); conviction Mark 1:15); self-despair (Acts 2:37); vehement and earnest cries to God for faith. (2) The concomitants of faith--seriousness (Acts 16:29); humiliation Ezekiel 16:63; Luke 8:38); a weary condition (Matthew 11:28); a longing condition. (3) The consequents of faith--evangelical meltings (Zechariah 12:10); love to Christ, His ways, and His people (Galatians 5:6); heart purity Acts 15:9); obedience (Romans 16:26). 5. For exhortation: (1) What is in Christ whom you are to receive? (2) What is the offer of Christ by the gospel? (3) What is in the rejecting of that offer? (J. Flavel.) Reception of Christ our introduction into sonship I. THE HONOUR. To become sons of God not merely by adoption, but by generation (Romans 8:16; 1 John 3:1). On our side is sonship, on God’ s Fatherhood. Sonship Isaiah 1. Higher; 2. Nearer; 3. More blessed; 4. More glorious than--creaturehood. There is sonship in the angels, in unfallen man; but this is beyond these. As (1) Introducing us into a more intimate intercourse; (2) Making us partakers of the Divine nature. II. THE GIVER OF IT. Christ Himself; elsewhere it is the Father. All gifts are in Christ’ s hands--living water and bread of life, Himself, sonship. This right or power of sonship He purchased for us; for those who had no right, or power, or title. III. THE WAY OF . 1. Receiving Him--doing the reverse of what Israel had done; accepting and owning Him for all that God announced Him to be. 2. Believing on His name, i.e, Himself. IV. THE CHANGE THROUGH WHICH THIS IS REACHED. “ Born:” 1. Not of natural descent. 2. Not by natural generation. 3. Not by human adoption. 4. But of God (James 1:18). (H. Bonar, D. D.) The grace of Christ to those who received Him The grace appears in I. HIS WITH MEN TO EMBRACE THE OFFER MADE TO THEM, and in what is implied in that. 1. Christ offers Himself, and we welcome and receive Him. The first acting of true faith is to accept Himself; not merely the special benefit He brings. 2. We exercise implicit confidence in Him. We have a right knowledge of Him; rejoice in His character; accept and hide Him in our hearts. 3. In the form in which Jesus is proclaimed in the Gospel, His saved ones receive and believe in Him. “ So we preach; so ye believed.” There is a correspondence between the Gospel and faith of the same kind as that between the seal and the wax. (1) Christ is offered sincerely, and He must be accepted with a faith unfeigned. (2) He is offered exclusively, and must be accepted as the sole basis of our hope. (3) He is offered as a gift; we must not attempt to merit Him. 4. The actual committing of our all to Christ When we receive Him. What is the saving act of faith? (1) Not assent, although that must be a part of it. (2) Not assurance, although that will follow it. (3) But acceptance of Him and confidence in Him. II. THE SPECIAL WHICH HE BESTOWS ON THOSE WHO RECEIVE HIM. 1. The saved are by nature the children of wrath; but in His person God is reconciled towards them. 2. Having reconciled them, He makes them sons--co-heirs with Himself. 3. Of Him also is the comfort and dignities of sonship. III. THE CHANGE WROUGHT IN THEM WHO RECEIVE HIM, to which their accepting Him is ascribed. 1. A new form of existence--a new birth; all things have become new. 2. This change is (1) not by natural inheritance; (2) nor by the operation of the natural will; (3) nor the fruit of superior endowment or acquisition; (4) but of God, by the office and operation of the Spirit. (A. Beith, D. D.) Man’ s part in the advent I. THE . A true reception of Christ for every man alike is of three parts. 1. Belief that He is what He says He is. For any messenger the first condition of acceptance is that He be found to be what He claims to be--much more the Saviour of mankind. 2. Sympathy. A plenipotentiary, an agent, a purely mental operator does not need this. But the moment you include a moral purpose, spiritual influence, there must be common feeling and assimilation. Interests must be felt to be identical. Loyalty must bind the subject to his king. Enthusiasm must mount at the leader’ s name. If Christ’ s purpose was to fill human hearts with love, we cannot be His without loving Him. 3. Service: not compulsory, but that which love disdains to call service. In the hungry, sick, ignorant, etc., the Lord makes new advent to your heart every week; and Christ will not be received till everybody within our reach is made, somehow, better by our faith in Him. II. THE . Servants and creatures we were before, and, in a sense--but not the full and glorious sense--children of God. Now sons ofGod, a royal line, conquerors, sufferers rejoicing in the midst of temptation. Born now, their immortal seed remained in them. III. THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST’ S NAME WILL SEEK TO RECEIVE HIM. 1. By giving up the dearest preference that hurts the simplicity and humility of their faith. 2. In the New Testament, Christian instruction, prayer, doing God’ s will; and counting faith, not doubt, the glory, and power, and joy of man. 3. In the communion of His body and blood. (Bishop Huntington.) A new year’ s guest The text in connection with Matthew 25:35. Suggested by the motto on a new year’ s card. I. A TAKEN IN. House-room is a larger gift than refreshment at the dour. We must not be satisfied with benefactions to His representatives. Notice three strange things. 1. That He was in the world and the Maker of it, and yet a stranger. (1) When born in the Bethlehem of His father David, there was no room for Him in the inn. (2) Soon there was no room in the village itself, whence He had to flee into Egypt, a stranger in a strange land. (3) On His return, there was no room among the mass of the people. Jew and Gentile proved how truly He was a stranger. All this a sadly singular thing; and yet we need not wonder, for how should a wicked and selfish world know Jesus or receive Him. 2. That we should be able to receive the Lord Jesus as a stranger. He has gone to glory, but we can yet receive Him. (1) By owning Him when and where believers are few and despised. (2) By showing brotherly kindness to a poor saint. (3) By holding fast His faithful Word when its doctrines are in ill-repute. (4) By taking up our cross where Christ’ s precepts are disregarded, His day forgotten, and His worship neglected. (5) By receiving the gift of spiritual life. Profession is abundant, but the secret life is rare. 3. That Christ will deign to dwell in our hearts. This is a miracle of grace, yet the manner is simple enough. (1) A humble, repenting faith opens the door, and Jesus enters. (2) Love shuts to the door with the hand of penitence, and holy watchfulness keeps out intruders. (3) Meditation, prayer, praise, and obedience, keep the house in order. (4) And then follows the consecration of our whole life as His people. II. THE MAKING INTO SONS. The moment Christ enters the heart, we are no more strangers and foreigners, but of the household of God. 1. He adopts us and puts us among the children. 2. The designation of sons brings with it a birth, with the actual condition of sons. 3. Living, loving, lasting union seals our sonship. 4. This union creates in us a likeness to God. A small window will let in the great sun; much more will Jesus let in the life, light, and love of God into our souls, making us like God. III. HAVING JESUS AS A , WE FEEL A TOWARDS ALL ; for we see in their condition some resemblance to our own. When Christ is in us, we search out opportunities of bringing prodigals, strangers, and outcasts to the great Father’ s house. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Receivers and sons I. IS A OF CHRIST. 1. Under what notion should we receive Christ? As our Mediator. Isaiah 61:3-4). (1) Our Prophet, receiving His doctrine as delivered by Himself Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 2:2-3); by His prophets and apostles (Hebrews 1:1; Matthew 10:40); by His ministers (2 Corinthians 5:19-20; Hebrews 4:11-12). (2) Our Priest (Hebrews 7:23-26); and so we must believe (a) His satisfaction for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 2:2), to the justice and law of God Galatians 3:13); (b) His intercession for our souls (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 9:11-12; Hebrews 9:24). (3) Our King (Psalms 110:1-2): so we must (a) acknowledge His sovereignty (Matthew 28:18); (b) obey His laws (Luke 6:46; John 14:15); (c) submit to His penalties (Colossians 3:24-25). 2. How should we receive Him? (1) Penitently (Acts 2:36). (2) Willingly (Psalms 110:3). (3) Affectionately (Luke 14:26). (4) Constantly (Revelation 2:26). (5) Only (Acts 4:12). II. ARE THE SONS OF GOD. 1. In what sense? Not by generation, but regeneration (John 3:31). (1) Man lost the favour of God (Romans 5:19). (2) The Son undertakes his redemption (a) by becoming man; (b) by dying, whereby He purchases all believers to Himself, to be members of His body (1 Corinthians 6:20; Titus 2:14); (c) and so from Himself the dead conveys His own spirit unto them Titus 3:5-6). (3) The Spirit regenerates and makes them new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). (4) Being new creatures, they are received into the favour of God Romans 8:15), and made His sons (Romans 8:14). 2. With what privileges? (1) Privative. They are freed from the slavery of sin (Romans 6:14); from., slavish fears (Romans 8:15); from the curse of the law (Galatians In. 13). (2) Positive. (a) They have access to God (Galatians 4:6). (b) They are interested in God’ s providence (Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 6:18). (c) They rejoice in God (Philippians 4:4). (d) God rejoices over them (Zephaniah 3:17). (e) Their glorious inheritance is assured (Colossians 1:12; Colossians 1:18). (f) This inheritance is witnessed to them here (Romans 8:16-17), and sealed (Ephesians 4:30), whereof they now have the pledge (Ephesians 1:13-14). 3. How known? (1) By prayer (Galatians 4:6). (2) Obedience (1 Peter 1:14-15). (3) Parity (2 John 3:9). (4) Conformity to the Divine image (Romans 8:29). (5) Faith (Son 3:26). USES. 1. See the honour of believers. 2. Live like the sons of God. (1) By despising the world. (2) By patiently enduring all chastisements (Hebrews 12:6-9. (3) By longing to come to your inheritance in heaven (Psalms 42:1-2). (Bishop Beveridge.) Faith and its attendant privileges I. FAITH MAKES THE OF AMONG MEN. “ He came to His own, and His own received Him not” --that is one company; “ but as many as received Him” --that is another. 1. There are many distinctions among men--rich and poor, governors and governed, teachers and taught. But these will pass away. The grand distinction, which will out-last all time, is that of faith or the want of faith. 2. This distinguishing faith is (1) A receptive faith; one which accepts Christ by confiding, trusting, and depending on Him. (2) Faith in His name, as (a) The Word: receiving His messages from the Father. (b) The Life: receiving His vitality in spirit. (c) The Light: seeing all things in the light of Christ.. 3. This distinction is one which obliterates all others. If a chimney-sweep receives Christ, he is a child of God; so is an emperor--but not the one more than the other. II. FAITH OBTAINS THE OF ALL . “ Sons of God.” 1. There is a distinction here between son and servant. The believer ceases to be a slave, and becomes a child; and yet he becomes a servant. Christ was first His Father’ s Son, and then His servant; so we, being sons, have the joy of serving our Father. 2. We are also sons by likeness--miniatures, and sometimes caricatures, yet resemblances. 3. We are sons, in having the privilege of free access to our Father. III. FAITH IS THE OF THE . Every believer is a regenerate man. It is of no use to attempt to mend the old nature. A man brought his gun to be repaired. The gunsmith told him it wanted a new stock, lock, and barrel. That looked like making a new one. You must begin de novo. Baptism cannot regenerate; nor blood, the natural way of birth; nor man’ s carnal will, nor his best will; but God, who, as the Creator, newcreates the soul. IV. FAITH RAISES THE TO THE NOBLEST . He is fitted to be a child of God. 1. Notice the inconceivable honour. All others pale before it. 2. The safety. 3. The happiness. 4. The duties. There is an old French proverb which says, “ nobility obliges.” There is an obligation on nobles. If you are a son of God, you must act like one. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith is receiving It is the empty cup placed under the flowing stream; the penniless hand held out for the heavenly alms. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Sonship more than adoption The sonship is not effected in virtue of a mere act of adoption on the part of God. A child may be taken out of the family to which he originally belonged, and be planted in another; he may get a new name; he may be trained to forget that he had other birth; he may be made heir to great estates; he may be as dearly loved and as tenderly cared for as if he were own child to those who have adopted him: but the fact remains that he is really the child of another, and nature may prove too strong for the new bonds, and he may pine for his native home, and at length go back to it. The “ sons of God,” however, are sons by birth, for such is the significance of the word here used, having not only a new name and position, but also a new life. It is not simply that they are called sons; they are sons, partakers of the Divine nature, with a filial relationship, and a filial resemblance to the eternal God. The sonship is already established in fact and in principle, though it awaits its full manifestation hereafter (1 John 3:1-2). (J. Calross, D. D.) Comfort for the dying When Philip Melanchthon was dying, he said aloud and distinctly to his surrounding friends, “ I have those words of John concerning the Son of God, my Lord Jesus Christ, before me continually: ‘ The world received Him not; but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.’“ (R. Besser, D. D.) Receiving the light Suppose you were in a dark room in the morning, the shutters closed and fastened, and only as much light coming through the chinks as made you aware it was day outside. And suppose you could say to a companion with you, “ Let us open the windows, and let in the light.” What would you think if he replied, “ No, no; you must first put the darkness out, or the light will not enter” ? You would laugh at his absurdity. Just so we cannot put sin out of our hearts to prepare for Christ’ s entering; we must open and take Him in, and sin will flee; fling the window open at once, and let Christ shine in. (J. Edmond, D. D.) The honour of adoption I have heard of some fine gentleman in London, dressed in all his best, walking out in the park. He had a poor old father who lived in the country, add who came up dressed in his rustic raiment to see his son. As the son was not at home when the father reached the house, he went into the park to find him. Now the fine gentleman did not absolutely disown his father, but he went out of the park at a pretty sharp trot, for fear anybody should say, “ Who is that country fellow you were talking with?” He did not like to own his father, because he was a labourer. We could not thus wonder if the glorious Lord refused to own us. There is such a come-down from the loftiness of His holiness to the depth of our faultiness. But yet He has such love, such a manner of love, that He bestows upon as this honour, that we should be openly called the sons of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The treasure unreceived A nobleman once gave a celebrated actress a Bible, telling her at the same time that there was a treasure in it. She, thinking he meant religion, laid the Bible aside. She died, and all she had was sold. The person who bought the Bible, on turning over its leaves, found a £500 note in it. Poor creature! had she read the book, she might not only have found the note, but the “ pearl of great price.” (Sunday School Chronicle.) Christ must be received There is dew in one flower and not in another, because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself, and the drops run off. God rains His goodness and mercy as wide-spread as the dew, and if we lack them, it is because we will not open our hearts to receive them. (H. W. Beecher.) Believing is receiving Christ He comes to your door. He wants to get in. He knocks. He waits. Is not that wonderful? I was lately visiting that part of the country where our beloved Queen stays when she comes to Scotland. She visits among the poor. I saw some of the cottages to which she is in the habit of going. In the house of one of her servants I saw her own likeness, and the likenesses of several of her family--all gifts from themselves. You say, What kindness! what condescension! And so it is: But what would you think if I told you--what I am glad I cannot tell you, for it would not be true--that when they saw the Queen coming, they locked their doors and pretended to be out, and kept her standing knocking at the door, refusing to let her in, though she came to speak kindly to them and to do them good? You would say, Surely the people must not be in their right mind. And yet that is just what King Jesus does--Queen Vietoria’ s King. He comes to your door to bless you, to save you. He says, “ Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Most people keep Him out, and will not have anything to do with Him. They say, “ Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” Opening the door to Him, saying, “ Come in, Lord Jesus, come in” --taking Him to our heart, and only fearing lest He should ever go away again--is believing. The believing heart is the heart that has let in Jesus, and in which he dwells Ephesians 3:17). (J. H. Wilson.) Privileges of adoption By adoption, God gives us 1. A new name (Numbers 6:27; Revelation 3:12). 2. A new nature (2 Peter 1:4). Whom God adopts He anoints; whom He makes sons, He makes saints. 3. A new inheritance (Romans 8:17). When the Danish missionaries in India were translating a catechism, with some of the convetted natives by their side, and when they came to a part where it was said of Christians that they were the sons of God, one of the natives, startled at so bold a saying, as he thought it, said, “ It is too much; let us rather translate it: ‘ They shall be permitted to kiss His feet.’” Adoption and justification Justification is the act of God as a Judge, adoption as a Father. By the former we are discharged from condemnation, and accepted as righteous; by the latter, we are made the children of God and joint-heirs with Christ. By the one, we are taken into God’ s favour; by the other, into His family. Adoption may be looked upon as an appendage to justification, for it is by our being justified that we come to a right to all the honours and privileges of adoption. (Dr. Guyse.) Which were born Three great negations The children of God are born I. NOT OF BLOOD. Grace does not run on the lines of nature. Many beautiful and graceful things do come by gentle and noble blood, but not this. It needs a very narrow field of observation to convince us that no parent, however pious, can command the conversion of his children. Else why should there be in this world that bitterest spectacle of a pious parent’ s heart being broken by a wicked child! II. NOT OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH. The expression relates to any desire which, ruling in a man’ s mind, might be supposed to lead him to some act whereby he should become a child of God, and the idea is utterly repelled. Every one who is a subject of the grace of God is so first passively, that afterwards he may be so actively. He is first acted upon by a will and power without him, and then he acts out that will and manifests that power. III. Not of the will of man. Observe the steps. Not of parents, not of self, nor of any creature whatsoever. One man, indeed, may will the conversion of another; and if he clothe that will with prayer, if he offer that will with faith, and if he does all in his power to forward that will, God may give him that man’ s soul. But God never promises He will do this. A soul passes into the family of God and becomes an heir in the register of sons when he receives Christ, and only then. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) The three negations illustrated When it pleased God to bring Abraham and his family into covenant with Him, that family consisted of three classes of persons; first of all, there were his own children; secondly, there were those who were born of his men-servants and maid-servants; thirdly, there were those slaves, whom he purchased and adopted. All these three classes were admitted into covenant with God, by reason of their relation to Abraham. “ Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, and circumcised them” Genesis 17:23). Of these classes, Ishmael was born of blood, as being his own flesh and blood, as we say; those born of the flesh were the other children born in his house, not his own; and those born of the will of man were those who, having no right to his protection, being yet bought of his free will, acquired a right by purchase and adoption. To these three classes were the benefits of the first covenant confined.… The truth, which St. John here announces, is that to all who received the message of the Lord Jesus, all who believed on His Name and submitted to His ordinances, to all those He gave the same power, even to become sons of God Genesis 3:16-17; Romans 5:13). (G. Cornish.) The being born of blood and of God considered I. In their . II. In their essential . III. In their congenial . IV. In the OF THEIR UNION. (Lange.) The new, celestial, divine birth constitutes the true nobility of grace as contrasted with I. The aristocracy of BIRTH. II. The aristocracy of MONEY. III. The aristocracy of MERIT. IV. The aristocracy of FAME. (P. Schaff, D. D.) Not of blood The blood through which the chyle is distributed to the different parts of the body is the seat of life, hence the connection between child and parents is called blood relationship; and in classic usage also we have the expression “ to spring from the blood” --that is, from the seed of any one (Acts 17:26). (Tholuck.) Not of the will of man According to the teaching of some men, how is it? “ I am a minister of God--I am a man--as a man I may will to take a child and baptize it, and I may will to baptize it by a certain hour of the clock; and just as I am going to baptize it, I may will to put it off till to.morrow; and when to-morrow comes, I may will that I will not baptize that child at all--for if baptized, the child may die. And so, according to the caprice of my will, the child is baptized at this hour, or at that, to-day, or to-morrow, or it is not baptized at all; and therefore, following the caprice of my will, and just according to my will, the child is inevit ably a child of God at this time of the clock, or at that time of the clock--today, or to-morrow, or the next day, or never at all.” What, I ask, is this but to be “ born of the will of man” ? (J. Vaughan, M. A.) The simultaneity of faith and regeneration We must be careful that we do not interpet the words “ which were born” as if the new birth was a change which takes place in a man after he has believed in Christ, and is the next step after faith. Saving faith and regeneration are inseparable. The moment that a man really believes in Christ, however feebly, he is born of God. The weakness of his faith may make him unconscious of the change, just as a new-born infant knows little or nothing about itself. Bat where there is faith there is always new birth, and where there is no faith there is no regeneration. (Bishop Ryle.) The spirituality of religion This verse is most emphatically in the style of John. Never can he lose sight of the perfect spirituality of Jesus Christ’ s work. John shows the very religiousness of religion. Christianity is to him more than a history, more than an argument, more than a theology--it is a spiritual revelation to the spiritual nature of man. On the part of man it is to be not an attitude, but a life--the very mystery of his spirit, too subtle for analysis, too strong for repression, too divine to be tolerant of corruption. (J. Parker, D. D.) The higher generation The result of receiving Him remains to be explained. How could they become “ sons of God” ? The word which has been used (John 1:12) excludes the idea of adoption, and asserts the natural relation of child to father. The nation claimed this through its descent from Abraham. But they are Abraham’ s children who are of Abraham’ s faith. There is a higher generation, which is spiritual, while they thought only of the lower, which is physical. The condition is the submissive receptivity of the human spirit. The origin of life is “ not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (H. W. Watkins, D. D.) John 1:14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us The God-Man satisfying the desire of humanity I. THE DESIRE. The desire of a Saviour had attained its maturity in the period of universal decline which preceded the Advent. This desire was a prophecy of its own satisfaction because inspired, nourished and developed by the God to whom the heart addresses itself. A child is born called Jesus whose name announces all that He came to do. What do men say about Him? 1. That He is a fabulous symbol of that union of man with God realized in the development of reason. But if this be the case why has man desired one outside of his own reason? What meaning is there in the history of religions. 2. That He was a great social reformer. But His gospel is profoundly spiritual and traces all external reform to inward moral renovation. But is man’ s heart satisfied with the idea of a social reformer? Had Christ swept away every social abuse and satisfied every national need, the human heart would still have yearned for a Saviour. 3. That He was a philosopher, the Socrates of Jerusalem. But man does not need such. The ancient world had more than it required. It had the greatest and purest of sages, but found no rest in their schools. Man desires something higher, shall his Christ then be 4. A prophet? Prophets will not avail, for the greatest have most ardently desired a Saviour and were but men. 5. An angel? No, or Mary would have seen Him in Gabriel. Angels could celebrate His birth but not take His place. Turning now to the desire we shall see that man’ s cry has been for a God-Man. Two well-defined sentiments enter with it. 1. The hope of finding God. For this alone has man passed from one religion to another. (1) This God not the inert and isolated God of philosophy, lost in the solitudes of heaven: but (2) a living, present God. 2. The sorrow of condemnation. Man longs to appease a justly offended God. He therefore offers sacrifice, the produce of his fields, the first-born of his flocks, nay, his child, his brother. But it avails nothing. A sacrifice must be found that is both pure and human. For many ages man has sighed for an incarnation in order to redeeming sacrifice. This is what has been promised. Ancient prophecy recognized in the Messiah’ s person the man and the God, the Victim and the King. II. THE OF THE DESIRE. “ The Word was made flesh.” 1. What is this but that before He existed in God as a personal being. Had the Word been a Divine virtue or influence, it would had in it nothing special or distinctive, and therefore could have been no Saviour. Nor could it have communicated the knowledge of the true God. “ God is love.” A God who did not love would be a God dead. But how should God be from all eternity, a God of love, if He had no object for His love? Where, then, will you find this object if not in that Word which is God, and yet is distinct from Him. The Son gives as the Father. 2. He shows us the living nature of God’ s revelations. A perfect revelation of the living and eternal God is living and eternal as Himself: the express image of the Father. Each utterance has life like the Word Himself. God has spoken (1) In Eternity, and His Word is His only Son, (2) In Time, and Creation was the echo of the Word. (3) In Revelation, and each of the syllables of the Word was a fact of mystery. (4) In redemption and now the Word is made flesh. While giving full weight to His Divinity, let us not attenuate His humanity. The one is as necessary to our salvation as the other. By being Man and yet one with the Father, He was able to consummate on the cross His redeeming sacrifice, drawing the heart of man to God and the heart of God to man. III. THE PROOFS OF THIS . 1. The history of Jesus shows us Divinity and humanity united in His person. His personal humiliation from the manger to the cross side by side with the glory of His morals and perfect character. 2. Jesus was conscious of and professed His union. He speaks of Himself as the Son of Man and the Son of God; and insisted on His oneness with the Father. 3. The apostolic Church confirmed this doctrine, proclaiming His Divinity and worshipping Him. IV. THE OF THIS . Christianity stands or falls with it. 1. For whose sake do the impugners of the doctrine deny it? (1) For the sake of God? But the Deist gives us instead of the living, consummate God an abstract and distant Divinity. We don’ t know where to find Him, and He has never dried a single tear nor gladdened a heart. Thus God is libelled and His cause compromised. (2) For the sake of man? But man has desired this God-Man: He only has blessed the race. 2. If what the impugners say is true, Christianity is an imposture and Christ a deceiver. And yet He is admitted to be the noblest of Beings. Let these considerations be weighed. V. ARE WITH THIS . Let it not slumber in creeds, but be preserved in a living faith and communion. (E. dePressense, D. D.) Bethlehem and its good news 1. There was nothing great about Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). It was but a shepherd village or small town, yet here the great purpose of God became a fact. It is in facts that God’ s purposes come to us that we may take hold of them as realities. The city is poor, but its lowliness makes it more suitable as the birthplace of Him who though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. And all about it seems to suit Him. It is “ the house of bread,” fit dwelling for Him who is the Bread of God: Ephratah “ the fruitful,” as if pointing to the fruitful One. 2. It is not named in the text; but you cannot read the latter without being transported to it. 3. At Bethlehem our world’ s history began, for His birth has influenced all history, sacred and secular, before and behind. As regards our text, let us see I. WHAT IT IS. Christ, Immanuel, Jesus, are our Lord’ s names in time; but “ Word” and “ Son” are expressive of His eternal standing. The inaccessable Godhead becomes approachable, the incomprehensible, comprehensible. All the nations of the earth God hath made of one blood, and of that one blood the Word was made partaker. Thus Bethlehem becomes a link between heaven and earth. God and man must meet here and look each other in the face. II. WHAT IT TEACHES. God’ s thoughts of peace. The message is a decided but not a finished one. You must associate Bethlehem with Calvary. 1. Would you learn the way to God? Go to Bethlehem: the Infant in the manger is the way. 2. Would you learn the vanity of earth? Go to yon manger where the Lord of Glory lies. 3. Would you hays a safeguard against worldliness and sin and error? Keep the child’ s companionship. 4. Would you learn to be humble? Go to Bethlehem; there the Highest is lowest. 5. Would you learn self-denial? See the Word made flesh. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Why God became Man This Gospel contains no record of the Nativity like the others. They record the fact, this the underlying principle of the fact. Unless you take John’ s point of view, you cannot understand Luke’ s story. I. THE FACT ITSELF. Three things: 1. The Word: personal, eternal, Divine, the active energy of the Divine Nature. (1) The Author of creation. (2) The Source of all life and light. (3) The medium of all revelation. 2. With the audacity which is the true work of Divine revelation, the text draws together the two discordant ideas “ Word” and “ flesh” ; not this tremulous, feeble, mortal body with its needs, weaknesses, pains, desires, corruption, not the whole humanity, body, soul, spirit, the entire sweep and range of what a man is. 3. How He “ became” it; which involves the willing transformation, by the energy of the Person Himself. Became--not assumed. It was not a transcient manifestation such as the Buddhist incarnation or Hindoo avatar; not God coming down in the likeness of men for a moment or two; but so becoming us, He ceased to be the Word. So the living heart of Christianity is supernatural. That round which it turns is the biggest of all miracles, and if you take that all the rest is natural. II. THE VARIOUS WHICH THIS OF ALL SERVES IN THE WORLD. Here is a five-fold star, with five rays. 1. To show God. As the Shekinah glory abode in the Tabernacle, so God tabernacled in Christ’ s flesh. Christ shows God as He was never seen before, full of grace and truth. The mightiest and brightest light that makes God known, is that of gentleness, tenderness, self-oblivlon, patience. If you want to know God, and not to guess Him, not to shrink from Him, and not merely to see the fringe of brightness about the Infinite heart, you must turn away from everything else to Christ. 2. To show what man ought to be. How perfect Christ’ s example is we may gather from the admission of enemies, from our own hearts and consciences. Instead of being handed over to a mere law “ Do this and live,” it means “ Do as I do, because I love you and you love Me.” 3. That He might die. You cannot understand Christmas without Good Friday, the meaning of the cradle unless we see the shadow of the Cross. Christ came to bear our sins that we might be born again unto newness of life. 4. That He might have sympathy with us. He has trodden all the road before us, and is near us to help us on. 5. That manhood might be glorified. He has stooped down that thereby He might befit us to be like Him. Where He is, He will lead us. What He is, He will make us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The incarnation I. THE OF THE SON OF GOD PLAINLY . 1. THE PERSON . The Word, i.e, the second Person in the most glorious Godhead, called the Word, either because He is the Scope and principal Matter, both of prophetical and promissory Word; or because He expounds and reveals the mind and will of God to men (John 1:18). 2. THE NATURE ASSUMED flesh, i.e, the entire human nature, consisting of a true human soul and body (Romans 3:20; Genesis 6:12). The word flesh is rather used here than man, on purpose to enhance the admirable condescension and abasement of Christ; there being more of vileness, weakness, and opposition to Spirit in this word than in that, as is pertinently noted by some. Hence the whole nature is denominated by that part, and called flesh. 3. THE ITSELF. Not fuit, He was (as Socinus would render it, designing thereby to overthrow the existence of Christ’ s glorified body now in heaven) but factus est, it was made, i.e, He took or assumed the true human nature into the unity of His Divine Person, with all its integral parts and essential properties, and so was made or became a true and real Man by that assumption. The Apostle, speaking of the same act Hebrews 2:16), uses another word, fitly rendered “ He took on Him,” or He assumed: which assuming, though inchoative, it was the work of the whole Trinity, God the Father, in the Son, by the Spirit, forming or creating that nature; as if three sisters should make a garment betwixt them, which only one of them wears; yet terminative, it was the act of the Son only; it was He only that was made flesh. And when it is said, He was made flesh, misconceive not, as if there was a mutation of the Godhead into flesh; for this was performed, not by changing what He was, but by assuming what He was not. As when the Scripture, in a like expression, saith, He was made sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), and made a curse Galatians 3:13), the meaning is not that He was turned into sin, or into a curse; no more may we think here the Godhead was turned into flesh, and lost its own Being and nature, because it is said He was made flesh. II. THIS . He dwelt among us, and we saw His glory. This was no phantasm, but a most real and dubitable thing. For He pitched His tent or tabernacled with us. And we are eye-witnesses 1 John 1:1-3). (J. Flavel.) . The Incarnation I. CHRIST’ S . He took the whole nature of man. 1. That He might suffer. 2. That He might obey the law of God in the nature that had broken the Law. 3. That He might die. He could not have died without a body. He could not suffer death while in His Father’ s bosom. 4. That He might sympathise with men (Hebrews 2:17). II. CHRIST’ S . “ He tabernacled,” as in a tent. He lived on earth for a time, just as a man might live. The word is used particularly 1. As a reference to the tabernacle of old. This was a meeting place between God and His people. Such was Christ. Through Him a just God can meet the sinner. 2. It intimates His condition. A tent is an inferior dwelling to a house or a palace. Christ went about from place to place, and had not where to lay His head. He was dependent upon others for His rest and food. 3. It sanctifies affliction. No one need be ashamed of his poverty, since Christ was poor. III. CHRIST’ S GLORY. Amid all His humiliation, His glory burst forth and manifested itself--“ We beheld,” etc. Clad as our Saviour was in the garments of a man, it was impossible entirely to veil His higher nature. Neither was it advisable. It was necessary that the world should know that He was God. His Divine glory was constantly manifesting itself--when the star led the wise men--when He taught the doctors in the Temple--when He healed the sick and raised the dead. But the chief glory was only visible to spiritual eyes. 1. Divine wisdom. The world considered His wisdom to be folly. It was not His outward manifestation, not His miracles or acts, but the plan of salvation, and the scheme He accomplished when He said, “ It is finished.” 2. Divine love. There is more glory in the love of God than in all the universe of material creation. This can only be discerned by the eye of faith. When a sinner is brought to find peace, he realises the glory of Christ. We have seen. Have you seen? IV. CHRIST’ S FULNESS. “ Full of grace and truth.” Hence His glory need not deter us from coming to Him. 1. Full of grace, i.e, He is easy to approach, merciful, loving, gracious, in aspect and nature. 2. Full of truth. Himself the truth. Hence we have a firm foundation for our faith. All Christ does is true. His pardon is a true pardon. His promises are true, etc. (Preacher’ s Analyist.) . The necessity of the Incarnation I. THAT MAN MAY POSSESS A FULL AND OF GOD’ S . Jesus became a medium through whom the dazzling attributes of Deity were modified, and a focus in whom the infinite perfections of Diety were centred. II. THAT THERE MAY BE A PERFECT EXAMPLE. Precept will often fail, when example will succeed. Christ was made like His brethren that they might be stimulated to be like God. III. THAT AN MAY BE MADE FOR SIN, AND MAN TO GOD. IV. THAT MANY MAY HAVE A AND at the right hand of God. Conclusion: Jesus is a perfect Saviour--perfect in His power to save, being able to save to the uttermost; perfect in His willingness to save, declaring that whosoever cometh unto Him, He will in no wise cast out; perfect in His sympathy, knowing our frame, remembering that we are dust, and declaring that He will carry the lambs in His arm, and deal with peculiar kindness with those in special trials; perfect in His wisdom, knowing His sheep and knowing the way that they take; perfect in His faithfulness, being the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and promising never to leave nor forsake His own disciples. He is a perfect Saviour because in Him dwelt and dwells the fulness of the Godhead. (J. H.Hitchens, D. D.) The purpose of the Incarnation I. THE WHO WAS MADE FLESH. 1.The Word partakes of the same nature and perfections as the Father and Spirit. (1) Eternity (Micah 5:2). (2) Omniscience (John 21:17). (3) Omnipresence (Matthew 28:20). (4) Immutability (Hebrews 13:8). 2. This dignified Person was made flesh. (1) He had a true body, not merely the appearance of one. (2) He had a reasonable soul. (3) All the Persons of the Trinity were concerned in His Incarnation. The Father prepared His body; the Spirit formed it; the Son assumed it. 3. He dwelt among us (1) Performing the most astonishing miracles; (2) Preaching the most interesting truths; (3) Living the most holy life. II. SOME REASONS WHY THE SAVIOUR BECAME . 1. That ancient prophecy might be fulfilled (Genesis 3:15; Deuteronomy 18:15; Isaiah 9:6; etc.). 2. That the glorious perfections of Deity might be displayed--the glory of God’ s infinite wisdom, almighty power, unspotted purity, inflexible justice, boundless compassion, inviolable truth. Hence angels and men combine in singing “ Glory to God in the highest.” 3. That captive sinners might be redeemed. (1) By nature man is a spiritual slave. (2) Christ became incarnate to redeem him from (a) Sin. “ Sin shall have no more dominion, etc.” (b) Satan. “ The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet.” (c) The world. “ This is the victory, etc.” (d) Wrath. “ Who hath delivered us from the wrath to come.” (3) Jesus redeems us by His blood (1 Peter 1:18-19). (4) In the day of conversion, the believer experiences His redemption. (5) Christ redeems us to His image, His grace, His heaven (Psalms 86:11). 4. That the righteous law of heaven might be honoured. 5. That the empire of Satan might be ruined. 6. That the gates of paradise might be opened. We learn the amazing condescension of the Saviour. Consider (1) From whence He came; (2) To whom; (3) The circumstances in which; (4) Why. (T. Lewis.) The double Incarnation; or, the soul’ s Christmas (text in conjunction with Ephesians 3:17):--There are two births of Christ--one unto the world, the other into the soul. Men think more of the former than of the latter and celebrate it every year; but the latter is equally momentous. The soul has its births; the rising into conscious existence of every latent sentiment, filial, connubial, parental, Christian. I. THE ANALOGY between those two Incarnations. 1. Both result from Divine interposition. 2. Both create great epochs; the temporal advent was the crisis of history. The B.C. meets in it, the A.D. starts from it. And from the Spiritual advent all after life takes its date and derives its impulse. 3. Both awaken antagonism, the former Herod’ s hostility, etc., the latter that of the depraved nature. 4. Both are manifestations of God. II. THE . 1. The one may become a curse to man, the other must be a blessing. Nothing so terrible to a lost soul as the former. It aggravates the world’ s guilt and augments its responsibility. The latter brings sunshine to the soul and ever advancing blessedness. 2. The one occurred without man’ s choice, the other requires his seeking. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The great birthday Christmas day is the greatest birthday of the year. I. It is THE OF CHRIST. The greatest man, teacher, benefactor, but immeasurably more than this. Men have misconceived and misstated the Incarnation; that two persons were united in Christ instead of two natures in His single person; that the infinite Being was confined within the finate nature which He assumed; that God ceased to be really Himself; that human nature was annihilated by its union with Deity. It was inevitable that the possibility of the Incarnation should be questioned; but what is man but a sample, at an immeasurably lower level of a union of two totally different substances, one material, the other immaterial, under the control of a single human personality? As the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ. And He who could bring together matter and Spirit in man might surely raise both matter and spirit to union with His own Divinity under the control of His eternal Person. But what moved God to unite Himself with a creative form? Is not such an innovation on the association, if not on the conditions of His Eternal Being? Yes, but so was Creation, and Creation involved possibilities which led to much else beyond. It involved the possibility of the fall. And then as God must have created out of love, so out of love He must bring a remedy to the ruined creature. Of other remedies nothing has been told us, but we know that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. II. THE OF HUMAN . Man has alternately depreciated and exaggerated His importance. Just now the deprivatory account is the popular one. It is no longer possible; we are reminded to think of this earth as the centre for whose benefit all else exists. It is only a small satellite of the sun while the sun is but one of thousands of stars which are moving round some undiscovered centre. The insignificance of man’ s dwelling-place involves its own insignificance. And this impression is deepened by the vicissitudes to which men are exposed, and the cheapness of human life. But apart from Christianity nature also opens out another side to the matter. When we look at any one man, however feeble and worthless, we become conscious of his having some title to a profound and anxious interest. Here is a man who, before he became a criminal, threaded his way unnoticed through the crowd; but put upon his trial for his life he becomes a centre of universal interest. Why, if he is only an animal, should the question of his life be followed more anxiously than that of an ox or a sheep? Men are thus moved because a destiny is being weighed in the balance and at such moments the depreciatory theory of man’ s nature and origin gives way. The poor prisoner in the dock represents the ineffaceable, indestructible greatness of man. Still men’ s judgment about himself rises and falls with the varying circumstances of his life and modes of his mind. Left to himself he has no solid ground of confidence in any estimate he may form. To discover the greatness of his need and capacities, he requires some standard utterly independent of himself. Such he finds in the Incarnation which, uniting, his nature to that of the Being who made Him, restores to man his self-respect, and makes him feel his moral poverty without God and his utter dependence upon Him. Think of our Lord’ s life from this point of view, of putting such high and exceptional honour on our nature. The moral beauty of which mankind is capable appeared in Jesus as it never appeared before or since. But we can only surrender ourselves to its power when we admit that it is the life of the Word made flesh. A man might have uttered the Beatitudes, but as mere man, being modest and truthful, could have said, “ I and my Father are one.” All, however, fall into place if He is the God-Man. Embrace this truth and it is not hard to understand how His death on Calvary availed for the world’ s redemption. Nor does it matter that His life was lived on a small planet. Since the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, the vastest stars and suns have no more claim, on account of their size, to His regard. When He became man to elevate and redeem the human family He chose the scene where the Divine work would be best achieved. III. THE OF HUMAN . At the manger of Bethlehem we may dare to look forward to that union of human love, of human hearts, of which the noblest of our race have ever dreamed, a brotherhood sometimes recommended as abstract argument, sometimes dictated by revolutionary terrorism, but which, to be genuine, must be a perfectly free movement of human hearts and wills drawn towards each other by supreme attraction. That attraction we find in the Divine child of Bethlehem, born that He might regenerate the world, and all the courtesies and kindnesses of Christmas between families, households, rich and poor, old and young, are rightly done in His honour who came to unite us to each other in union with Himself. (Canon Liddon.) The relation of the Incarnation to modern problems I. THE OF GOD. The soundest, shortest argument for the Being of God is Christ. God is in nature; but nature is dumb. “ No speech, no language, their voice is not heard.” But in the Word God has spoken. The Incarnation teaches Theism by teaching us more than Theism. God is something more than the constructor of this curious clock. What comfort do we get from the conception of an infinite brain? Add the Incarnation to Theism and we have peace, “ Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” But does not my own nature teach me that God is good? Yes, but Christ corroborates the testimony of our moral nature. The avatars of India and the Apotheoses of Greece are only efforts of the mind to anticipate this great doctrine of Christianity. The sense of guilt and longing for reconciliation may have produced these myths. But that does not prove that the subjective state was a superstition. The ability to appeal to the historic facts concerning the life of our Lord is the strongest confirmation of the truth of our religious instincts. We can proceed by way of philosophy and prove our need of a Saviour, and by way of history prove the fact of a Saviour who reveals the nature and fatherhood of God. II. TO THE THOUGHT OF THE AGE. That is marked by a tone of serious, disheartened scepticism. Yet the Positivist tries to keep his religion after he has denied his God. What he teaches as a substitute for the Gospel is taught by the Gospel itself, is the only form in which it is worthy of a moment’ s consideration. If he would worship an ideal humanity, he must take Christ. If he would see an example of “ altruism” he must take Christ’ s atonement. But infidelity must go back to Christ or forward to despair. When a man has discarded the eternal hope in Christ it is not strange that he should ask “ Is life worth living?” Christ or Pessimism, the gospel of hope or the gospel of despair, salvation or suicide are the sharp antitheses presented by modern thought. III. TO . Applying to Scripture the argument of design, we conclude that it was constructed on a plan which must have existed in a single mind before it was executed in the progressive publication of the separate books. The Incarnation gives to the Bible its unity. The Old Testament is a congruous body of doctrine culminating in Christ; the New Testament is a coherent body of doctrine culminating around the Person of Christ. The doctrine is woven in the very texture of the sacred books. How did this happen? The advanced thinkers will not ask us to believe that organisms grow by chance. The intelligence that built the world, made the Bible. IV. TO THE OF GRACE. The paradox of the Bible is the severity with which God looks on sin, and the tenderness with which He regards the sinner. Is there any way in which this dual relationship can be brought into conspicuous pre-eminence? Yes; the Incarnation is God’ s testimony to His love for man and to His respect for law. He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The atonement is therefore based upon the Incarnation. Advanced thought a short time since founded the hope of the universal forgiveness on the fatherhood of God. Now it preaches that man is under law to an extent which makes it idle to speak of forgiveness. Sin and suffering are inseparable, they say, and thus those who preached a gospel of love without law, now preach a gospel of law without love. Liberalism does not know how to reconcile these ideas, and by rejecting the Incarnation has rejected the only method of reconciliation. V. TO . A man may be a Christian who does not accept all the doctrines of the creeds. It is equally clear that a man who denies all cannot be invited to the Lord’ s table. Where then shall we draw the line? Here. The acceptance of this doctrine draws towards Christ; its rejection separates from Him by an impassable gulf? The man who worships the Lord Jesus as God, and gives Him the homage of his heart is a Christian, although he may not accept the Athanasian statement. The same principle determines our relations with Romanism. It is not necessary to abate any of our antipathy to her errors, but a church must not be refused a place in Christendom which holds the Incarnation and related doctrines. VI. TO THE OF . Any religion which is to take permanent hold upon the world must offer a theory of the universe and tell me whence I am and whither I am going; must prescribe a code and teach morality; must stir the emotions and take hold of the heart; Christianity unites these three ideas in the Incarnation. VII. TO LIFE. The incarnate life of Christ stands in close relation to the development of Christian character. That development is gradual, and is concurrent with the study of Christ. And to study Him is to know that He is Divine. If we study the great principles which constitute His doctrine we hear the voice of one who spake as never man spake. So comprehensively, so minutely, so influentially. If we study His example there is that which proclaims His Divine perfections; and yet His human, helpful, imitable brotherhood. VIII. TO WORK IN TO THE OF THE WORLD. The book of Acts is the second volume of the life of Christ, the first being an account of all Jesus “ began.” The Incarnation, then, was but the beginning of a great career which is still in progress. It is Christ who is still doing the evangelization of the world. This is the only true basis of missionary confidence, and the continuously fulfilling prophecy of the final victory. IX. TO MAN’ S PLACE IS THE SCALE OF BEING: correcting the depreciation of man by science and the exaggerated dignity conferred upon him by Pantheism. He is neither an insignificant atom nor God. The Incarnation shows his reconciliation, not identity with God, and his glorious and elect creatureship. X. TO THE OF GOD. We know not what we shall be, but we know that we shall be like Him. And He is the same to day, yesterday, and for ever. The perpetuity of Christ’ s human nature is the guarantee of an immortalized personality° And our individual interest in Jesus will not prevent us sharing the enthusiasm we may rightly feel concerning the destiny of His Church. The marriage of God and man eighteen hundred years ago is but the prophecy of a day when the bells of heaven shall ring in the nuptials of a ransomed Church with her royal spouse. (Prof. Patton.) An argument for the Incarnation Millions throughout the world hail the annual return of Christmas not because of its festivities, but because it commemorates the birth of Jesus. Class Jesus, as some do, with Plato and Shakespeare, and He would receive no more honour than they. This exuberance of feeling is due to the belief that He is divine. Whence does this belief spring? From the Scriptures. But all people do not accept the Bible; we have therefore to move along other lines of argument. And Christians may find their faith strengthened by finding the conclusions reached by the Bible arrived at by other roads. I. AN OF GOD IS NOT . No doubt it involves a miracle. The process by which the two natures were united in one person is wholly mysterious. But so is that by which spirit and matter, mind and body combine in man. But if the one is not impossible, why the ether? We are not now dealing with the limited powers of men but with the omnipotence of God; and what the Almighty chooses in His wisdom to do, even if it be to assume a human form, He can do. II. AN OF GOD IS NOT . 1. It has always been expected and desired, and the expectation has been expressed in every possible way--in fable, philosophy, religion. 2. This instinct is natural. Man cannot be satisfied with the manifestations of God in nature. They leave the soul with vague, restless desires after a more perfect acquaintance. At best they give a God for philosophers, for the intellect, not one who has influence over life, moulding and fashioning the heart. 3. These two facts point to an incarnation. For who created the desire? God Himself. And shall He who creates the capacity leave it unsatisfied? III. THE AND CONDUCT OF CHRIST CAN ONLY BE ON THE GROUND THAT HE, THE WORD MADE FLESH, IS THE FOR THIS DESIRE. You cannot understand the account of His life unless you recognize His Godhead and manhood. 1. He is the only perfect Man who has ever trod this earth. This is the confession of friends and foes of His own day and ours. How is this to be accounted for? Not by surrounding influences. There was nothing in His age, home, or contemporaries calculated to produce a perfect man. 2. All His actions and words are in harmony with the idea that He was the Word made flesh. His wonderful birth is succeeded by a wonderful life. (W. Braden.) The relations of the Incarnation I. The Incarnation in relation to MAN. 1. It shows the dignity of the human body. The material part of our nature has been maligned in every age; but ever since the incarnation it has been respected more and more. “ Matter is essentially evil,” said the Greek philosopher. “ Whoso layeth his hand on a human body toucheth heaven,” said Novalis and Carlyle. The incarnation took place between these utterances. 2. It shows the dignity of the human soul in the human body--of human nature in its totality. 3. Linking man to God it removed the antithesis between them. Something more was requisite to remove the antagonism, even the atonement. Prior to the Incarnation a wide gap divided the Creator from His creation, but the Incarnation filled it up, and did away with the antithesis. There is now not a single break in the chain of existence. From the tiniest atom to Absolute Being there is one continuous ascent. II. The Incarnation in relation to GOD. It is a revelation of God. 1. It reveals the plurality of persons in the Divine essence. This truth is the exclusive property of the Church of the New Testament because the Incarnation is its exclusive property. The Holy Trinity existed previously, and dim prefigurations of the doctrine are noticeable in the Old Testament. But the doctrine would never have been fully apprehended but for the historic reality. 2. The Incarnation reveals the Fatherhood of God. “ The glory as of the only Begotten.” Deny the Incarnation and you deny the deepest Divine Fatherhood. It reveals the intrinsic Fatherhood. It shows us a Son, not by creation in time, but by generation in eternity, and consequently shows us a Father, not in virtue of His creative, but of His generative energies. By the side of this all other fatherhoods are types and figures. 3. The Incarnation reveals the redeeming character of God. Deny the Incarnation, and you have no positive proof of the Divine love; believe it, and you can never desire a higher proof. He gave His only begotten son; what more could He do? (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The significance of the Incarnation There was an end sought; by what means should it be reached? There was a tremendous necessity; how should it be met? There was an infinitely gracious wonder to be wrought; in what wondrous way should it be accomplished? This was the problem. Conjectures as to its solution only serve to show that the way taken was the only way. 1. Almighty compulsion would have crushed human freedom, put human virtue aside, turned grace into magic. 2. Moral influence or persuasion would have left man’ s past disobedience uncancelled, the sanctities of law despised, authority abolished by Him in whom it was established. At best there would have been an invertebrate manhood, a molluscous morality. 3. Voices of audible command or promise spoken perpetually from heaven to earth would have formed a revelation as grotesque as ineffectual. 4. Written communications must have been subject to manifold hindrances and limitations as an agency of salvation, as was shown when they were actually employed. 5. A redemption by sacrifice must depend on the value of the victim sacrificed; human sacrifices would contravene all the teachings of the Divine economy touching the sanctity of human life, and of the insufficiency of the sacrifice of brutes, apart from their typical sense, the religious history of the world affords abundant evidence. We look, then, as we are bidden to look, for the reuniting power between God and man, to the Word made flesh and dwelling among us. I. This appears in THE TWOFOLD FORM OF A FACT AND A PERSON, both being far more conclusive than any course of abstract reasoning in theodicy, or any theological demonstration. The fact and the person both take their place in the public scenery of events, in inspired Scriptures, in general history, in a line of great transactions inexplicable without them; and they have become imbedded in the experience and enshrined in the reverent and loving faith of millions of men through fifty generations. What is this fact? The life of God appears on the earth not only harmonized, but perfectly blended with the life of man. Humanity begins again with a possibility and offer of a restoration which is salvation to all who will receive it. As the life of God is in Christ, we share in it by being united to Christ. He took our human nature. The Divine nature or life was not naturally ours--it was lost. We become “ partakers” of it. Each individual believer in this covenant of grace, lives eternally. Abiding in the vine, the branch lives, grows, bears fruit. Here is the certainty of immortality. II. THE OF THE , THEN, TO THE BODY OF is not difficult to be determined. 1. It is the comprehensive truth of revelation. We may take any article of the Christian creed, except those which affirm or imply the unity of God and the natural depravity of men, and attempt to separate it from this supreme and central fact, and we fail. 2. As the doctrine is comprehensive, so it is distinctive. In the ancient ethnic religions, in the Gnostic theosophies and emanations of the East, as in modern Deism, Pantheism, and Positivism, there is nothing that can be mistaken for it. III. THE OR THE FACT HOLDS A LIKE CENTRAL AND IN HOLY . There is a unity in the sacred writings, and that unity is the person of the Incarnate Word. The development of the kingdom of God among mankind follows naturally a historical method; and so Genesis comes first, with much afterwards, in the preparatory dispensations, before the birth of the Saviour. But the real “ beginning,” or genesis, is given in the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John. From that radiant dayspring the light is reflected back to Eden, and shines forward to the Apocalypse. By this reading, innumerable difficulties, which have given superfluous trouble, disappear. The parts take their due proportions. IV. LOOKING ONWARD, WITH THIS WARRANT, FROM OUR LORD’ S , WE SEE THE OF HIS KINGDOM as it is set up among the nations and expands along the ages. Christ not only watches His family from above, He dwells and works within it. His family is His body, and His body is His bride, and His bride is His Church; and He lives in the members. What began in the past eternity proceeds in the eternity to come, and to “ the Word” there is but one eternity. We see our calling. What an inheritance! What privilege! What responsibilities! (Bp. Huntington.) Why was the Incarnation delayed Inasmuch as God is unchangeable, and the love exhibited in Bethlehem was in Him from days of old, I make bold to affirm that He embraced the first opportunity to work out the redemption of the race. What would be the use of sending earlier when the world was not prepared to receive Him? Jesus Christ is the joint product of heaven and earth; He is God and Man; hence the necessity for both to be ready. God was ready, the Son was ready. The earth was not ready. He had to wait till humanity should be ready. The mind of man had to be prepared. Were it a mere question of love or power, He could have been sent earlier; but as it was also a question of wisdom, He must not be sent at a period likely to defeat the end in view. God could not travel faster than the conditions of humanity admitted. He must suit His pace to the tottering steps of man. It took God longer time, perhaps greater pains, to beget Christ in the human mind than to beget Him in the Virgin’ s womb. Four thousand years were needed to accomplish the former; but the instant it was brought to pass, “ God sent forth His Son into the world, made of a woman, made under the law.” (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The difference between the Christian and the heathen incarnations The Greek popular incarnations were, in the main, personifications of natural phenomena. When the court of Olympus was constituted, the conviction--universal among the Indo-European peoples--that the gods could not be strangers to men, made it natural to believe that they came down to earth from time to time. Aristotle’ s and Plato’ s triads, again were simply psychological. These philosophers resolved the unity of the human personality into a triad of principles. The Hindu Trimurtti is a classification for religious purposes of the great natural processes of creation, preservation, and destruction; and the thought of incarnation is easily linked to the idea of Vishnu, as the Preserver uses the agency of heroes or great men to deliver the race from evils by which it would otherwise be overwhelmed. The Scripture Trinity, on the other hand, is a special revelation concerning the constitution of the Divine nature. The Incarnation is based upon the ultimate fact that God is love. If we regard Christianity as a philosophy, the doctrine of the Incarnation is its essence. If we regard Christianity, practically, as salvation for fallen man, the Incarnation is the secret of its exhaustless Divine power. (Principal Grant.) Voluntary sympathy One of the secrets of Victor Hugo’ s power over the French people was their memory of the following: When the disasters of the Franco-German war were falling thickly, and the iron band was closing round Paris, word came that Victor Hugo was coming to the city. He came at the very moment that the investment was complete, with the last train, the last breath of free air. On the way he had seen the Bavarians, seen villages burned with petroleum, and he came to imprison himself in Paris. A memorable ovation was given him by the people, and they never forgot his voluntary sharing of their sufferings. (H. O. Mackey.) Christ clothed in human flesh The pure Godhead is terrible to behold; we could not see it and live; but clothing Himself with our flesh, makes the Divine nature more amiable and delightful to us. Now we need not be afraid to look upon God, seeing Him through Christ’ s human nature. It was a custom of old among the shepherds, they were wont to clothe themselves with sheep-skins, to be more pleasing to the sheep; so Christ clothed Himself with our flesh, that the Divine nature may be more pleasing to us. The human nature is a glass, through which we may see the love and wisdom and glory of God clearly represented to us. Through the lantern of Christ’ s humanity, we may behold the light of the Deity shining. God incarnate “ Christ did not gain one perfection more by becoming man, nor could He lose anything of what He possessed as God. The almightiness of God now moved in a human arm; the infinite love of God now beat in a human heart; the unbounded compassion of God to sinners now glistened in a human eye; God was love before; but Christ was now love, covered over with flesh.” (R. M’ Cheyne.) The grand purpose of the Incarnation Christ came down to the tabernacle of our nature which had broken down and become a ruin, and to raise it up and repair it, making it fit for the habitation of God by His own indwelling. (W. Denton, M. A.) The ideal fitness of the Incarnation The Incarnation is not true, say the Unitarians. Then it is a great pity; certainly it deserves to be true. Deny it, and the universe loses its unity and integrity; it is despoiled of much of its grandeur and poetry. According to the orthodox view a continuous path stretches from the smallest particle of matter at the very bottom of creation right up and away to the sublimest heights of the Absolute and Unconditioned--all things gathered together in one in Christ, What a grand unity! The two hemispheres of being, the Infinite and finite, wedded in one glorious orb, which is now the “ Light of the World!” In this sublime unity, effected in the Incarnation, is contained the fundamental truth of Pantheism without the grave and multiform errors thereof. Here the advocates of Pantheism will find all they want, the two factors, Infinite and finite, reduced into one. Instead of a God evolving the creation out of Himself, here is a God involving Himself in the creation. Instead of the doctrine of evolution, the one developing into the many, here is the doctrine of involution, the many gathered together in the one. The Unitarian doctrine, because ever confronted with a duality of being, belittles the creation, despoils it of its grandeur and divineness; and its meagreness and poverty are a testimony against its truth. What advantage, then, hath the orthodox faith? or what profit is there of the Incarnation? Much every way. It dignifies the human body, demonstrates the potentiality of human nature, and reduces the duality of being, finite and Infinite, into an adorable unity in the indivisible person of the blessed Saviour. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The beneficent inspirations of the Incarnation It is often thrown in the face of believers in the Incarnation that we paint human nature in colours too black, that we recklessly and unduly disparage this creature of God. But surely they who fling this taunt in our face know not whereof they speak. True, we do cherish very humble views of it; but humble views are not low views. How can we, who believe the Godhead has found room enough in it to dwell in all His inexhaustible fulness, think low of it? The Incarnation shows us its grand potentialities, and throws upon it a thousandfold stronger light than Unitarlanism possibly can. Believers in the Incarnation, therefore, burn with a quenchless desire to go and rescue poor, down-trodden, despised human nature in lands afar off. Only faith in the Incarnation can create missionaries. You demand a proof: I appeal to the story of missionary enterprise. Where is the roll of the missionaries of Unitarianism? “ By their fruit ye shall know them” --systems as well as men, faiths as well as trees. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Lessons of the Incarnation The Incarnation of God in human form involves or foreshadows all the great truths of redemption. It teaches or implies I. THAT THE OF MAN IS A FEARFUL AND EVEN ONE. If sin were a trivial affair God would not have so humbled Himself. II. THAT GOD IN HIS LOVE HAS SENT . Nature does not disclose this manifestation of love. Christ incarnate shows that God has a place in His heart for the guiltiest of men. III. THAT THE GOD-MAN WAS WILLING TO SUFFER FOR OUR . God’ s beneficence has in it heart-sorrow and willingness to endure grief for love’ s sake. God gave His Son, but that Son was one in heart and mind with Himself. The hand that Jesus reaches down to rescue man is the hand of the Almighty. The stormy ages will be calmed only because a Divine voice has said “ Peace be still.” The theology taught by the Incarnation is the world’ s hope. (J. H. Barrows, D. D.) . The Hypostatic Union I. ITS NATURE. There are three illustrious unions m Scripture. 1. That of three Persons in one God: essentially. 2. That of two distinct natures and persons by one spirit: mystically. 3. This of two distinct natures in one Person: hypostatically. For the more distinct management of this latter I shall speak of it 1. Negatively. When Christ assumed our nature it was (1) Not united consubstantially as the Three Persons in the Godhead are united. They have but one and the same nature and will; but in Christ there are two natures and wills. (2) Nor physically as soul and body are united. Death dissolves that, but this is indissoluble. (3) Nor mystically, as Christ is united to believers; for they are not one person with Him. 2. Positively. The human nature was united to the Divine. (1) Miraculously (Luke 1:34-35); which was necessary to exempt the assumed human nature from Adam’ s sin (Luke 1:15). For God can have no fellowship with sin, and had Christ been a sinner He could not have satisfied for the sins of others (Hebrews 7:26). (2) Integrally. Christ took a complete and perfect soul and body that He might heal the whole nature of that sin which had infected every member and faculty. (3) With all its sinless infirmities (Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 4:15). (4) So that each nature retains its own essential properties distinct, and the two understandings, wills, powers, etc., the human and the Divine are not confounded as Eutyches held. (5) Inseparably. Although Christ’ s soul and body were divided at death, yet neither of them from the Divine nature. II. ITS EFFECTS. 1. By virtue of this union the properties of each nature are attributed to and agree in the whole Person; so that the Lord of glory was crucified (1 Corinthians 2:8), the blood of God redeemed the Church (Acts 20:28), and Christ is both in heaven and on earth (John 3:13). Yet the properties of our nature are not imparted to the other, nor is it proper to say that the Divine nature suffered, or that the human was omniscient. But the properties of both natures are so ascribed to the one Person that it is |proper to affirm any of them of Him in the concrete, though not abstractedly. 2. The singular advancement of Christ’ s human nature, it being hereby replenished with an unparalleled measure of Divine graces (Psalms 45:8), and so He becomes the object of worship (Acts 7:59). 3. The concourse and co-operation of each nature to His mediatory works, for in them He acts according to both natures. The human doing what is human, suffering, dying, etc.; the Divine stamping all with infinite value 2 Corinthians 5:19; Hebrews 9:14-15). III. ITS GROUNDS AND REASONS. 1. The Divine did not assume the human necessarily but voluntarily; not out of indigence, but bounty; not because it was to be perfected by it, but to perfect it. 2. And so consequently to qualify and prepare Him for a full discharge of His Mediatorship. (1) As prophet; for as God He knows the mind and will of God (John 1:18; John 3:13); as man He is fitted to impart it to us (Deuteronomy 18:15 - Acts 3:22). (2) As priest; had He not been man He could have shed no blood; and if not God it had been no value, for us (Hebrews 2:17; Acts 20:28). (3) As king, had He not been man He had been heterogeneous, and so no fit head for us, and if not God He could not rule or defend His body the Church. IV. Its uses. 1. Let Christians inform themselves of this momentous trust, and hold it fast against subtle adversaries. 2. Adore the love of the Father and the Son who devised this method for your recovery (Philippians 2:7; John 3:16; Hebrews 2:16). 3. Infinite wisdom has here left an everlasting mark. 4. Infer the incomparable sweetness of Christianity that shows such a foundation for the sinner’ s hope. 5. Union with our natures is utterly vain without union with our persons. 6. If Jesus Christ has assumed our nature, then He is touched with and has pity for our infirmities (Hebrews 2:17-18). 7. See to what a height God intends to build up the happiness of man in that He has laid the foundation so deep in the Incarnation of His Son. 8. How wonderful a comfort is it that He who dwells in our flesh is God. (J. Flavel.) The Word made flesh I. THE NAME BY WHICH OUR LORD IS . 1. He was known by this name in the Jewish Church long before His advent. 2. He is so called because He comes forth from God like a word, a revealing medium from us. II. THE ORDER OF GOD’ S TOWARDS US. This is the mighty Being by whom the world and man was made. After man had fallen He might have refused to repair the injury. But the new creation was to proceed from the same hand as the first. 1. The unsearchable love which showed itself at the beginning brought Him down again from His Father’ s bosom. 2. With wonderful condescension He came not as before in power and majesty, but in weakness and shame, in the likeness of the fallen creature whom it was His purpose to restore. III. THE as a mark of love and tenderness HAS ABOUT IT and affecting to the heart. To have taken the nature of angels--to have appeared on earth in the pomp of majesty had been a humiliation. IV. BUT IT WAS IN THE FORM OF MAN THAT GOD’ S COMMAND HAD BEEN , AND CHRIST ASSUMED IT. 1. It might be inconsistent with the good of the denizens of the unseen world if their disobedience had been left unpunished. And yet, on the other hand, there was the love of God to His creatures. How reconcile justice and mercy? Thus the perfect obedience of the Second Adam atoned for the offence of the first and of His descendants. 2. But how merit this? For all creatures owe this obedience, even unfallen angels. In the Son of God alone could the necessary merit be found. 3. Wherefore when mediator there was none God answered for us: “ a body hast Thou prepared Me,” etc. 4. But men required something more, something to show them how to live and to make themselves ready for their pure inheritance. Therefore to furnish an example the Word was made flesh. V. JEHOVAH IS AWFUL IN HIS PURITY, BUT THAT WE MIGHT HAVE COURAGE TO HIM the Word was made flesh. VI. WE WANT IN OUR , , AND SORROWS; therefore that we may know that He can and does feel for us THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH. VI. THIS OF OUR BODY BY CHRIST IS A PLEDGE OF ITS , and such being the case, how we ought to reverence it! VIII. IN THAT BODY CHRIST WILL RETURN. 1. Then the Christian will be like Him, for he will see Him as He is. 2. Then those who have rejected Him will meet their doom. (J. Garbett, M. A.) The Ward made flesh I am thinking of a word. Do you know what it is? No, not until I have told you. But as soon as I say “ John,” then you know the word I was thinking of. You know it now because the word was made sound, and you caught it. Were I to write it you would know it, because the word would be made ink, and you see it. Something like that is what our text means. We could not tell what God’ s thoughts about us were until He showed us them in a way we could understand. And He let us know them by sending Jesus Christ into the world. He took a body like ours in order that we might know God’ s thoughts about us; and the more we know Jesus the more we know of God’ s mind. He is the Word; God’ s thought made flesh. But then we might see and hear A word and yet not understand it. Did you ever see a Hebrew book? The letters are little, thick, squarish things, with dots all over them, as if the pen had been sputtering when it was writing I Now you could see these words, but you could not understand them by yourself. How then do we come to know Hebrew? We get some person who knows Hebrew, but who also knows English, and he teaches us. He knows the Hebrew word, and he tells us in English what it means, and so we come to learn. It is the same with the Word made flesh--with Jesus. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 1:15-18 John bare witness of Him The pre-eminence of Christ I. CHRIST’ S TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 1. John refers to and repeats previous testimonies, applying them to Him whom the congregation had just seen depart. The testimony was pointed, warm, confident, bold. 2. The substance and form of the testimony that, though Jesus was after John as to His birth and ministry, He was before him as to the dignity of His person, His mediatorial office, and above all His Deity. II. CHRIST’ S TO ALL . 1. All the fulness demanded for their wants, the entire supply for their need, is treasured up in Him. (1) This might be asserted of the Word. (2) But it is here asserted of Him as made flesh. 2. What has the believer that he has not received from Christ? By nature he is empty. 3. How exalting to Christ the truth that all are and always have been, and always will be, dependent on Him. 4. We derive from Christ, not through merit, grace after grace, and grace corresponding in nature to that poured on Christ. III. CHRIST’ S TO MOSES. 1. Moses held a high place--the Law was given by him. 2. Nevertheless, no comparison could be made of Moses with Christ. He fulfilled his ministry and passed away, but Christ abides as the eternal administrator of grace and truth. (1) The Law gives knowledge of sin and leaves us: grace and truth come with salvation from sin. (2) The Law was the shadow of good things to come: the grace and truth of Christ were those good things. IV. CHRIST’ S TO ALL CREATED . 1. God is invisible and incomprehensible to all except His Son Jesus Christ. 2. Many are sons of God, Christ alone is the only-begotten of the Father. 3. Christ has declared the Father as no creature has done, revealing His nature, perfections, counsels, by His teaching, example, and secret influence on the minds of His people. 4. The eternal life of the best of His creatures consist in the knowledge of Him. (A. Beith, D. D.) Christ pre-eminent I. IT IS CHRIST ALONE WHO THE WANTS OF ALL (John 1:16). 1. The Spirit of Life is His special gift to the Church, and conveys from Him, as from a great root, sap and vigour to all the believing branches. 2. He is rich in mercy, wisdom, righteousness, holiness. 3. Out of His fulness believers in every age have been supplied. 4. Every saint in glory will acknowledge that he is Christ’ s debtor for all he is. II. THE VAST OF CHRIST TO MOSES AND THE GOSPEL TO THE LAW (John 1:17). 1. Moses was employed as a servant to convey the moral and ceremonial law which could not justify. 2. Christ as a Son came with the keys of God’ s treasury of grace and truth Hebrews 3:6). (1) Grace bringing salvation through faith. (2) Truth fulfilling in His own Person the types of the Old Testament. III. IT IS CHRIST ALONE WHO HAS THE FATHER TO MAN (verse 18). 1. No man could see God and live. 2. Yet all that man is capable of knowing of God the Father is revealed to us by God the Son. In His words, deeds, life, and death we see the wisdom, love, and holiness of God. IV. How GREAT THE HONOUR OF THE BAPTIST AND in heralding such a Being. (Bp. Ryle.) Face to face with Jesus Christ How far ahead John was of the apostles in his conception and reception of the Saviour. Throughout the Baptist was not only a seer of the light but was drenched by the light. I. JOHN’ S AND . Verse 15 is information that the Apostle evidently thought very valuable. Having affirmed the Incarnation he recalls the testimony of the Baptist to that Incarnation. In this testimony lay the power and grace of the Forerunner. His was no outside knowledge or second-hand information, but experience, direct and personal. So now the man of permanent power is the man who speaks, or teaches, or works out of personal and spiritual experience. Learning, culture, travel, profoundest and most masterly thinking are well in their several places, because sanctifiable; but sanctity based on experience of the witness of the Spirit in us and to us individually is the grand thing. II. JOHN’ S FULL-VOICED, OF THAT . Combine the two, “ beareth” and “ crieth,” and you have the perfection of Christ-like witness. Sometimes in law-courts witnesses have again and again to be instructed to speak “ out” or “ up.” There is self-evident reserve, hesitancy, a wish to say as little as possible. But John had no reserves, concealments, trickeries, and so “ cried” out. Fitting it should have been so. Your private letter or personal explanation may be quiet and unobtrusive; but if your stand is in the public market, and the proclamation is a royal one, security must be taken that all around hear and know. If our heart be in our utterance the voice will answer to the heart. The testimony must not be chirped or whined, or spoken in falsetto. An unnatural twang will spoil the best speaking, albeit roaring, violence, physical sensationalism must not be confounded with “ crying.” III. THE WELL-BASED AND SELF- OF JOHN’ S . It was the experience of no mere mood or frame, but the granitic conviction and enunciation that he was only the runner before another. 1. His aim was to keep men from leaning on himself. 2. He disclaimed any intention of founding a sect or organizing a Church. He called himself a “ Voice,” not a foundation. 3. His great purpose was to lead men to Christ. From this he never swerved. John’ s conduct in drawing attention away from self to Christ should be imitated by every worker for Christ. Explanation, system-making, to say nothing of self-proclamation, is often sheer waste of that strength which can only be profitably utilized in sending men straight to Christ. IV. JOHN’ S , almost charily worded, OF CHRIST’ S . There was no gospel for him as there is none for us if Christ were not human. He was “ a Man,” but a Man who was co-eternal with the Father. But the Baptist’ s economy of words in proclaiming that fact is noticeable. “ He was before me.” Simple, ordinary-looking, superficially unremarkable, but they hold in them an absolute statement of the pre-existence and Divinity of the Man Christ Jesus. V. THE AND OF JOHN’ S WITNESS TO THE PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST. “ This is He.” To-day the message of the servant of Christ in relation to every problem of life and destiny must be, “ this is He.” There lies the spell, the mission, the divinest success. Not His gospel even, but Himself. Not about Him, but to Him. Not the Bible or the Church, but Himself. (A. B. Grosart, D. D.) The effectiveness of the Baptist’ s ministry “ He who follows me preceded me.” Here, then, is an apparent contradiction, intended to excite attention and stimulate mental activity. The enigmatical form must have also contributed to impress this important declaration on the memory of the hearers. (F. Godet, D. D.) Public attention drawn to Christ The coming forth of the Incarnate Word among men was not in secrecy and silence, as a king might go forth incognito among his subjects; but public attention was directed to Him. This was done most efficiently by John. (J. Culross, D. D.) John’ s self-effacement Not only is the moon changeable, waving and waning, and its shape and light declining as it grows older, and itself approaches nearer and nearer to the sun; but so soon as the sun arises, though the moon should be yet in its full size and roundness, its light immediately fades from view, and itself becomes as if it no longer existed, for the superior glory of that incomprehensible luminary. And so both John the Baptist and the Jewish form of worship faded and shrunk, and became as non-existent, after they had performed their parts and offices as witnesses and schoolmasters to the great and glorious appearing of the Son of God Himself, the Sun of righteousness, the Word made flesh, the Godhead incarnate, the light and life of men and all creation, embodied in shape, and planted in place, and made visible: though too bright and dazzling to be comprehended, except by those who had opened and exercised their eyes to see His witnesses in the hours of darkness, when others were immersed in sleep, and so were not forced to shut them close in the daytime, in the blindness of unbelief. (S. A. Bosanquet.) John 1:16 Of His fulness have all we received The fulness of Christ The word “ fulness” is given to vessels that are brimful of liquor, and so is metaphorically applied to Christ, who is brimful of grace. I. Take grace for LOVE, so there is a fulness of love in Christ. 1. Of pardoning love (Luke 23:24). When on earth He did not pardon once, but again and again, and that without upbraiding. 2. Of compassionating love (Matthew 5:3-4). When poor souls could not come to Him He went to them. 3. Of special love to His disciples (Matthew 12:47-50). II. Take grace for , and there is a fulness of holiness in Him. Holy things, the law, priests, temple, were only types of Him. If there were not a fulness of holiness in Him 1. How is it possible that God and man could be brought so near who were so far apart? 2. How should He be anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows Ephesians 1:23). The saint’ s fulness is only particular, His is universal Colossians 1:19). Their’ s ebbs and flows and is often empty. III. Take grace for GIFTS, and there is a fulness of excellency in Christ. 1. Kingly (Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 1:8). 2. Prophetical (verse 17). 3. Priestly (John 16:7; John 16:10). 4. In general (Haggai 2:7; Colossians 1:11). IV. WHAT IS OUR DUTY FLOWING FROM HENCE? If there be such a fulness then 1. Let all men come to Him. All have wants. 2. Let us trust to Him. 3. Leg us draw forth from Him. (1) By a serious, frequent consideration of His fulness (2 Corinthians 3:18). (2) By resting upon it in time of temptation. (3) By giving forth of it, as the conduit receives more water by letting out. 4. Let us labour to be like Him, full of grace. 5. Let us take heed how we do anything that may rob Christ of the glory of His fulness. (W. Bridge, M. A.) The communication of Christ’ s fulness There is a dealing out of His fulness. I. BY THE UNION THERE IS BETWEEN CHRIST AND A . Union is the cause of communion or communication. Bread is united to a man by his eating of it. II. BY THE OF HIS GRACE HE IS ABLE 1. To succour and supply those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:18). 2. Whatever grace Christ hath received He hath received not for Himself but for others (Ephesians 4:8; John 17:19; Isaiah 61:1-2). 3. There is an infinite willingness in Him to communicate this grace Hebrews 3:2; Psalms 16:2; Job 4:24). 4. As He is willing nothing can hinder Him (Isaiah 43:13; Titus 2:14). III. WHY THEN ARE SO EMPTY OF GRACE? 1. The fulness of grace in a believer is many times hid from the world and from Himself. 2. Sometimes the avenues of grace in a believer are choked or broken. 3. This grace is communicated in proportion. What is your want? go to Christ and get that supplied. IV. : 1. See the transcendent excellency of the saints. 2. What an encouragement there is here to come to Christ and partake of His fulness. 3. Acting upon this believers are firm against all temptations, discouragements, afflictions. 4. Then believers should labour to strengthen their assurance of union with Christ. (W. Bridge, M. A.) The reception of Christ’ s fulness Whatever grace the saints have they have it all in the way of receiving. 1. The grace and mercy of justification and remission of sins (Romans 5:11). 2. Of adoption (Galatians 4:5). 3. Of sanctification (Galatians 3:2). 4. Of the gifts of the Spirit (Acts 10:46-47). 5. In general all is by way of receiving (Colossians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 4:7). This will appear I. FROM MAN’ S NATURAL 1. To overcome sin, be it never so small (1 Corinthians 15:57). 2. To rise again after falling. Peter must have a look from Christ before he could repent. 3. To stand and continue. 4. To prepare himself unto what is good (Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5; John 6:44). II. FROM THE OF GRACE. (Ephesians 2:10) III. FROM THE OF THE MEANS OF GRACE. The means as it is in itself, without God’ s appointment, is utterly inefficient. IV. FROM THE WORK AND NATURE OF FAITH There is no grace that the Scripture puts more upon than faith--in the Old Testament all victories, in the New all cures. Yea, the same works thai are given to Christ are given to faith: sanctification, justification, salvation. Why? Because faith is a receiving grace (John 1:12). So believing is nothing but receiving the grace of God. V. FROM THE POSTURE AND TRUE OF PRAYER. Prayer is the soul’ s begging. A beggar holds forth his hand noting his willingness to receive (Job 11:13). In conclusion 1. You say that this cuts off all endeavour. Not so (see Philippians 2:12). 2. Why is all this? (1) That all boasting and self-confidence may be taken away Romans 4:1-25 : 1 Corinthians 4:7). (2) That Christ may be fully honoured. (3) That the children of God may live by faith. 3. This doctrine is full of spiritual use. (1) Behold what infinite care God hath of believers. If a mother would not let her child eat bread but of her own cutting, or drink water but of her own drawing, what carefulness of her child that would argue. (2) What comfortable lives believers live--even their troubles are from God who makes them minister to their good and helps them in them. (W. Bridge, M. A.) The abundance of grace the saints receive from Christ I. AN OF GRACE. “ Grace for grace “ like “ skin for skin” Job 2:4). All his skins. This suits (1) the word “ and” or “ even;” (2) the attribute of Christ, “ fulness;” (3) the scope of the place where Christ is set above Moses. (4) Other Scriptures (Romans 5:15; Romans 5:17, etc.) 1. Abundance of grace discovered. (1) It will appear if you consider the several advances grace hath made from the beginning till now (Genesis 3:15), the Abrahamic covenant Genesis 12:3), the Mosaic, the prophecies, Christ, the preaching of the gospel. (2) The manifestations of grace under the Old Testament were under a veil; that veil is now removed (2 Corinthians 3:18). (3) There were many doctrines of grace communicated to the Jews, yet they were so tempered by the law that the very gospel seemed law unto them. Now the law is so tempered by the gospel as to seem gospel. (4) Grace was manifested under the old dispensation by drops and at intervals (Hebrews 1:1), under the New Wholesale. 2. Abundance of grace exhibited and communicated. Is it not a great matter 1. For an ungodly man to be justified For a man to be a child of God. 2. To have the image of Christ drawn on a filthy soul. 3. For a man to be in heaven before he comes there (John 17:3). 4. But we do not see this abundance, objectors say. But (1) Though little in quantity it may be great in quality. (2) Though it be small as a possession it is great as an earnest Colossians 1:12). II. : 1. Why should any of God’ s people vilify and degrade the gift of God whereby they are enriched? 2. Behold what great sinners inconsistent professors are! 3. What a mighty encouragement there is here to come to Jesus Christ and be filled! (W. Bridge, M. A.) Whatsoever grace the saints have they have it from Jesus Christ Grace is sometimes taken for 1. The favour of God; 2. God’ s assistance; 3. Holiness; 4. Gifts; 5. An office in the Church. But whichever it is it comes from Christ. This will appear if you consider I. THE OF NATURE (1 Corinthians 3:5; verse 13). II. THE ALL- OF CHRIST (Revelation 1:17; Ro John 14:6). 1. There are three great doors which must ordinarily be opened before converting grace can get into the soul of man. (1) A powerful ministry (1 Corinthians 16:9); (2) The door of the heart (Acts 16:14); (3) The door of the ear (Job 33:16). 2. Christ has the opening of these doors (Revelation 1:18; Revelation 3:7). 3. The names which Christ bears witness to, His all-sufficiency, Sun of Righteousness, Morning Star, Raiment, Bread of Life, Door, Good Shepherd, etc., are given to Christ to show that He is all they signify to the soul. And they are not barely given to Him; He is “ Good” Shepherd, Bread “ of Life,” etc. Therefore, as the apostle says, “ He is all in all.” (W. Bridge, M. A.) . The answerableness of grace in every Christian to the grace of Christ We have received grace in abundance from Christ, but whatever grace there is in Him there is somewhat in the saints answerable thereunto, as the impression answers to the stamp. 1. Take grace as the favour of God: Both Christ and believers are God’ s beloved (Matthew 3:17; 2 Samuel 12:25). 2. For privilege: Both are called Sons of God (Hebrews 12:6); Heirs Hebrews 1:2; Romans 8:17); Elect and precious (1 Peter 2:6; 1 Peter 1:2); Light (John 8:12; Ephesians 5:8). 3. For assistance (Psalms 22:1-31 : 1 Corinthians 12:9). 4. For sanctification (John 17:19). The reason of this I. THE UNION BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE (Job 14:20). II. THE OF CHRIST AS THE SECOND ADAM A COMMON PERSON BETWEEN GOD AND US (Romans 5:15; John 5:26). III. THE LOVE BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE . Love loves to make a thing loved like itself. IV. THE SAME SPIRIT IS IN A THAT IS IN CHRIST (chap. 15:26). (W. Bridge, M. A.) The fulness of Christ This fulness is shown I. IN THE OF CHRIST. 1. His perfect humanity. 2. His supreme divinity. II. IN THE POETRY AND WHICH HIM. “ Ancient of Days, Alpha and Omega, Lion of Judah,” “ Sure Foundation Stone,” “ Sun,” “ Desire of all Nations.” III. THE WHICH HIS FIRST MOST WERE TRUTH AND GRACE, AND THESE WERE IN FULNESS. 1. Truth represents (1) Intelligence. In Christ there is a fountain of knowledge inexhaustible. The keen Sadducee, the exact Pharisee, the learned scribe, the eager Mary, all wonder at the gracious words which proceed out of His mouth. The words of Jesus are a study for one’ s life, and those who have studied them most are as far as ever from exhausting their meaning. (2) Reality. This was complete in Christ. He was the shadow of no substance, the image only of the invisible God. 2. The grace of Christ was love in fulness. IV. THE OF ALL HIS THE OF HIS FIRST . They could say, “ We beheld” ; we “ Whom having not seen we love.” What is this grace but grace superseding grace, grace supplanting grace--as the blossom supplants the bud, and as the fruit supplants the blossom--as the noon supersedes the morning, and as summer supplants spring--grace superseding and surpassing grace. What have you received? Is Christ to you a cistern which you have emptied? A vine stripped of fruit? Bread eaten and gone? Or is Jesus Christ living bread? A fountain of living water? A tree of life bearing all manner of fruit? In plain language, does grace supersede and supplant grace? Are you rising higher and yet higher through the uplifting of the hand of this Saviour? Is sanctification supplanting conversion, and is glorying in tribulation being built upon patience in sorrow? If so, beware of pride, and of vanity, and of vain-glorying, and of boasting. God forbid that we should glory save in the fulness of this Jesus Christ. At the same time quiet your fears and call forth your hopes. All that you have received is from fulness. Come again. Come every hour--for everything. Friends may depart, but friendship in fulness abides in Jesus. Helpers may become helpless, but might exists in fulness in Jesus. Riches may leave you, but in Christ there are riches unsearchable. Health may sink, but strength undecaying is in Jesus. (S. Martin.) Fulness of grace I have heard our Lord likened to a man carrying a water-pot, and as he carried it upon his shoulder, the water fell dropping, dropping, dropping, so that every one could track the water-bearer. So should all His people be, carrying such a fulness of grace that every one should know where they have been by that which they have left behind. He who hath lain in the beds of spices will perfume the air through which he walks. One who, like Asher, has dipped his foot in oil, will leave his footprints behind him. When the living and incorruptible seed remains within, the Divine instincts of the new nature will guide you to the wisest methods of activity. You will do the right thing under the inward impulse rather than the written law, and your personal salvation will be your prime qualification for seeking out others of your Master’ s flock. (C. H.Spurgeon.) All fulness in Christ God cannot give you anything more than He gave you 1,800 years ago. It was all in Christ. Take a very vulgar illustration, which is altogether inadequate for a great many purposes, but which may serve. Suppose some man tells you that there was a thousand pounds paid into your credit into a London bank, and that you were to get the use of it, as you drew cheques against it. The money is there, is not it; the gift is given, and yet for all that you may be half dead, a pauper. In the very last of the Arctic expeditions, last year or the year before, they found an ammunition chest that Commander Parry had left there fifty years ago, safe under a pile of stones, the provisions inside being perfectly sweet and good and eatable. There it had lain all those years, and men had died of starvation within arm’ s length of it. It was there all the same. And so, if I may venture to vulgarise the great theme that I am trying to speak about, God has given us His Son, and in Him all that pertains to life and all that pertains to godliness. My brothers, take the things that are freely given to men of God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) How grace is received Here on the one hand is the boundless ocean of the Divine strength, unfathomable in its depth, full after all draughts, tideless and calm, in all its movements never troubled, in all its repose never stagnating; and on the other side is the empty avidity of our poor, weak natures. Faith opens these to the impulse of that great sea, and “ according to our faith,” in the exact measure of our receptivity, does it enter our hearts. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The fulness of Christ I have found it an interesting thing to stand on the edge of a noble rolling river, and to think, that although it has been flowing on for six thousand years, watering the fields, and slaking the thirst of a hundred generations, it shows no signs of waste or want; and when I have watched the rise of the sun, as he shot above the crest of the mountain, or in a sky draped with golden curtains sprang up from his ocean bed, I have wondered to think that he has melted the snows of so many winters, and renewed the verdure of so many springs, and painted the flowers of so many summers, and ripened the golden harvests of so many autumns, and yet shines as brilliant as ever, his eye not dim, nor his natural strength abated, nor his floods of light less full for centuries of boundless profusion. Yet what are these but images of the fulness that is in Christ? (J. Bates.) Grace to receive grace The Duchess of Gordon and a companion were visiting at a cottage in Scotland when a pedlar came in, threw down his pack, and asked for a drink of water. The woman of the house handed the water to him, and said, “ Do you know anything of the water of life?” “ By the grace of God I do.” He drank the water, and then said, “ Let us pray.” And this was his prayer: “ Oh, Lord, give us grace to feel our need of grace. Oh, Lord, give us grace to receive grace. Oh, Lord, give us grace to ask for grace. Oh, Lord, give us grace to use grace when grace is given.” He then took up his pack and went away, having preached a powerful sermon in those few words. The fulness of Christ On a tradesman’ s table I noticed a book labelled “ Want Book.” What a practical suggestion for a man of prayer! He should put down all his needs on the tablets of his heart, and then present his want book to his God. If we knew all our need, what a large want book we should require! How comforting to know that Jesus has a supply book, which exactly meets our want book! Promises, providences, and Divine visitations, combine to meet the necessities of all the faithful. The riches of Christ’ s grace There is a story of Rowland Hill, which I have no doubt is true, because it is so characteristic of the man’ s eccentricity and generosity. Some one or other had given him a hundred pounds to send to an extremely poor minister, but, thinking it was too much to send him all at once, he sent him five pounds in a letter with simply these words inside the envelope, “ More to follow.” In a few days’ time, the good man had another letter by the post, and letters by.the post were rarities in those days; when he opened it there was five pounds again, with just these words, “ And more to follow.” A day or two after there came another, and still the same words, “ And more to follow.” And so it continued twenty times, the good man being more and more astounded at these letters coming thus by post with always the sentence, “ And more to follow.” Now, every blessing that comes from God is sent in just such an envelope, with the selfsame message, “ And more to follow.” “ I forgive you your sins, but there is more to follow. I justify you in the righteousness of Christ, but there’ s more to follow.” “ I adopt you into my family, but there’ s more to follow.” “ I educate you for heaven, but there’ s more to follow.” “ I have helped you even to old age, but there’ s still more to follow.” “ I will bring you to the brink of Jordan, and bid you sit down and sing on its black banks, on the banks of the black stream, but there’ s more to follow. In the midst of that river, as you are passing into the world of spirits, My mercy shall still continue with you, and when you land in the world to come there shall still be more to follow.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Grace obstructed When our spiritual supplies fail, the channel is sometimes at fault, and not the stream; the hindrance to their coming lies with us and not with our heavenly Father. The supply of fuel to our city in midwinter sometimes fails, not because the coal-fields are exhausted, but because the weather has frozen our rivers, detained our colliers in the Channel, and blocked up our railways. The supply of water or of gas to our houses is sometimes insufficient, not because the reservoirs are low, but because the pipes which connect our dwellings with the main service are choked up or broken. News fail to reach us, not because our correspondent has neglected to write, but because the means of transmission have been imperfect. (Samuel Martin.) Grace preferred to earthly honour Having rendered some service to Lord North, the Prime Minister, during the American war, he received a polite communication from that nobleman, desiring to know if he stood in need of anything which it was in his power to bestow. Mr. Fletcher modestly replied:--“ He was sensible of the Minister’ s kindness, but he only wanted one thing, which he could not grant him, and that was more grace.” It is a high attainment to prefer the grace of God to earthly honours and emoluments. None but God, the author of grace, can incline the heart to this. (J. Cope.) A precious plentitude I. THE FULNESS. 1. The fulness belongs to Christ personally. In His complex nature He possesses fulness. (1) In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The fulness of omnipotence, omnipresence, wisdom, justice, mercy. The attributes of God make up a perfect total. The unity, with all its uniqueness is His. The fractional parts are ours. (2) There was also a fulness of Christ in respect to His manhood. Nothing was lacking in Him to constitute human perfection--sinlessness, sympathy, the virtues of both sexes, human nature in its completeness. 2. In Christ is an acquired fulness. His perfect obedience secured an everlasting wellspring of merit; and now risen from the dead there is a fulness of prevalence in His intercession, of cleansing power, and of peace, when the Spirit applies the blood to the guilty conscience. 3. A fulness of dignity, prerogative, and qualification. He is a perfect prophet, priest, and king. Join all the qualities involved in name or fame and you shall find that He comprises them all in liberal, lavish fulness. 4. A fulness of every kind of perfection. All that is virtuous, amiable, noble or illustrious. 5. A fulness of the Spirit. The Lord gives not the Spirit by measure unto Him. 6. An abiding fulness. All the saints of every age have drawn their supplies from Him, but He is just as full as ever. He is never less, He can never be more than full. II. THE FILLING. 1. Surely, then, the saints were empty before. All alike are empty of merit and satisfaction. 2. The filling is universal. All the saints partake of it. 3. There must be a personal reception in every case. Grace cannot be derived or transmitted from one individual to another. 4. It is gratuitous “ Grace for grace” ; not purchased or earned but received. All the doing to receive it is an undoing: the soul empties itself to be filled. (C. H.Spurgeon.) I. We are shown that we ARE ALL UTTERLY AND EMPTY of spiritual blessings. The abundance in Jesus Christ is intended 1. To supply our deficiency. 2. To relieve our poverty. 3. To satisfy our hunger and thirst. II. We are warned THAT AS SOON AS WE HAVE FROM CHRIST IT IS VAIN TO SEEK FOR , because God hath determined that whatever is God’ s shall reside in Him alone. Accordingly we shall find angels and men to be dry, heaven to be empty, the earth to be unproductive, and, in short, all things to be of no value, if we wish to be partakers of the gifts of God in any other way than through Christ. III. We are assured that WE HAVE NO REASON TO FEAR THE WANT OF , provided that we draw from the fulness of Christ, which is in every respect so complete as to be inexhaustable. (J. Calvin.) Christ’ s fulness There is a fulness of atoning efficacy in His blood, for “ the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin” ; of justifying righteousness in His life, for “ there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus” ; of Divine prevalence in His plea, for “ He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him; seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” ; of victory in His death, for through death He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; of efficacy in His resurrection from the dead, for by it “ We are begotten again to a lively hope” ; of triumph in His ascension, for “ when He ascended up on high He led captivity captive, and received gifts for men” ; of blessings unspeakable, unknown; grace to pardon, regenerate, sanctify, preserve, and perfect. There is a fulness at all times; a fulness by day and by night; of comfort in affliction, of guidance in prosperity, of every Divine attribute, of wisdom, of power, of love; a fulness which it were impossible to survey, much less to explore. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The fulness of Christ received I. AN APPEAL TO OUR . Glory be unto Christ for His fulness, for of it have all the saints received--Old Testament saints and New, martyrs, reformers, saints on earth, saints in glory, etc., etc. And they all received all that they had. II. A OF . Thus may we know the people of God, for of His fulness all have received. 1. There are some who receive their religion from their fathers and mothers; but religion is not to be inherited; it is a personal matter. 2. There are those who have got their religion from good works. They do not belong to John’ s company. 3. Others get their religion partly from self and partly from Christ; but to John’ s company Christ is all in all. The true Christian gets all from Christ. Even Paul was the chief of sinners, less than the least of all saints, and confessed that he was nothing. III. A OF TO . Should they not be 1. Most humble. Pride, and indebtedness to Christ for all, is a contradiction. 2. Most grateful. When our friends love us we love them in return. So Christ deserves that we should spend the spirit for Him. IV. A WORD OF SWEET TO THE SINNER. You need a new heart, repentance, a sense of sinfulness, pardon. He can give you all, no matter how guilty you are. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s inexhaustible fulness I. THERE IS IN CHRIST A FULNESS, the greatest abundance of blessings of every description. It is such a fulness as is in God, for John tells us that Christ Isaiah 1. The Creator and Preserver of all things. 2. The Author of human redemption. 3. The fountain of life and light. 4. The Author and Dispenser of salvation. II. HAVE OF THIS FULNESS 1. Many blessings, such as spiritual illumination, faith, pardon, acceptance, the aids of the Spirit, sanctification, hope, and the happiness begun in this world, and perfected in the world to come. 2. These many blessings in great abundance, “ and in everything have been enriched by Him.” III. “ ALL HAVE .” 1. All men if they were willing; and what is there to hinder all men from receiving them? Even now, and at all times, may not all receive them? All may receive to the utmost extent of their desires. 2. All men, of every class and condition; for different men, according to the variety of their situation and circumstances, stand in need of different blessings; and all may have those blessings which their necessities require. 3. All men, in every age, and in every part of the world. 4. There is a “ fulness” of blessings in Christ sufficient for the present and eternal salvation of the whole human race. 5. In Christ there is (1) An open fountain, to which all have access, from which all may draw, the righteous and the wicked, the joyful and the sorrowful, the living and the dying. (2) A copious fountain, from which all may draw in abundance. (3) An inexhaustible fountain which never can be drained, however great be the number of those who draw from it. 4. A perpetual fountain, flowing to all eternity, from which all who are willing may continually draw. (C. C. Tittman, D. D.) The fulness of Christ the treasury of the saints (cf. Colossians 1:19) I. THERE IS A FULNESS IN JESUS. Why, then, are we so weak, unfurnished, and unhappy? There is that in Jesus which 1. Can enable us to rise to the highest degree of grace. (1) If sin is to be overcome the conquering power dwells in Him in its fulness. (2) If virtue is to be attained, sanctifying energy resides in Him to perfection. (3) Without Him we can do nothing, but we can do all things through Him. There are many barely Christians who have scarcely enough grace to float them into heaven, their keel grating all the way; and yet their privilege is to reach the deep waterer and have so much grace that they may sail like a gallant bark on the broad ocean, with a glorious cargo and all colours flying, so that there may be administered an abundant entrance. 2. Sufficient for the conquest of the world. (1) All the might for the conquest of heathenism. (2) All the strength for victory over vice and infidelity at home. (3) Every weapon required for the fight, Fulness for teaching, convincing, converting, sanctifying. II. THE FULNESS IS IN JESUS NOW. 1. The glory of the past depresses many Christians. Scarcely any Church realizes that it can do what its forefathers did. A people are in an evil ease when all their heroism is historical. But the fulness upon which Paul, Luther, Whitefield drew is unexhausted. 2. The mass of professors have their eyes on the future. Yet, if the texts are true, all that is to be done can be done now. Want of faith in Christ’ s fulness makes them dote on the Millennium. 3. Our Churches believe that there is fulness in Christ, and that sometimes they ought to enjoy it. But it is not the Lord’ s purpose that a fulness should reside in Jesus during revivals. He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and that being the case, the highest state of revival should be the normal condition of the Church. III. THE OF THE FULNESS IS RICHLY TO US IN THE MATTER OF IT. In Christ: 1. Where we can receive it now. 2. In Him who loves to give it. 3. With Him who is Himself ours. If God, had put it in an angel we should not feel greatly drawn to Him; but He has placed it where we love to have it, where we feel at home, where we are glad to go often, where we would abide. IV. FROM THIS FULNESS MANY OF US HAVE . 1. This should encourage us to further exercises of faith, 2. What restrains us from receiving. (1) I cannot be a Christian of the highest type. Why not? If you have received life you can receive it more abundantly. (2) I cannot hope to be as useful as some. Why not? According to your faith it shall be done unto you. What you have received is a pledge of what you may receive. V. THE WE HAVE ALREADY HAD ARE NOT TRIFLES. “ He that spared not His own Son,” etc. He has given to all such grace as they have capacity to receive. SO on to perfection. 1. Believe in great thing’ ;. 2. Expect great things. 3. Attempt great things. 4. Don’ t talk about this but set about it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) I. The ONE PERSON concerning whom this verse is written. 1. The Word or speech and revelation of God. “ Wouldst thou have me see thee,” said Socrates “ then speak.” Wouldst thou see God? Listen to Christ. 2. Lest Christ should be regarded as a mere utterance, John is careful to show that He is a Divine Person. 3. Christ was also man. 4. Lest others should come into comparison with Him they are all barred out. Angels, John, Moses. II. The TWO . 1. That all grace is treasured up in Christ Jesus. His is an immeasurable fulness of grace and truth. (1) Of grace--pardoning, justifying, and sanctifying. Of this He is always full. (2) Of truth. 2. All the saints have received all of grace out of the fulness of Christ. (1) All of them. (2) Very abundantly. III. THREE . 1. Our own emptiness. 2. A personal reception of Christ Jesus. 3. The discovery that all we receive comes to us by grace. IV. FOUR DUTIES. If we have received Christ then 1. Let us praise Him. 2. Let us repair to Him again. 3. Try and obtain more. 4. Encourage others to receive Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Grace for grace I. THE . 1. Some take the phrase to have reference to the Law and the Gospel; but St. John is speaking of what takes place after Christ comes and the Law is abandoned. 2. Others to faith in Old Testament saints and light in New Testament saints. That does not hold, because both had faith and light. 3. Others, grace in the believer resembling grace in the Saviour; but that would only give us the moral qualities of Christ, and leave us destitute of those evangelical blessings which He came especially to bestow. 4. The real sense is that of exchange; “ for” --instead of a new grace coming in the place of the old, and, when that is done with, another fresh from the fulness, and so on until grace becomes glory. II. THE : 1. Grace in the believer dies, wastes away, as all living things do, and the faster they live, the faster they die. Granite rocks might last for ever, their life and motion are so slow; but the most exquisite flowers stand in their prime rich-blossomed state only for a short time. “ You must come to-day,” we say, “ or you will not see the best of it.” So with that most living thing called grace. Indestructible in its fountain and principle, it yet comes and goes, flowing in, flowing out, blossoming, fading. In the human soul, if there were not replenishment, grace for grace, it would soon be empty and dead. 2. This does not mean simply a steady continuance of the same class of gracious ministration. You stand by a river and watch the flow, the drops of water coming and going to the ocean. But then other drops succeed them, and others them, so evenly and incessantly that we hardly realize that the waters are passing away. So with the supply of grace. Suppose the colour of the river should change with the day, now black from muddy hills, now yellow as the Tiber, now blue as the Rhone, now crystal as the Tweed, it would be a singular phenomenon; but grace for grace means a change like that. There is an element of sameness in all graces, just as water is water, but in many respects one kind of grace is not like another. 3. There is no invariable order, but in general (1) The grace of forgiveness is the first bestowed. This may come after much anxiety, or quite gently; but, come as it will, peace is a special grace. (2) But the believer dots not rest long in his peace. Next comes a totally different kind of grace--active strength and the spirit of boldness. Not that he is deprived of his peace, but that becomes secondary. This is very necessary, as uniform tranquillity would be injurious. To root the tree firmly rough winds are necessary. (3) The grace of patience for the grace of active strength. Working time comes to an end, or work goes on, patience comes to prevent discouragement. (4) The grace of victory for the grace of preservation in battle. As thy day so shall thy strength be. Not dying grace till death. III. THE : 1. Do not try to live in or by the past. Live in it by a grateful memory that will help you; but not so as to get a present living nourishment out of states, and frames, and feelings that are dead and gone. You would not get on in June seeking the withered leaves of last autumn. Let them sink into the soil. Trust nature to get all the good that is in them, and send that good up again. 2. We ought to be afraid of stagnation, but never of new experiences or enterprises. 3. Christ offers grace for--not grace, you have none, brother sinner; you would never take it--but for sin and its condemnation. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Grace for grace I. GRACE BY DEGREES; grace upon grace; a little grace to begin with, but more grace afterwards. “ He giveth more grace,” grace following in grace, and further in superabounding grace, when grace turns into glory. II. GRACE TO PREPARE FOR FURTHER GRACE--the grace of a broken heart--to make room for repentance; the grace of hatred of sin to make wayfor the grace of holy and careful walking; the grace of careful walking to make room for the grace of close communion with Christ; the grace of close communion with the Lord Jesus Christ to make room for the grace of full conformity to His image; perhaps the grace of confortuity to His image to make room for the higher grace of brighter views of Himself, and still closer incomings into the very heart of the Lord Jesus. It is grace that helps us on in grace. When a begger asks you for a penny, and you give him one, he does not ask you for a sixpence; or if you give him a shilling, he would not consider that an argument why you should give him a sovereign. But you may deal thus with God. The grace you have expands your heart, and gives you capacity for receiving yet more grace. You send your child to school to learn A B C, the grace of learning his alphabet. But it is preparatory to the spelling book, a preparation for further acquisition of knowledge. III. GRACE TO GRACE. Let God give me grace to be a preacher, and He will give me grace to discharge the office. If you have the grace of resignation you may need the grace of patience. Or grace received by us answerable to the grace that is in Christ. A young heir to a large estate, though not of full age, generally gets an allowance suitable to the position he is to occupy. If he has £100,000 a year in prospect, he would hardly be limited to a penny a week. When I see one child of God always mourning, another always doubting, and yet another always scheming, I see they are living below their privileges. They do not seem to have grace in possession answerable to the grace they have in reversion. We always inculcate the propriety, on the part of all our people, of living within their incomes; but the child of God cannot live beyond his income in a spiritual sense. IV. GRACE IN . Like the waves of the sea, where one comes there is another close behind it. V. GRACE FROM HIM TO PRODUCE GRACE IN US. The grace of gratitude should be produced in us by the grace of generosity from God. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Christ’ s fulness As the sea is not diminished by the treasures of rain which it yields, and which are dispensed to the earth to fertilise and refresh it, or as the sun is not wasted, that he has imparted light to all past generations of men; so Christ has not been affected in His fulness, though from Him has proceeded all the good that has ever been bestowed on every creature. That in the beginning He laid the foundations of the earth, and that He then spread forth the heavens like a curtain, has not diminished His strength. That He brought into being all the families of life, in their innumerable and varied forms, has not exhausted His resources. (A. Beith, D. D.) Christ’ s fulness and our reception of it We all receive of His fulness grace for grace, as all the stars in heaven are said to light their candles at the sun’ s flame. For though His Body be withdrawn from us, yet by the lively and virtual contact of His Spirit He is always kindling, cheering, quickening, warming, enlivening, hearts: nay, this Divine life, begun and kindled in any heart, wheresoever it be, is something of God in the flesh, and in a sober and qualified sense, Divinity Incarnate, and all particular Christians, that are possessed of it, so many mystical Christs. (R. Cudworth.) If any one is to obtain grace, His fulness must do it: our crumbs and morsels, our tiny drops and bits, they verily will not do it. All, whether Jews or Gentiles, if indeed they would obtain grace and be really found before God, are required (and indeed they can do no other) to fill their little flasks from this well--a well which flows and overflows for ever and ever; they must drink their fill from this fountain-head of living water, springing up into eternal life. In short, His fulness is without measure or end; therefore draw manfully and without fear, and drink with pleasure and joy! For here is overflowingly enough, even into eternal Life; in this you will have enough to praise and thank God for to all eternity. (Luther.) The plenteousness of grace The philosophic Hamerton tells us the story of a woman who worked in a cotton factory in one of the great manufacturing towns in Lancashire, and who, in an excursion, went for the first time to the coast. When she caught the earliest glimpse of the Irish Sea, the expanse lying out before her eyes, looking like the limitlessness of the ocean in its rush and roll of billows, she exclaimed, as she drew one boundless breath of freshness and glory: “ At last, here comes something there is enough of!” (Dr. C. Robinson.) John 1:17 The Law was given by Moses Points, of contrast between Judaism and Christianity I. IN THE PERSONS JUDAISM AND . 1. Moses was the servant, Christ the master. 2. Moses was a subject, dependent, Christ was King of kings. 3. Moses was only a man, but Christ was the God-man. 4. Moses was the agent smiting the rock, Christ was the rock smitten. 5. Moses was but the channel of communication between God and His people; Christ is the source of all our mercy. 6. Moses was only the student; in Christ dwelt all the fulness of wisdom. 7. Moses was delegated; Christ spoke in His own name and on His own authority. II. IN THE OF THE WORK OF MOSES AND THOSE OF THE WORK OF CHRIST. 1. The ten plagues were wrought for punishment. The thirty-two miracles of Christ were performed in mercy. 2. The miracles of Moses were a national calamity; those of Christ a national blessing. 3. The miracles of Moses were destructive; those of Christ remedial. 4. Those of Moses were wrought on matter; many of those of Christ on mind or spirit. 5. Those of Moses were wrought by power derived from God; those of Christ by Himself. III. IN THE OF JUDAISM AND . 1. The former refer to temporal deliverances and to carnal things; the latter commemorate spiritual deliverances, and refer to the heavenly and the Divine. The Passover, e.g., sets forth the emancipation from Egypt; the Lord’ s Supper of redemption from sin. 2. The Jewish Sabbath, the last day of the week, commemorated the creation of the world; the Christian Sabbath, the first of the week, is the sign of the new creation. 3. The Jewish Pentecost commemorated the giving of the Law on Sinai; our Pentecost, the baptism of the Spirit. IV. ABOUT JUDAISM WE HAVE THE OUTWARD; ABOUT GRACE AND TRUTH WE HAVE THE INWARD. 1. The virtue in the Jewish sacrifices was outwardly derived; the virtue in the Atonement is the inward. 2. Their laws were given amidst the external thundering and lightning of Sinai; ours amid the calmness and quietness peculiar to Christ. 3. The Jews were separated from the world more by outward signs; we are separated by the circumcision of the heart. V. THE LIFE OF GOD FROM THE JEWS WAS IN A CODE OF LAWS; THAT OF THE IS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST. (S. Jones.) The Law by Moses God’ s education of the world, class by class--the Law one of the most important lessons ever taught it. Advisable to review these old lessons. I. THE LAW. Wider and narrower meanings of the word. 1. Political, representing the theocratic idea. 2. The ceremonial, representing the sacrificial. 3. Moral, representing the inculcation of holiness. A remarkable foreshadowing of the Holy Trinity. II. BY WHOM GIVEN: Moses. Fulness of accounts concerning him. Scenes and dates of his life easily traceable. 1. His outer life. (1) Education. (2) Energy. (3) Patriotism. 2. His inner life. (1) Meekness, disinterestedness (Exodus 32:20-32). (2) Prayerfulness. III. TO WHOM GIVEN 1. Not to the world, but to a peculiar people; this contrary to human practice, and a proof of heavenly origin. 2. To a people specially prepared from the time of Abraham in all the circumstances of their national life and location. 3. To a people who nevertheless failed to keep it in its entirety for a single generation. Hence we see that, while God has always a law, and that law has always been in its great characteristics the same, man has always failed to keep it. (W. L.) Grace and truth by Jesus Christ I. GRACE. 1. The Divine message. 2. The heavenly gift. 3. The supernatural help. II. TRUTH. This grace, embodied in the life, working outwards from the heart III. CAME BY JESUS CHRIST. 1. They could come by no other. 2. From Him they were inseparable. The twofold nature of the Divine Man. IV. FOR WHOM. Not like the law for a people, but for the world Matthew 11:28; John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4; Titus 2:11). (W. L.) Moses and Christ I. A . 1. Both men. 2. Both messengers from God. 3. Both bearers of a revelation. II. A . 1. Moses only man; Christ the Son of God. 2. Moses raised up by God; Christ sent forth from God. 3. Moses the bearer of a revelation outside of himself; Christ the bringer of a revelation in Himself. 4. Moses a lawgiver; Christ a declarer of grace and truth. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The three dispensations in history and in the soul (cf. Galatians 3:6) I. The dispensation of NATURAL FEELING. 1. The race was in childhood. It acted from impulse. It obeyed no written code of moral regulations. The man chosen as the representative of this period was Abraham. The record of it is the book of Genesis. That writing is the first grand chapter in the biography of man; and its very literary structure--so dramatic in contents, so careless of the rules of art, so like a child’ s story in its sublime simplicity--answers to the spontaneous period it pictures. “ The patriarchal age” we call it. Throughout the whole of this era, reaching from Adam to Joseph, there were beautiful virtues, flowering into the light by the spontaneous energy of nature, but poisoned in many spots by the slime of sensuality. The human stock threw out its forms of life with a certain negligence, as the prodigal force of nature does her forests--as a boy swings his limbs in the open air. Character needed a staunch vertebral column to secure its uprightness. 2. Corresponding to this impulsive religious age of the race, is the natural state of the individual. It is the condition we are born into, and the multitudes never pass beyond it, because they are never renewed or made Christian. Morally, they are children all their lives. Bad dispositions mix with good. Conduct is not brought to the bar of a governmental examination, and judged by an unbending principle. Nature, true enough, is always interesting; and spontaneous products may be beautiful. But man, with his free agency, beset before and behind by evil, is not like a lily growing under God’ s sun and dew, with no sin to deform its grace or stain its colouring. He has to contend, struggle, resist. He is tried, enticed, besieged. Natural religion might possibly answer in the woods or in some solitary cell. But let the young man travel to the city, and the young woman lend her ears to the flatteries of that silver-tongued sorceress, society; and all this natural piety is like a silken thread held over a blazing furnace. 3. And as the first dispensation ended in a slavery in Egypt, or broods darkly over Pagan nations still, so the lawless motions of every self-guided will end in a servitude to some Pharaoh in the members that cries aloud for emancipation--a settled alienation from the household of the good. II. Next comes the LEGAL OR stage. 1. The world’ s religious experience is concentrated in Judaea, human progress running on through Hebrew channels. Others have wandered off into hopeless idolatries. Now God calls Moses and appoints him the head of the second epoch. A period of law begins. Instinct must be curbed, for it has done mischief enough. Impulse must be controlled by principle, for it has proved itself insufficient. There must be positive commands, ceremonies, and ordinances, coercive restraints, and penalties. 2. So with all of us; there comes a time when we feel that we cannot act by inclination, but must follow law. The principle of duty is that law. Babyhood is passed, and its instincts suffice us no longer. To do as we like would still be pleasant, but it is dangerous and false. We become stewards, and must give account of our stewardship. Life has put its harness upon us, and we must work in it. The beneficence as well as the rectitude of this is apparent. By obeying a law, we acquire superiority to it. Voluntarily submitting to certain rules for a time, our virtue is strengthened and finally becomes independent of them, so that it can go alone. The inebriate binds himself by a pledge, and thus regains his freedom. Let us not despise law, for every day practical proofs are scattered before us that it is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. III. But there is a THIRD , and at the head of it one greater than Moses. These outgrew the period of literal commandment. It became a dead profession, a school of foolish questions, a shelter of hypocrisies. The enlarging soul of the race asks a freer, more sincere, more vital nurture, and it comes. If the simple religious instincts of Abraham had been accepted for righteousness; if the law had been given by Moses, grace and truth enter in by Jesus Christ--grace for the heart, truth for the understanding. 1. Christ does not abrogate law, but by His own life and sacrifice first satisfies its conditions. “ Think not that I came to destroy, but to fulfil.” The Cross does not unbind the cords of accountability, but tightens and strengthens them. Divine laws never looked so sacred as when they took sanctity from the redemption of the Crucified. We must still be under discipline; but the Lawgiver is lost in the Redeemer. The drudgery of obedience is beautified into the privilege of reconciliation. Love has cast out fear. The soul is released from the bondage. 2. Neither of these three stages, whether of the general or the personal progress, denies or cuts off its predecessor. Nature prepares the way for law, making the heart restless by an unsatisfying experiment without it. The Law disciplined wayward, uncultured man, making him ready for Christ. Judaism and Moses looked forward to the Messiah. So, in the heart of childhood, there are expectations of the responsible second stage of manhood; it is too thoughtless yet to look beyond, to the age of mature Christian holiness. But see, again, when that second age of stern command and strict obedience comes, it grows sober and reflective. It feels heavily that it is not sufficient to itself. It must look forward for the consolations of the Cross. 3. Each stage requires fidelity in the preceding. You must have been true to the better impulses of youth, that you may be, to the best advantage, a servant of the law of maturity. You must be faithfully obedient to duty before you are fit to be a subject of grace. Do not imagine you can glide over into the favour of heaven, without first keeping the commandment. Abraham, Moses, Christ; impulse, discipline, faith; nature, law, gospel; instinct, obedience, grace; Mature, Sinai, Calvary; this is that Divine order--not bound by rigid rules of chronological succession, but having the freeplay and various intershadings of a moral growth--to which we are to conform our lives. (Bp. Huntington.) Use of the law “ You never saw a woman sewing without a needle! She would come but poor speed, if she only sewed wi’ the thread. So, I think, when we’ re dealing wi’ sinners, we maun aye put in the needle o’ the law first; for the fact is, they’ re sleepin’ sound, and they need to be awakened up wi’ something sharp. But when we’ ve got the needle of the law fairly in, we may draw as lang a thread as you like o’ gospel consolation after it.” (F. Lockhart.) The law shows us our need of Christ One of the persecutors, in Queen Mary’ s days, pursuing a poor Protestant, and searching the house for him, charged an old woman to show him the heretic. She points to a great chest of linen, on the top whereof lay a fair looking-glass. He opens the chest, and asks where the heretic was. She suddenly replied, “ Do you not see one? meaning that he was the heretic, and that he might easily see himself in the glass. And thus God’ s law is the glass that shows us all our spots. Let us hold it right to our intellectual eye; not behind us, as the wicked do, they cast God’ s word behind them; not beside us, like the rich worldling that called to Christ--not to turn the back of the glass towards us, which is the very trick of all hypocrites; nor, lastly, to look upon ourselves in this glass when we are muffled, masked, or cased, for under those veils we cannot discern our own complexions. But let us see the clear glass before our face, and our open face to the glass, and then we shall soon perceive that the sight of our filthiness is the first step towards cleanliness. (J. Spencer.) Grace and truth came by Jesus ChristI. HOW THEY CAME. 1. Let us begin with truth. Truth came by Jesus Christ. (1) The truth of performance in distinction from engagement. You read of the promise made unto the fathers. It was first announced in Paradise, and was renewed from time to time. That promise has been fulfilled by Jesus Christ. (2) The truth of reality in distinction from prefiguration. The Law was a shadow of good things to come. We are in possession of the truth, of Which the paschal lamb, the manna, the rock, the altar, the mercy-seat, etc., were the shadows. (3) The truth of certainty in distinction to error and falsehood. What is heathenism? An assemblage of false gods, temples, sacrifices, hopes, fears: “ turned the truth of God into a lie.” What is Mohammedanism? A vast improvement on heathenism. Mohammed was a man of great talent; but that his communications from God, that his puerile and depraved notions were Divinely inspired, is a lie. What is Popery? Take her traditions, rites of saints, miracles, infallibility--what are these but lying wonders? What is justification by works? What is antinomianism, but a lie? But the gospel is the truth, and we can point to its incontestible evidences. (4) The truth of importance in distinction from all other truth. Things may be equally true, and yet not equally valuable. There is physical, historical, and moral truth; but I lay my hand on the Bible and say, “ This is life eternal.” (5) This is truth the most honourable to God, suited to man, most influential, most beneficent; and we do not wonder at Paul saying, “ I count all things but loss,” for the excellency of it. 2. Grace came by Jesus Christ. (1) Because He revealed it (John 1:18). “ Never man spoke as this man.” “ Grace was poured into His lips,” therefore “ the common people heard Him gladly.” (2) Because He is the effect of it. “ God so loved,” etc. (3) Because He is the medium of it. Everything worthy of the name flows from His mediation--“ promises which are yea and amen through Him” ; redemption, which is through His blood. (4) Because He is the exemplifier of it. Look at His Old Testament emblems, and those in the New: a lamb is the image of His Person, a dove of His Spirit. Righteousness and joy and peace is the character of His kingdom. II. WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THEM NOW THEY ARE COME. We must have something to do with them, or they will have something to do with us. Having come in contact with the gospel you cannot shake it off. It will either be a savour of life or a savour of death. 1. We are to receive them. Not grace without truth or truth without grace. The gospel is truth, and therefore to be received with the firmness of conviction and assent; grace, therefore to be received with cordiality, gratitude, and joy. 2. To exemplify them. Under the agency of the Spirit we are softened from our natural hardness to receive Divine impression, and fashioned into the very character of the gospel so that we realize it, embody it, and render it visible, so that we adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour by showing what it is. Whatever the gospel is we are required to copy it--if light, we are to be illuminated; if salt, we are to be seasoned; if love, we are to be lovely; if holiness, we are to be holy. There are some who are all truth who are not all that grace requires. The perfection of the Christian arises from the harmony and proportion of these excellencies. In your zeal for orthodoxy you must not renounce charity and candour. 3. To extend and diffuse them. Though grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, there are millions who have never heard of the Saviour. But are they to remain ignorant always? (W. Jay.) The purpose of the law The law threatened, not helped; commanded, not healed; showed, not took away, our feebleness. But it made ready for the Physician, who was to come with grace and truth. (Augustine.) Law and grace The Law was given, but grace came, because the one was sent by a servant, the other was brought by the Son. (Bp. Wordsworth.) Grace and truth one with Christ The words “ was given” imply the external and positive institution of the Law; “ came” denotes grace and truth appearing historically in the very person of Him who is their essential source (John 1:4), and becoming realized in His life and communicated through Him. Moses may disappear, the Law remains nevertheless; it is only given by him. But take Jesus Christ away, and grace and truth are gone; for these gifts have come by Him, and are closely united to His Person. (F. Godet, D. D.) Claim and gift There was first, in the Law, God’ s claim of right, which man could not meet, and now, in Jesus Christ, God’ s gift of salvation. (J. Culross, D. D.) The one could only give the command, but the other supplies motives and strength to keep it. The one could only show in figure, what the other exhibits in fact, the means whereby we may obtain pardon where the command has unhappily been broken. (G. J. Brown, M. A.) Grace and truth Grace in opposition to the curse of the moral law; truth in opposition to the figures of the ceremonial law. (Bp. Reynolds.) Grace comprehends all the perfections of the will; truth all the virtues of the understanding. (Dr. Preston.) Truth It is plain that the antithesis cannot be between the false and the true, but only between the imperfect and the perfect, the shadowy and the substantial. So, too, the eternal word is declared to be τὸφῶςτὸἀληθινόν (John 1:9), not denying thereby that the Baptist was also “ a burning and a shining light” (John 5:35), or that the faithful are “ lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15; Matthew 5:14); but only claiming for a greater than all to be “ the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Christ declares Himself ὀἄρτοςὀἀληθὶνος (John 6:32), not that the bread which Moses gave was not also “ bread of heaven” Psalms 105:40), but it was such only in a secondary inferior degree; it was not food in the highest sense, inasmuch as it did not nourish up into eternal life those that ate it (John 6:49). He is ἠἀμπελοςἠἀληθινὴ John 15:1), not thereby denying that Israel also was God’ s vine, which we know it was (Psalms 80:8; Jeremiah 2:21), but affirming that none except Himself realized this name, and all which this name implied, to the full (Hosea 10:1; Deuteronomy 32:32). The fact that in John’ s writings the word ἀληθὶνος is used two and twenty times as against five times in all the rest of the New Testament, is one which we can scarcely dismiss as accidental. (Archbishop Trench.) Jesus Christ It is at this point that the Apostle for the first-time announces the great name so long expected. In proportion as the history of the mercies of the Word towards humanity unfolds before his view, the spectacle inspires him with terms even more concrete and more human. The Loges of Joh 1:1 appeared as Light in John 1:5; as Son, John 1:14; and in John 1:17 He is at length called Jesus Christ. (F. Godet, D. D.) Law and grace These great words have stood here in John’ s Gospel for eighteen hundred years, but I am afraid there are millions of Christian people who have not discovered their glorious meaning. They are still under law, and are still surrounded by the unreal shadows of darkness. About the grace and the truth which have come through Jesus Christ, they know almost nothing. I will begin with what is most obvious. We find ourselves living in a world in which the forces of nature are constant, in which what we describe as natural laws are uniform and invariable. There is an iron rigidity in the constitution of things. We have to discover that constitution. We cannot change it. We have to take account of it in the conduct of life. What we call Nature seems to show no mercy to those who disregard her method. She will give us harvests, but we must pay her price, and her full price. We can have health and strength, but only upon her conditions. Now this relentlessness of nature forms men to think of God sometimes as relentless; for nature, they say, is the revelation of God. We are under law--this is the inference--under law throughout every province of life, and we can never escape the natural consequences of our sins. We must exhaust the penalty in this world or other worlds, we must pay the debt to the uttermost farthing. Christ meets us in nature and contradicts that inference. Nature is only the partial and incomplete revelation of God. Christ reveals the actual truth. You believe that there is no release from the natural consequences of ignorance, of folly, of recklessness, of vice, and that in the full and unqualified sense of the words “ What a man soweth that shall he also reap.” But the whole story of Christ’ s life contradicts that belief. If natural laws were supreme, men born blind would remain blind to the end of their days. Christ gave them sight. That is not merely part of the evidence of the gospel. It is a very substantial part of the gospel itself, and a part of the gospel exceptionally necessary in our times. If natural laws were supreme, deaf would remain deaf, the dumb would remain dumb. Christ gave them hearing, speech. The laws of nature are not supreme. In Christ, the gracious power of the Eternal revealed, not to one age only but to all ages, that nature is not supreme, but that God is supreme. Nature may be relentless; God is not. And it was in the natural order itself that Christ by His miracles gave us this great discovery. The universe is a great school for the discipline of the intellect and the virtue of mankind, and it could not be an effective discipline if the natural order were not constant. But to infer that the methods of God are bound by the methods of nature is a false inference. Let me take another illustration of how Christ contradicts what may be called our natural belief in law. We are conscious of fault, perhaps of something that ought to be described by a darker name. It lies upon our conscience, and we cannot escape from it. We say, “ No, it is impossible that I should ever escape. The guilt is mine, and if I live for a thousand years it will be mine still.” Grace came by Jesus Christ. You think that by an eternal law you must suffer for your sins. The Christian gospel declares that Christ suffered for them. His relations to us--you will discover this, I hope, some day if you have not discovered ityet--are of a kind which made it possible for Him, as it was possible for no one else. But does He deliver from the external and natural consequences of wrong-doing? Not obviously. Perhaps not frequently. If He delivered men from these obviously and frequently, the moral discipline which we are to derive from the constancy of the order of nature would be imperilled. Sometimes, indeed--and far more often than we even suppose--I am inclined to believe that Christ does really deliver us even from thenatural consequences of wrong-doing. But even when these remain their whole character is changed. As sins they are forgiven. Then they become simply the natural consequences of what we have done, not the penal consequences. We do not see behind them a God that is punishing us for having done wrong, but a God who has pardoned us, and who is standing by us to discipline us by certain hard conditions of life to a higher perfection. Consequences which were penal as long as we were unforgiven, become simply natural and disciplinary as soon as sin has been remitted. Do you say that if the consequences remain it makes no difference whether they are penal or whether they are natural and disciplinary? You would hardly say that if you knew the difference from experience. But even apart from experience you may get some glimpse of the truth. Here is a man who, as the result of his recklessness and his gross vices, is suffering disease for which there is no cure. He is miserably weak, sometimes he is in great pain. His condition is the natural result of his evil life, and since he brought it on himself by his vices, he feels that it is the penal result of his evil life. Here is another man, suffering from weakness equally prostrating, from pain equally severe, but his weakness and pain came upon him from no fault of his own. They are the result of exposure to damp air acting on some original defect of the constitution, or the result of overwork for the sake of his wife and children, or of accident, or they came upon him on the battlefield when fighting for his country. They are natural consequences of certain past events in the man’ s history; they are not the penal results of the man’ s vices. Would not the first man give a great deal to exchange the weakness and the suffering which are penal for the weakness and the suffering which are merely natural? That is what Christ reveals. Law came by Moses, grace came by Jesus Christ. Let me take another illustration. Law, moral law, law as we know it--and I am using the word in its popular sense--begins by imposing duty. The law of consequence begins by imposing duty. The law given to the Jewish people so far forth as it was law begins by imposing duty, and it makes the fulfilment of duty the condition of peace with God and of larger power to do well and of eternal blessedness. All this is of the very essence of what we call law. Grace came by Jesus Christ. He begins in altogether a different way. He does not say “ Live righteously, and God will be at peace with you,” , but “ God is at peace with you, therefore bye righteously.” He finds us in our sin. Whenever He really finds us we are conscious of our sin, and so we are ready in our strong belief in that form of law which is familiar to us to say, “ God can be no friend of mine as yet; I must amend my ways, I must break off my evil habits, I must master my evil passions, I must become pure, devout, earnest about religion, and then God will be at peace with me.” That is law. What Christ says is, “ God is already at peace with you, is already your Friend. He will not wait till you have amended your ways before He dismisses the remembrance of your sin. He dismisses it at once, and will help you to mend your ways, will help you to break off evil habits, will help you to master evil passions, will help you to become pure, devout, and earnest about religion.” That is grace. People do not see the glory of it, do not see what it means. They think that Christ only came to make some things plainer to the world than they were before. It never occurred to them that it would not have been worth while for the eternal Word of God to become flesh in order to do that. Truth--there is an infinite suggestiveness in the way John puts the contrast between what Moses did and what Christ has done. He does not merely say, “ The law was given by Moses, grace came by Jesus Christ.” What he says is, “ The law was given by Moses, grace came--grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Judaism was evidently wanting in grace; it was wanting in reality too. All its institutions were elementary, visible, material illustrations of the spiritual realities, the very truth of things, which are ours in Christ. Not only grace and truth, reality came by Jesus Christ. And wherever the grace is obscured, the truth, the very reality and substance of the Christian revelation loses its place, and the mere shadows of heavenly things remain. It was so among the Judaising opponents of Paul. You remember how they insisted on the necessity of circumcision if men were to be saved. But, said Paul, circumcision is nothing. It is a shadow, it produces no real change in a man. We Christians have the true thing, of which circumcision is but the shadow, the circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of man but of God. I entreat you to dismiss shadows, all shadows. Recognize the truth, the reality that has come by Jesus Christ, and in the truth you will find grace. There is a real sacrifice for sin, the eternal Son of God. There is a real Priest. While we deal with the shadows of sin, the shadows of sacrifices and the shadows of priests may avail for us; but when the sin comes home to us in its reality, be sure of this, that only the sacrifice that is real and the Priest that is real will give us courage and peace. And the glory of what Christ has achieved, and the revelation of grace which has come by Christ, is this, that while Christ has cancelled the old and infirm form of law, Christ creates a righteousness transcending all that law had demanded. Grace comes, grants us to begin with more than man had ever hoped for by perfect obedience, and grace tells man that, by an obedience he would never have been capable of before, he is to retain this great wealth and constantly to augment it. And so in a higher region grace and law blend. The law is not made void--it is established; the righteousness that law demands grace renders possible; and so man is glorified for ever in the eternal glory of God. (B. W. Dale, M. A.) John 1:18 No man hath seen God The limitations of human vision Some men have seen much, for all have not the same power of vision. Some have seen much more than others with I. THE NATURAL EYE. They have travelled far and near; seen wonders upon the deep and on the mountains, and the marvels of creation living and lifeless--but no man hath seen God. II. THE EYE. 1. The eye of science. They can invade worlds of truth which are veiled and shut to souls of lesser power; ascend into the heavens and see the harmony which rules all the movements of those gleaming worlds, descend into the deeps of the earth and of the ages which have measured out its history, and read the records which are there inscribed. They can see something of the unity which pervades the whole universe; that all sciences are but chapters in one great illuminated book, or are but notes in one sublime and never-ceasing song--but they have not seen God. 2. Some men have the poet’ s eye which can glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and detect behind what is natural and changeful the truths which are typified, and which abide for ever--but even they have not seen God. III. THE MORAL EYE. Patriarchs, prophets, apostles beheld wonderful visions. Some of them were favoured with glimpses and manifestations and tokens of His presence, and so impressive and overpowering were these that they felt as if they had seen God, but even they were no exception to the rule that “ no man hath seen God at any time.” (E. Mellor, D. D.) The invisible and revealed God I. THE GOD. 1. We are invisible to each another; nay, to ourselves. There is a veil between our spirit and another that, while our words and looks may serve to indicate what is passing within, they cannot unveil the indwelling soul. And so utterly can the soul tyrannize over the house in which it dwells, that it can compel it to illuminate its windows with festive joy when all is woe within, or compel it to darken them when all within is mirth and revelry. And if we cannot see man, much less can we see God. 2. There is no law that God has impressed on nature that we can see. Form and colour we can see, and that things move, but not the pervading life nor the gravitation which holds them together in their orbits. 3. The material universe is but a faint indication of God’ s greatness, nor does it seem possible for even omnipotence to embody itself in matter. We might imagine the sun robbed of its beams, and heaven, earth, and sea combining to surrender whatever of beauty or grandeur they contain, still the result would be miserably insufficient to portray the glory of the invisible God. 4. The mind is baffled in its attempt to grasp the fundamental mystery. The loftiest conception we have is that of infinity. And yet this is a mere negation, and must be affirmed of each separate attribute as well as the totality of God’ s being. 5. Without the guidance of revelation no one has ever reached any fair conception of the unity, spirituality, and moral character of God. Though day unto day has been uttering speech, and night unto night showing knowledge, the mass of the rude and unlearned have everywhere, divided the empire of the universe among gods many and lords many. And as to the philosophers, such of them as have been able to emancipate themselves from gross polytheism, have either guessed at the truth that there is one God, and have contented themselves with a cold deduction of reason, or they have merged God and nature in one, thus destroying His personality in Pantheism. The world never by wisdom knew God. And were we to close the Book of Revelation in a few generations we should relapse into a heathenism as absolute as that of Greece and Rome. 6. And as for the supposed teachings of natural religion, they are but flashes from the revealed Word. We are astonished that any eye can miss the Divine monogram written large in the heavens, small in the flower. But we do not search nature for the invisible, we take the idea with us. II. THE GOD. Christ has revealed the Father in three ways which meet and satisfy these corresponding necessities in man. 1. The incarnation, e.g., of the spiritual in the bodily meets that necessity which feels how impossible it is to grasp the purely spiritual. We do not feel happy at the thought of what is both infinite and invisible. Who has not felt at times the all but intolerable oppression that comes upon the spirit when one has stood in the shadow of Alpine mountains! We are bewildered by the unmanageable vastness of the conception of an all-prevailing God. We long for something that we can more effectually compass. We wish to pray; are heavy laden and sad; but infinitude is too grand for us in such hours, and we long for a friend who can take our hand and say, “ Fear not I am with thee.” But God, the great and glorious mystery, has been manifest in the flesh. As He had to reveal Himself to man, He found no better medium than man, the form with which we were most familiar, and of which we should be least afraid. 2. By His character and life Christ declares to us the moral character of God. There is much in God which humanity, even in its highest and purest type, is inadequate to represent. The medium is tarnished and dimmed so that the heavenly light cannot shine through it, or only brokenly. Once only has humanity formed a medium through which, in its unmingled brightness and beauty, the moral character of God might pour its beams. To learn the mural character of God we must learn it in Christ; its holiness, its tenderness, its mercy for the sinful. 3. Christ has declared to us the Fatherly character of God. God we are told is love. This He is in Himself, and this He has been pre-eminently to us. We need more than words, and then, when we receive but words from those who might give us more real help, we learn bitterly that all friends are not true. Now there is no better test of love than the test of endurance and suffering, but Divine love has made for us the highest sacrifice, “ for God so loved the world,” etc. (E. Mellor, D. D.) Invisible things There are even material agents in existence around us so subtle as to elude the cognisance of the senses. There are powers in nature whose ever-present influence we perceive, yet which themselves are never directly discerned. The varied forms and colours of material objects around us the eye can detect, but not the latent electricity that pervades them. The masses and motions of the planetary bodies are appreciable by the sight; but the keenest organs of sense cannot see gravitation, cannot detect that mysterious power, as it flies through space, binding orb to orb. And if thus on the confines, so to speak, of the material and spiritual worlds, there are agents impalpable to sense, much more, when we pass those limits, do we enter into a region where bodily organs fail us, and a vision and faculty far more divine is needed, Who has seen thought What eye has ever rested on that mysterious essence which we designate mind, soul, spirit? If it be that spiritual intelligences surround us, if millions of spiritual beings walk the earth both when we wake and sleep, yet, as they pass hither and thither on their heavenly ministries, does the faintest sign of the presence of these glorious beings ever flash on the dull sense of man? Nay, are we not dwellers in a world of embodied spirits, holding continual intercourse with them, witnessing constantly the proofs of their existence and the effects of their activity: yet has one human spirit ever become visible to another? No l it is but the forms of spirit that are visible to sense. We see in the busy world around us the mere houses of souls. In this sense, then, God is now and ever must be invisible. If even a finite spirit cannot be seen by the bodily eye, how much less the infinite spirit? (J. Caird, D. D.) The invisibility of God We are much in the condition of children for whom their father has built a magnificent house, and stored it with all needful provisions, and ornamented it with the most exquisite decorations, a house which the more it is examined the more it reveals forethought and arrangement, startling its inmates constantly with unexpected anticipation for their comfort and happiness. But their father, for some reason or other, is concealed from their view. “ Now every house is builded by some man, but He that built all things is God.” We dwell in His house. Its roof declares His handiwork. Its chambers are garnished with a wondrous glory. Its table is supplied day by day with food convenient for us. The house is renewed year by year. But the Hand which accomplishes it all is unseen. We sometimes long to get behind the intercepting veil. We would fain see the Great Worker at His work, see the arm of power, gaze on the fountain of fight, rise above and through all phenomena, leave the fleeting behind us, and stand in the presence of the changeless. But no man hath seen God at any time, and what is more, “ no man can see God and five.” (E. Mellor, D. D.) God invisible to sense Could we entertain for a moment the supposition of God condescending to contrive some resplendent form, some radiant shape of superhuman majesty and loveliness, by which to convey to man a conception of His spiritual glory, we might conceive the universe to be searched in vain for the materials of such a production. We might give the rein to fancy, and imagine the sun robbed of its glory and the stars of their splendours, and heaven, earth, sea, skies, all the myriad worlds in space, combining to surrender whatever of beauty or grandeur they contain; still would the result be miserably insufficient to portray the unapproachable glory of the invisible Being of God. “ These are but parts of His ways; how little a portion is heard of Him! but the thunder of His power who can understand?” (J. Caird, D. D.) The incomprehensibility of God In the Greek legend she who desired to see the deity in his splendour is instantly reduced to ashes. In the Hindoo mythology when Brahma, the supreme, shoots down a pillar of light between the two contending deities, Siva and Vishnu, one deity wings his way upwards for a thousand years with the speed of lightning, but cannot reach its summit; the other wings his way downwards with the speed of lightning for a thousand years yet cannot find its base. Christian theology has felt this no less clearly that God in His own Being is incomprehensible. There is a picture of the vision of St. Augustine, who, when he was writing a treatise on the Trinity, saw a child trying to empty the ocean with a shell into a little hole in the sand. “ What art thou doing?” asked the saint. “ I am trying to empty the sea with this shell into this hole,” answered the child. “ But that is impossible,” said Augustine. “ Not more impossible, O Augustine, than for thee in thy treatise to explain the mystery of the Trinity.” (Archdeacon Farrar.) As regards God, our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him, and our safest eloquence concerning Him is silence, when we confess without confession that His glory is inexplicable, His greatness above our capacity or reach. (Hooker.) The only-begotten Son The only-begotten Son This “ only-begotten Son” is the same Person who, in the previous portion of the chapter, is designated the Word, and of whom it is said in language of which it is impossible for us to mistake the reference, “ He was made flesh and dwelt among us,” and so dwelling among men there was beheld in Him “ the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Person, then, who is thus named is none other than He who was more familiarly known as the Lord Jesus Christ. I. Briefly, then, let me try to unfold to you THE IMPORT OF THIS GREAT NAME--the Son, the only-begotten Son of God. There is a previous inquiry to which I may, in a very few words, refer. What is the reference of the text--it being ascertained that it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ? Does it refer to Him as Divine, or simply as Mediator between God and man? It is evident to my own mind that the Scriptures give the name Son to the second Person of the Godhead, as a Person of the Godhead, and that it belongs to Him as Divine, and that, apart altogether from His becoming incarnate and doing work for the salvation of sinners, He is the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. Further, there is nothing in the name itself that makes it inapplicable to the Divine Person. It is quite true that, as applied to man, it does include those ideas of derivation of beings, which are totally inconsistent with the notion of eternal existence; but when we find figures of any sort applied to God, we must strain them no further than is consistent with a notion of His Divinity. Yet farther: if this name be not descriptive of a Divine relation, then the name “ Father” also is not descriptive of a Divine relation. And if you take it away, then have we no manifestation of the first Person of the Godhead by any personally distinctive name whatever. As, therefore, you say the “ Father” is a name belonging to the first Person of the Godhead as Divine, so is the “ Son.” We must take notice, in an introductory way, of the expression “ only.” This name, whatever be its import, belongs to Christ as it belongs to no one else. There is but one Son of God in the sense of my text. You do not need to go far back into the previous context to find that there are others who in a certain sense are the sons of God. II. We now proceed to notice SOME OF THE BY THIS TITLE. 1. I think that instead of suggesting to us, when wisely interpreted, something inconsistent with Divinity, this title in its sole and incommunicable preeminence suggests the very idea of Divinity. Indeed that is the very first thought I find in it--sameness of nature with the Father. The Son of man is not angelic; the Son of man is man. And so when you speak of Him in the full and true and proper sense, the Son of God is God. Nay, so far may you carry this principle that you cannot describe a creature as the son or child of God without his being, as far as a creature may be, partaker of the Divine nature. It was because there was something of it in him that Adam was called the son of God. But in the full sense, in which it belongs to no other, it is true only of Jesus Christ that He is God. 2. Then there is second thought. There is resemblance in character. The Son of God resembles the Father, and the resemblance in this Divine nature is so perfect as to come to identity. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” 3. Then, thirdly, these words Father and Son suggest intimacy of fellowship. “ The Father showeth the Son all things that He Himself doeth!” 4. But perhaps the most prominent of all ideas connected with the title is intensity of mutual Divine affection. The Father loveth the Son. 5. There is another idea which is brought out also in Scripture, namely, community of interests. All that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. 6. But I should be omitting one thought of great importance if I did not say that the title “ Son,” as applied to the second Person in the Trinity, does, after all, indicate a certain distinction. The Father is not personally the Son, nor the Son the Father. And now for one or two particular inferences from what I have been unfolding in this somewhat dry and formal manner. And first--if these things be so--oh, what love is that of the Father towards sinful men? The second inference is this--I wish I could bring it out as it presents itself, in its attractive phase, to my own mind. If the Saviour be God’ s beloved Son--His only Son--the object of infinite, unfathomable, everlasting delight--what an argument the sinner has when he goes to God for pardon, love, and all spiritual blessings! What a plea does God put in the sinner’ s mouth, when He says to the sinner, “ Ask of Me for My Son’ s sake.” But there is another side to this argument. If the Saviour be God’ s only Son, what becomes of those that will not know Him--of those who dishonour and reject Him? (J. Edmund, D. D.) He hath declared HimChrist; the revelation of the invisible God The obvious import of these words is, not that Jesus Christ has told or taught us verbally who and what God is, but that in His own person and life He is the silent inarticulate manifestation of God to the world. A child may declare or describe to you the appearance and character of his father; a pupil may tell you of his teacher; an author may give an account of himself in his book; but there may be in each of these cases an involuntary and indirect description, much more clear and emphatic than the direct one. For in his writings, the author, especially if he be an earnest writer, unconsciously portrays himself, so that we may know as much of the heart and soul of a favourite author by familiarity with his books as if we had lived for years in personal intercourse with him. So the pupil has caught the revered master’ s manner; or the child bears, not only in his person, but in his temper, habits, sentiments, prevailing tone of thought and feeling, a strong family-likeness to the parent; and though there may be much in the father which, from inferiority of talents or attainments, the character of the child may be inadequate to represent, yet, according to his measure, he may convey to us a better idea of what the father is than by any express and formal description of him we could attain. Now, so it is in the case before us. Jesus manifests the Father by His person, by His life and character, and especially by His sufferings and death. (J. Caird, D. D.) The unseen God made visible in Christ In looking at the sun through a telescope, if we use unstained glass the eye will be burned to the socket, and we shall see nothing; but if we employ a coloured medium, we can examine it with safety. So no man can see God and live. But if we contemplate Him through Christ, that is, if we come to Him through the medium of humanity, we behold Him without being destroyed, nay, the sight of Him thus imparts salvation to us; for we behold His glory as that of the only begotten, and lo! it is full of grace and truth. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Christ’ s relation to the Great Father I. He is the NEAREST to the Great Father. The phrase “ onlybegotten” which occurs only here and John 1:14; John 3:16; John 3:18; 1 John 4:9, implies an essential relation perfectly unique as appears 1. From the interpretation which the Jews put upon it (chap. 5:18). 2. From the extraordinary manifestation of Divine love which the sacred writers saw in His mission. 3. From several events of His history (1) His miraculous conception; (2) His persistent self-assertion; (3) His wondrous miracles; (4) His atoning death; (5) His resurrection and ascension. II. He is IN to the Great Father. 1. In His preincarnate life (Proverbs 8:30). 2. In prophecy (Isaiah 42:1). 3. At His baptism. 4. At His transfiguration (2 Peter 1:17-18). 5. In the Epistles (Colossians 1:13). From this we learn (1) That God loves; He is not mere infinite Intellectuality; He is infinite Sensibility too; (2) Christ is the highest object of His love. That love is not the love of pity, of gratitude, but of infinite complacency. III. He is the MOST IN THE of the Great Father. 1. He alone is intellectually qualified to know God. The highest created being only knows God in some of His aspects; Christ knows Him in all, in His being. 2. He alone is morally qualified to know God. He alone is (1) Sufficiently pure: only the pure in heart can see God; (2) Sufficiently powerful: Moses, Isaiah, John could not stand a slight manifestation. IV. He is THE MOST of the Great Father Matthew 11:27). He is the Logos, the only word which can express the Divine heart. He has revealed 1. God’ s Being: a Spirit, etc. 2. His relation: a Father. If Christ is the correct revelation of God (1) All other revelations must be tested by His. (2) Much that is prevalent in religious society must be repudiated as un-Christ-like. (3) Christ alone must be held as the Master of seals. (D. Thomas, D. D.) A Blessed Evangel Concerning I. THE OF GOD, Who Isaiah 1. Not an abstraction, but a Person. 2. Not a Supreme Intelligence merely, but an infinite Heart. 3. Not a Divinity enthroned in the serene altitudes of His measureless perfections, but a Father interested in the affairs and providing help for the necessities of His children, yea, coming near them in the person of His Son. II. THE DESTINY OF MAN. 1. By establishing the inherent dignity of human nature, since it was capable of union with Divine. 2. By revealing its lofty possibilities when so allied. 3. And so discovering that man must have a future not bounded by time. The first prediction of this was man’ s creation (Leviticus 1:27), the second the Incarnator (Hebrews 2:14). III. THE OF THE GOSPEL which is announced to be grace and truth, without which the nature of God could not be revealed nor the destiny of man attained. Lessons: 1. Do we believe in the Incarnation? Our answer discloses the inner quality of our souls (1 John 4:2-3). 2. Have we accepted the gospel it brings? This also is heart searching, character revealing, destiny fixing inquiry (John 3:33; John 3:36; 1 John 5:10). 3. Can we confirm from personal experience these truths? If so our faith will be invincible against modern doubt. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Revealer of God Jesus Christ declared I. THE UNITY OF GOD. By this we do not understand that this truth was absolutely unknown before His advent, but that it received new importance and fresh vitality in the religion He established. 1. There is but one God--a very vital truth. Whence came it? From nature? Let us ask the pupils of nature, the numerous nations of antiquity. How many gods are there? “ There are gods many,” not that nature taught polytheism, but her pupils learnt it in her school. The mildest departure from the monotheistic faith was that of Persia and the adjoining countries. Their populations looked around, and beheld, as we behold, the presence of light and darkness, of good and evil. These two powers were in perpetual antagonism. How did they account for them? By the adoption of a creed in which there were two gods, Ormuzd and Ahriman, a god of good and a god of evil. 2. Turn from nature to philosophy. Philosophy and idolatry were attached twins. The capital of the one was the centre of the other (Acts 17:16). There were a few there who dared to ridicule the graven images; but what had they to offer instead? Nothing. The alternative lay between polytheism and atheism. One here and there gave utterance to lofty truths about God. But to their thinking the existence of inferior deities was not inconsistent with that of the Lord of all. Socrates on his deathbed ordered a fowl to be sacrificed on his behalf to the god AEsculapius. Besides, the idea of one God, supreme among the many, was counteracted in its influence by the absurd notion that in proportion to His greatness was He removed from the ordinary affairs of mankind. 3. This truth, absent from every other, is prominent in the literature of the Hebrews. The Jewish creed teaches it, but its Author is God. 4. This Old Testament truth Christ appropriated, and made it the cardinal doctrine of the new religion. He amplified it and gave it a vitality it never had before. Its novelty on Christ’ s lips consist in its representation that God is near man and interested in his concerns. Judaism showed men a great God, but he was distant. Paganism showed them a near god, but he was small. In Christianity, however, we see the great God of the Jews without being far, and the near god of the Greek without being small. II. THE OF GOD. Not that this was totally unknown to the ancient leaders of thought, but that it received from Christ a new impulse, power, and application. 1. That God is a Spirit is a thought than which there is none more familiar to the modern mind. Whence came it? From nature? Decidedly not. Matter does not give the idea of spirit; it cannot give an idea which is not in it. 2. Whence then came it? We are conscious of mind, a substance essentially different from matter; but the most influential modern school denies that mind is different from matter, being only the natural result of the happy organisation of matter. And this was practically the doctrine of ancient stoicism, whose God was refined matter. 3. Let us turn to the Hebrew Scriptures, where we find very Spiritual views of God; but the ideas in the Jewish mind were low and carnal. Hence the proneness of the nation to idolatry, which is materialism of the grossest kind. 4. At this crisis Jesus Christ makes His appearance on the arena of history, and proclaims, with an emphasis and a fulness of meaning before unknown, “ God is a Spirit,” etc. This declaration overwhelms us with its simplicity, purity, and grandeur. III. THE OF GOD. 1. The prominent idea of the god of nature is power. But the idea of bare power would create dismay rather than trust. God is mighty, but I have offended Him. Will He forgive? Nature cannot say? 2. The main excellence of the god of philosophy is wisdom; but such a god can make no appeal to the heart of humanity. 3. Christ declares that “ God is love:” His love and His essence are so interwoven that the cessation of the one would be the destruction of the other. Being always in His bosom, the Lord Jesus knows perfectly the contents of God’ s heart; and in His life, death, and ministry that heart is unfolded to the world. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) God unfolding Himself to man (Children’ s Sermon):--The ancients tell a story of one who tried to storm the heavens, but was defeated, and had to bear the heavens as a punishment on his shoulders. He was called Atlas, from which we get the name for a collection of maps. Our religion rests upon the one great doctrine of God. How are we to know Him? We can’ t see Him. But seeing the Queen would not make her known to us; but 1. If the Queen were to send us a picture painted by herself we should know her knowledge, skill, and love of beauty. 2. If she were to send a kind letter we should know her better. 3. If she sent a daughter exactly like herself we should know her best. In these three ways God has revealed Himself to us. 1. The world is a great picture painted by God. Visit a factory and you see order everywhere, which shows that the man who built and arranged such a place had an orderly mind. So there is order; and wisdom, power, beauty and goodness as well, which tells us something of God. 2. The Bible is God’ s letter which tells us of God’ s heart, which nature does not; and what He thinks of us and would have us be and do. 3. Jesus Christ is God’ s Son, and if we want to know exactly what God is like we must study Jesus. If we want to know how He treats sinners and little children, we must find out how Jesus treated them. (Joseph Dawson.) Christ the declarer of the Father I. CHRIST’ S . 1. Its contents (1) God’ s nature, perfections, authority, and government; (2) The eternal councils of His will for the salvation of lost sinners; (3) The wonders of His love in sending His only-begotten Son into the world. 2. Its manner (1) Unique and authoritative; (2) Gentle and tender; (3) Complete; (4) Zealous; (5) Courageous; (6) Unanswerable; (7) Commanding. 3. Its credentials (1) The fulfilment of types and prophecies; (2) His life; (3) The purity of His doctrine; (4) His miracles. II. His OFFICE more extensively considered 1. Before the Incarnation. 2. During His earthly life. 3. After His ascension (1) By the ministry of inspired man; (2) By the ministry of uninspired men, pastors, teachers, officers of the Church; calling them, inclining their hearts to the work, giving them opportunities for engaging in it; (3) By internal illumination, removing the veil from men’ s heart, and quickening their apprehensions by His Spirit. III. THE USE. 1. To show the excellence and necessity of Christ’ s teachings. 2. To warn against the danger of refusing to hear the Divine Teacher. 3. To encourage us to attend to His teachings. (Dr. Guyse.) Christ the perfect revelation of God Perfections that are set before us in mere epithets have no significance but that which we give them by thinking them out. But perfections lived, embodied physically, and acted before the senses, under social conditions, have quite another grade of meaning. How much, then, does it signify when God comes out from nature, out of all abstraction and abstractive epithets, to be acted personally in just those glorious and Divine passivities that we have least discerned in Him and scarcely dare impute to Him. By what other method can He meet us, then, so entirely new and superior to all past revelations, as to come into our world history in the human form; that organ most eloquent in its passivity, because it is at once most expressive and closest to our feeling? (H. Bushnell, D. D.) God only to be seen in Christ Jesus A man cannot behold the sun in the eclipse, it so dazzleth his eyes. What doth he then? He sets down a basin of water, and seeth the image of the sun shadowed in the water. So, seeing we cannot behold the infinite God, nor comprehend Him, we must, then, cast the eyes of our faith upon His image, Christ Jesus. When we look into a clear glass, it casteth no shadow to us; but put steel upon the back, then it casteth a reflex, and showeth the face in the glass. So, when we cannot see God Himself, we must put the manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ as it were a back to His Godhead, and then we shall have a comfortable reflex of His glory. (J. Spencer.) God revealed in Christ We use many words to declare our minds, thereby showing the incoherency of our thoughts and the faultiness of the vehicle in which we convey them. The more powerful the mind, the fewer and clearer the words it uses to disclose itself; and the higher and more inspirational the mood, the more condensed and significant the language. Every extraordinary genius reveals itself, not by the multiplicity of its sentences, but by one or two words struck off the anvil at the moment of white heat. Every illustrious man is characterised by one or two sentences. “ Know thyself! “ therein you see the whole mind and philosophy of Socrates. God revealed Himself once in Christ the Word. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Christianity says with simplicity, “ No man hath seen God, except God.Ó That is a saying of profound meaning. (Napoleon Buonaparte.) John 1:19-28 The record of John I.AN EXAMPLE OF TRUE . 1. John was an eminent saint of God (Matthew 11:11; John 5:35),yet we see him lowly and self-abased. (1) He refuses the honour which the Jews were ready to pay him; (2) He declines all flattering titles; (3) He asserts that he is only a voice and a baptizer with water; (4) He exalts Christ alone. 2. The greatest saints in every age have been men of the Baptist’ s spirit. (1) They have differed widely in gifts; (2) They have been all alike in humility; seeking not their own honour, thinking little of themselves, giving Christ the preeminence. This is the secret of the honour Christ has put upon them Luke 14:11). 3. Let us cultivate this spirit; (1) This is the initial saving grace; (2) We have no religion without it; (3) All saints may have it; (4) It will appear most beautiful in death and at the Judgment. II. A EXAMPLE OF THE OF MEN. 1. The Jews professed to be waiting for the Messiah, and yet at the moment of the manifestation of Christ they were utterly dark (verse 26). And, worse than this, the vast majority would never know Him. 2. John’ s words apply to thousands now. Christ stands among those who know Him not. Money and pleasure they know. They are asleep with salvation within reach. Application: 1. Do we know the extent of our religious privileges? 2. Do we know that Christ rejected will be soon Christ withdrawn. (Bp. Ryle.) The confession of John I. AS IT HIMSELF. 1. He confessed I am not the Christ. This is a hard saying for human nature. Though death is working in every part, it will be its own saviour if it can. Man may be willing to take the reform of John wherewith to gild his own pretensions, but he is offended with the idea that he needs salvation at the hands of another. But there is no hope for him until he confesses it. 2. He confessed that he was not Elias nor any of the prophets. He came, indeed, in the spirit and power of Elias (Matthew 11:14), and was “ more than a prophet” : but not in their sense. Ah! the deceitfulness of the human heart! To have such popular preachers, to be united to such a mighty Church--this pleases the natural man. But John’ s example teaches us to renounce all prophets, save only as they set Christ forth. 3. He confessed he was not worthy to perform the most menial cruces for Christ. The greatest of men sink into nothing before the glory of Christ. And if such was John’ s unworthiness, considering who he was, what is ours, considering who we are? II. AS IT THE CHRIST. 1. He bore witness to Christ’ s preexistence, and therefore to His divinity. 2. To His coming after him, and therefore to His humanity. 3. To His real presence, and any one searching for Him can find Him now in His Word and sacraments; and He is present now as then, as the Messiah, with all His Messianic blessings. 4. To his atonement (John 1:29). III. AS IT OUR OF CHRIST. 1. We are to give heed to the testimony of Christ’ s heralds. (1) Those who speak to us in the Scriptures; (2) Those who minister in sacred things; 2. We must set ourselves to work in Christ’ s way; (1) By repentance (John 1:23); (2) By faith (John 1:29). (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) The Forerunner’ s confession I. BY WHOM MADE. John: on the testimony of the Evangelist (John 1:19) and his own (John 1:23). 1. The Evangelist’ s estimate of John was high (John 1:6-7). The dignity of his person, the nobility of his character, the elevation of his calling (comp. Proverbs 32:2). 2. His estimate of himself was low (John 1:23); an obscure desert preacher, an echo sounding through moral wastes, an insignificant forerunner, a water baptizer who could not touch the impure heart. This language revealed the essential humility of his nature (John 3:20; cf. Philippians 2:3), the felt loneliness of his position (John 3:26; cf. Kings 19:10), his feebleness (John 3:27; cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10), the fruitlessness of his mission (John 1:25). II. WHEN . On the occasion of the Embassy and after the Baptism. It was 1. Timely: given at the moment required (1 Peter 3:15). 2. Prompt: without hesitation or reluctance, knowing that he had nothing to conceal or to be ashamed of (2 Timothy 1:8.) 3. Consistent: the same to the legates and to the populace (Matthew 5:37; Corinthians 1:8.) 4. Final (Hebrews 10:2; John 3:6). III. TO WHOM . The deputation from Jerusalem (verse 19). 1. Composed of Priests and Levites, who would keep each other in countenance, and perhaps overawe the desert prophet by their combined importance. 2. Prompted by growing excitement in the Temple authorities at John’ s popularity. Perhaps hastened by report of Christ’ s baptism. Those who enter on evil courses are easily alarmed (Job 18:7-11.) Rulers governing by force or fraud are afraid of democratic commotions. 3. Instructed to ask who the Baptist was. Public men must expect to be criticized and questioned out of jealousy, fear, and even hate. IV. OF WHAT . Of his testimony concerning himself. 1. Negatively: (1) Not the Christ concerning whom he volunteers no information Proverbs 29:11; Ecclesiastes 3:7); (2) Not Elias, i.e, in the sense they meant; although he was Elias in the sense of Malachi (verse 5), and Christ (Matthew 11:14); (3) Not the prophet: neither Moses nor Jeremiah (Job 10:21;Zechariah 1:5.) 2. Positively: (1) A voice in the wilderness; (2) A herald of Jehovah. (3) A baptizer; (4) A servant of Christ. Learn: 1. The best qualifications for a witness of Christ--humility and courage. 2. The secret of success in life--to know who oneself is not as well as who oneself is. 3. The inferiority of all Christ’ s servants to himself. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Forerunner and his Lord I. A GREAT . 1. there was something in the man that called it forth. Speaking generally, every man is an enigma. Many men, however, go through life without being challenged. Men of the regulation type, whose individuality never strikes you--such men have an easy time of it and give others no trouble. There are others whose strong and striking individuality is an intolerable nuisance to a slumbering, self-complacent society--heroes, reformers, martyrs. Such was John. No one could mistake him for any one else. Hence he was put on his defence and cross-examined. 2. There was something in the times that called forth this question. The world was throbbing with expectation. Heathen religion and philosophy ended in a query. The lost deity of Athens was a note of interrogation. The Jews had grown weary of the stereotyped platitudes of the Rabbis. Men could not help contrasting these days with those of the prophet. And now John came with words of living fire, and thousands exclaimed, “ this is the Prophet.” The phylactured class looked profound and shook their heads. Others responded, “ No amount of head shaking will account for this miracle of a man: While you shake your head he is shaking multitudes.” It was natural that the spirit of inquiry awakened by him should be first exercised upon him. II. A GREAT ANSWER. It is not difficult to give our estimate of other men, but very difficult for a man of delicate feeling to estimate himself, and most difficult to a man of John’ s popularity. If there be any littleness in him it will show itself now. John had summed up other people; what about his estimate of himself! An exaggerated estimate had been formed of him. Will he have genius and modesty enough to correct it? Yes. 1. He answers negatively, and brushes away all exaggerations. 2. He answers in the affirmative (1) concerning himself. Isaiah had only noticed the voice and message. John would not do otherwise (2) concerning Him for whom he had been mistaken. Every true preacher finds his way from every question to Christ. (a) He is near; (b) He stands. Not one who hurries through like a passing stranger; (c) He is unrecognized; (d) He is the Lamb of God. (David Davies.) The mission of John the Baptist It was no affair of his to determine his own latitude and longitude in the chart of the world’ s history. That was for his cotemporaries to do, not for him. That was their responsibility, not his. It was for him not to be thinking about himself and what he might possibly be, but to do his work, to fulfil his mission, to bear his testimony. 1. You cannot have forgotten how our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, being tempted in the wilderness, took up, in opposition to the tempter, not any special or exceptional ground such as He might claim as Messiah and Son of God, but common human ground, such as any poor tempted, suffering mortal may stand on and be safe. The language of the evangelist reveals his profound sense of the difficulty of the situation and of the nobleness of the Baptist’ s demeanour in it: “ He confessed, and denied not: but confessed, I am not the Christ.” It was so easy to equivocate, to give an ambiguous answer; so hard to return a decisive, resolute, unhesitating “ no.” The false prophet would have returned a very different answer. The true prophet must take up common human ground, and so be help and strength to his sinful, suffering, tempted fellow-men. “ Is the way of the Lord straight, or not? Is every obstacle removed out of his path, every offence out of His kingdom? If not, then it is my duty, and yours, to help to make it straight. This is all that I profess or claim to do. Necessity is laid upon me, and do it I must.” 2. But again--there is a shadow of loneliness and isolation in the reply, “ I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” And so it must always be when the circumstances are at all similar. John the Baptist was far in advance of his cotemporaries; was at a far higher spiritual level than they. There was only One who could thoroughly under stand, appreciate, and sympathize with him--his Master and ours, Jesus Christ. If your work is the fruit of real conviction, if it is inspired by true ideas, the work will live, the ideas will triumph, will spread and propagate themselves and mould other minds--on a small scale it may be, and in a very humble way--until it shall be a surprise even to yourself to witness it. John’ s work lives even to this day. His thoughts still mould us. 3. And, once more, there is a feeling of hope and joy in the reply, as well as a shadow of loneliness and isolation. John the Baptist could not forget, any more than we can, that the words which he selected to describe his work are imbedded in a passage of which this is the opening strain: “ Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people, saith your God.” True prophet and earnest worker for God that he was, he could not but find joy in his work, for the work’ s own sake, as well as sorrow. For it is the very nature of such work to bring both joy and sorrow. It is so still. Whatever be the work which is given us to do, whatever be the path of duty for us, if we will but throw ourselves heartily into the one, and tread the other firmly and diligently, hope and interest and joy are sure to spring up around us. In some way or other the work is sure to bring a multitude of wholesome human interests along with it. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.) The mission from Jerusalem The work of John and its results would seem to have come up formally before the Sanhedrim, and this mission was born of their professional dealing with the matter. They had suffered him to go on for some time without taking any public notice of him, Gamaliel-like thinking. If this be of man, it will come to nought; if of God, it will prove itself. And so the resolution probably was: Wait and take the winning side. I suppose they looked upon the Forerunner as one who was going up like a rocket and would come down as a stick. They do not send a deputation till they must. They did not like this interloper, but comforted themselves with the thought that the worst would soon blow over, and that the enthusiasm, too fierce to last, would soon cool down. At length, when they found that it was not to be pooh-poohed, they said, “ We must see to the bottom of this.” But it would not have been dignified to come to examine into matters themselves, so they sent a deputation to obtain an account of who John was and what he was about. (A. B. Grosart, D. D.) The Sanhedrim, though of considerable antiquity, was not of Mosaic origin, nor was it called by that name until the days of Antipater and Herod. In the time of Christ it was composed of seventy-one members, chosen from 1. The chief priests and their families, the officiating high priest being president; 2. The elders, including both priests and laymen, and 3. The scribes, professional jurists, or experts in law. The court resembled that of Jehoshaphat’ s time (2 Chronicles 19:8-11), and possessed the power of judging a tribe, a false prophet, and a chief priest. It was not so much a theological court, to whose jurisdiction belonged all offences against the theocratical principles of the State, as the supreme native tribunal of Judea, to which all matters were referred that could not be dealt with in inferior courts, or that were not reserved by the Procurator. In the exercise of its judicial capacity, therefore (Deuteronomy 18:12), these emissaries were sent to inquire into John’ s credentials as a prophet. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Baptist’ s temptation This may be regarded as a temptation of John corresponding to the simultaneous temptation of Christ. John refused the titles in which the hierarchical party expressed their false views, even as Christ refused to satisfy their expectations by the assumption of external power. (Canon Westcott.) Is it a little thing to have a deputation waiting upon you from the capital, in whose heart there is evidently a very special expectation, and to hear them say, “ Who art thou?” in a tone which seems to imply “ We shall not be surprised if thou dost reveal thyself as the very light we have been expecting.” This temptation often seizes a man, and, extending himself beyond his proper function and calling by flattering persuasions, the result is self-mortification and ignominy; and he who might have done something really good goes out of the world having mis-spent his little day. When a man says, “ I claim infallibility,” and, whether at Rome or in London, he commits the most grievous sins, though he wear the holiest of names. Look at John, see how the great men crowd round him. It never occurred to him that he was some great one. Hence the subtlety of these tempting flatteries. But he baffled them, and kept them at arm’ s length. He would have no compliments, and declined the illustrious titles that were offered him one by one. But this was not enough. John did not stop at the half truth. A man may resist a temptation to lie, and yet conceal the whole of the truth he has been commissioned to tell. If John was not the Christ, but knew who the Christ was, it was not enough for him to decline the Messiahship. He must declare the Christ. This he did with a promptness, clearness, and fulness that puts many a so-called evangelical ministry to the blush. Hence John came out unscathed, and was rewarded by one of the greatest eulogies ever pronounced by Christ on man. (J. Parker, D. D.) Levites. It was by no accident that these were mentioned. John was of the national priesthood, and thus descended from the Levites. It is just possible therefore that relatives or family friends being turned for the nonce into deputies, he might be more easily persuaded to fall in harmony with that foregone conclusion to which they would guide him. Thus a disturbing element of personal relationship would enter into the temptation to assert himself, and to surcease his lowly subordination of himself to that “ other” Christ who could by no possibility be accepted by these temporal Messiah-expecting Jews. (A. B. Grosart, D. D.) Who art thou?--The botanist, in his rambles along the lanes and among the hedgerows, passes by hundreds of flowers without pausing to look at them. A momentary glance is enough. He has seen so many of the same kind before. But now and then he sees a flower which invites his curiosity. He takes his pocket lens, and, with many a keen, scrutinizing, gaze he asks, “ What art thou? What sayest thou of thyself.” This was the principle in which these religious scientists came to John. He did not belong to their schools, and had not been classified in their catalogue of men and professions. In what niche could he be placed? Such a man is an awkward one for classification. He is a class in himself. He cannot be bracketed with others. (David Davies.) I am not the Christ.--A gentleman heard two distinguished ministers one Sunday. Recording his experience, he said: “ In the morning I could not see the Master for the man; in the evening I could not see the man for the Master.” (David Davies.) Ministers must send men to Christ A member of Ebenezer Erskine’ s congregation recorded that having gone once to that godly man to express his admiration and gratitude for a particular sermon, Mr. Erskine accepted gratefully the latter but dismissed the former peremptorily, and asked with kindling eye, “ Did the sermon lead you to Christ? If never before did you then and there give yourself to Jesus Christ?” The preacher’ s fidelity was painful at the moment, and was resented; but after reflection led the visitor to acknowledge that, but for the preacher’ s turning away the conversation from praise of the sermon to Jesus Christ, he would have been little or nothing the better for it. As it was he was sent to Christ. The pointed question set him thinking and praying, and he never rested until he had given himself to the Lord Jesus. (A. B. Grosart, D. D.) John 1:20 He confessed and denied not John and Jesus I. THE DIGNITY OF TRUTH. 1. It seems easy for John to have confessed and denied not. But here is a people ripe for Christ. They had been expecting Him for four hundred years. Moreover, no sooner did John appear than there was a tendency in the whole nation to recognize him as the Christ. They ask expecting an affirmative. For in John they recognize a born leader, a man which met the traditional conception of what the Messiah was to be. The ball was at his feet; the sceptre within his grasp; the hermit of the desert may to-morrow be a king. One word decides the future, but the hardest temptation--that to power--is resisted. 2. It was not easy for John to resist; is it easy for us? How many are content to appear just as and what they are? There are very few who are not ready to appear more learned, clever, innocent, and better off than we really are, if our fellows will only give us credit for it. How much need there is for absolute truth telling in social life! When a man hates another he generally says what he means; but to speak truth at all times, in the ordinary dealings of life, even though admiring deputations leave us and in spite of neglect and pain, this is difficult. 3. This reality was the secret of John’ s power. (1) He was trained for it in the desert. He had been face to face with God and had learned to pray, think, act for himself without “ consulting any but his conscience and his God.” He had accustomed himself, too, to self-denial and to do without enervating luxuries and dissipating companionships. The desert enters too little into the curriculum of our education. (2) The evidence of John’ s reality was his popularity. This position may seem doubtful, because we often find that a man’ s popularity is in inverse proportion to his sincerity. Yet men love reality. John’ s preaching was direct, personal, frank, hard hitting; and yet the crowd was always there: the homely citizen, the publican, the warrior, the Pharisee, all swept into the vortex of this man’ s influence, and the reason was John’ s reality. At heart the world hates humbug; and it is this religious manliness that we want to-day. The Church has grown afraid of plain speaking, and her apologetic “ hope I don’ t intrude” the world listens to with disguised contempt and dismisses with easy scorn. II. THE OF SELF . 1. This a rare gift in the great scramble of life, where every man sets his heart upon a common prize. Here is a great, powerful, popular man swaying a nation, and yet at the very crisis of victory obliterates himself in favour of another. 2. Thus early in history we are taught that Christ must be all in all. They called John “ the Baptist” ; but John dismissed the title. He said, “ No, there is another baptism in comparison with which mine is nothing.” We are not Wesleyans, Baptists, Churchmen--these are ephemeral distinctions which men set up. When the Master comes, all such distinctions die. We are Christians only. And when we begin to decrease into nothingness, when our poor getting on, our thirst for power, is swept out of us and there is left nothing but the desire that Christ shall shine--then there is increase for the Church. 3. Christ and John--how near they stand together; yet how far apart! Christ like John could be stern. It was to John’ s murderer that Christ uttered the one purely contemptuous expression that ever passed His lips. John like Christ could be gentle. The most beautiful thing ever said of Christ was said by this stern ascetic. But John was not Jesus; and he confessed it. (W. J. Dawson.) John 1:22-23 What sayest thou of thyself?I. THE WHICH MADE THE MAN. John was the transition point between the old and the new. The old religion was breaking up as was evident in the multiplication of sects, like the multiplication of the sects before the Reformation showed that it was near. Four divisions of society: 1. The Pharisees. The formalists of their day they endeavoured to keep religion alive by retaining the past. It is an evidence of something gone when antiquarians collect and prize relics. Pharisaism is the religion of habit. 2. The Sadducees: Rationalists, cold of heart and clear in intellect. Sadduceeism is a reaction against Phariseeism in every age. Rationalism is a dry, critical, negative spirit which protests against all that cannot be proved. The religion of the intellect merely. 3. The Essenes: They could bear neither formalism nor scepticism. Mystics who went out into the wilderness to find God in contemplation. Their creed “ God must be felt,” their religion one of feeling. 4. The Herodians: A political party who turned aside from religious questions to those which concerned man’ s social and political existence. II. THE MAN JOHN. 1. It was impossible for John to join the Pharisees. How, with his impatience of all that was unreal and his iron earnestness, could he belong to those whose life was droned away in litanies and genuflexions? 2. Nor can we conceive him resting in mere Sadducaic negations; satisfied with their cold intellectualisms and protests against superstition? 3. Nor could that iron man dream life away with the Essenes. 4. As for the Herodians--surely for one whose life was so real, a patriot’ s life offered what was wanted. But John yearned not for civil liberty, but a kingdom of God. He loved humanity more than men, and could find no career in mere politics. It is only in the consideration of such circumstances that John’ s peculiar life becomes intelligible. III. His MISSION. 1. The preparation. Thirty years’ preparation for one year’ s work. (1) Consider the testimony of such a life to the existence of another world; (2) In the wilderness he measured the worth of society, with its conventionalities and parties, as one sees how the battle goes while he is in it; no one ever understood the world except by getting out of it; (3) The Spirit of God passed into life and action in Him, and made Him intensely real. Only real men can deal witch real questions, and the real questions of to-day are not the frivolous ones discussed in religious journals, but what is God and where. What is human life? Whither are we tending? 2. The mode in which John prepared the way for Christ. (1) He calls himself a voice: an articulate expression. Four centuries had passed and no one could speak the word “ Repent,” if the kingdom of God is to come. Regenerated society comes not from regenerated institutions; but regenerated hearts produce both. But none till John had found the tongue to express this. He spoke out what the world wanted. Distinguish between eloquence and fluency. Fluency John had not: short, sharp, decisive words were his. No ornament or trick of oratory there. Let us not covet fluency but eloquence, the gift of speaking the right thing, at the right time, in the right way. 2. He was a voice crying “ Prepare,” etc. He was s leveller. (1) The mountain of caste stood in the King’ s way. John said, “ I tell you God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham,” and the mountain fell. (2) The mountain of religious sectarianism, “ O generation of Vipers,” levelled that. (3) The mountain which gave impunity to wrong doing. John’ s rebuke of Herod brought that down. Notice the wondrous way in which all fell together at that mighty voice. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The answer of the Baptist He had come I. TO THAT GOD WAS ABOUT TO COME AS HE NEVER CAME BEFORE. 1. This was Isaiah’ s belief, and when John accentuated it he knew that the Divine visitation was near. Had the prophet suspected the delay he would have wondered, and knowing it, doubtless John wondered. Do we? Let us then remember that God always takes His time. If He wants to make a weed, that does not take Him long: if He wants to make an oak, that is more tedious business; if He wants to save a world it takes Him longer still. 2. The Baptist did not imply that God was absent, but that He was about to be manifested. Hitherto it had been winter; the Sun of righteousness had been comparatively hidden. Now He was to arise with healing in His wings. 3. Christ came for (1) The world’ s enlightenment; (2) The subjugation of men; (3) The saving of the world. II. TO BID MEN GET READY FOR HIM. “ Make straight the way.” That was man’ s work. If God had compelled men to prepare that would have ensured the frustration of His purposes. God’ s will is that men should do His will willingly. Three great barriers. 1. Thoughtlessness: It was troublesome to think about Christ sufficiently to see the validity of His claims; so now. 2. Pride: The Jews could not bring themselves to confess their need of a Saviour. 3. Worldliness. (H. W. Burgoyne, M. A.) The voice crying in the wilderness I. WHERE THE VOICE CRIED. In the wilderness. 1. Locally: (1) Generally, the wilderness of Judaea (Matthew 3:1); (2) Particularly, Bethany beyond Jordan. 2. Metaphorically: in the moral desert of Judaea Israel was a wilderness, and Zion a desolation. The Hope of Israel survived only in the breasts of a Luke 1:25). The deepest corruption and the basest hypocrisy reigned among the priesthood (Matthew 23:13; Matthew 23:39). The people were sunk in social and moral degradation (Matthew 3:8; Luke 7:7-14). The intellectual classes were ostentatiously sceptical (Matthew 22:23; Acts 23:8). II. THE VOICE IS FOR AND BY THE WASTES OF SOCIETY. There the prophet should cry aloud and spare not (Isaiah 58:1). III. THE QUALITY OF THE VOICE. 1. Lonely. 2. Authoritative. 3. Directive. 4. Arrestive. (T. Whitelaw, M. A.) Only a voice Christ was a surprise to the world. God prepared the world for this by the ministry of the Baptist. The world has now become accustomed to the story of redemption. But the proclamation of the coming of the King in His glory is still a surprise. It runs counter to all human plans of development, is contradictory to the pride and self-confidence of men, and stands in the same relation to our ministry as did the coming of Christ as a Redeemer to that of the Baptist. That we may rightly fulfil this most responsible office, let us look at the outline of his work. These parallel and coincident offices are I. AN , NOT AN . Its origin is traced to mystery. It is not in harmony with the other voices of the world, but introduces a discord with other utterance, as students of history criticise the record. Heaven, not earth, is its source. It came by Divine ordinance, not through human development. The law of its appointment was such in John the Baptist, and is to be such in our living. 1. The motive of its fulfilment is of God. 2. The reward of fidelity is equally of Divine ordinance--does not come by natural outgrowth. The herald’ s work will have little accumulation of visible results. The reward is beyond. Soon shall we forget the ingratitude of earth. II. IT IS THE OF ANOTHER’ S . As if he had said, “ I am the mouthpiece of one proclaiming.” 1. The breath of God is the power by which our work is accomplished. Said Paul, “ I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” 2. The words are of God, though ours be the voice. And may I add to this thought, the very tone of such a voice is of God. III. Finally, ALL THIS IS IN . There was the simplicity of sincerity in this man. Christian workers, make it true in your own experience that ye are for Christ without qualification; and let man be helped by the testimony that springs from this deep sincerity. 1. Self-forgetful living is the first element in such testimony. 2. In such testimony there must be detaching influence. John the Baptist did not attach disciples to himself. He pointed to the Lamb of God, and his disciples left him and followed Jesus. 3. There must be plainest teaching. John the Baptist preached a single sermon, twice the same day; but while he had that sermon he needed no new one. “ Behold the Lamb of God,” etc. It was blessed to his hearers because it was emphasized by sincerity and consecration. Peter and Andrew knew his meaning, and comprehended that there was more in his utterance than even the words had phrased. Let us enter into this harmony of service, so that our speech shall be sustained by our silence; our conscious influence be in harmony with that which is unconscious and undesigned among our fellow-men. Conclusion: I speak to 1. Christians that they may bear their testimony to the manifested and coming King. 2. Those who are not Christians. The voice of Christ speaks to you to-day. What answer will you give? (S. H. Tyng, D. D.) Self out of sight in the preacher Rev. Dr. Andrew A. Bonar in “ Christian Growth,” an address to Christians at Glasgow, said: “ Some years ago, a zealous and devoted eider, now gone to glory, was pushing his way one evening to be in time for a workers meeting. Taking his place in the meeting, he noticed how the conversation was going on, and rose to give a word. He said, ‘ In coming along I saw a crowd at a shop door in Argyle Street. I pressed in among the crowd to see what was attracting the attention. There was a large picture in the hands of the auctioneer; and he, with great skill, was holding it up to view; and, standing behind his picture so as to be completely hid, was inviting the attention of the company to every remarkable point in the painting. All the while I never got a glimpse of the man himself. That is the way to preach Christ. Self, out of sight--Christ held forth.’” An uncouth messenger, but a glorious message A lady, who was in Richmond at the time of the siege, tells of the delight with which she received a note torn from a soldier’ s pocketbook, and grimed all over with gunpowder; but which assured of the safety of the town. The medium was nothing; the message was everything. (H. O. MacKey.) A minister’ s work My barque is but a little fishing boat, whose business it is to fish for the souls of men; my gifts fit me only to be such a coasting vessel as may carry corn from port to port to feed those who hunger for satisfying bread. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Baptist and the Bible I. JOHN HAD LEARNED TO READ HIS BIBLE. It is a good thing to be able to quote from Scripture. To buy a Bible and treasure it as an ornament is good as far as it goes; but the book must be read so as to be remembered if it is to be of service. It is just possible that had we been in the Baptist’ s place we should have had some difficulty in making our memory of Scripture serve us. The Bible is crowded out by the multiplication of books, the very best of which is not to be named beside it. II. JOHN IN . The question arose, doubtless, as to whether the New Teacher was orthodox. His testimony, however otherwise disagreeable, showed that he was loyal to the traditions of his religion and country. It is a great trouble to some people to believe in the Jewish prophets. III. John believing in prophecy HIMSELF AS THE OF IT. It is not every man who, being asked who and what he is, can turn to the Scripture and find the answer there. The remembrance that God was working according to a great plan, and that he was part of that plan, must have given him a noble self-consciousness. In this the Baptist was not wholly singular. Although our names may not be in the Bible, we are as much a part of God’ s plan as John was. Believe, then, that as truly as God sent the Baptist He sent you. (H. W. Burgoyne, B. A.) John in the wilderness Losing the solaces of an earthly home, he found in God an everlasting portion. Like a single trunk of an Alpine tree rising solitary from between the interstices of some lonely rock and throwing its branches over the cataract. You look for soil, there is scarcely any to be seen; and yet that gnarled root has fastened its tenacious grasp on the bare stone, and tossed its green branches in the air, as if it needed nothing but the breath of heaven for its support. So this soul flourished where less hardy spirits would have starved, and breathed freely the atmosphere of heaven while yet upon earth. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Make the paths straight This is what the sun says. He comes to us every morning, and stays with us all day long, but if it were not for the preparation and reception in the way of opening shutters and raising blinds, we should lose very much of his blessing. All the world over, before a blessing can be enjoyed there must be a fitness to receive it. If you take a blind man into a picture-gallery, what good do you do? The beauty of the pictures is there, but the man is unaffected by it; its way into the man’ s soul has not been made straight. You may play all manner of beautiful music, but if your audience is deaf, you play only for yourself; the way of the music is not made straight except into your heart. And the result will be just the same if the blindness and deafness are not natural but assumed. If the man in the picture-gallery is only covering his eyes with his hands, he is as good as blind; and if the people in the concert-room are only putting their fingers into their ears, they are as good as deaf. So it was, alas! so it is, with the people and Jesus. (H.W. Burgoyne.) John 1:24-27 They which were sent were of the Pharisees The question of the Pharisees 1. It is an evidence of a sick and corrupt Church when corrupt men are entrusted with most grave and weighty employments in it; for so was it with the Church of the Jews when “ they which were sent were of the Pharisees.” 2. Corrupt men are more ready to jangle and lie at wait for advantages than to embrace the truth of God delivered by His servants; for these Pharisees take no notice of what He had said from Isaiah, nor seek to be further cleared in it, but think they have an advantage of him, that he should presume to baptize. “ Why baptizest thou, then, if thou be not that Christ?” etc. 3. It was an uncontroverted truth, both among friends and foes, in the Jewish Church, that at the coming of the Messiah there should be some changes in the way of religion and an institution of new ordinances; for the Pharisees have nothing to say against his baptism if he were Christ, or Elias, or the prophet: their only objection is, “ Why baptizest thou, then, if thou he not?” And John’ s answer, “ I baptize, but there standeth One among you,” etc., importeth that he being Christ’ s forerunner, who was now come into the world, it was lawful for him to administer this sacrament. 4. Ministers ought to arrogate no more unto themselves than to be ministers and dispensers of the external means of word and sacraments, leaving the glory and efficacy thereof unto Christ entirely; and people ought so to be affected in coming to these ordinances. Therefore saith John, “ I baptize with water,” not denying that Christ also baptized with water, nor yet denying that baptism administered by him was accompanied with grace and the Spirit of God; but he only compareth his person and office with Christ’ s, and showeth that whatever grace came by the sacrament administered by him, yet he was not the giver of it, but Christ only, who had appointed him to dispense the outward seal. 5. Christ may be among a people, and yet they who reckon themselves very high in the Church neither see Him nor know Him; for saith John, “ there standeth One whom ye know not.” 6. It is the duty of ministers, and will be the care of such as are faithful and zealous, to exalt and commend Christ at all occasions, that men may fall in love with Him. Therefore doth John again repeat his doctrine, “ He it is,” etc. 7. The more high employment and the eminent gifts men have, and the more ready men are to esteem of them, the more will they abase themselves, if they be truly gracious, and be affected with the excellency of Christ; for it is John, the greatest among them that are born of women, and so much esteemed among the Jews, and the forerunner of Christ, who thus abaseth himself. “ He is preferred before me, whose shoe’ s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” 8. Albeit Christ, of free grace, do honour men with eminent employments under Him, and particularly ministers of the gospel. Yet such as know Christ and themselves well will not only see that they are unworthy of the high employments they have, but even to do the basest service to Him; for John saith not, I am unworthy to be His forerunner, though employed in that service, but “ whose shoe’ s latchet I am not worthy to unloose,” which was a mean and base office. (G. Hutcheson.) The Pharisees represented the Judaism of the Post-Exilian era. Originally purists as well as legalists, they strove to carry out in practice the ideal of legal life set up by the scribes. Hence they were denominated Perushim, Pharisees or Separatists. First mentioned by Josephus under Jonathan and Hyrcanus, high priests about B.C. 145-150. In the time of Christ they had so far degenerated from their primitive piety as to make the essence of religion consist in ceremonial observance--an apostacy which drew down upon them the exposures, rebukes, and denunciations of Jesus. They were ultra-conservatives in Israel, the champions of orthodox literalism, and who accordingly watched everywhere with inquisitorial severity to see that the theocratic order was preserved intact, not merely as to ritual, but also with respect to the competence of office and doctrine (John 9:13; John 7:47-48; John 12:42). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 1:26I baptize with water The baptism of John If the rite, which the Forerunner of our Lord administered, is not to be considered as a Christian institute, to what dispensation are we to assign it, since it is manifestly no part of the economy of Moses? The reply is that it was the symbol of a peculiar dispensation, which was neither entirely legal nor Evangelical, but occupied an intermediate station, possessing something of the character and attributes of both; a kind of twilight, equally removed from the obscurity of the first, and the splendour of the last and perfect economy of religion. The light which he emitted, though it greatly surpassed every preceding illumination, was of short duration, being soon eclipsed and extinguished by that ineffable effulgence, before which nothing can retain its splendour. (Robert Hall.) . One among youChrist among us 1. As to His human nature, as one of yourselves, as He took upon Him the form of man and became the servant of men, and is among you as once He sat in the midst of the doctors in the Temple. 2. As to the Divine nature He is amongst you, for He filleth all in all, and is very nigh to every one. 3. He is among you as the Light which lighteth every man, and as the Word of Wisdom in the heart of all His people. 4. Among you as the Mediator between man and God, and seeking to draw all men to God. 5. Not as the Baptist in the desert, but in the midst of the cities of men. 6. Among you all, for the benefit of all, as the true tree of life in the midst of the garden of this world for the life and for the healing of all. (W. Denton, M. A.) The unknown presence We can imagine the Master visiting various spheres in the modern world with the same result. I. . II. . III. THE CHURCH. IV. . (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.) Christ near yet unperceived I. THE WORLD’ S CREATOR A IN HIS OWN . 1. In part arising from the intentional obscurity that veiled His appearance among man for purposes of their own earthly sovereigns often travel in disguise; but the world has never witnessed so strange an incognito as this. The King of Glory laid aside His robes of light, and in the simple garb of a suffering man, “ hid” Himself from the wise and prudent that He might reveal Himself to the lowly and the meek. From His own disciples at times He purposely veiled His identity (John 20:14; John 21:4; Luke 24:16; Luke 24:31). 2. Too largely owing to the blinding effect of sin. The other and gentler John affirms the same mysterious but humbling fact, and enumerates the accumulating evidence of its truth. For ages the true Light shined in promise, prophecy, holy law and inward conscience, yet the darkness discovered it not (verse 5). In the fulness of time the Creator came to visit this province of His empire, and was unrecognized upon His own estate (verse 10). More humbling still, when He came to His own possessions His own people received Him not (verse 11). Even those to whom He made Himself known were but imperfectly acquainted with Him. II. THE OF MAN THAT WHICH THEY MOST NEED TO KNOW. Ignorance baneful, knowledge beneficial; yet vast numbers are strangers to the source, centre and sum of all wisdom. 1. With some the knowledge of Christ is only indirect; the evidence of vague rumours or the acceptance of testimony; a secondhand knowledge. 2. Personal knowledge exists in varying degrees. Some are only on terms of distant acquaintance; others have occasional communications; others have intimate friendship; with the most loyal and loving Christ sustains confidential relations. 3. To be ignorant of Him is the worst privation man can suffer (2 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Corinthians 4:4). 4. When He is known He is admired, loved, trusted and obeyed (chap. 4:10). III. THE SAVIOUR’ S AND IN HIMSELF TO THEM THAT SEEK HIM. 1. He has no wish to be unrecognized. He stands, waits, knocks Revelation 3:20). 2. He awaits our entreaty to remove His disguise (Jeremiah 14:5). 3. Once admitted to His friendship we shall grow in intimacy with Him. 4. In His own home hereafter He will show us more and more of His hidden glory. (R. Lewis.) Christ unrecognized I. A WONDER. Christ unknown. 1. Not from want of evidence then or previously. (1) The world manifested its Maker; (2) Conscience reflected His light; (3) Prophecy and type shadowed His person and ministry. Abraham saw His day. Moses spoke of Him. To Him gave all the prophets witness. (4) John proclaimed Him. 2. Not from want of evidence now. In addition to all the above, (1) The Holy Spirit testifies of Him. (2) The Christian consciousness of eighteen centuries fulfils the promise of His perpetual presence. (3) His ambassadors declare Him. (4) His sacraments embody Him. How strange that He should be amongst the children of His people, the hearers of His gospel, and yet not be known! II. A STERN . In the knowledge of Him, and in that alone standeth our eternal life. That knowledge is the beginning, the middle and the end of Christianity. 1. The beginning. Christ’ s first invitation echoed by His first convert was “ Come and see.” Isaiah saw His glory, and was cleansed for service. When Paul saw Christ he became a new man. 2. The continuance. The development of Christian life depends on growing knowledge of Him (2 Peter 3:18; Philip 3:10; Hebrews 12:2; cf. Hebrews 3:1). 3. Its consummation is in heaven, where we shall see His face, and be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. III. A BLESSED . “ There standeth.” 1. How? (1) Stationary--not shifting, coming and going. (2) Patient--not wearied by procrastination, but waiting to be gracious. (3) Accessible. “ Lo, I am with you alway.” “ Now is the accepted time.” 2. What as? (1) A sympathizer. (2) A Saviour. (3) A personal friend. IV. A FEARFUL . 1. To know Christ is to be known of Him. Christ knows His sheep. He recognizes us when our friends have ceased to do so; when it is difficult to do so; in poverty and obloquy; at the last day. 2. Not to know Christ is to be disowned by Him. “ I never knew you.” (J. W. Burn.) He it is, who, coming after me, is preferred before meThe magnanimity of the Baptist The world recognizes jealousy as the chief weakness of popular leaders and preachers. Such men are spiritual athletes, who cannot bear a rival. The greatest of popular preachers, the darling of Antioch and Constantinople, admits that he who can overcome this is almost like the disembodied spirits, whose lives, pure as the crystal stream, can never be darkened by any shadow of envy or vainglory. But the leader of a great party in a nation; the founder of a sect, which has vitality enough to live on for years; who was regarded by some as probably the Messiah--that he should have bowed down in prostrate humiliation before a younger successor, this is original indeed. (Bp. Alexander.) The best servant the most humble As the lark that soars the highest, builds her nest the lowest; the nightingale that sings the sweetest, sings in the shade when all things rest; the branches that are most laden with ripe fruit, bend lowest; the valleys are fruitful in their lowliness; and the ship most laden sinks deepest in the water, so the holiest Christians are the humblest. (J. Mason.) Humility not contemptible Humility did not make John the Baptist contemptible; but when he refused the name of a prophet, Christ said that he was more than a prophet. Humility did not make Moses contemptible; but as he was the mildest man upon earth, so he was the greatest upon earth. Humility did not make David contemptible; but when he humbled himself, he said unto Michal, “ I will be more humble yet, and lowly in mine own sight, yet thou and thy maids shall honour me.” As Christ ceased not to be a king because He was like a servant, nor to be a lion because He was a lamb, nor to be a judge because He was judged; so man doth not lose his honour by humility; but he shall be honoured for his humility, as the son was honoured when he was humbled (Luke 15:18-25). Thus humility hath found that which pride sought; like little David, which was least accounted of, and yet got the victory, yea, when no man durst encounter with the giant (1 Samuel 17:28). (Henry Smith.) John 1:29 Behold the Lamb of God! The work of Christ, and of His disciples I.THE SAVIOUR’ S WORK IN THE OF MEN. 1. He taketh away the sin of the world. The father says, “ Save the family” ; the citizen, “ Save the town” ; the patriot, “ Save the country” ; Christ, “ Save the world “ --and not merely says, but accomplishes. 2. His qualification for the work; the “ Lamb of God,” innocent, pure, spotless; the “ Son of Man” ; the “ Son of God.” The head of humanity and the heart of God were in the great sacrifice. 3. His constant watching. Christ asks men to follow what they seek. Not one follower is unnoticed. 4. His ready welcome. The noble gathering up of the Gospel is in the golden word “ Come.” It is not the mere sentimental emotion roused by a Sunday service that He seeks, but the coming and believing in Him. 5. His intimate knowledge of the character of any that may come. Christ reveals to men their ideals. Peter. Nathaniel. II. THE ’ WORK IN THE OF MEN. 1. Manifestation of humility in the presence of Christ. “ I am not worthy.” 2. Manifest perseverance. Men scarcely listen; but John repeats his direction. The humble man is not changeful, not persistent. 3. Exquisite naturalness. Andrew thought of his brother: a rather obscure man brings Peter to Christ. (U. R. Thomas.) The Baptist’ s message I. THE TRUE . 1. One who sees Jesus for himself (John 1:33), The true herald of Jesus is like John. (1) He is on the look-out for is Lord s appearing. (2) He rejoices to preach Jesus, as One whom he has seen and known, and still hopes to see. (3) He preaches Him as come, and as coming. 2. He calls upon men to see Jesus. (1) Plainly and confidently. (2) Continually and solely (John 1:35). (3) Earnestly and emphatically. 3. He leads his own followers to Jesus (John 1:37). (1) He had enough force to induce men to be his followers. (2) Enough humility to induce his followers to leave him for Jesus. (3) Enough grace to make him rejoice that it was so (2 Corinthians 4:5). 4. He loses himself in Jesus. (1) He sees the necessity of this (John 3:43). (2) The propriety of this (John 3:29). II. THE TRUE MESSAGE. John’ s word was brief, but emphatic. He declared Jesus to be 1. Sent and ordained “ of God.” 2. The one real, Divinely appointed sacrifice for sin--“ the Lamb of God.” 3. The only remover of human guilt--“ which taketh away the sin of the world.” 4. Set forth as the object of faiths” Behold the Lamb.” He exhorted his hearers to look at him with that look which saves. The end of all ministries and ordinances is to bring men to look to Jesus. Both John, who ran before, and we, who run after, must point in the same direction. III. THE TRUE OF THAT MESSAGE. The conduct of John’ s disciples shows that our true wisdom concerning gospel testimony Isaiah 1. To believe it, and so to acknowledge Jesus as our sin-removing sacrifice. 2. To follow Jesus (John 1:37). 3. To follow Jesus, even if we be alone. These were the vanguard of the vast hosts who have since followed Jesus. They knew not what suffering it might involve, but went first and foremost. 4. To abide with Jesus (John 1:39). 5. To go forth and tell others of Jesus (John 1:40-41). Conclusion: Here Isaiah 1. A lesson for those who preach. John’ s sermon was short, but full of Jesus, and effectual for soul-winning. Imitate him. 2. An example for those who have believed. 3. A gospel for those who hitherto have not known the Saviour. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The great message John’ s prior life was Divinely ordered for this evangelical apprehension of Jesus. Born of the lineage of Levi, he renounced all priestly heritage and claim, and even attendance at the Temple; and thus was lifted above the class interests and sordid motives which might have swayed him toward the worldly and temporal expectations of the Messiah, and disentangled himself from the meshes of rabbinical tradition. By his seclusion, the direct reading of the Old Testament, and his communion with God, his perception would be farther cleared to discern the spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ and the innermost case and necessity of that kingdom--redemption by sacrifice. Notice I. The of the message. 1. A Lamb--symbol of sweetness, innocence, harmlessness, patience; an idea peculiarly grateful to hearts pierced with sin and worn weak by the anguish of self-accusation. 2. An idea the opposite of the “ wolf” element in man--oppres-sion, injustice, self-seeking, revenge. 3. The first death was a murder. Lamb-like virtues have never been admired. II. The of the message. The all but universal hope of the Jews was of a warring, conquering King. How fitting that the disappointment should be broken by the proclamation of a Lamb! By His very peacefulness and harmlessness many would be prepared to surrender their misconceptions. III. The Of the message. 1. The Divine appointment of the Lamb. 2. His atoning character, as foreshadowed by the prophets. 3. The redemption through His blood. IV. The of the message. The “ sin” of the world taken away from every one who will accept Him for a Saviour. V. The of the message. What an antithesis to other kings, whose path has been reddened with blood, and who have come and gone without the slightest benefit to the race. Christ comes to deliver and bless. VI. The BREADTH of the message. “ The world.” not Jews merely. (A. B.Groshart, D. D.) I. THE NAME WHICH THE BAPTIST GIVES TO CHRIST. The Lamb of God. Let us serve Him faithfully as our Master. Let us obey Him loyally as our King. Let us study His teaching as our Prophet. Let us walk diligently after Him as our Example. Let us look anxiously for Him as our coming Redeemer of body as well as soul. But above all, let us prize Him as our Sacrifice, and rest our whole weight on His death as an atonement for sin. Let His blood be more precious in our eyes every year we live. II. THE WORK WHICH THE BAPTIST JESUS AS DOING. 1. Christ is a Saviour; not a conqueror, a philosopher, a moralist. 2. A complete Saviour; not merely makes vague proclamations of pardon and mercy, but takes away sin. 3. An almighty and universal Saviour. He died not for Jews only, or a few persons, but all mankind. (1) His work on the cross was more than enough to make satisfaction for the sins of all. (2) His blood was precious enough to wash away all guilt. (3) But the efficiency of Christ’ s atonement is for those only who believe. 4. A perpetual and unwearied Saviour “ taketh.” He is daily doing this. III. THE OFFICE WHICH THE BAPTIST TO CHRIST. 1. This baptism is not the baptism of water. (1) It does not consist either of dipping or sprinkling. (2) It does not belong exclusively to infants or adults. (3) It cannot be given to any minister or layman of whatever church. (4) It is a baptism which the Head of the Church keeps wholly in His own hands. It consists of the implanting of grace into the inward man. It is the same thing with the new birth. It is a baptism, not of the body, but of the heart. It is a baptism which the penitent thief received, though neither dipped nor sprinkled by the hand of man. It is a baptism which Ananias and Sapphira did not receive, though admitted into church-communion by apostolic men. (Bishop Ryle.) Israel’ s Messiah I. JOHN’ S OF THE MESSIAH. 1. His person identified (John 1:30). 2. His calling declared (John 1:20). (1) Divine in its appointment. The Lamb chosen, provided, sent by, and consecrated and belonging to God. (2) Saving in its character: to realize and fulfil all that had been foreshadowed by the paschal lamb, the lamb for burnt-offering, and the suffering Servant of Jehovah. (3) World-wide in its destination: not for Israel alone, or believers simply, but for humanity at large (John 3:16; John 12:32; 1 John 2:2; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Timothy 4:10). Upon the ground of Christ’ s expiation, a bona fide offer of forgiveness is made to the world (Ephesians 1:7). 3. His dignity announced. (1) His higher being (John 1:15). (2) His loftier calling. (3) His nobler name. II. JOHN’ S OF MESSIAH. 1. When it originated. At the Baptism (John 1:33). Prior to this John may have had surmises, hopes, expectations, but not certain knowledge; neither have we without the Father’ s testimony, to which also Christ (John 5:37), John (1 John 5:9; 1 John 5:11), and Peter (2 John 1:16) appeal. 2. Whence it proceeded. From the Spirit. It was no deduction or conclusion of His own. From the same source proceeds all spiritual understanding of Christ or His truth (John 14:26; John 16:13-15; 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27; 1 John 5:20; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14). 3. On what it rested. (1) An open heaven. As in ancient times, to Jacob (Genesis 28:12), Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:1), Daniel (Daniel 10:5-6), and afterwards to Stephen (Acts 7:5-6), Paul (2 Corinthians 12:4), Revelation 4:1). This a symbolic representation. The heavens had opened, that God’ s Son might come forth, and that Christ’ s brethren might enter in: for the outflow of grace to men, and for the entrance of men to glory. (2) A descended Spirit. Of this the dove an emblem. The permanent endowment of Jesus with the fulness of the Spirit convinced the Baptist. Lessons: 1. The twofold character of Christ’ s salvation. (1) The removal of sin. (2) The implantation of a new life by the Spirit. 2. The twofold condition of receiving Christ’ s salvation. (1) Repentance, symbolized by baptism. (2) Faith upheld in beholding the Lamb of God. 3. The twofold qualification for preaching Christ’ s salvation. (1) A knowledge of Christ. (2) An acquaintance with self. 4. The twofold evidence that Christ is the Son of God. (1) He can open heaven by removing sin. (2) He can qualify for heaven by imparting the Spirit. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Lamb of God I. THE OBJECT OF SAVING FAITH. The Lamb of God was the original and universal sacrifice. The early worshippers were instructed to offer a lamb. A lamb was the morning and evening sacrifice. Isaiah lift has reference to it. John pointed to the substance, of which these were shadows: Jesus in all His humiliation, down to the moment of His expiring cry. To this believers of previous dispensations looked forward. John would hays the faith of his hearers to coincide with that of Abel, Abraham, and the Old Testament saints. The way of life has never varied. Never has a soul been saved, never will a soul be saved, but by the Lamb of God. II. THE DUTY TO WHICH JOHN HIS HEARERS. 1. To receive the tidings he conveyed to them. No event had ever occurred like this. Man’ s attention in every age is imperatively called to this. It is the great central truth on which all history hangs. If rightly received, the message must tell on the entire character. 2. To banish from them whatever might oppose the reception of the message. The Jews had much to do in this way. The natural operation of the heart is to establish a righteousness of its own. Men depend on good character, station in the Church, the use of means. But we must be made to lose confidence in any such hope. 3. To rest positively on Christ. III. THE PARTIES CALLED TO THIS DUTY. 1. Generally all men, in every condition, of every character. 2. Those who thirst, and are conscious that they need a resting place, an object on which to bestow their affections, to satisfy their hearts. 3. Those who are pierced by God’ s arrows of conviction. (J. Beith, D. D.) The Lamb of God I. THE OF THE VICTIM. Gentleness and innocence are suggested by lambs generally. Besides this, the lamb selected for sacrifice was to be without blemish. And Jesus was gentle. “ He did not cry,” etc. This was not the gentleness of weakness, for He calmed the storm and raised the dead. He was “ without spot” --“ holy, harmless, undefiled.” II. THE DEATH OF THE VICTIM. The lamb was slain in sacrifice. So the death of Christ was the chief feature of His life--predicted, prominent in His own mind, the chief feature of the gospels and epistles. III. IS WITH THE DEATH OF THE VICTIM. Ancient prophecy spoke of Him as “ wounded for our transgressions.” He Himself said, “ As Moses lifted up,” etc. The apostles proclaimed salvation through His death. IV. WHAT, AS SAVIOUR, HE DOES. 1. He takes away the guilt and penalty of sin. It was not the guilt of separate sins that the Lamb of God expiated. It was sin itself. 2. He takes away the power of sin. He destroys sin itself. V. THIS HE DOES FOR ALL MANKIND. The whole world needed salvation, and we may infer that the supply is co-extensive with the want. As He commands the gospel to be preached to every creature, there must be a gospel for every creature; and those who do not actually obtain salvation fail only “ because of unbelief.” (Newman Hall, LL. B.) The Lamb of God I. THE SAVIOUR “ The Lamb of God.” II. HIS WORK , “ Taketh away the sin of the world.” III. FAITH . “ Behold the Lamb of God.” IV. DUTY URGED. 1. Let the careless and impenitent behold Him. 2. Let those who are trusting in their own merits behold Him. 3. Let penitent sinners behold Him. 4. Let Christians, for their habitual comfort and strength, behold Him. (Newman Hall, LL. B.) The Lamb of God We must admit two postulates. 1. That the world and all its inhabitants are sinners. 2. That there is a Saviour who takes away the sin of the world. Let me direct your attention to I. THE BEING HERE . The Israelites found that the forgiveness of their sins was connected in some way with the sacrificial offerings, and therefore came too generally to suppose that there was some inherent virtue in the victims. They were pleased with the shadow instead of looking to the substance. The Baptist broke in upon this lifeless form of things, and, pointing to Christ, said, “ Behold,” etc. All types are now to merge in the Antitype. The communion bears something of the same relation as the morning and evening and passover lambs bore to Christ. Beware, then, of the mistake of the Jews. 1. In pointing to the Lamb of God, John conveys an important lesson to us. Men expect forgiveness either from the goodness of God or their own good works. Look not on these refuges of lies. Behold the only Being who taketh away sins. 2. Christ is called the Lamb.of God, because appointed by God and accepted by God. II. THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF HIS . 1. He endured the Cross, not to raise the Jewish nation to a temporal sovereignty, nor to enrich mankind with wealth and pleasure, nor to acquaint the minds of the inquisitive with philosophy and science. Had that been so, He had been acceptable to Jews, politicians, and philosophers. But by taking away sin, the very ends sought for are most thoroughly achieved. Take away that, and you take away the world’ s darkness and the world’ s misery. 2. There are two great evils which sin has entailed. (1) It has brought us under condemnation, taken away our title to heaven, and left us outcasts. (2) It has subjected us so to its ascendency and power, that every affection and appetite is the minister of sin, and we are disqualified for the joys of heaven. To save us, therefore, Christ takes away the guilt and condemnation, and also the power and pollution of sin. 3. The salvation is universally offered, on the condition of faith. III. THE OF THE WORDS “ BEHOLD,” etc. We may suppose the Baptist addressing himself to 1. Angels. As ye wing your flight on errands of mercy, ye do behold Him; for into these things the angels desire to look. 2. Fallen angels. Beheld the issue of your evil efforts, the promised bruiser of the serpent’ s head! 3. Sinners. Turn from trusting in your useless efforts. Why will ye die! 4. Ye people of God, behold the author of that joy and peace with which your hearts are filled. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The Lamb of God I. A TO CHRIST. We can imagine these words spoken in heaven, and angels desiring to look into them. We can imagine them spoken in hell and devils “ beholding Him, but not nigh.” But, alas! on earth how few point or look. The rich man points to his wealth, the young man to his pleasures, the Pharisee to himself; but those who belong to Christ point to Him. II. A NAME OF CHRIST. 1. Open your Bibles, and you will see this name above every other. View Him (1) In the patriarchal days; in the sacrifice of Abel. (2) Under the law, as the Paschal Lamb. (3) In Psalms 23:1-6. (4) In Isaiah 53:1-12. (5) In the gospels. (6) In the epistles (1 Peter 1:19). (7) In the Apocalypse. 2. He was God’ s Lamb because (1) God’ s property was in Him. He was God’ s Son, Servant, Angel, Prophet, Messenger. (2) God’ s Name was in Him. (3) God’ s love was in Him. (4) God’ s power was in Him. III. A WORK OF CHRIST. He takes our sins away. 1. From the sinner’ s heart. 2. From God’ s Book. 3. From God’ s bar. 4. From God’ s sight. 5. To His cross. 6. To His grave. (R. S. Brooke, M. A.) The Lamb of God 1. John had urged the duty of repentance. Now when Jesus made His appearance, John discloses the great object to be accomplished by Him--viz., the pardon of sin. For this mere repentance is insufficient, for it can never remove the penalty of a broken law. It only prepares the penitent to avoid transgression in the future by inspiring a sorrow for and a hatred of sin; so John did not tell the Jews that they would be forgiven because of their repentance; but urged it as an indispensable condition of securing Christ’ s blessing. When he had done this, he bade them behold the Saviour. 2. The term “ Lamb” (1) Has respect to disposition and character, and is significant of innocence, meekness, and unresisting submission (Isaiah 53:7). But there were, doubtless, many others to whom the term could be applied besides Christ. But this did not make them saviours from sin. Had Jesus been only a lamb in this sense, He might have been thus qualified for a teacher. But would not John have added something indicative of his Teacher’ s office? To choose a lamb for illustration, and to mean by “ taking away the sin of the world” the influence of sagacious instruction, is utterly confusing and unintelligible; and then, if Christ saves by His instruction, why was not Paul called a saviour of men? (2) But the term has respect to an atoning sacrifice, by which pardon of sin is secured. And it would be very natural for John, as a Jew, familiar with the Mosaic offerings, and with their application in Isaiah lift., to use the term in this sense. The same idea was familiar to Paul (1 Corinthians 5:7), Peter (1 Peter 1:18-19; cf. Exodus 12:5), and John Revelation 5:8-14). 3. Jesus is the Lamb of God. This cannot be a mere term of excellence, like “ mountains of God,” but either the Lamb who belongs to, or is provided by, God. The former would make an inept and frigid meaning; for John is showing the relation in which Christ stands to man. The latter, therefore, is the meaning. Every Jew had to provide and present as a sin-offering a lamb without spot or blemish. What each had done for himself, God now does for all men. (1) Christ takes away sin. The Hebrews employed the phrase as meaning to bear the punishment or consequences of sin, or to expiate sin, or to forgive it. Either of the first two meanings will answer well here (1 Peter 2:24; Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:29). So Christ takes away sin by removing its condemning and soul-destroying power. The Greek verb means first to lift up and then to raise up and remove, as one lifts a burden and conveys it away. And so Christ took the burden of our sins, and this load He carried away. (2) He takes away the sin of the world. Other conditions are required besides His expiatory death. The sinner must be penitent, and behold the Lamb with the eye of faith. This done, salvation is as wide as the world of men; and so the proffer is universal. (Moses Stuart.) The Lamb of God I. THE OBJECT WHICH WAS TO BE . The abolition of the world’ s sin: a most desirable object. Were any one to offer to take away the world’ s sorrow, or its toil and trouble, or its care, what a benefactor he would be. But how much more when the Son of God comes from heaven and suffers to take away its sin. Because the sting and bitterness is nothing but that. But we are led aside from the truth by the consideration of second causes and immediate results, and so forget the nature of sin and disregard the Baptist’ s invitation. And yet sin is the universal curse, and those who are unacquainted with sorrow are sinful; and sin unrepented of will bring the bitterest sorrow. The need, then, of the abolition of sin Isaiah 1. Universal. 2. The greatest of our needs. Other needs man can remedy; but no man can help his brother here. 3. The most pressing. 4. In proportion we do not feel this, our sin is the greater. II. THE MEANS FOR ITS . Such a need in God’ s universe could not be without a remedy. This was provided in the Lamb of God, which expression looks back to Isaiah 53:1-12. and Genesis 22:1-24. Christ was the Lamb of God in being God’ s appointed sacrifice, and the sacrifice offered by God. He was the federal head of our race, the one Being in whom our race was gathered up, who took upon Himself the penalty of sin. His great qualification for this was his sinlessness. Two conclusions 1. That if Christ was the Lamb of God He must have been an adequate provision for dealing with the world’ s sin. 2. That He must have been the exclusive sacrifice for sin. There was no other means appointed by God; there can be no other means devised by man. III. THE METHOD OF THESE MEANS. 1. Christ takes away the punishment of sift--sin with all its accidents and qualities. 2. Christ destroys the power of sin in the heart. 3. You cannot get rid of sin by resolutions or efforts, but only by faith in Him. There is in us a sinful will which prompts to sin. We cannot get rid of that by thwarting or discipling our sinful will. We can only do it by taking cognizance of a higher will in Christ. And as we believe in Him we submit to His will, and become inspired with a fresh will which prompts to good and not to evil. (Stanley Leathes, B. D.) The Lamb of God 1. How long our first parents remained innocent is not revealed; but we scarcely read of their fall before we read also of their restoration. The gates of Paradise are hardly closed before the altar of atonement is erected at the entrance. The flame of the Cherubic sword is blended with the flame of the consuming sacrifice. The promise of salvation was sealed by blood, not of bears and lions, but of oxen, sheep, and lambs. Blood being put for life, the lesson taught was (1) that man was a sinner, and that sin must be punished; (2) that sin might be forgiven and the sinner saved. The offerer placed his hands upon the victim and confessed his sin, thereby symbolically transferring his guilt. 2. But how can sin be transferred to a dumb animal (Hebrews 10:4)? And yet the voice of the whole dispensation cries “ Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” How shall these discordant sounds be tempered into unison? Only by looking beyond the sacrifice to another which it represents. In Christ these seeming contradictions are reconciled. That which was pleasing in the sight of God for His sake, was abhorrent when considered apart from Him. The faith of old believers, therefore, was the same as ours, only darkened by the symbols which the Antitype has now abolished. 3. We cannot tell how far the doctrine of atonement was maintained without corruption in the age immediately preceding the Advent. The great mass of the people had undoubtedly lost sight of it; but others certainly felt their lost and wretched state, and looked with a prospective faith to the coming and dying of the Lamb of God. Their hopes were naturally stimulated by the Baptist. But he did satisfy them being a preacher of righteousness--not a sacrifice for sin. But having strengthened their sense of guilt and need of expiation by the preaching of the law, John led them to the altar and pointed to the Lamb of God. 4. Two to whom these words were addressed followed Jesus--a sufficient proof that they were waiting for Him, and prepared for His reception. But in what did their preparation consist? Not in personal merit; they were sinners. Not in superior wisdom; they were fishermen. In one point, it is true, they were peculiarly enlightened, and in that consisted their peculiar preparation to receive the Saviour. They knew that they were lost, and that He alone could save them; so that when their former master said, Ò Behold the Lamb of God,” they followed Him at once. And so it has been ever since. In all cases the same preparation is necessary, a sense of need and a conviction of the Saviour’ s being able to supply it. 5. This doctrine lies at the basis of all efforts for the reformation (1) of the individual, (2) of the community. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Forgiveness of sins through the atoning sacrifice of Christ is a blessing which it is the glory of God to reveal, and the privilege of Christians to experience I. SIN, WHICH IS THE OF THE LAW, JUSTLY EXPOSES THE TO THE OF DEATH. God created man upright; made him subject to law; encouraged his obedience by promises, and threatened disobedience with the penalty of death. Man transgressed: all men have transgressed; so the condemnation rests upon all. II. THE GOD, THOUGH JUSTLY BY THE SINS OF MEN, HAS IN MERCY MADE FOR THE OF ALL WHO REPENT AND BELIEVE. That death may be abolished, sin must be removed. Sin has been atoned for, and therefore can he removed by the sacrifice of Christ. It is removed by a penitent trust in that sacrifice. III. TO THE FAITH OF THE DIVINE WAS IN THE TYPE AND OF THE OLD (Leviticus 16:1-34.; Isaiah 53:1-12.). In the former one victim was slain to represent the death of Christ; the other went away alive to represent Christ as living again after having borne our sins. IV. ALL THESE TYPES AND WERE BY THE ATONING DEATH AND OF OUR LORD. V. THROUGH THE AND OF CHRIST, SINNERS OF ALL ARE TO THE OF . Consider 1. The influence of these truths upon the mind (Romans 5:1-5). 2. The encouragement hereby given to the returning sinner. 3. The madness of expecting salvation in any other way. (T. Slatterie.) The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world I. WHO IS THIS LAMB OF GOD. Christ Jesus typified by the paschal lamb; which was 1. Without spot (Hebrews 9:14). 2. Separated the tenth day. 3. Killed. 4. The blood sprinkled on the post so that the destroying angel might pass 1 Peter 1:2; Hebrews 10:22). 5. Boasted with fire. 6. It expiated sin typically, Christ really (1 John 2:2). 7. It was meek and patient in all its sufferings: so Christ (Isaiah 53:7). II. WHAT SIN DOTH HE TAKE AWAY? 1. Original (Romans 5:19). 2. Actual (Ephesians 1:7). 3. Habitual (Acts 3:26). III. HOW DOTH CHRIST TAKE AWAY SIN? 1. He became man (John 1:14). 2. In the human nature He assumed He suffered death (Philippians 2:8). 3. The human nature in Him dying, by that death He expiated the sins of human persons (Isaiah 53:5-6). 4. By this means He took our sins away from us, Himself becoming our sin-offering (2 Corinthians 5:21). 5. And so He takes away whatever in sin is prejudicial to us; as (1) The guilt. (2) The curse (Galatians 3:13). (3) The strength of sin. USE. Behold this Lamb of God. 1. In the manger. 2. In the temple. 3. In the garden. 4. In the judgment-hall. 5. Upon the cross. 6. Ascending. 7. Now at the right hand of God. (Bp. Beveridge.) The great work of Christ, and the great work of the preacher I. THE GREAT WORK OF CHRIST. Sin always implies the existence of taw, knowledge of law, capability of obeying law, and actual departure from law. Christ came to take sin away. 1. This work is of all works most difficult. In some respects it is impossible. Its fact cannot be taken away, nor its memory, nor its influence; but its painful consciousness, its controlling power, its polluting influences, and its dawning consequences can. But this transcends all human power. Senators, sages, poets, priests have tried and failed. Christ alone can do it, and has done it. 2. This work is of all works the most indispensable, Sin is the foundation of all man’ s suffering, physical, political, social, religious. The work required is to dry up this fountain. Sin must be taken away from our literature, governments, institutions, hearts, before the world can be saved. This is the great work of Christ. II. THE GREAT WORK OF THE . To point to the Lamb of God. This designation suggests 1. Sinlessness. 2. Sacrifice. Christ’ s was voluntary, all-sufficient, exemplary. 3. Divinity. Christ was God’ s messenger and atoner. The preacher’ s work, therefore, is not to deal in controversies or speculations. The world wants a Saviour, not a system or a creed. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The excellency of the Christian, Atonement I. Christ excels in the NATURE OF THE VICTIM. 1. The faultlessness of the Saviour. According to Judaism the lamb of sacrifice must be a year old, and without a blemish. Thus Jesus went through the four seasons--the spring, summer, autumn, winter of existence, without receiving or inflicting injury. Without blemish in the inward life, without spot in the outward character. Many are without spot to men, but are conscious of being full of spots unto God. Jesus was without spot to God. 2. His Divine appointment. According to Judaism, the lamb of sacrifice was separated from the flock days before it was slain. And Jesus was marked out from the foundation of the world. (1) This verse teaches us that a Lamb slain is the central idea of creation and that in this light the universe was planned. The idea of sacrifice is the scarlet thread that stretches from eternity to eternity. God sprinkled the door posts of creation with blood when He framed them. (2) The Lamb slain is also the centre of the Divine nature. Sacrifice is the deepest principle of God Himself. Christ was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world. In eternity the Father anointed the Son to be a priest and a sacrifice with the consecrating oil of the Holy Ghost. The Gospel does not create this principle, it only reveals it. God purchased His Church with His own blood. 3. His Divine nature. The Lamb of God is partaker of the nature of God. According to Judaism, the sacrificial lamb was to be brought up on the farm of the offerer: for this reason that it must cost some thought and pains, and consequently be something united to him by a tie of affection. And Jesus was a Lamb which God reared upon His own farm. “ I was by Him as one brought up with Him” ; according to the Chaldee paraphrase. “ I was nursed at His side.” But He was not only “ of God.” He was God. This it was that imparted efficacy to His sufferings. II. It excels in THE OF THE WORK. The Jewish sacrifices brought sin to remembrance; Christ’ s sacrifice took it away. 1. Look at Christ as bearing the sin of the world. But to bear it He must go under it. In the Old Testament to forgive means literally to carry. “ Who is a God like unto Thee that pardoneth (lit. beareth) iniquity?” Other Gods pardoned. Jehovah carried sin; under the Old Testament in respect of covenant, under the New through Incarnation and imputation. 2. Christ bore sin away. “ Christ hath wholly purchased us from the curse of the law” (Welsh translation). How? By fully paying. 3. Christ bore it away once for ever. The Jewish sacrifices had to be repeated; but Christ cancelled it once for all. III. It excels in the AREA OF ITS . The Jewish sacrifices availed for one nation only. Christ’ s sacrifice is intended for the benefit of the world. 1. Sin, not sins; sin in its root, its deepest, bitterest nature. 2. The sin of the world. When the Great Western Railway was first made in South Wales, it was constructed on the broad-gauge principle; but the directors years afterwards judged it expedient to convert it from the broad gauge into the narrow gauge. In the history of the way of salvation, however, the contrary process was observed,--the narrow gauge under the Old Testament, and the broad gauge under the New. 3. All the sin of all the world. According to Judaism, a sacrifice was not left for all sins, such as adultery, murder, Sabbath desecration--sins committed with a high hand. Whoever was found guilty of these was to be “ cut off from among his people.” But the sacrifice of Christ covers all, not a single sin excepted. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Objections met It has been said that the view of Christ’ s work here put into the Baptist’ s mouth could not have been entertained by him because I. The pre-Christian times were not acquainted with the idea of a suffering Saviour. But this idea is not foreign to the Old Testament, with which the Baptist may be presumed to have had some acquaintance. II. The disciples of Jesus were incapable of understanding this idea Matthew 16:22). But though not understood by, the idea cannot be shown to have been strange to them; while, even if it was, that would not prove it to have been strange to John, who was reared as a prophet. III. The idea which was only at a later period in the Christian Church fully developed could hardly have been anticipated by individual reflection. But the Baptist refers to Divine inspiration as the source of his knowledge (verse 23). IV. The Baptist expected a theocratic and not a suffering Messiah Matthew 11:3). But John’ s doubts were occasioned, not by Christ’ s sufferings, but by His delay in asserting His Messianic dignity. Besides, it is not safe to argue from the thoughts of a prisoner to the views of the same individual at liberty. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John’ s call for attention In that simple “ Behold,” we have the highest and crowning direction for the right reception of the Christ. It was a look that betrayed the whole world into sin and condemnation, and it is a look that again unites men with their proper Lord, and recovers them from their guilt and misery. But it must be an earnest look--a look of faith,--a look of appreciative confidence--a look which transfers the whole trust and affection of the heart to the object on which it rests,--a look which draws after it the entire wish and desire of the soul. Such a look Andrew had, when he rushed in search of his brother Simon, saying, “ We have found the Messias!” Such a look Philip had, when he went to Nathanael exclaiming, “ We have found Him, of whom Moses in the Law, and the prophets, did write!” (verses 41-45). And such a look, my brethren, is in the power of every one of us this day. Oh the blessedness of our privileges! (J. A.Seiss, D. D.) Christ the Passover Lamb The Passover was close at hand (2:13). We know its significance, and what a fundamental importance the deliverance from Egypt had for the history of Israel as well as for its knowledge of salvation. This fact stands so alone that only the day of the new salvation is to be compared with it, and the latter again has such a fitting type in no fact of the Old Testament history as it has in the former. Now the Baptist knew that the time of the final closing salvation had dawned, and that Jesus was the one bringing it. Why should he not, above all, compare this salvation and Him who brought it with that first typical redemption of Israel? Then, however, that Lamb was the means of sparing the nation. For its sake destruction passed over the people. Thus now will Jesus be the means of sparing. (C. E. Luthardt, D. D.) Christ the Lamb and the Lion Doth not St. John call Christ “ a Lion” ? Revelation 5:5). Why then doth the Baptist call Him a Lamb? The lion and the lamb, the prophet Isaiah tells us, shall both “ dwell together in the days of Christ” : but may they both be together in the Person of Christ? not only in one place together, but also in one case together? Different respects may tie discordant titles unto one subject. His courage against Satan, whom He conquered, His patience among men, whom He suffered, declared there was met in one Messias the stoutness of a lion, and the meekness of a lamb. St. Bernard’ s distinction so determines it; He rose like a lion, but he suffered like a lamb. (R. Clerke, D. D.) Christ bearing the sins of the world The other day I saw a contrivance to judge a man’ s strength by the power of his breath--you breathe into the machine, and by the weight you lift will be accurately estimated the power of your lungs. And Jesus Christ keeps the stars floating by the power of His breath just as children keep bubbles on a summer eve; He breathes and the planets swim as feathers in a breeze; but He who upholds the stars with His word, who bears with ease the burden of ten thousand worlds, bends and staggers under the weight of your sins. “ The Lord hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him.” Sin came from all directions; a multitude of sins from our own neighbourhood went that day on a pilgrimage to Mount Calvary; iniquity poured in from all quarters, and fell in terrible cataracts on the devoted head of the patient victim. “ He was wounded for our transgressions,” etc. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Praise of Christ the Lamb of God A gentleman travelling in Norway went to see the church in a certain town. Looking up at its tower he was surprised to see the carved figure of a lamb near the top. He inquired why it was placed in that position, and was told that when the church was being built a workman fell from the high scaffold. His fellows saw him fall, and horror-stricken rushed down expecting to find him dashed to pieces. But to their surprise and joy he was almost unhurt. How had he escaped? &flock of sheep was passing by the church at the moment of his fall, and he fell amongst them and right on the top of a lamb. The lamb was crushed to death, but the man was saved. And the lamb was carved on the tower at the height from which he fell to commemorate his escape. Shall we then not give the highest place of honour to the Lamb of God who was crushed beneath our load. (F. E. Turner.) The value of Christ’ s sacrifice How can one atone for thousands? asked the North American Indians of the missionary Brainerd. The missionary solved their difficulty by showing that one sovereign is worth two hundred and forty pence--one gold coin being equal in value to many copper ones, the difference in the metal making a difference in the value. Similarly the sufferings of one God-man are a sufficient propitiation for the sins of millions of mere men, the difference in the rank constituting a difference in the worth. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) How weighty must be the blood of the Lamb, by whom the world was made, to turn the scale when weighed against the world! (Augustine.) Christ’ s work not frustrated by His rejection I am aware the objection is often made, that “ if Christ taketh away the sin of the world, and yet the vast majority of men die in their sins and are lost, Christ’ s work for many was wrought in vain.” I see no force in this. I think we might as well argue, that because sin came into the world and marred creation, creation was in vain. We are not talking of the works of men, but of the eternal Word, and we must be content to see much in His works that we do not entirely understand. Though multitudes are lost, I have no doubt the last day will prove that nothing that Christ did for them was in vain. (Bp. Ryle.) The sacrificial lamb of the Mohammedans It is noticeable that although modern Islam rejects the idea of the sacrifice of Christ, the custom of sacrifice is still commanded; as, for instance, for certain offences during the Pilgrimage. Something approaching to the Jewish Day of Atonement is thus described by an American missionary in India: “ On a great day with the Mohammedans of Calcutta they offered their yearly sacrifice, the atonement for sin. A lamb or a kid without spot or blemish is taken to the priest or moulvie; the person who presents the offering lays his hands on the animal’ s head, saying: ‘ For my head I give thine.’ Then he touches the ears, the mouth, the eyes, etc., of the sacrifice, still repeating: ‘ For my ears, thy ears; for my mouth, thy mouth; for my eyes, thy eyes; ‘ and so on till he has mentioned all that he has to say. Then he exclaims: ‘ For my life, thy life;’ and as he pronounces these words the priest plunges a knife into the kid’ s heart, and pronounces an absolution for the sinner. Is not this a strange custom, showing that the Mohammedan also acknowledges the necessity of an atonement, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin?” (S. S. Times.) The death of Christ the preacher’ s theme In one of the old-fashioned mansions in the United States there is still to be seen a brass-bound clock upon the staircase landing with the hands fixed at the minute and hour when Washington died. The grandfather of the present owner was a pall-bearer at the funeral of the great republican, and set the hands where they have ever since remained. Even so the preacher’ s finger must ever point the multitude to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (H. O. Mackey.) Christ the preacher’ s theme Among those who visited Dr. Carey, the great Baptist missionary, in his last illness was Alexander Duff, the Scotch missionary. On one occasion he spent some time talking chiefly about Carey’ s missionary life, until the dying man whispered “ Pray.” Duff knelt down and prayed, and then said “ good.bye.” As he passed from the room, he thought he heard a feeble voice pronouncing his name, and turning, found that he was recalled. He stepped back accordingly, and this is what he heard, spoken with a gracious solemnity: “ Mr. Duff, you have been speaking about Dr. Carey, Dr. Carey: when I am gone say nothing about Dr. Carey--speak about Dr. Carey’ s Saviour.” Duff went away rebuked and awed, with a lesson in his heart that he never forgot. (H. O. Mackey.) We must look to Christ When I was in Belfast I knew a doctor who had a friend, a leading surgeon there, and he told me that the surgeon’ s custom was, before performing any operation, to say to the patient, “ Take a good look at the wound, and then fix your eyes on me, and don’ t take them off till I get through.” I thought at the time that was a good illustration. Sinner, take a good look at the wound tonight, and then fix your eyes on Christ, and do not take them off. It is better to look at the remedy than at the wound. See what a poor wretched sinner you are, and then look at the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He died for the ungodly and the sinner. Say “ I’ ll take Him,” and may God help you to lift your eye to the Man on Calvary. And as the Israelites looked upon the serpent and were healed, so may you look and live to-night. (D. L. Moody.) . Jesus the propitiation for sin When our Lord was thus set forth by John, it is well to note the special character under which He was declared. John knew much of the Lord Jesus, and could have pictured Him in many lights and characters. He might especially have pointed Him out as the great moral example, the founder of a higher form of life, the great teacher of holiness and love; yet this did not strike the Baptist as the head and front of our Lord’ s character, but he proclaimed Him as one who had come into the world to be the great sacrifice for sin. Lifting up his hand and pointing to Jesus, he cried, “ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” He did not say, “ Behold the great Exemplar;” no doubt he would have said that in due season. He did not even say, “ Behold the king and leader of a new dispensation; “ that fact he would by no means have denied, but would have gloried in it. Still, the first point that he dwells upon, and that which wins his enthusiasm is, “ Behold the Lamb of God.” John the Baptist views Him as the propitiation for sin, and so he cries, “ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” (C. H.Spurgeon.) A saving message It is told of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, that when about to preach in the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, in 1857, he went down a short time before the service to arrange where the platform should be placed, and whilst trying the various positions he cried aloud, “ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! “ A man was at that time at work in the Palace, who heard the text spoken under such unusual circumstances. It went with power to his heart, convinced him of sin, and led him to the sin-atoning Lamb, in whom he found forgiveness, peace, and joy. The atonement and the Scriptures A Socinian preacher once said to Mr. Newton, “ Sir, I have collated every word in the Hebrew Scriptures seventeen times; and it is very strange if the doctrine of atonement which you hold should not have been found by me.” Mr. Newton replied, “ I am not surprised at this; I once went to light my candle with the extinguisher on it. Prejudices from education, learning, etc., often form an extinguisher. It is not enough that you bring the candle; you must remove the extinguisher.” The great remedy Hannah More relates that Dr. Johnson, on his deathbed, was in great distress of mind. Not being comforted by ordinary conversation, he desired to see a minister. Mr. Winstanley was named, and the doctor requested him to be sent for. Mr. Winstanley did not come, but wrote to the doctor as follows:--“ Sir,--I beg to acknowledge the honour of your note, and am very sorry that the state of my health prevents my compliance with your request. I can easily conceive what would be the subject of your inquiry. I can conceive that on the near approach of death what you once considered mere peccadilloes have risen into mountains of guilt, on whichsoever side you look you see only positive transgression, defective obedience; and hence in self-despair are eagerly inquiring, ‘ What must I do to be saved?’ I say to you in the language of the Baptist, ‘ Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!’“ When this was read to the doctor he anxiously asked, “ Does he say so?” The consequence was that he was brought to the renunciation of himself and a simple reliance on Jesus as his Saviour. Free trade with heaven established by Christ Under the Old Testament no free trade was carried on between heaven and earth, no unrestricted commerce, for the duty was so high--a lamb being taken from one farm, a bullock from another, a heifer from the third, a goat from the fourth, and fowls from the poor, to pay the imposed duty; but the sacrifice once offered on Calvary for the sin of the world has, I am glad to tell you, established Free Trade for ever. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The message for sinners John Wesley, preaching to an audience of scholars and noblemen, used the “ generation of vipers” text, and flung denunciation right and left. “ That sermon should have been preached at Newgate,” said a displeased courtier. “ No,” said the fearless apostle, my text there would have been, “Behold the Lamb of God,” etc. (C. H.Spurgeon.) A young telegraph operator was anxious about his soul. After a sleepless night he went to his duties; while restless and absorbed in the thought of being a sinner he heard the click of his instrument, and with great astonishment and emotion spelt out this message:--“ From H--, Windermere, to J-- B-- , Warkworth. ‘ Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world’ ; in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” This was sent as an answer to a letter from a young man who also was seeking peace. It acted as a double blessing, showing to both operator and receiver the way of salvation. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The sin of the world I think John the Baptist in this text speaks about sin as we think of a terrible epidemic from which individual men suffer, and which we are accustomed to speak of as that by which we are all affected. The symptoms may vary in individual cases; the course of the disease may sometimes be more or less rapid; and there may be great differences in the pain which it inflicts on different men. When we speak of the cholera or some malignant fever, we regard those who suffer from it as smitten down by some terrible power which travels from house to house, and involves all its victims in one common peril; that some poison is in the blood of those who suffer; that they are all wrestling with the same ghastly enemy; and that they are all in danger of the same doom. Now it is thus that John the Baptist thougtht of sin. What we describe as the accidental lapses of individual men were to him the symptoms and the result of something vaster and more dreadful; the sins of individual men were to him only the revelations of an evil energy which had taken possession of the race. There was a great confederacy into which all men had entered, consciously or unconsciously--a confederacy against the authority of God, and against the eternal law of righteousness. Different men break different commandments; their individual transgressions vary according to their circumstances, their training, or their temper. But no man stands apart--no man refuses to share in the great revolt against the majesty of heaven. Where there is not a profligate, reckless disobedience, there is indifference to the Divine authority--an indifference which is just as fatal, and involves a separation from God as positive as it he had been an active antagonist to it. This is a common sin. This is a sin in which we are all sharers, and in which we still share if we are not redeemed, and constitutes an essential moral element and characteristic spirit of the world, but it finds expression in infinitely various ways. Now, I can imagine some of you saying--Did He take away the sin of the world? What signs are there that He has done it? Sin is here still. There is no solitary country the world over that is redeemed from it. It stains this century, as it has stained every century that has gone by. Will you consider it as guilt--guilt which one does recognize, and which fills the heart with terror, with dark and gloomy anticipations of the lust penalty with which it must be visited. Well, millions upon millions who have appealed to Christ will tell you that its guilt has been taken away. Or will you consider sin as involving the terrible necessity of the separation of the soul from God. This is one of its worst and most malignant effects. We see, as the result of our sin, that we are driven away from that Divine presence--that our sin comes between us and the favour of Heaven--and we find that we cannot break through it, and speak to God face to face. God is holy, and by the necessity of His nature shrinks from contact with sin. Well, Christ has taken sin away even in that sense. If sin is no longer a dominant power in this world, there is something here that is stronger than it; there is the liberty into which we can enter through Christ Jesus our Lord. He has taken it away as the authority by which we were controlled, and through Him we are able to enter into the fullest freedom, and to keep God’ s commandments. I admit that sin has not disappeared from the world, but God has done His part towards causing it to disappear. He can give eternal life, but He cannot receive it for us; we must receive it. All He could do to take away our sin He has actually done; and we ought to rejoice with great exulting joy in the redemption that is wrought for us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Now there are two or three considerations I wish to impress upon you before I close, suggested by this subject. 1. In the first place, in this work of the Lord we are all deeply concerned. 2. Again, that which He has done excludes altogether the plea that you are helplessly under the power of sin. 3. Again this takes away the excuse for persisting in sin. 4. If you remain under the power of sin, it is by your own choice. All sin is, no doubt, the result of choice. 5. Finally, the truth that we have been considering excludes all hope that if we fail to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour that we shall ever obtain God’ s mercy and eternal life. (R. W. Dale, M. A.) John 1:30-34 This is He.The Redeemer’ s identification I. IN HIS WORK as the Lamb of God. 1. ‘ The object offered in sacrifice. The Lamb of God applies to Christ (1) in His personal character. (2) In His sacrificial character. 2. The object or effect of the sacrifice “ taketh away,” etc.! 3. The burden removed by the sacrifice: the world’ s sin. II. IN HIS PERSON (John 1:30). These words meet us for the third time. The human and Divine natures are exhibited in one sentence. How profoundly the Baptist believed in the pre-existence of Christ. III. THE MODE OF . 1. I knew Him not. He did indeed know Him, and hence hesitated about baptizing Him (Matthew 3:14). The son of Elizabeth must have known the Son of Mary. The Baptist means that he did not know Him as Messiah. 2. Jesus was revealed to John by the descent of the Holy Ghost. (1) The sign. The Dove emblematized the consecration of the Redeemer to His Divine work. (2) The two baptisms--the one in water, the other in the Holy Ghost--the one that Christ might be made manifest unto Israel, and unto repentance for the remission of sins; the other not a sacrament that Christ was to institute for the Church, nor which any priest or minister could give; it was a baptism of regenerating grace--such a baptism as Simon Magus never had although baptized with water; such a baptism as the dying thief enjoyed although not baptized with water. (Prof. Croskery.) Notice 1. The evidences of Christ’ s excellency and Godhead when He came into the world are not cunningly devised fables, but most certain and infallible truths, for John bare record, saying, “ I saw,” etc. 2. Christ in His solemn entry to His offices was sealed from heaven, that so the Church may learn to embrace Him with all respect. Therefore doth the Spirit descend upon Him in this visible way, and the Father bear witness to Him (Matthew 3:1-17), all the persons of the Trinity manifesting themselves on Jordan’ s bank. 3. Christ is endowed with the Spirit from on high for executing of His offices, and it is made manifest that the Spirit is to be found on Him and sought from Him; for “ I saw the Spirit descending from heaven upon Him,” where the Spirit, who filleth heaven and earth, is said to descend in respect of that visible manifestation and sign of His presence. 4. The Spirit’ s descending like a dove, a meek, harmless and affectionate creature, pointed out what Christ is in His own nature to them that come to Him, even meek, harmless, loving, and not dreadful; what He is in the execution of His office, even He in whom the Father is well pleased and pacified, and He who bringeth the good news of assuaging the deluge of wrath, as Noah’ s dove of the drying up of the flood; and what He is in the operations of His Spirit upon His people, that they are made meek, harmless, and lowly as doves, not like birds of prey. 5. Albeit all Christ’ s members do receive of the Spirit in their measure, yet it is Christ’ s prerogative to have the Spirit resting on Him; not only as God is the Spirit of one essence with Him, proceeding from the Father and Him, and so is ever present with Him. But even as man by virtue of the personal union, the Spirit floweth and resteth on Christ, and efficaciously worketh in Him all Divine graces and virtues without measure, and immutably, so that none can come wrong to Him at any time for receiving of His Spirit: Therefore, it is said, “ it abode upon Him” (Isaiah 11:2-3). 6. Christ, in taking on our nature, did so cover His glory with the veil of our flesh and common infirmities that He could not be known by bodily sight from another man without Divine revelation and evidences from God; for, without this, John saith, I knew Him not (Matthew 16:17). 7. The Lord is very tender and careful of His servants, to encourage and confirm them in their calling and message; and will not fail to perform what He hath promised for that effect when He sendeth them out; for, John saith, he saw this sign in a peculiar way, as being to him an accomplishment of that promise given to him; for God had said to him, “ upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending,” etc., and now it was accomplished. 8. The Spirit resteth upon Christ, and was manifested to be on Him by a visible sign, not only for Himself and to point out His excellency, but for the Church’ s good, and to certify them that He received the Spirit to communicate unto His people. (G. Hutcheson.) The Dove of God We have here I. THE OF THE KING. 1. The actual descent of the Spirit. It is unnecessary to ask what was the objective material reality here. It is enough that this was no fancy, born in a man’ s brain, but an actual manifestation, whether through sense or apart from sense, to consciousness of a Divine outpouring and communication. 2. The purpose of this descent. The anointing of the Monarch. But a man is king before he is crowned. Coronation is the consequence and not the cause of royalty. And so the first purpose of this great fact is distinctly stated as having been the solemn pointing out of Messiah for the Baptist first, but in order that he might bear witness of Him to others. But this was not the beginning of His Messianic consciousness, nor of His Sonship. Before His baptism, and ere the heavens opened, or the dove fluttered down, He from everlasting was Son in the bosom of the Father. Christ’ s baptism was an epoch in His human development inasmuch as it was His first public assumption of His Messianic office, and inasmuch as an advance was made in the communication to his manhood of the sustaining Spirit as fully equipped Him for new calls. His manhood needed the continual communication of the Spirit, and because it was sinless it was capable of a complete reception of that Spirit. So we see in Christ the realized ideal of manhood. 3. The meaning of this symbol. To John the coming of the King was first and chiefly a coming to judgment. John sees two wonders: the Messiah in his Carpenter Cousin and the Spirit, which he thought of as searching and consuming, like a dove. The same as in Genesis 1:2, where the word employed describes accurately the action of the mother bird with her soft breast and outstretched wings quickening the life that lies beneath. What then does it proclaim as to the character of the King. (1) Purity, as the very foundation of His royalty. (2) Meekness and gentleness, as the weapons of His conquest and the sceptre of His rule. The dove will outfly all Rome’ s eagles, and all rapacious unclean feeders with their strong wings, talons and beaks. II. THE GIFTS OF THE KING TO HIS . 1. Christ has nothing that He keeps to Himself. He received the Spirit that He might diffuse Him through the whole world. Salvation is more than escape from wrath, more than pardon. We must rise higher and feel if we would understand the “ unspeakable gift” which is the totality of the gifts of His indwelling Spirit. 2. Therefore Christian met, are spoken of in the same language which is used in reference to their Master. “ Sons of God,” “ Priests,” “ Lights of the World,” “ Anointed.” 3. How full of rebuke and instruction is the symbol in reference to ourselves. The dove-like Spirit is offered to us. (1) Our hearts are like the wild chaos; but He will come, if we will let Him, and brood over our nature and recreate the whole. (2) The dove again was pure and fit for sacrifice: the heavenly dove comes as the Spirit of holiness, and then there is purity in the receiver and self-sacrifice. (3) The Dove that crowned the King dwells in the subjects and makes them, too, meek and gentle, and imparts the true force of Christian character. (4) Noah’ s dove came back with one leaf in his beak--the prophecy of a whole world of beauty and verdure. The Dove that comes to us, bearing some leaf plucked from the tree of life, is the earnest of our inheritance until the day of redemption. All the gifts of that Divine Spirit--gifts of holiness, gentleness, wisdom, truth--are forecasts of heavenly perfectness. To us sailing over a dismal sea, He comes bearing with Him a message that tells of the far-off land and the fair garden of God in which the blessed shall walk. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) As a dove did at that time bring tidings of the abating of the water, so doth it now of the abating of the wrath of God upon the preaching of the gospel. (Augustine.) The Holy Spirit manifested Himself here as a Dove; and at the day of Pentecost in tongues of fire; in order that we may learn to unite fervour with simplicity, and to seek for them both from Him. (Augustine.) The dove, the symbol of innocence and purity (Matthew 10:16), the abiding and the tranquil hovering over Christ, expressed the tranquil and equable movement of the power of the Spirit in Him, in contrast with the detached impulses given to the prophets (Isaiah 11:2). (Tholuck.) The Great A toner the Great Baptizer The work of Christ, according to the Baptist,was to take away the sin of the world and to baptize with the Holy Ghost. It is not possible for believers to think too much of the first part; but it is quite possible for them to think too little of the second. These are the two pillars of our faith. The atoning sacrifice was offered and completed on Calvary once for all; but the baptism of the Holy Ghost is ever going on. Our Saviour died to be the Atoner; He lives to be the Baptizer. And our Saviour lives and reigns to baptize us not occasionally, but permanently; not fitfully and uncertainly, but surely. Were this baptism fully realized, there would be a vast increase of holiness, power, and success in ministers and churches: of Christian unity and charity. What encouragement have we for expecting this baptism? The announcement that Christ is as much Baptizer as Atoner, not the one without the other, or He would have laid the foundation and built nothing upon it. The atonement is the rock: the baptism builds the Church. So the gospels run up to the atonement, but the Acts start from the baptism. And so as the sinner seeks the one for salvation, so should the saint seek the other for service and testimony. (C. Clemance, D. D.) The four baptisms There are four baptisms mentioned in the Bible. The baptism of water, of repentance, of the Holy Ghost, and of fire. The baptism of water is the emblem of all, but that would be nothing without the baptism of repentance which it was intended to express; and the baptism of repentance will be unavailing for peace, holiness, heaven, unless it is accompanied by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and that is never far separated from the baptism of fire. The four make one complete whole, and are the basis of the Christian life. (J. Vaughan.) John 1:35-51 The next day The first utterances of the Word 1. A searching question. 2. A gracious invitation. 3. An encouraging promise. 4. A Divine command. 5. A heart revelation. 6. An assurance of a present and an everlasting heaven. (J. W. Burn.) Three ways to the Lord There is only one way to heaven, “ I am the way;” but there are many ways to Christ. One soul is led earlier, another later; one gradually, another by storm; one by sorrow, another through joy; one by inner impulse, another by external influence. Here we learn 1. To adore the wisdom of God. Like a prudent gardener He deals with each of His plants according to its kind. One needs the sun, another the shade; one must be kept moist, another dry; one requires rich soil, another poor; one must be pruned, another supported; one needs tender handling, another will grow in any wind or weather. 2. To regard God’ s world with such big-hearted, patient love, that we no longer measure our neighbour by our own standard. 3. To learn to know ourselves. The lives of other children of God ought to be a mirror to us, and from them we can choose to suit our own particular aspiration, some favourite character by whose example we may be strengthened and edified. Here we have three ways to God. I. THE WAY THROUGH THE WORD. 1. “ Behold the Lamb,” etc., is the heart of the Christian sermon. That is the aim of the whole Bible: Moses, the prophets, John, and the apostles. No matter the particular subject, this is the true end. (1) If we preach on the holiness and love of God, behold them here. (2) If about your duty, behold here meekness, gentleness, innocence, and obedience. (3) If reproof for sin, behold here the effect of sin and what is necessary for its removal. (4) If consolation, behold here its source. (5) If heaven, behold here its central glory. 2. The two disciples heard. (1) We often come short in the listening--work, and pleasure are preferred. (2) Those who listen, do they really hear? (3) Those who hear, do they “ follow?” Following Jesus is the true end of hearing. For this purpose the Baptist willingly let them depart. You are to become converts, not to any human preacher, but to Christ. II. THE WAY THROUGH EXAMPLE which Peter took. Andrew cannot keep the blessed discovery to himself, and he could not have performed for his brother a nobler service, nor presented to Christ a nobler tribute of his love. What a lesson for 1. Preachers. 2. Parents. 3. Brothers. III. THE WAY OF . They all took this way, but it was in a special sense the way Nathanael took. 1. It is necessary that you come to the Lord personally and become acquainted with Him through your own experience to put to the proof what you have heard or read. Practice makes perfect; experience makes the Christian. 2. Whom will you find? A soul friend rich in love, who looks on your soul as a thing of value; one who has a profound insight into your heart; one who can supply all your need. 3. Receive Him (1) for His own sake. (2) For the sake of the revelations He makes and for the rewards He bestows. (K. Gerok, D. D.) The soul sought by Christ, and seeking Him I. JOHN STOOD, AND TWO OF HIS LOOKED ON JESUS AS HE WALKED. Was it by accident that Christ was walking there? No; He was walking to find them. They had not brought Him, persuaded Him, or arranged for His arrival. No needy heart has to furnish its Christ. Before it begins to seek He is near and waiting. Immanuel may be unseen, as our best possessions always are, but heaven has brought Him near. II. HOW DO MEN TREAT HIM? “ They followed Jesus.” Now begins man’ s part in the great reconciliation. Not every one, like Andrew, is called to be an apostle, but all are called to be disciples, But both must “ follow.” Will you look on a little while from curiosity, or momentary impulse, or will you thankfully and steadily take up His cross and go after Him? III. IT IS NOT CERTAIN WHETHER THE FIRST IMPULSE TO FOLLOW WILL PROVE A . “ What seek ye?” Rather a chilling question as it stands. He saw that the motives of these ardent disciples must be laid bare to themselves. What do you really seek? Is it for His sake or your own? God applies many touchstones. Time, spiritual disappointment, etc. Christ wants loyal, disinterested love, and there is therefore no lack of tenderness in His question. IV. NOW, THEN, COMES THE PLACE FOR A DEEPER OF FAITH, AND THE RISING BY IT INTO A HIGHER LIFE. Will the disciple bear the proof? Will he evade the question and simply follow along on the level of the old decency, saying all the old prayers, etc.? Notice the spiritual beauty of the answer. “ Master (with a new and tenderer meaning), where dwellest Thou?” This is the least ostentatious, yet directest confession of a desire for closer communion. It is a confession of ignorance, a prayer for a hiding place. V. WOULD IT BE GRANTED ONLY FOR THE ASKING? “ He saith unto them, come and see.” Let that stand for the dispelling of all your doubt. There is no description of the house beforehand to excite wrong anticipation. Find out what the Christian life is by living it. “ Eye hath not seen,” etc. VI. “ THEY CAME AND ABODE WITH HIM.” If they had been like some they would have stumbled at their own unworthiness, as if God’ s favours were ever granted to merit. Faith takes God at His word. VII. AND NOW SEE PLAYING OUTWARD THE POWER WHICH HAS BEEN WORKING . It begins to testify for Christ. No sooner is the heart in actual fellowship with Christ than it begins to ask what it can do for Him. There are two sorts of people: those that go and do the thing, and those that stand and wonder why it was not done after some other fashion. Andrew begins at the nearest point. “ His own brother.” There is no postponement for a complete plan, for times, for becoming “ good enough.” His heart is full, and he does what he can. How soon this spirit in the followers of Christ would bring the world to His feet. Conclusion: 1. What the one brother says to the other is a joyful recognition of the fulfilment of prophecy. 2. The message relating to “ the Lamb of God” is the message that brings sinners to the Saviour. (Bp. Huntington.) The first disciple I. WE HAVE HERE THE FIRST OF THE CHURCH. The beginning of anything great and good always wins for us a special regard. The tree grown from an acorn; the Amazon from the spring in the Andes. The interest is heightened in the case of moral movements. The Mayflower; the lonely monk who afterwards wrought the Reformation. Still deeper is our interest in the beginning of the kingdom of Christ. And it begins here with the Divine quietness which is characteristic of God’ s mightiest works. II. THE AND FIRST OF . That begins when a person comes to Christ. 1. This does not imply that there is no value in what precedes. These men had heard the Baptist, were penitent, prepared, expectant. But as soon as opportunity was given they came, and so showed the sincerity of their repentance. 2. The first coming may be real and true, and yet not at once entire and decisive. They went back to Bethsaida, but; an invisible Presence went back with them, and in a little while it became visible, and said, “ Follow Me.” So some time may elapse before the full surrender. But a faith in Jesus held long in secrecy is a perilous thing. III. THE DIVINE METHOD OF AND OF THE NUMBER OF , There is a beautiful exemplification here of the law of personal influence. The great preacher points to Jesus, and it takes effect. But how small that effect would be if it reached the hearers only. It led to Jesus first, and then the power of personal influence makes itself felt. In this way, in little more than a day, Jesus has five disciples. Surely this shows us what a sphere opens at once to every believer. He has found the pearl of great price, and without losing it himself he can offer it to his friend. This privilege is neglected or timorously used. There never was so much preaching, and for this reason we abate quieter and more personal efforts. But whatever one attains in spiritual things he is bound by the very law of the life he has received to try to communicate it to others. Because unwise speaking is worse than silence it does not follow that we are to keep silent always. There are some whom plain dealing suits; or you may have to watch, use gentle suggestion, etc. Conclusion: 1. If you have borne witness conscientiously, but without success, try silence, watch, pray, put books in the way. 2. If you have been long silent, afraid of wounding susceptibilities, of making religion repellant, and trying to reach in quiet ways without success, break silence for once. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The first five disciples Order is heaven’ s first law, but variety is the second. We see this 1. In creation. 2. In providence. 3. In the work of grace. The operation is ever the same in kind, but different in manner. Here are four different methods of conversion. I. THE FIRST TWO WERE THE FRUITS OF . 1. The preacher (1) Was divinely illuminated, as all gospel preachers must be. (2) Was unsuccessful at first, but tried the same message again and succeeded. (3) His subject was the only effective one--Christ the sin-bearer. 2. The process of conversion. (1) A spirit of inquiry was stirred up. They followed Christ as searchers, at His back. Christ turns round and faces them. He looks upon them, and then puts the modest question, the first words He spoke. It was a comprehensive question, too: “ What seek ye?” Pardon, peace, purity, truth? “ Come and see,” and you shall have them all. The best way to be convinced of the power of the gospel is to try it. II. THE THIRD WAS BROUGHT IN BY PRIVATE . 1. The agent, Andrew. (1) As soon as a man is found by Christ, he begins to find others. (2) “ First” implies that he did not give it up afterwards. (3) Relationship has a stern demand on our individual effort. Our first business is at home. (4) Simon was worth ten Andrews. We may be very deficient in talent, and yet be the means of bringing a great man to Christ. (5) Andrew’ s testimony was modest. “ We.” He gives the other disciple his share of the discovery. But it was positive also. Not “ I think,” or “ trust,” but “ we have.” 2. The process. (1) Christ describes Simon’ s present state--“ the son of the timid dove” --explaining what he was. (2) He gave him a new name, indicative of the nature His grace would give. This is the general plan of conversion. Nature is discovered and grace imparted; the old name supplanted by the new. III. THE FOURTH WAS CALLED BY THE VOICE OF JESUS. So are all men, for the voice of John or the voice of Andrew is the voice of Christ speaking through them; but in some cases there is no apparent instrumentality. Colonel Gardner was about to perpetrate a crime but was stopped on the brink of it by sovereign grace without any apparent instrumentality. 1. Christ spoke but two words. 2. To follow Christ is the picture of Christian discipleship in every form. Follow Christ (1) In doctrine. (2) In faith. (3) In action. (4) In ordinances. IV. THE FIFTH WAS A CASE. There was 1. Preparation of heart “ under the fig tree.” 2. Philip’ s instrumentality. 3. Christ’ s Divine word which convinced Nathanael and led him to put his trust in the Messiah. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The first five disciples I. A LITTLE REAL OF CHRIST THE DESIRE FOR MORE. They had heard the testimony of John. They prized his ministry, for it had done them good, but they now felt that Jesus could do more for them than John. II. THE TRUE WAY OF OUR OF CHRIST IS TO FOLLOW HIMSELF. They might have stayed with John and asked for further information. How much there is to be known of Christ which human teachers cannot impart. What is it to follow Christ? 1. Attraction from Christ. 2. Faith in Christ. 3. Submission to Christ. III. THE SPIRIT OF DEVOUT INQUIRY ALWAYS MEETS WITH THE SAVIOUR’ S AND SMILE. 1. He awakens consciousness. He does not teach in the first instance. 2. He invites confidence. “ What can I do for you?” 3. He offers a welcome. IV. IN CHRIST THE FINDS MORE THAN HE OR . They remained with Christ and had fellowship with Him. The world often disappoints, but Christ gives more than we can ask or think. (J. Spence, D. D.) The first disciples, or sons of the light I. ANDREW AND JOHN, attracted towards the Light. II. SIMON AND JAMES, conducted to the Light. III. PHILIP AND , invited by the Light. Lessons: 1. The greatest discovery a soul can make--the Christ 2. The purest felicity a soul can enjoy--fellowship with Christ. 3. The noblest life a soul can lead--following Christ. 4. The loftiest calling a soul can pursue--commending Christ. 5. The grandest philanthropy a soul can practice--bringing men to Christ. 6. The sweetest commendation a soul can receive--to be an Israelite indeed. 7. The sublimest spectacle a soul can see--the Son of Man enthroned in an open heaven. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The early disciples I. THE OF CHRIST. The Baptist’ s ministry was 1. Brief. Only six months. 2. Popular. 3. Misunderstood. 4. Expectant. 5. Self-abnegating. II. THE OF JESUS IN HIS TRUE AND MISSION. 1. John says, Behold (1) Not the great teacher. (2) Not the spotless example. (3) Not the triumphant king. (4) But the Lamb of God. 2. Jesus says (1) “ What seek ye?” An affectionate inquiry opening the way to conversation. (2) Come and see--an encouraging invitation. III. THE OF THE CHURCH. 1. By friendly service. 2. Brotherly affection. 3. Neighbourly zeal. 4. Conquest of prejudice. IV. THE RESULT OF EFFORT. Andrew helped to make the Pentecostal preacher. How little we know what hangs on our individual endeavours. The preacher may not be known beyond his flock, but one soul through his appeals may be the means of converting thousands. The Sabbath school teacher may toil on with half a dozen children, but amongst the number may be a Wilberforce. Let none then be discouraged. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) The Redeemer choosing disciples The leading characteristics of the gospel were to be exhibited in the disciples; their selection, therefore, was a matter of vast importance. I. THE CHOOSES OF MEN OF CULTURE AND . In John dwells paramount the meek, the restful, and the happy. The indicating words of the Baptist were appropriate to this disciple--“ Behold the Lamb!” Simon is quite another man, rock-like, rough, pressing through all hindrances, and recoiling from nothing. 1. If diverse temperaments were necessary at the beginning, they are necessary now. 2. Each is good when it is animated by the Spirit of God. Excess and onesidedness, however, are to be deplored. 3. There are many gifts but one Spirit. Sternness and gentleness, fiery strength and patient meekness, can, and ought, in like measure to glorify Christ. Let them not be polished down into similarity. Let each be content with his gift and do what he can without envying another’ s. Common love and zeal should bind all together and beget mutual toleration. II. THE CHOSE THOSE WHO THE HIGHEST FAME AND THOSE WHOSE NAME ONLY HAS COME DOWN TO US. John and Peter on the one hand, Andrew and Philip on the other. 1. These silent and unknown workers are not to be despised. 2. Then among Christians such distinctions as famous and non-famous should have no place. The brilliancy of the one and the obscurity of the other does not lie in the difference of inner work, but in (1) Outward circumstances. (2) Inclination. One mind is called to appear in the front; the other would rather conceal itself. The one works with quick and firm decision; the other is slow, silent, and sure. The one must have a wide field; the other keeps at home. Both are needful. III. THE ’ S CHOICE SHOWS US THAT THE MOST EVENTS OFTEN BEGIN IN AN WAY. It is a mistake to desire the important to proclaim itself so at first, and when this is not the case to yield to disappointment and discontent. Present effectiveness depends on the unbiassed prospect of the future. Out of the most modest part in Christ’ s work something glorious will unfold itself. (Schleiermacher.) The beginnings of the Christian Church Vast as the Church is now, there was a time when it consisted of only two members. I. We see WHAT GOOD IS DONE BY OF CHRIST. 1. The first time the Baptist cried “ Behold the Lamb of God,” no result seems to have followed. 2. When John repeated these words two followed Jesus. 3. This simple story is a pattern of the way in which good has been done to souls in every age. (1) By testimony. (2) By exalting Christ and not the Church, sacraments, or ministry. (3) By patient continuance in preaching the truth. II. WHAT GOOD A MAY DO TO OTHERS BY TO THEM ABOUT CHRIST. 1. Andrew spoke promptly to Peter. Who can tell what would have happened had he been silent and reserved, like many Christians now! 2. Of the first three converts, one at least was brought to Jesus by the quiet word of a relative. 3. The work of testimony must not be left to ministers alone. 4. Those who follow Christ must abide with him. (Bishop Ryle.) The Apostle Andrew A native of Bethsaida and brother of Peter. Very little known of him. Left the ministry of John for that of Christ. No sooner attached himself to Christ, than he sought a close intimacy with Him. He next brought his brother to Christ. Was formally called, together with Peter, to the apostleship (Mark 1:16-17). Was present, and took a prominent part in, the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:5; John 6:9). Introduced the Greeks to Jesus (John 12:21-22). Inquired with the three about the destruction of the Temple (Mark 13:4). I. HIS TO CHRIST. 1. His old master effected it. Religious teachers who have little souls are anxious to keep their disciples entirely under their own influence, and are jealous of greater teachers. 2. His old master effected it through the proclamation of a great truth. The cross is the converting power. II. HIS IN CHRIST. 1. Expressed in the question addressed to Christ. “ We want to know more of Thee.” A desire which is ever the effect and evidence of true conversion. 2. Heightened by the reply Christ makes to them. “ Come and see.” Christ has nothing to conceal. He wishes the world to know all about Him. Do not judge from hearsay, but search for yourselves. III. HIS SERVICE FOR CHRIST. This and John 12:23 indicates his desireto bring his fellow-men to Christ. 1. This can only be done by those who are themselves true disciples. They only have the spirit necessary to give emphasis to the invitation and the character which reflects Christ. 2. The true disciple will do it not as a dry duty, but as a delightful privilege. This is the highest Christian gratification. 3. This work is not bringing men to our systems and sects, but to Christ. 4. Unless men are brought to Christ, we do them no lasting service. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Andrew and John I. THE LIGHT. Galilean fishermen, of deep religious susceptibilities, perhaps belonging to those who were waiting for the consolation of Israel. Leaving their boats, they repaired to the national rendezvous, where they received the rite of baptism at John’ s hands. When Christ was pointed out, they felt themselves, by personal consistency, intellectual conviction, and spiritual aspiration, shut up to seek his further acquaintance. So will the light still be discerned by all who prepare for it by penitence and faith (Isaiah 66:2; Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:7; Matthew 4:17; Acts 20:21; 1 John 5:9-12). Faith is the organ by which Christ’ s glory is discerned; Repentance the tear-drop that keeps the soul’ s eye pure and clean. II. THE LIGHT. Many discern the Light who neither rejoice in it John 3:19) nor walk after it (1 Thessalonians 5:5). Not so these, who no sooner beheld than they followed. 1. Promptly, as men who (1) Realized their need (2 Kings 7:3). (2) Knew the value of their discovery (Matthew 13:44-46). (3) Recognized the danger of delay (2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 4:7). 2. Humbly: walking respectfully at a distance behind (Psalms 31:1). 3. Sincerely: their reply to Christ’ s question teaching that openness and frankness which is indispensable in true religion. 4. Earnestly: embracing Christ’ s invitation at once, since the King’ s business requires haste, and Christ’ s kingdom brooks no delay, and becoming so absorbed that they heeded not the lapse of time. III. FINDING THE LIGHT. Their judgments were convinced that Christ was the Messiah, and so will all those who turn towards the Light (John 8:12; of. Hosea 6:3). In the order of nature, seeing goes before believing; in the realm of grace, a soul believes to see (John 11:40; Psalms 27:13). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The law of Christian increase The most elementary mathematics treats of two laws of progression, which are distinguished by the terms “ arithmetical” and “ geometrical.” The one grows by the successive addition of a fixed quantity; in the other, each successive term is increased by a fixed proportion of itself. Now, let the quantity added in a progression of the first sort be never so large, and the proportion in a progression of the second kind never so small, the last will eventually outstrip the first. But what is more important to notice is, that the arithmetical progression is the law of mechanical growth, while the other is the law of the growth of lifo. A tree does not grow by the addition of a certain number of twigs and leaves every year; but where a leaf was one year, there we find a twig with several leaves the next year. The human race itself follows the law of a living organism, and grows not by the addition of a certain number each year, but by a certain proportion of the population of the previous year. If, then, the Church is ever to overtake the world, it must grow, not by the arithmetical, but by the geometrical law; and as the world had the start, its rate of growth must be greater. The Church must be a living organism, and an organism of greater vitality than the human race. Its growth must be something out of itself, something proportionate to itself. The work of the individual is the true law of the Church’ s growth, stamped upon it from the very beginning. How easy it was for the three disciples to become six l Each man brings in one; that is all. And these men are not now apostles or ministers; they are private Christians--mere babes in Christ. What they did all can do. (P. H. Hoge.) Small beginnings Jesus gained one follower at His baptism--His baptizer; but this one was soon multiplied. John bears further witness to Jesus. Two of John’ s disciples hear his testimony, and at once leave their old master and follow the new. So now Jesus has three disciples. One of them, Andrew, was so glad that he had found the Messiah, that he started off and found Peter, his brother, and brought him to Jesus. So another follower was secured, making four in all. The next day Jesus calls Philip, and he obeys the call; so now there are five. Five are not very many; but still five are five times as many as one. Philip felt just as Andrew had done before him, and sought his friend Nathanael. Nathanael was rather hard to convince; so Philip said, Come and see for yourself. Nathanael came, and was convinced. So now there were six. This was only a small beginning, it is true; but most large things begin small. The locomotive that rushes along sixty miles an hour began its motion by inches. The giant tree of California was once only half an inch high. The Amazon at its source is narrow enough to allow a child to jump over it. The question is not so much, Was the beginning small? as, Is the growth rapid and enduring? How many disciples Jesus has to-day. Millions on millions. How have these millions of disciples been won? Mohammed won millions by the power of the sword. But Jesus never authorized the use of physical power to subdue men to His rule. Jesus’ true disciples have all been won, just as those first six were won, by gentle means. One has persuaded one more, or eventually, as Peter, thousands. (A. F. Schauffler.) John and Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Bridegroom, came to join to Himself the Church. He said nothing, but merely came. It was His friend, the Baptist, who put into His the bride’ s right hand. (Chrysostom.) John 1:36 Behold the Lamb of God!--This is the main business of the preacher.Had John been an eloquent declaimer of repentance merely, he would have missed his life-work. As the stars called “ the Pointers” always point to the Pole Star, so must ministers point to the Redeemer. The Baptist’ s eye was fastened on the Master, while he pointed to the Master. They preach Christ best who see Him best. I. LEARN THAT CHRIST IS THE LAMB OF GOD. 1. He is the chief of all sacrifices, the term of “ God often signifying” greatest, noblest. (1) Because it contains all others. (2) Because it does really and for ever what the others only typified. 2. He is the Lamb of God’ s appointing; 3. Of God’ s providing; 4. Of God’ s offering; 5. Of God’ s setting forth to the sons of men (Romans 3:25). II. JESUS UNDER THAT . 1. Christ, as the atoning sacrifice, ought to be the principal object of every believer’ s thoughts 2. This is the grandest subject of thought in the universe. What are the sciences, the classics, poetry, in comparison? 3. No subject so well balances the soul as this. Other themes disturb the mental equilibrium, and overload one faculty at the expense of others. 4. This is the most needful subject of contemplation. Other things may be forgotten without serious damage. III. GATHER FROM JESUS UNDER THAT ASPECT. 1. Doctrinal. (1) The evil of sin. (2) The magnitude of God’ s love. 2. Experimental. Sin vanishes when Christ appears, and grief and fear. IV. Behold the Lamb of God WITH , as do angels and glorified spirits. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Beholding the Lamb of God I. WHAT ARE WE TO SEE WHEN WE LOOK ON JESUS? With what eyes? Time was when men saw Him with their natural eyes, and He was an offence. Time will be when every eye shall see Him, and He will be to many a terror. In heaven He is seen with glorified eyes. To us now He may be seen with the eye of faith. Using this, not having seen Him, we love Him and receive life from Him. What is the sight? 1. The great Creator (John 1:1). 2. The great Creator manifested in the flesh. 3. The Divine fulness for the salvation of men. (1) The full expiation of sin. (2) All the grace to be communicated to His saints. (3) Grace for grace. (4) All supplies necessary for living and dying, obeying and suffering, endurance and triumph, progress and perfection. II. FOR WHAT ENDS ARE WE TO HIM. 1. That we may have tenderness of heart under sin. Here is a sight to soften stony hearts. 2. That we may have relief under conviction of sin. If He can take away the sin of the world, He can take away a world of sin in you. 3. That we may have courage and patience under all suffering. As He was in the world, so must we be. 4. That we may not stagger at the promises through unbelief. The Messianic prophecies were fulfilled in Him. Shall we, then, disbelieve that those which concern us will bebroken. (A. Beith, D. D.) The Lamb of God I. SEEN. 1. By whom? By the Forerunner, who had been preparing His way; as all will--first here in spirit, afterwards in body; first by faith, and afterwards by sight; who by humility, faith, and desire, make themselves ready for His coming (Matthew 5:8; John 16:16; 1 John 3:2). 2. When? On the day after the preceding vision. Christ seldom puts His followers off with one sight of Himself: view follows upon view, according to growth in seeing and desiring. 3. Where? On the river’ s bank, as He was separating Himself from the Baptist to commence His own work. Christ is best seen at a distance from His servants. 4. Why? To be pointed out. For this same reason Christ appears to His servants now. II. POINTED OUT. 1. In what character? As the Lamb of God. Suggestive of (1) Personal innocence or sinlessness. (2) The meek and unresisting patience with which he should carry on His work. (3) The propitiatory character of His mission:--the three main themes of the gospel ministry. 2. In what manner? With a Behold: to indicate (1) The importance of the announcement. (2) The earnestness of the herald. (3) The liveliness of mind with which the announcement should be welcomed. 3. With what intention? To send men to Christ. 4. With what result? Two of his disciples follow Christ (Isaiah Iv. 11). III. Followed. 1. Promptly. Delay imprudent and dangerous. If Christ be what the Baptist says, there is no time to be lost. 2. Inquiringly. This is all that Christ desires at first. The chief complaint is that men reject Him without examining His credentials. 3. Finally. So will all who seek Him with the whole heart. 4. Exemplarily. They led the way to a larger movement. Lessons: 1. The proper business of the Christian ministry: to point out Christ to the world, and to point the world to Christ. 2. The necessary qualification of the ministry: to behold Christ, and have a personal insight into the character and work of the Saviour. 3. The encouraging reward of the ministry: to behold disciples going over to and following the Saviour. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Lamb of God I. THE IMPORT OF THE . 1. It had respect to the personal character of Christ. He was a perfect pattern of (1) innocence, and (2) patience. It was thus that He illustrated, in His own example, the nature and genius of the gospel dispensation, as superior to every other. 2. It had a distinct reference to the great design of His appearance and death. It marks out His sacrificial character, prefigured by the legal offerings, more particularly the paschal lamb, the most ancient and important. (1) The passover commemorated a great deliverance, and prefigured a greater. (2) The passover averted an inevitable destruction; so did the sacrifice of Christ. (3) In both cases there is no natural connection between the means and the end; the benefit is moral, not physical. The sprinkling blood was simply of Divine appointment, as a sign to arrest the progress of the destroying angel. So between the sacrifice of Christ and the expiation of guilt the relation is moral, resulting from the will of God. (4) The personal qualities in the two victims are similar. The lamb was to be without spot or blemish; so was Christ. (5) The blood of the one had to be sprinkled, so that of the Other must be applied. (6) While many of the legal sacrifices were offered by individuals, the paschal lamb was required to be slain and offered by the whole congregation of Israel, it being understood that he who neglected this important sacrifice, would lose its benefit--would be cut off from the congregation. “ Behold” [here] “ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!” (7) The time of slaying in both eases was the evening. (8) Not a bone was broken in either. (9) The paschal lamb was prepared by fire, signifying the agonies of the Lamb of God. How strangely mistaken, therefore, those who represent Christ’ s death as an example or a martyrdom for truth. II. THE SPIRIT AND DESIGN OF THE . It expresses the claim of Christ to attention from beings of every order. 1. Those who remain, as sinners, in their original character and state. There are three qualities which entitle an object to our regard: (1) Intrinsic greatness--e.g., the wonders of the material world; those of the intellectual and moral universe; but here is something incomparably greater--Incarnate Deity. (2) Novelty. What so original as the Invisible Creator clothed in mortal flesh; the Ancient of Days cradled as an Infant; He who upholdeth all things sinking under a weight of suffering; the Lord of Glory expiring on the cross; the Light of the world sustaining an awful eclipse; the Sun of Righteousness immerged in the shadow of death? (3) Usefulness. The Lamb of God is the only Saviour. 2. Those who have repented and believed. The efficacy of this sacrifice covers all the needs of the spiritual life. 3. The redeemed in the world of glory. They owe their position and their continuance in it to the Lamb of God. 4. The holy angels, who may probably be secured in that felicity to which saints are promoted, by the mediation of Jesus Christ. 5. God Himself. To Him the Redeemer is an object of complacency and satisfaction. (Robert Hall.) Christ’ s whole character must be studied If you wish to look at a portrait of Raphael’ s, what would you think to see only the forehead uncovered, and then only the eyes, and so on, until all the features had been separately seen? Could you gain a true idea of the picture as a whole? Yet this is the way men look at the picture of Christ in the gospels, reading a few verses and mottoes here and there, and never considering the life in its wholeness and harmony. (H. W. Beecher.) A two-fold use of the eyes It is a beautiful remark of an old divine, that eyes are made for two things at least; first, to look with, and next, to weep with. The eye which looks to the pierced One is the eye which weeps for Him. Oh soul, when thou comest to look where all eyes should look, even to Him who was pierced, then thine eye begins to weep for that for which all eyes should weep, even the sin which slew thy Saviour! There is no saving repentance except within sight of the cross. John 1:37-39 And the two disciples heard Him speak The first two disciples I. THE FRUIT OF GRACE IN THESE TWO . 1. They followed Jesus. When a man has become a doer of the Word, he ever seeks increased knowledge. 2. They acknowledged His high character as a Master on whose instruction they desired to wait. It is a blessed progress when the issue of outward preaching is to make men desire that inward teaching which is by the waving power of Christ. 3. They sought intimate acquaintance with Him. No short interview was sufficient. II. CHRIST’ S OF THE TWO . 1. He took notice that they followed Him. Why did He not speak? Because He would honour His own word, as spoken by the Baptist, and give time for its proper effect. Christ knows those who are following Him, however hidden, silent, and feeble. 2. He set them on examining their purpose in following Him. 3. He gave them most welcome invitation and grateful entertainment. (A. Beith, D. D.) John and Andrew I. It was not an accident that the first words which the Master spoke in His Messianic office were THE , “ What seek ye?” which suggests 1. The need of having a clear consciousness of what is our object in life. (1) Most men have never answered that question, but are driven by circumstances, and whose incoherent, unreflective lives are a shame to their manhood. (2) Others are full of low, unworthy aims. (3) If we would ask this question and answer it thoroughly we should not make so many mistakes. If we knew what we were really seeking we should know where to go and look for it. 2. These words are also a veiled promise. (1) Christ asks all such questions, not for His information, but for our strengthening. (2) The condition of the fulfilment of the promise is that a suppliant is conscious of His own wants, and turns to Christ for their supply. (3) Christ has done what He has promised. No man can ask from Christ what He cannot or will not bestow. II. The second words which Christ speaks are a TO THE WORLD. The disciples’ answer was simple and timid. They did not venture to say, “ May we talk to you?” “ Will you take us to be your disciples?” All they can muster courage to ask now is, “ Where dwellest Thou?” At another time, perhaps, we will go to this Rabbi and speak with Him. His answer is “ Come now!” 1. Christ is always glad when people resort to Him. When He was here in the world, no hour was inconvenient or inopportune. He was never impatient or wearied. 2. This invitation is a distinct call to first hand knowledge of Christ. 3. This is a call to the personal act of faith. “ Come” and “ see” are standing emblems of faith. III. The words of the Evangelist are A PARABLE OF THE BLESSED WHICH BINDS MEN’ S HEARTS TO JESUS FOR EVER. 1. “ Dwelt” and “ abode” are the same words in the original, and express the close, still communion which the soul may have with Jesus Christ. 2. John had nothing to say to the world about what the Master said to him and his brother in that long day of communion. A lesson for a great deal of blatant talk about conversion and the details thereof. 3. The impression of Christ’ s own personality is the strongest force to make disciples. 4. The experience of the grace and sweetness of the Saviour binds men to Him as nothing else will. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The character of a leader shown by the character of his following One gets an idea of the greatness of a chief of men from the greatness of those whom he gathers around him, and who carry out his plans. Thus, for example, one infers that Cromwell must have been a great-natured man, from the fact that he had Howe for his chaplain, Milton and Marvell for his secretaries, Blake for his admiral, and so on. Noscitur a sociis, and we might add, a servia. So we reason, perhaps unconsciously, in the ease of other historic names. Speaking reverently, I would say, that in a parallel manner, we recognize the “ sovran” greatness of our Lord in the fact that He gathered into His service and commanded men of such varied and magnificent natures as a Peter, a John, and a Paul; not to speak of men in other times. His heroes are no less wonderful than the most wonderful in the ancient days of Israel. (J. Culross, D. D.) The difference between the conversion of John and the conversion of Paul In the case of Paul, we find a man of powerful nature committed out and out against the cause of Jesus, thoroughly conscientious in his hostility, not merely standing out against the Gospel as a fraud or delusion, blasphemous in its every essence, but resolved to pat it down. This man is suddenly arrested in the mid-career of his opposition. There is a mighty shock to his nature; and for three days he can neither eat nor drink. With John it seems to have been otherwise. We cannot indeed tell what the Baptist’ s ministry may have been to him; how the sorrows of death may have compassed him and the pains of hell gut hold upon him. But in coming to Jesus, he is “ drawn,” as with the cords of love and the bands of a man. There are those who think that all is not right with a man unless there is something approaching convulsion in the bringing of him to God. For myself, I entertain no manner of doubt that the great change is often accomplished thus. But the convulsion is not of the essence of the change. Often it is the sign of resistance and struggle against God, and has more to do with unbelief than with faith. Let us not limit God, or prescribe to Him, but accept His grace in whatever way it comes. (J. Culross, D. D.) Jesus saw them following. There are different causes of following one who is worthy of attention. A good man may be followed by an enemy from a desire to injure him; he may be followed in suspicion and doubt; he may be followed from mere curiosity; he may be followed in the hope of purely personal gain; he may be followed in loving devotedness. The following may be a good sign, or it may be an evil sign, on the part of those who follow. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Rabbi--The Jewish terms of honour for their religious teachers were three. These were, in ascending honour, Rabh, Rabbi, Rabban, the last term being given in cases only of the extremest rarity. As regards the relation of the rabbi to the people, the Sages advised every man: “ Chose for thee a Master, and withdraw from doubt;” that is, Chose for yourself a rabbi who can solve the legal and casuistical questions which perplex you. Jesus was not a rabbi in the strict sense; but the title was given to Him in point of courtesy by those who would learn from Him. (A. F. Schaefer.) What seek ye?--It is a blank cheque that He puts into their hands to fill up. It is the key of His treasure-house which He offers to us all, with the assured confidence that if we open it we shall find all that we need. Christ stands before us like some of those fountains erected at some great national festival, out of which pour for all the multitude every variety of draught which they desire, and each man that goes with his empty cup gets it filled with that which he wishes. “ What seek ye?” Wisdom? You students, you thinkers, you young men that are fighting with intellectual difficulties, “ What seek ye?” Truth? He gives us that. You others, “ What seek ye?” Love, peace, victory, self-control, hope, anodyne for sorrow? Whatever you desire, you will find in Jesus Christ. The first words with which He broke the silence, when He spake to man as the Messias, were at once a searching question, probing their aims and purposes, and a gracious promise pledging Him to a task not beyond His power, however far beyond that of all others--even the task of giving to each man His heart’ s desire. “ What seek ye? “ “ Seek, and ye shall fled.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Where dwellest thou?--By this example we are taught from the first rudiment of the Church 1. That we ought to draw such a relish for Christ as will excite our desire for profit. 2. That we ought not to be satisfied with a mere passing look, but that we ought to seek Christ’ s dwelling that He may receive us as guests. For there are many who smell the gospel at a distance only, and thus allow Christ suddenly to disappear, and all that they have learned concerning Him to pass away. (Calvin.) Come and seeInvestigation the way to Faith I. THE BY WHICH CHRIST’ S EARTHLY GAINED FAITH IN HIS MISSION. Invited by Christ, they spend many hours with Him, and come away convinced of His Messiahship; He had nothing to conceal. The more they know the clearer His glory. In this He is a contrast to most of the world’ s heroes and an example to all teachers. II. THE BY WHICH OF CHRIST’ S GAIN FAITH IN CHRIST’ S , proving it to be 1. Original. 2. Beautiful. 3. Perfect. III. THE BY WHICH OF HISTORY GAIN FAITH IN CHRIST’ S , proving its 1. Might. 2. Beneficence. IV. THE BY WHICH FOR GAIN FAITH IN CHRIST HIMSELF. This faith can only be possessed by those who hold intelligent, devout, constant communion with Him. (Urijah R. Thomas.) A loving invitation At the beginning of the gospel Christ says, “ Come and see;” at the close, “ Come and dine.” The first is for babes in Christ, the second for strong men. The first is the beginning of spiritual life, the second a high after privilege, and the result of it. The first is the Gospel’ s cry to those outside its pale, the second to those who have embraced it. Christ has nothing to conceal. Romanism may conceal its worship under the Latin tongue, difficult phraseology and polished periods may hide the teaching of professed protestants. We have here I. AN TO SINNERS. There are four ways by which persons are to “ Come and see.” 1. By observation. Many persons are careless; they will consider the last new novel, but concerning Christ they have no curiosity. 2. By diligent study of Holy Scripture. The worst read book is the Bible. People read a verse or half a chapter and think they understand it. But they do not read Shakespeare in that way. 3. By hearing the Gospel. What do you come to God’ s house for? To admire the eloquence of man? Go to the theatre or senate if that be your errand. To God’ s house we should resort to learn to see for ourselves the Lord Jesus. 4. By believing. The best way of knowing about Christ is to try Him. The only way of knowing His power to forgive sins is to trust Him to forgive yours. II. AN ADDRESS TO IN THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST. We ought not to be satisfied with merely being saved. Our next business is to learn more of Christ. 1. For the understanding of doctrine. 2. For the fulfilment of promises. 3. For the ripening of experience. III. THE CRY OF THE GOSPEL TO EVERY SINNER. It is more pleasing to use the eye than the ear. You can keep children as happy as birds in the air with a picture-book, when they would probably go to sleep if you were to talk to them. Christ bids us use the eye. What is there to see? Christ 1. Incarnate. 2. Crucified, 3. Risen. Come and see. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Man inviting Christ to his dwelling As He invited the disciples of John to see where He dwelt, so we should be able to invite Him to see where we dwell, and to look if there be in our habitations anything which betrays a spirit contrary to His. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) The dwelling-place of Jesus 1. So humble and obscure that tradition, so industrious in marking every spot trodden by His blessed feet, fails to point it out. 2. In this lowly dwelling Christ first preached His gospel. 3. It was, the first sanctuary of the Christian faith. Where does Christ dwell now? I. IN HEAVEN (Luke 24:51; Hebrews 10:12). 1. Then He is visible only to faith? 2. There He ever lives to make intercession. II. IN HIS CHURCH (Exodus 20:24; Matthew 18:20). 1. There He is worshipped. 2. There we commune with Him. III. IN THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE (Proverbs 23:26; Ephesians 3:17). 1. In spite of their unworthiness. 2. In response to faith and love. 3. To animate hope. (John N. Norton.) A memorable day I. FOR JESUS. The first fruits of His redeeming work. II. FOR JOHN. The beginning of a new life. III. FOR THE CHURCH. The day of its foundation. IV. FOR THE WORLD. A promise of its regeneration. Lesson; the importance of little things. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Experience of Christ better than description of Him An affecting scene occurred in the streets of Baltimore. Two little sisters were looking through a large store window at the toys within, and trying to describe what they saw to a little blind sister who was with them. They were exhausting their feeble powers of description to bring home to the mind of their blind companion what they saw, although she listened greedily. But, after all, they failed to present anything more than an imperfect representation. The gentleman who saw the circumstance said that it was extremely touching, that they tried hard to describe the collection in the store, but they could not do it. That is just like trying to tell you of Christ. We may exhaust our powers of description, but the effect will be very moderate. You must come and see His beauties with your own eyes. John 1:40-41 One of the two which heard John speak Andrew I. THE EARNEST SEEKER AFTER . 1. His mind had been prepared (1) By the preaching of the Baptist (2) By independent reflection and Bible study. 2. He came to Jesus with an openheartedness worthy of imitation. He had his own notions, doubtless, about the grandeur of Israel’ s Messiah; but was not offended when the solitary, unattended man was pointed out to him. Some, in the hasty revulsion of feeling, would have turned away in disdain. But Andrew’ s faith mastered his prejudice. 3. His search was marked by indomitable earnestness. He followed Jesus, and by addressing Him as Rabbi, puts himself under His teaching, and follows Him home. II. THE IN JESUS. 1. The openheartedness of Christianity. “ Behold the Lamb!” “ Come and see.” There is no disguise, for none is needed. Christianity requires intelligence, reliance, not blind credulity. Ancient mythology and modern superstitions at Delphos, or Mecca, or Rome, had and have their reserve and mystery; but Christianity has light in herself, and studies no concealment. 2. The satisfactoriness of Christianity. When you come and see, there is always something to be seen. The search for Christ yields an intellectual and emotional satisfaction. The charge is warmly felt as well as intelligently realized. “ We have found the Messiah.” III. THE . 1. He proclaims the truth to his brother. 2. He resumes his secular duties. It was a great soul that could bear to be with Jesus at night, and to be fishing in the morning. 3. What a contrast between the first two brothers in the New Testament and the first two brothers of the Old. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.) The conduct of Andrew illustrates I. The general duty of TO IMPART TO OTHERS THE ENJOYED BY . There is all the difference here between natural and Spiritual things. The discovery of a hidden treasure would beget no anxiety that others should know of it. The discovery of a remedy for a direful disease would inspire eagerness in most men to give it a wide notoriety; but not necessarily in all cases, inasmuch as the discovery involves no change in the character. But the man who has lighted on heavenly treasure has found that, the direct tendency of which is to the overcoming of selfishness. A man renewed by God’ s Spirit, who does not desire and seek the renewal of others, is a contradiction in terms. The wealth acquired by the believer is kept through being dispersed; the cure accomplished through the blood of the Redeemer is a cure which is radical only in proportion as it seeks its own extension. Let, then, men take it as a test by which to try their own spiritual condition. Andrew findeth his brother Simon. He felt at once the communicative and diffusive nature of religion. II. The special duty of WITH THOSE WITH WHOM WE ARE MORE . 1. Our own household and relatives have the first claim upon us; parents and masters are bound, if they would imitate Andrew, to provide first for their own children and servants; or parishioners or citizens are bound to provide for their own poor, before they attempt the relief of other parishes and other cities. To Englishmen, their necessitous countrymen especially come first, before they turn their attention to the African or New Zealander. There is nothing of selfishness in this. We must enlarge our operations with the enlargement of our ability. But God may be said to have parcelled out mankind into concentric circles, and he hath made it incumbent upon us that we go carefully round the inner circle before we pass on to the outer; so that, while benevolence is not to be churlishly limited, she is not to leave waste ground here, in her eagerness to spread culture over some remote and savage section of the earth. 2. But as Andrew did not stop short at his brother, so home missions must expand into foreign. 3. The great lesson, however, is that we should care for the conversion of those with whom we were associated when unconverted. The merchant, who nearly lost his soul in hunting after gain, but who is now seeking treasure above--is he doing his best to cause those who were one with him in the struggle after perishable wealth to be one with him in labouring for the incorruptible? The young man who was the slave of vice, driven headlong by his passions, and who has now forsaken the haunts of licentiousness--is he striving to withdraw from those pleasures his former associates, and to lead them to take delight in heavenly things? The young woman whose whole mind was engaged in frivolous amusements, but who now seems awake to the solemnities of eternity--is it her endeavour to teach the thoughtless With whom she squandered away life that there is something more to be cared for than dress, and something more communicative of happiness than the dance? All such cases may be gathered under the “ first” of our text. The converted man’ s first care will be for those with whom he has been intimately associated, either in relationship, or friendship, or business. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Andrew’ s ministry I. THERE IS IN FAMILY THAT CAN BRING MEN TO JESUS SHOULD HAVE ITS FULL AND FAIR PLACE. Many people who ought not only be more useful, but more happy and healthy, by sharing as far as possible their new found light and joy with those who are near and dear to them, have become the merest religious recluses. Sometimes it is difficult to bring any direct influence to bear. How important, therefore, that every indirect influence should be wisely employed. And all have this. II. THE VALUE OF THIS . Let the fountain of our inner life be pure, and its manifold streams entering the most arid wastes will promote verdure and blessing in a hundred unforeseen forms. III. THE DIRECT OF A . Men need to be told of the source of blessing, and the burden of the testimony rests with those who have heard. There are some things, the knowledge of which would brighten men’ s lives, and these things you know. Tell them. God takes hold of the natural love of communicating, and uses it for the good of humanity. You are ready enough with your advice on most matters, be ready with these good news of God. IV. THE OF AND . An inward intelligent experience will ever be the first demand of the Church. If we felt the power of the indwelling Christ, He would speak in us and work by us. If we have no light we cannot let it shine; but if we have we must not put it under a bushel, or it will go out. V. A TO MEN OF OR LIMITED . We never read much of Andrew; and since we cannot tell the possible result of any act or influence, however insignificant, it becomes us not to disparage anyone. And who shall call an action insignificant? Like a winged seed carried by the wind to some barren islet, bearing in its bosom the germs of all future loveliness and verdure; so blessed oft is the deed of a good man. (G. J. Procter.) Coming to Jesus, a motive for bringing others to Him I. TRUE IS THE RESULT OF THE CLAIMS OF JESUS CHRIST. You must possess that religion or you can never impart it. “ I will bless thee and thou shalt be a blessing.” “ He that believeth on Me shall never thirst, and from within him shall flow rivers of living water.” The truth of Christ must first be known, and the knowledge of Christ is essentially connected with the love of Christ as the medium and material of that knowledge. We have in the narrative an illustration of the way in which personal religion commences. When directed to Christ, the first disciples were not satisfied with a passing glance, but they looked to Jesus and followed Him. Then commenced their friendship with Christ. There is an immense diversity in the operations of the Spirit. Some are brought at once outer darkness into light. Others by a gradual method: but the results are the same. They are brought to Jesus as the result of inquiry marked by prayer and solicitude. And there is everything in the character and religion of Christ to deserve and challenge inquiry. These things were not done in a corner; everything will bear the light. II. THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME THE OF CHRIST WILL BE TO BRING OTHERS TO HIM. Everything in religion is gloriously expansive. 1. Our object in all our Church operations is not sectarian, but to bring men to Christ. Keep this object before you in your families, neighbourhood, communities. If you aim at anything short of this you will fail to reach even your subordinate object. While, on the other hand, in enlarging our minds to the amplitude and sublimity of this higher object, we shall lay the most enduring basis for the accomplishment of even the minor object. 2. Contemplate your responsibility. You have the great remedy for the world’ s moral diseases; you dare not keep it to yourselves. 3. Your opportunities. No man was ever disposed to do good who did not find ample opportunities as the member of a family, as a master or a servant, as a Church member. 4. Your encouragement: The command of Christ, the assurance of His presence, the success already secured, and the certainty of final success. (J. Fletcher, D. D.) The magnet and the turning-point No literature is more interesting or instructive than biography. Sacred biography has peculiar demands upon us. There is no part of the life of an individual which possesses more interest than its turning-point in the case of a statesman, soldier, merchant, but above all a Christian. Our text describes the turning-point of a man who stands conspicuous in sacred biography, the spiritual first moment of Peter. Notice I. THE BEING WHO IS THE OBJECT OF . 1. His name: Jesus, Saviour, who was perfect God and perfect man. 2. His title, Messias: inclusive of all His offices, Prophet, Priest, King, Lamb of God, Baptizer with the Spirit. II. THE WORK WROUGHT. “ He brought him to Jesus.” 1. Andrew was the instrument, and the means he used was the proclamation of Christ. Have you a brother? Bring him to Jesus. 2. God was the efficient agent (1 Corinthians 2:14; John 6:44-45). III. THE FROM THIS WORK. The Christian Church. (J. T. Whitestone, A. B.) The Sunday-school teacher I. THE GREAT OBJECT SOUGHT TO BE . 1. Introduction to Jesus. 2. Interest in Jesus. 3. Instruction from Jesus. 4. Intimacy with Jesus. II. THE WHICH OUGHT TO POSSESS TO SECURE THIS GREAT OBJECT. 1. Sincere and ardent piety. 2. An enlightened knowledge of Christ and the method of salvation by Him. 3. An adaptation in the mode of instruction to the disposition of the child. 4. An exhibition of the practical effects of the knowledge of Christ in your conduct. III. THE SPECIAL EFFECTS FROM THE OF THIS GREAT OBJECT. 1. Christ will be glorified. 2. The Church will be enlarged. 3. The world will be benefited. 4. Your labours will be rewarded. Conclusion: Notice 1. The importance of looking out for souls to bring them to Jesus. 2. The value of union. (J. Sherman.) Simon Peter brought by his brother to Jesus I. JESUS IS THE BEING TO WHOM MEN SHOULD COME. 1. What is it for men to come? Andrew and his brother came corporeally. The corporeal was the sign of a mental state which is equivalent to believing. 2. Why men should come to Christ for salvation. II. WHEN MEN HAVE COME TO JESUS THEY SHOULD TO BRING OTHERS TO HIM. 1. The argument by which this duty is confirmed. Christ has committed His cause into their hands. They are His property. He appeals to their love to Him and their tender concern for souls, to bring the world to Him. 2. The manner in which that duty must be performed. (1) By the exhibition of the truth in the exercise of the ministry, the circulation of the Bible, the spread of good literature, education, visitation, and the ordinary intercourse of domestic and social life. (2) By supplicating the influence of the Divine Spirit to sanction and bless the means employed. III. IN TO BRING OTHERS TO CHRIST, MEN SHOULD CHERISH ANXIETY AND EFFORT ON BEHALF OF THEIR OWN AND FRIENDS. This is beautifully illustrated in the New Testament. Andrew, the woman of Samaria, Cornelius, etc. 1. In justification of this principle, notice that (1) The relationships of kindred or affection are formed under the physical or moral providence of God. (2) God has implanted or inspired in connection with these relationships certain affections which grow out of them and are appropriate to them. (3) The due culture of these affections issue in important results, and neglect and failure are fraught with great evils. (4) The solicitude ought to operate in matters which affect the interest and happiness of the soul. 2. The order of exertion will not disqualify or prevent from the larger and more expanded sphere of operation as regards the general welfare of mankind. 3. Inquire how you who have been brought to Jesus have fulfilled your obligations. IV. TO BRING OTHERS TO JESUS, WHEN RIGHTLY , ARE MUCH BY THE HOPE AND OF SUCCESS. 1. Success does frequently attend such endeavours, as is seen in the cases of Andrew and the Samaritan woman. And many a preacher, Sunday-school teacher, tract distributer, etc., could tell a similar tale; and so could parents and brothers. 2. Success in these endeavours is eminently and surpassingly delightful, because (1) Of the value of the soul. (2) Of the opening up of channels of usefulness in connection with the cross of Christ. Who can tell where a single conversion will terminate? Think of Doddridge, Whitefield, Morison. (3) Of the connection of success with our everlasting reward. (J. Parsons.) Simon Peter I. THE WITNESS OF THE . We see 1. How instinctive and natural the impulse is when a man has found Jesus Christ to tell someone else about Him. Nobody said to Andrew, “ Go and look for your brother!” If a man has a real conviction, he cannot rest until he has shared it with some one else. Even a dog that has had its leg mended will bring other limping dogs to the mender. How is it in the world? And are Christians to be dumb when worldlings are in earnest? This man before he was four and twenty hours a disciple had made another. Have you made one in the same number of years? 2. He first findeth his own brother. There was a second, then, that found somebody. Andrew found Peter before John found James. Each of the original pair of disciples brought the nearest to him in blood and affection to Christ. (1) Home, then, presents the natural channel for Christian work. It is a poor affair if all your philanthropy and Christian energy go off noisily in Sunday-schools and mission stations, and if the people at your own fireside never hear anything of Him whom you say you love. (2) But the principle has a wider application. Why has God placed you where you are? For business and personal ends? Yes, partly. But where a man who knows and loves Christ is brought into neighbourly contact with thousands who do not, he is thereby constituted his brother’ s keeper. If you live in luxury in your own ventilated and well-drained villa, and take no heed to the typhoid fever or cholera in the slums at the back, the chances are that the disease will find its way to your wife and children. And Christians who, living among godless people, do not try to heal them will be infected by them. 3. The simple Word, which is the most powerful means of influencing most men. Andrew did not argue. Some of us cannot do that, and some of us are not influenced by argument. The mightiest argument is, “ We have found the Messias” ; and if you have you can say so. Never mind how; anyhow. 4. Remember the beginnings of the Christian Church; two men, each of whom found his brother. Two snowflakes on the top of the mountain are an avalanche by the time they reach the valley. II. THE SELF- OF THE MASTER. 1. He shows Himself possessed of supernatural and thorough knowledge. (1) The look described by an unusual word was a penetrating gaze which regarded Peter with fixed attention. It must have been remarkable to have lived in John’ s memory for all those years. (2) The saying was meant to imply more than natural knowledge. “ Thou art Simon.” “ Thou God seest me,” an unwelcome thought to many and to us unless, through Christ. 2. He changes Simon’ s name, and so (1) reveals His absolute possession of him. Jehovah changed the names of Abraham and Jacob. Babylonian kings changed the names of their vassal princes; masters those of their slaves; husbands those of their wives. We belong to Him altogether because He has given Himself altogether for us. (2) Reveals His power and promise to bestow a new character, new functions, new honours. Peter was by no means Peter then. Like the granite, all fluid and hot, he needed to cool in order to solidify into rock. But he eventually became all that Christ here meant him to be. No man’ s character is so obstinately rooted in evil but Christ can change its set and direction. He will not make Peter into a John, but He will deliver Peter from the defects of his qualities, and lead them up into a nobler region. The process may be long and painful, but it will be sure. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) “ Introductor to Christ” This is the appropriate name given by Bede to Andrew, who brought his brother and the Greeks (John 12:20) to Christ. I. BEGINS IN . Before we can introduce any one to the Saviour we must have found Him ourselves. II. OFTEN WORKS BY . The prevalence of a blatant religionism should not hinder the Christian man or woman giving the witness not only of life, but also of lip, on all right occasions. III. MAY BEGIN WITH THE MEMBERS OF OUR OWN . Sometimes the influence to be exerted must be indirect and quiet, rather than by appeal and word; but even then the time comes to speak, in order to lead others nearer to the truth who are of our own kith and kin. IV. DOES NOT DEMAND . St. Andrew, of whom we read little, led St. Peter, of whom we read much. (Family Churchman.) Finding and following (cf. Matthew 4:19) I. TO FIND. Christ was found 1. By association with the godly. 2. By listening attentively. 3. By unhesitating action. 4. By reverential inquiry. II. FINDING TO FOLLOW. 1. The first to become a disciple is the first to be selected as an apostle. 2. After the definite summons he followed to serve. (Tertius.) Christian service I. Andrew FINDING Peter. 1. Andrew sought his brother at once. (1) John and Andrew set out to find their brothers. Andrew was the first to find his. (2) Andrew found his brother first and others subsequently. 2. Andrew was not specially gifted; but what gift he had he used for Christ. 3. Andrew was not specially commissioned to go and convert others. The authorization was given later on. II. Andrew TO Simon. 1. Andrew did not preach or argue; he simply talked to him. 2. He talked earnestly. You have no fine language, or polished phrases, or balanced periods, but a few brief words coming hot from the heart. Intense earnestness has no leisure to indulge in the luxury of elocutionary flourishes. 3. His conversation was inspired by brotherly love. “ His own brother,” indicative of close, warm friendship. 4. His announcement was marked by incompleteness. Had he been asked to explain he would have been embarrassed. But imperfect teaching is often blessed. If you cannot speak the whole truth, speak half of it. Potato planters are never afraid of splitting the seed if they can only secure an eye in each half. See that your fragment of truth has an eye in it. 5. His talk was characterized by much assurance. “ We have found,” not, I think, or I hope. Religious dogmatism is much deprecated in certain quarters. You may dogmatize as much as you like against theology, but you are warned under heavy penalties not to dogmatize in its favour. But the dogmatists are the successful evangelists after all. III. Andrew Simon to Christ. 1. Our chief aim should be to lead men to Christ, not to any particular sect. Proselytization is not conversion. 2. Creeds and theologies should be subordinated to Christ. Men should be brought to Christ, not to our own system of divinity. If creeds stand in the way of Christ, then away with creeds. They are for edification, not conversion. 3. Christ should be placed above the Bible itself. It is possible for men to read it diligently and yet stop with it, instead of making their way to the interior court to contemplate the inner radiance. There is not a town or house in Great Britain but there is a way from it to London; so there is not a subject named in the Bible but it is directly or indirectly connected with Jesus. IV. Christ Simon. 1. Jesus beheld him, took stock of him, formed a correct estimate of him; looked, as the word implies, with the eyes of the mind as much as with the eyes of the body. 2. Christ saw that possibilities of good lay in Simon; doubtless the possibilities of evil also. But the Saviour estimates character not by the evil but by the good. God singles out every grain of virtue that may be hid in our deepest nature. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The first home mission We cannot tell certainly who was the first foreign missionary. But we know who was the first home missionary--Andrew. I. THE SPRING of all true home mission work. Andrew had himself made acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ. We must come into personal contact with Christ, be in the house with Him, learn to know Him as the Lamb of God. In the degree in which men have been in the house with Christ, and have learned to know Him, will they be ready to go out with the message to others. II. THE OBJECT of the first home mission. It was not enough for Andrew to speak to his brother about Christ, his aim is to bring him as close to Christ as he himself had been. We should be satisfied with nothing less. Here is a lesson for parents with their children, for a teacher with his scholars, for a minister with his hearers. We must neither begin nor end with ourselves. In this object of Andrew, notice 1. He was perfectly sure that Christ was willing to receive his brother. It does not appear that Christ had said anything about this. And Andrew does not seem to have thought it needful to ask Christ. He knew it from the way in which He had welcomed him. 2. Andrew is sure that he himself can have his own share in no way diminished. There would not be less of truth and love falling to his lot when Peter came to have his part. If a man covets land or wealth or power, the more he gives away the less he possesses. But let a man bring others to the treasures of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his own share will be increased. III. THE PLACE of this mission. 1. There are some who say we should have no foreign missions till our own country is redeemed. But these people forget that when Christ said, “ Preach the Gospel among all nations,” etc. He did not say stopping at Jerusalem. They forget that if the apostles had acted on this principle we should have been heathen still. They forget, moreover, that it was only when the Church of Christ began to think seriously of the foreign heathen that she had her thoughts turned to the home heathen. We generally find that those who are always talking of confining our attention to the home heathen are those who do least for them. 2. But this surely we may say, that in our zeal for the foreign heathen we are not to forget our own kinsfolk; and here are some reasons (1) They have not the only claim upon us, but they have the first claim. “ Go home to thy friends,” etc. (2) And even for our own sakes we must think of home. We cannot let masses of ignorance and sin and wretchedness fester and grow, without bringing a blight on our own Christianity. It is like having an unwholesome marsh beside our house; it spreads malaria and fever and ague. Think of your children living in this atmosphere, and of the danger to them in the sights and sounds and associations around them. (3) In the home mission field there is opportunity for every one of us to do something personally, Few of us can go to the foreign field. But there is always a sphere not far from our own door. (4) It seems to be part of the Divine plan that this opportunity should be given to Christians for the benefit it brings to themselves. It is thus we are to be like our Master, “ going about doing good,” and to grow always more like Him in the work of doing it. As the Church labours for the world around her, she would feel the duty of arising and shaking herself from the dust and putting on her beautiful garments. IV. THE TIME. Andrew did not wait till he had been made an apostle, or even a regular disciple. He began at once. If we never think about doing good to the souls of men till we are licensed, we should think seriously if we ought to be licensed at all; and if, when we are licensed or ordained, we look upon our work as a task, and measure carefully what we have to do and what we have not to do, we should ask ourselves, “ Is this not the place of a hireling.” And the same lesson comes home to all. A man may never think of being a minister or missionary; but he is not thereby freed from the duty of beginning at once to speak a word to his brother about the Gospel of Christ. And it is not necessary to wait for a great deal of knowledge; let us use the knowledge we have, not pretending to more. All cannot speak in public, teach in the Sabbath-school, go from house to house and influence strangers, but what one is there who has not some neighbour, by whom his word will be regarded? Like that of Andrew, it may be simply “ We have found the Christ.” But it will serve the purpose if it leads the man to where he will learn more. This is, indeed, all that any of us, if we are true speakers, need to say, “ We have found the Christ; He has met our need, answered our desire. He will meet yours; will you not come and see?” V. THE SPIRIT of the first home mission. Andrew went to his brother from his interest in him. Ha did this naturally, not from calculation, but because he had it in his heart. It is in this spirit we must go to our fellow-men, whether they be closely related or not. They are our brethren, with the same nature, needs, sins, sorrows, destinies. It is love to Christ and love to men that are the secret of power in Christian persuasion. We shall never have great success otherwise. Andrew did not say to his brother, “ Go;” he took him by the hand and led him. VI. ITS SUCCESS. Andrew gained his brother--a great encouragement. Perhaps we may see much fruit, even here. In any case, if our work be sincere and loving and prayerful, if we go out from Christ to men that we may bring men to Christ, the work will not be in vain. We may touch one who will touch many more. A humble soldier may draw in some young recruit who may become a leader among thousands and subdue kingdoms. Conclusion: If the work is to be well and perseveringly done, there should be common counsel and co-operation. Many are afraid to commit themselves. Andrew, indeed, went alone--he could do nothing else; but our Lord sent them out two and two, and brought them together again to speak and hear about their work. (J. Ker, D. D.) Christian missions We have here the first step in the history of the Gospel, and an indication that it was to survive the ministry of its founder. I. THE OF THE MEN. 1. In the wilderness was the first missionary college. 2. John was the teacher. 3. His lesson was the atonement of Christ. II. THEIR CALL BY CHRIST. 1. The seed sown in the wilderness bore fruit, when Christ by His invitation quickened it into life. 2. They obeyed the call and followed Jesus. 3. They attached themselves to the higher Master and became pupils in the higher school. III. THEIR IN THE CAUSE OF CHRIST. 1. The fruit now become seed to develop in other hearts and lives. 2. Andrew brought his brother to Christ: only one man, but had the Church gone on at that rate the world would long since have been converted. 3. We have no right to expect that Christ should spread His Church. That is our work in co-operation with Himself. Conclusion: Pleas on behalf of the missionary effort here exemplified. 1. Christ’ s commission: “ Go ye into all the world,” etc. 2. Christ’ s example. Christ never asked us to do what He has not done. 3. The purpose of the Christian Church as set forth in the parables and prophecies. It is a living growing body to spread by its inherent Divine vitality. 4. The nature of our call to the work. (1) The call of Christ, “Come follow me,” “Go ye into all the world.” This call reaches modern counting-houses and workshops as well as ancient custom houses and fishing stations, to spread the gospel at home, in the town, in the country, in the world. (2) The call from within--the call of conscience impelling us to rescue others from the danger from which we have been saved--the call of Divinely-kindled love. (3) The call of the heathen unconscious of their darkness and sin. 5. The extent of the investments already made. An investment makes a man a partner in the concern, and the greater the investment the more difficult or dishonourable is it to try to get out of it. During the past 1,800 years the Church has been investing her men, her energy, her money. We must not, we dare not draw back. By the blood that has been shed and successes attained we are pledged to go on with this work. (R. Maguire, D. D.) Gospel propagation I. THE KIND OF WORK TO BE DONE. 1. Not to swell denominational ranks, although that may be a consequence. 2. But to (1) “ Find,” (2) “ Tell,” (3) “ Bring.” II. THIS WORK CAN ONLY BE DONE BY THOSE WHO HAVE FOUND CHRIST . 1. Not unbelievers 2. Not worldly professors. 3. But those who love and are in union with Christ. III. THE SPECIAL OF EFFORT. Our brother: 1. Literally. 2. Socially. 3. Nationally. 4. Universally, for “ God hath made of one blood all the nations of men.” IV. THE AIM. To bring our brother to Jesus. V. THE MEANS--individual personal effort. 1. Subscription to a missionary society does not relieve us from this. If you were to see a man drowning it would be a poor excuse for not helping that you gave a sum to the Royal Humane Society. 2. Andrew himself brought his brother to Christ. 3. Andrew brought his brother to Christ before he was commissioned to do so. The grand weakness of our Church membership is the failure to realize that every man who is made a Christian is made a missionary. (J. Culross, D. D.) The aim and methods of Christian work The ambition of every Christian is to leave the world better than he found it. The instincts of Christian life, the example of the Master, the needs of the world, and the blessedness of doing good strengthen its ambition. Various methods are open to us--education, philanthropy, hospitals, civil and religious liberty, civilization: all of which are sanctioned by Christ, but were subordinate with Him to the great work of preaching the gospel. And what He did Himself is set forth in the earliest labours of His disciples. I. THE AIM OF ALL WORK IS TO BRING MEN TO CHRIST. Other methods of usefulness are to be honoured, but they fail to reach man’ s deeper needs, and at best only secure present happiness, and leave moral character unrenewed and eternity unprovided for. But even here the highest happiness is not to be secured by temporal means. This is only to be had by union with Christ. Therefore, God Himself sets us the example of evangelism (Titus 3:4), and now sends the Holy Spirit to reveal the things of Christ. II. THE METHODS BY WHICH THIS END IS TO BE EARNED. 1. We must try it with the members of our own families. The charity of the gospel begins, but does not end, at home. The healed man was commissioned to tell his friends what great things had been done for him. The apostles were commissioned to begin at Jerusalem. (1) What more fitting than this. (2) What more profitable. (3) Yet what more neglected. 2. We must make the office and work and teaching of Christ our chief theme. “ Messias” (1) Prophet; (2) Priest; (3) King. 3. The quiet talk of private men may effect our purpose as well as the preaching of public teachers. Andrew was not in office. (1) We must not undervalue the ministry, only it is not substitutionary but supplemental. It does not set aside individual effort: it trains, guides, and completes it. (2) Public preaching has disadvantages of its own: it is necessarily general and indiscriminate; its hearers pass on the message to the next pew. Preaching scatters the seed, but talk afterwards presses it into the soil; and in this talk the private Christian has the advantage over the public minister. 4. It will be more easily done by simple announcement than by discussion. There are exceptions, but as a rule arguments only raise objections to shield the conscience and to gain time. What we want is fewer appeals to the reason and more to the heart. 5. We must rest largely on our own experience. “ We have found” this does not require genius or learning. If we have been to Christ ourselves we can tell others the way. 6. We must make it our chief business to bring men to Christ (1) Directly. Not to this teacher or that Church; (2) Promptly. There is no time to lose. (J. Angus, D. D.) Finding the Messiah I. HOW GREAT MAY BE THE EFFECTS WHICH FOLLOW IN THE WORLD FROM WHAT WOULD APPEAR TO BE A VERY TRIVIAL CAUSE. It was a passing remark of the Baptist, to all appearance, which was the means of Andrew’ s conversion. 1. But we must remember that that remark fell on prepared minds. The severe life of the Baptist, and his lofty teaching--recalling the great Elijah--must have made a profound impression on them. They were presentwhen John denied before the agents of the Sanhedrim that he was the Messiah, and declared that he was only the forerunner of One who was of a higher order of Being than himself. On the following day Jesus presents Himself; and then John solemnly refers to Him, and explains that this was the Person of whom he had spoken on the day before--the Son of God. Then, on the third day, John said much less, but his short sentence crowned the preparatory work. 2. All this seems to show that outward circumstances, persons, language are only a part of a complex providential agency. The deepest causes are unseen, and wait like the tinder for the spark, the passing word or influence which shall set them in motion. II. THE SMALL STOCK OF UPON THE OF WHICH ANDREW SETS TO WORK TO BRING ANOTHER INTO THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST. 1. He had heard of the Messiah all his life; but there was, and there continued, up to the hour of the Ascension an earthly and mistaken element in his idea of Him. A meaning had been read into Jewish prophecy for generations which did not belong to it. The Messiah was to be a rival to Caesar on a more splendid scale. He also failed to grasp the vast consequences to the world of Christ’ s coming. 2. But the one simple truth that he did grasp sufficed to kind!e every affection and power of his Spirit; to concentrate in its analysis every ray of his understanding. He had seen enough of Jesus in a few hours to know that John was right; that Christ was one whom he could perfectly love and trust; and that the best thing he could do for his brother was to bring him to Jesus. 3. Here St. Andrew reads an important lesson. There is no doubt a great deal of forward ignorance in religious questions which is willing to set the Church and the world to rights on subjects the first elements of which have not been mastered. But there is also a great deal of false modesty which declines plain and practical duties on the ground of insuifficient knowledge. But the great truths which moved Andrew and move us are the simple truths about which, amongst Christians, there is no controversy, and which are learned by experience. No Christian need delay to testify to Christ because he is not a theologian. He may at least do as well as Andrew. III. TRUTH CANNOT BE HOARDED LIKE MONEY, like a discovery for which a man wishes to take out a patent. It belongs to the race, and in the first instance to those who stand by the appointment of providence nearest to its possessors. Andrew found his own brother. Go thou and do likewise. Conclusion: 1. Consider the untold capacities which lie buried in men who as yet know nothing of grace and truth. Peter takes precedence of Andrew. 2. The reflex blessing of every sincere effort for Christ and His kingdom. Every teacher knows more of his subject after he has taught it. He that watereth is watered himself. (Canon Liddon.) Christian fraternity Andrew was before all else a good brother. In the great church at Rome, which is dedicated to him, no other inscription could be found suitable, except “ Andrew, the brother of Peter.” Before casting his nets on Jew or Gentile, he first bethought him of the one fellow-creature who was near to him by the ties of home and family. “ Blood is thicker than water” in sacred as well as in social life. “ If a man loves not his brother,” etc. This is a principle which needs to be asserted as a corrective of the excesses of the missionary or proselytis-ing spirit; but it also contains within itself some of the best methods of the true conversion of the world. I. It exemplifies the undoubted truth that THE BEST MODE OF IN THE WORLD is by converting our own brethren who have settled abroad. The chiefest missionary, who was especially the Apostle of the Gentiles, in every case made his own Jewish countrymen the nucleus round which the heathen converts were to be gathered. This is a practical lesson for all of us in respect of foreign missions. Every English settler in a distant land is already, by his good or evil conduct, a missionary for God or for the devil; nay, every country in Europe, according as it holds up Christianity in a repulsive or an attractive form, repels or attracts the outside world from the light of the Gospel. It is said that some of the Japanese envoys who lately visited the nations of Europe and America had come with the predisposition to establish Christianity on their return, but that after witnessing its actual fruits they in disappointment relinquished the project. Let us first find and convert our own brethren, and we shall then go with clean hands to convert the Jew, the Turk, the heretic, and the infidel. This is a missionary enterprise in which every man, woman, and child can bear a part. In this way the Home Mission becomes the mother of all missions. II. But the same principle also points out to us THE BEST ACCESS TO THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE UNKNOWN OF HEATHEN LANDS. In every heathen country there are those whom we may call our own brothers, for the nobler qualities which raise them above their fellows, and bring them nearer to the civilized and the Christian type. Often, indeed, this fraternal sympathy has been rendered impossible on the one hand by the impurities, the cruelties, the follies of heathen nations, on the other hand by the pitying scorn, or the iniquitous dealing, with which the European has looked down on what are called the inferior races of mankind. But happy are those Englishmen and missionaries who have made it a point first to find their own brothers in those strange faces. Livingstone was never tired of repeating that he found amongst the native races of Africa the same feelings of right and wrong that he found in his own conscience, and that needed only to be enlightened and developed to make the perfect Christian. Bishop Patteson won the hearts of his simple converts by treating them as his brothers, detecting the Christian beneath the heathen. III. There is one further application of the principle, viz., THE DUTY, obvious, though often neglected, OF SEEKING FOR OUR CO- IN THIS, as in all good works, NOT THOSE WHO ARE FAR AWAY, BUT THOSE WHO ARE CLOSE AT HAND. Let us cultivate by all means a friendly intercourse with all Christian people throughout the world. But an intimate, organic union can only be with those who are near at hand, or of the same race and nation and culture as ourselves. It is because the work of evangelizing the heathen has a direct tendency to bring all English Chris tians together that this (St. Andrew’ s) day is doubly blessed; blessed alike in what it gives and in what it receives. Let us first find those of our own communion. But next to our own Church, and before any combinations with foreign Christians, however estimable, let us find out our own brethren in the British Islands, who, however parted from us, are yet heirs of the same national traditions and of the same inspiring future. Such are our brethren amongst the Nonconforming communions of England, whose praise for their missionary zeal is in all the Churches. (Dean Stanley.) Our brother You are wealthy, and that poor man who lives near you is your brother. Or you are poor, and your brother is that wealthy neighbour of whom you think with envy and anger. Our brethren are not confined to those who can enter into our thoughts and sympathies; they are also those whose narrowness and ignorance make mutual sympathy and intelligence impossible. They are not only those who are honest and respectable, but they are those who are under the ban of society, outside the frontiers of decent and civilized life. Our brethren, they are not only our near relatives by blood; nor our fellow-townsmen or countrymen; they are not confined to the races which are now in the van of civilization, or have played a great part in the world’ s affairs. They are also the races on whose rights civilization is apt to trample with heartless selfishness. They are the natives of Australia and America; they are the Maories of New Zealand; they are the islanders of the Pacific. Our brethren are everywhere. (Canon Liddon.) The difficulty of bringing a brother to Christ It would seem the most natural thing in the world to urge one’ s own brother to share in one’ s faith before looking elsewhere for a new believer. Yet, as a matter of fact, one is more likely to shrink from speaking on the subject of personal religion to a brother who is out of Christ than to one who is a comparative stranger. A reason for this is that one’ s own shortcomings and failures are so well known to a brother, that one often hesitates to urge the importance of a truth he is supposed to illustrate, but which he feels he represents unworthily. Andrew seems to have avoided this difficulty by saying nothing about himself to Peter. If Jesus were more prominent in the thoughts and words of believers, there would be less thought of self, and less embarrassment on that score, in pleading His cause with those who are yet aloof from Him. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Christ the inspiration of Christian effort The Egyptian Memnon is represented as keeping silence all the dark hours of the night, but bursting forth into mystic strains of weird like music every morning just as the first rays of the sun kiss his lips. Like that idol, John and Andrew and Philip lived mute and inactive; but when the first beams of the Sun of Righteousness began to play around their hearts they began immediately to speak. The flowers require not to be sternly told to grow and blossom and make themselves beautiful; let the sun but shine and they will do it out of the gladness of their own hearts. Birds need not an almanack to apprize them that the month of May, the season for open-air concerts, has arrived. And once men have been in the presence of Christ they require he elaborate certificate to empower them to go and tell others of His beauties--the fire burns, and speak they must. Commission or no commission, be not ashamed to tell others that you have found the Saviour. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) Personal testimony I was reading the other day about a minister who preached an elaborate course of lectures in refutation of infidelity for the special benefit of a man who attended his church. Soon after the man came and declared himself a Christian. The minister said to him, “ Which of my discourses was it that removed your doubts?” The reply was, “ Oh, it was not any of your sermons that influenced me. The thing that set me thinking was that a poor woman came out of the chapel beside me and stumbled on the steps, and I stretched out my hand to help her, and she said, ‘ Thank you.’ Then she looked at me and said, ‘ Do you love Jesus Christ, my blessed Saviour? And I did not; and I went home arid thought about it; and now I can say I love Jesus.” The poor woman’ s word, and her frank confession of her experience, was all the transforming power. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The value of private Christian effort The Niagara excites our wonder, fills us with amazement, perhaps with awe; but one Niagara is enough for a continent. That continent, however, requires tens of thousands of silver fountains and lucid brooks; and let me tell you--those clear springs and busy streams, whose names have never been registered in any geography, prove an inestimably greater blessing to America than the mighty Falls, whose fame fills the world. And God, now and again, once or twice in a century, raises a man great and gifted, a Niagara of a man, in whose presence the world trembles and admires. Yet the Church depends more for its prosperity upon the ten thousand happy souls who quietly and unobtrusively scatter blessings broadcast in every neighbourhood and throughout the length and breadth of our beloved country. Though you be but slender rills, yet let not the slender rills think they may as well cease flowing. God fructifies the world by small rivers; He saves the world by private Christians. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) What is a missionary The term comes from the associations of olden times, when tyrants ruled and made sport of human life. In those days when the world was not gladdened by the “ glad tidings of great joy,” and upon the occasion of the gladiatorial combats, when one of the antagonists had smitten his opponent to the dust, he then had the right of life or death over that man. But the conquered man had one source of appeal, and by the lifting up of his finger he could appeal to the prince, and that prince had the power, if he chose, to send a courtier from his side down to the dust of the arena to separate the combatants and deliver from death the man who was appointed to death. The sending of that message was called in the Latin a mission, and the person sent a missionary. So down in the dust of the arena of this world are Satan and man. It is a deadly conflict. Man is smitten and undermost. He appeals to the King of all; yea, before he appeal the King of all anticipates. His only Son comes on a mission, and rescues man’ s prostrate soul from Satan’ s power. (R. Maguire, D. D.) The joy of finding the Messiah There was joy in the breast of the geometrician of Syracuse when he uttered his glad “ Eureka” in the hearing of people who deemed him mad; there was joy in the soul of Newton when the first thought of gravitation burst upon his wondering view; there was joy in the spirit of Columbus in that moment of serene triumph over doubt and mutiny, when the tiny land birds settled upon the shrouds of his vessel, bearing upon their timid wings the welcomes of a new world; there is joy for the gold-finder when the rich ore glistens in his cradle; joy for the emigrant when after years of absence and hardship he first glimpses his boyhood’ s home again; joy for the child when he is let into another and yet another of the marvels of the world, and claps his hands for very joy and wonder; joy for the poet when he sends a glad thought careering through the world and stirring the pulses of mankind; but oh I of all the joys that human hearts can be thrilled by, commend me to that when the glad disciple clasps a brother’ s hand and says, “ We have found the Messiah.” Then all doubt ceases, and fear is banished from the mind, and condemnation lifts its shadow from the spirit, and sweet peace nestles in the breast, and holy love throws itself upon the believing heart, and a newfound sense of reconciliation pulsing through the veins makes all creation more beautiful and brings a rarer melody than the music of the spheres, and throws a brighter azure upon the opening heavens. Is this joy yours? (W. M.Punshon, LL. D.) What would happen if the example of Andrew were followed If every disciple to-day were to call only one other person to Christ in each year, and that one were to call one other, how swiftly the world would be wholly converted! There are to-day millions of true believers in the world. But if there were only one hundred, see how quickly the work would grow. In less than twenty-five years the world would be converted, for this would double the number of disciples each year. First year, 100; second year, 200; third year, 400; fourth year, 800; fifth year, 1,600; sixth year, 3,200; seventh year, 6,400; eighth year, 12,800; ninth year, 25,600; tenth year, 51,200 (“ Well,” says some one, just here, “ that is rather slow progress, only 51,200 in ten whole years.” Go on, however, ten years more, and see how your numbers will look then); eleventh year, 102,400; twelfth year, 204,800; thirteenth year, 409,600; fourteenth year, 817,200; fifteenth year, 1,634,400; sixteenth year, 3,268,800; seventeenth year, 6,537,600 (it’ s growing now); eighteenth year, 13,075,200; nineteenth year, 26,150,400; twentieth year, 52,300,800; twenty-first year, 104,601,600; twenty-second year, over 209,000,000; twenty-third year, over 418,000,000; twenty-fourth year, over 836,000,000; and in the twenty-fifth year, over 1,600,000,000, or more than the population of the whole earth. This shows the power of “ ones” multiplied. (A. F. Schauffler.) One convert wins another Some time ago one of our people, who had herself been a drunkard, was standing at one of the open-air services on the waste, when she observed a woman who had formerly been one of her bad companions suddenly leave the crowd and walk quickly away. Hurrying after her, she found this poor drunkard in great distress about her soul. “ Oh!” she said, “ I listened to the speakers; but when I saw you standing there so wonderfully changed from what you used to be, I could stand it no longer.” She was induced, however, to return to the meeting, and then to attend the service in the hall, where she found salvation. She is now another living witness of the power of Christ to save the drunkard. May God preserve her faithful unto death! (General Booth.) Dealing with individuals Richard Baxter adopted the method of individual dealing with the parishioners of Kidderminster, bringing them to his house, and taking them apart one by one. He tells us that, because of it, he had reason to believe that more than a third of the grown-up inhabitants of the place were converted to God. The late Mr. Grant of Arndilly was so intent upon this habit of individual intercourse that in three months he had dealt with fifteen hundred souls, while the refrain of all his letters was “ Speak a word for Jesus.” Those who have found Christ must speak of Him to others “ I was visiting at my brother’ s one time,” says a lady, “ when Richard, his little boy, stopped suddenly in his play, and looked steadily at me for a minute. ‘ What are you thinking about?’ I asked. ‘ Are you a Christian, auntie?’ ‘ I hope so, dear.’ ‘ But you never speak of Jesus; if you loved Him very much, would you not talk about Him sometimes?’ ‘ We may love a person without speaking of him,’ I replied. ‘ May we! I did not know that. You love to talk of your brothers and sisters, and your papa and mamma, don’ t you, auntie?’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘ And then you speak of other people and things you like; but you speak no word for Jesus. Don’ t you love Him, auntie?’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘ Then I should think you could not help speaking of Him sometimes.’” (Sunday School Union.) Mission work must begin at home You will never make a missionary of the person who does no good at home. If you do not seek souls in your own street, you will not do so in Hindostan. If you are of no use in Whitechapel, you will be of no use on the Congo. He that will not serve the Lord in the Sunday-school at home, will not win children to Christ in China. Distance lends no real enchantment to Christian service. You who do nothing now are not fit for the war, for you are in sad health. The Lord give you spiritual health and vigour, and then you will want no pressing, but you will cry at once, “ Here am I; send me!” Oh, my friends, go at once to your families, to your workshops, and declare the name of Jesus I Oh, for more spiritual life! This is the root of the matter. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A word in season On Thursday last I picked up some “ bread” which I had “ scattered on the waters” more than ten years ago. I was preaching in Essex, and at the close of the service a gentleman came up and said, “ Do you remember preaching a sermon on the 14th February, 1869, on the text, ‘ Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed’“ ? “ Oh, yes,” I said, “ I do remember the subject and the occasion.” “ That was the sermon that changed this heart, Mine has been another life from that night.” Ten and a half years that bread was floating on the waters!” Thou shalt find it after many days.” (J. Thain Davidson, D. D.) Speak earnestly There was a dying man upon his death-bed, and he was visited by his Christian brother. The dying man said, “ I am dying. I know that I am lost, but I cannot help putting some of my ruin at your door. I believe you to be a Christian, I know you to be a Christian, but I do not recollect that you ever solemnly addressed me about my soul. You believed I was perishing, and yet you did not speak to me; therefore, as I cannot conceive you to be inhuman--for you were always a kind brother--I suspect you do not believe, as you say you do.” His brother said--“ Iwas afraid of offending you. I did speak to you once or twice.” The brother replied, “ You ought to have taken me by the shoulders. You ought not to have let me be lost. I cannot acquit you.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 1:42 And he brought him to Jesus Everyday usefulness We are intensely desirous of a revival of religion, and we look for it through some extraordinary agency. God works in this way sometimes; but while waiting for it we miss actual opportunities, Our proper course is to do what we can and God will be sure to bless it. I. THE . 1. His character. (1) He was a sincere follower of Jesus. Men who have not made Christ’ s acquaintance experimentally are not fit to work for Him. An unconverted man in the pulpit is an impostor and exposes himself to extraordinary peril. (2) He was a young convert. He beheld the Lamb of God one day and found out his brother the next. Those who have learned but their A B C let them tell that. (3) He was a commonplace disciple, yet he became a useful minister. So servants of Christ must not excuse themselves because they are not greatly gifted. 2. His manner was (1) Prompt, (2) Persevering. II. HIS GREAT OBJECT, 1. To bring Peter to Jesus. This should be our aim (1) Not to a party. To recruit one regiment from another is no real strengthening of the army. (2) Not to bring men to outward religiousness merely. To make the Sabbath breaker a Sabbath keeper and a Pharisee, to make the prayerless the heartless user of a form of prayer, you but take one poison from him to expose him to another. (3) Many, alas I are satisfied if they get to the priest, church, sacraments. 2. We may bring men to Jesus (1) By prayer. (2) By putting them in the way of being informed about the Gospel. (3) By our example. (4) By occasionally, and as opportunity serves, giving a word of importunate entreaty. III. HIS WISE METHODS. 1. Being zealous he was wise. (1) He used what ability he had. (2) He set great store by a single soul. (3) He did not go far afield to do good. Many Christians do all the good they can five miles away, when the time taken up by going there and back might be well spent in their vineyard at home. Andrew goes to Cappadocia in his after life, but he begins with his brother. 2. How did Andrew persuade Peter? (1) By narrating his own experience. What you have experienced tell to others. (2) He put the good news before him in an earnest fashion. IV. THE SWEET REWARD ANDREW HAD. He won his brother’ s soul. In your Sunday-school class or in your home there may be an unconverted Wesley or Whitefield. (C.H. Spurgeon.) This highest voluntary influence I. It was . What a universe of good was involved in the simple act of bringing this man to Jesus! 1. What a service was rendered to Peter! His soul translated into a new world. 2. What a service to the disciples of Christ! The introduction of a frank, generous, bold, inspired nature. 3. What a service to the whole world! God alone knows the good Peter did from Pentecost onwards. All this service must be referred to the simple act of Andrew. From one little act may issue an influence for good that may go on widening and deepening for ages. II. It was NATURAL. Andrew went to Peter, not as an official, but as a man, a brother. What is wanted to bring men to Christ Isaiah 1. Common sense, not learning, genius, culture. 2. Love to Christ. Andrew’ s heart was touched and inspired with loving sympathies for Christ. What is wanted in this work is not the influence of the scholar, philosopher, or priest, but of the man. It is the man, not the preacher, who converts. When the man is lost in the preacher his power is gone. III. It was . To introduce a man to Christ is to introduce him to one who in philosophy is infinitely greater than Socrates, in wealth infinitely richer than Croesus, in royalty infinitely greater than a Caesar. The work of authors, sages, statesmen, warriors contemptible compared with that of bringing men to Christ. IV. It was . 1. Andrew’ s is an example that all can imitate. 2. An example that all should imitate: an universal duty, not binding on any particular class, but pressing on all relations, all social grades, all intellectual types. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Thou art Simon,… thou shalt be called CephasSimon and Peter Christ changed Simon’ s name. 1. As a sign of His authority and of taking entire possession of him, as a king might alter the name of some man whom he had captured. 2. As a promise of transforming power. 3. As a prophecy of his future office and importance in the Church. The Aramaic Cephas is the equivalent of the Greek Peter, “ a stone.” The alternation of these names afterwards is indicative of the following lessons. I. THE DANGER OF THE NEW AND BETTER NATURE FALLING BACK TO THE OLD. Where “ Simon” is employed in the Gospels it is suggestive of the apostle’ s uninspired and unregenerate humanity. 1. “ Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have thee.” There we see the exquisite delicacy with which Christ points the too presumptuous man away from his own fancied strength to the weakness of his humanity. 2. “ Simon, sleepest thou?” Where is Peter? He would have kept awake. 3. “ The Lord hath appeared unto Simon.” This was from the apostles--all the rest are from Christ--all knew about his fall, that he had ceased to be the rock, and that his precedence and influence were gone. 4. “ Simon, son of Jona (same as text), lovest thou Me?” Christ puts the fallen apostle in his place, makes him go back to the very beginning. He must go through the wicket-gate again. II. THE LOVE WHICH THE TRUE MAN BELOW ALL HIS SIN. 1. “ Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired … I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow,” etc. Here is Christ’ s clear recognition of the better nature subsisting even whilst it appears to be smothered beneath the worse. Condemning the sinner, Christ would not break the bruised reed. 2. “ Go, tell the disciples and Peter” --an incident recorded only by Mark, Peter’ s mouthpiece. “ Tell Simon” would have been a rebuke; “ tell Peter” is a smile of forgiveness, and an outstretched hand to grasp the sad hand of the denier. III. THE GRAND THAT THE NEW MAN MAY TRIUMPH. “ No more is heard of Simon, with two exceptions.” 1. Cornelius is directed to send for Simon, who is called Peter, because outsiders would know him best by the one name, Christians by the other. 2. James, at the council of Jerusalem, calls him Simon, out of old and familiar friendship. Elsewhere it is always Peter. The transformation had now become complete. Effusive, impulsive daring is changed into steadfast, bridled courage. If once he “ was to be blamed,” that showed that he was still a man, and not a faultless, impossible monster. The sand has been put into a hydraulic press and comes out sandstone, strong and tenacious. This transformation is inexplicable without the Resurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost. IV. THE BY THE MAN HIMSELF OF WHAT HE WAS, JOINED WITH THE OF WHAT HE IS. In his Second Epistle he introduces himself as “ Simon Peter.” Probably the long disused name had vanished from the memory of that generation;. but the old man reverts to it. Through the mist of long years he remembers what he was, and recalls his old un-sanctified self; but he is not afraid to call himself Peter. He is conscious of the higher life not his own which was promised him on the never-to-be-forgotten occasion mentioned in the text. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Personal influences Whitfield made it his wont wherever he stayed to talk to the members of the household about their souls--with each one personally; but stopping at a certain house with a colonel, who was all that could be wished except a Christian, he was so pleased with the hospitality he received, and so charmed with the general character of the good colonel and his wife and daughters, that he did not like to speak to them about decision as he would have done if they had been less amiable characters. He had stopped with them a week, and during the last night the Spirit of God visited him so that he could not sleep. “ These people,” said he, “ have been very kind to me, and I have not been faithful to them; I must do it before I go; I must tell them that whatever good thing they have, if they do not believe in Jesus they are lost.” He arose and prayed. After praying he still felt contention in his spirit. His old nature said, “ I cannot do it,” but the Holy Spirit seemed to say, “ Leave them not without warning.” At last he thought of a device, and prayed God to accept it. He wrote upon a diamond-shaped pane of glass in the window with his ring these words, “ One thing thou lackest.” He could not bring himself to speak to them, but went his way with many a prayer for their conversion. He had no sooner gone than the woman of the house, who was a great admirer of him, said, “ I will go up to his room; I like to look at the very place where the man of God has been:” She went up and noticed on the window-pane those words, “ One thing thou lackest.” It struck her with conviction in a moment. “ Ah!” said she, “ I thought he did not care much about us, for I knew he always pleaded with those with whom he stopped, and when I found that he did not do so with us, I thought we had vexed him, but I see how it was; he was too tender in mind to speak to us.” She called her daughters up. “ Look there, girls,” said she, “ see what Mr. Whitfield has written on the window, ‘ One thing thou lackest.’ Call up your father.” And the father came up and read that too. “ One thing thou lackest!” and around the bed whereon the man of God had slept they all knelt down and sought that God would give them the one thing they lacked, and ere they left that chamber they had found that one thing, and the whole household rejoiced in Jesus. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Personal effort I recollect several persons joining the Church who traced their conversion to the ministry in the Surrey Music Hall, but who said it was not that alone, but another agency co-operating therewith. They were fresh from the country, and some good man, I knew him well, I think he is in heaven now, met two of them at the gate, spoke to them, said he hoped they had enjoyed what they had heard; heard their answer; asked them if they were coming in the evening; said he would be glad if they would drop into his house to tea; they did, and he had a word with them about the Master. The next Sunday it was the same, and at last, those whom the sermons had not much impressed were brought to hear with other ears, till by-and-by, through the good old man’ s persuasive words, and the good Lord’ s gracious work, they were converted to God. (C. H.Spurgeon.) One soul precious “ Oh,” says one, “ I have had so little success; I have had only one soul saved!” That is more than you deserve. If I were to fish for a week, and only catch one fish, I should be sorry; but if that happened to be a sturgeon, a royal fish, I should feel that the quality made up for lack of quantity. When you win a soul it is a great prize. One soul brought to Christ--can you estimate its value? If one be saved, you should be grateful to your Lord, and persevere. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The searching question I shall now put a question which I daresay has passed through your minds before, but which I would like to tarry there. How many, my dear friend, were you ever the means of bringing to Jesus? You believe that they must perish everlastingly, unless they have faith in Christ. How many have you personally prayed for? How many did you ever break your heart about? How many have you ever talked to concerning Him who is the only Saviour? To how many have you borne your testimony of His kindness and His grace? Upon how many have you laid the tender hand to press them to follow after the Saviour? Ah! well, the questions sound so trite as I put them, and perhaps as they come to your ears you are weary with them as being so commonplace; but by the great day of the appearing of our Lord, when He shall require of you an account of your stewardship, I implore you answer those enquiries, even if they humble you in the very dust. If the answer be painful, seek for the future that your course be mended, and as servants of Christ yearn over souls. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Rareness of personal effort for souls In hundreds of cases I have vat the question pointedly, “ Do you know that you have been instrumental in leading one soul to Christ?” only to hear the sad confession that there has been no effort made in that direction. (A. G. Pearson, D. D.) Individual effort Do not forget individual souls. There is a great rage nowadays for large congregations and for prominent work; but do not forget individual souls. I think it was Rowland Hill who used to say that if he had a number of bottles before him, and he were to dash water over them, a drop might go into this one and a drop into that; but he said, “ If I take one bottle and pour water in I fill it up to the brim.” And so it is with individual souls. There is a personality in the application which cannot be estimated if we are speaking face to face in an honest, manly way. Is not this the best way to do Christian work? (W. P. Lockhart.) How to win souls I come from a house from which there is a considerable contingent attending this service this morning, and the question last night was how we should be awakened in time. They resolved to do it by detachments. One young fellow woke up the servant, and some others woke the young ladies, and they each had some one under their care, and knocked at the door until they were answered. It was best done by dividing it, and by giving to each one a special department in the work. And so we do cur work best by dealing with individual men. (W. P.Lockhart.) The great secret of the success of Harlan Page was that he always aimed at the conversion of some individual; wrestling in prayer with God, and in affectionate entreaty with the sinner, till he saw his wishes realized. By following this plan, although he was in humble life, active work, and often in deep poverty, he lived to see more than a hundred brought to God as the fruit of his zeal and intercession. Example brings men to Jesus The Rev. J. A. James, the well-known minister of Birmingham, says, in one of his lectures: “ If the present lecturer has a right to consider himself a real Christian, if he has been of any service to his fellow-creatures, and has attained to any usefulness in the Church of Christ, he owes it, in the way of means and instrumentality, to the sight of a companion, who slept in the same room with him, bending his knees in prayer on retiring to rest. That scene so unostentatious, and yet so unconcealed, roused my slumbering conscience, and sent an arrow to my heart; for, though I had been religiously educated, I had restrained prayer, and cast off the fear of God. My conversion to God followed, and soon afterwards my entrance upon college studies for the work of the ministry. Nearly half a century has rolled away since then, with all its multitudinous events; but that little chamber, that humble couch, that praying youth, are still present to my imagination, and will never be forgotten, even amidst the splendour of heaven and through the ages of eternity.” John 1:43-44 Jesus … findeth Phillip I.THE SEEKING CHRIST. This is a chapter of seeking and finding. Christ asks Andrew and John, “ Whom seek ye?” Andrew “ findeth his own brother and saith unto him, We have found.” Then, again, Jesus finds Philip, and Philip Nathaniel, and both the Messias. There are two kinds of finding: a casual stumbling on the thing we were not looking for, and that which is the result of seeking. Thus Jesus found Philip, who was un-expectant and undesirous. That is what Christ often does. There are men, like the merchantman seeking goodly pearls, seeking what they want in a hundred different places, and then, when expectancy has died down into despair and apathy, the veil is withdrawn and Jesus seen there beside them. But there are others, like Paul and like Matthew, on whom Christ lays a sudden hand and blesses without their seeking. And so in this story He will welcome Andrew and John when they come seeking. But when these are won, there remains that other way by which He drew Philip to His heart by the sudden revelation of His love. 1. Whether we seek Him or no, Christ is seeking every man. “ The Son of Man is come to seek,” etc. 2. He seeks us each in a thousand ways--by the motion of His spirit-stirring conviction; by our restlessness and dissatisfaction; by disappointment and losses; by the brightness and goodness of earthly providences. II. THE WORD OF . Sheep follow a shepherd, travellers a guide, soldiers their captains. This is a call to accept Him as a teacher, but the whole context shows that they recognized Him as the Messiah. So it is more: it is a call to 1. Faith. 2. Obedience. 3. Imitation. 4. Communion. III. THE AND SWIFTLY . Philip says nothing, but he yields. 1. How quickly a soul may be won or lost. Philip’ s decision was trembling in the balance. It might have gone the other way. A moment settled it. Objections to instantaneous conversions are unphilosophical. Hesitations may be long, but decisions are matters of an instant. 2. Why people are kept back from yielding to Christ’ s invitation. (1) Other duties which seem more important. (2) The non-conviction of the need of a guide. These are excuses, not reasons, manufactured to cover a decision which has been taken before on grounds which it is not convenient to bring up to the service. Follow Christ. This Isaiah 1. Safe. 2. Right. 3. Blessed. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Moral imitation I. MAN’ S MORAL HIS DESTINY. “ As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” in his 1. Experience, whether happy or miserable. 2. Prospects, whether terrific or inviting. 3. Influence, whether useful or pernicious. 4. Relations. (1) To God, whether approved or condemned. (2) To the universe, whether a blessing or a curse. II. MAN’ S MORAL IS FORMED ON THE OF . This is seen in children, and the Romans, recognizing this, placed in their vestibules the busts of great men, so that the young might be reminded of their virtues. The seed of a child’ s action is not teaching, but deeds. III. THE OF A GOOD A PERFECT MODEL. Sir Joshua Reynolds found after years of study that he had been imitating, not Titian, whom he desired to make his model, but a forger. After this he resolved to make nature his model, and thus became a great master of his art. According to his model, so will a man be. One reason why human character is so depraved is because the perfect model is little known and less appreciated. IV. THE ONLY PERFECT MODEL IS JESUS CHRIST. Who is the most imitable character? 1. He who has the strongest power to command admiration. 2. He who is most transparent in character. 3. He who is most unchangeable in the spirit which animates him. Conclusion: Follow Me. 1. This is an epitome of the moral laws of God. 2. Herein is man’ s life and perfection. 3. Imitate Christ by inbreathing His moral spirit. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The call of St. Philip No trumpet summoned the soldiers of the Cross to the battle-field; no hand like that at Belshazzar’ s feast came forth to beckon him; no miracle made them take up a distinctive post. And, yet, what a call this was! how noble, singular, useful, profitable I Such a call came to Judas, and he sold it. I. THE ORIGIN OF THIS CALL WAS THE WILL OF CHRIST. Jesus “ goes forth” in search of every sinner. But the mere “ going forth” of Christ is not enough. There must be an exercise of His secret power. This power is pervasive, leavening, and so works upon man’ s free-will that it comes into union with the heavenly will. Without this there can be no discipleship. II. THE IN WHICH THIS CALL PLACES THE PERSON BY WHOM IT IS AND OBEYED. It makes him follower, and when man becomes a follower 1. He abridges his right over himself, his property, time, etc. 2. He sets aside his own wisdom, and accepts that of His Master. 3. He follows always, even unto the end. III. IN THIS CALL THERE Isaiah 1. Exclusiveness, jealous refusal to admit of any division of the heart. 2. Mystery. (1) It separates us from the nothingness and delusions of the world. (2) It joins us to the invisible and heavenly. (3) It opens up new hopes, scenes, and sources of immeasurable wealth. (P. B. Power, M. A.) Delaying Christian profession The command is for instant obedience. A common objection is, “ I have no confidence in my future strength. I must wait until I am stronger before I profess to have devoted my whole life to Christ.” Reply I. YOU ARE LIVING ONLY IN THE PRESENT. The future is not. For you there may be no earthly future, for you may die to-night. Your responsibility is for the now. II. DUTIES WILL COME NOT IN THE MASS, BUT ONE BY ONE. Strength for each is all you will need. III. YOU WILL GROW STRONG FOR COMING DUTIES ONLY AS YOU PERFORM PRESENT ONES. No one can step to the top of the pyramids; but he can climb one block; and from that he can reach another. Says Robert Browning: “ I see a duty and do it not, and therefore see no higher.” IV. GOD’ S GRACE IS ONLY FOR TIME OF NEED. No man to-day can be prepared for tomorrow’ s duties. V. GOD’ S IS OUR ONLY , AND THAT IS PLEDGED. “ I will be with you even to the end of the world.” He “ will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape.” (Homiletic Monthly.) The motive for following Christ It is related in the annals Of the Ottoman Empire that when Amurath II. died, which was very suddenly, his son and destined successor, Mohammed, was about a day’ s journey distant in Asia Minor. Every day of interregnum in that fierce and turbulent monarchy is attended with peril. The death of the deceased Sultan was therefore concealed, and a secret message despatched to the prince to hasten at once to the capital. On receiving the message he leaped on a powerful Arab charger, and turning to his attendants, said, “ Let him who loves me, follow!” This prince afterwards became one of the most powerful sovereigns of the Ottoman line. Those who approved their courage and loyalty by following him in this critical moment of his fortunes, were magnificently rewarded. There is another Prince--the Prince of peace--who says to those around Him, “ Let him who loves Me, follow.” The method of following Christ Faith includes works; loyalty involves service; love carries devotedness. It is not merely that, if we have trust in another, we ought to conform our conduct to the directions or suggestions or wishes or example of the trusted one; but it is that, if our trust is a reality, it will show itself in our conduct. It is folly for a child to tell of his love for his mother if he has no regard to her wishes; it is folly for a patient to say that he believes in his physician if he pays no attention to that physician’ s prescription; it is folly for a soldier to say that he is devoted to a commander whom he will not obey in the heat of a campaign; it is folly for a man to say he has faith in Jesus if he does not seek to follow Jesus. Jesus says, “ If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” (H. G.Trumbull, D. D.) John 1:44-51 Philip findeth Nathanael.The equivalent of Theodore. He is probably to be identified with Bartholomew, for 1. The mention of him here and in John 21:2, shows that he occupied a prominent position among the disciples. Those with whom he is classed in each case are apostles. 2. No mention is made of Nathanael in the Synoptists or of Bartholomew in St. John; while the latter name is a patronymic (son of Tolmai), like Barjona (Matthew 16:17), and Barjesus (Acts 13:6). 3. In the list of apostles Bartholomew is coupled with Philip by St. Matthew (Matthew 10:3), St. Luke (Luke 6:14), St. Mark Mark 3:18). So that the six first are the six first called. In John 21:2, Thomas is added as in Acts 1:13. (Bp. Westcott.) Nathanael and Bartholomew It is a melancholy fact that the festival of this gentle and guileless apostle should be for ever associated with the treachery and malice of the cold.blooded massacre in France in 1572. (John N. Norton.) Nathanael I. HIS EFFORTS AS A GENUINE TRUTH SEEKER. 1. He hearkens to information concerning the truth. 2. He renounces a prejudice against the truth. 3. He prosecutes an inquiry in search of truth. In this he is infiuenced (1) By the words of Philip. (2) He is greeted by Christ. (3) He is struck by conviction. II. HIS SUCCESS AS A GENUINE TRUTH SEEKER. He found in Christ 1. A Divine Teacher. 2. A Divine King. III. HIS AS A GENUINE TRUTH SEEKER. 1. He saw great things. 2. He would see greater. (1) A new universe. (2) A new class of intelligences. (3) A new order of ministry. (4) A new centre of attraction. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Nathanael I. IN A STATE OF . 1. Philip went to him in the fulness of his heart, expecting that he would be as glad to hear as he was to tell. 2. But Nathanael receives the announcement with coldness. He had formed an ill opinion of the place, and therefore of all connected with it. 3. Prejudice is very common, and in religious matters is very pernicious, and men should be on their guard against it. It may prevent them receiving salvation. 4. How should we treat it? As Philip did--“ Come and see.” Apply this to Bible doctrines, experimental religion, foreign missions. This only will dispel prejudice. II. AN INDEED IN WHOM IS NO GUILE. Nathanael dropped his prejudice and acted as a man of candour. He was sincere, not sinless. How common is insincerity in word and act! How beautiful is fair transparency of character, after the image of Christ, in whom was no guile! Nathanael was also sincere towards God. Not that this must stand alone; it must qualify other graces: sincere repentance, faith, love, etc. This sincerity is uncommon. Witness the easy way in which men confess themselves miserable sinners. III. A OF CHRIST. 1. Making his confession, which was (1) Well grounded. (2) Ample. 2. Encouraged by Christ. Christ would encourage all young converts by showing them good things to come. (J. Hambleton, M. A.) The character of Nathanael It was necessary that our Lord should have a certain number constantly associated with Him. He might have had many; He chose few. He might have had those of the highest classes; He chose from the humblest. As when iron is touched by the loadstone it draws other iron after it, so when Philip was touched by Christ, he seeks to draw his friend. Nathanael was a cautious, incredulous man, but he was sincere. Notice I. IN A OF IS TO AND SAFETY. Christ distinguished Nathanael from other nations and from his own. He had the real thing as well as the appearance. Our Lord, therefore, takes his sincerity under His own discipline, and by thus commending, it shows that it is the grand fundamental thing in religion. You are called Christians, but have you that which the name imports? In Nathanael there was no deceit, no wish to impose upon himself and others. This was evidenced by his secret devotion under the fig-tree. Examine what you are in secret, for then you are before God. Be a real Christian, not one in show. II. TRUE SAVING GRACE IS WITH GREAT IN . Nathanael needed information. It was requisite that he should go and see, which, faithful to the light he had, he did. 1. The first effect of knowledge is the discovery of our ignorance. So Nathanael was tractable and teachable. We are not to conclude against the possession of true saving knowledge because it is small, if it possesses the soul. 2. Proficient Christians should learn from this how to regulate their conduct towards the immature. We must remember that grace works gradually. Do not force the great doctrines of Christianity on young converts. III. CHRIST KNOWS ALL, AND WILL ONE DAY TELL US OF ALL THAT WE HAVE DONE IN SECRET. 1. Our secret sins. 2. Our secret penitence. 3. Our secret prayers. 4. Our secret charities. IV. A TO BELIEVE UPON IS VERY TO CHRIST, AND WILL BE WITH GREATER . (J. Leifchild, D. D.) Nathanael I. THE OF . It is alone 1. That we disengage ourselves from the world. 2. That we obtain a knowledge of ourselves. 3. That we can be familiar with God. II. How familiar OUR SAVIOUR IS WITH OUR MOST PRIVATE . 1. To know all persons and things infallibly is the prerogative of God only. 2. “ The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” 3. Let the righteous rejoice, and the brokenhearted penitent be encouraged. III. IN IS A QUALITY WHICH OUR SAVIOUR CALLS UPON US TO ADMIRE. 1. Because of its rarity. 2. Because of its excellence. IV. THERE MAY BE TRUE GRACE WHERE THERE IS AT PRESENT LITTLE LIGHT. 1. Let us not, then, conclude that a man is a stranger to grace because he is unable to go all our lengths in sentiment. 2. Nor let us be anxious to force upon him doctrines he is not prepared to receive. V. WHERE GRACE IS REAL IT WILL IN DUE TIME BE WITH CLEARER-LIGHT. (W. Jay.) Nathanael’ s prejudice and confirmation I. ’ S , AND PHILIP’ S REPLY. 1. Nathanael looking for the Messiah, but had the prophecy of Bethlehem in his mind. Hence his difficulty, and his unreasonable imputation of the character of Nazareth to Christ. The objection of the Samaritan woman was that He was a Jew, others that He was a carpenter, etc. But these not more unreasonable than modern objections. 2. Philip’ s reply was such as became a disciple. Let Nathanael know Christ as he knew Him, and all objections would be removed. II. THE OF JESUS TO ’ S . Nathanael’ s prejudice did not prevent his taking Philip’ s advice. He approaches, and before he or Philip open their lips, Christ’ s testimony is given. 1. An Israelite indeed is genuine, in the spirit, not in the letter. 2. In whom is no guile, because an Israelite indeed; no Judas, no dissembler. III. ’ S INQUIRY INTO THE SOURCE OF CHRIST’ S OF HIM, AND THE ANSWER. The inquiry evidenced Nathanael’ s sincerity. Christ’ s reply met Nathanael’ s state of mind. No minister is ever first with those who are called: Jesus has been working in them previously. As the trees of Eden could not hide Adam, neither could the fig-tree hide Nathanael from his Lord. IV. ’ S AND OF JESUS. 1. Rabbi, the promised prophet. 2. The Son of God. 3. The King of Israel. Notice the satisfactoriness of this testimony. V. CHRIST’ S , AND HIS PROMISE OF FUTURE TO BE GIVEN TO HIS . Christ had already given Nathaniel an evidence of His glory in His omnipotence, but there were greater things in store: the things which were to prove Christ to be the Son of God with power. (A. Beith, D. D.) The preaching of Philip I. . The connection of the name of the Messiah, of whom Moses and the prophets did write, with Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. II. DECIDED. We have found Him. III. . Come and see. (Lange.) Finding Christ the great treasure In Golconda, if a slave find a diamond of extraordinary value, he takes it up to the Government, and the Government gives him his liberty. If some of those who are this morning the slaves of sin, while they are seeking for God, would find this Pearl of great price, the hour of their emancipation would come, and the King would make proclamation from the throne, saying, “ Go free! You have found the Pearl! Be one of My jewels!” (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Bringing companions to Christ The bee-hunter in America puts a piece of honeycomb into a box, and catches a bee. He then covers the box, and very soon the bee fills himself with the honey. Being let loose, it finds its way home, and in a little time returns, but not alone. He brings his companions with him, and in turn they bring their companions, till the box is filled with a full swarm of bees. Let every Sunday scholar, and every attendant at a Christian church, do likewise. If they have tasted that Word which is sweeter than honey, let them bring their companions and neighbours with them, till the school and the church be filled with devout and thoughtful hearers. Philip and Nathanael I. THE . A soul brought to Christ by a brother. Two men, friends before, had their friendship riveted and made more close by this sacredest of all bonds, that the one had been to the other the means of bringing him to Jesus Christ. Note 1. The hesitation of Nathanael, His prejudice was (1) Harmless, and soon melted when Christ beamed upon him. (2) Natural. We all know the jealousies of neighbouring villages. But this prejudice brings into relief what a real obstacle to His Messianic recognition our Lord’ s lowly origin was. We have got over it. But Judaea was then ruled by the most heartless of aristocracies, that of cultured pedants. Why did Christ come from “ the men of the earth” as the rabbis called outsiders? (1) In accordance with the general law that reformers always come from outside these classes; and in politics, literature, science, as well as religion, not many wise and mighty are called. (2) Because He was the poor man’ s Christ, and because His word was not for any class. 2. Philip’ s invitation. (1) He did not argue. (2) “ Come and see” carries in it the essence of Christian apologetics. The wisest thing is to push Christ forward and let people look at Him and let Him make His own impression. And, on the other side, you have not done fairly by Christianity until you have complied with this invitation. II. The second stage: THE BETWEEN CHRIST AND , when we see a soul fastened to Christ by Himself. Christ manifests His Messiahship by a supernatural knowledge of him. 1. Before he had come, before Christ could read him, or learn anything about him--while he was coming, Jesus said, “ Behold an Israelite,” etc. The reference here and in John 1:51 is to Jacob. At Jabbok the crafty Jacob became Israel. So Nathanael was One of God’ s princes who had wrestled with Him in prayer. How was the guile drawn out of him? See Psalms 32:2. Nathanael’ s astonishment. Under the fig-tree he must have wrestled in prayer, confessed his sins, longing and looking for the deliverer. Yet so solitary was it, that Christ’ s knowledge of it led to the glad confession, “ Thou art the Son of God.” Nathanael was right. So was the woman of Samaria when she drew the same conclusion from the same premises. 3. This was the first miracle that Christ wrought. His supernatural knowledge is as much a mark of His Divinity as any other of His earthly manifestations. (1) This omniscience shows us how glad Christ is when He sees anything good in us. Not a word about Nathanael’ s prejudice, but cordial praise that he was an honest, a sincere man, following after God and truth. (2) This omniscience is cognizant of all our inward crises and struggles. We can all look back to some place or other, under some hawthorn hedge, or boulder by the seashore, or back parlour, or crowded street where some never-to-be-forgotten epoch in our soul’ s history passed unseen by all. Let us rejoice to feel that Christ sees all these moments. III. THE which crowns the whole. 1. Where did Nathanael learn these great names? Prom the Baptist’ s proclamation of the Son of God and the kingdom of heaven. 2. The enthusiasm of this confession. It is no mere intellectual acknowledgment, but warm loyalty and absolute submission. So the great question for us is not, Do I believe, as a piece of my intellectual creed that Christ is the Messiah? etc. That will save no man. What we want is the element of rapturous.acknowledgment, loyal submission, absolute obedience, unfaltering trust. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Philip and Nathanael I. Nathanael himself. He was 1. A guileless man, childlike, simple-hearted, transparent, neither credulous nor mistrustful, honestly ready to receive testimony and to be swayed by the force of truth. 2. An earnest seeker. “ We have found the Messiah” would be no gladsome news to any one not looking for the Messiah. This is the universal condition of finding. 3. Ignorant up to a certain point. He knew not Christ although so near his home, like so many now so near His gospel. He knew not Christ although he knew his Bible. Again the parallel holds good. 4. Prejudiced. Yet his prejudice was excusable, for it was due to the faulty testimony of Philip. Jesus was neither of Nazareth nor the son of Joseph, which shows us how a blundering and prejudice-raising testimony may notwithstanding be owned of God. 5. A godly man up to the measure of his light--a man of secret prayer. II. ’ S SIGHT OF JESUS. 1. Though prejudiced he was candid enough to investigate Christ’ s claims. If you are prejudiced give the Gospel a fair hearing. 2. He came to Christ with great activity of heart. As soon as he was told to “ Come and see,” he came and saw, without waiting, as many do, for Christ to come to him. Indifference and lethargy the crying curse of the present day. 3. He saw Jesus (1) Not merely with his bodily eyes, but (2) With his mental eyes he formed a just judgment of Christ. He saw one who could read his thoughts and knew his secret actions. So we must see the Divine in Christ to be saved. III. CHRIST’ S SIGHT OF was not that of an acquaintance or a physiognomist, but of a searcher of hearts. He saw 1. His guilelessness. 2. What he was doing under the fig-tree known to no one but themselves. What this was we can only surmise. As devout Easterns are accustomed to have a special place of prayer, Nathanael may have been engaged under the fig-tree (1) In confession of sin, and Christ brought it to his recollection, which convinced him that He knew the secret burden and the resultant peace. (2) In heart investigation. (3) In earnest prayer like Jacob at Peniel. (4) In making some solemn vow. (5) In sweet communion with God. 3. And so Christ sees all sincere seekers, their tears, their prayers. IV. ’ S FAITH. 1. Note its grounds. Christ’ s omniscience, as in the case of the Samaritan woman and Zacchaeus. So some sermons seem made for certain people, although the preacher is ignorant of them. It is Christ’ s word piercing the hidden depths and revealing secrets. 2. Its clear and comprehensive character. The Son of God to be adored; the King of Israel to be served. 3. Its positiveness. “ Thou art.” V. ’ S AFTER-SIGHT. 1. He had owned Jesus as the Son of God; he was to see Jesus in His glory as the Son of Man; Christ in His mediatorial capacity as the great link between earth and heaven. 2. The providence of God as ruled by Jesus Christ, who ordereth all things for the good of Hie Church. 3. The second coming of Christ in His glory. These greater things were afterwards. Christians should not clamour to know all about Christianity at first. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Philip and Nathanael I. HOW VARIOUS ARE THE PATHS BY WHICH SOULS ARE LED INTO THE NARROW WAY OF LIFE. 1. Philip does not seem to have been moved by the preaching of the Baptist. 2. He was not drawn by the outspoken declarations of a brother like Peter. 3. He was called directly by Christ Himself. 4. Though the earliest disciples entered by different roads, they reached the same way, served the same Master, and at length reached the same home. From which facts we may deduce 1. That there are diversities of operations answering to diversities of needs. All cannot be converted in precisely the same manner. 2. That we must beware of making the experience of other believers the measure of our own. II. HOW MUCH OF CHRIST THERE IS IN THE OLD . Christ is its sum and substance. 1. The promises pointed to Him. 2. The types prefigured Him (John 5:39). III. THE GOOD ADVICE PHILIP GAVE . 1. Wiser counsel it would be impossible to conceive. If he had rebuked Nathanael’ s unbelief he might have driven him back for many a day. Had he reasoned with Nathanael he might have confirmed his doubt. By inviting him to see for himself he showed his entire confidence in his own assertion and his willingness to have it proved. 2. Let us never be afraid to deal with people about their souls. Christianity courts inquiry. IV. THE HIGH WHICH JESUS GIVES OF . 1. He was a true child of God. He had that which grace alone can give. 2. He was a genuine son of Abraham. A Jew inwardly. (Bp. Ryle.) Philip and Nathanael I. THE CALL OF PHILIP. 1. Christ “ findeth him.” It was not by chance, although the circumstances may have seemed so to Philip. It was without any concurrence of his. Christ is found of them who sought Him not. The arrangements were Christ’ s. And whatever the agency now, Christ is the seeker and finder. 2. Christ said “ Follow Me” for the first time. (1) An invitation. (2) A command, as all sovereign invitations are, requiring obedience. (3) Implying grace to accept. The followers of Christ (a) Look to Him as sheep to a shepherd; as the Israelites to the pillar of cloud; as soldiers to their captain. (b) And, obeying, separate themselves from sin, from the world, from self, from every connection inconsistent with following Him fully. (c) Abide with Him. II. THE CALL OF . 1. Philip findeth him, being qualified by being found himself. On the same day he was made a disciple he conferred not with flesh and blood, but as Christ’ s instrument finds his friend. (1) Philip’ s faith, “ We have found Him of whom Moses,” etc. All Scripture treats of Christ and faith in that leads to faith in Him. (2) Philip’ s partial ignorance. “ Son of Joseph.” “ Nazareth.” This ignorance at once placed him at a disadvantage, and was the occasion of prejudice as is the ignorance of many Christians now. Observe the faithfulness of Scripture in not concealing the infirmities of the saints. But his intention was upright, and Christ honoured it by leading Nathanael through Philip to Himself. (A. Beith, D. D.) Philip and Nathanael I. THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL WHEN INTO THE HEART, IN URGING MEN TO ITS . Discoverers of hidden treasures have no motive for making them known. Discoverers of a remedy for a direful disease have a powerful motive for making it known, but not necessarily the disposition. But you cannot have a man who, renewed by the Spirit of God, does not seek the renewal of others. The wealth received from Christ is kept by disbursement; the cure accomplished by His blood is radical only as it seeks its extension. And gratitude to the Redeemer impels to a proclamation of redemption. So Philip felt the communicative and diffusive nature of true religion. II. THE WHICH THE GOSPEL MEETS WITH EVEN FROM MEN OF AND . Men have their prejudices, like Nathanael, founded on some mistake or misapprehension, and these in process of time take the form of incontrovertible principles, just as proverbs are often quoted till they almost pass for Bible texts. 1. “ Can deliverance be obtained from one who died as a malefactor?” Yes. “ Out of Nazareth,” out of shame and death we procure deliverance: for the substitute must take the place of the guilty and bear his doom. Examine and you will See you are putting Nazareth for Bethlehem, falsehood for truth, disgrace for glory. The very circumstances which cause the gospel to appear so humiliating are those which give to it its majesty and power. 2. “ Can any virtue come out of a system which bases everything on faith?” Yes. Of all systems for the encouragement of personal holiness there is none like the Christian. For the man who looks to be freely justified by Christ knows that his justification cannot be evidenced but by sanctification. 3. Let, then, all who have taken up a taunt against the gospel, till they have virtually made the taunt itself gospel, learn that though they may be candid, like Nathanael, they may, like him, risk an immeasurable loss out of adherence to a surmise or saying which they have only to investigate to prove erroneous. III. THE WHICH A MAN SHOULD RECEIVE FROM A . Philip declined all controversy, though a fairer opening could hardly have been offered. His anxiety was to bring his friend into personal communication with Jesus. This was the method that had succeeded with himself, and he felt that it could not possibly fail with another. There was great wisdom in this; for it does not often happen that men are convinced by argument. So, to persuade a man to read the Bible is better than to draw him into a debate on its evidences. There is no evidence of Christianity like that which a man knocks out for himself with the simple apparatus of a Bible and a conscience. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The communicativeness of the gospel Seed hath a natural warmth and life in it, by which it increaseth and produceth more seeds like itself; so God’ s Word, cast into the good ground of a believing heart, hath a supernatural heat, it being as fire, and lively power to frame and dispose men like itself, to make them of fleshly, spiritual; of blind, quicksighted; of dead in sin, alive in grace. And as one grain quickened produces several ears, and many grains in each, so one Christian converted and receiving this power in himself, gaineth many to God, wishing that every one were, as he is, except the bonds of his sins. Philip, being called, finds Nathanael, and brings him to Christ; and the woman at the well calls all the town. (Dr. Lake.) “ We have found” The whole world may be divided into three classes and orders of men: those who, having found God, resign themselves up to His service; those who, having not yet found Him, do indefatigably seek after Him; those who have neither found Him, nor are inclined to seek Him: the first are happy and wise; the third are unhappy and fools; the second must be owned to be wise, as they own themselves to be unhappy. (Pascal.) Testimony bearing Discoverers in the natural world frequently, for prudential reasons, keep silence as to their discoveries. When Galileo first turned his glass on the planet Saturn he saw, as he thought, that it consisted of three spheres close together, the middle one being the largest. Being not quite sure of his fact, he was in a dilemma between his desire to wait longer for further observation and his fear that some other observer might forestall him. To combine these Galileo wrote a sentence, “ I have observed the highest planet to be triple.” He then jumbled the letters together and made the sentence into one monstrous word, and published this, which contained his discovery, but under lock and key. He had reason to congratulate himself on his prudence, for within two years two of the supposed bodies disappeared, leaving only one; and for nearly fifty years Saturn continued to all astronomers the enigma it was to Galileo, until in 1656 it was finally made clear that it was surrounded by a thin flat ring, which, when fully seen, gave rise to the first appearance in Galileo’ s small telescope, and when seen edgeways disappeared from view altogether. With an instinct that makes the newly saved Christian long that others may share his icy, he, however, goes everywhere, saying, “ We have found the Messiah; this is the Christ.” (H. O. Mackey.) Can any good come out of NazarethJudge not a man by his surroundings I. In the world. Can a man become a scholar without a university training? Hugh Miller, etc. II. In the world. Can a man who was a rail-splitter in his youth make a good President? Lincoln. III. In the SOCIAL world. Frequently a man whom society learns to respect is of humble parentage, and vice versa. IV. In the world. Examples of pure Christianity in Roman Churches--Anselm, Bernard, Newman. Noble pagans, Socrates, Epictetus, etc. V. In the MORAL world. Some of the most distinguished saints in obscure conditions. The purest diamond--where is that? Precious metals too. (G. F. Green.) Come and seeHow to learn the excellence of Christ Prejudices often find expression in spite of one’ s consciousness of them, and of the protest of reason. All that is needed to betray them is simply an occasion. Such an occasion was given Nathanael by Philip’ s mention of “ Nazareth.” The best response to a sneer, as a rule, is silence. Christ’ s manner, for the most of us, is the wisest and most dignified “ answering not a word.” Nevertheless, it is allowable to transfix a prejudice, or turn aside a sneer, if we can do it as effectually as Philip. He neither admits nor denies the force of Nathanael’ s objection. His answer is a challenge whose reasonableness Nathanael himself could not deny--“ Come and see!” The excellence of Christ may be learned in part: I. FROM REPORT; OR, THE OF . “ We have found Him,” etc., is substantially the testimony of every honest inquirer. Also the Samaritan woman (John 4:29), whose testimony brought many of her people to Him. The whole New Testament is but a report of witnesses of the person, character, teachings, etc., of the Son of God. II. BY WITH HIS . Nathanael heeded Philip’ s terse advice; he went with him to see Christ. True Christian example is an illustration of Christ Himself. Christ’ s excellence, reproduced in His disciples, may be learned even by His bitterest enemies. Said a fierce Papist to Bishop Jewel: “ I should love thee, Jewel, if thou wast not a Lutheran--in thy faith thou art a heretic, but, surely, in thy life thou art an angel. Lord Peterborough, when visiting Archbishop Fenelon, heard no argument from him on the claims of Christianity. The venerable prelate let logic alone, and simply lived such a life as he was wont to do when there were no infidels about to witness. The exclamation of the deist was, “ If I stay here much longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself.” “ Come and see,” thou unbelieving friend! Mingle with Christians--not to mark their inconsistencies and expose their faults. A better motive is his who is ever looking for excellencee: and these will be found even in the humblest of Christ’ s disciples. III. BY . You cannot know the excellence of a thing without personally testing it. What do you know of a fruit you have never tasted? The sight of food relieves no one’ s hunger. “ If any man will do His will,” etc. Christianity is a grand temple, the interior of which you have never seen. It is famous the world over. Crowds of all ages and nationalities have entered it, and, gazing upon its grandeur, have been lost in wonder, exclaiming, “ The half was not told me!” But you are without, looking listlessly at a single rose-window, and asking, “ What is there here to admire?” But “ come and see.” Let me take you, as Philip took Nathanael, into the temple. Then shall its glory burst upon you overwhelmingly! This personal test, or experience, is the only proof of gospel blessings which thousands of Christians can urge without fear of successful contradiction. Conclusion 1. Christ would be more appreciated if He were more thoroughly known. 2. Once Scripturally known, Christ needs no longer to beg for men’ s regard. Come and see I. THE FOR SEEING CHRIST. 1. Deep conviction and penitence on the part or gross sinners. 2. Guileless sincerity on the part of those who, like Nathaniel, have not gone so far morally astray. II. THE OF SEEING CHRIST. 1. Argument about an absent person most inefficient. 2. Personal contemplation alone efficient. III. THE MEANS OF SEEING CHRIST. 1. Earnest unprejudiced study of the facts of Christ’ s history and of His words. Come out of the world and compare it with the Christ depicted in the Gospels. 2. Clear patient meditation on Christ’ s commentary on His character and mission to the Church. (1) Not as Rome would have us do, behold Christ in her ecclesiastics, rites, councils, and visible head. Often have these things created a Nathanael-like prejudice. But (2) In the blended lives of Christ’ s saintly followers who constitute the true Church. (3) In the regenerating effects which the Church, through Him, has produced in the world. 3. Actual intercourse with Christ Himself. (1) We have often wished for bodily contact, a knowledge of Christ after the flesh. This would be very precious, but, as St. Paul shows, might bring no real knowledge. 4. The vision of faith the highest and best means of enjoying the manifestation of Christ. This vision (1) Is progressive. (2) Becomes a power of vision in every other direction. The believer sees Christ everywhere. (T. Islip.) The proverbial disrepute of Nazareth The whole of Galilee was a despised region in the eyes of the more polished Palestinians of the South. The Galileans were accused of being rude, illiterate, and devoid of culture. Their pronunciation was said to be so thick that it led constantly to mortifying blunders, as when one could not tell from the word used whether a Galilean peasant had come to the market for an ass (khamor), wine (khemer), sheepskin (immer), or wool (?immar?. A Galilean woman, inviting her guest to table, said: “ I am going to give you milk to eat.” In her thick Galilean pronunciation it actually sounded: “ May a lion eat you!” Other such ambiguities are mentioned as occurring in the rude speech of the Galileans. Worse than all, the Galileans were said to be loose on points of doe-trine, so that a bad odour of heterodoxy hung over the province. It was not to Galilee that the Judaean would naturally have looked for a great theological teacher. Nazareth shared, of course, in the reproach of the province to which it belonged. The town was simply a typical Galilean village, filled with a warm-hearted, and perhaps (as the Talmud suggests) a warm-tempered people, who had little sympathy with the learned casuistry of the Judaean rabbis, and were therefore looked down upon as ignorant rabble. There is little reason for charging special moral turpitude against the people of Nazareth. The Judaean simply looked down upon Nazareth as the urbane inhabitant of a great city is supposed to look down upon a backwoods settlement. The inhabitants of a college town in the East would hardly turn to the new settlement of Nosuchplace, in Blank Territory, for a teacher of culture. That was the way the Judsaean felt with regard to Nazareth. (S. S. Times.) Nathanael’ s prejudice Suppose you were told that a peasant out of Ross-shire was a man on whom the whole history of the nation hung. Would you believe it without first saying, “ That is a strange place for such a person to be born in” ? Galilee was a despised part of Palestine, and Nazareth was a proverbially despised part of Galilee; and this Jesus was a carpenter’ s son that nobody had ever heard of. It seemed to be a strange head on which the Divine Dove should flutter down, passing by all the Pharisees and Scribes, all the great and wise. Nathanael’ s prejudice was but the giving voice to a fault that is as wide as humanity, and which we have every day of our lives to fight with--the habit of estimating people and their work, wisdom, and power to teach us by the class to which they are supposed to belong, or even by the place from which they come. “ Can a German teach an Englishman anything he does not know?” “ Is a Protestant to owe anything of spiritual illumination to a Roman Catholic?” “ Are we Dissenters to receive any wisdom or example from Churchmen?” “ Will a Conservative be able to give any lessons in politics to a Liberal?” “ Is there any other bit of England that can teach Lancashire?” Take care that whilst you are holding up your hands in horror against the prejudices of our Lord’ s contemporaries who stumbled at His origin you are not doing the same thing in regard to all manner of subjects twenty times a day. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The power of prejudice A man was stoutly asserting that there were no goldfields except in Mexico and Peru. A nugget dug up in California was shown him as convincing evidence against his positive statement to the contrary. So far from being disconcerted, he quietly answered: “ This metal, I confess, is extremely like gold; and you tell me that it passes as such in the market. All this I do not dispute. Nevertheless, the metal is not gold, but auruminium; it cannot be gold, because gold comes only from Mexico and Peru.” In vain was he told that the geological formation of California was similar to that of Peru, and that the metals were similar. He had made up his mind that gold existed only in Mexico and Peru; this was a law of nature; he had no reason to give why it should be so; but such had been the admitted fact for years, and from this opinion he would not swerve. (John N. Norton.) The power of prejudice It is a great pity that this way of estimating the value of suggested truth is so common in our day. “ Can a minister know anything about science?” is the sneering question on one side. Yes; and on the other side the equally scornful question often comes, “ Can a scientist who is not a Christian believer bring out facts that a Bible student ought to ponder?” “ Is there any truth worth considering in the outside religions of the world?” asks some “ orthodox” believer, who answers his question in the negative before he asks it. And some “ liberal thinker” puts his question, in a like spirit of confident denial, “ Is any ‘ orthodox’ truth worth believing in these days of religious progress?” It is the old spirit, and much the old question, of the provincial bigot of Judaea, “ Can any good come out of Nazareth?” (H. G. Trumbull, D. D.) John 1:47 Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.This is a chapter of “ beholds.” We are first to “ Behold the Lamb of God,” and then to behold a man of God. Nathanael was simple, straightforward, honest, “ an Israelite indeed.” In this he was not like his great progenitor, Jacob, who was a supplanter, and not a prince with God till that memorable night when the angel wrestled with him, and withered his carnal strength. Then, in the weakness of that simplicity which laid hold upon the mighty One, Jacob became Israel (Genesis 27:36; Genesis 32:28). A sincere and simple character was not common in our Lord’ s day. It is despised by many at this day. It was greatly appreciated by our Lord, who has the same character in perfection, and is truly called “ the holy child Jesus.” This characteristic of guilelessness is I. A HAPPY SIGN IN A SEEKER. We will illustrate this by Nathanael’ s procedure. 1. He is the sort of man to whom disciples like to speak (John 1:45). 2. He is outspoken with his difficulties, and therefore his friends see how to meet them (John 1:46). 3. He is ready to apply the proper tests (John 1:46). 4. He is honest in his use of those tests. Our Lord saw that Nathanael was no captious critic nor idly-curious observer (John 1:47). 5. He is open to conviction if fair evidence be supplied. As soon as our Lord proved His omniscience Nathanael believed (John 1:48). 6. He is ready to make confession (John 1:49). 7. He is prepared to proceed far in the school of Christ. The Lord promised him the sight of greater things because he was prepared to see them (verses 50, 51). An Israelite is the man to know “ the King of Israel” (John 1:49). An Israelite is the man to understand the famous dream of the father of all Israelites (John 1:51; Genesis 28:12). II. A VITAL POINT IN A . The truly upright man, and he only, can be a Christian. 1. A sense of pardon removes the temptation to guile: we cease to excuse ourselves when pardon is received (Psalms 51:1-19.). 2. A reception of Christ as “ the truth” causes guile to be hated. 3. A truthful assurance of the gospel prevents a hypocritical faith. 4. A complete consecration to the Lord puts an end to a double-minded life, and to all false aims and maxims. 5. A sense of the presence of God makes guile appear absurd. 6. A brave faith in God causes it to appear mean and cowardly. III. A SURE OF OTHER . 1. It makes a man love his Bible. Nathanael was familiar with the law and the prophets. 2. It makes him pray. He is an Israelite (Genesis 32:28). 3. It leads him to be much alone. “ Under the fig tree” (John 1:48). 4. It makes him wear his heart in his countenance. “ Behold an Israelite indeed.” 6. It prepares him to behold the pure and true glories of heaven. Who among us is renowned for cleverness, craft, shrewdness, and the critical faculty in general? Let him he afraid of the much-admired quality of cleverness. The absence of simplicity is by no means a healthy sign. Let us be true in any case, and may the Lord teach us His truth! (C. H. Spurgeon.) A high eulogium A professor of religion who is what he appears to be, and appears to be what he is. I. THE OF THIS . 1. Regeneracy; newness of heart. This its foundation. 2. An earnest desire and endeavour to know the truth: at first-hand; not through a priest. 3. A deliberate purpose and steady intention to please God in everything. The Pharisee prays to get popular applause; Nathanael retires under a fig-tree. 4. Uniformity and consistency. The heart answers to the life, the life to the heart. II. THE OF THIS . 1. It is estimable, and is held in esteem. Without it a man is a worthless character, however otherwise distinguished. 2. It is pleasing to God. 3. It brings peace to its possessor. 4. It secures hereafter its great and everlasting reward. (John Brown, D. D.) One of the rare commendatory words of Christ spoken on a most rare occasion. 1. Bestowed upon a man who spoke contemptuously of his birthplace; was prepossessed against himself; had, immediately after an hour of earnest devotion, fallen again under a prejudice. 2. Was bestowed for the very reason that He was without guile. (Lange.) The Israelite indeed is I. A MAN WHOSE HEART IS TRUE TO GOD. Our hearts are so 1. When we seek our happiness in Him, and not in the gratification of the “ desire of the flesh,” etc. 2. When we find our happiness in Him, i.e, when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. 3. When this love is persistent and permanent. II. A MAN WHOSE WORDS ARE THERETO. When there is no guile in the heart there is none on the lips. In this is implied--1. Veracity--speaking the truth from the heart; the putting away of all wilful lying in every kind and degree. Roman casuists distinguish lies into (1) Malicious--such as are told with a desire to hurt. These no one defends. (2) Harmless--such as are supposed to do neither good nor harm. Men excuse these; but no Nathanael can speak them, and Paul condemns them Ephesians 4:25). (3) Officious--those spoken with a design to do good. About these there has been much controversy. Some maintain them to be innocent, and even meritorious. But Paul teaches (Romans 3:7-8) (a) That the good effect of a lie is no excuse for it. (b) That it is a mere slander upon Christians to say they teach men to do evil that good may come. (c) That if any teach this or do it their damnation is just: which is all applicable to this kind of lies. 2. Sincerity. As veracity is opposite to lying, so is sincerity to cunning. Cunning is confounded with wisdom. But wisdom is the faculty of discerning the best ends and the fittest means of attaining them. The two great means of cunning are (1) Simulation--the seeming to be what we are not; (2) dissimulatlon--the seeming not to be what we are. It we are engaged with artful men, we may use silence and reserve without cunning; but we may not speak the truth in order to deceive. This is perhaps not inconsistent with veracity, but it is with sincerity. When we speak at all, we should speak the naked truth from the heart. 3. This is properly termed simplicity, which implies (1) Not only the speaking no known falsehood; (2) not on!y designedly deceiving no one; but (3) speaking plainly and artlessly to every one m a childlike though not in a childish manner. This excludes the using of empty compliments. 4. This sincerity and simplicity has an influence on the whole behaviour which, though it be far enough remote from clownishness, ill-breeding, roughness, and surliness, is plain and free from disguise. Conclusion: This, then, is real solid virtue. Not truth alone, nor conformity with truth; not love alone, but truth and love united. (John Wesly.) Christian simplicity Several bishops once asked Bishop Atterbury: “ Why will you not suffer your servants to deny you when you do not care to see company? It is not a lie for them to say your lordship is not at home; for it deceives no one: every one knows it means only, your lordship is busy.” He replied: “ My lords, if it is (which I doubt) consistent with sincerity, yet I am sure it is not consistent with that simplicity which becomes a Christian bishop. (John Wesly.) An Israelite indeed I. HIS . 1. He is a converted character. 2. His profession and his conduct agree. 3. His words and his heart harmonize. 4. He is known by his zeal for God’ s glory. 5. He is distinguished by his compassion for souls. II. THE OF BEING AN INDEED. The advantages are great 1. To his family. 2. To the sphere in which he moves, whether high or low. 3. To the Church of Christ. 4. To himself. III. IN : 1. “ Behold an Israelite indeed.” “ Mark the perfect man,” etc. 2. Admire him--admire Christ in him. 3. Be thankful for him. 4. Imitate him in life. 5. Rejoice in his blessedness in heaven. (A. Fletcher, D. D.) The true Israelite is I. A TRUE SON OF ABRAHAM. Nathanael was so called not because he was a descendant of Abraham, but because he resembled the patriarch in his faith and piety. “ If ye be Christ’ s, then are ye Abraham’ s seed.” “ They who are of faith are the children of Abraham.” Faith, then, is the characteristic of the true Israelite. Nathanael was ready to believe. Faith is the primary virtue of the Christian life. II. IN WITH GOD. The Jews were ever ready to boast of this, but the Baptist and our Lord corrected them. Whoever cordially and unreservedly takes God for his God, Christ for his Redeemer, the Holy Spirit for his Sanctifier, is in covenant with God. III. A OF THE TRUE GOD. All other nations worshipped idols. Every true Israelite is a temple of God. From the altar of his heart he offers the incense of sincerity and affection. To God he gives the best of his services. The worship of God is not formal and burdensome, but delightful. He shows his sincerity also by his secret worship. IV. LIKE THE FROM WHOM HE TAKES HIS NAME; a wrestler with God. V. HAS THE PROMISE OF AN , only not an earthly, but a heavenly. Conclusion: 1. The conduct of Philip must be highly approved, and should be imitated. 2. Although good men are subject to be prejudiced, when they have the opportunity of being better instructed the prejudices give way to cordial attachment. 3. Our Lord is the witness of every action of our lives, and especially of every exercise of devotion. 4. Sincerity in religion is essential. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Of sincerity toward God and man I. TOWARD GOD. Our piety is, then, sincere 1. When the chief reasons and predominant motives are religious. A religious or rational motive is that which regards God and another world in opposition to men and present temporal advantages. 2. When it is rooted in the heart, and is a living principle within us. 3. When men are religious in secret as well as in public. 4. When there is a constant tenor of goodness in the general course of fife. 5. When our obedience to God is uniform and universal. 6. When it holds out against persecution and the fiery trial. II. TOWARDS MAN; and so it signifies a simplicity of mind and manners in our conversation and carriage towards each other; singleness of heart discovering itself in honest openness; speaking as we think, performing what we promise, and being what we seem to be. III. Conclusion. Let us be sincere in our religion, never making use of it to serve any base or unworthy ends; and be straightforward in speech and conduct in our intercourse with men. To this end the following considerations are offered 1. That sincerity is the highest commendation and the very best character that can be given of any man (Joshua 24:14; 1 Chronicles 19:17; Psalms 15:1; Psalms 51:2; Psalms 32:2). 2. That this virtue is rare. 3. That the want of it will quite spoil the virtue and acceptance of our piety and deprive us of its reward. 4. Insincerity is a vain and foolish thing. It is designed to cheat others; it really deceives ourselves. 5. Truth and reality have all the advantages of appearance, and many more. It is hard to act a part long. A dissembler must be always on his guard. Insincerity is very troublesome to manage. 6. That it is not worth while to dissemble, considering the shortness and uncertainty of our lives. (Abp. Tillotson.) Nathanael Finest paintings or portraits are those which fill the eye and fix it by their natural unadorned simplicity; in which there is nothing superfluous, nothing to call the attention away from the distinctly defined character marked in the features. Inferior courtly artists, such as Lawrence, spend much time in haberdashery, in dress, in attitude, in the studious introduction of the scenery in the background. Vandyke, Velasquez, Reynolds, care usually only for feature, form, character. We have such a portrait here. It arrests us. “ Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” one of the first and foremost of the little group in which the human manifestation of the Church had its origin. I. I would make some preliminary remarks on the first impressions given to us by this story and character of Nathanael. 1. In spite of the high eulogy of our Lord, I cannot but say what a bad impression in fact he makes upon us at first. He seems to come before us as a narrow mind, a mind influenced by prejudices. Qualities are mixed in all, even as a beech has beautiful qualities and grave defects--it is very graceful, but it is more subject to the worm, it has little strength, and it shrinks. Let us do justice, even often, to the narrow mind. If it cannot receive us, let us receive it; if it will not contain us, let us retain it. Let us, whenever we can, form affectionate sentiments of nations, of communities, of men; if they are true, you only do them justice; and, if they are false, though your opinion does not alter and make them lovely, at least you are the more lovely for holding such sentiments. Being with Jesus ought to enlarge the most narrow mind: it enlarged Nathanael’ s, he was certainly narrow. 2. Preliminary remark. It is obvious that Christ knows some who do not know Him. “ Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree I saw thee.” II. But it is time we turn from these merely negative, from what some may regard as, at best, these doubtful aspects of the character of Nathanael, to the positive encomium of our Lord, I may even say the splendid designation of our Lord. That designation, I need not say, comprehends two developments of the man. An Israelite indeed--his Church character. That narrow suspiciousness which proclaimed the Jew, does not prevent his right here--an Israelite indeed; “ for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly.” 1. In the first place he was one, as we have in some measure already seen, who was not merely by birth a Jew; his heart was interested in the destiny of Israel; he had entered into the mystery of the Divine separation. Israel led a separated life, and that is the idea of consecrated life; “ Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned amongst the nations” ; that is the first idea of Israel--sequestration, separation. 2. The life beneath the fig-tree, whatever it might be, justifies the idea that he was an earnestly holy man. Our Lord’ s designation implies that he had some divinely secluded life, in which he realized the origin of the term Israel. That term is indeed somewhat dark, but it no doubt speaks of one who had seen God face to face--it had its origin when the name of Jacob was changed, and he was called Israel, in the night of Penieh Nathanael itself was a fine name; like so many of the Hebrew names it spoke of God. The affix, El--the hallowing, consecrating name of God--how often we find it in the Hebrew names! Eliab, God of my Father; Elizur, God my Rock; Shelumiel, God my Peace; Eliasaph, God will increase; Elishama, God will hear; Gamaliel, God will recompense; Pagiel, Son of God my Interceder; Nathanael, God hath given. So the Israelites, we may believe in no light spirit, honoured God in conferring names; and Peniel, or the Face of God, was the place where the old patriarch believed he had seen God face to face; and Nathanael had his Peniel. 3. Once more, this Israelite indeed was such, not only by his isolation, his sacred sequestration, his earnest wrestling, his Divine communions, but by his hopes. As I have said, promises can only avail to those who can use them. No Israelite indeed can rest in his heart without the fulfilment of the Divine promise that the Son shall have the “ uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.” Let us turn to the foundation of all this in his personal individual character. He was pure in heart, he was a guileless man, “ in whom is no guile.” He solved his prejudices against Christ by immediately going to Him. Oh that all hearts prejudiced against Christ would do so! This is magnanimity, this is conduct of which only a great and pure and guileless mind is capable. I think it was also to this temper of mind the splendid designation of our Lord was addressed. Behold he comes--the man incapable of doubting, and turning, and duplicity, and sophistry; incapable of attempting to make the white appear black, or the black white, or the worst best, or the best worst. Here is a man who can dare to be true. We are to believe that it was beneath the fig-tree’ s shade that such Divine purity and guilelessness were attained and studied. (E. Paxton Hood.) John 1:48 When thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.What was he doing there? Something good evidently. The following suggestions have been made: I. THAT HE WAS THERE FOR . A tradition says that at the massacre of the innocents he was hidden by his mother beneath the fig-tree in her garden at Bethlehem. This is too remote a reference, having occurred thirty years before. II. THAT HE FIRST HEARD OF CHRIST BENEATH THE FIG-TREE. When Philip found him he was seated beneath his own fig-tree. But this was known to Philip and perhaps to others. Our Lord’ s allusion was obviously to some circumstance understood only by Nathanael. III. THAT IT WAS FOR PRAYER WITH RESPECT TO SOME SPECIAL . No doubt Nathanael’ s devotions were the reverse of those of the Pharisees. But this suggestion is too vague. IV. THAT IT WAS FOR THE SPECIAL STUDY OF GOD’ S WORD. No doubt Nathanael was waiting for the consolation of Israel. On one memorable occasion, as he sat there with the sacred roll spread out on his knee, light suddenly dawned. The scripture was Genesis, the life was that of Jacob, the passage the vision of the ladder (verse 51), and above all a voice speaking of a seed in which all the families of the earth should be blessed. On that day perhaps Philip summoned him to the presence of the Master. Conclusion: 1. How do you spend your hours of privacy? Some in sinful thoughts, shameful deeds. Let the sinner know that God sees him. 2. Experience proves the worth of meditative prayer (Matthew 6:6). 3. Resort to your fig-tree frequently. (S. Buss, LL. B.) Christ’ s knowledge of His people I. Their He understands. II. Their CONDUCT He observes. III. Their He discerns. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ the Witness of our secret hours I. WHAT THIS TEACHES US OF CHRIST. His Divinity. Let us leave the trite and well-trodden method of proving this, and try a simpler way. Jesus demands our adoration as more than man, and on the ground that He alone of all the minds that have lifted up the world with intelligence has the power of reading all men’ s thoughts and hearts and experiences through and through. The leaders of thought have never been equal to this. Had they even pretended to it ,hey would have been set down as miserable jugglers. A general knowledge of human nature is all that the acutest have attained. The limit of this is soon attained and is not always accurate. But here is a man who all through life knew what is in man. He wanted no information about the diseases He cured. He saw the lack of selfsacrifice in the young man. He judged faultlessly the Pharisees, Judas, Pilate, the faithless wife, the woman that was a sinner. How could He be a Saviour without knowing our real state? the Light of the world without its lying open to His inspection? the Judge without comprehending every secret motive, error, sin? II. WHAT THIS TEACHES US OF AND OF THE HE . 1. He was not a faultless character, but genuine, lowly, teachable, having a soul open to receive spiritual light. 2. The blessing imports (1) That which falls on all genuine unconscious goodness that hides itself from men, and therefore is more precious to God. This is one of those new gracious ideas which the gospel brings into the world. Not only is righteousness independent of station or publicity, but it is acceptable to God and a sign of spiritual purity in the degree that it turns to God alone for its Approver. (2) Attainments are of slow growth. It needs time to form habits. But sincerity in the religious life is indispensable at the very outset. This was Nathanael’ s one promising, solid grace. Hence the encouragement held out to genuine repentance and the unsparing condemnation of hypocrisy. (3) The modest and faithful performance of a lower duty prepares the soul for the higher services and privileges. The man that was true under the fig tree afterwards sees angels of God, etc. (Bp. Huntington.) Nathanael under the fig tree; or, religion in secret I. IT IS IN SECRET THAT TRUE HAS ITS ORIGIN. Thus we perceive that the rise of religion in the soul must necessarily be out of sight. The new creation is accomplished by the secret agency of the Holy Spirit. The origin of great rivers is sometimes wrapped mystery; they rise in Borne inaccessible regions on which human eye has never gazed. For centuries the sources of the Mile were unknown; to discover them was the highest ambition of many an adventurous explorer; but till very recently every attempt had been of no avail. Indeed, the fountain-heads of some of our own rivers lie far away from the haunts of men. If you would trace the Severn to its source, you must ascend the height of Plinlimmon, and there, in a dreary, wild, secluded region, you will find the obscure fountain, where the noble river rises. Truly, this is not an unapt representation of the beginning of the Divine life in the soul. II. IT IS IN SECRET THAT TRUE IS MOST . This is manifest when we consider that 1. Man is a lonely being. It may be a startling statement, but it is profoundly true. Between man and man there lies a wide distance; beyond a certain point they cannot approach each other; thus every one stands emphatically by himself. A casual visitor to a large town is frequently overwhelmed with a painful sense of loneliness. Man is alone in most of those circumstances which make up the sum of his existence. His thoughts and reflections, his hopes and fears, are for the most part unknown to his bosom friends. The stage of a theatre is generally so decorated as to present a very gorgeous appearance. You might imagine that those who move and talk upon it live in a kind of fairy land. Beautiful forms chatter and dance, amidst sunny groves and laughing streams. All this, however, gives you but a very erroneous idea of what those men and women are in real life. Still, were you allowed to go behind the scenes, where they retire after having played their parts, you might form a sounder estimate of their actual character; but the proceedings there are never beheld by the crowd of spectators who fill the house. But a man’ s religion follows him into the most retired places; it leaves its impress upon his most private actions; it forms and fashions his most secret meditations. 2. Religious declension invariably begins in secret. This shows how jealous we should always be of the integrity of our inner life. Think of a stream, which, as it winds its way along the meadow, supplies man and beast with its crystal waters. But one day it becomes suddenly thick and troubled. What can be the cause? Somebody has been tampering with the fountainhead. It is in secret that the foundation of our religion is laid. And if the foundation be not firm, the superstructure must be in danger. 3. We can form a more accurate judgment of our religion from our secret life than from anything else. There are two distinct spheres wherein a man’ s religion may be tested; namely, in public and in secret. Some profess religion from the love of praise--some from a baser motive still, the love of gain. But such motives as these can have no possible influence upon us in secret. III. TRUE IN SECRET IS BY TRUE IN PUBLIC. We have a remarkable instance of this in the case of Nathanael. When called upon to act in public, he practised the principles which he cherished in secret. 1. He who has God’ s love in his heart cannot altogether hide the fact from others. Religion is not a latent principle, buried up in the depths of the soul; for it displays itself in works of righteousness before the world. 2. The secret life of man cannot but tell on his public life. If a man commune much with God in secret, he cannot be otherwise than God-like in public. Unconsciously to himself, he sheds abroad a powerful influence wherever he goes. (A. Rowlands, B. A.) The secret side of religion I. HAS A SECRET SIDE TOWARDS GOD, AS WELL AS AN OPEN SIGN TOWARDS MAN. There is a part of religion that is strictly private and personal. From the secret good in Nathanael we may draw the conclusion that there is more good in the world than we know, more good in men than we can see. II. THE SECRET SIDE OF IS THE SURE TEST AND SIGN OF ITS REALITY. From Christ’ s words to Nathanael we may gather 1. Christ bases His estimate of men upon what is inward rather than what is outward, upon what is secret and private rather than upon what is public and open. 2. Christ pursues a method of judgment with men far different from that taken by the world. 3. The secret side of religion is the surest sign of its reality, because free from many evils which often are associated with the public and open. III. THE SECRET SIGN OF HERE SHALL BECOME THE OPEN SIDE . Christ honoured it in Nathanael, and, to the amazement of the man, made it known. He will recognize and honour and make known the secret goodness of all His servants by and by. Sometimes the secret life of religion becomes openly known here. Hereafter comes the grand and complete revelation. “ Your Father, that seeth in secret, shall reward you openly.” In religion, and in the service of Christ, let every man be true to his own nature. Let no man despise his brother because his brother is not as himself. Let Nathanael be Nathanael, and let Peter be Peter. Behind our open life and public duties let there be a secret life with God, of thought and prayer. (Homiletic Magazine.) The Old Testament and the New There is an analogy between what is here said at the opening of the Gospel and what is written at the opening of the Old Testament of the law in the Book of Genesis. I. The two portions of Scripture THE OF THE TWO , EACH BY A TYPICAL ON ITS . 1. There, at the garden of Eden, man a transgressor, conscious of his guilt, hides himself under the leaves of a tree to escape the punishment he deserves and dreads, and there the eye of the Almighty searches him out with a summons to judgment. 2. Here, at the introduction of the Gospel, just when the Lamb of God appears to take away the world’ s sin, man seeks the same covering, not to hide himself, from God, but to draw near to Him for communion; and here the same searching eye discovers him, not for rebuke, but for encouragement and blessing. Adam was ashamed and hid himself; in Nathanael there was no shame needing to be hid. II. THE TWO MOTIVE POWERS OF THE TWO PARTS OF , both necessary, the terror of the law, alarming and rousing the conscience, and the attraction of grace moving and melting the heart. Not a jot or a tittle passes from the law till all is fulfilled, because conscience burns in us with its perpetual fire, and in his weakness and self-love every man needs to know that “ the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” yet none the less are we Christians to be mindful that we live under the new dominion of mercy, when no faintest movement of faith is forgotten, and no retiring act of holy obedience is unnoticed and unrewarded. (Homiletic Magazine.) The fig tree The advantages of the fig tree as a shade are shown in the following: “ As we approached, one of the camel-drivers, pointing to a cluster of six large fig trees, cried out, ‘ Tacht etteen,’ --under the fig tree? And soon we felt the pleasantness of this shade; for there is something peculiarly delightful in the shade of the fig tree. It is far superior to the shade of a tent, and perhaps even to the shadow of a rock, since not only does the mass of heavy foliage completely exclude the rays of the sun, but the traveller finds under it a peculiar coolness arising from the air gently creeping through the branches. Hence the force of the Scripture expression, ‘ When thou wast under the fig tree.’“ (Mission to the Jews from Scotland.) John 1:49 Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel The earliest creed Remarkable as not being formulated by an ecumenical council, a ]earned rabbi, a matured and educated Christian, but by a simple guileless Jew who had only his Old Testament to learn from, and at his first interview with Christ. Acquaintance with the Bible and communion with Christ the best qualifications for a creed maker. Would that all had learned this--would that all would learn it. Concerning this creed, notice I. Its BREVITY. Compare it with its successors: the Apostles, the Nicene, the Athanasian, and the more modern Confessions of particular Churches: each adding something to its predecessor, until the mind is burdened and confused by the multiplicity of propositions. 1. This growth is accounted for by the rise of successive heresies against whose denials or affirmations the Church has protected itself by successive negative or positive articles. 2. This growth is only an expansion of and deduction from the primitive statement: an evolution of what has been involved in germ. 3. This growth has not always been a safeguard against the errors condemned. Churches with the most elaborate creeds have widely departed from the truth. 4. This growth adds nothing to the saving power of the simple confession of the text. All who with guileless heart profess Christ in the words of Nathanael will without doubt be saved everlastingly. II. ITS . 1. Rabbi. Christ is the Supreme Teacher. (1) Inspiring prophets and apostles. (2) Imparting instruction personally. His teaching is simple, profound, beautiful, vivifying. (3) Giving the Spirit of Truth to guide into all truth. 2. Son of God who became the Son of man to redeem. (1) His Divinity. (2) His Atonement. (3) His brotherly sympathy. 3. King of Israel. (1) To reign. (2) To rule. (3) To conquer. (4) To reward His servants and punish His enemies. III. ITS . 1. Most creeds are made up of a number of abstract propositions, and are a general testimony of the confessor’ s theological soundness to the world. Hence their feeble moral effect on the confessor. His mind may be sound, but his heart maybe heretical. 2. This creed was a brief statement of faith in Christ made to Christ Himself. The Te Deum is a better confession than the Athanasian or Nicene symbols. It touches and inspires while it gives expression to the feelings of the heart. IV. THE METHOD OF ITS . 1. Prompt, without study or reluctance. 2. Positive, without misgiving about it or speculation beyond it. 3. Final; Nathanael never outgrew it, although he doubtless filled up the outline. V. THE IT . 1. Discipleship: (1) Docility. (2) Study. (3) Continuous proficiency. 2. Saintship: (1) Trust. (2) Affection. (3) Reverence. (4) Holiness. 3. Loyalty: (1) Obedience. (2) Active service. (3) Fidelity unto death. VI. THE REWARD IT SECURES. 1. Instruction from the Rabbi. 2. Salvation from the Son of God. 3. Everlasting blessedness from the King of Israel. (J. W. Burn.) John 1:50-51 Greater things than these I.THIS MAN. 1. He was a man who honestly made inquiries which fairly suggested themselves. He did not invent doubts and raise questions. When Philip said Nazareth his mind went to the prophecy about Bethlehem; hence his question. When Christ read him he naturally asked for the sources of Christ’ s knowledge. 2. A man who honestly yielded to the force of truth. Christ’ s omniscient knowledge he felt to be an irresistible proof of His Messiahship. 3. A man who in simple honesty believes much upon the evidence of one assured fact. Prom Christ’ s knowledge he infers His teachership; His Divine Sonship; His sovereignty. Such is the man who obtains the blessing of the text. II. THE REWARD. The words imply 1. That his perceptions would be more vivid. “ Believest thou” “ thou shalt see.” Faith develops into experience, experience into actual vision. 2. That other truths should be discovered. (1) More of Christ’ s Godhead. From omniscience to omnipotence; from knowledge of the heart to power to change the heart. (2) Christ’ s human sonship. Godhead not half so wonderful as when it comes to be united to humanity. (3) An opened heaven. He who knew the secrets of his heart would establish relations between his heart and heaven. These blessings are for guileless believers only. Christ cannot do mighty works because of unbelief. III. THE SPECIAL SIGHT. Intercourse between earth and heaven by way of the Mediator. 1. The angels ascend first to carry Christ’ s upward messages and our prayers and praises. 2. Angels descend with blessings to man through Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The first promise Notice this incident I. AS A END WHICH MERGES INTO A STILL MORE . 1. The Lord who receives His disciples. He first appears as “ walking alone,” waiting for the Father’ s first gift. The preparations for the kingdom are complete, but as yet He is without an avowed disciple. How will He win them? (1) The first announcement which sent men to Christ was “ Behold the Lamb of God.” This is the sovereign secret of our Lord’ s attraction all through time. (2) But He who takes away our sins also seeks. Two disciples follow Him, but find Him not till He turns with the searching question: then He finds Philip. 2. Those who come to Him. (1) They are representatives of the devout in Israel waiting for His coming. (2) They represent those who are prepared by repentance and faith. (3) They illustrate the manner in which His disciples come to Him. Two by the preaching of another. Two seek their fellows and communicate the glad tidings. One is directly sought by Himself. 3. The communion between Christ and His disciples that day begun. It was reserved for the last to declare on behalf of all what Jesus was to their devotion: Divine Son, Supreme Lord. This, however, to them was but the beginning of joys, and the Redeemer promises greater things. II. THIS FIRST PROMISE is an encouragement to the faith of these humble disciples, and a prologue to all the wonders of redemption. 1. Our Lord here utters in figurative language the mystery of His mediation between heaven and earth. Christ here gives us in His first exposition of those Scriptures which testify of Him the meaning of Jacob’ s vision. The disciples were to see the Son of Man opening heaven and earth. 2. But though the Son of Man is the great word here, the angels have their specific meaning, viz., that heaven is always open to earth, that abundant blessing answers to abundant prayer, and that Christ’ s servants have all heaven ministering to their good. Both worlds are thus made one, and earth to us, as to Jacob, becomes the gate of heaven. What an encouragement to expect larger communications! We need not make the angels the bearers of our prayer: that office Christ appropriates We need not make them bearers of the Divine response that office the Holy Spirit appropriates. They are nevertheless the symbols and instruments of the providence of God. Their ministry to Christ he has transferred to us. 3. This glorious introductory saying which passed from prophecy to promise now returns to pure prophecy again, and our Lord fore-announces the day when heaven and earth shall in the fullest sense be made one. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) Believing and seeing I. OUR LORD’ S PROMISE TO HIS NEW . The words may be translated either as a question or an affirmation. In either case they are a solemn and glad recognition of Nathanael’ s belief. Here is the first time that Christ uses the word. It was the epoch in history when Christ first claimed and then accepted a man’ s faith. The “ greater things” have a proper fuifilment in the gradual manifestation of Christ’ s person and character which lay all unrevealed yet. “ If you continue to trust in Me,” you shall see unrolled before your eyes the great facts which will make the manifestation of God to the world. Light is here thrown upon 1. The relation between faith and discipleship. (1) The two terms are synonymous. (2) Our Lord uses the word without any definition of what they were to believe: He Himself, and not thoughts about Him, is the true object of faith. (3) Nathanael’ s creed was widely different from ours, and yet his faith and ours are identical. 2. The connection between faith and sight. There is a great deal about seeing in the context. A double antithesis: (1) “ I saw thee” --“ thou shalt see Me.” (2) “ Thou believest” --“ thou shalt see;” i.e, in the loftiest region of spiritual experience you must believe first in order that you may see. (a) Unless we trust Christ and take our illumination from Him, we shall never behold a whole set of truths which when once we trust Him are all plain to us: God, man, yourselves, duty, destiny. (b) If we trust Him we get light on things which are mist and darkness except to faith. The world says,” Seeing is believing,” --which is true in regard to outward things. Believing is seeing in regard to God and spiritual truth. 3. The connection between faith and progress. Christ like a wise Teacher stimulates His disciples with the promise of “ greater things.” Here is something which will give you ever new powers and acquirements, and ensure you against stagnation. Everything else gets worn out sooner or later. II. OUR LORD’ S WITNESS TO HIMSELF. Mark how with superbly autocratic lips He bases this great utterance upon nothing else but His own word. “ From henceforth,” i.e, from the first hour of His official work. The promise is that in no vision of the night like Jacob, hut in practical, working reality ye shall see that ladder again, and the angels moving upon it in their errands of mercy. The ladder is Christ; He is the sole medium of communication between earth and heaven, the ladder with its foot on the earth, in His humanity, and its top in the heavens. (1) Christ is the medium of all revelation. (.2) In Him the sense and reality of separation between heaven and earth through sin are swept away. (3) By Him all Divine blessings angel-like descend. (4) By Him prayers and desires rise to God. (5) If we ever enter heaven at all we shall enter it through Him alone. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The glory of the Mediator I. THE OF HIS . II. THE OF HIS . 1. The heavenly world. 2. This world in connection with angelic agency. 3. This angelic agency is rendered through His mediation. III. THE OF HIS CAUSE. “ Hereafter,” etc. Because 1. Time develops prophetic truth concerning Him. 2. Time affords opportunity to execute the mighty plan on which every victory is sketched. 3. It is future time that must and will unfold the results of His great undertaking. (J. H. Hill.) The dawn of faith and its consummation Christianity is not a mere set of doctrines, but a life of faith in and through Christ. This is well illustrated in this chapter. These early disciples differed in temperament and in their methods of reaching Christ, but they had one faith in common. Men have been ever asking, How does this faith begin? To what does it lead? These questions are answered here. I. THE DAWN OF FAITH. Christ’ s words imply the great fact of experience from which faith rises. 1. What was that fact? (1) Not the proof of Christ’ s miraculous power contained in the fact that Christ saw him although unseen. This might prove Christ to be a teacher sent from God, but no such miracle could prove Him to be the Redeemer and object of saving trust. Christ rejected belief founded exclusively on miracles. Miracles were imperative in the case of the Jews. (2) But the fact that Christ saw into him and penetrated the deep necessities of his heart. Nathanael had probably been praying under the fig-tree. Prayer unveiling the soul before the heartsearching glance of God reveals the real man. Nathanael knew therefore at once that Christ was acquainted with his doubts, sorrows, aspirations. He therefore who thus knew him could deliver him. The same heart-searching glance rests upon us. Here, then, faith begins. “ Lord, Thou knowest all things,” “ Thou art the Son of God.” 2. That fact is the dawning of a faith that must continually grow. Two things necessary to the strengthening of belief. (1) Its evidence must be certain. Faith in Christ rests upon the deepest of all kinds of certainty--experimental evidence. The evidence of testimony may fail, the certainty of reasoning may be destroyed. But when we know whom we have believed nothing can overturn our conviction. Here is the only cure for doubt. (2) Its power must advance with advancing life. When faith in Christ as the only satisfier of the soul’ s need is reached, every new experience in life brings new proofs of its power. II. THE OF FAITH. Christ declares Jacob’ s dream to be fulfilled in Him. The greater things are those which Jacob dimly realized. 1. The felt presence of God. 2. The sacredness of life. “ How dreadful is this place!” etc. 3. Union with the angelic world. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) Israel and the Israelite I. THE IN EVERY LINE THROWS US BACK ON ’ S GREAT 1. We may learn how hard it is for a life to get rid of moral stain. Jacob’ s life was purified by hard afflictions ere it was changed to Israel, the prince that prevailed with God. 2. A character may be so cleansed from moral stain that opposite virtues may be associated with the life. Jacob the supplanter was recovered from his guile. 3. The reflection cast upon the old patriarchal life is full of grace when one is welcomed to the love of Christ by the words, “ Behold an Israelite indeed.” II. . 1. His requirements. We are apt to have no great thoughts of a simple guileless life. We associate it with a kind of weakness, and think of it as likely to be imposed upon and led astray. No doubt there is danger. This, like every other grace, wants cultivating; pruning as well as developing. And Christ expects cultivating in this disciple just as in the zealous Peter, the ambitious James, the thoughtful Andrew and Philip. 2. The promise that met that requirement. How helpful the vision was to Jacob! The reality was still more helpful to Nathanael. (1) Literally it was fulfilled at the baptism, after the temptation, in the agony, and at the resurrection and ascension. (2) Morally it was fulfilled in the establishment of relations with heaven through the Lamb of God. 3. Circumstantially it was fulfilled in the fruits of Nathanael’ s missionary life. (T. Gasquoine, B. A.) John 1:51 Hereafter ye shall see the heaven open The verilies of Christ 1. Nothing is more characteristic of our age than its questioning and doubt. (1) Science has opened many fields in all of which much is yet unsolved. (2) Philosophy has unsettled much that was once believed. (3) The growing complications of society force upon us questions to every one of which jarring answers are returned. (4) The Church is so divided that she is unable to guide herself, much less the world. Hence thousands are asking whether there can be any certainty for man. 2. There was another age which resembled ours--the age when the old-world civilizations broke up: when Greece and Rome were bankrupt, and when Israel’ s sun turned into darkness. In that dark age He came who could meet doubt with certain truth. 3. The Truth still lives who had and still has a message for a doubting age, and for those who received Him there was and is now certainty and rest. 4. This amen has altered some memorable amens--amens which He has marked with reiterated affirmations; the unusual form showing us (1) That we need light; and (2) That He will not withhold the light we need. 5. The “ Verily, verily” is only employed by John because he sets forth Christ in His higher relations, and therefore conveys transcendent truth that requires emphasis. 6. Not one of the verilies refers to the Church, but all refer to the peculiar forms of eternal life which are only outwardly manifested in the Church; and will survive its failure. 7. This revelation of eternal life is distinctive of St. John. The other apostles have each their special truth suited to some stage of the Church and individual. (1) Paul’ s comes first, meeting us with words relative to our ruin and the righteousness which is by faith. (2) James meets our advancing needs touching the moralities which belong to Christian doctrine. (3) Peter comes next with words of our present suffering and future glory. (4) Once mere we advance and come to John’ s witness to the new life which the sons of God are called to manifest. 8. It is this teaching of John’ s which the reiterated amens sum up, showing us the course and stages of eternal life in Christ. Twelve of these are distinguished. (1) The home of the new man: heaven, long shut, is reopened (John 1:51). (2) We enter this home by a new birth (John 3:3; John 3:5). (3) The law of the life of the new man (John 5:19-22). (4) His meat (John 6:26-58). (5) His liberty (John 8:31-35). (6) His divinity (John 8:48-58). (7) His service (John 10:1-18). (8) His sacrifice and its results (John 12:24-26). (9) His lowliness (13:1-32). (10) His glory (John 14:8-31. (11) His sorrow and joy (John 16:16-25). (12) His perfecting (John 21:15-23). (A. Jukes, M. A.) The verilies of Christ teach us three lessons I. AS TO THE OF THE TEACHER. The Jews were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes, “ which suggests a contrast with other teachers.” 1. Put side by side with the autocratic ring of this “ Verily, verily I say unto you,” the formula of the prophets--“ Thus saith the Lord.” 2. Contrast again the bare utterance of His own word as a reason for our acceptance of His sayings with the teaching that was busy around Him. One rabbi says this and another that, and so on through all the wearisome Talmud. They drew their authority from their faithfulness to tradition. Christ steps forward as a fresh fountain of certitude. 3. Contrast His teaching with the tone of modesty suitable to mere thinkers who have learned their truths. The philosopher may argue, Christ asserts. Now, what business has Christ to talk in this fashion and demand that I should take from His lips anything He chooses to say? The only answer is, that He is the Word, the Truth of God. II. AS TO THE AND OF THE LESSON. Other teachers have to say, “ Peradventure,” “ This I deem to be true.” Jesus says, “ Most assuredly.” 1. In our day of uncertainties and unsolved problems the world wants more than ever to listen to that voice. Much is dark and doubtful, but here at least is a central core of hard rock that no pressure can grind nor any force shift. 2. Think of the difference between the freshness and adaptation of Christ’ s words and the film of old-fashioned untimeliness which has crept over all other ancient utterances, and say what is the secret of this immortal youth. It is because they are free from all admixture of human limitation and transitoriness, and so fit every generation, and are to every generation the source of certitude. 3. Classify the utterances to which this formula is attached, First, those which refer to Himself. He asserts (1) His Divine nature (John 8:58). (2) His absolute unity of being and identity of action with the Father (John 5:19). (3) His place as the medium of all communication between earth and heaven (John 1:51). (4) That He is the way by which all men enter the fold of God John 10:7). (5) That He is the infallible Teacher (John 3:11). (6) That He is the God-given source of life (John 6:32). (7) The certain granting of all prayers offered in His name (John 16:23). (8) The necessity for His death, that His mission may be accomplished (John 12:24). Secondly, those which refer to us, (1) Union by faith with Him is the condition of our life (John 6:58; John 8:51; John 5:24). (2) The necessity of a new nature ere we can see or enter the kingdom (John 3:3; John 3:6). (3) The promise of our complete assimilation and conformity with Him on condition of our faith (John 13:16; John 13:20; John 14:12). Thirdly, those which contain predictions of a near or remote future which could only be made from supernatural knowledge (John 13:21; John 16:20; John 13:38; John 21:18). Fourthly, those which lay bare to men the hidden foulness of their nature John 6:26; John 8:34). III. AS TO THE OF THE . 1. Verily implies that they to whom it was addressed had dull ears, whose languid attention needed to be stimulated, or that the words which He was going to utter were too great to be easily believed, or too unwelcome to be swiftly accepted. 2. It is a warning against prejudice and sluggish apathy. 3. It is a solemn appeal to us to permit no indifference to come between us and His Word. Two things are required of us as His scholars. 1. That which it is degradation to give to man, but which is blasphemy to withhold from Christ. “ Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” 2. The absolute certitude of His messsge has for its correlative our unwavering steadfastness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The first “ Verily, verily,” --the home of the new man 1. The first question of the Old Testament is, “ Where art thou?” --God’ s question to fallen man. The first of the New is, “ Where is He?” --asked by men who have just been awakened to feel their need of a Saviour. God’ s question reveals man’ s state that he is not where God placed him; man’ s question draws forth the purpose of God’ s heart, that, fallen as we are, He is with us, our Tabernacle. 2. This first verily teaches both these truths. Heaven, man’ s proper home, long shut, is now opened, and that all man has lost shall be restored through the Heir, “ the Son of man.” The old man by disobedience lost his home; the New Man comes back again to the opened heavens as His dwelling-place. 3. These words were spoken by one who had just had heaven open to Him, and He comes forth to tell men how they are to enter. 4. Heaven is not far off; it is the spirit-world which is lost or shut only to the natural man. What will be manifested at death may be anticipated here. 5. Take some examples of this “ opened heaven.” (1) That which took place at Christ’ s baptism. This is fulfilled to Christ’ s members. The Spirit like a dove abides on them; for the mark of the beast is gone, and the voice from heaven proclaims their sonship. (2) Christ’ s transfiguration is recorded to teach a communion with saints who are not far from us. But this blessing is not without its peril, inasmuch as it awakens in imperfect disciples thoughts which if followed out would give to creatures a place and honour which belongs to God alone. Hence Peter wanted three tabernacles; but is called back to “ Jesus only” by the voice, “ This is My beloved Son,” etc. (3) Peter’ s vision (Acts 10:9-16), which taught him that we should call no man common or unclean. (4) John’ s visions in the Apocalypse, revealing the glory of the Son of man and the endless bliss of His brethren. 6. Whenever man’ s true home is opened the servants (angels) also are seen, ever near. (1).Ministering to man’ s wants (1 Kings 19:5-6). (2) Directing his steps (Genesis 16:9). (3) Barring his way if he turns aside from God (Numbers 22:24-26). (4) Present in the assemblies of believers (1 Corinthians 11:10). (5) Specially related to little children (Matthew 18:10). (6) Rejoicing over repenting sinners (Luke 15:10). (7) Ministering: to the heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). (A. Jukes, M. A.) The positiveness of Jesus This expression is one of the signs and evidences of the originality of Jesus Christ. It occurs more than seventy times, and was a characteristic which separated His conversation from that of other men. There were and are examples enough of mere dogmatism. 1. The scribes, whether of theology or science, will open their books and say, “ It is written,” and that is the end of all controversy. 2. The bigot will hold fast to the letter of his creed and anathematize all who do not hold it. 3. Ignorance will stand firm upon tradition and swear to all passers by, “ I know.” Everywhere there has lived the man who could not be mistaken. But the assurance of Jesus Christ was wholly different. 1. Nor was it like the positiveness of the prophets of old who proclaimed, “ Thus saith the Lord.” 2. Nor like the confidence of the philosopher in his reasonings, the naturalist in his verifications. Christ’ s verilies precede rather than conclude His teachings. He gave no demonstrations. 3. Nor with the religious faiths of His disciples. Faith is for us an achievement, and after the struggle Jesus comes and says” believe.” But no Christ came to Jesus, nor is there in His positiveness any trace of conflict. He believed spontaneously and directly out of His own consciousness of God. This positiveness marked Christ’ s teaching from the beginning when He spoke to His mother in the Temple; and never afterwards was there a hesitating note. This peculiar quality appears when we reflect on the subjects on which He was absolutely sure. They are those on which other men are not sure. (1) His verilies have nothing to do with natural truths which we can discover or demonstrate. (2) Nor with matters of history which scholars may search out. (3) Nor with such things as Sanhedrims wrangle over. (4) But with vital, spiritual, eternal truths not otherwise discoverable by man. Learn, then: 1. That over against all our human ignorance, sinfulness, and need, the gospel is one grand affirmation of God; an assertion of those things of which we most need to be made sure. 2. If we want true hearts and strength to do and dare; if we would learn the secret of cheerful, patient lives; if we wish to live with all our souls for noble purpose, and with great faiths and immortal hope, there is a verily waiting to impart to us its power and its peace. 3. Christian unity is only to be realized upon the high plane of this positiveness, and along the lines of those great spiritual affirmations. 4. There is some verily speaking to each at all times and everywhere. (Newman Smyth, D. D.) Heaven opened I. A CERTAIN FACT: Christ has come forth. II. A BLESSED GOSPEL: Christ’ s appearing a manifestation of Divine grace. III. A JOYOUS HOPE: Christ’ s coming forth suggests the possibility of man’ s going in. IV. A : the reinstitution of fellowship between earth and heaven predicts the assimilation of the former to the latter. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Verily is simply the familiar “ amen!” which properly is an adjective meaning firm or steadfast, and is used in two connections. Sometimes it precedes an assertion which it confirms, in which case it may be paraphrased by “ Thus it certainly is.” Sometimes it follows a prayer which it sums up and reiterates, and in that case it may be paraphrased by “ So may it be.” Doubled it has the force of a superlative, “ Most assuredly.” It is heard only from the lips of Christ. It becomes no other lips. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Angels ascending and descending Some of these angelic appearances had already taken place. An angel announced the conception of Christ to His mother. An angel, accompanied by a multitude of the heavenly host, proclaimed His birth to the shepherds, and after His temptation angels came and ministered to Him. These instances of angels descending on the Son of man had taken place before this period, and Nathanael knew them not; but there remained other manifestations of the same kind, which were yet to be afforded. An angel appeared to Him, and strengthened Him in His agony. At His resurrection an angel rolled away the stone from His sepulchre, and two angels sat, the one at the head, the other at the feet where the Lord had lain. And, lastly, angels attended His ascension, and as an angel had announced His first coming, so angels foretold to the witnesses of this great event that the same Jesus who had been parted from them should come again in like manner as they had seen Him go up into heaven. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) Jesus a ladder to heaven To the north of Scotland lies an island called Bressay. It is one of the Shetland Islands, and its shores are very rocky. On the south coast of Bressay is a slate-quarry. The workmen had to descend the cliff to it by means of a ladder. One evening, a violent and sudden storm drove the quarrymen from their work. The ladder was left fastened to the cliff. The night was very dark and stormy. A ship which was struggling with the waves was driven close to the island. Her crew beheld with terror the white foam of the breakers as they dashed against the rocks. They knew that, if their ship were stranded, they must be wrecked. Still the howling winds drove her forward. The waves dashed over her, filled the cabin with water, and drowned the wife of the captain. The sailors now climbed into the rigging. They were at the mercy of the furious wind and of the raging sea. They gave themselves up for lost. Many prayers and cries for deliverance were uttered. On came the ship, and struck against the shore. The poor seamen felt that death was almost certain. On the summit of the cliff was safety; but how could they reach it, who were helplessly dashed at its foot? But just as the ship struck near the rock, their terror was changed to joy. Close beside them, on the steep face of the cliff, was a ladder. It seemed as if placed there on purpose for them. In haste they sprang from the rigging, mounted the ladder, and reached the top of the cliff in safety. The vessel went to pieces so quickly that, by the next morning, hardly a trace of her was left. John 2:1-11 The third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.The miracle at Cana I. THE ON WHICH THE MIRACLE WAS WROUGHT. 1. The time. The third day after the interview with Nathanael. 2. The place. Cana, about nine miles from Nazareth. Called Cans of Galilee to distinguish it from another town of the same name in Ephraim. 3. The company. (1) The mother of Jesus there probably on the ground of relationship. It has been supposed that the wedding was in the family of Cleopas or Alphaeus, whose wife was Mary’ s sister. (2) The most interesting and instructive fact is that Jesus was there. In Him the social element was prominent. In this respect He differed totally from His forerunner. He may have meant to teach those of His disciples, who had been followers of the Baptist, the great lessons of human intercourse, marriage, etc. (3) Jesus’ disciples Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael and John. II. THE WHICH LED TO IT. 1. The fact stated “ They wanted wine;” Mary called Him aside and told Him so. 2. The manner in which the announcement was received. (1) Not disrespectfully. (2) Yet in the way of mild censure which rebukes Mariolatry. (3) Because the proper season for the exercise of His Divine power had not arrived. 3. The appropriate advice that was given. Christ requires universal and prompt obedience. III. THE BY WHICH IT WAS . 1. Nothing could be more simple. There was no pomp or parade. 2. Nothing could be more extraordinary. No means were used. 3. Nothing could be more convincing. Deception was impossible. IV. THE WHICH ENSUED. 1. The display of Christ’ s glory. 2. The confirmation of the disciple’ s faith. (The miracles of the Lord Jesus.) The miracle at Cana 1. After all those years of quiet and obscurity Jesus manifested Himself not as the Son of Mary, but as the Son of God. 2. He showed His power not to a hermit of the desert, but to a social gathering, teaching us the sanctity and blessedness of domestic life. 3. He commenced His ministerial life not as a stem preacher of righteousness beside the sea which covered the sins of Sodom, but as a helper of innocent rejoicings at a marriage feast. While we love our sins our place is by the Dead Sea; but if we heed the call to repentance, we pass from the desert to the feast. The narrative teaches us important lessons. I. NEVER ACCEPT A FORM OF WHICH MAKES PEOPLE GLOOMY AND MOROSE. The people who would shut all the sunshine out of life and stifle its innocent laugh, and hush the happy song, have not read the gospel of Jesus aright. There are times for separation, but as a rule it is in the midst of our daily round that Jesus works His miracles of mercy. II. THE OF . No marriage can be blessed unless Jesus and His disciples are invited. It is quite possible to go through a form of marriage which is quite legal, but which is a mere contract, and has no mark of holy matrimony about it. When we see marriage contracts for money, or position, or to hide the results of sin, we may be sure that Jesus has not been invited, and that there can be no blessing. III. JESUS IS EVER WORKING THE SAME CHANGE AND IS SHOWING FORTH HIS POWER. All nature is a miracle lesson. 1. The seed sown in weakness is raised in power, and we learn that as God gives us our daily bread so He gives us the True Bread from heaven. 2. Every growing vine with its clustering grapes shows us the miracle of water made wine, telling us that Jesus is the True Vine, and that we are the branches, and that without Him we cannot live. 3. The them receives the rains of winter and returns them glorified in the rose of summer; the helpless chrysalis takes unto itself wings, and flies as the beautiful butterfly. And the same miracle is shown in our Lord’ s dealings with men. He came to raise and put new strength into fallen humanity. The miracle was wrought on the first disciples--on Peter who denied his Master, but was changed into a pillar of the Church, etc. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.) The miracle at Cana In three points of view this miracle seems strange. 1. It has not that visible stamp of Divinity which is the peculiar glory of most of Christ’ s miracles. They do not disturb, but restore the true order of nature. In these we see the victims of disorder emancipated, and disorderly forces remedied. They show the Son of God engaged in a conflict with physical as well as moral disorder, and exhibit on a small scale what the cross exhibits on a large. 2. Christ’ s treatment of His mother seems contrary to the tender spirit we should have expected. 3. The other miracles recorded by John were in connection with discourses to which they led and revealed the inner glory of His grace and troth. But the fact that it was wrought in connection with a domestic scene will help us to clear up these difficulties. It was fitting (1) That He should here break away from His mere earthly relationship to mother and home. (2) That He should here inaugurate that ministry which differed from His wilderness experience and the habits of the Baptist. His object was to hallow the legitimate enjoyments of life, and conquer the world, not turn His back upon it. 4. The particular form of the miracle illustrates (1) The enriching power of Christ, His power to improve and perfect the sources of human gratification. Though not repeated in form, the miracle is constantly repeated in spirit in the greater sweetness of the poor man’ s morsel and the poor man’ s life when flavoured with God’ s blessing. (2) The generosity of Christ who giveth liberally and upbraideth not: afterwards shown in the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and foreshadowed in prophecy (Isaiah 4:1). 5. It is in thorough harmony with the Johannine miracles. Of the eight, three bear on the elements of bodily nourishment, and spiritually on the nourishment of the soul. It is also in harmony with Christ’ s teaching in John: the parable of the living bread and of the vine: the vision of heavenly refreshment through Christ in the Apocalypse. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.) The miracle at Cana I. THE PLACE WHICH THIS MIRACLE HOLDS AMONG THE OF CHRIST. The first. 1. As indicative of the general character of those which followed. The product of Christ’ s omnipotence and good will. 2. As the beginning of those wonders which had as their object to manifest forth Christ’ s glory. II. THE IN WHICH THE MIRACLE WAS WROUGHT. 1. The failure of the wine perhaps through the unexpected advent of Jesus and His disciples. 2. Mary’ s appeal based upon her anxiety for the credit of the entertainers and comfort of the guests. 3. Mary’ s faith in Jesus not merely as her Son, but as the Son of God. 4. Mary’ s modesty and humility: she demands nothing, and prescribes nothing. 5. The displeasure of Jesus tenderly teaching Mary (1) That her relationship was no ground on which she might make application, and that her former claims on this ground had passed away. (2) That in all matters connected with His great work she was no more to Him than other believers. (3) That as He was David’ s Lord so was He hers. (4) That what He was about to do was not to be done for the reason for which she desired it. 6. Christ’ s announcement of His hour: His, not Mary’ s; the time of the total failure of the wine. III. THE MIRACLE ITSELF. 1. Expected by Mary. 2. The preparation and co-operation of the servants. 3. The arrival of the hour. 4. The drawing forth of the water made wine. 5. The surprise of the governor. IV. THE THINGS IN WHICH WE ARE BY THE MIRACLE. 1. The anticipation of ecclesiastical corruptions. (1) The Roman depreciation of marriage.. (2) The Romish distinction of meats; that a man is holier for what he eats or from what he abstains. (3) Mariolatry. 2. The duty of temperance and self-denial amidst the profusion of temporal mercy. The great abundance tested self-restraint. The same principle applies to all enjoyments--dress, furniture, reading. 3. The superior excellency of the Gospel’ s dispensation. (1) As contrasted with Moses’ first miracle turning water into blood. (2) The kingdom of god is not meat and drink. 4. The sanctifying influence of Christ’ s presence. (A. Beith, D. D.) The miracle at Cana Notice I. THAT THE OF SOCIAL LIFE. Christ’ s presence did not interfere with the ordinary proceedings. There was no look on His face that chilled the company. He made no protest against the glad music of the nuptial chant. No one expressed the wish that Jesus had stayed at home. The wedding feast would have been a wretched failure had He stayed away. And religion is misunderstood if it is supposed to lessen the happiness of life. A good deal of worldly pleasure is feverish, delirium which religion condemns, but it rules out no innocent pleasure. It commands men to rejoice always. What untold miseries it has swept away. There is more happiness in the Christian cottage than there was in Caesar’ s Palace. II. THAT SOCIAL LIFE IS THE MOST SPHERE FOR . Christ did not feel out of place here, although a careless observer might think it better for Him to be in the Temple teaching. He was here because of His perfect sympathy and to do good. Social life furnishes the Christian with his great opportunities, Faithfulness in religious exercise not the whole of duty. The Christian in society is the foremost preacher. He is there to bear witness to the sympathy of religion with everything that is wholesome, and to protest against everything that is pernicious. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) The relaxation of Jesus Christ I. Our Lord had passed through the conflict of the wilderness and the initial stages of His work as the caller of men, and had, moreover, come off a long journey. He therefore NEEDED and found it at a wedding feast, and in the company of his friends. Showing us that no man can or ought to be incessantly engaged in strife or labour. If he does he will prematurely wear out or break down. Time for rest and unbending is urgently required after any severe strain to body or mind. II. The previous work and conflict was ; So was the relaxation. The danger in our relaxations is to accumulate other burdens by forgetfulness of self or God. “ Whether therefore ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God.” III. CHRIST THE HOURS AND MEANS OF FOR ENDS. His aim is ever to leaven society religiously. 1. By the manifestation of His glory, so that 2. His disciples may believe on Him. IV. CHRIST IN HIS THOSE OF HIS FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS, which even in the wilderness He could not be induced to exert on His own behalf. He declared to Nicodemus that He could do exceeding abundantly above all he could ask or think; here He fulfilled the declaration. (J. W. Burn.) Christ at a feast Learn: I. HOW IN THE SIGHT OF CHRIST IS THE ESTATE OF . 1. Society is never in a healthy condition, and true religion never flourishes where marriage is lightly esteemed. 2. Christ’ s blessing and presence are essential to a happy wedding. II. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN IT IS LAWFUL TO BE MERRY AND REJOICE. 1. True religion was never meant to make men melancholy, but the contrary. The Christian has no place at races, balls, theatres, etc., but he has no right to hand over to the devil innocent recreations. 2. It is not easy to hit the mean between the lawful and the unlawful. But the golden rule is Luke 2:49. 3. While we should take our gladness into religion we should take our religion into the world. III. THE POWER OF JESUS CHRIST. 1. An act of will without any visible means. 2. The same power is at the disposal of His people. (Bp. Ryle.) The wedding feast I. BY CHRIST’ S FRIENDS; those connected through blood and by grace. Marriage though not a Christian sacrament is a religious ordinance Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:7; Ephesians 5:31); honourable in all (Hebrews 13:5), and when the parties are well matched by affection and religion, a matter for hearty congratulation. Ordained for the happiness of the individual and the development of the race, it is calculated, when undertaken “ solemnly, advisedly, and in the fear of God,” to promote the welfare of husband and wife, and to secure a home for godly upbringing of children (Malachi 2:15). II. GRACED BY CHRIST’ S . The first wedding on earth attended by God (Genesis 2:25). Not strange, therefore, that Christ should have set a mark of honour on His Father’ s institution; while it was peculiarly appropriate that He should inaugurate His mission by placing His hand on the springs of humanity, lifting up this holy ordinance which perhaps had suffered more than any other by the fall and restoring it to its pristine dignity and beauty. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The wedding feast I. CHRIST’ S OPENS ON A SCENE OF HUMAN 1. God Himself is essential happiness and would have us happy. 2. We are disposed to make God the sharer of our sorrows; He here teaches us to make Him the partner of our joys. II. CHRIST’ S FIRST TO THE WORLD WAS AT A WEDDING. A standing protest against the tendency to make it a virtue to abstain from marriage. This tendency was denounced by Paul as one of the most pernicious doctrines of false teachers. III. OUR LORD’ S FIRST MIRACLE WAS WROUGHT IN WITH AN EVENT, THE AND MOST IN HUMAN LIFE. It was not to the sinful outcasts of society that He gave His first and special manifestation of Himself, but to those who were keeping His laws and exercising aright the natural affections He had given them. Heaven always comes nearest to the purest home. The gospel prefers to receive men at their best, not at their worst, and to gather into its treasury of grace, not the wrecks of human life, but the rich spoils of its youth and strength. IV. THE MIRACLE TOOK PLACE AT THE VILLAGE OF THE , INDEED IN WHOM THERE WAS NO GUILE. This disciple had the blessedness of the pure in heart who see God. He who manifested Himself to the sleeping patriarch in a dream at the top of the ladder, revealed Himself to Nathanael in waking reality at the foot, as a servant ministering to the necessities of others, and enriching the enjoyments of human life by His blessing. He who appeared to Jacob in a fleeting vision for the purpose of establishing a covenant relationship with a particular family and nation, has opened up by His Incarnation a free intercourse between God and man. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) Human feasts I. WHAT THEY ARE BY NATURE. II. WHAT THEY BECOME BY SIN. III. WHAT THEY AGAIN BECOME ONLY BY THE GRACE OF CHRIST. (J. P.Lange, D. D.) Marks of the grace of Christ I. THAT CHRIST GIVES US THE MOST FOR NOTHING. II. MAKES A THING OUT OF COMMON. III. GIVES THE BEST LAST. IV. GIVES TO HIS OWN TIME, NOT TO OUR IDEAS. (Harless.) The water, the wine, and the wedding I. THE VALUE THERE IS IN THE FORMS OF HUMAN LIFE. A little village mentioned four times in the Bible, and then only by one writer, now extinct, and yet having a sweet, bright fame throughout Christendom, so that Pilgrims go to look up its ruins. A common wedding has made it immortal, while the names of great cities have perished. 1. A most significant sanction of the marriage relation. The New Testament scheme of faith and practice was inaugurated in direct sympathy with human hearts and established in the centre of the family institutions. II. JESUS OUR LORD IS NO OF PERSONS, or if of any of the poor. Jesus is present at every true marriage. III. JESUS NEVER SET HIS MOTHER UP TO BE A MADONNA. He deeply respected her, but did not allow her to dictate to Him. In “ Woman” there is no reproach. It is the same word as that addressed to her on the cross. But in “ What is there now which is common to you and me,” He intends to suggest His independence. IV. A NOBLE MOTTO FOR EVERY SINCERE (John 2:5). Mary was neither humbled nor discouraged. V. THE OF THE SON OF GOD OVER NATURE. Three characteristics of this miracle: its mystery, its magnitude, its morality. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.) Christ and society Christ here at the outset exemplifies one great rule of His self-manifestation, “ The Son of man came eating and drinking,” regardless if cavillers say, “ Behold a man gluttenous and a wine bibber.” His very miracle was a multiplication of the materials of feasting, acting Himself on what afterwards became the law of the gospel. “ Use hospitality one to another without judging,” etc. Christ came not to take a few out of the world, but to transform the world itself; and presented Himself at a marriage feast to redeem things “ which should be for our health” from being turned, through godless abuse into “ occasions of falling.” I. Observe how BEFORE AND WITHOUT CHRIST HAS DEALT WITH SOCIETY. Its effort and prayer has been to be “ taken out” of it to save itself, But this instinct, right in itself, has been shown in ways suicidal. Selfishness bad in nature, is worse in religion. Christ’ s Epiphany to society was an original idea among the religious. The dream of every religion but the Christian was celebrate monasticism. Even Christianity has relapsed into it literally, and also morally in the selfishness which marks out certain persons, phrases, recreations as signs of a world lying in wickedness. Far less difficult would Christian duty be if we might quit the world and have done with it, but we cannot and dare not. This parable of our Master’ s life shows us this. II. How CHRIST DEALS WITH SOCIETY. He finds in the world homes beautiful with natural affection, and tables spread with God’ s bounties. Into this, with the treacherous ashes above and the latent fires below, Christ comes and says, “ Use this world as not abusing it,” and by His presence helps us to obey His precept. Realize, then, this sanctifying presence in business, e.g., or pleasure, and we shall realize that which will quicken both with Divine life. We shall then be there to exert the same helpfulness to others through Christ, as Christ exerted at this feast. 1. Jesus was there with His disciples, not a solitary Messiah. 2. Let the disciples now take the Master with them. For some, alas I this would be irksome, and so they either go without Christ, or else stay away. The former is sinful, the latter faithless. (Dean Vaughan.) Christian festivity Some people think that the age of miracles has passed; everybody knows that that of marriages has not. I. JESUS NOT ONLY THE SOCIAL USAGES OF LIFE--its festivities among the rest--BUT AND THEM. Some gloomy people frown upon the common signs of cheerfulness, but for this habit we have here the eternal antidote. II. WE NEED CHRIST AT SEASONS OF SOCIAL AS MUCH, OR EVEN MORE, THAN AT OTHER TIMES. Pure religion is never unseasonable. If we think we give our worship to God, and stop the devil’ s mouth by an occasional indulgence, the devil will soon get our worship too. There is no more fatal mistake than to think that if we pay our dues in the House of God, we may please ourselves in the house of man. Jesus should be always bidden at our seasons of joy; for be sure that if we do not send Him our invitation, the devil will come without one. III. THERE IS AN IN OUR LORD’ S BINDING HIS TO HIM at this marriage feast. He does not speak to them of the cross as yet. He speaks as they are able to bear it. Coming after His long fast in the wilderness, He breathes no asceticism. He who had been so hardly pressed for bread, turns water into wine. He will train us as we need to be trained. IV. IF CHRIST IS SHUT OUT FROM THE HOUSE OF , WE MUST NOT WONDER AT HIS ABSENCE FROM THE HOUSE OF .(Harry Jones, M. A.) The ministry began at a marriage festival which ended on Calvary, and its glory was manifested by both. I. THE , , AND OF LIFE IS . Life begins in Eden, passes by Gethsemane and Calvary, and ends in heaven. It is God’ s will that man should be everywhere and always blessed. Misery lies not in God’ s making, but in the devil’ s marring. II. OUR LORD SOUGHT TO SEVER HIMSELF AT ONCE AND FROM THE ASCETIC SPIRIT. He came to add to the mirth of all feasts, the brightness of all homes, the gladness of all songs. He was absolutely free from the monkish idolatry of sorrow. He simply went about His Father’ s work in whatever direction it might be. III. CHRIST THE DEVIL’ S UNIFORM METHOD AT . Did ever any one get the best of the world’ s wine, or the devil’ s, at the end of the banquet? But whatever He gives has an infinite store behind it. Hence we are saved by hope. The pain and toil are for the moment, the joy grows into eternity IV. CHRIST SHOWED THE TRUE SPIRIT OF SELF-. The joy sympathetic with the joy of the Lord. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Lessons of the incident 1. Temperance amidst plenty. 2. The profusion of Divine gifts. 3. Christ’ s presence changes the circumstances of His people. 4. Christ turns the lower into the higher; the common to the valuable. 5. Christ does not work till the necessity is felt. 6. Christ works according to His own will, without human interference. (Family Churchman.) General analysis and illustrations of the Cana miracle The company at this wedding may represent the Church of Christ, which is often represented as the guests called together to a marriage feast. Jesus, and His mother, and His disciples were there; thus it is in the Church. The former circumstances of the marriage, wherein they wanted wine, represent the state of the Church before Christ came; or rather, before the evangelical dispensation was established. The latter circumstances of the wedding, wherein they had plenty of wine, represent the latter state of the Church, after the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, and especially after the fall of Antichrist. The wine represents the spiritual supplies of His Church, the grace and comforts of the Holy Spirit, which are often represented by wine in Scripture. Their wine ran low, and was just out; so formerly the Old Testament Church had a supply of wine; but when Christ came into the world it was just out--they had in a manner no wine. But when Christ came and ascended up to heaven, He soon gave His Church plenty of wine, and much better wine than ever the Jewish Church had enjoyed; as it is said, “ Thou hast kept the good wine until now.” So again, before the glorious times of the Church commence, the Church’ s wine runs very low, and is almost out; what they alloy with is water--human learning, sapless speculations and disputations, and dead morality. Formerly the Christian Church had wine, as in the times of the primitive Church, and in the times of the Reformation; but now their wine is almost gone. But after the beginning of these glorious times their water shall be turned into wine, and much better wine than ever they had before. The mother of Jesus may represent the more eminent ministers of the gospel, or the public eccleslastical authority, as exercised in synods, public schools, etc. They, in a dark and dead time of the Church, complain to Christ of their unsuecessfulness, of the want of wine in the Church, and look to Him for a supply. But they must not expect an answer till Christ’ s time is come; their prayers are not answered till then, and then they shall be fully answered; their prayers are not rejected, they are offered up with incense. The cries of the souls under the altar, that cry, “ How long, Lord, holy and true?” are not rejected; but yet it is said to them that they should wail till God’ s time comes. The servants represent gospel ministers; they have a command from Jesus’ mother, i.e, from the Church in her public authority, to do whatsoever Jesus commands. Whence we may note, that the way to have a plentiful effusion of the Spirit with His Word and ordinances, is for ministers to be faithful in their work. They are to fill up the water-pots of purification with water; that is all they can do. They can, in the use of the ordinances of God’ s house, and the appointed means of grace and purification, he instant in season and out of season; they can fill the water-pots up to the brim; they can be abundant in preaching the Word--which, as it comes from them, is only water--a dead letter, a sapless, tasteless, spiritless thing--but this is what Christ will bless for the supplying of His Church with wine. (Jonathan Edwards.) The popularity of this Cana miracle From a very early period the Church has recognized the importance and significance of the miracle. Of the fifty-two marble sarcophagi originally found in the catacombs of Rome, and now preserved in the Museum of St. John Lateran, no less than sixteen have carved upon them a rude representation of Jesus touching with a rod two, three, four, five, or six water-pots standing on the ground--the number varying according to the skill of the artist, or the space at his disposal. In the frescoes and mosaics of numerous churches and consecrated buildings, the incident has been depicted in a great variety of ways; and Tintoretto exhausted his genius, in giving expression to its wonderful beauty, in his great picture in the church of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. With commentators in all ages, the miracle of Cana has been a favourite and fertile theme for exposition. No miracle will more thoroughly reward a careful study than that which meets the inquirer at the very threshold. It is the “ gate beautiful” by which he enters the sacred temple of Divine truth. It is the illuminated initial which represents, in a pictorial form, the nature and design of the kingdom of heaven as revealed unto men. It is an acted parable of the whole gospel; a type and image of all the work of Jesus, opening up a vista of light far into the ways of God. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) Cana. Two places claim the distinction of being the Cana of the gospel--the one a ruined and deserted village, called Khurbet Cana, about half-a-day’ s journey to the north-west of Nazareth; and the other, called Kerr Kenna, lying much nearer, on the present main road from that town to Tiberias and the lake district. The great weight of evidence derived from name, site, history, and present remains, is on the side of the latter place, which is still one of the most prosperous villages in Galilee. Like Nain, its situation is exceedingly picturesque. It is perched on the slope of a low hill, at the head of several valleys forming natural roadways leading down on the one side to the sea-coast, and on the other to the Lake of Galilee. In front is a rich bottom, which becomes a lake or a swamp in the rainy season. In this respect Cans resembles the villages of Italy, which are nearly all built upon isolated heights, rising up from extensive marshy plains, not only for the sake of security, but also for the purer air and wider outlook. Its Greek name, which has no Hebrew, Chaldee, or Aramaic form, means a reed; and was doubtless derived from the reeds which still grow in abundance in the marshy plain below, and utter their mournful wail as the winds pass through them. Several well-known places are similarly named for the same reason, as Cannae, Canneto, Cannossa, and Cannes. The houses of the modern village are embosomed among orchards of pomegranate trees, whose dark-green foliage and scarlet blossoms form in April a scene of enchantment. The fig-tree still casts its grateful shadow over the white roadway, and at the foot of the hill there is a deep, cool well, the only one in the neighbourhood, from which the water used at the marriage feast must have been drawn. Remains of ancient edifices testify to the hoary antiquity of the site and its former importance. The foundations of an early church and monastery, erected by Syrian Christians in commemoration of the marriage feast, may still be traced. The buildings were entire long before the Moselm power was established in Galilee; and various pilgrims from the West visited them from time to time during a period of nine hundred years. Our own English St. Willibald, who was a palmer in 722, stayed one day in Cans, and prayed in the church; and, four hundred years later, another English pilgrim, Saewulf, saw and reported regarding the convent, called after the ruler of the feast, “ Holy Architriclinos,” the only building in Cans then that was not wholly destroyed. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) Eastern marriage customs An Oriental wedding is very different from an Occidental one; and there is as much variety of usage in the accompaniments of this ceremony in the East as in the West. In all cases, however, the marriage ceremonies are among the most prominent ceremonies of private life, as much display being made as the circumstances of the contracting parties will allow. Among the wealthy inhabitants of towns, however, the ceremonies of marriage are both protracted and complicated. Six or seven days after the conclusion of the betrothal contract, the well-to-do bridegroom begins to illuminate the street in which he lives with swinging lamps and flying flags in token of the coming festivities. During the evenings of these days festivals are held at the bridegroom’ s house. The chief entertainment is given by the bridegroom the evening before the marriage. On the day of the marriage the bride goes in procession to the bridegroom’ s house, preceded by music, dancers, mountebanks, and walking beneath a canopy. The procession seeks a circuitous route, and takes several hours before it reaches the bridegroom’ s house. Here the party is entertained with a repast. At sunset the bridegroom leaves the house, and goes in procession to a mosque to say the proper ceremonial prayers. Then the procession returns slowly, preceded by music and lanterns. When the procession reaches the house, pipes, coffee, and sherbert (sweetened water, for the Mohammedans do not drink wine) are set before the company. The bridegroom then visits his bride, whose face he now sees for the first time. Upon his announcement that he is satisfied with his bride, the women without raise the zaghareet, or shrill cries of joy, which announce the happy event to the whole neighbourhood. The bridegroom then returns, for a little while, to his friends who are feasting below, to receive their felicitations on the completion of the marriage. (S. S. Times.) Marriage happy where Christ is acknowledged When Philip Henry was settled at Worthenburv, he sought the hand of the only daughter and heiress of Mr. Matthews, of Broad Oak. The father demurred, saying that, though Mr. Henry was an excellent preacher and a gentleman, yet he did not know from whence he came. “ True,” said the daughter; “ but I know where he is going, and I should like to go with him.” Mr. Henry records in his diary long after the happiness of the union, which was soon after consummated: “ April 26th, 1680. This day we have been married twenty years, in which time we have received of the Lord twenty thousand mercies--to God be glory!” Sometimes he writes, “ We have been so longmarried, and never reconciled, i.e, there never was any occasion for it.” His advice to his children with respect to their marriage was, “ Please God, and please yourselves, and you will please me” ; and his usual compliment to his newly-married friends, “ Others wish you all happiness. I wish you all holiness, and then there is no doubt but you will have all happiness.” (Life of Philip Henry.) The blessing of marriage That is the great blessing of marriage, that it delivers us from the tyranny of Meum and Tuum. Converting each into the other, it endears them both, and turns a slavish, deadening drudgery, into a free and joyous service. And by bringing home to every one’ s heart that he is something better than a mere self, that he is the part of a higher and more precious whole, it becomes a type of the union between the Church and her Lord. (J G. Hare) Religion for joy as well as for sorrow Religion is just as necessary for prosperity as for adversity. There is no happiness so happy but His presence can make it happier; and they who seek to have Him at their bridals can count more confidently on Him in their sufferings and at their death-beds. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) The miracles of nature and the miracles of Christ He that made wine on that day at the marriage feast in those six water-pots, which He commanded to be filled with water, the same does every year the like in vines. For as what the servants put into the water-pots was changed into wine by the operation of the Lord, just so what the clouds pour forth is changed into wine by the operation of the same Lord. But at the latter we do not marvel, because it happens every year; by constant use it hath lost its wonder. And yet it suggests a greater consideration. But since men, intent on a different matter, have lost the consideration of the works of God by which they should daily praise Him as the Creator, God has reserved to Himself the doing of certain extraordinary actions, that, by striking them with wonder, He might rouse men as from sleep to worship Him. A dead man rises again; men marvel: so many are born daily, and none marvel. If we reflect more considerately, it is a matter of greater wonder for one to be who was not before, than for one who was to come to life again. (Augustine.) The transformation of the mean He made wine of water; not wine without water. It is not the nature of His work to make a new order of creatures for saints, or a new order of faculties for religion, or a new planet for that future world wherein dwelleth righteousness; but it is His office to take the common man as he is, and the heavens and earth which now are, and by a new and supernatural putting forth of power upon them, to evolve from the one a pure, holy, and royal being, and for the other a fitting home and dominion for him for ever. Precious as are those living jewels of His which the Saviour eventually gathers into the glorious cabinet of the world to come, they are in their origin mere men and women, of like passions with ourselves--ordinary humanity ennobled and transformed by supernatural grace into eternal kings and priests. Christianity, in its highest achievements and results, is simply the miraculous power of Jesus made effective in and upon the common elements of nature--the gladdening transfiguration of the common into the noble, the sinful into the holy, the earthly into the heavenly. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) John 2:3-4 The mother of Jesus saith unto Him they have no wine I.THE MIRACLE WAS WROUGHT AT THE OF A MOTHER, and was the result of the promptings of human affection. The first influence that reaches the senses of a child is from the mother; and whatever miracles of blessing have been done in the world may be traced to her. “ She who rocks the cradle sways the world.” Jesus was like all human beings in this respect. And now He has entered on His life’ s work, it is fitting that He should receive the first call to the exercise of His power from His mother. II. THE IMPORT OF THE WORDS OF MARY. Some regard them as a passing remark; others as a delicate hint that they should retire. These explanations inadequate. Mary expected some unusual manifestations of Christ’ s power, and drew attention to the want of wine to excite His sympathy and help. She knew that there were no ordinary means of procuring wine, and that a crisis had happened in His life which was in keeping with what she knew about Him. Now, therefore, was the time to show to the world who He was. But mingled with this there were selfish elements: personal pride in the expectation of His achievements, and anxiety to keep her old motherly influence over Him. III. JESUS’ REPLY. Just as He assured her in the Temple that He must be about His Father’ s business, so now He told her that a higher motive than a mother’ s authority must regulate the manifestation of His glory. The blessings of heaven are bestowed, not according to a capricious favouritism, but according to a fixed principle of Divine government. At first sight the reply seems repellent; but 1. In those days “ woman” was a title of respect. When the true dignity of woman is recognized, that is the best name by which she can be known. Emperors have called their queens by this name, and Jesus used it in His tenderest message on the cross. 2. Christ avoided calling Mary His mother for the same reason that He refused to acknowledge David as His Father. Henceforth He was not to be known as her Son, but as the Son of the Eternal Father. 3. “ What have I to do with thee,” a common phrase indicating the conclusion of all debate. It has no severity in it, and may have been uttered in a tone and with a gesture that could not be reported. Anyhow, Mary’ s feelings were not hurt, as is seen from her expectant words to the servants. IV. THE SON HAD NOW BECOME LORD EVEN OF HIS OWN MOTHER, and her happiness could only be secured by obedience to Him. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The anxious mother I. THE SHE FELT. While it becomes the friends of Jesus to be careful for nothing (Philippians 4:6; Matthew 6:31; Luke 10:41), Mary’ s distress was 1. Natural, seeing that the wine failed through the arrival of her Son and His companions. 2. Beautiful, inasmuch as it was sympathy with others. 3. Permissible, because a habit enjoined by Christ (Mark 12:31; Luke 6:31; Luke 10:36; John 15:17; Romans 12:10; Philippians 2:4). III. THE REQUEST SHE MADE. That Christ should establish His Messiahship by miracle. 1. In turning to Christ in her emergency, Mary acted with propriety, teaching us where to go with our troubles as they arise (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 5:7). 2. In prescribing to Christ the manner of His help, her example must be eschewed; Christ then, as now, regulating all His movements by the will of the Father (Ephesians 1:11). 3. In failing to grasp the character of Christ’ s mission, she represents the dulness of the natural heart (1 Corinthians 2:14). III. THE REPROOF SHE . 1. Inconceivable that there was any contempt in it (1 John 3:5; 1 Peter 2:22). In this let Christ be our exemplar (Ephesians 6:2). 2. A respectful reminder that henceforth He had passed beyond His earthly home, and had entered upon engagements in which the will of God was supreme (John 4:34; John 6:38). (1) Whom Christ loves He reproves when they go astray (Heb Revelation 3:19). (2) There are higher obligations than those due to parents (Acts 4:19). (3) In all matters connected with religion and conscience (James 4:12), IV. THE COMFORT SHE . Repelling the suggestion of a public demonstration, He intimated by some explained sign that His assistance would not be wanting. So it is ever His custom to mingle mercy with judgment (Psalms 101:1). V. THE TRUST SHE . With quiet confidence she directed the servants to hold themselves in readiness to execute any instructions He might give, symbolizing the faith which is ready to interpret and cling to Christ’ s hints of favour, whether found in His Word or Providence. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Mine hour is not yet comeChrist’ s hour I. CHRIST’ S HOUR WAS THE TIME FIXED BY THE FATHER. No outward event or motive could decide when it was right for Him to do a mighty work. He waited obscure and inactive for thirty years, until the hour appointed had come for beginning His public ministry; and when He entered on its career, all its incidents were regulated by the Father’ s predetermined purpose. II. THE IS TO THAT POINT OF HIS LIFE MOST OF ALL, THE HOUR OF HIS . But the way lay through the valley of the shadow of death. The hour when He was glorified was the hour when His work was finished. Jesus, therefore, connected the hour of His greatest triumph with the hour of His greatest defeat: and everything that promoted His glory made sure His death. The converse on the Transfiguration Mount was about His decease (see also John 12:23-29). All this was realized here in anticipation. He saw the inevitable connection between the miracle and His hour of doom. We need not wonder, therefore, that He should hesitate before performing an act involving such tremendous issues. His mother knew nothing of all this, and His gentle words of rebuke struck a note which He meant to vibrate in her heart like the memorable word of Simeon in the Temple. It is striking that we hear no more of Mary in St. John until she stands beside the cross. III. This foreshadowing of the cross by the first manifestation of Christ’ s glory is TYPICAL OF A COMMON HUMAN . The marriage indicated the commencement of the most serious part in the drama of life, in which self-sacrifice is continually necessary. Marriage is nature’ s preparation for death. Death empties the world and marriage is ordained to replenish it. The happiest hour of life is thus intimately connected with the saddest. And so with all the glories of man. Triumph and success come late in life and are associated with ebbing strength and failing desire, which rob them of nearly all their pleasure. IV. WITH FAITH AND INSIGHT MARY ENTERED INTO HER SON’ S DESIGN. Her command to the servants proves the greatness of her faith. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The supreme hour (cf. John 17:1):-- I. A DESTINY . It has been maintained that there is a fixed plan and destiny for each life. What then about the multitude of wicked and suffering lives? And yet it is impossible that God should not have some plan and purpose for all: for Divine Providence is the care for the whole and for each part. Otherwise chance and accident would be governors of the world. To get out of this order and follow our own blind wills, however, is possible. We are ever treated as creatures to whom choice is offered. God will not compel us; but He will guide our lives if we will trust Him. But we can choose to stand in antagonism to His purposes. All sin does this. Yet there is a Sovereignty which is able to see all contingencies and provide for every catastrophe. Therefore there is a work for each to do and a time to do it in. We come into life for a purpose. What that is seems hidden. We learn by experience. Christ’ s mission, of course, was of transcendant importance; but He comes possessed of a conviction that He is sent to do a special work in a special hour. This is constantly on His lips. There was to be nothing accidental. He completely foresaw and foretold His destiny, What that was stands out clear in its own light--death for our salvation. Take that away and what is left? Like music without the leading part, the air, there may be harmony, but there is no meaning. So as Christ knows it is coming He prepares Himself and His disciples for it. And when it comes He cries “ It is finished.” II. A DESTINY OVER ALL . What wonderful preservations there were which prevented any failure. The thought of Christ’ s possible failure is overwhelmingly terrible. Yet He was tried in every possible way. The devil tried Him by his temptations; His friends by their endeavours to seize Him as a madman; the Pharisees by their invitations; the people by their attempt to crown Him; His townsmen by their attempt to assassinate Him. Twice the reason is said to be “ because His hour was not yet come.” The hour came, not a moment too soon or too late, but at the appointed time. Conclusion: 1. A word of comfort to His servants in times of anxiety about their lives and work. If we have surrendered ourselves to God let us accept curler and place without fear. 2. A word of encouragement to workers whose results seem so meagre. Be still, live on, every pulse beat brings the hour of glory nearer. 3. Let no man fear premature death, “ A man is immortal till his work is done.” (W. Braden.) Our hour I. THE HOUR THAT STRIKES WHEN GOD CALLS TO HIGHER DUTY, better thoughts, purer purposes, more unworldly aims than are common in this lower life. Neglect that and you have lost a great possession. You may succeed elsewhere, but you have suffered the supreme loss. You are not watching for it: it may come and go and leave you a wreck. II. THE HOUR CALLS IN SPECIAL MOMENTS OF . Every soul has in it its special strand of sin. We find it out by contemplating what is hardest for us to give up, what we most like, what we least like to do. The call comes and our hour approaches. III. Then there is THE LAST HOUR WHICH BELONGS TO US ALL, about which it is impossible to speak since none of us have died. But it is coming quickly. Prepare for it. (Canon Knox-Little.) Our hour I. NO HOUR IS . It may seem to be, and be treated as trivial. But an architect will tell you that every stone in a building is necessary for the strength and symmetry of the whole. So with life. Its hours are of untold value in relation to each other and the great whole. II. ANY HOUR MAY BE TO US THE MOST HOUR OF ALL. There may come quite unexpectedly some solemn event which rosy change the whole purpose and current of our life. A letter, a friend, a call, a casual visit to a stranger’ s house, may result in beginning a business or finding a wife. This may not be the supreme hour, but it assuredly leads to it. It is one link in the chain of hours; take away that one and all the possibilities of the future are gone. The present hour contains the germ of our destiny. III. TO EVERY LIFE SOME GREAT AND SOLEMN PERIOD COMES, a decisive period, a turning point, one which condenses in itself all others, and for which all others have prepared--just as the hundred years of patient culture have prepared the aloe for the single year in which it flowers. It may come in youth of middle age. Then what we are is proved and what we shall be decided. (W. Braden.) Christ’ s treatment of His mother The phrase ἐμοὶχαὶσοί is a literal translation of the Hebrew ιμκΐξΗδΞμΜι (Josiah 22:24; 2 Samuel 16:10; 1 Kings 18:18; 2 Kings 3:13; Matthew 8:29; Matthew 27:19; Mark 1:24). It is also found in the classics. The radical idea appears to be: “ What have we in common? Our relations are wholly different.” The formula there is used to express unwillingness to be disturbed or hindered by any one. It always implies reproof, although sometimes a friendly one merely (2 Samuel 16:10), here, “ Mingle not thyself in my concerns; we pursue different aims and thou comprehendest me not.” If Christ, then, did not consider this as a suitable occasion for the performance of a miracle, why does He, nevertheless, follow His mother’ s suggestion? Because it could not, on the other hand be regarded as an unsuitable one for it offered Him an occasion for proving His philanthropic disposition. As Messiah He uttered the reproof, as a son He complied with the request. The address γύναι is not disrespectful, but solemn, (cf. the address from the cross John 19:26). Augustus thus addresses Cleopatra: “ Take courage, O woman, and keep a good heart.” That the look of Jesus expressed more than His words convey, may be gathered from the address of His mother to the servants. (A. Tholuck, D. D.) The sense is what have I as God to do with thee a woman?. Dost thou suppose that the Divine power by which I work miracles can be set in motion by thee because thou art the mother of My humanity? Hence Christ who loved and revered His earthly mother (Luke 2:51; John 19:26) teaches us to begin with love and reverence to our Heavenly Father. “ The hour of My weakness derived from thee has not yet come; but it will come, and when that hour of human infirmity arrives, and when that infirmity of which thou art the mother, hangs on the cross, then will I own thee.” John 19:26-27 is the best comment on this text. (Bp. Wordsworth.) Mary catches at the little unobtrusive word, not yet, and with great penetration infers from it, then it will come! (Herberger.) The reasonableness of this incident If this miracle was one of the manifestations of Jesus as the Son of God, can anything be more natural or consistent than that it should be introduced by words which declare that He could not be in subjection to any earthly authority, while yet the act itself was an act of ministry to even the commonest necessities of the sons of Earth? Is not this apparent contradiction accomplishment of His work, the exhibition of Him in His complete character? He will not be the servant of His creatures, not even of His mother; He obeys the will which all are created to obey. He will be the servant of His creatures. He is come into the world for that end. He is doing the will of His Father when He is stooping to the lowest of all. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Mariolatry Jesus Christ Himself is the expression of the fatherly and motherly nature in God. But this great truth was lost sight of in the dark ages; and the strange idea arose that even Christ Himself was what God was formerly conceived to be--a stern and angry judge, needing intercession and appeased with difficulty. The manhood in Him, from its very sinlessness, was supposed to be implacable; and therefore the pitying, compassionate womanhood was personified by His mother, who acted the part of intercessor between Him and a guilty world. She was a human being, having all a human being’ s experience of sin, its temptations, trials, and sorrows; having the consciousness of weakness in herself, teaching her how hard it is not to sin, which would necessarily make her compassionate towards others. We all know how, step by step, she has been raised from that position of participation in human sin and sorrow to an exemption from it. We can trace this gradual ascent in the pictures of her which represent her first as alone; then with the infant Saviour in her arms; then with Christ crowning her; then kneeling before Him; then sitting a little lower; then on a level with Him. And now there is a tendency to place her above Him; for there are more churches dedicated to her than to Him. In Rome God the Father is almost unknown, and God the Son has ceased to be an object of adoration. The Father is pictorially represented as an old man, and the Saviour as a little child; arid both are made subservient to the Virgin. But there is a Nemesis in this last monstrous development. By the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, thus paying Divine honours to her, she is removed further from the sympathies of men, and the attraction of her intercession will ultimately be weakened. What made her worship so alluring was the mistaken idea that just because she was a tender human being--a loving, sainted mother--having the knowledge of sin, she would be less severe towards the frailties of men. But this charm she will lose by her deification. She will come to be regarded as a stern and implacable judge, having no sympathy with men, because she is herself withdrawn from the possibilities of their frailties; and the confiding trustfulness with which prayers are now offered to her will cease to be felt. Indeed, the change has already taken place, and the supposed mother of the Virgin, called St. Anne, is now invoked to entreat her daughter to ask her Son to be propitious to the suppliant. Where is to be the end of such meditatorship? May not the Virgin’ s grandmother be also brought in? And if the Virgin is to be regarded as conceived without sin, must not her mother also--and so on--back to Adam; and thus the doctrine of the Fall and of original sin be done away with altogether, and with it the standing-ground and necessity of the Church? How simple and satisfactory the truth itself which is thus so strangely perverted! (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) John 2:5 Whatsoever Be saith unto you, do it Implicit obedience to Christ That is a remarkable claim. It is almost startling to be told that, without leaving room for our own opinion, whatever a certain voice says to us we are to do. That claim can be made for no created intelligence. But it can be made for Christ. And this is the language of one who, so far, knew Him best on earth. Never before, nor since, has mother been able to say of son that ‘ tis well to do whatever he requires. Nor is our personal witness wanting; it is evident that the world’ s miseries are due to disobedience to Him; and it acquires a more extraordinary significance when we remember that He hath something to say about everything we do or ought to do. He not only assumes to guide at crises, but at every step. I. WHAT MUST PRECEDE THIS . 1. Subjection: Ye are not your own; He has a right to me by His redemption. I cannot take my own course or follow my own will without robbing Him. 2. A listening for His voice, a training our ear to recognize Him. For though He may have something to say, and indeed may say it, it does not follow that we hear. How can we hear whenever He speaks, how be sure that it is He? It is easy to follow caprice or self-will, and think we are following Him. Whatever He says is in harmony with this Divine Book; to knew what He says we must come here, and if coming here we sincerely say, “ Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth!” He will speak. But we cannot always retire to search the Book, nor even pause to consider what is right--how can He control us then? Obey; obey and you will come instinctivelyto know your Lord’ s will, as (as one has said) “ by copying perpetually a master painter’ s works, we can at last recognize his touch unerringly.” 3. A determination to trust Him. For it demands courage to commit ourselves blindly to another. It were easy to do something that He tells us, but--“ whatsoever” Ah! many a time He will say do this, go there, lay down that joy, take up that burden, when it will seem to be wrong; then it is when the text comes home to us, that we need courage to obey, and may fail through fear. Courage is wanted to take the first bold plunge into the sea, but when we find its sustaining power is trustworthy, we fear no more: so with the will of Christ. But how can we bring ourselves to that abandonment. Only by remembering that Christ cannot lead us wrong. Infinite wisdom! Infinite love! II. WHAT THIS . 1. It is Contrary to questioning. We may not discover it at once; for gracious purpose He may keep us waiting, but ere the time for action comes He will reveal enough. Then questioning should end. He will not debate with us. It is not unlikely that He may call us to strange things--things as strange as when He called Abram, or Moses, or Jonah, or Peter. Now, when those strange commands come, which seem to involve so much risk, and which lead into the dark--then is the time to recall this word, and to act upon it. 2. It is contrary to delay. Delay is disobedience. When we dare not reply “ I will not,” we sometimes reply “ I will, but not now,” and quiet our conscience with the idea that this is not refusal. Jesus said, “ Follow Me!” and he answered, “ Lord, suffer me first,” etc., and the Lord said “ No.” So we respond to some of His commands, “ Lord, suffer me first to do something else,” “ Seek ye first the kingdom,” etc. 3. It is contrary to consideration of cost. It is well to settle with ourselves that we cannot follow Christ without soon, and often, coming to what is hard. “ If any man will come after Me, let him take up his cross,” etc. 4. It is contrary to inquiry about other matters. For it is one of our most dangerous temptations to neglect clear duty because of what is not clear. What is clear may be but little, a mere foothold on “ a pavement of mist,” but plant the foot there if so Christ bids, and He will show more, at length bringing him that obeys as far as He knows to the rock and the day. We are apt to confuse others’ tasks with ours. “ Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” III. WHAT FOLLOWS THIS . 1. It prevents hardness of heart. Young men and women with whom Jesus pleads, there are old men here who would tell you that once Christ’ s voice was clear to them, but that now they catch but murmurs of a voice far off, and who would entreat you to respond to Him now. Hardness is the certain result of refusal. 2. It proves that we are Christ’ s. What is Obedience (1) Is the mark of a Christian. “ Hereby we do know that we know Him,” etc. (2) The test of service: “ Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say?” (3) The test of love: “ If ye love Me,” etc. 3. The way to success. You have heard it said that religious principles will not do for business. But can anything be more hopeless than to go against the God of Providence on whose side all things work. But let the text guide you in the office and the workshop, in public life and the social circle, and this will be the issue--judge if it be success or no! A peaceful conscience repose in the Divine care, unclouded fellowship with God, and at last, “ Well done,” etc. (C. New.) Perfect obedience To obey God in some things of religion, and not in others, shows an unsound heart; like Esau, who obeyed his father in bringing him venison, but not in a greater matter, viz., the choice of his wife. Child-like obedience moves towards every command of God, as the needle points that way which the loadstone draws. (T. Watson.) Obedience must be cheerful A musician is not recommended for playing long but for playing well; it is obeying God willingly that is accepted; the Lord hates that which is forced, it is rather paying a tax than an offering. Good duties must not be pressed nor beaten out of us, as the waters came out of the rock when Moses smote it with his rod; but must freely drop from us as myrrh from the tree, or honey from the comb. If a willing mind be wanting, there wants that flower which should perfume our obedience, and make it a sweet smelling savour to God. (T. Watson.) Submission without reasoning Payson was asked, when under great bodily affliction, if he could see any particular reason for this dispensation. “ No,” replied he, “ but I am as well satisfied as if I could see ten thousand; God’ s will is the very perfection of all reason.” Implicit obedience Manton says that, “ John Cassian makes mention of one, who willingly fetched water near two miles every day for a whole year together, to pour it unto a dead dry stick, at the command of his superior, when no reason else could be given for it.” And of another it is recorded, that he professed that if he were enjoined by his superior to put to sea in a ship which had neither mast, tackling, nor any other furniture, he would do it; and when he was asked how he could do this without hazard of his discretion, he answered, “ The wisdom must be in him that hath power to command, not in him that hath power to obey.” These are instances of implicit obedience to a poor fallible human authority, and are by no means to be imitated. But when it is God who gives the command, we cannot carry a blind obedience too far, since there can be no room for questioning the wisdom and goodness of any of His precepts. At Christ’ s command it is wise to let down the net at the very spot where we have toiled in vain all the night. If God bids us, we can sweeten water with salt, and destroy poison with meat, yea, we may walk the waves of the sea, or the flames of a furnace. Well, said the Blessed Virgin, “ Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” My heart, I charge thee follow thy Lord’ s command without a moment’ s question, though He bid thee go forward into the Red Sea, or onward into a howling wilderness. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Obedience to Christ I. THE RIGHT THAT MARY HAD TO SPEAK. The right of 1. Experience. Without this speech the history of Christ’ s life would be sadly incomplete. Omit it, and what would our position be? (1) We should hear the voice of heaven saying, “ This is My beloved Son;” (2) The voice of the Herald, “ Behold the Lamb of God!” (3) The voice of the Church, “ Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;” (4) The voice of the world, “ Never man spake like this man;” (5) The voice of friends, “ The holy one of God;” (6) The voice of Justice, “ I find no fault in Him.” But we want to hear another voice, that of home. And here we have it from her whose lips kissed Him, whose hands caressed Him, who had Him under her eye from childhood to manhood, and her testimony is, “ Whatsoever He saith,” etc. 2. Modesty: What gives point and force to her words is that she is no garrulous woman, making her son the subject of constant commendation. Only this once does she testify to Him. And there was a strong call in her to speak now. Up to this time Jesus had been a private man and had belonged to herself. But henceforth He was to be the public Messiah, and her Son no longer. Mary here renounces her exclusive right to Christ, and in parting from him says, “ Whatsoever,” etc. 3. The tacit approval of Christ. Mothers are partial. Was, then, Mary’ s love too strong for her judgment? The best answer is that Christ, who was least open to flattery, did not chide her: but afterwards, in laying down the terms of discipleship, used His mother’ s words, “ Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” II. THE ADVICE THAT MARY GIVES. 1. It is not enough to have Christ’ s words. The Bible as a mere possession is either neglected altogether or treated as a charm. 2. It is not enough to study Christ’ s words, even with the closest attention and the firmest belief; although that is a blessed privilege. 3. The whole duty and creed of man is to do whatsoever Christ commands. To this we are pledged by the pattern prayer, and in this we have a supreme example in Christ Himself. III. HOW ARE WE TO OBEY? 1. By loving Him. 2. By aiming at the perfection that is in Him. (P. Robertson.) Obedience to Christ I. THIS ADVICE MEETS A FELT WANT. There are times in life when we want the responsibility of decision divided--times of utter bafflement and perplexity. A friendly recommendation is sometimes helpful, but what is wanted is supreme dictation. Christ steps in here as the commander of the people and says, “ Lo,” “ Come,” “ Do,” “ Stand.” II. THIS ADVICE WAS GIVEN BY CHRIST’ S MOTHER, who had lived with Him a whole generation, and after all that experience felt warranted in offering it--the most magnificent tribute to Christ that was ever offered: that He was worthy of perfect obedience. III. THIS ADVICE HE HIMSELF. 1. His commands are imperative and final. He never prefers a request or revises a decision. 2. His commands brook no emendation, diminution, or enlargement. 3. His commands require prompt and implicit obedience. IV. THIS IS BROAD. 1. Follow Me. 2. Love one another. 3. Wash ye one another’ s feet. 4. Go ye into all the world. 5. Do this in remembrance of Me. (J. Parker, D. D.) Instant obedience The right path into the meaning of this saying is found in an interior view of the three states of mind represented in the little group. 1. That of Mary, who speaks. 2. Of the servants to whom she speaks. 3. And of the Saviour for whose decisive word she and they are waiting. On the part of Mary there was evidently a mixture of perplexity, impatience, reverence, and trust. The impatience was sufficiently reproved and restrained. His “ woman,” etc., dispelled her rising complacency, and placed her on that level of human dependence where, with all her loveliness, beauty, and sanctity, she must ever remain. Christ’ s word was a call for increased faith. For thirty years Mary had carried in her soul the memory of the strange events which signalized His birth, etc. As yet He had given no supernatural sign. Was it not almost the “ hour?” Just at this point of uncertainty she stood, but when she looked at Him all her doubts fled, and all fears sank to rest in one resolution of trusting obedience. “ Whatsoever,” etc. I. Whatsoever HE saith. One voice is singled out, and that has supreme authority. Some master every human being has. There are as many masters as there are interests, tastes, passions, etc. When we come to the moral life, men are at liberty to choose as they will. “ Choose now this day,” etc. Choose Christ and live for ever, choose any other master and you will die. “ No man can choose two masters.” II. As there is but one voice of supreme authority, so THERE IS BUT ONE OF DUTY--instant, active obedience. 1. How many of the failures and miseries of life creep in between the hearing of God’ s command and the doing of it. Men mistake speculative for practical truth; put matters of feeling in place of action. Some problem of Providence is conjured up as if a man had a right to keep his repentance and faith waiting till he can fathom it; some obscure dogma which should be left to clear itself is set up as a stumbling-block; moods of depression and discontent; conflicting claims of family or friends, or between action and contemplation. These must be cast off and left behind, not by thinking over them, or spasmodic efforts to manufacture feeling, but by a more prompt, unremitting doing of Christ’ s will. Jesus saith “ fill the water-pots,” etc. Our homely opportunities are our water-pots. Fill them with such water as you have. Whether the water shall be made wine is for Him to decide, not us. Be about the Master’ s business. Go to the nearest duty. 2. Another kind of difficulty is cured by prompt obedience--indecision as to beginning to serve Christ. It is not till our part is done that the firkins are filled, that the supernatural energy will change the heart into the new creature. Believe: faith is the power: but the proof and fruit of faith is not separated from it--“ Arise, and wash away thy sins;” bring forth fruit meet for repentance; bear witness to the Redeemer; have charity for one another. III. ONE OTHER WORD THE SCOPE OF THE LESSON. “ Whatsoever.” 1. What it should be, His mother and the servants did not know. It turned out no very difficult task, although it might have been. But it was a great trial of their faith. How was the water to remedy the want of wine? How are our prayers to move the Everlasting Arm? How shall bread and wine feed the heart, etc. And then there are other trials which need this bread “ whatsoever” to cover them. When you begin to calculate the consequences of your obedience, when your flesh cries out that the sacrifice hurts 1. You will want this “ whatsoever.” 2. What a holy power and beauty this obedience will yield in our dwellings. Draw out and bear to every guest in the Father’ s house. Christ takes these old and common water-pots of our mortal relationships, our household affairs and every day dispositions and employments, and then, if only we are ready with our obedience, fills them with that new wine to which He so often compares His gift of life. (Bp. Huntington.) Prompt obedience A story is told of a great captain, who, after a battle, was talking over the events of the day with his officers. He asked them who had done the best that day. Some spoke of one man who had fought very bravely, and some of another. “ No,” he said, “ you are all mistaken. The best man in the field today was a soldier who was just lifting up his arm to strike an enemy, but, when he heard the trumpet sound a retreat, checked himself, dropped his arm and without striking the blow. That perfect and ready obedience to the will of his general is the noblest thing that has been done to-day.” (Pulpit Treasury.) Christ’ s orders “ Sir,” said the Duke of Wellington to an officer who urged the impossibility of executing the directions he had received, “ I did not ask your opinion; I gave you my orders, and I expect to have them obeyed.” Such should be the obedience of every follower of Jesus Christ. The words which He hath spoken are our law, not our judgments or fancies. Even if death were in the way, it is “ Not ours to reason why, ours but to do or die.” (Pulpit Treasury.) A word for everybody I. The Of the command “ whatsoever” II. Its , “ He saith.” Who? 1. Our Creator. 2. Our Preserver. 3. Our Redeemer. 4. Our Master. III. Its . “ YOU.” Masters, servants; parents, children; ministers, hearers; the aged, the young; the man of many talents, the man of one; doctors, artists, poets, labourers. IV. Its SPIRIT, “ Do it “ thoroughly, cheerfully, at all times, everywhere. (Dr. Jarbo.) “ Ye are not your own,” etc.; therefore “ Whatsoever He saith,” etc. What does He say? I. LABOUR NOT TO BE RICH (Proverbs 23:4-5; Proverbs 28:20; 1 Timothy 6:9-10). Yet the sin of the age is over anxiety to be rich. He saith by St. Colossians 3:2). II. BE NOT TO THIS WORLD (2 Corinthians 6:17; Isaiah 52:11). What a falling off from this command there is in dress, amusement, etc. III. GO WORK THIS DAY IN MY . There are so-called Christians who are quite satisfied if there are no great blots in their lives, without caring about the blanks; indeed their life may be called one great blank. Each one, however, is expected to cultivate his talent. To this end it is not necessary to be a minister. While there are young to teach, sick to visit, poor to be relieved, institutions to be supported, Christ to witness, no special vocation is required. IV. LOVE AS . “ By this shall all men know,” etc. (John 17:20-21). And yet see how the different regiments of the Christian army, instead of fighting against the common foe, are turned against each other, and the world says deridingly, “ Settle it first among yourselves, and then we will listen to your claims.” We are not likely to see eye to eye on all subjects; let us therefore be tolerant of each another’ s opinions and feelings. V. YE HAVE ASKED NOTHING IN MY NAME. ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE. How remiss we are in the duty of prayer, public, social, private, family. Philippians 4:8. (Dr. Jarbo.) John 2:6-9 Six water-pots of stone.The significance of the water-pots I. THE USE OF OLD FOR NEW PURPOSE. In the natural word vegetable life grows out of the mould of vegetable decay. The tabernacle was constructed of Egyptian materials and many of the laws and customs had an Egyptian form. Prophecy took shape from political circumstances. When Christianity became the dominant religion, it absorbed all that was excellent in previous religions. In Rome every church is built out of heathen ruins. In short, it is an universal principle in religion to make a heavenly use of ordinary things, just as Christ used the water-pots of the law for the first blessing of Christianity. II. THE CLOSE BETWEEN ALL PARTS OF as one harmonious scheme of grace. The old and new covenants are not antagonistic but complimentary. Jesus was foretold by Jewish prophecy, born under the law, lived a Jew, choose Jews for His disciples, and conformed to Jewish customs. And when the two roads diverged through Jewish unbelief it was Christianity that maintained the true tradition as is shown in the Epistle to the Hebrews. III. THE OF THE OUTWARD AND THE OF THE INWARD. These people were keeping the natural ordinance of God in all its purity and also doing what the law required for their purification. The water-pots represented the best side of Jewish faith and life; but their emptiness declared their insufficiency and their number and size, their unsatisfyingness. However frequent and copious their ablutions, they could not remove sin. The law could make nothing perfect. It did not touch the heart. The wine of grace imparts an inward life and thoroughly cleanses moral impurity. IV. THE NEEDS AND OF . The wine with which the water-pots were filled spoke eloquently in its origin--being the sacrifice of the vine, the life-blood of the grape, crushed out of it when trodden under foot of man in the winepress--of that atoning blood of Him who is the True Vine poured forth on the cross, which cleanses from all sin. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The water-pots We are struck with several peculiarities of these water-pots. They were not made by the potter out of clay, but were hewn by the carver out of the compact limestone of which the rocks in the neighbourhood were formed. They were constructed of stone, as the ecclesiastical canon enjoins fonts to be, since that material is less liable to impurity. In all likelihood, therefore, they were not closed-up jars with a narrow orifice, as they are usually represented in paintings, like the wine amphoras of clay which we see among the ruins of ancient cities, such as Pompeii and Rome; but large massive stone basins or tazzas, with wide mouths, like those which the Greeks and Romans constructed of marble, alabaster, or porphyry for their numerous lustration, of which we see splendid specimens in our great art museums, and especially in the Vatican sculpture gallery. This shape would approximate more closely to that of the sacred laver in the Temple, which they would doubtless take as a model for these domestic utensils, intended to form a link of connection between the ceremonies of public and private worship. Owing to their large size and great weight they were not movable, but were fixed in one spot, in the hall or vestibule, or near the entrance of the house, in a position analogous to that of the laver in the Temple, which was also a fixture. Another thing that strikes us is the enormous capacity of these water-pots, which were capable of containing from sixteen to twenty-four gallons each. The frequent ablutions of the Mosaic and of the subsequent traditional law required a large supply of water. Vessels so massive as these must have lasted for many generations; and there is a probability that some trace of them, or of others like them, of the same date, may have survived down to a comparatively late period. They were placed in the vestibule of the house and each guest as he arrived removed his travel stains with their contents; and large as was the quantity of water which they held, the company was so numerous that the whole six were emptied. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The water-pots in the way of Christ An artist was painting a large picture of this marriage feast. A friend came to see his work and his first remark was, “ What lovely water-pots!” The painter immediately blotted them out, saying, “ I want you to look at Christ, not at the water-pots.” What a lesson for the teacher, “ I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” What a lesson for the disciple, “ Consider Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.” What a lesson to the penitent sinner, “ Looking unto Jesus” : not His beautiful Church, nor His learned ministers, but Him. Fill the water-pots with water. About the miracle generally, note 1. The wine was harmless, or Christ would not have made it. 2. The great quantity is accounted for by the great number of guests. At Eastern weddings often an open house is kept, and they last several days. The miracle was simple and unostentatious, as near the course of nature as the supernatural can go. Learn from this to do good works quietly and naturally. I. THE IN OUR LORD’ S MODE OF . 1. As a rule, when Christ is about to bestow a blessing He gives a command. The blind man was sent to Siloam; the palsied man had to stretch forth his hand; Jairus’ daughter was commanded to arise; and Lazarus to come forth. The same principle holds good in grace. The sinner must repent and believe, to be saved: Zion must awake and arise before she can be blessed and multiplied. 2. Christ’ s commands are not to be questioned, but to be obeyed. Had the servants been like modern captious critics they would have objected: that what was wanted was not water but wine. And sometimes Christ’ s command does not seem pertinent to the point in hand. The connection between faith and salvation not always apparent. Sometimes the command may seem trivial and some other duty preferred. But the connection and importance must be left with the Commander. 3. Whenever we get a command it is always wisdom to carry it out zealously “ up to the brim.” Do not be afraid of an overplus. 4. Our earnest obedience is not contrary but necessary to our dependence on Christ. Faith without works is dead, being alone. To leave all to Christ is not faith but laziness. 5. One action alone is not sufficient. The water was only water although the water-pots were full. Even so after sinners and saints have done all they could, nothing is done till Christ speaks the word of power. 6. Although human action in itself falls short of the desired end, yet it has its place, and God has made it necessary by His appointment. (1) It was not necessary in itself that the water-pots should be filled, but it was necessary that all should be open and above board. It was just the same with Elijah, who filled the trenches with water to show that there was no concealed fire. (2) It was instructive to the servants. The master did not know, but the servants did. So earnest believers who do the work now are those who know about it. II. THE OF THESE . Let us see how to carry out the command. 1. Use in the service of Christ such abilities as you have. Jesus chose what was ready to hand. The pots and the water. So Christ employs men, not angels. If those He chooses have no golden chalices let them fill their earthen vessels. The servants improved what they had: for the water-pots were empty and they filled them. Let the preacher improve his gift of learning, fill his intellect to the brim, and expect Christ to turn the water into wine. 2. Use such means of blessing as God appoints: Scripture study; attendance at the means of grace, etc. 3. Use the means heartily. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 4. Remember when you have done all you can there is a great deficiency left behind. After the most strenuous industry water is still water. 5. Trust in Christ to do the miracle. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Filling the water-pots I. THE . 1. Their faith was kindled by Mary’ s. It was apparently a foolish and capricious thing they were asked to do. Why should they be taken away from a useful work to one of supererogation? The guests had washed, and no more water was required. The first miracle thus brought out the necessity of faith for the work of Christ. 2. Their effort was needed also; just as much in its way as the power of Jesus: viz., to fill the water-pots, and to draw, and to bear. The first miracle, therefore, was wrought in accordance with God’ s law of labour, in which man cooperates with Himself. II. THE COMMAND OF JESUS. Notice 1. The emptiness of the vessels, significant of (1) The emptiness of Jewish rites which had no efficacy in themselves. (2) The induced insufficiency occasioned by Pharisaism which emptied the institutions of the Law of all their meaning by their abuse of them. As a man by pouring water into a full cup displaces some of the water already there, so by their works of supererogation they made the Law of none effect. (3) The emptiness of the institutions of Judaism of the significance they once possessed. They had served their purpose. The fulness of time had come. 2. The word of Jesus indicates (1) That He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it. (2) As He Himself did so He commands others to do: fill the water-pots, invest the latter with its significance, put the element of truth into the empty form, teaching and doing what it requires. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) Human effort She necessary condition of Divine help I. THE INTO WHICH THE GUESTS WERE LIKELY TO BE BROUGHT. l. Under this extremity the servants did not give way to foolish speculationor gloomy forebodings. They made Jesus acquainted with it. 2. Having obtained instruction from Christ they rendered a prompt and absolute obedience. They offered no suggestion. Had the thought occurred to them they would have dismissed it. Christ is ever ready to guide the perplexed, but demands their obedience. Had the servants partially or wholly disobeyed there would have been no relief. II. THE HELP WHICH WAS IN THEIR . The aid rendered was 1. Appropriate. Wine was needed and wine was made. 2. Opportune. Christ did not wait until the wine had failed and the host humbled. 3. Abundant. 4. Secured the commendation of those who were unconscious of it. (J. S.Exell, M. A.) Why the water-pots were filled I. TO REMOVE ALL OF . It was not a small quantity own at the bottom where it might have been mixed with the dregs of wine by sleight of hand. The quantity was so great that there was no possibility of collusion. The water was seen in the mouth of the vessels. II. TO AFFORD A WEDDING PRESENT TO THE YOUNG COUPLE. Jesus was no mean, niggardly giver. He did things in a royal way, and symbolised here both the qualitative and quantitative excellence of the gospel, the plenteousness as well as the power of His redemption. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) Surplus wine The quantity of water changed into wine was very great--about 135 gallons--and the true reason of the large surplus beyondpresent need was that there might be in this residue--as in the twelve baskets remaining over and above the barley loaves after the miraculous feeding--a visible and abiding proof and record of this mighty work; and that whenever the wedded pair brought forth any of this wine from time to time, to welcome and regale any of their friends, they themselves might be reminded and speak to others of His divine love and power which produced it; so that the effects of the miracle might extend far beyond the time and place and circumstances of its first operation; and that the water made wine might diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel and become a fountain of living water for the salvation of souls. The bread of the loaves could not be kept long; and, therefore, in that case the surplus produced was less. But the good wine of Cana might be preserved for many years. (Bp. Wordsworth.) The secret nature of our Lord’ s work Jesus did not even speak. There was no pomp of circumstance. The attention of the guests was not arrested. The wine took its place among the ordinary refreshment of the table. I. CHRIST’ S UNIFORM WORK WAS SO QUIET AS NEVER TO STARTLE THE . It was so with His Incarnation; His early life; His ministry, in which He did not cry or lift up His voice; His wonderful works, which were done in humble villages for the benefit of poor persons. II. THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST CAME AND COMETH WITHOUT , as an artic summer steals into the very bosom of winter, and ere the ice and snow have passed away, bright verdure creeps over the earth, and hosts of brilliant flowers laugh in the sunshine as if by magic. The very essence of God’ s kingdom is secrecy. It is the kingdom of Him whose glory is to conceal a matter. The dawning of the day and of the year cometh without Observation. III. THE METHOD OF THIS MIRACLE AFFORDS US MUCH COMFORT AMIDST THE CAUSED BY THE AND OF SCIENCE. What though science is showing us that God is working in nature by uniformitarian methods, and not by cataclysms! What though it should reduce the field of the miraculous, and bring much of what we tought were the wonders of God’ s supernatural dispensations within the cycle of natural law! Such a conclusion, satisfactorily established, ought not to shake faith, because such a method would be in entire harmony with what Jesus has revealed of the kingdom of God in nature and in grace. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The naturalness of the miracle There are many speculative difficulties about miracles. We are used to reasoning up from them to Christ; may we not reason from Him down to them? Given a Being like Christ, and the miracles are but the fitting framework of that Divine picture. The sick healed, the bread multiplied, the water turned into wine, the winds hushed, the dead raised, all these cease to be unnatural--“ His name is wonderful.” Therefore the supernatural is His natural element; supernatural works are natural to Him. For the believer the Person of Christ witnesses to His miracles. For the unbeliever, the miracles witnessed to His Person. (Bp. Alexander.) The governor of the feast.--In primitive times the person at whose charge an entertainment was given, was chief manager of it. He distributed to every guest his portion. Those to whom particular respect was due were helped to the best parts, and to a larger share, as in the case of the mess of Benjamin. In after times this custom was laid aside as illiberal and invidious, and the guests were allowed to help themselves. But at these entertainments of a later age a master or governor was usually elected by the guests, whose business it was to determine the laws of good-fellowship, and to see that every man was duly supplied. The guests were obliged to be in all things conformable to the commands of this important functionary. He was called an architriclinos, meaning literally one who presided over an entertainment, where there were three sets of cushions arranged for the guests to recline upon at table. He was not a servant who had charge of dishes and provisions, and appointed to serve the guests, but a friend of the bridegroom, and was appointed by him as the chairman of the banquet, to insure that all things should be done properly and in order. This is clearly proved by the authority which he is seen to possess, the freedom of his conduct at the feast, and the terms of equality and intimacy upon which he stood to the bridegroom. The name of his office was given to the Christian convent, erected in Cana by the Empress Helena, which was known far on in the Middle Ages as the “ Holy Architriclinos.” (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) They bear it At what precise point the wonderful transubstantiation took place whether it was in the filling of the waterpots with water, or in the transferring of their contents into smaller vessels--we are not told. There is a veil over this as over all creative acts, and we cannot trace beginnings. Severn, the friend of Keats, painted in Rome a picture of the Marriage of Cana; but he did not complete it. He represents the servants in it pouring the water out of one vessel into another. The water issues from the vessel clear as crystal; but in the are formed by its descent it is refracted into a red colour. There can be no doubt that the painter caught the true idea of the transformation. What the servants drew out as water they received into their vessels as wine. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The governor of the feast A vessel was let down into the pitcher, and was then carried to the ruler of the feast, who would distribute the wine in it to the guests. Ruler rather than “ governor.” The same English word should be used throughout the two verses. What exact office is denoted by the Greek word is uncertain, as it occurs nowhere else in the Bible, and is very rare in the classical authors. The chief English commentators (Alford, Wordsworth, Trench) are agreed that he was chosen by the guests from among their own number, but this opinion has not commanded the general assent of scholars; and there seems more reason to think that the person intended is what we should call the “ head-waiter,” whose duty it was to taste the viands and wines, to arrange the tables and couches, and to be generally responsible for the feast. (H. W. Watkins, D. D.) Tasted.--This word supplies a strong incidental argument against the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation. The occasion before us is the only known occasion on which our Lord changed one liquid into another. When He did so change it, the reality of the change was at once proved by the “ taste.” Why is it, then, that in the pretended change of the sacramental wine in the Lord’ s Supper into Christ’ s blood the change cannot be detected by the senses? Why does the wine after consecration taste like wine, just as it did before? The pretended change of the bread and wine is contradicted by the senses of every communicant, and that which contradicts our senses we are nowhere required in God’ s Word to believe. (Bp. Ryle.) The servants knew.--The guests took no part in the preparation for these miracles, did not contribute their own shares of faith and labour, and consequently were not aware that the heavens had been opened, and the ladder of communication between heaven and earth set up in the midst of them. Their hands were idle, and therefore their eyes were veiled. Only the servants knew, and they knew because they had helped Christ to perform the miracle by drawing the water, by doing what they had to do. The revelation came to them through their work, and was the reward of it. The secret of the Lord was with them because they had done the will of God. And is not this true of all work which is a revelation? It is not in idle speculation, in mere theorizing and musing, in standing looking on with folded hands, that we understand the plans and purposes of God, but when we enter into the field and work along with Him. It is in doing the will of God that we know the doctrine that it is of God. Doing God’ s will puts a spiritual telescope into our hand, whereby we can see the things that are unseen and eternal, which the mere eye of speculation could never see; or a spiritual microscope, which enables us to see wonderful things in God’ s law, which the mere eye of curiosity could never discern. The teacher who instructs others becomes wiser himself by so doing. Engaging in the work of converting souls; we can sympathize with the Divine Son, who left the Father’ s house and came to seek and save that which was lost. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) John 2:10 Thou hast kept the good wine until now.We learn I. THAT CHRIST HAS WITH . The wine gave out and Jesus came to the rescue. Don’ t fret when there is a scant supply in your household, but trust in God and do the best you can and He will help you. Christ is the best adviser and most efficient aid. II. CHRIST DOES THINGS IN . A small supply would have been enough, but Christ gave one hundred and thirty gallons of the very best wine. Everything God does He does plenteously. 1. In nature. 2. In grace. III. CHRIST DOES NOT SHADOW THE JOYS OF OTHERS WITH HIS OWN GRIEFS. Christ knew what was coming for Himself, but He hid His own grief to kindle their joy. So don’ t you infuse your own griefs into your children. They will have trouble enough by and by. Be glad that they cannot appreciate yours. Keep back the sorrows as long as you can. Let them enjoy life while they may. IV. CHRIST IS NOT WITH THE OF LIFE. The wine, that could have been dispensed with, ran short, and yet Christ replenished it. There is no more harm in honest luxury than honest poverty. There is no more religion in a new coat than in an old one. The world was once a paradise and will be one again. V. CHRIST HAS NO WITH FESTAL JOY. the very miracle augmented it. The children of God have more right to laugh than others: no joy is denied them. VI. CHRIST COMES TO US IN OUR . When the wine had given out, and before there was any embarrassment thereupon, He came to the aid of these people. 1. So often in extreme poverty Christ has come to the relief of His people. 2. In the despair of conscious guilt. 3. In death. VII. CHRIST GIVES HIS BEST LAST. 1. In Christian experience. 2. In glory. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Infinite resources Notice I. THAT GOD MOVES BY A HIGHER LAW THAN MAN Isaiah 55:8-9). 1. Men give their best first, but God adopts the principle of gradual development. 2. Men give sparingly, God gives abundantly. II. THAT MAN IS PRAISED FOR THAT COME FROM THE DIVINE HAND. 1. In legislation the politician is praised, and few ascribe the blessing to the Great Fountain of government. 2. In social life men have praised parental discipline, or scholastic education for a high tone of morality, whereas few acknowledge the Source of Purity. (1) It is here that infidelity has erred; it has stopped at second causes and paused at the bridegroom, instead of inquiring for Christ. (2) So with science; but science is only an agent. It may be a botanist, but who started the vital fluid? A geologist, but who wrote the rocky page? An astronomer, but who built the world? (3) So with professing Christians. III. THAT GOD THE RESULT WITHOUT THE PROCESS, In some departments of the moral universe processes belong exclusively to God, and results to man. In the discipline of our nature God conducts the mysterious process; whereas in the dissemination of the gospel man is required to undertake the agency. These three great principles may teach us 1. To recognize the Divine hand in every advancement. What have we that we did not receive. We should be humble, therefore. 2. Never to distrust the resources of God. You have never drunk the best wine which God can provide. He has unsearchable riches. 3. To repress inquisitiveness, and cultivate gratitude. Take thankfully what God provides. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Five characteristics of Christ’ s working I. . Christ does the right thing, in the right place, at the right time. The people did not want bread, nor clothes, nor health. Had they been rich the miracle would have been unnecessary; at an earlier period it would have been premature. And in His providence over our life Christ does nothing out of place or superfluously. II. MYSTERY. Christ simply willed and the water was made wine: no one knows how. 1. So in physical life. 2. Human life. 3. Spiritual life. III. SELF-. The bridegroom received the credit for Christ’ s act. 1. So in life the employer gets the credit for the skill and strength of the employee. 2. So in morals human cleverness and power get the credit for successes which should be given to the goodness of God. 3. So in the Church the means of grace are allowed to usurp the place of the Giver of grace. IV. . The best last. This is the law by which Christ governs men. 1. By His providence. 2. Through His Spirit. V. . The need of which the guests were ignorant was anticipated by Christ. (J. W. Burn.) Satan’ s banquet and Christ’ s I. THE HOUSE OF SATAN, in which are four tables. 1. The table of the profligate--a gay table. The governor comes in. He has a bland smile and a robe of many colours. He brings (1) The wine-cup of pleasure. The young man takes it, and sips at first cautiously. He does not intend to indulge much. But how sweet it is! He drinks a deeper draught, and the wine is hot in his veins. How blest is he! He drinks and drinks again, till his brain begins to reel with the sinful delight. This is the first course. (2) Now, with a leer, the subtle governor riseth. His victim has had enough of the best wine. He brings in another, all flat and insipid--the cup of satiety. “ Who hath woe? who hath redness of the eyes? They that tarry long at the wine,” figuratively and literally. The profligate soon discovers that all the rounds of pleasure end in satiety. “ Give me something fresh,” he cries; and gaiety itself grows flat and dull. (3) The governor commandeth another liquor to be broached. This time the fiend bears the black goblet of suffering. He who rebels against the laws of God must reap the harvest in his own body here. (4) The last course remains--the grave. The profligate dies, and descends from disease to damnation. 2. There is another table, all clean and comely. The wine on it seems to have no intoxication in it. How contented are the guests! It is the table of self-righteousness. Satan, like an angel of light, brings forth a golden goblet containing the wine of (1) Self-satisfaction. This wine makes the drinker swell with self-important dignity. (2) This cup is eventually replaced by that of discontent and unquietness of mind. As confidence is wanted, it is found wanting. (3) This is removed, and the cup of dismay is brought in. How many a man who has been self-righteous all his life has, at the last, discovered that the basis of his hope has gone. (4) The last course must be the same as that of the profligate, inasmuch as Christ has been rejected. 3. The third table is crowded with most honourable guests--kings, princes, mayors, aldermen, and great merchants. (1) Satan brings in a flowing cup, and says: “ Young man, you are starting in business; get rich as fast as you can.” The youth drinks, and says: “ I have abundance now: my hopes are indeed realized.” (2) But next comes the nauseous cup of care. Riches canker his heart. (3) After this comes the cup of avarice, which increases the burning thirst of which many have died clutching their money-bags. (4) Then there is the cup of loss, in which money and the satisfaction it once gave perish. 4. The fourth table is set up in a very secluded corner for secret sinners. Satan steps in noiselessly (1) with the cup of secret sin. “ Stolen waters are sweet.” (2) After that he brings the wine of an unquiet conscience. (3) A massy bowl filled with black mixture, the fear of detection, next has to be quaffed. (4) Discovery is the last cup. “ Be sure your sin will find you out,” if not in this world, in the next. II. THE HOUSE OF THE SAVIOUR. 1. Come and sit at the table of Christ’ s outward providences. (1) The first cup is often one of bitterness--the worst wine first. Christ seeks no disciples who are dazzled with first appearances. (2) After the cup of affliction comes the cup of consolation. (3) The cup of glory. 2. The table of inward experience. (1) The first cup is the bitter cup of conviction. (2) This gives place to the cup of forgiving love. (3) The cup of everlasting bliss. 3. The table of communion. (1) The cup of communion with Christ in His sufferings. (2) The cup of His labours. (3) The cup of good wine, communion with Christ in His resurrection and triumphs. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The feast of the Lord I. FOR THE CHRIST KEEPS THE BEST WINE TILL THE LAST. 1. There are some of God’ s best beloved who have never known what it is to get out of the depths of poverty, affliction, profitless toil, to whom it will indeed be true, when death gives them their discharge, that Christ has kept the good wine till the last--riches, happiness, rest. 2. This will be equally true of God’ s favoured ones. The most highly favoured, who had been caught up to the third heaven, declared that he only saw through a glass darkly, and that there was a higher heaven yet. There are many aspects of the heavenly state, and in each of these the principle of the text holds good. 1. Here on earth the believer enters into rest by faith, and enjoys the peace which passeth all understanding. But drink of that as we may, the good wine has yet to come. The present peace is dashed by cares and doubts and disquietudes. 2. Heaven is a place of holy company. Here we have some of that wine, but our companions are compassed with infirmity. There the just are made perfect. 3. In heaven there is perfect knowledge. On earth we know much that makes us happy, but heaven is a place of complete and endless manifestations and joys. II. CHRIST’ S REASONS FOR DOING THIS. 1. To make a broad distinction between His dealings and Satan’ s. 2. Because it is His good pleasure. 3. That He may give us an appetite for the good wine. 4. That He may be glorified by the trial of your faith. III. LESSONS: 1. Hasten towards the place where the good wine is kept. 2. If the best things are to come, let us not be discontented. 3. Why should we envy the worldling? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s method and the world’ s I. THE WORLD’ S METHOD IS TO GIVE THE GOOD WINE FIRST. 1. The gay world, to the young, presents the appearance of a feast where everything is provided that can please the eye and gratify the taste. But experience strips off the disguise. Enjoyment brings satiety, and long ere the cup is drained the soul turns from it in dislike. There is not a more miserable creature than the man to whom the world has given all its blessings and has nothing more to promise. The novelty of this world’ s pleasures is their greatest charm. 2. Take the case of the drunkard. He is dissatisfied with the low life of drudgery he leads, and pants after a higher life and a freer atmosphere. So he drinks to drown his sorrows and to promote his joy. But the hour of elation passes, and leaves a grievous sense of bodily discomfort and a profound sense of self-contempt. More so with the confirmed drunkard. It is long since he drank all the good wine which his lust could give him; and now he is drinking the bitter dregs of the wretched wine which “ biteth like a serpent,” etc. There was a time when the tottering frame was instinct with health and vigour, and the palsied hand had a grip of iron, and the bloated face was full of comeliness and intelligence. 3. Nor is it otherwise with the avaricious man. How precious was the first piece of money that came long ago as a reward of industry. But as he drank deep of the golden cup of wealth the first fresh glow of happiness disappeared. Care and anxiety grew with fortune, and wants with the means of gratifying them. 4. So with the ambitious man. The first draught of ambition’ s cup is indeed the sweetest; all that follows is often bitterness and loneliness. The fruit is fair to the eye; but in the mouth it crumbles into ashes. It lures but to disappoint; it tempts but to betray. II. OUR LORD’ S METHOD IS TO GIVE THE BEST WINE LAST. 1. This is illustrated in His own life. He drank the poorest wine first and then the best. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the cursed death of the cross; wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. 2. So with the disciples; they drink of His cup and are baptized with His baptism. The law of His kingdom is first the cross, and then the crown; first suffering, and therefore glory. His blessings are not like random sunbursts through the clouds, or the irregular overflowing of an intermittent spring, but form parts of a gradually unfolding series. They are bestowed in proportion as our necessities arise and our faculties expand. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The best last The world presents us with fair language, promising hopes, convenient fortunes, pompous honours, and these are the outside of the bowl; but when it is swallowed, these dissolve in an instant. Every sin smiles in the first address, and carries light in the face, and honey in the lips, but when we “ have well drunk,” then comes “ that which is worse,” a whip with six strings, fears and terrors of conscience, and shame and displeasure, and a caitiff disposition, and diffidence in the day of death. But when, after the manner of purifying of the Christians, we fill our waterpots with water, watering our couch with our tears, then Christ turns our water into wine--first penitents and then communicants--first waters of sorrow and then the wine of the chalice; for Jesus keeps the best wine to the last, not only because of the direct reservation of the highest joys till the nearer approaches of glory, but also because our relishes are higher after a long fruition than at the first essays, such being the nature of grace, that it increases in relish as it does in fruition, every part of grace being new duty and new reward. (Jeremy Taylor.) Well drunkTaste educated At first the palate distinguishes with the utmost nicety the quality of the wine; but afterwards, as more of it is drunk, the keen edge of the taste is blunted, and it cannot distinguish between the different kinds, so that an inferior wine at this stage might be substituted for a superior one without the guests being any the wiser. The extraordinary pitch of perfection to which the sense of taste may be educated is shown by the experience of those who are employed, in docks and warehouses, to discriminate between samples of different kinds of wine and tea; but these men use the utmost caution in the exercise of their peculiar gift. They are careful only to employ a very small quantity of the article experimented upon; and they confine their trials within very narrow limits. Excess or familiarity destroys the sensitiveness of the nerves, and tends to deaden the impressions produced upon them. So alive are some musicians to this physiological fact, that they will not touch an instrument that is out of tune, lest their sense of harmony should be impaired. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) John 2:11 This beginning of miracles The miracles of Christ Miracles are not only a proof but a part of revelation, and carry their own weight of truth quite independent of their testimony to the authority of the whole. Christ’ s miracles I. THE GOD OF NATURE WITH THE CHRIST OF THE GOSPEL, and show that the Word was God, and that all things were made by Him. Believers in Christ do not need their witness, but should follow up their teaching, and study in nature the wisdom and power and goodness of Christ. II. THE WIDE OF THE GOSPEL. They would have been equally cogent as proofs of His Divine authority if there had been no element of mercy in them; and it is humiliating to reflect that had they been miracles of judgment the people would have been more willing to listen to His words. As it was, they were the outcome of the wealth of compassion that filled His heart, and teach us something of the present range of His love. III. PROVE THE POWER BY WHICH EVERY GOSPEL PURPOSE WILL BE . The words, the promise, and the power that performs are eternally linked together. No power, therefore, can prevent the accomplishment of the great purposes of salvation. All fears, then, should be banished. There is no danger that the miracles of Christ do not prove to be under His control. IV. SHOW THE DIVINE WITH WHICH GOD PRESSES UPON THE OF SINFUL MEN THE CLAIMS AND MERCY OF HIS GOSPEL. (W. H. King.) The miracles of nature Men cry out for signs, but we may see miracles enough every day. I read that Aaron’ s rod budded, and I am astonished. But last spring I saw a cause of greater astonishment--thousands of bare rods budding and blooming blossoms in the hedges. I saw no one do it, and yet the trees were being daily clothed with thicker foliage. Was not that wonderful? I read that the manna came down daily from heaven to the wilderness, and I am amazed. But I see a cause of greater amazement every year: I see your bread coming, not down from heaven, but up from the earth, a much more unlikely place, every day in the spring. Is not that wonderful? I read that Elijah, hiding by the brook Cherith, was daily fed by two carnivorous ravens, and I am filled with wonder. But there is a cause of much greater wonderment in the fact that millions upon millions are daily fed with abundance of bread and meat, without a single raven under God’ s sun to cater for them. I read that Jesus Christ multiplied the loaves and fishes, and that the fragments that remained filled twelve baskets full--there was more at the end of the meal than at the beginning. But thisyear I witnessed a greater miracle: I saw the barley and the wheat increasing, “ some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred fold” ; and the loaves and the fishes, notwithstanding the enormous consumption, are more numerous to-day than they have ever been before. Nature is a standing miracle. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The beginning of miracles There are five reasons why this should be the first. 1. As marriage was the first institution ordained by God, so at a marriage was Christ’ s first miracle. 2. As Christ had showed Himself miraculous a little while ago by a fast, so He cloth now by an extraordinary provision at a feast. When He would not makes stones bread, it was not because He could not. 3. He would not make stones into bread to satisfy Satan, but He was willing to turn water into wine to show forth His glory. 4. The first miracle wrought in the world by man was transformation Exodus 7:9), and the first miracle wrought by the Son of Man was of the same nature. 5. The first time you hear of John the Baptist, you hear of his strict diet, and so the first time you hear of Christ in His public ministry, you hear of Him at a marriage feast. (Lightfoot.) This miracle cannot but have a representative character. We may observe I. ITS . A sign of sovereign power wrought on inorganic nature, not on a living body. II. ITS . The change of the simpler to the richer element. In this respect it may be contrasted with the first public miracle of Moses, which commences the record of Old Testament miracles. III. ITS MORAL . 1. The answer of love to faith. 2. Ministering to human joy in one of its simplest and most natural forms (cf. Matthew 11:18-19) . In each respect the character of the sign answers to the general character of Christ as 1. A new creation. 2. A transfiguration of the ceremonial law into a spiritual gospel. 3. An ennobling of the whole life. In addition, notice that the scene of the sign--a marriage feast--is that under which the accomplishment of Christ’ s work is most characteristically prefigured (John 3:29; Matthew 22:2; Matthew 25:1; Revelation 19:7; Revelation 21:2). (Bishop Westcott.) The water made wine Let us now look at the FACT, the mode, and the motive of this miraculous act. That it was a miracle, a creation-miracle, the turning of water into wine, stands on the face of the record. Every attempt to reconcile belief in the record with an evasion of the creative act implied in it has been a failure. Such suppositions as that the spiritual elevation of the guests under the power of the Lord’ s discourse made them think that to be wine which was only water (Ewald) , or that He gave to that which still remained water the force and sap of wine (Neander) or even that this was a supply of wine produced in the ordinary way and providentially arriving in the nick of time at the believing prayer or omniscient foresight of the Saviour (Weiss) , will not satisfy the fact, nor the plain and honest meaning of the recording Evangelist, an eye-witness of the wonder. Some of those who rest in the fact of the miracle and regard it as creative have vainly attempted to conceive and describe the MODE in which it was wrought. It has long been usual to suggest that this act may be thought of on the analogy of nature’ s work; that what was done here in a moment was the same thing which is done in countless vineyards year by year. “ The essence of the miracle,” says Olshausen, “ consists in divinely effecting the acceleration of the natural process.” So also Augustine long ago. The analogy is tempting, but we gain nothing by it as an explanation. Indeed, it is impossible, and after all inept. There is no real parallel. We can trace these processes in nature; but here we can trace no process. We should have to imagine not only accelerated processes of nature, but also those artificial changes, anticipated and condensed, by which the fruit of the vine becomes a beverage--the ripening of the wine as well as of the grape. There are no natural laws by which water in a well or in a jar will change into wine. Nature never would do this, however long time you gave her. Finally, for the PURPOSE. One of the main difficulties, according to some expositors, is the absence of sufficient motive. This is a miracle, they say, without a moral end. It is placed at the outset of the Fourth Gospel, with the evident intention of showing 1. That Jesus struck a key-note to His ministry so entirely contrasted with that of the Baptist, whose disciples these first followers of Jesus had originally been. 2. Nor can the objection about the triviality of the occasion justify itself, as if it were the mere relieving of a dinner-table dilemma. Rather the reverse is the true inference. The gracious Lord has sympathy with all needs, the finer as well as the commoner. He who multiplied the loaves for the relief of a hungry congregation might increase the store of wine for the resolving of a social perplexity. The minor graces and courtesies of life are taken account of, in Christianity, as well as the stern realities. 3. But, indeed, to search for an exact necessity as motive here is to miss the whole point. These wedding guests could have done without more and better wine. It is a miracle of superfluity if you will. The well-spring of grace and truth in Jesus Christ overflows at the first onset. He is come to give life, and more abundant. It is placed in the front of the miracle-record not merely to point a contrast between the Saviour’ s ministry and that of the Baptist, but to show how the new economy surpasses the old. This whole transaction reveals His glory as the Bringer of the final and highest dispensation. In Jesus Christ, God “ has kept His best till last.” In fine, it is plainly meant that we should see in this work an epitome of the Lord’ s entire miraculous activity. In it, all His glory is His grace and love. In the Nature miracles we are to note how always He is “ not ministered unto, but ministers.” (J. Laidlaw, D. D.) The beginning of miracles All beginnings have a wonderful interest to us. There is a peculiar pleasure in tracing a broad deep river, that bears upon its bosom the commerce of a nation, to its source far up among the mountains, in a little well whose overflowing waters a child’ s hand could stop; or in going back to the origin of a mighty nation like the Roman, in the drifting ashore, at the foot of the Palatine Hill, of the ark that contained the infant founders. Institutions, social or benevolent, that have been established for ages, derive a fresh charm from the consideration of their first feeble commencement, and the contrast between what they were then and what they are now. There is a mystery about a cloud coming all at once into the blue sky, a star appearing suddenly amid the twilight shades, a spring welling up in the midst of a sandy plain. It seems as if something new were being created before our eyes. A sense of awe comes over us, as if brought into contact with another world. I have had this curious feeling when coming unexpectedly upon the habitat of a very rare plant. This peculiar charm of novelty belongs especially to the origin of sacred institutions-to the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the performance of the first miracle, the formation of the Christian Church, and the production of the New Testament writings. The thought that there was a time when these things had no existence, that for thirty years Jesus wrought no miracle, that the first believers in the gospel in Judea, Corinth, and Rome had no New Testament, gives a vividness to the feelings with which we regard them, brings back the freshness that has evaporated with long familiarity. The miracle of Cana comes into the midst of the previous natural life of Jesus like a star out of the blue profound, like a well out of the dry mountain side, like a rare, unknown flower appearing among the common indigenous plants of a spot. It brings us out of the narrow wall that hems us round, to the verge of God’ s infinity, where we can look over into the fathomless gulf. It is the first act of the new creation, in which a new life-potency entered into what at the time existed, and called forth a new development. It gave to the stream of the world’ s course a new motion and a new direction, without which it would have become a stagnant bog--a dead sea. It is the base of that wonderful miracle structure of the gospel, of which the resurrection is the pinnacle. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) The first miracle How well fitted this miracle is, in its character, to introduce the train which succeeded it; to open the wonderful order of instructions, doctrines, and works which was afterwards developed; to be, as it was, the first miracle. The glory of the natural day is not manifested forth in the morning by a blaze of meridian splendour. The light is mild and soft which first peeps from behind the hill-tops, or flushes from the bed of ocean. So it was with “ the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” Its first manifestation by miracle was like the spreading dawn. It blended with the joyous accompaniments of a festive occasion and the kind sympathies of domestic life: It came like a nuptial blessing to a young pair who were just commencing the journey of life together. By-and-by we shall see it among the sick, the maimed, and the blind, healing infirmities, and restoring the lost faculties of sense. By-and-by we shall see it in the dark death chamber and the darker tomb, dispelling the darkness and raising the dead. Then we shall find no want of elevation. Then our minds will be filled and overpowered by its sublimity. But now let us do justice to its loveliness, and admire its first approach to the children of men. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.) Christ’ s first miracle The first of a series gives the key to the whole. The first animals or plants have been combining types, i.e, have united in themselves the characters of several familes now widely separated. So the earliest human lives were typical. The first notes of a song suggest all that is necessary to make the harmony. And the first miracle enters into all the other miracles that Jesus did, and combines in itself the elements of them all. 1. It is a work of mercy. 2. It is an emblem of a higher spiritual blessing. 3. It is a prophecy of the new genesis. Like an illuminated initial letter, which contains in itself an illustrated epitome of the contents of the whole chronicle, it appropiately begins the series of Christ’ s beneficent works by a beautiful picture of the nature and design of them all. I. IT LINKS THE WORK OF THE SECOND ADAM WITH THAT OF THE FIRST. Adam’ s disobedience turned paradise into a wilderness. Christ’ s obedience turns the wilderness into paradise. II. IT SHOWS THE OF NATURE AS WELL AS . Man’ s sin brought barrenness: Christ’ s work restores fruitfulness. And as nature shared the effects of the fall with man, it will participate also in the effects of redemption. This miracle is the first step in the process. III. IT THE GOSPEL WITH THE . Moses could only sweeten the waters of Marsh--only ameliorate the bitter spring of human sin, and reform men. Jesus turns the water into wine and regenerates men. IV. THE WAS ONE OF . In this respect it is the first in order of rank as well as time. 1. As a human institution marriage stands at the head of all others, originating in paradise and surviving the wreck of the fall. 2. As a type of heavenly mystery it stands first in importance and significance. (1) The union of those attributes of love and power in God, from which creation had its birth and has its continuance. (2) The union of Divine influences and human experiences in the soul which forms the kingdom of heaven within. (3) The union of the Saviour and the Church. V. THE MIRACLE WAS THE MOST OF ALL, if any gradation can be allowed. There was here no co-operation of faith. It was not the purification and assistance of a natural function, but a creation de novo. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The miracle as a sign I. OF CHRIST’ S MISSION. It was none the less significant because wrought for a temporary purpose. Man’ s need of Christ appears in trifling as well as conspicuous ways. Food is common-place, but it is an universal need. 1. The act was significant of the joyous and abundant feast He was about to spread for all people. 2. The moment in which it was wrought, when the wine had failed, is a sign of the fact that Christ waits till man’ s own powers are exhausted before giving His grace. Hence He delayed His advent till the world was exhausted with its efforts to find peace and holiness. The pagan religions were exhausted. Philosophy had failed to solve the problems of life. So we do not receive the fuiness of Christ till convinced of our helplessness and ready to depend on Divine grace. 3. The nature of the miracle, the creation of the wine out of water, not out of nothing, is a sign that (1) He had come not to create a new world, but to transform the old; (2) Not to establish a new religion, but to transform Judaism; (3) Not to produce new characters, but to regenerate stoners. He has poor material to work upon. Human nature is as weak and cold as water. But as He made good and warming wine, so He will strengthen our humanity and fill it with the love of God. II. OF THE OF CHRIST. 1. Of His grace and glory (John 1:14; John 1:17). 2. Of His naturalness. He was thoroughly at home, and revealed the natural union of a pure humanity with a Divine life; sympathizing with human joys, as at Bethany with human griefs. Religion does not break the sweet ties which God has formed between man and man. 3. Of His mindfulness of His great object. We see this in His conversation with His mother, which shows us to remember in society that the chief end of man is to glorify God, and that no earthly joy or work must be allowed to unfit us for that. (G. T. Purves.) The miracle as a sign In respect of I. NATURE. 1. It was a miracle in itself, apart from all surrounding circumstances. What is an everyday occurrence in one climate may be a rare wonder in another. To an inhabitant of the tropic the freezing of water would be a miracle. The feats of a chemist would pass for supernatural in the first, but be put down as strictly natural in the nineteenth century. But Christ’ s miracles are miracles all the world over and all the ages through. 2. The miracle was not performed till nature was exhausted. His hour did not come till the wine had actually failed. This always characterizes His interpositions. All He cured were incurable. This is a sign that we may calculate on His presence in extremity. When your earthly wine is all gone, He will come to your relief. 3. This miracle in its results is repeated every year. Miracles are explanatory notes revealing the secret processes of material phenomena, signs of the power that is everywhere and always at work. He turned the water into wine once; He does so still. II. SOCIETY. 1. It was performed in a wedding. John the Baptist was an ascetic; will Christ be one? The Jews looked for a king; will Christ then claim the throne? Christ was not an ascetic, for He went to a wedding. He was not a dignitary, for it was a wedding of ordinary people. This was a sign then that He belonged to Society. 2. The miracle was performed at the feast. Jesus was always the antagonist of suffering and the source of joy. The thing here signified is that if there is a time to weep there is also a time to rejoice. 3. It was performed at a marriage feast for the purpose of beneficence, to point out the difference between the Old Testament miracles and those of the New, and to show the different character of the two dispensations. 4. It was a miracle of luxury. Wine was not needful to maintain life; loaves and fishes were. This is a sign then that man does not live by bread alone, but is permitted to go after the beautiful in every form. Is it sinful to have pictures whilst the heathen be unreclaimed? There is no reason why Englishmen should be half-civilized because Kaffirs are altogether barbarous. Because the potato is the more useful plant of the two, that is not to say that the rose is unnecessary. 5. The miracle is a sign that self-restraint should be practiced in the midst of abundance. III. CHRIST’ S PERSON. 1. He had not to acquire glory, bat only to manifest it. He manifested it here as the Sovereign of nature. 2. As a consequence His disciples believed in Him. They did so before. This confirmed them. Miracles cannot convince unbelievers. It was the disciples, not the guests, who believed. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The first miracle of Christ the sneaking expression of His life and work I. OF HIS PERSON, in which the earthly human nature becomes a heavenly: the essential, genuine Vine (John 15:1). II. OF THE POWER OF HIS LOVE which transformed the water of earthly need into the wine of heavenly joy: brings forth judgment unto victory, makes blessedness out of Divine sorrow. III. OF HIS DIVINE WORKS, in which is everywhere reflected His main work of bringing to pass the new birth of mankind from the earthly kingdom into the heavenly. IV. OF HIS LAST WORK The glorification of the world. (J. P. Lange.) The beginning of signs: or the sacredness of common life I. CHRIST’ S WITH THE AND OF MAN’ S LIFE. That was a new thing in the world, the sign of a new spirit that was to pervade mankind. There is a strong tendency in human nature to associate lofty morality with rigorous sternness of life: the prophets; John the Baptist; monks. But here Christ mingles with the gladness of a wedding feast, and exerts His supernatural power to supply a festive need. This implied 1. That earthly life was to be glorified by the heavenly. 2. That human love is not to be carnalized, but made Divine. 3. That human relationships do not clash with the love of God, but are to become powerful instruments for aiding it. 4. That no sphere is too common for Christ to sanctify. II. CHRIST ON COMMON THINGS A HIGHER POWER IN ORDER TO AWAKEN HUMAN . This signifies the elevation by Him of the natural into the Divine, of the common into the uncommon. Here again was a new thing to the world. To Christ’ s eye nothing was commonplace; not the lowest man nor the plainest life. His mission was to glorify the old and familiar. III. Combining these two features, we see that LIFE IN ALL ITS COMMON AND COMMON TOILS IS TO BE A AND SERVICE OF CHRIST. In human friendship we are to serve Christ, and in our daily work to glorify Him. Life throughout, with its joys and sorrows, is to be transformed. How is this to be done? Notice 1. That the character of a man’ s deeds is determined by their inner motive, not by their outward form. 2. This sanctity is attained through the power of Christ’ s love. IV. THE RESULTS WHICH WOULD FLOW FROM THE OF THIS. 1. Life would become a constant manifestation of Christ. 2. Life would be a constant education for the heavenly. 3. It would give us the assurance of eternal fellowship. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) Miracles as signs The term “ sign” denotes in its simplest usage 1. A means of identification (Luke 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 3:17). 2. A proof or evidence furnished by one set of facts to the reality and genuineness of another (2 Corinthians 12:12). 3. A symbol or emblem (Ezekiel 4:3). Now the miracles of Christ were signs in all these three senses. They identified Him as the Messiah foretold in prophecy; they authenticated Him as the Son of God, and furnished evidence of the truth of the claims which He put forth; and they were emblems in the material sphere of the blessings which He came to bestow in the spiritual, and of the manner in which they were to be received by those whom He designed to benefit. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Manifested forth His gloryThe first miracle an Epiphany of Christ This glory is undoubtedly Christ’ s Divine glory” full of grace and truth” ; the effulgence of His perfections translated so as to bring them within the reach of sense. And when John says that Christ manifested forth His glory he implies that although it had been almost entirely hidden for years, yet, like the sun behind the clouds, it had all along been lying below the surface. The miracle rolled away the clouds from the face of the sun. I. CHRIST’ S GLORY WAS SEEN IN HIS ENTIRE CONTROL OVER NATURE. Power over nature always excites our admiration. But why is it that the man of science, whose genius can tame or discipline steam or electricity, wins so deep and universal an enthusiasm? Not because the feat has the charm of novelty, nor because it is an enrichment of man’ s life and an addition to his comfort, but because there is in him, at an immeasurable distance, an approximation to God. And yet we can explain it by natural causes which fall within the range of experience. But a miracle passes that line. And since we know that order is a principle which belongs to the very life of the Creator as well as to His administration, we conclude that He will not depart from His ordinary rules without some reason, and that no one but Himself can dispense with them. And thus in a miracle God is actively present, not as authorizing anarchy, but suspending some lower law to give play to some higher. The outward miracle arrests man’ s reason and imagination to behold in it the manifested glory of the Lord of Nature. Had we witnessed it, should we have recognized it as what it was? Yes, if we can say with the Te Deum that earth as well as heaven is full of the majesty of God’ s glory. No, if we see in nature only the operation of self-existent laws. II. THE GLORY OF TRUTH, an unveiling of the laws whereby the King of the new spiritual empire would govern His subjects. 1. Nature is ever being silently changed into something higher and better than when Christ found it. What is Holy Scripture but the water of what might have been a human literature changed by the Spirit of Christ into the inspired Word of God? That which was mere good-nature becomes Divine charity by grace: that which was only well-exercised reason or farsighted judgment becomes faith: all the natural virtues are transformed into the spiritual. So it was at the first. The Sanhedrim were perplexed at the intellectual and moral power of the illiterate apostles. The Roman proconsuls were bewildered at the majestic constancy of poor men and weak women and children. And so it is now. 2. The law of continuous improvement from good to better and from better to best. The real Giver of the good wine does not fascinate by the charm of His earliest gifts and then give to the jaded faculties His poorer graces. In His service the spiritual senses do not follow the law of bodily decay, they gain with advancing years, and require and receive higher nutriment. III. THE GLORY OF HIS AND TENDER CHARITY. 1. Christ here began that life of condescension before men which was involved in His incarnation, and which He followed heedless of slander and misconstruction. 2. Christ here shot forth a ray of that glorious love which redeemed the world. His whole action is marked with tender consideration; He saves this poor couple from the disappointment of being unable to entertain their friends; He adds to their store, but in such a manner as to lay them under no embarrassing obligation to Himself. So God bestows His blessings so unobtrusively that we forget the Giver, but here, as ever, would teach us to imitate Him when we bestow ours. (Canon Liddon.) The lesson of Epiphany--peace and plenty through Christ Consider this miracle in the light of the service for the Second Sunday in Epiphany. I. THE COLLECT, which is a prayer for peace. The Collects are supposed to collect the subject of the Gospel and Epistle. But the gospel is a miracle of plenty, a contrasted idea to that of peace. There may be lavish plenty when there is no peace--there may be deep peace when there is little plenty. And yet in the deepest, truest sense of the terms they are one. Their separation is only temporary and accidental. For what is peace? Perfectly satisfied desire. Disquiet is want of satisfaction. But in spiritual and intelligent creatures there must be the satisfaction of the whole nature. If man be body, spirit, and soul, if any one of these be unsatisfied, he cannot be at rest. In vain you satisfy animal appetite and intellectual craving, if the hunger of the spirit be unappeased. And men are not at peace, because of the first great mistake that man made in his first sin when he withdrew the food for his soul. This food is God. Man’ s sin was the determination to have the feast of body and mind without this spiritual element, and the sin and misery of man ever since has been to sit down to a banquet from which he has banished God. And God forbid that without Him there should ever be peace: because it is the lack of this plenty disquieting his soul that leads him to God. God teaches this truth in 1. His Word. 2. His providence. Lest man should lose himself in sensual delights God drove him from Eden. Sometimes God shows us how poor the gift is without the Giver; sometimes how blessed the Giver is without the gift, and better by giving Himself with the gift. This is the highest of all states, even heaven itself. This the true peace and plenty our Father meant us to have. It is our sin that has set them in antagonism. II. Now turn to the Gospel. We see Christ giving back to men the lacking plenty of their feasts. The wine had run low. He renews it in lavish abundance that He may tell as in symbol that for the renovated man the amplest enjoyment of God’ s gift is consistent with perfect peace. Christ has come to tell us that we need Him and may have Him in all our joys. III. THE EPISTLE teaches us that there is an Epiphany amongst men as there was once an Epiphany to men. In the Gospel Christ gave Himself and His best gift to us. In the Epistle Christ calls upon us to show Him forth to men by giving ourselves and our gifts to others. That is the very reason He gave Himself to us. “ Freely ye have received; freely gird” ; fill to the brim the means of helping another’ s need: your material, intellectual, and spiritual wealth. (Bp. Magee.) The glory of the Virgin Mother 1. For thirty years Christ had done no miracle: which is itself worthy to be called a miracle. He was content to live in obscurity till His hour was come. This is true greatness. In all the works of God there is a conspicuous absence of haste. Six slow days and nights of creative force before man was made. Two thousand years to discipline and form a Jewish people: four thousand years of darkness, ignorance, and crime before the fulness of the time. Whatever contradicts the Divine plan must pay the price of haste--brief duration. 2. St. Paul speaks of the glory of woman as distinct from that of man. Their provinces are not the same, and the qualities which are prominent and beautiful in the one are the reverse in the other. The glory of her who was highly favoured among women was different from that of her Son in degree--the one was human, the other was more: in order the one manifesting the grace of womanhood, the other the majesty and wisdom of manhood in which God dwelt. The glory of the Virgin consisted in I. HER . There is gentle womanly tact in the words “ They have no wine.” Unselfish thoughtfulness about other’ s comforts; delicate anxiety to save a straitened family from the exposure of their poverty. So in old times, with thoughtful hospitality, Rebekah offered water to Abraham’ s wayworn servant. So Martha showed her devotion even to excess. So the women ministered of their substance. II. . “ Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” Here is the true spirit of obedience. Not slavishness, but loyalty to and trust in a person whom we reverence. Submission at the outset of the Bible is revealed as woman’ s lot and destiny. The curse of obedience, as that of labour, transformed by Christ into a blessing. This blessing twofold. 1. Freedom from doubt. Mary felt no perplexity at the rebuke. A more masculine mind would have been made sullen and sceptical. Mary could not understand, but she could trust and wait. So with the Syro-Phoenician woman, Mental doubt rarely touches women. Soldiers and sailors do not doubt. Prompt, unquestioning obedience is the soil for faith. 2. Prevailing power with God. The Saviour’ s look promised, probably, more than His words. Prayer is a deep mystery to the masculine intellect. “ How,” says Logic, “ can man’ s will modify the will of God? Where, then, lies the use of it?” But there is something mightier than intellect, truer than logic--the faith that works by love. III. PURITY OF HEART AND LIFE. 1. Gradually the recognition of this became idolatry. Why? Before Christ the qualities honoured as Divine were probably masculine--Courage, Wisdom, Truth, Strength. But Christ proclaimed Meekness, Obedience, Affection, Purity--graces distinctly feminine. Men sought to give these new ideas embodiment, and they found them embodied in the Virgin Mother. 2. The only corrective for this idolatry is the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ. His heart had in it the blended qualities of both sexes, and when we have learned that in Christ there is all that is manly and all that is womanly, we are safe from Mariolatry. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The glory of the Divine Son I. THIS GLORY DID NOT BEGIN WITH THE MIRACLE, THE, MIRACLE ONLY IT. And if instead of rousing men to see the glory of Christ the miracle merely fastened attention on itself, the whole intention of a miracle is lost. To the wise man the lightning only manifests the electric force which is everywhere, and which for one moment has become visible. As often as he sees it it reminds him that the lightning Slumbers in the dewdrop, in the mist, and in the cloud, and binds together every atom of water that he uses in daily life. But to the vulgar mind the lightning is unique, a something which has no existence until it appears. So to the half-believer a miracle is the one solitary evidence of God. But to the true disciple a miracle only manifests the power and love which are at work everywhere. It is not more glory, but only glory more manifested when water at His bidding passes at once into wine. And if you do not feel as David felt, God’ s presence in the annual miracle, and that it is God which in the vintage causeth wine to make glad the heart of man, this miracle would not have given you conviction of His presence. “ If you hear not Moses and the prophets,” etc. This deep truth of miracles most men miss. They believe that Jesus was Divine because He worked miracles. But it is by power less Divine that the same Being bears witness to truth, forgives His enemies, makes it His meat and drink to do His Father’ s will? II. IT WAS THE GLORY OF CHRIST TO DECLARE THE OF ALL THINGS NATURAL. 1. All natural relationships. John the Baptist’ s was the highest form of religious life known to Israel. His was a life of solitariness. Christ goes to a marriage to declare the sacredness of feelings which had been reckoned carnal and low. For it is through our human affections that the soul first yearns after God, and it is to them that the Infinite reveals Himself: and by an earthly relationship God has typified to us the only true espousal--the marriage of the soul to her eternal Lord. 2. The sacredness of all natural enjoyments. To say that this was a religious ceremony is sophistry; and to say that although Christ was there it would not be safe for us to go, is to overlook the fact that His disciples were there. No! the temptation was past, the ministry of John was over; and now the Bridegroom comes into She world in the true glory of the Messiah--not in a life of asceticism, but in a life of godliness; not separating from life, but consecrating it. The ascetic life is more striking, easier, add more reputable. But the life of Him who was called “ a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners” was far harder, but it was heavenlier. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The manifestation of Christ’ s glory I. The manifestation of Jesus Christ is the only true essence of our Christianity. II. The manifestation of Jesus Christ is the true evidence of our Christianity. III. The manifestation of Christ to others is the one great evangelistic duty of the Christian and of the Church. (Bishop Barry.) The peculiar glory of Christ Moses was not said to manifest his glory when he turned water into blood; nor Paul, nor Peter, nor any of the apostles, to manifest their glory in the miracles which they wrought. Why this peculiarity of language in the ease of Christ? Was it not from the peculiarity of His person--God as well as man? (J. Fawcett, M. A.) The glory of conquest As the first ray of the morning reveals the glorious light which is soon to flood heaven and earth, so the first miracle of Jesus revealed the glory of Him who had come to subdue all things unto Himself. (G. T. Purves.) Christ at a wedding You nowhere read of His being at a funeral. Why? Because marriage belongs to the primeval order of creation, but funerals do not. Marriage is a part of the original programme of the universe, but death is an intrusion. He, therefore, went to a marriage to vindicate the Divine order; He did not attend funerals because they are incursions upon that order. He was the Everlasting Life, and consequently could not join in the procession of death. Indeed, each time He met death in His sojourn through the world, He could not but grapple with him and compel him to give up his prey. (J. C. Jones.) John 2:12 After this, He went down into Capernaum Christ at Capernaum It is not needful to inquire what His errand was there, and upon what occasion His mother and brethren went with Him; whether because Joseph was new dead, and so He took care of His mother, or because they would convey Him on His way, or because His brethren were to go up to Jerusalem with Him; only this voyage was before that Matthew 4:13), when He came to dwell in Capernaum, for then John was cast in prison (Matthew 4:12), but now he was not (John 3:24). I. Christ was content to submit Himself to the wanting of a certain abode and settled dwelling in the world, that He might sanctify our pilgrimage and tossed condition to us, and to invite His followers willingly to be removed from place to place, as He hath service for them. So much are we taught by this His removal. II. Christ hath errands in eminent places as well as obscure, and will not despise them for their eminency more than the base for their baseness; and He can make the work of His kingdom in a land advance from obscure beginnings and places, to be more eminent and conspicuous. So much may we gather from Christ’ s going out of obscure Cana to Capernaum, a chief city in Galilee. III. As it is wisdom in Christ’ s own to go still in His company, so others also may be with Him so long as His way and theirs lieth together, or when He is working gloriously and His gospel hath credit; for, after this miracle, we find not only His mother and disciples, but His brethren or kinsfolk with Him, who yet believed not in Him (John 7:5). IV. Christ may stay longer or shorter while, and do little or much in a place, as He pleaseth; and particularly He stayeth or removeth according as may contribute to advance the great work of His glory and of sinners’ salvation; for He continued there not many days, as having more to do at this time in Jerusalem. (D. Dyke.) John 2:13-17 The Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.Christ’ s first passover I. HIS AT THE , One of the three great annual festivals which all males were required to attend. None excused but the sick and the disabled. God made the ordinance peremptory, to teach (1) That His worship and service were the chief things. (2) That God’ s house was to be the centre of the moral universe, and that all nations would flow to it. Christ’ s attendance showed 1. His fulfilling of all righteousness. He came not to destroy. 2. His communion with believers of the Old Testament. Partaking of their sacraments, He declared Himself of one body and spirit with them, just as by instituting sacraments for New Testament believers He declared Himself of one body and spirit with them. Thus Christ is the bond of both dispensations. 3. Himself and His mission to the nation. The promise was that He should come to His temple. Here the people could identify Him if they chose. II. THE IN WHICH HE FOUND THE TEMPLE, AND HIS . The market was going on in the outer courts of the Gentiles. The sheep, etc., were sold there to save the inconvenience of individual Jews bringing their offerings from a distance. The money-changers were there, to exchange foreign money for the half-shekel of the sanctuary. The abuse consisted in making God’ s house a house of merchandise, in which the priests themselves profited. Christ interfered to show His official assumption and exercise of legitimate authority in His own house. The cattle were driven out, the money-tables overthrown; but the doves ordered to be taken away, so that they might not be harmed. Nothing harmful or cruel was done. In this interference we see His glory as the “ Son of God” and His administrative authority as “ King of Israel.” Unsupported Himself, all fled before Him. III. THE WROUGHT IN THE MINDS OF (John 2:17). 1. We have here the love of Christ, and His earnestness for their salvation and God’ s glory: typical of His whole work. 2. Christ’ s example to us. (1) Our zeal must begin with ourselves. (2) Must concern itself with God’ s honour and man’ s salvation. (3) Must be actuated by love. (A. Beith, D. D.) The temple market I. THE MARKET. 1. Described. Jerusalem was in all its glory. Its inhabitants were astir in the early morning, enjoying the cool of the day and the excitement of the season. The streets were blocked by crowds from all parts, who had to make their way to the temple past flocks of sheep and droves of cattle. Sellers of all possible wares beset the pilgrim, for the feasts were the traders’ harvests. Inside the temple space the noise and pressure were, if possible, worse. The outer court was in part covered with pens for sheep and oxen. It was, in fact, the yearly fair of Jerusalem, and the crowds added to the din and tumult, till the services in the neighbouring courts were sadly disturbed. 2. Accounted for. It seems strange that the priests should have permitted it, but the explanation throws light on Christ’ s conduct. The priests made pecuniary profit of it. The sale of doves was almost wholly in their hands, and the rent for the rest was very large. The money-changers were usurers and tricksters, and augmented the priests’ revenue out of their unlawful gains. 3. Christ’ s indignation was, therefore, natural. He had come fresh from the manifestation of His glory, with all the enthusiasm natural to a Jewish prophet and inspired with His Divine mission, to testify to the nation as a whole where it could be best reached. Behold, then, His Father’ s house invaded by a troop of mercenaries and hucksters! II. THE OF CHRIST’ S MORAL POWER. There was no physical power displayed, nor any exciting contention with the profaners of the temple. The scourge was only an emblem of power and chastisement, the sight of which was sufficient, and at which they all unresistingly fled. How could one man effect such a clearance, unknown, a Galilean, with no formal authority, priestly power, or following? It was perhaps due to the “ solar light” of His countenance, behind which was the unspeakable power of perfect holiness (Matthew 17:2), which made Him attractive to the virtuous and devout, but awful to mere money-grubbers. They were dumb and helpless, because conscience-stricken, in the presence of Incarnate Righteousness. III. THE OF THIS ACT. Spiritual cleansing. The temple may be considered as a symbol 1. Of the heart defiled by selfishness and sin, to be cleansed by the expulsive power of Christ’ s love. 2. Of society or the world, to be cleansed by Christ’ s redeeming grace. 3. Of the Church, to be cleansed from superstition, and worldliness, and bigotry, by truth, purity, and charity. (J. E. Flower, M. A.) The profaned temple I. THE SIGN AND ITS . The temple a symbol of the temple of humanity, built of living stones. To cleanse this He entered on His ministry; and if He had a right to do the greater work, He had a right to do the lesser. II. BY THE SIGN. 1. All men are created to form part of God’ s temple. The Divine idea of humanity is an organic whole--Christ the centre, the shrine; human hearts grouped round Him forming the courts. Contrast the ideal with the actual. Yet in the midst of chaos God is working out His purpose, and will not rest till the idea is realized. 2. Men have misused the courts as markets. Commerce is good, but its place is outside the heart, not inside. It defiles when it intrudes on the sanctuary. Yet how hard even in the most sacred seasons to exclude their profane associations. Business for most is more absorbing than God and His will. 3. Christ has power and authority to cleanse the courts. (1) With His scourge He may drive away the property which usurps His Father’ s place. (2) He may scatter the money-changers’ money, and leave him at leisure to reflect with out it. (3) He may speak His orders to those who defile the sanctuary with lighter profanations through judgment and disease. 4. The time will come when the temple shall be purified. In the Revelation we see the design perfected. A city without a temple, because itself is a temple. There shall be gold there, and all the good things of the earth shall be sanctified to Divine uses. (C. A. Goodhart, M. A.) The purging of the temple I. to 1. The place: the metropolis, the centre of the Theocracy, the predicted theatre of Messiah’ s self-revelation (Zechariah 2:10-11; Zechariah 9:9). 2. The time: at the passover, when the paschal lamb, of which He was the antitype, was about to be offered, and when the vast crowd gathered afforded a favourably opportunity for impressing the national mind and conscience. 3. The condition of the temple: whose forecourt, reserved for the worship of proselytes, was transformed into a market and fair under the pretence of religion--a melancholy, because faithful, picture of the secularization of the Jewish religion by the Pharisees. 4. The character of Him who carried it through. The Father’ s Son had a right to purge His Father’ s house. II. . As much so as the turning of water into wine. The manifest insufficiency of the means places it in the same category as John 18:6. Its suddenness also surprised, and inward consciousness of guilt paralyzed, the traders. Natural and supernatural causes were thus combined. III. . Designed to be a revelation to the ecclesiastical authorities of His Messiahship (Psalms 69:9; Malachi 3:2-6). IV. . Recalling to the disciples the words of the Psalmist, it confirmed their recently formed convictions. V. . It startled the Sanhedrim, who recognized the Messianic character of the action, but wanted to know whether He was Messiah. Secretly they must have dreaded this. But because He was different from what they expected, they declined to receive Him. They trifled with their consciences by asking for a sign. They preferred the darkness, although the light had now conspicuously dawned. Lessons: 1. The duty and privileges of the ordinances of religion. Christ at the passover. 2. The need of purity and order in the sanctuary--Christ purging the temple court. 3. The danger of a worldly spirit intruding into the domain of religion--the traders in the sacred edifice. 4. The propriety of being zealously affected in Divine service--Christ’ s example. (T. Whitelaw, M. A.) Christ’ s principles of action Had Christ appeared as a teacher it would have been a great benevolence: but He would hardly have had so widespread an influence. Teaching was only one part of His task, the other was to ordain a fellowship. So He needed to appear as the reformer of religion. The temple was the centre of religious life: here then the reformation must begin. See then the principles of Christ as a religious reformer. I. HE DID NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO PURIFY AND FINISH. But why trouble Himself about an institution that was to pass away? (John 4:24). The answer is that Jesus did wish to erect the new on the ruins of the old, but since so much depended on the old, this, when reformed, should attach itself to that. We should be like Christ in this, not to destroy but to reform and build up. II. THE ZEAL OF THE WAS TO BANISH THAT MIGHT MEN AGAIN IN WORLDLY AND . The really devout and upright as well as the frivolous might see no evil nor distracting influence in these things. The temple was large enough. All these arrangements had to do with religious life. Was it not a matter of indifference whether they were carried on within or in the neighbourhood of the temple. Those whose thoughts would be disturbed by them would be disturbed without them. But human prudence is one thing; the judgment of Christ another. Whatever draws men to and keeps men near God must be kept pure and free from desecration. The weakness of the human heart forbids the worldly and the Divine mingling with one another. The germ of the Jewish corruption lay in the mixing of the two. Let then our church, life ordained by that Lord who here cleared the temple, be free from foreign admixture. III. WHAT RIGHT HAD CHRIST TO ACT IS THIS WAY? Did He not overstep the bounds of His authority. No, according to the free customs of that people and age it was competent to any one to assail anything that was at variance with public law. There was ever scope for honest zeal. Christ found it so, and would have us find it so and lift our voices for what is right and good, to win public opinion to them. We Christians are a priestly people called to keep pure the temple of God upon earth. (Schleiermacher.) Christ at Jerusalem We see I. HOW MUCH CHRIST OF IN THE HOUSE OF GOD. Are there none who bring to church their money, their lands, their cattle, etc.; who bring their bodies only to a place of worship and are “ almost in all evil, in the congregation” (Proverbs 5:14). II. HOW MEN MAY WORDS OF TRUTH LONG AFTER THEY ARE SPOKEN, and may one day see in them a meaning which they now do not see (John 2:19; John 2:22). Sermons preached to apparently heedless ears are not all lost and thrown away; nor are texts taught by teachers or parents to children. There is often a resurrection of the good seed sown after many 1 Corinthians 15:58; Ecclesiastes 11:1). III. HOW PERFECT IS OUR LORD’ S OF THE HUMAN HEART (verses 24-25). He saw beneath their superficial faith that they were not disciples indeed. This thought ought to make hypocrites and false professors tremble. They may deceive men but they cannot deceive Christ. But it is a word of encouragement to real Christians. (Bp. Ryle.) Transition It is impossible not to feel the change which at this point comes over the narrative. I. There is A CHANGE. 1. Of place: Jerusalem and Cans. 2. Of occasion: the passover and the marriage feast. 3. Of manner of action: the stern Reformer and the sympathizing Guest. II. THE LESSONS WHICH THE TWO SIGNS CONVEY ARE ALSO . 1. One represents the ennobling of common life and the other the purification of Divine worship. 2. One is a revelation of the Son of peace, the other a revelation of the Christ, the Fulfiller of the hope and purpose of Israel. (Bp. Westcott.) The desecration of the living temple Alas! that even in the restored and consecrated temple of man’ s soul, scenes are at times enacted, of which the sacrilege in the Jewish temple was but a feeble emblem. It is a desecration, Dot of a material building but of God’ s spiritual house--the merchandise, not of sheep and oxen but of sins. The pollution is not in the “ outermost court of the Gentiles, but in the inmost sanctuary where God delights to dwell” --in man’ s heart. Too often is there rebellion, even in the believer’ s soul, against the authority of the Lord; and giving to Him a divided heart. Too often are the living temples thronged with carnal things, earthly affections and desires. Too often is the lowing of oxen and the bleating of sheep heard, and the tables of the money Changers planted, within the precincts of God’ s house. Alas! how often is the silent and solemn devotion of the believer’ s heart distracted by the noise of conflicting passions, and its purity defiled by low and grovelling affections. Holy thoughts and desires, like the poor, despised Gentiles, are turned out of their proper place, and thrust into a corner. Oh, this is monstrous incongruity. Have you not here a temple which you have sacrilegiously profaned; and has not your passion for sordid gain and worldly occupation so entirely engaged and absorbed you, that all your feelings and faculties seem to be expended on earthly vanities, and your affections settled down to the dust? You profane that which God has made holy--that which He has set apart for Himself, and where He would delight to dwell. “ My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” (W. Chalmers, M. A.) Money changers in the temple are those who pursue secular interests in the church; and God’ s house is made a house of merchandise, not only by those who seek to obtain money or praise, or honour by means of holy orders, but by those also who exercise the sacred ministry, or dispense sacred gifts, with a view to human rewards and not with simplicity of intention. (Bp. Wordsworth.) John 2:17 The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up I.ZEAL FOR THE OF THE HOUSE. 1. It is the duty of the Church to provide convenient places for the public worship of God. Over-building is a lamentable waste of strength; but under-building is a sin. The Church who neglects to provide proper accommodation for the fast growing population of the country, is guilty of a grievous breach of Christian trust. 2. The house of God should be in consonance with the most chastened taste. Beauty is as cheap as ugliness. The fiat roof was prevalent in antiquity, but Christianity, elevating the human mind, has given us the dome and the spire. Our conscience, like David’ s, should smite us when our house is better than God’ s. 3. The same zeal which prompts us to build and beautify should prompt us to pay, and not leave a burden of debt to coming generations; but those who inherit the burdens should believe in the strength of God and remove them. Many have been obliged to go through the bankruptcy court because of too much liberality in the cause of the devil; none through over liberality in the cause of God. II. ZEAL FOR THE OF THE HOUSE. 1. The means of grace, the ordinary services; if we neglect the means we shall not have the grace. God promised to be a “ small sanctuary” to the Babylonish exiles; so He will be to those who are in sore captivity through affliction. But if in health, God expects you to be in the assembly of His people. The social character of Christianity must be thus maintained. 2. Two institutions in particular go under the name of ordinances. About these there has been much controversy. Extremes are to be avoided (1) That they are miracles. (2) That they are empty ceremonies. True zeal shuns both extremes. 3. There must be zeal not only for but in ordinances. Warmth is always attractive and contagious. One of the objects of the gospel is to warm man’ s natural frigidity. Fervour in the pulpit, in the prayer-meeting, etc., imperative. “ But it is not respectable!” God preserve us from respectability, then. But there is enthusiasm enough in political and social gatherings and in business. III. FOR THE OF THE HOUSE. 1. Wickedness should be rebuked. Purity must be maintained at all costs. Some churches need the scourge of small cords to drive out the men who, by their negligence or immorality, disgrace the altars of God. 2. Virtue should be fortified. In the family and the Church, discipline should aim at the development of goodness, so that the doctrine of God our Saviour may be adorned in all things. 3. Our interest in the holiness of the Church should be all aflame with sacred zeal. In proportion as we are zealous for God, He will bless our efforts at evangelization. IV. FOR THE OF THE HOUSE. It is the Church s vocation, not that of the ministry as an official order to defend the faith. 1. Zeal for the doctrine implies mental hostility to error. The tendency of to-day is to tolerate not only heretics, which is right, but heresy, which is wrong. 2. Whilst opposing heresy, our chief concern should be the vindication and exposition of truth. Zeal not for sect and party, but for the truth--particularly the cardinal truth of the cross. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Christ’ s zeal I. ITS SPHERE. We cannot confine it to the temple or any other ecclesiastical structure. 1. The universe, in all the glory of its interminable spreadings, is the house of God. There is not a lonely spot which is not full of Deity. 2. And when we divide this universe into sections we know that there is some scene hououred above others with the Almighty’ s presence--where angels cluster, and where the Creator may be said more emphatically to dwell. 3. The whole company of the faithful upon earth constitute “ the house of God” --builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. 4. Nay, there is not a solitary individual, over whom the great change has passed, who is not tenanted by the High and Lofty One. II. CHRIST’ S ZEAL WORKING IN THIS SPHERE. Zeal devoured the spirit of our Saviour, and in driving out the traffickers from the temple we can recognize the workings of the principle, but we cannot limit it to this. We gather from the expression 1. That Jesus was consumed with a lofty desire to benefit the denizens of the universe. 2. Over the inhabitants of heaven Christ poured His amazing solicitudes. 3. An ardent longing to rescue this world from its degradation, and to build up its desecrated fragments into s temple of the living God, throbbed in the heart of Jesus of Nazareth. Confined, as it might have seemed, to a single race, its effect branched out into every quarter of the house of God, and orders of intelligence which needed not to be brought to the Saviour might have been confirmed and sustained by that which put man within the circles of acceptance. 4. Viewing God’ s house as including the believing remnants of Adam’ s descendants, we see Him entering on His course as the sun enters on his march in the firmament. His soul yearned over those who had destroyed themselves. He entered into the nature on which rested the awful curse; and when the race He had come to redeem rejected Him, the zeal of God’ s house kept Him fast on His pathway of pain. (H. Melvill.) Christ’ s zeal I. The OBJECT of zeal--“ Thy house.” The Jewish temple as symbolizing 1. The Old Testament Church. 2. The world of sinners. 3. Corrupted Christian communities. II. The NATURE of zeal. True and godly zeal, says Bp. Jewell, eateth and devoureth up the heart, even as the thing that is eaten is turned into the substance of him that eateth it; and as iron, while iris burning hot, is turned into the nature of the fire, so great and just is the grief that they which have this zeal conceive when they see God’ s house spoiled, or His holy name dishonoured. III. The of the zeal. 1. In rigidly expelling the defiling and the false. 2. In replacing and building up the pure and the true. The zeal of Christ It is said that sometimes when a crowd see a vessel that is going to pieces, and hear the cries of the drowning men, they seem as if they were all seized with madness, because, not being able to give vent to their kindness toward the perishing ones by any practical activity, they know not what to do, and are ready to sacrifice their lives if they might but do something to save others. Men feel that they must work in the presence of so dreadful a need. And Christ saw this world of ours quivering over the pit. He saw it floating, as it were, in an atmosphere of fire, and he wished to quench those flames and make the world rejoice, and therefore He must work to that end. He could not rest and be quiet. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The zeal of our Lord to be imitated Let the zeal of the house of God ever eat thee. For example: seest thou a brother running to the theatre? stop him, warn him, be grieved for him, if the zeal of God’ s house hath now eaten thee. Seest thou others running and wanting to drink themselves drunk? Stop whom thou canst, hold whom thou canst, frighten whom thou canst; whom thou canst, win in gentleness: do not in any wise sit still and do nothing. (Augustine.) Commendable zeal The most remarkable examples of zeal are found in the records of the early itinerant ministers. Richard Nolley, one of these, came upon the fresh trail of an emigrant in the wilderness, and followed it till he overtook the family. When the emigrant saw him he said, “ What? a Methodist preacher! I quit Virginia to be out of the way of them; but in my settlement in Georgia I thought I should be beyond their reach. There they were; and they got my wife and daughter into their church. Then I come here to Chocktaw Corner, find a piece of land, feel sure that I shall have some peace from the preachers; and here is one before I have unloaded my waggon!” The preacher exhorted him to make his peace with God, that he might not be troubled by the everywhere present Methodist preachers. Christian zeal necessary A young Brahman put this question to the Rev. E. Lewis, of Bellary--“ Do the Christian people of England really believe that it would be a good thing for the people of India to become Christians?” “ Why, yes, to be sure they do,” he replied. “ What I mean is this,” continued the Brahman, “ do they in their hearts believe that the Hindoos would be better and happier if they were converted to Christianity?” “ Certainly they do,” said Mr. Lewis. “ Why, then, do they act in such a strange way? Why do they send so few to preach their religion? When there are vacancies in the Civil Service, there are numerous applicants at once; when there is a military expedition, a hundred officers volunteer for it; in commercial enterprises, also, you are full of activity, and always have a strong staff. But it is different with your religion. I see one missionary with his wife here, and one hundred and fifty miles away is another, and one hundred miles in another direction is a third. How can the Christians of England expect to convert the people of India from their hoary faith with so little effort on their part?” (Chronicle of London Missionary Society.) Consuming zeal When Baxter came to Kidderminster there was about one family in a street which worshipped God at home. When he went away there were some streets in which there was not more than one family on a side that did not do it; and this was the case even with inns and public-houses. While some Divines were wrangling about the Divine right of Episcopacy or Presbytery, or splitting hairs about reprobation and free-will, Baxter was always visiting from house to house, and beseeching men, for Christ’ s sake, to be reconciled to God and flee from the wrath to come. (Bp. Ryle.) Zealous, but not furious It is in the matter of religion as with the tending of a still; if we put in too much fire it burns, if too little, it works not: a middle temper must be kept. A heat there must be, but a moderate one. We may not be like a drowsy judge upon a Grecian bench, who is fain to bite upon beans, to keep himself from sleeping; neither may we be like that Grecian player, who acted mad Ajax on the stage; but we must be soberly fervent and discreetly active. St. Paul’ s spirit was stirred within him at Athens because of its idolatry, and it breaks out of his mouth in a grave reproof: I do not see him put his hand furiously to demolish them. And if a Juventius and Maximinian, in the heat of zeal, shall rail on wicked Julian at a feast, he justly casts their death, not on their religion, but on their petulancy. It was a well-made decree in the council of Eliberis, that if any man did take upon him to break down idols, and were slain, he should not be reckoned amongst the martyrs. There must then be two moderators of zeal, discretion and charity, without either and both of which it is no other than a wild distemper; and with them, it is no less than the very life-blood of the Christian. (Bp. Hall.) John 2:18-22 What sign showest Thou? Christ and the rulers I. THE DISPUTE WHICH HIS IN THE TEMPLE. 1. The remonstrance addressed to Him by the Jews. The parties were the authorities of the Temple who, by their question, espoused the cause of the traffickers. “ The Jews require a sign,” and for the want of one to their liking, the Gospel was here as ever a stumbling block. There was nothing unreasonable in the request. The cleansing bore a Messianic stamp; but the request was made in anger at the disappointment that their gains had been interfered with, and not with desire to receive information. The very cleansing ought to have been a sufficient sign. 2. The reply of Jesus might be understood to mean the Temple itself, or what He intended: the temple of His body. They misconstrued it into speaking against the sacred fabric, which became one of the fatal accusations against Him afterwards. In the true sense Christ only is the temple of God, although in a secondary sense believers are also, and the universe. The death and resurrection of this temple was to be the sign both for them and for believers. “ He was delivered for our offences an d rose again for our justification,” by which “ He was declared to be the Son of God with power.” II. THE PRESENT AND REMOTE EFFECTS OF CHRIST’ S REPLY ON THE MINDS OF THE . 1. As to the effect at the time there seems to have been none. Of many things, including Christ’ s death and resurrection, they were ignorant, and remained so up to those events, and even then they were slow to believe. This was owing to their secular views of the Messiah. And how often is such obtuseness the case with believers now. Theirs was removed by experience, so must ours be. 2. The remote effect was on the fulfilment of His Word, most blessed (John 2:22). The spirit eventually quickened the seed sown in good ground John 14:26). Exactly similar is the experience of the Church at all times. The truth may lay dormant for years, but when the Spirit comes it germinates. What an argument for teaching the young whether they understand or not. (A. Beith, D. D.) Christ’ s sign It would have been a great one in their sense of it. Zerubbabel and Herod had raised the Temple, and other great persons buildings as great. But the temple of the body, if ever that were down, all the temple builders that ever were would never get it up more. So great, indeed, was it that he in hell could not desire a greater (Luke 16:30). I. CHRIST’ S BODY IS THIS TEMPLE. The Pharisees mistook the term. Christ could not have meant God’ s house, the zeal of which consumed Him, and which He had just purged. Only polluted temples are destroyed. Christ, who knew His own meaning best, has interpreted it, and perhaps then pointed to His body. 1. A body a temple? How? Because God dwelleth there. There are temples of flesh and bone as well as of lime and stone. Our bodies are called houses because tenanted by souls, temples when tenanted by and used in the service of God. 2. Christ’ s body a temple seems only such by some gift or grace, but in Christ dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead (1 Corinthians 2:9), and always pure and employed in the Father’ s service. 3. Christ’ s body “ this” temple. (1) The two temples began alike at Bethlehem (Psalms 132:6; Matthew 2:1). (2) Both were destroyed and reared again. The Chaldees destroyed the one and Zerubbabel raised it. The Jews destroyed the other, and Christ Himself raised it. (3) Both were consecrated to like uses. There, the only true holocaust of His entire obedience, which burnt in Him bright and clear all His life long Leviticus 6:9). There the only true trespass-offering of His death, satisfactory to the full for all the transgressions of the whole world Leviticus 5:6). There the meat and drink offering of His blessed body and blood (Leviticus 2:1). II. THE OF IT BY DEATH. 1. The saying. (1) Death is a dissolving, a loosing the cement with which body and soul are held together. (2) This temple drops not down from age or weakness, dissolves not of itself, but by force and violence. (3) Violent on their part, voluntary on His. He could have avoided it, and must have said it, or they could not have done it. 2. The saying no command, which would have been an order to commit sacrilege or murder; but (1) A prediction to warn them of what they were now casting about. (2) A permission which is always in the imperative; permitted for a greater good the destroying of sin by destroying this temple; for a greater good still to raise it again. 3. The doing. He said dissolve; they said crucify. The roof of this temple, His head, was loosed with thorns; the foundation, His feet, with nails; the side aisles, his hands, both likewise; the sanctum sanctorum, His heart, with a spear. They did more, they violently loosed the temple. And remember it was one of flesh and bone, not of lime and scone. Yet the ruins of a temple of senseless stone will excite pity; how much more the sensible temple of His body which, even before its dissolution, was strangely dissolved in bloody sweat, nor was it alone dissolved. (1) The veil of the material temple split from top to bottom, as it were, for company, or in sympathy with Him. (2) The great temple of the universe in a manner dissolved: its face black, the earth quaking, the stones rending, the graves opening. III. THE REARING IT UP AGAIN BY HIS . The saying was spoken by way of triumph over all they could do to Him. 1. The act. (1) å̓́ãåñù is a raising from sleep, and sleep we know is not destruction. It is to show us that He would turn death into a rest in hope, both His and ours. (2) They should therefore miss their purpose. They reckoned to destroy Him, but would only prepare Him a short rest. (3) The ease with which He would do it--with no more difficulty than waking from sleep, or tying an unloosed knot. 2. The person rising. Not “ destroy you and some other shall raise,” but I will do it. An argument of His Divine nature. None could do it but God. 3. The thing raised. The same and no other. (1) In substance. (2) But not in quality; in a far better estate than before (Haggai 2:9). In the morning after sleep the body riseth more fresh and full of vigour. So His body and ours (1 Corinthians 15:42-43) and henceforth this temple, dissolved in death, should be indissoluble by reason of resurrection. IV. THE TIME TO DO IT IN. Within three days; and He did it within the time. Our duty then Isaiah 1. To rejoice. At Easter we celebrate the feast of dedication, which was ever a feast of great joy. (1) His dissolution means the loosing us from our sins and their consequences. (2) His resurrection is a promise of what He will do for another temple: the temple of His body mystical, of which we are parts--living stones. 2. To templify our bodies, which in many are far from temples; houses of trade, pleasure, idolatary, which must be dissolved to be made God’ s houses. Then God must come in and sanctify them. (Bp. Andrewes.) Christ’ s sign I. LIFE THROUGH DEATH. II. THROUGH . III. THE USE OF THE NEW THROUGH THE FALL OF THE OLD. (Bp. Westcott.) The temple of Christ’ s body The metaphor was not dragged into conversation, but the temple He had just purged was shown to be a figure of something greater than itself. I. THE ENIGMA. Christ cast a shadow over truths, the full disclosure of which might have altered the conduct of the Jews and the character of His mission. His hearers were puzzled and their after thoughts excited. What good man could propose such a destruction? What sane man could promise such a restoration? Yet it made such an impression that it was misquoted against Christ in the high priest’ s palace, and as He hung upon the cross (Matthew 26:60-61; Mark 14:57-58; Mark 15:29-30). II. THE TYPE. The tabernacle and temple were significant preparations for the time when God would become flesh and tabernacle among men. Christ knew and proclaimed Himself to be the antitype; this new temple, in which the fulness of the godhead dwelt bodily, was consecrated when Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost. III. THE LESSONS. 1. Christ foresaw clearly that the Jews would destroy this temple. To this He was reconciled and longed for it, inasmuch as His sphere of influence was now circumscribed; but the destroyed temple would be rebuilt on a scale more glorious, and all nations called to it. 2. The words, “ I will raise it again,” are significant (1) Of the identity of the body in which Christ rose with that in which He suffered. No doubt the transformation was great. The conditions of an incorruptible body are not known to us. But these words prove the link of continuity, and if there was such a link in the case of Christ, so also there will be one in the case of the saints whose bodies are to be like unto His. (2) Of the power Christ had over His own future. His authority to cleanse the temple had been called in question. He affirmed that He had power not only to do this, but to raise up one which men could destroy but could not construct (John 10:18). 3. As He is risen Christ is a temple for all nations. In Him God dwells accessible to all: anywhere, irrespective of sacred times and places. (1) The place of reconciliation, the refuge for sinners. (2) The home of communion, the resort of saints; a temple that shall never be subverted. 4. The epistles carry this view of thought further. (1) Every Christian is a temple of the living God; a motive for holiness far higher than moralists have dreamed of in their theories of the dignity of man, and the elevating power of self-respect (1 Corinthians 6:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19). (2) More frequently Christians are living stones which collectively form a great temple or “ habitation of God in the Spirit.” 5. A local church, also, as representing the Church Catholic, is also a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21-22; 1 Peter 2:5). 6. The life which animates the stones, and so pervades the temple, emanates from the living foundation stone--the risen Christ. But this cannot now be fully manifest, just as our Lord was not understood at Jerusalem. The inner life of Christians is not seen. The Lord’ s body is not discerned in the Church. But the temple is so being built that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 7. In such a world as this the holy temple encounters risk. (1) The traders desecrated the Temple, worldly Christians secularize and degrade the Church of God; but such, sooner or later, the Lord will drive out and disown. (2) Greater still is the fault of those who by strife and schism tend to destroy the temple; against this Paul lifts a stern warning (1 Corinthians 3:17). (Donald Fraser, D. D.) The mysterious sign A word I. , conveying one thing to unbelief and another to faith. Under the figure of a destroyed and rebuilded temple Christ announced that His death, brought about by them and His resurrection effected by Himself, would legitimize His recent action and demonstrate who He was. The same sign was subsequently given in Galilee (Matthew 12:40). II. . 1. By the Pharisees through (1) Slavish adherence to the letter of Scripture (2 Corinthians 3:6). (2) Spiritual blindness occasioned by hypocrisy (Mark 3:25; Romans 11:25). (3) Positive aversion, arising from inward moral corruption (John 3:20; John 8:43-44). 2. By the disciples. They had begun to see the light, but, like men with eyes only just opened, they were unable to discern accurately the objects the light revealed (Mark 8:24). III. . Hid away, this word was never afterwards lost. It recurred after the Resurrection illuminated by the fact to which it pointed, and thus helped to seal their faith (Acts 4:10; Acts 26:23; Romans 1:4, 1 Peter 1:3). Lessons: 1. The complete ability of Christ to justify all His ways to God and man. Christ’ s readiness to furnish a “ sign.” 2. The irrefragable certainty of Christ’ s death and resurrection, attested by the knowledge and experience of His disciples. 3. The veiled secret of Holy Scripture; the testimony of Jesus. 4. The blessedness of faith, however immature. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The temple of His body I. THE DIGNITY OF OUR LORD’ S BODY. The bodies of believers are called temples because God dwells in them by a communication of grace, but the humanity of Christ is God’ s temple by a substantial inhabitation, immediately and personally--“ In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead.” God dwells in the Church as a King among His subjects, in Christ’ s humanity as a King in His royal palace. 1. In the Epistle to the Hebrews Christ is the mystery shadowed forth by the outward sanctuary: The similitude will appear if we consider (1) They were alike in building; both under the immediate and special direction of God. (2) In the ornaments by which they were beautified. (3) In Him the import of the sacred vessels is fulfilled. (4) Christ’ s body was like the Temple, as it regards those religious services which were performed in it. (a) In the Temple was a standing oracle; in Christ’ s humanity dwelt the true and living oracle of heaven. (b) In the Temple was the altar of sacrifice and the atonement for sin. Both derived their efficacy from Him who His own self bore our sins. (c) The Temple was the house of prayer: in the days of His flesh what prevailing supplications Christ offered, and He now even liveth to make intercession. 2. To this temple must every acceptable worshipper approach. (1) The Spirit of Christ must inspire their prayers. (2) His name must authorize them. (3) His merit must perfume them. (4) His advocacy must recommend them. II. THE AND WHICH THE TEMPLE WAS DOOMED TO SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES. 1. The nature of His passion was a dissolution, a full and complete death. 2. The extent of this passion. Death severed soul and body, but this was all--the union of the Godhead with the manhood was indestructible. 3. The circumstances by which this event was accomplished and wherein their aggravation consists. (1) Violence and wickedness on man’ s part. (2) Voluntariness and love on His. III. THE GLORY TO WHICH IT WAS TO BE RAISED BY HIS POWER. 1. The agent, “ I.” Dead men were raised by others. Christ by Himself. He is a quickening spirit for Himself and for us. 2. The subject--the self-same temple. 3. The state. (1) Substantial--“ A spirit hath not flesh and bones,” etc. (2) Entire--nothing wanting to its perfection. (3) Glorious. (J. Styles, D. D.) Christ’ s human body the temple of God I. THE -PLACE OF GOD. As soon as the first temple at Jerusalem was built. “ The glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.” This splendid manifestation passed away, but the Lord did not depart. To the very moment when the building was destroyed a shining cloud constantly abode over the mercy-seat as a symbol of Jehovah. The second temple was without this, but still God was there, dwelling unseen within it. And this fact was in our Lord’ s mind, for He calls the Temple “ His Father’ s house.” He dwells indeed in His Church and in every soul which He has redeemed, because He is continually acting by His Holy Spirit. But when He speaks of dwelling in the Man Christ Jesus, He means much more than this. There is an actual passing of the Godhead into that frame of dust, a union so close and entire, that wherever that human frame is, there is God. Is this mysterious to you? It was mysterious to Paul. Great is the mystery of godliness; to angels. We cannot explain it; but Scripture, which calls on you most plainly to believe it. “ God was in Christ.” “ In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” not by a figure; but really, substantially. God dwells in His Church as the light of day dwells in our houses; He dwells in Christ as the same light dwells in the sun. He dwells among His people as the ocean dwells in the rivers whither the swelling tide carries it; He dwells in the incarnate Jesus as that ocean dwells in its bed. II. A OF GOD. And herein also the resemblance between Him and both the Jewish temples holds good. When God entered that, He entered not spiritually only, but visibly; a bright cloud was the symbol of His presence. To understand the application of all this to Christ we must bear in mind 1. Though we ourselves are spiritual beings, we can form no conception of any being that is purely spiritual. This incapacity arises from the constitution of our nature. God is a spirit. It will follow, then, that unless something is done to help us, we can never have any right idea of God. We may form some conceptions of His attributes; but as for God Himself, He can have no place in our minds. But He meets this weakness of our nature. We cannot get into that spiritual world which He inhabits; He comes, therefore, within our range, into the world of matter, and embodies Himself in the human nature of Christ, and then says to an astonished universe, “ Behold your God!” 2. We can form no adequate idea of the character of any being, unless we see him in action, or are made acquainted with his actions. Now, had God merely embodied Himself in a human frame, and then just shown Himself to the earth and disappeared, we should not have been advanced materially in our knowledge of Him. Hence He “ dwelt among us,” spoke and acted; and in so doing made a revelation of Himself. By the truths Christ taught, by the powers He exercised, by the dispositions He manifested, and above all, by His sufferings and death; He has unfolded to us the Divine character. Something was known of God before. The heavens had declared His glory. His law too had asserted His authority and holiness, and His providence had borne witness to His justice, His goodness and truth. But what was all this? Nothing, when compared with the person, and work, and cross of Christ. III. A TO GOD’ S PRAISE. We wonder not that lofty structures were raised to the gods of the heathen, and that the heathen thought they honoured their gods by raising them. They did honour them. Their gods were men like themselves. But as for building a temple to the living Jehovah’ s glory, the thought of it seems at first confounding. We think of Him who has heaven for His throne and the earth for His footstool Yet God did allow a temple to be built to Him, and that temple did show forth His praise. It was a public acknowledgment of Him. Christ’ s human nature glorifies God while it reveals Him. He is “ the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,” “ the brightness of the Father’ s glory.” (G. Bradley, M. A.) The three temples of the one God I. THEIR ONE PURPOSE (cf. Psalms 68:29; 2 Corinthians 6:16) . The essential idea of a temple is that of a place where God manifests Himself to man, and where man dedicates himself to God. The first of these is realized by the Shekinah; by the power and character of Christ; by the holiness Of Christly souls in each of the three temples respectively. The second is attained in each: by the altar of the Jewish Temple, by the cross, by consecration. II. THEIR SIMILAR HISTORY. In their 1. Origin. There was silence and mystery in each. The temple noiselessly built, Christ obscurely born, the Christian spiritually quickened. 2. Materials: Glorious in each. In the Temple gold, precious stones, fragrant woods. In Christ a specially prepared sinless body. In Christians fearful and wonderful elements. 3. Sufferings. One besieged, the second crucified, the third hated by the world. 4. Divine desertion. The first was “ left desolate,” the second “ forsaken,” the third often loses God as in eclipse. 5. Destruction. The Temple was more than once destroyed; the Saviour gave up the Ghost; the Christian descends into the grave. 6. Restoration. The first was restored and may be again, Christ rose again the third day, Christians shall rise so that the temple shall be completed and the top stone laid with rejoicings. “ Grace, grace unto it.” Lessons: 1. For those who refuse to be identified with the Temple: What glory you lose; what a destiny you miss. 2. For those who are identified with the Temple: Be enduring; be pure; fulfil your high end. (U. R. Thomas.) The crowning act I. A CERTAIN DEMAND. It is shown 1. What they required--a sign, often requested in our Lord’ s day and afterwards. 2. Why they required it--because of the extraordinary cleansing of the temple. II. A ANSWER. There is here 1. An exalted claim. The temple was the abode of God. 2. A striking prediction. 3. A wonderful declaration. III. A GROSS . 1. How it originated; in applying literally what was only meant figuratively. 2. The feeling it produced--ridicule or contempt. 3. The explanation which the Evangelist supplies. IV. AN RESULT. “ When therefore,” etc. From this we see 1. That the words of Christ were not forgotten. 2. The effect such remembrance produced. (Miracles of our Lord.) John 2:23-25 When He was in Jerusalem at the Passover The first Jerusalem believers I. THE OBJECT OF THEIR FAITH: the name of Christ. The name of anything is that by which it is known; so the name of Christ is that revelation of the Saviour proposed for faith’ s acceptance. So faith may vary in different ages, persons, and even in the same person according as the object is fully or partially unveiled and apprehended. Faith can never travel beyond the bounds of testimony. What was offered to Abraham was a Saviour to come John 8:56); to his descendants, a Saviour come; to John’ s disciples, the Lamb of God; to Nathanael, the Son of God and the King of Israel; to the rulers and people of Jerusalem, the Messiah. As such He had been rejected by the former and was now accepted by the latter. The same name, now completely unveiled, is still faith’ s object (Acts 3:16; Acts 4:12). II. THE GROUND OF THEIR FAITH--the miracles of Christ; signs, visible pictures of Christ’ s Messianic work as well as attestations of His Divine mission (John 3:2; Acts 10:38). In the same sense they are still helps to faith; they are obstacles only when considered impossible. They are not continued because unnecessary, having been superseded by a complete historical revelation and by a conscious indwelling of the Spirit. III. THE OF THEIR FAITH. 1. Sincere, as far as it went. If afterwards those who believed in Him took up stones to kill Him (John 8:31; John 8:59) that constituted the damningcharacter of their crime. But some who now believed afterwards became disciples (John 4:45). 2. Incomplete. It did not go far enough. Resting satisfied with intellectual acknowledgment of Christ it did not pass on to spiritual surrender. It had taken the preliminary step of believing in Christ’ s name; it wanted that additional of trusting in His person. 3. Superficial: occasioned by the impression produced by miracles and liable consequently to disappear when that impression failed. IV. THE OF THEIR FAITH. 1. The nature of it: Reserve. He did not trust Himself to them, enter into close relations with them, unite them to Himself as disciples. When Christ puts Himself into the hands of a believer, the result is salvation and eternal John 6:50-54). 2. The reason of it: Insight. He knew what was in them saw they had not fully surrendered themselves. When a soul does so faith is complete. Christ’ s knowledge of the human heart was the deepest ground of the different treatment accorded to the Baptist’ s disciples; and that knowledge was (1) instantaneous. He knew at a glance without investigation John 6:64; John 13:1; Luke 6:8; Acts 1:24; Hebrews 4:13). (2) Original (Colossians 2:13; Revelation 2:18). (3) Universal (John 16:30; John 18:4; John 21:17). (4) Particular (John 4:29; John 5:42; John 13:11; John 20:27). (5) Complete (John 1:48; John 6:64; Luke 5:22; Revelation 2:23). Lessons: 1. Christ commonly obtains a readier welcome from the humble than from the great. 2. Faith may sometimes look to the right object and yet be exceedingly defective. 3. The soul that would fully enjoy Christ’ s fellowship must have perfect faith. 4. Christ knows the quality and quantity of every man’ s faith. 5. He who would have Christ trust Himself to him must first trust himself to Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 2:24-25 Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men.Superficial faith I. THE DANGER OF A FAITH. It was only such a faith that these people had who believed in Christ on the ground of His miracles. It did not satisfy Christ. It had no deep root and had not led to loyal acceptance of His doctrine. Compare it with that of Nicodemus. Both felt that Christ was a teacher sent from God; but in the one case the feeling stopped there; in the other it stimulated patient inquiry. Consequently, while Christ did not commit Himself to the one, He did to the other. There are believers and believers; there is a serious possibility of being a sincere believer, but with a faith so shallow as not to be owned by Christ. II. THE OF A FAITH. Christ had no faith in their faith. Shallow faith secures none of the privileges of discipleship; it does not appropriate Christ, and therefore does not enjoy His love and friendship. Christ reciprocates the faith of His true disciples only. III. THE PERFECT WHICH CHRIST HAS WITH THE STATE OF . 1. This bears on the nature of Christ ascribing to Him an attribute of Deity. 2. This bears on ourselves, telling us how thoroughly we are known. We may deceive ourselves, but we cannot deceive Him. This should lead to carefulness and honesty. (W. Steele, M. A.) The omniscience of Christ Nature in all her realms lies open to His eye. Mankind in all its races are in His view. Every man’ s circumstances and thoughts are known to Him. This knowledge’ is I. Ours is dependent on human testimony; His utterly independent of it. Who told Him Zaccheus’ name, or of the domestic history of the woman of Samaria, or of the treachery of Judas? And so now from heaven He addressed Saul of Tarsus by name and told the Asian churches that He knew their works. Still “ All things are naked and open unto His eyes.” II. . With instant discrimination He knew friend from foe, the enthusiasts which fed on His miracles, and that which was love to Himself. Where is there a man? Christ knows Him, one of a thousand millions. What is He doing in crowded mart or solitary cell? Christ knows all about it. III. . He reads thoughts, feelings, affections, desires. Deception has no covering from Him; hypocrisy no mask He cannot pierce. Judas may deceive the twelve, he cannot deceive the Lord. There is no secrecy in sin. Conclusion: Take comfort from Christ’ s omniscience. 1. Are we in sorrows? Think of Hagar. 2. Do we give ourselves to prayer? Think of Nathanael. 3. Are we of doubtful mind? Think of Thomas. (G. T. Coster.) Christ’ s distrust of man I. WE MAY MEASURE IT IN PART BY THE IT . It was more wonderful than even His mighty works. Around Christ was a nation full of Messianic hopes. All He had to do was by falling in with the notional ideas to gather those hopes around Himself. Who could have resisted such a temptation but He who knew the falsity of the hearts which entertained those hopes. II. IT UPON AND . With most people distrust is the offspring, as in turn it becomes the parent of ignorance. When men have never fairly tried their fellows or studied their behaviour under circumstances which reveal character, they naturally hesitate to commit great interests to their keeping. Christ knew men because He knew man. III. ITS ON THE WORK OF CHRIST WERE MOST . 1. It safeguarded Him from surprise and precipitancy. 2. It rendered His death absolutely voluntary. (A. F. Muir, M. A.) Christ’ s knowledge of man Christ knows the very roots of the trees; we know the character of the trees only from the fruits. (Calvin.) The miracles at the Passover I. THE WORKS WHICH THE SAVIOUR . 1. Where they were performed. 2. When on the feast day, a most favourable time. II. THE HONOUR WHICH THE SAVIOUR . No greater honour can be given to a man than to trust him. 1. By what means the people’ s faith was produced. Miracles. 2. The number who were convinced of the truth of Christ’ s claims was considerable. III. THE CAUTION WHICH THE SAVIOUR . 1. How it was shown. 2. The reason assigned. 3. The truth announced--“ Needed not,” etc. (Miracles of our Lord.) Christ’ s knowledge of man I. HE KNOWS ALL ABOUT THE DISEASE WHICH US. Our faith in a physician’ s knowledge has often much to do with our recovery. Christ knows thoroughly His own workmanship, and all about that sin which is marring it. II. CHRIST THROUGH HIS IS ABLE TO WORK HIS CURE. To perform this cure requires a perfect knowledge of the disease and power over it. Christ has both these. III. CHRIST KNOWS THE IN A SPECIAL WAY. “ I know My sheep.” He calls us by name. As in the human so in the Divine family dispositions and temperaments are recognized. One can be lead by a thread, another will break an ox chain. Christ saw the faith of the Syrophoenician. He knew what was in boasting Peter and in Judas. 1. He knows the temptation of each Christian, and will not allow us to be tempted above what we are able. 2. In the light of this we are able to understand better our trials. Christ as the Physician does not hesitate to use the lancet when necessary. He bleeds the plethoric that he may bring forth more fruit. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Christ’ s knowledge of man He knows what was in man I. AS HE CAME AT FIRST FROM THE CREATOR’ S HAND. God made man upright; and that uprightness is known to Him on whom our help has been laid. The Son partook of the Divine council in which the human constitution was planned. II. WHEN HE HAD FALLEN. Knowing the character of the perfect work, the Saviour knows also the amount of damage that it has sustained. He knows, also, the gravity of man’ s sin, as an event affecting all the plans of God, and the government of all intelligent beings. Some trees are of such a constitution that if the uppermost bud is once nipped off, the tree is finally ruined. It can never develop itself into its proper shape and dimensions. Such an uppermost bud was humanity on the whole material creation. Deprived of its head, the world could not shoot up into the beauty and completeness which its Maker intended it should attain. III. WHAT WOULD RESTORE HIM, AND WAS ABLE TO APPLY THE CURE. Knowing the worth of man as God had made him, our Physician would not abandon the wreck; but knowing how complete the wreck was, He bowed His heavens and came down to save. He united Himself to us, that if He should rise so must we. I rejoice in the omniscience of the Holy One, both on account of the good that He knew in man, and the evil. A counsellor who understood less fully what our nature was, and our constitution fitted us to become might have advised abandonment. It often becomes a question whether a stranded ship should be left to her fate or brought off and repaired. Sometimes an erroneous judgment is acted on. On one side, an effort is made to save the wreck, when it would have been better to abandon it, and construct another. Again, she is sometimes weakly abandoned, when it would have been profitable to have saved her. And so a helper who understood less of our original nature and capability might have proposed to cast us off as hopelessly damaged, supposing that, by allowing the “ wreck to be wholly washed away, a new and higher degree of intelligence might have been called into existence. Although Christ knew all the evil that was in man by sin, He did not disdain to undertake the rescue. By assuming the nature of the fallen, and meeting the law in their stead, He received the curse into Himself and exhausted it. IV. SOME LESSONS: 1. Speaking of the unconverted--He knows what is in them and yet He does not cast out the unclean. 2. Speaking of His own disciples--He knows what is in them, and with that knowledge, it is because He is God and not man, that He does not shake them off. 3. He knows what is in man, and therefore can make His word and providence suitable. (W. Arnot, D. D.) Inward knowledge of man necessary for good authorship Dickens, writing about a clever story by a popular author, says, “ It is extremely good indeed; but all the strongest things of which it is capable missed. It shows just how far that kind of power can go. It is more like a note of an idea than anything else. It seems to be as if it were written by somebody who lived next door to other people, rather than inside of them.” John 3:1-2 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus Nicodemus I. THE . He was a Pharisee, and therefore all manner of religious obstacles, formalism, etc., stood in his way. He was a ruler, and therefore all manner of social impediments beset him. But his conscience had been awakened. He came in the dark so as not to be noticed. He admits Christ’ s Divine teacher-ship. Men now hold miracles in light esteem, but this narrative shows us that they should make a sober man think. Our Lord’ s reply shows that Nicodemus’ admission was not enough. It is a great thing to reverence Christ, but this will not save without a spiritual change. About this Nicodemus was as ignorant as a babel and as Jesus opened it and related matters he might well marvel. He had inquired, and now heard much more than he anticipated. He is a sample of most inquirers. Through chinks and crannies the heavenly light steals silently and gradually. As the light goes in, prejudices are overcome and notions surrendered, until it becomes day as it did with Nicodemus. II. THE (chap. 7.). The impression made on the public mind by Christ’ s teaching and miracles was great (John 7:27). The rulers, filled with wrath, sent officers to arrest Him. These officers were so struck with what they heard that they returned without their prisoner. The Pharisees rebuked them, and heaped insults on all who acknowledged Him. Then Nicodemus arose in His defence, standing on Exodus 23:1-33, and Deuteronomy 1:16. It requires some courage to defend one whom rulers have condemned. Nicodemus did this, and bore the reproach of discipleship. He who was once timid now dares to stand up for Christ alone. The explanation is that in the meantime he had been born again, III. IN HIS MASTER’ S (chap. 19.). Jesus has been tried, condemned, and executed. All His disciples had fled, but Nicodemus stands firm, and with Joseph of Arimathea secures for our Lord an honourable burial Lessons 1. If God begins a work in the soul, He will carry on that work to completion. 2. Ministers must not be discouraged at unpromising beginnings. 3. A man may be at first, but he cannot continue, a secret disciple. (C. D.Marston, M. A.) Nicodemus Every effect is to be traced up to some adequate cause, and the effect is in exact proportion to the cause. This is true 1. In nature. 2. In providence. 3. In grace. Witness the case of Nicodemus here and in chaps, 7. and 19. I. GRACE IN ITS FIRST MAY BE VERY FEEBLE. Nicodemus was a timid man, and ignorant, and somewhat hard; yet he welcomed and employed the light, although not to the fullest extent. In his and in all other cases the beginnings of grace are feeble. Young believers are likened in Isaiah 40:11 to lambs; in Isaiah 42:3 to a bruised reed and smoking flax; in Matthew 13:31 to a mustard seed; in Mark 4:1-41. as a blade. Just as Christ in His natural body grew up from nothing as it were, so is Christ born in the heart. II. GRACE IS THUS FEEBLE IN ITS IT IS A REALITY. Though Nicodemus came as a coward, yet he came; though he was ignorant, yet he asked; though he was a ruler, yet he renounced his knowledge and inquired with all the simplicity of a child. If we had rescued some poor creature from the waves, not a breath stirring, apparently dead, we should use every means and go on in hope. At last we hear a feeble sigh, and the conclusion we draw is that he lives. His life is as real as if he walked. Look at the sinner dead in trespasses and sins. Nothing moves him; not the terrors of the law, nor the invitations of the gospel. But God sends forth His Spirit, the heart is touched, the conscience enlightened, and the effect is that He feels his sin and cries, “ God be merciful,” etc. We now find him pleading the atonement and finding mercy. He receives a new principle. This is a reality, and is so described in the terms new creation, new birth, resurrection. That it is real is proved by three things. 1. It abideth (Galatians 5:17). 2. It over cometh (1 John 3:9). 3. It still tendeth towards God (John 4:14). It came from God, it ascends to God. It longs to love Christ and holiness more, and is not satisfied till it reaches the bosom of its Father (Psalms 17:15). III. WHEN GRACE IS REAL, HOWEVER WEAK, CHRIST DOES NOT DESPISE IT. He did not upbraid Nicodemus with coming by night, nor does He any one now. 1. His covenant engagements forbid it. 2. His love forbids it. 3. Beware, then, how you despise feeble grace (1) in others; (2) in yourself. Conclusion-- James 4:6. Proverbs 13:4. (J. H. Evans, M. A.) Nicodemus I. THE HERE GIVEN OF THE MAN. 1. His religious profession, “ a man of the Pharisees.” 2. His official position, “ a ruler of the Jews.” II. THE HIM. 1. Why he came. (1) Negatively. (a) It was not to ensnare or oppose Jesus, as was the case with his co-religionists generally. (b) Not out of curiosity like Zacchaeus. (2) Positively, to know the truth. 2. When he came, “ by night.” (1) It might have been from a feeling of shame or timidity; but what we know of him does not favour this supposition. Our Lord does not blame him, why should we? (2) From necessity, his duties forbidding during the day. (3) From choice as well as convenience. He wanted a private interview, such as Christ’ s busy life could not afford during the day. III. THE MADE BY HIM. 1. To what it refers--to the character of Jesus as a teacher come from God. 2. The ground on which it rests. Nothing can be more reasonable than the inference. It will be seen (1) That the miracles of Christ are here spoken of as things of general notoriety. They certainly were not done in a corner. (2) Their reality is represented as being above all suspicion. They are spoken of as “ these miracles,” and no doubt was, or could be, entertained concerning them. (3) Their wonderful nature was such as clearly indicated that they were wrought through a Divine interposition. The feeling of all who were not blinded by their prejudices, on witnessing each mighty act in succession, was, “ This is the finger of God.” (4) Their express design is recognized as confirmatory of our Lord’ s character and claims. What He says should therefore be attended to, and the important truths He uttered on this occasion are especially worthy of the most serious consideration. (Miracles of Our Lord.) The character of Nicodemus I. AN . Reports had reached the teachers and rulers concerning Christ which startled them. A man not educated in their schools, nor sent forth with their authority, an obscure man of peasant origin, was preaching doctrines not included in their systems, and doing works to which they were not equal. Nicodemus, one of them, came to inquire of Christ personally as to these things. II. A MAN. There are some who are carried about with every wind of doctrine. Nothing astonishes us more than the ease with which men take up a new religion except the ease with which they lay it down. Not so with Nicodemus. He knew that Judaism was of God, and that Judaism prophesied a Messiah with which Christ did not seem to correspond. Yet Christ’ s miracles appeared to authenticate His mission. But before accepting Him he would inquire further. III. AN MAN. Education does not always enlarge the mind. Religious education sometimes tends to bigotry. But this man was an independent thinker, and claimed the right of private judgment. His large mental capacity had been cultured to appreciate evidence and to weigh words. Consequently Christ reveals to him more advanced truths. IV. AN EARNEST MAN. He had been occupied with his official duties during the day, and now he treads the lone dark streets uncertain whether Christ would receive him. V. BEING TO THE LIGHT HE HAD, THE LIGHT WAS TO DEEPEN AND . (H. J. Bevis.) Brave Nicodemus We see in him I. THE COURAGE OF THE EARNEST INTO THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST. He was earnest enough to come by night so that he might have a long, calm, and uninterrupted interview. Had he been afraid, Christ would probably have rebuked him. He boldly acknowledges Christ’ s Divine mission, and pursues his inquiries into the meaning of Christ’ s words. Christ rewards this courage by unreserved communications of spiritual truth. This courage must be imitated by every truth seeker. II. THE COURAGE OF WISE-WORDED SPEECH FOR CHRIST. The next time we see him (John 7:50) his courage has grown, and in the midst of Christ’ s implacable enemies he speaks a wise word for Him. For such a man with his constitutional reserve to act as he did, and to incur what he did, required no ordinary courage. This courage is the power of Christian testimony now: in the presence of enemies, in the midst of temptations, at home. III. THE COURAGE OF LIBERAL-HANDED FOR CHRIST. When our Lord’ s hour was darkest, Nicodemus’ courage is at the brightest. He takes His stand by the Crucified, whose disciples were scattered, whose cause was discredited, and whose name was a mockery. He ran some risk, knew little of Him compared with what we know, took His body reverently from the cross, embalmed and buried Him. Christ is not in the grave now. To be on His side still requires courage and sacrifice. Count the cost; maintain the struggle; win the crown. (G. T. Coster.) Nicodemus and Christ I. THIS MAN’ S TO CHRIST. 1. Who was he? (1) A Pharisee; a member of the richest, proudest, most numerous, influential, and sanctimonious class in cur Saviour’ s time. Not only so, but “ a man of them” --a full-blown representative whom the community and the sect acknowledged as a leader and light of the party. (2) A ruler of the Jews, not a mere master of a synagogue, but (John 7:50) a member of the Sanhedrim--the supreme ecclesiastical and civil tribunal, the final court for the interpretation and enforcement of the law. No one could be a member of it without being well advanced in life, perfect in all his faculties, tall and impressive in appearance, wealthy, learned, and trained in judicial administration. Perhaps the sublimest visitor the Saviour ever had. 2. Why did he come? The Messiah’ s coming was generally expected. Christ had done some apparently Messianic deeds, and had been acknowledged. The Sanhedrim could not avoid dealing with Him. Nicodemus was therefore probably deputed to wait upon Him. This was not a worthy method of procedure. Instead of inviting Christ openly to hear what He had to say, or going as frank and faithful men to Him, they concluded to keep their impressions secret while one of their chiefs under cover of night stole away to catechise the Saviour. 3. How did he act? (1) Very inconsistently. If he knew that Jesus was a Divine teacher it was not his business to raise up objections. (2) He was crippled by his prejudices and pride of character. His very first word betrayed him. He must needs bring forward the official “ we,” as if the individual Nicodemus had nothing specially personal at stake. Then his difficulty about the new birth arose out of his prepossessions in favour of his own goodness and the non-necessity for him of a spiritual change. II. CHRIST’ S OF THIS VISITOR 1. He met him with calmness and civility. He came to save great men as well as small. (John 6:37.) 2. He spoke at once to the point, and undeceived him in regard to the basis on which he and his fraternity were building their hopes. Jesus, who knew what is in man, knew the unspoken thought of Nicodemus. He knows what is in our hearts, and is able to suit His favours to our wants before we express them. Nicodemus wanted some decisive manifestation that Christ was the King of Israel. Christ responds that no one would ever be able to discern or enter the kingdom without a new birth. Thus, at a single stroke, Christ laid prostrate this renowned councillor’ s greatness, and dashed out for ever the loudest hopes of his race. 3. The Saviour expounded the unalterable condition of admission. That condition was (1) A birth: mysterious, but (2) real (James 1:18; 1 John 5:1; 1 Peter 1:23). (3) A re-birth (2 Corinthians 5:17), a renovation in the springs of life, in the impulses and activities of the man, and in all the aims and endeavours of his being. (4) A birth from or out of the Spirit. (5) A birth conjoined with baptism (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:16). 4. In order to this renewal, Christ explained the true nature of the Messianic work. Hot to fight the Romans, confront Caesar with Caesar’ s weapons, subdue the nations to Jewish vassalage--but to die for sinners that they might live. 5. As underlying all, Jesus taught the right doctrine concerning God. Nicodemus believed in God, but had a very limited and inadequate conception of the higher mysteries of the Godhead. He needed to be taught that God was Three-One, and that in this same young Galilean the expressed Godhead dwelt, being come from heaven for man’ s redemption. (J. A.Seiss, D. D.) Who was Nicodemus? Of this particular Nicodemus, we know with certainty nothing more than is told us in this Gospel (John 7:50; John 19:39). The Talmud mentions a Nakedimon, so called from a miracle performed by him, who was the son of Gorion, and whose real name was Bonai. It also gives the name Bonai as one of the disciples of Jesus. He was one of the three richest Jews when Titus besieged Jerusalem, but his family were reduced to the most abject poverty. So far the Talmud. The inference is that this change of fortune is connected with his becoming a Christian and with the persecution which followed, and he is himself identified with the Nicodemus of the gospel. We can only say this may be so. (H. W.Watkins, D. D.) Two historic night scenes One of the most memorable and important interviews which ever took place between two individuals in this world was held on a raft in the middle of the river Niemen, at the little town of Tilsit, in Prussia. At one o’ clock precisely, on the 25th of June, 1807, boats put off from opposite sides of the stream and rowed rapidly toward the raft. Out of each boat stepped a single individual, and the two met in a small wooden apartment in the middle of the raft, while cannon thundered from either shore, and the shouts of great armies drawn up upon both banks drowned the roar of artillery. The two persons were the Emperors Napoleon and Alexander, and the history of the time tells us that they met “ to arrange the destinies of mankind.” And the hastily-constructed raft, on which the interview took place, will be remembered as long as the story of great conquests and mighty revolutions can interest the mind of man. The conference lasted but two hours; it was entirely private between the two emperors, and yet it was fraught with momentous consequences to millions. It was one of the great crises in human history when the currents of power that govern the nations take new directions, and break over the bounds and barriers of ages. Go back eighteen hundred years beyond the treaty of Tilsit, and we can find a private conference between two indivisuals of far more momentous and lasting importance than that between Napoleon and Alexander. This more ancient interview was not watched with eager expectancy by great armies; it was not hailed by the thunder of cannon and the shout of applauding thousands; it was not arranged beforehand by keen and watchful agents guarding the interest and safety of the two who were to meet. It was in a private house, at a late hour of the night, and it was brought about by the mingled curiosity and anxiety of an old man to know something more of a young teacher who had recently appeared in his native city. And yet from that humble night-conference of Jesus with Nicodemus there have gone forth beams of light and words of power to the ends of the earth. The plans formed by Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit were reversed and defeated long ago, and it is impossible to trace their influence in the condition of European nations today. The words spoken by Jesus to His wondering and solitary listener that night have already changed and glorified the destiny of immortal millions; they have more influence in the world now than in any previous age; and they are destined to go on increasing in power, until they shall be received as the message of life and love by every nation under heaven. (D. March, D. D.) The influence of night on the student There is a reason why students prefer the night to the day for their labours. Through the day their thoughts are diverted into a thousand streams; but at night they settle into pools, which, deep and undisturbed, reflect the stars, But night labour, in time, will destroy the student; for it is marrow from his own bones with which he fills his lamp. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ the greatest Teacher In I. The extent of His knowledge, II. The perfection of His character. III. The excellence of His methods. IV. The kindness of His disposition. V. The greatness of His rewards. (R. Brewin.) The relation of miracles to teaching When God had some new tidings to tell to the world, He gave to the men whom He sent with the message the power of working miracles. The miracles were a sort of bell, which they rang in the ears of their generation, that people might listen to what they had to say, and believe that it came from Heaven. (Dean Goulburn.) An interview with a night visitor The hours were too few for the work each day brought to Jesus. His labours were often prolonged into the night. An exciting day was over, and one of Jerusalem’ s noblest sons sought the Saviour. The visit was not prearranged, but spontaneous. Nicodemus could not sleep till he had seen Christ. Others were within the same influences, yet slept. Here was the first-fruit of Christ’ s direct ministry. The visit did not surprise the Saviour. Let the incident suggest I. USING THE FOR SEEKING THE SAVIOUR. Night is friendly to retirement and secrecy. The guilty abuse it; but the holiest have ever found its tranquilizing calm, helpful. Attention is needed to it. The struggle which compelled Nicodemus to journey to Jesus. Naturally he must have felt reluctant to quit his home. Why not wait till morning? But thoughts had been arrested, anxiety stirred by the works of Jesus. Conviction had grown. He could not therefore be inactive. The visit involved risk. Caution would counsel hesitation, but eagerness made him resolute, and, determined to lose no opportunity, he came to Jesus by night. 2. The motive which led to the use of the night. Fear, prudence, unwillingness to court attention, are motives with many. Vanity, sense of shame, reluctance to compromise one’ s dignity, are motives with others. Were these Nicodemus’ motives, or the fact of convenience, the night ensuring quiet and leisure? Or was it restless eagerness? The narrative marks that no earlier hour was available (John 2:24). Yet the thricereiterated “ by night” seems to denote excessive prudence. 3. The spirit His visit betokened. He craved satisfaction. If He is the promised One, I must know Him. 4. The knock at the door of Jesus’ home. II. UP SLEEP FOR A SOUL’ S . 1. No hour finds Jesus unwilling to attend to our need. 2. Christ’ s eagerness to meet a seeker. At once Nicodemus was led into themes of which his heart was full. III. THE NIGHT TALKING OF THEMES. Jesus uses time well. The themes may be thus classified 1. Concerning the Divine Trinity. The Spirit (John 3:5-6), “ the only begotten Son” (John 3:13-18). God the Father, who sent the Spirit and gave the Son. 2. Concerning the action of the threefold Godhead in man’ s salvation. The Spirit regenerates; the Son atones; the Father’ s love provides the sacrifice and gathers in the world. 3. Concerning man’ s responsibility in reference to salvation. He has no part in saving himself. Jesus accomplishes that (John 3:17). He must be enlightened (John 3:3) and renewed (John 3:7). On him is cast the solemn duty of personal belief in Christ. 4. Concerning the great issues set before the soul. Not to believe incurs condemnation. But the world through Christ may be saved (John 3:17). There remains for each the vast alternatives of everlasting life or the abiding wrath of God (John 3:36). IV. LIGHT GAINED IN THE NIGHT WITH JESUS. 1. Nicodemus became a humble listener at the feet of Jesus. It was his intention to interrogate the Teacher, but he soon became silenced. 2. He retired with new and sacred life within him. (W. H. Jellie.) The anxious inquirer--coming, disputing, listening I. COMING TO CHRIST. Amongst those mentioned in the closing verses of the last chapter was the Rabbi Nicodemus. To him the young man Jesus was an object of profound interest. He retired from the crowd to the Sanhedrim. There his fellow princes were in indignation at the assumption of the youthful Nazarene, and amazed at the audacity of His holiness. He leaves the Sanhedrim, and retires to his own home. He becomes anxious about this Teacher sent from God. He takes down the ancient laws and prophecies. He sees the resemblance between that young Rabbi and some of those shadowy words which lighten over the ancient parchments. A new interest gathers over the pages. While he reads the sun has set, the crowds have dispersed, Jesus has gone home. Nicodemus resolves to go to Him. The night season is all the more favourable. Nicodemus approaches the retreat of Jesus, timidly and holding back. But the door is open, and there is Jesus waiting for him. 1. Nicodemus was an anxious but haughty inquirer. The proud, moral disposition of the Jew starts into light at the first word--We know. The things of eternity will not allow him to sleep; but the opening remark of this emissary of the Sanhedrim implied that he and they had little to learn. 2. Still he made a concession. He calls Jesus Rabbi. He could call his brethren in the great council chamber no more. 3. He maintains a reserve. Something clutched at the rope and plucked you back just as you were about to tell Christ all. Christ came to him at once, and replied not to what he said, but to what he thought. You cannot see till you are born. II. WITH CHRIST. He came expecting to discuss with Christ the things of the Jewish Church; Christ pressed home all his thoughts to internal questions. Many came to Christ to dispute rather than to listen. The overcoming of the disputatious element in us is one of the most important preliminaries to the reception of the truth. In disputing we defend our own views rather than open our minds to the truth. Nicodemus disputing reveals to us 1. How the carnal mind is ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God. 2. Wherein lies our difficulty of belief. It is in the How and the Why we find the great obstacles to our faith. 3. How far we may be immersed in spiritual ignorance when we seem to be most advanced in knowledge. 4. How possible it is to belong to the outward and visible church, and yet to know nothing of the great and saving change of heart and life. III. TO CHRIST. He gives up disputation, and Christ unfolds the plan and science of salvation. 1. He asserts the inability of the man and the inutility of human knowledge. 2. The plan of Divine ability beginning with the work of the Holy Spirit and ending with that of the Divine Father. 3. The exhibition of the mediatorial sign. 4. The unfolding of the essential law of the Divine kingdom--do the truth and you will know the truth. (Paxton Hood.) The Teacher and the taught I. THE . 1. His relation to the ruling powers and his position as a man of culture. 2. His want of moral courage. 3. His reverent acknowledgment of Christ’ s authority, in which he manifests elementary faith. 4. His willingness to be taught. II. THE TEACHER. 1. His willingness to teach. Christ ever meets the eager and reverent inquirer in this spirit. 2. His willingness to accept imperfect faith. 3. The truths be taught. (1) The need of regeneration. (2) The mystery of His own person. 4. The great purpose of His mission with the method of its accomplishment. (Family Churchman.) The two Rabbis I. THE TEACHER COME FROM GOD. 1. Accessible to men (John 3:1-2; Matthew 8:34; Matthew 9:28; Matthew 11:28; Matthew 15:1; Mark 3:8; John 4:40). 2. Commissioned of God (John 3:2; Deuteronomy 18:18; John 8:28; John 12:49; John 14:10; John 17:8; Hebrews 1:1-2). 3. Confirmed by miracles (John 3:2; Luke 23:47; John 2:11; John 9:33; John 10:38; John 14:11; Acts 2:22). II. A TEACHER ABLE TO TEACH. 1. Of the new birth (John 3:3; John 1:13; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ga James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 3:9). 2. Of the Spirit’ s power (John 3:6; John 14:26; John 16:18; Romans 8:14; 1 Corinthians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 1:22; Titus 3:5). 3. Of the Heavenly things (John 3:12; John 6:33; John 6:51; John 14:3; John 16:28; 1 Corinthians 15:47; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). III. A TEACHER ABLE TO SAVE. 1. Lifted up to save (John 3:14; Numbers 21:9; John 8:28; John 12:32; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 6:14; 1 John 1:7) 2. Given of God to save (John 3:17; Matthew 1:21; John 4:42; John 5:34;Acts 4:12; Romans 5:9; 1 John 4:9). 3. Believed on to save (John 3:18; Mark 16:16; John 3:36, vl, 47; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:26; 1 John 5:1). (Sunday School Times.) Christ as a teacher I. THE WHICH CHRIST GAVE OF BEING A TEACHER COME FROM GOD. 1. His qualifications to be this teacher. (1) In His nature: God and man. Hence He spake with authority and worked miracles. (2) In His commission. The Father sent Him. (3) In His endowments. He was filled with the Spirit (Isaiah 65:1). 2. The peculiarity of His instructions (1) What was their character? What sublime views He gave of God; what Divine revelations of grace; what Divine consolations; what holy precepts; what openings of the invisible world. (2) Observe their manner. “ Never man spake as this man” --with such authority, power, simplicity, consistency. He taught by events, anecdotes, parables. (3) Mark their effects--conviction and conversion--Zacchaeus, Mary, Martha, dying thief, etc. II. IN WHAT THIS GREAT TEACHER SHOULD BE BY OTHER . 1. In His imitable qualifications (1) His knowledge, particularly of God’ s Book. Every teacher should have a concordance, a commentary, and a companion to the Bible. (2)His various methods. (3) His possession of the Spirit. 2. In His Spirit (1) The spirit of prayer; (2) of compassion; (3) of faithfulness. 3. In His conduit. (1) His self-denial. (2) His unwearied perseverance. 4. In His aim--to save souls. Conclusion. 1. Rejoice that you have such a teacher. Learn of Him if you would be successful teachers. 2. There is no cause for discouragement if you see not the success of your teaching. Christ’ s “ own received Him not.” 3. Let Scripture motives urge you to undertake and pursue this great work. Gratitude, the brevity of time, the present benefit, the future reward. 4. What a blessed day when teachers and taught will meet in heaven. (James Sherman.) Christ as a teacher Jesus was emphatically a teacher. Not one who was confined to a professor’ s chair, but one who taught everywhere. As a teacher He was eminently successful, and exceedingly popular. What was the secret of His success and popularity? I. HIS were of such a character as to command the most profound respect, and make the deepest impressions. 1. There was in them a peculiar fitness to the people. His teachings awakened the conscience, enlightened the understanding, and stirred the heart. 2. They were free from sectarian bigotry and prejudice. His principles were broad and generous, having universal application to the physical, social, and spiritual wants of men. II. HIS STYLE. There was nothing stiff or stilted about it, no extravagance of speech, no affectation of manner. His very presence was a charm. Gentleness and simplicity marked all He said and did. III. HIS . One of the elements in His great strength lay in the aptness of His figures and comparisons from common life. Wherever He turned His eye He found central truth, and brought out of it something that the people could apply home. He ignored bewildering terminology, and showed that religion had something to say in the home as well as in the temple. IV. HIS . Teachers often make distinctions among their pupils. But Christ looked at man as man, and turned no one way either on account of rank or of poverty. V. HIS . It was the consciousness of His Divine authority which made Him so independent as a teacher. He did not pander to the corrupt tastes of the people nor accommodate Himself to their errors and prejudices. VI. HIS . There was nothing strained, artificial, or formal about His methods. It was in the most incidental and easy way that He taught some of His grandest lessons and did His greatest works. The smallest occasion was improved. There never was a teacher so little dependent on times and places. Why this spontaneity in all the teachings of Jesus? Because religion is natural, and religion is natural because it is real. VII. HIS ABILITY TO INSPIRE MEN, to kindle in their hearts a holy enthusiasm. Xenophon tells us that men were more inspired by the example and spirit of Socrates than by his words. So with Jesus. There was something in His manner, address, and personal presence that at once won the hearts of His hearers. When He wanted men to become His disciples He had” but to say to them “ Follow Me,” and they at once “ forsook all and followed Him.” And He exerts that influence to-day. (J. L. Harris.) Our Lord a model for Sunday-school teachers I. THE OF JESUS CHRIST AND HIS FOR A TEACHER. His qualifications are more apparent in their subjects than in their modes. What was Christ? is a better question than How did He teach? Many put too much faith in systems, method, etc., and too little in men of God. 1. Christ had a very high estimate of His work. He made men’ s minds, and was “ the light that lighted,” etc. He had a full perception of the powers and value and destiny of the human spirit. You must have this same high estimate. No man will do heartily what he does not think worth doing. Nothing can be greater than to teach truth to an immortal mind. 2. Christ’ s mind was fully possessed with the truth He taught. He always spoke as though the truth were His own. You never perceive any effort or sense of novelty. He bore truth about Him as a daily dress. He spoke of God as if He were in His bosom. He left an impression that He “ spoke that which He knew,” etc. It was this that made the people astonished, and that made the officers say, “ Never man spake like this man.” Be like Christ in this respect. There is but one way of attaining it, and that is by being real. It is not attainable by art. You must be a Christian, living and walking in the Spirit of Christ. 3. Christ was entirely self-consecrated to His work. He was not forced or persuaded into it. He came to it because He loved it and those He taught. Kindness, the key to the human heart, therefore, was the temper in which He taught. Nothing is done without this. He who is set on keeping up His dignity may end in losing His charge. Children are eminently susceptible to kindness. 4. Christ lived His lessons. It was this that silenced His enemies and won His friends. If you would be effective you must teach by what you do as well as by what you say. Children have consciences, and no appeal will be so powerful as that of holiness of character. Besides, imitation is the law of their minds. II. THE OF JESUS CHRIST. 1. The free and familiar manner of it. There is no set system. His course was prompted by circumstances. He spoke to the time. Truth came out of Him on particular occasions, like virtue when He was touched. Don’ t fill the minds of the children with formal propositions. Speak always “ the present truth.” Be simple, but not coarse. Christ had not hard words or technicalities; He trusted to the inherent dignity of the truth. The sublimest thoughts can be put into words of one syllable, “ God is light,” “ God is love.” 2. If you would imitate Jesus Christ, don’ t teach more than one thing at a time. He uttered a great doctrine and then dwelt upon it. The minds of adults may be injured by trying to put too much into them. He who seeks to do too much ends by doing nothing. 3. Christ adapted Himself to those whom He addressed. He had many things to say, but waited till they could hear them. This has been His method from the beginning. Revelation was progressive. So you must lead the children’ s minds from one degree of knowledge to another. Begin with “ first principles,” and “ go on to perfection.” 4. Christ taught pictorially. Parables are pictures. The Bible is history, and what is history but a picture? What are baptism and the Lord’ s Supper but pictures. Dry didactic statements have few charms for children, but they may be won by anecdotes. Conclusion. 1. Jesus Christ as a teacher had very little success, but He did not faint. The husbandman has faith in the operation of nature; so must you in the growth of the good seed. 2. Christ believed that His seed would grow again. Many a doctrine the apostles remembered after He had risen. Future events must be allowed to quicken your teaching, perhaps your death. But no truth is ever lost. 3. Even Christ prayed while He was labouring. Without prayer you might as well not teach at all. (A. J. Morris.) Open and secret Christians There are always in a congregation some who accept Christ but do not confess Him openly. The Church has its hypocrites, but so has the world: for there are men who seem to lead a worldly life whose inner life is turned toward Christ; but they make three mistakes in their position. 2. THEY THE VALUE OF WORLDLY . How much will your friends among the men of the world sacrifice for you? They will desert you when your purse fails. II. THEY THE EFFECT OF ON . It will not drive away a true friend. What hurts us most is ridicule. Learn to live above it. Christ suffered the meanest insult. His followers have often sealed their faith with their blood. III. THEY THEIR OWN . They are afraid of falling after they have made a public confession, and of giving opportunity to scoffers to blaspheme. They put too low a value on the strength Christ gives for every crisis. At the moment of danger Nicodemus came forward. Is there a danger now that calls these silent Christians to come forth? There is, though this age is no worse than many others. Our literature is full of a lofty scorn, a condescending pity for Christianity. Many of our scientists are materialists. It is time to be brave and outspoken. Christ is polarizing the world; there are but two classes of men. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) An audience of one Permenides upon reading a philosophical discourse before a public assembly at Athens, and observing that, except Plato, the whole company had left him, continued notwithstanding, saying that Plato alone was sufficient audience for him. (W. Baxendale.) No man can do these miracles except God be with himThe miraculous in Christ’ s history At the very threshold of the discussion there meets us the assertion that miracles are impossible. Now I hold that we cannot believe in a personal God and doubt the possibility of miracles. 1. We have a great deal of learned talk about the inviolability of the laws of nature, which really makes a strait-waistcoat for God of His own laws. But the question is set at rest by facts which science attests. What is the beginning of life but a miracle? Scientific men know that this world was once a molten mass, and that there could not then, by any possibility, be on it any germ of vegetable or animal life. But life by and by appeared and multiplied; and in its appearance we have a distinct and special act of God creating life; and that is a miracle. 2. But there are those who admit all this and yet deny any other miracles. They say that they are not reasonable, that they are a reflection on the wisdom of God. But while God’ s being makes miracles possible, God’ s mercy and man’ s needs make miracles reasonable. If there is a defect in the mechanism of the world, it is not due to God, but to us; the disorder in the universe is not His, but ours. And a special interposition by Him to right what we have put wrong is the reverse of a reflection on His wisdom. A revelation of mercy to a sinful world is a miraculous thing in itself; and if other miracles accompany it, it is just what might be anticipated. 3. But there are those who say that whether wrought or not, miracles cannot be proved. This is Hume’ s position, which is modified by Huxley, who insists that the proof, if proof can be adduced, must be very strong. Mill further modifies it by admitting that “ if a supernatural event really occurs, it is impossible to maintain that the proof cannot be accessible to the human faculties.” My contention is that miracles can be proved like other facts, and I proceed to prove that the account of Christ’ s miracles by the evangelists is true. I. THEIR HAS THE AIR OF . When we are examining witnesses, we must assume that they are truthful until we have found them false; and there are various ways in which they may impress us. They may give their evidence in such an unsatisfactory manner as to arouse the suspicion that it is false; or it may be given with such artless simplicity as to convince us that it is true. On turning to the Gospels, we find the miracles of Christ recorded with as much calmness as if they had been only ordinary events. Their time and place, their nature, their witnesses, and sometimes their moral effects, are minutely recorded. The writers have all the appearance of men who are not making fiction but recording fact. II. THE HAD AMPLE MEANS OF KNOWING WHETHER THE ALLEGED WERE REALLY WROUGHT. Witnesses may be truthful and yet give a testimony we cannot accept, because of their having been deceived. But there are considerations which show that it could not have been thus with the disciples. The assertion that Christ tried to impose upon them charges Him with conduct so much at variance with His character as they present it, that we cannot entertain it for a moment, and the miracles were of such a kind that they could not be deceived in regard to them. They were numerous, varied, and striking. III. THE HAD NO MOTIVE FOR TO PALM ON THE WORLD A FALSE HISTORY OF JESUS. It could net exalt their Master to attribute to Him miracles He never wrought; it could not exalt themselves in their own estimation to sit down and carefully construct an elaborate fiction; and they could not expect to gain over the people to Christ by alleging that He had wrought many miracles among them both in Judea and Galilee when they knew that the people had not seen one of them. Just credit them with common sense, and then say if you can conceive of their trying to palm falsehoods on the world. If they had been knaves they would net have taken this course, for there was nothing to gain by it; and if they had been fools they would not have acted as they did. IV. THEY HAD NOT ONLY NO MOTIVE TO GIVE A FALSE ACCOUNT, BUT THEY HAD THE REASONS FOR NOT DOING SO. There was no worldly honour or wealth to be got by their testimony; it was certain to entail the loss of all things. Is it conceivable, then, with the knowledge of all this that they would publish false accounts. V. THEY COULD NOT HAVE GAINED FOR THE GOSPELS IF THEY HAD NOT BEEN TRUE. It is Christ’ s miracles which were appealed to when the apostles urged men to believe in Him. Consider what believing involved. It meant not only accepting His history in the Gospels as true, but taking Him to be the Saviour from sin, and leading, in obedience to His command and after His example, a holy life; and this in the face of the scorn and contempt of the world, with the prospect of temporal ruin, and the risk of a violent death. Now, how could men be persuaded to face the sacrifices all this involved by appeals to miracles which had never been wrought? Corroborative proof I find in the Jews. They did not deny that He wrought miracles, but only tried to explain them away. In their Talmud, which dates back to the third century, it is acknowledged that “ mighty works” were wrought by Him, but it is said that these were the results of magical arts which he had learned in Egypt. And the heathen bear similar testimony. Celsus admits Christ’ s miracles. “ Ye think Jesus to be the son of God,” he says, “ because He healed the lame and the blind, and as ye say raised the dead.” And when he tries to deprive His miracles of their value as evidence of a Divine authority, it is by ascribing them, like the Jews, to His having learned magical arts in Egypt. (A. Oliver, B. A.) John 3:3-5 Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God The birth of the new man Man is confronted with two facts. 1. The existence of evil. 2. The hope of deliverance. Christ here shows how this hope may be realized, viz., by a new birth, and by that alone. I. WHY MUST THIS BE? Simply because to live in heaven we must have the life of heaven. Man can enter no world but by a birth, and to enter heaven, therefore, he must be born into it. To the heavenly world man is dead Ephesians 2:1). This is not his proper condition, nor was he created in or for it (Genesis 1:26-27). But very soon his life went out. Adam fell, and begat sons and daughters in his own image; and we, the children of this fallen head, like the descendants of some king who has been dethroned, by generations of bondage have well-nigh forgotten the traditions of their father’ s glory, and become utterly unfit to fill his place. All do not feel this death. The fact is hidden by present cares, pleasures, or occupations. For this reason men love the world. It keeps them from coming to the painful fact. But God in mercy sometimes removes these things that the salutary pain may be felt, and the necessity of regeneration seen. II. HOW CAN THIS BE? Regeneration, the re-quickening of God’ s life in man, can only be effected by Him who has that life--the Son of God. 1. Regeneration has been wrought for us in Christ. In Him man again received God’ s life by the coming of the eternal life to dwell in the flesh. This was the beginning, but it could not be perfected until death, by which man in Christ reentered heaven. 2. To come where Christ is the self-same thing must be wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. God’ s nature must be first re-quickened by our receiving the Word (2 Peter 1:4; John 1:4), and then there must be a delivery from the fallen old man by the Cross, i.e, through death, to our present nature. 3. Of this new man, Christ formed in us, Christ Himself is the prelude and figure in the progress of His humanity from the humiliation at Bethlehem to the glory of heaven. (Andrew Jukes.) The new birth I. WHAT WERE THESE WORDS MEANT TO EXPRESS TO THE HEBREW . 1. The Jews were expecting the revelation of the Messiah and of His kingdom. A few like the venerable Simeon looked forward to one who should save them from their sins. They believed as a few do now--when the tendency is to seek for the golden age in legislative enactments and reformed institutions--that what we want is, not something done for us in ameliorated outward conditions, but in individual education in grace and righteousness. The multitude, however, are always trusting in some political measure or social change to bring about the millenium of national well-being. So did the Jews, who, abiding in their sins, counted on a revolution of circumstances and a conquering Messiah who should exalt the land. The constant indulgence of this dream operated to make them more and more vulgar and coarse in soul, and in Christ’ s time they had sunk to be very mean and low. And now here at length stood the veritable Messiah in their midst, and of course they could not comprehend Him. Having by prolonged communion with their carnal idea deadened their spiritual susceptibility, they were blind to the royalty of Divine character and Divine truth. 2. When Nicodemus, therefore, came to Christ for information about the Messianic reign, it was in reference to the incapacity of his and his countrymen’ s worldliness that our Lord said, “ In your present moral state you are unable to take in the idea of it, and you never will be unless you become inwardly another creature. You must begin to be and live afresh.” The phraseology was not new to Nicodemus. The Gentile who gave up his heathen creed and embraced Judaism was said to undergo a new birth. The ruler’ s impression, therefore, would be that he must submit to a revolution in his Messianic ideas as a condition of instruction. How, he asked, could an old man like himself, whose opinions were too fixed for surrender, do that? Christ replies in terms which he could not fail to understand, that what was wanted was not a change of mental view, but of moral heart--an inward cleansing and an inward experience of Divine influence, without which it was impossible for him to perceive the reality or touch the circle of the Messianic kingdom. III. WHAT IS THERE HERE FOR US? 1. The kingdom of God is simply the reign of God; and to enter it is to become subject to Him. But since this reign is everlasting ann universal, and since all must be subject to it, the kingdom of God established by Christ, and within which we may or may not be found, must have a deeper, inwarder significance--even the reign of the righteous and merciful God over the individual affections and will. They, then, are in this kingdom who have come to be thus governed. 2. To enter that kingdom there must be a new birth; not a mere modification of original ground, but a fresh foundation--not an alteration of form, but a change of spirit. Look at those who are manifestly not in this kingdom: is it not obvious that to become so would not only constitute a great change, but would necessitate an antecedent great change in order to bring it about? 3. Christ is the Divine organ for the production of this inward change. (S. A. Tipple.) The new birth I. IS THERE SUCH A THING AS AN ENTIRE OF ? Certainly. Take a child of five, when it has a nascent character. At the beginning he is selfish, sharp, and irritable; but after the judicious training of a kind mother, by the time he is ten he has learned to restrain his temper and is becoming generous, and living on a different plane from that in which he started. But take a child who has had no such training, but has been brought up gross and violent and selfish, is it possible that there shall come a time when, by a sweeping influence from above, all the past may be effaced and all the future changed? Is it true that a life of forty years can be revolutionized in a moment? No; but a change can be begun in a moment. Here is a train rushing on a track which a few miles beyond will lead to a collision; but the brakesman turns it on to another line, and the danger is averted. The pressure measured an inch, and the train passed instantaneously, but its travel on the new track will be longer or shorter according to circumstances. A man has lived an indolent life up to five-and-twenty. Then his father breaks, and he finds himself without bread,or habits of industry. He knows, however, that he is ingenious, and goes to a cabinetmaker and agrees to stay for two years for board and clothes. The moment he is indentured he is changed. He was a do-nothing before; he is a do-something now. He was a man without purpose before, but now he is a man whose life is re-fashioned on the theory of industry. But did he know his trade? No. Still the change had taken place. A man is changed the moment his purpose is changed, if it be really radical and permanent. II. LET US INQUIRE WHAT IS. Any change that takes a man away from that which is bad and carries him forward to that which is good, and gives him a purpose of making this new course a continuous thing, is conversion. 1. Conversion is sometimes simply Christian culture. “ When a child is urged by a mother’ s teaching and affection to love goodness, purity, spiritual excellence, and takes to it with all its little heart, that is conversion; i.e, it is character building on the right foundation. The world will never become Christian until the cradle is the sanctuary and the mother the minister, and day in and day out the child is brought up to manhood in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Is not the child as susceptible to training in spiritual as in social things? There is just as much reason in training for virtue and holiness as in training for any secular end. And it is far better that a child should never know where the point of transition is. This is the truest conversion and the best; but it does not follow that it is the only conversion. 2. A man is thrown out upon the world and gone into vice and crime, or into a lower form of selfish, proud, unsympathizing life. Oh, it is a blessed thing for him to know that he need not continue in the downward course for ever, and that there is provision made whereby when a man has gone wrong he may stop and grow right. Not that he can be transformed in the twinkling of an eye, but the change may begin when he resolves to turn from sin to God. III. IS A MAN BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OR BY HIS OWN WILL? By both. The Divine Spirit is atmospheric, and becomes personal when any one appropriates it. The sunlight has in it all harvests, but we do not reap until that sunlight is appropriated by some root, leaf, blossom. Some say we must wait for the Spirit; as reasonable as to say we must wait for the sun when it is a cloudless afternoon; and what time any man accepts the influence of the Divine Spirit and co-operates with it, that moment the work is done by the stimulus of God acting with the practical energy and will of the human soul. IV. WHAT ARE THE OF ? 1. The consciousness of a new and heavenly life, whether we can trace the time of its origin or not, or whether it came to us through agonies of remorse or the sweet, quiet influences of Christian nurture. 2. The fruits of the regenerating Spirit--love, joy, peace, etc. 3. Advancement, growth, development in the things that please God. (H. W.Beecher.) Regeneration I. ITS NATURE. 1. It is something that is not merely done for a man, but is done upon him. The former is justification, which is a change of state in the reckoning of law, whereas regeneration changes the man himself and gives him a new character. This being the case, regeneration is conscious, whereas justification is not. Is there then in each of us such a character of holiness as no natural temperament, civilization, learning, maxims of prudence or courtesy could have formed, and without such as is not dishonouring to God to ascribe to the agency of the Spirit? 2. Regeneration being something which is done on a man’ s person, it is his mind, not his body, which undergoes the change, although the regenerated mind may have a beneficent effect upon the body. 3. Regeneration being mental, it is effected, not on the faculties of the understanding, but on the passions and affections of the will. These faculties do often, as a matter of fact, undergo considerable improvement, but it is in consequence of the incitement with which regeneration has supplied them. It will not make a bad memory good, but it frequently stirs up a sluggish memory. 4. Regeneration is not an organic change, in respect of the extinction or addition of any passion or power; but entirely a functional change, in respect of the direction of the powers, so that their emotions are expended on different objects from those to which they were formerly directed. Take, for example, the change produced on the passions of love and anger. (1) When a man is regenerated, he will continue to love objects which he loved before, but with a change of reasons for loving them. Unregenerate he loved gold for its ministry to his luxury and pride; regenerate he loves it because it helps him to honour his Master. (2) A regenerated mind will in some cases entirely forsake former objects of affection, and expend itself on others about which he was careless. He may withdraw from former worldly companions, not because he despises them, for they may be decent and amiable, but because there is more attraction for him in the fellowship of the saints. (3) The regenerated mind will in many cases regard objects with feelings the opposite to those with which it regarded them in its state of nature, loving what it once hated, and hating what it once loved. II. ITS . 1. It is a change of heart from a state of carelessness about God, or slavish fear of Him, or enmity against Him, into a state of filial reverence, confidence and obedience; of admiration of Him, gratitude towards Him, dependence on Him, loyalty towards Him. 2. It is a change of mind in which the name of Jesus was wearied of, or resented, or despised, or maligned, into a state in which, in union with that of the Eternal Father, it receives a place “ above every name,” as most honoured for its excellence, most endeared for its love, and most loyally reverenced for the legitimacy of its claims. 3. It is a change from a state of mind in which the Name of the Holy Spirit obtained no acknowledgment, into a state in which it is cherished, in union with the names of Father and Son, as the Comforter, Counsellor, and Advocate of the soul. 4. It is a change from a state in which the gratification of the flesh, or the avoidance of its pains, or the culture of the intellect, were matters of supreme importance, to a state in which holiness of heart is the principal concern. 5. It is a change from a state in which this world is the object of greatest interest, into one where eternity is a name of the greatest fear and the greatest hope. 6. It is a change from a state of enmity against to one of love for man. 7. It is a change of feeling with reference to the Church, the Bible, and the means of grace. (W. Anderson, D. D.) Regeneration I. THE SUBJECT WHEREOF CHRIST . A second birth. 1. The contents of it. It contains the seeds and habits of all graces; as original sin, to which it is opposed, contains the seeds of all sin (James 1:17-18): not only those natural graces we lost in Adam, but whatsoever belongs to our spiritual being in grace and glory. 2. The extent of it. The whole man, every part, answering to the infection of original sin. Hence described us leaven (Matthew 13:1-58.). Sometimes in natural generation a part of the body may be wanting, but there is no such defect in regeneration. 3. The notes and signs of it. (1) Spiritual life. As generation produces natural life, so regeneration spiritual life; and every generator the life he bears--a man human life, an animal animal life, God divine life (Ephesians 4:18; 2Co Galatians 2:20). This life may be discerned by its properties. (a) Every life seeks its own preservation, so does this life that which is fit for itself (1 Peter 2:2; Colossians 3:1). Beasts seek after grass or prey: worldly men after worldly things; the regenerate after food for the soul and heavenly honours. (b) Life feels that which is an enemy to it, as sickness. A dead man feels nothing. It is an evident sign of spiritual life to feel our corruptions. (c) Life resists her enemy. So in the regenerate the spirit lusts against the flesh (Galatians 5:17), and rises in opposition to temptation. (d) Life, if it be stronger than the enemy, is victorious. So the life of God being stronger than sin, the regenerate overcome the evil one. (e) Life is active and stirring. We know that a motionless image, although it has the features of the human body, has no life in it. So professors, without the powerful practice of godliness, have not the life of God in them. (1) Life, when grown to strength, is generative. So the regenerate labour to breathe their life into others. (2) Likeness to God. The begetter begets in his own likeness: so does God (John 3:6; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 Peter 1:15-16; Luke 6:36; Matthew 5:48). (3) Change. In every generation there is a great change; existence from non-existence, order from chaos. So with the Christian (Ephesians 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:17.). (4) Love of God and His children (1 John 5:1; 1 John 6:7; 1 John 3:17). 4. The reason and ends of the name of it, viz., second birth. (1) To show our passiveness in conversion. (2) That as in generation, so in regeneration there is proceeding from little beginnings to great perfection. (3) That as the first birth is not without pains, neither is the second. (4) To show us the hopelessness of our nature. Mending will not do, we must be new born. II. WHAT HE AFFIRMS OF IT, that it is necessary to salvation Revelation 21:27; Hebrews 12:14). This necessity is set forth 1. The certainty. Verily (Amen) is doubled for greater certainty Genesis 41:32). 2. The universality. (J. Dyke.) Regeneration The expression “ born again” was political. Gentiles were unclean, and to become Jewish citizens had to be baptized, and so cleansed became sons of Abraham by a new birth. “ Naturalization “ means the same thing. Finding the ceremony on foot, Christ takes advantage of it to represent the naturalization of a soul in the Kingdom of Heaven; taking water as the symbol, and the Spirit as the real cleansing power. I. CHRIST OF ALL SOME GREAT AND CHANGE AS THE OF THEIR . 1. Not, of course, of those who are already subjects of it, and many are so from their earliest infancy, having grown up into Christ by the preventing grace of their nurture in the Lord. But this is no real exception. Intelligence is not more necessary to our humanity than is second birth to salvation. 2. Many cannot admit this. It savours of hardness, and does not correspond with what they see of natural character. How can moral and lovely persons need to be radically changed? That depends upon whether the one thing is lacking or not. If it be Christ’ s love will not modify His requirement. 3. Christianity is based upon the fact of this necessity. It is not any doctrine of development or self-culture, but a salvation. The very name Jesus is a false pretence, unless He has something to do for the race which the race cannot do for itself. 4. But how can we imagine that God will stand on any such rigid terms? He is very good and very great; may we not risk the consequences? (1) It is sufficient to answer that Christ understood what was necessary, and there is no harshness in Him. (2) Such arguments are a plea for looseness, which is not the manner of God. He is the exactest of beings. Is character a matter that God will treat more loosely than the facts and forces of nature? If He undertakes to construct a beatific state, will He gather in a jumble of good and bad and call it heaven? (3) We can ourselves see that a very large class of men are not in a condition to enter into the Kingdom of God. They have no purity or sympathy with it. Who can think of these as melting into a celestial society? And if not, there must be a line drawn somewhere, and those who are on one side will not be on the other: which is the same as saying that there must be exact terms of salvation. (4) We feel in our own consciousness, while living a mere life of nature, that we are not fit to enjoy the felicities of a perfectly spotless world. Our heart is not there. (5) When we give ourselves to some new purpose of amendment, we do it by constraint. What we want is inclination to duty, and this is the being born of God. II. THE NATURE OF THE CHANGE. 1. Let some things which confuse the mind be excluded. (1) There is a great deal of debate over its supposed instantaneousness. But a change from bad in kind to good in kind implies a beginning, and therefore instantaneous, but not necessarily conscious. (2) Some people regard it as gradual. But this is to make it a matter of degrees., (3) Much is said of previous states of conviction and distress, then of light and peace bursting suddenly on the soul. Something of this may be among the causes and consequences, but has nothing to do with the radical idea. 2. Observe how the Scriptures speak of it. Never as a change of degrees, an amendment of life, but a being born again, a spiritual reproduction, passing from death unto life, putting off the old man, transformation, all of which imply a change of kind. Had redemption been a mere making of us better, it would have been easy to say so. The gospel says the contrary. Growth comes, but there can be no growth without birth. 3. Try and accurately conceive the interior nature of the change. (1) Every man is conscious that when he sins there is something besides the mere words or acts--viz., the reason for them. (2) Sometimes the difficulty back of the wrong action is conceived to be the man himself, constitutionally evil who needs to have the evil taken out of him and something new inserted. But this would destroy personal identity, and be the generation of another man. (3) Sometimes the change is regarded only as the change of the governing purpose. But it is not this that we find to be the seat of the disorder, but a false, weary, downward, selfish love. We have only to will to change our purpose, but to change our love is a different matter. (4) Every man’ s life is shaped by his love. If it be downward, all his life will be downward. Hence, so much is said about change of heart. (5) Still, this cannot be effected without another change of which it is only an incident. In his unregenerate state man is separated from God and centred in himself. He was not made for this, but to, live in and be governed by God. When, then, he is restored to the living connection with God he is born again. His soul now enters into rest, rest in love, rest in God. III. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE CHANGE IS . 1. Negatively: (1) To maintain that it can be manipulated by a priest in baptism is solemn trifling. (2) Equally plain is it that this is not to be effected by waiting for some new creative act. The change passes only by free concurrence with God. (3) Nor is it accomplished by mere willing apart from God. A man can as little drag himself up into a reigning love as drag a Judas into Paradise. 2. Positively: (1) You must give up every purpose, etc., which takes you away from God. (2) There must be reaching after God, an offering up of the soul to Him, which is faith. (3) Let Christ be your help in this acting of faith to receive God (see John 3:14-16). (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Regeneration I. ITS NATURE. 1. Negatively: (1)Not baptism, as witness Simon Magus. (2) Not reformation, as witness the case of many an unspiritual but truly moral man. Regeneration is the cause, reformation the effect. Nicodemus did not need reformation. 2. Positively: An entire change of nature. (1) a renovation of all the powers of the mind; (2) a new direction to the faculties of the soul; (3) a restoration to the image of God. II. ITS . 1. It is instantaneous. There can be no medium between life and death. It differs from sanctification, which is progressive. 2. It is mysterious. We cannot tell how it takes place, or when or where it will take place. 3. It is universal. It affects the whole man, and governs all his character, powers, and conduct. III. ITS . 1. The condition of the regenerate is altered--the dead are made alive Ephesians 2:1); the blind see (Ephesians 5:8); the servants of Satan become Christ’ s free men; His enemies His friends; the proud humble. 2. Their views are changed (1) concerning themselves; (2) Christ; (3) sin; (4) heaven. 3. Their pursuits are different. 4. Their enjoyments arise from a different source. 5. Their motives. IV. ITS . 1. Without a change of heart we shall’ not be identified with the Church militant; 2. With the Church triumphant hereafter. Reflections: 1. To the unregenerate, “ Ye must be born again.” 2. To those who are resting in good works, etc., “ Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision,” etc. 3. To the regenerate. “ Show forth the praises of Him who hath called you.” (R. Kemp.) Regeneration I. WHEREIN DOES CONSIST? In a radical supernatural change, the seat of which is the heart. 1. A just perception of spiritual objects, of the character and perfections of God, the Person and work of Christ, the gospel plan of salvation, the excellency of holiness, and the evil of sin. On all these the conceptions of the human mind are defective and erroneous, even with the light of reason and the aid of philosophy. 2. A taste for, and delight in, spiritual objects. This is given, not acquired. It may and must be cultivated, but regeneration is its beginning. II. WHENCE DOES THE AND OF THIS CHANGE APPEAR? 1. From the uniform teaching of Scripture. (1) When the object of the ministry is described, it is “ to turn them from darkness to light,” etc. (2) When the power of the Word is spoken of, it is thus--“ Being born again … by the Word of God.” (3) When the character of the saints is described, they are “ created anew,” etc. 2. From the nature and employments of the heavenly kingdom. 3. From the utter unsuitableness of the unregenerate for the society, employment and pleasures of the kingdom. 4. From the value and preciousness of the soul. (W. Deering.) The needful change implied in regeneration The expression to be born again implies I. A VAST MORAL CHANGE, the impartation of a principle of spiritual life and godliness to a heart entirely destitute of it, through which new affections, views, and state of the will are produced. The characteristics of the change are 1. The self-righteous man learns to trust in the Redeemer. 2. The enemy of God now loves Him. 3. The obdurate becomes penitent. 4. The disobedient becomes obedient. 5. The earthly-minded now seeks things above. II. THE AGENCY. 1. Not by baptism, thought, reading, the following of good examples, fear, the intrinsic efficacy of prayer, or the merit of any reforms and confessions. 2. But by the Holy Ghost. Various means may concur, but He is the solitary agent. III. THE OF THE CHANGE is seen in 1. The opposition which it meets with from the world. 2. The agent. If it be wrought by the Spirit it must be necessary; for “ if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,” etc. 3. Natural disqualification for the kingdom of God. Conclusion. 1. Make this a practical question. 2. Never forget that the new birth is accomplished only by God. 3. Think of the great blessings it brings. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) Regeneration necessary to a capacity for heaven Consider what heaven is. I. SOCIETY WITH CHRIST. Christ prayed that those whom the Father gave Him might be with Him. Paul tells us that we shall be for ever with the Lord, and John that the glorified see Christ’ s face. Should you like to be with Christ at this moment? With that Prophet to whom you will not listen! That High Priest whose atonement you despise! That King on whose laws you trample! II. THE ABODE OF THOSE WHO LOVE CHRIST. “ Eye hath not seen,” etc. Do you imagine that it will give you joy to be with those whose every pulse beats in admiration of Christ? Try it now. Would you choose their society as that which would give you pleasure? Do you not shun it, because your heart is alienated from Christ. III. WHERE THE PURE IN HEART ARE, and the spirits of just men made perfect; where there is no fault. Are you ready for that company? Why there is not one of the habits and sentiments of heaven that does not thwart and contradict and condemn your own. Conclusion. 1. Do you venture to think that death will effect a change? The Word of God forbids the expectation. 2. If by any means you could enter heaven as you are, it would be your hell. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) Regeneration necessary to admission into heaven The reasons which illustrate the statement of our text are most plain. I. THE OF GOD WOULD BE by the admission of the unregenerate into heaven. God placed man here for His glory, endowed him with many faculties, lavished His love, revealed His will, and for this purpose, a purpose which man has frustrated wholesale by doing the abominable thing that He hates. II. IT WOULD PUT THE ON THE NAME OF CHRIST, who has come into the world to die for sinners, and offers them peace here and glory hereafter. Notwithstanding all this, He is actually or virtually rejected. To bring the unregenerate to heaven, therefore, would be on some other ground than that Christ has died. Can God the Father do it? Nay, it is His will that all should honour the Son as they honour Him. III. IT WOULD THE HOLY SPIRIT, whose work is to convince of sin, sanctify, and prepare men for heaven. All this is set before the unregenerate; and instead of receiving His grace, they do despite unto it; and those who do this, the apostle tells us, will die without mercy. IV. IT WOULD INFLICT A WOUND ON THE OF EVERY SAINT. It would be like the introduction of a pestilence into that pure climate. The story of Eden would be renewed, and heaven ultimately become like earth. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) The regenerate endowed with a meetness for heaven and a title to it As certainly as the unregenerate are excluded from heaven shall the regenerate find admission there. I. WHAT IS THE TITLE? The merit of Christ applied to the soul of the sinner. The first characteristic of a regenerate soul is that he believes. So he who is regenerate, being a believer in Christ, has the one title to everlasting life. II. WHAT IS THE . 1. Love to the Saviour, “ Whom having not seen ye love.” How can they do otherwise? And they prove their love by the application of every test that is available--zeal, delight in communion with Him, friendship with His people, obedience to His will. 2. As the glorified are also made perfect in holiness, the regenerate are being sanctified, and their hearts are being purified to see God. 3. As in heaven God’ s “ servants serve Him,” so the regenerate are prepared to join them by holy, ungrudging, joyful activity. 4. If it be a characteristic of heaven that its inhabitants are lifted above all that is low in the inferior world and are occupied with spiritual pleasures and employments, so the regenerate, led by the Spirit, set their affections on things above. III. THIS IS TRUE OF THE WHOLE OF THOSE WHO ARE BY GRACE. The promise is not made to vigorous faith and experienced piety, and unusual attainments, but to faith in its least beginnings, to holiness in its simplest elements, to the very first and feeblest work of Divine grace. In conclusion. The danger of the unregenerate serves to fasten on our minds the importance of this great change, and the blessedness attached to it should animate us to seek it. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) The means of becoming regenerate I. THE AGENT is God alone, by His Spirit. If therefore any man denies this work of the Spirit, he has every reason to believe he will be lost. II. THE which the Spirit uses. 1. The Word of God, principally as a revelation of the grace of Christ. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and manifests them to the soul. “ Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth.” 2. But while we are called to use this instrumentality, there are many habits of the ungodly man which incapacitate him from using the Scriptures well, and which must be removed. Levity, worldliness, pride; every habit of known sin must be broken off. 3. The Scripture next directs (1) To a course of duty and the formation of such habits which becomes a man who hopes to become a child of God. (2) The abandonment of ensnaring society, and the use of the various ordinances of religion. III. THE ACTUAL PROCESS. In the use of the various means the Spirit meets the unconverted and 1. Humbles him with a revelation of Christ, and convicts him of the sin of unbelief, and leads him to a realization of his ruined condition. 2. Creates the desire for salvation, and helps him to wrestle with God for it. 3. Instructs and assists the penitent to embrace the offer of salvation. He believes in Christ, and commits himself to Christ. 4. Believing in the Son of God, he is admitted into the Divine family. And then 5. Leads the now renewed person to gratitude and delight in the commands of God; and never leaves him till that regeneration is completed in entire renovation, when he re.attains to the lost image of God, and is conducted through grace to glory. (B. W. Noel, M. A.) Repentance before theology The way to begin a Christian life is not to study theology. Piety before theology. Right living will produce right thinking. Yet many men, when their consciences are aroused, run for catechisms, and commentaries, and systems. They do not mean to be shallow Christians. They intend to be thorough, if they enter upon the Christian life at all. Now, theologies are well in their place; but repentance and love must come before all other experiences. First a cure for your sin-sick soul, and then theologies. Suppose a man were taken with the cholera, and, instead of sending for a physician, he should send to a book-store, and buy all the books which have been written on the human system, and, while the disease was working in his vitals, he should say, “ I’ ll not put myself in the hands of any of these doctors. I shall probe this thing to the bottom.” Would it not be better for him first to be cured of the cholera? (H. W.Beecher.) The need of sinners is to be born again Suppose they could be born again. Suppose they could be made to love the things which they now hate, and hate the things which they now love. New hearts and right spirits are the need of London outcasts. How can these be produced? In the hand of God the Holy Ghost, this is exactly what faith works in the heart. Here is a watch. “ It wants cleaning.” Yes, clean it. “ It does not go now it wants a new glass.” Well, put in a new glass. “ It does not go any the more. It wants new hands.” Get new hands by all means. Still it does not go. What is the matter with it? The maker says that it needs a mainspring. There’ s the seat of the evil: nothing can be right till that is rectified. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The heart must be changed A man may beat down the bitter fruit from an evil tree until he is weary; whilst the root abides in strength and vigour, the beating down of the present fruit will not hinder it from bringing forth more. This is the folly of some men; they set themselves with all earnestness and diligence against the appearing eruption of lust, but leaving the principle and root untouched, perhaps unsearched out, they make but little or no progress in this work of mortification. (John Owen.) Regeneration preceded by conviction If you had an old house, and any friend of yours were to say, “ John, I will build you a new house. When shall I begin?” “ Oh!” you might say, “ begin next week to build the new house.” At the end of the week he has pulled half your old house down. “ Oh,” say you, “ this is what you call building me a new house, is it? You are causing me great loss: I wish I had never consented to your proposal.” He replies, “ You are most unreasonable: how am I to build you a new house on this spot without taking the old one down?” And so it often happens that the grace of God does seem in its first work to make a man even worse than he was before, because it discovers to him sins which he did not know to be there, evils which had been concealed, dangers never dreamed of. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Regeneration defined It is that great change which God works in the soul, when He brings it into life; when He raises it from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. It is the change wrought in the whole soul by the Almighty Spirit of God, when it is “ created anew in Christ Jesus,” when it is “ renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness” ; when the love of the world is changed into the love of God, pride into humility, passion into meekness; hatred, envy, malice, into a sincere, tender, disinterested love for all mankind. In a word, it is that change whereby the earthly, sensual, devilish mind is turned into the “ mind which was in Christ Jesus.” This is the nature of the new birth. “ So is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (J. Wesley.) The need of regeneration If I enter a place where there is a musical performance, my ticket entitles me to cross the threshold; but if I have no musical ear, I can have no enjoyment. In the same manner, if you have a right in something done for you that will warrant and enable you to cross the threshold of heaven, yet if you have no heart prepared for the exercises and the joys of heaven it can be no happiness to you. (Dr. Cumming.) The heart must be changed A man may be reformed in his habits and yet not be transformed in his heart. When the icicles are hanging in winter from the eaves of a cottage, will it suffice that the inhabitant should take his axe and hew them down one by one till the fragments are scattered in powdery ruin upon the pavement beneath? Will the work so done be done effectually? Surely a few hours’ warm shining of the sun would do it in a far better and much shorter way? (Ryland.) Conversion a change of nature How foolish and ignorant we should deem an artificer who, having taken a piece of iron, should melt and mould, file and polish it, and then imagine that it has become gold. It shines, it is true, but is its brilliancy a proof that it is no longer iron? And does not God require pure and refined gold, that is to say, a perfect righteousness and a perfect holiness! Say, ye sages of this world, shall any metal but that of the sanctuary find currency in heaven? Or shall God mistake what is false for what is genuine, and shall He confound the hypocritical outward show of human morality with that everlasting life which partakes of His own nature, and which the Holy Spirit alone implants within the soul which He has new created? Regeneration more than reformation It is not mere reformation; not the renovation of that which was dilapidated--the repairing of the old house, and making it as good as new; bat it is a reconstruction of the house upon a new foundation--the house itself being built anew from that foundation to the copestone. The meaning of this, however, is not that the renewed man is then a different being as to his identity. The house in which the leprosy had become a fretting plague, when taken down every stone of it, and built again in due time, was not a different house from that which it had previously been. The materials were still the same--the design and form were the same even to the most minute details; and, in the case of the new birth, the “ spirit, and soul, and body,” are the same in personal identity, but they are “ made new.” (J. Beith, D. D.) Regeneration a great change Dr. Lelfchild tells us that he once met a lad twelve years old at a tollgate, who had a Testament in his hand. “ Can you read it?” inquired the doctor. “ To be sure I can. I can read to you this, ‘ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’“ “ What does that mean, my boy?” The lad quickly replied. “ It means a great change. To be born again means something here” (laying his hand upon his breast), “ and the kingdom of God means something up yonder.” That boy had got hold of the very core of Bible theology. But what was so clearly revealed to that lad in his Bible was yet a mystery and a puzzle to the Jewish ruler. The physical effects of regeneration In the case of the drunkard there are two diseases in him: one of the mind, the other of the body; the one a depravation of his affections, the other a vitiation of his nerves. Now when such a person comes to be regenerated, the process does not cure the disease; the craving continues for some time; and when at last the nerves may be restored to a healthful tone, and the regenerated man is no longer tormented with the woeful thirst, this is not the result of any healing power put forth by the regenerating Spirit on his bodily organization, but the natural physiological effect of his regenerated mind having resolutely adopted habits of sobriety. So it is with all other habits and appetites. It is the mind alone on which regeneration acts, and the mind when changed reduces the rebellious flesh to order. (W. Anderson, D. D.) The terms of regeneration It is called a renovation of the soul, or its being made new; a transformation of the soul on its being changed into another likeness; a translating of the soul, or its being brought from one position and placed in another; a quickening of the soul, or its receiving new life; a resurrection of the soul, or its being raised from the dead; a new creation of the soul, or its being created anew by Him who made it; the washing of the soul, or its purification from defilement; the healing of the soul, or its deliverance from disease; the liberation of the soul, or its emancipation from bondage; the awakening of the soul, or its being aroused out of sleep; and it is compared to the change wrought in the blind when they receive their sight; on the deaf when their hearing is restored; on the lepers when they are cleansed; on the dead when they are raised to life. (J. Buchanan, D. D.) The necessity of regeneration If birth and religious advantages could do anything to put a man into the kingdom of God, Nicodemus could surely claim to be there. His descent went back without a break to Abraham, to whom is was pledged that in his seed should the whole earth be blessed; he belonged to a nation marked off as God’ s peculiar people by deliverances and promises such as belonged to no others. If ever a man could claim to belong to God by religious observance and association this man could. Upon him was the sign and seal of his belonging to God, the mark of that initial sacrament with all its significance; he was constant in prayer, in the study of the Scriptures, and in the observance of the law. If external ceremonies could set a man in the kingdom of God, none could stand more securely than Nicodemus, who through every day and every hour of his life was subject to all kind of religious exercises, and ceremonies carried out with a scrupulous jealousy. If religion is in notions, scriptural and orthodox notions, in reverent feelings, in devout prayers, in generous sentiments, here then is a man in need of nothing. Yet this is the man to whom it is spoken, “ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” What then, was all this a cumbersome folly? This Jewish arrangement of training and worship; circumcision, altars, priests, sacrifices, prophecies--was it all no good, even though God Himself had arranged and commanded it? Even so; it was all useless, unless there is something more, and greater than it all. No good, precisely as food and light and air, as education and commerce and civilization, are no good to a dead man. Put life into him--then all these things shall wait upon him and minister to him and bless him. But he must live first. Sacraments, services, sermons, Scriptures, creeds, may minister to life--but there must be life first of all. (Mark Guy Pearse.) The great change I. ITS NATURE: entirely spiritual. 1. In its subject--the soul. It is not an external reform merely, but an internal renovation--a change of mind and heart taking effect (1) On the understanding, when it is enlightened. (2) On the conscience, when it is convinced. (3) On the will, when it is subdued. (4) On the affections, when they are refined and purified. (5) On the whole man, when he is transformed by the renewing of his mind and created anew. 2. In its Author--the Spirit of God. It belongs to Him (1) To enlighten the darkened understanding by shining into it. (2) To awaken the slumbering conscience by convincing it of sin. (3) To subdue our rebellious wills, by making us willing in the day of His power. (4) To take away the stony heart and give us hearts of flesh. 3. In its means--the Word of God. II. ITS . 1. Precedent instruction, conviction, repentance, faith. 2. Consequent progressive sanctification. III. ITS . 1. From the fallen nature of man. An unconverted man is out of the kingdom of God, and is incapable of entering it until born again. 2. From the character of God. No unregenerate man can enter the kingdom of God, because (1) It is impossible for God to do what implies a manifest contradiction, such as is involved in the idea that a fleshly mind can, without a radical change, become the subject of a spiritual kingdom. (2) Because it is impossible for God to lie, and He has expressly said that we must be converted or condemned. God is said to repent, but only when man himself repents. (3) Because it is impossible for God to deny Himself or act in opposition to His infinite perfections. The supposition that a sinful man may enter His kingdom implies that He must (a) Rescind the law of His moral government. (b) Depart from His declared design in the scheme of redemption. (c) Reverse the moral constitution of man. (d) Alter the whole character of His kingdom. (J. Buchanan, D. D.) The lesson by night I. The clear deliverance, by implication at least, on the doctrine of THE OF HUMAN NATURE. It is to this man with his morality and unblemished life, a teacher of the only true religion, and not to some sin-defiled creature, that the Saviour speaks. Christ knew what was in man, and this is in man. II. THE RADICAL OF THE OF CHRIST. In order to meet this great need religion goes to the root of everything within us, transforming all and “ creates us anew in Christ Jesus.” III. THE OF THIS . It is a law of the kingdom of Christ never to be annulled. 1. One man comes strong in life’ s integrities. 2. Another radiant in social charities. 3. Another religious according to his own ideas. They see the gates open, but the law shines above it, “ Except,” etc. These virtues do not go far enough, and leave untouched life’ s centre and essence. At the root of all virtues is the claim which God has on the love of His creatures. A just man who “ robs God” ! A tender-hearted man who has no love for Jesus Christi A religious man who expects to get into the kingdom by outward ordinances! What contradictions! IV. Although this law is radical and inexorable, THERE IS NOTHING UNIFORM AS TO TIMES AND MODES. There is endless variety. It may be by love or fear, with difficulty or ease, etc. It follows the lines of our individuality, and is suitable to our circumstances. V. THIS GREAT CHANGE IS VERY BLESSED. Why should it be regarded as a stern necessity? It is a glorious privilege. It is described as seeing or entering a kingdom of which God is King; as being born again into the family of which God is Father. Philosophy tells me to think again and be wiser, and I think till my brain is giddy. Morality tells me I must act again and be better, and I whip my conscience, but make little way. Philanthrophy tells me to feel again with quicker sympathy. But in that I fail. Priesthood and priestcraft tell me that I must pray, etc., again. Yes! but the burden of it. Jesus tells me I must be born again. That is gospel for me. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Regeneration, or the second birth I. WHAT IS ? 1. Not a ritual or ceremonial change. Outward washing cannot confer inward grace. The spirit birth is necessary for admission into the spiritual kingdom. 2. Not morality. Good citizenship, honesty, integrity, natural affection, may elevate and bless this human life; but more is necessary to qualify for saintly and Divine fellowship in the upper world. 3. Not self-culture. 4. Regeneration is coming into the Divine realm, into the spiritual kingdom, into right relations with God and heaven, through Jesus Christ. It is a new life, above the senses, above the earthly, above the material. It is the faith faculty. No more aliens, but children. II. HOW MAY I KNOW THAT I HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN, THAT I AM A CHILD OF GOD? 1. The direct witness of the Holy Ghost. 2. The conjoint testimony of our own spirit. My consciousness affirms the fact. 3. The predominance of grace. The new government is supreme. The renewed soul stands ready for orders. 4. There will be difficulty in sinning. The new nature shrinks from sin as a tender and sensitive plant shrinks ,from the north wind’ s blast. 5. There will be affinity for God. Fellowship with Father and Son. 6. There will be Christian joy and comfort. The rapture of a soul rescued from sin and hell, and adopted into God’ s family. III. THE OF . Spiritual life is an essential condition for the spiritual kingdom. Without it you can have no vital union with God, and no knowledge of the spiritual life. What would you do in heaven with an unregenerated nature? A stranger in a strange land; a beggar amid bounty; blind amid beauty; deaf amid waves of song; hungry, yet with no taste for heavenly joys--you would be out of place there. (C. P.Masden, D. D.) John 3:4-8 How can a man be born when he is old?--The incredulous listener I. THE AMAZED (John 3:4). 1. Its origination: astonishment and perplexity. 2. Its intention: investigation and inquiry. 3. Its explanation: the new birth an impossibility. II. THE SUBLIME . 1. The exposition (John 3:5), in which are noticeable (1) That the former truth is repeated with the old solemnity, authority, particularity, universality, certainty. Christ conceded nothing to the rank and character of His interlocutor. (2) That the hard truth is explained with much simplicity, fulness, kindness, and condescension, also furnishing a pattern for His followers in general and His official servants in particular. 2. The argumentation (John 3:6). The law of propagation is one throughout the realm of animated existence--every creature after its kind. (1) In the sphere of matter like produces like (Matthew 7:16; Luke 6:44). (2) In the loftier domain of man, nature can never rise higher than itself. III. THE SUBLIME . 1. The natural phenomenon: the wind, selected as an emblem of the Spirit, probably because of (1) Its etherial character; (2) Its free motion; (3) Its inscrutable mystery. 2. The spiritual interpretation (John 3:8). The Spirit’ s grace is like the wind in respect of (1) Its origin, coming from heaven. (2) Its sovereignty, blowing where it listeth. (3) Its movement, going softly. (4) Its influence, penetrating and quickening. (5) Its results. Lessons 1. The natural blindness of the understanding in the region of the Spirit. 2. The hopefulness of those who bring their intellectual and moral difficulties to Christ. 3. The danger of reasoning that what is impossible in nature must be impossible in grace. 4. The moral impotence of human nature. 5. The necessity of regeneration. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The reasoning with Nicodemus I. A RE- OF THE WITH SOME CHANGE IN THE FORM OF . 1. We must be born of water. This describes a change of condition, from guilt and condemnation to righteousness and acceptance. “ Water” emblematically represents Christ’ s obedience as the substitute of those who are saved by Him, and to be “ born” represents the application of that obedience for salvation. Baptism is the symbol el this change of condition. 2. We must be born of the Spirit, which describes a change of character as distinguished from a change in condition. This change may be small in its beginnings. It is the origin which has progress unto perfection for its completion. With this new life and its growth will come the gradual decay of all unholy principles, until they are wholly destroyed. II. AN IN SUPPORT OF THE OF . 1. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. (1) Flesh means our fallen nature--the source and seat of evil within the soul. The body is but the instrument through which the inherent corruption acts. (2) This nature can never be anything else than that which Scripture declares it to be. Treat it as you will, improve it by what cultivation you can, it is flesh still. 2. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (1) This is to have a new life and a new nature, not to have some faculties set against others, but the possession of all the faculties by the Holy Spirit, and their renewal in the image of God. (A. Beith, D. D.) Nicodemus I. Nicodemus did not deny the doctrine of the new birth; he merely started a difficulty. He was a literalist, and doubted the exactness of the term born: it was too specific in its common meaning to be literally applied to anything else. Christ’ s answer was consistent with His whole method of teaching. The strangeness of His language excited attention, provoked thought, and awakened controversy, and so through a process of inquiry and strife men entered into the mystery of His rest. It seems as if every one must at some time have doubts and anguish of heart respecting Christ and His kingdom. II. Nicodemus was one of those persons who always ground their course on facts. The facts which he had observed led to the conclusion that Christ was a teacher come from God, because of His miracles: an admission of the utmost importance. If the works are from God, what of the words? Yet important as the admission was, Christ returned an answer which apparently had no bearing on the subject of miracles; and yet He did not evade it. He showed incidentally the true position and value of His mighty works. They were symbolic of one great miracle, and unless a man is the subject of that miracle, his belief in other miracles will not admit him into the kingdom of heaven. Other miracles were to be looked at, were public, material, gave new views; the miracle of regeneration was to be felt, was personal, moral, and gave new life. III. This call from outward circumstances to the deepest experience of the soul naturally suggested the question “ How can these things be?” Christ’ s answer does not clear the original mystery. His meaning is that we are not to deny results because we cannot understand processes. We may see a renewed life, but cannot see the renewing spirit. In His metaphor Christ found a common law in nature and in grace; the Spirit is the same whether He direct the course of the wind or renew the springs of the heart. Man occupies an outside position. There are limitations to his knowledge. He does not understand himself; The atom baffles him. The wise man only knows his own folly. IV. These considerations show the spirit in which the subject of the new birth should be approached--one of self-restraint, of conscious limitation of ability, of preparedness to receive not a confirmation of speculative opinion but a Divine revelation. The shock of this new life comes differently. 1. Sometimes on the intellectual side, as in the case of Nicodemus, throwing into confusion the theories of a lifetime. 2. Sometimes on the selfish instincts, as in the case of the rich young man who cannot give his possessions to the poor. 3. Sometimes on the natural sensibilities, as in the case of Bunyan. Hence the folly of setting up a common standard. A man only knows the agonies of the new birth by giving up what be prizes most. V. What Jesus Christ has left a mystery it would be presumption to attempt to explain. We hear the sound of the wind, we cannot follow it all the way. Can we explain how a child is born? when the child is displaced by the man? the origin and succession of ideas? Yet as the sound of the wind is heard, so there are results which prove the fact of our regeneration. These of course may be simulated, just as a watch may be altered by the hands and not by the regulator, or as the ruddiness of the cheek may be artificial and not natural. The re-generate man is known by the spirit which animates his life. 1. He lives by rule, but it is the unwritten and unchanging rule of love. 2. He advances in orderliness, but it is the orderliness not of mechanical stipulation, but of vigorous and affluent life. 3. He is constantly strengthened and ennobled by an inextinguishable ambition to be filled with all the fulness of Christ. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Natural ignorance Water riseth no higher than the spring whence it came; so the natural man can ascend no higher than nature. (J. Trapp.) Amazing ignorance It is said that Robert Hall once visited a poor man in his sickness; and, during his conversation with him, the man every now and then knocked with a stick the board at the head of the bed. Mr. Hall, rather annoyed by this interruption, asked his reason for such strange conduct. The man replied, that the Bible commanded him to knock, and it should be opened unto him. Ignorance in learned men “ I used frequently,” says Cecil, “ to visit Dr. Bacon at his living near Oxford. He would frequently say to me, ‘ What are you doing? What are your studies?’ ‘ I am reading so-and-so.’ ‘ You are quite wrong. When I was young I could turn any piece of Hebrew into Greek verse with ease. But when I came into this parish, and had to teach ignorant people, I was wholly at a loss; I had no furniture. They thought me a great man, but that was their ignorance, for I knew as little as they did of what it was most important for them to know. Study chiefly what you can turn to good account in your future life.” Ignorance of religion Samuel Wesley visited one of his parishioners as he was upon his dying bed--a man who had never missed going to church in forty years. “ Thomas, where do you think your soul will go?” “ Soul!, soul!” said Thomas. “ Yes, sir,” said Mr. Wesley, “ do you not know what your soul is?” “ Ay, surely,” said Thomas; “ why it is a little bone in the back that lives longer than the body.” “ So much,” says John Wesley, who related it on the authority of Dr. Lupton, who had it from his father, “ had Thomas learned from hearing sermons, and exceedingly good sermons, for forty years.” (Anecdotes of the Wesleys.) Except a man be born of water and of the SpiritThe Holy Spirit’ s work The translation of the soul from “ death to life,” “ from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. I. Its necessity. 1. As natural birth is necessary to our present existence, so also is spiritual birth to our spiritual existence. 2. Unless we are born of the Spirit we “ cannot see the kingdom of God.” Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 3. Without this birth no man “ can enter the kingdom of God.” Nominal membership in the Church will not save us. It is only as we are spiritually born that we may confidently hope to enter heaven. II. ITS NATURE. 1. It is divine or spiritual in its origin: “ That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” 2. It is a supernatural change, “ Except a man be born again,” or, as in the margin, “ from above.” 3. It is the impartation of a new principle of a spiritual life, “ Whereas I was blind, now I see.” Before the change we “ were dead in trespasses and sins” ; but after it we are “ made alive unto God.” 4. It is a cleansing of the soul from all sin in the blood of Jesus Christ. (L. O.Thompson.) No admission to heaven but by the new birth I. WHAT WE WERE TO BY THE KINGDOM OF GOD. This expression seems to have been borrowed from the Book of Dan 2:44; Daniel 7:13-14), and hence it was in common use amongst the Luke 17:20; Luke 19:11), and they justly supposed it to mean, the kingdom of the Messiah; only imagining, in the pride and carnality of their hearts, and in direct opposition to many passages of their own Scriptures, that it would be of a temporal nature, established by human policy and power. The kingdom of the Messiah is termed the kingdom of God; because by Him the kingdom of Satan is overthrown, men are rescued from his power (Acts 26:18), and made the subjects of God, the kingdom of God is set up on earth, and displayed in power and glory. This kingdom is to be considered in two parts; in a state of infancy, imperfection, and warfare, on earth, in which it is continually receiving fresh subjects, making fresh conquests, and is enlarged more and more; and in a state of triumph and full perfection in heaven. II. IN WHAT SENSE MUST WE BE BORN OF WATER AND OF THE SPIRIT THAT WE MAY ENTER THIS KINGDOM. 1. Birth by water implies baptism (Mark 16:16). When administered by the apostles to adults, it was only to such as repented and believed Acts 2:38; Acts 8:36-37), and hence was considered an outward and visible sign of cleansing from past sin and pardon (Acts 22:16; Acts 13:8). This is a relative change, a change of state. But 2. Birth of the Spirit is a real change; a change of nature (2Co Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 4:22-23). (1) It is not only an external but an internal change; not mere reformation of manners, but change of principles and dispositions (Psalms 51:10; Ezekiel 36:26). (2) It is not a partial but a universal change: “ Old things have passed,” etc. (3) It is a progressive change (Titus 3:5; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Colossians 2:19; Ephesians 4:15). 3. It is termed a birth because it may be illustrated by the natural birth. III. THE GRAND , , AND HAPPY OF THIS BIRTH. 1. Flesh means not so much our animal and mortal as our depraved nature Genesis 6:3; Genesis 8:21; Romans 8:9; Galatians 5:16). Man has sunk under the dominion of his senses, appetites and passions. Men are therefore naturally unfit for the kingdom (Romans 8:5; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:5). Hence arises the necessity of being born again. 2. The Spirit having begotten us again, and inwardly changed us, we become spiritual. Endued with the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9); with the life, light, power, purity, and comfort, which he imparts. Free from the dominion of the flesh, we become heavenly, overcoming the world (1 John 5:4-5). Holy, not committing sin (1 John 3:9), having power over it, and over “ the law in the members” (Romans 7:23); walking “ not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1), “ crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts,” and “ led by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-25); divine, resembling God in love and in all its fruits (1 John 4:7; John 8:16). We thus are made fit subjects for the kingdom of Christ on earth and in heaven. IV. HOW WE MAY THIS NEW BIRTH. The Author of it is the Spirit of God; the means by which it is effected are the Word of God John 17:17). (J. Benson.) Baptismal regeneration I. IT IS CLEARLY OPPOSED TO THE SPIRIT AND DESIGN OF OUR LORD’ S TO (cf. John 3:3; John 3:6; John 3:8; and Mark 16:1-20., where “ believeth not” is disassociated from baptism) . II. IT IS OPPOSED TO THE AND OF ST. PAUL (1 Corinthians 1:14-18). Had it regenerated, his wisest method would have been to baptize. III. It has AN AWFUL AND MOST ASPECT ON THE DESTINY OF THE . Think of the myriads infant and adult who on this hypothesis are lost, and contrast it with “ Suffer little children,” etc. IV. IT OFFERS GREAT TO THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND IS AT WITH VIEWS OF THE NATURE AND OF HIS AND GRACE. Look at thousands who have been baptized. Have they fallen from grace? When did they ever evidence the possession of it? V. IT IS TO PRODUCE THE MOST RUINOUS , that a man is safe by a mere ceremonial without a moral change. VI. IT DIVERTS THE MIND FROM THE OF DIVINE TRUTH AND FIXES ITS ON . The truth is the agency which the Scripture set forth of regeneration. (H. F.Burder, D. D.) The general teaching of our Lord I. THAT THERE SHOULD BE A CHANGE IN THE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE; that it was not sufficient for them to do the works of the law if they would be saved; and that with this change the old rites had passed away. II. THAT FROM THE OF MEN TO GOD WAS TO BE A NEAR , for a new birth implies a new filiation, and that whereas they had been in the state of servants, this should pass away and they become sons. III. THAT THE GATES OF HEAVEN, THE NEW , WERE NOW THROUGH THE NEW BIRTH TO BE OPENED TO ALL MEN, both Jews and Gentiles, that none could see the kingdom of God without the new birth, but that the new born should see and enter that kingdom. IV. THAT ALL THESE SHOULD BE THROUGH CHRIST. (Beaux Amis.) The baptism of water and of the Spirit The Spirit in regeneration worketh like water. I. Water hath the property of , to wash away the filth of our bodies. So the Spirit 1. Besprinkling us with the blood of Christ assureth us that the guilt of sin is taken away, and 2. Applying to us the virtue of Christ’ s death causes sin to die, and so washes away the filth of sin and sanctifies us. And this is the first degree of spiritual life, to have sin die and decay in us, as Paul (Galatians 2:20) joins his being crucified with Christ, and living by faith in Christ, together. II. Water causes , as drought does famine (Job 8:11). Hence was Egypt’ s fruitfulness, because of the Nile’ s inundations. And hence the regenerate man is compared to the trees planted by the rivers of water (Psalms 1:1-6.), because the presence of the Holy Ghost is the same to them, that waters to the willows (Isaiah 44:3-5). III. Water cools and allays heat (Psalms 42:1). So the Spirit cools the heat of our raging and accusing consciences pursued by the law. (J. Dyke.) Regeneration I. THE KINGDOM OF GOD. The expression was a Jewish one, and the Jew would understand by it society perfected. That domain on earth where God was visible and God ruled. The Jewish kingdom was a theocracy: a kingdom in which God’ s power was manifest by miracles, and in which His laws were promulgated. This was Nicodemus’ conception. He saw that Christ fulfilled the two requisites of a Divine mission--asserting a living will ruling over the laws of nature. He had seen a society growing up in acknowledgment of the rule of a person. But Christ asserted the necessity that the subject should be prepared for the kingdom. He distinguished between the visible and the invisible kingdom--the presence that man can see, and the presence that man can feel. Nicodemus saw Christ first when he gazed on the miracles. Christ told him he could not see or enter the other save by being barn again. II. THE TO THIS KINGDOM. As there is a twofold kingdom, so a twofold entrance. 1. By the baptism of water. We enter the kingdom by our senses and our spirit. God’ s witness to our senses is baptism. This is not the fact of our regeneration, but it substantiates the fact. The right of a man to his ancestor’ s property is the will or intention of the ancestor. But because that will is invisible it is necessary that it should be made manifest in a visible symbol, viz., a “ Will.” So baptism is the Will of God, i.e, the instrument that declares His will. The will itself is invisible; verbally it runs, “ It is your Father’ s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” ; the visible instrument equivalent to the parchment is baptism. And so baptism is regeneration only as the parchment is the will. 2. Entrance into the kingdom by a spiritual change. The ground on which our Lord states it is our twofold human nature--the nature of the animal and the nature of God. When these natures are exchanged is the moment of spiritual regeneration. Our Lord’ s phrase has been interpreted (1) In a fanatical way. Men of enthusiastic temperament, whose lives have been irregular, and whose religion has come upon them suddenly, contend that if a man does not know the hour of his conversion he is no Christian. (2) Another class of persons, to whom enthusiasm is a crime, rationalize the change away, contending that it applies to Jews, and that to say that it is necessary to those brought up in the Church of England is to open the door to all fanaticism. (3) A third class confound it with baptism, which seems equally opposed to the text. (4) In our life there is a time when the Spirit has gained the mastery over the flesh. That time was the time of regeneration. There are those in whom this never takes place--grown men still having and indulging animal appetites. These may have been born of water but never of the Spirit. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Regeneration--its subjective aspect Our Lord’ s sermon was delivered 1. Not to the multitude, as were His other discourses, but to an audience of one. But the smallness of the auditory did not affect the sublimity of what Christ said, or His earnestness. The elder Beecher was called upon to preach in a country chapel where, owing to the weather, he had but one hearer. Twenty years after Mr. Beecher met this person, then an eminently successful preacher, and the instrument of hundreds of conversions, as a result of this sermon. Preachers should never despair because of small audiences. 2. This solitary hearer lacked two very desirable qualities in an inquirer--boldness and quickness. Yet on the other hand he was teachable, and was convinced that Christ was qualified to teach. I. THE NATURE OF . The figure indicates the radical character of the formative process of Christianity over the moral nature of its subject. There are other figures equally forcible: “ Creation,” “ renewing,” “ workmanship.” Our Lord’ s term had peculiar significance for a Jew, inasmuch as all His privileges were secured to Him by birth. The others are St. Paul’ s terms, who wrote to Gentiles, who would be more familiar with artistic and mechanical operations. Both describe the same process, but represent two distinct truths respecting it. Creation has a wider meaning than birth. Every new existence is a creation, but that of Adam, e.g., was immediate--but the production of a new man in Christ Jesus is mediate, viz., by birth. II. ITS SPHERE “ from above.” The source of the new principle is outside the earthly. Natural birth ushers into a conscious life only on an earthly plane; but spiritual birth ushers into a conscious life on a heavenly plane. Its starting point is from above, and it maintains its spiritual elevation along its whole course. III. ITS METHOD. 1. By the breathing of the Spirit. The same method is adopted to quicken the new man as was employed to quicken the old. “ God breathed into his nostrils,” etc., etc. 2. The breathing of the Spirit assumes the form of a voice. In Adam’ s case God breathed into his nostrils; in our case the Spirit breaths into the ear. “ Of His own will begat He us,” etc. 3. This exercise is (1) Sovereign--not to justify arbitrary selection of subjects, but to show God’ s right and purpose to extend the exercise of His grace beyond the limits set down by the exclusive notions of self-righteous men (Romans 9:15). Our Lord was explaining the kingdom: one of its most glorious features is universality. (2) Mysterious. Life in its physical form has ever defied every attempt to solve the mystery of its origin. So with the life spiritual. IV. ITS . The new birth is essential to seeing and to entering the kingdom. “ Seeing” is that power of deep spiritual insight into spiritual things, the absence of which our Lord deplored (Matthew 13:13-17), and which Paul declares to be necessary to understand the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). To see the kingdom of God means to obtain a sympathetic apprehension of its nature and aim. To enter means actual participation in its blessedness. This entering, however, is conducive to the seeing. A building viewed externally is seen, but in a very incomplete sense. We must inhabit it to realize its use, comfort, and protection. (A. J. Parry.) The nature and process of regeneration Yonder is a cracked bell. How again to restore it? By one of two methods. The first is to repair the bell, to encompass it with hoops, to surround it with bands. Nevertheless you can easily discern the crack of the bell in the crack of the sound. The only effectual way is to remelt the bell, recast it, and make it all new; then it will ring clear, round, sonorous as ever. And human nature is a bell suspended high up in the steeple of the creation to ring forth the praises of the Almighty Creator. But in the Fall in Eden the bell cracked. How again to restore it? By one of two ways. One is to surround it with outward laws and regulations as with steel hoops. This is the method adopted by philosophy as embodied in practical statesmanship; and without doubt there is a marked improvement in the sound. Nevertheless the crack in the metal shows itself in the crack in the tone. The best way is to remelt it, recast it, remould it; and this is God’ s method in the gospel. He remelts our being, refashions us, creates us afresh from root to branch, makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus, zealous unto good works; and by and by we will sound forth His praises in a nobler, sweeter strain than ever we did before. Heaven’ s high arches will be made to echo our anthems of praise. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The need of regeneration A raw countryman having brought his gun to the gunsmith for repairs, the latter is reported to have examined it, and finding it to be almost too far gone for repairing, said, “ Your gun is in a very worn-out, ruinous, good-fornothing condition, what sort of repairing do you want for it?” “ Well,” said the countryman, “ I don’ t see as I can do with anything short of a new stock, lock, and barrel; that ought to set it up again.” “ Why,” said the smith, “ you had better have a new gun altogether.” “ Ah!” was the reply, “ I never thought of that; and it strikes me that’ s just what I do want. A new stock, lock, and barrel; why that’ s about equal to a new gun altogether, and that’ s what I’ ll have.” Just the sort of repairing that man’ s nature requires. The old nature cast aside as a complete wreck and good for nothing, and a new one imparted. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The new birth I. Man in a state of nature, or MAN BEFORE . Christ nowhere inculcates the doctrine of the fall, but everywhere assumes it. His doctrine of regeneration presupposes it, “ that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” 1. This depravity is therefore innate--“ born.” In Psalms 51:1-19. David says, “ In sin did my mother conceive me.” No wonder therefore that he should pray, “ Wash me throughly.” Two words are used for “ wash.” (1) The cleansing of the surface, just as a man washes his face. (2) A washing that cleanses the inside as well, as a woman washes clothes. This David’ s word. 2. The turpitude is hereditary. This is a verity of science as well as of theology. Once degeneration enters a species, the process goes on from bad to worse unless a remedial check be applied. Adam begat a son in his own likeness. Like begets like. My personal sin grows out of an undercurrent of evil in the race. 3. Universal. 4. Total. Not that every man is as bad as he can be, but that every faculty is more or less tainted, that the bias of the soul, the whole trend of our being is in the direction of evil. II. Man changed from a state of nature into a state of grace, or MAN BEING . 1. Godliness begins in life. It is not a thing of profession or acquisition, but of birth; not a trade, but a nature. 2. This life is new; not a continuation of the old, but a new creation. Human nature is too dilapidated to be repaired. 3. This life is heavenly: in origin, nature, and direction. Heavenly (1) In opposition to the life of the carnal man. (2) In contradistinction from that which God bestowed on man at his first creation. 4. It is specifically a Divine life. Thus (1) superior to the angelic; (2) to Adamic life; (3) for it is the life of God Himself. Consequently regeneration is a supernatural process; not a miraculous, for Christianity ceased to be miraculous in the first century. The miraculous is only accidental to it, but the supernatural belongs to its essence. III. Man in a state of grace, or MAN AFTER . Once a man is born again 1. He is able to understand the gospel in its spiritual significance and relations. He “ sees” the kingdom. The natural man may receive the thoughts of the Spirit of God, but not the realities represented by the thoughts 2. He “ enters” the kingdom, becomes a denizen of it, a naturalized subject enjoying its privileges and sharing its responsibilities. His “ citizenship is in heaven.” 3. Having entered the kingdom its duties and privileges afford keen enjoyment to the new man. He “ sees,” relishes the kingdom, tastes the heavenly gifts, and that the Lord is gracious. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The new birth I. ITS NATURE. 1. What it is not. (1) Not the outward administration of baptism. Some we see piously disposed from their earliest years who might have had a holy bias imparted, but the great generality are void of gracious dispositions, and cannot have been born again. (2) Not reformation of life. Amendment is the effect, not the precedent of regeneration. The nature of the corrupt tree must be changed ere it can produce good fruits. (3) Not a profession of religion. This may exist when there is no participation in the spirit. Nicodemus was a professor and a distinguished teacher. 2. What it is. (1) A supernatural change above the power of nature. As man cannot create, he cannot recreate himself, cannot quicken himself any more than the buried dead. (2) An internal change. The doctrine of Eze 36:26-27 Christ perpetuates. As the heart is deceitful above all things so it must be changed ere the love of God reigns in it. (3) An universal change, co-extensive with our corruption, affecting all our powers, enlightening the understanding, subduing the will, biassing the disposition, purifying the heart, reforming the life. (4) A sensible change. Sometimes the change is unconscious, but generally sinners are aroused from their slumbers more or less violently (Acts 2:37). In either case it is in its progress and effects always sensible. (5) A visible change. We see the effects of the wind, although not its origin and operation. So a man’ s new birth is evident (1) To himself. He loves and seeks spiritual things, whereas formerly he disliked and avoided them. (2) To others. (a) To the regenerate who find a congeniality of taste and feeling with them. (b) To the unregenerate, who marvel at the change. II. ITS . 1. From the character of Him who declares it: Christ (1) The Divine Saviour. (2) The Divine Teacher. 2. From its indispensableness to happiness. (1) Present. The world in itself is an unsatisfying, empty portion. The soul craves a higher joy than it can give. The new birth brings joy unspeakable and full of glory. (2) Eternal. Heaven would not be heaven to the unconverted. Its employments, etc., would be offensive. His nature and taste savour not of spiritual things. III. ITS SIGNS. He that is born of God 1. Overcometh the world. 2. Doth not commit sin. 3. Brings forth the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, etc. Application. If the new birth be 1. A supernatural change, do not fancy you can renew yourself, but cry, “ Create in me a clean heart,” etc. 2. An internal change; do not think that the amendment will suffice, but pray that the axe may be laid at the root of the corrupt tree. 3. An universal change; no idol must be retained. 4. A sensible change; see that your acquaintance with truth is experimental, not theoretical. 5. A visible change; let your light shine. (W. Mudge, B. A.) The new birth What a meeting was this between Christ and Nicodemus! 1. The season was most solemn. 2. The theme the most momentous. 3. The hearer a ruler in Israel. 4. The Speaker the great Teacher sent from God. I. THE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. Altogether spiritual. Regeneration by water baptism is a dangerous fallacy. (1) Thousands who have been baptized are unchanged. (2) Christ who came to save the lost never baptized. (3) Paul said, “ I was not sent to baptize,” etc. By baptism we enter the visible kingdom, but by spiritual regeneration the invisible. 1. The agent in this work is a Spirit-the Spirit of God. Some secondary agency is usually employed, the Word of God, etc., but that is only His instrument. 2. The subject is spirit--the soul of man. Regeneration is in its very nature a complete reorganization of the moral man. (1) Correcting what is wrong. (2) Supplying what is deficient. (3) Removing what is superfluous. The works of the devil are destroyed, and the kingdom of righteousness established. 3. The immediate associations are spiritual. The signs may be evident, but the causes are unseen. Therefore the unregenerate cannot understand either spiritual mourning or spiritual joy, because there is nothing that they can see to occasion either. II. ITS RESULTS. 1. It introduces a man into a new world. It seems as though he saw with new eyes, heard with new ears, enjoyed with new senses. 2. It introduces him into a new society where he forms more dignified companionships. Some imagine that to become a Christian is to lose caste. On the contrary it is to be elevated in the rank of being and to have God and the purest and best for friends. 3. It produces a new class of feelings, motives, and desires. Joy where once was sorrow; love of God where once was love of self; aspirations after heaven where once was worldly ambition. 4. It opens new sources of pleasure. III. ITS . 1. From the moral condition of man which is depraved. 2. From the character of heaven, into which the undefiled cannot enter. 3. From the mediatorship of Jesus Christ, who came to bring about the great change. (J. S. Jones.) The new birth If any doctrines are fundamental they are those of justification and regeneration. The former is what God does for us in forgiving our sins, the latter what He does in us in renewing our fallen nature. They are concurrent, but in the order of thought we first conceive His wrath to be turned away and then His Spirit to enter our heart. I. WHY MUST WE BE BORN AGAIN? 1. The foundation of this doctrine lies nearly as deep as the foundation of the world. God created man in His image. (1) Not barely in His natural image--immortal, spiritual, intelligent, freed etc. (2) Nor merely in His political image, as having dominion. (3) But chiefly in His moral image, in love, justice, mercy, truth, purity, and so very good. 2. But man was not made immutable, but placed in a state of trial, able to stand, liable to fall. God apprized him of the penalty of falling--death. Man fell and died--died to God. The body dies when separated from the soul; the soul when separated from God. 3. In Adam all died; so every one that is descended from him comes into the world spiritually dead. Hence the necessity of regeneration. II. HOW MUST A MAN BE BORN AGAIN? 1. We are not to expect any minute, philosophical account of the manner (John 3:8). 2. The phrase was well known to Nicodemus as signifying the transformation of a Gentile proselyte into a son of Abraham. 3. Before a child is born into the world he has eyes, but sees not; senses which are not exercised; has no knowledge. To that manner of existence we do not give the name of life. Only when a man is born do we say he lives. Then his organs of sense are exercised on proper objects. The parallel holds good. Man’ s spiritual senses by nature are locked up. He has no knowledge of or intercourse with God. Only when born by the Spirit of God does he spiritually live. Then his spiritual senses find exercise. He knows God and enjoys Him. 4. From hence appears the nature of the new birth. It is the great change which God works in the soul when He brings it to life; when He raises it from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. III. TO WHAT END IS IT TO BE BORN AGAIN? 1. In order to holiness, which is (1) Not an external religion, a round of outward duties. (2) But the image of God stamped on the heart, which can have no existence till we are renewed in the image of our mind. 2. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 3. Without holiness no happiness. IV. . 1. That baptism is not the new birth, but only the sign of it. 2. That it does not always accompany baptism. 3. That it is not sanctification, which is progressive, whereas regeneration, like generation, is instantaneous. 4. That it is a greater charity to tell a man he needs to be born again than to suppress it. (John Wesley.) The new birth of water and the Spirit As out of the dry wheat one mass or one loaf cannot be made without moisture, so neither could we be made one in Christ Jesus without the water of the Spirit which is from heaven. And as dry earth, except it receive moisture, bears no fruit, so we also, being in the first place a dry tree, could never have become fruitful of life without being watered by the Spirit from above. (T. H. Leary, D. C. L.) Spiritual births Thorwaldsen, who is said to have been born in Copenhagen, when questioned as to his birthplace, replied, “ I don’ t know; but I arrived in Rome, March 8, 1797;” dating his birth, as it were, from the commencement of his artistic career. Shortly after Summerfield arrived in America he met with a distinguished doctor of divinity who asked him where he was born. “ In Dublin and in Liverpool.” “ Oh I how can that be?” The boy-preacher paused a moment, and answered, “ Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?” (S. H. Tyng, D. D.) Born a Christian A person came in the inquiry-room, and I (D.L. Moody) said, “ Are you a Christian?” “ Why,” says she, “ of course I am.” “ Well,” I said, “ how long have you been one? Oh, sir, I was born one!” “ Oh! indeed, then I am very glad to take you by the hand; I congratulate you; you are the first woman I ever met who was born a Christian; you are more fortunate than others, they are born children of Adam.” She hesitated a little, and then tried to make out that, because she was born in England, she was a Christian. Earthly minds love only earthly things Alphonse Karr heard a gardener ask his master permission to sleep for the future in the stable; “ for,” said he, “ there is no possibility of sleeping in the chamber behind the greenhouse, sir; there are nightingales there which do nothing but guggle, and keep up a noise all the night.” The sweetest sounds are but an annoyance to those who have no musical ear; doubtless the music of heaven would have no charms to carnal minds, certainly the joyful sound of the gospel is unappreciated so long as men’ s ears remain uncircumcised. (Feathers for Arrows.) John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again Every man’ s necessity When men are perishing it would be cruel to interest their minds or amuse their fancies. We must give earnest heed to their necessities. Is it famine that slays them? We must give them food. Is it disease? Let us give the medicine. Now the spiritual needs of men are urgent, and the most pressing is their regeneration: they must be born again or lost. The change wrought in regeneration is I. Most . 1. It is more than reformation. 2. More than change of opinion even on the best topics. Notions may be altered again and again and yet a man be no nearer sonship with God. 3. More than priests can convey or ordinances effect. 4. It is a new creature created in us. At every birth a life comes into the world which was not there before, 5. A new experience. To the new-born child everything is new--pain and pleasure. 6. A new world. When a young girl found the Saviour, she said, “ Either I am altogether changed or else the world is.” In fact both are. 7. A new force. At every birth a new worker comes into the world. He is feeble at first, but those tiny hands and feet soon become dexterous. And so when a soul is born a power is put forth from it of which it was unconscious before. II. Most . 1. As to the manner of it. 2. As to the supernaturalness of its operation. No doubt moral suasion, influence of association, education, do much, and much may be developed in mankind that is admirable. But this is not what Christ meant. The Holy Spirit must come to work upon us as God came forth to work on this world at creation. 3. As to the grandeur of the relationship to which it introduces us. To God as children, to Christ as brethren. What privileges spring out of this relationship? Paupers have mounted from the dunghill to the throne, but a stride from nothingness to greatness is trifling compared with rising from being a slave of Satan to become a son of God. III. MOST . The house knows when a child is born. The birth may be mysterious, but the fact is apparent. So we know not how the Spirit works, but the change which comes over the subject shows that He has operated. Elstow knew when Bunyan had found the Saviour. Every soul that is born again 1. Repents of his sin. 2. Has faith. 3. Prays. 4. Develops the spiritual power that has been imparted. IV. MOST . You may be rich or poor, wise or ignorant-many things are desirable, one thing is needful “ Ye must be born again.” If you are not 1. You have no spiritual life, and without that you are dead in trespasses and sins. 2. No spiritual capacity, and so no power to receive the blessing. When the gracious rain comes they are not like Gideon’ s fleece, ready to drink it in, but like a hard stone, neither saturated nor softened. No spiritual inheritance. None can come in for the eterna1 portion but such as are born in the house. V. . The idea of proxy is quite foreign. No other can be born for a man: so the great change must be individually experienced. (C. H. Spurgeon.) (See Revelation 22:17 in connection with the text). The necessity and possibility of the new birth I. MUST be born again, and MAY be born again, are truths which should never be separated. II. MUST without MAY leads to despair. III. MAY without MUST leads to presumption. IV. We MUST, therefore we CAN be born again through the grace vouchsafed from heaven. (Homiletic Monthly.) No entrance to heaven without regeneration Like the rocks which sometimes guard the entrance to a safe and spacious harbour, these words stand. A ship must enter here, or turn back to the wide ocean with no haven or home. “ Ye must be born again.” Of course this does not apply to a man unless he is going in. If any one is quite contented to stay without; if he is well pleased to sail up and down amid storm and calm, thinking that the end of his voyage is well enough attained without making for a port; rounding the world for ever, or at least until a grave shall open by land or sea, and end his travel in the waves or in the dust; if any man deliberately takes that view of his own life, then this law does not touch him. But if he desires to “ see the kingdom of God,” and enter in, he “ must be born again.” That law will not bend, it will not break, it will not stand out of the way. It is inexorable. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Conversion is a great change I passed by a piece of common which some lord of the manor or other had been enclosing, as those rascals always will if they can, to rob the poor of their rights, and filch every morsel of green grass upon which we may freely plant our feet; but I noticed that the enclosers,had only railed it round, but had not dug it up, nor ploughed it, nor planted it; and though they had cut down the gorse, it was coming up again; of course it would, for it was common still, and a bit of fence or rail could not alter it; the furze would come peeping up, and ere long the enclosure would be as wild as the heath outside. But this is not God’ s way of working. When God encloseth a heart that has laid common with sin, does He cut down the thorns and the briars and then plant fir trees? (Isaiah 55:13). No, no; but He so changeth the soil, that from the ground itself, from its own vitality, there spontaneously starts up the fir tree and the myrtle. This is a most wonderful result. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Morality is good, but insufficient “ Is not morality good aa far as it goes?” say you. “ Yes, certainly, as far as it goes.” “ Isn’ t my cable as good as yours, as far as it goes?” says the sailor who has a short cable to him who has one very long. “ Yes,” says the other, “ as far as it goes; but what of that, when it won’ t go within fifty fathoms of bottom?” And of what use, oh moralist, is your cable, when it will not go within fifty fathoms of the place where it can take hold upon the soul’ s anchorage? (H. W.Beecher.) Conversion necessary You may put what you please on a wild colt, a fractious horse from the desert, and it will make no difference with his nature. Put a gold harness on him--a silver harness--a velvet harness. Does one subdue his spirit more than another? I tell you, the horse is mightier than the harness that you put on him. Cover it with ornaments, make it brilliant with rosettes, put on what you please--but there is the horse with his unsubdued nature. And human nature is a wild ass’ s colt. Now, the mere harness of the Church, its external framework, and its outward procedure, are good enough if the men that are under them are good, and they are bad if the men that are under them are bad. It is not anything outside of men, it is the Spirit of God in them--that is the only hope for any Church, sect, or community. (H. W. Beecher.) Conversion a necessity I’ ve seen luxuriant grasses growing on the tops of graves; I’ ve seen flowers springing from the crevices of tombs; and like these are the fair and lovely moralities, and the social virtues which adorn the character of him who is not born of God’ s Spirit. The corpse, with its corruptions, its wasting flesh, and its decaying bones, is beneath the fragrant flowers. (H. W. Beecher.) Conversion a necessity As it would be impossible for the insect in its chrysalis state to observe the laws which are made for the transformed state--for the worm to know the laws which make the summer fly seek the sunshine and live upon the flower--as it must be “ born again,” and enter upon a new existence before it can keep the laws of that new existence; so only the new creature can keep a new commandment--love. (C. Stanford.) Why conversion is necessary As a dead man cannot inherit an estate, no more can a dead soul (and every soul is spiritually dead until quickened and born again of the Holy Ghost) inherit the kingdom of God. Yet sanctification and holiness of life do not constitute any part of our title to the heavenly inheritance, any more than mere animal life entitles a man of fortune to the estate he enjoys. He could not, indeed, enjoy his estate if he did not live; but his claim to his estate arises from some other quarter. In like manner, it is not our holiness that entitles us to heaven; though no man can enter into heaven without holiness. The new birth a necessity:--Suppose a Red Indian should come to this country and should endeavour to obtain the privileges of citizenship, well knowing that a man must be a born subject or he cannot enjoy them. Suppose he says, “ I will change my name, I will take up the name of an Englishman--I have been called the Son of the Great West Wind--but I will take an English name, I will be called a Christian man, an English subject.” Will that admit him? (C. H.Spurgeon.) The wind bloweth where it listethThe Spirit of God Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish Church, and had participated in its rites. He had probably been a listener to John and possibly had been baptized by him. He came to Christ in the spirit of a man who should say, “ What lack I yet?” In reply Christ puts no stress on baptism, because this was the ground on which Nicodemus stood, viz., that he was initiated and had observed the required ordinances of religion. So He said in effect, “ Except a man baptized with water be likewise baptized with the Spirit,” etc. The truth of the Divine influence enforced by Christ I. IS NOT . Among modern discoveries nothing is more striking than the fact that there is a spiritual as well as a physical unity. Nothing is better attested than that upon the minds of men there are influences which spring from invisible sources. Nor is there anything which men more need, or aught so much to desire to be true and accept so willingly as this doctrine that there is a Divine power which wakes up the better part of man’ s nature. Then, again, we are conscious of its inspiring yearnings and longings which we know not how to locate or proportion. II. IS . The fact that the universal tendency of the human mind has been away from the physical and toward the spiritual has to be accounted for. It is not to suffer doubt because fantastic notions have prevailed respecting it. Men sought chemistry through alchemy and astronomy through astrology. But the fact is that as far back as we have records there has been the conception of a free spirit. Where did it come from? III. DOES NOT THE NATURAL . It is not an attempt of the Divine mind to put its action in the place of our action; but lifts our mind into a sphere of activity it has not known before, so changing its feelings and experiences that it is called a new birth. Society ministers to our social wants--but only the Spirit can lift our spirits toward the great realm of truth in which it is to develop and live. The physical globe makes provision for the body, but to rise to the invisible and infinite, we need the Spirit who gives vitality and force to all those elements which go with the moral sentiment. IV. AND CO-. Man may prepare himself for friendship and society according to the nature of the relations into which he is going. So may a man prepare his soul to be acted on by the Divine Spirit. There would be summer if there were no farmer; but the farmer knows how to make summer work to advantage for him as otherwise it would not have done. So there would be the universal influence of the Spirit of God if every human being were swept from the earth; but by meeting the Divine Spirit, by opening the soul to and cooperating with Him, men have made themselves the recipients of blessings they would not otherwise have known. V. MAY BE as well as co-operated with. It is not irresistible; where men set their wills against it, put themselves under antagonistic feelings, resist the tendencies it would have developed, they certainly can set it aside. The strivings of God’ s Spirit have proved futile in thousands of instances. How many have yearnings for something better, and sweep them away by social jollity! VI. IS . Every man is more or less the subject of it, but may not recognize it, and cannot analyse it. If you ask the flower, “ How can you tell that which the sun does in you?” the flower cannot tell. The sun wakes it up, that is all. VII. IS THE BOON, AND ITS LOSS THE . VIII. WORKS CHIEFLY THROUGH GOD’ S WORD. (H. W. Beecher.) The freedom of the Spirit This wind blows where it lists, as it lists, when it lists, as much as it lists, in what manner it lists, and on whom it lists. This Spirit is a gift, and gifts are free (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). (Wm. Austin.) If the Spirit bloweth where it listeth, we are not certainly to exclude any place or nation from these blessed gales, or to the Church or congregation we are of; as if He could blow nowhere else. Learn charity. 1. If the Spirit bloweth how He listeth, we do but show our folly to prescribe to Him His way. He knows what best He has to do, how best to manage us to salvation. Learn discretion. 2. If it be as much too only as He lists, it is not sure our merit or desert, if we have more of Him than others, nor perhaps their demerit always, who have less. Whatever it is, it is more than we deserve, both they and we. Learn humility. 3. If it be only upon whom He pleases, it is certainly sometimes upon some we know not. So we have no reason to pass a censure upon any man’ s soul. Learn to think well of all And so much the rather, in that 4. He bloweth when He will. If He has not already, He may hereafter breathe upon him or her thou doubtest most. If thou, perhaps thyself, feelest Him not within thee now, thou mayest ere long. Learn hence to despair, neither of thyself nor any one else (Psalms 139:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:5; Romans 11:33; Romans 9:18). (Dr. Mark Frank.) The mysteriousness, reality, and variableness of the Spirit’ s working While Christ spoke, I imagine the spring night breeze, it might be the first air of dawn, came sighing up the Kedron glen below the city. It sighed among the young fig leaves; it made the olive branches toss and moan; it shook the casement, and the lamp-light flickered. Whence comes it? In what far-off land of the East did it first awake to run before the sunrise? Where will it die away in the West, over the hills, beyond the sea? Whence, oh viewless winds, and whither? Christ lets the emblem speak: what does it say? Like an atmosphere the Spirit of Divine life is everywhere. He envelopes the globes. He touches every man. He penetrates us. Why should not that living Spirit beget us, creating a Divine life within these ribs of carnal death? The manner of His working may be as untraceable as the path of free winds that blow about the mountain tops, and chase each other over the plain; but what of that? His results may be as unmistakable as theirs. The movements of a spiritual power among men, again, vary as the airs of heaven do. Alone in her closet, e.g., a girl is bending over her open Bible; and as she reads, her young face grows solemn, the full eyes gather, till the page is blurred with tears that are not wholly sad; and on her knees she weeps out her godly sorrow for little daily faults which the world would count trifles, till with sweet thankfulness in her purified spirit and all the peace of heaven within her bosom, she rises to go forth to her lowly day of toil and uncomplaining service. This is not the way of the flesh. It was the breath of God that stole into her heart, just as outside the summer air was stirring among the leaves of the garden. But also I have seen a strong man, hardened through thirty years of open reckless sin, kneel in another inner room by night crushed by the agony of an awakened conscience, and gasping forth unwonted confessions in a voice hoarse with suppressed emotion. This, too, is not the way of the flesh. There I saw the same breath of God, but strong this time, and loud as when on wintry Appenines the great north blast makes the pine trees writhe and creak before it tears them from the rock clefts. Such things are, and they show that there is a Holy Ghost. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.) Diversity of the Spirit’ s operation God hath divers ways into divers men. Into some He comes at noon, in the sunshine of prosperity; to some in the dark and heavy clouds of adversity. Some He affects with the music of the Church; some, with some particular collect or prayer; some, with some passage in a sermon, which takes no hold of him that stands next to him. Watch the way of the Spirit of God into thee; that way, which He makes His path, in which Be comes oftenest to thee, and by which thou findest thyself most affected and best disposed towards Him; and pervert not that path, foul not that way. “ Make straight His paths;” that is, keep them straight; and when thou observest which is His path in thee (by what means especially He works upon thee), meet Him in that path; embrace Him in those means, and always bring a facile, a fusile, a ductile, a tractable soul to the offers of His grace in His way (Hebrews 1:1; Psalms 85:8). (Dr. Donne.) Spiritual movement an effect of the Spirit’ s working Just as when we see the leaves of a wood moved to and fro, we know the wind is there; so when we see a man moved out of the careless routine of a natural life and leading a new life, we may say the Spirit of God, the Spirit of life, is there. (G. J. Brown, M. A.) Spiritual life a Divine inspiration Here we have that aspect of regeneration which is so incomprehensible to the world. Men can understand reformation through fear of perdition and hope of immortality; but the great revolution of a new life inspired by God appears mystical and impossible. We speak of the age of inspiration being over. That of inspired writing is, but that of inspired living is not. I. LIFE IS A DIRECT FROM GOD. 1. That life is impossible without this inspiration. Spiritual life is an elevation above the natural will, inclination, tendency. Men have tried to reach this without the Spirit, by asceticism, but after all they have been still in the sphere of self. All they have done has been merely a self.culture which does not rise above the natural life. Try to change a man’ s character. Take a man worldly and selfish, and try to convince him by reasoning that his course is a wrong one. Perhaps he admits it: your logic has carried the outworks of intellect, but left the deeper nature untouched. Point out his degradation. He may admit that too, and hate you. Appeal to his interest with warnings of hell and promises of heaven. Suppose you have convinced him you have not elevated him--he is selfish still. Try another illustration. Men feel that they can do no great and noble deeds until raised above the natural level of life by a possessing Spirit. This is the great feature of all genius, poetic, artistic, political. So is Christian life. God’ s Spirit must enter us, or our endeavours will never raise us. We have instances of this in all ages, e.g., Jacob, Paul. 2. This inspiration enters man in mystery. (1) We cannot tell whence it cometh. We may trace the early signs of the Spirit’ s power, but cannot penetrate the mystery of its origin. Just as the spring is a revelation of the secret energies which have been working in darkness through the cold winter gloom, until under the influences of sun and air the hidden power bursts into leaf and flower; so is spiritual life. (2) Whither it goeth we cannot tell; its impulse ever advances amidst all impediments through the long, cold, dark watchings of life, waiting for the adoption. II. THE RESULTS OF THIS TRUST. It would work a mighty change. 1. In our faith. 2. In our prayers. 3. In the ease and joy it gives to the discharge of duty. 4. In the strength it imparts to manhood. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) Nature, evidences, and necessity of regeneration I. INQUIRE WHAT IT IS TO BE BORN AGAIN. 1. It is a Divine and supernatural change, effected by the agency of the Holy Spirit. 2. It is an instantaneous change; and herein it differs from sanctification, which is a progressive work. 3. It is an internal and invisible change, yet may be known by its effects. 4. The change is universal, extending to the heart and life. Universal beauty spread over the whole man. 5. It is an abiding change. II. NOTICE SOME OF THE OF THE NEW BIRTH. These we shall chiefly select from the First Epistle of John. 1. Those who are born of God “ do not commit sin; yea, they cannot sin, because they are born of God” (John 3:9; John 5:18). The principle of grace will be always rising up against sin, and at length will triumph over it Romans 7:14-25). 2. They have “ overcome the world” --its frowns and smiles, hopes and 1 John 5:4). 3. They have a sincere love to all the saints; for “ every one that loveth is born of God” (1 John 4:7). 4. All their hope of salvation is founded on the meditation of Christ (1 John 5:1). 5. Their walk and conversation is holy and exemplary. “ Every one that doeth righteousness is born of God” (1 John 2:29). III. THE AND OF THIS CHANGE: “ Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” 1. Do not marvel at it as if the doctrine were new and strange. 2. Marvel not as if the doctrine were unintelligible. 3. Do not consider this new birth to be impossible. With men, and with angels it may be so; but not with God. 4. Marvel not at this change as if it were unnecessary. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The new birth Christ taught Nicodemus that this new birth is not “ a developing of some latent power;” it is not “ bringing out the constitutional tendency,” and guiding it. It is a new nature, a new level, a new plane, a new sphere, into which human nature is to be exalted by the power of God. It is a birth, with all which that implies. Just consider for a moment, in the light of this principle which Christ laid down, the much debated question of morality. A man says, “ Are we to understand that a man is to substitute this,” if I may so say, “ second nature,” which is born in him, or rather out of which he is born by the operation of the Holy Ghost, for morality? I answer that the point is here: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; a man is amiable from good digestion; a kind and generous friend from an active circulation and because he is successful in life. He is a temperate man because wine is distasteful to him; he is a chaste man because he has a phlegmatic, a cold nature. These things are matters of temperament, good, excellent, much to be desired. But often they are granted to people like their complexions and the shape of their hands and feet, while to others they are vouchsafed by the grace of God after the labour of the new birth. These moralities in either case bear the same relation to the after life which the lower leaves of a plant bear to its blossoming. “ What is my morality worth, then?” you ask. The Indian in his wigwam knows a great many things, but he is not a civilized man. Suppose he should put this question, “ What is all I do know worth, if this is not civilization? If I am brought out of this state, am I to leave all these things and count them as nothing?” Certainly he is not. Relatively to his condition, they are unspeakably important, but as compared with a higher development, they are of very little value. That is to say, if he should become noble and refined in civilized life, he would look back with pity upon the condition that he was in when wigwam and wampum were home and means. Not because they were in, and of themselves, bad, but because he was so far from having attained by growth and development that which was possible to him. When we began to learn to write, our letters were crooked enough, our sentences all went up-hill--the writing was a hideous scrawl. But would we say to our children, “ It is good for nothing, your cramped and crude beginnings?” Not at all. They are good to commence with--and good to end with so soon as you can go on to perfection, making the lines of beauty and a fair page. Moralities are the embryo children--the ground leaves--the cramped writing--the wigwam and the wampum; but they must not be confounded with the higher developments of the new manhood which has its birth out of the water and the Spirit. When, therefore, our Lord says, that morality is not sufficient--and that is what He says, substantially, to Nicodemus--He is the truest friend of man; and among men, he is the most generous and kind who maintains that ideal and shows his fellowmen, not that the things which belong to the body are worthless, but that true manhood is far higher than the body can reach, and far higher than ordinary reason can attain--so high that it can only be groped after, like the newly-born infant stretches out its untried hands toward the first glimmering of the shaded light--only reached by the power of God developing the nascent nature of the new-born soul--a mystery no more profound than that which surrounds the entrance into the natural life which every one must concede. It is not that we have developed very much. It is not that we have a point of development established in us that determines our safety. It is that the Spirit of God has gained a lodgment in the soul; that the leaven is there; that the root is thrown down, and the germ is pointed up, that gives us ground for hope. That being secured, there is an infinite space, called “ Eternity” for men to develop in. God has promised to give His Holy Spirit to them that simply ask for it. He has chosen, and that is enough for us; He has chosen to couple the gift with the baptism of water in the Triune name. The seed is sown then. How? I do not know, for God is silent there. (F. L. Norton, D. D.) Spiritual influence The difficulties connected with the regenerating operation of the Spirit of God are I. ITS . There is a certain shrinking from the supernatural, which renders such doctrines as this peculiarly distasteful. 1. If, for the ignorant and superstitious, the invisible world possess a strange attraction, there is an opposite class of minds in which the tendency is equally strong to explain everything by natural causes. It is the tendency of the religion of an unenlightened age to translate every unexplained fact or phenomenon into the immediate interposition of the Deity. But as society advances in knowledge, and as many of those events, formerly attributed to supernatural agency, are discovered to be the result of natural causes, it too often happens that, with the superstitious recognition, all practical acknowledgment of the Divine presence and agency is lost. The voice of God is no longer heard in the thunder when the laws of electricity begin to be known. The old gods of heathenism have long vanished from the woods and meadows and fountains; but it is not that the one living and true God, but only gravitation, light, heat, magnetism, may be recognized as reigning in their forsaken haunts. 2. And we carry the same tendency into the moral world. To the power of motives, the influence of education, etc., we are apt to trace changes of character, h child grows up gentle, amiable, pious; and when we say that he had the benefit of a careful and religious education, we seem to ourselves to have given the whole account of the matter. An irreligious man becomes devout, and the severe affliction, or the influence of a Christian friend, has made him a wiser and a better man. Seldom does the mind naturally turn to the thought--“ the finger of God is here.” The idea of a mysterious Holy Spirit working in the man’ s mind is too often regarded as a strange mystical notion, having nothing in common with the plain realities of everyday life. 3. It is to this habit of mind that the text suggests a most striking corrective. For it brings before us the consideration that the supernatural is not confined to religion; it bids us see in the most familiar processes of nature the proofs of a Divine agency as inexplicable as any to which religion appeals. Science, with all its triumphs, is compelled to admit the immediate presence of a supernatural power in the most ordinary movements of nature. Gravitation, light, heat, chemical affinity, are only abstractions; they are nothing without a living agent, whose mode of working they express. Dead matter, however arranged, can never act of itself. A human machinist may leave his machine to work alone, because when he leaves it God’ s laws take it up, and by their aid the materials retain their characteristics, the vapour keeps its expansive power. But when God has constructed His machine of the universe, He cannot so leave it; for, if He retire, there is no second God to take care of it. The signs of an all pervading supernatural energy meets us wherever we turn. If every echoing wind bespeak a-present Deity, shall it seem strange to appeal to His power in the regeneration of a soul? Each time the sail of the vessel expands the breeze, we call in the aid of a mysterious agency, without which human efforts were vain. Can it be a matter of surprise that the same mysterious agency must be invoked to communicate to the dull and moveless spirit an impulse towards a nobler than earthly destiny? II. ITS . 1. How very much, to the human eye, have the relations of God with man, as a religious being, been characterized by an aspect of strange uncertainty! Religion has not been communicated indiscriminately. While a few favoured regions have felt its reviving presence, others, unvisited by its quickening power, remain from age to age moral wastes. Nor can human research discover any law by which this inequality is ordered. And as little in the case of individuals as of nations can we explain on what principle it is that the gracious influences of the Spirit are vouchsafed. In equal possession of the outward means of improvement some are benefited whilst others continue unaffected. A word, a mere look, will fly straight to the core of some human spirit; whilst, on others, all the strength of reason and the power of eloquence may be spent, only to recoil ineffective as arrows from proof-mail. From the furnace of affliction one heart will come forth softened, whilst others cool down into hardness and insensibility. Is the hand of Jehovah ever shortened that it cannot save? Or can we ascribe to Infinite Love the wayward fitfulness of earthly beneficence--to Infinite Wisdom the unreasoning favouritism of erring men? If grace be necessary to conversion, why--are we not tempted to ask--is not the Spirit of God poured forth without measure wherever unconverted souls are to be found? To all such questions we must reply in the words of the text. 2. The force of this illustration it will need little reflection to perceive. (1) For what so fitful, wayward, incalculable, as the operations of the wind? Who can for a single hour foresee what its course will be? And the argument is--If even this simple agent so baffle man’ s highest wisdom, shall it he thought strange that the ways of the unsearchable Spirit of God are governed by no rules which finite minds can discern? (2) But the illustration may suggest that the arbitrariness which characterizes the Spirit’ s work is, after all, only apparent, and that, beneath seeming irregularity, there is real and unvarying law. It is so with the material agent. The wind never does really act at random. Its unaccountable changes are the result of material laws as fixed and stable as that by which the planets revolve. Science has made hut slight progress in the attempt to trace out the laws of winds; but it is only because of the limits of our faculties. So, too, it is with that of which the wind is set forth as the type. In His most mysterious dealings with the souls of men God never acts without a reason. Where, to us, there seems inconstancy, to Him all is order. A time was when the firmament presented only the aspect of a maze of luminous points, scattered hap-hazard; but at length the great thought was struck out which evolved from all this seeming confusion the most perfect order and harmony. And so, perhaps, a time may come when light shall be thrown on many things that seem mysterious in the dispensation of grace. But meanwhile, in presence of the inscrutable order of God’ s government, it is the befitting attitude of a creature so weak and ignorant as man not to criticize, but to submit and to adore. III. ITS SECRECY. 1. Momentous though the change be in regeneration, it is one of which we have no immediate evidence. We are accustomed to associate great events in man’ s history with outward stir and show, and we can scarcely divest ourselves of the notion that external significance is inseparable from real importance. When the heir to earthly wealth or grandeur is born, the earliest cry is the signal for loud and universal gratulation. How strange to be told that an event, infinitely more momentous than these in man’ s history, that a Child of the living God--the heir of an inheritance, before which earthly splendours pale--has been born, and yet the event been unnoticed and unknown! 2. But let us turn to the simple argument of the text; for here we are taught that the association on which all such incredulity is based is an altogether fallacious one. For the proof that visibility and greatness are far from inseparable we are pointed to one out of many similar phenomena which daily meet our observation. In nature greatest powers are invisible. When the magnet draws the iron, who sees the strange influence by which the attraction is effected? What keenest optics can see gravitation? So, too, the wind, visible in its manifold influences, it is in its essence and operation imperceptible. So it is with every one that is born of the Spirit. You cannot see this mysterious agent any more than those natural agents. But, as in the one case, so in the other, though the agent is invisible, the effects of his operation are manifest. You do not see the gale from heaven, wafted over any sinner’ s soul, but ever and anon, if you watch carefully the moral history of your fellow-men, you may perceive the visible witness of a hidden and invisible work. Conclusion: This is a doctrine fraught with many obvious practical lessons. 1. If the agency of the Spirit be supernatural, how urgent the necessity for securing the Spirit’ s intervention! What an arrest would be laid upon many of the works of man if that natural agent were suspended! If the wind of heaven ceased to blow, conceive how abortive, in many cases, would be all human industry and skill. But equally fatal, in the spiritual world, to the success of all human endeavours, would be the withholding of the supernatural grace of the Spirit of God. Pray, then, for the Spirit. Despair of success apart from it; rest not till you have obtained it. The wind comes not at the sailor’ s or the husbandman’ s call; but the believer is possessed of a spell that can summon the gracious aid of the Spirit in every time of need. And if the doctrine of the text furnishes us with a motive to prayer, not less suggestive is it of encouragement to effort. For whilst our natural powers soon reach their limit, to the supernatural aid on which we are encouraged to depend there is none. Self-reformation soon proves a vain attempt; but the effort to repent and turn to God cannot fail, when the very Power that fashioned our mysterious being prompts and aids in the work of restoration. 2. If the agency of the Spirit is sovereign, too, the subject is replete with practical significance, nor does not the very uncertainty of nature’ s influences act as a stimulus to the exertions of man? The fair wind that has long been waited for, and may speedily die away. And so if there is any similar variableness in the times and seasons of religious influence, how urgent the motive thus presented to Christian vigilance in waiting for every favourable opportunity, and to diligence in improving it! 3. If the Spirit’ s work be secret in itself, yet manifest by its effects, it suggests the important inquiry, Can I discern in my character and life the signs of the Spirit’ s presence? (J. Caird, D. D.) The heavenly wind I. Take the text in reference to THE HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF. The wind is an emblem of the Holy Ghost. 1. In its freeness. The wind is the very image of freedom. No one can fetter it. Caesar may decree what he pleases, but the wind will blow in his face if he looks that way. So the Spirit is most free and absolute. He visits one nation and not another. Of two men one receives His blessing and not another. One man wins souls, another seems to miss them. And the same minister will one day speak like the voice of God, and another be but a reed shaken by the wind. Yet while absolutely free He is not arbitrary. (1) The wind has a law of its own, and the Spirit is a law to Himself. He does as He wills, but He wills that which is best. (2) There are certain places where you will always find a breeze, on the mountains, in the morning or evening on the seashore. So in communion with God you will ever find the Spirit in motion. (3) The wind in some lands has its seasons. There are trade winds, etc., which may be counted on. So there are certain times in, and certain conditions under which He visits the Churches--times of mighty prayer and exceptional faithfulness in preaching, (4) The wind may blow, but the sailor may be asleep. Never suffer the Spirit to be with us and find us regardless of His presence. When the windmill was more in use than now, some parishes would be half starved when week after week there was no wind. The miller would look anxiously by day, and if the breezes stirred at dead of night, somebody would run and knock him up. Be on the look out. Hoist sail when the wind favours. 2. In its maul-festations--“ Thou hearest,” etc. Our Lord spoke of the gentle zephyr which is heard. The hearing ear is intended to be the disceruer of the Spirit. Faith cometh by hearing. (1) Many get no further than hearing. (2) Others hear the sound in their consciences and are disturbed. (3) The man who is saved hears (a) The threatening wind. (b) The destroying wind. (c) The invigorating wind. (d) The sound of a going in the mulberry trees which summons us to victory. 3. In its mystery--“ Thou canst not tell.” We may tell that the wind comes from a certain quarter, but we cannot tell at what point it begins or where it ends. So with the Spirit we cannot tell (1) “ Whence He cometh.” His first movements are hidden in mystery. Why is it that you obtained a blessing under one sermon and not under another, and yet when you spoke to your sister she had been blessed under the other? (2) “ Nor whither it goeth.” (a) When we let loose the truth in the power of the Spirit we never know where it may fly. A child takes a downy seed, but who knows where it will settle? Whole continents have been covered with strange flowers simply by the Wind’ s wafting foreign seeds thither. Fling the truth, then, to the winds. (b) Nor can we tell whither it will carry us. When Carey gave his young heart to Christ, he never thought the Spirit would carry him to Serampore. II. The text relates to THOSE WHO ARE BORN OF THE SPIRIT. The birth partakes of the nature of the parent. 1. As to freedom: where the Spirit is there is liberty from the bondage of the law, custom, sin, fear of death and dread of hell 2. As to manifestation. The regenerate are known by their sound. The secret life will speak by voice, action, influence. 3. As to mystery (1) Thou knowest not whence He cometh from the throne of grace. (2) Thou knowest not whither He goeth--to the secret place of the Most High. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The operations of the wind I. The wind SOUNDS. 1. Sometimes it wails, and so the Spirit sets men mourning for sin. 2. Sometimes its sound is triumphant, and so the Spirit inspires in us the shout of victory over sin and death. II. The wind is a great . It aims at things high. If you are down low in the street you escape its fury, but climb the height and you will scarcely stand. Even so the Spirit. He makes every high thought bow before the majesty of His might. III. The wind PURFIES the atmosphere. In the Swiss valleys there is a heaviness which makes the inhabitants unhealthy. They take quinine and have big swellings in their necks. The air does not circulate; but if there is a great storm it is a great blessing to the people. So the Spirit cleanses out our evil and brings health to the soul. IV. The wind is a GREAT TRIER OF THE NATURE OF THINGS. It sweeps over heaps of rubbish and scatters the dust, etc., but iron and stone remain unmoved. The Holy Ghost is similarly a testing power, both of men and doctrines. V. The wind is HELPFUL. In Lincolnshire, where the country is flat and below the sea level, they are obliged to dry the land by means of windmills. In many parts all the corn is ground by means of the wind. The Spirit is also a mighty helper. You are inundated by a flood of iniquity which you can never bale out; or you need some power to prepare your spiritual food, and you will never find better help than that which the Spirit can give. VI. MAN MUST CO-OPERATE WITH THE WIND, and so Christians with the Spirit. 1. In all spiritual work: as the sailor has to raise his sails. 2. In growth in grace. We are to work out what He works in. VII. MEN ARE ON THE WIND. They are entirely at its mercy as to time, direction, and strength. So we are compelled to wait the pleasure of the Spirit. But just as the sailor anxiously looks up at the mast-head to see how the breeze is shifting, so should we look up to heaven and observe the movement of the Spirit of God. (J. Caird, D. D.) The work of the Holy Spirit is a hidden work As oftentimes, when walking in a wood near sunset, though the sun himself be hid by the height and bushiness of the trees around, yet we know that he is still above the horizon, from seeing his beams in the open glades before us, illuming a thousand leaves, the several brightnesses of which are so many evidences of his presence. Thus it is with the Holy Spirit. He works in secret; but His work is manifest in the lives of all true Christians. Lamps so heavenly must have been lit from on high. (J. C. Hare.) Methods of conversion vary Men’ s convictions of sin differ with their characters. One man says, “ In such a sermon, a lion-like conviction sprang out upon me, and seized my soul in its grasp, and had nearly torn it asunder.” And another says, “ The twilight of God’ s love fell upon me; but when the eclipse was over, the sun shone out again, and I was happy.” Terror, or only sadness, anguish, grief, and love, are all alike really conviction. (H. W. Beecher.) The preciousness of Divine influence Watch, therefore, the gales of grace: we cannot purchase this wind for any money. This bird when flown will not easily be brought back again. (J. Trapp.) The wind an emblem of the Spirit The work of the Spirit is compared I. To the BLOWING of the wind. 1. The wind blows vitally and refreshingly, causing the earth to fructify. So it is the Spirit of God who imparts vital grace and makes us bring forth Son 4:16). When a man is drowsy a blast of wind freshens him: so doth the Spirit awaken us from our spiritual slumberings. As God used the wind to bring quails, and still does to bring in great tides of water; so by His Spirit doth He bring all blessings to us, and the tides of repenting tears. The wind from the bellows revives the fire--so does the Spirit the sparks of heavenly fire in us. How soon would the smoking flax be quenched but for this! 2. Winds dissolve the clouds and cause an irrigation of the earth; this spiritual wind causes rain also, even the tears of penitence. 3. Winds cause clearness and sereneness of the air: likewise the Spirit having dissolved our iniquities causes the beauty and sunshine of God’ s favour to cheer the believer. 4. Winds refrigerate. In the heat of summer how acceptable their comfort! So the Spirit allays the heat of our temptations and afflictions, that we may with patience endure and overcome them. How could the martyrs have so triumphed in the flames but for this? 5. Winds penetrate. So the Word of the Spirit (Hebrews 4:12). 6. Winds terrify by their destructive power. So under the power of the Spirit sinners tremble. 7. Winds carry all before them: with what ease doth the spirit perform its duties when under the power of the Spirit. II. To the LIBERTY of the wind. No creature has any power to raise or check either. 1. In regard of the outward means of the ministry, for it is in that blessed trumpet that the Spirit commonly blows. Once this wind blew in the East, and how famous were those Churches i But it is now turned into the West. 2. In regard to the efficacy of the means. 3. In regard to the measure of the efficacy, piercing deeper, purging cleaner, acts more vitally in some than in others (1 Corinthians 12:11). 4. In regard to the manner of His working. Sometimes using means, sometimes not. 5. In regard of the time of working. III. To the of the wind. This voice Isaiah 1. Secret, within the heart of the regenerate. (1) Arousing, as in conviction of sin. (2) Mild and sweet, alluring to holiness (Isaiah 30:31; Hosea 2:14). (3) Comforting (Matthew 9:2; Romans 8:16). (4) Fervent, as in prayer. 2. Open. (J. Dyke.) The wind a symbol of the Spirit s working I. LET US FORM SOME PRECISE IDEA OF THE WIND; which is just the atmosphere in motion. The atmosphere is an envelopment of air that enwraps our globe and rises to the height of from forty to fifty miles. It gets lighter and thinner as we ascend, till it gradually disappears. The air consists chiefly of two gases in the proportion of about one-fourth of the one to three-fourths of the other. It is the element in which alone it is possible for us to live. It is just this air in motion that constitutes wind. As still water stagnates, so would still air. A benevolent Creator, therefore, has seen to it that it shall never be long still. And this motion is produced mainly by changes of temperature. II. Let us now pass to THE REALITY --the influences of the Divine Spirit in regeneration. These influences, like the wind, are 1. Vital--absolutely essential to spiritual life (Genesis 1:2; Genesis 2:7; Psalms 104:29-30; Ezekiel 38:8-10). But will the Spirit come to me? Do you ever ask, Will the vital air come? 2. Sovereign. For aught that we can do it bloweth where it listeth. Come on us where it may, when, whence, and with what result. It is absolutely beyond our control. We may indeed turn it to account, and ought; and this very sovereignty of it is the strongest reason why we should. Equally sovereign is the Spirit: “ He divideth to every man severally as He will.” Nevertheless, He is benignly here for us all. Though absolutely sovereign He is Love; and it sovereignly pleases Him to be here, striving at every heart. When sovereign love has done its best, vain will be our cries and tears. 3. Mysterious (Ecclesiastes 11:4-6). “ Wind,” “ Spirit,” “ Birth,” all are here. These strongly set forth that so far from discouraging action, they are strongest incentives to it. For the wind is not “ mysterious” in any such sense as to mean causeless or capricious. It is not independent of law. Mathematicians can go far in describing the properties of curves; but fire a rifle, twirl a half-crown, or toss a ball into the air, which are the simplest and most familiar of acts, and though every convolution exactly obeys mathematical and physical laws, yet where is the Newton or the Leibnitz that could trace these in detail, and sum up for us so complex and intervolved a computation? So the Spirit’ s influences are inscrutable, in great part, from the nature of the case. They deal with the most involved and interwarped of all problems. They have to do with free agency, duty, destiny, and diversities of individual temperament and circumstances. How stumbling oftentimes to see some highly privileged one resisting to tim last the influences of the Spirit; while another, much less privileged, or a third, even openly profligate, is seen to surrender himself to the overpowering influence of gospel truth and love. But this is the time for such mysteries now that the mystery of iniquity doth work. Only the antagonistic mystery of godliness can counterwork it. 4. Discernible. With all its mystery there is no mystery about its presence. A regenerated man will not be able to veil off his character. Sound is itself a sort of wind, in its vibration on the auditory nerve: therefore genuine Christians will tell personally on others with the self-same influence in varying degrees that told on themselves. 5. Benignant (Psalms 135:7). The breeze is (1) Healthful and reviving. (2) Purifying. 6. Universal--“ where it listeth;” yes, but then it listeth to blow everywhere; not in short detached breaths, but in broad, boundless, interblending currents that benignly embrace, belt, and begirdle the globe. So is it with the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 3:7; Acts 2:17; Acts 7:51; Revelation 22:17). (T. Guthrie, D. D.) John 3:9 How can these things be? Religious revivals This question is often asked concerning revivals of religion, and in dealing with it I would show I. THAT THERE ARE SOLID GROUNDS ON WHICH TO BUILD A HOPE OF THE OF THE SPIRIT TO PRODUCE OF IN OUR . 1. We should endeavour to obtain a correct estimate of the real condition of the primitive churches of whom we read that they received the Holy Ghost. On this subject there are two opinions. (1) Some regard them as bordering on perfection. (2) Others as discovering the weaknesses of an infantile state emerging from barbarism. The truth lies between the two extremes. They were distinguished by peculiar privileges and exalted attainments, but many of them were possessed of weakness, imperfections, and sins. Yet nothing is more indisputable than that they were in constant receipt of the influences of the Spirit of God. 2. The Holy Spirit chooses oftentimes to display His Divine prerogative of sovereignty as to the time, place, and modes of His operations; and He displays it in such a manner that not unfrequently He gives no account of it to us. How is it that of two men brought up under the same influences one is converted and the other not? There is an analogy between the operations of God in nature and in grace, as different countries will yield different productions, each excellent in their kind; as oaks are of slow, and parasites of rapid growth, so is the work of conversion. Read the explication of the subject in 1 Corinthians 12:1-31. So one country is visited with a dispensation of the Spirit which issues in marked and numerous conversions, while another is visited with one which issues in works in defence of the gospel, and yet another with the missionary spirit. 3. There are circumstantials often connected with revivals which are by no means essential to their general character. (1) It is no indication of a genuine revival that there is great excitement. There may be real spiritual excitement, but often it is of an empty character; and there may be a true revival when all is calm and noiseless. (2) Nor is it a certain evidence that great numbers profess to be converted. 4. There are facts frequently occurring amongst ourselves which prove that the Spirit has not forsaken us. (1) Individual sermons are known to produce great results. (2) Churches often receive members into fellowship without special efforts. (3) Individual cases of conversion show the Spirit’ s operation. 5. Inference that if the means be employed we may expect yet greater things in the way of the Spirit’ s manifestations. II. THERE ARE TO BE ADOPTED IN ORDER TO THE OF THESE HIGH AND . 1. Cultivate a solemn, deep, and abiding conviction of the necessity and importance of the Spirit’ s influences to advance the cause of religion. (1) In your own hearts. (2) In your congregations and churches. 2. Labour to put out of the way all those impediments which tend to obstruct the descent of the Spirit. Trifling with prayer, speculating on gospel verities, hypocrisy in worship, conformity with the world, uncharitableness and all those things which “ grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” 3. Acknowledge thankfully what God has already done by His Spirit. (1) Not to do so displays ignorance and ingratitude. (2) To do so will open the eye to God’ s wonderful working in many particulars, church building, Bible circulation, Sunday schools, missions, etc. 4. Consecrate more time to fervent and importunate prayer-private, family, social, etc. 5. Expect great things from God. (J. Clayton.) Genteel ignorance John Wesley always preferred the middling and lower classes to the wealthy. He said, “ If I might choose, I should still, as I have done hitherto, preach the gospel to the poor.” Preaching in Monkton Church, a large old, ruinous building, he says, “ I suppose it has scarce had such a congregation during this century. Many of them were gay, genteel people, so I spoke on the first elements of the gospel, but I was still out of their depth. Oh, how hard it is to be shallow enough for a polite audience!” (Anecdotes of the Wesleys.) Man naturally ignorant To unconverted persons a great part of the Bible resembles a letter written in cipher. The blessed Spirit’ s office is to act as God’ s decipherer, by letting His people into the secret of celestial experience, as the key and clue to those sweet mysteries of grace, which were before as a garden shut up, or as a fountain sealed, or as a book written in an unknown character. (Toplady.) Christ and the enquiry room I. THE Nicodemus was 1. A sincere inquirer; his sincerity was based on a conviction of Christ’ s Divine mission. He knew there could be no trickery or magic in His wonderful works. Hence his unequivocal confession. 2. An anxious inquirer. 3. A perplexed inquirer. (1) Perplexity results from thought and imperfect knowledge. In the multitude of his thoughts Nicodemus is bewildered. He is learned in the law, but ignorant of Christ’ s true character as witnessed by the prophets. (2) Prejudice begets perplexity; and to receive Jesus as the Messiah was to do violence to all orthodox views. But blessed is the perplexity that prompts to inquiry. 4. A reverential inquirer. II. THE TAUGHT IN THE INQUIRY ROOM 1. The kingdom of God. This kingdom is (1) Real, though not of this world. (2) Spiritual; hence it cometh without observation. (3) Victorious, its weapons being mighty through God. 2. This kingdom has conditions. Entrance to it could not be (1) by natural birth; (2) by nationality; (3) circumcision; (4) pharisaical righteousness; (5) but by Divine birth. III. THE METHOD ADOPTED WAS . IV. THE RESULTS. 1. For a time doubtful. 2. Afterwards most satisfactory. (Joseph Heaton.) Nicodemus’ s perplexity 1. We live in a world of wonders: vegetable growth, insect evolution, human birth; about each of which we might well say, “ How can these things be?” 2. There are greater wonders in the world towards which we are hastening--resurrection, etc. 3. Not less wonderful is the work of grace within a man’ s soul. I. WHAT THESE THINGS WERE WHICH . The new birth. 1. This doctrine is one of which the Bible is full. See John 1:13; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:20; 1 Peter 1:23, which teach that only by the almighty power of God can a dead sinner be born again, and that this power is exercised through the Word of Truth. 2. This doctrine presupposes the corruption of human nature--not that it has simply gone wrong through bad example and vicious training. It does not want mending, but renewing. 3. David found this out--“ I was shapen in iniquity.” So did St. Paul--“ In my flesh dwelleth no good thing,” “ They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” 4. This doctrine is very humbling to pride of birth and intellect. 5. This doctrine conveys a blessed truth. Man may become a child of God, holy and meet for heaven. 6. Heaven being a character as well as a place no man can enter without being born again. II. THESE ARE THE THINGS WE MUST KNOW IF WE ARE TO BE SAVED. 1. The very worst may be saved. 2. To be saved we must go to the author of the new birth. 3. Whatsoever may be our wants with regard to the present life nothing can stand in the place of His. Philanthropic schemes are good in their place, but are as the small dust of the balance compared with this. 4. The new birth is a personal experience, and each sinner must come individually, prayerfully, believingly and now. (Canon Miller.) John 3:10 Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?--The truths which Christ came to declare, He did but recall in great measure to minds which had lost the memory of what was from the first. I. THE NEED OF , OR RENEWAL OF THE HEART, WAS NO NEW OF CHRIST (see Deuteronomy 10:16, 1 Samuel 10:9; Psalms 51:10; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19). II. THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS IN MAN’ S HEART HAD BEEN BY THE (Ezekiel 36:25-27). III. HENCE THE OF THIS TEACHER WAS . (W. Denton, M. A.) The doctrine of the new birth was according to Jesus exhibited in the Old Testament. I. THE OF THE FALL IMPLIES IT, especially when viewed in connection with the Divine purity and holiness as the only moral standard for humanity (Genesis 17:1; Exodus 22:31; Leviticus 11:44; Psalms 24:3-4; Isaiah 35:8). II. OF THE HEART WAS AN for serving God (Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6), which was symbolized by circumcision (Romans 2:29) as it is now by baptism (1 Peter 3:21). III. It was IN THE CHANGE OF HEART on Saul and 1 Samuel 10:9; 1 Samuel 16:13). IV. It was IN DAVID’ S PRAYER FOR PURITY (Psalms 51:10). V. It was AS A (Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 18:31; Ezekiel 36:26; Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 31:33). VI. EVEN THE TERM “ ” WAS NOT UNKNOWN (Job 11:12; Psalms 37:25). The reasonableness of regeneration What phraseology was more familiar with the infidel revolutionists of France than the regeneration of their country? And is the idea of a regenerated individual an extravagant one, to be sneered at, when that of a regenerated nation is one to be treated with respect? Yea, infidel speculators will discourse of a regenerated world, and yet make sport to themselves of our faith, as if it were fantastic and visionary, when we speak of the regeneration of a single man! How is it that, being such masters in philosophy and politics, they know not these things? (W. Anderson, D. D.) John 3:11 We speak that we do know Divine certainties I. Consider THE PLACE THE BIBLE HOLDS as an evidence of Christianity. 1. The Bible is the history of the Jewish people, and their existence to-day is a guarantee that the basis of the book is firm and undeniable. 2. Every contemporaneous and collateral witness adds to this assurance. The remains of Egypt and Assyria, the traditions of the Jews, allusions in Greek and Roman monuments and classic authors are grounds upon which we are assured of the historic character of the Scriptures. 3. The Bible is a whole literature. 4. It is the history of a religion. The fundamental ideas of the various books are the same--but there is a manifest progress. The earlier writers look forward to a greater revelation. The ideas become clearer and clearer. The advancing faith never contradicts the past, and at length the culmination appears in Jesus. II. THE OF TO THE NEEDS OF MAN. Christ makes great assertions, but never attempts to prove them. Here He makes His heater’ s hesitation the consequence, not of defect in the evidence, but of defect in the man. For such a truth as the new birth admitted of no other evidence than its own light. Salvation must be based on a voluntary self-surrender. No more proof must be given therefore than will leave room for doubt, if men desire to doubt. Mathematical truth admits of perfect demonstration, but if religious truth leaves no room for doubt, then faith ceases to be religious. Its evidence is a probation for man. The force of this evidence varies according to spiritual condition. If a man is debased by sin, he will not readily open his heart, but if he is convicted of sinfulness, he will respond to the gospel and perceive how exactly Divine revelation is adapted to his need. Then its certainty will be felt in proportion to what he has found of peace and gladness. Just as the correspondence between the eye and light makes it absolutely certain that the one was made for the other, so it is with Christianity. Water cannot rise above the level of its source, and that men should of their own accord produce the Bible, and infuse into it such a marvellous power of raising men near its standard, is incredible. We shall feel the force of this far more if we can bring our own experience forward as a testimony. In this way each Christian becomes a living proof. (P. W. Darnton, B. A.) Christian faith a reality It seems a moderate claim that the alleged truths of our religion should be respected as realities But this demand covers the whole ground. Admit 1. That God is a real Father and Sovereign. 2. That each soul is His child and subject. 3. That separation from Him is the most terrible of disasters, to be healed at any cost. 4. That Jesus is the Christ who achieves that reconciliation. 5. That a righteous life is the fulfilment of human destiny. Admit this, and you have granted the whole conclusion. The terms imply something more than intellectual assent. There is such a thing as an ineffectual creed. To realize a doctrine is to have it wrought into the roots of our life. This realization only takes place when the truth emerges from the nebulous haze of conjecture into clear, sharp light--when it takes hold of feeling and is taken hold of by faith. This is needed now for the true efficiency of religion. For our religion is not dogma, or theory, or dream, but a spiritual power. Let us examine a few facts, in the Christian faith which authenticate its claim as a religion of realities. I. THE IDEA OF GOD. Christianity did not create this. It simply places itself on the basis of a natural reality affirmed by the consenting feelings and philosophies of the nations; and then proceeds to nourish and satisfy it. 1. It is a real authority that speaks (John 3:11). 2. There is reality in the very attitudes and occasions of its revelations. 3. Reality in its substance. “ God is a Spirit,” and with that simple announcement old idolatries that materialized the gods, and mythologies that multiplied them, vanished. 4. Reality in its disclosures of God’ s nearness and condescension. He is the God of houses, streets, schools--not distant or etherealized. II. This opens the true doctrine of WITH GOD, or prayer. What is natural if not that a child should speak to his parents, that man should ask for what God only can give? Prayer is a reality--something yearned for, something satisfying. So speaks the world’ s best experience. To pretend to ask things we do not really desire, or things we have heard others ask for, is not prayer, but speculation or traditional mummery. Christ brings prayer back to reality. “ Ask, and ye shall receive.” III. Co-ordinate with this is LOVE FOR MAN. Here again Christianity does not create the faculty, but out of it weaves the bond of spiritual brotherhood. In training this social instinct Christianity gives it the brightest tokens of reality. 1. It stimulates fellowship, and by the healthiest motive--disinterested mercy, of which its central and crucified Form is the incarnate example. 2. It regulates it by the wisest law--broad, far-seeing, equity, saving it from wronging one class by righting another, from destroying without constructing. 3. It directs it to the purest object--the personal relief, the universal liberation, the spiritual rectitude of each soul. IV. Turning from the social to the private offices of Christianity, we encounter the only satisfactory interpretation of the natural TOWARDS AN IDEAL MORAL . It is only in very inferior natures that this sensibility to exalted goodness is utterly depraved. Baseness secretly confesses the beauty of magnanimity. The story of incorruptible conscience is the perpetual charm of literature. With all select souls there is a tantalizing disparity between the aspiring aim and the lagging performance. How does the gospel justify this real passion for the best? 1. By blessing these native aspirations as the Divine seal set on humanity. 2. By encouraging them. 3. By furnishing them nutriment and discipline to ripen their vigour. 4. By holding up one in whom all their promises are realized. 5. By giving them a hereafter where they shall mature into open vision and into calm and balanced power. V. Not less does the gospel fit the varieties of human consciousness in its great doctrine of A RULING CHOICE . It divides the world into two classes by the inexorable line of that voluntary consecration. There is one differencing point, the point of motive, where the world’ s people and God’ s divide. VI. But there is one reality darker and more fearful. THE LAW AND GUIDE OF LIFE HAS BEEN BROKEN. I know I am frail, offending, and guilty. Who shall deliver me? Christ. He has come for that. VII. Infer, then, THE REALITY OF . 1. In its ministry to the cravings of simple, honest hearts. 2. In its marvellous adaptation to the pain and gladness, fear and hope of our humanity. 3. In its unpretending address to our common habits, speaking the language of life. 4. In its boundless relief for a boundless difficulty. 5. In its expanding and exhaustless fulness for all glowing souls. VIII. THE EARLY , LIVED, DIED, FOR THIS REALITY, AND THE WORLD. (Bp. Huntington.) The positiveness of Christianity as a truth and a practice Whatever exists, exists positively, has existence and also energy. Positiveness is the very soul of growth. I. IS . 1. God is a positive Being. 2. Man is a positive being. 3. Sin is a positive condition. 4. Holiness is a positive state, II. MUST BE APPLIED. 1. It is to honour God. 2. It is to be serviceable to man. 3. It is to prove victorious over sin. 4. It is to be potential unto holiness. III. THE OF Isaiah 1. When it is interpreted as a system of polite moral and aesthetic education. There is a class of writers and preachers who blot out of the Scriptures everything that is positive, who drop every word that bristles with damnatory energy, theorize the birth of Jesus, reduce the atonement to heroism, treat human depravity as a misfortune, speak patronizingly of hell as an exploded idea, and allude pleasantly to heaven as a benevolent myth. Many people are frightened by this “ modern thought.” They need not be, for this is a positive age, and a negative religion can make no headway. 2. When it is over-organized. Christ did not organize it because He saw that truth was over.organized, and therefore cramped. Christianity is a power only when it is organized in human hearts. (W. H. H. Murray.) The positiveness of Christianity You may judge of this I. BY ITS WORDS. Its “ shalls” and “ shall nots” are like so many bugle notes put into print. They sound with the energy of the Apocalyptic trumpets. Its commandments fall upon the conscience as a hammer of steel falls upon the anvil. Its warnings sound like the solemn protest of an indignant universe. Its threatenings roll over the guilty soul like the dreadful reverberations of ponderous thunder. Even its invitations suggest the tension of anxiety, and its entreaties come to our ears impelled by the urgency of anxious and infinite affection. Its very words are charged with significance almost to the limit of explosion. Heaven and hell, sin and holiness, faith and unbelief, life and death, salvation and damnation--these are glorious or dreadful words, mighty affirmations, expressions which challenge the attention of the most sceptical, and fill the thoughtful mind with solemn awe. No other religion has ever weighted the pages of its sacred books with such dreadful emphasis; no other religion has ever brought its believers face to face with such stupendous positiveness of assertion and conception. But if the verbal expression of Christianity is thus positive, what language is adequate to describe the positiveness of II. ITS SPIRIT? If its body is so tense and vibrant with energies, who may pourtray the vigour of its animating spirit? If the unlighted orb, as it hangs rayless overhead, can draw every eye to its dark circle, and compel human attention, what would be its power if its inherent fires should break through the shell of sombre surface, and the mighty sphere should suddenly be ablaze with beams? Tell me, you who know the words of Scripture, and have also felt the movings of its matchless and irresistible spirit, which is the stronger? Tell me, you who once heard in the word heaven the sound of sweet but far-off music, but who now have the resonance of the Divine harmonies sounding in you, did you know aught of that melodious word until the chime of it made music in your soul? No. Not till the spirit of Christianity is received into his heart can man know or dream how positive are its operations. Nor can man know what hell is until he lies enfolded within the coils of some serpentine remorse, and the dreadful stricture tightens on his conscience until he screams and moans in the agony of a tormented spirit. Do not say “ exaggeration,” for you know that what I say is true, when I declare that men and women there have been who have committed crimes so dark, dreadful, and damning, so obnoxious even to their blurred moral vision, that the memory of their deed has haunted them--yea, haunted them so that they could not eat, nor sleep, nor forget: thefires of remorse were within their bosom, and they could not quench them; the “ damned spot” was on their hands, and all the seas could not wash the awful stain away, and at last they died: died screaming in agony, as if the torment of hell had already got hold of them; and it had. (W. H. H. Murray.) God’ s message is but carelessly listened to Massilon, in the first sermon he ever preached, found the whole audience, upon his getting into the pulpit, in a disposition no way favourable to his intentions. Their nods, whispers, or drowsy behaviour showed him that there was no great profit to be expected from his sowing in a soil so improper. However, he soon changed the disposition of his audience by his manner of beginning. “ If,” says he, “ a cause, the most important that could be conceived, were to be tried at the bar before qualified judges; if this cause interested ourselves in particular; if the eyes of the whole kingdom were fixed upon the events; if the most eminent counsel were employed on both sides; and if we had heard from our infancy of this yet undetermined trial--would you not all sit with due attention and warm expectation to the pleadings on each side? Would not all your hopes and fears be hinged on the final decision? And yet, let me tell you, you have this moment a cause where not one nation, but all the world, are spectators; tried not before a fallible tribunal, but the awful throne of heaven, where not your temporal and transitory interests are the subject of debate, but your eternal happiness or misery; where the cause is still undetermined, but, perhaps, the very moment I am speaking may fix the irrevocable decree that shall last for ever; and yet, notwithstanding all this, you can hardly sit with patience to hear the tidings of your own salvation. I plead the cause of heaven, and yet I am scarcely attended to.” John 3:12 If I have told you of earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?--The question in its bare form is easily grappled with, but in its application to the subjects before us we encounter a great obstacle. Earthly things are the deep things of the new birth; heavenly things are the lifting up of the Son of man, the gift of the Only-Begotten, that the world through Him might be saved. Regeneration and santification are by comparison earthly things; redemption, atonement, justification are by contrast and preeminence heavenly. He who believes not the former, how can he believe the latter We notice I. AN OF OUR COMMON OF THE OF CHRIST’ S KINGDOM. 1. It is usual to speak of the work of Christ as far easier of apprehension than the work of the Spirit. The idea of atonement is treated as self-evident, and theory after theory has been constructed to explain it. But Christ says difficult as it is to understand a Divine influence, it is more difficult to apprehend a Divine sacrifice; that He only who is from heaven can reveal the latter, while a master of Israel is culpably ignorant if he knows not of the former. 2. The same persons exaggerate the mystery of the doctrine of grace, whereas Christ treats it as a plain earthly thing. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews treats it in the same way, bidding us leave the elements, baptism, etc., to go on to perfection--the strong meat, the profounder study of the fulfilment of type and shadow in the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ. II. CAN WE EXPLAIN THIS ? 1. With regard to the new birth. (1) It is not that it is discoverable by man in its nature, or recognizable in its process, or practicable in its realization, and so an earthly thing. It is as much above reason, as secret, as independent of man’ s interference as the deepest mystery of redemption. But (2) The idea of a spiritual influence has obvious illustrations from earthly experience. Life itself is a putting forth and taking in of the authority of mind over mind. Therefore there can be no antecedent improbability of a Divine influence affecting the soul. (3) When we think of our indebtedness to God as Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, there can be nothing difficult in the thought that the Author of our spirit can quicken and bless it. (4) Although the work is secret in its processes, it is cognizable in its effects. When you see a proud man humble, the worldly man religious, you have proof which carries the matter into the region of sight. (5) The doctrine was earthly to Nicodemus because it was in his Old Testament. 2. How different with the topics that follow! At first sight less mysterious, for was not Christ really man, and was not His sacrifice a human death? Yet when we turn to that which the human enshrined, the mystery of Christ’ s Person, we see the appositeness of the term heavenly. (1) Divine incarnation and Divine suffering are absolutely incomprehensible revelations. The more men argue over them the more danger there is of darkening counsel by words without knowledge. (2) If the Divine passion is a mystery, how much more the connection between that suffering and man’ s release! (3) The individual appropriation of Christ’ s sacrifice is incomprehensible. (4) The work of grace shows itself by infallible signs, but the absolution is the secret act of God alone. III. Let us press upon ourselves the thought of THE OF THE ONE ALL- . We have in our Lord’ s question the key to much of modern unbelief. Christ tells us of our need of Divine grace to change us into new men, and we believe not that. Men confess that they must be moral, but contend that they can secure that for themselves, and that it is weakness to look cut of themselves for help. Nature refuses grace. Who, then, can wonder if the same unbelief shall spread into the region of the heavenly, and the scoffer at grace scoff at atonement? (Dean Vaughan.) The moral and the revealed truths We may distinguish between these. Christ’ s teaching in its practical applications is its earthly side; His revelation of God, His nature and will its heavenly side. I. THE MORAL OF CHRIST MUST BE BY EVERY UPRIGHT . 1. Where else do you find the idea of the sovereign and eternal value of right more clearly and firmly expressed? 2. The same applies to holiness. He opposes the systems which make it consist in outward performances, and places stress on the intention. 3. None more than Christ have preached the necessity of sacrificing one’ s self for the sake of truth. 4. Whoever taught as Christ the relations of men with one another and the bonds of justice and mercy which should units them? Christ alone has made love the supreme law of mankind. 5. Not only has He taught all this; He has acted all He has taught. 6. This is why He has a right to the authority He claims over our consciences, and why when He tells us of earthly things He has a right to be believed. II. CHRIST CLAIMS THE SAME FAITH AS THE OF TRUTH. He is not merely a teacher of morals; He speaks of the things which are far beyond our human vision: of God, His government, providence, saving purposes, judgment. In the presence of these affirmations our situation changes. So long as His moral teaching was in question we could judge of it by our consciences, but here are declarations we cannot control. 1. Are we justified in putting faith in Christ.? If we set aside this faith, no other means of access to religious truth remains. Science can teach us nothing. Are we then to remain in the dark? Men have tried to do so, but always unsuccessfully. 2. Is Christ to be believed? (1) The very accent of His affirmations leads us to reflection. No man ever spoke with such authority. We believe the assertions of Christ when He tells us of heavenly things, because lie has always spoken truth when He has told us of earthly things. (2) If we believe the religious truths revealed by Christ it is because they are the necessary complement of the moral truths our conscience compels us to believe; so that accepting the latter, we are led by an invincible logic to believe the former. There is no moral truth in the gospel that does not expand into a religious truth. (E. Bersier, D. D.) Earthly and heavenly things Heavenly things, being represented unto us in an earthly form (John 3:8), come clothed to us with our own notions. We can see the sun better when reflected in the water of a vase than in the firmament; and we can interpret heaven’ s language best when it speaks to us in the language of earth. (T. Manton.) John 3:13 No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven Christ comforting Nicodemus Christ having reproved Nicodemus for his ignorance, now shows the remedy thereof in Himself. 1. Christ’ s sharp word is not His last. Having inflicted a wound He offers Himself, the only remedy, to cure it. 2. It is alike impossible for men, by their own parts and natural endowments, to comprehend spiritual mysteries and enter into God’ s counsels, here called an ascending up to heaven. 3. In so far as sinners come to a true and saving knowledge of heavenly mysteries, they are in a sort transported up to heaven. If Capernaum were exalted to heaven by the offer of these things, what are they who embrace them? 4. It is proper in Christ only, in some sense, to ascend to heaven, both for the measure and degree of knowledge which, as God, is infinite, and, as man, is large as human nature is capable of, and for the kind of knowledge which, as God, is of Himself, and can only be man’ s by communication from Him who came down from heaven. 5. The Son of God in the boson of the Father manifested Himself in our nature, that He might in our nature understand and communicate the heavenly mysteries; therefore it is marked as the ground of His ascending or comprehending these things that He came down, hereby showing that His abasing of Himself did exalt Him as Mediator to that dignity, to be the storehouse of wisdom to His people. 6. Christ, by His Incarnation, did not cease to be God, for He is still in heaven. 7. The Son of God has assumed the human nature into so strict a personal union that what is proper to either nature is ascribed unto the Person under whatsoever name. And hereby Christ shows His love to our nature that under that name, “ Son of Man,” He ascribes what is proper to His Godhead to Himself. (G. Hutcheson.) The text in relation to error Three distinct heresies are overthrown by these words. I. That of the , who affirm a duality of persons as well as of natures in Christ; for unless our Blessed Lord were one Person, it could not in truth be affirmed that the Son of Man, even whilst on earth, was in heaven. II. That of the and all others who deny the pre-existence and Divinity of Christ; for unless He had been God, it could not have been said that He came down from heaven even whilst still in heaven. III. That of the , who deny the proper humanity of our Blessed Lord; for unless He had been really man, of the substance of His mother, it could not be said that He was the Son of Man. (Toletus.) The Son of Man The name is used I. Not only because of His Incarnation, but also because of the manner of that Incarnation. When He came into this world and manifested Himself, so that we were able to see Him who by nature is invisible, He might have taken new flesh and a body created especially for Him, other than that of man. He, however, took man’ s flesh, and calls Himself here the Son of Man, and so assures us that He was really born of woman; otherwise He would not be really the Son of Man. These words also declare, not only that He took our flesh, for this alone would not have made Him the Son of Man, but that He took it by being born. II. These words remind us for our comfort that He is truly our Brother, and that we are all brethren of Christ by virtue of His birth as the Son of Man. III. He uses these words to certify us of the fulfilment of those promises which declared that He should take our flesh and be the seed of man, the Son of David and of Abraham. IV. Again, He uses these words in confirmation of our being made the sons of God; for if Christ for our sake became the Son of Man, we through His humiliation and Incarnation were therefore made the sons of God. V. By using the name, Son of Man, the mark of His humiliation, He would teach us humility. (Toletus.) John 3:14-15 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness The brazen serpent Nicodemus’ s confession of faith was substantially that of many amongst us, only he went a bit further. Because he was honest he deserved, and because he was half blind he needed, Christ’ s instruction for the expanding of his creed. Complete Christianity, according to Christ, involves (1) A radical change comparable to birth. When Nicodemus staggers at this, our Lord (2) unveils what makes it possible--the Incarnation of the Son of Man who came down from heaven. But a Christianity that stops at the Incarnation is incomplete, so our Lord (3) speaks of the end of incarnation and ground of the possibility of being born again. I. THE BETWEEN THE IMAGE OF THE AND THE LIVING HEALER. The correspondence between the lifting up of the serpent and the lifting up of Christ, the look of the half-dead Israelite and the look of faith, the healing in both cases, are clear; and with these it would be strange were there no correspondence between the two subjects. We admit that Jesus Christ has come in the likeness of the victims of the poison, “ made in the likeness of sinful flesh,” without sin; but in a very profound sense He stood also as representative of the cause of the evil. “ God hath made Him to be sin for us,” etc. And the brazen image in the likeness of the poisonous creature, and yet with no poison in it, reminds us that on Christ were heaped the evils that tempt humanity. And Paul, speaking of the consequences of Christ’ s death, says that “ He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly” --hanging them up there--“ triumphing over them in it.” Just as that brazen image was hung up as a proof that the venomous power of living serpents was overcome, so in the death of Christ sin is crucified and death done to death. II. THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS. 1. The serpent was lifted for conspicuousness; and Nicodemus must have understood, although vaguely, that this Son of Man was to be presented not to a handful of people in an obscure corner, but to the whole world, as the Healer. 2. But Christ’ s prescient eye and foreboding heart travelled, onwards to the cross. This is proved from the two other occasions, when He used the same expression. 3. So from the beginning Christ’ s programme was death. He did not begin as most teachers, full of enthusiastic dreams, and then, as the illusions disappeared, face the facts of rejection and death. 4. Notice, too, the place in Christ’ s work which the cross assumed to Him. There have been many answering to Nicodemus’ s conception--teachers, examples, righteous men, reformers; but all these have worked by their lives: “ this Man comes to work by His death. He came to heal, and you will not get the poison out of men by exhortations, philosophies, moralities, social reforms. Poison cannot be treated by surface applications, but by the cross. 5. The Divine necessity which Christ accepts--“ must.” This was often on His lips. Why? (1) Because His whole life was one long act of obedience to the Divine Will. (2) Because His whole life was one long act of compassion for His brethren. III. THE LOOK OF FAITH. The dying Israelite had to look. Suppose he had looked unbelieving, carelessly, scoffingly, there would have been no healing. The look was required as the expression of (1) the consciousness of burning death; (2) the confidence that it could be taken away because God had said so. (3) The conviction of the hopelessness of cure in any other way. IV. THE PROMISE OF HEALING. 1. In the one ease of the body, in the other case of the soul. 2. The gift of life--something bestowed, not evolved. 3. This eternal life is present, and by its power arrests the process of poisoning, and heals the whole nature. 4. It is available for the most desperate cases. Christianity knows nothing of hopeless men. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The brazen serpent The difference between the Gospels and the Epistles is that between seed and flower. Christ gave men the seeds of truth, and left inspired apostles to develop them. Paul has been charged with inventing the doctrine of the atonement, but it is in this verse in germ. Notice here three analogies I. IN THE DISEASE. The poison of the fiery serpents was fermenting in the Israelites; that of sin is fermenting in us. 1. Men are sinners: a trite observation, but Paul devoted three chapters in Romans to prove it. Our very righteousness is as filthy rags, and you may endeavour by moral improvements to wash them, but you can no more wash them clean than an Ethiop can his left hand by rubbing it with his right. 2. We are all sinners. There is no difference. Irrational animals come short of the glory of God; but men “ fall short.” The idea of a fall underlies all human history: hence culpability. Some men have fallen more deeply, but there is no difference in the fact. 3. All are under sentence of death. “ Guilty before God,” subject to penalty--death. The wages never fall below that. 4. Not only so, but we are polluted, morally sick. What brought death upon us wrought it in us. The venom of the serpents would assuredly terminate in death, in spite of all self or other help. We all sinned in Adam, but Adam continues to sin in us. Sickness is contagious, health never. The Jew transmitted his depravity, not his circumcision: you impart your sin to your posterity, not your holiness. Each has to be regenerated anew. II. IN THE REMEDY. 1. Our salvation comes through man. The Israelites were bitten by serpents, and by a serpent they were to be healed. By man came sin; by man comes salvation. 2. Not only by man, but the Son of Man, one who in the core of His being is closely united to every other man. According to the ancient law, the Goel or nearest relative alone had the right to redeem. Christ is the nearest relative any man can have. 3. The Son of Man lifted up. The tendency is to make the Incarnation the centre of Christianity: the Bible makes the Cross that. A glorious display of condescending grace was made at Bethlehem; but on Calvary God and man were reconciled. Christ suffered (1) with man in virtue of His keen sympathies; (2) for man, in that He suffered martyrdom rather than forsake the path of duty; (3) instead of man, for He bore the wrath of God. 4. The necessity for our atonement. Not shall, but must. The “ must” of verse 10 indicates the necessity for a radical change in order to salvation; that of our text the necessity of an atonement on the part of God. Sin must be published. God’ s righteousness must be upheld, and all its demands met. 5. Jesus Christ uplifted is now both physician and remedy to His people. The brazen serpent could only heal our disease: Christ saves to the uttermost (1) degree of perfection, (2) degree of continuation. III. Is THE OF THE REMEDY FOR THE DISEASE. The Israelites were not bidden to apply poultices, but to look. You are not enjoined to improve yourselves, but to believe. 1. Through faith in Christ the sinner has permission to live. Two words are used in this connection; forgive--give for; remit--set free; corresponding to χαρίζομαι, to show grace, and ἀφίημι, to discharge. These must not be confused. As Broad Church theologians contend every one has been forgiven, but in the first sense. God has “ given for” man all that Almighty Love could offer. But men are only forgiven in the second sense when they accept God’ s pardoning grace. 2. By faith we acquire the right to live--this is justification and more than pardon, permission to live. 3. The power to live--regeneration. Conclusion: 1. In Christ’ s days faith in everlasting life had become practically extinct. 2. Christ revived it, not simply teaching it, but imparting it. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The brazen serpent I. IT WAS TO BE MADE IN THE OF THAT WHICH WAS THEM. Around are serpents victorious: here the serpent conquered and exhibited as a trophy, and the people who see it live. Around us the powers of darkness and death are victorious, and sinning souls are dead in trespasses and sins. Behold on the cross sin, but sin judged, condemned, executed, held up as a specatcle. “ He was made sin,” etc. II. When the wounded Israelite looked on the brazen serpent, he found a PROOF OF GOD’ S ABILITY AND A PLEDGE OF GOD’ S TO SAVE HIM. As we turn to the cross, the old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed. III. THE NEW LIFE WAS IN ITS : it was not by any natural process of improvement or gradual restoration. IV. How may we THE OF CHRIST’ S ? Let us take a walk round the camp. 1. In one tent is a man who declines to look because he has tried every remedy that science can provide, and who says, “ How can I be saved by looking at a mere bit of brass?” and dies because he is too proud to be saved in God’ s way. And so people plead that they cannot understand the doctrine of the atonement, and seem to regard themselves as under no obligation to trust Him who has made that atonement. Will not a general trust in the mercy of God suffice? But the Israelites were not told to discover the mode of the Divine operation. 2. There is another very far gone who says, “ Not for me--too late,” and dies. So many now regard their case as hopeless, but Christ came to save the chief of sinners. 3. We meet with another who says, “ I am all right, but I had a narrow escape. The serpent didn’ t bite; it was only a scratch.” “ But a scratch is fatal; go at once and look.” “ Oh, no! there’ s no danger; but if anything should come of it I will act on your suggestion. At present I am in a hurry; I have some business.” By and by the poison works. Oh for a look at the serpent now! So many perish now by making light of their danger. 4. Here is a man suffering acute agony, who listens with eagerness but obstinate incredulity. “ If God wished to save, He would speak. Besides, the middle of the camp is a long way, and how can healing influence extend so far? Well, to oblige you, I will look; but I don’ t expect anything will come of it. There; I have looked, and am no better.” So, too, many amongst us try a series of experiments. “ I’ m trying to believe, but I feel no better.” 5. We turn aside into a home of sorrow. A broken-hearted mother is bending over her little girl. But lamentation will not arrest the malady. “ Mother, your child may live.” The mother listens with the incredulity of joy, but the little one cries, “ Mother, I want to look at Moses’ serpent.” Instantly the mother’ s arms are around her, and the child is borne to the door. She lifts her deep blue eyes, while the mother, in an agony of hope and fear, stands waiting. “ Mother I I am healed.” There is life for a look at the crucified One. Look and live. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) The brazen serpent I. An FACT (Numbers 21:4-9). Christ’ s entire belief in the Old Testament Scriptures. II. AN CLEARLY . 1. Each divinely appointed. 2. Each met a terrible necessity. 3. Benefit in each case secured by faith. III. A GREAT UPON. “ Must.” Without Christ’ s death none can have life. IV. A BLESSED PURPOSE ALL. 1. A calamity from which we may be delivered. 2. A blessedness to which we may attain. 3. The means of deliverance. 4. The universality of the statement. The only way of mercy and salvation. (J. James.) The brazen serpent I. THE BANE. Sin under the aspect of the serpent’ s bite. This symbol has a twofold significance. 1. It glances back to the Old Serpent in Eden; as do also, more or less, that singular phenomenon among so many heathen nations, serpent-worship. 2. The main significance is the light which it throws on sin itself. Its character is spiritual venom; its effects are anguish and death. Those who say, I feel none of those poisonous effects, only prove themselves by that to be the more fatally steeped in sin’ s sweltering venom; for they bewray the awful state described in Scripture as “ past feeling,” or having the “ conscience seared as with a hot iron.” II. THE . Christ uplifted on the Cross and upheld in the gospel as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. The atonement is the only healing balm. Penances, moralities, and all other substitutes are vain. 1. There is a marked significance in the serpent itself and the very pole. The atonement is as eloquent of sin as it is of salvation. The most awful exhibition of sin ever given was that given on the Cross. Hence our guilt is represented as superscribed thereon--as a handwriting against us legible to the entire universe. In the cross, and on the Crucified, God emphatically “ condemned sin.” 2. The human race have been so infected with the serpent’ s venom as to be called after the name of their father, “ serpents,” “ scorpions,” a “ generation of vipers.” Now Christ came not in sinful flesh, but in its “ likeness.” The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all as the representative of humanity. Even as the serpent of brass on the pole was in the likeness of the fiery serpents, but, unlike them, had no venom in it. In this vicarious way was human guilt declared, exposed, condemned. 3. The sin, by being condemned, was “ put away.” As in the ancient sacrifices the fire symbolically burned up the imputed sin along with the victim, so, on the Cross, the world’ s sin was put away in Christ’ s sufferings, considered as a barrier to salvation. This blow to sin was a death-blow to Satan. It was the bruising of the serpent’ s head Hebrews 2:14-15). III. The MEANS by which the antidote becomes available for the removal of the bane; viz., faith. The wounded Israelites were healed by seeing; the perishing sinner by believing. Notice here in Its proper place the significance of the pole. It was the chief military standard--not the minor or portable ones that were borne about, but the main standard that stood conspicuous in the most prominent part of the camp, fixed in the ground, and from which floated a flag (Jeremiah 51:27; Isaiah 49:22. See Isaiah 13:2; Isaiah 13:3-8; Isaiah 62:10-11). These texts amply illustrate the use and meaning of the large banner-poles, with their floating insignia, as the symbol of universality of promulgation, and thence of Divine interposition of world-wide scope. The texts cited, or referred to, though beginning with the ordinary uses of the symbol, soon run it into Gospel moulds; and most fitly, for very ancient predictions had declared that “ unto him,” the Shiloh, “ shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 11:10; John 12:32). (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The brazen serpent I. THERE IS A BETWEEN THE OF THE WOUNDED AND THE STATE OF MAN BY NATURE. 1. Theirs was a degraded condition. Their pain was the result of their transgression. 2. Miserable. 3. Guilty. 4. Helpless. II. THERE IS A BETWEEN THE MEANS FOR THE RELIEF OF THE WOUNDED AND THE METHOD OF OUR FROM SIN AND DEATH BY JESUS CHRIST. 1. The brazen serpent in shape exactly resembled the fiery serpent. So Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. 2. The serpent was lifted up, which is emblematical of (1) Christ’ s crucifixion. (2) Christ’ s ascension. (3) The public exhibition of the Redeemer’ s Cross in the ministry of reconciliation. III. THE BETWEEN THE OF THE WOUNDED AND THOSE OF THE IN THE ACTS OF LOOKING AND . They were 1. Sensible of their calamity. 2. Filled with humility. IV. THE AS TO THE OF THE REMEDY IN BOTH CASES. In their 1. Instantaneousness. 2. Efficacy to work in the first or last stages of the disease. 3. Completeness of cure. Learn: 1. That salvation can only be ascribed to the free grace of God. 2. The freedom with which this salvation is bestowed. 3. That gratitude becomes those who have received mercy. (T. Gibson, M. A.) The brazen serpent I. THE TO. This typical event occurred towards the close of the wanderings. The people’ s discouragements had been many, and now the king of Edom suffered them not to pass through his border. The Church must lay its account with difficulty and checks and foes. The Christian who turns out of the straight path at the first menace of the Edomite will find more formidable difficulties before he gets to the heavenly Canaan. Now see the form their murmurings took. Aaron and Miriam are dead, and as Moses is not enough to receive all their taunts they “ spoke against God.” “ There is no bread, neither is there any water,” and this when they had the best of both; so easily does a fretful spirit turn into bitterness the best gifts of God. There was something of peculiar aggravation in this sin, and the retribution was awful. “ Would God we had died in the wilderness!” and the prayer was answered. Now they humble themselves. What powerful teachers are sharp afflictions! Moses prayed for them, and God heard his prayer. To have destroyed the serpents would have been as easy as to command the setting up of the brazen one; but God would give His people a part in their own salvation. 1. Of this event there could be no doubt. (1) The witnesses were many. (2) The serpent was preserved as a memorial of it. 2. The serpent had a sacramental character. 3. When this sacramental character encouraged superstition, the serpent was destroyed. II. THE LESSONS . 1. The significant intimation that Christ should die. It was placed on a level with the sacrifices and other symbols which typified the atonement. 2. Salvation does not come to us through Christ’ s being lifted up merely, but through our looking at Him. In the other miracles everything was done by Moses alone. In this case the symbol had no power but that which the faith of the people gave it. The Cross is not a mechanical chain. We must believe. Conclusion: 1. As the Old Testament and the New are one hook, so the Old Testament way of saving is the same as that of the New. 2. Salvation is the free gift of God received by faith. (D. Moore, M. A.) The brazen serpent The type and the antitype correspond I. IN THE OF THEIR . The Israelites were wounded by the serpents; we are wounded by sin. II. IN THEIR . 1. The serpent was made of an inferior metal; Christ was a root out of a dry ground. 2. There was only one brazen serpent for the whole Jewish camp; there is only one Mediator between God and man. 3. The serpent was appointed of God; Christ was appointed by the Father. 4. The serpent was publicly lifted up; Christ is uplifted by His ministers. III. IN THE MANNER IN WHICH THE BENEFIT IS DERIVED. 1. By looking personally. 2. Instantly. 3. Steadily and constantly. 4. Exclusively. IV. IN THE EFFECTS THEY PRODUCE. 1. The completeness of the cure. 2. Its universality. (1) Every one may be healed. (2) The whole of the surviving camp was healed. So all the world will one day be saved by Christ. Conclusion: 1. How simple is the way of salvation. 2. How injurious is unbelief. If we despise this ordinance of God we shall perish. (S. Sutton.) The mysteries of the brazen serpent All languages are based on figures. When we teach children we employ figures. And so Christ employed figures to teach this spiritual child the things of the kingdom: a better way than by the use of abstract terms. I. THE PEOPLE IN THE , the representatives of sinful men. 1. They had stood valiantly in fight, but the serpents were things that trembled not at the sword. They had endured weariness and thirst and hunger, but these were novelties, and new terrors are terrible from their very novelty. If we could see our condition we should feel as Israel when they saw the serpents. 2. Behold the people after they were bitten--the fire coursing through their veins. We cannot say that sin produces instantly such an effect, but it will ultimately. Fiery serpents are nothing to fiery lusts. 3. How awful must have been the death of the serpent! bitten, and how awful the death of the man without Christ. II. THE BRAZEN SERPENT. The type of Christ crucified; both remedies. 1. A number, perhaps, declared it absurd that a brazen serpent should do what physicians could not. So many despise Christ crucified. 2. Some say the cross will only increase the evil, just as old physicians averred that the sight of anything bright would intensify the effect of the poison. So many make out that salvation by the Cross destroys morality. 3. Much as those who heard of the brazen serpent might have despised it there was no other means of cure. So “ there is none other name,” etc. III. WHAT WAS TO BE DONE TO THE BRAZEN SERPENT? It was to be lifted up--so was Christ. 1. By wicked men. 2. By God the Father. 3. By ministers. Let them so preach Him that He may be seen. IV. WHAT WERE ISRAEL TO DO? To look; the convinced sinner is to believe. 1. There were, perhaps, some who would not look, and some will not come to Christ for life: perhaps (1) Through unbelief. (2) Through insufficient conviction. (3) Through procrastination. (4) Through belief in other means. (5) Through looking too much at their sores, and seeming incurability. 2. Those who would be saved must look. (1) Whosoever. (2) Look now. V. . 1. Christ was lifted up on purpose for you to look at. 2. He invites you to believe. 3. He promises to save. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The lifting up of the brazen serpent I. THE PERSON IN MORTAL PERIL for whom the brazen serpent was made. 1. The fiery serpents came among the people because they had despised God’ s way and God’ s bread (Numbers 21:1-35.). The natural consequence of turning against God like serpents is to find serpents waylaying our path. 2. Those for whom the brazen serpent was uplifted had been actually bitten by the serpents. The common notion is that salvation is for good people, but God’ s medicine is for the guilty. 3. The bite of the serpent was painful. So many by sin are restless, discontented, and fearful. Jesus died for such as are at their wits’ end. 4. The bite was mortal. There could be no question about that--nor about the effects of sin. 5. There is no limit set to the stage of poisoning: however far gone, the remedy still had power. So the gospel promise has no qualifying clause. II. THE REMEDY FOR HIM. 1. It was purely of Divine origin: and God will not devise a failure. 2. Exceedingly instructive. Wonder of wonders that our Lord Jesus should condescend to be symbolized by a dead snake. 3. There was but one remedy for the serpent bite: there was only one brazen serpent, not two. If a second had been made it would have had no effect. 4. It was bright and lustrous, made of shining metal. So if we do but exhibit Jesus in His own true metal He is lustrous in the eyes of men. 5. The remedy was enduring. So Jesus saves to the uttermost. III. THE OF THE REMEDY. 1. The simplest imaginable. It might, had God so ordered, have been carried into the house, rubbed on the man, and applied with prayers and priestly ceremonies. But he has only to look; and it was wall, for the danger was so frequent. 2. Very personal. A man could not be cured by what others could do for him--physicians, sisters, mothers, ministers. 3. Very instructive--self help must be abandoned and God be trusted. IV. THE CURE . 1. He was healed at once. He had not to wait five minutes, nor five seconds. Pardon is not a work of time, although sanctification is. 2. The remedy healed again and again. The healed Israelites were in danger. The safest thing is not to take our eye off the brazen serpent at all. 3. It was of universal efficacy, and no man who looks to Christ remains under condemnation. V. A LESSON FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR LORD. Imitate Moses. He did not “ incense” the brazen serpent, or hide it behind vestments or ceremonies, but raised it on a bare pole that all might see. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Three similitudes I. THE STUNG AND THE GUILTY SINNER. 1. As the Israelite had death in his bosom, so the sinner (Hebrews 2:14); although the latter sting may not be felt as was the former. 2. The Israelite wanted all means of cure, and had not God appointed the serpent he had perished. As helpless is the sinner till God shows us His Christ. II. THE BRAZEN SERPENT AND CHRIST. 1. The serpent was accursed of God. Christ was made a curse for us Galatians 3:13). 2. The brazen serpent had the likeness of the serpent, but not the poison. Christ came in the similitude of sinful flesh without sin. 3. The brazen serpent was uplifted on a pole; Christ on the Cross. 4. As the poison of a serpent was healed by a serpent, so the sin of man by man (Romans 5:1-21.; 1 Corinthians 15:21). But Christ had power in Himself to heal us which the other had not. 5. The brazen serpent was not the device of an Israelite, but of God; so no man could have found out such a means of salvation as that established by Christ. III. THE LOOKING ON THE SERPENT, AND THE SINNERS IN CHRIST. 1. The Israelite was healed only by looking; so the sinner is justified only by believing. 2. As looking, as well as the rest of the senses, is a passion rather than an action; so in justification thou art a patient rather than an agent: thou boldest thy beggar’ s hands to receive, that is all. 3. The Israelites before they looked up to the brazen serpent for help (1) Felt themselves stung; (2) Believed that God would heal them by that serpent. So the sinner must (1) Feel himself a sinner, be burdened and heavy laden Matthew 2:23), before he will or can come to Christ. A man that feels not himself sick, seeks not the physician; (2) He must believe that in Christ there is all-sufficient help. 4. The stung Israelite looked on the serpent with a pitiful, humble, craving, wishly eye, weeping also for the very pain of the sting: with such an eye doth the believing sinner look on Christ crucified (Zechariah 12:10). 5. The Israelite by looking on the brazen serpent received ease presently, and was rid of the poison of the living serpent, and so therein was made, like the brazen serpent, void of all poison. So the believer, by looking on Christ, is eased of his guilty accusing conscience (Romans 5:11, and is transformed into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). 6. Even the squint-eyed or purblind Israelite was healed; so the weak believer, being a true believer, is healed by Christ. 7. Though the Israelite were stung never so often, yet if he looked up to the serpent he was healed. As we are daily stung by sin, so we must daily look up to Christ crucified. Every new sin must have a fresh act of faith and repentance. Yet there are two differences betwixt their looking on the serpent and our looking by faith on Christ. 1. By looking they lived, but yet so that after they died; but here, by believing in Christ, we gain an eternal life. 2. They looked on the serpent, but the serpent could not look on them; but here, as thou lookest on Christ, so He on thee, as once on Peter, and on Mary and John from the Cross, and thy comfort must rather be in Christ’ s looking on thee, than in thy looking on Him. (J. Dyke.) Sin and salvation through Christ I. SIN. This was the occasion, with its consequent misery, of the setting up of the brazen serpent; so the occasion of Christ’ s coming was man’ s being bitten by the old serpent (Revelation 12:9; 2 Corinthians 11:3). Among the Israelites few were stung, here all; there their bodies, here the soul; there temporal death followed, here eternal. 1. The sting is painful, although not always. It is a great part of our misery not to know our misery. Yet Satan’ s darts are often painful (Ephesians 6:16). Sin in life will make hell in conscience (Proverbs 18:14; Job 1 Corinthians 15:56). 2. The sting is deadly (Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23; Genesis 2:17). Not only death temporal, but spiritual and eternal (Mark 9:44; Proverbs 8:36). II. CHRIST SET FORTH BY THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 1. The resemblance between the two. (1) Both were remedies devised by God’ s mercy and love (John 3:16). We neither plotted nor asked it. The Israelites did ask through Moses; but in our case God, the offended party, makes the first motion (1 John 4:19). (2) Christ’ s humiliation set forth. (a) A serpent was chosen to show that He came in a mean estate Psalms 22:6; Isaiah 53:3; Mark 9:12); (b) because the serpent was cursed of God (Genesis 3:14). (c) The serpent was made of brass, not of gold. (3) The serpent had the form, but not the poison. So Christ (Hebrews 4:15). (a) God would cure a serpent’ s bite by a serpent (Romans 8:3). (b) The parties to be cured were men; therefore the Son of Man must be lifted up. (4) The place where the brazen serpent was uplifted was Punon Numbers 33:42-43), for from Punon they came to Oboth Numbers 21:10). This was in Idumaea, famous for mines of brass or copper--known among the ancients as “ the metal of Punon.” Eusebius (“ Eccl. Hist.,” bk. 8.) tells us that Sylvanus and thirty-nine more were beheaded for the faith’ s sake near the mines of brass in Punon; and Eutychius, Epiphanius, and Theodoret speak of Christians condemned to work in these mines. So that the brass out of which the serpent was made was found in the place where they were bitten. That body which Christ assumed was not brought from elsewhere. Where the mischief was the remedy was at hand. (5) The brazen serpent was lifted up on a pole. So Christ on the Cross 1 Peter 2:24). The serpent first stung us by the fruit of a tree, and Christ saved us by suffering on one. 2. The super-excellency of Christ to the type. The brazen serpent (1) Was but a sign of salvation (Wis 16:6), but Christ is the author of it Hebrews 5:9). (2) Benefited the Israelites only, but Christ all nations (Isaiah 11:10). (3) Freed them from present death only, Christ from eternal death John 11:26). (4) Became a means of idolatry (2 Kings 18:4), whereas Christ is to be equally honoured with the Father (John 5:23; Hebrews 1:6; Philippians 2:9-10). (5) Was broken in pieces; but they shall be broken in pieces who deny Christ (Psalms 2:9; Daniel 2:44; Luke 19:27). III. FAITH THE MEANS OF BY CHRIST. 1. The necessity of faith. None had benefit but such as looked Numbers 21:8). 2. The encouragement of faith (1) To broken-hearted sinners. If you are stung by sin, look to Christ. A felt sense of sin is warrant enough. The Israelites cried out, “ Oh! what shall we do?” So Acts 2:37; Acts 16:29-30. (2) To lapsed believers. God did not take away the serpents, only He gave a remedy. Sin is not abolished, but 1 John 2:1. 3. The nature of faith, which is a looking unto Christ. The act of faith is expressed by seeing or looking (Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 17:7;John 6:40; Hebrews 11:1; Hebrews 11:27; Hebrews 12:2). Faith itself is said to be the eye of the soul (Ephesians 1:18; Galatians 3:1), and its hindrance blindness (2 Corinthians 4:4). (1) The objects proper to faith are things that lie out of the view of sense John 20:29). (2) What kind of sight faith is. (a) Serious; not a glance, but a fixed eye. (b) Applicative (Job 5:27; John 20:28). (c) Affectionate, with desire and trust (2 Chronicles 20:12; Psalms 121:1; 1 Peter 1:7; Isaiah 17:7; Psalms 123:2; Psalms 34:5). (d) Engaging (Philippians 2:8; Ephesians 1:17). The saving sight:--Two great historical facts--the uplifted serpent and the uplifted Saviour. Infinite is the difference between them in point of dignity and momentousness. The one had a narrow circle of a few thousands for its witnesses, and the desert for its theatre; the other a universe. From the one came body-healing, soon to be interrupted by death; from the other flows soul-healing unto life everlasting. But the one sheds much light on the other. Compare them I. IN THE NATURE OF THE MALADY. 1. What could he more fatal or terrible than this judgment? 2. Like the camp of Israel, this is a world of dying men. II. IN THE OF THE - REMEDY. 1. God alone could stay the judgment. All the virtue of the serpent of brass lay in the fact that it was appointed by God expressly for a sign of His merciful interposition. 2. Both were lifted up. III. IN THE OF THE - REMEDY AND THE AND OF THE CURE. (A. Wilson, B. A.) Regeneration: its objective cause In speaking about the subjective work of Christianity Christ mentions only the initiatory acts in the new birth. In speaking of its objective work He introduces us to the central act. Around this very fact objective Christianity clusters. I. THE LIFTING UP OF THE SON OF MAN. Our Lord dealt much in illustrations. In this chapter He borrows one from human life--birth; one from nature--wind; and now one from the Scriptures, showing how rich the historical events of the Old Testament were in types and symbols. This illustration is intended to set forth 1. The great fact that Christ was to be a healing medium. 2. The symbol of the devil is made the symbol of his Destroyer in the very act of bruising his head. 3. The virtue by which He should become the healing medium (John 12:32-33). 4. Christ’ s moral as well as physical exaltation (see John 13:31-32) glorifying both Himself and His Father. 5. Christ’ s transcendent greatness of mind, enabling Him to take cognizance only of the glory, and not of the degradation, of His suffering. 6. His “ lifting up” by many tongues made eloquent by a love kindled from Calvary. II. THIS GREAT HAD FOR ITS OBJECT THE OF MEN. 1. This salvation is negative and positive--meeting the twofold nature of sin, which is (1) Positive--entailing misery; (2) punitive--depriving of positive blessedness. Christ delivers from the first--“ shall not perish” and restores the second--“ eternal life.” 2. This perishing is not annihilation, but a deprivation of vital relation to God; eternal life is a restoration of this relation. 3. These effects are the results of Christ’ s “ lifting up,” and connect the objective transaction with the subjective effects, and goes back to the matter of the new birth, which is organically connected with eternal life. III. THE DIVINE LOVE, AS AN MOTIVE, WAS EQUAL TO THIS (John 3:6). Here, then, are five links in the wondrous chain. (1) Men are delivered from the perdition of sin, and restored to the Divine life. (2) This is secured by the lifting up of the Son of Man. (3) But this Son of Man is the only-begotten Son of God. (4) This only-begotten Son was made incarnate, that He might be lifted up. (5) This required some mighty motive. It is implied 1. That the objects were so unworthy, that the method of redeeming them required so much humiliation and sacrifice, that the motive could only be found in the infinite love of God. 2. That this love is not to be described by word, but by action. “ God so loved.” Here are two loves contending--God’ s complacent love for His Son and His love of commiseration for the world. IV. THAT GOD’ S OBJECT IN ALL THIS IS (John 3:17). The declaration that Christ’ s object was to save men, given in John 3:15; John 16:1-33, is here emphasized. It was His sole object. 1. This is an important reminder to all engaged in promulgating the kingdom, of the spirit which should actuate them (Luke 9:55-56). 2. An invitation of men’ s confidence in the gracious intentions of God Isaiah 55:8-9). (A. J. Parry.) The scene referred to Not long ago I saw a picture of this by Guido. In the foreground strong men were writhing in the death agony; some are pallid in death; some hopelessly lifting eyes, bloodshot and ghastly, to the sacred emblem at the right hand of the picture, and already a new life throbs within them; joy flushes the countenance with unexpected hues of health. But in the centre is a mother, despair in her eye, lifting her babe with both hands, that it may gaze on the saving sight. Why does not the child look up? All! it is too far gone; the deadly bite has penetrated to the central springs; it hangs its head; it droops; it will not look; it gives one throe of anguish, and dies in the mother’ s uplifted hands. Oh! the unutterable pathos of that mother’ s look! Often, alas! do parents, teachers, pastors, hold up their dear charge, with agonizing solicitude, before the Saving Sight, without saving results. But the fault lies not with God, but with you. (A. Wilson, B. A.) The agony of sin What a moment of agony and terror it must have been as all around unfortunate victims were being attacked with these messengers of death. Young and old, rich and poor; for with them there was no respect of persons. On all sides you might see the Israelites writhing in mortal pains. You might hear the mother’ s agonized screams as the poisonous reptile fastened its fangs in her darling’ s breast. See that strong man tottering along; he has just been bitten. A moment ago he was in full health and strength, but now the deadly venom is flowing through his veins, and he is a dead man already. In this terrible emergency the people cried unto God, and Moses was instructed to make a serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and whosoever looked on this should live. (W. M. H. Aitken.) The serpents To this day a mottled snake, with fiery red spots upon its head, abounds at certain seasons in the Arabah. It is the dread of the fishermen, and is peculiarly dangerous to the bare-legged, sandalled Bedouin. So inflammable is its bite, that it is likened to fire coming through the veins; so intense its venom, and so rapid its action, that the bite is fatal in a few hours. The body swells with a fiery eruption; the tongue is consumed with thirst; and the poor wretch writhes in agony till death brings’ relief. This horrible pest suddenly appeared in the camp of Israel in prodigious numbers. From crevices in the rocks, from holes in the sand, from beneath the scanty herbage, these fiery-headed snake-demons swarmed into every tent. There was no running away from them, and killing seemed hardly to diminish their numbers. On every side there was a cry of anguish; men, women, children, racked with the fiery torture; none able to save or even to help another. “ And much of the children of Israel Numbers 21:6). The serpent’ s bite Some of you recollect the case of Gurling, one of the keepers of the reptiles in the Zoological Gardens, in October, 1852. This unhappy man was about to part with a friend who was going to Australia, and he must needs drink with him. He went back to his post in an excited state. He had some months before seen an exhibition of snake-charming, and this was on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the Egyptians, and play with serpents. First he took out of its cage a Morocco venom-snake, put it round his neck, twisted it about, and whirled it round about him. Happily for him it did not arouse itself so as to bite. The assistant-keeper cried out, “ For God’ s sake put back the snake!” but the foolish man replied, “ I am inspired.” Putting back the venom.snake, he exclaimed, “ Now for the cobra.” This deadly serpent was somewhat torpid with the cold of the previous night, and therefore the rash man placed it in his bosom till it revived, and glided downward till its head appeared below the back of his waistcoat. He took it by the body, about a foot from the head, and then seized it lower down by the other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it round his head. He held it for an instant opposite to his face, and like a flash of lightning the serpent struck him between the eyes. The blood streamed down his face, and he called for help, but his companion fled in horror. When assistance arrived Gurling was sitting on a chair, having restored the cobra to its place. He said, “ I am a dead man.” They took him to the hospital. First his speech went, then his vision failed him, and lastly his hearing. His pulse gradually sank, and in one hour from the time at which he had been struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his nose, but the poison spread over the body, and he was a dead man. I tell you that story that you may use it as a parable and learn never to play with sin, and also to bring vividly before you what it is to be bitten by a serpent. Suppose that Curling could have been cured by looking at a piece of brass, would it not have been good news for him? There was no remedy for that poor infatuated creature, but there is a remedy for you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A beautiful legend is related respecting a scene in the camp of the Israelites at the time of the setting up of the brazen serpent. A woman had been bitten, and was lying in her tent, while the poison was doing its deadly work on her system. It was the day and the hour when the serpent of brass was to be set up in the camp; but such headway had the poison made that it seemed likely that in that case it would prove too late. But the image was at length raised; and the two daughters of the dying woman brought her to the door of the tent, with her face turned towards the image, when apparently swooning in death; the image of the brazen serpent fell upon her eyes, and she was healed. (D. Curry, D. D.) “ The serpent eternal life” It is a noteworthy fact that in many of the ethnic religions the serpent was adored as a symbol of life. Horapollon, explaining (wrongly) a particular Egyptian hieroglyph, remarks that among the ancient Egyptians a serpent with its tail in its mouth was a symbol of eternity. The ordinary word for eternity in Egyptian begins with a figure of a serpent. This ancient symbolism, which leaves its traces also in the classics, may have owed something of its origin to the fact of the apparent renewal of the serpent’ s life when it awakens from its dormant condition, and when it casts its old skin. The adoration of AEsculapius, the Greek god of healing, was always connected with serpent worship. In the chief temple at Epidaurus tame serpents had a place of honour; and the god was said frequently to take the form of a serpent when he appeared to men. In the third century before Christ the help of AEsculapius was invoked by the Romans to avert a pestilence. In response, AEsculapius is said to have appeared in the form of a serpent, to have gone on board the Roman ship, and when the ship arrived in the Tiber to have glided over the side and to have taken possession of an island, where a temple was erected to him. It will be remembered also that Cadmus was changed into a serpent at his own request, when he discovered that serpents were dear to the gods. Among the Arabs the serpent is still the living thing of living things. This is seen in their ordinary speech. The Arabic word for “ life “ is haya; a common word for a serpent is hayyat, a plural form from hayya, a living thing. When Moses, therefore, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, it would be recognized by the Jews as a symbol of that life which God had promised to give to those who would look to it in faith. To them it was a most natural symbol; when it ceased to be a mere symbol, and became an object of idolatrous worship, it was destroyed. (Sunday School Times.) Jesus lifted up During the American Civil War there was a man on one of the boat-loads of wounded from the field who was very low and in a kind of stupor. He was entirely unknown. Mr. Moody called him by different names, but could get no response. At last, at the name “ William,” the man unclosed his eyes and looked up, and revived. He was asked if he was a Christian. He said, “ No,” but manifested great anxiety upon the subject. “ I am so great a sinner that I can’ t be a Christian.” Mr. Moody told him he would read what Christ said about that, so turning to St. John’ s third chapter he read, “ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” etc. “ Stop!” said the dying man; “ read that over again, will you?” It was read again. “ Is that there?” “ Yes,” said Mr. Moody; “ that’ s there just as I read it to you.” “ And did Christ say that?” “ Yes.” The man began repeating the words, settling back upon his pillow as he did so, with a strange, solemn look of peace on his face. He took no further notice of what was going on about him, but continued repeating the blessed words till Mr. Moody left him. The next morning when the soldier’ s place was visited it was found empty. Mr. Moody asked if any one knew aught about him during the night. A nurse who had spent the hours with him till he died, replied, “ All the time I was with him he was repeating something about Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness. I asked him if there was anything I could do for him, but he only answered, ‘ As Moses lifted up the serpent.’ Just before he died, about midnight, I saw his lips moving, though there was no sound escaping. I thought he might have some dying message for home, so I asked him for one. But the only answer was the whispered words, ‘ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him--’ and so on until his voice died away, and his lips moved no longer.” (D. L. Moody.) Looking at Christ Mr. Barnes, of the Jewish Mission, Mildmay, London, said: “ I was visiting in a Jewish neighbourhood in the East End of London, and called upon a Jewess, whom I had known for a long time as a very hard-hearted unbeliever in Jesus Christ. I did not know what to say to her; in fact, I had given her up as almost hopeless. When, however, I called on this occasion she said, ‘ I love Jesus, I have got Jesus now as my Saviour.’ I said, ‘ You have! How came you to love Jesus?’ ‘ Well,’ she said, ‘ I will tell you. You know my little girl attends your school, and she comes home and sings the hymns you teach her. She has been singing a good deal lately, “ There is life for a look at the Crucified One.” She kept on singing and singing, and at last it broke my heart, and I wondered, is it true there is life for a look. I have been induced to search the Bible, and I believe Jesus is now my Saviour.” Christ exalted Describing the artistic glories of the Church of St. Mark at Venice, Mr. Ruskin says: “ Here are all the successions of crowded imagery showing the passions and the pleasures of human life symbolized together and the mystery of its redemption; for the maze of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always at last to the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every stone; sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapped round it, sometimes with doves beneath its arms and sweet herbage growing forth from its feet; but conspicuous most of all on the great rood that crosses the church before the altar, raised in bright blazonry against the shadow of the apse. It is the Cross that is first seen and always burning in the centre of the temple; and every dome and hollow of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised in power, or returning in judgment.” Saved by a sight of Christ “ I have seen Jesus.” This was the saying of a half-witted man, who had turned away from living a very wicked life, when he was asked what had led to this great change. The late Dr. Bushnell, of Hartford, Connecticut, tells this story. He was well acquainted with the person to whom it refers. In addition to his being naturally weak-minded, he had fallen into very wicked ways. He swore dreadfully; he was a confirmed drunkard; he would tell lies, and steal, and do almost anything that was sinful. At one time there was a revival of religion in connection with Dr. Bushnell’ s church. Among others who came to see the doctor then with the earnest inquiry, What must we do to be saved? was this weak-minded, wicked man. Thoughtless people, when they saw him going to church, supposed he was only going in mockery, and to make sport of it. And even serious Christians looked on him with pity, and rather wished he would not come. But when Dr. Bushnell came to converse with him he found him so earnest, and apparently so sincere, that he did not hesitate to receive him into the communion of the church. And the whole course of the poor man’ s life after this showed that the doctor was right in doing so. From that time onward everything about the man showed that “ old things had passed away” with him, “ and all things had become new.” He became an humble and consistent follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. All his bad habits were given up. He never drank intoxicating liquor again. A profane word was never heard from his lips. He was truthful and honest; regular in attending church; diligent in reading the Bible, and faithful in practising what it taught. To those who had known him in former years this change seemed wonderful. And when he was asked by some one to tell what it was which had led to it, his answer was, in the words already quoted, “ I have seen Jesus.” This explained it all. (D. Newton.) We are saved by looking to Christ As a general rule, self-contemplation is a power towards mischief. The only way to grow is to look out of one’ s self. There is too much introversion among Christians. A shipmaster might as well look down into the hold of his ship for the north star as a Christian look down into his own heart for the Sun of Righteousness. Out and beyond is the shining. (H. W. Beecher.) We must look away from ourselvesfor peace Did you ever hear of a captain of a vessel driven about by rough winds who wanted anchorage and tried to find it on board his vessel? He desires to place his anchor somewhere on board the ship where it will prove a hold-fast. He hangs it at the prow, but still the ship drives; he exhibits the anchor upon deck, but that does not hold the vessel; at last he puts it down into the hold; but with no better success. Why, man alive, anchors do not hold as long as they are on board a ship. They must be thrown into the deep, and then they will get a grip of the sea-bottom, and hold the vessel against wind and tide. As long as ever you have confidence in yourselves you are like a man who keeps his anchor on board his boat, and you will never come to a resting-place. Over with your faith into the great deeps of eternal love and power, and trust in the infinitely faithful One. Then shall you be glad because your heart is quiet. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Whosoever Dr. Bonar, of Scotland, tells a story of a lady getting into conversation with a workman, and, finding he was a happy Christian, “ How long have you been thus rejoicing?” she asked. “ Six months ago,” he said, “ I heard an address from the words, ‘ Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’ I could not take it to myself, then,” he said, “ but when I went home that night I dreamt that ‘ whosoever’ meant me. I got out of bed, and got the Bible to see the word, and there it was, ‘ whosoever.’“ “ But you knew it was in the Bible, didn’ t you?” “ Yes, but I wanted to see it with my own eyes, and I’ ve been resting on it ever since.” Whosoever:--“ Years ago a young woman married, contrary to the advice of her friends, an ungodly man. She was not long in finding out that she was unequally yoked, and much misery followed. Her husband’ s mother had given him a Bible, which was put away in a napkin and never looked at. Ten years later sickness overtook him, and the end was evidently fast approaching. One day when his wife had gone into the harvest field, and he was sitting alone in the house, the thought came to him, ‘ What a fool I’ ve been! Here my life is nearly gone, and I’ ve lived it without God and without hope.’ Shortly afterwards his little boy came home from school, and the father sent the lad to look for the Bible. The boy brought it down and read part of Joh 3:1-36. to his father, and managed to read the little words, but when he came to the longer word ‘ whosoever,’ in John 3:16., he stumbled at it, and said, I can’ t read that; I don’ t know what it spells.’ ‘ Why, boy,’ said the father, ‘ you should know that word, because all may turn upon its meaning.’ So the boy ran out to ask a traveller who happened to be passing what it meant, while the father sat at the open window. The traveller answered to the boy’ s inquiry, ‘ The word who-so-ever means anybody and everybody.’ The words fell on the ear of the listening father, and he said to himself, ‘ Anybody, everybody. Why that includes me.’ It was the very message he needed. He left his burden of sin with the great sin-bearer, and became a new creature in Christ Jesus.” Heaven is everlasting “ What is wanting here?” said a courtier to his sovereign, with whom he was riding, amid the acclamations and splendour of a triumphal procession. “ Continuance,” replied the monarch. “ So say I,” adds Mr. James. “ Tell me, if you will, of your youth, your health, the buoyancy of your spirits, your happy connections, your gay parties, your elegant pleasures, your fair prospects, and then ask me what is wanting. I reply, ‘ Continuance.’ A single day may spoil everything; before to-morrow’ s sun shall rise you may be attacked by disease and death.” (Biblical Museum.) Looking and finding rest “ At last one snowy day, it snowed so much that I could not go to the place I had determined upon, and I was obliged to stop on the road; I found rather an obscure street, and turned down a court, and there was a little chapel. It was the Primitive Methodist Chapel. I had heard of these people from many, and how they sang so loudly that they made people’ s heads ache; but that did not matter. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they made my head ache ever so much I did not care. So, sitting down, the service went on, but no minister came (the snowstorm made him late). At last a very thin-looking man came into the pulpit, opened his Bible, and read these words, ‘ Look unto him, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ Just setting his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, ‘ Young man you are in trouble.’ Well I was, sure enough. Says he, ‘ You will never get out of it till you look to Christ.’ And then lifting up his hands he cried out, ‘ Look! look! look! It is only look,’ said he. I saw at once the way of salvation. Oh, how I did leap for joy at that moment! I know not what else he said, I did not take much notice of it. I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, they only looked and were healed. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard this word, ‘ Look!’ what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh, I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away; and in heaven I will look on still in my joy unutterable.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) Looking and trusting I once told my little Willie to jump off a high table, and I would catch him. But he looked down and said, “ Papa, I’ se afraid.” I again told him I would catch him; but he looked down and said, “ Papa, I’ se afraid.” You smile, but that is just the way with the unbeliever. He looks down, and dares not trust the Lord. You would say that would be blind faith, but I say it would not be. I told Willie to look at me and then jump, and he did it, and was delighted. He wanted to jump again, and finally his faith became so great that he would jump when I was eight or ten feet away, and cry out, “ Papa, I’ se a comin’ .” (D. L. Moody.) Joy comes by looking unto Jesus “ Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, ‘ He has given me rest by sorrow, and life by His death.’ Then he stood awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the Cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the water down his cheeks. Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining ones came to him, and saluted him with ‘ Peace be to thee;’ so the first said to him, ‘ Thy sins be forgiven thee;’ the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal on it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate; so they went their way.” (Pilgrim’ s Progress.) Looking brings life If we look upon Christ with the eye though of a weak faith, we shall be saved. Dr. Cneciger when he lay a-dying cried out, “ Credo languida fide, sed tamen fide.” I believe with a weak faith, but with a faith such as it is. (J. Trapp.) John 3:16 God so loved the world, that He gave His-only begotten Son The gospel in brief Pliny declares that Cicero once saw the Iliad of Homer written in so small a character that it could be contained in a nutshell. Peter Bales, a celebrated caligrapher, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, wrote the whole Bible so that it was shut up in a common walnut as its casket. In these days of advanced mechanism even greater marvels in miniature have been achieved, but never has so much meaning been compressed into so small a space as in that famous little word “ So,” in the text. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The gospel The text gives a deeper insight into the Divine character than the heavens which declare God’ s glory and than those tender mercies of His providence which are over all His works. I. THE DIVINE LOVE. 1. Its marvellousness. The world is (1) not the wondrously perfect material universe; (2) not the world of unfallen angels; (3) not a world of creatures such as Adam was when pronounced “ very good.” Then had there been no wonder. But (4) the world the whole of which lieth in wickedness. 2. Its universality. (1) Salvation is as common as sunshine, yet if a man will close his eyes the sun is of no use to him. So while salvation is for all many put it away from them. (2) It was originally meant to be so. The Jews denied it because “ they erred, not knowing the Scripture.” The promise to Abraham and renewed to Isaac and repeated by Isaiah was a universal one. (3) Salvation extends to the most ignorant and the very worst. II. The Divine Gift. He could give nothing dearer or greater. Some may excel others in kindness; but God’ s love is such that in its manifestation it cannot possibly be exceeded. Christ is His unspeakable gift. He gave His Son. 1. To a humbling incarnation. 2. To a laborious servitude. 3. To an ignominious and sacrificial death. III. THE DIVINE DESIGN. 1. What God wants to do. (1) To save all men from perishing (2) To give all everlasting life. 2. The condition upon which He will do it. Faith in His Son. (Mortlock Daniell.) A triple ray of Gospel light Here are three great testimonies like the three primary colours which make one white beam. I. LIGHT UPON THE OF GOD. 1. God loves. The Indian or Chinese will not let you say God loves. It is an impeachment of His dignity and argues need. In a profound sense, however, of yearning for protection, of appreciating the souls of men, of finding a necessity for seeing them blessed, in the sense of pity, mercy, self-effacement, God loves. Had we said this it would have been a marvellous testimony; much more so had Paul or John said it. But love on the lips of Christ has a thousandfold more meaning. 2. God loves the world, the unregenerate world, as a mother loves her wayward no less than her worthy child, though the love be broken-hearted grief. So God loves the rebellious. 3. God loves the world with a distributive affection reaching the “ whosoerers.” 4. God loves it with an affection so deep, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, as to give His only begotten Son. Love is ever giving, and the love of God says not of aught it possesses that it is its own. He keeps not His child. See, then, here in the first line of the Gospel that (1) It reveals the heart of God. (2) His habit of sacrifice. (3) His compassion for every soul. (4) His desire to save all. II. LIGHT UPON CHRIST. What a problem has Christ been! The generations have never been able to forget Him. Men have never given Him a small name. The estimates of foes have betrayed their sense of His greatness, and the adoration of friends has lost itself in the endeavour to express it. Who is He? The ages have been a wrestling Jacob whose question has been, What is Thy name? Ask Himself. 1. The only begotten Son of God. The Son is of the nature of the Father--Divine in a sense no other being is. All the Divine fulness of the Godhead is in Him. And His life matches His name. 2. The gift of God: the property of each soul of man. There is no tie which has knit Him to our hearts that He has not knit. He takes our nature, conditions, duties, temptations, sorrows, curse, death. Ours (1) By evident gift. (2) By obvious sympathies. (3) Ours so that all He has and is, the merits of His life, the atonement of His death, is ours. 3. The Saviour. Only Christ has borne this great name. Mohammed is prophet; Buddha is teacher only; Jesus is Saviour. A name (1) written on the consciousness of every redeemed soul, and (2) writ large in history. III. LIGHT ON MAN. Low views of God go together with low views of man. You cannot lose your faith in God without losing your faith in man. Here we see 1. God loves each man, therefore each man is lovable; no heart without a beauty in it that charms the eye of God; no life without some possibility of glory in it which attracts His love. 2. We are capable of faith. There is a Divine dignity in man which lets him lift himself up to God and entrust himself into His arms, and put himself wholly under His guidance and in His power. 3. We are capable of everlasting life. Philosophy as we know it today is a theory of the graveyard only. If we cast away the Lord of life we have to believe in a destiny that is only a tomb. Christ has come that we might have everlasting life. (R. Glover.) The love of God I. THE OF GRACE IN GOD’ S LOVE. 1. object. The world: man in his corrupt and miserable state (John 5:19). 2. The act.. The love of God is (1) The love of benevolence (Titus 3:4). (2) Of complacency (Psalms 11:7; John 16:27). 3. The degree--“ So.” We are not told how much. It is to be conceived rather than spoken of; admired rather than conceived. Observe from all this 1. That love is at the bottom of all. We may give a reason for other things, but not for this love (Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Matthew 11:26). 2. Love is visible in the progress and perfection of our salvation in Christ Romans 5:8). Light is not more conspicuous in the sun. 3. If there were any other cause it must be either (1) in the merit of Christ; but this was the manifestation not the cause of God s love (1 John 3:16), or (2) in our worthiness; but this cannot be (1 John 4:10; Colossians 1:24). The uses of all this. 1. To confute all misapprehensions of God. Satan tempts us to view God as unlovely or to entertain unworthy thoughts of His mercy. But this shows us that He is fuller of love than the sea is of water. 2. To quicken our admiration of the love of God in Christ. Three things commend any favour done us. (1) The good will of the giver. (2) The greatness of the gift. (3) The unworthiness of the recipient. All concur here. 3. To exhort us (1) To improve this love. It is an invitation to seek after God. (2) To answer it with a corresponding love. (3) As love was at the bottom of all grace, so let it be of all duty. II. THE WAY GOD TOOK TO EXPRESS HIS LOVE. There is a twofold giving of Christ. 1. For us (Romans 8:32). This mightily bespeaks God’ s love and care for our salvation. In creation God made us after His own image; in redemption Christ was made after ours. This was the most convenient way to bring about His purposes of grace (1) That our faith might be more certain. (a) By His humanity He taught men by doctrine and example. (b) By His dying He satisfied the justice of God, and so made a way for the course of His mercy to us (Romans 3:25-26). (c) By His resurrection, which was a visible satisfaction to the world that His sacrifice was accepted (Romans 4:25). (d) By His ascension the truth of eternal life was more confirmed. (2) That our hope might be confirmed, being built upon Christ’ s example and promises (1 Peter 1:3; John 2:25; John 12:26). (3) That our love to God may be more fervent. (4) That our obedience may be more ready (Hebrews 5:8-9). 2. To us. (1) Without Christ there is no recovery of what we lost, viz., (a) The image of God. This is restored by Christ, who is the pattern 2 Corinthians 3:18) and author (Titus 3:5-6). Till we are in Him we have not this great benefit (2 Corinthians 5:17). (b) The favour of God which Christ died to recover (2 Corinthians 5:17). (c) Fellowship with God (Genesis 3:24; cf. Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16). (2) Without Christ there is no removal of our mlsery--the death and curse, involved in sin. Christ finds us where Adam left us (John 3:18). (3) Without Christ there is no obtaining our proper happiness. Man was made for God, and cannot be happy without Him (John 14:6; 1 John 5:11). The use of all this Isaiah 1. To confute the world’ s opinion who measure God’ s love by outward things. 2. To excite us to bless God for Jesus Christ (Romans 7:25; 1 Corinthians 15:57). III. THE END OF THIS LOVE. Notice 1. The connection of our duty and privilege. We believe: God gives. 2. The universality of the proposal. 3. The condition. 4. The benefits negatively and positively considered. (T. Manton, D. D.) The love of God What subject can be so interesting as this? The gospel in general is a record of the love of God, but there the only begotten Son from the bosom of the Father gives us an epitome of the whole. I. ITS OBJECT. If God so loved the world, then 1. He loved those who deserved no such love. 2. He loved those who could do nothing to purchase or to procure it. 3. He loved those by whom it was unsolicited and undesired. 4. He must manifest it in a way worthy of Himself. (1) Was such a love verbal? There is a great deal of such which says, “ Be ye warmed,” etc. Was it sentimental? There are a good many so exquisite in their sensibilities as not to be able to endure a case of woe. Had God’ s love been such we had never been redeemed. (2) God’ s love was practical, bountiful, efficient. II. ITS MANNER. He loved in a way worthy of Himself, and bestowed a gift which proved its greatness. 1. The supreme dignity and worth of the gift--“ His Son” in a sense in which no other being is. Angels are sons because God has created them; Christians because God has adopted them. But Christ is God’ s Son by eternal generation; Son in such a sense that He can say of the Father, “ I and My Father are one,” and that the Father can say of Him, “ Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” 2. The relation in which the gift stood to the Giver. He was one in whom the Father delighted, not as in a creature with a limited affection, but with a boundless complacency. 3. Does not this teach us that a less valuable gift could not expiate human crime, and that no other price could have been accepted. Had Christ’ s teaching, example, etc., been sufficient His blood would not have been shed. But “ without shedding of blood is no remission.” 4. The only begotten Son so loved the world that He gave Himself. The allegation that if Christ suffered under compulsion it were unjust is true. But Christ was Divine, and therefore independent, and consequently cannot be compelled to suffer. Hence He says, “ I delight to do Thy will.” “ No man taketh My life from Me.” III. ITS END. It was glorious and justified the means--the salvation of the world. But this great benefit is not dispensed indiscriminately. There must be a cordial acceptance of God’ s plan. Two ideas: 1. That of credence. Jesus must be believed to be what the record declares Him to be. 2. But such credence of this testimony that it is accepted by us, and that there is a personal reliance on Christ for salvation. It is with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. 3. Nor is this one act merely; it is an act repeated till a habit is formed, a habit which gives a distinctive denomination to the person--“ believer.” 4. This salvation through faith is negative and positive. In conclusion: 1. “ God so loved the world.” Then (1) He has so loved mankind as He has not loved other orders of creatures. (2) He has carried this attribute m this manifestation to its utmost intensity. This cannot be said of His wisdom or His power. (3) It was so vast, amazing, rich as to pay down a price that defies all the powers of human or angelic calculation. 2. Has God so loved the world as to give, etc.? Then (1) Let us cherish views of the Divine character worthy of Him whose we are and whom we serve. (2) How vital to salvation is faith! (3) Have we the love of God? (4) We ought to love one another. (R. Newton, D. D.) God’ s love and its gift I. THE LOVE OF GOD. 1. If God so loved this guilty world, then what an unplumbed depth of grace must have been in His heart! For the object of His love is not the world in its first condition when He pronounced it “ very good,” but the world ruined by sin and condemned for apostasy. There would have been no wonder had the world been drowned. Yet without any change in our claims or character He loved us. And this love is not a mere relenting which might lead to a respite, or simple regret which might end in a sigh. There is no merit in loving what is lovely. There is nothing about man but his misery to attract the Divine attachment. Man’ s sin is not his misfortune, but his fault. And the marvel is there is nothing God hates so much as sin, and yet no one He loved so much as the sinner. 2. If God so loved this little world, then surely His love is disinterested. This orb is truly a “ little one,” yet it has called out emotion, which mightier spheres had failed to elicit. 3. If God loved this fallen world and not the world of fallen angels His love must be sovereign. “ Be not high minded, but fear.” God spared not the angels that sinned, and if thou art spared thou hast no reason to boast. 4. The fervour and mightiness of this love arrest our attention--“ so.” II. THE GIFT OF GOD’ S LOVE. We estimate the value of a gift by various criteria. 1. The resources of the giver. Our Lord declared that the poor widow gave truly more than the wealthy worshippers. 2. The motives of the giver. One may heap favours on a fallen foe to wound his pride. 3. The manner. If it be withheld until wrung out, or if it be offered in a surly spirit, it sinks at once in importance below the lesser boon offered in frank and spontaneous sympathy. 4. The condition of the recipient--whether rich or needy, and in what degree of need, and the extent to which the gift is adapted to him. Now let the love of God be tested by these criteria. 1. The resources of the Giver are infinite; but in the donation of Christ you see the limits of possibility. If Christ be God what gift superior can be presented? or if He be the Son of God what richer love could be exhibited? 2. God’ s motives were perfectly unselfish. 3. His gift is the only one that could have profited us. 4. What adaptation there is in it to man’ s dire need I III. THE DESIGN OF GOD’ S LOVE. 1. To rescue man from perishing. 2. To confer upon man the boon of everlasting life. 3. To do this for all who believe: (1) of every character; (2) country; (3) rank; (4) age. (J. Eadie, D. D.) The love of God I. THE OBJECT OF THIS LOVE. The world--not a part of it. The same reasons upon which His love of individuals is justified will justify His love to all. II. ITS NATURE. 1. Negatively. (1) Not a delight in the character of men. For an infinite being to sympathize with wicked natures He must be infinitely wicked. (2) Not a mere emotion, for emotions do not influence the life without the will. (3) Not fondness for particular persons. There was nothing in any man to warrant this fondness. (4) Not an involuntary love as is manifest in what it did. (5) Not an unreasonable state of mind which so often gives rise to a false affection. 2. Positively. (1) It was the only kind of love that could have been important to man. (2) It was a reasonable affection. (3) It was good-will or benevolence. (4) It was an unselfish kind of love. (5) God did the good for the sake of the intrinsic and infinite value of the soul. Men had no claim upon Him, but there were infinite reasons why He should not destroy them. (6) It was disinterested. (7) It was a love of amazing strength. Here was a world of enemies at war with Him, yet He spared not His own Son. (8) It was not for a single Christian as such, but for a world of sinners. (9) It was forbearing. (10) It was universal. (11) It was holy. III. THE REASON FOR THIS MEASURE OF THE DIVINE . Mankind had resisted this government. If God had seemed to connive at this, all other beings might have denied the justice of the law and disobeyed it also. What must be done? God’ s relation to the universe demanded of Him either to execute the law or to make demonstration of His estimation of the law. It is easy to see that the honour of the law might be fully sustained by God Himself if He should show before the whole universe His approbation of the law. If God would take upon Himself human nature, and in this nature would stand right out before the universe, and obey the law and suffer its penalty, the law would be perfectly honoured. This was what was done in Christ. (Prof. Finney.) The love of God I. How was JESUS GIVEN BY THE FATHER? 1. By His designation and appointment unto death (Acts 2:23; Isaiah 42:1). 2. In parting with Him and setting Him at some distance from Himself for a John 16:28; Psalms 22:1-2). 3. In delivering Him into the hands of justice to be punished (Romans 8:32). 4. In the application of Him with all the purchases of His blood, and settling all this upon us as an inheritance (John 6:32-33; John 4:10). II. HOW THIS GIFT WAS THE HIGHEST, FULLEST OF THE LOVE OF GOD THAT EVER THE WORLD SAW. This will be evidenced if you consider 1. How near and dear Christ was to the Father (Colossians 1:13). 2. To what He gave Him (Luke 22:22). 3. That in giving Christ He gave the richest jewel in His cabinet. 4. On whom the gift was bestowed. (1) Not on angels; not on human friends, but (2) upon enemies (Romans 5:8-10). 5. The freeness of the gift (1 John 4:19). Corollaries. 1. The exceeding preciousness of souls (1 Peter 1:18; Matthew 16:26). 2. Those for whom God gave His own Son may warrantably expect any other mercy from Him (Romans 8:32; 1 Corinthians 3:20-21). (1) No other mercy can be so dear to God as Jesus is. (2) As Jesus was nearer the heart of God than all, so Jesus is in Himself much more excellent than all of them (Romans 9:5). (3) There is no other mercy you want but you are entitled to it by the gift of Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20; 1 Timothy 6:17). (4) If God has given you Christ when enemies it is not imaginable He should deny you an inferior mercy now you are reconciled Romans 5:8-10). 3. If the greatest love hath been manifested in the gift of Christ, then the greatest evil and wickedness is manifested in rejecting Him (Hebrews 2:2-4). (J. Flavel.) The love of God I. GOD IS LOVE. 1. It is singular. He first loved. 2. It is personal. 3. It is compassionate. He pities the souls that sin has ruined. 4. It is comprehensive. It extends to all mankind. II. ITS . 1. In the gift. This includes (1) the birth of Christ; (2) His matchless life and example; and (3) His sacrifice. III. ITS RESULTS. It is implied 1. That all are lost. 2. That none need perish; and 3. That whosoever believeth in Him hath everlasting life. IV. WE LIVE IN THE DAY OF ! This should be the tidings of great joy to all people. The return of Christmas should revive our hope and rekindle our zeal to spend and be spent in the Master’ s service. (L. O.Thompson.) The love of God I. LOVE IN ITS SOURCE. 1. God can love and does love. We must beware of making God only an infinite man; yet love in Him must be the same in kind as love in us. 2. Love is more than a Divine attribute. It is as light of which all the attributes are colours. 3. How near this brings Him to our hearts. We admire other qualities; we only love the loving. 4. The Scripture represents everywhere this love as the fountain of redemption. II. LOVE IN ITS PUREST FORM. It had nothing to attract it and everything to repel it. 1. The world was perishing; it was therefore not complacent, but compassionating love. It is one thing to help the happy and prosperous and another to succour the needy and miserable. 2. The world was guilty. It is harder to love those who add unworthiness to distress. Moral excellence may attract compassion to the wretched, but moral vileness disgusts. But “ God commendeth His love,” etc. 3. The world was at enmity with God. That love is purest which withstands provocations and does good to the injurious. “ When we were enemies we were reconciled,” etc. 4. The world’ s misery and peril were caused by itself. It is always a sore strain on mercy when solicited for the wilful. How natural the reply: “ It serves you right” ! God says, “ Thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thy help.” III. Love IN ITS That is a poor philanthropy which can pity without helping: but “ the philanthropy of God appeared” in action. Love is as deeds, not words, desires, or feelings. 1. The love of God was practical in the most costly way. The test of love is sacrifice; the criterion of its strength is the measure of the sacrifice. The Cross was the self-denial of God. 2. Of all sacrifices the chief are those of persons. The highest sphere of value is in persons, not things, although the latter may be very precious. 3. God sacrificed the highest of all persons. IV. Love IN ITS PURPOSE. No purpose could be greater. We know the worth of life. “ All that a man hath will he give for his life.” It is the condition of all else that is prized. Salvation is life, not in figure, but in fact. There is a life of the flesh, of the soul, and of the spirit. This life in all its perfection is the end of God. Beginning in the finest portion of our nature it will spread and strengthen until it possesses the whole of it. Man redeemed and renewed is to live to the utmost of his capacity of life. This life is “ everlasting.” Sin brought death and separated from the tree of life: Christ restored access to it. V. LOVE IN ITS WIDEST SPHERE. The “ world” is not here used in a restrictive sense. It would be difficult to believe, did not facts prove it, that any could be so blinded as to make “ the world” signify the Church. For the fact is, whenever the “ world” is applied to a portion of mankind it always means the wicked. Wherever there is a man in the way to perish, there is the world God loved. There is nothing in the love or sacrifice of the Father and the Son to prevent the whole world being saved. God loved without limit of nation or condition. Conclusion: 1. You have here a pattern and spring of love. “ Be imitators of God as dear children.” “ If God loved us,” etc. 2. What a gospel--good news--is here! God loves you now in spite of all your sins and follies. The only title to love is to be “ perishing” ; the only condition of its blessings is to “ believe.” 3. The subject casts a shadow by its very brightness on your unbelief, state, prospects. (A. J. Morris.) The love of God This affectionate compassion is set forth I. BY OF THE PARTIES LOVING AND LOVED. God most high and holy loved the base and wicked world. II. BY THE MEASURE OF IT. He so loved, that is, so infinitely, so transcendently, so incomprehensibly (Hebrews 12:3). Such as cannot be sufficiently expressed or conceived (1 John 3:1). III. BY THE FRUIT OF HIS LOVE. It was no lip love, but a giving love. Yea, but some things are not worth the giving, therefore IV. BY THE OF THE EXIT--His only begotten Son. And that to stand in our stead, and to die on the cross for us (John 3:14). Yea, but though never so excellent a gift be given, yet if it be not of use and profit to whom it is given, it doth not so testify love. Therefore V. It is set forth by THE BENEFIT THAT COMES TO US BY IT. 1. Not perishing. 2. Having eternal life. But perhaps though this gift brings so great profit, yet they to whom it is given must take some great and extraordinary pains to get it, and then God’ s love is not so great. Therefore VI. It is set forth BY THE OF THE MEANS whereby we are possessed of the profit of this gift, “ That whosoever believeth.” Yet if this so worthy a gift, of such invaluable worth to the enjoyer, had been restrained to some few sorts of men, the matter had not been so much. Therefore VII. It is set forth BY THE , that whosoever, be he what he will, so he will but reach forth his hand to take this gift, he shall have it, and all the comfort of it. (J. Dyke.) The Divine love I. IN ITS SOURCE. God loved the world. 1. In its guilt, therefore His love was a love of benevolence. He could not take delight in it, but He did wish it well. 2. In its depravity. Therefore His love is self-moved--the world not as made by God, but as ruined by the devil; consequently there was nothing in it to attract the Divine love. 3. The world, not hell, consequently His love was sovereign-free as opposed to necessary. He could have loved fallen angels had such been His pleasure. But “ He took not hold on angels, but the seed of Abraham.” Why? “ Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” II. IN ITS , in 1. The birth or incarnation of Jesus Christ (1 John 4:9). This did not engender or excite His love, it only manifested it. 2. In His death or atonement (1 John 4:10). The Divine love is not the effect, but the cause. The gods of heathenism received but never gave sacrifices. 3. In the Person of the only begotten Son of God. III. IN ITS DESIGN. 1. It has in view the salvation of every individual. 2. It offers to every individual the supremest, most precious blessing God Himself can bestow. (1) Endless life. (2) The very life of God Himself. 3. It offers the supremest blessings on the easiest, cheapest terms. God the Father had a great deal to do, and God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; but man has nothing to do but to believe. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Immeasurable love I. IN THE GIFT. Men who love much will give much. Little love forgets to bring water for the feet, but great love breaks its box of alabaster. Consider 1. What this gift was. The Father’ s other self. What more could He give? Could you fathers give your sons to die for your enemy? 2. How God gave it: not as you, to some honourable pursuit in which you would not be deprived altogether of your son’ s company, but as an exile to be born in a manger, to toil as a carpenter, and to die as a felon. 3. When He gave: for there is love in the time. (1) Jesus was always the gift of God. The promise was made as soon as Adam fell. Throughout the ages the Father stood to His gift. Every sacrifice was a renewal of the gift of grace. The whole system of types betokened that in the fulness of time God would give His Son. Admire the pertinacity of this love. Many a man in a moment of generous excitement can perform a supreme act of benevolence and yet could not bear to look at it calmly from year to year. (2) It includes all the ages afterwards. God still gives. II. IN THE PLAN OF . What is it to believe in Jesus? 1. To give your firm and cordial assent to the truth of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. 2. To accept this for yourself. In Adam’ s sin you did not sin personally, but by committing personal transgression you laid your hand upon it and made it your own. In like manner you must accept and appropriate the atonement of Jesus. 3. Personal trust. III. IN THE PERSONS FOR WHOM THIS PLAN IS . God did not so love the world that any man that does not believe in Jesus shall be saved. “ Whosoever believeth.” 1. From the moralist to the utterly vile; from the greyheaded sinner to the boy or maiden. 2. It encircles all degrees of faith. IV. IN THE . Whosoever believes shall not perish, though he is ready to perish. To perish is to lose all hope in Christ, all trust in God, all light in life, all peace in death, all joy. V. In THE . God gives to every man that believes in Christ everlasting life. (C. H. Spurgeon.) God’ s love for the world I. THE DIVINE LOVE--WHAT IT IS. 1. The essence of His nature. 2. All His attributes are modifications and manifestations of His love. 3. His law, the order of creation, the arrangement of His providence are expressions of His love. 4. Love is the ground of His perfect happiness. II. THE SPECIAL FRUIT OF THE DIVINE LOVE. IN THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 1. The origin of Christ’ s mission was the love of God. 2. God gave His Son. (1) In the councils of eternity. (2) In His birth in time. (3) In His death. 3. The relationship between the Father and the Son is the measure of the Divine love. (1) Not an exalted creature. (2) Not merely a Son. (3) Not His Son only by incarnation. (4) But His only begotten, well beloved, and everlasting Son. III. THE OF THIS GIFT. 1. Not the “ elect” world, which God loves with the love of complacency. 2. But the sinful world, which He loves with the love of compassion. IV. THE OBJECT IN THE OF THIS GIFT. 1. To prevent dreadful evil. 2. To bestow unspeakable good. (A. Beith, D. D.) God’ s love to the world This verse is one of the gems of the Bible, a star of the first magnitude. Observe three things. I. HOW GOD IS TOWARDS THE COSMOS: He loved it. 1. Who is God? The God of the Bible. 2. What is the cosmos? The world of human life. 3. How they stood affected. (1) Originally, in harmony. (2) Latterly, in enmity. (3) Now, through Christ, in harmony once more: without Christ, still at enmity. 4. New and Divine revelation: God is love. II. HOW GOD THIS . 1. What He gave--His Son. (1) Only begotten. (2) Well beloved. 2. How He gave. (1) Lovingly. (2) Freely. (3) Wholly. III. FOR WHAT PURPOSE WAS THIS . 1. Negatively: that man might not loose himself utterly from God, duty, happiness. Thus was the pity of God manifested. 2. Positively: that man may have life, age during life. (Bible Notes and Queries.) The love of God in the gift Of a Saviour These words express the substance of the gospel. No speaker ever had the power of condensing great principles into so narrow a compass as the Lord Jesus. I. THE PLAN OF IN THE LOVE OF GOD. 1. The idea that God is loving has been doubted or denied. (1) By those who contend that the world ought to have been made happy and pure. To them the fact that He provides remedies is no proof of His goodness. (2) By those who suppose that the Bible represents God as originally a stern and inexorable Being placated by Christ, and that now He is only mild and benignant to a few. 2. The text teaches that God was originally disposed to show mercy. (1) No change has been wrought in His character by the plan of salvation. He was just as worthy of love and confidence before as after the atonement. (2) God was originally so full of mercy that He was willing to stoop to any sacrifice except that of truth and justice in order to save man. (3) The plan of salvation was not merely to save man, but to save the name, character, and government of God. This could only be done by allowing His Son to be treated as if He was a sinner, in order to treat the really guilty as if they were righteous, and so to identify the one with the other. II. THE OF HIS LOVE WAS THE HIGHEST THAT IT COULD BE. 1. Such a gift as that of His only begotten Son is the highest conceivable gift, and this Christ intends to convey. The Bible represents God as having the attributes of a kind and tender Father. He loves when He says He loves, and is no cold creation of the imagination. When a man bids his son go into the tented field with every prospect of his dying for the welfare of his country, it is the highest expression of his attachment for that country. 2. But no man has ever manifested such a love as God’ s. In a few instances a man has sacrificed his life for his friend, and not a few fathers and mothers endangered their lives for their children. But who has ever given the life of his child for an enemy? But “ God commendeth,” etc. (A. Barnes, D. D.) Christ’ s mission a revelation of God’ s love I. LOVE IN ITS HIGHEST FORM. Love is a generic term and includes a large number of specific affections. There is a love of friendship, brotherly love, parental love, conjugal love, a love of country or patriotism, and a love of God, or religion. Love is a redeeming quality among the many miseries of our fallen state. It is like the silver ray of sun-light which gleams through the dark cloud when the storm is brewing in the sky. It is like an oasis in the desert, which is a scene of beauty and a home of life amid arid plains doomed to perpetual barrenness. It is like the wood which Moses took and placed in the bitter waters of Mara. It sweetens the cup of human experience. It is the only lasting bond of human society--the only guarantee of the perpetual bliss of heaven, and the only attribute in fallen man which is made an emblem of God, “ God is love.” If love in human form and in a fallen world be so Divine, what must it be in God Himself? Love in man is but a ray from the sun; a drop from the ocean. II. LOVE IN ITS . The object of my text is not general, but special. It is to assure us that while the love of God may be traced in every object in nature, and read on every page of Providence, as the colours of the rainbow may be found in every ray of silvery sun-light, yet the brightest and the fullest manifestation of it is in the mission of Jesus into the world to save sinners. In considering this subject, we must carefully bear in mind that Jesus Christ was not a mere man, but God who assumed a human form and nature. Few men in the time of the Saviour’ s advent had any idea of the love of God. Man’ s true happiness must ever be found in God, and in other beings only as they are Godlike. But to find happiness in such a god as that of which the highest conception is realized in the mythology of Greece, the idolatry of Moab, or the dogmas of the Pharisees is out of the question. Jesus, however, came to overturn these errors and fearful misrepresentations of the Deity, and save the world by proving that God was kind and loving, just and faithful, and therefore deserving of men’ s love and trust. It is most interesting to study the character of God according to the teaching of Jesus. He represented the Divine Being as a Father who yearned for the return of his prodigal child, welcomed him home, receiving him with open arms and open heart, bidding all his household help him to tell the world his joy, “ Rejoice with me, for this my son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.” He represented God as the Good Shepherd, who goes after the lost one until it is found, and bears it to His home upon His shoulders with rejoicing. He represented God as the Good Samaritan who saw men lying in their wounds, robbed by sin of hope and heaven, upon the point of death, and came to save them at his own expense. III. LOVE IN ITS WIDEST FIELD OF . This widest field is the world, for “ God so loved the world.” It is evident that the text cannot mean merely to assert that God loved and admired the material world or the things of the world, as these need no salvation, and are not capable of being saved, and the love of God to the world, in the text, is said to have special reference to its salvation. As the pious Jew of old rambled among the ruins of his glorious temple, turning over with affection its broken columns, cherishing the very dust and stone thereof; so God in Christ, with His loving heart overflowing with sympathy and affection, seeks to gather the broken fragments of humanity together, and rebuild upon a surer basis the temple of man. As mother, sister, or wife walks in the field of blood after the day of dreadful slaughter, with tears of affection flowing from her eyes, the sigh of sorrow rising from her wounded heart and floating upwards to tell its grief to God, and with tenderness of touch turns over the forms of the dead, that she may press once more to her heart, now broken, the object of her warm affection; so God is represented as amid the carnage which sin has made of us, inspired by the love of which my text is speaking, toiling and labouring and suffering, having come to seek and to save those who were lost. “ God so loved the world!” This is the source from which all our blessings flow. IV. LOVE IN ITS NOBLEST . 1. The sad condition of those whom it proposes to affects” should not perish.” The objects of His love are perishing--perishing, not in body but in soul. 2. The glorious state to which the love of God proposes to raise all He found in this sad condition, “ but have everlasting life.” Life, even of a temporal character, is of so much value that men toil and labour and manifest the deepest concern, in order, not to perpetuate it, but merely to prolong it for a few years. 3. The simple way in which we may become eternally benefited by this saving work of God, “ whosoever believeth in Him.” What an awful curse is unbelief! 4. The impartial manner in which these blessings are offered, “ whosoever.” Were man to make a feast, his invitations would not be to every one, for his ability to provide would have a limit. The richest man could not make a feast for all. But God is not man that He should be deficient. (E. Lewis, B. A.) God’ s love for a sinning world I. SIN IS THE MOST THING IN THE . 1. It is the violation of an infinitely important law--a law designed and adapted to secure the highest good of the universe. 2. As sin is this it cannot be treated lightly. The entire welfare of a government and its subjects turns upon obedience. 3. The law of God must not be dishonoured by anything He shall do. He must stand by it to retrieve its honour. 4. Hence the expense. Either the law must be executed at the expense of the race, or God must suffer the worse results of disrespect to His law, or a substitute be provided who shall both save the sinner and honour the law. II. HOW SHALL THE EXPENSE BE MET? Who shall head the subscription? The Father made the first donation. 1. He gave His Son to make the atonement due to law. 2. He gave His Spirit to take charge of this work. III. FOR WHOM WAS THE GREAT MADE? By the “ world” cannot be meant any particular part. The Bible and the nature of the case shows that the atonement must have been made for the whole. Otherwise no man could be sure that it was made for himself. IV. WHAT GOD TO MAKE IT? Love. This love Isaiah 1. Not complacency, or it would have been infinitely disgraceful to Himself. 2. Not mere feeling, as in those who are carried away by strong emotion. But 3. Disinterested: for He had nothing to hope or fear; no profit to make out of the saved. 4. Zealous. 5. Most self-denying. 6. Universal because particular. God loved each, therefore all. 7. Most patient. V. THE GIFT OF GOD MUST BE BY FAITH. This is the only possible way, God’ s government is moral because the Saviour is a moral agent. Therefore God cannot influence us unless we give Him our confidence. Lessons: 1. Sinners may place themselves beyond the reach of mercy. 2. This involves them in the greatest responsibility. 3. This responsibility can only be discharged and the sinner saved by accepting the donation of Christ. 4. Accepting that donation let us give it to others. (C. G. Finney, D. D.) God’ s wonderful love I. ITS . 1. Eternal: “ loved.” Who can tell when it began? 2. Compassionate: “ the world.” 3. Unspeakable: “ so” II. ITS . 1. Condescending. 2. Sacrificial. 3. Exhaustive. III. ITS PURPOSE. 1. Broad: “ whosoever.” 2. Limited: “ believeth.” 3. Blessed. (1) Negative: “ should not perish.” (2) Positive: “ have everlasting life.” (R. S. MacArthur, D. D.) The love of God self-originated The ocean is always moving, but it is not self-moving. The cause of its movements is outside itself, in the moon, and in the wind. Did the wind and the moon let it alone, the Atlantic would for ever be a pacific ocean, quiet, restful, pellucid as an inland lake; it has no power to heave itself. But as for the shoreless sea of the Divine Love, it has the power to move itself; and it did move itself. It rolled in a grand irresistible current towards the shores of our world. Like the Divine Essence, the Divine Love possesses the power of self-determination. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) God’ s love for sinners I remember the case of a young man who was afflicted with a frightfully loathsome disease. He had to be kept out of sight. But was he neglected? No. I need not tell you who looked after him. There was not a morning but his loving mother bathed his wounds and swathed his limbs, and not an evening that she wearied in her toil. Do you think she had not natural sensitiveness? I knew her to be as sensitive as any lady; but by so much more as she felt the loathsomeness of her work do you see the love that constantly upheld her in doing it. But oh! what is the loathsomeness of cankered wounds compared with the loathsomeness of sin to God? There is but one thing that God hates, and that is sin. Yet with all His hatred of sin how He hangs over the sinner! (S. Coley.) The power of God’ s love We often hear of counter currents, but was there ever such a counter current as is implied here! One of the most important and wonderful ocean currents is the Gulf Stream. It takes its rise in the Gulf of Mexico and sweeps across through the heart of the mighty Atlantic to the Arctic Seas; and by its strong currents, more rapid than that of the Mississippi, it engulfs every other ocean stream that comes athwart its course, making it tributary to its own grand mission of washing the shores and ameliorating the climate of the sea-bound countries of Europe. “ So God loved the world.” His love is a mighty stream of warm, generous commiseration sweeping with mighty force towards that moral Arctic Sea sin has made of our world. And such was the strength of the current that it swept into its own bosom the mighty stream of God’ s love of complacency towards His only begotten Son, so that He was borne on its bosom into this world, where, by suffering and death, He became “ the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him.” (A. J. Parry) The love of God In human governments, justice is central, and love incidental. In the Divine government, love is the central element, and justice only incidental. God wishes to exhaust all means of kindness before His hand takes hold on justice. When the waves of penalty begin to come in in fearful tides, then He banks up against them. His goodness is the levee between justice and the sinful soul. (H. W. Beecher.) God is love God is love, and there is a something about love which always wins love. When love puts on her own golden armour, and bears her sword bright with her own unselfishness, she goeth on conquering and to conquer. Let a man once apprehend that God is love, that this is God’ s very essence, and he must at once love God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A royal gift Plutarch, the Greek historian, tells a story to this effect: “ An ancient king once gave a present of a large sum of money to a personal friend, and was gently taken to task for his generosity. ‘ What!’ was his astonished exclamation, ‘ would you not have me be liberal? Let the world know that when the king gives he gives generously, like a king.’ “ Upon this, he made a second present of equal value. Faith in Christ is certain salvation We lately read in the papers an illustration of the way of salvation. A man had been condemned in a Spanish court to be shot, but being an American citizen and also of English birth, the consuls of the two countries interposed, and declared that the Spanish authorities had no power to put him to death. What did they do to secure his life when their protest was not sufficient? They wrapped him up in their flags, they covered him with the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack, and defied the executioners. “ Now fire a shot if you dare, for if you do so, you defy the nations represented by those flags, and you will bring the powers of those two great empires upon you.” There stood the man, and before him the soldiery, and though a single shot might have ended his life, yet he was as invulnerable as though encased in triple steel. Even so Jesus Christ has taken my poor guilty soul ever since I believed in Him, and has wrapped around me the blood-red flag of His atoning sacrifice, and before God can destroy me or any other soul that is wrapped in the atonement, He must insult His Son and dishonour His sacrifice, and that He will never do, blessed be His name. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Believe only It is said that some years ago a vessel sailing on the northern coast of the South American continent, was observed to make signals of distress. When hailed by another vessel, they reported themselves as “ Dying for water!” “ Dip it up then,” was the response, “ you are in the mouth of the Amazon river.” There was fresh water all around them, they had nothing to do but to dip it up, and yet they were dying of thirst, because they thought themselves to be surrounded by the salt sea. How often are men ignorant of their mercies? How sad that they should perish for lack of knowledge! Jesus is near the seeker even when he is tossed upon oceans of doubt. The sinner has but to stoop down and drink and live. (C. H. Spurgeon.) We must believe or perish When a shipwrecked sailor, left to the mercy of the waves, has no help within reach or view but a spar or mast, how will he cling to it, how firmly he will clasp it--he will hold it as life itself. If a passing billow sweep him from it, with all his might he will make for it again, and grasp it faster than ever. To part is to perish; and so he clings--and how anxiously! So the awakened sinner feels. The ocean of wrath surrounds him; its billows and its waves go over him. Hell yawns beneath to engulf him. The vessel is an utter wreck. All its floating timbers are very rottenness. Oh, how he strains his eye searching for a mast, a plank, a spar! His eye rests on the only hope, the only rock in the wide ocean of wrath, the Rock of Ages, the Lord Jesus. He makes for the Saviour--he clasps Him--he cleaves to Him. Every terror of sin and of unworthiness that strives to loosen his hold only makes him grasp with more terrible and death-like tenacity, for he knows that to part company is to perish. (R. B.Nichol.) The love of God is a necessity of His own nature “ God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” etc. The life and death of Christ was but the working out of the love of God. The affection and the yearning of heart towards His erring creatures was just the same in God before Christ came, that Christ showed it to be while He was on earth. It is just the same still. There is no change in God, or in His love. Man nor woman need fear disappointment there. It has been the custom of some, a custom too much prevailing, to represent God as being under no manner of obligation to do anything for His creatures after they had broken His law. The trouble with this statement is that there is a great deal of truth in it; and yet it has been made in such a manner as to give a very wrong impression. In God’ s own nature there is a necessity for His efforts for man’ s redemption. (H. W. Beecher.) The word “ so” Come, ye surveyors, bring your chains, and try to make a survey of this word “ so.” Nay, that is not enough. Come hither, ye that make our national surveys, and lay down charts for all nations. Come ye, who map the sea and land, and make a chart of this word “ so.” Nay, I must go further. Come hither, ye astronomers, that with your optic glasses spy out spaces before which imagination staggers, come hither and encounter calculations worthy of all your powers! When you have measured between the horns of space, here is a task that will defy you--“ God so loved the world.” If you enter into that, you will know that all this love is to you--that while Jehovah loves the world, yet He loves you as much as if there were nobody else in all the world to love. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The glory of the Gospel It is not like a banquet, accommodated to the tastes and wants of so many and no more. Like a masterpiece of music, its virtues are independent of numbers. (D. Thomas, D. D.) God’ s mercy is free Let me tell thee that the mercy of God flows freely. It wants no money and no price from thee, no fitness of frames and feelings, no preparation of good works or penitence. Free as the brook which leaps from the mountain side, at which every weary traveller may drink, so free is the mercy of God. Free as the sun that shineth, and gilds the mountain’ s brow, and makes glad the valleys without fee or reward, so free is the mercy of God to every needy sinner. Free as the air which belts the earth and penetrates the peasant’ s cottage as well as the royal palace without purchase or premium, so free is the mercy of God in Christ. It tarrieth not for thee: it cometh to thee as thou art. It way layeth thee in love; it meeteth thee in tenderness. Ask not how thou shalt get it. Thou needst not climb to heaven, nor descend to hell for it; the word is nigh thee; on thy lip, and in thy heart if thou believest on the Lord Jesus with thy heart, and with thy mouth makest confession of Him, thou shalt be saved. What is it to perish What is it to perish? It is to die in our sins, without bright angels to smile upon us as they wait to carry us away from earth; to die without the Saviour’ s glorious presence to cheer us in the valley of the shadow of death. It is to be turned away from the shut door of our Father’ s mercy, because, like the foolish virgins, we are not ready when the bridegroom comes. To perish is to lose the smile of God, the company of the redeemed, the society of angels, the glories of the heavenly world, and, with no ray of comfort or gleam of hope, to be driven away into outer darkness, into misery and woe, without deliverance and without end. The thought of this awful perdition made Jesus weep over Jerusalem and say, “ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem: thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not.” (Rev. R. Brewin.) Whosoever “ Whosoever” has a finger for babes, and an arm for old men; it has an eye for the quick, and a smile for the dull. Young men and maidens, whosoever offers its embrace to you! Good and bad, honourable or disreputable, this “ whosoever” speaks to you all with equal truth! Kings and queens may find room in it; and so may thieves and beggars. Peers and paupers sit on one seat in this word. “ Whosoever” has a special voice for you, my hearer! Do you answer, “ But I am an oddity” ? “ Whosoever” includes all the oddities. I always have a warm side towards odd, eccentric, out-of-the-way people, because I am one myself, at least so I am often said to be. I am deeply thankful for this blessed text; for if I am a lot unmentioned in any other catalogue, I know that this includes me: I am beyond all question under the shade of “ whosoever.” No end of odd people come to the Tabernacle, or read my sermons; but they are all within the range of “ whosoever.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Whosoever When the great mutiny in India had been brought to a close, and peace was being made between the government and the rebels, the Queen caused a proclamation to be made throughout the rebel provinces that all who should lay down their arms, and come to certain appointed places by a fixed day, should receive forgiveness, with some exceptions. Ah! these exceptions. The poor fellows who knew they could not be forgiven, but must be put to death, never came. The love of God knows no exceptions; whosoever will ,nay come. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Whosoever Somebody said he would rather read “ Whosoever” than see his own name, because he should be afraid it might refer to some other man who might have the same name. This was well brought out in a prison the other day, when the chaplain said to me, “ I want to describe a scene that occurred here some time ago. Our Commissioners went to the Governor of the State and got him to give his consent to grant pardons to five men on account of their good behaviour. The Governor said the record was to be kept secret; the men were to know nothing about it; and at the end of six months the criminals were brought out, the roll was called, and the President of the Commission came up and spoke to them; then putting his hand in his pocket he drew out the papers and said to those 1,100 convicts, ‘ I hold in my hand pardons for five men.’ I never witnessed anything like it. Every man held his breath, and was as silent as death. Then the Commissioner went on to tell how they obtained these pardons; that it was the Governor who granted them,” and the chaplain said the suspense was so great that he spoke to the Commissioner and asked him to first read out the names of those who were pardoned before he spoke further, and the first name was given out thus, “ Reuben Johnson will come out and get his pardon.” He held out the papers but no one came. He looked all around, expecting to see a man spring forward at once; still no one arose, and he turned to the officer of the prison and said, “ Are all the convicts here?” “ Yes,” was the reply. “ Then, Reuben Johnson will come and get his pardon.” The real Reuben Johnson was all this time looking around to see where Reuben was; and the chaplain beckoned to him, and he turned and looked around and behind him, thinking some other man must be meant. A second time he beckoned to Reuben, and called to him, and the second time the man looked around to see where Reuben was, until at last the chaplain said to him, “ You are the man, Reuben;” and he rose up out of his seat and sank back again, thinking it could not be true. He had been there for nineteen years, having been placed there for life; and when he came up and took his pardon he could hardly believe his eyes, and he went back to his seat and wept like a child: and then, when the convicts were marched back to their cells, Reuben had been so long in the habit of falling into line and taking the lock step with the rest that he fell into his place, and the chaplain had to say, “ Reuben, come out; you are a free man.” (D. L. Moody.) The naturalness of God’ s love When William Knibb had been preaching from this text in Jamaica, returning home he came up with an old black woman, and he said to her, “ What do you think of the great love of God?” Simplicity is often allied to sublimity. “ Think, massa!” she replied; “ Me think it be just like Him.” So it is. St. Peter says, “ According to His abundant mercy He hath begotten us again.” It is just like Him. It is as a father pitieth his children. (S. Coley.) Christ not the cause but the manifestation of God’ s love The law of gravitation existed from the foundation of the world, it daily exerted its influence, keeping the stars in their orbits, and swinging them around their respective centres. The mysterious force, however, was unknown until discovered by Sir Isaac Newton, and published in his writings. It existed from the first; only a century or two ago was it made manifest. In like manner the love of God existed from eternity, from days of old. It burnt as hot in the days of Noah and of Abraham, as on the Incarnation morn or the Atonement eve. All through the ages it governed the world with a view to its final redemption. But in the Incarnation and Propitiation was it revealed, only then did it force itself upon the obtuse vision of the world. “ Ye have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from--out of--the Father, and am come into the world.” Not only He came from God, but He came out of God. John the Baptist came from God. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The love of God as seen in the gift of Christ A story has been often told of the fondness of parents for their children; how in a famine in the East a father and mother were reduced to absolute starvation, and the only possibility of preserving the life of the family was to sell one of the children into slavery. So they considered it. The pinch of hunger became unbearable, and their children pleading for bread tugged so painfully at their heart-strings, that they must entertain the idea of selling one to save the lives of the rest. They had four sons. Who of these should be sold? It must not be the first: how could they spare their firstborn? The second was so strangely like his father that he seemed a reproduction of him, and the mother said that she would never part with him. The third was so singularly like the mother that the father said he would sooner die than that this dear boy should go into bondage; and as for the fourth, he was their Benjamin, their last, their darling, and they could not part with him. They concluded that it were better for them all to die together than willingly to part with any one of their children. Do you not sympathize with them? I see you do. Yet God so loved us that, to put it very strongly, He seemed to love us better than His only Son, and did not spare Him that He might spare us. He permitted His Son to perish from among men “ that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The love of God in the gift of Christ When Jesus looked at the poor widow He found a new rule of arithmetic. When she dropped in her two mites He said that she had given more than they all. What new rule was this? Many had given much, but the Lord looked at what they had left. This woman had given all. Try God by His own rule. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 3:17-19 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world Salvation I. WHAT IT IS THAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US AS FALLEN SINNERS. 1. What is done? He hath redeemed us. Fallen by sin we are all by nature children of wrath, and according to the rules of justice uniter condemnation. Instead of allowing righteous wrath to take its course, God has interposed in arrest of judgment; not to do an unrighteous thing, not to exercise His mercy at the expense of His justice, but to open a door for lovingkindness. The everlasting Son took into union with Himself the nature that deserved the wrath and placed Himself beneath the falling thunderbolt which would have crushed the world. This was done 1800 years ago, and nothing can be added to it or diminished from it. 2. For whom is this work done? (1) For God, in order that His love might flow out in acts of beneficence while at the same time His justice and purity might remain untainted. (2) For the world. Every sinner therefore may put in his claim. 3. Has God actually saved any one? Is redemption the same as salvation? What is salvation? (1) To have all my sins pardoned. (2) To have my soul renewed unto holiness. (3) To have my body transformed into the likeness of Christ’ s glorious body. (4) To reign with Christ. In this full sense none are saved. God has made provision and is acting on it, and men are being saved, but are not fully saved this side of heaven. II. WHAT IS IT THAT GOD IS NOW DOING FOR US AS FALLEN SINNERS? 1. He is giving to one sinner after another repentance and forgiveness of sins and a character unto holiness commenced and progressive. During the whole of the dispensation this is the revealed work of the Holy Spirit. 2. To separate the elect from the mass of mankind as His purchased and sanctified ones. 3. He is giving the faith which secures all this, even freedom from condemnation and acceptance in the beloved. 4. Without this faith the old condemnation remains, and a fresh condemnation is added, that following on the rejection of salvation by the only begotten Son of God. (H. McNeile, D. D.) No condemnation to the believer I. THE PURPOSE OF GOD in sending His Son into the world. Consider 1. What that purpose was not. To condemn the world. He might have done so. The world’ s iniquities had grown to a fearful height, and though for 1800 years the world has continued in rebellion, we dare not say that God sent His Son to condemn the world. 2. What that purpose was: that there should be wrought out in, and tendered to the world in, through, and by Christ, a salvation equal to the wretchedness and peril to which the whole race was exposed. Hence, then, it follows that no sinner need perish for want of a provision of God’ s mercy and love. II. HOW IS THAT TO BE ? By an act of faith. 1. What are we to believe? (1) The lost and ruined state which we are in by nature. So long as we deceive ourselves on that point, or excuse it, we hold back from the remedy. (2) Our own utter helplessness and destitution. (3) The reality of the provision of God’ s mercy in Christ. (4) That the provision of the Gospel is actually tendered to every one. 2. How are we to believe? (1) Not in that speculative way which regards the truth of God as an abstract matter. (2) But in that practical and personal way which accepts this salvation for one’ s self. (3) It is to lay our hand an the head of the Great Sacrifice which bears away the sin of the world. Conclusion: 1. It was through believing a lie that man fell; it is by believing the truth that he is saved. 2. Deem not sin a light matter. 3. Accept God’ s provision of grace (1) thankfully; (2) now. (G. Fisk, LL. B.) Salvation and condemnation I. IS BY THE GIFT OF CHRIST. 1. Christ came not to condemn the world. (1) Condemnation might have been expected (a) From the condition of the world, without desire or effort for deliverance and rebellious against God. (b) From the errands of other messengers sent in vengeance. (c) From God’ s foreknowledge of the way in which Christ would be received. (2) But God’ s ways are not ours. Had God’ s design been no more than not to condemn, but merely to neutralize or stay approaching ruin, Christ’ s mission would have been unspeakably precious. (3) There are those who limit the effect of Christ’ s mission to a period of undeserved forbearance, and are blindly satisfied with a temporary, unenduring good. 2. Christ came that the world through Him might be saved. The nature of this salvation is (1) Atonement for sin. (2) The bringing in of an everlasting righteousness. (3) Exaltation to glory. II. THE WAY IN WHICH MEN BECOME OF THIS . 1. Some men regard the world as saved, contrary to Scripture and universal experience. 2. Others regard God as disappointed in His great design. Not so. God has provided the salvation; man must voluntarily partake of it. How? 1. The glory must be given to God because (1) The remote and originating cause is the Father’ s love. (2) The meritorious cause, Christ’ s redeeming work. (3) The energetic agency, the Holy Spirit. Thus salvation is through the concurrence and co-operation of the Trinity. 2. But what is the instrumental cause? Faith. (1) Had God proposed that for righteous deeds He would save us, our case had been hopeless. (2) So it would had He arranged to place us again under the covenant of works, promising that by the deeds of the law performed in our own strength we should inherit heaven. (3) Equally so had our salvation been conditioned by a combination of Christ’ s righteousness and our own. (4) Or by our originating holy emotions of repentance and love. (5) Knowing all this, God requires only that we should believe on His Son. This faith is His gift, the medium of Divine life and its active principle when communicated, involving self-renunciation, rational dependence on God, and trust in His grace in Christ. III. THE REASON WHY MEN PERISH THOUGH HAS BEEN . 1. Not because God passes them by or excludes them from life. 2. Not because there is no merit for them in Christ’ s mediation. 3. Not because the Holy Spirit might have breathed upon them, but has not. But 4. Because the sinner will not believe. In this duty he fails. (1) Under the sound of the gospel; (2) Under the strivings of the Spirit; (3) And though Christ stretches forth His hand all the day long. 5. Consequently he is condemned already by a double condemnation (1) Through his relations and adherence to the first man. (2) Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (A. Beith, D. D.) The fundamental facts of Evangelism Christianity is built on facts; those facts are connected with the history of a Person; that Person is the Son of God. Three such facts are here. I. GOD SENT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD. 1. This fact implies (1) Separateness of existence. (2) Subordination of existence. These no philosophy has yet reconciled to the doctrine of Divine Unity. 2. This is the greatest fact in the history of the world, perhaps of the universe. It constitutes the great epoch in the annals of the race. II. God sent His Son into the world NOT TO CONDEMN IT. This is not what might have been expected. 1. Because of the wickedness of the world: full of ingratitude, idolatry, corruption, and rebellion. 2. Because of all the treatment His other messengers had received. The world had rejected, persecuted, murdered His prophets. Might it not then be expected that God’ s Son would come on a mission of judgment. III. God sent His Son into the world TO SAVE IT. What is salvation? Not physical, intellectual, or local change, but a restoration in the soul of what has been lost through sin. 1. Supreme love to God--the life of the soul. 2. Constant fellowship with the great Father--the happiness of the soul. 3. Useful service in the universe--the mission of the soul. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ the Saviour of even the worst of sinners He does not exclude the greatest sinners when they come to Him, but on the contrary He gives them His first attention, as a surgeon who has been called to a field of battle to dress the wounded always first goes to the most desperate cases. (Nauden.) Christ the Saviour of the world In September, 1878, a dreadful accident happened on the Thames, when an excursion steamer, named the Princess Alice was cut down by the Bywell Castle, an outward bound merchant steamship. More than seven hundred persons that day found a watery grave. Among the brave efforts that were made on that occasion to save the drowning people, one of the noblest was made by a man who was in charge of a small boat at some distance from the scene of the collision. Rowing with all his might into the midst of the struggling passengers, he pulled several of them one after another into his little boat, which was now full and in danger of sinking, and prepared to row away. But when he saw the white, upturned faces of many others, and heard their piteous cries, “ Oh, save me, sir!” “ Don’ t leave me, sir!” it is said that in agony he threw up his arms and cried, “ O God, that I had a bigger boat! O God, that I had a bigger boat!” His heart was large enough to save all who were perishing, but his boat was too small; his power was limited. It is not so with Christ. He is the Life.boat of perishing humanity, and in Him there is room for the whole race, for “ He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (R. Brewin.) The mission of Christ is plain You can understand when the Prince of Wales went to America, all the country was excited, and it was said be had come for this purpose and that purpose. But when Christ comes He can tell us what He comes for. When the Prince of Heaven comes into this world He can tell us the nature of His mission. For “ the Son of Man comes to seek and to save that which was lost.” (D. L. Moody.) Salvation is for all who need it I remember when Master Street Hospital, in Philadelphia, was opened during the war, a telegram came, saying, “ There will be three hundred wounded men to-night; be ready to take care of them” ; and from my church there went in some twenty or thirty men and women to look after these poor wounded fellows. As they came, some from one part of the land, some from another, no one asked whether this man was from Oregon, or from Massachusetts, or from Minnesota, or from New York. There was a wounded soldier, and the only question was how to take off the rags the most gently, and put on the bandage, and administer the cordial. And when a soul comes to God, He does not ask where you came from, or what your ancestry was. Healing for all your wounds. Pardon for all your guilt. Comfort for all your troubles. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.) The gospel the most glorious tidings When the Romans, by conquest, might have given law to the Grecians at Corinth, in the solemn time of the Isthmian games, their general, by a herald, unexpectedly proclaimed freedom to all the cities of Greece; the proclamation at first did so amaze the Grecians, that they did not believe it to be true. But when it was proclaimed the second time, they gave such a shout that the very birds flying in the air were astonished therewith, and fell dead to the ground. But if you will have a better story, take that of the Jews, who, when at first they heard of Cyrus’ proclamation, and that the Lord thereby had turned the captivity of Sion, they confess that, at the first hearing of it, they were like men that dreamed; but afterwards their mouths were filled with laughter and their tongues with singing. Now, the peace that the Grecians and the Jews had was but the peace of a people or a nation, and a great blessing of God, too. But how much more reason is there that our affections should be strained to the highest pitch of joy and thanks, when we hear of the proclamation of the peace of conscience? that peace which is not of our bodies but of our souls--not of our earthly but of our heavenly estate? a peace that shall be begun here--that shall endure for ever hereafter; such a peace as will make God at peace with us, reconcile us to ourselves, and make us at concord with all the world. (J. Spencer.) He that believeth on Him is not condemnedPreliminary judgments I. THE . The judicial separation of mankind into two classes, the believing and the unbelieving, the workers of evil and doers of good (John 3:20-21). 1. When it occurred. At the appearing of Christ (John 3:19). 2. How it was effected. By the appearing of Christ, the light, the effects of which were (1) Illumination, setting in bold relief what was previously obscure, viz., that there are only two varieties of character, the good and the bad Matthew 4:1-2). (2) Separation. Not by the direct action of Christ, but through the indirect action of the truth (Job 24:13). (3) Arbitration. The man who comes to the light judges himself and separates himself from the darkness, declaring himself to be antagonistic to it. So with the man who turns from the light (Acts 13:46). Thus by coming into the world Christ initiates a judicial process which will culminate in the great day (Malachi 3:18; Matthew 25:26). II. THE SOLEMN . 1. Of the behaviour of those who come not to the light. (1) They love darkness not more than light, as though there lingered some appreciation, but rather than the light which they do not love at all (verse 20), because it is congenial to the works in which they delight Ephesians 5:11; Proverbs 2:13; Psalms 82:5); to themselves as children of darkness. (2) They hate the light as well as love the darkness; for prophesying evil 2 Chronicles 18:7); for suggesting good (chap. 13:26, 27). Hence they shun the light (Job 24:14-16) like Lady Macbeth (Acts 1:1-26. scene 5). 2. Of the conduct of those who came to the light. (1) They have a natural affinity for it (John 18:37). (2) They are not afraid of the light (Ephesians 5:8-13). Lessons 1. If a sinner is condemned, himself only, and neither God nor Christ, is to blame. 2. If a sinner refuses to believe the gospel, he must share in the judgment which will ultimately fall upon the world. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The essence of the gospel When our Lord shall come a second time, before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them as the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. That will not be the first time that He has acted as a separator. It is always so whenever He comes. Now He finds out His chosen and calls them apart, and on the other hand unbelievers are discovered. Between the two is a deep gulf. Other distinctions, riches and poverty, etc., sink into insignificance. I. TO WHICH OF THE CLASSES WE BELONG. 1. What is meant by believing in Christ, for such is the preposition here. (1) Some believe concerning Him that He is the Messiah, the Saviour of men. But orthodoxy is not synonymous with justification. (2) It is a step further when we believe Him. Believing Him to be God’ s Christ, it follows as a matter of course that we accept His word as true; but this is not a state of salvation. (3) Another form of faith is believing on Him, to lean upon Him, and take Him as the foundation of our hope. A form of saving faith. (4) But believing in is something more. If I thoroughly believe in an advocate, I trust my case to him, and thus believe on him; but I also follow his rules to the letter, being fully convinced that they will lead to a right issue. 2. The connection of the text will help us to form a judgment as to whether we are believers in Jesus. (1) Have you realized by a true exercise of faith John 3:13; John 15:1-27? (2) Do you, as having trusted in Jesus, come to the light (John 3:21)? Is it your desire to know God’ s truth, God’ s will, God’ s law? 3. Are we unbelievers? (1) Instead of looking to the brazen serpent, are you seeking another remedy? (2) Do you shut your eyes to the one only light? II. THE OF THE . He is not condemned, because he does not offer himself for judgment. He says, “ I plead guilty.” Having done this, the believer sees the sentence laid upon the surety in whom he believes. This brings him peace. Then no more condemned, he seeks the light, and desires more and more to work in it. III. THE OF THE . 1. He offers himself for judgment. He has not believed in the Saviour, and confesses, “ I do not require Him. I am willing to stand my trial.” If you ask for judgment you shall have it. God declares you to be condemned already. 2. He gives personal evidence to his own condemnation. He rejects the testimony of God concerning Christ. Is not that enough to condemn him? 3. He rejects a most exalted person. When men rejected Moses they perished without mercy; but when a man despises the Only begotten, we need call no witnesses against him. 4. He gives evidence against himself, for every man who rejects the true light always goes on to reject other forms of light, God’ s Word and Spirit and his own conscience. 5. Consider the condemnation already pronounced. (1) It is no matter of form. (2) God has power at any moment to carry it into effect. (3) There is no promise that He will not execute it this very day. 6. Consider the only way of escape--immediate faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith I. THE OBJECT OF FAITH. To what faith looks. 1. How many make a mistake about this and think they are to believe in God the Father! But we come to this as a result of believing in God the Son. 2. Others look to the work of the Holy Ghost; but this is the effect of faith in Christ. 3. Christ is the sole object of the sinner’ s faith. (1) As God. (2) In His perfect righteousness. (3) As dying and dead. (4) Is risen. (5) As your substitute. II. THE REASON OF FAITH Why and whence. 1. To his own experience faith comes as a sense of the need of a Saviour. 2. Really and originally it is the gift of God. The Spirit comes and shuts men up under the law to a conviction that unless they come to Christ they must perish. III. THE GROUND OF FAITH. What it means when it comes. Not that a man is a sensible sinner, or an awakened shiner, or a penitent sinner, but simply because lie is a sinner. IV. THE WARRANT OF FAITH. Why a man dares to trust in Christ. Just because Christ has bidden him. Faith is a duty as well as a privilege. IV. THE RESULT OF FAITH. How it speeds when it comes to Christ. “ He that believeth is not condemned.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) No condemnation I. THE . A verdict of “ not guilty” amounts to an acquittal, so the sentence of “ not condemned” implies the justification of the sinner. This Isaiah 1. A. present justification. Faith does not produce this fruit by and by, bug now. 2. A continual justification. 3. A complete justification, not half condemned and half accepted. 4. An effectual justification. II. CORRECT SOME BY WHICH ARE CAST DOWN. 1. Some think they shall never sin again. 2. Others that they will have no more conflicts. 3. Others that they will be free from trials. 4. Others that the Father’ s countenance will always be clear. None of these are guaranteed. III. WHAT THE TEXT --the believer. IV. WHAT THE TEXT --the unbeliever. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Regeneration--faith the instrumental cause I. THE OF FAITH. 1. Affirmatively. Our Lord mentions only the relation of faith to the legal aspect of salvation. This was enough, for he who apprehends believingly the work of Christ as the ground of his justification will not fail to experience it as a regenerative power. Many stumble through the simplicity of faith. They suppose that something difficult is required. But faith is identical with that implicit unquestioning confidence a person ordinarily exercises almost unconsciously in relation to almost everything he appropriates to his use: the food he eats, the garment he wears, the medicine he takes, the bridge he crosses, the train by which he travels. 2. Negatively. Without faith salvation is impossible. It is not that the unbeliever shall be condemned, he is actually so. It is a solemn truth that, notwithstanding all that Christ has done for us, it will avail us nothing without personal faith, for God cannot save men without their will. II. ITS NEGLECT BY SOME. The light here referred to is Christ (John 1:9; John 8:12). 1. Men are voluntarily in the state indicated by darkness. Men are not unbelievers by compulsion. They love darkness. What a perversion of natural taste and judgment would such a physical predilection imply! “ Truly the light is sweet,” etc. Yet a course of conduct that would be deemed the grossest folly physically is followed by thousands spiritually. 2. This is not an absolute preference. A degree of love for the light is implied. Many who remain in darkness cannot help feeling a measure of admiration for the light in which they refuse to walk: they attend the ministry of it, grant their passive assent to it, and yet remain in the darkness of unbelief. III. THE CAUSE OF THE NEGLECT: Love of sin. 1. How explicitly our Lord brings the responsibility of men’ s perdition home to themselves. 2. How sad that condemnation should be the portion of those who occupy a position so near salvation. Bunyan says there is a way to hell from the very gate of heaven. (A. J. Parry.) John 3:18 He that believeth on Him is not condemned A real acquittal In the reign of George III. the son of a member of this Church lay under sentence of death for forgery. Dr. Rippon, after incredible exertions, obtained a promise that this sentence should be remitted. By a singular occurrence the present senior deacon learned that the reprieve had not been received, and the unhappy prisoner would have been executed had not Dr. Rippon gone posthaste to Windsor, obtained an interview with the king in his bed-chamber, and received from that monarch’ s own hand a copy of that reprieve, which had been negligently put aside by a thoughtless officer. “ I charge you, doctor,” said His Highness, “ to make good speed.” “ Trust me, sire, for that,” said he; and he returned to London only just in time, for the prisoner was being marched, with many others, to the scaffold. That pardon might have been given, and yet the man might have been executed. But, blessed be God, our non-condemnation is an effectual thing. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith must rest on Christ Not long ago a man said to me, “ I cannot believe.” “ Whom?” I asked. He stammered, and again said, “ I cannot believe.” I said, “ Whom?” “ Well,” he said, “ I can’ t believe.” “ Whom?” I asked again. At last he said, “ I cannot believe myself.” “ Well, you don’ t need to. You do not need to put any confidence in yourself. The less you believe in yourself the better.” (D. L. Moody.) Believing the one step into the kingdom of God I am told that at Rome, if you go up a few steps on your hands and knees, that is nine years out of purgatory. If you take one step now you are out of purgatory for time and eternity. You used to have two steps into glory--out of self into Christ, out of Christ into glory. But there is a shorter way now with only one step--out of self into glory, and you are saved. May God help you to take the step now! Flee, my friends, to-night to Calvary, and get under the shadow of the cross! (D. L. Moody.) The doom of unbelievers I recollect how those words “ condemned already “ rang in my ears, as I should think the bells of St. Sepulchre’ s used to sound in the ears of the condemned in Newgate, warning them that the time was come to go out upon the scaffold. When the shadow of eternal wrath falls upon the heart, nothing worse can be imagined; for the conscience bears sure witness that God is just when He judges, condemns, and punishes. When a man feels the shadow of death upon him, infidel arguments are silenced, self-conceited defences are banished, and the heart consents to the justice of the law which declares, “ The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Neglect is ruinous Neglect is enough to ruin a man. A man who is in business need not commit forgery or robbery to ruin himself; he has only to neglect his business, and his ruin is certain. A man who is lying on a bed of sickness need not cut his throat to destroy himself; he has only to neglect the means of restoration, and he will be ruined. A man floating in a skiff above Niagara need not move an oar, or make an effort to destroy himself; he has only to neglect using the oar at the proper time, and he will certainly be carried over the cataract. Most of the calamities of life are caused by simple neglect. Let no one infer, therefore, that because he is not a drunkard, or an adulterer, or a murderer, that therefore he will be saved. Such an inference would be as irrational as it would be for a man to infer that, because he is not a murderer, his farm will produce a harvest; or that, because he is not an adulterer, therefore his merchandise will take care of itself. (A. Barnes.) Believing is laying hold on Christ “ Mark you,” said a pious sailor, when explaining to a shipmate at the wheel, “ mark you, it isn’ t breaking off swearing and the like; it isn’ t reading the Bible, nor praying, nor being good; it is none of these; for even if they would answer for the time to come, there’ s still the old score; and how are you to get over that? It isn’ t anything that you have done or can do; its taking hold of what Jesus did for you; its forsaking your sins, and expecting the pardon and salvation of your soul, because Christ let the waves and billows go over Him on Calvary. This is believing, and believing is nothing else.” (New Cyclopaedia of Anecdote.) Not condemned, and condemned already I. THE NOT . 1. Christ has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 2. Faith in Christ identifies us with His sacrifice. 3. Identification with the sacrifice of Christ removes all personal guilt. 4. So the believer is not regarded or dealt with by God as a sinner. He is not condemned (1) by God; (2) by the law; (3) by Himself: remorse subsides, fear vanishes. II. THE ALREADY . 1. What does unbelief seem to do? (1) It despises God’ s unspeakable gift as superfluous, or insufficient, or comparatively unimportant. (2) It dishonours the Son of God Himself. (3) It refuses to listen even to God’ s testimony concerning His Son. 2. The cause of unbelief must be evil, and what is evil is foolish. 3. The nature of unbelief. (1) It is sin both in the spirit and in the letter (1 John 3:23). (2) It is the greatest folly (Acts 4:12). 4. The doom of unbelief (Mark 16:16; Proverbs 1:34-36; Matthew 11:23; Luke 12:47; Hebrews 10:29). This doom is confirmed by the conscience of the unbeliever. (S. Martin.) Condemned already The condemnation here spoken of is not of the judge but of the architect. It is a customary thing to appoint a committee to examine a bridge or a building, but if either is condemned as unfit for use, the architect merely proclaims that repair is needed: he refers to the past, not to the future. He says, not that they are to be destroyed, but that he will not guarantee them for a single moment, that the hall or building is not safe for a meeting-place, and that the bridge is not fit to he a vehicle of commerce between man and man. The whole word lies in the word already. Some here may have read that wonderful story of George Eliot’ s, “ Daniel Deronda,” and remember the marvellous character in it, Mordecai, who, by the mysticism of his mind, is represented as having gone back. He became possessed with the idea that he was a bridge over which the whole world was passing; he felt the feet trampling over his life, and they weighed him down with agony, Never was Mordecai so little of the madman as when he possessed that thought. Whether we realize it or not, the idea is true. Every one is a bridge for the whole world. The world would not have been the same if you bad not lived, and what is that but saying you are a means of transport for the generations? Therefore it is of the more value that some are labelled, “ Condemned already” ; to hear a voice warning us back from the gilded parapet, from the painted structure, from the gaudy edifice; for the frail planks are ready to fall into the mighty cauldron, seething below. Stand back till the rotten materials are renewed and welded together. (G. Matheson, D. D.) Faith A person who had noticed a flower of a very rare kind growing on a narrow ledge on the face of a precipitous rock, was very desirous to gain possession of it. There was no possibility of reaching it except by a person being let down from the top suspended by a rope. The person interested engaged a boy of the neighbourhood, and brought him to the spot for this purpose. But the boy, when he saw the situation of the flower, hesitated. His employer tried to tempt him by the offer of a larger reward, but still he hesitated. At last, when a very considerable sum was named, he turned to the gentleman, and said, “ Yes, I will get it, if I may fetch my brother to hold the rope.” Here is an example of implicit trust consciously exercised under extraordinary circumstances. (A. J. Parry.) Salvation through union with Christ In primitive times there was a law or custom that if a man or woman would consent to marry, under the gallows, a person condemned to death, the criminal would thereby be saved from execution. There are instances on record of this custom having been carried out. We have here a faint picture of the grand truths of the text. The sinner “ is condemned already,” is under sentence of death, but Christ consents to raise him into union with Himself, and so thereby deliver him from his terrible doom, but faith working through love must be the bond of this mystical union. And this faith regenerates the man. By it the greatest sinner is transformed into a saint. (A. J. Parry.) The great alternative Let us consider, then, this sin of unbelief, and the two reasons, furnished by my text, for its being made the ground of condemnation. I. First of all, in regard to the sin itself, you will notice how entirely everything is made to hinge on the fact of a man’ s believing or his not believing. The difference between these two is all the difference between condemnation and acquittal. Doubtless it was well for Nicodemus, during whose interview with our Lord the statement of my text was uttered, that the issue should be narrowed to so definite a point. It was well he should know that however far he might be inclined to go in his acknowledgment of Jesus, nothing short of personal trust in Him as his Messias would suffice. Nor is it enough, to make a man a Christian, that he accepts, in a general way, the teaching of Scripture, and seeks to bring his life into accord with the Divine commands. There must be something much more precise and radical than this. There needs an uprooting of the life out of its old soil, a transplanting of it into new conditions, the committal of your whole nature into the hands of a Divine Person, out of whose deep inexhaustible being it shall henceforward draw its succour and support. And if this be wanting, then all is wanting. Whatever your connection with Christianity may have done for you, if it has failed to connect you with Him it has failed of the one thing it seeks to accomplish. It may have begotten within you anxious thoughts and surmises about its mysteries. If your convictions of guilt have not persuaded you to have recourse to the great Pardoner and Purifier of sinners, then they have failed of their marl;. He that believeth not, whether he be serious or careless, whether he be the profane scoffer or the regular church-goer, is condemned already. Notice particularly, I pray you, the force of that word already. Sentence is not suspended till it be seen whether you succeed in attaining a certain pitch of moral excellence or fall below it. It is not unfixed and unsettled till the end of your life, and then for the first time shaped into a verdict. Then it will only be revealed and made manifest. Then it will only be pronounced and read aloud from the page of that book on which it now stands recorded. Already you are condemned if you do not believe in the only-begotten Son. II. I pass on now to consider why unbelief should be made the ground of condemnation. Two reasons are given. 1. The first is, because it involves rejection of the only-begotten Son of God. He came, as we have seen, not to condemn men, but to save men who were condemned already. And His coming was not one of a number of similar expedients, that had been tried before. To reject Him, then, is to reject the only possible means of escape from a doomed state. It is to remain separate and apart from God, that is, in a condition of death and condemnation. If you can find any sin, or ingrained force of habit, which He cannot conquer and break, then you may hesitate to appeal to Him for help. But the fact of His Divine Sonship precludes all this. It is important to notice here the turn that takes place at this point in our Lord’ s reasoning. He wishes to bring out the personal responsibility of each individual. The unbeliever is condemned, not because he is involved in the sinfulness that is common to humanity, but because of his unbelief; that is to say, not because of his sharing a guilt which was brought upon him by the offence of another, but in virtue of his own deliberate deed--because he hath not believed. It has been a matter of conscious choice with him. He has had the alternative placed before him, and he has preferred to be without Christ and perish, rather than take refuge in His grace. Now, this is true of every unbeliever. And if you are not receiving and trusting Him you are choosing to reject Him. 2. The second reason specified for the condemnation attached to unbelief is, that it involves the greatest immorality. It is a very common impression that unbelief leaves a man no worse than it found him. Other sins may render him an object of suspicion. Untruthfulness may strip his statements of credibility. Fraud may exclude him from the dealings of honourable men. Excess in eating or drinking may brutalize him, and make him an unsteady customer in business. But he may be as good for all practical purposes whether he believes or not. That is a matter confined to the sphere of opinion, and need not affect his actions, to any appreciable extent. A creed does not make a Christian, unless it be wedded to a life. And a true believer in Christ is different from other men by a vast difference, a difference that works through his whole nature, turning it in a new direction, and shaping it to a new end. Do not suppose that to believe in Him is a mere act of the intellect, and nothing more. If that were all you might do so or not do so, and the effects would never extend beyond your intellect, just as one may not be a whit the worse because he rejects some purely scientific or formal truth. Faith is not a mere assent to certain propositions. It is an act of the whole moral nature, closing with Christ for moral and spiritual ends. In coming to Him, then, you come that He may achieve within you that for which He came to you. You come that you may be pardoned and purified, that He may impart peace to your conscience, and touch you with the living power of His quickening Spirit. And when you refuse to come it is because you object to this process of renewal. And in refusing to be like Him you refuse to be like God, you show your deliberate preference for the evil which He hates. So that unbelief is the most terrible of all sins, the sin in which the innermost, deepest aversion of the heart to God comes to a head and acts. Having looked upon the light, and having looked also upon the darkness, and having wished that you might live in the sunshine, but wished also still more that you might abide in the shadow of some pet sin, or of some habit of self-righteousness, have you turned away, away from Christ, away from God, away from hope? Then do not disguise the reason from your eyes. Do not set it down to a mere exercise of intellect. “ This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (G. Mornet, M. A.) Unbelief arraigned and condemned I. THE NATURE OF . 1. A denying of the truth of the gospel. 2. A doubting or wavering uncertainty of mind about the truths of the gospel. 3. When, though a person may be convinced in his mind, by rational arguments, that the Bible is the Word of God, he does not fall in with the great design of the Scriptures by receiving Christ, and resting upon Him alone for salvation as He is there presented and discovered. II. THE CAUSES OF . 1. The devil has a great hand in it. 2. Ignorance. 3. Pride. 4. A pretended humility and self-denial is another great bar in the way of believing, to many; they thrust away Christ and the mercy of God from them, under a pretence that they are not fit for it. 5. A secret jealousy, as if God were not in good earnest with us, when He offers Christ and His salvation to us in the gospel. III. THE . 1. Prove that the sentence is passed against the unbeliever. “ He that believes not in the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36). 2. The unbeliever is condemned already. (1) In the court of the law, as a covenant by which he is seeking to be justified and saved: “ There is one that accuseth you, even Moses” Romans 3:19). (2) The unbeliever is already condemned in the gospel court. The sentence passed against him in the court of the law is aggravated and heightened by his contempt of gospel grace (Hebrews 2:3; Hebrews 10:28-29). (3) The unbeliever is condemned already in the court of his own conscience. (4) The unbeliever is already condemned in the court of the Church; or, may I call it, in the ministerial court. (5) The unbeliever is condemned in the court of the great God. “ Consider this, ye that forget God” (Psalms 50:22). 3. A few qualities of this sentence of condemnation passed against the unbelieving sinner. (1) A most mature and deliberate sentence. (2) A most righteous sentence. (3) A most awful and terrible sentence. (4) An irrevocable sentence. Application: 1. See hence a very sufficient reason why ministers of the gospel do so much urge the necessity of faith. 2. See hence the miserable and mournful condition of the generality of gospel hearers; they are a company of condemned men, under sentence of death. 3. How ill-grounded the joy and triumph of a Christless, unbelieving sinner! 4. See hence how fitly the gospel is called a joyful sound (Psalms 89:15). 5. It is every man’ s duty and interest to examine and try whether be be under this heavy sentence or not. (Pulpit Assistant.) This is the condemnation, that light is come into the worldGod’ s condemnation of men The first entrance of light produces two effects--it makes manifest and it separates. By this well-known result of the dawn we understand that when the Light that saves entered the world His appearance at the same time became the complete condemnation of men. But these words do not refer simply to the immediate effects of Christ’ s advent. They contain a truth for all time. I. THE OF DIVINE . On what ground does. God condemn humanity? It has been said that God deems men for evils which it was beyond their power to avoid; as saving some few, and sending the rest to perdition because he chooses to do so. Christ here affirms that God finally condemns men, not for being sinful, but for content to be sinful. 1. Contemplate sin as a power slumbering in human nature. It is there, even in the child. The most virtuously educated, when thrown suddenly into some unusual companionship, will show it. God cannot doom a man for sinful impulses which any temptation may draw forth. 2. Pass on to the rise of sin into conscious deeds. Has man power in himself to free himself from its slavery? (1) Every act of sin darkens the light of conscience. God has given man a conscience whose eye is quick to detect evil; but the misery of sin is that the very first action begins to darken the light which was given to guard against sin’ s blinding power. (2) Every step decreases the power of resistance; for the longer a man lives in sin, the more deeply he becomes conscious of self-degradation. Destroy a man’ s self-respect, make him feel that his character is gone, and see how carelessly and recklessly he will act. If, then, sin has such a power, do you think that God finally condemns a man for being sinful? Is it not rather for being content to remain in sin, for loving darkness rather than light? II. THE OF THIS IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. When the light came, every man who rejected Him proved his contentment in sin. Two things are requisite to prove this. 1. Man must be brought into a state in which he shall be able to choose deliberately between God and sin: and into this state the coming of Christ brings him. Through Christ the strongest and holiest powers--love, pity, sorrow act in man’ s nature and appeal to him to enter the light and liberty of the sons of God. 2. Man must show his contentment in sin, and thus doom himself. The rejection of Christ is utter self-condemnation. (1) Within man is an evil power, and from that power Christ comes to deliver, but man chooses subjection to that power rather than deliverance. (2) Behind man is a blackened past--man says I accept it; before man is an awful future springing out of his evil--man says I dare its doom: although Christ came to forgive the one and avert the other. (E. L. Hull.) The cause of present and future condemnation I. A FACT STATED. “ Light is come in the world.” 1. The light of conscience which (1) Condemns or approves now. (2) Is prophetic of future acceptance or condemnation. 2. The light of nature. (1) Astronomy teaches us the existence of an Almighty Creator. (2) Microscopy reveals one infinite in resources. (3) The wonderful order of nature shows one manifold in wisdom. (4) The beneficence of providential arrangements exhibits one conspicuously good 3. The light of Divine revelation. (1) Confirming the lessons of natural theology. (2) Making known to us the provisions of redemption. 4. The light of the Holy Spirit. (1) Enlightening the mind. (2) Teaching the way of salvation. (3) Guiding into all truth. (4) Witnessing to our adoption. 5. The light of reason. (1) To this faculty God directs His revelation. (2) This faculty vindicates the claims of Christianity as consistent with the principles of human nature and the attributes of God. II. MAN’ S . “ Men loved darkness rather than light.” Darkness signifies ignorance and sin; light, knowledge, and purity. How strange the sinners infatuation. 1. Instead of paying attention to the inward monitor, he seeks its destruction. 2. Men walk about the temple of nature and admire its workmanship, but see no Supreme Being. 3. Men have the Word of God and treat it as a fable: 4. They resist to grieve the Holy Spirit. 5. They reject the great salvation. III. THE REASON FOR THIS MORAL . “ Because their deeds were evil.” 1. Sin is not an accident of our lives. 2. Sin is the choice and love of our hearts. IV. MAN’ S . 1. Sinners are condemned in this life. 2. Sinners will be condemned in the life to come. (R. Sergeant.) Love of darkness rather than light When the Bastille was about to be destroyed a prisoner was brought out, who had long been lying in one of its gloomy cells. Instead of joyfully welcoming his liberty, he entreated that he might be taken back to his dungeon. It was so long since he had seen the light that his eye could not endure the light of the sun. Besides this, his friends were all dead, he had no home, and his limbs refused to move. His chief desire now was that he might die in the dark prison where so long he had been a captive. (W. Denton.) Light come into the world This is one of the most important announcements ever made in a sinful world, and to lost mankind. I. LET US EXAMINE THE , that--“ Light is come into the world.” It is a strong and beautiful metaphor, signifying knowledge--salvation--happiness. 1. It is revelation. It dawned on Adam, rose upon the patriarchs and prophets--but has arrived at noonday by Christ and His apostles. 2. What it reveals. II. THE WORLD IS AS IN A STATE OF . It may have natural light and intellectual light--but it is in moral darkness. 1. What this darkness is. Ignorant of God as the true God--ignorance of sin and guilt of sin. 2. This darkness I preferred. Sinners avoid the means of conviction--are afraid of the light-neglect the word, the house, and the service of God. III. THE REASON WE IS . 1. The innate love of sin. It is their element--the delight. 2. They find ease in sin. No alarms--conscience lulled. 3. The few rays of light that do occasionally break in are unwelcome and painful. They excite suspicion and fear. 4. If the light were admitted it would require an abandonment of evil practices which are pleasant; hence darkness is preferred because it is more congenial with sin. IV. THIS OF IS THE OF AN AWFUL . 1. God condemns all that refuse the light He has condescended to impart. He will send on such strong delusions, that they should believe a lie. 2. Christ condemns all that refuse His light. 3. Unbelievers will condemn themselves in retirement, on a sick bed, and in a dying hour. 4. All will condemn them at the judgment because they loved darkness, not for want of light, but because they hated it: preferred sin and darkness, not from force or necessity, but from the love of it. Application: 1. Consider the awful state of sinners under the light of the gospel. Their greater light exposes to a greater condemnation. Not like heathens. 2. Their condemnation will be final--eternal. 3. The condemnation is now come, but not the execution of the sentence, therefore there is yet time for repentance. 4. The Redeemer waits to translate us out of darkness into His marvellous Hebrews 10:29). (The Evangelist.) The test of condemnation--loving darkness rather than light What is a test of this condemnation? Our Lord’ s words are so very liberal that I would not have used them if He had not; I would have been afraid of the presbyteries. He does not place the test upon inadequate belief or doctrine, or even on deficient morality, but on deadness of aspiration. This is the condemnation, that men have loved darkness rather than the light. But that alone does not prove unfitness; our Lord’ s liberality is not yet exhausted. There is another condition--the light must have come into the world. If you get up at midnight and enter your dark sitting-room the mirror that was wont to flash in the daytime will show no light. Why don’ t you smash the mirror? It seems to love the darkness, and why? Because its light had not yet come. And there are hundreds in this city in precisely the same position. They are dark because no light has come to them. Suppose I ask you if you have the spirit of a poet, and you say, “ Oh no, I haven’ t; I never wrote a line of poetry in my life. I once tried and failed miserably. I have no idea of metre or scansion.” But I take you to the top of a mountain when the light is coming, when the morning is dawning and nature is about to drench the dark world in a liquid bath of gold; and I watch the gleam of enthusiasm brighten over your countenance as from your heart rise the words, “ Oh, it is beautiful!” Then, my brother, I know you are a poet, though Tennyson be ignorant of you and Wordsworth acknowledge you not. So if you want to know if you are within the pale of Christianity stand on the mountain when Jesus passes by, and should you feel one fond desire, one punting aspiration which makes you cry, O to be like Thee, to be near Thee I then, though your Thirty-Nine Articles be reduced to ten, though your morality lags faintly behind, by that thrill of aspiration in your heart you will know you have seen the Bright and Morning Star and that your light has come. How could it be possible for any man or woman to love darkness rather than light? The answer to that, too, is here, “ Because their deeds are evil;” and this condition comes at the end of a long process. No man ever stretched his hands to Satan and prayed, “ O Prince of the Power of the Air, I want to be bad, to break hearts, to bring tears to loving eyes, to cultivate malice and envy and all uncharitableness.” No, he began by evil deeds, and his beautiful aspirations continued to survive long after. I have heard the birds singing in October, and they seemed to say, It was once summer, it is summer no longer. It is a survival of old culture and the golden summer-time. Young man, listen to them, and go back. I knew a youth, brimming over with music, poetry, and aesthetic culture, but he returned, all his high aspirations gone through a life of intemperance and debauchery. Sin had taken away the aesthetic glow and his power of admiration. Is there any hope, then, for those who have got to this stage, who have put out their eyes? Yes, by retracing their steps over past deeds, never seeking to go into the past but keeping their hands from past sins in the future; and the beauty will come back in the way by which it went. In the words of the Israelitish Psalmist, the first joy comes back after a life of abstinence. The beauty of old days returns when in God’ s law “ he doth meditate day and night.” The 33rd of Isaiah is grander still, telling us we must begin by the life of self-denial if we would see the glory of the Lord. By traversing the narrow defiles of duty, the morning at last shines. A few more strokes of the oar, a little more straining of the muscles, a few more struggles against the angry foe, and, courage! you will see the land at last. (G. Matheson, D. D.) Ignorance may be wilful There is a sort of ignorance, which is not an ignorance of an empty understanding, but of a depraved heart; such an ignorance as does not only consist in a bare privation, but in a corrupt disposition; where the understanding is like that sort of blind serpents, whose blindness is attended with much venom and malignity. This was such a blindness as struck the Sodomites: there was darkness in their eyes, and withal villany in their hearts. (Dr. South.) Refusing the physician Two gentlemen were fellow-passengers in a vessel bound for a distant port. One was in vigorous health, and the other emaciated with disease, and manifesting premonitory symptoms of a speedy dissolution. He was young and intelligent, but had not made what he knew to be the necessary preparation for the event which was rapidly approaching. His fellow-passenger, as they were drawing near the port whither they were bound, advised him to consult an eminent physician who resided there. “ No,” he replied, “ I shall not consult him.” He was asked, “ Why?” To which he answered, “ It is not because I do not entertain the highest opinion of his skill, but he will honestly tell me that my disease is incurable, that I must die; and I do not wish to receive the announcement from such a source.” It is just so with the multitudes who know that they must die, and that they are totally unprepared for the event. They are afraid to consult the great Physician, lest they should be told the worst of their own case. In opposition to their better judgment, they endeavour to hide from their eyes the doom which awaits them. Their deception is voluntary; it is of their own choosing. They wish it to be so, and therefore do they avoid the means of detecting and exposing it. It is madness to refuse Christ Suppose I was going over London Bridge, and saw a poor miserable beggar, bare-footed, coatless, hatless, with no rags hardly to cover his nakedness, and right behind him, only a few yards, there was the Prince of Wales with a bag of gold, and the poor beggar was running away from him as if he was running away from a demon, and the Prince of Wales was hallooing after him, “ Oh, beggar, here is a bag of gold!” Why, we should say the beggar had gone mad, to be running away from the Prince of Wales with the bag of gold. Sinner, that is your condition. The Prince of Heaven wants to give you eternal life, and you are running away from Him. “ The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” (D. L. Moody.) Light and liberty Going to Helena I saw piles of boxes and goods and all manner of things on the landing, and I said to the superintendent, “ Do the slaves buy as much as used to be bought for them by their masters?” “ A great deal more.” “ Well, what things do they buy?” “ Buy? Looking-glasses and candles.” “ Looking-glasses, of course: candles, however?” said I. “ What do they want with candles?” In the old slave-times a slave was never allowed to have a lighted candle in his cabin after it was dark; nothing, unless it was a fire, was allowed, and the candles became in their eyes the signal of liberty; and the moment that they were free they said, “ Give us light.” (H. W. Beecher.) Two great wonders There are two wonders, one from above, the other from the depths of Satan: “ God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son” --and the world so loved darkness that it rejected the only-begotten Son of God who was given for it. (R. Besser, D. D.) The action of light The world of darkness is a world of false terrors and confused appearances. In the night, old and familiar objects fake new forms; common things seem to stand out like strange dangers in our way; well-known things are changed; and we cannot distinguish shadows from realities, or the dangerous from the secure. But the first morning beam that pierces the dark world restores the confusion to order; the shadowy perils fly, and the strange night-world disappears. That first beam manifests things in their reality, and by making manifest it separates the false from the true. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) The blessedness of light Imagine a traveller passing through a wild and unfrequented country. He misses his road. Night overtakes him. The storm rages; winds howl around him; the rain descends in torrents; thunders break in loud and terrific peals; whilst lightning fires occasionally discover dangerous precipices, rendering his condition imminently perilous. At length a faint but steady light comes gleaming from a distance; he follows the light, he treads the bright pathway, it leads to a human habitation--to shelter, warmth, and security. Sinner, you are that traveller. Human life is a wilderness. You are in the night of sin; wandering on the dark mountains of transgression; in imminent danger. The next step you may be irrevocably lost. But light has come into the world. Oh follow it! It will lead you to peace, security, and heaven. (R. Sergeant.) The wilful folly of rejecting the light None of us can prevent the sun from shining, but all of us can prevent the sun from shining on us. The great orb of day still floods the earth with undimmed lustre; but we can shut ourselves away from his beams, in caves and holes of the earth. So we may shut ourselves away from that Sun of the soul who lighteth every man that cometh into the world. We cannot make God less loving, less merciful, less gracious than He is; but we can stand apart from that love, that mercy, that grace. “ Behold the Lord’ s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated--are separating--between you and your God, and your sins have hidHis face from you, that he will not hear.” Would you have the Sun shine on you? Tear down the wall and roof of separation which you have built between you and him. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) John 3:20-21 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light … but he that doeth truth cometh to the light The repelling and attractive influence of light These words may have taken their form from the fact that Nicodemus came by night, and may have been a gentle rebuke, and a test for self examination. One of the saddest things in a spiritual sense is that man shrinks from the light. With a nature and position before God such as his this ought not to be. One of the most blessed things is when men welcome the light, and have nothing about them that they wish to hide (Psalms 139:23). I. DOING EVIL AND THE HATRED OF LIGHT . 1. The word doeth, in relation to evil, πρασσώ, indicates (1) The easy and natural way in which a thing is done. So we need no self-constraint or unusual exertion to do evil. We are too readily inclined to it. It required not much temptation to lead our first parents astray; and their children have followed them with easy steps. (2) Habit. There is a tendency in what is easy and natural to become habitual. A thing once done is not difficult to repeat, and each repeated action makes us more accustomed to it. From the little men go on to the great, and so silence the inward monitor. Evil is fine as a gossamer web at first, but at last a man is “ bound with the cords of his sin.” (3) The transient and worthless result is in the word. So sin’ s gratifications leave a sting behind, and are only “ for a season.” How little satisfaction had Samson or Achan in their sin. 2. The evildoer hates the light. And no wonder if that which reveals his guilt and folly humiliates and disgraces him, and threatens punishment, is feared and hated. No wonder that Ahab hated Elijah and Michaiah, that Jehoiachin destroyed the prophets’ roll, that Herodias hated John, and the Pharisees Christ. Here is the explanation of every unhumbled man’ s distaste for the truth. “ The carnal mind is enmity against God.” This shows the need and blessedness of the Gospel. II. DOING THE TRUTH AND THE BLESSED RESULT. 1. The word doeth, here, ποιεω suggests. (1) The exercise of resistance. The man who will do truth opposes the evil impulses of his nature. He will fight against wrong feelings. With noble superiority he contends against subtlety and deceit. See instances in Joseph, Daniel, the Three Children, and Cornelius. (2) Decision of character. The man who does the truth has no vacillation or hesitation. He is steady, unmoved by caprice. He applies himself steadily to the course he adopts, like Moses, Samuel, Nehemiah, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea. (3) The permanent and satisfactory result. Good is not temporary or unstable in its results. What peace and joy it imparts! 2. Doers of truth love the light. They are neither ashamed nor fearful. Let the light shine, and it will justify them, and reveal the glory of God in their truth doing. Conclusion: 1. The sentiment of a man towards the truth is an index to his character. 2. The doing of truth in every man is of God. (G. McMichael, B. A.) The ground of infidelity Many men seem to proceed on the supposition that, though placed under the Gospel, they may accept or reject it, just as their inclinations dictate. But it is not left to every man’ s choice in a Christian land whether or not he will be subject to the Gospel. It is not a matter of option with a man who resides in a kingdom, whether he will be governed by the laws of the land. If he violate them it will avail him nothing to plead that he never intended to take them as his guide. No doubt a man may make something else than the Gospel the rule of his life: but the solemn fact remains that the Gospel, after all, continues to be the rule by which he will be tried. When he appears before the Judgment Seat the processes will have reference to the dispensation beneath which it pleased God to place him, and not that under which he has chosen to place himself. It will avail him as little to say, “ I acted up to the light of nature; I never professed to be led by any other light” , as it would for an Englishman to plead in the courts, “ I acted up to the laws of Japan, which I professed to follow.” The Gospel, then, will be the system by which we shall be judged, though it may not have been that under which we have lived. Here comes the question, Why is the Gospel rejected? If men are to be condemned for its rejection, it must follow that the rejection cannot be pleaded as unavoidable. Is there a man necessarily blameworthy for being an infidel? May he not have sat down with a calm and decided wish to investigate truth and to believe Christianity, and yet arise confirmed in his scepticism? The answer is this: that we dare not take the blame off men and throw it upon God. This may sound illiberal and uncharitable, but we cannot admit that God is the author of sin through placing any of His creatures under the invincible necessity of continuing in sin. In the text Christ charges men’ s unbelief in their immorality. The Scriptures conclude that where actions are evil faith cannot be genuine. The text states the converse of this, that practice influences faith. Men prefer darkness; therefore they hate light. I. THIS WAS SO WITH THE JEWS. When Christ came, Judaea was over-run with profligacy. Christ rebuked it, and was consequently hated and crucified. Wherever the religion of our Lord is promulgated, it allows no truce to sin, but Christ came to save men from sin. Had He come to condemn men His contemporaries would have shrunk from Him equally. Their sensuality and pride had led them to expect a triumphing Messiah, who would give full scope for their licentiousness and arrogance; and when He preached His pure and spiritual kingdom, their habits of evil rose up in protest against Him and it. It was not that He was not armed with credentials; the exhibition of His greatest credential, the resurrection of Lazarus, sealed His doom. II. IT IS THE SAME NOW. What produces infidelity is not weakness of evidence; it is the wish to prove the Bible a fable, and this goes more than half-way towards the result. If the Bible be true, evil deeds must be reproved, and hence some men have an interest in disproving its pretentions. In this desire lies the secret of open, also of practical infidelity. Selfish, lustful men would view conversion as a positive calamity. They know that they cannot have religion without renouncing much that they loved, and doing what they dislike. In conclusion 1. God has erected no barrier against the salvation of a single soul. 2. If any man is finally condemned, it will be by his own choice. (H. Melvell, B. D.) The truth I. God is to be honoured by the truth. II. Men are to be benifited by the truth. III. Opposition must be expected on account of the truth. IV. For the truth we should wish to five. V. For the truth we should be willing to die. (Prof. J. H. Godwin.) The hatred of the wicked to the light of the Gospel I. IT IS AN ACTUAL HATRED (Proverbs 1:22). II. IT IS A PASSION OF THE HEART. III. IT IS A PASSION WHEREBY THE HEART RISETH UP AGAINST A UNION WITH THE WORD. A wicked man hates not the Word so long as it keeps within itself; but if it begin to pluck sin from him and his pleasures from him, then he hates it. I put this union of the Word in opposition to four things. 1. Against general preaching. A wicked man may hear a thousand sermons and like them all, but let one of them come in particular to him and tell him this is thy sin, and thou must go to hell for it if thou repentest not, then he hates it. John the Baptist was heard by Herod gladly so long as he kept off his personal sin. 2. Against merciful preaching, which can never stick a sermon on to a profane heart. Ahab loved his 400 prophets well enough, but when Micaiah came, “ Oh, I hate him, for he never prophesieth good unto me!” 3. Against preaching when the minister is dead. A wicked man can endure that, because there is none to urge a union of the Word with his conscience. He can read St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, etc., and the books of dead ministers, but if they were alive to tell him if this be the Word of God then thou art a damned man, they would not be loved. 4. Against now and then preaching. The wicked can endure the word so long as it doth not stand digging in their conscience and galling their hearts day by day. Occasional rebukes they can stand, but to be convicted every Sunday for condemned men, this they hate. IV. As it is an actual affection whereby the heart riseth up against a union, so IT IS AGAINST THAT WHICH IS AND TO HIS LUST. Therefore wicked men may love three kinds of preaching. 1. Quaint preaching that savours more of humanity than of divinity. Dainty phrases, acute stories, eloquent allusions are heard well enough. 2. Impertinent preaching, when, though it be never so pertinent to some in the church, yet if it be not pertinent to him, he loves it. The drunkard does not cavil at a sermon against hypocrisy, nor the profligate at one against covetousness; but if the Word strikes his own particular corruption, he hates it. 3. So much preaching. A wicked man’ s conscience tells him that he must have some religion, and therefore so long as the minister calls only for some hearing, he responds. The vilest drunkard will be content to hear of calling on the Lord Jesus at his death; otherwise their consciences would not be quiet. V. THUS YOU SEE THAT WICKED MEN HATE THE WORD OF GOD. They hate it because 1. They hate the truth, and being of the Word, a man hates the being of that which he hates, and he would destroy it. Now, though a wicked man cannot destroy the Bible from being in itself, yet he would destroy the Bible from being in his life. 2. They hate the nature of the Word (Romans 8:7). 3. This being the case, he hates the being of the Word in his understanding Job 21:14). VI. USE IS TO REPROVE THE WICKED AND INVITE THEM TO . (W. Fenner.) The ground of bad men’ s enmity to the truth I. THE ENMITY OF THE WICKED TO THE TRUTH. This enmity appears 1. In their opposition and resistance to it. 2. Their persecution of it (John 8:40). II. THE CAUSES AND REASONS OF THIS ENMITY. 1. They are afraid the evil of their actions should be discovered to themselves, because that creates guilt and trouble. (1) It robs them of that good opinion which they had of themselves before. Truth flatters no man; no wonder, therefore, that so many are offended at it. (2) Truth carries great evidence along with it, and is very convincing, and gives a good deal of disturbance. 2. Bad men are enemies to the truth because it discovers the evil of their actions to others, which causeth shame. III. . 1. We learn the true reason why men are so apt to reject the principles of natural and revealed religion; they are loath to be under the restraint of them. 2. This is a great vindication of our religion that it can bear the light, and is ready to submit to any impartial examination. 3. This is the reason why some are so careful to suppress the truth and to lock it up from the people in an unknown tongue, because their doctrines, dogmas, and deeds are evil. (Abp. Tillotson.) Sinners hate the light I. THE TRUTHS OF GOD WHICH RESPECT THE SINNER ARE, AS FAR AS THE NATURE AND OF THEM ARE , AS EASILY FELT AND SEEN AS ANY OTHER. II. THE MIND CANNOT TURN FROM DIVINE TRUTH WITHOUT TO DO IT. III. MEN RESORT TO TO HIDE THE TRUTH, TO TURN ITS FORCE AND RESIST ITS . 1. One is infidelity. 2. Another is found in the excuses offered for disobedience. 3. The indulgence of false hopes. 4. Reproaching religion and ministers. IV. REMARKS; 1. The common complaint that sinners must wait for the Spirit of God before they can feel the importance of religion is unfounded and impious. 2. Ministers must not be afraid of alarming and distressing sinners. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) Light welcomed At the first Methodist Conference it was asked, Should they be afraid of thoroughly debating every question that might arise? What are we afraid of? Of overturning our first principles? If they axe false, the sooner they are overturned the better. If they are true, they will bear the strictest examination. Let us pray for a willingness to receive light, to know every doctrine whether it be of God. (R. Stevens.) Light detested A sluttish housemaid, when scolded for the untidiness of the chambers, exclaimed, “ I’ m sure the rooms would be clean enough if it were not for the nasty sun, which is always showing the dirty corners.” Thus do men revile the gospel because it reveals their own sin. Thus all agitations for reforms in Church and State are opposed, and all manner of mischief attributed to them as if they created the evils which they bring to light. The lover of the right courts anything which may manifest the wrong, but those who love evil have never a good word for those disturbing beams of truth which show up the filthy corners of their hearts and lives. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Revelations of the light What a difference it makes to have a street well lighted at night! The cheery beams of the street lamp and the dazzling brilliancy of the electric light are more of a protection to the traveller at night through city streets than the weapon of the policeman. The evil beings who haunt our streets at night shun the well-lighted thoroughfares, and skulk off into dark alleys and unlighted lanes, where their evil deeds are not likely to be discovered. And yet it is not the light alone that makes the difference. There are palaces of sin where riot and revelry go on unabashed beneath the glare of gilded lamps and crystal chandeliers; for the light of the physical lamp is of little moral avail unless it is made effective by that other light of which Christ spoke when he said, “ Ye are the light of the world.” The powers of darkness fear the natural light only when it is accompanied by that better light; and the guilty creatures who showed their guilt, unashamed, in the brilliantly-lighted palaces of sin, would cower and shrink beneath the Christ-lighted eyes of true and pure men, if suddenly exposed to their searching gaze. There are anxious souls who seem to themselves never to have done anything for the Master, who might be comforted a little if they could only realize how important is this work of mere light-bearing. Many a neighbourhood, now forced to be outwardly respectable by the presence of a few God-fearing men and women in its midst, would break out into open and flagrant wickedness if that restraining and enlightening presence were to cease. But wherever God’ s children are, the light shines, and the workers of iniquity are forced to hide their evil deeds. It is a deed worth doing to flood the streets at night with the electric light; but it is a deed far better worth doing to let one’ s Christian light so shine that evil men will fear to bring their evil deeds to the brightness of its shining; for the light of a little band of Christian men and women is worth more, to keep a community pure, than all the light of all the lamps ever invented (H. C. Trumbull.) What the light reveals Some time ago the use of the electric light in those theatres where it had been introduced was discontinued because its great brilliancy revealed the sham character of the furniture of the stage; it showed the paint on the faces of the actors, and the gewgaw and tinsel nature of their dresses and ornaments; so the dimmer light of the gas was substituted. Thus it is morally with men; they refuse to come into the bright light of the gospel lest it make manifest the shams of their lives. We have instances of this in those persons who frankly tell us that they cannot become religious because of the dishonest ways and methods of business to which, they plead, they are compelled to conform. (A. J. Parry.) The different effect of the light on the good and the bad That which scares the wicked from, draws the godly unto the Word. The owl flies from the morning light, which other birds welcome. (J. Dyke.) Blindness I. There is the blindness which is the result of passion, covering us, whilst we are under the dominion of passion, with the darkness of sin, and hiding from us the light of truth. II. There is the deeper blindness which is caused by sinful habits, and by indulgence in continuous sin, until truth becomes odious to us. III. There is the still blacker form of sin, which not only drives us away from the light, but which hurries us on until we trample upon and persecute the doers of righteousness. (Quesnel.) Man’ s proper attitude towards the truth There is all the difference in the world between battling for the truth because of one’ s love for the truth, and battling on the side of truth because of hostility to the opponents of truth. A man may be as intense and as violent in the one case as in the other; but if a man lacks a profound conviction of truth, and a devoted love for truth, he can never be inspired to a high courage, and held to an unwavering endurance, by any hatred of those who are over against him in his struggles. All real progress in any line of reform is made through the dead earnestness of men who love the right; not through the impulsive violence of men who are aroused, for a time, against the upholders of evil. He who loves his fellow-man, and therefore strives for his disenthralling, is worth more as a friend of liberty than he who hates oppressors, and therefore seeks their overthrow. So it is in every sphere of well-doing; love for the good is a more potent factor than hatred of evil--more potent even in the battle with evil. (H. C. Trumbull.) Why men hate the truth A gentleman once visiting an acquaintance of his, whose conduct was as irregular as his principles were erroneous, was astonished to see a large Bible in the hall chained fast to the floor. He ventured to inquire the reason. “ Sir,” replied his infidel friend, “ I am obliged to chain down that book to prevent its flying in my face.” Such persons hate the Bible, as Ahab did Micaiah, because it never speaks good concerning them, but evil. (Biblical Museum.) Light reproves sin The margin will show that our translators felt a difficulty about this word “ reproved.” See Matthew 18:15, where it is rendered “ tell him his fault,” idea is exactly illustrated by the action of light, which makes manifest the wrong, and leads the conscience to see it and repent of it. It is through this chastening that the man passes from darkness to light. It is because men shrink from this chastening that they hate the light (comp. the remarkable parallel in Ephesians 5:11 et seq.). (H. W.Watkins, D. D.) Light reveals sin and alarms sinners Some persons accuse us poor preachers of disturbing the minds of our hearers, when persons are alarmed under the ministry of the gospel. The very purpose for which it was sent was to alarm men’ s minds; and it fails altogether when it does not alarm. When the ministry of the gospel alarms the sinner, he sees its workings going on in his bosom; it comes out before his friends and companions; they ask him why he should sacrifice himself to that sort of teaching which disturbs and agitates him? Why, my friends, we do not bring the things there that are discovered--it is the light that reveals them; they were all there before--it is the light that falls upon things--and then they appear in a very different manner; and the ministry of the gospel is designed and constituted to make the darkness light, to convince the sinner and to awaken the impenitent. Light and crime In 1807 Pall Mall was lighted with gas. The original Gas Company was first derided and then treated in Parliament as rapacious monopolists, intent upon the ruin of established industry. The adventurers in gaslight did more for the prevention of crime than the government had done since the days of Alfred. (Knight’ s “England. ”) Christians love light “ Light breaks in! light breaks in! Hallelujah!” exclaimed one when dying. Sargeant, the biographer of Martyn, spoke of “ glory, glory,” and of that “ bright light” ; and when asked, “ What light?” answered, his face kindling into a holy fervour, “ The light of the Sun of Righteousness.” A blind Hindoo boy, when dying, said joyfully, “ I see! now I have light. I see Him in His beauty. Tell the missionary that the blind see. I glory in Christ.” Thomas Jewett, referring to the dying expression of the English infidel, “ I am going to take a leap in the dark,” said to those at his bedside, “ I am going to take a leap in the light.” While still another dying saint said, “ I am not afraid to plunge into eternity.” A wounded soldier, when asked if he were prepared to depart, said, “ Oh yes; my Saviour, in whom I have long trusted, is with me now, and His smile lights up the dark valley for me.” A dying minister said, “ It is just as I said it would be, ‘ There is no valley,’“ emphatically repeating, “ Oh, no valley. It is all clear and bright--a king’ s highway.” The light of an everlasting life seemed to dawn upon his heart; and touched with its glory, he went, already crowned, into the New Jerusalem. A Christian woman lay dying. Visions of heaven came to her. She was asked if she really saw heaven. Her answer was, “ I know I saw heaven; but one thing I did not see, the valley of the shadow of death. I saw the suburbs.” A young man who had but lately found Jesus was laid upon his dying bed. A friend who stood over him asked, “ Is it dark?” “ I shall never,” said he, “ forget his reply. ‘ No, no,’ he exclaimed, ‘ it is all light! light! light!’ and thus triumphantly passed away.” (American Messenger.) But he that doeth truthHe that doeth truth cometh to the light What is it, then, to do the truth? For that would seem to be the condition which brings us within the rays of the light of Him Who is the Spirit of Truth, the right disposition in which to keep Whitsuntide. I. “ He that doeth truth.” This would seem to mean, first of all, HE THAT THE TRUTH. We can no more shut up the Book of Revelation than we can shut up the book of experience, and say it does not matter. Can we say, for instance, to any young man entering on the study of medicine, “ It does not matter the least what system you follow--homoeopathy, allopathy, or even herbalism; all are equally true or equally false, as long as you mean well.” Or shall we tell him, if he wishes to become a soldier, that drill and tactics and the modern science of warfare may be taken up or let alone, provided that he is brave? or that engineering depends on mechanical skill, or botany on his love for flowers, or chemistry on a taste for analysis, or mathematics on skill in computation? No; we know that all these things have their Bibles, compendiums of exact truth; so that he who enters on the study of them, enters on it enriched with a heritage of precise fact wrested by the patient interrogation of phenomena. And so it is with religion. The truth as set forth in the Creed is that which is exactly adapted to the needs of mankind. What we should do if we were constructing a new religion is one thing, and what we ought to do when God has told us what will make us truly religious is another. And to do the truth, is faithfully to believe what God has spoken, as a duty which we owe to Him and to our fellow-men also. II. “ He that doeth truth.” This, perhaps, means, secondly, HE THAT LIVES THE TRUTH. A true life is no butterfly existence wasted in so-called pleasure and idleness, never serious, never earnest; where all experience is but as pictures on the wall, all talents merely ornamental for self-display; where grace is received in vain, as the water in the fabled penance of the Danaides, which flows away as fast as it enters in; where sin and want of seriousness have riven the soul so that it cannot contain grace. But the true life will be one which is faithful to all God’ s influences and modes of approach, which says in its joy, “ My soul truly waiteth still upon God;” towards Whom there is the aspiration of prayer; from Whom comes the message to the soul; at Whose coming the door is opened in Holy Communion, and all the approaches cleared by which God may enter into the soul To live the truth is to trust more to prayer and sacraments and holy things than to mere human culture, self-reliance, strength, or cleverness. Think of that description in the Book of Revelation Revelation 10:1) of the servant of God. And as the angel is mighty, so the servant of God will be strong in firmness and fidelity, and in the knowledge of the truth. He is “ clothed with a cloud;” there will be a seriousness about him, as of one who is still under the influence of the luminous cloud of Sinai, where he has been communing with God, or the half-sadness of one who is compassed about with the earth-drawn sorrow with which sympathy has enveloped him. “ A rainbow is upon his head;” he has a brightness within him which lights up the rain-cloud of life, because God is shining upon it. “ His face is as it were the sun,” because at each prayer-time, and frequently throughout the day, he drinks in light from that Sun to which he turns. “ His feet are as pillars of fire,” for he is not easily shaken in his steadfastness; he is active, vigorous--yes, graceful as the image Of God who created him. III. And then, thirdly, “ He that doeth truth” means, obviously, HE THAT THE TRUTH. Is it absolutely unknown, for instance, for people to screen themselves when they have done wrong by the easy lie? Dishonour, ruin, disgrace, stare the man in the face. “ Say you have not done it,” says Satan; and the evil is put off, only to return with a tenfold aggravation of malignity as the net of deceit winds itself tighter and tighter round its hopelessly implicated victim. The old German legend is full of instruction. “ A huntsman to forward his own purposes seeks the devil, and together they cast seven bullets. Six of these are to strike wherever the caster wills, but the seventh is to be the devil’ s, and is to recoil and strike the caster, who is never certain which of all of them he is putting into his rifle, and at last is struck down by his own shot.” The fraudulent lie succeeds for a time, but at last comes the fatal one, which recoils upon him who uses it with shame and disaster. Do we scrupulously adhere to the disagreeable appointment, or the unpleasant duty, or the invitation which we have pledged ourselves to accept? Or are we always careful to avoid that exaggeration which piles up rumours and reports, which mixes truth with fiction, Which stays not to inquire whether a thing is correct or not, which aims, rather, at “ saying a new thing that is nut true, rather than a true thing which is not new” ? (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.) He that doeth truth It is observable, in the first place, that there are several places in the New Testament in which the truth is spoken of in ways not very much unlike to this; places, that is, in which it is spoken of, variously indeed, but in each of them as something real and solid,--not a mere object of apprehension by the intellectual powers of a man--not something external, merely viewed, seen, recognized, but something internal, something to be, and something to do--something full of blessing, a precious possession, a gift, an inward treasure (see John 8:31-36; John 14:5-6; John 17:17; John 18:37; 1 John 3:19; 1 John 5:6). Now it is plain that these statements of Holy Scripture--and there are a great many more like them, particularly in the inspired writings of St. John--make the truth (the Divine truth) to be something very sacred and very deep. Whatever it be in itself--and this is too hard and difficult a question for us to enter upon--it is plain that when possessed by a man, it is full of precious blessing to him. Possessed by a man, and possessing him, he is not what he was before. The truth has made him free who was a slave. The truth has made him who had no ears able to hear the words of Christ; the truth has sanctified him; the truth has made him God’ s son. What relation then (it may be asked), does doctrine bear to the truth? for it is plain that it is not the same thing. If the truth be thus something mysterious and real, which, coming forth of God, and being Divine, taketh, possesseth, occupieth a man, what relation does it bear to doctrine, Divine doctrine, the true revealed declarations of God, His nature and His will, which He has been pleased to give us? for these are often called truths, or the truth, though plainly not in the high and mysterious sense of the truth which we have been considering. I suppose that it is quite beyond our power to answer exactly. It is only clear that they are very nearly and closely connected. It is certain that the truth cannot possess a man and bless him with all the great blessings which belong to it, unless doctrine be duly known, and received, and believed. Doctrine is, as it were, truth projected on some medium which the mind can see; a shadow of the invisible and blessed truth cast, as it were, upon a cloud; and this the mind must see, and know, and own, and believe, or else, such is the order of God’ s will, a man cannot have the freedom indeed, the sonship, the sanctification, the open ears, the various great and precious blessings of the indwelling truth. Learn then from hence the sacred value of doctrine; its sacred, deep, unfathomable preciousness. If then we undervalue doctrine, who shall insure us against losing the truth? If we tamper with it, or lose our hold of it, who shall insure us of our freedom and sanctification, which we should derive from the indwelling truth? If we should allow others to seduce us from our simple, earnest, obedient subjection to it, who shall assure us that they have not robbed us of our precious estate of being in the truth? Thus far then we have regarded the truth as it is a real and precious thing, possessing which we are in an estate or condition of high blessing--the estate of being Christians; our text rather leads us to regard it in a further view, as being something practical, something to be done. Being in the truth (that is, our estate, or condition), we must do truth (that is, our duty). “ If we keep not His commandments, the truth is not in us.” “ If we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us.” “ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we do not the truth.” The truth then, in which we are, is to be done; and keeping of the commandments of God, and walking in the light, and acknowledging our own sins, are doing the truth. Truth, then, means holiness. Being in the truth, we must do the truth; and we must do it, as the truth is in Jesus. And so our law of holiness is a law of holy truth. It is a straight and direct law: “ O that my ways were made so direct that I might keep Thy statutes.” It admits not of deflection, or voluntary imperfection. As doctrine is the intellectual phase, if I may so speak, of essential Divine truth, so is obedience its practical one. To deviate into heresy, or to deviate into sin, are alike to depart from the influence of that sacred, central truth, in which we are sons, in which we are free, and in which we are holy. It is plain (as soon as we regard the law of God in this light, in which the Holy Scriptures so often present it to us) that the law of truth must needs be a very holy and righteous law. It is also plain that it is far higher, and holier, and more searching than it is often thought. How it cuts like a sword through all the easy living, the self-indulgence, and lazy half-service which characterize these later ages of the Church! If there be a truth of holy thoughts, surely there is much unlicensed and random thinking--much letting loose of the imagination on things trifling, and enervating, and unprofitable, which must partake in a great and serious degree of the nature of falsehood. If there be a sacred truth of holy words, there must be much idle and frivolous, and satirical, and bold talking, which must be very far below that high standard of truth, and so be really false. Above all, if there be a real sacred truth of duty and holy living, there must be a vast deal of practical and dangerous falsehood, in the waste of time, the imperfectness of service, the very easy and self-complacent way of life of very many baptized Christians. Indeed, we may readily see, that the ordinary rule of living, as we may judge of it from seeing how men live, is quite of another kind from the rule of truth. As long as they refrain from clear and notorious sins, and discharge certain clear and undoubted duties, men think themselves more or less at liberty to live in the rest of their behaviour as they like best. There are, as it were, certain buoys marking out particular shoals of sin, and these they must take care to steer clear of; but meanwhile, they have a free choice of navigating in a wide and easy channel, following their own fancy, and doing as much or as little therein as they please. And meanwhile, while practical truth is thus widely neglected among us, there is nothing which is more earnestly insisted upon as a virtue of the first necessity to the existence and well-being of society than veracity, or worded truth. Truth in words is held to be a virtue of such magnitude and necessity, that a clear breach of it ruins the character of a man amongst men more than almost any sin, however gross, which ordinary society knows. Worded truth, or veracity, precious as it is, is but as the outside, as the husk, of a more precious reality inside. Worded truth is the outside, and acted truth is the inner kernel. Oh, believe me, the essence of falsehood is deeper, deeper far than words! Believe me, it is a hollow philosophy which magnifies veracity, and lets the daily habits loose in self-indulgence and neglect: a miserable worldly code which exacts truth of words under the severest penalties, and makes it innocent and even honourable to depart, ever so far, from truth in deeds I No; the essence of truth is in duty, in heart-whole devotion of duty to the sacred law of God’ s truth. (Bishop Moberly.) John 3:22-36 After these things came Jesus and His disciples unto the land of Judaea (see also on John 3:30 for the whole paragraph) Jesus and John and their disciples I. A EXAMPLE OF THE PETTY AND PARTY SPIRIT WHICH MAY EXIST AMONG OF (verse 26). 1. This spirit is but too common in the churches. Men care more for the increase of their party than for the increase of Christianity, and cannot rejoice when it spreads outside of their own denomination or congregation. 2. True Christians must watch and pray against this spirit. It is contagious, injurious, and brings contempt on religion. Whereever good is done we should acknowledge it and be thankful (Philippians 1:18). II. A PATTERN OF TRUE AND GODLY . 1. John’ s conduct is contrasted with that of his disciples. (1) His principle is that acceptance with men is the gift of God (verse 27). (2) He reminds his followers of his repeated declaration (verse 28). (3) He informs them that his office and joy is only that of a bridegroom’ s friend (verse 29). (4) He testifies to the coming greatness of Christ and his own eclipse. 2. This frame of mind is the highest degree of grace to which a man can attain. (1) God declares this to be the case (1 Peter 5:5). (2) This is seen in the cases of Abraham, Moses, Job, David, Daniel, Paul, and the Baptist. (3) The way to true honour is humility, No man was ever so praised by Christ as John. III. AN OF CHRIST’ S HONOUR AND DIGNITY. 1. For the last time John testifies to Christ’ s dignity. Christ is (1) The Bridegroom of the Church. (2) “ Him that cometh from above.” (3) One to whom the Spirit is given without measure. (4) One whom the Father loves. (5) One into whose hands all things are given. (6) One to believe in whom is life everlasting, and whom to reject is eternal ruin. 2. Let us hold the same views. (1) We can never make too much of Christ. We can easily think too much of church, sacraments, etc. (2) Christ only is worthy of all honour. IV. A BROAD OF THE OF THE OF TRUE . 1. Salvation is not a future and distant privilege. The believer “ hath” everlasting life. 2. Unbelief is a tremendous peril. (Bp. Ryle.) The Masters and the disciples I. HOW MUCH OF HUMAN NATURE THERE EVER HAS BEEN AND IS AND THROUGH ALL TIME, Even with the Lord present and overseeing jealousies arose. II. HOW SMALL WERE AND ARE THE OF BETWEEN OF JESUS. On this occasion it was an unknown something about purifying which neither the Baptist nor the evangelist thought it worth while to name. Is it not humiliating that ecclesiastical history is largely a story of strife on the merest “ mint and anise” as compared with those fundamentals wherein all true disciples are practically at one. A politician once sought to allay alarm about the invasion of India by sending a large map showing the vast distances and obstacles that would have to be overcome. So if men would only scan the height and depth and length and breadth of the work given to all who love the Lord they could never wrangle over petty things. III. HOW LITTLE JOHN’ S KNEW HIM OR HAD BEEN BY HIS . Had they known him could they have imagined rivalry between him and Christ? Had they received his testimony about Christ, they must have known that appeal from what Christ elected to do was impossible. It must have saddened John to have to repeat his testimony again. Let the preacher and teacher be humbly patient in recognizing the transciency of the impression left by the most momentous truths and the necessity of their frequent repetition. IV. TRIVIAL AND AS WAS THE OF THIS WE MUST REJOICE THAT IT CAME TO PASS. From this low level the Forerunner re-argues the whole position, and speaks out with a new volume and momentum all that lay in his mind and heart. Trivial circumstances may give rise to the most important disclosures. (A. B.Grosart, D. D.) John also was baptizingThe ministry of John was exercised I. In the OF JUDAEA, where he preached and also baptized Matthew 3:1; Mark 1:1-5; Luke 3:3). II. IN PERAEA, east of Jordan at BETHANY (John 1:28). III. At AENON near to Salim. In these places he proclaimed Christ. 1. In the first by preannouncing Him as the great Baptizer and Judge of all Matthew 3:11-12). 2. In the second, by pointing Him out as the Lamb of God (John 1:19-28; John 3:26). 3. In the third by declaring Him to be the Bridegroom of the Church and by delivering the illustrious testimony here recorded. (Bp. Wordsworth.) AEnon near to Salim Three miles east of Shechem, at the head of the great Wady Farah, which has in all ages been the highway from the Damiet ford of the Jordan to Sheehem, there are great springs marking this spot. They rise in open ground amidst bare and unattractive hills, and flow down the slope, through a skirting of oleanders, in a strong brook which grows deeper on its way from the addition of numerous small streams. The village of Salim is a wretched collection of small huts, square and flat-roofed, with a tree, large for Palestine, near them, enclosed within a stone wall for preservation, and with a few olives dotting the bare slopes. Looking westward, the eye crosses the great plain and travels up the valley of Shechem, but around Salim itself there is nothing at all attractive. To make the identification complete there is a village called Ainun four miles north of the principal stream. With abundant water flowing all the year round, a central position, free space for the crowds, and a situation on the edge of the descent to the Jordan, of which the waters of the neighbourhood are, south of the plain of Esdraelon, the main tributary on the west, no position more favourable in every way could have been chosen by the Baptist for his work. That he once raised his earnest voice in regions now so silent and forlorn casts an interest over the landscape more powerful than it could otherwise have had, even had it possessed great natural attractions. (C. Geikie, D. D.) Then there arose a question between some of John’ s disciples and the Jews about purifyingThe controversy about purifying I. AFFORDS AN EXAMPLE OF THE TO SINFUL UNDER THE MOST . 1. The Lord and His messenger are the cause of this dispute. 2. The minds of the disputants were carnal. 3. Times of reformation specially breed such disputes. The gospel is then a new truth. Prejudices are excited and inflamed. 4. We must not be scandalized when such things occur. II. SHOWS THE INJURY WHICH ARISES FROM VIEWS OF THE OBJECT TO BE SERVED BY OUTWARD . 1. The question seems to have been the comparative efficacy of John’ s baptism, the various Jewish washings, and probably Christ’ s. 2. Ecclesiastical rites may be substituted for Christ and His gospel. 3. Salvation may come without ritualism of any kind. III. TEACHES THE BANEFUL OF THE SPIRIT OF SELF AND PARTY, SO COMMON IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 1. Certain Jews, grieved at the progress of the gospel, approach certain disciples of John and artfully endeavour to excite their minds to jealousy against Christ. 2. These come to John and try to inflame his envy by representing the universal popularity of Christ. (A. Beith, D. D.) Christ attracts sinners Among the several wonders of the loadstone this is not the least, that it will not draw gold or pearl, but, despising these, it draws the iron to it, one of the most inferior metals: thus Christ leaves the angels, those noble spirits, the gold and the pearl, and He comes to poor sinful man, and draws him into His embraces. (T. Watson.) The attractive power of Christ A Christian mother was once showing her little girl, about five years old, a picture representing Jesus holding an infant in His arms, while the mothers were pushing their children towards Him. “ There, Carrie,” said her mother, “ this is what I would have done with you if I had been there.” “ I wouldn’ t be pushed to Jesus,” said little Carrie, with beautiful and touching earnestness; “ I’ d go to Him without pushing.” (Biblical Treasury.) Christ sufficient for all “ I come very often,” said the pitcher one day to the spring, which it again approached to be filled with its pure water. “ I hope I do not come too frequently, but I soon get emptied, and as often need to be replenished.” “ You are but one of a great many that come with the same errand,” answered the flowing spring. “ It is very generous of you to give unto all that come,” said the pitcher, “ and that, like myself, apply so frequently.” “ I never refuse any, and send none empty away,” replied the spring, “ and however large the number that I take, I am not at all impoverished. I draw in order to supply the wants of the thirsting, and whosoever will let him come.” (Bowden.) All men may come to Christ There is enough in Jesus Christ for to serve us all. If two, or six, or twenty men be athirst, and they go to drink out of a bottle, while one is drinking the other envies, because he thinks there will not be enough for him too; but if a hundred be athirst, and go to the river, while one is drinking the other envies not, because there is enough for all. (W. Bridge.) John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heavenJohn’ s joy fulfilled I. JOHN HIS AND TO THE DIVINE (verse 27). What he says is true of temporal things, much more of spiritual things and the happy use of both. 1. John wished his disciples to entertain truthful views of his position. It was of God that he had been qualified for his work, and had been successful in it. God therefore could only say when it was done and give him his discharge. He was content to patiently await the issue. 2. From this it follows that envy of others reflects upon God. Those who rate against Moses rebelled against God. Backbiting, calumny, a secret or open opposition to those whom God has made superior to us, comes under this category (cf. the cases of Miriam and of Aaron and of Korah) . 3. To be dead to such a passion on John’ s principle, how precious! This grace distinguished Jonathan and Paul. II. JOHN’ S THAT HIS PAST WAS WITH HIS PRESENT (verse 28). 1. We may reasonably conclude that John was disappointed in his disciples. That all his teaching had been lost upon them was a humbling trial. If he had ever been tempted to exult over results this must have been a severe correction. Yet he must have felt unspeakable comfort that he could boldly appeal to their consciences for the character of his testimony. 2. Two things were ever prominent. (1) That he was not the Christ. Good cause for this in the notions and expectations of his followers. He clearly saw the rock towards which they were drifting. (2) That he was the messenger of Christ--fore-announcing one more glorious than himself. That done, and Christ having arrived, his office ceased. 3. Truths so obvious must have silenced his too zealous followers. They could not now but remember what he had said. Let us learn that not hearing only, but profitable hearing is our duty. III. CHRIST’ S TO THE CHURCH TO JOHN’ S (verse 29). 1. Christ’ s relation to the Church is that of bridegroom. John here alludes to a common Old Testament emblem. The Jews understood the marriage of the first pair as typical, and so that of Abraham with Sarah, and Isaac with Rebecca. The marriage relation was that which God sustained to His people (Ezekiel 16:1-63.; Psalms 45:1-17.; and Song of Solomon). 2. John ascribes to Christ the glory due to Him, and it is of vital interest that we should receive his testimony. Christ qualified Himself for entering into this alliance with us by sharing our nature while retaining His own. He entered upon it by special contract with the Father. He fulfilled every legal obligation, and “ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it.” He participates with His people and provides for them, and whatever a faithful, tender husband might do, He has engaged to do and actually does. 3. John’ s relation was that of the Bridegroom’ s friend. The bridegroom, on all nuptial occasions, had his “ friend,” whose office was to conduct the bride to the bridegroom. Thus, Moses was God’ s “ friend,” when he brought Israel into the wilderness. Similarly John was, and all ministers are Christ’ s “ friends” to bring the Church to him. IV. THE ISSUE OF JOHN’ S AND CHRIST’ S (verse30). The course of Christ was that of the sun in the firmament. John’ s that of a lamp to shine on a dark path until the orb of day appeared. In the consummation of this ministry John rejoiced. (W. Bridge.) John and Jesus The points of contrast between Christ and the Baptist, as stated by the latter in these five verses, are five-fold; thus: He is the Christ: I am but the forerunner. He is the Bridegroom: I am but the’ friend of the Bridegroom. He must increase: I must decrease. He is from heaven: I am of the earth. He speaks what He has seen and heard in heaven: I speak of the earth. With the last of these compare a somewhat similar opposition Hebrews 12:25. (G. J. Brown, M. A.) I am not the Christ … I am sent before Him John first, then Jesus I. WHAT DID JOHN PREACH? 1. He delivered the whole law against sin; even in the case of Herod Mark 6:18-20) and of the Pharisees (Luke 3:7). He showed how the law extended to the words and thoughts of men (Matthew 3:8-9). He counselled circumspection in the walks of ordinary life, with a view to the final account. Thus he aroused the consciences of the people. 2. He made a demand for immediate repentance, and its fruits in a new life Matthew 3:2). 3. He heralded Jesus as the Messiah predicted of old (Matthew 3:3). In this way he connected Moses with Christ. For himself he took pains to withdraw and resist every claim (John 1:20). Thus he gave a forward look to all his denunciations of sin in view of the true baptism cleansing from it. 4. He announced the special office of Jesus as the Redeemer of men. Thus he prepared the way for a gospel which based all its invitations of peace on the doctrine of sacrifice. II. WHAT DID JESUS TEACH WHEN IT CAME TO HIS TURN? 1. Christ testified to the entire accuracy of John’ s doctrine. He accepted the ministry of His forerunner without one question. 2. He proclaimed the full necessity of an atonement, Not even John exceeded Christ in denouncing sin and requiring renewal of heart. 3. He declared that the necessary sacrifice was now to be accomplished by Himself (verse 16). 4. He thus raised no new issues between man and God; but rather narrowed all the old into one: He made it clear that faith was the instrument of salvation (Chronicles 6:28, 29). He offered the freest gospel, but He left no chance of mistake to those who might suppose a simple issue was a weak one (verse 18; Mark 16:16). III. THE ORDER BETWEEN THE OF JOHN AND JESUS. John’ s came earliest in fact and logical necessity. 1. The historic position of the two men is enough to show all that is here claimed. Our Lord’ s life was part of His teachings, and each step depended on whatever steps went before. John’ s work was a necessary and solemn prerequisite to the work of Jesus. 2. Their methods of procedure were similar, John presented the law first, then the gospel; but his of was was plainly to press the law into prominence. Jesus presented the law first, then the gospel: but His office was to bring the gospel into prominence. In both cases the law came earliest. 3. The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable. Law work precedes gospel work in all God’ s dealing with souls. IV. . 1. We see why religious instruction sometimes proves inefficacious; Jesus is preached without John. The Lord does not seem in the still, small voice, because men miss the preparation of wind, earthquake, and fire. 2. Why inquirers are so slow in finding peace. There has been nothing to awake conscience. 3. Why there is so much of unrest and misgiving among Christ’ s people. They have no intelligent sense of Christ’ s loyal work in bearing the curse of the law for them. 4. Why backsliding is so frequent as the sin of converts. Somebody has been daubing them with untempered mortar. 5. We see how the new life begins and continues according to the revealed Romans 5:1-2; Romans 8:1; Romans 8:3). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) John 3:29-30 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom … standeth and heareth The Bridegroom and His friend I. THE TOUCHES IN THE BAPTIST’ S HERE . I. Elsewhere he appears like Elijah flashing in terrific flames of anger and rebuke in the sins of the age; another Moses with a stern countenance bearing the table of God’ s law. Here we find him, after he had baptized the Lord, shining with reflected rays such as streamed from the dove-like glory. It is an evangelical lustre which encircles him now. He is more apostle than prophet. His words are inspired with Christian faith. 2. In other passages he appears as an ascetic. He dwells in the desert. His disciples fast. He carries the burden of the Lord. Here he rejoices greatly, because of the Bridegroom’ s voice. The Man of Sorrows rejoiced in Spirit; so also did His forerunner here. 3. Elsewhere the Baptist is a popular preacher. People went in crowds, not merely to listen to, but to live with the great revivalist. In all such excitement there is a power of reaction upon the author of it. He gathers back in his own soul the influences which, torrent like, have been rushing out of him, but when the ebb comes and the congregations thin; when another and greater prophet eclipses the lesser, whose mission has been fulfilled, is not that an hour of trial? testing the purity an disinterestedness of him whose popularity is on the wane. John was paling before the brighter light, and some reminded him of the change going on. How noble was his conduct! What an example for ministers and all men! II. THE OF THE TEXT TO CHRIST AND IN GENERAL. 1. The relation which Christ sustains to the Church. This imagery has been abused, but there is a precious truth in it which the evangelist loved to expound (Revelation 19:6-9). Christ’ s love to His people is pure, intense, everlasting, expressed in a covenant inviolable as the marriage bond. He gave Himself for them; all He is and has is made over to them, and the due response on their part is the consecration of their hearts and lives to Him. 2. The true minister of Christ is the friend of the Bridegroom. Christ’ s disciples are more than servants--servants lifted up into the sphere of friendship; and never does a preacher fulfil his office in a more beautiful way than when he feels that he is not only in service, but in fellowship--not only that he has an obligation but a privilege, “ He standeth and heareth.” The minister of the gospel is a listener and an echo. He catches voices from the other world, and repeats them--like Samuel “ Speak Lord!” etc., like David, “ Come all ye that fear God” ; like the Cherubim bending over the ark to learn “ things which the angels desire to look into” ; like the angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach. 3. In reference to the Divine Bridegroom, the minister’ s motto should ever be, “ He must increase, and I must decrease,” words which testify to the growing glory of Christ and the disposition of faithful friends to lose themselves in Him. (1) Ministers must not preach themselves or seek to display their own powers and attainments. Self must be reduced to a minimum that He may be all in all. (2) They should seek to be forgotten, absorbed in Him, getting behind Him, “ nor showing even the tip of one’ s little finger; “ (3) and not only by speaking, but by living. (J. Stoughton, D. D.) The Bridegroom and Bride with their retinue I. HERE IS AN OF CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH AS THE AND HIS BRIDE. 1. Christ is the Bridegroom (Psalms 45:1-17.). 2. The Church the Bride (J. Stoughton, D. D.) 3. The union of the Bridegroom and the Bride. “ He that hast.” Which has reference to the fact that she is Christ’ s (1) in the purpose of His good pleasure; (2) By the price paid for her redemption; (3) By the voluntary surrender of herself to Him for ever. 4. The entireness of the union. II. A OF A PART OF THE ’ S RETINUE. John well deserved to be called the friend of Christ, in that he was wholly devoted to the interests of his Master. He represents the Christian ministry. 1. In its character. A minister should be the friend of Christ. Can those be such who deny His Divinity and outrage His laws? 2. In its duties. To “ hear the Bridegroom’ s voice,” receive His instructions, and carry them into execution. 3. Its pleasures. “ He rejoiceth greatly.” These pleasures are not those of literature, science, art, etc., but, (1) in communion with Christ. (2) Working for Christ. (3) Reward by Christ. (J. Clayton, jun.) Christ the Bridegroom of the Church As such He is represented throughout the Scripture (Matthew 25:1-46.; Ephesians 5:1-33.; Song of Solomon, and Revelation in particular). I. A IS NOT WITH THE STATE IN WHICH HE IS, BUT DESIRES TO IT AND BE MARRIED TO ANOTHER. SO the Lord of Glory was not satisfied to be alone. He was not complete until “ the fulness of His body” was united to Him in everlasting and wedded love. II. A , IF A DUTIFUL AND SON, WITH HIS PARENTS. So the Son of God “ came forth from the leather,” “ not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him.” III. AN OBJECT OF IS AND FIXED UPON BY THE , WHOSE HE DESIRES TO WED TO HIMSELF. Christ fastened His love not on angels but on sinners (Deuteronomy 7:1-26.). The earthly bridegroom, however, fastens his affection on something that is attractive, and loves because there is something worthy of his love. IV. WHEN THE HAS FOUND THE OBJECT OF HIS HE VISITS HER, ARRAYS HIMSELF IN APPAREL, AND COURTS HER AND SOCIETY. Christ came from the height of glory to woo His Bride. V. WHEN A GOES TO COURT HIS BRIDE, HE ASKS HER IF HER ARE ; and if they are engaged to one unworthy of her, warns her of the consequences. So Christ implores His Church to disengage herself from the world. VI. THE USES TO INDUCE THE BRIDE TO ACCEPT HIS OFFERS. So our Lord tells His bride of the dowry wherewith He will enrich her, and the heaven He will make her home. VII. THE WILL WAIT LONG BEFORE HE GIVES OVER. Christ stands at the door and knocks. VIII. THE TRUE SEEKS THE BRIDE NOT FOR HER PORTION, BUT HERSELF. This must be the case with Christ; for our very righteousness is but as filthy rags. IX. IF , THE WILL USE VARIOUS PLANS AND MEANS TO INDUCE HIS DESIRED BRIDE TO COMPLY WITH HIS REQUEST. 1. He will employ friends, as Christ does His ministers. 2. He will send letters full of persuasive reasoning. Christ sends His gospels. 3. He will send love tokens. Christ has given us Baptism and the Lord’ s Supper. In conclusion: notice some points of difference between an earthly and the heavenly bridegroom. 1. In this world there is much of self to determine the choice of a man--to render life more happy, etc. But Christ was wholly disinterested. 2. In this world, when a bridegroom has found his bride, he cannot add one feature to her beauty or accomplishments; but Christ, when He takes His bride, adds to her all the glories of heaven, while He removes from her all traces of earth. 3. In this world the love of the bridegroom, who is most affectionate at first, may cool by years. Christ “ having loved His own, loves them unto the end.” Mark, then (1) The debt of gratitude we owe to Christ. (2) The great guilt and ingratitude of rejecting the offers of the heavenly bridegroom. (J. Cumming, D. D.) The Bridegroom and the Bride I. THE OF CHRIST. Christ, as is proper to Him, is the Head and Husband of the Church. A bride hath but one bridegroom; a wife but one husband (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18; Hosea 1:11). Christ has this right by virtue of redemption. As the Israelites had a right to marry their redeemed captives (Deuteronomy 21:1-23.), so Christ, having redeemed us from the law (Romans 7:1-25.), hath thereby a right to espouse us to Himself. II. THE OF THE CHURCH. The union between Christ and the Church is not imaginary, but real (Genesis 2:23-24, cf. Ephesians 5:30-32). And, therefore, as in marriage, to show the nearness of it, the name of the husband is given to the wife (Isaiah 4:1), so the name ofChrist is given to the Church (1 Corinthians 12:12). III. THE FURTHER OPENING OF THIS . 1. How this contract and marriage is made up. By the mutual consent of both parties (1) Christ gives His consent. (a) By so securing our nature that there might be congruity and correspondence (Hebrews 2:11). (2) By giving us His Spirit, which is His love token (Ephesians 1:14; 1 John 3:24). (3) The Church gives her assent by faith; the hand whereby we wed and handfast ourselves to Him. 2. The dowry and jointure--“ All things” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23; Ephesians 5:30; Romans 8:32). Whatsoever the husband hath the wife hath. (1) His own righteousness. We, who have no righteousness of our own, being married to Christ, shine with His beams (1 Corinthians 1:30; Ezekiel 16:8-9 Revelation 19:7-8). (2) The graces of sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30; John 1:16; Ezekiel 16:9-13). Herein Christ goes beyond earthly bridegrooms, who cannot impart their beauty to their brides (Ezekiel 16:14). (3) Acceptance of our services (Isaiah 62:5). (4) Comfort in our infirmities. (5) Access to Christ. (6) Heaven itself (Psalms 45:15; Revelation 21:9-11; Hosea 2:19). 3. The duties of the bride. (1) Thankfulness to Christ for so great honour and love (1Sa Psalms 45:10; Ezekiel 16:3). (2) Constant and faithful love to cleave to Him with all our hearts. (a) Forsaking Him not in any afflictions. (b) Admitting no strange love. (3) Answerable carriage (1 Peter 3:3-4). (4) Longing for the marriage day (Revelation 22:17). (5) Always preparing for the marriage. IV. THE AND DUTY. 1. TO offer and persuade the marriage to the Church. 2. To fit and prepare the Church for Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). 3. To hold fast the Church to Christ, being jealous over her for Christ’ s 2 Corinthians 11:2-3). 4. If the Church break her marriage covenant, to labour to reduce her affections again to Christ (Jeremiah 3:1). 5. To rejoice to hear the bridegroom’ s voice, and to make way for Him. (J. Dyke.) The royal espousals I. THE SPOUSE IS CHRIST. II. THE WEDLOCK IS FAITH. III. THE PLACE OF THE WEDLOCK is the Church. IV. THE PLEDGE of it remission of sins, and the fellowship of the Spirit. V. THE --eternal life. The joy of the bride I. THE PARTIES SPOKEN OF. 1. The bride--the Church (Revelation 21:2; Hosea 2:19; Son 4:9). (1) She is not wellborn, but of the fallen and guilty family of Adam. (2) Notrich. No tempting dowry does she bring. She owes ten thousand talents, and he who takes her must answer for all she owes. 2. The Bridegroom--Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:2; Matthew 25:1; Song of Solomon passim). (1) He is of exalted rank. A king’ s son: Prince of the kings of the earth: “ Thy Maker is thy husband (Isaiah 62:5). (2) He is rich. “ It hath pleased the Father that in Him Should all fulness dwell.” II. THE concerning the parties spoken of--the bridegroom hath the bride. 1. By destination. In some countries brides are betrothed as children: in this case the bride was betrothed before she was born. Hence, the Son of God was glad when the earth was made. He rejoiced over the spot which was to be the birthplace of His spouse, to which He was to come in due time to seek her, and whisper the astonishing avowal, “ I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” This marriage, at any rate, was “ made in heaven.” 2. By His own choice. A bride by destination is not always the bridegroom’ s choice. King’ s sons are often obliged to marry against their choice. A bride by destination merely may, therefore, well have misgivings. But here is no constraint on the bridegroom, “ The Lord hath chosen Zion.” 3. By purchase. An eastern usage is for a bridegroom to pay a price for a bride, e.g., Jacob. So Christ purchased the Church. Like Jacob, He became a willing servant. The years of service for Rachel seemed unto Jacob but a few days for the love he had to her. So Christ, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross. By the service of pain and death He bought His Church “ with a price.” 4. By preparation. Esther’ s preparation lasted a year. So with the Daughter of Zion. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the oil of myrrh, etc., by which she is purified, and becomes beautiful. This preparation is by the bridegroom as well as for Him. His the fountain that washes every stain, and the clothing of wrought gold. By Him she is sanctified that He may present her unto Himself a glorious Church. 5. By mutual contract. When the day of espousals, the day of conversion comes, it is a day of secret interchanges of love never to be forgotten. What are the stipulations? (1) On the bride’ s part: To renounce and reject all Christ’ s rivals, sin, the world, and the flesh, and to love Him with her undivided heart. (2) On the Bridegroom’ s part. (a) He endows her with all He is and has. (b) He engages to visit her, and it is no fault of His if He is not at her side at all times. (c) He engages to provide for all her wants. (d) He engages to defend her. (e) He engages to take her home with Him for ever in the many mansions of His Father’ s house. (Andrew Grey.) The friend of the bridegroom No simile could have been more beautiful and true. In the drama of Syrian love and marriage, the friend of the bridegroom plays a conspicuous part, doing kindly, unselfish service; yet earning no other reward than that of feeling how much he has added to the happiness of a man whom he loves. Sometimes this friend of the bridegroom has to select the bride. At all times he has had to take the oaths of espousal, and to present the mohar, the bridal gift. For the virgin’ s year, separating the act of betrothal from that of the bringing home, he is the only messenger between youth and maid. With many a laugh and jest., with many a sign and token, he had to pass from the unknown husband to the unknown wife; watching over their common rights, and feeding with his praises their mutual love; for during that virgin’ s year, the husband, though he may possess much of a husband’ s power, and may even put his wife to death for wrongs against his bed, is never allowed to see her face. His married joy and sorrow come to him only through his chosen friend. Until the day of bringing home, when the veil of the bride is to be lifted up, and with a cry of rapture the husband is allowed to gaze into her eyes and kiss her on the mouth, the function of the bridegroom’ s friend knows no pause. Then the bridegroom’ s heart is glad, and the friend rejoices when he hears the bridegroom’ s voice. (Dixon’ s “Holy Land.”) The friend of the bridegroom John was fitly called a friend to this Kingly Bridegroom for four reasons. First, ex castitate, for his chastity Proverbs 22:11). John was so “ pure in heart,” and “ gracious in speech,” that he had the love of the Bridegroom Christ, though, for the same cause, he felt the wrath of the adulterer Herod. Secondly, ex militudine morum. Likeness of manners makes friendship. They were so like, that they were often taken for one the other. They were both valde humiles, very humble (comp. Psalms 22:7, with St. John 1:23), yet a “ worm” hath some substance; “ a voice” is in a manner nothing. Thirdly, they were friends ex similitudine voluntatis, they both willed the same thing (comp. S. Mark 1:15, with St. Matthew 3:2, and St. Mark 10:19, with St. Luke 3:13-14). Their faces looked one towards another Exodus 25:20), and they embraced each other with their wings; and John (Angelus ante faciem) looked with joy on the face of the great Angel, embracing His doctrine, and agreeing with Him in all things. Fourthly, He was the Bridegroom’ s friend ex-officio, by his place: for as the Paranymphus (so the fathers call John) prepares the bride, with all fitting instruction and ornament, against her spouse come to marry her, so John came to instruct, adorn, and fit the Church for the receiving of her Living Spouse, Christ Jesus. (W. Austin.) Christ the bride- groom announced by prophecy Such a Bridegroom all the prophets had, in one form of speech or another, been discoursing of. They had proved that they were dealing in no metaphors--pouring out no Oriental rhapsodies; for their revelation of Him had been connected with the homeliest exhortations to domestic union and purity; they had affirmed the relation of the particular husband and wife to have its foundation in this higher relation; they had treated all branches of the marriage vow as indications and results of the adultery of the race to its unseen husband. And though the race meant in their minds Israel, the people whom God had chosen, and with whom He had made a covenant, yet their language was always too large for their limitations. When the King, who was to reign over the Gentiles, should be revealed as the glory of His people Israel, He would certainly be revealed as the Light to lighten all the nations; i.e, whensoever He appeared as the Christ of God, He would certainly appear as the Bridegroom of humanity. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Christ the Bridegroom As a man leaves his father and mother that he may join himself to his wife, so Christ surrenders His heavenly glory that He may become one flesh with His Church: He did it when He became flesh, and He does it still in the Lord’ s Supper, until He comes fully to satisfy the bride’ s longing for Him. Oh, what will it be when on that day the cry is made: “ Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!” (R. Besser, D. D.) The love of Christ in espousing the Church It magnifies the pure and endless love of Christ towards His Church, that He should so love us, as to make us His beloved spouse. Men marry commonly either for beauty, or person, or wealth, or parentage. Beauty often sways men’ s affections, where nought else. And where beauty and person are wanting, yet wealth and riches will mend all. Yet where all these are wanting, yet sometimes good manners, education, nature, and grace are means to make women gracious in men’ s eyes, and these are spokesmen to woo for them. All these, or some of these, commonly are the cement of men’ s affections. But, behold, Christ’ s love is pure love; we had nothing in us to move Him, or win or woo Him, neither person, parts, portion, beauty or grace in us to draw His affections (Hosea 2:19). His own mercy was our spokesman; His compassion of our woe wooed for us. Not our parentage (Ezekiel 16:3), not our wealth or credit (Ezekiel 16:5), not our beauty. See what goodly fair pieces we were (Ezekiel 16:6). In every one argument of loathing, and cause of distaste. He loved not us because we loved Him first, for we hated Him: not for our portion, for we were miserable, and poor, and naked (Revelation 3:1-22.). Not for our beauty (Revelation 3:17; Ezekiel 16:7). (J. Dyke.) The purpose of being 1. Every man has his own life-work as truly as the Baptist had his. 2. The importance of knowing what this is is obvious. 3. This, moreover, is (1) ascertainable--by Divine direction. (2) Accomplishable--by Divine help. (3) Blessed. By fulfilling the purpose of our being we shall realize I. THE JOY OF HAVING DONE SOME TRUE THING. Our sleep is more restful after a day of worthy toil. The man who works apart from the Divine plan does nothing satisfactory or satisfying. Our Master found work most joyous--“ My meat is to do,” etc. II. THE JOY OF HAVING DONE OUR OWN WORK. There is blessedness in knowing that we are filling the place appointed by God, however lowly Galatians 6:4). III. THE JOY OF OUR REWARD. Much of this is reaped in this world, but most is “ reserved in heaven” for those who are faithful on earth. IV. THE JOY OF THE OF OUR WORK, in the comfort of the sorrowful, the strengthening of the weak, the saving of the lost. V. THE JOY OF HAVING DONE IN WORKING OUT THE PLAN OF GOD. That plan, the restoration of fallen humanity, seems far too magnificent for us to take any part in it. Yet this is, and will through eternity be, the Christian worker’ s joy. (W. Jones.) John’ s joy at His Master’ s increase Envy is a pain and torment in the heart at the sight of superior excellence and happiness. It lamest dangerous. “ For envy “ our Master was delivered up. We find it among good people. The disciples of John were envious for their Master. We are to guard against this and subdue it, and are incited thereto by the noble example of the Baptist. I. WHAT ARE WE TO WHEN JOHN SAYS, “ HE MUST .” 1. That He would increase in the esteem and affection of all who knew Him. 2. That Be would increase in the number of His followers and the extent of His empire. 3. That the happiness of Christ’ s subjects would increase. II. BY WHAT MEANS ARE THE OF CHRIST AND HIS KINGDOM . 1. By the diffusion of knowledge. 2. By the preaching of the gospel. 3. By the influences of the Holy Spirit. III. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT HE MUST ? 1. Because of the natural tendency of religion itself. 2. Because of the zealous efforts of Christ’ s people. 3. Because the Lord has said it. IV. How is THE OF THE OF CHRIST’ S KINGDOM A SOURCE OF JOY. 1. Satan does not rejoice, nor infidels, wicked men, nor even nominal professors. It affords true joy however to-- 2. All who are become true converts of Christ. 3. All God’ s people. 4. All Christ’ s ministers. 5. The angels of God. 6. Jesus Himself. Conclusion: 1. A word to all enemies of Christ--you cannot oppose Christ with success, and without injury. 2. A word to the friends of Christ--how encouraging to know that we follow a Captain who shall not fail nor be discouraged. 3. A word to ministers (1) Young ministers--you must increase, safely, humbly, universally, unostentatiously. (2) Fathers--you must decrease. Learn this lesson so as to profit by it, and be encouraged to know that our work will not fail when we do. (John Stephens.) John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.I. JOHN’ S . His character was here put to the proof 1. For it is natural to envy the growing reputation of others, and to be jealous when it seems likely to trench upon our own. We speak, and justly, of this as littleness of mind; but it belongs to most, if not to all; and he wins a fine triumph who can be contented, provided that the cause of God be advanced. In God’ s service, by its very nature, God’ s glory, and not personal distinction and aggrandisement, is the thing aimed at; and there is therefore ground for expecting, if this end is reached, there will be gladness in all Christians, whoever may be the honoured agent. Alas, for the infirmity of human nature I 2. It is here that St. John’ s character is displayed under its most striking aspect. We can admire him as he lives a severe life in the desert, and as he stands before Herod; but nowhere does he appear so transcendently great as here. II. THE TRUTHS WHICH JOHN TO CONVEY. 1. The temporary character of his own mission, and the enduring character of Christ’ s. He well knew that he had not taught the truths that were to be revealed under the new dispensation; that his baptism had been but introductory; that the mortification of the flesh and the performance of certain duties which he had urged could not secure men from wrath; and that, consequently, unless he were to be followed by one charged with a clear message of mercy, his own would be fruitless and leave the world where he found it. And, therefore, it was far from his wish that he should not be displaced by Christ. It was his glory to feel that when the Sun of Righteousness, to which he had served as the morning star, should arise, he himself would decline and sink out of sight. 2. Personal religion: what it is, and how alone it can flourish. The Gospel is a system, constructed on purpose to abase the sinner and exalt the Saviour. The glories of Christ are discerned in the same degree as our own vileness and depravity. John’ s confession is what every true Christian must say. The sufficiency of Christ’ s sacrifice, the cleansing power of His blood, the prevalence of His intercession--these must be increasingly recognized. Though He cannot become greater in Himself, He must become greater in our esteem. 3. The words are prophetic. He echoed the prediction of Isaiah: “ Of the increase of His government, there shall be no end.” Here we launch on an ocean without a shore. (H. Melville, B. D.) The servant and the Son I. THE OF THE SERVANT. 1. His lofty contentment (John 3:27, cf. 1 Chronicles 29:14; Psalms 129:1-2; Daniel 4:35; Acts 17:26) a maxim of universal application, in the realm of nature (Romans 11:36) and in the sphere of grace (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 12:6; James 1:17); specially significant with reference to individual success, in the world (Psalms 57:2), in the Church (2 Corinthians 3:5). Christ’ s popularity, so far from exciting John to jealousy, filled him with holy peace; exhibiting the spirit afterwards exemplified by Christ (Matthew 11:26; Matthew 26:39) and by Paul (Acts 21:14). 2. His profound humility (verse 28). This man, who was in danger of being mistaken for the Messiah, and whom Christ pronounces the greatest of men, forms the most lowly estimate of himself throughout, in chap. 1. as here. 3. His absolute unselfishness (John 1:29). Had he been inflamed with ambition, he could have played the role of a Messianic pretender, and snatched a crown; or have founded a rabbinical school; or at least drawn around him an independent gathering. Instead of this, the end of his aspiration and effort was to espouse the nation to its Lover, and then stand aside. John pleased not himself, but lived for his Lord. 4. His cheerful resignation (verse 30). This was just what he desired, for what he had lived; he could, therefore, view Christ’ s popularity and his own supercession with delight. II. THE GLORY OF THE SON (verse 31-36). 1. His pre-existent Being. The historical appearing cannot be explained on natural principles. 2. His universal sovereignty “ above all” --all persons, all things--in the dignity of His person, the elevation of His character, the vastness of His power, the absoluteness of His authority and sway. They are His creatures, for He made them (chap. 1:3, 10; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:2); His property (verse 35); His subjects (Psalms 8:6; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28; Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:8). 3. HIS . John exhibits this as resting on three things, which mark him off from ordinary witness bearers: (1) A direct vision of the truth (verse 32). (2) A special commission to reveal the truth (verse 34). (3) A complete impartation to Him of the truth (verse 34). 4. His supreme Divinity, implied in what has already been said and in His Sonship. 5. His twofold work. (1) Salvation. (2) Condemnation. Lessons: 1. The secret of true greatness: humility before Christ. 2. The insignificance of human glory compared with that of Christ. 3. The dignity of ministerial service: that of acting as Christ’ s friend. 4. The pathway to renown: to efface one’ s self for the sake of Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The increase of Christ I. WHY DO WE, IN THE FACE OF AND ADVERSE , ENDORSE THE THAT CHRIST MUST ? 1. Because this is the design of God the Father. He has commissioned His Son to destroy the works of the devil, and to fill the world with His glory Isaiah 9:7; Psalms 2:7-8; Philippians 2:10). Failure in this is impossible. For what Divine design has failed? (1) When our first parents sinned, He promised a Deliverer. Let the manger, the cross, and the open tomb say whether He failed. (2) Did He fail when He threatened the Flood? (3) Did He fail to give Canaan to Abraham’ s seed, although Egypt and five centuries lay between the promise and the fulfilment? 2. Because the forces employed are adequate. (1) Love. To what is not human love, imperfect as it is not equal? But this force is the love of God, making, redeeming, and preparing heaven for man. (2) The Holy Spirit, who has power to convert every sinner upon earth. 3. The Holy Scriptures. Ask Mohammedanism why it fears the Bible? Because the Koran, when it comes in contact with it, loses its power. Ask Romanism. Because the power of priestcraft dies in its presence, and the chains of superstition are sundered. Is the Bible a power? Ask the fires in which its enemies have endeavored to burn it. While the writings of Porphyry, Julian, Hume, Voltaire, are lost or forgotten, where is the Bible? Wherever there is light. These, with their adjuncts, are adequate to the consummation of the text. II. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? 1. Individual felicity. Examine the experience of all who have fully embraced Christ. With this increase the circle of those enjoying happiness will extend. 2. Social elevation. The increase of Christ subdues the savage in man’ s breast, make marriage honourable, child-life happy, elevates woman, liberates the slave, provides refuges for the homeless, etc. 3. National advancement. Look at once famous empires, and compare them with the condition of countries in which Christ has increase. III. HOW IS THIS TO BE SECURED? 1. By individual effort and influence (John 1:40-51). One of the conditions of Christ’ s increase in the heart is to contribute to His increase in the world. 2. By organised advance upon the strongholds of darkness. (A. B. Chambers, LL. B.) John was one of God’ s nobility. Christ was deeply impressed with his intellectual, moral, and even professional greatness. The commanding proof of this is his state of heart and his conduct relative to the Messiah. The popularity of Jesus perplexed and annoyed John’ s disciples, but it made him profoundly glad. As a friend of the Bridegroom, the Bridegroom’ s voice was to him the sweetest music. I. “ I MUST .” John was not thinking of himself 1. As subject to the law of decay and death. We are all subject to that, good and bad; and in the article of temporal death there was no difference between John and Jesus. 2. As an immortal being. His path shone more and more unto the perfect day. We can put no limit to the growth of holy intelligencies. 3. As being held in lesser esteem in the future. He is thought as highly of now as he was then; and the Master passed upon him the highest eulogium, and this Christians accept. 4. But that his authority and influence as the forerunner, or a religious reformer, would of necessity be taken up and absorbed by the higher authority and influence of the Messiah. After Christ’ s entrance, there was nothing for John but to point to him. “ Behold the Lamb of God” now took the place of “ Repent.” Christ’ s rise was unavoidably John’ s fall; and to no one was it clearer or more welcome than John. It would have been a serious thing for John as a sinner and as a forerunner had this not been the case. But his influence was only relatively lost as a river flowing into the sea. II. “ HE MUST .” About this there is a glorious indefiniteness. John did not go into details as to the amount and manner. All he says is that it was a moral necessity. 1. When we take into account the marvellous progress already made, we can see that “ Christ shall see the travail of his soul,” etc. The leaven must go working on. The issue of the great contest between Christ and Satan is not uncertain. “ He must reign,” etc. 2. Some Christians cannot see this as they look on hindrances, corrupt institutions, depraved customs, false systems, inert and inconsistent Christians; but Christ must increase. 3. Not that God will ever compel men. All that the Gospel wants is a fair chance; and this it will eventually secure for itself. 4. The advance of Christianity is undoubted, although it has receded in certain places. 5. The real progress is much greater than the seeming progress. The atmosphere of certain countries has become impregnated with Christian elements, and their inhabitants cannot help breathing it. 6. Humanity needs Christ, and Christ is adapted to humanity. So much so, that the two must coalesce. A strong confirmation of the Baptist’ s saying. (G. Cross.) The increase of Christ I. AN TRUTH. 1. That Christ must still increase would appear probable even though we had no express assurances of it. (1) God has abolished a partial dispensation and established one suitable to all mankind. (2) Christ has made by His atonement a satisfaction for the sins of all. (3) Therefore we naturally believe and hope and desire that the tidings of salvation will be carried to all for whom He was given. 2. But we have stronger grounds--the plain and unequivocal promises of God--and are therefore firmly persuaded. Listen to David (Psalms 22:27; Psalms 72:8; Psalms 27:11; Psalms 86:9). To Isaiah (2:2, 40:5, 11:9). To Daniel (7:13, 14, 27). To Malachi (1:11). To John (Revelation 14:6; Revelation 11:15). 3. Can these promises fail? If so; owing to what? Want of wisdom? Want of power? Want of faithfulness? (Numbers 23:19). 4. Resting, then, on the promises of a God omniscient, almighty, faithful, the Church may bid defiance to all her enemies (Isaiah 8:9-10). II. AS A SOURCE OF . 1. Can a man inflamed with love to God fail to be grieved as he views the idolatry of the heathen and the sins of nominal Christendom? His mind can find no rest but in the assurance of the increase of Christ. 2. This truth is no less effectual to heal those wounds which proceed from love to the Saviour as it contemplates His present wide-spread rejection. 3. The lover of mankind is comforted by the thought that the increase of Christ will exterminate the rampant miseries over which he groans. III. A OF DUTY. 1. We should pray earnestly. 2. Labour diligently. 3. Give liberally. (E. D. Griffin, D. D.) The increase of Christ I. THE OF THE WORLD TO CHRIST IS A MATTER OF . 1. Many things render this probable. (1) The introduction of a system adapted to the wants of the whole race. (2). The known kindness of Jehovah. (3) The amazing apparatus of the Gospel. 2. The prophecies render it certain. II. THIS GREAT MORAL WILL BE BY MEANS OF HUMAN UNDER THE OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT. 1. Not by miracles. 2. Not by a Millennial dispensation. 3. But by the preaching of the gospel. III. AMONG THE MEANS HOLD A HIGH AND PLACE--not excluding individual efforts. (J. A. James.) Spiritual increase I. This is true of CHRIST HIMSELF--take His miracles, e.g. beginning with water turned into wine and culminating at the Resurrection. II. This is true of His CHURCH. At first a few persons meeting in an upper room, now in millions and still there is room. Increase will be promoted by 1. Preaching. 2. A good example. 3. Prayer. III. This is true of . We must grow in grace. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.) Great workers must be content to die and be replaced by others It is a humbling lesson to human vanity and tends to cheek the growth of self-importance to consider how well the world will go on when we are laid in the dust and no longer partake in the direction of its affairs. Leaves fall in autumn! trees are felled in the spring! but the next vernal season renews the foliage. Another age replaces the veteran oak removed by the axe or the tempest, and the forest still presents its broad expanse and deep shade to the eye of the traveller. So it is with the Church of God. Its members and its ministers die; but others are baptised for the dead and fill up their vacant seats in the spiritual house. (J. A. James.) John here figures himself by the moon, whose light wanes and decreases when the month is drawing to a close, and when the morning light of the sun begins to break forth; and he figures Jesus Christ by the sun, which is to eclipse and destroy his brightness. John the Baptist, the witness of Jesus Christ, is justly figured by the moon, which is called the faithful witness in heaven; being the witness to the sun’ s existence, and of his future coming, whereas it is not yet seen, because it shines by a borrowed light, and except for the sun’ s existence and original light, it would not itself shine, and would be as nothing. So when, and as soon as the day begins to spring, the light of the moon fades and is invisible, and all eyes which were turned to it, and delighted in it, are now at once turned to the sun itself, as all men now came to Christ to be baptized, who before delighted and were satisfied to be baptized with John’ s baptism. (S. R. Bosanquet.) Opinions of self Opinion of ourselves is like the casting of a shadow, which is always longest when the sun is at the greatest distance; but by the degrees that the sun approaches the shadow still shortens, and under the direct meridian light it becomes none at all; it is so with our opinion of ourselves: whilst the good influences of God are the greatest distance from us, it is then always that we conceive best of ourselves; but still, as God approaches, the conceit lessens; till such time as we receive the fuller measures of His graces; and then we become absolutely voided, pure nothing in our own conceit, and God appears to be (as really He is) “ All in all.” (Dean Young.) Self abnegation Mr. Durham, a father of the Scottish Church was walking one Sabbath to his place of worship with a much admired young minister who was to officiate in one adjoining. Multitudes were thronging into the one, and only a few into the other. “ Brother,” said he to his young friend, “ you will have a crowded church to-day.” “ Truly,” said the other, “ they are greatly to blame who leave you and come to me. “ Not so, dear brother,” replied Mr. Durham; “ for a minister can receive no such honour and success in his ministry except it be given him from heaven. I rejoice that Christ is preached, and that His kingdom and interests are gaining ground, though my estimation in people’ s hearts should decrease; for I am content to be anything, so that Christ may be all in all.” (W. Baxendale.) The certain increase of the glory and kingdom of Jesus I. IT IS TO THE NATURE OF THAT , WHICH THE BAPTIST SHOULD ATTEND HIS BLESSED LORD. l, It was announced, that “ He must increase” ; and, lo! in the midst of poverty and reproach, of apparent weakness, and of cruel sufferings, Jesus exhibited an increasing display of Godlike fortitude and resolution; of spotless purity and rectitude; of infinite zeal for His Father’ s honour; and of the riches of grace and compassion for wretched ruined man. 2. On these transactions all the future increase of His kingdom absolutely depended. But now the purchase of redemption has been completed, what shall prevent the Saviour from receiving His full reward (John 12:23-24)? 3. Well, then, might John the Baptist affirm, “ He must increase,” when he foresaw that His shameful death would be followed by so glorious a resurrection. 4. And how much more did the transactions of Pentecost justify this blessed prediction. II. LET ME PROCEED TO LAY BEFORE YOU SOME WHICH MAY CONFIRM OUR FAITH IN THE ASSURED THAT HE MUST . 1. Because He is the Son of God, in the highest and most absolute sense, and therefore heir of all things. 2. We are persuaded, therefore, that He must increase, because He hath all power to overcome every enemy that opposeth His blessed reign. 3. He must increase, for the decrees of heaven ascertain the great event. 4. A great part of Scripture consists of promises of the increase of the Messiah’ s kingdom, and it is evident that the season of their chief accomplishment is yet future (see Isaiah 40:1-31; Isaiah 60:1-22.). 5. We conclude that Jesus must increase, since this world and all others were “ made by Him, and for Him.” (J. Ryland, D. D.) Christ’ s increase, and our decrease I. “ HE MUST .” In one sense the words do not apply. The Saviour is God, very God of very God, and there can be no increase to that which is already infinite. He is also perfect man, without spot or imperfection, but it was in His office of Mediator, and in the glories of His mediatorial kingdom, that the Saviour was capable of increase. The greatness and glory of His work was to be manifested; the love which promoted, and the wisdom which carried out, the wondrous plan of salvation, were to be revealed, and fresh conquests to be achieved. Through faith in a crucified, yet risen and ascended Saviour, His people also shall prevail, yea, and be made more than conquerors through Him that loved them; and then as one nation after another has been brought into professed subjection to Christ, and as soul after soul has been rescued from Satan and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God, we see the fulfilment of the words, “ He must increase.” II. “ I MUST .” We have already noticed, that in a high and important sense, the increase of Christ is the increase of His people--they are concerned in the triumphs of His grace, and are to share His glory. But there is also a sense in which the believer in Christ, who is rejoicing in his Lord, and in the full salvation he has secured, can join in these words of the Baptist, “ I must decrease.” Yes, there is the carnal self, that which is of the earth, earthy--the old man, the old nature--which still retains so much of power, even in the regene rate, that which the believer desires daily to crucify, the flesh with its affections and lusts. All this is to decrease, and finally--although not entirely until he has put off the body of this death--to disappear. Surely we greatly need to decrease in self-esteem, in pride,in carnality, in all that tends to hinder us in our Christian life, and bring dishonour on our Christian profession. We are to decrease in having self as the all-engrossing object. New hopes and desires are to have fuller power over us; the great motive of the love of Christ is to have its place, constraining, compelling, drawing. Opportunities of usefulness, and of actively working for God, may also be diminished, and in failing strength and energies the Christian reads the words, “ I must decrease.” The work of Christ, indeed, will not suffer. (J. H. Holford, M. A.) John 3:31-36 He that cometh from above is above all.Christ “ above all” as a Teacher I. IN THE OF HIS ORIGIN (John 3:1). All others, from Enoch to Malachi were “ of the earth.” II. IN THE OF HIS . What does He teach? 1. The realities of which He Himself was conscious (verse 2) and not speculations. 2. Realities which were moral in their influence upon His hearers. They were not compelled to receive them, so many rejected Him. But those who believed Him had an assured consciousness that God was true (verse 33). 3. Realities which were pre-eminently Divine (verse 34): not the sciences, but God Himself, the Root and Branch, Centre and Circumference of all truth. III. IS THE OF HIS FATHER (verse 35). 1. No teacher shared so much of the Divine love as Christ. The Father loveth all. All true teachers may expect a special share of this affection. But He loves Christ pre-eminently, and as He presents His Well-beloved He says, “ Hear ye Him.” 2. No teacher deserved so much of the Divine love as Christ did. He never offended the Father or misrepresented Him in doctrine or conduct. 3. No teacher ever had such demonstrations of Divine love as Christ. “ All things,” the administration of all blessings and the authority over all souls. IV. IN THE EXTENT OF HIS (verse 34). Other teachers had the Spirit in a limited degree; Christ fully. This is clear from the fact that He knew what was in man, and from His miracles. But He had more of the Spirit than the old prophets, as is manifest by comparing 1. Their theology with His. 2. Their spirit with His. 3. Their lives with His. V. IS THE OF HIS MISSION. Faith in Him is essential to man’ s eternal welfare (verse 36). 1. The faith He requires is faith in HIM: not merely in the facts of His history, or the truth of His prepositions, but in Himself as the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. No other teacher ever required this. To so trust the best of them would be ruin. 2. Faith in Him determines the destiny of the soul. (1) Those who believe in Him have now everlasting life. (2) God’ s wrath abides on the unbeliever. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ is above all Caesar is not Caesar still, nor Alexander Alexander still: but Jesus is Jesus still, and shall be for ever. (J. Donne.) Christ is God as well as man We have seen a copy of the Gospels and Epistles which was warranted free from all trace of the Trinity, but it was not the testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We beheld it and we received instruction. It did not want beauty, for the parables, and the Sermon on the Mount, and many a touching passage were still there. It looked like a coronation tapestry with all the golden threads torn out, or an exquisite mosaic from which some unscrupulous finger had abstracted the gems and left only the common stones. It was a casket without the pearl. It was a shrine without the Shekinah. And yet, after all, it was not sufficiently expurgated; for, after reading it, the thought would recur, How much easier to fabricate a Gnostic testament, exempt from all trace of our Lord’ s humanity, than a Trinitarian testament ignoring His Divinity. (J. Hamilton, D. D.) An earthly mind As ducklings have always their bills in the mud, as swine are ever recking in the mire; like that fish in the gospel, either dumb or with nothing but money in their mouths. (J. Trapp.) Earthly mindedness It is storied of Henry the Fourth of France, asking the Duke of Alva if he had observed the eclipses happening in that year? He answered, that he had so much business on earth, that he had no leisure to look up to heaven. A sad thing it is for men to be so bent, and their hearts so set on the things of this world, as not to cast up a look to the things that are in heaven; nay, not to regard though God brings heaven down to them in His Word and Sacraments. Yet so it is, most men are of this Spanish general’ s mind; witness the oxen, the farms, the pleasures, the profits and preferments that men are so fast glued unto, that they have hardly leisure to entertain a thought of any goodness. Christ’ s testimony to be received I. CHRIST’ S , WHICH ALL WITH WHAT IS EARTHLY (John 3:31). 1. Christ was from above. Thence He came to His own. Of Him alone can this be asserted: a glory belonging to Him and not to another. (1) He is pre-eminent; with reference to the whole creation, among all that are illustrious in His Church, all His predecessors who are types of Him and all His followers who are sent by Him. (2) He is invested with universal dominion. (3) John speaks of what He is, not has been or will be, merely. (4) It was true therefore that Christ must increase. There could be no result but progress. 2. John was of the earth (1) In His origin and condition, as were all His predecessors and all His followers, partaking of weakness and imperfection. (2) In His office and doctrine, receiving both as an earthly teacher, and inferior therefore to Christ as earth was to heaven. 3. Let us be impressed (1) With Christ’ s glory and yield the submission and obedience which are His due. (2) With the subordinate place occupied by His ministers yet rejoicing that He employs them. II. THE OF HIS AND ITS GENERAL RESULT (verse 32). 1. Christ’ s testimony is of what He has seen and heard (verse 11). It was direct without the intervention of a third party, as in the case of Moses and the prophets. 2. The general result (1) Not what might have been expected, but, (2)--sadly true, then and now. III. THE OF HIS (verse 33). 1. God thus submits Himself to the judgments of men. They can have a full knowledge of His character in no other way. He demands, therefore, that they shall consider the testimony thus uttered. 2. Those who receive Christ and His doctrine find that they have to do with a true God. (A. Beith, D. D.) What He hath seen and heard that He testifiethJohn’ s last testimony to Christ I. THE OF CHRIST’ S (verse 32). II. THE WITH WHICH CHRIST’ S WAS (verse, 82). “ All men come to Him! Why no man believes Him!” The emotions aroused by John’ s preaching of repentance and the Lamb of God had passed off; for were not His disciples setting Him up against His Lord? And it took Christ’ s chosen ones three years to receive it. How differently a man counts who loves and adores Jesus from a mere hero worshipper. John would have not large crowds merely going after Jesus, but genuine believers. III. THE OF THOSE WHO DID BELIEVE IN ANY DEGREE (verse 33), like Andrew and John (John 1:40). This is a fine and simple account of faith in its nature. Some document is produced having legal authority behind it. Those who, believing in the King as true, will sign their names to it become entitled to certain privileges. Men go forward and append their signatures, realizing in so doing, “ The privilege is mine.” But here is one who cannot write. He goes forward, seal in hand, and stamps it down, which is as good as signing. That is faith, stamping down one seal, with decisiveness, to that gospel text, saying as we do it, “ That is true.” IV. THE OF CHRIST’ S (verse 34). “ For” is emphatic. The reception and attestation of what Jesus spake was the reception and attestation of what God spake. V. OF THE WORDS OF CHRIST HIMSELF (verse 35; cf. Matthew 11:27; Matthew 28:18; Luke 10:22; Hebrews 2:8). VI. WEAL OR WOE (verse 36). 1. True faith is faith in the true thing. “ On the Son” --atonement, resurrection, and glory were yet to come Christ Himself the object of faith. 2. The wrath of God cannot abide in a being who has ceased to be. The Baptist warned men before to “ flee from the wrath to come.” 3. Our relation or non-relation to Jesus Christ determines where we shall spend our eternity. (A. B. Grosart, D. D.) Christ the Divine teacher We notice the perfect originality and independence of His teaching. We have a great many men who are original, in the sense of being originators, within a certain boundary of educated thought. But the originality of Christ is uneducated. That He draws nothing from the stores of learning can be seen at a glance. The impression we have in reading His instructions justifies to the letter the language of His contemporaries, when they say, “ This man hath never learned.” There is nothing in any of His allusions or forms of speech that indicates learning. Indeed, there is nothing in Him that belongs to His age or country--no one opinion, or task, or prejudice. The attempts that have been made, in a way of establishing His mere natural manhood, to show that He borrowed His sentiments from the Persians and the Eastern forms of religion, or that He had been intimate with the Essenes, and borrowed from them, or that He must have been acquainted with the schools and religions of Egypt, deriving His doctrine from them--all attempts of the kind having so palpably failed, as not even to require a deliberate answer. If He is simply a man, as we hear, then He is most certainly a new and singular kind of man, never before heard of; one who visibly is quite as great a miracle in the world as if He were not a man. We can see for ourselves, in the simple directness and freedom of His teachings, that whatever He advances is for Himself. Shakespeare, for instance, whom we name as being probably the most creative and original spirit the world has ever produced, one of the class, too, that are called self-made men, is yet tinged in all his works with human learning. His glory is, indeed, that so much of what is great in history and historic character lives and appears in his dramatic creations. He is the high-priest, we sometimes hear, of human nature. But Christ, understanding human nature so as to address it more skilfully than he, never draws from its historic treasures. He is the High Priest, rather, of the Divine nature, speaking as one that has come out from God, and has nothing to borrow from the world. It is not to be detected by any sign that the human sphere in which He moved imparted anything to Him. His teachings are just as full of Divine nature as Shakespeare’ s of human. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Why men refuse Christ Among those who stay away from Christ, who will not believe in Him, who will not come to Him, the motive of the chief part has ever been, that they are destitute of the consciousness of sin, and of all thoughts and wishes rising above the objects of the senses, or else that they love their sins, and are determined to cleave to them, in despite of all that God can do to draw them away. Others there are who will not believe in Christ through pride and self-righteousness. Others have involved themselves inextricably in the labyrinthine abstractions of a sceptical understanding. Some will say, in their high-swelling imaginations, that they need no Redeemer, no Ransom, no Reconciler, no Atonement, no Pardon--that they can find the way to God by themselves--that they can build up a tower of their own virtues, a grand and gorgeous tower, virtue above virtue, the top of which shall reach to heaven. Such men there have been more or less in all ages; and the way their devices have been baffled has ever been the same, by the confusion of tongues. They have been unable to understand one another’ s language. When one of them has asked for bread, his neighbour has given him a stone; when asked for a fish, he has given a serpent; indifference and scorn, instead of sympathy and encouragement. The hand of each has been against his brother. There has been no unity of spirit amongst them, but variance and strife and railing: they have never entered into the bond of peace. This is the other form of sin by which men are kept away from Christ. The great mass stay away because their hearts are paralyzed and crumbled by carelessness and self-indulgence, or rotted by the cankering pleasures of sin; the few, because their hearts are hardened and stiffened by pride. (Archdeacon Hare.) Many men are deaf to the charms of the gospel A musical amateur of eminence, who had often observed Mr. Cadogan’ s inattention to his performances, said to him one day, “ Come, I am determined to make you feel the power of music; pay particular attention to this piece.” It was played. “ Well, what do you say now?” “ Just what I said before.” “ What I can you hear this and not be charmed? I am surprised at your insensibility I Where are your ears?” “ Bear with me, my lord,” replied Mr. Cadogan, “ since I too have had my surprise; I have from the pulpit set before you the most striking and affecting truths; I have found notes that might have awaked the dead; I have said, Surely he will feel now; but you never seemed charmed with my music, though infinitely more interesting than yours. I too might have said--‘ Where are his ears?’” Few hearers saved Though a gun be discharged at a whole flight of birds, there are but a few killed. Though the net be spread over the whole pond, but a few fishes are taken: so most hearers do busy their heads with their own sensual or worldly thoughts, and so escape the pain of the truth. (Train.) Christ often refused It is said of Handel, the great musician, that while composing the well-known oratorio of “ The Messiah,” he was frequently found in tears, and that one day, while sobbing bitterly, it was found that the words which had broken down his spirit were these three words of the prophet Isaiah, “ He was despised.” And yet this short saying wag abundantly fulfilled when Jesus came to show us His great love. (R. Brewin.) The sureness of Christ’ s testimony and its rejection 1. It is Christ’ s prerogative to have the knowledge of Divine truths of Himself from the Father, and to have all others who know anything beholden to His bounty and illumination; for, His doctrine is, “ what He hath seen and heard,” in a way peculiar to Him. 2. It sets out the bounty of Christ, that He doth not keep this knowledge, but discovereth it, that so sinners may have a sure guide and teacher, and the solemn testimony of an eye and ear witness, on which they may lean; for, “ what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth.” It is called a testifying both in respect of the certainty of the matter, and in respect of Christ’ s earnest persuading of men to embrace it (Acts 18:5). 3. Christ’ s gracious condescendence in revealing the counsel of God concerning man’ s salvation, gets but ill entertainment in the world; the most part of men either not hearkening to Him, or not embracing His offer with respect, affection or faith, for no man (that is, very few or none in comparison of them who do otherwise, though some there are, John 3:33) receiveth His testimony. Let them hear it as they will, yet they do not receive nor embrace it as becometh; and therefore also it is called a testimony, as witnessing against them, that they receive not so certain a truth. 4. It ought and will be matter of regret to all the friends and servants of Christ, that His doctrine is so ill received in the world; for, whereas John’ s disciples complained (verse 26) that all men came to Christ, He seeth rather cause to complain that no man receiveth His testimony. (G. Hutcheson.) To Jesus nothing seems more natural and familiar than the heavenly state, when He discourses of it. It is like a prince, who having been educated in a splendid court, could speak with ease of many magnificent things, at the sudden view of which a peasant would be swallowed up in astonishment, and would find himself greatly embarrassed in an attempt to explain them to his equals at home. (Doddridge.) He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true The sealed testimony I. THE SAVIOUR’ S (Isaiah 55:4, cf. John 18:37; Revelation 1:5). Christ came into the world when it was enveloped in ignorance and begirt with the miasma of heathen superstitions and unconsecrated philosophies. Even the Jewish Church had lost its glory and a wretched formalism taken the place of spiritual religion. Christ came to give us a testimony which should be all-sufficient in reference to the way of salvation. 1. Its nature. It included (1) The revelation of God (John 1:18). The knowledge of God was fast perishing. The spirituality of His nature--the perfection of His attributes--the sovereignty of His government--the boundless depths of Hismercy, were rescued from oblivion by Christ and received clearer light and richer illustration. His own life was a revelation of God (John 14:9). (2) The true character of man. Here all heathen sages had failed. They did not know man, his antecedents, requirements, capacities. Hence their specifics fell short of the occasion. Christ discovers the heart of man to Himself (John 2:25). (3) The exposition of the ancient Scriptures. He constantly taught that His life and labours were the fulfilment of prophecy. (4) Many sublime and precious subjects--the dispensation of the Spirit; the nature, worth, and reality of prayer; practical religion; future rewards and punishments; the resurrection of the body. 2. Its manner. Note (1) The simplicity of His precepts. (2) The familiarity of His examples. (3) The expressiveness of His figures. (4) The grace of His method. (5) The gentleness of His language. (6) The condescension of His temper. (7) His patience with the ignorant. (8) His encouragement of the inquiring. (9) His comfort of the sorrowful. II. THE RIGHT MODE OF ITS . 1. Divine truth demands admittance into the heart. It first accosts the intellectual faculties, then accosts the conscience, but completely triumphs only when it enters the holiest of all. Human learning appeals only to the intelligence. Christ claims the heart. 2. Its impartation proceeds directly from Christ (Galatians 1:12; John 4:42; 2 Corinthians 10:5). The practical improvement of the process is that which make us solicitous for evidence of the work of God in the soul through the Spirit’ s effectual conveyance of the Word. 3. We should rejoice in its reception, because the deliverance it works is so great, the blessings it imparts so vast, and the prospect it opens so excellent. III. THE EFFECT TO BELIEF IN IT. Just as unbelief is an imputation on the Divine veracity, so cordial, unprejudiced reception is a mark of adoption into His family. It liberates a man from harassments and doubts. The obedience of the heart leads after it conviction of mind John 7:17). The believer can set his seal over against the promise and affirm that “ not one thing hath failed.” Many an ancient mark may be seen in the aged saint’ s Bible showing that the promise has been fulfilled. (W. G. Lewis.) The testimony and the seal I. THE TRUE NOTION OF CHRIST’ S --IT IS A . 1. The nature of it. A testimony is a sort of proof necessary in matters that cannot otherwise be decided by rational discourse. (1) In matters that depend upon the arbitrary will of another. The gospel cannot be found out by the light of nature, but Christ, who was in the bosom of the Father, knew His heart and hath given testimony how it stands affected to the salvation of men (Matthew 11:27, cf. John 3:16). Salvation proceedeth from the free motion of God’ s will. (2) In matters of fact. Matters of law are argued by reason, but matters of fact is only proved by credible witnesses. In this sense the gospel is a testimony that Christ came into the world, taught the way of salvation, died for our sins, and rose again to confirm all. The apostles were witnesses of these things (Acts 1:21-22; Acts 2:32; Acts 10:39). 2. The value of Christ’ s testimony which will appear if we consider (1) The person witnessing. He who was promised in paradise (Genesis 3:15), shadowed in the sacrifices of the law, and foretold by the prophets John 5:39); He who was owned of God by a voice from heaven Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5; John 12:28); it is His testimony whom God the Father hath sealed (John 6:27), and to whom He has given the Spirit without measure (John 12:34). (2) The testimony itself. (a) It is such a testimony as men need. Men need a religion that will allay their fears and satisfy their desires. The gospel provides pardon for sin and eternal peace and happiness. (b) It has a fair correspondency with the principles of reason. That there is a wise, good, and powerful God; that men have sinned and become liable to punishment; that there are not hopes of freedom from this punishment but by satisfaction; that the universal soul must have higher and more abiding satisfactions than those afforded by the world. (c) It has a convincing evidence in itself (2 Corinthians 4:2-4). 3. The use of it as a testimony. (1) To bless God that the way of enjoying Him is not left to our uncertain guesses, but is made known in an authentic way by Christ. (2) To show us with what success we may build upon the hopes of the gospel; it is God’ s testimony (1 John 5:9). (3) Our danger is great if we disbelieve and reject this testimony Matthew 24:14; cf. Mark 13:9). First, to them, then against them. II. THE RESPECT THAT IS DUE TO THIS . 1. Hear it or regard it we must. For us to disregard it is the greatest affront that we can offer God (Matthew 22:5). 2. Understand it we must, or we do not receive it. A man must have it (John 14:21) in his judgment before he can keep it in his memory, heart, and conscience. 3. We must firmly consent to and acquiesce in this testimony (1 Timothy 1:15; John 6:69; John 17:8). 4. To embrace it with all affection (Acts 2:41). 5. To build our hope and confidence thereupon while we continue with patience in well-doing (Psalms 119:166; Luke 18:15). III. HE THAT THUS DOTH RATIFY THE TRUTH OF GOD and solemnly bear witness to it. 1. The manner of confirming. Doubtful things we do not confirm, but those things of which we are assured (1 Kings 21:8; Nehemiah 9:38; Esther 8:8; Jeremiah 32:18). But how can we confirm the truth of God? God’ s truth is the same, and needeth not our confirmation, but He will put this honour upon us that we should honour His truth by our subscription (Romans 3:4). Our sealing is of great use (1) To ourselves. To bind us more firmly to believe that doctrine and life according to it which we have owned by our consent (Isaiah 44:5; Psalms 87:6). (2) To others (Isaiah 43:10). God’ s people that have such proofs of His power and providence are able to give sufficient testimony for Him, and others are confirmed in the faith of that which we attest when we live in holiness, patient and joyful under the cross (1 Thessalonians 1:5-7). 2. The matter confirmed--that God is true. (1) God’ s truth is a great prop of faith (Hebrews 11:11). God can do anything, but cannot lie. (2) The honour of His veracity is most pleasing to God (Psalms 138:2), just as men cannot endure the imputation of falsehood. (3) The setting to one’ s seal that God is true supposeth some precedent obligation. God is engaged by promise to Christ that He will justify, sanctify, and glorify all those who believe in Him (Isaiah 53:10-11). The soul that receiveth this testimony giveth it under hand and seal that God is as good as His word. 3. The use is to persuade us to so receive Christ’ s testimony that we put to our seal that God is true. (1) From the honour done to God. (2) The honour put upon us that we should confirm God’ s promises. (3) The dishonour to God done by discrediting His word (1 John 5:10). Conclusion: In this scaling there are many things implied that most people want. 1. Spiritual evidence (1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 1:17-18). 2. Some experience of the truth in comforting and changing the heart 1 John 1:1-2). 3. Confidence in temptations (Job 13:15). 4. Holiness (1 Thessalonians 1:5-7). (T. Manton, D. D.) Christ’ s testimony receive I. THE THAT HAS BEEN BORNE. 1. The testimony borne to Christ antecedently to the completion of His work. (1) That of prophecy. (2) That of the angels and the magi at the incarnation. (3) That of Anna and Simeon in the temple. (4) That of the Father at the baptism. 2. The testimony which Christ bore Himself. (1) As to the nature of His ministry. “ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,” etc. “ I am come not to be ministered to,” etc. (2) To His Messiahship. “ I and My Father are One.” “ God so loved,” etc. (3) To His own purpose and plans. (4) To the everlasting awards. (5) All the truth taught by Christ was on His part a witness. 3. The testimony which came afterwards. (1) By angels again. (2) By the apostles. (3) By the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. (4) By Paul. 4. Remark (1) That knowledge is for the most part derived from testimony. Everything in connection with ancient history, biography, foreign countries. It is easy to ridicule testimony, but without it a great tract of our life would be left in darkness. (2) That the testimony borne to Christ and His salvation comes to us with the clearest signatures and the strongest authentications. It comes to us in a book which is unique in its condemnation of lying. II. THE OF THE . 1. It must be examined with precision, so that we may know what it is. 2. This reception embraces the admission of the things contained in it as true. As to the great matters in question, they are true or false; if false, let them be rejected; if true, let them be accepted as true. 3. There must be no hostility to it, because it is very possible that the testimony may be understood and accepted, and yet hated, as it is by the devils, as it was by the Jews. This is of the nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost. 4. There should be appreciation of the value, importance, and dignity of it. 5. It must be loved. “ With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” (1) Love of Christ Himself. (2) Love of His truth. 6. There is a course of life and conduct to be adopted in accordance with the truth of the testimony. III. Having received the testimony, we can SET TO OUR SEAL. A seal and signature are intended to authenticate a document and the thing which that document contains. We not calling God a liar, but, attesting the truth of the witness of the Lord Jesus, are said to “ set to our seal that God is true.” But Mark 1. The truth of God and the testimony of Christ are true irrespective of our seal. God cannot lie; and the matter for amazement is that God should condescend to receive our attestations. 2. Then let the signature be written. Bring in the document. What signatures are already there! Those of apostles, martyrs, etc. 3. If you put your signature to the truth of God, God will put His on thee. (1) On thy forehead, the mark of His preservation. (2) On thy heart, the mark of His grace. (James Stratten.) Sealed unto Christ I. THE OF THE SEAL. The seal is one of the old legal forms that still survives, and gives a peculiar character to documents on which it is stamped. Let us note some of its characteristics. 1. As a necessity. In many cases an instrument without a seal is of none effect. The lawyer may draw up a will with the utmost care, but until the seal is affixed to the will the lawyer’ s skill and the legator’ s resolve count for nothing. So one may hear the gospel preached, but that is not sufficient. He must set to his seal the testimony--receive it, believe it, live in accordance with it. 2. As a personal distinction. In the old times few men knew how to write even their own names. They could do no more than make their mark, which was easily counterfeited; therefore each man who had occasion to use it, if possible possessed his own seal. Joseph was placed in charge of the king’ s seal, and wherever he affixed it, it carried all the king’ s authority with it. So religion is an intensely personal matter. Each must settle the great question of salvation for himself. No one can accept Christ for me. I must set to my seal that God is true. 3. As a finality. The ancient seal was often used to denote the conclusion of a matter. Daniel was told to seal up the prophecies--implying that they were finished. He that accepts Christ, accepts Him for all time. We enter into God’ s service, not for a few years, not merely for a lifetime, but for eternity. “ There is no discharge in that war.” We have set to our seal that God is true, once for all. II. THE NATURE OF THE . It Isaiah 1. An indictment. God charges us with violation of His law, and we are to plead guilty or not guilty. If we deny our guilt we reject the very first proposition with which the Saviour comes to us. Shall any one dare to do this? Nicodemus thought he had kept the law, but the Saviour told him that he must be born again, and Paul felt this when he wrote (Romans 7:9), “ I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” 2. Pardon. After the American civil war, when a general amnesty was offered, each man, to profit by the act, was required first to take the oath of allegiance. We are rebels against God; from Him alone can we look for pardon. Through Christ it is offered to every one, but it must be accepted before it becomes effective. We must set to our seal this testimony of pardon--take the oath of allegiance to God’ s government. 3. A testament. If property comes into my possession by will, it is necessary that my name and a seal be affixed to the will before the properly is at my disposal. The testimony of the gospel is that God has made a testament for us. He not only grants us pardon, but peace and joy in this life, and in the world to come life eternal. These are offered to each of us freely; but we must set our seal to the testimony by accepting it in faith. (G. H. Smith.) Set to his seal The method of sealing seems to have been very ancient. Judah had a signet as well as a bracelet. The document sent to the elders respecting Naboth and his vineyard is said to have been sealed with the king’ s signature. So was that which commanded the extermination of the Jews in the time of Esther sealed. So in the days of Jeremiah, when his property was sold, the document which contained the account of the sale was sealed and signed. So have we the great seal of England, which affixed to a document authenticates the document. There are the seals and signatures in like manner of foreign potentates. And to make it still more dear and easy, and to bring it nearer home, in many matters of business, in the ordinary transactions between man and man, there is an agreement which is signed and sealed. Being signed, and sealed, and attested, the document stands; it is good and substantial, and has authority and weight in law. When in like manner, I suppose, we are represented as putting our seal and signature to God’ s great document, authenticating it as far as our belief and our conviction goes as true, this is what is meant. Exactly as in the prophet Isaiah, when it is said by the Almighty, “ Ye are My witnesses.” We set to our seal that God is true. (James Stratten.) Sealing the truth The firmness of the venerable Polycarp in persecution unto death is known to all. Urged by the chief officer to pay religious honours to the emperor, he mildly replied, “ I shall not do as you advise me.” “ Swear, curse Christ, and I release you.” “ Sixty-eight years have I served Him, and He has done ms nothing but good; how, then, can I curse Him, my Lord and my Saviour?” At the stake, when they were about to bind him, he said, “ Leave me as I am. He who has strengthened me to encounter the flames, will enable me to stand firm at the stake.” The testimony of human experience to the Divinity of Christ As there can be no argument in chemistry in proof of odours like a present perfume itself; as the shining of the stars is a better proof of their presence than the figures of an astronomer; as the restored health of his patients is a better argument of skill in a physician than laboured examinations and certificates; as the testimony of the almanac that summer comes with June is not so convincing as the coming of summer itself in the sky, in the air, in the fields, on hill and mountain, so the power of Christ upon the human soul is to the soul evidence of His Divinity based upon a living experience, and transcending in conclusiveness any convictions of the intellect alone, founded upon a contemplation of mere ideas, however just and sound. If Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God, in the experience of those who trust and love Him there needs no further argument of His Divinity. (H. W. Beecher.) The best evidence of the truth of Christianity As I looked upon the sun this November morning shining through some beautiful clouds, a man called upon me to prove that the sun was, in his judgment, as far as he could make out by “ the tables,” about sufficient to light the world. He turned over long pages of logarithms, fractions, and decimals, and long precessions of figures. He asked me for a slate and pencil, and he was going to make it out to my satisfaction that the sun was just about sufficient to enlighten a hemisphere at a time. I ordered him off I Why? I saw it! I felt it! (J. Parker, D. D.) Experience the teacher’ s best helper “ Oh I when a truth has broken your heart; when it has afterwards bound it up; when Christ has spoken it to you till you have felt it, then will you speak as men could speak who are ambassadors for God. George Fox was called a Quaker because, when he preached, he often trembled. Was that a folly? No. He had so felt the power of what he spoke that his very body trembled while he delivered that truth to others, and well may you and I tremble at His Word. Whenever that Word, however, comes home to the heart with sweetness, why, then, with what sweetness a man tells it again! There is nobody can speak it like the man who has experienced it. You know the tale of a tale, the report of a report is a very poor thing; but when a man says, ‘ I saw it, I was there,’ then you listen to him. So, if you can say of Christ, ‘ He is precious, for He is precious to me; He can save, for He has saved me; He can comfort and cheer and gladden, for He has done all that to me,’ then you speak with power because Christ has spoken with power to you.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Seal The supposed necessity of a seal to attest the signature is shown in the following: “ At Jezreel, the chief desired Captain Wilson to make a report to the governor at Jenin, and our dragoman was accordingly directed to write a letter in Arabic, and submit it for signature.… This was duly signed by Captain Wilson; and as the chief insisted on a seal being appended to the signature, an old monogram was cut off a sheet of note paper and affixed to the letter. This was supposed to prove the genuineness of the document, as a man’ s seal cannot be forged.” (Recovery of Jerusalem.) The purpose of sealing In courts of law, in olden times, a witness gave his statement of that which he professed was truth. Having done so, parties present who were cognisant of the veracity of the speaker, or who were in circumstances that they might be expected to be so, when called on to testify their knowledge, in confirmation of what had been asserted, by doing this set to their seal that what had been spoken was true, and that the witness who had spoken was faithful. But parties who, being thus appealed to, and being qualified to testify, declined to speak in corroboration of the testimony delivered, were held, by that declining, to make the witness a liar. To this practice allusion is made in the text. God hath spoken by His Son to the world; He has spoken that which all men may know, that which all men are bound to know to be true, that they may be able to confirm it as His word of truth. Being commanded to become acquainted with the things which are spoken, they are then, as a great duty, commanded to bear testimony to the truth, to the veracity of Him by whom it has been uttered. When they refuse to know what God speaks, they offend against His authority. When they refuse to testify to the truth--to set to their seal that He is true in the Word which has been given to them--they offend against His veracity; they make Him a liar. (A. Beith, D. D.) John 3:34-36 He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God The Mediator I. CHRIST’ S IN HIS OFFICE (John 3:34). 1. He is the sent of God. His mission is the measure of Divine love to the world. God sent other messengers, the prophets, John, ministers; but as there is but one sun in the firmament, though men have furnished themselves with many derived lights, so there is but one messenger from God--one great centre of illumination for the use of all who are beyond the limits of the unapproachable light. 2. They are the words of God which He speaketh. The same is true of every true minister, hut they are derived. Christ spoke the very oracles of God. 3. God giveth not the Spirit by measure to His Son. The prophets had the Spirit to discharge their commissions, but under such limitations as were necessary to their limited capacities and occasions. But there was no such limit in regard to Christ. II. CHRIST’ S DIGNITY AS THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD TO THE CHURCH (verse 35). For the use of this language the Baptist had Old Testament warrant. 1. The Father loveth the Son. He loves the world--some with a love of good will, others with a love of delight, hut not even angels share such a love as this; and indeed they and men are loved for and in the Son. 2. All things have been given into Christ’ s hands. If God so loved the world that He gave His Son, He so loves the Son that He hath given Him all things--all government, all the economy of redemption. 3. What obedience then is due to the Son! If God hath withheld nothing, shall we? III. THE SAFETY OF THE SOUL IS ON CHRIST (verse 36). 1. Salvation is laid up in Christ as its fountain and dispensing author. 2. This salvation is to be sought in Christ by faith. 3. No salvation without faith. Unbelief refuses Christ’ s testimony, declines all personal alliance with Christ, opposes God’ s purpose, and is the fruit of an evil heart. 4. The unbeliever shall not see life. 5. Upon the unbeliever the wrath of God abides. (A. Beith, D. D.) The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand I. CHRIST’ S TO THE FATHER AND TO MAN. 1. The excellency of Christ above all other ambassadors is that He is the Son and they are but servants. 2. Christ is the object of the Father’ s love in a peculiar way: as a Son, and not a servant in respect of His Person; and as Mediator, He is pointed out as the beloved Son in whom God will be found well pleased (Matthew 3:17); as He who is beloved, and hath purchased love to others because of His death (John 10:17) (so willing was the Father to be reconciled), as He whose being beloved answereth our being unworthy of love, and is a pledge of the Father’ s love to us (John 17:23). 3. In carrying on the redemption of sinners, as the matter is accorded betwixt the Father and the Son, so the redeemed are not left to themselves, but are put on Christ’ s hand, to purchase and be forthcoming for them; and all things are concredited to Him that may tend to their good. Under “ all things” we are to comprehend the elect themselves, together with all the gills and graces of the Spirit (verse 34) needful for their conversion and salvation, which are not entrusted to ourselves, but to Him who can keep us And them, and let them out as we need; and a dominion over all things that may contribute to help or hinder His people’ s happiness, that He may order them so as may be for their good. And this power He hath as God with the Father, and as Man and Mediator, by donation and gift from the Father (Matthew 11:27; Matthew 28:18). And thus the believer’ s happiness is firm, being transacted between such parties, the Father being satisfied in the Mediator, and they entrusted to Him whose dear purchase they are, and therefore He will not lose them, who hath capacity to receive their furniture far above what they could hold, power to maintain, wisdom to guide and dispense their allowance, dominion to curb all enemies and opposition, and a commission and charge to be answerable for them. All which may invite us to be content that we be nothing, and that we and all our furniture be in His hand. (G. Hutcheson.) All things in Christ’ s hand The verse gives us the following teachings 1. The Father is the Origin and Arranger of all things. 2. In His arrangements all things are put into the hands of His Son. 3. One reason of this is the love of the Father towards the Son. 4. Ere Christ came to men there had been a sublime transaction in which a vast administration had been entrusted on the one hand and accepted on the other. To confine ourselves to our point What things are put into the Redeemer’ s hand? I. THE ACT OF . “ All things were made by Him.” Thus He is clearly marked off from aught that is created. This fact establishes His essential equality with God and His official subordination to God. II. . Creation had to do with all worlds; revelation with this. God indeed reveals Himself by His works, the laws of social life, the voice of conscience. But we want a revelation fuller and clearer. Here it is: “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” III. . Where sin is, a revelation of God is not enough: but the Revealer says, “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” A serious state of things when a man’ s way to his Father is blocked up save as a Mediator clears it! Yet so it is; but He has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. IV. HEART . A power is needed to make the mediation effective manward. At the same moment that the herald says “ Behold the Lamb of God,” He declares “ This is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” The bestowment of the Spirit to convict, convert, and train the Church, is the prerogative of Christ. V. . When won over to Christ, men have to be governed and sanctified. The subjects of the kingdom of grace have to be inspired with a supreme desire to leaven the world with righteousness. His holy inspiration is begun and sustained by Christ. As He formed the kingdom of grace, so He administers it. VI. THE OF ALL THINGS. He who sent Peter to reap the first-fruits will send forth His angels to reap the harvest. (C. Clemance, D. D.) What things? I. LIGHT for your mind. II. LIFE for your souls. III. LOVE for your hearts. IV. for your nature. V. for your sins. VI. GRACE for strengthening. VII. COMFORT for sorrow. VIII. HEAVEN. (Bp. Gregg.) The Father loveth the Son Therefore faith may have firm footing. God hath laid help upon one that is mighty that our faith and hope may be in God. (J. Trapp.) He who has Christ has all things King Porus, when Alexander asked him, being then his prisoner, how he would be used, answered in one word, “Basilikeios,” that is, “ Like a king.” Alexander again replying, “ Do you desire nothing else?” “ No,” said he, “ all things are in this one word, ‘ Like a king.’” Whereupon Alexander restored him again. But this has not always been the happiness of kings and princes. Yet, however, he that hath God hath all things, because God is all things. Take a pen, and write down riches, honours, preferments, they are but as so many ciphers--they signify nothing; but write down God alone, and He will raise them to thousands--hundreds of thousands. And then it is that a Christian is truly happy, when he can find himself, and all things, in his God. John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life Faith and unbelief; with their respective consequences There are three kinds of death. 1. Temporal: the separation of soul from body, the approach of which is usually marked by failure of mental energy and increasing bodily debility. 2. Spiritual: the separation of both body and soul from the Divine favour in this life--the symptoms of which are ignorance of God, neglect of His Word, worldliness, and carelessness about salvation. 3. Eternal: the separation of the whole man from the Divine presence and glory in the world to come--the ills of which will be hope destroyed, despair, the awakening and disappointment of insatiable desire, tormenting sensibility of sin and irremediable woe. This state of things induced by the Fall, Christ has come to remedy. Note I. THE HAPPY OF ON THE SON OF GOD. He that believeth on the Son hath 1. Life in his Redeemer. God gave us life in Adam, which, with its attendant happiness, we lost, This is restored not directly to us, but in His Son. 2. Life in himself. Once he was unconcerned about spiritual things, buried in the cares, business, and pleasures of the world. Now the Spirit of life having breathed upon him, he is alive from the dead, and the life he now lives in the flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God. He is a fruit-bearing branch of the living Vine, a lively stone of a living Temple. This life derived from Christ is maintained by communion with Him. 3. Life in promise. The “ exceeding great and precious promises” bear upon this, and support the Christian amidst his conflicts and weakness. 4. Life in prospect. He shall dwell in a paradise fairer than Eden for ever, without care, pain, disease, sin, in unalloyed happiness. Because his Redeemer lives he shall live also. II. THE UNHAPPY OF NOT ON THE SON OF GOD. The unbeliever shall not see life. Of all that the believer enjoys he is deprived, and will be, if he persists, for ever. He may have a name to live, but he is dead, condemned already, bearing the eternal wrath of God. If these things be so, then see 1. What is the great condemning sin of the world, the sin comprehending every other sin--Unbelief. For this makes God a liar, tramples on Christ’ s salvation, does despite to the Spirit of grace, shuts heaven and opens hell. 2. What is the faith of the gospel. Not a dead, inoperative belief, but a vigorous, influential principle, moved by the Holy Spirit, to serve and please God, to fear His displeasure, to obey His will out of love and not from dread of punishment or hope of reward. 3. Who alone are secure from Divine displeasure. Those only who are found in Christ (Acts 4:10-12). 4. How we may escape God’ s wrath. By taking shelter in Christ through faith. (W. Mudge, B. A.) Faith and unbelief Evangelical texts lose their freshness from overfamiliarity. In order to appreciate their power we must realize their effects on those who have them for the first time. Let us reduce the text to a series of propositions. I. THAT THE HIGHEST GOOD IS ETERNAL LIFE. No heathen needs to be informed that life is more than existence. We cannot feel for a stone as we do for a tree which possesses life in its lowest form. We have a mere community of feeling for animal life; but this is as nothing compared with our regard for human nature. For rational life is better than irrational. But this can be conceived without the capacity of moral distins-tions--which men have, however. But, alas! we know that this moral life, if it may be so called, is quite compatible with spiritual death. Men are alive to the perception of moral good, but dead to its enjoyment. Is it not plain that a resurrection from this exalts us into a higher life, spiritual, not merely the life of our spirits, for in a lower sense they were alive before, but a life produced by the Spirit of God and doing God’ s will and enjoying His favour. This is the highest life of which a creature is capable in kind; its purification from the evils that mar it, its endlessness, and the perfection of its blessedness for body and soul in heaven, make it the highest life in degree. II. Let us suppose a serious heathen to have formed this conception of eternal life, and to be filled with admiration. He would soon compare it with his own experience and see that between him and it there was a great gulf fixed. That life presupposes a God holy in Himself and in His requisitions. The inquirer thus sees himself opposite to God and odious in proportion to His excellence. A fond hope arises. As sin has been his death, he will sin no more. Now comes a new revelation. He is the slave of sin, and his heart is dead in sin. Can he give it life? No. Here is a new despair. He turns to another method of escape. God will forgive him, and by a sovereign act make him a new creature. As he looks towards the inaccessible light he is completely undeceived on this point. He sees no shadow of connivance at sin. He withdraws his eyes, as he thinks, in eternal darkness. But on that darkness a new light begins to steal. His eye follows it to a point beyond himself, an intermediate object between God’ s inexorable justice and himself. Sin may be punished and the sinner saved. But a cloud passes over this celestial light. All men are alike, and if a man cannot make satisfaction for himself, how can he for another? But may not God? The thought seems impious till the lost veil is withdrawn and the astonished soul beholds the great mystery of godliness. God manifested in the flesh and becoming the propitiation for sin. But the work demanded of the sinner is hard because so easy: hard to do nothing when we think we must do all, to believe we have only to believe, when we expected to achieve our redemption. When once the soul is brought, however, to see that this is truly God’ s plan--that the Son of God is able and willing to save, and accepts this salvation, the work is done, and the man justified and safe for ever. By some such process we may suppose a heathen to arrive at the second proposition, viz., THAT ETERNAL LIFE MAY BE BY SIMPLY IN THE SON OF GOD. III. From this He would infer THAT THE LOSS OF ALL THAT PERFECT AND CALLED ETERNAL LIFE. But here he would be liable to error. The mere loss of heaven would not affect the hearts of those who know it not. Indeed, they refuse it, preferring the pleasures of sin. Deprivation, therefore, would be no punishment. The doctrine of the gospel is that he that loses heaven loses this world also. “ The wrath of God abideth on him.” Hell is the deprivation of all that makes a life of sin tolerable here. 1. Sinners here participate in the outward advantages of the believer, but the wrath of God will separate the lost from the saved for ever, and from all the advantages of order, comfort, and mutual constraint consequent. 2. Sinners have positive enjoyment in sin--those are sentenced to be only for a season, and its native tendency to misery to go on for ever. 3. Sinners are ignorant of anything better which could make the most dissatisfied wish sinful pleasure. The wrath of God will awaken conscience, which will have sufficient light to plant its daggers with unerring accuracy, and the sinner shall know What he has lost. IV. WHAT THESE TRUTHS WOULD BE TO A HEATHEN THEY ARE TO US. If to him they involve the whole way of salvation, they involve no less to us. We have here 1. The great end of existence, eternal life and Divine favour. 2. Its opposite, eternal death and Divine wrath. 3. The way of life by faith. 4. The object of this faith the Son of God, the one sacrifice for sin. In conclusion. On the unbeliever the wrath of God abides already. Let the procrastinating soul be undeceived. Distance of time and place works strange transformations. Tell one who violates the law of man that he will be condemned for it, and he may laugh the law and you to scorn. But bow few laugh when told that they are condemned already. Look at the convict at the bar, and see how different his aspect and demeanour from his aspect and demeanour when at large. Such is yon, case. You are not yet arrested, bat you are under sentence. You are condemned already, and reprieve or pardon is your only hope. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Everlasting life connected with believing on the Son of God I. WHAT IS THIS ON THE SON? 1. This believing on the Son, as here mentioned, supposes a distinct knowledge of Him--of His person, natures, and offices. 2. It includes assent to the record that God the Father has given of Him. 3. It includes, in consequence of both the knowledge of Him, and assent to the testimony of God concerning Him, our hearty approbation of Him, as every way qualified, able, faithful, and willing, to save to the uttermost all that believe (Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 2:17; John 6:37). 4. Chiefly it includes a cordial acceptance of Christ, as offered in the gospel. II. SHOW IN WHAT TRUE IN CHRIST MAY BE SAID TO HAVE LIFE. 1. They have it in title and right of purchase. 2. They have the blessedness of the heavenly state in the promises of it; therefore it is called “ eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, has promised” Titus 1:2). 3. Believers have the eternal happiness of heaven in their glorified Head and forerunner. He, as their Forerunner, is entered into heaven for them Hebrews 6:20); has taken, as it were, possession in their name. 4. They have everlasting life in the first-fruits of it. They have already received some part of their future blessedness in the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit, which are therefore called the “ first-fruits of the Spirit” Romans 8:23), and the “ earnest of the heavenly inheritance” Ephesians 1:14). (Sketches of Sermons.) The unbeliever’ s unhappy condition John the Baptist was a preacher who knew how to discriminate. He does not address the people as all lost or saved, but shows the two classes and the line of demarcation. I. THE GUILTY ONES. 1. They are common. They abound in our sanctuaries, and are to be met by thousands in our streets. 2. They are not necessarily sceptics. Many of them are quite orthodox. 3. Not a few are blameless in morals, but like the young man lack the great thing. 4. Many are religious after a sort, attend worship, read the Bible, etc,, but alas! there is a worm at the centre of all this fair fruit. 5. If they were criminals no one would wonder, but many of them are highly respectable. II. THEIR OFFENCE. They have not believed on the Son of God. 1. They refuse to accept the mercy of God. Men rejected God’ s law, now they reject His gospel. To refuse such a blessing provided at such a cost, cannot be a small sin. It is the greatest, for when the Holy Ghost comes to convince the world of sin, that sin is unbelief. 2. In this rejection the unbeliever displays an intense venom against God. He must either accept mercy or condemnation. He chooses the latter. What has God done to deserve this? 3. The unbeliever touches God in a very tender place: slighting the greatest manifestation of His love. 4. He perpetrates an offence against every person in the blessed Trinity. 5. He insults every Divine attributes justice, wisdom, mercy. III. THE SOURCES OF THIS . 1. In many, careless ignorance of the way of salvation, and this in a land of churches and Bibles, is so far from being an excuse that it is an aggravation. 2. Indifference. Men are aware that they are not quite right, but hope to be at last; meanwhile it does not trouble them. What grosser impertinence can there be against the supreme Ruler? 3. Pride. Salvation is all very well for harlots, drunkards, etc. 4. Love of sin. IV. THE RESULT. The wrath of God abideth now and always. 1. You will not escape by ceasing to exist. The Divine wrath cannot rest on a non-existent creature. 2. This must be so because you reject the only remedy. There is but one door, and you close it by unbelief. 3. The wrath will produce no saving or softening effect, but will go on to harden. 4. God has never taken an oath against any but unbelievers. “ To whom sware He in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not?” Continued unbelief God will never forgive, because His word binds Him not to do so. In conclusion. There is a blessed alternative: “ He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The life eternal I. LIFE ETERNAL IN THIS WORLD. 1. It has its origin here. It is not death, but regeneration--that is the entrance gate to it. He begins to live the same life as he will live in heaven--only that here he is in a state of childhood, and many are the childish things which he does. 2. It is nourished here. God has promised food for it; He has stewards to furnish it with nourishment in due season; and the cupboard and larder is open for it to help itself whenever it likes. The food contained in the Bible is the produce of its native country, and it will not look well unless it will feed often on this. 3. It is trained here for its home. It is away from home here, in an ungenial climate and a strange land. It is not to be wondered at if at times it appears to be weak and feeble; it must do so if it remain long in the unhealthy atmosphere of this world. There is something tender, yet strong, about it. It is too strong ever to die, but it is tender enough to appear sickly. II. LIFE ETERNAL IN THE WORLD TO COME. 1. It will be of age there--“ a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” The believer is but an infant, in his minority, here. Parents do not allow very young children to enter their drawing-rooms and mingle with their distinguished guests; but they have to wait until they are of a fit age, and know how to conduct themselves in noble company. When they are infants they are not allowed to meddle with the papers and writings of their father; but as they approach maturity it is pleasant to see them take interest in the circumstances and movements of the household. 2. It will be in its own climate there. There are many impediments to its progress here. It is exposed to many diseases, and the believer has to take many a bitter drug, and has to undergo treatment oftentimes which is, for the present, not joyous, but grievous. But by such things is the inward man renewed day by day. The bitter things will not be needed in the world to come; there the climate will be genial, the atmosphere perfectly healthy; and none of the inhabitants shall say, “ I am sick.” 3. It will then be in its home. It is but a pilgrim here, travelling through the enemy’ s land; the god of this world and the children of this world are hostile to it, and do their best to kill it. The Christian has often feared that the “ Divine nature” has received a death-blow, he felt so weak and faint. 4. It will be in its Father’ s house. The believer is away at school; and the only intercourse between him and the Father is by correspondence. Note 1. Heaven or hell will be but a continuation of what man is here. The principle which is now in thy soul, having reached its climax, will constitute thy heaven or thy hell; and that in its native element. 2. All men begin in this world to live the “ eternal life” or begin to die the “ eternal death.” (David Roberts, D. D.) Christ is the sinner’ s only hope On a huge cross by the side of an Italian highway hung a hideous caricature of the Beloved of our souls, who poured out His life for our redemption. Out of reverence to the living Christ we turned aside, disgusted, from the revolting image, but not until we had espied the words “Spes unica” in capitals over its head. Here was truth emblazoned on an idol. Yes, indeed, Jesus, our now exalted, but once crucified Lord, is the sole and only hope of man. Assuredly, O Lord Jesus, thou art spes unica to our soul. “ Other refuge have we none, Hangs our helpless soul on Thee.” We found this diamond in the mire of superstition: does it sparkle any the less? Believe or perish Faith in Jesus is the only way of salvation, and if I will not walk in that way, there is no other. Our Lord’ s teaching leaves us no room to hope for the salvation of unbelievers. “ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” ; but what of those who do not believe? May they not be sincerely mistaken? May they not be very good people after all, and be saved in their own way? Our Lord’ s reply is sharp, clear, and decisive, “ He that believeth not shall be damned.” He hath nothing else for them but that. Christ is too great and too honest to court popularity, as many do nowadays, by an affectation that right and wrong are much the same. The wicked charity of this age sickens us with its deceptive cant, as it whines out, “ It will little matter what you believe; nothing nowadays is of very great consequence; believe what you like, and it shall be all right in the long run.” Nay, but according to the gospel of Jesus you must believe the truth, and’ have faith in the power of the truth, for a lie will not regenerate you, a lie will not fit you to see the face of God, a lie will not conduct you to heaven, but only that truth which hath the stamp and seal of God and of His Holy Spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The peril of unbelievers Your peace, sinner, is that terribly prophetic calm which the traveller occasionally perceives upon the higher Alps. Everything is still. The birds suspend their notes, fly low, and cower down with fear. The hum of bees among the flowers is hushed. A horrible stillness rules the hour, as if death had silenced all things by stretching over them his awful sceptre. Perceive ye not what is surely at hand? The tempest is preparing; the lightning will soon cast abroad its flames of fire. Earth will rock with thunderblasts; granite peaks will be dissolved; all nature will tremble beneath the fury of the storm. Yours is that solemn calm to-day, sinner. Rejoice not in it, for the hurricane of wrath is coming, the whirlwind and the tribulation which shall sweep you away and utterly destroy you. The dreadful wrath of God A young man went to hear Mr. Whitefield, who took the above passage for his text. “ Mr. Whitefield,” said the young man, “ described the Sadducees’ character; this did not touch me--I thought myself as good a Christian as any man in England. From this he went to that of the Pharisees. He described their exterior decency, but observed that the poison of hypocrisy rankled in their hearts. This rather shook me. At length, in the course of his sermon, he abruptly broke off, paused for a few moments, then burst into a flood of tears, lifted up his eyes and hands and exclaimed, ‘ My hearers! the wrath to come! the wrath to come!’ These words sank into my heart, like lead in the waters. I wept, and when the sermon ended, retired alone. For days and weeks I could think of nothing else. Those awful words would follow me wherever I went. ‘ The wrath to come! the wrath to come!’“ The result was that the young man soon after made a public profession of religion, and in a short time became an eminent preacher. Christ the only refuge from apprehensions of the future I. ALL MEN NEED SOME REFUGE FROM THESE . Our ignorance prevents us from seeing into a future state, and our sinfulness damps what discoveries we may make by a sense of foreboding and an apprehension of punishment. Man needs light and peace. II. MOST MEN FEEL THIS NEED MORE OR LESS, AND RESORT TO AGAINST THE FEAR OF WHAT FOLLOWS DEATH. No man of ordinary culture is asleep on this point, and this leads to modes of thinking and action which only disappoint. III. APART FROM , ALL SYSTEMS IN WHICH MEN SEEK REFUGE ARE VAIN. Some, indeed, have been partially successful. Cf. the rites of Paganism and the delusions of Mohammed. But go where we will, if not to Christ, we have no rest. 1. Shall we go to atheism, the madness of human nature? This does not extinguish fear. It is certain we exist now. Howl By chance, says the atheist. But on the same principle of chance may not life be protracted after death? 2. Shall we go to Deism? Nothing can assure the Deist that the Bible is not the Word of God. All he can say is “ probably” it is not. But suppose it should be true, what is his position then? IV. CHRIST ONLY HAS THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE. 1. He is the only effective teacher of it. The idea of immortality existed before; but He brought it down from the clouds into sober certainty John 5:25-25). So with the apostles (2 Corinthians 5:1). Who dared to say “ We know” but disciples of this Master? 2. He has revealed the only scheme of it consistent with the principles of the Divine government. By answering all the designs of justice in punishing, it has removed the necessity of punishment, and gives room for salvation. 3. The miracles of Jesus prove that He has eternal life (1) By establishing the divinity of His mission. (2) By proving His power to do whatever He has promised. 4. Facts of every-day occurrence prove that Jesus has eternal life. We do not see Him call Lazarus from the grave, but daily He calls dead souls into life. Every true Christian has witness within himself of this. Conclusion. 1. Those who reject the Gospel Saviour reject their life. 2. Those who receive Him are eternally secure. (A. M’ Clelland, D. D.) The wrath of God The wrath of man is fearful to view, and especially to feel. But the wrath of God--no pen can describe it, or imagination conceive it. What will the realization of it be? And this wrath impends over every impenitent sinner. I. It is SURE TO FALL UPON HIM IN DUE TIME. 1. It is not a simple possibility. 2. Not a threat to terrify. 3. It is as sure as God Almighty’ s throne. (1) Eternal and Omnipotent Justice has decreed it. (2) Revelation declares it on almost every page. (3) The providence of God illustrates and confirms His Word. II. It is sure in due time TO FALL UPON THE SINNER IN ALL THE OF ITS POWER AND . 1. Here mercy tempers justice. Wrath is restrained and grace works. 2. This is the world of probation, not of final award. 3. The day of reckoning is appointed after death. III. THIS WRATH IS JUSTLY . 1. It might have been turned aside. 2. Voluntary sin and the persistent refusal of mercy and grace provoke it. (J. M. Sherwood, D. D.) . John 4:1-42 When therefore the Lord knew The first visit to Samaria I. THE STORY ITSELF. 1. The memorable halt (John 4:1-6). 2. The surprising request (John 4:7-9). 3. The opened vista (John 4:10). 4. The proud reminiscence (John 4:11-12). 5. The perennial fountain (John 4:13-14). 6. The weary request (John 4:15). 7. The merciful wound (John 4:16-18). 8. The everlasting debate (John 4:19-20). 9. The majestic annunciation (John 4:21-24). 10. The sublime claim (John 4:25-26). 11. The marvellous wonder (John 4:17). 12. The startling surmise (John 4:28-30). 13. The bidden manna (John 4:31-35). 14. The cheery parable (John 4:35-38). 15. The glorious harvest (John 4:39-42). II. LESSONS OF THE STORY: 1. The duty of seizing opportunities. 2. A model for religious conversation. 3. The true method of quenching the soul’ s thirst (John 4:13-14). 4. The spirituality of Christian worship (John 4:21-24). 5. A test of Messiahship (John 4:29). 6. The sense of vocation the true food (verse 31-34). 7. Harvesting the Church’ s privilege and duty (John 4:35). 8. The community of Christian fruition (John 4:36). 9. The present the harvest of the past (John 4:37-38). 10. The power of a single conversion (John 4:39). 11. Spiritual privileges to be cherished (John 4:40). 12. The superiority of personal experience (John 4:41-42). 13. A pastor’ s personal invitation. (G. D. Boardman, D. D.) Christ at Jacob’ s well This history teaches us that I. No soul is so LOST BUT THE LORD CAN FIND IT. Frivolity was natural to this woman. She had lived without restraint and morality. Woman has one safeguard against sin--innate delicacy. This lost, all is lost; and this was so with the Samaritan. How many would have turned away from her as hopeless, But Christ turns to her because she is a soul whom the Father has given Him to save. II. NO IS SO BUT THE LORD CAN USE IT. The woman comes to draw water, a common act, by a common way. Who would have thought that the way would have led to everlasting life? The least trifle may become in God’ s hand a means of salvation: a word spoken at random, a familiar scene, an unforeseen hindrance, the monotony of life, the influence of a friend. God’ s seeking grace encompasses us like the air we breathe. III. NO IS SO FEEBLE BUT THE LORD CAN IT. Few could have been morally weaker than this woman. She lacked the power to understand Christ and to know herself. Christ had to awaken everything in her. So are we impotent; but the Spirit of Christ helps our infirmities. Christ asks in order that He may give. He requires humility, but only to exalt, the surrender of the old life in order to confer life eternal. IV. NO IS SO SMALL BUT THE LORD CAN LEAD IT TO A BLESSED END. What a small beginning here I And yet before long a disciple and evangelist is found. Don’ t despise little beginnings and struggling souls. (Carl Keogh, D. D.) Jesus at the well I. A . 1. Sharing human infirmity (John 4:6; Isaiah 53:3; Matthew 4:2; Mark 14:34; John 11:35; John 19:28). 2. Accepting human supplies (John 4:7; Matthew 21:17; Mark 2:16; Luke 7:36; Luke 19:5; Luke 24:41). 3. Surpassing human expectations (John 4:9; Matthew 8:27; Matthew 9:8; Matthew 22:22; Mark 5:20; John 3:9). II. A HELPFUL . 1. Dispelling ignorance (John 4:10; Mark 2:10; Luke 19:42; John 10:38; John 13:7; John 15:15). 2. Arousing desire (John 4:14; Matthew 5:6; Matthew 11:28; John 3:12; John 14:12; John 16:24). 3. Begetting prayer (John 4:15; Matthew 9:27; Matthew 15:22; Matthew 20:30; Mk Luke 18:41). III. A DIVINE . 1. Knowing all things (John 4:17; John 1:48; John 2:25; John 16:30; John 21:17; Colossians 2:3). 2. Illustrating true worship (John 4:23; Exodus 20:3; 2 Kings 17:35; Psalms 96:9; Jeremiah 25:6; Matthew 4:10). 3. Avowing the Messiahship (John 4:26; Psalms 2:6; Matthew 16:16; John 11:27; Acts 3:18; Acts 17:7. (S. S. Times.) Jesus at the well How immense the distance between “ Give Me to drink” and “ I am He.” I. AN OBJECT-LESSON IN THE ART OF . 1. No duty more difficult than that of opening out a conversation on the things of the soul. This an art, because we must learn it by practice through mistakes and discouragement. Jesus left few discourses, because His teaching was mostly conversational, suggested by passing things. Beginning here with human thirst and eliciting questions, He gradually and naturally led up and on to the highest truths. 2. Notice the skill with which Jesus avoids a plain answer to a plain question, and so replies that He becomes the questioner and arouses deepening curiosity and interest. 3. The use He made of the woman’ s moral intuitions and the truths she already knew. This was the favourite method of His dialectics. 4. Here do we need our lesson from Christ. (1) How perfectly He entered into human need! (2) He had infinite patience with the narrow and dull and earthbound. (3) With all this went an equal faith in that hidden but immortal power to which He appealed. II. THE TRUTHS OF THIS . 1. Living water. (1) The comparison of spiritual blessings to water familiar in Scripture. (2) The characteristic of this water is that it is a gift. Men do not have to fetch, buy, nor earn salvation, but receive it. (3) This water of life is not Christ, for He gives it, but the whole truth and grace which make for salvation. 2. True worship. (1) The vital inward power brings one into the true attitude of worship. The heart first, form afterwards. (2) True worship must be an inward secret thing. Ritual, music, etc., only aid the silent movements of the soul towards God. (3) True worship must be true to God’ s requirements and our own moral wants, not merely honest and sincere, although misguided, but in accordance with the reality of things. (4) The Father seeks such worship. 3. Jesus the Messiah. Salvation was of the Jews, but Christ was the fulfilment of hopes as old as the race. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) The woman of Samaria 1. The person here introduced was a member of a race specially hateful to the Jews; but Jesus was above the prejudice of His nation. 2. The Samaritan was a woman. “ Never speak to a woman in the street, even if she be thy wife” ; “ Burn the words of the law rather than teach them to a woman,” were current maxims in Jewish society. But Christ, in the unsullied purity of His manhood, brushed aside as cobwebs all social regulations which tended to perpetuate feminine servitude. 3. This woman lived in habitual sin. But Christ came to save sinners. Notice Jesus Christ I. THE WOMAN. He leads her from natural to spiritual subjects. 1. Observe His sweet courtesy. He opens the conversation, not with a sneer or opprobrious epithet, after the manner of a Jew, but with a request; and notwithstanding her ungracious rebuff, not one word of rebuke escapes Him. A most gentlemanly stranger. True religion teaches us to be courteous. This urbanity impressed her, and He became successively in her eyes Jew, Sir, Prophet, Christ. The truth must be spoken in love, and love will impress quite as much as truth. 2. Notice that the woman’ s lack of culture did not hinder Christ making the grandest disclosures. A radical mistake is made when the attempt is made to simplify the gospel beyond what Christ has done. The sublime will always awaken the corresponding consciousness. This is one reason why the words of Christ have more power and permanence than the systems of men. 3. The Lord made a discovery to this woman which He never made to any one else--His Messiahship. Why? Because that would not have been safe in Judaea or Galilee? Rather because of the different dispositions of those He addressed. II. THE WOMAN. The object of His enlightening her was to save her. 1. Christ always aimed at doing good. (1) In ancient times men did good spasmodically; relief was the result of natural impulse. But in Christianity impulse has been dignified into a principle. (2) Plato and Aristotle teach you to love men for your own sakes; Christ for their sakes and His. The essence of the gospel is not self-interest, but self-sacrifice. 2. He sought to do the highest good by reclaiming the worst characters. There are three stages in history relative to this subject. (1) A state of well-nigh complete insensibility. The Iliad delineated heroes and cowards, strong men and weak, but not good and bad. (2) The next stage is marked by the awakening of conscience and of the idea of right and wrong. Virtue is applauded, vice censured. But the idea of justice taught men to sympathize with the man sinned against, not the sinner. (3) The last stage is that of full-orbed mercy in Christ, teaching us to compassionate both the injurer and the injured. Christ changed the attitude of the world in respect to its notorious sinners. 3. To accomplish these ends He threw into His philanthropic movements unprecedented zeal (John 4:34). (1) He had infinite faith in human nature. He saw its hidden potentialities. A lady, examining one of Turner’ s pictures, remarked: “ But, Mr. T., I do not see these things in nature.” “ Madam,” replied the artist, with pardonable naivetι, “ don’ t you wish you did?” Christ saw what none of His contemporaries saw. The age was pessimistic; Christ was the only optimist of His time. (2) According to the strength of His hope was the fervour of His zeal. III. THE WOMAN, inparting to her His own enthusiasm. 1. She at once set about converting her neighbours. She did not lecture them; she only related her experience. We can also “ say” if we cannot preach. Despise not the day of small things. Her “ saying” led to the evangelization of a whole city. 2. The success attending the woman’ s simple efforts filled the Saviour with holy joy. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Christ and the woman of Samaria I. THE MINGLED TACT AND OF CHRIST IN DEALING WITH A SINNER. He does not begin with reproof, but with a request for water, a subject uppermost in her thoughts. This at once threw a bridge across the gulf between them. So Christian workers must go to the sinful, and bear down upon them in the spirit of friendly aggression, studying the best avenues to their hearts, and avoiding any show of superiority. II. CHRIST’ S TO GIVE MERCIES TO SINNERS. If she had asked, He would have given. “ Ask and receive.” III. THE OF CHRIST’ S GIFTS WHEN WITH THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD (John 4:13-14). Thousands of men have every temporal good, and are yet weary and dissatisfied. Jesus alone can give solid happiness. His waters may have their ebbing seasons, but they are never completely dried. IV. THE OF TO . The woman was comparatively unmoved until our Lord exposed her breach of the seventh commandment. From that moment she is an Inquirer after truth. Till a sinner sees himself as God sees him he will continue careless and trifling. Conscience must be pricked by the preaching of the law. V. THE OF ANY WHICH ONLY OF . True and acceptable worship depends on the state of the worshipper’ s heart (1 Samuel 16:7). VI. CHRIST’ S TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO THE CHIEF OF SINNERS. Nowhere in the gospels do we find such an explicit avowal as in John 4:26. Whatever a man’ s past life may have been there is hope and a remedy for him in Christ. He will undertake to cure the apparently incurable. (Bp. Ryle.) The lost one met and saved I. THE JOURNEY. 1. The occasion (John 4:1; cf. Isaiah 51:13). 2. The route. There were four routes (Matthew 19:2; Acts 23:23). The Jews usually chose that by the Jordan valley, to avoid Samaria. 3. The reason (Luke 9:10). 4. The rest. Notice Christ’ s humanity. II. THE MEETING. 1. The woman (1) A Samaritan; (2) with some knowledge of God (John 4:20); (3) expecting the Messiah (John 4:25). 2. The time. Midday. Not the usual hour for drawing water; but a time for such an one to do so unobserved. 3. The request. Compliance with it would have done honour to an archangel. Christ placed Him- self in the position of one desiring a benefit. 4. The reply (John 4:9). This man is not like other Jews. III. THE . 1. The first flash of light (John 4:10; cf. Ephesians 5:14). Water is sold in Egypt as the “ gift of God.” 2. Its reception (John 4:11-12). The woman is perplexed, and seems to struggle between the literal and the spiritual. She changes her mode of address--“ Sir.” Our Lord takes no notice of her query, but addresses her state of mind. 3. The leading on (verses 13, 14). The woman’ s desire is intensified. The light becomes obscured. How true a picture of an awakening soul I 4. The revelation (verse 16). The request is granted in Christ’ s way, not in her’ s. He flashes light on her soul and her past (verses 18, 29). 5. Her anxious inquiry (verses 19, 20). How is salvation to be obtained? Not by forms, places, etc. 6. The gift received (verses 25, 26). IV. THE EFFECT (verse 28). She hastens away a saved sinner to save others John 1:41-45). See a mark of her change, as showing its reality in the fuluess of her confession (John 1:29; cf. John 1:17; Luke 19:8; Luke 23:41; Romans 10:10). (J. Gill.) Jesus at the well of Sychar The Fourth Gospel may be called the Gospels of the Conversations, for, more than any other, it reports particular interviews of our Lord with individuals. These conversations, too, are real conversations, for Jesus was not like some famous men, who discourse in monologue. Even His addresses to the multitude were often interrupted by the inquiries or remarks of others, and, in smaller companies, He guided the conversation, while apparently taking the lesser part. The “ golden silences” of Jesus are very marked, and George Borrow, in that fascinating book, “ The Bible in Spain,” relates that the taciturn people of the little Republic of Andorra noticed these silences, and said of them, “ Jesus played the Andorran.” While He spoke with authority, yet He dispelled all feeling of restraint, and even seemed to awaken in others unwonted freedom. Not unfrequently He gave the thought, and let them do the talking. Christ never appears to have saved anything for a large audience, nor feared that any utterance of truth, breathed into the receptive heart of however humble a hearer, could fail of its effect. And these conversations all have a personal turn. They attach great principles to common life, and they lead people through their own needs to the grandest spiritual truths. Jesus evidently has confidence in the living power of truth, and therefore does not press it, but leaves His hearers to follow out the idea and make the application for themselves. If, then, we would understand the effect of our Lord’ s conversation with the woman of Samaria, we must read it in the message she bore to her people: “ Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Can this be the Christ?” This perfect knowledge of the Christ is our greatest safeguard. It is needful, to defend us from plunging farther into sin, that we have the confidence of a loving Saviour. When we are on the verge of temptation, the thought that He knows and grieves over our past sins may win us back. When will we learn the noonday lesson taught at the well of Sychar, that it is the Christ who reveals us to ourselves! It is not for you to find out your sin, but for Him to reveal it to you. With the Psalmist, you ask God to search you, “ that you may be led in the way everlasting.” You are to become acquainted with your own heart by having Him read it to you; and all you can tell Him will be of that which He has told you before. Repentance now loses its bitterness, because it is the revelation of the Christ. “ Once,” says Luther, “ I thought no word so bitter as repentance; now there is none more sweet, and those passages in the Bible that used to terrify me now smile and sport about me.” In the same spirit, Augustine says, in his “ Confessions,” “ I will now call to mind my past foulness and the carnal corruptions of my soul; not because I love them, but that I may love Thee, O my God. For love of Thy love I do it; reviewing my most wicked ways in the very bitterness of my remembrance, that Thou mayest grow sweet unto me.” The power of such a revelation of the Christ is manifest in the fact, that the largest harvest of souls our Lord ever gathered while on earth was reaped in the two days He spent at Sychar. A soul brought face to face with Him, beholding His glory by being self-revealed, is a fit instrument to convey to others the advent of the Christ. (James G. Vose.) The model Teacher I. His ZEAL. 1. He went to a most unwelcome neighbourhood. His hereditary prejudices were arrayed against it, yet, when the world of Palestine was open to Him, our Lord mast needs go through it. 2. He became a teacher. What condescension of His; what an ennobling of the office. 3. He was satisfied with a class of one scholar. He talked just as long, kindly, and eloquently as He did to thousands. The great doctrines were in many cases given quietly to individuals. Regeneration to Nicodemus; resurrection to Martha; spirituality of worship to this woman. 4. He occupied Himself with a disagreeable pupil. Never was there more unpromising scholar. 5. He laboured with her when He was wearied almost to exhaustion. II. His TACT. 1. How ingenious He was in catching an illustration to interest her mind. He took her water-pot for His text, as He did afterwards fish, loaves, etc. Try to link the unknown on to the known. 2. How quick He was in turning the illustration so as to impress her conscience. He knew He had done nothing until He made her feel that she was a sinner. So McCheyne, standing before a forge fire, said gently to the workmen, “ Who can dwell with everlasting burnings” ; and Payson to his coach companion on nearing their destination, “ Are you prepared for the end of the journey which is so much longer than this?” III. His . He made the interview religious. Like all other sinners, the woman wanted to talk about something else. 1. Jesus avoided all discussion of sectarian questions. She (1) Proposed sectarian questions; (2) Suggested ritualistic points; (3) Ventured on speculative inquiries. 2. Jesus pressed home the one lesson He wanted her to learn first of all. He told her of (1) The exact state of her case, and drew her to an admission of it; (2) The demands of Divine law; (3) The Redeemer’ s help. 3. Jesus completed His work by disclosing Himself. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.) The pedagogy or rudimentary teaching of Jesus The Church has a twofold mission. 1. To collect the masses, to bear patiently with them and educate them. 2. To go after individuals, person- ally to lay hold of their inner life in order to bring them into a state of salvation. Particular communions have leaned some to one side and some to the other. Romanism has cultivated the social element; lesser communities have laid greater stress on individual faith. Both objects ought always to be united. Let us learn from the pedagogic example of the Lord. Here He reaches the community through the individual; but the individual must first be educated to the faith and knowledge of the truth. There are three steps. I. The first is reached BY IN THE WOMAN A SENSE OF A DEEPER WANT, the desire for something better than this well can offer. 1. She had regarded life as a matter of sensual enjoyment. The accusations of conscience had not troubled her, and she was happy in her way. 2. Jesus makes her discontented. It was not cruel, only inevitably painful, as is a surgical operation. To destroy quiet is the first step to the cure. Suspended between heaven and earth our souls are drawn to God, but bound to the World, and in the latter we seek happiness. This is the delusion of sin. A life of worldliness assumes a variety of forms, from the most degraded to the most refined, but the principle is the same. And that all is vanity is the first lesson we must learn and teach, to excite the desire for “ living water.” II. “ GO, CALL THY HUSBAND,” is the second stage. The first is of doubtful result. It may lead right or left; to pride and contempt of other men who have no aspiration. Christ’ s words, therefore, lead us from the struggle without to that within, to sin as the occasion of the mischief. This sin we must willingly know and renounce. This the woman was led to by the look of love which read her history in her heart. This teaches us to enter lovingly into personal life. A tender solicitude unlocks the heart and encourages confession. The word which exposes sin is the law in the hand of love. III. Conviction of sin awakens the desire for forgiveness in prayer. The inquiry respecting Gerizim and Jerusalem was no evasion, but led to the third step, where our Lord refers her to THE FOR . “ Salvation is of the Jews.” God must be worshipped in Spirit, yet the revelation of Himself was in Israel, and its end the Messias. It is not enough to tread the path of inward self-knowledge; we must walk also in the way of faith. Not only do we move to meet God, He is come to meet us. The truth of salvation is historical, and the historical gospel is a moral certainty. So the woman proved. The saved individual now seeks to save society. “ She left her water-pot,” etc. Conclusion: 1. We should go forth and lead souls to Christ as Christ led this woman. 2. No doubt we shall be weary sometimes, but, if the Master was weary, we need not be ashamed, And the wells which men have dug will then be doubly refreshing; for what- ever the Creator has given to man to enjoy is also given for the refreshment of the soul. 3. But the soul lives not by these alone, and when the highest matters press we must be prepared to renounce them, for they do not quench the soul’ s deepest thirst. (C. E. Luthardt, D. D.) Characteristics of Christ displayed in this conversation I. Our Lord’ s MERCY is remarkable. That such an one as He should deal so graciously with such a sinner is a striking fact. II. His WISDOM. How wise was every step of His way in dealing with this sinful soul! III. His . How He bore with the woman’ s ignorance, and what trouble He took to lead her to knowledge. IV. His POWER. What a complete victory He won at last! How almighty must that grace be which could soften and convert such a carnal and wicked heart! (Bp. Ryle.) Subsidiary points I. HUMAN FOLLY AND DIVINE WISDOM in contrast. II. OUR LORD’ S REAL in His subjection to weariness and thirst. III. OUR LORD’ S REAL in the mastery of all the secrets of the human heart. IV. OUR LORD’ S TO IMPART THE DEEPEST TRUTHS TO THE understanding, thus assuring us that, although God has hid these things from the wise and prudent, He has revealed them unto babes. (H. J. Van Dyke, D. D.) When … the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John The journey to Samaria I. THE . The reason for it was the jealousy of the Pharisees at Christ’ s success. 1. Jesus saw that a storm was coming, and withdrew. To abandon the profession or defence of the gospel from dread of suffering is quite a different thing from the persecuted Christian in one city fleeing to another to there hold forth the Word of life. 2. It is that persecutors are not always the open enemies, but are sometimes the professed friends, of religion, and that the name of God has often been associated with relentless cruelty. 3. The Pharisees did not hear Christ, but received reports doubtless exaggerated, for they heard that He personally baptized. 4. The great work of the ministry is not to baptize, but to preach. They are Christ’ s fellow-workers in discriminating the truth, but not fellow-workers with the Spirit in communicating grace. II. THE ARRIVAL. 1. Although the district was alien, there were souls to be saved. (1) To the eye of man Jesus appeared to be fleeing from persecution. (2) To the eye of God the visit was part of a mysterious plan by which the glory of the Divine government was to be revealed. (3) To the eye of faith it offers an illustration of the manner in which the purpose of God is fulfilled. 2. Christ’ s presence and work at Sychar, with its illustrious antecedents, offer encouragements to prayer for those who are to come after us. (1) Parents should be stimulated to pray for children’ s children, (2) Believers to plead for the future of the Church. (A. Beith, D. D.) Christ driven away I. FALSE ARE ENEMIES TO THE TRUE. They will join with corrupt magistrates and favour their villainies (Isaiah 9:15), as the Pharisees did Herod against John. Christ, therefore, will rather trust Herod in Galilee than the Pharisees in Judaea (cf. Acts 25:11) . II. IT IS NO , BUT WISDOM, TO SUSPECT WICKED MEN; as Christ did the . III. WHEN ONE TEACHER IS GONE GOD CAN RAISE UP ANOTHER. The Pharisees thought themselves well when John was out of the way, but Christ gives them more displeasure (Mark 1:14). They thought themselves sure when Christ was crucified, but Christ raised up twelve more to do greater things than Himself. Ministers are mortal, but the Church is immortal (Psalms 2:1). IV. ARE TO BE SEALED TO THOSE ONLY WHO REPENT AND BELIEVE. 1. Disciples were made 2. Then were baptized. V. GOD TURNS THE MALICE OF MEN TO THE GOOD OF HIS CHURCH The Pharisees drove Christ to Galilee, but on the way a whole city was brought to Him. An ill wind that blows nobody good. (Jeremiah Dyke.) The retreat of Jesus The first turning point in His official life. I. MOTIVES. The Pharisees began to watch Him with hostile eyes; the Baptist is imprisoned. II. . Free consciousness. He retreats 1. In free discretion, without fear. 2. In holy discretion, “ the Lord knew.” III. RICH RESULTS. Beneficent sojourn in Samaria. IV. . 1. He ceases to baptize. 2. He tarries in Samaria on His return. The rite of baptism I. AS BY JOHN (John 1:25-28; John 1:33; John 3:23; cf. Mt Mark 1:4-8; Luke 3:8; Luke 3:20). 1. Its nature--water baptism. Its mode uncertain. The word signifies either the application of an object to water or water to an object. Hence to immerse (2 Kings 5:14) or to wash (Mark 7:4; Luke 11:38). Against immersion in the present case stand (1) The multitudes; (2) The impromptu and public manner; (3) Its practice in all seasons. In favour of pouring is the contraposition of “ with water” and “ with the Spirit” (John 1:33), by which the two baptisms are distinguished. The believer is not immersed in the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost descends on the believer. 2. Its import--purification of the outer life; reformation rather than regeneration. 3. Its design--preparation for Messiah. 4. Its obligation--faith. The recipient was bound to believe in and go over to the Messiah when He appeared. II. AS BY CHRIST (through His disciples) (John 3:22-26). 1. Its resemblance to John’ s. (1) Performed in the same way. (2) Possessed the same significance. (3) Looked towards the same end. 2. Its difference from John’ s. Administered (1) By Christ’ s express authority. (2) To such as professed their faith in a “ come” Messiah. (3) With a view of admitting to Christian discipleship. (4) As an acknowledgment of obligation to learn and obey. III. AS BY THE (Matthew 28:19; Mk Acts 2:38; Acts 2:41; Acts 7:13; Acts 7:36; Acts 9:18, etc.). 1. How tar it agreed with the preceding. (1) In form it was a baptism with water. (2) In authority it rested on the commandment of Christ. (3) In significance it symbolized purification and sealed faith in the Messiah. (4) In effect it introduced to the Messianic Church. (5) In design it bound to acceptance of the teaching and obedience to the rule of Christ. 2. How far it went beyond the preceding. It - (1) Rested on the authority of the risen as well as of the incarnate Christ. (2) Symbolized inward renewal by the reception of the Holy Ghost. (3) Was administered on a profession of faith, not simply in the Messiah, but in the Trinity. (4) Was not restricted to the Jewish people. (5) Was not provisional, but permanent. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Why Christ did not personally baptize Lightfoot mentions because 1. He was not sent so much to baptize as to preach. 2. It might have been taken as a thing somewhat improper for Christ to baptize in His own name. 3. The baptizing that was most proper for Christ to use was not with water, but with the Holy Ghost. 4. He would prevent all quarrels and disputes among men about their baptism, which might have risen if some had been baptized by Christ and others only by His disciples. To these reasons we may add another of considerable importance. Our Lord would show us that the effect and benefit of baptism do not depend on the person who administers it. We cannot doubt that Judas Iscariot baptized some. The intention of the minister does not affect the validity of the sacrament. One thing seems abundantly clear, and that is, that baptism is not an ordinance of primary, but of subordinate, importance in Christianity. The high-flown and extravagant language used by some divines about the sacrament of baptism and its effects is quite irreconcilable with the text before us, as well as with the general teaching of Scripture (see Acts 10:48; 1 Corinthians 1:17). The three baptisms There are three degrees in the institution: John’ s baptism, which was a general consecration to the Messianic kingdom by repentance; the baptism of Jesus, an attachment to His person as a disciple; baptism as reconstituted by Jesus after His resurrection as a consecration to the possession of salvation thenceforth acquired by Him for the whole world. We do not find that the subjects of the first baptism (the apostles, e.g.) were afterwards subjected to the second or third. It was they, on the contrary, who were charged with administering the two last (verse 2; Acts 2:1-47.). (F. Godet, D. D.) He left Judaea From Jerusalem to Nazareth, by way of the hill towns of Shiloh, Sychar, Nain, and Endor, the distance, as a bird would fly, is about sixty-four miles, being nearly the same as that from Oxford to London. By the camel paths, and there are no other, it is eighty miles. A good rider, having little baggage and less curiosity, may get over the ground in two Icing days; to do so, however, he must make up his mind to spend twelve hours each day in the saddle, on stony hill-sides, with very little water, and still less shade, under the blazing light of a Syrian sun. An easy journey, with time to rest and read, to see the wells, rums, and cities on the route, may be made in four days; though better still in five. The Lord and His disciples went through the land on foot, resting by the wells, under the shade of fig-trees, in the caves of rocks. The first part of this journey, a ride of thirty-six miles from the Damascus gate, to be done in about twelve hours, brings you to one of the most lovely and attractive spots in Palestine--the site of Joseph’ s tomb and Jacob’ s well. (W. H.Dixon.) The original word, αφίημι, is a remarkable one; καταλεὶπο might have been expected (Matthew 4:15; Hebrews 11:27); and there is no exact parallel in the New Testament to this usage (yet comp. John 16:28). The general idea that it conveys is that of leaving anything to itself, to its own wishes, ways, fate; of withdrawing whatever controlling power was exercised before. Christ had claimed Jerusalem as the seat of His royal power, and Judaea as His kingdom. That claim He now in one sense gave up. (Canon Westcott.) He must needs go through SamariaChrist and the Samaritans The ministry of Christ may be divided into two sections, the Galilean and the Judaean. Taking Capernaum as a centre and describing a circle of ten miles, and taking the Temple as a centre and describing another circle of equal radius--between these two points the life of Christ oscillated. Separating the two provinces was a strip of country inhabited by a mongrel semi-alien race--the Samaritans, between whom and the Jews there was a long.standing feud. How will Christ treat it? Will He pass round it? Will He widen the chasm? Or will He loin the two in one? Let us see. I. WHEN CHRIST SPEAKS OF THE IT IS IN WORDS OF FAVOUR AND . 1. In the Samaritan “ Stranger” of Luke 17:11-20, He finds the truest worship of Jehovah offered, not on Moriah, nor yet on Gerizim, but by the wayside. 2. In the parable of the Good Samaritan a comparison is drawn between the Samaritan and the Jew, to the eternal honour of the one, and the eternal shame of the other. The former is placed beside the very elite of Judaism, the priest and Levite, and the Master uses their selfish inhumanity as a foil to throw out more clearly and brightly the noble generosity of this “ stranger.” 3. Christ is Himself called a Samaritan (John 8:48), doubtless because of His strong Samaritan leanings, and He does not protest. II. CHRIST SEEKS TO REMOVE THE OF HIS BY CONTACT WITH THE RACE. 1. The exception (Matthew 10:5) is due to their narrow views and prejudices. 2. Christ takes them with Him into Samaria (chap. 4.) and sends them to “ have dealings” with the Samaritans; and tarries with them there two days (verse 40), and thus the old prejudices are removed by friendly hospitalities. III. CHRIST OFFERED TO THE THE OF HIS KINGDOM. 1. He deigns to ask a favour of the Samaritan woman and speaks one of the sublimest discourses of His ministry. 2. She and her fellow-citizens proclaim Christ the Messiah. 3. As a result of this the chasm is filled up (Acts 1:8; Acts 8:5-8). Henceforth the Samaritan is no more the “ stranger,” but “ a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God.” (H. Burton, M. A.) Utilizing disagreeable necessities 1. The first signs of hostility to Christ (John 4:1). 2. The prudence of the Master. Just as it was necessary for Him to die for a world’ s salvation, so now it is required that He should live in order that the true cause and nature of His death may be manifest. There is therefore nothing unworthy about this escape. 3. We must seek the explanation of this movement, not in the eternal decrees. Samaria would prove a neutral zone to keep His enemies at a distance, and while passing through it would not probably be followed. And besides, it admitted of His utilizing what might have been an anxious period and a waste of time. I. HE IGNORED A FALSE . Ceremonial cleanness and goodness were confounded by the Jews; a confusion rectified by the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Church and society are still full of such distinctions. 1. It is for us, not wantonly, but on sufficient occasion to expose and set at nought the error. 2. To get at true distinctions one must first expose false ones. But we must be sure that it is false and that the true does not preponderate, and that we have something better to substitute. 3. Wisdom and courage arc, therefore, necessary. 4. No safer guide can be found than a strong desire to do good and glorify God. II. HE AN TO A USE. He is a fugitive, but He does not hurry through the country, nor forget its spiritual destitution in His own sorrows. 1. Annoyance or ill temper at the disturbance of settled plans ought not to make us weary in well doing. Many are idle in the Church because they cannot get the particular thing they like best. But the greatest discoveries and reforms have been effected by the determination to do what we can. 2. Illtreatment on the part of professors is no excuse for idleness or cynicism. 3. Nor ought we to be engrossed with our own troubles. Doing good is the way to recovery. 4. Let us try to improve the unpleasant and unfortunate people and leave the world better than we find it. III. A SPECIAL HIS MISSION. Each incident links itself easily on to another. It almost seems a beautiful creature of circumstances. Inconveniences are often Providential. A fault in the strata may point to richer seams. (A. F. Muir, M. A.) The needs be I. BY THE COUNSEL AND OF GOD. 1. A wandering star was to be reclaimed from its devious orbit. 2. The locality was most unpromising. 3. What the Church would have missed had this chapter been lacking. II. THE VALUE OF A SINGLE SOUL IN THE SIGHT OF CHRIST. The narrative is the parable of the Lost Sheep in impressive reality. III. THE LOVE OF THE SAVIOUR. IV. LET NONE DEEM BEYOND THE PALE OF CHRIST’ S AND SUCCOUR. (J. Macduff, D. D.) The occasion of the journey He must needs go through Samaria, not only because that province lay in His way, but because He was hungry, and in poor half-heathen Samaria lay the savoury meat which His soul loved. In the same manner He must needs pass through our nature and our world, as He goes from the glory of the eternity past to the glory of the eternity to come. It was not any physical necessity; for the Maker of all worlds might bane found another path from glory to glory without visiting this shooting star. But He must needs pass through the abode of fallen humanity on His way to the throne of the kingdom, because He longed to save the lost with a longing like hunger, and here only could be found the food that would satisfy His soul. His own sovereign love laid the necessity upon Himself. The sun, His creature, is under an inherent necessity of giving out light; so Christ, the light of the world, must needs give out the light of life, and therefore He casts Himself in the way of a dark world, as the hungry seeks food and the thirsty makes his way towards water-springs. (W. Arnot, D. D.) In the path of Christ Happy for them that they lay in our Saviour’ s way to be looked upon: His paths drop fatness. Luther had rather be in hell with Christ than in heaven without Him. (J. Trapp.) Providence shown in conversions Now, there are divers things in those providences Which are versant about this work, and exceedingly sweet and taking; as, viz., The wonderful strangeness and unaccountableness of this work of Providence in casting us into the way, and ordering the occasions, yea, the minutest circumstances about this work. Thus you find in Acts 8:26-30. The eunuch, at that very instant when he was reading the prophet Isaiah, had an interpreter, one among a thousand, that joins his chariot just as his mind was, by a fit occasion, prepared to receive the first light of the knowledge of Christ. So, for the conversion of the Samaritans, it is observed John 4:4) Christ must needs go that way, because it lay just in the road betwixt Judea and Galilee, and at the sixth hour, i.e., high noon, He rests Himself upon Jacob’ s well, still seeming to have no other design but His own refreshment, by sitting and drinking there; but, oh! what a train of blessed providences follow this, which seemed but an accidental thing! First, the woman of Samaria, and then many more in that city, are brought to believe in Christ, as you find in John 4:29; John 4:41. (J. Flavel.) Unquenchable enthusiasm When I was going to Europe in 1867, my friend Mr. Stuart, of Philadelphia, said, “ Be sure to be at the General Assembly in Edinburgh, in June. I was there last year,” said he, “ and it did me a world of good.” He said that a returned missionary (Dr. Duff) from India was invited to speak to the General Assembly on the wants of India. This veteran missionary, after a brief address, told the pastors who were present to go home and stir up their churches to send young men to India to preach the gospel. He spoke with such earnestness, that after awhile he fainted, and they carried him from the Hall. When he recovered he asked where he was, and they told him the circumstances under which he had been brought there. “ Yes,” he said, “ I was making a plea for India, and I did not quite finish my speech, did I?” After being told that he did not, he said, “ Well, take me back and let me finish it.” But they said, “ No, you will die in the attempt.” “ Well,” said he, “ I shall die if I do not,” and the old man asked again that they would allow him to finish his plea, When he was taken back, the whole congregation stood as one man, and as they brought him on the platform, with a trembling voice he said: “ Fathers and mothers of Scotland, is it true that you will not let your sons go to India? I spent twenty-five years of my life there. I lost my health, and I have come back with sickness and shattered health. If it is true that we have no strong grandsons to go to India, I will pack up what I have and be off to-morrow, and I will let those heathen know that if I cannot live for them I will die for them.” (D. L. Moody.) Commendable enthusiasm Exception being taken, as I have said, to his energy and vehemence, Rowland Hill told how he had once seen a vast bank of earth, below which some men were at work, suddenly rend asunder; and leaving its bed, precipitate itself forward to bury them alive before they could utter a cry, or move a foot to escape. And who then, he asked, found fault with me, because, in my anxiety to save them, my cries for help were loud enough to call the neighbourhood t6 the rescue, and be heard a long mile away. Left there, they perished, miserably perished--needing what God, not man, always is, “ a very present help in trouble.” (Dr. Guthrie.) Our attitude towards Samaria There is much in the disposition of the Samaritans that reminds us of the feelings of thousands of our own population to-day. Not only are they alienated from our faith, but they suspect us of a haughty and exclusive, or at least patronising attitude towards them. There is no fiercer resentment than the pharisaic spirit excites. Note the example of Christ. I. CHRIST DOES NOT AVOID SAMARIA. He will not shun those who entertain prejudices unpleasant to encounter. And we shall never restore the slums to piety if we skirt them with dainty feet. II. CHRIST DOES NOT HURRY THROUGH SAMARIA, BUT SEEKS WITH ITS . None mere hurried visits to the headquarters of prejudice, rushing as through a cloud of suffocating smoke we must encounter, but amidst which we will not stay, will suffice. There must be true intercourse. III. CHRIST IS IN HIS . His first overture is met with a half-playful, half-bitter reminder of what He never sanctioned, the division of sentiment between Jew and Samaritan. What do we oftener meet? It is irritating to be taunted with the conduct of those whose spirit we do not share, though we may nominally share their religious name. But we ruin our influence by recrimination or bitter rejoinder. Like Christ, we must gently ignore the taunt. IV. CHRIST, WITH SACRED TACT, HIS GOSPEL. Had He commenced controversially, the woman’ s heart would have been hardened; had He commenced with His final announcement (John 4:26), she would have been sceptical; had He commenced with such words as He used to learned Nicodemus, she would have been hopelessly bewildered. But He takes “ water” for His text to this water-carrier, and in a picture lesson unfolds the truth. Ours are blind eyes if they see not texts in the commonest things, where-from we may preach the gospel of the kingdom. In that gospel Jew and Samaritan alike find hope and peace. (W. Hawkins.) He cometh to a city of Samaria called SycharThe locality This name is only found in St. John 4:5, but it is universally considered to be the same as Sichem or Shechem, which is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament history. Dr. Robinson (Bib. Res. 3.118) says, “ In consequence of the barred of the Jews, and in allusion to the idolatry of the Samaritans, the town Sichem probably received among the Jewish common people the by-name of Sychar, which we find in the Gospel of St. John; while Stephen, in addressing the more courtly Sanhedrim, employs the ancient name (Acts 7:16). Sychar might be derived from a Hebrew root, meaning either falsehood or drunkard.” Josephus describes Sheehem as between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. The present Nabulus is a corruption of Neapolis; and Neapolis succeeded the more ancient Shechem. The city received its new name from Vespasian. The situation of the town is one of surpassing beauty. It lies in a sheltered valley, protected by Gerizim on the south and Ebal on the north. The feet of these mountains, where they rise from the town, are not more than 500 yards apart. The bottom of the valley is about 1,800 feet above the level of the sea, and the top of Gerizim 800 feet higher still. The site of the present city, which is believed to have been also that of the Hebrew city, occurs exactly on the water- summit; and streams issuing from the numerous springs there, flow down the opposite slopes of the valley, spreading verdure and fertility in every direction. Travellers vie with each other in the language which they employ to describe the scene that bursts here so suddenly upon them on arriving in spring or early summer at this paradise of the Holy Land. “ Here,” says Dr. Robinson (3:96) “ a scene of luxuriant and almost unparalleled verdure burst upon our view. The whole valley was filled with gardens of vegetables, and orchards of all kinds of fruit, watered by several fountains, which burst forth in various parts, and flow westward in refreshing streams. It came upon us suddenly like a scene of fairy enchantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all Palestine. Here, beneath the shade of an immense mulberry-tree, by the side of a purling rill, we pitched our tent for the remainder of the day and night We rose early, awakened by the songs of nightingales and other birds, of which the gardens around us were full.” (F. I. Dunwell, B. A.) Its history Few places in Palestine, after Jerusalem, have had so much of Bible history connected with them. Here God first appeared to Abraham Genesis 12:6). Here Jacob dwelt when he first returned from Padanaram, and here the disgraceful history of Dinah, and the consequent murder of the Shechemites took place (Genesis 34:2, etc.). Here Joseph’ s brethren fed their flocks when Jacob sent him to them, little thinking he would not see him again for many years (Genesis 37:12). Here, when Israel took possession of the land of Canaan, was one of the cities of refuge (Joshua 20:7-8). Here Joshua gathered all the tribes, when he addressed them for the last time (Joshua 24:1). Here the bones of Joseph were buried, and all the patriarchs were interred (Joshua 24:32; Acts 7:16). Here the principal events in the history of Abimeleeh took Judges 9:1, etc.). Here Rehoboam met the tribes of Israel after Solomon’ s death, and gave the answer which rent his kingdom in two 1 Kings 12:1). Here Jeroboam first dwelt, when he was made king of Israel (1 Kings 12:25). And finally, close by Sheehem was the city of Samaria itself, and the two hills of Ebal and Gerizim, where the solemn blessings and cursings were recited, after Israel entered Canaan (Joshua 8:33). A more interesting neighbourhood it is difficult to imagine. Whichever way the eye of a wearied traveller looked, he would see something to remind him of Israel’ s history. (Bp. Ryle.) The parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. In two different ways this had come into the hands of Jacob. First, he had purchased it from the “ children of Humor,” and then, when the Amorite invaded it, and took violent, unrighteous possession, he had, with his “ sword and his bow,” recovered it. The land thus belonged to Jacob by right of purchase and by right of conquest: it became the property of his son by gift, by inheritance, and by grateful acceptance on his part. Our spiritual Jacob has both purchased our inheritance and taken it out of the hand of the Amorite; so likewise He bestows it freely on His dear children and they gratefully receive it, and rejoice in it as their portion. Eternal life is at once the gift of God and the fruit of faith. It becomes ours according to His eternal purpose, and also by the faith which accepts it--such faith as that of Joseph. Joseph was in Egypt, apparently independent of Canaan. The time when he or his seed could claim the inheritance was far distant--four hundred years of dreadful bondage were included in the intervening period--but Joseph believed. “ God will surely visit you,” said he to his descendants, when he was dying, “ and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” A similar faith had dictated the words of Jacob. “ Beheld I die, but God shall be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.” A faith having the same origin, exercised against the same discouragements, and producing the same blessed fruits of patience, endurance, and hope, must be ours. (A. Beith, D. D.) Now Jacob’s well was thereJesus found at the well Some years since there lived in the west of England a well-known character called “ Foolish Dick.” Not being considered quite sharp, one day he was going for a pitcher of water, when a good old man hailed him with “ So, Dick, you are going to the well.” “ Yes,” he replied. “ Well, Dick, the woman of Samaria found Jesus at the well.” “ Did she?” was the answer. “ Yes,” said the good old Christian. Dick passed on, full of thought; the remark riveted on his mind by the Holy Spirit, quickening him into new life. He thought, “ Why should I not find Jesus at the well? Oh, that I could find Him! Will He come to me?” He prayed, and found Christ at the well; left his water-pot to tell his neighbours what be had found, and from that time proved the reality of his conversion by his holy and active life, proclaiming Christ to others. Suffering begets sympathy Jesus Himself being weary was the more able and apt to help this poor Samaritress. He that hath had the toothache will pity those that have it. “ We are orphans all,” said Queen Elizabeth in her speech to the children at Christ’ s Hospital, “ let me enjoy your prayers, and ye shall be sure of my assistance.” (J. Trapp.) No sympathy without suffering Johnson, whose robust frame was not in the least affected by cold, scolded me as if my shivering had been a paltry effeminacy, saying, “ Why do you shiver?” Sir William Scott told me that when he complained of a headache, in the post-chaise, Johnson treated him in the same manner. “ At your age, sir, I had no headache.” (Boswell.) Jesus sitting on the well Many things remind us of our Lord: a well, a weary peasant resting at noon. How truly human was Jesus! 1. How worn was His humanity. He was more weary than His disciples. (1) He had a greater mental strain than they. (2) He had a weariness they knew not of. 2. His self-denials even then were remarkable. (1) He would in all points be made like unto His brethren. (2) He would not exempt Himself from fatigue. (3) He would not work a miracle for His own refreshment. (4) He would not refuse to bear heat, thirst, exhaustion. 3. He has thus made Himself able to sympathize with (1) The traveller who rests by the road-side. (2) The labourer worn out with toil. (3) The sufferer who feels pain. (4) The poor man who must rest on a cold stone, and look for refreshment to the public fountain. (5) The weary mind. I. LET YOUR DRAW A PICTURE OF YOUR WEARIED SAVIOUR. He is wearied with our 1. Sins (Isaiah 43:24). 2. Formal worship (Isaiah 1:14). 3. Errings through unbelief (Psalms 95:10). 4. Resistance of His Spirit (Isaiah 63:10). 5. Cavillings and rebellions (Malachi 2:17). Perhaps we have specially wearied the Lord, as we read in Amos 2:13, where singular provocations are mentioned. That is a grave question asked by the prophet Isaiah (vii. 13). II. LET YOUR DRAW A PICTURE OF YOUR WAITING SAVIOUR. He waits 1. For comers to the well: He seizes on all occasions to bless, such as affliction, the hearing of the Word, the recurrence of a birthday, or even the simplest event of life. Men have other errands; they come to the well only to draw water, but the Lord meets them with His greater errand. 2. For the most sinful: she that had five husbands. 3. To enlighten, convince, convert. 4. To accept and to commission. 5. To begin by one convert the ingathering of a great harvest. How long He has waited for some of you! At how many points has He been on the outlook for you? Is He not waiting for you at this very hour? Will you not yield to His patient love? III. LET YOUR DRAW ANOTHER PICTURE. Alter the position of the character. 1. Be yourself weary of your sinful way. 2. Sit down on the well of your Lord’ s gracious ordinances. 3. Wait and watch till your Saviour conies. 4. Ask Him to give you to drink, and, in so doing, give Him to drink, for this is His best refreshment. 5. Drink yourselves of the living water and then run to tell others. Conclusion: Will you not do this at once? May His Holy Spirit so direct you! (C. H. Spurgeon,) The weary pilgrim 1. If now, with all the comforts of tent and equipage, the modern traveller finds locomotion oppressive and exhausting, what must it have been to Christ with no aid but the staff and rough sandal? 2. It is in such incidental occurrences that our Lord’ s humanity and condescension are most touchingly exemplified. 3. He worked miracles for others, never for Himself. 4. My Saviour is my brother. He took not on Him the nature of angels. (1) Because angelic nature is a Spiritual essence and incapable of corporeal suffering. (2) Because He could not then have participated in feeling with those He came to redeem. 5. But my Saviour is my Lord or He could never have relieved my want. I. Let the WEARY WITH LIFE’ S JOURNEY, with pain, travail, and loneliness consider Him, lest they be weary and faint in their souls. II. Let the WEARY WITH SIN who have come up through hot valleys of temptation, and are now sitting by poisoned wells, the pitcher broken at the cistern, the zest of life gone, without shelter, hear Him say, “ Come unto Me and I will give you rest,” III. Let those WEARY WITH THE BURDEN AND HEAT OF THE DAY IN THE MIDST OF THEIR LIFE’ S CALLING, in manhood’ s sixth hour, one half of existence over, hasten to Him, lest the valley of death, like the valley of Shechem, be close at hand while the fountain of life is neglected. Conclusion. You are Spiritually between the Ebal of courses and the Gerizim of blessings--Which are you to choose? (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Christ in His human weakness and Divine exaltation I. WEARY AND YET THE REST OF A WEARY SOUL. II. THIRSTY AND YET A . III. HUNGRY AND YET FOOD. IV. LEFT ALONE AND YET IN SPIRIT WITH NATIONS. (Lange.) Weariness and work 1. This world is a place of weariness through sin; but love is a weariness that heaven approves, that of the Shepherd seeking the lost sheep. 2. There is a great mystery in this weariness: for the weary man was God; but He was weary that we might have rest. I. CHRIST’ S AS IT OUR OWN. 1. Christ was weary in His work, not of it. 2. We need not be surprised, therefore, if we are weary. 3. When so, wait upon Him to renew thy strength. II. CAN BE PUT TO PURPOSE. 1. Under the most unlikely circumstances God can bring us work and refreshment at the same time. Christ had to all appearance turned His back on His work; but He had not, and when He seemed most unfit He did it most effectively. So Paul was taken from work to prison, but then he was instrumental in the jailers conversion. 2. The willing heart will often create its own opportunities. Christ was weary but watchful. A willing heart can find its work at any time and place. We think we could do more were we better placed. But Christ says, “ He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.” 3. An earnest mind will avail itself of small opportunities, and through little things become really great. Christ was contented with a congregation of one. He did not preach sensational sermons, but sermons which created a sensation. He spake as earnestly to one as to a thousand. III. CHRIST ASKS US THROUGH HIS WEARY TO TO HIS . The poor, sick, widows, orphans, overworked pastors, etc., in Christ’ s name cry, “ Give me to drink.” (W. Poole Balfern.) The realness of the scene By a singular fate this authentic and expressive memorial of the earliest dawn of Jewish history became the memorial no less authentic and expressive of its sacred close. Of all the special localities of our Lord’ s life in Palestine, this is almost the only one absolutely undisputed. By the edge of the well, in the touching language of the ancient hymn, “ Quoereus me, sedisti lassus.” Here He halted, as travellers still halt, in the noon or evening of the day. Up that valley His disciples “ went away into the city.” Down the same gorge came the woman to draw water, according to the unchanged custom of the East; which still, in the lively concourse of veiled figures round the wayside wells, reproduce the image of Rebekah, and Rachel, and Zipporah. Above them, as they talked, rose “ this mountain” of Gerizim, crowned by the Temple, of which vestiges still remain, where the Samaritan sect “ said men ought to worship,” and to which still, after so many centuries, their descendants turn as to the only sacred spot in the universe: the strongest example of local worship in the world, where the sacredness of local worship was declared to be at an end. And round about them spread far and wide the noble plain of waving corn. It was still winter or early spring, “ four months yet to the harvest;” and the bright golden ears had not yet “ whitened” their unbroken expanse of verdure. He gazed upon them; and we almost seem to see how the glorious vision of the Gentile world, with each successive turn in the conversation, unfolded itself more and more distinctly before Him, as He sate absorbed in the opening prospect, silent amidst His silent and astonished disciples. (Dean Stanley.) Jacob’ s welt an emblem of the sanctuary Note that I. NO GOOD DEEDS ARE EVER DONE IN VAIN, AND THAT THEY HAVE POWER TO BLESS MANY AGES TO COME. 1. None can measure his power for good. Influence may be mightier after death than in life. When Jacob dug that well, he little thought of the multitudes for whose refreshment he was providing, or of this sacred incident. Do you think the discoverer of printing foresaw the penny newspaper, or Columbus New York, and Boston, and Chicago? God watches over good efforts, and influences to bless them. 2. But if Jacob knew not all his well would do, he knew it would bless. How like a well is a gospel sanctuary! Look at the desert all around--how refreshing this spot in contrast. Here the weary find rest, the thirsty water. 3. Churches, like wells (1) are made by man’ s effort, but filled with God’ s gift; (2) Are not stagnant pools but living springs? II. JESUS STILL HIMSELF AT WELLS BUILT BY HIS PEOPLE. 1. What was it that refreshed Him here? “ My meat,” etc. 2. And Jesus still comes into our sanctuaries, and asks for small gifts of love as the return for His own greater love. He is yearning to find satisfaction in souls--waiting to see the full fruits of His servants efforts to save men. 3. How grateful was Jesus for this seat. He commanded John to record this gratitude. None of us will ever regret anything done to please Jesus. 4. You say, if I had seen Him, I would have invited Him to my home. Have you opened you heart to the heavenly Guest? III. THIS WELL IS CHRIST’ S PLACE TO MEET SOULS. 1. He was there before the woman, waiting for her, and thoughtfully sent away the disciples that no restraint might check her conversation. Has He not promised to meet His people in His house? Have you not often said, “ It was as though the preacher knew all my circumstances.” 2. That woman, often like ourselves, little expected to find her Saviour. 3. She left her water-pot, and how often have you left your burdens. IV. THIS WELL IS THE PLACE FOR QUIET FREE WITH THE SAVIOUR, where Christ wants to enlighten, refresh, and pardon. (R. H.Lovell.) Why religious ordinances are sometimes unprofitable The ordinances of religion are compared to wells of water; but then they are like Jacob’ s well. The water lies far below the surface, and to the man of the world, the mere professor of religion, who has the name but not the faith of a Christian, we may say, as the woman said to our Lord, “ Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” Faith is, as it were, the rope, and our souls the vessels, which we let down into this well to fill them with living water. But that they do no good to some forms no reason why we should despise or neglect ordinances. It is no fault in the bread that, thrust between a dead man’ s teeth, it does not nourish him. Water will revive a withering, but not a withered, plant; wine will revive a dying, but not a dead, man; the breath of your mouth, or the breeze of heaven, will rekindle the smouldering coal, but not the cold, grey ashes of the hearth. And it is only spiritual life that can derive benefit from such ordinances as are intended to revive the faint and give strength to the weary. (D. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 4:9-10 How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me?--It is remarkable that while the Samaritan woman here is taunting the Lord with being a Jew, the Jews, in a somewhat similar passage, charge Him with being a Samaritan (John 8:48). (G. J. Brown, M. A.) Askest and saith There is a singular decorum in the use of words here. The woman has said, not unnaturally, “ How is it that Thou askest of me?” But αἰτε͂ιν is a word of petition as from an inferior to a superior, in this different from ἐρωτᾶν, which has more of equality in it. Christ therefore when He refers to that request of hers does not take up and allow her word. He says not, “ Who is it that asketh,” but who it is that saith (λέγων) to thee; while the asking is described as the proper attitude for her, “ Thou wouldest have asked (ἤτησας) of Him.” There lies often in such little details an implicit assertion of the unique dignity of His person, which it is very interesting and not unimportant to trace. (Abp. Trench.) Dealings and gift of God The former word seems to explain the first part of our Lord’ s answer. She had come day by day to draw water at that well. Had she never known that that water was a gift of God? Had no thirst on a hot day or no failure of the spring taught her that? Was water a thing to “ traffic in” ? (F. D. Maurice.) The significance of giving drink Among us even an enemy might ask or receive a drink of water without fear of compromising himself or his opponent; but not so in the East. There, the giving and receiving of a drink of water is the seeking and the making of a covenant of hospitality, with all that that covenant implies. It is not, indeed, like a covenant of blood, or a covenant of salt--indissoluble; but it is like the covenant of bread-sharing, which makes a truce, for the time being, between deadliest enemies. Aboolfeda tells, for example, of the different receptions awarded by Saladeen to the king of the Franks on the one hand, and to Prince Arnald of Caracca on the other, when the two Christian leaders were received in his tent by the victorious Saracen after the battle of Hatteen. Saladeen seated the Christian king by his side, and gave him drink cooled with snow. When the king, having tasted it, offered it also to Prince Arnald, Saladeen protested, saying, “ This wretch shall not drink of the water with my permission; in which there would be safety to him;” and then, rising up, he smote off the head of the prince with his own sword. Over against this we are told that when Hormozan, a Persian ruler, surrendered to the Khaleef Omar, the successor of Aboo Bekr, and was brought a prisoner into the presence of his captor, he asked at once for a drink. Omar asked him if he were thirsty. “ No,” he said; “ I only wish to drink in your presence, so that I may be sure of my life.” He was assured that he might rest perfectly secure; and that assurance was kept. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) History of the Samaritans After the Assyrian conquest colonies from the East were placed in the deserted cities. The country having been desolated by war wild beasts multiplied, and became the terror and scourge of the new inhabitants. The barren heights of Hermon and Lebanon are to this day infested with bears, panthers, wolves, and jackals. The strangers attributed the calamity to the anger of the local deity, of whose peculiar mode of worship they were ignorant. They therefore petitioned for Jewish priests to instruct them in religious rites; and after they had heard them “ they feared the Lord, and served their own gods” (2 Kings 17:24-41). In after times the Jews refused to acknowledge them in any way, and would not permit them to assist in building the second temple, though their refusal cost them many trials (Ezra 4:1-24.). Being cast off by the Jews, the Samaritans resolved to erect a temple of their own on Gerizim. The immediate occasion appears to have been the circumstances related by Nehemiah, that a sen of Joiada, the high priest, had become son-in-law to Sanballat, and had on this account been expelled from Jerusalem Nehemiah 13:28). The date of the temple may thus be.fixed about B.C. 420. Shechem now became the metropolis of the Samaritans as a sect, and an asylum for all apostate and lax Jews (Joseph. “ Antiq.” 11:3-6). These things tended to foster enmity between the two nations, which resulted in the total destruction of the Temple of Gerizim by the Jews under John Hyrcanus. The very name Samaritan became a byword and a reproach among the Jews, just as the name Yehudy, “ Jew,” is among modern Syrians; and some even supposed that the Jews nicknamed the city of Shechem Sychar, “ Falsehood,” to mark their opinion of the pretended origin of its in- habitants. In our Saviour’ s time the Samaritans retained their worship on Gerizim, though the temple was in ruins; and they had some vague expectations of a Messiah. During the reign of Vespasian Shechem was rebuilt, and renamed Neapolis, “ New City,” an appellation which has run into the Arabic Nabulus--one of the very few instances in which the Greek has supplanted the Semitic name. The ancient Samaritans and modern Druses appear to have had very much in common both in character and origin. The ancient Samaritan was part heathen, part Jew; and the modern Druse of Mount Lebanon is part heathen, part Christian; and some have thought that the modern Druses derive their origin from the very same tribes as the ancient Samaritans. “ After the second captivity of Israel, Esarhaddon re-peopled the wasted strongholds of Samaria with the tribes whose names are given with so much particularity in Scripture (2 Kings 17:24; and Ezra 4:9), races of fierce habit and degraded faith, whose heathen practices, engrafted on the corrupt Judaism which lingered amongst the earlier Samaritans, brought down on the new colonies the especial Nemesis of God. Of these fierce tribes there were some who, Cuthites in name, were of the family of the Royal Scythians, or Gordyans, from the Gordiaean mountains, whom in.subsequent times the Greeks knew by the name of Carduchi , and with whom we are familiar as Koords. Some of these were settled in the Lebanon, and from them it has been said that the Druses spring, and draw the tenets of an ancient but unholy worship. (Lord Carnarvon’s “Druses of the Lebanon.”) The hostility of the Samaritans towards the Jews The Samaritan sought by every petty annoyance to irritate the Jew. Their country was the nearest road for the caravans of northern pilgrims going to the feasts in Jerusalem. The Samaritans churlishly refused these the poorest rites of hospitality, and compelled them often to avoid maltreament, by taking the circuitous and more fatiguing route by the Jordan Valley. Again, it was one of the few consolations enjoyed by the bands of exiled Jews in Babylon to have announced to them, by means of the only ancient telegraphic communication--beacons on the mountain-tops--the appearance of the paschal moon. The first beacon-fire was lit on the summit of Olivet, and thence caught up from mountain to mountain in luminous succession, until, within sight of the Euphrates, they could, for the moment at least, take down their harps from the willows as they remembered Zion and its holy solemnities. But the Samaritans indulged the mischievous delight of perplexing and putting them out of reckoning by the use of false signals. Another wicked and successful exploit is recorded; and occurring as it did under the government of Coponius only a few years previous to the gospel era, may have tended at this time to deepen these animosities. A band of Samaritans succeeded in stealing to the courts of the Temple of Jerusalem during the Passover season, and defiling the sacred precincts by scattering them with dead men’ s bones; thus incapacitating the Jews that year from celebrating the great feast of their nation. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Samaritan churlishness On asking drink from a woman near Nablus who was filling her pitcher, we were angrily refused--“ The Christian dogs might get it for themselves.” (Canon Tristram.) The hatred of the Jews for the Samaritans The Jew was no way behind in his manifestation of malevolence. The son of Sirach says, “ There be two manner of nations which my heart abhorreth, and the third is no nation; they that sit upon the mountain of Samaria, and they that dwell among the Philistines, and that foolish people that dwell in Sichem.” So that this false race dwelling at Sichem is more offensive to the pious Sirach than apostate Israel, with its worship of the golden calves on the mountains of Samaria (Sir 47:23-24), or even than the Philistines themselves, those hereditary enemies of God’ s people. He abhors an Israel which demeans itself as if it were no Israel; he abhors the no-Israel which persists in its hostility and defiance to the true Israel; but most deeply of all does he abhor the no-Israel which demeans itself as if it were Israel, the heathen wearing the mask of Israelite. To eat with them was for a Jew “ as if he did eat swine’ s flesh.” He denounced the Samaritan as a base time-server who would not hesitate to purchase immunity from pains and penalties by forswearing Jehovah and kissing the impious shrine of Baal or Jove. He regarded him as unclean as the evaded leper; to harbour him in his house would entail a heritage of judgments on his children. The name Samaritan became a byword of reproach. He was publicly cursed in the synagogue--cursed in the name of Jehovah, by the writing on the two tables of the law, by the curse of the upper and lower house of judgment. He was pronounced unworthy of eternal life--excommunicated alike from the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. The bitterest word of scorn the Jew could hurl at the Infinitely Pure One was this, “ Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil.” The yet untutored apostles shared the same exasperated feelings when they asked their Lord to call down fire from heaven on some Samaritan village. All worthy of remembrance is His gentle but sharp reproof, “ Ye know not what spirit ye are of.” (Canon Tristram.) The evils of national rivalry I do not know anything more ludicrous among the self-deceptions of well-meaning people than their notion of patriotism, as requiring them to limit their efforts to the good of their own country--the notion that charity is a geographical virtue, and that what is holy and righteous to do for people on one bank of a river is quite improper and unnatural to do for people on the other. It will be a wonderful thing some day or other for the Christian world to remember that it went on thinking for two thousand years that neighbours were neighbours at Jerusalem, but not at Jericho; a wonderful thing for us English to reflect, in after years, how long it was before we Could shake hands with any one across that shallow salt wash which the very chalk dust of its two shores whitens from Folkestone to Ambletense. One magnificent attribute of the colouring of the late twelfth and the whole thirteenth and the early fourteenth century was the union of one colour with another by reciprocal interference, that is to say, if a mass of red is to be set beside a mass of blue, a piece of the red will be carried into the blue, and the reverse, sometimes in nearly equal proportions. And I call it a magnificent principle, for it is an eternal and universal one, not in act only, but in human life. It is the great principle of brotherhood, not by equality, nor by likeness, but by giving and receiving; the souls that are unlike, and the nations that are unlike, and the natures that are unlike, being bound into one noble whole, by each receiving something from and of the other’ s gifts and the other’ s glory. (John Ruskin.) The evils of sectarian bigotry The utter absence of real charity and love among men in the days when our Lord was upon earth ought not to be overlooked. Well would it be if men had never quarrelled about religion after He left the world! Quarrels among the crew of a sinking ship are not more hideous, unseemly, and irrational than the majority of quarrels among professors of religion. An historian might truly apply St. John’ s words to many a period in Church history, and say, “ The Romanists have no dealings with the Protestants,” or “ the Lutherans have no dealings with the Calvinists,” or “ the Calvinists have no dealings with the Arminians,” or “ the Episcopalians have no dealings with the Presbyterians,” or “ the Baptists have no dealings with those who baptize infants,” or “ the Plymouth Brethren have no dealings with anybody who does not join their company.” These things ought not so to be. They are the scandal of Christianity, the joy of the devil, and the greatest stumbling-block to the spread of the gospel. (Bp. Ryle.) The Jews and Samaritans Josephus writeth that at Samaria was a sanctuary opened by Sanballat for all renegade Jews, etc. The Jews therefore hated the presence, the fire, the fashion, the books of a Samaritan. Neither was there any hatred lost on the Samaritan’ s part, for if he had but touched a Jew he would have thrown himself into the nearest water, clothes and all. (J. Trapp.) The forbearance of Christ You may have gone along the road on a hot summer day, tired and thirsty, and have seen the gleam of a cottage in the distance. Suppose you went to the door and asked for a drink of water, exactly as our Lord did; but your speech betrayed you, and you were asked, How do you, being a Protestant, ask drink of me, a Roman Catholic; or, How do you, being Scotch, ask of me who am Irish, for the Scotch have no dealings with the Irish? You would have ground your heel on the gravel, and vowed never to give any one the chance of so speaking to you again. But insults are just as they are taken; and you can’ t insult a man who won’ t let you. Jesus bows His head, and lets your ignorant speeches fly past Him. (John McNeill.) Christ cares not for classes or races, but for souls People when they talk of “ the working classes” think that they have described the whole thing with one touch. They imagine that, like the “ enter such and such a one” in Shakespeare’ s stage directions, when they have said “ the working classes,” then everything by way of definition that is to be said, is said. They label the article, so to speak, and then expect you to understand all about it. How difficult it is indeed to bridge across the chasm between class and class I But more difficult it is to remember that “ the working class,” or any class, is made up of individual souls. Our dear Lord did not speak to classes only. Jesus spoke to souls. He took men one by one, and each finite creature with his infinite future, each immortal being with his own history, his own work, his own sins, his own feelings, his own sorrows, was an object of tender interest to Jesus Christ. (Knox Little.) John 4:10 If thou knewest the gift of God Wayside opportunities I. THE AND OF WAYSIDE . Speaking after the ordinary manner this transaction was accidental; apparently unpremeditated on the part of Christ, unexpected on the part of the woman. 1. We go into transactions which involve our highest good or greatest loss as unexpectedly. The woman was looking for the Messiah, but she little expected to find Him a tired traveller. You expect to find God in Church: do you ever expect to find Him in common events? 2. The character of a man, his real strength or weakness, appears not in his seizure of great events but of ordinary ones--not in martyrdom, but in endurance. 3. Opportunities for serving Christ are offered when truth has to be done or spoken, in doing and speaking it not boastfully or independently or impudently, but simply and in love. 4. You meet Christ by the wayside in every duty, great or small, which calls you from the wrong to the right. 5. Opportunities for religious instruction and worship are not confined to one day, place, or act, but every day, everywhere, and by everything that brings us in contact with God. And as the highest religious truth in nature lies close by the way if we will only pluck it, so in the Bible the great truths lie on the surface. II. How CHRIST USED HIS . 1. He made them the occasion of a great and effective religious work. 2. The freedom and spontaneousness of Christ’ s teaching fill us with wonder. It is perfectly independent of times and places, but makes all times and places consecrated and effective. 3. Why? Because religion in Him was a real matter. It is unreality that makes it unnatural, constrained, vague. 4. The man who is truly religious never forces His religion on any one. It goes wherever he goes. If the conversation takes a religious turn, what he says comes as spontaneously as it did from Christ. 5. This is the power of effective preaching. Some preaching is simply the setting forth of abstract doctrines. The real preaching passes the life up into the doctrines, being based on the realities of life. III. THE WOMANS . 1. That of ministration to the necessities of Christ. We cannot do this as she did; but Christ’ s doctrine is, that what is done to the least of His brethren is done to Him. With every needy, weak claimant by the wayside Christ comes. 2. That of reception. The gift of God was her opportunity. Our evil is that we do not know our wants, and therefore do not know our opportunities. (E. H.Chapin, D. D.) The two fountains I. THERE IS A BETWEEN CHRIST’ S PRESENT BODILY NEED AND HIS . “ Give me to drink … He would have given thee living water.” 1. The contrasts in the life of Jesus are very striking. (1) Even in physical things. He sleeps from weariness, but awakes to hush the storm; He is hungry, but dooms the fig-tree to perpetual barrenness. (2) More so in spiritual things, as when, “ crucified through weakness,” He promised life to the malefactor. 2. The living water was not mere happiness, but the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. There is in man a thirst for God which only the Spirit can quench, a thirst of need or a thirst of desire. 3. Jesus would not have had living water to bestow had He not been in a condition to require the refreshment He asked. It was because He assumed a humanity, tempted in all points like as we are, that He could give the water of life. II. THERE IS A HERE BETWEEN THE OF AND THE OF GRACE. To tell a thirsty man that he belongs to another religion! The gift of man is hindered by what should have arrested and inspired it, “ the gift of God.” Knows no obstacle but our unfitness. 1. The desire to bless was strong, constant, and spontaneous in Jesus. 2. As we possess Christ’ s Spirit we shall do likewise. Do we want occasions for doing good? It is the occasions rather that want us; and the heart filled with Divine love will use occasions as they present themselves, just as water flows through the channels made for it. 3. In proportion to our likeness to Him will be our generosity. Living water cannot be restrained. Mere beliefs, feelings, customs, may be stagnant ponds, hut the power of the Divine Spirit is like running water: its movement keeps it fresh. Love must act to live. Grace gains by giving. III. HERE IS A BETWEEN THE WOMAN’ S TO CHRIST AND HER OWN OF IT. She did not know Him or the boon He bore. A man may know and not do, but he cannot do unless he know. And knowledge of the principles of religion would secure its possession. If men knew Christ’ s unspeakable gift they could not fail to seek it. The woman’ s ignorance made her look on Christ as one to be ministered to. Had she known Him she would have been the supplicant. Our ignorance of Him is continually misrepresenting His requirements. 1. He requests our obedience, and we consider whether or not we shall comply, as if in doing we were to oblige Him. A full knowledge will make us realize our indebtedness to Him, and to see in His mighty help the only possibility of doing His will and to crave it. 2. The thought applies to the efficiency of works of faith and love. We think that is due to the intrinsic excellence of our deeds. But He employs us and renders His work effectual. 3. The same is applicable to rewards, which we expect on the ground of worthness; but all our goodness is from Him, and knowledge of Christ would make eternal glory a thing to be sought, not deserved. IV. A BETWEEN FOR THE LOWER GOOD AND TO THE HIGHER. When the woman mistook Christ as meaning literal running water she said, “ Give me the water.” Yet we are not told that when she learnt the sense of Jesus, she asked to be supplied with His spiritual gift. So men labour for the perishing and neglect the eternal. (A. J. Morris.) The gift of God and living water I. THE GIFT OF GOD. 1. There is nothing that is not a gift of God. “ Every good and perfect gift is from above.” But what are all earthly gifts combined compared to the gift of God’ s only-begotten Son? 2. The greatest gift sanctifies all minor ones: as the sun beautifies the tamest landscape. Christ is like the numeral which, put before the unmeaning cyphers, invests them with value. 3. While feelingly alive to God’ s goodness in His other gifts we can heartily join in the estimate of the apostle, “ Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” With this, “ Having nothing we possess all things.” II. LIVING WATER--the purchased blessing of Christ’ s salvation, beginning with pardon here, and culminating in glory. Observe, it Isaiah 1. Living water. The tiniest stream has more true glory than the stagnant lake: the smallest flower than the inanimate trunk of the giant tree. So with all dead things wherein the soul has no part, and which are earthy, the mere accident of fleeting existence. They are streams, but not living streams--they evaporate as they flow; but the blessings of salvation are as deathless as the God who gave them. 2. The fountain head of this water is living. The gift of God is not dry doctrine, but a living Being. III. THIS VERSE IS A GOLDEN GATE, TO OPEN WHICH THERE ARE TWO KEYS. 1. The key of faith. Had the woman apprehended Christ’ s meaning, what a barrier there would have appeared between her and mercy--how often must she climb Gerizim to load its altars with sacrifices! Christ says, “ If thou knewest the gift of God.” Faith brings the soul into immediate contact with the Saviour without the intervention of preparations and penances. 2. The key of prayer. “ Thou wouldst have asked.” How many blessings are lost for the want of this I How often is the Divine saying verified, “ I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain!” (J. R.Macduff, D. D.) Living water The life of the Lord, living water, in distinction from the stale water of this world’ s life. I. THE LATTER THIRST, THE FORMER IT. II. THE ONE BECOMES FOUL, THE OTHER TAKES AWAY . III. THE ONE STANDS IN A MARSH, THE OTHER GUSHES AND FLOWS. IV. THE ONE SINKS OR , THE OTHER BECOMES AN ETERNAL . (Lange.) Christ’ s testimony concerning His mission It is said that “ there is no passion so strong in human nature as an educated religious hatred,” and history by many an example proves the assertion true. When fathers not only hand down to their children an heritage of antagonism against any party or sect, but, from a sense of duty to God, conscientiously teach them that the party or the sect is their natural foe with whom no terms can ever be made and no intercourse be held, it is not difficult to see what result will ensue. Bitterness, contempt, strife must be inevitable fruits of such an education. At any moment the passionate hostility will flame forth, and all humane and generous feeling will wither in the burning heat. How often you may find generation after generation inheriting and perpetuating the hatreds and conflicts of their ancestors! The memory of some wrong inflicted long ages ago, or of some fierce controversy which ought to have been dead, buried, and forgotten, is cherished with religious zeal, and manifests itself whenever an opportunity occurs. “ Peace on earth and goodwill among men” are made almost impossible, because we all more or less inherit our ancestors’ prejudices. We start in life with an animus against certain people or forms of thought, and the hardest of all tasks is to free ourselves from the narrowing effects of our education. Illustrations of educated religious hatred are not wanting in the various churches of Christendom at the present day, and they are sometimes as fierce as the enmity was between the Jew and the Samaritan. This, as you know, rose to such a pitch that they refused all intercourse with each other. The education of the Jew made him a very determined hater, and every patriotic impulse and the whole fervour of his religious feeling quickened and intensified the hatred and contempt with which he looked upon a mongrel race who practised idolatry--the greatest crime known to a Jew--under the pretence of a rival worship of Jehovah. It was because of this strong national abhorrence that the woman of Samaria, when asked by this weary stranger for a draught of water, exclaimed, “ How is it that Thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” It was a natural surprise on her part to find one of the proud race turned into a suppliant. No doubt she regarded Him as an enemy, and felt something of the antagonism of her race and education excited by His request. But I do not think that she meant to be particularly cruel, or to allow animosity to destroy her humanity. She had no intention to refuse what He asked. She seems to have been a shrewd, yet genial, easy-dispositioned sort of creature; but, human-like--perhaps woman-like--she could not refrain from this little bit of tantalisation and apparent triumph before giving the stranger what He, in His weariness, so much required. However, this bitter utterance of hers gives our Lord the opportunity which He desired to teach her some great spiritual truths. He makes no mention of the enmity of the two peoples; He will not enter upon that old controversy which she had started; He will not stir, by the slightest word of His, any anger in the soul He seeks to save. Yet in a way He accepts the challenge, and responds to her words, though in a different maturer from that which she had expected. She had seemingly set herself in antagonism against Him--“ Thou” asketh “ me!” --and Christ answers by putting His power of supply over against her need, “ If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” You will mark here an important difference. Christ mentions nothing about Samaritan or Jew. He does not say, “ If thou, being a Samaritan, hadst asked of Me, a Jew, I would have given thee living water.” I. THE IN WHICH JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF TO THE WORLD. He declares that He is the gift of God. He claims to be a person of the highest importance. He does not disguise Himself, but boldly announces the majesty of His nature and the glory of His work. The woman saw in Him as yet only a wearied, travel-stained man of another race, and as such she treated Him. Her eye could not penetrate beneath the outward form to the Divine nature enshrined within it. He begins by awakening her curiosity concerning Himself. “ You regard Me,” He seems to say, “ only as a Jew; but if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, your speech and conduct would be entirely changed; for I have resources in Me of which you know nothing.” “ Living water.” As we think of it, however, what could be more delightfully expressive than such a figure? Perhaps we in these cold lands, where water is often in superabundance, cannot appreciate the deep and attractive beauty of the phrase; but to an Eastern mind the idea conveyed by it is of the most fascinating character. Water is inexpressibly precious in a land where it is often scarce, where a well is a family fortune. Had she never known that the water was a gift of God? Had not thirst on a hot day, or the failure of the spring, taught her that? Was water a thing to traffic in? Did she never think of the gift of water as something very free and universal? Christ stands as God’ s response to the thirst of human souls. Friends, there is no real need of your natures, however deep, that Christ cannot and does not meet. There is one who wants to know truth. He is ever asking questions that trouble and burden him. Is there a God? Is He mindful of men? Is He a Father? Is there a life hereafter, or are we extinguished at death? Brother, Christ meets that thirst of yours with living water, for he that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father, and He has brought life and immortality to light. There is another who has aspirations after nobleness, yet is sadly, bitterly conscious of sin. He would rise, but he is dragged down. Christ came to enter into your condition, to fight with your temptations, to sacrifice Himself for the removal of your sins, to stand by you in the terrific encounter, to sanctify your nature, to make it strong and brave and pure. II. THE EFFECT WHICH A OF CHRIST WOULD PRODUCE IN HUMAN HEARTS. There are three things here which are like links in a chain, a golden chain--three steps which naturally follow one after the other. First, “ If thou knewest;” second, “ Thou wouldest have asked;” third, “ He would have given.” Let us see how these processes and results are related to one another. 1. The first is--knowledge. Mark how tenderly and gently our Lord charges His solitary hearer with ignorance. There is an exquisite tone of compassion in the words, “ if thou knewest.” It recognizes at once that there is no wilful opposition to Him as the Christ, or to His great mission, for she had hitherto had no chance of knowing anything whatever about Him. Her religious responsibility had not yet begun, Reproach! condemnation! Christ has nothing of all this for the ignorant; it is their misfortune, not their fault. We have received the knowledge; Christ has been revealed to us. He stands before us in the glory of His character as the gift of God. To know Christ, that is the first thing; to know Him in all the glory of His Divine commission, in all the plentitude of His life-giving power, in all the reviving, refreshing, inspiring sweetness of His love, this is what is necessary, necessary to awaken trust and love; for does not Christ Himself declare, “ If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldest have asked, He would have given” ? Here we have the second step or link. 2. It is confidence. Knowledge produces trust. “ They that know Thy name will put their truest in Thee.” Jesus Christ’ s confidence in the effect of the revelation of Himself is most decisive. Most firmly do I believe that this is everywhere true. It is He who has created the desire, the appetite for these things, by making them known to us. It is as with children--so long as they are ignorant of the various good things which others enjoy, so long, of course, they have no wish for them; but bring them within the range of their knowledge, show them how beautiful and desirable and attainable they are, and immediately the craving to possess them arises. Their conceptions are enlarged by every new object presented to their view, and, as a rule, the desire to obtain it follows. It is so in all that pertains to our civilized life--it is knowledge that awakens appetite and longing to possess. All this, however, is general, and the particular illustration is, perhaps, that which we most require. Therefore I say that as soon as you and I see Christ as He really is, as soon as we know Him in the full purpose of His mission, we must seek the gift He has to bestow. When I see that He has come to teach me about God, I want to know about God; when I see that He has come to redeem me from sin, I realize how much I need redemption from sin; when I hear Him offering heart-rest amid the strifes of the world, and eternal rest hereafter, I know that is just the supreme and unspeakable blessing which will satisfy me. I never felt all that till Christ was revealed to me, and so in my ignorance I did not cry, “ Give me to drink.” 3. The third link in the chain, the supreme result, is this--the asking is always followed by the giving. The asking must precede giving; but let this condition be fulfilled, and the result will ensue. So Christ teaches this ignorant woman the great secret of Divine giving. It is the response to prayer. (W. Braden.) Christ and the woman of Samaria These words open UP to you three of the features of the Lord Jesus. 1. It shows you His care of individual souls. 2. Christ loves to save the worst. 3. Christ bears with stupidity. This woman was very stupid in Divine things; the words of Christ seemed to make no impression. Let us attend closely to these words, and let us consider I. THAT CHRIST IS THE GIFT OF GOD. “ If thou knewest the gift of God,” etc. This is one of the sweetest names Christ bears--“ the gift of God.” “ Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” ; “ God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” ; “ The gift of God is eternal life.” Whose gift is He? The gift of God. Some seem to think that no good thing can come from God. When they hear that God has kindled eternal fire for the wicked, they say, can any good thing come from Him? But, ah! there is this and this good thing. Observe what the gift is--“ The gift of God.” He did not give a creature. He did not give angel or seraph. He gave His Son. Why did He give this gift? “ God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” etc: Ah! here is the guilt of unbelief, that you do not take up what God has laid down. II. CHRIST IS NEAR TO SINNERS. “ If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it was that said unto thee, give Me to drink,” etc. 1. He is nigh thee on account of His two natures (John 1:18). 2. Christ has promised to be near in His ordinances -- “ I will come near and bless you.” In secret prayer He records His name. In the broken bread and in the poured out wine He records His name. There are some of you who are awakened by the Spirit; now it is to such that Christ is near. Christ is as near to you as He was to the woman of Samaria. If Christ is so near, you ought to improve Him. You know that the farmers know how to improve the seasons. You know, brethren, that merchants do not let seasons pass. III. IT IS THAT KEEPS SINNERS FROM TO CHRIST. “ If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink,” etc. It was ignorance that made the Jews crucify Christ. It was ignorance that made Paul persecute the Church. It was ignorance that made the woman answer Christ so rashly at the well. You are sailing over the sea of life, and you do not know that there are pearls below you. There is a thought comes over me, and it is this--that some of you will know when it is too late. IV. WHAT IT IS THAT CHRIST IS WILLING TO GIVE SINNERS, even the chief, “ If thou knewest the gift of God,” etc. The living water here spoken of is the Holy Spirit. Christ offered her here the very thing that she needed. It was an impure heart; now, Christ here says, I will give thee water to make thy heart clean. Again, this woman’ s heart was full of sin. She had a constant craving for sin. But Christ says, I will here give thee water that will make thee thirst no more. Again, this woman’ s heart was con- stantly boiling up with sin. Christ says to her, I wilt here give thee a well of water springing up--not a pond that may dry up--but a well of living water springing up into everlasting life. Again, this woman’ s heart would have ended in the second death. Christ says, I will here give thee water--a well of water that will spring up to everlasting life. (R. M. McCheyne.) The gift of living water The turning points in our career have commonly nothing in them to distinguish them from common events, nothing to show that they are turning points. We do not know the faces that lie hidden all around us. We pass all our life along side of that which would make all eternity different to us, and yet, for lack of knowledge, for lack of consideration, for lack often of one hour’ s serious, heart-searching thought, the thin veil continues to hide from us our true and lasting blessedness. Like the crew that were perishing from thirst, though surrounded by the fresh waters of the River Amazon that penetrated far into the salt ocean; so are we surrounded on all hands by God--the living, loving God--and upheld by Him, and living in Him, yet do not know Him, and refrain from dipping our buckets and drawing out of His life-giving fulness. How often, looking on those who, like this Samaritan woman, have gone wrong and know no recovery, who go through their daily duties sad and heavy at heart and weary of sin--how often do these words rise to our lips, “ If only thou knewest!” How often does one long to be able to shed a sudden and universal light into the minds of men, that they may see things as they really are, that would reveal to them the goodness, the power, the all-conquering love of God! Two particulars our Lord mentions as being defective in this woman’ s knowledge. I. SHE DID NOT KNOW THE GIFT OF GOD. Her expectations were limited by her earthly condition and her physical wants. She had no belief that she had to do with the eternal loving God, and that God desired to communicate to her what was in Himself--deep and lasting blessedness. Through all ages, and for all men, there remains this gift of God, sought and found by those who know Him; different from, and superior to, the best human gifts, inheritances, and acquisitions; not to be drawn out of the deepest, most cherished wells of man’ s sinking; steadily arrogating to itself an infinite superiority to all that men have regarded and busily sunk their pitchers in--the gift which each man must ask for himself, and having for himself,knows to be the gift of God to him, the recognition by God of his personal wants, and the assurance to him of God’ s everlasting regard. This gift of God, which carries to each soul the sense of God’ s love, is his deliverance from all evil, his reunion with God Himself. II. SHE DID NOT KNOW WHO IT WAS that said to her, “ Give Me to drink.” And until we know Christ, we cannot know God. Often, like this woman, we are in Christ’ s presence without knowing it, and listen, like her, to His appeals without understanding the majesty of His person and the greatness of our opportunity. It is always the same request that He urges, “ Give Me to drink.” Is it cruelty to refuse a cup of cold water to a thirsty child, and no cruelty to refuse to quench the thirst of Him who hung upon the cross for us? Ought you to feel no shame that the Lord is still in want of what you can give? Has Christ not sufficiently shown the reality of His thirst for your friendship and faith? (Marcus Dods, D. D.) Characteristics of living water I. . II. . III. . IV. . V. . “ He, every one that thirsteth, come.” Now. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.) The gift of God I. WHAT IS THE GIFT OF GOD? 1. The truth. The Old Testament gives this thought more than once. So Christ was taking an old illustration and applying it to His gospel. “ The old, old story” is the story still. We commonly call this gift revelation. Men could not discover or shape it. Consider (1) Its realness as contrasted with the shadows and dreams of idolatry and philosophy. The truth of God is a fact. Test it, O doubter! (2) Its finality. Athens, with its thousands of gods, confesses there is an unknown God. In the gospel man gets his soul’ s desire and is at rest. He has nothing to do but to keep drinking. (3) Its dogmatic character. We wish to reason out and understand, but God’ s dogmas are all axioms. 2. Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 10:4). Nor does this oppose the first interpretation, for Christ is “ the Truth,” and pre-eminently “ the gift of God.” (1) Other good gifts only satisfy certain parts of our nature; this fully satisfies. (2) Others satisfy only for a time; this for ever. 3. The present opportunity. Every invitation and opportunity is a gift of God. This woman embraced it. How many neglect it and lose it! II. HOW THIS GIFT THE NAME. 1. To be a gift it must be free. And so it is free and unmerited. The sinner has no resources. You cannot offer to God as purchase money what is His own. 2. That it is a gift appears in the eternity of its plan. God’ s generosity is shown in His eternal purpose. 3. The fulness of the word appears when we consider how it is pressed on our acceptance. “ The word is nigh thee,” brought to our very door. 4. The truth of the title given to the living water appears still more clearly when we learn how thoroughly it becomes ours in accepting it. (1) It is absolutely bestowed. (2) It becomes part of ourselves. Our heart becomes not a cistern, but a spring (John 4:14). “ Christ in you.” 1. Springs of water are not for beauty, but for use and reproduction. 2. This reproduction is not a thing of constraint, except so far as constrained by the love of Christ. 3. Therefore with joy draw this water out of the well of salvation. Conclusion: The inheritance of this gift brings responsibility. (J. J. Black, LL. B.) The gift Of God Perhaps no cry in Cairo is more striking than that of the water carrier. “ The gift of God,” he says, as he goes along with his water skin on his shoulder it is very likely that water, so invaluable, and so often scarce in hot countries, was in Christ’ s days spoken of, as now, as “ the gift of God,” to denote its preciousness; if so the expression to the woman would be extremely forcible and full of meaning. (Ragged Life in Egypt.) The gift of the Spirit The purifying, refreshing, and fertilizing qualities of water aptly symbolize the operations of the Holy Spirit (John 7:38, Zechariah 14:6; Isaiah 44:3). I. THE HOLY GHOST IS “ THE GIFT OF GOD,” and is so styled by way of preeminence. He is a gift 1. Which virtually comprehends every other blessing. 2. Without it every other gift is unsatisfying. 3. Its attainment not only compensated for the loss of Christ, but made His departure expedient (John 16:7). 4. Without it even the unspeakable gift of the Saviour is vouchsafed in vain 1 Peter 1:2). II. The Holy Ghost is here represented as the GIFT OF CHRIST as well. “ He would have given thee.” 1. From first to last the merits of Christ are the only procuring cause of our redemption. 2. As Mediator He has obtained the disposal of this gift (Col Acts 2:33; Ephesians 4:7). III. PRAYER IS THE MEANS FOR THIS GIFT. “ Thou wouldst have asked.” 1. While Christ declares His readiness to bestow, He intimates the necessity of application. So does the Scripture throughout (Ezekiel 36:37). This at once consults the honour of God and the infirmity of man; leaving to God the glory of supplying our necessities, but constituting a test of our humility, faith, and obedience. 2. The efficacy as well as the necessity of prayer is pointed out. “ He would have given” (Luke 11:13). IV. ONE CAUSE WHY MEN NEGLECT THIS GIFT IS THEIR IT. They know not its nature and value; nor their own need of it; nor the manner of obtaining it; nor Christ’ s power and willingness to impart it; therefore they make no inquiries about it. “ If thou knewest.” 1. Whence does this ignorance arise? not from want of opportunity, instruction, or capacity, but want of attention to revealed truth. Whatever excuse may be urged for the woman there is none for you. 2. This ignorance will not extenuate guilt (Isaiah 5:12-13; Isaiah 27:11; Luke 19:44). Ignorance and instruction I. THE WOMAN’ S . Knowledge is acquired by few; ignorance is inherited by all. 1. She was ignorant of the Messiah with whom she was conversing. She saw the Jew, but not the Son of God; the weary man, but not the rest for weary souls; the thirsty, pilgrim, but not one who could quench the world’ s thirst; one who sent for provisions, not one whose meat and drink was His Father’ s will; a lonely person, but not one who had myriads of angels at His command. 2. She was ignorant of spiritual things. She mistook living water for running water. She asks for material and overlooks eternal things. Earth was all, and heaven nothing. 3. She was ignorant of the gift of God. She valued the well, but could only trace it to Jacob, not to God. God gives us all good gifts; some of them through our fathers, some through our own hands. All these must perish. One gift comes direct; that abides, even the Holy Spirit. II. CHRIST’ S . They were 1. Progressive. The first impression was that He was a Jew; next she wanted to compare Him with Jacob; next He is a prophet; lastly the Messiah. Such was Christ’ s gradual unfolding of Himself to her. 2. Effective. They had their desired effect in spite of her efforts to thwart them. He touched her conscience, awakened her thirst for God, and gave Himself for its satisfaction, after continuous evasions. 3. Practical. III. GOD’ S . 1. Christ was so blessed that He forgot His thirst. 2. The woman was so blessed that she forgot her pitcher. As heaven becomes clear we lose sight of earth. (W. Griffith.) Saving knowledge One difficulty lay in the way of this woman’ s salvation--ignorance of Christ. She was not an uninstructed woman. She was acquainted with portions of Bible history. She was versed in sectarian peculiarities. She shared the hopes of the Jewish and Samaritan people. In this age there are hundreds who know something about everything save Christ. Our text speaks I. OF A GIFT, AND OF THE OF IT. 1. It informs that the gift is Christ Himself. (1) In the eternal purpose; (2) in promise; (3) in history; (4)in experience; (5) the faith that receives Christ is a gift; and (6) the eternal life in which it issues is a gift. 2. The definite article shows this to be God’ s gift beyond all others; the gift which comprehends and sanctifies all others. (1) It is an unrivalled gift. (2) It sweetens other gifts, and makes them effective. (3) A most precious gift, because he who has it has, as the richest without it has not, the favour of God. (4) If thou hast it, thou must prize it, because it is a token of thine everlasting salvation. 3. Knowledge is put with the gift. (1) Till her eyes were opened Hagar could not see the well, nor can you see this gift of God. (2) This knowledge is the gift of God. “ No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. (3) This knowledge is personal, not second-hand, of a personal Christ. II. IF thou knowest the gift of God, WHAT THEN? 1. It supposes that many have not this knowledge. 2. It suggests that all may know it, and that a great change will come over them. (1) The unconverted would be much happier. (2) The scoffer would become a sympathizer. (3) The trifler would make the present moment his convenient season. (4) Darling sins would be renounced for the greater sweetness of Christ. (5) The very worst would hope, believe, and find mercy. 3. Every point in Christ’ s character, if known, would work good for us. 4. If we take a walk abroad, to how many could we apply the text, and its suggestions. If they knew the gift of God (1) The working classes would spend their sabbaths differently. (2) The formal worshippers in churches and chapels would worship the Father in spirit and in truth. (3) The Christless preacher would abandon his eloquent flights, and declare the preciousness of Christ’ s salvation. (4) The ritualist would lay aside his robes, and confess the sinfulness of his priestly assumptions. (5) The sinner, dying without hope, would depart in joy and peace. III. HOW DOES THE “ IF” CONCERN ? There are tens of thousands who know now, “ this gift. Is this your fault? 1. How shall they hear without a preacher? 2. Have you spoken so as to be understood? 3. If not, resolve that for the future no man shall perish for lack of knowledge through your fault. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The preaching of Christ Our Lord found many a topic of discourse in the scenes around Him. Even the humblest objects shine in His hands as I have seen a fragment of broken glass or earthenware, as it caught the sunbeam, light up, flashing like a diamond. With the stone of Jacob’ s well for a pulpit, and its water for a text, He preached salvation to the Samaritan woman. A little child, which He takes from its mother’ s side, and holds up blushing in His arms before the astonished audience, is the text for a sermon on humility. A husbandman on a neighbouring height, between Him and the sky, who strides with long and measured steps over the field he sows, supplies a text from which He discourses on the Gospel and its effects on different classes of hearers. In a woman baking; in two women who sit by some cottage door grinding at the mill; in an old, strong fortalice, perched on a rock, whence it looks across the brawling torrent to the ruined and roofless gable of a house swept away by mountain floods--Jesus found texts. From the birds that sung above His head, and the lilies that blossomed at His feet, He discoursed on the care of God--these His text, and providence His theme. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Salvation must be accepted as a free gift A Christian lady was visiting a poor, sickly woman, and after conversing with her for a little she asked her if she had found salvation yet. “ No,” she replied, “ but I am working hard for it.” “ Ah, you will never get it that way,” the lady said. “ Christ did all the working when He suffered and died for us, and made complete atonement for our sins. You must take salvation solely as a gift of free unmerited grace, else you can never have it at all.” The poor woman was at first amazed beyond measure, and felt for the moment as if all hope had been taken from her; but very soon the enlightenment came, and she was enabled to rest joyously on Jesus alone. Christ, a priceless blessing Charles, Duke of Burgundy, being slain in battle by the Switzers at Nantz, anno 1476, had a jewel of very great value, which, being found about him, was sold by a soldier to a priest for a crown in money; the priest sold it for two crowns; afterwards it was sold for seven hundred florins, then for twelve thousand ducats, and last of all, for twenty thousand ducats, and set into the Pope’ s triple crown, where it is to be seen at this day. But Christ Jesus is of far more value, better than rubies, saith Solomon; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to Him. He is that pearl of great price which the merchant purchased with all that ever he had. No man can buy such gold too dear. Joseph, then a precious jewel of the world, was far more precious, had the Ishmaelitish merchants known so much, than all the balms and myrrhs that they transported; and so is Christ, as all will yield that know Him. (J. Spencer.) Salvation is a free gift Mr. Miller spoke of dealing with a very intelligent young man, an engineer, at one of the meetings in the Temperance Institute. The sermon had been on the grace of God, and one of the illustrations that Mr. Moody used was very helpful to the young man. It was that of a teacher who offered his watch to various members of his class, who one after another declined to receive it, thinking that the teacher was only joking with them. Presently, however, a very little boy reached out his hand and took it. This anecdote threw light into the man’ s mind; he had no idea that salvation was so free, or that, in fact, it was open to every man to receive or refuse it. Living water I. WHAT ARE WE TO BY THE GIFT BY LIVING WATER. 1. Christ, in an especial manner, is the “ gift” of God (John 3:16; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 9:15). (1) He is the chief fountain of salvation, both as the gift of God and living water. (2) An application to Him for this water arises from a knowledge of Him in order to which we must receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation Ephesians 1:17). 2. But the Holy Spirit is rather intended because He (1) Cleanses the soul from the guilt and pollution of sin (Ezekiel 36:25). (2) Refreshes the thirsty (verse 14; John 7:37). (3) Is the only source of life to the dead in sins, and having quickened He makes them fruitful in righteousness (Isaiah 32:15-18; Isaiah 44:3-4; Isaiah 51:3;Ephesians 2:9). II. THE OF THIS WATER. 1. We are filthy, and need to be cleansed. 2. We are unhappy, and need to be refreshed. 3. We are dead, and need to be made alive. 4. We are barren, and need to be made fruitful. III. THE OF THIS WATER (verse 14). IV. WHERE THIS WATER IS TO BE HAD, BY WHOM, AND ON WHAT TERMS. 1. It is to be had in Christ, not only as our God, but as our Brother. (1) It is procured for us by His death (John 16:7), and received on our behalf, in consequence of His resurrection and ascension (Psalms 68:18; Acts 2:33). (2) Hence He waits to bestow it on those who apply to Him (John Revelation 21:6); and from this consideration we have great encouragement to ask Christ for it. 2. It may be had (1) by all that are poor, and need it (Isaiah 41:17); (2) by all who thirst for it (John 7:37; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:17); (3) by all who come to Christ, “ If any man thirst,” said He, “ let him come unto Me” ; (4) and by all who ask, “ Thou wouldest have asked of Me.” 3. Though it was purchased dear by Christ, He gave a great price that He might have a right to impart it to sinners, and that He might render them capable of receiving it, yet we may have it as a free gift, “ without money and without price.” V. THE REASON WHY MEN ARE ABOUT IT, AND EITHER APPLY NOT TO CHRIST FOR IT, OR APPLY WITHOUT SUCCESS. 1. They know it not (John 14:17); neither its nature, value, nor necessity. 2. They know not Christ in the dignity of His person--in His great condescension and love--in the sufferings He endured that we might have this water--and as the fountain of it. 3. They do not apply, confess their need, nor ask its communication, or, if they ask, they do not ask aright, sincerely, earnestly, importunately, perseveringly, believingly, consistently. Application: 1. Ignorance, arising from an aversion to saving knowledge, and the love of sin, is no excuse (Isaiah 5:12-13; Luke 19:44). 2. The state and danger of those who remain destitute of the sacred influence of the Spirit. 3. The duty and advantage of immediate and fervent supplication for it Proverbs 1:22-28; Proverbs 1:32). (J. Benson.) The living water Water is the emblem of the Holy Ghost. All that is necessary to our life, and which has not died for us, is the emblem of the Holy Ghost. Breath, Light, Fire, Water: these are the figures which set Him forth. We need not dwell at any length upon the meaning of the words. Within us are great needs and deep thirsts which God only can satisfy: a thirst which grows within us by all else with which we seek to quench it. To know God; to rest in His love; to be led by His wisdom; to seek to please Him; to have His presence; to journey towards His house as our home--this is our rest, our peace, our satisfaction. (Mark Guy Pearse.) John 4:11-12 Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the Well is deep The woman’ s first rejoinder I. It is the property of natural men to take up spiritual things in a carnal way, and they are not able to discern grace till they have it; for, so doth this woman understand Christ, as if He were speaking of elementary water. II. We are naturally enemies to our own good, for she reasons against this living water, as, in her judgment, impossible to be had or given. III. We are also naturally so addicted to our own carnal sense, that we will believe nothing revealed by Christ further than we can see a reason or outward appearance for it; for she judged it impossible He could have living water, seeing He could not draw it out of that well, nor show a better. IV. A chief deceiving principle, making men careless of truth and grace, is their pretence of antiquity and succession unto it, and their descent from religious progenitors; for she boasted Jacob was their father, who gave the well, and therefore slighted the offer of a better, as being well enough in her own conceit. V. None are so ready to boast of antiquity and of interest in pious progenitors as those who have least cause so to do; for they were but heathens who had come in the room of Jacob’ s children, who had forfeited their right; and they were far from Jacob’ s spirit, who would satisfy their soul with that which only supplied his bodily necessity, and served his cattle as well as him. VI. It is a notable injury done unto Christ to plead any antiquity or succession to it, in prejudice of Him or His truth, or to cry up any above Him; for it was her fault to cry up Jacob, and her interest in him, that she might slight Him and His offer: “ Art thou greater than our father Jacob?” etc. VII. Sobriety and a simple way of living. It is a notable ornament to grace in the godly; when nature, which is content with little, is not overcharged with creatures, to the dishonour of God, abuse of the creatures, and prejudice of men’ s better state; and when men by their carriage declare that their bodies and flesh is not their best part, which they care most for, so much doth Jacob’ s practice teach us. (G. Hutcheson.) The source Our Lord’ s object was to bring the woman to seek salvation of Him. Our desire is the immediate conversion of all now present. The Samaritan woman accepted the Saviour upon the first asking. Many of you have been invited to Jesus many times--will you not at last comply? Our Lord aimed at her heart by plain teaching and home dealing--we will take the same course with our hearers. When His interestingemblem failed to reach her, He fell to downright literalism, and unveiled her life. Anything is better than allowing a soul to perish. I. WE WILL EXPOUND THE . The figure was that of living water in contrast to the water collected in Jacob’ s well, which was merely the gatherings of the surrounding hills--land-water, not spring-water. 1. Christ meant that His grace is like water from a springing well. (1) Of the best and most refreshing kind. (2) Living, and ministers life. (3) Powerful, and finds its own way. (4) Abiding, and is never dried up. (5) Abounding, and free to all comers. 2. Furthermore, He intimated to the woman that (1) He had it. There was no need of a bucket to draw with. (2) He had it to give. (3) He would have given it for the asking. (4) He alone could give it. It would be found in no earthly well. II. WE WILL ANSWER THE OF THE TEXT. In ignorance the woman,-inquired, “ Whence then hast Thou that living water?” We can at this time give a fuller reply than could have been given when our Lord sat on the well. He has now a boundless power to save, and that power arises 1. From His Divine nature, allied with His perfect humanity. 2. From the purpose and appointment of God. 3. From the anointing of the Holy Ghost. 4. From His redeeming work, which operated for good even before its actual accomplishment, and which is in full operation now. 5. From the power of His intercession at the Father’ s right hand. 6. From His representative life in glory. Now all power is delivered into His hand (Matthew 28:18). III. WE WILL DRAW CERTAIN FROM THE ANSWER. 1. Then He is still able to bless. Since He has this living water only from His unchanging self, He therefore has it now as fully as ever. 2. Then He needs nothing from us. He is Himself the one sole Fountain, full and all-sufficient for ever. 3. Then we need not fear exhausting His fulness. 4. Then at all times we may come to Him, and we need never fear that He will deny us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) verse 11 may be affirmed I. With regard to THE OF REASON APART FROM IN THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD. The name of Jehovah is “ secret” or “ wonderful,” and so are all the problems which concern the human spirit and its relationship to God. The world, for 4,000 years deifying reason, strove to work out the solution. But “ the world by wisdom knew not God” or man. But when reason fails, revelation, like rope and pitcher, fulcrum and lever, comes to our aid. In the Bible we have something to draw with, deep though the well may be. II. WITH REGARD TO THE MYSTERY OF GOD’ S . Many a sorrowing one has wailed out, “ Thy judgments are a great deep,” and there is nothing to gauge them in this imperfect world. But the hour will come when you shall have the needed appliance “ In Thy light we shall see light.” III. With regard to THE OF THE FUTURE. With all the pain of its mystery is it not a mercy that the well is deep, and that we have nothing to draw with? But our greatest comfort is that it is not too deep for Him, and He is drawing up what will work together for good to those who love Him. (J. R.Macduff, D. D.) Nothing? I. DO NOT ALL THE STREAMS OF LIFE FLOW FROM HIM? II. WHO FILLED THE OCEANS FROM THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND? III. WHO CAUSES THE CLOUDS AND MAKES THEM OF HIS RAIN? IV. WHO FOR OF YEARS HAS OPENED OF JOY IN MYRIADS OF HEARTS? (Van Doren.) Art Thou greater than our father Jacob? Hero-worship I. THIS OF HEROES HAS BEEN MAN’ S FOR AGES. II. THE OF THE RELICS OF ALL THE SAINTED MARTYRS WHEN BY . III. SAMARIA, THE OF JACOB AND THE TOMB OF JOSEPH, WAS A LAND OF . (Van Doren.) The bucket The ὑδρια, here “ bucket” of most of our early versions, must not be confounded with the ὑδρια, or “ water-pot” (John 4:28). It is the situla, generally made of skin, with three cross sticks tied round the mouth to keep it open. It is let down by a rope of goat’ s hair, and may be seen lying on the curb-stones of almost every well in the land. We may suppose the woman to have held this in her hand while she talked with the Lord, and reminded Him that He had nothing of the kind. (Abp. Trench.) Conduits for the water of life This well of the water of life is very deep, and we have nothing to draw with; therefore we must have our pipes and conduits to convey the same unto us; which are the Word of God preached, and the administration of the sacraments (John 5:25; John 6:63). (W. Perkins.) Deep wells 1. The well was so deep that it had already lasted a thousand and a half years. It was so deep that after as many more centuries have passed away it still exists. The neighbouring Sychar is no longer;but this spring rises as at the beginning as if to (1) Show the perpetuity of Nature’ s simplest and purest gifts. (2) To teach how much longer lived is a single word of benevolent utility than conquests and empires. (3) How much more deserving to live is the good deed that hides itself, as it were, underground, and connects itself with an eternal source, than all the monuments of pride that are piled up to perish. 2. More enduring than that ancient fountain, and ever fresh as its drops, and deep as the wants of man, Christ’ s gospel gushed up among the fainting nations. And profound as it was, that was no reason why all should not come empty-handed; no need of anything to draw with but a sincere and earnest wish to be supplied. What had the world done to deserve it? What had it brought to secure it? It had done evil and brought nothing but its emptiness and insufficiency. This train of reflection may be carried further. I. THE NATURE THAT WE SHARE IS DEEP. It would seem, if we were acquainted with anything it would be with this. We are perpetually observing it and acting it. And yet it is scarcely less beyond our perfect penetration than its Maker Himself. Whence we? What? Whither? Some navigator once struck the bottom of the Atlantic midway between its opposite shores; but who shall sound the soul of man?--so mean, so noble; so weak and mighty; so good and evil. What shall we draw with? With fellow-feeling and good-will. Enter with a generous sympathy into the joy and sorrow of others, and you shall know “ what spirit you are of.” II. HUMAN LIFE IS DEEP. Its successive ages as they move along from infancy to decrepitude, its common concerns, sudden changes, inscrutable appointments, various fortunes, unavoidable accidents, bewilder us. What shall we draw with? We must bring a spirit of submission, a religious spirit. We may hang for ever over the abysses of our being, and only grow giddy. We shall survey it best when we look above it to that Almighty One by whom its whole mystic relations arc combined--“ Our life is hidden in God.” Through Him it must receive its interpretations. III. TRUTH IS DEEP. Some have said that it is impossible to understand in the least so immeasurable a subject. I do not say how much we can absolutely know of God. But there is a capacity in us to be fully satisfied. Faith removes the worst difficulties by taking away every disposition of mistrust and resistance out of the heart. (N. L.Frothringham.) The difficulty of arriving at truth I. WHENCE IT COMES TO PASS THAT TRUTH WHICH SEEMS SO FOR EVERY MAN TO KNOW, SHOULD YET BE SO FOR ANY MAN TO COME AT. 1. It has been an ancient complaint among philosophers that truth hath lain in so deep a pit that they have never been able to discover the bottom of it. The like complaint we meet with in Scripture (Job 28:1-28.; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Ecclesiastes 8:16). 2. This is true (1) Of the knowledge of the works of God in the power of nature. (2) Of the works of God in the moral world (Psalms 72:2; Psalms 72:15; Jeremiah 12:1; Ecclesiastes 4:1). (3) Of practical duty itself. 3. This arises from the following facts: (1) There is necessarily in the nature of things themselves some difficulty, and in our understandings much imperfection. Some things are entirely above our capacities, and others we can only attain to by labour and study. Some things we can only know as probable at best. And those things which are most level to our understandings have at the bottom some subtle intricacies which limit the degree of our knowledge. In the clearest prospect there is a distance no eye can reach, and in the most intelligent parts of the works of God there is a depth which no finite eye can penetrate. But then these secrets are no part of that truth which it is necessary for us to know, and with care sufficient may be known of truth as is necessary to salvation. (2) Men perplex themselves by aiming at things not necessary to be known in regard to Christian practice, or at such degrees of knowledge as are not possible to be arrived at. Those persons are at a great distance who, while they have lost themselves in the labyrinth of an imaginary secret will of God, have neglected to obey His positive commands. Under this category come the Jewish doctors and the speculative philosophers and divines. (3) Prejudice and prepossession arising from custom of education and from men’ s depending on the opinion and authority of particular persons without examination. (4) The wickedness and perverseness of men, who for their own interests sometimes conceal it on purpose. II. BY WHAT MEANS EVERY SERIOUS AND SINCERE PERSON MAY YET OBTAIN TO SUCH A DEGREE OF TRUTH AS IS FOR . 1. He must take care that he in the first place resolves to do the will of God, then he shall know of the doctrine (Psalms 25:14). 2. He must be firmly resolved never to be deluded into the persuasion of anything contrary to plain and evident reason, which is the truth of God’ s creation; contrary to the attributes of God, which are the truth of the Divine nature; or contrary to the eternal differences of good and evil, which are the truth and foundation of all religion in general. Had men kept to this “ candle of the Lord,” men even of the meanest capacities could never have believed (1) Impossibilities such as transubstantiation, or contrary and unintelligible explications of true doctrines such as the subtle and empty speculations of the schoolmen, which are contrary to the truth of God’ s creation. (2) Nor that God absolutely decreed men to everlasting misery, which is contrary to the primary truth of the Divine nature. (3) Nor that cruelty and persecution should be set up for His sake, who came not to destroy but to save. Nor that any other wickedness should be made part of religion, which are contrary to the very foundation of religion. 3. He must diligently study Holy Scripture as the only authoritative guide in religion, so as to obey its plain precepts and believe its plain doctrines, and not be contentious or uncharitable about those he does not understand. (S. Clarke, M. A.) What may be seen in the well There is a tradition regarding one of the other sacred wells of Palestine--the Well of the Wise Men between Jerusalem and Bethlehem--that when the Eastern Magi had at one time lost the guidance of the mystic star, while stooping over this fountain they saw it once more reflected in its waters; forthwith it guided them to the place where the young child was--“ When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” True, at all events, is this beautiful tradition regarding God’ s providential dispensations. At times we lose the guiding star; it is swept from our firmament; we travel on in darkness, in our unpiloted way, led in our sorrowful musing to exclaim, “ Where is now my God?” But when on our bended knees we stoop over the well--ay, often in our very darkest night of mystery and sadness--lo! the heavenly light reappears; we see the lost star of Providence mirrored in the fountain of salvation. The work and the love of Christ explain what is otherwise often inexplicable. God our Maker--God our Redeemer--giveth “ songs in the night.” (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. The contrast I. IN EVERY BREAST THERE IS A CRAVING AFTER . “ Who will show us any good?” There are many streams of human enjoyment; some lawful and having the favour of God upon them; some mean and unworthy. But even the best, apart from the infinite excellence, can give no permanent satisfaction. The finite--philosophy, rank, conquest, gold--can never satisfy that which was born for the infinite. II. WHAT IS TO TAKE THE PLACE OF THIS WORLD’ S BROKEN ? You cannot dislodge one object of earthly affection without the substitution of something better. Nature abhors a vacuum. III. CHRIST DOES NOT CONDEMN MANY EARTHLY STREAMS OR FORBID THEM. The wants of our physical and social natures are co- ordinate with our spiritual. Jesus recognizes both, but says, “ If you restrict your journeyings to the wells of human happiness you will not be satisfied. But I have a well of living waters.” IV. THE HAS AN INNER WELL IN HIS SOUL which makes him independent of earthly good. This source of lasting joy is ever full, and having access to it he may say, “ Having nothing, yet possessing all things.” Christ in us the hope of glory. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) True religion I. IS THE GIFT OF CHRIST. This fact is confirmed 1. By reason. The evidences supplied by (1) Nature, (2) the Bible, show that their origin is Divine. So does (3) A holy life. 2. By the Bible. 3. By the song of the redeemed in heaven. This fact shows that (1) Christ’ s excellence is immense. (2) Christ’ s compassion is great. (3) Christ is worthy of all praise. II. HAS ITS IN MAN’ S INNER NATURE. Therefore 1. It cannot be destroyed by outward circumstances. In the cases of Job and Paul. 2. It will ever maintain its hold in man. Circumstances may take away every other gift, but not this. III. IN VALUE THE BEST THINGS IN NATURE. 1. It gives permanent satisfaction to the soul in this life--unlike the best other things. 2. It raises its possessor to perfect happiness in the future. IV. IS TO BE SECURED BY MAN’ S OWN . “ Whosoever drinketh.” 1. This is natural. God gives food, but we must eat: so God works in us what we have to work out. 2. This is reasonable. V. THE SAME EFFECT IN EVERY HEART. Whoever he may be religion will give him satisfaction. This shows 1. That it demands the reception of man universally. (1) It is adapted to the world. (2) It is what the world wants. 2. That it will one day secure universal order. (W. Griffiths.) The blessings of the gospel I. IN THEIR TYPE. “ Water.” 1. The flow of water represents the spread of the gospel (Isaiah 35:6-7; Isaiah 43:19-20). 2. The influence of water on vegetation illustrates the power of religion on human life (Psalms 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8). 3. The pleasant quietude of water represents the repose of soul which God affords (Psalms 23:2). 4. The quickening energy of water typifies the vivifying power of God’ s Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25). (1) No physical life without water, no moral life without religion. (a) Vegetable and animal life are absolutely dependent on water. (b) Water as an obstacle to terrestrial radiation saves our world daily from death. (c) So in every way the life of the soul depends on Christ. (2) No physical cleanliness without water; no moral purity apart from Christ. II. IS THEIR OF PROFIT. “ Drinketh.” They are 1. For all. 2. For all on one condition. 3. For all on the same condition--personal appropriation. III. IN THE MEDIUM OF THEIR . “ I shall give him.” We are indebted to the sun for all water fit for use. The sun lifts the water of the sea in the form of vapour, and by its unequal heat in different sections of the air causes the vapour to descend in rain and dew. All our fresh water owes its origin to this. The impure compound of the sea passes through heaven’ s laboratory and descends fit for use. All the energies of the Spirit’ s life are passed beneath Christ’ s magic touch. IV. IN THEIR . “ In Him,” etc. As the mountain is to water, so is a heart full of Christian sympathies to spiritual energies. 1. The water in dew and rain falls on the mountain; living things are refreshed, the land made fertile and beautiful; life made joyous. 2. The hills absorb the excess of moisture, the water percolating through the rock to inner caverns. 3. Thus when there is no rain or dew, and the heat is great, the mountain pours forth the stream it has treasured up to satisfy the wants of thirsty comers. So the child of God 1. Receives. 2. Is blessed. 3. Gives and blesses others. (Evan Lewis, B. A.) Life’ s ever springing well You have been busy all the week with external things, let us now turn to the inner life. We make even our religion too much external--let us turn from ecclesiastical ceremonies and questions to the life of the soul. Spiritual life is I. A DIVINE GIFT. 1. It is not a principle dwelling in man naturally, to be brought out of obscurity. Man is dead in trespasses and sins. 2. It is not produced in men by their own efforts, through the imitation of good examples, early instruction or gradual reform. 3. It is the gift (1) Of the Father, for He hath begotten us again into a lively hope. (2) Of the Son, through whose atoning sacrifice we receive it. (3) Of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us. 4. What is the practical lesson but that we must make our solemn appeal to the mercy of God for it? Justice awards death; grace alone can bring life. II. INWARD AND . 1. “ In Him.” Unconverted men find it too much trouble to look after the inward life, but take an easier method and imitate its outward manifestation. In the churches are many Christians like the stuffed animals in a museum: there is no difference between them and the living except in the vital point. The invisible, but most real, indwelling of the Holy Spirit makes the difference between the sinner and the saint. 2. “ In Him.” It is a personal matter. The presence of life in fifty relatives is of no service to the fifty-first if he is dead. All religion that is not personal is void. All the virtue that adorned your ancestors will not save you. The water which Jesus gives must be in every one of us if we would be saved. 3. How fares it with thee? Suppose there were no chapels or churches or means of grace, wouldst thou still be a Christian? III. A AND ACTIVE . Not a stagnant pool, nor a stream gently gliding on, but a spring forcing itself upwards. Springs are in perpetual motion, and no known power can stop them. 1. If heaps of rubbish are piled upon them they will force a course for themselves. So grace can well up (1) Through a mass of ignorance--as in very uninstructed but very beautiful Christians. (2) Through a mass of error--as in devout Roman Catholics. 2. Surrounding circumstances do not operate upon them as might be supposed. In frosty weather when the river is all ice the spring-head flows as ever. So a Christian may be placed in the worst circumstances, in an ungodly family, without the means of grace, but the inner life will not freeze. 3. This life passes through the severest ordeals and survives them--poverty, suffering, slander; over these the Christian triumphs. 4. Temptations threaten to destroy it; but let a man cast what rubbish he may into a living spring, the spring will purify itself and eject the filth, and so will the true Christian. IV. A AND THING. Jesus might well have reminded the woman how many had gathered round that well and passed away, but there was the old well unchanged. So all the world may change, but the inward principle in the Christian does not decay. Some wells are drained dry by drought, or because some deeper well has taken away the supplies. But the Christian’ s spring never fails, because he has struck the main fountain. His life is hid with Christ in God. V. PRE- AND . He who has Christ in him, the hope of glory, is perfectly satisfied. He could not have been content with the whole world beside. 1. Learning would only have revealed his ignorance. 2. Fame would only have made him more ambitious. 3. Wealth would have bowed him down with avarice. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The spring of living water Suggests I. THE OF LIFE IN CHRIST’ S . The idea of a running brook is that of freshness, a cheerfulness that never grows dull, an unwearied energy. 1. We have not to go far before we see weary faces that tell us that life has lost its freshness and has become a dreary thing, like a stream whose course has been obstructed, when the water stagnates and cannot carry off the foul and decaying things which have accumulated. 2. This has not been because of evil intent, but because life has become so dull and wearisome that they have not cared to keep it fresh and pure. 3. Once these lives were pure and gladsome, but something has come down into them that has put a stop to it all. 4. What is the cure? Not by removing the log or boulder, but by increasing the flow so that the stream can pass over or by it, or sweep it away. So God deals not with our circumstances, but with ourselves. He augments our spiritual life that in the rush of the mighty torrent the obstruction is removed. II. ALL THE MUSIC AND OF THE BROOK ARISE FROM THINGS THAT WOULD PROVE WERE IT WEAKER. The pebbles or boulders would alike stop the music and flow of the stream that was not large enough to pass them. So it is with us. If we have within us that spring that leapeth up into eternal life it will make music out of the very things that would otherwise have stopped our prayers. Out of the cares of life,the sudden shocks of misfortune, there shall be nothing but joyous song. (A. Poulton.) The springing fountain There are two kinds of wells, one a simple reservoir, another containing the waters of a spring. It is the latter kind which is spoken about here, as is clear not only from the meaning of the word in the Greek, but also from the description of it as “ springing up.” That suggests at once the activity of a fountain. A fountain is the emblem of motion, not of rest. Its motion is derived from itself, not imparted to it from without. Its silver column rises ever heavenward, though gravitation is too strong for it, and drags it back again. So Christ promises to this ignorant, sinful Samaritan woman that if she chose He would plant in her soul a gift which would thus well up, by its own inherent energy, and fill her spirit with music, and refreshment, and satisfaction. I. First, CHRIST’ S GIFT IS HERE AS A WITHIN. Most men draw their supplies from without; they are rich, happy, strong, only when externals minister to them strength, happiness, riches. For the most of us, what we have is that which determines our felicity. Take the lowest type of life, for instance, the men of whom, alas! the majority, I suppose, every time is composed, who live altogether on the low plane of the world, and for the world alone, whether their worldliness take the form of sensuous appetite, or of desire to acquire wealth and outward possessions. The thirst of the body is the type of the experience of all such people. It is satisfied and slaked for a moment, and then back comes the tyrannous appetite again. And, alas! the things that you drink to satisfy the thirst of your souls are too often like a publican’ s adulterated beer, which has got salt in it, and chemicals, and all sorts of things to stir up, instead of slaking and quenching the thirst. And even if we rise up in a higher region and look at the experience of the men who have in some measure learned that a man’ s life “ consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesses,” nor in the abundance of the gratification that his animal nature gets, but that there must be an inward spring of satisfaction, if there is to be any satisfaction at all; if we take men who live for thought, and truth, and mental culture, and yield themselves up to the enthusiasm for some great cause, and are proud of saying, “ My mind to me a kingdom is,” though that is a far higher style of life than the former, yet even that higher type of man has so many of his roots in the external world that he is at the mercy of chances and changes, and he, too, has deep in his heart a thirst that nothing, no truth, no wisdom, no culture, nothing that addresses itself to one part of his nature, though it be the noblest and the loftiest, can ever satisfy and slake. If you have Christ in your heart then life is possible, peace is possible, joy is possible, under all circumstances and in all places. Every- thing which the soul can desire, it possesses. You will be like men that live in a beleaguered castle, and in the courtyard a sparkling spring, fed from some source high up in the mountains, and finding its way in there by underground channels which no besiegers can ever touch. The world may be all wintry and white with snow, but there will be a bright little fire burning on your own hearthstone. You will carry within yourselves all the essentials to blessedness. If you have “ Christ in the vessel” you can smile at the storm. II. Christ’ s gift is a springing fountain. The emblem, of course, suggests motion by its own inherent impulse. Water may be stagnant, or it may yield to the force of gravity and slide down a descending river-bed, or may be pumped up and lifted by external force applied to it, or it may roll as it does in the sea, drawn by the moon, driven by the winds, borne along by currents that owe their origin to outward heat or cold. But a fountain rises by an energy implanted within itself, and is the very emblem of joyous, free, self- dependent and self-regulated activity. “ And so,” says Christ, “ The water that I shall give him shall be in him a springing fountain;” it shall not lie there stagnant, but leap like a living thing, up into the sunshine, and flash there, turned into diamonds, when the bright rays smile upon it. So here is the promise of two things; the promise of activity, and the thought of activity, which is its own law. 1. The promise of activity. Some of us are fretting ourselves to pieces, or are sick of a vague disease, and are morbid and miserable because the highest and noblest parts of our nature have never been brought into exercise. Surely this promise of Christ’ s should come as a true gospel to such, offering as it does, if we will trust ourselves to Him, a springing fountain of activity into our hearts that shall fill our whole being with joyous energy, and make it a delight to live and to work. It will bring to us new powers, new motives; it will set all the wheels of life going at double speed. 2. And there is not only a promise of activity here, but of activity which is its own law and impulse. There is a blessed promise in two ways. In the first place, law will be changed into delight. We shall not be driven by a commandment standing over us with whip and lash, or coming behind us with spur and goad, but that which we ought to do we shall rejoice to do; and inclination and duty will coincide in all our lives when our life is Christ’ s life in us. And then, in the second place, that same thought of an activity which is its own impulse and its own law suggests another aspect of the blessedness, namely, that it sets us free from the tyranny of external circumstances which absolutely shape the lives of so many of us. III. The last point here is THAT CHRIST’ S GIFT IS A , “ UP INTO LIFE.” The water of a fountain rises by its own impulse, but howsoever its silver column may climb it always falls back into its marble basin. But this fountain rises higher, and at each successive jet higher, tending towards, and finally touching, its goal, which is at the same time its course. The water seeks its own level, and the fountain climbs until it reaches Him from whom it comes, and the eternal life in which He lives. We might put that thought in two ways. 1. The gift is eternal in its duration. The Christian character is identical in both worlds, and however the forms and details of pursuits may vary, the essential principle remains one. So that the life of a Christian man on earth and his life in heaven are but one stream, as it were, which may indeed, like sonic of those American rivers, run for a time through a deep, dark canon, or in an underground passage, but conies out at the further end into broader, brighter plains and summer lands; where it flows with a quieter current and with the sunshine reflected on its untroubled surface into the calm ocean, He has one gift and one life for earth and heaven--Christ and His Spirit, and the life that is consequent upon both. 2. And then the other side of this great thought is that the gift tends to, is directed towards, or aims at and reaches, everlasting life. The whole of the Christian experience on earth is a prophecy and an anticipation of heaven. Christ’ s gift mocks no man, it sets in motion no hopes that it does not fulfil; it stimulates to no work that it does not crown with success. If you want a life that reaches its goal, a life in which all your desires are satisfied, a life that is full of joyous energy, that of a free man emancipated from circumstances and from the tyranny of unwelcomed law, and victorious over externals, open your hearts to the gift that Christ offers you; the gift of Himself, of His death and passion, of His sacrifice and atonement, of His indwelling and sanctifying Spirit. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Human expedients and Divine provision I. HUMAN of happiness. “ Whosoever … thirst again.” 1. Gross and dissipated pleasure brings disappointment and remorse. 2. In refined and intellectual pursuits “ is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” 3. Business brings gain, but “ they that will be rich fall into a snare,” etc. 4. Leisure makes the hours hang heavily, is attended with satiety, and becomes a burden. 5. The conscience-stricken seeks a palliative in drowsy reflection or in resolutions and duties, but finds that he is compassing himself about with sparks that yield no warmth. All “ broken cisterns” and “ vanity and vexation of spirit.” II. DIVINE . “ Whosoever … shall never thirst,” etc. This water, the saving grace of Christ, Isaiah 1. Excellent in its nature. The property of water is to cool, cleanse, fertilize, and refresh; no element is so indispensable. The rich grace of Christ produces, maintains, increases, completes life and makes it immortal. 2. Divine in its origin. Seek it not in ordinances; they are only channels. Use them, but do not rest in them. Look to Jesus, the author and fountain of life. 3. Free in its communication. “ Give.” Nothing is more free than a gift. Why is the grace of Christ so free? Because (1) It is too precious to be bought. (2) It is already procured by Christ. (3) He must have all the glory. 4. Satisfying in its effects. “ Shall never thirst” (1) Offer any other water, but he will ever thirst for this, and the more he receives the more he will crave. (2) He shall be satisfied with the kind of food he finds, though not with the degree. (3) These effects are not produced by hearing, but by receiving. 5. Constant in its supplies (1) Not only near, but in him. “ A good man is satisfied from himself.” (2) A well, not a shallow draught, a scanty stream, or stagnant pool--denoting the plentiful effusion, the large abundance, thecontinued freshness, the glorious sufficiency of the grace of the Saviour. 6. Active in its operations. It is not given to be dormant, but to operate. 7. Eternally glorious in its results. III. BY WAY OF INQUIRE WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS. 1. Some are ignorant and careless. 2. In some there is beginning of thirst. 3. Some have drunk. Then (1) Be thankful. (2) Remember your constant need of Christ. (3) Seek the salvation of others. (T. Kidd.) Holy water I. THE WAY OF TRUE . 1. It must come to us as a gift. There is no suggestion (1) Of digging; it is freely handed to us. (2) Of purchasing; it is presented without price. (3) Of fitness. The woman was a sinner. The Divine life is not in us by nature, cannot be produced by culture, nor infused by ceremonies, nor propagated. Wisdom cannot impart it, nor power fashion it, nor money buy it, nor merit procure it; grace alone can give it. 2. It is a gift from Jesus. All its details are connected with Him: redemption, forgiveness, deliverance from the power of sin, instruction, example. He is our all in all. 3. It is a gift that must be received. When we drink water it enters into us and becomes part of us: even so must we receive Christ into our innermost self; not professing to believe in Him or admiring Him; but so trusting Him, loving Him, living in Him that He becomes one with us. II. THE POWER OF TRUE . 1. Grace relieves our soul thirst as soon as received. A man once startled from sinful indifference finds an “ aching void” within him. He tries riches, but money cannot satisfy him; he seeks after knowledge, but study is a meanness; he dazzles his fancy with fame, charms his eye with beauty and his ear with music, but “ all is vanity.” But he who has received Christ has received at-one-ment with God, and God delights in him. 2. Grace continues to quench our thirst--though it strives to return it is always met by the well within. 3. This is a matchless blessing and averts a thousand ills. What should we have been without it? III. THE ABIDING OF TRUE . 1. It is “ in Him.” Here is a man trying to write poetry, but it is not in him, and it cannot come out of him, so he rhymes his nonsense, but a poet he never becomes; but if a man has it in him who can take it away? So with art and education. Much more with religion. 2. It is in him a well of living water, always there as an operative force as permanent as Jacob’ s well which was there in the patriarch’ s day, and is there now. True religion is like a well, because it is independent of surroundings and circumstances. In summer and winter does it flow. The pond overflows because there has been a shower of rain, but the deep well is full in the drought. So the believer is not exalted by wealth nor crushed by poverty. 3. It is a well that is springing and never ceases to flow. The great motives which set a believer working at first are as forcible in old age. 4. It springs up into everlasting life. Grace blossoms into glory. IV. THE OUTCOME OF ALL THIS. 1. Where did you get your religion? From your Father, or is it of your own manufacture? 2. What has your religion done for you? Has it quenched your thirst? 3. Does your religion abide with you or do you remove it with your Sunday hat? 4. Does your religion spring up within you by the energy of the Holy Spirit? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Living water The incident shows 1. The equal right of womankind to spiritual privileges. 2. The intellectual capacity of woman. The topics discussed were no less abstract than those talked over with Nicodemus. 3. Our Lord’ s mode of inculcating religious truth. (1) From homely facts. (2) Facts of which the hearers’ minds were full at the time. I. BY WATER. Water has three main uses. 1. Fertilizing. There is an inspiring power in the truths, motives, and enjoyments of religion, and tends to transform the man. 2. Purifying. Religion cleanses the character, sanctifies the life, destroys sinful habits, fosters pure thoughts, kindles holy feelings, and stimulates to holy conduct. 3. Thirst quenching. Religion meets the soul’ s aspiration for life by the promise of life everlasting; quenches its thirstings for happiness by giving it fellowship with God; meets its dissatisfaction with the world by opening before it heaven’ s joy. II. THE OF AS BY THE WELL-WATER. 1. Its activity is implied in its being a spring well, not a pool. Religion is a never-ceasing stream of influence. When it is still it stagnates and becomes foul, promotive of the worst qualities of human nature. 2. This activity is elevating and progressive in its effects. Water springs up into life in all it nourishes. In the tree it Supplies the roots with sap, which is water springing up into fruit and flower. The results of religion are growth in those moral qualities which live for ever in happiness. III. THE OF AS BY THE WELL IN THE MAN. 1. Where it is within the man it exercises its power over his life apart from external influences and in spite of them. Men’ s moral characters must be moulded from within. External motives demoralize. 2. The comforts of religion, seeing they are within the man, are ever sure and uninterrupted. In ancient times when cities were liable to be besieged and all outside sources cut off, it was a matter of no small moment to have wells within the walls. This rendered the inhabitants more defiant of the enemy, seeing they were thus scarce of the necessaries of life. (A. J. Parry.) Living water 1. It is characteristic of John that this metaphor omitted in the other Gospels should be preserved by him. 2. This emblem of spiritual vitality was not new (Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 41:17; Isaiah 14:18;Jeremiah 2:13). 3. The prophetic Scriptures, however, were unknown to the woman, for the Samaritans only received the Pentateuch, and had she known them it is not likely that she would have caught their inner sense. 4. Christ is the true well of life. In Him all fulness dwells. What a claim to be made by the carpenter of Nazareth; either an unpardonable exaggeration or a witness to His Divinity. 5. The water drawn from Christ as the well is the Spirit of life He imparts. 6. The points of analogy are obvious. (1) As the well was free to all comers, so is Christ free and accessible to all (Isaiah 55:1). (2) As water is a necessary of life and has power to enliven the faint and refresh the weary, so the Holy Spirit is necessary to the interior life and able to restore the discouraged and revive the languid. 7. The point of contrast was that water from Jacob’ s well would give but temporary relief, because water imbibed is soon worked off or consumed in the waste of the system. But the living water is not spent or exhausted in the operation of the spiritual life. The Holy Ghost abides. 8. See how we have to do with the Christ without and the Christ within. As the woman had to go beyond the town to reach the well, so every one must go beyond himself and his whole social environment and come to Jesus. Then Christ enters the heart that has asked of Him and dwells there. 9. There ought to be increase of spiritual life. The inward well may be deepened and the stream have a more copious flow. Alas! how often is it choked and all but dried up with worldliness! 10. The career of Jesus is an example of life in the Spirit. How strong its current was is shown by His forgetfulness of His physical want when the opportunity came of opening spiritual things. (Donald Fraser, D. D.) Living water I. THE NATURE OF THE GIFT. Spring water, i.e., Christ Himself the Life is His own gift. II. ITS . 1. Always fresh. (1) History is a storehouse of buried memories, some of which are galvanized into momentary life by antiquarians, but which soon die away since they belong to a past age and do not answer to our wants or correspond to our sympathies. But Christ’ s words spoken 1800 years ago have the same force and attraction as though they were novelties of yesterday. His actions, His life as a whole speak to the nineteenth century as to the first, provoking the same hostility, winning the same empire. (2) As He is in history, so He is in the soul. In that treasure house of the dead, amid all that is stagnant, all that belongs to the irrevocable past, all that bears the mark of change and corruption, there is for Christians one thought that is for ever fresh, one memory for ever invigorating, one tide of pure passion--Jesus. 2. A spring of water is in perpetual motion; so (1) Christ, in history and in the soul, is ever different and yet the same. The sky presents the same outline of clouds on no two days; the sea, visit it when we may, never looks quite as it looked before. Yet they are the same. So Christ is to us what He was to our forefathers, and yet displays to each successive generation new aspects of His power and perfection: at the same time stability and progress. (2) He is the source of movement in the soul. He has set it moving, and keeps it moving--even the very intelligence that would drive Him from His throne; for His truths have moved the depths of our being, so that whether a man accepts them or not he cannot rest as though he had never heard them. Faculties dormant for years are stirred to meet Him, and He keeps them in motion by fresh aspects of His power and beauty. (3) In Christian theology. The Christian creed is said to be the stagnation of active thought. Undoubtedly it gives a fixed form to our ideas, so as to render superfluous the discussion of matters on which the light of Divine certainty has been thrown. But fixed thought is no more the antagonist of active thought than the rim of the well was hostile to the springing water. 3. Springing water fertilizes. (1) Christ is the great fertilizer of the soul of man--of (a) The intellect; for He made it capable of the productions of genius. (b) The affections. Family life in Europe is His work. His authority reflected in the Christian father, His tenderness in the Christian mother, His obedience in the Christian child. (c) The will; making it capable of new measures of sacrifice and heroism. (2) Christ is the fertilizer of nations, and without Him the civilization of Europe would be exchanged for the civilization of China or Japan. III. THE SCENE OR SEAT OF THE GIFT. “ In Him.” 1. Others have done great works (1) Effecting vast changes on the surface of human life in founding empires, changing customs, laws, and languages. (2) Some have gone deeper--founding empires of ideas. 2. Christ has done more--more than the founding of a kingdom or of a philosophy; for a government may be hated while obeyed, a philosophy accepted without love. But Christ reigns and teaches in human hearts as a friend. 3. Hence Christians know the secret of man’ s dignity. Before Christ came the dignity of man as man was unknown. When He came He placed within the reach of emperor and slave the only ennobling gift--His presence and power within. 4. This gift is also the secret of the Christian’ s spiritual independence. If Christians were dependent on the things of sense, the world might crush it out. The world prescribed Christian worship, destroyed the Scriptures, but was powerless against the presence of the Divine Redeemer. IV. ITS EFFECT. “ Everlasting life.” Without it man would not be happy in heaven. (Canon Liddon.) Living water, or vital religion I. In its SOURCE. 1. It is a gift. Human nature is an arid desert, unproductive of a single drop of water. 2. It is a free gift. Water is one of the freest gifts of nature. You charge for milk, you give water. Christ gives liberally, and upbraids not. He is too rich to sell, we too poor to buy. 3. It is a free gift, which only Himself can give--not His apostles or their successors. 4. A free gift to whomsoever desires it. He has enough to quench the thirst of all mankind. II. In its NATURE. 1. It is personal. Christian nations do not make Christian individuals, but vice versa The former one a great blessing, the latter a greater. 2. It is inward. (1) “ Our life is hid with Christ in God” ; that is, our objective or justification life. (2) God’ s life is hid with Christ in us; that is, our subjective or regenerate life. 3. It is Divine--the same in kind as in God. “ All my springs are in Thee.” III. In its . 1. It is active. It varies in feeling; but let us not forget that it is first principle--a well of water, not necessarily hot water. You may adopt means to make it hot, but hot or cold it is water all the same. 2. It is cleansing. (1) Hercules turned a river through the filthy Augean stables; Christ turns the river of Divine grace into the sinner’ s heart. Springs in soft soils carry up particles of sand in order to carry them away. So grace, as it bubbles up in the heart, disturbs the sands of defilement. (2) It cleanses society, and has washed away unnameable sins, and will go on with the work of refinement till the face of the earth is made like the face of heaven. 3. It is satisfying (Psalms 36:8). IV. In its . 1. It is aspiring. Christianity is aspiring, but not satiating, not inconsistent with hope and effort. The believer wants nothing but God, but more of Him. 2. It will at last reach everlasting life. The life implanted in regeneration will continue for ever. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) The water of life I. ITS DONOR. Yonder poor man who asks for refresh-ment 1. Professes to have this water. 2. Is able to supply it. 3. Was appointed to give it. 4. Has the disposition to do so. 5. Has never denied it. II. ITS . “ In Him.” 1. The internal principle of religion is not to be opposed to external practice: works must evidence experience. 2. Yet Divine things must be known and felt before they can govern us. God begins with the heart. 3. The religion of some people is all external. (1) That of some depends on external occurrences, like a stream produced by a storm instead of being supplied by a spring. Sickness, poverty, etc., make some men religious for a time. (2) That of others consists in external performances. Obedience is not enjoyed as their meat, but as their medicine. (3) The religion of a third is found in their connections. They leave it to their ministers or parents to think for them. (4) The religion of a fourth is all in Christ. They ridicule the very notion of a work of grace in us. III. ITS . 1. Real Christians are everywhere represented as active--husband-men, reapers, warriors, racers. 2. The design of the gospel is to produce a people zealous for good works. 3. The graces of the Holy Spirit are not dormant, but active. 4. All the images of the gospel imply the same thing--leaven, fire, force of vegetation. IV. ITS . 1. It weans us from the world. 2. It sets our affections on things above. 3. It promotes the heavenly life below. (W. Jay.) The longing for unknown happiness “ We have an idea of happiness,” says a great French writer, who has bequeathed, as a legacy, the stray but profound imaginings of his mind about God--“ we have an idea of happiness, and yet we cannot grasp it; we are conscious of an image of the true, yet we possess only the false. There is an ignorance; yet not absolute. There is a knowledge; yet not certainty.” Yes. We are always haunted by a memory or stimulated by a hope. We are always looking after something; we hardly know what it is. (Knox Little.) Riches unsatisfying Very few men acquire wealth in such a manner as to receive pleasure from it. Just as long as there is the enthusiasm of the chase they enjoy it; but when they begin to look around, and think of settling down, they find that that part by which joy enters is dead in them. They have spent their lives in heaping up colossal piles of treasure, which stand, at the end, like the pyramids in the desert sands, holding only the dust of kings. (H. W. Beecher.) The unsatisfying nature of worldly things As a cup of pleasant wine offered to a condemned man on the way to his execution; as the feast of him who sat under a naked sword hanging perpendicularly over his head by a slender thread; as Adam’ s forbidden fruit, seconded by a flaming sword; as Belshazzar’ s dainties overlooked by a handwriting against the wall: such are all the empty delights of the world--in their matter and expectation, earthly; in their acquisition, painful; in their fruition, nauseous and cloying; in their duration, dying and perishing; in their operation, hardening, effeminating, leavening, puffing up, estranging the heart from God; in their consequences seconded with anxiety, solitude, fear, sorrow, despair, disappointment. (J. Spencer.) Worldly things unsatisfying He that seeks to satisfy his lusts goes about an endless business. “ Give, give!” is the horse-leech’ s language. The worldling hath enough to sink him but not to satisfy him. (J. Trapp.) Worldly things unsatisfying I have read a story of a man whom Chrysostom did feign to be in prison. “ Oh,” saith he, “ if I had but liberty, I would desire no more!” He had it; and then cried, “ If I had enough for necessity, I would desire no more.” He had it; and then cried, “ Had I a little for variety, I would desire no more.” He had it; and then cried, “ Had I any office, were it the meanest, I would desire no more.” He had it; and cried again, “ Had I but a magistracy, though over one town only, I would desire no more.” He had it; and then sighed, “ Were I but a prince, I would desire no more.” He had it; and then sighed, “ Were I but a king, I would desire no more.” He had it; and then cried, “ Were I but an emperor, I would desire no more.” He had it; and then exclaimed, “ Were I but emperor of the whole world, I would then desire no more.” He had it; and then he sat down with Alexander, and wept that there were no more worlds for him to possess. Now, did any man come to enjoy what he is said to desire, it would be but a very mean portion compared with God. (Thomas Brooks.) The worth of the water of life I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THIS WATER CHRIST GIVETH. The gifts and graces of the Spirit (John 7:38-39). 1. The gift of regeneration to become God’ s child. 2. The gift of faith to believe God’ s promises. 3. The gift of obedience to do God’ s will. 4. The gift of prayer to seek God’ s presence. 5. The gift of comfort to endure God’ s trials. 6. The gift of strength to hold out and continue God’ s servant. II. CHRIST IS ABLE AND WILLING TO GIVE THIS WATER. 1. Able (Psalms 36:9; Zechariah 13:1; Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:3). 2. Willing (Matthew 11:28; John 7:37; Rev Isaiah 55:1). III. HOW CHRIST BESTOWS THIS WATER. 1. By the preaching of the Word. 2. By the sacraments. 3. By prayer. IV. THE PARTIES TO WHOM CHRIST WILL GIVE THIS WATER. Those wire thirst (Isaiah 4:1; Matthew 5:6; John 7:27; Revelation 22:18). If there be no thirsting, there shall be no refreshing. V. THE BENEFIT OF THE WATER. Never thirst, because the fountain is never dry. VI. THE SIGNS OF HAVING THIS WATER. 1. A clear sight of thine own soul’ s estate. 2. Purity of heart. 3. Satisfaction in Christ. (S. Hieron.) The deceptive character of this world’ s good Many years ago, when the Egyptian troops conquered Nubia, a regiment was destroyed by thirst in crossing this desert. The men, being upon a limited supply of water, suffered from extreme thirst, and deceived by the appearance of a mirage that exactly resembled a beautiful lake, they insisted on being taken to its banks by the Arab guide. It was in vain that the guide assured them that the lake was unreal, and he refused to lose the precious time by wandering from his course. Words led to blows, and he was killed by the soldiers whose lives depended on his guidance. The whole regiment turned from the track and rushed towards the welcome waters. Thirsty and faint, over the burning sands they hurried; heavier and heavier their footsteps became, hotter and hotter their breath, as deeper they pushed into the desert, farther and farther from the lost track where the pilot lay in his blood; and still the mocking spirits of the desert, the affects of the mirage, led them on, and the lake, glistening in the sunshine, tempted them to bathe in its cool waters, close to their eyes, but never at their lips. At length the delusion vanished; the fatal lake had turned to burning sand. Raging thirst and horrible despair! the pathless desert and the murdered guide! lost! lost! all lost! Not a man ever left the desert, but they were subsequently discovered, parched and withered corpses, by the Arabs sent in search. (Sir S. Baker.) Unsatisfactory nature of this world’ s good A striking proof we have of this is the example of Solomon, who, with every advantage, made the experiment what earth and earthly things could do to satisfy the soul of man. Whichever way he turned, and in whatever quarter he inquired, he found that all is vanity and vexation of spirit. If he thought to prove his heart with mirth, and to enjoy pleasure, this also was vanity; so that he was forced to say of laughter, “ It is mad,” and of mirth, “ What doeth it?” If he increased his goods, and gathered silver and gold, he found what the experience of all ages has confirmed, that he who loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase--this also was vanity. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) The most renowned of earthly conquerors seated himself by that well. He brought the monarchs of the world to be his drawers of water; each with his massive goblet going down for the draught, and laying the tribute at the victor’ s feet. But the tears of the proud recipient have passed into a proverb; and if we could ask him to translate these dumb tears into words, his reply would be, “ Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” (J. R.Macduff, D. D.) Perinal supplies There is an Eastern legend which says that there was a fair fountain by which an angel once rested, and in a favoured hour he infused into it a mysterious power, so that if only some drops of its water were scattered in a barren plain a fountain would spring up; and thenceforth any traveller who came to the spring might, after refreshing himself, take some water from it, and carry with him on his journey the secret of unfailing springs, and might suffer no fear of thirst. And is not the water which Christ gives like that, only it is given by the Lord of angels? (Donald Fraser, D. D.) Life-streams The Son of God gives living water--first, by giving Himself to redeem the world which was pining away in death; and secondly, by making the life which is in Him for the redeemed, to be, through the Holy Ghost (Romans 8:2), a happy, blessed life in them. In the beginning life was in Him (John 1:4); and this life-stream of the eternal Word, which forth from Paradise flowed through this world’ s dark valley of death, until its whole fulness was collected in the flesh of the Son of Man--this life-stream will never dry up, but will ever become deeper and broader (Ezekiel 47:1-23.); in the kingdom of grace, imparting grace for grace to all who drink thereof for their healing from sin and death, and in the paradise of the new, glorified earth, refreshing the perfected saints with rapture for ever and ever (Revelation 22:1-17). (R. Berser.) The freeness of salvation and the cost of the means Dr. Adam Clarke once preached on the words, “ Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” At the conclusion of the discourse he announced a collection. “ How can you, Doctor,” asked a lady afterwards, “ reconcile the freeness of the water of life with the collection at the close” ? “ Oh, madame,” answered the learned and venerable divine, “ God gives the water without money and without price; but you must pay for the water-works, for the pipes, and the pitchers which convey the water to your neighbourhood.” Remember, you pay nothing to God; you are charged nothing for the water; but you cannot have convenient chapels to sit in without paying for them, nor a regular ministry to urge the water on your acceptance, without making a suitable provision for its support. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The satisfaction within I visited two lakes not far apart in a mountainous district of North Wales, namely, Bala and Arenig. Having noticed that one was somewhat muddy and discoloured whilst the other was beautiful and clear, quite transparent down to its bed, where the eye could distinctly see the fishes flitting to and fro, I asked my companion what might be the reason for this difference. He replied, Bala Lake, whose waters are discoloured, is replenished by streams which flow into it, and which bring with them the soft and debris they gather up in their course down the hill-side and through the alluvial earth. But the Arenig, whose water is so beautifully transparent and placid, is supplied by springs bubbling up within its own bosom; hence they bring with them no defiling elements. Herein I found a parable. The motives which are supplied by the world--its pride, its wealth, its fashion, and fame--are corrupt, and as they enter the mind they pollute it. But those supplied by religion, which is a well-spring within, are pure in themselves and purify the whole man. (A. J. Parry.) The best happiness within Here the fountain is within, the streams of happiness have their source in the heart itself, they do not flow to a man from without, but spring up in his own happy breast. A good man, it is written, shall be satisfied from himself; he is not happy because his corn and wine and oil are increased; but because God lifts up upon him the light of His countenance, and fills him with joy and peace in believing, so that he abounds in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. He despises not the earthly comforts which God gives him, nor does he turn austerely from them. Nay, he enjoys them with double relish as the gifts of a reconciled Father, and eats his meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God. The joys of friendship and social intercourse, and the charities of domestic life, he can taste too as well as others, and has them of a purer and more exalted kind. But still his best happiness is from within, a peaceful conscience, a pure heart, a firm trust in God, a freedom from anxious care and covetous desire, love of the brethren, the delight of doing good, patience in adversity, and the hope of eternal glory. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) Man’ s longings satisfied by Christ If you look over the dreamy aspirations of the Ancient and Middle Ages, you will find that they resolve themselves into two--a thirst for the elixir of immortality, and a longing for the philosopher’ s stone. The elixir was believed to possess the power to impart immortality to man, and the stone to possess the power to convert all baser metals into pure gold. The elixir was to set me right, the stone to set my circumstances right. But I need not remind you that the alchemists could neither concoct the one nor discover the other. Notwithstanding all their efforts, man remained both mortal and indigent. But these, like all other deep longings of our nature, are met and satisfied in Christianity. Christ gives to man “ the white stone with the new name” --this is the real Philosopher’ s Stone, and it will set our circumstances right by and by. He also gives us the Water of Life, which is the genuine Elixir of Immortality, and will render our persons really and truly immortal. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) “ Swinging up into everlasting life” Water, by a well-known law of hydrostatics, never rises above its own level; and so the best of earthly joys and rills of pleasure can rise no higher than earth: they begin and terminate here. But the living water with which Christ fills the soul, springing from heaven, conducts to heaven again. Flowing from the Infinite--flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, from the city of the crystal sea--it elevates to the Infinite. It finds its level in the river of the water of life which flows in the midst of the celestial Paradise. And just as on earth, so long as our mighty lake-reservoirs are full of water and the channel unimpeded, the marble fountain in street or garden, sends up, on the gravitation principle, its crystal jets in unfailing constancy; so (with reverence we say it) never shall these fountains of peace and joy and reconciliation and hope cease in the heart of the believer until the mighty reservoirs of Deity are exhausted; in other words, until God Himself ceases to be God. Everlasting life is their source, and everlasting life is their magnificent duration. We have witnessed the memorable and interesting spot at the roots of Mount Hermon, familiarly known as “ the sources of the Jordan.” There, the river of Palestine is seen bubbling out of a dark cave, and thence hastens on through its long tortuous course to lose its waters in the Sea of Death. That is the picture and illustration of every stream of earthly happiness. They terminate with the grave. But this inner fountain in the hidden man of the believer’ s heart flows onward to the Sea of Life; and the hour which terminates the worldling’ s happiness only truly begins his. (J. R. Macduff, D. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 4:15 Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not.-- The thirst of life and its satisfaction in Christ I. The poor sinful heart--astray and deceived--. II. The soul led aright and brought to itself by repentance-- TO BE . III. The soul transformed into purity and blessed life by grace-- . IV. The soul in glory rejoicing in the beatific vision--FULLY . The water of life I. I AM TO TRY TO EXCITE YOUR DESIRE BY A OF THIS WATER. Spiritual things must be described by natural analogies. You must have water or you die. So must you have grace. Water Isaiah 1. Thirst removing. 2. Life preserving. 3. Filth purging. 4. Softening. The hardest heart yields before the power of the love of God. 5. Fire quenching. The fire of lust, envy, malice, anger, and unholy desire. 6. Spring creating. Wherever the water of life falls it makes a new spring, and never gets fiat, dull, or dead. 7. Fruit producing in proportion to the quantity we drink. 8. Heaven ascending. Water rises to its level. If we have grace that began with us it will never get higher than ourselves. If grace which the priest gave, no higher than the priest. But the true grace of God comes down from heaven, and will carry us whence it came. II. TO CHEER YOUR HEARTS WITH SOME UPON THE OF YOUR GETTING THIS LIVING WATER. Supposing that you want it. 1. No ordinary man would deny another water. The giving of grace by the Saviour no more than the giving of water by you. 2. If you would refuse water to some, you would not refuse it to the thirsty; and Jesus never refused a thirsty sinner yet. 3. There is plenty of it, and it is free. John speaks of a river. Who fears to exhaust the Thames? The source may be private, but as soon as it gets a considerable stream it becomes a public highway and water supply. 4. It flows on purpose for the thirsty. What could Christ have made an atonement for but for sinners? 5. No one has been refused yet. 6. It is to Christ’ s glory to give it, and therefore be sure that He will not withhold it. The more a physician cures the greater his fame; the more Christ saves the higher His honour. III. TO URGE YOU TO PRAY THIS PRAYER. A desire is like seed in the sack, but prayer sows it in the furrow: like water in the bottle, but prayer drinks thereof. 1. Begin, then, by honouring Christ. The woman gave Him the highest title she knew. You call Him “ Lord” ; for if you reject His divinity you shut yourself out from His kingdom. 2. Confess your undeservingness. “ Give,” not “ sell.” Mercy must be given. 3. Make this a personal prayer. “ Give it me.” Never mind your neighbours or your children just now. Look after their salvation when you are saved. 4. Offer it in the present tense. The worst of most men is that they would serve the devil all their lives and then cheat him of their souls at last. If God be God serve Him now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Spiritual laziness The spirit of the second reason for this request animates men to this day. The prevalent disposition is to seek religious benefit in some way which does not involve endeavour and responsibility. I. MEN DO NOT EXPECT RESULTS EXCEPT BY EFFORT. Parents do not pray that God would inspire their boys with a useful trade. They apprentice them and pray God that they may attend to their business and take proper steps to learn. Skill of hand is to be developed by training and not by praying. There are those who still speak of luck, but the number decreases with intelligence and enterprise. II. MEN DO NOT LOOK FOR RESULTS EXCEPT BY THE OF MEANS TO ENDS. 1. We never pray for general knowledge, nor teach our children to do so; but to use their eyes and ears, to keep company with intelligent persons. And this is not inconsistent with the prayer that God will sustain us in the exertion of our natural faculties. So no one prays for books, or the results of professional skill without the drill which leads to them. 2. There is one apparent exception, that of genius. But genius is only what belongs to one whose organization is so fine and large that it acts by its own stimulus. If on the art side, we have an art genius. A man is a genius in the direction in which his faculties are highly organized. Such work more easily than others, but they have to work much. The eagle moves faster and easier than the ant, but both move by the same (muscular) power. And the greatest geniuses in poetry (Milton), in music (Handel), in war (Frederick and Napoleon), have been the hardest workers. III. BUT MEN DO LOOK FOR RESULTS WITHOUT EFFORT. 1. There is an impression that God works irresistibly by His Spirit, and that the distinguishing qualities of Christian life fall down upon us of their own accord like dewdrops on the flowers. Now we must pray for everything that it is proper for us to have, for the highest as well as for the lowest; but there is no more reason that we should pray for morality than for corn, for meekness than for flowers. 2. Religiousness is rightmindedness towards God and man. To be religious is to act in accordance with the laws of the mind from the highest to the lowest of its endowments. I should have, of course, no hope as a minister without a belief in the all-prevalent vitalizing Spirit, and should as soon attempt to raise flowers where there was no atmosphere, and fruits without light and heat, as to regenerate men without the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless this Divine influence is not irresistible in such a sense as to relieve men from the responsibility of developing every one of the spiritual elements. God wakes up the soul and then says, “ Work out what I work in” Philippians 2:12-13). 3. Conversion is not a completed work. Here is a lazy vagabond, depending on his relations, and he is taken to the West and put upon 150 acres of ground and told to work out his own living. The ground is not converted yet; but he goes to work and brings it under cultivation. He has been converted from a street beggar into a man of means and respectability; but his own conversion is no more complete than that of his farm. When a man is converted he has a new start and has to go forward. If a man, therefore, expects there is any labour-saving conversion he is greatly mistaken. 4. Conversion makes a man a disciple, and places him in Christ’ s school, where he has to learn and place himself under discipline. And the experiences of Christ’ s school are not to be had by prayer only. If an intemperate man wants to be temperate, a passionate man meek, a proud man humble, he must not only pray, but tame himself. (H. W. Beecher.) Carnal pleasures tire Hilly ways are wearisome ways, and tire the ambitious man. Carnal pleasures are dirty ways, and tire the licentious man. Desires of gain are thorny ways, and tire the covetous man. Emulations of higher men are dark and blind ways, and tire the envious man. Every way that is out of the way wearies us. Lassati sumus, et lassis non datur requies; we labour, and have no rest when we have done; we are wearied with our sins, and have no satisfaction in them; we go to bed to-night, weary of our sinful labours, and we will rise freshly to-morrow to the same sinful labours again (Lamentations 5:5; Isaiah 5:18). (Dr. Donne.) The heavenly and the earthly mind Never was there such a contrast in a conversation as that presented in the conversation between Christ and the woman of Samaria. Christ speaking from the top of all spiritual apprehension, the woman from the bottom of sensuous knowledge. (H. W.Beecher.) Spiritual thirst prepares us to receive the living water They say that the water of the Nile is very sweet. We have heard some of our fellow-countrymen assert that a very little of it was too much for them, and that they never wished to drink of it again. There is no use in disputing about tastes, but surely people might agree upon the quality of the water. Yet some praise this Nile water to the skies, and others call it muddy stuff. The reason why the water of the Nile is so sweet to Egyptians is that their climate is dry, and the people are thirsty, and other water is scarce. Under a burning sun a drink of water is very refreshing. To the soul that is thirsty after mercy and reconciliation and eternal life, every promise of the Lord is delightful. Nothing puts such a savour and flavour into the gospel as that work of the Holy Spirit, by which we are made to feel our great need of it. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Mercy a free gift It is not “ Sell me this water,” but “ Give me this water.” Confess that it is a gift: thou shalt never have it otherwise. Mercy must be given, or thou shalt never have it. “ Sir, give me, give me, give me of Thy free mercy, give it me, Lord. I come empty-handed, naked, poor and miserable, Give it me. I have nought to buy it with.” Friend, does your pride kick at this? Be wise, I pray thee, and bow thy neck to the yoke of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Salvation must be realized by the soul You go to the throne of grace; to a fountain deeper than Jacob’ s well; you draw water, living water, from it; but, instead of drinking the water, as you should, you are satisfied with having raised the bucket to the ground, and you retire. The end of drawing water is to drink it: the meaning of praying is to reach something beyond it. Prayer is not a religious duty, but the means of attaining spiritual blessings. (J. Cumming, D. D.) John 4:16-18 Go, call thy husband, and come hither.Whence learn 1. As grace is little known or esteemed of so long as we know not our misery, so, where the offer of mercy doth not persuade, Christ will discover their misery to make them either come quickly to Him, or else resolve on hell; for, therefore, after the former offers had no success, doth He rip up her bosom. 2. Christ is very meek and tender, even in discovering of misery to men, so long as they are not incorrigible, and is willing that they should judge and accuse themselves, that He may deal tenderly with them; therefore doth He so mildly bid her, “ Go, call thy husband,” that He might draw a confession out of her own mouth. 3. It is not every sin whereof natural men are guilty for which they can at first be capable of conviction, for every sin will not be odious to every one in every condition, but there are some sins which only grace, and much grace, and grace in exercise, will see to be sinful; therefore, though she was guilty of many other sins, yet Christ pitcheth only on this sin of gross filthiness as that which would be seen best by her. 4. It is not every sight of sin that will convince the sinner, but Christ must put it home upon the conscience, and discover sin to be marked by His all-searching eye, before it work upon him; for she knew her own condition (and therefore saith, “ I have no husband,” as shifting the matter whereof she supposed Him to be ignorant), but without any sense, till He rip up her bosom and let her say He knew her. 5. Christ will commend a small good under much dross, and particularly He accounts of a true acknowledgment, even of a heinous crime, as a commendable duty. Therefore doth He make so much of her confession, “ Thou hast well said, thou saidst truly.” 6. Christ hath particular knowledge of what sins men are lying in, how hid soever, and particularly He hath an eye upon secret uncleanness; and how loath soever sinners be to be discovered by Christ, yet, where He pleaseth and hath a purpose of mercy, no shirtings will hide them. So much doth this large discovery, after her shifting confession, teach, “ Thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou hast is not thy husband.” 7. Such is the pollution of our nature, that lust will be insatiable unless grace curb it. So much appeareth in this woman who, after so many marriages, doth live in uncleanness. (G. Hutcheson.) The woman answered,… no husband.--These words were an honest and truthful confession, so far as they went. The way in which our Lord received her declaration makes it probable that she did not profess to be a widow, and very likely her dress showed that she was not. In this point of view the honesty of her confession is noteworthy. There is always more hope of one who honestly and bluntly confesses sin than of a smooth-tongued hypocrite. Our Lord’ s commendation of the woman’ s honest confession deserves notice. It teaches us that we should make the best of an ignorant sinner’ s words. An unskilful physician of souls would probably have rebuked the woman sharply for her wickedness, if her words led him to suspect it. Our Lord, on the contrary, says, “ Thou hast well said.” (Bp. Ryle.) The power of private reproof John Wesley, having to travel some distance in a stage coach, fell in with a pleasant-tempered, well-informed officer, whose conversation was sprightly and entertaining, but frequently mingled with oaths. When they were about to take the next stage, Mr. Wesley took the officer aside, and, after expressing the pleasure he had enjoyed in his company, told him that he was thereby encouraged to ask from him a very great favour. “ I would take a pleasure in obliging you,” said the officer, “ and am sure that you will not prefer an unreasonable request.” “ Then,” said Mr. Wesley, “ as we have to travel together some time, I beg that, if I should so far forget myself as to swear, you will kindly reprove me.” The officer immediately saw the motive, and, feeling the force of the request, said with a Smile, “ None but Mr. Wesley could have conceived a reproof in such a manner.” (J. Gill.) Preparation for blessing needful She has asked for this living water. She knows not that the well must first be dug. In the depth of her spirit there is a power of life; but like the source of a spring, it is hidden. Many a hard rock of impenitence was there, and many a layer of every-day transgression, and many a habit once formable as clay, now hard as adamant, and many a deposit of carnal thought which had left nothing but its dregs behind. All this must be dug through before she can have the living water, and this well, too, must be deep. The command, “ Go, call thy husband,” is the first stroke breaking up the surface of that fair appearance, and revealing the foulness of the life beneath it. (H. W. Watkins, D. D.) Sin must be confessed before salvation can be obtained There is no salvation till you confess your sin. There was a man in India who, one evening having nothing else to do, went to play at religion with the parson--as some of you have come here this afternoon. “ Religion is all verywell,” began the officer, “ but you must admit that there are difficulties--about the miracles, for instance.” The chaplain knew his man, and quietly answered him, “ Yes, there are some things in the Bible not very plain, I admit; but the seventh commandment is very plain.” The man’ s temper rose, and he swung himself out of the tent; but a little later he came back, no longer to raise false difficulties, but to ask how a poor adulterous British officer might be saved. There are men and women here kept from salvation by what kept back this Samaritan woman. Give up that man, give up that woman, if you would be saved. The pitcher must be emptied before it can be filled. (John McNeill.) Conscience must be aroused Here He comes home to her conscience; so must all that will do good, striving not so much to please as to profit. The eagle, though she love her young ones dearly, yet she pricketh and beateth them out of their nest; so must preachers drive men out of their nest of pleasure. (J. Trapp.) A plain word spoken in season A lad in his teens had his home for a time with a good woman, who made him very comfortable; and when he was leaving her, he asked if there were anything he could do in return for the motherly care she had shown him. Her reply was, “ Yes, ‘ Let the wicked forsake his way,’ etc.” (Isaiah 55:7). The young man’ s life had not been at all strikingly vicious, but the above passage of Scripture, thus unexpectedly presented to him, was blessed by the Holy Spirit, and took such hold on his mind that he could not rest till he had sought and found the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Christ’ s skill in dealing with the conscience No mariner is more prompt to mark and utilize every breeze, no plant more sensitive to sun and rain, or more skilful to convert the one into colour and the other into sap, than Jesus to observe and adapt Himself to the changes of the hearts of men for their salvation. (G. A. Chadwick, D. D.) Christ looks into the inner life The eye of Jesus, which from the throne saw a sinful and saddened world; which saw Nathanael under the fig tree and Zacchaeus up in the sycamore tree; the eye which from the hill-top gazed on doomed Jerusalem, and which now follows both saint and sinner through all their ways; that bright, beautiful, expressive, sleepless, all-seeing eye pierced the veil of deceit which this sinner thought impenetrable, discerned her ways, read her thoughts, and dissected all her motives with more than microscopic distinctness. Then, with the master skill of more than a prophet, Jesus exposed her whole wanton career as by a lightning flash; and fastening upon her existing and current offence “ as the crown and consummation of all her sins,” He seized her conscience. (J. H.Hitchens, D. D.) We must faithfully apply the truth A minister was spending a few days in a town, and while there a young man was thrown much in his society. The young man was not a Christian, but learning that the minister intended to preach in the city gaol, asked to be allowed to accompany him. The minister preached to the audience with So much earnestness as to deeply impress the friend who had accompanied him. On their return home the young man said, “ The men to whom you preached to-day must have been moved. Such preaching cannot fail to influence.” “ Friend,” answered the minister, “ were you influenced?” “ You were not preaching to me, but to your convicts,” was quickly answered. “ I was preaching to you as much as to them. You need the same Saviour as they.” The word so faithfully spoken God blessed in bringing this wanderer home to Himself. John 4:19 Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet Personal preaching General discourses are like the beams of the sun dispersed in the air; they may warm us a little, but that is all. Conviction is like a burning glass, that gathers all the beams into one point or centre, and fastens them upon the soul, and so kindles and inflames it … It is not the flourishing or brandishing of a sword in the air that will wound or pierce, but the stroke of the weapon must be brought home to the body, or no wound will be given … While Nathan kept aloof in a general discourse and told him a parable, David was never troubled with the sense of his sin, never suspected it concerned him; but when he closed with him and told him, “ Thou art the man,” then David’ s heart smote him; he cries out of his sin, and sues for mercy This is the preaching that Solomon commends, “ The words of the wise are like goads,” that must be run into the flesh, as nails driven up to the head, fastened and riveted into the soul of a sinner Ecclesiastes 12:10-11; Acts 2:37; Colossians 1:28; Hebrews 4:12). (Bp. Brownrig.) Sinners avoid the truth I could not help smiling as I read the next passage. She is making a wild attempt to get away, to get off the hook. She tries to draw a red-herring across the scent by bringing up that old religious squabble. Just like you: you will go home, some of you, and take me to dinner, while I call God and your conscience to witness that I have struck you between the eyes. Yes, you will talk about me, not about your sin; you will come near to calling me coarse, thou coarsest sinner out of hell, that lovest thy sin! Have a care, my friend. (John McNeill.) John 4:20-29 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain The advent of Christ in relation to the heathen This is the first mission to the heathen. I. Our Lord’ s METHOD. He tries to excite in the woman a longing for something higher than the life she was living. In order to do this He touches her conscience and lays His finger on her sin. She, seeing that she is in the presence of a prophet, embraces the opportunity of getting settled a long-standing controversy. In His reply, our Lord does not pretend that there is no difference when there is, but teaches that the difference is to pass away in the light of a higher truth which embraces both sides. The Jews knew what they worshipped, as the Samaritan and the heathen do not. Salvation was of the Jews, and not of the Samaritan or heathen. II. Our Lord’ s . The offering of a man’ s whole self to God, and not the substitution of anything in its place. But man can only offer himself, i.e., worship in spirit, by being re-born of the Holy Spirit; can only worship in truth by being united to Him who is the Truth. Man can therefore worship the Father in spirit and in truth by the offering of his whole self in union with the Eternal Son and by being filled with the Eternal Spirit. III. Our Lord’ s THE HEATHEN WORLD. 1. In her separation. She is outside She kingdom of God and the chosen race. 2. In her unconscious thirst for God--the living water. 3. In her sin. 4. In her blind worship of the unknown God. IV. THE OF WEAK POINTS IN MODERN . 1. There is too much vagueness in modern Christianity as to whom and what we worship--no clear grasp of the incarnation and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord’ s “ We know what we worship” much wanted. 2. There is too much feeling that Christianity is a thing of European civilization, and not universal. 3. It was the despised Samaritans, and not the favoured Jews, nor even the apostles, who were the first to find out that Christ was tim Saviour of the world. V. Our Lord’ s OF in the declaration that the Father seeketh worship. He knew that man cannot find satisfaction save in Him. (Canon Vernon Hutton.) Human curiosity and Divine mystery 1. According to the Grecian sage, all knowledge commences with wonder or curiosity. Without this knowledge would never have taken the strides it has. But it is not always those objects which most excite our curiosity that we are most capable of becoming acquainted with. This is true with the objects of nature, the sun, e.g., but much more with that sublimest of all objects, the unseen God. And because He shrouds Himself round with a veil of mystery, all the more our hearts desire to know something about Him. And yet “ who can by searching find out God?” And then we have to reflect upon the errors into which men have fallen in their attempt to make the discovery, their attempt to satisfy their desire by a substitute of their own imagination, which ended in leaving the desire unsatisfied and the object still unknown. 2. But just as the art of optics was required to enable men of science to make progress in their knowledge of the sun, so it was necessary, before men could be acquainted with God, that He should be brought within the region of human observation. “ Lord, show us the Father!” was the cry of humanity. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” was the response. 3. This woman was a subject of spiritual curiosity, and desired to know something of God. She identified herself with a religion which, however, instead of leading her to God, only supplied a substitute for Him. “ Ye worship ye know not what.” She knew what many a man of the nineteenth century knows to his cost, that this was true. As at Athens so at Gerizim there was an altar to the unknown God. 4. What was wanting at Gerizim? Two elements conspicuous in the creed of the Jew--a system of ritual in the temple worship, with all its symbolic teaching, and the utterances of the prophets. These two elements were closely connected with the promise as to the “ seed of the woman,” with the person and work of the Messiah, with God’ s attitude towards guilt in laying the iniquity of us all on the head of His guiltless Son. Thus the Jew was able to form such an ideal of the character of God as was impossible to the Samaritans. So the former “ knew what He worshipped.” Is not agnosticism the inevitable result of not receiving or of rejecting the revelation of God through Christ in the present day? 5. This agnosticism is not to be wondered at even with our clearer light. God is defined as an infinite Spirit--two splendid negations. When the woman heard Christ’ s declaration of the nature of God, she immediately fell back on another thought--the Messiah. Trace the progress of this spiritual growth--the awakening of a vague thirst; the definite conviction of sin; the desire to worship truly; the conviction of the coming of a perfect teacher; Christ’ s disclosure of His Messiahship; His glad communication; the conviction on her word and by personal experience, of the Samaritans that Christ was the Saviour of the world. (W. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) The Church of the future I. This Church is to be looked for NOT IN THE OF ANY SINGLE FORM OF WORSHIP OR IN ANY CREED, though both of these will go along subordinately as working forces, BUT IN THE OF THE HUMAN RACE. There will never be a time in which it will not be necessary to compass education by definite institutions. But these are only instruments. So in the course of religion this or that sect is only a kitchen where the loaf is prepared; and the loaf is mankind. And yet we have just the same exclusive and conceited views of our particular sect as the Jews had of theirs. But local churches are but streams flowing into the ocean until the “ earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” The smallest rill is of use; the navigable river is invaluable; but none of them, not even the Amazon, is the ocean. And when the whole human family are gathered into one substantial brotherhood, living as sons of God, the Divine influence circling the whole, that will be the Church of the future. II. In that great Church MEN WILL EMPLOY , AND FORMS; but such things will fall out of their present idolatrous position, and become merely relative and subordinate. Of course it will have a creed. What is a man who has no beliefs? But the form of creeds will be changed while the substance will remain. Belief, existence, and authority of a personal God will never die out, but will come forth in clearer light. So with the moral government of God, the influence of the Holy Spirit, the sinfulness, yet salvability, and destiny of man, and the vicarious suffering of Jesus. III. IN THIS CHURCH WILL BE HINTS, HELPS, BUT NEVER . They are like child’ s, clothes which are necessary for the child, but are not the child; like school books, useful helps but not yokes. Men make idols and middle walls of ordinances: whereas their only use is to produce good fruit. IV. In this Church NOT ONLY MAY WE EXPECT GREAT LIGHT ON , BUT A BETWEEN AND TRUTH SO THAT THEY WILL CO-OPERATE AS FACTS OF A COMMON . The distinction between secular and religious, revealed and natural, will be much narrowed if not entirely done away. All truth will be sacred. Nature and religion will stand upon a common level, not by lowering religion, but by lifting up our conceptions of nature. (H. W. Beecher.) The old worship and the new I. Consider HOW THE OF WORSHIP HERE GIVEN SHOULD AFFECT THE OF OUR WORSHIP. 1. Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to appeal to any Jewish precedent without inquiring whether the ancient institutions rested on permanent principles or were merely temporary. 2. When God commanded His people to construct a sanctuary that He might dwell among them it was to impress the truth that He was a God nigh at hand and not afar off, and by restricting ceremonial worship to that spot to emphasize the fact of the Divine unity. 3. Great then as were the gains of such a sanctuary yet the arrangement was not without its perils. (1) Good men away from the temple felt as though banished from God. (2) The tendency was to regard Jehovah as a God of the Jews, not of the Gentiles. Thus the spirituality and infinity of God was obscured by His special presence in the temple. As, therefore, it was expedient for Christ bodily to go away to manifest an universal spiritual presence; so it eventually became expedient that God should be no more thought of as dwelling in a temple made with hands. 4. It is contrary to the whole genius of Christianity to suppose that God is nearer to us in one spot than another, or that He confers special sanctity on material structures. The temple was a sign of God’ s willingness to listen to human worship, and was the visible embodiment of the Divine promise; a Church is the visible embodiment of human faith. The two ideas essentially differ. 5. The design of the temple structure was symbolical throughout. There was a local manifestation of God, and therefore a most holy place. God was approached by a ritual which only priests could perform. And if we believed in Christ’ s presence in the consecrated bread there ought to be an altar; and if ministers are priests a chancel devoted to their use. But Christ, on the contrary, is in regenerated souls. If any part of a church is sacred every part is so. Every part is altar, for Christians are the body of Christ; every part is chancel, for Christians are a royal priesthood; every part is holy of holies, because the glory Thou hast given Me I have given them.” 6. But should not the structure of our buildings indicate their sacred purpose? Yes. I may be led to the choice of a certain order of architecture to indicate what it is; but in the interior I should be guided by the fact that Christians are to assemble there to be instructed and to worship. If it is convenient to have transepts, have them, but not to symbolize the Cross; and to diminish the convenience of the building by placing the chancel out of line with the nave to indicate the inclination of Christ’ s crucified body is to ignore the chief end for which it was erected. Have a tower and side aisles, if convenient, but not to remind us of the Trinity. 7. The same principles should determine the order of service. Everything should be made subordinate to the spirituality, intelligence, and reality of worship. The Jewish service was instructive and symbolic rather than aesthetic; and in discussing the questions of a liturgy versus free prayer, we have to ask, not what is most imposing, trot what is most useful to devotion. The same with Psalmody. II. THE SPECIAL FOR A TRUE AND WORSHIP IN THE UNDER WHICH WE LIVE. 1. God is revealed to us in His moral and spiritual attributes as He never was before Christ. We preserve the whole wealth of previous revelations; but the moral perfections have been revealed in a new and higher way, in the life of Christ, which renders possible a higher form of spiritual worship. 2. The Holy Ghost has a more intimate union with those who serve God., and exerts a mightier power over their spiritual life. He was indeed operant in Old Testament times--but nowhere do we meet with such disclosures as in the Epistles. There is possible, therefore, to us an energy and depth of spiritual life to which they could not attain. It follows, then, that we may have a more spiritual worship because all our spiritual affections may be inspired with a fuller life and nobler vigour. 3. A nearer and truer approach to God is granted under the new dispensation than under the old. “ The truth” liberated from all merely symbolical circumstances. At the Ascension these passed away and the realities were revealed. We stand in the real Holy of Holies, of which that of the Temple was a shadow. In conclusion, notice the greatness of the obligation which our Lord’ s words impose on the Church. That Church exists for a threefold purpose: 1. To make known to man the love of God in Christ. 2. To increase the knowledge of God’ s character and will among those who know Him, and to train them, body, soul, and spirit, to the keeping of His commandments. 3. To maintain from age to age a true and spiritual worship. To fulfil the last in this restless age is no easy task, but one of the most solemn obligation. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Christian worship I. . 1. It is not sectarian. Sectarianism is not denominationalism, but spiritual monopoly. The former may be justifiable, but never the latter. Party distinctions as such are of no importance in the sight of God. God is no respecter of persons, and all persons have a right to worship Him according to their conscience. 2. It is not local. Here both Jews and Samaritans were in error. In the former case Deuteronomy 12:5; Deuteronomy 12:7 was perverted, and the command to sacrifice at a given place interpreted to invest that place with a special sanctity apart from the character of the worshipper. The same feeling prevails amongst Hindoos and Mohammedans; how passing strange that it should ever have prevailed among Christians. 3. It is not external. Music, vestments, and ceremonies may, and often do, excite the emotions which will be produced by any other pageant, and which are totally disconnected with devotion. II. . 1. It is spiritual. Lip homage is offensive to man much more to God. When local and external worship was in full operation something more was necessary to acceptance (1 Kings 8:27). In one respect this worship was independent of the moral character of the worshipper. But no typical character belongs to Christian worship, and without devout feelings it is worse than useless. 2. It is filial. Terror is the predominating spirit of idolatry. Its ceremonies are therefore deprecatory and often cruel. Awe was the predominating spirit of Jewish worship. Christianity merges the sterner attributes of the Divine character into those more attractive. God is a Father, and to worship Him truly is to offer the affection of sons. 3. It is universal. Non-restricted (1) To buildings--upper rooms, prisons, barns, as well as cathedrals, etc. (2) Persons--“ rich and poor meet together.” Conclusion: In the exercises of God’ s house avoid (1) a superstitious spirit either as regards the special sanctity of the place or the magical efficacy of ordinances. (2) A formal spirit. “ Bodily exercise profitest little.” (3) A bigoted spirit. A church is God’ s house, and all its privileges should be open to all His people, due care being taken to exclude only the ungodly. (4) A slavish spirit. “ The joy of the Lord is your strength” for worship. (R. Brodie, M. A.) Spiritual worship I. ERRORS WHICH HAVE WITH THE PURITY OF WORSHIP. 1. That which arises from a tendency to localize God. “ Where?” asked the woman. “ Nowhere in particular--everywhere,” said Christ. We see this tendency among (1) The heathen, who confine a god to a district. (2) The uneducated in their notion of a cemetery. (3) The more refined, in the mystery which they attach to church, altar, sacrament. What is sanctity of place? It belongs to the law of association. Worship, e.g., in a festive room would suggest notions uncongenial with devotion. Hence the use of consecration, sitting apart. This view said to be dangerous and unsettling. But (a) Consider the shock this woman received; all her little religion had clung to Gerizim and was shattered at a blow. (b) We are only concerned with the truth, and God’ s truth cannot be dangerous. The fact is, the Church is holy if a holy congregation be in it; if not, it is bricks and mortar. The holiest place is not where architecture and music yield their spell, but perhaps a wretched pallet on which one of Christ’ s humblest ones is dying. 2. That which arises from the idea that forms are immutable--“ Our fathers worshipped,” etc. A form is the shape in which an age expresses a feeling. The sprat of religion remains but the expression alters. 3. That which arises from ignorance, “ Ye worship ye know not what.” The feeling of devoutness is inherent. But the question is, what we worship. To many there are three deities (1) The heathen bent before power--God in the whirlwind, etc. This is ignorance. (2) The philosopher is above this. He bows before wisdom. Science tells him of electricity, etc. He looks down on warm devoutness, and admires mind in nature. He calls it rational religion. Ignorance also. (3) The spiritual man bows before goodness. “ The true worshippers worship the Father.” We know what we worship. 4. That which mistakes the nature of reverence. The woman had reverence; veneration for antiquity--the mountain, the prophet. But what was her life? Reverence, etc., are a class of feelings which belong to the imagination and are neither good nor bad. Some men are constitutionally so framed that they do not thrill at painted windows, but adore God, and love Christ, and admire goodness and hate evil. They have bowed their souls before justice, mercy, truth, and therefore stand erect before everything else that the world calls sublime. II. TRUE OF WORSHIP. 1. A right appreciation of God’ s character (1) as a Spirit. The mind and pervading life of the universe. In this, however, only a God for the intellect, not for the heart. (2) As a father--a word uniting (1) Tenderness with reverence. (2) Discipline with kindness. 2. Spiritual character. “ In Spirit and in truth. Holy character a kind of worship.” Before a material God a material knee would have to bow; before a spiritual God nothing but prostration of spirit acceptable. Application; 1. Christ came to sweep away everything that prevented immediate contact with God. 2. Scripture insists on truth of character. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The true worship of God I. IS NOT TO . 1. Before the Advent it was The Pentateuch, to which Jews and Samaritans appealed, decided this without naming the locality (Exodus 30:24; Deuteronomy 12:5; Deuteronomy 21:11; Deuteronomy 16:6; Deuteronomy 26:2; Deuteronomy 31:11). In selecting Jerusalem the Jews believed themselves to be under Divine guidance (Psalms 132:13; 2 Chronicles 7:17; Isaiah 56:7; Zechariah 14:17). The Samaritans finding no mention of Jerusalem, but observing the prominence given to Gerizim (Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 27:12; Joshua 8:33), built aTemple there. Christ, however, waived the controversy, and announced a new era emancipating the spirit of worship from place and form. 2. Since Pentecost it cannot be so restricted. (1) Men, like the Jews, still cling to localities, notwithstanding the clear lesson of destruction of the Temple. (2) Isaiah had a glimpse of this truth (56:1). (3) Christ formally established it (Matthew 18:20; Matthew 28:20). It became possible (Acts 2:17). II. LIES IN THE LINE OF GOD’ S (verse 22). 1. It had been so with the Jews. Accepting the prophets, they had a more accurate idea of God. God’ s gracious purposes had developed along the line of Jewish history. 2. It must continue to be so with the Christian. Having manifested himself in Christ, any worship that ignores this must be unacceptable Colossians 2:23). It must also accept the subsequent revelations of the Spirit. III. ACCORDS WITH THE BEING AND ESSENCE OF GOD HIMSELF (verses 23, 24). 1. Spiritual, since God is Spirit. Not a Spirit, one among many, nor impersonal because the article is wanting, but absolute Being; hence worship must ascend from the innermost personality. 2. True, since God is this Truth. 3. Filial, since God is the Father (Matthew 5:45; Matthew 6:9; Romans 7:15; Galatians 4:6). Lessons: 1. Controversies mostly settle themselves when left to time. 2. Questions about the externals of worship do not belong to its essence. 3. Christian freedom is not the same thing as will worship. 4. The characteristics of Christian worship fit it to be universal. 5. In these lie the prophecy of its triumph. 6. The Founder of such worship requires no surer witness to His supreme Divinity. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Our fathers worshipped in this mountainNot where, but how is the main thing Dr. Guthrie tells of a poor woman who dwelt in one of the darkest and most wretched quarters of Edinburgh. Away from her native home, and without one earthly friend, she had floated there, a stranger in a strange land, to sink into the most abject poverty; her condition but one degree better than our Saviour’ s--in common with the fox, she had a hole to lay her head in. Yet, although poor and outwardly wretched, she was a child of God, one of the jewels which, if sought for, we should sometimes find in dust-heaps. With a bashfulness not unnatural, she had shrunk from exposing her poverty to the stare of well-robed congregations, resorting on Sabbath-days to the well--appropiate place--where a pious man was wont to preach to ragged outcasts, crying in the name of Jesus, “ If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” In ignorance of this, and supposing that she was living, like the mass around her, in careless neglect of her soul, Dr. Guthrie begun to warn her; but she interrupted him, and, drawing herself up with an air of humble dignity, and half offended, said, “ Sir, I worship at the well, and am sure that if we are true believers in Jesus, and love him, and try to follow Him, we shall never be asked at the Judgment-day, ‘ Where did you worship?’” (Clerical Library.) How to worship God 1. Is He a Saviour? Then we should come to Him as sinners; for sinners only need a Saviour. All others will be rejected. There can be no acceptable worship until we are convinced of sin, and humbled on account of it. 2. Is God a Father? Then we should worship Him as children. 3. Is He a Spirit? Then, “ We must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Whether as a Saviour, a Father, or the Great God, He will accept only the worship of the mind, the heart, the understanding. An idol god might be satisfied with the bended knee and uplifted hand, but our God looks on the heart. (Dean Close.) This mountain The Samaritans now believe what in all likelihood they believed in our Saviour’ s time, about mount Gerizim. It is for them the holy mountain of the world; on its summit was the seat of Paradise; from its dust Adam was formed; and the spot is still pointed out where he reared his first altar; the place, too, where Seth did the same. Gerizim is the Ararat of Scripture, on which the ark rested (Genesis 8:4); which the waters of the flood never overflowed; and which thus no dead thing borne by those waters had defiled. They point out, further, the exact spot on which Noah reared an altar when the flood had subsided (Genesis 8:20); and its seven steps on each of which he offered a burnt-offering. The altar, too, is to this day standing on which Abraham had bound his son, and the spot known where the ram was caught. At the summit is Bethel (Genesis 28:12; Genesis 28:19). There is a good deal more in the same fashion. That poor woman, who may have accepted all this with implicit faith, would have had warrant for more than her boast if only a small part of it had been true. (Archbishop Trench.) Mount Gerizim The Patriarch Jacob had offered sacrifice at Sychar, or Shechem (Genesis 33:20). From Mount Gerizim the six tribes had solemnly pronounced the blessings that should be on those who kept the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 27:12). At Shechem, Joshua before his death, had recounted to the assembled Israelites God’ s merciful dealings with them (Joshua 24:1-33). A temple, if not then standing, had formerly stood on Mount Gerizim. All this might seem to convey a kind of right and legality to the worship offered there. But God had chosen one place for His worship, one place only for sacrifices to be offered to Him Deuteronomy 12:13). This place was Jerusalem. Neither length of time, nor the eminence of the worshippers, could invest any other place with the right, which God had given to Jerusalem alone. (F. I.Dunwell, B. A.) Veneration for places of ancient worship The reverence of this woman for the place where her father worshipped is common to men of every country and every creed. When surrounded by revered walls consecrated by the confessions and thanksgivings of many generations, a solemn awe steals over the heart, which the most gorgeous cathedral, fresh from the hands of the architect, fails to inspire. Nor is this impression produced merely by the-pathetic beauty which clings to noble and stately structures in their decay. We are affected, not because the broken columns and the crumbling tracery, grey with long exposure and covered with the kindly growth of ivy, have a loveliness to the eye far surpassing that which the ancient builders looked upon; the rudest, meanest building, the open moor, the mountain side, if our fathers worshipped there, stir the deepest and most sacred emotions of human nature. To this day the miserable remnant of the Samaritans cling with indestructible affection to their ancient mountain; and among the Jewish people the passion has not been exhausted by the centuries of suffering, shame, and despair. Week by week men and women and little children sit down in the dust outside the walls of the Mosque, which stands where the Temple once stood, and utter loud and grievous wailings over the fall of their beautiful sanctuary, and pray for its restoration. (R. W. Dale, D. D.) Traditional religion Custom, as it is commonly said, is a second nature; and men cannot easily leave that which they have long used themselves to; and they will not easily leave that which they have seen and known to be used by their predecessors. The Ephraimites, in the Book of Judges, that had been brought up to say Sibboleth all their life, cannot say Shibboleth to save their life; but they perish, two-and-forty thousand This, the more is the pity, is the religion of too many thousands in this land and time; men and women are too commonly and generally pinned in religion, and in practice of religious things, upon the customs and usages of ancient days, and they are loth to be parted from them. The woman of Sychar was zealous for the temple upon mount Gerizim; but the best reason she can give for that is that her fathers worshipped there. (J. Lightfoot, D. D.) The breadth of Spiritual religion The more spiritual is a man’ s religion the more expansive and broad it always is. A stream may leave its deposits in the pool it flows through, but the stream itself hurries on to other pools in the thick woods. And so God’ s gifts a soul may selfishly appropriate. But God Himself the more truly a soul possess Him, the more truly it will long and try to share Him. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) The vanity of religious controversy What was it to her, living in sin, whether Jerusalem or Samaria was the more acceptable place for worship? She could not worship acceptably in either of them. How easily every one sees, in her case, that she had no business with these curious questions; that the one thing for her to do was, as Christ had told her her sin, to desire Him to tell her how she might escape the punishment due to it. And yet her fault is far from being uncommon. There are many who are living in the known breach of God’ s plainest commandments, who yet will pay some attention to religion; but then it must not be a personal thing; it must not be admitted into their conscience, and allowed to interfere with their vices. These it is not convenient for them to part with. They will lie and defraud, or drink to excess, or live in the lust of uncleanness, or in a covetous and worldly spirit; these things they do, and will do. They ask not therefore any religious questions which come close to their conscience; but they inquire what form of worship is most scriptural, what mode of preaching to be preferred; whether churchmen or dissenters come nearest to the primitive standard of church government; or what denomination is best. What is it to you which denomination of Christians is the best? Let which will be best, you are wrong, and in the road to hell, even though you should belong to the purest society in the world. There is one question only which concerns you at present; and this it behoves every one of you to put with all earnestness, and without delay--“ What shall I do to be saved?” (J. Fawcett, M. A.) Ye say. Religion is not a hear-say, a presumtion, a supposition; it is not a customary pretension and profession; it is not an affection of any mode; it is not a piety of any particular fancy, consisting in some pathetic devotions, vehement expressions, bodily severities, affected anomalies, and aversions from the innocent usage of others; but it consisteth in a profound humility and an universal charity (Matthew 5:1-11). (Dr. Whichcote.) Christianity non-centralized In the days of the apostles, the Church Catholic had no local centre. Jerusalem was destroyed for this, I believe, among other special reasons, that it might not become such. Christianity was designed for every land alike; it was gifted with power to make every city a Jerusalem, a habitation of peace, a city of God; and every man, of every tribe, a citizen of the Zion above (Deuteronomy 34:6). (J. Boyd.) John 4:22-23 Ye worship ye know not what The true worship I. THE BETWEEN THE AND THE JEWS. 1. Samaritan worship was offered in ignorance. They were little better qualified than the Athenians. Rejecting the prophets, their faith rested on tradition, and was given up to superstition. As they were ignorant of the object so they were of the form of worship which God had appointed. “ Will worship,” however costly and apparently honouring, is rejected. So the Saviour brought home to the woman the sad fact that she had never worshipped. This is just the case of those who only repeat the words of prayer taught them in childhood. 2. The true worshipper’ s worship with knowledge. (1) The Spiritual Israel. Christ was a worshipper of God not only as Mediator but as man. As High Priest He gives to His people His informing Spirit, through whom they have an intelligent knowledge of God’ s character and will, and the form by which to approach Him. (2) The literal Israel to whom were committed the oracles of God, and such worshippers as Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna. 3. A special relation existed between the Jews and the great Salvation. (1) Its author was a Jew. (2) Its first messengers were Jews. (3) And as Salvation so the true worship was of the Jews. To that all the Old Testament worship pointed. II. THE TRUE WORSHIP. 1. Who are the true worshippers? Those (1) Who have Spiritual knowledge of God; (2) Who worship with grace in the appointed way; (3) Who are opposed to all false worship; (4) Who apprehend the true medium of worship and so have admission into the holiest. 2. What is it to worship the Father? (1) Not as the judge and avenger. (2) With the fellowship of children, not the penance of bond servants. 3. What is worship in Spirit? (1) Not mere outward worship. (2) Not mere intellectual worship. (3) But “ praying in the Holy Ghost” in that new nature He has given and with-the help He has promised. 4. What is worship in truth? (1) That which corresponds with the nature of the God of truth. (2) Through Him who is full of grace and truth, by whom alone we have access to God. 5. What is “ the hour?” (1) As coming it is the object of Divine appointment. (2) As come, the era foretold, the dispensation of the Spirit had actually arrived. (3) Is there not a personal hint of that supreme moment which the woman made the crisis of her spiritual history! Only then can true and Spiritual worship begin. III. ONLY THE TRUE WORSHIP IS TO GOD. The Father has a right to determine this and has done so. (A. Beith, D. D.) Christ’ s revelation of God I. THIS THREE THINGS. 1. God is real--not a dream or picture, a thought or an abstraction. The living God is. Thou art born of Him, and thy power to think of Him is proof of His existence. 2. God is Spiritual--not a material substance or a physical force. These cannot create thought, feeling, and free will. I am greater than mountains, rivers, gravitation, electricity; I reason, love, hope, will. The object of my worship must be like me and far above me. 3. God is personal (1) Positivism tells us that He is abstract and general. “ A Being immense and eternal--Humanity” (Comte) . But adoration fixes itself on a single person. (2) Pantheism tell us that He is everything, the Eternal substance which appears as conscious in our thought and unconscious in nature (Hegel) . But we can no more worship this than a leaf can a tree, or a wave the ocean. (3) Agnosticism tells us that He is unknowable, “ the Power not ourselves which makes for righteousness” (M. Arnold) . But behind the power we seek the Will, behind the law the Giver. (4) From these vague abstractions the soul flies to God the Father with an eye to pity and an arm to save. II. THE is swift and inevitable. 1. Our worship must correspond to the reality of God’ s nature. 2. The text does not condemn outward forms. Christ used and instituted them. But all forms are dead and meaningless without reality. 3. In the temple there must be a spiritual altar; on the altar a living fire--the motion of the heart towards God. As fire is manifest in light and heat so is worship in praise and prayer. Without the intercourse of the two spirits it is only a painted fire. Lessons: 1. When you are bewildered in your religion remember that the most adorable attributes are not metaphysical but spiritual. Our Father brings Him near to us. 2. True worship is no light thing. It is not found in a careless sleepy hour; not possible to a divided frivolous mind. 3. This text does not unconsecrate the Church; it consecrates the world. (H. J. Van Dyke, D. D.) We know what we worshipCan we be sure of God? I. CHRIST SPEAKS OF GOD the Father, the God of salvation, God the Spirit, IN A TONE OF INTENSE AND . “ We know” --not guess, dream, desire. He knows Him not as an empty name, or a key to interpret creation, or as a central sun of the philosophy of Providence. At least, then, Jesus is not an agnostic, but knew God as God knew Him. Christ is our example as thinker and knower. Can we then climb to the height of His full assurance of understanding? II. THIS , ALWAYS , IS JUST NOW CHARGED WITH URGENCY. These are days of the revision and reconstruction of religious knowledge. 1. The word God is so overwhelming and vast that some thoughtful souls shrink from declaring their belief in Him. Atheism has done us this service: that it has forced on us what a great thing it is to maintain the existence of God. 2. Others occupying a different standpoint infer that we have not the faculties requisite for grasping this revelation. 3. It is essential to manhood, conduct and character that we do not trifle with this question. Either God can be known or He cannot, and we ought to settle what the facts really are and be sure that there is no chance of knowing God, or else search for Him with all the heart; for what a man knows and is sure of is the measure of His peace, power and growth. For the world’ s regeneration God must be more than an enigma, He must be known. III. THE ANSWER TO THIS INQUIRY IS NOT SO AS IT SEEMS. It is not dependent upon the range of our information, but upon the use of the right organs and methods of verification. Though we know little we need not be less positive and assured about it. We may rejoice in the boundless expanse and be sure of the patch of blue above us, and of the ray of truth that shines through it: though we cannot embrace its illimitable sketches of beauty and glory. A real agnosticism is for ever being married to a practical and life-enriching positivism. Though we cannot be sure of anything, it does not follow that we can be sure of nothing. “ We cannot by searching find out God.” Even Moses could only catch a glimpse of the glory of His goodness. Who of us knows his friend in his totality, much less God. Christ’ s knowledge was limited and yet He knew the Father so well that He took the plan of His life from Him as a boy of twelve, and never lost it till He said, “ Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit.” This is the secret of human progress. Men built in certitute have been creators of new epochs and saviours of men. Paul’ s “ I know” was the inspiration of His “ One thing I do.” IV. If God then cannot be fully known, WHAT IS THE WE MAY HAVE, HOW MAY WE GET IT AND TEST ITS ? Christ gives the answer, “ for salvation is of the Jews.” We Jews know God because we are the depositaries of salvation for ourselves and for all men. Salvation is life, character, ethical stability, enthusiasm for righteousness, God. We are gloriously and divinely saved, and therefore divinely and surely taught. 1. This tells us that nothing assures like life and fortifies like experience. Truth is set in the clear radiance of our deliverance from false thoughts, base passions, wrong aims, and mean deeds. 2. The case cited by Christ proves His principle. From the Jews salvation has gone forth. They were a people saved of the Lord and knew Him through their salvations. (1) Where will you find a people so completely freed from mental perplexity about God? (2) To what people will you go for evidence of a more persistent ethical stability? (3) Nor is there a literature of hope so rich as the Old Testament. 3. It follows that our assurance of God does not depend upon our speculative faculties, but on our practical powers which every marl can and must use. (1) Intuition, the direct gaze of the soul on creation and life, compelling the recognition of a presence and power as the clearest and most real of all facts. Life sees life, and in life sees law, order, mind and heart. (2) Science shows that this idea of God is the deepest and most essential of all that get a place in human thought. The total results of human inquiry is to prove (a) The existence of an energy, infinite and omnipresent, underlying and comprehending all the phenomena of the universe. (b) That it works for righteousness. (c) That it is personal, a living and holy will. (3) History is a revelation of God. “ Salvation of the Jews” is only part of God’ s redeeming work. Redemption is the pivot on which the entire human story turns. (4) Life. You will derive your largest aids from personal devotion to Christ, acceptance of His discipline, and effort to do all His will. (J. Clifford, D. D.) How we may know God The writer asked an aged negress if she had known Washington. She answered by asking, “ Do you know God? I hope I know something of Him, ma’ am.” “ How, then, may one know God, sir?” “ We may learn something about His goodness and handiwork from what we see in yonder garden, and in these beautiful trees.” “ You are right, massa; but is there no other way of knowing him?” “ Yes, ma’ am, we may also learn something of Him from His dealings with the sons of men, the history of nations, and the lives of individuals.” “ Can we? But in no other way?” “ From the Bible we gain more knowledge of God than from all the other sources put together.” “ Yes, indeed! and is there no other way?” “ By experience.” Laying her hand upon her heart, and lifting her bleared eyes to heaven, she exclaimed, “ Ah, now you have it, massa!” (New Cyclopaedia.) Ignorant worshippers The Dowager-Duchess of Richmond went one Sunday with her daughter to the Chapel-Royal, at St. James’ s, but being late, they could find no places. After looking about some time, and seeing the case was hopeless, she said to her daughter, “ Come away, Louisa; at any rate, we have done the civil thing.” (Raikes’ Diary.) Ignorant worship affects the life for evil A Thug at Meirut, who had been guilty of many murders; was arrested, and cast, heavily ironed, into prison. There a missionary visited him, and preached Christ to him with such success, that he professed conversion. As he was brought before the judge, and confronted by many witnesses, he said, pointing to them, “ No need of these; I am ready to avow the crimes of my dreadful life.” He then proceeded to declare, that, having been brought up among the Thugs, he fully believed, that, by the shedding of the blood of each victim, he had not only pleased the dreadful goddess Kali, but procured her favour for himself. And he recounted murder after murder in which he had been engaged, some of them attended with such cruelty, that those present who had begun to feel some pity for him again shrunk back; the judge himself lifting up his bands, and exclaiming, “ How could you be guilty of enormities like these!” The only reply the poor man made to the judge was to place his hand in the bosom of his linen vest to take forth a little book; then, holding it up in his hand, he “ said, “ Had I but received this book sooner, the book of Jesus, my Saviour and my God, I should not have done it.” God may be worshipped anywhere Isaac’ s closet was a field. He went out to meditate in the field at the eventide. David’ s closet was his bedchamber. “ Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” Our Lord’ s closet was a mountain. “ When he had sent the multitude away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray, and when the evening was come, He was there alone.” Peter’ s closet was upon the house-top. Peter “ went upon the house-top to pray, about the sixth hour.” Hezekiah’ s closet was turning his face towards the wall, and praying unto the Lord. (E. Bakersteth.) Salvation is of the JewsOne nation and all nations I. THE WHOLE PRIDE OF MODERN WISDOM IS THIS: “ OF MAN IS FROM MAN.” This has been differently understood. 1. Human nature formerly was each individual man. 2. Latterly human nature has been considered one person or society. 3. However, at no time could man have regarded himself merely as an individual being, for society is to man what the soil is to the plant. 4. Between the two man found a resting place in nationality, a beneficent idea when we place it in the line where individuality and humanity meet. But so far from this individuality lost its finest character. Personal religion, by being made national property, was merged in the community and humanity was almost entirely effaced. II. HISTORY IS FROM ONE POINT OF VIEW THE OF , AND GOD HAS AND THE IDEA OF TO THE TRIUMPH OF THE OF AND . 1. Thus the Christian can accept Christ’ s statement that Christianity is of the Jews. Non-Christians, however, object. (1) One would not deny that salvation in a sense is of, say, the French. (2) Others refuse to allow a particular people to be the dispenser of common felicity. But none but a Christian wishes it to come from the Jews. 2. About the term salvation there is no dispute. It is the welfare of human nature and the fulfilment of its destinies. Christ came to save humanity as well as man. 3. In what sense, then, can it come from the Jews? No one will, of course, mistake the channel for the source (Revelation 7:10). In its ignorance ancient poetry represented certain countries as the abode of the sun. This is false in physics but true in morals. In the world of grace the rising sun has a home. Salvation is of the Jews. How? Not because Christ was born and lived in Palestine, spoke its language, chose Jews as disciples, or was crucified by Jews. Salvation is of the Jews as the water of stream comes from the basin in the rock at the top of the mountain. There the water is collected and from thence it flows, but the water is from heaven. 4. This being established, let us avail ourselves of the doctrine that each people is the bearer and representative of an idea, and that each idea in order to fix itself in the world has need of a people. This truth is invariably cultivated at the expense of other truths, and thus becomes exaggerated, and is never more than part of the truth. Now if this be the case, might not a whole people in conformity with this great law be the apostle of the truth which contains all truth! Now God has dealt with a certain people in a manner favourable to the discharge of this function. The Jews were a Theocracy, a people amongst whom God lived, whom God governed, to whom He spake, and whose law was His worship, a people elected for this very purpose. 5. But why confine this truth to the Jews? Was it the whole truth? How is this national deposit reconciliable with the doctrine that salvation is personal acceptance of Christ? Let us see. Christ and your soul have met! But at what cost? You are dying with thirst; a drop of water from the river revives you. It was only a drop, not the river, but the whole volume of water was necessary to carry along the drop. The river therefore saved you. In the same way the Church saved you because it gave you the knowledge of Christ whom you savingly received. The Church by its volume and might carries forward that element by which you are renewed. How has that current been formed? Look well at those waves red with human blood and dark with martyr ashes. Your Christianity, however individual it may be, is extracted from the Christianity of sixty generations. 6. Why, then, since each of us proceeds from the Church, should not the Church proceed from the Jews. As everything ends with the individual, so everything begins. The Church was within the Jewish nation, this whole nation was in the loins of Abraham the father of us all. So the ancient posterity of Jacob find a place in the work of individual salvation. III. OUR WOULD BE TOO EASILY IF WE COULD SAY THAT CHRIST IS ONLY THE LAST OF THE WISDOM OF THE JEWS. It is not because He is a Jew, but because He is God manifest in the flesh, that He is our salvation. Yet 1. The Jewish race from which He came fulfilled an important function in preparing for His advent. The Old Testament is a progressive instruction that leads us gradually up to Him. The law in the letter is succeeded by the law in the Spirit, a ritual worship by the worship of the heart, legislation by prophecy, Abraham by Moses, Moses by Isaiah, so that when the King arrives there is a people ready to receive Him. 2. This people, which will be the first fruits of a universal Father, could only be drawn from the Jewish people. 3. But apart from the spiritual Israel, the Jewish people as a whole received from God the education necessary to be the forerunner of Christ among the nations, and when Christianity, after having collected in Judaea all that belonged to it, finds Jewish colonies which Divine Providence had scattered which became the first Christian churches. 4. The Jews also carried their history with them which became an immortal lesson for the human race, viz., the manner in which God interposes in human affairs, just as a specimen of a plant explains the whole species. 5. Here we must turn to Romans 11:12. As a political society and race, the Jews had to fall away, because the new economy appealed to individuals. But the falling away is not to be for ever. It must, is, and will be gathered anew according to the principle of individuality and the law of liberty. The world will yet see its fulness, and what will that fulness be? Isaiah 49:16-19). (A. Vinet, D. D.) The spiritual ignorance of the Samaritans The assertion of this, as the great calamity of the Samaritan--that he knew not what he worshipped--is abundantly borne out by history. It was in all times a country ofsuperstition, the early home of Baal worshippers, the later home of enchanters and fanatics, and of sects putting forward pretensions to all kind of spiritual powers. The Jew, on the contrary, clung to a distinct object of adoration. He was a protestant against the worship of spiritual fantasies. This poor shadow showed what the substance was which the Jew had inherited, and which was his distinction among all nations. Salvation was to go forth from his land. And salvation, so our Lord teaches us, consists in knowing what we worship; for that knowledge saves men from slavery to the world’ s idols, and to the idols of their own hearts, which is their great curse and misery. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) The straightforwardness of Jesus In speaking here to a Samaritan, He indicates some points in which the Jews were superior, and in which her nation might well follow them: while to the Jews, on the other hand (as in the case of the parable of the good Samaritan, and in His remark after the miracle of healing ten lepers), He takes occasion to notice some superiority in the conduct of Samaritans, wherein their nation might well follow them. Thus He corrects the failings of each by pointing out some superiority in the other: reproving each to their own face, but commending them to others: exactly the converse of that conduct which is too common among those who profess to be His disciples, who, on the contrary, are often in the unchristian habit of flattering people in their presence and slandering them behind their back: keeping their faults from themselves, but making them known to others. (G. J. Brown, M. A.) Aptness of Christ Our Saviour always had in view the posture of mind of the persons whom He addressed. He did not entertain the Pharisees with invectives against the open impiety of their Sadducean rivals; nor, on the other hand, did He soothe the Sadducee’ s ear with descriptions of Pharisaical pomp and folly. In the presence of the Pharisees, He preached against hypocrisy;to the Sadducees He proved the resurrection of the dead. In like manner, of that known enmity, which subsisted between the Jews and Samaritans, this faithful Teacher took no undue advantage to make friends or proselytes of either. Upon the Jews He inculcated a more comprehensive benevolence; with the Samaritan He defended the orthodoxy of the Jewish creed. (Archdeacon Paley.) John 4:23-24 The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers Worship I. ITS GROUNDS OR REASONS. 1. The perfection of the Divine character. “ God is a Spirit.” These words are (1) A mystery, because spirit, like matter, is unknown to us in its essence. We are acquainted with some of the sensible properties of matter, such as extension, figure, colour, etc.; but what the substance is which underlies these we do not understand. So also of spirit; we see its manifold manifestations; we feel, and therefore know, that it does exist; but what it is in itself is a profound and inexplicable mystery. (2) A revelation. By them our Saviour declared the personality of God. What is in the effect must have been first in the cause. The Creator of persons must be a person. (3) As possessing all possible perfections. 2. The nature of man. Intellectual ability, genius, and learning, which are the possessions of the few, call forth our admiration, but there is that in us all which is greater than these, namely, the power to worship our Creator. All men have this; but in many it exists only in a latent state. Thousands of human souls are nothing better than the burial-places of their own faculties. It seems as if some malignant spiritual magician had waved his terrible wand over human nature, causing a deep sleep to fall upon its noblest instincts, and thus preventing its development. One of the greatest dangers of the present time is the weakening of this power in men. The heathen worship senseless idols; the ancient Greeks worshipped beauty; in the days of chivalry men worshipped physical strength, military dignity, valour, and courage; but the tendency of many in our own age is to worship nothing. Even in the Church the idea of worship does not occupy the place it did in other times. The leading conception appears to be preaching. II. ITS . 1. Meditation upon God. Holy and thoughtful Hebrews contemplated His character in the works of creation, the goodness of His providence, and the words He had spoken by His prophets. These are the three mirrors in which they beheld “ the beauty of the Lord.” A greater and clearer manifestation has been given to us “ in the face of Jesus Christ.” It follows that He should be set most prominently before the mind in all our acts of worship. 2. Devout contemplation produces reverence, without which there is no true worship. (1) The science that has in it no reverence is “ blind, and cannot see afar off.” Philosophy without reverence is wanting in the first element of wisdom, and when art has lost reverence its greatest beauty is gone. There can be no great literature without reverence; piety without reverence will not soar above the earth, and a life without reverence is not worthy of the name. Would you paint science, philosophy, art, poetry, and literature in a becoming manner? Then you should represent them as a sisterhood of angels in the attitude of worship. (2) This spirit, which ought to characterize our whole life, should become intense in our direct acts of worship, for we enter then in a special manner into the Divine presence. “ Our God is a consuming fire,” and we should therefore approach His throne “ with reverence and godly fear.” What the fragrance of flowers is to the atmosphere of the summer garden, this feeling of reverence should be to our public worship. 3. Worship is transcendent wonder. “ Oh, the depth of the riches,” etc. “ Great and marvellous are Thy works,” etc. “ Who shall not fear Thee?” 4. Worship is communion with God. “ Our fellowship is with the Father.” 5. A profound sense of humility and self-abasement. The angels hide their faces in His presence. Contemplate His holiness, and sin will appear hateful. Behold His greatness, and you will feel how humble you ought to be. (T. Jones, D. D.) God seeks worshippers Oh, how should this fire up our hearts to spiritual worship, that God seeks for such, with “ Let me see Thy face, hear Thy voice!” (Son 2:14). He soliciteth suitors. (J. Trapp.) Living worshippers the only true worshippers The magistrates (among the New England Puritans) insisted on the presence of every man at public worship. Roger Williams reprobated the law; the worst statute in the English code was that which did but enforce attendance upon the parish church. “ An unbelieving soul is dead in sin” ; such was his argument; and to force the indifferent from one worship to another “ was like shifting a dead man into several changes of apparel.” True worship binds together all human souls An officer from one of the ships in port--a serious young man--spent the interval between the English and native services with me at the mission-house. As the congregation began to assemble he accompanied me to the door of the chapel, intending to take leave when the exercises should begin, as he was unacquainted with the language, and had been already longer from his ship than he designed; but after standing a few minutes, and seeing hundreds of natives assembling quietly and seriously from various directions, he suddenly exclaimed, while tears glistened in his eye, “ No!--this is too much; I cannot go till I worship with these heathen!” (Stewart.) A true worshipper “ I have in my congregation,” said a minister of the gospel, “ a worthy aged woman, who has for many years been so deaf as not to distinguish the loudest sound; and yet she is always one of the first in the meeting. On asking the reason of her constant attendance, as it was impossible for her to hear my voice, she answered, “ Though I cannot hear you, I come to God’ s house because I love it, and would be found in His ways; and He gives me many a sweet thought upon the text when it is pointed out to me. Another reason is, because I am in the best company, in the most immediate presence of God, and among His saints, the honourable of the earth.” Worship (Church Dedication) I. WE OUGHT TO ENTER THIS HOUSE WITH JOY, FOR IT IS TO WORSHIP. 1. Worship is man’ s highest end, for it is the employment of his highest faculties in the sublimest object 2. Worship has been disparaged by representing it as a priestly contrivance for selfish ends. 3. But how came the priest into being, and who gave him power? Religion was earlier than government. 4. In the earliest ages men recognized an immediate interference of the Deity in what powerfully struck the senses. These rude notions have been dispelled by science, which reveals fixed laws. (1) But in these the religious principle finds confirmations of God more numerous and powerful still. (2) The progress of the arts, teaching us the beneficent uses to which God’ s works may be applied, has furnished new testimonies to God’ s goodness. (3) The progress of society has made God s creation more attractive. (4) Human improvement has created new capacities and demands for religion. (5) The soul, in proportion as it enlarges its capacities and refines its affections, discerns within itself a more glorious type of the Divinity. 5. All other wants are superficial and transcient: the profoundest of all is the want of God. 6. Let us rejoice, then, in tits house. Heaven has no higher joy, the universe no higher work, than worship. II. When we consider THE WORSHIP TO BE HERE OFFERED, IT OUGHT TO AWAKEN PIOUS JOY. 1. Worship is of different forms--some unworthy. The idea of God has been selfishly seized and so obscured that little of its purifying power has remained, and men have, by pompous machinery and obsequious adulation, endeavoured to bend the Almighty to their particular interests. 2. This house is not reared to perpetuate the superstitions of past or present. Here are none of the idols which degraded ancient temples, none of the forms which in a rude age Providence allowed to the Jews; none of the cumbersome ceremonies with which Christ has been overlaid. III. THIS HOUSE IS REARED TO ASSIST THE WORSHIP OF THE FATHER IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. For the worship 1. Of one Infinite Person. 2. The Father. God has not always been so worshipped, but Christ has for ever revealed Him as such. What a privilege I What does the term import? Not merely that He is Creator--He made the mountain and the insect--but that He communicates an existence like His own. He made us in His image and likeness, and makes us partakers of the Divine nature. God is a Spirit, and we are spirits. In calling God Father I understand (1) That He loves His offspring with unbounded affection. Love is the fundamental attribute of a father. (2) That it is His chief purpose in creating and governing the universe to train and ennoble the rational and moral being to whom He has given birth. Education is the great work of a parent. (3) That He exercises authority over His child. (4) That He communicates Himself. It belongs to a parent to breathe into the child whatever is loftiest in his own soul. (5) That He destines His rational moral creature to immortality. How ardently does a parent desire to prolong the life of his child! 3. Of the Infinite Father in spirit and in truth. (1) Intelligently, with just and honourable conceptions of Him. (2) With the heart as well as the intellect. (3) With faith in a higher presence. (4) With a filial, not a fearful, spirit. IV. THE GREAT END OF HERE IS THAT YOU MAY WORSHIP , that your houses and places of business may be consecrated to God. Adore Him 1. As He is revealed in the universe. 2. As He is revealed in His rational and moral offspring by fulfilling His purposes in regard to Him. Reverence the human soul as His chosen sanctuary, in yourselves and in others, and labour to carry it forward to perfection. Mercy is most acceptable worship. He who rears one child in Christian virtue or recovers one fellow-creature to God builds a temple more precious and enduring than Solomon’ s or St. Peter’ s. (W. E.Channing, D. D.) The spirituality of worship I. THE GREAT OF and proof of its Divinity IS THAT IT IS FITTED TO BE THE OF EVERY AGE AND COUNTRY. There is nothing in its institutions which confines it to one place rather than another; and nothing in its requirements which makes its exercise easier at this time or that. The heathen attached special sacredness to some shrine; the Jews could perform the most solemn acts of their worship nowhere but at Jerusalem. This was enough to prove that Judaism was not designed to be permanent, because it could not be universal. Christianity takes the whole world for its Jerusalem, and attaches no sacredness to certain lands and temples. A kind of sanctity must be attached to the scenes of Christ’ s life, of course. But it is not a religious sacredness. A church built on Calvary would be no holier than anywhere else. II. THE FATHER SEEKS TO BE IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. Why? Because of His nature. Composed as we are of body and soul, men have formed improper notions of the Godhead, because we are unable to form ideas of a purely Spiritual Being. The Deity differing immeasurably from ourselves, to invest Him with our imperfections is to destroy reverence. Were He not a Spirit He could not possess the properties which belong to the Divine Being--omnipresence, e.g.--a body cannot be present in different places at the same time; infinitude--a body cannot fill the universe. But in His spiritual nature He must be immeasurably removed from the highest ranks of created intelligence. We want to stretch beyond spirit, because we cannot but believe that God is infinitely beyond angels; and it is our duty to maintain the thought that God is far above all created excellence. III. WORSHIP, THEN, MUST TAKE ITS FROM THE NATURE OF GOD. It follows, therefore, that carnal and ceremonial worship will not be acceptable. Prayer must be based on God’ s perfections. It were useless to pray unless persuaded of His omnipresence--who could worship a being who was not within hearing?--and equally useless unless convinced of His unchangeableness. Who could pray unless God’ s promises and precepts were immutable? This worship is not optional, but obligatory. IV. WORSHIP DOES NOT EXCLUDE BODILY. 1. The body as well as the soul is to be sanctified and glorified; with both, therefore, God is to be honoured. 2. Where there is inward worship there will not be outward irreverence. 3. But it is indifferent except as the index and accompaniment of the soul. V. BUT THIS WORSHIP IS . 1. It is an act of the understanding. Not “ What ye know not,” but “ What we know.” God as known by the light of nature and revelation. 2. It is an act of the will--surrender and submission to God. 3. An act of the affections--delighting in and sympathizing with God. 4. An act of faith 5. An act of reverence. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Spiritual worship I. THE NATURE OF GOD. “ God is a Spirit.” 1. How little we know about spirit. We can only contrast it with matter. “ The Egyptians are men,” etc. “ A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have.” 2. The heathen entertained sensual views of God, and “ changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man,” etc. 3. But God is a Spirit, and therefore (1) Omnipotent. A body can only occupy a certain space. (2) Unchangeable and eternal. Bodies are finite and mutable. 4. As we can understand so little about God as a Spirit, we are grateful for His revelation. (1) In nature. (2) In His Word. (3) In His Son, through whom God’ s Spirit is brought near in our own nature, that we may the better understand, love, and serve Him. II. THE SERVICE HE . 1. Sincere. However fair the impression and imposing the ceremonial, formality is abhorent to Him. We scorn insincere professions and friendships, and an earthly monarch would repel the adulation of a traitor. 2. Spiritual: the homage of the heart. God’ s complaint of His ancient people was that they drew nigh with their lips only. To this a spiritual state is necessary, for “ the carnal mind is enmity against God” ; and also renewal of the Holy Spirit, “ praying in the Holy Ghost.” 3. Elevation and enlargement in contrast to the Samaritan worship “ in the mountain” and to that of the Jews at Jerusalem. No creature was allowed to be offered to God, “ except such as could run and fly.” 4. God will not reject the tremulous and broken utterances of a contrite heart. III. HIS TO RECEIVE THIS WORSHIP. IV. THE IT WILL CONFER ON . 1. Deepened gratitude. 2. Elevated affections. 3. Relief from care. 4. Preparation for heaven. (T. Barrass.) Spiritual worship Note 1. The difference between interest in theology and interest in religion. Here was a woman living in sin, and yet deeply interested in theological controversy. Controversy sharpens our disputative faculties and wakes our speculative ones. Religion is love to God and man. The woman’ s con- duct is typical. The moment Christ appears, she examines His views, not on righteousness, but was He sound on the Temple. 2. All that was worth noticing in the question had disappeared. Wrong as the Samaritan was, he was not so wrong as the Jew for excommunicating him, or half so wrong as he himself was for hating the Jew. Just as worship disappeared in this miserable controversy, so is Christianity going down in ours. Which was worse--to worship on a wrong hill, or to mistake the very essence of worship? Consider I. THE ON WHICH THE NEW RESTS is the revelation made by Christ concerning 1. The Fatherhood of God. This is the emphatic word. Men had worshipped the Father before. The Greeks and Romans spoke of a “ Father of gods and men” ; the Jewish prophet said, “ Have we not all one Father?” But universality was want- ing. Therefore the old question was all in all--Where is He to be worshipped? The real question hidden under that was, Who are His children? The appearance of God was the answer: God is the Father of the family of man. 2. The spirituality of God. The definition is not theological, but practical. It is chiefly negative. It says what God is not--not Matter. He is Mind, which has no place. Of love, generosity, thought, can you say, Where? 3. The personality of God--“ seeketh.” (1) Two erroneous notions are compatible with the idea of Spirit--God as an idea elaborated out of our own minds, and that God is the soul of nature: but both are impersonal. (2) This is redemption. “ God is a Spirit; He seeketh.” Here is the value of belief in a Person. Not that we seek God; but that He seeks us. II. THE NATURE OF WORSHIP. (1) It is not what a man professes that constitutes worship. A Trinitarian may call Christ “ God,” and worship mammon. (2) A man cannot decide whether he will or will not worship--he must. The only question is, What? That before which he bows as greater than himself. An infidel may worship Reason. The new worship of God is to be 1. Universal as against Samaritan or Jewish exclusiveness. The “ where” is unimportant. 2. “ In spirit.” This the better Jews had gradually seen. “ What doth the Lord require of thee,” etc. All true life is worship. 3. “ In truth.” The correspondence between acts and laws. God dwells in the humble heart. To be humble, to love God, is His spiritual worship. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Spiritual worship In this there is I. OF THE OBJECT, AND OF ITS . II. UNION WITH THE OBJECT, AND TO IT. III. SENSE OR , AND ON THE OBJECT. IV. THESE ARE THINGS IN WORSHIP, OF WHICH NOTHING CAN BE DONE BUT BY THE SPIRIT (Acts 17:23). (Dr. Whichcote.) Spiritual worship I. SOME GENERAL . Spiritual worship 1. Is founded upon and riseth from the spirituality of God. 2. Is manifest by the light of nature to be due to Him; not the outward means, which depended on a law, but the inward manner. “ Sacrifice to the gods, not so much clothed with purple garments as with a pure heart” (Menander) . This could not but result (1) From a knowledge of ourselves. Psalms 100:1-2, is a natural principle. Man must know that his faculties were given him to glorify God. (2) From the knowledge of God (Romans 1:21). 3. Spiritual worship, therefore, was always required by God, and always offered Him. His spirituality fails not, and spirituality must run through all the rights of worship, and did (Deuteronomy 30:10). 4. It is, consequently, every man’ s duty to worship God in spirit as to worship Him at all. He that denies worship to be due to God denies His Deity; he that waives spiritual worship, denies His spirituality. 5. The ceremonial law was abolished to promote spirituality of worship. (1) The legal service is called “ flesh,” in opposition to the gospel, which is called “ spirit” (Hebrews 7:16; Hebrews 9:10; 2 Corinthians 3:8; Galatians 1 Corinthians 10:18; Romans 2:29). (2) The legal ceremonies were not a fit means to bring the heart into a spiritual frame. They had a spiritual intent, but did not work spiritual affections in the soul (Galatians 4:9; Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 10:1). (3) Neither are they hindered spiritual affections; because the people sunk down to the things themselves, and refused to perceive their spiritual intent. (4) Upon these accounts, therefore, God never testified Himself well pleased with that kind of worship; not as they were His own institution, but as they were practised (Hosea 6:6; Isaiah 1:11-14). (5) God, therefore, never intended their permanence, and often mentioned a coming spiritual change (Hebrews 7:18; Galatians 4:2; Malachi 1:11). 6. The gospel service is spiritual. Spirituality is the genius of the gospel Romans 12:1). Its matter--love of, and faith in, God--its motives John 1:17), its manner, its assistances, are all spiritual. 7. Yet the worship of our bodies is not to be rejected. (1) Bodily worship is due to God (1 Corinthians 6:20). Both body and spirit are from God, and should be for God. (2) Social worship is due to God, but this cannot be without some bodily expressions. (3) Christ worshipped with His body (Luke 22:41-42). II. WHAT WORSHIP IS. 1. From a spiritual nature (Ephesians 2:10). 2. By the influence of the Spirit of God (Romans 8:13; Romans 8:26; Ephesians 6:18). 3. Done in sincerity--from the heart (Romans 1:9; Pr Exodus 25:7; Psalms 119:108). This is the salt which seasons every sacrifice, and without the heart worship is a stage play (Romans 10:10). 4. Performed with unitedness of heart (Psalms 86:11; Ezekiel 33:31; Matthew 6:6; Psalms 119:10). 5. Discharged with spiritual activity (Psalms 57:8), and acting spiritual habits (Psalms 103:1). Hence the necessity of (1) Faith (Hebrews 9:6). (2) Love (Romans 8:15). (3) A spiritual sensibility of our own weakness. (4) Spiritual desires after God (Psalms 63:2; Psalms 63:8; Psalms 42:2). (5) Thankfulness and admiration (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:11; 5:13, 14). 6. Offered with delight (Psalms 43:4; Ephesians 5:18-19). 7. Paid with deep reverence (Isaiah 6:2; Hebrews 12:28), and humility (Hosea 2:4; Isaiah 6:5; 1 Chronicles 29:14). God commanded not the fiercer creatures to be sacrificed, but the meek; none that had stings in their tails or venom in their tongues. 8. Performed with holiness (Psalms 93:5; Hebrews 9:14; Revelation 4:8). 9. Performed with spiritual ends and raised aims at God’ s glory Hebrews 11:6; Revelation 4:11). Some worship as poor men offer a present to rich--not to honour them, but to gain a richer reward Malachi 3:14). 10. Offered in the name of Christ (1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 8:3). III. WHY A WORSHIP IS DUE TO GOD, and to be offered to Him. 1. The best we have is robe presented in worship, on the grounds (1) Of God’ s excellency (Malachi 1:13-14). (2) God’ s command (Exodus 29:13). (3) Heathen precedent, who offered their males and their children. (4) All creatures serve man, by the Providential order, with their best. (5) God has served man with His best. 2. We cannot else act towards God according to the nature of rational creatures. Spiritual worship is due to God because of His nature, and from us because of ours. To withhold our spiritual faculties is to deny them the end and use for which they were given. 3. Without the engagement of our spirits, no act is an act of worship. The posture of the body is best to testify the affection of the mind. 4. There is in worship an approach of God to man. Ought not our spirits to be prepared to receive Him? (Exodus 19:10-11; Ezekiel 48:35). 5. To have this worship is God’ s end in redemption and sanctification Malachi 3:3; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 Peter 2:5). 6. Other worship cannot be acceptable, God being a Spirit (1 Peter 2:5). IV. TO MAKE USE OF THIS. It serves 1. For information. If spiritual worship be required (1) How sad their state who, so far from giving it, render no worship at all. Worship is founded on creation (Psalms 100:2-3), and man in no state can be exempted. Where there is no acknowledgment of God, the gate is open for all sin (Hosea 4:1-2; Genesis 4:16). Worship to a false God, or in a false way, is better than none at all. (2) Diligence in outward worship is not to be rested in (Revelation 3:1). 2. For examination. (1) How are our hearts prepared to worship? Do we quicken our spirits? Psalms 27:8.) Are our hearts fixed? (2) How do we act our graces in worship? (3) How do we find our hearts after worship? How as to inward strength, humility, delight? 3. For comfort. 4. For exhortation. (S. Charnock, B. D.) The spirituality of worship is distinct from I. and ritualism. II. . III. FANATIC . (P. Schaff, D. D.) The spirituality and simplicity of Christian worship: its grandeur and glory If we compare the worship of God under the New Testament economy with that under the Old, or that of false gods, the latter is far more impressive and imposing; and, naturally, men do despise the simplicity of the former, for almost from the first an effort has been made to carnalize and embellish it. I. WORSHIP IS PRE- NOT MADE TO DEPEND ON SYMBOL BECAUSE MORE . The Jewish dispensation was typical and prophetic, the Christian memorial. In foreshadowing more minuteness is required than in calling to mind. A traveller needs very little to recall the scenes he has witnessed, but the non-traveller requires much explanation. We have a full revelation, and do not therefore require scenic representation. II. THE OLD WORSHIP WAS LARGELY . The people were constantly being entangled, worshipped God with their lips, their emotions were wrought upon, their devotions were dead. III. THE OLD ECONOMY WAS , severe, uniform. We do not allow children liberty of action, and so in these old times, God prescribed to the child at school everything strictly; when Christ came a measure of liberty was granted from ceremonies. IV. OUR SIMPLE WORSHIP BRINGS BEFORE US THE THINGS OF GOD IN THE LIGHT OF GOD’ S TRUTH AND IN ON THE POWER OF GOD’ S SPIRIT. When men are acted on by their senses they are apt to forget the end of all. A telescope is made to see the stars with, but if the astronomer’ s mind is occupied with the beauty of his instrument, its end is lost. So we need to be on the watch lest amusement and gratification shut out the true purpose of prayer. V. THE RULES FOR WORSHIP are 1. Let all things be done in decency and order. 2. Unto edifying. (Canon H. Stowell, M. A.) The axe at the root 1. The worship Christ here established involved a change--“ The hour cometh.” 2. It was a distinguishing kind of worship, separating the true worshippers from the false. 3. It was directed towards the Father as its object. 4. It originates in a work of grace--“ seeketh.” 5. Its nature is Spirit and Truth. I. THE HISTORY OF WORSHIP. 1. Before the Flood it was of the simple form; the outward ordinances were few, the chief of which were the offering of animal sacrifices. Connected with this, no doubt, was the meeting of gracious hearts for prayer, and also the ministration of truth since Enoch prophesied. But this worship was too spiritual. Cain commenced a schism, and set up taste and self as a guide in religious worship. The result was a general neglect of religion. 2. The patriarchal method. The head of the family offered sacrifice, and, as in the case of Job, household religion was maintained. But very early, although he could not forget God after the Deluge, man began to interpose visible objects between himself and God. The use of Teraphim became common even among those who had some knowledge of God. The nations being dispersed, soon lost the idea of the invisible, and worshipped idols. 3. The ceremonial form was instituted after the spiritual had broken down. This was suitable to the infancy of the Church, but is as unsuitable now as swaddling clothes would be to full grown men. But even while it existed it was spoken of as soon to be superseded, was frequently broken through by Divine authority, and had no visible thing to worship. In spite of it all, however, idolatry was the common sin of Israel, from which they had to be purged by the Captivity. 4. Since that day God has been treated in one of three ways (1) Adored by outward symbols, as among Brahmins, Romanists, etc; (2) Worshipped through ritualism or unbending forms; (3) Or neglected altogether for superstition. The lesson of all which is, that men will, if they can, find a substitute for God. 5. Christ comes to tell us now that His worship is wholly spiritual. II. ACCOUNT FOR THE RARITY OF WORSHIP. 1. Because man has fallen, that as his body wants clothing so he is always dressing up his religion. 2. It is more difficult to worship God in spirit than in form. 3. To worship God spiritually men must part with their sins. 4. Men cannot traffic in spiritual religion. III. WHY IS SUCH WORSHIP TO BE ? Why not with windmills, as in Thibet? 1. God seeks spiritual worship. To set up our own forms, therefore, is to insult God. 2. God is a spirit, otherwise it might be right to worship Him with material substances or something congenial to humanity. IV. WHAT THEN? 1. Let us be particularly jealous of anything which looks like going back to ceremonialism. 2. Let us make it matter of heart searching as to whether this service has been ours. (C. H. Spurgeon.) I. IN SPIRIT, as regards the inward power. II. IN TRUTH, the outward form; the first strikes at hypocrisy, the last at idolatry. (Caryl.) Where to pray We had gone out of doors, and are sent within. Go entirely within--and if perchance you seek some lofty place, some holy place, show yourself within a temple of God. For the temple of God is holy; which temple are ye? If you wish to pray in a temple, pray in yourself. But first be a temple of God, because He will hear the one who prays in His temple. (Augustine.) Appropriate worship He that shall serve God, as a Spirit, in spirit and in truth; he that shall serve God, as Holy, with probity of manners; as Omniscient, with reverence of thought; as everywhere present, with composure of actions; as bountiful, with willingness of heart; as merciful, with imitating that mercy we hope for--such a one shows what Christianity is, and that it is the only standard of a “ reasonable service” Micah 6:6-8; Ephesians 5:1-2). (Dean Young.) Seeketh The expression is peculiar. There is something like it in the sentence, “ The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost” Luke 19:10). It seems to show the exceeding compassion of the Father, and His infinite willingness to save souls. He does not merely “ wait” for men to come to Him. He “ seeks” for them. It also shows the wide opening of God the Father’ s mercy under the gospel. He no longer confines His grace to the Jews. He now seeks and desires to gather in everywhere true worshippers out of every nation. (Bp. Ryle.) John 4:24 God is a Spirit, and they that worship Hill must worship Him in spirit and in truth God is a Spirit There are two ways of knowing and describing God--Affirmatively, which ascribes to Him whatever is excellent; Negatively, which separates from Him whatever is imperfect. The first is like a painting, which adds one colour to another to make a lovely picture; the other like a carving, which cuts away what is superfluous. The latter is the easier. When we say that God is infinite, immense, immutable, they are negatives. Spirit, too, is a negation--not a body. We transfer the term to God because spirit is the highest excellence in our nature. It is signified in the Divine Name (Exodus 3:14), and expressly declared in text and Hebrews 12:9. I. THE . God is a pure spiritual being. Other-wise 1. He could not be the Creator. Every artificer has his model first in his mind. 2. He could not be One. If He had a body He would be capable of division. Where there is the greatest unity there is the greatest simplicity Deuteronomy 6:4). 3. He could not be invisible (1 Timothy 1:17; John 5:37). Sometimes a representation is made to the inward sense (1Ki Isaiah 6:1), but not of the Essence. Sometimes men are said to see Him face to face (Genesis 32:30; Deuteronomy 34:10), but only in the sense of fuller manifestation. 4. He could not be infinite (2 Chronicles 2:6). The very heavens have their limits. 5. He could not be independent. What is compounded of parts depends on those parts, and is after them; as the parts of a watch are in time before it. But God is not so (Isaiah 44:6). 6. He would not be immutable (Malachi 3:6). 7. He could not be omnipresent (Deuteronomy 4:39; Jeremiah 23:24), since a body can not be in two places at the same time. 8. He could not be the most perfect Being. The most perfect is the most spiritual and simple, as gold among metals is most free from alloy (1 John 1:5). II. THE . How can God be a spirit when bodily members are ascribed to Him? 1. This is in condescension to our weakness. We arc not able to conceive a spirit but by some physical attribute. 2. These signify the acts of God as they bear some likeness to ours. His wisdom is called His eye; His efficiency, His hand and arm; by His face, we understand the manifestation of His favour; by His mouth, the revelation of His will; by His heart, the sincerity of His affections, etc. 3. Truly those members which are the instruments of the highest actions are thus employed. 4. These may be figuratively understood with respect to the Incarnation. 5. We must conceive of them, therefore, not according to the letter but the intent. When Christ calls Himself a Vine, Bread, Light, who understands Him literally? III. THE USE. If God be a pure spiritual Being, then 1. Man is not the image of God according to his external form, but in the spiritual faculties (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). It is unreasonable to form any image of Him. This was forbidden by Pythagoras, undreamt of by the Romans for 170 years, and deemed wicked by the Germans. God has absolutely prohibited it (Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:8-9; Isaiah 11:13). (1) We cannot fashion His image. Can we that of our own souls? (2) To do so would be unworthy of God (Jeremiah 10:8; Jeremiah 10:14; Romans 1:23-25 : Exodus 32:31). (3) Yet is natural to man. 2. Our conceptions must be directed towards God as a pure, perfect spirit, than which nothing can be conceived more perfect, pure, and spiritual. Conceive of Him as excellent without any imperfection; a spirit without parts; great without quantity; perfect without quality; everywhere without place; powerful without members; understanding without ignorance; and when you have risen to the highest, consider Him as infinitely beyond. 3. No corporeal thing can defile Him, no more than the quagmire can tame the sunbeam. 4. He is active and communicative. The more anything approaches the nature of spirit, the more diffusive it is--air, e.g. As a spirit God is (1) Possessed with all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3); (2) Indefatigable in acting. If we be like God, the more spiritual we are, the more active we shall be. 5. He is immortal (1 Timothy 1:17). 6. We see how to communicate with Him; by our spirits. We can only know and embrace a spirit with our spirits (Psalms 51:17; Ephesians 4:23). 7. He only can be the true satisfaction of our spirits. 8. We must take most care of that wherein we are most like God. 9. We must take heed of those sins which are spiritual (2 Corinthians 7:1). (S. Charnock, B. D.) The spirituality of God I. GOD IS . We can only see what has form. It is no imperfection in our vision that it cannot see what it was never made to see. A spirit can only be known by its operations through a material body. God manifests Himself not to sense, but to experience. II. GOD CANNOT ASSUME A FORM, for it would confine Him, whereas He is everywhere. Whoever imagined the form of God. The most rapt prophet has only seen light unapproachable as His symbol. III. GOD HAS ASSUMED TERMS BY WHICH HE HAS HIMSELF. 1. The pillar of cloud. 2. The burning bush. 3. The elements, as at Sinai. 4. A more definite form in Isaiah 6:1-13. 5. In the fiery furnace as a man. 6. As the angel of the covenant. IV. GOD HAS HIMSELF IN THE OF CHRIST. “ The image of the invisible God.” (J. T. Duryea, D. D.) Of God and His natural perfections I. THERE IS BUT ONE GOD. We are led to this 1. By the light of nature. There can be but one infinite and supreme; it is a contradiction to suppose otherwise. The wiser of the heathen philosophers had their one supreme god. 2. By revelation (Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:10; Mark 12:29). II. THIS GOD IS A SPIRIT. 1. He is incorporeal and invisible (Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 6:16; John 5:37). 2. He lives and acts (John 5:26; Psalms 36:9). 3. He has understanding and will (Psalms 104:24; Ephesians 1:11; Isaiah 28:29; Daniel 4:35). III. THIS GOD IS AN PERFECT SPIRIT, and is distinguished in a transcendent manner from other spirits. 1. An infinite Spirit (Isaiah 40:15-17). 2. A self-sufficient and independent Spirit (Exodus 3:14; IsaJob 22:2, 3; Revelation 4:11). 3. An eternal Spirit (Psalms 90:2; Psalms 9:7; Psalms 102:27). 4. An unchangeable Spirit (James 1:17). (1) In His being and perfection. (2) In His glory. (3)In His blessedness. (4) In His decrees (Job 23:13; Psalms 32:11; Isaiah 46:10, 11). (5) In His promises (Isaiah 54:10; Malachi 2:6). 5. An omnipresent Spirit (Jeremiah 23:24; Acts 17:27-28; Psalms 139:7-10). 6. An all-knowing Spirit (Psalms 147:5; Hebrews 4:13; Job 34:21-22). On this ground He challenges the heathen (Isaiah 41:22-23). All this He knows of Himself without any external medium (Is Psalms 94:10). 7. An Almighty Spirit (Psalms 33:6; Ephesians 3:20). Application 1. How absurd and abominable are all images of God (Jeremiah 10:8, Romans 1:23-25). 2. What awful sentiments should we entertain of Him. 3. What a dreadful enemy and what a comfortable friend He must be. 4. How thankfully should we embrace a gospel revelation which makes Him accessible. (J. Guyse, D. D.) The nature and worship of God I. GOD IS A SPIRIT. All the substances with which we are acquainted are resolvable into material and spiritual. Between them there is this essential difference, that no matter, however refined, can be so organized as to be capable of originating a single feeling. Where, therefore, there is a judgment, will, afflictions, there is the subsistence which we call spirit. Of this kind is the spirit of man. But human and angelic spirits are finite; God is infinite. Because God is an infinite Spirit 1. He is present in every place, and therefore His worshippers may in every place find Him. “ Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?” 2. From this property arises the perfection of His knowledge, His omniscience. However matter may be extended, it would possess no consciousness of any object with which it might come in contact. But when we conceive of spiritual presence we conceive of consciousness and knowledge too. Wherever we are present we know. Apply this to God. He is present to mark the risings of desire. Let this admonish the sinner. But it is at the same time most encouraging to the real worshipper, who is conscious of his own sincerity, to know that God searcheth the heart. 3. Hence arises the consideration of His ceaseless activity. We feel conscious of something of this in ourselves. We find no weariness in the operations even of a finite spirit; the power of the soul is now far too mighty for the feebleness of the body. But “ My Father worketh hitherto,” etc. Every faithful worshipper is absolutely sure, not only of the notice of His eye, but of the unwearied operation of His hand. 4. We thence infer the unchangeableness of His nature. An infinite Spirit must, of necessity, be immutable. Even we, imperfect and changeable as we are, yet, in some degree, partake of this property. The body grows and increases in strength, and then it weakens and decays. Not so the spirit; that remains essentially the same. There are two kinds of change of which created spirits are capable, and which strongly mark their natural imperfection: they may change from good to bad; and from good to better. But God fills the whole orb of perfection at once. II. GOD OUGHT TO BE because 1. He ought to be acknowledged; and publicly worshipped, because publicly acknowledged. 2. It is in acts of religious worship that we acquire just views of ourselves. If we do not regularly draw nigh to God, there will spring up within us a principle fatal to our peace and destructive of our salvation. The acts of solemn worship always prevent our thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. 3. We have no reason to expect the slightest blessing except through the medium of His worship. God will be inquired of by us. 4. The exalted pleasure which the soul receives from religious worship. “ How amiable are Thy tabernacles,” etc. 5. It is one direct means of preparing us for heaven. A great part of the happiness of heaven will consist in worship. III. WE MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. 1. “ In truth.” (1) In opposition to the shadowy dispensation of the law. (2) In a true manner: that is, in the way which He has Himself appointed through the mediation of Christ. 2. “ In spirit.” It is possible to worship Him in truth, and not in spirit. Orthodoxy does not necessarily produce piety. What is implied in this. It is to worship Him (1) As a known, and not as an unknown, God. The understanding is thus called in. (2) With a submissive will. Where the will is in rebellion, God cannot be worshipped. (3) With the affections. (a) Desire. (b) Faith or trust. (c) Gratitude. (R. Watson.) Christian worship a necessity When Felix, the youthful martyr of Abitina, having confessed himself a Christian, was asked whether he had attended meetings, he replied, with an explosion of scorn, “ As if a Christian could live without the Lord’ s ordinance.” (Rendall.) True worship is spontaneous A little girl went out to pray in the fresh snow. When she came in she said, “ Mamma, I couldn’ t help praying when I was out at play.” “ What did you pray, my dear?” “ I prayed the snow.prayer, mamma, that I once learned at the Sunday School: ‘ Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’” “ What a beautiful prayer! And here is a sweet promise to go with it: ‘ Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.’” And what can wash them white, clean from every stain of sin? The Bible answers, “ They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (R. A. Bertram.) God is a Spirit God is a Spirit, as man is a spirit. There is no difference as to what may be termed the popular characters of spirit, between the spirit of man, and God, considered as a Spirit; for God made man in His own image. But there is one great and radical difference. Human and angelic spirits are finite; God, whom we worship, is infinite. (R. Watson.) Spiritual worship essential We cannot be truly said to worship God if we want sincerity; a statue upon a tomb, with eyes and hands lifted up, offers as good and as true a service--nay, it is better, it represents all that it can be framed to, but for us to worship without our spirits is a presenting God with a picture, an echo, voice, and nothing else, a complement; a mere lie, “ a compassing Him about with lies.” (S. Charnock.) What is spiritual worship Our worship is spiritual when the door of the heart is shut against all intruders, as our Saviour commands in closet-duties. It was not His meaning to command the shutting of the closet door, and leaving the heart door open for every thought that would be apt to haunt us. (S. Charnock.) God’ s spirituality a necessity If God were an infinite body, He could not fill heaven and earth, but with the exclusion of all creatures. Two bodies cannot be in the same space; they may be near one another, but not in any of the same points together. A body bounded He hath not, for that would destroy His immensity; He could not then fill heaven and earth, because a body cannot be at one and the same time in two different spaces; but God doth not fill heaven at one time, and the earth at another, but both at the same time. Besides, a limited body cannot be said to fill the whole earth, but one particular space in the earth at a time. A body may fill the earth with its virtue, as the sun, but not with its substance. Nothing can be everywhere with a corporeal weight and mass; but God, being infinite, is not tied to any part of the world, but penetrates all, and equally act, by His infinite power in all. (S. Charnock.) The spirituality of God The knowledge of God is the foundation of all true religion. I. GOD IS A SPIRIT. In proportion as we are able to subject objects to the process of analysis and combination, we ascertain their true properties. Hence, the material world is more known than the immaterial. 1. We learn, that the spiritual mode of existence attributed to the Deity is essentially different from any sensible or material mode. When our Lord, therefore, said, that God was a Spirit, He asserted there was an infinite difference in all the essential properties of His nature from matter in any of its possible modifications. 2. The vast superiority of a spiritual over a material or compound nature. Mind is universally esteemed more valuable than matter in its most beautiful forms. But the superiority of spirit is not only apparent over matter, but over a nature compounded of matter and spirit. Once more; this compound nature is inferior to the spiritual, inasmuch as it is necessarily liable to change: it has an inherent tendency to dissolution. Again, spirituality of essence appears to be the condition of infinite perfection. It is that alone in which infinite perfection can inhere. We have already seen that mind is the test of power, wisdom, intelligene; and that none of the moral perfections of Jehovah can be predicated of simple matter. Justice, goodness, love, and compassion, are principles that belong exclusively to spirit. But we cannot infer, from the possession of these moral excellences, that God is simply spirit; for these qualities may attach to a complex nature, as they sometimes do in man. It is the infinity of His perfections that indicates the exclusive character of His essence. II. DRAW SOME . The first is suggested by the context. “ They that worship Him.” The construction of the sentence denotes the necessary connection that subsists between acceptable worship, and the nature of the object worshipped. If God is a Spirit, then we must worship Him with our spirits. 2. The spirituality of the Divine essence is the foundation of an intimate union between God and His intelligent creation, and should encourage our approach to Him. It forms a union of nature which could not subsist were He mere matter, and which cannot be with regard to substances that are exclusively material. 3. The spirituality of the Divine nature constitutes God an inexhaustible source of blessedness. We are conversant in the present world with material objects; they are the occasion of a great portion of our pleasures. But we are all conscious that they are an unsatisfying portion. To conclude: What a character of condescension and mercy does our subject give to the gospel of Jesus Christ: that economy of grace which makes God known in the Person of His Son. (S. Summers.) The nature of acceptable worship I. LET US OFFER SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON PUBLIC WORSHIP. 1. All places are alike acceptable with God. 2. Public worship should be conducted according to the Word of God. 3. Public worship is the duty and privilege of all believers. 4. Public worship requires due preparation and right feelings in entering upon it. 5. Public worship should be constant and regular. 6. Public worship should be followed by reflection and prayer. II. THE NATURE AND OF THE IN THE TEXT. “ God is a Spirit,” etc. That is, He is not a corporeal being, therefore not confined to any locality, etc. 1. God is a Spirit, therefore He requires the worship Of the mind. 2. God is an invisible Spirit, and therefore He must be worshipped in the spirit of faith. 3. God is a great and glorious Spirit, and therefore we must worship Him in the spirit of reverence and fear. 4. God is a holy Spirit, therefore we must worship Him with contrition and prayer. 5. God is a merciful and gracious Spirit, and therefore we should worship Him in the spirit of confidence and hope. 6. God is a Spirit of infinite benevolence and love, and therefore we should worship Him in the spirit of affection and delight. 7. God is an omniscient Spirit, and therefore we must worship Him in sincerity and truth. Application: 1. Remember your constant unworthiness and need. 2. Christ’ s preciousness and merit. 3. And the Spirit’ s willingness to aid you, if you seek His influences. (Jabez Burns, D. D.) Christian worship The spirit of adoration is as old as the records of humanity. Adam heard the voice of God in the garden. Abel offered sacrifice to an unseen power; and the guilty Cain bowed with his gift, though it was not accepted. From the border line of light, where authentic history fails us, we feel our way back towards the birth of man by the ruins of temples and the fragments of solemn tradition. Of early races and nations that have perished, we know, in many instances, nothing more than this--they worshipped. The disposition to worship belongs to the structure of the human soul. Religious ideas are changed by the progress and diffusion of knowledge. Forms and theories of worship are shattered and left behind by the enlargement and march of the intellect. Is it probable that worship itself will be outgrown? Sometimes we hear of fears that it may be so--that the advance of science will yet eradicate the tendency to prayer and homage. The answer is this: “ Is it likely that the progress of science will degrade human nature and extinguish one of the deepest elements of human nobleness? “ With the gain of knowledge we instinctively associate the advance of our race. Think, for a moment, of this globe filled with inhabitants, and no spire or dome of praise on it, no pulse or throb of adoration in all its millions! Think of this globe simply in its physical aspect, “ a crust of fossils and a core of fire,” spinning in the bleak immensity, and bearing myriads on myriads of intelligent creatures yearly around the sun, without wonder, without awe, without any cry from brain or heart into the surrounding mystery ! Suppose that the minds of these multitudes shall be cultured far beyond the average of even the most favoured classes now, would you account it an advance of human nature, if all this knowledge was gained at the cost of the sense of a vast, incomprehensible power, within whose sweep the world and all its interests is bound? Worship will cease when wonder dies in the heart of man, and when the sense of the infinite is expunged from his soul. Is the progress of knowledge likely to produce either of these results? How can all the light we can collect and concentrate from finite facts release us from the conception of the infinite, or help us to enclose it within the tiny measure of our thought? And when has science so explained anything as to banish wonder from the mind that appreciates the explanation? Ah! against what folly are we arguing thus? Our knowledge in this universe to dry up the springs of awe, and deliver us from the weakness of adoration? Let the man come forward who is ready to say, under the starry arch of night, “ I know so much of nature that I blow as a bubble from me the thought of God, and count it childish to entertain the thought of a Sovereign Mind!” Did Newton feel like saying that? Would Herschel say that in his observatory? If they had said it, should we think of them as greater men than now? It will not be the progress of knowledge, but the decay of the noble elements in human nature, that will ever banish worship from the world. Indeed the glory of knowledge is in fellowship with the devout sentiment. There are three purposes for which we may study truth--to obtain power over nature, to cultivate and enlarge our minds, and to discern and acknowledge a revelation from a boundless and invisible thought. I say nothing in disparagement of the first two. They are essential to civilization. The last is not inconsistent with devotion to the others. But if men stop with the first two, do they not miss the highest relations of truth? It is to refresh men with this noblest relation of truth and knowledge that churches are built. Worship is the exercise which the Church is to sustain. And all the aspects of truth which will bend the mind of man in humility, and exalt it in adoration, are legitimately within the range of the pulpit, and are, indeed, a portion of its trust. I have said that the glory, of knowledge lies in the acceptance of truth as a manifestation of an Infinite mind. And this is a conception that cannot be outgrown. It is ultimate. We can grow in the acknowledgment of it, in the power and blessedness which acquaintance with it brings; but the wisest man that will ever live will never go beyond it. Civilization depends on the continuance of faith in the personality and holiness of God. It is only through that faith that the consciences of men will be illumined, the will of man curbed, the devotion and sacrifice of heroes in the cause of truth inspired and confirmed. But there is still a higher conception connected with the personality and purity of God--the word “ Father.” God is one, God is holy, God is the Father--the Infinite is love; then the attraction is complete in the heavens for allthe faculties of man, and for all human faculties in every race, in every age, and in all stages of progress and attainment. We owe this final revelation to Jesus Christ. The sense of mystery, the sense of beauty, the will, the conscience, the affections--all are drawn upward to that name with which, through Him, the Infinite has clothed Himself. Adoration of the Father is the distinctively Christian worship. (T. Starr King.) The nature and worship of God I. THE NATURE OF GOD. 1. Being a Spirit, He is a living substance; for though all living things be not spirits, every spirit is a living thing. The soul and angels are spirits, therefore live, but not in themselves (Acts 17:28). God lives in and of Himself (John 5:26; Psalms 36:9). 2. He is incorporeal, or without body (Luke 24:39). The Anthropomorphites and Audiarii of old, and so some new heretics, have asserted that God has a body, contrary to Romans 1:23; Isaiah 40:18. Objection: God is said to have (1) a head (Daniel 7:9); (2) a face (Psalms 27:8; Psalms 34:6); (3) eyes (Psalms 34:15); (4) hands (Psalms 38:2; Acts 4:28); (5) a mouth (Matthew 4:4); (6) ears (Psalms 31:2); (7) arms (Exodus 6:6; Isaiah 53:1); (8) fingers (Exodus 31:18); (9) Bowels (Isaiah 63:15). Answer: (1) God speaks after the manner of men and to our capacity. We see by the eye: by that, therefore, God signifies to us His omniscience, etc. 3. He cannot be felt, because no body. Objection, Acts 17:27. Answer: We cannot feel God Himself, but by His creatures (Romans 1:19-20). 4. He is invisible and cannot be seen (Job 9:11; 1 John 4:12). No man can see Him (Exodus 33:20; 1 Timothy 6:16). Reason: God has no body, shape, nor colour, and we cannot see our souls. Objection: God appeared to Abraham (Genesis 18:1), and to Israel Deuteronomy 5:24), and others. Answer: Only by special manifestations of His glory. Objection: We shall see God (1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 13:12). Answer: With our soul, not with our bodily eyes. II. THE WORSHIP HE DESIRES. Not as if no external rites were to be used. Christ Himself lifted up His eyes (John 17:1); knelt (Luke 22:41); fell on His face (Matthew 26:39); and instituted the sacrament (see also Ephesians 3:14; Acts 21:5). We are to worship in spirit and in truth. 1. Not with the types and shadows of the Old Testament, but according to the truth of them as exhibited in the New (John 1:17; John 17:17). 2. Not under any bodily shape, because He is a Spirit. The Samaritans worshipped Him under the representation of a dove on Mount Gerizim; hence their worship was called” strange worship” by the Jews. This was not to worship in truth (Romans 1:23-25). But we are to worship God only am a Spirit, and so truly, not entertaining our gross conceits, or making any picture of Him (Deuteronomy 4:14-16). 3. Not only with external, but with internal worship. (1) By performing all our devotions with our minds (1 Corinthians 14:15). (2) By preferring Him in our judgments before all else (Psalms 73:25). (3) By submitting our wills to His (Luke 22:42). 4. By putting our trust and confidence in Him (Psalms 37:3-6). 5. By devoting ourselves wholly to His service and obedient to His commands (1 Samuel 15:22). Application: 1. This is the only worship acceptable to Him (Isaiah 1:11-12). 2. This is agreeable to His nature; He is a spirit and knows the heart Ezekiel 33:31). (Bp. Beveridge.) Spiritual religion Our religion is true, deep, high, and broad in proportion as it grasps the fact that God is a Spirit, and as it recognizes that that which gives life and force to natural and historical religion is spirituality. I. This aspect of the Divine nature CLEARS AWAY MANY AND WHICH GATHER ROUND THE OF GOD. The same is true regarding man considered as a spirit. 1. The forms of expression borrowed from nature which describe God--rock, fortress, shield, etc. will mislead us if taken literally. 2. The same is true with regard to the anthropomorphic expressions of the ancient covenant--hands, feet, husband, king, father. 3. And yet again with reference to the metaphysical words of a later time--procession, generation, substance, person. Each of these taken literallyleads us away from the spiritual, essential nature of God. But 4. There are three supreme. Biblical definitions which are all of a spiritual character: God is “ Spirit,” “ Light,” “ Love.” Let us hold fast to these; they express the moral nature of God and the very essence of the Christian faith. II. This same aspect tells us how GOD WILLS THAT THE WORLD SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO HIM. 1. Not by compulsion. 2. Not by the external decrees of authority. 3. Not by reproaches and curses. 4. Not by mere miracles and signs of outward power, which, although secondary means of persuasion, are not the main instruments. 5. But by the internal evidence of the spirit of Christianity, which was the earliest method. III. IT IS THROUGH THE INWARD SPIRIT OF THINGS, AND NOT THROUGH THE OUTWARD FORM, THAT GOD IS . 1. It is not the letter of any creed or ordinance, or even of the Bible, but the meaning and inner spirit which vivifies and explains everything. “ The letter killeth, the Spirit giveth life.” 2. The signs and ordinances of religion derive all their force from the directness with which they address our reason, conscience, and affections. The outward form may vary, but if the inward meaning is the same the essential grace is there. 3. God can be worshipped on heath or mountain side or upper room as well as in the most splendid cathedral; but also in the cathedral as well as on the heath, etc. And that is the more spiritual aspect of religion which recognizes the possibility of both; which comprehends the highest manifestations of the human spirit in architecture, music, painting, poetry, and yet steadily subordinates them to the moral purposes of truth, justice, and purity. 4. It is not the sublime and the grand, but the mean, ugly, and barbarous which binds itself to idolatrous usages; not the vast aisles of a venerable abbey, hut the narrow cell; not the awe-inspiring figures wrought by Raphael or Michael Angelo, but the hideous block picture. Luther said, “ Do not listen to those who open their mouths and call out ‘ Spirit, Spirit, Spirit!’ and then break down all the bridges by which the Spirit can enter.” No! Make the best of all the gifts of God. They are all bridges, but only bridges. (Dean Stanley.) The simplicity of Christ’ s sublime disclosures Pythagoras taught the maxim to his disciples and scrupulously observed it himself, “ Never wear the types of the gods upon your rings.” That is to say, do not publish your highest and most sacred truths to the ignorant and uninitiated. Jesus Christ acts here, however, on a totally different principle; in the fulness of His heart He makes to this poor sinful woman some of His sublimest revelations. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) God like the wind This disclosure doubtless is of infinite depth; but that exquisite saying of Gregory the Great’ s that Scripture has depths for an elephant to swim in and shallows in which a lamb can wade, is capable of being pushed a little further. Oftentimes the same Scripture is at once a depth for one and a shallow for another, and thus it is here. We shall do little honour to our Lord’ s skill in teaching, His adaptation of His words to the needs of His hearers, if, in seeking high things, we failed to find in these words some simple truth, such as that poor ignorant woman was capable of grasping, and such as at that moment she needed. “ God is a Spirit” ; we must not miss, assuredly she did not miss, the significant image on which this word reposes; like the wind therefore, to which He is likened, breathing and blowing where He will, penetrating everywhere, owning no circumscriptions, tied to no place, neither to Mount Zion nor to Mount Gerizim; but rather filling all space with His presence (Psalms 139:7; 1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 66:1), in His essence and, as involved in this very title, free. On this it follows that “ they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (Abp. Trench.) The worship God desires The best, the purest, the holiest and most pious worship of the gods is to worship them with a heart and tongue always pure, upright, and untainted. (Cicero.) John 4:25-26I know that Messias cometh … I… am He Second evasion and reply The stricken deer tries once more to wrench the arrow from the wound; the wanderer thus caught amid the entangling thorns makes yet one other effort to escape the pursuing shepherd; the bold transgressor, unable to discuss these high spiritual themes, tries to stifle her convictions by the new plea of procrastination, wishing to break off the conversation in the spirit of conscious-stricken Felix. I. THE OF TO AN SEASON, THE CRY OF THE SOUL IS “ GIVE ME THIS WATER!” --BUT NOT YET. 1. “ Give me this water!” is the cry of youth--but not yet. Disturb not my bright sunny morning; wait till I reach the threshold of manhood. 2. “ Give me this water!” is the cry of ripening manhood--but not yet. Disturb me not in the burden and heat of the day; wait till I have leisure and breathing-time; wait till the eventide sets in, and the shadows are lengthening, and the drawers of water stand with their pitchers around life’ s fountains. 3. “ Give me this water!” is the cry of old age--but not yet. Though far advanced in the pilgrimage journey, my strength is yet firm. I have a long evening ere the sunset hour. I may linger yet a while amid these olive-glades ere the flagon be let down for a draught. 4. “ Give me this water!” is the cry of the dying. But postponement cannot be pled now; procrastination merges into despair. “ Give me this water!” but it is too late. II. IN HER AT EVASION THE WOMAN HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO SHAKE OFF HER THAT SHE STOOD BEFORE A BEING. 1. She had called Him prophet. The Jews looked for a kingly Messiah, the Samaritans for a prophetic. As she listened to His wondrous disclosures did the thought flash across her mind, “ Can this be He?” The world was then expecting a Divine advent. Besides the prediction of Moses, her own Pentateuch had told her of the prophet who fifteen hundred years before had lifted up his voice on the hills on which she could now gaze. Caravans passing daily Jacob’ s well must have brought tidings of John’ s testimony. 2. The crisis of her life had come. Will the Saviour abandon her to her procrastination and say, as was said of her tribe, “ Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone?” or will He disclose His Divine Person? Such a disclosure may be fraught with peril. But the destiny of a human soul depends upon it; He will save others, but not Himself. III. WHAT A TO HER --“ Art Thou greater than our father Jacob?” Yes, I am the Shiloh of whom he spake, the ladder he beheld, the angel with whom he wrestled. The Baptist’ s words have their first echo and fulfilment, “ He will gather His wheat into the garner.” She understands all now--the penetrating revelations, the living water, salvation. The Giver of all stands by her and offers them to her. She requires no miracles. IV. THE SEQUEL IS . Her feelings are left to our imagination. She may have been dumb with silence or tears. But angels rejoiced over this returning sinner as she starts on an errand of mercy to her native town. Lessons: 1. Christ stands at the door of every heart. 2. None need despair; the first may be last and the last first; for Samaritan as well as Jerusalem sinners may find mercy. 3. Christ speaks in many ways--in the mercies He bestows, in the blessings He withholds; in life’ s storms and sunshine. 4. Christ speaks at every season. (1) Early in the morning to His disciples on the lake shore--to youth in life’ s early morning. (2) At midday as here--in the hot noon of day to manhood and womanhood. (3) At eventide on the way to Emmaus--in life’ s evening to the aged. (4) At night to Nicodemus--to the dying. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) MessiasMessiah The Hebrew, Messias in the Syriac, and Christ in the Greek, means “ the Anointed One.” Anointing with oil was the ancient form of consecration. Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost. I. THE PROOFS OF CHRIST’ S . 1. He was generally expected. (1) Among the Jews. (2) Among the Gentiles, as attested by the visit of the Magi and the testimony of classical writers. This is due to the settlement of the Jews among the heathen. 2. The miracles of Christ were the proof to which He always referred. These were (1) Performed in public. (2) Wrought in different places. (3) Many in number. (4) Not denied by His enemies. 3. The prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Him and in no one else. (1) These were too jealously guarded for the evangelists to tamper with them. (2) An impostor could not have fulfilled them. A man cannot arrange the place of his birth and his family, and would not have been diligent to fulfil prophecies which related to persecution and death. 4. The character of our Lord. “ Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” Some have thought that if Virtue were to walk on earth all men would immediately worship her. Plato knew better. He says the good man “ would be tortured, spit upon, have his eyes put out, and be crucified.” II. THE NATURE AND OF CHRIST’ S . 1. He is the true prophet. (1) Note the characteristics of His teaching. (a) How weighty His lessons--life and immortality, faith, self-denial, prayer, humility, love. (b) How beautiful His illustrations--cornfields, lilies, leaven, fishing. (c) How kind His manner--what tenderness to young and afflicted, what encouragement to the timid. (d) How faithful His warnings. “ Never man spake like this man.” (2) He taught by example as well as precept. (3) What is the testimony of believers to His teaching? (a) When He spoke to our hearts it was with power. (b) We learned more from Him in five minutes than in all our lives from others. 2. Christ is High Priest. (1) The priests were washed in water and anointed with oil. Christ was baptized and imbued with the Spirit. (2) The priestly functions were sacrifice, intercession, benediction. Christ” offered Himself” ; “ ever liveth to make intercession for us” ; “ gives the Spirit.” 3. Christ is King. (1) By personal right. (2) By donation from the Father. (3) By purchase. (4) By conquest. (5) By voluntary surrender. (J. M. Randall) The woman of Samaria And in bringing a man to this state, we may observe that, commonly, some one particular sin, gross in its nature, and to which he has been addicted, is charged home upon the conscience. But a broad surface is not likely to penetrate; it must be pointed to enter. The indictment which arraigns this criminal, like every other, exhibits some specific charge; and the man exclaims, “ O my swearing, my lying, my Sabbath-breaking, my prayerless life!” “ Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” But she exclaims, “ Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Two reasons may be assigned for her proposing this question so instantly and abruptly. It has been supposed 1. That it was by way of diversion. But it has also been supposed 2. That her aim was to seize the present moment to gain information as to what was deemed important, and which she concluded this know- ing one might afford. Herein two things are observable (1) That it should cool us, in many of our contests, to remember that the things we are contending about are of short duration; and that while we are disputing, they are vanishing away. There are “ things which cannot be shaken, but must remain.” (2) The best way to make up differences in little things is to be zealous about great ones. To these, therefore, the Scripture always directs our regards, knowing that if these supremely occupy the mind, we shall have neither time nor inclination for comparative trifling. 1. Observe the omniscience of our Lord, and bring it home to yourselves. 2. Let us worship the Lord, “ in the beauties of holiness” ; and in order to this, never forget the information which our Saviour has given us. 3. Let us inquire whether He has manifested Himself to us. (W. Jay.) Why this revelation of Messiahship was made to the woman and not to the Pharisees The eagle has to strive hard and swoop round a great deal before he soars above the clouds, the weight of his body being a disadvantage to him to ascend. The lark, however, though smaller of stature and feebler of wing, soars up with rapidity and ease, the slightness of her body greatly facilitating her ascent. Thus minds of powerful calibre, heavily equipped with native and educational endowments, find it difficult to make their way up to the calm presence of God, their very ability being an impediment to them. Seeing every difficulty and feeling the force of every objection, they have to turn round and round and ascend laboriously in spiral columns. But many souls, small as larks, shoot up easily and gracefully, almost in a straight line, carolling all the way as they go, to the pure serene blue of the Divine Presence. To the Samaritan woman, and not to the learned Pharisees, did Christ openly avow His Messiahship, and present Himself in the majestic nakedness of His Divine mission. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The Samaritan view of the Messiah The Samaritans still expect a Messiah to whom they give the name of Assaief (from ùÑøá, to return), which means “ he who brings back” or converts, or else, “ he who returns” ; because the waiting of the Samaritans being founded on Deuteronomy 18:18, the Messiah is in their view a Moses who returns. At the present day they call him El-Muhdy. There is a remarkable contrast between this woman’ s notion and that of the worldly and political Jews. The Samaritan idea was incomplete; the Messiah was a prophet, not a king. But it did not contain anything else; and hence Jesus can appropriate itself to Himself, and here declare Himself the Christ, which He never did in Israel till the last moment (John 17:3; Matthew 26:64). (F. Godet, D. D.) Christ earnestly desired is quickly found No sooner do we think of Christ with the least true desire after Him, but He is presently with us. He invited Himself to Zaccheus’ table. (J. Trapp.) John 4:27-42 And upon this Sowing and reaping I. WITH A PUPIL. 1. Face-to-face work (John 4:27, John 1:42-43; John 1:47; John 21:16; Acts 3:4; Acts 9:5). 2. The convert’ s message (John 4:29; Matthew 9:31; Mark 5:20; Mark 7:36; John 1:41; John 1:45; John 9:25). 3. The dawning conviction (John 4:29; Matthew 14:33; Matthew 27:54; Mark John 6:69; John 20:28; Acts 9:20). II. WITH A GROUP OF . 1. Correcting misapprehensions (John 4:34; Matthew 5:17; Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:29; Mark 12:27; Luke 13:2-3; John 9:3; Galatians 6:7). 2. Indicating labour (John 4:35; Ecclesiastes 9:10; Matthew 10:6; Matthew 20:4; Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; 1 Corinthians 1:17). 3. Extending inducements (John 4:36; Daniel 12:3; Matthew 10:22, Mark 9:41; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:10). III. WITH A CITY’ S . 1. Commended in the city (John 4:39; Acts 8:5; Acts 8:40; Acts 9:27; Acts 11:19; Acts 14:6-7 Romans 1:15). 2. Honoured by the city (John 4:40; John 3:5; Matthew 8:34; Matthew 21:10; Mark 1:33; Mark 6:56; Acts 14:13). 3. Accepted by a city (John 4:42; Matthew 9:35; Acts 2:43; Acts 8:8; Acts 13:44; Acts 18:10; Revelation 21:23). (Sunday School Times.) Sowing and reaping I. IN CHRIST (John 4:27-30). 1. On the part of the apostles, who kept silence at the strange communion. They witnessed the power of Christ to awaken new life within the soul. Further on they knew better, but as yet they were caste-bound Jews. In view of their ancient prejudices, their silence is much to their credit. The Master may be always trusted to do right. Let us not question. 2. On the part of the woman. Not simply that she felt that her water-pot would be safe, but in her Saviour. The ground of this trust was Christ’ s knowledge of the secret life (Daniel 2:28-30; Daniel 2:47). History is full of such proofs of Christ’ s Divinity. He who looks within the Gospel sees his own heart mirrored. Truly this is the book of God. II. THE SOUL’ S TRUE NATURE (John 4:31-34). 1. “ Man shall not live by bread alone “ (Matthew 3:4). 2. Noble souls are fed by the simple consciousness of doing good. The patriot, mother, wife, student, missionary have forgotten hunger. 3. The best way to lift a soul above temptation is to fill it with a worthy aspiration. An empty soul is a standing invitation to the roving spirits of evil. The music of Orpheus is a surer guard than the wax of Ulysses in the ears. 4. The noblest purpose that can occupy a soul is to do God’ s will and finish His work. III. THE OF THE HARVEST. (John 4:35-38). 1. There is always an interval between seed-time and harvest. (1) In nature. With some plants the time is less, with some more. Life, events, great thoughts, deeds, characters, are growths. A great man is the product of centuries. The present is born of the past. Impatience to reap ere the seed has matured has wrought many a barren harvest. No amount of fretting or driving will force a harvest. (2) In the spiritual world. Here the harvest is always ripe. The foregoing ages have prepared for their successors. 2. There is a fellowship in toil and fruitage between the dead and the living. The influence of the dead is continuous. “ Their works do follow them.” 3. “ No man liveth to himself.” One supplements another’ s toil. Joseph needed a Moses; Moses a Joshua; Joshua a Samuel; Samuel on the one hand a David, and on the other Elijah and the prophets. All these were perfected in Christ. How this should sweep away bigotry and encourage charity! 4. Our responsibility to the past and the future. (1) The past has claims upon us. If we would reap the good seed our fathers sowed we must nurture the crop that has sprung therefrom. Creeds, etc., are not to be dealt with ruthlessly. (2) The future has claims upon us. “ Posterity never did anything for me,” says the sneerer. But it can do much by giving you a noble purpose Supposing your predecessors had thus argued! In sowing, let us think that we are sowing for ever, and not for present use alone. 5. The community of sower and reaper in wages. (1) The dark side. If the sowing be evil, so will be the wages. What a harvest of woe Israel reaped, and Babylon, Egypt, and Rome, and France. (2) The bright side--in both worlds. IV. AND (verses 39-42). 1. How readily the woman became a missionary! (1) Home, in that she carried the gospel to her own people. (2) Foreign, because those people were outside the pale of the true Israel. 2. The genuineness of the faith and grace of the Samaritan believers is seen in that their belief on good testimony led them to believe on good experience. (H. C. McCook, D. D.) Sowing and reaping I. THE GREAT TEACHER, AS HE AVAILS HIMSELF OF AN AND . The disciples marvelled at His doing what was beneath a Rabbi’ s dignity. The same spirit interposed between Christ and little children. The woman, moreover, was a despised, hated, and ignorant Samaritan. 1. This was unpromising ground, but Jesus did not consider it beneath His notice. 2. In this unpromising soil He sows the best seed. An audience of one was not too small to call forth His richest treasures of truth. 3. Here is an example for every teacher. Wesley remembered his father saying to his mother, “ How could you have the patience to tell that blockhead the same thing twenty times over?” “ Because if I had only told him nineteen times I should have lost all my labour.” 4. Never mind if your seed falls by the wayside: a bird may carry it elsewhere. II. THE DELIGHT OF THE TEACHER IN HIS WORK. He has sources of refreshment unknown to the disciples. He would rather work than eat. 1. No one can do his work well until he has learned to enjoy it. 2. The delight of labour is not only in that part of it which is interesting and agreeable. A teacher of imbecile children had one boy of five who had never spoken or given an intelligent look. He lay beside the child for half an hour every day, reading aloud, and watching eagerly for any volition. At length, being utterly weary, he did not read. The child began to be uneasy, and then, alter repeated efforts, the child placed his fingers on the teacher’ s lips, as much as to say: “ Make that sound again.” After a time the boy was taught to walk, and speak, and think. III. THE GREAT SOWER A SPEEDY HARVEST. Men are too prone not to look for an early reaping, and so sometimes miss the harvest. We sow with too little hope. Four months, said the disciples. “ Now,” said the Master. Expectancy is needful for courage and patience. Always look for near results. Do not pull up the stalk to see if it has taken root, but watch, and wait, and believe. IV. THE OF THE HARVEST. The audience and time were seemingly unfavourable--the result was that many believed. 1. The woman heard and heeded. Then she ran, as did the woman from the empty tomb, to tell those nearest. 2. All barriers were broken down. They believed not only because He spoke as never man spoke, but because He spoke the truth they needed. 3. God alone gives the increase, but He does so to the feeblest efforts. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) A fourfold theme I. WONDER. The disciples had never examined the question as to the inferiority of women for themselves. II. INQUIRY. Though not understanding or deeming it improper, they did not dare to question. Genuine reverence will not allow the intellect to interrogate the Almighty, but recognizes the infinite disparity between the thoughts and ways of God and those of men. It becomes us to be humble listeners rather than busy critics. III. WORKING IN LIFE. Mark how faith worked in the woman. 1. Emotionally. The more Divine our feeling the less our care for worldly things. 2. Proselytingly. Her strong desire made her a blessed missionary. 3. Religiously. She knew that Christ had sounded the depths of her history. 4. Influentially. Real earnestness wields a magic wand. IV. MAN ON THE . 1. A common natural fact--the influence of the emotions on the physical appetite. 2. The rare moral fact--the consciousness of acting in harmony with the Divine will, creating forgetfulness to bodily need. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The Samaritan woman and her mission 1. Christ, with divinely skilful art, seeks after a single soul. We must have large congregations or we are disinclined for soul winning. 2. See the skill which compassion taught Him. Souls yield not to force, but to gentleness and wisdom. 3. The disciples marvel because Christ talked with a woman, a Samaritan, a sinner. 4. How could they do so after Christ had chosen them? It is sad when saved ones affect super-fine spirituality and turn away from such as Jesus would have welcomed. 5. In consequence of their interruption one of the sweetest conferences ever held was broken up. No breakers of communion are more blameable or frequent than Christ’ s disciples when out of sympathy with their Master. 6. Although the conference was broken up it was over-ruled for good. Since the woman cannot contemplate Christ nor hear Him, she will give herself to holy activity. Driven away from sitting like Mary at the Master’ s feet, let us rise to play the worker. When you are taken out of your usual course by a jerk, the Lord has special work for you to do. 7. The woman now becomes a messenger for Christ. From conference to testimony. 8. She leaves her waterpot (1) For speed. (2) Perhaps her errand has made her forgetful; just as our Lord forgot His hunger in seeking her soul. (3) Without thought she hit upon as good an action as thought would have suggested. The waterpot may have been useful to Christ. (4) It was a pledge of her return. 9. Observe particularly her mode of address. (1) Her one aim was to bring the people to Christ. She said nothing about their sins, nor did she try to reform them. She called them to one who could set them right. (2) She was very earnest. (3) She was self-forgetful. If you have been a great sinner be ashamed of it, hut do not be ashamed of the love which saved you. Never mind what people think--testify, and only look to what they will think of Jesus for having forgiven you. (4) She was brief. If women preached just as long as she did no one could find fault with them. (5) She was vivacious--almost as laconic as Caesar. “ I came, I saw,” etc. (6) She was sensible. She did not say that Jesus was the Christ, but suggested it with great modesty for the men to examine. (7) Her argument was exceedingly strong--drawn from herself and adapted to the men. Let us look at the woman’ s whole message. I. THE . 1. It was a clever, as well as a genuine and hearty invitation. “ Come, see,” was putting it most fairly, and men like a fair proposal. This is Christ’ s own word to His first disciples, and they used it when pleading with others. 2. It threw the responsibility on them. I may preach the gospel to you, but I cannot go to Christ in your stead. 3. It was pleasantly put, so as to prove the sympathy of the speaker--not “ go,” but “ come.” A sister’ s heart spoke in that word. 4. What a blessed vanishing of the speaker there is! Preaching is spoiled by self-consciousness. The fish knows little about the angler, but he knows when he has swallowed the hook. II. THE . 1. The argument lies concealed. The woman does not argue the point. “ If Jesus be the Christ, then you should come with me and see Him,” because she is persuaded that the people have agreed to it. You are not so practical as these people. You believe that Jesus is the Christ; why then don’ t you believe in Him as your Saviour? 2. What she did argue was this--this man, is He not the Christ? because (1) He has revealed me unto myself. Were you ever out in a black night when a single lightning flash has come? It has only smitten one oak, but it has revealed the landscape. So when the Lord showed one point in the woman’ s history He showed all. No one proves himself truly anointed unless he begins by showing you your sins. (2) He has revealed Himself to me. (3) She seemed to say--“ This is more to me than it can be to you, for He has dealt personally with me; therefore I abide in my assurance that He is the Christ; but go and learn for yourselves. (4) “ You may come, I know, for He received me. I was at home with Him in a moment.” Conclusion: If you do not come to Christ for salvation, you will have to come to Him for judgment. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The mission of the woman I. HOW IN THE EYES OF MEN ARE CHRIST’ S WITH SOULS. 1. The feeling of the disciples does not stand alone in the Bible (Lu Acts 9:26; Acts 12:16). 2. This feeling is common now. 3. If there was more real faith there would be less surprise at conversions Matthew 11:25; Mark 6:6). II. HOW IS THE OF GRACE WHEN IT FIRST COMES INTO A SINNER’ S HEART (verse 28). 1. We see the expulsive power of the grace of the Holy Ghost, driving out old tastes and interests (Matthew 9:9; Mark 1:19; Acts 9:20). 2. This conduct is uncommon in the present day. Why? Because so few really feel their sins and flee to Christ. III. HOW ZEALOUS A TRULY PERSON IS TO DO GOOD TO OTHERS (verses 28, 29). 1. She employed no abstruse argument in favour of our Lord’ s claims. 2. Out of the abundance of her heart her mouth spoke (1) Urgently. (2) Simply. (3) Experimentally. (Bp. Ryle.) Gospel work in Sychar I. THE GLORY OF ALL TRUE BELONGS TO CHRIST (John 4:27). The woman is nameless, and nothing else is known of her. II. SELF-DENIAL AN OF GRACE (John 4:28). To leave a waterpot for a thirsty disciple better sometimes than the bequest of a fortune. Simon made a feast for Jesus, but the woman with the alabaster box showed more generosity. III. THE NEAREST FIELD OF IS OFTEN THE BEST (John 4:28). She knew the prejudices of the city and the great shock they would receive. But this was the field closest to hand. Many people spend half a lifetime in looking for their vocation, whereas God is always saying, “ Begin at home” Mark 5:19). IV. WOMEN ARE MORE USEFUL THAN MEN. They have more tact, fervency, fortitude. V. THE OF “ HIM THAT HEARETH” IS THAT HE MAY SAY “ COME” (verse 29). The Greek is an adverb of beckoning, a gesture of language, “ Hither.” Let no one hesitate for addresses or acts. He who temporizes will be like Demas; he who calculates like Ananias; he who covets like Achan; but he who gives himself wholly to Christ’ s service will say, “ Come and see.” VI. OF ONE’ S SINS THE OF JESUS’ . VII. NO GREAT TALENT NEEDED IN ORDER TO DO GOOD (verse 30). It is piety, not education, spirituality and experience, not culture or learning which God uses in the conversion of souls. VIII. THE SUREST MEANS OF GROWTH IS PATIENT LABOUR FOR THE GROWTH OF OTHERS (verses 31-36). IX. OF LABOUR FOR THE WORK OF THE GOSPEL (verse 37). Some cannot preach like Whitefield; who can write letters like Harlan Page. Ingatherings are the result, often, not of preaching but prayers. X. THE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL COME TO US BETTER BY THAN . (verses 39-41). “ If any man will do His will,” etc. XI. THE BEST OF ANY ONE IS FOUND IN THE SOULS HE HAS WON (verse 42). The Empress Helena’ s church has perished, the memory of the woman and her work has made the well immortal. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Upon this came His disciples and marvelled … yet no man said, What seekest Thou? Moments of silence I. Sacred story records many CRISIS-HOURS OF . Eli trembling for the ark; David trembling for the fate of Absalom. II. WHO OF US HAS NOT KNOWN SIMILAR SEASONS? 1. When the telegraph has flashed the message of a distant bereavement; when we have watched an approaching dissolution. 2. Or to take the converse of these, a birth; a return; the first success in business; the triumph of an honourable ambition. These are like the illi dies of the old Roman, days marked with white or black chalk, symbols of joy or sorrow. 3. But what season can be compared to the crisis-hour of a soul’ s conversion; what day so worthy to be marked with the white chalk of gladness? III. SUCH SEASONS THRILL THE SPIRIT INTO SILENCE. 1. Is it a time of overpowering sorrow? The word expresses our meaning; the lips refuse to tell out the secrets of the dumb-stricken heart. 2. Is it some joyful occasion? Joy has its stunning moment, and holds fast the flood-gates of speech. 3. Such is the picture before us. The disciples have just come up. They hear the last most momentous words. And now not a word is uttered. All three parties are spell bound; the woman a moment before so garrulous; the disciples with all their curiosity; the Master more than all. IV. The great lesson of the incident is THE DUTY OF SILENCE UNDER THE DIVINE . 1. Often, like the disciples, we hays reason to marvel at the Lord’ s doings. Providence often seems a dark enigma. God’ s name is “ Secret,” and blind unbelief is prone to ask, “ What seekest Thou?” in the sudden ruin el business prospects; the pillaging of dearer household treasure; the breaking of the strong staff. 2. But the duty, the prerogative, the triumph of faith is to be silent, owning the faithfulness of God as David, “ I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it” ; as Aaron who, under a deeper trial, “ held his peace” ; as our Lord who, “ was oppressed, afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.” 3. This duty is often inculcated (Psalms 37:7 (marg.), 62:1; Zechariah 2:13; Habakkuk 2:1-3). 4. Blessed it will be for us if, amid “ frowning providences” instead of questioning, we are ready to hear the voice of the invisible saying, “ Hold thee still and know that I am God.” The dutiful servant asks no reason of his master; nor the loyal soldier of his commander; the faithful workman asks no reason for those rude gashes in the quarry; he is content to wait till its sculptor fashions the unshapely block into symmetry. (J. R.Macduff, D. D.) The seclusion of Oriental women The privilege “ of free speech with a woman is only accorded, in the East, to the most intimate friends of the family, who are privileged to see her face unveiled. Niebuhr, travelling in Arabia, and meeting a woman by the way, saluted her with the customary formula of Arabian politeness: Salamu ‘ alaykum, “ Peace be upon you” ; but, to his astonishment, he received no response, the woman turning her back at once upon him. The reason of this proceeding became clear to Niebuhr when his Arabian companions expressed displeasure, and informed him that to address a woman by the way was a grievous insult to her. When Burton retails his piquant conversations with the Abyssinian slave-girls in Egypt, it is to be borne in mind that he is speaking of the slave-market, where men and women are treated like oxen; and that slave-girls, though they have not the rights of the free woman, are also free from many of the restrictions imposed upon her. In general, it may be said that the old rule of the Rabbins is still in force in the East; speech with a woman on the street is a grievous scandal. (S. S. Times.) Jewish prejudice against women A Rabbinical prejudice prevailed to the effect that woman is not capable of profound religious instruction: “ Do not prolong conversation with a woman; let no one converse with a woman in the street, not even with his own wife; rather burn the sayings of the law than teach them to women. (F. Godet, D. D.) The test of friendship Even those whom we love and honour, and with whom our relations are peculiarly intimate, are likely to do things which we cannot at the time fully understand or account for. Then it is that our friendship is tested, and that it can show itself at its truest and best. A friend can be trusted even when he cannot be understood. A real friend will trust even when he does not understand. Nor does a friend always want to ask what or why when he is in doubt as to a loved one’ s conduct--which does not bear on his possible duty to that loved one. Peculiarly is it true that our Saviour’ s course, even in His dealings with ourselves, is not always understood by us. We must trust Him because we know Him, even while we do not know just what He is doing, and why, in His loving control of our interests and of His own. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) The reticence of the disciples Although the hesitancy of the disciples to ask Jesus why He spoke with the woman, was due to their reverence for His character, and their trust in Him, rather than their fear of Him as their Master, yet it is to be noted that their silence was eminently Oriental. Let a high official do anything, however foolish or however unjust, and his servants will stand by impassively, giving no sign that they notice that anything unusual is taking place. After the Indian mutiny, it was remarked by many of the English officers that their body servants, who must have been aware of what was about to happen, not only gave no sign of their knowledge, but bore supercilious, and in some instances unjust, treatment from their masters without changing their attitude of impassive docility, or giving other evidence that their day of vengeance was about to dawn. Of course, when this impassive obsequiousness gets a chance to avenge itself, it does so with an excess of Oriental vindictiveness which an Occidental can hardly understand. Let the balance of power be suddenly changed, and the slavish inferiors who before cringed in the presence of their tyrant, will tread him in the dust with savage joy. (S. S. Times.) Christ’ s treatment of the waifs and strays A certain painter was once employed to adorn a window in one of our national cathedrals, a work which he did with credit and skill. The artist, however, had an ingenious inventive apprentice, who picked up and preserved all the bits of glass that were nipped off and thrown away as useless. But out of these rejected pieces--so runs the story--he constructed a window of such exquisite beauty as to command greater attention and win heal-tier applause than that designed by the master artist. Thus the Scribes and Pharisees of Judaism, the poets and philosophers of Gentilism, the renowned builders of social fabric, had been constructing their imposing temples out of the best men and chastest women of their respective ages and countries; the slaves, the harlots, the publicans, had been contemptuously rejected, and trampled upon as worthless refuse. At last Jesus Christ appeared; He fixed His kind, compassionate eyes on the huge heap of human rubbish; He associated with the offscouring of society; and lo! He built a grander temple and made more beautiful windows than the world had ever beheld before, out of the soiled characters rejected by the architects and builders of states and churches as vile, noxious offal. The woman of Samaria, the “ woman who was a sinner,” Mary Magdalene, how attractively the light of Divine grace streams down upon our world through their variegated histories. (J. Cynddylan Jones.) John 4:28-30 The woman left her waterpot, and went her way into the city A woman’ s zeal I. THE NATURE OF . 1. To meet Christ causes ordinary events to shrink into insignificance. Paul for three days did “ neither eat nor drink.” Bunyan “ ran about the streets distracted.” Fuller was “ so moved that he was unable to pursue his customary avocations.” These were extraordinary cases, but it is impossible to be turned from darkness to light and remain impassive. The adjusting of eternal relationships and attending to immortal interests may well make a man distracted. 2. It were better to renounce all work than to attend to the demands of the soul. To neglect the latter for the former is neither reason nor duty. 3. Religion will afterwards not impede but assist the performance of duty. The woman no doubt regained her waterpot, and cheerfully resumed her domestic toil. 4. All our instruments may become useful illustrations of God’ s spiritual work. The waterpot must have been a continual reminder. II. THE SPIRIT EVOKED. 1. Religious joy seeks to make others share in it. Every Christian should be a centre of light and usefulness. 2. She wisely acted on the spur of the moment. Had she waited courage might have failed or excuses suggested. Nothing quenches fire like delay. 3. She hasted lest Christ should depart. The waterpot would impede her. Any time would do for water. There are times when Jesus is at the door; if these are neglected He may not return. III. THE APPEAL. 1. Attention called to an object of acknowledged importance. 2. An inference suggested from a fact of personal history. 3. An invitation given (John 1:46; John 1:39). IV. THE HEARTY . (S. R. Aldridge, LL. B.) The Woman of Samaria In the conversion of the woman of Samaria, we have an example of this grace; an example 1. Its freeness: in selecting for its object a profligate creature, not only without her desert, but without her desire. 2. Its sweetness: in having no recourse to violence or terror, but in adopting the most suitable, gentle, and insinuating means to convince and soften her. 3. Its power: in changing her heart and sanctifying her life. 4. Its effects: for here we see grace in its triumph, grace in its glory. No sooner is she enlightened, than she is inflamed; no sooner is she a convert, than she becomes a preacher. However this may be, the character of the persons to whom our Saviour reveals Himself has always scandalized flesh and blood. If the disciples were astonished at our Saviour’ s conversation with the woman, their behaviour was dutiful and submissive; they said nothing, but acquiesced in the rectitude of His procedure. And hence I would remark two things. The first regards the advice of Solomon, “ If thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.” Honour our Lord with our reverence and implicit confidence when we meet with anything in His conduct that seems inexplicable. Short as the interview was, our Saviour had effectually gained her heart. 1. Perhaps it was from kindness to our Lord and His disciples. 2. Perhaps she left her waterpot from indifference. Wholly occupied now about greater things, she forgot her errand. The feelings of young converts are often very lively. 3. Perhaps, finally, she left it as an impediment to her haste, willing to lose no time in bearing home the welcome intelligence. No sooner is her opportunity of getting good over, than she seizes an opportunity of doing good. Five things may be remarked. 1. I admire her benevolence. 2. I admire her zeal. See how urgent she is. She even begins with a pressing invitation, “ Come.” 3. I admire her wisdom. “ Come, see a man who told me all things that I did: is not this the Christ?” “ You all acknowledge that Messiah cometh, and that when He is come He will tell us all things.” 4. I admire her honesty. She does not say, He has told me everything pertaining to the worship of God; but “ all things that ever I did.” Now, if a person knew your faults, you would wish to have him shunned. 5. I admire her courage. It was no small trial for a plain and wicked woman to go openly and address the inhabitants of the place where she lived, and was perhaps well known, upon a religious subject. We now conclude, with observing 1. What a real and wonderful change does conversion always accomplish. 2. Divine grace is not an inoperative principle. As the sun no sooner rises than it shines, and as fire is no sooner kindled than it burns, so grace acts as soon as it exists. 3. Behold an apology for what some would deem officiousness. How often do you hear, as soon as any attempt is made to bring people to seriousness, “ Pray do not intermeddle with us. Go to heaven your own way, and leave us to go ours.” Is not charity to the soul, the soul of charity? 4. Be persuaded to resemble this woman. Endeavour to diffuse the savour of the Redeemer’ s knowledge, and to bring souls to Christ. It is absurd to complain of a want of opportunities and means. Much is in your power, much more than you are willing to allow. (W. Jay.) The home missionary 1. The impulse is natural to communicate to others what- ever may have been imparted to ourselves. The successful son sends word quickly home; the soldier of the forlorn hope hastens to communicate intelligence of his safety and success. The shepherd calls his neighbours to rejoice with him, and the father of the prodigal throws open his banqueting halls; Mary Magdalene “ departed quickly from the sepulchre” to the disciples to communicate her joy. So with the woman of Samaria. 2. This is ever the result of saving conversion. Christianity must be expansive. The work of the Spirit is a life ever giving. 3. How unlike the selfish, grasping spirit of the world! 4. Christian influence is not confined to the active. The sick Christian may speak with a speechless eloquence. Notice I. THE WOMAN’ S . 1. Honesty and outspoken candour. In ordinary circumstances she would have shrunk from such a self-revelation. We should have expected efforts to keep them from Christ lest He should disclose more. But her honest avowal could not but have its weight with her fellow-townsmen. 2. Her earnestness; perhaps at first derided as fanatical, or hypocritical to serve her own ends. But her pleadings are irresistible. Earnestness is the power of the ministry, not charm of intellect or subtlety of reasoning, or sorcery of eloquence, but living words welling up from experience. 3. Her happiness. She had what they all wanted. II. THE SUBJECT OF HER MESSAGE. She tells what we should have expected her to withhold. 2. She omits what we should have expected her to proclaim--the well, everlasting life. 3. The effective and influential characteristic of the gospel message is not figurative descriptions and metaphysical disputes, but the direct commending of the truth to the conscience, awakening the sense of sin, and thus preparing it for the remedy. In conclusion, notice the power of feeble influences. Never undervalue weak instrumentality. (J. R. Macduff.) The forgotten waterpot She came to draw water, and when she had lighted upon the true Well, she after that despised the material one; teaching us even by this trifling instance when we are listening to spiritual matters to overlook the things of this life, and make no account of them. For what the apostles did, that, after her ability, did this woman also. They, when they were called, left their nets: she of her own accord, without the command of any, leaves her waterpot, and winged by joy performs the office of evangelists. And she calls not one or two, as did Andrew and Philip, but having aroused a whole city and so brought them to Him. (Chrysostom.) With her waterpot on her shoulder she had hitherto been listening to the Lord’ s discourse. She was the forerunner of those Bechuan women who would stand for hours together, with their milking-pails in their hands, as if rooted to the ground, whilst Moffat was preaching to them the gospel of the living water. (R. Berser, D. D.) Sudden conversion Here was a genuine case. This woman came a prejudiced Samaritan, and left a believing Christian; she came a confirmed sinner, and left a contrite and believing penitent; she came absorbed in the temporalities of life, and left engrossed with eternal solemnities. In the New Testament there are twenty-four cases, including this, of sudden conversion. Let us then never call in question the possibility of a sinner being led to Christ in the course of a few hours. (J. H. Hitchens, D. D.) The expansive power of Christianity The work of the Spirit of God in the heart is not a fiction, not a form, but a life. To use the simile of this narrative, it is a fountain not only “ springing up” (bubbling up), but overflowing its cistern, and the superfluous supply going forth to gladden other waste places. Not the mass of stagnant water without outlet, but the clear, sparkling lake, discharging its rush of living streams which sing their joyous way along the contiguous valleys, and make their course known by the thread of green beautifying and fertilizing as they flow, Or, if we may employ another figure, let it be the stone thrown into the same still lake. The ripples formed are deepest in the centre. Christianity is deepest in the heart in which its truths have sunk; but its influence expands in everwidening concentric circles, till the wavelets touch the shore. Religion, intensest in a man’ s own soul and life, should embrace family, household, kindred, neighbourhood, country, until it knows no circumference but the world! Christianity breaks down all walls of narrow isolation, and proclaims the true brotherhood of the race. Selfishness closes the heart, shuts out from it the rains and dews and summer sunshine; but Christianity, or rather the great Sun of light, shines;--the closed petals gradually unfold in the genial beams: and they keep not their fragrance to themselves, but waft it all around. Every such flower--the smallest that blushes unseen to the world--becomes a little censer swinging its incense-perfume in the silent air, or sending it far and wide by the passing breeze. (J. R.Macduff, D. D.) God wilt honour zeal While I was in London there was a man away off in India--a godly father--who had a son in London, and the father obtained a furlough and came right from India to England to see after his boy’ s spiritual welfare. Do you think God let that man come thus far without honouring that faith? No. He converted that son. (D. L. Moody.) John 4:29-30 Come see a Man which told me all things whatever I did: is not this the Christ? Christ and modern scepticism This judgment on the claims of Christ is the verdict of common sense in contrast to that of Nicodemus, which was the verdict of scholarship. It is for learned men to study for us the question of miracles, which are the foundation of intellectual belief; but that which secures for Jesus the faith and heart of the common people is the Word of Jesus. Christ’ s teaching was at first a riddle to the woman, but an unexpected fact startled her into seriousness and conviction. There was another who was in the secret of her life, and this revelation by one who, humanly speaking, knew nothing of the rumours in circulation about her, prepared her for the revelation that He was the Christ. I. CHRIST’ S OF HUMAN NATURE IS A WARRANT FOR OUR BELIEF IN HIS DIVINE MISSION. The teachers to whom we give the highest rank are those who teach us how to live. They stand higher than the mere scientist or philosopher. In the present day the scientist is more popular than the preacher. But that is because the question which inspires all his labours is “ What is man?” and this question derives all its significance from two others--“ What is man appointed to do?” “ What is man destined to be?” People are therefore looking to him to evolve a new theory of life, and to become a moralist at some time. Some have already become preachers--of another gospel, which is not another. Taking one age with another, the foremost teachers have been those who have dealt with morals and character. II. VIEW MAY BE TAKEN OF CHRIST’ S OF MAN, NO TEACHER HAS MADE ANY TO IT. We know nothing that helps us to understand man’ s position upon earth, and the reasons that have made it what it is, which cannot be traced to Matthew 5:1-48; Matthew 6:1-34; Matthew 7:1-29. There were illustrious teachers before Christ, but there is a great gulf between the obscurities and uncertain foundations of their teaching on man and the clear, authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ. Pagan teachers 1. Were ignorant of the origin of man. 2. Were at a loss to account for moral evil. These problems defied their reason, and therefore they remitted them to the imagination of the poets, and with the poets they found very eloquent expression in the mythologies. III. THERE ARE MEN WHO REJECT THE WORDS OF CHRIST ON THESE , BUT WHO EXPRESS THE HIGHEST OF HIS AND WISDOM. Now it is essentially unscientific to affirm arbitrarily that while Christ was right on one subject, He was wrong in another. He was right in every doctrine, and the very men who object to receive all He said, by the pre-eminence which they give to Christ say He is above their criticism. Bring to the examination of His life and teaching every new method of analysis and research; bring the latest discovery on the antiquity of man, and the last speculation of the evolutionist and the metaphysician, and you leave the Redeemer where the Jews, and where you found Him. There He is, and you cannot touch Him. IV. THERE ARE TWO MODERN CHRIST equally vigorous and conspicuous. 1. An anti-Christian scepticism. This is undeniable, but its power may be exaggerated. The ungodliness of our age happens to assume a sceptical guise, but it will assume another by and by. It must not be imagined that it represents the intelligence and judgment of society. There is a religion in the heart of the masses of the people waiting to be evoked. 2. A growing belief in Jesus, not so much fostered by the literature of the Church as by the words of Jesus. Thousands are studying the New Testament outside all churches. The Stranger that met the woman is silting on other wells all over the world, and looking for thirsty souls. Conclusion: It is the duty and vocation of churches to plant themselves upon the highways of thought and life and look out for thirsty travellers and offer them the water of life freely, (E. E. Jenkins, M. A.) The self-revealer I. THE WOMAN’ S FAITH AND HOW IT WAS TO BE TESTED. 1. She was a most unlikely subject. A Samaritan scorning the Jews, having her own notion of the Messiah. 2. Christ was most unlikely to strike her as the Messiah. A Jew; a suppliant for water. 3. Yet she was thoroughly convinced, for she leaves her water-pot and carries with enthusiasm the joyful news into the city. 4. This is what has happened ever since. It is not those who are in a most favourable position for believing who are readiest to believe. There are thousands of young people who have been trained in Christianity who never dream of loving Christ, whilst there are thousands for many years utterly untouched by Christian influences who find in themselves a strange power to lay hold of Christ. Beware of the subtle influence of familiarity with Divine things. II. HOW THIS WOMAN GOT HER FAITH. 1. Not by miracles. A miracle suggests omnipotence, but does not prove it. 2. There is a much higher thing than power--knowledge. She felt herself in the presence of omniscience. 3. Upon this knowledge of bar secret life she based her belief in the Messiah (John 4:25, cf verse 29). III. WHAT THIS WOMAN DID WITH HER FAITH. She put it into her proclamation of Jesus. (G. W. Conder.) The duty of spreading the Gospel Huber, the great naturalist, tells us, that if a single wasp discovers a deposit of honey or other food, he will return to his nest, and impart the good news to his companions, who will sally forth in great numbers to partake of the fare which has been discovered for them. Shall we who have found honey in the rock Christ Jesus, be less considerate of our fellow-men than wasps are of their fellow-insects? Ought we not rather like the Samaritan woman to hasten to tell the good news? Common humanity should prevent one of us from concealing the great discovery which grace has enabled us to make. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Every Christian must be a missionary According to Christ’ s law, every Christian is to be active in spreading the faith, which was delivered, not to the ministers, but to the saints, to every one of them, that they might maintain it, and spread it according to the gift which the Spirit has given them. Shall I venture a parable? A certain band of warlike knights had been exceedingly victorious in all their conflicts. They were men of valour and of indomitable courage; they had carried everything before them, and subdued province after province for their king. But on a sudden they said in the council-chamber, “ We have at our head a most valiant warrior, one whose arm is stout enough to smite down fifty of his adversaries; would it not be better if, leaving a few such as he to go out to the fight, the mere men-at-arms, who make up the ordinary ranks, were to rest at home? We should be much more at our ease; our horses would not so often be covered with foam, nor our armour be bruised, the many would enjoy abundant leisure, and great things would be done by the valiant few.” Now, the foremost champions, with fear and trembling, undertook the task and went to the conflict, and they fought well, as the rolls of fame can testify; to the best of their ability they unhorsed their foes and performed great exploits. But still, from the very hour in which that scheme was planned and carried out no city was taken, no province was conquered. If we are to subdue the earth, every one of us must join in the fight. We must not exempt a single soldier of the Cross, neither man nor woman, rich or poor. We shall see great things when we all agree to this, and put it in practice. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The joy of having found Christ No sooner do you pass the brow of the St. Gothard pass, on your way to Italy, than you perceive that, beyond all question, you are on the sunny side of the Alps. The snow lying there is nothing in comparison to the vast accumulation upon the Swiss side of the summit, the wind ceases to be sharp and cutting, and a very few minutes’ ride brings you into a balmy air which makes you forget that you are so greatly elevated above the sea level. There is a very manifest difference between the southern side and the bleak northern aspect. He who climbs above the cares of the world, and turns his face to his God, has found the sunny side of life. The world’ s side of the hill is chill and freezing to a spiritual mind, but the Lord’ s presence gives a warmth of joy which turns winter into summer. Some pilgrims to heaven appear never to have passed the summit of religious difficulty; they are still toiling over the Devil’ s Bridge, or loitering at Andermatt, or plunging into the deep snowdrifts of their own personal unworthiness, ever learning, but never coming to a full knowledge of the truth; they have not attained to comfortable perception of the glory, preciousness, and all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus, and therefore abide amid the winter of their doubts and fears. If they had but faith to surmount their spiritual impediments, how changed would everything become! It is fair travelling with a sunny land smiling before your eyes, especially when you retain a grateful remembrance of the bleak and wintry road which you have traversed; but it is sorry work to be always stopping on the Swiss side of the mountain. How is it that so many do this? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Weak instruments useful Weak means may, by God’ s blessing, work great matters. He can make the words of Naaman’ s servant greater in operation than the words of great Elisha, and by a poor captive girl bring him to the prophet. (J. Trapp.) How souls are won No address is so powerful as that which comes in private from heart to heart, with all the living power of a lip warm with love. God is more likely to bless this form of address than any other. There is no escaping from the directness of such an appeal, and it is hard to resist its pleading power. “ Come, George, and walk down the road with me!” was the call of an earnest preacher to one of his hearers. In the course of that walk the preacher’ s private word had by God’ s blessing accomplished in George what all his ‘ former teachings had failed to do. George yielded himself to Christ, and declared that the personal talking while going along the street was the means of his decision. It is a great delight to the pastor of the Tabernacle frequently to see certain elders in the corners of the building after service conversing with individuals. Are we backward in such labours? Do we altogether neglect them? How shall we answer for it at the last great day? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Tell the news At the first invitation to penitents to come forward, only half a dozen responded to the call; but as soon as these stood up rejoicing in God, another company came forward. No sooner was the joy of pardon received into the mourners’ hearts, than they hastened to seek after others. One young man, about twenty years of age, was overheard praying, immediately after he felt relieved of his guilty load, “ Please, Lord, let me tell somebody, or I shall die.” Upon receiving permission he gladly stood up, and related what God had just done for his soul. (W. Booth.) Come In travelling across the arid desert, scouts upon camels and dromedaries are sent off in every direction to scour the country and look for springs of water. When these are discovered the finder immediately calls aloud of the nearest, “ Come!” and this one repeats the word “ Come!” to the next, and so this word passes from one to another until all hear and are gathered at the well. Now those of us who are Christians must do the same. We have heard the good news that Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. We have found the well of living waters, and we must raise the cry, “ Come!” Christ the Saviour of great sinners A woman came to a minister one day, carrying a bundle of wet sand. “ Do you see what this is, sir?” said she. “ Yes,” was the reply, “ it is wet sand.” “ But do you know what it means?” “ I do not know exactly what you mean by it; what is it?” “ Ah, sir,” she said, “ that’ s me, and the number of my sins they cannot be counted.” And then she exclaimed, “ Oh wretched creature that I am! how can a wretch as I ever be saved? Where did you get the sand?” asked the minister. “ At the Beacon.” “ Go back then to the Beacon; take a spade with you; dig, dig, and raise a great mound; shovel it up as high as ever you can, then leave it there; take your stand by the sea-shore, and watch the effect of the waves upon the heap of sand.” “ Ah, sir,” she exclaimed, “ I see what you mean--the blood, the blood, the blood of Christ; it would wash it all away.” (New Cyclopaedia.) Master eat … I have meat to eat that ye know not ofThe two forgettings I. CHRIST forgets HIS EARTHLY FOOD. II. THE WOMAN forgets HER EARTHLY . (J. P. Lange, D. D.) The zeal and food of Christ I. His ZEAL. 1. For His Father’ s house (John 2:17), purity of worship. 2. For His Father’ s will (John 9:4), the salvation of men. 3. For His Father’ s children (John 17:9), the sanctification of His Church. II. His FOOD. 1. Heavenly in origin. 2. Spiritual in character. 3. Sustaining in quality. 4. Sufficient in supply. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Lord’ s meat I. It was a roadside conversation, an “ accidental” interview. And yet in less time than an ordinary religious service HE HAS TOLD MANKIND THREE SECRETS. 1. What rest or peace is for every unsatisfied heart. 2. Who it is that knows these hearts through and through. 3. What God is, and how He may be found. 4. These are secrets, because for four thousand years the loftiest intellects had been striving to find them out. Prophets and kings, Solomons and Platos, desired to see these things, and did not. II. WHERE SHOULD WE SAY THIS WOULD BE MADE, 1. In some crowded church, advertised beforehand, with thousands of people and a popular orator? 2. In some lecture-hall with sharp-witted students stimulated by some master brain? 3. Notice that the occasion was commonplace. The teacher sat on the stones of a wayside well. The audience was one woman, not respectable. Men of the world that day were about their business. Fortunes were building and wasting. Rome was ruling. Athens was carving and painting and making orations. Jerusalem was garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous, and devouring widows’ houses. But in one still spot two people were talking together of things which have helped to revolutionize the world. III. WHILE THUS ENGAGED THE TEACHER’ S WAS . The disciples came and asked Him to eat. Then were repeated instances when, at the moment He needed sympathy most, those around Him went on chattering about superficial trifles, misunderstanding His teaching and His life. But Christ’ s patience always triumphed. He simply announces 1. The fact that He had meat they knew not of. (1) He does not mean that He was not in natural wants and exactly like ourselves. Honest hunger is no more disgraceful than honest riches. He knew that some of the most beneficent and beautiful impulses are associated with eating and drinking. He made both sacramental signs. Christianity is not the killing out or mutilating of any faculty; it is to use everything purely, unselfishly, faithfully, and in the name of the Lord Jesus. 2. While Christ would not sunder what God hath joined together, the hungering body and the immaterial soul, yet His mission is to bring the two into their right relation, and set the one over the other as its master. Eating and drinking are well enough in their place and time, but man shall not live by bread only. It is something higher that makes life worth living--the life and work of Christ. 3. Why should this be called meat? Food does two things. (1) It satisfies uneasy desire: so Christ satisfies a desire which is the hunger of the soul. You say many do not feel it, or they would give up their selfish way and turn to God. But (a) although many people have lost the longing for a purer life by indulgence, they had it once. (b) The desire for better things is stronger in finer natures than in coarse. (c) Do we not all want something deeply, and are miserable when we cannot get relief. (d) The restless heart needs to be shown the secret of its discontent, and Christ comes into the world to show it. (e) Ask yourselves if you do not sometimes feel it. (2) Besides the craving filled and the sense of relish, there is actual nourishment. At first it seems as if Christian service were all giving and spending. But as you go on you take more than you give. A good life is continually strengthened by living it. All we give away for a good object enriches us. 4. Christ further tells us that the life of love and duty is the carrying out of God’ s plan. 5. Christ uplifts the ideal of a “ finished” life and work. “ Finished,” because to the last stroke spent and the last breath drawn Christ gives it power and grace. No matter how long life is or how short if it is faithful. No matter where death is, if within us is the life of Him who liveth evermore. (Bp. Huntington.) Mysterious meat The disciples had gone to buy meat: and for this they cannot be censured. Do not say that they were carnal or unspiritual, for most spiritual people must eat to live. And then I admire their care for their Master. It is right for the spiritual man to forget his hunger, but it is equally right for his true friends to remind him that he ought to eat for his health’ s sake. Jesus has now gone, but His mystical body remains. If you know of any of His people in poverty, ask them to partake of your abundance, lest haply your Lord should say “ I was an hungered,” etc. Having done this justice to the twelve, let us do honour to Christ. His mind was absorbed in spiritual objects, and He wished to lead them to that higher field. I. THERE ARE THAT ARE LITTLE KNOWN. “ Man shall not live by bread alone.” Our Lord found refreshments that were not known to His disciples, and the reason for this was 1. That this nourishment was enjoyed on a higher plan than they had yet reached. 2. It implied a greater sinking of self than they as yet knew. In being a servant obeying the will of another, He feels Himself so much at home, that it revives Him to think of it. Not in self but in self-surrender is there fulness for the heart. 3. Christ was in fuller harmony with God than His disciples. 4. Christ was sustained because He understood the art of seeing much in little. As a wise man sees a forest in an acorn so our Lord saw the vast results Of this little incident. II. THESE SECRET OUR LORD. 1. He had so long hungered to be at His work. 2. When He got at His work He gave Himself wholly to it. 3. He found great joy in the work itself. 4. He forgot to eat bread because of the enthusiasm which filled Him in the pursuit of that soul. 5. He was moved greatly by the sympathy of pity. 6. He felt great joy in present success. 7. He saw the prospect of better things. III. LET US AT ONCE SEEK THIS . 1. Let us remember that we are sent of God 2. Let us find joy at once in God’ s work and will. 3. Let us get to work and leap into our place at once. 4. We may also anticipate the wages. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The hidden support of life 1. In the case of human creatures life is a higher thing than existence. The soul is superior to the body. The body has its wants, but the supply of these is only the means of doing the will of God by the soul. When the means are elevated into the end manhood is sunk into animalism. How often is a young man tempted into sensuality by the invitation, “ Let us see life.” But sensuality is not life for a man. 2. In the prosecution of life we must lay our account with privations and conflicts. We do not begin in a paradise of innocence. The very first motions of real life within often take the form of conflict. 3. Under such experiences the strength of the man comes from hidden support. He has meat to eat of which others know not. This hidden meat is the food of heroes and has always nourished those who have “ resisted unto blood, striving against sin.” 4. When a man has no such secret support his life loses all spiritual importance and becomes a mere grovelling thing of animal enjoyment. The soul is starved and all true nobleness disappears. Now let us particularize some of the forms of this hidden support I. A GOOD . This when rectified by the Holy Spirit is God’ s representative in the soul. Its approbation therefore being the reflex of the approval of God is a great source of support, even as its condemnation must always be a cause of weakness and pain. A good conscience is a continual feast, and they who have that within can do without the banquets of the world. II. A WORTHY . If we are intent on the attainment of some fixed purpose we shall be sustained amid trials which would otherwise have overmastered us. We see that exemplified on a lower level, in the case of Warren Hastings, e.g. Let the Christian set his soul on the attainment of some good, not for Himself, but for his fellow men, then that purpose will bear him up. Christ, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, etc. This is the secret of the strength of those who have given their lives for missions, Livingstone, e.g. III. FAITH IN THE UNSEEN AND IN THE FUTURE, as in the case of Moses. What the student is doing for his scholarship, and the merchant for his wealth, the Christian is doing for his recompense of eternal reward, Both alike are walking by faith, but the Christian’ s faith takes in eternity. IV. DIVINE . “ I am not alone because the Father is with Me,” said Jesus. “ The Lord stood by me and strengthened me,” said Paul. God is “ a very present help in time of trouble,” not only for great emergencies, but for the common weariness of a common day. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Heavenly nourishment I. OUR LORD’ S ENTIRE TO HIS FATHER’ S WILL. This is no isolated instance. Turn to any part of His life and you see the same principle. 1. He was profoundly submissive to that will. 2. He manifested His delight in it. 3. He felt the necessity for His work as Saviour, knowing as He did the dreadful power of sin. 4. Love was the foundation of His obedience. II. OUR LORD FOUND AND IN DOING HIS FATHER’ S WILL. 1. There may be entire devotion arising out of a sense of obligation. 2. Our Lord’ s devotion sprang from delight in it. 3. It so absorbed Him that He forgot His hunger, being spiritually fed, “ He saw the travail of His soul,” etc. III. THE END WHICH OUR LORD KEPT IN VIEW. “ To finish His work.” So at the close He was able to say “ It is finished.” His was a perfect life. Every part was filled in as it went on, no imperfect fragments, nothing left out or to be done over again. IV. LESSONS. 1. Every Christian should regard it as his meat to do the Father’ s will. “ As the Father hath sent Me even so send I you.” 2. All may learn what a joy it is to save the lost. (G. W. Humphries, B. A.) My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me. Consider Messiah’ s ministry of salvation as I. A WORK WHICH HE . 1. He speaks here in His capacity of Son and Servant. In His essential nature He is one with the Father, but in the actual execution of the Divine purpose, He stands in a low place charged with a specific mission. 2. The will of the Sender is learned best by looking at the Sent. The Gift reveals the Giver’ s heart. The Christ sent into the world is fitted to draw men to God, not to drive them from Him. The will of the Father corresponds with the Messenger sent to execute it. God is love and Christ embodies that love. 3. The desire of God could not be carried into effect without Christ sent. 4. This work is not left half done. Creation was completed ere God rested. His next more glorious work will be finished too. The earth was complete as a habitation for man ere the children were brought to it as their home. So will heaven be. II. THE FOOD IN WHICH HE . 1. It is not enough to learn what Jesus did and suffered, we must look into the secret motives of His heart. 2. Knowing all that redemption would bring upon Himself, He longed for the work as His daily bread. In this glass we see reflected the nature and intensity of the Saviour’ s eagerness to save. 3. Jesus is Lord of all. The stars are His, He values them, but they do not satisfy His soul. He does not need to redeem bright worlds and unfallen angels; they cannot, therefore, appease His hunger. To seek the strayed, and save the lost--this is His meat. 4. “ Blessed are they that hunger; for this they shall be filled.” This He felt; and His joy will be full when all the ransomed shall reign with Him. 5. Over Jerusalem He wept for hunger. His appetite brought Him from heaven to the cradle and the cross. 6. It is difficult to reconcile Christ’ s desire with His omnipotence. Had he not power to accomplish His desire? Could He not have seized a whole city, as angels seized Lot, and hurried them to heaven? This would not have satisfied Him. Material acquisitions cannot sustain the spirit. Though all power is given to Him He will not satisfy His physical hunger by converting stones into bread, nor His spiritual by lifting multitudes to heaven by omnipotence. 7. With the limits of our capacity and condition the appetite of the Master may be shared by the servants. Our spiritual hunger is first a desire to get and then a desire to give salvation. In the second part of the process the disciple enters into the joy of His Lord. (W. Arnot, D. D.) Jesus about His Father’ s business It is peculiarly pleasing to observe the interest which God the Father takes in the work of salvation. In our childhood in grace we conceived God as an austere Judge made propitious by Christ. Since then we have learned the Father through the Son. This interest is three times hinted at in the text. (1) Salvation work is called the Father’ s will. It is His will not only that we should not perish, but be redeemed. (2) Jesus was sent of the Father. (3) Salvation is called God’ s work. When this world was made God did not make it without reference to the Spirit, for the “ Spirit moved on the face of the waters” ; nor without the Son (John 1:3); yet it was the Father’ swork. So the Father does not save without the Spirit, for “ the Spirit quickeneth.” Nor without the Son, for it is through His death that we are forgiven; yet it is the Father’ s work. This work it was the meat of Christ to do and to finish. Notice I. HIS SOUL WAS IN ALL HE DID. The task was not irksome. There are men who work with such reserve and coldness that you perceive it is but the shell that acts, not the man’ s whole soul. But our Lord’ s whole Being was at work. His Father’ s service was His element. II. HE WAS GLAD WHEN HE SAW HIS WORK . An infallible proof of His devotedness. You know when a man’ s heart is in his work by the joy he feels in it. True ministers call preaching pleasure, not duty. Let Him see a penitent and the Man of Sorrows wears a smile on His sorrowful face. III. HE WAS ANGRY WHEN HIS WORK WAS OPPOSED. When good men see penitents discouraged or evil rampant they do well to be angry. IV. HE WEPT WHEN HIS WORK WAS . Never otherwise. He will weep over unpenitent Jerusalem, but not on the cross. V. HE WAS NOT BY . How often, when our motives are misconstrued and our efforts hampered, are we tempted to give up! But Christ went on His way apologizing for nothing, doing His work whatever men thought of it or acted against it. VI. HE ALWAYS ; never resting: intruding on sleep for prayer and helpfulness. His three years seemed like three centuries. VII. WHEN IN FULL LABOUR HE DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE FELT FATIGUE; as here, and when hungry forgot to eat bread. He seemed to get refreshed in His work, and instead of getting tired renewed His strength. This could not have happened unless His soul had been in it. VIII. OUR LORD NEVER SWERVED FROM HIS ONE OBJECT, although tempted by the devil with the world and by the Galileans with a crown. IX. HE WAS NOT DAUNTED BY THE THOUGHT OF DEATH. This thought was not before Him as a possible prospect of momentary heroism, but a certain prospect all His life through. And to this He hastened as the crowning point of His work. In conclusion 1. Let the timid soul who thinks that Christ is unwilling to save be encouraged by all this. 2. Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus be in all Christian men. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Sources of Christ’ s satisfaction I. IN THE FACT OF SERVICE. It is no mean satisfaction to a servant of God to feel, “ I am here of no private choice or purpose of my own; I have been sent hither by a Divine hand.” What a freedom from anxiety and discouragement! The humblest task is made glorious by the authority of the Giver. Many think there is no glory but in independence. But we are so made that we are not sufficient to ourselves, and therefore, the selfish man is wretched. True joy is the joy of sympathy, but no human love can satisfy the soul’ s demands. In God’ s favour alone is life. This favour is accorded only to His servants, II. IN THE LAW OF THE SERVICE. God’ s will, many persons think there is no joy but in doing their own will, and to walk in the plain path of duty is repulsive to them. And merely walking in the path of duty will not bring joy. There is no acceptable obedience that does not spring from love. But there is all joy in that Christ found it so. And this is not wonderful. The will of God is the outcome of His perfections, and therefore that will must be the perfection of blessedness. Can you choose so well for yourself as that will which measures all things. This holds good both with regard to the suffering and the doing of God’ s will. III. IN THE FIELD OF SERVICE.. Every man has his work Divinely allotted and adjusted. This work is various, and all of it must be accepted as given of God. Then satisfaction will be found in 1. Doing the work may not have been successful, but if it has been done, we have the satisfaction of having fulfilled our task. There are those who will only work when there is human applause and visible results. 2. The effectual accomplishment of the work, and receiving the glad, “ Well done.” (J. Riddell.) Service should be willing service When the Spartans marched into battle they advanced with cheerful songs, willing to fight; but when the Persians entered the conflict, you could hear, as the regiments came on, the crack of whips by which the officers drove the cowards to the fray. You need not wonder that a few Spartans were more than a match for thousands of Persians, that in fact they were like lions in the midst of sheep. So let it be with the Church; never should she need to be forced to reluctant action, but full of irrepressible life, she should long for conflict against everything which is contrary to God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Joyful service “ I wish I could mind God as my little dog minds me,” said a little boy, looking thoughtfully on his shaggy friend; “ he always looked so pleased to mind, and I don’ t.” What a painful truth did this child speak! Shall the poor little dog thus readily obey his master, and we rebel against God, who is our Creator, our Preserver, our Father, our Saviour, and the bountiful Giver of everything we love. (Christian Treasury.) God’ s work is our work The other evening I was spending a few hours with a friend, and a lady who happened to be present when we were talking about this missionary work, said, “ But, Mr. John, do you not know that we have a great deal of our own work to do?” “ Why, madame,” said I, “ is not the missionary work your work? Is it not the work of the Churches?” That seemed to be a new light to her altogether; and there are a great many people in these days who seem to think that this work is the work of the missionaries arid not their own. I go to China to do your work. If I go into the deep well, it is for you to hold the rope you must not leave me there. (Griffith John.) Enthusiasm When George Moore was deputed to the relief of Paris, after the seige, he hastened off to reach the place as quickly as possible. “ I think I should have died,” he said, “ if I had not been the first man in Paris.” (Smiles.) The power of concentration In the eighteenth century, an immense burning glass was constructed in France, in which all the heat, falling on a great lens, was then concentrated on a smaller one till at the focus such was the heat that iron, gold, and other metals ran like melted butter. Another one, made in England by Parker, fused the most refractory substances, and diamonds were reduced by it to vapour. (H. O. Mackey.) The satisfying power of a great aspiration It was this prospect that cheered and refreshed Him. When our 33rd regiment was nearing Magdala, they had marched for hours over burning plains, under a scorching sky, without water or rest, and the heat began to tell upon the men--many were ready to fall down from exhaustion--when suddenly the sharp cracking of rifles told our soldiers that the foe was in the front and fighting had begun. Hunger, thirst, exhaustion, were all forgotten in the excitement and desire for the fray. If a desire like this could make soldiers forget weariness, much more a desire to save a sinner could so fill the loving, tender heart of Jesus with such delight and satisfaction. (R. H. Lovell.) Christ’ s improvement on common things I observe our Saviour applying every accidental occurrence to His holy purposes, as it were, by a kind of chemistry, separating the gross matter, and subliming ordinary affairs to heavenly doctrine; insomuch that there was scarcely any common affair of life,… but He spiritualized it, and applied it to His designs. Now, if we would learn of Him, we might with great ease, and without all violence, surprise men into religion, and not only at every turn introduce pious discourse, but render the subject of it intelligible to the meanest capacities; and withal by those sensible-resemblances give such lively touches upon the minds of men, as that what we delivered upon those occasions would stick and remain with them … As, for instance, when we visit a sick friend or neighbour, what a fair opportunity have we to discourse of the immorality of the soul! And what an easy transition is it from a physician to a Saviour! Or, why may we not as well cheer up our afflicted friend with the comforts of religion, as well as amuse or divert him with impertinent stories? Or, suppose friends to be together and disposed to be merry, why may not some word come in seasonably of the everlasting friendship in heaven, or the continual feast of a good conscience? Why may not the common chat about news be elevated to the consideration of the good tidings of the Gospel? What hinders but our dishes of meat may be seasoned with a gracious word or two about the food of our souls? When men are talking of old age, it would be no great strain, if thence our thoughts rise up to eternal life; nor is any great flight of fancy requisite to improve all the accidents of our lives to the contemplation of Divine Providence, which orders and governs them. In a word, everything is capable of improvement, if we be not wanting; we shall never want opportunity, if we embrace it; anything will serve an intent mind and a devout heart to these purposes (Proverbs 15:23; Lake 8:1, 5). (Dr. Goodman.) The superlative value of food A traveller lost his way in an Eastern desert. His provisions were exhausted, and he had already wandered about for several days without food, when he descried under a palm tree on his track the marks of a recent encampment. He approached the spot tremulous with hope. He found a bag which the travellers had left behind, filled with something that appeared to be dates. He opened it eagerly, expecting to satisfy his hunger, when lo! it contained only pearls! He sat down and wept. What are pearls to a man who is dying for want of bread? (W. Arnott, D. D.) Love the secret of successful work There is absolutely nothing more absorbing on the one hand, or more satisfying on the other, than successful effort in behalf of a cause or of a person loved by us. This is alike true from the lowest plane to the highest. Even a child will forget to be ready for his meals, if he once gets fairly into a game with his playmates outside, before lunch-time or supper-time. Many a hard student is sorry to stop his work in order to eat or to sleep. And when one can hope to finish a piece of work for one whom he loves, by keeping at it a few hours longer--who wouldn’ t rather do that than have a good dinner? If the work of the Lord drags in our hands, it is not because that work is not worth living for, and dying for; but it is because we fail of a fitting interest to its doing. (H. C.Trumbull, D. D.) True work We should aim to be too active to stagnate, too busy to freeze. We should be like Cromwell, who not only struck when the iron was hot, but made it hot by striking; like the missionary, who said, “ If there be happiness on earth, it is in labouring in the service of Christ.” (Family Churchman.) Soul food Many who have gathered crowds about them, who have produced a marked impression on those crowds, have said truly that such success was meat and drink to them. If it did not feed their vanity, but sustained them because it showed them that they were doing God’ s will and finishing His work, they may have understood some- thing of Christ’ s meaning. But the secret food He partook of certainly came from no “ sudden success that followed His words. First, He met with a woman who had in general answered Him with levity; then a few people of her own rank came at her call. How little would such honours satisfy the ambition of some eloquent disciple of Christ, who has the power of influencing thousands! Could it satisfy Him who came to found a kingdom of which there was to be no end? Yes; for in their first sheaves He could see certain pledges of a world’ s ingathering. The corn-fields would not be reaped for four months; these men whom He saw coming showed Him that the other harvest was nearer still. (F. D. Maurice.) The ruling passion When a man dies his friends often say of him, in praise of his diligence, energy, and concentration, “ He lived simply to carry through that important line of railway” ; or, “ His only object was to extort from the Government a more scientific education for the people” ; or, “ He devoted himself to the cause of Free Trade” ; or, “ He was a martyr to his exertions in favour of Protection.” It was his one idea; it grew with his growth; he could think of nothing else; he spared neither time nor money to it; it was his monomania. He did his work in his day, and did it well, because he was heart and soul in it; and the world is in debt to him for it. Now, why should it not be said of us, “ Well, he is gone, he was a man of one idea, he cared for nothing but that God’ s will be done on earth as in heaven. He was eaten up with this; he made it his hobby; it was meat and drink to him. And whereas the other men left behind the railway or the cheap bread, our friend has left behind him a better world.” (Family Churchman.) John 4:35-38 Say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest The spiritual culture of the world Not unfrequently does the Bible represent the great work of the moral reformation of the world by that of husbandry. I. THE OF GOD SHOULD SEIZE EVERY FOR THE CULTURE OF MAN. Don’ t think the work distant, to be waited for, it is present and must be attended to at once. 1. Moral seasons are not like material ones, beyond our agency. We cannot hasten the months of harvest. Years come and go irrespective of our choice or effort. But in the moral domain you can change temperature, create seasons, turn foul weather into fair, and make a moral November as bright and genial as June. “ Say ye not then.” Make no excuses. 2. The feeblest honest effort to improve the world will develop encouraging symptoms to persevere. Christ’ s conversation with the woman stirred the heart of the whole city. True thoughts increase the soul’ s appetites and supplies. The more you give the more you need. II. A LONG OF AGENTS ARE FOR THE CULTURE OF MANKIND. “ One soweth, another reapeth.” “ Paul plants, Apollo waters.” John sowed seeds for Polycarp, he for Athanasius, he for Angustine, he for Anselm; Bernard for Tauler, Luther for Calvin, he for Chemitz; Wickliffe for Tyndale, and he for Coverdale, etc. This suggests 1. The moral connection of the race. Man transmits his principles as well as his nature. 2. The slow progress of moral principles. Humanity requires ages for the full appreciation of great truths. 3. The humble part which individuals play in the history of the world. What we sow may not appear till we are gone. We pluck a few ripe ears, drop a seed or two and then pass on. 4. Results are not the right rules for conduct. We see more the effects of other men’ s labours than our own. We have to do with work, consequences must be left to God. III. THERE IS A VITAL BETWEEN ALL TRUE WORKERS IN THE CULTURE OF THE WORLD. 1. In working out one grand purpose. Whether they reap or sow. 2. In participating in the same rewards. In the universal rejoicing there will be no under-rating of the humblest, and the greatest will not glory in himself. Each will rejoice in another’ s labours rather than his own, all ascribing their achievement to all inspiring love. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The gospel harvest I. THE GREAT HARVEST REMAINS YET TO BE IN. The purposes of grace have as yet received a very partial accomplishment. This is seen if we will consider 1. God’ s gracious intentions as announced to us by the ancient seers. 2. The means which God has employed to fulfil His purposes. The incarnation, death, resurrection, and glorification of His Son, and the creation of a Church to proclaim these saving facts to the whole world. Nothing short of the salvation of mankind can indemnify the Redeemer and enable him to see the travail of his soul. 3. The preparatory processes. (1) Before the Advent. (a) Among the Jews the progress of redemptive disclosures. (b) Among the Gentiles the progress of a civilization which should help to carry the Gospel to every creature. (2) Since the advent. (a) In early Christian times. (b) Subsequent to the Reformation. 4. If such has been the length of time over which the preparations have extended, if such the grandeur of the means employed, if such the extent of the plan announced--what must be the harvest that is before us? II. HAVE WE REASON TO HOPE THAT THE HARVEST IS NEAR? The expectation of seeing it burst on the world in full or hid splendour by stupendous miracle is not to be encouraged. There is no reason to expect it through any other agency than that which God has already employed. As for the signs, observe 1. That the whole world has become accessible to the gospel to a degree altogether unprecedented. 2. The commanding and influential position of those portions of the globe, where Christianity exists in its purest and most active forms. 3. The general spread of knowledge and extension of education. 4. The success already achieved. III. THE AND CONDUCT WITH WHICH THIS STATE OF THINGS SHOULD BE MET BY THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 1. Attention. 2. Thankfulness, “ Blessed are our eyes, for they see.” 3. Zealous efforts. 4. Steady perseverance. (B. Godwin.) The gospel harvest I. A OF THE OF THE WORLD. The “ fields” are the world; they were “ white unto harvest,” ready for the accomplishment of the work of mercy. 1. It was the time which had been appointed in the predetermination of the Divine counsels for introducing the economy of grace. It was “ the fulness of time.” 2. The fields were “ white” because of the spiritual necessities which then actually pressed upon the circumstances of man. No time could have been more apt. Jews and Gentiles were alike at the furthest limit to which want could possibly impel. 3. The time of the Saviour’ s advent was one of great expectancy. Among the Jews were many like Simeon; among the Gentiles many like the Magi. The state of the world since has always to some extent admitted the application of the words “ white unto harvest,” and some periods more particularly than others (1) When the gloom of the Middle Ages was about to pass away. (2) Now, as seen in the state and relationships of human governments; the influence of our own country in every continent; the feeling of sympathy and the acknowledgment of duty on the part of professing Christians; the wealth and talent of the Church; the actual wants of heathendom, and their readiness to receive the Word of God. The disciples of the Saviour are summoned themselves to contemplate the state of the world. “ Lift up your eyes and see.” II. A OF THE OFFICES OF LABOUR AND HELD IN WITH THE . 1. As to the origin of the offices to be contemplated they are of Divine appointment. “ The Lord of the harvest” alone sends forth labourers; and here the Redeemer asserts His own prerogative, “ I sent you.” 2. The nature of the offices thus exhibited. He that sows has not the immediate tokens of success; he that reaps gathers at once the ripened corn. So the office of some has been to prepare the mind, to settle preliminaries, to lay foundations; of others to follow and to garner the result. The labour of the prophets, and the success of the apostles, is typical of much modern Christian labour. The reformers laboured, ministers now reap. And while we reap from generations past, we sow for generations to come. 3. The spirit in which these offices should be sustained. There should be (1) Contentedness. (2) Diligence. (3) Patience. (4) Supplication for the Divine blessing. III. THE PROMISE OF THE BY THE OF WHICH THOSE OFFICES SHALL BE . 1. There is a recompense granted to the faithful exercise of the duties which the offices comprehend. “ He that reapeth,” etc. 2. There will be a final meeting of all the labourers for mutual communion and joy, “ together.” (J. Parsons.) Earnestness essential to success Duncan Matheson, the Scottish evangelist, when in the Crimea, was not slow in seeking out men of his own spirit in the army. His first acquaintance was Hector Macpherson, drum-major 93rd Highlanders, a soldier both of his country and of the Cross, of whom the missionary used to tell the following story:--“ One day, a chaplain, newly arrived, called on the sergeant and asked his advice as to the best method of conducting his work. ‘ Come with me,’ said Hector, ‘ to the hill-top. Now look around you. See yonder the pickets of Liprandi’ s army. See yon batteries on the right, and the men at the guns. Mark yon trains of ammunition. Hear the roar of that cannon. Look where you may, it is all earnest here. There is not a man but feels it is a death struggle. If we don’ t conquer the Russians, the Russians will conquer us. We are all in earnest, sir; we are not playing at soldiers here. If you would do good you must be in earnest too. An earnest man will always win his way.’” (New Cyclopadia.) The fields are white Leonard Keyser, who was burned at Scherding, in 1527, as a Protestant, when he came near to the stake, exclaimed, as he looked at the crowd, “ Behold the harvest! O Master, send forth Thy labourers.” (Bowes.) The heathen are waiting for the gospel Rev. J. Hudson Taylor related, in China’s Millions, the bitter hardships he, with Rev. W. C. Burns, experienced during his early days in China. The sketch closes with an account of a remarkable incident. After they had spoken one day in the city of Ningpo one of the listening crowd said: “ I have long sought for the truth; I and my father before me. I have found no rest in Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism; but I do find rest in what I have heard here. Henceforth I believe in Jesus.” Afterwards he asked Mr. Taylor how long the glad tidings had been known in England. When he was told, “ Some hundreds of years,” he looked amazed. “ What!” he exclaimed, “ is it possible, and yet you have only now come to preach them to us? My father sought after the truth for more than twenty years, and died without finding it. Why did you not come sooner?” The woman of Samaria After expressing His own regard to the work that was given Him to do, our Saviour stimulates His disciples to similar zeal. For this purpose He employs three arguments, all borrowed from husbandry. 1. The first is taken from the necessity for their exertions. When the grain is ripe, the sickle must be thrust in. 2. The second is taken from the profitableness of their exertion. The reaper is well paid. 3. The third is taken from the facility of their exertion; the work being prepared to their hands. “ They besought Him that He would tarry with them.” How natural was this! 1. They were eager to give Him entertainment. 2. They wished to be instructed by him more perfectly. It is the nature of grace to wish its increase. 3. They hoped that He would be useful to those of their families and of their neighbours, who had been either unable or unwilling to come. What a work of God was here! Let me conclude by calling upon you to observe, who were the subjects of this work, and who was the instrument. 1. The subjects were Samaritans, not Jews: and we may exclaim with our Lord, on another occasion, we “ have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” 2. The instrument was, not a philosopher, not an apostle armed with tongues and miracles, but a poor, wicked, but converted woman. (W. Jay.) Zeal for soul-gathering In Switzerland, where land is very precious because rock abounds and the rugged soil is chary in its yieldings, you see the husbandman looking after a little tuft of grass growing on one of the edges of a lofty cliff. From the valley he had caught a sight of it and thought of clambering up to where if grew, but the rock was all too steep. From a ledge nearer the top of the precipitous wall he looked down, but could see no pathway to the coveted morsel of green. That armful of grass would feed his goat, or help to fill the cottage loft with winter fodder for the cow. Every armful is an item, and he cannot forego that tempting clump. He looks, and looks, and looks again, but looks in vain. By-and-by, he fetches his bold boy who can follow wherever a chamois can climb, but the boy after a hard scramble comes back with the tidings, “ Father, it cannot be done.” Father’ s answer is, “ Boy, it must be done.” It is only an armful, and would not be worth a farthing to us, but to the poor mountaineer even a farthing or a far- thing’ s worth is precious. The grass waves its flowers in the breeze and scorns the daring climbers from below; but where there is a will, there is a way; and what cannot be reached from below may be gained from above. With a rope slung round him, or firmly grasped in his accustomed hand, with a stout stake or tree to hold it up above, the Switzer is let down till he gets to the jutting crag, there he stands with his sickle, reaps the grass, ties it into a bundle, puts it under his arm, and climbing back again, joyfully returns with his little harvest. Poor pay, you think, for such dangerous toil; but, fellow-worker for Jesus, I wish we were as venturesome for souls, and as careful of them, as these poor peasants are concerning miserable bundles of grass. I wish that we sometimes looked up or down upon apparently inaccessible spots, and resolved to reach immortal souls who are to be found there, and pined to bring them to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Love to souls An old man in Watton, whom Mr. Thornton had in vain urged to come to church, was taken ill and confined to his bed. Mr. Thornton went to the cottage, and asked to see him. The old man, hearing his voice below, answered, in no very courteous tone, “ I don’ t want you here; you may go away.” The following day the curate was again at the foot of the stairs. “ Well, my friend, may I come up to-day and sit beside you?” Again he received the same reply, “ I don’ t want you here.” Twenty-one days successively Mr. Thornton paid his visit to the cottage, and on the twenty-second his perseverance was rewarded. He was permitted to enter the room of the aged sufferer, to read the Bible, and pray by his bedside. The poor man recovered, and became one of the most regular attendants at the house of God. (Life of Rev. S. Thornton.) The wages of doing good--joy A person was once asked what had been the happiest moment she had ever known. She was one who had had more than a common share of the good things of this world. She had a bright home and many friends. She had achieved success in a brilliant society, and won literary fame, and had drunk deep of intellectual pleasures in the course of a life which was far spent. Yet she said the happiest moment she had ever known was that in which a withered old woman tottered into the room, held out her shaking hands towards her, and wept for joy as she exclaimed, “ I said I’ d come and thank you for saving my boy, though I dropped on the road.” Her boy was a poacher, who, in a midnight affray, inadvertently, as he said--wilfully, as others declared--shot a gamekeeper. He was tried for his life, and almost to the last moment he had no counsel, as neither he nor his miserable old mother had the means of securing one. The lady, knowing nothing of him, heard incidentally that if he remained undefended it would go hard with him, and she engaged a first-rate counsel on his behalf. The result was that although his sentence was death, it was accompanied by a recommendation to mercy. A petition, which was afterwards drawn up by his defender, procured a commutation of the extreme penalty; and so it was that the joys of happy love, and fame, and pleasure, paled before the grateful light in the poor old mother’ s eyes as she spoke her homely thanks, and then dropped back to her obscurity and was no more seen. (Good Words.) Fruit after many days I was called, in Philadelphia, to visit a sick girl in a very worldly and irreligious household, with whom I had but little acquaintance, and went anticipating only a painful visit of warning to a careless soul. To my astonishment, I found a gentle child of grace, perhaps eighteen years of age, sinking in a consumption, but perfectly clear in mind, and happy, in hope. “ How,” I asked, “ have you learned all this in your condition here?” Her answer was most precious. “ I had a faithful Sunday-school teacher; and though I left her some years ago, and never gave her much satisfaction, yet when I was taken sick, I took my little Bible, and went over the lessons she used to teach me, and God has taught me here alone.” She then showed me her little Bible, turned down and marked with many Sunday-school lessons, her constant and loved companion. Dear child, she had no other religious companion. But she departed in sweet peace and hope, and my visits to her while she lived were full of satisfaction and delight. Similar incidents of actual conversion under Sunday-school instruction have occurred in such numbers, that I might fill many sheets of paper with them. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.) The wages of doing good Occasionally a benevolent action wrought in faith brings with it an instantaneous recompense in kind; therein Providence is seen as smiling upon the deed. The late John Andrew Jones, a poor Baptist minister, whilst walking in Cheapside, was appealed to by some one he knew for help. He had but a shilling in the world, and poised it in his mind, to give or not to give? The greater distress of his acquaintance prevailed, and he gave his all, walking away with a sweet remembrance of the promise, “ He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, will He pay him again.” He had not gone a hundred yards further before he met a gentleman who said, “ Ah, Mr. Jones, I am glad to see you. I have had this sovereign in my waistcoat pocket this week past for some poor minister, and you may as well have it.” Mr. Jones was wont to add, when telling the story, “ If I had not stopped to give relief I should have missed the gentleman and the sovereign too.” The reaper’ s joy One Sunday, in the house of God, the minister noticed the restlessness and anxiety of a little girl during the morning service. After the service, he addressed the teacher thus:--“ You have had a very unquiet class to-day, and one of the children I observed was particularly restless; why did you not keep her quiet?” “ Oh, sir, you mean Sarah She has for these three months past set her heart upon bringing her father here, and this morning he had promised to come, and she was so anxious to see if she could find him among the congregation, until at length she came to me, and throwing her arms round my neck, sobbed out, “ Oh, teacher, teacher, there’ s my father!” How often I have had my hand grasped by loving persons who have said, “ I wanted to tell you that you led me to the Saviour!” They wanted to say it to me; and often have they written to me, and cheered my heart, because they felt a personal gratitude which wanted a personal expression. A poor woman once forced me with tears to receive a small sum of money for myself. I declined it till I saw that it would hurt her feelings, for she had evidently longed for this opportunity for expressing her thankfulness for the sermons she had read. If we feel thus towards an earthly friend, how much more shall we feel it towards Him who has saved us by His blood! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The harvest and the labourers (in conjunction with Matthew 9:37-38):--On the occasion mentioned by Matthew there were fields of ripe cornwithin sight (Luke 6:1; Luke 6:12-13). The words reported by St. John were spoken four months earlier when the fields were comparatively bare. The one, therefore, was a similitude, the other a contrast. 1. In Samaria, Jesus bade His disciples recognize fields white to harvest. The people were ready to bear if only the gospel were delivered unto them. 2. But there was a risk of letting the favourable opportunity slip for want of preachers. What can be more vexatious to a farmer than to see his crop spoil for lack of hands? So grievous was it to Christ to see the leaders of the ration indifferent or hostile to His heavenly message. 3. The fields of opportunity are constantly widening, but the difficulty is to get an adequate supply of labourers. (1) Home fields are scrambled over, and while there are too many labourers in some corners, others are neglected. (2) In foreign fields labourers are too far apart, and their strength overtaxed. 4. It is easy enough to multiply ecclesiastics, but workmen who need not to be ashamed have always been too few.. And field work needs labouring men. Time is precious, and reapers must not spare themselves. 5. Labourers are all the better for a training. In every kind of activity training tells. Much more so here, as shown by Christ’ s careful training of the twelve. 6. But the first requisite is that the labourers be sent by the Lord of the harvest. 7. The Church must pray for such labourers. (1) Christ so prayed. (2) Now that Christ has ascended, and is Lord of the Church, we must pray for His gift of labourers (Ephesians 4:11). 8. Why should we thus pray? The fields are His. He knows the value of the opportunity and the need of labourers; surely He will provide them of His own accord. But prayer is not enjoined to tell Christ what He does not know, or to persuade Him to do what He would otherwise neglect, but to bring His followers into harmony with His will. (D. Fraser, D. D.) The great harvest or, Christian enterprise (in conjunction with Matthew 9:36-38; Luke 10:2) I. THE MOTIVE OF ALL . “ He was moved with compassion.” 1. Christian enterprise should be irrespective of class, creed, or character. “ The multitudes” were a mixed assembly, a fair picture of the world. Friends and foes. Christ confined His benevolence to none. Christians should do good to all. 2. Christian enterprise should have special reference to the spiritual state of man. “ Sheep without shepherd.” Our Lord did not overlook temporal and intellectual needs, but made them subservient to the spiritual. 3. Christian enterprise should be the result of feeling, deep and genuine. II. THE CLAIM OF ALL UPON ALL MEN (Luke 10:2). 1. The state of the harvest (1) There is sufficient scope for all Christian labour. No one can complain of lack of material. Work when and wherever you can. (2) There is a sufficient motive. The harvest is great. (a) In point of difficulty. The conversion of one soul is a work of no ordinary magnitude; how much greater that of a world! The difficulty arises from human depravity. (b) In consequence of its responsibilities. To control the parliament of a mighty nation far less responsible than changing the eternal destiny of myriads. (c) In the glory connected with its final triumph. (3) There is sufficient maturity. “ White unto harvest.” God’ s time is the present. History is what men, under God, make it. Mere time will never bring a millennium. That will result from work, not waiting. 2. The paucity of the workmen. “ Labourers are few” (1) In comparison with the work to be done. (2) In comparison with the idle. In every church a few do all the work. III. THE SPECIAL WHICH SHOULD BE EVER BY ALL IN ON EVERY . “ Pray ye therefore,” etc. There is here a recognition 1. Of the divinity of our work. 2. Of the necessity of human agents. 3. Of the importance of prayer. 4. Of final triumph. “ Gathered fruit unto life eternal.” (Evan Lewis, B. A.) On reaping I. WHEN DOES THE REAPING COME (John 4:35)? 1. The law of nature is that there should be delay between the sowing and the reaping. It is not always so in grace. It was not so at Pentecost, nor with Philip and the eunuch, with Peter and Cornelius. Both sometimes coincide (1) To convince us that the power is of God, not of man. (2) To encourage us to be instant in season and out of season. But commonly there is delay. This should not discourage. God knows best. II. WHAT DOES THE REAPING BRING? 1. Reward (John 4:36). Wages--the work itself. To be workers with God is a great reward. But fruit is also gathered. No Christian labours in vain. Sow the seed and expect the harvest. 2. Joy and mutual rejoicing. (R. V. Pryce, LL. B.) The soul harvest The garments worn in those days were white, and as Christ and His disciples were seated on a slight elevation, they could observe the coming of the crowds of people thus arrayed. There are times, seasons, for the natural world, but all seasons are harvest time in the moral world. Why, you ask, has Christianity been so long conquering the world? Will it speedily triumph? I answer, God is working in His wisdom and power most earnestly. He has done everything on His part; the delay is caused by our neglect. The harvest is ready; God is ready; the Church is not ready. Let us look at some of the evidence for the world’ s ripeness. I. THE NATIONS HAVE PIERCED TO ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD. A century ago how much of the world was unknown, what an impulse has seized the heart of men to find out every foot of land! The destruction of one expedition gives no discouragement; others are pushed forward. Why this impulse? That we may send the gospel everywhere. Observe how geography is being taught in the schools. How different was it when we were children! Providence is thus acquainting the rising generation with the condition of the different nations. II. THE FOR ACCESS TO ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD. Wherever commerce can go the Bible and missionary can go. III. THE CHURCH IS NOW ABLE TO GAIN FROM ALMOST EVERY REGION HOURLY. If a missionary is in danger or needs assistance, help can be sent to him on the wings of lightning. IV. ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD ARE BEING BROUGHT INTO . The realization of unity amongst nations is marvellously helping the Church. V. THE BIBLE HAS BEEN INTO ALL THE . The foundation of Christian work in Mexico was laid during the European invasion by the soldiers dropping fragments of Bibles which were picked up by the natives. VI. THE SAFETY OF THE IS SECURED. God has given power over the earth into the hands of the great Protestant nations. The Cross is above the flag. The greatest earthly power to day is the Cross of Jesus Christ. VII. THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD IS IN THE HANDS OF THE NATIONS THAT ARE THE GOSPEL--England, Germany, America. (Bp. M. Simpson.) Autumn: a season for national instruction Autumn, or the “ feast of harvest,” is not only a season for national gratitude, rejoicing, philanthropy, but also instruction. Look at the fields and mark I. The principle of the Divine government. What you see ripened was a few months ago buried and apparently dead, but the dormant germ has been quickened by God. This principle is seen at work 1. In the mind of mankind, calling up buried thoughts and impressions. 2. In the conversion of souls, quickening the conscience, and imparting spiritual vitality. 3. On a grand scale in the general resurrection. II. The principle in the Divine government. Nature gives back what she has received 1. In kind. Wheat for wheat. 2. In amount. The more she receives the more she gives. “ Be not deceived,” etc. III. The principle in the Divine government. For one grain many are returned--some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. So in morals. One thought may run into thousands, one noble deed may become the parent of millions. Nothing true is lost; everything true is multiplied. IV. The principle: the Divine government. Through slow stages of growth. The blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear. Character ripens. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Lift up your eyes, and lookI. THE . In calling the disciples’ attention to the Samaritans who were ready to believe without the help of miracle, our Lord is calling upon them to take a larger, higher, and more spiritual view of things; to labour for that which is more enduring than the grass, the bread without which man cannot live. He is looking down upon us. 1. What does He see? He sees us eager, busy, absorbed, not in things unlawful, but in things below the supreme worth. Harvests, markets, eating, drinking. (1) The poor struggling for a maintenance. (2) The middle class striving for wealth, comfort, culture. (3) The rich absorbed in society and ambitious projects. (4) The student. (5) The philanthropist. 2. These are not to be condemned, but are commendable in their way. But the wrong lies in the fact that we are buried in these things. 3. Christ summons us to rise above these things to His own standpoint. II. THE VISIONS. 1. Of the world’ s great spiritual need. There was something in these Samaritans not so obvious as pain, or physical hunger, and that did not seem to be of such importance as the growing corn, or the meat the disciples had brought. Look at the people around you, not with the superficial eye, but with the eye of faith, and you will see in them the children of God, wanting God. This want is not to be satisfied by better houses, sufficient bread, present comfort. There is need in man’ s heart for a peace, a joy, a liberty, a life, not otherwise to be obtained but by fellowship with the Father. 2. Of the Son of man who can supply this need? This was His revelation to the woman. Every page of the Gospels shows that Christ was not indifferent to man’ s physical woes. But it was for their spiritual wants that He cared most. And to become food for this He died, as a grain of wheat sinks into the ground to die, in order to bring man back to God, and become the food of the world. 3. OF the future. (1) The remote future. That which is near is apt to hide that which is at a great distance, and so that which is near in time is apt to hide that which is of infinite importance in the far future. To-morrow with its cares and engagements is big enough to hide from us the eternal. How are we to qualify ourselves for looking on the Lamb slain for us? Only by doing His work and carrying His burden. (2) The near future, Max Muller tells us that “ there are no people more ripe for Christianity than the Hindoos,” and the same holds good all over the world. But we can only see it with the eye of faith and the spirit of sacrifice. (H. Arnold Thomas, M. A.) White already. Our Lord teaches the ripeness of the world for the highest blessing. 1. Men everywhere have a certain religiousness of nature: religious ideas, capacities, instincts, aspirations; in some instances starved, degraded, dulled, but still there--the sense of infinity, dependence, duty, accountability, futurity. So far, then, they are ready for the gospel--able to comprehend its works, to receive its grace, to realize its blessings. 2. Not only so, but there is in all men a felt need for the truth, grace, hope of the gospel. They are feeling after God. Not equally vivid, understood and expressed, are their longings, but they are everywhere existent. 3. But whilst we believe all this we do not believe in the immediate readiness of mankind. We feel that much must be done first There must be a sowing and ripening before the reaping. It is this spirit of doubtfulness and postponement that our Lord rebukes. “ The sowing and ripening has taken place; put in your sickles.” Let us observe the cases in which our Lord’ s rebuke applies. I. Take the conversion of the YOUNG. 1. You do not expect this. The children must wait. “ First the blade,” etc. So we instruct, encourage, discipline them, but should be much surprised by anything like a religious experience, and should look upon it as on premature bloomings and blossomings in garden and orchard. But what is that doctrine of yours of prevenient grace? That God gives a secret light, light, strength, bias to the soul, and as soon as we awake to consciousness we find within us the sense of law and grace. 2. Have we not been astonished at the spiritual capacity of children? They cannot ungerstand theology, but they can religion. They cannot understand entomology, botany, optics, but they admire a butterfly, love the flowers, leap with joy at the rainbow. Go to them at once with a spiritual appeal and expect the effect. Don’ t talk about their wanting experience. If a chrysalis be placed in an ice-house, its development may be retarded for years, but take it into a hothouse, and it flutters a thing of beauty in a few days. So with our children. II. Take the conversion of the MASSES. (1) Such as are ignorant. What do they want? Education, say many. But on trial it comes out that they discover a spiritual faculty most acute. It was on this ground that the Royal Reaper gathered many noble sheaves. So it was when Wycliffe appealed to the serfs of Leicestershire, Luther to the peasantry of Germany, Wesley to the colliers of Kingswood. Without knowing arithmetic they feel the worth of the soul; without skill in languages they know the voice of God; without aesthetics they admire the beauty of holiness. (2) Such as are worldly. They appear immersed in the material, but under that thick clay the Spirit of God is at work. There seems no life in a garden in early spring; but under the surface the seeds are swelling, the roots full of ferment. All that is wanted is rain and sunshine. (3) Such as are vicious. What do these want? Reformation, say the wise of this world. No; with crimson sins they are white unto harvest. How readily Christ found the missing chord in publican and harlot! In this very Samaritan Christ wished His Church to learn that the guiltiest are able to apprehend the sublimest truths, truths which convict and save. III. Take the conversion of the , What do they want? Argumentation, say many. No; men cannot get rid of their religion so easily as some think. The atheist has eyes to see this wondrous universe, spiritual longings, thoughts, arguments within himself not to he.suppressed, and is compelled to doubt his doubts. Go to him, and speak not so much to the sceptic as to the man. IV. Take the conversion of the SAVAGE. portion of our race. What do they want? Civilization--nature never leaps. Indeed! Is there not a leap from the caterpillar through the pupa lute the butterfly? “ No,” says the man of science, “ it only seems a leap.” Very good; we won’ t argue. There is the penitent thief; it was not a real leap--the Spirit of God had worked the intermediate stages in silence and darkness--it only seemed a leap. Fiji, fifty years ago, was cannibal, to-day it is Christian. God is in all other dark places. “ The isles wait for His law.” V. The conversion of THE WORLD AT LARGE. This seems a long way off to the carnal eye. But it is only waiting. The sowing is done. 1. Christ is the Sower. He moves with His Spirit among the million. 2. His ripening forces have long been at work (John 1:4; John 1:9). The Light of the World acts when He does not manifestly shine. Go and expect fruit. You are not waiting for God; He is waiting for you. (W. L. Walkinson.) The grain ripe I. THE SICKLES. 1. Preaching the gospel. The sickle may have a handle of rosewood, and be adorned with precious stones, but it is worth nothing if it does not bring down the grain. We might preach the sciences from our pulpits, but Agassiz would beat us at that. We might philosophize, but Emerson would beat us at that. But he who with faith and prayer takes hold of the gospel sickle, however weak his natural arm, shall gather deep swarths of golden grain. 2. Singing the gospel. This scythe has been long neglected, much abused, but has been sharpened anew. 3. Prayer. By this John Knox reaped Scotland. II. THE REAPERS. 1. Tract distributors. 2. Sunday-school teachers, ministers. III. THOSE READY TO BE REAPED. 1. Those who feel too bad to be saved. You are ripe because you feel that. Christ came to save the worst. 2. The religiously educated. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Harvest I. THE principle of the Divine government is at work 1. In the inorganic realm. Our system is travelling to a crisis. 2. In the vegetable realm. The oak moves from century to century from an acorn to a point when its perfection is reached. 3. In the human realm, (1) In the body. From infancy to old age our bodies are ripening for the grave. (2) In the character, which is ripening for bliss or woe. (3) In institutions, which, whether good or evil, reach their culmination. (4) Individuals are ripening. (5) Nations. (6) The world--the harvest is the end of the world. II. The principle in the Divine government. This principle rewards the labourer 1. According to the kind of his work. What was sown is reaped in species and quality. The same holds good in morals. 2. According to the amount. “ He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly.” There are degrees in glory which are regulated according to degrees in goodness. III. The CO- principle. In the harvest-field you have the result of a vast combination of agencies, animate and inanimate, human and Divine. The harvest demonstrates that man is a co-worker with God. Paul plants, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The fields white to harvest I. WE MUST LOOK AT THE ASPECT OF THE FIELDS. 1. That in most places there is evidently a preparation in the minds of both Pagans and Mohammedans for receiving the servants of Christ. 2. What are the peculiar advantages which pious and zealous Christians in Britain enjoy for extending the gospel. 3. But the disposition among the heathen to receive the gospel, and the facilities which we possess for diffusing it, would be insufficient, unless the activity of the spiritual Church were awake to improve the occasion. II. HELD OUT TO THE REAPERS. 1. The important good, which the Christian missionary effects, is, that he gathers fruit to life eternal. 2. The abundant reward which awaits him, when the toil is finished, “ Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” (1) This common joy began when the holy apostles, having finished their labours, were taken to receive their reward. (2) This joy has been increasing, as the several sowers and reapers, in different ages of the New Testament Church, have been taken to their eternal rest. (3) It will be completed when all the Church shall meet before the throne; when the mystery of Christ shall be finished; when God shall have accomplished the number of His elect, and have hastened His kingdom. (Bp. Daniel Wilson.) Fields white for harvest Many Christians have a large stock of reasons for not expecting many conversions. They are for ever dwelling on the past or in the future, but never look for God’ s arm being made bare now. The common reason is, “ There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. This is not the time or the man; we must wait” ; and in the meantime death doth not cease to slay, and multitudes are perishing for lack of knowledge. Patience is a virtue, but sometimes decision is a greater one. Four months!--have there not been many months? That was the cry in the days of ourforefathers, in the days of our fathers, and it is four months still. Oh, to learn the Saviour’ s words, “ The fields are white already” ! Expect a present blessing. I. SIGNS OF HARVEST. 1. The Saviour had preached a sermon, and the whole of His congregation had been converted. He had only one hearer, it is true. But the conversion of one soul is a sign that God is going to convert others. The cholera is raging. A physician has been studying the disease. Many methods have failed. At last he hits upon the drug which cures one. “ Now,” he says, “ I shall have a harvest of men, for what cures one will cure all.” When Napoleon landed from Elba one man offered to serve the emperor. “ Here,” said Napoleon, “ is one recruit at least.” If some have found the Saviour, why not more? 2. This one was at that moment engaged in making more. It was Christ’ s strategy to bless the men of Samaria through this woman. When this country was asleep half a dozen young men at Oxford felt the inspiration of God, and soon the same inspiration was felt from one end of the country to the other. There is not a plant that grows by the hedge side that does not scatter all adown the bank seeds of succeeding generations. 3. The others were coming to hear. When the fish get round the net surely some will be taken. 4. The persons who were coming to hear were those who seemed least likely to listen. When the giddy multitude crowd together to listen to the gospel it is a good sign of the coming harvest. 5. Recollect the men who have laboured before us. Has all this labour been for nothing? The days that are past have been preparing the population of England. 6. It is a sign of good when there is a stir among the people. The worst thing is stagnation. When people are not thoughtful about other things it is seldom you can get them to be thoughtful about religion. A farm overgrown with thistles is better than a barren one. 7. Old priestcrafts do not now hinder men from hearing the gospel. We can get at the people. If Luther, Bunyan, Baxter, and Alleine could have lived now, how they would have rejoiced! II. HARVEST WANTS. 1. Many labourers. There is no machine that can do this work of soul-reaping. 2. Sharp sickles; such cutting truths as justification by faith, the total ruin of mankind, the Cross, the energy of the Holy Ghost. 3. Close binders. Those who cannot use the sickle can gather up the wheat. Invite people to the house of God. 4. Some to take the sheaves home, and assist to bring people into the Church. 5. Others to bring refreshment to the reapers. Encourage them. III. THE FEARS OF HARVEST. The husbandman sometimes fears that 1. Through lack of labourers his harvest may be damaged. After a certain time the wheat spears out, and birds will feast upon it. Every hour that men are not saved there are capacities of usefulness that are falling out, and Satan is running away with them. 2. Some wheat may remain unreaped, and so be destroyed. If the Christian does not work, there are others who will. 3. Whether we gather in the harvest or not, there is a reaper who is silently gathering it every hour--Death. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Fields white already unto harvest I. THE BETWEEN NATURAL AND . 1. The first coming of Christ was the seedtime, and His second will be the harvest. From the seed which was then dropped will spring ripened fruit. 2. Generally the seed is the Word, and the sowers are the ministers of the gospel. 3. In all cases sowing is a means to an end. No man ever cast seed into the ground for the sake of the sowing. Even when we have preached well our end is not attained. 4. The only aim that will animate a ministry is to save souls from death. 5. When anxious inquirers come and close with Christ the joy is the joy of harvest. II. THE . Whereas in nature an uniform period intervenes between sowing and reaping, in grace the fruits may be gathered at any season or length of time--longer or shorter. 1. Do not wait four months, for the harvest may come at an earlier period. The seed sown to-day may be ripe to-night, as at Jacob’ s well and on the day of Pentecost. Ministers, therefore, should look for immediate results. 2. Do not despond although four months, four or forty years, should pass. If the cultivator of grain does not see his harvest whitening in four months, he abandons hope. Not so the Christian seed-sower. To know that some of the seed ripens early keeps his hopes active from the first; and to know that some of it ripens late prevents his hopes from sinking even to the last. (W. Arnot, D. D.) One soweth, and another reapethThe reaper and the wages A double reward is promised the garnerer of souls. It is a reward which flows back to the garnerers, and it is a reward which flows out to the souls garnered. 1. He that reapeth receiveth wages; something comes to him. (1) He has the wage of being linked into the highest fellowship. (2) He makes the best possible investment of his toil. (3) He has the wage of the supremest joy. (4) He has the wage of richer reward in heaven. 2. The garnerer of souls has wage also toward others; He gathereth fruit until life eternal. 3. Consider the place where the reaper is to reap. “ Lift up your eyes and look” --you need not travel far to find a place for reaping your own local church, your own special Sunday-schools, your own neighbourhood--put in at once your sickle there. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Sowing and reaping In Palestine neither all the sowing nor all the reaping of the fields is done at one and the same season. As soon as one crop is out of the ground another is prepared for. Ploughing and sowing follow close upon reaping and gleaning. Different crops require different lengths of time for their maturing; and, as a consequence, the planting for one crop will sometimes be going on while another crop near it is not yet ready for the harvest. As soon as the fields are cleared, in the midsummer or in the early autumn, the ground is ploughed, and the winter wheat or some other grain is sowed, in advance of the rainy season. Again, between the early and the latter rains of the springtime, there will be ploughing, and the sowing of barley or oats or lentils for a later crop. In the second week in April I saw on the Plain of the Cornfields, not far from Jacob’ s well, the grain already well ripened toward the harvest, while just southward of that region, and again, two days later, just northward of it, I saw ploughing and planting going on; so that I might have been in doubt, from my own observations, whether that were the time of seed-sowing or of harvest; and so it is likely to have been in the days of Jesus. Whether this were the springtime or the early winter, whether it were at noonday or at eventide, are points which have been much discussed in connection with the gospel narration of the visit of Jesus. It would seem most natural, from the story as it stands, to suppose that the season was the springtime, and that the hour was noonday; but, however that may be, it is obvious that there were within the eye-sweep of Jesus and His disciples the signs of seed-sowing on the one hand and of ripening harvest on the other; and that it was by calling attention to these two processes of nature in so close proximity of time and space that Jesus taught the lesson His disciples were shown that even while seed-sowing for one crop was going on in the natural world there might be also a making ready for an ingathering of former crops; so that sowing and reaping should go on together. Then came our Lord’ s application of this fact in nature’ s sphere. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Sowing and reaping The proverb, “ One soweth, and another reapeth,” as generally used, suggests that the rewards of labour often fall into hands that have not earned them. The profits of an invention are frequently made by others than the inventor. In diplomacy, as Leicester says, “ The hap of some is that all they do is nothing, and ethers that do nothing have all the thanks.” Job could wish himself nothing worse than “ Let me sow, and let another eat.” But Christ widens our view; He corrects the selfishness of the individual by fixing his thoughts on humanity, and brings the rewards of eternity to counterbalance the apparent anomalies of time. Consider I. OUR TO THE PAST. Every man is born into an inheritance which he had no hand in earning. This distinguishes him from the brute. Instinct makes no progress. Through long millenniums the earth was preparing for man. One species of vegetation after another came and left its deposit. One kind of animals after another left their bones to petrify. Thus stratum after stratum arose. 1. Thus the child of to-day is richer than our own childhood. Take the matter of schoolbooks. The discoveries of one age are confined to the few; in the next they are the creed of the learned; in the third they become the elementary principles of education. What strides have been made in science since Galileo, Newton, and Watt! No child can begin where his father began. 2. The same holds good in religious matters. (1) The Church is richer to-day than she was a hundred years ago by the whole missionary enterprise, by which she has added a new volume to Christian evidences, acquired new property in noble lives, raised the standard of home piety and augmented her joy. (2) The same is true in hymnology and (3) in Christian literature. All this has come about largely without our own exertions. No man is self-made: he is what he is because of others’ labours. II. OUR DUTY TO THE PRESENT. Not to rest in our inherited advantages, but to so add to them as to leave a richer inheritance. The danger of the youth to whom a large fortune has been left 1. In the direction of indolence or prodigality. It is a common remark that the children of wealthy men often come to grief. 2. In the direction of conservatism. The young heir is apt to think that he must be simply a repetition of his father. The same perils attend us in receiving the heritage of the past. We must, therefore, set ourselves to such work as is in harmony with our generation. 1. In science Franklin went a certain length in the investigation of electricity; but his successors did not rest there. Hence we have through Henry, Morse, Wheatstone, Bell, and Edison, the telephone. 2. The literature of the present is not a reproduction of the past, but an outgrowth. 3. The theology and Church life of to-day are distinctive of to-day. Each age has to meet its own problems, and without drifting from central truths must solve them in its own way. Thus it happens that the leaders of a former generation fail to secure a hearing in the next. III. OUR JOY IN THE FUTURE. Jesus takes in eternity and gives all workers alike a share in the reward--the reaper for his reaping, the sower for his ploughing. Conclusion: 1. How much there is in this to cheer the desponding labourer. Livingstone seemingly accomplished little in missioning Africa, but he stimulated others to evangelize. Though a man bring only one soul to Christ, he has an interest in all the successes of that soul. 2. This truth is well calculated to keep us humble. The credit is due to God. He gives the increase. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) One soweth, and another reapeth I. HOW THIS PROVERB WAS IN THE CASE OF THE . The general view is that they went into a moral wilderness, and that planting and sowing were simultaneous. This was not the case. 1. As regards the Jews, the prophets, etc., John and our Lord had sown the seed. The harvest at Pentecost was the result of centuries of seed-sowing, and in preaching Peter was merely putting in the sickle. 2. As regards the heathen the seed had been sown (1) By the teaching of nature and conscience. (2) By priests and prophets such as Melchizedek, Jethro, Job, Balaam, by whom the tradition of a purer age had been preserved. (3) By the dissemination of truth through the dispersion of the Jews. 3. Thus the fields were now white unto harvest, and the apostles reaped where others had sown. II. HOW IT MAY BE AMONGST . 1. Sudden conversions produced by preacher or friend are only the outcome, it may be, of a long series of impressions. 2. An apparently unfruitful ministry may be a preparation for a rich harvest under some successor. III. THE THAT BOTH SOWER AND REAPER SHALL REJOICE . It may make a difference to a man as far as his present comfort is concerned whether he be a sower or a reaper, but none as far as his future is concerned. If he has done his work faithfully he shall have his reward. Moses and the prophets and the Gentile teachers will rejoice with apostles and Christian missionaries; apparently unsuccessful parents and missionaries with those who have spoken effectively. Lesson: Be not weary in well-doing--parents, teachers, preachers--you may see no fruit, but you are sowing good seed. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Sowing the gospel seed I. THE SOWERS--men, not angels. 1. This seems strange when we consider the grandeur and breadth of the gospel Who is equal to summarizing the truths of the gospel, much less to expounding them? 2. Yet men have ever been entrusted with the gospel--Adam, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek. On a human body was placed the priestly robe, and he who entered the Holy of Holies was a man. When another order of teachers arose neither Gabriel nor Michael were summoned, but Samuel, Elijah, and Isaiah. And when Christ came He entrusted the gospel not to the heavenly host, but to Galilean fishermen. 3. There is a fitness, however, in this. The fields are those of earth, the harvest is of men, therefore the sowers and reapers must be not angelic, but human. Knowing their weakness and fallibility, ministers may well shrink; but if they forsake the plough angels will not direct it along the furrow. And with all their fallibility they being men can weep with men’ s sorrows and partake of their joys, which angels cannot. The appeal of an angel would be more powerful, that of man more pathetic. No angel could speak of human sympathies and call to remembrance the pathos of a mother’ s prayers. II. THE OF THEIR WORK. 1. The seed--the Word of God. 2. The field. (1) The apathetic. (2) The infidel. (3) The depraved. 3. The personal feebleness of the instruments. II. THE OF THEIR REWARD. 1. God-given help to do what they have to do. 2. The sympathy of those who are benefited by their labours. 3. The present benediction of the great Master. 4. Eternity of blessedness in heaven. (R. B. East, M. D.) Spiritual harvest I. THE OF SINNERS IS THE WILL OF GOD AND THE DELIGHT OF HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. This is manifest from 1. The provision He has made for effecting it. 2. The place it has borne in the eternal counsels. 3. The preparation of infinite wisdom and almighty power in overruling the affairs of the world. 4. The succession of great men inspired to fore-announce it. 5. The manner in which it was carried into execution by the incarnation and cross of Christ. II. THOUGH THE GOSPEL IS AT ALL TIMES FOR , CERTAIN PERIODS ARE TO IT. 1. Always necessary because (1) It is the means appointed by Christ. (2) Because of its proved fitness. (3) Because God is to have all the glory. 2. Sometimes specially seasonable. (1) As here. The providence of God had over-ruled the envy of the Jews to the driving of the Saviour into Galilee and His going to Galilee to lead Him through Samaria; when He meets with the woman, who, saved herself, summons her fellow citizens to Christ. (2) As in the case of modern missions. What doors have been opened by the abolition of slavery, the progress of commerce, etc. III. WHEN SUCH A PERIOD ARRIVES ARE CALLED UPON TO EMBRACE IT AS A HARVEST TIME. Such a seasonal. Must be immediately embraced. Its duties cannot be put off to a more convenient season. It is now or never. Men are crying for the words of life. If we refuse, the curse of Meter will be ours. 2. Must be diligently pursued: from various considerations. (1) The shortness of the season. (2) The precariousness of the weather. (3) The ripeness of the crops. Idleness, amusements, in harvest time! 3. Should be joyfully performed. Harvesting is hard work, but there is much pleasure in it, and it is generally performed with cheerfulness. IV. BOTH SUCCESS AND REWARD WILL CROWN THE . 1. One of the greatest stimulants to labour is the probability of success, but here success is certain. 2. The almighty influence of the Holy Spirit is behind it. 3. It is assured by the pledged word of the Lord of the harvest. (J. Gwyther, B. A.) The harvest of heathen souls I. THE OF EFFORT IMPLIED. 1. This principle combines two apparent opposites: it necessitates the agency of man and preserves the supremacy of God. By the one it precludes man from yielding to the bent of his natural indolence and attaining nothing; by the other it annihilates the unseemly arrogance which would vaunt the arm of flesh as though it could accomplish everything. 2. It furnishes a reply to scepticism which asks, “ Why, if God be a perfect agent, does He need man; and why, if man be an imperfect agent, does God employ him?” Lift up your eyes! Though the husbandman has to sow, on God depends the fruitful seasons. Man works for God, God works by man. It is for us to employ, it is for Him to bless the means. II. THE DUTY . In the natural world we do not expect a harvest without labour, nor without God’ s blessing. So Paul must plant and Apollos water, but God giveth the increase. Duty is irrespective of results. III. THE BENEFIT TO BE Labourers do not depend for their hire on the upspringing of the seed, nor for its quantity or quality. Under all circumstances he is worthy of his hire. But in spiritual husbandry He who employs the sowers can also command the elemental influences. He who engages the reapers can ensure the crop, He therefore who sows not only receives present wages, but “ gathereth fruit,” etc. (T. Dale, M. A.) I. THE DUTY OF ALL WHO POSSESS THE SEED TO SOW IT. Missions 1. Our obligation to sow must be in proportion to our estimate of the value of the seed. 2. This obligation affects the Church collectively and individually. (1) It is the execution of a trust with which all Christians are put in charge. (2) It is the acceptance of a benefit to which all are permitted to aspire. 3. It is the accredited indispensable token of union with Christ and of membership in His Church. II. THE THAT THEY WHO SOW SHALL REAP. 1. “ The liberal soul shall be enriched.” “ He that watereth others shall himself be watered.” The exercise of grace under one aspect leads to the communication of grace under another. 2. The preciousness of the future reward may be gathered from the excellence of the present. 3. Both are sure. They may be long delayed, but the seed shall spring fresh and vigorous even as Jesus rose triumphant from the grave. III. OVER WHAT FIELD THE SEED IS TO BE . “ The field is the world.” 1. In its widest extent. 2. In its varieties of guilt. 3. In its diversities of promise and prospect. IV. WHAT HARVEST WE MAY HOPE TO SOW FOR OTHERS, AND WHAT WE MAY ON REAPING FOR . 1. Remember the promise. 2. Remember its fulfilment. (1) In England under previous missions. (2) Abroad under existing missions. V. THE MANNER IN WHICH WE CAN PERFORM THE DUTY AND ENSURE THE BENEFIT. Let each do what he can, where he can. 1. Prayerfully. 2. Earnestly. 3. Patiently. 4. Believingly. (T. Dale, M. A.) The passion for immediate results Men read what the Missionary Herald tells them of the progress of the gospel among the heathen; and there are those that take out their pencils and say: “ The whole missionary world numbers so many millions, and there have been about so many hundred people converted by the influence of this amount of capital. That is about tea thousand dollars for one soul. It is rather dear work, ain’ t it?” There are such moral arithmeticians that sum up the fruit of moral seed-sowing under arithmetical proportions. But the whole world has been stirred up by the mission cause. I am what I am because Henry Obookiah, from the Sandwich Islands, was taught at the Cornwall School in Connecticut, and in my boyhood came down to my father’ s house, and produced an impression on me which has undulated, and propagated, and gone on influencing me. Some of the enthusiasm which I have felt for moral conditions came to me from seeing him. Who can tell what the retroaction of foreign missions is? Who can tell what benefit may be received here from our Western missions? Who can tell what is the effect of sending our abundance to the waste places of our own land, and to the torrid and frigid zones? It stirs up that which is not reportable. Ten thousand more leaves are born every year than the botanist ever sees. Ten thousand times more storms blow on every sea than are ever registered on charts or log-books. (H. Ward Beecher.) Reaping Once a vessel bound to a distant part of the world happened to be detained by contrary winds at the Isle of Wight. A minister who was on board went on shore to preach. His text was “ Be clothed with humility.” Among his hearers was a thoughtless girl, who had come to display her finery rather than to be instructed. The sermon was the means of her conversion. Her name was Elizabeth Wallbridge, the celebrated “ Dairyman’ s Daughter,” whose interesting history by Legh Richmond has been the means amongst nearly all peoples of bringing thousands to Christ. (Family Churchman.) Receiving wages What wages? Christ had already told them that His own wages were to do the will of God, and to finish His work. Did they want better? They would gather in fruit--the fruit of all His work and travail, of all God’ s revelations of Himself from age to age, of all the toil of patriarchs, kings, prophets. These had laboured--they were entering into their labours. They were come in at the end of a period when all things were hastening to their consummation. They would have the reward which all these men had longed for; the reward of seeing God’ s full revelation of Himself, of opening the spring of eternal life, of which all might drink together. The divisions of time had nothing to do with an eternal blessing. The sower and reaper would rejoice together. Why might not Jacob, who had given the well, and the newest Samaritan convert who drank of it, share in those pleasures which are at the right hand of Him who is, and was, and is to come? (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Large results from humble beginnings A small bit of rock feels something or other tickling it behind; and through a seam, at last, there trickle out some drops of water, as if the rock itself were shedding tears; and the drops increase; and a rill is formed; and it runs quietly, finding its way, down the declivity. Soon another little rill is met on the road, and they join forces; and a little further down a third is added; and then a fourth, and then a fifth, and so on, till by-and-by they make a plunge through the gorge with spray and thunder; and out comes below the stream, voluble and violent; and down in the meadows it quiets itself, and runs between flowery banks, until a mill catches it and makes it work for its way; and passing through industries it still deepens; other streams break into it here and there towards its mouth; and there the city dwells upon, and navies ride upon it; and in its pride of strength and depth and width and accomplishments, it says, “ Who but I?” But that great voluminous river is itself the child of those drops, those trickling rills, those mountain springs. If it had not been for them it would not have existed nor have been nourished. We need not despise, therefore, in any direction, small things. Who can tell what that poor old nurse wrought who cared for the orphan child of her mistress that was gone, crooning songs to the child, telling her fairy stories, and making an empyrean above her? Setting loose in that little child all the germs of poetry, she fashioned its mind; and her humble, unconscious work will never be washed out; nor will the colour be taken from it; it will go on and be part and parcel of the child, if it lives to be fifty or a hundred years old. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 4:41-42 Many more believed, because of His word, and said … This is indeed the Christ.Christianity adapted to man’ s moral constitution The counterpart of this narrative at a missionary station may easily be imagined. The Missionary says, “ Come, learn the missionary doctrine which has made me happy. I know it to be Divine.” The natives are induced to listen. As they grow familiar with evangelical doctrine it gains their heart. Although they cannot estimate the evidence, they believe because they have tasted and handled of the word of God. I. UNLESS THE CAN CONFINE IN THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL HE IS . 1. The heathen can neither appreciate your facts, nor understand your mode of reasoning upon them. To the contemplative Brahmin, or cunning Chinese, your inductive reasoning is as unintelligible as is the subtle arguments of the Plantonic philosopher or the medieval schoolman to you. 2. But if you had crossed that chasm and learned to think as they think you would be destitute of the materials of demonstration. Upon the knowledge they possess to establish the authenticity and transmission of your sacred books appears a hopeless task. 3. And even if you had satisfied them of this the appeal must be made to miracles, and it would fail where they are, as the heathen suppose, so common; and the idea of a miracle authenticating a doctrine would be unintelligible to an Hindoo whose presumption is that the splendour of Deity shines more in good doctrine than in wonderful power. 4. Of the roll of prophecy we cannot read a word to a people whose history is confined to their own legendary tales. 5. As to the internal evidence this requires a more careful examination than you can expect, unless you can present an object of surpassing value which shall prepossess the mind in its favour. 6. The only serviceable instrument, therefore, is the Cross in its saving, all-conquering power. 7. We may be reminded of the virtues of Christians, but we cannot, alas! use that when crime has been perpetrated by professing Christians. II. THE GOSPEL ITSELF IS SO TO THE MORAL OF MAN--APPEARS SO LIKE TRUTH--AS TO A , AND PRODUCE , WHERE IT DOES NOT OFFER . This is extremely probable on noticing the purpose it is intended to accomplish. It is intended for all men; it is an ample provision of mercy for our fallen world. It is intended only for man; angels are above, demons below its reach. But, leaving presumptive evidence, consider a few of the more important doctrines in their relation to the wants of men. 1. The Gospel is proposed as a revelation from God. Against the notion of a revelation there is no prejudice whatever; it is the favourite doctrine of mankind. Men have never been content with so much knowledge of God as may be derived from His works, but have always yearned for some more direct communication of His will. Hence, astrology, dreams, divination, sacred books. As the voice of God was the first he ever heard (in Eden) man still turns towards it a most attentive and listening ear. Revelation was the language of His infancy, and its tones after the lapse of ages and in the far country still come sweet as music to his heart. The prepos-sessions of these millions, therefore, are in your favour; they are anxiously seeking revelations, but alas! like Saul at Endor. And at Endor will you let them die? Say to these wretched devotees prostrate at the altar of “ an unknown God.” --“ Him whom ye ignorantly worship, declare we unto you.” 2. By the Gospel “ life and immortality are brought to light.” There is no doctrine that the mind of man is so ready to receive. The search after God is a germ of it which only requires to be sanctified in order to its development. Virtue by its hope, and guilt by its terrors, attest it. Love of posthumous fame and the longing for immortality are its harbingers. Preach, then, this favourite doctrine, and as you tell the sinner he is immortal, you may hear a full, quick response from his heart. 3. If the doctrine of immortality flatter the complacency of man, the doctrine of his inherent corruption mortifies his pride, and unless the heart be girt closely round with self-righteousness, this doctrine is yet armed with the mighty power of conviction. Under the ministry of Jesus, publicans and sinners, rather than Pharisees, pressed into the kingdom. So now, the appeal to the moral law will suffice; it requires no demonstration. The inevitable consequence is the conviction of sin. Then, go speak with a friendly voice of sin, and they will understand every word; of pardon, and their voice will brighten at the prospect; as Jesus when He said, “ Come unto Me all ye that labour,” etc. 4. Closely connected with this doctrine is that of the general judgment. It corresponds with many presentiments of the sinner’ s heart. Unless the religious feeling be extirpated, in every man’ s bosom is a tribunal before which his thoughts and actions are arranged, and acquitted or condemned. What is this but a premonition of the final assize! These presentiments may not induce the sinner to accept the Christian doctrine, but they will ensure attention, prepare the mind, and the probability, or possibility of judgment may be quite as effective as the certainty. 5. We must now pass on to the doctrine of salvation by Christ. Man is disturbed and perplexed by sin and is afraid to approach a Holy God. Hence, in order to avert His displeasure, man has indulged in sacrifice. The stern maxim is deeply inscribed in the heart of man as expounded by his history, “ without the shedding of blood,” etc. To such your missionaries preach “ Christ crucified.” They address hearers prepossessed in favour of the doctrine of propitiation. To the guilty conscience there is in “ Behold the Lamb of God” something more cheering and consolating than all the sanguinary rites of heathenism. Man’ s own religion makes exorbitant demands; yours offers an abundant supply; his god demands a sacrifice; yours presents one. Conclusion: Such, then, is Christianity; it rises in solitary grandeur above all the religions of the earth. It has no affinity with any local association or national peculiarity, but is equally adapted to man, civilized or savage, in the pole or the tropics. It speaks a language which all can understand, in tones which all must feel. 1. Confide in its powers. It cannot fail. It carries with it the Spirit of the living God. 2. Argue from its past achievement its future and final triumphs. (R. Halley, D. D.) Three more saved A few days after the wreck of the ill-fated steamer. Central America, which sent hundreds to a watery grave, and plunged the American nation in grief, a pilot-boat was seen, on a fair breezy morning, standing up the bay of New York. The very appearance of the vessel gave token that she was freighted with tidings of no common interest. With every sail set, and streamers flying, she leaped along the waters as if buoyant with some great joy, while the glad winds that swelled her canvas, and the sparkling waves that kissed her sides and urged her on her way, seemed to laugh with conscious delight As she drew nearer, an unusual excitement was visible on her deck, and her captain, running out to the extreme point of the bowsprit, and swing: ing his cap, appeared to be shouting something with intense earnestness and animation. At first the distance prevented his being distinctly understood. But soon, as the vessel came farther into the harbour, the words, “ Three more saved! Three more saved!” reached the nearest listeners. They were caught up by the clews of the multitudinous ships that lay anchored around, and sailors sprang wildly into the rigging and shouted, “ Three more saved!” They were heard on the wharfs, and the porter threw down his load, and the drayman stopped his noisy cart, and shouted, “ Three more saved! “ The tidings ran along the streets, and the news-boys left off crying the latest intelligence, and shouted, “ Three more saved!” Busy salesmen dropped their goods, bookkeepers their pens, bankers their discounts, tellers their gold, and merchants, hurrying on the stroke of the last hour of grace to pay their notes, paused in their headlong haste, and shouted, “ Three more saved!” (New Cyclopedia of Illustrated Anecdotes.) John 4:42 Now we believe not because of thy saying: we have heard Him ourselvesThe Samaritan’ s confession of faith I. THE PERSONS FROM WHOM IT CAME. Samaritans out of the covenant, with imperfect notions of God and the Spirit of His worship, yet they were so captivated by Christ’ s teachings that they felt He could be no other than the world’ s Saviour. II. THE JUST NOTIONS THEY OF THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. 1. That He was to effect the salvation of the world, not of their race merely. 2. That He was to save by teaching the true religion. “ I know,” said the woman, “ He will tell all things”--i.e., concerning the worship of God, the topic of discussion. 3. Thus they must have placed the salvation itself in such a deliverance as these means were fitted to accomplish, viz., in deliverance from ignorance, hypocrisy, and superstition. 4. They were aware that the time was actually come for this Deliverer’ s appearance: Jesus said, “ The hour cometh and now is.” The woman responded, “ I know that the Messiah (lit.) is now coming.” Learn then (1) How little benefit the external means of grace may prove to those whose minds, like those of the Jews, are occupied with adverse prejudices, so as to be negligent of their own improvement. (2) What a proficiency may be made, by God’ s blessing, on the diligent use of scanty talents. The Samaritans had no light but what came obliquely from the Jews, but they so far improved under their imperfect discipline as to attain views of the promised redemption which the Jews missed in spite of Moses and the Prophets. III. THE WARMTH AND ENERGY OF THEIR . “ We know.” Conclusion 1. Let every one take encouragement and learn the necessary assiduity in self-improvement. 2. Let no sinner despair of salvation. (Bp. Horsley.) The progress of faith I. ITS . Through indirect testimony concerning Christ. In this ease by speaking of the woman; in other cases through the witness born of and to Christ 1. By parents to children. 2. Ministers to congregations. 3. Teachers to scholars. 4. Believers generally to the world. 5. The scriptures to readers. II. ITS . By the direct testimony of Christ Himself. In this case through Christ’ s conversation with the Samaritans; in others, by the word of Christ carried home to the individual heart by the Spirit of Christ. III. ITS . In the attainment of a true knowledge of Christ’ s person and work. As here, learning led to believing, and believing to knowing; so will all in whom the ear and eye of faith are opened, the taking up of Christ’ s word, and through that of Christ Himself, into the heart leads to that higher knowledge of Christ in which consists eternal life John 17:2). Lessons: 1. The value of Christian instruction. 2. The indispensableness of Christ’ s own teaching. 3. The insight of faith. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ the Saviour of the world I. THE STATE OF THE WORLD A SAVIOUR. II. CHRIST BECAME THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. 1. He was Divinely appointed (John 6:27; Isaiah 61:1-3). 2. He voluntarily assumed the office (1 Timothy 1:15). III. THE OF CHRIST AS A SAVIOUR. 1. A willing Saviour. 2. A free Saviour. 3. An all-sufficient Saviour. He can save (1) From the guilt and condemnation of sin (Romans 3:24). (2) From the dominion of sin and its polluting power (Titus 2:12; Titus 3:5). (3) From the tormenting power, and the destructive consequences of sin (Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 3:18). (4) From the wrath of God, and the vengeance of everlasting fire 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 5:9). IV. THE THAT CHRIST WAS THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. “ This is indeed the Christ,” etc. Those who are saved by Christ can give the same testimony, for 1. They have the witness in themselves. They have proved the “ gospel to be the power of God to their salvation.” 2. Believers are well assured that Christ was the Saviour of the world, by regarding the internal evidence of the Scriptures. 3. Christianity has survived all the attempts of its enemies to destroy it. 4. It is proved that Christ was the Saviour by a reference to the pages of history. Application: 1. Let Christians examine and be satisfied with the truth of the gospel. 2. Be thankful for such a Saviour. 3. The rejector of Christ has cause for alarm. (Helps for the Pulpit.) John 4:43-45 And after two days He departed thence, and went into Galilee Moral usefulness I. MAN MAY DO MUCH GOOD WITHIN A SHORT PERIOD. TWO days Jesus spent in Samaria, and what did He accomplish? 1. He broke up religious monotony. 2. Set minds thinking. 3. Won many to His cause. 4. Sowed truth that has yielded glorious harvests in all subsequent ages. Every man can and ought to accomplish great spiritual good in two days--not only by preaching and writing for the press, but by indoctrinating hisfamily with Christly sentiments, and distributing through the neighbourhood the “ Bread of Life.” No man will be able to plead the brevity of life for moral uselessness. II. MAN’ S EFFORTS TO DO GOOD ARE OFTEN BY A STUPID . 1. Christ here states a fact. Of course there are exceptions. Home teachers are not so valued as foreign. 2. There is no good reason for it. The doctrines of a teacher should be independent of his country. 3. There are bad reasons for it. The prejudice springs from jealousy, envy, pride. 4. The prejudice Christ felt was against His usefulness. Prejudices are fetters that enslave the intellect, clouds that obscure the vision, bolts that shut out the truth. III. MAN’ S DESIRE FOR DOING GOOD SHOULD BE THE OF HIS LIFE. Christ leaves Samaria, confronts a powerful prejudice, and enters Galilee. “ What for?” To do good. Such should be the great aim of all men, for two reasons 1. It is the greatest work, enlightening the intellect, liberating the will, purifying the heart, transforming the man into the image of God’ s son. 2. It is a most soul recompensing work. It covers a multitude of sins, wins the sympathies of immortal spirits, and secures the approbation of conscience and God. The fruits of all other fields we leave behind at death, but from this field we shall gather sheaves to all eternity. IV. MAN’ S POWER TO DO GOOD AS HIS PAST GETS (John 4:45, see chap. 2:23). The Galileans had witnessed His wonders in Jerusalem. What they knew of Him disposed them to accept Him. Man’ s power of usefulness is cumulative; the more good he does the more his capacity for usefulness increases. (D. Thomas, D. D.) A prophet hath no honour in his own countryA twice verified proverb I. (John 4:44). 1. Regarded. Christ had an eye to this maxim when He avoided settling in Nazareth; which showed (1) Christ’ s intimate acquaintance with human nature. (2) His ability to read the signs of the times. (3) His wisdom in selecting the most advantageous fields of labour--all of which qualities are essential to the preacher or teacher (1Ch Matthew 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:9). 2. Exemplified (Luke 4:29; Matthew 13:58). So Christ’ s servants find the circles most difficult to impress are those of one’ s household and Luke 6:40; Matthew 10:25). 3. Explained. (1) Envy. His fellow-townsmen were amazed at His superior wisdom and manifest supernatural gifts (Matthew 13:54). (2) Pride. (3) Familiarity. A prophet must be something of a mystery man if he would make his way in the world (John 7:27). Familiarity breeds contempt. II. (Matthew 13:57). 1. Illustrated, as in Judaea (John 2:23; John 4:1) and Samaria (verses 39-41), so now in Galilee, the inhabitants accorded Him a joyous welcome. The judgments of strangers are more to be relied on than those of friends. So with the apostles (Acts 13:46; Acts 15:3; Acts 15:7; Acts 15:12; Acts 18:6). 2. Justified. The behaviour of the Galileans was not an unreasoning enthusiasm. They had witnessed Christ’ s miracles at Jerusalem nine months before (John 2:23), and had apparently then arrived at Nicodemus’ s conclusion (John 3:2). It was, therefore, becoming and right that they should meet Him with acclamation. So already has the Gospel effected such marvels that it has a right to a cordial reception. Lessons: 1. The power of prejudice. 2. The advantage derived by the Gospel from publicity. 3. The ultimate triumph of Christ’ s kingdom. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 4:46-54 There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum The second miracle at Cana Who shall persuade us that we have not here a true story? I. Notice SOME OF ITS LESS OBVIOUS POINTS. 1. Mark the word “ for” in verse 44. He went into His own country because there was no honour for Him there. 2. Mark the setting of the text. A father pleads for the life of his son. Who would not have thought that the kind Saviour would instantly say, “ I will?” Yet He treats the application as a great error. “ Except ye see.” He disregards the man and treats him as the mouthpiece of a mistaken multitude, whose prevalent fallacy was to make miracles the condition of belief. No ordinary man would have thought of that answer. 3. This apparent rebuff, however, was only a trial of his constancy. “ Like the rest of your nation you set aside Divine holiness, wisdom, and love and fasten on power, You forget how many works of power there are which are not God’ s, and not until you have marked the adjuncts--holiness, wisdom, love--can you pronounce them Divine.” The nobleman responded, “ Come down, ere my child die,” as though he had said, “ I am not thirsting for evidences.” It is the voice of nature, and the God of nature hears it. The trial is ended and the victory is won. II. NOTICE THE OF NATURE AND GRACE IN THE GOSPEL. The Gospel adapts itself to all that is best and beautiful in man’ s heart. 1. It has been found in some hour of mortal peril that persons of no religion will invoke the mercy of that Being who, up to that moment, they had denied. Scepties, no doubt, can account for this in the survival of old prejudices. Christians naturally account for it by supposing that a belief in God is a primary principle in man’ s nature. 2. As in individuals so in families. (1) Fathers who have made shipwreck of faith for themselves want Christ for their children. The immoral man would fence his child from vice; the sceptic refuses to rear his child on negatives and chooses, therefore, a Christian school. (2) And if the father sees his child stretched on a couch of pain from which he may never rise, is there not a voice in his heart crying, “ Sir, come down, ere my child die.” I know the case is not rare in which the doubting or disbelieving father hag desired, has sought, for his son the spiritual healing, has called in some man of God whose repute was highest for communication with the invisible, has encouraged his visits, has even knelt in the corner while he prayed, and has joined with strong cries and tears in the “ Rock of ages, cleft for me,” sung or said in the chamber where the staying pray with the going; and has gone off from the experience and trial strong in the Son of God, to say at last, “ Let me die the death of the righteous; let my last end be like His.” Christ is marching to complete the sum of happiness and to round the circle of being. (Dean Vaughan.) The nobleman of Capernaum Notice I. THE WITH WHICH HE APPLIED TO CHRIST AS SOON AS HE HEARD WHERE HE WAS. Would that we all were as anxious for the welfare of our own and other’ s souls as this man was for the health of his son’ s body. Your souls may be in like danger--at the point of death. Lose not another day. II. THE WE HAVE IN KNOWING THAT WHEN WE DESIRE TO SEEK THE GREAT HE IS EVER AT HAND. The nobleman had to travel from Capernaum. III. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE EVINCED HIS BELIEF IN CHRIST’ S POWER, AND YET THE IDEA HE HAD OF THAT POWER. He felt that Christ could heal, but only on the spot. So we are tempted to prescribe to God the place and manner of His blessing, but God is the only judge of what is wise and best. Christ’ s rebuke had its due effect and in sending him away He required him to manifest the faith for the feebleness of which he had been rebuked. IV. THE MANNER IN WHICH JESUS SHOWS MERCY TO SUCH AS CALL UPON HIM. 1. Pity in distress. 2. Firmness in demanding the proof of confidence which it becomes us to show. Christ would not decline because of weak faith, but He would not go to Capernaum. V. WHAT IS THE HE US TO SHOW TOWARDS HIM? Simple and implicit reliance on His word and belief in His power. “ Go thy way And the man believed and went,” without a token. 1. This disposition is the grace of the Holy Spirit imparted to the heart. 2. This disposition honours Christ. VI. THE REWARD WHICH FAITH SHALL RECEIVE.. “ Thy son liveth.” A cure. 1. Instantaneous. 2. Complete. (J. Harding.) The nobleman of Capernaum I. EVEN THE NOBLE HAVE THEIR TROUBLE. 1. No earthly dignity lifts above the reach of trouble. In the eye of God and in the operations of His laws all are alike. We need, therefore, never to expect to reach an estate free from trial. 2. But troubles are not always calamities. To the true hearted they are instruments of good. Nobility must suffer that it may become more noble. The fruitful branch must be purged that it may become more fruitful. II. EVEN THE NEED . 1. The nobleman was a believer. 2. There was strength and substance in his faith. It was not mere sentiment. Knowledge, however accurate, opinion, however orthodox, is not faith. But this man’ s faith had an active quality; it moved him to Jesus and to make every effort to obtain His help. True faith can never be idle James 2:20). 3. But even with this living faith the nobleman laboured under misconceptions and infirmities. He located the Saviour’ s power too much in the outward. It was bent on signs and wonders. And just here believers have their greatest troubles. They go honestly and humbly to Christ, but unless they see signs they doubt whether all is right. Some change must be felt ere they can fully rest. But the requirement is to undoubtingly embrace Christ and leave Him to make all other things right in His own time and Romans 8:24-25). 4. Here is the true consolation of faith; not that the sick child is healed, but that we have a competent Saviour, and in the meantime patience is the proper exercise of faith. III. WHEN MAN THE LORD REPAIRS. 1. The manner in which he was received distressed the nobleman. He looked for Christ to accompany him, and when no signs of compliance appeared his heart sunk within him. 2. And yet this last flicker of perishing expectation was the signal of the greatest triumph. It was not according to Christ’ s method that His healing should come “ with observation.” His restorative energy is in His word, which is independent of distance or signs. Even His “ Go thy way” is a benediction. While we are being wrung with disappointment grace is invisibly entering our house. IV. AS WE BELIEVE SO WE RECEIVE. A mere word had gone out. He went his way clinging to that word, and as he believed it was done unto him. He came believing Christ to be a wonder worker and he found Him one. He trusted in what the Saviour had said, and he came back to find the Saviour’ s word potent. What then if society, the Church, ourselves, our whole house are sick; if our movements are Christwards, His seeming repulse is but a preparation for a sublimer triumph. No honest attempt at faith is ever a mistake. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) The fame of Christ The distance of Capernaum from Cana was from twenty to twenty-five miles. The report of Christ’ s return to Galilee had spread, then, over this wide area. (H. W. Watkins, D. D.) The nobleman’ s son I. JESUS THE WOES OF MEN. 1. Jesus and His countrymen (John 4:45) (Matthew 13:54; Matthew 21:11; Mark 6:1; Luke 4:44; John 4:3; John 7:41). 2. Jesus and the sorrowing (John 4:47) (Isaiah 53:3; Mark 5:39; Luke 7:13; Luke 8:52; Luke 23:28; John 14:1). 3. Jesus and the sick (John 4:47) (Matthew 4:24; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 10:1; Matthew 14:14; Mark 6:56; John 11:3). II. THE HELP OF GOD. 1. Importunate pleading (John 4:49) (Psalms 130:1; Matthew 14:30, Luke 11:8; Luke 22:44; Hebrews 5:7). 2. Generous responding (John 4:50) (Matthew 8:2-3; Matthew 8:13; Matthew 9:29; Luke 7:50; Luke 18:42; John 14:13). 3. Confident believing (John 4:50) (Psalms 27:13; Psalms 106:12; John 4:53; Acts 16:34; Numbers 15:13; 1 Peter 1:8). III. THE WOES OF MEN. 1. Good news (John 4:51) (Genesis 45:26; Numbers 21:8; Luke 2:10; Luke 10:17; John 14:3). 2. Convincing coincidence (John 4:53) (Exodus 14:27; Joshua 3:15, Daniel 5:5; Matthew 8:13; Matthew 9:22; Matthew 15:28). 3. Believing household (John 4:53) (Acts 10:2; Acts 16:15; Acts 16:34; Acts 18:8; Philippians 4:22; Hebrews 11:7). (Sunday School Times.) The nobleman’ s son A spiritual miracle is greater than a physical one. This was of both kinds--the healing of the boy’ s body, the conversion of the father’ s soul. The nobleman is a representative man. I. HE IS DRIVEN TO CHRIST BY AN OUTSIDE NEED. He takes his case to Christ as a last resort. In his selfish thought, the Saviour of souls is overshadowed by the Healer of bodies. But such is the love of Christ, that those seeking a lesser good are sent away with a spiritual gift. II. HIS FAITH RUNS WITH HIS MOTIVE. It began as a belief that Christ could work a physical miracle by contact; it was consummated in a faith which trusted Christ for both physical and spiritual blessing at a distance. The father’ s faith secured the health of his child; the personal faith of the man secured his own salvation. III. THE DIVINE METHODS FOR FAITH IN MEN. 1. Directness and conscious superiority characterize Christ’ s meeting with the nobleman. Christ rebukes his carnal mindedness and his low thought that Christ’ s mission was merely to play the doctor--a rebuke which caused him to look up into the Master’ s face and feel the subtle power of His spiritual presence. 2. Having thus made a spiritual roadway into his heart, Christ grants his request. 3. The answer carries a test of humility and faith with it. Christ not going with him touched his pride; but it strengthened his faith by exercising it. IV. THE OF FAITH AND ITS REWARD. This faith is shown by his leisurely procedure. The twenty miles’ walk could not have been accomplished that night. The reward was bestowed not only on the sick child, but on the whole household. Learn 1. A lesson of hope. 2. That all the roads of human experience lead to Christ--our needs, sorrows, joys. 3. Once in Christ’ s presence, all is well. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) The nobleman’ s faith 1. Trouble led this courtly personage to Jesus. Had he lived without trial, he might have been forgetful of his God and Saviour; but sorrow came as an angel in disguise. 2. The particular trial was the sickness of his child. No doubt ha had tried all remedies, and now he turns to Jesus in desperate hope. How often does it happen that children are employed to do what angels cannot! I. THE SPARK OF FAITH. 1. The faith of the nobleman rested at first entirely on the report of others. Evangelical faith often begins with the testimony of others that Christ receiveth sinners. 2. This faith only concerned the healing of the sick child. The father did not know that he wanted healing for his own heart, nor of Christ’ s spiritual power. Can you believe that Christ can help you in your present trial? Then use the faith you have; if not of heavenly things, then earthly. 3. He limited the power of Jesus to His local presence. Limitation of the Holy One of Israel in children of God is sinful; but weakness of faith in seekers will be excused. Better to have a weak faith than none at all. 4. This faith, although it was but a spark, influenced the nobleman. It led him to take a considerable journey to Christ. This is the more remarkable that he was a man of position, and did not send his servants. If you have faith enough to drive you personally to Christ, it is of an acceptable order. 5. This man’ s faith taught him to pray in the right style. Notice his argument--the misery of his case. Not that the boy was of noble birth, or lovely. When you pray aright, you will urge those facts which reveal your danger and distress. This is the key which opens the door of mercy. II. THE FIRE OF FAITH struggling to maintain itself. 1. It was true, as far as it went. He stood before the Saviour, resolved not to go away. He does not get the answer at first, but he stays. So it was a real persuasion of the power of Jesus to heal. 2. It was hindered by a desire for signs and wonders, and was therefore gently chided. So some of you want to be converted in the extraordinary way recorded in some religious biographies, and expect, like Naaman, Christ to do some great thing. Do net lay down a programme and demand that the free Spirit should pay attention to it. Let Him save you as He wills. 3. It could endure a rebuff. He answered our Lord with still greater importunity. 4. How passionately this man pleaded, “ Lord, do not question me just now about faith; heal my child, or he will be dead.” If his faith failed in breadth, it excelled in force. III. THE FLAME OF FAITH. 1. He believed the word of Jesus over the head of his former prejudices. He had thought that Christ could only heal by personal contact; now he believes that Jesus can heal with a word. Will you believe Jesus on His bare word? 2. He at once obeyed Christ. If he had not believed, he would have remained looking for favourable signs. When told to believe in Christ, do not say, “ We will continue in prayer, read the Bible, attend the means of grace.” Believe and go your way. 3. Still, it fell somewhat short of what it might have been. He expected a gradual restoration. How little we know of Christ or believe in Him. 4. He travelled with the leisure of confidence. Anxious minds, even when they believe, are in a hurry to see; but the nobleman’ s servants met him the next day. “ He that believeth shall not make haste.” IV. THE OF FAITH. 1. His faith was confirmed by the answer to his prayers. 2. After inquiry, his faith was confirmed by each detail. 3. Strengthened by faith and experience, he believes in Jesus in the fullest sense. 4. What follows is natural; his family also believe. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The nobleman’ s faith I. WITH REGARD TO THIS FAITH, we must observe 1. That it was real, or he would never have sought Christ. This realness was not inconsistent with ignorance of Christ’ s nature and spiritual power. 2. Though real, imperfect and weak. He knew nothing of Jesus as the Healer of the soul. There was shortcoming in both the quantity and quality of his faith. In this he presents a strong contrast to the centurian. 3. Apply the case to ourselves. What is our faith? Is it only a name, a theory, a confession, we have been taught to utter? If we have acknowledged Him as Saviour in one specific point, that is real faith as far as it goes; but it must go farther. “ He will not break the bruised reed.” II. HIS BY CHRIST. 1. His unbelief was rebuked, and that of others standing around. 2. No doubt many regarded this as ill-timed. But Christ saw that spiritual admonition was the thing that was most needed. 3. We need not be surprised if the first answer to our petitions is some revelation of secret sin. 4. But delay is not denial. In bestowing one blessing he does not refuse another. 5. There is often as much love in Christ’ s method of bestowal as in His gift. The petition is granted in the spirit, if not in the letter. Jesus did not go down, but sent His blessing down. III. THE RESULT OF THE . 1. The request was granted (1) sooner than was expected, and (2) more fully. Christ’ s way is the shortest and best, after all, although we think differently. 2. His faith was increased. He who could not brook a moment’ s delay, goes away satisfied with a simple word, leisurely proceeds home, and becomes a full believer. 3. He and his family were converted. (P. B. Power, M. A.) A lesson for tittle faith I. THE OF THE MIRACLE. Note 1. The rapid reversals of feeling which all efforts in doing good demand. His former visit to Cana was to a festival; He came now to a scene of anxiety and affliction.. Human experience is very fitful and uncertain. Now the circumstances are joyous, now gloomy; and he who wants to do good must be prepared for both. 2. Pain and trouble are common to all ranks. Capernaum’ s great dignitary is harrowed by anxiety; his money, influence, friends, cannot save his boy, “ Grief is a black camel that kneels at every man’ s door,” 3. The value of Christianity. Sceptics say Christianity is a religion for the sorrowful only. We reply, There is surely room for one such religion in a world like this. 4. In His first reply Christ (1) Rebuked a faith which rested on external evidences. (2) Showed that he cared very little for miracles as proofs of His Divine commission. 5. The nobleman’ s response teaches us directness in prayer. How much time is wasted in the formalities of devotion. 6. Such petitions as this the Lord always hears and answers. The last word of God’ s Son affords ground for implicit trust. The nobleman knew that nothing more was needed. 7. How much men owe to the unseen Providences of God. II. THE PARABLE OF FAITH. 1. There was intelligence. The nobleman (1) Reasoned. (2) Inquired. (3) Agreed. 2. Next came assent. Sometimes this element of saving faith is called submission, sometimes surrender. 3. There came trust. Without a word he rested on the promise. He believed (1) In Christ’ s evidences. (2) In Christ’ s willingness. (3) In Christ Himself. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) The faith of a nobleman I. ITS . 1. Not settled on the best foundation. Excited by a report of Christ’ s miracles which Christ recognized as right (John 5:36; John 10:37-38; John 14:11), but not faith’ s highest form. 2. Not free from ignorance and superstition, Christ’ s presence was regarded as essential. II. ITS . 1. Its radical defect was pointed out (John 4:48). The modern counterpart is the belief that is born of excitement and rests on feeling. 2. Its inward sincerity was tried (John 4:48). In a similar way Christ dealt with the Syro-Phoenician woman. 3. Its formal request was denied. Had Christ gone it might have confirmed the belief that His presence was indispensable, and that His power was of no avail beyond death. So He sometimes denies His peoples’ entreaties, because they know not what they ask, or because the answer would be injurious. 4. Its essential petition was granted (John 4:50). Not in the way expected, but in one larger and better (Ephesians 3:29). III. ITS . The nobleman believed 1. Without a miracle. At first he only had Christ’ s word; then his servants’ testimony; lastly, the assurance of sight. 2. Without delay--“ Go thy way.” Prompt obedience one of the most reliable marks of faith--Noah (Genesis 6:9; Genesis 6:22; Hebrews 11:7), Abraham (Genesis 12:1; Hebrews 11:8), Peter (Luke 5:5); Paul Acts 26:19). 3. Without after regrets. None will have occasion to repent who enter on a life of faith. Nor did he act as many do after having been delivered from affliction. 4. Without being left to stand alone. Faith became contagious. Learn 1. The ability and willingness of Christ to save diseased and dying souls. 2. The eagerness Christian parents should display in bringing the cases of their children to Christ. 3. The nature of faith which is taking Christ at His word. 4. The value and efficacy of prayer. 5. The increasing evidence faith obtains the longer it continues. 6. The beauty and advantage of household religion. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The courtier’ s son I. THE OF FAITH. Faith, at first slender and tentative, becomes firm and influential. The process is worthy of notice. At first it rested on external testimony, but was backed by such anxiety to attain the object that the man came so far to seek it. Then its tenacity is proved and strengthened by a seeming rebuff. Another and great step is taken when Christ’ s word for the cure is accepted instead of His personal coming down. Next, it is crowned and perfected by the incontestable proof of the miracle. What most of us need in our Christianity is not more evidence--the lamp can be choked with oil, if the oil is not used--it is to follow with entire cordiality the light that has shone so fully on us already. II. CHRIST’ S METHOD. How He connects sign and spirit, miracle and faith. He deprecates the purely external connection--the believing only what is seen. Such demands for seen evidence ends usually in downright unbelief. His method is to lead His disciples to such inward, spiritual acquaintance with and confidence in Himself that they trust His word, and so by and by behold His work. When His trusting ones believe, then in due time they also see (John 11:40). Jesus accepts the loving earnestness and tenacity of a faith otherwise slender. He will lead this man into His kingdom by the heart-strings, for He avails Himself of every access to the souls of men. This courtier would have Jesus go down and heal his son. Jesus healed his son and did not go down. Thus He suited His method to the ease--was the helper of the father’ s faith as well as the healer of his son’ s malady. (J. Laidlaw, D. D.) I. THE MIRACLE. Restoration of nobleman’ s dying son 1. The petitioner. A person of distinction; perhaps Chuza, Herod’ s steward. Now in affliction. Seeks Jesus, the Divine Physician. 2. The application. Shows affection for child, and respect to our Lord; also great earnestness, A sense of need inspires utterance. 3. The reply. The first part of it evidently conveyed rebuke. Jesus said unto him, “ Except ye” --not only you individually, but all who resemble you--“ Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” You are one of those who will not admit who and what I am, unless you see Me work a miracle. II. ITS EFFECTS. 1. See them, in the first place, on the nobleman: He “ believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way,” convinced that his application had not been made in vain, and that his son would live. 2. The narrative relates the effect of the miracle, not only on the nobleman himself, but also on his household, “ his whole house believed.” Their hearts were gained to the Lord Christ as well as his. Application: 1. What are we doing for our children? Many are the anxieties and pains which parents endure on account of their children. Can it be said of us, as of King Asa, that in our affliction we seek not to the Lord but to the physicians. Alas I we are prone to look to second causes, and to neglect the first Great Cause of life and health and everything! 2. What are we doing in our affliction? It should make us serious. It should lead us to Christ. It should subdue prejudice. It should show us the value of Christ’ s power and grace. 3. How have we requited the Lord’ s mercies? We have influence. Have we exerted it to bring others to believe in Christ, and to worship and serve Him? (M. Gibbs.) The second miracle in Cana--the purifying and training of faith The evangelist evidently intends us to connect together the two miracles in Cana. His object may, possibly, mainly be chronological, and to mark the epochs in our Lord’ s ministry. But we cannot fail to see how remarkably these two miracles are contrasted. The one takes place at a wedding, a homely scene of rural festivity and gladness. But life has deeper things in it than gladness, and a Saviour who preferred the house of feasting to the house of mourning would be no Saviour for us. The second miracle, then, turns to the darker side of human experience. It was fitting that the first miracle should deal with gladness, for that is God’ s purpose for His creatures, and that the second should deal with sicknesses and sorrows, which are additions to that purpose made needful by sin. Again, the first miracle was wrought without intercession, as the outcome of Christ’ s own determination that His hour for working it was come. The second miracle was drawn from Him by the imperfect faith and the agonising pleading of the father. But the great peculiarity of this second miracle in Cana is that it is moulded throughout so as to develop and perfect a weak faith. Notice how there are three words in the narrative, each of which indicates a stage in the history. “ Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.”… “ The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.”… “ Himself believed and his whole house.” We have here, then, Christ manifested as the Discerner, the Rebuker, the Answerer, and therefore the strengthener of a very insufficient and ignorant faith. I. First, we have here, our Lord OVER AN AND FAITH. At first sight His words in response to the hurried eager appeal of the father, seem to be strangely unfeeling, far away from the matter in hand. “ Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.” “ What has that to do with me and my dying boy, and my impatient agony of petition?” “ It has everything to do with you.” It is the revelation, first of all, of Christ’ s singular calmness and majestic leisure, which befitted Him who needed not to hurry because He was conscious of absolute power. It is also an indication of what He thought of most importance in His dealing with man. It was worthy of His care to heal the boy; it was far more needful that He should train and lead the father to faith. The one can wait much better than the other. And there is in the words, too, something like a sigh of profound sorrow. Christ is not so much rebuking as lamenting. Why? Because to their own impoverishing, the nobleman and his fellows were blind to all the beauty of His character. The graciousness of His nature was nothing to them. They had no eyes for His tenderness, and no ears for His wisdom; but if some vulgar sign had been wrought before them, then they would have run after Him with their worthless faith. And that struck a painful chord in Christ’ s heart when He thought of how all the lavishing of His love, all the grace and truth which shone radiant and lambent in His life, fell upon blind eyes, incapable of beholding His beauty; and of how the manifest revelation of a Godlike character had no power to do what would be done by a mere outward wonder. Are there not plenty of us to whom sense is the only certitude? We think that the only knowledge is the knowledge that comes to us from that which we can see and touch and handle, and the inferences that we draw from these; and to whom all that world of thought and beauty, all that Divine manifestation of tenderness and grace is but mist and cloudland, Intellectually, though in a somewhat modified sense, this generation has to take the rebuke: “ Except ye see, ye will not believe.” And practically, do not the great mass of men regard the material world as all-important, and work done, or progress achieved there as alone deserving the name of “ work” or “ progress,” while all the glories of a loving Christ are dim and unreal to their sense-bound eyes? And on the other side, is it not sadly true about those of us who have the purest and the loftiest faith that we feel often as if it was very hard, almost impossible, to keep firm our grasp of One who never is manifested to our sense? Do we not often feel, “ Oh I that I could for once, for once only, hear a voice that would speak to my outward ear, or see some movement of a Divine hand.” The loftiest faith still leans towards, and has an hankering after, some external and visible manifestation, and we nee I to subject ourselves to the illuminating rebuke of the Master, Who says: “ Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.” II. And so we have here, as the next stage of the narrative, our Lord TESTING, AND THUS , A GROWING FAITH. The nobleman’ s answer to our Lord’ s strange words sounds, at first sight, as if these had passed over him, producing no effect at all. “ Sir, come down ere my child die.” Almost as if he had said: “ Do not talk to me about these things at present. Come and heal my boy. That is what I want; and we will talk about the rest some other time.” But it is not exactly that. Clearly enough, at all events, he did not read in Christ’ s words a reluctance to yield to his request, still less a refusal of it. Clearly, he did not misunderstand the sad rebuke which they conveyed, else he would not have ventured to reiterate his petition. He does not pretend to anything more than he has, he does not seek to disclaim the condemnation that Christ brings against him, nor to assume that he has a loftier degree, or a purer kind, of faith than he possesses. He holds fast by so much of Christ’ s character as he can apprehend; and that is the beginning of all progress. What he knows he knows. He has sore need; that is something. He has come to the Master; that is more. Ah! any true man who has ever truly gone to Christ with a sense even of some outward and temporal need, and has ever really prayed at all, has often to pass through this experience, that the first result of his agonising cry shall be only the revelation to him of the unworthiness and imperfection of his own faith, and that there shall seem to be strange delay in the coming of the blessing so longed for. And the true attitude for a man to take when there is unveiled before him, in his consciousness, in answer to his cry for help the startling revelation of his own unworthiness and imperfection, the true answer to such dealing is simply reiterate your cry. And then the Master bends to his petition and because he sees that the second prayer has in it less of sensuousness than the first; and that some little germ of a higher faith is beginning to open, He yields, and yet He does not yield. “ Sir, come down ere my child die.” Jesus saith unto him, “ Go thy way, thy son liveth.” Why did He not go with the man? Why, in the act of granting, does He refuse? For the man’ s sake. The whole force and beauty of the story comes out yet more vividly if we take the contrast between it and the other narrative, which presents some points of similarity with it--that of the healing of the centurion’ s servant at Capernaum. There the centurion prays that Christ would but speak, and Christ says, “ I will come.” There the centurion does not feel that His presence is necessary, but that His word is enough. Here the man says, “ Come!” because it has never entered his mind that Christ can do anything unless He stands like a doctor by the boy’ s bed. And he says, too, “ Come, ere my child die.” Because it has never entered his mind that Christ can do anything if his boy once has passed the dark threshold. And because his faith is thus feeble, Christ refuses its request, because He knows that so to refuse is to strengthen. Asked but to “ speak” by a strong faith, He rewards it by more than it prays, and offers to “ come.” Asked to “ come” by a weak faith, He rewards it by less, which yet is more than it had requested; and refuses to come, that He may heal at a distance; and thus manifests still more wondrously His power and His grace. “ Go thy way; thy son liveth.” What a test! Suppose the man had not gone his way; would his son have lived? No! The son’ s life and the father’ s reception from Christ of what he asked, were all suspended upon that one moment. Will he trust Him, or will he not? Will he linger or will he depart? He departs, and in the act of trusting he gets the blessing, and his boy is saved. And look how the narrative hints to us of the perfect confidence of the father now. Cane was only a few miles from Capernaum. The road from the little city upon the hill down to where the waters of the lake flashed in the sunshine by the quays of Capernaum, was a matter of only a few hours; but it was the next day, and well on into the next day, before he met the servants that came to him with the news of his boy’ s recovery. So sure was he that his petition was answered that he did not hurry to return home, but leisurely and quietly went on the next day to his child. Think of the difference between the breathless rush up to Cana, and the quiet return from it. “ He that believeth shall not make haste.” III. And so, lastly, we have here the absent Christ AND THE FAITH WHICH HAD BEEN TESTED. We have the picture of the man’ s return. The servants meet him. Their message, which they deliver before he has time to speak, is singularly a verbal repetition of the promise of the Master, “ Thy son liveth.” His faith, though it be strong, has not yet reached to the whole height of the blessing, for he inquires “ at what hour he began to amend,” expecting some slow and gradual recovery; and he is told “ that at the seventh hour,” the hour when the master spoke, “ the fever left him.” And all at once and completely was he cured. So, more than his faith had expected is given to him; and Christ, when He lays His hand upon a man, does His work thoroughly, though not always at once. Why was the miracle wrought in that strange fashion? Why did our Lord fling out His power as from a distance rather than go and stand at the boy’ s bedside? We have already seen the reason in the peculiar condition of the man’ s mind; but now notice what it was that he had learned by such a method of healing, not only the fact of Christ’ s healing power, but also the fact that the bare utterance of His will, whether He were present or absent, had power. And so a loftier conception of Christ would begin to dawn on him. A partial faith brings experience which confirms and enlarges faith; and they who dimly apprehend Him, and yet humbly love Him, and imperfectly trust Him, will receive into their bosoms such large gifts of His love and gracious Spirit that their faith will be strengthened, and they will grow into the full stature of peaceful confidence. The way to increase faith is to exercise faith. And the true parent of perfect faith is the experience of the blessings that come from the crudest, rudest, narrowest, blindest, feeblest faith that a man can exercise. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The testing of faith which the nobleman stands I. HOW HE IS TESTED. 1. In his humility by a stem word which might wound the pride of a nobleman. 2. In his faith by being required to trust a word. II. HOW HE STANDS THE TEST. 1. In his persistent prayer be the test of the humility of his faith. 2. In his confident departure at the word of Jesus he proves the power of His faith. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) Domestic affliction I. THE RICH HAVE AS WELL AS THE POOR There is no more mischievous error than to suppose that the rich have no cares. The dwellers in palaces often sleep more uneasily than dwellers in cottages. Gold may shut out debt and rags, but not disease and death. Let the servant of God beware of desiring riches. They are certain cares and uncertain comforts. II. AND DEATH COME TO THE YOUNG AS WELL AS TO THE OLD. In spite of the testimony of grave stones we are apt to speak and act as if young people never died when young. The first grave was that of a young man. He is wise that will never confidently reckon on a long life. The only true wisdom is to be always prepared to meet God. So living it matters little whether we die young or old. III. WHAT CAN CONFER ON THE SOUL. Anxiety about a son led this nobleman to Christ, and eventually his whole house. By affliction God often teaches lessons that can be learned in no other way. By it He often draws souls away from sin who would otherwise have perished Psalms 119:71). Let us beware of murmuring (Hebrews 12:11). IV. CHRIST’ S WORD IS AS GOOD AS CHRIST’ S . This fact gives enormous value to the promises. (Bp. Ryle.) Domestic affliction a messenger of God No one is spared this. Not even the nobility. I. HEAR (John 4:47). Up to this time the courtier had not heard; very likely did not care to hear. But now his child lies at death’ s door he hears that Jesus was come. Thy domestic affliction calls out to thee that thou hast a Saviour who has come for thee. II. Go (John 4:47). The noble had gone no doubt to this and to that one, but there was no help. Now he goes to One who can help. Go thou in a right way at once to Jesus, who always says “ Come.” III. BESEECH (John 4:47). The man of rank becomes unwontedly humble. Nothing offends him, not even the seemingly negative answer of Joh 4:48. IV. BELIEVE (John 4:50-54). He believes (John 4:50) and finds everything fulfilled (John 4:51-53), and his whole household believe (John 4:54). Believe Him, thou and thy family, and ye shall be blessed. (G. Hermann.) He went to Him and besought HimThe uses o/ trouble I. IT HUMBLES PRIDE--“ He (the nobleman) went.” II. IT GIVES FAITH. “ He went.” III. IT TEACHES PRAYER--“ Besought.” IV. IT FAITH--“ That he would heal,” etc. Physicians in the East No one is more sought after in the East than the hakeem or physician. Let it be known that one of a travelling party of Europeans is a doctor, and all the sick persons in the neighbourhood make their way to his tent for free treatment. A European doctor in the East may have to complain of lack of fees, but he certainly will not have to complain of lack of patients. The invalids, or those who have persuaded themselves that they are invalids, will troop to his tent in the early morning, and squat there until evening, or until they are treated; and well persons will pretend that they are sick for the purpose of getting possession of the magicial powders which they value so highly. The European doctor who knows what is before him generally supplies himself, ere he starts for the East, with a plentiful supply of bread-pills, ingeniously coloured with tincture of iodine or similar chemicals, so that he may be able to keep his real remedies for real diseases. The lack of adequate medical facilities in the East is noted by every traveller; and it would hardly be possible to overestimate the amount of suffering caused by this lack. That is the reason why the Frankish hakeem can go safely where no other Frank dare go; and it may be said reverently that it is also one of the reasons why our Lord took upon Himself the character of a hakeem or healer. Those whom no other appeal would bring flocked to Him because they believed Him to be a powerful hakeem. It is also one of the reasons for the success of medical missions. The men and women who would curse the ordinary missionary as “ a dog and the son of a female dog,” will come humbly to the medical mission for healing, and will listen to the message which they would not listen to under any other circumstances. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believeSigns and wonders I. OUR LORD DID NOT PUT FORWARD THE MERE POWER OF HIS AS THE CHIEF SIGN OF HIS DIVINE SONSHIP. He declared His Almighty power chiefly by showing mercy and pity. He used His miraculous power 1. Sparingly, almost entirely in curing the diseases of poor people. 2. Secretly, for it was almost entirely in remote places. For even Jerusalem was remote compared with the great cities of the Roman Empire. Had He intended to convert the world by miracles He would have gone to Rome, the centre of the world. But as He wished for the obedience not of men’ s lips but of their hearts, that they might love Him and be loyal to Him for His goodness; and not fear and tremble because of His power. II. BECAUSE CHRIST WAS LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH HE AS LITTLE AS WITH THE LAWS OF NATURE. He did not offer, as the magicians did, to change the courses of the elements, to bring down tempests and thunderbolts. Why should He? All the physical forces were fulfilling His will already, and He had no need to disturb them. Rather He loved to tell men to look at them, and see how they went well because His Father cared for them. III. BUT MEN WOULD NOT BELIEVE. They craved after signs and wonders. They saw God’ s hand, not in the common sights of this beautiful world, but only in strange portents, absurd and lying miracles, and so built up a literature of unreason which remains till this day a doleful monument of human folly and superstition. 1. This is true of some now. They regard whatever is strange and inexplicable as coming immediately from God; but whatever they are accustomed to as coming in the course of nature. If a man drops down dead he died “ by the visitation of God” ; as if any created thing could die or live either save by the will and presence of God. If an earthquake were to swallow up half London it would be a Divine visitation, yet they will not see the true visitation in every drop of rain. 2. Contrast this with the sentiments of the men who wrote Psalms 139:1-24; Psalms 19:1-14; Psalms 104:1-35. Let us all pray for the spirit which inspired these men. IV. WHEN ALL THINGS GO ON IN A WAY WITH US, HOW APT WE ARE TO FORGET GOD; but when sorrow comes how changed we are all of a sudden! How we cry to God and feel the need of prayer! If He will do this thing for us we will believe. And if He treated us in adversity as we have treated Him in prosperity, what could we say? But He will not, because He is pitiful. So we can have hope. (C. Kingsley, M. A.) The universal passion for miracles I. Desire for special FORTUNE to befall us, while we do not exert ourselves to obtain that which satisfies. II. Waiting for HELP in exigency, when we will not earnestly use the right means. III. Yearning for FRUITS OF OUR LABOUR, when we will not sow, hoping in faith. IV. Desire of VIOLENT when we wish to get rid of faults, while we ourselves do not lift a hand. V. Expectation of HONOUR, etc., while yet we have done or sacrificed nothing for the glory of God. (Heubner.) Characteristics of faith I. FAITH IN THREE OF ITS STAGES. 1. When faith begins in a soul it is but as a grain of mustard seed. God’ s people are babes at first. The first stage of faith is a seeking faith. This faith (1) Excites activity. There is no more idleness in religion. The means of grace are used and the Bible read, etc. (2) Although weak in some things it gives great power in prayer. How earnest was the nobleman. “ Come down,” etc. In this stage a man has not power to say, “ My sins are forgiven; “ to that, Christ can forgive. A thousand difficulties will be surmounted. (3) It gives importunity in prayer. It will not give over at an apparent rebuff. (4) This faith can do much, but it makes mistakes. It knows too little. It knows not that Christ can work a miracle without coming down, and expects that Christ will work in its way. 2. In the second stage faith takes Christ at His word, and the believer realizes the happiness of believing. He is saved. (1) It dares to believe without sensible evidence. (2) It brings quietness and peace of mind. The nobleman was satisfied and was in no violent hurry to return. 3. Faith blossoms in assurance and usefulness. (1) Doubts are dispelled. (2) His household believes. When the Father believes He ought not to rest satisfied until his children are saved. II. Diseases to which faith is subject. 1. With regard to seeking faith. We are very likely when we are seeking to begin to suspend prayerfulness. 2. Those who are trusting implicitly are in danger of wanting to see signs and wonders. Do not place reliance on anything you have dreamed, or seen, or heard, but on Christ. So many Christians want the signs of a revival in noisy demonstrations and not in God’ s way. 3. The disease which lies in the way of our attaining full assurance is want of observation. The nobleman made careful inquiries. He that looks for providences will never lack a providence to look at. III. THREE ABOUT FAITH. 1. Thou sayest “ I have faith.” Be it so. Many a man says he has gold, but has it not. Does thy faith make thee pray? 2. Does that faith make thee obedient? 3. Has it led thee to bless thy household? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe Let us dismiss the idea that these words had any special reference to the courtier, and let us regard them as an exclamation wrung from Jesus by a deep feeling in His own mind, in which He apostrophized the whole multitude of His countrymen. The courtier’ s urgent request was not the cause, but the occasion, of the exclamation I. No doubt OUR LORD MEANT TO OF WHICH AND VEXED HIM; and that something was the necessity of doing miracles in order to attract the children of men, and to keep them when attracted. If we ask why He disliked the necessity of doing signs and wonders, the answer is twofold. 1. Because the character which He gained by such means was in great measure hateful to Him. He was looked upon by very many as a very successful magician or conjurer. Was it not odious to have everybody talking about Him, running after Him, asking Him to do a miracle to gratify their curiosity, saying that He did miracles by the power of Satan? 2. Signs and wonders are in themselves useless, if not objectionable. All interferences with the course of nature are undesirable in themselves. God has made the outward order of things to suit the general character and needs given. The sorrows of life are just as needful for us as its joys; its poverty is as whole- some as its wealth; death is quite as good a friend as life. Nothing could be more disastrous than that the common balance of joy and grief, of life and death, should be seriously disarranged. Christ did not come to do “ miracles” ; He did not come to thwart and undo the work of suffering, disease, and death; He came to bless and sanctify their work; not to change the ordinary conditions of human life, but to help us to live better, holier, happier, under those conditions. It was a mistake then, but not His mistake. It was the mistake of the people. They would come to Him, and beg Him to do this or that outward thing for them, and pray Him so earnestly, so humbly, so trustfully, that He could not help Himself--having the power, He had not the heart to refuse. II. I can only see one valid objection to this position, viz., THAT GOD WOULD NOT HAVE GIVEN HIS SERVANT THESE GIFTS HAD THEY BEEN SO LITTLE GOOD IN . But God has ever, in the whole process of revelation, accommodated Himself to the moral and spiritual condition of His people at the time being. That Christ should do signs and wonders in the age and in the land in which He appeared was inevitable because it was necessary to place Him in strict harmony with His spiritual surroundings. Miracles have practically ceased long ago, not because the Lord’ s arm is shortened, but because the faith and piety of Christians have outgrown the craving for miracles, while a larger knowledge has led men to doubt their usefulness. Did not our Lord possess that larger knowledge? Did He not desire to find that higher faith and piety? (R. Winterbotham, M. A.) Signs and wonders These words (τέραςσημε͂ιονούναμιςἔνδοξονπαράδοξονθαυμάσιον) have this in common, that they are all used to characterize the supernatural works wrought by Christ in the days of His flesh: thus σημε͂ιον (John 2:11; Acts 2:19), τέρας (Acts 2:22; John 4:48), δύναμις (Mark 6:2; Acts 2:22), ἔνδοξον Luke 13:17), παράδοξον (Luke 5:26), θυαμάσιον (Mark 21:15); while the first three, which are far the most usual, are in like manner employed of the same supernatural works wrought in the power of Christ by His apostles (2 Corinthians 12:12). They will be found, on examination, not so much to represent different kinds of miracles, as miracles contemplated under different aspects and from different points of view. Τέρας and σημε͂ιον are often linked together in the New Testament John 4:48; Acts 2:22; Acts 4:30; 2 Corinthians 12:12), and times out of number in the Septuagint. The same miracle is upon one side a τέρας, on another a σήμε͂ιον, and the words must often refer, not to different classes of miracles, but to different qualities in the same miracles. Origen long ago called attention to the fact that the name τέρατα is never in the New Testament applied to these works of wonder except in association with some other name. They are often called σημε͂ια, often δυναμε͂ις, often τέρατακαὶσημε͂ια, more than once τέρατασημε͂ιακαιδυναμε͂ις, but never τέρατα alone. The observation was well worth making; for the fact which we are thus bidden to note is indeed eminently characteristic of the miracles of the New Testament, viz., that a title by which more than any Other these might seem to hold on to the prodigies and portents of the heathen world, and to have something akin to them, should thus never be permitted to appear except in company of some other necessarily suggesting higher thoughts about them. But miracles are also σημέια, which name brings out their ethical end with the greatest, as τερας with the least distinctness. It is declared in the very word that the prime object and end of the miracle is to lead to something out of and beyond itself: that, so to speak, it is a kind of finger-post of God; valuable not so much for what it is as for what it indicates of the grace and power of the doer, or of the connection with a higher world in which he stands Mark 16:20; Acts 14:3; Hebrews 2:4; Exodus 7:9-10; 1 Kings 3:3). It is to be regretted that σημὲιον is not always rendered “ sign” in our version; that in St. John it too often gives place to the vaguer “ miracle” ; and sometimes not without serious loss; thus see John 3:2; John 7:31; John 10:41; and above all, John 6:26. (Abp. Trench.) The human tendency to make a difficulty of believing Charles Wesley had been for years groping in spiritual darkness, “ Without one cheering beam of hope, Or spark of glimmering day.” On a bright morning in May, 1738, he awoke, wearied and sick at heart, but in high expectation of the coming blessing. He lay on his bed “ full of tossings to and fro,” crying out, “ O Jesus, Thou hast said, ‘ I will come unto you’ ; Thou hast said, ‘ I will send the Comforter unto you’ ; Thou hast said, ‘ My Father and I will come unto you, and make Our abode with you.’ Thou art God who cannot lie. I wholly rely upon Thy promise. Accomplish it in Thy time and manner.” A poor woman, Mrs. Turner, heard his groaning, and, constrained by an impulse never felt before, put her head into his room and gently said, “ In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and believe, and thou shalt be healed of all thine infirmities.” He listened, and then exclaimed, “ Oh that Christ would but thus speak to me!” He inquired who it was that had whispered in his ear these life-giving words. A great struggle agitated his whole man, and in another moment he exclaimed, “ I believe! I believe!” He then found redemption in the blood of the Lamb, experiencing the forgiveness of sins, and could look up and “ Behold, without a cloud between, The Godhead reconciled.” The hymn he wrote to commemorate the anniversary of his spiritual birth shows the mighty change that had taken place, and is best expressed in his own language “ Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing!” (New Cyclopaedia of Anecdote.) Sir, come down ere my child dieThe Christian calls his Saviour to his sick I. HE CALLS HIM. II. IN DUE TIME. III. IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT. IV. WITH THE MOST BLESSED RESULT. (Bachmann.) Prayer I. ITS OBJECT. Christ as 1. Human--sympathizing. 2. Divine--helpful. II. ITS MODE OF ADDRESS. 1. Respectful. “ Sir.” All true prayer should begin with adoration. The urgency of our case sometimes leads us to forget this. 2. Entreating as inspired by consciousness of real need. 3. Importunate as evidencing earnestness. III. Its subject matter. “ My child.” The first object of a parent’ s desire is his child’ s 1. Life. 2. Support. 3. Salvation. IV. ITS MOTIVE. 1. Unselfish. It seeks the good of others. 2. And yet selfish, for the father’ s happiness was wrapped up in his child. So the well-being of others will re-act upon us. To give is unselfish, but it re-acts on self because it is more blessed than to receive. V. ITS . See this in family trials. Directness in prayer:--A Scotchman’ s wife besought him to pray that the life of their dying baby might be spared. True to his old instincts, the good man kneeled down devoutly, and went out on the well-worn track, as he was wont to do in the prayer-meetings at the kirk. Through and through the routine petitions he wandered along helplessly, until he reached at last the honoured quotation: “ Lord, remember Thine ancient people, and turn again the captivity of Zion!” A mother’ s heart could hold its patience no longer. “ Eh, man!” the woman broke forth impetuously; “ you are aye drawn out for the Jews, but it’ s our bairn that’ s a-deein’ .” Then, clasping her hands, she cried: “ Oh! help us, Lord, and give our darling back to us if it be Thy holy will; but if he is to be taken away from us, make us know Thou wilt have him to Thyself!” That wife knew what it was to pray a real prayer; and to the throne of grace she went, asking directly what she wanted.most. (James Hamilton, D. D.) Prayers of a father Philip James Spener had a son of eminent talents, but perverse and extremely vicious. All means of love and persuasion were without success. The father could only pray, which he continued to do, that the Lord might yet be pleased to save his son at any time and in any way. The son fell sick; and while lying on his bed in great distress of mind, nearly past the power of speech or motion, he suddenly started up, clasped his hands, and exclaimed: “ My father’ s prayers, like mountains, surround me!” Soon after his anxiety ceased a sweet peace spread over his face, his malady came to a crisis, and the son was saved in body and soul. He became another man. Spener lived to see his son a respectable man, in public office, and happily married. Such was the change of his life after his conversion. (N. E. Puritan.) Jesus the Saviour of the children General H-- used to take his little son into his arms and talk with him about Jesus. The little boy never grew tired of that “ sweet story.” It was always new to him. One day, while sitting in his father’ s lap, his papa said to him, “ Would my little son like to go to heaven?” “ Yes, papa,” he answered. “ But,” said the father, “ how can you go to heaven? Your little heart is full of sin. How can you expect to go where God is?” “ But all are sinners, papa,” the little fellow answered. “ That is true,” replied the father; “ and yet God has said that only the pure in heart shall see Him. How, then, can my little boy expect to go there?” The dear little fellow’ s face grew very sad. His heart seemed full, and, bursting into tears, he laid his head on his father’ s bosom and sobbed out, “ Papa, Jesus can save me.” (New Cyclopaedia.) The man believed the word that Jesus spakeFrom faith to faith I. Faith HIM TO COME TO CHRIST. He felt his need and knew Jesus could help. A lesser form of faith--elementary. II. Faith HIS PRAYER TO CHRIST. III. Faith THE WORD OF CHRIST. IV. Faith was BY THE OF THE WORD OF CHRIST. (Family Churchman.) Taking God at His Word This appears to be the easiest of rules. But practically none is harder; certainly none is so little kept. I. Between man and man THE SOCIAL LAW OF FAITH IS SO STRICT THAT IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT A MAN SAYS YOU ARE HELD TO COMMIT THE WRONG YOU CAN INFLICT UPON HIM. And God has the same sense of jealousy for His own truthfulness, and the same indignant feeling of wrong and outrage when His Word is questioned. Unbelief is giving God the lie. It is no light thing to treat any word of God as an unreality; it is an insult thrown in His face. II. WHO DOES TAKE GOD AT HIS WORD? The timid man? the unhappy man? the loiterer? the man who has no peace? the man who doubts his interest? the man who puts away the promises? Can any one of these escape the condemnation? III. ARE WE TAKING GOD AT HIS WORD? 1. God says, “ All have sinned.” Do you realize yourself a helpless sinner? 2. Jesus said, “ It is finished.” “ Have you accepted your salvation as a finished thing, or are you thinking “ I must do something to secure my salvation?” 3. He says, “ He that cometh unto Me,” etc. Do you say, “ I fear He will not receive me.” 4. He says “ the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” But you say, “ No, not quite all.” 5. He says to penitents. “ You are forgiven now;” but you read it, “ I shall be forgiven by and by.” 6. He says, “ Take no thought--I will provide.” But you are anxious. Is all this taking God at His word? IV. THE MEANS OF THE BLESSED ART. 1. You must go back to the simplicities of childhood. If its confidence has not been abused a little child takes everybody at his word, and never suspects anybody. 2. You must take honouring views of what God’ s Word is. The Spirit of God Himself is in that Word. 3. You must acquaint yourself with the Speaker. How shall we trust the Word if we do not trust the Speaker? (J. Vaughan, M. A.) The obedience of faith It is an incident of the life of Napoleon that one day, while reviewing his troops in Paris, he let fall the bridle reins upon his horse’ s neck, when the spirited animal at once dashed down the line. Before Napoleon could recover his seat and check the horse, a common soldier sprang from the ranks, caught the reins, stopped the excited horse, and placed the bridle in the hands of the emperor, who took it and said, “ Much obliged to you, captain.” The soldier immediately answered, “ Of what regiment, sire?” Napoleon, delighted with his quick perception and ready faith, replied, “ Of my guards,” and rode away. The soldier laid down his musket, saying, “ He may take it who will,” and started at once for the officers’ tent, where he was duly installed as captain of the guard. With an obedience and a faith equally prompt the Jewish nobleman went his way. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) Benefits of a pious parentage “ Thy son liveth.” So the son was restored by his father’ s faith. It is a benefit to be born of good parents. Personal goodness is profitable to posterity. (J. Trapp.) True faith A father was once amusing his children with an electric machine, and after one or two had received the shock they drew back from the apparatus with evident dread. The father presently held out the jar uncharged, and consequently harmless, and said, “ If you touch it now, you will feel nothing. Will you try?” The children drew back with their hands behind them. “ Don’ t you believe me?” asked he. “ Yes, sir,” and the hands were held out to prove their faith, but were quickly withdrawn before they reached the dangerous knob. One alone, a timid little girl, had that kind of confidence which really led her to trust her father. The rest believed, but had not heartfelt faith. Even the little believer’ s faith was not unwavering. You could see on her face, when the little knuckle approached the harmless brass ball, a slight expression of anxiety, showing she had some doubts and fears after all; and there was an evident feeling of relief when, from actual trial, she experienced the case to be as her father represented it. The fever left him. In Palestine, as in all other Oriental countries, fevers are very prevalent; but the fatality varies greatly according to the locality. The commonest form is a low kind of intermittent fever, malarial in character, and accompanied by a dangerous flux. This leads to a great nervous weakness and exhaustion; and the fever has a tendency to hang on for an indefinite period of time. Among the Arabs of the Sinaitic peninsula this intermittent fever is very prevalent, but a fatal termination is comparatively rare. It is specially interesting, in connection with this lesson, in which the nobleman’ s son lies sick at Capernaum, to remember that the site of Capernaum is famous to this day for the number and the malignancy of its fevers. The country lies low, and the land round about is marshy; so that during the hot season the conditions are favourable for producing fevers of the worst sort. There was a natural reason, therefore, why the nobleman’ s son should lie sick at Capernaum. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Here is a clear and beautiful illustration of the apostle’ s words, that “ God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” Ephesians 3:20). The nobleman expected an amendment, or beginning to amend. Christ bestowed at once perfect health: “ The fever left him.” Numberless are the instances of God’ s overflowing grace in this respect, as we have before noted (Ill. Mark 8:23; Mark 10:13; Mark 01:16; Luke 1:67; Luke 18:14; Luke 19:4; Luke 23:43) . (J. Ford, M. A.) Himself believed and his whole house.--The house of the Christian when God visits it with trouble. The trouble I. UNITES THE MEMBERS IN LOVE. II. DIRECTS THEIR HEARTS MORE TO THE LORD. III. AWAKENS THEM TO PRAYER AND . IV. AT LAST A JOYFUL AND FAITH. (Lisco.) Family religion In a family where religion is known and God devoutly worshipped there is a conscientious tie on every one to discharge the duties that belong to his station; a tie strengthened by eternal rewards and punishments, and laid on the very soul. The parent and master consider themselves as accountable for the principles and, in a great measure, for the salvation of their children and their servants. The children and servants consider that they are to honour their parents as the representatives of God, and not to render only an eye-service, but so to obey and serve as those who in even the most secret thought and action lie open to the eyes of God. This produces a mutual discharge of duty on both sides; and that gives peace, order, and happiness to the whole family (Psalms 101:1-8; Psalms 118:15). (P. Skelton.) The same hour.--We also sometimes meet with voices on our way which come to us as an echo of our faith. I have heard of a Colonel yon M who on account of treason to his king and country was sentenced to a long imprisonment, and who, in his solitary cell at Galatz, in Silesia, began at last to seek the living God whose image had been for so long almost obliterated within him. He was allowed to have no book except his Bible, and though at first in reading it his only feeling was inward rage and gnashing of teeth, yet by degrees he felt the soothing of God’ s tender hand on his desolate and comfortless heart. During a sleepless night he suddenly feels for the first time since his childhood as if he could pray. He opens the Bible, and reads these words: “ Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalms 50:15). Wherefore he calls upon God: “ Lord, reveal Thyself to me, and deliver me from the misery of my unbelief.” And it was granted to him to believe the word which God was speaking to him; the tender and unspeakably indulgent Lord who despises not the faintest movement of faith, had seen and rewarded the coming to Him of this miserable man. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 5:1-18 After this there was a feast of the Jews The Pool of Bethesda, a type of favoured localities in a religious community in which the highest miraculous aid has not yet appeared The miraculous aid is I. : An angel troubling the water. II. : At a certain season. III. LIMITED: To the one who steps in first. IV. TO MANY : The impotent. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) The working of God in the medicinal spring an emblem of the saving work of God in general I. IN ITS FORMS. 1. The saving operation of the Father in the kingdom of nature. 2. That of the Son in the kingdom of grace. II. IN ITS STAGES. 1. Christ’ s miraculous healing and raising of dead in general. 2. The spiritual awakening and the organic unfolding of salvation in the New Testament dispensation. 3. The finished work of salvation in the general resurrection. (J. P.Lange, D. D.) The sins of summer watering-places Outside Jerusalem there was a watering-place, the popular resort for invalids. At a certain season an angel troubled the water. That angel has his counterpart in the angel of healing, that in our day steps into the mineral springs or into the salt sea, where multitudes who are worn out with commercial or professional anxieties, as well as these who are affected with disease, go and are cured. These Bethesda’ s are scattered all up and down our country, thank God. Let not the merchant begrudge the employs, or the patient the physician, or the Church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. But I have to declare the truth that our fashionable watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of thousands. I. The first temptation that hovers in this direction is TO LEAVE YOUR PIETY AT HOME. Elders and deacons and ministers, who are entirely consistent at, home sometimes when the Sabbath dawns, take it all to themselves. On the other days the air is bewitched with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the toughest thing is to keep religion. II. Another temptation is the HORSE RACING . I never knew a man who could give himself to the pleasures of the turf and not be battered in morals. And the betting, drunkenness, and financial ruin associated with it everywhere cluster round it under a pleasant pseudonym at the watering-place. III. The temptation to . Instead of recuperating their health many lose it. Families accustomed to retire early gossip until one or two in the morning, and dyspeptics take strange liberties with viands they would be afraid to touch at home. IV. THE OF HASTY AND . Watering-places are responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than all other things combined. You might as well go among the gaily-painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels, as to go among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah! in the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper and a feminine butterfly. V. The temptation to BANEFUL . There is more pestiferous waste read by the intelligent classes in July and August than in the other ten months of the year. Men and women, who at home would not be satisfied with a book that was not really sensible, read those which ought to make them blush. “ Oh, you must have intellectual recreation.” Yes, there is no need to take books on metaphysics. But you might as well say, “ I propose now to give a little rest to my digestive organs, and instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I will, for a little while, take lighter food--a little strychnine and a few grains of ratsbane.” Literary poison in August is as bad as literary poison in December. VI. The temptation to . The watering-place is full of this temptation; after the bath, the game, the dinner, in the morning and at night the custom is to tipple. VII. : 1. The grace of God is the only safe shelter. 2. There are spiritual watering-places accessible to all. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.) The house of mercy Bethesda means house of mercy, and we have such a House and such a pool in the Church of God and the water of salvation. The pool was a crowded spot, and the poor crippled man had been all these years without finding a place in it. I. But THERE IS ROOM IN CHRIST’ S HOUSE OF MERCY, AND IT IS THE BEST PLACE FOR ALL. 1. For little children. 2. For young men and maidens. 3. For the old. II. God’ s House is the best place for all who HAVE SINNED AND . Very often people who have gone wrong cease to come to Church. They feel unfit. But let them repent and come home like the prodigal. Then they will find pardon and peace. III. God’ s House is the best place for those WHO CAME TO JESUS, BUT HAVE GONE BACK AGAIN. Can that companion of drunkards and bad women be the same who used to say, “ Our Father” with innocent lips, and was ashamed to tell a lie? Are you happier for going back from Jesus? Well, there is room for even you in the House of Mercy, and cleansing for you in the Blood of Jesus. IV. HOW MANY OF US ARE LYING LIKE THESE MEN AT ? 1. Some of us are paralyzed by sin, evil habits, worldliness. 2. Some are dumb who babble in the world but never speak to God. 3. Some are deaf who hear the offers of the market, yet cannot hear the offers of God. 4. Here in God’ s House of mercy there is a hospital for all manner of disease. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.) Waiting in mercy’ s house 1. Who wonders that a place which had such a history as that described in this chapter should be called mercy’ s house? We should not have been surprised if we had heard of it as being near the Temple; but, as if God would teach us that His mercy is to be got wherever sought, the house of mercy is close by the place where money is made. 2. How came the five porches to be built? Had some of those which had found health built them for the comfort of seekers for mercy, and thus shown their appreciation of what they had received? Let those who find grace to help in the means provided see that others have the chance of getting the same privileges. Let us write on the walls of these porches I. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND. It is evident this man thought so. Thirty-eight years hoping for a cure. How often he had been disappointed! One can see him as he smiles a sickly smile, and whispers, “ Better luck next time.” Some need to be encouraged to hope that it is not too late to be cured of the malady which threatens their soul. Do Dot despair. Satan could not wish for anything better than that your hopes should die, and your prayers cease. II. On the second porch, write, WAITING ON THE LORD IS TRUE WISDOM. If you don’ t wish to grow worse, keep in mercy’ s house. Do not be persuaded to give up going to Church. How pleased the enemy of your soul would be if he could but persuade you to spend the whole of your life away from God. “ Faith cometh by hearing.” Some convinced of sin, never able to rejoice in God our Saviour, are tempted to give up. People might have said to this man, “ Why keep going to the pool?” “ If I die without salvation, I will die at the feet of the Saviour.” III. On the third porch, write, CHRIST IS THE SHORT WAY TO COMFORT. The pool was called the house of mercy, but Christ was mercy itself. All mere human instrumentalities are to Jesus what the house is to the Master. We have an indication of Christ’ s plan of saving men. The poor man did not ask Jesus to heal him. It was mercy who took the initiative. Christ gave a command as well as asked a question. “ Take up thy bed and walk.” This was something that was a physical impossibility; yet the man made the effort, and was helped of God, and so was made whole. Jesus says to you, who are willing to be saved, “ Believe on Me.” Why say you cannot believe? God’ s commandments are promises. He never commands what He will not help us to do. IV. In the next of the porches we will write up, THE NEWLY SAVED MAY EXPECT A CHECK. The man was met as he was going down the street by those who objected to his carrying his bed. Do not be surprised if some one tries to rob you of your new-found joy. Let not any one stop you from joy in the Lord, it is your strength. V. There is yet one porch on which we will write, SIN WILL HURT YOU MORE THAN DISEASE. “ Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (T. Champness.) Scripture a record of human sorrow What a scene of misery Bethesda must have presented. I. THE BIBLE IS FULL OF SUCH OF HUMAN MISERY. It begins with the history of the curse, and ends with predictions of judgments. II. And, further, IT SEEMS TO DROP WHAT MIGHT BE SAID IN FAVOUR OF THIS LIFE, and enlarges on the unpleasant side of it. Little does it say on the pleasures of life. But then human tales and poems make things better than they are. Scripture tells the truth, “ Man is born to trouble.” III. THIS VIEW IS THE AND TRUE VIEW OF HUMAN LIFE, AND A VIEW WHICH IT US MUCH TO KNOW, else we shall he obliged to learn it by sad experience; whereas if we are forewarned we shall unlearn false notions of its excellence and be saved from disappointment, and learn to bear a sober and calm heart under a smiling cheerful countenance. IV. WHAT IS THE OF OR OF GOD’ S WANING VOICE. For a while all will be enjoyment: health is good, spirit high, troubles easily mastered; but as years roll on it is discovered that substantial good is wanting. Then a man will get restless and discontented, for he does not know how to amuse himself. He has made no effort to change his heart, strengthen his faith, or subdue his passions. Now their day is come, and they begin to domineer. He had no habitual thought of God in the former time, and now he dreads Him. Where shall he look for succour? To those around him he is a burden. And so he will lie year after year by Bethesda no one helping him, and unable from long habits of sin to advance towards a cure. V. THERE IS A MORE SOLEMN STILL--THAT TAUGHT BY LAZARUS AND DIVES. Suppose the world to remain a faithful friend till the last, its vanity will be disclosed after death. These disclosures of Scripture, then, are intended to save us pain by preventing the unreserved enjoyment of the world. Let this not seem to make life melancholy. The true Christian rejoices in those earthly things which give joy, but in such a way as not to care for them when they go. VI. OUR SAVIOUR GIVES US A PATTERN WHICH WE ARE BOUND TO FOLLOW. True, such self-command composure and inward faith are not to be learned in a day; if they were why should this life be given us? It is given us as a preparation time for obtaining them. Its sights and sorrows are to calm you, and its pleasant sights to try you. Learn to be as the angel who could descend among the miseries of Bethesda without losing his purity or happiness. Gain healing from troubled waters. Be light-hearted and contented because you are a member of Christ’ s pilgrim Church. (J. H.Newman, D. D.) An old Jerusalem infirmary I. THE (John 5:2-3). 1. Its site. Where God has a temple His worshippers should found a hospital (Isaiah 57:7; Matthew 25:35-40). 2. Its form. It was not the five porches of man’ s construction, but the water of God’ s providing that healed; but the former enabled patients to take advantage of the latter. In nature and grace man is permitted to be God’ s fellow-worker (Deuteronomy 8:3; Deuteronomy 8:18; Psalms 23:1; Psalms 67:6; Hosea 2:21; 2 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 2:13), but in both He is “ Jehovah Rophi” (Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalms 103:3). 3. Its name: House of Grace, than which none could be more appropriate for an institution whose origin was love and whose end was healing, and to which Christ came. 4. Its inmates: specimens of the poor creatures who still crowd the world’ s infirmaries, and emblems of spiritual invalids. II. THE PATIENT (John 5:5). 1. A great sufferer for half a lifetime. 2. A friendless outcast, touching the lowest deep of human wretchedness Psalms 142:4). Many such in the lazar house of humanity. 3. A disappointed seeker. One wonders that his heart was not broken by his endless disappointments (Proverbs 13:12; Proverbs 18:14). But “ hope springs eternal in the human breast” (Romans 8:24). What a comfort there are no such disappointed seekers after spiritual health (Isaiah 45:19;Matthew 7:7-8; Zechariah 13:1; Titus 3:5). III. THE (verse 6). 1. His quick observation. Christ’ s people should cultivate the “ seeing eye,” for there is no lack of opportunities (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Hebrews 13:6). 2. His perfect diagnosis. Christ apprehends both the man and his malady in every instance (Psalms 7:9; Psalms 119:168; Psalms 139:1-4; Proverbs 15:11; John 1:48; John 2:24-25; John 4:29; Revelation 2:23). 3. His tender compassion, implied if not expressed. He distinguished between the sinner and his sin (verse 14). So in imitation of Mt 5:45 Christian philanthropy should embrace the criminal classes within itsGa 6:10). 4. His hopeful inquiry. 5. His extraordinary prescription equivalent to Ephesians 5:14; Mark 1:15. Christian duty transcends natural ability, but what Christ commands He is willing to supply (John 1:12). IV. THE CURE. 1. Instantaneous, like all His cures physical and spiritual. 2. Complete. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) A hospital sermon I. Christ always honoured the religious observances of his day. He shows us 1. The advantage of church institutions. 2. The relative value of religious ritual. 3. The duty of public worship. II. NEAR THE TEMPLE WAS A . The connection between the Church and benevolent institutions (and between the philanthropist and the Christian) is vital. Show one and you will find 1. That Christian love has started it. 2. That Christian liberality has supported it. 3. That Christian charity has been its daily guardian. III. WHAT HAVE THE SYSTEMS OF DONE FOR THE POOR AND SICK OF OUR LAND? Did Voltaire ever endow an almshouse? What have Tom Paine, Rousseau, Hume, Gibbon, etc., done for the amelioration of the race? What building stands to commemorate the sympathy, heroism, and liberality of the secularism of our day? It was the Christian in Howard that made him a religious reformer; in Wilberforce that made him a slave emancipator; that inspired Florence Nightingale, etc. The Church is the poor man’ s refuge; the Bible the sorrowing man’ s hope; Christ the world’ s great need; heaven the weary man’ s rest. (G. Minkle.) Bethesda I. THE POOL. 1. In Jerusalem, typical of the Church into which you have been introduced by baptism. 2. The pool itself is emblematical of that “ Fountain opened in the house of David,” etc. It is full, not of water, but of Spirit, and His baptism is life to the soul and healing and power to its injured and enfeebled faculties. 3. The five porches set forth the five springs in the Rock of Ages, hands, feet, side, each yielding its separate stream of blessing. II. THOSE WHO LAY ROUND THE POOL. 1. Representatives of the unconverted citizens of the Spiritual Jerusalem. (1) The blind, unable to discern the right hand from the left, nay, incapable of seeing any hand to the soul at all. (2) The halt, divested of faculty for every motion. (3) The withered, incompetent “ as paralytics are” to move the limbs or organs of the soul. Why, if the powers of the congregation were suddenly let loose, the results would arouse the whole world: there would not be a house in the district, however poor and sinful; however rich and worldly, that would not be beset, as it were, by a host of inspired apostles. Attempt to move men in their ordinary state to Sunday-school teaching, missionary exertion, or hearty contribution towards religious objects: some will say, We cannot see the matter as you do; others will say, We approve of the object, but cannot move in it; we are bound by such special bonds that we cannot stir in the case, or if we went and followed your advice, we should be helpless as the dead. What is this but being blind, halt, withered? 2. Take the case of an actual believer. He may feel himself providentially impeded; his way may be hidden, his powers confined, fast bound with bonds invisible. The thought of what a neighbour, or a newspaper, or an enemy, or a dignitary may say, ties him as within gates of brass. He would speak, but invisible ligatures fasten his tongue. He will say, “ For that I should have a higher position, a larger fortune, more vigorous powers.” Well, this may be true; yet an energetic grasp of the Hand that moves the universe might remove all these restrictions. III. THE OF THE POOL. 1. The day: the Sabbath. The pool is always troubled, but the Lord’ s day is the day for finding it out. Abolish Sunday and not only would the pool he neglected, but it would become dry. 2. The place: God’ s House, not exclusively of course, for it is everywhere accessible But hers are unusual facilities. 3. The troublers: God’ s ministers as His agents. (1) By prayer. (2) By preaching. (3) By sacraments. (T. D. Gregg, D. D.) Bethesda I. How eager were these folk to be cured! Would that there were the same earnestness for the healing of the soul. II. GOD CAUSED THE OF THE WATERS, BUT LEFT THE SICK TO GET IN. As Matthew Henry says, “ God has put virtue into Scripture and ordinances, and if we do not make a due improvement of them, it is our own fault. III. THIS MAN’ S WAS OF THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS’ ; SHALL WE OF ONE NIGHT. We should visit hospitals sometimes that we may learn to be thankful for our own blessings and to pity the sufferings of others. IV. HE SEEMS TO HAVE HAD NO FRIEND. Some day troubles may come upon us which no earthly friend can alleviate or understand. But Jesus knows, He can sympathize and heal. V. LEARN AND HOPE PROM THE OF THIS MAN Hebrews 2:3; Luke 18:1). (G. J. Brown, M. A.) Bethesda The porches were once places of luxurious indulgence for the rich. In the process of time they became hospitals for the poor. I. THE WORLD’ S PAIN IS OVER A VAST SURFACE, BUT THERE ARE PLACES, OF . It will do us good to go into the back street or infirmary where it hides itself. II. THE PEOPLE WERE A GREAT . 1. Sorrow has always been in a majority. 2. The great multitude represented a great variety of diseases. There are some thousands to which the human frame is subject. Think of a thousand ways of taking a man to pieces; of God having a thousand scourges by which He can lay His hand of punishment and trial on the sinner. I can run away from fire and water; but who can escape God? 3. The man who is, popularly speaking, in the robustest health to-day may be smitten before the setting of the sun with a fatal disease. In the midst of life we are in death. Therefore, “ Whatsoever thy hand,” etc. 4. All the people were waiting. We are all doing the same. “ Man never is, but always to be blest.” There are two methods of waiting. (1) The method which means patience, hope, assurance that God will in His own time redeem His promises; (2)the method of impatience and distrust and complaining that wears the soul out. III. EVERY LIFE HAS SOME GIVEN IT. “ There is a tide in the affairs of man,” etc. Every one has bad a door opened. The angel is present to-day. 1. You may heal the disease of selfishness by timely generosity. 2. You may heal the disease of indolence by Christian work. IV. WATERS ARE OFTEN HEALING WATERS. Not the little puddles you make with your own foot; but the troubles that God makes by His angels and a thousand ministries by which He interposes. You may take hold of trouble by the wrong end and abuse it, or you may make it a place for thought and vow. V. IN ALL CLASSES THERE IS A SPECIAL MAN. I am groaning over something I have had for ten years, and there is a man that has had something for five and twenty and never made half the noise about it. I have only one loaf; another man says he has not tasted for three days. There is always someone worse off than you are. VI. WE CANNOT GET USED TO PAIN, BUT WE GET TO THE SIN THAT MAKES IT. VII. THE IS SENT NOT TO THE WHOLE BUT TO THE SICK. The very asking of His question has healing in it. Some people ask about our sickness but make us worse; others ask us how we are and the kind inquiry makes us feel better. VIII. THE OF PAIN. Here again we come on the subtle working of sin. Does any one say to the man who has been lying in pain for thirty-eight years, “ You are worse than I, I shall give you a turn this time.” Great numbers of people had been healed, but no one offered help. Blessing unsanctified may increase our selfishness. IX. CHRIST’ S POWER IS NOT BUT PRIMARY. He speaks and it stands fast. X. LET US APPLY THE WHOLE THING TO THE MATTER OF . 1. It was an angel who troubled the water; it is the Son of God who opens the fountain for sin. 2. The water was moved at a certain time only; the atonement of the Son of God is open to our approaches night and day. 3. Whosoever first stepped in was cured at Bethesda; here the whole world may all go in at once. 4. Go to the fountain and one thing you will never find there--one dead man. (J. Parker, D. D.) Bethesda Christ was eminently a public man. Wherever most people were congregated, there was He; not induced by curiosity, pleasure, or desire for admiration, but to fulfil His mission. Here we find Him after a fifty-six miles’ walk. The prospect of usefulness made it worth the trouble. I. THE . 1. The hospital and its bath. The cloisters were designed for ordinary bathers, but since it bad become medicinal, they were filled with the diseased. 2. The patients and their diseases. (1) The blind with all manner of ophthalmic complaints. (2) Halt, persons lame from accident, disease, or eruptions. (3) Withered, those whose sinews had shrunk, and power of movement had become impossible. 3. The angel and his operations. 4. The impotent man and his special infirmity. He was deprived of the power of rapid motion, and laid expecting help; but helpful friends are only found at feasts, not in hospitals, 5. The Physician and His cure. (1) What a question He asked! The doctor generally says, “ Tell me your disease, its symptoms; let me feel your pulse.” This Physician knew more than the patient. (2) Power came with the healing word, and the man instantly became vigorous. 6. The objectors and their cavils. 7. The restored man and his lesson. (1) The miracle had a beneficial effect, for he went into the Temple to express his gratitude. (2) Christ gave him a caution. A worse evil might accrue through sin than thirty-eight years’ affliction. And so now: a guilty conscience, loss of God’ s friendship, hell. 8. The communication and its effects. Who can blame the man for his effusive testimony to his benefactor? Yet it was scarcely prudent, a fact that should be borne in mind by the over-zealous, for “ the Jews sought to kill Jesus.” II. THE . 1. Sickness is often God’ s discipline to prepare the mind to welcome Christ. “ Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest.” The Thessalonians “ received the Word in much affliction.” 2. If we would be healed of our spiritual maladies we must be found where that healing is ordinarily bestowed. (1) This may be a work of difficulty, as in the case before us. (2) There are special seasons in which God vouchsafes signal blessings to the Church. 3. The most desperate and lengthened cases are not beyond the reach of Christ’ s powers. (1) Those who have reached the age of this man and whose sin seems inveterate. (2) Backsliders. 4. Copy the sympathy of Christ to the afflicted. We cannot help them as He did, but we can help and comfort them. Visit the fatherless and widows, the sick, etc. (J. Sherman.) The pool of Bethesda This is a picture in miniature of the world. I. The world is GREATLY . 1. Effects of sin. 2. Often the means of salvation. II. The world has . 1. Medicinal properties of the earth. 2. Soothing influences of nature. 3. Offices of social love. 4. The Gospel of Christ. III. The world is SADLY SELFISH. 1. The injustice of selfishness. 2. Its impiety. 3. Its misery. IV. The world has a SAVIOUR. 1. He cures the greatest of sufferers. 2. By His own Word. 3. At the earnest desire of the patient. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The pool of Bethesda I. SOME ACCOUNT OF WHAT IS HERE. This pool is placed near the sheep market or gate. You read of this sheep gate in Nehemiah. Josephus tells us that near one of the gates which corresponds with this was Solomon’ s pool, which we may conclude to be Bethesda. But the pool of Solomon derived its waters from the fountain of Siloam or Shiloh, which also fed the pool of Siloam. Isaiah uses the waters of Siloam “ that go softly” to represent the kingdom of David, which is emblematic of the kingdom of Christ. Accordingly, the Jews attached a sacred character to them, applying to them during the feast of Tabernacles the words, “ With joy shall ye draw water,” etc. May we not think, therefore, that as those waters foreshadowed the kingdom of Christ, God was pleased when that kingdom was near to endue those waters with a healing power, as though to give notice of the restorative virtue that Christ would exert? A long and dreary season, without prophecy and miracles, had elapsed since Malachi; but when the time of Christ was at hand prodigies began again; and prophecy recommenced. Why not add to other attestions that one furnished by the text? Here an angel descended in token of the return of intercourse between earth and heaven. The cripple had lain for thirty-eight years, and attendance probably commenced when the waters became healing. This would place the first advent of the angel about 7 B.C., just when the heraldy of approach was likely to begin. II. THE AS . 1. It was only at certain seasons that the angel descended, and only he who was instantly upon the alert became healed. The fountain opened for sin is ever equally efficacious, but there are precious opportunities in every man’ s life, on the taking advantage of which may depend his final salvation. There is too much ground to believe that Sunday assemblings are seasons to many of the troubling of the waters, and nevertheless not seasons of the restoration of health, because the agitation is allowed to subside. 2. The condition of cure was personal willingness. The man might have found it profitable to be maimed. Many a cripple prefers begging with one arm to working with two. (1) Wilt thou be made whole, oh young man, who art the slave of thy passions, and whose god is pleasure? Think what it is to be made whole, to mortify thy passions, to deny thyself, “ to live soberly,” etc. (2) Wilt thou, oh man of ambition? (3) Wilt thou, oh woman of frivolous tastes? There is a secret unwillingness which frustrates the ordinances of grace, and keeps Bethesda still crowded. Men dread the stirring of the waters, and whenever they find them agitated pour upon them the oil of flattering deceit. 3. The man was not wearied out by repeated disappointments. Men now wait upon the means week after week without apparent benefit, and are tempted to give up. But you may be giving up at the very moment when God, having duly exercised your patience, is about to interpose. The greatest promises are to those who wait upon the Lord. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Jesus at Bethesda I. THE DIVINE HELPER. 1. He saw him. It is something for a man to look on wretchedness. Men’ s eyes, as a rule, are turned the other way. The Christian rule is, “ Look not every man on his own things,” etc. 2. He knew the circumstances of this patient, and He knows ours. 3. He pitied this poor man. “ Man’ s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” But Jesus is a high priest that “ can be touched.” 4. He addressed him. He made the first advances, and awoke new hope within him. 5. He healed him. But not until the arm of flesh had failed. “ Sir, I have no man,” etc. II. THE . Surely a life so beneficent should have been left alone. But the faultfinders are everywhere, and are never at a loss for a text or pretext. They are dogs in the manger. They sneer at foreign missions, protesting that “ Charity begins at home,” but when beggars pass by mutter, “ This is a fine sight in a Christian country.” How shall we behave towards such people? Let them alone, and go on with our own business as Jesus did. III. THE NEW CONVERT. 1. He was obedient. 2. He was found in the Temple, doubtless to give praise to God. But “ thanksliving is better than thanksgiving” ; therefore our Lord says, “ Sin no Job 20:11). The ruin of the soul is worse than thirty-eight years of palsy (Hebrews 6:4-9). 3. He testified of Jesus. Witness-bearing is the best preaching. (D. J.Burrell, D. D.) Jesus at Bethesda I. THE PATIENT. 1. He was fully aware of his sickness, and owned it He was not like those who are lost by nature, who do not know it or will not confess it. 2. He waited by the pool expecting some sign and wonder. This, too, is how many wait, persevering in ordinances and unbelief, expecting some great thing, that on a sudden they will experience strange emotions and remarkable impressions, or see a vision or hear a supernatural voice. No one will deny that a few have been thus favoured--Colossians Gardiner, e.g. but such interpositions are not to be looked for. Jesus Himself is the greatest of wonders. In regard to this matter of waiting remark (1) That it is not the way which God has bidden His servants preach. The gospel of our salvation is “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2) This ungospel-like gospel of waiting is immensely popular. Why? Because it administers laudanum to the conscience. When the minister preaches with power and men’ s hearts are touched, the devil says “ Wait.” (3) Is not this waiting a very hopeless business? Of those who waited how few were healed? What right have you to expect that if you wait another thirty years you will be different? (4) There lies our poor friend. I do not blame him for waiting, for Jesus had not been there before. (5) Having been so often disappointed he was growing in deep despair. Moreover he was getting old; and life is wearing away with you. You have waited all this while in vain, sinfully waited. You have seen others saved, your child, your wife; but you are not. II. THE . 1. He made an election. This man was possibly selected because his was the worst case and had waited longest of all. 2. Jesus said, “ Wilt thou be made whole?” not for information, but to arouse attention. 3. He gave the word of command. 4. There is nothing said in the text about faith, but the whole incident shows that the man must have had faith. 5. The cure which Christ wrought was (1) Perfect. The man could carry his bed. (2) Immediate. The man was not carried home by friends and gradually nursed into vital energy. III. APPLY THE TO THE PRESENT . Why should we not on this very spot have instantaneous cures of sick souls? Man fell in a moment; why should not Christ restore in a moment? 1. Look at the Biblical illustrations of what salvation is. Noah built an ark, the type of salvation. When was Noah saved? After he had been in the ark a week or two? No; the moment Noah went through the door and the Lord shut him in he was safe. Take the case of the Passover; the moment the blood was sprinkled the house was secured. When the brazen serpent was lifted up were the wounded told to wait till it was pushed in their faces, or until the venom showed certain symptoms? No, they were commanded to look. Were they healed in six months’ time? 2. Take Biblical instances. The dying thief, the 3,000 at Pentecost, the Philippian jailer. 3. The work of salvation is all done. You want washing, but the fountain does not need filling. You want clothing, but the robe is ready. 4. Regeneration cannot be a work of a long time. There must be a line, we cannot always see it but God must, between life and death. 5. For God to say, “ I forgive thee,” takes not a century or a year. The Judge pronounces the sentence and the criminal is acquitted. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The miracle at Bethesda I. THE PORCHES WERE FULL OF SICK FOLK. The world is full of the spiritually sick--thieves, drunkards, harlots, proud, covetous, etc. II. THESE SICK FOLK WERE FULL OF ALL THE TIME. So are many now, but their expectancy is misdirected. “ As soon as I get out of my present business I will reform” ; “ I am going to church oftener” ; “ Next week is my birthday; I will then turn over a new leaf” ; “ I will repent on my death-bed” ; “ I expect to be healed in the next revival.” III. THE SICK MAN’ S HEALING ON HIS TURNING FROM THE POOL TO JESUS. IV. HEALED THE MAN WAS; NOW JESUS BIDS HIM BE HOLY. Christ our physicianI. WE ARE ALL UNDER THE MALADY OF SIN. This malady Isaiah 1. Universal. 2. It pervades our whole nature. 3. It is attended by (1) Degradation; (2) suffering; (3) loss of power. 4. It will issue if not arrested in eternal death. II. NO MAN CAN CURE HIMSELF. This is proved 1. By consciousness. 2. By experience. All efforts at self-cure result in failure or self- deception, or, at best, in mitigation of the symptoms. III. NO MAN OR SET OF MEN CAN CURE OTHERS. This has been attempted 1. By educators. 2. By philosophers. 3. By ascetics. 4. By ritualists. The world is filled by spiritual charlatans. IV. CHRIST IS THE ONLY . 1. He secures the right of applying the only effectual remedy by propitiating the justice of God, and securing liberty of access to the soul for the Holy Spirit. 2. He sends that Spirit as the Spirit of life and strength. As the constitution is radically affected, a radical cure is necessary, which can only be effected by a life-giving Spirit. 3. The cure is certain and permanent. It results in immortal vigour, beauty, and strength. 4. This Physician is accessible to every one at all times. He requires no preparation, and will receive no recompense. Inferences: 1. The duty of every one to apply to Him for cure. 2. The reason why any are not cured must be in them, not in Him. 3. The duty of making this Physician known to others. (C. Hodge, D. D.) Conversion as illustrated by the miracle 1. The utterly lost, hopeless state of every sinner sitting by the waters of salvation (John 5:5). 2. The offer of help addressed to each man’ s free will for his personal acceptance (John 5:6). 3. The first phase of conflict that pride is apt to make in blaming others and excusing self (John 5:7). 4. The peremptoriness of the gospel demand: Do something, and God will help (John 5:8-9). 5. The next phase of conflict which external opposition makes discouraging the soul with mere cavils (John 5:10). 6. The full and honest justification of conduct: The One that healed me told me what to do (John 5:11). 7. The salutary experience of solicitude against old besetting sin (John 5:14). 8. The happy obedience of active confession of Christ before others; say openly and everywhere, “ It was Jesus that made me whole!” (John 5:15) (C. S.Robinson, D. D.) Jesus went up to Jerusalem.--Jesus never, as a rule, let a feast go by without visiting Jerusalem. 1. To fulfil the duty of an Israelite. 2. To use the opportunity of preaching to the largest multitudes. 3. To testify the truths then to the leaders at a time when He might appear before them without their venturing to lay hands upon Him. Evangelical clergymen should use the high Christian festivals with conscientious fidelity. 1. Because then larger congregations are attracted, and many are present then who come at no other time. 2. Because souls are then in a more solemn mood than at other times. (Heubner.) Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market a poolThe water supply of Jerusalem was one of the most wonderful things in that wonderful city. The cisterns, in what is now called the Sanctuary, appear to have been connected by a system of channels cut out of the rock, so that when one was full the surplus water ran into the next, and so on until the final overflow was carried off by a channel into the Kedron. One of the cisterns, that known as the Great Sea, would contain two million gallons; and the total number of gallons which could be stored probably exceeded ten millions. This supply of water appears to have been obtained from springs, wells, the collection of rain in pools and cisterns, and water brought from a distance by aqueducts. The extensive remains of cisterns, pools, and aqueducts show that little dependence was placed on any natural springs existing in or near the city; and, indeed, from the formation of the ground it is doubtful whether any existed besides the Fountain of the Virgin in the Kedron Valley. There may have been a source in the Tyropaeon Valley, but it could only have been a small and not very lasting one. Water was brought into the city by two aqueducts, the “ low level” and the “ high level” ; but the course of the former can alone be traced within the walls of the city. (Recovery Jerusalem.) Bethesda.--The most natural etymology of the word is “ House of Mercy.” Whether the name alludes to the munificence of some pious Jew who had constructed the porches as a shelter for the sick, or whether it relates to the goodness of God, from whom this healing spring proceeded is uncertain. Delitsch supposes that the etymology was Beth-estaw, peristyle. Others have taken it from Beth Aschada, place of out-pouring (perhaps of the blood of victims). It might be supposed that the porches were five isolated buildings arranged in a circle round the pool. But it is more natural to consider it one single edifice, forming a peritagonal peristyle, in the centre of which was the reservoir. Some springs of mineral water are known at the present day at the east of the city; among others the baths of Ain-es-Schefa. Tobler has proved that this spring is fed by the large chamber of water situated under the mosque which has replaced the Temple. Another better known spring is found at the foot of the southeastern slope of Moriah, called the Virgin Spring. It is very intermittent. The basin is quite dry; then the water is seen springing up among the stones. On one occasion Tobler saw it rise four and a half inches with a gentle undulation; on another it rose for more than twenty-two minutes to a height of six or seven inches, and came down again in two minutes to its previous level. Robinson saw it rise a foot in five minutes. He was assured that this movement is repeated at certain times twice or thrice a day, but that in summer it is seldom observed more than once in two or three days. These phenomena present a certain analogy to what is related of the Bethesda spring. Eusebius speaks also of springs in this locality, the water of which was reddish, evidently due to mineral elements, but, according to him, to the filtering of the blood of victims into it. Tradition places Bethesda in a great square hollow, surrounded by walls, at the north of the Haram, south from the street which leads from the St. Stephen’ s Gate. It is called Birket-Israil, and is about twenty-three yards deep, forty-four yards broad, and more than double in length. The bottom is dry, filled with grass and shrubs. Bethesda must have been in this vicinity, for here the sheep-gate was situated. As it is impossible to identify the pool, it may have been covered with debris or have disappeared, as so often happens in the case of intermittent springs. Those which are found at the present day prove only how favourable the soil is to this sort of phenomena. (F. Godet, D. D.) The identity with Bethesda of the deep reservoir in Jerusalem, which today bears its name, Robinson regards as improbable, and is more inclined to find it in the intermittent fountain of the virgin on the south-east slope of the Temple Mount. From John 5:7 and the close of Joh 5:8, it appears that this spring probably was gaseous, and bubbled at intervals. There is a spring of this kind at Kissengen, which, after a rushing sound about the same time every day, commences to bubble, and is most efficacious at the very time the gas is making its escape. This spring is especially used in diseases of the eye. (Tholuck.) For an angel went down at a certain seasonTextual criticism This verse has undoubtedly no right to a place in the text. That fourth verse the most important Greek and Latin copies are without, and most of the early versions. In other MSS. which retain this verse, the obelus which hints suspicion, or the asterisk which marks rejection, is attached to it; while those in which it appears unquestioned belong mostly, as Griesbach shows, to a later recension of the text. And this fourth verse spreads the suspicion of its own spuriousness over the last clause of the verse pre- ceding, which, though it has not so great a body of evidence against it, has yet, in a less degree, the same notes of suspicion about it. Doubtless whatever here is addition, whether only the fourth verse, or the last clause also of the third, found very early its way into the text; we have it as early as Tertullian, the first witness for its presence At first probably a marginal note, expressing the popular notion of the Jewish Christians concerning the origin of the healing power which from time to time these waters possessed, by degrees it assumed the shape in which now we have it: for there are marks of growth about it, betraying them- selves in a great variety of readings--some copies omitting one part, and some another, of the verse--all which is generally the sign of a later addition: thus, little by little, it procured admission into the text, probably at Alexandria at first, the birthplace of other similar additions The statement rests upon that religious view of the world, which in all nature sees something beyond nature, which does not believe that it has discovered causes, when, in fact, it has only traced the sequence of phenomena, and which everywhere recognizes a going forth of the immediate power of God, invisible agencies of His, whether personal or otherwise, accomplishing His will. (Archbishop Trench.) The other side The verse is not found in “ Sin,” B.C. 0, nor in a few cursive MSS., nor in the Cureton Syriac, but they were in copies of this Gospel in the time of Tertullian, and are quoted by Chrysostum, Cyril, Augustine, and others, and they exist in important MSS. As to the question why it is inserted, the reply is to assign a cause for the phenomenon. But, on the other hand, reasons no less valid may account for its omission. Who had seen the angel? What Jewish writer had recorded his appearance and operation? These are questions which might have been urged by sceptics of old as now, and the easiest way of removing objections might seem to be to omit the words. We know that this feeling operated so strongly with critics of old as to lead them to omit, not only a few words, but entire books. (Bp. Wordsworth.) Jewish legends about healing waters The Jews themselves had several legends of the healing waters. Thus the “ Fount of Miriam,” from which the Israelites drank in the desert, was said to flow, after the conquest of Canaan, into the lake of Galilee; and it was believed that, at the end of every Sabbath, its waters flowed out and mingled with the waters of all fountains. Whoever had the good fortune to draw from a fountain at the moment when the waters of the “ Fount of Miriam “ mingled with it, and bathed himself with that water, would be cured of all his diseases--even if these were of the most loathsome description. Lightfoot cites an instance of a man suffering from a grievous disease who went down to the lake of Galilee to swim. Now, it happened to be the time when the Fount of Miriam was flowing, so that, when he came out of the water, he found that he was healed. The same author instances a case from the rabbins, of a fountain that was inhabited by two spirits--one evil and one good. When Abba Joses sat at this fountain, there “ appeared to him the spirit that resided there, and said, ‘ You know well enough how many years I have dwelt in this place, and how yourselves and your wives have come and returned without any damage done to you. But now you must know that an evil spirit endeavours to supply my room, who would prove very mischievous to you.’ He saith to him, ‘ What must we do then?’ He answered him and said, ‘ Go and tell the townspeople that whoever hath a hammer and an iron pin or bolt, let him come hither to-morrow morning, and have his eye intent upon the waters, and when you see the waters troubled, then let them knock with the iron, and say, “ The victory is ours” ; and so let them not go back till they see thick drops of blood upon the face of the waters.” To which the gloss adds, “ By this sign it will appear that the spirit was conquered and killed.” The reader who is concerned about the result of this stratagem may be glad to know that it proved quite successful. In connection with this general subject it is interesting to note the belief, among primitive peoples all over the world, in the waters of life. In a legend found among the Modern Greeks the water of life flows within a hollow rock, and is inaccessible except to a favoured few; in another case where the waters are concealed in the same way, the rock opens at noon, and discloses several springs, each of which calls out, “ Come, draw from me,” but only one is the spring of the water of life; and this true spring is pointed out by a bee which flies directly to it. Whoever draws this water Of life can sprinkle a few drops of it upon any dead animal or man, and immediately the dead will spring to life. Even when the dead have been hacked to pieces, the water of life sprinkled over the parts will bring them together, and unite them into a new and youthful life. In some cases, two springs are said to flow side by side, one giving forth the water of life, the other giving forth the water of death. If the water of death is taken instead of the water of life, the opposite effect is produced. A drop or two will kill a living man at once. There are also legends throughout the whole world concerning the waters of strength. These are generally fabled to be guarded by some mythical monster--snake or dragon--but whoever eludes the vigilance of these guardians, and possesses himself of the water, has the means of endowing himself with superhuman strength. To swallow a few drops is to make one’ s self, according to the legend, more than a match for any mortal foe. The significance of the angel’ s action What St. John affirms is that a certain invisible angel or minister was the instrument of making the water beneficial to the persons who went down into it. He accounts in this way for its operation being more useful at one time than another. That assertion, you say, interferes with the doctrine that there were certain properties in the water itself which affected the condition of human beings. How does it interfere? You hold that the vaccine matter has in itself the property of counteracting the virus of the small-pox. But you hold also that the intelligence of Jenner had something to do with making this vaccine matter available for actual cure; you hold that the intelligence of different medical men has something to do with bringing the preventive power to bear on particular cases. You know this for a fact, but physical science tells you nothing of the way in which the intelligence co-operates with the natural agent. The notion that it does is a fallacy. In no instance whatever can the mere study of physics help you to determine anything respecting moral or intellectual forces, though at every turn the study of physics compels you to the acknowledgment of such forces. It will save us from innumerable confusions if we take this proposition in the length and breadth of it. Through neglect of it the physician and the metaphysician are perpetually stumbling against each other when they might be the greatest helpers of each other. (F. D. Maurice, D. D.) It seems a worthy exercise of Divine revelation to lead human philosophy to regard what are called physical phenomena as being not produced by natural laws, though they may be regulated according to them, but as effected by Divine agency; in a word, to elevate the human mind from the lower level of material mechanics to the higher region of spiritual dynamics. (Bp. Wordsworth.) The troubling of the water.--In every excited fear of the vengeance of God, in every impulse which would send you to your knees, in every brief aspiration after holiness and heaven, you have tokens that the angel has been with you, summoning you to be heedful, and not to lose the opportunity which may, perhaps, be the last. And if you take not advantage of the troubling of the waters, if, that is, when you feel prompted to pray you omit to pray; when made conscious of the evil of a practice, you do not forthwith set yourselves to correct that practice; and when moved to the study of the Scriptures, you defer that study to a more convenient season, why, there is more than a probability that you will not soon again be visited with the desire after salvation, and that, even when so visited, it will be in less measure; for the Spirit of God, who is the actual agent, whatever the instrumentality employed in troubling the waters, is grieved and provoked by resistance to His influences, and may be tempted altogether to withdraw, when He has striven with you, and agitated you in vain. (H. Melvill, B. D.) An infirmity thirty and eight yearsThe gospel equal to the most inveterate cases There is a city missionary traversing this district, who finds in a room a woman ninety-eight years of age, and begins to tell her about Christ and salvation; and the poor old woman receives it, and comes to this table, at ninety-eight years of age, for the first time, avowing her faith in Christ, and linking in her hand a little girl fourteen years old, who was received into the Church with herself. Aged and young can be cured by Christ’ s power. There sat in a country village a poor old diseased woman, who with the greatest difficulty got into the kitchen of a butcher, in whose house some itinerants used to go and preach, to listen to the Word; and she is seventy-two years of age; but the Word goes into her mind, she receives it, and not only becomes a devoted follower of Christ, but one of the most useful women in the village. There is hope for you! When I was at Bath I heard of a gentleman who had retired from business, surrounded with the bounties of Providence, but had not sought Christ. His wife was very anxious, good woman! about him. One day she prevailed upon him to come with her to God’ s house; and as she went she prayed that God would give the minister some text that would be likely to impress her poor thoughtless, witty, indifferent husband’ s mind; and when the minister gave out his text, it was this, “ My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” “ I thought,” she said, “ I should sink in the pew; I knew what fun he would be likely to make of the passage.” However, the Word went home to him, and his thought was this--“ I know my wife can say that Christ is her Beloved, and that she is Hisbeloved, but He is not mine” ; and from that moment he became a devoted follower of the Lamb, used his property for the service of Christ, and went to heaven rejoicing in His favour. (J. Sherman.) Wilt thou be made whole? The Physician’ s inquiry I. A MARK OF . II. AN OF . III. THE OF POWER. The question is still asked--How many refuse the offer! (Preacher’ s Analyst.) The Good Physician’ s question I. ASSUMES THAT THEY TO WHOM IT IS ARE NOT WHOLE. II. THAT THEY MAY BE MADE WHOLE. III. IMPLIES THAT IT DEPENDS UPON THEIR OWN WILLS WHETHER OR NOT THEY SHALL BE MADE WHOLE. IV. THE NEEDED TO ALL WHO ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE IT. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) A singular but needful question It seems a strange question. Who would not be made whole? Would the poor man have been lying at the pool had he not been anxious for healing? Yet, as our Lord spake no superfluous words, it may be perceived that the paralysis was mental as well as physical. He had waited until despondency had dried up his spirits, and he scarcely cared whether he was made whole or not. The Saviour touched a chord that needed to vibrate; He aroused a dormant faculty whose exercise was essential to cure. Are there not those here who, through having waited so long, are beginning to get paralyzed in their once earnest desires to come to occupy this seat as a mere matter of custom. I. This question is needful, because IT IS NOT ALWAYS . 1. It is not the same as “ Wilt thou be saved from going to hell?” --every one answers “ Aye” to that; but “ Wilt thou be saved from sin?” 2. To help you, let me remind you that there never were but two men perfectly whole. (1) The first Adam. We should all be willing to be in paradise with him; but are we willing to walk with God as he did? (2) The second Adam. “ Holy, harmless, undefiled,” etc. Whole towards God, man, holiness. Do you wish to be like Him? 3. When a man is whole there are certain evil propensities which are expelled, and Certain moral qualities which he is sure to possess (1) Honesty; (2) sobriety; (3) truthfulness; (4) generosity in giving and forgiving. 4. He will have spiritual graces also (1) Humility; (2) prayerfulness; (3) consecration. II. THIS IS CAPABLE OF A GOOD MANY REPLIES, and therefore it is the more necessary that it should be asked and answered. 1. There are some whose only reply is no answer at all. They don’ t want to consider anything of the sort. (1) “ We are young, and have plenty of time.” (2) “ We are business people, and have something else to do.” (3) “ We are wealthy and cultured, and must not be expected to look at these things as coarse-minded people do.” (4) “ We are too ill to trouble about it.” But there is another class, who once had a religious concern, whose answer is not very earnest. They have become habituated to unbelieving misery, and persist in carrying a burden of which their Saviour wants to relieve them. 2. Too many give evasive replies to the question (1) “ How am I to know whether I am God’ s elect or not?” That is not the question at this stage. It will be answered by and by. (2) “ I have not the power to cease from sin.” God will give the power in proportion as He gives the will. (3) “ I have been so guilty in the past. The question is not, How sick art thou? but Wilt thou be made whole?” 3. There are a good many persons who practically say “ No.” (1) One says, “ I would be made whole,” and yet when Divine service is over he goes back to his sin. (2) Those say “ No” who neglect the house of God. (3) So do those who hear the Word inattentively; and (4) those who fear lest their being made whole would involve the loss of social position, gains, or companions. III. AN HONEST ANSWER IS GIVEN TO THIS WE MAY THAT THERE IS A WORK OF GRACE IN THE SOUL. IV. WHERE THIS IS IN THE IT MOST FEARFUL SIN. You prefer yourself to God, sin to holiness. This is your deliberate choice. When you come to die, and when you live in another state, you will curse yourself for having made such a choice as this. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The cure of spiritual disease I. WHAT IS IN THE OF THE PERSON . A state of disorder and disease, or the question would be absurd. You often hear of the dignity of human nature. 1. Physically and intellectually it is dignified when we see man, in his capacity for boundless improvement, “ a little lower than the angels.” 2. But how lamentable it is to find his fine powers misapplied and abused! What is man morally and religiously? (1) His body has become mortal and subject to every calamity. (2) His soul is alienated from the life of God. (3) He has no spiritual health. II. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE ? 1. That the disease is curable. But not by man; (1) not by government; (2) philosophy; (3) the law; (4) morality; (5) but only by the Cross of Jesus Christ, the efficacy of whose cure is attested by millions. 2. That willingness to be cured is essential to recovery. The cure is not forced upon you, nor is it accomplished by an insensible process, nor by a charm, nor by chance. A Divine influence makes us sensible of our need, and of the importance of the blessing; then we have to choose the good part. III. HOW ARE YOU TO RETURN AN ANSWER TO THIS ? 1. By inquiring after the way and the means. 2. By applying to the Physician. 3. By submission to the prescription without murmuring or complaint. Not like Naaman, but like the blind man who went to the pool of Siloam. 4. By the eagerness with which you look after convalescence. IV. WHAT SHOULD URGE YOU TO AVAIL OF THIS ? 1. The nature of the complaint, than which nothing is more dreadful. 2. The Physician who addresses you. He has everything to recommend Him. He is able; willing. He demands no fee. 3. The brevity and uncertainty of the time in which the cure must be effected. 4. The fact that rejection will be the greatest aggravation of the misery by which it will be ended. V. WHAT IS THE DUTY OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ENABLED TO ANSWER THE IN THE . 1. To avoid the sins which led to the injury. 2. Gratitude. 3. Consecration of renewed spiritual health to the Physician. 4. To recommend the cure to others. (W. Jay.) Hindrances to Christian development I. Many are hindered by a VAGUE SENSE WORKING THROUGH AND THE OF THE AND OF . They have the impression that they are to carry the world on their shoulders. They are cautious, timid, conscientious, and feel that their strength and resolution are not adequate to so great a thing as the amplitude of religious life. This would be valid ii religion called men at first to take the service of Jesus Christ in its perfected form. But it is not so. The Master bids us become as little children, and go on step by step. The question is whether you are willing to take the child’ s step towards the consummation. II. There are others who are caught IN MORBID , AND ARE STUCK UPON THE SPIRES AND THORNS OF SOME SYSTEM. They fail to separate between religion and its doctrines. With one it is election, with another reprobation. They have not learned to let such things alone. They are insoluble, most of them. Christ says, “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His” --not catechism, confession of faith, doctrine, but “ righteousness.” Let life, practice, experience, precede, and they will shape theory and philosophy. III. Others are hindered by THE AND RUINS OF PAST . 1. There are many who have entered on a religious life under such misconceptions we have been buffeted by such influences that sentiment, honour, conscience, taste, or pride, has been almost fatally wounded. 2. Others become torpid or dead. In youth, while enthusiasm was strong, they felt that there was a reality in religion; but it having proved a mockery to them they come to have the impression that there is nothing in it. 3. But there are a great many who do not fall so far. They hoped to be saved, but are without any definite purposes. But the mistakes that have been made are no reason why you should not with better light and ampler experience regain the lost ground. No man can afford to throw himself away because he has made a mistake in attempting to be healed. The woman with the issue of blood did not do so. Forget, then, the things that are behind. If you would be made whole, remember that failure is no reason for not striving again. IV. Many are hindered by THE OF THE LIVES OF MEN. This is ignoble, and has nothing to do with your own case. However others may be cowardly and false, that is no reason why you should not be courageous and true. This is no excuse, it is the plea of a man who is in search of one. V. THE EFFECT OF DOUBTS UPON THE MORAL SENSE. Such is the nature of things that we live by faith and not by sight in respect to the whole realm of the invisible from which the power is to be derived, by which the soul is to be rectified. Once let a man doubt, and it will break the power of his believing. And many people are so moved that their moral root is impaired. Is not this so? To you, then, Christ comes and asks this question. There is healing in Him for those who are impotent from doubt. VI. THERE ARE THOSE THE HABIT OF WHOSE MIND MORAL INTO IDEAS RATHER THAN INTO ACTIONS. 1. Some are so familiar with their Bible that it is worn smooth. Their wheels slip on the track. 2. Others never break into flame. They are compacted of thoughts and feelings which are so covered up and smothered that they never have disclosure. They are given to revive. The work of the world is not accomplished in this way, nor is that of Christianity. Don’ t, then, think about the poetry of religion, but brace yourself for its activities. Conclusion: 1. Every man, whatever his hindrances, should be faithful to the inward yearning to be made whole. If that lives there is hope. 2. To such Christ will come. There is a way when there is a will. (H. W.Beecher.) God’ s pool and man’ s porches All the healing work of the pool was God’ s work, and His alone; but in our text we have man’ s work side by side with God’ s. There were five porches. In all probability these porches were built by some charitable people in the city of Jerusalem, who had argued something after this sort--“ We have no power to heal the sick, but we can at all events build a shelter for them when they come seeking a cure. It is not in us to move the water into an all-healing pool, but we can build a place so near the water that when the sufferers come after many a weary mile, they will be able to rest there, secured from the sun, and sheltered from the tempest, and wait in comfort until the angel of mercy stirs it with his wing.” Thus, I think, you will see we have in our text the union of God’ s work and human agency. God digs the pool and man builds the porches. I. LET US LOOK AT , WITH ITS PORCHES, AS WORK. It is a high honour, beloved, to be a co-worker with God, no matter in how humble a capacity. God can do without us. The pool could do without the porches, and do as well without them. It had none of its healing qualities from them. No poor sufferer was ever eased of his pain because of the influence of the porches upon the pool. It was the pool alone that did the work and had all the glory of the cure. But remember, on the other hand, that God so ordered it that the porches should be built by man. God digging” the pool does not exonerate man from building the porches. Let us for a moment look and see how this may be applied in many ways. This blessed book is all of Him. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 5:19-23 The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do The unity of the Father and the Son The Jews sought to kill Jesus in obedience to the law (1) because He wrought a miracle on the Sabbath; (2) because He vindicated Himself on the ground of His equality with God, who constantly works such miracles in His providence on the Sabbath. So far from disclaiming the Jewish inference He here confirms it. Note I. CHRIST’ S TO THE FATHER IN ALL HE DOES (John 5:19). 1. Unity of operation. These words assert that as it is impossible for the Son to do anything of Himself, so it is impossible that the Father can do anything without the Son. The cure of the impotent man, therefore, was by both. 2. Distinction of persons. The Father shows, the Son sees; the Father purposes, the Son executes. 3. Identity of works. They do the same, not similar things. The same Jesus stands in the midst of us and says, “ Wilt thou be made whole?” If we despise Him speaking in His word we despise the great God with whom we have to do. II. THE GROUND OF THIS (John 5:20). 1. Love is the expression of the Father’ s feeling toward the Son. 2. He communicates Himself to the Son and makes Him His counsellor. 3. This relation Christ made known that they might marvel--admire God’ s glorious manifestation of Himself and give Him glory. III. OF THE WORKS OF THIS . 1. (John 5:21). Resurrection and quickening, including no doubt the physical, but referring mainly to the spiritual process. (1) Raising up. Sin, as a frightful incubus, rests on the soul exerting its paralysing influence. This spiritual death is chased away. (2) Quickening. New life is imparted. Death implies previous life. A tree cut down and withered is different from a stone. In Adam the soul died; when the Son quickens a new and more glorious life is communicated. (3) There can be no consideration more alarming than our continuance in this death. How dreadful to pass away without having the experience of this raising up and quickening, and to lie for ever in condemnation as self-destroyed. 2. (John 5:22-23). Judgment. (1) To Him is committed the whole administration of the gospel; and when His supreme government is asserted as here, it means that the Father judgeth no man alone--both judge. (2) He will preside at the eternal awards. IV. DEDUCED FROM THIS . 1. If Christ is not worshipped God is not (John 5:23). God must be approached according to the revelation He has made of Himself: we cannot do so unless we know Him as the Father who sent the Son. 2. Salvation comes by the word of Christ (John 5:24). (1) This hearing, no doubt, includes listening with the outward ear; a great and necessary duty. But it is also (John 5:25) of a kind which awakens to life, with the mind and spirit, therefore, prompting to action, so that we become not hearers only, but “ doers.” (2) Salvation is by resting on the true object of faith--in God as sending the Son not as the Creator, etc. (3) This salvation is everlasting life--a great salvation therefore. “ How shall we escape if we neglect it.” (A. Beith, D. D.) The Father’ s love to the Son I. THE FATHER LOVETH THE SON. What has this to do with us What have we to do with the Son? The answer to the latter will answer the former. If we are one with Christ the fact that God loves Him 1. Will solve a number of curious and doubtful questions. Satan is always trying to draw believers away from what is simple. The Father loveth the Son. Can Satan deny that? If not, then if I be the Son’ s, all the outgoings and principles of God concerning me must be of love. Everything must be consistent with that. 2. Will lift us up above a number of depressions. (1) Are we tried? (2) lonely; (3) poor; (4) weary and worn. Whoever was so tried as the beloved Son? II. CHRIST RESTED IN THE FATHER’ S LOVE, AND IN THE DEEP OF IT PUT FORTH IMMENSE POWER. 1. Wherever love attains its highest form there is rest. It puts away all ifs and speculations, and goes down into the ocean depths of certainties which are beyond the reach of surface storms. 2. This should give us great power (1) in prayer, passing into God’ s mind through an inlet of love; its answer coming forth through the outlet of love; (2) in faith; (3) in hope. III. CHRIST’ S TO THE FATHER HIS OF THE FUTURE, AND OUR TO HIM OUR PART IN IT. In present and future resurrection and judgment. (P. B. Power, M. A.) Christ’ s reply resembles Luther’ s: “ I cannot do otherwise” ; or, to take a nearer example, Jesus puts His work under the guarantee of the Father’ s, as the impotent man had just put his under the shelter of Jesus. (F. Godet, D. D.) Christ’ s limitations Neither the man nor the angel exists who could dare to say of himself: “ I can do nothing of myself;” because no man’ s and no angel’ s self is essentially and inseparably one with the self of God. The creature can tear itself away from its Creator, and place its I in opposition to Him; it can seek its life in itself, instead of in Him, and it can act “ in its own name” (John 8:44); the Son of God, on the contrary, has nothingof His own, no self, which does not eternally contain the same life which the Father has. (R. Besser, D. D.) The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son The delegation of judicial authority to Christ I. TO GOD. It is His in criminal causes (Romans 12:19) and in civil things (Psalms 82:1). No function of God is so often reiterated. And He is the Judge of judges themselves. Judgment is so essential to God that it is co-eternal with Him. 1. He knows, and therefore naturally detests evil. We are blind, and need the assistance of the law to know what is evil. And if a man be a judge what an exact knowledge of the law is required of him--for some things are sins to one nation which are not to another, and some things are sin at one time which are not at another. Only God has a universal knowledge, and therefore detestation of evil. 2. He discerns when thou committest evil. Hence you have to supply defects in laws so that things done in one country may be tried in another. But God has the power of discerning all actions in all places. Earthly judges have their distinctions and so their restrictions; some things they cannot know--what mortal can, and some things they cannot take knowledge of, for they are bound by evidence. But nothing keeps God from discerning and judging everything. 3. He knows how to punish evil. The office of a judge being not to contract or extend the law, but to declare its true meaning. God hath this judgment in perfection, for He made the law by which He judges. Who then can dispute His interpretation? As, then, God is judge in all these three respects, so He is a judge (1) without appeal; (2) without needing any evidence (Proverbs 24:12; Proverbs 16:2; 1 Corinthians 4:4); and if so, not only I, but not the most righteous man, nor the Church He hath washed in His own blood, shall appear righteous in His sight. II. How then, seeing that judgment is an inseparable character of God, can it be said that THE FATHER JUDGETH NO MAN? Not certainly because weary. He judges as God, not as Father. In the three great judgments of God the whole Trinity judges. 1. Before all times in our election. 2. Now in separating of servants from enemies. 3. At the last judgment in separating the sheep from the goats. Consider God altogether, and so in all outward works, all the Trinity concurs, because all are one God; but consider God in relation, in distinct persons, and so the several persons do something in which the other persons are not interested. So the Son judgeth, the Father judgeth not, for that judgment He hath committed. III. TO THE SON HE HATH ALL , the image of the invisible God, and so more proportional unto us, more apprehensible by us. 1. But doth He judge as Son of God or as Son of Man. Upon this the Fathers and Reformers are divided. But take this rule, God hath given Christ this commission as Man, but Christ had not been capable of it had He not been God too. The ability is in Him eternally, but the power of actual execution was given Him as Man. 2. All judgment (1) Of our election. If I were under the condemnation of the law, and going to execution, and the king’ s pardon were presented to me, I should ask no question as to motives and circumstances, but thankfully attribute it to his goodness and accept it; so when I consider myself as under God’ s consideration, and yet by the working of God’ s Spirit I find I am delivered from it I inquire not what God did in His cabinet council. I know that He hath elected me in Christ. And, therefore, that I may know whether I do not deceive myself I examine myself whether I can truly tell my conscience that Christ died for me, which I cannot do if I have not a desire to conform myself to Him; and if I do that then I find my predestination. (2) Of our justification, “ for there is none other name,” etc. Do I then remember what I contracted with Christ when I took His name at baptism? Have I fulfilled those conditions? Do I find a remorse when I have not? Do I feel remission of those sins when I hear the gracious promises of the gospel to repentant sinners? Have I a true and solid consolation when I receive the seal of pardon at the Sacrament? Therefore this judgment is His also. (3) Of our glorification (Revelation 1:7). Then He shall come as Man and give judgment for things done or omitted towards Him as Man, “ for not feeding,” etc. Conclusion: Such is the goodness of God that He deals with man by the Son of Man. 1. If you would be tried by the first judgment; are you elected or no? Do you believe in Christ? 2. If by the second, are you justified or no? Do you find comfort in the Word and sacraments of Christ? 3. If by the third, do you expect a glorification? Are you so reconciled to Jesus Christ now that you durst say now, “ Come quickly, Lord Jesus” ? then you are partakers of all that blessedness which the Father intended for you when, for your sake, He committed all judgment to the Son. (J. Donne, D. D.) The Redeemer our Judge That our Saviour was perfect God and perfect man is a truth which cannot be denied and Christianity not fall to the ground. But this very combination will cause apparent inconsistencies in the way in which He is spoken of. And it should be remembered that what holds good of Him in one capacity may be inapplicable to Him in another. As God judgment could not be committed to Him. He had it by Divine necessity and right. But it is as Mediator, a Being in which the two natures combine, that He is entrusted with the authority as Judge. I. HE WILL JUDGE AT THE LAST DAY. What are the qualifications requisite for such an office? 1. Obviously no mere creature can fulfil that function. There must be acquaintance with secrecies of character as well as open actions. Hypocrisy must not pass undetected, nor unobtrusive merit fail of recompense. Angels cannot be judges of human character, nor possess themselves of all the necessary evidence. Omniscience alone will suffice. 2. But if we cannot approach an angelic judge with confidence, how approach omniscient Deity? A created judge is immeasurably nearer than the Creator, though of a different nature. 3. You ask, therefore, for one who shall have a thorough fellow feeling with those brought to his bar, i.e., a man. But how can you hope to have a man who, qualified by sympathy, should yet possess the qualification of omniscience? 4. This combination, however, does exist. A man sits on that “ great white throne,” “ bone of our bone,” but God to whom all things are naked and open. II. HE JUDGES NOW, for all judgment is committed to Him. 1. To this we are indebted for that tenderness which characterizes God’ s present judgments. Afflictions are not allowed to come together; “ the rough wind” is restrained till “ the east wind” has passed away. Chastisement is very different conceived as inflicted by God and inflicted by the Mediator. 2. If this be so how heavy will be the final judgment! There will be no pleading that our case was not thoroughly understood. All along we have been drawn by the cords of a man; then the impenitent will be judged by the Man who died for them and tried by every possible means to turn them from enemies into friends. His presence itself will condemn, and they will call to the rocks, etc., to hide them from not the thunderbolts of avenging Deity, but from the face of Him who became man for their salvation. Anything might be better borne than the glance of this face so eloquent of rejected mercies. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The judgment Men will have views very different from what they now have. I. THE MISER will see a life spent in gathering gold with terror. II. THE will wonder that he could barter his soul for office. III. THE will dread to review his luxury and lewdness. IV. THE SOPHIST will argue no more against Divine truth. V. THE will be amazed at his madness in clinging to his sins. VI. THE MOCKER will jest no more about sacred things, VII. THE PROFANE will howl over the folly that resulted God. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The judgment will be searching I will tell you a dream of one of quality, related to myself by the dreamer himself. Said he, “ I dreamed the day of judgment was come, and all men appeared before Christ. Some were white, others spotted. Methought,” said he, “ I was all white, saving that I had one black spot upon my breast, which I covered with my hand. Upon the separation of these two sorts I got among the white on the right band. Glad was I; but at last a narrow search was made, and one came and plucked away my hand from my breast; then appeared my spot, and I was thrust away among the spotted ones.” (Thomas Larkham.) That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Equal honour to be paid to the Father and to the Son I. WHY? 1. Because the perfections of the Father are those of the Son (John 5:26). Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Holiness, Love, etc. 2. Because the works of the Father are those of the Son (John 5:19). Creation, Providence, Redemption, Resurrection. 3. Because the administration of the Father is that of the Son (John 5:22). (1) Now over kingdoms, cities, families, individuals. (2) At the great day. 4. Because it is the special desire of both the Father and the Son. (1) Of the Father, because on the honour of the Son the whole blessedness of the universe is centred. (2) Of the Son, because the Father is only honoured through the Son. God was not honoured in Judaism, witness its lapses into idolatry and its ultimate formalism; nor by Mohammedanism, witness its cruelty and licentiousness; nor in heathenism, where He is not known at all; nor by Deism, as proved by its development into agnosticism and atheism. Only in Christendom is God honoured, because Christ is honoured. II. How? 1. By admiring the perfections of the Divine Son. “ The chiefest among ten thousand,” etc. 2. By acknowledging the services of the Divine Son. We are His because He made, preserved, and redeemed us; therefore we should glorify Him as our Master, Friend, Saviour. 3. By co-operating with the rule of the Divine Son. (1) By obeying it ourselves. (2) By securing its recognition in others. 4. By making the Supreme desire in the universe the master passion and motive of our souls; doing all things with the one aim of securing the honour of the Son and of the Father through Him. III. Where? 1. At home. (1) In secret prayer. This will test the purity and constancy of our motive. (2) In our families, bringing them up to honour Christ by reverencing His name, word, and ordinances. 2. In the sanctuary. (1) By attentively listening to the Word. (2) By regular attendance at His table. (3) By heartiness in His worship. 3. In the world eschewing all business, amusements, etc., likely to bring dishonour on Him. (J. W. Burn.) He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father Amphilochus, Bishop of Iconium, entered the palace of Theodosius, and bowed to the Emperor, but not to Arcadius his son. The Emperor reminding him of his neglect, the good man still refused, and on his showing great displeasure, Amphilochus replied, “ O king, how much more will Jehovah abhor those rejecting His Son!” (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Christ’ s demand of a man Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy. He asks that for which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself; He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. (Napoleon I.) Christ claims Divine honours “ And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” Did they sin in worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ? After their long career of intimacy, did love to such a being, who had exhausted the symbolism of life to express His life-giving relations to them; with every conceivable incitement, reverence, and worship; with love, wonder, joy, and gratitude kindling their imaginations towards Him; without a solitary word of caution lest they should be snared by their enthusiasm, and bestow upon Him the worship that belonged only to God--did they sin in worshipping Him? If they did, was not Christ Himself the tempter? If they did not, may not every living soul worship Him? (H. W.Beecher.) John 5:24(in conjunction with 6:47). Verily, verily1. These words indicate a subject of special importance. 2. They were used to denote a clear and certain revelation. 3. Notice when this certainty lies solely in “ I say unto you.” In the matter of our salvation carnal reason never arrives at certainty. Mere argument can never bring a troubled heart to a sure anchorage. The ipse dixit of a mere man is not enough. Note I. TO WHOM THE OF OUR TEXT COMES, These favoured persons are 1. Hearers who are also believers. It is not communicated by drops of water; we are to act towards saving truth as towards other information. First, we hear of Jesus, His person, work, office, and blessings; then we accept Jesus as the appointed Saviour for ourselves. 2. Believers who remain hearers, “ My sheep hear My voice.” 3. Believers in the Lord Jesus (John 6:47). They have personal faith in apersonal Saviour. 4. Believers in Jesus because of the witness of the Father. We are sure He can save because He is divinely commissioned, divinely furnished, and the pleasure of the Lord must prosper in His hands. 5. Every such believer, whatever else he has or has not, he has everlasting life. But he is full of fault and imperfection; he makes mistakes in theology; he is afraid he has not attained to everlasting life. No exception is to be made on any of these grounds. 6. There is no statement made as to the salvation of any other sort of person. Nothing is said about the baptized, professors, etc., only about believers. II. THE WHICH BELONG TO THE . 1. He hath everlasting life. He was condemned and reckoned as a dead man; but he is now acquitted and his life is granted him. He was spiritually dead also, but through Christ he is quickened; and because Christ lives ever he shall live also. 2. He is in a condition of non-condemnation. In Christ he has been judged, condemned, and punished, and is therefore clear of the law and all its penalties. 3. He is passed from death unto life; In regeneration lies the essence and major portion of the resurrection. III. THE WITH WHICH THIS IS STATED. 1. It is certified by the terms in which our Lord utters it. 2. It is verified by conscious experience. 3. It should consequently be confidently proclaimed. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The gospel of Christ We are here taught I. THE NEED OF HEARING THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST; and that not with the ears of the body only, but with the heart, the will, the affections of man. “ He that heareth My word.” II. BELIEF IN THE EVER-BLESSED TRINITY, in the Father and the Son, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit. “ He that … believeth on Him that sent Me.” III. THE SINFUL ESTATE OF MANKIND, the fall through sin into spiritual death, and the consequent condemnation of the whole race of Adam, who through the sin of the first man have come into condemnation. IV. THE NEED WHICH WE ALL HAVE OF A AND , through whose passion, death, and resurrection we pass from death unto life. V. THE WHICH IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN AND WHO OBEY GOD IN THIS LIFE, and in obeying Him possess Him who is everlasting life. VI. THAT ETERNAL LIFE which after the death of the body IS THE HOPE AND THE REWARD OF THE , and which is assured to those who in resisting temptation and in overcoming sin here have passed from death unto life. (W. Denton, M. A.) A short sermon on a great text I. THE . 1. The dignity of His Person. (1) The Son of God, (2) The ambassador of the Father. (3) The faithful witness. 2. The solemnity of His manner. As became one who spoke with (1) Full knowledge. (2) Absolute authority. (3) Tender sympathy. (4) Personal directness. II. THE . 1. The meaning of salvation. (1) Eternal life. (2) No condemnation. (3) Fulness of existence. 2. The way of salvation. (1) Hearing Christ’ s word. (2) Believing Christ’ s Father. III. THE . 1. Their persons--men. 2. Their characters--dead. 3. Their numbers--whosoever. 4. Their responsibilities--involved in their ability to hear and believe. Lesson: Take heed how ye hear. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Everlasting life Life is of many degrees--lowest in the sponge, then in the oyster, and higher still in the worm. Through a long and beautifully graduated series we come to man, partly material, partly spiritual; the link between earth and heaven. Life is absolutely perfect in God only; the great source of life to all created beings. “ This is life eternal,” etc. (John 17:3). This life in its fulness implies I. FREEDOM FROM SIN. 1. Its guilt. 2. Its pollution. 3. Its attendant evils. II. THE OF ALL GOOD. 1. Perfect love. 2. Perfect purity. 3. Perfect youth. 4. Perfect activity. 5. Perfect blessedness. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Eternal life You will observe here that everlasting life is a thing which a man is declared, on certain conditions, to have in this world, that the death which is its contradictory is said to be escaped in this world, and in the very act of passing over into life; and that the condition of escaping the one and having the other is faith in God through Jesus. Now what I wish to do, is to point out the dignity and the joy of this true life of the soul, this everlasting life of faith; and if we can know the secret of its blessedness here, we shall know what its blessedness shall be hereafter. I. And first, TO THE SOUL THERE IS THE JOY OF LIVING ITS TRUE LIFE. In all life there is joy; much more in the soul’ s true life. In the free exercise of its noblest faculties; in the free use of its noblest powers; in the free apprehension of Divine truth, the free choosing of the right, the unselfish loving of the beautiful and the good; it is a joy even now and here so to live the true life of the soul. And when we come to analyze this joy, we find that in all its details it is a life of blessedness. 1. For, first, there is the joy of triumph, the guadiam certaminis that courts and enjoys the well-won victory. Worldly and carnal pleasures woo the soul’ s affections from their true and worthy objects. To resist these is conflict worthy of heroic souls; to stand steadfast, to be true to truth, to goodness, to righteousness, this is victory, and the joy of it is bliss to the struggling, conquering soul. And when the soul’ s victorious inner life is translated into worthy outward action, that outward life becomes heroic too, the life of a knightly soul that proves its knighthood and receives its reward in scattering error, in righting wrong, in helping the weak, in relieving the oppressed, and in doing his duty to God and all the world. 2. And then there is the joy of progress. For the soul s true life is a progress from the less to the greater, from the partial to the more perfect good. There is growth in humility, and so there is no more galling and fretting of pride. There is growth in meekness, and so the burden of resentment is laid aside. There is growth in faith, and so the unseen things are seen with more and more distinctness to be the great thing. There is growth in hope, and so the soul grows glad and young as it lays hold on the hope of eternal life. There is growth in love--in the blissful love that never faileth, that suffereth long and is kind, etc. 3. And then there is the joy of self-sacrifice. Man had forgotten the great truth, that self-sacrifice for duty and for love is the very joy of the soul’ s true life. But God revealed it in Jesus. And revealing it He showed not only the Divine wisdom and power, but also the Divine blessedness. Who does not understand something of this! Who are the great and happy souls of earth? Not those, assuredly, who look for base ease, or sordid gain, or selfish advantage, or guilty pleasure; but the pure and strong and lofty souls, who in loving the unseen and following lofty ideals gladly sacrifice themselves for what they love. The patriot who goes at his country’ s summons to battle; the father and husband who scorns delight and lives laborious days for wife and children; the mother who turns away from all delights to bend in yearning tenderness above the couch of her sick or afflicted child; the Christian man or woman who in loving, dutiful deeds of brotherly love and goodwill, delight to help the unfortunate and make the wretched happy--these are the great and happy, souls, and in their self-sacrifice they find the highest joy of their soul’ s true life. In a word, then, the soul’ s true life in this world is the life of faith, of hope, and of love. In the victory of its faith, the progress of its hope, the glad self-sacrifice of its love, its joy consists. And this brings me to my concluding thought. We have seen what the soul’ s true life in this world is. II. WHAT SHALL IT BE IN THE NEXT WORLD BUT THE SAME IN KIND, THOUGH IN FULLER, LARGER MEASURE? The only difference shall be that the limitations of sin, the hindrances of earthliness, shall be removed. Unfettered and free, the soul shall expand in the perpetual delight of life and love and peace--the delight of growing knowledge, the delight of more and more adequate utterance, the security and pea-e of more perfect self-consecration, the deep and tender joy of more entire self-sacrifice. How this shall be, I cannot tell. It is enough for me to know this one thing--that the soul’ s true life, the eternal life, begun here, shall continue afterdeath substantially the same, and that its joys shall be the same, only fuller, larger, richer. Oh, then, let me ask myself this question: Am I living now the soul’ s true life--the everlasting life of faith and hope and love--and am I finding now and here the joy and the blessedness of that life? If not, then even heaven itself would be a hell to my untutored soul. But if I do know the joy and peace of believing, then eternal life is mine already. (Bishop S. S. Harris.) Passed from death unto life. Notice the smallness of the conditions, and the magnificence of the offer. The salvation of a man’ s soul is simply a matter of capitulation, and the terms of the capitulation are, “ Hear the messenger and believe the mission.” I. THE WHICH THE HAS MADE OF WHAT HE WILL DO TO THOSE WHO GIVE UP AT . 1. Look a moment at our position. We have provoked God and attacked His rights, and therefore have separated ourselves from God. Therefore we do not deserve to die, nor sure to die, but we are dead. For death is not annihilation. Separation of soul from body is physical death: separation of soul and body from God is physical death. People abhor the thought of eternal punishment or eternal death; but what if that means separation prolonged through eternity. Is there anything in that inconsistent with God? But that would be hell enough. 2. Christ comes and offers union with Himself, that is, nearness to God which is life. (1) The nature of this life. (a) Physical life of a higher order because consecrated. (b) Intellectual life--a life of latent thoughts, energies and affections which, but for this, would sleep on for ever. (c) A life of true satisfying service. (2) Its characteristics. (a) A present possession. The moment you believe in Christ you live; you have done with death for ever. What is coming and is called death will not be death to you, because no separation. (b) A lasting life. In the old life nothing was very lasting; either the thing passed away, or the power to enjoy it. The new life has its hidden springs in God, and will last for ever. (c) A life free from condemnation. There is nothing now behind, and no future to be afraid of. Your sins were condemned and punished in Christ, and there shall be no resurrection of forgiven sin. II. WHAT ARE THE TERMS? 1. “ Hear My word.” (1) Do not you all hear it? Not with the inward ear. (2) But what word. If you receive any word, you will receive all. Take this one, “ Come unto Me,” etc. 2. “ Believe on Him that sent Me.” Not in Me. Some object to vicarious atonement on the ground that it does not put the Father in His right place. But Christ here, as elsewhere, traces it all to the Father and His love. It is part of your salvation to take worthy views of the Father. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Passing from death to life I. THE STATE FROM WHICH EVERY IS . 1. Its nature. A threefold death has befallen man. The body dies, everlasting death is threatened, spiritual death is inflicted. This latter is the death here, and is not simply the absence of what constituted life, but the presence also of the opposite. (1) Man’ s knowledge was a part of his life, but it has gone and he is ignorant and misrepresents the truth. (2) This flow of holiness is staunched, and he is defiled. (3) His innocency is blotted out, and he is guilty. (4) His title to heaven is gone, and he is exposed to hell. 2. Its forms. It does not always take the same shape. (1) A man’ s circumstances will do something to curb the tendencies of his nature. Your life may be chaste and outwardly religious, but with all this there is a defiled nature seen by the eye of God. (2) In other cases there is a complete contrast, and depravity knows no shame. 3. Its extent; total (1) as regards the individual. (a) The human form once so noble and symmetrical and undying has become enervated by disease, and falls into the grave. (b) The mind has not escaped its blight. Go to the lunatic asylum where the mind is gone, and to the cultured atheist whose vast intellectual powers are perverted. (c) The soul is dead, not that it has ceased to be immortal, but lives on in death. (2) As regards the race. However employed and wherever found man is the impersonation, of death. 4. Its cause. Not God. Look at the proofs of Divine benevolence in the beauties of nature, and ask, Is God the cause of death? Look at the monstrosities of nature--the drunkard, e.g., and ask, Is that God’ s handiworks? II. THE TO WHICH, BY THE MERCY OF GOD, EVERY HAS BEEN BROUGHT: from death to life. 1. What is this life? (1) Life is a series of relationships. In vegetable life there is a relationship of dependence; in animal life of the senses: in rational life of consciousness; in spiritual life to God in Christ. (2) Life has its developments. This could not be predicated of a stone. In vegetables you see it at its lowest, in reptiles higher, in beasts higher still, in man highest; and in rational life you have the babe, the child, and the man, and so in spiritual. (3) Spiritual life is knowledge. Mark the contrast between men of large intellectual powers and a man half-witted, who knows God is his Father and Christ his Saviour. They are dead; he lives. (4) It is purity. (5) It is love. 2. Whence comes it? (1) Not from self; a corpse cannot raise itself. (2) Not from another; a corpse cannot raise others. (3) From God the fountain of life, through Christ, the resurrection and the life. III. THE PROCESS FROM THE ONE TO THE OTHER. 1. Its character a purely spiritual process, illustrated by the transformation of the caterpillar into the butterfly; the change from winter to spring; the resurrection of the dead. 2. Its means. The gospel embraced by faith. 3. Its Agent, the Holy Spirit. (Gervase Smith, D. D.) Passing from death to life I. From a death of to a life of FAITH. II. From a death of to a life of TRUTH. III. From a death of SIN to a life of . IV. From a death of MISERY to a life of . (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) We are saved by believing A small matter may suffice to shape the destiny of an immortal soul. In those ill times when there were slaves across the Atlantic, a lady went down to one of our ships accompanied by a negro servant. The lady remarked to the captain that if she were to go to England and take this black woman with her, she would become free as soon as she landed. The captain replied, “ Madam, she is free already! The moment she came on board a British vessel she was free.” When the negro woman knew this do you think she went on shore with her mistress? By no means; she chose to keep her liberty. How slight the change of place, but how great the difference involved: marvel not that faith involves such great things. (C. H. Spurgeon.) We must believe or perish If a man will not do that which is necessary to a certain end, I do not see how he can expect to gain that end. You have taken poison, and the physician brings an antidote, and says, “ Take it quickly, or you will die. If you take it quickly I will guarantee that the poison will be neutralized.” But you say, “ No, doctor, I do not believe it; let everything take its course; let every tub stand on its own bottom; I will have nothing to do with you, doctor.” “ Well, sir, you will die, and when the coroner’ s inquest is held on your body the verdict will be, ‘ Served him right.’“ So it will be with you, if, having heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you say, “ Pooh-pooh! I am too much of a common-sense man to have anything to do with that, and I shall not attend to it.” Then, when you perish, the verdict given by your conscience, which will set upon the King’ s quest at last, will be a verdict of felo-de-se. He destroyed himself. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Faith must lay hold on Christ One night, when preaching in Philadelphia, right down by the side of the pulpit, there was a young lady whose eyes were riveted on me, as if she were drink- ing in every word. I got interested in her, and after I had done talking I went and spoke to her. “ Are you a Christian?” “ No; I wish I was. I have been seeking Jesus for three years.” I said, “ There must be some mistake.” She looked strangely at me, and said, “ Don’ t you believe me?” “ Well, no doubt you thought you were seeking Jesus; but it don’ t take an anxious sinner three years to meet a willing Saviour.” “ What am I to do, then?” “ The matter is, you are trying to do something; you must just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” “ Oh, I am sick and tired of the word, ‘ Believe, believe, believe! I don’ t know what it is.” “ Well,” I said, “ we’ ll change the word; take ‘ trust.’” “ If I say, ‘ I’ ll trust Him,’ will He save me?” “ No; I don’ t say that. You may say a thousand things, but He will if you do trust Him.” “ Well,” she said, “ I do trust Him; but,” she added in the same breath, “ I don’ t feel any better.” “ Ah, I’ ve got it now! You’ ve been looking for feelings for three years, instead of for Jesus.” (D. L. Moody.) John 5:25-27 The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God.The spiritual resurrection I. Its . The spiritually dead, in trespasses and sins. To have life we “ must be born again.” II. Its MANNER. 1. The dead hear the voice of the Son of God in the word preached. 2. This word receives its power from heaven. III. Its NATURE. Those who hear 1. Live. 2. Shall live. Death is banished for ever. IV. Its SEASON. 1. The hour is coming. (1) At Pentecost. (2) Ever since. (3) Till time shall be no more. 2. Now is. (1) The day of the Spirit’ s power had already in some measure come. Under every dispensation many heard the voice of the Son of God and lived. (2) Now is the accepted time. V. Its SOURCES. 1. The life which is in the Son (John 5:26). 2. The authority exercised by the Son. (A. Beith, D. D.) The spiritual awakening I. THE TIME OF IT. Now, during the currency of this Christian dispensation, at any and every moment thereof (2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:7; Hebrews 4:7). II. THE OF IT (Ephesians 2:1). III. THE MANNER OF IT. The vitalizing of a dead soul results from the infusion into it of life by the Son of God (John 5:21). 1. Not directly. 2. But indirectly through the word which the Son speaks. IV. THE OF IT. Not all the spiritually dead are quickened, or even all to whom the word of Christ is externally addressed, but only those who hear and believe (John 5:24-25, cf. Isaiah 55:3). V. THE GROUND OF IT. The fact that the Son is possessed of life in Himself as an original and inexhaustible fountain, even as it exists in the Father (John 5:26). VI. THE END OF IT. Life in the fullest and highest sense. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Life for the dead I. SINNERS ARE BY NATURE DEAD. 1. Legally under the sentence of death (Romans 5:1-21.). We are guilty and condemned. The curse of the law and the wrath of God are upon all viewed in their relation to Adam. 2. Really. The body is subject to death and to all the miseries which precede death. The soul is dead in trespasses and sins. Natural death makes the body lifeless; spiritual death makes the soul graceless, and both soul and body comfortless for ever. (1) In natural death the body is without the soul; in spiritual the soul is without God. (2) Natural death disfigures the body; spiritual the soul. (3) Natural death makes the body cold; by spiritual the soul becomes cold toward God. (4) In the one a man loses all right to property that once was his; by the other men lose all their right which they had in Adam to communion with God. (5) As a dead body is without understanding, so the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. (6) A dead body cannot raise itself, neither can a dead soul. II. IN THE GOSPEL MEN ARE LIFE. 1. This life is real. 2. It is suitable, removing condemnation, extracting the sting of death, imparting spiritual vitality to the condemned, guilty, and helpless. 3. Christ is this life, and the Holy Spirit applies it to the soul. 4. This life becomes part of a man’ s being. 5. This fife, although obstructed in its growth, is capable of endless development. III. WHAT IT IS THAT THE SOUL OF THE DEAD. The voice of Christ is the Gospel, heard by the faith of the heart. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.) Life in HimselfLife unoriginated, independent, absolute, eternal life (Psalms 36:9). I. . II. . III. . IV. ALL to men and angels. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) God is the focus and fountain of life In Him life may be contemplated in its twofold activity. I. THE LIFE OF GOD PASSES FORTH FROM ITSELF. It lavishes itself through the realms of nothingness. It summons into being worlds, systems, intelligences, orders of existences unimagined before. In doing this it obeys no necessary law of self-expansion, but pours itself forth with that highest generosity that belongs to a perfect freedom. That is to say that God the Life is God the Creator. II. GOD IS BEING INTO ITSELF, FINDING IN ITSELF ITS PERFECT . God is thus the object of all dependent life. He is indeed the object of His own life; all His infinite powers and faculties turn ever inward with uncloyed delight upon Himself as upon their one adequate end. We cannot approach more nearly to a definition of pleasure than by saying that it is the exact correspondence between a faculty and its object. Pleasure is thus a test of vitality; and God as being Life is the One Being who is supremely and perfectly happy. (Canon Liddon.) And hath given Him authority to execute JudgmentThe advent in judgment I. WHO IS THE JUDGE? Christ. He must be Divine to work out so great a judgment; but His humanity is expressly given as a reason for His judgeship. 1. We know His character, and can rely on His fairness and goodness. 2. He knows us, can sympathize with our weakness, and can understand our temptations. 3. Having in His human life conquered the same temptations, He has a right to condemn us if we fail. 4. As Messianic King He has the office of judging those who submit to Him and those who reject Him. II. WHO ARE TO BE TRIED? 1. The dead. Death is no escape. Those who would not hear the voice of mercy must hear that of judgment. Spiritual death might prevent their hearing the first, but with physical death added they will hear the second. 2. All men. III. WHAT IS THE GROUND OF TRIAL? 1. Not opinions, feelings, professions, resolutions, but deeds. 2. Not what men expected of us, what the world did, what was fashionable, convenient, suitable or aesthetic in our conduct, but its moral character solely. The simplest but deepest lines of cleavage will separate men--the question of good or evil. 3. But this will be judged by One who reads the heart, weighs all circumstances, and characterizes an act according to its motive. Thus many deeds which the world accounts good will be condemned, and others that are condemned will be justified. IV. What will the sentences be? 1. A resurrection of life. The reward of obedience is for further obedience--not luxurious indolence. 2. A resurrection of judgment. To the impenitent death does not end all, nor any judgment-day. Their future is dark, but just and fair. V. WHEN WILL THIS BE? No one can know. God has fixed it. Every day brings it nearer. To each man it comes virtually at death. (W. F.Adeney, M. A.) The Son of Man our Judge As a man His life will condemn us. I. His our pride. II. His our indulgence. III. His our impatience. IV. His our sensuality. V. His PIETY AND our ungodliness and worldly-mindedness. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The Son of Man1. In His exaltation (John 1:51); as being in heaven while on John 3:13). 2. As Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8). 3. As blasphemed (Matthew 12:32). 4. As coming in glory (Matthew 16:27). 5. As suffering (Matthew 17:12). 6. As rising (Mark 9:9). 7. As Saviour (Matthew 18:11). 8. As sitting on His throne (Matthew 19:28). 9. In His second advent (Matthew 24:30). 10. As made under the law (Galatians 4:4). 11. As subject to God’ s decrees (Matthew 26:25). 12. As forgiving sins (Matthew 9:6). 13. As houseless (Matthew 8:20). 14. As wearing a golden crown (Revelation 14:14). 15. As Lord of the angels (Matthew 13:41). 16. As supreme Judge (Revelation 1:7). 17. As head of the Church (Revelation 1:13). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The judgment of the Son of Man Judgment, as Scripture knows it, is not the popular idea of judgment, which bids us be careful in reverence for the tribunal of human opinion; nor the scientific idea, which shows us how inexorably what we are about to-day will tell upon what we shall be; nor even the moral idea, which challenges us to say whether there is not a right and a wrong, and a choice which we can make between them. The judgment of Scripture is a simpler, deeper, stronger thing, which includes and explains all these. The judgment of Scripture is that which brings each man before God his Maker. In it God is a present, silent “ Judge of all.” God’ s revealed Word declares a judgment which must be stringent and searching, because it is the judgment of the All-Holy and All-Knowing. What question is it that we should ask? It is, “ By what standard shall we be judged?” The text seems to suggest the answer, “ The Father hath given to the Son authority to execute judgment, because He is” (the) “ Son of Man.” Not, as we might have expected, because He is Son of God, but because He is Son of Man. The Judge wears our manhood; His manhood equips Him for judgment, even as it equips Him for sympathy and compassion. It is by man’ s standard, then, that we are judged and shall be judged; and fairly, for it is both the judgment which tries us by what we are made to be, and the judgment which we know; the judgment which speaks within us, just in proportion as our manhood is true and our conscience clear and strong; the judgment which speaks to us still more clearly through the human voices of men and women better than ourselves, calling us to “ quit as like men.” In the Gospels we see the Son of Man beginning thus to judge. By the human instinct of compassion, the priest and Levite are condemned, and the good Samaritan approved; by the human instincts of gratitude and humility, the forgiven, but unforgiving, servant is judged; by the common standard of faithful human service, and even by that of worldly sagacity and foresight, the servant who hid his lord’ s talent and the foolish virgins are judged; by comparison with the purely human qualities of zeal and pluck in the jewel collector, or of skilfulness even in the unjust steward, He rebukes men’ s slackness and unwisdom in the things that concern their souls; by the human instincts of charity, He declares that men shall be eternally judged, according as they have, or have not, regarded the appeal of the poor, sick, naked, hungry, and captive. Think, then, that we, individually and collectively, shall be judged by the standard of human excellence as it stands in our time, and as we may know it if we will what a dignity and value this gives to the human life about us in all its width and variety. For there, amidst much that corrupts and confuses, are to be found the best thinkings, doings, and strivings of our time and place; and by them, as men of our time and place, we must be judged. In this respect there are some simple counsels which may help. We must, for example, often learn from those whom we can by no means wholly follow. The prudence of the unjust steward is commended, without sanction of his character; the Positivist, who believes in no hereafter, may be admirable in his tenderness for all the natural parts and sympathies of this present life; students, whom, perhaps, we must think narrowly indifferent to interests outside their own departments of knowledge, are often excellent examples to us by their thoroughness, their perseverance, their reverence for every fragment of fact. Again, there is judgment for some of us in simple things, in natural virtues. We may go highflying after intellectual ambitions, and forget modesty and homely courtesy and kindness to those about us; or after special devotion and piety, while we neglect the simple duties of industry in daily work, or dutifulness at home, or brotherly kindness to Christians who are not of our sort. Once again, it would be well to judge ourselves by what is good in men of habits or temperament unlike our own; not to hug our own one-sidednesses, but to suspect them; to remember, if we are eager and easily moved, how much the slow, sober people have to teach us; or, if our pride is in moderation and solidity, how likely we are to need examples of warmer and less self-centred character, and a more generous appreciation of ideals. Remember, then, that the standard by which you must be judged is not that of your own low aims and narrow thoughts, but it is the standard of what you have the opportunity of raising those aims, or enlarging those thoughts, to he by a due use of all that is best and most inspiring in human life, as you have the privilege of knowing it. But we have not exhausted the meaning of the text. It cannot merely mean that we shall be judged by human standards. It must, mean that we shall be judged by the standard of the true manhood of Christ, and of humanity, taught, restored, illuminated by Christ. We have His Name on our lips, His cross before our eyes, His teaching in the gospels, His means of grace lavishly given to us. Must there not be a judgment in this--a judgment because Be is Son of Man revealing to His brother-men how they may be true men, as God their Father would have them be; and they will not? (E. S. Talbot, D. D.) Christ will bring men to judgment A man goes into an inn, and as soon as he sits down he begins to order his wine, his dinner, his bed; there is no delicacy in season which he forgets to bespeak. He stops at the inn for some time. By and by the bill is forthcoming, and it takes him by surprise. “ I never thought of that!--I never thought of that!” “ Why,” says the landlord, “ here is a man who is either a born fool or else a knave. What! never thought of the reckoning--never thought of settling with me!” After this fashion too many live. They eat and drink and sin, but they forget the inevitable hereafter, when for all the deeds done in the body the Lord will bring us into judgment. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Death will be followed by judgment After a mission festival several pastors and deacons continued an hour together, when the conversation drifted from the heathen abroad to those around us, and the following story was told by a village miller:--“ I sat at a garden concert with a friend of mine. The first part of the programme was ended, when an acquaintance of my friend’ s came to us. ‘ Have you heard,’ said he to my friend, ‘ that Mr. R--died yesterday quite suddenly? A great pity; he was an agreeable andclever business man, and a pleasant companion. Ah well! he enjoyed life while he lived, and he was quite right; for when we are once dead it’ s all finished.’ ‘ Is it all finished? Do you really think there is an end of it?’ said I. ‘ Ah!’ returned he, ‘ I see you are one of the old superstitious ones. What shall come after death greater or better than this life? “ As the tree falls, so it lies.”’ ‘ Quite right,’ said I; “ As the tree falls, so it lies;” but--do not take it amiss, friend--when you wish to prove by this quotation that after death it is finished with respect to us, you have not considered the matter on all sides, or your opinion is a blind one. Near my mill I have a woodyard, and now and then I buy some trees to cut down. Often have I stood over the fallen trunks and thought of those words, “ As the tree falls, so it lies;” none will grow one inch taller or thicker, better or worse; all that can be done in him is done. But now, dear sir, it is not all finished; does it not rather begin? I go from trunk to trunk proving the wood. “ This,” I say to myself, “ will be good for building purposes, that will prove useful;” but for others, I say it is but fit for the fire. You know now how I think of the text. May God help us to become trees of righteousness.’“ (Der Glaubensbote.) John 5:28-29 The hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice The general resurrection I. The . 1. Its subjects. All who are in their graves. (1) The almost universal custom of preserving the remains of the departed bears witness to the truth of the text. No such custom obtains with reference to animals. The body was not formed to die, and men cherish the hope of its recovering its lost immortality. (2) Our text, therefore, gratifies the most sacred feelings of the human heart. Our separation from our loved ones is only temporary. (3) The same persons shall rise. Momentous changes, indeed, take place; but what changes take place between infancy and old age! Yet it is the same person in whom they transpire. (4) The analogy by which Scripture illustrates this mystery is that of grain sown in the earth, which dies in order to live again. 2. The power by which it is accomplished. Christ’ s voice. (1) Not the voice as heard through pastors, etc. The season for hearing, that for conversion, sanctification, comfort, etc., is over. This we can refuse to hear, but not that. (2) The voice of the archangel and the trump of God, terrible, irresistible, dead awakening. 3. The time. (1) It is determined in the counsels of God. (2) It will be at the winding up of the affairs of time, “ the last day.” The day of world’ s first judgment came; so did that of Sodom, and Babylon, and Jerusalem; and just as surely shalt this. II. The . All shall come forth. 1. The righteous. (1) They shall not taste of death. (2) Their bodies shall be fashioned like unto Christ’ s glorious body. (3) They shall obtain everlasting blessedness. 2. They that have done evil. (1) The unbelievers who are condemned already to have their condemnation confirmed. (2) They shall rise to be everlastingly banished. (A. Beith, D. D.) The resurrection What Christ AVOWS and affirms is that He is the Son of God, and that is the first thing that was ever done in heaven--the eternal generation of the Son: that by which He proves this is that there shall be a resurrection of the body; and that is the last thing that shall be done in heaven. I. The DIGNITY of this resurrection. Marvel not at this--at your spiritual resurrection, that a sermon should work, or sacrament comfort. Deem not this a miracle. But there are things which we may wonder at. Nil admirari is but the philosopher’ s wisdom; he thinks it a weakness that anything should be strange to him. But Christian philosophy tells us that the first step to faith is to wonder with holy admiration at the ways of God with man. Be content, then, to wonder at this, that God should so dignify as to associate to His presence the body of man. God is a spirit, every soul is a spirit, angels are spirits, and therefore proportioned to heaven; so no wonder they are there. But wonder that God, who is all spirit, and is served by spirits, should have a love for this body. 1. Behold this love even here. (1) The Father was pleased to breathe into this body at first, in the creation. (2) The Son assumed this body in the redemption. (3) The Holy Ghost consecrates this body and makes it His temple by His sanctification. So the whole Trinity is exercised upon the dignifying of the body. 2. This purpose of dignifying the body is opposed (1) By those who violate and mangle the body which God made in inhuman persecutions. (2) By those who defile the garment Christ wore by licentiousness. Some of the Roman emperors made it treason to carry a ring that had their picture on it to any place in the house of low office. What name can we give that sin to make the body of Christ the body of a harlot? (1 Corinthians 6:15-18). (3) By those who sacrilegiously profane the temple of the Holy Ghost by neglecting the duties belonging to the dead bodies of God’ s saints. 3. Those exceed this purpose who (1) Pamper with wanton delicacies or sadden and disfigure with lastings and disciplines His own workmanship. (2) Who dishonour or undervalue the body or forbear marriage. (3) Who keep any rag of a dead man’ s skin, or chips of their bones, or lock of their hair for a relic, amulet, or antidote against temporal or spiritual calamities. II. The of this resurrection. The former resurrection Christ said, “ Now is” ; of this He said, “ It is coming.” In a sense this applies to death. The resurrection being the coronation of man, his lying down in the grave is his sitting down on that throne where he is to receive his crown. To the child now born we may say, “ The day is coming” ; to him that is old, “ The hour is come” ; but to him that is dead, “ The minute is come” --because to him there are no more minutes till it do come. III. The of this resurrection. It reaches to all that are in the grave. God hath made the body as a house for the soul till He call her out; and He hath made the grave a house for the body till He call it up. Shall none, then, rise but those who have enjoyed a grave? It is a comfort for a dying man, an honour to his memory, the duty of his friends, a piece of the communion of saints, to have a consecrated grave; but the word here is in monumentis--i.e., in receptacles of bodies of whatever kind. Some nations burnt their dead, there the fire is their grave; some drowned them, there the sea; some hung them on trees, there the air. The whole mansion of the dead shall be emptied. IV. The . The voice of the Son of Man. In the spiritual resurrection it is the voice of the Son of God, lest the human vehicle should be despised. Here it is that of the Son of Man, who has felt all our infirmities, lest we should be terrified at the presence of the offended God. The former we may hear if we choose; the latter we must hear whether we will or not. God whispers in the voice of the Spirit; He speaks a little louder in the voice of a man; but let the man be a Boanerges, yet no thunder is heard over all the world. But the voice at the resurrection shall be heard by the very dead, and all of them. V. The DIVERSE END. 1. You have seen moral men, or impious men go in confidently enough; but they will “ come forth” in another complexion. They never thought of what was after death. Even the best are shaken with a consideration of that. But when I begin this fear in this life, I end it in my death, and pass away cheerfully; but the wicked begin this fear when the trumpet sounds, and never shall end it. 2. Fix on the conditions “ done good.” To have known good, believed it, extended it, preached it, will not serve. They must be rooted in faith, and there bring forth fruit. Conclusion: Remember with thankfulness the several resurrections that God hath given you. 1. From superstition and ignorance, in which you in your fathers lay dead. 2. From sin and a love of it, in which you in your youth lay dead. 3. From sadness, in which you in your worldly crosses or spiritual temptations lay dead; and 4. Assure yourselves that God, who loves to perfect His own work, will fulfil His promise in your resurrection to life. (J. Donne, D. D.) The doctrine of the resurrection is peculiarly Christian. With natural reason, assisted by some light lingering in tradition, a few philosophers spelled out the immortality of the soul; but that the body should rise again is brought to light by Christ. It is the key-stone of the Christian arch; for if Christ be not risen our faith is vain. It was the main weapon of the early missionaries, and therefore should be oftener preached. It is, moreover, continually blessed of God to arouse the minds of men. We shall I. EXPOUND THE TEXT. 1. There is a forbidding to marvel at the renewing of natural life, as in the case of Lazarus, etc., and at the quickening of the spiritually dead--both of which are things which it is legitimate to wonder at by way of admiration, but not in the spirit of insulting unbelief. But the greater marvel is the general resurrection. Yet to you it is less than that of the marvel of saving dead souls. In the former there is no opposition to omnipotence, but in the latter the elements of death are so potent that regeneration is a complicated miracle of grace and power, Nevertheless, to the few the former is the greatest marvel. Let us be admonished by these marvelling Jews. Does it seem impossible for that ungodly man to be converted? That you should be supported in your trouble? That your corruptions should be cleansed? Doubt no more. Your Saviour will raise the dead. 2. The coming hour. (1) “ An hour,” because near to Him: since we do not begin to look for an hour that is remote. It may be a thousand years off, but with Him that is but as one day. Like Him, therefore, count it close, and act as though it would come to-morrow. (2) “ Coming,” therefore, certain. Dynasties may stand or wither; but the hour of resurrection is sure, whatever else may be contingent or doubtful. Every second brings it nearer. Look at it, then, as a thing that ever cometh (3) the hour par excellence. We hear of hours which have been big with the fate of nations, crises in history; but here is the culminating crisis of all. 3. All “ that are in their graves.” Those before the flood, those after; from east, west, north, south; mighty empires, etc., and you. 4. “ Shall hear His voice.” (1) Why, the ear has gone! But the God who gives the ear to the new-born babe, shall renew yours. (2) That voice now sounding in this place is not heard by those who have ears; yet those who have no ears shall then hear it. How deaf must those be who are more deaf than the dead. You must hear the summons to judgment; God grant that you may hear the summons to mercy. 5. “ Shall come forth.” Not only emerge, but be manifested. Hypocrisy will be unmasked, and unobtrusive good acknowledged. 6. “ Those who have done good and those who have done evil.” (1) Death makes no change in character, and we must expect no improvement after death.. (2) Only two characters will rise. There are no mingled characters. (3) All will be judged according to their works which have evidenced their faith. (4) They will meet with different dooms. II. DRAW LESSONS FROM THE TEXT. 1. Of adoring reverence. If the dead are to rise at the voice of Christ let us worship Him. 2. Of consolation to those who mourn departed friends. Weep not as if thou hadst cast thy treasure into the sea, thou hast only laid it in a casket whence thou shalt receive it brighter than before. 3. Of self-examination. (1) What shall be your position? (2) How shall you meet before God those whom you have sinned with before men? (3) How shall you meet Him as your Judge who would have been your Saviour? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The resurrection I. THE BY WHICH IT IS . 1. The express declarations of the commissioned servants of God Hebrews 9:19; Job 19:25-27; Psalms 16:9-11; Isaiah 26:19;Hosea 13:14; Daniel 12:2; Matthew 27:52-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-58). 2. Our Saviour’ s own resurrection. If Christ did not rise, our faith is vain; if He did, He can raise us, and His resurrection is a pledge of ours. 3. Let this evidence produce on your minds its legitimate impression, and banish all uncertainty. 4. The folly of scepticism will appear when we consider that this is in harmony with reason. For admitting God’ s infinite power, this is not impossible; and granting His infinite goodness, it is certain. II. THE AGENCY BY WHICH IT SHALL BE . 1. By hearing Christ’ s voice. The archangel’ s trumpet is a symbol of that in its awakening power. 2. The mode is uncertain, but Christ has innumerable resources of which we have no knowledge. III. THE OF THE BURIED WITH THE RAISED. 1. If new bodies were produced they could not be said to come out of their graves. The word “ resurrection” suggests something different from a new creation. Besides, it would be contrary to equity that one body should do good or evil and another be rewarded or punished. 2. Still “ we shall all be changed,” but not so as to lose our identity. The glorified Christ is the same Jesus as “ the Man of sorrows.” We shall be like Him, yet the same persons that we are now. IV. THE OF THE ACT. V. THE . The subject suggests 1. A powerful motive to seek an interest in the Christian salvation. We must all die; and if we have not been saved we shall rise to the resurrection of damnation. 2. Comfort under the loss of near and dear relatives. 3. Confidence in the prospect of our own dissolution. (P. Grant.) The resurrection brought to light by Christ I stood on the top of the Catskills one bright morning. On the top of the mountain was a crown of flashing gold, while all beneath was rolling, writhing, contorted cloud. But after a while the arrows of light shot from heaven, began to make the glooms of the valley strike tent. The mists went skurrying up and down like horsemen in wild retreat. The fogs were lifted, and dashed, and whirled. Then the whole valley became one grand illumination; and there were horses of fire, and chariots of fire, and thrones of fire, and the flapping wings of angels of fire. Gradually, without sound of trumpet or roll of wheel, they moved off. The green valleys locked up. Then the long flash of the Hudson unsheathed itself, and there were the white flocks of villages lying amid the rich pastures, golden grain-fields, and the soft, radiant cradle of the valley, in which a young empire might sleep. So there hangs over all the graves, and sepulchres, and mausoleums a darkness that no earthly lamp can lift; but from above the Sun of Righteousness shines, and the dense fogs of scepticism having lifted, the valleys of the dead stand in the full gush of the morning of the resurrection. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) The conqueror conquered If I were to call on you to give the names of the world’ s great conquerors, you would say, Caesar, Alexander, Philip, and the first Napoleon. You have missed the greatest. The men whose names have just been mentioned were not worthy the name of corporal when compared with him. He rode on the black horse that crossed the fields of Waterloo and Atlanta, and bloody hoofs have been set on the crushed hearts of the race. He has conquered his every land and besieged every city; and to-day, Paris, London, St. Petersburg, New York, and Brooklyn are going down under his fierce and long-continued assault. That conqueror is Death. He carries a black flag, and takes no prisoners, He digs a trench across the hemispheres and fills it with carcases. Had not God kept creating new men, the world, fifty times over, would have swung lifeless through the air; not a foot stirring in the cities, not a heart beating--a depopulated world--a ship without a helmsman at the wheel, or acaptain on deck, or crew in the rigging. Herod of old slew only those of two years old and under, but this monster strikes all ages. Genghis Khan sent five millions into the dust; but this, hundreds of thousands of millions. Other kings sometimes fall back and surrender territory once gained; but this king has kept all he won, save Lazarus and Christ. The last One escaped by Omnipotent power, while Lazarus was again captured and went into the dust. What a cruel conqueror! What a bloody king! His palace is a huge sepulchre; his flowers the faded garlands that lie on coffin lids; his music the cry of desolated households; the chalice of his banquet a skull; his pleasure-fountains the falling tears of a world. But that throne shall come down; that sceptre shall break; that palace shall fall under bombardment, “ For the hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) The inevitableness of the resurrection. An infidel German countess said her grave never should be opened. She ordered it to be covered by a solid slab of granite; that around it should be placed square blocks of stone, and that the whole should be fastened together by iron clamps. On the stone, by her order these words were cut, “ This burial-place, purchased to all eternity, must never be opened.” Thus she defied the Almighty. But a little seed sprouted under the covering, and the tiny shoot found its way between two of the slabs, and grew there, slowly and surely until it burst the clamps asunder, and lifted the immense blocks. Man’ s power fails even to secure a tomb from natural destruction; much less can it secure the soul against that day in which each one is to give account of the deeds done in the body. (J. L. Nye.) Evil may be contemplated from two points of view, either on the side of its positive malignity, its will and power to work mischief, or else on that of its negative worthlessness, and, so to speak, its good-for-nothingness; πονμρός contemplates evil from the former point of view, and φᾶυλος from the latter. There are words in most languages which contemplate evil under this latter aspect, the impossibility of any true gain ever coming forth from it. Thus “ nequam” (in strictness opposite to frugi), and “ nequitia” in Latin, “ vaurien” in French, “ naughty” and “ naughtiness” in English, taugenichts, “ schlecht,” schlechligkeit in German. This notion of worthlessness is the central notion of φαῦλος (by some identified with “ faul,” foul), which in Greek runs succesfylly through the following meanings: light, unstable, blown about by every wind, small, slight, mediocre, of no account, worthless, bad; but still bad predominantly in the sense of worthless. Φαῦλος, as used in the New Testament, has reached this latest stage of its meaning; and τἀφαῦλαπραξαντας, are set over against τὰἀγαθὰποιήσαντες and condemned as such to the “ resurrection of damnation.” (Archbishop Trench.) The resurrection credible Wycliffe’ s corpse was burnt to ashes, and these ashes were cast into the river; carried into the sea, and thence dispersed in a thousand directions, can the particles ever again be reunited? The Christian philosopher sees no difficulty in the case. Did any of these changes happen to the Reformer’ s body irrespectively of those natural laws which God has ordained? And, if even so, is it not just as easy for Him to reverse their action as it was to give them that action originally? It is a well-known chemical law, that, by the use of proper agencies, bodies thoroughly dissolved may be recovered and restored to their pristine shape. A single illustration will suffice. If we throw a lump of solid camphor into a vessel of spirits of wine, it will soon be completely dissolved; nevertheless, by diluting the spirits of wine with water, we may recover the camphor in the form of a sediment; nay, with the loss of a few grains, we may restore it to its original shape. So, too, of a silver vase dissolved in aquafortis. Beyond all controversy, these experiments are, in the eyes of the philosopher, far less marvellous than the act of reconstituting a dispersed, disorganized body; and yet, bearing in mind the infinite power of Jehovah, we can conceive it just as easy for Him thus to restore originally as to create. The future punishment of the wicked A professor in one of our leading colleges some time ago went to the president with his doubts upon the subject of endless punishment, and confessed that he could “ hardly believe the doctrine.” “ I couldn’ t believe it at all,” was the president’ s reply, “ if the Bible did not teach it.” Everlasting damnation A venerable minister preached a sermon on the subject of eternal punishment. On the next day it was agreed among some thoughtless young men, that one of them should endeavour to draw him into a dispute, with the design of making a jest of him and of his doctrine. The wag accordingly went, and commenced by saying, “ I believe there is a small dispute between you and me, sir, and I thought I would call this morning and try to settle it.” “ Ah,” said the clergyman, “ what is it?” “ Why,” replied the wag, “ you say that the wicked will go into everlasting punishment, and I do not think that they will.” “ Oh, if that is all,” answered the minister, “ there is no dispute between you and me. If you turn to Matthew 25:46 you will find that the dispute is between you and the Lord Jesus Christ, and I advise you to go immediately and settle it with Him.” (W. Baxendale.) John 5:30I can of My own self do nothing; as I hear I judge Christ’ s present judgment This verse is a conclusion of this part of Christ’ s apology for His curing of the man, and commanding him to carry his bed on the Sabbath day, and for His asserting His unity and equality with the Fathel; wherein, from the former purpose, be sums up these conclusions: 1. That He is inseparable from the Father in operation (John 5:19), having no private power of His own (as they conceived of Him as a mere man); but the same in essence, power, and operation with Him. 2. That He is in all the Father’ s counsels, and hath the power of administration of all things communicate to Him from the Father, which is pointed out under the name of hearing, as it is John 5:19, by seeing, to hold forth the spirituality of the way of communicating, and His infinite comprehension of all that is communicate, as hearing and seeing all. 3. That His government and administration is most just, as seeking no satisfaction to any will of His own, contrary to, or diverse from the Father’ s, as He is God; and that He doth this not only as God simply, but as God now incarnate also, being the same still With the Father, and acting in all things according to the will of God. And though as man, He have a will distinct from His will as God, and so diverse from the Father’ s will, yet that did act in subordination to the will of God (Matthew 26:39). Whence learn: 1. The divinity of Christ is a truth that may no ways be quarrelled with, and doth call for our second and serious thoughts; therefore doth He recapitulate His apology, that this truth may be inculcate. 2. Such is the strict conjunction and perfect unity of the Father and the Son, that the Son neither doth, nor can do anything without the fellowship of the Father; so that in all His working the Father is to be seen and taken up; for “ I can of Mine own self do nothing,” saith He. 3. Christ, in the administration of all things, and executing of His purposes in this life, and at the day of judgment, is upon the Father’ s counsel, acting from Him, and all Christ’ s administrations are upon counsel and conclusion taken betwixt the Father and the Son, for, saith he, “ As I hear, I judge.” 4. Christ’ s administrations and sentences are all just and right, doing injury and violence to no man, nor ought they to be stumbled at by any, for, “ My judgment is just,” saith He. 5. The reason of the justice of Christ’ s judgment is because it is agreeable to the will of the Father, with whom He is one, and whose will is the rule of justice, as being supreme and absolute Lord; which will Christ, being incarnate and God-man, did conform Himself unto in all things, for, “ My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will” (nor have any will, contrary to, or diverse from His, as hath been explained), “ but the will of the Father, which hath sent Me.” (G. Hutcheson.) Christ’ s present judgment Note 1. There is a moral difference in the judgment of men concerning Divine truth. 2. Diversity of judgment is dependent on moral condition. 3. Moral condition is resolvable into one of two great principles of action--self-seeking or God-seeking. 4. Adoption of the Divine will is the essential condition of just judgments. Their principles 1. Explain the perversion of the Bible by its avowed disciples. 2. Indicate the method in which the gospel should be preached. 3. Supply a test of fitness for the work of the gospel ministry. 4. Show the necessity of Divine influence. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The unclouded heart 1. For the training of goodness, the ancient reliance was on the right discipline of habit and affection: the modern is rather on the illumination of the understanding. Vice is made a blunder of intellect, and, like optical delusions, to be cured by the most approved instruments for seeing. 2. This prescription is attractive from its apparent simplicity. It seems to take away all mystery from the moral emotions. But its value disappears the moment we use is, as, say, the miser, the cheat, the insane candidate for glory. When has it ever made such generous, just, and meek. It is true that you have only to give the slave of passion a different view of the objects of his desire and he is set free. It is equally true that you have only to make the paralytic run and he will be well. 3. Christ, reversing the order of the explanation, placed the truth in a juster point of view. He knew that if sometimes because the reason is darkened the passions are awake, it more often happens that because the passions are awake the reason is darkened. Pure sympathies make a clear intellect. When auditors, feeling that, “ never man spake like this man,” asked, “ how knowest this man letters?” etc., He said, “ My judgment is just because I seek not Mine own will,” etc.; and He instructed others how to gain a like discernment: “ If any man do His will,” etc. “ Whatever be the word on which the judgment may be engaged, it will be invariably ordered by the sympathies of a just, disinterested, and holy mind. 4. Even in His abstruser toils, these are the wise man’ s mightiest power. The most turbid clouds which darken reason are those which interest, fear, and ambition spread, and these the pure affections sweep away. How often will a child penetrate the centre of some great truth. A pure-hearted man will be a right-minded man. 5. All the great hindrances to impartiality in the quest of truth have their seat in some class of selfish feelings. The excessive eagerness about reputation produces a thousand pitiable distortions of understanding. In one it takes the shape of a determination to be original and so extinguishes his perception of all ancient excellence, in another it passes into the pride of being moderate and sound, and so he dreads eccentricities far more than falsehoods. And what is partizanship but a collection of selfish feelings, fatal to all the equities of reason. 6. But the mere absence of selfishness is not the only condition for a just judgment. Inpartiality will accomplish nothing without impulse. Clearness of intellectual view will be found not-in one who follows the light without the deep love of it, but in Him who seeks the will of One who sent Him, and who trusts it with a “ love that casteth out fear!” I. ON OF MORALS this principle holds good. The moral habits and tastes of men form their opinions much more frequently than their opinions form their habits, so that their theoretical sentiments are little more than a systematic defence after the act. Any moral practice may be recommended; yet how many things we palliate would be condemned by the very act of expounding them to others--duelling, e.g. It is fearful to reflect how the moral sentiments are modified by the atmosphere of social influence; how the indications of the unperverted conscience may become obscured or lost, and the possibility of remorse killed out. II. IN ITS OF HUMAN the same principle rules. The pure affections still the confusion of the senses and remove all motive for not seeing men and life exactly as they are. One who looks on the world as his appointed post of strenuous duty and feels on him the Divine charge to leave it better than he found it must close neither eye nor heart against its ills; and as for its charities and virtues, delighting in them all, he discerns them all; bringing as they do the refreshment of a generous veneration what temptation has he to doubt or decry them. To the selfish, on the other hand, men are tools and have to be flattered into service, and accustomed to speak of good qualities which they do not possess, the mind dwells to such an extent on the negation of excellence that it ceases to believe in it, and thus the nobler half of human nature undergoes permanent eclipse. III. Those who “ seek their own will,” are liable to error respecting those CHANGES IN SOCIETY which are brought about by the nobler forces of the human will. It is happy for the world that over the vision of its greatest enemies, their own selfishness spreads a film concealing the powers which will effect their over-throw. In spite of all the pampered despot’ s vigilance, conspiracy, conducted by lean and praying patriots, has gone on unnoticed before his very eyes, and suddenly the tempest bursts. It is of the very nature of guilty power to be surprised by the apparition of high-minded virtue in a people. Conclusion: 1. Selfishness under the form of jealousy draws another cloud over the judgment and hides from it all that is fairest in kindred minds. 2. But our judgments will not be right unless our sympathies be not only disinterested but pure. In addition to not seeking our own will, we must seek God’ s. The partialities of the affections are nobler every way than those of self-love; but they are partialities still; and while they make our judgments merciful, may prevent their being just. (J. Martineau, D. D.) John 5:31-40 If I bear witness of Myself My witness is not true.There is another that beareth witness of Me The witnesses of the Son I. A GREAT WITNESS, His forerunner. The Baptist as a witness for Christ was 1. Human (John 5:34; cf. John 3:31). 2. Brilliant. While he lasted he was like the lamp that gave light to the whole household of the Jewish people. So should every Christian in his place as parent, master, teacher, citizen, be a blazing torch, or, at least, a useful lamp, to guide others to Christ (Matthew 5:16; Philippians 2:15). 3. Acceptable. For a time the people buzzed round him like moths round a Luke 3:15). He was therefore a witness of their own selection, and hence one that might be supposed to be impartial. 4. Transcient. So Christ’ s witnesses can seldom count on protracted popularity (Hebrews 7:23). 5. Yet permanent (John 5:33). A word truly spoken for Christ never dies. II. A GREATER WITNESS. His works. 1. More exalted in its origin (John 5:34; cf. John 3:31). John’ s was from earth, Christ’ s from heaven. 2. More direct in its expression. Christ’ s works, being the Father’ s, proceeded straight from Him without passing through a subsidiary messenger as John. 3. More conclusive in its significance. John’ s was necessarily imperfect, he being but human. But Christ’ s works were such as the Father only could John 3:2; John 14:10-11). The inference from John 5:36; John 5:39 wasirresistible that Christ was the Son of God. III. THE WITNESS. His Father. 1. The Scriptures the medium of the Father’ s testimony (John 5:39; John 5:46). 2. The Scriptures the Father’ s testimony par excellence. The Father speaks in them by the Holy Ghost. To reject them is to reject the last and highest form of evidence God can give. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The witness bearer We are not informed whether our Lord’ s opponents expressed their feelings, but knowing all things, He replied to their secret objections that the testimony was valid, inasmuch as He was not alone in bearing it (John 5:31). Such testimony could not be given by any man (John 5:34); it could be given so as to be on a footing of equality with His own only by “ another” such as Himself, viz., the “ Father.” The testimony was 1. “ Of another,” implying distinctness of personality, and yet equality of testimony in value. 2. That of the God of Truth, known to Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father as it cannot be known to men. Consider, then, the Father’ s testimony to Jesus by John. I. THEY HAD SENT TO JOHN (verse 33). Some of them, perhaps, had themselves been deputies (John 1:19). By taking this step they had manifested a high opinion of John’ s testimony. What authority, then, ought that testimony to have on the subject they had submitted to him? II. JOHN BORE WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. John repudiated the Messiahship of himself, but announced Jesus as the “ Lamb of God.” Had they put by this testimony? They were now reminded of it. III. THE OF GOD’ S WAS NOT HIS, BUT THAT OF HIM THAT HAD SENT HIM (verse 34). Man of himself was not equal to the task of witnessing to the glory of Christ. “ No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” Man may be employed to proclaim what God is pleased to communicate, but the authority is not his, but God’ s. John was sent from God to bear witness of the light. How vain, then, to speak of the authority of the Church in the Roman sense. It abides in the Word which she is commissioned to proclaim, and in that only. IV. JOHN’ S PLACE AND HONOUR IN SUCH A CAUSE (verse 35). 1. He was a burning and shining lamp, a vessel prepared and ordained to diffuse light. The oil of grace in his heart was kindled from above, not from below. All ministers of Christ are of a similar character. 2. The Jews had rejoiced in this light, and had acknowledged John as a messenger from God. It was for a season only, however. John’ s ministry was short, and their willingness to rejoice in it was shorter still. When they found that he was the herald of no political deliverer, when they understood the conditions of entering the kingdom John predicted, and when he pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, they gave him up. Lessons: 1. Have we received the gospel as the Word of God? It is only when we hear God in the Word that we hear at all. 2. Were we once more willing to rejoice in the gospel than we are now? (A. Beith, D. D.) Christ’ s witnesses God alone can testify touching the nature of a Divine relation. Christ has the witness of I. THE BAPTIST. His predicted forerunner. II. HIS . III. THE FATHER. 1. At His baptism (Matthew 3:17). 2. At His transfiguration (Luke 9:35). 3. In the temple (John 12:29). IV. THE HOLY . 1. Old Testament. 2. New. V. HIS in whom He dwells. VI. HIS ENEMIES, the rancour and persistence of whose opposition is a testimony to His Person and worth. (J. W. Burn.) The witness of the Old Testament Scriptures to Jesus Christ I. They witness to Him BY THE GREAT NEED OF A SAVIOUR, revealed by the lives and expressed in the words of the noblest of men. II. They witness to Him BY THE to which men resorted to meet that need--law, ritual, sacrifice. III. They witness to Him BY TURNING MEN’ S from the past and the present to the future. The golden age of Israel was ever before her, not behind. IV. They witness to Him BY THE IDEALS of Prophet, King, and Priest, which Christ alone fulfilled. 1. As Prophet, He spoke with authority. 2. As King, He wrought with authority. 3. As Priest, He forgave with authority. (C. M. Hardy, B. A.) These things I say, that ye might be savedHave an object A minister once had the celebrated Andrew Fuller as a hearer. After service, both were invited to a neighbouring house for refreshment. The preacher, who evidently thought he had made no failure, was desirous to ascertain Mr. Fuller’ s opinion of his effort. The veteran divine seemed unwilling to be drawn out upon that subject, and for some time took no notice of his younger brother’ s allusions and hints. At length a remark was made of so inviting a character as that Mr. Fuller could not well avoid making some reply. He said, “ I gave close attention to your sermon, and tried to ascertain at what you were aiming it: what was your object?” Several years afterwards that preacher referred to Mr. Fuller’ s inquiry as a cutting reproof which he deeply felt, and which had the effect of changing essentially the character of both his motives and his labours. (Clerical Anecdotes.) He was a burning and a shining lightI. In the ANALOGY employed by our Lord we have the threefold characteristic of a Christian minister--light, heat, and lustre. Re is a living lantern. “ Light in the Lord.” 1. The first qualification for a Christian teacher is that he sees. He has heard the voice, “ Let there be light,” and the voice has divided the light from the darkness. 2. The Christian doctrine is that the world and human nature are dark, and that Christianity is a light shining in a dark place. 3. In harmony with this view, every Christian man, and especially the Christian teacher, should be a light-bringer, none the less so because his temperament and character are called to a different routine of duties, or develop a varied order of excellences. There may be more or less of the red flare of human passion or the beautiful white light of love. Light is one, but it shines through various affecting media. There is light (1) In the eye, by which we know sensible objects; (2) In the understanding, by which we know scientific relations and are able to reason, etc.; (3) In the will, which affects the whole range of our moral vision; (4) but we see most clearly when we see through our affections. 4. But the Christian, like John, must be a burning and shining light--the marriage of knowledge and zeal; the white and red lights of life; impetuosity and prudence; Peter and John going up to the temple; the jewels on the high priest’ s breastplate; the gorgeous red of the ruby, the soft blue of the sardonyx, the cataract splendour of the diamond. II. Our Lord permits the designation to wear the form of EULOGY. John was an extraordinary teacher every way. 1. When any insist on ecclesiastical authority, I like to point to John the Baptist. How strangely he must have startled the ordinary opinions of his day. To the priests his mission must have appeared most heretical and disorderly. How strange that the conservators of religion are ever the last to learn the meanings of a great revelation. But when the Word of the Lord burns in the heart of a prophet he cannot hold back. 2. John was no dreamer, but never did prophet appear more so, proclaiming the visionary kingdom at hand. In the nature of things the light would not be comprehended by the darkness. Suddenly, in the death state of the Jewish nation, John rose. “ The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent ye.” God’ s turning to man the plea for man’ s turning to God--the sum and seal of the gospel lies in that. III. . The burning and the shining light was 1. Before his age. The age was one of formalism and religious apathy. John was the impersonation of reality and earnestness. The most dreadful sight on earth is that of a preaching machine, yet that is often preferred to a prophet. 2. He was banished from society by his convictions. All men who leave the formalism of the present moment must make up their minds for the desert. But it is there we learn our true strength and the meaning of our mission. 3. He died a martyr to his faithfulness. (Paxton Hood.) Sacrifice and submission Suppose it were certainly predicted of your child that he should grow up the servant of other men, that he should have none of this world’ s honours, and that his life should be made up of sacrifice and submission; would you not conceive it a dreary prospect? This prospect was realized in John; but the Master pronounced it grand. The poet sings, “ Lives of great men all remind us,” etc. Thousands of young people have read these lines with hopefulness; of full-grown persons with misgiving; of the old who have wished that they had never heard them. But what are the elements of a grand life? There are easy, pleasant, showy, restless, plodding, successful, and average lives; but of grand lives two only are possible, both realized in Christ and in those who are like Him. I. THE LIFE OF . There are those in this world whom God calls to live for others, and the wants of others are to them the gate of everlasting glory. It may be the poor, sick, penitent, orphan, one’ s country, church, household, pariah, city, or hamlet. Human want is everywhere. To resolve to live for others, to give time, wealth, prayers, that others not so fortunate may be helped, cared for, taught, and that not grudgingly or of necessity, nor for profession or pay or praise, and on the first motion, and in faith--that is the way to make life sublime. And it is sublime because 1. It contradicts the desires of the heart, which never go that way by themselves, and involves that most glorious of victories, the conquest of self. 2. Because it is like the life of Christ and of those who have loved Him best. II. THE LIFE OF HOLY . In this life there is what is called the inevitable. Often this takes a formidable shape, and seems as if it might wreck the whole life. The wider the range of this enemy of peace, the greater the trial to a sensitive and eager spirit. But submission to the inevitable must take the form of intelligent resignation to the will of God to ennoble life. To this end 1. The mind must be kept in check by the thought of God. 2. The spirit of complaint be checked. 3. The habit of cheerfulness cultivated. Lessons: 1. One of warning to the prosperous: the one thing in their life which could have given it grandeur is lacking, and failure will be written on it at last without sacrifice and submission. 2. One of consolation to the unfortunate: acceptance of one’ s lot as from God, and making the best of it, makes it glorious. 3. Put, then, away mock heroic ideas of grandeur. There are lofty lives where the world cannot see, but God can; and noble lives, although covered with this world’ s tinsel glory, which will one day utterly fade away. (Morgan Dix, D. D.) Light The Word is a hand-lamp. Candles of tallow were first used, then lamps with wicks of flax were universally substituted. The ancients, in the absence of tables, used candlesticks from twelve inches to five feet high, made of wood, bronze, marble, silver and gold, with several branches. That of Antiochus was adorned with jewels set in chains. They were made in the form of lilies, seals, vines, and other figures. Lamps were used in marriage ceremonies, and placed in sepulchres. Olive oil was used, which on festive occasions was highly perfumed. Sometimes the lamps were held by the domestics standing round the table. Emblematically ministers are called candles (Zechariah 4:1-14.; Revelation 1:1-20; Revelation 11:4). The Rabbis were called “ Candles of the Law; Lamps of the Light.” Light and fire were symbols of Joh 1:4; John 3:20). Lamps are required only in the sun’ s absence, so at Christ’ s coming John disappears. The Church is symbolized under the sign of a candlestick (Revelation 1:20). Caravans in the desert at night are preceded by a brilliant lantern, which lights all who follow. Should the bearer be careless, “ Let your light shine” sounds from all. Christ was never called, like John, a “ light-bearer” ; the word light as applied to Him is entirely different. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The light and the lamp Just as Christ was not a Light, but the Light, so John was not a lamp, but the lamp; he was the friend and servant of the Bridegroom, who was to go before Him with the torch of his testimony. Burning like fire, his call to repentance penetrated into the hearts of men; brightly shining, full of gospel truth, he went before, lighting the way which led to the Lamb of God. (R. Besser, D. D.) The torch-bearer John was not a permanent sun; he was the torch which cannot burn without consuming itself. Critics have interpreted the article as signifying the torch par excellence, as alluding to Sir 48:1, “ the word (of Elias) shone like a torch,” and as comparing John to the well.known retch-bearer who walked before the bridegroom in a nuptial procession; but the article simply means the light, of which there never was more than one in the house, (F. Godet, D. D.) The lamp that burneth and shineth The two epithets express the same idea; that of the ephemeral brilliance of a torch which wastes as it gives light. The imperfect “ was” proves that the torch is now extinguished. John was imprisoned or dead. (F. Godet, D. D.) A lamp shines by burning, and burns in shining; the sun wastes not while raying forth its beams. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Burning and shining lives Some shine but do not burn; others burn but do not shine. True grace in the soul does both. Basil thundered in his preaching and lightened in his life. Of the martyrs Rogers and Bradford it was difficult to decide whether their eloquence or their holiness shone the brighter. (Van Doren.) Let your light shine As I have seen the glowworm at late evening, by the silent side of an empty English lane, mount some tall spike of grass and turn its tiny lamp, content to hang, head downwards, itself unseen, so that the exquisite soft green light which God had given it might be visible in its loveliness; so may one find in this world’ s lowly and unfrequented paths Christ’ s light-bearers, who shed each his own sweet love-light round a narrow circle of the dark, that the wayfarer who sees may praise, not his unsightly and, sooth to say, concealed self, but that great Father in heaven who lit this faint taper upon earth, even as He lit the nobler fires which burn far up in heaven. But just as I have shut the poor glowworm in a dark box or under an inverted dish, yet found that it spent all its radiance there unseen, only for sake of love, and because shine it must: so will the true soul, whom his Lord shall chance to imprison from shedding light on any human eye, rejoice no less to let his devout affections and gracious deeds be seen of Him who looks through the densest cover, and knows how to bestow an open reward. (J. Oswald Dykes, D. D.) Christians must shine Christians I it is your duty not only to be good, but to shine; and, of all the lights which you kindle on the face, joy will reach furthest out to sea, where troubled mariners are seeking the shore. Even in your deepest griefs, rejoice in God. As waves phosphoresce, let joys flash from the swing of the sorrows of your souls. (H. W. Beecher.) The benefit of light The man who carries a lantern in a dark night can have friends all around him, walking safely by the help of its rays, and he not defrauded. So he who has the God-given light of hope in his breast can help on many others in this world’ s darkness, not to his own loss, but to their precious gain. (H. W. Beecher.) The value of light A blacksmith can do nothing when his fire is out, and in this respect he is the type of a minister. If all the lights in the outside world are quenched, the lamp which burns in the sanctuary ought still to remain undimmed. For that fire no curfew must ever be rung. Burning and shining lights Paul, Peter, James, or John--Luke, Mark, Matthew, or Apollos--Andrew, Philip, Barnabas, or Stephen--each would be a burning and shining light: in one the lustre might dart from the pen, in another from the tongue; from one might flash the lightnings of eloquence, from another the more quiet beam of lucid exposition. St. Bernard may illuminate a court, or Thomas a Kempis a cloister; Wickliffe may lighten a rectory or a kingdom; Luther may blaze over an age; Brainerd and Elliott may spend their fiery light in rousing the latent emotions of Indian tribes; or Williams, in identifying Christianity to savages with the arts of life; Whitfield may be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, echoless as soon as uttered; Madame Chantal, the glorious Elizabeth of Hungary, or the lovely Florence Nightingale, may show how the Tabitha and Dorcas spirit is not confined to any age, to cottage, or to court. But the fact about Christianity is, that it turns all its possessors, all its sound-hearted professors, into burning and shining lights. (Paxton Hood.) The self-consuming life As a burning and shining light while illuminating others consumes itself, so Christian teachers should sacrifice themselves in the service of God for their fellow-men. (Zeisius.) Ye were willing for a season to rejoice in His light. Jesus compares the Jews to children who, instead of taking advantage of the precious moments during which the torch burns to accomplish an indispensable task, do nothing but dance and play the fool in its light till it goes out. It is impossible to characterize better the vain and childish satisfaction which the national pride has found for the moment in the appearance of this extraordinary man, and the absence of the serious fruits of repentance and faith which it was intended to produce. “ Instead of being yourselves led to faith by John, you made him an object of curiosity. You pleased yourselves with him.” Comp. Luke 7:24, etc., which charges them with making it an amusing spectacle, and closes by comparing them to a group of children playing in the market-place. (F. Godet, D. D.) Playing with the light “ All you ever seriously contemplated was to leap, dance, make sport of, like gnats in the twilight, like flies round a lamp, like dancers at a wedding.” The phrase marked not the progress of the Baptist’ s career, but the short-lived character of their favourable mood towards him, or the celerity with which their satisfaction in the radiance emitted by him turned into disgust. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Regeneration better than admiration The Jews were pleased enough with the thrilling excitement of his ministry, and experienced the delight of a new and powerful sensation. But when John struck deep they forsook him, and never mourned when the martyr perished; as children sport with fire till they are burned, then they cast it aside. Thus the Athenians sought profane amusement in Paul’ s preaching (Acts 17:19), Thus popular preachers are followed by thousands who will the next day be found at the gaming table, the racecourse, or the theatre. Not admiration, but regeneration is what a minister should seek for. (Van Doren.) I have greater witness than that of JohnThe Greater Witness Jesus was competent to bear witness to His own glory; so was the Father and the Holy Ghost. Each did, and they alone are competent witnesses. Besides the testimony of the Father through John there were I. TWO OTHER FORMS IN WHICH THE FATHER BORE WITNESS. 1. By the works which He gave Jesus to finish (verse 36). John’ s mission served its end by calling attention to them: the works themselves are now put in evidence. (1) What were they? Not miracles merely, but all that required to be performed for man’ s salvation. (2) In what sense were they “ given” Him? (a) In the everlasting covenant; (b) When He was instituted in His mediatorial office; (c) In token not only of the Father’ s love for the elect, but for His Son. (3) They were given Him to finish. Not to enter on and fail to accomplish. All heaven and earth were entitled to act on the assurance that there could be but one issue. (4) Yet the works were His, done by His own inherent, personal, almighty power, and of His independent sovereign will. (5) These works bore witness that the Father had sent Him. They were evidences not of an ordinary prophetic, but of an extraordinary Messianic mission. 2. The Father had directly borne witness to Him (verse 17): Here also was testimony greater than John’ s. (1) Christ doubtless referred to His baptism. Never had such a testimony been borne before. “ Unto which of the angels,” etc. The Father’ s voice was heard; the emblem cf the Spirit was seen; the image of the invisible God was revealed. Thus the triune Jehovah visited the East. It was a descent more glorious than on Sinai. Jesus now appealed to it. (2) The Jews sought after a sign. Here was one. It had not been given in a corner. It bore testimony to the Only Begotten, but notwithstanding, the Jews remained in their unbelief. 3. This constituted their great sin which led ultimately to the cross. Unbelief is no less an evil in us. The evidence that Jesus is the Messiah is complete: who of us believes it unto salvation? What then if we be guilty of crucifying Christ afresh. II. CHRIST’ S APPEAL TO THE JEWS ON THIS SUBJECT FOR THEIR consists of three charges. 1 (verse 37). The Saviour spoke here of all the ways in which the Father had testified of Him. The Father’ s voice was uttered through Moses, the prophets, John, at Jordan and through the “ works.” But to them it was as though it had never spoken. They enjoyed such opportunities as their fathers never enjoyed. Some of these, however, had heard and seen. Abraham, Jacob, Moses. 2 (verse 38). It was their national boast that they had the Scriptures, and a deep though superstitious regard for them. But they had not the word abiding in them. It was not so with all, however, e.g., Mary, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, Andrew, Philip, Nathanael. How common now the former case, how rare the latter, and the consequent acceptance or rejection of Christ. 3 (verses 39, 40). (1) He praised them for the duty. But how much depends on the spirit and aim of the search. Theirs was fruitless through prejudice. (2) They searched but did not come to the eternal life. Their discovery was an hallucination. How sad to read and hear about Christ and not find Him. (A. Beith, D. D.) The Son’ s complaint against His own I. A GRAVE . 1. Nonacceptance of His Father’ s ambassador (John 5:38). 2. Unwillingness to partake of His salvation (John 5:40). 3. Rejection of His gracious message (John 5:47). II. A PROOF. 1. They entirely misconceived the nature and use of the Bible (John 5:39). That which had been given them so as to prepare them for Christ they had failed to understand. They beheld in it a sort of superior talisman that endowed them with eternal life. They never dreamed of searching it for light to lead them to the Son. It is possible for a Christian to make a Saviour of the Scriptures rather than of Christ. 2. They were devoid of true love to God. They made much profession of knowledge and zeal for God’ s law, but had no sincere regard for the Lawgiver. This was evinced by the fact that though they had the law it was not within them (John 5:38). 3. They were wholly out of sympathy with such a Saviour as Christ professed to be (John 5:43). Had He come as a temporal deliverer they would have rallied to His standard; but because He came in His Father’ s name and with His Father’ s love, and to do His Father’ s work, they would have none of Him. What a melancholy tale for that day and for this. 4. They were completely absorbed in their own personal ambitions (John 5:44), and so were incapable of appreciating Christ. 5. They were thoroughly steeped in scepticism even in regard to Moses (John 5:46-47). Hence their unbelief in Him of whom Moses wrote, though not excusable, was not surprising. III. A FEARFUL FATE. 1. To be accused to the Father (John 5:45), to be impeached before the high tribunal of heaven as those who had dishonoured the Father’ s majesty in despising His Son. 2. To be prosecuted by Moses, the very law-giver in whom they had trusted. 3. To be deserted by the Son. Appalling retribution. Lessons: 1. A call to self-examination. 2. A note of warning. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The works which the Father hath given Me.--The declaration of this relation of the Father and the Son is peculiar to St. John. The Father hath given I. ALL THINGS INTO HIS HAND (John 3:35; John 13:3). II. ALL (John 5:22; John 5:27). III. TO HAVE LIFE IN HIMSELF (John 5:26). IV. A COMPANY OF (John 6:39; cf John 6:65; John 7:2; John 7:6; John 7:9; John 7:12; John 7:24). V. WHAT TO SAY (John 12:49) AND TO DO (John 14:31; John 17:4; cf. John 17:7, etc.). VI. OVER ALL FLESH (John 17:2). VII. HIS NAME (John 17:11, etc.). VIII. HIS GLORY (John 17:24, cf. John 17:22). (Canon Westcott.) Search the Scriptures.--I rather construe it in the indicative sense, “ ye search,” upon these reasons 1. Because of what is said in the verse itself, ye think ye have eternal life in them; in which words our Saviour intendeth not so much to show what they might have in the Scriptures, for then it had been proper to have said, In them ye have eternal life, as He meaneth to touch upon the erroneous conceit of the Jews, who thought they obtained eternal life by the study of the law ex opere operato. 2. Because of the context in the verse following, which lieth fairer in this sense, Ye study the Scriptures scrutinously, and they are they that testify of Me, and yet ye will not borne unto Me--than taken thus: Search ye the Scriptures, for they testify of Me, and ye will not come to Me. Besides, consider 1. That Christ is speaking to the doctors of the Sanhedrim, the most acute, diligent, and curious searchers of the Scripture of all the nation. Men that made that their glory and employment; and howsoever it was their arrogancy that they thought their skill in Scripture more than indeed it was, yet was their diligence and scrutinousness in it real and constant even to admiration. It was exceedingly in fashion among the nation to be great Scripture men, but especially the great masters of the Sanhedrim were reputed as the very foundations of the law and pillars of instruction, as Maimony styles them in the treatise “ Mamrim,” cap. 1. And therefore it cannot be proper to think that Christ in this clause sets them to the study of the Scripture, upon which they spent all their wits and time already, as confessing their studiousness, yet showeth them how unprofitably they did it and to little purpose. 2. They did exceeding copiously and accurately observe and take up the prophecies in Scripture that were of the Messias, and though they missed in expounding some particulars concerning Him, yet did they well enough know that the Scriptures did testify of Him abundantly. 3. The word that is used, ἐρευνᾶτε, which betokeneth a narrow search, seemeth to be intended purposely to answer the word γψωΡ, which they themselves attribute to themselves in their unfolding of the Scriptures. (J. Lightfoot, D. D.) Search the Scriptures I. WHAT ARE WE TO BY THE ? 1. Man had at first as perfect a knowledge of God as was necessary for him Ecclesiastes 7:29). 2. This knowledge was impaired by the fall, so that a Divine revelation became requisite for his instruction in duty and the way and means to happiness. 3. Here a God revealed His will to Adam (Genesis 3:15). 4. This was handed down by tradition for 2,500 years, and the long lives of the patriarchs preserved it incorrupt. Methusaleh lived 243 years with Adam, and 98 with Shem, who lived 50 years with Isaac. 5. Man’ s life being shortened, God wrote His law by Moses (Psalms 90:10). 6. For the clearing of it He inspired prophets continually (Hebrews 1:1; Numbers 27:21). 7. When Christ came’ He inspired others to record His works and doctrine John 14:26). 8. Hence the Scripture is contained in the books of the Old and New Testaments. (1) The Old in number thirty-nine, which the Jews reduced to thirty-two, and they divide them in this manner: (a) The Pentateuch. (b) The Prophets. (c) The Hagiographa. (2) The New Testament consisting of (a) Gospels, (b) Acts, (c) Epistles, (d) Apocalypse. 9. These are all that make up the canon; and that the Apocrypha is no part thereof is plain (Hebrews 1:1; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Ephesians 2:20). (a) Malachi was the last prophet. (b) From reason. They are neither of the Old nor New Testaments, in many places they contradict both, and they do not speak as from God. (c) From the Fathers. II. WHY ARE WE TO SEARCH THE ? 1. Because they are the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:20-21). (1) Probably (a) From their antiquity. (b) The simplicity of the penmen (Exodus 32:1-35.; Numbers 11:11-14; Numbers 12:3). (c) Their low quality (Amos 7:14; Matthew 9:9; Acts 4:13). (d) Their high doctrine as Trinity, Creation, Fall, Incarnation, etc. (e) Fulfilment of prophecy. Genesis 3:15 was given 4,000 years before its fulfilment; Genesis 12:3 almost 2,000; Genesis 15:13-14, 400. So Daniel 9:24; Genesis 49:10. (f) Their speaking with so much majesty and authority (1 Corinthians 1:17). (g) Their efficacy and power to convert (Psalms 19:7-8; Hebrews 4:12). (h) The hatred of wicked men against them (John 15:19). (2) Certainly (a) If this be not God’ s word there is none. (b) God hath attested it by miracles. (c) If they were not from God, then either from Satan or man. Not from Satan, for they destroy his kingdom (James 4:7). Not from men; good men would not cheat the world, bad men would not condemn themselves. (3) The use. If the Scriptures are the Word of God, then (a) Here is terror to the wicked (Isaiah 48:22). (b) Comfort to the godly (Matthew 5:2-4). (c) Counsel to all. Wherefore: Reverence them; believe them; prize Psalms 19:10; Proverbs 2:14-15); be thankful for them; conform your lives to them; delight in reading them Psalms 1:2; Psalms 19:10). 2. Because they contain all things necessary to be known and believed, explicitly or implicity; which appears (1) from Scripture. (a) God is their Author, and therefore they are like Himself--perfect (2 Timothy 3:16). (b) They furnish the man of God unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:17; Psalms 19:7). (c) They contain the whole counsel of God (Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18-19; Galatians 1:8-9). (d) Christ and His apostles taught nothing but Scripture (Lu Acts 17:2; Acts 26:22). (2) From reason. If all things necessary are not in Scripture, then there is something which I have no certainty of, and then the Scriptures would be in vain (John 20:21). III. ARE ALL BOUND TO SEARCH THE ? Yes. 1. God commands all (Deuteronomy 31:11-12; Colossians 3:16). 2. God commends it (Acts 17:11; 2 Corinthians 1:13; 2 Timothy 3:15). 3. They were written to be read of all (Romans 15:4); and were, therefore, first written in the vulgar tongues. 4. The knowledge of the Scriptures keeps from error (Matthew 22:29). 5. All are bound to mind their salvation. IV. HOW MUST WE SEARCH THE ? 1. With reverence and devotion. 2. With attention and understanding (Acts 8:30). 3. With affection (Acts 2:37). 4. With fear (2 Kings 22:11-13). 5. With faith (Hebrews 4:2). 6. With delight (Psalms 1:2; Psalms 119:103). 7. To a right and good end. 8. Constantly (Psalms 1:2). V. USES. 1. Reproof to such as neglect to search the Scriptures. 2. The highest encouragement and motive thereunto. (1) There is none so ignorant but this will make him wise (2 Timothy 3:15; Psalms 19:7). (2) There is no heart so sinful but this will cleanse it (Psalms 19:7). 3. No soul so dejected, but here it may find comfort (Psalms 94:19). 4. It is horrible ingratitude not to read what God hath written, and we shall have to answer for it. (Bp. Beveridge.) Search the Scriptures I. WHAT ARE THE ? 1. The Word of God. In the sense in which the words of man are his, and reveal his thoughts, will, purposes, the Scriptures are the Word of God. He is their Author, and they rest on His authority. This is opposed (1) To the Deistical. (2) To the Rationalistic. (3) To the Quaker views. 2. From this it follows that they are (1) infallible; (2) holy; (3) powerful; (4) consistent; (5) the appointed means of salvation. We are enlightened, begotten, sanctified, and saved by the truth. 3. They are complete, containing all the extant revelation of God. 4. They are plain, so that every one can learn for himself what God says. II. WE SHOULD KNOW WHAT WE SEEK WHEN WE SEARCH. We should search 1. For knowledge of God, Christ, truth, duty. 2. For consolation. 3. For holiness. III. HOW ARE WE TO SEARCH THE ? 1. Reverently and submissively, with fixed determination to believe every truth they affirm. Everything is right which they affirm, and wrong which they condemn. We are not to sit in judgment on Scripture. 2. With diligence. (1) Studying them much. (2) Consecutively. (3) What they teach on particular subjects. (4) Availing ourselves of every Aid; fixing right principles, and availing ourselves of All subsidiary means. 3. With dependence; convinced that without Divine guidance we shall obtain neither right speculative knowledge, nor right spiritual views. 4. Therefore with prayer previous and continued. 5. With self-application. (C. Hodge, D. D.) Search the Scriptures I. THE . 1. Not merely possess. 2. Nor survey. 3. But search as the woman for the lost piece of silver. II. THE SUBJECT OF SEARCH. The Scriptures not merely theirs, but ours. 1. Between sixty and seventy writings, composed at intervals of hundreds of years, yet with one chain of truth, one message. 2. The original source of even the nineteenth century’ s history, biography, and science. 3. The only guide for the soul of man. III. THE OBJECT OF THE SEARCH 1. May we not search for scientific truth (Acts 17:26). 2. For our own family records from Adam to John. 3. For the Divine message to our individual soul. 4. More especially for the life and the testimony here mentioned. In, through, and by the Scriptures, eternal life is to be had. Life is the joy of every living creature, therefore search for it in the Scriptures that reveal it by testifying of Him who is “ the Life.” IV. METHOD OF SEARCH. 1. Fairly, without foregone prepossession. 2. Prayerfully. 3. Regularly. 4. Comprehensively. (Pulpit Analyst.) Search the Scriptures I. WHY. 1. Because it is Divine in its origin. (1) This it claims to be (Hebrews 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 4:16). (2) This it can be proved to be from its fulfilled prophecies and its unique teaching. 2. Because it gives us correct ideas of our condition. (1) Our sinfulness. (2) The possibility and way of our salvation. 3. Because it makes us acquainted with our enemies and our dangers. (1) It exposes the wiles of the devil. (2) It furnishes us with weapons. (3) It throws light on our dark and perilous way. II. How? 1. With prayer. Prayer gives insight to the searcher, and opens up the depths. 2. With an upright intention of submitting to the will of God. Not going with the desire to nourish preoccupied fancies; nor as a controversialist for polemical weapons, but to know what God has said. 3. Regularly and diligently. (1) By ourselves. (2) With our families. (T. Snell.) Search the Scriptures 1. Christ’ s Scriptures were those of the Old Testament. 2. Of these Christ said, “ They contain eternal life.” Hence (1) If you admit the New you must accept the Old, for Christ endorses it. (2) In the New it is the same truth and life as in the Old. 3. What a far better Bible is ours. Two witnesses to one Christ--first in figure, then in historical reality. 4. Remember what the Bible really is. God in His love desired to make Himself known to His creatures; so He gave His Son, “ the express image of His Person.” How could we know the Son? Only by the Holy Ghost, who testifies of Him in the Scriptures. The Scriptures I. MAKE KNOWN . With this end, St. James says they are a mirror. There we can see our real selves. II. REVEAL SELF’ S . Christ in His saving mission as promised, and as come, and as coming again. III. PROVIDE AN ORACLE TO RESOLVE DOUBTS; to check difficult questions; to show daily duty. IV. REND THE VIEW OF . Conclusion: How many of you could pass an examination in the facts and truths of the Bible? Shall a soldier not know the articles of war? Shall a scholar not know his grammar? “ Search the Scriptures.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Children’ s sermon The Bible means the book, the book of books. Scriptures mean writings, the marks them out from all others. Search means hunt, dig. Why search? Because I. THEY ARE THE WORD OF GOD. When you are absent from home you write to your parents, and although they do not see you they know from your handwriting, signature, and expressions that it is yours. God takes strange methods sometimes to convince men that the Bible comes from Him. A young man, an infidel, had to carry a large sum of money through a forest. He lost his way, and was benighted. He came to a cottage and obtained shelter. The owner was a rough-looking man, which made him afraid for his treasure. So he resolved to stay up all night and guard it. By and by the man reached down the Bible, upon which a load was taken from the traveller’ s mind. He knew he was safe in the house of a Bible reader. This led him to be a Christian. II. THEY MAKE KNOWN A SAVIOUR. A pious widow had a large family, all of whom became followers of the Saviour but one, a wild lad who went to sea. His mother gave him a Testament, and wrote his name and her own on the back. The ship was lost, and years passed by without any tidings. Eventually a sailor begged at the widow’ s door, and gave an account of his life. He had been shipwrecked, and with another had been cast on a desert island. His companion read day after day in a little book his mother had given him. “ He wept a good deal over his sins, and gave himself up to the Saviour and soon afterwards died, and gave me the book.” The book was produced, and it was the very one the widow had given to her boy. III. THEY TEACH US HOW TO LIVE. 1. As ever in the sight of God. “ Thou God seest me.” 2. To be obedient and useful. IV. THEY SHOW US THE WAY TO HEAVEN. (E. Woods.) The duty and advantage of searching the Scriptures The supreme Authority in religion here sweeps away (1) the dishonourable reflections of the infidel; (2) the servile restraints of the superstitious; (3) the wild fancies of the enthusiast. For how can Christianity be accused of conspiring to keep the world in ignorance when its injunction is, Read and investigate, making it therefore a duty to learn to read and to reason? How can it be charged with enslaving the mind by delivering it over to priestcraft, when its Author commanded a promiscuous audience to search for themselves? How can it be charged with fanaticism, when we are charged to bring all our sentiments and feelings to an inspired standard to be regulated? No! the most formidable foe to ignorance, and the most active stimulant to knowledge; that which best secures for the awakened mind the full enjoyment of its rights and the freedom of its inquiries, and the best safeguard against the perversion of our reason is the Bible. I. To THE BIBLE Christ points while He says, “ Search,” etc. 1. The Scriptures are a mine of wealth. 2. We should therefore search them as men digging for hid treasure. (1) This suggests that its discoveries do not all lie on the surface to be obtained by a casual glance. Books partake of the qualities of their author. If the mind be profound, so will be the writing. What depths then may be expected in a volume inspired by God. (2) Yet with all this depth there is the utmost simplicity. The Scriptures first instruct our childhood, and to the last engage the mature reflections of old age; before we can understand any other book we may read this to profit; and after we have exhausted all others, we still find something here to learn. (3) But if searching implies difficulty, then careful and frequent perusal is required; and this should be accompanied with the comparison of one part of Scripture with another, and with the use of every available help and with prayer. (4) This searching does not preclude hearing. II. The Saviour here points TO and reminds us of our professed principles. “ In these Scriptures ye think ye have eternal life.” He appeals 1. To the principle that in the Scriptures we have eternal life. How fondly we cling to life; yet we must soon part with it. We aspire, therefore, to a continuance after this present state, and nothing short of eternity can satisfy our cravings. What then will discover and guarantee this to us? Not the speculations of reason, but the revelation of God. This discloses to us the duration and blessedness of eternal life. What a motive then to search it to find this pearl of great price. 2. To persons, for “ you yourselves judge that you have eternal life in the Scriptures” : (1) to those who neglect it altogether; (2) to those who keep it as a gilded toy; (3) to those who only read it on Sundays; (4) to those who pay no more honour to it than they do to their catechism, prayer book, or favourite author; (5) to those who study it superficially or partially, or for the support of their own private views. III. The Saviour here points TO HIMSELF as He says, “ These Scriptures testify of Me.” Note 1. The fact that we have here the testimony of Jesus. This is declared to be “ the spirit of prophecy,” or the soul of revelation. As the single principle of gravitation throws light on the whole system of the universe, so the discovery of Christ and His salvation explains the whole record of Scripture. 2. The argument which thence arises (1) That the Scriptures by testifying of Christ afford us eternal life. He whom they reveal came not only to convince us of the fact and the grandeur of our immortality, “ I came that ye might have life,” etc. (2) That the Scriptures deserve to be diligently searched. What folly for a man who yearns for heaven to neglect the only means of getting there! (J. Bennett, D. D.) The necessity of searching the Scriptures Truth must be sought, and that with care and diligence, before we find it. Jewels do not use to lie upon the surface of the earth. Highways are seldom paved with gold. What is worth our finding calls for the greatest search. Prejudice is the wrong bias of the soul, that effectually keeps it from coming near the mark of truth; nay, sets it at the greatest distance from it. They are few in the world, that look after truth with their own eyes; most make use of spectacles of other’ s making, which causes them so seldom to behold the proper lineaments in the face of truth; which the several tinctures from education, authority, custom, and predisposition do exceedingly hinder men from discerning (John 7:48; St. Luke 11:52). (Bp. Stillingfleet.) Blank pages of the Bible I dare say none of you ever saw a kind of ink used for secret writing. Common ink, you know, leaves a very plain mark on the paper; but this ink of which I am speaking fades away directly it is used, and the paper seems to be blank. But if that sheet of paper is held to the fire, the writing comes out, and can be read easily. Now to a great many people the pages of the Bible, especially of the Old Testament, seem all blank, without any beauty or interest.. But if you learn to read God’ s word with care and intelligence, above all, if you pray to God to show you the true meaning, the pages which seemed blank before will be full of interest for you. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.) Practical searching Search the Scriptures, not as thou wouldst make a concordance, but an application; as thou wouldst search a wardrobe, not to make an inventory of it, but to find in it something fit for thy wearing. (J. Donne, D. D.) Scriptural investigation 1. The Sadducees “ erred, not knowing the Scriptures,” and this is the source of error all time through. 2. Christ made the Scriptures His constant rule and guide, and so, therefore, should we. I. IT IS EVERY MAN’ S DUTY TO SEARCH THE . God’ s purpose in vouchsafing the Scriptures was in consequence of our fall, and the necessity of a new birth in Christ Jesus; and their characteristic feature is to lead men to a practical knowledge of these two great truths. If man had continued in a state of innocence he would not have needed an outward revelation, because God’ s law was originally written on his heart; but since his fall, without such a revelation he could never have known how God could be reconciled. This revelation, then, is suited to his wants as a fallen creature, and that is sufficient evidence of its divinity. The infidel desires a sign, but no sign shall be given him but this, and if this is not enough, he would not believe though one rose from the dead. II. SOME WHEREBY THE MAY BE STUDIED WITH PROFIT. 1. Have in view the one end for which they were written, to show the way of salvation through Christ. Always look for Christ; in Old Testament prophecies, etc., and in New Testament teaching. 2. Search with a humble disposition, for God hides its meaning from the wise in their own eyes, and reveals it to babes who desire “ the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby.” 3. Search with a sincere intention to put in practice what you read. “ If any man will do His will,” etc. But to those who read without a desire to keep the commandments, but only for amusement or cavil, God will never reveal Himself although they search to the end of time. 4. Make an application of everything you read, and this will make “ all Scripture profitable for reproof,” etc. 5. Labour to obtain the influence of their Divine Author. It was for the want of this that the disciples fell into frequent and inexcusable mistakes. Therefore begin by praying that the Spirit who guides into all truth may assist you, and close by praying that He may engraft the truth on your heart. 6. Read diligently, thoroughly, daily. (H. J. Newbery, M. A.) The inexhaustible treasures of Scripture In the Dresden gallery of royal gems there is a silver egg: touch a spring, and it opens, disclosing a golden chicken; touch the chicken, and it opens, disclosing a crown studded with gems; touch the crown, and it opens, disclosing a magnificent diamond ring. So it is with the Bible; as we study it, we touch successive springs, disclosing exhaustless treasures. (G. D. Boardman.) The importance of Scripture study The Bible should be diligently studied because of I. ITS ORIGIN. Divine (2 Timothy 3:10). II. IT IS BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD. III. IT IS FITTED FOR ALL PEOPLE. 1. There is no nation wherever located or however educated for whom it has not just what they need. 2. It is adapted to all varieties of moral development. IV. THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN GIVE SO MUCH LIGHT TO THE WORLD. 1. It is like the sun; all other lights are like candles, oil, gas, or electricity. 2. Its effects, like those of the sun, are to kindle all other lights. 3. Like the sun it gives life, beauty, etc. V. ITS CLOSE AND . Who can study a picture-gallery or inspect a building to profit with one visit? The miner requires years before he can exhaust the mine. So the Bible. VI. IT WILL ASSIST MORE THAN ANY OTHER BOOK IN FORMING A CLEAR, TERSE STYLE. The greatest writers and speakers have been indebted to it. VII. THE BIBLE IS A LIBRARY IN ITSELF. The fewness of the books is no objection. An old doctor uses few medicines. VIII. THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE WILL YOU TO GOOD SOCIETY. Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, our blessed Lord, etc. IX. THE BIBLE IS . 1. In doctrine. 2. In language. 3. In influence. Persecutors have destroyed it, and infidels argued it out of existence; but it still lives and they are gone. X. IT IS . All physical growth has a law of limitation, but there is no limit to the growth of the soul. For the expanding needs of our spiritual nature the, Bible has an infinite supply. You can master every other book; the Bible never. XI. IT OF GOD. XII. IT REVEALS ETERNAL LIFE. Sin is the germ of death; the Word plants the seed of never failing vitality. (H. M. Scudder, D. D.) How we should study the Bible I. . Commentaries and lesson-helps are sometimes a hindrance. We must do our own thinking, evolving for ourselves what God has involved. 1. We must compare Scripture with Scripture, for the Bible is its own best commentator. The Gospels supplement each other; the Acts explain the Epistles; both covenants form one Divine unity. 2. Master the principles which be at the foundation of Hebrew poetry and prophecy, particularly the principle of parallelism; for while our rhyme is that of sound, the Hebrew is that of thought. 3. Learn the geography and natural history of the Bible. A true map is in a sense a part of the Bible. 4. We must put forth all our mental powers to perceive acutely, conceive accurately, reason closely, and express clearly. We must learn how to trace analogies, bring out real points, follow the outline of arguments, detect links, and observe general drifts. 5. We ought to summon the aid of imagination to realize actors and scenes. 6. But let us beware of the old sin of letter worship; that killeth, only the Spirit giveth life. Seek the essential under the incidental, the central under the superficial, the eternal under the transcient. II. HUMBLY; with docility of spirit; stripping ourselves of preconceptions; searching not for the confirmation of our opinions but for the truth of God. Only the pure in heart, those of unmixed pellucid motives shall see God. “ The meek He will guide in judgment.” III. . Scholarship is but a telescope, and telescopes are of no use to the blind or in the dark. The spirit must illuminate our understandings and guide into all the truth. IV. . Do the truth as well as study it; in fact, this is the only way of knowing and believing it. (G. D. Boardman, D. D.) Bible study The Bible should be studied I. . We are all possessed of judgment and reason, and God intends us to employ them. A large number of passages have come to be used in a conventional sense, which is not their real sense. It is the latter we ought to find. Make, then, the Greek Testament an object of study; or, if not, a good commentary. II. . We do not do the Bible justice if we read a scrap here and a scrap there. The Epistle to the Romans, e.g., as all letters, should be read straight on. If you can only master a few verses keep to them, but do not let the chain be broken. III. . Carry a little Testament about with you to refresh you as you take a glass of water when you are thirsty between meals.. IV. . Take the subject of justification and see what Paul says, and then James, and then John. Don’ t be afraid of controverted subjects. Work them out for yourself, not from treatises or sermons, but God’ s Word. V. . When you read a passage ask yourself. With what lesson am I impressed? Don’ t be content with being interested, try and get something for edification. VI. . If we want a real feast let us go down upon our knees, spread the Bible open before us, and realize that God is speaking to us. This is where the Jews failed in spite of all their critical care and reverence, “ Ye have not His word abiding in you.” Many people use their Bibles as superstitiously as any Chinaman uses his praying machine. “ I have read my chapter this morning, and my conscience is satisfied.” But how much good has it done you? Just as much as counting the beads of a rosary; i.e., none, unless you have found in it a living Saviour. (W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.) The testimony of the Scriptures to Christ I. As making atonement for sin, and thus providing THE GROUND OF LIFE. II. As procuring the influences of the Spirit, and thus providing THE MEANS OF LIFE. III. As exhibiting a perfect humanity, and thus providing THE MODEL OF LIFE. IV. As overcoming death, and thus providing THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) How to study the Bible To some the Bible is uninteresting and unprofitable because they read too fast. Among the insects which subsist on the sweet sap of flowers there are two very different classes. One is remarkable for its imposing plumage, which shows in the sunbeams like the dust of gems; and as you watch its jaunty gyrations over the fields, and its minuet dance from flower to flower, you cannot help admiring its graceful activity, for it is plainly getting over a good deal of ground. But in the same field there is another worker, whose brown vest and strong straightforward flight may not have arrested your eye. His fluttering neighbour darts down here and there, and sips elegantly wherever he can find a drop of ready nectar; but this dingy plodder makes a point of alighting everywhere, and wherever he alights he either finds honey or makes it. If the flower-cup be deep, he goes down to the bottom; if its dragon mouth be shut, he thrusts its lips asunder; and if the nectar be peculiar or recondite, he explores all about till he discovers it, and then, having ascertained the knack of it, joyful as one who has found great spoil, he sings his way down into its luscious recesses. His rival of the painted velvet wing has no patience for such dull and long-winded details. But what is the end? Why, the one died last October along with the flowers; the other is warm in his hive to-night amidst the fragrant stores which he gathered beneath the bright beams of summer. To which do you belong?--the butterflies or the bees? Do you search the Scriptures or only skim them? (J. Hamilton, D. D.) The Bible to be studied often and lovingly Lord Bacon tells us of a certain bishop who used to bathe regularly twice every day, and on being asked why he bathed thus often, replied, “ Because I cannot conveniently do it three times.” If those who loved the Scriptures were asked why they read the Bible so often, they might honestly reply, “ Because we cannot find time to read them oftener.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Superstition use of the Bible The Bible is some- times used as a book of magic. Many open it at random, expecting to be guided by the first passage that they see, as Peter was told to open the mouth of the first fish that came up and he would find in it a piece of money. A missionary of high standing was cured of this superstition by consulting the Bible in an important matter of Christian duty, and the passage that met his gaze was, “ Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming.” (J. M.Buckley, D. D.) The advantage of unfettered Bible study It was a glorious hour in England when the Bible was unchained, when every man could hear and read in his own tongue, wherein he was born, the history it told of the doings of God with man. Freedom sprang to light whenever the book went, and at its touch imagination stirred and awoke to life. A fresh world of thought and feeling, the world of the Oriental heart, opened out its riches to the poet and the philosopher. New blood streamed through the veins of English literature. Not only intellectual, but political freedom deepened wherever its words were heard and its principles received. It gave new force to the struggle against tyranny. It gave fresh impulse to political progress. It made cruelty, injustice, the oppression of the weak, the corruption of the great and the small, more hateful and intolerable. It initiated reform; it was the standard of all noble revolution. Our civil freedom--accelerating as it goes--has always taken much of its impulse from the book of true liberty, true fraternity, true equality. And it is not only intellectual freedom or political freedom which have gained their living force from this book. Higher than the imagination of the poet, the intellect of the philosopher, and the patriotism of the citizen, is the immortal spirit which abides in man. The spiritual being of man lay crippled and unmoved in England, like the lame beggar of old at the beautiful gate of the temple. When the Bible was put into the hands of every man in the country, it came, like Peter and John of old, to the heart of England, and proclaimed the gospel of Christ Jesus. Straightway the soul of England received strength, and entered into the temple of spiritual freedom, walking, and leaping, and praising God. Far and wide the book penetrated into the homes of England, and the fetters which had been bound on the spirits of men mouldered into the dust from whence they came. Religious freedom was the Bible’ s child. (S. A. Brooke, M. A.) The Bible interpreted by love You have heard of the story of the blind girl who, when her fingers became callous, cut her finger-tips to make them more sensitive. This, however, only made them harder, and then she could not read her Bible at all. At last, after bitter weeping, she kissed her Bible a farewell. To her intense joy, that kiss revealed to her the fact that she could read the raised words with a touch of her lips. Ever after she kissed into her soul that precious Word. (H. M. Scudder, D. D.) Christ in the Bible I know that men sneer at the idea that Christ is traceable everywhere in the Scriptures. A wealthy man builds and furnishes a house for the reception of his much-loved bride. When she enters it she finds that all the rooms and all the furniture, from the least to the greatest, bear signs that she was thought of. Will she sit patiently under a sneer at her acknowledgment of the forethought of the bridegroom for her needs and tastes? Will she not point out the proofs, above and below, in common and peculiar things, and reassert that she sees the signs of his perfect knowledge and love everywhere? And shall we be frightened by a sneer from affirming that God, who built up all the books of the Bible, saw His end, and made reference to that end in every stage of revelation--that Christ is everywhere? Does not our Lord support the idea when He says to the Pharisees, “ Search the Scriptures, for these are they that testify of Me” ? And “ Ye will not come to Me that ye may have life” is a mournful form in which He explains their utter misconception of the Scriptures. May that saying not be applicable to us! Let us read the Bible to find Christ. (D. G. Watt, M. A.) Christ in the Bible There was once a famous artist who made a wonderful shield, and worked his own name so cleverly into it, that it could not be removed without destroying the shield. The Bible is like that shield, and the name of Jesus is so worked into it that we find it everywhere. Have you ever seen a photographic artist take one of those sun-pictures which are now so common? Well, at first there was no picture, only a piece of glass with a kind of white cloud upon it. But presently, as the artist poured certain chemicals upon it, a picture began to come out of the mist; first one feature, then another, till you saw the likeness of a friend. The Old Testament Scriptures sometimes appear strange and uninteresting to you; there is a mist over them as it were. But as you study the words, or hear them explained, gradually new beauties, new features, come out, and you find a likeness. Whose likeness, my children? The likeness of Jesus Christ. Have you ever seen a kaleidoscope? When you hold it to your eye and turn it round, you see a number of pieces of coloured glass which form all kinds of beautiful patterns, such as stars, and crowns, and fountains, and flowers. The Bible is very like a kaleidoscope. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 5:41I receive not honour from men.Lest they should think that in commending Himself and challenging them He was hunting after vainglory, as false teachers do, Christ obviates that mistake, and showeth that He was seeking no such thing, nor was capable of any addition of honour from the creature. Whence learn 1. Christ is so omniscient that He knoweth and marketh the thoughts of every one that He dealeth with; so much doth His obviating their thoughts teach. 2. It is the usual fault of men that they have but low and base thoughts of Christ, and that they measure and judge of Him and His followers by themselves, for this suspicion of Christ imported that they looked on Him as a mere man, and as they were themselves ambitious (John 5:44), so did they judge of Him, and so are His servants judged of. 3. Christ was no hunter after vainglory, nor is He capable of any addition of honour by men’ s acknowledging of Him; nor ought men to think that He seeks them because He hath any need of them, or that they add anything to Him, when He makes them somewhat; for albeit men are bound to manifest and declare His super-excellent glory; and men by sin do what they can to dishonour Him, as who would cast dirt or spit against the sun? Yet His infinite glory is neither capable of addition nor diminution from the creature; for “ I receive not honour from men.” (G. Hutcheson.) Vanity of worldly honours The subjects of Charlemagne, after his death, set his corpse on a throne in a sepulchre, and put a sceptre in his stiff hand and a crown on his bloodless temples; but long ago he came down to a prostrate condition. At the Tuileries, in Paris, during the revolution of July, when the mob broke in, a boy, wounded to death, was laid on the emperor’ s throne, and his blood gave deeper crimson to the imperial upholstery ;but, after all, he came down into the dust where we must all lie. (Dr. Talmage.) Worldly honours delusive and dangerous Heliogabalus, the Roman emperor, being jealous of the power of the senate, invited the senators to a great feast. When they were overcome with wine, Heliogabalus left the hall. The doors were fastened without; yet the carousal continued. The emperor shouted to them from a glass door in the ceiling, that, as they were ever aspiring after fresh laurels, they should now be satisfied. Wreaths and flowers began to rain upon them. The senators cried, “ Enough, enough!” but the rain continued. Terror seized them. They flew to the doors; but they were immovable. Escape was impossible. The relentless storm continued till all were buried and suffocated beneath the murderous sea of flowers. (E. Foster.) John 5:42 Ye have not the love of God in you The sin of not loving God I. WHAT IS IT TO LOVE GOD? Hereunto is required 1. Knowing of Him. 2. Our choosing Him as our portion and sovereign good Deuteronomy 26:17; Psalms 16:5; Psalms 73:26). 3. Our exercising all the acts of love towards Him. (1) Good will. (2) Desire of union. (3) Complacency. II. HOW ARE WE TO LOVE GOD? 1. With all our hearts (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37). 2. Above all things (Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26). 3. At all times. Because (1) Of the infinite perfections of goodness in Himself. (2) Of His infinite expressions of goodness towards us. III. HOW DOES IT APPEAR TO BE SIN NOT TO LOVE GOD? Because 1. God has commanded it (Deuteronomy 6:5). 2. We have so many obligations to love Him. 3. The want of this turns everything else to sin. IV. WHO ARE GUILTY OF THIS SIN? 1. They that acknowledge Him not. 2. That think not of Him (Psalms 119:97). 3. That long not after Him (Psalms 73:25). 4. That rejoice not in Him. 5. That love anything as much or more than Him (Luke 14:26). 6. That love not His (1 John 4:12; 1 John 5:1). 7. That do not endeavour to be reconciled to Him. 8. That do not obey Him (John 14:15). V. MOTIVES TO LOVE GOD. 1. It is the first and great command (Matthew 22:38). 2. We can perform no duty aright without it (1 Corinthians 13:1). 3. It will make all other duties easy and pleasant. 4. Consider how infinitely God deserves our love for what He is in Himself; and also for what He is to us. He (1) Made us; (2) Maintains us; (3) Protects us; (4) Redeemed us; (5) Sanctifies us; (6) Prepares heaven for us. 5. If we love God all things shall work together for our good. (Bp. Beveridge.) Marks of the love of God I. In suggesting various MARKS by which you may ascertain whether you love God or not, I would mention 1. The general bent and turn of your thoughts when not under the immediate control of circumstances. These afford clear indications of the general temper and disposition. It is impossible that such a Being should be absent long from your thoughts unless you are decidedly indifferent to Divine things; the charge against the ungodly is that “ God is not in all their thoughts.” Consider this, ye that forget God. 2. How you stand disposed to the exercises of religion: if God is the Object of your love you will gladly avail yourselves of the opportunities for cultivating a closer friendship with Him. 3. How you stand affected towards His Word. We can derive no just thoughts of God but from that. All, therefore, who sincerely love Him study that. “ How I love Thy law; it is my meditation all the day.” A neglected Bible is an unambiguous sign of an unsanctified heart. 4. With what sentiments do you regard the people of God? If you do not love the image which you see, how can you love the unseen original? 5. Consider the disposition you entertain toward the Son of God. “ If ye had loved the Father, ye would have loved Me also.” 6. Examine how you are affected by His benefits. These are so numerous and distinguished that they ought to excite our gratitude; and yet are they the only benefits we receive without thankfulness. 7. In what manner are you impressed with a sense of your sins? 8. How are you affected towards this world? II. Supposing a conviction to be produced that you bare not God’ s love in you, let me make the proper . 1. It should be accompanied by deep humiliation. 2. Let this humiliation be accompanied with concern and alarm. 3. This is an awful, but not a helpless state. Jesus is the way to the Father’ s heart. (Robert Hall.) The absence of the love of God There are some charges which cannot be advanced without exciting the strongest feelings, such as cowardice and falsehood. And yet there are graver charges which excite no emotion, or, if perchance the conscience be aroused to the sense of their truth, anodynes are applied and men return to recklessness and indifference. It was so with the Jews and the allegation of the text, and it is so to-day. Observe I. THAT THE LOVE OF GOD IS THE WHICH OUGHT TO ACTUATE ALL HIS . Deuteronomy 6:1-6 six times repeated and confirmed by JesusChrist. 2. God’ s revelations of His character and proceedings, show the reasonableness of this command, for they show His love for the purpose of making us happy. Contemplate (1) Providence. (2) The scheme of grace. 3. This should lead us to recognize His claim upon our love. II. THAT THERE ARE OF THE HUMAN RACE WHO ARE OF THE LOVE OF GOD. 1. This is proved from Scripture. How multiplied are the charges against men that they forsook God, departed from, hated, denied Him! Christ said, “ They have both seen and hated Me and My Father,” and Paul, that they are “ haters of God.” 2. This will always be the case where men are left to the influence of their own minds without the counteracting principle of Divine grace. 3. This accounted for by man’ s fall, which introduced in the human mind a dislike to God and His commandments (Romans 8:7-8). III. THAT THERE ARE SIGNS BY WHICH THE ABSENCE OF THE LOVE OF GOD MAY BE . 1. A rejection of the Divine testimony respecting the Person and work of the Son (see the whole context). 2. The infraction of the judicial or moral commandments of the law John 14:21, etc.). 3. Inordinate desires for and pursuit after worldly gain (Matthew 6:24; Matthew 19:16, etc.; 1 John 2:15-17; James 4:4). 4. Destitution of true practical kindness towards other men (1 John 3:14, etc.; 4:7, 12, 19). IV. THAT THOSE WHO ARE OF THIS LOVE ARE LIVING IN AN AWFUL STATE WITH REGARD TO THEIR ETERNAL . The absence of the love of God 1. Abandons man to the dominion of those passions whose uniform tendency is the production of abasement and sorrow. 2. Excludes men from the favour of God and exposes them to future punishment. (J. Parsons.) The emptiness of natural virtue 1. Jesus knew what was in man, had a faculty of perceiving what lay under a semblance that would have imposed on other men. 2. In the exercise of this faculty Jesus came forth with the utterance of the text. He saw, in spite of their zeal for the Sabbath and God’ s honour, that the Jews had not the love of God in them. 3. It is mortifying to the man who possesses many accomplishments of character to be told that the most essential accomplishments of a moral being is that in which he has no share, and wanting it, he wants not merely obedience to the first and greatest commandment, but the impregnating quality of all acceptable obedience. 4. There is no more useful exercise than that of carrying round this conviction amongst all conditions of humanity. The pride of the Pharisees was opposed to such a demonstration, nor do men of taste, feeling, and morality understand how they should require the same treatment in preparing them for immortality with the profligate. 5. But the Bible everywhere groups men into two classes, with one clear line of demarcation between them, and this we can find out to be in accordance with the actual exhibition of human nature. There are men who do and men who do not possess this love of God. I. TAKE AN EXTREME CASE, A MORAL MONSTER, who, in addition to every other vicious feeling and practice, can steel his heart against the atrocity of murder. We have no difficulty in assigning his place. It were a monstrous supposition that the love of God were to be found in him. II. DETACH FROM HIM ONE FEATURE. He recoils from murder. Has he thereby become a spiritual man? Is the difference assigned to him due to the love of God? Your consciousness will tell you that the heart has constitutional feelings unaccompanied by any reference to even the existence of God. III. H this natural recoil from murder be experienced by the man who has no love to God, why may it not be carried further and yet the same love be absent? LET THERE BE THEN A FURTHER . Endow the man with natural tenderness and make him a fair every-day character. Still he only constitutionally revolts from crime without any movement of affection towards God. IV. PROCEED IN THIS WORK. Conceive of an exquisite softening of affection and tenderness over the whole character. Do these refined sensibilities constitute a spiritual man? The feeling heart if unaccompanied by the love of God is no better evidence than the circulation of the blood. V. GO STILL FURTHER. Let the heart be filled with upright and honourable principles. But there is a principle of honour in the human mind apart altogether from any reference to God. VI. But it may be asked, WHAT BETTER CAN BE GIVEN OF OUR LOVE TO GOD THAN THE AND OF THESE VIRTUES? It takes us to the bottom of this delusion to observe that though the religious principle can never exist without virtuous conduct, yet such conduct may be due 1. To natural disposition. 2. To a perception of its beauty. 3. To secure friendships. 4. To a perception of it as part of a fashionable deportment. But it is only when he is virtuous, because it is a prescription of Divine law that there is any religion in it. If you do what is virtuous because God tells you, then only do you give an example of the authority of religion over your practice. God cannot reward you in the capacity of Master when His service is not the principle of it, nor as Judge when your virtue has no reference to His law. And the highest sense of duty towards society will not be received as an atonement for wanting a sense of duty to God. He gave you your virtuous faculties and provided a sphere for their exercise, yet you do not love Him. Conclusion: 1. Virtue without religion, from the want of an adequate motive, is at best imperfect and breaks down under the severe pressure of temptation. Christian virtue sustained by the love of God is invincible, perpetual, permanent. 2. If Scripture and all experience are on the side of our text, should not this be turned by each of us to personal account? 3. The love of God may be, and can only be, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. (T. Chalmers, D. D.) Anathema Maranatha (in conjunction with 1 Corinthians 16:22):--Our Lord is remonstrating with the Jews for their desire to slay Him. By taking His life they would be taking their own (John 5:40). This was attempted under the pretence of love to God. Our Lord here exposes its hollowness. The other verse is a prediction of the inevitable consequence of impenitence. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 Paul tells us that the Jews called Jesus Anathema, i.e., a person devoted to destruction. How He turns their doctrine upon them! “ It is not Jesus who shall be destroyed, but those who do not love Him.” I. THE MIND IN SOME AND , and the range of its search will widen, and its standard rise in proportion to the purity, reverence, and the devoutness of the desire. II. THIS FINDS ITS REWARD IN THE OF THE HIGHEST GOOD. Finite intelligence can rest only in its infinite source. III. THE PATHWAY TO SUCH AN ISSUE IS OPENED IN THE GOSPEL. 1. With unobtrusive step. There is no vulgar ceremonial, no wild or harsh Eureka. 2. With surprising grace. 3. With convincing luminousness. Christ is “ the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” 4. With unembarrassed access. Willinghood is the only condition. “ The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.” IV. THE WHICH THE GOSPEL MAKES IS THE GREAT MORAL AND TEST. 1. It tries our estimate of law. He who underrates the gospel lowers the standard of the law. A low estimate of moral law means a low estimate of God. 2. It tests our reverence for God. The mind which shrinks from the obligations of the gospel is deficient in its veneration for the Supreme. 3. It tests our susceptibility to transcendent worth. Without a sense of our utter worthlessness there can be no appreciation of Christ. Any sense of personal righteousness detracts from our estimate of His. Just as a man dwindles in His own esteem Christ rises and expands. Christ came not to dower the rich and cleanse the pure, but to enrich the poor and wash the filthy. V. TO SET THIS GOSPEL AT NAUGHT IS TO BE LEFT WITHOUT EXCUSE. 1. Unless we can find a substitute; but all substitutes hitherto have been like the cup of Tantalus. Read the “ Transactions of the British Association” beside a sick bed, or take them as a light to the feet, and where is your consolation? 2. Unless we can silence clouds of witnesses. Could a lie have filled the martyr with new faith? 3. Unless we can do all this without misgiving. 4. But to yield to this gospel is to pass within the range of everlasting love. (A. Mursell.) Love the supreme test As a man loveth so he is; for the lover is in the thing loved, more properly than in himself: wherefore, if a man love earthly things, he may be called an earthly man; but if he love heavenly things, or God, he may be called an heavenly or a godly man. Therefore love God and heavenly things, for undoubtedly that is the best and most assured love; for they be, and ever shall be, permanent; and all earthly things be soon vanished and ended; and so the love of them is in vain (1 John 2:15-17). (Dean Colet.) The tests of love 1. We take delight in pleasing the object of our affection. 2. We delight in the society and conversation of those we love. 3. We naturally prize the approbation of one whom we love. 4. We have reference to the feelings of one whom we love, in all our conduct. 5. We naturally love to think of the object of our affection. 6. We delight in conversing about an object of our affections. 7. We are pained when separated from those we love. 8. We naturally love the friends of the object of our affection. 9. We naturally avoid the enemies of our friends. 10. We are grieved when our best friend is abused in our presence. 11. We are naturally credulous and pleased if we hear any good of those we love. 12. We love to see means used to promote the interest and happiness of those we love. 13. It is difficult for us to believe an evil report of one whom we love. 14. When we are compelled to believe an evil report of the object of our affection, we are careful not to give it unnecessary publicity. 15. We naturally try to put the most favourable construction upon any event that might be injurious to the interest or reputation of a friend whom we love. 16. When any of the friends of one whom we greatly love fall into any conduct that is greatly dishononrable to the object of our affection, it distresses us, and we are disposed, as far as possible, to prevent a repetition of the event. Nothing is more common than for impenitent sinners to affirm that they do love God; and yet nothing is more certain than that they do not love Him. (C. G.Finney.) The world does not love God I have been reading Chinese books for more than forty years, and any general requirement to “ love God,” or the mention of any one as actually “ loving Him,” has yet to come for the first time under my eye. (J. Legge, D. D.) The awful charge I. HERE IS AN AWFUL CHARGE. “ Ye have not,” etc. To whom does this apply? 1. To those who are habitually unmindful of Him. Our thoughts as naturally follow the object of our regard as the needle the loadstone. Says David, “ I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.” Observe what follows: “ How precious are Thy thoughts unto me,” etc. But of the wicked it is said, “ God is not in all their thoughts.” 2. To those who do not trust in Him. We cannot confide in one we dislike, and we know not how to distrust one whom we truly esteem. 3. To those who are unconcerned for His honour and interest. Is our friend misrepresented? We naturally stand forth in his defence; we could not see him injured or wronged without pain, and Without endeavouring to have him righted. But what lamentable unconcern do we witness for God and the things of God! 4. To those who are indifferent about His presence and favour. We value the regard of those who are dear to us. II. THEIR SIN AND DANGER. God has the highest claims to our love, and not to love Him is a sin of no ordinary magnitude. 1. It is a most comprehensive sin. Love is the fulfilling of the whole law, and hence the want of it is a sin which violates the whole law. It is the want of everything that is morally good, the root of all evil, the spring or root of all disobedience. 2. It is a most inexcusable sin. For can any plead want of ability? Is not the passion of love implanted in our nature? 3. It is a most ruinous and destructive sin. All who die without love to God must be excluded from His presence, shut out from His kingdom. Apply the subject 1. To those who are destitute of this love. Humble yourselves before God. 2. To those whose love to God is low and languid. Let them seek to have it revived and invigorated by a contemplation of the Divine excellencies--grace and love--as displayed in the great Mediator. 3. To those whose love to God is increasing. “ If any man love God, the same is known of him.” (The Evangelist.) John 5:43I am come in My Father’ s name, and ye receive Me not.Whence learn I. Albeit Christ be God over all, equal with the Father, and Lord over His own house, and so acts in His own name, yet IT PLEASED HIM TO as Mediator, not only to purchase life to them that come to Him, but to COME into the world CLOTHED WITH A FROM THE FATHER to make offer of this purchased life, that by His condescendence He might commend His love to His people, and teach them humility, and not to run on a calling unsent, and that we might look on Him as approved of the Father, and that such as come to Him the Father will accept them, for saith He, “ I am come in My Father’ s name” (see Philippians 2:3; Philippians 2:6-7, etc.; Matthew 3:17; Hebrews 5:4-5). II. CHRIST thus coming IS TO BE , His doctrine to be heard, Himself to be acknowledged for such in His person, offices, commission, and benefits, as He declareth Himself to be; to be rested on and embraced, to be employed and submitted to as such, for so is imported in that they should receive Him. III. Albeit Christ be the great Ambassador of the Father, not a servant, but the Son (Matthew 21:37). And albeit He was singular in His admiration of His office, mad all tending to the good of sinners, YET SUCH IS THE OF THE WORLD AS NOT TO MAKE HIM WELCOME; for it is the peculiar privilege of the elect to be drawn to Him, and others, they neither see His excellency, nor feel their need of Him; therefore saith He, “ I am come in My Father’ s name, and ye receive Me not.” IV. SUCH AS REJECT CHRIST ARE OF THE LOVE OF GOD, nor have they any evidence of respect to Him, since Christ is the clearest image of the Father, and cometh in His name, and the Father will not be acknowledged but in add through Him. Therefore by this doth He prove that challenge (John 5:42). V. WHEN CHRIST HIMSELF to the world, IT IS USUAL WITH SATAN TO HOUND OUT AND FALSE , to study to bear him down, to seduce souls, and by their courses to make the way of truth odious; for so is imported that another shall come, pretending either to be the Christ, or to hold Him out to others (see Matthew 24:5; Matthew 24:24; Acts 5:36-37). VI. ALBEIT FALSE PRETEND TO COME IN GOD AND CHRIST’ S NAME (Matthew 24:5), YET THEY DO BUT COME IN THEIR OWN, as having no commission when they run, as malting themselves, their reputation and advantage, their chief aim in their undertaking, and as speaking the imaginations of their own heart and brain, without any warrant from God; for “ another shall come in His own name.” VII. SUCH AS EMBRACE NOT CHRIST MAY TAKE WORSE IN HIS ROOM, and will easily receive and embrace false teachers and seducers. Men’ s nature is propense to evil courses, and is readiest to be affected with what is wrong. And seducers are more ready to serve men’ s humours than faithful ministers may be, and withal it is God’ s just judgment on the world to give them up to such, since they will not receive the love of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). Therefore saith He, “ If another come in his own name, him ye will receive.” This is the heinous sin of men, to affront Christ, to respect Satan in his messengers, before God in His Son, as to prefer lies to truth. And it is their dreadful punishment to be given up to such delusions, because they will not see the light, or do receive it only as it may serve their turn, or weary of the light, and walk not answerable to it. And men should be ashamed of their errors, as being their plague, and a proclamation that they have not received the love of the truth. (G. Hutcheson.) He who despises the Dove (John 1:42) falls a prey to the frogs Revelation 16:13). (R. Berser, D. D.) There is light for those loving light, and darkness for those loving darkness. (Pascal.) Robert Owen rejected Christianity, and died a believer in spirit-rapping. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) John 5:44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another? False and true glory Something is lost in this rendering of “ honour” in the place of glory. More is lost by the substitution of “ from God only” for “ from the only God.” Glory is the forthshining of light, the manifestation of a perfection inherent in the person spoken of. What a rebuke, therefore, lies in the phrase “ Receiving glory one from another,” implying a claim of inherent excellence. To speak of it in connection with man is to deny creation and the fall, to deify man and to dethrone God. The other substitution is less excusable. The very object of the expression is to show that there is none good but One, that is God. There is but one Being who has any light to emit, any excellence to manifest. Any other glory must be counterfeit; to accept or profess to give it is an affront to the majesty of God as the one Being. I. THE WHICH IS IN ALL OF US TO RECEIVE GLORY FROM ANOTHER. This is a different thing from that of which St. Paul says, “ Render honour to whom honour is due,” or St. Peter, “ Honour all men.” Honour is respect, recognition of the claims of position, character, humanity, not the impious flattery, for receiving which Herod was smitten. But much of that which men give to or expect from another is glory--the ascription of inherent excellence. We should call it cant to be reminded that God is the giver of that which makes a sagacious statesman or an eloquent orator. The thought, “ What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” though it lies on our theological shelf, is not welcome as a monitor. We have borrowed the word “ talent” from the parable, but we have divorced it from its context--as the memento of a Lord who will hold His servants in strict account. II. In contrast with this habit OUR LORD SETS BEFORE US THE OF SEEKING GLORY FROM THE ONLY GOD. It seems strange after the above definition of glory to seek it from God as something. He can communicate. Yet our Lord speaks of seeking from God that forthshining in ourselves The life to which Christ calls us is no tame monotony. It is a seeking of glory; the ambition to be accepted; an aspiration after an applause that the world wets not of. It is the desire for the approval of God Himself which attends upon the exercise of the Christlike mind. Where this life is there is elevation above lying world-worship. Begin this ambition at once. If hitherto we have allowed the thought of other people to come in, let us do little acts of good which no one can discover, or form some in secret, some good habit hitherto falsely ascribed to us, and thus seek a glory that comes from the only God. III. THE OF FAITH WITH THESE HABITS. 1. How can ye believe who seek the one glory? To believe is to realize the invisible. This is the direct opposite of the habit before us. To receive glory from another is to be deaf and blind to all but sense and time. 2. How can ye believe who seek not the other glory? Faith is a thing which presupposes a searching after, till it finds the God in whom man lives and moves and has his being: the half unconscious consciousness that there is a glory which God, the alone good and great and glorious, destines for and can alone bestow on man. 3. “ How can ye believe?” (1) It is good for us to be sternly reminded that there are states of mind incapable of believing. (2) The gospel may be true all the time and you responsible for rejecting it. How can ye believe with your worldly lives and ambitious projects? (3) Lord, convince us of the shame and folly and wickedness of this earth-bounded, miserable creature worship, and draw our thoughts upwards to Thy glorious presence. (Dean Vaughan.) The peril of seeking honour of men 1. All its attendant circumstances add weight to this remarkable utterance. It is the statement of the hidden reasons for Jewish wilfulness. There was a deep moral incapacity which made Christ’ s words and works powerless. 2. That which made belief powerless in the Jews makes it powerless in us. 3. In a very few touches He shows the real character of this evil--the allowing man’ s estimate to become the measure of what is to be honoured. I. WHAT THIS DANGER IS THE EFFECT OF WHICH IS TO MAKE IT FOR US TO RECEIVE THE TRUTH. 1. Pride. Take, e.g., a man of high intellectual power. Poor as it is held by God’ s standard, yet when judged according to the low measures many propose to themselves, the man has a right to be proud. Accordingly, he becomes a law unto himself and looks on others with a calm sense of superiority. By degrees he has a secret pleasure in going against the common forms of belief. His greater acuteness shows him errors in creeds, and then perhaps he stoops to be a leader of babes and grows into a heresiarch, or sinks, if truth be too strong for him, into the sadder honours of a spurious martyrdom. But for some overpowering work of grace, belief is impossible to such a man. Wrapped up in the superiority cf a Pharisee, or embittered into a scoffing Sadducee, how can he believe? 2. Self-conceit--a bastard growth of the same evil root. There is scarcely any peculiarity on which such may not ground a high estimate of themselves. Singularities of dress, bodily defect, a lisp, etc., show the workings of this lesser devil. What is there in this empty, inflated, irritating soul on which the gospel can lay hold when a strange dress, etc., is enough to satisfy his desire for greatness? 3. Vanity--closely related to the two former and yet widely different. It is a diseased desire for the good opinion of others to mend or bolster up our good opinion of ourselves. There is no humiliation to which a vain man will not stoop; he would rather be laughed at than left unnoticed. His itching desire to bring himself into notice spreads into his religion, and shows itself in small instances of ridiculous manner or rite. How can such an one believe? 4. Self-consciousness.is a struggling form of the same evil. The self-conscious man is ever tormented with an ever-present vision of self in what he is doing. He cannot confess sin without thinking how well he is doing it, nor pray without thinking how others, if they only saw him, would applaud. All of these forms have about them this deadly element, that they substitute some lower object for the one true end of a man’ s being--to do the will of God. II. WHERE IS OUR ? 1. We cannot find it in ourselves. The proud man cannot reason himself out of his pride; self-conceit will survive all disgrace; vanity will go on all through life blemishing everything, and self-consciousness will poison a life of active exertion and contemplative piety. 2. Self in this deceitful form can only be cast out by our Maker. In His presence only can we see our littleness. There all self-delusions fade. It is well, then, to get there from time to time in a solemn and especial manner. 3. But then you must watch in detail against the temptation. (1) Think as little as possible about any good in yourself; turn your eyes from self and speak as little as possible about yourself, and specially be on your guard against the little tricks by which the vain man seeks to secure attention. (2) Take meekly the humiliations which God in His providence deals out to you. (3) Place yourself often beneath the Cross. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) Undue regard to reputation a source of unbelief I. THE NATURE AND EVIL OF AN UNDUE REGARD TO . 1. There is a proper regard which is useful and laudable. This Samuel and Paul had. We may value it (1) As a test of our own character, and as an instrument for doing good. (2) But in a moderate manner, and (3) Not as the main motive of our conduct. 2. There may be an undue regard in cases in which the opinion of the world seems to be entirely despised. An affectation of singularity, a contrariety to the maxims and conduct of the world, may spring from a desire of reputation. 3. In general, however, it is by the dread of singularity that this undue regard is evinced. We are anxious to follow the world. The evil of such a principle is great. (1) It robs God of His proper glory. (2) It is base and mean, therefore, and further because it is but the love of self. (3) It is highly prejudicial to others. For it will induce us to flatter them in order that they may be pleased with us. (4) It fails of its object. The world is a hard master. “ Them that honour Me I will honour, but they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” II. THE NATURE AND OF SEEKING THE HONOUR THAT COMETH OF GOD. 1. Its nature and advantages. The man who is guided by this motive (1) Sets God ever before him as his supreme Lord whom he is bound by every obligation to obey. (2) He learns to attach little value to human approbation. (3) He obtains peace, and (4) The time is coming when he will enter upon eternal honour, while those who act from the opposite principle will be rewarded with shame and everlasting contempt. 2. Its excellence. It is (1) Pure, unalloyed by any mixture of imperfection, and consists of regard for a Being infinitely pure. (2) Simple, because it has but one end in view. (3) Noble, because its end is the glory of God. (4) Fixed and permanent. The tastes of men vary, but the will of God is unchangeable. (5) Always productive of peace and happiness. III. THE OF THESE WITH A READY OF THE OF CHRIST. AS the understanding is biassed by the affections, it follows that when the love of reputation operates the mind is predisposed to believe that system which is fairest in human estimation. The man who follows the world has nothing to do with principle or truth. He is a slave to those whose opinion he courts. It is not to a character like this that it belongs to pursue the calm investigation of truth or to suffer for it. This requires independence and unselfishness only imparted by the influence of some great principle, such as a supreme desire for the favour of God. Hence Nicodemus, Joseph, Nathanael, Zacchaeus, etc., were already disposed by the fear of God to embrace the gospel, while in the Pharisees, whose religion was vanity and whose hearts thirsted for applause, rejected it. (J. Venn, M. A.) Why men cannot believe in Christ I. THE IN THE WAY OF THE . 1. The mere fact of receiving honour, even if that honour be rightly rendered, may make faith a difficulty. He is in danger of being elevated above the conviction of sin and of the necessity of salvation. 2. It is still more perilous if, receiving honour, we come to expect it. Those who do are not in the condition which renders it easy to say, “ God be merciful to me, a sinner.” 3. The Pharisees received honour, but it was quite undeserved. They extolled one another for ostentatious religiousness, whereas they devoured widows’ houses, etc. If a man has a fine character and doesn’ t deserve it, and allows it to go on, how can he believe in Christ whose light shows him in his true colours? How can the man who has lived in the dark love the light? 4. Always receiving this honour, they deceived themselves into believing that they deserved it. The deluded becomes self-deluded, and when the smoke of incense makes their eyes dim with self-conceit, it is not at all marvellous that they cannot believe in Christ. 5. The praise of men generally turns the receivers into great cowards. To believe in Jesus is to forfeit that. Men would no longer salute them as Rabbi, but turn them out of the synagogue. So a good many now cannot believe because they are afraid. The commercial traveller would be exposed to the chaff of the commercial room; the working man to the coarse remarks of the workshop. Some are afraid of the boon companions whom they have led. How many live on the breath of their fellow men! II. OTHER . 1. Some are unable to believe because they have a very high opinion of themselves. They have never done anything amiss, or have good hearts at bottom. 2. In many cases there is a strong aversion to confession of sin and to approach to God. 3. In others the hindrance is indolence. 4. Many are too fond of pleasure to believe in Christ. 5. Habitual or occasional sin. 6. Love of gain. 7. An unforgiving temper;--all impede faith in Christ. But they all aggravate the sin. Dare you plead them before God? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The idolatry of genius I. THE EVIL. 1. The lowest and least sinful grade of it is when men value genius and do homage to it simply for its own sake, and apart from its uses. This evil is exemplified where men honour another, not for anything he has done, but simply because he has received from God some quality, intelligence, beyond that ordinarily bestowed. He may be a vain man, who is concerned chiefly to use his gifts for display; or an indolent man, who allows life to pass away without his doing any benefit; or a thoughtless man, who has never formed one worthy aim; or an irresolute man, who is driven through life as a mere waif. 2. A worse is reached when men suffer their admiration of genius to blind them to moral distortions. Sometimes the man is bold and wicked enough to employ, genius for feathering the poisoned arrows of vice, so that they may fly the surer and strike the deeper. At other times only the tendency of his writings saps the moral principle. In other cases the writer may have kept his page comparatively clean whilst he has been himself a man of notoriously flagitious life. Are such men worthy of being held up to admiration? 3. Another stage, more daring and wicked, is when men of superior powers are actually deified. This is exemplified in those forms of heathen hero-worship; and something not essentially different from this may be found in the saint-worship of the Romish Church. It may appear to some, however, that there is no risk of this species of idolatry attaching itself to mere literary genius. But what is to be said of the deliberate proposal of Comte--to revise the Calendar, and appoint days for the special worship of greatmen, gods, heroes, saints; in the first of which he would place such names as those of Moses, Homer, St. Paul, Shakespeare, Frederick the Great; in the second, Buddha and Confucius; and in the third, Hercules and Ovid? II. THE EVIL AND DANGER OF SUCH A . The worship of genius Isaiah 1. Irrational. The difference between one man’ s intellect and another’ s can never be so immense as to make it compatible with the dignity of a rational being for the less gifted to bow down in homage and reverence to his more richly endowed brother. Is it not a dereliction from our proper manhood? What would be thought of us were we to treat other gifts of God after the same fashion? Beauty, strength, etc. 2. Immoral. The first principle of morality is, that a man is neither to be praised nor blamed for what is merely physical and constitutional. The mere possession of a gift infers no excellence, implies no worthiness. It is as the possessor uses them that he becomes a fit subject for approbation or the opposite. The immorality is heightened when a man of genius is lauded, in spite of the impurity, blasphemy, or falsehood of his writings, or the crimes of his life. 3. Prejudicial to the moral interests of the youth of the community. “ We must put an end,” says the Platonic Socrates, speaking of the immortal stores of the Greek poets, “ We must put an end to such stories in our State, lest they beget in the youth too great a facility for wickedness.” 4. Idolatrous. You worship genius: Why?--Because it is the gift of God? So is nature. Because it is attractive and brilliant? So is the sun, so are the stars, the earth, the sea. Because it fills you with delight? So do the flowers. Where do you draw the distinction? (W. L. Alexander, D. D.) Self-seeking A certain king had a minstrel whom he commanded to play before him. It was a day of high feasting; the cups were flowing, and many great guests were assembled. The minstrel laid his fingers among the strings of his harp and woke them all to the sweetest melody, but the hymn was to the glory of himself. It was a celebration of the exploits of song which the bard had himself performed, and told how he had excelled highborn Hoel’ s harp, and emulated soft Llewellyn’ s lay. In high-sounding strains he sang himself and all his glories. When the feast was over, the harper said to the monarch, “ O king, give me thy guerdon; let the minstrel’ s meed be paid.” Then the monarch replied, “ Thou hast sung unto thyself; pay thyself. Thine own praises were thy theme; be thyself the paymaster.” The harper cried, “ Did I not sing sweetly? O king, give me thy gold!” But the king said, “ So much the worse for thy pride, that thou shouldst lavish such praise on thyself. Get thee gone, thou shalt not serve in my train.” (W. Baxendale.) Happiness and humility Some time since I took up a work purporting to be the lives of sundry characters as related by themselves. Two of those characters agreed in remarking that they were never happy until they ceased striving to be great men. (E. Payson, D. D.) John 5:45-47 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.The day of judgment is likened to a trial, and we learn that with every verdict there will be given reasons which shall satisfy the intelligent creation. When we read of books and witnesses, we may be sure there will be evidence we shall not be able to contradict. 1. Conscience will probably be the great accuser. This may now be torpid; but circumstances constantly occur to show that it is not dead. 2. Conscience now awakens with memory, and so it will be then; and so memory will reproduce every action, and conscience will determine its character. Addressing Himself to Jews, our Lord, notwithstanding the testimony of His miracles, avers that He will not accuse them for their infidelity. There were such clear attestations in the writings of Moses to Himself, that it would be sufficient only to produce them. And what a forgetfulness of the element of their religion, and what a stifling of conscience must there have been ere they could profess to trust in a lawgiver whose laws they set at nought! I. Our Lord makes it A ON MEN’ S MOSES, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE IN HIM. 1. The law and the gospel, therefore, must be parts of the same system. (1) If you consider the law as a system of types, and compare it with the gospel as the antitype, it seems impossible to avoid being struck by the correspondence. (2) The gospel furnishes us with the character in which the law is written, and thus enables us to decipher its hieroglyphics. 2. How can we account for this? Not by chance; for there is not here and there an accidental resemblance. But when it is the business of a lifetime to find out all the reciprocities, and the impossibility of a lifetime to detect one disagreement, we are compelled to believe that, whoever constructed the gospel, formed it for the purpose of adapting it to the law. 3. Let us see how the argument stands. (1) The founders of Christianity must, if impostors, have laboured to give plausibility to their system by assimilating it to the law; but in order to success, they must have had unbounded familiarity with the Mosaic institution and unbounded ingenuity in giving substance to shadows. (2) Had the apostles been learned rabbis, they would not have been equal to this; but they were unlearned peasants. (3) The only theory on which we can account for this mutual adaptation, is that both come from God. 4. Consequently, to reject one is to reject both. The Jews, indeed, had no such acquaintance with the gospel as we have; but they had abundant opportunity of noting the correspondence of Christ with the Messianic prophecies. They rejected the former, and hence the latter also. 5. To follow the same line of thought further. The Bible, though composed in different ages and by different writers, is an uniform book, presenting throughout the same truths, though with a great variety of exhibition and marked by a surprising similarity of style. This is convincing alike of the unity and Divinity of its authorship, and to believe one part of it is to believe the whole. II. THE FORCE OF THE THAT IF MOSES WERE NOT NEITHER WOULD CHRIST BE. 1. We are wont to think that were Christ to speak and work now as He did eighteen hundred years ago, that His ministry would result in widespread conviction of unbelievers and conversion of sinners. But if the fact that the Jews resisted the writings of Moses proved that there was no hope of them being overcome by the words of Christ, we might infer that those who reject the preaching of Christ’ s ministers would reject Christ Himself. The amount of necessary resistance would not be greater in the one case than the other, except that the Jews had an incomplete, but Christians have a perfect Bible. But would not Divine eloquence and miracles be more powerful than the written Word? No. (1) Because the Holy Spirit is the Agent of conversion in either case. (2) Because there being no respect of persons with God, one generation is dealt with by the same laws as another; and we have no right to believe that in handling a miracle the Spirit would apply a greater effort than in handling the Word. (3) In resisting the writings of Moses the Jews had resisted the Holy Spirit speaking in those writings, and henceforward, in resisting the word of Christ, they were to resist the Spirit speaking in those words. And so now the Spirit turns upon us sufficient evidence to convince, but not to compel. (4) “ To think that we should be converted by miracle who are unconverted by Scripture is to apologize for infidelity by throwing the blame upon God.” It holds good to-day, “ If we will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither shall we be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christ’ s testimony to the Bible There is much controversy about the Book. It will be interesting, amid the din and tumult, to find out what Christ thought of it. If He makes it out to be a good Book, I shall continue my faith in it. If He is hesitant or doubtful, I shall not hesitate to give it up. I. IN REGARD TO OTHERS. 1. He commended it as an object of study. (1) Without one word of caution. He points to it as you would point your child to a garden, where you give him liberty to roam where and eat what it may. If there was a pit there, or a poisonous serpent, and your child came to harm, you would be to blame. So Christ sends us to the Bible, and takes the entire responsibility. (2) Authoritatively; not with a polite wish, but with a command. We want to do away with the imperative mood, and are inviting people to be courteous enough to let the sunlight into their chambers. If you have any doubt about your Bible, then go like a crouching dog and ask people to kindly listen to your tale. But if it be in your heart as the life of your life, then speak it boldly and lovingly. (3) Completely. He does not say, “ When you come upon anything that taxes your fancy, put that into the waste-paper basket, and go on; when you meet with a difficulty, pass it by, and accept what you can accept; when something appears incredible, reject it, and pass on to what you can accept.” Had there been anything wrong there I know, because I know His truth and nobleness, that He would have told me of it. 2. He declared its absolute integrity, and exactly as a truth-speaking man would do. Persons came to Him with a difficulty, and in His answer there is this parenthesis: “ The Scriptures cannot be broken.” This was not special pleading. The subject had no reference to Scripture. The remark is casual and unstudied, and one on which those who examine witnesses place great reliance. He had the opportunity of making annotations, of saying, “ I now refer to the moral parts,” or “ I am speaking eclectically” ; but His whole assumption, on the contrary, broadens out into an infinite confidence in the integrity of the Scriptures. 3. He taught that it contains the great answers to all the great questions of the soul (1) As regards duty. A man came to Him, asking, “ What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus instantly replied, “ What is written in the law?” and showed that that great question had been answered from the beginning. (2) As regards destiny. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus He showed that the men of olden time did not go down to hell without warning. “ If they hear not Moses,” etc. II. IN REGARD TO HIMSELF. He was not a mere lecturer about the Bible. 1. He fled Himself to it in the time of His temptation and agony. “ It is written.” In His great crisis He goes to the Bible; He has it in His heart; He quotes it as if He had written it. 2. Coming out of the wilderness into society, we find Him even quoting it in self-vindication. Again and again He said to learned men, “ Have ye never read?” To His own disciples, “ How is it that ye do not understand?” And when He began to read, their hearts began to burn. They had been reading the Scriptures, and yet had made nothing of them, like many today. Read it with Christ, and you will find His person, claims, promises, vindicated everywhere. 3. Christ found Himself in the whole Bible. “ Had ye believed Moses,” etc. “ Beginning at Moses,” etc. And what is the Old Testament testimony to Him? That He is Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Sovereign, Friend; “ the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever.” Then search the Scriptures; read them through. 1. This alone will qualify you for criticizing it. 2. This alone will give you solid comfort and eternal life. (J. Parker, D. D.) The unity of the Bible an argument for its Divinity In reading the Bible I seem always to hear the same voice: whether the volume is informing me how the unshapen chaos resolved itself at the Creator’ s bidding into symmetry and life--or men, who, familiar with the scenes, are gathering centuries into sentences; or the lawgiver is arranging the ceremonies of the mystic volume; or historians are discoursing of battles and captivities; or evangelists describing the institutions, and apostles unfolding the doctrines of Christianity--I seem always to hear the same voice, as though the words of John, the exile in Patmos, were the echo of those of Moses, the leader of Israel. There is vast difference in the subjects successively, touched on; but, notwithstanding, there is a tone which I always recognize, and which always impresses the feeling that I am hearkening to the same speaker. There seems no change in the instrument, though continual change in the sound; as if at one time the whirlwind swept the chords, that I may be astonished with the utterance of wrath and devastation, and at another they were touched by an angel’ s hand, that I might be soothed by the melody of mercy. There is the same scheme carried on by the wanderings of patriarchs, the sacrifices of priests, the ambition of kings, and the sufferings of martyrs. The same style is preserved by the poet in his hymns, by the prophet in his visions, the lawgiver in his codes, the historian in his annals; so that, as though the Author never died, but appeared at one time in one character, and another in another, the Bible comes to me as the dictate of one mind, and the writing of one pen. Inspiration only accounts for this; but we cannot imagine any other solution. And if (for it is on this our text bids us fasten) there be such a sameness between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, that all the types in the one find exact antitypes in the other, and thus the two have such a relationship, that they compose one uniform system, we must receive both or reject both. If we believe Moses we must believe Christ, and if we believe Christ we must believe Moses; and this serves to vindicate what might otherwise seem difficult, that no Jew can truly believe his own religion and yet deny the Christian religion. “ For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me.” (H. Melvill, B. D.) The impossibility of inventing the correspondence between Moses’ testimony and Christ’ s work We should like to see a company of acute and scientific reasoners, but ignorant of Christianity, sit down to the study of the books of Leviticus and Exodus; they shall be told, “ These books are full of types, and emblems, and figures, and ceremonies, and you must strive to devise a simple religious system, which shall give significance to every item of this symbolic array; there are mysterious intimations,” we will tell them, “ in every page, couched in parabolic language, or under sacrificial institutions, and your endeavour must be to invent a scheme of theology which shall afford a plausible and rational explanation of all that is thus obscure.” Now do you honestly think that our company of ingenious and intelligent writers would make much way with their task? Can you believe that, as the result of their joint labours, there would be sent into the world any scheme of religion which should fix the plain meaning, or at least afford a clue, to all the mysteries of the books of Exodus and Leviticus? Yet this is precisely what is done by the system of Christianity; done with so unvarying a carefulness, that you cannot find a point to which there is nothing corresponding. The men, moreover, who effected this were ignorant and illiterate; so that the books were compiled when there was none of those human appliances which at best would but ensure the most limited success. What alternative, then, have we but that of admitting a supernatural interference, and ascribing to God the whole system of Christianity? (H. Melvill, B. D.) Christ in the Old Testament and in the New Christ was in the faith of the patriarchs like corn in the ear; in the faith of the law like corn grown into flower; but since the Incarnation He is in our faith completely as when corn is made into bread. (Bernard.) . THE BETWEEN 5. AND 6.--Our Lord is in Galilee. It has been, perhaps, a year since the healing at Bethesda. His ministry in Galilee has gone forward, as described by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, including many miracles, the Sermon on the Mount, the early parables, and the mission of the twelve. Returning from this mission, on which they went two and two throughout Galilee, teaching and healing, the twelve were weary and worn, as Jesus Himself had been when He reclined beside Jacob’ s well. So He compassionately said to them (Mark 6:31), “ Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” That project led to his feeding the five thousand. This is the first narrative in which John has been parallel to all three of the other Gospels (Matthew 14:13-33; Mark 6:31-52; Luke 9:10-17), and it will not be so again until the triumphal entry. John’ s chief object is to present the Saviour’ s discourses, and he probably gives this one Galilean event in common with the other Gospels only by way of introducing the great discourse on the Bread of life. (J. A. Broadus, D. D.) The moral connection between Chapters 5 and 6. The record of a critical scene in Christ’ s work in Galilee follows the record of the critical scene at Jerusalem. At Jerusalem Christ revealed Himself as the Giver of life; here He reveals Himself as the Support and Guide of life. In the former case the central teaching was upon the relation of the Son to the Father; in this case it is in the relation of Christ to the believer. The episode contains the whole essence of the Galilean ministry. It places in decisive contrast the true and false conceptions of the Messianic kingship, the one universal and spiritual, the other local and material. (Bp. Westcott.) John 6:1-21 After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee The reason for this journey I. AS REGARDS HIMSELF. 1. To avoid the fury of Herod who had just slain the Baptist. 2. That the anger of the scribes and Pharisees (Mark 6:3) might abate. In this He teaches us to avoid all that might needlessly irritate sinners and thus confirm them in their sin. God withdraws at times from men only that He may take from them the occasion of sin. Going not in wrath, but in love. II. AS REGARDS THE . 1. To give them leisure and retirement. They were somewhat too full of all the things that they had done and taught, and harassed by the continual coming and going of the multitudes who thronged the master. 2. To train them in philanthropical as well as spiritual work. (W. Denton, M. A.) The great multitude waiting to be fed 1. The great company flocking to Christ are the unbelieving nations of the world with a glimmering sense of their wants--a first pang of hunger for the bread of life. 2. The willingness of Jesus to supply bread is reproduced in the Church’ s obedience to the command “ Go ye into all the world,” etc. 3. The perplexity of the disciples has a counterpart in our acknowledgment of insufficient means and failure to propagate the gospel. 4. The miracle shows us that the world can only be fed by Jesus Christ. Let us consider I. THE NUMBER AND OF THE WHO ARE TO THE FAITH AND HOPE OF . 700,000,000--about two thirds of the whole race--regarded under three great divisions. 1. Brahminism, professed by 150,000,000--ancient, idolatrous, cruel, licentious. Not a growing religion. Energetic reformers within its fold are leading the most intelligent away from idolatry, but not to Christ. 2. Buddhism arose in the six century B.C. Its founder a philosopher, moral and benevolent. Disgusted with Brahminism, he invented a system of pure morality, but without a personal God and immortality. Numbers about 400,000,000. 3. Mohammedanism numbers about 80,000,000. It borrowed a little light from revelation; abhors idolatry; acknowledges Jesus as a prophet. Its morality is low, and its dream of a future life is tinctured with sensuality. Its history is a tissue of impurity and cruelty. II. OUR AND MEANS OF FEEDING THIS GREAT . Christians not above 300,000,000 in number. From the commencement Christianity has been promulgated 1. By foreigners visiting some gospel centre, as on the day of Pentecost, and carrying the seeds of life to their own homes. In no country are there so many heathen visitors as in England. Were their spiritual needs provided for here what vast good would result! 2. By colonists and traders. Professing Christian] Englishmen are everywhere. Would that they possessed what they profess. 3. By missions. Your duty is (1) To pray the Lord to raise up more missionaries. (2) To ask your self whether you could go, and to encourage others to go. (3) To support those who do go. (4) To keep up, by reading, etc., a living interest in their work. (W. T. Bullock, M. A.) Christ the Refresher of mankind I. THE MIRACLE OF THE BREAD. 1. Our Lord here appears as the Master of matter and natural laws. We are, in a certain sense, the slaves of matter, and when we conquer Nature it is only by obeying her. 2. The miracle appears to have been recorded because it led to disbelief. Now men say that there is too much miracle about Christ; then they said there was too little. But if you juggle away the miracles of the Book you cannot get rid of the miracle of the man. 3. In the fulness of Christ, as here revealed, is to be found the solution of the pressing social problems of want and pauperism. II. THE PARABLE OF THE BREAD. Christ’ s words are works, and His acts speak. We shall be better able to understand the refreshment which may come to us from this parable if we read it in the light of “ Give us this day our daily bread.” This means 1. Give us food sufficient, and do not spiritualize this away, 2. But let us not gird in those words with the narrow rim of the loaf. Give us sanctifying bread. The words of Jesus are spirit and life. 3. There are many substitutes for the bread of Christ--morality, education, art; but in these things is no abiding satisfaction. 4. There are those who speak as though there were two breads--a manly, undogmatic, free-speaking religion for the strong man; and Christianity for the weak man. But the time comes to the strongest when he feels that he has a woman’ s heart within him, and when in his hour of anguish he cries to God for bread, what will it profit him to find a stone, though it be the whitest intellectual marble. The bread for the woman and the child was the same here as for the strong man. (Bp. Alexander.) Christ the best Provider I. CHRIST IS READY TO SATISFY THE WANTS OF THE BODY. Many persons do not trust Him in earthly pursuits. Christianity for them is something “ very spiritual.” “ They cannot live by prayer.” “ Sermons do not satisfy hunger.” “ Godliness does not give success in trade.” The gospel and Christian experience, however, show that Jesus is a good Provider for bodily wants. 1. He has sympathy for the needs of mankind (John 6:5). Although tired and weak and engaged in the greatest affairs, yet, like a good householder, He is mindful of the least wants of His people, and provides an evening meal. He does not forget the hungry raven: will He forget those who He has taught to pray for their daily bread (Deuteronomy 4:7). 2. He awakens sympathetic hearts and hands to alleviate want. Here the disciples. The apostolic Church, in the Spirit of Christ, cared for its poor, widows, and orphans. Rome built splendid theatres: the Spirit of Christ builds hospitals. II. CHRIST NEVER FORGETS THE WANTS OF THE SOUL. 1. Man’ s greatest want is bread for the soul--food that will be good when the world shall pass away, that will be palatable in old age, that will strengthen in sickness, and restore the dying. 2. The Saviour’ s highest act of sovereignty is the bestowment of this spiritual food. 3. His aim is to awaken desire for this heavenly bread by means of earthly good things and providences. (C. Gerok, D. D.) The compassion of Christ Christ’ s mercy was not a mouth-mercy, as was that of those in St. James’ time, that said to their necessitous neighbours, “ Depart in peace, be warned,” but with what? With a fire of words, etc. But our Saviour, out of deep commiseration, both pitied the people and healed them on both sides, within and without. Oh, how well may He be called a Saviour, which, in the original word, is so full of emphasis, that other tongues can hardly find a fit word to express it by! (J. Trapp.) Christ feeding the five thousand I. THE ZEAL BY THE PEOPLE IN JESUS. 1. Although they knew He had gone into a desert place. 2. Some were doubtless actuated by curiosity, but others were anxious to profit by His words. 3. We may blame those who came from improper motives, but their zeal should condemn our coldness and neglect. II. THE OF CHRIST TO PROVIDE FOR HUMAN WANT. III. THE TRIAL OF THE ’ FAITH. Often in this way God opens our eyes to our own weakness and His sufficiency. IV. THE FOR THE FEAST. 1. Confusion avoided. 2. Women and children protected from rudeness. 3. Quick distribution facilitated. V. THE NATURE AND METHOD OF THE MIRACLE. 1. The quality of the food was not changed, but its quantity was increased. Our Lord does not pamper luxury, but satisfies hunger. 2. The people received the bread from the apostles. Thus Christ taught respect for His ministers, because they act on His behalf. 3. The same miracle is repeated every day by a different process, and we give no heed to it (Psalms 104:14-15). VI. The narrative teaches us a lesson of ECONOMY and . The bounties of Providence are never to be wasted; when we have more than we need, let it be given to others. (J. N. Norton.) Christ feeding the five thousand We have here I. A PICTURE OF HOPEFUL PROMISE IS THE . 1. They were looking for the Messiah, and, if they did not exactly believe, they had a large idea that Christ was He. Their notions were more or less confused; some were influenced by gaping wonder, but all were enthusiastic to hear Christ, and disappointed His desire for rest. 2. Christ honoured this imperfect zeal. It was in some sort a seeking of the kingdom in preference to earthly comfort, and evinced a confidence in Christ that He never disappoints. And what He would not do for Himself, and what the devil could not extract from Him, is instantly commanded by human need. 3. The murder of John the Baptist had something to do with His retirement. When grace is mistreated it withdraws. What is driven away by the impiety of the great is called forth by the confidence of the poor. 4. The self-denial of the people was commendable. They had to make a long circuit and adventure into a desert region. The way to Christ is never smooth, but sincere devotion follows Christ in the face of all trials. II. A PICTURE OF FAULTY FAITH IN THE . 1. According to earthly reason, Philip and Andrew were right. In the common course of affairs the thing was impossible. But they should have known Christ better. Their faith was overborne by looking only at human helplessness instead of at Divine resources. Trust in God suffers from mammon on one side and poverty on the other. The rich disregard Providence because they have plenty; the others grumble at it and undertake to make a way of their own. III. A PICTURE OF IN CHRIST. 1. This has been likened to 2 Kings 4:42-44. But we see at once that the one was the work of the servant, the other that of the Master. 2. We observe the truly Messianic character of the miracle. The prerogative of God in the absoluteness of the Godhead is to create what is from what is net. But redemption is the taking of what is, and a developing of something additional. It is the making of a saint out of a sinner. Like the miracle, the redeeming process is (1) Inscrutable. The Incarnation, the operations of the Spirit, the conveyance of spiritual aliment through the means of grace, are beyond our comprehension. (2) Gracious. Christ might have shown His almightiness in works of judgment. So now. IV. THE OF HAPPY AND PROMISE TO FAITH AND (Philippians 4:19; Psalms 37:3). (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) Christ feeding the five thousand I. OUR LORD OFTEN PUTS TO HIS WHICH THEY CANNOT ANSWER, AND LAYS ON THEM DUTIES WHICH THEY CANNOT PERFORM BY . His object is to prove them, and to reveal their ignorance and weakness, that they may appeal to Him for help. II. CHRIST IS THE GOD OF ORDER, AND NOT OF . His methodical and orderly arrangement 1. Facilitated the feeding of the multitude. 2. Allowed the miracle to be clearly seen. 3. Prevented crushing. 4. Secured that none should be overlooked. 5. Enabled the disciples to count. Note the ordiliness of Christ’ s kingdom. III. CHRIST DIVINE RESERVE IN THE OF HIS POWER. 1. He used existing materials. 2. Employed existing agencies. 3. Although He could have created food and satisfied hunger without any aid. 4. Apologetic significance of this. IV. CHRIST TEACHES US TO GOD AS THE GIVER OF OUR FOOD AND (John 6:11). V. CHRIST TEACHES THOSE WHO FOLLOW HIM TO EXPECT AMPLE FOR THEIR WANTS. VI. CHRIST TEACHES US A LESSON OF ECONOMY IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY. However little He gives there is a surplus. But whether He gives little or much, the surplus is not to be wasted. VII. THE OF THE MIRACLE. 1. Christ is the bread of life from heaven. 2. He fills with Himself every hungry soul who eats. 3. He gives Himself by means of His disciples. (Family Churchman.) The Sea of Tiberias. Had St. John written in Galilee for Galileans he would have limited himself to the ordinary expression; but writing out of Galilee, and for Greeks, he adds, “ Which is of Tiberias.” The city of Tiberias, built by Herod Antipas, and thus named in honour of Tiberius, was well known to strangers. It was so called by the Greek geographer Pausanius, while Josephus used indifferently the two names. (F. Godet, D. D.) The destination of our Lord St. Luke alone mentions Bethsaida as the place near which the miracle took place. It has been asserted that he means Bethsaida near Capernaum, and that the event therefore took place on the western shore. But this would make St. Luke contradict both the other evangelists and himself; for he tells us that Jesus withdrew to “ a desert place” belonging to a city called Bethsaida. Now, the mention of such a purpose forbids us to entertain the notion that Luke is speaking of the city on the western shore, where our Lord was always surrounded by multitudes. Josephus speaks of a town bearing the name of Bethsaida Julias, situated at the north-east extremity of the lake, and the expression Bethsaida of Galilee, by which St. John (John 12:21) designates the native city of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, would be unmeaning unless there were.another Bethsaida out of Galilee. This latter was in Gaulonitis, in the tetrarchy of Philip, on the left bank of the Jordan, a little above where it falls into the Lake of Gennesareth. It was the place of Philip’ s death and splendid obsequies. (F. Godet, D. D.) A great multitude followed Him.--Here we see how eager was the desire of the people to hear Christ. Since all of them, forgetting themselves, took no concern about spending the night in a desert place. So much the less excusable is our indifference and sloth when we are so far from preferring the heavenly doctrine to the gnawings of hunger, that the slightest interruptions immediately lead us away from meditation on the heavenly life. So far is every one of us from being ready to follow Him to a desert mountain that scarcely one in ten can endure to receive Him when He presents Himself at home in the midst of comforts. But as the flesh solicits us to attend to its convenience, we ought likewise to observe that Christ of His own accord takes care of those who neglect themselves in order to follow Him. For He does not wait till they are famished and cry out for hunger, but provides food for them before they have asked it. (Calvin.) When Jesus then lifted up His eyes and saw a great company, He said unto Philip, “ Whence shall we buy bread.” The compassion of Jesus I. IT WAS WITHOUT RESPECT OF PERSONS. He never raised the question as to race or religion. If people were in trouble it made no difference to Him who or what they were. II. IT MEANT HELP. The disciples had an interest in the multitudes which they expressed by their advice to them to go and buy food.” That was cheap benevolence. But Christ’ s compassion never spent itself on good advice. The good Samaritan was Himself, and His conduct is the law of Christianity. III. IT HAD TO NEEDS. The miracle was only a text for the sermon on the “ Bread of life.” (Monday Club.) Christ’ s compassion It is related of the mighty Xerxes, that as he looked upon his countless host, and remembered how soon all, even the youngest and stoutest must be sleeping with the dead, he gave vent to his feelings in a flood of tears. What a far nobler spectacle to behold the Saviour of sinners, moved with compassion for the multitudes who followed Him, with fainting steps and sorrowing in His inmost soul, that so many whose bodily hunger Be was about to satisfy with food, would, in the end, starve their souls by refusing the Bread of life! (J. N. Norton.) The Church and the world 1. It was rather to the disciples than to the multitude that the events of the day were significant. They had been taught by degrees all that was involved in “ leaving all “ to “ follow Him.” From the beginning it has been essential that a man should forsake the world. But the world may be forsaken in many ways. Some have done so out of contempt for it; others for the sake of a wholly selfish personal culture. But Christ now taught His disciples what was their mission to the world they had left. They had left it only that they might serve it more effectually, and were now to love it with a new love. Discipleship involved practical laborious service, not only to Christ, but to men. 2. There was something like embarrassment in Philip’ s answer to our Lord’ s question: but before we blame him let us put ourselves in his place. It was an unexpected appeal to limited resources. The disciples had a common purse. All their modest requirements were provided for, but all their quiet economy was invaded by a proposal to feed 5,000. 3. Christ intercedes with the Church for the world. His intercession is not only with God for us all, but with us for one another. (1) We are prone to make a life of personal edification the sum total of discipleship, turning our backs on the problems of life, suffering and sin around us. But while Christ is carrying upon His heart the burden of the world He cannot delight Him- self in a companionship that seeks to be exclusive and selfish. (2) Again Christ would not have us think less of each other as Christians, but there must be no for- getting of those who are without, the world and its terrible hunger, physical and moral. (3) Philip’ s answer betrays his impatience with the apparent unreasonableness of the question. And how often have we given the like answer, and silenced the earnest man of large faith whom Christ has made the mouthpiece for His question. 4. Andrew’ s reply was a great advance on Philip’ s. From Philip’ s nonexistent two hundred pennyworth to Andrew’ s actual five loaves is certainly to make progress. It is moving out of the negative into the positive, out of that region in which our cynicism and despair so often tarries into the region of practical endeavour. Our Lord takes him at his word as we find in the parallel narrative, “ Bring them to Me.” A minute ago it could have been said exactly what the five loaves were worth, and how many men they would feed, but since the Lord’ s words, all our powers of calculation are confounded. We contemplate things in themselves with- out seeing any touch of the Divine power upon them, and so we could never make five loaves worth more than five loaves. We take the measure of a man--his natural powers, education, etc., and we leave no room for another factor that may multiply indefinitely the whole series--the living power of Christ. 5. We ought to notice that our Lord did not say, “ Whence will you buy bread,” but, “ we,” you and I. (1) Do not let us think of our Lord as throwing upon His Church dark and difficult questions for her to solve; He is rather seeking to bring her into fuller fellowship with Himself. (2) We must recognize here the proffer of our Lord’ s own wisdom and power for the answering of His own question. Not only does Christ intercede with the Church for, but works with her upon the world. (F. W.Macdonald.) Philip and his Master 1. Observe how careful the Spirit is that we should not make a mistake about Christ. 2. Learn that we being apt to make mistakes need that the Spirit should interpret Christ to us. 3. Our Divine Lord has a reason for everything he does. I. HERE IS A FOR PHILIP. 1. Put with the motive of proving him. Christ would then (1) Try his faith and He found it very little. Philip counted pennies instead of looking to omnipotence. Few of us can plead exemption from this failure. (2) His love which was of better quality, for he did not ridicule the question. (3) His sympathy. This was greater than that of those who said, “ Send them away.” God seldom uses a man who has a hard or cold heart. A man must love people or he cannot save them. 2. Why was it put to Philip? (1) Because he was of Bethsaida. Every man should think of the place in which he lives. A native of a village or town should be its best evangelist. (2) Because probably Philip was the provider as Judas was the treasurer. Even so there are ministers, Sunday-school teachers, etc., whose official business is to care for the souls of men. (3) Perhaps because Philip was not quite forward as others. He was about number six. People in this middle position want much proving. The lowest cannot bear it; the highest do not need it. 3. The question answered its purposes. It showed Philip’ s inability and weakness of faith; but only that he might be made strong. Until Christ has emptied our hands He cannot fill them. 4. The question was meant to prove the other disciples as well. Here is a committee of two. I like this brotherly consultation of willing minds. Philip is willing to begin if he has a grand start; Andrew is willing to begin with a small capital. Philip was counting the impossible pence and could not see the actual loaves; but Andrew could see what Philip overlooked. II. THERE WAS NO WITH JESUS. 1. He knew. “ Ah!” says one, “ I don’ t know what I shall do!” Jesus knows all about your ease and how He is going to bring you through. 2. He knew what he would do. We embarass ourselves by saying, “ Something must be done, but I do not know who is to do it!” But Jesus knows. 3. He knew how He meant to do it. When everybody else is defeated and nonplussed He is fully prepared. He did it as one who knew what he was going to do. (1) Naturally. Had it been a Roman Catholic miracle the loaves would have been thrown in the air and come down transformed. Popish miracles are theatrical and showy. (2) Orderly: He bade the men sit down on the grass in rows. (3) Joyfully: He took bread and blessed it. (4) Plentifully. III. THERE OUGHT TO BE NO OF A ANY LONGER TO US. 1. The question that troubles many people is, “ How shall I bear my present burden?” That is sent to prove you; but it is no question with Christ, for “ as thy days so shall,” etc. 2. What is to be done with this great city? The Master knows and so shall we when we begin to co-operate with Him. 3. What must I do to be saved? Inquire “ What wouldst Thou have me to do and this will be solved.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) . “ Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Why this to Philip? At the beginning of all His ministry we read, “ Jesus findeth Philip, and said unto Him, Follow Me.” Then Philip findeth Nathanael, to tell the news. But he does not say, “ We have been found,” but “ We have found Him,” etc. A fairly good confession, though giving man the lead instead of God. No wonder, then, that by and by, even at the end, Philip was but half-persuaded of our Lord’ s ministry, saying, “ Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Philip being thus, to Philip teaching comes well in the question set to him, and he shall say and find whether bread and holy living comes from earth or heaven. He still thinks it must begin from man’ s side. He calculates the bread required; he gives an estimate of cost Peter comes a little nearer with a grain or two of faith; he can get “ five loaves and two fishes; but what are they among so many?” That is a question to write up and keep before us, if we are ever tempted to despise the day of small things. What is the missionary among so many? or the pastor, or the Sunday-school teacher, or the district visitor? What is the adequacy of the writer, or the speaker, or the worker? of the society, of the corporate body, of the home word, or any influence of teaching or of help? They are all insufficient, palpably and avowedly, in themselves; yet they may, like the loaves here, get a sufficiency from Christ. One little agency may still become the grain of mustard seed He sows, the little piece of leaven He puts into the lump. What is an help among so many? What may it not be as it passes into our Saviour’ s hands? (Canon T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.) The testing power of circumstances I. WHAT WAS CHRIST’ S OBJECT IN PUTTING THIS TO HIS . 1. The question seemed to betray perplexity, but it was not so. He condescended to espouse this difficulty that He might bring to light that which was working in the disciples’ spirits. The hinge of all mysteries is not in themselves, but in their concealment for the wise purposes of Deity. They will come out gradually and slowly, and then we shaft see how marvellously past and future coincide with each other. And all this is simply the exercise of faith. We must wait for God’ s demonstration. 2. Observe, how completely our Lord’ s purpose was answered. Three suggestions came from three different quarters. (1) To throw the multitude upon their own resources, “ Let them go into the villages,” etc. (2) That they should be supported out of the resources of the disciples, but that the two hundred pennyworth was beyond their resources. (3) To make the resources go as far as they might. “ There is a lad here,” etc., and then the difficulty arises, “ What are these,” etc. Their proper course would have been to leave the perplexity with omnipotence. That they believed in our Lord’ s omnipotence is certain, but though they knew it as an abstract fact, they could not bring it to bear on the present emergency, and therefore, they threw themselves on that which any faithless man could throw himself upon human power in human distress. The Saviour must have asked the question, “ How is it that they have no faith?” This is the way man ever treats God, turning to Him as a last resource only. 3. This is the course the Lord has taken from time to time to make men understand themselves, throwing them into difficulties and leaving them to prove what is in them by their extrication from those difficulties, as seen in the case of Israel at the Red Sea and before Jericho. II. THE WAY IN WHICH CHRIST PUTS THE SAME TO US. 1. In the announcement of doctrines offensive to the natural man. (1) That of the divinity of Christ and reason protests against it. (2) That of the atonement and our sense of equity protests against it. (3) That of man’ s depravity and man’ s pride recoils. (4) That of man’ s impotency, and the sense of self-reliance on self resources protests. And when it comes to this, a man is brought to the test, is he willing to put reliance upon Christ? or is he determined to trust in himself. 2. The infliction of trial. Previous to trial most men, like Peter, think they can go through anything, but when it falls upon us, how our notes are changed! In that way God puts the question, are you able to trust Me? 3. The successes and prosperities of life. Riches, which do not spoil a man’ s character, they simply bring out the evil that is in him. You shall look abroad upon the face of nature, and possibly you may see in the cold time of winter, and the chill dews of spring, the whole surface of the meadow without anything deleterious produced upon it; and you may look at the same field when the warm and bright sunshine of summer and autumn comes, and you find it swarming with weeds. Why, who hath come and planted the tares amongst the wheat? No one; they have been there all along: only in the nipping cold times of the year they were not able to come out; but when the sun came, that which was lurking below came to the surface. This was how it was with Hazael, and how it has been with many a man since. (Dean Boyd.) The arithmetic of Philip and the arithmetic of our Lord In the reckoning of men there is always a deficit; in the reckoning of Christ there is always a surplus. (Lange.) Sums proved (Children’ s Sermon):--You know what puzzle questions are; they are questions to make you wonder, and the more you wonder the more interested you become, and the more interested you grow the better you are likely to understand the answer when it comes. But is your teacher ever puzzled? No; he simply asks the question to prove you, to find out how much you know. It was for this purpose that Jesus put the question to Philip, viz., to find out what kind of a scholar he had become. I. WHAT WAS THE ? How to meet a difficulty. Philip worked it all out in mental arithmetic, First he made a rough guess as to the number of people. Then he remembered how much a little for each would cost. Then he worked out a sum in proportion. “ If it cost so much for one, what will it cost for five thousand?” And the answer was two hundred pennyworth. II. WAS THE ANSWER RIGHT? No. 1. Because it only told what wouldn’ t be enough. 2. Because it wasn’ t a reply to the question that Jesus had asked. Jesus did not say, “ How much money is required?” But “ How are we to get bread?” If Philip had learned his lessons properly, he would simply have said, “ Thou who canst raise the dead, Thou canst create bread.” Conclusion: 1. Do not leave Jesus out of your calculations. 2. Look the question carefully, “ Whence shall we?” Philip hadn’ t noticed that; but it makes matters much simpler, for if Jesus is going to help there won’ t be much difficulty. So Philip did what he could, brought a few loaves and fishes to Jesus. Then Jesus did what He could, blessed what Philip had brought, and the little became enough for the many. 3. Remember the power of that we in (1) the government of your temper; (2) The great question, “ What must I do to be saved.” (J. R.Howatt.) Two hundred pennyworth of bread.--The air is full of projects for the amelioration of the condition of the poor and for arranging the relations of capital and labour. This story will afford help in these, if its suggestions are heeded. The spectacle of the disciples wrestling with their problem is a piteous one, but it is deplorably familiar. Note our Saviour’ s wisdom. “ How many loaves have ye?” A prudent estimate of our resources is the earliest thing in demand. I. OF OUR ON THE SAME OF GOD WILL BE OF THE MOST IN US THE WAY IN WHICH TO AID THE POOR. Put away all superciliousness. “ The rich and the poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.” There is no possible philosophy by which an opulent man can prove himself any wiser or better than one who is reduced in income. Many a man has toiled as industriously, and planned as shrewdly, as ever any one of us did; but chances have been against him. Still, we are to remember that this does not prove that we are the better men, nor that he is worse: it only proves that God is sovereign over His creatures. That was a sober counsel for all the ages which Moses gave Israel (see Deuteronomy 8:11-18). II. MEN WILL COME TO MORE REAL WISDOM AND IN CARING FOR THE POOR AND THE HUNGRY WHEN THEY ADMIT THAT MUST BE, AND CAN BE DONE BY . There is a suggestion of great sense in the witticism of Sydney Smith: “ Whenever A sees B in trouble, he is sure to say, with due consideration, that C ought to help him.” Much of the most available and valuable human sympathy in this world is wasted in just a blind and suffused wishing that some plan could be made by which every relief could be given at an extraordinary effort. What is wanted is a quiet endeavour to help one man, or one woman, or one child, as the nearest one to our hand. Mass-meetings are valuable; great associations awake zeal and direct it; but individual effort will go farther, and reach the case more swiftly. It is sad to think how societies multiply, while the cry of the lowly and the poor does not grow less. You pass blanketed puppies led by a ribbon, taken out by a hired man for their airing, three avenues from the streets where human beings are shivering, uncovered and hungering in the cold. Now, something might be done when each Christian admits he can do a proper part of it. III. IT MIGHT BE SAID HERE THAT IT WOULD NOT BE SO TO FIND FUNDS TO “ TWO HUNDRED ” OF BREAD WITH WHICH TO FEED THE HUNGRY, IF THE RICH WOULD BE . Useful occupation is the rule for the race: if any man will not work, neither let him eat, but when he has enough to live upon, does that end his service? Might there not be some good when a merchant has gained enough for himself to withdraw upon, if he would just stay in business for a few years longer, devoting the gains of his gifted experience to the Lord? It is the business of a child of God to add to the aggregate wealth of the world by a thrifty productiveness, and then the rich people can take care of God’ s poor. IV. MONEY FOR FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY WOULD BE EASILY, IF PRIZED AND ECONOMY IN THE WAY, AND DIVIDED THEIR SAVINGS IN TO OTHERS. All superfluities are mere grace, and ought to be given away unhesitatingly when poorer people are in actual distress. We do not venture to say what our Lord would have remarked to Philip, in his perplexity at not finding out how to procure two hundred pennyworth of bread, if the unsophisticated fisherman had come over from Capernaum with anything like a gold-headed cane in his hand, or with a seal-ring on his finger. The state has assumed the board and clothing of an able-bodied man for twenty years of uselessness in prison, because he tore a jewel out of the ear of a woman who was lavishly wearing four-thousand dollars worth of ornaments upon her own person that day in the street. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.) Christ’ s thoughtfulness The people took no thought for food. Christ doth it for them. And surely if He so far provided for them that at a sudden motion came out after Him, can we think that He will be wanting to those that seek Him continually, and with full purpose of heart adhere unto Him. (J. Trapp.) Believers must help Christ Our Lord sought to stir up Philip’ s sympathy. Come, Philip, what shall you and I do? Whence shall we buy bread to give them to eat? I trust that our God has also given us some communion with His dear Son in His love to the souls of men. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Unbelief discovered by trial Christ had said, “ Give ye them to eat.” “ To try them” only, as St. John hath it. And upon trial he found them full of dross, as appears by their answer. The disciples were as yet very carnal, and spake as men. (J. Trapp.) Jesus knows He knew. He always does know. “ Ah,” says one, “ I am sure I do not know what I shall do.” This is sweet comfort: Jesus knows. He always knows all about it. Do not think you can inform Him as to anything. Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him. He knew what He would do. He meant to do something, and He knew what he was going to do. He was not in a hurry; He never is. He does everything calmly and serenely, because He foresees what He will do. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Philip and Andrew; or, disciples may help one another Philip says, “ Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient,” and Andrew says, “ Well, no, it is not, but there is a lad here with five barley loaves and two small fishes.” I like this brotherly consultation of willing minds. Philip is willing to begin if he has a grand start; he must see at least two hundred penny-worth of bread in hand, and then he is ready to entertain the idea. Andrew, on the other hand, is willing to commence with a small capital; a few loaves and fishes will enable him to start. When saints converse together they help each other, and, perhaps, what the one does not discover the other may. (C. H. Spurgeon.) l ncidental tests God puts us in the midst of a whole apparatus of tests, that those tests may bring to light that which is in us; for it is absolutely true that feelings may be now lurking in us, just as there is fire lurking in the flint stone, which may remain there from the days of creation undetected and undeveloped till the genial steel strikes upon it, and then, when the blow of the steel brings to light the concealed, the long concealed fire, we are amazed to find that in that cold mass there could have lurked a thing that was so vivid and so sparkling. All this is that great teaching, that marvellous discipline of circumstances; for after all, it is not by direct teaching, it is not by explanation that men ever learn to know themselves; it is by the wretched and by the painful instruction of circumstances. Is it not the fact that a man shall discover more of himself in a short illness of perhaps a few days than be has learned of himself from many years’ teaching previously? (Dean Boyd.) There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes. Lessons for ordinary persons and about little things I. FOR THE LOWLY. For the insignificant, the commonplace who make up the greater portion of mankind, there is either no gospel or it is Christ’ s. 1. For the world of wealth, power, brute violence, sceptical intellect is inflated with its own self-importance. The haughty beauty will scarce deign to glance at the plain neglected girl; the proud aristocrat is patronizing or contumelious to those who are not of his own caste; the conceitedly clever will revel in his power to wound the Inferior capacity. “ This multitude that knoweth not the law is accursed,” says religious pride. “ These persons are not in society,” says fashionable pride. “ Mankind is composed of 1,000,000,000 mostly fools,” says intellectual pride. 2. See how Christ in His every word and action set His face against all this. Despised Galilee was His country; Nazareth His home; the manger His cradle; the Cross His bed of death; women His intimates; infants His proteges; lepers the objects of His compassion; the depraved the recipients of His mercy. This is not only the lesson of love, nor that Be loved as none other had loved, but that He loved those whom none had loved before, the friend of publicans and sinners. II. NOT LESS IS THE BY CHRIST OF LITTLE THINGS. He instantly made use of the poor lad’ s barley loaves and fishes. His symbols of the kingdom were a handful of loaves and a grain of mustard seed; the widow’ s mite receives His commendation; and those whom He will finally accept will be those who have done little deeds of kindness. Lessons: 1. Most of us have only one talent. The world attaches importance to our deficiency, but when God comes He will not ask how great or how small were our endowments but only how we have used them. He who has one talent sometimes makes ten of it; while he who has ten sometimes makes them worse than one. The last may be first and the first last. Was it not so with those whom He chose, “ Not many rich,” etc., were called. 2. Why then should any of us be ashamed of our earthly insignificance? We have only five barley loaves, etc., which indeed in themselves are useless, but when given to Christ He can make them enough to feed 5,000. Take the one instance of kind words of sympathy and encouragement. What may they not do? What may be left undone if they are unsaid. (Archdeacon Farrar.) The lad and the hungry multitude (Children’ s Sermon) I. THE A BOY CAN HAVE IN JESUS. He may have heard his parents or acquaintances tell about the Saviour, and, boy-like, he probably made up his mind that, when an opportunity came, he would go where He was, and look and listen. There was evidently something about Jesus that interested little people. We know that He loved them, and if He loved them He would be apt to talk to them in a way to please and do them good. Children always are quick to find out those friendly to them. II. THE USE JESUS CAN MAKE OF EVEN A BOY. No one in this multitude, it seems, except this lad, brought anything to eat. Whether this was a lunch his parents put up for him, or what he brought along with him to sell, we do not know. The fact that he had the loaves and fishes is mentioned to Christ who considered the fact of some importance. For He called the boy to Him, and then took what he had, and made his few loaves and fishes answer for the wants of all. Nor could any one have been more astonished than the boy himself to see how those loaves and fishes lasted. Christ can use children if they are willing, and sometimes they have been of great service. He can use their gifts, whether they be the pennies which they have earned, or some piece of handiwork they have made. None are too young to serve Jesus, and such have often been employed by Him to accomplish good. III. IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO KEEP IN GOOD COMPANY. This boy would have missed a great deal if he had not gone out that day to see, Jesus. If he had given himself up to having some fun with his comrades, he would not have been honoured as he was by Christ. If this boy had told his mates that he was going to hear the wonderful Teacher whose fame was filling the whole country, they might have ridiculed him, and tried to persuade him to go with them; but by bravely following out his purpose to see and hear for himself, he not only was gratified therein but was noticed and used by Jesus. I think that proved to be the most noteworthy day in his life. What he heard and what happened to him at that time he could never forget, for it probably influenced him as long as he lived. He may have become a follower of Jesus from that day, and a preacher of the gospel to others when he grew up to be a man. It was the turning point in his history. (M. G. Dana, D. D.) The resource of Christ Pythias is famous for that he was able, at his own charge, to entertain Xerxes’ whole army, consisting of ten hundred thousand men. But he grew so poor upon it that he wanted bread ere he died. Our Saviour fed five thousand, and his store was not a jot diminished. (J. Trapp.) Five barley loaves and two fishes The mention of barley loaves gives a hint of the social condition of the multitude which followed Jesus. Wheat is the staple grain in the East; but, like other good things, it is apt to be absorbed by the rich. The poorer people have, therefore, to content themselves with the coarser barley, which they grind themselves in their stone hand-mills, and bake into a coarse kind of flat cake. The mention of fishes is characteristic of the region. The sea of Galilee has always been famous for the excellence of its fish supply, which is not only plentiful, but varied. Doubtless many of the crowd who followed Jesus came from among the poor fisher-folk, who were concerned with supplying the wants of the prosperous towns, now in ruins, which, in the time of Jesus, kept up a fleet of small ships on the sea of Galilee. (S. S. Times.) The barley loaves of the Jews would seem to have been smaller than those made of wheaten bread, rough to the taste even though nutritious, and the food of only the common people, an emblem of His own doctrine, which the common people heard gladly, and which, however hard to the natural man, is yet full of life for the soul. (W. Denton, M. A.) Plenty out of Christ’ s poverty Barley bread was so coarse that even the hearty Roman soldiers were only required to eat it by way of punishment, and fish was the commonest and cheapest kind of food; but so Jesus lived, and His disciples. He was poor among the poorest. Not for Him was the purple and the feast of Dives. He did not come to pamper the luxury or allure the appetencies of idle men. Barley loaves and only two small fishes! But it was enough for the Lord of all; and with that scant, poor food, blessed and multiplied, He fed the hungry, and refreshed the weary, spread the table in the wilderness, and made them sit on the green grass in the sunset, and gave them that which to their hunger was sweet as manna, and sent them rejoicing on their way. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Christ’ s acceptance of the meanest gifts At a flower festival, not long ago, one little, shrinking child laid on the altar-step her tiny offering--it was but a single daisy. The little one had nothing else to give, and with even such an offering, given in a single and with a simple heart, Christ, I think, would have been well pleased. When Count Zinzendorf was a boy at school, he founded amongst his schoolfellows a little guild which he called the “ Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed,” and thereafter that seedling grew into the great tree of the Moraviar. Brotherhood whose boughs were a blessing to the world. The widow’ s miter. When they laughed at Saint Theresa when she wanted to build a great orphanage and had but three shillings to begin with, she answered,” “ With three shillings Theresa can do nothing; but with God and her three shillings there is nothing which Theresa cannot do.” Do not let us imagine, then, that we are too poor, or too stupid, or too ignorant, or too obscure to do any real good in the world wherein God has placed us. Is there a greater work in this day than the work of education? Would you have thought that the chief impulse to that work, whereon we now annually spend so many millions of taxation, was given by a poor illiterate Plymouth cobbler--John Pounds? Has there been a nobler work of mercy in modern days than the purification of prisons? Yet that was done by one whom a great modern writer sneeringly patronised as the “ dull, good man John Howard.” Is there a grander, nobler enterprise than missions? The mission of England to India was started by a humble, itinerant shoemaker, William Carey. These men brought to Christ their humble efforts, their barley loaves, and in His hand, and under His blessing, they multiplied exceedingly. “ We can never hope,” you say, “ to lead to such vast results.” So they thought “ We cannot tell whether this or that will prosper.” But do you imagine that they ever dreamed that their little efforts would do so much? And, besides, they knew that the results are nothing, the work, everything--nothing the gift, everything the willing heart. But have you ever tried? If you bring no gift, how can God use it? The lad must bring his barley loaves to Christ before the five thousand can be fed. Have you ever attempted to do as he did? Have you, even in the smallest measure, or with the least earnest desire, tried to follow John Wesley’ s golden advice: “ Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, to all the persons you can, in all the places you can, as long as ever you can.” (Archdeacon Farrar.) The young should be used as well as amused The Church ought to use the young as well as instruct and amuse the young. Young people can be made to do good; they have something they can give up, they have something that when they see Jesus they will allow Jesus to take without a word. (T. Green, M. A.) Distrust of self, and trust in God There is really nothing little with God. In His hands the feeblest and simplest instruments are sufficient. If His blessing goes along with Our efforts, there is no limit to the greatness of the work which they may accomplish. Take, e.g., our endeavours to relieve the sorrows and sufferings of our fellow-creatures. What are we in the presence of such calamities? What can we say or do to alleviate the suffering or the sorrow? We are but too likely to shrink back in despair. But let us think of ourselves in such cases as instruments in His hands, with whom all things are possible; let us bring what we have. God can make use of what in itself is useless. Miserable comforters we may seem to ourselves. Yet God may send comfort through us. Or, to take another case; this thought of the greatness of little things, what an encouragement may it afford us in our missionary efforts I But, once more; the principle of which I am speaking may be applied to the work which has to be carried on in our individual souls. God does not make us holy all at once. Nor does He work His will in us solely by His own act. He requires our co-operation; He makes use of our efforts. But our feeble endeavours, our half-hearted prayers, our faintest resolutions--what are they? What can they do? They seem to us nothing; and in truth they are as nothing. But God desires them; He kindly looks on them; He blesses them, and they are effectual through Him. It is by such endeavours, inspired and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, that the saints of God have attained whatever degree of holiness they have reached. We are all tempted, when we reflect on the great work of our lives, namely, the renewing in ourselves of the image of God, to say, “ What can I do?” Our best efforts are utterly inadequate; and it is right that we should feel and acknowledge this. But, such as they are, God requires them, as Christ demanded the five loaves; and He can and will bless even our imperfect efforts and work His will with them. Bring what you have, and leave it with perfect confidence in His hands. Let us trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is our strength and our song; He also is become our salvation. (P. Young, M. A.) Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place.--It all depends upon the season in which one comes to the north-eastern shore of the lake of Gennesaret as to whether or not he will find much grass there. The note of time shows that our Lord was there in the spring. At that season the grass in that region is plentiful and green; a few months later, and it is burned up by the heat, and the country presents a dreary aspect. It cannot be said of many places in the Orient that there is much grass there. In England, and in the well-watered regions of the United States, one of the chief charms of the landscape is the soft carpet of green which covers the soil. In a characteristic Oriental scene, this charm is lacking, The grass may straggle here and there, or at special seasons it may show an unwonted luxuriance in certain places; but the universal carpet of green is chiefly conspicuous by its absence. (S. S. Times.) . The scene on the mount The disciples understood their instructions, and immediately arranged the vast throng on the sloping sides of the mountain, in ranks, a hundred in number, each rank containing fifty persons in file. The ranks, as we may easily conceive, were placed at such convenient distances from each other, that the disciples could easily pass between them. In this form the five thousand men were disposed of--the women and children being, in all probability, placed by themselves in some convenient situation. As when He created the wine at Cana, the six waterpots were set in order preparatory to that miracle, so here His request for order was obeyed, preparatory to the work which He was about to do. As the many thousands of Israel, in their encampings and marches were so arranged that all alike enjoyed the full advantage of having the tabernacle, and pillar of cloud, and brazen serpent lifted up full in their view, so now the whole multitude, by the arrangement effected, were placed in a position to enable every man to see and to hear Him who was the True Tabernacle, the True Pillar of Cloud, and the True Brazen Serpent lifted up. He stands at the bottom of that green mountain slope, and the twelve are round about Him. Receding from the place which they occupy, fifty men are seated, each behind, but a little raised above, his companion, in file, and in close order. On the right hand there are fifty ranks thus arranged. On the left hand there are fifty ranks. Jesus stands in the centre, and His eye with ease ranges over the whole company, whilst His voice distinctly reaches them. If we may suppose the sun about to set, the surrounding mountains glowing with his departing rays, the waters of the lake still retaining the lingering reflection of the sun’ s fading beauty, we have before us a scene such as we may believe Jesus Himself delighted to survey, and such as we may well long to see often recurring in our fallen world--multitudes waiting for the “ true bread,” and the Lord Himself present to bestow it in rich abundance. (A. Beith, D. D.) And Jesus took the loaves and when He had given thanks, He distributed Feeding the multitude I. WE HAVE IS THE GIFT OF GOD: money, talents, time, influence, etc. II. GOOD THINGS GOD HAS GIVEN US, WE MUST GIVE THEM ALSO TO OTHERS. Nothing is given exclusively for self. III. NO GIFT MUST BE BECAUSE IT IS SMALL. What is insignificant to us may be made vastly useful by the blessing of God. IV. THERE IS A HUNGRY AROUND US WAITING FOR OUR GIFT. 1. Some are starving for want of peace and comfort in religion--neighbours, friends, members of our own families. 2. Some are starving for want of a little kindly sympathy. 3. Some are starving in sickness and pain for the want of loving help and ministry. V. THIS GIFT MUST BE WITH SELF-. It was this forgetfulness of self that made Henry Lawrence, the gentle, godly hero of the Indian Mutiny, the best beloved of all his soldiers. When he was dying, the General whispered, as his last words, “ let there be no fuss about me, bury me with the men.” When another hero, Sir Ralph Abercromby, had got his death-wound, in the battle of Aboukir, they placed a private soldier’ s blanket under his head, thus causing him much relief. He asked what it was. He was answered that “ it was only a soldier’ s blanket!” He insisted on knowing to whom it belonged. They told him it belonged to Duncan Roy, of the 42nd. “ Then see that Duncan Roy has his blanket this very night,” said the dying man; he would not, to ease his own agony, deprive a common soldier of his comfort. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.) Thankfulness and distribution I. THE DUTY OF . 1. Christ is our example in this. He placed Himself voluntarily in a condition of need, and when the need was supplied as here He expressed His gratitude to God. 2. Christ is the object of our thanksgiving. This miracle expresses Christ’ s continuous power to relieve human want. This is now regularly done and consequently is over-looked. Sometimes He reduces men from affluence to indigence in order to teach them grateful dependence on Himself. 3. This thanksgiving is due to Christ for temporal and spiritual mercies. II. THE DUTY OF . 1. Here also we are instructed by the example of Christ. 2. In temporal good things we must remember that we are stewards of God’ s bounty. 3. We must distribute our spiritual goods (1) Personally. (2) By supporting the ministry, missions, schools, etc. (S. Robins, M. A.) The maintenance of natural and spiritual life This miracle differs from others 1. In that it is not so open to the cavils of unbelief. The others are often explained on the theory of Christ’ s superior knowledge and skill. Here this utterly breaks down. 2. The miracles of healing were wrought to draw the minds of men to Christ as Creator; this to show Himself the maintainer of both the natural and spiritual life. I. CHRIST THE OF MEN. 1. Of their bodies. Life can no more maintain itself than create itself. 2. Of their souls, by His Spirit. II. CHRIST EMPLOYS MEANS IN MEN. He consulted His disciples, He employed bread, He gave bread to the disciples for distribution. So 1. Physically Christ preserves men by the employment of natural resources utilized by intelligence and industry. 2. Spiritually by means of His Word, public worship and sacraments. III. CHRIST MEN . There was a multitude to the disciples, but there was no multitude to Him. He saw each in the singularity of His own Being and need. He who gave the individual life of the millions of our race, maintains it second by second. It is needful to remember this 1. In order that we may recognize that our individual life is His. 2. That we may recognize His hand in all our gifts. (1) Of prosperity. (2) Of adversity. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) Christ’ s arithmetic I. He multiplied by division, “ distributed.” II. He added by subtraction, “ filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves.” (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Giving and receiving The disciples grudged not of their little to give others some, and it grew on their hands, as the widow’ s oil did in the cruse. Not getting, but giving, is the way to thrive. Nothing was ever lost by liberality. (J. Trapp.) A constant miracle An analogy, and, so to speak, a help to the understanding of this miracle, has been found in that which year by year is accomplished in the field, where a single grain of corn multiplies itself and in the end unfolds in numerous ears. And with this analogy in view many beautiful remarks have been made; as this, that while God’ s every-day miracles had grown cheap in men’ s sight by continual repetition, He had therefore reserved something, not more wonderful, but less frequent, to arouse men’ s minds to a new admiration. Others have urged that here, as in the case of the water made wine, Christ did but compress into a single moment all those processes which in ordinary circumstances, the same Lord of nature, causes more slowly to succeed one another. (Archbishop Trench.) Christ the Lord of nature He took a fragment of a barley loaf into His hand, and to teach His Church that His grasp had in it the fecundity of the earth, the moisture of the flowers, the influence of the sun, the comprehension of all times and seasons, and the excellency of all power, as He broke it, it enlarged itself far beyond those goodly ears of wheat which Pharaoh saw in his dream, and every crumb became an handful. (Bp. Hacker.) Christ’ s use of means The five loaves were almost nonentities, but He nevertheless took them. Jesus appears always to have acted on the same principle. He used what came to hand. What man could do, man must do. As far as Nature could go, Nature must perform her part. He came in where man and nature stopped. See how, at this moment, God is dealing with every one of us. He has wrought for us a free and perfect salvation, by no merit, by no act of ours. He requires in you repentance and faith. True, they both come from Him, so did “ the five loaves,” they came from Him. But you must give to Him first a willing and free act of your own. He “ takes the loaves” ; and then, over and above He feeds your soul and makes it live for ever and ever by the bread of life. You have a little grace. A mere nothing compared to what is wanting; to what it might have been if you had used well what God had given you. But God has given you something. You have some good desires, convictions of sin, power to pray, and to deny yourself, sparkles of love. Do you want this to become more? Then put what you can into Christ’ s hands constantly and the transforming and magnifying will multiply it. You have some thoughts, feelings, powers, capacities, actions, which you can now in a solemn way give to Jesus. Consecrate them. Do not say, “ Oh, I have not got anything worth the giving; it is of no use at all.” Give Him the little, and he qill make it much. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Christ’ s economy Christ did not provide great delicacies for the people, but they who saw His amazing power here were obliged to rest satisfied with barley bread, and fish without sauce. (Calvin.) Christ the Bread for the world I. THE FOR THE SIGN “ Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Now, notice what a lovely glimpse we get there into the quick rising sympathy of the Master with all forms of human necessity. Before we call He answers. But, farther, He selects for the question Philip, a man who seems to have been what is called--as if it were the highest praise--an “ intensely practical person” ; who seems to have had little faith in anything that he could not get hold of by his senses, and who lived upon the low level of “ common sense.” “ This He said to prove him.” He hoped that the question might have shaped itself in the hearer’ s mind into a promise, and that he might have been able to say in answer, “ Thou canst supply; we need not buy.” So Christ does still. He puts problems before us too, to settle; Lakes us, as it were, into His confidence with interrogations that try us, whether we can rise above the level of the material and visible, or whether all our conceptions of possibilities are bounded by these. And sometimes, even though the question at first sight seems to evoke only such a response as it did here, it works more deeply down below afterwards, and we are helped by the very difficulty to rise to a clear faith. Philip’ s answer is significant. He was a man of figures; he believed in what you could put into tables and statistics. Yes! And, like a great many other people of his sort, he left out one small element in his calculation, and that was Jesus Christ. And so his answer went creeping along the low levels, dragging itself like a half-wounded snake, when it might have risen on the wings of faith up into the empyrean, and soared and sung. So learn that when we have to deal with Christ’ s working--and when have we not to deal with Christ’ s working?--perhaps probabilities that can be tabulated are not altogether the best bases upon which to rest our calculations. Learn that the audacity of a faith that expects great things, though there be nothing visible upon which to build, is wiser and more prudent than the creeping common sense that adheres to facts which are shadows, and forgets that the one fact is that we have an Almighty Helper and Friend at our sides. Still further, under these preliminaries, let us point to the exhibition of the inadequate resource which Christ, according to the fuller narrative in the other Evangelists, insisted upon. Christ’ s preparation for making our poor resources adequate for anything is to drive home into our hearts the consciousness of their insufficiency. We need, first of all, to be brought to this: “ All that I have is this wretched little stock; and what is that measured against the work that I have to do and the claims upon me?” Only when we are brought to that can His great power pour itself into us and fill us with rejoicing and overcoming strength. The old mystics used to say, and they said truly: “ You must be emptied of yourself before you can be filled by God.” And the first thing for any man to learn, in preparation for receiving a mightier power than his own into his opening heart, is so know that all his own strength is utter and absolute weakness. “ What are they among so many?” And so the last of the preparations that I will touch upon is that majestic preparation for blessing by obedience. Sit you down where He bids you, and your mouths will not be long empty. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 6:12-13 Gather up the fragments Sermon for the New Year The natural thought would be--let the fragments lie; a divine munificence can again be equal to a similar emergency; henceforth we will be in sublime disdain of fragments--a niggardly economy. But Christ prevents any such bad generalization from the abundance of His great gifts, by the command, “ gather up the fragments.” I. Here then emerges the great law that GOD IS ALWAYS AND ABOUT . This law God Himself obeys. God is particular about fragments in 1. Keeping them. You cannot destroy matter. 2. In using them. The little things at the basis of nature. 3. In adorning them. You shall find even a Divine lavishing of adornment in things so minute that only a microscope can reveal them. II. We are confronted by a new year. How may we make it a happy one? By becoming ourselves TO THE GREAT LAW WHICH GOD OBEYS. 1. Seize fragments of time for self-culture and in the consciousness of growth find the new year a happy one. Emerson says, “ One of the illusions is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the last day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is doomsday.” 2. Seize fragments of chance for doing good, and in that consciousness find the year a happy one. This was said by a member of one of the Protestant churches in Paris: “ For you must know it is a rule in our church that when one brother has been converted he must go and fetch another brother; and when a sister has been converted, she must go and fetch another sister. That is the way 120 of us have been brought from atheism and Popery to simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.” If you would but feel that “ must go and fetch another” --you would find for yourself a radiant year. 3. Seize fragments of happiness as they lie about you day by day. Happiness does not come so much in nuggets as in the minuter golden particles. Do not despise them. Look for the securing of the little happiness. 4. If you have not done it yet, seize the fragment of time left you to make your peace with God through Jesus Christ. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Fragments There are certain matters in society that may be called fragments, certain customs that stand isolated and yet are very closely connected with religion. I. TO ANIMALS. All animals must live, and are entitled to consideration. They have rights of their own. 1. The insect world. Why should we destroy a spider for killing a fly when we organize shambles for the sake of slaughtering the animals on which we live? There are many insects that we are not obliged to preserve, but which we need not go out of our way to destroy wholesale. They have just one day of existence, and it is a pity to abridge it. 2. Those animals that stand nearest man have been comparatively left to his passions or selfishness. It is not right that they should be transported and slaughtered without the least care for their suffering. 3. The wholesale destruction of birds for the personal adornment of ladies is not only inhuman but is wasteful. The development of insects is so enormous that if ‘ they were not reduced by birds it would be fatal to our wheatfields and gardens. II. THE LAW OF TOWARDS IN . is more than a fragment, it is half a loaf. 1. The law of sympathy should regulate the law of wages as well as the law of profit. Men have no right to pay their employees at starvation rates, nor in the cheapest currency. 2. Times of payment ought to be considered and wages paid not on Saturday, when there is every temptation to spend them in the public house, but on Monday. 3. Ought not a portion of every man’ s wages to be secured to his wife, as his partner and the family provider, by the state? 4. According to the spirit of the gospel whoever employs men becomes responsible, as God’ s overseer, for their morals and instruction and happiness. We are our brothers’ keepers, particularly where for our profit they are led into circumstances of such severe temptation as exist in large houses of business. 5. When young women are compelled to stand all the day it is time the law, in the interest of future generations, stepped in. (H. W. Beecher.) “ Fragments” or, “ broken pieces?” (see R.V.):--The general notion, I suppose, is that the “ fragments” are the crumbs that fell from each man’ s hands as he ate, and the picture before the imagination of the ordinary reader is that of the apostles carefully collecting the debris of the meal from the grass where it had dropped. But the true notion is that the “ broken pieces which remain over” are the unused portions into which our Lord’ s miracle-working hand had broken the bread, and the true picture is that of the apostles carefully putting away in store for future use the abundant provision which their Lord had made, beyond the needs of the hungry thousands. And that conception of the command teaches far more beautiful and deeper lessons than the other. I. We have that thought to which I have already referred as more strikingly brought out by the slight alteration of translation, which, by the use of “ broken pieces,” suggests the connection with Christ’ s breaking the loaves and fishes. We are taught to think of THE LARGE SURPLUS IN CHRIST’ S GIFTS OVER AND ABOVE OUR NEED. Whom He feeds He feasts. His gifts answer our need, and over-answer it, for He is able to do exceeding abundantly above that which we ask or think, and neither our conceptions, nor our petitions, nor our present powers of receiving, are the real limits of the illimitable grace that is laid up for us in Christ, and which, potentially, we have each of us in our hands whenever we lay our hands on Him. II. Then there is another very simple lesson, which I draw. This command suggests for us CHRIST’ S THRIFT (if I may use the word) IN THE OF HIS POWER. Christ multiplies the bread, and yet each of the apostles has to take a basket, probably some kind of woven wicker-work article which they would carry for holding their little necessaries in their peregrinations; each apostle has to take his basket, and, perhaps emptying it of some of their humble apparel, to fill it with these bits of bread; for Christ was not going to work miracles where men’ s thrift and prudence could be employed. Nor does He do so now. We live by faith, and our dependence on Him can never be too absolute. Only laziness sometimes dresses itself in the garb and speaks with the tongue of faith, and pretends to be trustful when it is only slothfuh “ Why criest thou unto Me?” said God to Moses, “ speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.” True faith sets us to work. It is not to be perverted into idle and false depending upon Him to work for us, when, by the use of our own ten fingers and our own brains, guided and strengthened by His working in us, we can do the work that is set before us. III. Still further, there is another lesson here. Not only does the injunction show us Christ’ s thrift in the employment of the supernatural, but it teaches us our duty of THRIFT AND CARE IN THE USE OF THE GRACE UPON US. Christian men I be watchful stewards of that great gift of a living Christ, the food of your souls, that has been by miracle bestowed Upon you. Such gathering together for future need of the unused residue of grace may be accomplished by three ways. 1. There must be a diligent use of the grace given. See that you use to the very full, in the measure of your present power of absorbing and your present need, the gift bestowed upon you. Be sure that you take in as much of Christ as you can contain before you begin to think of what to do with the overplus. If we are not careful to take what we can and to use what we need of Christ, there is little chance of our being faithful stewards of the surplus. The water in a mill-stream runs over the trough in great abundance when the wheel is not working, and one reason why so many Christians seem to have so much more given to them in Christ than they need is because they are doing no work to use up the gift. 2. A second essential to such stewardship is the careful guarding of the grace given from whatever would injure it. Let not worldliness, business, care of the world, the sorrows of life, its joys, duties, anxieties, or pleasures--let not these so come into your hearts that they will elbow Christ out of your hearts, and dull your appetite for the True Bread that came down from heaven. 3. And, lastly, not only by use and by careful guarding, but also by earnest desire for larger gifts of the Christ who is large beyond all measure, shall we receive more and more of His sweetness and His preciousness into our hearts, and of His beauty and glory into our transfigured characters. The basket that we carry, this recipient heart of ours, is elastic. It can stretch to hold any amount that you like to put into it. The desire for more of Christ’ s grace will stretch its capacity, and as its capacity increases the inflowing gift greatens, and a larger Christ fills the larger room of my poor heart. IV. Finally, A SOLEMN WARNING IS IMPLIED IN THIS COMMAND, AND ITS REASON “ THAT NOTHING BE LOST.” Then there is a possibility of losing the gift that is freely given to us. We may waste the bread, and so, sometime or other when we are hungry, awake to the consciousness that it has dropped out of our slack hands. The abundance of Christ’ s grace may, so far as you are profited or enriched by it, be like the unclaimed millions of money which nobody asks for and that is of use to no living soul. You may be paupers while all God’ s riches in glory are at your disposal, and starving while baskets full of bread broken for us by Christ lie unused at our sides. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Gather up the fragments I. OF TRUTH. Precious fragments! with which we need not quarrel because fragmentary, for we are taught by degrees, we are fed as able to bear it. No one could reasonably complain of crumbs that they were not bread, because not each of them a whole loaf. The smallest portions of God’ s word are, notwithstanding their smallness, His word, and to be valued as such--not one to be lost. Precious fragments! concerning which we need not murmur, because we have the fatigue of gathering. “ If any will not work neither shall he eat,” II. OF TIME. Now there are two reasons which should more especially incite us to endeavour to redeem time. 1. We have need to treasure up its very minutes, for they are the fragments of a gift which God bestows. 2. For every hour of it He will call upon us to render an account, that He may “ receive His own with usury.” 3. And there is another reason which ought to influence us, but which is often overlooked, and that is, that in course of time we become the result of the time we live. Time leaves its mark upon us; not merely those outward marks of change and scars of decay, but those still more indelible features and lineaments of character which are constantly stamping us for eternity, and which give force to the assertion that “ time has a quality, as it has a quantity.” Time improved moulds and shapes the mind after the fashion of these improvements. III. Again (as connected with the thought of time, its fragments, its waste, and its use), there is also the consideration that there are certain MEANS OF GRACE, which we may regard in the light of fragments, and which have to be carefully gathered. “ Gather up the fragments that remain,” value and employ the holy seasons which may yet be granted you, and for which you will have to render an account. It is the same with regard to private prayer. What use have we made of the means of grace? I remember to have read a book entitled “ A Dying Man’ s Regrets,” and he was a very good and holy man, singularly devoted to the service of his God, and yet what did he say? These are his words, “ Ah! if I were to return to life, I would, with the help of God, and in distrust of myself, give much more time to prayer than I have hitherto done. I would reckon much more upon the effect of that than on my own labour, which, however much it is our duty never to neglect, yet has no strength except so far as it is animated by prayer. I would especially strive to obtain in my prayers that fervour of the Holy Spirit which is not learnt in a day, but is the fruit of a long, and often a painful apprenticeship. Oh my friends” (he added, raising himself with energy on his sick bed) “ lay hold of the opportunity and redeem it, cultivate new habits of prayer. Bring into prayer, with a spirit of fervour, a spirit also of order and of method that will increase its power, as it increases the power of all human things, and co-operated with the Divine agency itself.” IV. Lastly, there are the ACTS OF DUTY that we are to perform, and these also often present themselves to us in very small fragments. The lives of most of us are made up of such fragments. It is not a great thing that is required of us. It is “ the trivial round, the common task,” that is,.for the most part, “ the calling in which we are to abide,” and “ therein to abide with God.” We are often apt to despise common things because they are so common, forgetting that we might lift them to a much higher dignity, if we but infused into them a nobler principle, doing them as in God’ s sight, by God’ s help, and to God’ s glory. (J. M. Nisbet.) Fragments of instruction (Sermon to the Young):--There are ninny fragments of truth, any one of which, perhaps, is not large enough for a whole discourse, but which ought not to be wholly lost. There are a hundred small things any one of which does not seem to be of much importance compared with the great Gospel themes, but which, taken together, amount to a great deal, e.g I. EVERY ONE SHOULD BE WILLING TO CREEP BEFORE HE WALKS. There is hardly a young man that goes out from his father’ s house that who does not want money before he earns it. Who does not want a reputation for being smart before he is smart? But yea need not be ashamed because you do not know more than those of your age are expected to know; above all you need not be ashamed of frugality. Do not let your pride be hurt by living within your means. Make two things a matter of pride. 1, That you will not live one farthing in debt. 2. That you will be the richer if only by one shilling at the end of the year than you were at the beginning. II. EVERY ONE SHOULD EDUCATE HIMSELF. The school, books, teachers, give a man a chance, but after all he is his own schoolmaster. 1. A handworker ought not to be content with handwork, but should teach his band to think as well. 2. Every man ought to have some general knowledge (1) of his own body and mind; (2) of the structure of the earth; (3) of the history, geography, and policy of his own country and of others; (4) of the sciences. 3. But all education does not come from reading. (1) God gave men eyes that they might see; and yet very few people see anything. (2) What was your tongue put into your head for but to inquire with? Learn the art of asking questions. III. BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE COMPANY YOU KEEP. Pick your company from those who are superior to you and can teach you something. Life will go ill with you if you look down for your company. IV. AIM AT . This belongs to no place or class. You ought to be refined, not because of your trade, but because of yourself. A mechanic may be a gentleman if he likes. V. . Always take the side of the weak. VI. DO NOT DESPISE . Life is made a great deal pleasanter and intercourse a great deal smoother when men observe the little forms of propriety in life. VII. RESPECT womanhood. No matter how a woman looks, she is of the same sex as your mother and sister or wife and daughter. VIII. THE HABIT OF UNIFORM IN SOCIAL . Be on the look out to make others happy. (J. M. Nisbet.) The fragments that remain Every dispensation of Providence is a kind of miracle. We must make the most of it. I. EVERY IN LIFE may be made great or little, as we desire to make the most or the least of it. To do the necessary duties of each station is easy enough, but to gather up all its outlying opportunities; to be ready to lend a helping hand here or give a kind word of counsel there; to fill our place in life instead of leaving it half empty; to be in our work entirely make all the difference between a useful and a useless man. II. We may have A SIGNAL OF JOY OR SORROW. It is possible to drive it out of our thoughts and cut off all its consequences; but it is better to gather up the fragments and see what it has taught us of our strength or weakness, God and our soul. III. We may have known A NOBLE AND EXAMPLE. It has gone from us. Shall we blot it out of our remembrance or gather up the fragments, the sayings, doings, memories that may cheer, sustain, guide and warn. IV. Consider our feelings of ITSELF. Few and far between may be our prayers and thoughts of serious things; but do not despise what you have. One verse from the Bible may be enough to sustain us in sore temptations; one prayer may stick closer to us than a brother; one fixed determination to do right may be a rallying point round which our whole better nature may form itself. True “ we are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs of our heavenly Father’ s table; but His “ property” is always to have mercy, and will bless and own our humbled efforts. (Dean Stanley.) The fragments that remain I. Fragments of TIME. Myriads waste hours, days, years, and find themselves beggars at death. II. Fragments of . “ No man liveth unto himself.” It may be unconsciously exercised; like magnetism it never slumbers, like gravitation it knows no Sabbath. It is ever drawing to the Cross or to ruin. III. Fragments of . Our sins weaken and scatter the power Divine. Some benumb its energy, others flatter it by deceit. IV. Fragments of FAITH. Christ its faintest beams, they lead to heaven. V. Fragments of LOVE. Gather up every fragment of retiring lingering affection. VI. Fragments of . As the needle always turns to the pole, so our life should centre in God. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Love enriches itself This which remained over must have immensely exceeded in bulk and quantity the original stock; and we thus have a visible symbol of that love which exhausts not itself by loving, but after the most prodigal outgoings upon others abides itself far richer than it would else have done; of the multiplying which there always is in a true dispensing, of the increasing which may go along with a scattering. (Archbishop Trench.) Wastefulness Having by the miracle taught a lesson of beneficence, Christ now inculcates economy. I. THE SIN OF . 1. It breaks the law which bids us “ use the things of this world as not abusing them.” 2. It is shameful ingratitude to our Father in heaven to waste that daily bread given to us in answer to prayer. 3. Every shilling needlessly squandered is a diminution of our power to do good. II. THE NATURE OF . It is not confined to the destruction of the necessaries of life, but may fairly be extended to unprofitable consumption, 1. Fashion and vanity are great wasters. 2. Intemperance is waste (1) Of bodily health. (2) Of the means of saving others from starvation. 3. Luxury is waste because (1) Frequently unnecessary. (2) Encouraging extravagance in children. III. HOW TO GUARD AGAINST . 1. Not by niggardliness to the neglect of the duties of Christian hospitality, but in general by the rational enjoyment as against the perversion of the blessings of providence. 2. By everyone “ ruling well his own house,” impressing servants with the sin, folly, and dishonesty of wastefulness. 3. By preventing what is perishable from being spoiled through carelessness. 4. By preventing a consumption of the fruits of the earth by overfeeding such animals as are kept chiefly for pleasure. IV. THE OF . 1. The cultivation of good habits; temperance, charity, etc. 2. Addition to the sum of human happiness. (J. Hewlett, D. D.) Fragments not to be wasted 1. This is the command of the last gospel of the last Sunday of the Church’ s year. 2. This command in its connection shows us the union of the vastness of God’ s liberality with the minuteness of the accuracy of His economy. He “ provides you all things richly to enjoy,” but He looks to see what you do with the cup of cold water. His are “ the cattle on a thousand hills,but a sparrow cannot fall without His notice.” 3. The text may be applied to the use of I. THINGS THAT CAN BE BY MONEY. II. CRUMBS OF TRUTH. III. THE MEANS OF GRACE. IV. SCANTY . V. LITTLE DUTIES. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Divine avoidance of waste Many things that appear useless have some hidden value. In jeweller’ s shops every particle of filing is preserved for the assayer. Paper trimmings of large establishments become of value to the extent of thousands of pounds. In Copenhagen a hospital is supported by the money raised from cigar tips. The pieces of bread swept into the dust heap from the tables of England would, if saved and given to missions, double the means at present at their disposal. I. NOTICE THE ECONOMY IN THE DIVINE . 1. In nature there seems to be waste in great stretches of uncultivated ground, rocky ridges, unseen flowers, unfathomed depths; and in stellar regions there seems to be infinite waste of light and force. Why all this? Because there must be no appearance of niggardliness on the part of omnipotence. Yet no part of this lavishment is really waste. No atom is lost. All is used over and over again, as vapours, heat, sand, soil, etc. 2. In the world of thought there is no waste. From Copernicus, Tycho, Brake, Kepler, Newton, etc., men now gather power to gain further knowledge. Watts, and Stephenson, and Moore are only founders of inventions on which others build. 3. In the spiritual sphere, devotion, faithfulness, endurance, suffering, is not waste. John in prison, Stephen stoned, Christ crucified, are all incentives to fealty and love. II. THE AIM IN THE DIVINE ECONOMY OF . 1. It is a benefit to man that he is required to “ gather.” Christ could have created more bread, but it had not been good for the disciples to live on miracles. Eden could have been kept right, but it was better for man to keep it. Birds and animals are provided with clothing and food; man has to provide for himself because a higher being. Difficulties enable us to value things more. 2. Christ here warned men of the great losses that may attend trifling neglects: Ships sink by little leaks. Constant trifling wastes may ruin the best business. 3. He showed more power in the gathered fragments than in feeding the five thousand. 4. He taught the disciples His care for those whom others would despise. (Homiletic Magazine.) No waste in Nature or Art Nature is a rigid economist. In her household there is no waste. Everything is utilized to the utmost. The decay of rocks forms the soil of plants; and the decay of plants forms the mould in which future plants will grow. The sunlight and carbonic acid gas of past ages which seemed to be wasted upon a desert world, have been stored up in the form of coal for the benefit of man. The water that seems to be dissipated in the air descends in the dew and rain to refresh and quicken the earth. The matter that has served its purpose to one object goes by death and decomposition to form another object with a different purpose to serve. The materials which the animal kingdom receives from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms must be restored in order that they may be carefully circulated without diminution or waste over the whole earth. The gases that disappear in one form reappear in another. Forces are changed into their equivalents. Heat becomes motion, and motion heat. Nowhere is there any waste. In the ashes of every fire, in the decay of every plant, in the death and decomposition of every animal there is change, but not loss, death, but not waste. Everything is made the most of. The fragments of every product of nature are gathered up carefully and made to serve a useful purpose in a new form at nature’ s feast. Amid all her lavishness nature is very saving. The brilliant hues of flowers which the poet and artist love are not mere idle adornments, but have a practical purpose to fulfil. The beauty and fragrance which we so much admire appear only when the fertilization of the plant by insect agency is necessary; and when this task is accomplished, she withdraws them, as we put out the lights and remove the garlands when the banquet is over. In the most economical manner Nature gets her new effects not by producing new objects, but by effecting a few modifications upon the old ones; and when she makes a blossom upon an apple-tree she simply shortens and alters what would otherwise have been a common leafy branch; all the parts of the inflorescence of the commonest wayside weed, the bract, the calyx, petal, stamen, pistil, and seed, in spite of all their differences of form and colour, are but successive transformations of the leaf. Thus our Lord teaches us by the common processes of Nature the lesson of economy. In the sphere of human art we find that there is a growing tendency to economize materials. The distinguishing characteristic of our arts and manufactures is economy. Substances which our forefathers threw away are now converted into useful and valuable products. We extract beautiful colours from the dung-heap, and delicious perfumes and essences from the offal of the streets. Every day we are finding out more and more that nothing is useless; that even the waste and refuse of our manufactures may be turned to profitable account, and made to minister to the necessities or the comfort of man. By the work of our own hands, therefore, our Lord is teaching us the lesson of economy. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The economics of Nature Though the wealth of God is uncountable, He takes care even of His pence. There is no waste in his workshop. All things go towards the up-building of some newer life. Whatsoever you behold is but part of the great wheel of life everywhere returning. The cloud becomes the rain, the rain the river, the river the sea, the sea the cloud again. One of the glories of science is to abolish the word “ waste.” Even the rag-picker has his function to perform, a higher one perhaps than yours. It is better to gather rags than to wear overmuch finery, because those rags go to the mill and become paper, on which the lovely and heroic deeds of men are inscribed. When death comes he will make mock of your fine clothes, and you will go your way to the rag heap. He who rescues rags is often more useful than he who wears them, and he might have written across him “ Gather up the fragments,” etc. He gathers rags, bones, etc. He sorts them. Then they are sold and made into new materials, which in their turn come round again to rags. I take up a sheet of paper upon which to write, and I say of it, “ Rags of my youth come back again--come to clothe my soul this time.” (George Dawson, M. A.) Utilization ofwaste An apprentice made a gorgeous cathedral window from the fragments of glass his master threw away. When David Cox used to sketch many things on paper and then cast them aside as not being up to his ideal, they were cast into the waste-paper basket or scattered on the floor. His old housekeeper, however, from reverence to her master, collected these torn and crumpled pieces. When the gifted artist died, and his effects were sold, the old housekeeper had her relics framed and realized some thousands of pounds, on which she was able to pass the rest of her days in comfort. There was unexpected value in fragments and scraps! Were we as careful to try and save time, or to seize opportunities of winning souls, what glory might not be brought to Christi (Homiletic Magazine.) Twelve baskets The word for “ basket” in all the places where this miracle is mentioned (Matthew 14:1-36; Mark 6:1-56.; Luke 9:1-62.; John 6:1-71), kophinos; in the two places where the later miracle of feeding is described, the word for basket is spuris. These two words indicate two different kinds of baskets. It was in a spuris basket that Paul was let down from the walls of Damascus; so that we can hardly err in recognizing in the spuris the large, deep, and round woven basket which is used for so many purposes in Palestine, and into which a man could, on occasion, be packed. The kophinos, on the other hand, which in the classics sometimes indicates a fish-basket, seems to be the light, flat woven tray-basket, which is in use among fisher-folk and others who had light burdens to carry. (S. S. Times.) Nothing lost I. In all the OF NATURE. In the ravages of oceans, the flow of rivers, the crumbling of mountains, “ nothing is lost; the drop of dew that trembles on leaf or flower, is but exhaled to fall anew, in summer thunder shower.” II. OF ALL THE FORMS OF LIFE that have flourished and died since the beginning “ The little drift of common dust, By the March winds disturbed and tossed, Though scattered by the fitful gust, Is changed but never lost.” III. OF ANY WORK DONE FOR GOD, however humble. Sermons, prayers, contributions, etc. (Isaiah 55:11; Acts 10:4; Matthew 10:42). What an encouragement to parents, teachers, ministers, reformers. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) John 6:14-21 Then those men when they had seen the miracle The sequel to the miracle I. THE EFFECT OF THE MIRACLE ON THE MIND OF THE . They, like all Jews of the time, were expecting the Prophet like unto Moses. The Divine commission of Moses was authenticated by the miraculous manna; what then could this miracle mean but that He who worked it was the antitype of Moses. And then Moses had been king as well as prophet. Who could be better qualified for “ leader and commander of the people” than Jesus: Time and place were both favourable for raising the standard of rebellion, and five thousand resolute hearts formed no mean nucleus of an army which would soon include every Jewish patriot. Measures, therefore, were taken to compel Christ to yield to their wishes. 1. In this incident we have an example of zeal without knowledge. Christ was indeed a King, but had they apprehended in what sense nothing would have been further from their wishes. 2. Zeal without knowledge must at all times be most injurious to the true interests of the cause of Christ. II. THE OF CHRIST (John 6:15). 1. He withdrew. (1) To frustrate their purpose. (2) To show that His kingdom was not of this world. (3) To ascend a higher throne, not by popular election, but by the cross. 2. He withdrew to pray, thus indicating the nature of the glory He sought. He had much to plead for on behalf of the multitude on whom the miracle had been lost, and in behalf of His disciples who had more than half taken the infection. Lessons: (1) Those who misuse Christ and His blessings must not wonder if they are deprived of His presence. (2) Spiritual safety is closely connected with retirement from dangerous associations. Christ not only withdrew Himself but sent the disciples away Matthew 14:22; Mark 6:45). III. THE DANGER OF THE (verses 17, 18). 1. Those who seek and find their delight in Christ’ s presence know the bitterness of His absence. How often are Christ’ s disciples tossed with tempests and constrained to hard and apparently fruitless service! 2. The Master is ever at hand when the storm is fiercest and where the labour is hardest. IV. THE ADVENT OF CHRIST. 1. Aroused their fears. 2. Elicited their prayers. 3. Secured their safety. 4. Brought them safely to shore. (A. Beith, D. D.) Three views of Christ I. AMID THE (John 6:15). 1. A couch of repose after the physical exhaustion of the day. 2. A temple of prayer (Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46). (1) For Himself that Be might resist the temptation He had just escaped as in the wilderness (Matthew 4:8-10), and that He might be supplied with strength for the coming miracle. (2) For the people who were as sheep without a shepherd. (3) For the disciples gone on their perilous voyage. 3. A tower of observation of His disciples as now He watches us from heaven. II. UPON THE SEA (John 6:19-20). 1. The mysterious apparition. (1) What it was. Christ really walking on, not swimming in, the sea, not walking on the shore. There is no difficulty here to those who believe the previous miracle. (2) Why it came. To proclaim Christ Lord as the Controller of nature, as the bread had proclaimed Him its Creator. (3) When it appeared. Between three and six o’ clock in the morning when the rowers were at their wits’ end. So Christ interposes when our need is greatest (Amos 5:1). (4) How it was regarded. With fear, as Christ’ s unusual appearances often are. 2. The familiar voice. (1) What it said (John 6:20). A note of assurance (Isaiah 43:2; Isaiah 54:11). (2) How it acted. It dispelled their alarms. III. IN THE BOAT (John 6:21). 1. The wind was hushed (Matthew 14:32). To lull the soul’ s hurricanes when Christ steps within (John 14:27). 2. The disciples were amazed (Mark 6:51), and led to worship Matthew 14:33). Christ’ s supremacy over nature unmistakably betokened His Divinity. 3. The voyage was completed. Learn: 1. The dependence Jesus ever felt on prayer. 2. The notice Christ continues to take of His people. 3. The ability Christ possesses to help in the time of need. 4. The glory Christ shall yet bring to His people and to this material world. 5. The object of all Christ’ s manifestations to lead men to recognize His Divinity. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) This is of a truth that ProphetThe distinguishing characteristics of Christ as a Teacher I. THOSE WHICH CANNOT BE . 1. His originality. 2. His miraculousness. 3. His authority. II. THOSE WHICH MUST NOT BE . 1. His positiveness. 2. His self-assurance. 3. His self-representation. III. THOSE WHICH SHOULD BE . 1. His naturalness. 2. His simplicity. 3. His variety. 4. His suggestiveness. 5. His definiteness. 6. His catholicity. 7. His spirituality. 8. His tenderness. 9. His faithfulness. 10. His consistency. 11. His devoutness. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The misinterpretation of the Divine sign by the perverseness of the carnal mind They draw from the sign a correct conclusion (a true doctrine) and a false application (a bad moral). So with orthodox faith a false (ecclesiastical or secular) morality is often associated. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) This is of a truth the prophet 1. They beheld in Jesus the fulfilment of prophecies fondly remembered, of hopes long deferred. The Law-giver who was to be a second Moses; the Deliverer who was to be a more mighty conqueror than Joshua; a King more glorious than David, wiser than Solomon, was come at last. 2. They who said so were not men learned in the Scriptures, like the Jewish scribes and rulers; book-learning, even of the highest sort, is apt to make those who have it slow in forming their judgments, backward and cold in declaring them. Nor were they men of the city, who might have gained some knowledge at second hand from those who had searched the Scriptures. But they were a crowd of rude, simple folk, come together from the hill country of Galilee, where old traditions had been handed down from age to age by word of mouth. With an instinct more true, more strong, than the opinions of the learned, they perceived that the bread which they received in such abundance could only have been supplied by God Himself, and that in Him who fed them thus God was revealed as clearly as when He spake by the profits to their forefathers. 3. Confessions of this kind, all the more impressive from their being artless and involuntary, are often to be met with in the four Gospels, and are just such as we might expect men would make on seeing of a sudden the supernatural power and wisdom of Christ (see John 1:49; Luke 5:8; Mark 15:39). 4. It is not to be supposed that the like effects should be wrought in us, who have heard and read a hundred times the record of these things. Miracles the most amazing, discourses the most persuasive, the heartrending tales of sufferings inconceivable, sound in our ears as old familiar truths; and familiarity too often leads to neglect, even though it may by no means breed contempt. They who live in sight of a beautiful landscape lose in some degree the perception of its loveliness. They would like to view it with fresh eyes; as the strangers do who come to visit them. There is stealing over us a spirit of indifference, which for any saving purpose is as dangerous as the spirit of downright unbelief. 5. God does not suffer us to remain without a warning in this deadly stupor. Not by miracles, not by the visitation of angels, but in the course of His providence, by what we call the accidents of life, He arouses us and makes us see the Saviour as plainly revealed to our inward vision as He was to those men sitting on the grass and eating the bread which He gave them in the wilderness. 6. And what sort of things are they which bring us to see in His beauty and majesty that Saviour who hitherto has had no form or comeliness in our sight, so that we have even hid our faces from Him? Have we been led to look with abhorrence on one of our darling sins and yearn for the purity which once we had, and which we cannot of ourselves recover? And has a ray of comfort from Him been shed upon us, kindling a new hope in our breasts, making us embrace as a living truth what had become to us a dead form of words, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners? Or has the heavenly ray reached you by another path? It is in love that thou art chastened, that the weight of thy affliction, which is but for a little moment, may gain thee the exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I have been the Man of sorrows, and now am at God’ s right hand. I know thy afflictions, and even the glory here am touched with a feeling of them. But such is God’ s law, equal for all;” only through tribulation canst thou enter the kingdom here above.” Have such consolations given a new turn to your thoughts, and thrown some light on the deep mystery of your life? If so, you might well exclaim, “ This is of a truth the Prophet that cometh--that Herald of life and joy, so greatly needed by the sons and daughters of affliction, so longed for by me, sorrow-stricken, sick at heart as I am! This is He, the Desire of all nations!” And if, in any of these ways, the good impression has been made upon you, take care to keep it by giving good heed to it, and especially by often calling to mind the circumstances under which you first received it. Otherwise it will soon wear out like the stagnant pool of Bethesda, troubled for an instant by the angel’ s wing. (W. W. G. HumphryG. Humphry, B. D.) When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and … make Him a KingChrist not a King by force 1. Some men have greatness thrust upon them. From all such Christ separates Himself, knowing that what is done by compulsion may by compulsion be undone. So He would not have a kingdom forced upon Him, nor would He be forced on a kingdom. Wonderful words are written on His royal banner: “ Put up thy sword,” “ My kingdom is not of this world.” 2. This is the second time that He declined a crown. It is not every man who has two such chances. Everything depends on how you get hold of your kingdom. If you have offered false worship for it, it will rot in your grip; if you have been forced on reluctant hearts, they will east you off in the spring tide of returning power. 3. There is something in this Man more than in any other man. The more His character is studied, the more independent we shall be of theological evidences. The grand claim of Christ to supremacy goes right up to the centre and necessity of things. I. NOTHING HAS TO BE DONE IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN BY , by mere force. Did not Christ come to be a King? Yes. What matter then the way of becoming one? Everything. A man must prove his title to his seat, or he may be unseated. 1. It is not right to do right in a wrong way. It is right that you should come to church: it would be wrong to force you to come. The end does not sanctify the means. 2. Force is powerless in all high matters. (1) You can force a man to kneel, to repeat devotional words while you stand over him sword in hand; but he defies you to make him pray. (2) You can force a man to pay his debts, but you cannot make him honest. Honesty cannot be created by force, nor dishonesty be punished by it. (3) You can compel a nation to build a church, but you cannot compel it to be religious. The very attempt to force a man to be religious destroys the temper which alone makes religion possible. I. While all this is true on the human side, the real point to be considered is that JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF WOULD NEVER REIGN BY MERE FORCE. If you could force men to Christ, you could never force Christ to men. It is the Infinite that declines. Jesus reigns by the distinct consent of the human mind. “ If any man will open to Me, I will come in.” “ Come unto Me all ye,” etc. III. If He will not be a King by force, BY WHAT MEANS WILL HE BECOME KING? 1, Preach Me, is one of His injunctions. Show My doctrine, purpose, spirit, throughout the world. That is a roundabout way, but the swing of the Divine astronomy is in it. It is not the thought of a common man. 2. Live Me: “ Let your light so shine,” etc.; “ I have given you an example;” “ Follow Me.” 3. Lift Me up. “ If I be lifted up,” etc. (1) On the Cross of Atonement. (2) By us when we love His law, submit to His bidding, reproduce His temper, receive with unquestioning heart all the gospel of His love. IV. Now for the philosophical explanation of all this. “ WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.” This Man lays hold of our entire love, and thereby secures an everlasting reign. The man who proceeded to capture human nature as this Man proceeded is presumably a true king. No adventurer could have acted as Jesus Christ. 1. Little child, Jesus would not have you forced to be good. He says, “ I am knocking at the door of your heart; let Me in.” 2. He makes no proposition about going out. 3. The Church, like the Master, should not rule by force, but by love. (J. Parker, D. D.) Secret prayer Secret prayer feeds the soul as secret morsels feed the body; therefore it is said to be the banquet of grace, where the soul may solace itself with God, as Esther did with Ahasuerus at the banquet of wine, and have whatsoever heart can wish or need require. While the disciples were perilling and well-nigh perishing, Christ was praying for them; so He is still for us at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (J. Trapp.) Jesus on the mountain above the political designs of men He alone. I. He alone THE FREE ONE who is more a King than any prince on earth. II. He alone THE CLEAR-SIGHTED ONE, who sees above all craftiness of policy. III. He alone THE SILENT BUT OF ALL THINGS. (Lange.) The kingship of Christ Like Joseph our Lord suffered for the sin He so carefully avoided. The charge of claiming to be King was brought up against Him at His trial. Yet while shunning the bauble of an earthly sceptre, He was King of kings, and will for ever wear many crowns. To make Him King was of the Father, not of poor mortals. How low their ideas of Messiah’ s kingdom! What had loaves and fishes multiplied to do with “ Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever” ? (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) And when even was now come His disciples went down unto the sea and entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward CapernaumA night upon the deep I. OF HOPE. II. OF EFFORT. III. OF ALARM. IV. OF DIVINE . V. OF . (T. Whitelaw, D,D.) Jesus absent in darkness It is sometimes worth while to try to meet the mournful and worried state of mind in tile churches, when the good are longing, and perhaps waiting, for a revival of religion to come. I. THE PICTURE. In the course of description of the scene on Lake Genesaret, it will not be difficult to suggest these points: 1. The close and rather humiliating connection between wistful souls and weary bodies. 2. The disheartening result of a rapid transition from exhilarating crowds to unromantic and lonely labour. 3. The feeling of desertion when, perhaps, Jesus is praying for us all the time. 4. Desolate frames of feeling give no release from diligent duty. Our question now is, What did those disciples do? II. THE LESSON. 1. They kept on rowing. That is, they did precisely what they would have done if Jesus had arrived. 2. They headed the boat for Capernaum. That was what He bade them do Matthew 14:22). 3. They bailed out the water if any rushed into the boat. All the worldliness in the world’ s sea cannot sink Christ’ s Church, if only the waves are kept on the outside of it. 4. They strained their eyes in every direction for the least sign of Christ’ s coming. 5. They cheered each other. (C. S. Robinson.) The absent Christ It is always dark until Jesus comes to us, or until we go to Jesus. This is the case with I. THE SINNER who, in contact with Jesus, passes from darkness into light. II. THE (Psalms 43:1-5; Psalms 51:1-19; Psalms 130:1-8.). III. THE . IV. THE . “ If Thou hadst been here our brother had not died.” But when He comes He is the Resurrection and the Life. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Christians in darkness when Christ is not near I. CHRIST’ S ABOUT HIS . 1. He leaves men for a time in fear and danger. (1) After the fall the whole world was thus left till Christ came in the flesh. (2) After the Incarnation He remained thirty years in obscurity. He remained far distant from Bethany till Lazarus was dead. He fingered on the mountain while His disciples were struggling with the storm. (3) At this day His people wonder at His absence, and exclaim, “ Thou art a God that hidest Thyself.” 2. His delay is no proof of His neglect. His delights were with the children of men before His abode was among them. When absent from Lazarus His heart was full of a brother’ s love. Here His purpose was to allow their extremity to become His opportunity. So when He left the world it was that the Comforter might come. And now it is only love that detains Him within the veil. 3. Never, and nowhere, do they who wait on the Lord wait in vain. To weary watchers the time seemed long but the coming was sure. “ Faithful is He that promised.” “ He that keepeth Israel shall not slumber.” II. THE ’ ABOUT CHRIST. 1. It was a matter of the heart. In knowledge they were children; and like children, too, in single-eyed, confiding love. Afterwards they became more enlightened. But their first love was not weaker than their last. 2. Observe how this child-like love operates in time of trial. (1) The waters were permitted to swell and frighten the children, although their Elder Brother held those waters in the hollow of His hand. But these true men would neither be bold in the absence of their Lord, nor faint in fear when He was at their side. (2) The storm and darkness made their hearts quiver, and all the more surely did these hearts turn and point toward the mountain-top when Jesus, the Daysman, stood laying His hand upon God. (3) But these dangers though great were material and temporal; whereas the dangers which induce us to seek a Saviour are our own sin, and the wages that it wins. But these burdens will make you doubly welcome. (4) The example of these Galileans is shown here as in a glass, that every mourner may thereby be encouraged to long for the presence of the Lord Psalms 50:15). (5) Love to Christ in a human heart, kindled by Christ’ s love to man and laying hold of the love that lighted it, is the one thing needed. (W. Arnot, D. D.) Christ, though absent, has not deserted us Jesus was absent all the while. He leaveth them, as it were, in the suburbs of hell. Howbeit as the eagle when she flieth highest of all from the nest doth ever cast a jealous eye upon her young, so doth this heavenly eagle. (J. Trapp.) Night with Jesus 1. It was night, The disciples were alone, which made it double night. 2. It was night at sea. To be without Jesus in the day and on land was sad, but this was sadder. 3. It was a night of toil: rowing four miles in the teeth of the wind; and Christ’ s absence made their labour doubly hard. 4. It was a night of danger. The storm had broken loose and there was no Jesus. Let us look at these works in their more general aspect in relation to the Saint and to the Church. I. NIGHT. 1. The sinner’ s history is one long starless night. 2. The saint has his night, too, of sorrow, bereavement, and pain. 3. The Church, too, has her night--poverty, persecution, desertion. There shall be no night there, but there is night now. II. NIGHT WITHOUT JESUS. 1. The sinner’ s night is altogether without Him. 2. The saint has night when Jesus seems distant. Without Him altogether we cannot be--“ Lo, I am with you always.” But there are times when He is not realized; and the issue of these is to bring Him nearer. III. NIGHT WITH JESUS. With Him the darkness is as the light. For having Him we have 1. Companionship. 2. Protection. 3. Safety. 4. Comfort. 5. Strength. 6. Assurance of the coming day. IV. DAY WITH JESUS. He does not say, “ Let Me go, for the day breaketh.” And if His presence has made the night pleasant, what will not that presence make the coming day! (H. Bonar, D. D.) They see Jesus walking on the seaDoes He not always walk upon it? Is not His majestic tread on the Galilean waters typical I. OF HIS MARCH ALONG THE AGES? No figure seems more literal than that by which we speak of the waves, the current, the sea of time. How constantly is the lapse of years, obliterating races, memorials, great names, the dykes set up by arms, laws, industries and enterprise. Of the civilized nations now on earth but one in Christ’ s time had a name or a place except the Jews. The languages then spoken are now dead. The manners and religions have passed away. Meanwhile, Jesus has walked upon the waves. The gospel has never been submerged or been less than the one shaping, controlling power. 1. At the outset fierce and bitter persecution assailed Christianity, but from beneath the heel of the Caesars it mounted their throne. 2. Then commenced the severer trial of corrupting prosperity; and still its ordinances, doctrines, and influence could not be wholly corrupted. 3. Invading races threatened to destroy it, but yielded to it. 4. During the dark ages it gave birth to noble charities, home life, etc. 5. In these latter ages how many and powerful have been the assailing forces, scientific and infidel; but no sooner has any fountain of knowledge become deep and clear than it has invited His tread and rolled tributary waves to His feet. 6. And lo! as centuries roll on His circuit widens. His steps lay hold on the ends of the earth and the islands of the sea. II. OF HIS WAY IN THE HEART OF MAN. 1. How fierce the waves that threaten our peace and well being! Passion, appetite, lust, pride, desire, fear. What power but Christ’ s can walk these waves? But let Him enter and these billows know their Lord. 2. What miracles of mercy has He not wrought in these subject souls! (1) Here was intemperance or lust. No love could stem the torrent; but Christ entered and appetite was quelled and all is now pure and peaceful. (2) In that spirit passion raged; Christ entered and vengeance has given place to love and forgiveness. 3. In every soul into which He enters, He walks as sovereign. The forces of character mould themselves at His command. III. OF HIS PATHS AS HERALD AND GUIDE TO THE LIFE ETERNAL. (A. P. Peabody, LL. D.) Christ in the night storm I. Many of my hearers may be just now in a FEARFUL NIGHT-STORM OF TROUBLE. 1. One is in the darkness of a mysterious providence. 2. Another is under a tempest of commercial disaster. He has lost “ the rigging” of his prosperity; and his pride has come down as a top-sail comes down in a hurricane. 3. Another one is toiling with the oars against a head-sea of poverty. 4. The guiding rudder of a dear and trusted friend has been swept away by death. 5. Still another one is in a midnight of spiritual despondency, and the promise-stars seem to be all shut out under gloomy clouds. My friend A--is making a hard voyage, with her brood of fatherless children to provide for. Friend B--has a poor intemperate husband on board with her; and Brother C--‘ s little bark hardly rises out of one wave of disaster before another sweeps over it. There are whole boat-loads of disciples who are “ toiling at rowing” over a dark sea of trouble. II. THE HOUR OF THE ’ S IS THE HOUR OF CHRIST’ S . At the right moment Christ makes His appearance. We do not wonder at the disciples’ astonishment and alarm. But straightway Jesus speaks unto them, and in an instant their fears vanished and “ the wind ceased.” Now, good friends, who are breasting a midnight sea of trouble, open the eye of faith, and see that Form on the waves! It is not an apparition; it is not a fiction of priestly fancies. It is Jesus Himself! One who has been tried on all points as we are, and yet without sin. Christ comes to you as a sympathizing, cheering, consoling Saviour. His sweet assurance is, “ Lo! I am with you. Fear not; I have redeemed thee.” Receive Him into the ship. No vessel can sink or founder with Jesus on board. Let the storms rage, if God sends them. Christ can pilot you through. It is I! There may be a night coming soon on some of you, when heart and flesh shall fail you, and the only shore ahead is the shore of eternity. If Jesus is only in the bark, be not afraid. Like glorious John Wesley, you will be able to cry aloud in the dying hour, “ The best of all is, God is with us!” III. THE OF THIS SCENE TO THOSE WHO ARE IN A MID-SEA OF OF SIN AND OF . The storm of Divine threatenings against sin is breaking upon you. You acknowledge that you are guilty. Alarming passages from God’ s Word foam up around your distressed and anxious soul. You cannot quell this storm, or escape out of it. Toiling at the oars of self-righteousness has not sent you a furlong nearer to the “ desired haven.” You have found by sore experience that sin gives no rest, and that your oars are no match against God’ s just and broken law. Friend! Listen! There is a voice that comes sounding through the storm. Hearken to it! It is a voice of infinite love, “ It is I!” “ Whosoever believeth in Me shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.” If you will only admit this waiting, willing, loving Jesus into your tempest-tossed soul, the “ wind will cease.” Christ can allay the storm. Receive Him. Do all He asks, surrender the helm to Him, and you can then feel as the rescued disciples did when they knelt down in the drenched bottom of their little boat, and cried out, “ Truly this is the Son of God!” (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) It is I, be not afraidThe Lord’ s voice to His people I. HIS . 1. In unexpected places. 2. At unwonted times. 3. In unfamiliar forms. II. FEAR 1. Of danger. 2. Of death. 3. Of evil. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The recognition of Christ in the hour of death The recognition of Christ coming to help and comfort in the hour of severest trial is ever the Christian’ s privilege. If he see Him not in the storm, he must look again and again, for he has but failed to recognize Him. This truth we would apply only to that last fearful storm which wrecks the bark in which the soul has been crossing the sea of life. I. TO HIM WE MUST EXPECT HIM. 1. He has promised to be there. “ Lo, I am with you alway.” “ When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee.” 2. He who has given His life for us will not fail us in that most trying moment. II. BY WHAT SIGNS MAY THE KNOW HIM? 1. The Christian soul knows Him by His visage. Infinite love breaks through every disguise when viewed by the soul fitted to recognize it. 2. Knows Him because He announces Himself: “ It is I, be not afraid.” 3. Knows Him because of the calm that comes with Him. Conclusion: Martyrs and Christians in all ages have borne testimony to the recognition of Christ in the last hour of life. (Homiletic Monthly.) The symbolism of the voyage A believer must have on the sea of life, Patience for his tackling, Hope for his anchor, Faith for his helm, the Bible for his chart, Christ for his captain, the breath of the Spirit to fill his canvas. (J. Trapp.) Afraid of Christ Of Him in whom was laid up all their comfort. How oft are we mistaken and befooled by our fears! (J. Trapp.) Timely comfort He waits to be gracious. Our extremity is His opportunity. God brings His people to the mount, with Abraham, yea, to the very brow of the hill, till their feet slip, and then delivers them. When all is given up for lost then comes He in, as oil of an engine. (J. Trapp.) The storm on the lake My experience in this region enabled me to sympathize with the disciples in their long night’ s contest with the wind. I have seen the face of the lake like a huge boiling cauldron. The wind howled down the valleys from the north-east and east with such fury that no efforts of rowers could have brought a boat to shore at any point along that coast. To understand the cause of these sudden and violent tempests we must remember the lake lies low--six hundred feet lower than the ocean--that water-courses have cut out profound ravines and wild gorges, converging to the head of the lake, and that these act like gigantic funnels to draw down the cold winds from the mountains. On the occasion referred to we pitched our tents on the shore, and remained for three days and nights exposed to this tremendous wind. We had to double-pin all the tent ropes, and frequently were obliged to hang with our whole weight upon them, to keep the quivering tabernacle from being carried up bodily into the air. No wonder the disciples toiled and rowed hard all that night. (W. M.Thomson, D. D.) The disciples and their absent Master I have observed that a shipmaster, especially when the presence of currents and the proximity of land make his burden heavy, shakes the compass sharply, and then watches the point on which the quivering needle finally settles down. The shaking makes the master more sure that the needle points truly to its pole. In those days the magnet was not known. No trembling compass on the deck that night told the steersman how to hold his helm, after the mountains had disappeared in night; but an instrument more mysterious and equally true within those simple seamen had once been touched by divine, forgiving mercy, and pointed steadfastly now to the Source of saving power. (W. Arnot, D. D.) The pathway of the King I. THE TOILERS. Is it not the history of the Church in a nutshell? Is it not the symbol of life for us all? The solemn law under which we live demands persistent effort, and imposes continual antagonism upon us; there is no reason why we should regard that as evil, or think ourselves hardly used, because we are not fair-weather sailors. The end of life is to make men,; the meaning of all events is to mould character. Anything that makes me stronger is a blessing, anything that develops my morale is the highest good that can come to me. And so be thankful if, when the boat is crossing the mouth of some glen that opens upon the lake, a sudden gust smites the sheets and sends you to the helm, and takes all your effort to keep you from sinking. Do not murmur, or think that God’ s Providence is strange, because many and many a time when “ it is dark, and Jesus is not yet come to us,” the storm of wind comes down upon the lake and threatens to drive us from our course. Let us rather recognize Him as the Lord who, in love and kindness, sends all the different kinds of weather which according to the old proverb, makes up the full summed year. The solitary crew were not so solitary as they thought. That little dancing speck on the waters which held so much blind love, and so much fear and trouble, was in His sight, as on the calm mountain-top He communed with God. No wonder that weary hearts and lonely ones, groping amidst the darkness, and fighting with the tempests and the sorrows of life, have ever found in our story a symbol that comes to them with a prophecy of hope and an assurance of help, and have rejoiced to know that they on the sea are beheld of the Christ in the sky, and that “ the darkness hideth not from” His loving eye. II. THE CHRIST. If we look for a moment at the miraculous fact, apart from the symbolism, we have a revelation here of Christ as the Lord of the material universe, a kingdom wider in its range and profounder in its authority than that which that shouting crowd had sought to force upon Him. His will consolidates the yielding wave, or sustains His material body on the tossing surges. Two lessons may be drawn from this. One is that in His marvellous providence Christ uses all the tumults and unrest, the opposition and tempests which surround the ship that bears His followers as the means of achieving His purposes. We stand before a mystery to which we have no key when we think of these two certain facts; first, the Omnipotent redeeming will of God in Christ; and, second, the human antagonism which is able to rear itself against that. And we stand in the presence of another mystery, most blessed, and yet which we cannot unthread, when we think, as we most assuredly may, that in some mysterious fashion, He works His purposes by the very antagonism to His purposes, making even head-winds fill the sails, and planting His foot on the white crests of the angry and changeful billows. How often in the world’ s history has this scene repeated itself, and by a Divine irony the enemies become the helpers of Christ’ s cause, and what they plotted for destruction turned out rather to the furtherance of the gospel. Another lesson for our individual lives is this, that Christ, in His sweetness and His gentle sustaining help, comes near to us all across the sea of sorrow and trouble. A sweeter, a more gracious sense of His nearness to us, is ever granted to us in the time of our darkness and our grief than is possible to us in the sunny hours of joy. It is always the stormy sea that Christ comes across, to draw near to us; and they who have never experienced the tempest have yet to learn the inmost sweetness of His presence. Sorrow brings Him near to us. Do you see that sorrow does not drive you away from Him. III. THE TERROR AND THE . I do not dwell upon the fact that the average man, if he fancies that anything from out of the Unseen is near him, shrinks in fear. I do not ask you whether that is not a sign, and indication of the deep conviction that lies in men’ s souls, of a discord between themselves and the unseen world; but I ask you if we do not often mistake the coming Master, and tremble before Him when we ought to be glad? Let no absorption in cares and duties, let no unchildlike murmurings, let no selfish abandonment to sorrow, blind you to the Lord that always comes near troubled hearts, if they will only look and see. Let no reluctance to entertain religious ideas, no fear of contact with the Unseen, no shrinking from the thought of Christ as a Kill-joy keep you from seeing Him as He draws near to you in your troubles. And let no sly, mocking Mephistopheles of doubt, nor any poisonous air, blowing off the foul and stagnant marshes of present materialism, make you fancy that the living Reality, treading on the flood there, is a dream or a fancy or the projection of your own imagination on to the void of space. He is real, whatever may be phenomenal and surface. The storm is not so real as the Christ, the waves not so substantial as He who stands upon them. They will pass and melt, He will abide for ever. Lift up your hearts, and be glad, because the Lord comes to you across the waters. And hearken to His voice: “ It is I! Be not afraid.” The encouragement not to fear follows the proclamation, “ It is I!” What a thrill of glad confidence must have poured itself into their hearts, when once they rose to the height of that wondrous fact I There is no fear in the consciousness of His presence. It is His old word, “ Be not afraid.” And He breathes it whithersoever He comes; for His coming is the banishment of danger and the exorcism of dread. IV. THE END OF THE TEMPEST AND OF THE VOYAGE. It is not always true, it is very seldom true, that when Christ comes on board opposition ends, and the purpose is achieved. But it is always true that when Christ comes on board a new spirit comes into the men who have Him for their companion, and are conscious that they have. It makes their work easy, and makes them “ more than conquerors” over what yet remains. With what a different spirit the weary men would bend their backs to the oars once more when they had the Master on board, and with what a different spirit you and I will set ourselves to our work if we are sure of His presence. The worst of trouble is gone when Christ shares it with us. Friends! Life is a voyage, anyhow, with plenty of storm, and danger, and difficulty, and weariness, and exposure, and anxiety, and dread, and sorrow, for every soul of man. But if you will take Christ on board it will be a very different thing from what it will be if you cross the wan waters alone. Without Him you will make shipwreck of yourselves; with Him your voyage may be as perilous and lonely as that of that poor Shetland woman in the Columbine a month ago, but He will take care of you, and you will be guided on shore, on the one little bit of beach where all the rest is iron-bound rocks, on which whoever smites will be shattered to pieces. “ Then are they glad … where they would be.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) John 6:22-40 The day following Jesus the Bread of Life I. OUR LORD’ S AVOWAL OF HIS DIVINE NATURE AND HIS ERRAND. More than thirty times in this one discourse does He use the personal pronouns “ Me” and “ I,” in such connections as that it would be blasphemy if He were anything less than really God. The Jews saw this (John 6:41-42), the disciples also (John 6:66). II. THE SPECIAL OF THE GOSPEL WHICH ALWAYS THE HEARTS OF MEN. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is what universally tests pride the most severely. In this discourse our Lord intentionally sifts His hearers. He avows with startling suddenness the most extreme views of human helplessness without vicarious redemption. Then He puts the plaintive question, “ Will ye also go away?” III. THE OF AN FOR HUMAN SINS. “ Without shedding of blood is no remission.” So striking are these utterances of Christ, that there can be no mistaking them. They cannot possibly be discharged of their meaning by any notion of mere pattern-setting on His part. Bread is not example, and blood is not conduct, and eating is not imitation. IV. LET US BE WITH THE US HERE OF THAT SENSE OF CRAVING AND WHICH MANY FEEL UNDER THE APPEALS OF THE GOSPEL. The soul hungers after Christ. The sound of feeding awakes deeper pangs. Every living thing must eat or die. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.) Jesus the Bread of Life I. THE OF MEN JESUS CHRIST (John 6:22-24). The people before us, having “ come to Capernaum seeking Jesus,” desired Him only for a temporal benefit. This is like many in our day. They go to church, pretend to be religious, make a show of piety, because it is fashionable, profitable for trade, or a convenient method of getting “ bread” without toil. The pious fraud is a more dangerous enemy to Christianity than outspoken infidelity. II. MEN’ S IN REBUKED (John 6:25-27). 1. By having the shallowness of their pretensions exposed (John 6:26). How keen-cutting these words are! And so it is everywhere in the Bible--hypocrisy is condemned with severity. Any one who would speak for Jesus must not be afraid to rebuke the pretender. 2. Presentation of the true motive (John 6:27). We must be sincere in seeking Christ as the Saviour of the soul--i.e., “ everlasting life” must be with us a deeper consideration than the life of the body. To give this eternal life, or righteousness, unto the world was the purpose of Jesus’ coming here: “ For Him hath God the Father sealed” --i.e., set apart and given authority to perform the high office of imparting to all believers the Bread of Life. To secure this, salvation must be our only motive. III. BELIEF IN CHRIST MAN’ S SUPREME WORK (John 6:28-29). It is in the human heart to think of salvation as a matter of “ works” (John 6:28). The Scriptures everywhere declare that to be saved--i.e., “ to work the works of God,” we must believe on the Son of God (John 6:29). Man’ s good works exclude this belief. But true belief or faith, includes good works Ephesians 2:8-10; James 2:26). Both Jesus and Paul declare that faith saves the soul. James explains the kind of faith that saves. IV. MAN’ S TO ACCEPT JESUS (verses 30, 31). From the miracle of the loaves, the multitude would gladly have received Him as a king; but, being informed that they must believe on Him as a Saviour, they demanded more evidence (verses 30, 31), intimating that Moses, in giving the manna for long years, was greater than Jesus, who only furnished one meal. So men are always willing to exalt Christ as a great personage, but are reluctant to receive Him as their Redeemer. Yet He must be this or nothing. V. JESUS URGES THIS HIGH CLAIM (verses 32, 33). He admits of no comparison. Moses did not give the manna (verse 32); manna did not secure life (verse 49); Jesus was the Bread from heaven which conferred eternal life (verses 35, 41, 48, 50, 51). His atonement secured the Holy Spirit, who works regeneration, to experience which is to enter into life. This is what Christ means in verse 51. VI. THE OF OUR JESUS AS OUR LIFE (verses 34-36). 1. The Divine condition. The Holy Spirit must convict, enlighten, draw (verses 37, 45). 2. The human condition. Man must come of His own free will (verses 35, 36, 53). VII. JESUS THE OF THE FATHER’ S WILL (verses 37-40). This will was to secure eternal life to all believers. Those who do not take Jesus as the source of their life perish through unbelief. All who do are kept in perfect safety. This is God’ s will, and Christ is able to execute it. (A. H. Moment.) Jesus the Bread of Life I. A TRUE MIRACLE MAY FAIL TO PRODUCE ANY , in which case it fails of its chief purpose. This one simply stimulated an appetite for loaves and fishes, without stimulating gratitude for those already given. II. THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN GREAT OF POWER IS TO TURN TO THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST (chap. 5:36). The works of God in creation and government have no greater end than this. We do not please God by admiring His work in nature, in being awed by miracles; but in being led by the gift of daily bread to faith in Him who is the Bread of Life. III. A PYRAMID OF POINTS THE SINNER TO A SAVIOUR (John 6:35; John 6:37). IV. THE FAITH IN CHRIST THE OF OUR . Four times in this chapter Christ repeats this, or a similar refrain: “ I will raise him up at the last day.” Whether we share the resurrection of shame and everlasting contempt spoken of by Daniel, or that which causes us to shine as the brightness of the firmament, will depend on our faith in Christ now. (Monday Club.) . The meat that endureth I. CHRIST’ S OF THE HUMAN HEART is seen in exposing the false motives of those who followed Him. So now He reads all secret thoughts (1 Samuel 16:7). The folly of hypocrisy is as great as its sinfulness. It is not hard to deceive the wisest of men; but it is impossible to deceive Christ (Revelation 1:14; John 21:17). II. WHAT CHRIST FORBIDS. Labour for the meat that perisheth. 1. Our Lord did not mean to encourage idleness. Labour was the lot of Adam in his innocence, and of Christ Himself. 2. Our Lord rebuked excessive attention to the body to the neglect of the soul. One thing is needful (Matthew 6:33). III. WHAT CHRIST ADVISES. Labour for this meat that endureth. 1. How are we to labour? In the use of the appointed means. Bible study, prayer, struggling against sin, etc. 2. Labour like this is uncommon. In prosecuting it we shall have little encouragement from men, but much from Christ (Matthew 11:12). IV. WHAT A PROMISE CHRIST HOLDS OUT (John 6:27). Whatever we need, Christ is willing to bestow. He has been sent for the very purpose. (Bishop Ryle.) Tiberias--A city of Galilee, in the most beautiful part of it, on the western shore of the lake. It was named by Herod Antipas, in honour of the Emperor Tiberius. It was the capital of the province, from its origin until the reign of Herod Agrippa II. Many of its inhabitants were Greeks and Romans, and hence foreign customs prevailed. Our Lord, who spent much of His time in Galilee, appears never to have visited this city--probably because Herod, the murderer of John the Baptist, chiefly resided in it. After the dissolution of the State, it was for several centuries the seat of a renowned Jewish school, and one of the four sacred cities, Here the Mishna was compiled (A.D. 190) by the Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh, and the Masorah originated in a great measure at Tiberius. Coins of the city are still extant of the times of Tiberius, Trajan, and Hadrian. The ancient name has survived in that of the modern Tubarieh, which occupies the original site. Near it are the warm baths, which the Roman writers reckoned among the greatest curiosities in the world. The population at present is between 8,000 and 4,000, and the town is the most mean and miserable in all Palestine--a picture of disgusting filth and frightful wretchedness. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) John 6:24-25 When the people saw that Jesus was not there … they took Shipping, and came to Capurnaum Abuse of the miracle of the loaves and fishes I. A PURSUIT (John 6:24). 1. Where they sought Him. At Capernaum. Probably His abode. He has His house on earth still, and should be sought in His own ordinances. 2. How they sought Him. They lost no time and spared no trouble. 3. Why they sought Him. (1) Not because they were anxious for instruction. (2) Nor because, conscious of their spiritual necessities, they longed for the bread of life. II. A MOTIVE (John 6:25-26). Not that self.regard is always improper, but here it was unjustifiable. Three things are shown here. 1. Our Lord’ s knowledge. 2. His faithfulness. 3. His requirement: sincerity of purpose. III. AN . 1. What it forbids. 2. What it enjoins. These words contain (1) A striking contrast. (2) An encouraging assurance. (3) A decisive pledge. (Miracles of the Lord Jesus.) Seeking for Jesus I. THE OF THE STATE . 1. It has a large amount of hopefulness in it. (1) Indifference is gone. (2) Some kind of faith is implied. (3) The face is turned in the right direction. 2. There is much that is doubtful, The seeker disobeys the great command of the gospel, which is to believe, for Christ is not far from any one of us. II. THE OF THIS STATE. First seekers are very often perplexed. 1. As the result of their ignorance of the way of salvation, which is to take God at His word, and to believe that Jesus is what He is--the Atonement for sin. 2. To increase their perplexity, they are often distracted with fear. Persons in a panic act generally in the worst manner for their own safety. So the sinner, conscious of guilt and God’ s anger, scarce knows where to flee. 3. The mind is usually harassed with a thousand questions--about doctrine, about Satan’ s suggestions. 4. It is also much grieved to find that it cannot even now cease from sin, as though this could be before pardon. III. THE DANGERS OF THIS STATE. 1. Present peace and comfort is lost. 2. There is the peril of despair. 3. Seeking may die out in indifference. 4. Something short of Christ may be taken up. IV. FOR SEEKERS. 1. Give attention to the object of faith. Christ as presented in the gospel. 2. Clear away everything that would hinder your believing. (1) Cherished sin. (2) Evil company. 3. Remember that, till you have believed, your danger is of the most imminent kind. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Seeking for Jesus Hear, dear friend, your true position. It is the case of a soldier on the battlefield, wounded, bleeding, life oozing away from him. He is perishing; but he is sufficiently sensible to know it and to call for help. The surgeon is on the field within hearing; the sufferer pleads for relief with many cries and entreaties. So far well; but I pray you remember that crying and weeping will not of them- selves heal the sick man; the surgeon must actually come and bind up his wounds. So remember that your prayers and seekings of themselves cannot save you. Jesus must come to you, and it is madness for you to refuse Him by your unbelief. (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 6:26-27 Ye seek Me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves.Labour not for the meat which perisheth. The carnal eye on the work of God How different are things sometimes from what they seem! How pleasant to see a multitude in quest of the Son of God; but Our pleasure disappears when we know that their wondering worship was a beggarly pursuit of material food. It was not wrong for the Jews to feel the cravings of nature, or to rejoice in the miraculous supply, if along with that went spiritual desire and gratitude. The conduct of the Jews represents the manner in which men regard the work of God in I. Material nature. If there is not a perpetual miracle there is a perpetual display of that by and for which miracles have been wrought. The natural is as full of God as the supernatural; and it is an ignorant piety which cannot see God in the ordinary and regular. Nature’ s greatness is a display of His greatness, and its beauty of Ills, etc. But men estimate nature as a material machine, just the place for man, fitted to be his home, workshop, recreation ground. They do not value the work for the sake of the worker. II. THE EVENTS OF . The Scripture doctrine is that all things are of God and have a probationary character. Job saw God in the loss as well as the gift of His children and property, and in the calamities which proceeded from the elements as well as in those which proceeded from the wickedness of men. And God’ s end is not merely to enable us to eat and sleep well, but to exercise us unto Godliness; to make us soft by sorrow for impression, or glad by prosperity for gratitude. But the earthly sense cleaves to us. We call things “ providential” when they conduce to prosperity; but who ever does so when he loses an estate or breaks a limb? Yet the evil thing may be better than the good. III. SOCIAL GOOD. There are those who value man only in his lowest capacities and relations, never in his soul. Education is estimated for its influence on labour; morality because it would lighten the rates and give security to life and property; religion because of its relation to economy. They have no sense of the dignity and destiny of our nature; and no appreciation of mental culture and spiritual faith for their own sakes. IV. . Godliness is profitable; but the final end of God is not our good but His glory. That man has much to learn whose supreme solicitude is how he may be enriched by the love of God, and not how he may receive its holy impression and fulfil its holy ends. He who is saved must think more of God than of self. But when many receive the truth it is only because unbelief would be ruinous; they obey the law because obedience has its recompenses. The gospel is good news, not only because it blesses us, but because it reveals our Father. (A. J. Morris.) Christ sought from sinister motives Lapidaries tell us of the Chelydonian stone, that it will retain its virtue and lustre no longer than it is enclosed in gold. A fit emblem of the hypocrite, who is only good while he is enclosed in golden prosperity, safety, and felicity. (T. Brooks.) The great want of mankind Here are two objects set before us--the bread that perisheth and the bread that endureth unto everlasting life--material things and spiritual things--things temporal and things eternal. It is characteristic of material things that they perish, or, what is much the same thing, that our connection with them shall very soon cease. To me there is something sad in this. When I stood the other morning on Primrose Hill before breakfast, looking at the great sun, young as ever, looking down with a smile of unutterable kindness--when I looked at the green fields beyond--when I cast a look, a most affectionate look, upon the whole scene, my bosom heaved with a sigh. “ Well, I shall not see many more springs. I must look on this for the last time. It must perish from my sight.” You say that was weakness. Well, I cannot help it. This is a beautiful world--a world of life and joy and affection, and there is something sad in the thought that one must leave it. And we have not only the certain knowledge of it, but we have the feeling that it will be so. That at once suggests to me a contrast between myself and nature. Nature is young and old at the same time. She appears wrinkled with age every autumn, but blooming with youth every spring. She is dead every winter--alive every summer. But man becomes old, and not young again. Man dies indeed, and the gloomy winter passes over him, and there is no reviving him again in this state. The things that perish! Don’ t labour too much for this world. Why, it will make no difference to you forty years to-day what amount of this world you have. But spiritual things endure for ever. The human spirit is immortal--the blessings of religion are eternal. In the New Testament you will find that the word “ eternal,” or something equal to it, is connected with the blessings of religion. I think, then, that the lesson taught by the text is THE SUPREME OF . Now, where shall I go for my illustration? What shall I bring in proof of this? In the first place, I could prove and illustrate this subject from a man’ s own nature. Secondly, I could do so from the design of God’ s providence. Thirdly, I could prove it from God’ s Holy Word. Fourthly, from the testimony of the best and wisest and holiest men that ever lived; and in the last place, and above all, I could prove the unutterable importance of your becoming holy and good--or, in other words, the supreme importance of religion--from yonder cross--the life and death of the Son of God. Religion, goodness, purity, holiness, is the great want of man. Every echoing rock sends back the sound--the great want is religion. 1. Let us begin then with man as an individual. Stand in the right place to look at man. Don’ t look at him from the exchange, or market, but place man in the right light. Let the light of eternity fall upon him. Place the picture in the right light. What is man? A moral responsible being, all whose movements are watched. This is man, in himself, a sinful, fallen being, as he knows and feels. Then there is another feature in the picture. An immortal being is man, a person bound for an endless voyage, a pilgrim on an endless journey. Well, now, I ask you what is the great want of such a being? Riches? No. Earthly enjoyments? No. Human fame and greatness and glory? No. What is his great want? Goodness, religion. What ought he to care for fame? What ought he to care for the glory and grandeur of the world? What ought he to care for the enjoyments of sense--for the heaping up of gold, so much thought of? It is religion he wants. As an intelligent, a moral, a sinful and an immortal being, it is religion he wants, and it is religion he must have, or he will be wretched in the most splendid palace, and have an aching head on the easiest pillow. But has he religion--real religion? he shall be content in the midst of poverty--he shall havepeace in the midst of the storm. Gas-light is very useful in its way, but it is a poor apology for the sun. It gives light in the midst of the street, but turn the corner and you are in deep shadows directly. It goeth not down to the deep cellar. But let the sun be up and you will find light in your house. It passes through the windows, and by its rays fills the whole house with light and cheerfulness. The things that perish we are thankful for. We bless God for our health and the comforts we possess, and we use them, I hope, thankfully and prayerfully, but they are only as the star-light. Religion is to our spirits what the sun is in a temporal sense. It filleth the whole nature of man. It brings the highest subjects for the contemplation of his intellect. It opens the sublimest regions for his imagination. It meets the son of sin with a free pardon in its right hand, and as the sense of death which I have described comes over him, it points him to an eternal home and says, My child, labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life. Religion alone can meet the wants of his nature. 2. And now to pass from the individual to the family, what is the great want there? What will make a family happy? A large estate? No, no. Fine apparel? Not exactly. Splendid paintings? Not altogether. Musical instruments? These things have an elevating influence, and I would not despise them. I remember what an artist friend told me some time ago. I was looking at his engravings--taken from some of the masterpieces of Italy--and I said, “ Well, these are very good” ; for though I was not examining them with an artist’ s eye, I liked them, and I knew what had influence over me. “ Ah,” he said, “ they are companions.” And so they are--refining, elevating companions; but do you know there is somethingmore important than them--more important to a family than the fine arts, than music, paintings, costly furniture, vast estates, noble mansions? What is it? It is that the hearts of the family be good; that religion be enthroned there: Why, let religion be in your family, and you have a fountain of happiness. This would unite us all. This would create a paradise in families where there is now discord. Oh, fathers--oh, mothers--oh, children--possess religion, that you may meet again in the land of life and light, to be eternally with the Lord and with each other. 3. We have passed from the individual to the family, and now let us enter the Church. I would say, then, to you as a Church and congregation, “ Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” Labour for those mental states, those spiritual emotions, those principles of eternal life which will make the worship of God interesting and delightful to you. Let me add another thought, ere I pass on. Grant that the preacher is uninteresting--that he is cold or dull; grant that his emotions are less earnest than your own; but allow me to ask you what business have you to come to a chapel or a church to be merely passive at the hands of the preacher? Why, you are not mere harps to be played upon by the fingers of the preacher--not mere dead bodies to be galvanized into artificial life--not machines to be set in motion by the word of a man. You are thinking, living, immortal spirits. You must awaken cheerfulness within you by having religion, and then you will have no more dulness in your religious services. You have observed, perhaps, that when there has been long dry weather, clouds may float about in the sky, but will not send down a drop of water upon the parched earth. What is the reason? There is no attractive power in the earth to draw down the clouds towards it. Like draws to like. A wet earth would draw down wet clouds. A true illustration this of power in the pulpit. A congregation spiritually lifeless derives no benefit from the sermon. The feelings of the preacher are sent back to him. The cloud pours forth no rain. But let the earth be moist--let the church be in a healthy spiritual state--and the cloud will burst over it, and the Church mill be baptized with the unction of the Holy One. Therefore do I say, as well to the Church as to the family or to the individual, “ Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” 4. And, brethen, let us pass from the individual, and the family, and the Church, to the great world. Let me, however, name two or three classes. (1) There, for instance, is that mighty class called “ the people.” Religion, and nothing but religion, can make the English working man what he ought to be. Why, look at your burning, parched, thirsty desert. No trees, grass, corn, flowers, grow in that place, and why? What is wanted to make it fertile? The husbandman may go there with his ploughs and harrows; he may sow the seed; but there is one great want, before which the other wants need not be mentioned. What is that want? A noble rolling river to pass through it--that is what it wants. Then would trees flourish in it, and flowers bloom, and the corn wave in the August sun. And what do English people want? Education? Yes. A better material condition? No doubt they do. Better houses to live in than some of them possess? Undoubtedly. But there is one want greater than all others, and I tell you English people will not get the houses they ought to have, or the material comforts they ought to enjoy, without it. They are always looking out for good to come to them from above--from Parliament, from orators, from the franchise; but I say to English people, “ Look within.” What, you don’ t mean to tell us that we shall never be much better off till we have better characters? I do. If you look at the history of the world you will find reason for believing that your condition will improve as you become nobler, holier, purer, more heaven-like. “ Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life.” (2) Look at the neglected ones in England. There are thousands in London who have never found their place in life--well-educated and well-disposed, but disappointed men, going up and down in the world trying to find their places, but unable to do so. Yes, I have known servants to ride on horses, and I have seen princes as servants walk. I have seen fools in high places, and scholars, gentlemen, and able men concealed in corners. I have seen weeds--worthless, ugly weeds--spread their large open leaves, and hiding beneath them the blushing rose and the delicate lily; and I have always felt disposed to brush the uncomely thing away. What do they want? They want religion; that which would cause them to trust God, to leave the world that neglects them, and patiently to do the little thing that is at hand, seeing that they cannot reach the great thing that is in the distance. Religion, the great power of religion, to keep them in the quiet path of duty. (3) I intended speaking also a word to my young friends, but I have no time left. The young man who is just commencing life’ s pilgrimage looks forward to success in business. God bless you, my youthful hearers, and help you to realize this; but there is one thing you want more than all. What is it? Faith in the great Redeemer, religion, goodness--that is what you want. (4) And then there is the ruined class. Character is gone, prospects are gone, health is gone, and there is nothing left but remorse. What can be done for these? Oh the beautiful vision of love--Jesus saying, “ Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!” (T. Jones.) The sermon on the loaves I. A SOLEMN REPROOF (John 6:26). 1. To whom addressed? To the witnesses of the miracle. Excitement is not religion, and those who to-day cry Hallelujah! may to-morrow cry Crucify! 2. By whom spoken? By one who could search the heart, and whose mercy on the previous day gave Him a right to speak. 3. For what given. Not for seeking Him, but for seeking Him with a bad motive which was (1) Sensational--they saw the phenomenon but were blind to its significance. (2) Sensual--they followed as the ex follows the farmer for a bunch of hay. II. AN EARNEST (John 6:27). 1. Labour discommended. (1) The import: not to discourage the toil for daily bread (Genesis 3:19; 2 Thessalonians 3:10), but to condemn the spirit that attached supreme importance to earthly things (Matthew 6:25). (2) The reason. These commodities were perishing (Colossians 2:22), and contributed at best to the support of the decaying (1 John 2:16-17; 2 Peter 3:11). 2. A labour enjoined. (1) The perfect legitimacy of human effort (Genesis 2:15; Luke 13:24; Luke 16:16; John 9:4). (2) The proper object of human effort: that which is spiritual, vivifying, permanent (Matthew 6:20). (3) The absolute necessity of human effort (Matthew 7:15; Luke Philippians 2:12; Philippians 3:14; Hebrews 4:11; Hebrews 11:6). III. A CLEAR (John 6:27-29). 1. Whence the abiding meat must be sought. (1) The accessibility of the source “ Son of Man;” (2) The sufficiency of the supply; (3) The authority of the giver. 2. How the abiding meat may be got. (1) As a gift (Romans 4:4-6; Romans 11:6; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9). (2) Through the medium of faith merit is excluded (Job 9:2-3;Isaiah 57:12; Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:11). (3) Approved by works (Romans 2:13; Romans 3:31; Romans 6:16; Ephesians 2:10 : Titus 2:14; James 2:20-26). Lessons: 1. Christ’ s power of reading the heart of man. 2. The supreme importance of motive in religion. 3. The transcendent value of the salvation of the soul. 4. Christ’ s clear conviction that faith in Himself would lead to eternal life. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Perishable and unperishable food I. FOOD loses not only 1. Its efficiency; but 2. Its healthful nature, and 3. Its very nature itself. II. THE FOOD WHICH has 1. Eternal efficiency. 2. Eternal freshness. 3. Eternal durability. (Lange.) The preference of spiritual food to natural I. THE . “ Labour not,” etc. 1. What is understood by meat. (1) All temporal enjoyments as carnal pleasures, popular applause. Earthly riches. (2) Called here meat because it was the meat the Jews then sought for (John 6:26); because all things of this world amount really to nothing else, and to persuade them, by this notion of earthly things, not to labour so much for Ecclesiastes 5:11). 2. Why called the meat which perisheth. Because (1) We can enjoy it but awhile. (2) It perisheth while we use it (Matthew 15:17). (3) It serves but a perishing life (1 Corinthians 6:13). 3. In what sense must we not labour for this meat? (1) Negatively. Not but that we ought to take a moderate care about earthly things; because-- (a) It is commanded (Genesis 3:19); (b) Otherwise we should be worse than infidels (1 Timothy 5:8); (c) We have bodies to look after; (d) We should not presume upon providence; (e) We are to endeavour to help others (1 Corinthians 16:2). (2) Positively. (a) We must not labour for much of the world (Jeremiah 45:5;Isaiah 5:8). (b) Not by unlawful means (Leviticus 19:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:6). (c) Not with carking care and mistrust of God’ s providence Psalms 37:5-6; Matthew 6:25). (d) Not for earthly things, only for themselves, but for the glory of Pro 3:9). (e) Not for them more than for the heavenly (Matthew 5:33). (f) Not so as to set our affections on them (Colossians 3:2). 4. Why are we not thus to labour for these things. Because (1) They perish. (2) We may be deprived of them if we do (Proverbs 10:22), or God may curse them to us (Malachi 2:2). (3) God will give them without this sinful labouring (Matthew 6:33). (4) By so doing we lose better. 5. The use. Consider: (1) How uncertain they are (1 Timothy 6:17); in getting them Matthew 6:27); keeping them (Proverbs 23:5); enjoying Psalms 78:30-31; Psalms 106:15); in improving them; in continuing with them (Luke 12:20). (2) How unsatisfying: as to the senses (Ecclesiastes 1:8; Ecclesiastes 4:8); much more to the soul (Ecclesiastes 5:10). (3) How dangerous. They are apt to draw us into sin (1 Timothy 6:9), and off from duty (Proverbs 30:9); to divert our care for our souls (Luke 21:34); to keep us from heaven (Psalms 17:14), and to throw us into hell (Matthew 19:23-26). II. THE COMMAND. 1. What is meant by meat? Christ Himself (verse 35); His doctrine and religion (verse 63), which He commands to be laboured after. (1) Because they were now seeking food. (2) To show the need of Him for spiritual life (verses 53-55); to begin it (1 Timothy 5:6; 1 John 5:11-12); to preserve it John 15:4-5); to make it comfortable. (3) To show the union between Christ and His disciples (John 17:21-23). 2. Why is it said to endure unto everlasting life? (1) Because it is never diminished though never so many partake of Mat 11:28), (2) It nourishes our never-dying souls (Matthew 11:29). (3) It brings to everlasting life. (4) Christ will endure for ever (Hebrews 7:25). (5) It is by Him that we shall endure for ever (John 6:54-58). 3. Why must we labour for this? It is the only means of our going to heaven (Acts 4:12). For (1) It is only through Christ that sins can be pardoned; (2) Our persons accepted (Galatians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21); (3) Our lusts subdued (Acts 3:26); (4) Our natures sanctified (John 1:16); (5) Our souls saved (Acts 16:31). 4. How must we labour? (1) By believing in Him (Acts 16:31; John 3:16); (2) By conforming our lives to His laws (John 1:12; John 14:15; James 2:26; 1 John 3:3; Galatians 5:6; Romans 13:10). Conclusion: Wherefore labour for this meat, for 1. Other things are impertinent; this necessary (Luke 10:42). 2. Others empty, this satisfying (verse 35). 3. Others corporeal, this spiritual (verse 63). 4. Others transcient, this everlasting (verse 58). 5. Others uncertain, this most certain, for Christ will give it. (Bp. Beveridge.) Spiritual labour and food I. There is something . We are not to labour exclusively, or excessively, for the satisfaction of our bodily wants, for that food which only perishes in the using, and only does us a little temporary good. II. There is something . We ought to work hard and strive for that spiritual food--that supply for the wants of our souls, which once obtained is an everlasting possession. III. There is something . The Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, is ready to give to every one who desires to have it, that spiritual food which endures for ever. IV. There is something . The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, has been designated and appointed by God the Father for this very purpose, to he the dispenser of this spiritual food to all who desire it. (Bp. Ryle.) The fruitful labour for eternal food I. THE MEAT THAT . 1. What is meant by it? (1) All outward things whatsoever. The covetous soul feeds on his money; the ambitious man, chamelion like, on airy applause; the sensual man, on base pleasures. All carnal men, serpent like, eat dust--perishable things. (2) Knowledge, if it be only of perishable things, perisheth, for the world’ s frame and politics have an end. (3) The truths of God are indeed the food of the soul, but unless the goodness of those truths be the food of the will and the affections, and unless we are moulded into the form of those truths they too are perishable. 2. The argument against labouring for this. (1) We do not regard the lustre of things, but their continuance. All flesh is grass, and the most excellent things of Nature, wit, honour, and learn- ing, are as the flowers of the grass. (2) In lusting after the world, the lust itself perisheth, and the immoderate seeking after it destroys us. He that is rich to-day may be poor to-morrow; he may be in credit now, with Haman, and be in discredit ere long; he may be in health now, and sick soon. 3. Consequently (1) We should take heed that we do not redeem any perishing thing with the loss of that which does not perish--our soul. (2) We should not scruple to neglect any earthly thing to gain advantage to our souls. (3) Learn here a point of heavenly wisdom: when we are tempted to too much delight in the creature we should present to our- selves the perishing nature of outward things. II. LABOUR NOT FOR THE MEAT THAT . 1. Does Christ read a lecture of unthriftiness and negligence? No; He meant labour not for it (1) Inordinately; (2) immoderately; (3) unseasonably. 2. How shall we know when our labour is immoderate, etc.? When they hinder us from or in holy things; when they keep us from holy duties; when they fill us full of distractions. 3. Why does Christ begin with this discussion? (1) Because when the soul is invested with anything that must first be removed, as thorns must be rooted before seed can be sown. (2) But here is the prerogative of Christianity; heathens can teach the negative part, but only Christ the positive. III. THE MEAT THAT , etc. 1. What it is? Our Saviour, as He is contained in the means of salvation, with all the blessed privileges, prerogatives, and graces that we have by and in Him. 2. But why is he so considered? (1) Whatever sweetness, comfort, or strength there is in meat, it is for the comfort, etc., of the body; so whatsoever is comfortable and cherishing in Christ it is for our good. How doth the soul feed on the wonderful love of God in Christ incarnate and Christ Crucified, and on the privileges secured by Christ glorified? (2) As in bodily life there is a stomach, a power to work out of the meat that which is for strength and nourishment, so in the soul there is faith to act in the same way with Christ. (3). As our life is nourished and maintained with that which has died, so that which principally maintains the life of the soul is Christ crucified. (4) As in meat, before it can nourish us there must be an assimilation, so Christ can never nourish us till we be united to Him. (5) As we eat again day after day because there is a decay of strength, and as there are new concerns that require new strength, and consequently a need of a continual repairing of our strength by food, even so there is a perpetual need to feed upon Christ, because every day we have fresh work to do. (6) As after eating there is strength and comfort gotten for the affairs of this life, so after the soul has digested Christ it is strengthened for holy duties. 3. Wherein lies the difference between this and other meat? (1) As Christ is from heaven, so all His graces and comforts are to carry us to heaven. All other things are earthly. (2) Earthly food cannot give, but only maintain life; but Christ is such food as gives life. (3) The nourishment we have from outward food we turn to ourselves; but Christ turns us to Himself, and transforms us into His likeness. (4) All other meats are consumed, and the appetite for them eventually perishes; but Christ is never consumed, and the relish for Him will grow eternally. 4. What is wanted is to get a stomach for this meat. (1) A good stomach is produced by sharp things; so faith should be quickened by the law. (2) Exercise getting a stomach by diligence in holy exercises. (3) To whet our appetite, consider the necessity of spiritual strength and comfort. (4) Let us converse with those that are spiritual. (5) Let us remember that the table Christ has spread may be removed. 5. To make a trial whether we have, as we should do, relished Christ. If so, then (1) We have a baser esteem of all earthly things. (2) We are strengthened to duties and against temptations and corruptions. (3) The desire is satisfied. (4) Thankfulness is engendered. IV. LABOUR FOR THIS MEAT. 1. Its necessity: we are to labour for food, the great need. 2. Its excellency; it endureth to everlasting life. 3. Its possibility: Christ is (1) Willing; (2) powerful; (3) has authority to give it. “ Him hath God the Father sealed.” God has become man on purpose to give it you. (R. Sibbes, D. D.) The true aim of life I. IS NOT THE OF GOOD. Multitudes live as if it were. Nor is this mistake confined to the prosperous merchant; it is found among the poor. Strenuous efforts are put forth, but only for that which perisheth. II. IN THE OF LIFE IN CHRIST. He is the true food of the soul. Eternal life is the result of receiving Him as the Living Bread. III. TO TEACH THIS WAS THE AIM OF CHRIST’ S MISSION. “ Sealed.” The impress of the Father’ s will is in His life and words. He was sealed 1. By His miracles. 2. By His teaching. 3. By His resurrection. (Family Churchman.) Going to Christ for our own ends The lesson here set obviously checks any going to or following of Jesus for our own ends. And it has two main applications. 1. The first of these is plainly gross, viz., that we may not make a gain of godliness in the sense of getting direct bodily benefit by religion. A religious man is mostly assumed to be a respectable man, and a respectable man is trusted. So, alas, occasionally some people profess religion in order to get a character for respectability and to bring money into the pocket. 2. But the lesson before us has another application. We cannot be told too clearly or too often that there is another kind of covetousness, or thinking about self, which is not coarse like that which I have just mentioned, and yet leaves us short of the real special gifts which God gives through Jesus Christ. Should we not think less of a child whose only thought in connection with its parents was about what it could get from them? Should we not look upon that child as almost unnatural which was always scheming to make its father and mother show more concern for its condition? Surely we should. And, so in a figure, it is with God. We may be certain that we miss His best blessings when we set about calculating what benefits He will bestow upon us. In short, God would ever have us trust Him more, and leave all the “ giving” to Him. (Harry Jones, M. A.) Worldly things are disappointing and perishing The fashion of this world passeth away, as the water of a river that runs by a city, or as a fair picture drawn upon the ice that melts away with it. Men come to the world’ s felicities as to a lottery, with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks. (J. Trapp.) Earthly pursuits end miserably As a river leads a man through sweet meadows, green woods, fertile pastures, fruit-laden fields, by glorious buildings, strong forts, famous cities, yet at last brings him to the salt sea; so the stream of this world carries along through rich commodities, voluptuous delights, stately dignities, all possible content to flesh and blood, but, after all this, brings a man to death, after death to judgment, after judgment to hell. (T. Adams.) Him hath God the Father sealedChrist sealed I. BECAUSE THERE IS THE OF GOD UPON HIM. As the seal imprints in the wax the likeness of that which is on it, so God hath imprinted on Christ His own image (John 1:14; Hebrews 1:1-2). II. THE USE OF A SEAL IS TO AND FROM OTHER THINGS, so God hath appropriated Christ to be His own Son, and hath distinguished Him as Mediator by a special anointing and qualification above all. III. Especially by SEALING IS MEANT . As a magistrate that hath the king’ s broad seal is authorized, so God hath authorized Christ to be a Mediator, as He was foreordained; and so, when the fulness of the time was come, He was authorized by the greatest testimony that ever was 1. By the Blessed Trinity at His baptism (Matthew 3:37). 2. By His miracles (John 10:38). 3. By His resurrection (Romans 1:4). IV. THE USE of this Isaiah 1. To bless God the Father for sealing as well as God the Son for being sealed. 2. To magnify the offices of Christ. 3. To encourage us to seek forgiveness. (R. Sibbes, D. D.) Christ sealed by the Father I. CHRIST WAS SEALED. To seal, when the act of a sovereign, is to impress the characters of his own signet upon any instrument by which his will is declared, and which is then treated as proceeding from him. We behold 1. The impress of Divinity upon His doctrine, in the vastness of the subjects, and the ease with which they are treated, the obscure manner in which the wisest of men have always spoken of them, and the light which brightens around them whenever our great Teacher opens His lips; in that exhibition of the secrets of the heart; in the anxious inquiries so answered as to leave us nothing more to ask; when to these I add the dignity so worthy of Divine majesty, the condescension so accordant with an infinite love, the indignation so expressive of perfect holiness;--I see upon the seal the characters peculiar to God. 2. The seal of miracles. The character of a true miracle is not that it is merely a strange and wonderful occurrence, but that i¢ is above all human power; so extraordinary as to show an interposition of God, giving sanction to the claims of His Son. 3. We see upon our Lord the broad and striking seal of fulfilled prophecy. 4. The seals at His crucifixion. Even his enemies were compelled to give their testimony to him. Caiaphas, Pilate, the Centurion, the people that “ smote upon their breasts.” The sun sinking to deep eclipse, the rending of the veil, the earthquake, the rising of the dead. 5. To the great seals of the resurrection and ascension of Christ the gift of the Holy Ghost was the public confirmation of both; and that this is an evidence which remains to this day. II. THE GREAT END FOR WHICH THIS OF GOD TOOK PLACE--that we might “ labour for that meat which endureth to everlasting life.” From the sacrificial death of Christ flows 1. Pardon; and here the true life of the soul begins. 2. The heavenly knowledge, which is the proper food of the renewed mind. A scientific knowledge is the food of souls intelligent, so is heavenly knowledge the food of piety. It leads up all the powers of the mind into right and vigorous exercise. 3. Love. It flows only from this--“ Christ loved me.” 4. Purity. Sin enfeebles; purity is strength. Conclusion: 1. If Christ is not this life and bread to your souls, how disproportionate are the means employed to save you, and the end which has in reality been accomplished I 2. The aggravated guilt which is incurred by the very signs set before us, unless they accomplish their saving end. 3. For whatever you labour beside the bread of heaven, it is” meat that perisheth.” (R. Watson.) The authority by which Christ as a Mediator acted I. THE OFFICE OR WORK TO WHICH HIS FATHER SEALED HIM. In general to the whole work of mediation (1 Peter 3:18). God sealed Him 1. A commission to preach the glad tidings of salvation to sinners Luke 4:17-21). 2. To the priesthood. He called Him (1) To offer Himself up a sacrifice for us (chap. 10:18; Philippians 2:8). (2) To intercede for us (Hebrews 7:21-25). (3) To the regal office (Matthew 28:18). II. THE IMPORT OF THE SEALING. 1. The validity and efficacy of His mediatorial acts. In this lies much of the believer’ s comfort and security. 2. The great obligation lying on Jesus to be faithful to the work He was sealed to. Christ felt this obligation (John 9:4; John 5:30). 3. His complete qualification to serve the Father’ s design in our recovery, in the point of (1) Faithfulness (Hebrews 3:2); (2) Zeal (John 2:16-17; John 4:32); (3) Love (Hebrews 3:5-6); (4) Wisdom (Isaiah 52:13); (5) Self-denial (John 8:50). 4. Christ’ s sole authority in the Church to appoint and enjoin what He pleaseth. III. THE MANNER OF THE SEALING. 1. By solemn designation (Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:4; John 10:36). 2. By supereminent and unparalleled sanctification. He was anointed as well as appointed (Isaiah 61:1; Isaiah 61:3; Luke 4:1; Psalms 45:7; John 3:34; Colossians 1:19), the type of which was the Holy oil by which kings and priests were consecrated. 3. By the Father’ s immediate testimony from heaven (Matthew 17:5). 4. In all those miraculous works wrought by Him (Acts 10:38; JohnMt 11:3, 5). IV. THE OF THE SEALING. 1. Else He had not corresponded with the types which prefigured Him, and in Him it was necessary that they should be all accomplished. Kings and High Priests had their inaugurations by solemn unctions (Hebrews 5:4-5). 2. Hereby the hearts of believers are more engaged to love the Father. Had not the Father sealed Him, He had not come. So men are bound to ascribe equal honour and glory to both (John 5:23). 3. Else we had no ground for our faith in Him (John 5:31). V. THE OF THIS. 1. Hence we infer the unreasonableness of infidelity (John 1:2; John 5:43; Isaiah 53:1). 2. How great is the sin of those who reject such as are sealed by Jesus Christ (John 17:18; John 20:21; Luke 10:16)! 3. How great an evil it is to intrude into the office of the ministry without a due call! It is more than Christ Himself would do. 4. Admire the grace and love both of the Father and the Son. 5. Hath God sealed Christ for you? Then draw the comfort of His sealing for you, and be restless till ye be sealed by Him. (1) Remember that God stands engaged by His own seal to confirm whatever Christ hath done in the business of our salvation. On this ground you may plead with God. (2) Get your interest in Christ sealed to you by the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), the effects of which are great care to avoid sin (Ephesians 4:30); great love to God (John 14:22); readiness to suffer for Christ Romans 5:3; Romans 5:5); confidence in addresses to God (1 John 5:13-14); great humility (Genesis 17:1; Genesis 17:3). (J. Flavel.) Christ’ s example and comfort to His disappointed servants The missionary, Henry Martyn, at Dinapore, used to gather around him every week a crowd of poor Hindoos. They came eagerly, but, alas! Martyn soon perceived that they were more concerned about the loaves which he was in the habit of distributing amongst them than about the Bread of Life in the gospel! He was ready to despair, and had almost resolved to give up his preaching. Then he remembered this 26th verse, and he said to himself, “ If the Lord Jesus was not ashamed of preaching to such bread-seekers, who am I, that I should give them over in disgust?” The next time he preached on John 6:27, and had the delight of being asked by two or three Hindoos, “ What must we do to be saved?” (R. Besser, D. D.) The bread and the sealing In order to understand the Oriental aspect of this obscure passage, it is necessary to remember several closely related facts. In the East, bakers are under more immediate official investigation than any other tradesmen. Their weights are inspected by an official appointed for the purpose, and the quality of their bread is tested from time to time. In these milder days confiscation is the penalty attached to roguery in the making of bread; but it is not very long since cheating bakers were nailed up by the ear (Turkey), or even by a grim pleasantry, roasted in their own ovens (Persia). Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that Oriental bakers have been in the habit of stamping their name upon their bread, or, as an Oriental would say, of sealing (khatham, khatama, etc.) it, as a measure of precaution, lest they should be made to suffer for the sins of their neighbours as well as their own. The talmudic word for “ baker” is nakhtom, or nakhtoma, which has been connected with khatham, “ to seal,” by no less an authority than Professor Franz Delitzsch; so that it would seem that this act of sealing or stamping bread was sufficiently characteristic in the time of our Lord to give a name to the baker. In this view, our Lord’ s words could be paraphrased as follows: “ Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life; which the Son of Man shall give unto you, even Himself the Bread of Life--for Him, the heavenly Bread, hath God the Father sealed as His own, even as those who make the bread which perisheth, stamp it with their names.” It has also been pointed out that, in the Roman Church, the consecrated wafers, which the priests teach to be the real body of our Lord, are stamped with a seal which usually bears the letters I.N.R.I.,--the initials of the Latin meaning, “ Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Another rabbinical authority calls attention to the talmudical question: “ What is the seal of the holy blessed God? Rabbi Bibai in the name of Rabbi Reuben saith ‘ Truth.’ ‘ But what is truth?’ Rabbi Ben said, ‘ The loving God and King eternal.’… There is a story of the great synagogue weeping, praying, and fasting. At last there was a little scroll fell from the firmament to them in which was written ‘ Truth.’ Rabbi Chinanah saith, ‘ Hence learn that truth is the seal of God.’“ (S. S. Times.) John 6:28-29 Then they said unto Him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God Synagogue questioning I. THE AND OF THE NATURAL MAN. 1. When our Lord bade His hearers, “ Labour for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, they began to think of works to be done.” 2. When He spoke of Himself as one sent of God and the need of faith in them, the response was, “ What sign showest Thou?” and this directly after the miracle (Mark 6:6). 3. We should remember all this in our efforts to do good and not be discouraged if our words seem thrown away. II. THE HIGH HONOUR WHICH CHRIST PUTS ON FAITH IN HIMSELF. Faith and works elsewhere seem contrasted, but here Christ declares that believing on Him is the greatest of all works. Not that He meant that there was anything meritorious in believing; but--That it is the act of the soul which specially pleases God. Without it it is impossible to please Him. 2. That it is the first act that God requires at a sinner’ s hands. 3. That there is no life in a man till he believes. III. THE FAR GREATER OF CHRIST’ S HEARERS THAN OF THOSE WHO LIVED IN THE TIMES OF MOSES. The manna, wonderful as it was, was as nothing compared with the true bread. 1. The one could only feed the body; the other could satisfy the soul. 2. The one was only for the benefit of Israel; the other for the whole world. 3. Those who ate the former died and were buried, and many of them lost for ever; those who ate of the latter would be eternally saved. (Bp. Ryle.) A plain answer to an important inquiry I. FAITH IS THE SUMMARY OF ALL TRUE WORK. 1. There lies within it every form of holiness, as a forest may lie within an acorn. It may be microscopic in form, but it only wants development. 2. All the graces come out of faith (see Hebrews 11:1-40.). II. FAITH IS IN ITSELF MOST TO GOD. Because 1. It is the creature acknowledging its God. The man who says my own good deeds will save me sets himself up in independency of God. But when a man submits himself to God’ s way of salvation, the rebellious heart submits to the Divine authority, and the poor erring creature comes into its right place. 2. It accepts God’ s way of reconciliation. It thus shows a deference to God’ s wisdom, and confidence in His love, and yielding to His will. 3. It puts honour on Christ whom the Father dearly loves. That which dishonours Christ must be obnoxious to God. 4. It puts us in a right relationship with God, i.e(1) A relationship of dependence; (2) of child- like rest. III. FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. IS THE TEST OF WORKING FOR GOD. 1. Without faith the spirit of work is wrong. Suppose you said to me, “ I will spend my life in your service, but I am not going to believe what you say.” All that you do must be destitute of real excellent because you begin by malting God a liar in not trusting Him (1 John 5:10). 2. Without faith the motive of work fails and becomes selfish; whereas faith aims at God’ s glory. IV. FAITH IS THE SEAL OF ALL OTHER . 1. Of our election (John 6:37). If you believe in Christ you are one that the Father hath given Him. 2. Of our effectual calling. If you believe the Father hath drawn you to Christ. 3. Of our final perseverance (John 6:47). 4. Of our resurrection (John 6:39; John 6:49), (C. H. Spurgeon.) The people’ s question Faith and works are both factors in the work of salvation. Faith is the life root of which works are the fruit. The Jew sought to justify himself by his works, and then inferentially organized his faith to work the works of God, with Him was to drive a bargain with God. “ What good thing must I do?” Christ shows that the way to the Father was by no such circuitous route, but by faith in Himself. I. A GRAVE INQUIRY. This is not a Jewish question. It is the question of humanity. 1. Man has never been able to throw off a belief in God nor to escape the apprehensions such a belief creates. Hence, in their unrest and great mental hunger, men still ask this question. 2. You see evidences of this mental disquietude in the breaking away from the restraints of creeds, in retreats from the simplicity of the present into the traditions of the past; in the rush of various systems of mediatorial penance, in the impossibility of successfully impugning the Divine record and in the despair which ensues on its rejection. Philosophy in its wildest departures from God can neither answer this question nor escape the responsibility of discussing it. Men seem to treat it as a scoff, but they arc compelled to do homage to its impressiveness in the vague worship of the unknown. II. CHRIST’ S ANSWER. 1. The work of God is not the alone work of God’ s appointing. It is God and man mutually working. A fractured relation of the soul and God necessitates for its readjustment the correlation of two forces. (1) In this work a factor is demanded that we cannot supply. “ A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above.” That which our working secures is just the willingness to receive what God alone can give. (2) The want that goes in quest of God is not God’ s work but ours. On the other hand, to pacify the disquieted heart by renewing it is not man’ s work, but God’ s. Our first lesson, therefore, touches the pride of our self-sufficiency. We are powerless with all our power when power is needed most. (3) Then there are things which we must cease to do. We must “ cease to do evil,” get clean away from all dependence on our own works. 2. The work of man. (1) To believe in Christ’ s mission. Christ claims to have been sent into the world by the Father to perform a specific work. Miracles were His credentials. His own profound self-consciousness of His mission explains and necessitates this supernatural signature. Now, if Jesus believed Himself to be the “ Sent” and the “ Son of God,” and was not, He was deceived and a deceiver; but if He was, we cannot put ourselves into harmony with God otherwise than as we accept this mission. (2) Accepting the mission. What does a man do when he believes in the Person of Christ? What does a blind man do when he commits himself to a guide? He puts himself out on trust. A drowning man, when he clings to his plank, lives suspensively on that to which he clings. A penitent sinner, when he believes in Christ, does both. And this is the work of God for all men. (John Burton.) The work of God There was nothing peculiar about this question. All men are asking it, some listlessly, some with agonizing importunity. There is much implied in it; amongst other things that there is some alienation between God and man which must be removed. Unfallen angels do not ask it. I. MAN’ S WAY OF THE . 1. One man imagines that the works of God are to be performed by the members of the body, by prayers, genuflexions, etc. The result is that the man blinded goes down to death, or he is forced by experience to own that he has not found what he sought and to turn away from externals, still saying, “ What shall I do?” etc. 2. The next stage he reaches is that of substituting moral for ceremonial acts. Hence the constant disposition to make social charities the test of character, and to establish an order of irreligious saints. In this delusion thousands live and die. But to others, goaded by conscience, this is not enough. “ We have tried to do right, but we find our good works imperfect and marred by the sins that have run side by side with them. What shall we do?” etc. 3. The man has now been brought to the necessity of expiation. He must make good his past failures by working the works of God. But where shall he begin? Perhaps by refraining from sin. This unexpected difficulty drives him to repentance. He will weep over his offences. But he finds that he can no more break his heart than change his life. The sinner, abandoning the impossible effort, asks in despair, “ What shall I do?” 4. This is the highest ground man ever reached by himself. If he goes beyond he goes down. (1) Some accordingly descend to the lower ground of meritorious abstinence and self-mortification. Because they have not been able to appease God by renouncing sinful pleasures, they will now do it by renouncing innocent enjoyments. (2) A descent in another direction leads to a desperate transfer of responsibility. As the sinner cannot work the works of God himself, the Church or a priest shall do it for him. II. CHRIST’ S WAY. The whole point here is the contrast between believing and working. They would not have been surprised had He enjoined some task. To a self-righteous spirit, difficulty, danger, pain are inducements rather than dissuasives; but a requisition to believe on Him was something different, comprehending as it did a belief of His Divine legation and authority, of His ability and willingness to save, and a full consent to be saved by Him. 1. It was this simple and implicit trust that created the difficulty, and the same feeling of incongruity is experienced now. “ After spending a lifetime in working out my own salvation, must I be told at last that I have only to believe?” 2. Let this reluctance subside, and men will ask in what sense faith is the work of God. (1) Some have taught that the act of believing is meritorious, and is accepted in lieu of all the rest. But how can this be reconciled with God’ s justice? (2) Men have run to the opposite extreme, and held that faith dispenses with all moral obligation, which is at variance with the constant requisition of obedience. 3. The true meaning of the words may be summed up in two particulars. (1) Our access to God and restoration to His favour are entirely independent of all merit or obedience on our part. The saving benefit of the atonement is freely offered to us. Unreserved acceptance of it must, of course, exclude all reliance on any merit of our own. This is all we have to do to begin with. (2) We are saved, not in sin, but from sin, and when belief in Christ is represented as the saving work which God requires, it is not to the exclusion of good works, but rather the source from which they flow. (J. Addison Alexander, D. D.) Faith and its operations I. FAITH IS HERE AS THE WORK WHICH GOD ENJOINS IN EVERY . Why is it that men do not believe the testimony which God has so clearly made? 1. A wilful turning aside from God and a determination to take up with the nearest trifle is one reason. 2. The deceitfulness of the human heart is another. Sin possesses in a most astonishing degree the faculty of hiding its own deformity. 3. The reasons of this disobedience vary in different men according to their different characters and circumstances. 4. What does the Holy Spirit do when He introduces the principle of faith into the heart of man? (1) He removes every obstacle which we cherished in our natural state. (2) He fixes in us principles of obedience, and makes duty a delight. 5. What is this faith? A continual reliance on Christ as a Saviour. 6 What does this faith do? It delivers the believer from the charge and dominion of sin and purifies the heart. II. GOD’ S SENDING HIS SON INTO THE WORLD. 1. This was an act of sovereignty. 2. Christ was sent as the medium of God’ s moral government and as the channel of salvation. 3. What a view this gives us of the mercy and love of God! 4. How this heightens the guilt of the rejection of Christ! III. THIS OF FAITH IS THE OF THE DESIGN OF GOD AND THE OF THE SAVIOUR’ S TRIUMPH. (W. Howels, M. A.) Faith the sole saving Acts 1. The Jews inquired as though there were several works of God. Christ narrows down the terms of salvation to a single one. 2. In this as in many incidental ways our Lord teaches His Divinity. Imagine Paul or David resting the destiny of the soul on faith in himself. 3. The belief is natural to man that something must be done in order to salvation. The most supine expect to have to rouse themselves some day. Let us examine I. THE COMMON NOTION THE . When a man begins to think of God and his relations to Him, he finds he owes Him service and obedience. His first spontaneous impulse, therefore, is to begin the performance of the work he has hitherto neglected. The law expressly affirms that the man who doeth these things shall live by them. He proposes to take the law just as it stands and to live by service. II. THE GROUND AND REASON OF CHRIST’ S ANSWER. 1. Because it is too late in any case to adopt the method of salvation by works. The law demands and supposes that obedience begins at the very beginning of existence, and continues down uninterruptedly to the end of it Galatians 5:3). If any man can show a clean record, the law gives him the reward he has earned (Romans 4:4; Romans 11:6). But no man can do this Psalms 58:3; Ephesians 2:3). 2. This is the conclusive ground for Christ’ s declaration that the one great work which every fallen man must perform in order to salvation is faith in another work. III. THE OF BY FAITH. 1. Faith is a work, a mental act of the most comprehensive and energetic species. It carries the whole man in it, heart, head, will, body, soul, spirit. 2. Yet it is not a work in the common signification, and is by Paul opposed to works, and excluded from them. It is wholly occupied with another’ s work. The believer deserts all his own doings, and betakes himself to what a third person has done for him, and instead of holding up prayers, almsgiving, penances, or moral efforts, he holds up the sacrificial work of Christ. 3. St. John repeats this doctrine in his first epistle (1 John 3:22-23). The whole duty of sinful man is here summed up and concentrated in the duty to trust in another person than himself and in another work than his own. In the matter of salvation, when there is faith in Christ there is everything; and where there is not faith in Christ there is nothing. Conclusion: 1. Faith in Christ is the appointment of God as the sole means of salvation Acts 4:12). 2. There are enjoyments in the human conscience that can be supplied by no other method. (1) The soul wants peace. Christ’ s atonement satisfies the demands of a broken law. (2) The soul wants purity. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. (Prof. Shedd.) Faith and works All upon which the name of Paulinism has been bestowed is contained in embryo in this verse, which at the same time forms the point of union between Paul and James. Faith is the highest kind of work, for by it man gives himself; and a free being can do nothing greater than to give himself. It is in this sense that James opposes works to a faith which is nothing more than intellectual belief; and it is in a perfectly analogous sense that Paul opposes faith, active faith, to works of mere observance. The faith of Paul is really the works of James, according to the sovereign formula of Jesus: “ This is the work of God that you believe.” (F. Godet, D. D.) The value of faith Faith will be of more use to us than any other grace, as an eye, though dim, was of more use to an Israelite (bitten by a serpent) than all the other members of his body. It is not knowledge, though angelical, nor repentance, though we could shed rivers of tears, could justify us; but only faith, whereby we look on Christ. (T. Watson.) Works are useless for our salvation Coin that is current in one place is valueless in another. Suppose an Indian, far in the western wilds, were to say, “ I will become a trader with the whites. I will go to New York city and buy up half the goods there, and then come back and sell them, and then what a rich Indian I shall be.” He then collects all his wampum beads, which are his money, and compared with other Indians he is very rich, and away he journeys to yonder city. Imagine him going into Stewart’ s, and offering his wampum there in exchange for their goods. They are refused. They were money in the woods--in the city they are worthless. And there are thousands of men who are carrying with them, to offer at the judgment, what is no better than the Indian’ s beads. They are reckoning on their generosity, their prompt payment of all their debts, their various good natural qualities; but when they present them, they will all be found worthless trash. The things that have made them strong, and valued, and important here, will there be worse than useless to them. (H. W. Beecher.) Faith is trust in another The daughter of a celebrated physician was once attacked by a violent and dangerous fever; but she exhibited great resignation and tranquillity. She said she was ignorant of what might effect her cure, and if it were left to herself to prescribe, she might desire remedies which would be prejudicial. Shall I not gain everything, she added, by abandoning myself entirely to my father? He desires my recovery; he knows much better than I do what is adapted to the restoration of my health; and having confidence, therefore, that everything will be done for me which can be done, I remain without solicitude either as to the means or aa to the result. Religious faith, in like manner, trusts itself in the hands of God, in the full confidence that it will be well in the end. (J. Upham.) The preciousness of faith Faith is the vital artery of the soul. When we begin to believe we begin to love. Faith grafts the soul into Christ as the scion into the stock, and fetches all its nutriment from the blessed vine. (T. Watson.) Faith and works That is a very instructive anecdote which St. Simon relates respecting the last hours of the profligate Louis XIV. “ One day,” he says, “ the king, recovering from loss of consciousness, asked his confessor, Pere Tellier, to give him absolution for all his sins. Pere Tellier asked him if he suffered much. ‘ No,’ replied the king, ‘ that’ s what troubles me. I should like to suffer more, for the expiation of my sins?’” Here was a poor mortal who had spent his days in carnality and transgression of the pure law of God. He is conscious of guilt, and feels the need of its atonement. And now, upon the very edge of eternity and brink of doom, he proposes to make his own atonement, to be his own redeemer and save his own soul, by offering up to the eternal Nemesis that was racking his conscience a few hours of finite suffering, instead of betaking himself to the infinite passion and agony of Calvary. This is a “ work” ; and, alas I a dead work, as St. Paul so often denominates it. (Prof. Shedd.) Faith in God In the first Punic war, Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum, a rich and strongly-fortified city on the eastern coast of Spain. It was defended with a desperate obstinacy by its inhabitants; but the discipline, the energy, and the persistence of the Carthaginian army were too much for them; and, just as the city was about to fall, Alorcus, a Spanish chieftain, and a mutual friend of both the contending parties, undertook to mediate between them. He proposed to the Saguntines that they should surrender, allowing the Carthaginian general to make his own terms; and the argument he used was this: “ Your city is captured, in any event. Further resistence will only bring down upon you the rage of an incensed soldiery, and horrors of a sack. Therefore surrender immediately, and take whatever Hannibal shall please to give. You cannot lose anything by the procedure, and you may gain something, even though it be a little.” Now, although there is no resemblance between the government of the good and merciful God and the cruel purposes and conduct of a heathen warrior, and we shrink from bringing the two into any kind of juxtaposition, still, the advice of the wise Alorcus to the Saguntines is good advice for every sinful man in reference to his relations to eternal justice. We are all of us at the mercy of God. But the All.Holy is also the All-Merciful. He has made certain terms, and has offered certain conditions of pardon, without asking leave of His creatures, and without taking them into council; and were these terms as strict as Draco, instead of being as tender and pitiful as the tears and blood of Jesus, it would become us criminals to make no criticisms even in that extreme case, but accept them precisely as they were offered by the Sovereign and the Arbiter. (Prof. Shedd.) The simplicity of faith The complexity sometimes charged upon the Christian doctrine of faith is not greater than exists in any analogous or corresponding case. Tell the drowning man to be of good cheer, for you will save him, and you call upon him to perform as many acts as are included in the exercise of saving faith. For, in the first place, you invite him to believe the truth of your assertions. In the next place, you invite him to confide in your ability and willingness to save him. In the last place, you invite him to consent to your proposal by renouncing every other hope and agreeing to be saved by you. There is nothing more abstruse or difficult in saving faith. The difference is not in the essential nature of the mental acts and exercises, but in the circumstances under which they are performed. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Creed and conduct It is a very common charge against Christianity that “ it puts creed above conduct.” Whether there is any truth in that charge depends upon what is understood by the term “ creed.” When Jesus was asked directly concerning right conduct, he answered that a right belief is the basis of right conduct. If that be giving a first place to “ creed,” let it be borne in mind that it is Jesus Christ Himself who makes the assignment. A popular saying nowadays is that “ it doesn’ t make any difference what a man believes if he only acts right” ; but a Boston clergyman once improved on that saying by the simple change, “ It doesn’ t make any difference what a man believes if he doesn’ t act right.” If a man is a persistent evil-doer, the soundness of his theological convictions will not compensate for his wrong conduct. But when God has sent His Son to be a Saviour and a Guide, it makes all the difference in the world whether a sinner accepts or refuses to believe on the One who is the only Mediator between God and man. So far, a correct belief is all-essential as a basis of right conduct and of safe conduct. That is the truth as Jesus puts it. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) John 6:30-33 What sign showest Thou then that we may see and believe Christ the Christian’ s food Hewitson writes: “ I think I know more of Jesus Christ than of any earthly friend. ” Hence one who knew Him well remarked, “ One thing struck me in Mr. Hewitson. He seemed to have no gaps, no intervals in his communion with God. I used to feel, when with him, that it was being with one who was a vine watered every moment.” Christ is the true manna Christ is heavenly meat and drink. “ My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32). Other meat and drink is terrene and earthly. Your bread grows out of the bowels of the earth. Your wine is the blood of an earthly grape. The flesh you eat is fed of the tender grass that springs out of the earth. If the earth should prove barren, you would soon feel a famine!, The king himself is served by the field” (Ecclesiastes 5:9). It is true, the blessing comes from heaven, but all the materials of meat and drink are earthly. But Jesus Christ is the Bread of heaven and the Wine of heaven. The manna came from the clouds only; but Christ from the beautiful heaven, even from the bosom of the Father. (Ralph Robinson.) Christ the gift of God to all men When the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine’ s doctrine was impugned, and his discourses complained of before the ecclesiastical courts, he was enabled to vindicate himself with great dignity and courage; and expressions sometimes fell from his lips which, for a time, overawed and confounded his enemies. On one occasion, at a meeting of the synod of Fife, according to the account of a respectable witness, when some members were denying the Father’ s gift of our Lord Jesus to sinners of mankind, he rose and said, “ Moderator, our Lord Jesus says of Himself, ‘ My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.’ This He uttered to a promiscuous multitude; and let me see the man who dares to affirm that He said wrong?” This short speech, aided by the solemnity and energy with which it was delivered, made an uncommon impression on the synod, and on all that were present. Christ gives life Christ is such meat and drink as preserves from death. Other meat and drink cannot keep man from the grave. That rich man that fared deliciously every day was not made immortal. “ The rich man died and was buried” (Luke 16:22). All that generation that fed on manna, and drank the water out of the rock, died (John 6:49). But Christ preserves the soul from death (John 6:50). This is the bread of God that came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. It immortalizes the soul that feeds on it. He that believeth on Him hath eternal life (John 6:51). Other meat and drink cannot preserve a living body from death, much less can it give life, and restore breath to a dead body. Put the most delicate meat, the strongest drink, into the mouth of a dead man, and they will not give him life if the soul be quite departed. They may recover from a swoon, they cannot from death. But the flesh and blood of Christ quicken the dead. Christ, by putting His flesh and blood into the mouth of the dead soul, conveys life into it. His flesh and blood make the lips of the dead to speak. “ As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom He will” (John 5:21). If thou hast any spiritual life in thee, thou didst receive it from the enlivening virtue of Christ’ s flesh and blood communicated to thee by the Spirit of life. (Ralph Robinson.) Christ, like the manna, is an abundant supply I recollect when I was able to journey through the country preaching, I for some years stayed occasionally with a fine old English farmer. He used to have a piece of beef upon the table, I do not know how many pounds it weighed, but it was enormous. I said to him one day, “ Why is it that whenever I come here you have such immense joints? Do you think that I can eat like a giant? If so, it is a great mistake. Look at that joint, there,” I said; “ if I were to take it home, it might last me a month.” “ Well,” he said, “ if I could get a bigger bit I would, for I am so glad to see you; and if you could eat it all, you should be heartily welcome. I want everybody that comes here to-day to feel that I will do my very best for you.” He did not measure my necessities to the half-ounce, but he provided on a lavish scale. I quote this homely instance of giving heartily to show you how, on a divine scale, the Lord makes ready for His guests. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The mistakes of the Galileans I. THE FOR THE PRIMARY (John 6:31-32). Confounding the instrument with the agent; Moses with Jehovah. 1. The man of science falls into this mistake when he talks about forces and laws otherwise than as expressions of the Divine power and will. 2. The Christian does the same when he ascribes conversion to the eloquence of a preacher instead of to the quickening influence of the Spirit Zechariah 4:6; John 6:63; Ephesians 2:1). 3. Every person similarly errs who forgets that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17). II. THE SHADOWY FOR THE (verse 33). This tendency followed the Jews all through their career, and there is a like tendency when religion is made a thing of forms and ceremonies. III. THE FOR THE (verse 35). The Jews imagined the bread of life to be a better sort of manna (see John 4:15; the samemistake). Plainly as Christ indicated this bread to be a Person they continued thinking of a thing. So do those who suppose that education, moral culture, social refinement, etc., is the bread of life. IV. THE FOR THE ETERNAL (verse 49). 1. The manna was a temporary gift; even when the Israelites ate of it they died. The bread of life on the contrary (1) Endures into everlasting life (verse 27), and (2) Will satisfy every want of the soul. Lessons: 1. The men who err most in life and religion are those who walk by sight and not by faith. 2. Christ is a greater sign than any of His miracles. 3. His best recommendation is the satisfaction He imparts. 4. Men may have a desire after Christ without faith. 5. None who come to Christ in sincerity, will depart from Him in sorrow. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The manna a type of Christ I. IN THEIR ORIGIN: came down from heaven. II. COVERED WITH NEW (2 Corinthians 4:3). III. (Isaiah 53:2). IV. (Isaiah 53:8). V. DAILY (Exodus 16:21). “ Give us this day” is founded on this repeated miracle. Christ’ s grace must be used continually. VI. BY MAN BUT GROWN BY GOD. Human and Divine meet in conversion (John 4:44), and Divine bounty never supersedes man’ s industry. VII. ALL HAD ENOUGH. Sincerity not the degree of faith avails Exodus 16:18). VIII. (Isaiah 55:1). IX. FOR ALL. X. OFFERED TO (Romans 5:8). XI. Manna for a season the ONLY food (Acts 4:12). XII. IS THE (Psalms 78:19; Hebrews 6:8). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Christ the bread of life I. Christ Is the bread of God in His personal Divine life (John 6:32-40). 1. The typical and the true bread of God (John 6:32-33). 2. The false and the true appetite for this bread (John 6:34-38). 3. The liberating and quickening operation of this bread (John 6:39-40). II. Christ GIVES the bread of life in His giving up of His flesh in His atoning death (John 6:41-51). 1. He gives it not to murmurers, but to those who are drawn and taught of the Father (John 6:41-47). 2. He gives it with the full partaking of eternal life (John 6:48-50). 3. He gives it in giving Himself (John 6:51). 4. He gives it in giving His flesh for the life of the world (John 6:51). III. Christ the meal of life in making His flesh and blood a feast of thank-offering to the world (John 6:52-59). 1. The offence at the words concerning the flesh of Christ (John 6:52). 2. The heightening of the offence by the fourfold assertion concerning the flesh and blood of Christ (John 6:53-56). 3. The ground of this assertion; the life of Christ is in the Father (John 6:57). 4. The conclusion of this assertion (John 6:58-59). IV. Christ the meal of life into a meal of the Spirit (verse 60-65) 1. By His exaltation (John 6:62). 2. By His sending the spirit (John 6:63). 3. By His word (John 6:63). 4. By the excision of unbelievers (John 6:64). (J. P. Lange, D. D.) The bread of life contrasted with manna 1. The manna could not detain for one moment the fleeting spirit of man; but the bread of life, like the tree of life, imparted immortality. 2. That was from the air; this from the real heaven of heavens. 3. That nourished the decaying body; this the never dying soul. 4. That left the multitude, after a few hours, hungry still; he who eats of this will never hunger. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Come down from heaven I. WE HAVE A DIVINE LIFE IN CHRIST, because He has come from God to be the author of life for us. II. THIS LIFE IS NEAR (Deuteronomy 30:12-13; Romans 10:6-8). No man could ascend up, therefore Christ came down. (John Calvin.) I. WHAT IS IT TO LIVE. Life in Christ 1. Anything lives when it fills up the capacity of its being. Animal life does not consist in material force but in organic vitality. In man, however, we see the added element of spiritual existence. 2. Here comes up the everlasting fact that man is not like the brute satisfied with meat and drink, but yearns for what is beyond. And as there is harmony in the universe there must be something more than the material for man. II. THE HIGHER NATURE MUST HAVE ITS FOOD, OR IT DIES. Christ saw the spiritual nature of man in all its priceless capacity and quenchless immortality, and to that He addressed Himself when He bade His hearers eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. III. EACH KIND OR NATURE IN THE IS LINKED IN ITS OWN CHAIN OF . The body depends on things material; but the moment we look on the spirit of man we must ascribe it to some higher source than matter. The affection of the human heart; the yearning for the beautiful and the good; the intellect; the sense of sin and moral freedom, whence came they? If you could take away every other proof of the existence of God, this spirit proves the Being of a moral and intelligent Source over and above the material world. IV. EACH THING IS LINKED TO THINGS OF ITS OWN KIND. 1. The soul, living, intelligent, and morally conscious, is linked to an intelligent and moral God, and by Him, and in Him alone, can it live. It cannot link itself to mere sensation and matter. 2. Jesus brings men into communion with that infinite intelligence, love, and freedom by bringing man’ s soul into communion with Himself, so that living in Him we live in the Father, and as Christ becomes assimilated to our inner spiritual being, so we truly live. V. WE NOT ONLY LIVE IN, BUT BY JESUS. This brings into view His essential personality. “ I am the Bread, the Way.” “ He that believeth in ME,” etc. No other teacher ever so spoke. Plato or Confucius may have said, “ Believe this truth,” but never, “ I am the truth, believe in me.” Christ saves us not merely by the truth He revealed, but by Himself. VI. THIS LIFE IS A PRESENT . Not merely is going to live, but liveth. Religion is an end as well as a means. It is not simply something that helps us to live by and by, but something by which we live now. The great essential things are those we live by, not for. Bread, water, air--we do not live for them, but by them. So we live by religion, heaven, Christ, not for them. Conclusion: 1. See what an argument this is for the truth of the religion of Jesus, because it shows us how we truly live. We live by Jesus now because (1) He fills up our higher faculties; (2) draws out our best affections; (3) gives us the truth of our higher being. 2. Have you ever really lived? (E. H. Chapin, D. D.) Jewish traditions connecting the manna with the Messiah There was a tradition that as the first Redeemer caused the manna to fall from heaven, even so should the second Redeemer cause the manna to fall. For this sign, then, or one like it, the people looked from Him whom they were ready to regard as Messiah (cf. Matthew 16:1; Mark 8:11) . Philo says, “ When the people sought what it is which feeds the soul, for they did not, as Moses says, know what it was, they discovered by learning that it is the utterance of God and the Divine Loges from which all forms of instruction and wisdom flow in a perennial stream. And this is the heavenly food which is indicated in the sacred records under the person of the First Cause, saying, “ Behold I rain on you bread out of heaven!” (Exodus 14:4). For in very truth God distils from above the supernal wisdom on noble and contemplative minds, and they, when they see and taste, in great joy, know what they experience, but do not know the power which dispenses the gift. Wherefore they ask, ‘ What is this that is sweeter than honey and whiter than snow?’ But they shall all be taught by the prophet that this is the Bread which the Lord gave them to eat “ (Exodus 16:15). (Bp. Westcott.) John 6:34-35 Lord, evermore give us this bread I.THE VAIN PRAYER. Because 1. It recognizes not the Giver in the bread. 2. It recognizes not the Bread of Life in the giver. II. THE ANSWER OF JESUS aims to disclose their spirit 1. By insisting on the figure of the bread in His person. 2. By enlarging the figure: bread for hunger and thirst. 3. By explaining the figure: “ Come to Me,” “ Believe on Me.” (J. P.Lange, D. D.) Three sayings of Christ I. ABOUT HIMSELF (John 6:35). II. ABOUT THOSE WHO COME TO HIM (John 6:37). III. ABOUT THE WILL OF HIS FATHER (John 6:39-40). (Bp. Ryle.) The true hunger of the soul awakened and satisfied in Christ I. MAN’ S HUNGER. There is in every finite existence one great appetite. No creature is independent; it must draw life from another. In man, who is a complex being, there are various kinds of hunger. 1. Natural. (1) Bodily hunger. Even as an upright creature man was made dependent on the fruits of the ground; and now his first question is, “ How am I to get bread.” How much thought and labour are expended on it! It has impelled to every crime. Hunger pressed Israel into Egypt, and that involved mighty issues for both. Hunger brought Ruth into view and linked her with the royal ancestry of Christ. The greatest spiritual conflict in the world was connected with a state of hunger. The central petition of the Lord’ s prayer is “ Give us this day,” etc. (2) Mental hunger. Man’ s bodily appetite is typical of mental conditions. (a) The heart hungers for happiness. Man, when left to himself, is an unhappy being. (b) The intellect hungers for truth. Man has been made to inquire into, study, and know the truth of things. (c) The will hungers for liberty. The triumph of a man’ s life is to prevail over the conditions which would fetter him. (d) The conscience hungers for righteousness. We are made to act in accordance with the supreme law of the universe, the will of God. All altars, sacrifices, priesthoods are witnesses to that. 2. Unnatural. Great multitudes, instead of seeking for legitimate satisfaction, lay hold of false food, and drug themselves. For these Satan keeps a great variety of delusions. (1) For low natures coarse animal pleasures. (2) For intellectual natures there are the sciences, etc. (3) For light and giddy natures there is the world and all its glory. (4) For ambitious natures, principalities and powers. (5) For more serious and half-religious natures penancies, pilgrimages, rites, ceremonies, and good works. The result of eating such false bread is that the mere hunger of the soul is deadened, and a false appetite created, which grows with what it feeds on, and this bread of death instead of supporting the soul consumes it. 3. Supernatural; the longings which exist with any degree of strength only in the renewed nature. Along with the other tastes there may be a love of sin, but this partly consists of a hatred of sin and a love of all that is good, a counting of all things but loss, so that we may gain Christ. II. THE DIVINE . 1. On what ground does God provide for our bodily hunger? For the sake of Christ. He has tasted death for every man, and thus secured an ample day of grace and every blessing, temporal as well as spiritual. Thus in a literal sense Christ is the Bread of Life. 2. Christ is the true food for the human mind. (1) We can only see the true beauty and deep spiritual meaning of nature through Him. (2) He is the Bread of Life to the conscience. In Him the sins of the past are washed away and the law magnified and made honourable. (3) He is the Bread of Life to the heart. The heart that loves not is dead--but Jesus has revealed and communicates the love of God. (F. Ferguson, D. D.) Bread and water You call these common things. Their excellence has occasioned their commonness, and their commonness corresponds to a common want in humanity. I. LET US APPLY THIS . Look on the greatest feast ever prepared. What are its delicacies? Simply an adaptation, decoration or adulteration of bread and water, and the seated guests are compelled to say, “ This is well enough now and then, but only now and then,” let us have something plain. Bread and water survive. Empires of soups, etc., which are the image and superscription of the cook’ s, who is bound like other fashionable slaves to produce something fresh, rise and fall; but bread and water are God’ s, and they endure. II. THE OF THIS IS OBVIOUS IN THE HIGHER SPHERES OF CULTURE. Reading and writing are the bread and water of the mind. Your duty to your child is done when you have given this; let him get the rest for himself. But fine cookery is imitated in fine intelligence, and sometimes with like results--mental indigestion. Hence we have imperfect French, caricatured German, and murdered music, and the native tongue and history passed by. When will people learn to prize bread and water and see that it is better to know a little well, than to know next to nothing about a great deal? III. THESE PREPARE FOR THE HIGHEST TRUTH OF ALL, viz., that Jesus Christ is the bread and water, without which man cannot live. He never says that He is a luxury which the rich only can afford. An adventurer would not have seen in metaphors so humble a philosophy so profound. 1. Man needs Christ as a necessity and not as a luxury. You may be pleased to have flowers, but you must have bread. Jesus has often been presented as an ornament, a phenomenon; but He preached Himself, and would have others preach Him, as bread and water. 2. What has been the effect of omitting to declare Christ as bread and water? Leaving the simplicity of Christ, we have elaborated theological sciences, worked out a cunning symbolism, filled the Church with many coloured garments, and constituted splendid hierarchies. All this means that man is a fool, and prefers vanity to truth. Poor souls are left to believe that they can only get to Christ through priests, catechisms, and ecclesiastical mumbling. Take the pure Bible and read it for thyself, and thou shalt see the Lord and eat heavenly bread. 3. History furnishes a most graphic confirmation of these views. J.S. Mill says: “ Let rational criticism take from us what it may, it still leaves us the Christ.” Exactly: it leaves us bread. It modifies the theological cook and confectioner, but it leaves the living water. Men can’ t get rid of Christ, because they can’ t get rid of themselves. The Lord allows the chaff to be blown away, but saves every grain of wheat; yet nervous people think that the wheat is lost because the chaff is scattered. (J. Parker, D. D.) Bread the symbol of Christ He is to the soul what bread is to the body--its food. I. Bread is food. Other things may be dispensed with, but all need bread, II. It is food that SUITS all--old and young, weak and strong. III. It is the most kind of food: nothing does so much good or is so indispensable to bodily development. IV. It is food that we NEED DAILY. Other foods are at best only occasionally required. V. It is the only food we are NEVER TIRED OF; hence it is on every table, unlike every other kind of food. (Bp. Ryle.) The bread of life a representation of the Saviour 1. All life is valuable in its degree. Vegetable life is superior to dead matter, animal to vegetable life, rational to animal, the life of God to human life. 2. This latter was man’ s once; but it was forfeited, and is now restored by the Spirit. Hence Scripture loves to present religion under the notion of life; not as a picture that is only resemblance, not as mechanism that is only form. 3. The relation in which Christ stands to this life. He is “ bread,” its nourishment; bread, i.e., “ bruised corn.” He becomes our Saviour by His death. 4. Bread is nothing to us unless eaten, so unless we “ eat the flesh of the Son of God,” etc. I. THE WAY IN WHICH WE DERIVE FROM HIM. By coming to Him or believing on Him. 1. This reminds us that Christ is accessible. “ Where two or three,” etc. 2. It teaches us that faith is not a notion, but a principle always attended with an application of the soul to the Redeemer. 3. This application is not a single address, but a continued exercise. “ Cometh.” II. THE HIS SHALL ENJOY. 1. They shall never hunger nor thirst again after the world. Having tasted the provisions of God’ s house, their language is, “ Lord, ever more give us this bread.” A covetous, sensual, ambitious Christian is one the Scripture knows nothing of. 2. They shall not hunger and thirst in vain. The new creature has appetites, but ample provision is made for them. 3. They shall not hunger and thirst always. The days of imperfect enjoyment will soon be over. Conclusion; The subject is a standard by which we may estimate 1. Christ. 2. Faith. 3. The Christian. (W. Jay.) The bread of life I. IN WHAT SENSE IS OUR LORD THE BREAD OF LIFE? 1. He evidently intimated that there was in Him that which, if properly received, would communicate eternal life (John 6:51; John 6:53). 2. He obviously points to His sufferings and death as that from which we were to derive our life. 3. For Him to be to us the bread of life depends on two things (1) That we receive the full pardon of our sins; (2) that we have a meetness for glory by the sanctification of our souls. II. WHO ARE THOSE WHO DERIVE BENEFIT FROM HIM? Not all, but only those who come in faith. 1. Before we can do this we must have a sense of our need of Him. 2. Those will not come to Him who fail to see His perfections, believe in His atonement, and hear His invitation. 3. There must be moral effort. “ Labour.” We must evidently turn our backs resolutely on the sins we loved. 4. We must come to Him by the prescribed means--meditation on His Word and importunate prayer. III. WHAT IS THE BENEFIT of which He speaks. The believer shall never hunger or thirst 1. After sin. 2. Nor anxiously after holiness; only with such a sweet desire as serves to animate the spirit on its road to that state where it will thirst no more. (B. Noel, M. A.) Bread is for common use I remember what bread was to me when I was a boy. I could not wait till I was dressed in the morning, but ran and cut a slice from the loaf--all the way round, too--to keep me until breakfast; and at breakfast, if diligence in eating earned wages, I should have been well paid. And then I could not wait for dinner, but ate again, and then at dinner; and I had to eat again before tea, and at tea, and lucky if I didn’ t eat again after that. It was bread, bread, all the time with me, bread that I lived on and got strength from. Just so religion is the bread of life; but you make it cake--you put it away in your cupboard and never use it but when you have company. You cut it into small pieces and put it on china plates, and pass it daintily round instead of treating it as bread, common, hearty bread, to be used every hour. (H. W. Beecher.) The soul needs to be often fed When people are being strengthened of God, they are not content with one meal on the Sabbath; they want another, and perhaps a prayer-meeting or a Sunday-school for a dessert. They are not content with just two or three minutes’ prayer in the morning; they like, if they can, to slip out of business and get a word with God in the middle of the day. They delight to carry a text of Scripture in their memories to sweeten their breath all the day, and they cannot be happy unless they meditate upon the Word. I think you make a great mistake when you go galloping through the whole Bible, reading half a dozen chapters every day; you do much better when you get a text and ruminate upon it, just as the cows chew the cud. Turn the Scripture over and over, and get all the juice, sweetness, and nourishment out of it, and you will do well. The spiritually hungry man says, “ I must go and hear some servant of God, and hear what God, the Lord, will speak to me. I must get as much of the heavenly food as I possibly can, for I need it so greatly.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) Hunger a sign of health Men who are mending find themselves hungry between meals. “ Oh,” the doctor says, “ that is a capital sign. You will get on now.” I love to see God’ s people when the Lord is strengthening them, for then they leave off being dainty and fault-finding, and prove the truth of Solomon’ s proverb, that to the hungry man every bitter thing is sweet. Then they come to Monday night prayer-meetings and week evening services. They used to be able to do very well from Sunday to Sunday, and I have known some of them get on with one meal on the Lord’ s day, and like it all the better if that was quickly served and soon over. When the gracious Lord strengthens His people they become very sharp-set. Somebody said on Sunday morning to me, “ Did you not feel it sweet preaching?” I replied, “ I always feel it sweet preaching the gospel of the grace of God.” “ Ah, but,” he said, “ the people swallowed it all just as it came from your mouth, and they seemed so hungry after it.” Truly this makes a preacher happy. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ the best food The old Grecians that had fed altogether on acorns before, after that bread came in amongst them they made no reckoning of their mast any more, but kept it only for swine. And leathern and iron money began to grow out of request amongst the Lacedemonians after that gold and silver came into use. So when a man hath once found the favour of God in his heart, and the love of God in Christ hath once lighted on it, and got assurance of it, he ceaseth then to be greedy of the world’ s trash, which is in regard of it but dross or pebble-stones to gold and diamonds, as mast to the best bread corn; yea, rather of far less worth or value to that than either of these are to it. (Fuller.) Feeding on Christ If anybody were to say to me, “ I have a man at home who stands in my hall, and has stood there for years, but he has never eaten a mouthful of bread all the time, nor cost me a penny for food,” I should say to myself, “ Oh, yes, that is a bronze man, I know, or a plaster cast of a man. He has no life in him, I am sure; for if he had life in him, he would have needed bread.” If we could live without eating, it would be a cheap method of existence; but I have never found out the secret, and I do not mean to make experiments. If you are trying it, and have succeeded in it so far that you can live without Christ, the bread of life, I fear your life is not that of God’ s people, for they all hunger and thirst after Jesus, the bread of heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.) False food During the Irish famine of 1849 the Duke of Norfolk invented a curry-powder of which he boasted that if taken by the starving peasants it would destroy all cravings of hunger. How many remedies for the soul’ s hunger arc mere mockeries of unsatisfying! Curry-powder is poor food at the best. (H. O. Mackey.) Christ an incorruptible food Christ is incorruptible meat and drink. All earthly meat and drink is of a fading, perishing nature. The best bread grows mouldy in a little time; the best flesh in time putrefies and taints; the best wine grows eager and sour in a little time, and becomes unfit for the body of man; the very manna itself, when it was kept till the morning of the next day, contrary to God’ s command, bred worms, and stank (Exodus 16:20). But Jesus Christ knows no corruption. His flesh and blood is now as sweet and pleasant, after so many ages, as it was the first hour it was eaten and drank (chap. 8:27). And it will be as far from corruption at the end of the world as now it is. The manna in the golden pot corrupted not, though kept for many generations. Christ is manna in that golden pot; the humanity in the golden pot of the Divinity shall see no corruption. (Ralph Robinson.) Soul-satisfying bread I. THE LORD JESUS IS TO BE BY EACH ONE OF US FOR HIMSELF. Bread which is not eaten will not stay hunger. Water in the cup may sparkle, but it cannot slake thirst unless we drink it. How do we receive Christ. 1. By coming to Him, which represents the first act of faith. We return to the Christ from whom we have been alienated with a motion of the heart performed by desire, prayer, assent, consent, trust, obedience. 2. Believing on Him, in the sense of trusting Him. 3. Eating and drinking Him. It is monstrous that this should be taken literally, for what greater crime could there be than to eat the flesh of our Saviour? What He meant was receiving Him into our hearts. Now, in eating (1) The food as a whole goes into our mouths; so as a whole Christ is received into our belief and trust. (2) We masticate it, and even in this way the believer thinks of Jesus and discovers His preciousness. (3) It descends into the inward parts to be digested; so Christ is to dwell and rest in the affections till His comfort is fully drawn forth. (4) The food is next assimilated; so the great truths of Christ are inwardly received till our whole nature draws from them satisfaction and strength. (5) As a man who has feasted well, and is no more hungry, rises from the table satisfied, so we feel that in our Jesus our entire nature has all it wants. (6) The two points about Christ which He says are respectively meat and drink are (a) His flesh, i.e., His humanity. Our soul feeds on the literal historical fact that “ God was in Christ,” and was made flesh and dwelt among us. (b) His blood, which clearly refers to His atoning death. II. WHERE JESUS IS HE Isaiah 1. To our highest and deepest wants, not to mere fancies and whims. Hungering is no shame; thirst is not sentiment. 2. Christ meets the hungering of conscience, which feels that God must punish sin, but is appeased as it perceives that it has been punished in Christ. 3. Men, when awakened, have a hunger of fear, but when they find that Christ has died for them, fear expires and love takes its place. 4. The heart has its hunger, but in Christ its roving affections find rest. 5. There are vast desires in us all, and when we are quickened they expand, and yet are satisfied. 6. This perfect satisfaction is found only in Christ. (1) Some have tried to be satisfied with themselves. (2) Some have gone to Moses. (3) Some have dosed themselves into a torpor with the narcotics of scepticism. (4) Many stave off hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter, which are not hungry because they are asleep. Conclusion: All believers bear witness that Jesus Christ is satisfying to them. 1. They never seek additional ground of trust beyond Christ. 2. They never want to shift their confidence. 3. Christ satisfies in the hour of death. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The “ I am” of Christ This form of expression is not found in the synoptists. It occurs not unfrequently in St. John, and the figures with which it is connected furnish a complete study of the Lord’ s work. I. I am the LIGHT OF THE WORLD (chap. 8:12). II. I am the BREAD OF LIFE (verses 35, 41, 48, 51). III. I am THE DOOR (10:7, 9). IV. I am THE GOOD (10:11, 14). V. I am THE AND THE LIFE (11:25). VI. I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE (14:6). VII. I am THE TRUE VINE (14:1-5). (Bp. Westcott.) Spiritual assimilation It is not what a man eats, but what he digests, that nourishes him. Now, so it is with that truth which is food for the mind, which is the soul’ s nutriment. There is a certain kind of truth which needs only to be heard, only to he received: facts about the sun or earth, about light and heat and electricity. All that you need to do in respect to these truths is to get them, to store them away in your mind. Thus, for instance, the sun is ninety-two millions of miles from the earth. Receive these facts, and you need go no farther with them. There is no necessary after process of assimilation. They are of themselves nourishment for the mind, without any such after process. But not so is it with moral truth--that truth designed to regulate and govern human action. This is worth nothing, unless it is wrought into the life; unless it be so assimilated as to lose the form of abstract truth, and become principle; unless it passes into, is converted into life. This is the way with bread, when it does any good. It does not remain bread. It turns to flesh and blood and bone. The bread of yesterday is the myriad-hued, the myriad-sided life of to-day. It is the eloquence of the orator, and the strength of the drayman. It is the skill of the artist, and the energy of the ploughman. And it is all this, through the wonderful process of assimilation, through the mysterious force of a transubstantiation, stranger than priest ever taught, or poet ever fancied. Now, the truth of this analogy furnishes an explanation of the fact that so many persons in the world have a great deal of Bible know- ledge, an abundance of moral truth, without having much of spiritual life. In such Cases, truth has remained truth. Doctrine lies within them, as so much doctrine. So moral truth remains as so much unassimilated knowledge in the minds of thousands. And this analogy, besides an explanation, suggests also the great duty we owe to our moral or spiritual being. It is this. The duty of assimilating the moral truth which we have received, of turning it into life. This should be our daily work. Is time nothing, and eternity everything? Do we believe this? Then we should be more careful for an estate there, than for building up one here. Is it true, that with- out holiness no one shall see the Lord? Do we believe this? If so, how important that this truth should be turned into a principle of action in our daily life. And we should come to place very little, if any, value upon the mere possession of truth. Many a post mortem examination discloses plenty of unused food within the body. Still, the man died--died, because his system did not take up and use the bread. So, many a post mortem moral examination, no doubt, will exhibit an abundance of moral truth within the soul. And farther than this I think we should go here. We should come to place comparatively little value upon doctrines, which we are unable to convert into life-force, from which we cannot gather spiritual guidance and strength. If the truth which we possess is not digestible, it is very poor stuff. But, without further amplification here, I ask your attention to the great matter suggested by the text--THE OF . 1. And the first I mention is, something to be assimilated. The process denoted by this word is only the changing of one substance into another. Thus, the tree takes the air and the sun-light, and the rain, and turns them into tree, into roots and trunk, branches and fruit, into its own peculiar life. Every leaf on your vine in spring-time is an open mouth, asking for these surrounding substances, that it may convert them into life for itself. It does not want light and heat and moisture, as such. It does not lay them up as such, counting them treasures. No, but silently, surely, swiftly, it assimilates them to itself. The sunbeam, when your flower gets hold of it, is no longer a sunbeam. No; but it is blood in the veins of your rose, it is the blush upon its cheek, it is sweet odour filling the air. Now, not otherwise is it with the life of the soul. This life, like all others, grows by the process of assimilation. But there must be something to be assimilated; and what this something is the text distinctly affirms. It is Christ, who is the bread of life, the bread which is turned into life within the soul. Christ, and not something else; not philosophy, not art, not knowledge. Where in the history of the world has any of these supported moral life? Look at ancient Egypt, ancient Greece. Christ is its food; but this means the true Christ, and a whole Christ. The soul cannot live on the Pope, or what of Christ may come through the Pope. It needs a whole Christ. Then, again, take the case where Christ is shorn of His sympathy, of His boundless love, of His ineffable yearning, and the same result is apparent. The soul starves. Its bread again is only half bread. Then there is another half Christ, the sentimental one. A Christ who is no sin-bearer, who holds no relation to the Divine law as its atonement--a Christ, of whom it can, only by the widest possible metaphor, be said, that He was made a curse--a Christ with no blood I And the same sad result of spiritual life is here again witnessed. Souls are starved. 2. The second condition is a good moral atmosphere. This implies two things. First, that your homes should be favourable to Christian life; and second, that your daily business, outside the home, should be such and so conducted as to be the same. No church, no religious privileges, can do much for any man or woman, who either has no home, or whose home is a bad one. Why, suppose you only gave your body one or two hours a week of pure atmosphere. Could you preserve health? Could you live? If you go from the church into an atmosphere of frivolity and selfishness, of acrimony and impurity, you will be sure to arrest the process of spiritual assimilation. Shun evil and corrupt association. It is said that the Upas-tree is girt in with a circle of dead and rotting carcases of bird and beast. So, upon every side of these corrupt rings, are strewn the dead consciences, the lost souls of men. See to it, then, that you breathe the atmosphere of love and of kindness, of purity and of honesty, day by day. 3. The third condition of spiritual assimilation is activity, the exercise of the new and true life. Duty is a Divine and immutable condition of moral growth. “ He that saveth his life shall lose it.” Selfish idleness will kill any soul. Something you must do for this world in which you live, if you would do the best for yourself. 4. A fourth condition of spiritual assimilation is thought, intelligence. Better believe half of what you do, intelligently, with your whole soul, than believe it all, languidly, ignorantly. 5. The last condition of spiritual assimilation which I mention, and the great one, is the presence of the vital principle--the vital principle which philosophy cannot find out, which chemistry cannot detect. See those two trees. One of them lifts up its bare and shrunken branches; the other is covered with leaves, and the birds sing among its branches. Yet the air, the sunshine, the moisture, all within reach of both of these trees. What makes the difference? Why, in one the vital principle is present, from the other it has departed. Take two members of the same family again. One stands before the cross, only to fall in worship. The other hunts through the soil, wet with the blood of the Saviour, for gold, and lifts up his face to blaspheme, when he finds it not. The cross is life to the one, but death remains in the case of the other. Two or three remarks in conclusion. 1. It is Christ who is the Bread of Life--not the Church, not truth, not doctrines; but Christ the personal Christ. 2. Christ being the Bread of Life, character becomes a good test of the soundness of faith. He who is pure, who is Christlike in conduct, must have partaken of Him who is the only bread of such a life. 3. Many of us are daily guilty in this matter. We transgress, year after year, the plainest laws of spiritual health and of moral growth. (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.) The Bread of Life Every one acknowledges the golden cornfields to be full of the highest spiritual teaching. It is as if He who gave us the Written Word, which we call the Bible--“ the Book” --specially designed the harvest-field to be to it a sort of companion volume; and to that purpose filled it to overflowing with the most striking and beautiful illustrations, which should be at the same time bright enough to catch the attention of the most untutored, and profound enough to richly repay the deepest study of the thoughtful and learned. Nor would our Saviour allow this beautiful supplementary volume to be neglected or overlooked. Let us listen for a moment to what science has to tell us of the character and position of corn in the economy of nature. Corn belongs to the second great order of plants--the lily order; and according to the evolutionist’ s theory it is either a lilyin the making, or in a degenerate and degraded form. This latter theory is the generally accepted one. In process of the ages the corn-plant which was, and is still, of the lily order, gradually developed the invaluable property of producing corn, and did ibis at the expense of its beauty. It separated itself from its beautiful sisters, laid aside the glory of the coloured vesture and elegance which belonged to it as of right, and took instead the russet garments in which we see it now clad; and all in order that it might be of service in its day and generation, and give its own life and substance for the life and support of others. If this were so, what a wonderful little parable we have in its history of the law of self-sacrifice, and of the blessing and reward attending such sacrifice: for what if it that really happens to the corn as a result of its self-surrender? We call it now the “ staff of life.” That is its usual and well-fitting title. To be singled out from all other plants in the world as the very staff of human life were, I say, marvellous honour for so small and insignificant a plant. But more than that; in giving its life as the staff of ours it, becomes itself a partaker of a nobler nature. In eating it we incorporate its nature with ours, so that it becomes part of our very selves--bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh--and in a very real sense it comes in this way to participate with us in theenjoyment of human life. What a striking illustration we have here, then, of some of our Saviour’ s words! Jesus said, “ He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal; “ and the life-history of the corn emphasizes this truth in a way so remarkable that no one can help being impressed by it. But we have not exhausted this lesson even yet, nor have we reached a thousandth part of the honour God has designed to bestow upon the self-abasing little plant; for when the Lord Jesus Himself came down from heaven to give His life for the world, and one day stood and looked around Him for a figure by which He might signify something of His own Person and office, He could find nothing better to His purpose than the little corn-plant in its so-called degraded form and russet-dress. “ I am the Bread of Life,” He said, “ I am the living Bread which came down from heaven.” We can well appreciate the aptness of that simile. The plant that had laid aside its lily-dress, and put off all its glory--clothing itself in russet-brown, and stooping very low, that it might give its life for the many--and, moreover, that could even then only become life-giving bread by being first bruised and crushed and broken--I say we can well perceive how fitting a type in all these particulars it was of Him “ who made Himself of no reputation,” etc. “ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him,” etc. (John Crofts, M. A.) The Bread of Life 1. Every living thing is a feeding thing. That it feeds is the test and signal that it lives. 2. Moreover, every living thing, whatever it may be, whether lowest in the scale of existence, or highest, must have food appropriate to itself, or it cannot live. There is a pathetic story which comes to us from the earlier explorations of the vast island of Australia. In the central deserts of that island there grows a strange plant called the nardoo, bearing leaves like clover. The Englishmen Burk and Wells, who were making these explorations, in the failure of other food, followed the example of the natives, and began to eat the leaves and roots of this plant named nardoo. It seemed to satisfy them; it seemed to fill them with a pleasant sense of comfort and repletion. But they grew weaker every day, and more emaciated; they were not hungry, for the plant seemed to satisfy the calling of hunger. But all the effects of an unfilled hunger began to appear in them; their flesh wasted from their bones, their strength leaked till they scarcely had the energy of an infant; they could not crawl on in their journey more than a mile or two a day. At last one of them perished of star- vation; the other was rescued in the last extremity of it. On analysis, it was discovered that the bread made of this plant lacked an element essential to the sustenance of a European. And so, even though they seemed fed, the explorers wasted away, and one of them died, because they were feeding on a sustenance inappropriate. 3. Now all this is true of man’ s higher and moral nature. The mistake men are constantly making is, that they seek to feed their higher nature upon wrong food, which may satisfy for the time, but in the long run cannot keep back the pangs of a noble spiritual hunger. 4. This is what Christ came into the world to be to men--the appropriate, satisfying, sustaining, upbuilding food for their highest nature. (1) Christ, the Bread of Life, feeds and fills the human hunger for Divine sympathy. (2) Divine forgiveness. (3) Divine helping. Lessons: 1. Do not refuse the Bread of Life because there are some things in Him you cannot understand, any more than you refuse the bread upon your tables, though there are mysteries in it that no science can explain. 2. See the adaptation to our needs of the great truth of our Lord’ s Divine-human nature. He could not be the Bread of Life to us did He not possess such a nature. 3. Learn the essential meaning of religion. The essential meaning of my physical life is, that I come into contact with food. The essential meaning of my religious life is, that I as really and as utterly come into the Food of my spiritual nature--Christ. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) John 6:36 Ye also have seen Me and believe not The reason of faith 1. The grand distinction of Christianity is that it makes its appeal to faith, and upon that rests the promise of salvation. 2. But this is the scandal of men. If we hold any truth by reason, perception, or on evidence what need of holding by faith? And if we hold it without such evidence what is belief, but a surrender of our proper intelligence? 3. It is proposed to show how it is that we, as intelligent beings, are called to believe, and how, as sinners, we can in the nature of things, be saved only as we believe. This text sets us at the point when seeing and believing are brought together as not united; in John 6:40 they are united. 4. It stands on the face of the language (1) That faith is not sight but something so different that we may see and not believe; (2) That sight does not include faith or supersede the necessity of it, for after sight faith is expected; (3) That sight is supposed to furnish a ground for faith, and involving guilt when faith is not exercised. Let us look at three kinds of faith. I. Take the case of SIGHT. It has been a great question how it is we perceive objects. Berkeley denied that we saw them at all. The persons who saw Christ had only certain pictures cast in the back of the eye which were mere subjective impressions. How then do we bridge the gulf between sensations and their objects; how it is that having a true picture in the back of the eye we make it a tree. Some deny the possibility of any solution; but the best solutions conceive the soul to take these forms as more than objects perceived, that we complete sensation or issue it in perception by assigning reality to the distant object. What is this but the exercise of a sense faith. We thus see by faith. II. Take that FAITH WHICH, after perception is completed, ASSIGNS TRUTH TO THE THINGS SEEN, and takes them to be historic verities. Thus after Christ had been seen in the facts of His life, it became a question what to make of those facts--whether there could have been conspiracy or self-imposition in the miracles. The mere seeing of a wonder never concludes the mind of the spectator. How many testify to having seen the most fantastic wonders, and yet they very commonly conclude by saying they know not what to make of them, doubting whether sleight of hand, ventriloquism, etc., may not account for them. The evidence to one who saw Christ was as perfect as it could be; but all that can be said is that a given impression has been made, and that impression is practically nought till an act of intellectual assent is added. Then the impression becomes to the mind a real and historical fact, a sentence of credit passed. III. We come now to FAITH. This begins just where the last-named faith ends. That decided the greatest fact of history, viz., that Christ actually was. But what is now wanted and justified and even required by the facts of His life is a faith that goes beyond the mere evidence of proportional verities, viz., the faith of a transaction; and Christian faith is the act of trust by which one being, a sinner, commits herself to another Being, a Saviour. In this faith 1. Everything is presupposed that makes the act intelligent and rational. That Christ was what He declared Himself to be and can do what He offered to do, and that we can commit ourselves to Him. 2. The matters included in this act are the surrender of our mere self care, the ceasing to live from our own point of separated will, a complete admission of the mind of Christ, a consenting to live as infolded in His spirit. 3. Great results will follow. (1) The believer will be as one possessed by Christ, created anew in Christ Jesus. (2) New evidence will be created. As in trying a physician new evidence is obtained from the successful management of the disease, so the soul that trusts itself to Christ knows Him with a new kind of knowledge; has the witness in himself. Lessons. 1. The mistake is here corrected that the gospel is a theorem to be thought out and not a new premiss of fact communicated by God to be received of men in all the threefold gradations of faith. 2. We discover that the requirement of faith, as a condition of salvation, is not arbitrary but essential for deliverance from sin. What we want is God, to be united to Him and thus to be quickened, raised, made partakers of the Divine Nature. 3. We perceive that mere impressions can never amount to faith, inasmuch as it is the commitment of our being to the Being of Christ our Saviour. 4. It is plain that what is wanted in the Christian world is more faith. We dabble too much in reason. We shall never recover the true apostolic energy without it. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Christ the true bread must be both seen and appropriated Christians grow weak because they let their meat and drink stand by them. It is not the flesh in the pot, but the flesh in the stomach, that gives nourishment. It is not the drink in the vessel, but the drink taken down, that revives. Stir up spiritual hunger, and that will make you feed heartily on Christ. Eat and drink Christ by meditation, eat and drink Him by application. Let your faith draw in Christ in every ordinance. Keep your spiritual meals as constantly as you do your other meals. Your eating will help you to a stomach. Satisfaction and hunger are mutual helps one to another. Eating and drinking other meat takes away the appetite, but it increaseth the spiritual appetite. Fixed times of spiritual feeding every day are marvellous profitable. When you have prayed, call your heart to account what it hath taken in of Christ. When you have been reading, ask it what nourishment it hath received from the word. When the Lord’ s Supper is over, inquire what refreshment is received. Put yourselves forward to frequent, constant, actual feeding. It is a pity such precious meat and drink should stand in corners when the soul hath so much need of it. (Ralph Robinson.) Christian faith If a man comes to a banker with a letter of credit from some other banker, that letter may be read and seen to be a real letter. The signature also may be approved, and the credit of the drawing party honoured by the other, as being wholly reliable. So far what is done is merely opinionative or notional, and there is no transactional faith. And yet there is a good preparation for this; just that is done which makes it intelligent. When the receiving party, therefore, accepts the letter, and entrust himself actually to the drawing party in so much money, there is the real act of faith, an act which answers to the operative, or transactional faith of the disciple. Another and perhaps better illustration may be taken from the patient or sick person as related to his physician. He sends for a physician, just because he has been led to have a certain favourable opinion of his faithfulness and capacity. But the suffering him to feel his pulse, investigate his symptoms, and tell the diagnosis of his disease, imports nothing. It is only the committing of his being and life to this other being, consenting to receive and take his medicines, that imports a real faith, the faith of a transaction. In the same manner Christian faith is the faith of a transaction. It is not the committing of one’ s thought, in assent to any proposition, but the trusting of one’ s being to a being, there to be rested, kept, guided, moulded, governed, and possessed for ever. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) John 6:37 All that the Father hath given Me shall come unto Me, and him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out The certainty and freeness of Divine grace I. GRACE IN . 1. Christ leads us up to the original position of all things. All men are naturally from the beginning in the hand of the Father as Creator, Governor, and Source and Fountain of election. 2. He proceeds to inform us of a great transaction. That His Father put His people into the hands of His Son as the Mediator. Here was the Father’ s condescension in giving, and the Son’ s compassion in receiving. 3. He assures us that this transaction in eternity involves a certain change in time. The only token of election is the definite open choosing of Christ. 4. He hints at a power possessed by Him to constrain wanderers to return. Not that any force is used, but by His messengers, Word, and Spirit, He sweetly and graciously compels men to come in accordance with the laws of the human mind, and without impairing human freedom. We are made willing in the day of Christ’ s power. 5. He declares that there is no exception to this rule of grace. Not some but all, individually and collectively. II. GRACE IN ITS . 1. The liberality of its character: “ him that cometh,” the rich, poor, great, obscure, moral, debauched. 2. The liberality of the coming: no adjective or adverb to qualify. Not coming to the sacraments or worship, but to Christ. Some come at once; some are months in coming; some come running; some creeping; some carried; some with long prayers; some with only two words; some fearfully; some hopefully, but none are cast out. 3. The liberality of the time. It doesn’ t say when. He may be seventy or only seven; at any season; on any day. 4. The liberality of the duration. “ Never cast thee out,” neither at first nor to the last, 5. Something of the liberality is seen in the certainty, “ in no wise.” It is not a hope as to whether Christ will accept you. You cannot perish if you go. 6. There is great liberality if you will notice the personality. In the first clause, where everything is special, Jesus used the large word “ all” ; in the second, which is general, He uses the little word “ him.” Why? Because sinners want something that will suit their case. This means me. (C. H.Spurgeon.) An account of the persons that come to Christ 1. What is meant by coming to Christ? (1) An outward coming in application of the means. When we come to His ordinances we come to Him. (2) Closing with Christ, embracing Him, believing on Him, and submitting to Him. Coming not with the feet but with the heart. 2. What is meant by the Father giving men to Christ? (1) In God’ s eternal purpose and counsel. (2) In the drawing of our hearts to Him when God by His Spirit persuades us to close with Christ. This giving is mutual: Christ is given to us and we to Him, so there is a marriage-knot drawn and contracted between us. I. ALL THAT THE FATHER HATH GIVEN ME SHALL COME TO ME. 1. This is an expression of some latitude and universality--“ all” Ephesians 1:4-5; 2 Peter 3:9). From which we learn how to make our calling and election sure, viz., by closing with the conditions of the gospel. We may know whether we are given to Christ by coming to Him. 2. This is an expression of restriction. None come to Christ but such as are given to Him (John 6:44; 2 Corinthians 3:5; Philippians 2:13). The reasons why none come to Christ but those whom God gives to Him are (1) Because all others are ignorant of Him, and without the knowledge of Christ there is no coming to Him (Matthew 16:16-17). (2) There is a perverseness in their wills and affections, so that though many know Him, they hang off from Him (John 3:19), so there must also be a drawing of their hearts which is the work of God alone. 3. From the word “ come” we learn that men by nature are distant from Christ. 4. From the word “ given” we see that all men are in the hands of God, for none can give what they have not got. II. CHRIST’ S OF THOSE WHO COME TO HIM. 1. His reception. (1) He will take them into friendship with Himself (Matthew 11:28; Isaiah 55:7; Ezekiel 33:11). (2) None excepted (Revelation 22:17). There is nothing to exclude Isaiah 1:18; 1 Timothy 1:15). (3) What an encouragement to all men to close with Christ. (a) The nature of our sins cannot exclude us, since Paul, Manasseh, Mary Magdalene, etc., found mercy (Psalms 25:11). The ground of God’ s pardon is not our sin, but His grace (Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 44:24-25). (b) Nor the Humber of our sins (Hosea 14:4; Jeremiah 3:1). (c) Nor any supposed imperfection in our humiliation. We are humbled sufficiently if we come. (4) Consider the great advantage of coming. (a) Pardon and the life of justification (Isaiah 55:7; Micah 7:19). (b) Power over sin and the life of sanctification. (c) Comfort and peace of conscience. (5) To enlarge, we may come not only in conversion, but after it, for assurance, greater measures of grace, and progress. Let us then come boldly (Hebrews 4:16). 2. His custody and preservation. “ I will keep him in.” (T. Horton, D. D.) The Father’ s gift the sinner’ s privilege I. THE . “ All that the Father,” etc. 1. Number. Who can measure the amplitude of “ all” ? 2. Definiteness. Not one more or less. 3. Relation. The Father sends His Son to men and men to His Son. The conditions of this relation are the Incarnation and Atonement on the part of Christ; coming or believing on the part of men. 4. Donation. This was mediatorial. 5. Value. What must be the worth of that which the Father could give and Christ accept? II. THE PROMISE. “ Shall come unto Me.” 1. The certainty. “ He shall see of the travail of His soul.” 2. The act. (1) Externally, they shall be brought in the providence of God under the means of grace. (2) Spiritually. If you have come to Christ you have entered into the meaning of four words--conviction of sin, the suitableness of Christ, venturing on Christ, continual coming to Christ. III. THE . “ I will in no wise cast out.” 1. Personality. “ Him.” Sin is personal, so must salvation be. 2. Extent. Christianity is the only universal religion; it can take root everywhere because it makes its offer to everybody. 3. The removal of doubts. (1) On the part of sinners. (a) When they have been called late in life; but remember the dying thief. (b) Sin suggests doubts. It is not what you have been, but what you are willing to be. (c) Unworthiness and infirmity create doubts. (d) Doubts arise from ignorance. All these are removed by the invitation. (2) On the part of saints. (a) Many feel a sense of inward corruption. (b) Others are conscious of stupidity and perverseness. (c) Lowness of attainment suggests doubts; and (d) Remaining guilt and imperfection. But what are these in the light of the promise, “ Him that,” etc.? (Dr. Andrews.) Encouragement to seekers from the purposes and promises of God I. GOD’ S PURPOSE. 1. God the Father is the prime Mover in the scheme of redemption. Beware of regarding the Father as an enemy and the Son as a friend. The Father’ s love is perpetually magnified in Scripture. 2. The Father hath given His Son a multitude which no man can number. 3. This gift was a very burdensome one to the Son. A ransom must be paid and satisfaction given. 4. The acceptance of the gift was most willing, for the Son gave Himself to receive it (Ephesians 5:25). II. THE ARTICLE OF THE which secures the actual union of His people to the Redeemer. “ Shall come unto Me.” 1. What is meant by coming to Christ? (1) Seeking, implying a sense of need, danger, misery, condemnation, ruin. (2) Finding, including an enlightened understanding, and the revelation of the Saviour as suited to the sinner’ s necessities. (3) Appropriation. 2. The instrument of calling sinners is the Word, the Law with its warnings and threatenings, the gospel with its invitations and promises. 3. The effectual agent is the Spirit. We preach like Ezekiel to dry bones until the heavenly breath breathes upon them. III. THE PROMISE. “ Him that cometh,” etc. The preacher’ s commission is as unlimited as this promise. “ Go ye into all the world,” go. 1. Our encouragement to go forth under this commission is drawn from our knowledge of God’ s purpose. This assures us that our labour shall not be in vain. 2. No degree or kind of guilt will be a bar to the sinner’ s reception if he will but come. 3. Surely then the expostulation is timely, “ Why will ye die?” (1) Why go on in ways you know to be ruinous? (2) Why keep away from Jesus when you are sure of a welcome? 4. Whose fault will it be if you perish? Yours, not God’ s. (W. Hancock, M. A.) Comers welcomed I. GROUNDS ON WHICH THEY FEAR . 1. Supposed omission from the number of the given, in which case they deem it hopeless to come. 2. Greatness of guilt--they are too bad to be received. 3. Absence of merit--they are not good enough to be accepted. 4. Lateness of repenting--they are too old to be welcomed. 5. Defects in believing--their faith is too feeble or not of the right sort. II. REASONS WHY THEY ARE SURE OF A WELCOME. Christ will not cast them out. 1. For their sakes. He knows (1) The value of the soul. (2) The greatness of the peril. (3) The blessedness of salvation. 2. For His Father’ s sake. To do so would be to place dishonour upon Him whose will He had been sent to perform. 3. For His own sake. Since every sinner saved is (1) An increase to His glory. (2) A triumph of His grace. (3) A trophy of His power. (4) A subject added to His empire. 4. For the world’ s sake. How could the gospel prevail if it got noised abroad that one was rejected. Lessons 1. Despair for none. 2. Hope for all. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) High doctrine and broad doctrine Consider I. THE ETERNAL PURPOSE. 1. If all that the Father giveth to Christ shall come to Him, then some shall come, and why should you not be among them? One says, “ Suppose I am not one of the elect” ; but suppose you are--or, better still, leave off supposing altogether and go to Christ and see. 2. Those who come to Christ come because of the Father and the Son. They come to Christ not because of any good in them, but because of the Father’ s gift. There never was a soul who wanted to come but Jesus wanted him to come a hundred times as much. 3. They are all saved because they come to Christ, and not otherwise. There is no way of salvation for peculiar people. The King’ s highway is for all. 4. If I come to Christ, it is most clear that the Father gave me to Christ. II. THE GOSPEL. 1. “ Him that cometh,” go., is one of the most generous of gospel texts. Generous (1) As to the character to whom the promise is made. “ Him,” the atrocious sinner, the backslider, you. (2) The text gives no limit to the coming, save that they must come to Christ. Some come running, some limping, etc. (3) There is no limit as to time. Young and old. 2. The blessed certainty of salvation--lit. “ I will not, not,” or “ never, never cast out.” 3. The personality of the text--“ Him,” that is, thee. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Coming to Christ Every stage of the Redeemer’ s life confirmed the delightful fact, that “ God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,” etc. I. THE OBJECT OF . Prophets spake of Him, that around Him should throng the sons and daughters of woe. Jacob said, when dying, “ Unto Him shall the gathering together of the people be.” Isaiah said, “ Unto Him shall men come” ; and He Himself said, “ All that the Father hath given Me,” etc. “ And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” He possesses qualifications to relieve our wants, in opposition to all assumed characters. 1. He is infinitely wise. 2. He is of illimitable power. 3. He is of boundless compassion: and by possession of these, He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. II. THE FOR WHICH WE ARE TO COME. 1. For instruction. We are ignorant of ourselves--of God--of Christ--of the way of salvation. He is the light of the world--the great prophet. “ All thy children shall be taught of the Lord,” etc. 2. For pardon. We are guilty, and need pardon. “ Him hath God exalted with His right hand,” etc. “ In whom we have redemption through His blood--the forgiveness of sins,” etc. Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. 3. For strength. We have duties to perform, difficulties to encounter, trials to endure. Without Him we can do nothing: but He has said, “ My grace is sufficient for thee,” and always remember as a check to indolence and supineness, that though without Him we can do nothing, “ we can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth us.” 4. For peace. He is the Prince of Peace. “ My peace I leave with you,” etc.; and we, as ministers of Christ, preach peace through the blood of His cross. 5. For eternal life. “ I give unto My sheep eternal life.” He is the record, “ God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” III. HOW WE ARE TO COME. A bodily act is not intended; many do this, and not come at all. Jesus said, when they thronged around Him, “ Ye will riot come unto Me that ye might have life” ; but a spiritual act is meant; and does it not remind us that we are naturally at a distance, not locally, but spiritually; and hence arises the necessity of the agency of the Holy Spirit--“ No man can come unto Me,” etc. 1. We come by prayer: “ Hence,” says Paul, “ let us come boldly to the throne of grace.” 2. By faith. “ Without faith it is impossible to please God,” etc. (1) It regards His Divinity. (2) His humanity. (3) That He is the appointed medium of approach--“ I am the way, the truth, and the life.” 3. With humility on account of our sin. 4. Contrition. Not sorrow merely for its consequences, but from a view of its nature, and the Being against whom it is committed. “ That godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation,” etc. IV. THE OF . “ I will in no wise cast out.” 1. From the promises and invitations of Scripture. “ And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come.” “ Ho, every one that thirsteth.” “ Come unto Me, all ye that labour.” “ Wherefore, He also is able to save to the uttermost.” “ As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure.” “ Not willing that any should perish,” etc. 2. From the examples of the Scripture. There stands a Manasseh, a Magdalen, St. Luke, a Thief on the Cross, and a Saul of Tarsus. Go to heaven, and ask if Jesus was willing to receive them? The question shall give a fresh impulse to the song, while they swell the strains, and cry, “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Go to the regions of darkness, and ask of them, Is one there that applied to Him? and, while anguish swells their bosoms, they will answer, No; we despised and rejected Him, and would not have Him to reign over us. Go to the north, east, west, and south, and ask believers whether Jesus did not receive them graciously. They will all give their testimony--While a great way off, He ran and met me, and fell upon my neck and kissed me. Conclusion: address to those already come--those coming--and those at a distance. (The Pulpit.) Coming to Christ I have read of an artist who wanted to paint a picture of the prodigal son. He searched through the mad-houses, and the poorhouses, and the prisons, to find a man wretched enough to represent the prodigal, but he could not find one. One day he was walking down the streets and met a man whom He thought would do. He told the poor beggar he would pay him well if he came to his room and sat for his portrait. The man agreed, and the day was appointed for him to come. The day came, and a man put in his appearance at the artist’ s room. “ You made an appointment with me,” he said, when he was shown into the studio. The artist looked at him, and said, “ I never saw you before.” “ Yes,” he said, “ I agreed to meet you to-day at ten o’ clock.” “ You must be mistaken; it must have been some other artist; I was to see a beggar here at this hour.” “ Well,” said the man, “ I am he.” “ You? Yes.” “ Why, what have you been doing? Well, I thought I would dress myself up a bit before I got painted.” “ Then,” said the artist,” I do not want you; I wanted you as you were; now you are no use to me.” That is the way Christ wants every poor sinner, just as he is. (D. L. Moody.) Coming to Christ “ My next step,” said an anxious inquirer, “ is to get deeper conviction.” “ No,” said a Christian friend, “ your next step is to go to Christ just as you are. He does not say, come to conviction, come to a deeper sense of sin, which you have been labouring to get, but ‘ Come unto Me.’“ “ Ah,” she exclaimed, “ I see it now. Oh, how self-righteous I have been, really refusing Christ, while all the time I thought I was preparing to come to Him.” “ Will you go to Jesus now?” Humbly, yet decisively, she responded, “ Yes, I will.” And the Lord in the richness of His grace and mercy enabled bet to do so. (Clerical Library.) Christ the Saviour of all who come to Him I. OUR DUTY TO CHRIST. To come to Him. 1. How. (1) By repentance (Matthew 11:28; Mark 1:15). (2) By faith. (a) Assenting to Him (Hebrews 11:6) that He is an only (Acts 4:12) and all-sufficient Saviour (Hebrews 7:12). (b) Receiving Him (John 1:12) for our Priest, to atone (Hebrews 9:12) and to make intercession (Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1); for our Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22), to make known God’ s will and to enable us to know it (John 16:13); for our King (IsaJohn 18:36; Matthew 28:18), to subdue our enemies Hebrews 2:14), to rule over us (Psalms 110:1-3). 2. What for. (1) Pardon (Acts 5:31). (2) Acceptance (Romans 5:1). (3) Purity (Titus 2:14; Acts 3:26). (4) Eternal life (John 5:40; Matthew 11:28). II. CHRIST’ S PROMISE, that if we come to Him He will in no wise cast us out. 1. What are we to understand by this? That He will receive us (Titus 2:14) into (1) The number of His people (1 Peter 2:9); (2) His love and favour (John 13:1); (3) His care and protection (John 17:12); (4) An interest in his death and passion; (5) A participation of His grace and spirit (John 16:7); (6) His intercession (John 17:9); (7) His presence and glory (John 17:24). 2. How does this appear. (1) We have His promise. (2) This was the end of His coming (John 3:16; John 6:39-40). III. MOTIVES TO COME TO CHRIST. 1. Are we in debt? He will be our Surety (Hebrews 7:22). 2. Are we in prison? He will be our Redeemer. 3. Are we sick? He will be our Physician (Matthew 9:12). 4. Are we arraigned? He will be our Advocate, (1 John 2:1). 5. Are we condemned? He will be our Saviour (Romans 8:34). 6. Are we estranged from God? He will be our Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5). 7. Are we in misery? He will be our Comforter (Psalms 94:19). 8. Are we weary? He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28). Wherefore come to Him. (1) Presently. (2) Cheerfully. (3) Sincerely. (4) Resolutely. (Bp. Beveridge.) The all-important advent I. THE EVENT. There are various advents. 1. The incarnation. 2. Through the Spirit. 3. At the judgment. 4. That of our text--a man’ s coming to Christ. This is dependent on the first, is made effectual through the second, and secures that the third shall be blessed and glorious. II. THE . Those who come will not be cast out. 1. Because it is not in Christ’ s nature to do so. 2. Because He has shed His blood for this very purpose. 3. Because He has said it, which is enough. III. THE MANNER. 1. Direct--not through any mediator. 2. As you are. 3. As you can. 4. Now. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Coming unto Jesus Take every other verse out of the Scriptures, and leave but this, and you have a foundation on which a world of souls may build their hopes and never be put to shame. Hear it, impenitent sinners, alarmed souls, desponding believers, rejoicing saints. I. THE PERSON POINTED OUT. What is meant by coming to Him. 1. Negatively. (1) Not to the Scriptures, they only testify of Him (John 5:39-40). (2) Not the Church, that is only a means, not the fountain of grace. (3) Not prayer, that is a well of salvation but not salvation. (4) John 6:5; John 6:22-24, show how possible it is to come, and yet not to come to Christ Himself. 2. Positively. Christ addresses the spiritual part of man’ s nature, and the invitation implies (1) A forsaking of sin. To come to is to come from (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). (2) A renouncing of self. (3) Faith which worketh by love (John 6:35; John 6:68-69). I. THE GIVEN THE PERSON . 1. The assurance itself. (1) It is unrestricted. (2) Personal. (3) Based upon the good “ will” of Christ. (4) Emphatic, “ in no wise.” 2. The grounds of the assurance. (1) The purposes of the Father. (2) The death of Christ. (3) The resurrection of Christ. (4) The work of the Spirit. (5) All God’ s attributes make it sure. Conclusion. 1. What say you to this? 2. Transpose the text, “ Him that cometh not to Me I will cast out.” (S. Miller.) The gospel welcome I. THE STATES OF MIND WITH WHICH WE SHOULD COME. The previous part of the text need prove no stumbling-block. All it affirms is that those whom the Father gives do come to Christ. Put the two together and they affirm the absolute freeness of the Divine grace, and exhibit that grace as acting in concurrence with our voluntary powers. Salvation is neither arbitrary, mechanical, nor compulsory. We must corneal. With childlike and dependent trust. (1) The primary element of all true faith, which is the movement of mind and heart towards God, is simple reliance on the gospel testimony that Christ is all-sufficient for the purposes of salvation. (2) The great strength and stay of this faith is that it enables the soul to rely exclusively upon a personal Redeemer. (3) This absolute casting of ourselves on Christ is not offered as a permission, but as a positive command. 2. With chastened humility and godly sorrow, repentance and faith stand together in the gospel commission, and are always united in the experience of the faithful. “ Going and weeping.” The prodigal. 3. In the spirit of total self-renunciation. Leave self, righteousness, sin, etc., and come to ME. II. THE AND we have in coming to Christ. 1. “ Him that cometh” or is coming, in the very act of coming now. It is a constantly repeated act; alike necessary in regeneration and sanctification. This includes all of whatsoever country, church, condition, rank. (1) Hear it, ye young. There is a sense in which your coming to Christ may be too late, but there is none in which it can be too early. (2) Ye middle aged whom harassing cares disquiet. He will allow for everything but a refusal to come. (3) Ye aged. Perhaps the harvest is passed and ye are not saved. 2. “ In no wise.” (1) But I have stayed away too long. (2) I am a backslider. No matter. 3. Has Jesus ever cast any one out? No. (1) All the glorious perfections of His nature bend Him to welcome you. (2) The mighty price paid for your redemption. (3) The purpose and promises of God. Conclusion: Not to come is to be rejected; not to be saved is to be lost; there is no middle state. (D. Moore, M. A.) Invitations of the gospel--the sinner’ s warrant In the courts of law if a man be called as a witness, no sooner is his name mentioned, though he may be at the end of the court, than he begins to force his way up to the witness-box. Nobody says, “ Why is this man pushing here?” or, if they should say, “ Who are you?” it would be a sufficient answer to say, “ My name was called.” “ But you are not rich, you have no gold ring upon your finger!” “ No, but that is not my right of way, but I was called.” “ Sir, you are not a man of repute, or rank, or character!” “ It matters not, I was called. Make way.” So make way, ye doubts and fears, make way, ye devils of the infernal lake, Christ calls the sinner. Sinner, come, for though thou hast nought to recommend thee, yet it is written, “ Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The essential in religion I. WHAT TRUE IS. 1. Negatively. (1) It cannot consist in any feeling of moral fitness. What need of coming to Christ if our own nature is morally sufficient? (2) Nor in the observance of external ritual. The source of the corruptions of Christianity is the tendency to put form for faith. (3) Nor in simple orthodoxy. 2. Positively. A living relation with a living Christ. II. THE METHOD OF GAINING TRUE . 1. Not thronging about Christ. 2. But coming to Christ by faith. III. THE PROOF OF THE OF TRUE . 1. Not in an old experience preserved in the memory. 2. Nor in a present release from the fear of death. 3. Nor in the fervent glow of feeling (these may accompany it), but in the present proneness of the soul on these words of Christ. Conclusion: Why will you not come to Christ? 1. Is it because you are afraid of ridicule and what others may say? “ Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed.” 2. Is it because of the inconsistencies of Christians? “ Every man Shall give account of himself to God.” 3. Is it because you are not willing to give up all to Christ? “ What shall it profit a man,” etc. 4. Is it because you are thinking you will do as well as you can, and that God ought to be satisfied with that? “ Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” 5. Is it because you are postponing the matter without any definite reason? “ Boast not thyself of to-morrow,” etc. 6. Is it because you fear you will not be accepted? “ Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” (W. Hoyt.) Scripture difficulties To thread a needle in the dark is a thing which no one can do. The difficulty and impossibility, however, does not lie in the thing itself, but in the circumstances under which it is attempted. Only let there be light, and the thing is not only possible, but perfectly easy. This will serve to illustrate our inability to reconcile, understand, and explain certain mysteries in Divine things; for instance, to reconcile God’ s fixed decrees and infallible foreknowledge with man’ s free will and responsibility. Our Lord plainly declares, that “ no man can come to Him except the Father draw him” ; but, at the same time, He gives the widest and most unlimited invitation--“ Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “ Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” And He charges it as entirely their own fault, if any refuse to come, and so perish: “ Ye are not willing to come to Me, that ye might have life.” (W. Hancock.) I was cruising one day in the western Highlands. It had been a splendid day, and the glorious scenery had made our journey like an excursion to Fairy Land; but it came to an end, for darkness and night asserted their primeval sovereignty. Right ahead was a vast headland of the isle of Arran. How it frowned against the evening sky! The mighty rock seemed to overhang the sea. Just at its base was a little bay, and into this we steamed, and there we lay at anchorage all night, safe from every wind that might happen to be seeking out its prey. In that calm loch we seemed to lie in the mountain’ s lap while its broad shoulders screened us from the wind. Now, the first part of my text, “ All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me,” rises like a huge headland high into the heavens. Who shall scale its height? Upon some it seems to frown darkly. But here at the bottom lies the placid, glassy lake of infinite love and mercy: “ Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” Steam into it, and be safe under the shadow of the great rock. You will be the better for the mountain-truth as your barque snugly reposes within the glittering waters at its foot; while you may thank God that the text is not all mountain to repel you, you will be grateful that there is enough of it to secure you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Character not needed for salvation In the mission at George Yard, Whitechapel, a converted street-singer, who had experienced much difficulty in getting work for want of a “ character,” but who afterwards became a licensed hawker and distributed tracts as he walked along, said: “ Bless God, I have found out that Jesus will, take a man without a character.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) The essence of the gospel Pluck a green leaf from a bough and look at it. That leaf, science tells us, is the typical tree. The tree is built upon the pattern of that leaf. The tree is only the leaf expanded, and with its various parts altered to suit new requirements; but the idea manifest in the leaf is the idea according to which the tree is made and shaped. For instance, science tells us that the seed--the starting-point of life to the tree--is only a leaf rolled tight and changed in tissue and in contents, and so fitted for its special uses. The tree-trunk is only the leaf-stem made to take columnar form, and greatly lengthened and strengthened and enlarged. All the mingling mass of branch and bough and twig, lifting their manifold tracery against the sky, is but the reproduction and increasing of the delicate tangle of veins striking through the green substance of the leaf. In short, the tree is only the leaf cut in larger pattern. Everything in the huge tree is adjusted to the method of the little leaf. In the leaf you have the tree in germ and type. So it is, it has seemed to me, with this short text I have read to you, “ Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” It is the typical gospel. In this text we have the whole great gospel in germ and type. The entire system of the revelation of salvation is shaped after the pattern of this text. (W. Hoyt.) The accessibleness of Christ Have you never read the story of the good ship that had been a long time at sea, and the captain had lost his reckoning; he drifted up the mouth of the great river Amazon, and, after he had been sailing for a long time up the river without knowing that he was in a river at all, they ran short of water. When another vessel was seen, they signalled her, and when they got near enough for speaking they cried, “ Water! We are dying for water!” They were greatly surprised when the answer came back, “ Dip it up! Dip it up! You are in a river. It is all around you.” They had nothing to do but to fling the bucket overboard, and have as much water as ever they liked. And here are poor souls crying out, “ Lord, what must I do to be saved?” when the great work is done, and all that remains to them is to receive the free gift of eternal life. What must you do? You have done enough for one life-time, for you have undone yourself by your doing. That is not the question. It is, “ Lord, what hast thou done?” And the answer is, “ It is finished. I have done it all. Only come and trust Me.” Sinner, you are in a river of grace and mercy. Over with the bucket, man, and drink to the full. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Human perversity If a compassionate prince wrote over his palace gate--“ Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out,” would poor beggars reading it need to have these words explained before they could understand them? And if the good man kept his word, and received all who asked his help, would his porch be ever empty night or day? Yet has Jesus, the Prince of Life, emblazoned these words in large, shining letters above His gates of grace, and ever kept His promise to help all the destitute and miserable who come to Him, and thousands of sinners are found to this hour who will not understand them, and millions of sinners who care nothing about them. (H. G. Guiness.) Abundant mercy You say, “ Do not get the invitation too large, for there is nothing more awkward than to have more guests than accommodation.” I know it. The Seamen’ s Friend Society are inviting all the sailors. The Tract Society is inviting all the destitute. The Sabbath schools are inviting all the children. The American and Foreign Christian Union is inviting all the Roman Catholics. The Missionary Society is inviting all the heathen. The printing-presses of Bible Societies are going night and day, doing nothing but printing invitations to this great gospel banquet. And are you not afraid that there will be more guests than accommodation? No! All who have been invited will not half fill up the table of God’ s supply. There are chairs for more. There are cups for more. God could with one feather of His wing cover up all those who have come; and when He spreads out both wings, they cover all the earth and all the heavens. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) None cast out by Christ In some of the hotels on the road to the lead and gold mines of California, there is constantly to be found in the register the names of persons with “ D.B.” opposite to them. This means “ dead broke,” and it is the custom never to refuse a meal to these poor fellows who have risked and lost their all in these precarious ventures. (H. O.Mackey.) Whosoever comes is saved A messenger came to a Hasten as quick as you can, there is a Sunday-school superintendent and said: “ A boy in a garret that wants to see you: he is dying.” The Sunday-school superintendent hastened to the place, and in the garret, in the straw, lay a boy who had been crushed by a cart. He was dying; and as the superintendent entered, the boy said: “ Oh! I am so glad you have come. Didn’ t I hear you say the other Sunday that ‘ whomsoever comes to God he would be saved?’“ “ Yes,” replied the superintendent, “ I said about that.” “ Well,” said the boy,” then I am saved. I have been a bad boy, but I have been thinking of that, and I have been saying that over to myself, and I am saved.” After he had seen his superintendent, his strength seemed to fail, and in a few moments he expired, and the last words on his lips were: “ Whomsoever cometh to God, He will in no wise be cast out.” He did not get the words exactly right, but he got the spirit. Mercy for all Men are going to ruin; but not like the boat that was seen shooting the rapid, and had reached a point above the cataract where no power could stem the raging current. To the horror of those who watched it shooting on to destruction, a man was seen on board, and asleep. The spectators ran along the banks. They cried; they shouted; and the sleeper awoke at length to take in all his danger at one fearful glance. To spring to his feet, to throw himself on the bench, to seize the oars, to strain every nerve in superhuman efforts to turn the boat’ s head to the shore, was the work of an instant. But in vain. Away went the bark to its doom, like an arrow from the bow. It hangs a moment on the edge of the gulf; and then, is gone for ever. Suppose a man to be as near hell!--if I could awaken him, I would. The dying thief was saved in the act of going over into perdition. Christ caught and saved him there. And He who is mighty to save, saving at the uttermost can save, though all our life were wasted to its last breath, if that last breath is spent in gasping out St. Peter’ s cry, “ Save, Lord, or I perish!” (T. Guthrie, D. D.) A Saviour for the lost “ I am lost,” said Mr.Whitefield’ s brother to the Countess of Huntingdon. “ I am delighted to hear it,” said the Countess. “ Oh,” cried he, “ what a dreadful thing to say!” “ Nay,” said she, “‘ for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost’ ; therefore I know He is come to save you.” O sinner, it would be unreasonable to despair. The more broken thou art, the more ruined thou art, the more vile thou art in thine own esteem, so much the more room is there for the display of infinite mercy and power. The gospel for dying hours You may know the name of Mr. Durham, the author of a famous book on Solomon’ s Song, one of the most earnest of Scotland’ s ancient preachers. Some days before he died he seemed to be in some perplexity about his future well-being, and said to his friend Mr. Carstairs, “ Dear brother, for all that I have written or preached, there is but one Scripture which I can now remember or dare grip unto now that I am hastening to the grave. It is this--‘ Whosoever cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.’ Pray tell me if I dare lay the weight of my salvation upon it.” Mr. Carstairs justly replied, “ Brother, you may depend upon it, though you had a thousand salvations at hazard.” You see it was a plain, sinner’ s text that He rested on. Just as Dr. Guthrie wanted them to sing a bairn’ s hymn, so do dying saints need the plain elementary doctrines of the gospel to rest upon. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Jesus a great Saviour Remember He never did cast any one out. Never yet! Never one! I have declared this everywhere, and I have said, “ If Jesus Christ casts any one of you out when you come to Him, pray let me know; for I do not want to go up and down the country telling lies.” Again I give the challenge. If my Lord does east out one poor soul that comes to Him, let me know it, and I will give up preaching. I should not have the face to come forward and preach Christ after that; for He Himself has said it, “ Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” ; and He would be a false Christ if He acted contrary to His word. He cannot cast you out; why should He? “ Oh, but then I am so bad.” So much the less likely is He to refuse you, for there is the more room for His grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ never fails When a man brings out a patent medicine, he publishes verifications of the efficacy of his physic. He gets a number of cases, and he advertises them. I suppose they are genuine. I should not like to be hanged if they were not. I suppose, therefore, they are all accurate and authentic. But there is one thing which you never knew a medicine advertiser do: he never advertises the failures of the medicine. The number of persons that have been induced to buy the remedy, and have derived no good from it: if these were all advertised, it might occupy more room in the newspaper than those who write of a cure. My Lord Jesus Christ is a Physician who never had a failure yet--never once. Never did a soul wash in Christ’ s blood without being made whiter than snow. Never did a man, besotted with the worst of vice, trust in Jesus without receiving power to conquer his evil habits. Not even in the lowest pit of hell is there one that dares to say, “ I trusted Christ, and I am lost. I sought His face with all my heart, and He cast me away.” There is not a man living that could say that, unless he dared to lie; for not one has with heart and soul sought the Saviour, and trusted in Him, and then had a negative from Him. He must save you if you trust Him. As surely as He lives He must save you, for He has put it, “ Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” I will repeat it, “ Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” You have never come if He has not received you; for He must save those who trust in Him. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The forgiving mercy of God It is reported of Julius Caesar, that he never entertained hatred against any so deeply but he was willing to lay down the same upon the tender of submission. As when C. Memnius put in for the consulship, he befriended him before others of the competition, notwithstanding that Memnius had made bitter invectives against him. Thus the great God of Heaven, to whom all the Caesars and kings of the earth are tributaries and homagers, doth never hate so irreconcilably but that true humiliation will work a reconciliation--let but the sinner appear before Him in a submissive posture, and His anger will be soon appeased. (J. Spencer.) How to come to Christ At a gathering in the West End of London the Rev. Caesar Malan found himself seated by a young lady. In the course of conversation he asked her if she were a Christian. She turned upon him, and somewhat sharply replied, “ That’ s a subject I don’ t care to have discussed here this evening.” “ Well,” answered Mr. Malan, with inimitable sweetness of manner, “ I will not persist in speaking of it, but I shall pray that you may give your heart to Christ, and become a useful worker for Him.” A fortnight afterwards they met again, and this time the young lady approached the minister with marked courtesy, and said, “ The question you asked me the other evening has abided with me ever since, and caused me very great trouble. I have been trying in vain in all directions to find the Saviour, and I come now to ask you to help me to find Him. I am sorry for the way in which I previously spoke to you, and now come for help.” Mr. Malan answered her, “ Come to Him just as you are.” “ But will He receive me just as I am, and now? Oh, yes,” said Mr. Malan, “ gladly will He do so.” They then knelt together and prayed, and she soon experienced the holy joy of a full forgiveness through the blood of Christ. The young lady’ s name was Charlotte Elliot, and to her the whole Church is indebted for the pathetic hymn commencing, “ Just as I am, without one plea. (Ira D. Sankey.) None cast out I went the other day to St. Cross Hospital near Winchester. There they give away a piece of bread to everybody who knocks at the door. I knocked as bold as brass. Why should I not? I did not humble myself particularly and make anything special of it. It was for all, and I came and received as one of the people who were willing to knock. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The comfort of the gospel in a dying hour When the great Bishop Butler was lying on his death-bed, he was observed to be unusually pensive and dejected, and on being asked the cause, ha replied, “ Though I have endeavoured to avoid sin and please God to the utmost of my power, yet from the consciousness of perpetual infirmities, I am still afraid to die.” A friend who stood by read him this text. “ Ah,” said the dying man, I have read that a thousand times, but I never felt its full force till this moment, and now I die happy. (Dean Stanley.) John 6:38-40 For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me The love of the Father The amazing love of the Father appears I. IN HIS SPARING THIS GUILTY WORLD, though He spared not the angels that sinned. His mercy is seen in man’ s long day of grace, and in thy day of grace, sinner. Accept it ere the dawn of the day of judgment. II. IN AND DRAWING GUILTY MEN TO BE SAVED. To give men liberty to be saved is love indeed; to provide a ransom is love higher still; but its loftiest height is seen in the drawing operations of Father, Son, and Spirit. But for this men would not come at all. III. IN HIS GIVING CHRIST TO BE THE WAY OF (chap. 3:16; Romans 8:32). Had He shot down a beam of heavenly light, or caused us to hear a heavenly note, this would have left us inexcusable; but He gave the best of His treasures. He resolved that all salvation should be found in the Son, and avoided leaving any details to us. IV. IN HIS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH CHRIST (chap. 14:9, 10). Not through an interpreter, but through One who shared His nature and was the perfect embodiment of His will. V. IN THE ETERNAL REWARD FOR SINNERS THROUGH CHRIST (John 6:39-40). (A. A. Bonar) The purpose of Christ’ s coming I. CHRIST CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN. 1. How does it appear that He was originally in heaven? (John 6:33; John 6:51; John 6:62). (1) He had a real existence before He was born (chap. 1:15; 8:58). (2) He was before the world (Hebrews 1:8); for He made the world Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 1:8; Hebrews 1:10; Colossians 1:14-16; John 1:1-2). (3) The existence He had before was purely Divine (Philippians 2:6-7; Acts 20:28). (4) The Divine nature was communicated to Him from the Father (chap. 5:26, 7:29, 16:15; Hebrews 1:3). (5) Hence He is said to be in heaven by reason of His Divine essence, which He always had from and with the Father (John 6:62). 2. What are we to understand by His coming down from heaven? His assuming our human nature, and in it conversing upon earth (John 1 Timothy 3:16). II. As Christ came from heaven, so HE CAME NOT TO DO HIS OWN WILL, BUT HIS THAT SENT HIM. 1. Christ’ s will as He is God is no way different from the Father’ s. 2. As man His will was distinct from the Father’ s, but still subordinate to it Luke 22:42); and therefore though He had a will of His own as man, yet He came not to fulfil that. 3. But our Saviour speaks not here of Himself, either as God or man, but as God-man, Mediator, one sent from the Father to do His will. From hence it follows 1. That God’ s will only is the fountain of man’ s happiness and salvation. For (1) God made man upright and happy (Ecclesiastes 7:29). (2) Man made himself sinful and miserable (Hosea 13:9). (3) But he cannot make himself happy again (Jeremiah 10:23). (4) And as man cannot, so none but God can. None else could find out a way, and none else effect it when found. (5) God hath no other motive but His own will and pleasure to save Ephesians 1:5). (a) Man himself could be no motive (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). (b) Neither could the hope of glory be so, God receiving nothing thereby (Job 22:2-3; Psalms 16:2). 2. That Christ came to accomplish the will of God. (1) By acquainting us with what is necessary to be known or done in order to be saved (John 14:2). (2) By giving us, in His own person, a perfect example. (Matthew 11:30). (3) By enabling us sincerely to perform whatsoever is enjoined us (chap. 15:5; Philippians 4:13). (4) By dying for us (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:16). (5) By continuing to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25; John 1:1-2). III. USES. 1. Give God the glory of your salvation. 2. Bless Him for all the means of it. (1) For sending His Son to die for us. (2) For sending His Spirit to live within us. (3) For vouchsafing to us the means of grace. 3. Trust Him only for the accomplishment of your salvation. (1) By the pardon of your sins. (2) The strengthening of your graces (Philippians 2:13). (3) Power to persevere (Matthew 10:22). 4. Hence learn also of your Saviour (1) To submit your wills to God’ s (1 Samuel 3:18). (2) To do the will of Him who sent you hither. And it is His will (1) That you repent (Acts 17:30). (2) That you turn from your sins (Ezekiel 18:30; Ezekiel 33:11). (3) That you love the Lord with all your hearts (Matthew 22:37). (4) That you earnestly endeavour to work out your salvation Philippians 2:12). (Bp. Beveridge.) Perfect obedience In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu Taher advanced to the gates of the capital with no more than five hundred horse. By the special order of Moctador the bridges had been broken down, and the person or head of the rebel was expected every hour by the Commander of the Faithful. His lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised Abu Taher of his danger, and recommended a speedy escape. “ Your master,” said the intrepid Carmathian to the messenger, “ is at the head of thirty thousand soldiers; three such men as these are wanting in his host.” At the same instant, turning to three of his companions, he commanded the first to plunge a dagger into his own breast, the second to leap into the Tigris, and the third to cast himself headlong down a precipice. They obeyed without a murmur. “ Relate what you have seen,” continued the Imam. “ Before the evening your general shall be chained among my dogs.” Before evening the camp was surprised and the menace executed. (Gibbon.) To do the wilt of God is the true end of life The end of life is not to do good, although many of us think so. It is not to win souls, although I once thought so. The end of life is to do the will of God whatever it may be. (Professor Drummond.) This is the Father’ s will … that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. The Father’ s will I. THE DIVINE SIDE OF THE WORK OF . 1. How sovereign its character. The Father’ s will is independent, omnipotent, unchangeable, perfect, full of love. 2. The obedient servant of that will (John 6:38). Christ came not to do His own will, His own private purposes, but “ the commandment of the Father” (Psalms 40:1-17.). To this end He took on Him the form of a servant (Isaiah 42:1-25.). (1) This was needful as an example for us; (2) and that we may know that Christ is no amateur Saviour. He has come willingly enough, but the reason was the Father’ s will. So that when Christ forgives or receives it is the Father’ s will. 3. God’ s will was that His Son should have disciples, a flock, members, a bride, brethren. 4. These persons Jesus undertook to keep, and to raise them up at the last day. II. THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE WORK OF (John 6:40). 1. This is still based on the Divine will. 2. The same obedient servant is engaged in it. 3. The terms are “ seeing and believing on the Son.” We cannot see Christ with our natural organs, but we can read and hear about Him. The eyes of our understanding discern Him; the sense of faith recognizes Him. 4. These terms are open to all. “ Every one,” the man of great or of little faith, rich or poor, etc. None are excluded but those who exclude themselves. 5. Those who believe in Jesus are in a present state of safety. They have everlasting life. Conclusion: 1. Never fear that there is anything in the secret purposes of God which can contradict His open promises. Never dream if you are a believer that any dark decree can shut you out from the benefits of grace. 2. Fear not that your believing will end in failure. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Doing God’ s will in our daily work (text, and Mark 6:3):--Scripture speaks of Christ as the Servant of the Lord. But not till most of His brief history had passed did He begin to preach the gospel. For thirty years He was engaged in the everyday duties of life. I. OUR DAILY WORK MAY BE TRUE SERVICE FOR GOD. Housework, the innumerable details of a mother’ s lot, manual labour, a sufferer’ s duties, commercial life, brain-toil--for these we may be as truly sent of God as an apostle or a prophet. 1. God’ s providential appointment shows where He wants our work. That we have our particular gifts, that our training fits us for a special post, that circumstances uncontrolled by us have brought us to a certain position, that our position involves definite duties--what are these but God pointing to what He requires us to do. 2. It were unlikely that most of our life should be necessarily spent on what has no vital bearing on eternity. No small feature of the blessedness of heaven is that there they serve Him. Consecration to Christ involves that He be glorified by our entire being. He claims us wholly. It is said that there is a point in the upper air where the discordant sounds of earth blend in harmony, the noise of the streets cannot be distinguished from the murmur of the sea, nor the shout of the battle from the chime of bells, nor the mirthful song from the sufferer’ s moan--there they are one; so the varied parts of our life may blend in a harmonious voice of praise ceaselessly rising to our exalted Lord, as by Himself the will of God was done as truly at the carpenter’ s bench aa in the most solemn agony of the garden and the cross. II. SOME OF THE IN WHICH THIS DIVINE SERVICE MAY BE . 1. Our daily toil tends to the well-being of others. The domestic servant contributes to the comfort of the home, the mechanic serves many a real human need, the teacher by voice or pen spreads knowledge, the physician and the nurse heal the body, the artist trains some of the higher faculties of the mind, the merchant produces or makes earth’ s productions available; there is no right calling which does not in some way benefit mankind. 2. And daily toil presents the best opportunity for manifesting the religion of Christ. 3. Daily toil is one of the great schools for training spiritual life. III. THE OF THIS SERVICE SHOWS THE OF OUR WORKDAY LIFE. 1. That all work may be Divine may well reconcile us to tasks that seem lowly. 2. This suggests a searching test of our belonging to Christ. For what is it to be Christ’ s, but to share His life. If we are only Christians on Sundays we are not Christ’ s. 3. This shows God’ s way to larger service presently. Was it not because He did the will of Him that sent Him in that humble village home, that He learnt to say in trial more awful than man can know, “ Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt” ? (C. New.) The believer’ s safety I. CHRIST WILL LOSE NONE THAT ARE GIVEN TO HIM. 1. How doth God give us to Christ? (1) By making us sensible of our sin and misery (Jeremiah 8:6;John 16:7-8). (2) By making us humble (Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 5:3; Matthew 11:28). (3) By inclining us to piety by His preventing grace (James 4:6). (4) By convincing us that Christ was sent to be our Saviour. 2. How shall those not be lost? They shall have (1) Their sins pardoned (1 John 2:1-2). (2) Their hearts renewed (Ezekiel 36:25; Titus 3:5). (3) God reconciled (Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18). (4) Their graces confirmed (Luke 22:32). (5) And so their souls eternally saved. (6) This Christ is able (Hebrews 7:25) and willing (Luke 13:34) to do. II. CHRIST’ S CARE OVER HIS PEOPLE REACHES TO THE DAY OF THEIR . 1. God’ s justice will raise the wicked (1) To judge (Ecclesiastes 12:14; 2 Corinthians 5:10). (2) To condemn. (3) To punish (Matthew 25:46). 2. Christ will raise the saints to bless them (1) With freedom from all evil (Revelation 21:4). (2) With the confluence of all good (1 Corinthians 2:9). III. USES. 1. Carefully attend those means which God gives to bring your souls to Christ. 2. Commit your souls only to Christ’ s care (1 Peter 4:19). 3. Live as becomes Christians. (Bp. Beveridge.) Christ our keeper The next thing we learn here is that all these persons Jesus Christ undertook to keep. He should “ lose nothing.” This is a very remarkable expression. The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, has taken all those who were given of the Father to Him into His custody. He is the surety; He is responsible for them, and He keeps them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The last day. I. EACH MAN HAS HIS LAST DAY. To each a sun rises of which he never sees the setting, or a sun sets of which he never sees the rising. II. HAVE THEIR LAST DAY. Households part never to meet again. Ancient lines dating back beyond the Conquest, at last come to an end. The ancestral mansion is vacant, the title is extinct, the estates revert to the state. In almost every community “ there is one alone, he hath neither child nor brother,” and his last day will be the last day of his name and race. III. STATES ALSO HAVE THEIR LAST DAY. Where are the thrones of Carthage and Tyre, of Assyria and Egypt, of Macedon and Rome? One sun arose on them still breathing, the next found them only matters of history. In the interval they had passed from something to nothing. And other states occupied their places; not a few of whom, in their turn, have expired and been laid away in the cemeteries of history. IV. THE WORLD WILL HAVE ITS LAST DAY. We have the best authority for saying that the time will come when the human race will disappear in a body from the earth, and the planet itself and all things therein be burned up. Exactly when this greatest of last days will come we are not informed. The month, the year, the century, the millennium even, in which it will occur, is not foretold. So little hint is given of its exact locality in history, that its actual advent will take the world by surprise. Up rolls the last sun from the east as brightly and steadily as usual. Men get them to their business, their pleasures, without a thought of change. (E. F. Burr.) The resurrection of believers When a farmer holds in his hand the first ripe sheaf of corn he has in possession an unassailable proof that he will have a harvest. More decisive and satisfactory evidence to that effect could not be desired by any reasonable man. Long before this time the precious seed had been east into the dark bosom of the earth, when no tokens were visible that nature possessed any power of life. But in due season the sun began to warm the sleeping world, the gentle rain from heaven fell upon the place beneath, and the winds of the south whispered of a coming revival. Soon there was first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the car, soon the first ripe sheaf telling of a harvest at hand. Christ is the first-fruits of them that slept, the infallible proof that we shall have a resurrection from the gloomy winter of death. (Archibald Craig.) The resurrection of believers a certainty Trees, in the winter time, appear to the view of all men as if they were withered and quite dead, yet when the springtime comes, they become alive again, and, as before, do bring forth their buds, blossoms, leaves, and fruit, The reason is because the body, grain, and arms of the tree are all joined and fastened to the root where the sap lies all the winter time, and from thence, by reason of so near conjunction, it is derived in the springtime to all parts of the tree. Even so the bodies of men have their winter also, and that is in death, in which time they are turned into dust, and so remain for a time. Yet in the springtime, that is, in the last day, at the resurrection of all flesh, by means of the mystical union with Christ, His Divine and quickening virtue shall stream from thence to all the bodies of His members, and cause them to Live again, and that to life eternal. (Strode.) John 6:41-51 The Jews then murmured at Him because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven Weighty truths I. THAT CHRIST’ S LOWLY IS A -BLOCK TO THE NATURAL MAN. 1. Had He come as a conqueror with royal favours for His followers they would have received Him willingly; but their pride refused to believe that the lowly prophet was from God. 2. There is nothing surprising in this. It is human nature showing itself in its true colours (1 Corinthians 1:23). Thousands reject the gospel because of its humbling doctrines. Christ’ s teaching and example they admire, but His blood they cannot away with. II. MAN’ S NATURAL TO REPENT AND BELIEVE, until the Father draws him. We are spiritually dead and without the power to give ourselves life. The will of man is the part of him that is in fault. It’ would not be true to say that a man has wish to come, but no power; it is that a man has no power because he has no desire. III. THE OF A IS A PRESENT THING. It is not said that he shall have life at the judgment day, but that he has it now. (Bishop Ryle.) Four enigmas solved I. The enigma of CHRIST’ S ORIGIN (John 6:41-43). 1. The mystery propounded. The difficulty was not that the Messiah’ s origin should be mysterious. The popular opinion, based on Daniel 7:13, was that when Christ came no one should know whence He was (vii. 27). But the Jews supposed that they knew exactly whence Jesus was, and that He should have come down from heaven seemed absurd. 2. The mystery resolved. What to the learned Scripturists of His day was a puzzle He left a puzzle. To have refuted their objections by a declaration of what took place at Bethlehem would only have increased their incredulity. The true method of faith is not to believe that Christ is Divine because the Incarnation story is authentic: but that Christ having been powerfully declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection (Romans 1:4), the account given of His conception must be correct. II. The enigma of MAN’ S (verses 43-45). 1. The difficulty set forth. Christ blamed His hearers for their unbelief (verse 36), and yet affirmed (verse 44). This is what the intellect of centuries has wrestled with. 2. The difficulty set aside. (1) Not by denying the fact of man’ s responsibility (John 5:40; John 6:36). This the Scripture often declares (Romans 1:18; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 1 Peter 3:12) and conscience confirms. (2) Not by explaining away the alleged necessity of Divine grace (verses 37, 44, 45). But (3) By showing that the Father’ s drawing interferes pot with human freedom. In naming it “ drawing” and a “ teaching” Christ makes it a moral suasion. III. Enigma of SAVING FAITH (verses 46, 47). 1. The perplexity stated. If no one could come to Him without first hearing and learning of the Father, then no one could come (Exodus 33:20; 1 Timothy 6:16). This, though not expressed, was clearly the hearer’ s thoughts. 2. The perplexity recognized. He admitted that no one had ever seen the Father. 3. The perplexity removed. He, the Son, had seen the Father (verses 19; 1:18; 16:28). Hence to hear and learn of the Father was to hear and learn of Him whom He had sent. To learn of the Father one must be a disciple of Christ. IV. The enigma of ETERNAL LIFE (verses 47-51). 1. The riddle proposed. The manna had only supported physical life for a few years, and those who had partaken of it were dead. The Jews were at a loss to know how Christ could do more for them than Moses. 2. The riddle read. (1) The bread of life was a living, spiritual Person (verse 48). (2) It was in itself living and life-giving. (3) When eaten by the soul it communicates to the soul the life itself contained. (4) The soul thus vivified could not die. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Reason and faith There is nothing so truly reasonable as to exclude reason from the province of faith; and nothing so truly irrational as to lose sight of reason in things which are not necessarily of faith. The two excesses are equally dangerous--to shut out reason, or to make it all in all. Faith tells us what the senses cannot tell; but it never contradicts them; it is above, and not against them. (Pascal.) Murmuring a great sin Consider that murmuring is a mercy-embittering sin, a mercy-souring sin. As the sweetest things put into a sour vessel sours them, or put into a bitter vessel embitters them, so murmuring puts gall and wormwood into every cup of mercy that God gives into our hands. The murmurer writes “ Marah,” that is, bitterness, upon all his mercies, and he reads and tastes bitterness in them all. As “ to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,” so to the murmuring soul every sweet thing is bitter. (T. Brook.) Murmuring a hydra-headed sin As the River Nile bringeth forth many crocodiles, and the scorpion many serpents, at one birth, so murmuring is a sin that breeds and brings forth many sins at once. It is like the monster hydra--cut off one head and many will rise up in its room. It is the mother of harlots, the mother of all abominations, a sin that breeds many other sins, viz., disobedience, contempt, ingratitude, impatience, distrust, rebellion, cursing, carnality; yea, it charges God with folly, yea, with blasphemy. The language of a murmuring soul is this, “ Surely God might have done this sooner, and that wiser, and the other thing better.” (T. Brooks.) No man can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw himComing to Christ I. THE ACTION OF WHICH CHRIST SPEAKS. Coming to Him--a frequent Scriptural phrase expressive of the first step in religion. 1. Its nature. An act of the soul. There was no impediment to a literal approach. He was always accessible. Coming is used for faith in Christ as prophet, priest, and king, and living on His fulness for all spiritual purposes. 2. Its importance. (1) Implied in the invitation of Scripture, “ Come unto Me.” (2) In the promises (John 6:37). (3) In the directions, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (4) In the decisions, “ If ye believe not ye shall die.” II. THE OF MAN TO PERFORM IT OF HIMSELF. Whence does this arise? 1. Not from any Divine decree, for it would be neither just nor reasonable to command men to believe and to decree that they should not. But 2. From the depravity of the heart. 3. And in some cases carnal policy operates to fetter the mind to its moral powers. Success in life is the one thing needful. 4. From religious mistakes. Some imagine that they have come in sacramental actions, or by the repetition of certain words, or by good works. III. THE DIVINE AGENCY BY WHICH IT IS . 1. The Father. He draws by moral and persuasive means. He draws man as guilty that He may be pardoned; as ignorant, that he may be instructed, etc. 2. The process is generally conviction of sin, desire for salvation, direction to the cross, discovery of a Saviour, trust, safety, rest. IV. THE . 1. The solemn event which the language implies. We must die. 2. The resurrection promised. The event is general, but the benefit is particular. 3. The agency by which it is effected. “ I,” which shows the dignity and power of Christ. 4. The period of its performance--“ the last day.” The day for which all others were made, and to which they are introductory. Conclusion: 1. In coming to Christ nothing can prevent your salvation (John 10:27-29). 2. In turning from Him-nothing can save you from perdition. (J. E. Good.) The Christian now drawn to Christ, and hereafter to be raised by Him I. OUR COMING TO CHRIST. 1. This is not to be understood corporeally. It was not so taken by Himself. “ Ye will not come,” and yet many literally come from captiousness, curiosity, for loaves and fishes, and under temporary emotion, and after awhile “ went back.” 2. But the expression is taken from the body, and there is hardly a part of it that has not been used to hold forth the operations of faith. Sometimes the reference is (1) To the eye; then believing is seeing Christ. (2) To the ear; then believing is hearing Him. (3) To the taste; then believing is eating His flesh and drinking His blood. (4) To the head; then believing is knowing Him. (5) To the feet; then believing is coming to Him. 3. This coming to Christ implies (1) Absence. Else why come? (2) Accessibleness. How can we come unless we can approach Him? “ Lo, I am with you alway.” (3) Application. We come to Him (a) As the way that we may walk with Him; (b) As to a refuge that we may enter Him; (c) As to a fountain that we may be cleansed; (d) As a foundation on which we may build; (e) As to a physician for cure; (f) As our prophet, priest, and king, to be taught, saved, and ruled over by Him. 4. Faith is trust, confidence. II. MAN’ S WITHOUT DIVINE AGENCY. 1. This is a very unwelcome doctrine, even to those who admit human depravity; but it is wrapped up in that depravity. 2. This is a Scriptural doctrine--“ In our flesh dwelleth no good thing.” 3. This is a doctrine based upon the nature of things. As we cannot perform natural actions without the concurrence of nature, how can we perform spiritual actions without the concurrence of the Spirit? 4. This is a doctrine of importance. (1) It serves to show those who are the subjects of this work what is their duty to bless and praise God for His sovereign grace. (2) It serves to show sinners their duty to pray to Him who wills all men to be saved. III. THE BY WHICH THE SOUL IS BROUGHT TO THE SAVIOUR. In a general way the Father draws thus. 1. There is a confliction of sin 2. This produces distress and fear: 3. Hence renunciation and despair. 4. Yet along with this is hope. 5. Concurrently new desires after Jesus. 6. Reception of Jesus as a Saviour, and reliance on His salvation. IV. THE FINAL FROM THIS. 1. The speciality of this reference. He will raise all, but the privilege is limited to some. 2. The memory of this blessedness. It is the completion of the blessedness of a persevering Christian life. Without the body the Christian man would be incomplete. Man will be raised infinitely improved. 3. The Author of it. Christ is not only the model of this resurrection, but its accomplisher. 4. Its certainty. If it were not so, He would have told them. “ Because I live ye shall live also.” (W. Jay.) Human inability I. MAN’ S . Wherein does this consist? 1. Not in any physical defect. If in coming to Christ moving the body should be any assistance, or includes the utterance of a prayer, man can come. 2. Nor in any mental lack. Man can believe in the Bible and in Christ as in anything else. But 3. In his nature, which is so debased by the Fall that it is impossible for him to come without the assistance of the Holy Spirit. To enter into the subject of this inability note (1) It lies in the obstinacy of the human will, which is set on mischief and disinclined to that which is good. (2) The understanding is darkened so that it cannot perceive the things of God until opened by the Holy Spirit. (3) The affections are depraved and must be renewed. We love that we ought to hate, and hate that we ought to love. (4) Conscience has been impaired by the Fall, and must be repaired. 4. So that while largely this is a question of the will, it is not exclusively so, for sometimes even in the regenerate there is will without power, much more in those who are dead in trespasses and sins. 5. Were it otherwise, how are we to account for the uniform testimony of the Scriptures that our salvation is wholly due to God? 6. This doctrine is condemned for its hurtful tendency. But what doctrine is there that will not hurt a man if he chooses to make hurt of it? So with this otherwise it only hurts Satan’ s kingdom. 7. You are not warranted in saying, “ If I cannot save myself and cannot come to Christ, I must sit still and do nothing.” There are many things you can do. (1) To be found continually in the house of God is in your power. (2) To study the Word of God. (3) To renounce outward sin. (4) To make your life honest, sober, righteous. 8. But your want of power is no excuse, seeing you have no desire to come, and are living in wilful rebellion. Suppose a liar has been a liar so long that he says he has no power to speak the truth, is that an excuse? Ii a drunkard has become so foully a drunkard that he cannot pass a public-house, do you therefore excuse him? No; because his inability to reform lies in his nature, which he has no desire to conquer. II. THE FATHER’ S . 1. God draws men by the preaching of the gospel, but not by this alone, for the men of Capernaum had the gospel in its fulness, and attested by miracles. There is such a thing as being drawn by a minister without being drawn by God. 2. Clearly it is a Divine drawing, a sending out of the Third Person in the Holy Trinity. 3. In this there is no compulsion. Christ saves no one against his will. 4. How then does the Holy Spirit draw him? By making him willing. He goes to the secret fountain of the heart and he knows how, by some mysterious operation, to turn the will in an opposite direction. But he is saved with full consent, for he is made willing in the day of God’ s power. “ Draw me and I will run after Thee.” 5. How this is done is a mystery, but the apparent way is: (1) He finds a man with a good opinion of himself--an effectual barrier to coming to Christ--and lays bare,the man’ s heart, full of sin, so that he stands aghast. (2) The man says I will try and reform--another barrier--but the Holy Spirit shows him he cannot do this. (3) The heart sinks, and the man is ready to despair--then the Spirit shows him the Cross and enables him to believe. III. : 1. One says, “ If all this be true, what is to become of my religion? I must give it up and begin again.” That will be better than building on the sand of your ability, and as soon as you say, “ I cannot come to Christ; Lord draw me,” grace is begun in your heart, and God will not leave you till the work is finished. 2. Careless sinner, thy salvation hangs in God’ s hand, and He is the Gad thou art grieving every day. Does not this make them tremble. If so the Spirit has begun to draw. 3. Some of you are conscious that you are coming to Christ. It is the Father’ s doing--“ With lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” 4. Rejoice in this love those of you who have come. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Things to be remembered I. We must never suppose that the doctrine of this verse TAKES AWAY MAN’ S to God for his soul. On the contrary, the Bible always distinctly declares that if any man is lost, it is his own fault Mark 8:36). If we cannot reconcile God’ s sovereignty and man’ s responsibility now, we need not doubt that it will be all plain at the last day. II. Nor does Christ’ s teaching here LIMIT THE OFFERS OF TO SINNERS. On the contrary, we must hold firmly that pardon and peace are to be offered freely through Christ to all without exception. We never know who they are that God will draw, and have nothing to do with it. Our duty is to invite all, and leave it to God to choose the vessels of mercy. III. We must not suppose THAT WE, OR ANYBODY ELSE, ARE DRAWN, UNLESS WE COME TO CHRIST BY FAITH. This is the grand mark and evidence of any one being the subject of the Father’ s drawing work. If “ drawn” he comes to Christ, believes, and lives. Where there is no faith and love, there may be talk, self-conceit, and high profession. But there is no “ drawing” of the Father. IV. We must always remember THAT GOD WORKS BY MEANS, and specially by such means as He Himself has appointed. No doubt He acts as a sovereign. But we must carefully maintain the great principle that God ordinarily draws through the instrumentality of His Word. The man that neglects the public preaching and private reading of God’ s Word, has no right to expect that God will draw him. The thing is possible, but highly improbable. V. WE MUST NEVER ALLOW OR OTHERS TO WASTE TIME IN TRYING TO FIND out, as a first question, WHETHER WE ARE DRAWN OF GOD the Father, elect, chosen, and the like. The first and main question is, whether we have come to Christ by faith. If we have, let us take comfort and be thankful. (Bp. Ryle.) The drawing of the Father Man is like a waggon sunk in the mire under a heavy load, and Divine love is the strong team which draws it up and draws it forward. (R. Besser, D. D.) Just as the magnet does not attract everything, but only iron, so there must be in man a disposedness of heart, before God’ s drawing can take hold of him. (Theophylact.) A man cannot come to Christ unassisted by the Holy Spirit I have seen a captive eagle, caged far from its distant home, as he sat mournful-like on his perch, turn his eye sometimes heavenwards; there he would sit in silence, like one wrapt in thought, gazing through the bars of his cage up into the blue sky; and after a while, as if noble but sleeping instincts had suddenly awoke, he would start and spread out his broad sails, and leap upward, revealing an iron chain that, usually covered by his plumage, drew him back again to his place. But though this bird of heaven knew the way to soar aloft, and sometimes, under the influence of old instincts, decayed, but not altogether dead, felt the thirst of freedom, freedom was not for him, till a power greater than his own proclaimed liberty to the captive, and shattered the shackles that bound him to his perch. Nor is there freedom for us till the Holy Spirit sets us free, and by the lightning force of truth, breaks the chains that bind us to sin. (Dr. Guthrie.) Why men cannot come to Christ You see a mother with her babe in her arm. You put a knife into her hand and tell her to stab that babe to the heart. She replies, very truthfully, “ I cannot.” Now, so far as her bodily power is concerned she can if she pleases, there is the knife, and there is the child. But she is quite correct when she says she cannot do it. Her nature as a mother forbids her doing that from which her soul revolts. It is even so with a sinner. Coming to Christ is so obnoxious to human nature that, although so far as physical and mental forces are concerned men could come if they would, it is strictly correct to say that they cannot and will not unless the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them. (C. H.Spurgeon.) And they shall be all taught of GodThe teachings of God opened I. WHAT IS BY OUR BEING TAUGHT OF GOD. 1. Negatively. The text is not to be understood (1) of any extraordinary, visional appearances, or miraculous and immediate voice of God (Numbers 12:8; Hebrews 1:1-2), (2) nor as opposite to or exclusive of the teachings of men. Saul was taught of God (Galatians 1:12). Yet the ministry of Ananias was honoured (Acts 9:4; Acts 9:17). 2. Positively: the teachings of God (2 Corinthians 4:6 : John 14:26) are (1) The sanctifying impressions of the Holy Spirit by virtue of which the soul receives marvellous light and insight into spiritual things, and this not only at conversion but continuously (1 John 2:27; John 7:17; Jeremiah 31:33). Sanctification gives the soul experience of the truths of Scripture. (2) The gracious assistances of the Spirit as our need requires Matthew 10:19; John 14:26). II. WHAT THOSE SPECIAL TRUTHS ARE WHICH LEARN. 1. That there is abundantly more evil in their natures than they ever discerned before (John 16:8-9). There is threefold knowledge of sin. (1) Traditional in the rude multitude; (2) discursive in the more rational; (3) intuitive in the divinely enlightened. 2. The wrath and misery which hang over the world in consequence of sin. Scripture threatenings were before slighted (Isaiah 28:15; Psalms 50:21); now they see that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:1-23.). 3. That deliverance from sin is the greatest business man has to do in this Acts 16:30). 4. That though it be obligatory to strive after salvation, yet one’ s own strength is insufficient to attain it. 5. That though the case be sad it is not remediless. There is a door of hope and way of escape. 6. That there is a fulness of saving power in Christ whereby any soul that duly receives Him may be delivered from all its guilt and misery Hebrews 7:25; Colossians 1:19; Matthew 28:18). 7. That we can never reap any benefit from the blood of Christ without union with Christ (1 John 5:12; Ephesians 4:16). 8. That whatever is necessary in order to this union is to be obtained in the way of prayer (Ezekiel 36:37). 9. To abandon their former ways and companions (Isaiah 55:7; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Psalms 119:115), and to see the beauty and excellency of the ways and people of God (Psalms 16:3; Zechariah 8:23). 10. That whatever difficulties there maybe in religion they must not be discouraged or return to sin (Luke 9:62; 1 Corinthians 9:24). III. WHAT ARE THE OF DIVINE . God teaches 1. Powerfully (2 Corinthians 10:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:4-5; 1 Corinthians 14:25). 2. Sweetly (Son 1:3; Son 5:16), 3. Clearly (2 Corinthians 3:16; Luke 24:45). 4. Infallibly (John 14:13). 5. Abidingly (Psalms 119:98; Jeremiah 31:33). 6. Savingly (2 Timothy 3:15; John 17:3). 7. Penetratively (Matthew 11:25; Isaiah 32:4). 8. Transformingly (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 6:17). IV. WHAT DIVINE HAVE UPON SOULS IN THEM TO CHRIST. 1. They have an influence upon the means (2 Corinthians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 3:7). 2. Upon the mind to remove what hindered it from Christ. 3. They powerfully allure the sinner to Christ (Hosea 2:14). V. WHY IS IT FOR ANY MAN TO COME TO CHRIST WITHOUT THE FATHER’ S . Because 1. Of the power of sin (1) Sin is co-natural with the soul (Psalms 51:4; Isaiah 48:8). (2) The power of sin hath been strengthened by long continued custom which gives it the force of a second nature (Jeremiah 15:23). (3) Sin is the delight of the sinner (Proverbs 10:23). 2. Of the indisposition of man (1 Corinthians 2:14). Before he can come to Christ (1) His blind understanding must be enlightened, which is the work of God (2 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 3:17; Ephesians 5:8). (2) His hard heart must be broken and melted (Acts 5:31; Ezekiel 36:26). (3) His stiff and obstinate will must be conquered (Philippians 2:13). 3. Of the nature of faith, everything in which is supernatural. (1) The habit (Ephesians 2:8). (2) The light (Hebrews 11:1; Hebrews 11:27). (3) The adventures (Romans 4:18). (4) The self-denial (Matthew 5:29). (5) The victories (Hebrews 11:33-34; Acts 15:9; 1 John 5:4). (John Flavel.) The Christian taught of God I. THE OF THE . The people of God; all of them, from the least to the greatest; and that not only instrumentally but directly. II. ITS . Spiritual things generally, called 1. “ Things of God,” pertaining to Him and our relationship to Him. His nature and ours; His moral character and ours; His sovereignty and our dependence and duty; His salvation and our need of it. 2. “ Things of Christ,” relating to His person, offices and work. 3. “ Things of the Spirit,” our need of Him; the reality of His influence; His indwelling. III. ITS . 1. They must be taught. Why so? (1) Because an all-wise God has ordained it. (2) Because our ignorance and spiritual darkness require it. (3) Because this knowledge is the germ of everything of a saving and holy character in a sinner’ s heart. 2. None but God can effectually teach them. (1) He does not supersede the teaching of His servants, but energizes it. (2) When the ordinary means fail He does His own teaching. IV. ITS MEANS. 1. His written Word. (1) To this all others are subsidiary, and are only helpful so far as they are related to it. Preaching; creeds. (2) This excludes tradition, modern, so called, inspiration. (3) But the written Word is not sufficient without the aid of the Holy Spirit to act upon the heart and to apply its truths. 2. His providence. The man of commerce forgets, e.g., that “ they that will be rich fall into a temptation and a snare,” and the God of providence by a calamity brings it to his mind. 3. The Christian’ s inward experience. This harmonizes wonderfully with Scripture, throwing light upon it, and confirming it. V. ITS EFFECT. God teaches that He may 1. Save. 2. Comfort. 3. Sanctify. 4. Make useful. 5. Make meet for heaven. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Divine light necessary to our salvation The gospel is a picture of God’ s free grace to sinners. Were we in a room hung with the finest paintings, and adorned with the most exquisite statues, we could not see one of them if all light were excluded. Now the blessed Spirit’ s illumination is the same to the mind that outward light is to the bodily eyes. A compass is of no use to the mariner unless he have light to see it by. (Toplady.) Conviction by the Holy Spirit necessary to conversion Take the cold iron, and attempt to weld it, if you can, into a certain shape. How fruitless the effort! Lay it on the anvil, seize the blacksmith’ s hammer with all your might, let blow after blow fall upon it, and you will have done nothing; but put it in the fire, let it be softened and made malleable, then lay it on the anvil, and each stroke shall have a mighty effect, so that you may fashion it into any form you may desire; so take your heart, not cold as it is, not stony as it is by nature, but put it into the furnace; there let it be molten, and after that it can be turned like wax to the seal, and fashioned into the image of Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Divine teaching necessary No human teacher can do it. Conscience cannot do it. Law in none of its forms, human or Divine, can do it. Nay, the gospel itself cannot do it. Although the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, yet, unless the Spirit of God draws forth that sword, it lies powerless in its sheath. Only when the Spirit of God wields it, is it quick and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, a discerner of the thoughts and purposes of the heart. Therefore, as the work of convincing the world of sin is one which nothing less than the Spirit of God can effect--and which yet must be effected thoroughly, if sin is to be driven out from the world--our Saviour was mercifully pleased to send the Comforter to produce this conviction in mankind. (Archdeacon Hare.) Taught of God I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THE PROMISE IS MADE. 1. They must be living ones or they cannot be taught anything. They become so by being quickened together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5). 2. They are described in Isaiah 54:13. 3. All that the Father hath given Christ (verses 37, 39). Given (1) in the covenant of grace to preserve and to teach; (2) in effectual calling (John 17:6). 4. In short, they are those who are loved by the Father, redeemed by the Son and quickened by the Spirit. II. WHAT SHALL THEY BE TAUGHT? 1. To know themselves (1) as sinful (Luke 15:18; Romans 7:18). (2) Their own helplessness (Isaiah 38:14; Matthew 14:30; John 15:5). (3) Their own ignorance (Psalms 25:5; Job 36:22). 2. To know Christ as their way of life and salvation. (1) The suitableness of His righteousness (Isaiah 45:24). (2) The completeness of His atonement (Hebrews 1:26). (3) The riches and efficacy of His grace (John 1:16; Titus 2:12). (4) In short to embrace Him as their wisdom, etc. (1 Corinthians 1:36), and their Saviour from the charge, punishment, guilt, love, and dominion of sin. 3. To use the means of grace (1) Prayer; (2) Reading and hearing God’ s Word. (3) The Lord’ s Supper. (S. Barnard.) The character of faith The text shows us I. WHAT FAITH IS. COMING TO CHRIST. II. THE OF FAITH. It is not the offspring of a diseased imagination, but the result of Divine teaching. III. THE OF CHRIST. All God’ s teaching is designed to make us feel our need of Christ. (Preacher’ s Analyst.) John 6:47-58 He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life Everlasting life I. THE , “ everlasting life.” Everlasting life was never proposed in the schools of philosophy to the faith of man, or urged as a principle or motive to holiness. Those who taught were not sure of it themselves. What does it mean? We may take three views of it. 1. It is opposed to eternal death. Eternal death does not mean annihilation or destruction of being, bat of well-being, of happiness and of hope. So eternal life is not mere existence, but complete well-being. 2. It is distinguished from natural life: is a state of freedom from all possible evil, and the possession of all possible good. 3. Its complete spirituality. The people of God are now quickened and made alive. They have spiritual appetites, senses, powers, passions. They can perform spiritual exercises. But it doth not yet appear what we shall be. II. THE OWNER OF THIS . “ He that believeth on Me.” 1. The object of this faith--the Lord Jesus. How surprised would you be did Paul, or Peter, or James express themselves in this way I But they well knew that salvation was not in them. Thus they preached not themselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. 2. Its nature. Belief is the giving assent to a declaration as true. But credence in itself is much like knowledge. We may know a thing, and not possess it, or pursue it. Faith always operates towards Christ as its object in a Way of trust and dependence, and in a way of application too. III. THE SEASON OF --now. Not he shall have, but he “ hath.” The believer has everlasting life 1. As his aim. The mariner has the port in his eye from the day he sails till he enters the desired haven. So is it with the Christian. 2. In promise. “ In my Father’ s house,” etc.; “ When He who is our life,” etc. 3. In trust. And who is the trustee? The Lord Jesus, our Forerunner. He is gone to take possession. 4. In participation. “ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” But Christians have this Spirit, and by this Spirit is the Christian sealed to the day of redemption. 5. When are Christians peculiarly indulged with these anticipations? (1) When they are alone. “ When I remember Thee on my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.” (2) In the sanctuary services. “ A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.” (3) In trouble. God acts upon the principle of the truest friendship, He is most near in the time of trouble. (4) In death. IV. THE GROUND OF THEIR . The fulness of their assurance: “ Verily, verily, I say unto you,” etc. Here it is truth itself that speaks; and yet Christ employs a double asseveration, so that we may learn 1. The duty of belief, “ O fools, and slow of heart to believe:” 2. The importance of our having the full assurance of understanding, and the full assurance of faith, to establish our hearts with grace. (W. Jay.) Believing must be on Christ only As the eye seeks for no other light than that of the sun, and joins no candles with it to dishonour the sufficiency of its beams, so no created thing must be joined with Christ as an object of faith. Who would join the weakness of a bulrush with the strength of a rock for his protection! Who would fetch water from a muddy pond to make a pure fountain in his garden more pleasant! Address yourselves only to Him to find a medicine for your miseries and comfort in your troubles, (S. Charnock.) Certain salvation by believing One walking with me observed, with some emphasis, “ I do not believe as you do. I am an Agnostic.” “ Oh,” I said to him. “ Yes. That is a Greek word, is it not? The Latin word, I think, is ignoramus.” He did not like it at all. Yet I only translated his language from Greek to Latin. These are queer waters to get into, when all your philosophy brings you is the confession that you know nothing, and the stolidity which enables you to glory in your ignorance. As for those of us who rest in Jesus, we know and have believed something; for we have been taught eternal verities by Him who cannot lie. Our Master was not wont to say, “ It may be,” or “ It may not be” ; but He had an authoritative style, and testified, “ Verily, verily, I say unto you.” Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of what He hath taught us shall cease to be the creed of our souls. We feel safe in this assurance; but should we quit it, we should expect soon to find ourselves in troubled waters. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith in Christ must be personal In Gideon’ s camp every soldier had his own pitcher; among Solomon’ s men of valour every man wore his own sword; the five wise virgins had every one oil in her own lamp. Whosoever will go to God must have a faith of his own; it must be “ Thy faith hath saved thee.” (J. Spencer.) Faith, though weak, saves the soul Faith is the eye by which we look to Jesus. A dim-sighted eye is still an eye; a weeping eye is still an eye. Faith is the hand with which we lay hold of Jesus. A trembling hand is still a hand. And he is a believer, whoso heart within him trembles when he touches the hem of the Saviour’ s garment that he may be healed. Faith is the tongue by which we taste how good the Lord is. A feverish tongue. And even then we may believe, when we are without the smallest portion of comfort; for our faith is founded, not upon feelings, but upon the promises of God. Faith is the foot by which we go to Jesus. A lame foot is still a foot. He who comes slowly, nevertheless comes. (H. Muller.) Everlasting life I. IN CHRIST’ S . II. IN GOD’ S PROMISE. III. IN THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. Conclusions: 1. The exclusiveness of the gospel. Without faith in Christ there is no salvation for any sinner. 2. The charity of the gospel. With faith there is salvation for all. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) I am that Bread of Life. The Bread of Life I. THE STAFF OF LIFE. 1. Christ is the life. 2. Where Christ is unknown there can be no life. (1) Heathenism is death. (2) Unbelief. (3) Formalism. 3. This life is worth everything and is to be obtained for nothing. 4. This life supports, not by talking about it, believing in statements concerning it, but by having and enjoying it. II. The staff of life is USED ONLY BY FAITH. Faith 1. Receives. 2. Handles. 3. Tastes. 4. Digests. 5. Enjoys. 6. Grows thereby. III. IN IT IS THE OF THE LORD’ S FAMILY. It is household bread. 1. The ungodly are self-excluded. 2. The qualification is the robe of righteousness, worn only by the Lord’ s children. 3. The children participate through (1) The Word; (2) the sacrament. (J. Irons.) The bread of life I. A OF OUR SAVIOUR. 1. Life is more valuable than all beside. 2. The Scripture represents religion as life. 3. How many people look like life, having the form of godliness without the power. 4. The relation of Christ to this life. Bread which (1)nourishes; (2)is corn bruised: so Christ was bruised for our iniquities; (3) must be eaten, or is nothing to us: so Christ is nothing till applied. II. THE MEANS OF THIS BENEFIT: coming to Christ and believing on Him. This reminds us 1. That Christ is accessible. 2. That faith is not mere sentiment, but a principle of life. 3. Faith is not an isolated but a continuous act. III. THE HIS SHALL ENJOY. 1. They shall never thirst for the world. Worldly men desire nothing else. 2. They shall not hunger or thirst in vain. The new creature has wants and appetites, but ample provision is made for their complete satisfaction. 3. They will not hunger or thirst always. “ I shall be satisfied,” etc. Application: The subject is a standard by which we may estimate 1. Christ. 2. Our faith. 3. The Christian. (Preacher’ s Analyst.) Christ the bread of life The analogy between Christ and corporal meat stands in these three particulars: 1. Sustentation. Corporal meat is for the preservation of the natural life. The natural life is maintained by meat, through the concurrence of God’ s blessing. It is pabulum vitae. Hence bread, under which all other provision is comprehended, is called the staff of life (Isaiah 3:1). Keep the strongest man from meat but a few days, and the life will extinguish and go 1 Samuel 30:12). Jesus Christ is the maintainer and preserver of the spiritual life. As He give it at first, so He upholds it. It is by continual influences from Him that the life is kept from expiring. If He withdraw His influx never so little, the soul is at the giving up of the ghost, even half-dead. 2. Vegetation. Corporal meat is good for growth. It is by meat that the body is brought from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, from youth to a perfect man. Jesus Christ is He that carries on a Christian from infancy to perfection. All the soul’ s growth and increase is from Christ. So the apostle, “ From Him the whole body having nourishment ministered,” Colossians 2:19), The branches live and increase by virtue of the sap which is derived from the root. Christians grow by virtue of the sap which is to them derived from Jesus Christ. Every part grows by Christ. 3. Reparation. Meat is a repairer of nature’ s decays. When by some violent sickness the spirits are consumed, the body wasted, the strength lost, meat, fitly and seasonably taken, helps, through the Divine blessing, to recall all again: “ his spirit came to him again “ (1 Samuel 30:12). Jesus Christ is the repairer of the soul’ s decays. Sometimes a believer, through the neglect of his duty, through surfeiting upon sin, brings spiritual languishings upon himself; his strength is decayed, his vigour is abated, his pulse beats very weakly, he can scarcely creep in the ways of God. In such a case Jesus Christ recovers him, repairs his breaches, and renews his strength, as in former times, The Psalmist speaks of this: “ He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’ s sake” (Psalms 23:3). The saints have every day experience of this restoring virtue of Christ. (Ralph Robinson.) Christ alone is the bread of life Some have tried to stay their hunger by the narcotics of scepticism, and others have endeavoured to get eat through the drugs of fatalism. Many stave off hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter, who are not hungry, because they are asleep. But depend upon it the only way to meet hunger is to get bread, and the only way to meet your soul’ s want is to get Christ, in whom there is enough and to spare, but nowhere else. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Your fathers did eat mannaThe bread of life and manna The Palestine Exploration Society, when they came to Tel Hum (Capernaum), found what they believed to be the synagogue in which Jesus delivered His discourse. In turning over the stones, it was with peculiarly sacred feelings that they found a large block with a pot of manna engraved on its face. Every synagogue had its symbol--one a lamb, another a candlestick, and this, the pot of manna. We can see Jesus in His synagogue pointing with His finger to this device over the main entrance, and saying, “ Our fathers did eat manna,” etc. (W. Baxendale.) If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for everChrist the chosen food of earnest Christians When alone with Christ, it was heaven below; and in the prayer-meetings, when God’ s people were warm at heart, how you delighted to unite with them! The preaching was marrow and fatness to you. You did not mind walking a long way on a wet night to hear about your Lord and Master then. It may be there was no cushion to the seat, or you had to stand in the aisle. You did not mind that. You are getting wonderfully dainty now; you cannot hear the poor preacher whose voice was once like music to you. You cannot enjoy the things of God as once you did. Whose fault is that? The kitchen is the same, and the food the same: the appetite has gone, I fear. How ravenous I was after God’ s Word! how I would wake early in the morning to read those books that are full of the deep things of God! I wanted none of your nonsensical novels, nor your weekly tales, for which some of you pine, like children for sugarsticks. Then one fed on manna that came from heaven, on Christ Himself. Those were good times in which everything was delightful. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The food of the soul Few passages have been so wrested as this. Men have turned meat into poison. I. WHAT THESE VERSES DO NOT MEAN. 1. Literal eating and drinking, or partaking of the Lord’ s Supper. We may eat that, and yet not partake of Him. For (1) A literal eating and drinking would have been revolting to the Jews and contradictory to their law. (2) To take this literal view would be to interpose a bodily act between the soul and salvation, for which there is no precedent in Scripture. (3) It would involve most blasphemous and profane consequences. It would shut out from heaven the penitent thief, and admit to heaven thousands of godless communicants. 2. This view arises from man’ s morbid habit of paltry and carnal sense on Scriptural expressions. Men dislike that which makes the state of the heart the principal thing. II. WHAT THEY DO MEAN. 1. “ Flesh and blood “ means Christ’ s sacrifice. 2. “ Eating and drinking” means reception of Christ’ s sacrifice. III. THE LESSONS THEY SUGGEST. 1. That faith in Christ’ s atonement is necessary to salvation. 2. That faith in the atonement unites us to the Saviour and entitles us to the highest privileges. 3. That faith In the atonement is (1) A personal act; (2) a daily act; (3) a conscious act. (Bp. Ryle.) The food of the soul I. In Christ alone can we have any CERTAIN . 1. Soul hungers for the knowledge which pertains to its nature and its relation to its Creator and destiny. 2. Christ is the Truth, and satisfies this hunger. II. Christ is the food of the soul, because He alone OUR MORAL NATURES. 1. Them is a sense in which every man hungers after righteousness. We seek to relieve our troubled consciences (1) By extenuating our faults; (2) by forgetting them; (3) by seeking pardon through priests. 2. But there is no satisfaction but in Christ. He sustains (1) By justifying grace; (2) by positive holiness. III. Christ is the bread of life in that from Him we have the HOPE OF THE LIFE . 1. No human speculation regarding the future, however pleasing, can kindle real hope. 2. Christ hath brought life and immortality to light, and is “ in us the hope of glory.” (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.) The food that Jesus gave to His own 1. To finish His work was bread to Himself; His work finished is bread to His people. 2. His words were startling but necessary. The rock must be laid down although superficial disciples may stumble, for it is the foundation of the true disciples’ faith and hope. 3. The Lord’ s Supper is not the subject here. Both sacraments are omitted in John, but he records the fundamental doctrines on which they rest. In the conversation with Nicodemus we have the ground of the one; here the ground of the other. Wanting Christ’ s sacrifice for sin the Supper would have contained nothing for us, and wanting faith in Christ crucified, we can get nothing from the sacrament. 4. Hunger centres naturally in human souls, and men have attempted to satisfy it (1) With the good things of this life; (2) with the inanities of self-righteousness. In the text Christ shows the satisfaction of this hunger. We have I. ON THE PART OF CHRIST 1. His incarnation: the Son as Man. Not man, a man, a son of man. Neither a son of man nor a Son of God could be our Saviour. The one is near, but has no power; the other has power, but is not near. The Incarnation combines nearness with power to save. 2. His sacrifice. The Incarnation could not save us. Without shedding of blood is no remission. Christ converged all the testimonies from Abel’ s sacrifice to His last passover on Himself, the Lamb of God. II. ON THE PART OF . They believe and live. Although it is a spiritual and not a material food, it is a real supply of a real hunger. The soul’ s hunger for righteousness and peace and God is a greater thing than bodily hunger, and must have a corresponding supply. This is found by the believer. Christ’ s incarnation brings God near to Him, and His sacrifice brings peace and righteousness. The believer thus has the life of God in Christ. This life Isaiah 1. Present. 2. Everlasting. (W. Arnot, D. D.) The vital relation to Christ I. HE PRESSES THE GREAT DUTY OF CLOSING WITH HIM WHICH HE HAD ALREADY SET BEFORE THEM. 1. This He did by representing to them the danger to which they would expose themselves if they declined (John 6:53). 2. By directly announcing the blessings which are to be obtained by obedience (John 6:54-55). To partake of Christ by faith secures (1) “ Eternal life” ; (2) the resurrection of the last day. II. HE STATES AND THE IN WHICH, WHEN THEY CLOSE WITH HIM BY FAITH, HE STANDS TO MEN. 1. It is a mutual indwelling of believers in Christ and of Christ in them (John 6:56). 2. It is a relation of the same kind as subsists between Christ and the Father (John 6:57). 3. It is a relation, the certain effects of which is life for evermore (John 6:58). (J. A.Beith, D. D.) Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of ManEating Christ’ s flesh I. THE MEANING OF THE TEXT. 1. The Romanist holds that it refers to a participation of Christ’ s body in the sacrament. But it cannot mean that; for (1)The Lord’ s Supper had not been instituted, and as Christ refers to a present duty and privilege, He could not refer to something that did not then exist. (2) Judas partook of the Lord’ s Supper; had he eternal life? (3) The dying thief did not partake of the Lord’ s Supper, but he had eternal life. 2. The true meaning. Christ had said many things about bread, about Himself as the true bread, and about their eating Him as this bread; and in John 6:51 He declares that this bread and His flesh are one and the same thing. Let us, then, try to understand (1) What bread means. In John 6:35 belief, not literal participation, is the process by which we become partakers of everlasting life. But belief presupposes the existence of something to be believed. Then what is there in Christ that I am to believe? Why, that He is the bread of life. It follows that by “ bread” we are to understand truth, and by eating reception of that truth. The bread of life, then, is the doctrine of life--the revelation made by Him who “ hath abolished death,” etc. This is confirmed by the fact (a) That the Old Testament speaks of doctrine as meat and drink: “ Wisdom hath killed her beast and she crieth, Come and eat of my bread, and drink of the wine,” etc.; and nothing was more common among the Jews than the representation of doctrine under this form. How natural, then, that the greatest Jewish teachers should have used this familiar figure to signify “ I am the doctrine of life.” (b) In John 6:63 Christ fully meets the difficulty; and that He was correctly understood is seen by John 6:68. Note, then (a) That if bread means doctrine, then flesh means doctrine; (b) that I am not confounding Christ’ s doctrines with Himself, but expounding them. It is one of the great doctrines of this book, and let those who deny Christ’ s Divinity look to it, that He is evermore the subject of His own discourse. You might as well take the light out of the sun, and call it the sun still, as take Christ out of His teaching and call it His teaching still. Christ and His doctrine are the same: “ I am the truth.” (2) What eating and drinking mean. (a) A sense of need--appetite. (b) Activity towards some appropriate object for the supply of that need. (c) Enjoyment in the use of the object. (d) Resultant strength. This is eating and drinking literally. Spiritually, meat and drink are before us in the form of doctrine. (i.) There is hungering and thirsting after it. (ii.) There is action toward Christ to get that need supplied: what He commands we obey; what He promises we expect; what He offers we accept. (iii.) Then there is delight in Christ. (iv.) Finally, spiritual strength: temptation is resisted, trial endured, work done for God and man; and the evidence of a man’ s living on Christ is his living for Christ. II. Let me ENFORCE THE OF THE TEXT. 1. There is a lesson of obligation. You have heard of Christ, His incarnation, death, resurrection, etc. What has come out of the hearing? Hunger and thirst? You feel uneasy often, and fear. I want that uneasiness and fear to develop into a sense of spiritual need. Let this stimulate action towards Christ; then joy in Christ; then doing what Christ enjoins and avoiding what Christ forbids. 2. A lesson of privilege. (1) The believer dwells in Christ; hence his safety. (2) Christ dwells in him; hence his honour. (3) Hence the believer’ s satisfaction “ shall never hunger or thirst.” (4) To crown it all, “ eternal life.” Life is the fullest capacity for enjoyment; then what must eternal life be? (W. Brock, D. D.) Truly eating the flesh of Jesus I. WHAT IS MEANT BY EATING THE FLESH AND THE BLOOD OF CHRIST? 1. What is necessary to it? (1) We must believe in the reality of Christ; not that He was a myth, but that He was very God incarnate, who lived, died, and rose again, and is now in His proper personality, sitting at the right hand of God, from whence He will come to be our Judge. (2) We must believe in the death of Christ, “ blood,” not as an example, but as the expiation of sin, a propitiation through faith in His blood. 2. What is this act? (1) Appropriation. A man not only believes that bread is proper food, he takes it. So we cannot feed on Christ until we make Him our own, and for our individual selves: for we cannot eat for anybody else. (2) Receiving into oneself. Bread is taken not to be laid aside or exhibited. Every one must do this from the empress to the pauper: so the poorest and the richest must receive Christ by faith. (3) Assimilation. Faith is to the soul what the gastric juices are to the body; and so Christ by faith is taken up into the understanding and heart, and becomes part of the renewed man. He becomes our life. 3. Remarks to set this forth in a clearer manner. (1) Christ is as needful to the soul as bread is to the body. (2) Meat and drink do really satisfy. The supply of Christ is as real as the need of Him. (3) A hungry man is not appeased by talking about feeding, but by eating. So Christ beckons you to a banquet not to look on, but to feast. (4) In healthy eating there is a relish. (5) Eating times as to the body come several times a day, so take care that you partake of Christ often. Do not live on old experiences. (6) It is well to have set times for eating. People are not likely to flourish who have no regular meals. So there should be appointed times for communion with Christ. (7) The flesh and blood of Christ are foods suitable for all conditions, for babes in Christ as well as old men, for sick Christians and healthy. II. WHAT ARE THE VIRTUES OF THIS EATING AND ? 1. Life is essential (John 6:53). If you have no life in you you have nothing that is good. The sinner is dead, and there is no life to be “ developed” and “ educated” in him. Any good that may come to him must be by impartation, and it can never come to him but by eating the flesh, etc. Convictions of sin are of no use, nor ordinances, nor profession, nor morality. This is vital (John 6:54) for soul and body. 2. Substantial. “ Meat indeed,” etc. The Jewish feasting was a mere shadow: so is pleasure, etc. 3. It produces union (John 6:56). (1) To live in Christ is the peace of justification. (2) For Christ to live in us is the peace of sanctification. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The meat and drink of the new nature I. WHAT CHRIST MUST BE TO US. Our meat and drink, our everything. 1. The doctrine of God incarnate must be the food of our soul. 2. We must feed on Christ’ s sufferings. 3. This meat is not intended to be looked at, but to feed upon by the heart’ s belief. 4. By this means the believer realizes union with Christ. II. WHAT IS BOUND UP IN THIS EATING AND ? 1. He who has not so eaten and drank has no spiritual life at all. 2. All who have received Jesus in this manner have eternal life. 3. They have efficient nourishment and satisfaction. 4. Christ dwells in them and is their strength. 5. They live in Christ and are secure. III. WHAT ARISE OUT OF THIS TRUTH? If I have a life that feeds on Christ! 1. What a wonderful life it must be! 2. How strong it must be! 3. How immortal it must be! 4. How it must develop! 5. What company he that is fed must keep. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Meat and drink indeed I. HOW CAN THE LORD JESUS GIVE US HIS FLESH TO EAT? 1. In all Christ said He realized that the body is not the man. He was always seeking to win the soul’ s faith which would be the man’ s life. We have bodies; we are souls. 2. Since we are spirits there is fitting food for us, and Christ warns us off from fleshly ideas by saying, “ It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” Christ is the soul’ s food in His humanity, character, example, sacrifice, spiritual communions. 3. Nothing else can satisfy like this. Every receptive faculty of our soul can live on that incarnate life and renew strength. “ I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” 4. Christ is the food of the soul in that He provides and adapts God for man. (1) “ In” God “ we live, and move, and have our being.” (2) But man has failed to live in God. “ God is not in all his thoughts.” Our souls have lost their home food, preferring to it “ the husks which the swine do eat.” (3) But God graciously offers Himself to us in Christ Jesus. II. HOW CAN WE BE SAID TO EAT THE FLESH OF THE LORD JESUS. We are obliged to speak of spiritual powers in language only worthy to represent the bodily powers. 1. There is a soul eye which receives the impression of the beauties of the Divine handiwork. The physical eye sees all things alike. 2. The soul ear can catch Divine harmonies to which the physical ear is deaf. 3. The hand of the soul gives all the meaning to what is done by the physical hand. 4. Christ only extended this when He represented the soul as having a mouth and a faculty of digestion. Eating and drinking is a going out of ourselves to lay hold of something outside ourselves that it may become part of ourselves. Men do not live on themselves. Only God being an all-sufficient Spirit can do that. The relation of the soul to outside food we call eating and drinking, believing, thinking, loving, communing. “ Man does not live by bread alone.” We eat the flesh of Jesus 1. By the appropriations of faith. Whatever we believe we take into ourselves. 2. By the cherishing of thoughts; by meditations on the perfections of Christ. 3. By the communings of love. We know how two lovely souls in close fellowship nourish in one another all that is lovely, pure, and good. Conclusion: 1. What a dignity our Lord has put on the most ordinary acts of life. 2. Lest we should lose this sacredness out of our common eating and drinking, Christ has set apart one eating time peculiar to Himself. (R. Tuck, B. A.) Meat and drink indeed I. WHAT IS HERE BY FLESH AND BLOOD? 1. Not as the Capernaites did, in a carnal sense, but in a spiritual. 2. As symbolizing the effects of His body broken and His blood shed, or the merits of His death and passion, as (1) The pardon of sin by His merit (Matthew 26:28). (2) The purification of our hearts by His Spirit. 3. The glorification of our souls in His presence (John 17:24). II. IN WHAT SENSE ARE THEY SAID TO BE MEAT AND DRINK? 1. Is the body preserved in health by meat and drink? 2. Made strong? 3. Kept in life? 4. Refreshed? So is the soul by the merits of Christ. III. How is it called meat INDEED, and drink INDEED? 1. Negatively. Not as if Christ’ s body was really meat for the body, nor as if His body and blood were substantially turned into real meat and drink, nor as if He referred to any corporeal eating of Himself in the sacraments, as the Papists hold, basing transubstantiation on this text; not considering (1) That He speaks not of a sacramental, but of a spiritual eating, as appears (a) in that the sacrament was not ordained (John 6:4; John 7:2). (b) In that he that eateth not of this bread shall die (John 6:53), whereas Every one that eateth it shall live (John 6:51; John 6:54; John 6:56). (2) Suppose the Sacrament referred to it, it would not import any transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, but rather the transubstantiation of the body and blood of Christ into bread and wine. 2. Positively; because it really, and not only in show, does that for the soul which food does for the body (see chap. 15:1). Nay, in some sense, Christ is more really our meat than bread can be. (1) He nourishes our souls, this only our bodies. (2) He so nourishes us that we shall be for ever satisfied (John 6:35), this not. (3) Bodily food so preserves our lives that sometimes it destroys them; but never so Christ. (4) Food preserves but our natural, Christ nourishes us to an eternal life (John 6:51; John 6:58). USES. 1. (John 6:27). 2. Do not only labour for it, but feed upon it (1) Believingly (John 6:35). (2) Thankfully. (Bp. Beveridge.) Meat and drink indeed I. THE BETWEEN THE FLESH AND BLOOD OF CHRIST AND MEAT AND DRINK. 1. Both are necessary, the one for the soul, the other for the body. 2. Both are sweet and desirable to the hungry and thirsty. 3. Both have to undergo an alteration before they actually nourish. Corn has to be ground, and Christ had to suffer. 4. Both have a natural union with us. 5. Both must be frequently partaken of. II. THE OF CHRIST’ S FLESH AND BLOOD. 1. They were assumed into the nearest union with the second Person in the Holy Trinity. 2. They were offered up to God as the great sacrifice for our sins and purchase of our peace (Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 5:2). 3. They are the great medium of conveyance of all blessings and mercies to believers (Colossians 1:14-19). USES. 1. Of information. (1) See here the love of the Saviour. (2) Learn hence a ground of content in the lowest condition. (3) Learn the necessity of faith. What is a feast to him who cannot taste it? (4) How excellent are gospel ordinances which set Christ forth. 2. Of exhortation. (1) Come with hungry appetites. (2) Feed heartily on Christ. (J. Flavel.) The food that gives life I. THE FOOD. Familiarity with these words and mental indolence have dulled our sense of their strangeness. However unintelligible to their hearers, they must have been felt in putting forth strange claims. On any other lips they would have been felt to have been absurd and blasphemous. Upon Christ’ s lips they are that or something very wonderful. He presents the food of the soul in two forms. 1. He proposes Himself. “ He that eateth Me.” (1) Here you come across the great characteristic of Christianity, that it is all in the personal Christ. The great note is, “ I bear witness of Myself.” (2) He sets Himself forth here as the sufficient nourishment for my whole nature. (a) Do I want truth of any kind except mere physical or mathematical truth? I get it here, social, ethical, spiritual, religious. He is Wisdom: He is Truth. (b) Does my heart want nourishing with the selected elixir of love? His love is the only food for the hungry heart which does not bring bitterness or turn to ashes. (c) Does my will want for its strength some law known to be good and deeply loved. I must go to the Master, and in His loving personality find the authority which sways, and by swaying emancipates the human will. (3) He proposes Himself as the food for the whole world. If He is enough for me He is enough for all, and comes in living contact with all the generations right on to the end of time. 2. He offers His flesh and blood; His earthly life and violent death. It is not enough to speak in general terms of the personal Christ as being the food of the spirit. We must feed upon the dying Christ, and lay hold of His sacrifice, and realize that His shed blood transfused in mystical fashion into the veins of our spirits is there the throbbing source of life which circulates through the whole of the inmost being. II. THE ACT OF EATING THIS FOOD. The metaphysical language is familiar in many applications. We speak of tasting sorrow, eating bitter bread, feeding on love. 1. This participation is effected by faith. (1) “ He that cometh … believeth.” By the simple act of trust in Him. You may be beside Him for a thousand years, and if there is no faith there is no union. You may be separated from Him, as we are, in time by nineteen centuries; in condition, by the difference between mortality and glory; in distance, by all the measureless space between the footstool and the throne; and if there go from your heart an electric wire, howsoever slender and fragile, you are knit to Him and derive into your heart the fulness of His cleansing power. (2) This trust is the activity of the whole nature, for faith has in it intellect, affection, and will. 2. The original expression is employed to describe the act of eating by ruminating animals; a leisurely and pleasurable partaking; an act slow and meditative and repeated, which dwells upon Him. The reason why so many Christians are such poor weaklings is because they do not thus feed on Christ. The cheap tripper cannot take in the beauty of the landscape. You cannot know any man in a hurried interview, so in these hurrying days how few of us ruminate about Christ. 3. Our Lord here uses a grammatical form which indicates the continual persistance of this meditative faith. Yesterday’ s portion will not stay to-day’ s hunger. III. THE LIFE. 1. Separate from Christ we are dead. We may live the life of animals, an intellectual life, a life of desires and hopes and fears, a moral life; but the true life of man is not in these. It is only that which comes by union with and derivation from God. 2. Bread nourishes life, ‘ this bread communicates life. The indwelling Christ is the source of life to me. 3. This spiritual life in the present has, as its necessary consequence, a future completion. If Christ is in my heart the life He brings can never stop its regenerative and transforming activities until it has influenced the whole of my nature to the very circumference (John 6:54). (A. Maclaren, D. D.) We must feed upon Christ Why should we be hungering and thirsting, when Christ has given us His flesh to be meat indeed, and His blood to be drink indeed? Why should we be hanging down our heads like bulrushes to-day, when the Lord loves us, and would have His joy to he in us, that our joy may be full? Why are we so dispirited by our infirmities, when we know that Jehovah is our strength and our song, He also has become our salvation? I tell you, brethren, we do not possess our possessions. We are like an Israelite who should say, “ Yes, those terraces of land are mine. Those vineyards and olives and figs and pomegranates are mine. Those fields of wheat and barley are mine; yet I am starving.” Why do you not drink the blood of the grapes? He answers, “ I can scarcely tell you why, but so it is--I walk through the vineyards, and I admire the clusters, but I never taste them. I gather the harvest, and I thrash it on the barn-floor; but I never grind it into corn, nor comfort my heart with a morsel of bread.” Surely this is wretched work I Is it not folly carried to an extreme? I trust the children of God will not copy this madness. Let our prayer be that we may use and enjoy to the utmost all that the Lord has given us in His grace. (C. H.Spurgeon.) “ No life” without feeding upon Christ You know the modern theory that there are germs alike in all men which only need developing. This is a philosophical notion, but it is not God’ s way of putting it. He says, “ No life in you.” No, not an atom of true life. The sinner is dead, and in him is no life whatever. If ever there is to be any good thing come into him it will have to come into him; it must be an importation, and it can never come into him except in connection with his eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The blood of Christ our only hope It is recorded of Samuel Pearce, a useful and much blessed minister at Birmingham, that, at the time of his conversion, having read Doddridge’ s “ Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,” he took up the idea suggested in that book, and resolved formally to dedicate himself to the Lord. He drew up a covenant accordingly, and to make it more solemn and binding he signed it with blood drawn from his own body. But afterwards, failing in his vows, he was plunged into great distress. Driven therefore into a more complete examination of his motives, he was led to see that he had been relying too much on his own strength; and, carrying the blood-signed covenant to the top of his father’ s house, he tore it into pieces and scattered it to the winds, and resolved henceforth to depend upon the peace-making and peace-keeping blood of Christ. Christ the true food and drink of believers In respect of that typical meat which the Jews had lately spoken of (John 6:31), “ Our fathers did eat manna in the desert,” etc., our Saviour tells them that is but typical bread, but His flesh is bread indeed; it is the real substance, of which that was but a mere type and shadow. Thus for explication. The observation is this. 1. That the Lord Jesus Christ is really and truly the food and meat of believers. Flesh is here put for the whole person of Christ. Jesus Christ, as lie is held out in the Scriptures, is the true, real, and very meat of believing Christians; Christ, as He is propounded in the gospel, dead, broken, crucified. Christ, in all His perfection, completeness, fulness, is meat indeed to a true believer. It is the very scope of this sermon, from verse 27-59, in which this truth is inculcated over and over again, and all objections answered which the carnal reason and unbelief of man’ s heart can make against it. All other food, in respect of this, is but “ cibi tantummodo umbra et vana imago,” as Cameron saith. As natural life, in respect of the spiritual, is but a shadow of life; so the meat that is appointed for the natural life, if compared with the meat of the spiritual life, is but a very image of meat. Christ’ s flesh is real meat. 2. The blood of Jesus Christ is drink indeed. Blood is here put for the whole person, as flesh was. And it is rather His blood is drink than that He is drink; because the great efficacy of all Christ did lies principally in His Hebrews 9:22). And in the same respects as His flesh is said to be meat indeed, His blood is said to be drink indeed. And those three things which concur to the act of eating His flesh concur also to this act of drinking His blood, the mystical union, saving faith, the ordinances. (Ralph Robinson.) How Christ is to be fed upon 1. In the ordinances. These are the conduits. Jesus Christ hath instituted and appointed His ordinances to be the means of carrying His nourishing virtue to the soul. The ordinances are the dishes of gold upon which this heavenly meat is brought. Prayer, reading, preaching, meditation, holy conference, the sacrament; in these Christ presents Himself to the soul. He that forsakes these can expect no feeding from Christ. “ In this mountain will the Lord of hosts make a feast of fat things.” etc. (Isaiah 25:6).The feast is made in the mountain of God’ s house, and the ordinances are the dishes on which this meat is set and the knives by which it is carved out to the soul. 2. Saving lively faith. This is the instrument. What the hand and mouth and stomach are in the corporal eating that is faith in this spiritual eating. Faith is the hand that takes this meat, the mouth that eats it, and the stomach that digests it. Yea, faith is as the veins and arteries that do disperse and carry this nourishment to every power of the soul. This is abundantly cleared in this very chapter (John 6:35), “ He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; he that believeth in Me shall never thirst.” “ Cometh” is expounded by “ believeth.” Eating and drinking are here put for believing. Crede et manducasti. He that believes eats, and he that eats not it is because he believes not; Hic edere est credere. (Ralph Robinson.) We must feed upon Christ for ourselves Dr. Bonar, in his “ Memoir of M’ Cheyne,” says of him: “ He seems invariably to have applied for his personal benefit what he gave out to his people. We have already noticed how he used to feed on the Word, not in order to prepare himself for the people, but for personal edification. To do so was a fundamental rule with him; and all pastors will feel that, if they are to prosper in their own souls, they must so use the Word--sternly refusing to admit the idea of feeding others until satiated them- selves. And for similar ends it is needful that we let the truth we hear preached sink down into our own souls. We, as well as our people, must drink in the falling showers. Mr. M’ Cheyne did so. It is common to find him speaking thus: “ July 31, Sabbath afternoon--on Judas betraying Christ; much more tenderness than ever I felt before. Oh, that I might abide in the bosom of Him who washed Judas’ feet, and dipped His hand in the same dish with him, and warned him, and grieved over him--that I might catch the infection of His love, of His tenderness, so wonderful, so unfathomable!’“ (Sword and Trowel.) John 6:59 These things said He in the synagogues I.The of this wonderful revelation to the Church. The desire of the Jews to have the miracle of the manna repeated. Those of larger views may have had the supply of an army in thought. II. The DESIGN was to quench for ever any such ambition. If you desire a warrior leader I am not of that kind. III. The showed that man’ s true peace lay not in things of sense. Christ’ s errand was to bestow spiritual blessings on all mankind. To this end He must die as a vicarious sacrifice. To participate in the blessings of this sacrifice there must be faith. The discourse is a complete resume of the gospel plan of salvation. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Capernaum was a busy bright little town; a station on the great road; a garrison for Roman troops; a port for collecting dues by land and lake; a place of tanners, dyers, soap-boilers; a market for oilmen, shepherds, cheesemongers, fruit grocers; a halting ground for the buyers and sellers of every kind, the corn-chandlers, the fishermen, the woolstaplers, the vinters, and the gardeners. Being the first town on the Lake of Tiberias as you ride in from Damascus, as Arena is the first town on Lago Maggiore as you come from Turin, it was the port at which any one coming that way would embark for cities lying south and east on the shore. Standing on a hill of limestone, rough and rich with the flow of the basaltic rocks from higher volcanic hills; having the rich plain and cool lake of Gennesareth at its feet, with the palm, the orange, and the pomegranate blooming everywhere about, Capernaum became, like Come or Palanza nearer home, a retreat for the rich as well as a field of labour for the poor. Most of the Jewish inhabitants, net-makers, fishermen, farmers, were believers in a physical Messiah; followers of Herod, of Judas, of Simon, of John; Jews of an earnest and yet of a most worldly type. The strangers who dwelt among those Jews, like every one trained in the Hellenic schools, were liberal and tolerant in affairs of faith. Had not the Roman governor built a synagogue for the Jews at his own expense? “ Capernaum, properly spelt Capharna Hum, was one of the towns most favoured by the Lord. It was the first place to which He came after His baptism by John. There He dwelt for a little while with His early disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John. Here lived the good nobleman whose son He cured. There too He healed the demoniac in the synagogue, relieved the mother-in-law of Peter, healed the man sick of the palsy, and restored the withered hand. There He made whole the centurion’ s servant, and raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. From the blue waters of the lake He obtained the tribute money, and on its slimy shores, among the brambles and vines, He spoke the parables of the Tares, of the Sower, of the Treasure, of the Merchant, of the Net. In the White Synagogue, built by the Roman soldier, He pronounced His discourses on Faith, on Fasting, on Humility of Spirit, on Brotherly Love. Near to Capernaum He fed the five thousand, walked on the sea, and preached His Sermon on the Mount. He loved the busy, Basaltic town, and after His expulsion from Nazareth He made it the scene of His ministry. In the words of St. Matthew, a native of the place, it became His own city. Where, then, was this favoured spot? Strange to say, the great Churches of East and West, while bent on fixing the sites of events in the sacred story … kept no clear record of the scene of so many miracles and sermons as Capernaum.” (Hepworth Dixon.) John 6:60-65 Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it? The defection of the disciples I. BY A HARD SAYING (John 6:60). It was unquestionably hard (John 6:51; John 6:53; John 6:57). 1. Difficult to understand even for Christians (John 14:17; John 14:26; 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27), but especially for unbelievers (1 Corinthians 2:14). 2. Difficult to receive, demanding humility, self-abnegation (Matthew 16:24), whole-hearted surrender (Romans 13:14; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:8), none of which is easy for the unrenewed. 3. Difficult to practice. II. BY A HIGH SAYING (John 6:62). 1. Retrospective (John 3:13; John 6:38; John 6:51; John 7:29; John 8:38); referring to His preexistent condition. 2. Predictive; foretelling His ascension. 3. Anticipative; cherishing the hope that His exaltation would resolve difficulties (Matthew 28:17). III. BY A DEEP SAVING (John 6:63). 1. The announcement of a truth. Only spirit can impart life. 2. The removal of an error that literal eating was meant. 3. The illustration of a principle. Wrong understanding a stumbling block; right understanding of the same words life. IV. WARNED BY A SHARP SAYING (John 6:64). 1. Discriminating. Christ, then as now, distinguished between those who believed and those who believed not. 2. Informing. Christ, then as now, showed that He was perfectly acquainted with characters, works, and ways (Revelation 2:2; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 2:13; Revelation 2:19; Revelation 3:1; Revelation 3:8; Revelation 3:15) of His professed followers. 3. Reproving of their guilt. Christ never regarded unbelief as an accident, misfortune, disease, but always as a sin. 4. Sorrowing (Mark 3:5; Mark 6:6). V. BY A DARK SAYING (John 6:65). 1. A rebuke to their self-sufficiency. They deemed themselves competent to pronounce judgment on Christ, to gauge His utterances, to estimate the value of His teaching, and to determine His position in God’ s kingdom. Christ assures them they could do none of these things without Divine assistance. 2. A declaration of their irreligion. They were yet in their uurenewed condition, and therefore incapable of receiving the truth. Learn 1. The sin of stumbling at Christ’ s words. 2. To wait for further light on religious difficulties. 3. The danger of literalism. 4. The propriety of self-examination as to whether one truly believes. 5. The possibility of repeating the sin of Judas. 6. The need of daily prayer for Divine grace. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Hard sayings I. For the SELF- to feel he deserves eternal punishment. II. For the increased in goods to feel that he is a beggar. III. For the WISE AND PRUDENT to believe he is a fool. IV. For the MAN OF to believe that he is selling his soul for ashes. V. For THE CARNAL MIND to know that he must owe his salvation to the blood of a crucified Galilean. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Doth this offend you?--A certain test I. OF WHAT IS GOOD? That which the unrenewed hate to do. II. OF WHAT IS TRUE? That which the unrenewed hate to hear. III. OF WHAT IS ? That which the unrenewed hate to become. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life Christianity a vital force Christianity is a latent spiritual power, designed and adapted to translate men from a lower and physical life into a higher and spiritual life. If this be so I. WHAT IS A LIFE? 1. It is the life of the human soul, derived not from natural laws, or the incitements of society, nor from any human causes, but distinctively a life derived from God; not an occasional excitement, but the indwelling of a Divine influence. 2. Under such influence is developed a personal experience differing from any that could otherwise be developed, which awakens in us a likeness to Christ’ s nature and habits in (1) Purity; (2) Love; (3) Activity. II. SOME GOOD REASONS WHY ONE SHOULD ENTER IN THIS LIFE. Most have some conception of a character. With one it is wealth, with another learning, with others art, eloquence, home life. But these are not you. There is a living, controlling being behind all achievements: character is the fashioning of that. I urge you, therefore, to accept the Christian ideal--the man in Christ Jesus--because 1. The Divine power, as a living influence on your souls, is the only reconstructive force adequate to your needs. Those ideals which men form, exterior to themselves, have no transforming power upon their dispositions. What man needs is a perfect control of his animal nature, his selfishness, pride, sensuality. 2. This developing power reveals the only harmonizing elements around which all of a man’ s nature can reorganize itself. Love is the only point of crystallization. (1) Crown pride and there are many faculties which say, “ I will not bow down to pride.” (2) Crown vanity, and many parts of the soul will say, “ I am higher than thou.” (3) Crown reason, and many feelings will rebel. (4) Crown beauty, and there is not one faculty that under stress of trial will cry, “ O Beauty, save me!” (5) Crown conscience, and many faculties indeed will follow; but conscience is a despot. (6) But crown love, and all will acknowledge his supremacy. 3. It is only in a character fashioned on the model of Christ that we can find relief from things seemingly or really antagonistic. (1) Aspiration and content. (2) Conscience and peace. (3) Hope and fear. 4. The Divine power in the soul harmonizes man with his fellow-men. 5. This Divine power gives to the whole economy of life and flow of events a reconciliation which nothing else can. Christ is not working for results that appear in this life alone, but for those that shall appear in the life hereafter. You do not care what befalls you, so long as you have the certainty that the end of it shall be right. This redeems death from being a catastrophe, and exalts it into a victory. Conclusion: If this view be correct 1. There is a very great difference between reasoning upon Christianity and testing Christianity. No man is competent to determine questions in regard to it until he has put his whole soul into the attitude of Christ. There are multitudes asking for arguments; Christ says, “ The words that I speak unto you,” etc. 2. Is there not reason to fear that many persons who believe themselves to be safe come far short of true Christian life? No man is a Christian, whatever his morality, etc., until Christ’ s Spirit dwells in him. 3. No man can come into this position by his own power. But open your heart and the Spirit will come in with His vivific power. (H. W. Beecher.) The influence of the Spirit I. EXPLAIN THE PASSAGE. When it is said, “ It is the spirit that quickeneth” 1. It is not to be understood of the Holy Spirit exclusively, for the same work is ascribed to the Father and the Son. 2. The spirit does not quicken universally. “ The wind bloweth where it listeth;” we read of those who were “ full of the Holy Ghost,” and of others which were “ sensual, not having the Spirit.” 3. Yet the Holy Spirit quickens all who are quickened (Ezekiel 37:7; Romans 8:12). 4. He quickens men in their several stations: ministers to preach with clearness and fervour; private Christians to hear, receive, and do. 5. Though the Spirit can do this immediately, yet He generally does it by the use of means, and principally by the Word. II. THE OF HIS He quickens 1. Our attention, as in the case of Lydia. 2. Our judgment (Isaiah 4:4). He leads us to distinguish between good and evil, to discern the reality of grace. 3. The will, to choose, embrace and cleave to that which is good. 4. The conscience, stirring it up to the faithful and vigorous discharge of duty. 5. The memory, to receive and retain Divine truths, to recollect God’ s dealings with us and our conduct towards Him. 6. The gifts of ministers and private Christians, that they may be ready in prayer, preaching, and conference, and also those graces which He has implanted--fear, love, faith, zeal, etc. 7. The dead bodies of the saints (Romans 8:11). III. THE ENDS FOR WHICH HE . 1. To consideration, without which we should be utterly thoughtless about our spiritual concerns (Jeremiah 23:20). 2. To useful inquiries. 3. To fervent and importunate prayer. 4. To holiness of heart and newness of life. 5. To all acts of evangelical obedience. IV. . 1. Learn the proper Deity of the Spirit. He that doeth the works of Deity must have the perfections of Deity. 2. See why God’ s words and ordinances have no greater efficacy. The most persuasive address is not sufficient without the influence of the Spirit. 3. Let us earnestly pray for His quickenings. 4. Let us join in the use of means. 5. Grieve not the Spirit. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The necessity of the Holy Spirit However learned, godly, and eloquent a minister may be, he is nothing without the Holy Spirit. The bell in the steeple may be well hung, fairly fashioned, and of soundest metal, but it is dumb until the ringer makes it speak; and in like manner the preacher has no voice of quickening for the dead in sin, of comfort for living saints until the Divine Spirit gives him a gracious pull, and bids him speak with power. Hence the need of prayer from both preacher and hearers. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The Spirit a Quickener I. IN THE . He brooded over dark chaos and quickened it into life, order, beauty, and fruitfulness. This vitalizing power has never left His realm. II. IN THE MORAL WORLD. “ The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding.” He implants instincts and affinities that respond to the touch of God. III. IN THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. He inspired poets to sing, prophets to teach, judges to rule, and warriors to fight. IV. IN THE OF TRUTH. Eye and ear are inadequate vehicles. 1. He was the efficient Agent in the Incarnation, and from that hour until now if Christ is born in a soul, the hope of glory, it is by the same Spirit. 2. Like a dove He descended on Jesus at His baptism, fitting Him for all His future work. 3. In bringing Him from the dead (Romans 8:11), and in the impartation of Pentecostal power the same fact is corroborated. 4. The personal and local Christ departed, for it was expedient for Him to give way for the Spirit. The dull eyes of the disciples were opened, and they were transformed into heroes of faith. 5. Your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, therefore your dust will be re-animated by Deity. Conclusion: The highest need of the Church is the overjoying power of the Holy Ghost. (J. S. Kennard, D. D.) The Spirit and Life I. THE LIFE OF THE SOUL IS DERIVED FROM A SOURCE. 1. The Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit is the Communicator of life (1) Physical (Genesis 1:2; Psalms 33:6). (2) Intellectual (Proverbs 8:12; Proverbs 8:14; Job 32:8). (3) Spiritual (Acts 2:36-38). 2. The spirit of the new man inspires him to attend to the things that are appropriate to his life, and so he grows in grace (Romans 8:5). 3. A careful consideration of the ordinances of Christianity, anal their underlying truths, are conducive to spiritual results. (1) Baptism, the symbol of death to sin, separation from the world, and the commencement of a new life. (2) The Lord’ s Supper, the memorial of the sublimest self-sacrifice. (3) The Scriptures, which contain the will of God and eternal life. II. LIFE FROM THE FLESH IS (Galatians 5:17). 1. However imperceptible the path of a soul under the control of the unregenerate senses is a downward one (Romans 8:8). 2. The fleshly spirit divided Jewish society into hypocritical formalists and icy sceptics; and the same spirit has continued to work in priestly corruptions and theoretical and practical infidelity within and without the Church. III. THE POWER OF CHRIST’ S WORDS IS . 1. They are spiritual in their nature. 2. They are life-giving. Flesh and Spirit. (1) Flesh here means the outward and sensuous, which appeals to the eye, ear, etc. There was much of this in the old Jewish faith; but whenever they rested in it, it profited them nothing. (2) Spirit does not mean the Holy Spirit, but the inward part of religion which the soul understands and lives upon. I. THE FLESH. The external observances of religion in themselves. 1. The “ real Presence.” If Christ were really eaten carnally, then He could only profit carnally like other food. Does grace operate through the stomach? On the contrary, the real reception consists in belief in the Incarnation, trust in the death, realization of the spiritual indwelling of Christ. 2. Baptism. The putting away of the filth of the flesh is nought, the answer of a good conscience towards God is the vitality of baptism. 3. Apostolical succession. The mere fleshly connection between bishop and bishop, established by successive laying on of hands, supposing it could be proved, is valueless: the apostles’ successors are those who preach apostolic doctrine, display apostolic piety, and do apostolic work. 4. The value of ornate worship must be determined by what in it is sensuous and what spiritual. 5. The same applies to architecture and symbolism: do they gratify a carnal taste or minister to spiritual life? 6. Eloquence often excites the same emotions as the theatre is as sounding brass, and only profits as the vehicle of a truth that moves the inmost soul. 7. Revivalistic movements frequently engender a mere carnal enthusiasm, and, unless their excitements stir the spirits of a man towards God and holiness, they are based upon a lie. 8. Prayer and ordinances of any kind as mere matters of form and habit profit nothing. Their power lies wholly in their spirituality. II. THE SPIRIT. 1. It is the spiritual nature which quickens a man. He who has not received this from the Holy Ghost is dead in trespasses and sins. 2. This quickens all ordinances and makes them vitalizing means of grace. 3. So with spiritual acts and moral duties. 4. This spiritual nature has for its Author the Divine Father and is the actual operation of the Holy Spirit. 5. The mark by which it is discovered is faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Spirit and life I. THE WORDS OF CHRIST PERTAIN TO AND REVEAL THE AND ETERNAL. 1. Spirit and life are closely related to each other. The Spirit originates, the life perpetuates. 2. Words strictly speaking cannot be Spirit; they represent or manifest; as Christ said, “ I am the Door.” The words of man express his thoughts and reveal his inmost being, How easy to detect the style of Johnson, Macaulay, or Carlyle. The words of Christ reveal His Spirit of wisdom and love. 3. Valuable as are the works of literature, etc., Christ’ s words do not pertain to them. They are of a prior and higher realm. They do not teach science, but they give light and life to men that he may pursue the most profound investigations. Hence under the shadow of the Cross alone flourish literary and scientific institutions of the highest character. II. THE WORDS OF CHRIST ARE BY AN UNSEEN POWER, which is indissolubly joined to them, and thus they become spirit and life. How the spiritual can be joined to the material we can’ t explain. Where are the cords which bind this earth to yonder sun? What is it that gives the minute seed the power to develop? Life. But what is life? The chemist says a grain of wheat is so much carbon, etc. I ask him to make one, and he takes the various substances in their due proportions, and the result looks like a grain of wheat. It has the same colour, weight, form. But plant it--it will not grow. But the grain that God made, though kept in Egypt’ s catacombs for three thousand years, will, because it has life. So with the words of Christ. They are like other words, but God has joined with them a spirit and life which affect the heart of man. III. THE POWER OF THIS WORD IS SEEN IN THE . 1. “ By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.” The great worlds are God’ s conceptions materialized that finite minds may catch a glimpse of His almightiness and wisdom. Think of all this as the product of a word and who can estimate its power? 2. More than this, “ He upholdeth all things by the word of His power.” 3. Great as is the creation and preservation of worlds there is something higher in life. The one is passive the other active. In Christ was life and He breathed into man a living soul. His Word perpetuates natural life, and how numberless are its forms and varieties! What endless gradations in the character of that life from the worm to the man, from life for a moment to life everlasting. IV. The text, however, refers to LIFE AND THAT THE WORDS OF CHRIST AND THAT LIFE. 1. Were there no such declaration we might infer it. Unless needed to awaken man’ s sensibilities, why did God stoop to Mount Sinai and Christ to the manger and the cross? 2. Everywhere religion is spoken of as life. Ezekiel’ s mystic river and valley of dry bones. 3. The words of great men have frequently given to nations increasing influences: Homer, Aristotle, etc., for Greece; Bacon, Shakespeare, etc., for England. But if God speaks, how powerful must His words effect the hearts and lives of men! Even fancied Divine words, as of the oracle to Alexander or of the imaginings of Joan of Arc inspired almost irresistible power. 4. During His earthly abode, Jesus showed how truly His words were spirit and life. He healed the sick and raised the dead with a word. And how simple were His words, apparently without any effort. How quietly he calmed the winds and multiplied the bread. And His words reached spirit as well as matter. “ Whether is it easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee,” etc. 5. The same power accompanies His words as spoken by His servants. They have revolutionized the world, Idolatry disappeared before the Bible. The Cross was exalted above the eagle. Great reforms have always been preceded and accompanied by the study of God’ s Word. (Bp. M. Simpson.) Christ’ s great ideas Christ came into the world to introduce three great ideas, into which all His teachings could be classified. I. The first was simple in form and sublime in sentiment; He came into the world to teach THAT GOD IS OUR FATHER, and urged that idea continually. Over all things was a sustaining power, and this over the most precious of all truths in regard to the being of God. The only prayer Christ ever taught began, “ Our Father which art in heaven.” II. THE IDEAL OF A TRUE MAN. No one else ever did that or had ever attempted it--even in outline. He could tell us what a true man was because He was Himself a True Man. Eighteen centuries have criticised that life only to render it more radiant and excellent. III. THE OF SINFUL MAN. No one had so clearly shown that man was a sinful being, or been more outspoken in regard to the awful consequences of wrong doing, and yet He affirms that fallen humanity can be lifted up and made holy. Sin was an obstacle to eternal life, but Jesus Christ had pledged Himself to remove it. He promises ,that if we will come to Him our sins shall be forgiven; that they shall be flung far from remembrance into the backward depths of space. His words will live and never change. (H. M. Scudder, D. D.) The honesty of Jesus 1. Christ’ s teaching was honesty itself compared with that of the scribes; and now no book has a ring so decidedly clear and genuine as the New Testament. 2. Yet honesty is not the whole of the significant quality of Christ’ s life and words. A man may be quite honest but greatly mistaken. It is a great thing to have a candid mind not obscured by prejudice or broken by passion. 3. But this is not enough. The position of a mirror in the light, and its angle towards the object to be seen in it is as important as its clearness. We cannot hope to gain true representations if we persist in holding ourselves at a wrong personal angle towards truths. But Jesus always kept Himself in a relation so true to men that in His thoughts and judgments, all objects are represented in their simple reality. His words are not only clear and honest, they correspond to the truth of things. I. Let me THIS . 1. In the conversations of Jesus. He quietly brushes aside Jewish notions and personal deceptions and touches with saving power the real lives of the people. They might for years have concealed their real self, but when Jesus came they became real. It was so with Nicodemus, the woman of Samaria, the publican, the Pharisee, the disciples. 2. In the teachings of Jesus. (1) They went to the moral core of their being, and insisted on their becoming true men at heart. (2) His doctrine of God has the same practical relation to human life. The doctrine of Jesus means real righteousness, justice, love, in God as in man. He did not come to teach a comprehensive system of philosophy, a subtle science of nature, or some perfect scheme of divinity. He represented God on earth, and realized in His life and death the whole eternal disposition of God towards man. II. Some pertinent OF THIS TRUTH. Two facts are forcing themselves on our notice. 1. Ecclesiastical Christianity and dogmatic Christianity have less influence to-day than ever they had. 2. Never has a real Christianity of real life been more honoured or loved. 3. It requires therefore no prophet to predict that the church of the future will not be altogether the church of the past. It will not be a church of vested ecclesiastical pretension or formal and one sided orthodoxism, but a gospel of the Son of God in the hearts of men, preached through the conduct of life. 4. If we have any doubt as to what this real gospel is we may find it in the New Testament, if we read it with a willing mind; but to practice it means something much harder than coming to church, singing hymns or discussing doctrines. It is Christ loved, chosen, and obeyed as Saviour and Lord. (Newman Smyth, D. D.) John 6:66-69 From that time many of His disciples went back.Those who are mentioned in regard to I. THE THEY ASSUMED. Disciples. This term was first used to designate the Apostles; then it was applied to or assumed by many whom our Lord had to distinguish from His “ disciples indeed.” How many there are who are Christians only in name! II. THE COURSE THEY PURSUED. They went away from Him. 1. They relinquished all attendance on His ministry. 2. Disowned all attachment to His person. 3, Repudiated all sympathy with His design. , 4. Threw off His authority. III. THE REASONS WHICH LEADING THE MEN TO GO ASTRAY. Because He insisted 1. That all secular concerns were subservient to the salvation of the soul, which offended their avarice. 2. That all things pertaining to salvation belonged to God alone, which wounded their self-righteousness. 3. That they could not come to God except by Himself, which went counter to all their theological prepossessions. 4. That unless there was constant progressive fellowship with Himself experimentally they could not obtain ever-lasting life. IV. THE DANGER THEY . Where should they go? To go away from Christ a footstep was to go to perdition. (W. Brock, D. D.) The touching appeal. I. THE FACT . 1. The designation given them. Disciples. 2. Their number was considerable. 3. The period of their desertion--“ From that time;” the delivery of the discourse. II. THE APPEAL MADE was 1. Touching. 2. Seasonable. When others turn their backs it is well to warn those who remain. 3. Important. Backsliding is a sin of peculiar aggravation. III. THE ANSWER GIVEN. 1. To whom shall we go? (1) To the scribes and Pharisees? They are blind guides. (2) To heathen philosophers? Their foolish hearts are darkened. (3) To the law? It thunders above our guilty heads its anathema. (4) To the world? It has proved itself deceitful. (5) To the ways of sin? The end of them is death. 2. “ Thou hast the words of Eternal life--we will stay with Thee, the Son of the living God for (1) Pardon; (2) purity; (3) wisdom; (4) strength; (5) consolation. (Anon.) A home question and a right answer I. THE REASON FOR THE . It was asked because 1. It was a season of defection. In all churches and ages there have been times of flocking in and flying out; ebbs and floods; and it is well at such seasons that decisive questions should be put. 2. It was a season of defection among the disciples; not merely camp followers who went after Him for the loaves and fishes. And this sets forth the grievous guilt of those who wear their Prince’ s regimentals and then turn aside to false doctrine or sin. 3. It was a defection on account of doctrine because of the preceding discourse. 4. This defection was a “ going back.” They did not go off the straight road, they simply reversed their steps and went back to their old lives. 5. It was open defection. They once walked with Jesus in the public streets, but now they will have no more to do with Him. This was at least honest and better than many a modern hypocrite. II. THE ITSELF. He might well press it for 1. One of them would certainly do so. He only chose twelve, yet one was a devil. 2. All of them might do so, and apart from His grace would. “ Let him that thinketh he standeth.” 3. If they turned aside it would be specially sad. The chaff had been blown away and only the wheat was left, and that mixed with a little tares. These were picked men. How sad when an office bearer falls! 4. Apostasy is very contagious. Like sheep who, if one goes wrong, the next will follow. 5. He wishes His following to be perfectly voluntary. None can walk truly with Jesus who walk unwillingly. III. THE ANSWER WHICH QUICK-VOICED PETER GAVE. It was threefold. 1. “ To whom shall we go?” The thought was intolerable. Would you like to follow your old sinful life again? 2. “ Thou hast the words of eternal life.” We cannot go away when we think of eternity. Those who turn back from Christ, what will they do in eternity? 3. We believe, and are sure, etc. Do you believe that? How then can you go away? (C. H. Spurgeon.) A mournful defection I. WHY DO MEN GO AWAY? 1. Because they cannot bear Christ’ s doctrine. “ This is a hard saying.” There are many points in the gospel offensive to human pride. 2. For the sake of gain. 3. Because terrified by persecution. Although the fires of Smithfield are extinguished there is much persecution still. Godless husbands tyrannize over their wives; employers over their servants; workmen over each other. 4. Out of sheer levity. In a list of wrecks you will find some which have gone down through collisions, or by striking on a rock; but sometimes you meet with one “ foundered at sea” ; how, no one knows, on a calm day. So there are many who make shipwreck of faith in easy circumstances. At the space of a moment they profess Christianity, and then suddenly, to everybody’ s surprise and without troubling themselves about it, renounce it. 5. Through wicked companions and unequal marriages. It is hard to keep religion when one pulls one way and one another. 6. For the sake of sensual enjoyments. 7. Through change of circumstances. (1) Some because they have become poor and cannot look and do as they did. (2) Some because they have become rich and religion is unfashionable with the set to which they now belong. 8. Unsound doctrine occasions many to apostatize. 9. Laziness causes others to turn aside. They do nothing, and as a consequence soon have nothing to do. II. WHAT BECOMES OF THEM? 1. Some are very unhappy, and return. 2. Others are hardened in their obduracy and go from bad to worse. III. WHY SHOULD NOT WE GO AS OTHERS HAVE GONE? Only because of the grace of God. IV. IF YOU WOULD BE FROM FALLING you must 1. Keep humble and rely on the Holy Spirit of God. 2. Be jealous of your obedience, be circumspect. 3. Watch and pray. 4. Shun profane company. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Apostasy I. OUR LORD’ S was 1. The language of affection. Spoken in view of the loss of friends and immortal souls He came to save. 2. An implied warning. The propriety of such a question now rests on two grounds. (1) The possibility, so far as they know, that professed disciples are not real disciples. (2) The possibility that if real disciples they may apostatize. How our Lord’ s declaration (John 6:70) must have constrained each to ask “ Lord is it I?” 3. Anxious concern in view of abundant reasons for it. (1) Many disciples had already forsaken Him. (2) They were all the subjects of much weakness and prejudice. (3) They were to be exposed to many temptations and dangers. 4. They were ignorant to a great extent of the nature of Christ’ s salvation, and similar reasons exist in the present day for anxious concern and it may be useful to consider some of the sources of danger. (1) The deep depravity of the human heart. How easily does this depravity (a) lead men to deny or disregard the great practical truths of the gospel; (b) to lose all just impression of the distinction between Christians and the world; (c) to disregard the comparative worth of temporal and eternal things; (d) to become insensible to the danger of small departures from duty; (e) to banish the thought of eternity; (f) to become more solicitous to preserve appearances before men than reality before God; (g) to neglect the means of grace. (2) The power of temptations without us, arising from wealth or poverty, business, society, etc. II. THE ’ S ANSWER, which bespeaks a just sense of his wants as a sinner and of his dependence on Christ as a Saviour. 1. As sinners we need the forgiveness of God, and can obtain the blessing only through Christ. 2. As sinners we need sanctification, guidance, support, consolation which no one but Christ can give. 3. We need eternal life: Christ only has the words of eternal life. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.) The uses to be made of the falls of Christians It behoves us I. TO THINK WITH OF THOSE WHO YET STAND, Many went away, but some, and they of the most value, remained. To despond would 1. Unduly magnify the importance of the apostles. 2. Give too much pleasure to the enemies of God. II. TO FEEL AND OUR OWN DANGER. 1. Because others have gone their own way and there is no likelihood of our following them, that is not to say that we are not in danger of pursuing a way of our own from Christ. You are in no danger of drunkenness, are you in danger of pride? 2. This sentiment will provoke charitable sentiments respecting falls of others. III. TO COME WITH ALL FAITH AND TO THE SAVIOUR FOR AND MERCY. Neglect of this is the fruitful cause of backsliding. (S. Green, D. D.) Going and staying I. THE SADNESS OF . 1. Many take up a profession of Christianity who afterwards go away. (1) The matter of fact. They ran well, and to all appearances judged by outward standards, were excellent Christians. (2) To what this is owing. (a) Largely from the want of the root of grace within; (b) From insufficiently counting the cost. (c) The want of a sensible joy in Christ as soon as was expected. 2. The sadness of their case. (1) In general it is worse than if they had never made a profession of Christ (2 Peter 2:20-21). (a) As the Holy Spirit is grieved, and it may be, retired, their recovery is more doubtful. (b) As they have put themselves out of the way of the Spirit’ s influence it cannot be expected that it should follow them. (c) As Satan has got faster hold of them. (2) As their case is now worse than it was at the beginning, so by forsaking Christ they judge them- selves unworthy of eternal life and out of the way of heaven. In the day of judgment they will be convicted of base ingratitude, the greatest treachery and unfaithfulness and of the most unaccountable folly. II. CHRIST’ S TENDER CONCERN FOR THE SAFETY OF HIS REAL . 1. How this appears. (1) In His incarnation and death; (2) In His intercession; (3) In His approachableness. 2. Whence it proceeds from. (1) Their being ransomed by Him (1 Peter 1:18); (2) Their being entrusted to Him by the Father (John 6:38-39); (3) Their being not only His servants and friends, but the members of His body; (4) Their being specially loved by Him; (5) Their danger through apostasy and their blessedness through abiding with Him. III. THE ’ S REASON FOR TO CHRIST. 1. They are sensible that they have no one but Christ to whom to go. 2. They dread the thought of going away, considering its sin, folly, misery and ingratitude. 3. How many soever revolt from Christ, sincere believers will and ought to cleave to Him still. (1) To repair the dishonour cast upon Him by apostates and to witness that He never gave any just occasion to leave Him. (2) To show that their choice of Him is not built on what others say, but upon what they know and experience of Him. (D. Wilcox.) Experience and hope conservative of faith 1. In the discourse of this chapter we have many “ dark sayings,” which gave great offence to many, and were the occasion of the apostasy of some of our Lord’ s disciples. 2. The men who replied to our Lord felt the mysteriousness of His teaching as deeply as others, and at different times confessed as much. But in spite of all difficulties they did understand that their Master had what no other teacher had--“ the words of eternal life,” and for that reason they would cling to Him. So with many of His disciples in the present day. I. THE MEANING OF ETERNAL LIFE. 1. It has been said that “ Eternal” is expressive of the character and quality of a thing not of its continuance, and stands for what is divine and spiritual in present enjoyment, e.g (1) If any being possessed of animal or intellectual life were to have its being perpetuated for ever, though this would be life everlasting it would not be life eternal. (2) If an angelic or human being possessed of this divine life were to be annihilated for a period it would still be proper to say that they had been made partakers of eternal life. 2. This is only half a truth and needs completing before we can grasp what was in the disciples’ minds. Let all this be granted, yet the subject of our Saviour’ s teaching must have included perpetuity. He called them to a subjective life now, and declared that that in its ultimate issues, was to be their everlasting possession. II. LET US SEE HOW THIS MEANING MAY BE IN THE ANSWER OF THE . This answer could not have embodied all that we know. It was given previously to our Lord’ s redemptive work which throws such light on our Lord’ s teaching, aud previously to the dispensation of the Spirit. Moreover, they were slow to learn and misunderstood the meaning of much which our Lord did teach. Nevertheless, they knew something about eternal life from 1. Our Lord’ s teaching. (1) He demanded of them a present divine life in its origin, continuance, and outward graces. (2) He authenticated the popular belief in a life after death. 2. Our Lord’ s example embodied the first and was connected by Him with the prospect of entering upon an endless life which they were to share. There was no uncertainty about this, and when asked if they would abandon Him of whom they had learnt it, they felt it to be impossible. III. TO WHOM COULD THEY GO? 1. To the Sadducees--the rationalists of the age? They rejected immortality, and this being gone, what room was there for the culture of a divine life, or even of secular virtue, seeing that “ we might eat and drink for to-morrow we die.” 2. To the Pharisees--the ritualists of their day? They believed in a future life, but held such views of what constituted the present religious life of man as to rob it of everything, spiritual and divine, 3. To the Essenes--the ancient monks and ascetics? These went further than the Pharisees. They tried to reach the Divine by ceasing to the human, and by practices which, if universal, would have brought society to an end, showed that they could not have the words of eternal life. (T. Binney.) A critical hour What the first battle is to an army whose general wishes to test its courage, so was this trial to the disciples. In this crisis there were two causes of trouble and temptation for their faith. I. THE OF JESUS BY THE . 1. The inclination of most men is to yield to the authority of numbers. This is seen in the camp of the freest philosophy as well as in that of religion. Nothing is more rare and difficult than adhesion to truth in the face of dominant opinions, as is shown by the history of great inventors, teachers, martyrs. In the eyes of the multitude truth, like victory, lies on the side of great battalions. 2. All is not absolutely false in this assumption. True religion should be the lot of all; and the gospel is universal. Yet it has never made any appeal or sacrifice to popularity and has triumphed in the teeth of antipathy and resistance. 3. On the other hand, as in the text, there are defections from it, and these defections severely try those who abide. II. THE STRANGE OF THEIR MASTER’ S . At present the subject of the discourse seemed fantastic and impossible. But by and by in the Cross they understood it, which teaches us that the gospel contains mysterious points which raise difficulties and objections which are only to be overcome gradually. Most accept it on a side which responds most to their inmost aspirations, and accept the rest on trust; and, after years of Christian experience, they come to a comprehension of the harmony of revelation. Suppose, then, one of you in a situation like the apostles, what must you do? 1. The partisans of absolute authority say, “ Submit yourselves, and the more difficult the submission, the more valuable the faith.” But it is never safe for a man to go against his conscience, and it is no honour to God to bring him the heart of a slave and the blind obedience of a fanatic. 2. Reject every doctrine that wounds the conscience or the reason. This is what these disciples did, and forgot many admirable discourses and works of mercy. And how many to day yield without a struggle, never trying to get to the bottom of their doubt, nor asking if there is not a deeper meaning! 3. The faithful apostles by their example seem to say, “ Wait.” Why? (1) Because religious truth must be full of mystery. A Divine revelation which should not surpass our comprehension would be no revelation. (2) Because the fault may be less in the doctrine than in our minds. (3) Because an experience a thousand times repeated proves that that which hurts us is precisely that which ought to heal us. Were the Pharisees right in being offended at the universality of the gospel? (4) Because the greater part of the gospel enlightens, consoles and sustains. Will you reject this for the fraction which you misunderstood? (5) Because experience may, and will, show you the futility of your objection, “ If any man will do,” etc. (E. Bersier, D. D.) The dividing point In the state of Ohio there is a courthouse that stands in such a way that the raindrops that fall on the north side go into Lake Ontario at the Gulf of St. Laurence, while those that fall on the south side go into the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Just a little puff of wind determines the destiny of a rain drop for two thousand miles. And how small apparently the influence which decides whether the current of our lives shall flow towards Christ or away from Him. Speculation and faith1. The chief cause of declension in the Church is the pre-occupation of the mind with an imaginary Christ. This narrative teaches us that a miracle is no match for a pre-determined judgment. These men believed on Christ because they saw His miracles, and they framed in their minds a conception of what that Messiahship should mean; but when they found that Christ’ s conception differed from theirs, in spite of the miracles, they rejected Him. They could not understand a Messianic empire over the hearts of men. 2. But they ought to have understood something; that the position of Christ would invest Him with mystery, and that His teaching would be original, and that His disciples should have no pre-occupations and be able to distinguish between statement and parable, and that Jesus required childlike honesty and docility in his hearers. 3. The chief disputants on this occasion were leading Jews striving to turn the current of popular favour from Jesus. The declaration at which they affected to stumble was that of Joh 6:51. “ How can this man,” etc. (John 6:52), was the carnal reasoning of the adversaries. The Master’ s reply afforded no help, but rather otherwise (John 6:53). The disciples were silent, but these strange words shocked the men who had imagined that fellowship with Jesus would be a steppingstone to power (John 6:60). His explanation (denied to incorrigible adversaries)to them preserved a medium between the indulgence of curiosity and the repression of an honest desire to learn the truth (John 6:62-65). 4. These “ went away” because no proof could touch them which threatened their anterior conception of Christ. Not miracle, nor the unique personal influence of Jews. 5. This picture of the force of a pre-judgment inspired by passion will guide the Christian Student in interpreting modern unbelief. Science is supposed to have no prejudgments; but then it affirms that a miracle is inconceivable, and therefore no testimony can make the record of a miracle credible. What is this but a prejudgment I And since Christianity is based upon the resurrection of Christ, then, according to this, it is logically a fraud. Let us now consider I. THE APPEAL OF CHRIST. 1. It should be regarded as an appeal when the Church is surrounded by an unstable mood of thought concerning Christ. 2. This mood is highly dangerous and brings death with noiseless footsteps, and its ravages are seen, when, in connection with some sentiment of passion or selfishness, it puts back the faith or destroys it; and it is answerable for the loss to Christ of thousands of our youth, and the wide failure of initial steps of Christian profession. 3. It may be traced in modern secular literature when the writer simply refers to a Christian doctrine or fact, indicating no bias whatever, so different to those firm strokes which fifty years ago showed us if the public mind was pervaded by an impression of the Divine authority of the Scriptures. 4. Not that this necessarily threatens an unusual reverse to the Christian faith, but everything depends upon the way in which this unstable mood is dealt with during the next fifty years. 5. The appeal of Jesus is intended to bring into conspicuous contrast the immovable form of the Rock of Ages. II. THE OF THE CHURCH. Are we prepared to drift? or to prosecute a new search? If Christ has failed to give us the words of eternal life, where shall we go to fro’ them? 1. To some ancient religion? Thanks to modern research, the new science of comparative theology is now accessible to every one. The question is not whether the religious systems of India or China are not possessed of fine sentiment, but whether they can compete with Christianity. (1) What are they all but at best obscure impressions of mysteries which in Christianity are definitely proclaimed! (2) What have they done for the people I Instead of elevating the general mind, they have narrowed, impoverished and depraved it. Modern research therefore pronounces that the religion of the future must be the Christian or none. 2. To modern philosophy? (1) Where is its moral power to come from? (2) How is this moral power to be disseminated? With all its boasts, it is built upon an hypothesis which, as yet, has constructed no thing: whereas we have a faith which has been attested by the history of centuries, whose Divinity is verified this day by the only civilization which is living. (E. E.Jenkins.) Temporary discipleship I. THAT JESUS CHRIST AND HIS ARE TO . But let us inquire what were the hard sayings, the unpalatable truths, that offended the crowd. 1. That Christ was greater than Moses. This was a mortal offence to the Jews. While Moses was yet alive the treatment he received was anything but respectful, but after his death their veneration for the great lawgiver knew no bounds. Again, they spoke of the manna in the wilderness very highly indeed, but their fathers had a very different opinion of it. 2. That God is the God of the Gentile as well as the Jew (John 6:37). Another hard saying 3. That the atonement (the bread from heaven) is the life of the world. Millions wilfully reject this heavenly food, to pine away and die on the unwholesome, adulterated fare dearly supplied by pleasure, ambition, and philosophy, falsely so called. Such were the hard sayings that made many of the disciples turn back and walk no more with Jesus. But what offended the Jews is no longer offensive to us. Yet many forsake Him in our days. (1). Because they do not know Him. One may be acquainted with all the facts of His life, from the manger to the cross, and yet be totally ignorant of the principles that animated that life. (2) Because they cannot have Christ and their sins at the same time. The people of Rome demanded of Brutus why he had stabbed Caesar, by his own admission “ the foremost man of all the world” ; and he answered to this effect, “ Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” The surgeon of intemperate habits kills himself by degrees, and knows it; does he hate life? No, he loves drink more, and is content to fall into a premature grave. Men are loth to admit this, and many try hard to deceive themselves and others that they are kept away by doubt, as though intellectual pride was pardonable and praiseworthy. Samson perished under the ruins of his prison--why? Was it for the want of evidences? I trow not. His burning lust for Delilah brought him to that vulgar, shameful end. Demas turned His back upon the Redeemer, and forsook Paul and the churches when they greatly needed his sympathy and help. Was it “ doubts” that caused his apostasy? No; he “ loved the present world.” “ Your iniquities have separated between you and God.” II. JESUS CHRIST HAS NO DESIRE TO SEE PEOPLE HIM AGAINST THEIR . “ Will ye also go away?” The question suggests two things 1. That the gospel is a moral influence, and not a coercive agency. In making a personal appeal to the undecided, once and again have I been told, by way of self-justification, that they expect some irresistible power, some messenger from the dead, to compel them to believe the gospel. Oh, false and foolish expectation! In a speech of the Earl of Chatham the following passage occurs, which, with a little modification, will help to illustrate this point:--George the Third endeavoured to give undue influence to the prerogative of the Crown; but the great orator strenuously opposed him, and stood up for the constitution, saying, “ The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail--its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it, the storm may enter--but the King of England cannot enter. All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.” You are at perfect liberty to stay with Him or go away with the multitude that do evil--choose ye. 2. That religion without love is no religion at all. In this commercial age people are apt to introduce a mercenary spirit even into spiritual things, and ask with the apostate Jews, “ What profit shall we have if we pray to Him?” Many of us, in our visits to rural districts, where the inhabitants cling tenaciously to primitive customs, have been made sad and solemn by meeting a funeral procession bearing a dead one to his burial; and although strangers to us, no one need tell us who the relatives of the departed one are--they are easily distinguished from all others both by their nearness to the coffin and their willingness to endure any inconvenience in order to follow him they loved to his long, long home. Others may, and will, turn back half-way, if the distance be far and the weather foul, but such is their grief after the departed that, however rough the way and stormy the weather, they will walk to the brink of the grave, and shed the tears of affection on his coffin-lid as they look down and bid their last farewell. The relatives of the Saviour likewise are easily recognized by their nearness to Him in thought and duty, and also by their fidelity to their beloved Redeemer, through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report, even unto death. III. THERE ARE A FEW IN EVERY AGE AMONGST THE MANY. “ To whom shall we go?” Go to the service of mammon with boats and fishing-tackles, and leave others to become fishers of men. Go to swine-land, the far country of self-indulgence and carnal pleasures, and spend your substance with the prodigal in riotous living. Go to Vanity Fair and the City of Destruction: follow the crowd! No; we have already been to all those places, and failed to find a resting-place for a weary, heavy-laden soul. You had better stay, then. Peter’ s reasons for staying were 1. Because no one else could give such a clear account of the future. “ Thou hast the words of eternal life.” 2. Because He was the Divine Redeemer. “ And we believe, and are sure, that Thou art Christ, the son of the living God.” (W. A. Griffiths.) Departing from Jesus In Mammoth Cave the old negro guide told us how people had been lost there from time to time. When found, they overwhelmed him with embraces and other demonstrations of gratitude. Some became insane through fright; some fled in terror from the guides. Once a woman was lost for about twenty-four hours. In that terrible darkness, in the silence in which hearts beat loud, she had waited in dreadful suspense. Superstitious dread filled her crazed heart. At last the guide came, his footfalls echoing like whispers and groans, his lantern casting ghostly shadows upon the walls. The poor terrified creature arose, and tied away into the darkness. The guide pursued--a veritable black devil he seemed! At last he overtook her--unconscious, prostrate, ashy white. In his strong arms he raised her from the ground, and carried her out to safety and light and home! How often is it so: When the Saviour comes, we flee from Him. Misconceptions of Him, distortions of Him, shadows of Him in this dark world, fancies of Him in our sinful hearts, make Him seem other than He is. And we flee from our Saviour and our Guide--flee away into the darkness. And yet He came to find us, to save us, to bear us to the light. “ He came to His own, and His own received Him not.” (R. S.Barrett.) The physiology of backsliding Within the body of the Hermit crab a minute organism may frequently be discovered, resembling, when magnified, a miniature kidney bean. A bunch of root-like processes hangs from one side, and the extremities of these are seen to ramify in delicate films through the living tissues of the crab. This simple organism is known to the naturalist as Sacculina: and though a full-grown animal, it consists of no more parts than those just named. Not a trace of structure is to be detected within this rude and all but inanimate frame; it possesses neither legs, nor eyes, nor mouth, nor throat, nor stomach, nor any other organs, external or internal. This Sacculina is a typical parasite. By means of its twining and theftuous roots it imbibes automatically its nourishment ready-prepared from the body of the crab. It boards, indeed, entirely at the expense of its host, who supplies it liberally with food and shelter, and everything else it wants. So far as the result to itself is concerned, this arrangement may seem at first sight satisfactory enough; but when we inquire into the life history of this small creature we unearth a career of degeneracy all but unparalleled in nature. When the young animal first makes its appearance, it bears not the remotest resemblance to the adult animal. A different name even is given to it by the biologist, who knows it at this period as a Nauplius. This minute organism has an oval body, supplied with six well-jointed feet, by means of which it paddles briskly through the water. For a time it leads an active and independent life, industriously securing its own food and escaping enemies by its own gallantry. But soon a change takes place. The hereditary taint of parasitism is in its blood, and it proceeds to adapt itself to the pauper habits of its race. The tiny body first doubles in upon itself, and from the two front limbs elongated filaments protrude. Its four hind limbs entirely disappear, and twelve short forked swimming organs temporarily take their place. Thus strangely metamorphosed the Sacculina sets out in search of a suitable host, and in an evil hour, by that fate which is always ready to accommodate the transgressor, is thrown into the company of the Hermit crab. With its two filamentary processes--which afterwards develop into the root-like organs--it penetrates the body; the sac-like form is gradually assumed; the whole of the swimming feet drop off--they will never be needed again--and the animal settles down for the rest of its life as a parasite … There could be no more impressive illustration than this of what with entire appropriateness one might call “ the physiology of backsliding.” We fail to appreciate the meaning of spiritual degeneration or detect the terrible nature of the consequences only because they evade the eye of sense. But could we investigate the spirit as a living organism, or study the soul of the backslider on principles of comparative anatomy, we should have a revelation of the organic effects of sin, even of the mere sin of carelessness as to growth and work, which must revolutionize our ideas of practical religion. There is no room for the doubt even, that what goes on in the body does not with equal certainty take place in the spirit under the corresponding circumstances or conditions. The penalty of backsliding is not something unreal and vague, some unknown quantity which may be measured out to us disproportionately, or which, perchance, since God is good, we may altogether evade. The consequences are already marked within the structure of the soul. So to speak, they are physiological. The thing affected by our indifference or by our indulgence is not the book of final judgment, but the present fabric of the soul. The punishment of degeneration is simply de-generation--the loss of functions, the decay of organs, the atrophy of the spiritual nature. It is well known that the recovery of the backslider is one of the hardest problems in spiritual work. To reinvigorate an old organ seems more difficult and hopeless than to develop a new one; and the backslider’ s terrible lot is to have to retrace with enfeebled feet each step of the way along which he strayed; to make up inch by inch the leeway he has lost, carrying with him a dead weight el acquired reluctance, and scarce knowing whether to be stimulated or discouraged by the memory of the previous fall. (Prof. Drummond.) The effects of backsliding on the steadfast When, at the close of the First Empire, our soldiers fought against united Europe, there frequently arose from the midst of the battle a cry that troubled all hearts. The reason was that a corps of the army, deserting the flag of Napoleon, had turned to the enemy. It was so at Leipsic: when the Saxons abandoned the French eagles the blast of ruin passed over the whole army, for treason was seen everywhere. And we also, in the desperate struggle in which the Christian army is engaged, we have often seen discouragement agitate the, most steadfast, when in the front ranks of the enemy, to have to encounter those who but the day before helped our faith and stood close around our flag. Only yesterday our allies, to-day our implacable enemies, directing their sharp, haughty, and contemptuous criticism against a cause whose weak points were well known to them. The crisis has been a terrible one, and more than one heart has succumbed under the anguish. But in this heartrending apostasy we seem to hear the voice of our Head say to us, as formerly to His disciples, “ Will you also go away?” In reply to this appeal we have acknowledged our Master; shame has laid hold on us for having a moment submitted to the contagion of example; we have felt that never should His cause be more dear to us than when it was abandoned by the multitude; that the number and assent of masses are nothing and ought to be nothing; and with a more profound faith we have said to the Christ, “ Lord, to whom can we go?” (E. Bersier, D. D.) A backslider’ s end Albert, Bishop of Mayence, had a physician attached to his person, who, being a Protestant, did not enjoy the prelate’ s favour. The man, seeing this, and being an avaricious, ambitious, worldseeker, denied his God, and turned back to Popery, saying to his associates, “ I’ ll put Jesus Christ by for a while till I’ ve made my fortune, and then bring Him out again.” This horrible blasphemy met with its just reward; for next day the miserable hypocrite was found dead in his bed, his tongue hanging from his mouth, his face as black as a coal, and his neck twisted half round. I was myself an ocular witness of this merited chastisement of impiety. (Luther.) A brave martyr Anne Askew, when asked to avoid the flames, answered, “ I came not here to deny my Lord and Master.” Where backsliding begins In the Life of Philip Henry it is said, “ He and his wife constantly prayed together, morning and evening.” He made conscience of closet worship, and abounded in it. It was the caution and advice which he frequently gave to his children and friends, “ Be sure you look to your secret duty; keep that up, whatever you do; the soul cannot prosper in the neglect of it. Apostasy generally begins at the closet door.” Besides these, he was uniform, steady, and constant in family worship from the time he was first called to the charge of a family to his dying day. He would say, “ If the worship of God be not in the house, write, ‘ Lord, have mercy upon us,’ on the door; for there is a plague, a curse in it.’” A backslider’ s misery After poor Sabat, an Arabian, who had professed faith in Christ by means of the labours of the Rev. Henry Martyn, had apostatized from Christianity, and written a book in favour of Mohammedanism, he was met at Malacca by the late Rev. Dr. Milne, who proposed to him some very pointed questions, in reply to which he said, “ I am unhappy! I have a mountain of burning sand on my head! When I go about I know not what I am doing.” It is indeed “ an evil thing and bitter to sin against the Lord our God.” Reasons for backsliding Those who forsake God to return to the world, do it because they find more gratification in earthly pleasures than in those arising from communion with God; and because this overpowering charm, carrying them away, causes them to relinquish their first choice, and renders them, as Tertullian says, the penitents of the devil. (Blaise Pascal.) John 6:67-69 Will ye also go away?… To whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life Human destiny and its attainment through Christ I. GOD HAS SET BEFORE US A DESTINY. “ Eternal life.” 1. The idea of a future world in the abstract is probably present to every man. 2. It is impossible for any one to entertain this idea without being haunted by the tremendous possibilities of its truth. A man may lose sight of it, or rush to escape it, but let it once have a lodgment within, and he cannot refuse it acknowledgment. 3. It does not require any argument to prove a future world--you know that there is one. 4. It is equally impressed upon the human consciousness that this future life (1) is one of conscious immortal existence; (2) has a retributive connection with the doings of the present life. II. HE HAS TO US THE METHOD BY WHICH THIS DESTINY MAY BE AND . 1. The revelation of God’ s mercy in the gospel proceeds on the assumption of this conscious immortal existence, and has furnished appliances by which the happiest conditions of that existence may be brought within the reach of all. It is not merely a manual of precept for this world; it is a treasury of hope and comfort for the world to come. Point- ing to the Saviour, whose suretyship it announces, and from whose death it receives its validity and power, it says, “ This is the true God and eternal life,” and it proclaims to the troubled spirit that in Christ’ s possession are the words of eternal life. 2. Those words were never spoken in their fulness till Christ came. There were broken utterances about it, but He brought life and immortality to light. III. HE HAS LIMITED AN SAVIOUR. “ Neither is there salvation in any other.” 1. To have allowed a plurality of Saviours would have indicated a faltering confidence or an unsatisfied claim. 2. There needs no other Saviour, so there is no other. 3. This conviction will force itself on all some day. 4. The experience of the past proves that none other has the words of eternal life. All ancient religion and philosophy are empty of information on eternal life. 5. The researches of the present can find no other Saviour. (W. M.Punshon, LL. D.) Two stages of spiritual life (Text in conjunction with Luke 5:8). I. THE FIRST STAGE MARKED BY FEAR AT THE OF DIVINE GLORY. It was not merely the wonder that produced the cry. This was not the first time that Peter had seen the power of Christ, and others had seen it who had not been affected. He saw in Christ the Holy one, and then came a sense of the chasm between Himself and Jesus. 1. Such a revelation does awaken the feelings of fear and awe. Before Christ came men had heard of holiness, but its awful presence was never fully felt until He crossed the path of the world. By Him the “ thoughts of many hearts were revealed.” Before the light of His holiness all lying hypocrisies quailed. And for eighteen centuries the world has been convinced of sin by the presence of the Holy One. When a man realizes a sense of the presence of this holiness his cry is that of Peter’ s. 2. Every one must have this feeling before He can cast himself utterly on Christ. II. THE SECOND STAGE-- OF TO CHRIST OUR LIFE. This was a testing time for the disciples--a time when they were driven to feel that Christ was their life. And in Christian experience there are similar periods, and then we feel that everything but the perfect reception of Him fails to satisfy the heart. Our spiritual nature craves three things. 1. A knowledge of God the Eternal Truth. Christ has revealed the Father. 2. Reconciliation with God the Eternal Righteousness. Christ is life for the conscience. 3.A knowledge of God the Eternal Love. Christ brought God close to man’ s heart. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) Reasons for continuance with Jesus I. NO OTHER CHRIST WILL COME. II. NO ONE WILL BRING A BETTER WORD. III. THERE REMAINS NO OTHER FAITH. IV. THERE IS NO . (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) If not to Christ then to whom? 1. “ To whom shall we go?” is his first question when a man awakens to moral consciousness, and feels within him those inarticulate longings which reveal that he is not what he ought to be. Plato accounted these yearnings the reminiscences of a former state in which the soul had seen the perfect ideas of things now lost--a near approach to the Bible doctrine of the Fall. The soul feels that it is not what it once was, and that it cannot make itself so; but it recognizes its forgotten greatness when it sees it again. It is not to be deceived. It says when one specimen is offered, “ This is not what I seek;” but when it finds Christ it identifies its long lost manhood in Him. 2. Besides these longings there is within us a sense of guilt, and the spirit groans, “ Who will help me? “ As when the sick cry for a physician. Man must go somewhere. The Jews were confronted with four rival systems. Sadduceeism, Pharisaism, Essenism, Christianity, and these virtually confront the seeker to-day. I. Shall we go to ? 1. That seeks to cure the soul’ s malady by denying it. That gives the same satisfaction as persuading a starving man that there is no reality in his hunger. How much more rational to accept the bread God has provided. Reject revelation and the same difficulties emerge in philosophy--so you only get rid of their only possible solution--just as sick men refused the doctor only throw away the chances of getting well. 2. The service of infidelity to man is well seen in the French Revolution. II. Shall we go to ? To improve our spiritual nature by ceremonial means is to begin at the wrong end, for it is the character of the soul that gives quality to the rite. The root of the evil is in the soul, which no ceremony can touch. Witness the Pharisees who would not go into Pilate’ s Hall for fear of defilement, and yet could plot for murder. Witness the Italian brigand who gives thanks for a successful robbery. Witness the multitudes of formal worshippers on Sunday who take advantage of their neighbours on Monday. Formalism only substitutes hypocrisy for religion. III. Shall we go to ? 1. It is useless in practice, because the heart cannot escape from itself, and no walls can exclude temptation. 2. The whole system is cowardly. 3. It is a negative thing. IV. Shall we go to JESUS? What are His qualifications? 1. He has the words of eternal life. By words man was lured to his destruction, and now by words he is to be saved. 2. What are His words. Their substance is, “ God so loved the world,” etc. Faith in these words gives certainty where before was doubt, and peace where formerly was despair. 3. See what they have done in the case of the apostles, heathens, drunkards, sinners of every age and degree. All that is noble and elevating in our modern civilization have come from Christ. Conclusion: When our modern prophets ask us to leave Him, we reply 1. Find us a better answer to the questioning of our spirits than He has furnished. 2. Show us a better ideal of manhood than He has given. 3. Bring us brighter light in the life beyond than He has thrown. 4. In a word, give us something better than Christ. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Man’ s need of a Saviour 1. There is here one great assumption which, being removed, the whole drops to pieces. It is that man must have some one to go to. He cannot live without a master, a guide, a comforter. The soul cannot live alone or grope its own way. St. Peter’ s question evidently implies, “ We cannot leave Thee till we have found another who shall outbid Thee in Thy offers, and outshine Thee in Thy revelations.” 2. This is what we may call the argument from want. Man wants someone, and therefore God has someone for him. To whom is the only question, not whether we shall go. Was Peter right, or was he rash and wrong? (1) There are some suppositions which would be fatal to this argument. Supposing there be no God, or, at most, a God unconcerned about His creatures, then to say that man’ s spiritual thirst is any proof that God has provided spiritual water is a fallacy; it only proves that to want and to have not is man’ s pitiless destiny. But if there be a God such a conception is revolting to our best instincts, and dishonouring to God Himself. Far worthier is that of One touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and if this be true, then provision is sure. (2) This argument is not weakened by sin’ s entrance. The fact that man was spared after he had sinned, and that he now needs God’ s care and love more than ever, strengthens the argument. What Peter wanted, and what we want is I. SOME ONE WHO CAN RAISE US ABOVE . How many of our race suffer from poverty, anxiety, sickness, disappointment, the sense of inferiority, and the dullness of life’ s routine, etc. God designs that such should have independence, earth’ s giving or refusing: and there is only one person who goes to the root of the trouble, for He can say to us, “ I came to you from heaven, and there we know of no such distinctions; there the only honour is humility, the only office self-sacrifice, the only distinction, the being nearest to and likest God. Cultivate these things over which tyranny has no power, and I will guide you by my counsel and afterward receive you to glory.” II. SOME HELP TO LIFT US ABOVE SIN. Sin is an established fact, explain it, disguise it, extenuate it how we may. Christ’ s mission was to teach us the nature and guilt of sin. When this is brought home to the soul then indeed it cries, “ To whom shall I go? Surely God must have some one for me? “ He is in that sinless one who came into the world to save sinners. If we accept not Christ the voice of centuries tells us that there is no other. III. SOME ONE WHO SHALL RAISE US ABOVE DEATH ITSELF. This we find in Him who confronted death and conquered, and who is “ The resurrection and the life.” Has any one else, not the words, but even the hope and promise of eternal life? (Dean Vaughan.) Christ the only source of religious rife 1. There is a time when our religious thoughts and feelings undergo a strain. It may be in youth, when the world first lays hold of us: or in passing into manhood, when the intellect recoils from in- herited thought; or under some terrible temptation. Then it seems doubtful whether we shall stay in the old house or “ go away.” 2. When this time comes, we must have an answer in our hearts why we should stay with Christ, or else we shall certainly go. 3. The idea of all religion is that of the higher “ eternal” life of our text. “ Let us eat and drink,” etc., is common enough in practice, but no school advocates it. All schools maintain that there is a life of unselfishness which has as its vital principle the happiness of others. 4. The question, then, is not as to the need, but the sources of this higher life. The religion of Christ is said to be no longer effectual. Science, the religion of humanity, art, and culture, make their claims more or less to the exclusion of Christ. 5. How, then, can it be shown that in Christ alone is the true source of the higher life for man. By I. THE POWER OF CHRIST’ S . It was not a question of opinion as to whether the doctrines of Christ could be abandoned, an alternative between those of Christ and the Pharisees. The issue here, as ever, was a purely personal matter. 1. This assertion of authoritative personality is characteristic of Christ as a religious teacher. “ I am the Way,” etc. The words would have been profane boasting on any other lips. But when we see in Him what Peter saw in Him, we at once own the power and blessing of His words. 2. The consciousness of a Divine character in Christ is the most powerful root of the Divine life. We are moved by character as by nothing else. Truth on its intellectual side is hard to find, and may easily be eluded. It is this which makes the essential weakness of many modern schemes of religion. They are schemes of intellectualism, and, to the majority, are useless. They are incapable of being moved by science and art, because the motive power of life does not work in the main through the intellect or the taste. The higher life may be helped by them, but they do not give or quicken it. 3. But let the personal life in us be brought in contact with a higher personal life, and the springs of our higher life are at once touched. Place a noble human being amongst others, and how powerfully does his influence work! It is intelligible to all minds, and steals into all hearts. It was such a power as this, in a super-eminent degree, that Christ was felt to be. Behind all His kindness, there lay a depth of Divine personality. 4. All this Christ is still, and the higher life is realized by us when our character is moulded by His, and His mind is formed in us. II. THE DIRECT OF THE HIGHER LIFE THROUGH HIS WORDS. The idea of Divine personality carries with it the idea of revelation. If the power behind the world is a personal power, it cannot but make itself known; and eternal life can only be known to us through its expressions in such a one as Christ. If we cannot find it here, we can find it nowhere. All Christ said or did was a revelation of it. Here is strength to resist evil and to make habitual in us the instincts of a higher life, and nowhere else. And if we have failed, our hearts tell us it is because we have gone back from Christ. (Principal Tulloch.) The difficulties of disbelief 1. Suppose we give up the Christian faith, what shall we have instead? Wise men are bound to look at consequences. If you were asked to leave your house, would you not inquire where yon were to go? And are we to concern ourselves more about shelter for the body than a home for the soul? 2. It is easier to pull down than to build up, to spoil a picture than to paint one, to tempt a man than to save one, to ruin life than to train it for heaven. Infidels are doing this easy work, and to them we must put the practical question, Give up religion, and what then? I. GIVE UP THE IDEA OF GOD, AND WHAT THEN? You would refuse to throw away the poorest covering till you knew what you were to have in return. Will you, then, recklessly give up the idea of the living, loving, personal God at the bidding of any man? Remember that you can put away the mystery of God, and you get in return the greater mystery of godlessness. The wax flower on your table was made, but the roses in your garden grew by chance, forsooth. II. GIVE UP THE IDEA OF THE FUTURE, AND WHAT THEN? If a man asked you to throw away a telescope, would you not inquire what you were to have in return? Will you, then, throw away the faith-glass through which you read the solemn and wondrous future. Christian revelation tells us that death is abolished, and heaven the goal of human spirits. Renounce this, and what can the sceptic give? III. SHUT YOUR BIBLE, AND WHAT THEN? The Bible says, “ The Lord is my Shepherd,” etc.; the tempter says, “ Be you that shepherd.” It says, “ He, every one that thirsteth,” etc.; he says, “ You have no thirst that you cannot slake at the muddy pool at your feet.” It says, “ God is a present help in time of trouble” ; he says, “ Dry your tears, and snap your fingers in the face of the universe.” It proclaims the forgiveness of sins; he says, “ You have never sinned.” It says, “ In My Father’ s house are many mansions” ; he says “ Your mansion is the grave; get into it, and rot away.” Conclusion: 1. Keep this question straight before you. 2. Inquire of the tempter his power to provide an alternative. 3. Be sure that the alternative is worth having. And you will find 4. That if you leave the Divine life and aspect of things, there is nothing but outer darkness. (J. Parker, D. D.) The disciples’ reasons for cleaving to Jesus I. Let us glance at THOSE SYSTEMS FOR WHICH WE ARE TEMPTED TO FORSAKE CHRIST. 1. Romanism. 2. Spiritualism. 3. Pantheism. 4. Secularism. 5. The world. II. Let us examine CHRIST’ S CLAIMS ON OUR AND FAITH. 1. He is a Divine Teacher. 2. An all-sufficient Saviour. 3. An Almighty Protector. 4. A Sovereign Lord. 5. The Rest of the weary soul. Conclusion: 1. Christ is infinitely worthy of our confidence and love. 2. Make yourselves better acquainted with Him, and your faith and lore will be confirmed. (Isaac Jennings.) Personal affiance in Christ the soul’ s safeguard (Sermon to Young Men) 1. We can scarcely conceive of any one but Peter speaking these words. They would not have been the first answer of the critical Thomas or the more philosophical John. The truth they contain would at last have aroused the faith of Thomas, and have been the resting-place of the love of John. Their sudden, unqualified utterance could only have broken from the lips of Peter. At the bare mention of the possibility of departure from Christ, St. Peter’ s soul was on fire, and the utterance of his heart outran the slower processes of the intellect, and he spoke with the voice of one who had experienced the power of the words of eternal life. 2. Young men are specially tempted to go away. The distinctive feature of your age is that it abounds in temptations. There is I. THE TO A LIFE OF IDLE SELF-. 1. With health strong, spirits high, and companionship abundant, the pleasure of merely living is so very great as for the time to seem almost satisfying. The facilities for easy living increases this temptation; but to yield to it is to kill the heart of your truest life. Though there may be nothing positively sinful in the separate acts of such a life, it is as a whole most sinful. You are guilty of the sin of omission, and rendering yourself unfit for the work of the future when it comes. For in such a life the seeds of all future evil are sown--softness, slothfulness, selfishness, etc. 2. This temptation is not to be overcome by the dull aphorisms of morality, nor by the festering pricks of ambition--the one all powerless against the other, as dangerous as the evil. What you need is to know Christ for yourself, so that love for Him becomes a real passion in your heart. Personal affiance brings you into His presence; and to be in His presence is to love Him, and love makes all labour easy. There is no limit to the height to which this may not exalt the most common-place life. II. THE TO IMMORAL . 1. To attempt to restrain young men of strong passions by stoical philosophy or prudential maxims, is like throwing a little water on a great fire, which, hissing out its own feebleness, does but quicken the burning. 2. There is but one sufficient remedy: that which has turned the martyrs’ flames into a pleasant whistling wind, and subdued the flesh in all the triumph of its strength--the love of Christ. Bring Christ by the cry of faith into thy life; set thy struggles against corruption in the light of His cross, and pardon, and purity, and power will come from the pierced hand. III. THE TO . 1. Our worship may easily be smothered by the weight of its external adorning till it sinks into the death of mere formality, or is sentimentalized into the languid feebleness of an unmanly emotion. 2. The charm of such a temptation can only be broken by the knowledge of Christ on the cross dying for our sin, awakening by His word the sense of guilt, bringing the message of forgiveness, and holding communion with the reconciled spirit. When this mighty revelation comes, the soul cannot rest in outer things, nor allow the most beautiful symbol to intercept one ray of His countenance, who is fairer than the children of men. You cannot starve the busy, intrusive fancy into a heavenly affection. The love of Christ must so elevate the spirit, that it shall rest in no form, but in every form seek Him supremely. IV. THE TO FREE-, AND THE LOSS OF ALL REALLY FIXED BELIEF IN . 1. Ages have their own temper, and there is much that is noble in that of our own. It contrasts most favourably with sensual, dull, and easy-living times. Labour, conflict, victory, are its watch-words. But its victories breed in it a certain audacity, to which the authority and genius of the Christian revelation oppose themselves. 2. Safety is not to be found in sleepily disregarding what is passing around us, nor in setting ourselves against the temper of the day, or in inventing a concordat between it and revelation, nor in forbidding criticism and turning away from discoveries. The rock, whose rugged breast affronts the torrent, cannot stay, but can only chafe the troubled waters. 3. If there are hard sayings discovered in the Christian record, and many turn back because of them, this is but a sifting of the inner willingness of hearts to go away. What else do the many voices around us proclaim but that, more than ever, we need a personal knowledge of Christ to keep us safe amidst the strife of tongues? 4. The real talisman against unbelief is not in hard, narrow, exclusive views, but in personal love to Christ. This love will sweep away a thousand doubts and speculative difficulties, and supply a whole life of resistance which is quickened into action by the mere touch of what might harm the spirit. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) Whence the words of eternal life I. THE ANSWER OF SCIENCE. By education, by learning the laws of nature and training oneself to obey them, Professor Huxley likens life to a game at chess. The board is the world; the pieces the phenomena of the universe; the rules its laws. The player on the other side is hidden. His play is always fair, but he never overlooks a mistake. To the man who plays well the highest stakes are paid. The one who plays iii is checkmated without remorse. Education is learning the rules of this game. 1. This representation ignores the spiritual nature. That there is a spiritual nature and spiritual fact is attested by the consciousness and history of our race. 2. The God of Science is unknowable, without sympathy for the weak and erring, and compassion for the suffering. If this be all the God there is, how foolish to concern ourselves about the words of eternal life! 3. This theory of the highest living leaves out of the account the most startling fact of human life--sin. 4. This answer has been tested. Give us culture, say the scientists, and we will save the race, and usher in the long-looked-for Golden Age. Ah, yes, culture I that is what Athens had, and perished. That is what Paris has, and, as Carlyle says, is crazy. That is what Germany has, and still is full of the worst ills. That is what England has, and yet England is neither satisfied nor happy. That is what we have, and still these spirits of ours crave something higher, stronger, purer, better. That is what this age of ours has, and withal is blind and weak, and restless as the storm-tossed sea. Science may educate, but still sin remains, and conscience is not quieted. II. PETER’ S ANSWER. What a mighty contrast between Christ and science.. 1. Go to Jacob’ s well. “ Whence has thou the living water?” The scientist would reply, “ Out of the great well of nature. Study the laws of the universe.” Would the woman’ s heart have been touched, and would she have obeyed? 2. Suppose it had been the scientist who had been dining at Simon’ s table; he would have said, “ Woman, it is not scientific to weep. Be calm. Life is a game at chess; you have been checkmated because you didn’ t understand the rules of the game.” Would she have gone away as she did disburdened and satisfied? 3. What would the scientist have done at the grave of Lazarus? 4. Where has science given us a parable of the prodigal son? (S. A.Ort, D. D.) Jesus Christ the only source of rest and happiness I. In this reply of the apostle’ s is implied A OF THE OF ALL HUMAN MEANS FOR THE OF . “ Lord, to whom shall we go?” Shall we apply to the scribes and Pharisees? Shall we inquire of the ceremonial or moral law? Shall we submit to the decisions of reason? 1. The scribes and Pharisees, and other doctors of the law among the Jews, at that period were blind leaders of the blind. Their corruptions had darkened their minds, and thrown a veil over the sacred writings; so that the plainest prophecies were misunderstood, and the most important doctrines perverted by them. 2. The apostles were equally convinced that life and salvation could not be obtained from an observance of the ceremonial or moral law. (1) With respect to the former--they knew that the tabernacle service was chiefly typical, shadowing forth good things to come. (2) With respect to the latter--even if they could not recollect that they had been guilty of any gross immorality, yet they knew that they were far from that perfection which the law demands. 3. They were also persuaded of the entire insufficiency of reason to point out to them the path of life. Untaught by revelation, what knowledge can we obtain respecting the salvation of a sinner? II. The text implies that they had A FIRM BELIEF IN CHRIST’ S AND AS A SAVIOUR, “ Thou hast the words of eternal life.” 1. This is the language of faith, and expresses the sentiments and exercises of every soul that flees to the Saviour for refuge. 2. In this confession they acknowledge, also, a belief in His ability to instruct men in the way of life. 3. It also implies faith in Him as the only atoning sacrifice. 4. To be a perfect Saviour, He must be able, also, to ensure everlasting life to those whose sins He expiated; and, therefore, He must be possessed of power to apply His purchased salvation to the souls of His people. III. From such a view of His offices, and a complete satisfaction in His undertaking and character, arises an unconquerable desire for the blessings which He has to bestow; and hence the words of the text are to be considered as expressing A FIRM TO ADHERE TO HIM AS THEIR SAVIOUR AND LORD. “ To whom shall we go,” say the disciples, “ but unto Thee.” 1. United to Him they see safety; separated from Him they behold inevitable death. 2. This holy resolution is formed, not merely from necessity, but from a conviction of the honour, delight, and immortal glory which await the followers of the Lamb. (W. L. Johnson.) Words of eternal life I. A PUT AT A TIME. 1. It is a question put at a time when there was a great falling off from the number of Christ’ s followers. Now was the time to show their colours--now or never. The chaff was driven away. The wheat remained. Times of apostasy are sifting seasons for God’ s people, giving a renewed call to every soldier of the Cross to rally round the deserted banner. The example of others is no safe guide. Public opinion is often a feeble indicator of duty. There is one example, and only one, that we are safe to follow--the example of Christ. There is one standard, and only one, that never varies--the Word of God. Keep the infallible standard in your eye, and that willhelp to steady you amid the changes of men and time. 2. This question was put at a time when there was a fresh demand made on the faith of Christ’ s followers. It is obvious that our Lord’ s design was to lead His followers to a knowledge of the hidden mysteries of His kingdom; to set before them some of the deeper truths of revelation. Progressiveness marked all His teaching. Faith has often to surmount barriers which are impassable by the natural understanding. Duty is ever making fresh demands upon us, and as we advance we are ever finding out depths that we have not yet sounded, and heights of holiness we have not yet scaled. There are speculative difficulties that try our faith, and perplexing things in God’ s word that we cannot explain. In the face of such perplexities it will be our wisdom to hold fast what we can accept. “ What we know not now, we shall know hereafter.” 3. This question was put at a time when higher devotion was required in the life of Christ’ s followers. When God reveals Himself to His people, as He has been doing with increasing clearness at different stages in the world’ s history, it is in order to enable them to be more devoted witnesses for Him among men. All our knowledge ought to help us to live holier and nobler lives; otherwise it profits nothing. II. A NOBLER REPLY FOUNDED ON WEIGHTY REASON. 1. Christ the highest of all teachers. We have many professing guides, but they all save One lead astray. Shall we follow our modern Pharisees and adopt the creed of the formalist? No, that will not satisfy the soul that longs for life. Shall we follow our modern Sadducees and adopt the creed of the atheist? No, that will not satisfy the soul that longs for God. Are we perplexed in our search for truth, and know not whose teaching to trust amid conflicting opinions? Let us learn to distrust, in matters of eternal moment, all human guides, and look to that Name beside which there is none other under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Then we shall have a Teacher to instruct us wiser than man, a Light brighter than the sun to shine on our path. 2. Eternal life the best of all possessions. Christ has something to bestow which no other claimant can boast of. He offers an inheritance that will outlast the sun, and live as long as God Himself. (D. Merson, M. A.) Words of eternal life What are any of these life-giving words? Here are a few. “ I am the Resurrection and the Life,” etc. “ Seek ye Me, and your soul shall live.” “ Whoso eateth My flesh,” etc. “ God so loved the world,” etc. What “ potential energy” slumbers in those wonderful words! They carry within them to the guilty and the dying a Divine message fraught with saving and life-giving power. They are simple that a child may read them, but they hold, as it were in solution, the deepest thoughts of God. The mere words are often compared to the casket containing the gem. To find the gem you have to open the casket. Even so, to get at the meaning of Christ’ s life-giving words, you need the spiritual discernment, the key that will unlock the gospel casket. The application of its contents to the heart will result in life eternal. Or take another similitude: The words are like the title-deeds of an inheritance. The possession of the title-deeds settles the ownership of the property. So the man who appropriates by faith the truths of the gospel makes good his claim to the inheritance which the gospel promises. Accept these truths, hold fast the title-deeds, and the inheritance is yours--not simply will be yours at some future time, but is yours now. The moment you receive the words of Christ you become possessor of the life of Christ. And this is what is here called “ Eternal Life,” which has been defined to be not simply endless being, but a life of perfect harmony with its environment, not subject to the changes and imperfections of this finite world. To be in harmony with Christ, otherwise called reconciliation with God--this is the aim of man’ s being, the noblest heritage of fallen humanity. Christ makes the offer of it to all His followers. In Him it is to be found, and those who are in Him have already entered into possession. But, so long as they are in this finite world, they are like the sons of Jacob in their possession of Canaan, surrounded by foes and exposed to changes, so that the circumstances are not favourable to undisturbed possession, the external harmony or environment not being perfect, but the time is coming when the harmony thus incomplete will be consummated in fairer worlds amid perfect and purer surroundings. (D. Merson, M. A.) Revealed religion the only source of true happiness Taking the gospel just as we find it, I shall show that all men’ s desires are to be met in it and in nothing else. If we reject it, whither shall we go for the fruition of oar desires? Take I. THE DESIRE OF . That this is deeply seated in the soul is evident from the horror which annihilation awakens. Where shall we, then, find the evidence that the desire is to be gratified? 1. The senses only inform us that we shall die, and no disembodied spirit appears to contradict it. 2. Reason only speculates upon it as a probability, and those philosophers who most cleverly argued it our disbelieved their own reasonings. 3. But faith looks through tile darkness and beholds in Christ “ life and immortality brought to light.” II. THE DESIRE OF ACTION. The gospel, and that only 1. Gives a right direction to the human faculties. Those faculties have acquired a wrong direction which reason, working through the highest civilization, could not correct; but just in proportion as the gospel has prevailed the standard of morality has been elevated. 2. Opens a noble field for their exercise. When the gospel is not known the social duties are but little understood or performed; but Christianity enjoins the doing of good to our fellow-creatures, not only as beings who are to live here, but for ever. 3. Enjoins employments which are fitted to improve man’ s faculties, and thus render him capable of some vigorous and successful action. III. THE DESIRE OF . True, man may advance with no other light but the light of nature. But in that department which respects the character of God and man’ s eternal relations human reason is at best an inadequate instructor. The knowledge derived from the Bible Isaiah 1. Most practical, adapted to influence the affections, and through them the life. 2. Sublime. Its revelations are stamped with moral grandeur--God, creation, the soul, redemption, immortality, etc. 3. For ever progressive. The treasures of the Bible are inexhaustible, and he who walks by it here will walk in the brighter light of heaven hereafter. IV. THE DESIRE OF THE OF OTHER BEINGS. 1. Wherever the gospel has not existed, malice, hatred, envy, revenge, etc., have held the soul in dominion in spite of all that reason could do to redeem it. But the gospel brings into exercise the spirit of forgiveness and benevolence, and makes man a brother, instead of an enemy, to his fellowman. 2. But this desire has respect to the favourable regard of God, and is met (1) By the gospel proclamation of forgiveness; (2) The impartation of a character which renders man the object of Divine complacency. V. THE DESIRE FOR SOCIETY. There is an impression abroad that Christianity is unfriendly to social enjoyment. But monkery is a perversion of Christianity. Christianity is in its very nature social, for 1. A large part of its duties are social. 2. Its tendency is to refine and exalt the social affections. 3. It has established a society--the Church. 4. It meets this desire through every period of existence. Conclusion: 1. Does not this furnish a conclusive argument for the Divinity of the gospel? 2. How malignant the spirit of infidelity. (1) Even on the theory that Christianity is false, it can supply nothing in its place. (2) But on the theory that Christianity is true, it stands chargeable with opposing man’ s best interests in time and eternity. 3. How blessed the employment of extending the gospel! (W. B. Sprague, D. D.) Christ the centre of Unity An old Greek sage had a theory, and it must be admitted that there was a great deal of truth in his speculations. He had a notion that the history of the universe was composed of alternate cycles, covering vast periods of time--the cycle of love and the cycle of hate. Under the influence of love, when this cycle was being fulfilled which he supposed all came under, the mighty force and tendency of each was towards unity. Then came the cycle of hate when the centrifugal forces produced universal disintegration; parts flew off from the whole, from their proper centre, and from their proper relations to each other; and the various objects of beauty also began to disappear. This was a curious conception, but was there not a great deal of truth in it? May we not say that there are two laws in the spiritual kingdom of Jesus Christ? First, the love law, having for its centre God, who pervades the universe and tends to promote harmony and beauty and every other comeliness. The second, the law of hatred or self-assertion, by which the individual, breaking away from God, sets himself up as his god; from which will of necessity result the disintegration of society, confusion, anarchy, and the ruin of the universe. These two great laws are operating in our midst. (W. Hay-Aitken, M. A.) Christ Himself the sole protection against the assaults of unbelief It is not by limiting the intellectual side of our religion, but by exalting its spiritual side, that we can be safe and keep others safe. It is not by striving to repress intellectual activity, nor by jealously warning it off the precincts of revealed religion; it is by lifting up before men’ s eyes the Cross of Christ, and teaching them personal affiance in Him, that we shall keep uninjured the great deposit of the truth. And this is the only talisman: without it all speculations upon the mystery of life and of God are full of danger; for though such peril is preeminently present in studies and inquiries which tend to shake received belief as to things sacred, it is not with them only that it is present. It is almost as easy for controversial orthodoxy, as for adverse speculative criticism, to land the spirit in the valley of the shadow of death. Nothing can more endanger the true life of the spirit than the cold charnel-house breath of a mere reasoning, unloving, uncharitable orthodoxy. Alas, the pathway of the Church, through times of great controversy, is marked by the mouldering corpses of such combatants for truth. This, and this only, can keep us safe amongst our own perils--to have known ourselves the love bred within the soul by a true belief in Christ’ s atoning blood, in Christ’ s perpetual presence, in Christ’ s abiding love. And of this we may be sure no speculative difficulties can endanger one soul, which has been taught by experimental knowledge to say in times of darkness, “ Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) A reason against turning back When Christian, in the “ Pilgrim’ s Progress,” thought about going back, he recollected that he had no armour for his back. Look at that fact whenever you are tempted. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Christ alone can satisfy the soul Timour the Tartar desired universal dominion, saying the earth was too small for more than one master. “ It is too small to satisfy the ambition of a great soul.” “ The ambition of a great soul,” said the Sheik of Samarcand to him one day, “ is not to be satisfied by the possession of a morsel of earth added to another, but by the possession of God alone sufficiently great to fill up an infinite thought.” (Lamartine.) I have received from Taubenheim one hundred pieces of gold, and fifty pieces of silver from Schart, so that I begin to fear lest God be giving me my portion here below. But I solemnly declare that nothing can make me happy except God. (Luther.) The world cannot confer happiness “ One should think,” said I, “ that the proprieter of all this (Keddlestone, the seat of Lord Scarsfield) must be happy.” “ Nay, sir,” said Johnson; “ all this excludes but one evil--poverty.” (Boswell.) Christ only is worth serving A great statesman, abandoned in his old age by his sovereign, lay dying one day in England; and it is recorded of him that he said,” If I had served my God as faithfully as I have served my king, He had not cast me off now.” How true! Blessed God! Thou will never abandon any who put their trust in Thee. (Dr. Guthrie.) The hopelessness of humanity away from Christ “ To whom shall we go?” Poor humanity, distracted by many perplexities, bleeding from many wounds, weeping over many griefs, must go somewhere: she cannot eat out her own heart with grief and consume her own life with sighing. Whither shall we go? Where shall the great mystery of our existence be unveiled to us? Is Nature to be the temple of our worship, with its skies, now bright and now cloudy, arching over us in alternate loveliness and terror? Ah, there is no gospel in her sighing wind, and all her resurrections die again, and all her waves break upon a strand that is unknown and far. Can infidelity reassure us? Is there safety in the everlasting “ No?” Can we vanquish the danger by denying it? Can we overcome the peril by putting it far away? Men try this sometimes, but it is a sombre region to dwell in where dead leaves crackle under foot. Ah, no! there is a shuddering and sickly air, as of some ghost-haunted wood or precincts stern and savage; and it is useless, for Death will come, although society join us in the conspiracy to cheat him, and although friends forbear kindly to inquire about our age, and although decay can go and rouge over its wrinkles, and compliment itself into youth again, Death will come; and there is something in all of us that will keep on asking, “ What then? what then?” “ What after death for me remains?” Oh, it is wiser surely even with the Egyptian to shape the coffin in the lifetime, or with the Jew to build the sepulchre in the garden. Speaking of Jews, would Judaism serve to shelter us? It has glorious types--a wonderful history, many lighted windows of worship. Shall we enter the door? Nay, don’ t exhume it: it has been in the sarcophagus, a corpse, now for more than a thousand years. Christ would have been the soul of it once, but it rejected Him, and struck its own suicide in a mistaken chivalry which preferred death to what it deemed to be dishonour. Judaism can do nothing for us. Then shall reason light us down the vale, or morality put a staff in our hand, or superstition torture us into safety, or formalism ferry us over the swellings of Jordan? Alas! they are all miserable comforters; they lift no cloud; there it hangs, mysterious and solemn, over the passage into eternal life. Jesus of Nazareth, Divine human Saviour! we come to Thee: we pray to Thee. In Thee is all the beauty which the Greek worshipped: in Thee is all the law which the stern Roman loved. Thou art Nature’ s great interpreter; and infidelity shrinks away from Thy presence; and Judaism is fulfilled in Thee; and superstition becomes reverence as Thou speakest; and formality gets an inner spirit; and faith in Thee is the highest reason; and love to Thee is the grandest morality. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.) No retreat When Garibaldi sailed from Genoa in 1860 he took with him a thousand volunteers. They landed at Marsala almost in the face of the Neapolitan fleet. When the commander of Marsala, returning to the port, saw the steamers, he gave orders to destroy them. Garibaldi having landed his men, looked with indifference, almost with pleasure on the work of destruction. “ Our retreat is cut off,” he said, exultingly; “ we have no hope but in going forward: it is to death or victory.” (H. O. Mackey.) John 6:69 We believe and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God The Christ of God Faith without knowledge is mere fancy. For the want of knowledge the faith of the ancient Jews gave way in the wilderness. So here the nominal disciples went away because they did not know who He was from whom they went. To the apostles this knowledge gave stability to their faith and they remained. I. THE . That Christ was the Messiah. 1. The provision that is by this Christ could not be by any other. (1) His sacrifice is of eternal worth. (2) It eternally satisfies the soul. (3) It is the ground upon which all things work together for good. (4) We should labour by faith and prayer for this meat. 2. By partaking of this provision we shall never come to want. Away then with anxieties and fears. 3. To accept this provision is the counsel of God to man. II. THE SONSHIP. Christ is the Son of God in a way no other can be. 1. Because He was born as no other was ever born. 2. Because He was a complex person--God and man. 3. Because of His infallible purity. 4. Because He embodies blessings which no other person ever did. 5. Because He included in His sonship millions of others. III. THE NOTE OF . “ Living” in contrast to idols and false religions (Isaiah 26:1-21.). Because God never dies His people can never die. IV. THE OF FAITH. (James Wells.) The threefold Christ I. THE CHRIST OF . 1. Christ was the Desire of all nations, the Saviour for which all nations yearned. 2. His coming was in accordance with the plan of God from the first. Hence then were preparations not only among the Jews but in general history for His coming. 3. But the Christ who was blindly felt after by sage and seer was the Christ of an assured prophecy in Judaea. Abraham had seen His day. Even earlier to Adam and Noah the promise had gone forth. You know the tenor of Isaiah, Daniel and the minor prophets. II. THE CHRIST OF HISTORY corresponds in every particular to the Christ of prophecy. Eight different writers record His life, but they all agree in saying that Christ was what many more before He came said He was to be. III. THE CHRIST OF . 1. Christ’ s promise was that He would manifest Himself to and live in His people. The Apostles point out this as the central Christian privilege. It therefore becomes our duty, that as there is an indwelling Christ in every true believer, to bring out in ourselves the Christ should be our end and aim. 2. The Christ of prophecy was needed as the initiation of the Divine plan for our salvation. But the benefits of the Christ of prophecy to us are simply that they confirm our faith and raise in us a more exalted idea of His excellence. 3. The Christ of history, too, has passed away, but the Christ of experience is based upon and modelled after and by the Christ of history. (A. B. Livermore.) A simple confession I. AN FAITH. The disciples commenced their investigations into the theme of Christ’ s personality. 1. Not by practising unlimited credulity as opposed to sober inquiry. 2. Not by superstitiously committing themselves to extravagant conceptions as to His rank. 3. By accepting honestly and trustfully the evidence placed before them in the character and works of Jews without partiality or prejudice, and then forming their conclusion. II. A . The result was that they arrived at a clear and intelligent judgment as to who Christ was. The glory of the Incarnate Son having shined into their souls they were enabled to realize the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 6:70-71 Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?Judas Iscariot I. WHO THEN WILL SAY THAT THE MEN WITH WHOM CHRIST BEGAN HIS NEW KINGDOM WERE MORE THAN MEN; not bone of our bone, but a princely sort, quite away from the common herd? On the contrary, they fairly represented human nature in its best and worst aspects--gentleness, ardour, domesticity, enterprise, timidity, courage, and one of them was a devil--a man like the others, but in him a pre-eminent capacity for the foulest mischief. II. A wonderfully instructive fact is this that JESUS DID NOT POINT OUT THE WICKED MAN, but simply said, “ One of you is a devil.” Thus a spirit of mournful self-suspicion was excited, culminating in the mournful “ Is it I?” It is better not to know the worst man in the Church: to know only that judgment will begin at the House of God, and to be wondering whether that judgment will take most effect on ourselves. No man fully knows himself. The very star of the morning fell from heaven: why not you or I? III. ’ S WAS A HUMAN SIN RATHER THAN A MERELY CRIME. Individually, I did not sin in Eden, but humanly I did; personally, I did not covenant for the betrayal of my Lord, but morally I did; I denied Him, and pierced Him; and He loved me and gave Himself for me. IV. WHY DID CHRIST CHOOSE A MAN WHOM HE KNEW TO BE A DEVIL.? A hard question, but there is one harder still. Why did Jesus choose you? (J. Parker, D. D.) A solemn warning I. FOR THE TWELVE. Peter had spoken in their name as well as for himself: Christ replies that nevertheless there is ground for self-examination. Their honour and the position they enjoyed as apostles, and possible future heads of the Church, was no infallible guarantee of their sincerity. There was, therefore, with a devil in their midst, room for heart-searching before God. II. FOR JUDAS. How Christ came to elect him presents no more inseperable problem than that involved in any attempt to harmonize Divine sovereignty and human freedom. Why should God employ wicked men anywhere, particularly in His Church? All men are dealt with as free agents. If Christ elected Judas, it was probably because 1. He recognized that to be the Father’ s Will. 2. He would rescue if He could a soul as black as his. 3. He would make it clear that Judas was self-destroyed. The warning was manifestly for the sake of Judas to discover to Him his awful danger. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Judas Did Christ know the character of this man of Kerioth (John 2:24-25; John 13:11)? A number of questions will suggest themselves; but we note only the brief account given in the Bible. I. THE OF HIS . As treasurer, he develops selfishness, avarice, thievishness: a typical defaulter. The anointing at Bethany showed satan in possession. Conference with the chief priests, and the compact with them. The upper room, the betrayer revealed. The kiss, and the cowardly disappearance. II. HIS DEATH. The accounts in Matthew and Acts are not contradictory: one is supplemental to the other. Conviction, remorse, suicide (Matthew 28:3-5.) III. HIS DOLEFUL DESTINY. “ Own place” (Matthew 26:24). The two Scripture hints indicate his dark doom. Remarks: 1. This betrayer a minister. Official prominence has special dangers. Hierarchies have been traitors, in destroying foundation doctrines, and individuals have pierced Christ in the house of his friends. 2. But the loyal far outnumber the betrayers. Do not forget the faithful standard-bearers. 3. A warning to all against making worldly gain out of professed godliness. Let avarice be shunned. 4. Each impenitent sinner will have his “ own place.” Remorse will be his constant companion. 5. Contrast the joy in prospect of departure which a loyal faith yields (2 Timothy 4:6-8). (H. F. Smith, D. D.) Why Judas was chosen In reference to the apostleship of Judas, certain questions are eagerly pressed. If Jesus knew all men, was He deceived in Judas? If not deceived, why did He call him? When He discovered his true character, why did He not dismiss him? In view of such questions, it is to be noted (1) that he attached himself to Jesus as a disciple before he was made an apostle; and for his profession of discipleship he is himself responsible; (2) that, being a professed disciple, Jesus appointed him to be one of the twelve; (3) that Jesus, on whom no mock faith could impose, knew what manner of man he was; and (4) that his testimony in favour of Jesus, in its own place, and within its own limbs, is as valuable as that of any. Had there been fault in Jesus, he was the man to find it out and tell it; indeed there was the strongest possible reason why he should have told it, to quiet his own conscience and justify his conduct. Not one of the twelve has borne more distinct testimony to the truth--vital to the Christian system--that Jesus is the Sinless One. (J. Culross, D. D.) The character of Judas If the choice of the false disciple was not due either to ignorance or to foreknowledge, how is it to be explained? The only explanation to be given is that, apart from secret insight, Judas was to all appearance an eligible man, and could not be passed over on any grounds coming under ordinary observation. His qualities must have been such, that one not possessing the eye of omniscience, looking at him, would have been disposed to say of him what Samuel said of Eliab: “ Surely the Lord’ s anointed is before him” (1 Samuel 16:6). In that case, his election by Jesus is perfectly intelligible. The Head of the Church simply did what the Church has to do in analogous circumstances. The Church chooses men to fill sacred offices on a conjunct view of ostensible qualifications, such as knowledge, zeal, apparent piety, and correctness of outward conduct. In so doing, she often makes unhappy appointments, and confers dignity on persons of the Judas type, who dishonour the positions they fill. The mischief resulting is great; but Christ has taught us, by His example in choosing Judas, as also by the parable of the tares, that we must submit to the evil, and leave the remedy in higher hands. Out of evil God often brings good, as He did in the case of the traitor. Supposing Judas to have been chosen to the apostleship on the ground of apparent fitness, whet manner of man would that imply? A vulgar, conscious hypocrite, seeking some mean by-end, while professedly aiming at a higher? Not necessarily; not probably. Rather such a one as Jesus indirectly described Judas to be when he made that reflection: “ If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” The false disciple was a sentimental, plausible, self-deceived pietist, who knew and approved the good, though not conscientiously practicing it; one who, in aesthetic feeling, in fancy, and in intellect, had affinities for the noble and the holy, while in will and in conduct he was the slave of base, selfish passions; one who, in the last resource, would always put self uppermost, yet could zealously devote himself to well-doing when personal interests were not compromised. In thus describing Judas, we draw not the picture of a solitary monster. Men of such type are by no means so rare as some may imagine. History, sacred and profane, supplies numerous examples of them, playing an important part in human affairs. Baalam, who had the vision of a prophet and the soul of a miser, was such a man; Robespierre, the evil genius of the French Revolution, was another. The man who sent thousands to the guillotine had, in his younger days, resigned his office as a provincial judge, because it was against his conscience to pronounce sentence of death on a culprit found guilty of e capital offence. A third example, more remarkable then either, may be found in the famous Greek Alcibiades, who, to unbounded ambition, unscrupulousness, and licentiousness, united a warm attachment to the greatest and best of the Greeks. The man who in after years betrayed the cause of his native city, and went over to the side of her enemies, was in his youth an enthusiastic admirer and disciple of Socrates. How he felt towards the Athenian sage may be gathered from words put into his mouth by Plato in one of his dialogues, words which involuntarily suggest a parallel between the speaker and the unworthy follower of a greater than Socrates: “ I experience towards this man alone (Socrates) when no one would believe me capable of: a sense of shame. For I am conscious of an inability to contradict him, and decline to do what be bids me; and when I go away, I feel myself overcome by desire of the popular esteem. Therefore I flee from him, and avoid him. But when I see him, I am ashamed of my admissions, and oftentimes I would be glad if he ceased to exist among the living; and yet I know well, that were that to happen, I should still be more grieved.” The character of Judas being such as we have described, the possibility at least of his turning a traitor becomes comprehensible. One who loves himself more than any man, however good, or any cause, however holy, is always capable of bad faith more or less heinous. He is a traitor st heart from the outset, and all that is wanted is a set of circumstances calculated to bring into play the evil elements of his nature. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) Treachery is not hidden from Christ Alexander I. of Russia professed a strong friendship for Napoleon, but when nearly all Europe had turned against him, he also became his enemy. An Austrian courier was taken prisoner. There was found in his possession e letter from the commander of the Russian forces, addressed to the Archduke Ferdinand, congratulating him upon his victory, and expressing the hope that very soon the Russian Army would be permitted to co-operate with the Austrian’ s against the French. Napoleon immediately sent the letter to Alexander without note or comment. (Abbott’ s “ Napoleon. ”) The baseness of treachery Of all the vices to which human nature is subject, treachery is the most infamous and detestable, being compounded of fraud, cowardice, and revenge. The greatest wrongs will not justify it, as it destroys those principles of mutual confidence and security by which only society can subsist. The Romans, a brave and generous people, disdained to practise it towards their declared enemies; Christianity teaches us to forgive injuries: but to resent them under the disguise of friendship and benevolence, argues a degeneracy at which common humanity and justice must blush. (L. M. Stretch.) . John 7:1-18 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee.The situation surveyed I. THE SCENE IN GALILEE: the attitude of Christ’ s brethren. 1. The counsel they offered. That Christ should repair to the centre of the theocratic kingdom and make His Messianic claims where they could be competently examined (John 7:3). 2. The argument they used. He could not acquire fame in Galilean obscurity, but only in the metropolis (John 7:4)--a perilous temptation He had twice encountered (Matthew 4:9; John 6:15). 3. The spirit they cherished. They disbelieved in His Messiahship, but could not deny His miracles. Hence they wanted His true character settled. If He was the Christ they wanted to see Him crowned, if not, the bubble should burst. 4. The reply they received. Christ was not going up for the purpose suggested. (1) His hour for that had not come--there being for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1), much more for this, a seasonable moment. (2) To go before that time would not secure what they desired--the great world of Jerusalem not being prepared to welcome Him (John 7:7). Any time would do for them, but not for Him. II. THE SCENE AT . 1. The bloodthirsty Sanhedrists (1) Searched for their victim among the city throngs. (2) With unsleeping hostility, which they had nursed for eighteen months. (3) With murderous intent. (4) With eager inquiry. (5) With contemptuous scorn. “ That celebrity who has been dazzling you with His wonders.” 2. The whispering multitudes. These were (1) Divided in their judgments concerning Him, as Simeon had predicted Luke 2:34), and Christ affirmed they would be (Matthew 10:34-35), and as history proves they ever have been. (2) Afraid to speak openly about Him, which betokened insincerity as well. They were prepared to do as their leaders bade them. Miserable crew! Learn: 1. It is becoming and right to walk prudently: Christ did so. 2. In religion the wisdom of this world is almost wholly wrong. It was so with Christ’ s brethren. 3. A man’ s friends are often the last to believe in His greatness and goodness. It was so with Christ. 4. The more a man resembles Christ, the more he will be hated by the world. 5. The best of men may be evil spoken of. Christ was. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Infidelity I. SELDOM LACKS . These brethren must have had ample evidence of Christ’ s Messiahship. As boys they must have seen something of His transcendent character. No doubt many had pointed out to them extraordinary phases of His birth and life, and how they had witnessed His public life for a considerable time, with its teaching and miracles. So infidels have plenty of evidence. All nature is full of proofs of God; and as for Christ the congruity of His biography with contemporaneous history, and of His system with the conscience, reason, and wants of humanity, and the immense and growing influence of His gospel upon the sentiment, spirit, and character of mankind are evidence enough. The cause of infidelity is in the heart rather than the head. II. IS ALWAYS VAIN. His brethren mainly from vanity counsel Him to make a display in Jerusalem on a great national occasion (John 7:4). His life was too obscure and His works too unostentatious. They wanted to share the honour that would accrue. Infidelity is always vain. The vainest speakers, authors, members of society, are those who profess infidel opinions. They are vain of their imaginary intellectual independency, of their superior mental insight and grasp, of their superiority to current creeds. It must be so. The man who believes in nothing greater than himself, will have both space and aliments in his mind in which his egotism can grow to the most offensive proportions. Faith in the infinitely great and good can alone burn out the native vanity of the corrupt heart. Infidelity is a negation. “ Light empty minds,” says Leighton, “ are like bladders blown up with anything.” III. IS EVER IN WITH THE WORLD (John 7:6-7). By the world is meant the prevailing ideas, spirit, and aims of corrupt humanity. And the mind of His brethren was in accord with this, but it was dead against Him. What is the spirit of the world? Materialism--the body is everything. Practical atheism--God is ignored. Regnant selfishness--self is supreme. Infidelity agrees with all this; there is no moral discrepancy, no reason for mutual antipathies and battling. IV. NEVER THWARTS THE DIVINE PURPOSE (John 7:10). Christ’ s plan was not to go up to Jerusalem at the time they requested Him; but in His own time. Their counselling influenced Him not. Infidelity can never modify, check, or retard the decrees of heaven. Conclusion: Such is infidelity in some of its phases. Iris a wretched thing, however enriched with learning, energized with logic, embellished with culture and genius. “ I seem,” says Hume, “ affrighted and confounded with the solitude in which I am placed by my philosophy. When I look abroad on every side I see dispute, contradiction, and distraction. When I turn my eye inward, I find nothing but doubt and ignorance. Where am I? What am I? From what cause do I derive my existence? To what condition shall I return? I am confounded with questions, I begin to fancy myself in a very deplorable condition, surrounded with darkness on every side.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ and man I. THE AND OF HUMAN NATURE. Even His brethren did not believe in Him, who should have been the first to do so. This was worse than the unbelief of the Jews. 1. The doctrine of man’ s need of preventing and converting grace stands out here as a sunbeam. Seeing Christ’ s miracles, hearing Christ’ s teaching, living in Christ’ s own company, were not enough to make men believers. The mere possession cf spiritual privileges never made any one a Christian. All is useless without the work of the Holy Ghost (chap. 6:44). 2. Christians in every age will do well to remember this. They are often troubled to find that they stand alone, and are ready to blame themselves because their families remain worldly and unbelieving. But let them look at the case before us. In our Lord Jesus Christ there was no fault either in temper, word, or deed. Yet even Christ’ s own “ brethren did not believe in Him.” 3. Christ has truly learned by experience how to sympathize with His people who stand alone. He has drunk this bitter cup. Let all who are cast down because relations despise religion turn to Him for comfort Hebrews 2:18). II. THE REASON WHY MANY HATE CHRIST (verse 7). 1. It was not so much the high doctrines He preached as the high standard of practice; not so much His Messianic claims as His protest against their wickedness. They could have tolerated His opinions if He had spared their sins. 2. This principle is of universal application and holds good to-day. Men dislike the gospel because of its holy demands. Teach abstract doctrines, and few will find any fault. Denounce the fashionable sins of the day, and call on men to repent, and thousands at once will be offended. The reason why many profess to be infidels and abuse Christianity is the witness that Christianity bears against their own bad lives (1 Kings 22:8). III. THE STRANGE VARIETY OF ABOUT CHRIST, WHICH WERE CURRENT FROM THE (verse 12). The words which old Simeon had spoken thirty years before were here accomplished (Luke 2:34-35). 1. In the face of such a passage as this, the endless modern divisions about religion ought never to surprise us. The open hatred of some towards Christ--the carping, prejudiced spirit of others--the bold confession of the few faithful--the timid, man-fearing temper of the many faithless--the war of words and strife of tongues--are only modern symptoms of an old disease. Such is the corruption of human nature, that Christ is the cause of divisions among men, wherever He is preached. So long as the world stands, some, when they hear of Him, will love and some will hate--some will believe, and some will believe not (Matthew 10:34). 2. What think we of Christ ourselves? This is the one question with which we have to do. Let us never be ashamed to be of that number who believe, hear, follow, and confess Him before men. While others waste their time in vain jangling and unprofitable controversy, let us take up the cross. The world may hate us as it hated Him because our religion is a standing witness against them. (Bp. Ryle.) Christ an example of prudence Our Lord’ s example recorded in this verse shows clearly that Christians are not meant to court martyrdom, or wilfully expose themselves to certain death, under the idea that it is their duty. Many primitive martyrs seem not to have understood this. (Bp. Ryle.) How Christians should act in times of danger The Roman rule in battle was neither to fly from dangers nor to follow them. The Christian’ s motto is, “ Neither timorous nor temeranous.” We must not basely desert the cause of Christ when called out to defend it. “ Either vanquish or die,” the Black Prince’ s father said to him. Either live with the gospel or die for it. Yet we may not rashly run ourselves upon unnecessary dangers, but decline them when we can with a good conscience. Christians are permitted to fly when they are sought for to the slaughter, so it be with the wings of a dove, and not with the pinions of a dragon. (J. Trapp.) We must not seek martyrdom In Tourney, about 1544, a very noted professor of the Protestant religion, being earnestly sought after, had concealed himself so closely that his persecutors were unable to discover where he was hid. Contrary, however, to the advice and entreaty of his wife and friends, he gave himself up, desirous of the glory of martyrdom; but being adjudged to be burnt, he recanted, and abjured the faith in order to be beheaded. The Papists improved this in order to decoy his fellow-sufferers to the like recantation; but they replied, “ He had tempted God by rushing upon danger without a call, but they had to the utmost of their power shunned it, and hoped that, since He had called them to suffer, He would support them under it.” And it so happened they went to the fire in solemn pomp, and were consumed loudly singing the praise of God even in the flames, till their strength was exhausted. We are not to court sufferings; it is enough if we cheerfully endure them when, in the providence of God, we are called to it, Our Lord Himself says to His disciples, “ When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another.” The Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at handThe feast of tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34-43; Exodus 23:16; Deuteronomy 16:13-15) lasted seven days, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of the seventh month, Tisri, October. An eighth day was further celebrated as a closing festival, like the first day, with a Sabbath rest and a holy convocation. The feast served as a thankful remembrance of God’ s gracious protection of the nation during its desert wanderings, and as a joyous celebration of the harvest then completed with the gathering in of the fruit and wine. It was therefore considered by the Jews after the exile to be the greatest and moss glorious feast, and its celebration was distinguished by various customs. 1. By an arbitrary interpretation of Lev 23:40, those who visited the feast carried in the left hand a lemon, and in the right a palm branch, bound with sprays of willow and myrtle. 2. At every morning offering, a priest, amid music and songs of praise, poured into two perforated vessels on the next side of the altar water which he had drawn in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Shiloah Isaiah 12:3). 3. On the evening of the first day of the feast--according to later Rabbinical accounts, on each of the seven days--there was an illumination in the court of the women by means of a great golden candelabra, accompanied by a torch dance before them. (Prof. Luthardt.) This was perhaps the most joyous of all the Jewish festivals--the great annual holiday of the nation. During this festive period the people all left their houses and lived in tents or booths, which were erected in the streets and market places, and on the flat terraced roofs of the houses. From this circumstance it was called the “ feast of tents” (text and Leviticus 23:34). It was likewise named the “ feast of ingatherings” (Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22), because it took place at the close of the vintage, when the fruits of the year were gathered in. It was designed as a sort of a national praise-offering. The people assembled in the courts of the sanctuary to adore the bountiful providence of God which had crowned their labours with success, to rejoice in His goodness, and to implore His blessing on the following year. Josephus calls it “ a most holy and eminent feast.” (J. T.Bannister, LL. D.) Church festivals Let it suffice men of sober minds to know, that the law both of God and nature alloweth generally days of rest and festival solemnity to be observed, by way of thankful and joyful remembrance, if such miraculous favours be showed towards mankind, as require the same; that such graces God hath bestowed upon His Church as well in later as in former times; that in some particulars, when they have fallen out, Himself hath demanded His own honour, and in the rest hath left it to the wisdom of the Church, directed by those precedents and enlightened by other means, always to judge, when the like is requisite. Touching those festival days, therefore, which we now observe, what remaineth but to keep them throughout all generations holy, severed by manifest notes of difference from other times, adorned with that which most may betoken true, virtuous, and celestial joy. (Hooker.) His brethren.--The family dispute which John relates from personal knowledge, with the frankness and simplicity of a genuine historian, gives us an insight into the domestic trials of our Saviour. The unbelief of His brothers need not surprise us any more than the unbelief of the Nazarenes generally (John 4:44). Not un-frequently the nearest relatives throw more obstacles in the way of God’ s children than strangers. Christ entered into the condition of fallen humanity with all its temptations and miseries. Hence His sympathy in this as in all (Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 5:7-8). But the full significance of the passage depends upon the proper view of the brothers of Jesus. Here I must dissent from the cousin theory of Jerome, which assumes that three of them, James, Simon, and Jude, were apostles. This passage is one of the strongest arguments in favour of the more natural view that they were members of the Holy family, and under the care of Joseph and Mary, in whose company they constantly appear. 1. It is plain that John here, as in chap. 2:12, and in harmony with the Synoptists and Acts 1:13, 1 Corinthians 9:5, distinguishes the brothers of Jesus from the apostles. 2. But what is more conclusive, John represents the brothers as unbelievers, and as using irreverent language against Christ, which could not have been the case had they been apostles. Not that they were unbelievers in the same sense as Jews or pagans, but not believers as the apostles must have been, at least from the miracle at Cana (John 2:11; comp. Verse 22; 16:17; 17:8). It would have been easy for John to have said, “ some” of His brethren did not believe, had the others been believing apostles. John recognizes different degrees of belief (comp. John 2:23; John 4:39; John 8:31; John 12:42), and of unbelief, but he never confounds the sharp lines between belief and unbelief. Moreover, the language of the brothers contrasts with the reverence shown by the apostles on every occasion, even when they could not understand His conduct (John 4:27). 3. Our Lord characterizes them as men of the world whom the world cannot hate (verse 7); while He says the very reverse of the apostles John 15:18; Matthew 10:5; Matthew 10:22; Matthew 10:40). We infer, then, that all the four brothers were distinct from the apostles, and not converted till after the Resurrection (Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 15:7). As to the other question whether they were older from a former, otherwise unknown, marriage of Joseph (the Greek tradition defended by Epiphanius), or younger children of Mary and Joseph (the view held by Tertullian and Helvidius, and denounced first by Jerome as heretical and profane, because of its conflict with the tenet of Mary’ s perpetual virginity), the passage gives no decisive answer. The patronizing tone of the brothers seems to favour the former view; but may be found also with younger brothers. (P. Schaff, D. D.) Jesus and His brethren The injunction was neither inspired by a too impatient zeal for the glory of Jesus, nor by the odious desire of seeing Him fall into the hands of His enemies. The truth lies between both these extremes. They seem to have been puzzled by the claims of their brother. On the one hand, they could not deny the extraordinary facts which they every day witnessed; on the other, they could not decide upon regarding as the Messiah one with whom they were accustomed to live upon terms of the greatest familiarity. They desired, therefore, to see Him abandon the equivocal position in which He placed Himself, and was keeping them, by so persistently absenting Himself from Jerusalem. If He were really the Messiah, why should He fear to appear before judges more capable of deciding on His pretensions than ignorant Galileans? Was not the capital the theatre on which Messiah was to play His part, and the place where the recognition of His mission should begin? The approaching festival, which seemed to make it a duty that He should visit Jerusalem, appeared, therefore, to make a favourable opportunity for taking a decided step. There is a certain amount of similarity between this and Mary’ s request (chap. 2.), as there is also between our Lord’ s conduct on the two occasions. (Prof. Godet.) For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openlyShow thyself to the world A single word will often lay bare a man’ s object, habit of mind, whole bent of nature. This is a revealing sentence involving a perpetual principle of the carnal mind. Christ had been doing and saying great things, but of the latter these people made no account. They fix upon that which struck the eye. I. THIS IS A SPEECH OF WORLDLY MINDED MEN, and presents to us the worldly mind in its foolishness, making false deductions because unable to understand the things of God. Rising no higher than Christ’ s outward deeds, no wonder that they anticipated no nobler result than the world’ s praise. It is just the old story “ What will the world say?” It is sad to judge and live with a false standard of value. Were a man to go about with a piece of straw and measure men and even principles by his worthless standard we should think him mad; and yet this is the world all over. It takes its own empty opinion as the standard of all things. What did this involve? It put before Christ a false end of action, and had He gone on the principles here suggested, He would have become alienated from the Father, and been “ of the world,” and so no Saviour. For there is here involved an entire perversion of His mission. His whole life was a testimony against the world, but His brethren say, “ Go and take its admiration by storm with your wonderful deeds.” Note the following lessons 1. How entirely the things of God are mistaken by the world, and not only by the profligate, but by the simply unbelieving. 2. How foolish for the people of God to be led by the world’ s opinion. 3. How it requires sympathy with the mind of Jesus to detect and repel the mind of the world. 4. What mischief results from ignorant or bad advice, even when well meant and of friends. 5. What a warning against what is merely colourably good! 6. What little importance is to be attached to the terrible formula, “ What will the world say?” 7. Beware of mistaking the end of your position, life, gifts, none of which is given to gain the world’ s praise. 8. Beware of reasoning on the world’ s principles. 9. Be wary when a course of action has as its simple end your own honour. 10. In all solicitations of the world go down into the mind of God and your relationship with Him, and judge each by the light you have of them. II. THE WRONG WHICH, IN WITH THIS MATTER, RISE IN THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 1. Discontent at being put and kept in the background--and hence discomfort and weakness in work. This arises from exaggerated views of our importance, and from not seeing that God will appoint what is best, and from that superficiality which prevents our seeing that show and noise are Dot power, and that many of the greatest processes which issue in manifold results are secret. We do not understand the beauties of the background of the Christian life where Jesus was for many a long year. This background is at least safe, and many of God’ s dearest walk there unnoticed of men but honoured by Him. 2. Discontent at there being so little to show. What is this but coming into the world’ s court and pleading for a verdict there. The believer must have no care about his work being seen by the world. If he live there will be no occasion for him to thrust himself forward. He must by his life condemn it, and that will create sufficient attention. God’ s child must not be discontented at seeing honours and riches flowing in upon those who serve the world. “ The world loves its own.” Let us calmly live before God. Here is comfort for those who are laid aside too weak or poor to do aught that can attract observation. They are seen by God in secret and will be rewarded openly. (P. B. Power, M. A.) Self revelation Cnidius, a skilful architect, building a watch-tower for the King of Egypt, caused his own name to be engraved upon a stone in the wall in great letters, and afterwards covered it with lime and mortar, and upon the outside of that wrote the name of the King of Egypt in golden letters, as pretending that all was done for his honour and glory. But herein was his cunning, he very well knew that the dashing of the water would in a little while consume the plastering (as it did) and then his name and memory should abide to after generations. Thus there be many in this world, who pretend to seek only the glory of God, the good of His Church, and the happiness of the state; but if there were a window to look into their hearts we should find nothing there within but self-seeking. (J. Spencer.) For neither did His brethren believe in Him.--The prophecy that the Messiah should be “ despised and rejected by men” was here fulfilled to the very letter. His brethren, who should have been the first, were the last to believe on Him. I. HOW STRANGE THIS WAS. 1. They had heard His doctrine, not as strangers or near neighbours, but in the familiar intercourse of home. 2. They had seen His miracles (John 2:11-12). 3. They had known the circumstances and manner of His life. They had heard no doubt of the marvels attendent on His birth, and had watched His pure and benevolent life for thirty-three years. II. HOW IT MAY BE FOR. This is necessary, for the text is a great favourite with modern Jews and infidels, who hold that His brethren could not have been more incredulous than others. It is singular, however, on this theory, that John should have made so damaging an admission. But 1. It is no uncommon thing for men to disbelieve in the face of the clearest evidence. To the Jews we reply that the Israelites did not believe in the Lord and Moses, though they could not deny the miracles; and to the deists that many deny God and immortality, notwithstanding the variety and strength of arguments in favour of both. 2. These men had strong prejudices against Christ. (1) Some were common to them as sinful men, arising from the purity of His doctrine and the stringency of His demands. (2) Some were peculiar to them as Jews arising from their conceptions of a temporal Messiah. They did not contest His miracles but thought that they should be displayed, if Messianic, at Jerusalem, so as to receive the suffrages of the great, and not in the obscurity of Galilee. 3. They were under the influence of an ambitious worldly spirit as Christ intimates in the next verse. Application: 1. Let us not wonder if some, who have enjoyed the greatest religious advantages, do not believe. What advantages these brethren must have had! And yet how little the impression produced. Do not wonder then, Christian parents, if, with the best of training, your children are not yet converted. But do not despair. Remember that Christ’ s brethen eventually became His disciples (Acts 1:14). 2. See what an enemy to Christianity a worldly spirit is. With their views Christ’ s brethren held that if He were Messiah they would share His temporal glory. A worldly covetous disposition hinders multitudes from believing and obeying Christ. How much better is a relation to Christ by faith than by nature. (J. Orton.) The unbelief of Christ’ s brethren The subject suggests that I. CHRIST OWED NOTHING TO MAN’ S . A man’ s own relations of all men ought to manifest this. They are his own flesh and blood. To feel for him is only a step beyond feeling for selves. We do for the inner circle of our relatives what we should never think of doing for outsiders. But this common privilege was denied our Lord. We gather that His brethren were aware of His pretentions and of His works in support of them. But all they do is to dare Him to go to Judaea (John 7:4). An enemy might have spoken so, as indeed the Pharisees (Matthew 16:1), the chief priests Matthew 27:41-43), and the soldiers (Matthew 27:29). In all cases He was treated as one who bad His claims to make good, so great was the chasm between those nearest to Him and Himself. There was one world of feeling within Him, and another around Him. How much went out from the One; how little came in from the other. II. HE OWED NOTHING TO MAN’ S HELP. The rare instances in which He received a little sympathy show this. The confession of Peter (Matthew 16:16) fell on His heart like cold water on a thirsty tongue; but like water spilt on the ground, so the next moment it was gone. In Gethsemane the disciples so far sympathized with Him as to catch the infection of His grief, but that which made Him watch made them sleep. It was not by His disciples, or mother, or brethren (Luke 2:49; John 2:4), but notwithstanding them that He effected His great work. Consider the cost of that work to Himself. It was one continuous sacrifice, and through the whole He was unaided and alone. (Mathematicus.) An unsuccessful ministry I. THE OF OUR SAVIOUR’ S . 1. The causes of our unsuccessful ministry. (1) Ignorance of Scripture truths. (2) Lack of effective expression. (3) Want of harmony between the minister’ s private life and public teaching. (4) Absence of a prayerful spirit. 2. These causes did not operate in the case of Christ. He knew the Scriptures, spake as never man spake, was blameless, and went about doing good, and was mighty in prayer. Still, His brethren did not believe in Him. 3. The lessons which the Saviour’ s unsuccessful ministry suggest. (1) That a man should not always be held responsible for the unreligiousness of his family. (2) A true ministry may be unsuccessful when the greatest success may be expected. (3) Success is no proof of the true value of a ministry. II. IN THE MOST TO BELIEF. This must be because of 1. Prejudice. 2. Intellectual pride. 3. Hardness of heart. (D. Lewis.) Unbelief an obstruction An empty vessel capable of holding water, if tightly corked none can enter it, though water is poured upon it in abundance; nay, it may be thrown into the sea and still remain empty. So it is with our hearts. Unbelief closes them so that overwhelming evidence can bring no conviction of the truth, and the most powerful influence can secure no entrance for the grace of God. Want of religious sympathy at home When Bunyan’ s Pilgrim became alarmed about his state he found no sympathy from his friends. He told them of his fears, but “ at this his relatives were sore amazed, nor for that they believed what he had said to them was true, but because they thought some frenzy distemper had got into his head, therefore, it drawing toward night, and they, hoping that sleep might settle his brains, with all haste they got him to bed. When the morning was come they would know how he did. He told them worse and worse. They thought to drive away his distemper by harsh and surly carriage to him; sometimes they would deride; sometimes they would chide, and sometimes they would quite neglect him.” (“ Pilgrim’ s Progress. ”) My time is not yet come; but your time is alway readyI. DANGER. 1. Jesus was in extreme peril. The storm, the first mutterings of which had been heard long before seemed now to concentrate its violence upon Him. Derision had become inveterate hatred. The scribes, etc., now longed to kill Him, and were doing all in their power to compass that end. That end was only a matter of time, and the limit was only imposed by Christ Himself. 2. He might have escaped it all, and been the leader and King of the people had He conciliated, compromised, and compounded. 3. But He would not. “ He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” His danger was glorious, because it arose from a persistent refusal (1) To live any life lower than the highest. (2) To accept any modification of the supreme law of righteousness. (3) To become anything less than the Saviour of the world. II. SAFETY. His brethren were safe. They might go when and where they liked. They would meet with no exasperated enemies, lint rather with their true relations--unbelievers They were safe because 1. They were not opposing evil. Their true kinship was with the world, and the world would love and spare its own (John 15:19; cf. 1 John 4:5). They were going with the stream. 2. They were not accomplishing any high mission in life. Having no work of Divine appointment--their “ time was alway ready” ; they had no “ hour,” no climax. III. IN VARYING DEGREES THE CHOICE BETWEEN DANGER AND SAFETY LIES BEFORE EACH ONE OF US, in regard to 1. Business. Which shall we conform to, tile average standard of commercial morality or the highest? 2. Politics. Shall we merely follow the party, or be true to our deepest conviction of rights? 3. Religion. Shall we accept doctrines and creeds that are simply popular, or stand by that which in our heart we feel to be the truth? Conclusion: 1. To live the high life, to be true to conviction, to dare to stand alone--if need be, oppose evil, breast the stream--this is hard, painful, dangerous, but gloriously so. 2. To live the average life, to accept the present condition of things, to conform, to compromise, to go with the tide; this is easy, generally pleasant, profitable, and for awhile safe, but inglorious. (L. Shackleford.) Salvation The world never ready for Christ’ s salvation, but always ready for its own secular pleasures and profit. I. The of Christ’ s salvation. 1. We fail to properly esteem it. 2. Or, confessing its excellence, we are too indolent to give it the preference over our other pursuits. Other things take our time and energy. 3. Or, proposing to pursue it, we do not make it our sovereign pleasure. (1) This is because of our vitiated taste. (2) We do not acquire the liking for religious duties by sufficient practice of them. (3) Or, if we give them time, we do not give to them more than half our hearts. II. HELPFUL RULES. 1. Study the reasons for Christian life until you have a strong conviction regarding them. 2. In all doubt, be reminded that Christian life alone has a hope set before it. Let this determine the scale. (Massillon.) Limitations of human greatness 1. Those who believe in the Divinity of Christ may wonder that He should be under the limitations of time. It was not until the time appointed that He was born, nor could He die till His hour was come. The Redeemer is put under sharper restrictions than are His disciples, for their time was alway. 2. Here was a focal centre to which preparatory events converged. The promise in the garden; the words of prophecy, the symbolism of ancient days--all were knit into the Redemption’ s plan. But why was salvation so circuitous? Why wait so long? 3. We cannot comprehend the secrets of the Infinite Mind, nor argue a priori in the matter. We must move from our standpoint upward. Consider the limitations of human greatness and, by inference, those of Omnipotence itself. I. OF POWER DOES NOT THE RANGE OF FREEDOM FROM LAW. It rather hinders. Power can do some things, and some things it cannot do. To weld iron to iron, a man needs a blacksmith’ s arm and muscle. To instruct a child’ s intellect or develop its moral nature, physical power is not counted. 1. We cannot argue from the almightiness of God, seen in the material creation, that He will force men into heaven. The order of things is a narrowing condition. For example, an act of parliament cannot banish the plague. The disciples would have called down fire from heaven and have honoured God by destroying His enemies. This spirit established the Inquisition. It would break through the order of the universe to accomplish a subsidiary end. But God does not propose to outrage man’ s faculties in man’ s salvation. 2. Increasing power puts under restraint, by making needful the hiding of power. The crowd would proclaim Christ king. He checked them. So, again and again, He said to those on whom He had wrought miracles, “ Tell it to no man,” knowing that the blazing abroad of it at: that time would precipitate His conflict with the civil power. He also guarded these miraculous energies, so as not to paralyze human responsibility. Thousands of hungry ones were fed. Their horizon is opened and they thought, perhaps, that no more labour would be needful, now that the granaries of heaven were open by Divine power. “ Gather up the fragments!” How strange, when there is such a power to create supplies! So, too, there was danger of becoming estranged from the practical duties of life, as in the case of Peter, who wished to abide on the mount. This was rebuked by Christ. He kept in the realm of humanity. He laboured to prove Himself human. Men were already convinced that He was Divine. 3. This necessary control and restriction of increasing power is seen among men. A little boat in the river moves hither and thither as its rower pleases, but the huge ocean steamer, with its vast momentum, must be guarded in its movements, lest its iron weight and onward speed send it crashing into other craft, like some blind Polyphemus to devour and destroy. A child’ s movements may not affect anything outside its home, but a Napoleon is watched by the nations with fear. How much more the tremendous power of God and His responsibility as related to the order and harmony of the universe! II. THE OF ALSO BRINGS . 1. The child sees no significance in the congeries of forces about him. He moves about freely. He plays with water, and knows not that each drop is a universe, and that every motion of his finger is felt in Sirius. Higher knowledge puts us under sense of higher responsibility. 2. The power and use of speech is another field of illustration. As childhood ripens into manhood, this trust is more appreciated. Christ’ s use of parables is a solemn rebuke to those who, had they fully known the truth, would have abused it--would have “ held down the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). Throw pearls to swine, and they will rend you. Fools rush in where angels dare not tread. Knowledge dwarfs our self esteem. The more wisdom the more modesty. The ignorant look at the sky and see but specks of light, and fancy this globe great. The astronomer reveals a gigantic system. We shrink abashed before the Father of lights, and fear to despise His mercy or trifle away our probation. III. DOES NOT BROADEN, BUT LIMITS FREEDOM IN SOME . 1. The wicked have “ no bands in their death,” and in life they often revel in unlicensed liberty; but men like Paul deny themselves meat if it cause a brother to fall. Christ says, “ For their sakes I sanctify Myself.” The good man separates himself from luxury and ease, and from all that hinders his work. 2. The man obtuse through sin or self-will shuts his eyes and ears to the suffering. The good man is sensitive. “ If any suffer, I suffer; if any is weak, I am weak.” 3. A pure heart, too, is pained by sin, as a cultured ear is pained by the discords of music. The man who is destitute of musical sensibility is unaffected. Holiness, essentially, is a separating process. A Brahmin cannot touch food or drink prepared by one of lower caste. The shadow of such a one pollutes the air. He must therefore assume the burden of furnishing himself with food. Conclusion: 1. As obedient to the Father’ s will, Christ the Holy One was under restrictions the most exacting. Step by step He fulfilled His course. Christ could not wander a vagrant. He steered between those who, on the one hand, said, “ Show Thyself,” and those who, like Peter, cried, “ Far be it from Thee,” and kept to the lines appointed him. When the clock of the universe pointed to the hour, He must be put upon the cross. 2. Gaze into the heavens where stars are wheeling in courses, the delicacy and exactness of whose curves it takes pages of figures to compute. The safety of worlds depend on their perfect harmony of movement. The astronomer calculates, centuries in advance, their various intersections. But in the moral world there is the same exactness. Jerusalem had her “ day of visitation.” You and I have our day of mercy. The hour hastens when it will be said, “ It is the last time.” God will not then move back the index on the dial plate. (J. B. Thomas, D. D.) Your time is alway ready.--Did we see the husbandman dreaming away his time, when all his fields lay uncultivated; or the generals of an army trifling an hour at cards, when the enemy was preparing to storm the camp; or a pilot asleep, when the ship was running directly upon a rock; and did all these allege, as the reason of their behaviour, that they had “ nothing to do,” we should think a madhouse the only proper place for them: and we should think right. But why do we not perceive that there is not less of absurdity and madness in the con- duct of that Christian who wastes his precious hours in idleness, and apologizes for it by saying in the same manner, that he has “ nothing to do,” when perhaps the work of his salvation, that greatest of all works, the very work for which God sent him into the world, is not yet so much as entered upon, or even thought of Joh 11:9; 1 Corinthians 4:2). (Bp. Horne.) Misused opportunity Many do with opportunities as children do at the sea shore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till they are all gone. (T. Jones, D. D.) Opportunity unused Opportunity is like a strip of sand which stretches around a seaside cove. The greedy tide is lapping up the sand. The narrow strip will quickly become impassable; and then how sad the fate of the thoughtless children who are now playing and gathering shells and seaweed inside the cove! (Union Magazine.) Opportunities of doing good should be seized eagerly When the earth is soft the plough will enter. Take a man when he is mourning, or newly stirred by some moving sermon, and then set it home and you may do him good. Christian faithfulness doth require us not only to do good when it falls in our way, but to watch for opportunities of doing good. (Richard Baxter.) Christians may find opportunities of doing good at any time and anywhere Some persons are so extremely particular as to where they begin to work for Christ that they lose much time in what they think is wise waiting for opportunities. But it was not so with Uncle John Vassar (the American colporteur). He would begin anywhere. One day a minister met him at the railway station and was about to take him home with him before commencing his work. Uncle John proposed that they should work on the way home. “ But where shall we begin?” said the minister. “ Oh,” he replied, “ let us begin at the station-master’ s.” They did so, and before ten minutes had passed one poor discouraged backslider had opened her heart to the stranger’ s earnest appeals and was kneeling in true penitence at the throne of Divine mercy. (R. Brewin, “ Lecture on Uncle John Vassar.”) The world cannot hate you; but Me it hatethThe antagonism between Christ and the world I. CHRIST’ S ONE OF TO THE GENERAL CURRENT OF HUMAN THOUGHT AND FEELING. The great idol of humanity is self. Every one worships it in one form or other. Christ comes to overthrow this idol and to claim all men for His Father. This claim is resented. In other words, Christ, by His Person, teaching, example, testifies of the world that its works are evil. The light rebukes the darkness. Christ does not say, “ You are very nearly right” ; but, “ You are altogether wrong.” Nor will He rest until His statements are believed and His claims accepted. So He is hated. Men say they are indifferent, but they hate. II. IT IS THE FACT OF THIS WHICH MAKES MANY SHRINK FROM JOINING HIM. They dread running counter to general opinion. They cannot stand opposition or ridicule. They feel instinctively that the dislike with which the worm regards Christ is extended to His disciples; and at this dislike they shudder. But their condition is a very perilous one. It is to Him that “ overcometh” that the blessing is given. The “ fearful” are cast out with the “ false and abominable.” Hence infer (1) that weakness towards the world is hardness towards Christ; and (2) that Christ, if we look to Him, will give us the needful strength. (G. Calthrop, M. A.) The world’ s treatment of Christ The world gave Him a cradle, but it was a manger; a throne, but it was a cross; a crown, but it was thorns; a sceptre, but it was a reed; homage, but it was derisive mockery and bitter scorn; companions, but they were crucified criminals; a kingdom, but it was a grave (James 4:4). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The world’ s treatment of the Church In Brazil there grows a common plant, which is called the matodor, or murderer. Its slender stein creeps at first along the ground; but no sooner does it meet a vigorous tree than with clinging grasp it cleaves to it, and climbs it, and as it climbs, sends out at short intervals arm-like tendrils that embrace the tree. As the murderer ascends, these ligatures grow larger, and clasp tighter. Up, up it climbs, one hundred feet, nay, two hundred, if needs be, until the last loftiest spire is gained and fettered. Then, as if in triumph, the parasite shoots a huge flowery head above the strangled summit, and thence from the dead tree’ s crown, scatters its seed to do again the work of death. Even thus does worldliness strangle churches. (S. Coley.) Truth begets hate. (Terence.) Go ye up to this feast. I go not up yet.--Whether “ not yet” or “ not’“ be adopted as the true reading, the utterance is not to be explained as an indication of fickleness, or of honest purpose subsequently changed, or of intentional evasion as if He wished to leave His counsellors uncertain how He meant to act, or signified that though He was really going to Jerusalem He was not going just yet--with a mental substitution of a now, or with the public caravans and feast trains, or to attend the feast in a legally prescribed man-nor, all of which have been suggested. The sense Christ desired His words to bear was probably that He was not yet (though afterwards He would), or not (absolutely for the present) going up to manifest Himself unto the world; if He went up, it would not be yet for any such purpose as they contemplated, because His time was not yet fulfilled. The seasonable moment when He would manifest Himself into the world was not to arrive till the next passover. And, having said these things, He abode in Galilee, waiting the signal from His Father which determined all His earthly movements (chap. 11:6). His brethren having gone, then went He also up, not publicly as they desired, but as a private person incognito. Whether or not Christ travelled through Samaria, thus avoiding the ordinary path, He did not accompany any of the public caravans, but selected a solitary route. The “ in secret” shows that this was neither the journey mentioned in Luke 9:51, nor the final departure from Galilee Matthew 19:1-2), both of which were public. Though Christ’ s journey was in secret it is not said that His visit to the feast was. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Then the Jews sought Him at the feastStriking contrasts I. BASE AND SUBLIME COURAGE. 1. Base cowardice (John 7:11-13). (1) For these chief men of the nation to be in cunning search for the life of one lonely man. “ Where is He?” We want Him. What for? To listen to His doctrines? honestly to test His merits, to do honour to His person or His mission? No; but to kill Him. Here are a number of influential men banded together to crush one humble peasant! (2) In the people meeting together in secrecy, and talking about Him. Why not openly? Sin is always cowardly: virtue alone is courageous. Sin’ s talk is swaggering, and its attitude often defiant; but it is essentially craven-hearted. “ Thou wear a lion’ s hide! Doff it for shame, and hang a calf’ s skin on those recreant limbs” (Shakespeare). 2. In contrast with this, we have the sublimest courage (John 7:14). When the festival was at its height, and the concourse swollen to the greatest number, and national enthusiasm most intense, this poor peasant Reformer confronted public sentiment when its billows were thundering at high tide. Where in all history have you an example of courage comparable to this? II. AND DIVINE . 1. Conventional scholarship (John 7:15). The question breathes contempt. The idea is, He has never been to our seats of learning and studied under our rabbis; what can He know? He is an uneducated man and, forsooth, presumes to teach. There is much of this spirit now. There are those who hold that a man cannot know much unless he has graduated at some university. This is a great fallacy; some of the most educated men have never passed the college curriculum. This idea fills society with pedants, and our pulpits with men who have neither the kind of lore, or genius to preach the gospel. 2. Divine intelligence. Note here that (1) God is the sole Teacher of the highest doctrine (John 7:16). Although I have not studied under you, rabbis, I have got my knowledge directly from the primal source of all true intelligence. Do not content yourself with sipping at the streams of conventional teachings, go to the fountain head. (2) Obedience is the qualification for obtaining the highest knowledge (John 7:17). Philosophy and experience show the truth of this. “ The essence of goodness consists in wishing to be good,” says Seneca. And well too as Pascal said, that “ a man must know earthly things in order to love them, but that he must love heavenly things in order to know them.” (3) Entire devotion of self to the Divine is necessary in order to communicate the highest knowledge (John 7:18). It is not only as a man becomes self-oblivious, and lost in the love and thoughts of God, that he can reflect the bright rays of Divine intelligence upon his fellow-men. We must allow ourselves to become mere channels through which the Divine will flow. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Why Christ hid himself To kindle the desire of seeing and hearing Him so much the more; or to discover whether there were any numbers disposed by His first preaching to receive Him, to the end that He might not show Himself in vain. (J. Trapp.) Where is He.--Jesus went to the feast in secret, and the Jews sought Him. From differing motives they inquire for Him, but they did inquire. No man, having once heard of Jesus, can any longer remain indifferent to Him: he must take some sort of interest in the Lord Jesus. From many quarters come the question, “ Where is He?” We will at this time I. THE WAYS IN WHICH THE HAS BEEN ASKED. 1. Hate, ferociously desiring to slay Him, and overthrow His cause. Herod was the type of this school. 2. Infidelity, sneeringly denying His existence, taunting His followers because His cause does not make progress (2 Peter 3:4). 3. Timorous fear, sadly doubting His presence, power, and prevalence (Job 23:8-9). 4. Penitence, humbly seeking Him that she may confess her sin, trust her Lord, and show her gratitude to Him (Job 23:3). 5. Love, heartily pining for communion with Him, and for an opportunity to serve Him (Son 3:3). 6. Fear, bitterly lamenting His absence, and craving His return. 7. Desire, ardently aspiring to meet Him in His second advent, and to behold His glory (Revelation 22:20). II. GIVE THE SAINTS’ ANSWER. He Isaiah 1. At the mercy-seat when we cry in secret. 2. In the Word as we search the sacred page. 3. In the assemblies of His people, even with two or three. 4. At His table, known in the breaking of bread. 5. In the field of service, aiding, sympathizing, guiding, and prospering. In all things glorified before the eyes of faith. 6. In the furnace of trial, revealing Himself, sanctifying the trial, bearing us through. 7. Near us, yea, with us, and in us. III. RETURN THE TO YOU. Is He 1. At the bottom of your trust? 2. At the root of your joys? 3. On the throne of your heart? 4. Near by constant converse? 5. Is His Spirit manifested in your spirit, words, and actions? 6. Is He before you, that to the end of your journey, the terminus towards which you are daily hastening? IV. ASK IT OF THE ANGELS. They, with one voice, reply that He Isaiah 1. In the bosom of the Father. 2. In the centre of glory. 3. On the throne of government. 4. In the place of representation. 5. In the armoury of mercy. 6. Within reach of you and all needy sinners who will now seek Him. Conclusion: 1. Come, let us go and find Him. We will hold no feast till He is among us. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Where is He? I. IS HE IN YOUR CHURCH ON SUNDAY? 1. Do you thither repair expecting to meet Him? 2. Does His presence banish every irreverent and worldly feeling? 3. Does He meet out to you the Word of Life, and render it sweet to your taste, and nourishing to your soul? II. IS HE IN YOUR PRAYER-MEETING? 1. Do you, in company with others, meet together weekly and claim the fulfilment of His promise? 2. Is He then causing your hearts to burn within you, and strengthening your grasp on His promises? 3. When you leave does your conduct say, “ We have been with Jesus” ? III. IS HE IN YOUR FAMILY? 1. Has he made your home His abode? 2. Does His presence refresh the weariness of toil, loosen the burden of care, and brighten the smile of affection? 3. Does He take your children in His arms and bless them? 4. Does He assure you that you shall form an individual family in heaven? IV. IS HE IN YOUR HEART? 1. If so He is ever near. 2. If not, seek the Lord while He may be found. (Homiletic Review.) Motives for seeking Christ How diverse were the motives from which men sought Jesus: the Magi to adore Him; Herod to crush a rival prince; Greeks to satisfy curiosity; Jews to see miracles, or to crown Him a king to promote their carnal interests; only a few hungry souls sought Him as the Bread of Life. Some seek Him to find ground of objection to His mission. How many frequent His church and ordinances but never seek Him. To how many of the earth’ s feasters would He prove an unwelcome guest? (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Christ found Many years ago, there was a young man in Birmingham whose dissipation and excess had brought into a condition from which he endeavoured to extricate himself by crime. The fear of detection, exposure, and ruin goaded him on to such a pitch of desperation that he left his father’ s house resolutely bent on self-destruction. God’ s good providence led him through Bond Street; and, under some inexplicable impulse, he found himself sitting in the Baptist Chapel almost before he was aware. The minister, a Mr. Edmonds, was reading from the Book of Job, occasionally throwing in some shrewd parenthetic remark. Coming to verses 8 and 9, the young man’ s attention was irresistibly arrested: “ Job, Job,” the preacher cried entreatingly, “ why don’ t you look upward?” These words were as nails fastened in a sure place, and the young man ever thanked God for the belief that he was unconsciously drawn by the Holy Spirit to enter that place, and that the preacher was impelled to the use of those words, to the end that his life might be redeemed from destruction, and crowned with lovingkindness and tender mercy. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Where to find Christ I saw a young brother last Friday, and, in answer to the question, How were you converted? he said it was through reading Luther on the Galatians. I said, “ I am glad to see the man that reads Luther on the Galatians.” He was a young man employed in the city, and I admired him for preferring Luther to the wretched novels of the period. “ I read it two or three times,” he said, “ and I saw the difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace; I saw how man was ruined by his works, and how he must be saved by faith, and I found the Saviour while reading that book.” Oh, if people would but read the Bible, and books about the Bible, with the desire to know what the gospel is, they would soon find Him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote. (C. H.Spurgeon.) And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him. Christ when He comes brings division Describe the scene, the variety of characters and feelings and opinions, at this most popular of all the feasts; the movement, the stir, all circling round the central figure, Christ. Now discussion about Christ may be allowable enough, but as discussion proceeds the crowd takes sides, and there is a party for, and a party against, Christ. It is so now. The proclamation of truth separates men. Jesus is either a great foundation or else a stone of stumbling. Men are attracted or repelled, hardened or softened. Let us consider then I. THE DIVINE . This is that all men shall be saved. God so loved the world, and His goodness should lead to repentance. But II. Such is the mystery that attaches to our creation, that MAN HAS IT IN HIS POWER TO THIS OF GOD. The Holy Spirit pleads with him, but he resists. He can resist. Were it not so, he would be but a machine. Hearts cannot be compelled; they can only be drawn. Christ knocks at the door; but we can, if we choose, keep it bolted on the inside, and Christ will not force the way in. We must be persuaded to admit Him. He wishes to be a guest. “ I will come in and sup with him, and he with me.” III. GOD DOES ALL IN HIS POWER TO WIN THE HUMAN HEART. To say that He multiplies kindnesses is to say little. He sends, He gives, He spares not His own Son. This is His last effort. Beyond this there is nothing. And if the heart can resist such an evidence of His love, its case is hopeless. There is nothing left that will touch it. How is it with us? Which side are we taking? For Christ? or against Him? “ He that is not with Me is against Me.” There is no intermediate region; no neutral ground. Men start in lifo as boys, hand-in-hand, but on opposite sides of a little mountain rill. The widening stream soon compels them to unclasp their hands; and the distance between them increases as they advance. Presently they are out of sight of each other; and at last a broad, impassable gulf rolls between them. (G. Calthrop, M. A.) Diverse effects of contact with Christ The coating of our Lord acted as a moral shock upon the existing fabric of thought and life; it broke up the stagnant, fixed modes of feelings and thinking; it set men in movement; it led to anxious self-questionings, to widespread anxiety of mind, to general unsettlement; it destroyed that tranquil satisfaction with things as they were in Israel which had secured so much repose of mind to so many classes. Such an event would reveal above all the true character of the time; it would act as many a flash of lightning on the crew of a wreck; it would dispel illusions somewhat rudely, often at the cost of happiness and temper, and as a result it would be regarded in more ways than one. Those who wish to know the truth and to live in it at all costs, would welcome it, and thank God for it; those who did not wish this would slink away from an influence which made them uncomfortable, even though they might have reason to think that in the end it would make them better than they were. In ordinary life there are occurrences which act upon men in different ways, which bring out unsuspected tendencies for good or for evil. A railway accident, a fire, the outburst of aa epidemic, or the sudden inheritance of a fortune, are each in their own way revelations of character. They break through the ordinary habits, and surprise men for the moment into being perfectly natural, They reveal unexpected beauties in this man’ s character, heroism, generosity, etc.; or they bring any little weakness to the surface in that man, and show him to be selfish or cowardly, or in other ways unlike what he was supposed to be. In the same way a great controversy acts as a solvent upon all sorts of persons. It throws them back upon the principles which really rule them; it precipitates a great deal in them which else might have remained undecided; it forces them to take a side, and, by taking that side, to make a revelation of character. And much more is this the case when men are brought into contact with a mind and heart of unwonted greatness. Such a personality is too imperative to leave other men just as they were; such a personality sets feeling, thought, will, all in motion--not always in friendly motion--towards itself, not unfrequently in hostile and prejudiced motion. And this was especially the case with our Lord. Men could not, if they would, regard Him with indifference. They could not escape from some sort of profound emotion at coming into contact with Him. When He made His entry into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “ Who is this?” And this was a sort of concrete representation of what took place on a vast historical scale on His entrance into the world. That event produced a varied and prolonged emotion in human souls. It stirred the lowest instincts as well as the highest thoughts of men. It was a fulfilment of that pregnant saying, “ Yet once more do I shake, not the earth only, but heaven.” But its result was not, could not be, uniform. It was for the rising or fall of many a human soul. (Canon Liddon.) Howbeit no man spake openly of Him for fear of the JewsMoral cowardice I. THE FACT--“ No man spake openly of Him.” To this there was a large exception. His friends were silent, not His enemies. They were loud enough in their reproaches, etc. This is the case still to a large and lamentable extent. How much there is said and written against Christ which His professed followers allow to pass without protest or counter demonstration! There is no lack of private confession it may be. They that fear the Lord still speak “ one to another” ; but those who love Him will surely speak to others also. What Christ wants is confession before men, for the defence of His honour, the confutation of unbelief, the extension of His cause. II. ITS --“ For fear of the Jews.” This fear was and is twofold. 1. Nervous shrinking. To men, e.g., in the position of Nicodemus, there was not much to dread from the hostile majority. So many to-day hesitate to confess Christ and rebuke sin, say, to relatives and intimate friends, not because of consequences, but because of the tax it would make upon a highly-strung nervous organization. Over sensitiveness an enemy to the cause of Christ. 2. Rank cowardice. Taking sides for and with Christ in the case of many then meant pains and penalties, and they were not prepared to pay the cost of their convictions. To some extent discipleship still involves tribulation, but of how much milder a type! Yet men and women seal their lips because they are afraid of being called contemptuous names. III. THE LESSONS FOR US. 1. Our duty--to make a bold, manly, and decisive stand for Christ. (1) He deserves it. What a stand He made for us! hie fear of the Jews deterred Him from pleading our cause. (2) He will reward it with present approval and final blessedness. 2. Our privilege. “ God hath not given us the spirit of cowardice,” etc. Christ does not ask us to undertake this or any duty without qualifying us for its discharge. 3. Our warning. “ Whoso is ashamed of Me of him will I be ashamed.” (J. W. Burn.) The folly of moral cowardice When the passengers gallop by as if fear made them speedy, the cur follows them with an open mouth. Let them walk by in confident neglect, and the dog will not stir at all. It is a weakness that every creature takes advantage of. (J. Beaumont, M. D.) Cowardly Christians What would Her Majesty think of her soldiers, if they should swear they were loyal and true, and yet should say, “ Your Majesty, we prefer not to wear these regimentals; let us wear the dress of civilians! we are right honest men, and upright; but do not care to stand in your ranks, acknowledged as your soldiers; we had rather slink into the enemy’ s camp, and into your camp too, we therefore prefer not to wear anything that would mark us as being your soldiers!” Ah! some of you do the same with Christ. You are going to be secret Christians, are you, and slink into the devil’ s camp, and into Christ’ s camp, but acknowledged by none? Well, ye must take the chance of it, if ye will be double-minded; but I should not like to risk it. It is a solemn threatening--“ Of him will I be ashamed when I come in the glory of My Father, and all His holy angels with Me!” It is a solemn thing, I say, when Christ says, “ Except a man take up his cross and follow Me, he cannot be My disciple.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) We must openly show our love to Christ Some time ago, when in a mine, looking through its dark corridors, I now and then saw the glimmer of a moving lamp, and I could track it all through the mine. The reason was the miner carried it on his hat--it was a part of himself and showed where he was. I said, “ Would that in this dark world every miner of the Master carried his lamp to show where he walks.” (Dr. Cuyler.) Openly religious It is not sufficient to carry religion in our hearts, as fire is carried in flint stones; but we are outwardly, visibly, apparently, to serve and honour the living God. (Hooker.) Christ must be openly praised If people are loud in the praise of a physician who has cured them of some deadly malady--recommending others to trust and seek his skill, why should not Christ’ s people crown Him with equal honours, commend Him to a dying world and proclaim what He has done for them? (Dr. Guthrie.) John 7:14-16 Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the Temple and taught Christ as a teacher Whatever theory men hold respecting Christ’ s person and work, all regard Him as an unparalleled teacher. Four things distinguish Him from all His competitors. I. HE . The common people heard Him gladly. What audiences He drew I When He began to teach religion had lost its hold on the world. People were wearied of the parodies which went by the name. Christ taught that it was not a doctrine but a life; not a speculation, but a love; not conversion to a sect, but change of heart; and that teaching was at once a revelation and a revolution. What, in despair, the people had come to regard as dreary and repulsive, He made them feel was bright and beautiful, and so popularized religion. II. HE . It is more important to make men think aright than to teach them what is right. You cannot ensure their believing or obeying your instruction, but if you can start them in conscientious search of what is good, you do them enduring service. Christ did both, but pre-eminently He liberated the intellect and rationalized its operations. There was plenty of colossal thinking before Christ, but it was simply constructive speculation or destructive criticism. And when He came, it was not as another philosopher, to build another stagey system. Men complain that His thinking is defective because fragmentary; but this is its strength. When men asked for His principles He threw in a simple sentence, “ You must be born again,” “ Love your neighbour,” some terse, pregnant phrase which has become the current mental coin of the leading people of the earth. Any other teacher would have said, “ Come into my class-room and take my lectures; the curriculum is seven years.” Christ could settle it in seven minutes. 1. He initiated spontaneous judgment. Instead of sending people to books, He sent them to their own hearts. 2. He introduced liberty of conscience. Whoever heard of men demanding freedom to think and judge for themselves before He came? And yet that freedom has been a ruling maxim of society since. Out of these two changes have grown infinite results, and are quite sufficient to prove that He revolutionized thinking. III. HE SOCIETY. The liberty He vindicated involved equality and fraternity. It is fashionable to denounce Socialism, and when it becomes Nihilism or Communism it is a senseless burlesque. He meant that men should serve each other, and not that the lazy should share with the diligent; that as there was a common Fatherhood in God there must be a common brotherhood among men. So He reconstructed society on the basis of mutual respect and reciprocal love. This reconstruction meant 1. That He recruited our hopes. He came to a weary world. Then a few proud, petrified men ruled, and the heart of the crowd was crushed and despairing. The Beatitudes fell on their sad hearts like rain on a drooping flower, and they looked up and felt that a new chance was open to them all. So it is wherever Christ comes now. 2. That He verified our aspirations. Men sighed for another world, but they scarcely knew whether or not to look for it. He came and said, “ If it were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you.” IV. HE PASSION. Passion, whether good or bad, is the greatest power in the world. When He came it was everywhere disordered. He purified and released and transformed it into affection. Up to that time men knew not exactly what to make of the emotions implied by such words as sorrow, pain, suffering. He gave them at once a status and vindicated their place in the economy of God. The tendency previously was to stifle pathos, and sneer at sentiment. He sanctified and employed them for the noblest ends. (W. R. Attwood.) Characteristics of Christ’ s teaching Wherein did its peculiar power consist? The secret of its influence lies in no peculiar excellence of diction. Jesus was no poet, orator, or philosopher. It is not the charm of poetry that attracts us, not the ingenious application which surprises, not flights of eloquence which carry us away, not bold speculation which evokes our astonishment. No one could speak with more simplicity than Jesus, whether on the Mount, in the parables, or in the high priestly prayer. But this is the very reason of His influence, that He utters the greatest and most sublime truths in the present words, so that, as Pascal says, one might almost think He was Himself unconscious what truths He was propounding, only He expressed them with much clearness, certainty, and conviction, that we see how well He knew what He was saying. We cannot fail to see that the world of eternal truth is His home, and that His thoughts have constant intercourse therewith. He speaks of God and of His relation to Him, of the super- mundane world of spirits, of the future world and the future life of man; of the kingdom of God upon earth, of its nature and history; of the highest moral truths, and of the supreme obligations of man; in short, of all the greatest problems and deepest enigmas of life--as simply and plainly, with such an absence of mental excitement, without expatiating upon His peculiar knowledge, and even without that dwelling upon details so usual with those who have anything new to impart, as though all were quite natural and self-evident. We see that the sublimest truths are His nature. He is not merely a teacher of truth, but is Himself its source. He can say “ I am the Truth.” And the feeling with which we listen to His words is, that we are listening to the voice of truth itself. Hence the power which these have at all times exercised over the minds of men. (Prof. Luthardt.) Though criticised and ridiculed we must go on with our work Suppose a geometrician should be drawing lines and figures, and there should come in some silly, ignorant fellow, who, seeing him, should laugh at him, would the artist, think you, leave off his employment because of his derision? Surely not; for he knows that he laughs at him out of his ignorance, as not knowing his art and the grounds thereof. (J. Preston.) And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, never having learned. This testimony of enemies to a fact well known to them strongly confirms what we otherwise must know or must conjecture concerning Christ’ s education, or rather the absence in His case of the ordinary ways and means by which other men receive their knowledge. He was neither school-taught, nor self-taught, nor even God-taught (like inspired prophets), in the usual sense of those terms. No doubt He learned from His mother, went to the synagogue, heard and read the Scriptures, studied nature and man, and the Holy Ghost descended upon Him: yet the secret fountain of His knowledge of God and man must be found in His mysterious and unique relation to the Father, and derived from direct intuition into the living fountain of truth in God. He was and continued to be in the bosom of the Father, and explained Him to us as no philosopher or prophet could do. He spent His youth in poverty and manual labour, in the obscurity of a carpenter’ s shop; far away from universities, academies, libraries, and literary or polished society; without any help, as far as we know, except that mentioned above. Christ can be ranked neither with the school trained, nor with the self.trained or self-made men; if by the latter we understand, as we must, those who, without the regular aid of living teachers, yet with the same educational means, such as books, the observation of men and things, and the intense application of their mental faculties, attained to vigour of intellect, and wealth of scholarship--like Shakespeare, Boeme, Franklin and others. All the attempts to bring Jesus into contact with Egyptian wisdom, or the Essenic theosophy, or other sources of learning, are without a shadow of proof, and explain nothing after all. He never quotes from books except the Old Testament. He never refers to any of those branches of knowledge which make up human learning and literature. He confined Himself strictly to religion. But from that centre, He shed light over the whole world of man and nature. In this department, unlike other great men, even the prophets and apostles, He was absolutely original and independent. He taught the world as one who had learned nothing from it, and was under no obligation to it. He speaks from divine intuition, as one who not only knows but is the Truth; and with an authority that commands absolute submission or provokes rebellion, but can never be passed by with contempt or indifference. (P. Schaff, D. D.) The originality of Christ as a teacher We have a great many men who are original in the sense of being originators, within a certain boundary of educated thought. But the originality of Christ is uneducated. That He draws nothing from the stores of learning can be seen at a glance. Indeed, there is nothing in Him that belongs to His age or country--no one opinion, taste, or prejudice. The attempts that have been made to show that He borrowed His sentiments from the Persians and the Eastern forms of religion, or that He had been intimate with the Essence and borrowed from them, or that He must have been acquainted with the schools and religions of Egypt, deriving His doctrine from them--all attempts of the kind have so palpably failed, as not even to require a deliberate answer. If He is simply a man, as we hear, then He is most certainly a new and singular kind of man, never before heard of, as great a miracle as if He were not a man. Whatever He advances is from Himself. Shakespeare, e.g., probably the most creative and original spirit the world has ever produced, and a self-made man, is yet tinged in all His works with human learning. He is the high-priest, we sometimes hear, of human nature. But Christ, understanding human nature so as to address it more skilfully than he, never draws from its historic treasures. Neither does He teach by human methods. He does not speculate about God like a school professor. He does not build up a frame of evidence from below by some constructive process, such as the philosophers delight in; but He simply speaks of God and spiritual things as one who has come out from Him to tell us what He knows. At the same time He never reveals the infirmity so commonly shown by human teachers. When they veer a little from their point or turn their doctrine off by shades of variation to catch the assent of multitudes, He never conforms to an expectation even of His friends. Again, Christ was of no school or party, and never went to any extreme, words could never turn Him to a one-sided view of anything. This distinguishes Him from every other known teacher. He never pushes Himself to any extremity. He is never a radical, never a conservative. And further, while advancing doctrines so far transcending all the deductions of philosophy, and opening mysteries that defy all human powers of explication, He is yet able to set His teachings in a form of simplicity that accommodates all classes of minds. No one of the great writers of antiquity had even propounded, as yet, a doctrine of virtue which the multitude could understand. But Jesus tells them directly, in a manner level to their understandings, what they must do and be to inherit eternal life, and their inmost convictions answer to His words. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) The teaching of Christ the marvel of unbelief The wisdom of Christ’ s teaching has proved a hard problem to infidels for 1,800 years. To this day it stands above the efforts of the mightiest and most trained minds. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) And Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent MeThe teaching of Christ I. ITS . 1. Concerning God. (1) His nature--spirit (John 4:24). (2) His character--love (John 3:16). (3) His purpose--salvation (John 3:17). (4) His requirement--faith (John 6:29). 2. Concerning Himself, (1) His heavenly origin--from above (John 6:38). (2) This higher being--the Son of the Father (John 6:17). (3) His Divine commission--sent by God (John 5:37). (4) His gracious errand--to give life to the world (John 5:21; John 6:51). (5) His future glory--to raise the dead (John 5:28). 3. Concerning man (1) Apart from Him, dead (John 5:24) and perishing (John 3:16). (2) In Him possessed of eternal life. 4. Concerning salvation (1) Its substance--eternal life (John 5:24). (2) Its condition--hearing His word (John 5:24), believing in John 5:24), coming to Him (John 5:40). II. ITS . Three sources possible for Christ’ s teaching. 1. Others. He might have acquired it by education. But this Christ’ s contemporaries negatived. He had never studied at a rabbinical school (John 5:15). 2. Himself. He might have evolved it from His own religious consciousness. But this Christ here repudiates. 3. God. This He expressly claimed, and that not merely as prophets had received Divine communications, but in a way that was unique (John 5:19-20; John 8:28; John 12:49), as one who had been in eternity with God (1:1, 18; 3:11). III. ITS . 1. Its self-verifying character: such as would produce in the mind of every sincere person who desired to do the Divine will a clear conviction of its divinity (John 5:17). 2. Its God-glorifying aim. Had it been human it would have followed the law of all such developments; its Publisher would have had a tendency to glorify Himself in its propagation. The entire absence of this in Christ’ s case was a phenomenon to which He invited observation. The complete.absorption of the messenger and the message in the Divine glory was proof that both belonged to a different than human category. 3. Its sinless bearer. This follows from the preceding. A messenger whose devotion to God was perfect as Christ’ s was could not be other than sinless. But if the messenger were sinless there could be no unveracity in His message or in what He said concerning it. Lessons: 1. The marvellous in Christianity. 2. The insight of obedience. 3. The danger of high intellectual endowments. 4. The connection between truth and righteousness. 5. The sinlessness of Jesus an argument for His divinity. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 7:17 If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine (In connection with John 8:47).Our Lord asserts--First: That if a man as in a right state of mind, he will know and believe the truth. Secondly: That those who are in a wrong state of mind reject the truth; i.e., the cause of faith, or the reason why a man believes, is to be found in his right moral state, and that the cause of wrong belief and infidelity is a wrong moral state. This, reduced to one proposition, is that the faith of a man, so far as religious truth is concerned, depends on his moral state. Proof that this is true. 1. The declaration of our Lord is sufficient proof. The expressions, “ If any man,” etc., and, “ He that is of God,” amount to the same. The one means if any one sincerely desires to please God, and the other if any man is godly--i.e., of the same mind as God. Faith in the truth of God, He says, certainly flows from this congeniality with God; and, on the other hand, unbelief is due to, and therefore is the evidence of, a want of this congeniality. 2. This, however, is proved by other declarations. Christ says, “ If God were your Father, ye would love Me.” He uniformly refers the unbelief of the Jews and their rejection of Him to their wickedness; it was because they were of their father the devil that they rejected and bated Him. St. John asserts that, “ He that knoweth God, heareth us,” and that believers have the witness or evidence of the truth in themselves. The Holy Spirit, or an unction from the Holy One, is given to all God’ s people, whereby they know the truth. Paul says that the natural or unrenewed man, and because he is unrenewed, perceives not the things of the Spirit; whereas the spiritual man, and because he is spiritual, perceives all things. He elsewhere says, “ If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” This is the constant doctrine of the Scriptures. 3. It is also the doctrine of experience. The good uniformly believe the truth; the wicked disbelieve or neglect it. Trace the history of the Church, and you will uniformly find truth and piety united on the one hand, and error and irreligion on the other. The more serious the error, the more clear the evidence of the sinfulness of the errorists. This is true everywhere. The infidels of England, France, and Germany, are uniformly irreligious, and generally immoral. On the other hand, you never find the evidence of godliness without finding with it the firm belief of all truth connected with religious experience. Experience, therefore, is in accord with Scripture. 4. A fourth argument is from analogy. There are different kinds of truth. Some are speculative and addressed to the intellect, as truths of mathematics, science, history. Some are aesthetic, as addressed to the taste or sense of the beautiful. Some are moral and suppose a moral sense for their apprehension. Some are religious or spiritual and suppose a religious or spiritual state of mind for their apprehension. The evidence of any one of these is suited to its nature. The evidence of speculative truths is addressed only to the understanding, and requires only intellectual ability to comprehend and receive it. They force assent. The evidence of aesthetic truth supposes cultivation. If a man denies the beauty of what the mass of educated men pronounce beautiful, it is proof positive of his want of taste. So with morals. A good man inevitably approves of what is morally right and good. If a man pronounce the decalogue evil, or the Sermon on the Mount immoral, it is proof positive that he is immoral. If this is so, why should it not be true that the religious man should receive religious truth and the ungodly reject them? Inferences: 1. The folly of the opinion that a man is not responsible for his faith. This is transferring a maxim, true in one sphere, to another in which it is not true. Our character is determined by our faith, because our faith depends upon our character. Therefore we should be humbled because of our unbelief; consider it an evidence of a dull and sluggish heart. 2. We see the true way to increase the strength of faith. We must grow in holiness. 3. The consolation and security of believers. No speculative objection can subvert a faith founded on moral or religious evidence. Science can never disprove the decalogue. (C. Hodge, D. D.) Obedience the organ of spiritual knowledge 1. The Jews marvelled at Christ’ s spiritual wisdom. The cause of wonder was His want of scholastic education. He said, “ My doctrine is not Mine,” etc. The principle whereby He attained spiritual wisdom (John 5:30) He extends to all, “ If any man.” Here, then, are two opinions respecting the origin of spiritual knowledge--the popular one relying on a cultivated understanding, “ that of Christ which relied on trained affections and habits of obedience.” What is truth? Study, said the Jews. Act said Christ, and you shall know. 2. Religious controversy is fast settling into a controversy between two extreme parties. Those who believe everything, and those who believe nothing, the credulous and the sceptical. The first rely on authority--Romanists and all who receive their opinions because their sect or their documents assert them. The second rely on culture. Enlighten, and sin, which is an error of the understanding, will disappear, and we shall know all that can be known of God. These disciples of scepticism easily become disciples of credulity. It is instructive to see how those who sneer at Christian mysteries believe in the veriest imposture. In opposition to both stands the Christianity of Christ. I. . 1. Its object, “ The doctrine.” Doctrinal is now opposed to practical. We call the Sermon on the Mount practical, and Paul’ s epistles doctrinal. But Christ!s doctrine means His teaching and embraces everything tie taught. In two departments of doctrine the principle of the text will be found true. (1) In speculative truth. If any man will do God’ s will he shall know what is truth and what is error. How is it that men are almost sure to arrive at the conclusion reached by their party? Because fear, interest, and vanity bias them. This hindrance is not to be removed by culture. By removing self-will the way is cleared for an approximation towards unity on points speculative. (2) In practical truths. Our opinions depend on our lives more than our lives on our opinions. Men think in a certain mode because their life is of a certain character, and opinions are invented afterwards as a defence for their life. “ Let us eat and drink,” etc. First they ate and drank, then believed tomorrow we die. Slavery is defended philosophically. The negro on his skull and skeleton, they say, has God’ s intention of his servitude written. But did not men first make slaves, and then search for plausible reasons? So too a belief in predestination is alleged in excuse of crime. 2. Its certainty. “ Shall know,” not have an opinion. There is a wide distinction between supposing and knowing, fancy and conviction. Whatever rests on authority remains only supposition. You know when you feel. In matters practical you know only so far as you can do. Read a work on “ Evidences,” and it may become highly probable that Christianity is true. That is an opinion. Feel God. Do His will, till the Absolute Imperative within you speaks as with a living voice; then you do not think, you know that there is a God. II. THE OF ITS . 1. The universe is governed by laws. By submission to them you make them your own. Obey those of the body--temperance and chastity; of the mind--fix the attention, strengthen by exercise; and then their prizes are yours--health, strength, tenaciousness of memory, nimbleness of imagination, etc. Obey the laws of your spiritual being, and it has its prizes too. The condition of a peaceful life is submission to the law of meekness; the condition of the Beatific vision is purity of heart; the condition of spiritual wisdom and certainty in truth is obedience to the will of God. In every department of knowledge, therefore, there is an appointed “ organ “ for the discovery of its specific truth. In the world of sense, the empirical intellect; here the Baconian philosopher is supreme. The religious man may not contravene his assertions; but in the spiritual world, the organ of the scientific man, sensible experience, is powerless. If the chemist, etc., say we find in the laws of affinity, in the deposits of past ages, in the human frame no trace of God, no one expected they would. Obedience is the sole organ here. “ Eye hath not seen it.” And just as by copying perpetually a master-painter’ s works, we get at last an instinctive and infallible power of recognizing his touch, so by copying and doing God’ s will we recognize what is His--we know of the teaching whether it be of God, or whether it be an arbitrary invention of a human self. 2. The universality of this law. “ If any man.” In God’ s universe there are no favourites who may transgress its laws with impunity; none who can take fire and not be burnt. In God’ s spiritual universe there are no favourites who can attain knowledge and wisdom apart from experience. See the beauty of this arrangement. If the certainty of truth depended on the proof of miracles, prophecy, etc., then truth would be in the reach chiefly of those who can weigh evidence, investigate, etc.; whereas, as it is, “ The meek will He guide in judgment.” The humblest may know more by a single act of charity, or a prayer of self-surrender, than all the sages can teach or theologians dogmatize upon. 3. Part of this condition is earnestness. “ Will” here is volition, not the will of the future tense. So it is not a chance, fitful obedience that leads to the truth, but one rendered in entireness and in earnest. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) An obedient spirit the key of truth In judging the Bible, there is a great diversity of opinion. One regards it as a mass of contradiction and fable, which interest has imposed on credulity; while another receives it as the oracles of God. Some find in it the atonement and the necessity of a vital change, others see nothing of the sort. Yet these men may be of equally sound judgment in other matters. Nay, the same man views the Bible in all these varied lights at different periods. Does this diversity arise from the Bible or from its readers? If a number of men were placed at different heights, and one should declare that the sun had risen, another that he was rising, and a third that he had not risen, we should ascribe this diversity not to anything in the sun, but to the different altitudes of the observers. The varied judgments on the Bible are to be accounted for in the same way; for 1. Our text shows us that there is nothing in the Bible which necessarily leads men to err respecting its doctrines. If our Maker gave a revelation to man, we should expect that it should be attended with such evidences that every man might know that it really came from Him, and that every man might know precisely what it taught. And this has been done. “ If any man will do His will, he shall” not be inclined to believe that the Bible is true, but “ shall know,” etc. The apostles echo this; they say, “ We know.” God does not make this revelation certain and clear, irrespective of character. We might as well expect the sun to be visible alike to the dwellers in caves or the open air. Both the sun and the Scriptures are so placed that all who place themselves in a proper position may know the truth of the one and see the light of the other. 2. What is this position? “ If any man will do.” An obedient spirit is the key of Divine truth. The holiest man will best understand the Bible. This is reasonable. Who would think of going to a wicked man to learn religious truth? We feel that he is best qualified to teach who has learnt to practice. The same qualification is necessary in the learner. A rebellious child is more likely to mistake his father’ s meaning than one who is obedient. 8. We need the aid of the Holy Spirit in discerning spiritual things. The Bible is clear, but we are dark. A man suddenly emerging from long imprisonment is bewildered by the light; so Bible perplexities are due mostly to our sinful blindness. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and strengthen the spiritual vision. To whom, then, will God give His Spirit? Not to him who will not follow the light he has. The universal maxim is that to one who improves, more shall be given. And yet wicked men complain that they cannot understand the Bible. As well might a spendthrift complain because he did not receive his father’ s whole estate. Bishop Wilson says, “ When religion is made a science, nothing is more intricate; but when made a duty, nothing is more easy.” A French infidel once said to Pascal, “ If I had your principles, I should be a better man.” “ Begin with being a better man, and you will soon have my principles, was the reply. 4. Our subject shows us what they must do who are troubled with doubts. Shall he read volumes of “ Evidences” ? The first step is to give up sin. Having done this, let him read the Bible with a mind open to conviction. Such a person begins to do the will of God, and he will become a believer in the Word. He hears that prayer is necessary ere he can understand the Bible, and consequently prays, and obedience is again rewarded. Admitting the truth of the Scriptures, he yet finds doctrines he cannot understand. Let him do the will of God, and all that is necessary for him to know about the atonement, regeneration, assurance, etc., will be made clear. 5. We need not stop here. In heaven we shall know, because we shall follow on to know the Lord. (W. H. Lewis, D. D.) Obedience not compulsion It would have been as easy for God to fill the world with obedient subjects as it is for a man to fill his garden with flowers. If it is only flowers that he wants, he can get them at once and keep them for ever, without any trouble of raising or tilling. He has but to go to a milliner’ s shop, and take home his treasures and plant them. But suppose he wants living flowers. In that case he wants to know something more than the way to the milliner’ s shop. He has need of wisdom and patience. Flowers must be cherished and coaxed; they will not grow for tile telling. If all that God wanted were obedience, He could make a splendid world to-day. He has but to will it, and all would be orderly in an instant. Not a thought, word, deed, misplaced. Kings and subjects, masters and men, all at peace. No war, untruth, tears; sin and sorrow all gone. But it would be splendid death. No wrong and no right; no tears and no joy. The world would go as a sewing-machine, because it must. That is not the obedience God wants to see. He wants obedience with a heart in it. And so He waits and is patient. A thousand times He comes, and still the door is bolted and barred; and yet again He comes, if haply He may find it open. (H. W.Burgoyne.) Via Intelligenticae The ancients tell us that when Jupiter saw men striving for Truth, and pulling her to pieces to secure her for themselves, he sent Mercury, who dressed Error up in the imagery of Truth; and though then men were sure to get but little truth, they were as earnest as ever, and lost peace, too, in their contentions for its image. This is no wonder; but when truth and peace are brought into the world together, to see men contending for the truth to the breach of the peace is the greatest wonder. Disputation cures no vice, but kindles a great many. Christianity is all for practice; and the time spent in quarrelling about it is a diminution to its interest. Christ’ s way of finding out truth is by doing the will of God. Consider I. THE WAYS MEN HAVE TO FIND TRUTH, AND ON THAT TO PEACE IN . 1. That there is but one true way is agreed upon, and therefore every Church propounds a system, and says that is the true religion; like Brutus and Cassius, of whom one says, “ They supposed themselves were the commonwealth.” But of this there can be no end; for divide the Church into twenty parts, and you and your party are damned by the other nineteen. 2. Others conclude that this evil must be cured by submission to an infallible guide; but this can never end our controversies, because the greatest controversies are about this guide, and because (1) We cannot find any such guide. (2) Nor do we find one necessary. (3) Those who pretend to be such are deceived. (4) They do not believe in their infallibility, for they do not put an end to their own questions. (5) Given such a one, we should fail of truth, for perhaps he would not perform his duty, or we should at times misunderstand or be perverse. God is an infallible Guide, yet by our faults we are as far off from peace and truth as ever. 3. Some wise men have undertaken to reconcile the differences of Christendom, by projecting that each side should pare away something of their propositions, and join in common terms of accomodation. This has been tried, but has produced nothing but a fantastic peace. 4. Others, observing that many controversies are kept up by ill stating of the question, endeavour to make the matter intelligible; but we find by sad experience that few questions are well stated; and when they are not consented to, and when agreed upon by both parties to be well stated, are simply armies drawn up with skill and waiting to thrust their swords in each others’ sides. 5. Some have propounded a way of peace rather than truth--universal toleration. This relies on a great reasonableness, since opinions cannot be forced; and when men receive no hurt, it is to be hoped they will do none. But there are many who are not content that you permit them; they will not permit you. Their way is not only true, but necessary, and all moderation is but want of zeal for God. What is now to be done? Must truth be for ever in the dark, and the world divided? We have examined all ways but one; and having missed in every other, let us try this. Let every man in his station do the duty which God requires of him, and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn (Psalms 111:10; Psalms 119:100). Theology is rather a Divine life than a Divine knowledge. II. CERTAIN CAUSES OF OUR ERRORS ARE NOTHING BUT DIRECT SINS. 1. No man understands the Word of God unless he lays aside all affections to sin. “ Wickedness,” said Aristotle, “ corrupts a man’ s reasoning,” it gives him false principles and evil measures of things. A covetous man understands nothing to be good that is not profitable. A voluptuary likes your reasoning well enough if you discourse of the pleasures of sense, but if you talk of religion he cries out, “ What is the matter?” A man’ s mind must be like your proposition before it can be entertained. We understand so little of religion because we are in love with that which destroys it; and as a man does not care to hear what does not please him, so neither does he believe it. 2. He that means to understand the will of God must lay aside all inordinate affections to the world. A veil was on the hearts of the Jews (2 Corinthians 3:14), because they looked for a temporal prince and secular advantages, and so they would not accept the poor, despised Jesus. The argument of Demetrius is unanswerable, “ By this craft they get their living.” When men’ s souls are possessed by the world, their souls cannot be invested with holy truths, because a man cannot serve two masters or vigorously attend two objects. 3. No man, however learned, can understand God’ s word, or be at peace on religious questions unless he be a master over his passions. When a man is mingled with his congenial infirmities of anger and desire, he judges of heavenly things accordingly. Truth enters into the heart when it is empty, and clean, and still; but when the mind is shaken with passion, you can never hear the “ voice of the charmer, though he charm very wisely.” But all this while we are in preparation only. When we have cast off sin, the world, and passion, then we may say, “ Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth” ; but we are not yet instructed. III. WHAT IS THAT OR MEANS BY WHICH WE SHALL BE LET INTO ALL TRUTH? Do God’ s will and you shall understand God’ s truth. 1. This must be taken for a praecognition that every good man is taught of God, and unless He teach us we shall be poor scholars and worse guides. By how much nearer we are to God, by so much better shall we be instructed. This being pre-supposed, we can proceed by wonderful degrees in this Divine philosophy. 2. There is in every righteous man a new vital principle; the spirit of grace is the spirit of wisdom, and teaches us by secret inspirations, effects and energies (1 John 2:27). Which principle divers fanatics, misunderstanding, expect to be conducted by ecstasy. But God’ s Spirit does not destroy reason, but heightens it. He opens the heart not to attend to secret whispers, but to hear the Word of God, and gives us a new heart to understand it, otherwise the gospel is a dead letter (1 Corinthians 2:14). When the wicked governor asked of Christ concerning truth, Christ gave him no answer. He was not fit to hear it. 3. A good life is the best way to understand reason and religion, because by the experiences and relishes of religion there is conveyed to us a sweetness to which all wicked men are strangers. When reason is raised by the Spirit of Christ, it is turned quickly into experience. So long as we know God only in the ways of men, by learning and dispute, we shall see nothing but a shadow of Him, but when we know Him with the eyes of holiness, we shall hear what we never heard and see what we never saw. 4. There is a sort of God’ s dear servants, who perfect holiness in His fear, who have a degree of charity and Divine knowledge more than we can discourse of. This is to be felt and not to be talked of. A good man is united to God as flame touches a flame, and combines into glory. He is the friend of God and best knows God’ s mind. IV. BY WHAT MEANS IS IT THAT A HOLY LIFE IS THE BEST OF ALL , AND THE SUREST WAY OF ? Is it to be supposed that a godly man is better enabled to determine the questions of purgatory and transubstantiation? Is a temperate man a better scholar than a drunkard! Answer: In all things in which true wisdom consists, holiness, which is best wisdom, is the surest way of understanding them: And this 1. Is effected by holiness as a proper and natural instrument, fur naturally everything is best discerned by its proper light. As the eye sees visible objects, and the understanding intellectual, so the spirit the things of the Spirit. Who can tell better what is and what is not true reformation, than he who is truly reformed. He knows what pleases God and can best tell by what instruments He is reconciled (Proverbs 10:31-32). 2. Holiness is not only an advantage to the learning all wisdom and holiness, but for discerning what is wise and holy from what is trifling, useless, and contentious. If God’ s Spirit be your teacher, He will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God, and become like Him and enjoy Him for ever. But what are you better if any man should teach you whether every angel makes a species, or what place Adam should have lived in if he had not fallen? 3. Holiness is the best way of finding out truth, not only as a natural medium, or as a prudent medium, but as a means by way of Divine blessing (John 14:21). Love is obedience, and we learn His words best when we practise them. 4. When this is reduced to practice and experience, we find not only in practical things, but even in the deepest mysteries, not only the most eminent saints, but every good man, can best tell what is true and reprove an error. He that goes about to understand the Trinity by words of man’ s invention, he may talk something, but he knows not what. But the good man that feels the “ power of the Father,’’ to whom the Son has “ become wisdom and righteousness,” etc., and in whose heart “ the love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost,” though he understands nothing of what is unintelligible, yet he only understands the mystery of the Trinity. Experience is the best learning. Application: 1. That is no religion whose principles destroy any duty of religion. 2. It is but an ill sign of holiness when a man is busy in little scruples and fantastic opinions about things not concerning the life of religion. 3. That is no good religion which disturbs governments and shakes the foundation of the public peace. (Jeremy Taylor.) Faith culture It is quite possible for any one of us to go out on the street, and by a number of rapid and unnatural revolutions of the body, so to confuse the brain, that all the objects around us, and even the solid earth beneath our feet, will seem to dance before our eyes, and to whirl round and round in a most bewildering confusion. So, also, is it possible for a man to whirl round and round in an unworthy and bad life, until his moral nature is so confused that the most unmoving facts of the moral world will dance before his mental vision, and the very foundations of moral truth be broken up in a mocking, whirling, hopeless maze. But, in both of these cases, the disturbance is within, not without. It is in the eye which sees, not in the things which are seen. So in the case of the sceptic. His disobedience of moral law, the false and unnatural movements of his spirit, have set everything whirling and spinning. Eternal verities now dance before his mind as so many unsubstantial fancies, only because his moral vision has been deranged. And the remedy in both cases is the same. Let the drunken man become sober, and he will see things as they are. Let the sceptic turn to duty, and he will come to know truth. How can the impure man believe in purity? Is it for his interest to do so? Is it for his peace and happiness? Would not such faith work as fire in his veins? Faith fails, and must fail, when life withdraws its support. But a short time ago, I heard of a man whose antecedents were religious and whose own freely formed relations are such also, who publicly, and with all seriousness, questioned the truth of human immortality. Do you ask, What shall be said in explanation of such a phenomenon? Why this--there is no mystery about it. Let that man continue a few years longer in political life (such as he makes it), let him continue a few years longer to grow rich amazingly fast upon an amazingly small salary, and he will have no doubts upon the subjects which he is now debating. He will then be sure that there is no future life; probably also, that there is no God. How can such a man believe in heaven? Has he much interest in it? How can he believe in hell? Has he not too much interest in this? The truth is, the man has so abused his moral nature, so riddled it with transgressions, that it is no longer capable of holding faith--faith in a God who will punish sin. Faith leaks out of such a man, as water runs from the tub which has stood for weeks in the blazing sun. So there are scores around us whose immorality has made them sceptics. They have not grown beyond faith mentally, but they have sunk below it morally. First, the life was lowered, then the creed. First, practice was loosened, and then the creed was liberalized. They first trampled under foot a mother’ s example, and then into the q-me mire threw her Bible. The new crew was first received on board, and then the new flag was run up to the mast-head. They never thought of changing their views as to the obligations of the Sabbath until they had violated, or wished to violate, its sanctity. Search these persons out, and you will find that the atmosphere in which they live, and through which they look upon spiritual things, is by no means a pure one; and this is the reason why they do not see moral truth clearly, and hold it firmly. One has thickened his atmosphere with a conscienceless greed for gain. Another, with a fierce and unprincipled desire for power. Still another has poured round her the thickening, dead-sweet nebula of silly and senseless pleasure, and from the midst of this she looks out upon spiritual things; seeing them about as clearly as you see the leaves of the tree or the face of the sun through the medium of stained windows. I. First--A LARGE PART OF MORAL AND TRUTH IS , AND CANNOT BE KNOWN EXCEPT THROUGH ; THAT IS, THROUGH LIVING IT. You can believe in London--that there is such a place, without ever having seen it. It is a mere exercise of the intellect to do this. So you can demonstrate that the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. There is no need, no place, for experience here But take this declaration--a pure and good life is the happiest. How can you, how can any one, surely know whether this is true or not until by experience you test it? So Christ stands before the world and says, “ Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” But it is not possible for any one to know that this is true or not true until he makes trial--until he actually does come unto Christ. Or, take this declaration--God hears and answers prayer. There is no way of putting this to the test, except by living a life of prayer. And here let me say to those among you who, in the presence of neglected duty, are waiting for more light and stronger faith, that you will wait in vain. You may say, “ If I believed all that the Christian does, I would commence.” But I tell you that you shall never have more faith until you bow right loyally to the Right which you now see, to Duty already known. The starving man may not wait for more strength before he takes of the food placed before him. Every day that you deny to moral truth already known the obedience of your life, you do so much to obscure this truth. II. A second justification of the principle of the text is this-- THINGS ARE . So it is with scientific things. Newton was living, in the atmosphere of science, with the faculty of observation in fullest exercise, or he would not have seen the apple drop. An accident you may call it. But it was an accident which could only have happened to a Newton. So always scientific things are scientifically discerned. A blind man would never have recognized Frauenhofer’ s spectroscopic lines. Now, there is in man a moral faculty which is set into relation with moral truth. But this faculty, like all others, to be useful, must be exercised. The lapidary tells the quality of the stone by the touch of his tongue. So the tea-taster goes from box to box, by a single taste fixing the value of the box. So the moral faculty, exercised in the direction of truth and duty, becomes quick and unerring to detect them. The conscience, like Ithuriel’ s spear, discloses falseness and error by a single touch. Many a man who is in no sense intellectually great is yet wonderfully able to disentangle sophistry, to lift the truth which is covered over with error, to cut the path of duty plain and straight through the most tangled maze. You will readily recall here the old phrase of “ threading the labyrinth.” The one who desired to visit the dark and winding passages used to take the end of a spool of thread in his hand, unwinding it as he went into the maze. And when he desired to return to the light, all that he needed to do was to follow back his guiding thread. Now, to a good man, to an obedient spirit, conscience is this thread. Out of the darkest windings it leads unto the light. There is not that labyrinth of error on earth in which such a man can be lost. He will reach unto the day, as surely as the blind instinct of the cellar vine turns to the sun. I know faith is spoken of as the gift of God. But, like all other gifts of God, this has its conditions. God can no more give it unto a bad life, than He can give beauty and sweetness to the flower which never sees the light, or bone and muscle and strength to the man who will not allow food to pass his lips, or riches to the idler and the spendthrift. I turn now to make some applications of this subject. 1. First--It furnishes a solution of the scepticism of some men of science. Your power of observation may be good, but human eyes cannot take in God as they can a fossil or a planet. They are not the organ of reception here. A man who would come into the presence of God must walk the path which leads unto this presence. There is a hill of science, and there is another hill. We say not, that the former commands not a noble prospect. It does. Is well worth climbing. All that we affirm, and what the Bible declares is, that the outlook from it is not the same as that from the other hill called Calvary. Right living, not sharp thinking, is the condition here. 2. Again--This subject also helps to discern the origin, and to determine the value, of another very common species of scepticism, which we may term popular in distinction from scientific. Many men who are prominent in public life are more or less sceptical. The explanation of the scepticism which you see is to be found in the life, all of which you do not see. And this thought leads naturally to another application of the truth which we are considering. 3. It is this--the fearful danger which attaches to continued impenitence. This impenitence of yours, this holding back from duty, is the slow murdering of your faith. 4. I only add, as a closing application of this subject, that it is useful for direction to those who would enter upon the Christian life. The way to do this is not to wait for more feeling, not to delay for stronger faith, but to take up that duty or duties already known, already before you. (S. S. Mitchell, D. D.) The true order of religious knowledge In this instance “ will do” does not express future action simply. The “ will” is not a mere auxiliary, it is an independent verb, and receives the main emphasis of the verse. The revised version correctly renders it: “ If any man willeth,” etc. The true order of religious knowledge, then (1) Willing. (2) Doing. (3) Knowing. Such an order, however, does not accord with man’ s preconceived notions. The first statement in the process seems to him superfluous, and the last two appear unnaturally reversed. He raises the objection: “ I must know a doctrine before I attempt to put it into practice. For me to undertake to do what I cannot understand is absurd.” But how is it in other departments of life and thought? Does theory precede practice, or does practice prepare for theory? Did men never sow and reap until they had analyzed soils and developed the whole system of agriculture? Did they never use wheat until chemistry had taught them just how much gluten, starch, and phosphate there is in that grain, and explained its wonderful adaptation to the human constitution? Did they never lay the four walls of a dwelling until they had reasoned out the geometrical truth that two straight lines cannot enclose a space, and had mastered the entire science of architecture? The question, in fine, resolves itself into this: Is science based upon art, or art upon science? Do children study grammar, or do they learn to talk first? Do they not walk until they have been instructed in the intricate physiological processes and mechanical principles involved in that act? Did men wait until Aristotle had constructed his logic, to reason? Did they write no poetry until the science of prosody had been perfected? Did they never paint pictures until the laws of perspective had been carefully studied, and the theories of combination and contrast in colours were well understood? Now there is a religious art and a religious science, the art of holy living and the science of theology. The relation between the two is most vital. The practice of the one is the indispensable condition of the successful acquirement of the other. As the practice progresses the doctrine develops. Knowledge grows from more to more, and clear conceptions and positive convictions become at length the priceless possession of the soul. But granting the reasonableness of the requirement that doing shall precede knowing, why is it necessary, it may be asked, to make this threefold division and to specify willing? Is not that already implied in the doing? Can there be doing without willing to do? Certainly there can be no rational and responsible action without the forthputting of volition. But this willing means more than that. It means willingness, the moral determination of the mind toward God, the complete submission of the affections and desires to His will, the making of that will our supreme and ultimate choice. Something like this is true of all knowledge. Its attainment is conditioned on the mind’ s receptivity and openness to the truth. It is only when the mind has divested itself of prepossessions and prejudices, and is supremely anxious to know the truth for the truth’ s sake, and is willing to follow wherever that truth may lead, that it can succeed in its search. Pascal truly says, “ The perception of truth is a moral act” ; and Fichte, “ If the will be steadfastly and sincerely fixed on what is good, the understanding will of itself discover what is true.” Similar testimony is borne by the two great masters of modern science. Prof. Tyndall says of inductive inquiry: “ The first condition of success is an honest receptivity, and a willingness to abandon all preconceived notions, however cherished, if they be found to contradict the truth. Believe me, a self-renunciation which has something noble in it, and of which the world never hears, is often enacted in the private experience of the true votary of science.” Prof. Huxley goes so far as to say, “ The great deeds of philosophers have been less the fruit of their intellect than of the direction of that intellect by an eminently religious tone of mind. Truth has yielded herself rather to their patience, their love, their single-heartedness, and their self-denial, than to their logical acumen.” Even the pagan poet, Sophocles, saw and stated this truth: “ A heart of mildness, full of good intent, Far sooner than acuteness will the truth behold.” This rightness of heart is the one and indispensable condition of all religious knowledge. There the moral disposition is everything. “ With a heart man believeth unto righteousness.” An absolute renunciation of self, and an unqualified surrender to the Divine will, must precede and give rise to all right doing and all real knowing. In the heart’ s unreserved consent to the will of God lies the secret of all attainment in religious knowledge. Here is the dividing line between the children of God and aliens. Here is the starting point in spiritual experience. Here is the beginning of true wisdom. In the heart’ s consent--when that is yielded all else will follow as naturally as noon-day follows the dawn. One who submissively consents to the will of God, will do that will, and in the doing will come to a knowledge of all essential truth. (Christian Advocate.) Knowing by doing 1. It was a frivolous question those Jews raised. It was not whether there was anything in the teaching worth heeding, but how had Christ learned it. Our Lord turns their thought to the question they ought to have asked: Is this the teaching of God This is the first question that any new teaching should raise now; but now, as then, the question is, What is His school? The Bible test of all teaching is, Is it of God? Never mind the school. 2. The old question suggested by Christ is not yet laid. Teachers are in multitudes with all sorts of credentials. But earnest souls are asking, Whence is the teaching? Much of it is countersigned by the schools, but we find the schools wrangling. And not only rival books and systems make trouble for us. We are pointed to facts, and told that God teaches by providence as well as His Word, and yet many of the facts are ugly. The seething deeps of society throw to the surface horrible practical problems not classified in the canons of Westminster and Dort. The tendency of a good many minds is to set down the whole matter as a hopeless muddle. 3. And yet thus much is plain. Given the Being we are taught to believe in and worship, and obey as God, an intelligible revelation of His will follows of necessity, else loyalty and duty are the veriest farce. And if Christ is to be believed, all the teaching necessary to blessed and useful living is clearly given by God. “ The light is with you,” He tells the Jews, “ walk while ye have it.” Christ claims to be this light, and to meet the demand for God’ s teaching. “ My teaching is that of Him who sent Me.” “ So far, well,” says the world. “ That is a fair response to our challenge; but how shall we test it? How shall we know?” Christ answers, “ By experiment. Practice the teaching and it will vindicate itself as Divine.” 4. Christ thus puts practice before knowledge, and as a means to it, and in this lays down no arbitrary or unfamiliar law. The best of our knowledge, all of it that is useful, is gained through practice. So the teaching of Christ will not vindicate itself as of God by merely studying it. No man ever learned to paint or play by mastering the theories of painting and music. He must handle the brush and finger the keys himself. Doing is a mode of study. Practice vindicates theory. Christ thus invites the fairest, simplest, and most decisive test of His teaching. Try and see if it works. I. THE FIRST STEP TOWARD KNOWING THE OF GOD IS A TO DO IT. Will means, not wish, but resolution. A man says, “ I should like to know how to write shorthand.” That is all it comes to. Another says, “ I will learn shorthand,” and goes to work at it. There is the difference. There is a great deal of vague wishing and talking about wanting to know God’ s will. Not a few take it for granted that the teaching of God is a hazy sort of thing, and rather comfort themselves with this haziness, and take refuge in it from clear dictates of duty. Christ nowhere concedes this haziness. He sets the teaching of God in the light, and says, “ Man shall know,” and the first step towards that is determination. Some people take the attitude of willingness to know if knowledge shall be forced on their conviction; but God’ s teaching is not brought in that way; it is something to be won, and a man’ s professed willingness is a sham if it do not translate itself into the energy of a resolved will. II. This energy displays itself in subjection. If one wills to do another’ s will, he puts himself under that will absolutely, and obeys it, surrendering his own. Christ here lays down no new or arbitrary law. Everywhere obedience is the first step in learning--doing what is told because another wills it. A child sits down to take his first lesson in music, and knows not what it tends to; but the teacher knows. By and by, through the mechanical drudgery, rudimental conceptions of harmony begin to take shape, and so on until he interprets the works of a Beethoven. Many fail in Divine knowledge because they do not like to obey without knowing the reason why. They want God to treat them as equals, not as inferiors. “ Except ye become as little children,” etc. There is a system and a plan-book of all the details of obedience, but the way to them is by these details. III. YOU BY , GOD WILL GIVE YOU LESSONS OUT OF MUCH BESIDES BOOKS. You are resolved to follow Christ’ s method: well, the practical test is, are you ready to do the first thing Christ tells you? In that case your first teacher will probably be not a robed priest or grave professor, but some troublesome beggar or disturbing child. Your lesson-book may open at that commonplace occasion which calls for a kind word or deed, a restraint of temper or sacrifice of convenience. Through your bearing your brother’ s burden, and taking his sorrow on your heart, you have got a look into God’ s heart, and a conception of God’ s vast tender meaning towards humanity underlying His teaching about love, etc. And so, more and more, you find yourself, not only gaining new knowledge, but gaining it by a new and unsuspected way. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) Knowledge of the doctrine of Christ the fruit of willing to do it I. THE PROCESS BY WHICH THE OF THE THAT IS OF GOD IS REACHED. 1. This knowledge, though its propositions are to be received by the intellect, requires before the intellectual a certain moral capacity. The will must be set to do the will of God before the intellect can act without embarrassment, because the doctrine is not the teaching of a philosophy, but the revelation of a person. All the doctrine is impersonated in Him, so that to receive Him is to receive the doctrine, and to reject Him is to reject the doctrine. 2. Acts done by a person receive their truest significance from what we know of himself. The revelation of a person by his acts is often imperfect and misleading. We need to know that hidden link between the act and the motives. This is why historians, admitting the same facts, differ so widely in their estimates of the persons, e.g., Henry VIII., Mary, Elizabeth. This must be so because the mystery of a second personality lies beyond the acts, and because it is apprehended by one possessing the same mysterious gift, and is therefore apprehended, not in its bare proportions, but according to the conditions of the receptive faculty. Even in the more delicate processes of modern art, with what care must the negative surface be prepared which is to receive aright the lines and proportion of the object it is to image forth. Now, in the living recipient of the impress of another’ s character the difficulty is immeasurably increased. There is formed a relation of concord or antagonism, and motives, and a meaning is attributed by the observer to the outward actions. The same act is welcome or intolerable as our minds picture the motive, and this affects the whole power of comprehending a character. This is the reason of the solitariness to which the greatest spirits are exposed. Such are almost always misjudged, not because they give occasion for it, but because in those around them the receptive faculty is not qualified to sustain the impress of their great being. It is only some one with a kindred gift of genius who is able to understand them. 3. Here, then, we may see why, from the laws of our own nature, it is true that he who wills to do the will of God comes to know the Lord. It is like which comprehends and is drawn to the like. Now the law of Christ’ s being was the doing the will of the Father. When, therefore, the will of any man is set not to do the will of God, there is a repugnancy between him and Christ which forbids his knowing the Lord of Life, and conversely. II. THE PROMISE OF A AND OF POWER TO RECEIVE IT. Christ stood among men not so much their intellectual teacher as their renewer. These words are not only a mapping out of man’ s nature, but are also a promise of grace. That first turning of the will was itself, doubtless, in the mystery of the spiritual probation of one gifted with free agency, the yielding to grace already given: and this next step marks the increased gift of that same grace. It is the carrying out of the promise “ to him that hath shall be given.” “ If any man love God,” even in this first bending of the will to Him, “ the same is known of Him,” and such knowledge is but the first beginning of greater gifts; the pledge that forthwith the power of the receptive faculty is increased, and of a greater revelation (chap. 14:21). And in that is all that the soul needs (Revelation 3:20). From its recipient many of the old difficulties which beset his belief melt away, like the mist of the morning before the sun; and even those which do remain, and must remain until faith is exchanged for sight, no longer hide from him the truth they once shut out; he has risen to a loftier elevation, and his eye now ranges freely over the intermediate heights, and takes in the fair proportions of the land which is very far off. Conclusion. 1. Encouragement. To every one who has that will, the text assures a certain grant of all he desires. If the Authorized Version were correct it would not speak in the same tone of comfort; for who would dare to decide that He did the will of the Father? But these words promise the great benediction to him who wills to do the Father’ s will; to him who, in the midst of failures and discouragements, still holds on because his will is set; to the beginner in the Christian course as well as to him who has reached furthest in it. And this it proposes to all. If there be one tried by intellectual difficulties concerning the revelation of Christ; if there be hearts longing for this revelation of Him who seems hidden, let them take comfort. The time of granting the revelation rests with Him, bus granted it must be. It may be thou “ couldest not bear it now” ; that thou hast more to learn of thyself, a deeper self distrust; that thy imperfect graces need a higher training; that He would first strengthen thy spirit by wrestling with Him. But though the vision tarries, wait for it, for it is sure at last. 2. Warning. The text explains why so many miss God, not from lack of any mere power of intellect, not from mental perplexities, not from obscurity of texts or Bible difficulties, but from alienation of the soul, For it is not through a direct act of the will that a man can make himself believe or disbelieve; but under the power of God’ s grace a man can by degrees so educate His will that it does one way or the other determine his belief. Any allowed habit of sin is whether we know it at the time or not, really hardening our will against the will of Christ, and so making a true filial trust impossible. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) Duty and knowledge 1. The doctrine here taught is that if a man be sincere and accept the truth that God’ s will is to be supreme, he shall be able to determine God’ s doctrine. The sufficiency of sincerity in religion is loudly proclaimed. It is supposed to be the solvent of all religious difficulties. It is set up as the antagonist of doctrine, and as performing a function the exact opposite of that assigned to it here. With Christ it was the high road to truth; with some modern thinkers it is its substitute. Where there is such a contradiction of view as to the function of sincerity there must be some difference of judgment as to its meaning. 2. The sincerity which alternates the importance of truth cannot be the same as that meant to find truth. A languid, sentimental desire to be right is far from a purpose to do the will of God. We may desire to be learned and yet not study, and desire to be wealthy without self-denial and enterprize. Consider some of the tests of true sincerity. I. IF A MAN BE WILLING TO DO GOD’ S WILL HE WILL CONFORM HIS LIFE TO SUCH AS HE OF THAT WILL. The text clearly supposes this. 1. No man is in complete ignorance of the Divine will; for no one is in complete ignorance of right and wrong, which have their roots in the Divine nature. Conscience is more or less a Divine witness within all men, and is supported by the facts of life, the consequences of actions; for we learn that that which is injurious cannot be His will, and that that which promotes the general happiness must. Our Saviour is con- templating the case of such as are in doubt whether His teaching on some matters be true, but who have some acquaintance with the will of God. The advice to the same class now-a-days is the same. Do the will of God as far as you know it, and you will know of the doctrine of which you are at present in doubt whether it be of God. 2. This is not exhorting a man to set about the work of saving himself instead of exhorting him to believe. The Saviour is dealing with doubters who think they have reasons for doubting. A man cannot drive out his doubts by a mere act of will. Besides, a man is morally bound to do God’ s will whatever the consequences. If he knows it to be the will of God that he should be truthful, sober, etc., it is his duty to eschew the opposite, whether he ever become a believer in Christ or not. If renunciation of evil will not help his salvation it will not hinder it; and it is obvious that no one can earnestly desire to know any doctrine whether it be of God unless he honours God by compliance with what he knows to be His will. For what can be a man’ s purpose in desiring to know any doctrine except that he may derive benefit from it? An inefficacious doctrine which impels no man to a Diviner life cannot be of any importance, and no one can sincerely desire to know a doctrine which constrains to a better life unless he is already yielding a loyal obedience to the laws he knows to be from God. 3. The difficulty of gaining admission for truth into the minds of men whose lives are in disconformity with it is proverbial. If a man’ s interests or pleasures are involved in his continuance of any course of action, you know what a mass of evidence is required to convince him that he is wrong. If a craft, however iniquitous, be in danger, how hard to convince those who are enriching themselves by its gains! Hence the opinions of men are as frequently the product of their practices as their cause. Thieves do not first excogitate evil maxims and then begin to steal. The worse the man the worse his principles, and the better the man the better his principles, as a rule. 4. If a man be willing to do the will of God he will be watchful against the prepossessions which would hinder him from knowing that will. We may inherit opinions from our fathers, as we inherit property, and there may gather around them a sort of halo. But hereditary beliefs, which are no more than notions, are of no value; and if any man be willing to do God’ s will he must be prepared to relinquish all traditions which are merely such. Christ contemplates the man to whom all light is welcome from any quarter. It may disturb old convictions, alter the proportions and relations of truths, but to know the will of God is worth it all. II. HOW THIS EARNEST PURPOSE AND LEADS TO THE OF THE WHETHER IT BE OF GOD. 1. Who can set himself to this higher life without a sense of the contrast between it and that which he has been leading. The birth of this heavenly resolution is not unmixed pleasure. The man feels that, however he may do the will of God in the future, the claims of the past are not cancelled by this altered life. What has infinite Justice to say to it? Is it not just here that the soul welcomes the cry “ Behold the Lamb of God,” etc., and the assurance that Christ has been set forth as a propitiation? Does he not feel that the doctrine is Of God, whatever its mysteries, because it addresses itself to the awakened conscience and does not sweep justice away that it may find room for mercy, but blends the claims of both. 2. And we can see how this purpose leads to the knowledge of another doctrine--the necessity for the influence of the Holy Spirit. No one knows how much he needs supernatural help until he sets himself to lead a holy life, for not until then is he adequately conscious of the difficulties. But is it not just at this point that we welcome the doctrine that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and that we can be strengthened with might by that Spirit in our inner man? (E. Mellor, D. D.) The tendency of religious practice to promote right sentiments I. THE to do the will of God. Included in it Isaiah 1. A desire to have just and correct views of that will. 2. A disposition to acquiesce in it, and give it a cordial reception. 3. Practical conformity to it. 4. A willingness to surrender what is incompatible with obedience. 5. A sincere concern about real religion and the salvation of the soul. II. THE PROMISE--“ he shall know,” etc. 1. This alone will break the force of prejudice. 2. It will put restraint upon evil propensities, which, if indulged, cannot fail to obstruct the acquisition of religious knowledge. 3. It will lead to the right use of the necessary means. 4. It will direct the mind towards God, seeking His guidance and blessing. 5. It will give us a due impression of our responsibility. (Congregational Remembrancer.) Honest seeking for the truth Generally we mean by evidences of Christianity proofs which mostly appeal to the educated. What, then, are the illiterate to do? Have they no sufficient reason for believing the Bible to be God’ s Word, beyond the fact that it is received as such by their Church and country? This would be to place their faith on a very precarious foundation; and we know that cottagers and artizans have been as well able to withstand scepticism as “ the wise and prudent.” Our text satisfactorily accounts for the matter by declaring that a readiness to do God’ s will shall be followed by a discovery of the origin of the doctrine. It sets before us a method of demonstration which may be tried by the ignorant as well as by the learned, inasmuch as it must be worked out by the heart rather than by the head. I. WHY SHOULD THE BEING READY TO DO GOD’ S WILL ENSURE THE WHETHER A BE FROM GOD? 1. This readiness marks honesty of character and freedom from those prejudices which impede the search for truth. (1) A man who sets himself to investigate a doctrine may see that if established it will entail duties he has no wish to perform; and what chance is there of his deciding that the doctrine is true when he desires to prove it false? It would be greatly for the interest of a worldly-minded man to prove Christianity false; he would get rid thereby of much that menaces him in his pleasures, and secure himself against the pleadings of conscience. His disposition is opposite to that of our text: in place of a readiness to do God’ s will, whatever that may be, there is an eagerness to keep it out of sight whenever at variance with his own. How then can it be expected that, prejudiced against Christianity and inclined to its rejection, he could be a fair judge of evidences. (2) But suppose a man anxious to discover God’ s will that he may perform it: we may be sure that he is already striving to be obedient up to the full measure of his knowledge. There could not be this readiness if the conduct were not regulated by such portions of the Divine will as have already been ascertained, it follows from this that he will not be the slave of depraved inclinations, and therefore will search after truth with the clearheadedness of one whose understanding is not darkened by mists which rise from a heart in love with vice. And, further, it is evident that, as he is prepared to obey if he can determine what is truth, he will not be swayed by partialities; he has no private interest to serve, and we may therefore calculate on his conducting his inquiry with that fairness and integrity of purpose which almost ensure that his conclusions will be sound. Is it likely that such a man should fall into fatal error? Impossible, for 2. You must add to considerations drawn from the structure of the human mind that the special assistance of God may be expected. The attributes and Word of God clearly pledge Him to communicate a knowledge of His will wherever faithfully sought. If it be a principle in the Divine dealings to give over to a reprobate mind those who like not to retain God in their knowledge, and allow the understanding to be darkened to believe a lie, when they take pleasure in unrighteousness, it must be equally a principle with God to guide the meek in judgment, and to teach the meek His way, so that they who heartily seek shall assuredly discover the will of God. Therefore we believe that the Holy Spirit will assist every man who, with readiness to obey, proceeds to examine the Bible. What does all this assume? That the Bible is its own witness, and can prove of itself that it came from God. There is an evidence of God speaking in the Bible, which is only to be found and appreciated where certain moral qualities are possessed, and is fully as convincing as the combined testimony of miracles and prophecy. (1) The Bible sets out with a broad statement of human corruption, and descending into particulars, it speaks of the deceitful heart; of the tendency of the affections to fasten on anything rather than God, etc. As the man of honest mind peruses this stern and revolting picture of himself, and compares what he reads with what he feels, the comparison assures him of the accuracy of the delineation. (2) The self-evidencing power of the Bible is seen further in what it says of our salvation. The man who has felt himself to be a sinner will be conscious of such a suitableness in the whole scheme of redemption as will be an irresistible argument in favour of its truth. If the adaptation of the material world to our natural circumstances be allowed as good evidence that God made the world, the just as exact adaptation of the gospel to our spiritual circumstances should be received as good evidence that God planned the gospel. (3) There is yet another evidence, that which results from putting Scripture to the proof, and finding it made good. If I act on the directions, and find myself a partaker of its promises, I am witness that both are of God. If the Bible tells me that if I pray in Christ’ s name I shall obtain what I need--if thus praying I receive--if it tell me that through believing in Christ I shall be progressively sanctified, and I find holiness following on faith, etc., there is a growing evidence of the Divine origin of Scripture. II. THE --a readiness to perform God’ s will is the great security and guide to its discovery. If the doctrines of Scripture remain hidden it is not through deficiency of revelation or defect of intellectual power. The only reason for the rejection of those doctrines is one derived from the heart, not from the head. You would quickly comprehend the truth if you were prepared to make it the rule of your practice. Do I wish to be convinced? would be a hard question for many readers and hearers. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 7:18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory.The Jews marvelled that Christ had been educated in no school (John 7:15). This He contradicts (John 7:16), for the conclusion would have been that He was self-taught, and was therefore speaking His own theories, promulgating them on His own authority, and as a further consequence seeking His own glory--faults into which self-taught superficial men often fall, whereas the profoundly learned, recognizing their indebtedness to others, are usually humble and self-abnegating. Whether this doctrine was His own or not could be tested in two ways. (1) By willingness to do God’ s will. (2) By an observation of His own character and aim. His words and works would show in whose name He spake and by whose power He wrought, and thus prove that His doctrine was of God. The text affords a basis for some remarks on I. CONCEIT. Conceit and humility 1. Its nature “ speaketh of Himself,” which is true in two senses. The conceited man (l) Speaks out of himself. He is known everywhere by his ostentatious parade of originality and infallibility. His own opinions evolved from his inner consciousness, in proud independence of other thinkers, are the standard of truth and untruth. His predecessors were all very well in their day; but their teaching is now obsolete. His contemporaries are right according to their light, but their light is only one remove from darkness. To raise the least objection against his ipse dixit is only an evidence of “ knowing nothing about it.” How many such original geniuses afflict the Church, the state, halls of science and schools of philosophy! (2) Speaks about himself. The conceited man is impatient of any talk that does not lead up to himself. He is known in the pulpit and literature by his extravagant use of the first person singular or plural. He is known in society by his monopoly of conversation, and his persistent obtrusion of his own opinions, achievements, property, etc. Who has not suffered from the infliction of his senseless and incessant babble! 2. Its aim--“ his own glory.” This is the end which the conceited man never loses sight of, and everything he does has as its motive the gratification of his own personal vanity. He dresses and attitudinizes for the purpose of attracting attention; he talks to secure praise for his sagacity or adventures; he schemes and works that he may be talked about, or to obtain gain. And verily he has his reward. II. . 1. Its nature. (1) Acceptance of a mission from God “ that sent Him.” To go because sent is an acknowledgment of servitude and obligation; and the consciousness of being sent by God can only convey the conviction of unworthiness. This is shown by the unvarying testimony of the greatest of God’ s servants--Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul. And then the missions on which God sends us are often of the humblest character--to teach in a ragged school, to visit an obscure invalid, etc. But humility accepts them unmurmuringly, and fulfils them diligently. (2) Giving all the glory to God. Sometimes the faithful discharge of some humble duty secures brilliant results. Here is the great test of humility. Men praise the missionary who, when he emerges from his obscurity, is found to have civilized a tribe of barbarians. Will he accept it or give it to God? 2. Its characteristics. (1) Truth. Truth is everywhere humble, and the humble man is usually safe from temptations to untruthfulness because he has no appearances to keep up, and no self-interests to secure. He has given himself to God and lives for God. The conceited man, on the contrary, has to resort to very questionable practices and professions to maintain a reputation for consistency, and is haunted with the fear of being found out. The humble man is afraid of nothing and no one. (2) Righteousness. God gave us our gifts whatever they are, and the opportunity for using them, and by His influence has produced what results crown our efforts. Humility recognizes His righteous due and gives it. Conclusion: 1. “ Pride goeth before destruction” often in this life and at the hands of men; always in the next and at the hands of God. 2. “ He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,” perhaps by men, certainly by God. (J. W. Burn.) John 7:19-30 Did not Moses give you the law? Murder in desire The desire to kill Christ I. WAS WITH THEIR . They professedly believed in Moses, and esteemed him highly. But there was nothing in Moses to sanction their antagonism to Christ. 1. The spirit of their opposition was inconsistent with the moral law of Moses (John 7:19). You seek to kill Me, when your moral master in God’ s name has said, “ Thou shalt not kill.” None of you keepeth the law in this respect. 2. The proximate cause of the opposition was inconsistent with the moral law of Moses--the healing of the impotent man at Bethesda on the Sabbath day. This was the “ one work” which now fired their indignation. But what did Moses do? What might have been considered more objectionable than this. He circumcised children on the Sabbath day--a work that inflicted physical pain and manual labour. And not only did Moses do it, but Abraham, etc, whose authority is of greater antiquity. Could it be right for them to do, on the Sabbath day, the work of mere ceremony, and wrong for Me to do a work of mercy? The crime and curse of religionists in all ages and lands have been the exalting the ceremonial over the moral--the local, the temporary, and contingent above the universal, eternal, and absolute. II. IMPLIED A GREAT OF (John 7:24). Judging from appearance, they concluded 1. That a mere ordinary peasant had no Divine mission. Perhaps most of them knew His humble birthplace and parentage, and concluded from His lowly appearance that He was a poor man and nothing more. They were too blinded to discover beneath such apparently abject forms a Divine spirit, character, and mission. It has ever been so. Men who judge from appearances have always failed to discern anything great or Divine in those who occupy the humbler walks of life. And yet the men of highest genius, divinest inspirations and aims have been counted the offscouring of all things. 2. That a ritualistic religion was a religion of righteousness. Had there been in connection with the ceremonies of the Temple the healing of the sick on the Sabbath day, they would have esteemed the work as sacred. No ceremony could they allow as of secondary importance. But the ritualistic religion is sometimes immoral. When men observe even the divinest ceremonies as a matter of custom and form, they degrade their spiritual natures and insult omniscience. “ God is a Spirit,” etc. The religion of righteousness is the religion of love, not of law. 3. That by killing a teacher they would kill his influence. They sought to kill Christ because they knew if His doctrines spread their authority would crumble. Men who have judged from appearances have ever sought to kill unpopular teachers. But facts as well as philosophy show that such judgment is not righteous. The blood of the martyrs has always been the seed of the Church; their doctrines get free force and sweep from their death. It was so with Christ. III. THEM IN (John 7:25-27). There seems much bewilderment here. They thought they knew Him, yet they felt they did not know Him. They wondered, too, how a man whom their rulers desired to kill should speak so boldly without being arrested. Minds under a wrong leading passion are sure to get into confusion. No intellect is clear, and its path straight and sunny, that is not under the control of benevolent dispositions. All the conflicting theories of the world concerning God, spirit, and morals, have their origin in a wrong state of heart. The intellectual confusion of hell grows out of malevolence. What they could not see Christ explains (John 7:28). As they had no love in them, they could not see God; and as they could not see God, they could not understand Him that He came from God and was sent by Him. Observe what Christ asserts 1. That He knows the Absolute. He is the only Being in the universe that knows Him. 2. That He was a messenger from the Absolute. “ He that sent me.” This is the great spiritual ministry of the world. What are popes, cardinals, archbishops, to Him? “ This is My beloved Son,” says God; “ hear ye Him.” Whoever else you disregard, “ hear ye Him.” IV. Their desire to kill Him was (John 7:30). Why did not their malignant desire work itself out at once? It was wide and strong enough. The answer is, “ Because His hour was not yet come.” There was an unseen hand that held them back. He who holds the wind in His fist turns the hearts of men as the rivers of water. With God for “ everything there is a season.” Men may wish to hurry events, and to go before the appointed time, but there is a power that holds them back until the hour comes. The power that governs every wavelet in the ocean controls every passing passion of mankind. Conclusion: Learn 1. That being hated by society is not always a proof of hate-worthiness. Here is one, “ who did no sin,” etc., hated with a mortal hate. To be hated by a corrupt society is to have the highest testimony to your goodness. The world loves its own, and hates all moral aliens. It worships the Herods, and stones the Stephens. “ Marvel not if the world hate you, it hated Me before it hated you.” 2. That being hated by society is no reason for neglecting our mission. Though Christ knew that in the leading men there flamed the fiercest indignation towards Him, yet He enters the Temple on a great public occasion and fearlessly delivers His message. That love for truth, God, and humanity which inspired and ruled Him raised Him above the fear of men, made Him fearless and invincible. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The assailants assailed (John 7:19-24) I. A FACT . 1. Moses gave the Jews the law, moral and ceremonial, with its statutes against murder, about the Sabbath and circumcision. 2. Moses incorporated circumcision in his statute-book to prevent the law in this item from being broken as it had been prior to his time. 3. The Jews were accustomed to administer this rite upon the Sabbath. 4. They did so that the law might not be broken, as it would have been if delayed, to save the Sabbath. II. A SIMPLE . 1. The Jews were not wrong in their procedure with regard to circumcision. He taught that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27-28). 2. Christ, a fortiori, could not have been wrong in His work on the Bethesda cripple. If He suspended the law, so did they. If they had a good reason, He had a better. 3. The leaders of the people were wrong in seeking to kill Christ. This was obvious, since He had proved that He had broken neither the Sabbath nor the law. III. A LESSON TAUGHT. 1. Not to judge according to appearances. Neither men nor deeds can be safely estimated by their external aspects. As it is the man’ s interior that constitutes the man (Proverbs 23:7), so the motive enshrined forms the act. Appearances are frequently deceptive; cf. Hannah (1 Samuel 1:15) and Paul (Acts 26:25). 2. To judge according to truth. In every instance there is a judgment of man or deed which corresponds with truth and justice. This is always the characteristic of the Divine (Psalms 67:4; Psalms 96:13; 1 Samuel 16:7; John 5:30; 1 Peter 2:23), and ever should be of human Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:16; Proverbs 31:9; Philippians 4:8) judgments. Learn: 1. Pretenders to the greatest reverence for Divine law are sometimes its most flagrant transgressors. 2. A man may meditate murder in his heart and yet think himself a saint. 3. It is easier to keep the law in the letter than in the spirit, to circumcise the body than circumcise the heart. 4. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 5. Nothing more attests depravity than to hate Christ and Christianity for their practical beneficence. 6. The only physician who can work a cure upon the whole man is Christ. 7. The propriety of setting in judgment on our own judgments. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The law does not save men This parlour is the heart of a man who was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the gospel. The dust is original sin and inward corruption that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first is the law. Now, whereas thou sawest that as soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did fly about, that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith; this is to show thee that the law, instead of cleansing the heart by its working from sin, doth revive, put strength into, and increase in the soul, even as it doth discover and forbid it, for it doth not give power to subdue it. (Pilgrim’ s Progress.) How to treat slander; “ Thou hast a devil.” This he passeth by as a frontless slander, not worth repeating. Sincerity throws off slanders, as Paul did the viper; yet, in a holy scorn, it laughs at them, as the wild ass doth at the horse and his rider. (J. Trapp.) If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision.--I healed a whole John 9:34; John 13:10), whereas circumcision inflicts a wound. And that is performed on the Sabbath. Which work is the more sabbatical of the two? Circumcision produces pain, but I have made a man free from pain. This illustrates the question of the relation of the Seventh-day Sabbath to the Lord’ s day. The law of the former gave way to the rite which took place on the eighth day. That rite was the typical forerunner of baptism, which is the sacrament of spiritual resurrection from the grave of sin into newness of life. Well, therefore, may the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath give way to the festival of Christ’ s resurrection, which was on the eighth day, i.e., on the octave of the first. (Bp. Wordsworth.) Every whit whole I. THE GREAT WANT OF MAN. To be made “ whole.” Man is unsound in every part. 1. Corporeally. Some physical organizations are healthier than others; but even the strongest is unsound. The seeds of disease and death are in all. The strongest man is, as compared to the weakest, like an oak to a fragile reed; but ever at the roots of the oak there is a disease that is working its way up. 2. Intellectually. The man who has the strongest mind is subject to some mental infirmity. He lacks elasticity, freedom, clearness of vision, courage, and independency. He cannot see things completely, or hold them with a manly grasp. The strongest intellects are the most conscious of their unsoundness. 3. Socially. Men were made to love their fellow-men and to he loved by them, and thus be harmoniously united in reciprocal affection and services of mutual goodwill and usefulness. But socially man is unsound in every point. The social heart is diseased with greed, envy, jealousy, ambition, and malice. So that the social world is rife with discords, contentions, and wars. 4. Morally. Man has lost at once the true idea of true sympathy with right. His conscience is dim, infirm, torpid, buried in the flesh, carnally sold unto sin. Thus man in every part is unsound. He is lost, not in the sense of being missed, for God knows where he is; nor in the sense of being extinct, for he lives a certain kind of life; not in the sense of being inactive for he is in constant labour; but in the sense of incapacity to fulfil the object of his being. He is lost, in the sense that the gallant ship is lost when no longer seaworthy; that the grand organ is lost that has no longer the power to pour out music. II. THE GRAND WORK OF CHRIST. To make “ man every whit whole.” He makes man whole 1. Corporeally. It is true that He allows the human body to go down to dust; but that dust He has pledged to reorganize “ like unto His glorious body.” “ It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption,” etc., etc. How sound will the resurrection body be! 2. Intellectually. Here He begins the healing of the intellect. He clears away from it the moral atmosphere of depravity, and opens its eyes so that it may see things as they are. In the future world it will be “ every whit whole,” free from prejudice, errors, and all depravity. 3. Socially, by filling them with that spirit of true philanthropy which prompts them not to seek their own things, but to labour for the common good of men as men, irrespective of creeds, countries, races, or religions. This He is doing now, this He will continue to do on this earth until men shall love each other as brethren and nations beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and hear of war no more. He will make the world, even here, “ every whir” socially whole, and in the Heavenly Jerusalem above the social soundness and order will be perfect. 4. Morally, by bringing him under the control of supreme love for the Supremely Good. Thus: He will take away the heart of “ stone” and give it a heart of “ flesh.” At last He will cause all men to stand before Him without “ spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Conclusion: What a Physician is Christ! He cures all manner of diseases. No malady can baffle His skill. The world has never wanted men who have tried to make people sound. It has its corporeal, intellectual, social, and moral doctors; but those who succeed most in their respective departments only prove by their miserable failures that they are miserable empirics. Here is a Physician that makes a “ man every whir whole.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) Every day is a fit day for doing good As burning candles give light until they be consumed, so godly Christians must be occupied in doing good as long as they live. (Cowdray.) Appelles the painter much lamented if he should escape but one day without drawing some picture outline; so ought a Christian to be sorry if any day should pass without doing some good work or exercise. (Cowdray.) Doing good a blessed work Dr. Guthrie once said: “ I know a man (Thomas Wright) who, at the close of each day’ s work, turned his steps to the prison, and with his Bible, or on his knees on the floor, spent the evening hours in its gloomy cells, seeking to instruct the ignorant and redeem the criminal and raise the fallen. The judgment day shall show how many he restored, penitent and pardoned, to the bosom of God; but it is certain that alone and single-handed he rescued and reformed four hundred criminals, restoring them, honest and well-doing men, to the bosom of society.” Judge not according to the appearance, but Judge righteous Judgment. Judging according to the appearance led the Jews into error I. THE LORD HIMSELF. 1. They never got deeper than the surface of His Person. The Christ they were expecting was one pieced up of mere outsides of the reality. What resemblance had that sorrow-stricken prophet of Nazareth to the glare and splendour of the Christ of their imagination? He came poor to look at and poor as He seemed. They had no eyes for the Divinity within. 2. There is the same shutting of the eyes now to the Divinity in His person; the same refusal to receive Him as Lord. (1) By how many is nature regarded as greater than Christ! (2) Many accept the opinion of the world for their idea of Christ. (3) Some habitually exclude from their thoughts the presence of Jesus in providence. (4) Others, staggered at their sinfulness, are blinded to the fact that in Jesus there is cleansing for all their vileness. 3. Some scriptural views which will counteract these errors and lead to a righteous judgment. (1) It ought not to seem strange to a human being that a Divine Saviour should be human also. Man cannot draw near to an abstract God. We need one who has dwelt on earth, who has known our sorrows, and is as near to us as our nature is; and such a one is Jesus. (2) But a merely human Saviour would not meet our need. Only God can save us. This Jesus claims to be, and the Gospels say He was, and prove it on every page. II. THE WORKS OF THE SAVIOUR. 1. It was one of these that called forth the unrighteous judgment He here rebukes. About six months before He had healed the impotent man John 5:1-9). According to appearance He had violated the Sabbath, But in the strictest sense that was such a deed as the Sabbath was appointed to suggest and promote. And the misjudging eye followed Him wherever He went, and adjudged the miracles, which were manifestations from heaven, to be a sign from hell. 2. Similar errors are found among us. (1) His work on the cross has been judged according to appearance, and set down as martyrdom and as the last manifestation of that obedience which is a model to us. Neither of these views enter into the inner meaning of the transaction. As for the first, it is not in harmony with the law of Jesus: “ When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another.” But our Lord sought death. As for the next, the Bible leaves no room for doubt that there was more in Christ’ s death than that “ Christ died for the ungodly.” “ We have redemption through His blood,” etc. The primal and essential aim of Christ’ s death was atonement for sin. (2) His work in carrying on His providence. There may be an appearance of evil to God’ s people, while we know that “ no evil shall happen to them.” The Lord’ s dealings with them are transacted beyond the range of the outward eye. Jesus cannot be unkind to them. III. THEIR OWN STATE. 1. They did not suspect their own wickedness, but seemed to themselves to be animated by zeal for God’ s law. There was much in appearances to foment this delusion. Had we arrived on the scene when these words were spoken, we should have concluded that some grand act of national worship was going forward; and had we heard this reference to Sabbath violation, we might have thought the people no respecters of persons in their zeal for God’ s law. But underneath all that show of worship was hollow unbelief, and all that zeal for “ Remember the Sabbath” was a cloak for their transgression of “ Thou shalt not kill.” 2. Our circumstances are not dissimilar to theirs. Our Lord’ s day is a festival as really as that feast; but is ,our heart in Sabbath worship, and while we bow the head, are we bowing the heart? Excellent though Sabbath-keeping and Church-going are, they are apt to deceive us. And so with other religious acts. We may be very scrupulous outwardly, and yet inwardly be far from God. Conclusion: 1. The world is full of people who seem as though they were all journeying in one direction; yet part is travelling to heaven and part to hell. Whatever the outside of our lives may seem to say, we belong to one or the other. Let us ascertain by the test of a righteous judgment to which we belong. 2. We are all hastening to a day when judgment will not be according to appearance. 3. But why appeal to the future? God is passing His righteous judgments on our state and actions now. Let us be judges with God in this matter, and be satisfied with nothing that will not satisfy Him. (A. Macleod, D. D.) Hiding behind others Here is administered a rebuke to the injustice and peril of making the apparent inconsistencies of Christians the apology for delay in beginning a religious life. I. THE OF JUDGING THE MERE OF OTHERS. 1. One cannot always know the actual facts as to another’ s inconsistent behaviour. 2. Nor the balances of better behaviour behind it. 3. Nor the unseen spiritual struggle against it. 4. Nor the penitence and prayer which may have followed it. II. The peril of hiding behind the mere appearance of others. 1. It is itself inconsistent; would men follow Christians who are correct? 2. It is evasive: men only mean to stop appeal. 3. It is illogical: it pays the highest compliment to real religion. 4. It is unreasonable: men know they are independently responsible to God. 5. It is unsafe: it shows men they know the right way of living when they criticize what is inconsistent with it. (Charles S. Robinson, D. D.) Judging by outward appearances I. IS NOT A TRUE WAY OF JUDGING. Some of the most delicious fruits are encased in rough and unsightly coverings; and one who had not tasted them before, would be likely to pass them by, and go on to others which seemed to be better. One day a man dressed in plain, coarse clothes walked into a little English village, carrying a bundle tied up in a handkerchief. No one noticed him, or cared for him. After a while the stage-coach drove up; the little way-side mail-bag was thrown off, and all the idlers of the village assembled about the post-office. The contents of the bag were soon assorted, and there was nothing deserving of notice, except a formidable-looking letter, with a large seal, directed to Lord Somebody. The postmaster examined it, and read its superscription aloud. Everybody was on tip-toe of expectation, and for giving the nobleman a grand reception. Meanwhile, the stranger in the homespun dress sat silently watching the proceedings; and, when the public curiosity had worn itself out over the letter, he claimed it as his own. Astonishment, indignation, and a variety of other emotions, took possession of the crowd. But when the postmaster, who had seen the nobleman some- where before, and now recognized him in his plain clothes, handed him the letter, every one began to try and do away with the unfavourable impression which had been made on the stranger by the cool contempt with which he had been treated so long as he had been thought to be only an ordinary traveller. Lord Somebody, taking his bundle in his hand, left the village, giving the advice contained in the text as his parting legacy to its mortified inhabitants. II. IS NOT A JUST WAY OF JUDGING. Many hundred years age when the Tabernacle of the Lord was at Shiloh, a good woman, named Hannah, went into pray, and to ask for a special blessing which she greatly longed for. It was in her heart that she spake to the Lord, and no loud word was uttered. But He who knoweth all things could hear her. Eli the priest saw her come in, and, judging from outward appearance, he judged unjustly, rashly concluding her to be tipsy. How Eli’ s heart must have been wrung by the reply (1 Samuel 1:15). People who wear the longest faces, and who talk the most religiously, have not always the most of the love of God in their hearts. As Shakespeare has worded it--“ A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain.” III. IS NOT A SAFE WAY OF JUDGING. The ice on the river appears to be as safe as the earth, but how many who venture upon it pay for their temerity! “ Oh! how I wish I could ride in a carriage, like that gentleman!” exclaimed a little fellow, one day, as a handsome coach and four dashed rapidly by him, while he trudged along the dusty road. “ I am sure that man must be as happy as a king. O that I had been born so lucky!” At no great distance from the spot where the carriage passed him, it suddenly stopped, and the complaining and envious boy arrived just in time to see the happy owner of the carriage descend from it. Alas! little of happiness was to be seen. The rich man was a cripple, and before he could move a step, a pair of crutches had to be brought to him, and, as he cautiously raised himself from the seat, his face was distorted with pain. The little boy was thus taught the lesson of the text. (J. N. Norton, D. D.) Appearances A traveller showed Lavater two portraits--the one a highwayman who had been broken upon the wheel, the other was a portrait of Kant the philosopher. He was desired to distinguish between them. Lavater took up the portrait of the highwayman, and, after attentively considering it for some time, “ Here,” said he, “ we have the true philosopher. Here is penetration in the eye and reflection in the forehead; here is cause, and there is effect; here is combination, there is distinction; synthetic lips and analytic nose.” Then, turning to the portrait of the philosopher, he exclaimed, “ The calm-thinking villain is so well expressed and so strongly marked in this countenance that it needs no comment.” This anecdote Kant used to tell with great glee. Judge not by appearances At one of the annual Waterloo banquets the Duke of Wellington after dinner handed round for inspection a very valuable presentation snuff-box set with diamonds. After a time it disappeared, and could nowhere be found. The Duke was much annoyed. The guests (there being no servants in the room at the time) were more so, and they all agreed to turn out their pockets. To this one old officer vehemently objected, and, on their pressing the point, left the room, notwithstanding that the Duke begged that nothing more might be said about the matter. Of course suspicion fell on the old officer; nobody seemed to know much about him or where he lived. The next year the Duke at the annual banquet put his hand in the pocket of his coat, which he had not worn since the last dinner, and there was the missing snuff-box! The Duke was dreadfully distressed, found out the old officer, who was living in a wretched garret, and apologized. “ But why,” said His Grace, “ did you not consent to what the other officers proposed, and thus have saved yourself from the terrible suspicion?” “ Because, sir, my pockets were full of broken meat, which I had contrived to put there to save my wife and family, who were at that time literally dying of starvation.” The Duke, it is said, sobbed like a child; and it need not be added that the old officer and his family suffered no more from want from that day. Appearances are often deceptive. We don’ t know all. Therefore “ Judge not, that ye be not judged.” We must not judge by appearances Whatever truth there may be in phrenology, or in Lavater’ s kindred science of physiognomy, we shall do well scrupulously to avoid forming an opinion against a man from his personal appearance. If we so judge we shall often commit the greatest injustice, which may, if we should ever live to be disfigured by sickness or marred by age, be returned into our own bosom to our bitter sorrow. Plato compared Socrates to the gallipots of the Athenian apothecaries, on the outside of which were painted grotesque figures of apes and owls, but they contained within precious balsams. All the beauty of a Cleopatra cannot save her name from being infamous; personal attractions have adorned some of the grossest monsters that ever cursed humanity. Judge then no man or woman after their outward fashion, but with purified eye behold the hidden beauty of the heart and life. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The folly of judging by appearances Two knights met in a wood one day, and saw between them a shield fastened to a branch. Neither knew to whom it belonged, or why it was there. “ Whose is this white shield? “ said one. “ White? Why it is black!” replied the other. “ Do you take me for blind, or a fool, that you tell me what my own eyes can see is false?” And so words were bandied about until the dispute became so violent that swords were drawn, when a third knight came upon the scene. Looking at the angry men, he said, “ You should be brothers in arms. Why do I see these passionate gestures, and hear these fierce words?” Each knight made baste to explain the imposition which the other had tried to practice upon him. The stranger smiled, and riding to one side of the shield, and then to the other, he said, very quietly, “ Do not charge with your weapons just yet. Change places!” They did so, and, behold, the knight who had seen the white side of the shield saw now the black side also; and the knight who had been ready to do battle for the black stood face to face with the white side. Ashamed of their hot haste, they apologized one to the other, and rode out of the greenwood as good friends as ever. The lesson taught in this story is very important. Half the misunderstandings and quarrels which disturb the peace and destroy the happiness of families and neighbourhoods might be prevented, if those who engage in these disputes could see both sides of the question at once. How wise, then, are those people who are careful never to form hasty opinions, and who wait until they have seen or heard both sides, before venturing to determine which is right! (J. N. Norton, D. D.) Deceptive appearances Rabbi Joshua, the son of Chananiah, was a very learned and wise man, but he was ugly. His complexion was so dark that he was nicknamed “ The Blacksmith,” and little children ran away from him. One day, when the Rabbi went to court, the Emperor Trajan’ s daughter laughed at his ugliness, and said, “ Rabbi, I wonder how it is that such great wisdom should be contained in an ugly head.” Rabbi Joshua kept his temper, and, instead of replying, asked, “ Princess, in what vessels does your august father keep his wine?” “ In earthern jars, to be sure,” replied she. “ Indeed,” exclaimed the Rabbi, “ why all the common people keep their wine in earthern jars; the Emperor’ s wine should be kept in handsome vessels.” The princess, who thought that Joshua was really in earnest, went off to the chief butler, and ordered him to pour all the Emperor’ s wine into gold and silver vessels, earthern jars being unworthy of such precious drink. The butler followed these orders; but when the wine came to the royal table it had turned sour. The next time the princess met the Rabbi she expressed her astonishment at his having given her such a strange piece of advice, and mentioned the result. “ Then you have learned a simple lesson, princess,” was the Rabbi’ s reply. “ Wine is best kept in common vessels: so is wisdom.” The next time the princess met the Rabbi she did not laugh at his ugly face. (W. Baxendale.) Deceptive appearances I have heard of one who felt convinced that there must be something in the Roman Catholic religion from the extremely starved and pinched appearance of a certain ecclesiastic. “ Look,” said he,” how the man is worn to a skeleton by his daily fastings and nightly vigils! How he must mortify his flesh!” Now the probabilities are that the emaciated priest was labouring under some internal disease, which he would have been heartily glad to be rid of, and it was not conquest of appetite, but failure in digestion which had so reduced him; or possibly a troubled conscience, which made him fret himself down to the light weights. Certainly I never met with a text which mentions prominence of bone as an evidence of grace. If so “ the living skeleton” should have been exhibited, not merely as a living curiosity, but as the standard of virtue. Some of the biggest rogues have been as mortified in appearance as if they had lived on locusts and wild honey. It is a very vulgar error to suppose that a melancholy countenance is the index of a gracious heart. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Sometimes hard to judge An ingenious device is attributed in the Talmud to King Solomon. The Queen of Sheba, attracted by the reputation of his wisdom, one day presented herself before him, holding in her hands two wreaths, the one of exquisite natural flowers, the other of artificial. The artificial wreath was arranged with so much taste and skill, the delicate form of the flowers so perfectly imitated, and the minutest shades of colour so wonderfully blended, that the wise king, at the distance at which they were held, was unable to determine which was really the work of the Divine Artist. For a moment he seemed baffled; the Jewish court looked on in melancholy astonishment; then his eyes turned towards a window, near which a swarm of bees were hovering. He commanded it to be opened; the bees rushed into the court, and immediately alighted on one of the wreaths; whilst not a single one fixed on the other. Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this He whom they seek to kill? I. THE OF THE JEWS. They defended their denial of our Lord’ s Messiahship by two assertions, both of which were wrong (John 7:27). 1. They were wrong in saying that they knew whence He came. They meant that He came from Nazareth; but He was born at Bethlehem, and belonged to the tribe of Judah, and was of the lineage of David. The Jews, with their care- fully-kept family histories, could have found this out. Their ignorance was, therefore, without excuse. 2. They were wrong in saying that “ no man was to know whence Christ came.” This was in fiat contradiction to Micah 5:2 (see Mt John 7:42), which they found it convenient not to remember (2 Peter 3:5). How common is this habit to-day! “ There are none so blind as those who will not see.” II. THE OVER-RULING HAND OF GOD OVER ALL HIS ENEMIES (verse30). 1. Our Lord’ s sufferings were undergone voluntarily. He did not go to the cross because He could not help it. Neither Jew nor Gentile could have hurt Him, except power had been given them from above. The passion could not begin until the very hour which God had appointed. 2. Christ’ s servants should treasure up this doctrine. Nothing can happen to them but by Divine permission (Psalms 31:15). III. THE END TO WHICH SHALL ONE DAY COME (verse 34). It is uncertain whether our Lord had in view individual cases of unbelief, or the national remorse at the siege of Jerusalem. There is such a thing as finding out truth too late (Proverbs 1:28; Matthew 25:11). Therefore decide for Christ now. (Bishop Ryle.) The origin of Jesus I. THE OF THE . 1. Wonder. (1) The fearlessness of Christ (John 7:26) startled them, considering that He was a marked Man (John 7:25). Being themselves destitute of moral courage (John 7:13), they had no idea of such fortitude as innocence and truth could inspire, and that he whom God shields is invulnerable (Isaiah 54:17) until his work is done (Deuteronomy 33:25) and his hour is come John 9:4; Hebrews 9:27). (2) The timidity of the rulers (verse 26) puzzled them. They had as little comprehension of the essential cowardice of wickedness (Pr Job 18:7-21) as of the majesty of goodness. 2. Suspicion. Ruminating on the inaction of the authorities, they began to whisper that something had occurred to change their tactics; that perhaps they had ascertained that Jesus was the Messiah (verse 26)--a conjecture that was immediately dismissed, little guessing that truth often presents itself in such seemingly involuntary suggestions. 3. Decision. Who Jesus was they could settle in a moment. (1) When Messiah came, no one would be able to tell whence He came, or His parentage (verse 27), though His birthplace would be known (verse 42). (2) Everybody knew Jesus’ birthplace and parentage. (3) Therefore He could not be Messiah, but only “ a man,” like His fellows. Good logic, it is obvious, is not the same thing as sound Divinity. II. THE OF JESUS. 1. A concession. Their knowledge of His origin was (1) Ostensibly complete. (2) Essentially erroneous, since they had no acquaintance with His higher nature. 2. A proclamation. (1) Concerning Himself. (a) His Divine Mission. “ I am not Come of Myself.” “ He sent Me.” (b) His Divine knowledge. “ I know Him,” the Sender. (c) His Divine essence. “ I am from Him.” (2) Concerning them. (a) Their ignorance of God. “ Whom ye know not.” (b) As a consequence, their non-recognition of Him. Lessons: 1. The true humanity of Jesus. 2. To know Christ after the flesh only is to be ignorant of Him in reality. 3. No one knows Christ who recognizes not His Divine origin and mission. 4. A knowledge of the Father necessary to a true acquaintance with the Son (Matthew 11:27). 5. It is not possible for wicked men to do all they wish except God wills. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Knowledge of Christ must be more than critical I heard two persons on the Wengem Alp talking by the hour of the names of ferns; not a word about their characteristics, uses, or habits, but a medley of crack-jaw titles, nothing more. They evidently felt that they were ventilating their botany, and kept each other in countenance by alternate volleys of nonsense. They were about as sensible as those doctrinalists who for ever talk over the technicalities of religion, but know nothing by experience of its spirit and power. Are we not all too apt to amuse ourselves after the same fashion. He who knows mere Linnaean names, but has never seen a flower, is as reliable in botany as he is in theology who can descant upon supralapsaranism, but has never known the love of Christ in his heart. True religion is more than doctrine; something must be known and felt. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Howbeit we know this Man whence He is; but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is.--Note the ineffable self-complacency of spiritual ignorance and pride. Although His miracles made Him famous, yet they neither know nor desired to know His real nature. 1. Knowing God’ s power, they would not have resisted His Son. 2. Knowing God’ s justice, they would not have rejected His warnings. 3. Knowing God’ s mercy, they would not have grieved His Spirit. 4. Knowing God’ s wisdom, they would not have trusted their folly. So far from knowing, they have never carefully inquired into His life and birth. Indeed, they did not know that He was born at Bethlehem. Had they known Him, they would not have felt angry at Sabbath healing. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Jewish theories about Christ’ s origin and coming When the wise men came, the scribes at Jerusalem averred that the Messiah should be born “ in Bethlehem of Judaea,” and adduced in proof the words of Micah. But here we find that Micah’ s words were by no means universally held as conclusive. Some held--and many famous Jewish expositors have since maintained that the Messiah would come suddenly, like a bright and unexpected meteor, as here. The popular opinion, however, agreed with the answer of the scribes above (verse 42). Now it would be erroneous to suppose that the opinion expressed in the text was groundless or fanciful. It rested on all those passages in the Old Testament which refer to our Lord’ s Divine origin. To us the doctrine of the Divine and human natures in Christ is a cardinal article of faith; and, trained in this belief, we reconcile by its aid many statements of the prophets which externally are at variance with one another. But this twofold aspect must have been a serious difficulty to those who had only the teaching of the prophets, without the New Testament exposition of that teaching; nor can I see anything absurd in the expectation that, like a second Melchisedek, He would appear suddenly, with no human lineage, and no place of earthly birth and education. More correctly, we may regard this idea as only a confused anticipation of the truth that the Messiah was not only David’ s Son, but also “ the Son of God.” This very title is more than once given to our Lord (John 1:49;Matthew 16:16; Matthew 26:63). In the latter text, Caiaphas probably put the question contemptuously, as representing what he deemed to be the most extreme form of Messianic doctrine; but there were other and better men who held it devoutly as a truth. But could these noble souls make it harmonize with the equally plain prophetic teaching that the Messiah was to be a Man, a descendant of David, and born at Bethlehem? Many attempts were no doubt made to harmonize this apparent discrepancy. One such we read in Justin Martyr’ s dialogue with the Jew Trypho. Trypho there affirms “ that the Messiah at His birth would remain unknown and unacquainted with His powers until Elias appeared, who would anoint Him and proclaim Him as the Christ.” In the Talmud the most conflicting opinions are found respecting the Messiah’ s advent. In one place it is said that He will first manifest Himself at Rome; in another, that the place will be Babylon; in a third, that He will not appear at all unless the Jews reform their manners. More frequently, however, it asserts that Jerusalem would be the place of His birth. Who could read such passages as Psalms 87:5; Isaiah 2:3; Psalms 50:2, and not draw from them the conclusion that the Messiah would be born on Zion’ s Holy Hill (2Es 13:6; 2Es 13:35, etc.). (Dean Payne Smith.) Then cried Jesus in the TempleChrist grieved by misconceptions about Himself Nathanael had a technical objection (John 1:46); but it was swept away at once by the moral impression produced by Jesus. These Jews had also a technical objection , and this served to neutralize, for them, all the effect of the Saviour’ s teaching. They were bond-slaves to the letter; and this not the letter of Scripture, but of their own interpretation of Scripture. Let us consider I. THE ATTACK UPON CHRIST. Just before His teaching had been assailed; now His person and mission. “ He cannot be the Christ, because we know all about Him.” Recall circumstance. The speakers are Jerusalem Jews, who are well acquainted with the animus of the rulers towards Him. “ How is it, then,” they ask, “ that He is allowed to speak so fearlessly? Are the rulers coming round to believe in Him? But when we think of it, that cannot be. They are aware, as we are, that one over whose antecedents no obscurity rests can be no Messiah.” All neutralized by a notion I This pains and distresses Jesus, and He “ cries out” loudly, with emotion, seeking to rectify the mistake. II. THE DEFENCE. Jesus admits the truth of what they say, so far as it goes; they have an outward knowledge of Him and His origin. But this is only what appears. There is something beyond of which they are ignorant, and that is the Divine mission. But this mission is a fact. “ He that sent Me is real” --i.e. (probably), “ really exists.” Why, then, do they not recognize the fact? Because they, little as they think it, are ignorant of God. With this ignorance of God, He contrasts His own inward consciousness of God and His relation to Him. “ I know Him.” III. RESULT OF THE DEFENCE. The extreme irritation of the Jews at being told that they did not know God, and their indignation at Jesus’ assumption of a peculiar relationship to the Father. They consider Him to be at least touching upon the confines of blasphemy, and “ seek to take Him” ; but they could not, because His hour was not yet come. IV. FOR , let us Ñ 1. Recur to the thought that Christ is pained by misconception of His person and work, because He knows how ruinous such misconsceptions are to mankind. 2. That He speaks severely, because it is necessary to do so. In no other way could He hope to obtain for the truth admission into the hearts of His hearers. (G. Calthrop, M. A.) Then they sought to take Him; but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come The hour of destiny I. CHRIST’ S HOUR WAS . This is proved by 1. The numerous predictions of Scripture. 2. The long suffering of God in the preservation of the human race. 3. The influences which this hour has exerted on the condition of the world. II. CHRIST’ S HOUR WAS ABOVE ALL AND HUMAN . This fact shows 1. The universality of Divine providence. 2. The futility of human opposition to the ways of God. 3. The steadfastness of the Divine plan. III. HIS HOUR DID NOT AFFECT THE MORAL FREEDOM OF HIS CONDUCT. 1. He chose the hour. 2. This choice proves His infinite love for us. 3. The manner in which He submitted to His destiny is a sublime model for us. (P. L. Davies, A. M.) John 7:31-36 And many of the people believed on Him.The favourably disposed, and the malignantly opposed to Christ I. THOSE WHO WERE (John 7:31). The commonalty, who were more or less unsophisticated and free from religious prejudices. These “ heard Christ gladly.” This favourable disposition 1. Was founded on facts. There does not seem to be any question, even among His opponents, as to the reality of His miracles. 2. Intensified the opposition of His enemies (John 7:32). They felt that if the people believed in Him their influence, honour, etc., would vanish; and so they were inflamed. Through all Christendom there has always been a large class favourably disposed towards Christ; and this upon a basis of facts. This class still intensifies the opposition of enemies when the atheist, the worldling, etc., mark this disposition they, too, become the more anxious to banish Him from the world. But popular sentiment is our bulwark against infidelity. II. THOSE WHO WERE OPPOSED. Pharisees and chief priests. 1. They were to be deprived of the fellowship of Christ (verse 83). But six months after this Christ returned to the bosom of the Father. It was only “ a little while” He was in their midst, it would have been well had they availed themselves of it. The period of redemptive mercy with all men is but “ a little while.” 2. They would vainly seek the help of Christ (John 7:34). The hour was approaching for the fall of Jerusalem, and when the Romans were at the gates they would look for deliverance and not find it. There is a time to seek “ the Lord, while He may be found” ; and there is a time when He will be sought and not found. “ Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord!” etc. 3. They misunderstood the meaning of Christ (verses 35-36). (1) They started from His words an ungenerous conjecture, “ Will He go” etc., i.e., amongst the Jews scattered among the Gentiles, or to the Gentiles. In either case He will go to a contemptible class, and leave our glorious country. (2) They failed to attach to His words the true idea, “ What manner of saying is this.” They were carnal and judged after the flesh. Thus is it ever with this class. They are deprived of His fellowship. By their corrupt natures they are excluded from the sublime region of purity and benevolence in which He lives. They must all seek His help when too late. They all misunderstand Him. “ They have ears but hear not.” Conclusion: To which class do you belong? 1. Probably to the former. But to be favourably disposed is not enough; there must be decision, consecration, vital affinity. 2. If to the latter, ponder your condition ere it be too late. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The coming of the bailiffs I. A HOSTILE EMBASSY. 1. Its occasion--the favourable impression made on the multitude. 2. Its promoters. The chief priests and the Pharisees, who resolved to take a forward step by dispatching their constables to the Temple (verse 82). 3. Its object. To mingle with the crowd, show as much favour as possible, so as to throw them and Christ off their guard, and then embrace the first opportunity of detaching them from Him, or Him from them, and took Him prisoner to the council chamber. II. AN . Having observed the officers and their intention, our Lord replied to this forward movement by announcing His departure. 1. It,would be soon, “ a little while.” “ The increasing hostility of the rulers, and the fickle character of the populace, made it apparent that tile final collision could not be long delayed. 2. It would be voluntary. The designs of the rulers would in the providence of God lead to His departure but would not be its cause (John 10:18). “ I go.” 3. It would be a homegoing (John 7:33; John 6:62), like an ambassador to report about His mission, or like a Son to the presence of His Father John 14:2). 4. It would terminate their day of grace. His appearance had been a day of salvation (Luke 19:42), which at His departure would be over (verse 34; Luke 17:22). 5. It would place an impassable gulf between Him and them (verse 34). Without foreclosing heaven’ s gate upon the crowd, many of whom were probably afterwards converted (Acts 2:41), or upon individual members of the Sanhedrim (John 19:38-39; Acts 6:7), the words announced that when Christ departed their day of grace as a nation would be over for impenitent individuals. III. A RESULT. 1. Perplexity. They failed to understand the Saviour’ s meaning, or pretended to do so (verse 36); as the apostles did an analogous expression John 16:17). Yet Christ’ s language was plain. But they did not wish Christ’ s words to have the sense they conveyed, and so pronounced them nonsensical. 2. Ridicule. They endeavoured to sport with Him and His words. Tomorrow they will ask Him if He purposes to commit suicide (chap. 8:12), to-day they inquire if He contemplates playing at Messiah among the Greeks (verse 35). 3. Rejection. The true reason why they could not understand Him was, that already in their hearts they had rejected Him and them. Lessons: 1. The day of grace to all is of limited duration. 2. Those who improve that day so as to find Christ will ultimately be with Him. 3. To such as find Christ, death will be going home. 4. Those who reject Christ here will not be able to accept Him hereafter. 5. Christ’ s sayings are enigmas to those who do not wish to understand Him. 6. Scoffing at good men marks the last stage of depravity. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The boldness of Christ The officers were after our Lord, and He knew it. He could spy them out in the crowd, but He was not therefore in the least afraid or disconcerted. He reminds me of that minister who, when he was about to preach, was stopped by a soldier, who held a pistol at his head, and threatened that if he spake he would kill him. “ Soldier,” said he, “ do your duty; I shall do mine” ; and he went on with his preaching. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Then said Jesus unto them, yet a little while am I with youOne saying with two meanings (text and John 13:33) 1. No greater contrast can be conceived than between these two groups. The one consists of tile officers sent to seize Christ, but were restrained by an awe inexplicable even to themselves. The other consists of the little company of His faithful, though slow scholars. Hatred animated the one, love the other. 2. Christ speaks to them both nearly the same words, but with what a different tone, meaning, and application. To the officers they exhibit the triumphant confidence that their Maker is omnipotent. When He wills He will go, not be dragged, to a safe asylum, where foes cannot follow Him. The officers do not understand. They think, that bad Jew as they have always believed Him to be, He may consummate His apostasy by going over to the Gentiles altogether; but at any rate they feel that He is going to escape their hands. The disciples understand little more, and though the upper side of the saying seems to be full of separation, there is an underside that suggests reunion. 3. The words are nearly the same, but they are not quite identical. I. THE TWO . 1. The enemies are told they will never find Him. (1) No man with hostile intent seeking for Christ can ever find Him. All the antagonism that has stormed against Him and His cause has been impotent and vain. The pursuers are like dogs chasing a bird which all the while carols in the sky. As in the days of His flesh His foes could not touch His person till He chose, so ever since no weapon that is formed against His cause or His friends shall prosper. All Christian service is a prolongation of Christ’ s, and both are immortal and safe. (2) But it is not only hostile seeking that is vain. When the dark days came over Israel, and amidst the agonies of that last seige, do you not think that many of these people said, “ Ah! if we had only Jesus back for a day or two.” They sought Him not in anger any more, nor in penitence, or they would have found Him, but simply in distress, and wishing that they could have back again what they had cared so little for when they had it. And are there none to whom the words apply, “ He that will not when he may, when he will it shall be nay.” (3) There is another kind of vain seeking--intellectual, without the preparation of the heart. Many a man goes in quest for religious certainty and looks at, if not for Jesus, and is not capable of discerning Him when He sees Him because His eye is not single, or his heart is full of worldliness and indifference, or he begins with a foregone conclusion. He will never find Him. 2. The seeking that is not vain. “ Ye shall seek Me,” to any heart that loves Christ is not a sentence of separation, but the blessed law of Christian life. (1) That life is one great seeking after Christ. Love seeks the absent. If we care anything for Him at all our hearts will turn to Him as naturally as when the winter begins to pinch, the birds seek the sunny south. The same law which sends loving thoughts across the globe to seek husband, child, or friend, sets the Christian heart seeking for Christ. (2) And if you do not seek Him you will lose Him, for there is no way of keeping a person who is not before our eyes near us except by diligent effort--thought meditating, love going out towards Him, will submitting. Unless there be this effort you will lose your Master like the child in a crowd loses his nurse if his hand slips from the protecting hand. (3) And that seeking in this threefold form is neither a seeking which starts from a sense of non-possession, nor one which ends in disappointment. We seek Him because we possess Him, and that we may have Him more abundantly, and it is as impossible that such a search shall be vain as that lungs dilated shall not fill with air. A mother will sometimes hide that the child’ s delight may be the greater in searching and finding; and so Christ has gone away for one thing that He may stimulate our desires after Him. II. THE TWO CANNOTS. “ Whither I go ye cannot come,” says He to His enemies, with no limitation or condition. To His friends He only says, “ now,” and “ thou shalt follow Me afterwards.” So then Christ is somewhere, He has gone into a place as well as a state, and there friend and enemy alike cannot enter while compassed with “ the earthly house.” But the incapacity goes deeper, no sinful man can pass within. Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. Our power to enter there depends on our union with Christ by faith, and that will effect the preparation. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) I go. Three Greek words are thus translated in St. John, and two of them in similar connections. Each expresses a distinct aspect of departure, and its special force must be taken into account in the interpretation of the passage in which it is found. 1. ὑπάγω, which is used here, emphasizes the personal act of going in itself, as a withdrawal (John 8:14; John 8:21; John 13:3; John 13:33; John 13:36; John 14:4; John 14:28; John 16:5; John 16:10; John 16:16). 2. πορεύομαι marks the going as connected with a purpose, a mission, an end to be gained (John 7:35; John 14:3; John 14:12; John 14:28; John 16:7; John 16:28). 3. ἀπεοχομαι expresses simple separation, the point left . The differences are very clearly seen in a comparison of Joh 16:10 (ὑπάγω) with John 14:28 (πορεύομαι) and the succession of words in John 16:7-10. (Bp. Westcott.) While Christ is near we must cry to Him for pardon A few years ago, when Pennsylvania had a Christian governor, there was a young man down in one of the counties who was arrested for murder. He was brought before the Court, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. His friends thought there would be no trouble in getting a reprieve or pardon. Because the governor was a Christian man they thought he would not sign the death warrant. But he signed it. They called on the governor and begged of him to pardon the young man. But the governor said “ No; the law must take its course, and the man must die.” I think the mother of the young man called on the governor and pleaded with him; but the governor stood firm and said, “ No; the man must die.” A few days before the man was executed, the governor took the train to the county where the man was imprisoned. He went to the sheriff of the county and said to him, “ I wish you to take me to that man’ s cell, and leave me alone with him for a little while; and do not tell him who I am until I am gone.” The governor went to the prison and talked to the young man about his soul, and told him that, although he was condemned by man to be executed, God would have mercy upon him and save him, if he would accept pardon from God. He preached Christ, and told him how Christ came to seek and to save sinners; and, having explained as he best knew how the plan of salvation, he got down and prayed, and after praying he shook hands with him and bade him farewell. Some time after the sheriff passed by the condemned man’ s cell, and he called him to the door of the cell and said, “ Who was that man who talked and prayed with me so kindly?” The sheriff said, “ That was Governor Pollock.” The man turned deathly pale, and he threw up both his hands and said, “ Was that Governor Pollock? was that kind-hearted man the governor? Oh, sheriff, why did not you tell me? If I had known that was the governor I would have fell at his feet and asked for pardon; I would have pleaded for pardon and for my life. Oh, sir, the governor has been here, and I did not know it.” Sinner, I have got good news to tell you. There is one greater than the governor here to-night, and He wants to pardon every one. (Moody.) Seeking in vain A young policeman was in the Edinburgh infirmary with an injured leg. There was a man lying on the next bed to him exceedingly ill, and his life despaired of by the physicians, but who would not allow any one to speak to him on religious subjects, or pray either for his recovery, or for the salvation of his soul. At first he himself had no idea that death was so near him; but when its ghastly presence could no longer be denied, then this bold impenitent sinner became a victim of despair. Again and again did he cry out for the chaplain to pray for his soul. Of course there were many prayers offered for him, but his day of grace was over, and he continued to shriek aloud for mercy, until finally his voice became too weak for utterance, and full of dreadful apprehensions of “ the wrath to come,” he expired. (T. Mahon.) Resisting the light will prove our undoing It is related of Jeine, the chief of one of the South Sea Islands, who had offered no small amount of opposition to the introduction of Christianity, that, during a sickness which terminated in his death, he manifested more mental distress than is usually seen in a heathen. He often expressed a wish that “ he had died ten years before.” And why? The light of life and love had been shining around him, but he had opposed its entrance into his heart, and its power over his people. And now, having loved darkness, in darkness of soul, stung by an upbraiding of conscience, he must die. (Biblical Museum.) Those who refuse Christ when offered may soon seek Him in vain I was once called upon to visit a dying man in Bristol, under the following circumstances: He had not entered the church for many years. At last he made up his mind to go, and on the morning of the Sabbath he and his wife went. But the door was closed, the church being under repair. They returned home disappointed. In the evening they went to another church. But it was so crowded that they could get no farther than the doorway, and were unable to hear a word. On the following Sunday he resolved to make another effort; but while he was dressing he fell down in an apoplectic fit, and never spoke again I He knew me when I entered his chamber. I preached the gospel in his dying ear, but he was speechless, and I could not learn the state of his mind. This case illustrates some paris of the first chapter of Proverbs: “ Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me.” The procrastinating sinner may say, “ I will serve God by and by. He shall have the services of my age:” and God may say, “ No; thou shalt not have old age to offer Me.” (J. East.) The imperilled condition of the impenitent sinner Two friends were in the Highlands recently, shooting, and one of them observed an animal on a jutting rock. He inquired, “ Is that a sheep?” and looking through his field-glass he saw that it was. In search of herbage the sheep had descended from one grass-covered ledge to another, and found it impossible to return. No shepherd in Scotland dare risk his life by going down the declivity. The sheep must remain there till an eagle observed it, when in eddying circles it would hover over the poor animal, drawing nearer and nearer, until at last the affrighted sheep would take a dreadful leap into space, to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below, and then become the eagle’ s prey. (W. HayAitken.) The dispersed among the Gentiles, or simply the Dispersion was the general title applied to those Jews who remained settled in foreign countries after the return from Babylon, and during the period of the second Temple. The Hebrew word applied to these foreign settlers (see Jeremiah 24:5; Jeremiah 28:4; Ezra 6:16) conveys the notion of spoliation and bereavement, as of men removed from the Temple and home of their fathers; but in the LXX. the ideas of “ sojourning,” and of a “ colony,” were combined with that of a “ captivity,” while the term “ dispersion” Deuteronomy 28:25; cf. Jeremiah 34:17), which finally prevailed, seemed to imply that the people thus scattered (Deuteronomy 30:4) in bondage (Macc. 1:27), and shut out from the privileges of the human race (text), should yet be as a seed sown for a future harvest (cf. Isaiah 49:6, Hebrews) in the strange lands where they found a temporary resting- 1 Peter 1:1). The schism which had divided the first kingdom was forgotten in the results of the general calamity. The Dispersion was not limited to the exiles of Judah, but included “ the twelve tribes” James 1:1), which expressed the completeness of the whole Jewish nation (Acts 26:7). The Dispersion really dates from the Babylonish exile. Uncertain legends point to earlier settlements in Arabia, Ethiopia, and Abyssinia, but these must have been isolated and casual, while the Dispersion was the outward proof that a faith had succeeded to a kingdom. Apart from the necessary influence which Jewish communities, bound by common laws, ennobled by the possession of the same truths, and animated by kindred hopes must have exercised on the nations among whom they were scattered, the difficulties which set aside the literal observance of the Mosaic ritual led to a wider view of the scope of the law, and a stronger sense of its spiritual significance. Outwardly and inwardly, by its effects, both on the Gentiles and on Israel, the Dispersion was the clearest providential preparation for Christianity. But while the fact of a recognized Dispersion must have weakened the local and ceremonial influences which were essential to the first training of the people of God, the Dispersion was still bound together in itself and to its mother country by religious ties. The Temple was the acknowledged centre of Judaism, and the faithful Jew everywhere contributed the half-shekel towards its maintenance Matthew 17:24; Jos. Ant. 16:6). The tribute was indeed the simplest and most striking outward proof of the religious unity of the nation. Treasuries were established to receive the payments of different districts, and the collected sums were forwarded to Jerusalem, as in later times the Mohammedan offerings were sent to Mecca. At the beginning of the Christian era the Dispersion was divided into three great sections, the Babylonian, the Syrian, and the Egyptian. Precedence was yielded to the first. The jealousy which had originally existed between the poor who remained in Jerusalem and their wealthier countrymen at Babylon had passed away. From Babylon the Jews spread throughout Persia, Media, and Parthia; but the settlements in China belong to a modern date. The Greek conquests in Asia extended the limits of the Dispersion. Selencus Nicator transplanted large bodies of Jewish colonists from Babylonia to the capitals of his western provinces. His policy was followed by his successor, Antiochus the Great, and the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes only served to push forward the Jewish emigration to the remoter districts of the empire. In Armenia the Jews arrived at the greatest dignities, and Nisibis became a new centre of colonization. The Jews of Cappadocia (1 Peter 1:1) are mentioned in the Mishna; and a prince and princess of Adiabene adopted the Jewish faith only thirty years before the destruction of the Temple. Large settlements were established in Cyprus, in the islands of the AEgean, and on the western coast of Asia Minor. The Romans confirmed to them the privileges obtained from the Syrian kings; and though they were exposed to sudden outbursts of popular violence, the Jews of the Syrian provinces gradually formed a closer connection with their new homes, and, together with the Greek language, adopted in many respects Greek ideas. This Hellenizing tendency, however, found its most free development at Alexandria. The Jewish settlements established there by Alexander and Ptolemy I. became the source of the African Dispersion, which spread over the north coast of Africa, and perhaps inland to Abyssinia. At Cyrene and Berenice (Tripoli) the Jewish inhabitants formed a considerable portion of the population. But the distinction in language led to wider differences, which were averted in Babylon by the currency of an Aramaic dialect. The Scriptures were no longer read on the Sabbath, and no fire signals conveyed the dates of the new moons to Egypt. Still, the spirit of the African Jews was not destroyed. After the destruction of the Temple the zealots found a reception in Cyrene, and in A.D. 115 the Jewish population in Africa rose with terrible ferocity, and were put down by a war of extermination, and the remnant who escaped established themselves on the opposite coast of Europe, as the beginning of a new Dispersion. The Jewish settlements in Rome were consequent on the occupation of Jerusalem by Pompey B.C. 63. The captives and emigrants whom he brought with him were located inthe Trans-Tiberine quarter, and by degrees rose in station and importance. They were favoured by Augustus and Tiberius after the fall of Sejanus, and a Jewish school was founded at Rome. In the reign of Claudius the Jews became objects of suspicion from their immense numbers; and the internal disputes, consequent, perhaps, upon the preaching of Christianity, led to their banishment from the city (Acts 18:2). But this was only temporary, for in a few years the Jews at Rome were numerous (Acts 28:17), and continued to be sufficiently conspicuous to attract the attention of the satirists. The influence of the Dispersion on the rapid growth of Christianity can scarcely be overrated. The course of apostolic preaching followed in a regular progress the line of Jewish settlements. The mixed assembly from which the first converts were gathered on the day of Pentecost represented each division of the Dispersion, and these converts naturally prepared the way for the apostles. The names of the seven deacons are all Greek, and one was a proselyte. The Church at Antioch, by which St. Paul was entrusted with his great work among the heathen Acts 13:1), included Barnabus of Cyprus, Lucius of Cyrene, and Simeon, surnamed Niger; and among his fellow labourers at a later time are found Apollos of Alexandria, Urbanus, and Clement, whose names, at least, are Roman. Antioch itself became a centre of the Christian Church, as it had been of the Jewish Dispersion; and throughout the apostolic journeys the Jews were the class to whom “ it was necessary that the Word of God should be first spoken” (Acts 13:46), and they in turn were united with the mass of the population by the intermediate body of “ the devout “ who had recognized in various degrees “ the faith of the God of Israel.” (Bp. Westcott.) John 7:37-52 On the last day, that great day of the feast Jesus the Christ I. . 1. Water for the thirsty (John 7:37; Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11; Psalms 78:15; Psalms 78:20; Psalms 105:41; Matthew 5:6). 2. Usefulness for the believing (John 7:38; Proverbs 4:23; Proverbs 18:4; Ac Romans 14:7; 1 Corinthians 6:20; James 3:10). 3. Divine aid for men (John 7:39; Isaiah 44:3; Joe 2:28; Zec John 16:7; Acts 2:33; Philippians 2:13). II. THOUGHT. 1. The prophet (John 7:40; Deuteronomy 18:15; Deuteronomy 18:18; John 1:21; John 6:14; Acts 3:23; Acts 7:37). 2. The Christ (John 7:41; Matthew 16:16; Mark 14:61; Luke 4:41; John 1:41; John 4:29). 3. The seed of David (.John 7:42; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 33:22; Luke 1:69; Romans 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:8; Revelation 5:5). III. FOES. 1. Bitter enemies (John 7:44; Matthew 21:46; Mark 11:18; Luke 19:47; Luke 20:19; John 7:19; John 7:30). 2. Perplexed officials (John 7:46; Matthew 7:28; Matthew 27:22; Matthew 27:24; Mk Luke 23:22; Acts 23:9). 3. Raging Pharisees (John 7:47; Luke 5:30; Luke 6:7; Luke 7:30; John 7:32; Acts 23:9). (S. S. Times.) Jesus the Christ I. JESUS’ CLAIM TO DIVINE FULNESS (John 7:37-39). 1. It was tabernacles. The last day had come. It was Sabbath. All hearts overflowed with joy. With water from Siloah the priest came, pouring it upon the altar in the presence of all the people. That water was a symbol of salvation (Isaiah 12:3). Seeing it, Jesus makes, regarding Himself, this proclamation: “ If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me and drink.” How emphatic the word “ thirst!” It means all the needs of the soul and the deep cravings of mankind. The word “ drink” is equally strong. Jesus here offers Himself as a complete satisfaction to man. The claim here set forth is one and the same thing with Isaiah 55:1. The same person speaks in both places. Jesus thus declares Himself to be God, i.e., the Christ. 2. The same thing is claimed in verse 38. The believer, having received Jesus, becomes himself a fountain of eternal life--rather is he a channel through which the grace of God flows to bless other hearts. This is the effect of the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is secured for the sinful world by the atonement of Jesus Christ. The cross has two sides--one turned towards God the Father, reconciling Him to man a sinner; the other turned towards man, securing for him the Holy Ghost. Under these two aspects Christ’ s sacrifice is always presented in the Bible. It is to the last of these that verses 38, 39 refer. Hence Jesus declares Himself the Christ. II. THE PEOPLE CLAIM JESUS AS CHRIST (verses 40-44). 1. Some declared that He was “ The Prophet” (Deuteronomy 18:15). The person here spoken of was held by the Jews to be the coming Messiah Acts 3:22-23). 2. Others bolder, pronouncing His name: “ This is the Christ” (verse 41). 3. A third party, while they seemingly rejected Him, bore a testimony to His being the true Messiah (verses 41, 42). He had both the lineage and birthplace which they required to convince them. Only their own ignorance stood in the way. Observe: (1) It was Christ’ s strong claim regarding Himself that won Him confessors. So in teaching, we must present the truth in strong terms, leaving results with the truth itself. (2) A little ignorance often prevents men from receiving the gospel (verse 42). (3) Anything for an excuse is the motto of some persons. The cry now is, “ He is a Galilean!” If not this, then something else, equally untrue. (4) The plain teaching of the Word is apt to attract the attention of all and cause divisions among the people (verse 43). Nothing is talked about so much as Christianity. (5) No one can damage the truth, except so far as God gives him permission, and then it is for a wise purpose, as the future will show (verses 32, 44). His hour did come. Then He was crucified. The greatest crime secured the world the greatest blessing! III. THE CLAIM JESUS AS CHRIST (verses 45-49). Their testimony in His behalf is contained in verse 46. It was the same as saying: “ His speaking is that of a Divine person.” Those hard men, that went to arrest Him, were overcome by the love shown in His speech; by the truth which impressed them; by the persuasion His words carried with them and by His authority as a teacher. These all were so marked that, returning, His enemies had to declare. “ Never man so spake” --none, save God, could show such love, truth, persuasion and authority. 1. These are all divine qualities, man having them in proportion as he is “ endued with power from on high.” 2. The gospel has these four great elements--Love, Truth, Persuasion, and Authority. 3. Those who will not receive the gospel pronounce such testimony as this “ deception” (verse 47). The belief of the humble-hearted is foolishness unto the intellectual-proud (verses 48, 49). IV. Nicodemus claims Him to be Christ (verses 50-53). The charge against Jesus by the Pharisees was that He claimed to be from God, the true Messiah. Nicodemus virtually said this: “ You have not disproved this claim; nothing has been done to prove the falsity of Jesus’ words” (verse 51). He might have made His testimony stronger. We must remember that a secret disciple is not bold in word or deed. The reply of the Pharisees was weak, showing that their cause was based on ignorance and prejudice (verse 52). Such is the cause of unbelief to-day. (A. H. Moment, D. D.) If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drinkThe thirst of humanity anticipated and met On the last day of the feast of tabernacles the priests stood near the altar and poured water over it copiously from large capacious vessels. Perhaps the day took its name “ the great day” from that circumstance. It was a symbolical act intended to connect itself with the predictions that in the days of the Messiah God would pour out His Spirit, and was something like a prayer that they might live to see those days and share that blessing. It was our Lord’ s custom to connect His teaching with occurrences before Him, and so, perhaps pointing to that act, He said, “ If any man,” etc., proclaiming His Messiahship. I. IS THE SUBJECT OF INTENSE DESIRES. We know how intense the animal appetite of “ thirst” may become. How terrible it has been in the burning desert or the besieged city i That is here taken to indicate the character of spiritual desire, and is an ordinary rhetorical figure used by our poets and philosophers when they speak of the thirst of gold, ambition, etc. But Christ offers no drink for the appetites or passions. 1. There is the thirst of the intellect--the desire for truth. It is very wonderful how soon the mind of a child will begin to speculate about the mystery of life, of death, of God, and the soul. 2. There is the thirst of conscience in two forms. (1) There is the consciousness of moral weakness. A man feels the moral obligation he is under, sees the beauty of duty, has a conviction of right, but a sense of infirmity of purpose--makes his strong resolutions and scatters them the next day. And so the moral nature thirsts for strength to perform. (2) The conscience is burdened by a sense of sin, and yearns for its forgiveness and removal. This has given rise to priests. The people create the priests. No priesthood ever yet originated itself for the purpose of trampling on the people. 3. There is the thirst of the heart: not merely a desire for happiness. You are made for something greater than that. There is a thirst in looking at the dislocation of things around us. What tears of soul bereavement and pain let out the waters of bitterness in times of darkness I So the soul wants something to rest upon, to feel that we are not in a neglected and fatherless world. II. JESUS CHRIST IN THE GOSPEL MEETS THESE WANTS. 1. Christianity professes to be a revelation of spiritual truth. It interprets nature and adds communications of its own about all that it is necessary for us to know. 2. Christianity meets the thirst of conscience in a special way. (1) By the revelation of the Person of Christ. The gospel does not come as a system of thought, nor are its preachers philosophers; it presents a Saviour, through whom we may obtain forgiveness of sins. (2) Connected with this is the mission of the Spirit to renew, to strengthen the will, to purify the affections, to make duty a delight, and bring the whole man into harmony with duty and God (Romans 8:3-4). 3. Christianity meets the thirst of the heart by providing a large measure of rational and manly happiness, and that in two ways. (1) By the life of faith--faith as a daily habit, looking to God in all things; and along with that it gives spiritual consolation and grace. (2) By the character it creates and sustains, delivering us from the torments which attend passion, sin, disharmony with God. III. CHRIST NOT ONLY MEETS THE THIRST OF , BUT IS URGENT TO MEET IT. “ Let Him come.” Do not mystify yourselves with the metaphysics of the Divine decrees. Take Christ in His plain utterances and remember that secret things belong unto God. He says, “ if any man will, let Him come” --believe in His honesty of purpose, and that He means what He says, “ It is not the will of my Father that one of these little ones should perish.” “ You may perish, but that will be from your own acts, not God’ s.” IV. CHRIST IN MEETING THIS THIRST DOES OF SET PURPOSE MAKE US A TO OTHERS. “ Out of Him shall flow,” etc. (T. Binney.) Thirst relieved “ A word spoken in season how good it is!” Much of the force of an observation depends upon its being well-timed. The orators of Greece and Rome attended to this. But there was One who “ spake as never man spake,” who seized all occasions. Here is an instance of it. I. THE . 1. Let us account for it. When man proceeded from the hand of God he was a stranger to thirst. He was formed for the enjoyment of God, and God became the source of his enjoyment. Then he was in his element. But sin has removed man from the fountain, and he now wanders through a parched wilderness. “ My people have committed two evils,” etc. 2. Its nature. It includes (1) Want and emptiness. The mind has an aching void. We might as well expect light in a beam cut off from the sun, the source of all radiance, as expect satisfaction of mind without God. (2) Restlessness--the fever of the mind. Hence the anxiety of change, “ seeking rest and finding none.” (3) Misery. Disappointed in the objects of pursuit men turn away in disgust, saying, “ miserable comforters are ye all.” Hence despondency and suicide. 3. Its universal prevalence. It is felt more or less intensely, but none are strangers to it. (1) The inquiries of men prove this. “ Who will show us any good.” (2) The pursuits of men prove this. The toils of the studious, the slumbers of the voluptuary, the cell of the hermit, the hoards of the miser, all.say, “ I thirst.” (3) The regrets of men prove this. “ Vanity of vanities,” etc. II. THE . 1. The person who offers the refreshment. The eternal Son of God who became man, to die for sin and rise and ascend into heaven to “ receive gifts for men,” even the Holy Spirit. The “ living water.” Christ has the Spirit without measure for the enlightenment and salvation of men. Here is all that can satisfy the thirsty, soul--pardon for the guilty, liberty for the enslaved, peace for the distracted, and finally heaven. 2. The means of getting the living water. Note (1) the approach of faith, “ let him come.” (2) The application of faith “ drink.” III. THE EXTENT OF THE . “ If any man.” 1. As to character. There is no description of the persons invited. “ If any man,” be he who he may, whatever his age, country, condition. This is better than any specification of name, for others might bear the same. 2. As to the simplicity of the qualification. All men thirst. Don’ t say I am not thirsty enough. If you thirst at all you are meant. 3. As to the sincerity of the Inviter. Can we doubt this? Is He not able, and willing to relieve us. Conclusion: 1. Learn why Christ is imperfectly appreciated--because men do not realize their moral condition. 2. If this is not assuaged here it never will be in eternity. Read the parable of the rich man. (G. Clayton.) Rivers of living water 1. These words were spoken on the last day of the feast--therefore on the last opportunity for doing good to that multitude. The dispersion of a mighty crowd is always affecting, as we forecast that it is a final parting with some, and see in it a foreshadowing of that last separation. Our Lord was sensitive to such feelings, and could not suffer the vast assemblage to break up without giving them something which might reveal itself in their hearts when far from the excitement of the city. 2. It was the great day, when, after the solemnities of the previous week and their august associations and suggestions, all susceptible souls would be open to elevated thoughts. So Jesus, seizing the moment when the metal was molten to give His own impress to it, cried, “ If any man,” etc. 3. Christ’ s gift is living waters. He speaks to us as subject to desires for which nature has made no provision, and offers Himself as a fountain of relief and eternal satisfaction. His words sweep the entire circle of humanity, for every man thirsts. The only question is, Can His religion do what everything else confessedly fails to do? “ Yes,” said Jesus. The Holy Spirit as given by Him is as rivers of living water, because I. THE SPIRIT IS THE CHANNEL OF GOD’ S LOVE TO SOULS. 1. Man thirsts for love. It is the nobleness of our nature that food and raiment and gross pleasures do not satisfy it. What makes childhood’ s blessedness, but that its whole atmosphere is love? Yet how far all human love comes short of satisfying our craving all know. But let a man be thoroughly certified that God loves him to save him, and that every moment he has access to God to tell Him all his griefs, what a river of refreshment must this love prove in his heart. 2. God’ s love to us is His love in Christ--love, the most ample in its measure, the most intense in its power, the most complete in its adjustments to our condition. But it is not this love in a book that will give us relief. The testimony of the Book must be transferred to the heart to become a living reality there. The Spirit adds nothing to its dimensions, but makes it approved and accepted to the soul. Divine love is the sovereign element of all blessedness: Christ is the Divine Vessel holding that love which flows over with sweet waters, but it is the Spirit which witnesses of this to the soul. II. THE SPIRIT IS THE CREATOR OF BLESSED IN THE SOUL. “ Shall be in Him.” Man thirsts for an inward blessedness. Not in his circumstances but in his heart, in noble views, pure affections, generous aspirations, lies the true well-being of man. He may have millions and yet be haunted with fears of starvation. He may allow himself every luxury, and yet his soul be a level of monotonous wretchedness. Malignant self-centred passions are the fever of the soul. Place a man amidst the splendours of royalty, and a jealous spirit will make him miserable. It is from a right state of the heart that its blessedness must flow; therefore the true salvation of man is not outward but inward. It has its outward elements in an alteration of man’ s relation to God; but what were it worth for the outcast to be delivered from his rags and poverty, and be received back if he retained all the evil passions which ruined him? He must become an altered man to become blessed. All experience and Scripture bear witness that this is a work not for man but for the Spirit of God. It is the almighty spirit of love, whose living waters flowing into the heart destroy its bitterness and impurity, and make it a fountain of brightness. III. THE SPIRIT IS THE POWER OF . 1. As the waters of a fountain gush forth by their own pleasure, so do the living waters of spiritual life impart themselves to all around. Every refreshed soul is constituted a well of refreshment, like a fertile spot in the wilderness. How is this done? By the gifts and service which it prompts. Whenever He is in the heart, our families, neighbourhoods, churches will be refreshed. Stagnant waters which have no outlet become corrupt and bitter like the Dead Sea. 2. Man thirsts for successful, useful action. You are not content with the result which your daily calling gives you. Without despising common duties, you feel that you were made for nobler things. Well, the noblest course is open to all. You need not acquire rank or money. If renewed by the Spirit, you can make your course as a shining river. No other life is worth living: all other is vanity and vexation. 3. This blessedness and usefulness must be habitual, a river not a brook. Nothing can be more remote from the true idea of the Holy Spirit than transcient excitement. Conclusion: 1. This gift of the Spirit is acquired by faith. “ Coming” is “ believing.” 2. This gift assumes different forms in different believers. 3. This gift every believer is bound to use. (J. Riddell, M. A.) The incident While the morning sacrifice was being prepared, a priest, accompanied by a joyous procession with music, went down to the pool of Siloam, whence he drew water into a golden pitcher capable of holding three log (rather more than two pints). But on the Sabbath they fetched the water from a golden vessel in the Temple itself, into which it had been carried from Siloam on the preceding day. At the same time that the procession started for Siloam, another went to a place in the Kedron valley, close by, called Motza, whence they brought willow branches, which, amid the blasts of the priests’ trumpets, they stuck on either side of the altar of burnt offering, bending them over toward it so as to form a kind of leafy canopy. Then the ordinary sacrifice proceeded, the priest who had gone to Siloam so timing it that he returned just as his brethren carried up the pieces of the sacrifice to lay them on the altar. As he entered by the “ water-gate,” which obtained its name from this ceremony, he was received by a threefold blast from the priests’ trumpets. The priests then went up the rise of the altar and turned to the left, where there were two silver basins with narrow holes--the eastern, a little wider, for the wine; and the western, a little narrower, for the water. Into these the wine of the drink offering was poured, and at the same time the water from Siloam, the people shouting to the priest, “ Raise thy hand,” to show that he really poured the water into the basin which led to the base of the altar … As soon as the wine and water were poured out, the Temple music began, and the Hallel (Psalms 113:1-9; Psalms 114:1-8; Psalms 115:1-18; Psalms 116:1-19; Psalms 117:1-2; Psalms 118:1-29.) was sung … Salvation in connection with the Son of David was symbolized by the pouring out of water Thus the Talmud says distinctly, “ Why is the name of it called the drawing out of water? Because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said: ‘ With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.’”… We can now in some measure realize the event. The festivities of the week of tabernacles were drawing to a close. “ It was the last day, that great day of the feast.”… It was on that day after the priest had returned from Siloam with his golden pitcher, and for the last time poured its contents to the base of the altar; after the Hallel had been sung to the sound of the flute, the people shouting and worshipping as the priests three times drew the threefold blasts from their silver trumpets--just when the interest of the people had been raised to its highest pitch, that from the mass of the worshippers, who were waving towards the altar quite a forest of leafy branches as the last words of Psa 118:1-29, were chanted--a voice was raised which resounded through the Temple, startled the multitude, and carried fear and hatred to the hearts of their leaders. It was Jesus who “ stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” Then by faith in Him should each one truly become like the pool of Siloam, and from his inmost being “ rivers of water flow.” “ This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” Thus the significance of the rite, in which they had just taken part, was not only fully explained, but the mode of its fulfilment pointed out. (A. Edersheim, D. D.) The significance of the incident and Christ’ s use of it In the latter days of Jerusalem, as we learn from the history of the period, a ceremony was added to those of the ordained feasts of booths, intended, evidently, to commemorate the thirst in the wilderness, and the supply that was provided from the rock in Horeb. On the last day of the feast, towards evening, the priests formed a procession, and, having drawn water from the pool of Siloam, bore it to the Temple, and poured it on the ground, so that it should flow down to the lower streets of the city. This symbol pointed, probably, to Ezekiel’ s grand vision of waters issuing from the Temple, small at first, but rapidly increasing, until they became a river that could not be passed over--a river to swim in. The precession of priests has gone to Siloam and returned to the Temple. They have poured the water from the golden vessel, and a rivulet is making its way along the unwonted channel, forth from the hallowed courts towards the city. The assembled crowds are ranged on either side, watching the progress of the mimic stream. The beams of the setting sun strike the water, where in a hollow it spreads into a pool, and golden glory flashes for a moment from the spot that had been dull dry earth before. The multitude gaze in ignorant superstition; but some of the Lord’ s hidden ones are there, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and spelling painfully out of these dead letters the name of their living Redeemer. Jesus looked on the crowd as they gazed wistfully on the symbolic water. His heart was yearning for them. He knew what was in man: He knew that the Jews made idols of these significant signs, as they made idols of the scriptures which were printed on their clothing. He saw them drinking that which cannot quench the thirst of a soul. He pitied them, and came to the rescue. (W. Arnot, D. D.) The Preacher’ s last sermon for the season I. THE INQUIRY FOR THE THIRSTY. 1. It is very wide. “ Any man” of all that heterogeneous mass. 2. It is anxiously narrowed down. “ If” --as if He had said the mass of you do not thirst; do any of you thirst? He reads their genera/indifference only too well. Alas I the thirsty are few: self-content possesses the minds of many, and world content steals over others. They are in a desert; no drop of dew falls about them, and the water-bottle has long since been dry; but they are mocked by the mirage, and they put aside their thirst with the fond idea that they can drink to the full. 3. It is painfully clear. The thirsty know what thirst is. It is a self-explaining pain. 4. It is being continually repeated. It is as urgent to day as then. 5. What is this thirst? Nothing actual or substantive; it is a lack crying out of its emptiness. When our system needs drink, a merciful providence creates a pang which drives us to a supply. Thirst rings the alarm bell, and mind and body set to work to supply the demand. It were a dreadful thing if the system needed water and yet did not thirst; for we might be fatally injured before we knew that any harm was happening to us. So with spiritual thirst. II. THE ONE FOR THE RELIEF OF ALL SUCH THIRSTY ONES. “ Let him come,” etc. 1. Christ who gives the water which quenches spiritual thirst, invites us to Himself personally. What creed you are to believe will do by and by, just now your duty is to come to Christ. At this time Christ had not been crucified, risen, etc., but the text was spoken with a foresight of all that should transpire up to His glorification. Come directly to Him, who by all this has become a fountain of living water--not to creeds, ceremonies, sacraments, priests, services, doings, or feelings. Salvation lies in Him only. 2. All that a sinner wants is to be found in abundance in Him, and all that every sinner wants. 3. In Jesus is a varied supply. The thirst of the soul is not like the thirst of the body which is quenched with one liquid; the soul thirsts for many things--peace in distraction, pardon of sin, purity from pollution, progress ingrace, power in prayer, perseverance; and all this is in Christ. 4. We must come to Christ and bring nothing of our own except our thirst, and that coming is believing. 5. Having come we must drink--the first action of the infant, the easiest act of the man. III. THE HERE GIVEN FOR THEIR . 1. There is no limit as to what thou has formerly done, in the way of sin, unbelief, hardness, denial. 2. There is no limit put as to where thou hast been before. A man went to a merchant to ask the price of a certain article. He then went to others and tried to buy at a cheaper rate, but found that the first had quoted the lowest price. So he went back, but the merchant refused to serve him, not caring for such customers. But if you have been to Moses, to Rome, yea, even to the devil, Christ still says, “ Come unto Me.” 3. There is no limit because of any kind of lack. Some think themselves deficient in tenderness, or penitence, or disqualified by age, poverty, illiterateness. Some are locking the door with the very key that was meant to open it. “ I am afraid I do not thirst;” “ I have not the sense of need I ought to have;” but this means that you are sensible that you are more needy than you think you are. The fact that you need a sense of need proves how horrible is your need. Would you come if you did thirst? Then come and you shall thirst. The more unfit the more you are invited; your very unfitness is your fitness. 4. When Christ says “ Come” nobody else can say “ Nay.” IV. THE FOR THEIR COMING. “ Jesus stood and cried.” It was the last opportunity, hence the urgency. Surely we ought to entreat Him to let us come. Instead of that we are callous. When a man has charity to give does he entreat people to accept it? How strange that you should be so unwilling and Christ so anxious! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The great invitation I. WHO THEY ARE WHO ARE INVITED. The thirsty. 1. In all thirst there is (1) A sense of want. Every man is sensible that he is not self-sufficient. (2) Desire of supply. The soul of man is ever desiring. 2. The object of this thirsting (1) The end where the soul may rest, and that is happiness. For this every man thirsts. (2) The means leading to the end. He that desires refreshment, desires also to drink, though he may by ignorance take a cup of poison. 3. There is a two-fold thirst (1) Natural and common to all men. It is as natural for a man to desire happiness as it is for him to breathe. But men miss the way and seek it in the world, and hence, disappointed, say, “ Who will show us any good?” (2) Supernatural, experienced by those only whose heart God hath touched. “ My soul thirsteth for the living God.” There is no happiness unless this is satisfied. II. TO WHAT THEY ARE INVITED. 1. To come to Christ, i.e., to believe on Him (John 7:33). Unbelief is a departing from the living God: faith is coming back. 2. To drink, i.e., to actually make use of Christ for the supply of this need. This points out three things in Christ. (1) The fulness of Christ for needy sinners. (a) In Him there is a fulness of merit to take off the fulness of our guilt. (b) A fulness of the Spirit to take away the power of sin, and to actuate us in all good. (c) A fulness of grace. (2) The suitableness of Christ. In Him there is a remedy for every disorder. (3) His satisfactoriness. This drinking also implies three things in us. (a) The soul going out for a supply of its particular wants, renouncing all confidence in itself or any creature (Jeremiah 17:5). (b) The soul’ s going out in desire after supply from Christ upon His invitation. (c) Believing application of Christ to the soul in (i) catching hold of the promise suited to our case. (ii) Venturing our case upon the promise and proposed supply. (iii) Confidence in Christ answering our necessities. III. MOTIVES FOR THE . 1. The supply of the needs of sinners is the great end of the mystery of Christ. 2. He is able to supply all needs however great they may be. Christ is a fountain that is never dry. The creatures are broken cisterns and soon exhausted. 3. Consider your need of Him. 4. If you come now you will drink of the rivers of God’ s pleasures for evermore. (T. Boston, D. D.) We must drink in the gospel A celebrated minister was once taken ill, and his wife requested him to go and consult an eminent physician. He went to this physican, who welcomed him very heartily. The minister stated his case. The doctor said: “ Oh it is a very simple matter, you have only to take such and such a drug and you will be right.” The patient was about to go, but the physician pressed him to stay, and they entered into pleasant conversation. The minister went home to his wife and told her what a delightful man the doctor had proved to be. He said, “ I do not know that I ever had a more delightful talk. The good man is eloquent, and witty, and gracious.” The wife replied, “ But what remedy did he prescribe?” “ Dear,” said the minister, “ I quite forgot what he told me on that point.” “ What?” said she, “ did you go to a physician for advice, and came away without the remedy?” “ It quite slipped my mind” he said, “ the doctor talked so pleasantly that his prescription has quite gone out of my head.” You must receive Christ by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ a Divine Fountain “ If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. What man would dare to say of merely physical things, “ If any man lacks knowledge, let him come unto me.” Neither Humbolt, nor Liebig, nor Agassiz would dare to say this, even of the departments in which they are pre-eminent, how much less of the whole range of learning! yet Christ, disdaining physical things, appeals at once to the soul with all its yearnings, its depths of despair, its claspings--like a mother feeling at midnight for the child whom death has taken--its infinite outreachings, its longings for love, and peace, and joy, which nothing can satisfy this side of the bosom of God, and says, “ If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” He stands over against whatever want there is in the human bosom, whatever hunger there is in the moral faculties, whatever need there is in the imagination, and says, “ He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” (H. W. Beecher.) The gospel a general offer of grace I was travelling some time ago, and I had a little child with me, and I was not acquainted with the law of the railroad respecting children, but I happened to see this announcement, “ All children under five years of age free.” I did not ask any questions. My child was under five. Neither did I buy a ticket. I took the announcement to mean what it said, and did not pay a halfpenny. (D. L. Moody.) We must feel our need of Christ before we come to Him Suppose a man were to call upon the physician and say, “ Well, sir, I want your services.” “ Are you sick?” says the physician. “ No; not that I know of.” “ What, then, do you want of me?” “ Oh! I want your services.” “ But what for?” The man makes no reply. “ Are you in pain?” “ No.” “ Is your head out of order?” “ No.” “ Nor your stomach?” “ No; I believe not. I feel perfectly well; but still I thought I should like a little of your help.” What would a doctor think of such a case as this? “ What must Christ think of those that ask His help, not feeling that they really need it? (H. W. Beecher.) The thirsty should drink During a revival in a town in Ohio, a man who had been very worldly minded was awakened, but for some time concealed his feelings, even from his wife, who was a praying woman. She left him one evening in charge of his little girl of three years of age. After her departure his anxiety of mind became so great that he walked the room in his agony. The little girl noticed his agitation, and inquired, “ What ails you, pa?” He replied, “ Nothing,” and endeavoured to quiet his feelings, but all in vain. The child looked up sympathizingly in his face, and inquired, with all the artlessness and simplicity of childhood, “ Pa, if you were dry, wouldn’ t you go and get a drink of water?” The father started as if a voice from heaven had fallen on his ear. He thought of his thirsty soul famishing for the waters of life; he thought of that living Fountain opened in the gospel; he believed, and straightway fell at the Saviour’ s feet. From that hour he dates the dawning of a new light, and the beginning of a new life. The patience of Christ It was the last day of the feast of tabernacles. It was the eighth day which was spent as a Sabbath, but the Saviour did not cease to preach because the festival was almost over. Till the last day He continued to instruct, to invite, to entreat. It is but one instance out of many of the Saviour’ s pertinacity of lovingkindness. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith is easy Drink! That is not a difficult action. Any fool can drink; in fact, many are great fools because they drink too much of poisonous liquors. Drink! Thou canst surely do that. Thou hast only to be as a spunge that sucks up all that comes near it. Put thy mouth down and suck up that which flows to thee in the river of Christ’ s love, open wide thy soul and drink in Christ, as the great northern whirlpool sucks in the sea. If any man thirst let him receive Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The spirit dwelling in, and flowing from, the Christian man Now was the time of the autumn heats. The effects of the harvest rains had long passed. The crops were just removed from the face of the ground. Above was the burning Syrian sun. Beneath--as with us, now--was the scorched and arid soil. All was dust, and weariness, and heat. It was the time of a great festival--the great autumnal feast of tabernacles, commemorative of the fruits of the earth now gathered in. I. Here you may observe we have AN --“ Jesus stood, and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me, and drink.” 1. There seems to me something emphatic in that word, “ stood.” It expresses in a teacher the attitude of prominence, energy, aggression. It was well suited to High, who, as tie was there placed amidst that perishing throng, came “ to seek, and to save that which was lost.” 2. And the voice is still more marked than the attitude. “ Jesus stood and cried.” This term is applied to those who arc labouring under some strong passion or affection of the mind, whether of grief, fear, desire, or other. Here it expresses earnestness and energy. At least, let ministers shew by their manner that they have a deep interest in the salvation of those they address. 3. But from the attitude, and the voice, turn we to the words themselves, to the gracious invitation of the Lord. Whom does He address? Those who thirst. A large class, as many will testify. For they who thirst include all who are not satisfied. (1) There, for example, are they who are disappointed. On them life opened fairly and brightly, but its horizon became overcast. Full of joyous anticipation they sprang forward with alacrity in the race of life. But unlooked for difficulties arose, They experienced treachery and falsehood. Life to them lost its charm. They found not what they sought. They thirsted, but were not satisfied. (2) Then there are the prosperous who cannot be satiated with prosperity. In their fulness they are empty; in their joyfulness they are sad; pleasure pleases not; slumber soothes not. (3) And there are those, too, who, having tried to slake the thirst of their undying souls with dying things, and discovering their error, are now seeking in things heavenly, unfailing sources, and perennial fountains. These do not, now, thirst for the creature. They have found out their error, and plainly see that the creature cannot satisfy. Now to these, and to all others, unsatisfied, anxious, craving, desiring, thirsting, Jesus cries, “ Come unto Me, and drink.” And it is thus that Jesus meets the cravings of our humanity; His providence supplies our bodily wants. “ As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” In the same way man’ s intellect meets in his God, that on which it can repose. Who should satisfy mind but He who made mind! But, oh! the storms and tempests of thought! Then there is the way in which the Saviour meets man’ s spirit. The heart of man must have something whereon to repose, something to love, something wherewith to sympathize. The Saviour in His humanity here meets the heart of man. II. Nor must we omit to notice THE EXTENT OF THE LORD’ S --“ Any man.” “ If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” III. Having thus spoken of this invitation of our Lord, we have now to notice HIS PROMISE, WITH JOHN’ S COMMENT THEREON. 1. “ Water.” Refreshment and purification are presented to us in this figure. 2. “ Living water.” Not stagnant, much less putrescent. Life belongs to the Christian; and this life he must seek to impart to others. 3. “ Rivers of living water.” Here are presented to us ideas of depth, copiousness, perpetuity. Eternal life in believers is not to be scant, or shallow. A joyous and abounding river, it is to flow with waters exuberant and vivifying to all around. 4. They are “ flowing waters.” “ Out of Him shall flow rivers.” The Spirit which God has given is not to be restrained. IV. But in WHAT MANNER may this water of the Spirit in a man be said to flow out of him? 1. One main method of the manifestation of the Spirit has already been alluded to--by the words of our mouth. But we would not restrain the symbol of these flowing waters only to a man’ s words. 2. His actions also may be included. The Christian’ s life should be a continual call to turn from the path of death. 3. Influence we would also name as another most effective mode of making these waters flow to the benefit of our fellow-men. Influence! Influence voluntary, and involuntary! How wide its extent, and how incalculable its power! V. We have expounded and illustrated the text. Let us conclude by some drawn from it. 1. See the diffusive character of the dispensation of the gospel I A man is not made partaker of the Spirit of God for His own mere individual salvation, but for the salvation of others also. 2. But let us be careful to avoid a common error. The water of life must be put in us for our own salvation before it can flow out of us for others’ good. It is not like the spider’ s web which she spins out of herself. 3. But how encouraging the promise, “ He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” Christ here expressly declares that if we believe on Him we shall be made partakers of His Spirit. 4. Holy gracious the invitation! “ If any man thirst let him come unto Me, and drink.” If our lips are to feed others, those lips shall themselves be first fed. 5. Contrast here these living waters of the soul with that perishing water of Shiloah of the ceremonial before alluded to. Here is the contrast between religion spiritual and religion ceremonial--between sacraments (or signs) and the things by them signified. The Jewish populace saw nothing but the water--heeded for the most part nothing but the ceremony. (M. Brock, M. A.) The affinity between God and man in regard of man’ s wants and God’ s fulness 1. This saying of our Lord’ s produced among some the conviction that He was the Christ (John 7:40-41). We gather from hence that it met some instinct of the human heart. He struck a note which vibrated in their inmost souls. What was the secret of this effect. It was no doubt that many of the audience felt that they were spiritually athirst, that there was a craving in them after light, truth, love which nothing on earth met. They felt that He was making an offer of which hey had need to avail themselves. They are convinced of His claims by offering them exactly what they had felt the want of. 2. In order to the existence of love between two parties, there must be a secret affinity between them in virtue of which one supplies what the other needs. Take the case of friendship between the sexes. The man needs sympathy and confidence, which the woman supplies; the woman needs support, protection, counsel, which it is the man’ s part to furnish. This principle lies also at the foundation of commercial intercourse. A. produces what B. wants, and B. what A. wants; and this mutual want draws both together. The same mutual interdependence is observable in nature. Plants are fed by the light and air of heaven, and return the perfumes which some of them exhale. It is so with man and God. I. MAN HAS AN URGENT NEED OF GOD. When this makes itself felt he cries, “ My soul is athirst for God,” and then he is arrested by the offer of the Son of God, “ If any man thirst,” etc. Of course all things need God for their continuance, but man has needs which distinguish him from the inferior creation. 1. His understanding is never satisfied with the truth it contrives to reach. (1) There is nothing more interesting than discovery. It is as if God had proposed to us in nature and life certain enigmas, and had challenged human ingenuity to the solution of them. But observe how, upon a discovery being made, it loses its interest, and we immediately go in quest of fresh truth. Just as the pleasure of hunting is not derived from the game which is caught, but from the excitement of the pursuit, so with the quest of truth. You see this restlessness in the pursuit of religious as well as scientific truth. The inbred curiosity of the mind, which desires above all to know where it is precluded from knowledge, is the fruitful source of heresies and fantastic speculations. (2) But is there nothing corresponding to this restless thirst? Is the mind to fret itself for ever and never reach the goal? Is there no highest truth in which the understanding may at length acquiesce? Not so. The Scriptures say that God is Light, and that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When, therefore, man displays an insatiable desire to know, he should remind himself that God is its only satisfaction, and this Light is to be enjoyed, not by any painful straining of reason, but by entire submission of the will to God’ s will. 2. Man craves after Infinite Good. (1) This is attested (a) By the mischievous excesses of intemperance. The instinct that prompts man to this is peculiar to him. There is nothing of it among the lower creatures. The real account of it is that by the constitution of his mind man thirsts after a good he finds in no created object. The instinct misdirected by the Fall, goes astray. Having a hungry spirit, he makes a desperate effort to extract from bodily enjoyments what may appease its cravings, but the body, like a people, is impoverished and enfeebled by excessive taxation. (b) But there are more refined ways in which men endeavour to satisfy this craving. They seek preeminence of ability or position or wealth; the flattering speeches which are a sort of homage to superiority--how dear are these things to the soul! Not that the soul rests on them; having tasted them it immediately craves for new enjoyments, a wider reputation, a higher pre-eminence. (c) The best of earthly good with which the spirit seeks to satisfy its thirst is human sympathy. It plants for itself a domestic and social paradise, but the trees, alas I like Jonah’ s gourd, are apt to be smitten. And, independently of this, no mere natural affection can satisfy the craving for love. (2) But the Creator can satisfy every craving. Do we long after a joyous exhilaration of the Spirit which shall tide us over our difficulties? “ Be not drunk with wine … but be filled with the Spirit.” Do we thirst after esteem? Human esteem is but a taper; the real sunlight of the soul is the smile of God’ s approbation. Is pre-eminence our aim? He is the Fountain of Honour. Do we long for sympathy? He is Love. II. DOES GOD DEPEND ON MAN? Yes, as a field of display for the Divine perfections. God longs to surround Himself with intelligent and joyous creatures to lavish on them the resources of His infinite goodness. Here we may catch a glimpse of the reason why evil was permitted. To be bounteous to creatures retaining their integrity is a very inadequate effect of God’ s goodness. Mercy could never have poured itself forth, had there not been vessels of mercy to receive it. And vessels of mercy could never have existed had there been no transgression. We may therefore recognize between God and man a natural reciprocity. He is the only Being who can satisfy the deep wants of the soul. And from His intrinsic goodness He longs to satisfy them. (Dean Goulburn.) Christ our fountain head I. CHRIST THE CLOVEN ROCK. 1. The smitten rock. Moses smote and Christ was smitten to save a perishing people. 2. The spring of life flowing therefrom. 3. Its inexhaustible fulness (John 4:14). The spring in the desert is now dry. 4. Its wonderful adaptability. Tropical suns cannot evaporate it, nor Polar breezes freeze it. It is adapted to every climate, and wise and foolish, rich and poor, must drink and cleanse themselves here. II. THE SINNER AND THE . 1. The sinner thirsts. Life is a desert, provoking craving for satisfaction. 2. His consciousness of it. Desire for higher, purer experiences will awake in every rational soul. Then do what he will he cannot reason it away. 3. Its evidences. Man’ s endeavour to find rest somewhere; unnatural activity of mind and body; oft a desperate effort to drown the voice of God. 4. False waters. (1) Wilful blindness. (2) So-called innocent pleasures. (3) Sinful indulgence--Marahs, or Dead Seas. 5. The thirst assuaged. (1) By recognizing the terrible malady of sin. (2) By confessing guilt. (3) By coming to the fountain. The first draught allays the burning fever of the soul. III. THE AND THE . 1. The disciple’ s thirst. Every draught creates a new longing. He thirsts for a sanctified life, for Christian work, for victory over sin, for conformity to Christ. 2. His need for the fountain. Only near the fountain can he live and grow. 3. Its reflecting power. Here he learns to know himself; what he ought to be and what he is. 4. Its purifying power. 5. The visits to that fountain the thermometer of the Christian’ s inner life. (H. Dosker.) Come and drink I. THE TIME. The last and great day of the feast when Israel’ s joy, in appearance, was at the fullest, and when there seemed least need of any other joy. II. THE PLACE. Jerusalem--the Temple. What need of anything else than what the Temple afforded: particularly through the teachings of this feast. III. THE GIVER. The Son of God, and not merely a prophet, who knew what they needed, and what He had to give; Himself God’ s own gift. To Himself He, as ever, turns their eye. “ Come unto Me.” Feasts, altars, sacrifices, doctrines, ceremonies, were all vain. IV. THE GIFT. Living water; the Holy Spirit; a gift sufficient to fill the soul of the emptiest, and to quench the thirst of the thirstiest, and then to overflow upon others. There are two gifts of God which stand alone in their priceless greatness--the gift of His Son and the gift of His Spirit. V. THE PERSONS. Not heathen and irreligious, but religious Jews, engaged in Divine worship. Before it was to the Samaritan that He presented the living water. In Revelation 22:1-21. it is to Jew and Gentile alike. So also in Isaiah 55:1-13. But here the thirsty one is the Jew. His rites and feasts cannot quench his thirst, which calls for something more spiritual and Divine. So to those who frequent the sanctuary--who pray and praise outwardly--the Lord now speaks. External religiousness may help to pacify conscience, but it does not confer happiness. Only Christ can do that. VI. THE LOVE. It is all love from first to last. In love Christ presents the full vessel of living water, and presses to their parched lips. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Christ’ s call to thirsty souls 1. These are bold words, and they would be as false as bold if He who speaks them were no more than man. Shall a mere man presume to invite, not a small number for knowledge and sympathy--that we might understand--but the whole race for the satisfaction of their most vehement and spiritual ideas. The presumption would be as blasphemous as absurd. But He who thus speaks has a right to speak, and is conscious of it. 2. All human desire and need is expressed in the one word “ thirst.” Consider the different kinds of thirst, and see how coming to Christ will satisfy them. I. The lowest and commonest of all, the thirst for . 1. A man may come with a desire which is not gracious, but simply natural, since every creature desires to be happy, and which is universal, since no man is perfectly satisfied, and drink the cooling waters of the gospel. Those who limit the invitation to the graciously thirsty undo the grace they seek to magnify, and take all the freeness from the gospel. The words “ any man” shatter such a fancy in pieces. Let him come with the feeling he has. It may be inward disturbance, brooding fear, gnawing heart pain, weariness of disappointment, inner longing--whatever it be he is welcome. 2. If he does not see how Christ can be of any service let him trust Him as he would a man who has the credit of being trustworthy, so far as to try His specific. Two men once followed Jesus because they heard another speak well of Him. They did not know very well what they wanted, so they asked Him about His home. He gave an answer He is giving to all the thirsty, “ Come and see.” They went, and never left Him more. 3. But coming so, a man soon begins to be conscious of higher desires. II. Thirst for . If the desire for happiness is to be fruitful it will and must take this form. 1. A moral creature can never be happy without rectitude. If a man has the feeling “ let me be happy, but let me enjoy the pleasures of sin,” he either does not come or coming does not drink. The thirst therefore continues, and becomes a pain. 2. But to come to the righteous one is to see righteousness and to become conscious of unrighteousness. 3. Can I be right, and How? How can these stains be cleansed? Christ alone can answer these questions, and satisfy this great desire. His blood cleanses. His righteousness avails. It is to be in them as a principle as well as on them as a garment. III. The thirst for LOVE--the love that shall love us, and the love that shall go out to those who love us. When this desire is fully aroused it will not rest until it finds Jesus Christ. It is but a little way when you can say, “ He or she loves me,” “ I am loved of husband, wife, parents, friends.” This will never satisfy an immortal nature. Take the earthly love that is good and pure. It is the gift of God. Rut that you may have that faculty fully developed take first the love that passest knowledge. IV. There is a thirst profounder and vaster which Christ alone can satisfy--the thirst for LIFE. The others may be traced back to this. It is the deep organic desire which has been implanted by its Author for its perpetuation. Every man has it. The shrinking from annihilation is instinctive. Out towards the realm of life it stretches imploring hands. But where? Reason cannot demonstrate its existence; imagination cannot find it in her loftiest flight. Philosophy says, “ You give me no data, and I can give you no conclusion.” Ah, yes! no data; for the departed never return. And yet we thirst for them; and, if we are Christians, we are sure we shall see them again. But how? By His word who is the Life, and drinking of Him we live indeed. “ Any man.” That is you. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) I. MAN AS A THIRSTY . Every man thirsts. The soul’ s thirst satisfied in Jesus 1. Constitutionally. Not as accidentally excited, but as made by God to thirst. It is in our nature to thirst. (1) For life. In deep sorrow we may cry, “ O that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave!” In unrest we may say, “ I would not live alway.” With heaven opened, we may desire to depart and be with Christ. But Satan spake truly, “ All that a man hath will he give for his life.” (2) For pleasure; according to our idea of felicity and our capacity for bliss. Man is not naturally a lover of misery. (3) For activity. Men are net naturally lazy. (4) For society. The results of the solitary system in our prisons show that the desire for association is constitutional. (5) For knowledge. The subjects upon which we seek information vary; but all men desire to know. (6) For power, from the moment in which we seize and shake the rattle to the hour in which we dispose of our property. (7) For the esteem and love of others. (8) For the possession of objects of beauty. (9) For God. That this thirst is natural is proved by the fact that religion of some kind is universal. There is not a nation of Atheists. 2. There are derived thirsts, dependent upon the particular condition of the individual, and grafted on the natural thirst. Thus a desire for wealth may arise from a thirst for enjoyment, or power, or honour, or social connections. A thirst for freedom may arise from desire for activity, and for religious unity by desire for religious enjoyment. Any natural thirst creates others. 3. The natural, and many of the artificial, thirsts would have existed had man kept his first estate; but the entrance of sin has produced depraved thirsts. Sin itself is a morbid thirst, and actual sin is the offspring of such thirst (James 1:14-15). Covetousness, envy, etc., are depraved thirsts. 4. The return of man to God and his salvation by Christ involve new thirsts. There is the thirst (1) Of the quickened spirit for particular religious knowledge. (2) Of the penitent for pardon. (3) Of the new born for righteousness. (4) Of the child of God for being filled with all the fulness of God. 5. There are a few facts connected with these thirsts that we may not overlook. (1) Those thirsts which are natural cannot be evil in themselves; and those which, being artificial, are lawful expansions of the natural are equally good. (2) The influence of our thirsts is most extensive and important. In some cases our thirst is a ruling passion; but in all cases they govern thought, prompt the imagination, affect the judgment, awaken or quiet the emotions, guide the will, lead to action, and form our characters. (3) Most potent, therefore, are they. A man is raised or cast down, destroyed or built up by his thirsts. (4) When a man is sick, he needs not medicine irrespective of its nature, but the specific for his particular disease. Poisoned food is more dangerous than continued hunger. He is blessed, not whose thirsts are for the moment slaked, but whose thirsts are slaked at Divine fountains. II. JESUS CHRIST AS THE OF SUPPLY. Take the invitation in connection 1. With our lawful natural thirsts. We thirst (1) For continued life, and Jesus says, “ Come unto Me and drink” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22; John 11:25-26). (2) For activity, and Jesus says, “ Come,” etc. (John 14:12). (3) For enjoyment, and Christ gives joy in every gift, and promises it in every promise, and makes every duty its instrument (Matthew 5:1-8; John 16:24; 1 Peter 1:8). (4) For power, and Jesus makes His disciples the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and kings and priests unto God. (5) For society, and Christ satisfies it (Hebrews 12:22-23). (6) For the love of others, and Christ directs streams of kindness to every one who comes to Him by means of His new commandment (John 13:34-35). (7) For knowledge, and Jesus is Himself the Truth, in the knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life (John 17:3). (8) For God, and He manifests God’ s name to us, and shows us the Father. 2. If we here speak of depraved tastes, it must be to say that they who thirst morbidly cannot come to Christ and drink; but they may come to Him and be cured of their evil craving. As the thirst of a fever may be removed by a physician, so sinful thirsts may be removed by our Saviour. 3. The thirsts of the returning prodigal and repentant sinner are specially recognized in these words (Psalms 51:1; Psalms 51:8-9; Luke 18:18; Mark 2:5; Mark 5:34; John 8:11). 4. All the thirsts of the God-born spirit are here recognized. Conclusion: From these words 1. We might preach humanity, and show what is in man. We might exhibit him as a dependent, receptive, desiring being; that he is not like his Maker, self-sufficient. 2. But we will rather preach Christ. Here we see (1) The knowledge which He had of human nature. He knew the thirsts of the multitude in whose midst He spake. (2) His recognition of all that pertains to man. His words and works meet most entirely all human needs. They are not like flowers given to the starving,.or gauze raiment to the naked in winter; but like bread to the hungry and clothes to the beggar. (3) But what must be the resources of one who is justified in speaking thus? Can any individual be a fountain of supply to every man? There is One continually named by the sacred writers who is a Sun, Fire, Door, Rock, Bread, Fountain. To Him, who can be represented by these figures, any man may surely come and drink. No creature imparts all, or even many, kinds of good; but God is the spring of all that is beneficial, and Christ is the manifested God. To how few of our thirsty fellows can any of us say, “ Come to me and drink” ? But Jesus says that, and standing in the centre of all time, as in the midst of all men. Did we need proof of the Deity of Jesus Christ we have it here. (4) But what shall we say of His love? “ Any man.” The man may be Atheist or idolater, broken-hearted because all his cisterns are broken, be conscious that he deserves only to die with thirst; yet Jesus means him. (5) But the thirsty have to come. The sole condition is coming, and the only limit to the ministrations of the Saviour is our receptivity. (S. Martin.) Man’ s thirst quenched by Christ 1. An artist once painted a famous picture for an altar-piece, and called it the Fountain of Life. It represents the Sacrificed Redeemer stretched in His mother’ s arms. From the rock beneath their feet flow the abundant waters of salvation, which are received into a great cistern. Saints, martyrs, apostles, evangelists, are drinking of the water, or filling their vases and handing them to each other. From the cistern flows a stream into a lower place, where a family of poor, humble people are drinking with grateful looks. Then the stream flows away among meadows, where the little children can reach it, and they are taking up the precious water in their tiny hands, and drinking it with smiling lips. We can all see the meaning of that picture, which tells us that the salvation of Jesus is for all who will accept it, high and low, young and old, rich and poor. (H. J. W. Buxton.) Christ’ s satisfactions full and real Not like a shallow brook, that runs in winter and is dry in summer; but a fountain that the frost never binds, and that the hot, thirsty day never drinks dry, that is ever full and ever flowing. In the regions of the burning desert they tell me that skeletons lie thick, not only in the paths to the fountains, but lie ghastly white and withering, with the naked skulls looking over the banks into the very waters. With the tongue cleaving to the roof of the mouth, they press on, guided by the green pasture that lifts its head above the sand, and shows where the fountain is. They drank the water in anticipation, but will they reach it? Alas! with what horror in their eyes they gaze on the empty bed, and fight with man and beast for some muddy drops that but exasperate their thirst! The desert whirls around them; they stagger, they fall; hope expires, and they expire themselves; and by and by the sky drops, lightnings flash, thunders peal, and rain pours down, and the water rises in that fountain, and plays in mockery with the tresses of dead beauty, and kisses the faces of the dead. Such things happen. But see you yen cross standing up yonder? It marks a fountain where never man went in vain. No dead souls lie around that cross. Calvary was once a Golgotha--a “ place of skulls.” It is so no longer. Where men once went to die, men now go to live; and a man never went for mercy there, and for grace to help, and found none. There is now in America a great revival; there was in my own country a great revival. God send us all such revivals I In every church and every country there are times and seasons of revival, when the peace of believers is like a river in glorious flood, rolling beneath bank and ridge; like the sea in a storm, when it sends its waters beyond its common bounds, and overflows the boats that lie highest and driest on the beach. But at all times and in all seasons, I say, that if you will search you will find fulness of mercy to pardon and “ grace to help in time of need.” The supply, in fact, is inexhaustible. I know mountains have been exhausted of their gold, mines of their diamonds, and the depths of ocean of their pearly gems; but the riches of mercy and of grace in Christ are inexhaustible. They are no less to you than to those who went before you, and there will be no less for those who come after you; and when unborn millions have come, and the world’ s last man, with a dying sun above him add a reeling earth beneath him, comes up to that blessed Fountain, oh! he will find it as full as it is this day, in its fulness inviting you to wash and be clean, to drink and live, to believe and be forgiven. (T. Guthrie, D. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 7:53 And every man went to his own house.Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. If we group together the scenes of these chapters we might treat them. 1. A day with Jesus; in which we have not merely His answers to the disputing Jews, but His proclamation of love. 2. A night with Jesus on the Mount of Olives. 3. Dawn with Jesus in the Temple, listening to tits early teaching. 4. Sunrise with Jesus, as pointing to the East, He says, “ I am the light of the world.” These two verses suggest--Man at home, Jesus not at home: The crowd which had surrounded Him all the day gradually drops off,one by one, as the evening draws on, and Jesus is left alone. Each one has a home to go to, and retires to rest with his family; Jesus has nowhere to lay His head; they go one way, He goes another; they keep within the city walls, tie goes without the gate to Olivet, there to spend the night in prayer. He is not at home; even in the Temple which is His Father’ s house, He must not stay; its gates are closing, and He is shut out. He can only go to the places where man is not; to the solitudes where, outside of Jerusalem, outside even of Bethany, He can meet with God. This homelessness was for us; that we might have a home in His Father’ s house. He went without the gate that we might enter in. He became an exile, taking our place and life of banishment, that we might enter the celestial city, the paradise of God. Hast thou entered in? Or art thou still an exile from God though at home on earth? (H. Bonar, D. D.) The Saviour and the Sanhedrim We have here a notable instance of the injury done to the Scriptures by the arbitrary division into chapters and verses. The severance here diverts the attention from the object which the writer had in view. The greater part of chap. 7. is occupied with the conflicting opinions of the populace respecting Christ, and closes with a striking representation of a scene which took place in the council chamber of the metropolis. The officers had returned without their prisoner, and one of their own number dared to protest against their injustice. The distracted council break up and go home to concoct fresh schemes; the tranquil Saviour quietly departs to Olivet to meditate and pray. What a contrast! Those seventy men crossed in their cruel project; that one harmless wanderer, sustained by the conscious rectitude of His life! They seeking new channels for the pent up torrent of their wrath; He calm in the rich tides of peace that filled His soul; they to their luxuriant dwellings, whose enchantments were all marred by the day’ s discomfiture; He to the mountain and the midnight, whose dark shadows threw into bold relief the presence of God and His glory. On their side all worldly influence; on His side all heaven. Their purpose, murder, and suppression of the truth; His purpose, salvation, and God’ s eternal glory by His own self-sacrifice. (W. G. Lewis.) The moral tangent This “ parting of the ways” exhibited I. THE OF CHRIST AMID HIS OWN PEOPLE. It bears out chap 1:11. How could it have occurred in a region and amongst a race so notedfor hospitality? Such experiences may have begotten the realization Matthew 8:20). Some offer may have been made, but, if so, it was either too half-hearted to tempt the great solitary, or still, night-wrapped Olivet exercised an irresistible fascination. 1. That the Founder of society in its true conception should have been Himself an outcast; imagination dwells on such a paradox. 2. To take the mildest view of the circumstance it was not to the credit of the social life of Jerusalem. Some defect in those home circles rendered them uncongenial. Hearts there were that hated Him, but the general sentiment was indifference. 3. And how did He regard their attitude? It was impossible for Him to be unconcerned. Not yet was the passionate wail, “ O Jerusalem,” etc., but the woeful sorrow of which it was the outcry was even then gathering. Incarnate love could not but desire to be loved by those for whom He had descended to such depths; but it must be on His own terms. II. A IN AND AIM. 1. The isolation of Christ did not arise from obscurity or insignificance. His departure must have been observed and felt. That lonely form, the centre of so much observation as with calm dignity it stepped from the wrangling crowd into the quiet fields, did it not judge them? 2. The mere departure convicted them of a lack of moral earnestness. The deadly conspiracy which had been hatched in their midst, and which had been arrested just when success seemed easy ought to have put every true man upon his honour, and made him open his doors to the homeless One. He had disturbed Judaean thought and life to its core. To an onlooker it might have seemed as if a moral revolution were impending. How near they were to the kingdom of God! But assenting to Christ’ s lofty truths their hearts were indisposed to receive them. They lacked the courage of their convictions. Good men! it did not impair their digestion nor break the continuity of their “ little life.” How trifling the spirit that can shelve the greatest question and stifle the grandest inspiration thus. 3. Not so easy was it for the Son of Man to put behind Him the strenuous controversy in which He had engaged. With Him heart as well as intellect were enlisted. Stung by their indifference, or horror-struck at their villany, the Great Sensitive Soul hurries forth to the only house of prayer where He can be alone with His Father, and to brace Himself for the effort of tomorrow. Yet how incomprehensible it must have been to minds so besotted with earthliness! They knew not that commerce with the skies. Conclusion: In every life there is such a moment quick with spiritual issues. Shall we follow Christ to Olivet or go to our own house? (St. John A. Frere, M. A.) Diverging paths I. EVERY MAN WENT TO HIS OWN HOUSE. A symbol of the general conduct of humanity. “ We have turned every one to his own way.” 1. Our house is where we live, and represents all that we live for. (1) Some men live for wealth and adorn their noble houses with elegant furniture and costly pictures. (2) Some men live for pleasure, and their houses will be supplied with all that gratifies the senses--luxurious couches, expensive wines, and elaborate menu’ s. (3) Some men live for learning, and the principal room in the house will be the well-furnished library, and every department will proclaim, “ A scholar lives here.” (4) Some men live for friendship, and keep “ open house” for their boon companions. (5) Some men live for domestic felicities, and consult the comfort and fellowship of wife and children in all the appointments of the house. 2. We may go to our own house without Christ. A Christless house, a Christless life is that in which something else besides Christ predominates. Where wealth, pleasure, etc., are supreme Christ is not. He has gone to the Mount of Olives. II. JESUS WENT TO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. 1. Jesus went (1) To cool His fevered brain and heart after the anxieties and labours of the day. (2) To pray, and realize more deeply His union and communion with the Father. To brace Himself for the efforts of the coming day. 2. Jesus went alone, yet every member of the crowd He left needed to go with Him--and for the same reason. So do we. Only with Jesus shall we find rest, communion, strength. 3. Jesus came back to judge those who had forsaken Him (chap. 8:16), and will come to judge those who are forsaking Him now. III. THE 1. Is not house or Christ. He does not require us to break up our homes or desolate our lives. Let it be remembered that one reason for going to Olivet was because there was not a home in Jerusalem that would take Him in. He would have supped with the meanest who would have accorded Him a welcome. 2. The alternative is house without Christ or house with Him. We must take our Saviour into our house, and then take our house to Olivet--make Him the sacred centre round which wealth, pleasure, etc., may cluster, and sanctify all by sympathy with Him, prayer and consecration. 3. Thus the alternative sharply put is self or Christ. Which? Conclusion: 1. If we let Christ alone He will let us alone. Hell in this life and in the next is abandonment by Christ. 2. Christ ascended Olivet--the Jews descended from Moriah. With Christ’ s companions it is ever a going up till heaven at last is reached. With Christ-forsakers it is ever down--down until the depths of the bottomless pit are fathomed. (J. W. Burn.) Chapter 8Introduction to John 8:1-11 These verses, with John 7:53, form, perhaps, the gravest critical difficulty in the New Testament. I. THE AGAINST the passage. 1. That it is not found in some of the oldest and best MSS. 2. That it is wanting in some of the earlier versions. 3. That it is not commented on by Greek Fathers, Origen, Cyril, Chrysostom, and Theophylact, in their exposition of St. John, nor quoted or referred to by Tertullian and Cyprian. 4. That it differs in style from the rest of St. John’ s Gospel, and contains several words and forms of expression which are nowhere else used in his writings. 5. That the moral tendency of the passage is somewhat doubtful, and that it seems to represent our Lord as palliating a heinous sin. II. THE IN FAVOUR of the passage are as follows: 1. That it is found in many old manuscripts, if not in the very oldest and best. 2. That it is found in the Vulgate Latin, and in the Arabic, Coptic, Persian, and Ethiopian versions. 3. That it is commented on by Augustine in his exposition of this Gospel; while in another of his writings he expressly refers to and explains its omission from some manuscripts; that it is quoted and defended by Ambrose, referred to by Jerome, and treated as genuine in the Apostolical constitutions. 4. That there is no proof whatever that there is any immoral tendency in the passage. Our Lord pronounced no opinion on the sin of adultery, but simply declined the office of a judge. I lean decidedly to the side of those who think the passage is genuine, for the following reasons: 1. The argument from manuscripts appears to me inconclusive. We possess comparatively few very ancient ones. Even of them, some favour the genuineness of the passage. The same remark applies to the ancient versions. Testimony of this kind, to be conclusive, should be unanimous. 2. The argument from the Fathers seems to me more in favour of the passage than against it. On the one side the reasons are simply negative. Certain Fathers say nothing about the passage, but at the same time say nothing against it. On the other side the reasons are positive. Men of such high authority as Augustine and Ambrose not only comment on the passage, but defend its genuineness, and assign reasons for its omission by some mistaken transcribers. Let me add to this, that the negative evidence of the Fathers is not so weighty as it appears. Cyril of Alexandria is one. But his commentary on this chapter is lost, and what we have was supplied by a modern hand in 1510. Chrysostom’ s commentary on John consists of popular public homilies, in which we can easily imagine such a passage as this might possibly be omitted. Theophylact was notoriously a copier and imitator of Chrysostom. Origen, the only remaining commentator, is one whose testimony is not of first-rate value, and he has omitted many things in his exposition of St. John. The silence of Tertullian and Cyprian is, perhaps, accountable on the same principles by which Augustine explains the omission of the passage in some copies of this Gospel in his own time. Some, as Calovius, Maldonatus, Flacius, Aretius, and Piscator, think that Chrysostom distinctly refers to this passage in his Sixtieth Homily on John, though he passes it over in exposition. 3. The argument from alleged discrepancies between the style and language of this passage, and the usual style of St. John’ s writing, is one which should be received with much caution. We are not dealing with an uninspired, but with an inspired, writer Surely it is not too much to say that an inspired writer may occasionally use words and constructions and modes of expression which he generally does not use, and that it is no proof that he did not write a passage because he wrote it in a peculiar way. The whole discussion may leave in our minds, at any rate, one comfortable thought. If even in the case of this notoriously disputed passage--more controverted and doubted than any in the New Testament--so much can be said in its favour, how immensely strong is the foundation on which the whole volume of Scripture rests! If even against this passage the arguments of opponents are not conclusive, we have no reason to fear for the rest of the Bible. After all, there is much ground for thinking that some critical difficulties have been purposely left by God’ s providence in the text of the New Testament, in order to prove the faith and patience of Christian people. They serve to test the humility of those to whom intellectual difficulties are a far greater cross then either doctrinal or practical ones. To such minds it is trying, but useful, discipline to find occasional passages involving knots which they cannot quite untie, and problems which they cannot quite solve. Of such passages the verses before us are a striking instance. That the text of them is “ a hard thing” it would be wrong to deny. But I believe our duty is not to reject it hastily, but to sit still and wait. In these matters, “ he that believeth shall not make haste.” (Bp. Ryle.) The internal evidence in favour of the passage It bears the same relation to revelation as a ray of light does to the sun. Its consummate knowledge of the human heart; its masterly harmonizing of the demands of the Mosaic law with the gospel; its triumphant turning of the tables in the presence of insolent foes; its matchless teachings of mercy, mingled with the sternest rebuke to sin; its complete and glorious victory in their terrible defeat and shame, all point out and prove the handwriting of God. God’ s Word is a great fact in the moral world, as the Alps are in the natural. A fragment of granite taken from the Alps proves God its Creator quite as fully as the mountain range. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The intrinsic truthfulness of the passage Were the critical evidence against its genuineness far more overwhelming than it is, it would yet bear upon its surface the strongest proof of its authenticity. It is hardly too much to say that the mixture which it displays of tragedy and tenderness--the contrast which it involves between low, cruel cunning, and exalted nobility of intellect and emotion--transcends all power of the human imagination to have invented it; while the picture of a divine insight reading the inmost thoughts of the heart, and a yet diviner love which sees those inmost secrets with larger eyes than ours, furnish us with a conception of Christ’ s power and person at once too lofty and too original to have been founded on anything but fact. No one could have invented, for few could even appreciate, the sovereign purity and ineffable charm--the serene authority of condemnation and pardon--by which the story is so deeply characterized. The repeated instances in which, without a moment’ s hesitation, He foiled the crafty designs of His enemies, and in foiling them taught forever some eternal principles of thought and action, are among the most unique and decisive proofs of His more than human wisdom; and yet not one of those gleams of sacred light which were struck from Him by collision with the malice of man was brighter or more beautiful than this. The very fact that the narrative found so little favour in the early centuries; the fact that whole Churches regarded the narrative as dangerous in its tendency; the fact that eminent Fathers either ignore it or speak of it in a semi-apologetic tone--in these facts we see the most decisive proof that its real moral and meaning are too transcendent to admit of its having been originally invented or interpolated without adequate authority into the sacred text. Yet it is strange that any should have failed to see that, in the ray of mercy which thus streamed from heaven upon the wretched sinner, the sin assumed an aspect tenfold more hideous and repulsive to the conscience of mankind. (Archdeacon Farrar.) John 8:1 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives The habits of Jesus At the close of the day Jesus withdrew to the Mount of Olives, and it is interesting to trace in Him once more that dislike of crowded cities, that love for the pure, sweet, fresh air, and for the quiet of the lonely hill, which we see in all parts of His career. There was, indeed, in Him nothing of that supercilious sentimentality and morbid egotism which makes men shrink from all contact with their brother men; nor can they who would be His true servants belong to those merely fantastic philanthropists “ who,” as Coleridge says, “ sigh for wretchedness, yet shun the wretched, nursing in some delicious solitude their dainty loves and slothful sympathies.” On the contrary, day after day, while His daytime of work continued, we find Him sacrificing all that was dearest and most elevating to His soul, and in spite of heat and pressure and conflict and weariness, calmly pursuing His labours of love amid “ the madding crowd’ s ignoble strife.” But in the night time, when men cannot work, no call of duty required His presence within the walls of Jerusalem; and those who are familiar with the oppressive foulness of ancient cities can best imagine the relief His spirit must have felt when He could escape from the close streets and thronged bazaars, to cross the ravine, and climb the green slope beyond it, and be alone with His heavenly Father under the starry night. But when the day dawned His duties lay once more within the city walls, and in that part of the city where, almost alone, we hear of His presence in the courts of His Father’ s’ house. And witch the very dawn His enemies contrived a fresh plot against Him, the circumstances of which made their malice more actually painful than it was intentionally perilous. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Praying must alternate with preaching Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. His usual oratory. There He prayed by night, and then early in the morning He came unto the Temple to preach. Thus He divided His time betwixt praying and preaching. So must all that will do good of it (see 1 Corinthians 3:6). (J. Trapp.) Preachers must pray much Look at Baxter! he stained his study walls with praying breath, and, after he got anointed with the unction of the Holy Ghost, sent a river of living water over Kidderminster, and converted hundreds. Luther and his coadjutors were men of such mighty pleading with God, that they broke the spell of ages, and laid nations subdued at the foot of the cross. John Knox grasped in his strong arms of faith all Scotland: his prayers terrified tyrants. Whitefield, after much holy, faithful closet pleading, went to the devil’ s fair, and took more than a thousand souls out of the paw of the lion in one day. See a praying Wesley turn more than ten thousand souls to the Lord! Look at the praying Finney, whose prayers, faith, sermons, and writings have shaken the half of America, and sent a wave through the British churches. (C. D. Foss.) John 8:2 And early in the morning He came again unto the Temple The Temple We have in our version only one word, “ Temple,” with which we render both ἰερόν and ναός, but there is a very real distinction between the two, and one the marking of which would often add much to the clearness and precision of the sacred narrative. Ἱερόν (= templum) is the whole compass of the sacred enclosure, the τέμενος, including the outer courts, the porches, porticoes, and other buildings subordinated to the Temple itself. But ναός (= aedes), from ναίω, habito, as the proper habitation of God (Acts 7:48; Acts 17:24; 1 Corinthians 6:19): the οι (Matthew 12:4; cf. Exodus 23:19) is the Temple itself, that by especial right so called, being the heart and centre of the whole; the Holy, and the Holy of Holies, called often ἀγίασμα. (1Ma 1:37; 1Ma 3:45). This distinction, one that existed and was acknowledged in profane Greek, and with reference to heathen temples, quite as much as in sacred Greek, and with relation to the Temple of the true God (see Herodotus 1.181-3; Thucydides 5.18; Acts 19:24-27) is, I believe, always assumed in all passages relating to the Temple at Jerusalem, alike by Josephus, by Philo, by the Septuagint translators, and in the New Testament … The distinction may be brought to bear with advantage on several passages in the New Testament. When Zacharias entered “ into the Temple of the Lord” to burn incense, the people who waited His return, and who are described as standing “ without” (Luke 1:10) were in one sense in the Temple too--that is, in the ἱερόν, while he alone entered into the ναός, the “ Temple” in its more limited and auguster sense. We read continually of Christ teaching “ in the Temple” (Matthew 26:55; Luke 21:37; John 8:21), and perhaps are at a loss to understand how this could have been so, or how long conversations could there have been maintained, without interrupting the service of God. But this is ever the ἱερόν, the porches and porticoes of which were eminently adapted to such purposes, as they were intended far them. Into the ναός the Lord never entered during His earthly course: nor, indeed, being made under the law, could He do so, that being reserved for the priests alone. It need hardly be said that the money changers, the buyers and sellers, with the sheep and oxen, whom the Lord drives out, He repels from the ἱερόν, and not from the ναός. Irreverent as was their intrusion, they yet had not dared to establish themselves in the Temple properly so called. (Matthew 21:12; John 2:14). On the other hand, when we read of another Zacharias slain “ between the Temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:35) we have only to remember that “ Temple” is ναός here, at once to get rid of a difficulty, which may perhaps have presented itself to many--this, namely, Was not the altar in the Temple? How, then, could any locality be described as between these two? In the ἱερόν, doubtless was the brazen altar to which allusion is here made, but not in the ναός, “ in the court” of the House of the Lord (cf. Josephus, “ Antiq.” 8.4, 1), where the sacred historian (2 Chronicles 24:21) lays the scene of this murder, but not in the House of the Lord, or ναός, itself. Again, how vividly does it set forth to us the despair and defiance of Judas, that he presses even into the ναός itself (Matthew 27:5), into the “ adytum” which was set apart for the priests alone, and there casts down before them the accursed price of blood. Those expositors who affirm that here ναός stands for ἱερόν should adduce some other passage in which the one is put for the other. (Abp. Trench.) And He sat down and taught Christ as a religious Teacher I. HE WAS . It was from the solitudes of Olivet where He had spent the previous night that He goes into the Temple. To preach the gospel three things are essential, and these can come only by solitude. 1. Self-formed conviction of gospel truth. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation; but how is it to be wielded--by Bible circulation, recitation of its contents, or repeating the comments of others? All these are useful, but conviction is indispensable. Heaven has so honoured our nature that the gospel, to win its victories, must pass as living beliefs through the soul of the teacher. The men who teach it without such convictions--conventional preachers--can never enrich the world. They are echoes of old voices, mere channels through which old dogmas flow. But he who speaks what he believes and because he believes, the doctrine comes from him instinct and warm with life. His individuality is impressed upon it. The world never had it in that exact form before. Now, devout solitude is necessary to this. Alone with God you can search the gospel to its foundation, and feel the congruity of its doctrine with your reason, its claims with your conscience, its provisions with your wants. 2. Unconquerable love for gospel truth. There is an immense practical opposition to it. Men’ s pride, prejudice, pleasures, pursuits, and temporal interests are against it. It follows, therefore, that those who think more of the favour of society than of the claims of truth, will not deal with it honestly, earnestly, and therefore successfully. The man only who loves truth more than even life, can so use it really to benefit mankind. In devout solitude you can cultivate this invincible attachment to truth, and you may be made to feel with Paul, “ I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,” 3. A living expression of gospel truth. Our conduct must confirm and illumine the doctrines which our lips declare. For this there must be seasons of solitude. When Moses talked with God the skin of his face shone. But in devout seclusion our whole nature may become luminous. John the Baptist gained invincible energy in the wilderness; Paul prepared for apostleship in Arabia; and in Gethsemane Jesus was prepared for His work. II. HE WAS . On the previous day His life had been threatened and His arrest attempted, yet with a noble daring He goes “ early in the morning” to the same scene. Distinguish this spirit from what the world calls courage. 1. Brute courage is dead to the sacredness of life. Soldiers hold life cheaply, and their courage is an animal and mercenary thing. But Christ deeply felt and frequently taught the sanctity of life. He came not to destroy men’ s lives, etc. “ What shall it profit, etc.” 2. Brute courage is indifferent to the grand mission of life. The man of brute valour is not inspired with the question, What is the grand object of my life? Am I here to work out the great designs of my Maker or to be a mere fighting machine? On the contrary, Christ’ s regard for the grand mission of His life made Him courageous. He came to bear witness to the truth; and to fulfil this work He willingly risked His own mortal life. 3. Brute courage is always inspired by mere animal passion. It is when the blood is up the man is daring, the mere blood of the enraged tiger or the infuriated lion. When the blood cools down the man’ s courage, such as it is, collapses. Not so with the valour of Christ, which was that of deep conviction of duty. “ As Luther,” Dr. D’ Aubigne informs us, “ drew near the door which was about to admit him into the presence of his judges (the Diet of Worms), he met a valiant knight, the celebrated George of Freundsberg, who, four years later, at the head of his German lansquenets, bent the knee with his soldiers on the field of Pavia, and then, charging to the left of the French army, drove it into the Ticino, and in a great measure decided the captivity of the King of France. The old general, seeing Luther pass, tapped him on the shoulder, and shaking his head, blanched in many battles, said kindly, ‘ Poor monk, poor monk! thou art now going to make a nobler stand than I or any other captain have ever made in the bloodiest of our battles. But if thy cause is just, and thou art sure of it, go forward in God’ s name and fear nothing. God will not forsake thee.’ A noble tribute of respect paid by the courage of the sword to the courage of the mind.” Nothing is more necessary for a religious teacher than courage, for his mission is to strike hard against the prejudices, self interests, dishonesties, etc., of the masses. No man without valour can do the work of a religious teacher. The popular preacher must more or less be cowardly conciliatory. Dead fish swim with the stream; it requires living ones with much inner force to cutup against the current. III. HE WAS EARNEST. Early in the morning He did not indulge Himself sleep--“ I must work,” etc. Two things should make the preacher earnestly diligent. 1. The transcendent importance of His mission--to enlighten and regenerate is perishable spirits that are in a morally ruinous condition. What is involved in the loss of one soul? 2. The brevity of life. How short the time, even in the longest-lived for this greatest of human understandings. IV. HE WAS NATURAL. “ He sat down,” etc. There was nothing stiff or official. All was free, fresh, and elastic as nature. 1. He was natural in attitude. Modern rhetoric has rules to guide a public speaker as to his posture, etc. All such miserable directions are not only unlike Christ, but degrading to the moral nature of the speaker, and detrimental to his oratorio influence. Let a man be charged with great thoughts, and those thoughts will throw his frame into the most beseeming attitudes. 2. He was natural in expression. He attended to no classic rule of composition; the words and similes He employed were such as His thoughts ran into first, and such as His hearers could well understand. To many modern preachers composition is everything. What solemn trifling with gospel truth! 3. He was natural in tones. The tones of His voice, we may rest assured, rose and fell according to the thoughts that occupied His soul. The voice of the modern teacher is often hideously artificial. Just so far as a speaker goes away from his nature, either in language, attitude, or tone, he loses self-respect, inward vigour, and social force. (D. Thomas, D. D.) We must do good against great opposition That is a poor engine that can only drive water through pipes down hill. Those vast giants of iron at the Ridgway waterworks, which supply this city day and night, easily lifting a ton of water at every gush, so that all the many thirsty faucet mouths throughout our streets cannot exhaust their fulness; those are the engines that I admire. (H. W. Beecher.) John 8:3-11 And the Scribes and the Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery The scene and its significance It is probable that the hilarity and abandonment of the feast, which had grown to be a kind of vintage festival, would often degenerate into acts of licence and immorality; and these would find more numerous opportunities in the general disturbance of ordinary life caused by the dwelling of the whole people in their little leafy booths. One such act had been detected during the night, and the guilty woman had been handed over to the Scribes and Pharisees. Even had the morals of the nation at that time been as clean as in the days when Moses ordained the fearful ordeal of the “ water of jealousy” --even had those rulers and teachers of the nation been elevated as far above their contemporaries in the real as in the professed sanctity of their lives--the discovery, and the threatened punishment of this miserable adulteress could hardly have failed to move every pure mind to a compassion which would have mingled largely with the horror which her sin inspired. They might then have inflicted the penalty with a sternness as inflexible as that of the Pilgrim Fathers; but the sternness of a severe and pure-hearted judge is a sternness which would not inflict one unnecessary, pang and is wholly incompatible with a spirit of malignant levity. But the spirit of these Scribes and Pharisees was not by any means the spirit of a sincere and outraged purity. In the decadence of national life, in the daily familiarity with heathen degradations, in the gradual substitution of a Levitical scrupulosity for a heartfelt religion, the morals of the nation had grown utterly corrupt. The ordeal of the “ water of jealousy” had long been abolished, and the death by stoning as a punishment for adultery had long been suffered to fall into desuetude. Not even the Scribes and Pharisees, for all their external religiosity, had any genuine horror of an impurity with which their own lives were often stained. They saw nothing but a chance of annoying, and endangering One whom they regarded as their deadliest enemy. It was a curious custom among the Jews to consult distinguished Rabbis in cases of difficulty; but there was no difficulty here. It was long since the law of death had been demanded; and even had this not been the ease the Roman law would have interfered. On the other hand, divorce was open to the injured husband, and the ease of this woman differed from that of no other who had similarly transgressed. And even if they had sincerely desired the opinion of Jesus there was not the slightest excuse for baling this woman into His presence, and thus subjecting her to a moral torture, all the more insupportable from the close seclusion of women in the East. And therefore to subject her to the superfluous horror of this odious publicity--to drag her fresh from the agony of detection into the sacred precincts of the Temple--to subject this unveiled, disheveled, terror-stricken woman to the cold and sensual curiosity of a malignant mob, and this merely to gratify a calculating malice--showed a brutality of heart and conscience which could not but prove revolting to One who was infinitely tender because infinitely pure. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Virtue taught This remarkable story is a signal instance of the magical passing of virtue out of the virtuous man into the hearts of those with whom he comes in contact, and illustrates the difference between scholastic or scientific and living or instinctive virtue. It occurred to the religious leaders that the case afforded a good opportunity of making an experiment on Christ. They might use it to discover how He regarded the Mosaic law. That He was heterodox on this subject they had reason to believe, and to satisfy themselves and the people on this point they asked Christ whether He agreed with Moses on the subject of adultery. A judgment He gave them, but quite different from what they had expected. In thinking of the “ case” they had forgotten the woman and even the deed. What became of the criminal appeared to them wholly unimportant; towards her crime or her character they had no feeling whatever. If they had been asked about her they might probably have answered, with Mephistopheles, “ She is not the first” ; nor would they have thought their answer fiendish--only practical and business-like. Perhaps they might on reflection have admitted that their frame of mind was not strictly moral, that it would have been better if they could have found leisure for some shame at the scandal and some hatred for the sinner. But they would have argued that such strict propriety is not possible in this world, that we have too much on our hands to think of these niceties, that a man who makes leisure for such refinements will find his work in arrears at the end of the day, and probably also that he is doing injustice to those dependent upon him. Thus they might fluently have urged. But the judgment of Christ was upon them, making all things seem new and shining like the lightning. The shame of the deed itself, and the brazen hardness of the prosecutors, the legality which had no justice and did not pretend to have mercy, the religious malice that could make its advantage out of the fall and ignominious death of a fellow creature--all this was rudely thrust before His mind at once. The effect upon Him was such as might have been produced upon many since, but perhaps upon scarcely any man that ever lived before. He was seized with an intolerable sense of shame. He could not meet the eye of the crowd. In His burning embarrassment He stooped down so as to hide His face and began writing on the ground. His tormentors continued their clamour until He raised His head for a moment and said, “ He that is without sin,” etc., and then instantly returned to His former attitude. They had a glimpse, perhaps, of the glowing blush upon His face, and awoke suddenly with astonishment to a new sense of their condition and conduct. The older men naturally felt it first and slunk away; the younger followed their example. The crowd dissolved and left Christ alone with the woman. Not till then could He bear to stand upright; and then, consistently with His principle, He dismissed the woman, as having no commission to interfere with the office of civil judge. But the mighty power of living purity had done its work. He had refused to judge a woman, but He had judged a whole crowd. He had awakened the slumbering conscience in many hardened hearts, giving them a new delicacy, a new ideal, a new view and reading of the Mosaic law. And yet this crowd was either indifferent or bitterly hostile to Him. Let us imagine the correcting, elevating influence of His presence upon those who were bound to Him by the ties which bind a soldier to his officer, a clansman to his chief, a subject to a king ruling by Divine right, aye, and by ties far closer. The ancient philosophers were accustomed to inquire about virtue, whether it can be taught. Yes! it can, and in this way. But if this way be abandoned, and moral philosophy be set up to do that which in the nature of things it can never do, the effect will appear in a certain slow deterioration of manners which it would be hard to describe had it not been described already in well-known words: “ Sophistry and calculation” will take the place of “ chivalry.” There will be no more “ generous loyalty,” no more “ proud submission,” no more “ dignified obedience.” A stain will be no more felt like a wound, and our hardened and coarsened manners will lose the “ sensibility of principle and the chastity of honour.” (Ecce Homo.) The woman taken in adultery Note: I. That the VILEST SINNERS ARE OFTEN THE . Were there a worse lot of men in Judea or on the round earth than these Scribes and Pharisees, and members of the Sanhedrim, who now accused this woman? It is ever so: the more base and corrupt a man is, the more ready to charge crimes on others and the more severe in his censures. II. That the JUDGE OF SINNERS IS THEIR OWN . “ They which heard Him, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one.” Observe two things 1. Christ’ s method of awakening their conscience. (1) He expresses by a symbolical act His superiority over their malignant purposes. He stoops down as if He were utterly indifferent. (2) He puts the question of the woman’ s punishment upon their own consciences. “ He that is without sin,” etc. Observe 2. The force of their awakened consciences. They were convicted, and went out one by one. Ah! there is no judge so severe and crushing in his sentence as that of a guilty conscience. III. That THE FRIEND OF SINNERS IS JESUS CHRIST. The accusers are gone, but the accused remains with Jesus alone. Observe 1. He declines pronouncing a judicial condemnation upon her. “ Neither do I condemn thee.” He does not mean that He did not disapprove of her conduct and condemn her morally, but judicially. He declines to pronounce judgment. 2. He discharges her with a merciful admonition. “ Go, and sin no more.” An expression, this, implying (1) That she had sinned. Adultery is a terrible moral crime. (2) That He forgave her. “ Go.” I absolve thee. (3) That her future should be free from sin. “ Sin no more.” Let bygones be bygones; let oblivion cover thy past; let virtue crown thy future. Thus Jesus deals with sinners. Desolate, branded, forsaken of all, He alone will stand by thee. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The judges judged Parts of this story are not fitted for public discourse. But if we may not preach about the woman, we may and ought about her accusers, and the sin of fault finding of which they were guilty. I. GROWS FROM AN EVIL . Many forms of eagerness are invaluable--diligence in business, promptitude in doing good, in giving, helping, etc. Here was an occasion in which eagerness of kindness was much needed. “ If ox or ass fall into a pit, straightway pull him out” --if man or woman, be quicker still. But this was an evil eagerness, as seen 1. In the needless number of accusers--one or two would have done. 2. In their want of delicacy, disregarding the crowd and the woman’ s feelings. 3. In their unfairness. The law of Moses awarded the same penalty to man and woman; probably the fear of the knife of the man makes them more content with the capture of the woman, and so they come with no thoughts of her shame and painful future, but clamour for her condemnation. How common is this evil eagerness. Some lose languor with scandal as if it were a tonic. Some faces are never so full of interest as when telling or investigating something which the generous heart would cover and for which the devout heart would pray. Perhaps like these men you would find your fault finding has its root not in virtuous indignation, but in an evil eagerness. II. HAS OTHER GRAVE FAULTS WITH IT. It is quite a mistake to suppose that the more faults a man finds the less he has. On the contrary, the censorious are never faultless. “ Being convicted in their own consciences” means convicted of having committed similar crimes. Their bitterness was not the indignation of the innocent against the guilty, but of the “ not found out” against the “ found out.” Purity does not clamour for vengeance, but the worse we are the less patient are we with others as bad. It is hard to conceive of such hypocrisy, but a little thought will show how it would grow. 1. They want credit for character, and denunciation is the cheapest way of getting it: therefore are frequently taken. By condemning evil they are the more likely to be taken for good. 2. They had, like us, two standards of goodness--one for themselves and one for their neighbours. Divers weights are an abomination to God, but a comfort to us. We weigh our duties by one set and our neighbours by another. “ If I am angry it is nervous irritability, or a habit of speaking my mind; but if you are, you are ill-mannered.” So we all reason. So these men did. Their delinquencies were “ gaieties,” “ hot blood of youth,” “ occasional excesses unimportant in their character,” balanced by superior virtues. But for a woman to so act was intolerable. We like a monopoly of our vices: no one must poach on our preserves. So we dislike men of our own faults with an intensity the innocent never feel. You will learn the faults men have by listening to their favourite charges. It is the proud who judge most severely the proud; so with the greedy, the dishonourable, the selfish. Are you censorious? Take it as a sign of faultiness, and let severity begin at home. III. THE HEART OF CHRIST. He stooped down as though He heard them not, distressed at sinners accusing a fellow sinner. He is the Great Judge, and soon all will be gathered at His bar; and yet they come accusing one another to Him. He sees how much each needs mercy, but instead of supplicating it, here are eleven sinners asking condemnation to the twelfth. No wonder he was shocked at the incongruity. Astonished that so few use their neighbours’ faults as mirrors, and that for the mercy they could get there are so few applicants, and for the censure He was so slow to give, so many. This unseemliness attaches to all severity! He still, though unseen, overhears the slighting speech, etc., and turns His head from one of the most grievous activities that dishonour human nature. IV. SOONER OR LATER IS PUT TO SHAME. There is more hare than the shame of unholy censure--there is failure of a snare laid for Christ, and the awful rebuke of the Saviour’ s glance and speech. They came secure in being unknown to Him, forgetting that every fault leaves a mark--vice, some coarseness of feature as well as thought; pride, some line of scorn; falseness, some restlessness of eye. The Son of Man had only to look and see. Their souls wither beneath His strange words, “ He that is without sin,” etc. What a terrible rebuke in the Temple; in the presence of the people whose reverence they had won by hypocrisy; and it wrought no relenting. No one says “ I perceive Thou art a prophet,” or “ Depart from me for I am a sinful man,” or “ Whence knowest Thou me? Thou art the Son of God, the King of Israel.” Only shame and bitterness fill them. Doubtless all made excuses. One had a committee requiring immediate attendance; another willing to be the expositor declines to be the executioner of the law; another vaunted his exemption from any such vice, but had come to get the law sanctioned; another was going to Jericho and wanted to catch the caravan--but all suddenly abandoned the charge and in confusion left the place. V. AND ITS METHODS STANDS IN UTTER WITH CHRIST AND HIS METHODS. The Scribes have a zeal for public welfare and so has Christ. In their case coarse sin mixed with cruel anger unite to destroy a poor sinner; in His infinite purity mixed with tenderest love unite to destroy sin and save the sinner. He does not pardon because she has not yet repented; but, declining to condemn her, He bids her “ go and sin no more.” (R. Glover.) Christ and woman It has been often urged, to the disparagement of Christianity, that modern civilization lacks a certain severity of tone and simplicity of manners very observable in classic antiquity; and the charge is not without a plausible foundation. But to argue that the lack is a loss or a step backward is quite another thing. In ancient times woman occupied a very inferior position; her influence upon society was hardly perceptible; consequently she scarcely entered as a moulding power into education and civilization. There was a certain severe hardness, or hardiness, if you like, characterizing men of classical lands. But Jesus Christ came into the world “ made of a woman,” reproducing in His person and life the finer features of a woman. By His means female influence became a factor in the history of the world, and entered as a softening, transforming element into education and civilization; and as an inevitable result the severe manly hardness of olden times has been much tempered. The equipoise has not hitherto been definitely fixed, for the world is only in its transition state; but the recognized ideal of Christianity is indisputable--it is the happy union of masculine simplicity and firmness with feminine delicacy and grace. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) Paraded piety unreal In the olden times, even the best rooms were usually of bare brick or stone, damp and mouldy, but over these in great houses, when the family was resident, were hung up arras, or hangings of rich material, between which and the wall persons might conceal themselves, so that literally walls had ears. It is to be feared that many a brave shew of godliness is but an arras to conceal rank hypocrisy; and this accounts for some men’ s religion being but occasional, since it is folded up or exposed to view as need may demand. Is there no room for conscience to pry between thy feigned profession and thy real ungodliness, and bear witness against thee? (C. H. Spurgeon.) An adulteress and murderess detected When Dr. Donne took possession of his first living, he walked into the churchyard as the sexton was digging a grave; and on his throwing up a skull, the doctor took it into his hands, to indulge in serious contemplation. On looking at it, he found a headless nail sticking in the temple, which he secretly drew out, and wrapped it in the corner of his handkerchief. He then asked the gravedigger whether he knew whose skull it was. He said he did, adding it had been a man’ s who kept a brandy shop--a drunken fellow, who one night, having taken two quarts of ardent spirits, was found dead in his bed the next morning. “ Had he a wife?” “ Yes.” “ Is she living?” “ Yes.” “ What character does she bear?” “ A very good one; only her neighbours reflect on her because she married the day after her husband was buried. This was enough for the doctor, who, in the course of visiting his parishioners, called on her. He asked her several questions, and, among others, of what sickness her husband died. She giving him the same account, he suddenly opened the handkerchief, and cried, in an authoritative voice, “ Woman, do you know this nail?” She was struck with horror at the unexpected question, instantly acknowledged that she had murdered her husband, and was afterwards tried and executed. Moses in the law commanded that such should be stoned. This is the legitimate conclusion of the two texts, Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22, when compared. There seems no ground for the comment of some writers, that Moses did not command an adulteress to be put to death by stoning. (Bp. Ryle.) The dilemma They knew His clemency and expected He would showy it. A noble testimony from His enemies to His well-known mercy. He had hinted that publicans and harlots might find forgiveness (Matthew 21:31). They hoped that He, professing to be Messiah would contradict Moses. They knew that Messiah, was bound to sustain Moses’ law. If He bade them stone her, He would give two-fold offence 1. He would condemn a laxity of morals sadly and widely prevalent. 2. He would infringe on Roman authority and offend the rulers, as Jews had no longer the right of capital punishment. They challenged Him to carry out a law which prevailing license had rendered a dead letter. They expected a very favourable decision from the past (Luke 7:47; Matthew 11:28; Luke 15:11). Thus the trap was cunningly laid. If He say that the law must be executed the Roman authorities would object; if that the law must be waived, then Moses would be sacrificed. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Death by stoning The offender was led to a place without the gates, two cubits high, his hands being bound. From hence one of the witnesses knocked him down by a blow upon the loins. If that killed him not, the witness lifted up a stone, being the weight of two men, which chiefly the other witness cast upon him. If that killed him not, all Israel threw stones upon him. The party thus executed was afterwards, in greater ignominy, hanged on a tree till towards the sunset, at which time both he and the tree were buried. (Godwin.) Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.--A sense of all their baseness, their hardness, their malice, their cynical parade of every feeling which pity would temper and delicacy repress, rushed over the mind of Jesus. He blushed for His nation, for His race; He blushed not for the miserable accused, but for the deeper guilt of her unblushing accusers. Glowing with uncontrollable disgust that modes of opposition so irredeemable in their meanness should be put in play against Him, and that He should be made the involuntary centre of such a shameful scene--indignant that the sacredness of His personal reserve should thus be shamelessly violated, and that those things which belong to the sphere of a noble reticence should be thus cynically obtruded on His notice--He bent His face forward from His seat, and, as though He did not or would not hear, stooped and wrote on the ground. For any others but such as these it would have been enough. Even if they failed to see in the action a symbol of forgiveness--a symbol that the memory of things thus written in the dust might be obliterated and forgotten--still any but these could hardly have failed to interpret the gesture into a distinct indication that in such a matter Jesus would not mix Himself. But they saw nothing and understood nothing, and stood there unabashed, still pressing their brutal question, still holding, pointing to, jeering at the woman, with no compunction in their cunning glances and no relenting in their steeled hearts. (Archdeacon Farrar.) The significance of the writing on the ground As St. John gives no explanation, we are left to conjecture. 1. Some think, as Bede, Rupertus, and Lampe, that our Lord wrote on the ground the texts of Scripture which settled the question brought before Him, as the seventh commandment, and Leviticus 20:10, and Deuteronomy 22:22. The action would then imply, “ Why do ye ask Me? What is written in the law, that law which God wrote with His own finger as I am writing now?” 2. Some think, as Lightfoot and Burgon, that our Lord meant to refer to the law of Moses for the trial of jealousy, in which an accused woman was obliged to drink water into which dust from the floor of the Tabernacle or Temple had been put by the priest (Numbers 5:17). The action would then imply, “ Has the law for trying such an one as this been tried? Look at the dust on which I am writing. Has the woman been placed before the priest, and drank of the dust and water?” 3. Some think, as Augustine, Melancthon, Brentius, Toletus, and a Lapide, that our Lord’ s action was a silent reference to the text, Jeremiah 17:13: “ They that depart from Me shall be written in the earth.” 4. One rationalist winter suggests that our Lord “ stooped down” from feelings of modesty, as if ashamed of the sight before Him, and of the story told to Him. The idea is preposterous, and entirely out of harmony with our Lord’ s public demeanour. 5. Some think, as Euthymius, Calvin, Rollock, Chemnitius, Diodati, Flavius, Piscator, Grotius, Poole, and Hutcheson, that our Lord did not mean anything at all by this writing on the ground, and that He only signified that He would give no answer, and would neither listen to nor interfere in such matters as the one brought before Him. Calvin remarks: “ Christ intended, by doing nothing, to show how unworthy they were of being heard; just as if anyone, while another was speaking to him, were to draw lines on the wall, or to turn his back, or to show by any other sign that he was not attending to what was said.” I must leave the reader to choose which solution he prefers. To my eyes, I confess, there are difficulties in each view. If I must select one, I prefer the last of the five, as the simplest. Quesnell remarks: “ We never read that Jesus Christ wrote but once in His life. Let men learn from hence never to write but when it is necessary or useful, and to do it with humility and modesty, on a principle of charity, and not of malice.” (Bp. Ryle.) The literary silence of Christ Most religious leaders have given important writings to their followers--Moses the Law, Mohammed the Koran. The reformers, Wiclif, Luther, Calvin, etc., wielded as much power by their pen as by their tongue. But the only writing ascribed to Jesus is that of the text, and now doubt is thrown even upon that. Consider the significance of this. It could not be to discourage literature, because 1. Christ was a great teacher, and dealt with ideas as well as conduct. 2. His disciples wrote under His commission. What, then, may we learn from the literary silence of Christ? I. CHRIST WAS OF FAME. It came, but unsought. Among those Galilean hills Jesus spoke words which make the most brilliant sayings of the Greek philosophers and poets look commonplace. Yet He had no thought of attracting the world’ s admiration. His words are like wild flowers. We set our plants in conspicuous beds in trim gardens where our friends can admire them. God scatters His flowers in pathless woods, on lonely moors, etc. They bloom in the wilderness, but fade in the city. Consider how some of the best of Christ’ s words were spoken to one individual--to Nicodemus, the woman of Samaria, Martha, etc. True they have been reported; but 1. There is no reason to suppose that Jesus thought of any record being made of them. 2. He must have said many other similarly great and beautiful things of which there is no report (John 21:25). Learn simplicity, humility, andself-forgetfulness from this literary silence. Let it silence the pretensions of literary vanity. II. CHRIST WAS MORE WITH THE THAN WITH THE FORM OF HIS . He did not only speak for the benefit of His contemporaries; He entrusted His teaching to apostles. No doubt memory was stronger then than now we have injured it by the use of memoranda. Moreover, Christ promised the Spirit to help the memories of His apostles. Nevertheless, they did not report their Master’ s sayings with that absolute verbal accuracy which would have marked His writing of them. This is proved by differences in the records. Hence learn 1. That Christ condemns worship of the letter. “ The letter killeth.” 2. That the method of studying Scripture by means of the minute pedantic analysis of texts and the building of ponderous arguments on small phrases--unstable as inverted pyramids--is wrong. We should seek rather forthe broad lessons of a passage. 3. That distress and doubt, occasioned by various readings, changes in the Revised Version, alternative marginal renderings, etc., are due to a mistaken idea of Scripture. In the essence of revelation no vital truth is shaken by these variations. III. THE PERSON OF CHRIST IS MORE THAN HIS WORDS. People say the Press is crushing the pulpit. The work of Christ is the greatest proof of the power of a living personal presence. Some men put their best selves in their books; but it is better to be loved by one friend than admired by ten thousand readers. Jesus was loved best by those who knew Him most. His influence is still powerful because personal. 1. We have to note in the Gospels not merely the words of Christ, but His whole life, death, resurrection; and for us the words are chiefly valuable as revealing the soul of speaker. 2. We have a living Christ, unseen but present. IV. THE WORK OF CHRIST IS GREATER THAN HIS . Christ’ s claims are essentially different in kind as well as degree from those of Socrates. He is the grandest of Teachers, but He is more; He is the Saviour of the world and the King of the new heavenly kingdom. His chief mission lay not in His preaching, but in His doing the work of the kingdom of God. It does not centre in the Sermon on the Mount, but in the death on Calvary. V. THE OF MEN IS MORE THAN THE OF IDEAS. Socrates resembles Christ in writing nothing and being chiefly concerned with the work of training the characters of disciples. 1. All Christian work must have this practical aim. In the mission, the Church, the Sunday school, the kind of teaching must be the training of souls. The teacher who simply propagates ideas is as sounding brass. 2. Christ’ s work in us is personal and spiritual. We may study His sayings, but we shall be no Christians till our lives are quickened by His life. (W. F.Adeney, M. A.) Christ’ s mission non-literary No thoughtful Christian can fail to have been struck by the fact that except these few words Christ wrote nothing. He did not bow down over a table piled with manuscripts, and in hours of meditative thought, during which He outwatched the stars, erect a monument which might be admired by a succession of sages and critics; He did not write out the complete text of an elaborate system of theology. He went out into the throng of men. He spoke by the highways and the lake side, in words which, if they were high as heaven and deep as the transparent lake, were in form broad and popular. When we consider the analogy of the “ tables which were the work of God” and “ the writing which was the writing of God” (Exodus 32:16), and the value of books in excluding error and securing permanence, we ask why He did not write. There is one reason derived from His nature. In great books the truest element of greatness is the conviction that we can trace the pathway of a superior mind in pursuit of truth. When he seems to have found it, the writer quivers with delight. With the Word made flesh, truth cannot be an effort and a conquest--the conclusion toilfully drawn from premises laboriously acquired. Rather the truth dwells in Him. He does not say: “ After long communion with Divinely-inspired books, after long self-questioning, prompted sometimes by voices that seemed to come from the ancient hills, and the glory of the sunlit heaven, I gradually worked out My system.” He does not say: “ I have found the truth.” He does say: “ I am the Truth.” We may answer the question why Christ did not write--His thought is preserved in a Diviner way. “ I will put My law in their mind, and write it in their heart.” (Bp. Alexander.) Why Christ wrote no book 1. It might seem that Christ ought to have written; for (1) Writing is best for an immortal doctrine (Luke 21:33). (2) Analogy of old law (Deuteronomy 24:1; Deuteronomy 32:16; Deuteronomy 31:18; 24:12). (3) Exclusion of error. 2. Christ wrote nothing because (1) The more excellent mode suited the most excellent Teacher Matthew 7:1). The greatest teachers--Socrates and Pythagoras, e.g.--wrote nothing. (2) Most excellent doctrine cannot be cramped into books John 21:25). (3) Due order through disciples to people (Proverbs 9:3). 3. Again (1) What was done by the members (apostles, evangelists) was done by the Head. (2) Old law might be written, but 2 Corinthians 3:3. (3) Those who believed not apostles would not have believed Christ. (T. Aquinas.) The writing in the dust Perhaps He thus wrote to show that sin, which is written before God, and graven, as it were, with a pen of iron, and with the pane of a diamond, is pardoned and blotted out by Christ as easily as a writing slightly made in the dust. (J. Trapp.) So when they continued asking Him, He lifted Himself up.--Jesus is writing as one in an office, absorbed in some account, might write, not hearing the question another had put to Him. They think He will answer directly, but He continues writing. They continue asking, and press Him for a reply. Possibly they enlarge on the heinousness of the offence--an easy task and a sort of solace for a bad conscience. These men knew that they had committed sin enough, which should have made them charitable, but it did not. Christ is never in a hurry to condemn; hence His silence. Moreover, He had no wish to be judge. “ Who made Me a ruler and a judge over you?” They think Jesus is pondering a reply; He has no need, for one is ready. He keeps it back for some time, knowing that silence up to a certain point is more powerful than speech. They ask Him the more vehemently, for the silence now becomes painful. How they wish He would cease that writing and say something! They could bear an open accusation. That could be rebutted with all the force of aggrieved innocence. But to be treated as though unworthy an answer, as though uncharitable in wishing to have the woman condemned, or as though mean in trying to entrap Christ--this is terrible! a taste of Gehenna. They press Him further; and now, rising, He glances first on the accused and then on the accusers. Slowly, quietly, witheringly, He utters a vivid sentence: “ He that is without sin,” etc. He looks away from law to conscience. Again He stoops and writes. Was it imagination that deceived them? His look was a lightning flash, quickly gone. His voice was as the blare of the judgment trumpet, echoing to the innermost recesses of their souls. They realized now the report of their officers--“ Never man spake,” etc. and were almost as overpowered as the armed band in Gethsemane. The power of Christ’ s words lay in His character. He alone could say, “ Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” He was therefore the only one who had a right to condemn. We have in this a foreshadowing of Christ’ s power at the Day of Judgment. How silently, surely, quickly, we shall be judged! Suppose now we had heard these words. Are we without sin? We must not hear for others, but listen for self. It is necessary to isolate each one, as I once saw the prisoners in the chapel of a prison. Each one was in a wooden enclosure, and no one could look at them but the chaplain. His eye could almost see into the heart of each. Thus we have to be isolated by the Word of Christ. As we feel His eye resting upon us, can we say that we are without sin? Enter those long-locked chambers of memory! Can you now blame others? Whatever we do, we should beware of playing the critic. The critic in society or in the house is a disagreeable person, and harms himself most by his criticisms. If manners or persons or utterances do not please, we may hide our dislike. We may take persons as we find them. Those who cannot please soon cease to try. Oh, that fault finders would remember these words! It is good to look to ourselves. We shall find failings enough to make us charitable. There is an old parable of a rusty shield that prayed, “ O sun, illumine me,” to which the sun replied, “ First, polish yourself.” We need to remember this and be pure ourselves. In men’ s eyes those respectable, well-dressed, pious-looking priests appeared of enviable purity, but a keen Eye saw their sin and sees ours. (F. Hastings.) And again He stooped down Respectable sin It is with sins as with men, some have pedigree and some have not; for some are, and have always been, held in respect and others in contempt. The sins of place, power, bravery, genius, and those of felony, vice, brutality, are judged differently. These distinctions had little weight with Christ, and He deals with the hypocrisies of religion, the impostures of learning, and the gilded shows gotten by extortion in terms of abhorrence. Hence the jealousy with which He was watched, and the endeavours of the rabbis to draw Him into some kind of treason in His doctrine, because they feared His influence with the people, and lest He might head a revolution which would subvert the present social order. Hence the plot here so signally frustrated. And now look upon these scribes, etc., as they withdraw and follow them as Christ add the whole assembly did. Observe the orderly manner of their shame, “ beginning at the eldest,” etc. See how carefully they keep the sacred rules of good breeding and deference to age: even in their sniveling defeat, and you will find how base a thing may take on airs of dignity, and how contemptible these airs of dignity may be. I. TO CLEAR THE OF A FALSE OR GROWING OUT OF THE FACT THAT WE LIVE SO IN THE OF DECENCY. Our range of life is so walled in by the respectability of our associations, that what is on the other side of the wall is a world unknown. Hence we have no such impression of sin as we ought to have. It is with us in all our associations much as it is with us in church. Sitting here how can you suffer any just impression of that evil which wears a look so plausible? If there came in a fair representation of the vice and drunkenness, etc., of the town, how different it would be for me to speak of sin and for you to hear. And so of the associations of life generally. Sin in its revolting forms seldom gets near enough to meet your eye. II. WE NEED ALSO TO CLEAR ANOTHER WRONG GROWING OUT OF THE TO SIN WITH VICE, and therefore to judge that whatever sin is respectable is no sin at all. All vice presupposes sin, but sin may be the reigning principle of the life and never produce one scar of vice or blameable injury. Indeed, virtue, as the term is commonly used, classes under sin--conduct approved irrespectively of any good principle of conduct--a goodness wholly negative and consisting in abstinence from what is base. But sin is the negation of good as respects the principle of good, anything which is not in the positive power of universal love. Virtue, therefore, which consists in barely not doing is sin, because not in any positive principle of love or duty to God--respectable indeed, but having the same root with all sin, viz. the not being in a state of positive allegiance to God. III. SIN IS NOT LESS GUILTY BECAUSE IT HAS A LESS ASPECT. Even those who blame themselves for not being Christians think their blame of a higher quality than it would be under the excesses which many practise, whereas all sin is of the same principle. There are different kinds of vice, but only one kind of sin, viz. the state of being without God. Respectable sin shades into the unrespectable as twilight shades into night. The evil spirit may be trained up to politeness and be elegant, cultivated sin, exclusive and fashionable sin, industrious thrifty sin; it may be a great political manager, commercial operator, inventor; it may be learned, eloquent, poetic sin; still it is sin, and has the same radical quality which in its ranker conditions produce all the most hideous crimes. There is, of course, a difference between a courteous and an ill-natured man, a pure and a lewd man, etc., yet both are twin brothers; only you see in one how well he may be made to look, and in the other how both would look if that which is in both were allowed to work unrestrained. IV. SIN IS OFTEN MORE BASE IN SPIRIT THAN THAT WHICH IS . This is not the judgment of those who are apt to rule the judgments of the world. The lies of high life, e.g., are the liberties asserted by power and respectable audacity; those of commoners are fatal dishonour. The conqueror who desolates a kingdom will be named with respect by history, when probably God will look upon him with much greater abhorrence than if he had robbed a hen roost. How very respectable those learned imposters and sanctimonious extortioners! How base those publicans and sinners. But Christ, who regarded no man’ s appearance, was of a different opinion. It is not a show of sin that makes it base, but what is in motive, feeling, thought. V. SIN IS MORE . The depraved classes have to a great extent been trained up to the very life they lead. They are ignorant by right of their origin, accustomed only to what is lowest. Sometimes the want of bread makes them desperate. They are criminal, but who does not pity them? It is incredible to you that in your own decent life of sin, taken as related to your high advantages, there may even be a degree of criminality, which as God estimates crime is far more inexcusable than that for which many are doomed to suffer the penalties of the law. VI. SIN IS MORE . The baser forms of vicious abandonment create for us greater public burdens in the way of charity and justice, and annoy us more. But have they not a wholesome influence? They tempt no one but warn away. They hang out a flag of distress upon every shoal of temptation. We should never conceive the inherent baseness of sin if it were not shown us in their experiment; revealed in their delirium, rags, bloated faces, etc. Meanwhile, respectable sin--how attractive its pleasures, gay hours, courteous society--even its excesses are only a name for spirit! Nay, church-going sin is the most plausible, and therefore the most dangerous; for if a man never goes to a place of worship, we take his sin as a warning, but if he is regular at church, a sober, correct character, then how many will be ready to imagine that there is one form of sin that is about as good as piety itself. VII. . 1. With how little reason are Christians cowed by the mere name and standing of those who are living under the power of sin. Doubtless it is well enough to respect them, but, however high they are, allow them never to overtop your pity. How can a true Christian ennobled by the glorious heirship be intimidated by what is only respectable sin. If he goes to God with boldness, how much more should he stand before them and speak of Christ and His salvation. To falter is a great wrong to our Master’ s gospel, which puts the humblest far above the most honoured sinner. 2. It is impossible in such a subject as this not to raise the question of morality. (1) Morality, apart from religion, is but another name for decency in sin. There is no more heart of holy principle in it than in the worst of felonies. It is the same thing as respects denial of God or His claims as reprobacy, only well dressed. Will that save you? (2) A far greater danger is that the decent character of your sin will keep you from the discovery of its real nature as a root of character. How difficult is true conviction when its appearances are so fair, when it creeps so insidiously into our amiable qualities. (3) How necessary it is, then, to make a study of this subtle, cunningly veiled, reputable sin long enough to fashion its real import. Ask how, if unrestrained, it would look. (4) Another motive is, no matter how respectable, you can never tell where it will end. You may be confident that virtuous irreligious living will not lead to murder. Perhaps not. Avoiding what is bloody, you may fall into what is false or low, or if you keep your decency here, the proper end will show itself hereafter, and then it will be seen how deep in criminality is every soul becoming, even under the fairest shows, coupled with neglect of God. 3. Advancing a step, observe that it is on just this view of human character under sin that Christianity is based. Christ makes no distinction of respectable and unrespectable as regards the common want of salvation. Hence the declared impossibility of eternal life even to a Nicodemus or a young ruler save by a radical change of character, but the most fallen, like this woman, Christ wants to raise. 4. And so, when you go to stand before God, it will not be even your virtues, however much commended here, that will give you an entrance among the glorified. Respectable sin will not pass there as here, and as both forms are the same in principle, the world of retribution must be a world of strange companionships. The spirits of guilty men will not be assorted by their tastes, but by their demerits. Those now pleasing themselves in the dignity of their virtues may fall into group with those now avoided with revulsion. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Being convicted in their own conscience Spiritual convictions I. AS TO ITSELF. It may be considered as 1. Ignorant or enlightened. The former, being vitiated by error or corrupted by prejudice, is an unsafe guide. It may condemn virtue and canonize vice. Hence the Jews persecuted Christians, thinking to do God service, and Christians have persecuted one another. But the latter, freed from corrupt influence and acquainted with the rule of duty, distinguishing between things that differ and approving those that are excellent, is a great blessing Hebrews 13:8). 2. Unnecessarily scrupulous or daringly presumptive. The former makes that a sin which God has not declared sinful, and is a weak conscience 1 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Corinthians 10:12). The latter has no scruples, and bids defiance to the laws and vengeance of heaven (Deuteronomy 29:19). 3. Pure or defiled. The one is purged by the blood of Christ from guilt, and is thus pacified; the other is contaminated by sin, and lays no restraint on the appetites, nor reproves the motions of sin (1 Timothy 3:9; Hebrews 10:22; 1 Timothy 1:15). 4. Tender or seared. The one is a faithful monitor, and trembles at the Divine threatenings (Proverbs 20:27); the other is free from all fear, and too stupid to perform its functions (Zechariah 7:12). 5. Peaceable or troublesome. The one conscious of pardoned guilt and mortified corruptions is one of the greatest mercies this side of heaven. It clans us against the most virulent reproaches and supports under the most agonizing afflictions. The other is a worm at the root of all our comfort; there can hardly be a greater calamity (Proverbs 18:14). 6. Natural and renewed. The first does not entirely neglect its duty, but performs it in an imperfect manner (Romans 2:1-29); but the other fulfils its functions more perfectly. The conscience here spoken of is the former, awakened for a time, and then falling asleep again. II. WHEREIN THE BETWEEN THE WHICH ARISE FROM AND THOSE BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD. There is a great difference in spiritual convictions. Some are sudden Acts 2:37), others more gradual; some visible and violent, others invisible and easy, as in the case of the jailor and Lydia. But the distinction between these and natural lies in such things as these. 1. Natural convictions respect only the guilt of sin, spiritual are attended with a painful sense of inherent pollution. The former are illustrated in the cases of Cain, Lamech, Pharaoh, Ahab, and Judas; the latter in the case of the Prodigal, Peter, and Paul. 2. In natural convictions the soul is actuated by slavish fear of temporal and eternal punishments. Persons may dread the consequences of sin, and yet be addicted to it. But spiritual convictions have a respect to the honour and love of God, hence “ against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.” Godly sorrow proceeds from this. 3. Natural convictions extend only to some sins, and those generally of a more gross and heinous nature, as Achan and Judas. It is true that the Spirit of God in conviction fastens some particular sin, often, on the conscience; but He does not stop there, but leads to the corrupt fountain of sin in the heart, and to those spiritual sins which are beyond natural convictions, pride, avarice, etc. 4. Natural convictions are temporary and vanishing, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar and Felix. The unclean spirit quits its abode, but not its claim, and returns with seven other spirits, etc. It is otherwise with the truly awakened. He not only lies under conviction, but yields to the force of it, and acts permanently under it. 5. Natural convictions may consist with the love of sin. The legal convict is as much an enemy to real holiness as ever; but spiritual convictions are always attended with an abhorrence of sin. (B. Beddome.) Conviction of conscience I. A BOLD AND . Innocence has boldness, so has guilt. Hides in imaginary concealment. But let there be a sense of impossibility of prevarication, as under the searching eye of God, and conscience condemns 1. As to any special sin: Achan, David. 2. Sill generally. What a spectacle would the hearts of an assembly possess under the full persuasion of Divine omniscience l II. OFTEN BY THE THING. No fierce reprobations necessary. Calm, quiet words, enough, e.g1. “ Son, remember.” The burial places of memory give up their dead. 2. “ Even thou wast one of them.” Christ rejected. 3. “ What dost thou more than others?” Slothful professor. When the rocks out of the “ hell gate” in New York harbour were to be cleared away, the explosion of dynamite required no army to effect it, only the touch of a child on the battery. III. LEADS TO FROM OTHERS. 1. Sometimes for sullenness and anger, as probably here. 2. Sometimes for disastrous results, suicide, e.g., Judas. 3. If wise, for penitence and prayer. Learn 1. The helplessness of the law admits no excuse or escape. 2. The method of the gospel begins with forgiveness. 3. The blessedness of the mission of Christ. He came not to hear accusations, but to save. (G. McMichael, B. A.) The penitent’ s gospel I. THE SINNER’ S WAY OF SIN. It is a terrible thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of his fellow sinners. There is little hope for the sinner at hands like these. They may send him to the judge and the officer; to the gaol or the reformatory. They may make the case one for light gossip and casuistical distinctions, studying it as an anatomical deformity. II. THE LAW’ S WAY OF SIN.--“ Moses said that such an one should be stoned.” It is with the moral, as with natural law--the least violation of its provisions is immediately and terribly avenged. III. THE SAVIOUR’ S WAY OF SIN. In that bowed head and hidden face we get a slight indication of how much it costs Him. Sin cannot change His royal heart, or staunch His pity, or freeze the fountains of His compassion. Nay, it makes Him more careful to show His tender, pitying, pleading love. He sometimes seems to wait ere He utters the words of peace. But this is from no tardiness in His love. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) The awakening of conscience King Richard I of England, on his way to the Holy Land, was taken captive, and thrown into an unknown dungeon. He had a favourite minstrel named Blondel, who knew only that his master was imprisoned somewhere in a castle dungeon among the mountain forests. From one to another of these he travelled, playing some well-known airs before the dungeon bars, till at last his music without was answered by the voice of his king within. This discovery led to Richard’ s return from exile, and restoration to his throne. “ Thus the spirit of man sits like a captive king in a dungeon, until the voice of divine music wakes echoes hitherto unknown along his prison house, and stirs him with new knowledge, new consciousness.” Conscience More than one hundred years ago there graduated at Harvard University a man by the name of Grindoll Rawson, who subsequently settled in the ministry at Yarmouth, on Cape Cod. He used to preach very pointed sermons. Having heard that some of his parishioners were in the habit of making him the object of their mirth at a tavern, he one Sabbath preached a discourse from the text, “ And I was the song of the drunkard.” His remarks were of a very moving character--so much so that many of his hearers rose and left the house in the midst of the sermon.. A short time afterwards the preacher delivered a discourse still more pointed than the first, from the text, “ And they, being convicted out of their own conscience, went out one by one.” On this occasion no one ventured to retire from the assembly, but the guilty ones resigned themselves, with as good a grace as possible, to the lash of their pastor. (W. Baxendale.) Conscience It is related of Mr. Richard Garratt that he used to walk to Petworth every Monday. In one of these walks a country fellow that had been his hearer the day before, and had been cut to the heart by somewhat he had delivered, came up to him with his scythe upon his shoulders, and in a mighty rage told him he would be the death of him, for he was sure he was a witch, he having told him the day before what no man in the world knew of him but God and the devil, and therefore he most certainly dealt with the devil. (W. Baxendale.) Condemning conscience Where is there a power to be found comparable to that of an accusing conscience, which, with its condemning voice, fills even heroes with dismay, who otherwise would not have trembled before thousands; and, stronger than death, deprives mighty men, who are accustomed to fear nothing and no one, and even to look death in the face, of the brazen armour of their courage, and their confidence in a moment; which is able to make us feel the validity of its sentence, even though the whole world should deny it, and applaud and eulogize our names in opposition to it; and which transmutes into gall that which is the most valuable to us in the world, if we are obliged to enjoy it under the thunder of its reproaches? (Krummacher.) The danger of silencing conscience You may dim the surface of the glass, so that it shall no longer be painfully bright, like a little sun lying on the ground; but your puny operation does not extinguish the great light that glows in heaven. Thus to trample conscience in the mire, so that it shall no longer reflect God’ s holiness, does not discharge holiness from the character of God. He will come to judge the world, although the world madly silence the witness who tells of His coming. (W. Arnot, D. D.) The two convictions The Pharisees, convicted by their conscience, go away from Jesus; the woman, convicted by her conscience, remains with Jesus; the Pharisees conceal and withdraw from the Saviour their sin, which yet they cannot deny; the woman surrenders her sin to Jesusfor the burden of it she cannot bear. In short, the woman is penitent--the Pharisees are not. Thus it came to pass that the proceeding which the Pharisees were led to adopt through malignity only served to drive a lost sheep into the arms of the good Shepherd. (R. Besser.) Conscience a provision of mercy A man may be saved from death by seeing the reflection of danger in a mirror, when the danger itself could not be directly seen. The executioner with his weapon is stealthily approaching through a corridor of the castle to the spot where the devoted invalid reclines. In his musings the captive has turned his vacant eye towards a mirror on the wall, and the faithful witness reveals the impending stroke in time to secure the escape of the victim. It is thus that the mirror in a man’ s breast has become in a sense the man’ s saviour, by revealing the wrath to come before its coming. Happy they who take the warning--happy they who turn and live! (Dr. Arnot.) Conscience stricken Father Andre, preaching one day at Paris against the vices of gallantry and intrigue, threatened to name a lady present as being one of the guilty. He, however, corrected himself, saying, in Christian charity he would only throw his skullcap in the direction where the lady sat. As soon as he took his cap in his hand every woman present bobbed down her head, for fear it should come to her. (W. Baxendale.) And Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst Mercy and misery met together A sinner and the Saviour in the temple of God, face to face and alone. How solemn the interview! How suggestive the incident! Note I. THAT SINNERS NEED NOT DREAD A WITH JESUS NOW. Her accusers had placed the woman “ in the midst,” and now they had departed, and she might have gone, there she still stood. Solitary woman, guilty sinner, ashamed and awed by her situation, she is strangely bound to the spot. Not an effort made to escape His judgment. Condemned already by the law of Moses, what has she to fear from Him? If the worst should happen, she could but die; but perhaps her misery may find mercy. How instructive to sinners this conduct! 1. From the hour of the first transgression sinners have feared a personal interview with God. Jacob thought Bethel a dreadful place; Moses did exceedingly fear and quake; Monoah thought he would die because he had seen God. And now sinners try to do what Adam and Eve failed to do--“ hide themselves from the presence of the Lord.” 2. But to exorcise this demon of guilty dread God was manifest in the flesh. The Son of Man came to seek and to save, and to be the Friend of sinners. None has cause to shun Jesus. He does not repel, He invites. Known to Him is my sinful history; and whither shall I flee from His presence? There is no need, for He is a just God and a Saviour. II. THAT “ JESUS ALONE” IS THE SINNER’ S COURT OF APPEAL FROM ALL . These men never dreamed of the gospel truth they were signally illustrating. The woman was under legal penalty of death. The representatives of the law arraigned her, quoting the Mosaic statute, and by asking Jesus to adjudicate, perhaps in irony of His Messianic claims, they appealed from Moses to Christ. And when the accusers, themselves condemned, had left, she allowed her case to remain where they had lodged it, in the supreme court of appeal, and from His lips only would she receive her doom. Our case is parallel 1. Our sinfulness is indisputable. The penal sentence in the law has been promulgated: “ The soul that sinneth it shall die.” Moses indicts us, and demands judgment. 2. But our appeal is lodged in the gospel court. We are “ come to Jesus and the blood of sprinkling.” He satisfies the demands of the law and silences the accusers of all whom He shields with His mercy. III. THAT WHEN A SINNER LEAVES HIS CASE WITH JESUS ALONE THE ISSUE CANNOT BE . By tarrying she signified a wish that Christ should adjudicate, and thus gave evidence of her trust in His mercy. The verdict was not delayed: “ Neither do I condemn thee,” etc. Primarily the words refer to the civil penalty of death, which Jesus had been asked to confirm, and which, not being a magistrate, He declined to do. But this carried with it religious reprobation, and therefore Christ could not pronounce the words of judicial doom, “ For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn,” etc. If there be no man to cast the stone, the merciful Redeemer will not do so; He will save. There is no questionable leniency here. A more decisive censure could not have been uttered. Yet while there was in the admonition “ sin no more” an emphatic reproof of her former sin, the words “ Neither do I condemn thee: go,” must have brought Divine absolution. “ Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” Let sinners be encouraged to come to Jesus. This woman, who was brought to Him as a Judge, found Him a Saviour; the bar of judgment became the throne of grace. We are invited to come. The coming is a confession of need, an indication of penitence, a confession of trust. (A. A. Ramsay.) Sin and its treatment “ How do you make your living?” “ I hang about the drinking saloons,” she replied. Not quite taking in the meaning of her answer, I asked her again, “ What are your means of life?” But she laughed and gave no other answer. Hereupon the master of the lodging came in, and, casting a stern look at her, said, “ She is a prostitute, sir!” After saying that to me, he turned to the woman as though she was a dog. “ You hang about the drinking saloons. Well! give the answer you ought to give--prostitute. She does not know her own name.” His tone pained me. “ We have no right to insult her,” I said. “ If we men lived as God would have us live, there would be no prostitutes. We ought rather to pity them than to blame them.” I had no sooner said this than I heard the boards of the beds creaking in the next room. Above the partition (which did not reach to the ceiling) there appeared a curly head, with little swollen eyes, and a dark red face; then another head popped up; and still another. These women had doubtless got on their beds to look over, and all stared at me earnestly. There was an awkward silence. The master of the lodging cast his eyes down in confusion. The women drew in their breath and waited. I felt more confused than any. I had never thought that a word dropped thus casually could have produced such an effect. It was almost like the movement of the dry bones in Ezekiel’ s vision. I had uttered without thought a word of love and pity, and that word had thrilled them all. They all looked at me as if they expected me to speak the words and do the deeds whereby these bones might come together, cover themselves with flesh, and live again. (Count Tolstoi.) When Jesus had lifted Himself up, and saw none but the woman Shameful life I. THE FACT OF LIFE ITSELF. 1. In the midst of the great city, with all its grandeur and luxury, there hangs the dark shadow of one prevailing sin, the presence of which everyone knows and feels, but of which no one dare speak. We deprecate the contamination of the statement, while we suffer the curse of the fact. It is an ancient shame, coeval with the earliest corruption of the human heart; stalking in its painted abominations amongst the most splendid refinements; mingling its polluted stream with the foremost tides of civilization; moving with colonies; as sure to be found in every city as crime or death. 2. As in this passage, so everywhere, it is woman who stands in the foreground, and upon her the malediction falls. Consider this army of six thousand women, so many of them mere children, some of them from homes of sanctity where grey hairs have gone down, through them, in sorrow to the grave. Some indeed were born so low that they could not fall; but to many it has been a fall as awful as that of a star from its sphere. It may be easy to forget a lower state in rising to a higher, but never in the profoundest degradation the condition from which we have lapsed. Remorse can never abandon the human soul. This remorse accompanies the lost girl in her descending career. In the early stages there is an incongruity between that “ soul’ s tragedy” and the gay welcome into the world of the lost; but as with rapid descent the steps go downward God’ s violated law of purity makes known its awful vindications. On that pallet of straw, in that damp, dark cellar reeking with the miasma of debauchery and death, the woman dies. 3. If the sufferings of the victim furnishes no reason for calling this fact before us, the peril of the young and innocent should. Silence and apathy are not justified by any motives of delicacy. The curse is in having a social cancer, not in talking about one. The only possibility of curing a wrong is to become clearly conscious of it. To prevent talk there is on the one hand a morbid sensitiveness, and on the other frivolity, which only finds the subject an occasion for jest or an insinuation that the reformer knows more about it than he ought. At least there is an unconsciousness of danger which cries, “ Don’ t disturb this matter; let it rest as something that cannot be helped, or with which we have nothing to do.” Is it so that innocent lives are in no danger? Is there a moral swamp whose foul vapours ever spread? We must have quarantine for pestilence. We break laws and burn buildings if it come too near. But a moral evil that oozes its damnation through brick walls, and saps the city with corruption, that breaks the hearts of good women--this we must not speak about, but let alone. So, then, it is a safe danger, is it? Who is safe? Are you in your respectability, O father I while this temptation waits for your sons? Are you in your honour, O mother! while mothers are broken-hearted for their daughters’ shame? Are you, O citizen l with this many headed fountain of poverty and crime? Preach to the heathen, but this devil worship--as to that walk about in silence. This is neither delicacy nor sense. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 8:12-20 Then spake Jesus again unto them The connection of Christ’ s discourse with the previous incident and the feast The feast of tabernacles was over. The water of Siloah was no more poured out by the altar; the golden lights no longer burned in the forecourt of the Temple. But like as Jesus Christ, the True Well of salvation, offered from His inexhaustible spring living water to all who were athirst, so also as the True Light, He shone with a never-dying lustre, in order that He might lead sinners out of the darkness of death into the light of life. What power the perishable, earthly light of the Temple had, how impotent it was to enlighten the hearts of those who participated in the festival, had been exhibited to all in the narrative of this morning. In the midst of the bright shining of the tabernacle lights, that woman was wandering in the darkness of adulterous lust, and her accusers in the darkness of arrogant self-conceit. Not until the light of Jesus broke in upon the woman’ s heart did she become a penitent sinner, or forsake the love of darkness; whilst on the other hand, the Pharisees, when shone upon by the light of the Searcher of hearts, became convicted sinners, and went out because they loved darkness rather than light. And the requirement that the Lord made of the woman upon whom the light of His grace had shone, “ Go and sin no more,” is now included in the word of promise: “ He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Once upon a time, the people had followed the light of the pillar of fire in the wilderness; and of this they were reminded by the light of the feast of tabernacles. But now many in the wilderness followed that light and yet wandered in darkness, because the light of life was not theirs!--they had it not! How many, too, were there now who rejoiced in the lustre of the tabernacle light, yet were wandering in darkness, because they too had not the light of life! Yes, how many heard the law read aloud in the assembly of the feast of tabernacles, and yet learnt it not (Deuteronomy 31:10, etc.), because they would not learn the End of the law, which was Jesus Christ! Thus they were shone upon by the light of Divine revelation, and boasted of being a people of light, and yet remained in darkness. Different is the case with the true followers of the light. Their fellowing consists in faith, and faith makes Christ to dwell in their hearts (John 12:36; John 12:46;Ephesians 3:17); and because they then have the light of life, they no longer walk in darkness, neither in the love, nor in the terror of it; they no longer walk in sins, nor in death, no more according to the pleasure, no more in the power of the devil. (R. Besser, D. D.) I am the Light of the world The incident When these words were spoken it was early morning. They had parted last night, after a day of commotion and danger; but at daybreak Jesus was back again in the midst of the people. “ And early in the morning He came again into the Temple, and all the people came unto Him; and He sat down and taught them.” We can picture to ourselves the unfolding splendours of the new morning. The eyes of the people gazed as, without wave or sound, as with increasing vigour and unsullied purity, the light streamed in from the east. It disclosed the green fields and well kept vineyards and pleasant groves of the valleys; it lit up the city and its splendid palaces and gorgeous Temple; and it revealed all around them the majestic forms of the mountains. How it gilded everything, and beautified the pinnacles of the Temple, and touched the hills with gold! How it aroused the wicked, who then as now turned night into day, and worked deeds of violence and wrong under cover of black night! How it cleansed the earth, and lifted the thick veil of mist, and drove away the pestilential vapours! Even the beasts, savage and dangerous, who through the night had been seeking and securing their prey, owned its power, and retired from the light into the caves and dens of the earth. All this was present to the thoughts of the people, and standing there in the midst of them Jesus said, “ This is the emblem of My mission: I am the Light of the world,” (C. Vince.) The force of the allusion He was seated at that moment in the Treasury--either some special building in the Temple so called, or that part of thecourt of the women which contained the thirteen chests with trumpet-shaped openings, called shopheroth, into which the people, and especially the Pharisees, used to cast their gifts. In this court, and therefore close beside Him, were two gigantic candelabra, fifty cubits high and sumptuously gilded, on the summit of which nightly during the feast of tabernacles, lamps were lit which shed their soft light over all the city. Round these lamps the people, in their joyful enthusiasm, and even the stateliest priests and Pharisees, joined in festal dances; while, to the sound of flutes and other music, the Levites, drawn up in array on the fifteen steps which led up to the court, chanted the beautiful psalms which early received the title of “ Songs of Degrees.” In allusion to these great lamps, on which some circumstance of the moment may have concentrated the attention of the hearers, Christ exclaimed to them, “ I am the Light of the world.” (Archdeacon Patter.) The Light of the world Note I. THE GREAT ASSUMED TRUTH WHICH LIES THE WHOLE VERSE is the fall of man. The world is in a state of moral and spiritual darkness. Naturally men know nothing rightly of themselves, God, holiness, or heaven. They need light. II. THE FULL AND BOLD MANNER OF OUR LORD’ S . He proclaims Himself to be “ the Light of the world.” None could truly say this but one, who knew that He was very God. No prophet or apostle ever said it. III. HOW OUR LORD SAYS THAT HE IS “ THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.” He is not for a few only, but for all mankind. Like the sun He shines for the benefit of all, though all may not value or use His light. IV. THE MAN TO WHOM THE PROMISE IS MADE. It is to him “ that followeth Me.” To follow a leader, if we are blind, or ignorant, or in the dark, or out of the way, requires trust and confidence. This is just what the Lord Jesus requires of sinners who want to be saved. Let them commit themselves to Christ, and He will lead them safe to heaven. If a man can do nothing for himself, he cannot do better than trust another and follow him. V. THE THING TO HIM WHO FOLLOWS JESUS--deliverance from darkness and possession of light. This is precisely what Christianity brings to a believer. He feels and sees, and has a sense of possessing something he had not before. God “ shines into his heart and gives light.” He is “ called out of darkness into marvellous light” (2 Corinthians 4:4-6; 1 Peter 2:9). (Bp. Ryle.) The Light of the world Christ as Light is I. . Light is a revealing element. When the sun goes down and darkness reigns, the whole of the beautiful world is concealed, all on ocean and land is hidden. The sun arises, and all stands forth to view. What does Christ reveal? God, a spiritual universe, a moral government, a future state of retribution, a remedial system by which fallen humanity can be restored to the knowledge, the image, the friendship, and the enjoyment of the eternal Father. Men have appeared here in different ages and regions who have been called lights. Prophets; John the Baptist; the apostles; some of the heathen sages; and many of the modern philosophers and scientists. But Christ is the Light. Other lights are borrowed; He is the original Fountain. Other lights only reveal dimly a few things in some narrow space; He reveals all things fully through all regions of moral being. Other light shone a little, and, like meteors, went out; He burns on forever--the “ Light of the world.” II. GUIDING. “ He that followeth Me,” etc. The sun may shine in its noontide radiance, and yet men may walk in darkness; they may shut their eyes or keep in cells or caverns. It is so with Christ. Though He is the moral Sun of the world, the millions “ walk in darkness.” Christ is to be followed 1. Doctrinally. 2. Ethically. 3. Spiritually. Men who follow Him thus will always be in the “ light.” III. . The natural sun is the fountain of life to the world; his beams quicken all. Christ is the Life of the world. “ In Him was life.” He quickens the intellect, the conscience, the soul. There is no spiritual life apart from Him. Conclusion:--How great the obligation of the world to Christ I What would this earth be without the sun? Its condition would be wretched beyond conception; and yet it would be better off than humanity without Christ. Were all that Christ has been to humanity, and still is, to be withdrawn, into what a Stygian condition it would sink. “ Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” (Homilist.) The Light of the world Light and life are intimately associated. “ Let there be light” was the first creative act--essential for the life that was to follow. How true of the scull A chaos of death and darkness--then the shining of the life-giving Sun of Righteousness. I. IN WHAT SENSE IS CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 1. The light He communicates is not derived. Christ is not a reflector, but the Spring and Source. None ever taught Him wisdom; eternity did not increase His knowledge, “ God is Light” and Christ is God. 2. He is the Medium through which it is revealed to men. When the world through sin had become exposed to the withdrawal of all heavenly light, then by Christ’ s interposition was a gentle ray preserved. This grew till in His own Person He brought the full and living manifestation of glory. II. THE OF THE LIGHT. 1. Christ brought into the world knowledge. No small advance had been made in knowledge before Christ came--art, science, and philosophy had flourished. But the knowledge of God and futurity had almost died out. And the advances of the human intellect would seem to have been permitted to prove that men by searching could not find out God. 2. Christ brought into the world holiness. Light and purity, darkness and unholiness are synonymous terms. “ Ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.” The wisdom of the world may exist with the grossest passions, but the “ Light of the world” cleanses as well as instructs. III. THE OF THE LIGHT TO THE SOUL. “ He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Following the course of the sun, we cannot but have the “ light of life.” As the flowers, drawn by the attracting power of the sun’ s rays, turn round and follow the great light of day in his course in the heavens, drinking in with avidity every beam, developing new beauties, giving forth fresh odours with every ray of light received, so the Christian, drawn by the magnetic influence of Divine love, living in constant intercourse with the source of all inspiration, following closely the light of truth which radiates from the eternal sun, develops fresh beauties of character, gives forth the sweet perfume of true nobleness of life, adorning the doctrines of Christ the Saviour. (T. Mirams.) The Light of the world All that the sun is to the natural world Christ is to the moral and the spiritual. It is not He that is like the sun, but rather the sun that is like Him. Thus understood, the words of the text recall the prophecy “ The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” What a marvellous assertion it is l In the mouth even of an extraordinary man it would be ridiculous, and no intellectual eminence could redeem it from the charge of vanity. We can save it from the accusation only by regarding it as the utterance of Incarnate Deity. And it is only in the same way that we can harmonize it with those qualities of truthfulness and humility by which at all times the Man Christ Jesus was distinguished. The text suggests I. THE PURITY OF THE LORD’ S . A ray of light is the cleanest thing we know, and though it may pass through the most polluted medium, it comes out of it as immaculate as when it entered it. Christ was from the very first “ a holy thing.” There are spots on the sun, but nothing ever appeared to mar the beauty of His holiness, by the constant emanation of His own purity, he kept the evil from approaching Him. Now this purity consisted not so much in the absence of all sin as in the presence of all excellence. Just as the white light of the sun is composed of the seven primary colours, each in its own proportion, and having its own properties, so the holiness of Christ, when analyzed, reveals the presence in its normal degree of each of the virtues. His love contributed warmth, His truth imparts its sharp actinic influence, whereby the correct outlines of all subjects on which He shone were clearly defined! His humility gave its violet beauty to mellow the lustre of His character; His courage lent its yellow tinge to complete the harmony; while His meekness contributed its soft green hue, and His justice brought the fiery red, which burned in His withering denunciation of all hypocrisy and wrong. Peerless as the sun in the firmament shines the character of Jesus Christ. No keen-eyed sceptic has ever been able to detect in it a flaw. II. THE OF THE WHICH HE MADE. His advent chased away darkness, and brought new truths into view. We have been so long accustomed to the lustre of His beams, that it is difficult to estimate how much we owe to Him in this respect, for the things which we now teach to children were far beyond the reach of the educated minds of antiquity. 1. Look at the views which He has given us of God. By that one utterance “ God is a spirit” etc. He threw a flood of light on questions which had puzzled the wisest heathens. That we are not idolators we owe entirely to the light which Christ has shed for us, on the spirituality, omnipresence, supremacy, and fatherhood of God. 2. Look at the matter of atonement, and see what radiance He has cast on that dark subject. When He came into the world, victims were smoking daily upon altars, and everywhere they were at once the expression of a want and confession of a failure. They gave inarticulate witness to the longing of men’ s souls for acceptance with God, on the ground of expiation, while their continued repetition acknowledged that they who offered them could not rest long in their offering. But Christ offered Himself, and it was at once seen by all who believed on Him, that His sacrifice met the case, for His resurrection demonstrated that it was accepted by God, and so they could rest perfectly content. This accounts for the fact, that wherever Jesus was received sacrifices disappeared. 3. Look how the revelation brought by Christ has illuminated the future life. He has “ brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.” The immortality of the soul was a wish rather than an object of faith among the most of the ancients, and they knew nothing whatever about resurrection. But when Christ rose from the tomb He left its portal open; and when He ascended He took possession of heaven in His people’ s name. Absence from the body is now presence with the Lord. III. THE THAT RADIATE FROM CHRIST. There are few natural agents more valuable than the light. 1. It ministers largely to health. Even the plants cannot thrive without the sunshine, and a shrub taken to the bottom of a mine speedily withers; while the very weed that grows in the cave turns ever with a wonderful instinct towards the light. So it is a common aphorism that the sunny side of the street or house is healthier. Christ gives health to the soul by bestowing upon it regeneration, while the influence of His instructions strengthens the intellect, gives sensitiveness to the conscience, stiffens the will, settles and centres the affections, and broadens and deepens the character. 2. It contributes materially to happiness. Everybody knows a difference between a clear and a dull day. The one, as it were, electrifies the system, and we go forth into it with joyous exhilaration; the other is heavy and depressing. We are ill at ease with ourselves and cross with everybody else. So again, we know a difference between day and night. The light has that in it which somehow keeps us up, but darkness has become a common metaphor for heaviness of heart. Now Jesus is the Author of joy. He takes away from us sin which is the source of all sadness. He adds the gladness of fellowship with Himself to all our other delights; and when the joys of earth grow dim, He remains to be to us as full of satisfaction as He was before. 3. It contributes to our safety. Unless we see where we are going we may stumble or fall, to the serious injury of our bodies; and so, especially when the way is rough and dangerous, it is always better to travel in the daytime. In moral things, it is just as essential that we see what we are doing. We must mark the tendencies of things, lest we should take a wrong direction. We must look well to our little steps of daily conduct, lest we should be tripped up, and bring dishonour on our Lord and on ourselves. And for this reason it is of the greatest importance that we keep near to Jesus. Safety lies in walking in His light. It is not earthly philosophy; it is not worldly prudence; it is not caution or canniness that will keep a man secure. All these are in the main but modes of selfishness, and selfishness is always like a mole burrowing in the dark and trapped at last by the higher art of the hunter. But Christ’ s light is love, the love of God and our neighbour. IV. THE MANNER IN WHICH WE BECOME OF THE WHICH CHRIST BRINGS. We are enlightened by opening our eyes to the light. In the morning we raise our blinds, and let in the blessed sunbeams, whereby our hearts are gladdened and our homes are brightened. And in the same way we are to become illuminated by the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. We must open our eyes and behold His glory; we must open our intellects to receive His instructions; we must open our hearts to let Him into our affections; we must open our lives to let Him rule over our actions. Here our great duty, as also our great difficulty, is to be simply receptive. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The Light of the world Christ was His own great theme. What He said about Himself was very unlike language becoming a wise and humble teacher. This is only reconcileable with our conception of His nature that He is God manifest in the flesh. Are such words as these fit to be spoken by any man conscious of his own imperfections. They assert that Christ is the only source of illumination for the whole world, that following Him is the sure deliverance from error and sin and gives the follower a light which is life. And the world, instead of turning away from such monstrous assumptions, has largely believed them and has not felt them to mar the beauty of meekness, which, by a strange anomaly, this Man says He has. I. THE . What was the meaning of those great lights that went flashing through the warm autumn nights of the feast of tabernacles. All the parts of that feast were intended to recall some feature of the wilderness wanderings; and the lights by the altar were memorials of the pillar of cloud and fire. Jesus, then, declares Himself to be in reality, for all, and forever what that pillar was in outward seeming to one generation. 1. It was the visible vehicle of the Divine presence. It manifested and hid God, and was thus no unworthy symbol of Him who remains after all revelation unrevealed. The fire is ever folded in the cloud, and the thick darkness in which He dwells is but the “ glorious privacy” of perfect light. That pillar, a cloud to shelter from the scorching heat, a fire to cheer in the blackness of night, spread itself above the sanctuary, and “ the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle,” and when that was replaced by the Temple “ the cloud filled the house of the Lord,” and there, dwelling between the cherubim, types of all creatural life; and above the mercy seat that spoke of pardon, and the ark that held the law; and behind the veil where no feet trod save those of the priest bearing the blood of atonement once a year--shone the light of the visible majesty of present Deity. 2. But centuries had passed since that Light had departed. Shall we not, then, see a deep reference to that awful blank, when Jesus, standing before that shrine which was in a most sad sense empty, pointed to the quenched lamps which commemorated a departed Shekinah, and said, “ I am the Light of the world.” He is that because in Him is the glory of God. The cloud of the humanity “ the veil, that is to say, His flesh,” enfolds and tempers; and through its transparent folds reveals while it swathes the Godhead. Like some fleecy vapour flitting across the sun and irradiated by its light, it enables our weak eyes to see light and not darkness in the else intolerable blaze. “ The Word was made flesh and dwelt,” etc. II. THE AND DUTY. 1. Christ, like that pillar, guides us in our pilgrimage. Numbers 9:1-23. dwells upon the absolute control of all the marches and halts by the cloud. As long as it lay spread above the tabernacle, there they stayed. Impatient eyes might look and impatient spirits chafe--no matter. And whenever it lifted itself no matter how short had been the halt, footsore the people, or pleasant the resting place--up with the tent pegs immediately, and away. There was the commander of their march--not Moses nor Jethro. 2. We have in Christ a better Guide through worse perplexities than theirs. By His Spirit, example, Word, providence, Jesus is our Guide--gentle, loving, wise, sure. He does not say “ Go,” but “ Come.” “ I will guide thee with Mine eye” --not a blow, but a look of directing love which heartens to and tells duty. We must be near Him to catch it and in sympathy with Him to understand it, and be swift to obey. Our eyes must be ever toward the Lord, or we shall be marching on unwitting that the pillar has spread itself for rest, or dawdling when it has gathered itself up for the march. Do not let impatience lead you to hasty interpretations of His plans before they are fairly evolved. Take care of “ running before you are sent.” But do not let the warmth of the camp fires or the pleasantness of the shady place keep you when the cloud lifts. 3. All true following begins with or rather is faith (chap 12:46). Faith the condition and following the operation and test of faith. None but they who trust follow Him. To follow means the submission of the will, the effort to reproduce His example, the adoption of His command as my law, His fellowship as my icy; and the root of this is coming to Him conscious of darkness and trustful in His light. III. THE PROMISE. In the measure in which we fulfil the duty the wonderful saying will be verified and understood by us. 1. “ Shall not walk in darkness” refers (1) to practical life and its perplexities. Nobody who has not tried it would believe how many difficulties are cleared away by the simple act of trying to follow Christ. It is a reluctant will and intrusive likings and dislikings that obscure the way oftener than real obscurity in the way itself. It is seldom impossible to discern the Divine will when we only wish to do it. And if ever it is impossible, that is the cloud resting on the Tabernacle. Be still, wait and watch. (2) But “ darkness” is the name for the whole condition of the soul averted from God. There is the darkness of ignorance, impurity, sorrow, thickening to a darkness of death. To follow Christ is the true deliverance, and the feeblest beginnings of trust in Him, and the first tottering steps that try to tread in His bring us unto the light. 2. “ Shall have the light of life,” a grander gift--not the light which illuminates the life, but like similar phrases, “ bread of life,” “ water of life,” --light which is life. “ In Him was life,” etc. “ With Thee is the foundationof life, etc.” The pillar remained apart, this Guide dwells in our souls. Conclusion: Christ, like His symbol of old, has a double aspect--darkness for Egypt, light to Israel. Trusted, followed, He is light; neglected, turned from, He is darkness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Light of the world (In conjunction with Matthew 5:14):--A startling combination! The two ends of a chain of teaching, of which the middle links are supplied by the apostle who speaks of “ Christ in you,” and of the saints as “ light in the Lord.” I. WHEREIN DOES CHRIST’ S LIGHT DIFFER FROM OURS? 1. As ordinary white light--the light of the sun--is an exquisite blending of all hues of light, so Christ combines all the varied features of goodness in Himself. He is the Unity of all enlightening, cheering, quickening qualities. 2. But as the light is broken up and reflected, so the scattered rays of goodness are reflected from each disciple in his own character and ministry amongst his fellows. II. WHEREIN IS OUR LIGHT AS CHRIST’ S? 1. It may reveal, as He did, the Father. 2. It may guide and cheer, as He did, the sons of men. 3. As His exposed the evil in men, so may ours expose and shame those who come into contact with us. 4. As He, like light, coaxes the plant to thrive, causes men’ s natures to bloom and bear fruit, so may we develop men’ s latent capacities for goodness by contact with us. 5. As His light was diffused, so may ours go forth-upon unknown ministries. (W. Hawkins.) Light for us I. CHRIST IS THE LIGHT FOR LIFE WHICH GUIDES. 1. Christ is such grading light because He is the Light. Moral guidance shines from Him, because He is the one perfect specimen of moral living. 2. Christ is such a guiding Light because He is a light so placed that all may see it. II. CHRIST IS THE LIGHT WHICH AND MAKES STRONG THE TRUE LIFE IN EVERY MAN. Christ promises, if He be followed, a man shall have the light of life. Here is a pale leaf. Why is it so pale? It has been denied the sunlight. Put it in the sunlight, and it will grow green and strong. Here is a leaf of noble resolution. But it is very pale and sickly. What will give it strength and colour? Bring it into the shining of Him who is the Light. III. HOW WE MAY ENTER INTO THIS AND . “ He that followeth Me,” etc. Some one has said: “ Nobody who has not tried it would believe how many difficulties are cleared out of a man’ s road by the simple act of trying to follow Christ.” No doubt there will still remain obscurities enough as to what we ought to do, to call for the best exercise of patient wisdom; but an enormous proportion of them vanish like mist, when the sun looks through, when once we honestly set ourselves to find out where the Light is guiding. It is a reluctant will and intrusive likings and dislikings that obscure the way for us, much oftener then real obscurity in the way itself. It is seldom impossible to discern the Divine wilt, when we only wish to know it that we may do it. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Chest the Light of the world Do you see what I mean? When the sun rose this morning it found the world here. It did not make the world. It did not fling forth on its earliest ray this solid globe, which was not and would not have been but for the sun’ s rising. What did it do? It found the world in darkness, torpid and heavy and asleep; with powers all wrapped up in sluggishness; with life that was hardly better or more alive than death. The sun found this great sleeping world and woke it. It bade it be itself. It quickened every slow and sluggish faculty. It called to the dull streams, and said, “ Be quick” ; to the dull birds and bade them sing; to the dull fields and made them grow; to the dull men and bade them talk and think and work. It flashed electric invitation to the whole mass of sleeping power which really was the world, and summoned it to action, It did not make the world. It did not sweep a dead world off and set a live world in its place. It did not start another set of processes unlike those which had been sluggishly moving in the darkness. It poured strength into the essential processes which belonged to the very nature of the earth which it illuminated. It glorified, intensified, fulfilled the earth; so that with the sun’ s work incomplete, with part of the earth illuminated and the rest lying in the darkness still, we can most easily conceive of the dark region looking in its half-life drowsily over to the region which was flooded with light, and saying, “ There, there is the true earth! That is the real planet. In light and not in darkness the earth truly is itself.” That is me parable of the light. And now it seems to me to be of all importance to remember and assert all that to be distinctly a true parable of Christ. He says it is: “ I am the Light of the world.” A thousand things that means. A thousand subtle, mystic miracles of deep and intricate relationship between Christ and humanity must be enfolded in those words; but over and behind and within all other meanings, it means this--the essential richness and possibility of humanity and its essential belonging to Divinity. Christ is unspeakably great and glorious in Himself. The glory which He had with His Father “ before the world was,” of that we can only meditate and wonder; but the glory which He has had since the world was, the glory which He has had in relation to the world, is all bound up with the world’ s possibilities, has all consisted in the utterance and revelation and fulfilment of capacities which were in the very nature of the world on which His Light has shone. Do you see what I mean? Christ rises on a soul. Christ rises on the world. I speak in crude and superficial language. For the moment I make no account of the deep and sacred truth--the truth which alone is finally and absolutely true--that Christ has always been with every soul and all the world. I talk in crude and superficial words, and say Christ comes to any soul or to the world. What is it that happens? If the figure of the light is true, Christ when He comes finds the soul or the world really existent, really having within itself its holiest capabilities really moving, though dimly and darkly, in spite of all its hindrances, in its true directions; and what He does for it is to quicken it through and through, to sound the bugle of its true life in its ears, to make it feel the nobleness of movements which have seemed to it ignoble, the hopefulness of impulses which have seemed hopeless, to bid it be itself. The little Lives which do in little ways that which the life of Jesus does completely, the noble characters of which we think we have the right to say that they are the lights of human history, this is true also of them. They reveal and they inspire. The worthless becomes full of worth, the insignificant becomes full of meaning at their touch. They faintly catch the feeble reflection of His life who is the true Light of the world, the real illumination and inspiration of humanity. Let us then leave the figure, and try to grasp the truth in its complete simplicity and see what some of its applications are. The truth is that every higher life to which man comes, and especially the highest life in Christ, is in the true line of man’ s humanity; there is no transportation to a foreign region. There is the quickening and fulfilling of what man by the very essence of his nature is. The more man becomes irradiated with Divinity, the more, not the less, truly he is man. The fullest Christian experience is simply the fullest life. To enter into it therefore is no wise strange. The wonder and the unnaturalness is that any child of God should live outside of it, and so in all his life should never be himself. And yet how clear the Bible is about it all! How clear Christ is! It is redemption and fulfilment which He comes to bring to man. Those are His words. There is a true humanity which is to be restored, and all whose unattained possibilities are to be filled out. Let us see how all this is true in various applications. Apply it first to the standards of character. We talk of Christian character as if it were some separate and special thing unattempted, unsuggested by the human soul until it became aware of Christ. The Christian graces are nothing but the natural virtues held up into the light of Christ. They are made of the same stuff; they are lifted along the same lines; but they have found their pinnacle. They have caught the illumination which their souls desire. Manliness has not been changed into Godliness; it has fulfilled itself in Godliness. As soon as we understand all this, then what a great clear thing salvation becomes. Does this make smaller or less important that great power of God whereby the human life passes from the old condition to the new--the power of conversion? Certainly not! What task could be more worthy of the Father’ s power and love than this assertion and fulfilment of His child? Great is the power of a life which knows that its highest experiences are its truest experiences, that it is most itself when it is at its best. For it each high achievement, each splendid vision, is a sign and token of the whole nature’ s possibility, What a piece of the man was for that shining instant, it is the duty of the whole man to be always. When the hand has once touched the rock the heart cannot be satisfied until the whole frame has been drawn up out of the waves and stands firm on its two feet on the solid stone. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) The Light of the world Christ is this because I. HE BRINGS GOD NEAR AND MAKES HIM REAL TO MAN. Every scientific discoverer half acknowledges that He interprets the arrangements of a single intelligence. And yet it is easy to leave out of view the higher relations of scientific thinking; to stop with force and law, and not go on to the Agent who is assumed in both. But this Atheism, now so fashionable, brings darkness into the mind. It may not interfere with a limited department of research, but it is always held at the expense of liberal thinking. It may now and then perfect man as an observing machine, but it has never yet brought a ray of light to the intellect or glow to the heart. Christ teaches no science, no philosophy, and yet He is a Light to both, not by what He teaches but by what He is. He simply manifests God as living and personal, and fills the universe to the believing mind and loving soul with a sense of His presence. He not only tells us of a Father in heaven, but says: “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” And thus Christ holds the attention of men in every science to truths concerning God which science assumes and confirms. II. HE MAN’ S IN MAN’ S POWER TO KNOW THE TRUTH. Christ teaches caution, docility, and a certain quality of self-distrust; but He couples with it the quality of clear and tenacious conviction. He knows nothing of that fashionable scepticism which suggests that knowledge is but uncertain guess work, that thinking is a changing product of a material organization, that the truths of one generation are the dreams of the next. The capacity of man to know the truth, his obligation to defend it, and if need be to die for it is positively enforced by Christ. It is said that Christians are committed to a creed and therefore incapable of new ideas. To one conviction they are committed, viz., that truth is possible and that man is bound to attain it. III. HE ASSERTS FOR MAN HIS TRUE DIGNITY AND HIS PLACE IN THE . In nothing has Christ wrought so signal a revolution as in this, and that not by teaching a new philosophy, but by living a new life and consecrating that life by His death. He came to save man because man was lost, yet could be exalted to wisdom and holiness, and therein declared the intrinsic worth of the lowliest in the judgment of God. He consorted with publicans and sinners, not because He sympathized with what they were, but because He knew what they might become. Before Christ man’ s insignificance was contrasted with Nature’ s greatness; or when set in other relations the old thinkers argued “ the state, the race remains; the individual perishes--let Him go. What is one among so many when God will forget every one of us?” Christ has reversed all these estimates. He emphasized each man’ s personality by recognizing his responsibility. As responsible he is capable of personal rights as the condition of the exercise of his moral freedom, and the development of his character. As such he is king over nature, being made in God’ s image. His education is the supreme end for which nature exists and society goes on; and this education is the story of redemption. What we call Christian civilization is either flower or fruit of faiths in respect to man’ s place in nature and the plan of God. It is proposed to change all this. Man is the product and slave of nature, and at length its victim. Personality and character are poetic abstractions; right and wrong are the outcome of social forces; conscience the reflex of average judgments of our community; the right of the individual nonexistent as against society; our protests against injustice irrational. That this new philosophy must be inhuman in its tendency need not be argued. May God spare us when insane enthusiasts or maddened criminals act it out. After the scenes of horror shall be over and society begin to reorganize itself, Christ will be the light of its schools of thought. IV. HE IS THE LIGHT OF HUMAN CULTURE IN THAT HE BOTH AND REFINES IT. So far as art and literature are concerned, we may concede that Greece gave to the world the perfection of form; but Christ breathed into those forms a living soul. In manners Christ has done still more. The graces of modem life are the products of the unselfish, sympathizing, forgiving, patient, Son of Man. No sooner is Christ received into any community than the unbought graces of life are a natural consequence. But culture has its dangers. It degenerates as soon as it becomes an end and not a means. It is substituted for duty or made an excuse for sin often with terrific results. Some of its devotees are too dainty in their tastes to do the work of life, and not a few sink into unmanly fastidiousness. Christ reforms these abuses; in His school no man liveth or dieth to Himself, and man is refined by the presence and approval of his Maker. V. HE MAKES CLEAR AND TO MAN ANOTHER AND A BETTER LIFE. He has not demonstrated it to reason, but has verified it as a fact “ Because I live,” etc. In former times men were esteemed profound, aspiring, brave and strong according as they reflected about another life. In these, man is counted shallow if he accepts it; sordid if he derives motives from it; cowardly if he cannot brave death without it; and weak if he cannot substitute for it the immortality of his thoughts as repeated in other minds. This seems unnatural and inhuman. It is the cant of a clique to attempt to silence the outcry of every longing of man with the sneer of sentimentalism. All this is a striking proof that the risen and personal Christ is as much needed as ever as the Light of the world. And when science becomes more simple and earnest, and culture more sincere and humane, both will turn to Him. VI. HE GIVES WORTH AND TO THE LIFE WORK OF EVERY MAN. There is a strong tendency to depreciate the present life; and if there is no God but nature, and he locked in the bands of fate; if knowledge is guesswork, and man the sport of agencies that feel not, life is at best a dull farce or a weary tragedy, and the sooner the play is over the better. But Christ teaches differently. Under the light which He cast no event is insignificant, no joy empty, no sorrow to be spared. The hopes and regrets, the successes and defeats are all steps of discipline for immortality. To every individual a place in life is assigned, if he will occupy it, and success assured if he will rightly estimate success. Every life which Christ guides by His light, and cheers with His smile, and crowns with His reward is thoroughly worth living for its experience and its rewards. (Noah Porter, LL. D.) The Light of the world Compare the impression the text must have produced when first uttered and that which it produces now. In a despised country, among a conquered people, speaking a degenerated language, a humble man from an obscure village, says “ I am the light,” etc., not one more light, but light in the absolute sense. What would a contemporary thinker of Athens or Rome have said? Just what the Pharisees in their language said. Now let 1,800 years pass by. Look at the world, not as Christians, but as impartial witnesses, and you are obliged to acknowledge that the saying which seemed senseless is an historical fact. Jesus is so much the light of the world that outside the regions over which His brightness is shed there is no more progress. Today millions salute Jesus as the Sun of souls, and those who are at one in nothing else are at one in this. In what sense is Jesus what He said, and what is the domain in which He sheds His light? I. BY LIGHT WE MEAN TRUTH when the word is used in other than a material sense. But one of the most original features of Christ’ s teaching is that He never learnt science nor professed to solve its problems. 1. Christians have been often mistaken here, and the irritation of scientists, when Christians interfere with their demonstrations, is legitimate. They demand independence, and the demand should be conceded. But they must also grant independence in the domain of the moral and religious order which has its own laws and evidences. Christianity is never called upon to anathematize science--rather let it increase under the Divine benediction. 2. But we cannot be mistaken--the whole progress of science has not shed one ray of light on the problem of problems. We are told that we should be indifferent here, and Positivism enjoins humanity to enclose itself between the cradle and the tomb, and know nothing beyond. But it cannot succeed. In our time, when all that can distract, absorb, enchant is multiplied, man doggedly raises the problems of the invisible world. All become acquainted with anguish and need consolation, and ask, therefore, for light. 3. An answer is necessary, and that answer the intellect reduced to its own forces is incapable of finding. With what courage and perseverance it has striven all history attests. Has science ever consoled anyone? When your conscience is troubled will you ask for a philosophical consultation? When you are near a death bed will you call in a savant? This century has made an idol of science with the inevitable result (Psalms 115:5-6). II. HERE CHRIST APPEARS. His light has not been poured on scientific problems--that domain God has left to the intellect--but He has illumined the spiritual world. How? By His teaching? What then does He teach? Himself. He is not so much the Prophet as the Truth; the light bearer as the Light. 1. He has revealed what God is. Not that He delivered discourses about God, or gave metaphysical definitions of God; but He has shown Him to us - “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (Hebrews 1:8; Colossians 1:15). Moses had revealed the only, the holy, the all-mighty, the just God; Jesus reveals the God who is Love. What could be added to the idea? 2. A new ideal of humanity has appeared in Jesus. He never taught a systematic and scientific morality; but simply replaced the moral world on its right axis--the love of God and the love of man. For the first time was seen in Him a life absolutely fulfilling the moral law--a life in which there is not a word, thought, movement, which is not inspired and filled by the love of God and man. In Him was seen for the first time the admirable assemblage of all the virtues which seem opposed and which ordinarily exclude one another; authority and simplicity, majesty and humility, strength and gentleness, horror of evil, and tender mercy, purity without asceticism, and familiarity without vulgarity, so that, as the diverse colours which the prism decomposes--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet--form the splendid white, to all these diverse traits, which make up the figure of Christ, are blended into so vivid a harmony that it is imprinted on the conscience of humanity forever. In Him is seen man as he ought to be. 3. He has thrown light on the abyss which separates man from God. The more luminous His holiness, the more obvious our imperfection. He makes us discern the evil we have done, and the good we have neglected. Never before Him was our nature so surely judged (Luke 2:35). 4. But the light would leave us without hope, did it not reveal a love in God greater than our revolt, a pardon greater than our iniquity; but the text nowhere is truer than as it falls from the Cross, at whose foot the sinner divines and receives a grace worthy of God, because it secures His justice while revealing His mercy; he there sees sin both judged and remitted. All other religions and philosophies must compound with evil and attenuate it; the religion of the Cross alone dares to see it, because it alone can crush it. (E. Bersier, D. D.) The Light of the world In a physical sense this is the sun, and with it Jesus may be compared. The sun is I. ONE, and throughout the extent of our planetary system, it is the one source of light. Towards it each planet, with its satellites, turns every portion of its surface to receive light. There is but one Saviour--without whom every soul is wrapt in darkness, but from whom all believers obtain all blessings. II. THE . In His splendour the moon and stars pale. Jesus in all things has the preeminence, and is “ the chiefest among ten thousand.” The man of the world walks by taper light; the Christian by sunlight. What are 10,000,000 tapers to the sun? III. OF . Our earth Isaiah 25,000 miles round and has a surface of 200,000,000 square miles. But what is it to the sun? about one to a million! The highest mountain bears the proportion to the whole earth of a grain of sand to an 18-in. globe; man less, animals still less. What then the tiny flower and the insects that float in the sunbeam. Yes the light that streams 97,000,000 miles gladdens and enlightens all. But greater still is its Creator--Jesus--who is rich in mercy to all who call upon Him. IV. AND . Pure light is proved to consist of seven opposite colours--so in Jesus there is a combination of all excellences. He is “ all fair.” The beauties of the landscape are derived from the sun; the variety of hues that meet the eye are painted by Him. So saints are beautiful through the comeliness that Jesus puts upon them, varying as it does in character, differing as it does in position. V. MOST . Light, heat, and fertility flow from his beams. Blot out the sun and our earth would be destroyed. Without him what would be the blessing of sight? So without Jesus we should have no spiritual knowledge, no happy love to God or man, no fruitfulness. Conclusion 1. We may gather some thoughts of Jesus from the laws of light, or the modes of its operation. Is the sun an unexhaustible fountain of light? In Jesus there is an infinite fulness of grace. Does the light travel with amazing rapidity? How swiftly do the thoughts of Jesus flow out towards His servants--“ Before they call I will answer.” Does light travel only in straight lines? Jesus is a holy Saviour; His eyes look straight before Him in the prosecution of His Father’ s purposes. Is the angle of reflection always equal to the angle of incidence? The Christian knows that the light he receives from heaven, he will find it his honour and happiness to reflect on earth. Is light a radiant force, and does a small approximation to its centre bring an increase of influence? So in proportion to our nearness to Christ will be our realization of His grace. 2. Reflect on what is popularly called the rising of the sun. See how he climbs higher and higher. Even so was it with Jesus. Mark the first streak of light in the first promise--broader streaks in those succeeding to Abraham, Jacob--then the types and ceremonies; then the great prophecies, until Christ could proclaim the text. So with the preaching of Christ to nations, and His reception by individuals. (J. M. Randall.) The Light of the world Light is I. . 1. Every morning it removes the dark veil from the face of nature, and enables us to go wherever our duty calls us. 2. What blanks there would have been in science, philosophy, and poetry, if there had been no Newton, Bacon, Milton; but what a famine of knowledge there would have been regarding God and man, etc., without the Bible. Other books speak to us on these subjects, but, like the light of every star, their light is borrowed. The Bible has been the means of suggesting more thoughts, and expanding more minds, than all other books combined. The artist, historian, poet, novelist, scientist, traveller, are all indebted to it. Every syllable has been carefully examined, and out of this examination vast libraries have been formed. If all the rays of mental light which have streamed from it could be brought back to it, and if it were to be totally eclipsed, as the sun has been, what would be the condition of the world of mind? 3. To whom are we indebted for the Bible? To Christ! If He had not lived and died the New Testament could not have been written, nor the Old, since the latter is to the former what the germ is to the fruit. He is the Alpha and Omega of its subject matter, and the cause of its existence. II. . 1. In the morning it appears to come from the east, it travels at the rate of 90,000,000 miles in eight minutes; and in the evening seems to retire in the west. Where does it come from and go to? How shall we account for its inconceivable speed? For thousands of years it has punctually visited our planet; why does it continue as fresh as on the day of its creation? What is it? Newton says that luminous particles actually proceed from the sun; and Huyghens, that the sun only occasions a disturbance of the ether which extends in the same manner as a wave spreads itself on the surface of a lake; but no one can give a thoroughly satisfactory answer. It is a mystery. 2. Christ was human--but He was also Divine; and as we think of Him existing from eternity, as incarnate, as swaying the sceptre of the universe, and upholding all things, the mystery is deep indeed. We are advised to renounce His Divinity as a means of clearing the mystery; but that would only deepen it. A mere boy astonishing learned rabbis, a mere man stepping into the first rank of the world’ s teachers, working miracles, penetrating the future, giving away His soul for sinners as willingly as He gave them advice, bursting the barriers of the tomb!--to reject His Divinity is to plunge into Egyptian darkness! 3. What then shall we do? Because of the mystery turn infidels, or stand in suspense--perplexed and miserable? The mystery of light does not disturb our equanimity; we place it among matters which our reason cannot just now grasp. Inasmuch, however, we cannot live without it, we welcome it. In the same way let us do with the mystery of Christ--a human leader, saviour, will not do for us; He must be Divine or we are lost. Let us trust Him and leave the mystery till removed by the perfect light of heaven. III. . 1. Who loves the darkness? Not the little child, who fears it. Not the virtuous youth, who, although he may have nothing to do, when evening comes wishes for a light; not the righteous old man. Those only love the darkness whose hearts are set on evil deeds. “ Truly the light is sweet,” etc. In its presence flowers open themselves, landscapes smile, and birds sing. 2. It is thus an emblem of that felicity the blessed God wishes every man to have; but it will never come to us as pleasure comes to the beasts of the field. We must go in quest of it. Whither? To wealth, honour, fame, etc.? These will only disappoint; but if we go to Christ He will give us every element of happiness in abundance--pardon, comfort, strength, heaven. IV. . 1. The water as it proceeds from its distant home is clear as crystal, but becomes impure; the snow in a little time becomes mixed with the muddy soil; the winds, pure in their origin, become unwholesome passing through pestiferous regions; but the light--stainless it comes to us, chases away the darkness from St. Giles’ s as freely as from Windsor Palace, enters abodes of sickness as cheerfully as abodes of health, and having brightened and beautified every object pursues its way as pure as when it came. 2. What a true image of Jesus! For twenty-eight years He resided in Nazareth, a place proverbial for wickedness. He was tempted of the devil, and mingled with the most sinful, yet what was the result? The nearer we approach a work of art the less we admire it, and the closer we come to some men the more imperfect they appear; but the more we inspect the character of Jesus the brighter does it shine. He came into the world pure, continued in it pure, and returned pure. This was the testimony of His enemies, His friends, Himself. 3. To resemble Jesus in this is the principal duty of His followers--Ye are the light of the world,” “ Let your light so shine,” etc. Were this duty discharged the moral darkness of the world would be swiftly chased away. (A. McAuslane, D. D.) The relation of the Light of the world to the Incarnation Light within, by His Godhead enlightening the mind; light without, by His manhood guiding, by miracles, by word, by example. (I. Williams, B. D.) Moderated light By this Light the sun’ s light was made; and the Light which made the sun, under which also He made us, was made under the sun for our sake. Do not despise the cloud of the flesh; with that cloud it is covered, not to be obscured, but to be moderated. (Augustine.) Revelations of light As dust in a chamber cannot be seen until light is let in, so no man can know himself until this Light reveals him to himself. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Light the emblem of gladness A little child dislikes the darkness instinctively, and at night, as soon as the candle is put out, it hides its head under the bed-clothes, shuts its eyes resolutely, and tries to forget all about the darkness. But when the morning comes the light streams in through the window, the little child awakens, rejoicing that the night has gone. It shakes its little spirit free from fear, and comes out of its sepulchre of clothes; for its heart is full of gladness which the light has brought. Jesus is the Light of the world in this sense also. He came not to condemn but to forgive, and to save those who were lost. And so He brought gladness and peace and great joy into the world. (C. Vines.) The saving and health-giving influence of light The inscription on Eddystone lighthouse is, “ To give light and to save life.” This is a motto that also may be used to show the purpose of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He came to give light and to impart life. We erect a lighthouse on rocks that have been proved to be dangerous to life--we put it on the rocks--and, likewise, when souls were wrecked by the corruption of human nature, the Light of the world shone from the human nature of Christ Jesus. His sacred light warns us from the sin and corruption that have been proved to be so fatal to the peace and life of human souls; and, like a lighthouse, it also shows the safe path to the harbour of heaven. God is Light; and the body of Jesus is the lighthouse from which the fulness of the Almighty shone forth on a dying world. The sun is spoken of as an angel with healing in its wings. You may not be aware that persons who live in a room which opens only to the north, are more in danger of sickness than if they lived in a room which faced the opposite point of the compass. Statistics tell us that the unsunned rooms of a barracks or hospital are much less healthful than those parts on which the sun shines through the day. It is said that the absence of the direct rays of the sun increases the mortality twenty percent, as compared with the places on which it shines continually. The sun is our best doctor and sunshine is our cheapest and most efficient physic. Narrow streets, blind alleys, and back slums in which the rays of the sun never shine are a disgrace to our humanity. In such places you see, like as you see in that part of your garden on which the sun does not shine, stunted and diseased human plants. If you give the people wide streets and good houses, and provide three times the number of gaslights at night, you will have a more healthful and a more holy city than we have just now. The sun shines away disease, and a powerful light scares away sin. (W. Birch.) Light brings power The day closed with heavy showers. The plants in my garden were beaten down before the pelting storm, and I saw one flower that I had admired for its beauty and loved for its fragrance exposed to the pitiless storm. The flower fell, shut up its petals, drooped its head, and I saw that all its glory was gone. “ I must wait till next year,” I said, “ before I see that beautiful thing again.” And the night passed, and morning came, the sun shone again, and the morning brought strength to the flower. The light looked at it, and the flower looked as the light. There was contact and communion, and power passed into the flower. It held up its head, opened its petals, regained its glory, and seemed fairer than before. I wonder how it took place--this feeble thing coming into contact with the strong thing, and gaining strength! By devout communion and contact a soul gains strength from Christ. I cannot tell how it is that I should be able to receive into my being a power to do and to bear by this communion, but I know that it is a fact. Is there a peril from riches or from trial which you are afraid will endanger your Christian consistency? Seek this communion, and you will receive strength and be able to conquer the peril. (C. Vines.) The effects of sunlight In autumnal mornings mists settle over the Connecticut Valley, and lie cold and damp upon the meadows and the hill sides, and it is not till the sun rises and shines down warm upon them that they begin to move; and then there are swayings, and wreathings, and openings, till at length the spirit which has tormented the valley can stay no longer, but rises and disappears in the air. So is it when the Sun of Righteousness shines upon the troubles which brood over our souls. Shining but a little, they only fluctuate; but if the Sun will shine long, they lift themselves and vanish in the unclouded heaven. (H. W. Beecher.) The light of life He declares that to all the pilgrim hosts of men, He is what the cloud with its heart of fire was to that race of desert wanderers Exodus 13:21 and Numbers 9:15-23). I. AS TO ITS NATURE. That fire in the heart of the cloud was prophetic of our Lord’ s Deity, enfolded and enshrined in His humanity. II. AS TO ITS . The work of the fire-cloud was threefold. 1. It led. The wilderness was a trackless waste to the hosts of Israel, and they were absolutely dependent on the cloud to show their path, and to find out a resting place each night. 2. It shielded. 3. It gave light. III. AS TO THE . “ He that followeth Me … ” We must put Christ first. He must hold the position of Leader and Guide. Which way is He taking? We may generally ascertain this as we endeavour to answer one of the following questions: 1. What is the law of Christ? 2. What is the will of Christ? 3. What would Christ do under the circumstances? If we are not sure, we must wait till we are; but knowing, we must follow at all costs. We cannot follow Jesus except we leave all--our own judgment and wisdom, our schemes and preferences, our predilections and fancies. 1. Shall not walk in darkness. 2. But shall have the light of life. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) We must not refuse the light I once happened to be on a visit to a great castle situate on the top of a hill. There was a steep cliff, at the bottom of which was a rapid river. Late one night, there was a person anxious to get home from that castle, in the midst of a thunderstorm. The night was blackness itself. The woman was asked to stop till the storm was over; but she declined: next they begged her to take a lantern, that she might be able to keep upon the road from the castle to her home. She said she did not require a lantern, but could do very well without one. She went. Perhaps she was frightened by the storm (I know not the cause); but in the midst of the darkness she wandered from the path, and fell over the cliff: the next day that swollen river washed to the shore the poor lifeless body of this foolish woman. (Bp. Villiers.) Rays from the Sun of Righteousness All the light that comes to us from the sun is made up of the beams, which he is continually pouring forth. When this light is decomposed, it is found to be made up of seven different coloured rays. There are blue, and red, and orange, and yellow, and so on. These rays differ from each other in other things. The red has more heat in it; the yellow is the coldest; and the violet is the quickest in its motion. And if we wish to understand the light, we must find out all we can about the different rays. And so, if we would have a right knowledge of Jesus, we must study the different rays that shine from Him as the Sun of Righteousness. We are dependent on the sun for I. LIFE. The light of the sun has no power to make dead things alive by shining upon them. Suppose we take a dead body, or plant, and lay it down where the light of the sun can shine on it; the light has no power to give life when it does not exist; but it can help to preserve it. The light of the sun is needed in order to keep everything alive. If the light were taken away, everything would die. And for this reason, Jesus might well say of Himself, “ I am the Light of the world.” He is more necessary for the life of our souls than the light of the sun is for the life of our bodies. The light which shines from Jesus is made up of the truths taught us in the Bible about His character and work. The light which shines from Jesus has the power of giving life to souls that are dead, as well as of keeping them alive when it is given. When ministers preach the gospel, or when Christian people read it, or preach it to others, they are scattering light from Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness. And the light thus scattered has the power of giving life to souls that were dead in sins. II. GROWTH. If the light were taken away from plants, and they were kept in the dark, they would not grow, Suppose you have a lot of potatoes in your cellar. If there is no window the potatoes will rot. But if there is a window those potatoes will begin to grow over towards the window. As you see them straggling across the cellar floor, it looks as if the potatoes were stretching out their arms towards the light, and begging it to come and help them to grow. And it is the same with the flowers and the trees, and with every other kind of vegetable. Each, in its place, is dependent on the light. None of them can grow without it. Here is an acorn. What a tiny little thing it is! Yet, there is a big oak tree stowed away in this little cup. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 8:14-17 Though I bear record of Myself, yet My record is true The self-evidencing power of the Sun of Righteousness The sun pours forth his beams so that it becomes bright day, and we question not his being the sun, because he bears witness of himself; and shall we say to the eternal Sun, who is shedding His light upon us, “ Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true? ” Be that far from us! A light not only reveals other things, but itself also. Therefore the light bears witness of itself; the eye, if healthy, it brightens up and is its own witness that we may know it as being the light. (Augustine.) Christ’ s witness to Himself Consider what this witness is. If any of us know a holy man, we know a humble man. The holiest are the most conscious of their sinfulness. It is not a fashion of speech. It is not cant or hypocrisy. The writer who is perfectly satisfied with his lines is not a poet. The painters or sculptors who have no noble dissatisfaction with their work may be ingenious and dexterous, but they are not artists. They have none of that straining forward to an unattained ideal of beauty which is the heritage of genius. So, too, the man who is perfectly content with his own spiritual condition may have a mechanical regularity of habit. He may be a respectable Pharisee; but he is utterly without saintliness, which is, as it were, the genius of goodness. Now Jesus had the loftiest idea of duty. He was also the meekest and humblest of men. Yet in His life there is one fundamental difference from the lives of the saints. They are full of burning words of penitence; they are burdened with cries of confession. But we have long discourses of Jesus. We have one soliloquy with His Father in chap. 17. Yet there is no confession of sin. He can bare His noble breast to His enemies, and say, “ Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” He can go further: He can declare, “ The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” Farther yet--in those solemn moments when death is near; when moral natures, seemingly made of the strongest granite, crack and crumble before the fire of eternity--He can lift His calm and trustful eyes to heaven and say, “ I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” And with this we know that His spiritual insight was so keen and piercing, that not one mote could have floated on the tide of his purity without being detected by that eagle eye; that one speck or stain could not have rested on the very skirts of the garment of His humanity without soiling in His sight the raiment that was white as snow. This holy Man, with the highest idea of duty; this humble Man, who prays falling upon His face; this keen-sighted Man, who sees further into sin than any other, declares that His life and the perfect rule of goodness are in unbroken harmony. What witness is comparable to this witness of Jesus to Himself? (Bp. Alexander.) Ye judge after the flesh: I Judge no man.--Is this not in conflict with John 5:22, and with the whole tenor of the New Testament, viz., that Christ is the present and final Judge of all men? No. Christ was indeed Judge; but there were some manner of judgments which He never exercised, and had no commission to execute; for He did all His Father’ s will. 1. Christ usurps no man’ s jurisdiction; that were against justice. 2. Christ imputes no false things to any man; that were against charity. 3. Christ induces no man to desperation; that were against faith: and against justice, charity, and faith, Christ judges not. Christ, then, judgeth not I. IN SECULAR . 1. In civil matters (Luke 12:13). 2. In criminal matters (John 5:11). When Christ says this, may we not ask of His pretended vicar, “ Who made you judge of kings that you should depose them? or proprietary of kingdoms that you should dispose of them?” If he says, Christ; did He it in His doctrine? If so, where? Did He do it by His example? Yes, when He whipped the traders out of the Temple and destroyed the herd of swine. But these were miracles; and though it might seem half a miracle that a bishop should exercise so much authority, yet when we see his means, massacres, assassinations, etc., we reply that miracles are without means. II. BY CALUMNY, as did the Pharisees when they judged Him. 1. Calumny is (1) Direct. (a) To lay a false imputation. (b) To aggravate a just imputation with unnecessary circumstances. (c) To reveal a secret fault when not bound by duty. (2) Indirect. (a)To deny expressly some good in another. (b) To smother it in silence when our testimony is due. (c) To diminish his good parts. 2. These Pharisees calumniated Jesus with the bitterest of all calumny--scorn and derision. 3. Since Christ, then, judges no man as they did, judge not you. (1) “ Judge not, that ye be not judged” --i.e., when you see God’ s judgments fall upon a man, do not judge that he sinned more than others, or that his father sinned and not yours. (2) Especially speak not evil of the deaf that hear not (Leviticus 19:14)--i.e., calumniate not him who is absent and cannot defend himself. It is the devil’ s office to be the accuser of the brethren. (3) Always remember David’ s case, who judged more severely than the law admitted, which we do when in a passion. But Christ judges no man; for Christ is love, and love thinks no evil. III. SO AS TO GIVE A FINAL HERE. There is a verdict against every man in the law, the consequence of which men might well despair; but before judgment, God would have every man saved by the application of the promises of the gospel (John 3:17). Do not, therefore, give malicious evidence against thyself; do not weaken the merit or lessen the value of the Saviour’ s blood, as though thy sin were greater than it. Can God desire thy blood now, when He hath abundantly satisfied His justice with the blood of His Son for thee? (J. Donne, D. D.) Judging “ after the flesh” is often altogether misleading Were men to be guided by the appearance of things only in forming their judgment, how erroneous and deceptive it would be! The sun would be no more than a few miles distant and a few inches in diameter; the moon would be a span wide and half a mile away; the stars would be little sparks glistening in the atmosphere; the earth would be a plain, bounded by the horizon a few miles from us: the sun would travel and the earth stand still; nature would be dead in winter and only alive in summer: men would sometimes be women, and women men; truth would often be error, and error truth: honest men would be rogues, and rogues honest men; wealth would be poverty, and poverty wealth; piety would be wickedness, and wickedness piety. In fine, there is scarcely any rule so deceptive as the rule of appearance; and there are multitudes who, in many things, have no other rule by which they form their judgment. Hence the errors of their speech and life; ridicule and blunders into which they plunge themselves before the world. (John Bate.) False judgments If you go into a churchyard some snowy day, when the snow has been falling thick enough to cover every monument and tombstone, how beautiful and white does everything appear! But remove the snow, dig down beneath, and you find rottenness and putrefaction, “ dead men’ s bones, and all uncleanness.” How like that churchyard on such a day is the mere professor--fair outside; sinful, unholy within! The grass grows green upon the sides of a mountain that holds a volcano in its bowels. (Dr. Guthrie.) Judging by appearances fallacious We are shallow judges of the happiness or misery of others, if we estimate it by any marks that distinguish them from ourselves; if, for instance, we say that because they have more money they are happier, or because they live more meagrely they are more wretched. For men are allied by much more than they differ. The rich man, rolling by in his chariot, and the beggar, shivering in his rags, are allied by much more than they differ. It is safer, therefore, to estimate our neighbour’ s real condition by what we find in our own lot, than by what we do not find there … Surely, you will not calculate any essential difference from mere appearances; for the light laughter that bubbles on the lip often mantles over brackish depths of sadness, and the serious look may be the sober veil that covers a Divine peace. You know that the bosom can ache beneath diamond brooches; and how many blithe hearts dance under coarse wool! (E. H. Chapin, D. D.) And if I Judge, My Judgment is true The concurrent judgment of the Father and the Son The Mosaic law required at least two or three witnesses to make a testimony valid Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15). Jesus declared that He satisfied this rule because the Father united His testimony to that which He bore of Himself. Where the fleshly eye saw but one witness, there were in reality two. It is usual to refer this testimony to miracles, in accordance with John 5:36.But John 5:16 sets us on the road to a far more profound explanation. Jesus was here describing an inward fact, applicable both to the judgments He pronounced on others and the statements by which He testified to Himself. He was aware that the knowledge He possessed of His origin and mission was not based wholly on the fact of consciousness. He felt that it was in the light of God that He knew Himself. He knew, moreover, that the testimony by which He manifested His inward feeling bore, in the eyes of all who had a sense for the perception of Deity, the seal of this Divine attestation. An anecdote may perhaps better explain this. About 1660, Hedinger, chaplain to the Duke of Wurtemburg, took the liberty of censuring his sovereign--at first in private, but afterwards in public--for a serious fault. The latter, much enraged, sent for him and resolved to punish him. Hedinger, after seeking strength by prayer, repaired to the prince, the expression of his countenance betokening the peace of God and the feeling of His presence in his heart. The prince, after beholding him for a time, said, “ Hedinger, why did you not come alone, as I commanded you?” “ Pardon me, your highness, I am alone.” The duke, persisting, with increasing agitation, Hedinger said, “ Certainly, your highness, I came alone; but I cannot tell whether it has pleased God to send an angel with me.” The duke dismissed him unharmed. The vital communion of this servant of God with his God was a sensible fact, even to one whom anger had exasperated. (F. Godet, D. D.) I am one that bear witness of Myself. The witness of Christ as seen in some contradictory phenomena of His life and character The conflict of Christianity is ever being narrowed to the question of the person of Christ. Unitarians have either abandoned their old positions and Christianity with them, or returned to views not easily distinguished from orthodox. Both friends and foes write lives of Jesus, and seek in that for proof of Lordship or evidence of delusion. Men have largely forsaken metaphysical arguments. “ What think ye of Christ?” is the question of apologist and infidel. The issue here is vital. Victorious at this point all the rest is easy; defeated here the Christian Church expires. In this line of argument it is natural to ask what testimony Christ gives of Himself, and we propose to point out certain paradoxes and find their explanation. I. THE . A candid observer will notice in Jesus 1. His sublime self-consciousness of Divinity, together with His ceaseless subjection to God. (1) Compare Him with all religious teachers, and we find Him dreaming no dreams, seeing no visions. We never hear Him saying, “ Thus saith the Lord,” but “ I say unto you.” He consoles His disciples. “ Let not your hearts be troubled.” Why. “ Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” “ Show us the Father,” says one: the response is, “ He that hath seen Me,” etc. In discussion with Jews He says, “ Abraham rejoiced to see My day” --wild words to scribe and Pharisee. “ Thou art not yet fifty years old” ; the rejoinder is, “ Before Abraham was I am.” There is an endeavour to explain away the simple meaning of all this. Much greater force will therefore be found in the indirect words of Christ. Take one, “ If I go not away the Comforter will not come,” etc. What must He claim who says He will send God’ s Spirit? and who must He believe Himself to be? (2) On the other hand, a young man asks, “ Good Master, what good thing,” etc. Jesus replies, “ Why callest thou Me good,” etc.? Although He said, “ I and My Father are one,” He also says, “ The Father is greater than I.” “ I came not to do My own will.” Nowhere does the contrast appear more distinctly than in that scene in the Temple, “ Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’ s business;” and then He meekly places His hand in His mother’ s and becomes “ subject unto Joseph and Mary.” 2. His pronounced self-assertion and His humility and self-abnegation. (1) He appeals to no authority but His own as the ground on which men should accept Him. When He propounded His law on the Mount, He contrasts His teaching with that of the ancient law, although Divinely given, with the words, “ I say unto you.” What a significant scene is that in which He upbraids the cities for their unbelief, and then hearken to the words which follow, “ Come unto Me all ye that labour,” etc. From His disciples He learns how men misunderstand Him; and how calm, resolute, inspiring, the words in which He replies to these misapprehensions, and rewards the confession of Peter. “ On this rock I will build My Church,” etc. Is this arrogance, egotism? It is the sublimest ever witnessed. If true, the noblest; if unfounded, the wildest and most vain. (2) But what a contrast. The child of a carpenter’ s wife; He is fitly born in the outhouse of an inn, and moved for thirty years amidst the humblest surroundings. When He came into public life His career opened to Him no affluence or dignity. “ The foxes have holes,” etc. His moral characteristics were in keeping with His circumstances. “ I am Meek and lowly of heart.” “ He is led as a lamb to the slaughter,” and prays for His murderers. 3. Infinite power combined with noteworthy weakness. (1) Mark the works of Jesus--how easily performed. “ Let there be light,” says God, “ and there was light.” He opens the windows of heaven and a race is overwhelmed. And thus Christ works. It is in a storm; the Master sleeps. The disciples cry, “ We perish!” He rises, speaks, and there is a great calm. In His dealings with disease, a touch upon the eyelid pours daylight on the darkened orb. “ Be clean,” He says to the leper, and the loathsome disease is gone. Another word, and the man who had become a wild beast is sitting at His feet in his right mind. Here is no paraphernalia of the magician, or the exercise of delegated power. (2) In contrast with this is Christ’ s meekness. Take the supernatural out of His life, and what feebleness! He who can multiply the bread is familiar with hunger. “ Give me to drink,” He says to one to whom He gives living water. With His hand upon a universe He is as helpless as a child. 4. The complete absence of any sense of sinfulness or moral defect. The religious life of the leaders of human thought has been marked by a profound sense of personal unworthiness, but there is no trace of this in Jesus. “ Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” asks Jesus of the ages. “ I find no fault in Him,” re-echo well nigh two millennia. 5. In these series of contrasts we have noted two contradictory qualities--infinity and limitation. The last scenes of His life exhibit these. Our Lord comforts His disciples. Calm and helpful, He promises them Divine strength. But see Him a few moments after in His agony. Where in all literature is an artistic contrast so striking? And this only the simple story of the unlettered, who tell the story as they knew it best. But what is this. An armed hand approaches, and at a word from Him they fall to the ground--yet He submits to be led away. II. SOME OF THE WHICH HAVE BEEN GIVEN. 1. That Christ is a natural product, the outgrowth of the ages; that all preceding generations gathered in Him, and produced the ideal man. But where in Judaea, Greece, or Rome, can be found the elements from which the nature of Christ could be compounded? And if one Christ could be produced why not others? 2. That Christ is a literary product, the ideal of an individual mind--the grandest triumph of human imagination, but altogether fictitious. But who was the romancer who must have been greater than His romance? 3. That Christ is a mythical product; that a remarkable individual did exist who founded a school, and after death was slowly changed by the loving regard of His followers into the heroic, and at last into the Divine. Granted that such a myth may have grown up in a century, how is it that we have the unique Divine nature of Jesus made the ground of a finished argument in the Epistle to the Romans, published within a generation from the time of Christ, by one whose life overlapped His? 4. The theory that Christ was a deceiver or deceived hardly merits notice. A knave ought to recognize that Christ was truthful, and a fool, would he open his eyes, might see that He was perfectly self-possessed. III. THE THEORY WHICH ALONE ALL THE OF THE CASE. In these phenomena 1. We find evidence of a personality altogether unique. There are contrasts, but there is a unity about the Person, and a consistency in the life which make us feel confident of the truthfulness of the Bible record. All things fall into their place when we are taught that Christ is at once the Son of God and the Son of Man. He is Divine, and all the Divinity of His being is thus accounted for. He is human, and all the humanity of His lot is wholly explained. 2. The origin of this unique personality must be traced to God. The human race could produce no such being. Even were the ideal conception possible, which is doubtful, a person who had formed the idea could never have realized it. But with God all things are possible. 3. The purpose for which such a unique being was sent by God must have been to accomplish some special work. (1) A mere teacher or reformer might have been only man. (2) God would not have become man for His own sake. He can require nothing which He cannot supply. (3) Christ is evidently not the first of a new species, for He has no successor. (4) His mission therefore must have been for man, to establish some new, or modify some old relation between God and man. Such an object is declared by Scripture to have been sought by God and accomplished by Christ, and for this such a Personality as has been described was suited and designed. (Ll. D. Bevan, D. D.) Then said they unto Him, Where is Thy Father?--The question indicates assumed ignorance of Christ’ s meaning, or a scornful fling at His ever imagining that God was His Father. How different to the child-like simplicity of Philip (John 14:8)! Their earthborn idea was, “ If you are visible, can’ t we see something of your Father?” They ask about the Father, He replies as to Himself; and when asked about Himself He (verses 25-27) replies concerning the Father. The primitive Christians were called atheists because they could not show their God. In every age the sneering challenge is repeated. At Orleans the Papists asked the Huguenots in the flames, “ Where is now your God?” Mary Queen of Scots, having by French mercenaries forced Protestants into the bleak hills, cried, “ Where is John Knox’ s God?” In Fotheringay Castle she had time to answer her own question. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) John 8:20 These words spake Jesus in the Treasury The Treasury From Mark 12:41 and Luke 21:1 it is clear that this word was applied to the brazen trumpet-shaped chests placed in the Court of the Women for the reception of alms. There were thirteen of them, and each bore an inscription showing to what purpose the alms placed in it would be devoted. Here the word is apparently used of the place itself, in which the chests were deposited. This notice is interesting in many ways. The Court of the Women was one of the most public places in the Temple area. Christ taught there openly and fearlessly. The chamber in which the Sanhedrim held their session was between the Court of the Women and that of the Men. They had on that or the previous day been assembled to take counsel against Him (chap. 7:45-52). This gives point to the words which here follow. (Archdeacon Watkins.) No man laid hands on Him; for His hour was not yet come Divine Providence I. EXERTS A POWER ON WICKED MEN. “ No man,” etc. Why? Jewish rage was almost at its height; the Sanhedrims lacked neither disposition, muscular power, nor public cooperation. It was because “ His hour was not yet come.” There was a mysterious power holding them back, an invisible hand restraining them. In relation to this restraining power of God’ s moral government of the world, note 1. It is not always a matter of consciousness. Sometimes, it may be, men feel that they are reined in, some mysterious power preventing them from doing what they desire. History presents us with monsters that have felt themselves like caged lions. But as a rule the restraining force is so subtle, so delicate, that men are unconscious of it. 2. It interferes not with human freedom. A man is not free from the guilt of a wrong act because he has not the power or the opportunity to embody it. The guilt is in the desire, the volition. “ As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” At first sight it seems morally absurd that God should restrain a man from committing a crime, and yet hold him guilty for it. The solution is here: the crime is in the wish. 3. It is an incalculable advantage to the race. What was in the Alexanders, the Caligulas, the Napoleons, the Lauds, and the Bonners, is for the most part in every unregenerate soul. Were there no restraining hand upon depraved hearts, all social decency, order, peace, and enjoyment would be at an end. The world would be a Pandemonium. We rejoice that He who reigns in the ocean and keeps it within bounds, holds in the passions and impulses of the depraved soul. “ The king’ s heart is in the hand of the Lord,” etc. II. HAS SETTLED PERIODS FOR THE OF EVENTS. “ For His hour was not yet come.” Christ recognized that there was a particular hour or crisis for everything He had to do. There was an hour for the commence, merit of His miracles, for His baptism, for His death. His death was the hour of hours. “ Father, the hour has come.” God has appointed scenes in space and in duration for all things that occur in His vast dominion. Nothing He allows to be done in one scene that is intended to occur in another, nothing in one season that is fixed for another. “ To everything there is a season.” Every orb that rolls through immensity has a point it is bound to reach, and an “ hour” ; it is never behind its time. So it is not only in the epochs and eras of human history, but in all the events of individual life. Man’ s decrees and purposes often fail from the fickleness of his own mind, from his want of foresight, and from his want of power. It is altogether otherwise with the designs of the Almighty. When His set time for working comes, not all the power in the universe can stay His hand. When we first look abroad, indeed, upon the busy field of human affairs, and observe the numerous actors, all moving, planning, arranging, we may be tempted for the moment to imagine that destiny itself is in their hands. But when we have looked a little longer and have seen all their schemes deranged, and a result emerging the very opposite, it may be, we begin to discover that there is a power out of sight mightier than all--“ One whose purposes are from everlasting to everlasting, whose counsel shall stand, and who will do all His pleasure.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 8:21-24I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins.Sin here means the departure of the heart from God, general alienation from Him, and in John 8:24 the particular manifestations of such a disposition. In John 13:33 Jesus speaks to the apostles of theimpossibility of following Him in the same terms as at the end of this verse; but for them this impossibility would be but temporary, for He will return to fetch them (John 14:6). For the Jews, on the contrary, there will be no longer a bridge between earth and heaven; their separation will be consummated by their rejection of Him without whom no man cometh unto the Father. (F. Godet, D. D.) Christ and men I. THE OF CHRIST FROM MEN. 1. Christ had a way--undoubtedly that through the Cross to His native heavens. What a way! It will be the study of eternity. 2. Christ pursued His way voluntarily. “ I go.” You cannot force Me. (1) This is no extenuation of the guilt of His murderers. “ The Son of Man goeth … but woe unto the man by whom He is betrayed.” (2) This is the glory of His history. Why has Christ’ s death the power not only to save humanity but to charm the universe? Because it was free. “ I have power to lay down my life,” etc. (3) A more terrible calamity cannot happen than this--far greater than the withdrawment of the sun. There is a sense in which Christ withdraws from impenitent men now. II. THE SEEKING OF CHRIST BY MEN. This is a repetition of Joh 7:34. When I am gone, and the judgments of heaven will descend on your country, you will be seeking Me, but you will not find Me; you will have filled up the measure of your iniquity, the things that belong to your peace will be hid from your eyes. 1. The fruitless seeking is possible. The day of grace closes with some men even while they are in the world. In the judgment He will be earnestly sought, but shall not be found. “ Many shall say unto Me on that day,” etc., etc. 2. This fruitless seeking is lamentable. “ Ye shall die in your sins.” Sin is like quicksand, the man who walks on it must ultimately sink and be lost. “ It sometimes happens on the coast of Britain or Scotland that a person walking on the sand will suddenly find a difficulty in walking. The shore is like pitch, to which the soles of his feet cling. The coast appears perfectly dry, but the footprints that he leaves are immediately filled with water. Nothing distinguishes the sand which is solid and that which is not. He passes on unaware of his danger. Suddenly he sinks. He wishes to turn back, but it is already too late. The slow burial of hours continues: the sand reaches to his waist, to his chest, to his neck; now only his face is visible. He cries; the sand fills his mouth, and all is silent.” What a striking emblem of the danger of sin! III. THE ETERNAL OF CHRIST FROM MEN. “ Whither I go ye cannot come.” The separation will be complete and irreversible. “ Ye cannot come.” Christ had said this before (John 7:34), and He refers to it again (John 13:33). So that to Him the words had a terrible meaning. More terrible words than these could not be sounded in human ears, “ Ye cannot come.” It means incorrigible depravity, hopeless misery. Separation from Christ is hell. The commission of every sin contributes to the construction of the impassable gulf. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Final impenitence From the time that our Lord left the world down to this day, the expression has been peculiarly true of the Jewish nation. They have been perpetually, in a sense, “ seeking” and hungering after a Messiah, and yet unable to find Him, because they have not sought aright. In saying this we must carefully remember that our Lord did not mean to say that any of His hearers were too sinful and bad to be forgiven. On the contrary, not a few of them that crucified Him found mercy on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached (Acts 2:22-41). But our Lord did mean to say, prophetically, that the Jewish nation, as a nation, would be specially hardened and unbelieving, and that many of them, though an elect remnant might be saved, would “ die in their sins.” In proof of this peculiar blindness and unbelief of the Jewish nation we should study Acts 28:25-27, Romans 11:7, and 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16. The Greek expression for “ sins” in this verse confirms the view. It is not, literally rendered, “ sins,” but “ sin” : your special sin of unbelief. Let us note that I. IT IS TO SEEK CHRIST TOO LATE, OR FROM A WRONG MOTIVE, and so to seek Him in vain. This is a very important principle of Scripture. True repentance, doubtless, is never too late, but late repentance is seldom true. There is mercy to the uttermost in Christ; but if men wilfully reject Him, turn away from Him, and put off seeking Him in earnest, there is such a thing as “ seeking Christ” in vain. Such passages as Proverbs 1:24-32; Matthew 25:11-12; Luke 13:24-27; Hebrews 6:4-8; Hebrews 10:26-31, ought to be carefully studied. II. THAT IT IS FOR MEN TO “ DIE IN THEIR SINS,” and never come to the heaven where He has gone. This is flatly contrary to the doctrine taught by some in the present day, that there is no future punishment, and that all will finally be forgiven. It is worthy of remark that our Lord’ s words, “ Ye shall seek Me,” and “ Whither I go ye cannot come,” are used three times in this Gospel--twice to the unbelieving Jews, here and at John 7:34, and once to the disciples, John 13:33. But the careful reader will observe that in the two first instances the expression is coupled with, “ Ye shall not find Me,” and “ Ye shall die in your sins.” In the last, it evidently means the temporary separation between Christ and His disciples which would be caused by His ascension. (Bp. Ryle.) Unbelief fatal Observe the infinite difference between dying in our sins, and dying not in our sins. Lazarus, and Dives the rich man, both died--one in his palace, but in his sins; the other famished at the gate, but not in his sins. Stephen was stoned to death, but not in his sins, for he could say Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” “ I see the Son of man,” etc.; but Judas, in his sins, went and hanged himself. Ananias and Sapphira died in their sins, but the thief upon the cross cast his last look upon the Saviour, and his sins, though many, were instantly forgiven. I. Let us contemplate THIS FEARFUL OF THE CERTAIN END OF ALL . 1. They die under the sentence of Divine condemnation for their sins. 2. They die under the dominion or power of them. 3. Under the guilt and misery of sin. 4. They die to experience the immediate and everlasting punishment denounced upon them. II. THE UPON WHICH THIS FEARFUL AND DOOM CAN BE AVERTED. It is involved in the converse of the text--if ye believe not, ye shall die--but if ye believe, ye shall not die. 1. The object of their believing. 2. The nature of their belief. Must be cordial, entire, practical, “ With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” 3. The spiritual importance and efficacy of such faith. Saving in its effects by divine appointment. III. . 1. Let those who have faith exercise it on the glorious object. Appreciate the glory and grace of that Saviour by faith in whom they have life everlasting. 2. Let those who believe not in Jesus remember--.” They are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (The Evangelist.) To die in sin is the most terrible death This is a heavy doom, and the very door of damnation. It is a sad thing to die in prison, to die in a ditch, but far worse to die in your sins. Death to the wicked is as a trapdoor to let them into hell; so that it is a just wonder that, foreseeing their danger, they do not go roaring and raving out of the world. (J. Trapp.) Dying in sin Charles IX (who gave order for the massacre on St. Bartholomew’ s day, 1575) expired bathed in his own blood from his veins, whilst he said, “ What blood--what murders--I know not where I am--how will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever. I know it.” Francis Spira, an Italian apostate, exclaimed, just before death, “ My sin is greater than the mercy of God. I have denied Christ voluntarily; I feel that He hardens me, and allows me no hope.” Hobbes--“ I am taking a fearful leap into the dark.” Sinners warned of death On a very dark, stormy night, out West, the wind blew down a part of a railroad bridge. A freight train came along, and it crashed into the ruin, and the engineer and conductor perished. There was a girl living in her father’ s cabin near the disaster, and she heard the crash of the freight train, and she knew that in a few moments an express train was due. She lighted a lantern, and climbed up on the one beam of the wrecked bridge, and then on the main part of the bridge, which was trestle work, and started to cross amid the thunder and the lightning of the tempest and the raging of the torrent beneath. One misstep and it would have been death. Amid all that horror the lantern went out. Crawling sometimes and sometimes walking over the slippery rails and over the trestle work, she came to the other side of the river. She wanted to get to the telegraph station where the express train did not stop, so that the danger might be telegraphed to the station where the train did stop. The train was due in five minutes. She was one mile off from the telegraph station, but fortunately the train was late. With cut and bruised feet she flew like the wind. Coming up to the telegraph station panting, with almost deathly exhaustion, she had only strength to shout, “ The bridge is down!” when she became unconscious, and could hardly be resuscitated. The message was sent from the station to the next station, and the train halted, and that night the brave girl saved the lives of hundreds of passengers, and saved many homes from desolation. But every street is a track, and every style of business is a track, and every day is a track, and every night is a track, and multitudes under the power of temptation come sweeping on and sweeping down toward perils raging and terrific; God help us to go out and stop the train. Let us throw some signal. Let us give some warning. By the throne of God let us flash some influence to stop the downward progress. Beware! Beware! The bridge is down, the chasm is deep, and the lightnings of God set all the night of sin on fire with this warning, “ He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (De Witt Talmage.) Then said the Jews, Will He kill Himself?--Afterwards at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, many of the desperate Jews did the very thing they here said of our Lord--they killed themselves in madness of despair. (Rupertus.) Self-murder was, by the Jews, esteemed the most aggravated of crimes--a crime which sent everyone after death to Gehenna, the place of damnation. Josephus, in the weighty speech wherein he warns his companions in war, who had been hemmed in by the enemy, to refrain from self-murder, says of suicides, “ a darker hell receives the souls of such.” The Jews, no doubt, perceived very well what Christ meant to say. But, instead of permitting themselves to be humbled, their only purpose was to retort upon Christ the cutting expression, “ Ye shall die in your sins,” and, therefore, they contemptuously utter the taunt, “ Well, if He is determined to take His own life and go to Gehenna, He is indeed correct when He says that no one will follow Him thither.” (Tholuck.) Ye are from beneath: I am from above.--An abyss separates heaven, life in God, the home of Jesus, and earth the life of this world, the natural and moral home of the Jews; and faith in Jesus could alone have bridged over this abyss. Hence their perdition is, if they refuse to embrace Him, certain, since He alone could have raised them to heaven. (F. Godet, D. D.) Jesus lived and moved in a different world. His motives were pure, honest, kind, self-sacrificing. His joys were holy, spiritual, expanding, enduring, Divine. He had heaven in His soul, and they had hell begun in theirs. A gulf impassable between them, except by repentance. One must think with Christ, will with Him, toil with Him, endure with Him, and die with Him, so as to dwell with Him forever. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Christ’ s moral elevation The expression is susceptible of two interpretations. 1. Physical or local, in which sense Christ must have meant that He came from the heavenly world, and they had their origin on the earth. But the latter is only true of their bodies; all souls, as did the Divine personality of Christ, come from God. 2. Moral. The language must apply to character, its elevation and degradation. Christ’ s moral character was from above--lofty, divine: theirs from beneath--mean, selfish, low as hell. In this sense Christ was as distant from His age and all unregenerate mankind as heaven from hell. Concerning this distance, note I. IT WAS IN HIS EARTHLY LIFE. 1. It was seen in the conduct of the Jews and others in relation to Him. The Gospels abound with instances illustrative of the felt disparity between Christ and the people with whom He lived (Luke 4:14-27; Matthew 8:5-13; Matthew 21:12; John 8:1-11). It was thus with the soldiers in Gethsemane, Pilate, the spectators of the Crucifixion. Whence arose this felt distance? It cannot be accounted for on the grounds of (1) Social superiority: He was a humble Peasant. (2) Non-sociality: He mingled with the people. It was (3) Simply distance of character. His incorruptible truthfulness, immaculate purity, calm reverence, warm and overflowing benevolence struck them with awe. 2. It was seen in the conduct of Christ in relation to the people. He felt and manifested a moral loneliness. The crowd had nothing in common with Him. What they honoured, He despised; what He loved, they hated. Hence, He only felt akin to those who had kindred sympathy. “ My mother and brethren are those who do My will.” Hence, too, His frequent withdrawal from the people to pour out His sorrows to the Father. And in His lonely hours He bewails the moral character of His age: “ O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee.” He was morally above them. They were mere flickering lamps, dim and sooty; He rolled as a bright star above them. II. IT WAS OF HIS REAL . Whence came such a character as this? 1. Intellectually there was nothing, either in Jewish or Gentile mind, to give rise to such a doctrinal system as that propounded by Jesus of Nazareth. His revelation of God’ s love transcended all human conception. 2. And morally there was nothing in His age to produce such a character. How could immaculate purity come out of an age of corruption--incorruptible truth come out of a world of falsehood--self-sacrificing love out of a world of selfishness? Men’ s characters are formed on the principle of imitation; but Christ’ s character could not be thus formed. He had no perfect form to imitate. Even the best of the patriarchs and the holiest of the prophets were imperfect. How can you account for the existence of such a character as His? Tell me not it came of the earth. Do grapes grow on thorns? Did the flaming pillar in the wilderness grow out of the sand? (1) His perfect moral excellence was universally felt, not because there was no effort employed to discover imperfections in Him; the keen eye of His age was always on the watch, to descry some moral defect. And Pilate, who had every facility for knowing Him, and every motive for condemning Him, said, “ I find no fault in Him.” (2) This moral excellence was retained to the last, not because He was not assailed by temptation. Never came the great tempter to any man in a more powerful form than to Christ. How then shall we account for such a character as this? Only on the principle that He was indeed the “ Son of God.” III. IT WAS TO HIS . Had He not been thus morally above mankind, He had lacked the qualification to redeem souls. Holiness has the power to convict, to renovate, to sanctify, and to save. A man who is one with sinners, morally standing on the same platform, can never save them. Because Christ is “ above” them, He rolls His moral thunders down to alarm the careless: pours His sunbeams to quicken the dead; rains His fertilizing showers to make moral deserts blossom as the rose. As the well-being of the earth depends upon the heavens, so the spiritual progress of humanity depends upon that Character that is stretched over us like the sunny skies. Conclusion: The subject predicates 1. The way to true elevation. Men are endowed with aspirations. But what altitudes should they scale to reach true dignity? Commerce, literature, scholarship, war? No; from all these heights man must fall--fall like Lucifer, the sun of the morning. The altitude of imitating Christ is that which conducts to glory. Seek the things “ above.” Press on to assimilation to that character that is above you. It will always be above you, and so far it meets the unbounded moral aspirations of your heart. “ Be ye holy, even as God is holy.” Christ’ s character is everlastingly saying to you, “ Come up hither.” 2. Reveals the only way by which we can regenerate the world. Keep at a moral distance from mankind. Let the people amongst whom we bye feel that we are morally above them. In this age, what is called the Church is morally so identified with the spirit that moves the world, that it is on the same moral plane as the market, the theatre. 3. Presents motives for the highest gratitude. The grandest fact in the history of our planet is, that a perfect moral character has been here, wearing our nature. Though His physical personality is gone, His character is here still. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Methods of living There are three methods of living--from beneath, from within, from above. We none of us live after one single method. There has been but one self-consistent man, Jesus, who followed one method throughout. But no other man is either wholly good or consistently bad. Three distant principles, however, of the formation of character are clearly manifest. I. LIFE FROM BENEATH we can easily recognize. The world has received Christian education enough to lead it publicly, at least to repudiate the method of the devil, even though they may follow it privately. II. LIFE FROM WITHIN is good so far as it goes. It is the effort to live as a human being may best live in the powers of his own reason, and out of the motives of his own heart without seeking help from above. And it is fair to say that some who follow it reach admirable results. Christian faith need not make us blind to natural virtues. III. BUT FAILS TO THIS METHOD OF LIVING. Yet Jesus must have looked out upon life with as quick an appreciation of anything fair in it as any of us can ever feel, and was always ready to see good where we cannot. Nevertheless, He admits of only two sharply defined principles and tendencies--one of this world and tending towards that which is beneath; and the other like His own higher life rising towards that which is above. This is admittedly a difficulty. We observe a good deal of loveableness and goodness in the world growing out of men’ s hearts without any religions vitality in it; Christ recognized nothing of the kind. Which is right? 1. Remember that Jesus went beyond all that is temporary in human conduct, and that His judgments have reference to radical principles and final issues. When, therefore, He distinguishes two opposite methods of life only, while human experience shows us a third, the question arises whether life can go on much farther in the halfway fashion? Is not this intermediate way a path that must break off somewhere, and he who follows it be compelled to scale the height or plunge into the abyss? Is it anything more than a provisional method, and so cannot be justified as a necessary and reasonable expedient for a life? 2. It is a great presumption against it that it is an expedient, and cannot possibly be the full, final method of an immortal soul. It is a serious disadvantage that the plan must be held subject to death, and will have to be dropped in the grave. As thinking, acting beings, we want to plan our lives for ages, not for years; and who of us expect to live one single day after death without finding ourselves obliged to take God and the whole kingdom of righteousness into our account of life? I cannot live fifty, one hundred, one thousand years hence, still drifting on in unconcern about the greatest and final realities of the universe. 3. Some will admit this disadvantage, but, however they may wish to believe as their mothers have, say, “ I must build my life upon known facts and truths which experience can substantiate.” So be it, give me facts to build into the substantial arch of a life, but let me not neglect the Keystone, because life can be carried so high without it, and the temporary scaffolding hold all in place for the present. And if the gospel brings the facts which are necessary to make life entire we ought at once to use them. Is faith in Christ, this Keystone, which completes and secures all, and that with no temporary scaffolding of our own construction, but with the righteousness of God? 4. Let me ask you who are trying to live honourably without religion to search the scriptures of your heart, and of providence, and see if the present fact of a living God is not everywhere pressed upon you? But beside this there is a whole range of Divine facts in the world called Christianity, as positive facts of history as the rocky mountains are facts of geography; and one might as reasonably attempt to engineer a railroad across America without taking the mountains into account as to seek to stretch a purpose across this life without taking Christianity into his plan. From these facts let us specify (1) The person of Christ. Pilate did not know what to do with it and would wash his hands; but the world cannot evade its responsibility. Christ stands before the judgment throne of every soul, and the final question of our lives, whether we will or no, becomes, “ What shall I do with Jesus?” etc. (2) The power of the Holy Ghost in the lives of men. This is a fact which runs through the whole range of Christian history, and is not unknown outside it, or whence those instinctive prayers, great ideas, visions of better things? 5. We must allow that a provisional way of living is justifiable only on the supposition that it is necessary. One may live as well as he can in a tent, provided there is no material of which he can build a house. One may camp out under a mere moral theory of life, provided a religious home is an impossibility. But there are materials sound and ample for a Christian home in life in the Christian Church. Do not then camp out, but come in. Conclusion: Note some considerations which show the completeness of the Christian method of living and the incompleteness of the best method which is not clearly Christian. 1. The Christian method is life from above. Christ finds the lost child and sets him in the midst of the Divine Fatherhood, and thus brings life into union with God. 2. It harmonizes everything in and around us, and the growing harmony of life is the sure proof that the method cannot be wrong. 3. Without these reconciliations the best life must be imperfect, and its method therefore to be eschewed. (Newman Smyth, D. D.) If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.--Our Lord spoke as One having authority, as a king from the throne, a judge from the tribunal. I. WHAT IS IN OUR IN CHRIST. 1. A deep sense of our need of Him as the only and all-sufficient Saviour. “ They that are whole need not a physician” (Isaiah 27:13; Matthew 9:12). 2. A giving full credit to the gospel revelation concerning Him in His Person, offices, and work. 3. A full conviction of conscience arising (1) From a discernment of the excellency of what is revealed. (2) From the manner in which it is revealed. 4. A removal of all enmity and aversion to Christ. 5. A. powerful attraction of the whole soul to Christ, a closing in with the gospel way of salvation, and a cleaving to Him with full purpose of heart. II. THE AWFUL OF (Ezekiel 3:18). Unbelievers 1. Die in a state of guilt and under condemnation. Their conscience condemns them because they have defiled it; the law, because they have broken it; the gospel, because they have rejected it. This condemnation is now (John 3:18). 2. Die under the power and dominion of sin (Revelation 22:11). 3. Dying in their sins, they sink under everlasting punishment. Those who sin against the remedy perish without it. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The greatest calamity I. TO DIE IN ONE’ S SINS IS THE . To die is a terribly solemn thing, for it involves separation from home, business, acquaintance, world, the very body itself, and introduction into a mysterious, untried, spiritual state of retribution. But to die in sin adds immeasurably to its solemnity. Sin is the sting of death. To die in one’ s sins means 1. To die having misused this life with all its blessings. Life’ s grand purpose is the cultivation of a holy character. For this (1) All physical blessings are given: health, time, nature. (2) All social pleasures and happy interchanges of thought, feeling, and soul (3) All mental blessings, literature, science, poetry, schools, etc. (4) All redemptive blessings--the gospel with its soul-saving appliances. He who dies in his sins has abused all. 2. To die with all the conditions of misery-conflicting passions, tormenting conscience, a dreaded God, foreboding anguish. It this is not hell, what is it? Better a thousand times to die in a pauper’ s hovel or in a martyr’ s tortures than to die in sin. II. IS CHRIST READERS THIS OF . Belief in Christ, as the Revealer of God, is essential to the deliverance of man from the guilt, power, and consequence of sins. 1. This deliverance requires the awaking in the soul of a supreme affection for God. Love to God only can destroy the old man. 2. A supreme affection for God requires a certain revelation of Him. In what aspects must the Eternal appear to man before this love can be awakened? He must appear personally, forgivingly, and sublimely perfect. 3. This certain revelation is nowhere but in Christ. Belief in Him therefore is essential to a deliverance of the soul from sin. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Unbelief is a sin 1. Heavy with the burden of ingratitude (Luke 17:17). 2. Heavy with the burden of a broken law (Galatians 3:10). 3. Heavy with impending wrath of God (John 3:36). 4. Crimsoned with blood (Isaiah 1:18; Hebrews 10:26; Hosea 1:2). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Unbelief I. IS THE THING THAT RUINS MEN. All manner of sin may be forgiven. But unbelief bars the door against mercy (Mark 16:16; John 3:36. II. WAS THE SECRET OF THE JEWS BEING SO “ OF THE WORLD.” If they would only have believed in Christ, they would have been “ delivered from this present evil world.” The victory that overcomes the world is faith. Once believing on a heavenly Saviour a man has a portion and a heart in heaven (Galatians 1:4; 1 John 5:4-5). III. THERE IS NOTHING HARD OR IN WARNING MEN PLAINLY OF THE OF . Never to speak of hell is not acting as Christ did. (Bp. Ryle.) Unbelief will destroy the soul If but one sin be unrepented of, the man continues still a bond slave of hell. By one little hole, a ship will sink into the bottom of the sea. The stab of a penknife to the heart will as well destroy a man as all the daggers that killed Caesar in the senate house. The soul will be strangled with one cord of vanity as well as with all the cart ropes of iniquity: only the more sins, the more plagues and fiercer flames in hell; but he that lives and dies impenitent in one, it will be his destruction. One dram of poison will despatch a man, and one reigning sin will bring him to endless misery. (R. Bolton.) Dying in sin A dying woman, after a life of frivolity, said to me, “ Do you think that I can be pardoned?” I said, “ Oh, yes,” Then, gathering herself up in the concentrated dismay of a departing spirit, she looked at me and said, “ Sir, I know I shall not!” Then she looked up as though she heard the click of the hoofs of the pale horse, and her long locks tossed on the pillow as she whispered, “ The summer is ended.” (T. DeWitt Talmage.) We must believe or perish Unbelief stops the current of God’ s mercy from running; it shuts up God’ s bowels, closeth the orifice of Christ’ s wounds, that no healing virtue will come out. “ He could not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). (T. Watson.) Judgment overtakes sin suddenly The Rev. F.W. Holland in 1867 was encamped in Wady Feiram, near the base of Mount Serbal. He says: “ A tremendous thunderstorm burst upon us. After little more than an hour’ s rain the water rose so rapidly in the previously dry wady (valley), that I had to run for my life, and with great difficulty succeeded in saving my tent and goods, my boots, which I had not time to pick up, being washed away. In less than two hours a dry desert wady, upwards of 300 yards broad, was turned into a foaming torrent from eight to ten feet deep, roaring and tearing down, and bearing everything before it--tangled masses of tamarisks, hundreds of beautiful palm trees, scores of sheep and goats, camels, donkeys, and even men, women, and children, for a whole encampment of Arabs was washed away a few miles above me. The storm commenced at five o’ clock in the evening, and at half-past nine the waters were rapidly, subsiding, and it was evident that the flood had spent its force. In the morning a gently flowing stream, but a few yards broad and a few inches deep, was all that remained of it. But the whole bed of the valley was changed. Here great heaps of boulders were piled up, where hollows had been the day before; there holes had taken the place of banks covered with trees. Two miles of tamarisk wood, which was situated above the palm grove, had been completely washed away, and upwards of a thousand palm trees swept down to the sea. The change was so great that I could not have believed it possible in so short a time had I not witnessed it with my own eyes.” So sudden, and greater far will be the final ruin of those who build their hopes of eternal life on the sand of human doing, and not upon the “ Rock” --Christ Jesus. John 8:25-27 Then said they unto Him, Who art Thou?…Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. By thus expressing Himself, Jesus evidently declared Himself to be the expected One. He avoided, however, the term “ Messiah,” as subject to too much misunderstanding among the Jews. It was, however, just this term which His hearers desired to extort from Him, and it was with this object that they asked the question: “ Who art Thou?” In other words: “ Have at least the courage to speak out plainly.” In fact, an express declaration on this point might have furnished them matter for a capital accusation. The answer of Jesus is: Absolutely what I also declared unto you--neither more nor less than My words imply. He appeals to His own testimony as the adequate expression of His nature. They have only to fathom the series of statements He has made concerning Himself, and they will find therein a complete analysis of His mission and essence. The application of this reply of Jesus was that, to discover His true nature and the position He filled towards Israel and the world, it was sufficient to weigh the testimony which He had for some time borne to Himself. Neither more nor less was to be expected from Him than He Himself stated. In this manner He would be successively recognized as the true Temple (chap. 2); the Living Water (chap. 4); the true Son of God (chap. 5); the Bread of heaven (chap. 6); etc. And thus His name of Christ would be spelt out in some sort, letter by letter, in the heart of the believer, would there take the form of a spontaneous discovery, which would be infinitely more advantageous than if learnt by rote under external teaching. In fact, the confession “ Thou art the Christ,” to be a saving one, must be as with St. Peter (chap. 6:66-69), the fruit of the experience of faith (Matthew 16:17). Jesus never sought or accepted an adherence arising from any other principle. This reply is one of the most characteristic traits of our Lord’ s wisdom, and perfectly explains why He so frequently forbade the twelve to say that He was the Christ. (F. Godet, D. D.) Christ’ s teaching is I. (John 8:25). Probably it was desired that He should make a proclamation of Himself inconsistent with His former utterances; if so it was disappointed. All His utterances meet in Him as rays meet in the sun. This is remarkable if we consider 1. The various and trying circumstances under which He spoke. It was often under intense suffering and great provocation, and often in answer to men who did their utmost to make Him contradict Himself. 2. The diversity in the minds and circumstances of those who reported His speeches. How different in faculties, taste, culture, habits, and angles of observation were His four biographers; and yet their reports agree. II. (John 8:26). Christ suited His teaching to the capacities and characters of His hearers. In His mind there was an infinite treasury of truth; but His administration of it was gradual. Indeed no finite intelligence could take in all that was in the mind of Christ; it would take Eternity to unfold all His wonderful thoughts. This progressiveness 1. Supplies a motive to stimulate human inquiry. Christ will teach you according to your capacity. The more you learn of Him, the more He will teach you. 2. Shows His suitability as a Teacher for mankind. Men have naturally a craving for knowledge; and the more they know, the more intense their craving becomes. They therefore want a teacher of boundless resources. III. DIVINE. “ He that sent Me,” etc. (John 8:26). He taught not human things, but the things of God--absolute realities--concerning the Divine nature, government, claims, etc. IV. NOT ALWAYS (John 8:27). In this they represent an enormous class in every age, who understand not Christ, but misinterpret Him. Conclusion--Have we put to Christ in earnest the question, “ Who art Thou?” and have we received in docility, faith, and love back into our own hearts an answer from Him? (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 8:28-29 When ye have lifted up the Son of Man.--As instruments they would lift Him to the cross; as a result He would ascend to His throne. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Christ forecasting His death and destiny Christ’ s language here I. REVEALS HIS SUBLIME HEROISM IN THE OF A DEATH. “ When ye have lifted up,” an expression more than once used to signify His crucifixion. This was 1. The culmination of human wickedness. This could reach no higher point than the putting to death of the Son of God. 2. The culmination of human suffering. Crucifixion involved ignominy, insult, torture. Yet how calmly Christ speaks about it--“ He endured the Cross and despised the shame.” There was no faltering note, no complaint, no perturbation, dismay. II. HIS FAITH IN THE TRIUMPH OF HIS CAUSE. “ Then shall ye know,” etc. 1. He was not discouraged by apparent failure. To the world His life ending in crucifixion would appear a stupendous failure: to Him it was a success. His death was as a seed falling into the earth. 2. He did not despair of man’ s improvability. He believed that there would come a reaction in men’ s minds concerning Him. When He was gone they would begin to think, recognize, and give Him credit for excellency, which they did not when He was amongst them. 3. He was not doubtful of ultimate success. He saw the day of Pentecost, the result of apostolic labours, the triumph of His truth through all successive ages, and at last His character moulding the race to His own ideal. III. IMPLIES A OF CONDUCT COMMON IN ALL HISTORY: viz., that good men undervalued in life are appreciated when gone. We see this principle 1. In the family. Members may live together for years, and through infirmity of temper, clashing of tastes, collision of opinion, etc., excellencies may be entirely overlooked. One dies--father, mother, brother, sister--and then attributes of goodness come up in the memory that never appeared before. 2. In the State. Public men, devoted to the common good, and loyal to conscience, clash with popular opinions and prejudices and are bitterly denounced. They die, and their virtues emerge, and fill the social atmosphere with fragrance. Burke, Hume, and Cobden are examples of this. 3. In the Church. A minister labours for years among a people--too thoughtful to be appreciated by the thoughtless, too honest to bow to current prejudices--so that his work passes unacknowledged and unrequited. He dies, and has a moral epiphany. It was so with Arnold and Robertson. IV. A OF HIS TO THE ETERNAL FATHER. “ As my Father hath taught me,” etc. (John 8:29). 1. He was the Pupil of the Father. 2. He was the Companion of the Father. 3. He was the servant of the Father. “ I do always those things that please Him,” though I displease you. Conclusion: 1. This subject reveals the sublime uniqueness of Christ. Who, amongst all the millions of men that have appeared, could use such language as this? Who could forecast such a terrible future with such accuracy and composure? Who could proclaim such a Divine relationship? As our system has but one sun, our universe has but one Christ. 2. This subject suggests the Christ verifying force of human history. What Christ here predicts history has established. Through His crucifixion ever increasing multitudes have been convinced that He is the true Messiah. (D. Thomas, D. D.) He that hath sent Me is with Me1. Unity of essence. 2. Communion of spirit. 3. Consciousness of favour. 4. Present help. 5. One in eternal plans. Jehovah was ever at His right hand in might, majesty, and love. To be with God is to have light without darkness, truth without falsehood, power without weakness, love without limit. The sunbeams spread their golden wings over us, and yet abide with the sun, from whence they flow. He who sent His Son into the world was so with Him, that He shared, so to speak, all the opprobrium and enmity with which His mission was met. In the same manner is Christ with His people. (Matthew 25:40). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The exemplary life I. LIFE BY GOD. “ Sent me.” Christ was appointed by God to His Work (1 John 4:14). Every life is a plan of God. Cunning workmen in building the Temple were inspired by Him. He sends to all kinds of lawful work. Lowly workers realize this, it will exalt and encourage you. II. LIFE OF GOD. Our Lord’ s life and work were ever well pleasing to God. So may our life and work be if, by His help, we are diligent, faithful, unselfish, and do all as unto Him. III. LIFE BY GOD. Please God in your life and you will realize His gracious presence. His presence is an assurance of support in trial, victory in conflict, guidance, progress, etc. (W. Jones.) The Father hath not left Me alone. Let us not think holiness in the hearts of men here in the world is a forlorn, forsaken, and outcast thing from God, that He hath no regard of. Holiness, wherever it is, though never so small, if it be but hearty and sincere, it can no more be cut off and discontinued from God, than a sunbeam here upon earth can be broken off from its intercourse with the sun, and be left alone amidst the mire and dust of this world. The sun may as well discard its own rays, and banish them from itself, into some region of darkness, far remote from it, where they shall have no dependence at all upon it, as God can forsake and abandon holiness in the world, and leave it a poor orphan thing, that shall have no influence at all from Him to preserve and keep it. Holiness is something of God, wherever it is; it is an efflux from Him, that always hangs upon Him, and lives in Him, as the sunbeams, though they gild this lower world, and spread their golden wings over us, yet they are not so much here, where they shine, as in the sun, from whence they flow. God cannot draw a curtain betwixt Himself and holiness, which is nothing but the splendour and shining of Himself. He cannot hide His face from it; He cannot desert it, in the world (Matthew 28:20; Acts 9:4-5; 2 Timothy 4:17). (R. Cudworth.) I do always those things which please Him.--Eternally, past, present, and future at all times, everywhere, in all ways, He requires from all, and teaches all those things which please God. Of whom but the eternal Son and Spirit can this be said? (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The Christian’ s motto Observe Christ as I. THE . Our text is true of our Lord every way. 1. Of His incarnation we read, “ Lo, I come … I delight to do Thy will.” He did the thing which pleased the Father during His obscure life as the carpenter’ s Son. He was “ The holy child Jesus.” At the end of His retirement the Father set His seal upon His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased at His baptism, when He fulfilled all righteousness, a type of the perfect obedience He intended to render. His temptation and victory were well pleasing to God, the token whereof was the ministration of angels. Throughout His life He fulfilled Isaiah 42:21. He magnified the ceremonial law by coming under it and observing it until the time when it passed away; and the moral law by such obedience as enabled Him to say, “ Which of you convinceth him of sin.” Hence the same attestation at the Transfiguration as at the Baptism, and the answer to His prayer, “ Father, glorify Thy name.” The miracles were tokens of the Father’ s pleasure Acts 2:22). In His death “ it pleased the Father to bruise Him.” It pleased God that He should ascend, for “ He received gifts for men.” God is pleased with His intercession, for it is all prevalent. It will please that He should come again; for all judgment is committed to His hands. 2. The saving works of Jesus are lovely in the Father’ s eyes. “ The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper,” etc. “ I have no pleasure in the death,” etc. 3. The benefits which Christ confers on the saints please the Father; “ for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell,” and it pleases Him when of His fulness we receive grace for grace. II. THE MODEL. In taking Christ as our example 1. It implied that we ourselves are rendered pleasing to God. As long as a man is obnoxious to God, all he does is obnoxious. “ They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” 2. Included in this is the avoiding all things that displease Him. (1) Pride, whether of talent, self-righteousness, wealth, dress, rank. “ The Lord resisted the proud.” (2) Sloth--which God couples with wickedness. (3) Unwatchfulness, carelessness, indifference, neglect. (4) Anger, oppression, craftiness, covetousness, worldliness. (5) Unbelief--doubts of His power and faithfulness. (6) Murmuring. 3. It should be our intent and earnest design to please God. We shall not do this by accident; we must give our whole souls to it. 4. The text is positive and practical. “ Do.” (1) Christ was prayerful, and it cannot please the Father for His child not to speak to Him. (2) Christ loved God and man. (3) Christ pleased not Himself, and to please God we must deny ourselves. (4) Christ was separate from sinners, and we must not be conformed to the world. (5) To please God note Psalms 69:30, and Hebrews 13:16, and learn to cultivate a thankful spirit; note-- 1 John 3:22, and Hebrews 11:5-6. and believe; note Colossians 1:10, and learn that resignation is pleasing to God. 5. These things must be actually done. “ I do.” It will not suffice to talk or pray about them or to be charmed with them. 6. “ Always.” At home as husband or wife, etc.; at business as master or servant. There must not be at any moment anything that we should not like God to see, nor be where we should not like Christ to find us. 7. By doing the things that please God. (1) We shall enjoy and retain the presence of the Father, not otherwise. (2) We shall be girded with strength; otherwise we shall be impotent. (3) The Lord will be with us in our work. Conclusion: 1. Is this too high a model? Would you prefer an example that would let you be contented with a measure of sin? Do you think it an impossible ideal? But what about the promised help of the Spirit? 2. Have you failed? Then grieve over it, and try again. (C. H. Spurgeon.) We must please God always It will not suffice to say I do the things which please God when I go out to worship. The Christian must aim to say “ I do always.” I have known some persons take a holiday from Christ’ s service sometimes. They say “ Once a year surely one may indulge.” If holiness is slavery then surely you are the slave of sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Conduct insisted by love A child had a beautiful canary, which sang to him from early morning. The mother of the child was ill--so ill that the song of the little bird, which to the boy was delicious music, disturbed and distressed her so that she could scarcely bear to hear it. He put it in a room far away, but the bird’ s notes reached the sick bed, and caused pain to her in her long, feverish days. One morning, as the child stood holding his mother’ s hand, he saw that when his pet sang, an expression of pain passed over her dear face. She had never yet told him that she could not bear the noise, but she did so now. “ It is no music to me,” she said, as he asked her if the notes were not pretty. He looked at her in wonder. “ And do you really dislike the sound?” “ Indeed I do,” she said. The child, full of love to his mother, left the room. The golden feathers of the pretty canary were glistening in the sunshine, and he was trilling forth his loveliest notes; but they had ceased to please the boy. They were no longer pretty or soothing to him, and taking the cage in his hand he left the house. When he returned he told his mother that the bird would disturb her rest no more, for he had given it to his little cousin. “ But you loved it so,” she said; “ how could you part with the canary?” “ I loved the canary, mother,” he replied; “ but I love you more. I could not really love anything that gave you pain. It would not be true love if I did.” (Quiver.) As He spake these words many believed on Him The force of truth A woman in Scotland, who was determined, as far as possible, not to have anything to do with religion, threw her Bible and all the tracts she could find in her house into the fire. One of the tracts fell down out of the flames, so she picked it up and thrust it in again. A second time it slipped down, and once more she put it back. Again her evil intention was frustrated, but the next time she was more successful, though, even then only half of it was consumed. Taking up the portion that fell out of the fire, she exclaimed, “ Surely the devil is in that tract, for it won’ t burn.” Her curiosity was excited; she began to read it, and it was the means of her conversion. It was one of my sermons. Verily that sermon, and the woman too, “ were saved, yet so as by fire.” What wondrous ways the Lord has of bringing home the truth! (C. H. Spurgeon.) A word in season Lady Huntingdon once spoke to a workman who was repairing a garden wall, and pressed him to thoughtfulness on the state of his soul. Some years afterwards, she was speaking to another man on the same subject, and said, “ Thomas, I fear you never pray, nor look to Jesus Christ for salvation.” “ Your ladyship is mistaken,” answered the man; “ I heard what passed between you and James at such a time, and the word you designed for him took effect on me.” “ How did you hear it?” “ I heard it on the other side of the garden, through a hole in the wall, and shall never forget the impression I received.” John 8:31-59 Then said Jesus unto those Jews which believed on Him.A glorious liberator I. FREEDOM . 1. Sin makes bondage (John 8:34; Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13; Romans 6:16-17; Galatians 4:25; 2 Peter 2:19). 2. Truth brings freedom (John 8:32; Romans 6:14; Romans 6:18; Romans 7:6; James 1:25; 1 Peter 2:16). 3. Christ gives freedom (John 8:36; Psalms 40:2; Psalms 118:5; Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 7:22; Galatians 5:1). II. BONDAGE . 1. By doing evil deeds (John 8:44; Genesis 3:13; Genesis 6:5; Matthew 13:38; Mark 7:23; Acts 13:10; 1 John 3:8). 2. By disbelieving the Lord (John 8:45; Isaiah 53:1; Luke 22:67; John 4:48; John 5:58; John 6:36; John 8:24). 3. By not hearing truth (John 8:47; Isaiah 6:9; Matthew 13:15, John 3:12; John 5:47, 1 John 4:6). III. DEATH . 1. A dying race (John 8:53; Genesis 3:19; Psalms 89:48; Ecclesiastes 12:5; Zechariah 1:5; Romans 5:12; Hebrews 9:27). 2. A life-giving obedience (John 8:51; Deuteronomy 11:27; Acts 5:29; Romans 6:16; Hebrews 5:9; 1 Peter 1:22). 3. An ever-living Saviour (John 8:58; Psalms 90:1; John 1:1; John 17:5; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:10; Revelation 1:18). (Sunday School Times.) Bondage and freedom I. BONDAGE. 1. An ancient institution (Genesis 9:25-26). 2. Called bondmen (Genesis 43:18; Genesis 44:9). 3. Some born in bondage (Genesis 14:14; Psalms 116:16). 4. Some captured in war (Deuteronomy 20:14; 2 Kings 5:2). 5. Subject to sale (Genesis 17:27; Genesis 37:28-36). 6. Debtors sold into bondage (2 Kings 4:1; Matthew 18:25). 7. Thieves sold into bondage (Exodus 22:3). 8. Bondage of Israelites not perpetual (Exodus 21:2; Leviticus 25:10). II. BONDAGE. 1. Is to the devil (1 Timothy 3:7; 2 Timothy 2:26). 2. Is to fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). 3. Is to sin (John 8:34; Romans 6:16). 4. Is to corruption (2 Peter 2:19; Romans 8:21). 5. Is to iniquity (Acts 8:23). 6. Is to the world (Galatians 4:8). 7. Is to spiritual death (Romans 7:24). 8. Is unknown by its subjects (John 8:33). III. FREEDOM. 1. Promised (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 24:7; Isaiah 61:1). 2. Typified (Exodus 1:13-14 with Deuteronomy 4:20), 3. Through Christ (John 8:36; Romans 7:24-25). 4. Proffered by the gospel (Luke 4:17-21). 5. Through the truth (John 8:32). 6. Testified by the Spirit (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5-6). 7. Enjoyed by saints (Romans 6:18-22). 8. Saints should abide in it (Galatians 5:1). (Sunday School Times.) The Kingdom of the Truth I. THOSE WHO ARE NOT ITS THOUGH THEY SAY THEY ARE. 1. Accepting a mere dead orthodoxy does not constitute one a genuine subject of the Kingdom of Truth (John 8:31-33). This declaration is levelled against the traditional faiths and old maxims which those Jews were holding as their birthright blessing. 2. Nor being born of respectable and even believing lineage. Our Lord was confronted with the dry statement that they descended from Abraham, and that they were never slaves even in morality. “ Professing themselves wise, they became fools.” Christ answered with directness that the plain reason why they did not believe in Him, was that they were not born of God. All there was of good in their boasted ancestor was due to his having by faith seen Christ’ s day. And when this maddened them, He raised His word to an imperial utterance, such as only the King of the Kingdom of Truth could make (John 8:58). There are two things in this: (1) He that is not in Christ’ s kingdom is in Satan’ s. (2) He who is not a Christian cannot be a true man in life, thought, temper, etc. 3. Nor following mere blind formulas of performance. Education has value; but the truest men in an age like ours must sometimes turn back upon their training with a free judgment. Antiquity is no proof of soundness in the right. The devil has all the force of the argument in that direction, and Jesus told these Jews that Satan was their first father. 4. Nor insisting on mere sincere convictions. One may have honest preferences for an absolutely false standard. It is possible that the affections have grown perverted. The later history of Turner can be explained only on the supposition of a disease in his eyes; this threw all his work out of drawing. He was as honest and industrious as ever; his sense of colour was as fine as in his early days, but his eyes had become mechanically untrustworthy. The men, arguing here with our Lord, did not believe in Him, not because what He told them was not true, but because they, in their innermost hearts, were not true; there was a distorted image upon their souls. II. THOSE WHO ARE ITS . 1. A true man will accept true doctrines. “ As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The two grand divisions of our race have always been ranged around Christ and Anti-Christ (1 John 4:2-6). 2. A true man will cherish true principles. Joseph said he must refuse sin because he could not offend against God. Hazael had no more to offer in objection than that he was afraid he might be thought only a dog. Expediency is not enough, genuineness of principle is needed. 3. A true man will cultivate true tastes. He may not always get in love with some forms and phases of religion. He may find that 1:8 has to get himself into a more amiable and trustful frame of mind before he is anything but the artificial being that training for a bad lifetime has made him. If he does not love gentleness, or humility, or charity, or temperance, or godliness, when he sees it, it is a task for him to set about to grow to love it as soon as he can. For a critic who does not like a true painting is not himself true. If one prefers Turkish jargon to a harmonious tune, he is not true. And when one turns away from a true child of God, it is because he is not true. 4. A true man will manifest true consistency. Christ gave us the Word of God as the standard of reference. The New Testament is the book of manners in the social circle of the Kingdom of Truth. 5. A true man will live a true life. There will be a fine, high unconsciousness that anything else could be expected of him. He never will seek to pose; he means to be. Pure and noble, he wishes only for a career “ without fear and without reproach.” Can anyone tell why the old college song still thrills us when we are quite on in life? There is a wonderful power in the famous “ Integer Vitae” of our early days. We would like to be reckoned as integers--whole numbers--when the world adds up the columns of its remembered worthies (Psalms 15:1-4). (C. S.Robinson, D. D.) Jesus and Abraham I. THE OF THESE JEWS. 1. It was a matter of blood and ancestry. There were, it is true, certain ceremonies to be observed, but it was enough to be “ Abraham’ s seed” to secure the favour of Jehovah. Without that the most diligent piety could not avail. Good parentage no one will despise. If we have got our vigour from virtuous ancestors, we may well be thankful. Even if prodigal of such an inheritance, we shall still have an advantage in the battle of life. Aaron Burr was a stouter sinner because his mother was Jonathan Edward’ s daughter. Robert Burns exhausted himself at thirty-eight, but what did he not owe to an honest and frugal parentage? The first generation of sinners lasts longer than the second; much longer than the third. But it will not do to trust blood as a substitute for religion. “ Who is your father?” may be the first question, but “ Who are you?” comes next. Many a boy disclosing his father’ s name has excited surprise in the police court, but the father’ s good name does not keep him out of prison. Absalom was David’ s son, and Judas Abraham’ s. 2. Christ told the Jews that this dead faith in our ancestor was really a bondage to the devil (John 8:34-44). Their ancestors had been slaves in Egypt and Babylon, and now the Roman Eagle had them in its talons. Yet by some legerdemain of logic they reasoned that to be a Hebrew was to be a free man. At once Jesus set them on a deeper search (John 8:44). What a hard master the devil is! For Paradise Eve gets an apple. See this illustrated in the case of Cain, Esau, Samson, Saul, Judas, Agrippa. The prodigal is sure to be set on the lowest tasks, and left to crave even husks. Nor has the devil grown kinder since. 3. Of course the bondsmen of Satan “ cannot bear” the truth (John 8:43; John 8:45; John 8:47), neither receive nor recognize it. Paul thought he was doing God service when killing Christians, and perhaps these Jews were sincere, but with the maladroitness of those who give themselves to the service of evil they reserve their criticisms for that which was most fair, and direct their assaults when the line was most secure. Our Lord’ s treatment of the woman was apparently the cause of their hostility. The truth and goodness which angered them angers sinners now. II. CHRIST’ S . 1. They are those who abide in Christ’ s Word. The dead religion was a mere name, an accident of birth; the new religion laid hold of the soul and was light and life (John 8:31-32; John 8:47). What the mind must have is truth. A man who believes a lie warms a serpent in his bosom. Christ’ s heel has crushed the head of the serpent of falsehood, and for His disciples its charm is broken. Having come to the light the real children of Abraham continue in it. Bartimaeus has no wish to return to his blindness. The Christian’ s love of the truth is one that lasts. And Christians obey the truth (John 8:31; cf. Pe 1:22; Galatians 3:1; Galatians 3:5; Galatians 3:7). The truth not only touches their intellect, judgment, conscience, but quickens, guides and establishes their will (John 8:39). 2. Yet they enjoy a real freedom--a further contrast (John 8:32; John 8:36; cf. Romans 6:14-22). Subjection to Christ’ s word is not slavery. Freedom does not destroy law nor overturn authority. The best liberty finds its satisfaction within the limits of a law which is loved. Note the Divine order; first a change of heart, then morality and piety. To require these bloodthirsty children of Abraham to do his works would be to put an intolerable yoke upon them. The Bible is a weary book to a bad man. Prayer to the worldly is a burden. For the dissolute no shackles so heavy as the rules of virtue. But change a man’ s mind, and his world is changed. Obedience becomes a song. Besides this, there is the liberty from the penalty of sin by Christ’ s Cross. 3. As a result of all comes an assurance of endless life (John 8:51, etc.). (H. A.Edson, D. D.) The grace of continuance I. A STAGE OF . The mind, heart, will, moved, but the soul not yet made new in Christ. The vestibule of salvation. All depends on holding on. The seed is in the soil, but needs to get root and grow. Satan then tries to check it. II. THE RESULTS OF . 1. Confirmation of discipleship. 2. Revelation of truth. 3. Emancipation from sin. III. OUR LORD GIVES HIS 1. To do. 2. To prove. 3. To know. 4. To become. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Disciples indeed I. THE OF A INDEED. Let us look at Christ’ s first disciples. 1. They forsook all they had. See the case of Paul (Philippians 3:7-8). Every sin, idol, circumstance inconsistent with Christ’ s claim must be renounced. 2. They were docile. Christ taught them as they were able to hear. They had much ignorance and many prejudices, but they willingly sat at Christ’ s feet. This is requisite in all true disciples (Matthew 18:2-3). 3. They had a spiritual knowledge of Christ (John 17:6-8), although the world knew Him not. So it is still (2 Corinthians 4:6). 4. They enjoyed the friendship of Christ (John 15:15). The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him (1 John 1:3). 5. They were engaged in Christ’ s service (John 15:16). “ None of us liveth to himself.” II. THE TO CHRIST’ S . “ Ye shall know the truth.” 1. The truth referred to. Christ is the truth (John 14:6). We read Ephesians 4:21) of the truth as in Jesus--the truth full of Christ’ s personal glory, love, power to save. There is truth in His holy character, in His sublime life, in His vicarious death. He speaks here of the redemptive truth of which He Himself was the sum and substance! 2. The knowledge spoken, of “ Ye shall know,” not as mere theory, but living power, spiritually, experimentally. The inner eye is opened, the inner car is unstopped, the heart is melted, the soul is subdued. Truth must be engrafted in the soul (James 1:21). 3. The result predicated. The truth in Jesus emancipates the soul from the (1) Condemnation (Romans 8:1); (2) the power and depravity of sin (Romans 6:23; Romans 8:30); (3) harassing fear of the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10); (4) the depressing anxieties of life; (5) from the dark and gloomy forebodings of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). III. THE THAT ONE IS A INDEED. “ If ye continue in My word.” Many of Christ’ s professing disciples do not continue in His word. See the parable of the sower. But all Christ’ s true disciples do. 1. His word is engrafted in their souls. The gospel is a living shoot that produces fruit of its own. That soul thus Divinely operated on continues in Christ’ s word, and Christ’ s word continues in it. 2. They are joined to the Lord in an everlasting covenant. Every true disciple has entered into a perpetual covenant to be Christ’ s, having found that he is interested in God’ s everlasting covenant, ratified and established forever by the blood of the Surety! His motto is, “ I am not My own!” 3. They are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Without the indwelling, ever-abiding Spirit, there is no spiritual life, power, worship or service; without Him there is no safety. He comes as our life, and He seals us as God’ s forever and ever. 4. They are kept by the power of God through faith unto final salvation (1 Peter 1:5; John 13:1-2). His Almighty arms of unchanging love areplaced underneath, and round about (Deuteronomy 33:27; Isaiah 27:3). God’ s true people are kept not in mere safety, but in a life of holy love and devotedness; not in sloth and indolence, but in holy activity and spiritual diligence. (T. G. Horton.) Continuous piety is piety indeed It is the evening that crowns the day, and the last act that commends the whole scene. Temporary flashings are but like conducts running with wine at the coronation, that will not hold, or like a land flood, that seems to be a great sea, but comes to nothing. (J. Trapp.) Constancy a severe test of piety Many who have gone into the field, and liked the work of a soldier for a battle or two, soon have had enough, and come running home again; whereas few can bear it as a constant trade: war is a thing that they could willingly woo for their pleasure, but are loath to wed upon what terms soever. Thus many are easily persuaded to take up a profession of religion, and as easily persuaded to lay it down. Oh! this constancy and persevering is a hard word; this taking up the cross daily; this praying always; this watching night and day, and never laying aside our clothes and armour, indulging ourselves to remit and unbend in our holy waiting upon God, and walking with God, this sends many sorrowful from Christ; yet this is the saint’ s duty, to make religion his every day’ s work, without any vacation from one end of the year to the other. (J. Spencer.) The best service is constant After a great snowstorm a little fellow began to shovel a path through a large snow bank before his grandmother’ s door. He had nothing but a small shovel to work with. “ How do you expect to get through that drift?” asked a man passing along. “ By keeping at it,” said the boy, cheerfully. “ That’ s how.” That is the secret of mastering almost every difficulty under the sun. If a hard task is set before you, stick to it. Do not keep thinking how large or how hard it is, but go at it, and little by little it will grow smaller, until it is done. If a hard lesson is to be learned, do not spend a moment in fretting; do not lose breath in saying, “ I can’ t,” or “ I don’ t see how;” but go at it, and keep at it--steady. That is the only way to conquer it. If you have entered your Master’ s service and are trying to be good, you will sometimes find hills of difficulty in the way. Things will often look discouraging, and you will not seem to make any progress at all; but keep at it. Never forget “ that’ s how.” Evidence of discipleship A soldier’ s confidence in his commander is evidenced by the soldier obeying his commander’ s orders. A patient’ s trust in his physician is shown by the patient following the physician’ s directions. A disciple’ s sincerity in his professions of discipleship is proved by the disciple walking according to the Master’ s teaching. It is not that there is any merit in the obedience itself; but it is that there is no sincerity in a profession of faith where there is no obedience. (H. C. Trumbull.) Truth and liberty Faith cometh by hearing (John 8:30). It is in connection with the word of truth that the Holy Spirit works in us. I. THE OF CHRIST’ S WORD BEGINS . There may be alarm, disquietude, inquiry, before this, but these are not discipleship. They are but inquiries after a school and a teacher which will meet the wants, capacities, and longings. All men are saying, “ Who will show us any good?” Discipleship begins, not with doing some great thing, but with receiving Christ’ s word as the scholar receives the master’ s teaching. What does He teach? 1. The Father. 2. Himself. From the moment that we accept this we become disciples--taught not of man, but of God. II. IN THAT WORD IS THE TEST OF TRUE . This is not continuance in general adherence to His cause; but continuance in the word by which we become disciples. As it is by holding the beginning of our confidence that we are made partakers of Christ, so by continuing in the word we make good the genuineness of our discipleship. “ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” --in that word is everything we need. 1. It is an expansive word: ever widening its dimensions; growing upon us; never old, ever new; in which we make continual discoveries; the same tree, but ever putting forth new branches and leaves; the same river, but ever swelling and widening--loosing none of its old water, yet ever receiving accessions. 2. It is a quickening word: maintaining old life, yet producing new--“ Thy word Lord hath quickened me.” 3. It is a strengthening word: nerving and invigorating us; lifting us when bowed down; imparting health, courage, resolution, persistency. 4. It is a sanctifying word: it detects the evil and purges it away, pouring holiness into the soul. Let us continue in this word; not weary of it, not losing relish for it. III. OF THE TRUTH IS THE RESULT OF . All that enter Christ’ s school are taught of God. Consequently they know the truth; not a truth or part of it, but the truth--not error--Him who is the Truth. They shall know it; not guess at it, speculate on it, get a glimpse of it; but make choice of it, realize it, appreciate it. Blessed promise in a day of doubt and error! IV. THIS TRUTH IS LIBERTY. All truth is, so far, liberty, and all error bondage; some truth is greater liberty, some error greater bondage. Bondage, with many, is simply associated with tyranny, bad government, evil or ecclesiastical despotism. Christ’ s words go deeper, to the root of the evil. The real chains, prison, bondage are within--so true liberty. It springs from what a man knows of God and of his Christ. Seldom do men realize this. Error, bondage! How can that be if the error be the man’ s own voluntary doing--the result of his intellectual effort? But the Master is very explicit. The truth shall make you free. There is no other freedom worthy of the name. “ He is a free man whom the truth makes free; and all are slaves besides.” (H. Bonar, D. D.) Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free True freedom 1. Three mighty thoughts--knowledge, truth, freedom. 2. Men claim to be free born or to attain freedom at a great price; yet he who sins is a slave of sin. (1) Political freedom is but the bark, intellectual freedom but the fibre, of the tree spiritual: freedom is the sap. Men contend for bark and fibre, Christ gives the sap. Sometimes we have political freedom, but formal, sapless, as dead as telegraph poles strung with the wires of politicians. 3. Circumstances cannot fetter freedom or confer it. Joseph was as free in the dungeon as on the throne. “ Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” The Israelites in the desert were a nation of slaves despite their liberty. It matters not where I place my watch, so I wind it, it is really free; if I interfere with the works, wherever it may be, it is in bondage. So of man--bind, chain, imprison; if the soul be in sympathy with God, sustained by truth, you have a free man; if the reverse, you have a slave. John, though in prison, was free; Herod, though on the throne, was a slave--Christ and Pilate. Freedom, like the kingdom of heaven, is within. Thetext teaches a threefold lesson--man may know; truth is: the knowledge of the truth brings freedom. I. The word KNOW carries us back to the dawn of history. 1. Two possibilities are placed before man--life or knowledge. Full of life, he chooses knowledge at the risk of life. 2. The race is true to its head--exploration, geographical, scientific, philosophical. 3. Yet men were then setting up altars to the unknown God: men now to God unknowable. The great Teacher says: “ Ye shall know.” 4. The promise implies that man can trust himself and the results of his research and experiences. II. THE SUBJECT OF IS TRUTH. Truth stands in contrast 1. With a lie. Christ accuses His hearers of being children of the devil. Today as then men lie; wilfully misrepresent in business, political, and social life. Truth is consistency between what we 2. With veracity, think and say and what is. Veracity is consistency between what we say and think; but we may think wrongly. 3. Truth is reality as opposed to a lie and to appearance. Christ, as Son of God and Son of Man, sets forth certain realities regarding both, and the relation between the two. That God is, what God is, and what man is: alienation and possible reconciliation; regeneration by the Spirit; the results of separation from and reconciliation with God. These facts, relations, results, are truth, and may be known, III. THE RESULTS OF SUCH IS FREEDOM. 1. Freedom from the past, “ Son, remember;” but the knowledge of God’ s reconciliation blots out the sin-stained past as a cloud. 2. Freedom from fears for the future based upon the past. IV. THE ONE OF ALL THIS IS BELIEF IN CHRIST. Faith as a grain of mustard seed grows into knowledge, etc. (O. F. Gifford.) Freedom by the truth Observe 1. The greatness of Christ’ s aim--to make all men free. He saw around Him man in slavery to man, race to race; men trembling before priestcraft, and those who were politically and ecclesiastically free, in worse bondage to their own passions. Conscious of His Deity and His Father’ s intentions, He, without the excitement of an earthly liberator, calmly said: “ Ye shall be free.” 2. The wisdom of the means. The craving for liberty was not new, nor the promise of satisfying it; but the promise had been vain. Men had tried (1) Force: and force in the cause of freedom is to be honoured, and those who have used it have been esteemed as the world’ s benefactors--Judas Maccabaeus, etc. Had Christ willed so to come, success was certain. Men were ripe for revolt, and at a word, thrice three hundred thousand swords would have started from their scabbards; but in that case one nation only would have gained independence, and that merely from foreign oppression. (2) Legislative enactments. By this England could and did emancipate her slaves; but she could not fit them for freedom, nor make it lasting. The stroke of a monarch’ s pen will do the one--the discipline of ages is needed for the other. Give a constitution tomorrow to some feeble Eastern nation, and in half a century they will be subjected again. Therefore Christ did not come to free the world in this way. (3) Civilization. Every step of civilization is a victory over some lower instinct; but it contains elements of fresh servitude. Man conquers the powers of nature, and becomes in turn their slave. The workman is in bondage to his machinery, which determines hours, wages, habits. The rich man acquires luxuries, and then cannot do without them. Members of a highly civilized community are slaves to dress, hours, etiquette. Therefore Christ did not talk of the progress of the species; he freed the inner man that so the outer might become free. Note I. THE TRUTH THAT .--The truth Christ taught was chiefly about: 1. God. Blot out that thought and existence becomes unmeaning, resolve is left without a stay, aspiration and duty without a support. Christ exhibited God as (1) Love; and so that fearful bondage to fate was broken. (2) A Spirit, requiring spiritual worship; and thus the chain of superstition was rent asunder. 2. Man. We are a mystery to ourselves. So where nations exhibit their wealth and inventions, before the victories of mind you stand in reverence. Then look at those who have attained that civilization, their low aims and mean lives, and you are humbled. And so of individuals. How noble a given man’ s thoughts at one moment, how base at another I Christ solved this riddle. He regarded man as fallen, but magnificent in his ruin. Beneath the vilest He saw a soul capable of endless growth; hence He treated with respect all who approached Him, because they were men. Here was a germ for freedom. It is not the shackle that constitutes the slave, but the loss of self-respect--to be treated as degraded till he feels degraded. Liberty is to suspect and yet reverence self. 3. Immortality. If there be an idea that cramps and enslaves the soul it is that this life is all. If there be one which expands and elevates it it is that of immortality. This was the martyrs’ strength. In the hope and knowledge of that truth they were free from the fear of pain of death. II. THE LIBERTY WHICH TRUTH GIVES. 1. Political freedom. Christianity does not directly interfere with political questions, but mediately it must influence them. Christ did not promise this freedom, but He gave it more surely than conqueror, reformer, or patriot. And this not by theories or constitutions, but by truths. God a Spirit, man His redeemed child; before that spiritual equality all distinctions vanish. 2. Mental independence. Slavery is that which cramps powers, and the worst is that which cramps the noblest powers. Worse therefore than he who manacles the body is he who puts fetters on the mind, and demands that men shall think and believe as others have done. In Judaea life was a set of forms and religion--a congeries of traditions. One living word from Christ, and the mind of the world was free. Later a mountain mass of superstition had gathered round the Church. Men said that the soul was to be saved only by doing what the priesthood taught. Then the heroes of the Reformation said the soul is saved by the grace of God; and once more the mind of the world was set flee by truth. There is a tendency to think, not what is true, but what is respectable, authorized. It comes partly from cowardice, partly from habit. Now truth frees us from this by warning of individual responsibility which cannot be delegated to another, and thrown off on a church. Do not confound mental independence with mental pride. It ought to co-exist with the deepest humility. For that mind alone is free which, conscious of its liability to err, and, turning thankfully to any light, refuses to surrender the Divinely given right and responsibility of judging for itself and having an opinion of its own. 3. Superiority to temptation. It is not enough to say that Christ promises freedom from sin. Childhood, paralysis, impotence of old age, may remove the desire of transgressions. Therefore we must add that ode whom Christ liberates is free by his own will. It is not that he would and cannot; but that he can and will not. Christian liberty is right well sustained by love, and made firm by faith in Christ. This may be seen by considering moral bondage. Go to the intemperate man in the morning, when his head aches and his whole frame unstrung: he is ashamed, hates his sin, and would not do it. Go to him at night when the power of habit is upon him, and he obeys the mastery of his craving. Every more refined instance of slavery is just as real. Wherever a man would and cannot, there is servitude. 4. Superiority to fear. Fear enslaves, courage liberates. The apprehension of pain, fear of death, dread of the world’ s laugh at poverty, or loss of reputation, enslave alike. From all such Christ frees. He who lives in the habitual contemplation of immortality, cannot be in bondage to time; he who feels his soul’ s dignity cannot cringe. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Spiritual and scientific truth There is a well-known picture by Retzsch, in which Satan is represented as playing at chess with a man for his soul. The pieces on the board seem to represent the virtues and the deadly sins. The man is evidently losing the game, while in the background stands an angel sad and helpless, and statue-like. We need not stay to criticize the false theology implied in that picture, because our immediate concern is with a meaning which has been read into that picture by a great scientific teacher of our day. We have been told by Professor Huxley, that if we “ substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel who is playing, as we say, for love, and would rather lose than win,” we shall have a true picture of the relation of man to nature. “ The chessboard is the world; the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us, We know that his play is always fair, and just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.” Such is the modern reading of the picture. And here there is a great truth, or at least one side of a great truth, expressed. It puts before us in a very real and concrete form the fact that, in our mere physical life, we are engaged in a great struggle. We must learn to adapt ourselves truly to the physical conditions of our life, or we must perish in a fruitless opposition to natural laws. But that physical life which we live is not our whole life, nor are what we call the laws of external nature the only laws which we need to know. We are surrounded by spiritual forces in which our moral life is lived. In that more real life we have relations with spiritual beings, some like ourselves and some above us, and One whom we love to call our Father, which is in heaven. Are there no laws in that spiritual world? No truths there, the knowledge of which will make us free? If the violation of physical law is death, is there no death in the moral and spiritual sphere? Is the life of the soul less real, its death less terrible than that of the body? And if not, what do we know of the great spiritual realities which environ life? 1. All truth gives freedom. To know nature is to gain freedom in regard to her; to know her fully is to conform ourselves to her. And to know God is to cease to be afraid of Him, to know Him fully is to love Him perfectly, and to conform ourselves to His likeness. 2. Why, then, is there such fear and jealousy of dogma amongst men who gladly welcome every new truth about their physical life? If all truth is from God, and every truth sets us free, why is it that men hesitate to allow these characteristics to that which, above all, claims to be from God, and to give us perfect freedom? It is here that we touch the characteristic difference which exists between the laws of the spiritual and the laws of the material world. The laws of nature are discoveries; the laws of the spiritual world are revelations. The former are found out; the latter are given. The former are confessedly imperfect, added to continually as years go by; the latter are complete, the same yesterday, to day, and forever. The former lay claim to no finality; they may be challenged, put upon their trial, called upon to justify themselves. The latter, if they are from God, claim our reverence, our obedience, our willing submission. (Aubrey L. Moore, M. A.) Freedom only to be found in God Last summer the good ship Wieland brought over a large number of caged birds. When we were about mid-ocean one restless bird escaped from his cage. In ecstasy he swept through the air, away and away from his prison. How he bounded with outspread wings! Freedom! How sweet he thought it! Across the pathless waste ha entirely disappeared. But after hours had passed, to our amazement, he appeared again, struggling towards the ship with heavy wing. Panting and breathless, he settled upon the deck. Far, far over the boundless deep, how eagerly, how painfully had he sought the ship again, now no longer a prison, but his dear home. As I watched him nestle down on the deck, I thought of the restless human heart that breaks away from the restraints of religion. With buoyant wing he bounds away from Church the prison, and God the prison. But if he is not lost on the remorseless deep, he comes back again with panting, eager heart, to Church the home, and God the home. The Church is not a prison to any man. It gives the most perfect freedom in all that is good and all that is safe. It gives him liberty to do what is right, and to do what is wrong, there is no rightful place to any man in all the boundless universe. (R. S. Barrett.) Freedom by the truth The truth shall set us free from I. . The laws of nature are the laws of God, and to know and obey them will liberate us from every sickness except that of death. There Isaiah 1. The law of heredity, This is a Bible law; for it states that the sins of the fathers shall be carried down to the third and fourth generation, Know that, and care for the health of your bodies, and your posterity will be free from the taint of hereditary disease. 2. The law of sanitation. Know that, and obey it, and you free your cities from fevers and infectious diseases. Much suffering is entailed by ignorance, apathy, or wilful negligence about this truth. 3. The law of temperance; that obeyed will make you free from the suffering of bodily anguish and the sense of degradation. II. SOCIAL . This is one of our most rampant evils. Contrast the suburbs with their villas and the slums with their hovels. These extremes should not exist in a Christian country. What is the cure? The truth that humanity is one. 1. The strong should help the weak. The rich, who enjoy their libraries, drawing rooms, gardens, should not be satisfied that the poor should have to tramp long distances to see a tree or read a book. Parks, museums, baths, libraries, should be within reach; and by recognising the truth on this matter, the wealthy should lend a helping hand. 2. The weak should help themselves. Too much help would pauperize. The poor must be taught and encouraged to raise themselves. Much can be affected by cooperation. If the money spent in beer were utilized for this purpose, the millennium would be hastened. III. . What a pity it is to see the strife of sects over nice doctrinal or ceremonial points. Christ wants His Church to be one, and so do good men. But the truth only will unify; and there is enough truth held in common by all churches, which, if recognized, would soon bring Christian unity. All are agreed that Christ’ s life should be lived by His followers. Surely this is a good working truth; and as all hold it, all should act upon it, and be one. IV. FROM GOD. What a slave was the prodigal, and all his degradation arose from his distance from God. But when the vision of his father arose before his mind, he arose and went back. What sinful men want to know is, the truth about God as revealed by Christ; how He loves the sinner, and would save him from his sins. (W. Birch.) Freedom by the truth It is no strange thing for truth to set people free. What delivers men from terror--e.g., over prodigies, etc.--but the truth about them? In the darkness, which invests harmless objects with weird appearances, the imaginative man is as timid as a child. But let the day dawn, and the truth of things be revealed, and fear vanishes. The truth sets us free from I. THE DREADS OF LIFE. 1. Those which belong to our physical life--dreads of want, disease, poisoned air, accidents. Christ frees us from these by revealing the providence of God (Matthew 6:26-28). 2. Social fears--fears of what men can do unto us. Christ says, “ Fear not them which kill the body,” etc. Their wrath is restrained by our Father; and at their worst they can only drive man closer to God, and bring him nearer home. 3. Spiritual fears--about God. Christ frees from this by His truth--“ Our Father.” II. THE SINS OF LIFE. These make the real bondage. Our fears weaken us, but our sins corrupt, and lead to death. They bind in two ways. 1. By spreading their shame through our soul (Ezra 9:6). Christ frees us by His declaration (John 3:17), and His own treatment of a sinner in shame (John 8:3-11). 2. By weakening our will, so that when we would do good we cannot. Christ brings not only pardon to banish shame, but power to put away sin 1 Timothy 1:13). III. DWARFED OF LIFE. 1. In church life--from the tyranny of forms and places (John 4:21-23). 2. In individual life. The truth of Jesus liberates the highest faculties--faith, hope, love, conscience. (J Todd.) Freedom by the truth Christ, by His truth, delivers man I. From the bondage of . That truth enlightens, invigorates, instructs. II. From the bondage of ERROR. 1. Intellectual--scepticism or superstition. 2. Practical; for with it He gives His example and His guiding spirit. III. From the bondage of ream 1. The fear of death and judgment. 2. Of God’ s conscience-searching word. 3. Of the supernatural. IV. From the bondage of sin. 1. As a fitter. 2. As a service. V. From the bondage of the LAW. 1. The ritual, which is abolished. 2. The moral, which by grace becomes perfect freedom. (P. N.Zabriskie, D. D.) Truth and liberty God’ s grace reveals itself in endless diverse forms. The thousand changing colours which play upon sea, land, and sky, in the high day of summer, are but variations of the one clear and transparent light which comes down from above; and the same water of the sea is the same water of the sea, whether it is called ocean, gulf, or strait. A recognition of this truth is essential to the understanding of what Christian liberty is. It is the liberty of the light which, always opposed to darkness, yet reveals itself in constantly new tints and shades of colour; it is the liberty of the water, ever cleansing and ever essential to life, which yet takes its shape from the vessel into which it is poured. It is the liberty of the tree to be green, of the sea to be blue, of the sunset to be crimson, of the sand to be yellow--each obtaining its own tint from God’ s clear light, and no one quarrelling with the beauty of the other. So God’ s grace reveals itself in the lives of God’ s true children. In each it is the same grace, yet in each it takes a special form and colour--that of the individuality in which it reveals itself. And the liberty for which Christ has made us free, is the liberty for each of us to grow into that special manifestation of grace for which his nature is most fitted. It is freedom for us to grow in our own way, without conforming at all points to the growth of another; and (what we are more likely to forget) it is liberty for others to grow in their way without conforming at all points to our way of growth. If we compare the Church to “ a garden shut up,” we ought to remember that the wise cultivator does not expect the tender vine to grow in the same way as the sturdy oak, nor does he expect the apple or the pear tree to bring forth grapes or figs. (H. G. Trumbull, D. D.) Spiritual liberty Liberty is a matter which interests everyone. But it is sadly limited. By it men mean political, intellectual, physical, and some, alas! sinful freedom. Christ proclaims real liberty--that of the soul. Secure this, and all that is worth the name of liberty will follow. Christ effects this emancipation by the truth. We must accept the truth, not as theory in our minds, or sentiment in our hearts, but by experience and practice; then we shall be free. The truth thus received liberates from I. THE FETTERS OF , , AND --three links in a mighty chain. 1. We have but to pass the line of Christendom to behold a world ignorant of God and Divine truth. What follows? The most debasing superstition, idolatry, witchcraft, etc. Hence the almost invincible prejudice there is at first against the reception of the gospel. 2. But within Christendom and in its most cultivated circles, how many men learned in this world’ s wisdom are utterly ignorant of the things of God? And what can result here but superstition, the worship of the idols of the mind, and putting light for darkness, bitter for sweet? The consequence is sceptical prejudice. 3. The same holds good in regard to Popery. The Bible-prohibited people are in gross darkness; believe what they are told to believe, however irrational; bow to images, and worship the creature above the Creator; and therefore bitterly oppose, and, where they can, persecute the gospel. 4. From all this Christ’ s truth sets us free. (1) By throwing light on the darkness of ignorance, and bringing knowledge to mind and heart. (2) This knowledge removes the grounds of superstition and prejudice. II. THE OF SATAN. However manifold the links bound round the soul led captive by the devil, the last link is in his hand. Men are either slaves of Satan or free men of Christ. Christ comes as a strong man armed to break the links of the chain, which are mainly three. 1. Guilt, and the consequent curse of God. For this Christ provides pardon, and secures God’ s blessing. 2. Corruption, and consequent moral impotence. For this Christ provides the grace of the Holy Spirit. 3. The world and the fear of man, that bringeth a snare. But “ this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” III. THE BONDAGE OF THE FEAR OF DEATH. Spite of his boasting, no man is so hardy but he shrinks from death. Why? Because “ after death the judgment.” This is seen in the mad recklessness of the profligate, and the unspiritual service of the moralist, the religious inventions of the devotee. Momentary oblivion of the dread spectre is all that these can produce. But he who receives the truth of Christ triumphs over death. Conclusion: This liberty includes a service, but it is perfect freedom. (Canon Stowell.) Spiritual emancipation These words suggest I. THAT A OF THE TRUTH MAY BE SECURED. II. THAT THIS IS MENTAL AND . III. THAT IS ALONE SAVING. IV. WHAT IS THE TRUTH, THE OF WHICH MAKES FREE. 1. We may know the truth as we know language, science, etc.; as a mass of doctrines; Christ a historical character like Pilate. All this knowledge may have no effect on the heart or life. 2. The new man obtains his knowledge by a different process. He experiments, verifies, proves. Truth becomes the prevailing principle of action, and enthrones itself. To be sure a man must become possessed of Christian facts and doctrines. These are the bones for the body of holiness. 3. An experimental knowledge of the truth frees man morally, and from the bondage of merely human views, and introduces man into the broad province of ideas world wide in their grasp and extending back to the Creation. 4. The condition of the freedom promised by Christ is belief in His Divine sonship, “ as many as received Him,” etc. The emancipating power of this truth is made to us (1) Wisdom, by enlightening us and thus freeing the mind; (2) Righteousness, by justifying us and thus freeing us from the law; (3) Sanctification, by purifying us and thus freeing our hearts: (4) Redemption by the union of them all, thus purchasing us into blessed immortality. (J. M. King, D. D.) The hour of emancipation August 1, 1834, was the day on which 700,000 of our colonial slaves were made free. Throughout the colonies the churches and chapels were thrown open, and the slaves crowded into them on the evening of the 31 st of July. As the hour of midnight approached they fell upon their knees and awaited the solemn moment, all hushed in silent prayer. When 12 o’ clock sounded, they sprang upon their feet, and through every island rang the glad sound of thanksgiving to the Father of all, for the chains were broken and the slaves were free. (Heroes of Britain.) The freedom which Christ gives It is a freedom from the servitude of sin, from the seduction of a misguided judgment, and the allurement of any ensnaring forbidden object: consisting in an unbounded amplitude and enlargedness of soul towards God, and indetermination to any inferior good; resulting from an entire subjection to the Divine will, a submission to the order of God, and steady adherence to Him. (John Howe.) Spiritual freedom They make a great fuss when they give a man the freedom of the City of London. There is a fine gold casket to put it in. You have got the liberty of the New Jerusalem, and your faith, like a golden box, holds the deeds of your freemanship. Take care of them and rejoice in them tonight. (C. H. Spurgeon.) We be Abraham’ s seed, and were never in bondage to any man Moral bondage Note that its subjects I. ARE OF IT (John 8:33). This was an interruption of Christ’ s discourse on freedom. As much as to say “ Why talk of freedom to us? We are free men.” But in the eye of Christ they were in the most miserable captivity. It is common here in England to hear men 1. Boast of religious liberty who have no religion. Some of its most strenuous advocates are destitute of reverence to God, and charity to men. These will repeat the boast while they are in bondage to their own prejudices, exclusiveness, love of fame or gain. 2. Boast of civil freedom who are moral slaves. Men who are under the tyranny of their own lusts and greed, who are even governed, as Carlyle says, “ by a pot of heavy wet” and a clay pipe, peal out in thunderous chorus “ Britons never shall be slaves.” The worst part of this bondage is that men are unconscious of it. Hence they are mere creatures of circumstances. It is the more sad because it precludes any aspiration for self-manumission; and it is only self-effort that can liberate. Other men may deliver the prisoner from his dungeon, or the slave from his tyrant, or the serf from his despot; but no one can deliver him from bondage but himself, “ He who would be free, himself must strike the blow.” II. ARE THE AUTHORS OF IT (John 8:34). It is not the sin of another man that makes me a slave, but my own. Solomon says, “ His own iniquities shall take the wicked.” Paul says, “ To whom ye yield yourselves to obey his servants ye are,” etc. Shakespeare says, Vice is imprisonment. Every sin a man commits forges a new link in the chain that manacles his soul. The longer a man pursues a certain course of conduct the mere wedded he becomes to it, and the less power he has to abandon it. Habit is a cord strengthened with every action, at first it is as fine as silk, and can be easily broken. As it proceeds it becomes a cable. Habit is a momentum, increasing with motion. At first a child’ s hand can obstruct the progress, by and by an army of giants cannot arrest it. Habit is a river, at its spring you can divert its course with ease, as it approaches the ocean it defies opposition. III. CAN BE FROM IT (John 8:36). How does Christ make the soul free? By generating in the heart supreme love to the supremely good. It is a law of mind to have some permanent object of affection, and that object limits its field of operation. The man who loves money most will have all his faculties confined to that region. The same with him who loves fame, or pleasure, etc. But all these objects are limited; hence the soul is hemmed in as in a cage. In order to have freedom the heart should be centred on an infinite object, and this Christ does. And with God as the centre of the heart all the faculties have unbounded scope. Conclusion: All souls not made free by Christ are in slavery. Even the heathen considered the virtues essential to true freedom. Cicero said “ The wise man alone is free.” Plato represents the lusts as the hardest tyrants. Seneca speaks of the passions as the worst thraldom. Epictetus said “ Liberty is the name of virtue.” And this virtue is obtained only through Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The vain boast of the Jews The whole past history of their nation was the record of one bondage following hard on another, they for their sins having come at one time or another under the yoke of almost every people round about them. They have been, by turns, in bondage to the Canaanites, in bondage to the Philistines, in bondage to the Syrians, in bondage to the Chaldaeans; then again to the Greece-Syrian kings; and now, even at the very moment when this indignant disclaimer is uttered, the signs of a foreign rule, of the domination of the stranger, everywhere met their eye. They bought and sold with Roman money; they paid tribute to a Roman emperor; a Roman governor sat in their judgement hall; a Roman garrison occupied the fortress of their city. And yet, with all this plain before their eyes, brought home to their daily, hourly experience, they angrily put back the promise of Christ, “ The truth shall make you free,” as though it conveyed an insult: “ How sayest thou, ye shall be made free? We were never in bondage to any man.” (Abp. Trench.) Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sinSin is spiritual slavery Sin is the suicidal action of the human will. It destroys the power to do right, which is man’ s true freedom. The effect of vicious habit in diminishing a man’ s ability to resist temptation is proverbial. But what is habit but a constant repetition of wrong decisions. The will cannot be forced or ruined from outside. But if we watch the influence upon the will of its own yielding to temptation, we shall discover that the voluntary faculty may be ruined from within. Whatever springs from will we are responsible for. The drunkard’ s powerlessness issues from his own inclination and therefore is no excuse. “ If weakness may excuse, what murderer, what traitor, parricide, incestuous, sacrilegious, may not plead it? All wickedness is weakness.” Sin is spiritual slavery, if viewed in reference I. TO MAN’ S SENSE OF TO BE HOLY. 1. The obligation to be holy as God is rests upon every rational being, and he is a debtor to this obligation until he has fully met it. Hence even the holiest are conscious of sin, because they are not completely up to this high calling. This sense is as “ exceeding broad” as the commandment, and will not let us off with the performance of a part of our duty. It is also exceeding deep, for it outlives all others. In the hour of death it grows more vivid and painful as all else grows dimmer. A man forgets then whether he has been prosperous or unsuccessful and remembers only that he has been a sinner. It might seem that this sense would be sufficient to overcome sin, and bring man up to the discharge of duty; but experience shows that in proportion as a man hears the voice of conscience, in this particular does be become aware of the bondage of his will. 2. In our careless unawakened state we sin on, just as we live on without being distinctly aware of it. A healthy man does not go about holding his fingers on his wrist, neither does a sinner as he goes about his business think of his transgressions. Yet the pulse beats, and the will transgresses none the less. Though the chains are actually about us they do not gall us. “ We are alive without the law.” But as the Spirit of God awakens the conscience, that sense of the obligation to be perfectly holy starts up and man begins to form an estimate of what has been done in reference to it. Now the commandment comes, shows us what we ought to be and what we are, and we die (Romans 7:9-11). The muscle has been cut by the sword of truth, and the limb drops helpless, and we learn in a most affecting manner that “ whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.” But suppose after this discovery we endeavour to comply with the obligation: this only renders us more painfully sensible of the truth of the text. II. TO THE OF THE SOUL. All those serious impressions and painful anxieties concerning salvation, which require to be followed up by a mighty power from God to prevent their being suppressed again by the love of sin and the world. For though man has fallen into a state of death in sins, yet through the common influences of the Spirit of Grace, and the workings of rational nature, he is at times the subject of aspirations which indicate the heights from which he fell The minds of the greatest of the ancient pagans were the subjects of these aspirations, and they confess their utter inability to realize them. The journals of the missionary disclose the same in modem heathenism. All these phenomena show the rigid bondage of sin. The drunkard in his sober moments longs to be free and resolves never to drink again. But the sin is strong and the appetite that feeds it is in his blood. Temptation comes before the enslaved will. He aspires to resist but will not; and never is he more conscious of being a slave to himself than when he thus ineffectually aspires to be delivered from himself. This applies to all sin. There is no independent and self-realizing power in mere aspiration, and when, under the influence of God’ s common grace, a man endeavours to extirpate the inveterate depravity of his heart, he feels his bondage more thoroughly than ever. III. TO THE FEARS OF THE SOUL. 1. The sinful spirit fears the death of the body, and therefore we are all our lifetime subject to bondage. We know that bodily dissolution can have no effect on the imperishable essence, yet we shrink back from it. 2. The spirit fears that “ fearful something after death” --eternal judgment. We tremble having to give an account of our own actions, and to reap the harvest, the seed of which we have sown. 3. The spirit has an awful dread of eternity. Though this invisible realm is the proper home of the soul, never is the soul stirred to so great depths as when it feels the power of an endless life. Men will labour convulsively day and night for money, power, fame, pleasure; but what is the paroxysm of this activity compared with those throes, when the startled sinner sees the eternal world looming into view. 4. If, now, we view sin in relation to these three great fears we see that it is spiritual slavery. Our terror is no more able to deliver us than our aspirations. The dread that goes down to hell can no more save us than the aspiration that goes up to heaven. Conclusion: 1. This bondage is self-inflicted, and therefore the way of release is not to throw the burden of it upon God. 2. The way out of it is to accept the method of deliverance afforded by Christ. (Prof. Shedd.) The progress of the lost soul to destruction I. Note OF WHOM OUR LORD SPEAKS. “ He that committeth sin” --i.e., he who has become a doer of sin; the habitual, conscious, wilful sinner. He is the bondslave, the absolute thrall, the hopeless subject of an overmastering tyranny. It will help us to obtain a completer view of what this implies if we trace the steps by which the end is reached. 1. We must begin by having a clear idea of what temptation is. It is the suggestion to our mind of the pleasure or good to be got by doing or allowing something which is against the will of God, and so against the perfectness of our own true nature. Such suggestions are innumerable and take their peculiar colour from the temperament of our own mental and bodily constitution. For as there is a special excellence to which we may attain, so there must be, in the perversion of that excellence, a special character of evil to which we are most prone. In the mere entrance of this suggestion there is nothing sinful. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 8:38-47I speak that which I have seen with My Father; and ye do that which ye have seen with your Father The marks of Divine and diabolic relationship Christ had admitted (John 8:37) that the Jews were the seed of Abraham: He now proceeds to show that they had another Father. Those who degenerate from a virtuous stock forfeit the honours of their race. “ These are your forefathers if you show yourselves worthy of them.” I. THE MARKS OF THE OF THE DEVIL. 1. Hatred of the truth (John 8:40; John 8:44-47). This was the real ground of their unbelief. They disliked Christ’ s doctrines. Had He spoken so as to gratify their pride, they might have been disposed to accept Him. The same principle operates in all opponents of the gospel. The tendency of Christ’ s truth is still to humble, and so it is still hated. The Jews said, “ We are Abraham’ s seed; we are no idolaters.” And so many think it sufficient to belong to a pure Church, to be outwardly moral; hence where the necessity of Christ and His salvation? 2. Enmity against God and His people. The Jews were not content with rejecting Christ; they went about to kill Him. In every age he who is born after the flesh persecutes him who is born after the Spirit. Stephen asked the Jews which of the prophets their fathers had not persecuted. They themselves murdered the Just One; and as they treated the Master so they treated His servants. The heathen followed their example, and these, again, were succeeded by the persecutors of Popery. And in spite of the Reformation, the offence of the Cross has not ceased. Godly persons in the nineteenth century find foes in their own households, and that their religion stands in the way of worldly advancement. II. THE MARKS OF THE OF GOD. 1. Hearing the Word of God. This the Jews could not do, because they were prejudiced against it. But those who are born of God do not dictate to Him what He should say; but, conscious of their own ignorance, they gladly listen to and learn from Divine teaching. 2. Doing the works of Abraham. His distinguishing work was faith. He believed God, and it was counted to Him for righteousness. And what a practical faith it was! Obedient, he left his father’ s house and offered his only son. Faith expressed in obedience is the special characteristic of the child of God. 3. Loving Christ (1) Because the Father loves Him. Can the children of God do otherwise than love whom their Father loves. (2) For what He is in Himself--the altogether lovely. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) Abraham is our father If ye were Abraham’ s children, ye would do the works of Abraham The works of Abraham and the works of the Jews Abraham believed God; they disbelieved God’ s testimony on behalf of Christ. Abraham was just and merciful; they strove to compass the death of One whose only offence was that He told them the truth. Abraham honoured Melchisedec; they insulted, rejected, and killed Him of whom Melchisedec was a type. Abraham interceded for Sodom; they shut the kingdom of God against men. Hereditary and spiritual interest in the covenant The Jew was to have a double being in the covenant, an hereditary, a possessary; the hereditary was nothing but the birthright, which gave him jus ad rem; he, that lineally descended from Abraham, might claim to be admitted into the covenant which God made with him. The possessary consisted in his personal grace, which gave him jus in re, when he did not only descend from Abraham, according to the flesh, but communicated also with him in the graces of the Spirit. These two beings in the covenant were to concur in every Jew; and they could not be severed without danger, danger not to the covenant, but to the Jew (Romans 2:25-29; Galatians 3:9; Galatians 3:29). (Bp. Lake.) The true children of God We have our spiritual affinities, and these determine our true relations and standing. The Jews were not the children of Abraham’ s good qualities; they were not the children of faith and love; they were the children of the spirit of untruth and murder. These were qualities of the devil and not of Abraham. The devil is the father of untruth. He lied to Eve in the garden of Eden and to Christ on the mountain of temptation. The devil is the father of the spirit of murder. He tried to murder the whole human race spiritually. The disposition which the Jews manifested toward Christ was altogether un-Abrahamic; it was Satanic, and Christ told them so. He traced their pedigree back to Satan and then He offered them freedom from the Satanic. True family likeness consists in character and in actions, not in bearing the same name. Sometimes descendants are a spiritual burlesque upon ancestors. The life which they live makes the name which they bear a laughable farce. Think of a puny sickly dwarf bearing the name of Goliath! Think of a man bearing the name of Jonathan Edwards writing an exultant treatise upon the decline of Calvinism and sending it broadcast through New England! Think of a man bearing the honoured name of Stephen or Paul or James, men who died for the Church, and yet living outside of the Church and despising it! We often burlesque the names we wear; by our lives and principles and characters we often slander the men whom we delight to call our fathers. We are often un-Abrahamic, while we boast that we are the children of Abraham. Let me ask a practical question at this point. Just what is the liberty which Christ gives men through the truth? Paul may be chosen as an answer to the question. As we become acquainted with Paul’ s life through his words, we find it full to overflowing with the spirit of freedom. He had freedom from false theologies, and from the condemnation of the law, and from the fear of death, and from anxieties with regard to the things of this life, and from caste prejudices, and from the tyranny of the world, and from the power of evil habits, and from low and carnal views of the Christian’ s privileges and of the Christian’ s Christ. Now this is not picture painting, this is not declamation, this is simply the assertion of fact taken from the life of Paul. Here is the life of Paul, full and broad and manly, built up after magnificent ideals, replete with the peace of God, beautiful with the reproduction of Christly characteristics, and magnificent with noble sacrifices for the elevation of the human race. The Jews thought that they were already free, they were not. This is the mistake which many in the Christian Church make. Are you free? Your Christian profession says, Yes. But what does your life say? How do you perform the duties of the Christian life? To the free Christian, everything is a privilege; church going, Bible reading, prayer, religious contributing. There is a great difference between doing things under compulsion and doing the same things because they are privileges. Privileges are duties transfigured. (D. Gregg.) The children of God and of Satan I. THE OF GOD (John 8:31-36). What do these verses teach us concerning the children of God? God has His children in this world, and some of their traits are here presented to our notice. 1. They believe in Christ (John 8:3). To believe in Christ is more than simply to conclude in a general way that He is worthy of credence. It means belief, confidence, submission, obedience, all in one. This believing is the condition of all blessings under the gospel. 2. They abide in Christ’ s word (John 8:31). They manifest their faith by their fidelity. There is no “ six weeks’ religion” during a warm revival, dropping into coldness and deadness when the meetings cease. It is a continued service proceeding from a constant faith. 3. They know the truth (John 8:32). The word in the original for “ know” is the verb meaning “ to have full knowledge.” He who learns the truth by fellowship with Christ receives it at fountainhead, and understands it thoroughly. 4. They have freedom (John 8:32-36). Every sinner is a slave, for a power outside of himself directs his action. The drunkard says, “ I can’ t help myself; an appetite drives me to drink.” The passionate man says, “ I am not my own master when I get angry.” Are they not slaves to a power above their own will? The free man is the disciple of Christ. II. THE OF SATAN. Then there is a devil who would make men believe that he is not, and that consequently they need not fear him. The Scriptures are as clear concerning the existence of Satan as they are concerning the existence of God. The traits of Satan’ s children, as here set forth, are 1. They are slaves (John 8:33-36). 2. They are enemies of Christ (John 8:37). These slaves of Satan were ready to kill Christ. 3. They show a likeness to their father (John 8:39-44). These Jews claimed to be the children of Abraham. “ Not so,” said Jesus. “ If you were the children of Abraham, you would be like Abraham. But you show the traits of your true father, the devil.” 4. They have no affinity with God. (John 8:45-47). They do not like God’ s truth (John 8:45); they will not hear God’ s words (John 8:47). Just as oil and water will not mix, so the children of Satan have an aloofness of nature with respect to God. (J. L. Hurlbut, D. D.) Pious relatives or friends cannot save us It was poor comfort to Dives, in flames, that Abraham called him “ son” ; to Judas that Christ called him “ friend” ; or to the rebellious Jews that God called them His people. (J. Trapp.) Now ye seek to kill Me.--Notice here the gradation. 1. To kill a man. 2. A man who is an organ of the truth. 3. Of the truth which comes from God. (F. Godet, D. D.) The fate of the truth teller When the Egyptians first conquered Nubia, a regiment perished thus: The desert was long, water failed, and men were half-mad with thirst. Then arose the mirage, looking like a beautiful lake. The troops were delighted, and started to reach the lake to slake their thirst in its delicious water; but the guide told them that it was all a delusion. Vainly he appealed to them and warned them. At last he threw himself in the way, and pointing with his finger in another direction, said, “ That is the way to the water” ; but they answered him with blows, and leaving him dead on the sand, rushed after the phantom lake. Eagerly they pressed on for several days, when their goal disappeared and mocked them. One by one they died--far from the path on which their faithful guide lay murdered. Unregenerate souls do not love the truth The nature of the soil must be changed before the heavenly plant will thrive. Plants grow not upon stones, nor this heavenly plant in a stony heart. A stone receives the rain upon it, not into it. It falls off or dries up, but a new heart, a heart of flesh, sucks in the dew of the Word, and grows thereby. (S. Charnock.) Men hate the truth As the friar wittily told the people that the truth he then preached unto them seemed to be like holy water, which everyone called for apace, yet when it came to be east upon them, they turned aside their faces as though they did not like it. Men love truth when it only pleads itself: they would have it shine out into all the world in its glory, but by no means so much as peep out to reprove their own errors. (Senhouse.) The thief hates the break of day; not but that he naturally loves the light as well as other men, but his condition makes him dread and abhor that which, of all things, he knows to be the likeliest means of his discovery. (R. Smith.) Noble minds welcome the truth If Archimedes, upon the discovery of a mathematical truth, was so ravished that he cried out,” I have found it, I have found it!” what pleasure must the discovery of a Divine truth give to a sanctified soul! “ Thy words wore found of me,” says Jeremiah, “ and I did eat them; and Thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” Truth lies deep, as the rich veins of gold do: if we will get the treasure, we must not only beg, but dig also. (J. Fletcher.) We be not born of fornication.--The Jews, having nothing effectual to object, take advantage of the moral sense in which Jesus had spoken of parentage, and try to cite it in their own favour: If Thou wilt have it so, we will leave off speaking of Abraham; for after all in that spiritual sphere, of which it seems Thou art thinking, God is our Father. To understand these words, which have been so variously interpreted, it must be remembered that marriage with a heathen woman was, after the return from Babylon (see Nahum and Malachi), regarded as impure, and the children of such marriage as illegitimate, as belonging through one parent to the family of Satan, the god of the heathen. The Jews, then, meant to say: “ We were born under perfectly legal conditions; we have no idolatrous blood in our veins; we are Hebrews, born of Hebrews (Philippians 3:5), and are hence by our very birth protected from all pagan and diabolic affiliation.” As truly as they are pure descendants of Abraham, so certainly do they believe themselves to be descended, in a moral point of view, from God alone; and even when rising with our Lord to the moral point of view, they are incapable of freeing themselves from their own idea of natural parentage. (F. Godet, D. D.) These words have been explained as signifying that the Jews were not descended, like Ishmael, from any secondary marriage like that of the patriarch with Hagar--which, however, could scarcely be called “ fornication” --or from Sarah through another man than her lawful husband; but are probably to be understood as asserting that their pure Abrahamic descent had been corrupted by no admixture of heathen blood, or better, that their relation of sonship to Jehovah had not been rendered impure by the worship of false gods, in which case they had been “ children of whoredom” (Hosea 2:4), but that, as they were physically Abraham’ s seed, so were they spiritually God’ s children. This interpretation seems to be demanded by the next words: “ We have one Father even God.” By this they signified, not that “ God alone” in opposition to heathen divinities was their Father, but that spiritually as well as corporeally, they traced their descent back to one parentage, as in the latter case to Abraham, so in the former case to God (Malachi 2:10). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) If God were your Father ye would love MeLove to Jesus the great test The order of salvation is first to believe in Christ. By this we become sons of God, and the proof of our sonship is loving what God loves--Christ. I. LOVE TO CHRIST IS IN ITSELF . The absence of this love Isaiah 1. The loss of the greatest of spiritual pleasures. What a loss is that of the sense of taste and smell? The fairest rose cannot salute the nostrils with its perfume, nor the most dainty flavour delight the palate. But it is infinitely more terrible not to perceive the fragrance of the name of Jesus, and to taste the richness of the bread and wine of heaven. 2. A sign of very grievous degradation. It is the mark of an animal that it cannot enter into intellectual pursuits, and when man loses the power to love his God he sinks to a level with the brutes. We greatly pity those poor creatures who cannot reason, but what shall we think of these who cannot love? Yet not to love Jesus reveals a moral imbecility far worse than mental incapacity, because it is wilful and involves a crime of the heart. 3. A clear proof that the whole manhood is out of order. (1) The understanding, were it well balanced, would judge that Christ is before all, and give Him the preeminence. (2) If the heart were what it should be it would love the good, the true, the beautiful, and nothing is more so than Jesus. 4. A sure token that we have no part in His salvation. (1) The very first effect of salvation is love to Jesus. (2) This love is the mainspring of the Spiritual life. It “ constraineth us,” and is the grand power which keeps us back from evil and impels us towards holiness. (3) Without this love we incur the heaviest condemnation--“ If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. II. LOVE TO CHRIST IS THE TEST OF SONSHIP. Our Lord plainly declares that God is not the Father of those who do not love Him. The Jews were by nature and descent, if any were, the children of God. They were the seed of Abraham, God’ s chosen, had observed God’ s ceremonies, bore the mark of His covenant, were the only people who worshipped one God, and incurred the greatest obloquy in consequence--yet as they did not love Christ they were no sons of God. 1. The child of God loves Christ because he loves what his Father loves: his nature, descended from God, runs in the same channel, and since God loves Christ supremely so does he. 2. He sees God in Jesus--the express image of His Person. 3. He is like Christ. Every man loves what is like himself. If you are born of God you are holy and true and loving, and as He is all that you must love Him. 4. He is essentially divine. “ I proceeded and came forth,” etc. 5. Of His mission (1) We must love that which comes from God if we love God. It matters not how small the trifle, you prize it if it comes from someone you revere. How much more should we love Him who came from God; and came not as a relic or memorial, but as His living, loving voice. (2) Remember the message Christ brought--a message of pardon, restoration, acceptance, eternal life and glory. 6. He came not of Himself. When a man lives only to serve himself our love dries up. But Jesus’ aims were entirely for the Father and for us--so our heart must go out towards Him. III. THIS TEST IT IS FOR US TO APPLY NOW. Do you love Him or no? If you do then, you will 1. Trust Him and lean on Him with all your weight. Have you any other hope besides that which springs from His Cross? 2. Keep His Word. How about your neglected Bible? How about those parts of Scripture you have never understood, because afraid they were different from the creed of your church and family? 3. Keep His commandments. Do you obey Christ? If His commands are of little importance, then your heart is not with Him. 4. Imitate Him. It is the nature of love to be imitative. Are you trying to be Christ-like? 5. Love His people--not because they are sweet in their tempers or belong to your denomination, but because they are His. 6. Sympathize with His objects. Whenever we love another we begin to love the things which he loves. He delights to save men, do you? 7. Serve His cause. Love that never leads to action is no love at all. Are you speaking for Him, giving to Him? 8. Desire to be with Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) If we love God we shall receive Christ If a child were far away in India, and he had not heard from home for some time, and he at last received a letter, how sweet it would be! It comes from father. How pleased he is to get it! But suppose a messenger should come and say, “ I come from your father,” why, he would at once feel the deepest interest in him. Would you shut your door against your father’ s messenger? No: but you would say, “ Come in, though it be in the middle of the night, I shall always have an ear for you.” Shall we not thus welcome Jesus? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Men ought to love Christ as coming from God I know when I left the village where I was first pastor, and where I had loved the people much and they had loved me, I used to say that if I saw even a dog which came from that parish, I should be glad to see him for I felt a love to everybody and everything coming from that spot. How much more should we love Christ because He came from God! (C. H. Spurgeon.) I proceeded forth and came from God The inner life of Christ Notwithstanding the multitude of books written on the life of Christ we want one more. We have outward lives more than enough that tell us about places and date and occurrences. We want an inner “ life” of thoughts, purposes, feelings. Until we study this inner life, all the outward life will be a plague to our intellect and a mortification to our heart. The inward always explains the outward. 1. Suppose we saw one of the miracles of Christ, the raising of the dead. Here is the dead man, there the living Christ, yonder the mourning friends; presently the dead man rises. But how? Is it trick or miracle--an illusion or a fact? I cannot determine, because my eyes have been so often deceived. I saw a man get up--but the conjuror comes along and says, “ I will show you something equally deceiving.” I see his avowed trick; it does baffle me; and if then he says, “ It was just the same with what you thought the raising of the dead,” he leaves me in a state of intellectual torment. Then what am I to do? Leave the outward. Watch the miracle Worker--listen to Him. If His mental triumphs are equal to His physical miracles, then admire, trust, and love Him. Take the conjuror: when on the stage he seems to be working miracles, but when he comes off and talks on general subjects I feel my equality with him rising and asserting itself. So when I go to Christ as a mere stranger and see His miracles, I say, “ This Man may be but the cleverest of the host.” But when He begins to speak His words are equal to His works. He is the same off the platform as on. I am bound to account fur this consistency. All other men have been manifestations of self-inequality. We know clever men who are fools, strong men who are weak, etc., and this want of self-consistency is a proof of their being merely men. But if I find a Man in whom this inequality does not exist, who says that if I could follow Him still higher I should find Him greater in thinking than is possible for any mere man to be in acting, then I have to account for this consistency, which I have found nowhere else, and listen to His explanation of it. “ I proceeded forth and came from God.” That explanation alone will cover all the ground He permanently occupies. 2. It will be interesting to make ourselves as familiar with His thoughts as we are with His works. We shall then come to value His miracles as He did. Did He value them for their own sake? Sound a trumpet and convoke a mighty host to see them? Never. He regarded them as elementary and introductory--examples and symbols. Why? Because He was greater within than without. Had He performed them with His fingers only, He might have been proud of them, but when they fell out of the infinity of His thinking they were mere drops trembling on the bucket. We might as well follow some poor breathing of ours, and say, “ How wonderful that sighing in the wind!” It is nothing because of the greater life. It is very remarkable that this Man once said, “ Greater works than these shall ye do,” but never “ Greater thoughts than these shall ye think.” Let us look at this inner life of Christ from two or three points. I. I watch this man, struck with wonder at His power, and the question arises, WHAT IS THE SENSE OF HIS DUTY? He answers, “ I must be about My Father’ s business.” Never did prophet give that explanation before. In working from His Father’ s point of view, He gives us His key. Put it where you like, the lock answers to it; and is no credit to be given to a speaker, who at twelve years of age, put the key into the hands of inquirers, and told them to go round the whole circle of His life with that key. Can he keep up that strain? Listen, “ My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” Can He sustain that high key when He is in trouble? “ Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit.” II. Arguing from that point, if this Man is about His Father’ s business, WHAT IS HIS SUPREME FEELING? Concern for the dignity of the law? Jealousy for the righteousness of God! No; from beginning to end of His life He is “ moved with compassion,” and when people come to Him they seemed to know this sympathetically, for they cried, “ Have mercy on us.” He speaks like a Son and is thus faithful to His Father’s message. What explanation does He give of His own miracles, “ Virtue hath gone out of Me.” He did not say “ I have performed this with My fingers” --no trickster, but a mighty sympathizer. Whatever He did took something out of Him. Behold the difference between the artificial and the real. The healing of one poor sufferer took “ Virtue out of Him.” What did the redemption of the world take out of Him when He said, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” The last pulse is gone and He is self--consistent still. III. TO WHAT ARE ALL HIS ? Not to intellectual ability, skill of finger or physical endurance, but to His soul--“ He shall see of the travail of His soul,” etc. You know the meaning of the word in some degree. One man paints with paint, another with His soul. One man speaks with his tongue, another with his soul; they are the same words, but not the same, as the bush was not the same before the fire came into it. Thus Christ shall see the travail of His soul, etc. He was often wearied with journeying, when was He wearied with miracles? His bones were tired, when was His mind enfeebled--when did the word ever come with less than the old emphasis--the fiat that made the sun? (J. Parker, D. D.) Christ’ s claim I. WHAT DID HE CLAIM FOR HIMSELF? 1. God announced Himself to Moses as “ I AM” --a marvellous name, which seemed as if it were going to be a revelation; but suddenly it returned upon itself and finished with “ THAT I AM,” as if the sun were just about to come from behind a great cloud, and suddenly, after one dazzling gleam, hide itself before one denser still--God’ s “ hour” was not yet. He had said “ I am,” but what He did not say. 2. Does Jesus connect Himself with this mysterious name? We cannot read His life without constantly coming across it, but He adds to the name simple earthly words, everything that human fancy ever conceived concerning strength, beauty, sympathy, tenderness, and redemption--“ I am the vine.” What a stoop! Could any but God have taken up that figure? Forget your familiarity with it and then consider that One has said without qualification, “ I am the Vine,” “ I am the Light.” We know what that is: it is here, there, everywhere--takes up no room, yet fills all space; warms the plants, yet does not crush a twig. The “ I am” fell upon us like a mighty thundering, “ I am the Light” came to us like a child’ s lesson in our mother’ s nursery. “ I am the Door.” That is not a mean figure, if we interpret it aright, a door is more than a deal arrangement swinging on hinges. It is welcome, hospitality, home, honour, sonship. “ I am the Bread, the Water, the Good Shepherd, the Way, the Truth, the Life.” How any man could be a mere man, and yet take up these figures, it is impossible to believe. It is easier to say “ My Lord and My God.” II. WHAT DOES HE CLAIM FROM MAN? Everything. In mean moods I have wondered at His Divine voracity. Once a woman came to Him who had only one box of spikenard and He took it all. Would your humanity have allowed you to do it? Surely you would have said, “ Part of it; I must not have it all.” And another woman--she might have touched His heart, for she wore widows’ weeds. I expected Him to say, “ Poor soul, I can take nothing from you.” But He took her two mites--all that she had. He is doing the same to day. How many things has that only boy been in his father’ s dreams! One day the mother feels that something is going to happen, and what does happen is a proposal that the boy should become a missionary! He must go. Humanity would have spared him--but Christ takes him. III. HOW DID THE BETTER CLASS OF HIS REGARD HIM. Here is a typical man--a man of letters and of local renown--who says, “ Rabbi, Thou art a teacher come from God.” Evidence of that kind must not go for nothing. Send men of another type--shrewd, keen men of the world: what say they? “ Never man spake like this Man.” Here are women coming back from having seen the Lord: what will they say? Never yet did women speak one word against the Son of God! Mothers, women of pure souls! sensitive as keenest life: what saw ye? “ The holiness of God.” Pass Him on to a judge--cold, observant, not easily hoodwinked. What sayest thou? “ I find no fault in Him.” What is that coming? A message from the judge’ s wife, “ Have thou nothing to do with this just person. Let Him go.” Crucify Him; will anybody speak about Him now? The centurion, accustomed to this sight of blood, said, “ Truly this was the Son of God.” Put these testimonies of observers, accumulate them into a complete appeal, and then say whether it be not easier for the imagination and judgment and heart to say, “ My Lord and my God,” than to use meaner terms. IV. FROM SUCH A MAN WHAT MAY BE ? 1. Extemporaneousness. He cannot want time to make His sermons, or He is not what He claims to be. Does He retire and compose elaborate sentences and come forth a literary artist, leaving the impression that He has wasted the midnight oil? No; His is simple graphic talk. 2. Instantaneousness of reply. God cannot want time to think what He will say? Does Christ? He answers immediately and finally. He had just thrown off the apron; rabbinical culture He had none, and yet there was an instantaneousness about Him to which there is no parallel but in the “ Let there be light, and there was light.” Give every man credit for ability, and give this Man credit for having extorted from His enemies, “ Never man spake like this Man.” 3. What do I find in Christ’ s teaching? Incarnations of the Spiritual. He Himself was an incarnation. He had to embody the kingdom of God, and hence He said, “ It is like unto” --To embody the bodiless was the all-culminating miracle of the Peasant of Galilee. 4. Christ’ s is seminal teaching--that which survives all the changes of time. Where are the grand and stately sermons of the great Doctors? Gone into the stately past. V. DID THIS MAN LIVE UP TO HIS own principles? Some people say that the teaching of Jesus conveyed high theories, but too romantic to be embodied in actual behaviour. What said He? “ Bless them that persecute you.” Did He do it? “ When He was reviled He reviled not again.” What said He? “ Pray for them that despitefully use you.” Did He do it? “ Father forgive them,” etc. (J. Parker, D. D.) Ye are of your father the devil The children of the devil I. WHO IS THE DEVIL? With regard to that remarkable being termed elsewhere “ Satan,” “ the tempter,” “ the old serpent,” “ the destroyer,” our information, though limited, is distinct. He is a being of the angelic order, formed, like all intelligent beings, in a state of moral integrity, who, at a period anterior to the fall, in consequence of violating the Divine law, in a manner of which we are not particularly informed, was (along with a number of other spirits who, in consequence of being seduced by him, were partakers in his guilt) cast out of heaven, placed in a state of degradation and punishment, and reserved to deeper shame and fiercer pains, at the Judgment. Through his malignity and falsehood man, who was innocent, holy, and happy and immortal, became guilty, depraved, miserable and liable to death. Over the minds of the unregenerate he exercises a powerful, though not irresistible, influence, and hence is termed “ the prince,” “ the god of this world,” etc., who leads men captive at his will. He exerts himself, by his numerous agents, in counterworking the Divine plan for the salvation of men, throwing obstacles of various kinds in the way of their conversion, and spreading his snares for, and aiming his fiery darts at, those who have thrown off his yoke. Error, sin, and misery, in all their forms, are ultimately his works; and his leading object is to uphold and extend the empire of evil in the universe of God. II. WHAT IS MEANT BY HIS BEING THE JEWS’ FATHER. The term is figurative. That being is, in a moral point of view, my father, under whose influence my character has been formed, and whose sentiments and feelings and conduct are the model after which mine are fashioned. These Jews instead of having a spiritual character formed under divine influence, had one formed under a diabolical influence; and instead of being formed in God’ s likeness, or in the likeness of Abraham his friend, they resembled the grand enemy of God and man. III. WHAT IS IT TO BE OF THE DEVIL? “ Of” expresses a relation of property. To be “ of the world,” is to be the world’ s own. “ The world loves its own “ --those who are “ of it.” To be “ of God,” or “ God’ s,” is to belong to God,to be God’ s property and possession. To be “ of Christ,” or “ Christ’ s,” is to belong to Him. To be “ of the devil,” or “ the devil’ s,” is to belong to him, to be, as it were, his property. All created beings are, and must be, in the most important sense, God’ s property. The devil himself is God’ s, subject to His control, and will be made to serve His purpose. But in another sense, the Jews, and all who possess the same character, are the property of the wicked one,| they practically renounce their dependence on God; they deny His proprietorship, and they practically surrender themselves to the wicked one, yielding themselves his slaves. It is as if our Lord had said, “ Ye say that ye are God’ s peculiar people, but ye are really the devil’ s self-sold slaves.” IV. WHAT ARE THE LUSTS OF THE DEVIL? “ Lust” signifies not merely desire, properly so called, but the object of desire. “ The lust of the eye” is a general name for those things which, contemplated by the eye, excite desire--what is splendid or beautiful. “ The lusts of the devil” are to beunderstood in this way, not of his individual desires or longings--for how could the Jews do these?--but of the things which are the object of his desires--such as the establishment and permanence of error, vice, and misery among men--whatever is calculated to gratify his impious malignant mind, a mind of which, as Milton powerfully expresses it, “ evil is the good.” To do the things which the devil desires is to oppose truth and to increase sin and misery. These things the Jews did--habitually did. V. WHAT IS IT TO WILL THOSE LUSTS? The term “ will” is not here the mere sign of futurition--it denotes disposition, determination, choice. “ Ye will do the evil things which your infernal father wishes for.” It is a phrase of the same kind as: “ If any man will be My disciple” (John 7:17). TheJews were not merely occasionally by strong temptation induced to do what is in accordance with the devil’ s desires, but their desires were so habitually consentaneous with his, that in seeking to gratify themselves they produced the result which he desired. They were cheerful servants--voluntary slaves. (J. Brown, D. D.) Children of the devil It is said of Mr. Haynes, the coloured preacher, that, some time after the publication of his sermon on the text, “ Ye shall not surely die,” two reckless young men having agreed together to try his wit, one of them said, “ Father Haynes, have you heard the good news?” “ No,” said Mr. Haynes, “ what is it?” It is great news indeed, said the other; and, if true, your business is gone. What is it? again inquired Mr. Haynes. Why, said the first, the devil is dead.” In a moment the old gentleman replied, lifting up both hands, and placing them on the heads of the young men, and in a tone of solemn concern, “ Oh, poor fatherless children! what will become of you?” (W. Baxendale.) The devil a liar and a murderer King Canute promised to make him the highest man in England who should kill King Edmund, his rival; which, when he had performed, and expected his reward, he commanded him to be hung on the highest tower in London. So Satan promises great things to people in pursuit of their lusts, but he puts them off with great mischief. The promised crown turns to a halter, the promised comfort to a torment, the promised honour into shame, the promised consolation into desolation, and the promised heaven turns into a hell. The lusts of your father ye will do. It is a frightful “ will,” and as frightful a “ must,” which governs the soul of an ungodly man. Such a soul either is a slave of the “ must,” or a free agent of the “ will” ; and the most fearful feature of all is that it is guilty as being a free agent, and the more guilty it is so much the more enslaved, and therefore the more it is free to will by so much the more enslaved. (Augustine.) Satan hath no impulsive power; he may strike fire till he be weary (if his malice can weary); except man’ s corruption brings the tinder, the match cannot be lighted (Acts 5:4; James 1:13-16). (Thos. Fuller.) He was a murderer from the beginning (comp. Wis 2:23-24; Romans 5:12).--The Fall was the murder of the human race; and it is in reference to this, of which the fratricide in the first family was a signal result, that the tempter is called a murderer from the beginning (comp. 1 John 3:8-12, where the thought is expanded). The reference to the murderer is suggested here by the fact that the Jews had been seeking to kill our Lord (John 8:40). They are true to the nature which their father had from the beginning. (Archdeacon Watkins.) He abode not in the truth because there is no truth in himStanding in the truth 1. This chapter shows Jesus’ power of bringing men out of their fictions of life, and of discovering the essential thing in life. Here He discloses the condition under which it is possible for a created being to stand in the truth. It is no little thing to stand in the truth. You may have stood on some rare evening upon a mountain top. The mists had been lifted from the valleys, the villages, etc., were etched on the map before you; on the far horizon sea and sky met, the few lingering clouds showed their upper edges turned to gold, while the whole air seemed to have become some clear crystal to let the sun shine through. So it is to stand in the truth, and to do so were worth the effort of a lifetime. So without long climbing Jesus stood. 2. Thus more is meant than is suggested to us by “ stand fast in the truth.” Men may only mean by that--Be obstinate on our side, standing steadfastly in some limited conception of truth; or merely to stand where we are without inquiring how the mind is to find its place, sure, serene, and sunny in the truth; or when men are debating it may be some battle call to fight for some truth at the expense of abiding in all truth. 3. Jesus shows the real thing to be desired in our anxiety to stand in the truth--the truth must be in us. Having no truthfulness within the Evil One lost his standing in the truth of God’ s universe without. This extremest case illustrates the whole process of descent of some from truth. I. THIS IS A MORAL AND A MAN TO STAND IN IT MUST BE MORALLY SOUND. An immoral man can have no permanent standing in a moral universe. 1. There is no untruthfulness, dishonesty, or vice in the constitution of things. Nature invariably gives the same answer. The creation made in truth continues in truth. The ocean tides keep true time and measure; the sun is steadfast; Nature throughout is one piece of honest work, and its veracity lies at the foundation of our industries. Every railroad is built upon it, and every man works in faith that earth and sky will keep their primal covenant. 2. Now when a man born to stand here takes up some lie into his soul, what happens? That fate which befell the father of lies. He cannot stand. Suppose a man conceives a fraudulent thought and says I will succeed in my business with that fraud in my mind, what is the end? Defaulters behind prison bars might answer. Defalcations always begin in a man himself, sometimes years, before they begin at the office. The fall began when he let some falsehood come into his life; when he sought to keep up an appearance that was not true. At last men were shocked to discover that he stood not in the truth because the truth was not in him. 3. Perhaps the end has not come yet, and men who are not truthful within seem to stand as though the universe were in their favour. Nevertheless, sooner or later, the end of inward untruthfulness is as certain as the law of gravitation. The moral universe can be relied upon to throw out eventually every immoral man. “ Without is everyone that loveth and maketh a lie.” And we do not have to wait till the last day. (1) A man cannot stand long in the world’ s credit if the truth of personal integrity is not in him. (2) A rich or popular man cannot stand always in good society if his heart is becoming rotten--in the end it must cast him out. (3) Even in polities many a leader has not stood in the truth of the people’ s final judgment because the truth was not in him. (4) The same condition pertains to the realm of science. Nature wants character in her pupil even when teaching her laws of numbers. Clerk Maxwell’ s character was part of his fitness for high scientific work. (5) And certainly this same law has been confirmed over and over again in the history of literature. What a poet for the coming years Byron might have been, had there been in him higher and holier truth! II. THE IS A DIVINE AND NO MAN CAN STAND IN ITS TRUTH WHO WISHES TO SAY IN HIS HEART, “ THERE IS NO GOD.” There is some Divine reality behind all these shifting appearances of things. There is an expression of Divine intelligence playing over the face of Nature. And what is seen and touched is not half of the glory of the kingdom of God. Faith is standing in this Diviner glory. We would all like to stand in this truth, but John says, “ If a man says, ‘ I love God,’ and hateth his brother, he is a liar.” When a man is thinking a hateful thought, he does not then believe in God, though he be making an argument to prove one, and saying, “ Lord, Lord!” And it is no avail for any of us to try and believe in God or the unseen universe simply by thinking about them or discussing their natural probabilities, unless we are first eager to have some truth of God in ourselves, and so by the truth within us find that we stand in the Divine truth of the world. Live like a brute, and believe like a son of God? Never. Does any man want to prove the existence of God? Let bin search the book of his life, and if he finds that he did some truth of God, then find God and worship Him. III. THIS IS A , AND IF A MAN HAS NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE CANNOT STAND IN ITS FULL, FINAL . All things were made by Christ, and in Him all things consist. The universe is Christian because created for Christ, and reaching its consummation in Him; because God has shown Himself to be Christian in His eternal thought and purpose towards the world, and because its last great day shall be the Christian judgment. Hence if we would stand in this full and final truth, we must have some Christian truth in us which shall answer to the Christian character of the universe. If we should fail of this, how could we hope to stand when whatever is not Christian must eventually be cast out, for Christ must reign until all enemies be put under His feet. Sin must go, and death, and all uncharitableness, and all deceit, to make room for a new heaven and a new earth. (Newman Smyth, D. D.) He is a liar and the father thereof.--Lying is well-nigh universal in the East. It is not only practised, but its wisdom is defended by Orientals generally. “ Lying is the salt of a man,” say the Arabs. The Hindoos say that Brahma lied when there was no gain in lying; and so far they are ready to follow Brahma’ s example. Yet Orientals recognize the truth that lying is essentially sinful, however necessary it may seem. The Arabs today will trust a Christian’ s word when they would not believe each other. They also admit that a liar cannot long prosper. And the Hindoos have a saying that the telling of a lie is a greater sin than the killing of a Brahman. It was an appeal to the innermost consciences of His Oriental hearers when Jesus charged them with showing in their practice that they were children of the father of lies. (S. S. Times.) Because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not.--Generally, the reason why a man is believed is that he speaks the truth. But the experience of Jesus was, in the case of the Jews, the opposite. They were so ruled by the lies with which their father had blinded their hearts, that it was just because He spoke the truth that He obtained no credence from them. (F. Godet, D. D.) The rationale of unbelief I. TO THE TRUTH (John 8:45). Had He given them popular dogmas or speculative disquisitions, they might have believed Him; but He gave them truth that addressed itself with imperial force to their central being. They were living in falsehood, appearances, and shams, far away from the awful region of spiritual realities. The truth came in direct collision with their prepossessions, pride, interests, habits; and they would not have it. This repugnance 1. Reveals man’ s abnormal condition. His soul is as truly organized for truth as his eyes for light. Truth is its natural atmosphere, scenery, food. 2. Suggests his awful future. The soul and truth will not always be kept apart. The time must come when the intervening falsehoods shall melt away and the interspacing gulfs bridged over, and when the soul shall feel itself in conscious contact with moral realities. II. THE PURITY OF CHRIST (John 8:46). Christ is the Truth, and His invincible intolerance of all sin repels the depraved heart. “ Men love darkness,” etc. The first beams of the morning are not half so repulsive to a burglar as the rays of Christ’ s truth are to a depraved heart. Purity makes the hell of depravity. III. FROM GOD (John 8:47). Divine filial sympathies are essential to true faith. The more a child loves his parent, the more he believes in his word. Unregenerate men have not this sympathy, hence their unbelief. They do not like to retain God in their thoughts. “ He that loveth not knoweth not God.” IV. PRIDE OF (John 8:48). They had said this before, and here they pride themselves on their sagacity. “ Say we not well?” Are we not clever? What an insight we have into character! Infidels have ever been too scientific to believe in miracles, too philosophic to require a revelation, too independent to require Christ, too moral to need inward reformation. “ Say we not well?” is their spirit. It comes out in their books, lectures, converse, daily life. “ We are the wise men, and wisdom will die with us.” This pride is essentially inimical to true faith. “ Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child,” etc. V. OF (John 8:48). Suppose He was a Samaritan, are they all bad? Yes, said they, and because thou art a Samaritan thou hast a devil. This uncharitable reasoning has ever characterized infidelity. All Christians are hypocrites, all preachers crafty mercenaries, all churches nurseries of superstition; hence we will have nothing to do with it. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Which of you convinceth Me of sin? The Christ of history the revelation of the perfect man This sinlessness of Jesus stands alone in history in that I. JESUS CLAIMED IT FOR HIMSELF. Even those who have rejected His Divinity admit that He was preeminently holy; yet no ether man has ever claimed or had claimed for him this sinlessness. On the contrary, in proportion to a man’ s saintliness he realizes the exceeding sinfulness of sin. It is the guiltiest who do not feel guilt. The cry of the sin-wounded heart is wrung from a David, not from a Herod; from a Fenelon, not from a Richelieu. We hear its groaning in the poems of a Cowper, not of a Byron; in the writings of a Milton, not of a Voltaire. That Jesus should have claimed to be sinless, and to have acted all through on that assumption, can never be explained except upon the ground of His Godhead. Ii He were not sinless and Divine, He would be lower than His saints, for then He would have made false claims, and been guilty of presumptuous and dishonouring self-exaltation. II. THIS CLAIM HAS NOT AND CANNOT BE . 1. The Jews could not meet His challenge. It was not from want of desire. There is a vein of natural baseness in fallen natures which delights in dragging down the loftiest. Whom has not envy striven to wound? And has it not ever been at the very highest that the mud is thrown? Even Francis of Assisi, Vincent de Paul, Whitefield, did not escape the pestilent breath of slander. Yet, though Jesus lived in familiar intercourse with publicans and sinners, not even His deadliest enemies breathed the least suspicion of His spotless innocence. They said, in their coarse rage, “ Thou art a Samaritan,” etc., but none said, “ Thou art a sinner.” “ Have nothing to do with that just Man,” exclaimed the Roman lady. “ I find no fault in Him,” declared the bloodstained Pilate. “ There is no harm in Him,” was the practical verdict of Herod. “ This Man has done nothing amiss,” moaned the dying malefactor. “ I have shed innocent blood,” shrieked the miserable Judas. His most eager accusers stammered into self-refuting lies; and the crowds around the cross, smiting on their breasts, assented to the cry of the heathen centurion, “ Truly this was the Son of God.” 2. Subsequent ages have conceded this sinlessness. The fierce light of unbelief and anger has been turned upon His life, and the microscope of historical criticism and the spectrum analysis of psychological inquiry, without finding one speck on the white light of His holiness. The Talmud alludes to Him with intensest indignation, yet dares not invent the shadow of a crime. Outspoken modern rationalists seem as they gaze at Him in dubious wonder to fall unbidden at His feet. Spinoza sees in Him the best symbol of heavenly wisdom, Kant of ideal perfection, Hegel of union between the human and the Divine. Rousseau said that, if the death of Socrates was that of a sage, the death of Jesus was that of a God. His transcendent holiness moved the flippant soul of Voltaire. Strauss wrote whole volumes to disprove His Divinity, yet he calls Him “ the highest object we can imagine with respect to religion; the Being without whose presence in the mind religion is impossible.” Comte tried to find a new religion, yet made a daily study of the “ Imitation of Christ.” Renan has undermined the faith of thousands, yet admits “ His beauty is eternal, and His reign will never end.” How can all this admiration be justified if He, of all God’ s children, claimed a sinlessness which, if He were not Divine, was a sin to claim? III. MIGHT NOT HIS VOICE ASK US ACROSS THE , “ TO WHOM WILL YE LIKEN ME AND SHALL I BE EQUAL?” I do not ask what religion you would prefer to Christianity. Christianity is the true religion, or there is none. No man would dream of matching the best thoughts of the world’ s greatest thinkers, or the highest truths of the best religion, with Christianity. Not, certainly, the senile proprieties of Confucianism, the dreary, negatious, and perverted bodily service of Buddhism, or the mere retrograde Judaism of the Moslem; and if not these, certainly no other. 1. But compare the founders of these religions with our Lord, The personality of Sakya Mouni is lost in a mass of monstrous traditions; but his ideal, as far as we can disentangle it, was impossible and unnatural. The life of Confucius is tainted with insincerity; and he not only repudiated perfection, but placed himself below other sages. Mohammed stands self-condemned of adultery and treachery. Socrates and Marcus Aurelius were the noblest characters of secular history, but those who know them best confess that the golden image stands on feet of clay. 2. If you turn to sacred history, which will you choose to compare with Him whom, in dim Messianic hope, they saw afar off? Adam? but he lost us Paradise. Moses? but he was not suffered to enter the promised land. David? but does not the ghost of Uriah rise again? 3. But are there not in the long Christian centuries some as sinless as He, since they have had His example to follow and His grace to help? Look up to the galaxy of Christian examples, and it is but full of stars, of which each one disclaims all glory save such as it derives from the sun. Many have caught some one bright colour, but in Him only you see the sevenfold perfection of undivided light. And none have been able to appreciate the many sided glory. All see in Him the one excellence they most admire. The knights saw in Him the model of all chivalry, the monks the model of all asceticism, the philosophers the source of all enlightenment. To Fenelon He was the most rapt of mystics, to Vincent de Paul the most practical of philanthropists, to an English poet “ The first true gentleman that ever breathed.” His life was the copy over which was faintly traced the biography of all the greatest saints, but each of them presented but a pale image of His Divine humanity. The wisdom of apostles, the faith of martyrs, the self-conquest of hermits, were but parts of Him. In the tenderness of Francis, the thunderings of Savonarola, the strength of Luther, the sincerity of Wesley, the zeal of Whitefield, the self-devotion of Howard, we but catch the single gleams of His radiance. His life was not the type of any one excellence, but the consummation of all. No mind has been large enough to comprehend its glorious contradictions--its clinging friendship and its sublime independence; its tender patriotism and humanitarian breadth; its passionate emotion and unruffled peace; its unapproachable majesty and childlike sweetness. IV. WE HAVE NOT FOUND HIS EQUAL--CAN WE IMAGINE OR INVENT IT? Has this ever been done? The greatest poets and thinkers have striven to picture characters faultlessly ideal. Have they--Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton--done so? No. Why? Because the ideal of every man must be stained more or less with his own individuality, and therefore imperfection. Had the evangelists invented the character of Jesus, it must have been so in their case, too. Christ transcends the utmost capacity of the combined apostles. In the apocryphal gospels invention and forgery were at work--and with what result? The “ Imitatio Christi” is a precious and profound work, yet even that realizes but one phase of the Redeemer’ s holiness. (Archdeacon Farrar.) The perfect character of Jesus Christ The persons thus challenged would have been glad enough to accept the challenge had the least hope existed of their being able to convict of sin, or even of fault, one whom they so thoroughly hated. Surely in no respect were the aged Simeon’ s words more true respecting our Lord than this: Christ’ s moral and religious character is “ a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of God’ s people Israel.” 1. In the first place, we may notice its gradual even growths. Like the gentle unfolding the bud or blossom of a tree, even in spite of obstacles, Jesus went on from day to day, and year to year, showing more and more of that inward perfection of heart and mind which won for Him the approbation first of His earthly guardians, then of His Heavenly Father, and, in the end, of those who condemned and executed Him. What, we ask, was the one quality which marks every period of His life, and which secured this marvellous agreement in His praise and favour? It was innocence--simple, guileless, childlike innocence. He is everywhere, and at all times the same, “ in malice a child,” “ the Lamb of God,” gentle, pure, and innocent. But with this innocence, this simplicity, what strength, what manliness, what courage are combined! In word and deed, in teaching and in conduct, the tenderest soul that ever drew the breath of heaven, the man whom children loved, and the common people delighted to listen to, and the sick welcomed, and publicans and sinners were attracted by; was also forward and energetic in action, unceasing in labour, inured to hardship, bold in declaring truth, uncompromising in speech, fearless in opposing wrong. How are we to account for this remarkable union of qualities which general experience has shown to be so rare that men had come to think it incredible? Next to this comes another and a deeper aspect of this part of His character on the side of religion. For 2. whereas in all ordinary cases repentance forms a great part of religion, Jesus owns to no sin, breathes no word of repentance, and on no occasion expresses, however faintly, the least consciousness of imperfection in His relations and behaviour towards God His Father. Advancing a step, we shall be able to observe how there is exhibited in the person and character, the works and teaching of Jesus Christ, a kind of universality, which connects Him with mankind generally. By race He is a Jew, reared up in the traditions and hopes of Israel, bred up from infancy to Jewish customs, steeped in the spirit of Hebrew literature; nevertheless, He does not reflect the peculiar dispositions of the Jew. But in Him there blend all the common traits of humanity. The Gentile finds his true ideal in Jesus Christ equally with the Jew. And, what is more, the men of every race and clime, and of every degree of culture and civilization not only may, but have regarded and do regard Him as their own, recognize Him as their brother, and follow Him as their guide. Nor ought we to forget the words which Christ Himself has spoken respecting His proper relation to mankind in general; words which, while they give emphasis to that aspect of His moral character and teaching which I have dwelt upon, do in effect state claims of the widest extent (see John 6:51; John 8:12; John 12:32; John 14:6; John 16:28; John 17:3;Matthew 10:37; Matthew 11:28). Now these sayings, with many others of like nature, have a two-fold bearing. In the first place, they assert claims so exalted, so imperial, so exacting, that nothing short of the most literal and entire correspondence, in fact, can be admitted in justification of their being laid down. Either they are simply, literally, exactly, and absolutely true, or they must be regarded as the ravings of a maniac or the blasphemies of an impostor. They can only be true on condition that the utterer is truly a Divine person. On the other hand, such sayings, being at the time of their utterance entirely novel in themselves and admitted to be hard to accept, must certainly have excited in the minds of all who heard them a keen curiosity respecting the private life and character of Jesus, both amongst His disciples and His opponents. And both these classes enjoyed abundant opportunities for scrutiny. What, then, is the result? All the watching of His adversaries can detect no flaw in His life or conversation. The banquet hall and the synagogue, the mountain top and the seashore, the market and the Temple, are searched in vain for a just record against Him. On the contrary, the better He is known by His friends, the more highly is He appreciated. That familiarity which scorches and shrivels so many reputations in the estimate of those who are admitted to close intimacy left His untouched with damage. No little weaknesses took off the edge of His grand public discourses. No infirmities of temper lowered His just claims to men’ s admiring homage. He shared human pain but not human impatience. A calm evenness of soul accompanied Him everywhere, the offspring not so much of self-restraint as of a perpetual sunshine beaming with love and devotion. Hardship fails to ruffle Him. The most factious opposition provokes Him indeed to a holy severity, but a severity entirely free from personal resentment or bitterness. The terrible knowledge that one of His own chosen companions is ready to betray Him haunts and oppresses His spirit, but He has no threatenings. Even the tortures of the cross extracted no complaints from those sacred lips, but only prayers for His murderers, and the cry of His extreme desolation is blended with a holy confidence and subsides into hopeful resignation. Looking back upon this poor outline of the character of Jesus Christ, we are entitled to ask of all who admit the facts, How do you account for such a phenomena? under what classification will you bring it? Is it of the earth, earthy? or is it superhuman, supernatural, heavenly? The Catholic Church, with her doctrine of incarnation, points to her Lord’ s character, as delineated in the Gospels, with triumphant certainty. All who share that belief experience no difficulty in discerning a Divine personality through the veil of His human perfection. Jesus is Divine. (D. Trinder, M. A.) Does Christ here assert His own sinlessness The doctrine of Christ’ s sinlessness rests on foundations far too strong to be shaken by the removal of one stone which has been generally supposed to form part of them. When we read concerning Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 John 3:5), what need have we to demand further documentary demonstration of a truth so explicitly stated, and so implicitly believed by every genuine Christian? It has been held, however, with considerable unanimity that in this passage Christ Himself bears witness to, and calls upon His adversaries, the Jews, to impugn, if they can, that sinlessness of His. Yet I would submit that this is not the meaning of our Lord’ s question. The whole argument is concerned, not with action, but with speech. In John 8:43, Jesus says: “ Why do ye not apprehend My language? Because ye cannot hear My word.” Then, describing the devil, He declares: “ There is no truth in him; when he speaks falsehood, he draws out of his own store, for he is a liar and the father of it (falsehood). But as for Me, because I say the truth, ye do not believe Me.” Then comes the question under consideration, with the words immediately following (John 8:46-47): “ If I say truth, why do ye not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; therefore ye hear not, because ye are not of God.” And so the discourse for the moment closes. And we see that it is the language of Jesus which is on the rack; that truth which, as God’ s Prophet, He declares to unwilling ears, and tries to drive home to sin-hardened hearts. They will not listen to Him that they may have life. They cannot confute, yet they cavil. Though He tells them the truth, and they cannot deny it, they wilfully refuse to believe Him, for to do so was to condemn themselves. (W. S. Wood, M. A.) Christ’ s language about sin “ Which of you proves Me mistaken in My language about sin?” What had He said of sin? It is the prophet’ s place to rouse the conscience of the sinner, to show him his guilt in its true light. And this Jesus had done. He had striven, alas! for the most part in vain, to clear away the film from the eyes and hearts of these self-righteous, self-deceived Jews, who would have all men to be sinners save themselves. He had charged them, using the pitiless logic of facts, with being neither true descendants of upright Abraham, nor genuine children of God, but in reality the devil’ s brood, and the natural heirs of his false and murderous disposition and designs. For sin is of the devil; and “ the works of your father ye do” (John 8:41). This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 8:48-51 Say we not well that Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil The Anti-diabolism of Christ I. CHRIST HONOURS THE FATHER; THE DEVIL DOES NOT (John 8:49). 1. How does Christ honour the Father? (1) By a faithful representation of the Father’ s character. The revelation of the Infinite in the material creation is dim compared with His who is the “ faithful and true witness” and “ the express image of” the Father’ s “ Person.” (2) By supreme devotion to the Father’ s will. He came to this world to work out the Divine will in relation to humanity, to substitute truth for error, purity for pollution, benevolence for selfishness, God for the devil--in one word, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 2. Now this is what the devil does not do. He seeks to dishonour God (1) By misrepresenting Him, calumniating Him. (2) By opposing His will. II. CHRIST SEEKS NOT HIS OWN GLORY; THE DEVIL DOES (John 8:50). 1. Ambition and self-seeking had no place in Christ. “ He made Himself of no reputation,” etc. Love to the Infinite Father seemed to swallow up His ego-ism. He was self-oblivious. Often does He say, “ I seek not my own will.” Had He sought His own glory, He would have been the Leader of all armies, the Emperor of all nations, instead of which, He was born in a stable, lived without a home, and died upon a cross. 2. All this is Anti-diabolic. Ambition is the inspiration of Satan. His motto is, “ Better reign in hell than serve in heaven.” He cares for no one else, and would kindle hells for a thousand generations in order to maintain his own dominion and gratify his own ambition. 3. Just so far as a man loses his own ego-ism in love for the Infinite, He is Christlike. Just so far as he is self-conscious and aiming at his own personal ends, he is devil-like. III. CHRIST FROM DEATH; THE DEVIL CANNOT (John 8:51). What does He mean by death here? 1. Not the dissolution of soul and body, for all the millions that “ kept His sayings” have gone down to the grave. 2. Does He mean extinction of existence? If so, it is true, All genuine disciples of Christ will inherit perpetual existence. This He Himself has taught (John 6:40). 3. Does He mean the destruction of that which makes death repugnant to man’ s nature? If so, the dying experience of millions demonstrates its truth. The sting of death is sin. Take sin away, and the dissolution of soul and body becomes the brightest prospect in the pilgrimage of souls. It is a mere step over a river from a wilderness into a Canaan; the mere opening of the door from a cell into a palace. Now the devil cannot deliver from death; and if he could he would not. Destruction is the gratification of his malignant nature. He goes about seeking whom he may devour. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ’ s controversy with the Jews I. THE . 1. “ Thou art a Samaritan,” and not only worthy of the contempt of a Jew, but one whose declaration on a matter of faith was unworthy of regard, inasmuch as He was a heretic. The charge has reference (1) To the fact that He followed not the rigid traditions of the elders, which constituted in the minds of the people, the very essence of their religion. (2) Because He had held intercourse with the Samaritans, had preached to them, and had been received by them. (3) Because in one of His recorded parables, as doubtless in others not recorded, He had commended one of this nation for his charity, and had held him up as an example to His Jewish hearers. (4) Because, as the Samaritans had mingled their own Gentile traditions with the law of Moses, so our Blessed Lord, in expounding the law, had drawn out its spiritual meaning, which was as alien to the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees as the traditions of the Samaritans. (5) There may have been also a special reference to the circumstance, that Nazareth, where He had been brought up, was nigh to the country of the Samaritans. By this first term of reproach they declared that He had no interest in the promises made by God to Israel. 2. “ Thou hast a devil.” They denied that He had any fellowship with the God of Israel. He had a devil (1) Because, as they said, He did His miracles by the power of Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. (2) Because, as the devil attempted to make himself equal with God, so did Christ declare Himself to be equal to and one with the Father. (3) The seeming folly of His words and pretensions was another reason for attributing His actions to the inspiration of the Evil Spirit. He hath a devil, and is mad, why hear ye Him? II. THE DEFENCE. 1. To the first accusation He made no reply. (1) It was personal, and did not concern His life and doctrine, and so He passes it by. One mark of His sinlessness is the absence of all anger at personal slights. It is the mark of a mind enfeebled by sin not to be able to bear personal affronts, as it is the mark of a diseased body to shrink from touch. (2) Since He came to break down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile, He would not, by replying to this charge, sanction the contempt of the Jews for the Samaritans, a people called to salvation equally with themselves. (3) He passes over this charge, it may be also, in tenderness to the Samaritans, amongst whom were many who believed on Him. When Christ would abate the pride of those who flocked around Him, which was the cause of so much of their blindness of heart, He at times used roughness; now, when He had to suffer rebuke, He answers with the greatest mildness, leaving us a lesson to be strict and uncompromising in everything that really concerns God, whilst we are indifferent to all things that merely regard ourselves. 2. “ I have not a devil,” He says. None of us are free from having a devil, for all sin in some measure comes from him; so that here again we have a declaration of the perfect sinlessness of the Son of Man. He, and He only, never had a devil. Again, His words reach beyond this; I cannot, He says, do these things by the power and assistance of Satan, for I at the same time honour My Father, who is the enemy of Satan (1) By the holiness of My life; for which of you convinceth Me of sin? (2) By condemning the works of the devil--murder, and lying, and all those other sins which are his special works. (3) By not attempting to do what Satan is always striving to do in seeking to usurp to himself the glory which belongs to the Father. Our Blessed Lord’ s argument to those who blasphemed Him is this: No one who has a devil honours God or can honour Him, but on the other hand he dishonours Him; but I honour my Father--God: therefore I have not a devil. (W. Denton, M. A.) The force of the accusation The rendering “ devil” cannot now be improved. Wiclif’ s word is “ fiend,” which in this sense is obsolete. But every reader of the Greek must feel how little our English word can represent the two distinct ideas represented by two distinct words, here and in John 8:44. “ Demon,” used originally for the lower divinities, and not unfrequently for the gods, passed in the Scriptures, which taught the knowledge of the true God, into the sense of an evil spirit. Thus the word which could represent the attendant genius of Socrates came to express what we speak of as demoniacal possession, and the supposed power of witchcraft and sorcery. Socrates is made to say: “ For this reason, therefore, rather than for any other, he calls them demons, because they were prudent and knowing.” The history of Simon Magus reminds us that the people of Samaria, from the least to the greatest, had been for a long time under the influence of his sorceries (Acts 8:9, etc.), and it is probable that there is a special connection in the words note, “ Samaritan” and “ devil.” (Archdeacon Watkins.) A hard name easy A hard name is easier than a hard argument. (Van Doren.) John 8:51 If any man keep My saying he shall never see death.I. THE . 1. The “ saying” of Christ means the whole system of truth which He has taught, and includes (1) All the doctrines and precepts publicly inculcated by Himself as reported by the Evangelists. (2) Those which He taught more privately to His apostles, the meaning of which was disclosed after His departure. Reserve on certain points during His lifetime was necessary. Had He explicitly avowed His divinity, e.g., it is hard to conceive how those prophecies which foretold His sufferings and death would have received fulfilment. After Pentecost the apostles were guided into all the truth. (3) The inspired sayings of the apostles, because dictated by the Spirit of Christ. (4) The whole canon of Scripture, for the Old Testament was written under the influence of the Spirit of Jesus. 2. To keep this “ saying” implies (1) A knowledge and belief of the Divine truth by the understanding. A man cannot keep what he does not know. This involves careful study with the use of every help, and prayer for the illumination of the Spirit. (2) Retention of it in the memory. “ Ye are saved, if ye keep in memory” 2 Peter 2:3). This is accomplished only by continuous and diligent study and meditation. (3) Love of it. No knowledge of Christ’ s doctrine is of any utility, unless the heart be interested. (4) A practical attention to its requirements: its adoption as the rule of life. (5) A stedfast adherence to the cause of truth, and a profession of it according to our opportunities. To “ keep” is opposed to desertion. Hence we must “ abide in Christ’ s word.” II. “ Never see THE TO THIS “ Never see death” means 1. Negatively. (1) Not exemption from natural death. This is “ appointed unto all men.” Enoch and Elijah were exempted: so will those be who are alive at Christ’ s coming. And God could easily have extended the benefit of translation, but there are good reasons why He has not (a) Such a course would have involved a perpetual miracle, and so have involved a waste of Divine power. (b) By death Christ’ s people become more exactly conformed to their Head. (c) Death maintains a constant memorial of the evil of sin. (d) The present abolition of death would deprive Christ’ s second advent of half its splendour, and render the last judgment practically useless. (2) Not continued existence merely to good men in opposition to annihilation. In this sense none shall see death. Continued existence will be the curse of the ungodly. They shall seek death, but death shall flee away from them. 2. Positively. Christ’ s faithful people shall not see death (1) In its natural horrors. Apart from the gospel death is a fearful enemy; but grace transforms it into a blessing, and makes it one of the things which work together for good. “ Death is yours” if “ ye are Christ’ s” --a friendly messenger of deliverance. Hence the happy deaths of many Christians. (2) Inasmuch as the prospect of death is neutralized by that of a joyful resurrection. (Jabez Bunting, D. D.) Christ’ s saying and the reward of keeping it I. WHAT IS CHRIST’ S SAYING? 1. The law, promulgated in spirit and effect in Paradise, republished at Sinai, and reinforced by the Sermon on the Mount. This law was given to create a sense of sin and of the necessity of a Saviour, and so prepared the way for 2. The gospel (Romans 8:2-3). The law is the storm that drives the traveller to the shelter, the condemnation that makes the criminal long for and use the means for securing a reprieve. II. WHAT IS IT TO KEEP CHRIST’ S SAYING? 1. Reading it carefully and constantly. 2. Hearing it, “ Faith cometh by hearing.” 3. Understanding it. What we thoroughly understand we do not easily forget. 4. Obeying it. This fixes it in the memory. III. THE REWARD OF KEEPING CHRIST’ S SAYING. He shall never see (1) Spiritual death. The word which is spirit and life is the seed of regeneration. (2) Eternal death. Christ’ s saying is a promise of a blessed immortality which the keeper thereof by faith has made his own. (I. Saunders.) What saying is it to which our Lord refers? Our Lord uttered multitudes of sayings while He was upon the earth. He was a great speaker; no man spake like Him. He was the greatest of talkers; and hence innumerable sayings dropped from His lips--parables, proverbs, criticisms, invitations, exhortations, warnings, commandments, remonstrances, encouragements, and exceeding great and precious promises. To which of His sayings, then, is it that He here refers? I would say in reply, that it is not to any single saying in particular, any detached or separate “ saying,” that our Lord had reference. To hit at random on any one of His multitudinous sayings would indicate an utter ineptitude for the grasp of the Saviour’ s ideas, or indeed for the grasp of anyone’ s ideas. What then? The saying referred to is manifestly that grand multiple message from God to men which constituted the sum total of our Lord’ s teaching. Or we might put it thus: It is the sum total or condensed essence of all the revelations that were divinely made by our Lord, in our Lord, and through our Lord. And what is that? It is evidently the glorious gospel of God’ s grace, the good news and glad tidings coming from behind the veil of all terrestrial things, and manifesting to men a living, loving, compassionating, sin-hating, yet sin-forgiving God. It is, in short, the joyful announcement of free and full salvation for the chief of sinners. That, that is the “ saying,” the life-giving “ saying,” of Christ Jesus, which, if a man keeps, he shall never see death. “ Whosoever liveth,” said our Lord to Martha, “ and believeth in Me shall never die.” (J. Morison, D. D.) Would you wish to be in the blissful condition depicted in our Saviour’ s language? Then keep His saying. Keep His words. Keep His Word. Keep the truth about Himself; keep Himself, the living Word, the living gospel. Keep Him in your thoughts, affections, mind, heart. Let everything slip and pass away from you which you cannot keep side by side with Him. (J. Morison, D. D.) Immunity from death What means the Saviour? Death is. It is a reality. It exists far and wide over the length and breadth of this world, in which we are all tenants at will. But in the profounder and only “ awful” acceptation of the term, “ death” will never come nigh the man who keeps Christ’ s saying. 1. The grave is dark: Death to the unbeliever is like a sky with neither sun, nor moon, nor stars overhead, and no prospect of a dawn on the morrow. Is it not so? Is not that the death that is looming over the impenitent? If it bet never shall the man who believes in Jesus, and who keeps the saying of Jesus, never shall he see death, never shall he die. The true believer of Christ’ s gospel dwells in true “ light” ; and lives in it. Contact with Jesus insures his illumination; and all the way along life’ s highways and byways he enjoys the light. 2. Many regard death as the total and final rupture and cessation of all further possibilities of sweet companionship and friendship. He who dies enters inevitably, according to their anticipation, into utter loneliness and dreariness. He is deserted forever. But, most assuredly, there is no such death to the believing. Their true life is not cut short at the end, or arrested midway, or otherwise impaired. It has no end and no interruption. It is “ life everlasting.” And one of the many true elements that enter into the blessedness that is its nature is everlasting companionship with the holy and the happy in glory. 3. To multitudes death means violent removal from all their carefully accumulated treasures, all their most highly-prized possessions. Death to the unbeliever is the loss, not only of all these things, but likewise of all possibility of the enjoyment of them, and of the enjoyment of any possession whatsoever. But if so, if all this be death, then the believer in Jesus will never see it; for that which men call death, in their common parlance with one another, will only translate the believer into the possession of the fulness of life and joy. Neither things present, nor things to come, neither things below, nor things above, no depth, no height, no length, no breadth, will be able to separate the believer from that love of God and of Jesus which is the never-failing source and fountain of inextinguishable bliss. (J. Morison, D. D.) The unimportance of death to a Christian It is a matter of small importance how a man dies. If he is prepared, if he is a Christian, it matters not how he goes to his crown. There have been some triumphant deaths, some wonderful deaths, before which the gates of paradise seem to swing open and flood them with light, and the superior splendour of the invisible turned the dying hour into the soul’ s nuptials. Such were the deaths of St. Stephen and Polycarp, of Latimer and Payson and Hervey, and of some known to you and to me. But such angels’ visits to the dying couch are few and far between. Most souls go out in clouds or storms; in unconsciousness or pain. But what does it matter? The only sinless soul that ever descended the valley of the shadow of death cried from the Stygian darkness and solitude, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” But in that hour He conquered! He vanquished death and robbed the grave of its victory. What does it matter, then, if we follow Him through the darkness to the light, through the battle to the triumph? What does it matter if I tremble? Underneath me are the everlasting arms. What does it matter if I cannot see? He is leading me through the ebon shades. What does it matter if I seem alone? He goes with me, as He has gone so often with others before, through what seems the untrod solitudes of death. The last hour of the labourer’ s summer day may be hot and weary, but the rest of eventide will be sweet, and the night will be cool. The last mile of the homeward journey may burn the traveller’ s bleeding feet, but love and welcome will soothe the pain and wipe the pilgrim’ s brow. As we approach the land, the winds may be boisterous, and the waves break loud upon the rocky coast; but the harbour will throw its protecting arms around the home-bound ship, and we shall be safe. (R. S. Barrett.) The antidote of death I. THE ITSELF. The text suggests 1. The life-giving power of the Word of Christ. We all know something of the power of a word--of an orator on his audience, of a general on his army, of a friend on his tempted or afflicted associate. Hence, we may conceive how a saying of Christ may have power. He in fact is “ the Word,” and His “ words are spirit and life.” Thus we read that we are born again by it, and that it must dwell in us richly, which shows that the Word of Christ is the seed corn of the soul’ s life, which sown in the heart germinates into the tree of righteousness. 2. The reception which the Word of Christ requires. It is necessary that it should be listened to, understood and remembered: but all this may be done without the experience of its life-giving virtue. It must as seed be hid in the soul accompanied by the energy of the Holy Ghost. We do not keep it unless we live in Christ, walk in Christ, and have our whole being fashioned after Him. Without this literary knowledge and controversial defence of it are worthless. 3. Here we see (1) The proof of the conscious Divinity of our Lord. None else ever dared to say this. (2) The extent of His life-giving power. This wonderful saying is confined to none. (3) The necessity of a Christian life here. The antidote must be applied before the mischief has done its last and fatal work. II. THE OF THIS . 1. Negatively. Not exemption from the common lot. (1) Constantly occurring facts forbid this. The righteous man dies as well as the sinner. (2) The necessities and frailties of our own frame forbid this. We no sooner begin to live than we begin to die. (3) Scripture forbids this. 2. Positively. The leading thought is brought out fully in John 5:24. (1) The penalties of the second death will be avoided. (2) The terrors of physical death will be mitigated. (3) The consequences of physical death will be overcome. (4) The soul’ s highest life will be perfected. Conclusion 1. See the power of Christianity. Nothing else can conquer death--no philosophy, morality, religion. 2. Hence the importance of keeping the saying of Christ--not admiring it merely. 3. What solace does this truth afford a dying world? (H. Gammidge.) The undying This is part of Christ’ s answer to the charge of Joh 8:48. The latter portion of the charge was answered in John 8:49-50; the former, “ Thou art a Samaritan,” answered here. The Samaritans held the Sadducee’ s doctrine of annihilation. Christ proves that He is not a Samaritan, but He proves far more. I. A DUTY OF THE PRESENT. “ If a man keep,” etc. 1. The “ Word” of Christ is a comprehensive term for the substance of His teaching: repentance; trust in the saving grace of God in Christ; response to the love of God; the practice of holiness, philanthropy, etc. 2. Keeping His Word implies that it is (1) A revelation to be retained in the mind. (2) A stay and comfort for the heart. (3) A rule of conduct for the life. 3. “ If a man” makes the statement universally applicable. Therefore its efficacy is essential, not accidental or arbitrary. II. A OF THE FUTURE. “ He shall never,” etc. One interpretation is that certain persons mortal by nature are to be made immortal. The meaning to be preferred is that to such the earthly experience of dying will not be the same as to the unrighteous, that for them there is and will be the realization of a deathless life. Look at this 1. As a revelation. It is of the first magnitude. The Rig Veda--oldest of Hindoo sacred books--does not even hint this. Moses is silent, at least oracular. There gradually grew up in Judaism a hope of it. In Christ’ s time Jewish opinion was divided. Christ speaks clearly, authoritatively. The words are best taken simply, and mean that what makes death truly death will be removed. The sting of death, and consequent separation from God will no longer exist. As this involves a continuity of experience from the present to the heavenly state, it is obvious that the believer is conceived of as at once entering into eternal life with the first act of faith that unites him to Christ. The life thus begun and continued is one life, and must signify, therefore, more than mere duration, viz., a spiritual relation and condition. 2. As a conditional promise. “ If a man keep,” etc., discovers (1) The basis of this life--a “ Word,” or Christ Himself as the Word, i.e., a spiritual, intelligible entity (Is not this mortal life built upon and out of ideas?). “ My Words, they are spirit and life.” The Divine life of the spirit of man is (a) Word created. (b) Word sustained and continued. (c) Word enlarged and glorified. (2) That it is a contingent and not an absolute possession. “ Keep.” With what earnestness ought we to lay hold on this life, and so guard and cultivate it that we shall never lose it! He that keeps Christ’ s word will be kept by it. (A. F. Muir, M. A.) Death invisible to the Christian He who follows the light of life which shines from the words of Jesus, does not see death, just as one who goes to meet the sun does not see the shadows behind him. (Rieger.) Christians do not taste of death A daughter of Mrs. Gov. Wright recently passed away amid Tabor splendour. As she approached death, she said, “ I’ m going up! I’ m going up! You see I’ m going up on the ineffable glory. What a glorious approach!” To her husband she said, “ Oh! if you could only see what I see, you would know why I long to go.” To her pastor, who was reading of the “ valley of the shadow of death,” she said, “ There is no valley.” The night preceding her death, she abode in the third heaven of rapture. Being informed that her feet were in the Jordan, she said, “ Oh, I am so glad!” Her last words were, “ Jesus is peace.” (C. D.Foss.) “ Oh what has the Lord discovered to me this night! Oh the glory of God! the glory of God and heaven! Oh the lovely beauty, the happiness, of paradise! God is all love, He is nothing but love. Oh, help me praise Him! Oh, help me to praise Him! I shall praise Him forever! I shall praise Him forever.” (Robert Wilkinson.) “ Glory to God in the height of His Divinity! Glory to God in the depths of His humanity! Glory to God in His all-sufficiency. Into His hands I commend my spirit.” (Edward Perronet.) Believers never see death His (John Wesley’ s) death scene was one of the most peaceful and triumphant in the annals of the Church. Prayer, praise, and thankfulness were ever on His lips. Many golden sentences, worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance, were uttered during his last hours. “ Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” “ He is all! He is all!” “ There is no need for more than what I said in Bristol; my words then were--‘ I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me!’” “ We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” “ That is the foundation, the only foundation, and there is no other.” “ How necessary it is for everyone to be on the right foundation!” “ The Lord is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” “ Never mind the poor carcase.” “ The clouds drop fatness.” “ He giveth His servants rest.” “ Be causeth His servants to lie down in peace.” “ I’ ll praise: I’ ll praise.” “ Lord, Thou givest strength to those that can speak, and to those that cannot. Speak, Lord, to all our hearts, and let them know that Thou looseth the tongue.” “ Jesus! Jesus!” His lips are wetted, and he says his usual grace, “ We thank Thee, O Lord, for these and all Thy mercies. Bless the Church and king; and grant us truth and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, forever and ever.” Those who look out of the windows are darkened, and he sees only the shadow of his friends around his bed: “ Who are these?” “ We are come to rejoice with you: you are going to receive your crown.” “ It is the Lord’ s doing,” he calmly replies, “ and marvellous in our eyes.” “ I will write,” he exclaims, and the materials are placed within his reach; but the “ right hand has forgotten her cunning,” and “ the pen of the once ready writer” refuses to move. “ Let me write for you, sir,” says an attendant. “ What would you say?” Nothing, but that God is with us. Now we have done all. Let us all go.” And now, with all his remaining strength, he cries out, “ The best of all is, God is with us!” And again, lifting up his fleshless arm in token of victory, and raising his failing voice to a pitch of holy triumph, he repeats the heart-reviving words, “ The best of all is, God is with us!” A few minutes before ten o’ clock on the morning of the 2nd of March, 1791, he slowly and feebly whispered, “ Farewell! farewell!” --and, literally, “ without a lingering groan,” calmly “ fell on sleep, having served his generation by the will of God.” (H. Moore.) Happy dying “ I am so far from fearing death, which to others is the king of terrors,” exclaimed Dr. Donne, “ that I long for the time of dissolution.” When Mr. Venn inquired of the Rev. W. Grimshaw how he did, “ As happy as I can be on earth, and at sure of glory as if I were in it: I have nothing to do but to step out of this bed into heaven.” The fear of death destroyed:--Fox relates, in his “ Acts and Monuments,” that a Dutch martyr, feeling the flames, said, “ Ah, what a small pain is this, compared with the glory to come!” The same author tells us that John Noyes took up a faggot at the fire, and kissing it, said, “ Blessed be the time that ever I was born, to come to this preferment.” When an ancient martyr was severely threatened by his persecutors, he replied, “ There is nothing visible or invisible that I fear. I will stand to my profession of the name and faith of Christ, come of it what will.” Hilary said to his soul, “ Thou hast served Christ this seventy years, and art thou afraid of death? Go out, soul, go out!” An old minister remarked, a little before his death, “ I cannot say I have so lived as that I should not now be afraid to die; but I can say I have so learned Christ that I am not afraid to die.” A friend, surprised at the serenity and cheerfulness which the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine possessed in the immediate view of death and eternity, proposed the question, “ Sir, are you not afraid of your sins?” “ Indeed, no,” was his answer; “ ever since I knew Christ I have never thought highly of my frames and duties, nor am I slavishly afraid of my sins.” (Religious Tract Society Anecdotes.) Contrasts in death One of our old Scottish ministers, two hundred years ago, lay dying. At his bedside were several of his beloved brethren, watching his departure. Opening his eyes, he spoke to them these singular words: “ Fellow passengers to glory, how far am I from the New Jerusalem?” “ Not very far,” was the loving answer; and the good man departed, to be with Christ. “ I’ m dying,” said one of a different stamp, “ and I don’ t know where I’ m going.” “ I’ m dying,” said another, “ and it’ s all dark.” “ I feel,” said another, “ as if I were going down, down, down!” “ A great and a terrible God,” said another, three times over; “ I dare not meet Him.” “ Stop that clock!” cried another, whose eye rested intently on a clock which hung opposite the bed. He knew he was dying and he was unready. He had the impression that he was to die at midnight. He heard the ticking of the clock, and it was agony in his ear. He saw the hands, minute by minute, approaching the dreaded hour, and he had no hope. In his blind terror he cried out, “ Stop that clock!” Alas! what would the stopping of the clock do for him? Time would move on all the same. Eternity would approach all the same. The stopping of the clock would not prepare him to meet his God. Realizations of the text “ Throw back the shutters and let the sun in,” said dying Scoville M’ Collum, one of my Sabbath school boys. (Talmage.) “ Light breaks in! light breaks in! Hallelujah!” exclaimed one when dying. Sargeant, the biographer of Martyn, spoke of “ glory, glory,” and of that “ bright light” ; and when asked, “ What light?” answered, his face kindling into a holy fervour, “ The light of the Sun of Righteousness.” A blind Hindoo boy, when dying, said joyfully, “ I see I now I have light. I see Him in His beauty. Tell the missionary that the blind see. I glory in Christ.” Thomas Jewett, referring to the dying expression of the English infidel, “ I’ m going to take a leap in the dark,” said to those at his bedside, “ I’ m going to take a leap in the light.” While still another dying saint said, “ I am not afraid to plunge into eternity.” A wounded soldier, when asked if he were prepared to depart, said, “ Oh yes; my Saviour, in whom I have long trusted, is with me now, and His smile lights up the dark valley for me.” A dying minister said, “ It is just as I said it would be, ‘ There is no valley,’” emphatically, repeating, “ Oh, no valley. It is clear and bright--a king’ s highway.” The light of an everlasting life seemed to dawn upon his heart; and touched with its glory, he went, already crowned, into the New Jerusalem. A Christian woman lay dying. Visions of heaven came to her. She was asked if she really saw heaven. Her answer was, “ I know I saw heaven; but one thing I did not see, the valley of the shadow of death. I saw the suburbs.” A young man who had but lately found Jesus was laid upon his dying bed. A friend who stood over him asked, “ Is it dark?” “ I shall never,” said he, “ forget his reply. ‘ No, no,’ he exclaimed, ‘ it is all light! light! light!’” and thus triumphantly passed away. (American Messenger.) John 8:52-59 Abraham is dead and the prophets Abraham and Jesus I. THE OF ABRAHAM: 1. The ancestor of the Jews. “ Our father,” said they (John 8:53); “ Your father,” conceded Christ (John 8:56). It was no small distinction to be the progenitor of so renowned a race. 2. The father of the faithful. He believed in God’ s promise (Ge Romans 4:20), and became the head of a spiritual progeny who will far outnumber the natural. 3. A conqueror of death. Christ’ s word (John 8:51) signified that to all His believing people, who were Abraham’ s children, and therefore to Abraham himself who had kept God’ s word, death was practically abolished Matthew 22:32). 4. A beholder of Christ’ s day. Not an exultant anticipator, but an actual witness either prophetically from Moriah or from Paradise. II. THE OF JESUS. 1. Of loftier calling. Abraham, a prophet; Christ, a Saviour; Abraham, the ancestor of the promised seed; Christ, the promised seed; Abraham, the progenitor of Christ, according to the flesh; Christ, the redeemer of Abraham, according to the Spirit. The Jews exulted in their physical connection with Abraham; Abraham in his spiritual connection with Christ. 2. Of nobler name. Abraham, a servant; Christ, the Son. Abraham called the Divine Being “ God” ; Christ addressed Him as “ Father.” 3. Of older existence. Abraham was not before He came into this world; Christ was before Abraham was born. 4. Of higher being. Abraham began to be; Christ always was. Abraham was a creature; Christ the Creator, “ I am.” Lessons: 1. The Supreme Divinity of Christ. 2. The power of faith. 3. The certainty of existence after death. 4. The true secret of soul joy. 5. The one object of faith in all ages and for all peoples--Christ’ s day. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ and Abraham I. CHRIST IS GREATER THAN ABRAHAM (John 8:52-53). Notice: 1. The implied denial of the Jews that Christ was greater than Abraham. In this we see (1) a sensuous interpretation, “ Abraham is dead.” They took death in its mere material sense; they had no profounder idea of it than the dissolution of mind from matter. The dissolution of mind from truth, virtue, happiness, God--which is of all deaths the worst, and of which corporeal death is but the palpable--type, had not entered their carnal souls. (2) Their ancestral pride (John 8:58). This led them to believe that Abraham was the greatest man in the universe, and themselves consequently as the greatest people. These two have always been among the greatest obstructions to the spread of truth. 2. The reply of Christ to this implied denial. (1) He asserts that He honoured the Father, which they did not (John 8:54). (2) He knew the Father, which they did not (John 8:55). (3) He served the Father, which they did not (John 8:55). 3. The declaration of His superiority to Abraham (John 8:56). II. CHRIST IS OLDER THAN ABRAHAM (John 8:58). This declaration struck them: 1. As absurd (John 8:57). 2. As blasphemous, and to be punished as such (John 8:59). (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 8:54 If I honour Myself, My honour is nothing The Father honouring the Son To honour is to do or to speak of a person so as not only to show our esteem, but to make others esteem. Thus God honoured Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David, etc. This is specially seen in His dealings with His Son--the purpose of His delight in Him is to secure for Him the delight of all in earth and heaven. I. THE OF THE HONOUR. The value of the honour depends on him who bestows it. Honour bestowed for price, or by self, unworthy hands, or those incapable of judging, is worthless. It was no honour for Felix to be flattered by Tertullus. The Father, however, knows what He is bestowing, and Him on whom He is bestowing it. He is a fit judge of both the Person and the honour. We may be well assured, therefore, that the honour received by Christ is well bestowed. II. THE OF THE HONOUR. The Son--very God and very Man. The God-Man in whom the two natures meet. A new thing on earth and in heaven. One in whom all created and uncreated perfection meet. The only one without flaw. III. THE NATURE OF THE HONOUR. 1. It is Divine honour; but it is more. It is not only all the honour which the Father and the Spirit receive, it is something arising out of the superadded humanity, and which neither the Father nor the Spirit can receive. 2. It is human honour--honour in connection with His perfect manhood, of which He is the only example, and as such is entitled to all the honour which God intended for the race. Nay, more; honour such as Adam could not receive, because arising from His manhood’ s connection with the Godhead. Thus the Godhead gets an honour such as it could not have got save in virtue of its connection with the creaturehood, and vice versa. There is in this way a peculiar honour created, and a peculiar vessel for receiving it. From this too springs peculiar honour to the Father such as no one else can give. IV. THE TIMES AND WAYS IN WHICH THIS HONOUR IS . At His birth, baptism, transfiguration, resurrection, ascension, second coming. Every day, dishonoured by man, the Father honoured Him when here. At present, in heaven, He receives glory and honour. Hereafter ill His kingdom, the honour is to be fully bestowed. V. THE RESULTS OF ALL THIS. The bearings of this honour on the universe are inconceivable. It is the pledge and measure of all the blessings the universe shall receive forever. The results are: 1. To the Father. Through this honour the Father is more fully manifested and glorified; for all that the Son receives and does is to the glory of God the Father. 2. To the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit’ s office to glorify the Son, and by means of this His Godhead is declared and illustrated, and His wisdom and power displayed. 3. To the whole Godhead. 4. To the Church. Christ’ s honour is hers; for all that He has is hers. The Bridegroom’ s glory is not for Himself alone. She shares His riches, His inheritance, His kingdom, by faith now, in reality by and by. 5. To heaven. The greatness of the King’ s honour adds to the glory of His palace, and metropolis. 6. To angels. He is their head as well as ours, though not so closely knit to them as to us. They are His hosts, His servants, His royal retinue, and each shines more brightly from the glory put upon Him. 7. To earth. At present we do not see any change, but the curse is to pass away, and earth to be made more fair than Paradise. For was it not His birthplace, and His body of its dust? 8. To the universe. Every planet and fragment of creation shall receive fresh lustre from this newly lighted sun. Conclusion: Let us honour Christ now. He will be honoured hereafter, but now that He receives so much dishonour let us honour Him. Sinner, honour Him by coming to Him for salvation. The honour which the Father puts upon Him is the security for a present pardon, and God honours Him by blessing you. (H. Bonar, D. D.) John 8:55 Ye have not known Him; but I know Him I.THE JEWS’ . 1. They knew Him not in His majesty, His infinity, His mercifulness, since they conceived of Him only after a low and material idea. 2. They knew Him as the Maker of the world, but not as the Almighty Father of mankind; they saw in Him only their own God, and refused to think of Him as the God of the whole human race. 3. They knew Him not as He is, one in essence though three in person; as the Eternal Father, by whom the Eternal Son was begotten, and from both of whom proceeds the one Sanctifying and Eternal Spirit. Hence their blindness to the meaning of the words of Christ and their rejection of Him as the Messiah. 4. They knew Him not through the way of obedience to His laws, without which there can be no real knowledge of the Father. Thus, although their faith came from God, and was based upon His revelation of Himself, their works were from Satan, and in this way they proved that they knew not God who is One in His faith and in His works. Thus were they liars, not because they said He had a devil, which is not the meaning here, but because they declared that they knew God whilst every one of their actions declared that they had no true real knowledge of Him. II. CHRIST’ S . 1. As being Himself God, of the same substance and nature with the Father, dwelling from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, and so always beholding Him as He is in His essential Godhead. 2. As the man Christ Jesus He knew Him, since He had the knowledge of Divine things by impartation from the Father. 3. As man, again, He knew Him through His perfect obedience to the whole will of the Father, and His doing all things which were well pleasing in the sight of the Eternal Father. We also, if we would receive and retain God in our thoughts, and come to the knowledge of Him, must receive and keep His saying. (W. Denton, M. A.) John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day Abraham’ s vision of Christ’ s day (Christmas day Sermon):--Here is joy, joy at a sight, at the sight of a day, and that day Christ’ s, and no day is so properly His as His birthday. First, Christ has a day proper to Him. “ My day.” Secondly, this day is a day of double joy--“ rejoiced,” “ was glad.” Thirdly, this was so to Abraham. Lastly, all this nothing displeasing to Christ, for it is spoken to the praise of Abraham that did it, and to the dispraise of the Jews who did it not. We are now disposing ourselves to this, and have a three-fold warrant. 1. We have Abraham for our example. We do but as he in making Christ’ s day a day of joy. 2. Abraham’ s example approved by Christ, who commends the patriarch, not that he rejoiced at the sight of Him, but of His day. Verily, the speech is in honour of Christmas. 3. He reproves the Jews for not doing herein as Abraham, which is against them that have a spleen at this feast, and think they can joy in Him and yet set by His day. Nay, love Him, love His day. They tell us that to keep it they would Judaize (Galatians 4:10), but the context shows not to keep it is to Judaize. I. THE OBJECT. “ My day.” 1. Not as the Son of God. He has no day. (1) Day and night are parts of time, but His goings forth are from eternity Micah 5:2). (2) If we would improperly call it a day, no day to be seen (1 Timothy 6:16). (3) If we could see it and Him in His Deity, yet there is small joy. 2. But as the Son of Man He hath more days than one; but this notes one above the rest, a day with the double article. There are two such eminent days. Of His Genesis, and of His Exodus; of His nativity and His passion. (1) Not of His passion; for that was none of His (Luke 22:53), but ours: and no day, but rather night; and no day of joy (Luke 23:48). (2) But of His birth, and so the angel calls it (Luke 2:11). And His day because every man has a property in His birthday; as kings in the day of the beginning of their reigns; as Churches, when they are first dedicate; as cities, when their first trench is cast. And a day of joy in heaven and earth Luke 2:10-14): to all people, not only on and after it, but before, and so to Abraham. Of course “ day” must be taken for the whole time of Christ’ s life; yet that time had its beginning on a day, and that day even for that beginning may challenge a right in the word. II. THE ACTS. 1. Abraham’ s first act--his desire. (1) The cause of it. Why should Abraham so desire two thousand years before! What was it to him? You remember Job’ s Easter (19:25). The joy of this was the same as Abraham’ s Christmas; oven that a day should come when his Redeemer should come into the world. For a Redeemer he needed, and therefore desired His day (Isaiah 29:22). The time when hehad this day first shown him he complains of his need (Genesis 18:27). (2) The manner of it. We may take measure of the greatness of the day by the greatness of his desire. The nature of the word is, “ he did even fetch a spring for joy,” and that not once but often. He could not contain his affection, it must out in bodily gesture. Think of a staid, discreet man being so exceedingly moved; and to do all this only in the desire. 2. Abraham’ s second act. “ He saw it,” though “ afar off” (Hebrews 11:13), “ as in a perspective glass” (1 Corinthians 13:12). He did not know precisely the day, but that such a day should come. How did he see it? (1) Not as if he could not see it unless Christ had been in the flesh in His day. So Simeon saw (Luke 2:30). But better than this, for if Simeon had not seen in Abraham’ s manner, he had been no nearer than the Jews who stoned Christ. (2) If not with the eyes, then how? There is in every man two men--outward and inward. Now if there be an inward we must allow him senses, and so eyes (Ephesians 1:18); it was with these that Abraham saw, and by no other do we see. (3) By what light saw he? He was a prophet, and might be in the Spirit, and have the vision clearly represented before him; but he was a faithful man Galatians 3:9), and saw it in the light of faith (Hebrews 11:1; Hebrews 11:27). (4) Where was this and when? The text is enough, but the Fathers hold that he saw his birth at Mature, His passion at Moriah (Genesis 17:19; Genesis 18:10). But this day he saw at Mature. Christ was in person there, one of the three. 3. Abraham’ s third act. He that was glad that he should see it must needs be glad when he did see it; accomplishment is more joyful than desire. And what grounds (Genesis 26:4)! Conclusion: The reference to us. 1. Our desire. We have greater cause to desire this day because we have greater need. 2. Our sight is much clearer than his. For though we see as he, and he as we, by the light of faith; yet he in the faith of prophecy yet to come, we in the faith of history now past. 3. Our joy is to be above his, as we have the greater cause and the better sight. Rules for our joy. (1) Here are two sorts (a) Our exultation, a motion of the body. (b) The other, joy, a fruit of the spirit. Let the former have its part, but should not have so large an allowance of time and cost as to leave little or nothing for the spirit. (2) That our joy in Christ’ s day be for Him. We joy in it as it is His. The common sort wish for it and joy in it as it is something else, viz., a time of cheer and feasting, sports and revelling, and so you have a golden calf’ s holiday. (Bp. Andrewes.) Abraham’ s sight of faith I. THE GROUND OF ABRAHAM’ S FAITH--the promise of God. (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 22:18). To open this promise we must inquire 1. What was this seed? We must distinguish of a two-fold seed; that to whom the blessing was promised, and that in whom both Abraham, his seed, and all nations were to be blessed (Genesis 17:7). Now this promise was either to his carnal seed or to his spiritual seed (Galatians 3:7). But then there was another seed--the Messiah. 2. What was this blessedness? All the good which results to us from God’ s covenant. (1) Our reconciliation with God consisting of (a) remission of sins (Psalms 32:1-2), which is included in the blessing of Abraham (Galatians 3:8). (b) Regeneration (Acts 3:25-26). (2) Eternal life. (a) The patriarchs sought it by virtue of this promise (Hebrews 11:13-15). (b) Unless this had been included God could not act suitably to the greatness of His covenant relation (Hebrews 11:16; Matthew 22:31-32). II. THE OF HIS FAITH. 1. His clear vision of Christ. “ He saw my day.” Three things argue the strength of bodily sight. (1) When what we see is far off. Thousands of years intervened, yet they went to the grave in full assurance. The nature of faith is that it can look upon things absent and future as sure and near, but without it man looks no further than present probabilities. (2) When there are clouds between. Now when the promise was made it was impossible in the course of nature for Abraham to have a son; but when the son was miraculously given he was commanded to sacrifice him. Now to strive against these and other difficulties argues strong faith Romans 4:18). (3) When there is little light to see by. The revelation was obscure; the patriarchs had only Genesis 3:15; Abraham’ s was a little clearer, but it was a small glimmering compared with what we enjoy. Yet they could do more with their faith than we with ours. (1) As to Christ there is a sight of Him (a) Past. To see Him whom we have not seen, as if we had seen Him in the flesh, is the work of faith (Galatians 3:1). (b) Present. To see Him so as to make Him the object of our love and trust (John 6:40; Acts 7:56). (c) Future. We must be assured of His second coming and that we shall see Him (Job 19:25-27). What, then, is this clear vision of Christ to us? How shall we judge of the strength of our faith by this? Ans (2) As to the glory and blessedness of the world to come. Faith is the perspective of the soul, by which it can see things distant as present Hebrews 11:26; Hebrews 6:18; Hebrews 12:2). 2. His deep affection or rejoicing in Christ. (1) No other affection will become Christ but great joy (Luke 2:10, Acts 13:48; Acts 8:39; Acts 16:34). (2) The reasons for this joy. (a) The excellency of the object in Himself and His work (John 3:16); in His necessity to us (Micah 6:6-7; Psalms 49:7-8; Job 33:24); in His benefit (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). (b) The subjects are delivered from their misery and find their happiness in God. (c) The causes--the Holy Ghost and faith as His instrument Romans 14:17; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; Romans 15:18; 1 Peter 1:8). (3) The nature of this joy and its solid effects. (a) It enlarges our hearts in duty and strengthens us in the way of Neh 8:10; Psalms 119:14). (b) It sweetens our calamities (Hebrews 3:17-18). (c) It draws us off from the vain delights of the flesh (Psalms 4:7; Psalms 43:4). (T. Manton, D. D.) Abraham beholding Christ’ s day I. THE DAY OF CHRIST. Not a period of twenty-four hours, but, as is usual in the Bible, a dispensation. 1. Some of the remarkable days that Abraham saw. (1) Looking back he saw the day when the Everlasting Father embraced Abraham and all His chosen in Christ and designed their salvation (Proverbs 8:28). (2) The day of Christ’ s incarnation. “ In thy seed,” etc. (3) The day of Christ’ s oblation. (4) The day of Christ’ s resurrection. (5) The day of Christ’ s ascension. (6) The day of Pentecost. (7) The day of judgment as winding up the dispensation and completing the fulfilment of the promise. 2. The characteristics of this day. It was a day of (1) Light. (2) Gladness. (3) Life. (4) Love. (5) Peace. (6) Salvation. II. THE BLESSED VIEW WHICH FAITH TAKES OF THIS DAY. 1. It could not have been a sensible view--for sense never can discover God. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. 2. It was a spiritual view--a sight by faith. Faith, like the bodily eye, is (1) A recipient organ. (2) An assuring organ. When a man sees a thing he cannot be mistaken if his sight is good, so a man cannot believe without knowing he is saved. (3) A directing organ. By the eye we are guided in our daily life, and by faith we walk in the light. (4) While a small, the eye is a capacious organ. What a wide prospect it can take in! So the least faith pierces the invisible. (5) An impressible organ. As scenes are impressed on the retina, so is Christ on faith. III. THE JOY AND ARISING OUT OF THIS SIGHT. It was not carnal but spiritual joy, including 1. Spiritual health (Psalms 33:1). 2. Soul satisfaction (Psalms 36:8). 3. Enlargement of soul. 4. It is cordial, hidden and unknown to the world, lasting, matchless and transcendent. (T. Bagnall-Baker, M. A.) Christian piety in relation to the future Christian piety I. TURNS THE SOUL TOWARDS THE FUTURE. Piety seems to have turned Abraham’ s mind to the “ day” of Christ. This refers, undoubtedly, to Christ’ s incarnation, personal ministry, and spiritual reign. Nineteen long centuries rolled between. Still he saw it. In relation to the future, Christian piety 1. Gives an interesting revelation of it. Science, poetry, literature, shed no light on the on-coming periods of our being; but the Bible does. It opens up the history of the race. 2. Gives a felt interest in the blessedness of the future. It gave Abraham a felt interest in the day of Christ. It gives the good a felt interest in the glories that are coming. And what glorious things are on their march! II. FASTENS THE SOUL UPON CHRIST IN THE FUTURE. “ My day.” To the godly Christ is everything in the future. Do the rivers point to the sea, the needle to the pole, the plants to the sun? Does hunger cry for food, life pant for air? Even so does the heart of piety point to Christ in the future. He has a “ day,” a universal day of His glorious revelation to come. III. BRINGS JOY TO THE SOUL FROM THE FUTURE. Abraham was “ glad” 1. With a benevolent gladness; he knew the world would be blessed by Christ’ s advent. 2. With a religious gladness; he knew that God would be glorified by His advent. Several reasons might make us glad as we think of the coming day of Christ. (1) There will be a solution of all difficulties. (2) A termination of all imperfections, physical, mental, spiritual. (3) A consummation of unending blessedness. Conclusion: Learn 1. The congruity of Christianity with the prospective tendency of the soul. The soul is always pointing to the future. Christianity meets this tendency and satisfies it. 2. The antidote of Christianity to the forebodings of the soul. Some souls are always boding evil, and well all the ungodly may. Christianity lights up the future. 3. The fitness of Christianity to the aspirations of the soul. Wonderful is the good after which some souls are aspiring in the future. The present and the material have lost for them their attractions. Man cannot aspire after anything higher than that which Christianity supplies. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ seen afar off A very lofty mountain, rising in lonely grandeur on the horizon to cleave the blue sky with its snowy pinnacles, is descried from afar. We see it a long way off--from where hills and heights, shaggy forests, silent uplands, and busy towns, and all other individual objects that lie between, are lost in distance, and present the appearance of a level plain. So, just so, Adam and Eve descried a child of theirs rising above the common level of mankind, at the long distance of four thousand years. Of the millions who were to spring from them and people the earth of which they were the lonely tenants, this distinguished child was the only one on whom, on whose birth, and life, and death, and works, their weeping eyes and eager hopes, were fixed. Christ before Abraham But how did Abraham see Him and His day? One answer is, Abraham was in heaven when the Son of God left the seat of glory and came to earth. He saw the return of the trooping bands of angels whose faces flashed out in the sky above the plains of Bethlehem, and whose voices sang the anthem of incarnation, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” All heaven was stirred from its centre to its outermost rim over the coming of Christ to earth and over the great work which brought Him among men. Abraham was in the midst of this stir. There is another answer. You find it upon the page of Old Testament history. There we are taught that the Son of God did not always maintain invisibility prior to Bethlehem. Under the former religious economy He fellowshipped with men. He walked with Adam in Eden and communed with him in the cool of the day. There is quite a long chapter in the Old Testament concerning His visit to Abraham: how He found his tent; what Abraham was doing; how He was received; how a kid was dressed and cakes were baked; how He ate and refreshed Himself at Abraham’ s table; even a report is given of the conversation which passed between them. From the declaration of superiority to Abraham, the Jewish ideal of superior human greatness, Jesus passes to the declaration of His equality with God. Christianity’ s Christ is a distinct and a well-defined person. Everything about him is sharply cut and fearlessly stated. He speaks for himself. He entraps no man into discipleship. He is not afraid of the light, nor of the witness-stand, nor of the crucible. He asks no blind faith, but submits himself to scrutiny. The man with a true Christ is a true man. The Christ and the man always correspond. (David Gregg.) John 8:58 Before Abraham was, I am.Here the Saviour claims with a double “ Amen” the Incommunicable Name (Exodus 3:14). It signifies unchangeable essence and everlasting duration. This is the name which the Jews for centuries had not dared to utter. Silently they had read it, used another in its stead, revered and adored it. Now the humble Nazarene openly assumes and claims it. God’ s word to Moses implies the impossibility of a full definition of the name, or that finite creatures could not comprehend it if given. He does not say, “ I am their Light, Life, Guide, Strength, or Tower.” He sets His hand to a blank, that faith may write her prayer. Are believers weary? I am their strength. Poor? I am their riches. In trouble? I am their comfort. Sick? I am their health. Dying? I am their life. I am justice and mercy, grace and goodness, glory, beauty, holiness, perfection--all-sufficient through eternity. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) I am This title teaches us I. THE SELF- OF CHRIST. The creature is a dependent being; God alone is independent and self-existent. II. HIS . Change is written on everything earthly. The billows of a thousand generations may sweep over the rock, but it is steadfast. Jesus is “ the same today, yesterday, and forever.” III. HIS ALL-. We are at liberty to write what we like after “ I am.” Whatever you want to make you happy, put in there. (J. M. Randall.) The eternity of Christ With filial pride the Jew thought of “ Father Abraham.” So hearing of our Lord’ s lofty claims they asked, “ Art thou greater than he?” “ Yes. He rejoiced to see My day.” With prophetic vision, doubtless; but surely more than this is meant. When did Christ’ s “ day” begin? Away back at the time of the first promise it broke. God, called also “ the Angel of the Lord,” or Christ Himself temporarily assuming human form, appeared to Abraham more than once, and perhaps here is a reference to a revelation of Christ, brighter than the rest, but made known to none other. Then the Jews said, “ Thou art not fifty years old,” etc. Our Lord replied (literally), “ Before Abraham was brought into being, I exist.” The statement is not that Christ came into existence before Abraham, but that He never came into being at all. The Jews understood this as a Divine claim, and took up stones against Him as a blasphemer. 1. Then we think of the eternity of Christ. There never was a point when He began to be. Not so with man, angels, the universe. Go back eighteen hundred years to the time of Abraham; back further still to the time of Noah, Enoch, Adam; back before any creature existed: “ In the beginning was the Word,” etc. Meet Him anywhere in eternity past or in eternity to come, and He says, “ I am.” 2. How can we think of the eternity of Christ? What know we of eternity? Suppose the patriarchs were living now, with what awe should we listen to their words weighty with the experience of millenniums. But they had a beginning. Let the ages be reckoned back to when the world was not, and added to those which shall follow till it shall cease to be, and what shall we pay for the stupendous sum total? But this is not eternity. Call in angelic numeration, and gather into one gigantic aggregate the sands of the shore, the drops of the ocean, and the stars of the sky; what would it be? Only a spot of spray to the immeasurable ocean. 3. But the eternity of Christ is a doctrine most blessed and practical, because related to the Divinity of Christ. We need a Divine as well as human Saviour, and we have one in the “ I am.” I. Is Christ eternal? THEN ASSURED IS THE LIFE OF ALL LIVING THINGS, “ By Him all things consist.” Because He is eternal, the stars wax not dim; they are as bright to us as they were to Abraham. Because He is eternal, the flowers of each coming spring are as fair as their blooming ancestry in the dawn of the world. Because He lives, “ While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest … shall not cease.” Because He lives man lives. How sweet and fresh the beauty of the newborn child! The hand of the Eternal has moulded it. And so come the successive generations of children. The years bring changes, and the man is unlike the child. Yet the soul that lives in Christ is never old; it is “ renewed day by day.” II. Is Christ eternal? THERE IS HOPE, THEN, FOR EVERY MAN. Withdrawn from human sight, He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Stephen saw Him, and Paul, and John; and now He reaches forth His invisible hand to save. III. Is Christ eternal? THEN WE HAVE ONE ABIDING FRIEND. We can lose much here; much, thank God, that it is well to lose--ignorance, bad habits, sin. But there are some bereavements that impoverish us, through injustice, misfortune, accident, loss of friends. But if Christ is ours we have an eternal possession. He loves us to the end. Lose what we may, who can be poor with Him. “ Who shall separate us,” etc. IV. Is Christ eternal? THEN HIS KINGDOM THOUGH DELAYED SHALL COME. We wonder at the tardy steps of Truth. But what are the millenniums to Christ? His name shall endure forever. (G. T. Coster.) The pre-existence of Christ Does it appear that Christ was conscious of having existed previously to His human life? Suppose that He is only a good man enjoying the highest degree of intercommunion with God, no reference to a pre-existent life can be anticipated. There is nothing to warrant it in the Mosaic revelation, and to have professed it on the soil of Palestine would have been regarded as proof of derangement. But believe that Christ is the Only-begotten Son of God, and some references to a consciousness extending backwards into a boundless eternity are to be looked for. Let us then listen to Him as He proclaims, “ If a man keep My saying He shall never see death” (John 8:52). The Jews exclaim that by such an announcement He assumes to be greater than Abraham. The response to this is, “ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” etc. Abraham had seen the day of Messiah by the light of prophecy, and accordingly this statement was a claim on the part of Jesus to be the true Messiah. Of itself such a claim would not have shocked the Jews; they would have discussed it on its merits. They had latterly looked for a political chief, victorious but human, in their expected Messiah; they would have welcomed any prospect of realizing their expectations. But they detected a deeper and less welcome meaning. He had meant, they thought, by His “ day,” something more than the years of His human life. At any rate, they would ask Him a question, which would at once justify their suspicions or enable Him to clear Himself (John 8:57). Now if our Lord had only claimed to be a human Messiah He must have earnestly disavowed any such inference. He might have replied that if Abraham saw Him by the light of prophecy, this did not of itself imply that He was Abraham’ s contemporary. But His actual answer more than justified the most extreme suspicions, “ Before Abraham was, I am.” In these tremendous words the Speaker institutes a double contrast in respect both of the duration and the mode of His existence, between Himself and the great ancestor of Israel. Abraham had come into existence at some given point of time, and did not exist until his parents gave him birth. But “ I AM.” Here is a simple existence, with no note of beginning or end. Our Lord claims pre-existence indeed, but not merely pre-existence; He unveils a consciousness of Eternal Being. He speaks as one on whom time has no effect, and for whom it has no meaning. He is the “ I AM” of ancient Israel; He knows no past as He knows no future; He is unbeginning, unending Being; He is the eternal “ Now.” This is the plain sense of his language, and perhaps the most instructive commentary on its force is to be found in the violent expedients to which Humanitarian writers have been driven in order to evade it. (Canon Liddon.) John 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at Him.Stones of the visible Temple cast at the cornerstone of the Temple of God. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The Jews and Jesus Followeth now the issue of this long dispute, and particularly of this last contest. They look upon Him as so absurd in what He had just spoken that they will reason no more, but seek to cut Him off as a blasphemer; and He takes no more pains to convince them, but delivers Himself miraculously from their fury. Whence learn 1. Malicious persecutors will not hearken to truth, though never so clearly told them; but when all arguments fail them, they will betake themselves to violence; for “ then they take up stones to cast at Him,” wherein they were injurious, in returning Him the reward of a blasphemer, who had told them the truth, and unjust, in their tumultuous procedure, and not taking a legal way. And this is it which may be expected of all contradictors of Christ’ s doctrine, if they get power and be not bridled. 2. It is lawful for God’ s servants to withdraw from the fury of bloody persecutors, when the persecution is personal, as Christ’ s example doth teach. 3. Our blessed Lord did condescend to sanctify all the weak means prescribed to His people in hard times, in His own person; for, He who could have destroyed them, “ hid Himself,” and made use of fleeing, “ He went out,” etc. 4. Christ can disappoint persecutors, and deliver His people, even in greatest extremity; for, when they have Him among their hands in the Temple, He first “ hid Himself,” and then “ went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them,” etc. Either he dazzled their eyes, and made Himself invisible, both when He hid Himself, and went away; or having done so for a while, while he hid Himself, He did bind up their hands that they could not touch Him when He went openly through them out of the Temple. And so He evinced His great power even in His infirmity, and so also doth He make His people prove strong while they are weak, and perfects His strength in their weakness. (G. Hutcheson.) Hatred of the truth Truth is hated because I. IT SEES TOO DEEPLY. II. SPEAKS TOO PLAINLY. III. JUDGES TOO . (Schnur.) Jesus hid Himself and went out of the Temple Christ and His Church in a bad world The escape of our Lord was no doubt a great miracle. As an old Divine remarks on it, “ Christ here hides Himself, not by shrinking behind partition walls, nor by interposing anything else between them and His own Body, but by the power of His Godhead making Himself invisible to those who sought Him.” Once before, as it seems, He had wrought the same wonder, but not in the same place, nor among the same people (Luke 4:29-30). Thus, as another old writer observes, “ you may understand that our Lord’ s passion was endured not of constraint, but willingly: that He was not so much taken by the Jews, as offered by Himself. For when He will, He is taken; when He will, He escapes; when He will, He is hanged on a tree; when He will, they can lay no hold on Him.” St. John says, He hid Himself; St. Luke does not say so--therefore it may be, that in the one case His enemies could not see Him, any more than Balaam could the angel; in the other ease, that though they saw Him, the hand of God was on them in some remarkable way, to keep them from laying hands on Him. Another circumstance much to be observed, in our Lord’ s manner, in both these two several miracles, is His passing immediately from His danger and the midst of His enemies, to the performance of works of mercy among worthier and more thankful people. When He became visible again, it was to heal those who had need of healing. The particular way in which at present I wish to consider this great miracle is the following: How it throws light on the true condition of Christ and His servants here in this evil world. It shows us what the true Church of Christ and what true Christians must expect; and it shows us also how they may behave themselves, in such trials, worthy of Him whom they serve. The plain doctrine of Scripture is, that as affliction is the lot of all men--for man is born to trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward--so persecution is the lot of Christians. They declare themselves in baptism bound to be always at war with the world and the devil; and the world and the devil for their part will never leave them alone. But further: the attack on our Lord on this occasion seems to show what way of thinking it is, and what particular part of the Church’ s doctrine, which is most apt to draw on itself the censure and enmity of the world. Why did the Jews try to stone our Lord? because He represented Himself as having been before Abraham. So a while after, when He plainly said to them, “ I and My Father are one,” they presently took up stones to stone Him. And His final condemnation to death by the High Priest went on no other ground. Thus it has ever been between Christ and the wicked world. They would hear him teach many things--speak in praise of love and charity, or utter His great unspeakable promises. But when it comes to this, You are members of Christ, walk worthy, then, of the vocation wherewith ye are called; Christ, who accounts you part of Himself, is the Most High God; you, as united to Him, are partakers of the Divine Nature; therefore you must really keep the commandments, you must be inwardly and really holy as He is holy: when this kind of doctrine is put forth, and urged home to the hearts of men, they grow uneasy, and start objections, and make difficulties, and say it is requiring too much; they never can come up to so high a standard, and they take people to have become their enemies, who talk to them in such a tone. This of course makes our duty, in respect of God’ s Truth and worship, harder to perform; but it does not in the least make it obscure or doubtful. We must not neglect, or forget, high and mysterious doctrines, or severe rules, because those with whom we are concerned are impatient of being put in mind of them; yet again, we must so teach them as they may be able to bear--tempting them as little as possible to irreverent hearing and careless forgetting. Jesus Christ, His hour being not yet come, retired out of the way of His enemies, and gave them time to consider and repent. So it becomes us, when we bear witness to the truth, to be full of that great charity, which will make us put ourselves in the gainsayers’ place, and always consider what is most likely to do them good, and bring them to a better mind. As for example: if a bad or profane word is spoken in our hearing, it can never of course be right to seem amused at it, or in any way to become partaker of the sin; but it may often be best not openly to rebuke it at the time, but rather to turn the discourse for the present, and await some opportunity, when we can speak with the offender alone, and he is otherwise more disposed to listen to us. This is withdrawing the name of our Lord out of the way of reproach, as He did His Person from the stones that were cast at Him. Only we must be very careful, that we do not so retire through cowardice or sloth, or out of care what men may say of us: and the proof of this will be, if we seek anxiously afterwards for opportunities of doing the good, which we thought we could not do at that time; and if we deny ourselves something for the sake of doing it. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times. ”) . John 9:1-25 And as Jesus passed by He saw a man which was blind from his birth Jesus and the blind man I. CHRONIC . 1. A type of spiritual need (John 9:1; Ephesians 4:18; 2Co Luke 2:34; Isaiah 59:9; Proverbs 4:19; Isaiah 59:10). 2. Common to the human race (John 9:2; Romans 3:23; Psalms 14:3; 1 John 5:19; Romans 5:12; Romans 5:14; Romans 5:21). II. HELP GRANTED. 1. For the glory of God (John 9:3; John 7:18; John 8:49-50; John 11:4; John 14:13). 2. Because the time was short (John 9:4; John 12:35; John 13:1; John 14:12; Matthew 26:24; Luke 12:50). 3. To show Christ’ s errand on earth (John 9:4; John 3:17; John 4:34; John 6:38; Luke 2:49; Psalms 40:7; 1 John 4:14). 4. To fulfil prophecy. (1) As light of the world (John 9:5; Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:78; Numbers 24:17; Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 13:6). (2) As opener of eyes of blind (John 9:6; Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 32:3; Isaiah 25:5; Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 24:16). 5. To reward faith (John 9:7; Matthew 9:22; Matthew 9:29; Matthew 13:58; Matthew 15:28; Acts 3:16). III. DOUBTS OF . 1. As to the reality of the miracle (John 9:9; John 7:12; Matthew 9:3; Matthew 9:24; Matthew 28:15; Acts 1:13). 2. As to the fitness of the time (John 9:14; Matthew 12:2; Matthew 12:10; John 5:16; John 5:18; Luke 6:7). 3. As to the character of Jesus (John 9:16; John 7:20; John 9:24; John 9:29; Lu Matthew 11:19; Mark 3:22). (S. S. Times.) Jesus and the blind man Here are three distinct types of character all seeking for information. 1. The gossip-loving neighbours whose sole desire seems to have been to see or hear some new thing. 2. The prejudiced Pharisees who are bound not to know anything that conflicts with their cherished views. 3. The parents who are afraid that they know too much. 4. The one man who did know something and was not afraid to own it. I. THERE WERE MANY THINGS THE BLIND MAN DID NOT KNOW. He had never till now seen the light of day. Objects familiar to a child, grass, trees, sun, moon, etc., were unknown to him. His creed was very short and contained but one article, but this was the most important because containing that rarest of all knowledge--self-knowledge. What do you know, boy or girl? Something about grammar, arithmetic, geography, etc.? But do you know something about yourself? Here you are in the world; you know that in some sense, but do you realize it as the man did his blindness, so that it affects every action and thought? Do you know that you will not stay in the flesh forever? “ Yes, ever since I wrote in my copybook, ‘ All men are mortal.’” But do you know it as the man knew that he was blind, so that you are willing to accept the gift of heaven through Christ? II. WHAT THE BLIND MAN KNEW HE KNEW . About this one article he had no question. There was no “ if” or “ perhaps” about it, no room for Agnosticism in it. He had only one answer for his neighbours and the Pharisees, and could not be cajoled or frightened out of what he knew. It is best to believe a little thoroughly than much superficially. Not that creeds are to be despised, but as a matter of fact every man has his own private creed which does not coincide with all the creed of his church, but which is a matter of experience. This man’ s creed was, “ One thing I know; whereas I was blind,” etc. The deaf mute’ s creed was, “ One thing I know, whereas I was dumb,” etc. So with the cleansed leper. These creeds differed in their premises, but they all led to the same conclusion, that there was one Healer. We may have been brought to our belief through different doors--one through that of sorrow, another through that of providential deliverance, etc., yet there is one conclusion, that Jesus is the only Saviour of sinners. III. THE GRADUAL WAY IN WHICH HE TO A OF CHRIST. 1. He is only conscious of an unusual presence in the throng about him who exerts a strange influence over him, then stops and anoints his eyes, commands him to wash, which doing he sees. At once he says, “ A man that is called Jesus,” etc. That is something. He has time to think the matter over. 2. When the next questioner asks, “ What sayest thou of Him” ? he answers unhesitatingly, “ He is a prophet.” He is getting on rapidly now. Not more quickly do his newly-opened eyes take in the marvels of nature than his newly-awakened spiritual vision takes in the glories of Christ’ s character. 3. Next he hears them call Jesus a sinner. Nay, he says, “ God heareth not sinners” --a further step. The healer is a sinless one. 4. A moment later he avers that Jesus comes from God. 5. A little later comes worship of and faith in Christ as the Son of God, where he reaches the limit of knowledge. IV. NOTE THAT VERY LITTLE OF CHRIST IS FOR . A child knows more than that beggar did of Christ, but he knew enough to do as he was bidden, and that was enough to save him. Christ did not wait until he fully apprehended His character before He healed him. “ He that willeth to do His will shall know,” etc. V. THERE IS ONE CLASS IN THIS STORY WHO MADE THE WORLD’ S STOCK--the Pharisees. They would not believe their own eyes. They were so eager to establish their point that they made themselves ridiculous. There are many people now who disbelieve in the face of stronger evidence, and who do not believe for the same reason as the Pharisees--because they will not. VI. AN OUNCE OF IS WORTH A TON OF THEORY. The blind man, alone and ignorant, had the advantage of the whole college of rabbis because he had experience on his side. He could establish a fact when they could only ask questions. It is better to know one thing than to guess a good many. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) The history of the man who was born blind 1. The miracle, or the power of the love of Christ. 2. The trial, or the power of upright simplicity and gratitude. 3. The issue, or the victory of faith over the strongest temptation. 4. The profound interpretation and lofty significances of the event. (J. P.Lange, D. D.) The healing of the man born blind I. THE OF HIS . His blindness 1. Deprived him of an important means of knowledge. The blind may acquire a word knowledge of men and things, but he is powerless to form any corresponding mental picture. Locke speaks of one who, after listening to an explanation of scarlet, thought it resembled the blast of a trumpet; and so of the man here. There he stands at the gate of the Temple; his features familiar to the worshippers, but the gorgeous service within, and all the life and beauty without, he had never beheld, and as he now stood beneath the Redeemer’ s gaze he was unconscious whose pitying look rested on him. We are all born blind. The eyes of the soul are there, but they see not. For many years some have heard the disfiguration our moral visage described and the beauty of Jesus depicted, and are as insensible to both as this blind man. 2. Denied him a grand source of enjoyment. The eye is the channel of some of our purest pleasures. The blind know nothing of the beauties of nature, art, literature, friendship; and the spiritually blind are dead to the perception of a Father’ s presence and a Father’ s love. 3. Unfitted him for the discharge of life’ s duties. Instead of being able to care for others, he needed others to care for him. He whose mind is blinded by unbelief, prejudice, or passion can never rightly discharge his duty. The light of God’ s renewing grace within is the only sufficient qualification for doing the works of righteousness. II. THE MANNER OF HIS CURE. 1. There was the Divine employment of a material element. A medicinal value was attributed to the saliva, but the clay could only have further injured the eyes. So that the ointment was not an assistance to Divine power but only to human faith. 2. There was implicit obedience to the Divine command. Without question or debate, and actuated only by hope of cure, the man did as he was told. Whatever God appoints as a condition of blessing we are bound to instantly accept. If He commands us wash in the Saviour’ s blood, and move with the feet of prayer to the place of healing, it is for us not to question but to obey. 3. There was the evident operation of Divine power. The clay and Siloam were only outward and visible signs of Christ’ s curative energy. The cure of spiritual blindness is possible only to the power of God. Neither priestly incantations nor clay-cold creeds can make the blind to see. III. THE OF HIS . 1. It was the embodiment of personal experience. He does not attempt to explain the how of the cure, nor does he allow himself to be shaken by the Pharisees’ objection to the Author of his cure. He keeps to the one thing he knows. There is no evidence so valuable as experimental. If we have been brought out of darkness into marvellous light no objector can destroy that fact of consciousness. 2. It was sustained by visible proof. His neighbours could not at first agree as to his identity, there was so great a change. So by their fruits regenerate Christians are known. 3. It was borne with unflinching boldness. He dared and suffered that which a Jew dreaded most. It is an easy thing to confess Christ when the confession involves no sacrifice. But to witness for Him when convenience and custom would counsel silence; to lose a good situation rather than deny our Lord--that requires courage. But Christ made up to the man more than he had lost, and so He will do to us. (W. Kirkman.) Opening the eyes of one blind from his birth I. THE OF THIS MIRACLE. 1. A strange question (John 9:2). 2. A conclusive reply (John 9:3). 3. A solemn reflection (John 9:4). 4. A glorious announcement (John 9:5). II. THE MANNER IN WHICH IT WAS WROUGHT. 1. The action (John 9:6). 2. The command, “ Go” (John 9:6) The design of which was (1) To try the man’ s faith, as Naaman’ s was tried. (2) To give greater publicity to the miracle. 3. the result, “ Came seeing” (John 9:7). III. THE VARIOUS AND WHICH THE MIRACLE . Several parties are introduced. 1. The man’ s neighbours and casual acquaintances (John 9:8-12). 2. The Pharisees (John 9:13, etc.). 3. Our Lord (John 9:35, etc.). Congenital blindness While I was living in Geneva I became acquainted with Dr. Dufour of Lausanne, just after his successful operation on a patient blind from birth. The case is by no means unprecedented, but it is not common, and when it occurs, the study of the processes by which one thus put in possession of a new sense comes to the intelligent use of it, and to the power of apprehending anything in the mind by means of it, is a study of the profoundest interest both to the physician and to the mental philosopher. There are very apt to he circumstances unfavourable to such study. The form of blindness from birth which is susceptible of cure is that of “ congenital cataract;” and this is often so complicated with other defects of the organ of vision that even after it is removed the patient cannot see distinctly; or there is a deficiency of the intellectual faculties; or the original blindness was not complete, so that the ease does not furnish an example of the actual beginning of vision; or the operation is effected at an age at which the child cannot give a full and intelligent account of his sensations. The case which Dr. Dufour treated was that of a man of twenty, both whose eyes had been covered from birth by an opaque chalky deposit which barely permitted him to perceive a difference between light and darkness; only when a strong colour was made to shine obliquely into the pupil he had been able to recognize the difference between red, yellow, and blue. But he had never seen the form of anything, a surface, or an outline. After the operation the patient was kept for a considerable time in a dark room with the eyes bandaged; and at last when the healing was sufficiently advanced, he was brought to the light. He groped, and sought for leading, and behaved so like a blind man that the doctor began to doubt whether there was not a deeper seated blindness that would defeat the effect of his operation. The patient was seated with his back to the window, and the doctor, in front, moved his hand to and fro over his black coat. “ Do you see anything?” he asked. “ Yes,” said the patient; “ I see something light.” (He already knew the difference between light and darkness). “ What is it?” “ It’ s--it’ s--it’ s--” This is all that could be got from him. The doctor tried once more, putting his hand before the patient, sometimes at rest, sometimes in motion. “ Do you see anything move?” “ Move?” The doctor kept trying, and the patient gazed intently; but the most of an answer that could be got from the young man was that he saw “ something white.” The next day the patient was seated again as before, and the doctor showed him a watch. He said at once, I see something bright. Is it round or square. No answer. “ Do you know what square means?” He made the shape with his hands, and likewise a circle. But all the time, looking eagerly at the watch, he was totally unable to tell whether it was round or square. The next day the same question was put, with the same failure to answer. At length the doctor let him touch the watch. Instantly he spoke up: “ It’ s round! It’ s a watch!” Two strips of paper were shown him. He could not tell by the eye which was the longer, or whether they were of equal length, until he was allowed to touch them. He was shown two pieces of paper, one square, the other round. “ Do you see any difference between these papers?” “ Yes.” “ What is the difference?” No answer. “ Well, one of them is round and the other square; which is the square?” He hesitated awhile, and being told to touch them, he laid his hand on the square piece, and, feeling the corner of it, exclaimed, “ This is the square!” Then he handled the round piece attentively, and from that time forth had no difficulty in distinguishing round objects by the eye. The results of a long series of careful experiments with this patient is thus summed up: His visual sensations were clear and definite enough, but he had no power of interpreting them. Each sensation required a special intellectual act of comparing the impression on the eye with the impression on the touch. The image of external objects impressed on his retina was nothing to him but an assemblage of outlines and colours, in which he perceived no order, and from which he derived no notion, whether of form, or of distance, or of motion. This result corresponds to the result reached in the half-dozen like cases that have been studied and recorded, beginning with Cheselden’ s famous case in 1728. The incident of restoration of sight to the blind has been used in modern fiction by Wilkie Collins in “ Poor Miss Finch,” and by Bulwer in “ The Pilgrims of the Rhine,” and used in a way utterly irreconcilable with fact or possibility, Shakespeare, as might be expected, deals more shrewdly with the subject (“ King Henry VI,” part 2). Now, it is a very notable fact, that in the gospel accounts of the healing of the blind, written in an age when “ it had not been heard since the world began that anyone had opened the eyes of a man born blind,” there is not a syllable that is inconsistent with the facts of psycho-physiology as they have been demonstrated so many centuries later. The most ingenious tale writers of our own day fall inadvertently into such inconsistencies. These plain narrators of eighteen hundred years ago avoid them. How? They must have been going by facts that they had seen. It was in my thought to speak of the paedagogic interest of the case. Dr. Dufour was so unprepared for the incapacity of perception in his patient, that he was ready to believe his operation a failure, because of the slenderness of the first results. Is there any commoner source of discouragement to teachers than their own mistake in taking too much for granted? Is it easy to underestimate the acquired knowledge of a little child? A careful statistical study of “ The Contents of a Child’ s Mind,” lately made by the examination of candidates for the primary schools of Boston, yielded results of a sort most instructive to the teachers of primary classes, as showing how often those notions which we should assume as a matter of course as being part of the mental furniture of the least and dullest, are lacking in the minds even of bright children. (L. W. Bacon, D. D.) Characteristics of blindness I knew such a blind man once--sharp, shrewd, clever. I was staying on the Cornish coast and the good man of the house sat in the settle by the fire. I was anxious to make his acquaintance and seeing he was blind, I said, with as much sympathy as I could, “ Yours is a great affliction, my friend.” To my astonishment he got up and turned upon me angrily, and denied it utterly. “ No, it is not,” said he--“ not a bit.” And he groped his way out. His wife hurried in to apologise and explain. “ Oh, sir, I am so sorry; I meant to have asked you not to say anything about my husband’ s blindness. He always gets so angry. You know, he thinks eyes are such stupid things. And he can do a great deal more without his eyes than many men can do with them.” That blind man opened my eyes. I watched henceforth most carefully, and I think I learned this--that, generally speaking, a blind man is not conscious of his infirmity. A deaf man sees that he is deaf, but a blind man cannot see that he is blind. As the result of my altered manner I got an invitation to address some two or three hundred blind people. I was almost shocked at the reason given for asking me. “ He won’ t pity us.” Not pity the poor blind!--why, it was the appeal that had often diverted my earliest pence from some indulgence. But I knew what they meant, and was glad that they had discerned my knowledge--the blind only know that they are blind by being pitied. (M. G. Pearse.) Characteristics of the miracle 1. It is only related by St. John. 2. Like each of the few miracles in St. John, it is described with great minuteness and particularity. 3. It is one of the four miracles wrought in Judaea, or near Jerusalem, mentioned in St. John. He records eight great miracles together: four in Galilee--turning the water into wine, healing the nobleman’ s son, feeding the multitude, and walking on the water (chaps. 2, 4, and 6); and four in Judaea--purifying the Temple, healing the impotent man, restoring sight to the blind, and raising Lazarus (chaps. 2; 5; 6; and 9). 4. It is one of those miracles which the Jews were especially taught to expect in Messiah’ s time: “ In that day shall the eyes of the blind see out of obscurity” (Isaiah 29:18). 5. It is one of those signs of Messiah having come, to which Jesus particularly directed John the Baptist’ s attention: “ The blind receive their sight” (Matthew 11:5). 6. It was a miracle worked in so public a place, and on a man so well known, that it was impossible for the Jerusalem Jews to deny it. It is hardly necessary, perhaps, to bid any well-instructed Christian observe the singularly instructive and typical character of each of the eight miracles which John was inspired to record. Each was a vivid picture of spiritual things. Hengstenberg observes, that three of the four great miracles wrought by Christ in Judaea, exactly represent the three classes of works referred to in Matthew 11:5 : “ The lame walk, the blind see, the dead are raised up” (John 5:1-47; John 9:1-41; John 11:1-57). (Bp. Ryle.) General remarks on the miracle More miracles are recorded as to the blind than any other disease. One of palsy, one of dropsy, two of leprosy, two of fever. Three dead were raised, but four blind were restored to sight. Some writers extend the number to six (Matthew 12:22). Isaiah alludes oftener to curing the blind than to the removal of any other form of misery. This miracle strikes us with the greater power--the only one born blind (verse 82). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Miracle authenticated Renan declared himself ready to believe a miracle in case it be examined and established by a committee especially nominated and authorized beforehand for that purpose. Should we not be almost tempted to speak of a holy irony of history, which has already fulfilled this arbitrary demand many centuries before it was uttered? For, in truth, an examination is here conducted by the most acute and hostile eyes, the witnesses are called, opinions are heard, and the various possibilities are weighed against each other as though on gold scales--and what is the result? It is this. While the miracle remains incomprehensible, its invention is inconceivable. I know what your answer will be when I ask you, whether you regard these particulars as invented--the astonishment of the neighbours; the diversity of opinions; the dissention of the Pharisees; the cunning and forbearance of the parents; the immovable calmness, the increasing frankness, the confidence of the man in presenting the knowledge of his experience as of equal weight with the knowledge of the Pharisees; and that humble confession of his faith in our Lord. We are no more surprised that the restored blind man was cast out than we hear him confessing after this event that Christ is the Son of God. It would excite our wonder more if one or the other of these circumstances had not been mentioned. In fact, as we look at the critical objections that are presented with the most important air imaginable, we can hardly refrain from asking, “ Are these men serious or jesting?” (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.) Instances of blindness Homer, Ossian, Milton, Blacklock (only saw the light five months, yet linguist and poet), Sanderson, celebrated Mathematician and Lucasian Professor at Cambridge (blind before one year old); Euler, mathematician; Huber ; Holman, traveller round the world; William Metcalf, builder of roads and bridges; John Metcalf (Manchester), guide to those travelling through intricate roads by night, when covered with snow, afterwards a projector and surveyor of roads in different mountainous parts, most of the roads about the Peak, and near Buxton, were altered by his direction; Laura Bridgman, neither sight, hearing, nor speech, yet learned to know herself a sinner, and Christ a Saviour; Milburn, the blind American preacher; Prescot, the historian; Goodrich ; Rev. J. Crosse, Vicar of Bradford. Hence learn 1. God’ s sovereignty in creation: Why were you born blind? Matthew 11:26). 2. God’ s goodness in providence: that blind men so often see more than those who have sight. The blind are proverbially cheerful. 3. God’ s riches in grace. Spiritual blindness A gentleman, in passing a coal mine in Pennsylvania, saw a field full of mules. In answer to his inquiry a boy told him: “ These are the mules that work all the week down in the mine; but on Sunday they have to come up to the light, or else in a little while they go blind.” So with men. Keep them delving and digging in dust and darkness seven days in a week, and all the days of the fifty-two weeks in a year, and how long can they be expected to have any discernment for Divine things? The eyes of their understandings are necessarily bedimmed. Christ’ s sight of sinners This man could not see Jesus, but, what was better, Jesus could see him; and we read, “ As Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth.” Many other blind men there were in Israel, but Jesus saw this man with a special eye. I think I see the Saviour standing still, and looking at him, taking stock of him, listening to his quaint speeches, noting what kind of man he is, and exhibiting special interest in him. This morning there is one in the Tabernacle who cannot see Jesus, for he has no spiritual eyes; but I am convinced that my Master is now looking at him, searching him from head to foot, and reading him with discerning eye. He is considering what he will make of him by-and-by, for he has the great and gracious intent that He will take this sinner, who is spiritually like the blind beggar, and enlighten him, and give him to behold His glory. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The compassion of Christ “ He saw,” etc. This was enough to move Christ to mercy, the sight of a fit object. (J. Trapp.) Types of character in relation to Christ's work As this chapter is the history of one event, its several sections may be thus treated;--Those who consciously need the work of Christ; those who are speculatively interested in it; those who are malignantly prejudiced against it; those who are heartily interested in it; and those who are experimentally restored by it. Looking at the blind man as representing the consciously needy class note I. THE OF THEIR . 1. This man was afflicted with blindness. Those windows through which the soul looks out upon, and which the soul lets in the beauty of God’ s creation, had never been opened. 2. He was afflicted with beggary. He lived perhaps all his life on the precarious charity of those who visited the temple. 3. He was afflicted with social heartlessness. With what pain must he have heard the question of Joh 9:2. This was a common error among the Jews; but the whole book of Job seems to have been written to correct it, and Christ Himself exposed it (Luke 13:1-4). The sufferings of individuals are no just criterion of moral character. Spiritually all in their unregenerate condition are as needy as this man. Alas! but few realize it. II. THE NATURE OF THEIR . This Isaiah 1. The predetermined work of God (verse 3). Christ does not mean that either was free from sin, but that sin was not the cause of the blindness, but that the blindness was to afford scope for His remedial agency. God’ s restorative agency reveals Him often in more striking aspects than even His creative and preserving. 2. Was effected by Christ (verse 4). This He did (1) Systematically, not capriciously or desultorily, but by a Divine programme. He did the right work in the right place, on the right person, at the right time. (2) Diligently. He knew that His work was great, but His time limited. These works suggest that (a) There is a Divine purpose in every man’ s life. (b) A Divine work. (c) A Divine limit. (3) Appropriately (verse 5). He assumes a character corresponding to the exigencies of the sufferer. To the woman at the well He was “ living water” ; to the sisters of Lazarus, “ the Resurrection and the Life.” (4) Unasked; as He “ passed by.” (5) Instrumentally (verse 6). (D. Thomas D. D.) Christ and the blind man I. AND MAY BE THE FOR SHOWING THE DIVINE POWER AND GRACE. “ But that the works of God should be made manifest in him” was the infallible solution of this trouble. The calamities and penalties under which multitudes lie are clearly of their own intelligent seeking. If the works of God are made manifest in them, it is but the stern and startling exhibition of the fact that “ he is not mocked,” and that “ whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Here we have illustration of how small and empty our measures and judgments are apt to be, when they would gauge the purposes and deeds of the Infinite. What confusion and rebuke when he stoops to offer the true explanation! In a flash, as it were, he solves much of the mystery of the existence of evil and sorrow in the world. He does not deny the means by which they have appeared. Adam or one’ s parents may have violated some beneficent rule of life and the child comes into being, having the marks of it, the curse of it. A remote or near offender may have doomed Byron to the clubfoot, and Cowper to melancholia, and the Emperor William to a withered arm. The keenest experts are often baffled in tracing the genesis of disease. All agree that “ affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground.” Here God has prepared the ground on which to display the marvels of his power. Beautiful characters may appear, as the brilliant blossom on the ugly and thorny cactus. And not for the observers’ sake simply, but chiefly for those subject to infirmity is it laid upon them. If patience and restfulness of spirit and self-forgetfulness can be thus developed, it is well. These are God’ s works. “ Philosophy may infuse stubbornness,” said Cecil, “ but religion only can give patience.” If correct estimates of worldly and unworldly treasures can be gained only in the white heats of furnace pains, then these are well. Every untoward condition of our human life has some beneficent and glorious possibility in it. God only knows what that is. He only can bring it out. II. IS . III. OUTWARD MEANS THE TEST OF FAITH. Some ignore His Church, its ordinances and methods, as needless in the regeneration of society or of the individual. But some movement must be made to catch its message; some step toward its cleansing pools; some regard for its simplest rites there must be before any who have “ closed their eyes lest haply they should perceive” can obtain the Christly healing. IV. JESUS REVEALS HIMSELF TO THOSE WHO SUFFER FOR HIS SAKE AND THEIR FAITH. They who escape the great fight of affliction because they are Christ’ s do it perhaps to their own loss. Not so real, so vivid, is He to those who have much beside. Fame and ease and abundance may dull that strong and saving sense of His presence which is the disciple’ s chief need. (De Witt S. Clark.) Christ and the blind man Wherever help was most needed thither His merciful heart drew Him, and whoever craved pity and succour gravitated to Him as streams to the sea. Others, who are immersed in their own satisfactions, may find this a very comfortable and happy world. They do not see the sorrows for which they have no sympathy, and pass by the griefs which they do not feel. In their presence the wounded instinctively hide themselves away, and the eloquence of want is suppressed and silent. While the gardener is bending over the prone and helpless plant, seeking how he may lift it up and restore it to bloom and beauty, wise botanists begin to botanize--“ Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” I. THE PROBLEM. Here is a problem, old as man is old, and wide as the world is wide, the vast problem of evil--the existence of pain in the universe of a good God. Jesus does not say that this man or his parents had never sinned. All pain is not penal. Pain may be remedial, medicinal--a means of grace, a surgery of soul--a crucible of character, a revelation of the Divine goodness, an ultimate disclosure of the Divine glory. His blindness is an infirmity, not a punishment. It is something given, and not something inflicted. II. THE MIRACLE. The works of God are at last to be made manifest. The method of the miracle here as everywhere is a method which keeps the miraculous as close as possible to ordinary means and agencies. He always sought some fulcrum in nature on which to rest the leverage of supernatural power. He startles with results, never with processes. He honours nature even when He would transcend nature. But the works of God are made manifest in no startling and spectacular way. As the dawn widens into the day, so this child of darkness is led into the marvellous light. Having anointed the blind man’ s eyes, Jesus said, “ Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” He sends him away from Himself, away from His own ministry, to the ministry of nature, to the recuperative energies which are beating in every pulse of creation. There is a human as well as a Divine side in all this great mystery of human healing and human redemption. The man is a small but necessary factor in the redemptive process, in the ultimate result. When Jesus would test our faith He gives us not merely something to believe but something to do. Action is the ultimate speech of conviction, the measure of its strength, the test of its sincerity. The faith that worketh is a faith which may be counted on. The test of a locomotive is not the noise in the whistle, but the pull in the cylinders. Every escape from ignorance into intelligence, from weakness into power, from savagery into civilization, from darkness into the light, is by way of the Pool of Siloam--is a salvation by faith. III. THE . The return of this man, radiant in the joy of vision, was the sensation of the hour. He was not overawed by their authority, nor deceived by their sophistry. He could not be coerced into suppression nor corrupted into a lie. Against all blandishment and all abuse that indomitable man was loyal to his benefactor and true to himself. IV. THE . Such fidelity was too rare and too precious to fail of its reward. (Boston Homilies.) The opening of the eyes of a man born blind Even amid the fury of the crowd Christ was entirely self-possessed, and the incident here recorded may have been introduced by the Evangelist for this, among other reasons, that he might bring out, by the force of the contrast that is here suggested between the excited violence of a multitude and the calmness of Christ, the vast, nay, infinite, superiority of Jesus to all other men. He was not excited. The beginning of all good to the sinner is when Jesus sees him thus; even as it was His perception of the ruined state of man, at first, that moved Him to become the Redeemer of the race. Now here we have a great general law pervading the Providence of God. It does not explain the origin of evil, but it shows how God brings good out of evil, and therefore helps to reconcile us to its existence. The anointing of the eyes with clay formed in the manner here described, was better calculated to make a seeing man blind, than to make a blind man see. Why, then, was such an application made? Perhaps to help the faith of the man who was to be cured. It gave him something to build upon. It gave him something to build upon. It raised his hope--nay, it led him to expect a cure; and that helps to account for the promptitude of his obedience. Then the command, “ Go, wash in Siloam,” suggests that in spiritual operations God has His work, and we have ours. Now let us observe two things in this brief account of a great miracle. The first is, the promptitude of the man’ s obedience. “ He went away, therefore, and washed.” Without any delay; without any reluctance; probably, also, without any misgiving--he went and did what he was told. Then observe also the perfection of the cure, “ He came seeing.” Seeing is a thing which, in all ordinary cases, needs to be learned. What Jesus did for him, He did perfectly; and when He opens the soul’ s eyes, they see clearly and correctly “ wonderful things out of God’ s law,” I have time now for only two practical lessons and to get them we shall go back to the very beginning of this remarkable chapter. I. The first is, THAT THE OF A CALM AND SPIRIT IS BOTH TO THE AND OF THE WORKS WHICH OUR FATHER HAS GIVEN US TO DO. Peace of spirit is essential if we would keep ourselves abreast of our opportunities and do each work at its own hour. Let us try to imitate the Saviour here; and to this end let us cultivate entire confidence in God, for trust in Him is peace. II. The second practical lesson is, THAT THE RAISING OF IN THE DOMAIN OF MERE WITH THE OF THE DUTIES OF LIFE. Not the speculative, but the practical, demands our care. (W. M. Taylor.) The Saviour and the sufferer I. THE SAVIOUR. What He was then in giving sight, He is still in giving salvation. Notice His peculiar traits in this miracle. 1. Compassion. Christ saw the blind man before His disciples saw him, and His look awakened their interest. Everywhere we read of His sympathy with those in trouble. He saw what others would gladly refrain from seeing--the woes of men (John 9:1). 2. Omniscience. He saw the past history of this man and His parents; and saw, too, his future history, how boldly, nay, how doggedly he would confess Christ, and how abundantly he would glorify God. He saw in this blind beggar splendid possibilities. So He saw Paul in the persecuting Saul, the reformer in the monk Martin Luther. So He sees what every man may become under Divine grace (John 9:2-3). 3. Activity. Seeing these possibilities in this man He set at work to bring them out. His aim was to make out of this beggar a man of God. Toward this all instrumentalities combined--the clay, the pool, the tests to the man’ s character from neighbours and rulers. Do we realize that Jesus is taking the same pains to bring out of us the best that is in us (verse 4-7)? 4. Kingly authority. He gave His command like a king, “ Go, wash.” There were man-made customs in the way, but He brushed them aside as one who spoke with authority. The hearts of men need just such a Master as this (John 9:7). 6. Divine power. Only the Divine physician could give sight to the blind-born. And only the Son of God has the right to claim the faith and worship of men (John 9:7; John 9:35-38). II. Turn we now to THE : A most interesting character, as unfolded by the Gospel writer. Note his condition, and his steps from darkness to light. 1. His darkness. He was like the sinner, who cannot see God; whose nature is undeveloped, and who gropes in ignorance. Note texts showing blindness as a type of sin (John 11:10; John 12:35; Revelation 3:17; Isaiah 60:2; Ephesians 4:18; 1 Corinthians 2:14). 2. His opportunity. One day Jesus of Nazareth passed by, looked upon him, and called to him. This was the opportunity of his life. Such an opportunity comes to every soul when God’ s Spirit strives within him, or God’ s Church invites him to salvation. 3. His obedience. This was the obedience of faith. 4. His transformation. A wonderful change, from darkness to light, placing the man in new relations with the universe. But it is a greater change when God converts a soul and makes all things new. 5. His testimony. Notice how positive, how repeated, how consistent was this man’ s testimony to the work wrought in him. He did not falter when his witnessing cost him expulsion from the synagogue. So should everyone tell his experience of salvation. (J. L. Hurlbut.) The Light of the world Jesus was passing out to avoid stoning; but without fear or hurry. An object of misery arrests His attention, and in spite of danger He stops. I. A SAD CASE. The blind man had never seen father, mother, friend, books, landscape. As the miracle was a “ sign” of salvation, blindness is typical of the condition of the sinner. 1. The blind man was reduced to the necessity of guiding himself through the lower sense of touch. He picked his way through the streets with the point of his staff or the instinct of his dog. So the sinner guides himself by merely earthly considerations. He feels his way by the staff of interest, pleasure, opinions of others, etc. 2. The blind man has no idea of distance or of the relation of one object to another. He knows only those things he can feel all over. He may grope round a tree, but he can form no idea of its position in the landscape; he may have some idea of the earth he treads on, but none of its relation to the heavenly bodies. So the sinner has no proper notion of the connection between this life and the next, or of the relation of spiritual things to God. He may be more than usually expert in other departments, even as a blind man may have a more delicate touch; but in this region he is helpless. 3. One point of difference is to be noted. This man’ s blindness was a misfortune (John 9:2-3). He was not to blame for it; but the sinner’ s blindness is culpable. He has kept his eyes shut so long that the capacity for seeing has gone. Satan blinds the sinner, it is true, as the Philistines blinded Samson; but as Samson was to blame for letting himself fall into the enemies’ hands, so is the sinner. II. A SAYING (John 9:4-5). 1. An essential dignity. These are strange words if Jesus was a mere man. Had He been insane we could have put them aside; but He had a mind of exquisite balance. Had He been a vain man, we might have set them down to vanity, but we know He was humble. Had He been untruthful, we might have pronounced them false; but we know that He was incapable of a lie. Therefore we can explain them in harmony with His general character only when we understand them as used by one who was God. 2. An official subjection. Though God, Jesus as incarnate was in a condition of voluntary humiliation. Yet the “ must” refers not to external compulsion, but to an inner impulse; it was the language of love within. 3. A limited opportunity. His work was to be done in a given time. This would elapse when His “ hour” was come, and He would say, “ It is finished.” III. A CURE. Christ had no stereotyped method. He varied the accessories, probably from so, me reference to the character of the individuals (Matthew 9:1-38; Mark 8:23). It seems strange that He should seal up the man’ s eyes into a blinder darkness; but sometimes He acts in this way (e.g., Saul) when He opens the eyes of the soul. In any case, the whole procedure was a trial of the man’ s faith, for there was nothing in the means. IV. A SIMPLE (John 9:11), which was consistently maintained, and was impregnable because experimental. He was not to be argued or bullied out of it. So with the convert. When men ask How? He cannot tell; he only says, “ I went and heard such a sermon, etc., and I came away and believed, and now I am a new man.” There is no evidence like this. Lessons: 1. Let us beware of uncharitable judgments, and guard against supposing that uncommon suffering indicates uncommon sin. Job was not a sinner above others, but God was glorified in him above many. 2. Let us work while the day lasts. Dr. Johnson had “ the night cometh” engraved on the dial of his watch; let us have the truths they teach written on our hearts. 3. Let us have compassion on the blind; and if we cannot open their eyes, let us, at least, seek to mitigate their misery. 4. Let us tell simply and eagerly what Christ has done for us. (Christian Age.) John 9:2-8 Who did sin, this man, or his parents?What the Master and what the disciples saw At such a time it was very wonderful that He should see anything but the way out. His life was in peril. The plot was thickening, the pursuers were more than ever determined to murder Him. At such times men are likely to see only what concerns themselves and their own safety. It is a blessed proof of the way in which that most gracious heart lay open to all the sorrow and needs of men. Find out what people see, and you will know what they are. People mostly see what they look for; and they look for what they want. It is curious to listen to the account of what people have seen; how some saw a dress, and some a face, and some saw nothing. “ He looked for the worms, I for the gods,” was the complaint of a certain stager. Jesus saw a blind man. Some people are very blind to blind men. There is, you know, a colour blindness, that cannot discern certain colours. There is, too, an inner colour blindness, that never sees sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity. It looks on the bright side of things by looking away from all that is wretched. Ah, never was there such an eye for sad hearts as Jesus Christ’ s. Once seeing the blind man, He can go no further. Pharisees and perils are alike forgotten. Pity saw her opportunity, and she could not be denied. Oh, what a Christ is this! Well may His name be called wonderful. And the only Christianity that is worth the name is that which makes us like Him. So that however we be driven, harassed, threatened, there is within the soul a great atmosphere where love dwelleth. In this great London of ours, with its turmoil of the streets, the hurry of the thousands on its pavements, the roll and rumble of its traffic--yet you know how God’ s sky bends over it, and God’ s great sun shines upon it, and God’ s kindly stars do look down upon it. That is the very purpose of Christ’ s coming--to open up in our narrow, little, earthly, busy lives a whole heaven of pity, of love, of gracious help. The Master saw a blind man. What did the disciples see? His lace was full of pity only; theirs was full of a curious prying. With them is was a case for dissection, a poor body for their anatomy, and they began at once with the scalpel knife. “ Master, who did sin,” etc.? Alas! how full the world is of people who are ready to cast stones at those who are down--stones that may break no bones, but that do bruise spirits and break hearts! What a strange lack of feeling! And what an extraordinary notion! Bad enough to be blind, and bad enough to be poor; but to be both might well move our pity. But no; to be poor shows that he is bad; to be blind shows that he must be very bad. It is a horrible notion! Yet it lives and thrives today. Would not any stranger coming into our midst suppose that the rich people must be good--born good? It is the poor who are so bad--so very bad. Who are city missionaries for, and tract distributors, and district visitors, and Bible women? All for the poor; until one might think that the Scripture, which says that the poor have the gospel preached to them, implies that the rich do not need it. Has it not been said in scores of good books that the subject was born of “ poor but pious parents” ? Why, indeed, the but? “ Of rich but pious parents” is a phrase I never heard, and yet it were the greater wonder. Cold-blooded discussion of great social problems that involve the lives of men and women and little children is bad enough, but ten thousand times worse is it when good people stand tip-toe and look down from their lofty superiority with cold, steel eyes and lips of scorn and talk of the poor as a “ drunken, lazy lot.” It is enough to provoke men and women to curse the very name of religion. Nothing could be more unlike that blessed Saviour who saved the world by loving it. What a gulf is there oftentimes between the Master and His followers! Very notable is the answer of Jesus. “ This blindness has not come from sin, but for your sakes, that His blindness may open your eyes; for you are blind except this blind man give you sight.” A Divine homoeopathy, like curing like. I constantly have my eyes opened by blind men. I never know, indeed, that I have any eyes until I see a blind man; then I go on my way thanking God for this wondrous gift of sight. That he may show forth the works of God. Who most enriched the world when Christ was upon earth--the rich man or the beggars? Think how infinitely poorer all the ages had been if, when Christ came, there had been no sick, no suffering, no need in the world. What depths of tenderness, what hope for all men, what mighty helpfulness, what revelations of Christ are ours today, because there sat of old blind beggars and such needy sufferers l Surely when men are rewarded according to their service, these shall have great recompense. (M. G. Pearse.) The purpose of chronic suffering While our Lord perceived only another opportunity of lifting a shadow, the disciples caught a new chance of repeating the weary and worn question of the ages as to the source of the shadow. Christ did not find any fault with His followers for inquiring; only He asserted that they had entirely misapprehended the philosophy of the poor creature’ s history. And then He immediately put forth His almighty power, and bestowed upon him his sight as a new sense. Note I. THE OF JESUS IN BEARING WITH HUMAN OF DIVINE . It would be unfair for one to indulge in any sharp comment upon the ignorance of the disciples. For other explanations of the origin of evil are in vogue and have continually been offered quite as wild as that which they proposed. II. THE OF SOME MEN TO IN THE OF GOD’ S WORLD. One of the ancient theories employed to reconcile suffering with benevolence, and relieve its mystery, has kept its place till our day--the existence of two spirits or principles of good and ill, warring with each other. The classic notion was that the jealous deities antagonized each other’ s plans on Olympus. Wrathful gods and goddesses cut at those who confronted them, and men sometimes were caught on both sides, like unfortunate cloth between the shears. There were furies as well as fates; and it was the elements of disturbance in heaven which stirred up the affairs of mortals so on the earth. This story corrects everything in such a heathen mistake. III. THE RECORD OF FOOLISH IN THE BIBLE IS NOT TO RE TAKEN AS AN . Some island people, when Paul was shipwrecked, openly stated that the reason why a viper fastened on his hand was because he was in all likelihood a murderer. When Job’ s trials were at the highest, his miserable comforters accused him of sin, and that he had been in some way a hypocrite. It is an old and common insinuation which interprets misfortunes very much as Jesus’ followers did on this occasion and it is to be feared that this ungenerous world will never admit its mistakes in such particulars. Men call other people’ s troubles judgments; and their own calamities. IV. HAS SOME WITH SIN . For when our Lord told His disciples that neither this man nor his parents had sinned, we are not to understand Him as pronouncing them sinless. What He intended was that it was in no sense either a reckless calamity or a righteous retribution; for he was blind his whole life. And yet, we are not at liberty to pass by the warning which Christ gave, when the surmise was made concerning some on whom the tower of Siloam fell. A real connection must be admitted between the guilt of the race and the pain of the race. The conscientious conviction of mankind has a basis of truth. The wisest man there ever was on earth was inspired to say: “ As the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.” V. ALL CHRONIC PAIN IN ANY LIFE IS PART OF THE WISE PLAN OF GOD. Such a life, which, no doubt, had to himself seemed restrictive when men talked about the beauties that never gleamed in on his soul, was one definite part of the Divine purpose in the plan of redemption. And so in that splendid flash of vast disclosure, it was revealed that the eventful history of those darkened eyes was just a piece of God’ s biography, rather than of man’ s--a chapter in the book that records the dealings of our Maker with His creatures. And all this worried existence on earth was already written on the luminous pages of a volume of annals in heaven, before the blind baby was born in Judaea. VI. IN THIS WORLD, IN ALMOST EVERY , MAY BE ASSUMED TO HAVE A REACH. There is in it an element hearing outwardly on others. Some trials are the direct punishment of personal transgression; and others are the hereditary consequences of parental wickedness. But there is a class of chronic disabilities which seem beyond any reference to sin. Such may have in them a discipline for those nearest the sufferer. Who shall say how much this blind man’ s darkness may have been instrumental in mellowing the tempers and softening the hearts of his family? Hardly any household can be found now in which there is not some victim of pain; and those who are watching and waiting are likely to grow gentle and considerate, and ingenious with expedients of alleviation, under the long scholarship. VII. THOSE WHO ARE UNDER SUCH ARE MOST OFTEN THE BRAVEST. Generally the bystanders put the questions, rather than those who are under the infliction. It was the disciples, and not the blind man, who raised the inquiry. For the poor groper never really knew what he lacked in his senses; he was only like a man who is told that it is a pity he has no ear for music; he cannot be made to appreciate the symphony the musicians give him. Possibly he had borne the life into which his deprivation drove him so long that he had become quite tame about it. There is nothing more beautiful or helpful than the cheer of some who are shadowed by great trials. VIII. EVERY GIFT OF OUR LOVING SAVIOUR IS A SUPREME GRACE. When the wonder of healing had been wrought, was the final cause of the man’ s blindness reached? Had he served but the same purpose as the jars of water, the fish with the coin, the barren fig tree, the barley loaves? Had he groped around all these years in order to be ready when Christ wanted a thing to work a miracle upon? And had he when he had become an evidence of Christianity, and when he had humbled a few Pharisees to there vanish? No, indeed! He was looked up in the Temple, where he was using his new eyes, and there a fresh benediction met his believing soul. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Blindness a talent to be used for God’ s glory The excellent Mr. Moon, of Brighton, the blind friend of the blind, was present at a recent meeting of blind people at Manchester, and among the remarks he made was this: “ When I became blind, as a young boy, people condoled with my mother on the heavy dispensation with which I was afflicted. They were wrong, my friends. God gave me blindness as a talent to be used for His glory. Without blindness I should never have been able to see the needs of the blind.” It is worthy of note that this excellent man, Mr. Moon, as one of the uses of this “ talent,” has given the gospel published, in raised type, in nearly two hundred different languages and dialects to the blind throughout the world! Blindness leading to Spiritual sight “ Bob Roy” says in his description of Mr. Moon’ s mission to the blind at Beyrout: “ That poor fellow who sits on the form there was utterly ignorant. See how his delicate fingers run over the raised types of his Bible; and he reads aloud, and blesses God in his heart for the precious news, and for those who gave him the avenue for truth to his heart. ‘ Jesus Christ will be the first person I shall ever see,’ he says; ‘ for my eyes will be opened in heaven.’ Thus even this men becomes a missionary. At the annum examination of this school one of the scholars said, ‘ I am a little blind boy. Once I could see; but then I fell asleep--a long, long sleep--I thought I should never wake. And I slept till a kind gentleman, called Mr. Mort, came and opened my eyes; not these eyes,’ pointing to his sightless eyeballs, ‘ but these,’ lifting up his tiny fingers; these eyes. And, oh! they see such sweet words of Jesus, and how He loved the blind.’” Who did sin, this man, or his parents? Explanations of the disciples’ question 1. Some think that the Jews had imbibed the common Oriental notion of the pre-existence and transmigration of souls from one body to another, and that the disciples supposed that in some previous state of existence this blind man must have committed some great sin, for which he was now punished. 2. Some think that the question refers to a strange notion current among some Jews, that infants might sin before they were born. In support of this view they quote Genesis 25:22 and Genesis 38:28-29. 3. The most probable view is, that the question arose from a misapplication of such passages of Scripture as the second commandment, where God speaks of “ visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children” Exodus 20:5), and from a forgetfulness of Eze 18:20, etc. There are few notions that men seem to cling to so naturally, as the notion that bodily sufferings, and all affliction, are the direct consequences of sin, and that a diseased or afflicted person must necessarily be a very wicked man. This was precisely the short-sighted view that Job’ s three friends took up when they came to visit him, and against which Job contended. This was the idea of the people at Melita, when Paul was bitten by the viper, after the shipwreck: “ This man is a murderer.” (Acts 28:4). This appears to have been at the bottom of the question of the disciples. There is suffering; then there must have been sin. Whose sin was it?” (Bishop Ryle.) Suffering: its causes and privileges There was no special connection between the parents’ sin in this instance and the blindness of their offspring. “ On the contrary,” Christ seems to say, “ great sufferers are not always or of necessity great sinners, or the children of great sinners. Far otherwise. There is pain and suffering caused by no vice in the sufferer, inherited from no transgressions of their parents: pain and suffering, not indeed created by God, but allowed by God, allowed in mercy as a favour, and in proof of love. The natal blindness of this afflicted man was for the glory of God.” And to suffer for such a purpose and with such a result is not a punishment but a privilege--a distinct and honourable privilege. This Divine philosophy of suffering was a new revelation given to the world by Jesus Christ. It was a revelation which apparelled suffering in robes of attractiveness, and turned the murmurs of lamentation into songs of rejoicing. The apostles gloried in suffering, directly the purpose of it had been unfolded and interpreted by their Lord. When they understood that the cause of suffering lay sometimes in the privilege of the sufferer to be the means of the manifestation, through his sufferings, of the Divine glory, they “ rejoiced in their infirmities, if so be the power of God might be manifested in them.” They “ counted it all joy” when it pleased God to let them fall into manifold trials, inasmuch as their trials afforded an opportunity for the glorification of God. Many other acknowledged advantages flow from suffering. It tends to wean men from the world, to purge away the dross of selfishness and strip off the tinsel from conceit. There is nothing like an abundance of trouble for keeping a man straight and helping him to remember his prayers. Suffering is not seldom thus its own reward Yet it is one thing to realize the benefits of suffering, another and far higher thing to realize its privilege. Think, e.g., of the man blind from his birth. How many long and weary hours he had sat near the Temple Gate, dark, lonely, miserable! How dreary his existence had been--sightless and hopeless, a stranger to the sense of beauty, looking onlythrough the deep darkness of life to the still deeper darkness of death! And yet how truly privileged he was! What a recompense after all those years of weary blindness to be permitted to be the instrument for “ showing forth the glory of God!” It was worth being a blind and desolate beggar for! We, of this latter day, are not permitted to be the instruments for showing forth the glory of God miraculously. Our blind do not receive their sight, our dead are not raised, our lepers are not cleansed. But none the less truly does every Christian glorify God in his suffering body and his suffering spirit, whenever, by sweet holiness of patience, and heavenly-minded rejoicing in tribulation, he convinces the world that though the cause of all suffering is sin, yet no Christian suffering is without privilege. (J. W.Diggle, M. A.) Blindness not judgment A German pastor had made an engagement to preach before a meeting of the Gustavus Adolphus Society, at a distance of eighteen miles from his village. He had to walk all the way. The weather, which was fine at first, changed to violent rain, so that after walking half way with great difficulty, it seemed hopeless to proceed, as he could hardly drag his feet out of the mire. Greatly cast down, he found himself impatiently asking why it should rain so just that day, when he espied a solitary cottage, and gladly sought shelter in it. A young and sad looking woman was nursing her babe. Being invited to rest and dry himself, the pastor soon found that the beautiful babe was the cause of the mother’ s sorrow, for he had been born blind. “ The worst of it is,” said the poor woman, “ no doubt it is all my fault; such a misfortune could only befall a child on account of its parents, for the poor dear children are innocent enough. For the last four months I have been tormenting myself to discover by what sin I can have brought upon it such a calamity.” Her tears choked her voice, and she sobbed convulsively. The poor creature was quite ignorant of this beautiful story, but the pastor read it and expounded it. When he prepared to resume his toilsome walk, it was with feelings of joy and gratitude not unmingled with shame. He confessed how the rain had vexed him, and that he had repeatedly asked “ Why it must fall just today.” “ Oh, my dear sir” she replied joyfully, “ I know very well!” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him Christ’ s explanation of suffering 1. The man was sitting near to the Temple. It has been the custom in all ages for the needy of all kinds to get as near as they can to God’ s house. It is on their part an instinctive homage to religion. Ii any man become known as professing religion he will have many applications for his pity. A congregational collection is the resort of every charitable institution. 2. If Jesus had seen this man on His way to or from worship, His conduct would not have excited special wonder. But it was when driven from the Temple and with His life in peril. But He forgot His danger in the fulness of His pity. 3. The disciples supposed that by making the man a subject for pity, Christ made him a fit subject for speculation. Some thought this calamity a fruit of parental sin, others a punishment for prospective guilt. They were wrong, but not so wrong as those who believe that sin will never be punished at all. 4. Christ’ s solution of their difficulties suggests some important reflections. I. THAT IS THE FRUIT OF SIN. Our Lord did not deny this incontestible principle in general, but only in this particular case. God’ s laws in relation to the body, those of chastity, sobriety, industry and cleanliness, cannot be broken with impunity. If drunkenness and debauchery were checked the welfare of the country would be promoted and pestilence confined to a narrower region. If our great cities were governed with wisdom, if they were properly drained, the poor properly housed, the water pure and abundant, disease would be checked and good morals and happiness promoted. Asylums for the destitute, and hospitals for the sick are great necessities and embodiments of Christian loving kindness; but there wants something more than grappling with results, a grappling with the prolific cause. The great work of the Christian Church then is to deal with sin. Without sin our gaols would be superfluous, our workhouses not one tithe of their present magnitude, and half our hospitable beds empty. II. THAT A GOOD DEAL OF IS NOT THE FRUIT OF SIN. People sometimes say “ had there been no sin there had been no sorrow.” But where does the Bible say so? It is true that in heaven there is no sorrow, but then float is a place of rest and recompense, whereas earth is a place of trial and discipline. But there is this startling fact that the only sinless Being the world ever saw “ learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Don’ t then say in the case of a given sufferer “ Here is the wrath of God,” for the varied forms of affliction are often Divine appliances for testing our principles, developing our graces and practising our virtues. III. IS FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS, that their patience may be disciplined, their sympathy elicited, their character get its necessary training. It was so in the case of Lazarus--“ I am glad I was not there,” etc. But some may ask, “ What is to become of the people who bear the cross that others may have these opportunities?” Leave them with God. He has a vast universe and long ages to recompense them in. Jesus wore a crown of thorns, how glad today He is that He wore it! Mary and Martha were glad after he was raised that their brother died. Look at some of the sorrows of life. Why do the thorns grow? That you may have to pull them up and get improvement of character from the weeding. Why are children born ignorant and helpless? That you may care for them and teach them. Why do accidents happen? That you may minister. (C. Vince.) Our proper attitude towards mysteries Before a confessed and unconquerable difficulty (such as the origin and extent of evil) my mind reposes as quietly as in possession of a discovered truth. (T. Arnold, D. D.) Origin of evil Wise men will regard the entrance of evil as a man views a fire already begun in his house: it is too late to ask “ How came this?” or “ Where did the fire begin?” His single question will be, how he and his family and property can be secured. (R. Cecil, M. A.) Christ and the blind man 1. We may learn from it to abstain from those superficial and dogmatic judgments on human life which, seeming to honour God with ready explanations of evil, really dishonour Him, and which are often cruelly unjust to men. Evil is in the world, and man is sinful as well as unfortunate. Wickedness works wretchedness, and penalty follows iniquity as echo follows voice, or pain the incision of the knife. But not all pains are punishments. Let despairing as well as cynical doubt be silent. Great as sin is, God is greater. Where sin abounds, grace superabounds. This is not the devil’ s world, but God’ s. 2. Let us learn that the supreme business of life is unselfish service, and that the time for service is now. 3. Let us learn the wisdom and power of Jesus’ method in reaching men. He authenticates Himself to men by His works as well as by His word--not merely by miraculous works, but by works that are Divine in their goodness. The Healer and Helper of men thus convincingly justifies His claim of Divine kinship. Bring men face to face with Jesus; then they too, like the blind man who was healed, will at last say, “ Lord, I believe,” and their faith will express itself in homage and service. 4. Finally, let us learn the true nature of faith. Faith is not mere credulity, it is an attitude and an act of the soul. Its object is not a proposition, but a person. It reposes not on greatness or power alone, but on goodness. (History, Prophecy, and Gospel.) The blind man’ s eyes opened; or, practical Christianity Observe how little disconcerted our Lord was by the most violent enmity. Almost the moment after He had escaped stoning, He paused before and healed the blind man. One of His most noticeable characteristics was His marvellous calmness in the presence of His foes. The reasons were 1. He was never elated by the praise of men. 2. His unbroken communion with the Father. 3. His heart was so set upon His work that He would not be turned from it. Note I. THE WORKER--a well-earned title. 1. There are many who ignore sorrow. The easiest thing to do with wicked London is not to know much about it. There are sights which might melt a heart of steel and make a nabob generous. But it is an easy way of escaping from the exercise of benevolence to shut your eyes. It is not so with Jesus. He has a quick eye to see the blind beggar if He sees nothing else. 2. There are others who see misery but instead of diminishing it, increase it by cold logical conclusions. Poverty they say is brought on by drunkenness, laziness, etc. Sickness is caused by wicked habits and neglect of sanitary laws. This may be true, but don’ t teach it till you are ill yourself. The disciples held this view and Job’ s comforters. Cheap moral observations steeped in vinegar make a poor dish for an invalid. But Christ “ Upbraided not.” 2. Others, who if not indifferent or cruel to sorrow, speculate where speculation is worthless. There is the question of the origin of evil. Such was the subject here proposed--foreseen guilt or hereditary taint? The master breaks up the fine speculation by practical service. “ Father,” said a boy, “ the cows are in the corn. How ever did they get in?” “ Boy,” said the father, “ never mind how they got in, let us hurry to get them out.” Postpone the inquiries till after the day of judgment, just now our business is to get evil out of the world. A man saw a boy drowning and lectured him on the imprudence of bathing out of his depth. Let us rescue him and tell him not to go there again. 3. In this nonspeculating, kind, helpful spirit, let us imitate the Master. What have we done to bless our fellow men? But if Jesus be such a worker what hope there is for us who need His services! II. THE . Every worker needs a place to work in. Christ selected the fittest place. 1. One of the works of God is creation, and if Jesus is to perform it He must find out where something is missing which He can supply. The blind man gave occasion for Christ to give sight. If there is anything wanting in you there is room for Christ to work; if you are perfect there is no room. 2. This man’ s ignorance required almighty aid. God can not only create, He can illuminate. This man was as dark in mind as in body. He did not know the Son of God. Is that your case? Are you converted? Then there is space in you for Christ to work by converting grace. If you were not lost, you could not be saved. 3. All affliction may be regarded as affording opportunity for the mercy work of God. Whenever you see a man in trouble, do not blame him and ask how he came there, but say “ He is an opening for God’ s almighty love.” And do not kick at or be east down by your own afflictions, regard them as openings for mercy, and the valley of Achor shall be a door of hope. Sin itself makes room for God’ s mercy. How could the unspeakable gift have been bestowed if there had been no sinners. III. THE WORK BELL. You hear in early morning a bell which arouses the workers from their beds. Christ’ s work bell was the sight of the blind man. Then he said “ I must work.” The man had not said anything, but his sightless eyeballs spoke eloquently to the heart of Jesus. 1. Why must He work? Because (1) He had come all the way from heaven on purpose. (2) He had inward impulses which forced Him to work. 2. Let us learn this lesson. Wherever we see suffering, feel “ I must work.” 3. What a blessing if you want to be saved to know that there is an impulse on Jesus to save! IV. THE WORK DAY. 1. This is meant of our Lord’ s earthly life. There was a certain day on which He could bless men, and that over He would be gone. He occupied thirty years in getting ready for it, and then in three years it was done. And how much He crowded into them! Some of us have had thirty years of work and have done very little; what if we have only three more. It we omit any part of our life work we can never make up the omission. No appendix is possible to the book of life. 2. If our Lord was so diligent to bless men while here, He is not less diligent now. (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 9:4I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day.--When the Master (Him who sent) who has entrusted a task to the worker gives the signal, the latter must continue to work as long as the hours of labour last. This signal Jesus had just recognized; and even though it was the Sabbath He could not delay obeying it till tomorrow. He might perhaps at this moment have been contemplating the sun descending towards the horizon. “ When the night comes” said He, “ the workman’ s labour ceases. My work is to enlighten the world as the sun does; but in a short time I, like him, shall disappear, and my work will cease. Hence I have not a moment to lose.” (F. Godet, D. D.) 1. Nothing could discourage Christ from doing His work (Luke 13:32). 2. All Christ’ s works were the works of God (John 4:34; John 5:30-36; John 6:38; Luke 22:42). 3. Christ was obliged to do what He did--“ I must.” (1) Not as God (Philippians 2:6); but (2) as man. (3) As Mediator (John 5:30). 4. Christ had His time limited wherein to do His work (Acts 2:23). 5. Christ in that time did finish His work (John 17:4). Which was (1) To demonstrate Himself to be what He was (John 10:25). (a) The Son of God. (b) Sent from the Father (John 5:36). (c) The true Messiah (John 20:31). (2) To redeem mankind from sin (Acts 3:26), and misery (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Than be thankful to Christ and love Him 1 Corinthians 16:22); believe in Him (John 3:16; imitate 1 Corinthians 11:1). I. WE OUGHT TO DO THE WORKS OF HIM THAT SENT US. 1. Works of piety (1 Corinthians 6:20). (1) Loving God (Matthew 22:37). (2) Trusting on Him (Proverbs 3:5). (3) Submitting to Him (1 Samuel 3:18; Luke 22:42). (4) Fearing Him (Isaiah 8:13). (5) Rejoicing in Him (Philippians 4:4). Thanking the Father for our creation; believing the Son for our redemption; hearkening to the Spirit for our sanctification. 2. Works of equity to our neighbours (1) so as to wrong none (Leviticus 19:11-13). (2) So as to help all (Galatians 6:10). 3. Works of charity to the poor (1 Timothy 6:17-19). (1) Obediently to God’ s command. (2) Proportionably to our means (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 1 Corinthians 16:17). 4. Works of sobriety. (1) Keeping the flesh under (1 Corinthians 9:27). (2) And so mortifying all our sins (Galatians 3:5). II. WE ARE TO DO THESE WORKS WHILE IT IS DAY. 1. What is meant by day? (1) The time of life (Job 14:6). (2) The time of grace (Luke 19:42). (3) The present time (Psalms 95:7; Hebrews 3:7). 2. “ Why should we do these works presently. Consider (1) How much time has been spent in vain. (2) How uncertain you are (a) Of life (Isaiah 2:22). (b) Of your senses and reason (Daniel 4:32; Daniel 4:22). (c) Of the gospel (Revelation 2:5). (d) Of the motions of God’ s Spirit (Genesis 6:8). 3. The longer you procrastinate the harder it will be. 4. You cannot do it in the world to come (Ecclesiastes 9:10). 5. You are in continual danger till the work be done. 6. Objections. (1) I’ ll consider it--it is not a thing to be considered but to be done. (2) When my present business is over I’ ll begin (Matthew 6:33)--all other business must give way to this. (Bp. Beveridge.) Day and night To speak of life and death as day and night is so natural that one does not think of it as a metaphor. Every man has his day. One longer, another shorter; one bright, another shaded and even stormy. Then night falls perhaps suddenly, as in the tropics, where there is no twilight; perhaps with a gentle descent as in the north or south. I. THE BREVITY OF THE DAY. Christ would impress us with the value of time and opportunity and to lay out our short day to good account. How brief His was, yet in calm trust He worked on and found it long enough in which to finish His work; and the Jews with all their craft could not shorten it by one hour. II. THE WORK OF THE DAY. Christ’ s was to open the blind man’ s eyes. In this we cannot follow Him, but in the general direction and use of life we must. 1. We must work in order to live. Idlers are few, and are not to be envied. Jesus did not claim exemption from this rule. In his obscurity at Nazareth He earned the plain bread of a carpenter’ s table, and afterwards only accepted the ministrations of others as a recognition of His public work. Thus He would have us industrious in our daily callings. 2. Our first work is to believe on Him (John 6:28-29). This excludesworking for justification. Our good works cannot obliterate our misdeeds. Divine grace is our only refuge. Yet this must not be turned into a bed of sloth. The law said--Do and live! The gospel says--Live and do! 3. There is the obligation to do good unto all men, etc. The care of our own spiritual life is apt to become morbid unless accompanied by unselfish exertion for others. III. FOR ALL THERE IS BUT A DAY. The time is long enough for the work but too short to allow trifling. It is well when men begin early. Alas, some are no more than morning Christians. They promise well in childhood, but as morning passes on to noon they fall away (Hosea 6:4). Others postpone their religion till the evening. This is to run a dreadful risk, for the night may come suddenly; and even if they do find time it is a poor homage to God to offer the dregs of life. IV. DAY IS BY NIGHT. In western countries, through the exigencies of trade, night is often turned into day. But in the East when the sun goes down work closes (Psalms 104:20-28). Here part of the thought is that rest follows toil. How welcome is night to those who have spent a long and busy day, when “ He gives His beloved sleep.” But this night is brief and is only a prelude to the eternal morning. (D. Fraser, D. D.) The day and its toil 1. The works of God mean (1) such as are God appointed. Christ wrought as one in possession of a chart, each hour charged with its special commission. Hence the speed and certainty with which each work was done. Amidst all the multiplicity of His activities He never hesitates, recalls a step, or regrets it, “ Faithful to Him that appointed Him,” during these long years of self-repression at Nazareth, and up to the time when He died at the moment the Father had appointed. (2) Such as are God revealing. There is not an act that is not in some way reflective of God or contributive to our knowledge of God, “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,” and every relation and step adds its own special touch to the picture. His miracles of mercy tell something of the Father’ s love; His miracles of judgment of the Father’ s wrath. The Cross discloses every attribute of the Father at once. 2. Making allowance for the difference of power and vocation, the works of the servant should possess the same two-fold character as those of the master. Here we have the Christian theory of work. Much is said about work now-a-days. But work for work’ s sake is a doubtful evangel to preach. Inactivity has its sins, but so has work. Some work till they are carnalised. Wrong work may be done, and right work wrongly. Let us illustrate the rule as it runs through a three-fold relationship. (1) Toward the world our work should be (a) God assigned. Our daily callings, however worldly or menial, can be conscientiously regarded as the appointment of God. But here inclination, parental wishes, advantageous prospects, etc. often hold sway. There are few things more critical than the choice of a profession, and one may miss one’ s way grievously. But let us feel “ This is the task appointed me,” and then we may regard it as sacred, and among the works of Him who hath sent us. (b) God revealing. Your faithfulness will be a miniature of Him who is faithful in all things; your punctuality will be God-like because a reflection of Him who is true to His promises; your patience under business provocations will resemble His longsuffering, who is slow to wrath; your conscientiousness will be the reflection of Him who never begins but He finishes. Nor will any vocation be too mean for this from the statesman down to the shop lad the principle is the same. (2) Towards the Church. Our works (a) Must be God appointed. “ But,” some say, “ I have no special sphere in the Church. Beyond the fact that I avail myself of its privileges Church life has no interest for me. What was assigned to me as my work I found unsuitable or too taxing.” The excuse will hardly pass muster. Christ “ is as one taking a far journey, and left His house, and gave every man his work.” That house is the Church. “ The kingdom of heaven is like unto a husbandman who went out … to hire labourers for his vineyard.” That vineyard is the Church; and it can scarcely be argued that they who enjoy the shelter of the one and the fruits of the other can absolve themselves from the duty of serving in them. More generous and consistent is the spirit which says, “ Give me some door to keep, some plot to till. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (b) When once we feel our work God appointed we shall try to make it God revealing in its thoroughness, for the God we represent is a God of order; in its perseverance because we testify to a God who faints not, neither is weary; in its humility, not losing interest in a work because others are preferred in it, realizing that I bear witness to a God who “ humbled Himself.” (3) Towards your personal life and the care and culture it demands. Preeminently is this task the appointment of God, for His will concerning us is our sanctification: and preeminently, too, is the task a revelation of God “ for herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” II. THE MOTIVE. If Christ kept before Him a coming night much more should we. For Christ knew the length of His day, and could have told how many hours were left, but we are ignorant here. We know what lies behind, and how we have cheated ourselves with purposes and dreamings, but we cannot cheat time. With some the freshness and dew of the morning have given place to the burden and dust of the mid-day; with some that is succeeded by a grey and monotonous afternoon; while others are passing on amidst the frosts and dreariness of the fast falling twilight. And the thought may never have been faced, yet “ the night is coming to me.” What shall we say to these things? “ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,” etc. (W. A. Gray.) Work A speculative question was put to Christ, and this is His answer, “ You may think, talk, argue, I must work.” The Saviour has a greater respect for work than for speculation. I. A TO LABOUR. With Christ it was not “ I may if I will,” “ I can if I like,” but “ I must.” The cords which bound Him, however, were the cords of duty--the cords of love bound Him who is love. 1. It was because He loved them so well that He could not sit down still and see them perish. 2. The sorrow without compelled Him. That blind man had touched the secret chord that set His soul on work. 3. He had come into this world with an aim that was not to be achieved without work; and therefore He must work because He desired to achieve His end. The salvation of the many the Father had given Him; the finding of the lost sheep, etc. He must accomplish all this. 4. Do we feel that we must work? (1) There are those who feel that they must be fed. (2) There are others who feel that they must find fault. (3) Others who will dodge anyhow to get off any task. Do be a Christian or else give up being called one! (4) But some must work. Why? To be saved? No; but because they are saved and Christ’ s love constrains them to save others. II. A OF WORK. There are plenty who say, “ I must work” to get rich, to support a family, to become famous. Christ did not pick or choose. He worked the “ works,” not some but all, whether of drudgery or honour, suffering or relief from suffering, prayer or preaching. It is easy to work our own works, even in spiritual things, but difficult to be brought to this “ I must work,” etc. Many think it their business to preach who had much better hear a little longer. Others think their work the headship of a class, whereas they would be useful in giving away tracts. Our prayer should be, “ Show me in particular what Thou wouldst have me to do.” All Christians have not yet learned that each is personally to do the will of Him that sent him. We cannot work by proxy. III. A OF TIME. Christ the immortal says this. If anyone could have postponed work it was He. Work 1. While it is day to you. Some days are very short. Young brother or sister, your sun may go down ere it reaches noon. Mother, if you knew you had only another month, how you would pray with your children! So Sunday school teacher. 2. While it is day with the objects of your care. You will not have the opportunity of speaking to some in London tomorrow, for they will die tonight. With some their “ day” is brief although they may live long; it is only the one occasion when they go to a place of worship, when there is sickness in the house and the missionary enters, when a Christian comes across their path. IV. A OF OUR . “ The night cometh.” You cannot put it off, however much you may dread it. It comes for the pastor, missionary, father, mother, etc. The warrior who loses a battle may yet live to win the campaign; the bankrupt may yet be rich; but if you lose the battle of life you shall never have it to fight again, and bankruptcy in spiritual service is bankruptcy forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The work of life Note I. THAT TO EVERY MAN A WORK IS GIVEN. What is it? 1. Negatively: Not (1) business; (2) pleasure; (3) learning--however important these may be relatively. 2. Positively: to “ work out our own salvation,” etc. This as a work (1) Of repentance; (2) of faith; (3) of obedience. 3. Without Christ in this great work we can do nothing; but His grace is sufficient for us. II. THAT A PERIOD OF TIME IN WHICH THE OF THIS WORK MAY BE IS TO EVERY MAN. Within the day of life there are days specially favourable. 1. The day of youth. 2. The day of health. 3. The day of religious opportunity. 4. The day of spiritual influence. III. THAT AT THE OF THE SEASON THE OF THIS WORK IS . “ The night cometh” 1. Of affliction. 2. Of religious abandonment. 3. Of death--“ when no man can work.” (J. Bowers.) Work, and work rightly It is not enough to work, we must work in the right way. To do this I. WE MUST BE FOR THE WORK, and since it is Divine, by God Himself. It is not by might nor by power, physical or intellectual. There is no tendency in the unconverted to seek the Father’ s glory, and therefore we must be regenerated by the Spirit. Excitement may press us into the field, an anxious feeling may give us a momentary energy, but a few cold blasts from the world, and a little of the irksomeness of the task will soon extinguish the flame and drive us from the field. II. WE MUST WORK WITH ALL OUR HEART. God’ s demand is not “ Give me thy body or thine intellect” but “ thy heart.” Half-heartedness in His cause is an abomination in His sight. God will not have a man swing between the world and Himself, halting between two opinions. And surely the character of the Master, the nature of the work and its reward, are enough to engage the energies of the whole soul. III. WE MUST WORK SUCCESS. We are not to imagine that we embark on an impossibility; if we do we shall lose nerve and fail in application. We must be buoyed up by the conviction that God will bless us in our labour of love. This He pledges Himself to do, and this should stimulate us, especially when we remember that success means the salvation of souls, and that God has granted this to other labourers. IV. WE MUST WORK AND NOT BE ASHAMED OF IT. There is a good deal of cowardice in religious work which contrasts strangely with the courage we display in business, etc. And yet if manliness be demanded in anything it is in this. We are to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, witnesses for God, and are to act in capacities where boldness is the one thing needful. And what is there to be ashamed of?--the Master? the work? the fellow workmen? the reward? Remember 1. The object you have in view. Would you be ashamed to awaken the sleeper in the burning house, to cry to the foundering sailor to grasp the rope? 2. That if you are ashamed of Christ here, He will be ashamed of you at the Judgment. V. WE MUST WORK THOUGH WE SEE NO OF SUCCESS. Duty is ours, results are God’ s. But we have room for encouragement, for the unlikeliest field has often become the most prolific. Remember Mary Magdalene, the dying thief, Saul of Tarsus. But, whatever the likelihood or otherwise of success, we must work. We must realize that we are our brother’ s keeper, and not wait to inquire about his characteristics, but acquaint him with his want and bring the supply. If he rejects it that is his responsibility, not ours. VI. WE MUST WORK HARD 1. Because the adversary is active. 2. Because our time is drawing to a close. (J. McConnell Hussey, D. D.) The Divine dignity of work Like Jesus I. WE HAVE EACH OUR MISSION. We are Divinely sent. It is by no act of ours that we are here, by no migration from a pre-existent life, still less did we construct this abode of ours. Yet here we are on the theatre of this particular world, and as its lords to replenish and subdue it, but confined to it. Whence have we this range, so large and yet so defined? Because we have a definite mission, which missed or marred, the result is tragic. II. WE HAVE EACH A MISSION. We are sent to “ work.” There are some nobles who are sent on mere missions of pageantry or pleasure; one as ambassador, to gratify at some refined court his taste for music and the fine arts. Another, fond of travel, contrives in this way to see classic or romantic lands. But man’ s mission from the King of kings is sternly practical. Had he kept his first estate it would have been so, for work is Divine and older than the fall. All legitimate work Isaiah 1. Productive. Other is not so--the thief, e.g., the marauding conqueror, the publican. But the mechanic, merchant, explorer, etc., are productive, whether of food, comforts, wealth, or knowledge, which is power. 2. Ennobling, directly contributing to the decencies and moralities of life as may be seen when we contrast the condition of the poorest in this city with that of the savage. The Jews had an excellent proverb: “ He that has not learned to work, is brother to him that is a thief.” From this let every man learn to honour productive and useful work wherever found. Let not the operative refuse the name of workman to the thinker, because the fabric of his thoughts cannot be seen; for our manufactures, buildings, machines are but the vesture of previous thought. And let not the non-manual class look down on the brawny arm and horny hand! for they are the solid basis of the social pyramid. III. WE HAVE A MISSION TO DIVINE AND GOD-LIKE WORKS. 1. Our daily callings, if they are honest and honourable, and done inside our Father’ s vineyard, and for Him, and not outside the sacred ground as done for man merely or self. “ I have not time to serve God” was once said to an evangelist. “ God wants no more of your time than you give to the devil,” was the reply. 2. The more special works God has laid upon us in the culture of personal religion and in the works of philanthropy. We need but read the context to find out what works Christ meant, such works as are grouped in the formula, “ He went about doing good.” 3. The bulk of these works is individually not great but little. The entire pyramid of human progress is made up of littles. The vast ocean is made up of drops, and the great globe of atoms; and just so in the intellectual, moral, and spiritual world life is made up of little duties. Great and brilliant services are possible only to a few, and in rare emergencies, and weighed against the ordinary, they are but of small account. What keeps the world moving is not the great deeds of kings, conquerors, etc., but the brave, patient, prayerful work of fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, etc. 4. In order to these little works being good works there is a previous work, viz., believing in Jesus and being reconciled to God. IV. WE HAVE A MISSION THAT IS URGENT. 1. Beware of the many things that seek to rob us of one day. 2. Time lost can never be retrieved. 3. Time is inestimably precious for all our interests, but infinitely more as involving our eternity. 4. Flee to Jesus without delay, for “ now is the accepted time,” etc. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The benefit of work In seeking others’ good we achieve good ourselves. I know of no way to get rid of a good deal of the prevalent dulness and drowsiness and spiritual ennui with which many Christians are afflicted than by shaking it off like cobwebs and going to work. Work is the pre-requisite of growth, and exercise of health and development. When good people tell me about being in a saddened condition, and confess to spiritual stagnation, it does not seem wonderful at all. The man who does not work has no right to expect anything but distrust, dissatisfaction, and ultimate degradation, and he will get it. For any Christian man to suppose that he is simply a sanctified sponge, to continuously absorb the light and life of others and grow, is sheer nonsense. He will by and by rot! He will not be able to keep even with salt. If you would be healthily developed, work. If there is a single organ in the body that is weak, use it well, and strength will come to it. So with regard to your spiritual life. There is no such beneficent arrangement for spiritual growth, like the effort to prove a blessing to mankind. (Family Churchman.) The work of life I. OUR FATHER SENT US INTO THIS WORLD TO DO HIS WORK AND TO LIVE FOR HIS GLORY. We are bidden to “ replenish the earth and subdue it” ; fill it, that is, with all things right and good, and bound to do our best to make ourselves and all men more like the true image of the Holy God, and to leave the world better than we found it. II. OUR LIFE ON EARTH IS AS A DAY, AND NO MORE THAN A DAY. It has its morning, for preparation; its sunny hours, for labour; its evening, for meditation; and then the night cometh, when all is over. Life is but as a day; no more. Wherefore it is folly and madness to indulge ourselves in the fancy that we have time to loiter, a time to be idle. No. The longest day is short enough for all that a wise man wishes to put into it; and the longest life is not too long to spend in the earnest seeking after God. For the soul of man is like some primeval forest, which contains in itself a glorious fertility, and an almost boundless capacity for bearing fruitful harvests for the careful tiller of the soil; but until it is tilled and tended, it is but the haunt of wild beasts--it is but a rank, dark, silent, wilderness, where the ranker and more noxious the weed, the stronger and ruder is its growth; but if the brave husbandman begins to labour, if the sun of heaven shines through the sullen gloom, and the winds of God blow softly through the branches, and the watchful eye seeks out the poisonous plants, and the careful hand fosters the fruitful soil, then, by and by, but only after a long time of travail, the wilderness and the solitary place will be glad, and the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose. (A. Jessop, D. D.) Earnest views of life Christian earnestness has for its elements I. A OF THE WORTH OF TIME. Life is not a day too long. Go into the Mint, and you will find the gold room constructed with double floors. The upper one acts like a sieve, and the lower one catches and retains the infinitesimal particles of gold which are sifted through. Every human life needs some such contrivance for the economy of fragments of time. Lord Nelson said: “ I have always been fifteen minutes before the time, and it has made a man of me.” Napoleon said: “ Remember, that every lost moment is a chance of future misfortune.” Sir Walter Scott, when asked what was the secret of the marvellous fertility of his pen, replied: “ I have always made it a rule never to be doing nothing.” An intruder upon the morning study hours of Baxter apologized: “ Perhaps I interrupt you.” Baxter answered rudely, but honestly: “ To be sure you do.” The spirit of such men, refined by Christian culture, is the spirit with which, in the Christian view of life, time is to be valued. Every life is made of moments; a kingdom could not purchase one of them. An earnest man will often reckon time as if he were on a death bed. There are hours in every man’ s life in which the tick of a watch is more thrilling to an earnest spirit than the roll of thunder. There come moments in which the beat of a pulse is more awful than the roar of Niagara. II. FROM OF SPEECH. Do we adequately revere the sacredness of language? All nations have a tradition that it came down from heaven. We all have respect for a man of reticent speech. If a man talks twaddle, there is more hope of a fool than of him. The Scriptures pronounce him a great man who can rule his own spirit; but the chief element in that power is the power to govern his tongue. Many times one word has saved life. Peace and war between rival nations have often trembled in scales which the utterance of one word has decided. A certain man attributed his salvation to one word in a sermon preached by Whitefield. “ A word spoken in season, how good is it!” There are men who specially need to correct the overgrowth of risibility in their habits. They make a pet of frivolous speech. There are men whose reputation for levity was so great that their very rising in a public assembly set going a ripple of laughter before they had opened their lips. There are worse things in the world than a laugh, but no earnest man will make a business of it. Men of frivolous tongue are apt to have a frisky intellect. That is worse than St. Vitus’ s dance. A certain nervous disease relaxes the risible muscles from control, and gives to the countenance the smile of idiocy. So are there certain minds which by habitual levity of tongue become morally idiotic. They cannot think intensely, nor feel profoundly. In God’ s estimate of things, what must be the verdict when such a debilitated mind is weighed in the balances! What must be the ending of such an impoverished and wasted life? “ The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips.” III. THE OF LIFE TO GREAT DESIGNS. Aurungzebe, an Indian prince, had lived, as other Oriental monarchs do, in selfish and sensual indulgences. In a farewell letter to his son he says: “ I came a stranger into the world, and a stranger I go out of it. I know nothing about myself, what I am or what is my destiny. My life has been passed vainly, and now the breath which rose is gone, and has left not even a hope behind.” This is in every respect just what the Christian idea of life is not. A Christian life in its true conception is a great and a good one. It is devoted to objects worthy of a man. Dr. Arnold expresses it in brief when he says: “ I feel more and more the need of intercourse with men who take life in earnest. It is painful to me to be always on the surface of things. Not that I wish for much of what is called religious conversation. That is often apt to be on the surface. But I want a sign which one catches by a sort of masonry, that a man knows what he is about in life. When I find this, it opens my heart with as fresh a sympathy as when I was twenty years younger.” One of the merchant princes of Philadelphia made it a rule to build at his own cost one church every year. When he began his career he was a mechanic, engaged in making trinkets. But one day the thought came to him: “ This is a small business; I am manufacturing little things, and things useless to the world.” It was no sin, but it did not seem to him a man’ s work. It made him restless till he changed his trade, and became as expert in the manufacture of locomotives as he had been before in that of earrings and gewgaws. The Christian spirit in the very germ of it is essentially a great spirit, an ambitious spirit, which is not content till it identifies life with great and commanding objects. It puts into a man the will to do, and so develops in him the power to do grand things, in which the doing shall be as grand as the thing done. Christianity has bestowed on the world a magnificent gift in the single principle of the dignity of labour. It is a sublime thing to work for one’ s living. To do well the thing a man is created for is a splendid achievement. A rich fool once said to a rising lawyer: “ I remember the time when you had to black my father’ s boots, sir.” “ Did I not do them well?” was the reply, and it spoke inborn greatness. Our Lord disclosed the same spirit when in His early boyhood He said: “ Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’ s business?” Every Christian young man has his Father’ s business to attend to, and he is not a full-grown man till he gets about it. IV. THE RESOLVE TO GIVE LIFE TO THE SAME OBJECTS FOR WHICH CHRIST LIVED. Trades and professions, and recreations even, can be made Christlike. He was a mistaken and untrained Christian who gave up a large practice at the bar, because, he said, a man could not be a Christian lawyer. A man can be a Christian in anything that is necessary to the welfare of mankind. Everything in this world belongs to Christ, and can be used for Him. One of the humblest of the mechanical trades has been glorified by the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was a carpenter. Making money is a Christian thing, if a man will do it in Christian ways. If it is some men’ s duty to be poor, it is other men’ s duty to be rich. Both should identify life with Christ’ s life. This was Paul’ s ambition: “ To me to live is Christ.” Let a man once get thoroughly wrought into and through his whole being the fact that this world is to be converted to Jesus Christ, and that his own business here is to work into line with God’ s enterprize in this thing, and he cannot help realizing in his own person the Christian theory of living. He will meditate on it, he will study it, he will inform himself about it, he will talk of it, he will work for it, he will dream of it, he will give his money to it, if need be he will suffer for it and die for it. Such a life of active thoughtful sympathy with Christ will make a man of anybody. No matter who or what he is, no matter how poor, how ignorant, how small in the world’ s esteem, such a life will make him a great man. Angels will respect him. God will own him. (A. Phelps, D. D.) Two ways of lengthening life An eminent divine suffering from a chronic disease, consulted three physicians, who declared, on being questioned by the sick man, that his disease would be followed by death in a shorter or longer time, according to the manner in which he lived; but they unanimously advised him to give up his office, because, in his situation, mental agitation would be fatal to him. “ If I give myself to repose,” inquired the divine, “ how long will you guarantee my life?” “ Six years,” answered the doctors. “ And if I should continue in office?” “ Three years at most.” “ Thank you, gentlemen,” he replied; “ I should prefer living two or three years in doing some good to living six in idleness.” (Whitecross.) The spur I. THE GREAT MASTER WORKER. 1. He takes His own share in the work, “ I.” How encouraging! It is enough for the general if he directs the battle, but Jesus fought in the ranks. As the great Architect He supervises all, yet He helps to build the Spiritual Temple with His own hands. It made Alexander’ s soldiers valiant, because, when they were wearied with long marches, he dismounted and walked with them; and if a river had to be crossed in the teeth of opposition, foremost amidst all the risk was the general. 2. He laid great stress on the gracious work which was laid upon Him. There were some things He would not do--dividing inheritances, etc. But when it came to the work of blessing souls, this He must do, and He did it with all His might. The unity of His purpose was never broken. 3. He rightly describes this work as the work of God. If ever there was one who might have taken the honour to himself it was Jesus; yet He ever says, “ The Father doeth the works.” He sets us the example of confessing that whatever we do God does it and should have the glory. 4. He owned His true position. He had not come forth on His own account. He was not here as a principal, but as a subordinate, an ambassador sent by the king. God gave Him a commission and the grace to carry it out. 5. He threw a hearty earnestness into the work He undertook. Though sent, the commission was so genial to His nature that He worked with all the alacrity of a volunteer. He was commissioned, but His own will was the main compulsion. 6. He clearly saw that there was a fitting time to work, and that this time would have an end. He called his lifetime a day: to show us that He was impressed with the shortness of it. Thou hast but a day--youth is the morning, manhood the noon, old age the evening. Be up and doing, for beyond that is night. But as with Christ, so with us. We cannot die till our day is over. II. AS WORKERS UNDER HIM. 1. On us there rests personal obligation. We are in danger of losing ourselves in societies and associations. The old histories are rich in records of personal daring. There is little of that now because fighting is done so much by masses and machinery. So our Christian work is in danger of getting mechanical, so much en masse that there is barely room for singular deeds of valour. Yet the success of the Church will lie in this last. Each man should feel “ I have something to do for Christ which an angel could not do for me.” 2. Our personal obligation compels us to just such work as Christ did. We are not called meritoriously to save souls, for He is the only Saviour, but we are called to enlighten them. This work must be done, whatever else is left undone. And how paltry is every other gain compared with that of a saved soul! We have our secular callings and ought to have them, but we have a high calling of God in Christ, and while other things may be this must be. 3. It is God’ s work we are called upon to do. What greater motive can we have than to have a Divine work and Divine strength to do it? Your mission is not less honourable than that of angels, and how blessed it is! How desperate the case of those we are sent to save, and how short the time in which to save them! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The night cometh when no man can work.--Although our Lord’ s ministry began late, it was marked by incessant activity. His disciples marvelled at it, and Be accounts for it by the fact that He had much to do and but little time to do it in. This declaration is worth attention. It is not wise to dwell in a cold sense of death. Dying need not be gloomy; but life has a certain duration, and there is allotted to every man a certain round of duties; and as in a journey a man divides the distance into stages according to the time he has to accomplish it, so a man ought to look forward to death in order to accomplish in life the things that are to be done. The husbandman says, “ If my ground does not receive the seed early in the spring, I shall have no harvest in the autumn. I know the measure of the summer and labour accordingly.” I. I address THOSE WHO LIVE AIMLESS LIVES. Many of you will not live long, and yet there are incumbent upon you great duties toward God, man, yourselves. You may not be stained with vice; but there is great wrong done by every man who in life has no plan but that of idly floating out of one day into another. That is to surrender the dignity of life and to make yourselves like the gauzy ephemerides that float in the air. But you are not born to be insects, and however cheerful you may be you ought to answer the great questions: “ What am I born for? how long have I to stay here?” II. I also address THOSE WHO ARE ALWAYS TO DO THE THINGS THEY ADMIRE. How many are saying, “ When there is a more convenient season it is my purpose to reform.” But no man is wise who does not say day by day, “ What I do I must hasten to do, for life is not very long for me.” For whatever you mean to do you have no time to spare. Putting off till prosperity is established is substantially putting off forever. They who late in life attain to any considerable excellence are rare exceptions. Men usually plant in childhood the seeds which blossom and bear the fruits on which they feed in later years. III. IS THE SPIRIT OF THIS MAN SHOULD MEASURE CERTAIN DUTIES. 1. It is part of a Christian man’ s duty to make provision for his household. No man has a right to leave out of view the fact that he may be taken away, and when that is the case the breadwinner is gone. It is wicked therefore for a man, because he admires his wife and loves his children, to live beyond his means to gratify their tastes or whims. Where a man does this, when the collapse comes there is nothing but misery. 2. It is a Christian man’ s duty to secure the provision he has made. There are many men whose business is in such a state that if they were to die their affairs would be like a ship from whose rudder the pilot has been shot down. “ Set thy house in order,” then. Make your will, and have your affairs so straight that it will be easy to wind them up and dispose them according to your wishes. IV. THE OF THE TEXT RULES IN THE SPHERE. 1. In personal spiritual growth. The time for the development of the graces, the acquisition of knowledge, the contraction of good habits is brief--make the most of it. 2. In Christian work. If you have anything to do for the poor, for the Church, for the world’ s purity and happiness, you have no time to lose. And yet how few, however active, are using the whole economy of their natures according to the power that is in them? (H. W. Beecher.) The night cometh Therefore I. DO NOT SET YOUR ON EARTHLY THINGS. Wealth, reputation, pleasure, etc., will then perish. You would not tie your earthly happiness to a flower that is to fade at sunset; and is it more reasonable for a being who is to live forever to choose for his portion what must pass from his grasp whenever the sun of this short life goes down? II. DO NOT REPINE AND LOSE HEART AMID YOUR CARE AND SORROWS. The occasions of these last only for life’ s little day, and dark as that day may be, it will drag through at last. And sweet as is the evening hour of rest for the labourer, that is nothing to the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Let this prospect infuse courage and hope to endure our loss and to bear our cross. III. DO NOT WEARY OF YOUR DUTIES. Some of them are delightful enough, but others are burdensome; but the time is coming when both will be laid aside and the reward bestowed. IV. WORK OUT YOUR OWN , for that can only be accomplished during the day. And who knows how many hours remain and what accident may not cut it short? (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) The night cometh There is a difference between the ancient Oriental and the modem Occidental idea of night, owing to the comparative security of life and property in modern times. In the ancient East (and it is so still in the modem East), the man who camped outside of the city walls was liable to attack from prowling Bedouins, from professional thieves, and from wild animals; while he who slept within city walls hardly dared to venture out of doors by night, for fear of the troops of half-savage dogs that scoured through the narrow streets, fighting each other for the offal which they found there. The darkness was also the time when evil spirits had most power: Lilith, the female demon, and Asmodai, and other evil spirits, hid in dark places during the day; but during the night they issued forth to prey upon mankind. A certain trace of this same feeling is seen in the evil epithets applied to night by the classical writers. The night is “ terrible,” “ destructive.” To these writers, as well as to the Orientals, the night was the time of peril and of enforced cessation from work. To us, night is the period of repose and safety. (S. S. Times.) Diligence in the work of religion I. THERE IS A WORK TO EVERY MAN TO BE WHILE HE LIVES IN THE WORLD. 1. As he is a member of the body politic, he is obliged to contribute his proportion of help to the public as sharing the benefits of society. 2. As he is a subject of a spiritual kingdom, he is to pursue the interest of his salvation. He is sent into this world to make sure of a better. These two capacities are very different: by the former a man is to approve himself a good citizen; by the latter a good Christian. The former too is subordinate to the latter, and when it clashes with it must give way. According to these capacities there is a double work. 1. Temporal, by which a man is to fill some place in the commonwealth by the exercise of some useful profession; and God, who has ordained society and order accounts Himself served by each man’ s diligent pursuit, though of the meanest trade, and requires no man to be praying or reading when he ought to be hammering or sewing. The great Master is still calling upon all His servants to work: a thing so much disdained by the gallant and epicure, is yet the price which God and Nature has set upon every enjoyment (2 Thessalonians 3:10). 2. Spiritual. This is threefold. (1) To make our peace with God. God is indeed reconciled by the satisfaction made by Christ, and peace is now offered, but upon conditions, viz., repentance and faith. (2) To get our sins mortified. For after we are transplanted into a state of grace, we are not to think that our work is wholly done. Every man has sinful habits with which he is to wage war, and this is the most afflicting part of his duty. (3) To get his heart replenished with the proper virtues of a Christian. Christianity ends not in negatives. No man clears his garden of weeds, but in order to the planting of flowers and herbs. And as every trade requires toil, so this. II. THE TIME OF THIS LIFE BEING EXPIRED, THERE IS NO OF THIS WORK. There is no repenting, believing, doing the works of charity in the grave. A day notes 1. The shortness of it. What is a day but a few minutes’ sunshine, an indiscernible shred of that life which is itself but a span. God allows us but one day, which shows what value He puts on our opportunities by dispensing them so sparingly. Our life is a day’ s journey, therefore it concerns us to manage it so that we may have comfort at our journey’ s end. 2. Its sufficiency. A day, short as it is, equals the business of the day; and he that repents not during his short life would not were it prolonged five hundred years. 3. Its determinate limitation. As after a number of hours it will unavoidably be night, and there is no stopping the setting sun, so after we have passed such a measure of our time, our season has its period--we are benighted, and must bid adieu to our opportunities. III. THE OF THIS OUGHT TO BE THE MOST TO EVERY MAN TO USE HIS UTMOST IN THE OF THIS WORE. 1. The work is most difficult. It is “ warfare,” “ wrestling,” “ resisting the devil,” and “ unto blood.” “ Agonizing” before the doer is closed to enter in. Hard work, and little time to do it in. He that has far to go and much to do should rise early, and mate the difficulty of the business with the diligence of the prosecution. 2. It is necessary, in so far as it is necessary for a man to be saved; which argument will be heightened by comparing this necessity with the limitation of time. There is no tomorrow in a Christian’ s calendar. (R. South, D. D.) Time cannot be lengthened out by man As the light was fading away on the evening before the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon, pointing towards the setting sun, said, “ What would I not give to be this day possessed of the power of Joshua--enabled to retard thy march for two hours!” (J. Abbott.) The inevitableness of death “ The time is short” --or as we might perhaps render it, so as to give the full force of the metaphor, “ the time is pressed together.” It is being squeezed into narrower compass, like a sponge in a strong hand. There is an old story of a prisoner in a cell with contractile walls. Day by day his space lessens. He saw the whole of that window yesterday; he sees only half of it today. Nearer and nearer the walls are drawn together, till they meet and crush him between them. So the wails of our home, which we have made our prison, are closing in upon us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The need of preparation for death A young prince asked his tutor to give him some instruction about preparing for death. “ Plenty of time for that when you are older,” was the reply. “ No,” said the child; “ I have been to the churchyard and measured the graves, and there are many shorter than I am.” A courtier, who had passed his life in the service of his prince, having fallen dangerously ill, the prince went to visit him, accompanied by his other courtiers. He found him in an agony of suffering, and at the point of death. Touched with the sad spectacle, he said, “ Is there anything I can do for you? Ask unhesitatingly, and fear not that you will be refused. Prince, replied the sufferer, in the sad situation in which you see me, I have but one thing to ask of you; give me a quarter of an hour of life.” “ Alas!” said the prince, “ what you demand is not in my, power, to give;, ask something else, if you wish me to aid you.” “ Oh, what!” said the dying man, “ I have served you for fifty years, and you cannot give me a quarter of an hour of life! Ah! if I had served the Lord thus faithfully, He would have given me, not a quarter of an hour of life, but an eternity of happiness.” Very soon after he died. Happy it he himself profited by the lesson which he gave to others on the nothingness of human life and the necessity of working out one’ s own salvation. (Ponder and Pray.) The folly of delay After the battle of Chancellorsville, General Hooker, instead of quickly following up his victory with another attack, delayed it for a day. The golden moment was thus lost, and it never afterwards appeared to the same extent. Soldiers’ legs have as much to do with winning great victories as their arms. (H. O. Mackey.) Definite workers Generalities in religion are always to be avoided, more especially generalities in service. If a man waits upon you for a situation, and you say to him, “ What are you?” if he replies, “ I am a painter,” or “ a carpenter,” you can find him work perhaps; but if he says, “ Oh! I can do anything,” you understand that he can do nothing. So it is with a sort of spiritual jobbers who profess to be able to do anything in the Church, but who really do nothing. I want my conscript brethren tonight to consider what they are henceforth going to do, and I beg them to consider it with such deliberation, that when once they have come to a conclusion that they will not need to change it, for changes involve losses. What can you do? What is your calling? Ragged schools? Sunday schools? Street preaching? Tract distribution? Here is a choice for you; which do you select? Waste no time, but say, “ This is my calling, and by God’ s grace I will give myself up to it, meaning to do it as well as any man ever did do it.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Lost opportunities “ Ah! Mr. Hervey,” said a dying man, “ the day in which I ought to have worked is over, and I now see a horrible night approaching, bringing with it the blackness of darkness forever. Woe is me! When God called, I refused. Now I am in sore anguish; and yet this is but the beginning of sorrows. I shall be destroyed with an everlasting destruction.” A motive for diligence The old naturalists, who tell us a good many things which are not true, as well as some which are, say that the birds of Norway always fly more swiftly than any others, because the summer days are so short, and therefore they have so much to do in such a little time. Surely we should fly more swiftly to do our Lord’ s work if we would only meditate upon the fact that the day is so short, and that the night is so near at hand. (C. H. Spurgeon.) All must work Oh! I could not do much, says one. Then do what you can. No one flower makes a garden, but altogether the fair blossoms of spring create a paradise of beauty. Let all the Lord’ s flowers contribute in their proportion to the beauty of the garden of the Lord. “ But I am so unused to it.” Then, my brother, that is a very powerful reason why you should do twice as much, so as to make up for your past idleness. “ Oh! but I am afraid nothing would come of it.” What has that to do with you? God has promised a blessing, and if the blessing should not come in your day, yet, if you have done what the Master bade you, you will not be blamed for want of success. “ Sir,” asks another, “ will you give me some work to do?” “ No, I will not; for if you are good for anything, you will find it for yourself.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Work while it is day In the Californian bee pastures, on the sun days of summer, one may readily infer the time of day from the comparative energy of bee movements alone: drowsy and moderate in the cool of the morning, increasing in energy with the ascending sun, and at high noon thrilling and quivering in wild ecstasy, then gradually declining again to the stillness of night. Is it not, or should it not be, a picture of our life? (H. O. Mackey.) Responsibility to God Daniel Webster was present one day at a dinner party given at Astor House by some New York friends, and, in order to draw him out, one of the company put to him the following question: “ Would you please tell us, bit. Webster, what was the most important thought that ever occupied your mind?” Mr. Webster merely raised his head, and passing his hand slowly over his forehead, said, “ Is there anyone here who doesn’ t know me?” “ No, sir,” was the reply; “ we all know you, and are your friends.” “ Then,” said he, looking over the table, “ the most important thought that ever occupied my mind was that of my individual responsibility to God.” Upon which subject he then spoke for twenty minutes. (H. O. Mackey.) Work while it is day When someone expostulated with Duncan Matheson, the evangelist, that he was killing himself with his labours, and ought to have rest, he replied: “ I cannot rest while souls are being lost; there is all eternity in which to rest after life is done.” (H. O. Mackey.) Life a sphere of work We are not sent into life as a butterfly is sent into summer, gorgeously hovering over the flowers, as if the interior spirits of the rainbow had come down to greet these kisses of the season upon the ground; but to labour for the world’ s advancement, and to mould our characters into God’ s likeness, and so, through toil and achievement, to gain happiness. I would rather break stones upon the road, if it were not for the disgrace of being in a chain gang, than to be one of those contemptible joy mongers, who are so rich and so empty that they are continually going about to find something to make them happy. (H. W.Beecher.) We must work with our whole heart It is one of the first and last qualifications of good workman for God that he should put his heart into his work. I have heard mistresses tell servants when polishing tables that elbow-grease was a fine thing for such work; and so it is. Hard work is a splendid thing. It will make a way under a river, or through an Alp. Hard work will do almost everything; but in God’ s service it must not only be hard work, but hot work. The heart must be on fire. The heart must be set upon its design. See how a child cries! Though I am not fond of hearing it, yet I note that some children cry all over; when they want a thing, they cry from the tips of their toes to the last hair of their heads. That is the way to preach, and that is the way to pray, and that is the way to live: the whole man must be heartily engaged in holy work. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christians feel that they must work When I have been unable to preach through physical pain, I have taken my pen to write, and found much joy in making books for Jesus; and when my hand has been unable to wield the pen, I have wanted to talk about my master to somebody or other, and I have tried to do so. I remember that David Brainerd, when he was very ill, and could not preach to the Indians, was found sitting up in bed, teaching a little Indian boy his letters, that he might read the Bible; and so he said, “ If I cannot serve God one way, I will another. I will never leave off this blessed service.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Work is healthful On one occasion a neighbouring minister warned Dr. Morison, of Chelsea, that he was doing too much work. “ Depend upon it,” said Dr. Morison, “ the lazy minister dies first.” Six months afterwards he was sent for by his friendly monitor, and found him dying. “ Do you remember what you once said to me?” inquired the dying man. Stunned by finding his words so vividly remembered at this time, he replied, “ Oh, don’ t speak of that.” “ Yes, I must speak of it,” said his friend. “ It was the truth! Work, work while it is called day; for now the night is coming, when I cannot work.” Soul winning is our work I like that expression of Mr. Wesley’ s preachers, when they were asked to interfere in this or that political struggle, they replied, “ Our work is to win souls, and we give ourselves to it.” Oh, that churches would listen to this just now! (C. H. Spurgeon.) We must do God’ s work There are men, there are women--men and women of high capacities, of great mental endowment--who, in every division of human thought and human labour, have furrowed their track deep in the fields of history. There are men, as you all know, of scientific attainments, who have been powerful in illuminating the meaning of the laws of God with regard to the physical creation before the minds of their fellow men; men who have drawn out the secrets from this world, who have exposed to us the meaning of much that once we believed to be almost magical, and now is known to be only natural. There are men of historical power, who have been able to co-ordinate the various human motives and thoughts which have gone to form the springs of history, until they have succeeded, in part at least, in reading some of those general laws of our Great Creator, even in fields belonging not strictly to His divine revelation. There are, again, men of artistic faculties, who have been able--in throwing out thoughts upon canvas, which have startled us,sometimes with the beauty of execution, and always with the wonderful mystery of various colourings, combining into one picture before the eye--have been able, I say, thereby to exhibit to us things that all mankind,more or less, have dreamed of, but that all mankind found themselves incapable to express. There have been men--as you and I, who live in this great city, know--who, by the mere activity of their life, have left a very deep impress upon their generation. But, after all, when we turn to the Christian life, we have to acknowledge, even without the divine revelation, that all that kind of work, all that outcome of what is mere human activity, is not at all work in the sense in which Christ means it, as becoming and glorifying an immortal. Not at all! (Knox Little.) We must do our work promptly In the private journal of a lady in New York, recently deceased, were found these words: “ I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” To every man his work We have all of us special endowments; each has got some place in the providential ordering of God; not one soul but has his or her place. God has given each a work. His will for you is to be measured by the capabilities that you have. Some have power of brain, some of heart, some of hand. Some can illuminate a quiet home by the tender brightness of a holy life; some can lead vast masses of their fellow creatures by a splendid example of energetic and determined fixity of purpose; some can think of God with peculiar depth and power in quiet times, when alone with Him. They can so meditate that the meditation of their soul is felt, rather than heard, by those who associate with them in life. Some can go forth into the great working world, and speak or do a work for God amongst those around them. But for each one, old or young--O loved of God! O child of Jesus! O turned to the Master with a wholeheart and a loving determination!--for each, therefore for you, there is a special work in the history of this universe. (Knox Little.) Signs of night You will find within your breast the waning power of the exercise of influence you had in your home; you find the difficulty, mere than ever, of fighting down some wretched habit for which not only do you want forgiveness, but which, too, you desire to conquer for the love of Jesus; you find, perhaps the witness of a failing memory, or of failing health; you find that in some way or other the finger of God is touching you. The world may not see it; friends may not read it; those who are dear to you may not tell it; but you know it--the witness, whatever it is, is come--is coming. It speaks to you in the silence of the night. It wakens with you when you waken in the morning; it travels with you as a settled consciousness, when you are going about the world; it is the whisper of that unrelenting law of unchanging changefulness--“ the night is coming.” (Knox Little.) The works of God The utter restfulness which filled the heart of the Lord Jesus is beautifully manifested in the introductory verses of this chapter. I. THE IN WHICH GOD’ S WORKS ARE DONE. The phrase, “ works of God,” is a familiar one throughout this Gospel. To do them fed the Redeemer’ s soul (John 4:34); they were in an ever ascending scale John 5:20); they were of a certain definite number, given Him to finish John 5:36); they were the signs and seals of His mission (John 10:38); they were not His own, but wrought through Him by the Father John 14:10); they were unique in the history of the world (John 16:24); they were definitely finished ere He left it (John 17:4). But it becomes us to learn the conditions under which they were wrought, that we may be able to do those greater works of which He spoke. 1. His heart was at rest in God. Nature herself teaches the need of repose for the putting forth of her mightiest efforts. It is in the closet, the study, the cave, the woodland retreat that problems have been solved, resolves formed, and schemes matured. It is not possible for us all to have a life of outward calm. But beneath all the heart may keep its Sabbath. 2. He was specially endued with the Holy Spirit. 3. He was willing that the Father should work through Him. II. THE NEED FOR THESE WORKS. “ A man blind from his birth.” If there is need for the works of God to be manifested, we must be at hand, and willing at all costs to manifest them. If there is the opportunity for the glorifying of Christ, we must not be slow to seize it. Make haste, the night is coming, in which no man can work. What works await us yonder we cannot tell. But the unique work of healing blindness and enriching beggary is confined to earth, and we must hasten to do all of this allotted to us before the nightfall. He lives intensely whose eye is fixed on the fingers of the dial, as the poor seamstress works swiftly whose last small wick of candle is rapidly burning down in its socket. III. THE SUBJECT OF THESE WORKS. What a contrast between the opening and the close of the chapter. The soul ignorant of Christ owns Him as Son of God. And all this because of the individual interest our Lord took in him. 1. He detected what was working in his mind. Beneath that unpromising exterior were the elements of a noble character. 2. He developed the latent power of faith. It was there, but it had nothing to evoke it, and yet it must be evoked ere Christ could give him sight. He could feel, though he could not see. 3. He found him when cast out by all besides. Does not Jesus always steal to our side when we are cast out, or deserted by our friends? 4. He answered his hunger for faith. “ Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” If we live up to what we know, at all costs, we shall most certainly be led into further discoveries of truth. We think we are going to plough a field, and we suddenly come on a box of treasure, struck by our plough, which makes us independent of work for the rest of our lives. And so obedience passes into worship, and we see that He who has made our life His care, tending us when we knew Him not, is the Christ of God, in whom are hid all the riches of time, all the treasures of eternity: and we worship Him. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) We must not trifle Rev. Charles Simeon kept the picture of Henry Martyn in his study. Move where he would through the apartment, it seemed to keep its eyes upon him, and ever to say to him, “ Be earnest, be earnest! don’ t trifle, don’ t trifle!” And the good Simeon would gently bow to the speaking picture, and, with a smile, reply, “ Yes, I will be in earnest; I will, I will be in earnest; I will not trifle; for souls are perishing, and Jesus is to be glorified.” O Christian! look away to Martyn’ s Master, to Simeon’ s Saviour, to the Omniscient One. Ever realize the inspection of His eye, and hear His voice. (S. J. Moore.) John 9:5 As long as I am in the world I am the Light of the world.--The Word as Light visited men before the Incarnation (John 1:9, etc.; John 5:38; Romans 2:15, etc.); at the Incarnation (John 8:12; John 12:46; John 3:19-21; comp. John 11:9, etc.); and He still comes (John 14:21); even as the Spirit who still interprets His “ name” (John 14:25; John 16:13; comp. 1 John 2:20-27). St. John draws no distinction in essence between these three different forms of revelation, in nature, in conscience, and in history; all alike are natural or supernatural, parts of the same harmonious plan. But man has not independently light in himself. The understanding of the outward revelation depends upon the abiding of the Divine Word within (John 5:37, etc.). Love is the condition of illumination (John 14:22, etc.). And the end of Christ’ s coming was that those who believe in Him may move in a new region of life (John 12:46), and themselves become sons of light (John 12:35, etc.), and so in the last issue of faith have the light of life (John 8:12).(Bp. Westcott.) Christ, the Light Among all created excellencies, none can be borrowed more fitly representing Christ, than that of light. 1. Light is primum visibile, the first object of sight: and Jesus Christ, whom the apostle styles “ God over all, Blessed forever,” is primum intelligibile. 2. Light being the first thing visible, all things are seen by it, and it by itself. Thus is Christ among spiritual things, in the elect world of His Church Ephesians 5:13-14; 2 Corinthians 4:3). The rays of Christ’ s light are displayed through both His Testaments, and in them we see Him Psalms 36:9). 3. No one is ignorant there is light; yet what light is few know (Job 38:19). The “ generation” of Christ “ who shall declare?” (Isaiah 53:8). 4. Light resembles Christ in purity: it visits many impure places, and lights upon the basest parts of the earth, and yet remains most pure and undefiled. Though Christ was conversant with sinners, to communicate to them His goodness, yet He was “ separate from sinners,” in immunity from their evil (Hebrews 7:26). 5. The light of the sun is neither parted nor diminished, by being imparted to many several people and nations, that behold it at one time: nor is the righteousness of this Sun of Righteousness either lessened to Himself or to individual believers, by many partaking of it at once: it is wholly conferred upon each one of them, and remains whole in itself. 6. The sun hath a vivifying power, a special influence in the generation of man. The sun we speak of is the proper and principal instrument in man’ s regeneration (John 1:4). 7. The sun drives away the sharp frosts and the heavy fogs of winter, it clears the heavens, decks the saith with variety of plants and flowers, and awakes the birds to the pleasant strains of their natural music. When Christ, after a kind of wintry absence, returns to visit a declining Church, or a deserted forsaken soul, admirable is the change that He produces, etc. Isaiah 55:12-13; Son 2:10-17). 8. All darkness flies before light: so Christ arising in the world made the day break, and the shadows flee away, the types and shadows of the law, ignorance, idolatry, the night of sin, misery, etc. All the stars, and the moon with them, cannot make it day in the world: this is the sun’ s peculiar: nor can nature’ s highest light, the most refined science and morality, make it day in the soul; for this is Christ’ s (John 8:12; John 12:35; Psalms 19:1-14; Wis 7:26-27; Luke 1:78-79; Ephesians 5:8). (Abp. Leighton.) The Light of the world I. CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 1. I am the Light of the world (John 9:5). 2. That was the true Light (John 1:9). 3. For a Light of the Gentiles (Isaiah 13:6). 4. A Light to lighten the Gentiles (Luke 2:32). 5. He that followeth Me … shall have the Light (John 8:12). 6. I am come a Light into the world (John 12:46). 7. The Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2). 8. The Dayspring from on high (Luke 1:78). 9. The Bright and Morning Star (Revelation 22:16). 10. The Daystar (2 Peter 1:19). II. THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 1. Walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8). 2. Ye are all the children of light (1 Thessalonians 5:5). 3. Ye are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). 4. That ye may be the children of light (John 12:36). 5. Let your light so shine (Matthew 5:16). 6. The path of the just is as the shining light (Proverbs 4:18). 7. He [John] was a burning and a shining light (John 5:35). 8. Among whom ye shine as lights in the world (Philippians 2:15). 9. Let us put on the armour of light (Romans 13:12). 10. They that be wise shall shine (Daniel 12:3). (S. S. Times.) Light in death For the last day or two he (Sir D. Brewster) was attended by his friend, Sir James Simpson, a man of kindred genius and of kindred Christian hopes. “ The like of this I never saw,” he said, as we met him coming fresh from the dying chamber. “ There is Sir David resting like a little child on Jesus, and speaking as if in a few hours he will get all his problems solved by Him.” For in that supreme hour of dawning immortality his past studies were all associated with the name and person of the Redeemer. “ I shall see Jesus,” he said; “ and that will be grand. I shall see Him who made the worlds,” with allusion to those wonderful verses in Hebrews which had formed the subject of the last sermon he ever heard, a few weeks before. Thus, tracing all to the Creator-Redeemer, he felt no incongruity even in these hours in describing to Sir James Simpson, in a “ fluent stream of well chosen words,” some beautiful phenomena in his favourite science. Reference was made to the privilege he had enjoyed in throwing light upon the “ great and marvellous works of God.” “ Yes,” he said, “ I found them to be great and marvellous, and I felt them to be His.” He had little pain but such as came from intense weakness. The light was with him all through the valley. “ I have had the light for many years,” he whispered slowly, and with emphasis; “ and oh, how bright it is! I feel so safe, so satisfied!” And so, in childlike reliance and adoring love, he gently fell asleep in Jesus on the evening of Monday, February 10th, 1868. On the Saturday following he was laid beside kindred dust. (Sunday at Home.) John 9:6 He spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and He anointed the eyes The blind made to see, and the seeing made blind I. We have here OUR LORD HIS DEEPEST MOTIVES FOR AN . It is remarkable that out of the eight miracles recorded in this Gospel, there is only one in which our Lord responds to a request to manifest His miraculous power; the others are all spontaneous. In the other Gospels He heals sometimes because of the pleading of the sufferer; sometimes because of the request of the compassionate friends or bystanders; sometimes unasked, because His own heart went out to those that were in pain and sickness. But in John’ s Gospel, predominantly we have the Son of God, who acts throughout as moved by His own deep heart. That view of Christ reaches its climax in His own profound words about His own laying down of His life: “ I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go unto the Father.” So, not so much influenced by others as deriving motive and impulse and law from Himself, He moves upon earth a fountain and not a reservoir, the Originator and Beginner of the blessings that He bears. Thus, moved by sorrow, recognizing in man’ s misery the dumb cry for help, seeing in it the opportunity for the manifestation of the higher mercy of God; taking all evil to be the occasion for a brighter display of the love and the good which are Divine; feeling that His one purpose on earth was to crowd the moments with obedience to the will, and with the doing of the works of Him that sent Him; and possessing the sole and strange consciousness that from His person streams out all the light which illuminates the world--the Christ pauses before the unconscious blind man, and looking upon the poor, useless eyeballs, unaware how near light and sight stood, obeys the impulse that shapes His whole life. “ And when He had spoken thus” proceeds to the strange cure. II. So we come, in the next place, to consider CHRIST AS VEILING HIS POWER UNDER MEANS. This healing by material means in order to accommodate Himself to the weak faith which He seeks to evoke, and to strengthen thereby, is parallel, in principles, to His own incarnation, and to His appointment of external rites and ordinances. Baptism, the Lord’ s Supper, a visible Church, outward means of worship, and so on, all these come under the same category. There is no life nor power in them except His will works through them, but they are crutches and helps for a weak and sense-bound faith to climb to the apprehension of the spiritual reality. It is not the clay, it is not the water, it is not the Church, the ordinances, the outward worship, the form of prayer, the Sacrament--it is none of these things that have the healing and the grace in them. They are only ladders by which we may ascend to Him. III. Then, still farther, WE HAVE HERE OUR LORD HEALING ON . “ Go and wash.” As He said to the impotent man: “ Stretch forth thine hand” ; as He said to the paralytic in this Gospel: “ Take up thy bed and walk” ; so here He says, “ Go and wash.” And some friendly hand being stretched out to the blind man, or he himself feeling his way over the familiar path, he comes to the pool and washes, and returns seeing. There is, first, the general truth that healing is suspended by Christ on the compliance with His conditions. He does not simply say to any man, Be whole. He could and did say so sometimes in regard to bodily healing. But He cannot do so as regards the cure of our blind souls. To the sin-sick and sin-blinded man He says, “ Thou shalt be whole, if” --or “ I will make thee whole, provided that” --what?--provided that thou goest to the fountain where He has lodged the healing power. The condition on which sight comes to the blind is compliance with Christ’ s invitation, “ Come to Me; trust in Me; and thou shalt be whole.” Then there is a second lesson here, and that is, Obedience brings sight. “ If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.” Are there any of you groping in darkness, compassed about with theological perplexities and religious doubts? Bow your wills to the recognized truth. He who has made all his knowledge into action will get more knowledge as soon as he needs it. “ Go and wash; and he went, and came seeing.” IV. And now, lastly, we have here our LORD HIS HIGHEST WORK AS THE HEALER OF BLIND SOULS. The blind man stands for an example of honest ignorance, knowing itself ignorant, and not to be coaxed or frightened or in any way provoked to pretending to knowledge which it does not possess, firmly holding by what it does know, and because conscious of its little knowledge, therefore waiting for light and willing to be led. Hence he is at once humble and sturdy, docile and independent, ready to listen to any voice which can really teach, and formidably quick to prick with wholesome sarcasm the inflated claims of mere official pretenders. The Pharisees, on the other hand, are sure that they know everything that can be known about anything in the region of religion and morality, and in their absolute confidence in their absolute possession of the truth, in their blank unconsciousness that it was more than their official property and stock-in-trade, in their complete incapacity to discern the glory of a miracle which contravened ecclesiastical proprieties and conventionalities, in their contempt for the ignorance which they were responsible for and never thought of enlightening, in their cruel taunt directed against the man’ s calamity, and in their swift resort to the weapon of excommunication of one whom it was much easier to cast out than to answer, are but too plain a type of a character which is as ready to corrupt the teachers of the Church as of the synagogue. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The use of means Our Lord would teach us, by His peculiar mode of proceeding here, that He is not tied to any one means of doing good, and that we may expect to find variety in His methods of dealing with souls as well as with bodies. May He not also wish to teach us that He can, when He thinks fit, invest material things with an efficacy which is not inherent in them? We are not to despise Baptism and the Lord’ s Supper, because water, bread, and wine are mere material elements. To many who use them, no doubt they are nothing more than mere material things, and never do them the slightest good. But to those who use the sacraments rightly, worthily, and with faith, Christ can make water, bread, and wine, instruments of doing real good. He that was pleased to use clay in healing a blind man may surely use material things, if He thinks fit, in His own ordinances. The water in Baptism, and the bread and wine in the Lord’ s Supper, while they are not to be treated as idols, ought not to be treated with irreverence and contempt. It was, of course, not the clay that healed the blind man, but Christ’ s word and power. Nevertheless the clay was used. So the brazen serpent in itself had no medicinal power to cure the bitten Israelites. But without it they were not cured. The selection of clay for anointing the blind man’ s eyes is thought by some to be significant, and to contain a possible reference to the original formation of man out of the dust. He that formed man with all his bodily faculties out of the dust could easily restore one of those lost faculties, even sight, when He thought fit. He that healed these blind eyes with clay was the same Being who originally formed man out of the clay. (Bp. Ryle.) The use of common agencies This cure is distinguished from most others by the careful use in it of intermediate agencies. Christ does not merely speak the word; there is a process of healing, and the use of these agencies is part of the sign to which St. John wishes to draw our attention. If the other signs testified that there is an invisible power at work in all the springs of our life--that there is a Fountain of life from which these springs are continually renewed--did not this testify that there is a potency and virtue in the commonest things; that God has stored all nature with instruments for the blessing and healing of His creatures? The mere miracle worker who draws glory to himself wishes to dispense with these things lest he should be confounded with the ordinary physician. The Great Physician, who works because His Father works, puts an honour on earth and water as well as upon all art which has true observation and knowledge for its basis. He only distinguishes Himself from other healers by showing that the source of their healing and renovating power is in Him. We have put our faith and our science at an immeasurable distance from each other. May not the separation lead to the ruin of both. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) The meaning of Christ’ s action Jesus would not try weak faith too sternly. Just as you would not give a little child the moral law in all its baldness and harshness to keep, but first sweeten the way of obedience by little rewards and promises which become helps to the doing of right, so the kindly Healer of all deals with the people, who were as little children in faith and spiritual insight. He knew a medicinal value was attributed to saliva for diseases of the eye. It was a little harmless giving way to superstition to let the man have the help of his old belief, such as it was. If you could heal a child’ s hurt by the magic of a word, the child would not feel half as cured as if you had applied some salve. Jesus applies harmless salve that the man might be helped to believe by having something external done to him. Your straitlaced dogmatists will never see the kindly spirit of such action as this. They would see the man blind all his days before they would “ pander” to such notions. Theirs are the unkindly hands which try to make the child climb to heaven by, first of all knocking down the ladders of childish fancy which its untaught thinking has reared, instead of fixing their ladder to the end of the child’ s. Jesus is more kindly reasonable. He does not attempt to argue the notion out of the man’ s mind. He simply lets it alone, and helps the man through his grandmotherly beliefs to healing, and finally to a strong faith in the Divine power. If my child believed that the Heavenly Father came down to the park every night to wrap up the birds in their nests I would not destroy that idea of Providence till I could graft a richer one upon it. Let us learn the Christlike lesson of being weak to the weak and ignorant to the ignorant. (E. H. Higgins.) The way of faith criticised by the world It meets with many modern criticisms. In the first place, the mode of cure seems very eccentric. Spat and made clay with the spittle and the dust! Very singular! Very odd! Thus odd and singular is the gospel in the judgment of the worldly wise. “ Why,” saith one, “ it seems such a strange thing that we are to be saved by believing.” Men think it so odd that fifty other ways are invented straightway. Though the new methods are not one of them worth describing, yet everybody seems to think that the old-fashioned way of “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” might have been greatly improved upon. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The way of faith glorifies Christ Suppose, instead thereof, He had put His hand into His pocket and had taken out a gold or ivory box, and out of this box He had taken a little crystal bottle. Suppose He had taken out the stopper, and then had poured a drop on each of those blind eyes, and they had been opened, what would have been the result? Everybody would have said, “ What a wonderful medicine! I wonder what it was! How was it compounded? Who wrote the prescription? Perhaps He found the charm in the writings of Solomon, and so He learned to distil the matchless drops.” Thus you see the attention would have been fixed on the means used, and the cure would have been ascribed to the medicine rather than to God. Our Saviour used no such rare oils or choice spirits, but simply spat and made clay of the spittle; for He knew that nobody would say, “ The spittle did it,” or “ It was the clay that did it.” No, if our Lord seems to be eccentric in the choice of means, yet is He eminently prudent. (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 9:7 Go wash in the pool of Siloam.--Rounding the southern end of Ophel, the southeast span of Moriah, you reach this famous pool. It is fifty-two feet long and eighteen feet wide, some piers, like flying buttresses, standing on its north side, while part of a column rises in the middle of it. These are the remains of an old church, built over it 1,300 years ago, or a monastery of the twelfth century. The miracle invested the pool with such peculiar sacredness that baths were erected under the ancient church, to let the sick have the benefit of the wondrous stream. You go down eight ancient stone steps to reach the water, which is used by the people for drinking, washing their not over clean linen, and for bathing. Everything around is dilapidated. At the north end a small tunnel opens in the rock, bringing the water from the spring of the Virgin, which lies 1,700 feet higher up the valley. This ancient engineering work is about two feet wide, and from two to sixteen feet in height, with a branch cut due west from it to a shallow basin within the line of the ancient walls, where a round shaft more than forty feet deep has been sunk to reach it. On the top of this a great chamber hewn in the rock, with a flight of steps leading down to it, made it possible for the citizens, by covering and hiding the spring outside, to cut off the supply of water from an enemy, while themselves, by means of this striking arrangement, enjoying it in safety without leaving their defences. A notable discovery connected with the cutting of the main tunnel was made in 1880 by a youth while wading up its mouth. Losing his footing, he noticed, as he was picking himself up, some letters cut in the rocky side, which proved to be an inscription left by the workmen when they had finished their great undertaking. From this it appears that they began at both ends, but as engineering was hardly at its best 3,000 years ago their course was very far from being exactly straight, windings of more than two hundred yards, like the course of a river, marking their work. There are several short branches showing where the excavators found themselves going in a wrong direction, and abruptly stopped, to resume work in a truer line, when at last they met they proved to be a little on one side of each other and had to connect their excavations by a short side cutting. Prof. Sayce thinks that this undertaking dates from about the eight century B.C., and Prof. Muhlan refers it to the time of Hezekiah, while others think it in part, at least, a relic of the early inhabitants of Jerusalem before David. The depth of the tunnel below the surface, at its lowest, is one hundred and fifty feet. The slope is very small, so that the water must always have flowed with a gentle leisure from the spring to the pool Isaiah 8:6). The remains of four other basins have been discovered, which were apparently once connected with the pool, and a little way from it down the valley, is an ancient “ Lower Pool,” but now has its bottom overgrown with trees, the overflow from the higher pool having for centuries trickled past it instead of filling it. This is known as the Red Pool--from the colour of its soil--and is famous for an old mulberry tree saidto mark the spot where Isaiah was sawn asunder by Manasseh. The Virgin’ s Well, from which the whole supply comes, lies at the bottom of two flights of broken stone steps--thirty in all--and has the glory of being the only spring rising in the Temple Mount. The taste of the water is very unpleasant, from its having filtered through the vast mass of foul rubbish on which the city stands, and which has been soaked by the sewage of many centuries. The sides of the tunnel are covered to a height of about three feet with thin red cement, very hard and full of pounded potsherds. The bed is covered with a black slimy deposit two or three inches thick, which makes the water still worse at Siloam than at the Virgin’ s Well. Still from time to time water carriers come to fill their skins, and women with their great jars on their shoulders. Yet Siloam must have been far livelier than now in olden times, when a fine church rose over the spring and pilgrims bathed in the great tank beneath it. Already in the days of Christ, perhaps from the thought of the healing powers of the pool as issuing from Moriah, it must have been the custom to wash in it, else the blind man would hardly have been directed in so few words to do so. (C. Geikie, D. D.) Which is by interpretation, Sent.--By a solemn and daily libation, the fount of Siloam had figured during the recent feast as the emblem of theocratic favours and the pledge of all Messianic blessings. This rite harmonized with the Old Testament, which had already contrasted this humble fountain with the brute force of the foes of the theocracy Isaiah 8:7). We have seen that Jesus applied to Himself the theocratic symbols of the feast; why should He not in the present instance also express by an act what He had hitherto declared in words. By adding to the real blindness, which He alone could cure, that artificial and symbolic blindness which the waters of Siloam were to remove, He declared in fact: What Siloam effects typically I accomplish in reality. Perhaps it is by the symbolic part given to Siloam that the explanation “ Sent” of the Evangelist must be explained. In a philologic point of view, the correctness of John’ s translation is not disputed, and the origin of the name has been explained by the circumstance that the water of the pool was “sent” from the distant spring of the Virgin, or because springs are regarded in the East as gifts of God. In any case, Israelite consciousness was struck by the fact that the spring flowed from the Temple hill, the residence of Jehovah, and had from the prophetic era attached to this water, a Messianic signification. It was undoubtedly this relation, with which the mind of the whole nation was penetrated, that John meant to bring forward in the parenthesis. Go to Siloam (the typically sent), to cleanse thyself from what causes thine artificial blindness; come by faith to He (the really Sent), who alone can cure thy blindness, both physical and moral. (F. Godet, D. D.) The way of faith is simple “ Go wash in the pool.” Go to the pool, and wash the clay into it. Any boy can wash his eyes. The task was simplicity itself. So is the gospel as plain as a pikestaff. You have not to perform twenty genuflections or posturings, each one peculiar, nor have you to go to school to learn a dozen languages, each one more difficult than the other. No, the saving deed is one and simple. “ Believe and live.” Trust, trust Christ; rely upon Him, rest in Him. Accept His work upon the cross as the atonement for your sin, His righteousness as your acceptance before God, His person as the delight of your soul. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith and obedience He obeyed Christ blindly. He looked not upon Siloam with Syrian eyes as Naaman did upon Jordan, but, passing by the unlikelihood of a cure by such means, he believeth and doth as he was bidden. His blind obedience made him see. Let God be obeyed readily without reasoning or wrangling, and success shall not be wanting. (J. Tramp.) John 9:8-13 The neighbours, therefore … said, Is not this he that sat and begged Types of character in relation to Christ’ s work--Those who are only speculatively interested in the work As a stone cast into a lake throws the whole mass of water into agitation, producing circle after circle to its utmost bounds, this healing threw into excitement the whole social sphere in which it occurred. “ No man liveth unto himself.” What affects one will affect many. Society is a chain of which every man is a link, and the motion of one link may vibrate through the whole chain. Society is a body of which every man is a member; the pulsation of one heart will throb through every limb. The feelings produced in this case were various. Note, concerning inquiries of the class we here deal with I. THEIR LACK OF . They related 1. To the identity of the man. The question (John 9:8) seems to have been asked out of mere curiosity. Their difficulty (John 9:9) arose partly from the change the opened eye would make in his countenance, giving it a new character; and partly from the unaccountableness of the result. 2. To the method of his restoration (John 9:10). In this there is no ring of earnestness, only curiosity. 3. To the whereabouts of the Restorer (John 9:12). But what is He? All they meant was we should like to see this wonder worker. Those who have a mere speculative interest in Christianity are constantly asking such questions with no genuine thirst for truth. II. THEIR LACK OF . They utter no congratulatory word. Had they been true men, the event would have touched them into the enthusiasm of social affection. But there is not one spark of it. Their intellect seems to move in ice. So is it ever with this class. There is no heart exultation over the millions Christianity has blessed, only a cold inquiry about details. III. THEIR LACK OF (John 9:13). They brought Him to the judicial court to try the question of His identity. They were not in earnest enough to reach a conclusion that would satisfy themselves. Conclusion: How lamentable that there should be a class only speculatively interested in the wonderful works of Christ. What then men saw should have led them to hearty acceptance and consecration. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The change effected in the man The want or the sudden presence of an eye, much more of both, must needs make a great change in the face; those little balls of light, which no doubt were more clear than nature could have made them, could not but give a new life to the countenance. I marvel not if the neighbours, who had wont to see this dark visage led by a guide, and supported by a staff, seeing him now walking confidently alone out of his own inward light, and looking them cheerfully in the face, doubted whether this were he. The miraculous cures of God work a sensible alteration in men, not more in their own apprehension than in the judgment of others. So, in the redress of the spiritual blindness, the whole habit of the man is changed. Where before his face looked dull and earthly, now there is a sprightly cheerfulness in it, through the comfortable knowledge of God and heavenly things. (Bishop Hall.) I am the man myself In a town filled with Romanists, Gideon Ouseley, as was his custom, hired the bellman to announce through the streets the preaching in the evening. The man, afraid of opposition, uttered the announcement timidly and indistinctly. Ouseley, passing in the street, heard him, and taking the bell, rang it himself, proclaiming aloud, “ This is to give notice, that Gideon Ouseley, the Irish Missionary, is to preach this evening in such a place, and at such an hour. And I am the man myself?” We ought boldly to confess Ghost We do not bear enough testimony for our Lord. I am sure I felt quite taken aback the other day when a flyman said to me, “ You believe that the Lord directs the way of His people, don’ t you, sir?” I said, “ That I do. Do you know anything about it?” “ Why,” he said, “ Yes. This morning I was praying the Lord to direct my way, and you engaged me; and I felt that it was a good beginning for the day.” We began talking about the things of God directly. That flyman ought not to have been the first to speak: as a minister of the gospel I ought to have had the first word. We have much to blame ourselves for in this respect. We hold our tongues because we do not know how a word might be received; but we might as well make the experiment. No harm could come of trying. Suppose you were to go into a place where persons were sick and dying, and you have medicine about you which would heal them, would you not be anxious to give them some of it? Would you say nothing about it because you could not tell how it might be received? How could you know how it would be received except by making this offer? Tell poor souls about Jesus. Tell them how His grace healed you, and perhaps they will answer, “ You are the very person I need; you have brought me the news I have longed to hear.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) How Christian lost his burden. He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below in the bottom a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart,” He hath given me rest by His sorrows and life by His death.” (J. Bunyan.) Jesus all in all to new converts In this man’ s mind, as soon as ever he received sight, “ a man that was named Jesus” came to the forefront. Jesus was to him the most important person in existence. All that he knew of Him at first was, that He was a man that was named Jesus; and under that character Jesus filled the whole horizon of His vision. He was more to him than those learned Pharisees, or than all his neighbours put together. Jesus was exceeding great, for He had opened his eyes. By-and-by, fixing his mind upon that figure, he saw more in it, and he declared, “ He is a prophet.” He boldly said this when he was running great risks by doing so. To their faces he told the carping Pharisees “ He is a prophet.” A little further on he came to this, that he believed Him to be the Son of God, and worshipped Him. Now, my dear friend, if you are saved by Jesus your star must set, but the star of Jesus must rise and increase in brilliance till it becomes no more a star, but a sun, making your day, and flooding your whole soul with light. If we are saved Christ Jesus must and will have the glory. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Converts must testify of Christ After this man had received sight his testimony was all of Jesus. It was Jesus that spat, it was Jesus that made the clay, it was Jesus that anointed his eyes. So will it be in your mind with the gospel of your salvation: it will be “ Jesus only.” It is Jesus who became the surety of the covenant, Jesus who became the atoning Sacrifice, Jesus is the Priest, the Interposer, the Mediator, the Redeemer. We know Jesus as Alpha, and Jesus as Omega. He is the first, and He is the last. In your salvation there will be no mistake about it, and no mixture in it; you will have nothing to say about man, or man’ s merit, or man’ s will; but on the head which once was wounded with the thorns, you will put all your crowns. Jesus did it, did it all, and He must be praised. (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 9:13-18 They brought to the Pharisees him The first examination of the Man I. AN . The Pharisees recognized that the man saw (John 9:13). If therefore he had been previously blind, there must have been a miracle. II. AN . They wished to know how the man had received his sight (John 9:15), when all that they had to determine was whether he had received his sight. III. A ANSWER. The man having nothing to conceal, gave a simple recitation of what had taken place (John 9:15). IV. A EVASION. Some of the Pharisees attempted to avoid giving judgment as to the miracle by pronouncing on a question that was not before them, viz., the character of Christ, whom they declared could not be “ from God,” because He kept not the Sabbath (John 9:16). V. A SOUND . Others reasoned that the miracle had been proved, and decided that the worker of such a “ sign” could not be a sinner, and therefore could not have really violated the Sabbath law (John 9:16). VI. A SAFE . The healed man inferred, as Nicodemus had done John 3:2), that the Physician who had cured him was a prophet (John 3:17). VII. A . The matter seemed settled and the miracle made out; but the hostile party, unwilling to allow a verdict so favourable for Jesus to go forth, determined to hold the man an impostor, or at least to suspend their judgment until they had heard the man’ s parents. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Types of character in relation to Christ’ s work--Those who are bitterly prejudiced against it Four things marked the character of these Pharisees. I. THEY WERE RATHER THAN MORAL IN THEIR OF (John 9:16). Christ, in performing the miracle on the Sabbath, struck a blow at their prejudices, and declared “ The Sabbath was made for man.” Instead of thanking God that their poor brother had been healed, and seeking acquaintance with the Healer, they endeavour to make the whole thing a ceremonial crime. They had more respect for ceremonies than for souls. They exalted the letter above the spirit, the ritual above the moral. II. THEY WERE BIASSED RATHER THAN CANDID IN THEIR OF . They had made up their minds not to believe, and all their questionings and cross questionings were intended to throw discredit on the fact. They did not want evidence, and if it came up they would suppress or misinterpret it. This spirit is too common in every age, and shows the blindness of prejudice and the heartlessness of technical religion. III. THEY WERE DIVIDED RATHER THAN UNITED IN THEIR . “ There was a division,” There were some, perhaps Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, touched with candour, who could not but see the Divinity of the act. Infidels ridicule Christians for their divisions, whilst they themselves are never agreed. Error is necessarily schismatic; evil has no power to unite. IV. THEY WERE RATHER THAN IN THEIR AIMS. Had they been generous they would have been disposed to believe in the mission of the Divine Restorer. Instead of that they repudiate the fact. Their browbeating of the young man, their accusation that Christ was a sinner, and their excommunication of those who behoved on Him show that the malign not the benign was their inspiration. Conclusion: This class is not extinct. There are those who are bitterly prejudiced against Christianity everywhere. They are proof against all evidence and argument. Prejudice turns a man’ s heart into stone. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Power of prejudice Voltaire once said, “ If in the market of Paris, before the eyes of a thousand men, and before my own eyes a miracle should be performed, I would much rather disbelieve the two thousand eyes and my own too, than believe it.” So here, these men, fleeing as they do from the light and choosing the darkness, take up the matter over again, in the hope of being able to detect some traces of fraud. (R. Besser, D. D.) What will not prejudice do? It was that which made the Jews call Christ a Samaritan, a devil, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. It was that which made them hale the apostles to their governors, and cry out, “ Away with them! it is not fit that they should live.” It was this made Ahab hate the upright Micaiah, and the Athenian condemn the just Aristides, though he had never seen him. It was this made the poor man, who knew not what John Huss’ s doctrine was, so busy and industrious to carry wood for his funeral pile, and as zealous to kindle it, inasmuch that the martyr could not but cry out, “ O holy simplicity!” It is this sets men against consideration of their ways, and makes them give out that it will crack their brains and disorder their understanding. (Anthony Horneck.) True conversion evident to all None of the Pharisees said to him, “ Are you sure you can see?” Those twinkling eyes of his, so full of fun and wit, and sarcasm, were proofs most plain that he could see. Ah! your friends at home will know that you are converted if it is really so; they will hardly want telling, they will find it out. The very way you eat your dinner will show it. It will! You eat it with gratitude, and seek a blessing on it. The way you will go to bed will show it. I remember a poor man who was converted, but he was dreadfully afraid of his wife--not the only man in the world that is in that rear--and therefore he was fearful that she would ridicule him if he knelt to pray. He crept upstairs in his stockings that he might not be heard, but might have a few minutes’ prayer before she knew he was there. His scheme broke down. His wife soon found him out. Genuine conversion is no more to be hidden than a candle in a dark room. You cannot hide a cough. If a man has a cough, he must cough; and if a man has grace in his heart, he will show grace in his life. Why should we wish to hide it? Oh, may the Lord give you such an eye opening this day that friends and relatives shall know that your eyes have been opened! (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 9:16 This Man is not of God because He keepeth not the Sabbath day.It is interesting to note that one of the things which is specially forbidden in the Talmudic law of the Sabbath is the application of saliva to the eyes on that day. It was not permissible to anoint the eye itself with wine on the Sabbath; but one might, without guilt, wash his eyebrows in wine. In the case of saliva, however, it was not permissible to anoint even the outside of the eyes on the Sabbath. Jesus, in the mode of cure which He adopted, infringed one of the rules of the Talmud; probably with the very purpose of showing his contempt for the traditions of man by which the word of God was made void. (S. S. Times.) Uncharitable judgments There is no word or action but may be taken with two hands; either with the right hand of charitable construction, or the sinister interpretation of malice and suspicion; and all things do succeed as they are taken. To construe an evil action well is but a pleasing and profitable deceit to myself; but to misconstrue a good thing is a treble wrong to myself, the action, and the author (Romans 14:10). (Bp. Hall.) There is an odious spirit in many men, who are better pleased to detect a fault than commend a virtue. (Lord Capel.) John 9:19-23 Is this your son?The testimony of the man’ s parents I. JOYFUL . They identified him as their son. The neighbours could only say he was like the beggar they had known (John 9:9): the man’ s parents had no doubt. II. . The son’ s report as to his blindness was correct. He had never known the light of day. III. . They declared ignorance of how the miracle had been wrought; so far, at least as their own observation went. IV. PRUDENT . The questioners might inquire of their son, who was responsible and was able to answer for himself. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Types of character in relation to Christ’ s work--Those who practically ignore it The parents who instead of avowing that Christ had healed their son, evaded the question for fear of the Jews. That they felt some interest in one who had conferred such a benefit on their son can scarcely be doubted, but it was not enough to make them courageous for the truth. The great majority now belong to this class. They have no prejudice against Christ, but they have not sufficient interest in Him to avow Him. The parents ignored Christ’ s work I. THEY HAD EVERY OF KNOWING IT. This is the case with millions--wherever they look there are monuments of Christ’ s beneficent operations. In every social circle is some faithful disciple ready to proclaim Him. II. WHEN SHOULD HAVE URGED THEM TO IT. Christ had given their son a capacity to contribute to their interests. All that is solutary in government, ennobling in literature, fair in commerce, loving in friendship, progressive in intelligence, morality and happiness must be ascribed to Christ. Take from England all she owes to Christ and you leave her in all the confusion, horrors and cruelties of heathenism. III. FROM OF SOUL (John 9:22). Is not Christ ignored today from the fear of losing property, sacrificing friendships, etc. Strange that thousands who have the courage to confront an army are too cowardly to avow Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Cowardly testimony is despicable They answered obliquely and over warily; but Christ deserved better of them. Squirrels ever set their holes to the sunny side. Politic professors, neuter-passive Christians will be sure to keep on the warmer side of the hedge; neither will they launch farther into the sea than they may be sure to return safely to the shore. (J. Trapp.) By what means ha now seeth we know notAgnosticism This means Not-know-ism, or Know-nothing-ism, and describes the state of mind of those who say about God, the Bible, and the spiritual world, that they do not know anything. They do not deny, are not profane atheists, they occupy a negative position. Amongst them are distinguished men to whom we are much indebted; but if they are right, we are fatally wrong. We ought, therefore, to find out what foothold we have. 1. There is a Book which professes to tell us about God, the spiritual world and the future. They ignore its testimony, saying they do not know who wrote it, or by what authority it was written. This is a very serious responsibility in relation to such a Book--a Book so distinctively moral in its tone. 2. If we are at liberty to ignore such evidence as is tendered without giving our reason, there is no ground for believing anything in history. I do not know that geology has made any progress. But there are the books which prove it; but I ignore them; they may be corrected; I know nothing of the men who wrote them, or their qualifications. If you tell me they do not claim infallibility, I reply that fallibility constitutes no claim on my confidence. Suppose I say that I cannot be troubled with the examination of fallible theories, and that I will wait until some theory is finally established; then that very theory would bring upon it the identical charge brought against the Bible, viz., that it staggers mankind by the supremacy of its claim. 3. Now the Bible is as positive in its statements as possible. “ Thus saith the Lord.” This fact increases the responsibility of those who ignore the Book. The mere claim of course settles nothing, nor does ignoring the claim. Our object is to ascertain with all the positiveness of positive science what we unquestionably know about the Bible. If certain facts are established we are entitled to say to agnostics, “ Why herein is a marvellous thing,” etc. (John 9:30). I. It is a fact THAT BAD MEN DISLIKE IT, AVOID IT, AND ARE AFRAID OF IT. As a practical argument this amounts to a great deal. No unrighteousness can be vindicated by Christian revelation; not only so; no unholy thought or dishonourable motive is tolerated by it. For these reasons bad men do not consult it, guilty men flee from its judgments, mean men shrink from its standards. If a ruler is a terror to evil doers, the presumption is that he represents the spirit of justice; and if the Bible is avoided by bad men the presumption is that its moral tone is intolerable to their reproachful consciences. II. It is a fact THAT WHERE IT IS AND ACTED UPON THE RESULT IS A . You will find the proof of this alike in the humblest and loftiest circles. When men stand up in the court of this world and give their histories, names, and addresses, you are bound either to accept their evidence or disprove it. It is trifling with a great question simply to ignore it. The change they attribute to Christianity is a fact or not a fact; and if it be scientific to mark the progress of a horse’ s development, it cannot be despicable to trace the advances of a human mind. III. It is a fact THAT IT COMPELS THOSE WHO REALLY BELIEVE IT TO EXERT IN EVERY WAY FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND. It does not leave this an open question. It allows no ignoble ease, smites every self-indulgent excuse, and approves all labour for others. If a man falls below this standard he brings upon himself unsparing condemnation. IV. It is a fact THAT IN THOSE THAT ARE NOTED FOR THE FREE USE OF THE BIBLE, LIBERTY, , SCIENCE, ARE HELD IN THE HIGHEST HONOUR. This is not a matter of speculation. It is proved in England, Germany, and America. (J. Parker, D. D.) He is of age; ask him; he shall speak for himself Speak for yourself. A challenge I. THERE ARE TIMES WHEN SAVED MEN ARE TO SPEAK FOR . 1. When their friends desert them. These parents were willing to own that the young man was their son, and that he was born blind; but they would not go any further for fear of excommunication. So, declining any responsibility, for they had a well-founded confidence in their son’ s power to take care of himself, they threw upon him the onus of giving an answer likely to incur obloquy, and backed out of it. There are times with young people when their parents turn the cold shoulder to them, and some who hold back suspiciously, leaving others to champion the Master’ s cause when it comes to a hard push, quietly observing something about casting pearls before swine. But the most likely explanation of such cowardice is that they have no pearls to cast. It is lamentable how many seem afraid to compromise themselves. But whenever a man finds himself thus deserted, let him say gallantly, “ I am of age; I will speak for myself.” 2. When they are much pressed. The Pharisees question the man very closely, and he does not seem to have been disconcerted, but acquitted himself grandly. When we are brought to book, let us not be ashamed to own our Lord. If it comes to a challenge, let us say boldly, “ I am on the side of Christ.” 3. When others revile and slander our Lord. When they said “ This man is a sinner,” “ He hath opened mine eyes,” was the response; and when they averred that they knew not whence Christ was, the man twitted them on their marvellous ignorance, and fought for his Healer so trenchantly that they threw away the weapons of debate and took up stones of abuse. When men speak ill of Christ, shall we be quiet? No! let us throw the gauntlet down for Him. Christian people do not take half the liberty they might. If we speak of religion, or open our Bibles in a railway carriage, it is “ cant.” They may play cards, and utter all sorts of profanity with impunity. In the name of everything that is free we will have our turn. So we see that there are times when men, however quiet and reserved, must speak. II. IT IS ALWAYS WELL TO BE TO SPEAK FOR . When the parents said, “ Ask him,” there was a little twinkle in their eye as much as to say, “ You will catch a Tartar.” He can speak for himself. We want Christians of this sort who, when asked about their faith, can so answer as to be more than a match for their adversaries. 1. Cultivate a general habit of open heartedness and boldness. We have no need to push ourselves and so become a nuisance and a bore; but let us walk through the world as those who have nothing to conceal. 2. Be sure of your ground. “ Whether He be a sinner or no I know not.” So he offered no opinion on a subject on which he could not be positive. But when he had a hard fact there was nothing vague in his statement (John 9:25). And there are some of you in whom such a change has taken place. Put your foot down, then, and say, “ You cannot misjudge this.” 3. Have the facts ready to adduce (John 9:11). Let them have the plan of salvation, as you first perceived it, very plainly put before them. “ Be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you.” 4. Be prepared to bear abuse (John 9:28; John 9:34). The man cared not an atom for their insinuations. Their scorn could not deprive him of his sight. He merely shook his head and said, “ I can see.” Some people are very sensitive of “ chaff” ; but what a baby a man is who cannot brave a fool’ s laugh! What does it matter if you are twitted with being a Methodist if you are saved? They will be tired of teasing when they find that our temper triumphs over their senseless tricks. 5. Feel intense gratitude to the Saviour for what He has done. III. EVERY SAVED MAN SHOULD SPEAK FOR HIMSELF ABOUT CHRIST. 1. Are we not all debtors to Christ if, indeed, He has saved us? How can we acknowledge the debt if we are ashamed of Him? 2. We each of us know most about what He has done for us. No one else can know so much. 3. The more individual testimonies are borne to Christ the more weight there is in the accumulated force of the great aggregate. A sceptical lawyer attended an experience meeting amongst his neighbours and took notes. When he reviewed the evidence he said, “ If I had these persons in the witness box on my side, I should feel quite sure of carrying my case. Though each has told his own tale, they all bear witness to the power of God’ s grace to change the heart. I am bound to believe after this testimony.” And he did, and became a Christian. Do you say, “ They can do without my story.” Nay, it has its own special interest, and may touch the heart of somebody like yourself. (1) You are only a nursemaid, but your testimony will suit another lass like yourself. Who could have told her mistress that there was healing for Naaman but the captive maid? (2) You are old and feeble; but you are just the man whose few words have full weight. (3) You are only a working man; but who can tell working men about your changed character and home like yourself? IV. AS EVERY , BEING OF AGE, HAS TO SPEAK FOR HIMSELF, WE MEAN TO DO IT. You cannot all preach, and should not try; if you all did, what a tumult there be! And there would be no hearers left if all were preachers. Your work is to speak and to let your influence be felt among your servants, children, trades people. You say “ I am so retiring.” Well, then drop a little of your modesty, and distinguish yourself a little more for your manliness. A soldier who was retiring in the day of battle they shot for a coward. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Accountability I. . The Bible lays down no clearly defined line between the ages when God does and does not regard the child morally accountable for sinful actions. This must depend on the varying circumstances of intelligence, temperament, and social surroundings of the child. But the time does come when with no hesitation we can throw upon the youth’ s conscience the full weight of his individual responsibility, saying with emphasis: “ He is of age.” He must answer “ for himself.” II. . Up to a certain age the parent has no doubt of the salvation of the child. The Saviour’ s atonement satisfies the requirements of every child dying at an early age. Nevertheless, during this tender age character is being formed for future development; and God holds the parents accountable for the manifold influences that are affecting the child’ s mental and moral vision, saying to them: “ Is this your son?” “ How then doth he now see?” Does your child “ see” kindly glances, Christ-like actions, devout conduct, devotional observances, etc. III. MUTUAL The spirit of Cain has impregnated human history. “ Am I my brother’ s keeper” is still largely the covert of a mean soul that wants to shirk the duty of fraternal help and counsel, or defence. The fear that here padlocked the parents’ lips is a sin that thrives in too many hearts. How often has an accused one gone to the grave under a dark cloud that might have been dispersed, if friends had been found of sufficient courage to contradict patronizing accusers. But no! Speaking the truth would have damaged the selfish interests of those who said: “ Let him speak for himself.” IV. THE OF CHURCH . Our knowledge of each other is very limited. Large significance belongs to the apostle’ s words: “ We know in part.” An individual presents himself for Church membership. The question goes round, and very properly so, “ What do you know of him?” But our knowledge here often proves strangely false, whether the testimony is pro or con. The voice of God is, “ Let him speak for himself.” Take the applicant on personal confession, unless his or her life is palpably false. Was not even Judas admitted on personal confession? When the falsity of character is seen then is the time for unchurching. We are familiar with the account of the poor Scotch woman, who, on applying for church membership, was so ignorant of the theological queries put to her by her pastor, that she was sent away as temporarily disqualified. On leaving, she said, with deep emotion: “ I canna speak for Him, but I could die for Him.” (The Study.) Speak for Christ A Christian man (Mr. Moody) in a Western city resolved that he would never allow a day to pass without speaking to someone on the subject of personal salvation. He was returning home late one evening, burdened with the thought that the day had gone by, and no one had been invited to Christ. He saw a man leaning against a lamp post, put his hand gently on the shoulder of the stranger, and said, “ May I ask you if you love the Lord Jesus Christ?” The stranger resented the freedom and replied curtly, that that was a personal matter in which nobody else had any concern. But the Christian replied kindly, that they were fellow travellers to another world, and one could not be indifferent whether others had a good hope of entering heaven. After a few more words had passed between them, they parted, the Christian fearing that he had given offence, but carrying the matter to the closet for earnest prayer. Three months after, just as he had retired for the night, a knock was heard at the door. He inquired what was wanted; and a gentleman replied he would like to see him. On opening the door, he recognized the stranger met at the lamp post. The latter grasped him convulsively by the hand, and said, “ The question you put to me, ‘ Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?’ has been ringing ever since in my ear; and I have come to ask you what I must do to be saved.” They prayed and talked together; and in a few days the stranger was rejoicing in the hope of pardon. He became an earnest and devoted Christian. (E. Foster.) John 9:22 If any man did confess that he was Christ Confession of Christ 1. Confession, ὁμολογε͂ιν, is (1) To say the same thing with others. To agree with. (2) To promise. (3) To acknowledge, to declare a person or thing to be what he or it really is. 2. To confess Christ is therefore to acknowledge Him to be what He really is and declares Himself to be. (1) The Son of God; (2) God manifest in the flesh; (3) The Saviour of the world; (4) The Lord. I. The NATURE of this confession. 1. It is not enough that we cherish the conviction in our hearts, or confess it to ourselves, to God, or to friends who agree with us. 2. It must be done publicly, or before men, friends and foes: amid good and evil report; when it brings reproach and danger as well as when it incurs no risk. 3. It must be with the mouth. It is not enough that men may infer from our conduct that we are Christians. We must audibly declare it. 4. This must be done (1) In our ordinary intercourse. (2) In the way of God’ s appointment, i.e., by Baptism and the Lord’ s Supper. 5. It must be sincere. “ Not everyone that saith Lord, Lord,” etc. It is only when the outward act is a revelation of the heart that it has any value. II. ITS . 1. It strengthens faith. 2. It is a proof of regeneration, because it supposes the apprehension of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 3. It is an indispensable condition of salvation. Because (1) God requires it. (2) Not to confess is to deny. (3) Denial implies want of faith or devotion. 4. Christ will acknowledge them who acknowledge Him--publicly, before the angels, and to our eternal salvation. III. ITS DUTY. 1. It is not merely a commandment. 2. It is the highest moral duty to acknowledge the truth, and especially to acknowledge God to be God. 3. It is the most direct means we can take to honour Christ, and to bring others to acknowledge Him (see Matthew 10:32; Luke 12:8; Mark 8:38; Romans 10:9-10; 2 Timothy 2:12; 1 John 4:2; 1 John 4:15). (C. Hodge, D. D.) He should be put out of the synagogue Excommunication (cf. John 16:2; Luke 6:22) 1. The lightest kind of excommunication continued for thirty days and prescribed four cubits as a distance within which the person may not approach anyone, not even wife and children; with this limitation it did not make exclusion from the synagogue necessary. 2. The severer included absolute banishment from all religious meetings, and absolute giving up of intercourse with all persons, and was formally pronounced with curses. 3. The severest was a perpetual banishment from all meetings and a practical exclusion from the fellowship of God’ s people. It has been sometimes supposed that the words of Luk 6:22 (1) “ Separate you;” (2) “ reproach you;” (3) “ cast out your name” refer to these gradations, but probably the only practice known in the time of our Lord was that which was later regarded as the intermediate form, falling short of perpetual banishment, but being, while the ban lasted, exclusion from all the cherished privileges of an Israelite. (Archdeacon Watkins.) John 9:24-34 Then again called they the man The second examination of the man I. . The hostile section sought to overbear the man’ s judgment by their superior knowledge and position. They, the heaven-appointed leaders of the people and guardians of morality, were satisfied that Christ was a sinner. He had broken the Sabbath by manufacturing clay and spreading it over the man’ s eyes as an artizan might have plastered it upon a wall. Consequently there could have been no such thing as a miracle; and he had better confess himself a deceiver and Christ an impostor (John 9:24). To all this the man opposes his personal experience (John 9:25). II. . By cross-examination they hoped to make him contradict himself (John 9:26). But the man, too clever to be caught by such an artifice (Proverbs 1:17), declined their invitation, reminding them that he had supplied all the information he possessed, and inquiring, with fine irony, if they desired to become Christ’ s disciples (John 9:27). III. . They reviled Him as the follower, not of Moses, the great commissioner of Jehovah, but of a nameless fellow about whom no one knew anything (John 9:29). To this the man replied with crushing logic how no honest mind could evade the conclusion that Christ must at least be a prophet no less than Moses (John 9:30-33). IV. . They could not answer the man’ s syllogism, but they could do what foiled controversialists commonly do (John 9:34). Lessons: 1. The danger of approaching religious questions with pro-conceived notions. 2. The power Christianity has to convince all sincere inquirers of its heavenly origin. 3. The duty of standing true to Christ in the face of all opposition. 4. The certainty that Christ’ s witnesses will suffer persecution. 5. The helplessness of man’ s wisdom in opposing the truth. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Types of character in relation to Christ’ s work--Those who are consciously restored by it We find the man doing two things which are done by all who are spiritually restored by Christ. I. TRUTH IN THE FACE OF FIERCE . See how he holds his own. 1. In a noble spirit. His conduct stands in sublime contrast to that of his parents and others concerned. Mark (1) His candour. Hearing men disputing, without hesitation he says “ I am he.” Outspokenness is the ring of a great nature. (2) His courage. In defiance of the Sanhedrim he declares that the hated Jesus was his Healer. The genuine alone are brave; honest souls dread a lie more than the frowns of a thousand despots. (3) His consistency. In spite of all questions and browbeating, he never varies in his statements. Truth is that subtle element which alone gives unity to all the varied parts of a man’ s life. Error makes man contradict himself. The whole subject shows us that there may be grandeur of soul where there is social obscurity and physical infirmity. 2. By sound argument. (1) His answer was built upon consciousness (verse 25). The logic of a school of Aristotle’ s could not disturb his conviction. It is so with a true Christian: he feels the change and no argument can touch it. 3. His argument was formulated by common sense. When his judges pressed him (verse 26) he reproves them for repeating questions already answered and with withering irony asks (verse 27). He states his argument thus: that his cure, of which he was conscious, was a miracle (verse 30), which they could not deny. Is it not a doctrine with you that no one without Divine authority can perform miracles? Why ask such questions? And not only has the Healer Divine authority but a holy character (verse 31). II. CHRIST WHEN CAST OUT FROM MEN. The best men in every age are “ cast out” by the ungodly. But, when cast out, what became of him? 1. Christ sought him (verse 35), and found him out. Sometimes men have found Christ out by their own searching, e.g., Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus. But here Christ finds the man out, as He did the woman of Samaria, irrespective of His search. 2. Christ revealed Himself to him (verse 35-37). 3. Christ was followed by him (verse 38). (D. Thomas, D. D.) Carping criticism My hearers, this was a wretched business, was it not? It was a very poor business to go to the house of God to criticize a fellow mortal who is sincerely trying to do us good. Was it Carlyle who spoke of the cricket as chirping amid the crack of doom? I am apt to think that many people are like that cricket; they go on with their idle chit-chat when Christ Himself is set before them on the cross. Assuredly this is poor work. I am hungry; I come to a banquet; but instead of feasting upon the viands I begin to criticize the dress of the waiters, abuse the arrangements of the banqueting-hall, and vilify the provisions. I shall go home as hungry as I came; and who will be blamed for it? The best criticism that you can possibly give of your friend’ s entertainment is to be hearty in partaking of it. The greatest honour that we can do to Christ Jesus is to feed upon Him, to receive Him, to trust Him, to live upon Him. Merely to carp and to question will bring no good to the most clever of you. How can it? It is a pitiful waste of time for yourself, and a trial of temper to others. (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 9:25 One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.Truly did Christ say, “ I came not to send peace on the earth.” Little did the man dream of the stir the miracle would make. So our blessings often get us into trouble, and become tests of character. The man here was tested as to whether he would stand by the truth. Let us not imagine that we can travel through life unchallenged. All the circumstances here are of a deeply interesting character. 1. Look at the parents. Sometimes you will find character transmitted with marvellous accuracy. “ Like parents, like children.” Occasionally children degenerate from the type of their parents, and in others are a manifest improvement. This seems to have been the case with this young man. His parents were timid. This fear of man always brings a snare. What multitudes there are who dare not tell the truth or do the right for fear of the Gentiles, or the Church, society, or clique. There is no hope for them but in that perfect love which “ casteth out fear.” 2. Look at the Pharisees. They heard enough, surely, for conviction, but they were afraid of the conclusion, and hence sought to terrify the parents and extract a contradiction from the young man. Then they reviled him. Men must have keen eyes who can detect in these men any of that instinctive love of truth which is vaunted as the glorious attribute of humanity. “ Men love darkness,” etc., is the testimony alike of Scripture and experience. Men are much more anxious to have the truth on their side than to be on the side of truth. The mind does not turn to the truth as the flower turns to the sun. No one is very sanguine of dislodging men from a theology which screens them in their sins, or in separating them from an iniquitous traffic in which they are gaining wealth; and the more truth you put before them, the more they will hate both you and it. 3. Note, as in the case of the young man, that experimental evidence of religion is marked by I. ITS . “ One thing I know.” 1. It is too common to imagine that the term knowledge ought to be restricted to science, and is too strong to be introduced into the realm of religion, where we can only expect strong probability. But it would be strange if the greatest and most essential realities were the most doubtful. Men think of religion as something shadowy and impalpable. They can understand what can be placed on a table and seen and fingered, but to talk of strong and weak faith, high and low hopes, knowing whom you have believed, etc., as fanaticism. 2. It must be acknowledged that religious assurance does not rest on precisely the same grounds as in other relations. From the fact that religion involves the exercise of the moral faculties, its evidence must not be such as to overbear irresistibly these moral conditions. A religion that should make its evidence glare upon us like the sun would be no religion at all. If religion be the willing service of the soul, the soul must be left free in its exercise. To leave no room for doubt would be to reduce religion to the low level of material things. God is not as visible as His universe; but those who are willing to see Him come at length to believe in Him as firmly as in the universe, and just as they say every house is built by some man, whether they have seen him or not, so they exclaim, “ He that built all things is God.” 3. With this exclamation we affirm that the evidence which God has supplied to give the soul religious assurance is as abundant as any that He has given us on any matter. There is in the Word of God, and may be in our life, enough evidence to make our salvation the most assured thing in the universe. Other evidences are of great value. When men are showing the actual rooting of Christianity in the soil of history, it is for us to welcome their efforts. But this sort of evidence must be inaccessible to many. “ To the poor the gospel is preached,” and this preaching was meant to be its own light and proof, so that men should say, “ One thing I know,” etc. 4. When one carries his evidence within him he is thrice armed. Not that every strong feeling indicates faith. We may have a fanatical joy, and be the dupes of sentimentalisms and early prejudices. But where we can distinctly recognize that we are not what we once were; that God, who was scarcely at the circumference of our life, is now its centre; that Christ, who was once a root out of a dry ground, is not the altogether lovely, etc., this is evidence that can withstand the assaults of men and devils. II. ITS MODESTY. “ One thing.” He strictly stated the facts as he knew them. What is required of a witness is to testify what he knows, and no more. His thoughts and speculations will compromise his evidence and render it worthless. Had the man reasoned with the learned Pharisees they would have worsted him. He did not philosophize about the mode of his cure, because he knew nothing about it. And so with spiritual illumination. We can form no philosophy of salvation. It transcends our reason. It is accomplished in different ways, as in the case of Lydia and the jailor. Sometimes men know the time and instrumentality; sometimes they do not. The main thing is, Am I saved? Are these doctrines you cannot comprehend? Do men puzzle you with the mysteries of the Trinity, the origin of evil, Providence, prophecy? Oppose to them the one thing you know. 1. “ One thing.” It might seem a scanty knowledge, but it is with knowledge, as other things, its value is determined by what constitutes its object matter. You might possess a thousand jewels, but one Kohinoor would outweigh them all. 2. “ One thing,” but what a thing--the one thing needful. (E. Mellor, D. D.) The blind man’ s creed 1. A whole chapter is taken up with this poor man. This is unusual. Though an author be inspired, we can tell what he enjoys. An evangelist, as well as a Gibbon, betrays his interest and his sympathies. 2. In some unusual way the blind man was wrought into the plan of Christ’ s ministry. He had been born blind, and remained so that when Jesus passed by he might be ready to be healed by Him. All lives and events are wrought into that scheme. 3. The blind man was the first confessor. He was the sort of person that our Lord found it pleasant to do something for. He was ready to do what he could for himself, and what he could not do the Lord would do for him. Unlike Naaman, willingness was one characteristic of him, sturdiness was another. He spoke his mind at the risk of excommunication. His thoughts were distinct, and therefore his utterances were so. Crisp thinking makes crisp speaking. Let us look at his creed. I. IT WAS SHORT. A creed with one article. Soon it enlarged, but it all developed out of this “ one thing,” etc. It is no matter whether a creed be long or short, provided a man believes it as this man believes his. What would a Christian be capable of if he so believed the Apostles’ Creed? If a creed is believed, the longer it is the better; otherwise the shorter the better. Creed is like stature, it has to be reached by the individual, by slow growth from a small beginning. The vitality of a seed will determine how much will come out of it. Every fire begins with a spark. Some of us are trying to believe too much; not more than is true, or more than we ought, but more than we have at present inward strength for. We may extinguish a fire by putting on too much fuel. II. IT WAS FOUNDED IN . “ I know I see.” You notice how close the connection between the creed and the confessor. His creed was not separable from himself. It was wrought in him, and so was one he could not forget. Whenever the sun shone or a star twinkled, he would feel his creed over again. We might be perplexed to tell what we believe if we had it not in print to refer to; but experience can dispense with type. We used to hear a good deal about experiencing religion: is the expression going because the thing is going? Christ works a work in me and I feel it. That is experiencing religion, although the feeling may be differently marked in different people. Even the truths of God to become my true creed have got to be reproduced in the soil of my own thinking and feeling. Faith is languid because experience is languid. The creed of our confessor began in one article, but it did not end there. Soon we hear him saying he believed that Christ was the Son of God. Our creeds have got to come out of our experience of God, and not out of our Prayer Book. That is a poor tree that looks and measures as it did a year ago. He is a poor believer who believes exactly as he did a year ago. III. IT WAS AND . Two living Christians cannot believe alike any more than two trees can grow alike. Two posts may. Two men only think alike, as they think not at all, but leave it to a third party to do it in their stead. Excessive doctrinal quietness implies lethargy. It is only dead men who never turn over. In nothing does a man need to be loyal to his individuality as in his religion. This is what makes the Bible so rich. The inspired writers did not throw away their peculiarities. Each man’ s experience will be characteristic, and so, then, must his creed be that grows out of it. A man’ s proper creed is the name we give to his individuality, when inspired by the Holy Ghost. Is it not a splendid tribute to Jesus that we can each of us come to Him with our peculiarity and find exactly that in Him which will meet and satisfy it? There is only one Christ, but He is like the sun, which shines on all objects and gives to each what helps it to be at its best. No two alike, the sea not the forest, etc., but each finding in the sun that which helps it to be itself perfectly. The poor man obtains from Him just what he needs, and the rich man, the Fijian, and the Greek, etc. IV. IT DID NOT ITSELF WITH MATTER FOREIGN TO THE MAIN POINT. “ Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not.” The point with him was that he could see, not how he could see. Sight does not consist in understanding how we see, nor health in understanding the organs of the body, nor salvation in knowing how we are saved. The physician can cure an ignorant man as readily as a scholar, because his medicine does not depend on the intelligence of the patient; so Christ can be the physician of all, because salvation consists just simply in being saved. (C. H.Parkhurst, D. D.) Experimental evidence There is a man who is enjoying his food. He seems healthy and strong. He says he is so. You assure him, however, that his mode of life is wholly wrong. You have been reading some learned work on dietetics, and, full of theoretic wisdom, and you warn him that he is not observing the due proportions of nitrogen and carbon and the other elements, and that, according to your principles, he ought to be out of health and ready to perish. With what calmness he listens to your serious homily, and smiles as he finishes his repast! He is but an ignorant man, knows nothing about the high-sounding names you have used to denote the chemical constituents of food, tells you that whether he is eating according to learned books or not he knows not, but one thing he knows, that what he does eat agrees with him, strengthens him, and enables him to do his work; and so he lets learned men and books talk on. A friend has been sick, and is now recovering. You ask him what medicine he has been taking, and on learning it you are astonished. On hearing who his physician is, you venture a doubt as to his qualifications, whereon the valetudinarian says, “ Well, I know nothing about the properties of medicine, or the technical qualifications of the physician; but one thing I know, that every dose of the medicine has been to me like life from the dead.” This was the spirit of the reply of the healed man. (E. Mellor, D. D.) “ We know” One cannot but notice how constantly the phrase “ we know” occurs. The parents of the man used it thrice. The Pharisees have it on their lips in their first interview with him--“ We know that this man is a sinner.” He answers, declining to affirm anything about the character of the Man Jesus, because he, for his part, “ knows not,” but standing firmly by the solid reality which he “ knows” in a very solid fashion, that his eyes have been opened. So we have the first encounter between knowledge which is ignorant and ignorance that knows, to the manifest victory of the latter. Again, in the second round, they try to overbear the cool sarcasm with their vehement assertion of knowledge that God spake to Moses, but by the admission that even their knowledge did not reach to the determination of the question of the origin of Jesus’ mission, lay themselves open to the sudden trust of keen-eyed, honest humility’ s sharp rapier-like retort. “ Herein is a marvellous thing,” that you know-alls, whose business it is to know where a professed miracle-worker comes from, “ know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes.” “ Now we know” (to use your own words) “ that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth.” Then observe how, on both sides, a process is going on. The man is getting more and more light at each step. He begins with “ A Man which is called Jesus.” Then he gets to a “ prophet,” then he comes to “ a worshipper of God, and one that does His will.” Then he comes to “ If this man were not of God,” in some very special sense, “ He can do nothing.” These are his own reflections, the working out of the impression made by the fact on an honest mind, and because he had so used the light which he had, therefore Jesus gives him more, and finds him with the question, “ Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” Then the man who had shown himself so strong in his own convictions, so independent, and hard to cajole or coerce, shows himself now all docile and submissive, and ready to accept whatever Jesus says--“ Lord, who is He, that I might believe on Him?” That was not credulity. He already knew enough of Christ to know that he ought to trust Him. And to his docility there is given the full revelation; and he hears the words which Pharisees and unrighteous men were not worthy to hear: “ Thou hast both seen Him--with these eyes to which I have given sight--and it is He that talketh with thee.” Then intellectual conviction, moral reliance, and the utter prostration and devotion of the whole man bow him at Christ’ s feet. “ Lord, I believe; and he worshipped Him.” There is the story of the progress of an honest, ignorant soul that knew itself blind, into the illumination of perfect vision. And as He went upwards, so steadily and tragically, downwards went the others. For they had light, and they would not look at it; and it blasted and blinded them. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The power of a fact This man, who is released from his native blindness by Christ, is one of the strongest characters which the Gospels paint for us about the person of our Lord. Follow him through the chapter, and through all its various situations and discussions, and you feel that he is the man of the most real manhood among them all--disciples, neighbours, parents, and Pharisees. Wherein does his great strength lie? What is it that makes him so real and firm a man? It is, I believe, the consciousness of a fact, a great fact, in his life’ s history. “ One thing I know,” he says, “ that whereas I was blind, now I see. That is the great, wonderful event which has happened to me, which fills all my consciousness, before which everything else is little, which influences and colours everything, and the remembrance of which rules me.” In every knot of men which clusters around him, with their little wondering questions of curiosity or malice, he simply tells his one great fact. We can hardly think of him as the former beggar. He is too imperious for a beggar now. 1. See how this man first appears after his cure by Christ. The neighbours and his former acquaintance gather around him, and begin to question as to his identity: “ Is not this he that sat and begged?” Some said, “ Yes, this is he.” Others, “ He is like him.” But he said, “ I am he.” There is the first effect of the coming of this great fact into his life, to make him honest in regard to self. It is as if he had said, “ Here is a great event that has happened to me, unprecedented and marvellous. I am its subject. Such an attention has been bestowed upon me and my wants and my condition as I never heard of, as shows that I am the object of care to a Divine mind and power. A new value has been given to my nature. I have a new, stronger sense of self. Yes, I am he. I was blind, and now I see. I will not leave you to dispute my identity.” That is the first great value of the consciousness of a fact in one’ s life history, the new honest view of self and its value. Oh, my friends, the system which teaches us to know ourselves the best is that which brings the greatest fact into our history--the gospel and its fact. And yet multitudes of us go through life, while all about us, above us, and beneath us point to us, “ Is not this one for whom Christ died? Is not this one of those wonderful saved human natures?” and we practically deny ourselves, because our consciousness is so dead. 2. Go on in the chapter to the next appearance of this man who knows one thing--the critical event of life. See how concentrated it makes him! They ask him, “ Where is He, your healer?” He says, “ I know not. All I know is this.” To know one great fact and to be full of it makes him unwilling to guess a conjecture about other things. He either knows or he knows not. He has learnt what true knowledge is. We should save much stumbling and sorrow in life if we would not so often build the air castles of conjecture and live in them as though their walls were of the solid masonry of real knowledge. The disaster is most serious in the spiritual sphere, when one does not know where to say, “ I know,” and where “ I know not,” when religion is only a broad field of conjecture. Many are anxious concerning such unessentials as the origin of evil, predestination, spiritualism, the exact nature of the future life, etc.; forgetful that, the one fact of practical religion--man’ s salvation and purification by Christ--being known, you may for the present safely say, “ I know not,” to other items which cannot be yet known in the same personal way. 3. The chapter goes on to furnish another instance of the strengthening value of this one possession of the healed man. It makes him a messenger, a continual repeater of his wonderful story, as often as he can relate it. Any man, however ignorant and humble, is listened to if he have a genuine event of life to tell. Facts never grow old. This man, the relater of a fact, represents Christianity. Christianity has gone on from age to age, from circle to circle, giving its simple, solid, eventful message--human redemption and enlightenment by Christ. 4. But, still again, as this man so full of his story tells it, the Pharisee says to him, “ Give God the glory. Do not ascribe it to this Man. He is a sinner.” They endeavour to hush his statement by a command, “ Do not say, He (Jesus) opened mine eyes.” That is to say, these men were striving to do what has been a very usual human infatuation--to legislate against events, by simple authority, as when the old Saxon king sat by the water’ s edge and with his kingly decree forbad the sea to come nearer or its tide to rise higher. These men did not appreciate the firmness of a fact. They did not know that commands were merely pebbles that rebounded shattered from its rocky undisturbed surface. All men fall into this error--good men legislating against an evil fact, evil men legislating against a good fact. To bid it be different is nothing at all. This is another value of the blind man’ s possession. He was instantly above all mere commands, all mere human assertion of power. This is the value of Christianity always--its exaltation of a man above earthly power. The world, by its persecution or force and might, says, “ Deny Christ.” But if you conceive of Christ and His gospel as the world’ s great fact, if His influence is an event in your own life, you will be able to answer, “ How can I deny a fact? I should only stultify myself to do that. One thing I know, I was blind, and now I see. That will last after your command has been forgotten.” There is no fear, no servility in this man, who is armed with his great conscious fact of life, beggar as he had been of old. The Pharisees cast him out. Ay, and the worse for them. They east out the only man resting on solid truth, and remained upon their fictions. 5. Once more, as this man goes out into the outer cold solitariness of excommunication, yet happy and warm in the garment of the consciousness of that wonderful miracle, Christ meets him, and says, “ Now you must believe on Me, for you have seen Me.” Think how it must have sounded, how the warm heart must have been doubly grateful for that word “ seen.” “ Yes I see at last, I see, I who was blind.” It is as if Christ were echoing his own thoughts, his own one piece of all-absorbing knowledge. Now, that piece of knowledge must lead to belief. Fact must lead to faith. A fact merely means a thing done, and there must be a doer, greater in his invisibility than the great thing itself in its visibility. That is the faith of Christianity; it rests on real events, on actual things done. It does not ask faith with no basis. But it furnishes the greatest event of history as a foundation, an event happening to us and yet not through our means; and any man full of that great event will say, “ I will and must believe in its doer.” Just as the building which has the broadest base upon the ground can rise to the highest upward point in safety, so he who is fullest of the greatest seen fact of life is fullest also of the richest, most aspiring, most practical and most spiritual faith. (Fred Brooks.) The experimental evidence of Christianity Here we see a practical conviction of the claims of Christ set against speculative doubts of those claims; and so this dispute between the restored blind man and the Pharisees is a symbol of what often happens in the world. It would be easy to find men now who have doubts concerning Christianity born of intellectual inquiry, which they find it impossible to appease; while there is another class of persons who feel a confidence in Christianity born of inward experience, which it would be impossible to overthrow. And if two persons representing these two classes should meet and attempt a discussion, they could not understand each other, for their souls would not touch. The believing man could not confute nor dispel the doubts that would be reported to him by his opponent, because he had never felt those doubts, and could not judge of their validity. The sceptical man could receive no immediate aid from the practical conviction of the believer, for that conviction could not be translated from feeling into effective statement in words. One is troubled with doubts about the miracles; the other can tell only of the sweet peace of Christian duty and a sense of pardoned sin. One cannot see that the links are complete in the historical chain of evidence for the authenticity of the four Gospels; the other can only answer that the words of those Gospels have nourished his soul, and made life a more noble experience, and bereavement less painful, and the tomb less dark. One cannot be entirely sure that such a person as Christ ever lived; the other feels that it is his highest privilege to follow the spirit of the recorded Christ and to be a disciple of His published temper. One may anxiously be waiting for the last book by some great German theological scholar, to settle or confirm his wavering mind upon some point of the evidence; the other strengthens his faith by the daily responses that are vouchsafed to Christian prayers. One questions from a darkened intellect; the other answers from a sunlit soul. One cannot but say, from the force of the doubts which his philosophy has started, “ As for this Man Jesus, I know not from whence He is” ; the other replies, “ Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that you know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes!” A truly Christian man, although he may never have looked into a volume of the evidence for the genuineness of the Christian records, feels a testimony for the Christian religion in his own heart which raises him above scepticism about the record. Jesus referred to this proof when He said John 7:17). Perhaps such a man had long been wholly selfish and worldly. But by being brought within the circle of Christian influences his best faculties have been awakened and developed. And now he sees life in a different light. The wisdom and goodness of God are suggested to him from every side of nature; it is a delight to cherish a sense of reliance upon the Deity and to feel at all times that God is the Father; the darkness of selfishness is exchanged for the deep satisfaction of devotion to duty, the slavery of passion for the peace of purity, the misery of fear for the joy of love, the fever thirst after worldly goods for the serene bliss of faith, and holy longings for the favour of God and the perfectness of Christ; existence is recognized as a spiritual privilege, death regarded as the door to immortality, and the universe becomes a temple for the worship of the Almighty. Find a heart in which this conversion of principles, feelings, and aims has been experienced, and you find a heart that feels an immovable conviction of the truth of Christianity. Its peace, its joys, its consciousness of spiritual health, its insight into a new world of which before it had no conception, all bear testimony to the reality of Christ’ s religion. (T. Starr King.) Experience the condition of Church membership When Moody, the great evangelist, wanted to join the Church in Boston, under the pastor of which he had been awakened, he was questioned about doctrines, and seemed to know nothing about them.. He could only say, “ Whereas I was blind, now I see.” He applied to this Church three times before he could get in. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) An undoubted cure George Moore once dislocated his shoulder, and after suffering great agony for weeks, all the surgeons failing to relieve him, he went to Mr. Hutton, the bone setter, who in a few minutes gave him lasting relief. He was much taken to task then by his professional friends for going to a quack. “ Well,” said he, “ quack or no quack, he cured me, and that was what I wanted. Whereas I was blind, now I see.” (S. Smiles.) Living Christians an argument for Christianity An unhappy woman who has associated herself with a notorious atheist in this country, went down to a great northern city in England to deliver a lecture against Christianity, and the object of her able deliverance was to prove that Christ was a myth. A great crowd of working men assembled to hear her, drawn together, as I believe they often are on such occasions, a good deal more by curiosity than by sympathy with the lecturer. When the lady had finished, a man got up at the other end of the room and said, “ My friends, you know me. I have lived among you for twenty-five years. Twenty-five years ago I was a drunken brute. I used to beat my wife and make my home a hell upon earth. Now, this lady says that Jesus of Nazareth is a myth. I am not quite sure that I know what a myth is, but I suppose that she means that He never existed, or, at any rate, is not what we declare Him to be. Now, my friends, twenty-five years ago, when I was a drunken, wife-beating rascal, Jesus of Nazareth met me and opened my eyes, and I saw that I was a sinner, and He forgave my sins; and you know what a change took place in me then, and you know what sort of a man I have been for the last twenty-five years. Perhaps the lady will be kind enough to explain me.” Down he sat. The lady said that she could not explain him, and she did not deliver the two other lectures in that course, I have no doubt that she was perfectly familiar with all that Strauss has written, and with what Renan says, and with the difficulties which the great men of science have suggested, and she went down to that northern city flushed with the anticipation of victory; but there was one very awkward fact which she had overlooked--that there happened to be living in that very city a well-known man whose eyes Jesus of Nazareth had opened twenty-five years ago. What is the use of making most difficult and endless inquiries into the origin of ancient documents until you have explained me? And standing here addressing some whom I shall never meet again until we meet at the judgment seat, I present myself as a living witness. What you have to explain is me. My mind goes back twenty-three years, when, in a beautiful little village in Wales, Jesus of Nazareth opened my eyes, and I saw that He was my Saviour, and that God was my Father; and in that light I have been walking with perfect happiness for twenty-three years. That is what you have to explain, and you are in a very great difficulty, because there are so many of us. Two thousand years ago there was only one at Jerusalem, and they were able to dispose of him pretty quickly. They lost their tempers; and bullied him, and finally excommunicated him. But you cannot excommunicate us all. Let every man speak of that which he knows. (H. P. Hughes, M. A.) Agnosticism and Christian experience Is there a God? Don’ t know! Is the soul immortal? Don’ t know! If we should meet each other in the future world will we recognize each other? Don’ t know! This man proposes to substitute the religion of “ Don’ t know” for the religion of “ I know.” “ I know whom I have believed.” “ I know that my Redeemer liveth.” Infidelity proposes to substitute a religion of awful negatives for our religion of glorious positives, showing right before us a world of reunion and ecstasy, and high companionship, and glorious worship, and stupendous victory; the mightiest joy of earth not high enough to reach to the base of the Himalaya of uplifted splendour awaiting all those who on the wings of Christian faith will soar toward it. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Conversion a real experience This man knew that he could see. Possibly some of you have been decent people all your lives, and yet you do not know whether you are saved or not. This is poor religion. Cold comfort! Saved, and not know it! Surely it must be as lean a salvation as that man’ s breakfast when he did not know whether he had eaten it or not. The salvation which comes of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is conscious salvation. Your eyes shall be so opened that you shall no longer question whether you can see. He could see, and he knew that he could see. Oh, that you would believe in Jesus, and know that you have believed and are saved! Oh, that you might get into a new world, and enter upon a new state of things altogether! May that which was totally unknown to you before be made known to you at this hour by Almighty grace. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Value of a personal knowledge of salvation I recollect the lesson which I learned from my Sunday school class: I was taught, if the other boys were not. Though yet a youth, I was teaching the gospel to boys, and I said, “ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” One of them asked somewhat earnestly, “ Teacher, are you saved?” I answered, “ I hope so.” The boy replied, “ Teacher, don’ t you know?” As if he had been sent to push the matter home to me, he further inquired, “ Teacher, have you believed?” I said, “ Yes.” “ Well, then,” he argued, “ you are saved.” I was happy to answer, “ Yes, I am” ; but I had hardly dared to say that before. I found that if I had to teach other people the truth I must know and believe its sweet result upon myself. I believe, dear friends, that you will seldom comfort others except it be by the comfort with which you yourself are comforted of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The value of experience A hundred thousand tongues may discourse to you about the sweetness of honey, but you can never have such knowledge of it as by taste. So a word full of books may tell you wonders of the things of God in religion, but you can never understand them exactly but by the taste of experience. (N. Caussin.) Personas knowledge valuable The first qualification, then, of a faithful witness is a personal knowledge of the facts to which he witnesses. If a witness in a court of justice begins to talk of what he thinks, feels, and believes, “ Oh! hush, hush,” says the judge, “ we can’ t have that; we want to know what you know--what you have seen, heard, and felt of this case;” and these are the sort of witnesses Jesus Christ wants, who get up and say, “ I know!” That is what the Lord Jesus Christ wants--people who know, who experience, who realize, who live the things they witness to. This is what the world is dying for--people who can get up and say, “ I know.” What did He to thee The quibbles of infidelity Pertness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. When this is done the same question will be triumphantly asked again next year, as if nothing had ever been written on the subject; and as people in general, for one reason or other, like short objections better than long answers, in this mode of disputation, if it can be styled such, the odds must ever be against us; and we must be content with those of our friends, who have honesty and erudition, candour and patience, to study both sides of the question (chap. 10:25). (Bp. Horne.) Infidelity can only go round and round the same topics in an eternal circle, without advancing one step further. It produces no new forces: it only brings those again into the field which have been so often baffled, maimed, and disabled, that in pity to them they ought to be dismissed, and discharged from any further service (Acts 19:28; Acts 19:34). (J. Seed.) Will ye also be His disciples?--Bold irony this--to ask these stately, ruffled, scrupulous Sanhedrists. Whether he was really to regard them as anxious and sincere inquirers about the claims of the Nazarene prophet! Clearly here was a man whose presumptuous honesty would neither be bullied into suppression, or corrupted into a lie. He was quite impracticable. So, since authority, threats, blandishments had all failed, they broke into abuse, “ Thou art His disciple,” etc. “ Strange,” he replied, “ that you should know nothing of a man who has wrought such a miracle as not even Moses wrought; and we know that neither he nor anyone else could have done it unless he was from God.” What! Shades of Hillel and Shammai! Was a mere blind beggar, a natural ignorant heretic, altogether born in sins, to be teaching them? Unable to control any longer their transport of indignation, they flung him out of the hall, and out of the synagogue. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Thou art His disciple I. THE OF A TRUE . This was the first name attached to Christ’ s followers. It is a correlative to His title, “ Teacher” : hence they who received His instructions were His disciples. And when they obtained the more distinctive name of their Master, this was recognized, “ The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.” Names are but arbitrary signs of things, and are really characteristic no further than as the things themselves exist. The Christians were no worse for being called Nazarenes, and Judas was no better for being called an apostle. Hence the necessity of distinguishing between the proper and the lax use of words. A man may be a disciple universally or really. Such a distinction is coeval with the use of the term. “ Many of His disciples went back,” “ Ye are My disciples indeed.” A true disciple 1. Believingly embraces the doctrines of Christ. They are received into His heart as the basis of conduct; they are the mould which gives its impression to the character. Such doctrines as credible, require faith; as authoritative, bind; as graciously given, are to be used for the benefit of a guilty and erring mind. So close is the affinity between Christ and His truth, that believing His Word is believing in Him. But it is one thing to believe the gospel to be true, and another to believe its necessity to our own wellbeing; the former will make a man a disciple in name, the latter in truth. 2. Cherishes an ardent affection for Christ’ s person. Faith is His word by realizing to the mind His great excellencies and gifts, engages its esteem, desire, and delight. It opens the springs of gratitude and awakens the purest sensibilities. This love is a master grace, leading a train of other virtues, which receive their highest worth from it. 3. Devotes himself to the cause of Christ--giving himself up to Christ’ s disposal--living or dying. This devotedness includes self-denial, confession of Christ before men, lively activity in extending His kingdom. II. THE AND OF BEING A TRUE . 1. From the absolute requirement of God, “ My son give me thy heart.” Everything short of this is robbery. He who delays obedience holds out his enmity against God; and can this succeed? 2. From a principle of consistency. Shall God be treated as we deem it base for man to be treated? In common affairs mere outward respect is insulting. With whom do men trifle when they assume the form of godliness without a care of the power. 3. From a regard to our safety and peace. (Congregational Remembrancer.) John 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners True and not true 1. It is ill to wrench passages of the Bible out of their context, and treat them as infallible scripture when they are only sayings of men. By acting thus foolishly we could prove that there is no God (Psalms 14:1), that God hath forgotten His people (Isaiah 49:14), that Christ was a winebibber (Matthew 9:19), and that we ought to worship the devil Matthew 4:19). This will never do. We must inquire who uttered the sentence before we venture to preach from it. 2. Our text is the saying of a shrewd blind man who was far from being well instructed. It is to be taken for what it is worth; but by no means to be regarded as Christ’ s teaching. The Pharisees evidently admitted its force, and were puzzled by it. It was good argument as against them. It is true or false as we may happen to view it. I. IT IS NOT TRUE IN SOME SENSES. We could not say absolutely that God heareth not sinners, for 1. God does hear men who sin, or else He would hear no one: for there is no man that sinneth not (1 Kings 8:46); not a saint would be heard, for even saints are sinners. 2. God does sometimes hear and answer unregenerate men. (1) To show that He is truly God, and make them own it Psalms 106:44). (2) To manifest His great compassion, whereby He even hears the ravens’ cry (Psalms 147:1-20). (3) To lead them to repentance (1 Kings 21:27). (4) To leave them without excuse (Exodus 10:16-17). (5) To punish them, as when He sent quails to the murmurers Numbers 11:33), and gave Israel a king (1 Samuel 12:17), in His anger. 3. God does graciously hear sinners when they cry for mercy. Not to believe this were (1) To render the gospel no gospel. (2) To deny facts. David, Manasseh, the dying thief, the publican, the prodigal, confirm this testimony. (3) To deny promises (Isaiah 11:7). II. IT IS TRUE IN OTHER SENSES. The Lord does not hear sinners as He hears His own people. 1. He hears no sinner’ s prayer apart from the mediation of our Lord Jesus 1 Timothy 2:5; Ephesians 2:18). 2. He will not hear a wicked, formal, heartless prayer (Proverbs 15:29). 3. He will not hear the man who wilfully continues in sin, and abides in unbelief (Jeremiah 14:12; Isaiah 1:15). 4. He will not hear the hypocrite’ s mockery of prayer (Job 27:9). 5. He will not hear the unforgiving (Mark 11:25-26). 6. He will not hear even His people when sin is wilfully indulged, and entertained in their hearts (Psalms 66:18). 7. He will not hear those who refuse to hear His Word, or to regard His ordinances (Proverbs 28:9). 8. He will not hear those who harden their hearts against the monitions of His Spirit, the warnings of His providence, the appeals of His ministers, the strivings of conscience, and so forth. 9. He will not hear those who refuse to be saved by grace, or who trust in their own prayers as the cause of salvation. 10. He will not hear sinners who die impenitent. At the last He will close His ear to them, as to the foolish virgins, who cried, “ Lord, Lord, open to Matthew 25:11). Conclusion: One or two things are very clear and sure. 1. He cannot hear those who never speak to Him. 2. He has never yet given any one of us a fiat refusal. 3. He permits us at this moment to pray, and it will be well for us to do so, and see if He does not hear us. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The return of prayers It is difficult to determine which is the greater wonder, that prayer should produce such vast and blessed effects, or that we should be unwilling to use such an instrument for procuring them. The first declares God’ s goodness, the second our folly and weakness. That “ God heareth not sinners” was a proverbial saying and supported by Scripture (Job 27:9; Psalms 66:18; Proverbs 1:28; IsaJe 14:10, 12). The proposition may be considered 1. According to the purpose of the blind man: God heareth not sinners in that they are sinners, though a sinner may be heard in his prayer to confirm his faith. God hears him not at all in that wherein he sins; for God is truth and cannot confirm a lie. 2. In a manner that concerns us more nearly; i.e., if we be not good men, our prayers will do us no good. God turns away from the unwholesome breathings of corruption. I. PRAYS WHILE HE IS IN A STATE OF SIN, HIS PRAYER IS AN TO GOD. This truth was believed by the ancient world; hence the appointment of baptisms and ceremonial expiations. 1. It is an act of profanation for an unholy person to handle holy things and offices. 2. A wicked person, while he remains in that condition, is not a natural object of pity. 3. Purity is recommended by the necessary appendages of prayer (1) fasting, (2) almsgiving, (3) and by the various indecencies which are prohibited, not only for their general malignity but because they hinder prayer, such as unmercifulness, which unfits us to receive pardon for our own trespasses; lust and uncleanliness which defile the temple and take from us all affection to spiritual things. 4. After these evidences of Scripture and reason there is less necessity to take notice of those objections derived from the prosperity of evil persons. If such ask things hurtful and sinful if God hears them not it is in mercy; but there are many instances of success in improper prayers which have turned out to the disadvantage of the petitioners. II. MANY TIMES GOOD MEN PRAY, AND NOT , BUT IT RETURNS EMPTY. Because although the man may be, yet the prayer is not in proper disposition. Prayers are hindered 1. By anger, or a storm in the spirit of him who prays. Prayer is an action or state of intercourse exactly contrary to the character of anger, its spirit being gentle and meek, and its influences calm and soothing. 2. By indifference and easiness of desire. He that is cold and tame in his prayers has not tasted the delight of religion and the goodness of God; he is a stranger to the secrets of His kingdom. What examples we have of fervency in Scripture, more particularly in the case of Christ and St. Paul! Under this head may be placed cautions against (1) Want of attention, which is an effect of lukewarmness and infirmity, which is only remedied as our prayers are made zealous and our infirmities are strengthened by the Spirit. (2) Want of perseverance. When our prayer is for a great matter and a great necessity, how often do we pursue it only by chance or humour; or else our choice is cool as soon as it is hot, and our prayer without fruit because the desire does not last. If we would secure the blessing we must pray on until it comes. 3. By the want of their being put up in good company. For sometimes an obnoxious person has so secured a mischief that those who stay with him share his punishment as the sailors did Jonah’ s. But when good men pray with one heart, and in a holy assembly, when they are holy in their desires and lawful in their authority, then their prayers ascend like the hymns of angels. III. WHAT DEGREES AND OF PIETY ARE TO MAKE US FIT TO BE FOR OTHERS AND TO PRAY FOR THEM WITH EFFECT. No prayers, of course, can prevail with regard to an indisposed person; as the sun cannot enlighten a blind eye. 1. Those who pray for others should be persons of extraordinary piety. This is exemplified in the case of Job (Job 42:7-8) and Phinehas. It was also a vast blessing entailed on the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; because they had great religion they had great power with God. A man of little piety cannot water another man’ s garden and bless it with a gracious shower; he must look to himself. But what an encouragement this is to a holy life; what an advantage it may be to our relatives, country, etc. How useless and vile the man whose prayers avail not for the meanest person! And yet everyone in a state of grace may intercede for others, a duty prescribed throughout Scripture. 2. We must take care that as our piety, so also our offices be extraordinary. He that prays to reverse a sentence of God, etc., must not expect great effects from a morning or evening collect, or from an honest wish. But in our importunity we must not make our account by a multitude of words, but by measures of the spirit, holiness of soul, justness of the desire, and the usefulness of the request to God’ s glory. We must not be ashamed or backward in asking, but our modesty to God in prayer has no measures but these--self-distrust, confidence in God, humility, reverence and submission to God’ s will. These being observed our importunity should be as great as possible, and it will be likely to prevail. 3. It is another great advantage that he who prays be a person of superior dignity or employment. For God has appointed some person by their callings to pray for others, as fathers for their children, ministers for their flocks, kings for their subjects. And it is well this is so, since so few understand their duties to themselves and others. But if God heareth not princes, of what necessity is it that such should be holy. IV. THE SIGNS OF OUR PRAYERS BEING HEARD. This requires little observation; for if our prayers be according to the warrant of God’ s Word, and if we ask according to God’ s will what is right and profitable, we may rely on the promises, and be sure that our prayers are heard. (Jeremy Taylor.) John 9:32 Since the world began it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.--This was quite true at the time. In 1728, Dr. Cheselden, of St. Thomas’ s Hospital, for the first time gave sight to a man who had been blind from his youth up, and since then couching has been several times performed on those who were born blind. With regard to this man note I. THE OF HIS CASE. 1. It was not the case of want of light; that might have been remedied. There are millions who have no light, and while we cannot give men eyes we can give them light. There are children of God who walk in darkness and are immured in Doubting Castle. May it be ours by explanation and example to illumine them. 2. This was not a case of accidental blindness. Here again man’ s help might have been of service. Persons who have been struck with blindness have been recovered. We can do much in cases where blindness is traceable to circumstances, e.g., to prejudice, which might be removed by a wise and tender statement of the truth. 3. The man was blind from his birth. His was a blindness of nature which, therefore, baffled all surgical skill. (1) Since the beginning of the world no one has opened the eyes of one afflicted with sin. Man’ s understanding is blind because (a) His whole nature is disordered. His other faculties act upon his mind and prevent it operating in a proper manner. (b) His natural pride and self-reliance revolt against the gospel. (c) He judges spiritual things by the senses, and with as much success as a man who measures the heavens with a foot rule. (d) He is at a distance from God and consequently does not believe in Him. If we lived near to God our understanding would be clarified by its contact with truth. (2) Some imagine that they can open the sinner’ s blind eye (a) By rhetoric. As well hope of sing a stone into sensibility. Sinners have been dazzled a thousand times by the pyrotechnics of oratory and have remained as blind as ever. (b) By argument; but reason alone gives no man the power to see the light of heaven. (c) By earnest gospel appeals; but how many in our congregations are proof against these! II. THE OF THE CURE. Not of this man’ s only. 1. It is usually accomplished by the most simple means. It is very humbling to a preacher to find that God cares little for him or his sermon, and that a stray remark of his in the street is what God has blessed. Souls are not usually converted by bodies of divinity and theological discussions. When David put off Saul’ s armour and took the sling and the stone he slew the giant. We must keep to the simple gospel plainly preached. The clay and the spittle were not an artistic combination, yet by these and a wash in Siloam eyes were opened. 2. In every case it is a Divine work. No eye is ever opened to see Jesus except by Jesus. Blindness of soul yields only to the voice which said, “ Let there be light.” 3. It is often instantaneous, and when the eye is opened it frequently sees as perfectly as if it had been always seeing, though in other cases it is gradual. 4. It brings new sensations, and therefore should surprise us. Do you remember the first sight you had of Christ? There is fixed in the memories of some of us the first time we saw the sea, or the Alps, but these were nothing, It is not surprising that young converts should get excited. 5. It is very clear to the man himself. Others may doubt but not he. 6. The restored faculty is capable of abundant use. The man who could see the Pharisees could by and by see Jesus. Once give a man spiritual sight and he has a capacity to see Divine mysteries. III. THE OF THE HEALED MAN. 1. He had strong impressions in favour of his Healer. First He was a prophet, then the object of worship. No man has his eyes opened without intense love for Jesus, and without believing in His Deity, and worshipping Him as the Son of God. 2. He becomes from that moment a confessor of Christ, the first of his class. If the Lord has opened our eyes we shall not hesitate to say so. 3. He became an advocate for Christ, and an able one, for the facts which were his arguments baffled his adversaries. You will never meet infidelity except with such facts. 4. He was driven out of the synagogue. One of the worst things that can happen as far as this world is concerned is to know too much. If you will bravely keep abreast of the times you may be tolerated, but if you get ahead of it you must expect ill-treatment. 5. Christ found him. What a blessing to lose the Pharisees and to find the Saviour! What a mercy when the world casts us out! (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 9:35-38 Jesus heard that they had cast him out and … said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?The verdict of Christ on the whole case I. THE DEMAND CHRIST MAKES UPON THE HUMAN HEART--Faith (John 9:35). 1. Personal. It must be the trust of the individual soul. 2. Immediate. It must be exercised now without delay. 3. Intelligent. It must be directed to the right object--the Son of God. II. THE HOMAGE CHRIST ACCEPTS FROM THE HUMAN HEART--Worship (John 9:38). 1. Adoring: more than outward courtesy and formal obeisance--even the prostration of the spirit. 2. Believing: rooted in and proceeding from the soul’ s faith in Christ. 3. Joyous. III. THE WORK CHRIST ON THE HUMAN HEART--Judgment (verse 39-41). 1. Indirect. It follows as an inevitable result of His presenting Himself as the Light of the World. 2. Real. It infallibly results in (1) Separating men into two classes--“ the not seeing” and “ the seeing.” (2) Retributively acting upon them in accordance with their ascertained characters and dispositions. 3. Progressive. This work is going on as truly and efficiently as when Christ was upon earth. 4. Permanent. Lessons: 1. The importance of ascertaining in which group one is placed by Christ’ s judicial work. 2. The necessity of faith corresponding in fulness to the revelation of Himself which Christ has given. 3. The propriety of making Christ the object as well as the ground and medium of our worship. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The excommunicated man I. THE OF THIS MAN--cast out. When he was a blind beggar he was an object of compassion; but much more now. At that time he would have the favour of friends and the advantage of religion--but he was now an outcast from society and the Church. II. THE REGARD OF CHRIST. 1. Jesus heard. His ear is always open to cases of distress. 2. Jesus found. “ The Lord knoweth them that are His,” and where they are, and how they are. III. THE WHICH PASSED BETWEEN THEM. 1. The question implying the indispensableness of faith. 2. The reply. (1) Natural “ Who is He.” (2) Sincere. “ That I might believe.” 3. The response suggesting the proper object for restored vision. IV. THE RESULT. 1. The man’ s faith. 2. His open declaration of his faith. 3. His worship. Reflections. 1. Men may suffer for the sake of Christ. 2. Those who do suffer lose nothing by it. 3. To act honestly according to the light we have is the way to be favoured with greater illumination. 4. When we are most earnest in our inquiries after Christ, then He is nearest to us. (F. Kidd.) The important question I. THE OF THE . 1. It is of great extent and includes things of the highest moment. It is not am I a Churchman or a Dissenter, etc., but am I a believer in Christ, regenerate or unregenerate? a friend of God or His enemy? on my way to heaven or hell? 2. We are apt to take it for granted that we believe in Christ without sufficient evidence. But if we hate to be imposed upon in little matters let us not impose upon ourselves in this. Is it a thing of inheritance or of conscious exercise? 3. The decision of this question can be in no way hurtful to us, but may be much to our advantage. If we do not believe and are not saved, now is the accepted time, believe now. 4. The question will be decided some day. Whether a believer or not will be ascertained at the judgment seat. II. ITS . 1. Have we ever been convinced of sin? We must know that we are diseased ere we trust the physician. 2. Have we ever been stripped of our vain hopes and carnal confidences? Till we have we shall not see the necessity of Christ. 3. What is our disposition with respect to real godliness? If we do not love holiness we shall not believe (1 Timothy 1:15). 4. Is Christ exceedingly precious to our esteem? An infallible evidence of saving faith (1 Peter 2:7). 5. Have we peace (Romans 5:1). (B. Beddome, M. A.) The test question I. THE IN TO CHRIST. 1. We have before us a distinct personality. 2. The Divinity of Christ is the resting place of faith. How miserable the attempts to reduce Him to a teacher or martyr! II. THE IN TO . It is here 1. We resolve all doubts and find a firm foundation for our faith. 2. We find relief and rest. 3. We commune with God. 4. We advance towards the consummation of our life. (Weekly Pulpit.) The supreme inquiry I. THE NATURE OF THE BELIEF. Not mere intellectual assent to some truth; not belief requiring learning or research. Jesus addressed a blind beggar. II. THE OF THE . The Jews affirmed that the man was “ born in his sins,” Jesus asked nothing about his pedigree, creed, or past life. 1. He requires only an answer to this one question. 2. It is a question that must be answered prior to any progress in spiritual life. It is life’ s watershed. 3. On its answer hangs the fate of eternity. III. THE OF THE . 1. Every man must have it. 2. Each man must answer it for himself. IV. BUT ONE OF TWO ANSWERS CAN BE GIVEN. Yes or no. You cannot evade it. (Homiletic Monthly.) Believing on the Son of God This question was addressed to one solitary man. Jesus comes into personal contact with single individuals. “ Thou.” “ Whom?” It was a largo question, especially when the man was smarting under a bitter penalty. Yet Jesus knew his want and met him at the point of conscious need, ready to more than compensate him. I. WHAT IS FAITH? Note 1. Its simplicity. Whatever mysteries there may be in the Bible, this about believing is very plain. A converted Hindoo when asked what it was, replied, “ The heart clasping Jesus Christ.” 2. Complete surrender to Christ. The frank simplicity of a little child, giving itself entirely into the hands of the Father, full dependence in the Father’ s power and love, a simple trusting and resting without concern about the next step, and the next. But people say that this is an irrational thing and altogether unmanning. Not so; you invest your money in the Government Funds, and would be surprised at any question of the reasonableness of the act, and yet you do not think about the nature of those funds. You hold a Government security, and feel perfectly safe in trusting the source of your income in the hands of the State. You decide to cross the Atlantic; the sea-worthiness of the vessel and the skill of the captain are the only matters of concern. Assured of these you give yourselves entirely into the hands of the officer. But is not this irrational. Ought you not first to study ship building and navigation, and then, standing on your manliness, persist in taking a share in the management of the vessel? Now this surrendering of self to Christ is God’ s plan of saving humanity and conveying it to heaven. 3. This believing in the Son of God is a saving act. Not that faith itself saves, however. It is the link that connects to Christ, who saves. It is not the door but the hand that knocks; not the sun but the eye that sees the sun. 4. This faith is elevating in its tendency. There is, first of all, a breaking down of poor, proud self, and then a giving back, not of the old self in its original impurity, but renewed, cleansed and arrayed in the robe of righteousness. And in answer to this faith a tide of gracious influences sets in which gives the soul beauty, richness, expansion, dignity, making the believer a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. 5. This faith is life--the highest thing that can be said about it. This life is a conscious, healthy, happy, ever-growing life. II. THE OBJECT OF FAITH--“ The Son of God.” 1. A person, not a system. Jesus did not ask the man about his former life or religious whereabouts, nor did He inform him about His doctrines or the nature of His kingdom. One thing only is of moment--faith in Him. All else will follow from that. And the man was concerned about nothing else. “ Who is He?” One may have a clear belief in Christianity and yet be devoid of saving faith. He may be able to prove it Divine and yet know nothing of its salvation, Notice the “ on,” suggesting dependence, trust, reliance, which is something more than “ in.” 2. Christ is every way adapted as the object of faith. One with the Father and yet submissive as a Son. We must keep close to this truth, or Christ’ s sacrifice is deprived of its power. If Christ is not Divine, He is a sinner, and if a sinner, in the least degree, He cannot atone for others, but needs atonement for Himself. When a great good is promised, the question is, Has the promiser the power and will to redeem his engagement? The New Testament is emphatic on these two qualities in the Son of God. All power is given unto Him, and He says to the wide world, “ Come unto Me.” III. CHRIST IS THE AND ONLY OBJECT OF FAITH. “ There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,” and what need we of any other? for the claims of heaven and needs of earth are met. 1. This faith is the only source of life to the Church. Architecture, music, wealth, fashion, talent, etc., will not keep a church alive. 2. This faith is the secret of Church aggression. 3. This faith is the spring of the Church’ s beauty. (J. H. Higgins.) Faith reasonable Faith is a plant which is intended to rise upward by twining round the pillar of evidence. (Bp. Alexander.) An important question I. THE NATURE OF THIS . Faith implies 1. Implicitly to credit the records of God concerning His Son. 2. Genuine trust in Him, sealed by the Holy Spirit. 3. Divine reception of Him. 4. It is also to realize His gracious presence in the soul in the lively exercise of every Christian duty. II. HELPS TOWARDS THIS . 1. Faith is a Divine principle, and is Divinely bestowed. 2. Faith is a self-evident principle, and if you believe on Christ you are assured of it. 3. Faith is a victorious principle, and conquers all adverse powers. 4. Faith is a practical principle, and evinces itself in believers. III. REASONS WHY AN ANSWER SHOULD BE TO THIS . 1. This question is most important, both from the person proposing it, and the tremendous consequences connected therewith. 2. This question is personal. 3. This question is simple, and not complex; so that under the Divine and covenant teaching of the Holy Ghost, a child may understand it. 4. This question is doubtful, because all men have not faith. (T. B. Baker, M. A.) A vital question I. THE 1. Relates to Christ as the eternal Son of God. 2. Refers to faith in Christ as the Son of God. 3. Relates to each individually. II. SOME OF BEING ENABLED TO ANSWER THE . If we really believe we shall 1. Remember the means of bringing us into faith. 2. Have the Spirit in our souls. 3. Highly esteem and value Christ. 4. Enjoy peace and comfort of mind. 5. Be filled with love to God and the Church. 6. Be subject to the authority of Christ. III. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THE WORDS MAY BE . 1. To all who have been baptized in the name of Christ. 2. To all who only profess Christianity. 3. To all who manifest much zeal in the cause of Christ. 4. Let Christians inquire after the evidences of their faith. 5. Let Christians pray to grow in faith. 6. He that hath not faith must perish. 7. All the blessings of the gospel are given to faith. Improvement: (1) The true believer is in an infallible state of salvation now. (2) The true believer is in possession of internal assurance. (3) The true believer is in possession of internal peace. (4) The true believer will live with Christ in glory. (T. B. Baker, M. A.) Faith in Christ A Christian merchant had in his employ a man awakened to a sense of sin, and earnestly desiring salvation, but stumbled at this believing on the Son of God--its very simplicity was a problem. His employer sent him a note, asking him to his office on a certain day, at a given hour. Promptly, at the specified time, the man appeared at the office. His master looked up in feigned surprise, and said, “ Well, James, did you want to see me?” “ Your note, sir,” said the servant, showing him the missive. “ Oh, yes, my note, then you really believed I was sincere when I sent you that?” “ Of course I did,” said James emphatically, but with surprise. “ Then you really thought I would keep this appointment.” “ I had no doubt about it,” again with surprise. “ Well, here is a strange thing,” said the merchant, “ I sent you this one short note asking for this interview, and you promptly respond with the utmost confidence, and yet Jesus Christ has given you so many invitations to go to Him, and accept His pardon, and you will not, because of unbelief.” “ Is it like that?” said the man, light breaking in upon his mind. “ Just like that, James. Go to Christ as promptly and as trustingly as you have come to me, and pardon and peace are yours;” and, acting on this simple plan, the servant found the Son of God as his Saviour. (J. H. Higgins.) The unknown Christ 1. The man is cast out, but he carries with him the immovable conviction of Joh 9:33. Every power for good in this world is of God, whether in the form of material science, conquering disease, and lightening labour; or in that of political and social reform, purifying the polity of nations and making the brotherhood of man more real; or in that of spiritual teaching, stirring deeper fountains and casting higher lights. Let us believe that “ every good and perfect gift cometh from God.” 2. The rumour of his expulsion reaches Christ, and indignation at the injustice done, and yearnings after a soul so true and simple, unite in urging Him instantly to seek the despised outcast. And so through the great Jerusalem of the world Christ is still passing, seeking every brave and honest witness to the vision he as yet sees. Be faithful to your sense of duty at whatever cost, and Christ, though unseen, is following you to find you. 3. Christ perceived that the man was able to bear a purer light than that of nature, that his trust in divine goodness had prepared him for the manifestation of the life of God. So He puts the question, “ Dost thou believe,” etc., and lifts the man’ s thoughts above the circumstances of the hour. There is no dwelling on the recent miracle, no indulgence in invective against the Pharisees, no discussion of the man’ s prospects. It was as if a little crowded, noisy room were changed for the vastness and hush of a great cathedral. Let us be thankful to the Master who is still arresting us as we go on our selfish, earthly way with the same tranquilizing, purifying question. 4. Certain underlying beliefs are assumed in the words of our Lord. (1) The fatherhood of God. The duty here is no vague abstraction. Most religions have a faint glimmering of Christ’ s truth--but it was left for Christ to start the cry in the prodigal, “ I will arise and go to my father,” (2) But Christ claimed to be in an unique sense the Son of God, and the man so understood Him. Messianic ideas were started in the man’ s mind by the question, and his thoughts would go back to that fourth form which was seen walking in the Babylonian furnace. He, therefore, simply asks, “ Who is He,” etc. The tones of our Lord’ s voice probably revealed who the questioner was, for this was the first time the man had seen Jesus. 5. Spiritually the man was in a quickened state. His fidelity to truth had been manifested amidst sore temptations. His religious convictions had been forced into practical assertion. And now, whilst his ears are yet ringing with the taunts of sacerdotal pride, and whilst he is trembling with righteous indignation against those who blasphemed goodness, this wondrous stranger demands faith in Him for whose coming every pious Israelite yearned. All that the man had ever believed and felt now welled up into that “ Who is He.” Have we not here the attitude of many honest and reverent thinkers today in the presence of the great problems of religion and life? The great question now is, “ What think ye of Christ?” And the answer is gathering volume and distinctness which confesses Him the Son of God and the Son of Man. The inspiring purpose of the man was “ that I may believe,” and the same purpose underlies much of modern intellectual restlessness. 6. “ Thou hast both seen Him,” etc., was the reply of Christ. It is possible then to be in the presence of Christ, and yet not know Him to be the Son of God. The world is full of Christ’ s presence. (1) Hospitals, orphanages, etc., witness that Jesus is still passing through the crowded highways of modern life. These spring from the seeds which Christ sowed; yet there are those who fail to recognize Him. (2) Still more is Christ a living presence in those He sends forth on missions of mercy at which the world is filled with reverent wonder. (3) And shall we not claim for the Church the indwelling presence of her Lord. 7. But there are grounds for the hope that all who approach in the spirit of the man born blind, evidences of Christ’ s power and presence, will say with him, “ Lord, I believe.” (J. R. S. Harrington.) Relationship with Christ and its obligations I. THOSE WHO ARE IN ANY WAY WITH CHRIST ARE UNDER TO FAITH IN HIM WHICH WITH THAT . This man was connected with Christ (1) By the reception of sight--a dispensation of providence. (2) By his defence of Christ against the cavillings of the Pharisees. This was before he was united to Christ by faith and formed the basis of Christ’ s appeal. So now 1. There are those who possess temporal advantages which may be traced directly to Christ. (1) We are born in a land distinguished by liberty, knowledge, civilization, benevolence; but once there were no such things. All who are born on British soil owe their national advantages to Christ. Hence we may with propriety ask, “ Thou who art reaping the benefits which Christ, by the establishment of His kingdom, has conferred upon your native country, ‘ Dost thou believe’” ? etc. (2) Take the case of pious households. How much are the children of godly parents, and servants of godly masters indebted to the Saviour. By gratitude such seem to be bound to inquire after the Son of God, and to regard Him as their Lord and Saviour. 2. There are those who identify themselves with the kingdom of Christ. This man might have enjoyed the miracle, and yet never have defended Christ and brought trouble upon himself. But he could not do this, and so was identified by the Pharisees with the cause of Christ. On this ground Christ made His appeal. “ The Pharisees by your conduct imagine you have this faith; have you?” And are there not men who defend Christianity against the infidel and the scoffer, Christ’ s Deity against the Socinian, spiritual Christianity against Popery, who are not yet connected by the faith which saves to Christ? To such, therefore, we appeal. If gratitude would seem in one case consistency in the other should constrain. Is it consistent to be mixed up with Christianity nominally? Is it right to be thought a disciple of Christ without believing on Him? II. THE COURSE WHICH THOSE WHO ARE WITH CHRIST SHOULD PURSUE. 1. The man began to inquire, and inquiry is the course for those to whom the narrative applies. For what? not for a creed, an ism, ordinances, church government, but for Christ. We may know the former which will not save, and not know the latter who will. 2. For what end are we to inquire? Not for the qualification of curiosity or so as to be able to dispute about theology. All truth is revealed not to be speculated upon, not to be judged by reason and be either rejected or received; but for faith “ that I might believe.” III. THE WHICH SUCH POSSESS IN THE PURSUIT OF THIS COURSE. “ Thou hast seen Him,” etc. We have present access to Christ, not, it is true, as this man had, but He is here as really in His spiritual presence. 1. He is here in the testimony we have in the Bible concerning Him. You may find patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, and apostles revealing Christ. 2. Go to converted men, there you have Christ’ s image, faint and imperfect, it is true, but real; ask them what they have tasted and felt concerning Christ. 3. You have access to the ministry of the gospel which is the ministry of Christ, “ for we preach not ourselves,” etc. 4. The Holy Ghost was given to testify of Christ. You have not to cry, “ O! that I knew where I might find Him.” In all these ways “ Thou hast both seen Him,” etc. IV. THE END WHICH THOSE WHO PURSUE THIS COURSE WILL ATTAIN. 1. Faith in Christ must follow this inquiry, “ Lord, I believe.” “ Faith cometh by hearing.” He who is a sincere inquirer will be guided; God never left such to wander. Listen not to those who say ‘ tis no use to seek: God has said that those who seek shall find. 2. Faith in Christ will never be a secret. The soul that regards Christ as the Son of God must at once tell Him so. “ He worshipped Him.” Conclusion: There is a day coming when all must hear this question put to them. You may put off the answer to it now but not then. Answer it now. (S. Martin.) True Christians will learn of any one A mortified man will yield to learn of anyone. A little child shall “ lead them.” Learned Apollos was instructed by a couple of poor tentmakers. (J. Trapp.) Faithfulness not unnoticed by God The pious Lutheran minister at Berlin, Paul Gerhard, was deposed from his office, and banished the country in 1666 by the elector, Frederick William the Great, on account of the faithful discharge of his ministerial duties. Not knowing whither to go, he and his wife passed out of the city, and finally stopped at a tavern, oppressed with care and grief. Gerhard endeavoured to comfort his partner by the text, “ Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.” Then he wrote a hymn embodying this sentiment. Before he had finished its perusal, the agents of Duke Christian of Mersburg invited him to an interview with that prince, by whom he was appointed Archdeacon at Luebben. The importance of believing The root of a tree is a ragged and a jagged thing--no shape, no proportion, no comeliness in it, and therefore keeps itself in the earth, as unwilling to be seen; yet all the beauty that is in the tree--the straightness of the bulk and body, the spreading fairness of the branches, the glory of the leaves and flowers, the commodity of the fruits--proceed from the root: by that the whole subsisteth. So faith seems to be but a sorry grace, a virtue of no regard; devotion is acceptable, for it honours God; charity is noble, for it does good to men; holiness is the image of heaven, therefore beauteous; thankfulness is the tune of angels, therefore melodious. But what is faith good for? Yes: it is good for every good purpose--the foundation and root of all graces. All the prayers made by devotion, all the good works done by charity, all the actual expressions of holiness, all the praises sounded forth by thankfulness, come from the root of faith, that is the life of them all. Faith doth animate works, as the body lives by the soul. (J. Spencer.) The importance of self-examination It is a great deal better to sift an affair to the bottom than it is to be always tormented by suspicion. If I must go to sea, and I suspect the soundness of the vessel, I shall demand that the ship be surveyed, and that I know whether it is a rotten old coffin, or whether it is a good substantial ship.. I do not think it is a healthy state of things for man to be always singing--“‘ Tis a point I long to know.” Brother, you ought to know whether you love the Lord or no. Your love must be very cold and feeble if it be a matter of question. Warmth of love proves its own existence in many ways. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith must lay hold on Christ Look at that locomotive as it snorts like a giant war horse to its place in the station at head of the train. You have in that engine power of amplest capacity to drag at swiftest pace the far-stretching carriages. Boiler, tubes, pistons, fire, steam--all are in perfect order; and that broad-browed man gives assurance of tried ability to guide the charge committed to him. You look: carriage after carriage is filled, the hour has struck, the bell rung; and yet there is no departure, no movement, nor would be till “ crack of doom,” if one thing remained as it now is. Aha! the lack is discovered: the uniting hooks that bind engine and train together were wanting. They have been supplied. Like two great hands, they have clasped; and a screw has so riveted engine and carriage, that they form, as it were, one thing, one whole; and away through the dark sweeps the heavy-laden train with its freight of immortals. Mark! no one ever supposes that it is the uniting hook, or link, or coupling that draws the train. A child knows that it is the engine that draws it. Nevertheless, without that hook, or link, or coupling, all the power of the engine were of no avail; the train would stand still forever. Exactly so is it in the relation of faith to Christ. It is not our faith that saves us, but Christ. (A. B. Grosart.) John 9:39-41 For judgment I have come into the world Christ’ s mission to the world I. HAS TWO RESULTS. 1. Of these (1) One is the greatest blessing: “ That they which see not might see.” All unregenerate men are blind spiritually. God and the moral universe are as much concealed from them as the beauties of this mundane scene are from those born blind. They grope their way through life and stumble on the great future. A greater blessing is not conceivable than the opening of the spiritual eye. It involves the soul’ s translation into the real paradise of being. (2) The other is the greatest curse: “ That they which see,” etc., i.e., that those who are unconscious of their blindness and conceitedly fancy they see would be incalculably injured. By rejecting the remedial agency of Christ they would augment their guilt and gloom. These two results are taking place every day. 2. Of these (1) One is intentional. The grand and definite purpose of Christ is to give “ recovery of sight to the blind.” (2) The other is incidental and directly opposed to His supreme aim. It comes because Christ does not coerce men, but treats them as free agents, and also because of the perversity of the unregenerate heart. As men may get food out of the earth or poison, fire out of the sun that shall burn them to ashes, or genial light that shall cheer and invigorate them, so men get salvation or damnation out of Christ mission. II. IS AND ABUSED. 1. Misinterpreted (John 9:40). Dost thou mean that we, educated men, trained in the laws and religion of our forefathers, and devoted to the work of teaching the nation, are blind? They would not understand that our Lord meant blindness of heart. So the great purpose of Christ’ s mission has ever been misinterpreted. Some treat the gospel as if its object were to give a speculative creed, an ecclesiastical polity, a civil government, a social order, while they practically ignore that its grand object is to open the spiritual eyes of men, so that they may see, not men’ s forms and phenomena, but spiritual realities. 2. Abused (John 9:41). Notwithstanding My mission, “ Ye say, We see.” With Me you have the opportunity of illumination; without that your blindness would be a calamity, but now it is a crime. “ Therefore your sin remaineth.” If, like this man, you were without the power of seeing, and had no opportunity of cure, you would have no sin; for no man is required to use a power he has not. What should we think of a man living in the midst of beautiful scenery but refusing to open his eyes? But the case of the spiritually blind, with the faculties of reason and conscience and the sun of the gospel streaming on them, is worse than this. “ Men love darkness rather than light,” etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The opening of the eyes The man had been blind all his life; he was blind that morning; now, at night, he saw. The wonderful beauty of the world had burst upon him. The greatest luxury of sense that man enjoys was his, and he was revelling in its new-found enjoyment. He was intensely grateful to the Friend who had given it to him. He loved Him and thanked Him with his whole heart. And just then Jesus steps in and questions him; not, “ Are you glad and grateful?” but, “ Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” It is a new thought, a new view altogether. We can almost see the surprise and bewilderment creep over his glad face. He had it on his lips to thank his Friend, and lo! suddenly he was dealing with God, and with the infinite relations between God and man. I. THE LORD’ S . What does it mean? This: Are you glad and grateful for these things as little separate sensations of pleasure? That amounts to nothing. Or are you thankful for them as manifestations of the Divine life to yours, as tokens of that fatherhood of God which found its great utterance, including all others, in the Incarnation of His Son? That is everything. No wonder that such a question brings surprise. It is so much more than you expected. It is like the poor Neapolitan peasant, who struck his spade into the soil to dig a well, and the spade went through into free space, and he had discovered all the hidden wealth of Herculaneum. No wonder there is surprise at first; but afterward you see that in the belief in a manifested Son of God, if you could gain it, you would have just the principle of spiritual unity in which your life is wanting, and the lack of which makes so much of its very best so valueless. If you could believe in one great utterance of God, one incarnate word, the manifested pity of God, and the illustrated possibility of man at once--then, with such a central point, there could be no more fragmentariness anywhere. All must fall into its relation to it, to Him, and so the unity of life show forth. II. THE MAN’ S ANSWER. “ I do not know,” he seems to say, “ I did not mean anything like that; I did not seem to believe, but yet I have not evidently exhausted or fathomed my own thought. There is something below that I have not realized. Perhaps I do believe. At any rate I should like to. The vague notion attracts me. I will believe if I can. Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” The simplicity and frankness, the guilelessness and openness of the man makes us like him more than ever. There is evidently for him a chance, nay, a certainty, that he will be greater, fuller, better than he is. Some natures are inclusive; some are exclusive. Some men seem to be always asking, “ How much can I take in?” and some are always asking, “ How much can I shut out?” One man wants to believe; he welcomes evidence. He asks, “ Who is He, that I may believe on Him?” Another man seems to dread to believe; he has ingenuity in discovering the flaws of proof. If he asks for more information, it is because he is sure that some objection or discrepancy will appear which will release him from the unwelcome duty of believing. We see the two tendencies, all of us, in people that we know. Carried to their extremes, they develop on one side the superstitious, on the other the sceptical spirit. More than we think, far more, depends upon this first attitude of the whole nature--upon whether we want to believe or to disbelieve. To one who finds the forces of this life sufficient, an incarnation, a supernatural salvation, is incredible. To one who, looking deeper, knows there must be some infinite force which it has not found yet--some loving, living force of Emmanuel, of God with man--the Son of God is waiting OH the threshold and will immediately come. III. How will He come? Read THE LORD’ S REPLY. “ Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” The teaching that seems to me to be here for us is this--that when Christ “ comes,” as we say, to a human soul, it is only to the consciousness of the soul that He is introduced, not to the soul itself; He has been at the doors of that from its very beginning. We live in a redeemed world--a world full of the Holy Ghost forever doing Christ’ s work, forever taking of the things of Christ and showing them to us. That Christ so shown is the most real, most present power in this new Christian world. Men see Him, talk with Him continually. They do not recognize Him; they do not know what lofty converse they are holding; but some day when a man has become really earnest and wants to believe in the Son of God, and is asking, “ Who is He that I may believe on Him?” then that Son of God comes to him--not as a new guest from the lofty heaven, but as the familiar and slighted Friend, who has waited and watched at the doorstep, who has already from the very first filled the soul’ s house with such measure of His influence as the soul’ s obstinacy of indifference would allow, and who now, as He steps in at the soul’ s eager call to take complete and final possession of its life, does not proclaim His coming in awful, new, unfamiliar words, but says in tones which the soul recognizes and wonders that it has not known long before, “ Thou hast seen Me, I have talked with thee.” (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Sight for those who see not Jesus has come into the world for judgment, but not for the last and unchangeable judgment. “ His fan is in His hand.” He sits as a refiner. His cross has revealed the thoughts of many hearts, and everywhere His gospel acts as a discoverer, a separator, a test by which men may judge themselves if they will. Light no sooner comes than it begins to judge the darkness. When the gospel comes, some hearts receive it at once, and are judged to be “ honest and good ground,” and “ come to the light, that their deeds may be made manifest,” etc. Other hearts at once hate the truth, because their deeds are evil. Observe 1. Wherever Christ comes the most decided effects will follow. Whoever you are, the gospel must be to you a savour of life or of death, antidote or poison, curing or killing. It will make you see, or else, because you fancy you see, its very brightness will make you blind. If you live without it, you will die; if you feel that you are dead without it, it will make you live. 2. Christ has come that those who see not may see. (1) The gospel is meant for people who think themselves most unsuited for it and undeserving of it; it is a sight for those who see not. (2) Since Christ has come to open men’ s eyes, I know He did not come to open those bright eyes that seem to say, “ No oculist is needed here.” When there is a charity breakfast the invited guests are not the royal family. So Christ comes to the needy. 3. Let us take the blind man for a model. I. HE KNEW THAT HE WAS BLIND, and took up his proper position as a beggar. Many of you are too high, and must come down. You fancy that you have kept the law from your youth, are and all that you ought to be. As long as you think thus the blessing is delayed. But some of you say: “ I scarcely know my condition. I am not right, I know; I feel so blind.” You are on your way to a cure. II. HE HAD A SINCERE DESIRE TO BE . Christ heals no one who evinces no desire to be healed. III. HE WAS VERY . As soon as the Lord said, “ Go, wash,” he went; he had no Abana and Pharpar which he preferred to the pool. That is a good word in the prophet, “ O Lord, Thou art the Potter and we are the clay.” What can the clay do to help the potter? Be pliable. IV. WHEN HE SAW, HE OWNED IT. The least that you can do for your Healer is to confess Him. V. HE BEGAN TO DEFEND THE MAN WHO OPENED HIS EYES. When the Lord opened the eyes of a great blind sinner, that man will not have Him spoken against. Some of your genteel Christians do not speak for Christ above once in six months. VI. WHEN HIS EYES WERE OPENED, HE WISHED TO KNOW MORE. “ Who is He?” And when he found that He was the Son of God, he worshipped Him. If you have not seen Jesus of Nazareth to be “ very God of very God,” you have seen nothing. VII. HOW IS IT THAT SUCH BLIND MEN COME TO SEE? 1. They have no conceit to hinder Christ. It is easier to save us from our sins than from our righteousness. 2. They refuse to speculate; they want certainties. When a man feels his blindness, if you discuss before him the five nothings of modern theology, he says: “ I do not want them: there is no comfort in them to a lost soul.” 3. They are glad to lean on God. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Are we blind also?--All quarrelling is about the application of general granted rules to personal private cases. (Epictetus.) There is no such hindrance to proficiency as too timely a conceit of knowledge (Revelation 3:17; Luke 8:13; Luke 8:15). (Dr. Hammond.) I suppose that many might have attained to wisdom had they not thought they had already attained to it (Jeremiah 8:8-9; Isaiah 42:18-20). (Seneca.) It is a woeful condition of a Church when no man will allow himself to be ignorant (Psalms 12:4). (Bp. Hall.) If ye were blind, ye should have no sin The sense of sin leads to holiness and the conceit of holiness to sin Some of the most significant of Christ’ s teachings are put in the form of a verbal contradiction: “ He that findeth his life shaft lose it,” etc.; “ Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken,” etc. But the impressiveness of the truth taught is all the greater from being couched in terms that would nonplus a mere verbal critic. It is so with regard to John 9:39 and the text. I. THE SENSE OF SIN TO upon the general principle of supply and demand. This law holds good 1. In our earthly affairs. If one nation requires grain from abroad, another will sow and reap to meet the requisition. If our country requires fabrics it cannot well produce, another will toil to furnish them. From year to year the wants of mankind are thus met. 2. In the operations of Providence. God’ s goodness is over all His works. He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. Famines are the exception and not the rule. Seedtime and harvest fail not from century to century, and there is no surplus to be wanted. 3. In the kingdom of grace. If God is ready to feed the ravens, He is more ready to supply the spiritual wants of His sinful creatures. He takes more pleasure in filling the hungry soul than the hungry mouth. “ If ye, being evil,” etc. If there were only a demand for heavenly food as importunate as there is for earthly, the supply would be at once forthcoming in infinite abundance. For no sinful creature can know his religious necessities without crying out for a supply. Can a man hunger without begging food? No more can a conscious sinner without crying, “ Create in me a clean heart,” etc. And the promises are more explicit in respect to heavenly blessings. You may beg God to restore you to health, to give you a competence, and He may not see fit to grant your prayer. But if you say, “ God be merciful to me, a sinner,” you will certainly obtain an answer, for this will not injure you as the other may; and God has expressly said that it is always His will that man should seek mercy, and always His delight to grant it. Come, then, for all things are now ready (1 John 5:14-15). II. THE CONCEIT OF LEADS TO SIN. We are met at the very outset with the fact that a conceit is in its own nature sin. It is self-deception. The disposition of the Pharisee to say, “ We see,” is an insuperable obstacle to every gracious affection. Christianity is a religion for the poor in spirit. Conceit opposes this, and puffs up a man with pride and fills him with sin. 1. Religion is a matter of the understanding, and consists in a true knowledge of Divine things. Self-flattery is fatal to all spiritual discernment (1) It prevents a true knowledge of one’ s own heart. The Pharisee who said, “ God, I thank Thee,” etc., was utterly ignorant of his own heart, and impervious to any light that might fall upon it. (2) It precluded all true knowledge of God. Humility is necessary to spiritual discernment. God repulses a proud intellect, and shuts Himself up from all haughty scrutiny. “ To this man will I look,” etc. 2. Religion is a matter of the affections, and the injurious influence of a conceit of holiness in these is even more apparent. Nothing is more deadening to emotion than pride. If you would extinguish all religious sensibility within yourself, become a Pharisee. Conclusion: 1. The practical lesson is the necessity of obtaining a sense of sin. So long as we think or say that we “ see” we are out of all saving relations to the gospel. The foundation of true science is willingness to be ignorant, and so it is in religion. The instant a vacuum is produced the air will rush into it, and the instant any soul becomes emptied of its conceit of holiness, and becomes an aching void, and reaches out after something purer and better, it is filled with what it wants. 2. As an encouragement to this we may depend on the aid of the Holy Spirit. (Prof. Shedd.) Blind yet seeing A blind boy, that had suffered imprisonment at Gloucester not long before, was brought to Bishop Hooper the day before his death. Mr. Hooper, after he had examined of his faith and the cause of his imprisonment, beheld him steadfastly, and the water appearing in his eyes, said unto him, “ Ah! poor boy, God hath taken from thee thy outward sight, but hath given thee another sight much more precious; for He hath endued thy soul with the eye of knowledge and faith.” (J. Trapp.) Help for the needy I have felt a wonderful satisfaction in feeding a poor half-starved dog that had no master and nothing to eat. How he has looked up with pleasure in my face when he has been fed to the full! Depend upon it the Lord Jesus Christ will take delight in feeding a poor hungry sinner. You feel like a poor dog, do you not? Then Jesus cares for you. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The emptiness of self-righteous boasting The governor of a besieged city threw loaves of bread over the wall to the besiegers, to make them believe that the citizens had such large supplies that they could afford to throw them away; yet they were starving all the while. There are some men of like manners; they have nothing that they can offer unto God, but yet they exhibit a glittering self-righteousness. Oh! they have been so good, such superior people, so praiseworthy from their youth up; they never did anything much amiss; there may be a little speck here and there upon their garments, but that will brush off when it is dry. They make a fair show in the flesh with morality and formality, and a smattering of generosity. Besides, they profess to be religious: they attend Divine service, and pay their quota of the expenses. Who could find any fault with such good people? Just so; this profession is the fine horse and trap with which they too are cutting a dash just before going through the court. There is nothing at all in you, and there never was. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Misery of unconscious blindness In this unconsciousness lies the heart of the mischief. Helpless man is unconscious of his own helplessness. Because they say, “ We see,” therefore their sin remaineth. If they were blind and knew it, it were another matter, and signs of hope would be visible; but to be blind and yet to boast of having superior sight, and to ridicule those who see, is the lamentable condition of not a few. They will not thank us for our pity, but much they need it. Eyes have they, but they see not, and yet they glory in their far-sightedness. Multitudes around us are in this plight. When the prophet says, “ Bring forth the blind people that have eyes,” we can only wonder where we should put them all if they were willing to assemble in one place. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Introduction The occasion of Christ’ s teaching The special form which the discourse here takes is probably and almost certainly due to the actual presence of a sheepfold with the shepherds and their flocks. We know that Bethesda was near the “ sheepgate,” which is possibly to be identified with a covered portion of the pool of Siloam. We have, in any case, to think of an open fold surrounded by a wall or railing, into which, at eventide, the shepherds lead their flocks, committing them, during the night, to the care of an under-shepherd, who guards the door. In the morning they knock and the porter opens the door, which has been securely fastened, and each shepherd calls his own sheep, who know his voice and follow him. But we must remember that our Lord’ s mind and theirs was full of thoughts ready to pass into a train like this. “ Thy servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers” (Genesis 47:3), was the statement of the first sons of Israel, and it was true of their descendants. Their greatest heroes--Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Daniel--had all been shepherds, and no imagery is more frequent in psalm or prophecy than that drawn from the shepherd’ s work. We must fill our minds with these Old Testament thoughts if we would understand the chapter. Let anyone before commencing it read thoughtfully Psalms 23:1-6; Isaiah 40:11; Jeremiah 33:1-4; Ezekiel 34:1-31; and especially Zechariah 11:4-17, and he will have the key which unlocks most of its difficulties. We have, then, the scene passing before their eyes, and the Old Testament thoughts of the shepherd connected as they were, on the one hand with Jehovah and the Messiah, and on the other with the careless shepherds of Israel, dwelling in their minds; and we have in the events which have just taken place, that which furnishes the starting point and gives to what follows its fulness of meaning. The Pharisees claimed to be shepherds of Israel. They decreed who should be admitted to and cast out from the fold. They professed to be interpreters of God’ s truth, and with it to feed His flock. Pharisees, shepherds! What did they, with their curses and excommunications, know of the tenderness of the Shepherd, “ who shall gather the lambs with His arm,” etc.? Pharisees, feed the flock of God! What had they, with their pride and self-righteousness, ever known of the infinite love and mercy of God; or what had their hearts ever felt of the wants and woes of the masses of mankind? This blind beggar was an example of their treatment of the weaker ones of the flock. The true Shepherd had sought and found this lost sheep, who is now standing near, in His presence and that of the false shepherds. He teaches who the shepherd is and what the flock of God really are. (Archdeacon Watkins.) The pastoral similitudes I. FOUR ARE ON THE SIDE OF GOOD; and in all these may be various manifestations of Christ. 1. The door, as affording the sole admission to the Father. 2. The porter as bearing the keys of David, the keys of death and of hell. 3. The shepherd as the guide and guardian of the sheep. 4. And Himself the sheep also, as being made one with them, in order that He might be a sacrifice for them. II. FOUR ARE ON THE SIDE OF EVIL. 1. The thieves. 2. The robbers; both such as enter not by the door, but prey upon the flock, whether Pharisees, infidels, or heretics. 3. The mercenary, who, though he may enter by the door, is of those who “ seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’ s.” 4. The wolf, which is the enemy of the sheep, under whatsoever form he may assume. (I. Williams, B. D.) John 10:1-13 He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold Shepherdhood The simple lesson which our Lord intended to teach in this familiar passage has often been strangely mistaken. The minds of men have been so fixed upon certain ecclesiastical conclusions which have been commonly derived from it, that the simpler but far profounder teaching which the Master had in mind to give has been overlooked. He was not defending the formal authority of His own or of any office. He was not discussing the regularity or lawfulness of His own or of any ministry. He was not pointing out the mode of entrance into shepherdhood, but He was telling how the function for all true shepherdhood must be discharged. He was laying down the rule of good conduct and right service in all true leadership--a rule which He Himself exemplified and fulfilled, and which all must obey who hope in any degree to be worthy leaders of men. He was propounding a lesson which it behoves all men to ponder well who hope to influence their fellow men for good rank, office, order, culture, property--be the authority, the privilege, the right of these what they may, the eternal law of God, as exemplified in the life of His Son, and taught in His Holy Word, and illustrated in human history, is this: that none of these, no matter how commissioned or sent, can exercise any real shepherdhood over men except as they are in sympathy with them. This is true in Church and State; of the employers of labour; of the heads of households; of civil rulers and political leaders; of bishops, priests, and deacons--the power to lead men lies in sympathizing with them, and walking in the same way with them. The man of influence is the man of sympathy; the man of power is the man of service. He that loves is he that leads. He that serves is he that rules. Think for a moment, and you will see why it must be so. Man is free, The soul is free in the truest, deepest sense of the word. God royally made it so, and even He cannot control it by any merely external force or power. It is free to think, to will, and choose, to love, and no mere force or authority from without can control it in these operations in which its sovereign selfhood is realized. You may chain the limbs of a man--you may coerce his actions or even his words; but how can you get into communion with the soul, and rule its will and affections? There is only one way. If you would influence men intimately, profoundly, really, no matter what your authority or station, you must enter into sympathy with them. You must walk in the same path and enter in by the same door, or you can never be the shepherd of the sheep. This is what St. Paul meant when he sang the praise of love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). Among men love is power. And a greater than St. Paul taught the same lesson and confirmed it by His own Divine experience. The Good Shepherd proved and illustrated His own good shepherdhood by sympathy and love. It was by no flash of splendour or miracle of external power that He proved His Divine leadership over the hearts of men; but by coming to walk with them, to toil and hunger, and suffer with them. He entered into mortal life by the same lowly door of human birth; He passed through it by the same path of toil and daily care; He made His exit from it through the same portal of suffering and death. In life and death He walked with the sheep. Therefore He could say, “ I am the Good Shepherd, not merely because I am commissioned and sent of My Father, not merely because I wield the power of omnipotence,” but “ I am the Good Shepherd,” He said, because “ I know My sheep and am known of Mine.” (Bp. S. S. Harris.) Jesus the Good Shepherd Note I. THE CARE AND OF OUR LORD for every soul that trusts Him. In modem stock raising in Western lands there is nothing of that personal knowledge and attachment which bound together an Oriental shepherd and his flock. 1. It is an infirmity of Christian people to suppose that they are lost in the crowd, that God deals with them in the gross as a general might deal with his army, with rare notice of individuals least of all of privates. Yet in nothing do we wrong Him more. “ The hairs of our head are all numbered.” 2. Christ showed nothing clearer than His attention to every personal want within His reach. We have reason as Paul had to appropriate His atoning work as though it were our monopoly (Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 2:9). Indeed He promises a friendship so intimate that it becomes a system of cipher messages between them and their Lord (Revelation 2:17). 3. We talk about how to convert “ the masses,” when we had better think of single souls. II. THE OF BETWEEN CHRIST AND (John 10:4; John 10:14, R.V.). It is compared for closeness and depth to that which subsists between the Father and the Son. 1. In Christ’ s case we might charge His knowledge on His omniscience, but we cannot so account for ours. Take Christ upon His more human side and you have the explanation. Who has not felt the mystic thrill of sympathy and repulsion when we discover the congenial or uncongenial to ourselves in another character. So Christ felt the unlikeness to Himself of hatred, falseness; but He was drawn with unerring affinity towards the faintest uprisings of human penitence and trust. 2. “ My sheep know Me” ; not merely something about me. Not by the mere investigation of the shepherd’ s clothing or crook, to see if both are genuine, as men puzzle themselves over churches, creeds, ordinances. But as one friend recognizes another by a glance if he can be seen; by his voice if out of sight. The test of truth is the character within us. We know God by resembling Him. These Jews could not be satisfied with our Lord’ s credentials, but certain Samaritans felt the Divine life (chap. 4:42). III. GOD’ S WAY OF MERCY. Thebes had a hundred gates, but salvation only one (John 10:9). An engine off the track is not more a failure than a man off the track of God’ s conditions. All entrance to spiritual hope and safety is through Christ. He will endure no rival. Mingle anything with Him as our hope and the mixture fails. IV. THE TO WHICH CHRIST OPENS THE DOOR (John 10:9). 1. Safety. It reminds us of some fugitive running for his life to the city of refuge. 2. Liberty. A Christian is no jailbird, so closely guarded that he finds himself a prisoner. No slave on a plantation, but a child in the family. He knows the truth, and that makes him free to go where and do what he pleases if he only pleases right. 3. Plenty. V. THE GRAND PURPOSE OF CHRIST’ S ADVENT (John 10:10). Nothing is so precious as life. It was forfeited by sin; but Christ restored it at the expense of His own (John 10:11). And it is to be had now. The young are eager to “ see” and “ enjoy life.” And they are right if they will not look for it in the wrong way. In Christ is the way to gain it, not in the low average of worldly attainment, but “ more abundantly” in all that makes life worth living. VI. THE METHOD OF CHRIST’ S RULE. “ Leadeth” --“ goeth before.” An Eastern shepherd does not drive his flock; and Christ goes before, never behind, saying not “ Go,” but “ Come.” (C. S. Pomeroy, D. D.) The Shepherd and the flock I. THE OF THE SIMILE. 1. To Israelites. From the beginning they had been shepherds; hence all along God had been calling Himself their Shepherd. 2. To Christians. The gathered force of all that psalmists sang and prophets spoke has come down to the “ little flock.” II. THE BY THE SIMILE. 1. The shepherd is the rightful owner of the fold, and treats his fleck in an honest way. He enters by the door, is recognized as the master, and has no semblance of the thief, etc. 2. The shepherd is the true pastor of the sheep. He admits responsibility for the care he has assumed. A hireling would flee, a robber steal and kill, but the good shepherd has thoughtful and affectionate care for the whole flock. 3. Between the pastor and the flock there is the relation of individual acquaintance. III. THE OF THE SIMILE. 1. Christ as a Saviour sustains an individual relationship to every soul He saves, Each needs the atonement and the work of the Spirit precisely as each needs the entire sunshine and atmosphere in order to see and breathe. 2. Christ as a leader is acquainted with every Christian personally. He knows if he is absent from the communion table, and looks at him when he imagines himself out of sight as to love or duty. 3. Christ as a model expects each believer to be wholly conformed to His likeness. It is not to be supposed that one Christian is to exhibit gentleness and another force, etc. 4. Christ as a master is specially direct in laying His commands on every individual He chooses. He knows the one He wants and calls him by name--Samuel, Zacchaeus, Mary, Simon, Saul. 5. Christ as a comforter deals with each believer as His personal friend Isaiah 43:1-2). 6. Christ as a judge will close His last account with each individually and alone (Matthew 25:1-46). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) The fold of the sheep A place of I. . II. . III. SAFETY. (S. S. Times.) The fold and the door Not to enter by the door is a characteristic of Oriental thieves, from the Nile to the Ganges. When a tent is to be attacked, the common method is to approach it under cover of the darkness, cut a hole large enough to crawl through, and then silently to enter and as silently to retire with the booty. Bolder robbers will occasionally dig through the walls of a house in the same way. The experience of a British officer in India affords a curious illustration of the skill of Oriental thieves. During the officer’ s absence in the evening, a man crept quietly up to the tent without attracting the attention of the sentry on guard, cut an opening in the rear of the tent, and began to collect his booty. While he was engaged in this process, the officer returned. The Hindoo instantly fixed himself, silent as a statue, close to the tent wall, with arm drawn up and hand slightly extended. The officer came in, and proceeded in the half-darkness to prepare for rest. Noticing the extended hand of the thief, and mistaking it for a pin of some sort, he hung his helmet and his coat upon it. The thief stood silently holding the helmet and the coat until the officer was asleep, when he retired as he came, taking the helmet and the coat with the rest of his booty. Next morning the hole in the tent and the missing “ pin” told the whole story. (S. S. Times.) Climbeth up some other way 1. Even thieves and robbers seek a place within the fold. 2. The basest motives may impel to a place in the fold. 3. Any way but God’ s way suits base men. 4. Some climb up rather than walk in; they prefer works to faith. (S. S. Times.) Wrong ways to heaven Let the Pagans, the Jews, the heretics say, “ We lead a good life.” If they enter not by the door, what availeth it? A good life only profiteth if it lead to life eternal. Indeed, those cannot be said to lead a good life, who are either blindly ignorant of, or wilfully despise the end of good living. No one can hope for eternal life who knows not Christ, who is the Life, and by that door enters the fold. (Augustine.) Entrance without qualification George Moore tells the following striking incident: “ After I had been about two years in London, I had a great and anxious desire to see the House of Commons. I got a half-holiday for the purpose. I didn’ t think of getting an order from an M.P. Indeed I hadn’ t the slightest doubt of getting into the House. I first tried to get into the Strangers’ Gallery, but failed. I then hung about the entrance to see whether I could find some opportunity. I saw three or four members hurrying in, and I hurried in with them. The door keepers did not notice me. I walked into the middle of the House. When I got in I almost fainted with fear lest I should be discovered. I first got into a seat with the name of ‘ Canning’ upon it. I then proceeded to a seat behind, and sat there all the evening. I heard Mr. Canning bring forward his motion to reduce the duty on corn. He made a brilliant speech and was followed by many others. I sat out the whole debate. Had I been discovered I might have been taken up for breach of privilege.” (H. O. Mackey.) Climbing up some other way into heaven I heard of a man some time ago who was going to get into heaven in his own way. He did not believe in the Bible or the love of God, but was going to get in on account of his good deeds. He was very liberal, gave a great deal of money, and he thought the more he gave the better it would be for him in the other world. I don’ t, as a general thing, believe in dreams, but sometimes they teach good lessons. Well, this man dreamed one night that he was building a ladder to heaven, and he dreamed that every good deed he did put him one round higher on this ladder, and when he did an extra good deed it put him up a good many rounds; and in his dream he kept going, going up, until at last he got out of sight, and he went on and on doing his good deeds, and the ladder went up higher and higher, until at last he thought he saw it run up to the very throne of God. Then in his dream he thought he died, and that a mighty voice came rolling down from above: “ He that climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber,” and down came his ladder, and he woke from his sleep, and thought: “ If I go to heaven, I must go some other way.” My friends, it is by the way of the blood of Christ that we are to go to heaven. If a man has got to work his way there, who will ever get there? (D. L. Moody.) Thieves and robbers.--These words do not constitute a tautology or mere rhetorical amplification (Obadiah 1:5). The one and the other appropriate what is not theirs, but the thief by fraud and in secret Matthew 24:43; John 12:6; cf. Exodus 22:2; Jeremiah 2:26), the robber by violence and openly (2 Corinthians 11:26; cf. Hosea 9:1; Jeremiah 7:11). The one steals, the other plunders, ashis name in the Greek (as our own from raub, “ booty), sufficiently declares. The latter should be substituted for the former in Matthew 21:13; Matthew 26:55; Luke 10:30; Luke 23:39-43. (Archbp. Trench.) Sheep to be fed, not sheared Dr. Johnson declined a rectory in youth with “ I cannot in conscience shear the sheep which I am unable to feed.” John 10:3-5 To him the porter openeth The porter of the door Who is the Porter? Christ we know is the Door. He says so Himself (John 10:7; John 10:9). But who is the Porter? An old Father of the Church writes, “ Christ is the Door of the fold, and the Keeper of the Door, as well as the Shepherd of the sheep He is the Truth, and opens Himself and reveals to us His Truth.” But in spite of this--all very beautiful--all most true in a certain sense, yet not the whole truth, we must seek elsewhere for a satisfactory explanation of this difficulty. I say difficulty, because a distinct personality is ascribed to the Porter. He opens the Door. “ To him the Porter openeth.” It is through His instrumentality that both the true shepherds and the sheep enter into the fold. No! The only satisfactory explanation is to see in the Porter the office and work of God the Holy Ghost. Our understanding is darkened, our hearts are sealed, our ears are closed, unless the Porter openeth. Even the fold of Christ’ s Church is closed against us unless the Porter openeth the Door in holy baptism. The presence of the Lord is real in the blessed Sacrament of the altar, but unless the Porter openeth, His presence is not real to us. Many thronged around Him, but only one poor woman touched Him and was healed; so at the altar the virtue to heal is there, but the power to draw it into our soul’ s health is to the heart touched by the breath of the Spirit--to him the Porter openeth! So it is with the words of absolution--they pass along with a sound and leave no blessing behind unless the Porter openeth. And so it is with the Bible--we read our Bibles, but unless the Porter openeth, the voices of the evangelists and apostles are but as a pleasant tale: listened to, but soon forgotten, or they are like “ the idle wind that we regard not!” And then there is that other book--the book of Nature--which lies open before us. But we hear no sounds in the noisy brook, we see nothing in the opening buds and flowers of early summer; but once the Porter opens the door, then suddenly--“ Earth’ s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God.” Or if we look upon the pages of history. To the natural man they contain only a record of battles lost and won, a long succession of kings, some good, some bad, of dynasties set up or hurled to the ground; but when the Porter opens wide the door, and the light falls upon the pages, then we seem to read between the lines. We see how evil haunts the wicked person to destroy him and his seed forever, we see men sowing the wind and in after years, long after the sowing has faded from the memory, reaping the whirlwind! To read history without the illumination of the Holy Spirit is like looking at a beautiful landscape by the pale light of the moon. We see indeed the dark forms of the hills standing out; we note the trees in their solemn gloom; we hear and see the white foam splashing against the rocky shore; but the flowers and blades of grass, the leaves with their countless tints, the life and colour of the whole scene can only be seen by the light of the clear, noonday sun. So the manifold workings of the Holy Spirit in every successive generation can only be seen when the Porter has opened the door and enlightened our understanding, and given us a right judgment in all things. (J. Louis Spencer.) The Advent message of the Baptist I. WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT THE PORTER ALREADY THIS ADVENT AND HE HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME. We have seen some sitting there; we might have seen others. At one time, as we saw, it was the patriarchs who were sitting there. And they said: “ Go after Him, follow Him. His promise is true and faithful: He will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” And the angels sat there and taught us the thrice holy hymn, and how the incense goes up before the throne, and the worship of the elders, and the great water rush of the Alleluias, whose spray falls in a golden mist over our worship here below; and they said: “ Go out with Him, and going through the vale of misery use it as a well.” And their message was, “ Worship Him.” And the Law sat there in its sternness and said, “ You must,” and “ You shall not,” and so braced us up. And the prophets sat there, with their messages from another world, their devotion and their calm endurance. And they said, “ Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” Yes; and we might have paused to see sitting there also the Gentile world with its splendid natural virtues, its beauty, dignity, and strength, and have heard them point us to the beautiful Shepherd, and bid us aim always at the true, the beautiful, and the good. But today we must contemplate the last figure that sat at the gate of the sheep fold--the precursor of the Shepherd of His people, the forerunner of the King. Then, when the Jewish fold was about to give up its sheep, once and for all, to be merged into something higher, there sits St. John the Baptist; and his message is repentance. His message to the sheep, as they pass out to forget him, to leave him, to lose him, in another and mightier than himself is, “ Repent.” “ To Him the porter openeth.” The Baptist is the last and truest teacher and porter of the Jewish Church, and his great message is, “ Repent.” II. And now let us turn to St. John the Baptist, and see WHAT IN HIS MOUTH MEANT AS A FOR CHRIST. And we are attracted at once with the dignity, the magnitude of the word. It is not quite the most popular method--Repent. And when he said this, he asked them to feel sorrow. The Pharisee must feel, “ Well, I have made a false start.” This satisfaction is not a good sign; the remedies I have chosen have not been painful, but they have not touched the seat of the disease. The knife and the burning is what I need. Oh, that sore! It is a humiliating thought to remember how it came there as I tear away the covering which conceals it. And he meant more than this. They were baptized of him in Jordan “ confessing their sins.” It would be easy and in perfect good taste to soften down the too striking contour of a proud individuality with a confession which does but “ bless with faint blame.” But no, he wants more. He wants each to face for himself the accumulation of a lifetime, to watch the tale of sin mounting up to its deadly total, until like a spendthrift, who having had a general idea that he had been extravagant, is astonished as each bill adds its quota to the heavy debt, some forgotten, some underestimated, some put aside to another day--he faces the accumulating mass and realizes the enormity of the debt which he believed that he some day would be able to pay if God would but extend patience to him. No; repentance on any other principle would lack, I had almost said, that business-like air which should characterize all our dealings with our souls. It would lack that element of humble acknowledgment which, when it concerns ourselves, we call an apology, to an all-knowing God who, indeed, can trace far better than we can right up into the hidden springs of motive, the history of our sins, but yet waits for us with our own mouths to tell Him. And then he had for each his own method of amendment. Such is the message of that porter who held the gate at the last moment before the Dawn, such was his teaching of repentance which was to prepare the way of the Lord. III. AND STILL THE MESSAGE OF THE NEARER ADVENT IS . Would that we learned more that penitence is a prerequisite to entering on the service of God! And then, lastly, “ Repent” is the message before the last, the final coming of the Lord to each soul in death. And here again the Church, just about to give up the sheep into the hands of the Good Shepherd, still murmurs through the voice of the porter--“ Repent.” And so the porter waits the coming of Christ to claim His own. “ Repent.” His voice is stern, but the light gets brighter, the heaven is ablaze, His footsteps sound across the distance, the Bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet Him. (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.) The conscience a porter The moral nature does not jar at the entrance of Christ or of the “ Truth as it is in Jesus.” The porter, which is the conscience and heart of man, never refuses the answer to the true voice. (Monday Club Sermons.) The office of a true shepherd It is not the chief shepherd who is here spoken of, but an under shepherd, a minister of Christ. I. HE IS LED INTO HIS OFFICE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. “ To him the porter openeth” (Acts 14:27; 1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12; Colossians 4:3). II. HIS IS AS FROM GOD. “ The sheep hear His voice.” This can only be when it is drawn from and is in harmony with God’ s Word. III. HE HIMSELF WITH HIS PEOPLE. “ He calleth His own sheep by name.” He is familiar with the names, faces, and circumstances of His flock. IV. HE SETS BEFORE HIS FLOCK AN EXAMPLE THEY MAY SAFELY FOLLOW. “ He leadeth them out.” In His teaching and life He points the way they may safely go--“ allures to brighter worlds and leads the way.” Every shepherd will have to give an account for his flock to the Good Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). (Family Churchman.) He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out The personal love and lead of Christ I. THE LOVE OF CHRIST. The parable is designed to correct the belief that while God has a real care of the Church He can have no personal recognition of its individual members. There could not be a greater mistake. 1. For the relation God holds to objects of knowledge is different in all respects from that which is held by us. Our general terms, man, tree, etc., are names of single specimens extended to species, and comes to stand for millions of men, etc., we never can know. But God does not generalize in this manner. His knowledge of wholes is real and complete as being a distinct knowledge of particulars. Whatever particulars exist were known by Him as being thought before they became fact. Holding in His thought the eternal archetypes of species, He also thought each individual in its particular type as dominated by the common archetype. This on God’ s part is inevitable; for the sun can no more shine on the world without touching every atom than God can know or love whole bodies of saints without knowing or loving individuals. Being a perfect mind and not a mere spark of intelligence like us, He cannot fall into our imperfections when we strain ourselves to set up generals to piece out and hide our ignorance. 2. One of the great uses of the Incarnation was to humanize God that we might believe in His personal love. In Christ was visible one of us and was attentive to every personal want of the world. When a lone woman came up in a crowd to steal as it were some healing power He would not let her off in that impersonal, unrecognizing way. He even hunts up the youth He has healed of his blindness and opens up to him the secrets of His Messiahship. He tasted death for every man. He calls us friends because He is on the private footing of personal confidence, and promises a friendship so personal that it shall be a cipher of mutual understanding, giving us a white stone and in the stone a new name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. 3. Every particular work of this Gospel shows how personal it is. What is communion that is not fellowship with particular souls? We speak of the Holy Spirit as falling on communities, but He reaches the general body only through individuals, save that there is an effect of mutual excitement, which is secondary, and comes from their sense of what is revealed in each other and under the power of the Spirit in each. So with everything included in salvation, in the renewing, fashioning, guidance, discipline, and final crowning in glory; so that a Christian is finally saved not as someone led forth in the flock, but as the Master’ s dear Simon, James, Martha, whose name is so recorded in the Lamb’ s Book of Life. 4. It is in this view that the Church in baptizing her children takes with a beautiful propriety the “ Christian name,” in which Christ recognizes the child’ s discipleship. II. THE LEAD OF CHRIST. 1. Here is the glory of Christ as a Saviour that He goes always before, never behind, His flock. He begins with infancy that He may show a grace for childhood. He is made under the Law and fulfils all righteousness, that He may sanctify the law to us and make it honourable. He goes before us in temptations that we may bear them after Him. He taught us forgiveness by forgiving His enemies. He bore His cross and commands us to bear it after Him. And then He went before us in the bursting of the grave, and ascended as our Forerunner whom we are to follow even there. 2. This spirit entered into those whom He gave to lead the flock. They followed Him in the regeneration and took it upon them as their Master’ s law to require nothing in which they were not forward themselves. “ Follow me as I follow Christ.” We have seen it differently--teachers that lay heavy burdens on men’ s shoulders, feeding themselves out of charities extorted from the poor; philanthropists publishing great swelling words of equality and tapering off in virtues they neither practise nor like. All such drive a flock. Applications: 1. Men make a great mistake when they regard Christian life as a legal and constrained service. This image represents the freedom of the disciple. He is led by a personal influence and answers to the name by which he is called. No Christian is to go to his duty because he must, but only because his heart is in it, for his heart is in his Master’ s love, and he follows Him gladly. 2. We discover what to think of that class who aspire to be specially faithful but are principally strenuous in putting forward and laying, burdens on others, and slide over their own deficiency in the very things they insist on, by extolling the modesty which does not profess to be an example to others. How much more faithful and modest should we be if we judged only as we practiced, and fortified our words by our example! 3. Consider what is true of any disciple who is straying from Christ that his Shepherd still cares for him, and calls him personally. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) The personal relationship between the Shepherd and the sheep You are seated by your fireside on a winter night when the announcement is made--“ A friend has come!” That announce ment makes you benevolently expectant; yet your state of mind is then only vague and uncertain, for there are friends, and friends. But in the next moment the name is spoken, or the face of your friend shines in the door of your room; and that face appearing, or that name uttered, in a moment calls up the proper feeling, no other face appearing there, nor any other name that could be pronounced in your hearing, would call up exactly the same feeling. Each friend has his own place in your heart, and gets his own welcome when he comes. There is a general affection which you bear to all your friends; there is a specific and differentiated affection which you bear to each. So it is with the Shepherd and the flock. The whole flock is known, and loved, and led; but each has separate and individual love and leading. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The calling of the sheep We of the West are accustomed to give names to dogs, horses, and even to cows, and are not surprised that these animals are intelligent enough to recognize their own names. In the ancient East, it was not unusual to give names to sheep in the same way. The classical scholar will recall the instance in Theocritus, where the shepherd calls several of his sheep to him by their individual names. I. CHRIST CALLS 1. HOW. 2. Whom. 3. Whence. 4. Whither. 5. Why. II. CHRIST CALLS BY NAME. 1. By our worldly names; for He knows each personally and particularly. 2. By our spiritual names; for He knows our standing and destiny. (S. S. Times.) The individualizing knowledge of Christ It is hard to realize that Jesus has an individual acquaintance with each of us separately. The very thought is bewildering in its magnitude, in view of the myriads of the redeemed. I once heard General Grant say that when he was colonel of a regiment he knew every man of his command by name; but as he rose in command he found it necessary to diminish the scope of his knowledge of individuals, until, when he was at the head of the entire army, he gave little thought to individuals below the rank of a division commander. An army comrade of mine, who was with General Sherman’ s army in its northward march from Savannah, told me of an incident which illustrated in another way the magnitude of the thought that every soldier had a personal individuality. The army was passing along sparely frequented roadway in North Carolina. A woman stood in the doorway of her cabin, and saw regiment after regiment of men similar in appearance and dress pass by, until, as the thousands upon thousands came and went, she said in wonderment: “ I reckon you ‘ uns ain’ t all got names.” It seemed to her an impossibility that each soldier was a distinct and recognized identity. It would have seemed stranger yet to think that one man could know each soldier there by name. Yet far beyond these suggestions of human limitation of personal knowledge and of personal sympathy, there comes the assurance that Jesus knows His every disciple by name, and that He daily and hourly speaks loving words of tenderness and counsel and guidance accordingly. (H. C.Trumbull, D. D.) The leading of the flock We have here not a mere everyday description of the shepherd’ s act, but a precise statement of a definite historical situation. The time had come for Jesus to lead His flock out of the theocracy which was devoted to destruction. He recognized the sequel of this inevitable rupture in the expulsion of the man (John 9:24), in the decree of excommunication which struck both Himself and His followers, and generally in the violent hostility of which He found Himself the object. (F. Godet, D. D.) Christ’ s guidance He always comes to “ lead,” never to linger and stay. If He finds one so wounded and torn and near to death as to be unable to follow, He will lay that sheep on His shoulder. If He finds a lamb faint and homeless, He will “ carry it in His bosom.” But in most instances He gives from the first the strength to follow, and expects it to be used. “ He leadeth them out” --“ out,” of course, from the whole natural sinful life, from all its darkness and misery, into the light and joy of acceptance; “ out” of infantine feebleness into manly strength; “ out” of narrow views into wider; “ out” of first experiences into more matured; “ out” of mistakes and disappointments into wiser ways and better fortunes; “ out” of dreamy indolence into those activities by which alone it can be escaped; “ out” of overstrained activity into some quiet hour or time of “ refreshing from the presence of the Lord;” “ out” of besetting sin into waiting duty. Sometimes you think if the Good Shepherd were really leading you it would be into other fields than those through which you have of late been passing. Be careful here. I have seen a shepherd, on a bitter snowy day, gathering all his sheep carefully to the windy side of the hill. The silly creatures, left to themselves, would all take the other side; they would go straight to the most dangerous places, to the sheltered spots where the deep snow wreaths form silently, in which they would soon find at once a refuge and a grave. On such a day the life of some of the sheep depends on facing the blast. The shepherd would not let the youngest, he would not let the weakest one of the flock, lie down in the shelter. For the very love he bears it, “ he calls it by name, and leads it out,” or drives, or carries--even in such an hour as that--facing the bitter wind and the blinding snow! And if we knew the personal love of Christ, we shall not be so apt to distinguish and select certain special modes for its manifestation as alone suitable and proper. One mode will seem to us almost as good as another if it be the one that He selects, and we shall hear the loving voice in the darkness as well as in the light; in the roar of the wintry storm as in the hush of the summer silence. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) He goeth before them.--This is a sight which may still be seen in the East. With us sheep are driven; with the Orientals they are led. The shepherd goes on before, and the sheep follow after, much as dogs follow their master in the West, but without the briskness and vigour of dogs. It is not unusual to see the shepherd leading the sheep thus, and at the same time carrying upon his shoulder some tender youngling of the flock. I. CHRIST 1. To open the way. 2. To present an example. 3. To destroy the enemies. II. HIS FLOCK SHOULD FOLLOW 1. Closely. 2. Obediently. 3. Courageously. 4. Hopefully. (S. S. Times.) Christ the Leader of His people I have read of a distinguished general who conducted an army by forced marches through a sterile as well as hostile country. They were footsore, worn, and weary; supplied with the scantiest fare, and toiling all day long, through heavy sands, and beneath a scorching sun. Yet his brave men pressed on--such as fell out of the line by day, unless shot down by the foe who crouched like tigers in every bush, and hung in clouds on their flanks and rear, rejoining their ranks in the cool and darkness of the night. Thus this gallant army, undaunted and indomitable, accomplished a great achievement in arms. And how? They were inspired by their commander. Foregoing the privileges of his rank, he dismounted from his horse to put himself not only at the head of his men, but on a level with them. He shared their hard bed; he lived on their scanty rations; every foot they walked he walked; every foe they faced he faced; every hardship they endured he bore; and with cheek as brown, and limbs as weary, and couch as rude as theirs, he came down to their condition--touched by their infirmities, and teaching them by his example what part to act, and with what patience to endure. They would have followed him to the cannon’ s mouth--his cry not Forward but Follow. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) They know his voice … they know not the voice of strangers The voice of the shepherd known An American, who was travelling in Syria, saw three native shepherds bring their flocks to the same brook, and the flocks drank there together. At length one shepherd arose and called out “ Men-ah! Men-ah!” the Arabic for “ Follow me.” His sheep came out of the common herd and followed him up the hillside. Then the next shepherd did the same, and his sheep went away with him, and the man did not even stop to count them. The traveller said to the remaining shepherd--“ Just give me your turban and crook, and see if they will not follow me as soon as you,” So he put on the shepherd’ s dress and called out “ Men-ah! Men-ah!” but not a sheep moved. “ They know not the voice of a stranger.” “ Will your flock never follow anybody but you?” inquired the gentleman. The Syrian shepherd replied, “ Oh, yes; sometimes a sheep gets sick and then he will follow anyone.” Is it not so with the flock of Christ? (Christian Age.) Sheep will not follow strangers A man in India was accused of stealing a sheep. He was brought before the judge, and the supposed owner of the sheep was present. Both claimed the sheep, and had witnesses to prove their claims; so it was not easy to decide to whom the sheep belonged. Knowing the habits of the shepherds and the sheep, the judge ordered the animal to be brought into court, and sent one of the two men into another room while he told the other to call the sheep. But the poor sheep not knowing the voice of the stranger would not go to him. In the meantime, the other man in the adjoining room growing impatient gave a kind of a “ chuck,” upon which the sheep bounded away towards him at once. This “ chuck” was the way in which he had been used to call the sheep, and it was at once decided that he was the real owner. (W. Baxendale.) False teachers not trusted This verse justifies true Christians in not listening to false teachers. For leaving their parish church, perhaps under these circumstances, many reproach them. Yet the very men who reproach them would not trust their worldly affairs to an ignorant and dishonest lawyer, or their bodies to an incompetent doctor I Can it be wrong to act on the same principles for our souls? (T. Scott, M. A.) False teachers shunned Placilla, the Empress, when Theodosius (senior) desired to confer with Eunomius the heretic, dissuaded her husband very earnestly; lest, being perverted by his speeches, he might fall into heresy. Anastasius II, Bishop of Rome (497), whilst he sought to convince Acacius the heretic, was seduced by him. A little leaven soon soureth the whole lump. One spoonful of vinegar will soon tart a great deal of sweet milk, but a great deal of milk will not so soon sweeten one spoonful of vinegar. (J. Trapp.) Satisfaction only in following Christ It is said that man is a religious animal. He must have some religion. To any Christian it must be the religion of Christ: that or none. We cannot go back to paganism. We cannot return to Judaism. Judaism is nothing but a promissory note. If Christ is not the Messiah, that note is two thousand years past due, and daily becoming more worthless and more hopeless. We cannot go to Mahomet, riding armour clad and blood stained, leading us to a life of revenge and a heaven of sensuality. We cannot accept Brahmanism, with its vedas and its Hindoo gods, with its metaphysical quibbles and its social tyrannies. Every woman, and every man with wife and sister and daughter says, We will have no Brahmanism. We cannot be atheists, and say, “ There is no God!” for then would Nature’ s heart cease to beat, and we could only stand orphaned by its mighty corpse, and wait without hope till we are buried at last in the same eternal grave of rayless night. (R. S. Barrett.) I am the Door of the sheep The connection between the two similitudes The picture (John 10:1-5) which described the forming of the Messianic flock, and its departure from the theocratic fold was a morning scene. This, which describes the life of the flock when formed and led by the Messiah, is taken from a scene at midday. The sheep go at will in and out of a fold situated in the midst of the pasture. When they desire shelter they enter it: when hunger urges them they leave it, for its door is constantly open to them. They thus possess both safety and abundance, the two essentials to the prosperity of the flock. In this new image the shepherd disappears, and it is the door which plays the chief part. The fold no longer represents the ancient covenant, but Messiah’ s salvation, and that complete happiness which believers who have accepted Him enjoy. In the former parable, God caused the porter to open the door to the shepherd; in this the Messiah Himself is to His sheep the door of a constant and daily salvation. (F. Coder, D. D.) The door and the shepherds I. THE DOOR. 1. Of the sheep--the entrance through which a soul passes into God’ s fold. This Christ claims to be (1) Personally. “ I,” not My teaching, example, propitiation. (2) Exclusively. “ The.” As a Saviour Christ stands alone, shares His honours with no colleague, not even with a Moses, far less with a Zoroaster, Confucius, Mohammed, angel, virgin, priest, or pope. (3) Universally--“ any” (Hebrews 7:25). (4) Certainly--“ Shall be saved.” (5) Completely: Salvation (a) The most desirable in quality; perfect freedom. (b) The most abundant in quantity; ample satisfaction. 2. To the sheep--the entrance by which the shepherds find access. This also Christ claims to be, and therefore no one has a right to be shepherd who does not (1) Derive such an office from Christ (Ephesians 4:11). (2) Approach men through His own personal acquaintance with Christ 2 Corinthians 4:13). (3) Seek to lead men to a believing acceptance of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2). (4) Devote himself to the spiritual edification of those who have believed on Christ (Ephesians 4:12; 1 Timothy 4:6; 2 Timothy 4:2). II. THE . 1. False. (1) The time they appeared - “ before Christ.” (2) Their character - “ thieves, etc.” (3) Their objects - to steal, kill, etc., for their own enrichment (verse 10). (4) Their experience (verse 3). 2. The true Shepherd. (1) Whence He came: from above, from heaven, from God. (2) When He appeared: in the fulness of the times. (3) What He sought: the welfare of God’ s flock (a) That men might have life. (b) That believers might have it abundantly (John 1:16). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ the Door 1. None can enter without the permission of Christ. 2. Without the knowledge of Christ. 3. Without the image of Christ. 4. Without faith in the blood of Christ. 5. Without sharing in the blessedness of Christ. Christ is the door to a right understanding of nature, providence, history, the Bible. By Him alone we have access to the Father, the enjoyment of salvation, the title to heaven. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Christ the Door The simile is at first sight a strange one. A door is seldom a thing of beauty or impressiveness--a mere instrument of convenience. Yet upon further thought there will come to mind so many uses that admiration will take the place of surprise. A door is an emblem 1. Of separation. On one side are the passions, the driving cares of the world; on the other love and quietness. 2. Of protection. The things that are happening in the community roll up to the door and, like a wave on the beach, they break and pass away. And we can bring up our children, thanks to the Door, in the midst of temptations safely. 3. Of hospitality. To keep an open door is equivalent to the declaration that one employs it as one instrument of pleasure to others. At the door too we greet the returning children and the much prized guests. When Christ, therefore, called Himself a door no more significant symbol could well have been selected. He is the Door to the home. Christ is the door I. FOR THE . There is no sound in the household sweeter than the opening and closing door when love reigns. All day long the father strives at business. The whole day has been full of care and wrangling. The head is hot and the limbs weary. But the day is over at last and he prepares for home. He draws near. The door opens. The children hear it and run. Now every wrinkle is gone and he looks round with a sense of grateful rest and thanks God that the sound of that shutting door was the last echo of the thunder of care and trouble. “ I am the Door,” says Christ; opening you shall be within the circle of love. What the home is to the troubled that is Christ to those who know how to make use of Him. Speak ye that have proved it. Mothers who have been sustained in the midst of troubles that rasped the soul to the very quick: fathers who have gone through the burden and heat of the world. There are bereaved hearts who need the refuge you have found. Publish the invitation you have accepted. “ Come unto Me all ye,” etc. II. FOR THE . If the journey of the hearts of petitioners to the doors of men of wealth, influence, wisdom, skill, could be written, how full of pathos it would be! Who can imagine the solicitude of one delicately reared but reduced to poverty as she seeks aid that she may rescue from suffering and death her offspring. Torn between delicacy and affection how hesitating she goes to the door of the rich man for help! But it is opened, and scarcely has she seated herself before her benefactor comes and makes her sorrow his own. But have there not been those who have gone to Christ for themselves or their children with as little faith, with anguish unspeakable? And, or ever they knew it, the cloud was lifted; the door was opened; the Christ was manifest; and His bounty flooded their souls. III. FOR THE DOUBTER. There is no experience more dreary for a noble nature than doubt. It may do for dry natures; but I would rather have superstition. Admitting that that is dead at the root, yet, like a tree covered with mistletoe, there is some life and freshness. But the doubter is dead from top to root. Or he may be compared to one lost in a snowstorm in an open prairie. The road he travels on is soon obliterated. There is now nothing by which he can direct his course. He begins to be uncertain and is alarmed. With this comes exertion, which makes matters worse. He wanders round and round, grows chilly and numb, drowsiness steals over him; and, just as he is tempted to take the fatal rest, he discerns a light, follows it, stumbles upon the door of the cottage, which bursts open, and there he sinks down as one dead. But behind that door he is safe. And so there are those who have wandered from church to church, from theory to theory, from belief to unbelief. Round and round they wander; as they are about to give up there comes the opening of a door through which streams the light of Christ. Men want to be argued out of doubt; but what men need is not more reasoning, persuading, showing, but more Christ. Only love can cure. IV. FOR THOSE WHO IN FIND HEART RICHES. There are many who live in a plain way, unconscious that there are great treasures near, and are brought unexpectedly into a full fruition of them. How many go to Christ as to a captain on a battlefield, a master in a workshop, expecting suffering and toil, and find Him instead to be the door to a beautiful home where they find comfort and wealth in abundance. V. FOR THOSE IN DANGER. David represents God as a strong tower into which he may run and be safe from the victorious and pursuing enemy or the pitiless storm. Christ is the door of refuge to souls in all kinds of peril. VI. FOR . There is a vagrant child who has proved the folly of his course. He hesitates about going back; but he goes and finds the door open, however long he may have been away. There is the child who has honourably wandered and is on his return. How the vision of the door haunts him! And that daughter who has wandered to the brink of hell, the door held open by a mother’ s love invites her return. And what the open door of home is to the penitent Jesus is to the worst. VII. OF DEATH; but He is a gate of pearl. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ the door I. A DOOR INTO AN --either a home or a sanctuary. The enclosure of which Christ is the Door Isaiah 1. The Church, to which He affords entrance by His atonement. 2. Heaven, of which He is the Door, because He is the Door of the Church; for both are in the same enclosure, the one being the vestibule of the other. “ He that believeth … hath eternal life.” II. THE OF THE DOOR: breadth and narrowness. One class of Scriptures disclose the Door as wide as the world in the light of the ample provision made for salvation. But when viewed in its attitude towards sin it is so narrow that the smallest sin cannot enter. The rich moralist found it too narrow with his single sin, but it was broad enough to admit the penitent “ chief of sinners.” III. THIS DOOR IS BOTH EASY AND TO OPEN. There are doors so arranged that the pressure of a child’ s finger on a spring will cause them to swing wide open, when otherwise the strongest force could not move them. The Spring of this door will yield to the weakest touch of faith, but the Door will not move by the mightiest other means. See this illustrated in the case of the publican and Pharisee. IV. CHRIST IS THE ONLY DOOR. “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” “ Neither is there salvation in any other.” True, John saw twelve gates. One door into the Church, many into heaven. Each gate is some beautiful pearl of Christ’ s grace--His love, wisdom, faithfulness, etc. But they are all one in Christ. V. THIS DOOR IS A SURE DEFENCE TO THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN REFUGE WITHIN IT. No enemy shall be able to force an entrance. “ The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (M. W. Hamma, D. D.) Christ the Door Our Lord sets Himself forth very condescendingly. The most sublime and poetical figures are none too glorious to describe Him; but He chooses homely ones, which the most prosaic minds can apprehend. 1. A door is a common object. Jesus would have us often think of Him. 2. A door makes a very simple emblem. Jesus would have the lowliest know Him, and use Him. 3. A door to a sheepfold is the poorest form of door. Jesus condescends to be anything, so that He may serve and save His people. I. THE DOOR. In this homely illustration we see 1. Necessity. Suppose there had been none, we could never have entered in to God, peace, truth, salvation, purity, or heaven. 2. Singularity. There is only one door; let us not weary ourselves to find another (Acts 4:12). 3. Personality. Jesus is Himself the door; not ceremonies, doctrines, professions, achievements, but Himself. 4. Suitability. He is suited to be the communication between man and God, seeing He unites both in His own person, and thus lies open both earthward and heavenward (1 Timothy 2:5). 5. Perpetuity. His “ I am” is for all times and ages (Matthew 23:20). We can still come to the Father by Him (John 14:6; Hebrews 7:25). II. THE USERS OF IT. 1. They are not mere observers, or knockers at the door, or sitters down before it, or guards marching to and fro in front of it. But they enter in by faith, love, experience, communion. 2. They are not certain persons who have special qualifications, such as those of race, rank, education, office, or wealth. Not lords and ladies are spoken of; but “ any man.” 3. They are persons who have the one qualification: they do “ enter in.” The person is “ any man,” but the essential distinction is entrance. This is intended to exclude (1) Character previously acquired as a fitness for entrance. (2) Feeling either of grief or joy, as a preparation for admission. (3) Action, otherwise than that of entering in, as a term of reception. 4. A door may be marked private, and then few will enter. A door which is conspicuously marked as the door is evidently meant to be used. The remarkable advertisement of “ I am the door,” and the special promises appended to it, are the most liberal invitation imaginable. Come then, ye who long to enter in life l III. THE OF THESE USERS. They belong to all who enter; no exception is made. 1. Salvation. “ He shall be saved.” 2. Liberty. He “ shall go in and out.” 3. Access. “ Shall go in” : for pleading, hiding, fellowship, instruction, enjoyment. 4. Egress. “ He shall go out” : for service, progress, etc. 5. Nourishment. “ And find pasture.” Our spiritual food is found through Christ, in Christ, and around Christ. Conclusion: Let us enter. 1. A door is easy of access; we shall not have to climb over some lofty wall. 2. It is a door for sheep, who have no wisdom. 3. The door is Jesus; we need not fear to draw nigh to Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The parable of the door Two distinct allegories in this part of the chapter; they should be carefully distinguished. The parable of the Good Shepherd is sustained at greater length, and has found first place in the popular mind; but this parable of the door has a beauty of its own. Two ideas are prominent. I. SAFETY. “ He shall be saved.” 1. The sinner pursued by grim memories of guilt that are like a pack of wolves, makes for this stout Door: as he passes in it closes upon all the fierce pursuers, and the hunted victim may breathe freely again. 2. The saint too needs shelter. (1) He must earn money, and mammon lurks near. (2) He must sustain himself, and selfishness is not far off. (3) He must have recreation, and the lust of pleasure lies in wait. (4) He must mix with men, and pride and fear alternately threaten to devour him. (5) He must play the citizen, and the spirit of party bitterness couches near. But he too can make for this shelter when chased by these spirits of evil, and once across this threshold may leave the rabble, howling but harmless, the wrong side of the door. II. LIBERTY. “ He shall go in and out,” etc. There is a passing out through Christ into the world. The Christian life is no life of isolation; we still remain under obligation to deal with mundane affairs. But it is possible to share Christ’ s view of life, to see all its duties in the light of His Cross, so that we pass in and out between the Church and the world unharmed. (Walter Hawkins.) Christ the only Door I. HOW TO ENTER THE CHURCH. 1. Negatively. We cannot get into it (1) By baptism. Millions are baptized with water, but unless they come to Christ by true faith they are no better than baptized pagans. (2) By birthright. It is a great privilege to have Christian parents, but, “ except a man be born again,” etc. Your father and mother are not the door, but Christ only. (3) By profession. A professor may prove himself a hypocrite, but he cannot prove himself a Christian by mere profession. Men do not get rich by professing to be wealthy. They must hold their title deeds, and have cash in the strong box. (4) By admission to the visible Church. If a man leaves the door alone and climbs over the wall and gets into the outward Church without Christ, he is a thief, etc. If you have not Christ your Church certificates are waste paper. 2. Positively. By faith in Christ. (1) If you exercise this it makes it plain that you enter by Christ, the Door, because faith leads to obedience. “ By their fruits ye shall know them.” (2) If we have entered through that Door it does not matter what priest or pope may say. II. THE OF BY THAT DOOR. 1. He shall be saved--as the manslayer from the avenger; as Noah and his family. 2. He shall go in (1) To rest and peace, for there is no condemnation (Romans 3:1). (2) To secret knowledge. (3) To God, with holy boldness in prayer as the adopted heir of heaven. (4) To the highest attainment in spiritual things, for a man does not tarry just inside the threshold of his home. Do not stop where you are. Go further in to get more holiness, joy, etc. 3. He shall go out (1) To his daily business. The way to do that calmly and justly is to go to it through Christ. Do you neglect your morning prayer. (2) To suffering. (3) To conflict with temptation. (4) To Christian service. It makes all the difference between success and failure whether we go on not out through “ the Door.” 4. He shall find pasture (Psalms 23:1-6). (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Door always open In olden times, cathedrals were regarded as places of sanctuary, where criminals and others might take refuge. Over the north porch of Durham Cathedral was a room where two doorkeepers kept watch alternately to admit any who at any time, either by day or by night knocked at the gate, and claimed the protection of St. Cuthbert. Whoever comes to the door of our house of refuge, and at whatever time, finds ready admittance. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Of all means of protection, the least trustworthy are those which are trustworthy only at times. Ship’ s boats that cannot be lowered at the critical moment; fire escapes that can be swept by the rushing flames; towers of refuge that are locked and barred when the need for refuge comes;--all these inspire a false confidence, and are the more untrustworthy that they seem so trustworthy. It was a wise provision of the Romans when they instituted the office of Tribune of the Plebs for the protection of the common people, that the doors of the Tribune should stand open night and day. And so they stood; and to these wide-open doors of refuge the oppressed plebeian could flee by day or by night, sure of always finding a refuge there. Such, too, is the Christian’ s privilege. (H. C.Trumbull, D. D.) Doorkeepers dismissed The work of the reformation was thus described by Stern, a German statesman: “ Thank heaven, Dr. Luther has made the entrance into heaven somewhat shorter, by dismissing a crowd of doorkeepers, chamberlains, and masters of ceremony.” Christ, the only Door into the kingdom of God The old city of Troy had but one gate. Go round and round and round the city, and you could find no other. If you wanted to get in, there was but one way, and no other. So to the strong and beautiful city of heaven there is but one gate and no other. Do you know what it is? Christ says, “ I am the Door.” (J. L.Nye.) He shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.--The fulness of Christian life is exhibited in its three elements--safety, liberty, support. Admission to the fold brings with it, first, security. But this security is not gained by isolation. The believer goes in and out without endangering his position (Numbers 27:17; Deuteronomy 31:2); he exercises the sum of all his powers, claiming his share in the inheritance of the world, secure in his home. And while he does so he finds pasture. He is able to convert to Divinest uses all the fruits of the earth. But in all this he retains his life “ in Christ,” and he approaches all else “ through Christ,” who brings not only redemption, but the satisfaction of man’ s true wants (cf. John 7:37) . (Bp. Westcott.) Salvation I read a story the other day of some Russians crossing wide plains studded over here and there with forests. The wolves were out, the horses were rushing forward madly, the travellers could hear the baying; and, though the horses tore along with all speed, yet the wolves were fast behind, and they only escaped, as we say, “ by the skin of their teeth,” managing just to get inside some hut that stood in the road, and to shut the door. Then they could hear the wolves leap on the roof; they could hear them dash against the sides of the hut; they could hear them gnawing at the door, and howling, and making all sorts of dismal noises; but the travellers were safe, because they had entered in by the door, and the door was shut. Now, when a man is in Christ, he can hear, as it were, the devils howling like wolves, all fierce and hungry for him; and his own sins, like wolves, are seeking to drag him down to destruction. But he has got in to Christ, and that is such a shelter that all the devils in the world, if they were to come at once, could not start a single beam of that eternal refuge: it must stand fast, though the earth and heaven should pass away. (C. H. Spurgeon.) To go in and out is an expression frequently used in Scripture to designate the free use of an abode into which one may enter and from which one may depart, without hindrance, which supposes that the individual so acting belongs to the house, and is at home there (Deuteronomy 27:6; Deuteronomy 31:2; Jeremiah 37:4; Acts 1:21). Jesus here uses the term “ to go in” to denote the satisfaction of a desire for repose, the possession” of a safe retreat; and “ to go out” to indicate the satisfaction of the need of nourishment, the enjoyment of rich pasturage. The idea of pasture is further developed in John 10:10 by that of life, to which is added the idea of abundance, of superfluity. (F. Godet, D. D.) “ Go in” means entering by faith, “ go out” means dying in faith and the resultant life in glory. (Augustine.) Christian liberty The fold of Christ is not a prison. It does not shut men in forcibly. Those who belong in it can pass and repass at their pleasure, seeking pasture everywhere in the exercise of Christian liberty. There are no persons on earth so free to gather knowledge from all sources, and to hunt out the good from all directions, as Christian scientists. And no man can know so much about any good there is in all the outside religions of the world as the intelligent disciple of Jesus who is competent to recognize truth even when commingled with error, and who therefore has power to distinguish between truth and error. The man who has not yet been inside of the Christian fold is of all men less capable of comparing that fold with the religions of the world outside of it. There is a vast difference between him who keeps outside all the time, and him who goes in and goes out finding pasture. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Christian pasturage Many fields has He in this great pasture land of life; and He has some of the well-loved sheep in them all. There are the fields of peace, much sought after, which, however, are apt to lose their charm and stay their benefits when too long tarried in. There are the fields of toil, where the nourishment comes by working more than by eating. There are the fields of danger, where all the senses need to be in exerelse, and all the energy bent towards getting through. There are the fields of darkness, where the sheep crowd close to the shepherd in timid trustfulness. There are the fields of prospect, where at times refreshing sight may be had of the higher pasture land up to which all the flock will be led one day amid celestial light and song. And again we say that every one of these fields is as a trysting place, where the Divine lover of human souls can meet with such of them as for the time He may “ call,” and where He can give them, one by one, such tokens of His love and care as their needs for the time require. Nor will it be long until He leads them through the particular field, and into the gate of some new “ time” or “ season” which has meanwhile arrived. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The gifts to the flock Jesus Christ presents Himself before the whole race of man, and declares Himself able to deal with the needs of every individual in the tremendous whole. “ If any man” --no matter who, where, when. For all noble and happy life there are at least three things needed: security, sustenance, and a field for the exercise of activity. To provide these is the end of all human society and government. Jesus Christ here says that He can give all these for everybody. The imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, in His mind, and colours the form of the representation. But the substance is the declaration that, to any and every soul, no matter how ringed about with danger, no matter how hampered and hindered in work, no matter how barren of all supply earth may be, He will give these the primal requisites of life. “ He shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” I. IN AND THROUGH CHRIST ANY MAN MAY BE SAVED. 1. The word “ saved” here is rather used with reference to the imagery of the parable than in its full Christian sense, and means “ safe,” rather than “ saved.” At the same time, the two ideas pass into one another; and the declaration of my text is that because, step by step, conflict by conflict, in passing danger after danger, external and internal, Jesus Christ, through our union with Him, will keep us safe, at the last we shall reach everlasting salvation. You and I have to betake ourselves behind the defences of that strong love and mighty hand if ever we are to pass through life without fatal harm. For consider that, even in regard of outward danger, union with Jesus Christ defends and delivers us. Suppose two Manchester merchants, made bankrupt by the same commercial crisis; or two shipwrecked sailors lashed upon a raft; or two men sitting side by side in a railway carriage and smashed by the same collision. One is a Christian and the other is not. The same blow is altogether different in aspect and actual effect upon the two men. The one is crushed, or embittered, or driven to despair, or to drink, or something or other, to soothe the bitterness; the other bows himself with “ It is the Lord! Let Him do what seemeth Him good.” So the two disasters are utterly different, though in form they may be the same, and he that has entered into the fold by Jesus Christ is safe, not from outward disaster--that would be but a poor thing--but in it. 2. In our union with Jesus Christ, by simple faith in Him and loyal submission and obedience, we do receive an impenetrable defence against the true evils, and the only things worth calling dangers. For the only real evil is the peril that we shall lose our confidence and be untrue to our best selves, and depart from the living God. Nothing is evil except that which tempts, and succeeds in tempting, us away from Him. Real gift of power from Jesus Christ, the influx of His strength into our weakness of some portion of the spirit of life that was in Him into our deadness is promised, and the promise is abundantly fulfilled to all men who trust Him. Oh, brother, do not trust yourself out amongst the pitfalls and snares of life without Him. And so, kept safe from each danger and in each moment of temptation, the aggregate and sum of the several deliverances will amount to the everlasting salvation which shall be perfected in the heavens. 3. Remember the condition, “ By Me if any man enter in.” That is not a thing to be done once for all, but needs perpetual repetition. When we clasp anything in our hands, however tight the initial grasp, unless there is a continual effort of renewed tightening, the muscles become lax, and you have to renew the tension if you are to keep the grasp. So in our Christian life it is only the continual repetition of the act which our Master here calls “ entering in by Him” that will bring to us this continual exemption from, and immunity in, the dangers that beset us. Keep Christ between you and the storm. Keep on the lee side of the Rock of Ages. Keep behind the breakwater, for there is a wild sea running outside; and your little boat, undecked and with a feeble hand at the helm, will soon be swamped. Keep within the fold, for wolves and lions lie in every bush. Live moment by moment in the realizing of Christ’ s presence, power, and grace. Only so shall we be safe. II. IN JESUS CHRIST ANY MAN MAY FIND A FIELD FOR . That metaphor of “ going in and out” is partly explained to us by the image of the flock, which passes into the fold for peaceful repose, and out again, without danger, for exercise and food; and partly by its frequent use in the Old Testament, and in common conversation, as the designation of the two-sided activity of human life. The one side is the contemplative life of interior union with Jesus Christ by faith and love; the other the active life of practical obedience in the field of work which God provides for us. 1. “ He shall go in.” That comes first, though it interferes with the propriety of the metaphor, because the condition of this “ going in” is the other “ entering in by Me, the door.” That is to say, that, given the union with Jesus Christ by faith, there must then, as the basis of all activity, follow very frequent and deep inward acts of contemplation, of faith, and aspiration, and desire. You must go into the depths of God through Christ. You must go into the depths of your own souls through Him. It is through Christ that we draw near to the depths of Deity. It is through Him that we learn the length and breadth and height and depth of the largest and loftiest and noblest truths that can concern the Spirit. It is through Him that we become familiar with the inmost secrets of our own selves. And only they who habitually live this hidden and sunken life of solitary and secret communion will ever do much in the field of outward work. Remember the Lord said first, “ He shall go in.” And unless you do you will not be “ saved.” 2. But if there have been, and continue to be, this unrestricted exercise through Christ of that sweet and silent life of solitary communion with Him, then there will follow upon that an enlargement of opportunity, and power for outward service such as nothing but the emancipation by faith in Him can ever bring. Howsoever by external circumstances you and I may be hampered and hindered, however often we may feel that if something outside of us were different the development of our active powers would be far more satisfactory, and we could do a great deal more in Christ’ s cause, the true hindrance lies never without, but within; and is only to be overcome by that plunging into the depths of fellowship with Him. III. IN JESUS CHRIST ANY MAN MAY RECEIVE . “ They shall find pasture.” The imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, present to the Master’ s mind, and shapes the form in which this great promise is set forth. I need only remind you, in illustration of it, of two facts, one, that in Jesus Christ Himself all the true needs of humanity are met and satisfied. He is “ the bread of God that came down from heaven to give life to the world.” Do I want an outward object for my intellect? I have it in Him. Does my heart feel with its tendrils, which have no eyes at the ends of them, after something round which it may twine, and not fear that the prop shall ever rot or be cut down or pulled up? Jesus Christ is the home of love in which the dove may fold its wings and be at rest. Do I want an absolute and authoritative command to be laid upon my will; someone “ Whose looks enjoin, Whose lightest words are spells?” I find absolute authority, with no taint of tyranny, and no degradation to the subject, in that infinite will of His. Does my conscience need some strong detergent to be laid upon it which shall take out the stains that are most indurated, inveterate, and engrained? I find it only in the blood that cleanseth from all sin. Do my aspirations and desires seek for some solid and substantial and unquestionable and imperishable good to which, reaching out, they may be sure that they are not anchoring on cloud land? Christ is our hope. For all this complicated and craving commonwealth that I carry within my soul, there is but one satisfaction, even Jesus Christ Himself. Nothing else nourishes the whole man at once, but in Him are all the constituents that the human system requires for its nutriment and its growth in every part. So in and through Christ we find pasture. But beyond that, if we are knit to Him by simple and continual faith, love, and obedience, then what is else barrenness becomes full of nourishment, and the unsatisfying gifts of the world become rich and precious. They are nought when they are put first, they are much when they are put second. I remember when I was in Australia seeing some wretched cattle trying to find grass on a yellow pasture where there was nothing but here and there a brown stalk that crumbled to dust in their mouths as they tried to eat it. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 10:11-15I am the Good Shepherd Christ the Good Shepherd Christ is “ the Good Shepherd. ” He is this because I. He OWNS the sheep. He is the Proprietor of the flock. They are His 1. By the gift of the Father. “ Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me.” 2. By creative ties. “ His own” --sheep which are His even before they are called. 3. By purchase. “ The Good Shepherd giveth” as a deposit, layeth down as a pledge, “ His life for the sheep” (Hebrews 13:20). The blood He shed was not in His own defence, but for the sake of those whom He came to rescue. II. He KNOWS His sheep. 1. By their faces. An ancient and convenient custom among shepherds is to put a mark upon their sheep, an ear-mark, as they call it; and by the mark they know them in years to come. Jesus Christ, too, puts a mark on His sheep, not on the ear, but on the forehead (Revelation 14:1). 2. By their names. He knows His followers, not as men and women only, but as Peter and Andrew, Mary and Martha. The saints have queer names in the Epistles. I cannot remember them, but Jesus does. He calls the stars by name too, but then the stars are very big things. The wonder is that He calls the tiny sheep by name, scattered as they are. “ What’ s in a name?” A great deal, especially in a Christian name, given at the font, and accepted by Christ. 3. Their circumstances (Revelation 2:13). The Good Shepherd knows where you live--the town, the street, the house (Acts 9:11; Acts 10:5-6). 4. By a thorough apprehension of their character. In the fourth and fifth verses “ know” signifies outside acquaintance--that Christ and man have come within the same circle. But in the fourteenth verse it means a clear discerning insight into the springs of life and the motives of action. III. He FEEDS His sheep (John 10:9). 1. “ They go in” first to the fold. Rest after wandering. “ He leadeth me beside the still waters” (services of God’ s House: perusal of the Bible). 2. They “ go out” to graze. “ He maketh me to lie down in green pastures” . The Bible pasture is green pasture. Every truth as fresh as if it were spoken but yesterday. Not only is the grass green, but there is plenty of it (John 10:10). IV. He LEADS the sheep (John 10:3). 1. He leads the sheep. Exceedingly simple and helpless is a sheep gone astray. And when the Bible speaks of sinners it compares them to erring Isaiah 53:6). 2. He leads them gently (verse 4). He is not behind them, searing them with the lashes of the law, but in front of them, drawing them with the cords of His love, and adapting His steps to theirs. 3. He leads them safely along “ the paths of righteousness for His name’ s sake.” This is, to me, one of the most cogent reasons for believing in His Divinity, that He was able to stamp His feet so deeply on the rock of history, that their prints have not yet been erased. The weight of Godhead was in His steps, the emphasis of the Infinite in His tread. 4. Not only does He lead us through life, but He goes before us through Psalms 23:4). Not a single sheep will be wanting, they shall all be safely folded by Divine love (verse 16). (J. C. Jones, D. D.) Christ the Good Shepherd This is one of those Divine sayings in which there is so much of truth and love, that we seem able to do little more than to record it and ponder on it, to express it by symbols, and to draw from it a multitude of peaceful and heavenly thoughts. It was the symbol under which, in times of persecution, His presence was shadowed forth. It was sculptured on the walls of sepulchres and catacombs; it was painted in upper chambers and in oratories; it was traced upon their sacred books; it was graven on the vessels of the altar. The image of the Good Shepherd has expressed, as in a parable, all their deepest affections, fondest musings, most docile obedience, most devoted trust. It is a title in which all other titles meet, in the light of which they blend and lose themselves. Priest, Prophet, King, Saviour, and Guide, are all summed up in this more than royal, paternal, saving name. It recalls in one word all the mercies and lovingkindness of God to His people of old, when “ the Shepherd of Israel” made His own people “ to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.” It recites, as it were, all the prophecies and types of the Divine care which were then yet to be revealed to His elect: it revives the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel (Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:12-27; Ezekiel 37:24; Isaiah 49:9-10). And, moreover, by this title He appropriates to Himself the fulfilment of His own most deep and touching parable of the lost sheep. There is no thought or emotion of pity, compassion, gentleness, patience, and love which is not here expressed. It is the peculiar consolation of the weak, or of them that are out of the way; of the lost and wandering; of the whole flock of God here scattered abroad “ in the midst of this naughty world.” And though it be an office taken on earth, and in the time of our infirmity, it is a name which He will never lay aside. Even in the heavenly glory it still is among His titles. He is even there “ the chief Shepherd,” “ that great Shepherd of the sheep” ; and in the state of bliss shall still guide His flock: though more fully to express the unity of His nature with theirs, and His own spotless sacrifice in their behalf, He is called “ the Lamb” (Revelation 7:17). Let us then consider awhile the surpassing and peculiar goodness of the One True Shepherd. And this He has revealed to the world in His voluntary death. There was never any other but He who came down from heaven that He might lay down “ His life for the sheep.” This is the one perpetual token of His great love to all mankind--a token ever fresh, quickened with life, full of power to persuade the hearts of His people to Himself. “ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” ; and therefore the death of the good Shepherd is the subject of all the Church’ s testimony. Again, His surpassing goodness is shown in the provision He has made of all things necessary for the salvation of His flock in this state of mortality and sin. For this He has provided, first, in the external foundation and visible perpetuity of His Church. He has secured it by the commission to baptize all nations, by the universal preaching of His apostles, by shedding abroad the Holy Ghost, by the revelation of all truth, by the universal tradition of the faith in all the world. And, secondly, His love and care are shown, not only in the external and visible provision which He thus made beforehand for the perpetual wants of His flock, but in the continual and internal providence wherewith He still watches over it. The whole history of His Church from the beginning--the ages of persecution, and “ times of refreshing” ; the great conflicts of faith with falsehood, and of the saints with the seed of the serpent; the whole career of His Church amid the kingdoms of the earth and changes of the world, are a perpetual revelation of His love and power. (Archdeacon Manning.) Christ the Good Shepherd He is the Good Shepherd in the sense of real or genuine. He is the Shepherd from the very centre of His being. Every instinct of His nature, every feeling of His heart, every thought of His brain, every touch of His hand are those of the true Shepherd, whose constant purpose is to guide and feed and save the flock, and for that purpose He counts no toil too severe, no suffering too intense, no sacrifice too costly. He has thoroughly identified Himself with the sheep, and whatever adds to their well-being He gladly does and bears. He is the Good Shepherd in contrast with the hireling, whose care is selfish and whose aim is wages. Jesus here gives us a distinction that applies in the most direct way to every phase of life. Interests of all kinds are intrusted with paid workers. Some of these are good shepherds, putting the very best of their lives into their toil; some are hirelings, faithful only so long as fidelity is easy, safe, and profitable. The railroad engineer who sees imminent danger and remains at his post, hoping to save precious lives entrusted to his care, is the good shepherd. The need today in the State, the bank, the factory, the store, the kitchen, is for good shepherds. The presence of hirelings brings disaster to every cause. The Good Shepherd guides His sheep by going before them. Those who follow where Jesus led are safe. He was at times in a very whirlwind of human beings who were wrought to the highest pitch by diverse passions, but His feet never made a misstep, His face never turned in the wrong direction. His lips spoke the right word, His hands wrought the most helpful work always. Jesus said, “ I know My sheep, and am known of Mine.” “ I lay down My life for the sheep.” These were the proofs that He was the true Shepherd. He certainly knew what was in man. He saw the treachery working in the heart of Judas. He saw in Peter’ s self-trusting, impulsive nature the flame that soon burnt itself out to leave only the ashes of his boasted faith and devotion. But further than this, He saw the repentant Peter converted into the brave hero. He looked into the very soul of Zaccheus in the sycamore tree and taw in him a stedfast purpose of righteousness. He knew that back of the cleanly appearance of the Pharisees there was moral leprosy. On the briefest acquaintance with Nathanael He spoke of him as one “ in whom there was no guile.” The young man who came to Him with eager inquiries for eternal life was before Him as an open book--a man with a kindly heart, but too weak to brave danger and privation and sacrifice. There was no martyr stuff in him. Sin blunts the faculties. The most exalted natures have the keenest insight. Jesus, the Perfect One, knew instantly the false and the true. (Boston Homilies.) The Good Shepherd These words are equivalent to I. I am A Shepherd. I stand in a peculiar relation to a peculiar people, who are My sheep. II. I am a GOOD Shepherd. I possess the appropriate qualifications and perform the appropriate duties of the character I sustain. III. I am THE Shepherd--the one Shepherd--not like him of Joh 10:2, one of the shepherds, but the great, chief, proprietor Shepherd, whose own the sheep are--the Shepherd of shepherds as well as of sheep. IV. I am THE GOOD Shepherd. I possess in the most perfect degree all the qualifications that are requisite for the discharge of the numerous, varied, and difficult duties of this most exalted office. V. I am THAT GOOD Shepherd, i.e., the Divine Guardian foreshadowed in prophecy (Ezekiel 34:11-24), and answering in every respect to the type. Christ is all this 1. As He secures for His peculiar people all the blessings they require. 2. As He secures these advantages to them at the greatest conceivable expense to Himself. 3. As there subsists the most endearing mutual acquaintance and intercourse between Him and His people. 4. As He cares for the happiness, so He secures the salvation of all. (J. Brown, D. D.) The Good Shepherd The truth here is Christ’ s exceeding love and care for the Church. He would show that He sustained towards it a relationship beyond parallel. Not a king, however wise his rule; not a parent, however fond his care; not a friend, however great his service, for all these are kindnesses of beings of the same nature only. They suggest nothing of that condescension by which a Being of the highest order could embrace one reduced to the condition of fallen man. Hence Christ selected as the type of our lost race the most helpless of animals, and compares Himself to one of the kindest of guardians. Let us consider some of His pastoral offices in which His love is set forth. I. HE FOR THEIR WANTS. This would be the first thing looked for according to the predictions (Psalms 23:1-6). 1. Pasture for the flock--enough for all; variety for each. 2. Wisdom to guide. 3. Watchfulness to tend. 4. Constraint to rule. 5. Diligence to seek out. 6. Power to restore. II. HE THEM FROM FOES AND DANGERS (John 10:12). It is our lot to be sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. If our soul escapes at all it is because the snare is broken by our Deliverer. That which enables the Good Shepherd to effect our deliverance is His profound and comprehensive knowledge (John 10:14). These perils are foreseen and provided for. How many tempted ones have derived comfort from the thought that when Satan has desired to have them, he has prayed, etc. Hence the encouragement, “ Fear not little flock.” “ He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” III. HE IS IN THOSE WHO STRAY (Ezekiel 34:1-31; Isaiah 53:1-12). In relation to the whole human family Christ came to seek and save the lost. The whole history of the Church has been the gathering in of outcasts. He is found of them that sought Him not; and under backslidings after conversion, will He go after us again. He may leave us to eat the bitter fruits of our ways for a time, and make us contrast the misery of the wilderness with the blessedness of the fold. He, who of all the saints of God lived nearest to Him, and yet wandered furthest, said, “ He restoreth my soul.” IV. HE HAS SPECIAL CARE OF THE YOUNG, whether young in years or in grace (Isaiah 40:1-31). An untended lamb is the very type of helplessness and folly. The temptations are many which beset the flock in early life from the example of companions, worldly pleasures, buoyant spirits, etc.; but for these and every spiritual danger the Good Shepherd provides. Still, there are special dangers which account for this pastoral care. The very warmth and freshness of their religious feelings render them more liable to fall. Hence the first duty enjoined on restored Peter was “ Feed My lambs.” V. HE IS WITH THE FLOCK TO THE END. “ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” etc. (D. Moore, M. A.) The Good Shepherd I. THE CLAIMED BY CHRIST. 1. We shall learn nothing from the text unless we enter humbly and affectionately into its spirit. We must dismiss all Western ideas. Here the connection between shepherd and sheep is simply one of pecuniary interest; but beneath the burning skies and clear starry nights of Palestine there grows up between the man and the dumb creatures he protects, often at the peril of his life, a kind of friendship. For this is after all the true school in which love is taught; dangers and hardships mutually shared, alone in those vast solitudes the shepherd and the sheep feel a life in common. The vast interval between the man and the brute disappears, and the single point of union is felt strongly--the love of the protector, and the love of the grateful life. Those to whom Christ spoke felt all this and more. He appealed to associations which had been familiar from childhood, and unless we try, by realizing such scenes, to feel what they felt by association, these words will only be dry and lifeless. 2. To the name shepherd Christ adds the significant word “ Good” --not in the sense of benevolent, but true born, genuine, just as wine of a noble quality is good compared with the cheaper sort; and a soldier who is one in heart and not by mere profession, or for pay. This expression distinguishes the Good Shepherd from (1) The robbers who may guard the sheep simply for their flesh and fleece: they have not a true shepherd’ s heart any more than a pirate has the true sailor’ s heart. There were many such marauders in Palestine. David protected Nabal’ s flock from them. Many such nominal shepherds had Israel in by-gone years: rulers whose rule had been but kingcraft: teachers whose instruction had been but priestcraft. Government, teachership are sublime pastoral callings; but when the work is even well done for the sake of party, or place, or honour, or consistency, it is the spirit of the robber. (2) The hirelings, who are tested by danger. A man is a hireling who does his duty for pay. He may do it in his way faithfully. The paid shepherd will not desert the sheep for a shower or a cold night. But he is not paid to risk his life against the lion or bear, and so the sheep are left to their fate. So a man may be a hired priest, or a paid demagogue, a great champion of rights paid by applause; and while popularity lasts he will be a reformer--deserting the people when danger comes. The cause of the sheep is not his. 3. Exactly the reverse is the Good Shepherd. The cause of man was His, and His only pay the cross. He might have escaped it all, and been an honoured leader by prudent time service. But this would have been the desertion of God’ s cause and man’ s. II. THE PROOFS WHICH THE CLAIM. 1. I know My sheep as the Father knoweth Me, and not simply by omniscience. There is a certain mysterious tact of sympathy and antipathy by which we discover the like and unlike of ourselves in others’ character. A man may hide his opinions, but not his character. There is a something in an impure heart which purity detects afar off. The truer we become, the more unerringly we know the ring of truth. Therefore Christ knows His sheep by the mystic power, always finest in the best natures, by which like detects what is like and unlike itself; and how unerringly did He read men--the enthusiastic populace, Nathanael, the rich ruler, Zacchaeus, Judas, the Pharisees! It was as if His bosom was some mysterious mirror, on which all that came near Him left a sullied or unsullied surface, detecting themselves by every breath. This Divine power must be distinguished from that cunning sagacity which men call knowingness. The worldly wise have maxims and rules; but the finer shades of character escape. Eternal judgment is nothing more than the carrying out of these words, “ I know My sheep” ; for their obverse is “ I never knew you.” 2. Christ’ s sheep know Him, not by some lengthened investigation, whether the shepherds dress be the identical dress, the crozier genuine--but instinctively. Truth is like light; risible in itself, not distinguished by the shadow it casts. 3. Pastoral fidelity, “ I lay down My life.” Here is the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice. Unitarians say He died as a martyr in attestation of His truths; but we cannot explain away the “ for.” This sacrificing love is paralleled by the love of the Father to the Son. Therefore that sacrifice is but a mirror of the heart of God. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The Good Shepherd We have here I. THE . There is more in Jesus than you can pack away in shepherd or any other emblem. But note 1. He sets Himself forth as a shepherd: not such as is employed in England to look after sheep a few months till they are slaughtered. The Eastern shepherd is (1) The owner or his son. His wealth consists in sheep. He has seldom much of a house, or much land. Ask him “ How much are you worth?” He answers, “ So many sheep.” We are Christ’ s wealth, “ the riches of the glory of His inheritance” is in the saints. The Lord’ s portion is His people. For their sakes He gave not only Ethiopia and Seba, but Himself. (2) The Caretaker. Christ is never off duty. He has constant care for His people day and night. He knows and prescribes for their every complaint. (3) The Provider. There is not one in the flock who knows about the selecting of pasturage. For time and eternity, body and soul, Christ supplies all our need. (4) The Leader. (5) The Defender. 2. Christ completely fills this character. (1) He is the Good Shepherd--neither thief nor hireling. What He does is con amore. (2) He is the Good Shepherd. Of others we can only say a shepherd. All the rest are shadows: He is the substance. 3. Christ rejoices in this character. He repeats it so many times here that it almost reads like the refrain of a song. And if He is so pleased to be our Shepherd, we should be pleased to be His sheep, and avail ourselves of all the privileges wrapped up in the name. II. THE . 1. Christ’ s knowledge of His own, “ As the Father,” etc. Do you know how much the Father knows the Son who is His glory, other self, yea, one with Him? Just so intimately does the Good Shepherd know His sheep. (1) Their number. (2) Their persons--age, character, hairs, constitution; and never mistakes one for another (3) Trials. (4) Sins. (5) This ought to be a great comfort, inasmuch as it is not cold, intellectual knowledge, but that of love. He knows you-- (a) By acquaintance. (b) By communion. (c) Sympathy. “ Though He were a Son yet learned He,” etc. 2. Our knowledge of the Lord, “ as I know the rather.” This is (1) By delight. (2) By union. (3) By love. III. THE . These words are repeated in different forms four times (John 10:11; John 10:15; John 10:17; John 10:13), and mean that 1. He was always doing so. All the life He had He was constantly laying out for the sheep. 2. It was actively performed. He did not die merely. 3. It was voluntary. 4. It was for the sheep. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Good Shepherd I. HIS TO MEET THE NEED OF THE SHEEP. 1. His knowledge of all the wants of the sheep is perfect. 2. His wisdom to provide is infinite. 3. His power enables Him to carry out all His will. 4. His kindness endures through all their waywardness. 5. His faithfulness will never forsake them. 6. His undying interest forgets and omits nothing for their good. II. HIS ACTIVE WORK FOR THE SHEEP. 1. He rescues them from the great robber. 2. Brings them into His own fold. 3. Provides them with all the nourishment needed. 4. Given them refreshing repose amid the cares and toils of life. 5. Guards them from all danger. 6. Guides them in all perplexity. 7. Heals all their diseases. 8. Reclaims them from all their wanderings. 9. Folds them at last in heaven. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The slain Shepherd I. FORESAW THAT HE SHOULD DIE FOR THE SHEEP. The termination of the Saviour’ s life was not accidental nor unforeseen. Many were the intimations He gave of it, which disproves the notion that His death was the disappointment of His hopes. II. TO DIE FOR THE SHEEP. He might have saved Himself; He made no attempt at escape; He prayed for no legion of angels to rescue Him; He told Pilate that there was a limitation of his power in regard to his apparently helpless captive; He committed His spirit into His Father’ s hands. III. DIED IN THE STEAD OF THE SHEEP. A shepherd while defending his sheep sometimes falls a victim to his faithfulness. So Christ died a vicarious death, the just for the unjust, which exempted the sinner from the doom deserved. Not that there was a commercial equivalent, as when a debt is paid; but a moral equivalent accepted by a righteous and gracious God. IV. DIED ON BEHALF OF THE SHEEP. It was not for His own but our advantage. By His sacrifice we are redeemed from the curse of the law and the power of sin, and have secured for us eternal life. Application: 1. Adore and bless the love which animated the Good Shepherd. 2. Live as those who have been bought with a price, and have returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of souls. (Family Churchman.) The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep In this statement we notice the following characteristics of this sacrifice which the Good Shepherd makes for His sheep. 1. It was deliberate. “ For this purpose He came into the world.” 2. It was voluntary. “ No man taketh My life. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” 3. It is vicarious. Not for them in defence, but for them vicariously. He died for them as a substitute, “ bearing their own sins in His own body.” 4. It was an accepted sacrifice. “ Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again” (John 10:17). (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) The Shepherd and the sheep I. THE FLOCK. Were we to take a walk some spring morning among the Yorkshire hills or on the downs of Sussex or Bedfordshire, we should see thousands of sheep belonging to different flocks and masters. Christ has members of His flock not only in Sussex, etc., but in Africa, India, etc.; yes, all the world over. This flock 1. Is an exceedingly large one. If you were to go on counting for a whole year you could not count them all. The patriarchs had large flocks, so have many English farmers, but not altogether one so large. Some say all who are baptized, or take the Lord’ s Supper, or belong to this or that Church, are the Lord’ s sheep. But many of these are wicked, and so cannot be Christ’ s, while some where there are no churches and sacrament are Christ’ s because they love and obey Him. Ever since Abel died men have been gathered in, and thousands are joining the upper fold every day, and still millions are left behind. 2. While it is so large it is increasing very rapidly. Other flocks are to decrease. Every new convert is an addition, and what numbers are sometimes converted in a day (Acts 2:1-47)! Missionaries tell us of whole tribes casting away their idols, etc. It ought to increase more than it does when we consider the agencies at work Bibles, tracts, churches, schools, ministers, teachers, Christian fathers and mothers. 3. Christ’ s sheep are very much alike. (1) In their actions. Just as we can tell wolves from sheep, so we can tell who are Christ’ s and who are not. When we see a man roar like a lion, or greedy like a wolf, we know he is not of Christ’ s fold. (2) In their colour. “ If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me.” (3) In their disposition. “ If any man have not the spirit of Christ,” etc. (4) In the treatment they require. None can do without the Shepherd’ s care. 4. They bear His mark. What strange marks farmers sometimes put upon their sheep--circles, crosses, initials. Some of Christ’ s sheep have got His mark in greater boldness, but the porter can detect it however faint. If a king were to attempt to enter without it he would be turned away, while a prodigal with it would be welcomed. (1) This mark is not being an Episcopalian, Independent, etc. We may have the Church’ s mark and not Christ’ s. (2) It is likeness to Christ, and we cannot be like Him without being born again. Some try to imitate this mark and affix Morality, Liberality, Good resolution, Fasting, etc. 5. This is a loving flock. Members of the same family, school, place of worship, ought to be kind and gentle, but Christ’ s flock is the most loving in the world. By this the world knows Christ’ s disciples. II. THE . 1. He is awake and watchful. A good many people are awake but not watchful. Sometimes lambs are worried by strange dogs when the shepherd was asleep, and sometimes stray into danger when he is awake but inattentive. But nothing escapes Christ’ s sleepless vigilance. “ He that keepeth Israel,” etc. 2. He is patient. A shepherd cannot have too much patience: much as he may have it will be sorely tried. In all trials Christ’ s patience never left Him; and were it to leave Him now how many would be expelled the fold! 3. He is strong. Look at what He has done in Nature. “ All power is given unto Me.” All ministers, teachers, and angels combined would be unable to provide for or protect His flock. Then His stock of provisions never diminishes, and every sheep is fed according to its need. 4. He goes after every sheep or lamb that goes astray. How strange that any should desert such a fold; stranger still that those who stray should refuse to return. (J. Goodacre.) Christ the Good Shepherd The shepherd who can always go to bed regularly at night, and who is able to say, “ I do not have much trouble with my flock,” is not the man to be envied. He coolly says, “ a few lambs died last winter; we must expect that kind of thing. It is true that some sheep died of starvation; but if the meadows failed, I could not help that.” That is the kind of shepherd who deserves to be eaten by the next wolf; but the man who is able to say with Jacob, “ By night the frost devoured me, and by day the heat,” is the true shepherd. He is most irregular as to his rest; the only thing regular about him is his labour and his disappointment, and yet faith makes him a happy man. When you grow very weak as a pastor, and your charge utterly overcomes you, do not repine at such weakness, for then you will be at your full strength; but when you are strong as a pastor, and say, “ I think that to be a minister is an easy matter,” you may depend upon it that you are weak. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Good Shepherd and His sheep I. WHAT THE GOOD DOES FOR HIS SHEEP? 1. He protects them. Sheep are exposed to many dangers, from which they are not able to protect themselves. When David was a shepherd, he tells us of a lion and a bear, that each came and stole away a lamb from his flock; and how he went after the wild beasts, and slew them, and saved his lambs. And this is just what Jesus, the Good Shepherd, does for His sheep. He protects them from Satan, their great enemy. And in the same way He protects them from all their enemies, and from every danger. A Christian mother who lived in the city of New York, in very humble circumstances, had only one child, a little boy about seven years old, whom she had taught to know and love the Saviour. One day, when this good mother was going quietly on with her work at home, she was startled by a loud knock at the door of her humble dwelling. On opening the door she received this alarming message: “ Hurry away to the police station; your little boy has been run over.” She was terribly frightened, and, hastening as fast as she could to the station house, on arriving there she found her little boy surrounded by strangers. The doctor had been sent for, but had not yet arrived. She was told that the wheels of a large carriage had gone over his foot, but, on examining it carefully, she was surprised to find no real injury about the foot. “ Why, Willie darling, how was it possible for the wheel of the carriage to have gone over your foot, and not have crushed it?” The child looked tenderly up into his mother’ s face, and said--“ Mamma, dear, I guess God must have put it in a hollow place.” This shows what faith that little boy had in the protection which Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has promised to exercise over His sheep. He always has “ a hollow place” to put them in when danger is near. 2. He provides for them. This is something which the sheep cannot do for themselves, and unless the shepherd does it for them they must perish. II. WHAT THE GOOD EXPECTS HIS SHEEP TO DO FOR HIM? 1. To hear His voice. “ My sheep hear my voice,” He says. 2. To follow Him. The sheep set us an example here, not only in hearing the shepherd, but in obeying him. (R. Newton, D. D.) The Shepherd and His sheep (Children’ s sermon). I. THE FIGURE OF SHEEP SUITS US. We call them silly sheep. 1. They cannot guide their own way. As wild beasts can. 2. They cannot keep or defend themselves. Frightened at danger. 3. They quickly follow bad examples. Running after wilful one. 4. They are surrounded by unknown dangers. How much mother knows, and teacher knows, that we do not. II. THE FIGURE OF SUITS CHRIST. A most blessed thing that we have someone to care for us. 1. Shepherd must be strong. To defend, carry, etc. 2. Shepherd must be wise. To guide to food and water. 3. Shepherd must be watchful. To see foes. 4. Shepherd must be loving and gentle. To tend in weakness. III. WHEN WE SPEAK OF JESUS, WE WANT TO CALL HIM THE GOOD . Especially because He was willing to die in defending us, Jesus. The old and familiar tale of Eric, who threw Himself to the wolves to save his master. Or, case of shepherd who died fighting three robbers. IV. WHEN CHRIST SPEAKS OF US, HE WOULD LIKE TO CALL US GOOD SHEEP. What is it to be good, so that Christ can think us good? A great difference in sheep. The good sheep know the Shepherd’ s voice. They follow, they keep close, they obey. (Weekly Pulpit.) He that is an hireling The hireling is I. . He tends the flock simply for wages as Jacob did Genesis 29:15; Genesis 29:13), though not with the love that Jacob showed Genesis 31:33). An emblem of the Pharisees and Jewish rulers generally who served God in a purely legal spirit, and shepherded the flock with an eye to the merit they might acquire, or the recompense they should receive; of those who in Christ’ s day thrust themselves into the priest’ s office for a morsel of bread (1 Samuel 2:36); of all who enter the ministry for filthy lucre’ s sake (Titus 1:11). II. SELFISH. He pursues his calling with an eye to his own interest and comfort--a type of Ezekiel’ s shepherds (Ezekiel 34:2-3), and of socalled Christian pastors who use their official position solely to secure worldly emolument, social preferment, or temporal renown (1 Timothy 3:3; 1 Timothy 3:3). III. . Chiefly occupied with thoughts of his own happiness, he not only leaves the sheep to cater for themselves (Ezekiel 34:4; Zechariah 11:16-17), but fleeing at the first approach of danger, permits the helpless creatures to be ravaged and scattered. Once more a representative of the corrupt hierarchy that presided over Israel, and of such nominally Christian teachers who, neglecting the highest interests of their people, leave them to fall a prey to the principalities and powers of evil. (T. Whitelaw D. D.) Self-sacrificing teachers Paton records that at a time of great danger on Tanna he tried to prevail on one of the native teachers from Aneityum to remain at the mission house. The man insisted on returning to his post, and with this unanswerable defence of his conduct: “ Missi, when I see them thirsting for my blood, I just see myself when the missionary first came to my island. I desired to murder him as they now desire to kill me. Had he stayed away for such danger, I would have remained a heathen; but he came, and continued coming to teach us, till by the grace of God I was changed to what I am. Now the same God that changed me can change these poor Tannese to love and serve Him. I can not stay away from them.” On mission ground the term “ pastor” is restored to its original meaning, “ shepherd,” with good reason. Hannington’ s message to the ruler who compassed his death was: “ Tell the king that I die for Buganda. I have bought this road with my life.” (Monday Club Sermons.) The hireling It is not the bare receiving hire which denominates a man a hireling, but the loving hire; his loving the hire more than the work; the working for the sake of the hire. He is an hireling who would not work were it not for the hire; to whom this is the great (if not only) motive of working. O God! if a man who works only for hire is such a wretch, a mere thief and a robber, what is he who continually takes the hire, and yet does not work at all? (J. Wesley.) The Wolf Satan a wolf 1. His attacks are deadly. 2. His surprises are crafty. 3. His hatred of Christ is implacable. 4. His hunger to devour is insatiable. 5. He attacks under darkness. 6. He scatters the flock by tempting them to luxury, avarice, and sensuality. Filling their minds with pride, envy, anger, deceit. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) I.…know My sheep and am known of Mine The mutual knowledge of Christ and His people I. CHRIST’ S OF HIS PEOPLE. 1. The faithful and experienced Eastern shepherd knows every one of his sheep. So does Christ. He knows 1. Their persons; not only the numbers of His flock. We are as well known to Him as the stars (Isaiah 40:1-31), and as our children are to us. 2. Their condition and circumstances--but general and peculiar--our sins that He may pardon them; our diseases that He may heal them; our wants that He may supply them; our fears that He may quiet them; our burdens that He may give us strength to bear them; our prayers that He may grant them, our graces that we may delight in them; our services that He may reward them. 2. We trace this knowledge to (1) His great love. It is clear that the shepherd who loves his sheep best will know them best. (2) His intimacy. He dwells with them. (3) His omniscience. II. CHRIST’ S PEOPLE’ S OF HIM Isaiah 1. Peculiar. Their fellow men do not possess it or understand it. 2. Acquired. It is not natural to us. Nature does not teach it. The young sheep knows its mother by instinct, but not its shepherd. All real knowledge of Christ is the effect of a special manifestation of Him to the soul. 3. Experimental chiefly. Some knowledge we get of Him from faith in God’ s testimony concerning Him, but our chief spring is this: when we have hungered, He has fed us; when we have not known our way, He has guided us; where we have fallen into danger, He has extricated us. 4. Practical. The soul that possesses it becomes willing and obedient. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The true sheep What is the knowledge by which Christ’ s true sheep are known? There are many kinds of knowledge, of which only one can be the true. There is a knowledge which even fallen angels have of Him (Luke 4:33-34; Luke 4:41; Matthew 8:29). This is a knowledge of the spiritual intelligence, which may be possessed in energetic wickedness, and with direct resistance of the will against the will of Christ. Again, there is also a knowledge which all the regenerate possess. The preaching of the Church, the reading of Holy Scriptures, the commemoration of fasts and festivals, the tradition of popular Christianity, and all the knowledge which from childhood we unconsciously imbibe, give us a general knowledge of the evangelical facts and of the history of our Lord. This cannot be the knowledge of which He here speaks. It must be something of a deeper kind, something more living and personal. It is plainly, therefore, such a knowledge as He has of us. It is that mutual consciousness of which we speak when we say that we know any person as our friend. We do not mean that we know him by name; for many strangers we know by name; many whom we have never seen, or further care to know: neither do we mean only that we know all about him, that is to say, who he is, and whence, of what lineage, or from what land, or what has been his history, his acts and words, and the like; for in this way we may be said to know many who do not know us, and with whom we have nothing to do. When we say we know anyone as our friend, we mean that we know not only who he is, but what, or as we say, his character,--that he is true, affectionate, gentle, forgiving, liberal, patient, self-denying; and still more, that he has been, and is, all this to ourselves; that we have made trial of him, and have cause to know this character as a reality, of which we have, as it were, tasted, by often meeting with him, seeing him at all times, under all circumstances and in all changes, familiarly conversing with him, doing service to him, ourselves receiving from him in turn tokens of love and goodness. This is the knowledge of friendship and of love. It is something living and personal, arising out of the whole of our inward nature, and filling all our powers and affections. And such is the knowledge the true sheep have of the Good Shepherd. Let us, then, consider in what way we may attain this knowledge. 1. It must be by following Him. “ My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me.” By living such a life as He lived. Likeness to Him is the power of knowing Him. Nay, rather it is knowledge itself: there is no other. It is by likeness that we know, and by sympathy that we learn. 2. There are peculiar faculties of the heart which must be awakened, if we would know Him as He knows us. There can be no true obedience without the discipline of habitual devotion--in prayer, meditation, sacramental communion. 3. This true knowledge of Him is not a transitory state of feeling. Out of obedience and devotion arises an habitual faith, which makes Him, though unseen, yet perceptibly a part of all our life. (Archdeacon Manning.) The understanding between shepherd and sheep You will notice the difference between the Old and the New translation here. The new translation makes the meaning of our Saviour’ s words much clearer. He says, “ I am the Good Shepherd; and there is an understanding between Me and My sheep, as there is an understanding between My Father and Me.” For people to understand one another, there must be something in common. The Pharisees could not understand our Lord. They had nothing in common with Him. As He said to them, “ Ye are from beneath; I am from above; ye are of this world; I am not of this world.” No, they could not understand Him; any more than a man without an ear for music can understand music, or a dull prosy mind can understand poetry, or a person who always acts from self-interested motives can understand another who has more thought for others than for himself. But Christ’ s disciples could understand Him: not perfectly, often very imperfectly; still they had that which made them capable of understanding Him to some extent, and of being trained to understand Him more fully in time; as one who loves music can enjoy and to some extent understand a great musician, one who is not altogether selfish can appreciate the nobility of self-sacrifice for the good of others. Some of Christ’ s disciples had made sacrifices for Him, though small compared with what He had made for them. There were those among His little flock who had left all they had on earth to follow Him, and this, and the faith which led them to it, had made them able to know and understand Him who had left all He had in heaven for their sake. (J. E. Vernon, M. A.) The shepherd’ s mark Edmund Andrews was a thoughtless, cruel boy. One day he was passing by Burlton’ s farm, and saw Wilkinson, the old shepherd, busy with his pitch kettle and iron, marking the sheep with the letters “ J.B.,” for John Burlton. “ So you are putting your master’ s mark upon the sheep, are you?” said he. “ Yes, Master Edmund; but God, the Almighty Maker, has put His mark upon them before.” “ What do you mean?” asked Edmund. “ I mean that our Heavenly Father, in His wisdom and goodness, has put marks upon the creatures He has made, and such marks as none but He could put upon them. He gave wings to the cockchafer, spots to the butterfly, feathers to the bird, a sparkling eye to the frog and toad, a swift foot to the dog, and a soft furry skin to the cat. These marks are His marks, and show that the creatures belong to Him; and woe be to those that abuse them!” “ That’ s an odd thought,” said Edmund, as he turned away. “ It may be an odd thought,” said the shepherd, “ but odd things lead us to glorify God, and to act kindly to His creatures. The more we have, Master Edmund, the better.” How Christ knows His sheep Suppose one of the sheep in a fold were to go to the shepherd, and say, “ I think I’ m your sheep, because you get six pounds of wool off me;” and another should say, “ And I think I’ m your sheep, because you get four pounds of wool from me;” and a third, “ I hope I am your sheep, but I don’ t know, for you only get three pounds of wool from me; and sometimes it is but two.” Finally, suppose one poor scraggy fellow comes who don’ t know whether he is a sheep or a goat, and makes his complaint; the shepherd would say, “ I know who are the best sheep, and who are the worst. I wish you could all give me ten pounds of wool; but whether you give me ten pounds or one, you are all mine. I bought you, and paid for you, and you are all in my fold, and you every one belong to me.” It is not how much a sheep brings his owner which proves him his. The proof that the sheep belongs to the shepherd is, that the shepherd bought him and takes care of him. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ’ s knowledge of His sheep The most fearful attributes of the Godhead turn to the sweetest comfort of a believer. His justice, to the natural man so awful, requires Him to forgive those whom He has punished in our Substitute. His power so tremendous when turned against us is assuring in the same proportion, when it is for us. So with omniscience, a terror to the wrongdoer, but a comfort to the penitent believer. I. CHRIST KNOWS WHO ARE HIS SHEEP. Leave it then to Him to pronounce who are so. We seldom make a greater mistake then when we attempt to trespass on this province of Deity. “ I know,” almost as much as to say, “ You do not.” And there are times when it will be best not to form the judgment respecting ourselves. Leave it thus. “ He knows whether I am His; and if not, that I wish to be, and therefore will make me. If I am, He will keep me.” II. HE KNOWS THEM AS A WHOLE. As all one, gathered out of the same desert, washed in the same fountain, etc. In this collectiveness He expects concert of action, sympathy, unity among His people. We are accustomed to regard ourselves as separate individuals, families, churches. Hence our narrowness, selfishness. III. HE KNOWS THEM AS . Each stands out known and loved as if He cared for none else. He knows 1. You, and not merely about you. 2. How long you have been in the fold, and expects accordingly. 3. Your natural temperament, what you can and cannot bear, how much exposure, liberty, etc. What kind of pasture you require. 4. Your future, and is always working up to it. IV. HE KNOWS HIMSELF IN THEM AND HIS FATHER’ S MIND ABOUT THEM. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) I lay down My life for the sheepChrist died to save men At the time of the gold fever in California, a man went from England to the diggings. By and by he sent money for his wife and child to follow him. They arrived safely in New York, and there took a passage in one of the beautiful Pacific steamers. A few days after sailing, the terrible cry of “ Fire! fire!” rang through the ship. Everything that the captain and sailors could do was done, but it was of no use; the fire rapidly gained ground. As there was a powder magazine on board, the captain knew that the moment the flames reached it the vessel would be blown up; so he gave the word to lower the life boats. These were got out, but there was not room for all; so the strong pushed in and left the weak to their fate. As the last boat was moving off, a mother and her boy were on the deck and she pleaded to be taken. The sailors agreed to take one but not both. What did the mother do? Did she jump in herself? No! Kissing her boy and handing him over the side of the ship, she said “ If you live to see your father, tell him I died to save you.” That was great love, yet it is but a faint type of what Christ has done for us. (J. L. Nye.) Damon and Pythias Damon, being condemned to death by Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, obtained liberty to visit his wife and children, leaving his friend, Pythias, as a pledge for his return. At the appointed time Damon failed in appearing, and the tyrant had the curiosity to visit Pythias in prison. “ What a fool you were,” said he, “ to rely on Damon’ s promise! How could you imagine that he would sacrifice his life for you or for any man?” “ My lord,” said Pythias, with a firm voice and noble aspect, “ I would suffer a thousand deaths rather than my friend should fail in any article of honour. He cannot fail. I am as confident of his virtue as I am of my own existence. But I beseech the gods to preserve his life. Oppose him ye winds! Disappoint his eagerness, and suffer him not to arrive till my death has saved a life of much greater consequence than mine, necessary to his lovely wife, to his little innocents, to his friends, to his country! Oh! let me not die the cruelest of deaths in that of Damon!” Dionysius was confounded and awed with the magnanimity of these sentiments. He wished to speak: he hesitated, he looked down, and retired in silence. Pythias was brought forth, and with an air of satisfaction walked to the place of execution. He ascended the scaffold and addressed the people. “ My prayers are hoard; the gods are propitious; the winds have been contrary. Damon could not conquer impossibilities: he will be here tomorrow, and my blood shall ransom that of my friend.” As he pronounced these words, a buzz arose; a distant voice was heard; the crowd caught the words, and “ Stop, stop, executioner!” was repeated by every person. A man came at full speed. In the same instant he was off his horse, on the scaffold, and in the arms of Pythias. “ You are safe!” he cried, “ you are safe, my friend! The gods be praised, you are safe!” Pale and half speechless in the arms of Damon, Pythias replied in broken accents, “ Fatal haste! cruel impatience! What envious powers have wrought impossibilities against your friend? But I will not be wholly disappointed. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 10:19-21 There was a division … for these sayings.--Here was I. A BAD SPIRIT. 1. Schismatic. “ There was a division.” Sad that Christ and His doctrines should divide men into sects. One might have thought that as His life was so pure, loving, morally commanding, and His doctrine so congruous with reason and spiritual wants, that all men would have centred in Him. Schism in relation to Christ is bad--a calumny on the gospel and a curse to the race. 2. Blasphemous (John 10:20). There are two evils men commit on the question of moral causation. (1) Some ascribe bad deeds to God. The warrior after his bloody achievements returns thanks to God who commanded us not to kill, and declared that woes arise from the lusts of the wicked heart. The priest who presumes to stand between God and the people ascribes his crafty deeds to God. Islam and Mormon leaders impose on credulity a pretended heavenly authority. How much despotism, plunder, and oppression are enacted in God’ s name! (2) Some ascribe good deeds to Satan, as these jealous, cavilling, and malicious Jews. To trace this Divine act to God’ s arch foe was heinous sin; yet the principle of this is too common in every age. What is the conduct of those who assign the effects of Christianity to the ingenuity of imposters who designate the Bible a “ cunningly-devised fable,” and brand as hypocrites the most holy and useful men? 3. Intolerant. “ Why hear ye Him?” This is the spirit of all bigots and persecutors. The same language is often used by one sect about a preacher of another sect. II. A SOUND (John 10:21). A devil could not, and would not if he could, give eyes to the blind. This is the same principle as Christ’ s--“ By their fruits ye shall know them.” This is an infallible test. Judge, then, Christianity by its works. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ’ s words and deeds “ There arose a division again among the Jews” because of the words which Jesus had uttered. It is the old story. Jesus Christ has always divided human communities. He cannot be ignored. How can He be accounted for? He is the great enigma which calls forth many answers. In the preceding verses we have one of those hurried estimates of Christ given in the white heat of anger--“ He hath a devil and is mad.” There are a class of men who never fail to come to very speedy and decided conclusions. They arrive at them by a short cut, and very often by astounding leaps. They have a keen sensitiveness to the presence of a devil a long time before he appears, and as a rule point in the direction from which he is least likely to come. The explanation that Jesus had a devil had became a commonplace, but had carried with it no conviction in being frequently repeated. There were keen-sighted men in the crowd who saw through it all--“ Others said, These are not the words of Him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” There is true philosophy in these words uttered hurriedly by unknown speakers in that surging throng. Some of the world’ s best utterances are anonymously recorded. The truth suggested by our text is--That words and deeds are tests of character which men should not ignore. I. Our Lord’ s SPEECH as a test of His character--“ These are not the sayings of one possessed with a devil.” Some one possibly smiles incredulously and asks--“ Who can judge a man by his speech?” Napoleon the Great held that speech was made to conceal thoughts and purposes. But did he succeed in confining speech within these ignoble limits? For a time and in certain cases he doubtless did. But what of those peevish and angry utterances of his at St. Helena? As we read the story we are forced to exclaim, “ Oh, man, thy speech bewrayeth thee!” That great actor was no longer able to conceal himself, when he fretted and fumed and swore in helpless pevishness. Watch a man’ s utterances through and through, and he cannot hide himself from you. He may at times flatter himself that he has succeeded in the attempt, but his speech so wronged and misused at length plays traitor with him in return, and reveals what manner of man he is. Speech, graciously given by God to man alone on earth, as a means by which he shall be able to express truth, will not suffer itself evermore to be made the degraded instrument of diplomacy and deceit. It will at times involuntarily start and assert itself. In the records of the best lives we find words uttered in haste, unpremeditated, or under great provocation, which needed an apology, since they revealed the weaker and less noble side of character. When did Christ utter such words? In speech He was never overtaken in a fault. His disciples often were, but He never. Again, see if there were immature words uttered at the outset of His ministry, which revealed the crudities of youth, or an imperfect estimate of that ministry to which He had committed His life. Was there ever anything said by Him which betrayed a wrong motive, or defective moral teaching? Have succeeding ages been able to find a flaw in His doctrine, or have they been able to add a single virtue to those which He taught men? Have any words lived like His, or living, exerted such a sanctifying, healing and ennobling influence over human lives? Let us refer to one or two features of His incomparable utterances. What does he say about God? No teacher of men can be silent on this great theme. He tells men many tender, loving things concerning God--that He clothes the lily, feeds the sparrow, numbers the hairs of our head, and, finally, “ that He so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Has any teaching concerning God given such light and joy to human heart as this? Verily, “ These are not the sayings of one possessed with a devil!” Again, what has He to say about man? By the graveside of our dearest and best ones can any assurance compare with His--“ I am the Resurrection and the Life, he that believeth in Me shall never die” ? “ Because I live ye shall live also” ? “ Whence hath this man these things?” “ These are not the words of one possessed with a devil.” We consider II. Our Lord’ s DEEDS as tests of His character. “ Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” It is the prerogative of the devil to close men’ s eyes, not to open them. It is not so much the miracle of giving sight as the beneficent nature of it that stamps it as undiabolic. What was the tendency of our Lord’ s deeds? Precisely the same as His teaching. Did He not always go about doing good? There is a harmony of goodness and of benevolence in His works from the beginning to the close. Above all, is there anything for power and tenderness to compare with His Cross? And here we come to the root of the whole matter. Theology, history, and moral philosophy can all apply their tests; but no test can compare with Chat of our own experience. Our experience may fail to appeal powerfully to others, but nothing is so convincing to ourselves. Among our Lord’ s disciples are the noblest men and women whom the world has ever known, and they attribute all their blessings to Him. (David Davies.) John 10:22-23 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of Dedication The origin and character of the feast of Dedication Antiochus Epiphanes, on his return from the conquest of Egypt, having entered Jerusalem with very great slaughter, and having pillaged the city, proceeded to pollute the sanctuary, placing on the altar of God the abomination of desolation; offering swine’ s flesh; burning the books of the law; and putting to death those who ventured to keep that sacred volume in their possession. This was, no doubt, a time of great mourning to the godly in Judah; and with many prayers and tears would they sigh for deliverance. And as under the oppression of Pharaoh, so under that of Antiochus, the Lord looked upon the affliction of His people and sent them a deliverer. Judas was raised up, a warrior who is said to have taken for the motto of his standard, “ Who is like unto Thee among the gods, O Jehovah!” the first letters of which words in Hebrew when put together made up the word Maccabi, whence it is supposed his surname of Maccabaeus was derived. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) Three decisive victories in the first two years (B.C. 166, 167) of the campaign at Samaria, Bethoron and Emmaus, secured Judas’ fame and success; and, finally, an encounter at Bethzur made him master of Jerusalem. They entered and found a scene of havoc. The corridors of the priest’ s chambers which encircled the Temple were torn down; the gates were in ashes, the altar disfigured, and the whole platform was overgrown as if with a mountain jungle or forest glade (1Ma 4:33). It was a heartrending spectacle. Their first impulse was to cast themselves headlong on the pavement, and blow the loud horns which accompanied all mournful, as well as all joyous, occasions. Then, whilst the Greek garrison still remained in the fortress, the warriors first began the elaborate process of cleansing the polluted place. The first object was to clear away every particle which had been touched by the unclean animals. On the 22nd of Marchesvan they removed the portable altar which had been erected. On the 3rd of Chisleu they removed the smaller altars from the court in front of the Temple and the various Pagan statues (2Ma 10:2-3). With the utmost care they pulled down the great platform of the altar itself, from the dread lest its stones should have been polluted. But with the scrupulosity which marked the period, they considered that stones once consecrated could never be entirely desecrated, and accordingly hid them away in a corner of the Temple, there to remain till the Prophet (Macc. 4:46)--the solver of riddles--should come and tell what was to be done with them. How many stones of spiritual or intellectual edifices excite a like perplexed fear, lest they have been so misused that they cannot be employed again--at least, till some prophet comes to tell us how and when! For the interior of the Temple everything had to be refurnished afresh--vessels, candlesticks, incense, altar, tables, curtains. At last all was completed, and on the 25th of Chisleu, the same day that three years before the profanation had occurred, the Temple was rededicated. It was the very time predicted in the book of Daniel (Daniel 7:25; Daniel 9:24-27; Daniel 12:6-7). The three years and a half from the time of the first beginning of the sacrilege was over, and the rebound of the national sentiment was in proportion. The depth of winter (December) could not restrain the burst of joy. From the first dawn of that day for the whole following week songs of joy were sung with cymbals and harps. In the Psalms of Solomon (11:2, 3, 7) there are exalting strains which echo the words of the Evangelical prophet, and welcome the return unto Jerusalem. The smoke once more went up from the altar; the gates, and even the priestly chambers, were fumigated. The building itself was studded with golden crowns and shields, in imitation of the golden shields which in the first Temple had adorned the porch. What most lived in the recollection of the time was that the perpetual light blazed again. The golden candlestick was no longer to be had, its place was taken by an iron chandelier cased in wood; but this sufficed. It was a solemn moment when the sacred fire was again kindled on the new altar; and from it the flame communicated to the rest of the building. As in the modern ceremony of the “ Sacred Fire” in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, so this incident was wrapped in mystery and legend. The simple historical account is that they procured the light by striking the fresh unpolluted stones against each other. But later representations, going back to the like events in Nehemiah’ s life, imagined some preternatural origin of the fire itself. It was further supposed that one unpolluted crevice was found which furnished the oil for the lighting of the Temple during the whole week; in remembrance of which every private house was illuminated, beginning, according to one usage, with eight candles, and decreasing as the week went on; according to the other, beginning with one and advancing to eight. Partly, no doubt, from these traditions, or (as Josephus thinks) from the returning joy of the nation, the festival in after days bore the name of the “ Feast of Lights.” This would receive a yet fuller significance in connection with another aspect of this great day. Though the latest it took rank at once with the earlier holy days. It won for itself a sanctity which neither the dedication of Solomon nor Zerubbabel had acquired. Both of these consecrations had been arranged to coincide with the Feast of Tabernacles. That season had already passed whilst the patriots were hiding in the mountains. Now, however, it was determined to make this new solemnity a repetition of that feast. It was called afterwards “ The Tabernacle Feast of Winter” ; and on this, its first occasion, there were blended with it the usual processions of that gay autumnal holiday, brandishing their woven branches of palm and other trees, whose evergreen foliage cheered the dull aspect of a Syrian December. And we can hardly doubt that they would, in accordance with the name “ Feast of Lights,” add to it that further characteristic of Tabernacles--the illumination of the precincts of the Temple by two great chandeliers placed in the court, by the light of which festive dances were kept up all through the night. There was an additional propriety in the transference of the national festival of the vintage to this new feast, because it coincided with the natural solemnity of welcoming the first light kindled in the new year. December 25th was at Tyre, as at Rome in after times, celebrated as the birthday of the Sun--the revival, the renewal, the Encaenia of man and nature. (Dean Stanley.) The lawfulness of national and ecclesiastical festivals There was nothing in this institution against which the most correctly informed conscience could object, and it was enjoined by the lawful authorities; Jesus therefore would submit to an ordinance of man for the Lord’ s sake; and not only so, but He would willingly encourage this feast of dedication as a solemn acknowledgment of Divine mercies. On exactly the same footing stand several of the observances of our Church. The fifth of November, for instance, is observed as a memorial of a like deliverance from the machinations of those, who, after the example of Antiochus, would burn the Scriptures, and those who were found to possess them; and even our Christmas, and Lent, and Good Friday, and Easter, and Whitsuntide, rest on the same foundation. They were appointed by man, and are supported by the authority of the Church; a higher authority they do not claim: but who that feels as a Protestant and as a Christian, and regards the example of Christ, would refuse to comply with them? (J. Fawcett, M. A.) It was winter Winter Consider it in relation I. TO GOD. 1. As a display of Divine power (Job 33:22-30). God humbles thewildest elements of nature by His northern blast. It not only arrests the mountain stream, but congeals into mountains of ice the polar seas; not only withers the flowers, but strips the forest; not only binds up the vegetable powers, but chains the solar heat. Who can stand before His cold? No one, but for the safeguards provided by the God of winter. And if such securities be so valuable, how invaluable the robe of righteousness for the naked and destitute soul! 2. As a display of Divine wisdom and goodness. Frosts purify the air, destroy noxious vermin, etc.; and if it occasion some disorders it prevents many others; and even these disorders by confining us at home, induce reflection. 3. As a display of Divine faithfulness. The fulfilment of the promise to Noah requires the annual preparation of the soil for fertility, and the preservation of seed from destruction. The first is secured by the action of frost, the latter by snow, which affords a warm garment, and cherishes infant growth. Then, touched by the sun, the vesture melts and saturates the pores of the soil with the dissolving nitre, thus replenishing the earth with the principles of vegetable life. Were there only snow the soil would be too damp; were there only frost the seed would perish. So God blends both together. II. TO MANKIND AT LARGE. It reminds us 1. Of the condition of the poor. We must not excuse ourselves from benevolence because we have paid the Poor Rate. We are compelled by law to do that; but how dwelleth the love of God in him who, having this world’ s goods, does nothing but pay his legal dues. 2. Of the reverses of lot to which we are all liable. Often affairs that were once as promising as spring, bright as summer, and rich as autumn, are now desolate as winter. It is not necessary to forget prosperity in adversity. To so remember it as to beget impatience is foolish and sinful, but not if it deepens our convictions of the uncertainty of human affairs, and warns others against trusting in uncertain riches. And then, again, how often is adversity the season when we first began to think seriously. 3. Of the evening and end of life. As winter comes freezing the streams, and weakening the powers of vegetable life, so old age congeals the warm blood and impairs the mental faculties. And yet this is the season to which the soul’ s weightiest concerns are often left. Old age is not the time for business effort, much less, then, for spiritual. III. TO THE WORLD. Winter should remind us 1. Of the entrance of sin into the world. For as winter deforms the face of nature, so sin brought a curse upon the earth. Sin quenched light, froze love, destroyed holiness. 2. Of the natural state of the heart in the sight of God. The heart and life of every man ought to be as spring: rich in buds of holiness; as summer, rich in the bloom of holiness; as autumn, rich in the ripe fruit of holiness. But, alas! it is not so. It is winter in every heart withheld from the Sun of Righteousness. And every year of neglect hardens the heart further against God. 3. Of the unhappy state of the backslider; its desolation and despair contrasted with its former fruitfulness and hope. 4. Of the great salvation. God has made the whiteness of winter’ s snow an emblem (1) Of the purity of salvation, “ Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (2) Of pardon and sanctification, “ Come, now, let us reason together, etc.” (R. Philip, D. D.) Winter as an emblem I. OF THE STATE OF THE . 1. In winter the light of heaven is obscured. Even in our temperate zone, our day is brief; but in the far north for months the orb of day never appears above the horizon. So the unconverted see not the Sun of Righteousness, nor the light He sheds on things important and interesting. They “ sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” 2. The deadness and barrenness of winter is figured in the unregenerate state. There is no foliage, corn, fruit, but what may be forced by artificial heat, and wanting in natural flavour. So in spiritual husbandry: the unconverted bear no fruit of approved quality “ of the Spirit.” 3. The cold of winter typifies the state of those who are strangers to the genial glow of pure and spiritual affection. Their tenderest feelings in religion are but a partial thaw produced by a transient sunshine which leaves no memorial behind except the pendant icicle and slippery surface, hardening the more for the momentary softening. 4. The winds and storms of winter are apt emblems of those ill-regulated and malignant passions which agitate with ceaseless tempest the souls that have no rest in God. II. OF THE STATE OF . When summer and autumn have gone a change is soon perceptible. Where the golden light, luxurious warmth, precious produce? Nothing remains but cold barrenness. Emblematic of those who started well but have fallen out. Sometimes this change is gradual, as the days gradually shorten; sometimes more rapid through the influence of temptation, as when winter is hastened on by a premature and unexpected storm. But to remain in that state is to die. III. OF A STATE OF AND . In winter nature seems barren of charm, and so the soul when Christ has withdrawn. Such an act is usually the result of man’ s negligence; but sometimes it is for the trial of faith and patience. Thus it was with Job, our Lord, Paul, and all great saints. IV. OF A STATE OF . In the case of the poor, winter is much more than an emblem, and that is the time to show our true religion, which is “ to visit the widow and fatherless in their affliction.” How many are exposed on the stormy sea or amid the drifted snow! Let us then be thankful for our security. But there are sorrows that create winter in the soul. Conclusion: Winter precedes spring in nature, and may do also for the unconverted, the backslide, the troubled, etc. (H. Grey, D. D.) The moral uses of winter We have one whole season that bears a look of unbenignity; but while many of God’ s doings do not represent His disposition, they exhibit His modes and ends of discipline. Turning our thoughts in this direction we shall find enough in winter to satisfy us of God’ s benignity. Some have thought that God would have shown His goodness more perfectly if He had omitted winter altogether. But would the advantages of a cylindrical world be greater than a spherical one in spite of its winter? In winter I. WE SEE THAT GOD’ S IS NOT ALWAYS IN THE OF ENDS. He here takes us off into a field to show on how large a scale He builds and governs, and works for ends that are superior. Our God is not a summer God, but a winter God, caring visibly less for all mere comfort than for the grand prerogatives and rigours of principles. II. WE NOTE A MARKED CHANGE IN OUR BODILY AND MENTAL HABIT AND . 1. Diseases are of a different type, and health itself a different experience. In summer the senses are more awake, and the body has free communication with nature through every pore. In winter these gates are closed; the vital force retreats to sustain the internal heat by extra exertion then. We fold our cloak instinctively about us, and ask to be separated from nature by impervious walls. 2. This change naturally effects the tone and temperament of the mind which is less given up to sensation and passion. In the perpetual summer of the tropics the soul’ s capacities are all but macerated; but where there is a good interspersing of winter habit, a more rugged and distinctly moral temperament is induced. (1) The contrast between summer and winter life in respect to reflection is remarkable. After the mind has received the summer into its storehouse then it wants winter to review its stores. Now the senses lose their objects, we listen to conscience and think of other worlds. Every prospect without is forbidding, the indoor fire more attractive, and if we ever think cogently we do now. (2) It is well understood that the mind never attains to strength without the habit of reflection. The same is necessary to a vigorous pronouncement of the moral man. Hence the intellectual and moral dearth of the tropics, Their moral nature wants the frigorific tension of a well-nurtured life and experience. Who would undertake to form a Scotch people as to a sense of principles in Jamaica? III. We are made MORE OF OUR MORAL WANTS. The prodigal came to himself in a time of short allowance; and when, as in winter, shall our want of God be awakened? Everything around is an image of the coldness of a cold heart. Cut off from the diversions of summer pleasures, then, if ever, a man will feel those wants which set all moral natures reaching after God. IV. We are MORE CAPABLE OF AND WORLDS. God is more vividly imagined in summer, and the tropical attractions of paradise, with its twelve manner of fruits, are intimated. But the time for realizing these invisible things is when a pall is thrown over their visible resemblances. When creation is bare we call upon our imaginations to paint and picture, and make it blessed above all seen facts. V. THE WILL BECOMES MORE ERECT AND . Men in the tropics seem to have no will, and are commonly inefficient for decisive action. How many of them have become martyrs? And who is not languid and averse to resolution even in our northern summer? We speak of the bracing of winter, by which we mean that we have a nerve to do, determine, endure, i.e., have a new instalment of will, and so of practical energy. VI. THE AND SOCIAL OF LIFE ARE . Winter is not commonly productive, but is rather a time of expenditure; and in this way it impels by the most stringent motive to habits of industry and providence. And these habits help to set one on forecasting the wants and necessities of the life beyond. And then, having this also provided, he will have it in his heart to borrow the larger lesson, and be no more churlish or barren of gratitude; but, seeing that God gives for expenditure, he will set his comforts in contrast with the desolations around, and thank God for the supplies of the year. VII. We see THE IT MAKES TO HOME LIFE. Home is an exclusively northern word. Tropical families living out of doors for the whole year are less regularly gathered into domestic proximity. It is only at the hearth when the winter fire is kindled that fatherhood, motherhood, and other tender relationships become bonds of unity. A whole half-year spent at the hearth--mornings there begun with prayer, long evenings enlivened by mutualsociety, books opening their treasures, and games their diversions--this condenses a home. Who can imagine a “ Cottar’ s Saturday Night” in the tropics? VIII. WE HAVE BEEN TRACING RESULTS OF BY WINTER . LET US LOOK AT A FEW WINTER SCENES AND THAT ARE WORKING RESULTS NOT LESS . Note 1. The almost religious impression of winter storms. Tropical storms are so terrible as to leave no moral impression at all. But our winter storm gathers up its force more thoughtfully, as if moving only great instigations, and under this performance, by God’ s aerial orchestra, our soul is in vibration as never under any combination of act, instrument, or voice. 2. The moral value of winter as a time for charity. In the summer God pours out His bounty so freely that none scarcely miss their needed supply. In the winter He withholds that we may take His place. The conditions of hunger and cold authenticate themselves. If there is no fire the lack can be seen. The poor ragged child, saying by his piteous look, “ Who can stand before His cold?” wants no certificate. 3. Winter funerals. These are a trial that awakens strange inward commotions. Our heart shudders, but while our feeling is protesting, the thought arises “ Our departed is not in that hole. Let the snows fall heavy--we thank Thee Father Lord of the warmer clime that our dead one liveswith Thee.” Practically, almost nothing will compel a faith in immortality more than to bury a friend in the winter. 4. Winter religious movements. It is remarkable, and a fair subject for congratulation, that the great Church days are in winter or early spring--Christmas and Easter, e.g. Whether Lent is fixed because at that time the mind is more congenially tempered for the higher meditation and severer exercises of religion some may question, but Lent in July would have much less chance of the intended benefit; and in churches not observing Lent, the time is distinguished by what are called revivals of religion. But in both cases winter becomes the harvest of religion. The tonic force of winter gives a possibility of thought and tension specially needed for earnest religious exercises. It is also an advantage that we love proximity in winter, and covet more easily the warmth of assemblies and high social impulse. 5. Winter seems the time to meditate all our most serious concerns of life anew. Doing this it will not much concern us if our flight should be in winter. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) The beauties of winter When the sky is blue above, and the morning air fresh and bracing, and the frost has gemmed every twig and spray of bush and tree, and every weed and blade of grass by the roadside--aye, and every stone and dead leaf, and straw even, and nature’ s myriad brilliants glitter like diamonds in the sun; and the hard ground rings under your quick tread; and the boys shout on the slippery pond; and the skater hurries to the lake in the park; and the woodman’ s axe is heard in the copse; and in the barn the flail comes down with a will; and the carter’ s boy whistles beside the smoking team; and the brown leaves of the oak rustle; and the lark sings overhead--then winter is a brave old boy, and shall have a crown of shining holly with scarlet berries on the dark leaves of glossy green; and the log shall burn on the hearth, and the mistletoe hang in the hall, and the young shall be merry, and the old cheerful, and the thoughtful remember gladly who it is that hath made the winter. (H. H. Dobney.) Temple views of winter National humiliation and rejoicing may at times be proper, but if annually perpetuated they may become unmeaning. In addition to fasts and festivals of Divine appointment, the Jews had this and others. With how much more reverence men treat Church institutions than those sanctioned by God. Christianity is contrasted with Judaism in as much as it is not an outward religion, has no feasts, attaches no sanctity to days and years, but is inward. 2. At this feast Jesus walked in Soloman’ s porch, and men sought to stone Him for asserting His Oneness with the Father. Men may attach greater importance to the sanctuary than to the gospel. What was passing through His mind? The contrast between the outward beauty of the Temple and the real condition of the Church? Or the little moral influence it had in the world? For the world’ s winter was only the symbol of its spiritual state. 3. What does the season suggest to us in the sanctuary? The ritualism of nature is most expressive, and furnishes us with types of spiritual ideas. Christ uses nature’ s illustrations exclusively. I. DEATH LIFE. Our year begins with winter, which prepares the way for all that follows. Winter is the type of death. It paralyzes old age, takes the colouring from childhood, and fills many a grave. 1. If mental life is to be developed how much have we to die to--early prejudices, mistaken opinions, confused conjectures. 2. If the spiritual life is to be developed, death must precede it. Old principles must be renounced, old habits abandoned. (1) There must be death to sin that there may be life to God. Crucifixion with Christ precedes Christ living in us. (2) There must be death to things seen if we would live to the things unseen. The world must be dead to us if we would seek the things above. (3) The body must die that it may live a new life. II. LIFE HAS ITS . 1. Winter is necessary that one form of life may pass away to be succeeded by another. (1) It is not all spring. Earth’ s beautiful garments become worn and soiled, and must be laid aside, and in darkness and silence nature makes preparation for her new vesture. (2) It is not all activity and growth. There must be a time for the gathering up of energies. (3) It is not all fruitfulness; the fruits must be gathered in to answer the purposes of their growth, and the developments must begin anew. 2. The length of the year is adapted to the constitution of the world. If any change were to take place the wonderful mechanism would be disarranged and come to a stand, and so in the constitution of man. We get robustness not in summer but in winter, and grow more spiritually then. 3. These successive developments, though almost numberless in their forms, may be repetitions. Every year sees leaves, flowers, etc., like the last. But some forms may be succeeded by new manifestations of life, increase of beauty and fruitfulness. There is not a leaf that falls but has accomplished its purpose and makes way for its successor. And so some successive manifestations of spiritual life seem copies of each other. These are necessary to Christian character, but they would not go on did not winter intervene, and some are replaced by manifestations far surpassing those that have preceded them. III. LIFE THE GERM OF ALL FUTURE . Winter does not destroy life. The first act of faith contains in it the germ of all the future sinless and sorrowless life. (H. J. Bevis.) Jesus walked in the Temple In Solomon’ s porch Solomon’ s porch The word “ porch” rather means what we should call a verandah or colonnade. It was one of those long covered walks under a roof supported by columns, on one side at least, which the inhabitants of hot countries appear to find absolutely needful. Singularly enough, one sect of heathen philosophers at Athens was called “ Stoics,” from its meeting in a place called “ Stoa,” here rendered a porch; while another was called “ Peripatetics,” from its habit of “ walking about” during its discussions, just as our Lord did in this verse. The cloisters of a cathedral or abbey, perhaps, are most like the building called a “ porch” here. Josephus says this porch was one of the buildings which remained partly undestroyed from Solomon’ s Temple. Tacitus expressly mentions it as one of the defences of the Temple at the siege of Jerusalem. (Bp. Ryle.) This discourse of our Lord concerning His own Divine power as proved by His works was delivered in winter in Solomon’ s porch. And then the Jews rejected Him (John 10:39). But afterwards this porch was the place in which His apostles, having wrought mighty works in His name, boldly proclaimed His Messiahship and Divine power to the people, who gladly accepted the gospel (Acts 3:11; Acts 5:12). Both in nature and in grace it was then spring. Christ had ascended and the Comforter had come. (Bp. Wordsworth.) The Lord in our assemblies 1. The presence of Jesus brings into prominence (1) The place: “ at Jerusalem, in the Temple.” (2) The exact part of it: “ Solomon’ s porch.” (3) The time: “ winter.” (4) The proceedings: “ feast of Dedication.” 2. The main feature in all history, and in the event of every life, is the presence or absence of Jesus. I. WILL HE BE HERE? The place may be a very Jerusalem, our meetingplace may be a temple, it may be a high day, but will He be with us? It may be cold and wintry; but what of that if He be here? Our own eager inquiry is about His presence, and we feel sure that He will come, feral. We have invited Him, and He will not refuse His friends. 2. We are prepared for Him, and are waiting to welcome Him. 3. We have great need of Him, and He is full of compassion. 4. We have some of His brethren, and these bring Him in them; indeed, He is in them. 5. We have those here whom He is seeking--lost sheep. 6. He has premised to come (Matthew 13:20). 7. Some declare that they have already seen Him. Why should not others of us enjoy the same privilege? II. WILL HE STAY? He will 1. If we prize His company, and feel that we cannot live without it. We must by earnest prayer constrain Him to abide with us (Luke 24:29) 2. If we love His truth, and delight to make it known. 3. If we obey His will, and walk in sincerity and holiness. 4. If we are diligent in His service and worship. 5. If we are united in love to Him, to one another, and to poor sinners. 6. If we are humbly reverent and sit at His feet in lowly confession. The proud He will never favour. 7. If we are jealously watchful. III. WHAT WILL HE DO IF HE COMES? 1. He will walk among us and observe what we are doing, even as He noticed those who went to the Temple at Jerusalem. 2. He will grieve over the spiritual condition of many, even as He mourned over the ruin of Jerusalem. 3. He will wait to give audience to any who desire to speak with Him. 4. He will teach by His servant; and His Word, whether received or rejected, will be with great authority and power. 5. He will this day explain to us the Temple itself, by being Himself the Key to it. Think of Jesus, who is the Temple of God (Revelation 21:22), in the Temple, and then understand by the light of His presence (1) The Temple (Hebrews 9:11; Revelation 15:5). (2) The altar (Hebrews 13:10; Revelation 3:3). (3) The Sacrifice (Hebrews 9:23; 1 Corinthians 5:7). (4) The shewbread (Hebrews 9:2). (5) The veil (Hebrews 10:20). (6) The ark and mercy seat (Hebrews 9:4-5; Revelation 10:19). (7) The priest (Hebrews 10:12). 6. He will to His own people reveal His love, as once the Lord’ s light shone above the mercy seat. 7. He will take us where He always walks, but where there is no winter: to the New Jerusalem, to the temple, to a more beautiful building than Solomon’ s porch (Revelation 21:10-11). (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 10:24-39 Then came the Jews round about Him The scene and circumstances Here in this bright colonnade, decked for the feast with glittering trophies, Jesus was walking up and down, quietly, and apparently without companions, sometimes, perhaps, gazing across the valley of Kidron at the whited sepulchres of the prophets whom generations of Jews had slain, and enjoying the mild winter sunlight, when, as though by a preconcerted movement, the Pharisaic party and their leaders suddenly surrounded and began to question Him. Perhaps the very spot where He was walking, recalling as it did the memories of their ancient glory--perhaps the memories of the glad feast which they were celebrating, as the anniversary of a splendid deliverance wrought by a handful of brave men, who had overthrown a colossal tyranny--inspired their ardent appeal. “ How long,” they impatiently inquired, “ dost Thou hold our souls in painful suspense? If Thou really art the Messiah, tell us with confidence. Tell us here, in Solomon’ s porch, now, while the sight of these shields and golden crowns, and the melody of these citherns and cymbals, recall the glory of Judas the Asmonaean--wilt thou be a mightier Maccabaeus, a more glorious Solomon? Shall these citrons and fair boughs and palms, which we carry in honour of this day’ s victory, be carried some day for Thee?” It was a strange, impetuous, impatient appeal, and is full of significance. It forms their own strong condemnation, for it shows distinctly that He had spoken words and done deeds which would have justified and substantiated such a claim had He chosen definitely to assert it. And if He had in so many words asserted it--in the sense which they required--it is probable that they would have instantly welcomed Him with tumultuous acclaim. The place where they were speaking recalled the most glorious scenes of their ancient monarchy; the occasion was rife with the heroic memories of one of their bravest and most successful warriors; the political conditions which surrounded them were exactly such as those from which the noble Asmonaean had delivered them. One spark of that ancient flame would have kindled their inflammable spirits into such a blaze of irresistible fanaticism as might for a time have swept away both the Romans and Herods. But the day for political deliverances was past; the day for a higher, deeper, wider deliverance had come. For the former they yearned; the latter they rejected. Passionate to claim in Jesus an exclusive temporal Messiah, they repelled Him with hatred as the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. That He was the Messiah in a sense far loftier and more spiritual than they had ever dreamed His language had again and again implied: but a Messiah in the sense they required He was not, and would not be. And therefore He does not mislead them by saying, “ I am your Messiah,” but He refers them to His repeated teaching, which showed how clearly such had been His claim, and to the works which bore witness to that claim. Had they been sheep of His flock, they would have heard His voice, and then He would have given them eternal life. (Archdeacon Farrar.) Christ’ s account of Himself I. THE NATURE OF HIS . 1. His sayings. He had often told them who He was (John 10:25). 2. His miracles. These had been signs that they should have understood (John 10:25; John 10:33). 3. His acceptance by the pious. Jehovah’ s flock and His own sheep had recognized Him; an indirect testimony that He was no imposter (John 10:27). 4. His ability to save. He could and did bestow eternal life on those who believed and followed Him (John 10:23). II. THE DIGNITY OF HIS PERSON. 1. The Father’ s Commissioner (John 10:26). 2. The Father’ s Shepherd (John 10:29). 3. The Father’ s Son (John 10:36). 4. The Father’ s equal (John 10:30; John 10:33). The Jews understood this (John 10:33). III. THE OF HIS . 1. The charge preferred against Him. Blasphemy, in making out Himself, a man, to be God (John 10:33). 2. The punishment proposed for Him. Stoning, the penalty prescribed by the law for such offenders. 3. The answer returned by Him. (1) Scriptural--drawn from their own holy writings. (2) Logical. If God’ s Word called civic rulers “ gods,” it could not be blasphemy for God’ s Son to call Himself “ Son of God.” (3) Final. They could not reply to it except by violence; and He withdrew Himself beyond the reach of such machinations, Learn 1. The sufficiency of the existing evidences for Christ and Christianity. 2. The irreconcilable antagonism between the unrenewed heart and Christ. 3. The ease with which objections and objectors to Christ can be answered. 4. The certainty that evil men can never achieve a final triumph over Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Religious scepticism I. IT DOES NOT LACK (John 10:24-25). 1. Christ’ s works were such as no mere man had ever performed or could ever accomplish--productions of Divine power, expressions of Divine benevolence. 2. If these in His day were sufficient evidence, how much more His moral works in Christendom since. For eighteen centuries they have been multiplying. To sceptics who say, How long are we to be held in doubt? we answer, If you are sincere in your inquiries, you need not be held in suspense a moment longer. II. IT LACKS WITH TRUTH (John 10:26-27). This, and not lack of evidence, is the cause of scepticism. The Jew’ s sympathy was with the formulae and conventionalities of religion and not with the truth. The wish is evermore father of the thought. Men are atheists because they do not “ like to retain” God in their thoughts--anti-Christians because they do not like Christ. He is too pure, too honest. Are men responsible for this lack of sympathy? As well ask, Are men responsible for being truthful, just, virtuous? Conscience is bound to answer in the affirmative. III. IT EXPOSES TO LOSS (John 10:23). This implies 1. That they, the sceptics, would not have eternal life--goodness, freedom, perfection, joy--that the absence of which meant to “ perish.” 2. That they would not have eternal security. His sheep would be safe in His and the Father’ s hands from ruin and misery. But those who were not His sheep would be in a perilous condition. Conclusion: See here 1. How hypocritical is scepticism. They professed to be in search of truth, whereas they only wanted a pretext to destroy truth. 2. How irrational is scepticism. It refuses to accept the most overwhelming evidence in favour of truth--the mighty and ever multiplying works of Christ. 3. How immoral is scepticism. It springs from the state of the heart--destitution of sympathy with Christ. 4. How egregiously foolish is scepticism. It risks eternal life and security. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The works of the Christ We are dealing with the truth of the Divinity of the Christ, as it has been proclaimed by Christendom ever since the day when He lived and died on this earth. We are endeavouring to test the weight of evidence in favour of such a tremendous claim. And in order to do this effectually we are summoning certain witnesses before us that they may bear their testimony for or against it. The works of a man, like his character and words, are very eloquent. They speak for or against him. The works of the Christ. This, then, is our witness today. They are the works of One the beauty of whose character and words is acknowledged by all men whose judgment is worth having. “ They bear witness of Me,” says the Christ. What do they say? Do they justify or condemn, do they speak for or against Him? I. And, first of all, we want to know WHAT THIS WITNESS IS. The works of the Christ are many and manifold. There are works of love, of sympathy, of mercy; there are works of wisdom, of power, of greatness; there are works of warning, of judgment, of condemnation. Which of these shall we summon as our witness today? No; our Lord Himself narrows the issue for us. He points to certain of His works and by them will be judged, “ The works that I do in My Father’ s name.” It is quite clear that He is speaking of His miracles. The miracles of the Christ! “ Oh,” some will say, “ no one believes in miracles nowadays. If you have no ether witness but this your case must surely fall to the ground. Miracles do not happen!” Why is a miracle impossible? Hume denies the possibility of a miracle because “ it is contrary to all experience.” Mr. Mill, the greatest of modern logicians, shows theft after all this statement is really worth nothing. He tells us that it only means that you cannot prove a miracle to a person who does not believe in a Being with supernatural powers. If by all experience he literally means “ all” he is simply begging the question. No one ever supposed for a moment that miracles have been experienced by all. The philosopher Rousseau tells us that objections to miracles from their improbability cannot reasonably be urged by any man who seriously believes in a living God. But others urge, a miracle is impossible because it is a violation of the laws of nature. But is it? Let us ask what is meant by violating nature’ s laws. What is a miracle? It is a lower law suspended by a higher. And who shall say this cannot be? To say so were to contradict daily experience. For instance, we can, we do continually counteract the great law of gravitation by a higher law. A miracle is impossible. No, not to any man who believes in a God at all. And we are taking this for granted. Very few deny it. Yea more, we live in a world of miracles. “ We cannot see,” writes James Hinton, who was at once a man of science and a philosopher, and they do not always go together, “ that we walk in the midst of miracles, and draw in mysteries with every breath.” A miracle is impossible. Nay, the miracles of the Christ are not a discredited witness: they are not impossible or improbable. On the contrary, miracles are natural and reasonable, and under certain circumstances they are to be expected. But, you say, were not His character and His words enough? Nay, they might be for us, but not for them. In those early days many among men knew but little of His character, and heard only a few of His words. There was need of other credentials in those days, plainer and more striking, to support the claim which Jesus made. We need them not. The miracles of the Christ were like the bells of the Church, that ring before the service begins, and call men by their music to come and worship. But the bells cease when the congregation has assembled and the act of worship commenced. And so we say that it was to be expected that a supernatural revelation, brought by a supernatural Teacher, should, in the absence of all earthly power and greatness, be accompanied by supernatural signs, to attest the truth of the Messenger and of the message He delivered unto men. If, then, these miracles are neither impossible nor improbable, what can we learn about the nature of the witness they give? First, then, I would have you bear in mind that they, too, like the other witnesses we have called, are well-authenticated facts. They are facts which His disciples believed in, and who were so likely to know as they? They are facts, for even His enemies admitted their reality. The Jews did not deny them. Secondly, the miracles of Christ are to be expected. They were the natural accompaniments of His mission of love, the embodiments of His character and words, in harmony with all else that we are told of Him. “ They were perfectly natural and ordinary in Him, they were His, His powers or faculties, His capacities, just as sight and speech are ours.” Thirdly, the miracles of the Christ are unique. No other religion was ever founded upon miracles, as is Christianity. “ Whence, then, hath this Man this wisdom and these mighty works?” Christendom answers, “ He is the Son of the Living God.” Yea, Jesus Himself tells us, “ The works which the Father hath given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me.” But as in the first days of Christianity, so still men refuse to believe this. They offer us other solutions instead. Renan, for instance, says He deluded His disciples. Others tell us that the Christ was enabled to do His miracles by His greater knowledge of the laws of science. But can we accept this solution? Or, again, we are told that these miracles are the outcome of the imagination of the disciples--that miracles were in the air, so to speak. Moreover, are we really entitled to take for granted, as do so many, that at the time the Gospels were written there was a predisposition in the minds of men to accept what was extraordinary? In his book on miracles Mr. Litton writes with considerable force, “ No mistake is greater than to suppose that the period at which the Gospels appeared was favourable to imposture of this kind. It was an age of literature and philosophy, the diffusion of which was promoted by the union of the civilized world under one sceptre. In Palestine learning had especially taken the form of critical inquiries into the integrity and genuineness of ancient books.” But there are others who accept the force of this reasoning, and say the miracles of the Christ are the creation of a later age. But, as has been well pointed out by the same writer, such a man must have been a forger surpassing all the world has ever known in cleverness. Once more, it is said that the results attributed to miraculous power were in reality brought about by the forces of His personal qualities. His strength of will, His beauty of character, His personal attraction, influenced men, and worked upon them wonderful cures. But even if it were so with the miracles of which men and women were the subjects, how will this account for the stilling of the storm or the withering of the fig tree. There is only one alternative. Jesus Himself tells us what it is, “ If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.” Shall we believe Him or shall we reject Him? (C. J.Ridgeway, M. A.) My sheep hear My voice The order of thought The reference to those who believe not (John 10:26) because they were not of His sheep, introduces the contrast between them and those who were, and the position of the true members of the flock is expanded in this pair of parallel clauses. One member of each pair refers to the act or state of the sheep; the other to the act or gift of the good Shepherd. The pairs proceed in a climax from the first response of the conscience which recognizes the Divine voice, to the eternal home which is in the Father’ s presence. 1. “ My sheep hear My voice,”…” and I know them.” 2. “ And they follow Me,”…” and I give unto them eternal life.” 3. “ And they shall never perish;”…” Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” By reading successively the clauses printed in the ordinary type, we trace the progress of the human act and state; by reading in the same way those printed in italics, we trace the progress of the Divine gift; by reading each pair in the order of the text, we see how at each stage the gift is proportioned to the faculty which can receive it. (Archdeacon Watkins.) The sheep and the shepherd While far from flattering this emblem is very consolatory, for of all creatures none are so weak and helpless as sheep, and none are the subjects of such care. I. THE OF THE SHEEP. “ My.” They are Christ’ s 1. By choice. 2. By the Father’ s gift. We often value a gift for the donor’ s sake irrespective of its intrinsic worth. 3. He bought them. We value that for which we have to pay. 4. By capture. A man esteems that which he procures with risk of life and limb. When we were astray He sought, found, rescued us. 5. By the cheerful surrender of ourselves to Him. We would not belong to another if we might; not even to ourselves. All this is (1) A great honour. To belong to a king carries distinction. (2) A guarantee of safety. (3) The stamp of sanctity. We are the Lord’ s separated flock. (4) The key to duty. II. THE MARKS OF THE SHEEP. 1. Their ear mark: “ Hear My voice.” (1) They hear spiritually. (2) They hear Christ in the ministry, Bible, providences, etc., and they distinguish His voice from that of strangers. (3) They hear obediently. 2. Their foot mark: “ They follow Me” --not are driven. They follow Christ (1) As the Captain of their salvation. (2) As their Teacher. (3) As their Example. (4) As their Commander and Prince. “ Whatsoever He saith unto you do it.” III. THE OF THE SHEEP. It does not look very large, but it is amazingly blessed. “ I know them,” the reverse of which is “ I never knew you.” He knows us 1. Personally. 2. Thoroughly. 3. Helpfully. (1) Our sins that He may forgive them. (2) Our diseases that He may heal them, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Answering the call In a beautiful English churchyard is a small grave remarkable for its simplicity. It is evidently the resting place of a little lad who loved his Saviour. The inscription is as follows: “ Freddy!”… “ Yes, Father!” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ knows us thoroughly You have a watch, and it will not go, or it goes very irregularly, and you give it into the hands of one who knows nothing about watches, and he says, “ I will clean it for you.” He will do it more harm than good. But here is the person who made the watch. He says, “ I put every wheel into its place; I made the whole of it from beginning to end.” You feel the utmost confidence in entrusting that man with your watch. It often cheers my heart to think that since the Lord made me He can put me right. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s sheep I. THE MARKS. 1. They know His voice. This is universal in the East. They hear it (1) In conversion. (2) At the time of duty. (3) In affliction. (4) In the hour of death. 2. They follow Him (1) That they may get pardon. (2) To obtain the living water. (3) To share His unspeakable love. (4) To commune with Him in prayer. (5) To learn from His example. II. THE . 1. Christ knows them. The world does not; the Church may not; but Christ does, whatsoever their state or condition. 2. Christ gives them eternal life. This implies (1) Daily pardon. (2) Spiritual life. 3. Christ keeps them safely. (1) They are in His land. (2) In His Father’ s land. (3) To all eternity. (Pulpit Analyst.) The sheep of Christ These are known I. BY HEARING. The most important of all the senses, and of scriptural emblems, is the ear. (Isaiah 55:1-13) “ Faith cometh by hearing.” The sheep hear 1. Christ’ s personal voice. He still speaks in the Scriptures. Many do not recognize that voice, as a stranger would not recognize your child’ s voice in a letter; but every syllable becomes audible to you. The word of battle is to the soldier not the voice of the trumpeter, but the call of his general. 2. The voice of truth. No voice but Christ’ s is, because nothing else is permanent. 3. The voice of grace and of love. 4. The voice of power over the world, the flesh and the devil. Hence it imparts courage to the Christian soldier to go on conquering and to conquer. II. BY , as we are able to distinguish our friends and children. Christ knows His sheep. 1. In whatever condition of life, rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, in sorrow or in joy. 2. Whatever company they may keep. 3. Whithersoever they go. 4. Whatsoever they do. The knowledge in this aspect of it is admonitory and encouraging. III. BY . They follow Christ’ s example 1. In obedience to His earthly parents. 2. In conformity to all the righteousness of religion. 3. In nonconformity to the world. (H. Cooke, D. D.) They follow Me.--Christ’ s flock often addressed by the seductive voice of strangers. They are promised the treasures, honours, and pleasures of the world. They are told that there are other and smoother ways of reaching heaven. But there is none but this: following Christ. I. In . “ Be ye holy for I am holy.” II. In LOVE. “ By this shall all men know,” etc. III. In SELF-DENIAL. “ If any man will come after Me,” etc. IV. In . “ Let this mind be in you,” etc. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Believers must not go before Christ With my brother I was once climbing the Cima di Jazi, one of the mountains in the chain of Monta Rosa. When nearly at the top, we entered a dense fog. Presently our guides faced right about and grounded their axes on the frozen snowed slope. My brother, seeing the slope still beyond, and not knowing it was merely the cornice overhanging a precipice of several thousand feet, rushed onward. I shall never forget their cry of agonized warning. He stood for a moment on the summit, and then, the snow yielding, he began to fall through; one of the guides, at great risk, had rushed after him, and seizing him by the coat, drew him down to a place of safety. So Christ is our guide amid the mists and the difficult place of light. It is not ours to go before Him. Where He leads we may go, when He stops, we should stop. It is at our peril if we go a step beyond. (Newman Hall.) The test of piety A little girl was once asked what it was to be a Christian, and she wisely answered, “ It is to do just what Jesus would do if He was a little girl and lived at our house.” I give unto them eternal life Final perseverance This doctrine has been found in this passage. But we must carefully distinguish between the certainty of God’ s promises and His infinite power on the one hand, and the weakness and variableness of man’ s will on the other. If man falls at any stage in his spiritual life, it is not from want of Divine grace, nor from the overwhelming power of adversaries, but from his neglect to use that which he may or may not use. We cannot be protected against ourselves in spite of ourselves. He who ceases to hear and to follow is thereby shown to be no true believer (1 John 2:19). The difficulty in this case is only one form of the difficulty involved in the relation of an infinite to a finite being. The sense of the Divine protection is at any moment sufficient to inspire confidence, but not to render effort unnecessary (comp. John 6:37; John 6:39-40; John 6:44). St. Paul combines the two thoughts, Philippians 2:12, etc.). (Bp. Westcott.) The security of believers I. IN WHAT SENSE THEY ARE SECURE. 1. From the condemnation of the law. 2. From the power of temptation. 3. From the dominion of Satan. 4. From everlasting death. II. THE GROUNDS OF THIS . 1. Negatively. Not their own (1) Righteousness. (2) Prudence. (3) Strength. (4) Fidelity. Nor (5) The efficacy of the means of grace. (6) The security of the asylum, i.e., the Church, to which they have betaken themselves. 2. Positively. (1) The covenant of redemption. (2) The work of Christ. (3) The indwelling of the Spirit. (4) The fidelity of God. III. . 1. Not that we may live in sin and yet be saved, because the security of believers is a security from sin. This is the great distinction between the doctrine of perseverance and Antinomianism. As it is a contradiction to say that God saves the lost, so it is to say that He preserves those who indulge in sin. 2. Not that we may neglect the means of grace. For the security promised is as much security from negligence as from every other evil. 3. This truth is adapted (1) To fill the heart with abounding gratitude and love to God. (2) To produce peace and a filial spirit. (3) To engender alacrity in the service of God and in working out our salvation. (C. Hodge, D. D.) Life eternal I. THE PAST HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 1. They had lost eternal life. Every one fell in Adam. 2. They could not have obtained life except by its being given. God never works an unnecessary miracle. If the soul could save itself God would let it do what it could. 3. Eternal life is not secured by merit. That which is given is unmerited. Man merits nothing but death; life is God’ s free gift. 4. Those who now have it would have perished but for Christ. Sin made all men heirs of wrath. 5. God’ s people have many enemies who would pluck them out of His hand. They were once in the hand of the enemy. II. THEIR PRESENT STATE. Notice here 1. A gift received--“ life.” Distinguish between existence and life. Existence may be a curse. This life is (1) Spiritual; as distinguished from the existence of a stone, and from vegetable, animal, and intellectual life. (2) Mysterious. You who have mental life cannot explain to a horse what it is, neither can one explain spiritual life to those who have it not. (3) Divine. We are made partakers of the Divine nature. (4) Heavenly in its nature, origin and end. (5) Energetic. It is the spring of all activity. (6) Eternal. (7) Free. 2. Preservation secured. (1) “ They” shall never perish. Some of their notions, comforts, and experiences may, but they never shall. (2) They shall never “ perish.” The life in them shall not be starved, beaten, or driven out. (3) “ Never? position guaranteed--in Christ’ s land. A place of (1) Honour. We are the jewel He wears on His finger. (2) Love. “ I have graven thee on the palms of my hands.” (3) Power. Christ’ s hand encloses all His people. (4) Property. “ The saints are in my hand.” (5) Protection. (6) Use. III. THEIR OUTLOOK INTO THE FUTURE. Eternal life comprehends all the future. Your spiritual existence will flourish when empires decay, when the heart of this world shall grow cold, when the pulse of the sea shall cease to beat, and the sun’ s bright eye grow dim with age. When, like a moment’ s foam which melts into the wave that bears it the whole universe shall have gone, it shall be well with you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The eternal life of Christ’ s flock 1. The shepherd owns the flock. 2. The shepherd tends his flock. 3. As the effect of the shepherd’ s training and watchful care the sheep learn to know him. 4. The flock follow the shepherd wherever he may lead them. I. THE SHEEP IN THEIR TO THE IMAGE THE MEMBERS OF THE FOLD IN THEIR TO JESUS CHRIST, THE AND BISHOP OF THEIR SOULS. 1. The Good Shepherd is the proprietor of His spiritual flock. The earthly image cannot be pressed beyond proper limits. The sheep on the Judaean hills were beasts, and their shepherd was a man. Between Christ and His sheep there is no such gulf. Though He is the Creator and they are creatures yet He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one nature. In that nature He has vanquished their enemies and has become their Proprietor as well as their Brother. 2. The ownership of the Good Shepherd in the sheep is ever the same. Time, circumstances, death cannot break it. II. THE GOOD GIVES HIS SHEEP ETERNAL LIFE. He has given His life for them; He also gives it to them. Errors to be guarded against 1. That eternal life means everlasting existence in heaven. It is this but it is more, even the union and communion of love between God and man originated and perfected by Jesus Christ. 2. That it is something future. On the contrary Christ says explicitly that the believer hath it. It is a present possession and a continuous power. III. THE SHEEP OF THE GOOD shall never perish. 1. There are at least two enemies of the flock. (1) The flesh, the wolf within the fold, the traitor within the citadel. (2) The spirit of this world. 2. The combined attacks of these foes are vain. For Christ (1) protects, (2) guides, (3) feeds His sheep. Hence “ Goodness and mercy follow them all the days of their life.” (E. V. Gerhart D. D.) Eternal life By what aids can we conceive of it. Some men say, describe a circle; let the sun be the centre, and let the line of circumference pass through the most distant planet. Let this be as one cycle of existence, and let such cycles be innumerable: this is everlasting life. Traverse the woods and forests of our planet during the season of leaf fall, count the fallen leaves, and repeat this through endless years: this is everlasting life. Visit the deserts and seashores of our globe, number the sands, and let each grain represent a century: this is everlasting life. Separate the waters of this globe into drops, the waters of all pools and lakes, of all brooks and rivers, of all oceans and seas; let each drop represent a century: this is everlasting life. But these illustrations represent duration only, continued existence might be a curse. The life which Jesus promises is pure life and holy, peaceful life and happy, true life and godly; life in a garden more paradisaical than that of Eden; life in a country better far than Canaan; life in a city more sacred than Jerusalem, more magnificent than Nineveh, Athens, or Rome; life in a kingdom to which the kingdoms of this world yield no comparison; and life in a home as peaceful and as pure as the heart of God. (S. Martin.) The Almighty hand I have read of a father and son who worked in a deep mine, and one day when they were together in a basket in which the miners were drawn up from the pit to the surface, the son overbalanced himself and fell out of the basket; his father seized hold of part of his clothing and thus prevented his sudden fall. But, alas! this was only for a short time. Crying loudly for help, the father held on to his son’ s clothing as long as he was able, and then his hand falling in its power to bear up so heavy a burden, relaxed its hold, and his son fell and perished. Only the hand of Jesus is all-sufficient and almighty, and it never fails. (R. Brewin.) The safety of the saints A swallow having built its nest upon the tent of Charles V, the emperor generously commanded that the tent should not be taken down when the camp removed, but should remain until the young birds were ready to fly. Was there such gentleness in the heart of a soldier towards a poor bird which was not of his making, and shall the Lord deal hardly with his creatures when they venture to put their trust in Him! Be assured He hath a great love to those trembling souls that fly for shelter to His royal courts. He that buildeth his nest upon a Divine promise shall find it abide and remain until he shall fly away to the land where promises are lost in fulfilments. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The safety of the saints Plutarch, in relating Alexander’ s wars, says, that when he came to besiege a certain people who dwelt upon a rock, they jeered him, and asked him “ whether his soldiers had wings or not; unless your soldiers can fly in the air we fear you not.” Such is the safety of God’ s people; he can set them upon a rock, so high that no ladder can be found long enough to scale their habitations, nor any artillery or engine strong enough to batter them down, so that unless their adversaries have more than eagle’ s wings to soar higher than God Himself, they cannot do them the least annoyance; their place of defence is the munition of rocks, safe enough from all dangers. The least saints shall not perish They that work in gold or silver let fall many a bit to the ground, yet they do not intend to lose it so, but sweep the shop, and keep the very sweepings safe, so that which they cannot at present discover the refiner brings to light. Thus, the world is God’ s workshop, many a dear child of God suffers and fails to the ground by banishment, imprisonment, sorrow, sickness, etc., but they must not be lost thus, God will search the very sweepings, and gather them out of the very trash, and preserve them. What though they be slightly set by here in this world, and lie amongst the pots, no better accounted of than the rubbish and refuse of the earth? God will find a time to make them up amongst the rest of His jewels. Believers need not fear that they shall perish A man crossed the Mississippi on the ice, and fearing it was too thin, began to crawl on his hands and knees in great terror; but when he gained the opposite shore, all worn out, another man drove past him gaily, sitting upon a sledge loaded with pig iron. That is just the way most Christians go up to the heavenly Canaan, trembling at every step lest the promises shall break under their feet, when really they are secure enough for us to hold our heads and sing with confidence as we march to the better land. The safety of the saints Not long before he died James Janeway blessed God for the assurance of His love, and said he could now as easily die as shut his eyes, adding “ Here I am longing to be silent in the dust and to enjoy Christ in glory. It is not worth while to weep for me. Then, remembering how busy the devil had been about him, he thanked God for rebuking him. (Memoir of J. Janeway.) The safety of the saints “ I want to talk to you about heaven,” said a dying parent to a member of his family, “ we may not be spared to each other long.” His beloved daughter exclaimed, “ Surely you do not think there is any danger.” He replied, calmly, “ Danger, my darling! Oh, do not use that word. There can be no danger to the Christian whatever may happen. All is right! All is well! God is love! All is well! Everlastingly well! Everlastingly well! (Jn Stevenson.) My Father which gave them Me.--If He was given them, then I. HE IS THEIR . This is undeniable. All souls are His. II. IT MUST BE IN HARMONY WITH THEIR OWN FREE CONSENT. Souls cannot be given away as material objects can. They are essentially free, and the great Father would not outrage the nature of His offspring. III. IT IS NOT IN SUCH A WAY AS TO INVOLVE THE OF HIS CLAIM UPON THEM. When we give a thing away, we cease to have any right to it. God will never relinquish His right to the existence, love, reverence and service of souls. Indeed in this passage Christ tells us that they are still in His Father’ s hand. (D. Thomas, D. D.) God an impregnable Refuge The French were very proud of the stronghold of Metz, and over one of the principal entrances to it was this inscription, deeply cut in the stone, “ This fortress has been nine times besieged, but has never been taken.” But when the Prussian army swept over the borders of France and laid seige to this far-famed place of defence, it was not long before those who had taken shelter within its walls found that their hiding place was not a safe one, and soon the flag of the victorious Germans floated above its walls, and the French soldiers within it fell into the hands of their enemies. God is a strong refuge, and will never give up those who trust in Him. (R. Brewin.) The safety of believers Backed by the Almighty! As the little constable in the Bay State said to the fellow who threatened him, “ If you shake me you shake the whole State of Massachussetts.” It is a great thing to be not a forlorn little wheel that mast be turned by hand, but one geared into the machinery of God’ s eternal laws of moral order. I and My Father are One The Divinity of Christ That Christ in such assertions claimed absolute Divinity is evident from the conduct of the Jews. In scarcely any other case did they seek to lay violent hands upon Him. When He exposed their sins they restrained their rage and waited for their revenge. But at such assertions as these their pent-up wrath burst forth in indignation at His presumption, or in violent action. Now, if they had been misunderstood Jesus would have explained them away; but instead of that He accepts the interpretation of His words and proceeds to argue from it, and, further, it was for standing by this interpretation that He died. We have here a claim to I. UNITY OF NATURE. The mysterious thing is that He who made this claim was a man with whom the Jews had been long familiar. He had been in being before His human nature was formed (John 3:53; John 17:5). He had come forth from the Father to assume that human nature, and now clad in it He was conscious of no change in His Divine nature. This unity 1. Implies absolute equality with the Father (Philippians 2:6). There is not one perfection to be found in the First person of the Godhead that does not exist undimmed in splendour in the Second. We are to conceive of Christ as possessing all the Father’ s self-sufficiency, eternity, omnipotence, holiness, etc., “ All that the Father hath is Mine.” 2. Is claimed by Christ through His Sonship. It is as the Son He always regards Himself, even when speaking most strongly of His equality. It is not a separate independent equality, but equality through union; therefore One with the Father because Son of the Father--possessing the Father’ s nature by virtue of Sonship. This relation is never lost sight of, and all His claims to Divinity are founded upon it. This shows that He is Son not merely through His incarnation, but eternally. If Son in human nature only, He cannot be in any special sense Son of the Father, still less “ only begotten.” 3. Preserves the distinction between the Father and the Son. Unity is not identity. One in all that is essential to the Godhead, but two distinct persons. When the words were uttered the distinction was evident: the Father was in heaven on the throne of Majesty; the Son was on earth in the form of a Servant. 4. Does not contradict the assertion, “ My Father is greater than!” (John 14:23), because just before He had claimed unity with the Father (chap. 14:10, 11). It is simply a recognition of the filial relation. The Father’ s glory is undenied; the Son’ s is from the Father (chap. 5:26). In this sense only can the Father be greater, and this is consistent with perfect union and equality. 5. Is confessedly mysterious. Let us not then seek to break irreverently through and gaze; but reverently and joyfully accept the truth that we have a Saviour so qualified to save. II. UNITY OF PURPOSE. Between such a Father and such a Son there can be no collision--unity of nature must embrace unity of will. We should not need to dwell upon this, but for the perversion of the doctrine of the atonement, which has been represented as implying an unwillingness of God to pardon, which had to be propitiated by the sacrifice of Christ. The New Testament nowhere teaches this God-dishonouring tenet (John 3:16). The purpose to save is represented as originating with the Father, and voluntarily accepted by the Son. In the execution of that purpose Jesus repeatedly testifies that He came to do His Father’ s will. The Son died, not because the Father was unwilling, but unable to save them otherwise. III. UNITY OF ACTION. (verse 37, etc.). This so follows from the former part of the subject, that there is no need to enlarge upon it. The Bible abounds with illustrations of it--in Creation, Providence, and redemption. Conclusion: Jesus makes this unity the type of that which should exist between His people and Himself, and amongst ourselves (John 17:20-23). (W. S.Dewstoe) . The Divinity of Christ The oneness of our Lord with the Father is demonstrated by the following line of argument. I. DIVINE NAMES ARE GIVEN TO HIM. 1. God. This term is used sometimes in a secondary sense of Moses Exodus 7:1), and magistrates, etc. (Exodus 22:23; Psalms 32:1; Psalms 32:6), because of some imperfect resemblance they bear to God in some one particular. But it is in no secondary or figurative sense that Christ bears this Matthew 1:23; John 1:1; John 20:23; Acts 20:23; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; 2 Peter 1:1); and as if to shut out this sense He is called “ the Mighty God,” “ God over all,” “ The true God, “ The great God.” 2. Jehovah, the incommunicable name, significant of eternal, independent, and immutable existence (Isaiah 6:5 cf. John 12:41; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Joe 2:32 cf. Romans 10:13; Isaiah 11:3 cf. Matthew 3:3; Isaiah 3:13-14 cf. 1 Peter 2:7; 1 Peter 2:3; Zechariah 12:1; Zechariah 12:10 cf. John 19:37). II. DIVINE ARE TO HIM. 1. Eternal existence (Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2; John 1:2; Isaiah 44:6 cf. Revelation 1:11; Revelation 2:3; Revelation 22:13). 2. Omnipresence (Matthew 13:20; Matthew 23:20; John 3:13). 3. Omniscience (John 2:24-25; John 21:17; Colossians 3:3; Revelation 2:23 cf. 1 Kings 3:32). 4. Omnipotence (Isaiah 9:6; Revelation 1:3; Philippians 3:21). 5. Immutability (Hebrews 1:10-12; Hebrews 13:3). 6. Every attribute of the Father (John 16:15; Colossians 2:9). III. DIVINE WORKS ARE BY HIM. 1. Creation (John 1:3-10; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2-10). 2. Providential government (Matthew 23:13; Luke 10:22; John 3:35; John 17:2; Acts 10:36; Romans 14:9; Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; Revelation 17:14). 3. The forgiveness of sins (Matthew 9:2-7; Mark 2:7-10; Colossians 3:13). 4. The final dissolution and renewal of all things (Hebrews 1:12; Philippians 3:21; Revelation 21:5). 5. The resurrection and universal judgment (John 5:22; John 5:27-29;Philippians 3:20-21; Matthew 25:31-32; Acts 10:42; Acts 17:31; Romans 16:10; 2 Timothy 4:1). IV. DIVINE WORSHIP IS PAID TO HIM. 1. This worship is recognized as the distinguishing peculiarity of New Testament saints (Acts 9:14; Acts 9:21; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Romans 10:12-13). 2. This worship has been actually paid by inspired men (Luke 24:51, Acts 1:24; Acts 7:59-60; 2 Corinthians 12:3; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:11-12; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17; 1 Timothy 1:2; Revelation 1:5). 3. Angels have joined in this worship (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:11-12). 4. Every creature in the universe will offer it (Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 5:13-14). V. DIVINE IS CLAIMED BY HIM. (John 14:9; John 16:15; John 10:30) This claim we must acknowledge, or accept the terrible alternative that He was destitute of the human excellencies of humility and truthfulness. VI. HIS NAME IS WITH THAT OF THE FATHER. 1. In the promises He made (John 14:21-23). 2. In the embassy of the apostles (Titus 1:1-16; Galatians 1:1). 3. In the designation of the Churches addressed (1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:1.; Philippians 1:1; Philippians 1:1-30 and 2 Thessalonians 1:1). 4. In benedictions besought (1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17; 1 Corinthians 13:14). 5. In the worship of heaven (Revelation 5:13; Revelation 7:10). To associate the Creator with a creature in such a way would forever destroy the infinite distinction between God and man. (B. Field.) The oneness of Christ with the Father What kind of unity is that which the context obliges us to see in this solemn statement? Is it such a unity as that which our Lord desired for His followers in His intercessory prayer; a unity of spiritual communion, of reciprocal love, of common participation in an imparted heaven-sent nature (John 17:11; John 17:22-23)? Is it a unity ofdesign and cooperation, such as that which, in varying degrees, is shared by all true workers with God (1 Corinthians 3:3)? How would either of these lower unities sustain the full sense of the context, which represents the hand of the Son as one with the hand, i.e., with the love and power of the Father, securing to the souls of men an effectual preservation from eternal ruin? A unity like this must be a dynamic unity, as distinct from any mere moral or intellectual union, such as might exist between a creature and its God. Deny this dynamic unity, and you destroy the internal connection of the passage; admit it, and you admit, by necessary implication, a unity of Essence. The power of the Son, which shields the redeemed from the foes of their salvation, is the very power of the Father; and this identity of power is itself the outflow and manifestation of a oneness of nature. Not that at this height of contemplation the person of the Son, so distinctly manifested just now in the work of guarding His redeemed, melts away into any mere aspect or relation of the Divine Being in His dealing with His creatures. As St. Augustine observes, the “ unum” saves us from the charabdis of Arianism; the “ sumus” is our safeguard from the Scylla of Sabellius. The Son within the incommunicable unity of God is still Himself; He is not the Father but the Son. Yet this personal subsistence is in the mystery of the Divine life strictly compatible with unity of essence; the Father and the Son are one Thing. (Canon Liddon.) Christ’ s two natures The picture produced in the stereopticon is fuller, rounder, and more natural than the same picture seen without the use of that instrument. But to produce the stereoscopic picture there must be two pictures blended into one by the use of the stereopticon, and both the eyes of the observer are brought into requisition at the same time, looking each through a separate lens. Thus Christ is only seen in His true and proper light when the record of His human nature and the statement of His divine are blended. It is a fiat unfinished Christ with either left out. But it is as seen in the Word, with the moral and mental powers of our being both engaged in the consideration, and thus only, that we get the full and true result. (Pulpit Treasury.) Christ entitled to Divine honours The Emperor Theodosius being seduced from the truth by Arian teachers, Bishop Amphilocus, at Rome, took the following eccentric means of convincing him of his error. Theodosius had raised his son, Arcadius, to the dignity of Caesar. Together in royal state they received the homage of their subjects. Amphilochus, on one of these occasions presented himself and bowed his knee before the emperor, but took no notice of his son. Theodosius, offended, exclaimed: “ Know you not that I have made my son the partner of my throne?” The bishop thereupon turned on Arcadius, put his hands upon his head, and invoked a blessing upon him, and then turned to go away. Naturally dissatisfied with patronage in place of homage, Theodosius asked in angry tones if that was all the respect the bishop paid to an occupant of the throne, but the latter replied: “ Sire, you are angry with me for not paying your son equal honour with yourself; what must God think of you for encouraging those who insult His equal Son in every part of your empire?” The unity of God to be believed Out of the harbour of Goodwin Sands the pilot cannot make forth, they say, unless he so steer his ship that he bring two steeples so even in his sight that they appear one. So it is here. (J. Trapp.) The unity of God “ Sitting lately,” says one, “ in a public room at Brighton, where an infidel was haranguing the company upon the absurdities of the Christian religion, I could not but be pleased to see how easily his reasoning pride was put to shame. He quoted those passages ‘ I and My Father are one ‘ ; ‘ I in them and thou in Me ‘ ; and that there are three persons in one God. Finding his auditors not disposed to applaud his blasphemy, he turned to one gentleman, and said with an oath, ‘ Do you believe such nonsense?’ The gentleman replied, ‘ Tell me how that candle burns?’ ‘ Why,’ answered he, ‘ the tallow, the cotton, and the atmospheric air produce the light.’ ‘ Then they make one light, do they not? ‘ ‘ Yes.’ ‘ Will you tell me how they are one in the other, and yet but one light?’ ‘ No, I cannot.’ ‘ But you believe it?’ He could not say he did not. The company instantly made the application, by smiling at his folly; upon which the conversation was changed.” (Anecdotes on New Testament Texts.) John 10:31-33 Then the Jews took up stones again Religious intolerance persecutes a man on account of I. HIS . The Jews took up stones merely because Christ had proclaimed a doctrine which was in conflict with their opinions, prejudices, interests and pride. This intolerance has been rampant in every age. It cannot now inflict physical suffering, but it employs means more subtle and powerful to wound the supposed heretic. Such conduct Isaiah 1. Most absurd. Such are the constitutional differences in minds and educational processes that it is almost impossible for two persons to have exactly the same view of the same subject. The inevitable diversity is interesting and useful; it stimulates discussion and promotes thought. Were all to think alike how monotonous would be the social life of the world! 2. Most arrogant. There is no greater audacity than for an individual or a Church to attempt to bring all men’ s opinions to one theological standard. Who were Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley that men should be bound to accept their opinions? “ Jesus I know, and Paul, etc.” Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” II. HOWEVER HIS LIFE MAY BE (John 10:32). Numerous were the works of Christ, and all to bless men both in body and soul. “ He went about doing good.” This was not denied, but tacitly admitted, and yet though they knew that He was their greatest Benefactor, and that His character was one of exemplary excellence, because His doctrine clashed with their opinions they stoned Him. Good men here in England are stoned for their opinions, not with flint or granite, but with slander and social influences. Bigots of all sects throw stones at men, not because they are not good, but because they are not of their sect (John 10:33). We stone thee because Thou art not one of us. III. HOWEVER STRONG THE IN THEIR FAVOUR (John 10:34-36). Christ seems to say that even in the assumption that He was no more than man there was no blasphemy. Their law called magistrates “ gods” Psalms 32:6). And if they allowed that, what blasphemy was there in Him who “ was sanctified by the Father,” “ One with the Father,” and who, as they were bound to acknowledge, performed works which those whom their law called “ gods” never had accomplished and never could? If your Scriptures call men gods “ unto whom the Word of God came,” surely there can be no blasphemy in Me representing Myself as God, who am the “ Word of God” itself. The argument is a minori ad magus. In what respect? 1. From those blameworthy judges and their lofty title to Christ. 2. From those who derived their dignity from the Mosaic institution to Him whom God hath sanctified. 3. From those to whom the Word of God did but come, to Him who was the Word of God. But His argument went for nothing, although it was so clear and conclusive. Conclusion: What an accursed thing this religious intolerance is! Absurd, arrogant, cruel, regardless of moral excellence, dead to argument, alive only to what it deems heresy. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The courage of Christ Holy boldness honours the gospel. In the olden times, when Oriental despots had things pretty much their own way, they expected all ambassadors from the West to lay their mouths in the dust if permitted to appear before his Celestial Brightness, the Brother of the Sun and the Cousin of the Moon. Certain money-loving traders agreed to all this, and ate dust as readily as reptiles; but, when England sent her ambassadors abroad, the daring islanders stood bolt upright. They were told that they could not be indulged with a vision of the Brother of the Sun and Cousin of the Moon, without going down on their hands and knees. “ Very well,” said the Englishmen, “ we will dispense with the luxury; but tell his Celestial Splendour, that it is very likely that his Serenity will hear our cannon at his palace gates before long, and that their booming is not quite so harmless as the cooing of his Sublimity’ s doves.” When it was seen that ambassadors of the British Crown were no cringing petitioners, our empire rose in the respect of Oriental nations. It must be just so with the cross of Christ. Our cowardice has subjected the gospel to contempt. Jesus was humble, and His servants must not be proud; but Jesus was never mean or cowardly, nor must His servants be. There was no braver man than Christ upon earth. The Scripture cannot be broken The integrity of Scripture I. THE GRAND . It is impossible to shut our eyes to the fact that a teaching is gaining ground whose fundamental principle is opposed to this, and which affirms that the Scripture can be broken. It is of the first importance that we should distinctly understand the amount of authority which is due to the Bible. The Romanists say that tradition is of co-ordinate authority with the Bible; the Rationalists that only part of the Bible is authoritative, and what portions are to be received as such is determined by the “ verifying faculty.” When Christ endorses, as He does in the text, the Old Testament, these philosophers affirm that He was liable to mistake, and so overthrew His prophetic office and nullify His mission, which was to “ bear witness to the Truth.” But turn from theory to fact, and we find that Christ’ s affirmation is proved. 1. From the history of the Jews, who from their first settlement as a nation down to the present moment show in all their vicissitudes that the Scripture cannot be broken. 2. From the fate of heathen nations. Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, and Sidon, etc., verify the predictions to the very letter. 3. The life of our Lord, every detail of which from Bethlehem and Calvary was detailed beforehand, and occurred “ that it might be fulfilled.” II. THE BASIS ON WHICH THE RESTS. 1. That man’ s word may be broken. Why is it that friends and relatives in the slightest business transaction have a legal and written form? (1) Because man is changeable. That which he honestly and determinately promises today he may see reasons to change tomorrow, or he may change from simple fickleness. (2) Man is sometimes unfaithful, and deliberately false to his engagements. (3) Man is often unable to fulfil his promises and obligations, however willing he may be. 2. That for contrary reasons God’ s word cannot be broken. (1) God is unchangeable. “ His counsel shall stand.” (2) God is faithful. God is not a man that He should lie. (3) God is able. These points are well illustrated in the promise to Abraham. III. . 1. For comfort. (1) To the Church. In every age God’ s people have been depressed by the taunt, “ Where is the promise of His coming?” But God takes time to fulfil His word. Be patient, it cannot be broken. (2) To the individual believer. He has delivered in six troubles and He will deliver in seven. Past promises fulfilled are assurances that His word cannot be broken. 2. For warning. Though God’ s threatenings be long delayed for merciful reasons they will assuredly be fulfilled. (Cannon Miller.) Christ’ s reverence for Scripture I. WHAT IS MEANT BY ? The Old Testament as accepted by the Jews of our Lord’ s Day. 1. This fixes the canon of Scripture for Christians and excludes the apocrypha. 2. This stamps the Old Testament with a Divine authority, against which it is infidelity and blasphemy to protest. II. HOW DID CHRIST DEAL WITH ? 1. He was zealous in fulfilling it. In looking at Christ as our example this is to be observed. Scripture declares what Christ would be and do and suffer, and all this He was and did and suffered “ that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.” It tells us too what we must be and do and suffer, and in order to these we must follow Christ, and in the earnest eager spirit in which He saw that no jot or tittle of the word concerning Him was broken. 2. He submitted to it. The only man capable of judging for Himself always submitted His judgment to the written Word. (1) As the servant of God He came to do God’ s will; but that will was not God’ s secret will, but His will as declared in the Bible. (2) He submitted to that will without question, and with the utmost joyfulness. III. THE USE CHRIST MADE OF . 1. As a weapon against His enemies. To the devil in the wilderness He said, “ It is written,” and to the Sadducees about the Resurrection (Matthew 22:1-46). 2. As His authority. When He drove the money changers from the Temple, His only warrant for doing so was “ It is written.” On the same grounds He defended His disciples for plucking corn on the Sabbath. 3. As the court of final appeal in different questions (Matthew 19:1-30). 4. As His inspiration for suffering (Luke 13:1-35). 5. As a consolation in trials. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.) If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not The works of Jesus the works of God The works of God must necessarily have relation to the attributes of God, and in their nature must partake of His. Will the works of Jesus sustain this test? If so, then His claim to be one with the Father is made out. Note, then, that the works of Jesus were I. WORKS OF MERCY AND LOVE, and this without exception; the seeming exceptions when fully examined are seen not to be really so. Consistently and continuously He went about doing good. All succeeding time has acknowledged the influence of heavenly love which eighteen hundred years ago was manifested. Charity has ever taken her lessons from it. He was merciful as His Father was merciful; and His mercy on the diseased bore witness then, as His mercy on the sinful bears witness now, that He and the Father are one. II. WORKS OF WISDOM. His contemporaries confessed as much--“ Whence hath this Man this wisdom, etc.” His works were performed at the right time, in the right way, on the right persons. He made no mistake in His diagnosis, in His prescription, in His application of His remedies, nor in the result. The cleverest men fail in one or other of these circumstances. It is the same now with His administration of His providence, and the pardoned sinner and the comforted saint alike are constrained to say, “ Thou hast done all things well.” Of whom can this be said but of Him who, being “ the wisdom of God,” could say, “ I and the Father are one.” III. WORKS OF POWER. Divine love, as exhibited on earth, can, in a measure, be imitated, and Divine wisdom as taught on earth, can, in a measure, be communicated and received. But “ power belongeth unto God.” This power was demonstrated by Christ. He was no Divine instrument as were the miracle-working prophets. There is a Divine independence and originality about all His operations. “ I say unto thee arise.” And the power that made men walk in apostolic days was the power of Jesus of Nazareth, and the power which now heals the decrepitude of sinful man is His. Conclusion: This testimony to the mutual onebeing of Father and Son (John 10:33) Isaiah 1. Sufficient. 2. Hence our responsibility. Without this evidence men are guiltless, for they are not unbelieving, but ignorant. But with this evidence before Him, for a man to refuse to believe in Christ’ s Deity, and to decline to submit to His claims, is morally fatal. (J. W. Burn.) Indisputable evidence shows I. WHAT MEN MIGHT LOOK FOR IN THE WORKS OF GOD. 1. Wisdom. 2. Mercy. 3. Love. 4. Power. II. THAT THE WORKS OF JESUS WERE MARKED BY THESE . 1. Water made into wine. 2. The miracles of healing. 3. The resurrection of Lazarus. 4. His own resurrection. III. THAT NOT TO SEE THESE IN THE WORKS OF JESUS IS TO BE BLINDED BY . As in the case of the Jews. IV. THAT TO REJECT THE OF HIM WHICH DID SUCH WORKS IS THE HEIGHT OF FOLLY. We judge of the nature of a creature by its works. When we see a bird’ s nest we know that it was not made by a horse; when we see an ant hill we know that no lion threw it up; as we contemplate a building or read a book we have evidence of the work of man. But what creature can give sight to the blind, life to the dead? etc. The works of Christ The term “ works,” as applied to the miracles of our Lord, is eminently significant; as though the wonderful were only the natural form of working for Him who is dwelt in by all the fulness of God; He must, out of the necessity of His higher being, bring forth these works greater than man’ s. They are the periphery of the circle whereof He is the centre. The great miracle is the Incarnation; all else, so to speak, follows naturally and of course. It is no wonder that He whose name is “ Wonderful” does works of wonder; the only wonder would be if He did them not. The sun in the heavens is itself a wonder: but it is not a wonder that, being what it is, it rays forth its influences of light and heat. These miracles are the fruit after its kind which this tree brings forth; and may be called the “ works” of Christ, with no further addition or explanation. (Archbishop Trench.) The evidential value of Christ’ s works Consider the general expression respecting our Lord’ s Person which arises upon a survey of our Lord’ s miracles. To a thoughtful humanitarian they present, taken as a whole, an embarrassing difficulty. In the case of “ the miracles of power,” Schenkel observes: “ These are not cures which could have been effected by the influence of a striking sanctity acting on a simple faith. They are prodigies such as Omnipotence alone could achieve. The laws of nature are simply suspended. Jesus does not here merely exhibit the power of moral and mental superiority over common men; He upsets and goes beyond the rules and bounds of the order of the universe.” The writer proceeds to argue that such miracles must be expelled from any life of Christ which “ criticism” will condescend to accept. But the question arises how much is to be expelled? Is the Resurrection, e.g.? If so, then there is nothing left to argue about, for Christianity itself is gone (1 Corinthians 15:14; 1 Corinthians 15:13). And if this conclusion be objected to, we must reply that our Lord’ s credit and honour were entirely staked upon this issue (Matthew 12:39-40) But the Resurrection was attested by evidence which must outweigh everything except an a priori conviction of the impossibility of miracles, since it was attested by two hundred and fifty persons (1 Corinthians 15:6). As to a priori objections, St. Paul would have argued, as most Theists, and even Rousseau have argued, that they cannot be urged by any man who believed seriously in a living God at all. But on the other hand, if the Resurrection be admitted, it is puerile to object to the other miracles. As compared with them, that occurrence has all the force of an a fortiori argument, and are fitly complemental incidents of a history in which the Resurrection has made it plain that we are dealing with One in whose case an ordinary experience of the limits and conditions of human power are altogether at fault. But if the miracles of Jesus be admitted in the block, as they must be by a “ rational” believer in the Resurrection, then they point to the Catholic belief, as distinct from any lower conceptions respecting the Person of Christ. They differ from those of prophets and apostles, in that, instead of being answers to prayer granted by a Higher Power, they manifestly flow forth from the majestic life resident in the Worker. And instead of presenting so many “ difficulties” which have to be surmounted or set aside, they are in entire harmony with that representation of our Saviour’ s personal glory which is embodied in the Creeds. St. John accordingly calls them Christ’ s “ works,” meaning that they were just such acts as might be expected from Him, being such as He was. They are like the kind deeds of the wealthy, or the good advice of the wise; they are like that debt of charity which is due from the possessors of great endowments to suffering humanity--Christ as Man owed this tribute of mercy which His Godhead had made it possible for Him to pay to those whom (such was His love) He was not ashamed to call His brethren. (Canon Liddon) . John 10:39-42 Therefore they sought again to take Him I.MORAL . What was the result of Christ’ s appeal to His works and to their law? Of His noble life and strong logic? Were their prejudices broken down and their opposition overcome? No! here it is (John 10:39). Their opposition was intensified, and their determination to stone Him strengthened. There are, undoubtedly, men who have reached the stage of moral incorrigibility. Their opinions are fossilized, their habits confirmed, and their characters stereotyped. Christ taught this when He said, “ Give not that which is holy to dogs,” etc., and when He wept over Jerusalem. Examples lie thickly around us. There are men so canine in temper, so swinish in materialism, that to argue with them would be waste of labour, and expose to insult and persecution. With these the day of grace is over, retribution has already got them into its iron grasp. Two evils befel these men to which all such characters are liable. 1. Disappointment. They made all arrangements to stone Him, and when their plans were complete they looked for Him; but He had gone. And sooner or later the incorrigible sinner will discover that all his calculations are false. He will have all his plans thwarted and his hopes blasted. 2. The loss of Christ. Christ had withdrawn. He was not afraid of them, but His time was not yet come. When the hour struck He would voluntarily fall into their hands; but meanwhile they had lost Him. The greatest calamity for a man or a community is the withdrawal of Christ, which must happen sooner or later to the incorrigible, “ My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” When He withdraws from the soul, it is as if the sun withdrew from its orbit, and all the planets rush into black, fathomless chaos. II. (John 10:40-42). The ministry of a man who had been for some time in his grave prepared the people to receive Christ. 1. It was remembered. The ministry of Jesus recalled that of John. The ministry of faithful preachers will never be forgotten by their hearers. 2. It was useful. (1) It served to set off the superiority of Christ’ s ministry. “ John did no miracle.” His work was purely moral. (2) It served to confirm the Messiahship of Christ, “ All things that John spake of this Man were true.” Consequently, “ many believed,” and “ there He abode.” How long we are not told. How delightful must have been that unconstrained, free and secure intercourse! Conclusion: Faithful ministers may take courage that their ministry will operate for good when they are in their graves. (D. Thomas, D. D.) And went away beyond Jordan. A model ministry I. The ministry of John was LOCAL. 1. There are special trials and temptations about a fixed and restricted sphere of service. The local minister is apt to feel that his work is monotonous and disappointing--there is little variety in it, little stimulation. He often frets like an eagle in a sack, and sighs to spread his wings. 2. let there need be no disappointment or disgust with a ministry in narrow bounds. A large, varied field of action appeals to the imagination, but faithful service in an obscure corner tells far and wide, deep and long. How often have we heard writers regret with our poet that so many brilliant flowers are born to blush unseen, “ and waste their sweetness on the desert air?” But this is exactly what they do not do. The scientist corrects the poet, for he tells us how the date trees of the Nile, the magnolias of the Susquehanna, the rhododendrons of the Himalayas, the myrtles of Cashmere, the aromatic forests of the Spice Islands, the blooms of untraversed prairies and woods, all contribute to vitalize the common air of our daily life. So men whose life is pure and useful in one place are sweetening the air of the whole world. “ The Word of God is not bound.” Local brother, be comforted. The tree is fixed, it cannot move however it may tug at its roots, but the fragrance is borne away on every breeze; the lamp is fixed, swaying to and fro as if vexed by the narrow bondage of its chains, but its beams shine afar into the darkness; the fountain flows in a narrow, obscure basin, and the living, sparkling waters seem to fret against the stones, but the stream at last fills distant valleys with fruit and beauty. Be faithful, and it will be found some day that the fixed star has been as useful as the wandering star. II. The ministry of John was MODEST. 1. “ Did no miracle.” He came in the power of Elijah, without the mantle of Elijah. People were disappointed. So now, we are disappointed in men if they do not work miracles--if they are not brilliant, surprising, extraordinary in one way or another. 2. “ All things that John spake of this Man were true.” He was a faithful witness to Christ. The glory of John was here; he witnessed to his Master, his miracle was in his message. So with us now. When Winstanley built the first Eddystone lighthouse, he built it firmly as he thought; and then proceeded to add as many ornamentations as if the building had been designed for a summer house; it is said to have been quite a picturesque object, like a Chinese pagoda, with open galleries and fantastic projections. Now, many people would have greatly admired such a lighthouse, they dearly love a pagoda; they would have pronounced it lovely, surprising, a thing to visit on summer seas for a picnic. But, after all, the value of a lighthouse is in the light that it sends forth in the night of storm and darkness; and when Winstanley’ s lighthouse perished, it was felt that a pagoda was not the best form for a light beacon on the deep. Many people today are running after miracles in the religious world, miracles of preachers, miracles of ceremonies, miracles of architecture, music, and method; they are anxious to turn the Church of Christ into a pagoda; but our grand duty is not to amuse, or astonish, or delight, we are to hold forth the Word of Life that souls may be saved from shipwreck, and severe simplicity best befits the Church of Christ as it does the beacon of the seas. III. The ministry of John was . Not immediately successful, but indirectly and ultimately so. No true work for Christ fails. It may be done silently, softly, and seem of little effect, but in the wide view and the long view it will be seen to avail much. In Southport the other day, I noticed a monument which has been erected there, in one of the public streets, to the founder of the town. The inscription sets forth that this gentleman came to the place when it was only a sandy waste; he saw the possibilities of the situation, and built the first house, which was known as his “ Folly.” But, despite the ridicule, the place grew into the elegant town that it is today, with its many mansions, museums, galleries, gardens, temples. Such is the history of many a flourishing cause in our Church today The genesis of it was feeble indeed; it grew up an obscure mission station nursed by a local ministry, but it has grown into power, a centre of life and blessing. (W. L.Watkinson.) A season of retirement I. OLD SCENES (John 10:40). Bethany, beyond Jordan, the scene 1. Of His baptism by the Forerunner. 2. Of His consecration by the Father through the voice of the Dove. 3. Of His showing unto Israel as the Lamb of God. 4. Of his first acquisition of adherents in Andrew, John, Peter, James, Philip and Nathanael. II. LABOURS PURSUED (verse 41). 1. With disinterested zeal. Though Christ needed rest, He could Hot resist the silent invitation of the people who flocked towards Him. 2. With unwearied diligence. He neglected no opportunities of doing His Father’ s work. 3. With practical beneficence. He performed miracles. III. FRESH GAINED (verse 41). 1. That He was greater than John the Baptist. He did signs which John did not. 2. That John’ s witness concerning Him had been true (chap. 5:33-35). IV. NEW SECURED (verse 42). 1. Numerous--“ many.” 2. Intelligent--actuated by conviction. 3. True. They believed on Him as the Messiah. Lessons 1. Grateful remembrance of past experiences. 2. Diligent employment of present opportunities. 3. Hopeful expectation of future vindication. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) A cheering incident at Bethabara 1. Because our Saviour’ s reasoning was unanswerable, “ therefore the Jews sought again to take Him.” When men cannot answer holy arguments with fair reasonings they can give hard answers with stones. He who hates the truth soon hates its advocate. 2. When our Lord found that there was nothing to be done He went away. He knew when to speak and when to refrain. Opposition in one quarter is sometimes an intimation to labour elsewhere. But though our Lord left the obstinate He never ceased to do good. Many despair under similar circumstances. But the flight of Christ from men in one place may cause the flight of souls to Him in another. Though Jesus withdrew from the stones which filled the hands of the angry Jews, He went to the place where John had said, “ God is able with these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” I. IT IS VERY TO KNOW THE PLACE WHERE MEN . Not that this is essential. A man may live and yet not know where he was born, although we may be glad to know our birthplace. And so the main question is, Are you born again? Still it is a help to know the place, and some of us know it to a yard. What was there particular about this place? It was the place 1. Where Divine ordinances had been observed. Where the Lord is obeyed we may hope to see Him revealed. In keeping His commandments there is great reward, although the outward ordinance of itself cannot secure a blessing. 2. Where faithful preaching concerning Jesus had been heard. (1) John preached the gospel of repentance, and where that is the case men will come to believe in Jesus. The plough must lead the way, and then it is good sowing. (2) He testified that Jesus was “ the Lamb of God,” etc. No wonder that men believed when the savour of such a ministry lingered in men’ s minds! What an encouragement to the faithful preacher; though dead, he will yet speak. 3. Where God had borne witness to His Son. The Holy Ghost is wont to go where He has gone before; and where the Father has borne witness to Christ once we may expect Him to do so again. 4. Where the first disciple had been won. To visit the place of their own spiritual birth would cause a renewal of their vows, and act as an encouragement to persevere in winning others. Where solid stones have been quarried, there remains more material which may yet be brought forth. 5. In what place cannot Jesus triumph? He needs no temple: nay, in its porch He finds cavillers, but yonder by the willows of the Jordan He finds a people that believe on Him. So in all times and now. II. IT IS TO NOTE THE TIME WHEN MEN ARE LED TO FAITH. Some cannot, and it is not essential, yet it is blessed to those who can. 1. It was after a time of obstinate opposition. The Saviour could make nothing of the cavilling Jews; but no sooner does He cross the river than many believe on Him. Opposition is no sign of defeat. When the devil roars it is because his kingdom is being shaken. 2. It was a time of calm, unbroken quietude. Those who came were prepared to hear thoughtfully. Some persons may be converted by those who strive and cry to make their voice heard in the streets, but solemn consideration is the healthiest for gospel preaching. 3. It was a time of great desire for hearing “ many.” You cannot catch fish where there are none; but when they come swarming up to the net we may hope to take some of them. When men are as eager to enter the house of prayer as to go to a theatre, we may hope that God means to bless them. 4. It was a time of which nothing else need be said, but that many believed. The happiest days are when many believe; this is the most honourable record for a Church. III. IT IS TO OBSERVE THE FACT ITSELF. 1. It was a great refreshment to the Saviour’ s heart. “ There He abode.” He seemed at home there. When the polished citizens rejected Him, when the wise Jews would not hear Him, the plain rustics of Peraea stood listening with delight. This was to be an oasis of comfort before the burning desert of the passion. 2. It was the fruit of John’ s word. Good work never dies. 3. It was more directly the result of our Lord’ s own presence. They first saw what He did, and compared it with what John had testified, and then drew the conclusion that all that John said was true. 4. The faith produced was (1) Decided. They did not promise to try to believe, to think about it, etc.; they believed on Him there. (2) Prompt. Christ had preached without result for years to some others; but to these He spoke only for a short time, and they believed on Him. (3) Solid. They could give a reason for it. (4) Widespread “ many.” We should look for numerous conversions since Christ gave His life a ransom for many. (5) What Christ lived and died for, what we preach for, what the Bible was written for, what churches are built for. IV. IT IS MOST THAT WE SHOULD HAVE A SECOND EDITION OF IT. 1. Many are here. 2. Christ is here. 3. The witness borne here is more abundant than that borne at Bethabara. (C. H.Spurgeon.) . Introduction The narrative of the raising of Lazarus is unique in its completeness. The essential circumstances of the fact in regard to persons, manner, results, are given with perfect distinctness. Four scenes are to be distinguished. 1. The prelude to the miracle (John 11:1-16). 2. The scene at Bethany (John 11:17-32). 3. The miracle (John 11:33-44). 4. The immediate issues of the miracle (John 11:45-57). In studying the history several points must be kept in view. I. The sign itself is the last of a series, which has evidently been formed John 20:30, etc.) with a view to the complete and harmonious exhibition of the Lord’ s work. The seven miracles (John 2:1; John 4:46; John 5:1; John 6:5; John 6:15; John 9:1; John 12:1-50) form a significant whole. And in this respect it is of interest to notice that the first and last are wrought in the circle of family life, and among believers to the strengthening of faith (John 2:11; John 11:15); and both are declared to be manifestations of “ glory” (John 2:11; John 11:4; John 11:40). So the natural relations of men become the occasions of the revelation of higher truth. II. The circumstances of the miracle ought to be minutely compared with those of the corresponding miracles recorded by the Synoptists (Mark 5:22, etc., and parallels; Luke 7:11, etc.). The omission of the raising of Lazarus by the Synoptists is no more remarkable in principle than the omission of these raisings by St. John. In each case the selection of facts was determined by the purpose of the record. The miracles at Jerusalem were not included in the cycle of apostolic preaching which formed the basis of the Synoptic Gospels. III. Numerous minute touches mark the fulness of personal knowledge, or the impression of an eyewitness: e.g., the relation of the family to Jesus (verse 5); the delay of two days (verse 6); the exact position of Bethany (verse 18); the presence of Jews (verse 19); the secret message (verse 28); the title of “ the Master” (verse 28); the pause of Jesus (verse 30); the following of the Jews (verse 31), and their weeping (verse 33); the prostration of Mary (verse 32); the successive phases of our Lord’ s emotion (verses 33, 35, 38); the appearance of Lazarus (verse 44). IV. Not less remarkable than this definiteness of detail are the silence, the omissions in the narrative; e.g., as to the return of the messenger (verse 4); the message to Mary (verse 27, etc.); the welcome of the restored brother (verse 44). Note, too, the unexpected turns of expression; e.g., “ unto Judaea” (verse 7), verses 11, etc., 37. V. That, however, which is most impressive in the narrative, as a history, is its dramatic vividness; and this in different respects. There is a clear individuality in the persons. Thomas stands out characteristically from the apostles. Martha and Mary, alike in their convictions, are distinguished in the manner of showing them. Then, again, there is a living revelation of character in the course of the narrative. Martha reflects the influence of the Lord’ s words. The Jews are tried and separated. And above all the Lord is seen throughout, absolutely one in His supreme freedom, perfectly human and perfectly Divine, so that it is felt that there is no want of harmony between His tears and His life-giving command. VI. Apart from the antecedent assumption that a miracle is impossible, and that the record of a miracle must, therefore, be explained away, it is not easy to see any ground for questioning the literal exactness of the history. No explanation of the origin of the narrative, on the supposition that it is unhistorical, has even a show of plausibility. Those who deny the fact are sooner or later brought to maintain either that the scene was an imposture, or that the record is a fiction. Both of these hypotheses involve a moral miracle. VII. No overwhelming influence is assigned to the miracle by the Evangelist. It is a “ sign,” a revelation of Divine glory, to those who believe, or who have sympathy with the truth. But others, apparently, without questioning the reality of the fact, simply find in it a call to more energetic opposition. The work arrests attention; and then it becomes a touchstone of character. In this respect it completely answers to the functions assigned to miracles in the New Testament. (Bp. Westcott.) The connection between the two incidents I can conceive of no diviner introduction to the story of the raising of Lazarus than John 10:40-42. It prepares us to understand that what we are about to hear of is not one of those signs which Jesus rebuked His countrymen as sinful and adulterous for desiring; not one of those wonders which draw men away from the invisible to the visible--from an object of faith to an object of sight; but just the reverse of this--a witness that what John spake of Jesus was true--a witness that in Him was life, and that this life always had been, wasthere and always would be, the Life as well as the Light of men. With what care the story is related so that it shall have this impression--how all those incidents contribute to it which would have been passed over by a reporter of miracles, nay, which would have been rejected by Him as commonplace, and therefore as interfering with His object. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) The importance of the miracle I have been assured that Spinoza would say to his friends: If he could have convinced himself of the resurrection of Lazarus he would have dashed to pieces his entire (Pantheistic) system, and embraced without repugnance the common faith of Christians. (Boyle.) The miracle and the parable There is a remarkable analogy between this great miracle and one of our Lord’ s parables--that of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:20-25)--the only one that deals with the mysterious subject of the “ intermediate state” from which the spirit of Lazarus was called to revivify his body at his resurrection. That is the only parable in which any of the persons introduced is mentioned by name. And in the parable and the miracle the name is the same. And when our Lord delivered that parable, He put into the mouth of Abraham the words--“ If they hear not … though one rose from the dead.” He thus delivered a prophecy. Though one rose from the dead--though a Lazarus be sent unto them, they will not be persuaded. No. And the fact was, that when Lazarus was raised, they, who would not hear Moses, sought “ to kill Lazarus” (John 12:10), and did kill Him who had recalled him to life. (Bp. Wordsworth.) Lazarus and the other railings from the dead The Bible mentions eight persons raised from death and two translated to heaven without dying. 1. Son of widow. 2. Son of Shunamite. 3. Dead man cast into Elisha’ s grave. 4. Young man of Nain. 5. Daughter of Jairus. 6. Lazarus. 7. Tabitha. 8. Eutychus. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The omission of the narrative by the other evangelists The raising of Lazarus is not mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This has stumbled many persons. Yet the omission of the story is not hard to explain. Some have said that Matthew, Mark, and Luke purposely confine themselves to miracles done in Galilee. Some have said that when they wrote their Gospels Lazarus was yet alive, and the mention of his name would have endangered his safety. Some have said that it was thought better for the soul of Lazarus not to draw attention to him and surround him with an unhealthy celebrity till after he had left the world. In each and all of these reasons there is some weight. But the best and simplest explanation probably is, that each evangelist was inspired to record what God saw to be best and most suitable. No one, I suppose, imagines that the evangelists record a tenth part of our Lord’ s miracles, or that there were not ether dead persons raised to life, of whom we know nothing at all. “ The dead are raised up” was our Lord’ s own message, at an early period of His ministry, to John the Baptist (Matthew 11:5). “ If the works that Jesus did should be written everyone,” says John, “ the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). Let it suffice us to believe that each Evangelist was inspired to record exactly those events which were most likely to be profitable for the Church in studying his Gospel. Our Lord’ s ministry and sayings at Jerusalem were specially assigned to John. What wonder then that he was appointed to record the mighty miracle which took place within two miles of Jerusalem, and proved incontrovertibly the guilt of the Jerusalem Jews in not receiving Jesus as the Messiah. (Bp. Ryle.) John 11:1-6 Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany Lazarus The English reader would at first sight hardly recognize the New Testament “ Lazarus” as identical with the Old Testament “ Eleazar. ” The two words are, however, the same. In the dialect of the Jerusalem Talmud, words that begin with an aleph (in English, say, an unaspirated initial vowel, like a or e) often drop that initial. Eleazar (AL’ AZR) thus becomes L’ azar (L’ AZR); and so the name occurs, in point of fact, more than once in the Talmud. When the word “ Lazar,” again, was taken into the mouth of any person speaking Greek, he naturally added to it the Greek termination os (Latin, us), and so by gradual stages the Old Testament “ Eleazar” became the New Testament “ Lazarus.” (S. S. Times.) Bethany From the plain of Esdraelon southward to Hebron, and nearly parallel to the Mediterranean coast line, there extends a range of mountainous table land, in some points reaching an elevation of three thousand feet, and varying in breadth from twenty to twenty-five miles. Toward the south of the range, like a diadem on the head of the mountains, is the city of Jerusalem. East of the city, just across the deep and narrow valley of Jehosaphat, which forms the bed of the storm brook Kedron, rises the Mount of Olives. It is the most pleasant of all the mountains that are round about Jerusalem; in pilgrim language “ the Mount of Blessing;” and travellers are frequently surprised by the beauty which still haunts it. It consists of a ridge a full mile long, curving gently eastward in its northern part, and rising into three rounded summits, of which the central and highest is more than twenty-six hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and more than a hundred above the highest part of the neighbouring city. In a well-wooded and terraced ravine, high up on the eastern slope of the mount, screened from the summit by an intervening ridge, nestled the sweet village of Bethany. It is reached from Jerusalem (from which it is distant two short miles) by a rough bridle path, winding over bare rock and loose stones. Its name, “ the place of dates,” seems to hint that it stood originally in the midst of palm trees. These trees, emblems of strength and victory, once so numerous that, in the coins of the Roman conquerors, “ Judea Capta” appears as a woman weeping under a palm, have now disappeared from this neighbourhood as from Palestine generally. The modern hamlet (El-’Azariyeh, or the village of Lazarus, the old name not being locally known) is inhabited by twenty or thirty thriftless Arab families. Into the walls of many of the houses large hewn stones are built, some of them beveled, which have evidently belonged to more ancient edifices. Though itself squalid and poverty-stricken, the village is very beautifully situated, looking out from a cloud of fruit trees, chiefly fig, almond, olive, and pomegranate, and with abundant pasturage around. It is sheltered from the cold north and west, and produces the earliest ripe fruit in the district, On the whole, it may claim to be regarded as one of the sweetest spots in Palestine, though greatly changed in the course of long ages of misrule from what it must have been when the land nourished a free and noble people; and to one who loves quiet beauty and peacefulness combined with a certain mystery, it commands one of the most striking landscapes in the southern part of the country. The house of Martha, that of Simon the leper, and the tomb of Lazarus, are still pointed out to visitors. The last is a deep vault, hewn out of the solid rock, in the very edge of the village. Dr. Robinson (followed by many) rejects the tradition which names this as the tomb; while others, relying on the notices in the Jerusalem Itinerary (A.D. 333), and by Eusebius and Jerome, are disposed to accept it, affirming that the vault has every characteristic of an ancient Jewish tomb both in form and construction, and accounting for its being so close upon the present village by the tendency of Jewish towns to advance, in the course of ages, toward spots reputed sacred. Most beautiful is the way in which Bethany is here named. In celestial geography, which counts places according to the saints who inhabit and beautify them, it was known to Jesus, it is known forever as the town of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. “ This man was born there.” (J. Culross, D. D.) The family at Bethany; or, natural varieties in religion 1. The facts of this chapter are a sufficient answer to the objection that there is no recommendation of friendship in the Bible. The Incarnate One Master and Model of man was a friend. Needing all the succours of our nature He sought and found those which friendship yields. Hence among His apostles there was an inner circle of three, and one of these especially “ loved” ; and among His general followers there was the family of Bethany. 2. It is delightful to think of Jesus there. It often happens that great men have some home where they may unbend, and where they need not be other than men, with the certainty of being loved. To Bethany Jesus betook Himself after the labours of the day, and there He felt at home. 3. Who would not like to have seen Him there? Home is the best sanctuary of the heart. It is an evil sign when it ceases to attract. We could have missed many scenes in Christ’ s life rather than this. 4. There were three dwellers in that house. I do not know that He would or could have found, apart from female society, what He wanted and craved. The greatest men have always a feminine element, and have always pleasure in female fellowship. The household which Jesus loved presents religious varieties I. IN ACTUAL . We meet with them also in Luke 10:38-42 John 12:1-13. 1. These passages bring before us three types of character. Martha and Mary answering to Peter and John. On each occasion Martha is in action; while Mary is hearkening, sitting still, or pouring out her affection in unselfish homage. Of Lazarus’ s works and acts we know nothing; but as Jesus loved him, we cannot imagine that there was nothing in him, or that what was in him was not good; and therefore conclude that it was of a kind which does not seek publicity. So we have here specimens of the three great departments of our nature--thought, feeling and action. They all loved Jesus after a natural manner, and Jesus loved them all and gave their characteristics immortal honour. 2. Men are naturally different in soul as in flesh. Had not man sinned we have no reason to suppose it would have been otherwise. There is endless variety in nature. There is difference in the Church. As man is not made alike, so he is not remade alike. This is true also of our minor parts and separate powers; not only of thoughts, but kinds of thinking, so of emotions and actions. Why not then in religion? In the case before us, in their quiet common life the presence of Jesus brings out their characteristic qualities, and so it does in their great woe and social feast. II. AS IN WITH CHRIST. 1. The practical in Martha honours Jesus. It has been a question whether the world is more indebted to men of action or of thought. Both are best, and both are necessary. Strong coupling chains are as needful as good engines, and “ the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee.” Martha was the hand. Christ needed refreshment and she prepared it. I fancy her the bustling housewife, of robust health and good spirits, clear, but not deep in mind; warm-hearted, but not profound in feeling; ready to help, but judging help by coarser tests; honestly wishful for Mary’ s help, but not displeased to have it known that she was doing alone; a woman who had no idea of letting the “ grass grow under her feet,” and could express a bit of her mind. There are people of this sort in the Church: men of practical genius and active habits. I have known some never cool but when in hot water, and who never slept but as a top--on the spin. Like Martha, they “ serve” and feed the body. They are the sappers and miners of the army, the Levites of the congregation. Let none usurp their office, and let them not themselves neglect it. But Martha warns them against two dangers (1) Of putting external activity in the place of the heart and essence of religion. (2) Of depreciating and interfering with the fitting and, it may be, better sphere of others. “ One thing is needful,” which in the fuss and flurry of such spirits is liable to be forgotten, and which alone can make their labour of any value. 2. Mary represents the quiet, tender, sentimental disciples. Gentle, retiring, with a deep power of emotion, she preferred listening to labouring, privacy to publicity, worship to work, while yet her heart could well up on occasions in acts of unwonted love that would never have entered into Mary’ s brains. There are Marys still, and they are not always feminine; as the Marthas are also often masculine; persons in whom the heart is the head. They are not good at general action, and are more remarkable for the fervour than the efficiency of their labours. As a rule their conception of ends is too high, and their conception of means too low. They work by impulse, and then they do more than others or nothing. They contribute to the gracefulness of religion, which requires “ whatsoever things are lovely.” They add taste to its talents. Marthas supply the business-like prose, Marys the poetry of religion. Marthas rear the needful things in the garden of the Lord. Marys cultivate its flowers. Marthas “ serve” the meals of the household of faith, Marys bring the costly spikenard. But this temperament is preeminently the temperament of devotion. The prayers of some speed the toil of others, returning like the rain, and blessing other scenes than those from which they rose. The Marthas little think, when in the full swing of their engagements, how much of their security and success is due to the prayers of the Marys. 3. Lazarus is a type of the more reflective, recipient, passive class. Had he been a man of much speech or action something of his as well as something about him would have been preserved. He had a heart open to Christ’ s influence, pondered His discourse and deeds, and enjoyed a feast of wisdom and love while many were only being fed. There are such men still; they know more than they say, and feel more than they know. They are too sensitive for the rude friction of common life, and their retiring ways prevent their being appreciated or understood. They on whom Christ works may honour Him as well as those by whom He works. III. HOW CHRIST TREATED THESE . 1. He recognized and honoured them. He sat at Martha’ s table; He proclaimed His pleasure in Mary’ s offering; and on Lazarus He wrought His most wondrous work. Special qualities, even when in excess, He did not reject. He looked at the motive. Whatever may be our native characteristics, love to Jesus will make them acceptable, and without that they will be an offence. 2. He guards them. When Martha would intrude on Mary’ s sphere, He forbad her. And when the apostles censured Mary’ s offering He reproved them. And still He looks with no kindly eye on those who are impatient of their brethren’ s different excellences. There is a bigotry of character as well as of creed. On the other hand, there is a tendency in some to despond when conscious of the want of qualities which others exhibit. But you are called to be yourselves and to cultivate your own gifts. If you try to imitate others, you will spoil yourselves and caricature them. 3. He controls them. He gently chastened Martha’ s anxious mind though He approved of Mary’ s apparently wasteful offering; as much as to say--“ If there be any extravagance let it be in honouring Me.” Martha’ s activity was in danger of becoming worldliness; but Mary might go a great length in her affection without equal peril of losing her soul. The world reserves its praise for the devotees of Mammon, and the world is wrong. (A. J. Morris.) Family disharmonies What can be more irksome than to hear two sisters continually setting each other right upon trifling points, and differing from each other in opinion for no apparent reason but from a habit of contradiction? This family fault should be watched against; for it is an annoyance, though but a petty one, never to be able to open your lips without being harassed by such contradictions as, “ Oh no! that happened on Tuesday, not Wednesday;” or if you remark that the clouds look threatening, to be asked in a tone of surprise, “ Do you think it looks like rain? I am sure there is no appearance of such a thing.” Narrate an incident, every small item is corrected; hazard an opinion, it is wondered at or contradicted; assert a fact, it is doubted or questioned; till at length you keep silence in despair. (G. S. Bowes, B. A.) He whom Thou lovest is sick Christ’ s love the comfort in sickness A faithful, pious preacher was once lying dangerously ill, and the members of his church were praying earnestly at his bedside that the Lord would raise him up and preserve him to them; in doing so, among other things, they made mention of his tender watchfulness in feeding the lambs of the flock, making use of the expression, “ Lord, Thou knowest how he loves Thee.” At this the sick man turned to them and said, “ Ah, children, do not pray thus I when Mary and Martha sent to Jesus, their message was not--Lord, he who loveth Thee, but--Lord, behold he whom Thou lovest is sick! It is not my imperfect love to Him which comforts me, but His perfect love to me.” (R. Besser, D. D.) The sisters’ message and the Lord’ s response The message contained no request. To a loving friend it was quite enough to announce the fact. Friends are not verbose in their descriptions. True prayer does not consist in much speaking, or fine long sentences. When a man’ s child falls into a pit it is enough to tell the father the simple fact in the shortest manner possible. How useful it is to have praying sisters! As for our Lord’ s reply, there was something very mysterious about it. He might of course have said plainly, “ Lazarus will die, and then I will raise him again.” Yet there is a wonderful likeness between the style of His message and many an unfulfilled prophecy. He said enough to excite hope, and encourage faith and patience and prayer, but not enough to make Mary and Martha leave off praying and seeking God. And is not this exactly what we should feel about many an unfulfilled prediction of things to come? Men complain that prophecies are not so literally fulfilled as to exclude doubt and uncertainty. But they forget that God wisely permits a degree of uncertainty in order to keep on watching and praying. It is just what He did with Martha and Mary here. (Bp. Ryle.) The appeal and the answer I. THE COURSE THE SISTERS TOOK. 1. We need not doubt that they used all the means in their power for their brother’ s restoration. But they looked to the Great Physician. This is one of the marks of a believer, that while he uses means he does not depend upon them. 2. They sent to Jesus. Their message was (1) Short. This should encourage our applications in sudden emergencies when long prayer cannot be offered. This is frequently the case with the sick and their attendants. It is not the length, but the faith and sincerity of the prayer that makes it effectual. The most powerful prayers have been the shortest. “ God be merciful to me a sinner.” “ Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” “ What wilt Thou have ms to do?” (2) Confident. They did not ask Him to come, or to heal their brother. “ All we ask is ‘Behold’ --his languid eye, faltering breath, sufferings; we have confidence in Thy love and wisdom, and leave the matter in Thy hands. (3) Humble. They send no panegyric, nor mention any quality that might interest Christ. All they remind Him of is His love. This is the only ground on which we can build our faith and shape our prayers. II. THE ANSWER. This was sent for present support until a complete answer could be given; and is so worded as to put their faith and patience to a severe test. The way by which Christ leads His people is that of simple confidence in Him. He directs them not to judge Him by the outward appearances of His providence at a dark and unfavourable moment; but by His sure word of promise (Isaiah 50:10). This answer may be viewed as the Lord’ s general answer to His people--“ for the glory of God.” The sorrow of the world has a different tendency Revelation 16:10-11). How mysterious must it have seemed after this message that their brother should die; but the mystery was afterwards unravelled, and the affliction, instead of terminating in death, was the occasion of giving physical and spiritual life. (J. Haldane Stewart, M. A.) The test of discipleship To whom do we go first in the time of our extremity? What is our resource in the day of trouble? Can we say with David, “ From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee when my heart is overwhelmed?” or do we betake ourselves to some other helper? The answer to these questions will determine whether we are the friends of Jesus or not. Travelling once upon a railroad ear, I had among my fellow passengers a little laughing child who romped about and was at home with everybody, and while she was frolicking around it might have been difficult to tell to whom she belonged, she seemed so much the property of everyone; but when the engine gave a loud, long shriek, and we went rattling into a dark tunnel, the little one made one bound and ran to nestle in a lady’ s lap. I knew then who was her mother! So in the day of prosperity it may be occasionally difficult to say whether a man is a Christian or not; but when, in time of trouble, he makes straight for Christ, we know then most surely whose he is and whom he serves. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The appeal to Christ’ s affection The man who was healed at the pool of Bethesda, the blind man who was sent to wash in the pool of Siloam, were merely suffering Jews; the bread at Capernaum was given to 5,000 men gathered indiscriminately; the nobleman at Capernaum seems to have heard for the first time of Jesus; the guests at the marriage feast may have been His neighbours, or even His kinsmen, but we are not told that they were. This message is the first which directly appeals to the private affection of the Son of Man, which calls Him to help as a friend because He is a Friend. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) The friendship of Jesus I. THE REALITY OF CHRIST’ S . That Jesus should have passed His life in solitude was impossible; how could it be that His Spirit, wrapped up within itself, should be alien to all human impulses. This friendship grew as do others. There may have been some restraint at the first interview, but this soon melted into respectful familiarity, and then into reciprocal union. Christ must have endeared Himself to many, but it did not always mature into friendship. To love another as a sinner, as a Jew, a townsman, a relative, was altogether different from His affection for this family. They were His friends. We may not be able to tell all the reasons of this friendship, but we doubt not it was founded on mutual esteem and like-mindedness. II. THE OF JESUS IS NOT BY OF . Such varieties as existed in these people have existed in all ages. Divine grace does not produce uniformity in human nature. It left in their own prominence the valour of David, the genius of Isaiah, the pathos of Jeremiah, the fervour of John, the reasoning powers of Paul. So there are some believers in whom intellect predominates, in others emotion; others ruminate on what God has done for their soul, and others look forward with the full assurance of hope. I feed on doctrine says one; I live in practice responds another. The nature of one excites him to battle as a missionary, that of another fits him to endure as a martyr. Every gift is useful in its place. III. THE OF JESUS DOES NOT EXEMPT ITS FROM . Jesus might easily have ordered it otherwise, and even the appeal to His friendship did not move Him. His religion does not free us from, but often leads us to, suffering. Its object is to train the mind, and it takes advantage of suffering to aid it in the process of tuition. The stars appear as the gloom falls; so the promises assume new lustre and power to the spirit lying under the shadow of suffering. I may rejoice in the attachment of my friend, though I have never put it to a severe trial; but if I am suddenly brought to ruin, and he as promptly rescues me at great sacrifice, I may safely say that I never knew the value of his friendship. It is therefore in the period of suffering that the soul is brought into nearer contact with God, and finds His grace sufficient. In this case the event proved that God’ s ways are higher than man’ s, and are not to be judged of in human weakness. They might have questioned His friendship during those four mysterious days, but afterwards they saw, as they could not have seen otherwise, how He loved them. IV. While the friendship of Jesus does not exempt from affliction IT DEEPENS INTO WITH THOSE WHO ENDURE IT. Even during His absence Christ’ s soul was in Bethany. Once and again did He refer to it, and at last said Lazarus is dead. His mind thus brooded over the scene, and now, though His life was in peril, He did not hesitate to go. As He met Martha He could speak in a firm tone of assurance, but when He saw Mary weeping bitterly He was deeply moved. And as He took the first step to the tomb His emotion could no longer be restrained. There was no stoicism in His constitution. Try not to be above the Saviour. V. THE OF JESUS IS NOT BY DEATH. What breaks up all other ties has no such effect on it. Friends walk arm in arm till they come to the tomb, and then one of them resumes his solitary path. Our Lord said of him who died, “ He sleepeth,” recognizing the friendship as still existing. The objects of Christ’ s affection, when taken out of the world, are brought into closer union with Himself. So it was with Enoch: today he “ walked with God” on earth, tomorrow he walked with Him in heaven. (J. Eadie, D. D.) Beloved and yet afflicted The disciple whom Jesus loved is not backward to record that Jesus loved Lazarus too; there are no jealousies among those who are chosen by the well beloved. It is a happy thing when a whole family lives in the love of Jesus. They were a favoured trio, and yet as the serpent came into paradise, so did sorrow enter their quiet household. I. A FACT. “ He whom Thou lovest is sick.” The sisters were somewhat astonished; “ behold,” we love him and would make him well directly. Thou canst heal him with a word, why then is our loved one sick? We need not be astonished, for the sick one 1. Is only a man. The love of Jesus does not separate us from the common necessities and infirmities of life. The covenant of grace is not a charter of exemption from consumption or rheumatism. 2. Is under a peculiar discipline. “ Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” If Job, David, Hezekiah must each one smart, who are we that we should be amazed if ill? 3. Is thereby benefited. How far this was so with Lazarus we know not, but many a disciple would have been of small use but for affliction. Strong men are apt to be harsh, imperious, and unsympathetic, and hence need to be put into the furnace and melted down. There are fruits in God’ s garden as well as in man’ s which never ripen till bruised. 4. Is a means of good to others. Throughout these nineteen centuries all believers have been getting good out of Lazarus’ s sickness. The Church and the world may derive immense advantage through The sorrows of good men; the careless may be awakened, the doubting convinced, the ungodly converted, the mourner comforted through their testimony. II. A REPORT OF THAT FACT. The sisters sent and told Jesus. Let us keep up a constant correspondence with Him about everything. 1. It is a great relief. He is a confidant who can never betray, a friend who will never refuse. 2. He is sure to support us. If you ask Him, “ Why am I sick?” He may be pleased to show you why, or He will make you willing to be patient without knowing why. 3. He may give healing. It would not be wise to live by a supposed faith and cast off the physician, any more than to discharge the butcher and the tailor and expect to be fed and clothed by faith; but this would be far better than forgetting the Lord altogether, and trusting to man only. Some are afraid to go to God about their health; and yet surely if the hairs outside our head are all numbered it is not more of a condescension for Him to relieve throbs inside. III. AN RESULT. No doubt the sisters looked to see Lazarus recover; but they were not gratified. This teaches us that Jesus may be informed of our trouble, and yet act as if indifferent. We must not expect recovery in every case, for if so nobody would die who had anybody to pray for him. Let us not forget that another prayer may be crossing ours. “ Father, I will that they also,” etc. But Jesus raised him, and will raise us. Some want to live till the Lord comes, and so escape death; but so far from having any preference such would miss one point of fellowship in not dying and rising like their Lord. All things are yours, death included. IV. A . Does Jesus in a special sense love you? Many sick ones have no evidence of it because they do not love Him. If Jesus loves you and you are sick, let your friends, nurses, etc., see how you glorify God in your sickness. If you do not know this love, you lack the brightest star that can cheer the night of darkness. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The sickness of Lazarus I. A OF VALUE--to be loved by Christ. To be loved by some is no advantage; their love is carnal, selfish, fickle. But Christ’ s love Isaiah 1. Tender--so tender that in all our afflictions He is afflicted. We are as dear to Him as Himself. 2. Constant. It is not founded on any mistakes as to our characters; as to what we have been, are, shall be. Men sometimes withdraw their love because they discover imperfections never anticipated. 3. All-sufficient. It has at command ample resources to supply all our wants, ample power to sustain, guard, and bless us, and that always. II. A TRIAL . Why did Christ permit His beloved friend to be sick? 1. Not because it was agreeable to Him. The sufferings of those whom we love are always painful to us. “ He doth not afflict willingly.” 2. Not because He could not have prevented it. He who hushed the storm and raised the dead had power to keep off disease. 3. It was for some useful end. The afflictions of Lazarus were a blessing to himself and his sisters. It strengthened this faith and intensified their joy. III. A FAITH OF POWER. So assured were they of the genuineness and strength of His love that they felt that the mere statement of Lazarus’ s sickness was enough. True love requires no persuasion. The appeals to benevolence that stream from the press and pulpit imply a sad lack of faith in the philanthropy of the land. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The uses of affliction God often lays the sum of His amazing providences in very dismal afflictions, as the limner first puts on the dusky colours on which he intends to draw the portraiture of some illustrious beauty. (S. Charnock.) Affliction, not destruction I feel that repeated afflictions come, not as lightning on the scathed tree, blasting it yet more and more, but as the strokes of the sculptor on the marble block, forming it into the image of beauty and loveliness. Let but the Divine presence be felt, and no lot is hard. Let me but see His hand, and no event is unwelcome. (Power of Illustration.) Affliction makes fruitful Every vessel of mercy must be scoured in order to brightness. And however trees in the wilderness may grow without cultivation, trees in the garden must be pruned to be made fruitful; and cornfields must be broken up, when barren heaths are left untouched. (J. Arrowsmith.) The benefit of severe affliction When Mr. Cecil was walking in the Botanical Gardens of Oxford, his attention was arrested by a fine pomegranate tree, cut almost through the stem near the root. On asking the gardener the reason of this, “ Sir,” said he, “ this tree used to shoot so strong that it bore nothing but leaves; I was therefore obliged to cut it in this manner; and when it was almost cut through, then it began to bear plenty of fruit.” The reply afforded this inquisitive student a general practical lesson, which was of considerable use to him in after life, when severely exercised by personal and domestic afflictions. Alas! in many cases, it is not enough that the useless branches of the tree be lopped off, but the stock itself must be cut--and cut nearly through--before it can become extensively fruitful. And sometimes the finer the tree, and the more luxuriant its growth, the deeper must be the incision. (J. A. James.) God’ s love to His own people in a afflicting them An invalid of twenty years, whose sufferings were extreme, was one night thinking of the reason of this long-continued affliction. Suddenly the room filled with light, and a beautiful form bent over her, saying, “ Daughter of sorrow, art thou impatient?” “ No; but I am full of pain and disease, and I see no end; nor can I see why I must suffer thus. I know that I am a sinner; but I hoped that Christ’ s sufferings, and not mine, would save me. Oh! why does God deal thus with me?” “ Come with me, daughter, and I will show thee.” “ But I cannot walk.” “ True, true! There, gently, gently!” He tenderly took her up in his arms, and carried her over land and water, till he set her down in a far-off city, and in the midst of a large workshop. The room was full of windows, and the workmen seemed to be near the light, and each with his own tools; and all seemed to be so intent upon their work, that they neither noticed the newcomers, nor spoke to one another. They seemed to have small, brown pebbles, which they were grinding and shaping and polishing. Her guide pointed her to one who seemed to be most earnestly at work. He had a half-polished pebble, which was now seen to be a diamond, in a pair of strong iron pincers. He seemed to grasp the little thing as if he would crush it, and to hold it on to the rough stone without mercy. The stone whirled, and the dust flow, and the jewel grew smaller and lighter. Ever and anon he would stop, hold it up to the light, and examine it carefully. “ Workmen,” said the sufferer, “ will you please to tell me why you bear on, and grind the jewel so hard? I want to grind off every flaw and crack in it.” “ But don’ t you waste it?” “ Yes; but what is left is worth so much the more. The fact is, this diamond, if it will bear the wheel long enough, is to occupy a very important place in the crown we are making up for our king. We take much more pains with such. We have to grind and polish them a great while; but, when they are done, they are very beautiful. The king was here yesterday, and was much pleased with our work, but wanted this jewel, in particular, should be ground and polished a great deal. So you see how hard I hold it down on this stone. And, see! there is not a crack nor a flaw in it! What a beauty it will be!” Gently the guide lifted up the poor sufferer, and again laid her down on her own bed of pain. “ Daughter of sorrow, dost thou understand the vision?” “ Oh, yes! but may I ask you one question?” “ Certainly.” “ Were you sent to me to show me all this?” “ Assuredly.” “ Oh! may I take to myself the consolation that I am a diamond, and am now in the hands of the strong man, who is polishing it for the crown of the Great King?” “ Daughter of sorrow, thou mayest have that consolation; and every pang of suffering shall be like a flash of lightning in a dark night, revealing eternity to thee; and hereafter thou shalt ‘ run without weariness, and walk without faintness,’ and sing with those who have ‘ come out of great tribulation.’” (Dr. Todd.) Trouble in the family Note I. A HAPPY FAMILY. It consisted of a brother and his two sisters. They were happy because Jesus loved them. The essence of real happiness is not riches or any temporal distinction, but an interest in Christ’ s favour. His love is no empty sentiment. Whom Jesus loves He blesses. How rare are families whom Jesus lovest Individual believers are numerous, but “ households” of faith are rare. Why? Is it because there is so little of family worship? II. A TRIAL WHICH BEFELL THEM. This is no new thing. The children of God have never been promised a smooth life of it (Acts Revelation 3:19; Hebrews 12:7-8). The afflictions of believers are quite another thing from God’ s ordinary visitations. God visits them in mercy not in judgment, for the best purposes (Romans 5:3-5). Better is it to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25-26; Job 5:17-18). III. THE CONDUCT OF OUR LORD WHEN HE WAS TOLD OF IT. There was nothing strange in a friend of Christ’ s falling sick (1 Peter 4:12), but Christ’ s conduct was very strange. Doubtless they expected Him as soon as the distance would admit of it. How we hasten at such a summons, and the consciousness of being able to do something quickens our steps. Yet Jesus, who had all power as well as all love, tarried. How trying this delay to the afflicted sisters--how heartbreaking when all was over that Jesus was not there. But stranger still Christ delayed out of love. No love is so high as that which prefers the real interests of its object before his present comfort, which aims at permanent good rather than momentary satisfaction. We often seek to gratify another’ s feelings rather than to promote his good. But Christ is not a parent who gives His children everything they cry for, but everything that is best for them. He withholds a lesser mercy that He may impart a greater. Instead of raising Lazarus from a bed of sickness He raised him from the grave. Conclusion: The great lesson here is the duty of waiting patiently for the Lord in regard to answers to prayer--blessings--success. (A. Roberts, M. A.) Affliction I. THE SOURCE OF . Not spontaneous (Job 5:6-7). Godappoints (Psalms 66:10-11; Amos 3:6). God regulates their degree Isaiah 9:1; Jeremiah 46:28). God determines their duration Genesis 15:13-14, Isaiah 10:25). Not willingly sent Lamentations 3:33; Ezekiel 33:11). Consequent on sin Genesis 3:16-19). II. OF THE SAINTS. Saints must expect them (John 16:33; Acts 14:22). Tempered with mercy (Psalms 78:38-39; Psalms 106:43-46). Comparatively light (Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17). Are but temporary (Psalms 30:5; 1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 5:10). Are joyfully endured Romans 5:3-5; James 5:11). Are shared with Christ (Romans 1 Peter 4:13-14). Express God’ s care (Hebrews 12:6-7; Revelation 3:19). God with afflicted saints (Psalms 46:1; Psalms 46:5; Isaiah 43:2). God preserves them (Psalms 34:19-20; Romans 8:37). Christ with them (Matthew 28:20; John 14:18). Christdelivers them (2 Timothy 4:17; Hebrews 2:18). They secure a James 1:12; Revelation 2:10). III. OF THE WICKED. Sent as judgments (Job 21:17; Jeremiah 30:15). Sent for impenitence (Proverbs 1:30-31; Amos 4:6-12). Are multiplied (Deuteronomy 31:17; Psalms 32:10). Come suddenly (Psalms 73:19; Proverbs 6:15; Proverbs 29:1). Sometimes humble them (1 Kings 21:27). Sometimes harden them Exodus 9:34-35; Nehemiah 9:28-29). Consummated in the judgment (Matthew 25:41; Luke 13:27; Luke 13:23). (S. S. Times.) The uses of sickness 1. The message was not needed, nor was it immediately regarded. With the sisters nothing was more serious than their brother’ s sickness, and the little chamber was the centre of the world. The Saviour took other views of the matter. The sickness and death of Lazarus were not ends in themselves, but means to a far higher end. It was more important that they should learn patience than that Lazarus should not be sick; that they should be taught a quiet and strong faith than that He should not die; that God and Christ should be glorified. 2. The uses of an illness is not a common topic. Men may live and die without considering it. This lack of consideration is due to the fact that sickness is unwelcome; and to ask what is the use of it is like asking what is the use of a hindrance, indeed, of uselessness. This, however, is a disheartening conclusion; for think of the vast amount of sickness there is. There is not a house to which the struggle does not come sooner or later. It ought to, and must be incredible to any man who believes in a heavenly Father that so much of human emotion should flow away without benefit. It does not require inspiration to teach us that there must be some light in these dark facts. Shakespeare says, “ Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in its head” ; and “ There is a soul of good in things evil, if men would but observingly distil it out.” The uses of sickness are I. TO INQUIRE AS TO ITS SOURCE. This is the first duty with respect to any derangement of machinery whether mechanical or vital. 1. It would be a serious mistake to trace it all to the Divine hand. This may save thought, but at the cost of reason and reverence. Many afflictions bear no Divine mark. (1) Some arise through indolence. The forces of life have not been kept in active flow--they have rested and rusted. There has been leisure for getting into moods and moodiness, and so the nerves become shaken and shattered. (2) Some arise through overwork whether bodily or mental. Here there are difficulties which each must settle for himself--how long he can put forth power with safety; how he can pull in when he loves his work; but still retribution stands darkly behind the overworker, and will strike some day. (3) The same result may be produced by the care which gnaws the fine strings of the soul first, and then the nerves of the body. II. TO LEARN THAT WE ARE NO TO THE FRAILTY OF THE RACE. “ Men think all men mortal but themselves.” Long continued health has its snares. It engenders a spirit of boasting which forgets God and sympathy with others. Humanity is like a mighty tree, always flourishing and always in decay. Never for two moments together has it the same leaves upon it; always there are some bursting their sheath, or in their tender green, or in their full glory, or slipping from their hold. All come down at length leaving behind as rich a foliage. Thus each leaf learns its frailty in turn. And so it is with man who “ at his best estate is altogether vanity.” He begins to receive strange hints of difference between what he is and what he was. The eyes will give intimation that they are not as clear as they were, and would be all the better for artificial help. As we walk hills seem more formidable than they were, limbs loose their nimbleness, and lungs and heart the freedom of their play. And the chariot of sickness seems to wheel a man nearer to the presence of death; and to familiarize him with the fact that for him as for others, there is no discharge in this warfare. Not to learn this is to leave the sick chamber with one of its most serious instructions unheeded. III. TO TEACH US THAT WE ARE NOT TO THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE WORLD. This, like our best lessons, is humiliating because true. It seems impossible at times to conceive of the world without some men being in it; they have been here so long, hold such office, and render such service. So many seem absolutely needful--the father, pastor, statesman, monarch. When sickness comes and one is withdrawn, it is a salutary admonition to him and to the world that the world goes on, and will go on, when he is no more. IV. TO HELP US TO REVISE OUR VIEWS OF LIFE. No one can live wisely without times of pause and quiet thought; and yet men are often too busy to think. They live either without plan, or their plan is narrow and poor, and it will never be altered to the grand dimensions it ought to assume, unless they are laid aside and compelled to think. 1. There is the sensualist with whom life has been a race after pleasure. Is there no room for him to revise his plan of life when appetite palls, and the sweetest drinks have lost their flavour? 2. May not the worldling ask, “ What shall it profit a man,” etc. (E. Mellor, D. D.) The benefits of sickness By it God designs I. TO TO US OUR TRUE --whether Christians or worldlings. Christ is like the crucible which tries the gold. II. TO MAKE US KNOW GOD. 1. His authority and our dependence on Him. Christ tells us how easily He could crush us, and how all our safety depends on His power. 2. His faithfulness supporting His children and proving that His grace is sufficient for them. 3. His goodness in standing by us, giving us the consolations of His gospel, and letting down into our souls an anticipated heaven. III. TO GIVE US TO FEEL THE OF JESUS. Even in health the Saviour is the chief among ten thousand, etc., but His value is especially felt when sickness has brought us to look into the eternal world. IV. TO ENABLE US TO THE OF . Then the most obdurate is constrained to feel the difference between the righteous and the wicked. The believer then feels more than he ever did, his unspeakable obligations to God for having forgiven his sins and sealed by His Spirit. V. TO SHOW US THE OF THE WORLD. On the bed of sickness, honours, pleasures, riches, the pursuit of which occupies the lives of so many men, to the forgetfulness of their soul, heaven, God, lose their lustre and appear but phantoms. VI. TO BENEFIT OUR AND GLORIFY GOD. Thousands of examples might be adduced of persons who received their first impressions from the conduct of Christians in dangerous illnesses. (H. Kollock, D. D.) Sickness a little death Every sickness is a little death. I will be content to die oft, that I may die once well. (Bishop Hall.) The benefit of sorrow. It is said that gardeners sometimes, when they would bring a rose to richer flowering, deprive it for a season of light and moisture. Silent and dark it stands, dropping one fading leaf after another, and seeming to go down patiently to death. But when every leaf is dropped, and the plant stands stripped to the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the buds, from which shall spring a tender foliage and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often, in celestial gardening, every leaf of earthly joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the soul. (Beecher Stowe.) Trial a small matter in comparison with the benefit it confers In the ancient times a box on the ear given by a master to a slave meant liberty; little would the freedman care how hard was the blow. By a stroke from the sword the warrior was knighted by his monarch; small matter was it to the new made knight if the royal hand was heavy. When the Lord intends to lift His servants into a higher stage of spiritual life, He frequently sends them a severe trial. Be it so, who among us would wish to be deprived of the trials if they are the necessary attend ants of spiritual advancement? (C. H.Spurgeon.) Trial and progress One of the swiftest Transatlantic voyages made last summer by the Etruria was because she had a stormy wind abaft, chasing her from New York to Liverpool, But to those going in opposite direction the storm was a buffeting and a hindrance. It is a bad thing to have a storm ahead pushing us back; but if we are God’ s children and aiming toward heaven, the storms of life will only chase us the sooner into the harbour. I am so glad to believe that the monsoons, and typhoons, and mistrals, and siroccos of land and sea are not unchained maniacs let loose upon the earth, but under Divine supervision. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Afflictions prevent worse dangers Two painters were employed to fresco the walls of a magnificent cathedral. Both stood on a rude scaffolding constructed for the purpose, some distance from the floor. One, so intent upon his work, forgetting where he was, stepped back slowly, surveying critically the work of his pencil, until he had neared the edge of the plank on which he stood. At this moment his companion, just perceiving his danger, seized a wet brush, flung it against the wall, spattering the picture with unsightly blotches of colouring. The painter flew forward, and turned upon his friend with fierce upbraidings, till made aware of the danger he had escaped; then, with tears of gratitude, he blessed the hand that saved him. Just so, sometimes we get so absorbed with the pictures of the world, unconscious of our peril, when God in mercy dashes out the beautiful images, and draws us, at the time we are complaining of His dealings, into His outstretched arms of love. Afflictions purifying I remember, some years ago, when I was at Shields, I went into a glass house; and, standing very attentive, I saw several masses of burning glass of various forms. The workman took a piece of glass and put it into one furnace, then he put it into a second, and then into a third. I said to him, “ Why do you put it through so many fires?” He answered, “ Oh, sir, the first was not hot enough, nor the second; therefore we put it into a third, and that will make it transparent.” (G. Whitefield.) Afflictions make us long for home We had traversed the great Aletsch Glacier, and were very hungry when we reached the mountain tarn halfway between the Bel Alp and the hotel at the foot of the AEggischorn; there a peasant undertook to descend the mountain and bring us bread and milk. It was a very Marah to us when he brought us back milk too sour for us to drink, and bread black as a coal, too hard to bite, and sour as the curds. What then? Why, we longed the more eagerly to reach the hotel towards which we were travelling. Thus our disappointments on the road to heaven whet our appetites for the better country, and quicken the pace of our pilgrimage to the celestial city. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same placeChrist’ s special friends The saints are all round about His throne, because He is alike near unto them for solace and tuition. Howbeit, as man, living among men, He was affected to some more than some, as to these three, and the beloved disciple. Plato commendeth his country at Athens, chiefly for this, that they were beloved of the gods. (J. Trapp.) The everlasting Friend “ Doctor, what shall I do?” asked a patient of her medical adviser: “ my friends are all out of town.” “ You may have one Friend,” was the answer, “ who is never out of the way, but ever near, and ever true. Jesus is the best friend for earth or heaven.” Pres. Edwards, when he came to die,--his last words, after bidding his relations goodbye, were, “ Now, where is Jesus, my never-failing Friend?” Love of friendship The English word “ loved” is ambiguous; it may apply to all kinds of love--the love of friendship, for instance, or the love of man and woman. There is not the same ambiguity in Greek. The word used here is one (agapao) which conveys delicately the meaning that the love of Jesus for Martha and her sister was not the love of man for woman, but the love of friend for friend. The ambiguity of the English word makes this explanation necessary. (S. S. Times.) The delays of Jesus We know the value of time to a sick man (we say) when the disease is growing and the vital energies are failing. “ Too late,” the physician tells you: “ if you had called me just two days ago, I might have done something; but now the case is past my skill.” But Jesus (and His heart was love itself) “ abode two days still in the same place where He was.” The abiding on this occasion reminds us of that which took place when He was on the way to the house of Jairus, whose little daughter lay a-dying. Human love, impatient of delay, would have urged Him to make haste; yet He tarries, during the last precious moments, over the case of the woman who had touched the hem of His garment and been healed of her issue of blood. It is a most noticeable feature of all His works that they were done without hurry; with the calmness of one who stays on God; with the calmness of conscious omnipotence that can afford to wait; with the calmness of strong-hearted love that will not forego its mighty purpose of blessing by taking premature action. In this case the delay was in His plan of loving kindness, and essential, as we shall see by and by, to its full development. It was not merely that He knew what He would do, how He would “ take off their sackcloth, and gird them with gladness;” but the delay, strange and painful as it was, and inexplicable to the sisters, formed part of the preparation He was making to give them a blessing according to His own heart, who cares more for our being rooted in God than for our present happiness. He was letting them cry out of the depths, that they might afterward cry, “ Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.” (J. Culross, D. D.) The delays of love John is always particular about his use of “ therefore,” and points out many a subtle and beautiful connection of cause and effect by it. But none of them is more significant as to the ways of Providence than this. How these sisters must have looked down the rocky road during those four weary days! How strange to the disciples that He made no sign of movement! Perhaps John’ s care in pointing out that His love was the reason for His quiescence may reflect a remembrance of his doubts during this period. I. CHRIST’ S DELAYS ARE THE DELAYS OF LOVE. We have all had experience of desires for the removal of sorrows, or for the fulfilment of wishes which we believed to be in accordance with His will, and no answer has come. It is part of the method of Providence that hope in these respects should be deferred. And instead of stumbling at the mystery, would it not be wiser to lay hold of this “ therefore,” and by it get a glimpse into the very heart of the Divine motives? 1. If we could get that conviction into our hearts, how quietly we should go about our work! How encouraging that the only reason which actuates God in the choice of times is our good. 2. Sorrow is prolonged for the same reason that it is sent. Time is often an element in its working its right effect. If the weight is lifted the elastic substance beneath springs up again. As soon as the wind passes over the cornfield the bowing ears raise themselves. You have to steep foul things in water for a good while before the stains are cleansed. Therefore, the same love which sends must protract the discipline. 3. The grand object and highest blessing is that our wills should be bent until they coincide with God’ s, and that takes time. The shipwright knows that to mould a bit of timber into the right form is but the work of a day. A will may be broken at a blow, but it will take a while to bend it. God’ s love in Jesus can give us nothing better than the opportunity of saying, “ Not my will, but Thine be done.” II. THIS DELAYED HELP COMES AT THE RIGHT TIME. Heaven’ s clock is different from ours. In one day there are twelve hours; in God’ s a thousand years. What seems long to us is to Him “ a little while.” The longest protraction of the fulfilment of a desire will seem but as a winking of an eye when we estimate duration as He estimates it. The ephemeral insect has a still minuter scale than ours, but we should not think of regulating our measure of long and short by it. God works leisurely because He has eternity to work in. But His answer is always punctual though delayed. Peter is in prison. The Church keeps praying for him day after day. No answer. The last night comes, and as the veil of darkness is thinning, the angel came. Mark the leisureliness of the whole subsequent procedure. God never comes too soon or too late. Take again the case of Sennacherib’ s army. III. THE BEST HELP IS NOT DELAYED. The preceding principle applies only to the less important half of our prayers, and Christ’ s answers. In regard to spiritual blessings the law is not “ He abode still two days,” but “ Before they call I will answer.” The only reason why people do not get the blessings of the Christian life lies in themselves. “ Ye have not because ye ask not, or ask amiss, or having asked you go away not looking to see whether the blessing is coming or not.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The apparent neglect of self-denying love John is the only evangelist who speaks of the friendship between Christ and this family, who gives us in fact the picture of Christ in social life, Christ unbending, Christ in the intimacy, the freedom of tender, personal affection, Christ as a friend; just as He only gives the social miracle at Cana. The apostle of love, “ the disciple whom Jesus loved,” he only gives us this aspect of Christ’ s nature and history. How natural and beautiful! Note I. THE MYSTERY OF . Evil in connection with love in one who could remove it. Whatever may be said to lessen this mystery the facts are so. There was no doubt about the malady of the man, none about the mercifulness of the Master. And so we say still. Christianity is not responsible for the difficulty, for as Sir W. Hamilton observes, “ No difficulty emerges in theology which had not previously emerged in philosophy.” Looked at alone the facts are not consistent but opposed. A God of love and a world of woe regarded as bare facts are a moral contradiction; and no wonder if through the veil of tears we cannot always see His goodness. Pain is evil in itself, and suggests evil. The consciousness of sin interprets it as the token of the Father’ s frown; and the Bible teaches that suffering came by sin; but it also says, “ Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,” and makes suffering the necessary evidence of love and the choicest instrument of profit. II. THE OF SORROW. 1. They sent to tell Jesus. It was natural even if they thought only of telling Him. True love will always tell what befalls it from natural dictate, because it likes to tell it, and because reciprocal affection has a right to know it. When John was killed “ the disciples went and told Jesus,” and so should we, whenever our hearts are full, even if nothing come of it. Our words are modes of receiving as well as communicating. God hears best our prayers when we can hear them too; we pray best for ourselves aloud. 2. They merely informed Jesus. They must have meant and expected more. Both sisters exclaimed, “ Lord, if Thou hadst,” etc. Was it not then to prevent his dying that Christ was told. But they did not know He knew. We do. Our prayers are not to inform God; He wants to know our prayers--the expression of our feelings, not the instructions of our wisdom. 3. They did not ask the boon they expected. Was it modesty or faith? We cannot tell; but the more we approach to this mode of prayer the better, at least, as to things of a temporal kind. The more we leave them to God, and remember that we are to “ ask according to His will,” and that only spiritual blessings, are blessings always, the better. Many a parent has prayed the life of a child, whom afterwards he had wished had found an infant’ s tomb. Many a merchant has craved the success of a venture, whose success has been the beginning of soul-destroying prosperity. But there is no danger or excess when we ask for salvation and holiness. 4. Note the way in which they said what they did say. They do not mention themselves, nor Lazarus’ s love for Jesus, but Jesus’ love to him. They might have put it as the afflicted mother did--“ Have mercy upon me,” or, “ Him we love is sick,” or,” He who loveth Thee.” They thought Christ’ s love was the best argument, and as there was no need to mention his name, verily it was. We always prevail with God when we make Him our plea, “ for Thy name’ s sake.” III. THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE. Why did He not hasten to Bethany. Even if He did not chose to prevent Lazarus dying, He might have soothed him and his sisters. He did not go because He wished him to die, and intimates (verse 15) that if He were at Bethany He could not let him die. He delayed because He meant to raise him. Herein is a picture of Providence. 1. The transformation of evil into good. 2. The material made instrument of the spiritual. 3. Fellowship. One sickening and dying for the health, joy, and higher life of many. Conclusion: We have talked of Christ’ s love and man’ s sorrow. Here only can the two be found together. There are two states before us, one, in which there will be sorrow without love, and another in which there will be love without sorrow. Suffering without Christ--this is hell. Love with no trouble or death--the love of Christ ever present, filling the heart with joy unspeakable--that is heaven. (A. J. Morris.) John 11:9-10 Are there not twelve hours in the day?--What does this sentence mean here, following John 11:7-8? Why was it introduced? I do not know that we who are living easy and comfortable lives can quite solve that question. But many a patriot and confessor who has been concealing himself from the anger of those whom he wished to bless has learned its meaning and felt its support. If he had tried to rush forth into danger, merely in obedience to some instinct or passion of his own, he was walking in the night and was sure to stumble. If he heard a voice in his conscience bidding him go and do some work for God--go and aid some suffering friend--he would be walking in a track of light; it signified not what enemies might be awaiting him, what stones might be cast at him, he could move on fearlessly and safely. The sun was in the heavens--the stones would miss till his hour was come. If it was come, the sooner they struck the better. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) Twelve hours in the day I. THE OF LIFE. God has marked out beforehand the length of the life. This was true of the life of Christ. He was in daylight till the twelfth hour. He could not die. His time was not yet come. It is true of us. God knows exactly the length of our “ day,” and therefore of our “ hour.” The day shall run its course, whether the season be winter or summer, whether the hour be thirty minutes or sixty. This is a call to confidence. Be not afraid to go at the summons of duty, in spite of snare, terror, accident or infection. The day will have its twelve hours. II. THE OF LIFE. We speak of a child or young man’ s life as prematurely closed. Isaiah speaks of the longevity of the time when a child shall die hundred years old. Certainly there have been children whose little life has been well completed--their innocence and death testifying powerfully for Christ. Their day has had its twelve hours, though the constituent hour was less than a year. We must cast away the common measurement of time. Christ’ s life was a short one, and how large a part was spent in preparation? No time is less wasted than that given to preparation. Christ’ s three years of speech had in them the whole virtue, for the world, of two eternities. Christ’ s thirty years of listening were not the prelude only, but the condition of the three. Each life, the shortest not least, is complete. Man’ s work depends not on his longevity. Many a young man sleeping in the churchyard sends forth the fragrance of a perpetual sanctity. Use well your time, longer or shorter, and the hours shall be twelve, and the component hour shall have its constituent moments sure. III. THE UNITY OF LIFE. We would fain divorce hour from hour, and never recognize their bearing upon each other and the day. And it is true that repentance severs one part of the day from another, and make old age--and therefore eternity--diverse from the boyhood. It is also true that a Christian does well to take his years, months, days, one by one and to live each as if it were the only one. Nevertheless, we cannot disguise the unity of this being. We may wish we had not done that wicked thing, fallen into that evil habit, but it is there: we cannot cut off the entail. God sees the day as one: and when He writes an epitaph He does so in one of two lines. “ He did that which was good.” “ He did that which was evil” --the identification is complete, the character one. IV. THE OF LIFE. God sees it in its unity. He bids us see it in its manifoldness; in its variety of opportunity and capability of good. Where is the moment which might not contribute something? Economize. Give up some fragment to God. (Dean Vaughan.) The twelve hours of the day; or, lifetime and life’ s duty in their indissoluble unity I. THE OF LIFE WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF DUTY. II. THE OF DUTY WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF LIFE. (J. P.Lange, D. D.) Life the golden opportunity I. THE WISDOM OF KNOWING OUR . This chiefly depends on 1. Our walking. 2. Our working while it is light. II. THE DANGER OF IT 1. For vain amusements. 2. In the eager pursuit of trifles. (R. Cecil, M. A.) God takes care of His workers The Rev. T. Charles had a remarkable escape in one of his journeys to Liverpool. His saddlebag was by mistake put into a different boat from that in which he intended to go. This made it necessary for him to change his boat, even after he had taken his seat in it. The boat in which he meant to go went to the bottom, and all in it were drowned. Thus did God in a wonderful way preserve His servant--“ immortal till his work was done.” God had a great work for this His servant, and He supported and preserved him till it was completed. The providential care of life When I was stationed in Swanson, in the year 1836, I was appointed delegate to the district meeting held at St. Ives, Cornwall. One Captain Gribble offered me a passage in his vessel. I accepted the offer, and said, “ When are you going out?” He replied, “ We have got our cargo, and shall go tomorrow if the wind is fair.” I went to the dock on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; the wind was still against him. He then advised me to take the packet to Bristol, as he said it was quite uncertain when he should be able to go to sea. I took the packet on the Thursday morning. We had a very rough passage; through mercy we arrived safe in Bristol next morning. I arrived at Hayle between one and two o’ clock on Sunday morning. I then walked to St. Ives, a distance of five miles. I went to Mr. Driffield’ s. When he saw me he said, “ Is Joseph yet alive?” I answered, “ Yes.” He further said, “ We were informed you were coming with a sailing vessel, and it appears she is lost, for some of the wreck is come on shore. We have gone through the stationing and left you without a station.” I was given to understand that on the morning I left for Bristol the vessel went out. The wind was fair, but after being a few hours at sea all went to the bottom, captain and crew. What a providence it appears that the vessel could not go out until I was gone! (J. Hibbs.) The contemplated journey I. OPPOSED BY THE as 1. Dangerous (John 11:8). 2. Unnecessary (John 11:12-13). Hence 3. Imprudent, if not also 4. Wrong. II. BY JESUS. As 1. Imperative, being undertaken at the call of His Father. 2. Safe, since He could not stumble in the path of duty. 3. Merciful, inasmuch as He went to comfort the sisters and raise Lazarus. 4. Profitable, even for those who were so strongly against it. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Light and loyalty The disciples were amazed when Jesus proposed to go to Bethany, and remonstrated with Him. Christ takes this opportunity of explaining the great principle on which He worked. “ I walk in God’ s light which shines upon My path during the time He has fixed for My ministry. Wherever that light shines, I go, regardless of everything but it. Do you the same, My disciples. Your path of duty will be clear. Without that light you will be as men walking in the dark and meeting disaster.” We are thus led up to the question of the simplicity of duty. Somehow duty has come to be to many a complicated matter. That it presents problems every one of us knows, but does the problem lie in the duty or in us? Do we not complicate the problem by adding factors of our own. The oculist says that there is a blind spot in every eye: possibly when we think duty obscure we have brought the duty into line with the blind spot. As a matter of precept, duty being a thing of universal obligation must be simple. To make it a matter of subtle casuistry or painful research would limit it. And men stumble none the less because of this simplicity. Christ does not put the blame of stumbling on the law or on the complication of duty. It is not the geological structure of the stone that makes men stumble, but darkness or blindness. And so morally. Our Lord asserts elsewhere that “ the lamp of the body is the eye: When thine eye is single thy whole body is full of light,” etc. When a man sees two trees when there is only one, or prismatic colours in a house that is white, we do not blame the tree etc., but the man’ s vision, A sound moral vision recognizes duty under every shape. Hence the truth of our text is that the recognition of duty, and the practical solution of its problems, lie in the principle of loyalty to Christ. A Divinely enlightened conscience and an obedient will, not only push, but lead. See this illustrated here. Going to Bethany involved a question of duty for Christ. To one who had no thought but to do the Father’ s will, the case was simple. But the disciples, in their natural timidity, put another element into the question, which complicated it--personal safety. If Jesus entertained the suggestion, He would have been diverted from the plain duty. A new question would have been raised which God had not raised. God’ s commission said nothing about danger--only “ Go.” If He meant to do right the decision presented no difficulty; if He meant to save Himself, He would have walked in darkness. Is not singleness of purpose an element of all heroism? Was there ever a great general whose thought was divided between victory and personal safety? The men who have moved society have seen nothing but the end to be won. When a physician enters on his profession, he does so with the knowledge that he must ignore contagion. That makes his duty very simple--to relieve disease wherever he finds it. The moment he begins to think about exposure to fever, etc., his usefulness is over. Luther at Worms had a terrible danger to face, but a very easy question to solve; but his inability to do anything but the one right thing carried the Reformation, and this singleness is the very essence of Christianity. Its first law is, treat self, as though it were not “ Follow Me.” It is not always easy to follow Christ; but the way at least is plain. A greater difficulty arises when the question becomes one of compromising between Christ and self. The only way in which self can be adjusted to the Cross is by being nailed to’ it. Duty is a fixed fact. It does not adjust itself to us. There is a nebulous mass in the depths of space. The problem before the astronomer may be difficult to work out, but its nature is simple. He is to resolve that mist into its component stars. If he is bent on bringing the facts discovered by his telescope into harmony with some theory of his own, he complicates his task at once: or let the glass be cracked or the mirror dirty, and his observation only results in guess work. But, with an unprejudiced mind and a good telescope, his eye penetrates the veil and brings back tidings which enrich the records of science. So when men look at duty with loyal and obedient hearts, its lines come out sharply. Let self put a film over the spirit, duty remains unchanged, but the man sees only a mist. When the engineer decided that his railroad had to go through Mont Cenis, he had a difficult task but a simple one; and in addressing himself wholly to that solution of his problem, he at once got rid of a thousand questions as to other routes, etc. No one ever had so clear a perception of the hardness of His mission as Christ. And yet the closest study reveals not a shadow of hesitation. He goes to the Cross saying, “ The Scripture must be fulfilled.” He comes back from the dead with, “ Thus it behoved Christ to suffer.” His motto was, “ My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, etc.” He admitted no question of stoning or crucifying, and hence it is that His life while it is the most tremendous tragedy in history is the most purely simple. Suppose duty costs popularity, etc., Christ does not promise that the man who walks in the light shall have an easy walk. He promises that he shall not stumble: but Christ did not stumble because He was crucified, nor Stephen because stoned, nor Paul because beheaded. The stumbling would have been in Christ accepting Satan’ s offer, in Stephen’ s keeping silence, in Paul making terms with Nero or the Jewish leader. Popularity, etc., won by evasion of duty are not gains. Better that Christ should have gone than that the world should have lost the lesson of the Resurrection. Better all that agony than that the world should have missed a Saviour. But this steadfast light giving principle is not a mere matter of human resolve. Christ is in the soul as an inspiration and not merely before the eye as an example. And remember that though Christ in setting you on that well-lighted track of duty does not allow you to take account of the hardness, He takes account of it. You cannot live a life so hard that Christ has not lived a harder. His word is “ Follow Me.” Do that and you cannot go wrong. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.) If a man walk in the day, he stumbleth notOriental streets are not as safe as Occidental streets, nor are Oriental roads as safe as Occidental roads. Setting aside all other differences, both streets and roads are in a chronic state of disrepair. The streets are narrow, and not too clean; the roads are often composed of nothing more than loose stones lying upon each other as chance sets them. The consequence is that it is a work of strategy to thread one’ s way through Oriental streets, avoiding at the same time the filth of the street and the crowding of burdened donkeys or camels, and a work of art to ride or walk over an Oriental road without coming occasionally to the ground, or having one’ s flesh torn by the thorns on either side. This is during the day; but at night the difficulty is increased a hundred fold; thus it is that “ if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth.” Jesus felt that He was walking in the day, because He saw the danger, and knew how to avoid it. (S. S. Times.) The walk of duty It is a walk I. of LIGHT. “ Walk in the day.” The man who, from proper motives and with a single eye, pursues his mission in life, moves in open day. No dark cloud shadows his path, no haze hangs over him, he knows what he is about. His course lies clearly before him, and he sees the goal II. Of SAFETY. “ Stumbleth not.” He who moves within the bounds of duty makes no false steps, for the will of God enlightens him. But he who walks outside the limits of his vocation will err in what he does, since, not the will of God, but his own pleasure is his guide. III. THAT MUST BE PURSUED. Though Christ was warned of the probable consequences He felt that He had to go. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 11:11-13 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Sweet sleep I. We have A SWEET . 1. “ Our friend.” Behold here wondrous condescension. Our Lord does not turn to His disciples and say “ Your friend sleepeth,” but places Himself side by side with them in their affection and says “ Our friend.” It seems to me to teach so sweetly the blessed fact that Jesus is one with His people. It is equal to saying, “ Do you love Him? so do I.” Let us meditate upon the friendship Christ has to His children, and in doing so I would notice 1. It is a real one. There is too much of superficial friendship abroad; plenty of the lip, but little of the heart. This is an age of shams; and among them, most hideous of the lot, is that of miscalled friendship. In the love of a saint to his Saviour there is a blessed reality. Whoever else he may not love with all his heart, his Saviour he must. 2. In this friendship there are no secrets kept on either side. The old saying runs “ whisperers separate chief friends,” but in close friendships nothing is hidden, so whispers have nothing to reveal. When Jesus says to anyone, “ My friend,” He declares a friendship that ignores all secret keeping, for “ the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” If there be a secret sin in the heart, if a fall in the life, O bear me witness, saints of God, that there is no peace for us until, like the woman of old, we have “ told Him all.” Heavy burdens roll off the soul, and sweet ease flows into it by telling Jesus everything. 3. Jesus shows His friendship by helping in time of need. 4. Moreover, if a person says to me, “ my friend,” I naturally expect he will show his friendship by calling in to see me; and sweet are the love visits that Jesus pays His friends. That disciple knows but little of the sweets of the religion of Jesus who knows but seldom what it is to hear his Lord’ s knock, and who but seldom sups with his beloved in closest fellowship. 5. Jesus is never ashamed of His friends. When once He has said “ My friend,” He never retracts the sentence. There are many butterfly friends fluttering round us all, to be seen in the summer of prosperity, but conspicuous by their absence in the winter of adversity. 6. That the friendship of Jesus lasts forever. The sweeter the friendship the more terrible the blow, that severs it. But severed it must be at last. II. A SOLEMN FACT . Christ’ s friends die. 1. The friendship of Christ does not exempt from death. This dread reaper spares none. Death asks not whether the shock of corn is ripe for glory, or is as yet green, and unprepared for the sickle. He asks not whether his victim is a child of God or one of the world’ s devotees. 2. Christ permits His friends to die in order to make manifest how completely He has conquered death. Suppose that, instead of tasting death, all Christ’ s friends were, like Enoch, translated into glory; might not death boast and say, “ Aha! they dare not meet me in the field! Their Lord is afraid to put His conquest to the test.” 3. Another reason why the friends of Jesus die is that they may be brought into conformity with their Lord. It may seem strange to some of your ears; but I believe there are many here who would rather prefer to die than otherwise, in order that in everything they might be conformed to their Master. III. WE HAVE IN THIS TEXT A VERY . “ Our friend sleepeth.” Not our friend is dead. 1. In sleep there is a rest from pain. There is rest from pain in death. 2. In sleep there is a rest from care. 3. Sleeping implies waking. (A. G. Brown.) The friendship of Christ I. JESUS IS THE FRIEND OF HIS PEOPLE. Human friendship is the choicest of earthly privileges. How much more the friendship of Christ! (John 16:14-15). Note the qualities of a true friend. 1. Amiableness, or having those properties which are calculated to attract the heart. We may be grateful to those we cannot esteem, and admire those we cannot love; but to make a friend there must be something lovely. This exists in Christ in the highest degree. 2. Power of wisdom to guide, of strength to support and defend; of riches to help. These all exist in their fulness in Christ. 3. Faithfulness to keep our secrets and to fulfil His promises. 4. Tenderness. Friendship is like a foreign plant which requires delicate treatment. It shrinks from whatever is rough and unfeeling, and cannot confide in rudeness. 5. Unchangeableness. Christ is not a summer friend, who, like the butterfly, flutters round us while the sun is shining, but retires when the sun has gone. He is “ a friend horn for adversity.” He is “ the same today,” etc. II. THE WHICH CHRIST FOR HIS FRIENDS. 1. He sympathizes with them, as one of them sharing their sorrows. 2. He is their abiding companion. 3. He has paid their debts, ransomed their persons, reconciled them to God at the expense of His own life. 4. He has purchased for them an inheritance incorruptible, etc. 5. He has fitted up mansions as the eternal residences of the bodies and souls of His people. III. TO THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST DEATH HAS CHANGED ITS NATURE. They cannot die, they only sleep. The emblem expresses 1. “ The composure of soul which the Lord gives to His people in the hour of death,” “ Mark the perfect man,” etc. 2. The temporary cessation of the powers of the body to recruit it for fresh service on the resurrection morn (Isaiah 26:19). (J. H. Stewart, M. A.) The awakening Christ Jesus awakes men out of the sleep of , to give them intellectual life. His teaching 1. Awakes the power to think. 2. Strengthens the thinking powers. 3. Affords food for thought. II. MORAL , to give them spiritual life. 1. Men are dead in sin. 2. Christ’ s call awakes the soul, and Christ’ s power gives it life. 3. Christ supports, develops, and perfects this new life. III. , to give them a life of usefulness. (Weekly Pulpit.) The Christian in life and in death I. IN LIFE. 1. The friend of Jesus. Expressing ideas of (1) Acquaintance. (2) Endearment. 2. The friend of Jesus’ friends. Adding thoughts of (1) Social intercourse. (2) Loving brotherhood. II. IN DEATH. Asleep. 1. Withdrawn from the ordinary activities of life, as the mind is during the hours of slumber. 2. Possessed of a real, though different existence, as the mind never ceases to be active during the hours of repose. 3. Certain to awake refreshed after the period of rest has terminated, as mind and body do when night is passed. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Death as sleep Estius well remarks, “ Sleeping, in the sense of dying, is only applied to men, because of the hope of the resurrection. We read no such thing of brutes.” The use of the figure is so common in Scripture, that it is almost needless to give references (see Deuteronomy 31:16; Daniel 12:2; Matthew 27:52; Acts 7:60; Acts 13:36; 1 Corinthians 7:39; 1 Corinthians 11:30; 1 Corinthians 15:6-18; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). But it is a striking fact that the figure is frequently used by great heathen writers, showing clearly that the traditions of a life after death existed even among the heathen. Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Catullus, supply instances. However, the Christian believer is the only one who can truly regard death as sleep--that is, as a healthy, refreshing thing, which can do him no harm. Many among ourselves, perhaps, are not aware that the figure of speech exists among us in full force in the word “ cemetery,” applied to burial ground. That word is drawn from the very Greek verb which our Lord uses here. It is literally a “ sleeping place.” (Bishop Ryle.) Death has the advantage of sleep For sleep is only the parenthesis, while death is the period of our cares and trials. (M. Henry.) A beautiful death All Wales, when I was there, was filled with the story of the dying experiences of Frances Ridley Havergal. She got her feet wet standing on the ground preaching temperance and the gospel to a group of boys and men, went home with a chill, and congestion set in, and they told her she was very dangerously ill. “ I thought so,” she said, “ but it is really too good to be true that I am going. Doctor, do you really think I am going?” “ Yes.” “ Today? Probably.” She said: “ Beautiful, splendid to be so near the gate of heaven!” Then, after a spasm of pain, she nestled down in the pillows and said, “ There, now; it is all over--blessed rest.” Then she tried to sing, and she struck one glad note, high note of praise to Christ, but could sing only one word, “ He,” and then all was still. She finished it in heaven. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Sleep and death The angel of sleep and the angel of death reclined at eventide on a hill overlooking the abodes of men. As night came on, one rose from his mossy couch and scattered some seeds of slumber. The zephyrs bore them away to human dwellings, and presently the sick man forgot his pain, the mourner his sorrow, the poor his cares. “ Oh, what joy,” exclaimed the angel of sleep, “ thus to do good unseen!” The other looked at him in sadness, and a tear gathered in his dark eye as he said: “ Alas, that I can have no thanks! Earth calls me its enemy and destroyer.” “ Nay, my brother,” answered sleep, “ in the morning men praise me as their friend, and will not the good in the resurrection morn praise and bless thee also as a benefactor? Are we not brothers and messengers of one Father?” John 11:14-15 Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that! was not there I.THE SAVIOUR IS ALWAYS ALIVE TO THE WELFARE OF HIS PEOPLE--“ for your sakes.” Here is love beyond compare. Is He abased? “ For our sakes He became poor.” Does He suffer? “ He bears our sorrows, and for us He dies.” Does He go away? “ It is expedient for us.” Does He appear in heaven? Still it is for us. Other people are the subjects of His providence; but His people are the end of it. II. THERE IS NOTHING HE IS SO TO PROMOTE AS THEIR FAITH--“ that ye may believe.” From this learn 1. That faith is no easy matter. Where is the Christian that has not often cried, “ Help Thou mine unbelief.” The difficulty of believing may be seen by the means here employed to promote it, and from the persons for whom He wishes it--those who had been with Him and seen His miracles. 2. That faith admits of increase. The disciples believed, or they would not have followed Him, but they did not believe enough. Faith at one time is like a mustard seed, at another like a mustard tree. The blade may do very well in March, but we expect the full corn in August. 3. The importance of faith. Some persons are afraid to say much about faith, as if it were prejudicial to morality, whereas it is the tree which bears all the fruits of holiness. Everything in the Christian life has to do with faith. God is glorified by faith, we are filled with joy and peace, sanctified, purified, by faith; we stand, walk, live, and have access to God by faith, and that this may not fail Christ prays. Hence its importance here. III. HE CAN THE OF HIS LOVE BY WAYS TO HIMSELF. They would have said He ought to have been there. The sisters expected this. But His absence was to show that His ways were superior to theirs. The case of Joseph, Job, and the Three Children seemed very hard, but what advantage the world has derived from them! When, therefore, your views and His do not seem to harmonize, remember that He acts sovereignly, not arbitrarily; but “ He gives no account of His matters.” Suspend your opinions. Never set His sun by your dial, but the reverse. You can see His heart if you cannot see His hand. Where? At Calvary. “ He that spared not His own Son,” etc. Alphonsus, of Castile, thought that if the Maker of the world had applied to him he could have given Him good advice. But do you not think the same about the God of Providence? “ Blind unbelief is sure to err.” If you see not now you will see hereafter. Ought you to judge of a building while all the materials are scattered about, especially if you had never seen the plan? Judge nothing before the time. The saints above shout, “ He hath done all things well.” IV. THE OF SOME ARE FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS. Sometimes persons are afflicted by way of 1. Correction. “ If His children forsake My law,” etc. 2. Prevention. Paul was buffeted not because he was proud, but “ lest he should be exalted.” 3. Probation. Hence afflictions are called trials. 4. Usefulness to themselves and others. Ezekiel was forbidden to weep when the desire of his eyes was taken from him; not on his own account, but that he might be a “ sign.” So Lazarus dies and the sisters weep for the disciples’ sake. V. THE SAVIOUR IS NEVER TOO LATE IN HIS OR TOO IN HIS . We often begin what we are not able to finish. Then there are different degrees of weakness and strength amongst us, but God has all power, “ Nevertheless, let us go to Him,” not them. Why? It is too late, he is dead. “ It may be too late for you, but not for Me.” Your extremity is My opportunity. I love not only to do what is needful for My people, but to surprise them; to do above all they can ask or think. It were much to have comforted the sisters, how much more to raise the brother! Let us learn to confide in Him 1. With regard to ourselves. Sinner, your case is desperate as to all relief from men or angels, yet that is no reason why you should despair. He is nigh. 2. With regard to others. Our work is hard, but we can do all things if the Raiser of Lazarus strengthens us. (W. Jay.) The dark enigma of death The man Jesus loved lay there on his bed dying. Now, I emphasize that, because there used to be a great deal of thinking about God’ s relation to those that love Him and whom He loves--a great deal of teaching in the Christian Church that counted itself mostorthodox, and which was, indeed, deadly heresy, coarse, materialistic, despicable, misunderstanding the ideal grandeur of the Bible promises. Some of you know the sort of thing that used to prevail--the idea that God’ s saints should be exceptionally favoured, the sun would shine on their plot of corn, and it would not shine on the plot of corn of the bad man; their ships would not sink at sea, their children would not catch infectious diseases, God would pamper them, exempt them from bearing their part in the world’ s great battle, with hardness and toil of labour, with struggle and attainment and achievement. It came of a very despicable conception of what a father can do for a child, as if the best thing for a father to do for his son was to pet and indulge him, and save him all bodily struggle and all difficulties, instead of giving him a life of discipline. As if a general in the army would, because of his faltering heart, refuse to let his son take the post of danger, as if he would not rather wish for that son--ay, with a great pang in his own soul--that he should be the bravest, the most daring, the one most exposed to the deadliest hazard. Ah, we have got to recognize that we whom God loves may be sick and dying, and yet God does love us. Lazarus was loved by Jesus, yet he whom Jesus loved was sick and dying. Ah, and there is a still more poisonous difficulty in that materialistic, that worldly way of looking at God’ s love; that horrible, revolting misjudgment that Christ condemned, crushed with indignation when it confronted Him. “ The men on whom the tower of Siloam fell must have been sinners worse than us on whom it did not fall.” Never, never! The great government of the world is not made up of patches and strokes of anger and outbursts of weak indulgence. The world is God’ s great workshop, God’ s great battlefield. These have their places. Here a storm of bullets fall, and brave and good men as well as cowards fall before it. You mistake if you try to forestall God’ s judgments, God’ s verdict on the last great day of reckoning. Still we have got the fact that Christ does not interpose to prevent death, that Christ does not hinder those dearest to Him from bearing their share of life’ s sicknesses and sufferings, that God Himself suffers death to go on, apparently wielding an undisputed sway over human existence. Is not that true of our world today? The best of you Christians, when death comes to your own homes, do you manage to sing the songs of triumph right away? Well, you are very wonderful saints if you do. If you do not, perhaps you say, “ If God is in this world, how comes that dark enigma of death?” And others of you grip hold of your faith, but yet your heart cries out against it. You believe that God is good, but has He been quite good to you? Like Martha, you feel as if you had some doubt; you feel bound in your prayers; you say, “ O God, I do not mean to reproach Thee;” weak, sinful, if you will, yet the sign of a true follower of the Christ. And then the enemies of Christ, the worldlings all about in this earth of ours, as they look upon death’ s ravages, they are saying: “ If there were a God, if there were a Father, if there were a great heart that could love, why does not He show it?” Now, I said to you that at first it looks as if nothing but evil came of God’ s delay to interpose against death; but when you look a little deeper, I think you begin to discover an infinitely greater good and benefit come out of that evil. I must very briefly, very rapidly, trace to you in the story, and you can parallel it in the life of yourselves, that discipline of goodness there is in God’ s refraining from checking sickness and death. Christ said the end of it is first of all death, but that is not the termination. Through death this sickness, this struggle of doubt and faith, should end in the glory of God. That tremendous miracle compelled the rulers of Jerusalem to resolve on and carry out His death. That miracle of Lazarus’ s resurrection gave to the faith of the disciples and of Christ’ s followers a strength of clinging attachment that carried them through the eclipse of their belief when they saw Him die on Calvary. Now, what would you say? Was it cruel of Christ to allow His friend Lazarus, His dear friends Mary and Martha, to go through that period of suspense, of anxiety, of sickness, of death, and of the grave, that they might do one of the great deeds in bringing in the world’ s Redeemer “ Ah” you say “ you have still got to show God’ s goodness and kindness to me individually. My death may be for God’ s glory, it may be for the good of others; but how about me and those who mourn?” Well, now, look at it. You must get to the end of the story before you venture to judge the measure, the worth of God’ s goodness. After all, was that period of sickness and death unmitigated gloom, and horror, and agony? Oh, I put it to you, men and women, who have passed through it, watching by the death of dear father or mother that loved the Lord and loved you, and whom you loved--dark, and sore, and painful enough at the time; but oh, if I called you to speak out, would you not say it was one of the most sacred periods of your life--the unspeakable tenderness, the sweet, clinging love, the untiring service, the grateful responses, the sacredness that came into life? Ay, and when the tie was snapped, the new tenderness that you gave to the friends that are left, the new pledge binding you to heaven, and to hope for it, and long for it--death is not all an evil to our eyes. Death cannot ultimately be an evil, since it is universal--the consummation, climax, crown, of every human life. It is going home to one’ s Father. Yes, but you want the guarantee that death is not the end, and that day it was right and lawful for Christ to give it to anticipate the last great day, when in one unbroken army, radiant and resplendent, shining like jewels in a crown, He shall bring from the dark grave all that loved Him, fought for Him, and were loyal to Him on the road, and went down into the dark waters singly one by one, in circumstances of ignominy often, and yet dying with Christ within them, the Resurrection and the Life. Ah, that great grand vindication of God and interpretation of this world’ s enigma was made clear that day when Christ called Lazarus back and gave him alive to his sisters in the sight of His doubting disciples, in the sight of those sneering enemies. (W. G.Elmslie, D. D.) Lazarus dead and Jesus glad What strange paradox is here. There was room in Christ’ s heart for both emotions. The grief belonged to the Brother born for our adversity; the gladness to the omniscient God who sees the end from the be ginning, Note I. THE OF CHRIST WITH HIS PEOPLE. Somewhat analogous to the sympathy of the several organs of a living frame. Such is the vital union that every wound inflicted on the members pierces with pain the Head. He “ knew the sorrows” of Israel in Egypt, and now He felt the grief which was rending the household at Bethany. By a message, Jesus and His disciples had learned that Lazarus was sick; but the Head, being in closer communion with the member, had secret and better intelligence. The dying throb of Lazarus beat also in the heart of Jesus. “ Lo, I am with you alway,” in the dark days of pain as in the bright days of joy. II. CHRIST HEARS THE CRY OF HIS PEOPLE AND SENDS THEM HELP. They were right in saying, “ If Thou hadst been here.” He cannot endure to hear the prayer of His people and permanently to deny their request. Hence He could not remain in visible presence with His followers. It became expedient for Him to go away, permitting multitudes of His friends to sicken and die preparatory to a glorious resurrection. III. ALIKE CHRIST’ S ACTIONS AND THE PROFIT OF HIS PEOPLE. If He remained distant while Lazarus was battling with death it was for your sakes. If He rejoiced in the immediate issue of that unequal conflict, it was for your sakes. All things are for your sakes. In this case it was that they might believe. The death of Lazarus afforded opportunity for the display of omnipotence, thereby to confirm the disciples’ faith. But other benefits followed. The discipline the bereaved family endured was a means of purging away their dross. Application: The lesson bears on 1. The ordinary affairs of life. You try to obtain a lawful object in a lawful way, but your plans miscarry. This, however, does not prove that Christ lacks the will or power to help. Had He been in visible presence He would have put forth His power, but He is glad for your sake He was not. From the height of His throne He sees that the world on your side at this point would not be profitable for you. 2. Bereavements. “ if Christ were standing weeping by the bed your child would not die, but for your sake He is not there. A mother who had lost all her children but the youngest said, “ Every bereavement has knit me closer to Christ, and every child I have in heaven is another cord to hold me up” :--(W. Arnot, D. D.) A mystery! Saints sorrowing and Jesus glad Jesus was glad that the trial had come. I. FOR THE OF THE FAITH OF THE . 1. The trial itself would do this. Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith. It never prospers so much as when all things are against it. No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the feet of the frozen glacier; no water so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand. (1) Tried faith brings experience, and experience makes religion more real. You never know your weakness nor God’ s strength till you have been in the deep waters. (2) Trial removes many of the impediments of faith. Carnal security is the worst foe to confidence in God, and blessed is the axe that removes it. The balloon never rises until the cords are cut. (3) Affliction helps faith when it exposes the weakness of the creature. This trial would show the apostles not to depend on the bounty of any one man, for though Lazarus entertained them, Lazarus had died. We are in danger of making idols of our mercies. (4) Trial drives faith to God. When the world’ s wells are full of sweet but poisonous water we pitch our tents at the well’ s mouth; but when earth’ s water becomes bitter we turn away sick and faint and cry for the water of life. (5) Trial has a hardening effect on faith. As the Spartan boys were prepared for fighting by the sharp discipline of their boyish days, so are God’ s servants trained for war by the affliction which He sends upon them. We must be thrown into the water to learn to swim. If you want to ruin your child, let him never know a hardship. 2. The deliverance of Lazarus would do this. (1) At the worst Christ can work; in the very worst He is not brought to a nonplus. The physician, Herod, Caesar, and all their power can do nothing here; and Death sits smiling as he says, “ I have Lazarus.” Yet Christ wins the day. (2) Divine sympathy became most manifest--“ Jesus wept.” (3) Divine power was put forth--“ Lazarus, come forth.” All this was the best education the disciples could have for their future ministry. When in prison they would remember how Lazarus was brought out. When preaching to dead sinners they would remember the power of the word which brought Lazarus to life. II. FOR THE GOOD OF THE FAMILY. The sisters had faith, but it was not very strong, for they doubted both Christ’ s love and His power. Because He specially loved these people: 1. He sent them a special trial. The lapidary will not spend much time on an ordinary stone, but a diamond of the first water he will cut and cut again. So the gardener will a choice tree. 2. Special trial was attended with a special visit. Perhaps Christ would not have come to Bethany had not Lazarus died. If you are in trouble Christ will go out of His way to see you. 3. The special visit was attended with special fellowship. Jesus wept with those who wept. You may be well and strong, and have but little fellowship with Christ, but He shall make all your bed in your sickness. 4. And soon you shall have special deliverance. III. FOR GIVING FAITH TO OTHERS. Afflictions often lead men to faith in Christ because 1. They give space for thought. 2. They prevent sin. A lad had resolved against advice to climb a mountain. A mist soon surrounded him, and compelled him to return. His father was glad because, had he gone a little further, he would have perished. 3. They compel them to stand face to face with stern realities. How often has God’ s Spirit wrought in illnesses that have seemed hopeless. 4. They are sometimes followed by great deliverances. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Five paradoxes I. IN THE LIFE OF AN GROWS OUT OF GRIEF. Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, for it was a personal bereavement, but He was glad because it was a fine opportunity for glorifying God. This is the lowest form of Christian experience. Our light affliction works out an eternal weight of glory, This, understood as a means of exalting God, will enable the believer to glory in tribulations. II. ONE’ S IS HID ANOTHER’ S TRIALS. It was a surprising thing to announce that He had not intended to prevent Lazarus’ s death; but it was still more surprising that it was for their sakes. What had they to do with it? Now, while all believers are independent of each other, and each stands or falls to his own master, yet the trials of one are often intended to benefit another. The law of vicarious suffering holds the race. A parent suffers for a child, a child for a parent. Joseph was sold into Egypt that Israel might go into Palestine. Peter’ s imprisonment may have been needed to discipline Rhoda’ s faith, and Paul’ s confinement may have been ordered for the jailor’ s conversion. Let us be resigned, then, when we suffer for others, and attentive when others suffer for us. III. OF A ’ S SORROW IT. In the opinion of the disciples the sickness of Lazarus was a disaster, but the most unfortunate circumstance was the absence of Jesus. But a strange comfort now entered their hearts. They were worse off than they supposed, but they were better off, too. Up to this disclosure the event was a hard calamity of domestic life, and Jesus’ absence a melancholy accident. But now they perceived that Divine knowledge embraced this also, Divine wisdom was dealing with it, and Divine mercy was going to turn it to fine advantage. A great sorrow with a purpose in it is easier to bear than a smaller one which seems to have no aim now and no benefit hereafter. IV. IN THE TRUE ’ S DOUBT IS TO DEEPEN TRUST. The one simple intention of this bereavement was to increase the faith of those who felt it. This was accomplished by permitting them to imagine for a while that they were forgotten of God. Just as a mother hides herself from a child who has grown careless of her presence that the child may run impulsively into her embrace and love her all the more, so God says, “ In a little wrath I hid My face,” etc. The way to render faith confident is to make large demands upon it by onsets of trying doubt. V. AND ARE THE OF HOPE AND HELP. The turning point of the story is in the “ nevertheless let us go,” and He goes to work His most stupendous miracle to remedy what His delay had permitted. By this time the sisters had given up all hope; but Hope was on the way. So one after another of our props must drop away, till at last we are shut up to God. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Death knocking away our props “ See, father!” said a lad who was walking with his father, “ they are knocking away the props from under the bridge. What are they doing that for? Won’ t the bridge fall?” “ They are knocking them away,” said the father, “ that the timbers may rest more firmly upon the stone piers, which are now finished.” God only takes away our earthly props that we may rest more firmly upon Him. The uses of bereavement When engineers would bridge a stream, they often carry over at first but a single cord; with that, next they stretch a wire across; then strand is added to strand, until a foundation is laid for planks; and now the bold engineer finds safe footway, and walks from side to side. So God takes from us some golden-threaded pleasure, and stretches it hence into heaven; then He takes a child, and then a friend: thus He bridges death, and teaches the thoughts of the most timid to find their way hither and thither between the shores. (H. W. Beecher.) Build beyond the reach of death Build your nest upon no tree here, for ye see God hath sold the forest to Death; and every tree whereupon we would rest is ready to be cut down, to the end that we might flee and mount up, and build upon the Rock, and dwell in the holes of the Rock. (S. Rutherford.) Relief under bereavement 1. There are reliefs arising from our constitution. There is a self-healing principle in nature. Break a branch from a tree, etc., wound the body, cut the flesh, or break a limb, and you see the self-healing power exude and work. It is so in the soul. Thought succeeds thought like the waves of the ocean, and each tends to wear out the impression its predecessor had made. 2. There are incidental reliefs. New events, new engagements, new relationships, tend to heal the wound. 3. There are Christian reliefs, the assurance of after life, the hope of a future reunion, etc. Such are the reliefs. These, like the flowers and shrubs of a lovely garden, spring up around our hearts and cover the grave of our sorrows and trials with the shadow of their foliage. Yes; though we have our trials, we have still our blessings. John 11:16 Then said Thomas which is called Didymus Thomas A very few verses contain the sum of all we know about Thomas. They tell us nothing of his history. His travels, sufferings, missionary toils, death; tradition speaks of these One account says he preached the gospel in Persia, and was buried in Odessa. Another that he went to India and suffered martyrdom there. We need not imitate Thomas himself too closely by receiving all such accounts with incredulity. It would seem all but certain that he went eastwards, and that he laboured, and suffered, and died for Christ, thus meeting the fate he was prepared for when he said to his fellow disciples, “ Let us also go that we may die with Him.” Probably he was by birth a Galilean, although this is by no means certain, as some accounts give him a foreign birthplace. The name Thomas is connected, especially by St. John, with the other name he bore, either synonym or surname of it, “ Didymus.” He had a brother or sister (sister says one account, called Lysia), the same age as himself. Therefore he was called “ the twin.” This is the origin of the name. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The spiritual significance of Thomas’ name Is there any mystery here? Did St. John intend us to see any coming out in the name bearer of the qualities which the name expressed? Many have thought he did, and the analogy of similar notices in this gospel (John 1:42; John 9:7) would lead to this conclusion. It is very possible that Thomas may have received this as a new name from his Lord, even as Simon and the sons of Zebedee, certainly, and Levi very probably, received in like manner names from Him. It was a name which told him all he had to fear, and all he had to hope. In him the twins, unbelief and faith, were contending for the mastery, as Esau and Jacob, the old man and the new, wrestled once in Rebecca’ s womb. He was, as indeed all are by nature, the double, or twin-minded man. It was for him to see that in and through the regeneration he obtained strength to keep the better and cast away the worse half of his being. He here utters words which belong to one of the great conflicts of his life--words in which the old and the new, unbelief and faith, are both speaking, partly one and partly the other; and St. John fitly bids us note that in this there was the outcoming of all which his name embodied so well. There was faith, since he counted it better to die with his Lord than to live forsaking Him--unbelief, since he conceived it possible that so long as his Lord had a work to accomplish, He, or any under His shield, could be overtaken by death. Thomas was evidently of a melancholy, desponding character: most true to his Master, yet ever inclined to look at things on their darkest side, finding it most hard to raise himself to the loftier elevations of faith--to believe other and more than he saw, or to anticipate more favourable issues than those which the merely human probabilities of an event portended. Men of all temperaments and characters were to be found in that circle of disciples, that so there might be the representatives and helpers of all who hereafter, through struggles of one kind or another, should at last attain to the full assurance of faith. Very beautifully Chrysostom says of this disciple, that he who would hardly venture to go with Jesus as far as the neighbouring Bethany, afterwards without Him travelled to the furthest India, daring all the perils of remote and hostile nations. (Archbishop Trench.) Thomas’ doubt and faith I. HIS DOUBT 1. As to the victory of life. 2. As to the way to heaven (chap. 14). 3. As to the certainty of the Resurrection (chap. 20). II. HIS FAITH. 1. Prepared by his ardent love to Jesus and the brethren (chap. 11). 2. Introduced by his longing desire for a higher disclosure (chap. 14). 3. Decided by his joy at the manifestation of the Risen One (chap. 20). (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Let us also go that we may die with Him 1. Let us with Jesus go. 2. Let us with Jesus suffer. 3. Let us with Jesus die. 4. Let us with Jesus live. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) Thomas desponding I. HE IS AN EARNEST MAN. We might almost conclude this from the fact that he is one of the twelve. Some of them are ignorant, some quiet and simple, some strong and passionate, but all are earnest. Take all the verses that relate to Thomas, they bring before us very different mental states--deep depression, rejoicing, confidence; but they all pre-suppose a spiritual concernedness about himself, his duty, and his Lord. He is sometimes called “ unbelieving Thomas,” but he is better than worldly Demas, or a vacillating Peter. What hope can there be for a creature like man, intellectual, spiritual, responsible if he will not think. You can do nothing with a man who is not earnest--but you may do much with an earnest man, though a doubter. II. THIS HAS A TINGE OF AND IS WITH A . As a certain vein runs through a geological formation, so a certain disposition runs through a human mind. You cannot expel it. It must be recognized and dealt with. Here Thomas threw himself on to the dark conclusion that all was over, and that nothing now was left to them but to die. This shows how truly he and all had lived for the kingdom and the Master. They all desponded in a while when the death came. It is characteristic of Thomas that he took the alarm sooner than the rest. One in a company will first say, “ It is getting colder.” One in a family will be the first to see the death shadow, although it may turn out not to be that. So some among God’ s children are nearer despondency than the rest, more quick to see the world going wrong, more keen to private troubles. III. WITH WHAT AND THOMAS TO DIE WITH CHRIST, SINCE IN HIS OPINION NO BETTER MAY BE. Here is a melancholy man who yet can make the grand resolve that when his dearest visions and hopes are quenched in darkness, though what he cannot but regard as a mistaken judgment of the Master, yet resolves to follow that Master wherever He may choose to go. That purpose was the salvation of Thomas, and not less than that in principle will be the salvation of us. Thomas did not die with the Master. They all forsook Him for a little while. We shall not live up to the height of our best resolutions. But if our purpose be wisely and resolutely formed, and in dependence on Divine help, then we shall not renounce it; and it will be IV. THE AND THE CURE OF OUR . You cannot conceive of one abiding in it long whose life is ribbed by a great purpose reaching unto death--whose heart is moved and lifted by a great affection, as sun and moon lift the tide. With Him, come storm or calm! With Him, come life or death! Then the world will be brighter, and we shall go through it more bravely to our home in the world beyond. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Let us go with Jesus We cannot tell whether this sentiment sprang from love, from dejection, or from conviction that such a resolve would lead Christ out of love for them to abandon His purpose. Leaving this discussion, let us go with Jesus. I. THAT IN HIM WE MAY DIE UNTO SIN. In what frame of mind did Jesus enter on that course which led Him to Golgotha? If He knew so well, why did He go? Had He not perfect freedom to follow His disciples’ advice, and power to lay His foes at His feet? Why not then use it? Because He only desires to do the will of His Father. Now the hour arrives for Him to be obedient unto death. What urges Him thereto? The desire for reward or glory? No: love to His Father and sinful men. Thank God He went; and thank God we may still in spirit go up to Jerusalem. What for? To admire His heroism? Others have been as brave. To pity His agonies? Others have suffered more. “ Weep not for Me, but for yourselves,” etc., and for the sin which cost Me so much. The resolution to go with Jesus implies more than reading the story of His passion, singing hymns or praying to Him, or repenting. It means union with Christ in the purpose of His death--the destruction of sin. II. THAT FOR HIM WE MAY WIN SOULS. Ought we not to feel the sacred duty of gratitude to return His love, and resolve to go with Him, feeling unconcerned about our own death? He went for the purpose of raising Lazarus; let us go that the dead may become alive. Have we no loved friend who sleeps? May the love of Christ constrain us to awaken him. III. THAT THROUGH HIM WE MAY INHERIT LIFE. If we die in Him unto sin, and for Him win souls, then our whole life shall be a walking in His footsteps to the Jerusalem above. (M. Coward.) Devotion to the leader General Grant had the faculty, in a large degree, of attaching very closely to himself all about him. His personal staff without exception, passionately reverenced him. Any one of them would have gladly risked his life for his chief. In the last year of the civil war they organized a system at City Point by which one sat up on guard of him every night to watch against the plots of the enemy; for there had been devices of dynamitic character, and attempts not only to capture, but to assassinate, prominent national officers. (H. O. Mackey.) John 11:17-27 When Jesus came Christ’ s help is sure, if delayed He usually reserves His hand for a dead lift. When our faith begins to flag, and hang the wing when our strength is gone, and we have given up all for lost, “ Now will I arise,” saith the Lord, “ now will I be exalted, now will I lift up Myself” (Isaiah 33:10). (J. Trapp.) The journey Leaving His retreat beyond Jordan, Jesus calmly makes His way to the village of Bethany. We shall find it shown in the issue that, as regards the manifestation of the glory of God, the leading of the disciples into higher faith, and the discipline and blessing of the sisters, the Lord’ s arrival is neither too early nor too late; but that it is as when separate trains move along separate lines of railway, “ timed” to meet by a certain hour, at a certain junction, there to be combined. The distance to Bethany was a long day’ s journey. Whether He made the journey in a single day we have no means of knowing. The earliest part of it would lie along some fertile glen of Gilead, and would be pursued amid “ morning songs” from every side. Crossing the Jordan at a neighbouring ford, the next part of the journey would lie in the rich plain of Jericho, beautiful as a great pleasure ground, with bosks and groves of aromatic shrubs. Then He would pursue the wild dreary road that goes up from Jericho to Jerusalem, lying through a desolate rocky district, often winding along the edge of cliffs and frightful precipices, one of the wildest and gloomiest roads in the land. As He approaches Bethany, the dust of travel whitening His sandals, and as weary, it may be, as when He came to Jacob’ s well at noon, He is told that Lazarus has already been four days in the grave. (J. Culross.) Many of the Jews had come … to console them Oriental consolers According to the ancient Jewish ritual, those who came to condole with the mourners had to return with them from the grave to the house, there to station themselves in a circle around the mourners, repeating prayers, and offering consolation. The rule was that this circle of consolers should consist of not less than ten persons; but it usually consisted of many more. In token of grief, the couches upon which the mourners and the consolers sat were lowered so as to come nearer to the ground, or else all sat upon the ground. The consolers remained with the mourners during the days of mourning; but there was a certain defence from this publicity in the fact that the consoler had no right to speak until the mourner spoke; and the mourner had the privilege further of indicating, by nodding, that he was now comforted and that the consolers need not continue to sit around him any longer. (S. S. Times.) The interview with Martha I. MARTHA’ S ; or faith struggling with imperfect knowledge (John 11:21). The language neither of reproach nor complaint, but. 1. Of deep sorrow that Christ had not been present, at least, before the end came. 2. Of sincere faith, since she believed that had He been present, He would have healed him, or entreated God on his behalf. 3. Of imperfect knowledge (1) Allied to superstition in thinking Christ’ s presence needful (cf. chap. 4:47) . (2) Akin to over confidence in asserting that Lazarus would have lived had Christ not been absent. II. MARTHA’ S ; or faith rising into ardent hope (John 11:22). 1. Faith’ s firm assurance. That Christ’ s access to the Father on behalf of men is (1) Immediate, at any moment. (2) Direct, by simply asking. (3) Unlimited, “ all things.” (4) Efficacious, certain to prevail. 2. Faith’ s joyous expectation. That nothing will prove too great. (1) For Christ’ s love to devise, or (2) Christ’ s power to execute on behalf of His people Ephesians 3:20-21)--hence that a resurrection is neither impossible nor absurd. III. MARTHA’ S ; or faith relapsing into doubt (verse 24). 1. Her disappointment. She had expected Christ to speak about an immediate restoration of her dead brother, whereas He only seemed to hint at a far away resurrection (verse 23). 2. Her concession. She acknowledges, notwithstanding, such a resurrection, and consequently Lazarus’ s continued existence. IV. MARTHA’ S SUBLIME ; or faith soaring into lofty adoration (verse 27). That which lifted her beyond the atmosphere of doubt was Christ’ s exposition of the doctrine (verses 25, 26), in which were set forth 1. That the resurrection was not an event to be thought of as distinct from the life, but as a manifestation of the life. 2. That the resurrection and the life, as thus explained, have their primal source in Himself, in whom is life (chap. 1:4), and from whom all true life in the soul proceeds. 3. That the resurrection, and the life from which it springs, are secured to men by their union to Him through faith. 4. That in the experience of the believer there is (1) A resurrection of the soul from sin. (2) A living in the Spirit. (3) A transformation of death so that the believer may be said to “ never die.” (4) A complete abolition of death by the resurrection of the body. Lessons 1. Christ’ s presence with the soul is the certain destruction of death. 2. Christ’ s intercession for His people is better understood now than it was Hebrews 7:25). 3. The resurrection, as explained by Christ, a perennial source of comfort for the bereaved and dying. 4. The only just verdict that can be pronounced on Jesus is that of “ Son of God.” (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Jesus and Martha I. THE SOCIAL SADNESS OF DEATH. The death of Lazarus had spread a dark shadow over the hearts of not a few. Besides the sisters the neighbours were affected (John 11:19). The God of Love has implanted in human hearts a mighty tie of sympathy, and the groan of one will vibrate on the heart chords of many. The more love a man has in him the larger the amount of vicarious suffering that he will endure in this world of grief. Hence He who had more love in Him than all the race besides became a “ man of sorrows” to carry ours. To suffer for others by sympathy is not only natural, but Christly. We are commanded to “ bear one another’ s burdens.” II. THE CLAIM OF CHRIST (John 11:25-26). These words, which flow so naturally from Christ, would have been blasphemy from any other. They imply 1. That death is a great evil--not as a mere dissolution of soul and body, which is natural, but as the consequence of sin, and so having a dreadful moral significance and terror--a “ sting,” giving it virus and agony. There are (1) Its physical sufferings. Had there been no sin there would have been no pain. (2) Its grievous disappointments. Rut for sin man would have had no broken purposes. (3) Its social disruptions. (4) Its moral forebodings. Without these death might be hailed as a blessing--these make it a curse. 2. That from this evil Christ is the great Deliverer. (1) Christ is life--original, absolute, “ I am He that liveth,” etc. (2) He is resuscitating life--not only creating the new, but raising the old. Understanding death as the curse of sin, Christ is the Resurrection in that (a) He delivers men from sin. (b) He has abolished death. 3. That from this evil He delivers on the condition of trust in Him, not in doctrines about Him, etc. III. THE NOBLE OF FAITH (John 11:27). (D. Thomas, D. D.) Martha and Jesus I. MARTHA IS A TYPE OF ANXIOUS . They believe truly, but not with such confidence as to lay aside their care. 1. She set a practical bound to the Saviour’ s words: “ Of course there will be a resurrection, and Lazarus will rise with the rest.” We limit the words of the Holy One. Of course they mean so much, but we cannot allow that they mean more. 2. She laid the words of Jesus on the shelf, as things so trite and sure that they were of small practical importance. When you believe a truth, but neglect it, it is the same as not believing. Some never question a doctrine, that is not their temptation; they accept the gospel as true, but never expect to see its promises carried out. 3. She set the promise in the remote distance. This is a common folly. Telescopes are meant to bring objects near to the eye, but some look through the mental telescope at the wrong end. Do not refuse the present blessing and say, “ My Lord delayeth His coming.” 4. She made the promise unreal and impersonal, mixing Lazarus with the rest of the dead. We take the promises and say, “ That is true to all God’ s people.” If so, it is true to us; but we miss that point. There is such a thing as speaking of the promises in a magnificent style, and yet being in deep spiritual poverty: as if a man should boast of the wealth of England while he has not a penny. If you are a child of God, all things are yours and you may help yourself. II. HOW JESUS DEALT WITH MARTHA. 1. He did not grow angry with her and say, “ I am ashamed of you that you should have such low thoughts of Me.” She thought that she was honouring Jesus by her acknowledgment of His special power with God. And in similar cases it ill becomes a servant to lose patience where the Master shows so much. 2. With gentle spirit Jesus proceeds to teach her more of the things concerning Himself. This is the true way to cure despondency. “ I am,” not “ I can get the Resurrection.” God’ s people want to know more of Jesus. Some of them know more than enough of themselves, and they will break their hearts if they go on reading much longer in that black letter book. Poor Martha was looking up into the sky for life, or down into the deeps for resurrection, when the Resurrection and the Life was by. Learn 1. To construe the promises in their largest sense. 2. To look to the Promiser, and not to the difficulties which surround the accomplishment of the promise. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Martha went … but Mary sat still Martha meeting Christ Martha’ s “ met” is a perfect tense; Mary’ s “ sat” is an imperfect. It is impossible not to see the characteristic temperament of each sister coming out here, and doubtless it is written for our learning. Martha--active, stirring, busy, demonstrative--cannot wait, but runs impulsively to meet Jesus. Mary--quiet, gentle, pensive, meditative, contemplative, meek--sits passively at home. Yet I venture to think that of the two sisters, Martha here appears to most advantage. There is such a thing as being so crushed and stunned by our affliction that we do not adorn our profession under it. Is there not something of this in Mary’ s conduct throughout this chapter? There is a time to stir, as well as to sit still; and here, by not stirring, Mary certainly missed hearing our Lord’ s glorious declaration about Himself. I would not be mistaken in saying this. Both these holy women were true disciples; yet if Mary showed more grace on a former occasion than Martha, I think Martha here showed more than Mary. Let us never forget that there are differences of temperament among believers, and let us make due allowance for others if they are not quite like ourselves. There are believers who are quiet, passive, silent, and meditative; and believers who are active, stirring, and demonstrative. The well-ordered Church must find room, place, and work for all. We need Marys as well as Marthas, and Marthas as well as Marys. (Bp. Ryle.) Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not diedIf “ Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” How natural it all is! “ If Thou hadst been here.” Prone is the human heart to utter just such words as these. “ Much virtue in an if,” says the poet. But there is also much torture in it. Had this been done or that, had such and such precautions been taken, had the doctor been sent for a little sooner, had certain remedies been tried which were learned of too late, had we not moved into that house, the result might have been different. So we go over the whole miserable catalogue of peradventures and possibilities with much bitterness of spirit. That is the tendency and the temptation. But it should never be done. That “ if’’ has no business in our bosom. It is a stinging serpent that should be ruthlessly cast out. There is no if. Nothing ever simply happens so. Chance is the god of atheism, and will minister no comfort in the time of trouble. Banish him. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and all things come of Him. Our ignorance is as much a part of the Divine plan as our knowledge. He does not mean us to know all things. (Boston Homilies.) The imperfection of spiritual qualities God made the first marriage--of the body and soul in creation, and man the first divorce--of the body and soul through sin. God allows no such second marriages as are implied in the transmigration of souls into other bodies. And because God has made this band of marriage indissoluble but by death, as far as man is immortal, his divorce is only separation. Body and soul shall come together again at the Resurrection. To establish the assurance of this God raised Lazarus and others here. Note from the text I. THAT THERE IS NOTHING IN THIS WORLD PERFECT. 1. In the best things. (1) Knowledge. What thing do we know perfectly? One philosopher thinks he has dived at the bottom when he says he knows nothing but this, that he knows nothing; and yet another thinks he has expressed more knowledge by saying that he knows not so much as that. (2) Faith. This imperfection is seen in the apostle’ s prayer for an increase of faith (Luke 17:5); in Christ’ s upbraidings (Matthew 6:30; Matthew 8:26); in Paul’ s congratulations and prayer for the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:3); in the expressions “ rich in faith,” “ abound in faith,” “ measure of faith.” Deceive not yourselves, then, that if you have faith you need no more. (3) That our hope is not perfect we see from James 4:3. We cannot hope constantly because we do not pray aright; and to make a prayer a right prayer there must go so many circumstances as that the best man may suspect his best prayer. Whereas, ordinarily, a fly, the opening of a door, a memory of yesterday, a fear of tomorrow, a noise in the ear, a fancy in the brain, destroy prayer. (4) There is nothing perfect in our charity. There is no work so good as that we can look to God for thanks for it; none but has so much ill mingled with it that we need not bespeak God’ s mercy. 2. How this weakness appears in the action in the text. Lest we should attribute it only to weak persons, note that Martha as well as Mary comes also in the same voice of infirmity (verse 32). Look upon (1) Their faith. We cannot say as much as they did to any college of physicians; but the weakness of their faith lies in this, that they said so much and no more to Christ; and regard even that power to be derived from God and not inherent (verse 22). Again, they relied so much upon His corporal presence. It was this that Christ diverted Mary from after His resurrection (John 20:16). “ Touch Me not--send thy thoughts whither I am going.” Peter had another holy distemper upon this personal presence, “ Depart from Me” (Luke 5:8). The sisters longed for Him, and Peter to be delivered from Him, both out of weakness and error, as do they who attribute too much or too little to Christ’ s presence in ordinances. To imprison Christ in opere operato, to conclude that where that action is done Christ must necessarily be is to err weakly with these sisters; but to banish Christ from those holy actions is to err with Peter. (2) So in their hope and their manner of expressing it. For they did not go; they sent--unlike Nicodemus, who came in person for his sick soul, and the centurion for his sick servant, and Jairus and the woman with the issue. That is not enough; we must bring Christ and our necessities nearer together. Then they made no request, but left an intimation to work on Christ; but I must not wrap up my necessities in general terms, but descend to particulars. As God is an accessible God He is open to receive thy smallest petitions, and as He is an inexhaustible God He cannot be pressed too much. Pray personally, rely not upon dead or living saints, and pray frequently and earnestly. (3) In their charity even towards their dead brother. To lament a dead friend is natural; but inordinate lamentation implies a worse state in him that is gone; and if we believe him in heaven to wish him here is uncharitable. 3. Yet for all these imperfections Christ doth not refuse or chide, but cherishes their piety. There is no form of building stronger than an arch, and yet an arch has declinations which even a flat roof has not. So our devotions do not the less bear up upright in the sight of God, because they have some declinations towards natural affections. All these infirmities of theirs multiply this consolation, that though God look upon the inscription, He looks upon the metal too; though He look that His image should be preserved in us, He looks in what earthen vessels this image is put by His own hand. II. As in spiritual things there is nothing perfect, SO IN THERE IS NOTHING . 1. The earth itself is in motion. 2. Consider the greatest bodies upon it--monarchies which one would think destiny might stare at and not shake; and the smallest bodies, the hairs of our head, which one would think destiny would hardly observe; and yet destiny or, to speak as a Christian, God, is no more troubled to make a monarchy ruinous than a hair grey; nay, nothing needs be done, the one will ruin and the other turn grey of itself. 3. In the elements there is no acquiescence, but a transmutation into one another; air condensed becomes water, and air rarefied becomes fire. 4. It is so in the conditions of men: a merchant condensed, packed up in a great estate, becomes a lord; and a merchant rarefied by a riotous son evaporates into nothing. And if there were anything permanent in the world, set we gain nothing, because we cannot stay with it. 5. The world is a great volume, and man its index. Even man’ s body is an illustration of all nature. Even in its highest estates, as the temple of the Holy Ghost, it must perish. Conclusion: But as in spiritual things there is no perfectness, and yet God accepts our religious services, so, notwithstanding that all temporal things, God’ s noblest piece included, decays, yet God affords this body a resurrection. The Gentiles describe the sad state of death as one everlasting night; but to a Christian it is the day of death and the day of resurrection. And looking at this we may invert the text and say, “ Because Thou wast here our brother is not dead.” For Christ is with the Christian in life, death, and the resurrection. (J. Donne, D. D.) Salvation, not from suffering, but by it I. THE LOWEST VIEW OF LIFE looks out upon it only as a hostelry, where every guest is to seize on so many of the good things exposed as the laws allow. This selfish hunt will take different directions according to the ruling appetite. But the characteristic mark on it all is that it disowns God. This system not only fails to provide for the chief internal necessity--viz., a religion; it fails to meet the external fact of suffering. That is a test of all philosophies and theories of life. It is useless to leave it out of the calculation; it forces its way back into every lot. Life does not become a problem till we taste of its bitterness. Whenever pain, bereavement, etc., come, that comfort-seeking, epicurean plan of living collapses, and the least that the man can then do is to fly to Zeno’ s porch and borrow some crumbs of frigid dignity that fall from the stoics table. II. ASCEND A STEP HIGHER. Here we find God to be acknowledged, but more through fear than devout submission. Providence had returned to the world from which unbelief had rejected Him; but the confession, “ Thy will be done,” is not so full as to include the giving up of the dearest idols, and there is the suspicion that here and there some sparrow or more precious thing may fall without the Father’ s notice. This state is met by suffering, the touchstone; how does it behave itself? Well, but not best. Soberly but not serenely. Some selfish preferences linger to mar the beauty of resignation--to keep back part of the souls trust, and so disturb the perfect peace of believing. There is the beginning of faith--too much to be thrown away, not enough to live by. This is precisely where Martha stands. There is a mixture of the strength and weakness of faith, perhaps of faith and superstition. She believed in the power and love of Jesus--that was her true faith--but she believed that it must operate in prolonging her brother’ s life, and was limited to His physical presence. That was the falsity and weakness of her faith. Jesus corrects it with, “ Whosoever [anywhere] believeth on Me shall never die.” III. Out of that state into A HIGHER ONE STILL Christ wishes to lift her and us. Where a holy soul will be felt to be of more value than any freedom from pain; when sympathy with Christ is valued more than having a human friend at our side. Saved by suffering, not from it, is the law of life revealed in Christ. Character depends on inward strength, but this strength has two conditions: it is increased only by being put forth, and tested only by resistance. So the spiritual character must enter into conflict, and stand in comparison with something formidable enough to be a standard of its power. 1. The ordinary conditions of a prosperous fortune furnishes no such standard. The favoured moral constitutions which ripen into sainthood under perpetual comfort are rare exceptions. Suffering in some form must put faith to the proof and purify it; what form God, who knows best, must determine. The sisters must see Lazarus die, Matthew must forsake all to follow the Master. How many of us take up Martha’ s plaint instead of, “ Lord in these chastenings of friendly love Thou hast been here--Thy will be done.” And Christ shows three times over that the design here was that the disciples, the sisters, and the people, might believe. 2. In another class of moral experiences the principle has a direct application--in those who long more earnestly for rest than faithful submission. They have heard that there is joy in believing, and so believe for the sake of the joy, and this, though a nobler thirst than that of the senses, is tainted with selfishness and wanting in faith. Then, again, the mercenary tendency to offer to God your good works as a price for purchasing self-complacency needs to be watched. It defeats its own end. Faith never comes that way: it comes swiftest when you seek it as an end least. Seek purity, harmony with God, and peace in God’ s good time will come. Stillness is our needed sacrifice. Baffled and broken the soul must often be ere its immortal strength comes. Not from but by this suffering we shall be saved. 3. We may embrace all those instances in which we doubt whether some care was not omitted whereby the fatal blow might have been warded off When shall we learn that God takes the past into His secure keeping, and that even out of sorrows that we might have prevented, a spiritual benefit may be now drawn greater than their prevention. Vain cry, “ Lord, if Thou hadst,” etc. But to receive and bless Him in whatever robes of darkness, when He comes. Conclusion: 1. Suffering is disciplinary. 2. If our desires reach only after exemption from it, they are but half faithless. 3. The true conquest and peace of faith, as well as the solution of the mystery of sorrow, lie in our willingness to suffer, so far as it may bring us to the society of our Lord. (Bp. Huntington.) The power of God to prevent death I. GOD IS ABLE TO PREVENT ANY PERSON DYING SO SOON AS HE DOES DIE. He preserved the lives of men much longer in former ages: but He could have prevented Methuselah dying at 969 had He pleased. He is able to preserve men from sickness, the common cause of death--and He does so often for seventy, eighty, or ninety years. And if men become sick He can raise them as He did Hezekiah. So with accidents, another cause of death. II. GOD NEVER DOES PREVENT MEN DYING AS SOON AS THEY DO DIE. He might have prevented Lazarus dying, yet He did not. And this holds in all cases; and no power can move Him when He chooses that any shall die. This we see in David’ s prayer for his little infant, in those of pious parents for theirs, and in those of the Church for good and useful men. III. WHY GOD DOES NOT PREVENT PERSONS DYING AS SOON AS THEY DO DIE. Because 1. He knows that their appointed time to die is come. “ Is there not an appointed time,” etc. 2. He sees it best for them to die then. He knows what will be the consequence of living, and takes them away from the evil to come. 3. He knows that it will be the-best for the survivors. Many have done more good by dying than they would by living. How often has the death of a child resulted in the conversion of the parents! This was the reason of the death of Lazarus. 4. He has a supreme regard for His own glory. He displays a wisdom, goodness and sovereignty which surpasses that of all His intelligent creatures. Improvement. If God can preserve human life or cut it short as He pleases, then 1. It is proper to pray for the sick as long as the least spark of life remains. Neither young nor old ought to give up the hope of living; and God has wrought wonders in answer to prayer. 2. We ought never to pray for the preservation of life unconditionally. We ought to rejoice that we are in God’ s hands, who knows best. So Christ prayed conditionally in view of His tremendous sufferings--“ Not My will.” 3. All ought to carry about with them a sense that they are dying creatures. They know not what a day or an hour may bring forth. “ Lord make me to know mine end.” 4. Death commonly comes unexpected. We are ready to remember that God can preserve our lives as long as He pleases, but forget that He has an appointed time, and that time always comes suddenly. 5. None can enjoy life without becoming truly religious. Then whatever comes we shall be ready for the joy of our Lord. 6. Mourners have always reason to exercise unreserved submission to his bereaving hand. (N. Emmons, D. D.) Restoration better titan prevention I. MARTHA SAW NOT THE BETWEEN THE DEATH AND OF CHRIST’ S . She had largely in her thought the Jewish idea of death as the disturber of fellowship. Truer to have said, “ Thou hast been here and my brother has lived.” Christ’ s influence goes to make men feel that they are citizens of heaven. The whole meaning of our life is in the future; death is the portal to that perfection. 1. We feel in our hearts that there is an inseparable connection between faith and knowledge. The relation is not complete here. We must die to know the right coordination of the two. 2. Aspiration and perfection are not equal here. In eternity demand and satisfaction are one. 3. How sundered are love and happiness here, where love and sorrow are fellows. In heaven measureless love will yield limitless gladness. 4. Power and opportunity are frequently divided. In heaven power and environment will be matched. We must die to realize the true correlation of our being with the spiritual universe. III. SHE DID NOT SEE THE BETWEEN CHRIST’ S DELAY AND THE GOOD OF ALL . Jesus was absent not that Lazarus might die, but that he might die in faith without sight. Christ might have checked the disease in Person, but His delay furthered the purposes of His love. 1. To educate their trust. 2. To prepare them for the actual work about to be wrought. 3. To reveal His glory more fully. 4. To make the deepest impression on the unbelieving. III. SHE DID NOT SEE AS WE DO NOW THE BETWEEN THEIR AND THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS. John shows us how the miracle was a distinct link in the chain of events that led to the death of Jesus. 1. They suffered because Christ was to suffer. As some on-rushing star sets up perturbations in other worlds that come within the range of its influence, so this great process of God in sacrifice draws into its vortex the lives of men. 2. They suffered because Christ must suffer, “ Ought not Christ to suffer these things?” Ought not His disciples to share in the community of His sorrows? This is the explanation of pain and conflict. To see the relation between our pain and Christ’ s Cross is to be qualified to meet and conquer it. The fellowship of such suffering carries in its heart even now the sharing of His glory. (J. Matthews.) Contingent events and providence I. THERE IS A CLOSE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE FEELING HERE AND THAT BY MOST PERSONS. How few afflictions which are not made doubly afflictive by an if. If our friend had done this instead of that--if we had only foreseen. These thoughts make perfect resignation impossible. They come in between us and God, and bewilder in a maze of second causes which no man can thread or find repose in. II. IF THERE IS ROOM FOR THESE IN ANY, THERE IS ROOM FOR THEM IN EVERY CASE. Take any instance of death, except by constitutional decay, and you can always fix upon some circumstance which seemed the turning point. Only let danger be foreseen, and, humanly speaking, in nine cases out of ten deaths would be prevented. If a man knew he was going to catch a fever or meet with an accident, how he would avoid the dangerous localities. Calamities flow immediately from the shortness of human foresight. Could ocean storms be calculated or shifting currents mapped, there would be no shipwrecks. Here Divine Providence overrules and moves in ways higher than ours. To say, therefore, “ Had it been thus my brother or child had not died is, to complain of the ordinance of Divine Wisdom by which man is kept ignorant of the future. III. THIS APPLIES EQUALLY TO THE HAPPY OF OUR LIFE. Recovery, preservation, prosperity, depend equally on contingencies, which, when we look back, we see might have been otherwise. A choice which has led to the most fortunate issues was determined, not by foresight of the end, but by the most casual circumstances. Thus there is room for the if in our joys which we cannot number. IV. THE LIMITS OF HUMAN THE POINT ON WHICH WE CHIEFLY NEED TO . Our ignorance is part of the Divine plan, and is essential to happiness. You murmur that you could not see a particular calamity so as to have prevented it: but then you would have to see all. This would make you a secondary providence in your own circle, and impose a weight of care which Omnipotence alone could sustain for a single day. V. THE OF MORTAL LIFE IS SUMMED UP IN TWO WORDS--MAN’ S DUTY AND GOD’ S . In the hour of bereavement the question as to our faithfulness in the relation suspended will and ought to come up. When you can answer it to your satisfaction you have no ground for uneasiness. You did what you could. You had not Divine foresight: do not then torment yourself, because you were not in God’ s stead. Do your duty, and in the majority of instances it will lead to the outward results you desire. Obey nature’ s laws, and health will be the rule, disease the exception. But with all your care there is another system: that of Divine Providence, which has no law but eternal love. The decree has gone forth--“ Ye shall have tribulation,” and we need the discipline as pilgrims todetach us from the attractions by the wayside, and to fix our affections on things above. When God sees that we need this, vain are our anxieties and precautions. All that remains is to say, “ It is the Lord; let Him do what seemest to Him good.” (A. P. Peabody, D. D.) The consolations of Christ adapted to She state and character of His people (text and John 11:32) I. HOW MUCH THERE IS IN GRIEF. It is remarkable that two persons so different in turn of mind and feeling should both utter the same words. It shows how the heart when deeply moved is the same in all. The sisters were united in their affection to Lazarus and in their reliance on Jesus. Together they watched, sent for Christ, waited anxiously for His coming, fell into the dreary sadness which follows the first violence of grief, then greet Jesus as He comes too late in the same way. It is the voice of nature mingling its vain regrets with the resignation of simple faith. 1. There is the feeling that it might have been otherwise. We know not what detained Thee, perhaps we did not send, or the messenger did not reach Thee in time. Oh that the sickness had happened when Thou was in Jerusalem! Is it not thus that the heart speaks under every trying dispensation? If some measure had been adopted, or such an accident not happened, my brother had not died. However natural, is this not the very folly of unbelief conceiving Christ as limited by events which He Himself ordains? Nay, He might have answered, I might have been there; and though not I might have kept him alive, or being there might have let him die. Whatever comes is not accident, but His will. Be still and know that He is God. 2. That it should have been otherwise. We sent a special message, why linger and not make haste to help us--an instinctive complaint in a season of bereavement. It is hard to believe that God ordains it and does no wrong. You can give many reasons. How serviceable that valuable life might have been to God and man. But remember God has many purposes with which you are unacquainted. Wait patiently and you will see that it was for His glory. It may be that He had need of His services elsewhere. 3. That it was sincere, if melancholy, satisfaction in meeting with Jesus at last. He had not come at the time, in the way, for the purpose they expected, and too late for their purpose, but still He had come for good, and they gratefully receive Him. Happy if you so meet the Saviour’ s advances. Like Rachel, you may refuse to be comforted, and like Jonah, when your gourd withers, you may be angry, and turn away when Christ comes. Beware of such moods. It is enough if He is with you to fill the aching void in your affections, and be to you instead of what you have lost--better than a thousand brothers. II. HOW MUCH VARIETY THERE IS IN GRIEF. The sisters differed in their sorrow as they did generally. Both regarded Christ with confidence and affection, but Martha showed it by active and Mary by quiet devotion. So now, when Martha received intimation of Christ’ s approach, she rose in haste impatient to meet Him; but Mary remained in the house absorbed in her grief; and when she went forth they said, “ she goeth to the grave,” etc., as though she, unlike Martha, could do nothing else. 1. Thus in different circumstances the same temper may be an advantage or a snare. Mary was never so occupied with an emotion of one subject as not to be ready for the call to another. This was a disadvantage when she was so hurried with this and that household care as to have no time to wait on the word of life: but it was an advantage now that she could shake off her depression and hasten to meet Christ. The same profound feeling, however, which made Mary an attentive listener made her the most helpless sufferer until Jesus sent specially to rouse her (verse 28). 2. In the meeting the difference is equally characteristic. Martha is calm and collected enough to enter into argument, and at length is sufficiently self-possessed to make a formal declaration of her faith. Not so Mary--her heart is too full for many words, she cannot command the passion of her soul. She can but cast herself down weeping, and say (verse 32). III. HOW MUCH COMPASS THERE IS IN THE OF CHRIST, ADAPTED TO GRIEF OF EVERY MOULD AND MOOD. 1. Martha’ s distress admitted of discussion and discourse. Jesus spoke to her and led her to speak to Him, and though she understands Him not fully she is relieved by having laid on her Divine Friend the burden of her soul, and with her lightened heart she declares her entire acquiescence in Him (verse 27). 2. Mary is differently affected and His sympathy is shown in a different way. He is much more profoundly moved. He does not reply in words, for her own were so few. Grief has choked her, and His own responsive sigh is more comforting than any promise. Jesus wept. Blessed mourner with whose tears thy Saviour mingles His own. With Martha Jesus reasoned: with Mary Jesus wept. 3. How confidently every Christian mourner can come to Him. He will give you the very cordial you need. He is a patient hearer if you have anything to say, and He will speak as you are able to hear it, and if you cannot collect your thoughts, and your heart is hot within you-remember that with these groanings which cannot be uttered the Spirit maketh intercession for you. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) Whatsoever thou wilt ask of God The Master advocate This is our comfort, that Christ is all in all with the Father, and may have what He will of Him. What need we of any other “ master of requests” than Christ. If David will hear Joab for Absalom, and Herod Blastus for the Tyrians, what may not we hope? (J. Trapp.) Death defeated by prayer At a certain time Luther received an express, stating that his bosom friend and co-worker in the reformation, Philip Melancthon, was lying at the point of death; upon which information he immediately set out upon the journey of some hundred and fifty miles, to visit him, and upon his arrival, he actually found all the distinctive features of death; such as the glazed eye, the cold clammy sweat, and insensible lethargy, upon him. Upon witnessing these sure indications of a speedy dissolution, as he mournfully bent over him, he exclaimed with great emotion, “ Oh, how awful is the change wrought upon the visage of my dear brother!” On hearing this voice, to the astonishment of all present, Melancthon opened his eyes, and looking up into Luther’ s face, remarked, “ Oh, Luther, is this you? Why don’ t you let me depart in peace?” Upon which Luther replied, “ Oh no, Philip, we cannot spare you yet.” Luther then turned away from the bed, and fell upon his knees, with his face towards the window, and began to wrestle with God in prayer, and to plead with great fervency, for more than an hour, the many proofs recorded in Scripture of His being a prayer hearing and prayer answering God; and also how much he stood in need of the services of Melancthon, in furthering that cause, in which the honour and glory of God’ s great name, and the eternal welfare of unnumbered millions of immortal souls, were so deeply interested; and that God should not deny him this one request, to restore him the aid of his well-tried brother Melancthon. He then rose up from prayer, and went to the bedside again, and took Melancthon by the hand. Upon which Melancthon again remarked, “ Oh, dear Luther, why don’ t you let me depart in peace?” To which Luther again answered, “ No, no, Philip, we cannot possibly spare you from the field of labour yet.” Luther then requested the nurse to go and make him a dish of soup, according to his instructions. Which being prepared, was brought to Luther, who requested his friend Melancthon to eat of it. Melancthon again asked him, “ Oh, Luther, why will you not let me go home, and be at rest?” To which Luther replied as before, “ Philip, we cannot spare you yet.” Melancthon then exhibited a disinclination to partake of the nourishment prepared for him. Upon which Luther remarked, “ Philip, eat, or I will excommunicate you.” Melancthon then partook of the food prepared, and immediately grew better, and was speedily restored to his wonted health and strength again, and laboured for years afterwards with his coadjutors in the blessed cause of the reformation. Upon Luther’ s arrival at home, he narrated to his beloved wife Catherine the above circumstances, and added, “ God gave me my brother Melancthon back in direct answer to prayer;” and added further, with patriarchal simplicity, “ God on a former occasion gave me, also, you back, Kata, in answer to my prayer.” Thy brother shall rise again Earthly relationship not destroyed by death There was that in the tie of blood which death was powerless to alter. Many an aching heart would find comfort, if it were assured of this. Have we lost them forever as ours, those loved ones--lost all the claim upon their special answering love, which those old earthly names, “ brother,” “ sister,” and the like, gave us? Is the Communion of Saints one monotonous dead level of spiritual relationship? Or are the ties of earth--whether ties of blood, or ties of friendship, or ties of love--not abolished, but transfigured, in that mysterious world beyond death? On the warrant of these words of Jesus! dare to believe that they will be glorified, not destroyed; that that, which more than anything else makes earth bright and worth having, will be at least one of the lesser luminaries of heaven. Nay, even if we had no such words of Jesus as these, I could never bring myself to believe that God would so mock us, as to give us these relationships and bid us be faithful to them, only to tear our hearts in pieces with grief--grief which must necessarily be intense in proportion to our fidelity to them--when the cruel hour of death arrives to dissolve them. It is sad enough that they should be even suspended, through “ ignorance of a common tongue” --their destruction would be intolerable to us. As the seed is transformed into the plant--as the natural body is transfigured into the spiritual body--so will the earthly relationship be glorified into its heavenly counterpart. (D. J.Vaughan, M. A.) Funeral sermon Let us survey I. THE LIFE OF THE . Note 1. His affection as a relative. 2. His attachment as a friend. 3. His grace as a Christian. 4. His fidelity as a minister. II. THE DEATH OF THE . It was 1. Unexpected. 2. Tranquil. 3. Gainful to Him. He has (1) Full vision of Christ--of those around the throne. (2) Full image. (3) Full enjoyment. 4. Loss to you--as relative, friend, Christian, minister. III. HIS . 1. To an immortal life. 2. In a superior state. 3. For the noblest purposes. This resurrection is (1) Possible. (2) Reasonable. (3) Certain. (4) Desirable (a) To see his bereaved kindred. (b) To meet his sorrowing friends. (c) To present his beloved people. (d) To enjoy his incarnate God. (J. Judson.) The identity of the earthly and the heavenly life “ Thy brother” --the very being that had died--the same in feeling, mind, sentiment. This is the Christian idea of immortality. The next life is an unbroken continuation of this as regards I. OUR PURSUIT OF . Why should this be closed by the opening of the soul’ s prison gates? So far from this it hardly admits of doubt that the direction which the mind has assumed in the obscurity and distractions of the world will determine its favourite course when for darkness there shall be light, and for hindrances helps, in the case of, e.g., the philosopher, the scientist, the historian. II. OUR NATURE. No attribute of the Creator is more richly manifested than His love of beauty. For all refined tastes He has furnished nutriment with the same bounty as that with which He has provided for our lower needs. We trace God none the less in the beauty that flows from human hands. Man, in the pride of his art, and at the zenith of his power is the copyist of the Creator; and if I can be glad and worshipful in the presence of the copies, how much more in the better life shall I be sensible of their archetypes. And when St. John lays all nature under contribution, and piles splendour upon splendour to shadow forth the glories of the new Jerusalem, I know the very power of painting those gorgeous forms is an authentic prophecy of more of beauty in heaven than heart has conceived. III. OUR FOR . This capacity for transcends its earthly uses, and our power of enjoying it here. The most tender home love only intensifies and enlarges the power of loving. With this proclivity to form attachments we are saddened, not only by the death-thinned ranks of our friends, but by the multitude of the living who win our dear regard and then seldom come within our reach--friends of our travels, e.g., and friends in distant cities. Why are we made capable of loves so strong, and yet so evanescent? To lay up treasures for the heavenly life, providing friends that shall be ours forever. There will be in heaven time enough and room enough for all. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.) I know he shall rise again in the resurrection Grace imagined less The grace was so great that Martha does what we all often do--imagines it less: as when you slip a sovereign into a boy’ s hand on his birthday, and he imagines it a shilling, having no thought of a gift so great. (J. Culross, D. D.) A near benefit not understood This passage of the history may remind us of somewhat similar in the conversation with the woman of Samaria at Jacob’ s well. Neither does Martha here, nor that woman, understand the nearness of the benefit. In each case, half despondingly, they put it off. Yet to the one, speaking only of a distant future, and saying, “ I know that Messias cometh: when He is come He will tell us all things;” the Lord suddenly rejoins, “ I that speak unto thee am He.” And so here to the other, who can think of nothing nearer, nothing better, than the remote general resurrection, the Lord likewise rejoins, “ I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Each has but the vague, inoperative idea of the final good: He speaks to each of an even present blessing. (G. J. Browne, M. A.) Our treatment of the promises We do with the promises often as a poor old couple did with a precious document, which might have cheered their old age had they used it according to its real value. A gentleman stepping into a poor woman’ s house saw framed and glazed upon the wall a French note for a thousand francs. He said to the old folks, “ How came you by this?” They informed him that a poor French soldier had been taken in by them and nursed until he died, and he had given them that little picture when he was dying as a memorial of him. They thought it such a pretty souvenir that they had framed it, and there it was adorning the cottage wall. They were greatly surprised when they were told that it was worth a sum which would be quite a little fortune for them if they would but turn it into money. Are we not equally unpractical with far more precious things? Have you not certain of the words of your great Lord framed and glazed in your hearts, and do you not say to yourselves, “ They are so sweet and precious” ? and yet you have never turned them into actual blessing--never used them in the hour of need. You have done as Martha did when she took the words, “ Thy brother shall rise again,” and put round about them this handsome frame, “ in the resurrection at the last day.” Oh that we had grace to turn God’ s bullion of gospel into current coin, and use them as our present spending money. (C. H. Spurgeon.) I am the Resurrection and the Life The Resurrection All the titles of our Lord are names of power. They express His nature, perfection, or prerogatives; what they declare He is. They are shadows of a Divine substance. He who is Very Life raised Himself from the dead: “ I am the Resurrection.” On the first day of the week His glorious soul returned to His pure flesh, and His manhood, whole and perfect, through the power of His Godhead, arose of His own will. He came back the very same, and yet the same no more. The dishonour of His holy passion had passed away, but its tokens still were there. And as in body, so in soul. Death had no more dominion over Him, yet He was full of sympathy, learned by dying. All the depths of His human experience were in Him still. “ He learned obedience by the things which he suffered;” and the ineffable mystery of His three and thirty years of sorrow rose with Him from the grave. Wherefore this Divine name, as it reveals the power of His own resurrection, so it is the pledge of ours. It is a pledge to us of many joys; but chiefly of three Divine gifts. 1. The first is a perfect newness of body and soul. This very body shall be deathless and glorious as the body of His glory when He arose from the dead. And so, too, of the soul. It shall be still more glorious, even as the spirit is above the flesh. The more we know of ourselves, the more incredible, if I may so speak of a very blessedness, this promise seems. To be without sin, what else is heaven? And can it ever be that we who brought sin with our life blood into the world--who have fallen and soiled ourselves through and through with wilful evil--that we shall be one day clean as the light, and white as the driven snow? Yet this is His pledge to us. 2. Another gift pledged to us is the perfect restoration of all His brethren in His kingdom (John 17:24; John 14:2-3). We shall be “ with Him.” We shall behold Him as He is; He will behold us as we are: He in the perfect sameness of His person; we in ours. What, then, means this unbelieving Christian world, when it asks, Shall we then recognize each other? Will not they all know Him as He them, and all know each other as He knows each? The law of perfect recognition is inseparable from the law of perfect identity. Our individual consciousness must be eternal. We should not be what we are to ourselves, if we were not so to others. The kingdom of God in glory is the perfection of His kingdom in grace, in which every several soul here tried, chastened, and purified, shall be there blessed, crowned and sainted--the same in person, changed only to perfection. And more than this. The perfect restitution which shall be in the kingdom of the resurrection will bring back, not only perfect mutual recognition, but the restoration of all pure and consecrated bonds. 3. This title pledges to us an immortal kingdom. The Resurrection has given back to us an inheritance in the paradise of God, where there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, of which the first creation, even in its perfection, was only an imperfect shadow. In that true paradise there shall be no seasons nor vicissitudes, no sweat of the face nor hard toil for bread. An everlasting noontide shall be there; an endless spring in the newness of unfading joy, a perpetual autumn in the ripeness of its gifts. There shall be “ the tree of life bearing twelve manner of fruits” ; all joy and all delight for every capacity of man; reward for every toil, and health for every wound, after the manifold trial of every soul, in the Israel of God. (Archdeacon Manning.) Life everlasting After the resurrection comes life everlasting. “ I am the Life” ! This life and the life to come are not two, but one and the same. Death is not the ending of one, and resurrection the beginning of another, but through all there runs one imperishable life. A river which plunges into the earth, is buried for awhile, and then bursts forth more mightily and in a fuller tide, is not two, but one continuous stream. The light of today and the light of tomorrow are not two, but one living splendour. Night is but a veil between the light and us. So with life and death. The life of the soul is immortal, an image of God’ s own eternity. It lives on in sleep; it lives on through death; it lives even more abundantly, and with fuller and mightier energy. 2. Another great law here revealed is, that as we die, so we shall rise; as there is no new beginning of our life, so there is no new beginning of our character. We shall all carry with us into the eternal world the very self which we have here stamped and moulded, or distorted and branded--the renewed image of God, or the image of the evil one. Our life from first to last teaches us this lesson; it is one continuous whole, gathering up itself through all its course, and perpetuating its earliest features in its latest self: the child is in the boy, the boy is in the man; the man is himself forever. 3. The resurrection will make each one perfect in his own several characters. Nay, even at death it shall be unfolded into a new measure of fulness. Our character is our will; for what we will, we are. Our will contains our whole intention; it sums up our spiritual nature; it contains what we call the tendency of our character: for the will gives the bias to the right or to the left; as we will, so we incline. Now this tendency, both for good and evil, is here imperfect; but it will be there fulfilled. Here it is hindered; the wicked are restrained by truth and grace, by laws and punishments, by fear and shame, by interest and the world; the good are hindered by sin and temptation, by their own infirmities and faults. But there all restraints shall be taken away, and all aids shall be supplied. It is both an awful and consoling thought. What sinners are now in measure, they shall then be in its fulness. So likewise with the faithful: what they have striven to be, they shall be made. God’ s grace shall perfect what they had here desired. Lessons 1. How dangerous is the least sin we do! Every act confirms some old tendency, or develops a new one. 2. How precious is every means of grace. (Archdeacon Manning.) The Resurrection and the Life I. THE . “ I am the Resurrection,” etc. Christ is this. 1. As it is by Him that the doctrines of the resurrection and eternal life are revealed. None had a knowledge of the Resurrection, and there were only confused notions of immortality before Christ came. He taught these truths with the greatest clearness, and illustrated and proved them by raising others, and mostly by His own resurrection. This act of His was to extend His influence over the world and to the end of time. 2. As He has the power by which they are bestowed. Martha admitted the general fact; but Christ goes on to affirm that by His own power He could raise her dead brother when and how He pleased, when Martha came to the conclusion that He was the Messiah. In this assertion we see the supreme dignity of Christ. “ As the Father raiseth up,” etc. The miracles at Nain of Jarius’ daughter, and here at the last day, prove Christ to be the Master of Eternity, King of kings, and Lord of lords. II. THE PROMISE. 1. The characters to whom it is comprehensively directed. “ He that believeth,” etc. (1) The necessity of faith. It is the turning point in your immortality. Those who do not believe have no title to this and the other promises which make eternal life to depend upon faith. (2) What have we to believe? Christ, in all the essential points of His character--Divinity, atonement, etc. 2. The particular application of the promise to the circumstances of those to whom it is addressed. (1) “ Though he were dead.” He who has believed, but is now in the grave, shall be restored to life. “ I, who am the Resurrection,” etc., will not allow him to remain in that narrow house forever. Death itself shall die. We mourn not as those who are without hope. (2) “ Whosoever liveth.” He first goes and gives hope to the dead, and then He says of the living believer, “ he shall never die.” What is death? The consequence of sin? The sins of the believer are pardoned. The effect of a curse? The curse from the believer is removed. The stroke is not in vengeance, but in love. III. THE APPEAL. “ Believest thou this?” Christ is desirous of bringing the whole to bear on personal experience. What is your answer? If we do believe this 1. We shall not mourn improperly for those who have gone, but have comfort concerning our departed friends. 2. It will be our principal security in the event of our own departure. 3. It will give the hope of a happy reunion on the day of final restoration. 4. The rejection of this testimony will be a cause of condemnation and eternal despair. (J. Parsons.) Christ the Resurrection and the Life 1. Christ’ s greatest utterance on death was spoken on the first occasion on which its dark question had come closely to His own soul. Elsewhere He had gone to meet it; here it had come to meet Him in that inner circle of friendship, and had gained complete possession. 2. The two mighty questions--What is death? Can it rend the friendships of life?--confronted the Redeemer; and the miracle was His answer. It showed that there was in Him a life which death had no power to destroy, and that death had not sundered Lazarus from Jesus or his sisters. It had made the ties of affection stronger than before, and had not quenched one faculty of his being. I. OUR LIFE IN CHRIST IS A BATTLE; THROUGH DEATH IT RISES INTO A VICTORY. We carry within us our perpetual foe, and a thousand outward forces tend to quench the love of Christ within. This struggle is with death, for sin is death. The act of dying is but the outward and visible sign of this constant struggle. But in this last scene the apparent victim is conqueror; the life-long fight is finished, and the victory won. The life Christ gives demands a resurrection for its completion, and a resurrection in Christ makes death the fulness of life in victory. II. OUR LIFE IN CHRIST IS A HOPE; BY DEATH IT RISES INTO ITS . The Christian’ s hope is to see Christ, and be with Him, and like Him. From the earliest dawn of the new life that desire is kindled; and it deepens until it colours every aspiration, and finds its whole heaven in “ absent from the body,” etc. To the first disciples the storms that swept over the lake had often been things of terror; but after Christ has calmed them every storm would seem holy with the memory of His presence. The desert hath oft seemed a strange, unfriendly region; but after Christ had fed the multitudes there, it would be sacred with the memory of the Saviour’ s pity. Mount Tabor had long looked stern, but the memory of Christ’ s unveiled glory there transformed it into a temple. And so it has ever been. The felt presence of Jesus has transfigured earth’ s gloomiest places, poured a light into prisons, diffused peace through the cruel tortures of the rack, filled the martyr’ s soul with the dawn of paradise. Where Christ is is heaven. But this hope demands a resurrection. Here our visions are transient and partial; and until the veil of the body be rent, we shall not see Jesus as He is. III. OUR LIFE IN CHRIST IS A : BY DEATH IT BECOMES PERFECT AND ETERNAL. No man can be constrained by the love of Christ without feeling that henceforth he is bound by new and holy ties to “ the whole family in heaven and earth.” It was just the depth and power of that fellowship which, in the first disciples, startled the world as a new thing. The world might crush the men, but it could not touch the fellowship; it might try to break up their union with fire and sword, but, as apostle and martyr passed away, the brethren who remained said only that they had gone to the earlier home, and were now waiting in the Father’ s house the reunion. And in these days the fellowship of spiritual life is as real and powerful, and demands a resurrection. Death seems the great divider. No friendship here is perfect, no sympathy complete, no love ever reaches the fulness of which it dreams. The constant longing for complete communion is the soul’ s great outcry for the resurrection day. And here again Christ, who is the life of our fellowship, gives us the pledge of its rising. In restoring Lazarus to his home, He showed that the ties that bind a brother to a sister are, when spiritual, among the things which shall rise again. In His words of farewell, He promises a Father’ s house where we shall meet again; and in the forty days He showed that our communion shall rise from death, having lost nothing but its infirmity, and clothed in a beauty and a blessedness which we must die to know. The hands for whose “ vanished touch” we wept in agony shall be clasped again; the voices that grew still shall be heard again, only purified from the notes of sorrow and resonant with the praises of the Lamb. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) Christ the Resurrection and the Life The “ Resurrection” of the body; the “ Life” of the soul. I. CHRIST AS PROPHET, BY HIS AND , HAS AND LIFE. Many have stood beside an open grave and felt obliged to ask the question, Shall we ever see our friend again? Nature can give no satisfying answer, and reason can only form conjectures and suggest probabilities. But amid the silence of nature and the helplessness of reason, a voice has spoken and a light was shone from heaven, for Christ has “ brought life and immortality to light.” The great fact He clearly revealed in words--“ The hour is coming,” etc.--and in His works of raising. No one ever died in the presence of the Prince of Life, and no dead body ever remained dead when He approached it. II. CHRIST AS PRIEST HAS HIS PEOPLE FROM SIN AND FOR THEM ETERNAL LIFE. The only cause of death is sin. That has exposed us to Divine wrath, and brought upon us the sentence of death. “ The wages of sin is death;” and those wages must be paid. But Christ has paid them by the shedding of His precious blood. The strength of sin is the law and the law has been completely satisfied by the sacrifice of Calvary. In proof that His satisfaction was perfect, Christ rose. God sent His angel to roll away the stone, and set our Surety free. Believing in Christ, our sins are taken from us and reckoned to His account. And if sin be taken away, all is taken away that can make death terrible. Death now comes to a believer, not as an executioner of the broken law, but as the messenger of heavenly peace. “ Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me,” etc. III. CHRIST AS KING GIVES HIS PEOPLE THE VICTORY OVER DEATH AND BRINGS THEM AT LAST INTO THE ACTUAL OF ETERNAL LIFE. His own victory over the grave is a proof and pledge of ours. As our representative, He encountered the king of terrors in his own dark domain; and though He continued under the power of death for a time, yet He saw no corruption, and came forth a Conqueror. In this victory we are destined to share by living union to Him; and therefore, in our coming conflict, we can say, “ Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory,” etc. And the reason of it is, not only because He died and rose, but also because He is alive for evermore; and not only alive, but invested with all power in heaven and earth. “ He must reign,” etc.; and therefore “ death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed,” like the rest. (John Thomson, D. D.) I. THE . Note Christ the Resurrection and the Life 1. The authority with which these words are spoken. “ I am,” not “ I will be,” the instrument at some future time, but the thing itself. Surely no creature could speak thus. He speaks just as a king would speak to whom it never occurred that anyone should doubt of his royalty, or that he needed to vaunt of his power. The words assume a supreme and essential power over life and death. His was the original gift of life; His the right to dissolve its organisation, and to confer it again; and, therefore, He only could be the opener of the world of graves. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 11:28-30 The Master is come and calleth for thee The Master I. THE OF THIS TITLE AS APPLIED TO OUR LORD. 1. He has a peculiar fitness for the office. He is the Master, i.e., the Teacher. Put the two together. A master teacher must have (1) A masterly mind. All minds are not cast in the same mould. Some are princely by their very formation though they may belong to ploughboys. Such men as Napoleon, Cromwell, Washington, must rise to be masters among men. You cannot have a master teacher with a little soul. He may insinuate himself into the chair, but everyone will see that he is out of place. Many painters there are, but there have been few Raphaels or Michael Angelos; many philosophers, but a Socrates and an Aristotle will not be found every day, for great minds are rare. The Master of all the teachers must needs be a colossal spirit, and such Mary saw Christ to be. In Him we have Divinity with its omniscience and infallibility, and at the same time a full orbed manhood intensely manly and sweetly womanly. There is a grandeur about His whole human nature, so that He stands out above all other men, like some mighty Alpine peak which overtops the minor hills and casts its shadows all a down the vales. (2) A master knowledge; and it is best if that be acquired by experience rather than by instruction. Such was the case with Jesus. He came to teach us the science of life, and He experienced life in all its phases. (3) A masterly way of teaching. It is not every man of vast mind and knowledge who can teach. Some talk a jargon no one can understand. Jesus taught plainly and also lovingly. The way in which He taught was as sweet as His truth itself. Every one in His school felt at home. Moreover, He gave a measure of the Holy Spirit so that truths were taught to the heart as well as the ear. And that same Spirit now takes the things of Christ, and writes them on the fleshy tablets of the heart. And then Christ embodied His instruction in Himself--was at once Teacher and Lesson. (4) A master influence. His pupils not only saw, but felt; not only knew, but loved; not only prized the lesson, but worshipped the Teacher. What a Teacher this, whose very presence checked and ultimately cast out sin, gave new life and brought it to perfection! 2. He is by office the sole Master of the Church. (1) He, and not Luther, Calvin, Wesley, has the right to determine what doctrines shall be believed. (2) He, and not councils, synods, the State, etc., has the right to determine what ordinances shall be observed. II. THE WHICH MARY GAVE TO CHRIST AS MASTER. 1. She became His pupil. She sat reverently at His feet. Let us take every word of Jesus, and read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. 2. She was a disciple of nobody else, and ours must not be a divided allegiance. 3. She was a willing scholar. She chose the good part. No one sent her to Jesus. He drew her and she loved to be there. Children at school always learn well if they want to--not if driven. 4. She perseveringly stuck to Him. Her choice was not taken from her, and she did not give it up. 5. She went humbly to Him, feeling it the highest honour to be sitting in the lowest place. They learn most of Christ who think least of themselves. III. THE SPECIAL OF THE NAME TO US. 1. To teachers. (1) Their message is not their own, but His, which relieves them of responsibility, and makes them indifferent to criticism. (2) When the work does not seem to prosper, what a comfort to be able to go to Jesus! This applies to all--business men, housewives, church officers, etc. 2. To sufferers. A gardener preserved with great care a choice rose. One morning it was gone. He, scolding his fellow servants, and felt very grieved till one said, “ I saw the master take it.” “ Oh, then,” said he, “ I am content.” Have you lost a dear one? It was He who took it. Would you wish to keep what the Master wants? (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Master calling I. THE TITLE GIVEN TO CHRIST. “ The Master,” suggesting 1. His authority. 2. His prophetic office. II. HIS --“ is come.” 1. In the Incarnation. 2. In the means of grace. 3. In special providences. 4. At His saints’ deathbeds. 5. At the Judgment. III. THE APPEAL--“ and calleth for thee.” 1. In the Word read or preached. 2. In the example of others. 3. By the power of His Spirit. This is (1) A personal call. (2) An important call. (3) A gracious call (Proverbs 1:24). (Preacher’s Portfolio.) The call of the Master I. THE OF CHRIST, “ The Master.” Martha recognized Christ as her Teacher and Lord. This relation He bears still. All authority is given Him in heaven and earth. 1. He is the true Ruler of the world. There are many forms of government, but all are knowingly or ignorantly, willingly or unwillingly the subjects of Christ. He rules them at His pleasure. 2. He is the Ruler of His Church. His people are not their own, but His purchased possession, and He will not delegate His authority to another. (1) Secular governments have usurped this authority, and have endeavoured to rule Christ’ s people according to their ideas. Such have rightful authority in the world, but not in the Church. No Christian should resist it in the right sphere, but render unto Caesar, etc. But as soon as it intrudes into the spiritual sphere it is to be opposed, and God is to be obeyed rather than man. (2) Priests have usurped this authority. The Man of Rome has declared himself to be Christ’ s vicegerent, and Protestant popes have made similar claims. It is true that Christ’ s ministers have authority in the Church Hebrews 13:17), but it is in perfect subordination to Christ. II. THE OF CHRIST. He came to Bethany palpably; He comes here spiritually, “ Wherever two or three,” etc. You would feel excited if told that Queen Victoria were here, but a greater than Victoria has come 1. To inspect. Christ sees everything--our conduct in the world and in Church. 2. To listen to the sincere, the half-hearted, the hypocritical. 3. To bless. He has pardon for the sinful, teaching for the ignorant, strength for the weak, etc. III. THE CALL OF CHRIST. 1. To the careless sinner. 2. To the anxious inquirer. 3. The Christian, halting, idling, sad, etc. Let all respond. (J. Morgan.) Christ’ s call to the personal heart The line of thought will unfold itself through three principal steps, each including a doctrine, an encouragement, and a duty. The call is I. . 1. In the two sisters we see two sharply contrasted types of natural character. (1) One is made for practical action. The anxious housekeeper whose concern is that the rooms shall be hospitably ready, and the table furnished for the Divine guest--fit representative of the efficient workers, without whom the regularities of life and the decencies of Christian worship would go to destruction. (2) The other dwells in a world of silent communion. Religion always has its spring in the heart; and her heart life is chief. Christ blesses her in that character as He does Martha in hers. 2. Out of this marked difference we infer the comprehensiveness of the gospel, which, like the charity it puts first among the graces, suits itself “ without partiality” to every sort and grade of human constitution. 3. Forgetfulness of this grand truth exposes us to the danger of an arrogant and conceited judgment of those who manifest their faith in a way different from our own. II. . The call is in sympathy with our individual constitutions. A common hindrance, to the young especially, is the feeling that religion is something restricted to one particular line and shape. But the Master calls not that He may make you a follower just like some other and all unlike yourself, but just such a self-forgetful Christian as He intended you to be when He made you what you are. You read the biography of some eminent Christian and say, “ I can never be a Christian like that, and it is useless for me to try.” Turn from the disheartening comparison to Christ. Though you find Him higher than all, there is never anything discouraging. His sinlessness is so blended with gentleness, His majesty with His understanding of your wants and sympathy with your struggles, that you feel safe under His hand. Notice especially His tenderness towards the two women’ s imperfect faith. He never breaks the bruised reed, etc. III. . He knows our whole personal history from the cradle. Most of us can understand the conviction of the woman of Samaria. At first sight where there is no trust this awful insight might affright us: but the longer we ponder it, the more we shall see its blessedness. There is one FRIEND who understands us, and it is safe to trust ourselves to Him, sins and all. The reason why our religion has so little power over us is that we keep Christ so far away, and regard His work as for the world in general, and not for us in particular. But the text is the appeal of the personal Christ to a person now as then. (Bp. Huntington.) The visit and the invitation I. THE MESSAGE. 1. The appellation given to our Lord. The rulers despised Jesus, but these women were not ashamed nor afraid to acknowledge Him as Master. Happy the families that acknowledge Him as such. 2. The message relating to Him: “ is come.” He came to the grave of Lazarus; He comes to the graves of those dead in trespasses and sins. II. THE PERSONS TO WHOM IT IS . 1. Those who have hitherto kept at a distance from Christ without ever seeking Him. (1) Some have not only neglected Him, but provoked Him by open sin. (2) Others please themselves with the idea of their comparative innocence, and satisfy themselves with a cold, negative, heartless religion. 2. Those who have sought Christ, but never found Him. 3. Those who, after having been admitted to union with Him, are deprived of His sensible presence. III. THE SEASONS WHEN IT MORE COMES. 1. The time of affliction. 2. When the means of grace are fully enjoyed. 3. When the Spirit of God strives. 4. When opportunities for religious usefulness occur. Conclusion: 1. How much to be admired is Christ’ s condescension in His love. 2. How great are your obligations to hearken to His call. 3. How obligatory to communicate the message to others. (H. Grey, D. D.) Christ’ s message I. THE OF CHRIST’ S MESSAGE TO HIS FRIENDS. 1. Its benignity. 2. Authority. 3. Personality. 4. Suitability. II. THE BEST WAY TO CONVEY CHRIST’ S . 1. Unostentatiously. 2. Prudently. 3. Plainly. 4. Promptly. III. THE OF CHRIST’ S BY HIS FRIENDS. 1. Mary listened to it. 2. Was influenced by it. 3. Obeyed it at once. (Stems and Twigs.) The gospel message to every man We have it I. CLEARLY STATED. 1. The Master is come. Come from heaven, to this earth, for every man. Of all the facts of history none is better attested, more important, or more glorious than this. 2. The Master calls individuals (1) In the operations of nature, in the events of history, in the working of conscience, in the ministry of His servants. (2) To heal thy diseases, to break thy chains, to enlighten thy judgment, to cleanse thy conscience, to purify thy heart, and to save thy soul. II. RIGHTLY . Martha delivered her message. 1. Undoubtingly (John 11:27). “ And when she had so said” she proceeds, filled with the spirit of her mission, to Mary. He who delivers the message without being assured of its truth, is no genuine preacher. That Christ has come and calls for men, must be among his most settled convictions. 2. Judiciously. He “ secretly” suggests prudence in regard to (1) Times; (2) Circumstances; (3) Moods. III. . Mary received it as every hearer of the gospel should. 1. Promptly (John 11:29). She did not wait to consult her companion. The delay of a moment after the voice has come is wrong and perilous. 2. Resolutely (John 11:30). On an occasion so full of excitement, it required no little nerve to proceed to where Jesus was in sublime solitude. The Gospel call requires determination of soul: there are so many opposing forces and unfavourable considerations. 3. Fearlessly (John 11:31). Well she knew that her going forth would be contrary to the wish of the Jews; but, defiant of their prejudices, she obeys the command. Thus it must be with those who would comply with the invitations of the gospel. 4. Devoutly (John 11:32). “ At His feet,” where every hearer should be. Conclusion: Here is-- 1. A fact in which humanity should rejoice. “ The Master is come.” What fools those are who go not to meet Him! 2. An example that preachers should imitate--Martha’ s. 3. The conduct gospel hearers should follow. (D. Thomas, D. D.) It is said of Sister Dora that, no matter at what hour the hospital door bell rang, she used to rise instantly to admit the patient saying, “ The Master is come and calleth for thee.” As soon as she heard that she arose quickly, and came unto Him. The believer goes to the Master I. IN hastens to Him for grace to bear it. II. IN for grace to improve it. III. IN for grace to overcome it. IV. IN A WORLD for sympathy. (M. Henry.) John 11:32 When Mary was come she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died (see John 11:21) Christ’ s delay to interpose against death 1. Mary fell at His feet; formerly she was willing to sit at them. The soul is never, as amid such desolation, constrained to cling to “ a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” 2. There is continued confidence--it is still “ Lord,” notwithstanding what had happened--seen in the conviction that an earlier arrival would have brought deliverance, and leading to a hope of help even in this extremity. 3. Mary uses the same words as Martha (John 11:21). Perhaps they had often said so. But Mary did not finish her appeal as Martha did (John 11:22); not that her faith was less strong: it was finished in her own heart. Tears break in and check utterance (John 11:33). 4. Yet with this faith there is wonder at Christ’ s absence, which almost verges on reproach. Why so late? We shall look at the question in the light the narrative gives. I. THE OF CHRIST’ S DELAY TO AGAINST DEATH. 1. Turn to the circumstances around us, as Martha and Mary may have done. Consider (1) What death is to the sufferer. No happy translation. The end of all earthly sufferings but more dreaded than all. Man’ s heart recoils from its accompaniments. When we see a friend moving forward to his doom, what means do we not exhaust to save him? Yet Christ suffered Lazarus to die. And how many have been struck down since of the most lovely and loving; and yet death has no power without Christ’ s permission. (2) What a bereavement death is to the survivors! In a Christian it is not the dead who are to be mourned, but those whom they leave. What ages of agony are lived while the wavering balance is watched! And then the anguish of the parting, and the slow groping which follows to realize it! The childless mother, etc., have wrestled over the dying and moaned over the dead and none seemed to listen. (3) What a ground of reproach death has furnished to the enemies of Christ. There was no lack of unbelieving Jews in Bethany to take advantage of Christ’ s absence. Something like the feeling of the Psalmist must have been theirs, “ My tears have been my meat … while they said unto me, where is thy God,” and so now over closed graves we hear the reproach, “ Where is the promise of His coming?” etc., and the Christian heart wearies for some interposition to vindicate its claim. “ Arise, O God,” etc. 2. Turn from our circumstances to Christ as these sisters did. We believe (1) That Christ is fully aware of our need. When a friend fails us through ignorance, we do not blame him. As soon as the sisters apprehended danger they sent to Jesus. Without this we know that Christ understands all our need. He can draw nearer than the nearest, and His foot does not step forward to the rescue. Is it not strange (2) That Christ has full power to interpose (John 11:22; John 11:42). He has not only omnipotence, but the moral right and power, having paid the ransom price. The keys of death hang at His girdle, and that He should not use them occasions strange thoughts. (3) That it is the desire of Christ to interpose (John 11:5; John 11:33). But if He felt so deeply why did He not come sooner? And if He meant not to interpose why should He weep? (Jeremiah 14:8). Our very confidence in Christ becomes the occasion of bewildering doubts. “ Lord … help Thou our unbelief.” II. THE REASON FOR CHRIST’ S DELAY WHICH MAY BE FOUND IN THIS HISTORY. Other reasons there are to be found in the Bible, and probably outside. But here we see that Christ delays 1. That His friends when dying may have confidence in Him, and have an opportunity for showing it. We have no account of Lazarus’ s death, but the period has its peculiar use in every spiritual history. (1) The great end of Christ’ s dealing with any soul is to convince it that in Him it has an all-sufficient life, and that with Him it can pass safely through every emergency. But this course of teaching would want its crown if it did not end in death. He invites the soul, and constrains it to put all its confidence into that last act of surrender knowing Him whom it believes, and feeling that underneath are the everlasting arms. (2) Death is the last touch of that purifying fire which Christ employs to melt the fallen nature, free it from its dross, and fuse it into His likeness. 2. That the sorrowing friends may learn entire reliance on Him. It is a subject for study how Christ leads on these sisters from a dead brother to the Resurrection and the Life, and teaches them through their loss to gain what they could never lose any more. Christ separates our friends from us for a while that we may learn to find our all in Himself. 3. That in the midst of death the union of sympathy between Christ and His friends is perfected. Jesus had given them many tokens of His love while Lazarus lived, but none with that touching tenderness which came forth at his grave. The fellowship of suffering brings hearts and lives together more than all the fellowship of joy. When Jesus wept the mourners knew He was one with them. Gethsemane shows us the agony of Christ’ s soul for man’ s sin--the grave at Bethany His agony of heart at man’ s suffering. 4. That God makes this a world of spiritual probation. By His delay Christ tried the character of all who knew the case, and Christ’ s delays now are the touchstone of spiritual life. You who would have Him never suffer the tears of His people to fall would lead men to seek Him, not for the love they bore Him, but for outward benefits. But God defers the time for interposition in order that He may sift their characters and prepare them for the day of judgment. 5. That He brings in thereby a grander and final issue. (J. Ker, D. D.) Trials should be borne cheerfully In the days of King Solomon there lived among the Jews a wise man named Lokman. His master once gave him a very bitter kind of melon, called the coloquintida; he ate without making wry faces or speaking a word. “ How was it possible for you to swallow so nauseous a fruit?” asked the master. Lokman answered: “ I have received so many sweets from you that it is not wonderful I should have swallowed the only bitter fruit you ever gave me.” The master was so much charmed with this reply that he gave Lokman his liberty. The beautiful answer teaches us a lesson. We must take the gifts from our heavenly Father with a smiling face; but when He sees best for our good to send us something we do not like, our countenance falls, and even if we do not speak, our sullen discontent is apparent to all. Fretful impatience under bereavement:--The Duchess of Beaufort, on the death of the Duke, shut herself up in a room hung with black and refused all comfort. A Quaker, who found her thus disconsolate, in the deepest mourning, ejaculated, “ What! hast thou not forgiven God Almighty yet?” The rebuke had such an effect that she immediately rose and went about her usual and necessary business. (Madame D’Arblay.) Resignation taught by the sorrows of others “ Peace, Mary, peace,” said a godly woman, who had lost all her family, to a godless neighbour who was rebelling against the Providence that had taken one child of many; “ Peace, Mary; while I have six pairs of empty shoes to look on, you have but one.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.) John 11:33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping Christ concealing His glory In this history our Saviour appears under two very different aspects. As the sun, on some days, sometimes shines out in full strength, and sometimes is clouded over, and yet is still the same fountain of light, so it is with our Sun of Righteousness, on the day of the resurrection of Lazarus. He shines in full splendour when He exerts His power over the grave, and breaks asunder the bonds of death: but He hides all that majesty when He appears under a great commotion of mind, which vents itself in sighs and tears. (J. Jortin, D. D.) The effects of bereavement After sore bereavement, Sir Walter Scott says,” I was broken-hearted for two years: and though handsomely pieced again, the crack will remain to my dying day.” Tears--Tears are the inheritance of our eyes; either our sufferings call for them or our sins; and nothing can wholly dry them up but the dust of the grave. (Bp. Hopkins.) He groaned in spirit Groaned The word occurs also in John 11:38; Matthew 9:30; Mark 1:43; Mark 14:5. The original meaning is “ to snort, as of horses.” Passing to the moral sense, it expresses disturbance of mind--vehement agitation. This may express itself in sharp admonition, in words of anger against a person, or in a physical shudder, answering to the intensity of the emotion. In each of the earlier Gospels the word is accompanied by an object upon which the feeling is directed. In the present context it does not go beyond the subject of the feeling. Here it is “ in the spirit” (cf. John 12:21) , and in verse 38 it is “ in Himself.” Both mean the same thing; and point to the inner moral depth of His righteous indignation. Taken in connection with what follows some such rendering is required as “ He was indignant in the spirit and caused Himself to shudder.” (Archdeacon Watkins.) Natural emotions At what and with whom was Jesus indignant? The notion of some Greek expositors that it was with Himself--that we have here the indications of an inward struggle to repress, as something weak and unworthy, that human pity, which found presently its utterance in tears--cannot be accepted for an instant. Christianity demands the regulationof the natural affections, but it does not, like stoicism, demand their suppression; so far from this it bids us “ weep with them that weep” and “ seek not altogether to dry the stream of sorrow, but to bound it and keep it within its banks.” Some suppose Him indignant in spirit at the hostile dispositions of the Jews and the unbelief with which this signal work of His would be received. Others, that His indignation was excited by the unbelief of Martha and Mary and the others, which they manifested in their weeping, testifying that they did not believe that He would raise their dead. But He Himself wept presently, and there was nothing in these natural tears of theirs to rouse a feeling of displeasure. Rather was it the indignation which the Lord of Life felt at all that sin had wrought. He beheld death in all its dread significance, as the wages of sin; the woes of a whole world, of which this was a little sample, rose up before His eyes: all its mourners and all its graves were present to Him. For that He was about to wipe away the tears of those present and turn for a little while their sorrow into joy, did not truly alter the case. Lazarus rose again, but only to taste a second time the bitterness of death; these mourners He might comfort, but only for a season; these tears he might staunch, only again hereafter to flow; and how many had flowed and must flow with no such Comforter to wipe them even for a season away. As He contemplated all this, a mighty indignation at the author of all this anguish possessed His heart. And now he will no longer delay, but will do at once battle with death and with Him that hath the power of death; and spoiling though but in part the goods of the strong man armed, will give proof that a stronger is here. (Abp. Trench.) He was troubled, rather “ troubled Himself,” for a certain Divine decorum tempers all we read of Him, and He is not represented to us as possessing a nature to be played upon by passive emotions. Why? We cannot fully tell. Perhaps, we may conceive the case of a physician coming into a room, where friends and children are sobbing over one whom they supposed to be doomed, himself weeping in sympathy though sure that he can heal. But at least this shows us that we have a real Christ. It was never invented. The imaginary Christ would have walked majestically up the slope of the Mount of Olives, and, standing with a halo of the sunset around his brow, have bidden the dead to rise. The real Christ was a dusty and wayworn man, who wept over the grave, and lifted up His eyes. The reality teaches us that the dead are not raised by a stoic philosopher, with an eye of ice and a heart of marble, but by One who is very Man with the tender weakness that is more beautiful than all our strength. His is more majestic as well as more moving. But could St. John have invented it? (Bp. Alexander.) John 11:35 Jesus wept.- The word is different from that used to express weeping in John 11:33; but this latter is used of our Lord in Luke 19:41. The present word means not the cry of lamentation, nor the wail of excessive grief, but the calm shedding of tears. Men have wondered to find in the gospel, which opens with the express declaration of the Divinity of our Lord, and at a moment when that Divinity was about to receive its fullest manifestation, these words, which point them still to human weakness. But the central thought of St. John’ s Gospel is “ The Word made flesh,” and He is for us the Resurrection and the Life, because He has been manifested to us, not as an abstraction which the intellect could receive, but as a Person, living a human life and knowing its sorrows, whom the heart can grasp and love. A “ God in tears” has provoked the smile of the stoic and the scorn of the unbeliever; but Christianity is not a gospel of self-sufficiency, and its message is not merely to the human intellect. It is salvation for the whole man and for every man; and the sorrowing heart of humanity has never seen more clearly the Divinity of the Son of Man than when it has seen His glory shining through human tears. (Archdeacon Watkins.) Christ’ s tears (Text, and Luke 19:41; Hebrews 5:7):--It is a commonplace to speak of tears; would that it were a common practice to shed them. Whoever divided the New Testament into verses seems to have stopped in amazement at the text, making an entire verse of two words. There is not a shorter verse in the Bible nor a larger text. Christ wept thrice. The tears of the text are as a spring belonging to one household; the tears over Jerusalem are as a river, belonging to a whole country; the tears on the cross (Hebrews 5:7) are as a sea belonging to all the world; and though, literally, these fall no more into our text than the spring, yet because the spring flows into the river and the river into the sea, and that wheresoever we find that Jesus wept we find our text, we shall look upon those heavenly eyes through this glass of His own tears in all these three lines. Christ’ s tears were I. HUMANE, as here. This being His greatest miracle, and declaring His Divinity, He would declare that He was man too. 1. They were not distrustful inordinate tears. Christ might go further than any other man, both because He had no original sin within to drive Him, and no inordinate love without to draw Him when His affections were moved. Christ goes as far as a passionate deprecation in the passion, but all these passions were sanctified in the root by full submission to God’ s pleasure. And here Christ’ s affections were vehemently stirred (John 11:33); but as in a clean glass if water be troubled it may conceive a little light froth, yet it contracts no foulness, the affections of Christ were moved but so as to contract no inordinateness. But then every Christian is not a Christ, and He who would fast forty days as Christ did might starve. 2. But Christ came nearer to excess than to senselessness. Inordinateness may make men like beasts, but absence of affection makes them like stones. St. Peter tells us that men will become lovers of themselves, which is bad enough, but he casts another sin lower--to be without natural affections. The Jews argued that saw Christ weep, “ Behold how He loved him.” Without outward declarations who can conclude inward love? Who then needs to be ashamed of weeping? As they proceeded from natural affection, Christ’ s were tears of imitation. And when God shall come to that last act in the glorifying of man--wiping all tears from his eyes--what shall He have to do with that eye that never wept? 3. Christ wept out of a natural tenderness in general; now out of a particular occasion--Lazarus was dead. A good man is not the worse for dying, because he is established in a better world: but yet when he is gone out of this he is none of us, is no longer a man. It is not the soul, but the union of the soul that makes the man. A man has a natural loathness to lose his friend though God take him. Lazarus’ s sisters believed his soul to be in a good estate, and that his body would be raised, yet they wept. Here in this world we lack those who are gone: we know they shall never come to us, and we shall not know them again till we join them. 4. Christ wept though He knew Lazarus was to be restored. He would do a great miracle for him as He was a mighty God; but He would weep for him as He was a good-natured man. It is no very charitable disposition if I give all at my death to others, and keep all my life to myself. I may mean to feast a man at Christmas, and that man may starve before in Lent. Jesus would not give this family whom He loved occasion of suspicion that He neglected them; and therefore though He came not presently to His great work, He left them not comfortless by the way. II. --over Jerusalem. His former tears had the spirit of prophecy in them, for He foresaw how little the Jews would make of the miracle. His prophetical tears were humane too, they rise from good affections to that people. 1. He wept in the midst of the acclamations of the people. In the best times there is ever just occasion of fear of worse, and so of tears. Every man is but a sponge. Whether God lay His left hand of adversity or His right hand of prosperity the sponge shall weep. Jesus wept when all went well with Him to show the slipperiness of worldly happiness. 2. He wept in denouncing judgments to show with how ill a will He inflicted them, and that the Jews had drawn them on themselves (Isaiah 16:9). If they were only from His absolute decree, without any respect to their sins, could He be displeased with His own act? Would God ask that question, “ Why will ye die?” etc., if He lay open to the answer, “ Because Thou hast killed us” ? 3. He wept when He came near the city: not till then. If we will not come near the miseries of our brethren we will never weep over them. It was when Christ Himself, not when His disciples, who could do Jerusalem no good, took knowledge of it. It was not when those judgments drew near; yet Christ did not ease Himself on account of their remoteness, but lamented future calamities. III. --accompanying His sacrifice. These were expressed by that inestimable weight, the sins of all the world. And if Christ looking on Peter made him weep, shall not His looking on us here with such tears make us weep. 1. I am far from concluding all to be impenitent who do not actually shed tears. There are constitutions that do not afford them. And yet the worst epithet that the best poet could fix on Pluto himself was “ a person that could not weep.” But to weep for other things and not for sin, this is a sponge dried into a pumice stone. Though there be good tears and bad tears, yet all have this degree of good in them that they argue a tender heart; and the Holy Ghost loves to work in wax not in marble. God made a firmament which He called heaven after it had divided the waters: after we have distinguished our tears worldly from heavenly then is there a firmament established in us, and a heaven opened to us. 2. I might stand long upon the manifold benefits of godly tears, but I contract all into this, which is all--godly sorrow is joy. (J. Donne, D. D.) Christ’ s tears In our recoil from Socinianism we are apt to go too far to the other extreme. This accounts for our surprise at reading that Jesus wept. We are not surprised that Jeremiah wept, or that Paul or Peter wept. Why be surprised to hear that Jesus wept, except that we do not acknowledge His manhood? On three occasions Jesus wept. To each of these I wish to call your attention. I. TEARS OF . Three thoughts are suggested. 1. It is not sinful to weep under afflictions. 2. The mourner may always count on the sympathy of Jesus. Jesus thought not of these sisters alone. There sounded in His ears the dirge of the ocean of human misery. The weeping of Mary and Martha was but the holding of the shell to His ears. That tear of love is a legacy to every Christian. 3. When our friends are mourning we should weep with them. The truest tenderness is that which distils in tears. When the heart feels most keenly, the tongue refuses to do its bidding, but the tear expresses all. The tear is never misunderstood. II. TEARS OF (Luke 19:41). He was about to enter Jerusalem over Mount of Olives. Before His vision, instead of the fair scene, He saw the legions of Rome, etc. “ Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” etc. It was baffled affection. 1. Observe the privileges which were granted the Jews and neglected. Who shall say what glory had been Jerusalem’ s had she heard the prophets and Jesus? All hearers of the Word have privileges and visitations. 2. Observe the sorrow of Jesus for the lost. He saw that the chance to save was past forever. He abandoned the effort in tears. III. TEARS OF (Hebrews 5:7). The tears Paul speaks of very probably referred to Gethsemane. 1. Think not because you suffer that you are not chosen. As Christ was made perfect in His work, through His suffering, so are we thus to be led. 2. Nor are we to think that we are not Christians because we feel weak. Tears are liquid emotion pressed from the heart. It is not murmuring in you to feel the sting of suffering. Yet the undercurrent must always be, “ Thy will be done.” Patience is not apathy. Rest sure of this, the prayer cable is not broken. The Gethsemane angel has gone on many a strengthening mission since that day in Gethsemane. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The tears of Christ I. HE WEPT FROM VERY WITH THE GRIEF OF OTHERS. It is of the nature of compassion to “ rejoice with those,” etc. It is so with men, and God tells us that He is compassionate. We do not well know what this means, for how can God rejoice or grieve? He is hid from us; but it is the very sight of sympathy that comforts the sufferer. When Christ took flesh, then, He showed us the Godhead in a new manifestation. Let us not say that His tears here are man’ s love overcome by natural feeling. It is the love of God, condescending to appear as we are capable of receiving it, in the form of human nature. II. HE WEPT AT THE VICTORY OF DEATH. Here was the Creator seeing the issue of His own handiwork. Would He not revert to the hour of Creation when He saw that all was very good, and contrast man as He was made innocent and immortal, and man as the devil had made him, full of the poison of sin and the breath of the grave? Why was it allowed? He would not say. What He has done for all believers, revealing His atoning death, but not explaining it, this He did for the sisters also, proceeding to the grave in silence, to raise their brother while they complained that he had been allowed to die. III. HE WEPT AT HIS OWN DOOM. Joseph could bring joy to his brethren at no sacrifice of his own. The disciples would have dissuaded Christ from going into Judaea lest the Jews should kill Him. The apprehension was fulfilled. The fame of the miracle was the immediate course of His seizure. He saw the whole prospect--Lazarus raised, the supper, joy on all sides, many honouring Him, the triumphal entry, the Greeks earnest to see Him, the Pharisees plotting, Judas betraying, His friends deserting, the cross receiving. He felt that He was descending into the grave which Lazarus had left. (Cardinal Newman.) The tears of Jesus I. CAUSES OF CHRIST’ S SORROW. 1. The possession of a soul. When we speak of the Deity joined to humanity we do not mean to a body, but to manhood, body and soul. With a body only Jesus might have wept for hunger, but not for sorrow. That is the property not of Deity or body, but of soul. The humanity of Christ was perfect. 2. The spectacle of human sorrow. (1) Death of a friend (verse36). Mysterious! Jesus knew that He could raise him. This is partly intelligible. Conceptions strongly presented produce effects like reality, e.g., we wake dreaming, our eyes suffused with tears--know it is a dream, yet tears flow on. Conception of a parent’ s death. Solemn impression produced by the mock funeral of Charles V. The sadness of Jesus for His friend is repeated in us all. Somehow we twine our hearts round those we love as if forever. Death and they are not thought of in connection. He die! (2) Sorrow of His two friends. Their characters were diverse: two links bound them together: love to Lazarus, attachment to the Redeemer. Now one link was gone. His loss was not an isolated fact. The family was broken up; the sun of the system gone; the keystone of the arch removed, and the stones lose their cohesion. For the two minds held together only at points of contact. They could not understand one another’ s different modes of feeling: Martha complains of Mary. Lazarus gave them a common tie. That removed the points of repulsion would daily become more sharp. Over the breaking up of a family Jesus wept. And this is what makes death sad. II. OF CHRIST’ S SORROW: Spirit in which Jesus saw this death. 1. Calmly. “ Lazarus sleepeth” in the world of repose where all is placid. Struggling men have tried to forget this restless world, and slumber like a babe, tired at heart. Lazarus to his Divine friend’ s imagination lies calm. The long day’ s work is done, the hands are folded. Friends are gathered to praise, enemies to slander, but make no impression on his ear. Conscious he is, but not of earthly noise. But “ he sleeps well.” 2. Sadly. Hence, observe (1) Permitted sorrow. Great nature is wiser than we. We recommend weeping, or prate about submission, or say all must die: Nature, God, says, “ Let nature rule to weep or not.” (2) That grief is no distrust of God--no selfishness. Sorrow is but love without its object. 3. Hopefully--“ I go,” etc. (John 11:11). “ Thy brother” (John 11:23). 4. In reserve. On the first announcement Jesus speaks not a word. When He met the mourners He offered no commonplace consolation. He is less anxious to exhibit feeling than to soothe. But nature had her way at last. Yet even then by act more than word the Jews inferred His love, There is the reserve of nature and the reserve of grace. We have our own English reserve. We respect grief when it does not make an exhibition. An Englishman is ashamed of his good feelings as much as of his bad. All this is neither good nor bad: it is nature. But let it be sanctified and pass into Christian delicacy. Application. In this there is consolation: but consolation is not the privilege of all sorrow. Christ is at Lazarus’ s grave, because Christ had been at the sisters’ home, sanctifying their joys, and their very meals. They had anchored on the rock in sunshine, and in the storm the ship held to her moorings. He who has lived with Christ will find Christ near in death, and will find himself that it is not so difficult to die. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The import of Jesus’ tears The weeping was preceded by groans. After the groans come tears--a gentle rain after the violent storm. Jesus in this, as in all things, stands alone. 1. Different from Himself at other times. 2. Very unlike the Jews who came to comfort the two sisters, and 3. unlike the sisters themselves. Jesus’ tears imply I. THE BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE MIND (Lamentations 3:51). Tears are natural. The relation existing between matter and mind is inexplicable. Yet it exists. From this fact we can reason to the relation existing between God and the material universe. II. THE BETWEEN THE HUMAN AND THE DIVINE. Here we have a proof of His humanity. What more human than weeping? Following this manifestation of humanity is the manifestation of divinity. We should guard against the old errors concerning the constitution of Christ’ s person; for they appear from age to age under new forms: 1. Arianism--denying His proper Divinity. 2. Appolinarianism--denying His proper humanity. 3. Nestorianism--dual personality. 4. Eutychianism--confounding the two natures in His person. III. THE BETWEEN CHRIST AS AND , IN GENERAL, IN ITS MISERY, AND HIS PEOPLE, IN , IN THEIR . 1. The question, why He wept? is here answered. (1) He was sorrowful because of the misery caused by sin. As Jerusalem was before His eyes when He wept over it, so here humanity in its sin and all its misery passed in review before His face. (2) His weeping was a manifestation of His sympathy. No comparison between His consoling, comforting tears and those of the Jews. 2. The intercessory work of Christ as our High Priest in heaven is here implied. He is the same there as when here upon earth (Hebrews 13:8). Has the same heart beating with ours. He is our sympathizing Friend and Brother there. : 1. Have you wept on account of your sins? They have caused, and are still causing, Jesus to weep. 2. Do you realise Christ’ s friendship for you? 3. Let us learn from His example to sympathise with the sorrows of our fellow men. (T. E. Hughes.) A unique verse I have often felt vexed with the man whoever he was, who chopped up the New Testament into verses. He seems to have let the hatchet drop indiscriminately here and there; but I forgive him a great deal of blundering for his wisdom in letting these two words make a verse by themselves, “ Jesus wept.” This is a diamond of the first water, and it cannot have another gem set with it, for it is unique. Shortest of verses in words, but where is there a longer one in sense? Let it stand in solitary, sublimity and simplicity. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Embodied sympathy powerful “ Ideas are often poor ghosts; our sun-filled eyes cannot discern them. They pass athwart us in this vapour and cannot make themselves felt. But sometimes they are made flesh, they breathe upon us with warm breath, they touch us with soft, responsive hands, they look at us with sad, sincere eyes, and speak to us in appealing tones. They are clothed in a living human soul, with all its conflicts, its faith, and its love. Then their presence is a power, and we are drawn after them with a gentle compulsion, as flame is drawn to flame.” (George Eliot.) Jesus sympathizes with all who suffer If a man be found weltering by the roadside, wounded, and a stranger comes along, he will pity him, for the heart of man speaks one language the world over. But if it were a near neighbour or strong personal friend how much more tender the pity. That of the man’ s own father far transcends those. But the noblest heart on earth is but a trickling stream from a shallow fountain compared with the pity of God, which is wide as the scope of heaven and abundant as all the air. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ satisfying the instinct of sympathy There is a word in our language--the iron Roman had to arrange many circuitous approaches to it--we borrow it straight from the plastic, responsive Greek--the word sympathy I. THE . The word has gone through one process since it left its root “ to suffer,” which root does not mean suffering in our common sense, but “ being affected.” So sympathy does not mean fellow suffering, but community of affection. It may be (1) A community of congruity. There is sympathy between two persons where there is such a likeness of disposition that they are mutually drawn to each other. (2) A community of contagion. You sympathize with a person when in some particular sorrow or joy you share the feeling arising out of circumstances not your own. 1. As a community of disposition, sympathy is (1) The spring of all love. We see in the soul which looks through those eyes, its windows, the very counterpart and complement of our own. Even beauty acts through sympathy. It is not the flesh, grace, colour, etc., but the idea or promise of beautiful qualities which wins the heart. Another may be more comely, but we are not attracted because we read not the disposition which ours craves. We blame ourselves for not loving. Why do we not love? For the lack of that sympathy of congruity represented by the word “ liking.” (2) The inspiration of eloquence. What is there in that insignificant figure, uncomely countenance, unmusical voice which nevertheless sways multitudes as the orator lists. An empire has hung in suspense while one man has talked to 10,000. Why? Because of the charm of sympathy. (3) The secret of power in poetry and fiction. What is it which draws tears from eyes which know they are Witnessing imaginary sorrows? It is the skill with which genius draws upon the resources of human feeling. The moment the tragical passes into the artificial, the tear dries of itself. (4) The explanation of all magnificent successes. A want of sympathy accounts for the failure of men possessed of every gift but one. You see it in oratory: there is learning, industry, etc., but the audience is unimpressed because there was no heart. You see it in action: there is education, character, opportunity, etc., but coldness of temperament chilled the touch of friendship. (5) This sympathy has its excesses. It is so charming and remunerative that some men are guilty of practising on good impulses, and become insincere, and destroy others by means of the soul’ s best and tenderest affections. 2. Sympathy of contagion, too, is an instinct. To feel is human; we call a man unnatural, unhuman who cannot pity. But some men feel without acting, and consequently feeling is deadened. Others keep away from them what will make them feel, and waste the instinct. To this kind of sympathy belong all those efforts by which we throw ourselves into another’ s life for benevolent influence. This alone renders possible an education which is worthy of the name, the teacher sharing personally the difficulties, games, weaknesses, etc., of the taught. II. CHRIST THIS . 1. He presented Himself to us in one thrust, as possessing all that beauty which has a natural affinity to everything that is noble and true. (1) He appeals to the instinct in its form of likeness. We must be cautious here, a not confuse the ruined will, the original temple. Still there is no one who has no response in him to that which is lovely and of good report. The instinct finds not its rest here below. Some profess to be satisfied: they have what they want. They are happy--might it but last; were there no storms and eventual death. But for the rest care, toil, ill-health, bereavement have forbidden it, or they have not yet found the haven of sympathy. The first movement of such in hearing of Christ satisfying the wants of the soul is one of impatience: they want something substantial. What they really want is community of affection. There is offered to them a perfect love. (2) Christ guides and demands sympathy. He makes it religion, which is sympathy with God; “ liking” the drawing of spirit to spirit by the magnet of a felt loveliness. “ I drew them with cords,” etc. Without this religion is a burden and bondage. 2. Christ satisfies the sympathy of contact. We might have thought that the Creator would shrink from the ugly thing into which sin has corrupted His handiwork. But He never heard the lepers cry without making it a reason for drawing nigh. Again and again He went to the bereaved, and it was to wake the dead; and this not officially, as though to say, “ This proves Me the Christ.” Jesus wept. There was no real peril or want with which He did not express sympathy. He loved the rich young man; He wept over Jerusalem with its unbelief and hypocrisy; He was in all points tempted, and so is able to sympathize with our infirmities. What He sympathized with was poor sin-spoilt humanity, and for that He died. Conclusion: What Christ did He bids us do not in the way of condescension, but as men touching to Him, not loving the sin, yet loving the sinner. Lonely people cease to be alone. “ Rejoice with them that rejoice,” etc. (Dean Vaughan.) The tears of the Lord Jesus I. JESUS WEPT; FOR THERE WAS CAUSE WORTHY OF HIS TEARS. The finest, noblest race of God’ s creatures dismantled, sunk in death before Him, all across earth and time from the world’ s beginning. Tears, we know, show strongest in the strongest. When you see the strong man broken down beside his sick babe you cannot but feel there is a cause. Whatever else there may be in the man, you see that he has a heart, and that his heart is the deepest, is the Divine part of him. As the father’ s tears over his child testify the father’ s heart, so the tears of Jesus testify that He has a heart which beats with infinite love and tenderness toward us men. For we are His, and in a far more profound and intimate sense belong to Him, than children can to an earthly parent. And the relation into which the Lord Jesus has come with our humanity is closer and tenderer than that of earthly parent. We speak of Him as our Brother, our Elder Brother; but the truth is, Christ’ s relation to us is Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Husband, Friend, all in One. But He knew--further--that a sadder thing than death and its miseries lay behind, even sin. This touched and affected Him most, that we were a fallen and dishonoured race, and therefore death had come upon us and overshadowed us. Why else should we die? The stars do not wax old and die, the heavens and the earth remain unto this day, though there is no soul or spirit in them. Why should the brightness of an immeasurably nobler and more exalted creature like man wax dim? Stars falling from heaven are nothing to souls falling from God. The one are but lights going out in God’ s house, the other the very children of the house perishing. Jesus wept then for the innermost death of all death, the fountain misery of all miseries But while in His Divine thought and sorrow He penetrated to the root and source of that evil and of all evil, the mighty attendant suffering awoke in Him the truest and deepest compassion and sympathy. He wept, then, with each one of us; for who has not been called to part with some beloved relative, parent, partner, companion, guide, or friend? With all sorrowing, desolate hearts and homes of the children of men He then took part. Again, the Lord Jesus felt how much the darkness and sorrows of death were intensified and aggravated by the state of ignorance and unbelief in which the world lay. How mournful to His spirit at that hour the realization of the way in which the vast bulk and majority of the human race enter the world, go through it, leave it 1 for He knew, better than any other that has been on earth, man’ s capability of higher things and of an endless life and blessedness. “ Like sheep they are laid in the grave,” says the writer of the 49th Psalm, What a picture! Like that abject, unthinking, and helpless animal, driven in flocks by awful forms, cruel powers, they can neither escape nor resist, to a narrow point and bound, where all is impenetrable darkness. II. Let us consider “ THE TEARS OF JESUS” AS THE DIVINE HEART. Are we to believe that He out of whose heart have come the hearts of all true fathers and mothers, all the simple, pure affections of our common nature and kinship, of the family and the home; are we to believe, I say, that God has no heart? Some one may say, There is no doubt God can love and does love--infinitely; but can He sorrow? Now, my friend, I pray you, think what is sorrow but love wanting or losing its objects, its desire and satisfaction in its objects, and going forth earnestly in its grief to seek and regain them? Sorrow, suffering, is one of the grandest, noblest, most self-denying, and disinterested forms and capabilities of love, apart from which love could not exist, whether in nature or in name. III. THE TEARS OF JESUS ARE THOSE OF A MIGHTY ONE TO AVENGE AND DELIVER. They are not the tears of one whose pity and sympathy can only be thus expressed, but who has no power--whatever may be his willingness and desire--to help. The tears of Jesus are those of a hero over his native country and kingdom laid waste by an enemy whom he hastens to meet and avenge himself upon. There is hope, there is help for our world; Jesus Christ weeps over it, and He “ will restore all things” of which we have been robbed and spoiled. IV. HENCE WE LEARN OUR TRUE SOURCE OF COMFORT, HELP, AND . He who wept and bled and died for man has proved Himself to be our great Deliverer. Do we ever feel we can go anywhere else but to Him when sickness and death threaten and invade us and ours? (Watson Smith.) John 11:36 Behold how He loved him Christ’ s love to man This is seen I. IN HIS IN HIS FAVOUR. By covenanting to live with us, die for us, and take our happiness into His hands. II. IN HIS OF HUMAN NATURE. 1. He passed by the higher nature of angels. 2. He took our nature with all its poverty and trial. III. IN THE TENOR OF HIS LIFE AND . 1. His inspiration was that of mercy. When His disciples would have called down fire from heaven He told them that that was not His spirit. 2. This mercy was not a sentiment which dwelt in imagination on miseries it was not prepared to relieve, but was a vigorous active principle. “ He went about doing good.” IV. IN THE SOURCES OF HIS JOY AND GRIEF. Nothing reveals the character so much as the action of the passions. 1. We have joy when our health, friends, temporal circumstances are good. Christ’ s joys turned not on Himself, but were connected with the happiness of men. 2. His griefs, too, were not connected with His own poverty and trouble, but with our misery. “ Ye will not come unto Me.” V. IN THE OF HIS . 1. Its subject--salvation. 2. Its invitations, so tender and winning--“ Come unto Me.” 3. Its very threatenings are only hedges thrown up against the way to danger. VI. IN HIS DEATH. 1. He died for us, which is a proof of love in any case. 2. He died when He had no need to die. 3. He died as no other could die. VII. IN HIS LEAVING THE WORLD. 1. This was expedient for us, not for Him. 2. He establishes the ministry of reconciliation as He leaves. 3. He now governs all things for our good. (A. Reed, D. D.) Demonstration of Christ’ s love If the Jews exclaimed, Behold how He loved Lazarus! merely because they saw Him weeping at the tomb, with how much reason may we exclaim, Behold how He loved us when we see Him at Bethlehem, in Gethsemane, and on Calvary! Christ’ s love is demonstrated I. BY THE IT MAKES. The greater the inconvenience to which our friends submit for us, the greater do we take their love to be. To what has not love impelled affectionate parents and devoted servants. But Jesus, “ Though He was rich,” etc., He laid aside His glory and lived a life of labour, poverty, and contempt for us. Persons who had seen heaven only would be able to estimate this sacrifice II. BY THE IT ENDURED. Self-love makes us unwilling to suffer. Here again we labour under a difficulty arising from ignorance. We can know little even of His physical sufferings, which were the smallest of His agonies. His mental pain wrung from Him great drops of blood, the occasion of which was the curse of the law He bore for us. Of this He said, “ If it be possible” ; this extorted the “ My God,” etc. “ Greater love hath no man than this.” Should we die for a friend we should but anticipate what would come sooner or later; but Christ was immortal: and although as averse to suffering as we consented to die in a most painful manner. III. BY THE GIFTS IT BESTOWS. Tried by this Christ’ s love is great beyond all comparison. He gives Himself, and all that He possesses--pardon, illumination, grace, comfort, heaven. Nor does He give what costs Him nothing. If we measure His gifts by what He gave for them they are inestimable. IV. BY THE IT . To love the kind and grateful is easy; but to persevere in doing good to the ungrateful and perverse, to forgive again and again is the triumph of love. The love of Christ transcends a father’ s or mother’ s love for their ungrateful offspring. He came to a race which for four thousand years had been disobeying Him, and when He came He was persecuted, and so He has been ever since. Even His professed disciples treat Him with distrust, etc.; but He endures still the contradiction of sinners. Conclusion: Is the love of Christ so immeasurably great? 1. Then surely we ought to return it with a love which bears some proportion to His. 2. Those who have not loved Christ begin to love Him now. (E. Payson, D. D.) Christ as a Friend I. KNOWS ALL OUR AND . Want of knowledge is a great impediment to friendship, and so is want of suitable expression. But Christ knows all, and needs no laboured utterances of ours. II. HAS SUPREME . No mother, sister, or lover can compare with Him. His love is neither impulsive, influenced by fancy, variable, selfish, or fastidious. III. HAS HAD GREAT . He has always been in the world making friends. Abraham rejoiced to see His day; Jacob enjoyed His friendship; and He will continue to form new friendships as long as the world stands. Hence He knows how to treat different types of friends. IV. HAS PASSED THROUGH GREAT . In such a world as this an angel would be an unsuitable friend; there would be no minor key in his feelings, for what has he ever known of sorrow. We want a friend “ stricken of God and afflicted.” Then we can tell each rising grief, knowing that He has felt it. In all points tempted as we are, and as Captain of our salvation made perfect through suffering, He has been wherever it must be our lot to go. V. IS . “ Having loved His own,” etc., He never gave up one friend for another. Those whom He loves once He loves forever. Amid the changes of life, and when we cease to move the affections once felt for us, the Saviour will love us as He did when we were young. VI. IS KIND. 1. He never reproaches or upbraids. Who has not been subdued by the delicate methods of a true friend? “ His gentleness hath made me great.” 2. We should have broken the heart of any other friend; but He is long suffering. VII. IS ALWAYS WITH US. Some of our greatest trials are by separations. We land among strangers, but Christ is at our side. VIII. CAN DO FOR US WHAT NO OTHER FRIEND CAN. 1. When the wisdom of friends fail He is the Wonderful, Counsellor. 2. When our friends are dead He abides. 3. When friends are impotent, as at the hour of death and in the day of judgment, He is the hope of glory. IX. IS EVER . If we called on our best earthly friend as often as we call on Christ, he could not endure it. When we have stated our case to our friend we have to leave it; Christ permits us to state it over and over again. Conclusion: 1. Whoever may love us we cannot be truly happy with out the friendship of Christ. 2. We should be such friends to others as Christ is to us. 3. The greatest sin, which is not unpardonable, is ingratitude to Christ. (N. Adams.) The tender love of Christ He never flattered the friends who enjoyed His closest intimacy; but He made them feel His penetrating affection; “ See how He loved him” was a testimony to the deep reality of a calm, unostentatious sorrow. (Knox Little.) The love of Christ “ Behold how He loved him.” What? for shedding some few tears for him? Oh, how then did He love us for whom He shed the dearest and warmest blood in all His heart! (J. Trapp.) John 11:38 Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself cometh to the grave The burial of Lazarus “ It was a cave,” such as that rocky neighbourhood abounds with, “ and a stone lay upon it. ” Among some nations the bodies of the dead were burned, and the ashes consigned to urns. This was never a Jewish custom, though there were exceptional cases in which it was practised (Saul and his sons, and Amos 6:10), which seems to have been owing to pestilence. The Jews buried. When a person died, after the affecting solemnity of the last kiss and closing the eyes, the body was washed in lukewarm water, and perfumed, and then swathed in numerous folds of linen, with spices in the folds. Thus, e.g., Joseph and Nicodemus and the women showed their affection for the Lord. The limbs were bound in linen bands, not together, but separately; and in many cases the very fingers; while the head was wrapped in a linen cloth (the sudarium or napkin), which also veiled the face, thrown loosely over it. The necessary preparations being completed, burial took place within twenty-four hours after death. By a wise arrangement, absolutely necessary in the East, the burial places were always situated without the cities, though seldom if ever at any great distance. In case poverty permitted nothing more, the dead was laid in a grave as with us, and a little plain mason work was placed above; at the least a simple slab of the white rock of the country. For the most part, however, the burial places were caves, either natural or hewn out of the solid rock. In such a cave a number of persons could stand upright: and all around its sides there were cells (no coffins being used) for the dead, of such a size as to contain each a single body. In such a cave, in the rocky side of Olivet, amid the luxuriant vegetation of the district, where birds sang, and flowers blossomed, and feathery palm branches waved, and the soft golden sunshine fell from the skies of morn on the spangled turf, and evening threw its grateful shadows, there the body of dead Lazarus was laid; and, for protection against the ravages of beasts of prey, the cave’ s mouth was closed by a large closely-fitting stone, which it required the strength of many men to move. (J. Culross, D. D.) The story of the grave I. THE GRAVE . 1. In the first family (Genesis 4:8; Genesis 5:5). 2. Among the patriarchs (Genesis 23:2-4; Genesis 23:19-20; Genesis 35:19-20). 3. Over kings (1 Samuel 31:4-6; 1 Kings 2:10; Daniel 5:30). 4. Over conquerors (Joshua 24:29-30; 2 Samuel 3:27). 5. Over prophets (Deuteronomy 34:5-6; 2 Kings 13:20, 21). 6. Over all men (Psalms 89:48; Psalms 90:3; Hebrews 9:27). 7. Over Jesus (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:60; Mark 15:45-46). 8. Ends all service (Psalms 6:5; Psalms 88:11; Ecclesiastes 9:10). 9. Destroys the body (Psalms 49:14; Matthew 23:27). 10. Opens suddenly to some (Job 21:13; Acts 5:5; Acts 5:10). II. THE GRAVE . 1. Redemption therefrom assured (Psalms 49:15). 2. Ransom therefrom provided (Hosea 13:14). 3. Deliverance typified (Jonah 2:1-2; Matthew 12:40). 4. Lazarus brought from the grave (John 11:43-44). 5. Other saints came forth (Matthew 27:52-53). 6. Christ came forth (Matthew 28:2-6; 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4). 7. All shall come forth (Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29). 8. The song of victory (1 Corinthians 15:55). (S. S. Times.) Christ at a grave I. THE GROANS OF JESUS. 1. Over mortal man. He felt as with an electric shock that He was in a world of pain and infirmity. 2. Over sorrowing man. Jesus sympathized with sorrow as sorrow. He was moved by the mere contagiousness of grief. 3. Over unbelieving man. The sisters and the Jews alike lacked faith, and lack of faith always troubled Him. There might be more than one feeling here. (1) an oppressive sense of loneliness. (2) A deep conviction of the guilt of unbelief. (3) A distressing feeling of the miseries of unbelief. II. THE WORDS OF JESUS. 1. He spoke to God (John 11:41)--a thanksgiving for an answer not yet vouchsafed to an unrecorded prayer. 2. He spoke to men--“ Take ye away the stone.” This was the work of man, and therefore not included in the scope of the miracle. And in religion we have a part to play as well as God. He gives the grace, we must use it. “ Work out your own salvation.” III. THE WORK OF JESUS. 1. Direct resurrection: here physical; in us moral. 2. Indirect. (1) Faith; as an effect of the miracle (John 11:45). (2) Unbelief and animosity (John 11:46). (Caleb Morris.) The raising of Lazarus I. THE RECORD OF THE MIRACLE. 1. The preparatory order (John 11:39). Christ never sought to accomplish by supernatural means what could be done by natural (chap. 2:7, 8; 6:10-11). 2. The encouraging remonstrance (John 11:40). 3. The solemn thanksgiving (John 11:41); expressive of (1) Gratitude for the assurance of power to accomplish the miracle. (2) Confidence that as the Son He always stood within the Father’ s favour. (3) Care for the multitude that they might be prepared to believe when they beheld the stupendous sign. 4. The awakening summons (John 11:43). (1) Affectionate. (2) Authoritative. (3) Efficacious. 5. The concluding charge (John 11:44). Issued (1) For the sake of Lazarus, to complete his restoration to the world. (2) For the sake of the sisters that they might withdraw with and rejoice over their brother. (3) For the sake of the spectators, to convince them of the reality of the miracle. II. ITS . 1. Objections. (1) The silence of the synoptists. Answer (a) This is not more strange than their other omissions (John 2:1-11; John 2:13-22; John 9:1-41). (b) This less strange than the omission of the raising at Nain by Matthew and Mark, or that of the five hundred witnesses mentioned only by Paul (1 Corinthians 15:6). (c) This not at all strange if we consider that the narrative would compromise the safety of the family, that it and the earlier miracles at Jerusalem did not enter into the scope of the Synoptists who dealt with the Galilean ministry. (d) This is required to account for the popular outburst of enthusiasm which all record (Matthew 21:8-11; Mark 11:1 - Luke 19:29-40). (2) The so-called improbabilities of the narrative. (a) Christ’ s representation (John 11:4). (b) Christ’ s delay(John 11:6). (c) The disciple’ s misunderstanding of the figure already employed in the house of Jarius (John 11:12-13). (d) Christ’ s grief in prospect of resurrection (John 11:35). (e) Christ’ s prayer for sake of bystanders. (3) The non-mention of the miracle at the trial of Jesus. But (a) Christ offered no defence at all, nor did He call any witnesses on His behalf. (b) The Sanhedrim were naturally silent (John 11:47). It would have destroyed their plot. 2. Considerations in support of authenticity. (1) It is evidently the report of an eyewitness. (a) In what it includes (John 11:28; John 11:32-33; John 11:38; John 11:44, etc.). (b) In what it omits--the return of messengers, call to Mary, etc. (2) It was performed publicly, and in the presence of enemies. (3) The Sanhedrim believed it (John 11:46; John 11:53). (4) The insufficiency of other offered explanations that the mirable was a myth, that Lazarus was not really dead. III. ITS . Its bearing on 1. The question of the Divinity of Jesus. He proclaimed Himself the Son of God, and appealed in vindication of that to the miracle He was about to perform. 2. The doctrines of the spirituality and separate existence of the soul; which are abundantly demonstrated. 3. The truth of a future resurrection. (1) It shows its possibility. (2) It is a type of it. There will be the same loving call, authoritative summons, efficacious word. (3) It presents contrasts. Lazarus was raised to this world of sorrows to die again. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 11:39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone Taking the stone away I. GOD NEVER AN ACT. We know most of God in Christ, and Christ never spoke an unnecessary word or did an unnecessary deed, although He had omnipotence at His command. Had this merely been delegated to Christ as a man it is inconceivable that He should not at some time have put forth His power to gratify the curiosity of friends, or to bind the hands of foes. But He never did; then God never does. It is the merest fanaticism to pray that God would give us a sign and set the universe agape. II. GOD NEVER DOES WHAT HE CAN DO THROUGH OTHERS. He has begotten children capable of knowing, feeling, and acting. He has made them free, He gives them the field, He allows them time; they must do the rest. 1. He will never do for the race what the race can do for itself. He could have stocked the world at the first with all the implements of agriculture, travel, and research. But He did not. He put man down among the quiet facts and laws of His universe, with physical, intellectual, and moral powers, and man was to produce the result. God made the garden because man could not, and then set man to dress it because God would not. 2. The same rule holds good spiritually. Man’ s agency precedes God’ s working. In regeneration there is first the agency of man in Churches, preaching, books, etc., and then the power of God doing what man cannot do. III. THE HELP WE CAN RENDER GOD IN THE OF HIS GREAT DESIGNS. We can remove the stones which hinder spiritual resurrections. What are they? 1. Indifference. This is produced by (1) The engrossing work of life. Your friend is like the racer who does not notice whether the sun is shining or clouds gathering, all he thinks of is the goal. All he needs is to be arrested and made to feel that he is wasting his energies for a prize he may not gain, or if gained, nothing in comparison with what is lost. (2) Ignorance. He does not know that there is gold in California, and so keeps at his potato patch. Not knowing the treasures of religion he satisfies himself with the best he knows--worldly pursuits and joys. (3) The frigidity of the religious atmosphere he breathes. When people are at freezing point they would rather die than stir. It is no mercy in a fellow traveller to indulge a freezing man with a short nap. It may be the sleep of death. 2. Scepticism. There are two courses open to doubters. They may open their minds to their friends. Their friends may sympathetically enter into their questions and answer them, and thus remove the stone. Or their friends may do, as too many do, treat them as lepers, in which case they bury their doubts in their own hearts, and a stone is placed over them. Don’ t do that. Do as Christ did with Thomas. 3. The inconsistency of Christians. How many neighbours, employes, are kept away from Christ by the practical unbelief of the professors with whom they are in daily contact. 4. Vicious indulgence which can only be removed by personal influence and example. (C. F. Deems, D. D.) The sphere of instrumentality (text and John 11:44):--Although God alone is the Quickener there are many things which we can do for others. I. BEFORE . 1. We can call in the Master, as the sisters did. We must earnestly pray for souls and get them in contact with the Saviour 2. We can believe as they did, that whatsoever Christ asks of God will be granted; that He is able and willing to raise the spiritually dead. 3. We can roll away the stone of (1) Ignorance. Let not the people die for lack of knowledge. (2) Error--that they will be saved by their good works, etc. (3) Prejudice. (a) That religion is gloomy, by being happy. (b) That religion is effeminate, by being men. (c) That religion is mere sentiment, by experimentally demonstrating its reality. (d) That religion is not for “ such as us,” i.e., the working classes, by showing that Jesus is the people’ s Man. (4) Solitariness. Let men feel that Christianity is social and fraternal. (5) Degradation. Help men out of the mire of sin. (6) Despair. Infuse hope into the most hopeless. II. AFTER . Lazarus is alive, but he is encumbered with grave clothes; it is the business of his friends to loose him and let him go. New converts want loosing for the sake of their own 1. Comfort. Remove their doubts and fears. 2. Freedom. Gently lead them out of those habits which still bind the new man. 3. Fellowship. Just as Lazarus could not enjoy his sisters’ society till his swathing bands were off, so real Christians are kept back from fellowship by a sense of unfitness, etc. Encourage them: compel them to come in. 4. Testimony. Lazarus was unable to bear witness while the napkin was about his head, so young converts are deterred by nervousness, etc. 5. Service. Take them by the hand and teach them how to use their hands and feet for God. 6. Communion with Christ. After Lazarus was unbound he sat at the table with Jesus. Don’ t leave the new convert until he enjoys full fellowship with Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Man as a helper in Divine work (text and John 11:44):--God’ s power is all-sufficient. He does not need human help. The utmost that man can do is little. What little man is required or permitted to do is for his own welfare and improvement. I. Is THE REALM OF NATURE. 1. Physical. God has given bodily life, and then continues to uphold its powers, so that man is capable of work within the appointed limits. 2. Natural. God has adapted the seed to the soil, and sunshine, rain, and seasons to harvests; but to man He has given the important work of combining the conditions. God will not plough and scatter the seed; neither will He cut and grind the grain. God stops His work where man’ s may begin, and begins His where man’ s must stop. II. IN THE REALM OF THE . 1. The miraculous. It was just as easy for Christ to do all, in the raising up of Lazarus, as only a part. But at the grave He said, “ Take ye away the stone;” and after the working of the miracle, Jesus said unto them, “ Loose him, and let him go.” This the friends of Lazarus might do, and in doing might either receive unmistakable proof of the life-giving power, or show their tender sympathy for the sisters and the risen man by ministering to them and him. 2. The spiritual. It is the Holy Spirit that gives life or renews the soul, and then the means of grace are to be faithfully used in building up a Christlike character. 3. The providential. Here the renewed are directed to offer prayer for the fulfilment of the promises as relate to nations and individuals, for the evangelization of the world, for the coming of God’ s kingdom, and then faithfully to employ all necessary instrumentalities by which to secure these ends. III. . 1. “ Take ye away the stone.” This is preliminary. If the word is to enter a soul “ dead in trespasses and sins,” the stone of prejudice, ignorance and unbelief must be taken away, and then the life-giving word will enter and do its work. 2. “ Loose him.” Let us help others to a greater freedom and larger usefulness. 3. “ And let him go.” Let us not chide others if they do not work in exactly our chosen methods, or in the same branches of moral and spiritual work. There is “ one Spirit,” and “ to every man his work.” (L. O. Thompson.) The stone taken away When Luther received the Divine call: “ Take away the stone!” the body of the Church had already lain more than four hundred years in the Romish grave, and more than one faint-hearted Martha shrank from the smell of corruption which was being wafted by the stone-removing Reformation; but Luther’ s faith prospered unto the seeing of the glory of God. And we, if we would believe, should then know by real experience that the fragrance of incorruptible life, which goes forth from the Head of the Church, is powerful enough to overcome the corruption which Death is working in her members. Before every Lazarus grave of Jesus’ beloved Church the glory of the Lord stands ready to reveal itself. (R. Besser, D. D.) Pity must be followed by active help Suppose we had read, Jesus wept, and went about His daily business, I should have felt small comfort in the passage. If nothing had come of it but tears, it would have been a great falling off from the usual ways of our blessed Lord. Tears! what are they alone? Salt water! A cup of them would be of little worth to anybody. But, beloved, Jesus wept, and then He cried, “ Lazarus, come forth.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) The reticence of power The Divine modesty, if we may so say, of the miracle which tells us that this setting aside for once of the stern law of death is the work of Him who is the Lord of law, and respects it in all His worlds--the Author not of confusion, but of peace. To have done these other things without means would not have rendered the true marvel greater, it would only have added something of prodigy to miracle, which Jesus never did. What is still more to the purpose, it would have been out of keeping with His working, who never wastes His power, who never confuses the natural and the supernatural, the human and the Divine. In His all-wise hand the two systems are one plan. The supernatural is never made to do the work of the natural, but the natural is the basis and preparation for the supernatural. The principle is a most important one, and most pointedly applicable to the kingdom of grace. You say, if God means to save my friend, or my child, his salvation will be of grace; and grace is wholly supernatural. The new heart is a Divine gift; nothing but an immediate act of Divine power will make him a new creature; just as nothing but the voice of Jesus could call Lazarus from the tomb. True! yet He bids you “ take away the stone.” Remove ignorance, root up bad habits, implant good ones, rescue your neglected brother from degradation and misery. Give your children Christian education, prepare their minds to receive the truth in Jesus. Do these things, then may you pray and look for the raising of the morally lifeless. But if you do nothing; if you neglect to teach, to train, to strive and pray for them, wonder not if they sink into utter ungodliness and spiritual death. (J. Laidlaw, D. D.) John 11:40 If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God.The soul’ s organ of sight I. THE DUTY . Faith Isaiah 1. A transaction between God and the soul. 2. A voluntary process. 3. Is to be exercised regardless of apparent difficulties. 4. Is to be employed in connection with corresponding works. II. THE BLESSED RESULT. We shall see the glory of God in 1. Nature. 2. Providence. 3. His Word. 4. The Resurrection. (W. W. Wythe.) Persuasives to faith. Mark I. MAN’ S TO BELIEVE. The words of our text may refer to some checking, on the part of the elder sister, of the expectation of a wondrous work to be done by Christ. She had said, “ I know that even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.” She was doubtless no stranger to His wondrous power; and yet, now, when He is there, and her part should have been silent obedience, she must needs interpose, perhaps to prevent that very thing which, if effected, would be the consummation of their highest desires. And in this was she not a type of humanity? Will not men acknowledge that God can do all things, and yet interpose difficulties in the way of His doing that which would be most for their advantage? The fact is, man measures God by himself. He will not believe a thing can be done because he himself cannot do it, or because he cannot see how it can be done. Think rather of what He has done, and await what He may, and what indeed He promises to do. II. MAN SHALL NOT LOSE BY . We are far from denying the possession of faith by the trembling, mourning sister of Lazarus. She knew that He had done great things. And now her faith and theirs was rewarded; for from that dark sepulchre he came forth whom they had so mournfully laid there; and had not the sister indulged the feeling that led her to interpose a check upon Christ’ s act, the event might have rewarded her even more. Think of the rewards which Abraham, the father of the faithful, received upon his faith. Must not the result of trusting the infinite God be a good one? If you honour Him, will He not be likely to honour you? A right course is sure to be attended with profit: to trust in God is a right course; therefore it shall be attended with profit. And, as it could be shown that to believe on the Son of God, even on Jesus Christ, is the most righteous course for man to take, so it is that one which is attended by the most profit. It is the means of obtaining righteousness in the sight of God--justification--present peace and future glory--the greatest possible blessings. III. FOR GOD HAS THE SIGHT OF HIS GLORY WITH THE OF OUR FAITH. “ Said I not unto thee,” etc. Wilt thou, therefore, not desire to behold the light of God’ s glory--a light that eclipses the sun, and pours fresh life and joy into the souls of them upon whom it falls--a glory that shall know no gloom, no cloud, no night, and yet be always pleasant, always sweet--yea, a thousand times more so than that of our brightest morning of joy after a night of sorrow? Dost thou rejoice to see the light and feel the heat of the sun? and wilt thou not desire to look upon and be beneath the blessing of Him whose smile fills a thousand suns with light? The very love of this world thus becomes an argument for the love of that which is to come. But men seem willing to lose the last in their too eager efforts to gain the first. That was wondrous glory which lit up the dark tomb of Bethany, and” which poured the light of life into those sightless eyeballs; but a greater glory shall shine into and revive the frame of him whom the Saviour shall call forth into everlasting life. How appropriate will the words of our text be in his easel IV. THERE IS IN MAN WHICH MAKES HIM LOOK FOR GREATER THAN PRESENT , and this makes the exercise of faith suitable to him. Our life, to a great extent, is one of expectancy. Let our cup be full in the present life, yet are we not completely satisfied. If the Scripture asks for faith it is in harmony with the constitution of man’ s mind. The great future throws its shadow forward, and man is conscious of its coming. Rich in all good, it draws him, as the heavenly bodies act upon our earth; only too, too often, he supposes that future is bounded by the time of his physical death. Let him indulge the expectancy natural to his mind only in a larger degree, and let it have holier and better objects. Let him place his expectations in God and in heaven rather than in himself, his fellow creatures, or the world. Let him only transfer his faculty of trust to higher, or rather to the right objects, even to God and His promises in Christ Jesus. Consider, in conclusion, with what force and beauty the words of our text may be addressed to the faithful when they are surrounded by the scenes of heaven--when the promises of Scripture are more than fulfilled. The sceptic may look doubtfully on now, but he will look ruefully on then. Let us look forward with faith in Christ to that glory. (A. Hudson.) Believing to see Man always desires to see in order to believing. Martha is called upon to give an example of the contrary process: of believing in order to see. (F. Godet, D. D.) The seeing of God’ s glory suspended on faith Though the sun shines, yet if my eye is closed I am in darkness. If you meet a man in the spirit of unbelief, or scorn, or pride, he will not unbosom himself to you; and if you so meet God, neither are you fitted to see, nor will He disclose to you, His glory. The order is, If thou wilt believe, thou shalt see. We recognize this order throughout our Lord’ s procedure. “ He could not do many of His mighty works there because of their unbelief.” “ All things are possible to him that believeth.” What is needed is not so much a keen, strong intellect, that can fight its way through perplexities and falsehoods, that can cross-question witnesses, that can balance evidence--not this half so much as the spirit of a little child. This is heaven’ s law throughout the economy of grace, He that believeth shall see. (J. Culross, D. D.) The importance of faith I. FAITH BECAUSE OF ITS . Martha’ s was genuine, but weak, and Christ’ s delay was to strengthen it. God’ s dealings are mysterious, but gracious in design. Do not question Christ’ s power or doubt His word. II. FAITH BECAUSE OF ITS WORTH. 1. It enriches the soul. “ Rich in faith.” “ Precious faith.” 2. It is the channel of Divine communications--pardon, purity, peace, joy, etc. 3. It is the eye of the soul, and sees things unseen and eternal. 4. It is necessary to the saint passing securely through the world and out of the world. “ All things are possible to him that believeth.” III. FAITH BECAUSE OF ITS REWARD. “ Thou shalt see.” Death vanquished by Christ. (J. Dobie, D. D.) The honour given to faith 1. That which alone is worth seeing, which gladdens the soul, which Moses prayed to see, which holy men of old saw only in glimpses, which heaven and earth were intended to reveal, for the beholding of which our eyes were formed, for the appreciation of which our minds were made, for the revelation of which Christ lived and died, is “ the glory of God.” 2. Christ does not speak of God Himself, but of some visible display of His invisible excellencies. The glory of God is that which shows Him to be the glorious Being He is, and through it we reach the knowledge of Himself; but the special glory here is that of the bringer of life out of death. That Lazarus’ s resurrection was a signal display of Divine glory is evident from the greatness of the thing itself. To remove the penalty of death, to undo its work, to swallow it up in victory, are things in which man can have no share, and the glory God is to get from it is the greatest next to Christ’ s resurrection. One man raised was to show His glory; what will not myriads do? I. GOD’ S PURPOSE TO REVEAL HIS GLORY. Man may hide himself because he has nothing of his own; God cannot, because all His fulness is His own. For His own sake and the creature’ s He must show Himself. For the sun to withdraw its shining would not be half so terrible as God’ s refusal to reveal Himself. II. CHRIST’ S DESIRE IS THAT WE SHOULD SEE THE GLORY OF GOD. Sin had hidden the Father, Christ came to roll off the clouds. Love for the Father makes Him desirous of this, for He desires the Father’ s glory; and love to us, for He desires our blessedness; and all our life, consolation, holiness, heaven, lie in this. III. HINDERS OUR SEEING HIS GLORY. 1. It hinders Christ from working those works which show the glory Matthew 13:58; Matthew 6:5-6; Mark 9:23-24). 2. It hinders us from perceiving the glory that is in the works even when they are wrought (John 6:26). To unbelief the miracles appeared only striking things in which there was little meaning; it was faith that drew aside the veil. 3. It hinders us from enjoying the glory even after we have in some measure seen it. We only get rays at intervals when we should see the whole sun continuously. IV. CHRIST’ S REPROOF OF AND CALL TO FAITH. Let Christ’ s words shame us out of our unbelief. Trust Him in your sorrows as well as your joys, and you will see the glory of God in both. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Faith is of supreme importance An Evangelical clergyman, visiting the late Princess Charlotte at Claremont, Her Royal Highness said to him, “ Sir, you are a clergyman; will you have the goodness to give me an answer to a question which I wish to propose to you?” The clergyman replied, “ Most readily shall I answer any question your Royal Highness shall please to put to me.” “ Then, sir,” said the Princess, “ which is the way a sinner can be saved?” The clergyman modestly replied that Her Royal Highness must be informed upon that subject, and had frequent opportunities of knowing the opinions of eminent persons respecting it. Her Royal Highness said she put the same question to every clergyman, and their opinions being at variance, she requested to have his. He then replied, “ Through faith in the sacrifice and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Her Royal Highness then observed, “ That is what my grandfather told me; he said, ‘ Faith in Christ is everything in religion.’” (Religious Tract Society Anecdotes.) John 11:41-44 Jesus lifted up His eyes and said The words of Christ at the grave of Lazarus I. THOSE HE TO HEAVEN (John 11:41-42). In these we have 1. His recognition of God as His Father. He was the Son of God in a higher sense than any other has been or will be. (1) In mutual resemblance. “ The express image of His Person.” (2) In mutual love. “ This is my beloved Son.” 2. His consciousness of the Father’ s regard. Ever in close communion with the Father, to every aspiration He felt the Father’ s response “ always.” No true word of prayer is ever lost. 3. His consideration of the people in His devotions. “ Because of the people.” Audible words, though not essential, and having no influence on God, are often useful to our fellow men. II. THOSE HE TO THE DEAD (John 11:43). These were 1. Personal. “ Lazarus.” 2. Earnest. He could have done it by a whisper or volition, but He raised His voice to the highest pitch to startle bystanders into solemn thought. 3. Mighty. They struck life into the dead. III. THOSE HE TO THE LIVING (John 11:44). Here again is the human cooperating with the Divine. Conclusion: This resurrection is an illustration of that of a dead soul which can be effected only by Christ, may still be entangled with old associations, habits, etc., and requires in order to its freedom the help of the living. The work of a living church and ministry is to loose encumbered souls. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ’ s prayer and thanksgiving I. THE PRAYER WHICH JESUS HAD OFFERED. It is unrecorded, doubtless because silent. 1. Probably His first feeling on hearing of the sickness of Lazarus was one of sadness (John 11:5). 2. This sadness it would seem soon relieved itself through prayer. By a natural filial instinct His heart rose out of its depression into confident communion with His Father. 3. The practical lesson for us is not to measure the force of prayer by its elaborateness or audibleness. The most effective are frequently unuttered. This should not discourage public, but encourage private devotion. II. CHRIST’ S THAT HIS PRAYER WAS . 1. To “ hear” prayer in Scripture means to answer, he miracle was not wrought, but the Saviour was conscious of His own adequacy and its accomplishment. 2. This hearing was no rare favour. “ Always” (Hebrews 5:7). 3. The secret of this was the perfect oneness of Christ’ s will with the Father’ s. Many of our prayers are unanswered for the opposite reason 1 John 5:14). III. CHRIST’ S FOR GOD’ S . Nothing is more noticeable in Christ’ s prayers than His sense of filial obligation. Although not inferior to the Father He will not stand on His prerogatives, but as man’ s representative shows His sense of need and His trustful dependence. 1. Let us rejoice in this proof of Christ’ s complete assumption of our humanity. 2. Let us learn to gratefully acknowledge God’ s goodness in answering our prayers (Psalms 116:1-2). IV. CHRIST’ S PURPOSE IN THIS . Had Christ wished simply to thank God audible words would have been unnecessary. That were as pleasing to God as the unspoken prayer. But Christ wanted to show others that His claim to be the Son of God was no arrogant assumption, and that His works were wrought by no diabolical aid. In this also Jesus is our exemplar. We must not only have the thankful feeling, but express it Psalms 66:16-17). We should be careful as to 1. The sincerity of our praises. 2. Their propriety. 3. Their earnestness. (B. Wilkinson.) The force of the prayer and thanksgiving By addressing His Father Christ put God into the position of either granting or withholding His cooperation. If Lazarus remained in the tomb let Jesus be acknowledged an impostor, and all His other miracles be attributed to Beelzebub! If God, who was thus solemnly invoked, should manifest His arm, let Jesus be acknowledged as sent by Him! Thus this act before the still occupied sepulchre made this moment one of solemn ordeal, like that of Elijah on Carmel, and imparted to this miracle a supreme and unique character in the life of Jesus. (F. Godet, D. D.) Because of the people which stand by The folly of merely “ standing by” It would seem to all who knew you a very odd thing if you were seen loafing about a certain shop for an hour and a half one day in the week for twenty years, and yet you never bought a pennyworth of goods. Why do you hang about the gospel shop and yet purchase nothing? On your own showing you are a fool. I do not like using a hard word, still it is used in Scripture for such as you are. He who believes a thing to be so important that he spends one day in the week in hearing about it, and yet does not think it important enough to accept it as a gift, stultifies himself by his own actions. How will you answer for it at the last great day when the Judge shall say, “ You believed enough to go and hear about salvation; why did you not believe enough to accept it?” (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 11:43-44 Lazarus come forth.A royal command befitting the majesty of God. (St. Cyril.) The scene Look at our Lord by this grave. How truly man, partaker of our common nature! The sight of the tomb awakens all His grief; the sufferings of these two sisters, clinging to each other, touch His loving heart; and there He stands, forever sanctioning sorrow, and even exalting it into a manly, most noble thing. His eyes swim in tears, groans rend His bosom; He is so deeply, so visibly affected, that the spectators say, “ See how He loved him!” Jesus wept. So it was some moments ago. But now what a change! The crowd retreat, surprise, wonder, terror seated on every face; the boldest recoiling from that awful form which comes shuffling out of the grave. This Man of tears, so gentle, tender, easily moved, endued with a sensibility so delicate that the strings of His heart vibrated to the slightest touch, has by a word rent the tomb. Struck with terror, the Witch of Endor shrieked when she saw the form of Samuel. What a contrast this scene to that! Not in the least surprised at the event, as if, in raising the buried dead, He had done nothing more remarkable than light a lamp or rekindle the embers of an extinguished fire, calm and tranquil, Jesus points to Lazarus, saying, “ Loose him and let him go.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The raising of Lazarus I. A MIRACLE. There is no measuring miracles, for they are all displays of the infinite, but in some respects it stands as the head of a wonderful series, and is a type of what Jesus is doing now in the world of spirit. Its memorableness is seen 1. In the subject of it. (1) Lazarus had been dead four days. When a man has newly died he might seem to resemble an engine just now in full action, and now though motionless, the valves, wheels, and bands are still there: only rekindle the fire and reapply the motive force and the machinery will work. But when corruption comes, valves displaced, wheels broken, metal eaten away, what can be done now? It were an easier task to make a new man than to reanimate a corrupted one. (2) There are some who are symbolized by this case, who are altogether abominable. The pure mind desires to have them put out of sight. It does not seem possible to restore them to purity, honesty, or hope. But when the Lord makes them live, the most sceptical are obliged to confess “ this is the finger of God.” However far a man may be gone he is not beyond the Lord’ s arm of mighty mercy. 2. The manifest human weakness of its Worker. In no passage is the manhood of Christ more manifested. (1) He showed the sorrows and sympathies of a man. (2) As a man He seeks information. (3) He walks to the tomb--quite unnecessary action. (4) He seeks human assistance. (5) He prays. This is a parable of our own ease as workers. Sometimes we see the human side of the gospel and wonder whether it can do many mighty works, yet out of the foolishness of preaching the wisdom of God shines forth. Despise not the day of small things, but glory in your infirmity. 3. The instrumental cause--a repetition of the man’ s name and two commanding words. A miracle seems all the greater when the means are apparently feeble. So in the salvation of men. It is marvellous that poor preaching, a short sentence, should convert great sinners. But the quickening power is not in the words but in the Spirit of the living God. 4. The result. The thunder of Christ’ s voice was attended by the lightening of His Divine power, and forthwith life flashed into Lazarus and he came forth, and that at once. It is one of the glories of the gospel that it does not require weeks to quicken men. 5. The effect on the bystanders. Some believed; others reported to the Pharisees. Never mind what enemies do so long as sinners are saved. II. A . 1. A living man in the garments of death. Some quickened by Divine grace have still their grave clothes about them, and the superficial question their vitality. 2. A moving man bound. So some souls can move away from sin, but seem bound hand and foot as to faith. 3. A repulsive object, but yet attractive--how charming to the sisters! So some sinners are enough to frighten people with their groans, but what Christian does not love to see them? 4. A man strong and yet helpless. Lazarus was able to quit his grave but not his grave clothes. So men have been mightily moved by the Spirit, but unable to enter into the liberty of Christ. III. A TIMELY . 1. What are the bands which often bind newly-awakened sinners? (1) Ignorance, which we must enlighten. (2) Sorrow, that we must comfort. (3) Doubts, that we must resolve. (4) Fears, that we must assuage. (5) Prejudices, that we must remove. (6) Evil habits, that we must help tear off. 2. Why are these bandages left? (1) Because Christ will not work an unnecessary miracle. Christ is as sparing with the genuine as Rome is prodigal with the counterfeit coin. Men could do this, therefore Christ did not. (2) That those who came to unwind Lazarus might be sure that he was the same man who died. For some such cause Christ permits a quickened sinner to remain in a measure of bondage that he may know he was the same who was dead in trespasses and sins. (3) That those disciples might enter into rare fellowship with Christ. It is sweet to do something with Christ for a saved person. It gives us such an interest in Him. 3. Why should we remove these grave clothes? (1) The Lord has bidden us do so. (2) But perhaps before conversion we helped to bind them on him, and after by our coldness or unbelief helped to keep them on. (3) Somebody has helped ours off, and if we cannot repay that individual by a similar service let us do so for someone else. IV. A HINT. If Christ employed these disciples in this He would employ us in similar work. Saul is struck down by Christ, but Ananias must visit him that he may receive his sight. The Lord is gracious to Cornelius, but he must hear Peter. Lydia has an opened heart, but only Paul can lead her to Jesus. When the prodigal came home the father personally forgave and restored him; but the servants were told to bring forth the best robe, etc. The father might have done this, but he desired that the whole house should be in accord in the joyful reception. Christ could do all for a sinner, but He does not do so because He wishes all of us to have fellowship with Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) A picture, a parable, or a prophecy I. Take it as A PICTURE OF CHRIST. Here we note the following aspects of the Saviour 1. The interceding One (John 11:21-22). 2. The prophetic One (John 11:23-24): promising to us the same resurrection that He promised to the friends of Lazarus. 3. The living One (John 11:25-26): who has life in Himself, not as an endowment, but as an element of His Being. 4. The anointed One (John 11:27): the word “ Christ” meaning “ anointed,” and pointing to the mission of Jesus to the world, 2. The sympathizing One (John 11:28-38): who is afflicted in all our affliction. 6. The commanding One (John 11:39-41); whose commands are to be obeyed, even when they seem strange and contrary to nature. 7. The quickening One (John 11:42-44): who gives life to the dead. II. Take it as A PARABLE OF . 1. Lazarus is the type of a world dead in sin. 2. There is but One who can impart spiritual life, the One who is “ the Life.” 3. When Christ comes to give life He enters into fellowship with our sufferings. 4. Though we cannot give life we can help to give it by rolling away the stone and bringing those spiritually dead into relation with Christ. 5. When Christ calls the soul must obey, and come forth from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. III. Take it as A OF THE . 1. Death is universal. 2. Death is corrupting. 3. No human power can call the dead from their graves. 4. Christ can summon the dead, and His voice will reach them in their abode. 5. There will come a day when the picture of Lazarus rising from his tomb will be repeated in a general resurrection. Lazarus of Bethany The significance of this mighty deed we cannot over estimate, for it is, on the one hand, a profoundly significant symbol of Christ’ s redemption, and, on the other, a signal testimony to His right and power to redeem. Whether we regard it as a symbol or a witness, it is equally noteworthy. This great transaction was I. AN EMINENT EMBLEM OF CHRIST’ S AND WORK; and that both in the details and in the substance. The details if followed out make an almost complete allegory of spiritual resurrection. The sinner, like Lazarus, is dead, buried, we may say already corrupt and loathsome. Christ comes Himself to the sinner’ s tomb. He bids, “ Take away the stone.” He calls His servants to ply all preliminary means. He sends His agents to warn and teach. But when all this is done there is no life till He calls. He cries with a loud voice. It is the “ effectual call” of His Word and Spirit. The man hears, the dead lives, the soul is converted. Then comes in the use of means. Let the living help their new-raised brother--“ Loose ye him and let him go.” 1. The Divine element in the transaction. The mighty shout which raised Lazarus of Bethany was not the prayer of a mortal. It was the command of God. The Divine will is first cause, without the intervention, in the act itself, of any second cause whatever. 2. This power which raises the dead is the power of God in the voice of Jesus. The Father hath given all things into His hands. The spiritual resurrection is going on. One rises and leaves his lusts and base passions, and becomes a sober, true, God-fearing man. Another leaves his poor legal strivings and becomes a humble debtor to the grace of God for righteousness. Another rises from the tomb of doubt--that “ creeping palsy of the mind, despair of truth” --and sits clothed at the Redeemer’ s feet. II. A SUPREME TO THE AND GLORY OF JESUS. (J. Laidlaw, D. D.) Newly-quickened souls may yet be spiritually bound Some of them are blindfolded by the napkin about their head; they are very ignorant, sadly devoid of spiritual perception, and withal the eye of faith is darkened. Yet the eye is there, and Christ has opened it; and it is the business of the servant of God to remove the napkin which bandages it by teaching the truth, explaining it, and clearing up difficulties. This is a simple thing to do, but exceedingly necessary. Now that they have life we shall, each them to purpose. Besides that, they are bound hand and foot, so that they are compelled to inaction; we can show them how to work for Jesus. Sometimes these bands are those of sorrow, they are in an awful terror about the past; we have to unbind them by showing that the past is blotted out. They are wrapped about by many a yard of doubt, mistrust, anguish, and remorse. “ Loose them and let them go.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s resurrection different from the restoration of Lazarus There was no revelation of the future made by the restoration of Lazarus, and his silence was in perfect keeping with that fact. He was brought back to the old life, with its old relationships to his sisters, his neighbours, and his friends, and he had to die again. When Christ rose from the grave, however, He did not come back, but went forward. His resurrection was not a return but a going on. He saw His followers, indeed, but it was not after the former fashion. There was a complete difference between the nature of His intercourse with them after His resurrection and that of His fellowship with them before His death. He did not come back to His former life; but He went forward to a new and higher human life, and so His resurrection was also a revelation of the nature of the life beyond. He brought life and immortality to light by it, and He did so because He rose not to die again but to pass in spiritual and glorified humanity up to the throne of glory. This is what gives its distinctive feature to His resurrection, as contrasted with all mere restorations to life--such as those effected by prophets and apostles, and even by Christ Himself. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The raising of Lazarus I. WE HAVE HERE A OF CHRIST AS OUR BROTHER BY EMOTION AND SORROW. This miracle stands alone in the whole majestic series of His mighty works by the fact that it is preceded by a storm of emotion, which shakes the frame of the Master, which He is represented by the Evangelist not so much as suppressing as fostering, and which diverges and parts itself into the two feelings expressed by the groans and by the tears. Here, for one thing, is the blessed sign and proof of His true brotherhood with us. Here we are also taught the sanction and the limits of sorrow. Christianity has nothing to do with the false stoicism and the false religion which is partly pride and partly insincerity, that proclaims it wrong to weep when God smites. But just as clearly and distinctly as the story before us says to us “ Weep for yourselves and for the loved ones that are gone,” so distinctly does it draw the limits within which sorrow is sacred and hallowing, and beyond which it is harmful and weakening. Set side by side the grief of these two poor weeping sisters and the grief of the weeping Christ, and we get a large lesson. They could only repine that something else had not happened differently which would have made all different. Thus oblivious of duty, murmuring with regard to the accidents which might have been different, and unfitted to grasp the hopes that fill the future, these two have been hurt by their grief, and have let it overflow the banks and lay waste the land. But this Christ in His sorrow checks His sorrow that He may do His work; in His sorrow is confident that the Father hears; in His sorrow thinks of the bystanders, and would bring comfort and cheer to them. A sorrow which makes us more conscious of communion with the Father who is always listening, which makes us more conscious of power to do that which He has put it into our hand to do, which makes us more tender in our sympathies with all that mourn, and swifter and readier for our work--such a sorrow is doing what God meant for us; and is a blessing in so thin a disguise that you can scarcely call it veiled at all. II. And now turn to what lies side by side with this in the story, and at first sight may seem strangely contradictory of it, but in fact only completes the idea, viz., THE CALM OF DIVINE POWER BY WHICH HE IS AS OUR LORD. A consciousness of continual cooperation with the Almighty Father, a consciousness that His will continually coincides with the Father’ s will, that unto Him there comes the power ever to do all that Omnipotence can do, and that though we may speak of a gift given and a power derived, the relation between the giving Father and the recipient Son is altogether different from and other than the relation between the man that asks and the God that receives. III. THE OF CHRIST AS OUR LIFE IN HIS MIGHTY, LIFE-GIVING WORD. The miracle, as I have said, stands high, not only in the greatness of the fact, but also in the manner of the working. With tenderest reticence, no word is spoken as to what followed. No hint escapes of the experiences which the traveller brought back with him from that bourne whence he had come. Surely some draught of Lethe must have been given him, that his spirit might be lulled into a wholesome forgetfulness, else life must have been a torment to him. But be that as it may, what we have to notice is the fact here, and what it teaches us as a fact. Is it not a revelation of Jesus Christ as the absolute Lord of life and death, giving the one, putting back the other? And there is another lesson, namely, the continuous persistency of the bond between Christ and His friend, unbroken and untouched by the superficial accident of life or death. Wheresoever Lazarus was he heard the voice, he knew it, and obeyed. And so we are taught that the relationship between Christ-life and all them that love and trust Him is one on which the tooth of death that gnaws all other bonds in twain hath no power at all. Christ is the Life, and, therefore Christ is the Resurrection. And the thing that we call death is but a film which spreads above, but has no power to penetrate into the depths of the relationship between us and Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ the Life of the spirit This raising is a parable as well as a prophecy; for even as Christ was the Life of this Lazarus so, in a deeper and more real sense, and not in any shadowy, metaphorical, mystical sense, is Jesus Christ the Life of every spirit that truly lives at all. We are “ dead in trespasses and sins.” For separation from God is death in all regions, death for the body in its kind, death for the mind, for the soul, for the spirit in their kinds; and only they who receive Christ into their hearts do live. Every Christian man is a miracle. There has been a true coming into the human of the Divine, a true Supernatural work, the infusion into a dead soul of the God-life which is the Christ-life. And you and I may have that life. What is the condition? “ They that hear shall live.” Do you hear? Do you welcome? Do you take that Christ into your hearts? Is He your Life, my brother? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) John 11:45-46 Then many of the Jews … believed on Him.But some went their ways to the Pharisees Different effects of the same revelation on different, men 1. Many believed. In their ease (1) The moral end of the miracle was then answered. They saw the “ glory of God.” (2) The end of Christ’ s mission was answered. He became their Saviour. 2. Some did not believe. “ If they hear not Moses and the prophets.” The different effect of the same revelation on different minds is I. A COMMON (Acts 17:32-34). The gospel is to some the “ savour of life unto life,” etc. In every congregation there are believers and unbelievers. Like the sun, which wakes the vital germ in a grain of corn, and calls into being a beautiful and manifold life yet draws poisonous vapours out of the morass, so the gospel brings life to some objects and death to others. II. A , indicating 1. Diversity in men’ s minds. If all men were alike, the same cause acting upon them would produce the same results. But they are not alike. (1) Naturally. No two have the same kind and measure of faculty. (2) Morally. No two have the same quality and force of disposition. (3) Educationally. No two have had exactly the same training. At St. Paul’ s conversion some saw the light, but heard not the voice. Here is an extraordinary circumstance which is common in life. Everywhere there ere men hearing the same voice but receiving different impressions; seeing the same lights, but observing different objects. A voice fraught with deep meaning to some is mere empty sound to others: a light revealing the grandest realities to some discloses nothing to others. 2. The moral force of depravity. Men, through prejudices, sinful habits and carnal tendencies, become strong enough to resist the mightiest evidences and appeals. “ Ye do always resist the Spirit of God.” 3. The uncoerciveness of the gospel. The gospel is the power of God, but not a resistless force. It reasons and persuades, but does not outrage the freedom of the soul 4. The need of perseverance in the Christian preacher. Do not be discouraged because some do not believe; other’ s will. “ Sow beside all waters.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) The power of unbelief Death more readily yielded to Christ than man’ s infidelity. (J. A. Bengel.) The consequences of unbelief A vessel named The Thetis was cruising in the Mediterranean in search of a shoal or bank, or something of that kind, said to exist beneath the treacherous waters. The captain, after he had adopted all the means he thought necessary, having failed, abandoned the enterprise, declaring that the reported danger was all a dream. An officer on board formed a different judgment, went out by himself on an expedition afterwards into the very same latitude and longitude, and there discovered a reef of rocks, which he reported at the Admiralty; and it was inserted in the charts, the discoverer being rewarded with a high appointment. The intelligence came to the captain’ s ears; he would not believe in the discovery. He was a shrewd, clever, practical man, but unscientific, incredulous, and obstinate. “ The whole thing is a falsehood,” he exclaimed, adding, “ If ever I have the keel of The Thetis under me in those waters again, if I don’ t carry her clean over where the chart marks a rock, call me a liar, and no seaman.” Two years after he was conveying, in the same vessel, the British ambassador to Naples. One windy night, he and the master were examining the chart on deck by the light of the lantern, when the latter pointed out the sunken rock on the map. “ What!” exclaimed the old seaman, “ is this invention to meet me in the teeth again? No; I swore I would sail over the spot the first chance I had; and I’ ll do it.” He went down into the cabin, merrily related the story to the company, and said, “ Within five minutes we shall have passed the spot.” There was a pause. Then, taking out his watch, he said, “ oh! the time is past. We have gone over the wonderful reef.” But presently a grating touch was felt on the ship’ s keel, then a sudden shock, a tremendous crash: the ship had foundered. Through great exertions, most of the crew were saved: but the captain would not survive his own mad temerity, and the last seen of him was his white figure, bare headed, and in his shirt, from the dark hull of The Thetis, as the foam burst round her bows and stem. He perished, a victim of unbelief. So perish multitudes. (J. L. Nye.) John 11:47-53 Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council The Sanhedrim I. The NAME συνέδριον. Sanhedrin is more accurate than Sanhedrim, though this is more frequently used, and means a sitting together, an assembly. II. : the supreme, theocratico-hierarchical court of the Jews, resident at Jerusalem. III. AND . It consisted of seventy-one members forming three classes--chief priests, elders, scribes. At that time it was composed of Pharisaic and Sadducean elements. Its president was ordinarily the High Priest who was assisted by a vice-president. IV. . 1. Extraordinary: in urgent cases at the house of the High Priest. 2. Ordinary: held daily, with the exception of the Sabbath and feast days, of old in a session room adjoining the Temple, called Gazith, but from a period of forty years before the destruction of the Temple in places near the Temple mount. V. MATTERS COMING UNDER THE OF THE COURT AS A FORUM. Matters concerning a whole tribe, a false prophet, the high priest, an arbitrary war, or blasphemy. VI. POWER. Formerly infliction of capital punishment; stoning, burning, beheading, hanging, later, excommunication and recommendation for capital punishment. VII. . Connection with the minor courts; highest court of appeal from these; intercourse with them through surrogates and apparitors. VIII. EXTENT OF : legislation, administration, justice. IX. HISTORY. According to the Talmudists, this court originated in the institution of Moses (Numbers 11:24). That probably was preclusive. So, too, the supreme court of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 19:8). Increased importance of this institution after the Exile. The γευουσία in the time of the Selucidae (2Ma 1:10); the first decided mention at the time of Antipater and Herod (“ Jos. Antiq.” 14:9, 4). (J. P. Lanye, D. D.) What do we Men active for destruction Alas! if only this question had been: “ What must we do to be saved?” But, like all ungodly men, they are, as Augustine says, more active in devising ways to cause destruction than to escape destruction. “ What do we?--this man doeth many miracles!” What a fearful antithesis is here! (R. Besser, D. D.) It is ever in the way of those who rule the earth to leave out of their reckoning Him who rules the universe. (Cowper.) The perplexity Jesus occasions His enemies Man cannot come into the presence of truth and purity without shame and confusion. The Chief Priests and Pharisees felt this in the presence of Jesus. The subject suggested is--The perplexity Jesus occasions His enemies. I. ONE SOURCE OF THEIR WAS FOUND IN HIS AND OF POWER. “ This man doeth many miracles.” What should have been to them the strongest proof of the dignity of His character, and validity of His mission, only excited their jealousy and increased their fears. Unbelievers fear the power of Christianity, while they despise its teaching, and reject its author. II. THEIR WAS BY THE FAME AND SUCCESS OF HIS MISSION. “ If we let Him thus alone all men will believe on Him.” The resurrection of Lazarus, added to the fame of Jesus, which had been increasing as He swept along in His career. His success recorded in verse 45. Nothing troubles infidels more than the tenacious life of Christianity,and its irrepressible extension. III. THEIR REACHED ITS CLIMAX WHEN THEY DECIDED TO PUT HIM TO DEATH (John 11:53). Murder has ever been the miserable subterfuge of the tyrant--the ghastly policy of the weak and despotic. But what a condition of heart does this reveal--bewilderment, cowardice, cruelty. The man least disturbed was their victim. Calm and unmoved, Jesus pressed forward to finish His work. IV. THE DEED BY WHICH THEY SOUGHT TO END THEIR ONLY IT. To die was the object of Christ’ s coming into the world. By His death atonement was made for sin. The cruelty of the wicked defeats its purpose. V. HOW VASTLY WAS THEIR WHEN JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD! Learn 1. How vain and fatal a thing it is to fight against God. 2. That believing in Jesus is the readiest and only way of ending all perplexity concerning Him. (G. Barlow.) The prime agents in the Crucifixion In the events of the Passion three chief actors offer in individual types the springs of hostility to Christ. Blindness--the blindness that will not see--is consummated in the High Priest: weakness in the irresolute governor: selfishness in the traitor apostle. The Jew, the heathen, the apostate disciple form a representative group of enemies of the Lord. These men form a fertile study. I. All that St. John records of is contained in a single sentence; and yet in that one short speech the whole soul of the man is laid open. The Council in timid irresolution expressed their fear lest “ the Romans might come,” etc. (verse 48). They both petrified their dispensation into a place and a nation, and they were alarmed when they saw their idol endangered. But Caiaphas saw his occasion in their terror. For him Jesus was a victim by whom they could appease the suspicion of their conquerors (verse 49, etc.). The victim was innocent, but the life of one could not be weighed against the safety of a society. Nay, rather, it was as His words imply, a happy chance that they could seem to vindicate their loyalty while they gratified their hatred. To this the Divine hierarchy had come at last. Abraham offered his son to God in obedience to the Father in whom he trusted: Caiaphas gave the Christ to Caesar in obedience to the policy which had substituted the seen for the unseen. II. Caiaphas had lost the power of seeing the truth: PILATE had lost the power of holding it. There is a sharp contrast between the clear resolute purpose of the priest, and the doubtful wavering answers of the governor. The judge shows his contempt for the accusers, but the accusers are stronger than he. It is in vain that he tries one expedient after another to satisfy the unjust passion of his suitors. He examines the charge of evil doing and pronounces it groundless; but he lacks courage to pronounce an unpopular acquittal. He seeks to move compassion by exhibiting Jesus scourged and mocked, and yet guiltless; and the chief priests defeat Him by the cry “ Crucify” (John 19:6). He hears His claim to be a “ King not ofthis world” and “ the Son of God,” and is “ the more afraid” ; but his hesitation is removed by an argument of which he feels the present power John 19:12). The fear of disgrace prevailed over the conviction of justice, over the impression of awe, over the pride of the Roman. The Jews completed their apostasy when they cried, “ We have no king but Caesar” ; and Pilate unconvinced, baffled, overborne, delivered to them their true King to be crucified, firm only in this, that he would not change the title which he had written in scorn, and yet as an unconscious prophet. III. Caiaphas misinterpreted the Divine covenant which he represented: Pilate was faithless to the spirit of the authority with which he was lawfully invested; JUDAS perverted the very teaching of Christ Himself. If once we regard Judas as one who looked to Christ for selfish ends, even his thoughts become intelligible. He was bound to his Master, not for what He was, but for what He thought that he would obtain through Him. Others, like the sons of Zebedee, spoke out of the fulness of their hearts, and their mistaken ambition was purified: Judas would not expose his fancies to reproof. St. Peter was called Satan, an adversary; but Judas was a devil, a perverter of that which is holy and true. He set up self as His standard, and by an easy delusion he came to forget that there could be any other. Even at the last he seems to have fancied that he could force the manifestation of Christ’ s power by placing Him in the hands of His enemies (John 6:70; John 18:6). He obeys the command to “ do quickly what he did,” as if he were ministering to his Master’ s service. He stands by in the garden when the soldiers went back, and fell to the ground, waiting, as it were, for the revelation of the Messiah in His Majesty. Then came the end. He knew the sovereignty of Christ, and he saw Him go to death. St. John says nothing of what followed; but there can be no situation more overwhelmingly tragic than that in which he shows the traitor for the last time, “ standing” with those who came to take Jesus. (Bp. Westcott.) One of them named Caiaphas being the high priest that same year … prophesied A memorable year If this circumstance had taken place in the palmy days of the theocracy, the expression would be incomprehensible; for, according to the Mosaic law, the high priesthood was held for life. But since the Roman supremacy, the rulers of the land, dreading the power derived from a permanent office, had adopted the custom of frequently changing one high priest for another. According to Josephus the Roman governor, Valerius Gratus, “ deprived Ananus of the high priesthood and conferred it on Ishmael, and afterwards deposing him made Eleazar, son of Ishmael, high priest. A year after he also was deposed, and Simon nominated in his stead, who, retaining the dignity for a year only, was succeeded by Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas.” The latter continued in office from A.D. 24 to 36, and consequently throughout the ministry of Jesus. These frequent changes justify the expression of the Evangelist, and deprive criticism of any excuse for saying that the author of this Gospel did not know that the pontificate lasted for life. But since Caiaphas was high priest for eleven consecutive years, why did St. John three times over (verses 49, 51; 18:18) use the expression, “ that year” ? Because he desired to recall the importance of that unique and decisive year in which the perfect sacrifice terminated the typical sacrifices and the Levitical priesthood as exercised by Caiaphas. It devolved upon the high priest to offer every year the great atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people, and this was the office now performed by Caiaphas, as the last representative of the ancient priesthood. By his vote he, in some degree, appointed and sacrificed the victim who in that ever memorable year was “ to bring in an everlasting righteousness,” etc. (Daniel 9:24-27). (F. Godet, D. D.) Unconscious prophecies If some historian were to write that Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States that same year in which the great civil war broke out, would any be justified in imputing to him the mistake that the presidency was an annual office, or in concluding that the writer could not have been an American living at the time, and to whom the ordinary sources of information were open? And who has a right to ascribe to the words of St. John any further meaning than that Caiaphas was high priest then? Whether he had been so before, or should be after, was nothing to his present purpose. The oracular, even prophetic, character which his utterance obtained requires some explanation. That a bad man should utter words which were so overruled by God as to become prophetic, would of itself be no difficulty. He who used Balaam could use Caiaphas. Nor is there any difficulty in such unconscious prophecies as this evidently is. It exactly answers as such to the omina of Roman superstition, in which words spoken by one in a lesser meaning are taken up by another in a higher, and by him claimed to be prophetic of that. Cicero (“ De Divin.” 1:46) gives examples: these, too, resting on the faith that men’ s words are ruled by a higher power than their own. How many prophecies of a like kind meet us in the history of the Crucifixion! What was the title over our Lord but another such scornful, yet most veritable prophecy? Or what, again, the purple robe and the homage; the sceptre and the crown? The Roman soldiers did not mean to fulfil Psalm xxii when they parted Christ’ s garments, etc., nor the Jewish mockers when they spoke those taunting words; but they did so none the less. And in the typical rehearsals of the crowning catastrophe in the drama of God’ s providence, how many a Nimrod, Pharaoh, Antiochus and Nero--Antichrists that do not quite come to the birth--have prophetic parts allotted to them which they play out, unknowing what they do. We have an example of this in the very name Caiaphas, which is only another form of Cephas. But the perplexing circumstance is the attribution to him because He was the high priest of these prophetic words. But there is no need to suppose that St. John meant to affirm this to have been a power inherent in the high priesthood; but only that God, the extorter of the unwilling, or even unconscious, prophecies of wicked men, ordained this further: that he in whom the whole theocracy culminated, who was “ the Prince of the People” (Acts 23:5), for such, till another high priest had sanctified Himself--and his moral character was nothing to the point--Caiaphas truly was, should, because he bore this office, be the organ of this memorable prophecy concerning Christ, and the meaning and end of His death. (Archbishop Trench.) Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people. What is morally wrong can never be politically right. (C. J. Fox.) Caiaphas 1. The resurrection of Lazarus had raised a wave of popular excitement. Any stir was dangerous, especially at Passover time, when Jerusalem would be filled with men ready to take fire from any spark. So a hasty meeting of the council was summoned to discuss the situation and to concert measures for repressing the nascent enthusiasm. Like all weak men, they feel that “ something must be done.” Their fear is not patriotism or religion, but self-interest. They are at a loss what to do. 2. But there is one man who knows his own mind, and no restraint of conscience or delicacy keeps him from speaking it out. Impatient at their vacillation, he brushes it all aside with, “ Ye know nothing at all.” The one point for us is our own interests. This Man must die. Never mind His miracles, teaching, character. He is a perpetual danger to our prerogatives. And so he clashes his advice down into the middle of their waverings, like a piece of iron into yielding water, and the strong man is master of the situation, and the resolve is taken (John 11:53). 3. But John regards this advice as prophecy. Caiaphas spoke wiser things than he knew. The Divine Spirit breathed in strange fashion and moulded his savage utterance into an expression of the deepest thought about Christ’ s death. Consider I. THE PRIEST AND HIS SAVAGE ADVICE. 1. He was set by his office to tend the sacred flame of Messianic hope, with pure hands and heart to offer sacrifice for sin, and to witness for the truth. And see what he is! A crafty schemer, blind to Christ’ s character and teaching, unspiritual, rude, cruel. What a lesson this speech and the character disclosed by it read to all who have a professional connection with religion. Priests of all churches have always been tempted to look upon religion as existing somehow for their personal advantage. And so “ the Church is in danger” means “ my position is threatened;” and heretics must be got rid of because their teaching is inconvenient, and new truth is fought against because officials do not see how it harmonizes with their preeminence. 2. All who professionally handle sacred things are tempted to look upon truth as their stock-in-trade, and to fight against innovations that appear to threaten the teacher’ s position. 3. But the lessons are for all. This selfish consideration of our own interests (1) Will blind us to the most radiant beauty of truth; aye, to Christ Himself. Fishes which live in the water of caverns lose their eight, and men who live in the dark holes of their own selfish natures lose their spiritual sight. When you put on regard for yourselves as they do blinkers on horses you lose the power of comprehensive vision, and only see straight forward upon the line marked out by self interests. Lord Nelson at Copenhagen put his telescope up to his blind eye at the signal of recall, and this is what selfishness does with hundreds who do not know it. There are none so blind as those who won’ t see; and there are none who won’ t see so certainly as those who have a suspicion that if they do they will have to change their tack. (2) May bring a man down to any kind and degree of wrong-doing. Caiaphas was brought down by it from supreme judge to assassin. If you begin with “ it is expedient” as the canon of your conduct you get on an inclined plane that tilts at a very sharp angle, and is sufficiently greased, and ends away in darkness and death, and it is only a question of time how far, fast, deep and irrevocable will be your descent. (3) Has in it an awful power of so twisting and searing a man’ s conscience as that he comes to view the evil and never knows there is any wrong in it. Caiaphas had no conception that he was doing anything but obeying the dictate of self-preservation. The crime of the actual crucifixion was diminished because done unconsciously; but the crime of the process by which they came to be unconscious--how that was increased and deepened! 4. The only antagonist to this selfishness is to yield ourselves to the love of God in Christ, and to say, “ I live, yet not I,” etc. II. THE PROPHET AND HIS GREAT . 1. The Evangelist conceives that the high priest, being the head of the theocratic community, was naturally the medium of a Divine oracle. In that fateful year the great “ High Priest forever” stood for a moment by the side of the earthly high priest--the Substance by the shadow--and by this offering of Himself deprived priesthood and sacrifice of all their validity. Caiaphas was in reality the last of the high priests, and those that succeeded him for less than half a century were but like ghosts. Solemn and strange that Aaron’ s long line ended in such a man! 2. Being high priest he prophesied. And there was nothing strange in a bad man’ s prophesying. Balaam did; so did Pilate when he wrote the inscription, and the Pharisees when they said, “ He saved others.” 3. The prophecy suggests (1) The two-fold aspect of Christ’ s death. From the human standpoint it was murder by forms of law for political ends. From the Divine point of view it is God’ s great sacrifice for the sin of the world. The greatest crime is the greatest blessing. Man’ s sin works out the Divine purpose, even as the coral insects blindly building up the reef that keeps back the waters, or, as the sea in its wild impotent rage, seeking to overwhelm the land, only throws upon the beach a barrier that confines its waves and curbs their fury. (2) The two-fold consequences of that death upon the nation itself. (a) The thing which Caiaphas had tried to prevent was brought about by the deed itself. Christ’ s death was the destruction, and not the salvation, of the nation. (b) And yet it was true that He died for that people, for Caiaphas as truly as for John. You must either build upon Christ, the Foundation Stone, or be crushed into powder under Him. 4. The two-fold sphere in which that death works its effect. When John wrote the narrower national system had been shivered, and from out of the dust and ruin had emerged the firmer reality of a Church as wide as the world. (1) The scattered children of God were to be united round the Cross. The only bond that unites men is their common relation to Christ. That is deeper than all the bonds of nation, blood, race, society, etc. (2) Christ’ s death brings men into the family of God. “ To as many as received Him,” etc. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Truth borne by strange witnesses A flaming torch may be found in a blind man’ s hand. (J. Trapp.) Caiaphas; or, a glance as government, human and Divine I. AN POLICY IN THE OF MAN. At the meeting of the Sanhedrim two things were admitted--Christ’ s mighty deeds; His power over the people, These admissions by enemies are important as evidence and significant as lessons. In relation to Caiaphas’ s policy, note 1. That it was apparently adapted to the end. Christ was alienating the people from the institutions of the country, and shaking their faith in its authorities; and the most effective plan for terminating the mischief seemed to be to put Him to death. 2. Though seemingly adapted to the end it was radically wrong in principle. The Victim was innocent. The apparent fitness of a measure to an end does not make it right. 3. Being radically wrong it was ultimately ruinous. It brought upon them the judgments which broke up the Commonwealth. Let Governments study the policy of Caiaphas. II. A FACT IN THE OF GOD. Caiaphas unconsciously predicts a feature of the Divine administration--that the death of Christ was necessary to the salvation of others. 1. Negatively. The death of Christ (1) Does not change the mind of God in relation to man. It is the expression, proof, and medium of God’ s love. (2) Does not relax the claims of laws. Nothing can do this but annihilation. (3) Does not mitigate the enormity of sin, but rather increases it. (4) Does not change the necessary conditions of spiritual improvement--the intellectual study, heart application, and devotional practice of Divine truth. 2. Positively. (1) It gives a new revelation of God. (2) It gives new motives to obedience. “ Ye are not your own,” etc. (3) It supplies new helps to spiritual culture. (a) The highest ideal--the character of Christ. (b) The highest incentives--gratitude, esteem, benevolence. (c) The highest Minister--God’ s Spirit. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The modern Caiaphas Caiaphas appears in three characters. I. As a WITNESS 1. To the truth of Christ’ s miracles. He had every reason to deny it, and that he did not is certain evidence that he could not. In this he was wiser than his modern disciples, who admire Christ’ s doctrines but deny His works. Eliminate the latter and you throw discredit on the authenticity of the former. If Christ be not risen (the greatest miracle), says Paul, preaching is false and faith vain. And if you get rid of Christ’ s miracles, what about those of nature and man? 2. To the power of formality--the deep seated hatred of innovation which is in man. Christ was a mighty Phenomenon. He struck out a new line of thought and life, and those who do that must expect opposition. When Wilberforce began his career a nobleman pointed to a picture of the Crucifixion and said, “ That is the end of reformers.” If you have not found it true it is because you have not tried to reform anything. Men hate to be disturbed in their sins. 3. To Christ as a disturbing force in history. He may be hated and crucified, but He cannot be ignored. He brings Divine tumult with Him, and divides the world into hostile camps. All kingdoms are shaken that His kingdom may be set up. From the days of Caiaphas to now the supreme question is, “ What think ye of Christ?” “ What are we to do?” said the priest. “ How long halt ye?” etc. If Christ be false then “ away with Him.” But if He be true be honest enough to act on your conviction. II. As a PROPHET. The gift of prophecy was supposed never to have died out of the Jewish priesthood. So when Caiaphas arose all voices were hushed as he said, “ It is expedient,” etc. Mark how God raises the speech of a frantic bigot so that it becomes a prophecy of the atonement. Even as storm, wind, hail, etc., do God’ s bidding no less than the sunshine, so God uses even evil men to do the very thing they oppose. What does sceptical criticism do for Christ but reveal that there is that which is above all criticism. The mountain is never so grand as when the storm gathers round it. And so Christ stands unshaken, triumphant amid the loud tempest and tumult of history. The wrath of men praises Him, etc. III. As a . He recognizes the sacrificial element which has always been at work in society. Do you turn to Leviticus and regard it as an obsolete record of curious ancient custom? If so you will never grasp its significance, which goes down to the root of human life. The word written across the Book is “ sacrifice.” Life is built up of sacrifice. It is the law of motherhood and of love, the soul of heroism, the essence of nobleness. Ages sacrifice themselves for the race that follows. There is nothing Diviner than for a man to die for sins not his own. The world will never be redeemed until men are ready to die for it. Caiaphas defines the meaning of Christ in history. He is “ the Lamb of God.” (W. J. Dawson.) The counsel of Caiaphas I. THE DEATH OF CHRIST AS A CRIME. 1. The real reason: because Christ would not be another Maccabaeus to achieve political emancipation. 2. The ostensible pretext: that He threatened to bring them into conflict with the Roman power, and thus imperilled their interests 3. The fatal blunder. All political crimes are blunders. The murder of Jesus brought about the destruction of the Jewish State. II. THE DEATH OF CHRIST AS A DIVINE . 1. Its substitutionary character. It was, and that according to the Divine intention, the death of one Man for the people. The Son of Man gave His life a ransom for many, and died the just for the unjust. 2. Its worldwide significance. Christ died not for Jews only but for Gentiles 1 John 2:2). 3. Its ultimate design: “ that He shall gather,” etc. (John 10:16). The enlargement of the Spirit on Caiaphas’ s prophecy I. FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED. 1. The Jews. 2. The children of God scattered abroad. (1) Then living. (2) Throughout all time. II. THE PURPOSE OF HIS DEATH THESE: to gather them into one. Christ’ s dying Isaiah 1. The great attraction to our hearts. 2. The great centre of our unity. (1) By the merit of His death recommending all in one to the favour of God. (2) By the motive of His death drawing each to the love of every other. (M. Henry.) Substitution A certain town called Ekrikok was devoted to destruction for high treason. But it was allowed to redeem itself, partly by a fine and partly by one life being offered in expiatory sacrifice for the whole, which was accomplished in the person of a new slave, bought for the purpose. Mr. Waddell, the missionary, remonstrating on the subject with “ Old Egho Jack, the head of a great family,” that personage asserted that “ it was impossible the affair could be settled without a death, for Egho law was the same as God’ s law to Calabar,” and he pointedly asked me if it were better for all Ekrikok to die, or for one slave to die for all the town? I thought of the words of Caiaphas, and of the value of life as a substitution and atonement for sin. A poor slave, bought in the market for a few hundred coppers, by his death redeemed a town, for which many thousands of money would have availed nothing. (Missionary Record of the U. P. Church.) Substitution In the time of Napoleon I a certain man agreed to join the ranks in the place of a comrade who had been drafted. The offer was accepted, the battle was fought, and the man was killed. Some time after another draft was made, and they wanted a second time to take the man whose substitute had been shot. “ No,” said he, “ you can’ t take me; I’ m dead. I was shot at such a battle.” “ Why, man, you are crazy. Look here, you got a substitute; another man went in your place, but you have not been shot.” “ No, but he died in my place; he went as my substitute.” They would not recognize it, and it was carried up to the Emperor; but the Emperor said the man was right. Napoleon I recognized the doctrine of substitution. (D. L. Moody.) Vicarious atonement Some 350 years B.C. a great chasm opened in the Forum of Rome, which the soothsayers declared could only be filled up by throwing into it Rome’ s greatest treasure. Thereupon Mettus Curtius, a young and noble Roman knight, arrayed himself in full armour, and mounted his charger, and, declaring that Rome possessed no greater treasure than a brave citizen, leaped into the chasm, upon which the earth closed over him. (W. Baxendale.) The sacrifice of one the salvation of many At Ragenbach in Germany one afternoon a great number of people were assembled in the large room of the inn. The room door stood open and the village blacksmith, a pious, brave-hearted man, sat near the door. All at once a mad dog rushed in, but was seized by the smith with an iron grasp and dashed on the floor. “ Stand back, my friends,” cried he. “ Now hurry out while I hold him. Better for one to perish than for all.” The dog bit furiously on every side. His teeth tore the arms and thighs of the heroic smith, but he would not let go his hold. When all the people had escaped he flung the half-strangled beast from him against the wall, left the room and locked the door. The dog was shot; but what was to become of the man? The friends whose lives he had saved stood round him weeping. “ Be quiet, my friends,” he said, “ don’ t weep for me: I’ ve only done my duty. When I am dead think of me with love; and now pray for me that God will not let me suffer long or too much. I know I shall become mad, but I will take care that no harm comes to you through me.” Then he went to his shop. He took a strong chain. One end of it he rivetted with his own hands round his body, the other end he fastened round the anvil so strongly that no earthly power could loose it. Then he turned to his friends and said, “ Now it’ s done! You are all safe. I can’ t hurt you. Bring me food while I am well and keep out of my reach when I am mad. The rest I leave with God.” Soon madness seized him, and in nine days he died--died gloriously for his friends; but Christ died for His enemies. (R. Newton, D. D.) Self-sacrifice The plague was making a desert of the city of Marseilles; death was everywhere. The physicians could do nothing. In one of their councils it was decided that a corpse must be dissected; but it would be death to the operator. A celebrated physician of the number arose, and said, “ I devote myself for the safety of my country. Before this numerous assembly, I swear in the name of humanity and religion, that tomorrow at the break of day I will dissect a corpse and write down as I proceed what I observe.” He immediately left the room, made his will, and spent the night in religious exercises. During the day a man had died in the house of the plague and at daybreak on the following morning the physician, whose name was Guyon, entered the room and critically made the necessary examinations, writing down all his surgical observations. He then left the room, threw the papers into a vase of vinegar that they might not convey the disease to another, and retired to a convenient place where he died in twelve hours. (Homiletic Monthly.) John 11:53-57 From that day forth they took counsel together for to put Him to death I.THE CRIME OF 1. It was sanctioned by religion. A religious institution is often the corruptest, and a religious man the worst. 2. It was pursued with deliberation. When murder is perpetrated by the impulse of passion it is an awful crime: when by cold deliberation it is worse; when by the deliberation of one man it is hideous; but when by the deliberation of a whole assembly its enormity is enhanced. 3. It was delayed by Christ (John 11:54). II. THE ASPECTS OF . 1. Wretched superstition (John 11:55). They could not partake of the passover if they were defiled. But here are men with murder in their hearts careful to attend a mere ceremony. Wickedness often runs into superstition. 2. Profane curiosity (John 11:56). It was a sort of betting whether He would come or not. 3. Organized malice (John 11:57). (D. Thomas, D. D.) Watching the good to take them When John Huss retired from the consistory of the Pope and cardinals, his lodging was encircled from that time by watchful sentinels; and a monk was let loose upon him, to ensnare him with dangerous questions--for Huss had protested that he had rather die than be justly condemned as a heretic; and that if convinced of error he would make full recantation. He had the shrewdness to “ detect in the monk, who affected the utmost simplicity, one of the subtlest theologians of the day.” Jesus therefore walked no more openly. I. THE OF CHRIST’ S PERSON 1. The reason of His retirement. The fresh outburst of hostility provoked by the raising of Lazarus. Christ never ceased to exercise a holy watchfulness over His personal safety. Not until His hour was come, and the Father gave the signal, would He expose Himself. Nor was it worth while to continue testifying to a generation that would not see or hear. Jerusalem’ s day of grace had closed, and He had withdrawn forever. When next He appeared in her streets it would be to fall a victim to her murderous hate, and thereby save a world. 2. The place of His seclusion. Ephraim in the neighbourhood of Bethel, about twenty miles to the northeast of Jerusalem, on the confines of the Judaean wilderness. It was a region full of great memories of Abraham, and Genesis 12:8; Genesis 28:10-19; Genesis 35:14). 3. The occupation of Christ while at Ephraim. The time spent was about six weeks; and was spent we doubt not in instructing His disciples and preparing Himself for the end. II. THE AT ON ACCOUNT OF CHRIST’ S ABSENCE (verse 56). 1. The disappointed search. The country people hoped to find Christ in the Temple. There they had seen Him on earlier visits. This was the most natural place to look for Him, and is still. Nor will any who seek with their whole hearts look in vain, 2. The animated conversation. Not finding Christ they formed themselves into eager groups to talk about Him--the best object of talk, given a praiseworthy spirit, as seen in the Emmaus travellers, but not in Caiaphas or these idle and curious gossips. 3. The reduplicated question. They hardly anticipated His presence, because of the action of the Sanhedrim. But they were in error, showing how little reason is capable of understanding the movements of the God of grace. Christ had every reason for being present at the feast. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Many went … to purify themselves Ceremonial purity not enough The most of them, it may be feared, neither knew nor cared anything about inward purity. They made much ado about the washings, etc., which formed the essence of popular Judaism, and yet they were willing in a few days to shed innocent blood. Strange as it may appear, these very sticklers for outward sanctification were found ready to do the will of the Pharisees and put Christ to death. Extremes like these meeting in the same person, are unhappily far from uncommon. Experience shows that a bad conscience will often try to satisfy itself by a show of zeal for the cause of religion, while the “ weightier matters” of the faith are entirely neglected. The very same man who is ready to compass sea and land to attain ceremonial purity, is often the very man, who, if he had fit opportunity, would not shrink from helping to crucify Christ. Startling as these assertions may seem, they are abundantly borne out by plain facts. The cities where Lent is kept at this day with the most extravagant strictness, are the very cities where the carnival after Lent is a season of glaring excess and immorality. The people in some parts of Christendom, who make much ado one week about fasting and priestly absolution, are the very people who another week will think nothing of murder! These things are simple realities. The hideous inconsistency of the Jewish formalists in our Lord’ s time has never been without a long succession of followers. A religion which expends itself in zeal for outward formalities, is utterly worthless in God’ s sight. The purity that God desires to see is not that of bodily washing and fasting, of holy water and self-imposed asceticism, but purity of heart. Will worship and ceremonialism may “ satisfy the flesh,” but they do not tend to promote real godliness. The standard of Christ’ s kingdom must be sought in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:8; Colossians 2:23). (Bp. Ryle.) What think ye that He will not come to the feast Will He come to the feast? The question was doubtless asked from a variety of motives. Curiosity prompted it in many; the fame of Jesus had reached the town or village where they lived; they had heard of His power to heal the sick and raise to life the dead, and the miracle performed on Lazarus had been the talk of the place for weeks; they wished to see what He was like who did such wondrous things. This they thought was their only opportunity, so anxiously they asked whether He had yet come; and when answered in the negative, asked whether they thought He would. There were also some sullen, evil-eyed Pharisees, who gathered together in groups, argued the likelihood of His presence. But in all probability the vast majority of those who asked the question did so because they felt a true desire to see Him, and hear the words of His mouth. To be in His company was their chief inducement in journeying to Jerusalem. “ Will He come to the feast?” is ever the language of God’ s people in all their gatherings; and the motive that prompts the question is that of intense desire for His presence and company. Let us then dwell upon the text not as the language of the Jew at the passover feast, but as the question of the saint in relation to every service. We will dwell first on THE AND REASONS FOR ASKING IT; secondly, we will GIVE OUR ANSWER AND THE REASONS FOR IT BEING SUCH AS IT IS; thirdly, MENTION SOME SIGNS OF HIS BEING AT THE FEAST; AND LASTLY, TRY AND POINT OUT SOME WAYS TO ENSURE HIS COMPANY. I. First then--THE . It was, “ Will He come?” They saw many others going up to the feast, but that sight satisfied them not. Ii is a happy thing to come to the feasts of the Lord, surrounded by family and friend s, and if He be present, their company lends an extra charm. But how, if He be absent? Can they supply His place? Ah, “ No.” The goodness of a meeting can never be reckoned by its numbers. A crowded house may be full without Christ, and the room with only the “ two or three” may be full with Him. Nor will the respectability of those present. The best families in the land were doubtless represented in Jerusalem as well as the poorest. Yet their presence in no way lessened the desire for Christ’ s, the prosperity of the Church, or the value of its services. The child of God would sooner worship with the poorest and their Lord, than with the wealthiest without Him. Many of these Jews had come on purpose to see Him. The journey had been undertaken with this expectation. Let them see never such glorious sights, yet if they see not Him they must return to their homes disappointed men and women, the one design of their coming being unfulfilled. Say, child of God, has not the expectation of meeting your Lord been the sole motive power that has brought you here? There are many reasons prompting the question; dwell on one, and that is that we feel it will not be a feast at all if He does not come. No true child of God can feast on externals. Without Christ the feast is no better than a fast. Here is the touchstone whereby the true saint is discovered, and the formalist detected. The latter is satisfied with the temple--the people and the service. He never takes the trouble to seek Jesus or ask whether He be at the feast or no. He will desire his Lord’ s presence, moreover, because it is His being at the feast that gives him a spiritual appetite. Not only must Christ give us the food but He must also give us the appetite to desire the food; and this is most necessary, for the very choicest of food is insipid to the taste if appetite be wanting. This question was also asked, because they knew there were many reasons why He should stay away from the feast. The high priests were up in arms against Him. The Sanhedrim had determined His death. And do not we know of many things sufficient to make us doubt whether He can come into our company? Has He lived in our warmest heart’ s affections? Have we not to confess to a terrible amount of worldliness, coldness and indifference? Have we not often been ashamed of Him? Blushed to speak His name? Have we not also been often absent from the feast when He has been present? There is yet another cause sufficient to make us wonder whether He can come to the feast, and it is the many vows we have made at former feasts and broken. II. Secondly, I WILL TRY TO GIVE THE ANSWER AND SOME REASONS FOR IT BEING WHAT IT IS. “ Will He come to the feast?” I reply, “ Yes, I think He will.” Nay, “ I believe He will.” Yea, more, “ I know He will.” My reasons for giving such an answer are fourfold. 1. I think He will come to the feast because He loves it Himself Is it a joy to you to commune with Him? It is an equal joy to Him so to do. De you love His company? He also loves yours. It is no irksome work to Him to be in company with His people. Therefore, because it is His delight I think He will come to the feast. 2. I think moreover He will come because He has instituted the feast and invited us to it. 3. Very likely also these Jews entertained the hope He would come from the fact that He had often come before. May not we do the same? Cannot we call to mind many times when He has favoured us with His company at the feast, when we have been no more deserving of it than we are now. III. WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF HIS BEING AT THE FEAST? 1. A melting heart on account of sin. Our own unworthiness will appear great in proportion as we have communion with Christ. Self and Christ can never stand together, where He is, self lies in the dust. Pride will be trampled under foot, and every soul be filled with what John Newton termed “ pleasing grief.” 2. A second sign of His presence will be a joyful heart on account of pardon. When Christ visits His people, He not only makes them see the number of their sins, but also their complete pardon, and it is this double sight that prepares the soul for sweetest fellowship. 3. The third sign of Jesus being at the feast is an indifference and forgetfulness about all externals. IV. And now fourthly and lastly. I WILL TRY AND POINT OUT SOME WAYS TO ENSURE HIS COMPANY. 1. The first and most apparent way is by asking for it. Christ will never say “ nay” to the united request of His people, and we may rest most assured, that when that united request is simply for His presence it will be granted. 2. Another way is by forgiveness. Nothing so surely hinders Christ’ s communing with us as an unforgiving spirit; where that is, the joy of fellowship cannot be. And now, poor sinner, ere we close, a word to you. Jesus is here, closer to each one of us than we are to the other. He is by your side. He has come up now to the feast. What will you do? What will you say to Him? Oh, invite Him to your feast; tell Him “ you have nothing to offer Him but a broken heart and contrite spirit,” and He will not despise that. (A. G. Brown.) Festivities I. CHRIST WILL BE AT OUR FEASTS AS A . As God, He is everywhere. No walls or doors will keep Him out. He will know the moral character and bearing of every feast, and bring “ every work to judgment,” etc. II. HE MAY COME AS A LOVING FRIEND. 1. He is preeminently social in His nature. “ The Son of Man came eating and drinking.” 2. He personally attended feasts when on earth. 3. He has promised to be present in the social gatherings of His people through all time. “ If any man will love me,” “ Where two or three are gathered,” etc. If He is not with you it is your fault. Have you invited Him? “ Behold I stand,” etc. III. IF HE DOES NOT COME AS A LOVING FRIEND WE HAD BETTER NOT HAVE THE FEAST AT ALL. If He is absent 1. It would be an affair unworthy of our natures. 2. It will be an affair pernicious to us. (D. Thomas, D. D.) . Chapter 12: The place of the chapter in the Evangelical history Every intelligent reader of the gospel will see that John purposely omits at this point certain events which are recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He passes at once from our Lord’ s retirement to the city called Ephraim to His return to Bethany for the last time. In this interval will be found the things related in Matthew 20:17-34; Mark 10:32-52; Luke 18:31 to Luke 19:1-28. In whatever part of Palestine this city Ephraim was, it is almost certain that between it and Bethany Jesus passed through Jericho, healed two blind men there, converted the publican Zacchaeus, and spoke the parable of the nobleman who went into a far country, after giving to his ten servants ten pounds. Why St. John did not record these facts we do not know, and it is mere waste of time to inquire. A reverent mind will be content to remember that John wrote by inspiration of God, and was guided by infallible direction, both as to what he recorded and what he did not record. Reason and common sense, moreover, tell us that if the four Evangelists had all narrated exactly the same things, their value as independent witnesses would have been greatly damaged. Their variations and diversities are a strong indirect proof of their credibility. Too close an agreement would raise a suspicion of collusion, and look like an attempt to deceive. (Bp. Ryle.) John 12:1-16 Then Jesus six days before the Passover.--The following calendar of the Passover week is taken from Lightfoot (2.586): NISAN IX; The Sabbath. Six days before the Passover, Jesus sups with Lazarus at the going out of the Sabbath, when according to the custom of that country their suppers were more liberal. NISAN X; Sunday. Five days before the Passover, Jesus goes to Jerusalem on an ass, and in the evening returns to Bethany (Mark 11:11). On this day the lamb was taken, and kept till the Passover (Exodus 12:1-51), on which day this Lamb of God presented Himself, who was the Antitype of that ride. NISAN XI; Monday. Four days before the Passover, He goes to Jerusalem again; curseth the unfruitful fig tree (Matthew 21:18; Mark 11:12); in the evening He returns again to Bethany (Mark 6:19). NISAN XII; Tuesday. Three days before the Passover, He goes again to Jerusalem; His disciples observe how the fig tree was withered (Mark 11:20). In the evening going back to Bethany, and sitting on the Mount of Olives, He foretelleth the destruction of the Temple and city (Matthew 24:1-51), and discourses those things which are contained in Matthew 25:1-46. NISAN XIII; Wednesday. This day He passeth away in Bethany. At the coming in of this night, the whole nation apply themselves to put away all leaven. NISAN XIV; Thursday. He sends two of His disciples to get ready the Passover. He Himself enters Jerusalem in the afternoon. In the evening eats the Passover, institutes the Eucharist: is taken, and almost all the night had before the Courts of Judicature. NISAN XV; Friday. Afternoon, He is crucified. NISAN XVI; Saturday. He keeps the Sabbath in the grave. NISAN XVII; The Lord’s Day. He riseth again. Came to Bethany The arrival of the Passover caravan Coming into Bethany, the nearest point of the great road to Galilaeans’ Hill, the caravan broke up; the company dispersed to the south and north, some seeking for houses in which they could lodge, others fixing on the ground where they meant to encamp. Those marched round Olivet to the south, following the great road, crossing the Cedron by a bridge, and entering the Holy City by the Sheep Gate, near Antonio; these mounted by the short path to the top of Olivet, glancing at the flowers and herbage, and plucking twigs and branches as they climbed. Some families, having brought their tents with them from Galilee, could at once proceed to stake the ground; but the multitude were content with the booths called Succoth, built in the same rude style as those in which their father Israel had dwelt. Four stakes being cut and driven in the soil, long reeds were drawn, one by one, round and through them. These reeds, being in turn crossed and closed with leaves, made a small green bower, open on one side only, yielding the women a rude sort of privacy, and covering the young ones with a frail defence from both noontide heat and midnight dew. The people had much to do, and very little time in which it could be done. At sundown, when the shofa sounded, Sabbath would begin; then every hand must cease its labour, even though the tent were unpitched, the booth unbuilt, the children exposed, the skies darkening into storm. Consequently the poles must be cut, the leaves and branches gathered, the tents fixed, the water fetched from the wells, the bread baked, the cattle penned, the beds unpacked and spread, the supper of herbs and olives cooked before the sofa sounded from the Temple wall. But everyone helped. While the men drove stakes into the ground and propped them with stones, the women wove them together with twigs and leaves, the girls ran off to the springs for water, the lads put up the camels and led out the sheep to graze. In two or three hours a new city had sprung up on the Galilaeans’ Hill--a city of booths and tents--more noisy, perhaps more populous, than even the turbulent city within the walls. This Galilaeans’ Hill made only one field in a great landscape of booths and tents. All Jewry had sent up her children to the feast, and each province arrayed its members on a particular site. The men of Sharon swarmed over Mount Gideon, the men of Hebron occupied the Plain of Rephaim. From Pilate’ s roof on Mount Zion the lines and groups of this vast encampment could be followed by an observer’ s eye down the valley of Gihon, peeping from among the fruit trees about Siloam, dotting the long plain of Rephaim, trespassing even on the Mount of Offence, and darkening the grand masses of hill from Olivet towards Mizpeh. All Jewry appeared to be encamped about the Temple Mount. From sundown all was quiet on the hillsides and on the valley, only the priests and doctors, the Temple guards, the money changers, the pigeon dealers, the bakers of shewbread, the altar servants being astir and at their work. There was no Sabbath in sacred things. But everywhere, save in the Temple Courts, traffic was stayed, movement arrested, life itself all but extinct. (Hepworth Dixon.) There they made Him a supper Jesus honoured I. BY ACTS. One of the plainest proofs of the inspiration of the Bible is its selection of facts for the world’ s instruction. Its standard of utility is not ours. Acts to us unimportant are given a prominence that arouses our curiosity and lead to profitable study. Thus the single act in Jacob’ s life, which is used as a proof of his faith in Hebrews 11:1-40, is his blessing the sons of Joseph on his dying bed. We should have selected the scene at Bethel. Nothing gives such a solemnity to the last judgment as the picture of the separation of good and bad. On what ground? Not on that of an intelligent and determined rejection of Christ’ s claims or of pronounced and heroic service, but upon what we should call the waste and forgotten materials of life--things done so naturally and thoughtlessly that both cry out, “ When saw we Thee,” etc. And so, according to the common standard, these two acts here of unpremeditated honour are given undue importance. The anointing was done in a few moments, yet Jesus selected that one act as a service never to be forgotten. The scene on the day following had no great utility. A modem reporter would have called it a simple outburst of popular enthusiasm. But Jesus needed these songs of welcome and prized them. II. BY LOVE. Paul declares that without love we and our works are unprofitable, and John makes it the sum of all virtues. We live in times of great religious activity. The poor in body are with us--the poor souls of heathens are yonder. We do a good deal for both, and we do well. Yet because Christian work is so highly organized and reportable we need the lesson of Mary’ s uncalculating love. We may be inside the great circle of Christian beneficence, and yet lack Mary’ s “ good part.” The institutions of Christianity open avenues to pride and ostentation never known before. The machinery of benevolence may exhaust the soul until all its sweetness and grace are wasted. We may shine in use and yet lack the ineffable charm and grace of a life hid with Christ in God. (Monday Club Sermons.) Bethany and its feast The house in which we find ourselves is that of Simon the leper (Matthew 26:1-75; Mark 14:1-72). The feast is a great one; but Christ is the centre, and gives to it and the guests all their significance. Let us consider the latter in their relation to Christ. I. SIMON . He had known Christ before, probably first through his leprosy. Our first interview with Christ is respecting our moral leprosy. But Simon finds that he has much more to do with Jesus than merely for His cure: therefore he must have Him under his roof. So our acquaintanceship must be a companionship, and Christ must sit at our table. This is the sinner’ s side of the gospel. Here it is, not Christ receiving the sinner, but the sinner Christ. We must not overlook either side. II. LAZARUS . What a feast, what a company! Simon healed, Lazarus raised, dipping into the same dish, drinking of the same cup with Christ the Healer and Raiser. How Lazarus first became acquainted with Christ we know not; but it was his death that had brought about the special closeness of contact--type now of risen saints who are to take their places at the marriage supper of the Lamb. What has Lazarus now but to gaze and listen? This is our true posture who have died and risen with Christ--listening, not bustling and talking. There is a time for both. III. MARTHA SERVING. Her usual employment, lowly but not least blessed; like His who came to serve. Angels might covet service to Christ in any form, were it for nothing else than near contact with Him. “ Inasmuch as ye have done it,” etc. IV. MARY --not entertaining, feasting, serving, but doing what some would consider a useless thing. Yet her act gets most notice. Christ says nothing to Simon, etc. It is no labour, suffering, etc., that gets the fullest commendation but love. (H. Bonar, D. D.) The supper at Bethany Note I. THE PROOFS OF OUR LORD’ S . Here was Lazarus. No one could pretend that his resurrection was an optical illusion. The same proofs attend the mightier miracle of Christ’ s resurrection (Luke 24:42). We do well to remember this in this sceptical age. II. THE AND CHRIST’ S FRIENDS RECEIVE. Mary thought nothing too great and good to expend on such a Saviour. Greatly loved, she thought she could not show to much love in return. But she was blamed by those who had lesser views than hers of the dignity of Christ’ s person and of their own obligations to Him. There are only too many of the same spirit, who begrudge nothing to push trade or advance science, but count it waste to spend money on Christ’ s cause. We must not allow ourselves to be moved from well doing by such. It is vain to expect men to do much for Christ who have no sense of debt to Him. We must pity them, but work on. He who pleaded the cause of Mary will not forget the “ cup of cold water.” III. THE AND OF THE HUMAN HEART. 1. Unbelief in the chief priests (John 12:10-11), who would rather commit a murder than confess themselves in the wrong. 2. Hardness in Judas, who after this could betray Christ (1 Corinthians 10:12). (Bp. Ryle.) The true Church I. ITS ASPECT. 1. Christ as the central figure, “ They made Him a supper.” Lazarus was conspicuous, but Christ was the centre of attraction. In the true Church Christ is in the “ midst,” and in all things has the preeminence. 2. A variety of guests. Lazarus silent, Martha busy, Mary tender, Simon healed and grateful. The true Church embraces all shades of character. 3. The presence of an incongruous character. Judas partaking of the feast, but unsympathetic. He shows three base things (1) A false estimate of property. Money is not wasted on Christ, but on houses, apparel, fare, etc. (2) A hypocritical philanthropy--Judas cared little for the poor, as his history shows. (3) A heartless intrusion. No man has a right to “ trouble” another on account of his religious services. Iscariotism is very prevalent. 4. The display of genuine devotion. Mary’ s act was (1) Generous--the ointment was costly. (2) Spontaneous. It was unsought. (3) Open. It was done in the presence of all. (4) Right (a) In principle. She wrought a good work (b) In extent. She did what she could. (c) In reason--against the day of Christ’ s burying. II. ITS . 1. Some were attracted by curiosity (John 12:9). The wonderful fact on which the Church’ s theology is founded, as well as the moral revolutions it is constantly effecting, have a natural tendency to rouse inquisitiveness. Hence the questions, criticisms, and discussions in society, public halls and literature. 2. Some men attracted by malice (John 12:10). The determination of the priests was (1) Wicked. (2) Foolish. Truth cannot be struck down by physical force. The true Church has always been the object of malice, (D. Thomas, D. D.) Prodigality praiseworthy In the practical working of good agencies, there must almost always be a certain prodigality. The light which illuminates this speck of a world is but a single beam in comparison with that immense body of light which passes off, to be lost, apparently, in endless space. Nature produces a hundred seeds for everyone which comes to maturity; and at every sculptor’ s feet there is an unheeded pile of marble chips which have been sacrificed to the fulfilment of the artist’ s design. If this is waste, then what the world wants is waste--waste of precious seed in sowing it, late and early, by the wayside, in thorny places, beside all waters. And what many a Sunday School wants is more waste like this--waste of money and time and effort over an apparently hopeless enterprise, waste of thought and speech and prayer in behalf of those for whom these seem to be spent in vain. (H. O. Trumbull, D. D.) The fragrance of true piety When I was in Paris, I used to rise early and sit at my open window. I always knew when the stores beneath me were open; for one was a flower store, and from its numberless roses, and heaps of mignonette, arose such sweet, sweet fragrance, that it proclaimed what was done. It seems to me that Christians should be as a flower store, and that the odour of sanctity should betray them wherever they are. Not that they should go about obtruding themselves and their actions on others, with the cant of usefulness, but that they should live the purity and joy of religion, so that men might see the desirableness of it, both for the sake of nobleness, and for the enjoyment both of this world and that which is to come. (H. W. Beecher.) Power of perfumes Lieutenant Conder, in his “ Tent Work in Palestine,” mentions that the perfume of the orange groves is detected many miles from Jaffa. (H. O. Mackey.) The lasting perfume of pious deeds It has been shown that the odoriferous molecule of musk is infinitesimally small. No power has yet been conceived to enable the human eye to see one of the atoms of musk, yet the organs of smell have the sensitiveness to detect them. Their smallness cannot even be imagined, and the same grain of musk undergoes absolutely no diminution in weight. A single drop of the oil of thyme, ground down with a piece of sugar and a little alcohol, will communicate its odour to twenty-five gallons of water. Haller kept for forty years papers perfumed with one grain of ambergris. After this time the odour was as strong as ever. And so the perfume of this generous gift to Christ will last throughout all time, and be carried over the whole world. The philosophy of beneficence He who selfishly hoards his joys, thinking thus to increase them, is like a man who looks at his granary, and says, “ Not only will I protect my grain from mice and birds, but neither the ground nor the mill shall have it.” And so, in the spring, he walks around his little pit of corn, and exclaims, “ How wasteful are my neighbours, throwing away whole handfuls of grain!” But autumn comes; and, while he has only his few poor bushels, their fields are yellow with an abundant harvest. “ There is that scattereth and yet increaseth.” Motive for great gifts A poor Protestant congregation in Lyons was trying to build a small house for their public worship. An old soldier brought all his three months’ earnings. “ Can you spare so much?” asked the minister. “ My Saviour spared not Himself,” he answered, “ but freely gave His life for me; surely I can spare one quarter of a year’ s earnings to extend His kingdom on earth.” Then saith one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot. Here is I. A FOUL gilded over with a specious pretence. II. WORLDLY WISDOM passing censure on PIOUS ZEAL. III. Charity to the poor made a colour for opposing an act of piety to Christ. (M. Henry.) Mary’ s offering: criticised and vindicated I. THE ’ S OF MARY’ S . An eminent statesman once said that critics were men who had failed. What a lurid light this definition casts over the conduct of Judas at this hour! Moreover, criticism is too often the outcome of an utter incapacity to appreciate, arising from inferiority on the part of the critic. Judas, too, was not only too prosaic, but was also too official to be touched by the beauty of this deed. It is a hard thing for any man to be the treasurer of one society and maintain the breadth of his humanity. Judas felt that his “ bag” had greater claims than his Saviour. Then, again, as a thief he could not understand that there are some offerings which cannot be sold, but which lose all their sacredness the moment you put them under the auctioneer’ s hammer; that in this instance the alabaster box must be broken in the giving, and that there are offerings the value of which the giver never counts. II. OUR LORD’ S OF MARY AND HER . 1. He bade Judas and the other disciples whom he had induced to repeat his cry (Matthew 26:8; Mark 14:4) to “ let her alone.” 2. He not only vindicated the deed, but also explained its meaning. What a gracious construction He puts upon our poor services when they are prompted by love! That little child of yours wants to give you a present on your birthday. She buys it a week or so before the day. You notice some mysterious movements and looks, and there are little whispers heard all over the house. She confides in her little brother; and he, too, looks very wise and then very excited. At last the pressure is too great, the safety valve of speech gives way, and out comes the secret; then there is a rush out of the room and back again, and then the disclosure of a present which all the cupboards in the house could not conceal a moment longer. The present is thrust on your lap, and young eyes shoot light and love into yours. It has come before the proper date but it is all the better for that. Mary, on this occasion, was like that little child, she could keep her alabaster box of ointment no longer; and what had been intended for the dead body was now poured, in the prodigality and impatience of an overflowing love, over His living form. Jesus knew all, and rejoiced over a love which had ante-dated its purpose, and given to the living Lord what had been kept for His burial. 3. Having done this, He emphasized the urgency for such an act as compared with the duty to the poor, who would remain when He had vanished from their sight and this act would be no longer possible. What they desired to do to Him, whether it were Mary to anoint, or Judas to betray, must be done quickly. (D. Davies.) The self-sacrificing woman and the covetous apostle The self-seeking heart in the Church makes balsam into poison. It turns I. A JOYOUS FEAST INTO AN HOUR OF . II. THE PUREST LOVE INTO AN OFFENCE. III. THE SACRED OF INTO A MOTIVE FOR . IV. THE MOST AGAINST INTO A DOOM OF DEATH. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) Mary and Judas The parts of Mary and Judas in respect to the death of Christ are brought into sharp contrast. Mary in her devotion unconsciously provides for the honour of the dead. Judas in his selfishness unconsciously brings about the death itself. (Bp. Westcott.) Alabaster box and money box Mark the striking contrast between the money box of Judas and the alabaster box of Mary, his thirty pieces of silver and her three hundred denaries, his love of money and her liberality, his hypocritical profession of concern for the poor, and her noble deed for the Lord, his wretched end and her noble deed for the Lord. (P. Schaff, D. D.) Judas and the disciples In the synoptists it is “ His disciples” (Matthew). “ Some” (Mark), who remonstrate. It seems that on this as on many other occasions, Judas played among his fellow disciples the part of the leaven which raises the flour. (F. Godet, D. D.) Because he was a thief and had the bagJudas and the bag Why Jesus should have allowed Judas to carry the bag, when He knew that he could not resist the temptation to which it exposed him, is one of those mysteries which we shall only be able to answer when we understand why God allows any man to be exposed to temptation which He knows he will not be able to resist. It may be that Judas was first selected for this purpose, because he showed an aptitude for making such arrangements as were required for supplying the daily wants of the disciples, and for relieving the poor, and that the opportunity--the possession of the bag--had developed in him the hitherto latentfeeling of avarice. His sin consisted in appropriating to his own individual use some of the money which was given to him for the general good of Jesus and the disciples and the poor. That Judas was not an unblushing peculator, that he did not practise his thefts openly, but with the utmost secrecy, and with every outward appearance of upright dealing, is plain from the fact that the disciples do not seem to have suspected his motives on this occasion. They join with Judas in representing, that the value of the ointment might have been better spent in distributing to the poor, because they had not the slightest suspicion of his honesty. The fearful lesson, which the conduct of Judas teaches us, is the intimate relation which, in the nature of things, exists between appropriating to oneself the goods given to us in charge for Christ and His poor, and the betrayal of Christ Himself, between avarice and treason to Christ. The latter of these is the necessary consequence of the former, not the accidental but the moral consequence, not in Judas only, but in every man. Betrayal of Christ, in some form or other, follows the love of money as regularly and as certainly as night follows day. (F. H. Dunwell, B. A.) Christ and utilitarianism It is easy enough to give an ill name to that which lies beyond the range of our sense or our sympathies. Thus the refinement and culture which give a tone of ease and elegance to higher social circles are regarded by many with contempt. The rare and costly products of skilled labour, which our modern civilization demands, are despised as trivial luxuries. Education in whatever cannot be turned to account in a merchant’ s office, or in passing an examination, is deemed superfluous, however much it may enlarge and ennoble the scholar’ s mind. Even the moral delicacy of pure and sensitive natures is scorned as squeamishness. Men steeped in one class of religious ideas seem incapable of doing justice to those who hold other opinions. Mystical devotion sees profanity in thoughtful inquiry. The aesthetic ceremonial of a stately service is but mummery to those whose worship is of a simpler form. Of the purest, noblest, and most generous actions, which are veiled by their own grace, there is little comprehension by the world that toils and struggles all around for its daily bread. Its value in the market gave to the spikenard its only worth in the eyes of Judas. The manufacturer and retailer of it could be justified, for they made it only a means of gain; but not Mary, who poured it out like water in the mere gratification of sentiment. Yet surely if the dignity of human existence is recognized we may plead for a generous while just expenditure upon all that can sweeten and lend grace to life. Painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, have a rightful claim to be fostered. Foreign travel, social hospitality, instead of being forms of selfish indulgence, should enter into the education of whatever is best within us. Still more may we contend that the gifts of friendship, and the consecrated offerings of devotion, but fittingly express the reaching forth of the spirit after fuller and higher being. To value only what can be “ sold” is to appreciate least what in nature and man is most glorious, and most capable of affording exquisite and perfect satisfaction. The gold and purple of the sunset, the flushing tenderness of the dawn, the rippling songs of birds, the full-voiced chorus of breaking billows, the pure air fresh with the fragrant breath of wild flowers, the rain pouring its living draught into every arid blade and leaf, are God’ s free gifts to men. The innocent joy of childhood, the generous enthusiasm of youth, the strength of wisdom, the serenity of a holy trust in God--in what earthly market can these blessed things of the Spirit be bought or sold? With what coin can you purchase the tenderness of sympathy, the confidence of friendship, the devotion of love. The things that cannot be bartered, the price of which no merchant quotes, the value of which no figures can express, which no thief can steal, and no moth and rust corrupt, alone form the wealth of the soul. (J. R. S. Harrington.) Utility not the highest test The question cui bono, to what practical end and advantage do your researches tend? is one which the speculative philosopher, who loves knowledge for its own sake, can seldom hear without a sense of humiliation. He feels that there is a lofty and disinterested pleasure in his speculations which ought to exempt them from such questionings. The great minds of the past who thought and laboured for pure truth did not trammel themselves with the question of utility; yet many of the truths they discovered have, in after ages, found a use, and contributed even to man’ s material progress. (Sir J. Herschell.) Then said Jesus, let her alone. Mary’ s passionate love accepted 1. Christ often put aside enthusiasm. When men and women brought Him what looked like lovely flowers, He asked for sterner things. When the woman said, “ Blessed is the womb that bare Thee” ; when men brought Him a crown, and when the rich young man fell down and worshipped Him, He put their enthusiasm aside, chilled and damped. He would accept no sudden emotions and thoughtless impulses--flowers without roots soon to wither. 2. How different here. Who is to supply ice now? Judas the proper person. Jesus gathered this passion flower and put it forever into the garland of God--because I. MARY HAD BEEN GROWING IN LOVE. At first what joy it was to her to sit at the Master’ s feet; then when her brother came back, her joy and gratitude were overwhelming. She had good grounds for her love; and at last, with a fine impulse, she pours out her choicest gift at His feet. How many years had it been kept, too precious to be used! II. MARY’ S LOVE WAS HOLY. She had grown at His feet, and learned by His teaching. Now she could sit there no longer, she must render her tribute. To know what and how to give is one of the last achievements of good manners, one of the most delicate of tasks, and when successfully done, one of the most gracious of acts. It is also one of the greatest victories of the soul to properly receive a gift. Christ does not put by her gift. It is Judas who interferes now; and with his beggarly economics brings in the dirty scales of this world. “ Let her alone,” said Christ, “ she has done well.” Why? Because her whole soul was in it, and when the whole soul is in anything arithmetic has nought to do with it. When a little child offers its caresses to some cold-blooded woman, “ There, there, there,” she says, “ you have kissed me once, that’ ll do.” So the little mouth is put back, and the little heart chilled. Yes: it will do for her, for a second kiss wasted on that icicle would freeze the heart from which it came. III. MARY’ S GIFT CAME LAST. She had been contemplative, had heard His word, sat at His feet, and last, not first, came the spikenard. Because this passion flower was rooted in the heart and conscience and intellect of the woman, Christ rebuked Judas. Of all things in the house, these are the saddest--greetings where no friendship is, honeyed words which everybody gets, the same welcome for every fool, everybody’ s hand shaken alike. These things are hateful. But when the fair water lily, rising from the very bottom of the pool, deep rooted, slow climbing, at last reaches the light, and bursts forth into glory, Christ loves the flowers. Conclusion: What about the three hundred pence? The chances are that those who give to beggars do it without much heart interest; but to kiss those sacred feet, what were three hundred pounds! What has money to do here? Listen to the justification, “ I am going to die: there will be no more chance for her. These are flowers thrown on My grave.” (G. Dawson, M. A.) The recognition of a noble act I. CHRIST’ S MIND HIS DEATH 1. He looked forward to it. It was never absent from His mind. Here it emerges in a scene, the last apparently that could have suggested it. 2. He looked forward to a life above it, and Mary’ s act was grateful as revealing a love over which death had no power. 3. He had a pleasant view provided Him in regard to it. How cheered He must have been by this act with the cross imminent, and amid the murmuring and unbelief of His friends. II. CHRIST’ S MIND OUR SERVICE. 1. The timeliness of service. A word spoken, an act done in season, how good it is I There is a time to speak and to be silent, to work and to be still. We need to pray for wisdom. 2. Christ’ s recognition of our service. He knows what we do, and accepts the service, however trifling, because of the motive. 3. Christ’ s defence of freedom in our service. 4. Christ’ s loving construction to quicken our service. (J. Duthie.) The poor always ye have with you The claims of poverty This word extorted by the rapacity of Judas teaches us that poverty has its claims upon us which we must not neglect. From our definition of “ the poor” we exclude the systematic idler and professional beggar. The claims of the real poor are based on I. THE OF A COMMON NATURE. “ The rich and the poor the Lord is the Maker,” etc. A community of nature should 1. Awaken interest. 2. Stimulate sympathy. II. THE OF HUMAN SOCIETY. St. Paul’ s imagery of the body and the members (1 Corinthians 12:14-22) will illustrate this. The poor have their place in the social economy, and cannot be safely neglected. III. THE OF CHRIST’ S CHURCH 1. The Church is a body of which Christ is the Head. 2. The Church is indebted to the poor for some of the brightest testimonies to the power of Divine grace. It owes a debt in return. IV. THE OF HOLY WRIT. (Deuteronomy 15:11; Leviticus 23:22; 1 Samuel 2:7; Job 29:11-13; Psalms 41:1; Proverbs 14:31; Proverbs 17:5; Proverbs 20:2; Proverbs 21:31; Isaiah 25:4; Isaiah 58:7; Matthew 19:21; Matthew 25:36; James 2:14-16). The Bible is thus the poor man’ s book. (Clerical World.) The Church and the poor When the deacon St. Lawrence was asked, in the Decian persecution, to show the Prefect the most precious treasures of the Church at Rome, he showed him the sick, the lame, the blind. “ It is incredible,” said Lucian, the pagan jeerer and sceptic, “ to see the ardour with which those Christians help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first Legislator has put it into their heads that they are all brothers.” “ These Galileans,” said Julian the Apostate, “ nourish not only their own poor, but ours as well.” In the year 252 a plague raged in Carthage. The heathen threw out their dead and sick upon the streets, and ran away from them for fear of the contagion, and cursed the Christians. St. Cyprian, on the contrary, assembled his congregation, told them to love those who cursed them; and the rich working with their money, the poor with their hands, never rested till the dead, were buried, the sick cared for, and the city saved from destruction. (Archdeacon Farrar.) The poor represent Christ A rich youth in Rome had suffered from a dangerous illness. On recovering his health his heart was filled with gratitude, and he exclaimed, “ O Thou all-sufficient Creator I could man recompense Thee, how willingly would I give Thee all my possessions!” Hermas the herdsman heard this, and said to the rich youth, “ All good gifts come from above; thither thou canst send nothing. Come, follow me.” He took him to a but where was nothing but misery and wretchedness. The father lay on a bed of sickness; the mother wept; the children were destitute of clothing and crying for bread. Hermas said, “ See here an altar for the sacrifice; see here the Lord’ s brethren and representatives.” The youth assisted them bountifully; and the poor people called him an angel of God. Hermas smiled, and said, “ Thus turn always thy grateful countenance, first to heaven, and then to earth.” (J. Krummacher.) A motive for care of the poor and depraved A few miles above Montreal, the two great convergent rivers of British America, the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, meet. The St. Lawrence is a pure stream, of a peculiar, light-blue colour: the Ottawa is dark, as if it were tinged by moss in its way. After their meeting the two rivers run side by side a few miles, each occupying its own half of one broad bed; but gradually the boundary line disappears, and all the waters are mingled in one vast homogeneous flood. Although the life of the inhabitants below depended on preserving the pure cerulean hue of the St. Lawrence, it could not possibly be preserved. All the might of man cannot prevent the Ottawa from tingeing the united waters with its own dark shads. Unless the darkness can be discharged from its springs, that great affluent will effectually dye the main river in all its lower reaches. Behold the picture of the process by which the neglected children of our unsaved brother, meeting our own at a lower point in time’ s rolling current, will blot out the distinction which is now maintained. Behold the rod lifted up in our sight to prevent the neglect now, or punish it hereafter! The dark cellars in which ignorant, vicious, godless parents, now pen their hapless brood, are the springs which feed a mighty river. Our little ones rise in cleaner spots, and in the meantime a solid bank separates the streams. But that turbid river lies within the same basin, and by the laws of nature must converge towards the central channel of society. It is an affluent. We must accept the fact, for we cannot change it. We dread that dark stream which, at a little distance, is flowing parallel with our own. Over the embankments, now not very lofty, we hear sometimes the ominous gurgle of its rapid flow. There is only one way of subduing that terrible enemy. If we cower timidly in our own hiding place, the destruction which we thereby invite will quickly overtake us. In this warfare there is no armour for the back of the fugitive. Safety lies in facing the danger. The evil which in its issue is a deluge, may in its origin be success fully neutralized. Below you cannot keep the gathered volume out: above you may do muck to purify the rising spring. (W. Arnot, D. D.) Me ye have not always Christ absent and present (For a Communion: text and Matthew 28:20):--Like many passages these seem in contradiction; but if we grasp their deeper meaning they harmonize. Christ has given us a memorial of Himself in the Lord’ s Supper--a gem with two facets; on the one is written “ Me ye have not always;” on the other, “ Lo, I am with you alway.” They remind us that we have in Christ I. ONE WHO IS HUMAN AND DIVINE. 1. “ Me,” etc. There is something very human and touching in this farewell, which comes at first like a hint, and afterwards became more plain. And the absence of the personal Saviour from our Communion reminds us always of His death, and therefore of His true humanity. “ Forasmuch as the children,” etc. Let not the thought of His Divinity take away from our view of Him a single fibre of His true humanity. In this memorial of His death, “ Behold the sign.” 2. But “ Lo,” etc., reminds us that we have a Saviour who is Divine. So in the memory of His death we must realize His Divinity. The promise is not completed in the continuance of His words, example, influence, death, memorials going down from age to age. It is the promise of a presence which implies an omnipresence: so that at every Communion He is Divinely repeating the words, “ This is My body.” And if here, then everywhere--to protect, guide, comfort to the end. II. ONE WHOSE DEATH AS OUR SAVIOUR IS ALL- AND NOT LESS HIS LIFE. 1. His death is the first truth which meets us in the Supper, “ Me,” etc. He instituted it that His death might be kept in memory, and the manner of it--broken body and shed blood--the memorials twice put into our handsthat by two witnesses every word might be established. It is impossible to account for this without believing that His death was of supreme importance. Nor can we read the Bible without seeing this. The Old Testament points forward, and the Apostles point back to this. The Incarnation may serve other ends, but the first end to us is that Christ was “ made lower than the angels for the suffering of death,” etc. 2. But the other word must be spoken by one who is to be a complete Saviour. The Resurrection is connected with the death as the seal and assurance of its success. We have a monument of each--the Lord’ s table and the Lord’ s day, “ Who was delivered for our offences,” etc. III. ONE WHO OVER THE WORLD WHERE WE ARE GOING AND OVER THE WORLD IN WHICH WE NOW ARE. “ It is expedient for you,” etc. Christ goes up before, that He may lead the way and say, Come; but He comes to guide and guard on the journey to the place He has gone to prepare. If we had a Saviour only in heaven, we might doubt if ever we should reach heaven. So we have Him there in the noonday, here in the twilight; there amid the palms of victory, here in the heat of battle. “ For to this end Christ both died and rose,” etc. (J. Ker, D. D.) John 12:9-11 Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there.Learn 1. Where Christ pleaseth to make Himself known, He will get respect and followers, were there never so much hazard and opposition in the way; for albeit the Rulers had concluded to put Him to death, and He had withdrawn upon that, and they had given charge to spy Him out (chap. 11:53, 54, 57), yet much people of the Jews, so soon as they heard of Him, they flocked to Him. 2. Christ gives so glorious proofs of His power and love, as may invite men to flock unto Him; for He hath with Him Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead, to make them flock unto Him. 3. It is an argument to persuade Christ to help His people in their difficulties, that by so doing, He not only doth them good, but doth also bring about the manifestation of His glory, and an increase of followers; for, by raising Lazarus, He draws them out to wait upon Him (Psalms 7:6-7). 4. Albeit Christ will get glory, even by the unsound actings and appearings of men for Him (Philippians 1:16; Philippians 1:18; Psalms 66:8), yet it is the sin of many, that they flock to Him rather out of curiosity, than in sincerity, and that they choose rather to gaze upon His works, than fall in love with the worker; for such was their fault here. They were curious to see such a rare sight, and possibly also, to inquire somewhat of Him concerning the state of the dead. (G. Hutcheson.) Not for Jesus’ sake only Imperfect attachments to Christ I. SPECIFY SOME OF THESE . Those whose attachment is influenced. 1. By custom. It was the fashion of the hour to be interested in Christ (John 12:12; John 12:19). May we not truly say that the power of fashion has something still to do with assembling men about Christ. (1) For His sake only ought we to worship in the sanctuary; but we go also because the respectable multitude is there. (2) For His sake only ought we to give; but are not our givings prompted and regulated by social considerations? (3) For His sake only ought we to work; but do we not cast side glances at the public and reckon somewhat on their approbation? 2. By intellectual considerations. “ For my sake,” i.e., personal love to Christ ought to bind us to Him, and prompt all our obedience and service. “ But that they might see Lazarus” --intellectual interest--learn something per chance about the unseen world. Not for His own sake, but because of the light He may shed on great questions. How many in our day congregate about Christ as a prophet, and only faintly realize in Him a Saviour! 3. By secular considerations. Interest sways men in the matter. Virtues are valued as they pay; and Christ is chosen not for His own sake only, but also because of the immediate bearing that Christianity has on our worldly interest (chap. 6:26). 4. By a regard to moral aesthetics. Not loving Christ only, enamoured with His grace and righteousness, but “ cultivating holiness as so much personal adornment.” Not loving Christ because He is the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world, but admiring Christianity because it fashions noble nations. Thus there may be much that is false and mixed in the feelings which lead men to throng Christ. Fashion is there, because Christ has acquired social credit: intellect is there, because Christ can satisfy some of the hunger of its curiosity: taste is there, because in the shadow of Jesus it can realize some of its ideals: and prudence and policy are there, not because Christ is truth and love, but because He creates loaves and fishes of which they eat and are filled. II. THE PLACE AND VALUE OF SUCH . 1. They may be allowed as the starting point of Christian discipleship. Many are drawn to Christ not by the highest, and yet by legitimate, motives. Their first ideas, motives, and hopes, mixed and inferior, and yet leading on to what is purer and more perfect. As Matthew Henry says, “ God makes the best of the green ears of wheal” ; and because He does so, the green ears become golden, fit for the garner of God. 2. But the prize to which we must all press is that of a personal love to Christ. For His sake only. Not only when He will answer our mental questionings, but also when He is silent; not only when He is fashionable, but when He is forsaken; not only when discipleship insures honour and wealth, but when it involves poverty and disgrace; not only because He makes us perfect, but because He is perfection. Conclusion--Jesus only. 1. Here we are safe. 2. Here we are supremely joyful. 3. Here we, forgetting everything else, shall find far more than we have forgot. (W. L. Watkinson.) But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death Learn 1. Such as betake themselves to bear down Christ do engage themselves in an endless vexing life and an harder task than they are able to undergo; for they who would kill Jesus would put Lazarus also to death. Yea, they would kill many who would kill all whom Christ made objects of His mercy, for inviting others to come to Him (Exodus 1:12). 2. Men once engaged in opposition to Christ will not readily be reclaimed by insuperable difficulties, nor the convincing beams of His glory shining in their eyes; for, albeit this was a glorious work prevailing on others, and albeit they see more and more impediments in their way, yet they will go on. 3. None are so malicious and bitter enemies to Christ as corrupt churchmen, when they once decline; for it is the chief priests who are so cruel as to kill a man for being the harmless occasion for drawing men to Christ and whom God had newly delivered from death, and testified He would have Him live. 4. It is the great preferment, and most special mercy that can be conferred on any when they are made means and instruments of advancing Christ’ s honour and kingdom; for this was Lazarus’ dignity, that because many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. It is not needful to assert that the faith of the most of them was sound, but the least degree of it in the worst of them was enough to irritate the rulers. 5. Such as have received special mercies from Christ, or are made instruments of His glory, may expect that they shall meet with a rub, and be made the butt of the malice of enemies; for there is a resolution against Lazarus’ life, who was thus highly honoured. 6. How mad soever enemies be, or their projects cruel; yet they would be far enough from their point, if Christ pleased, though they got their will; for, suppose they had put Lazarus to death, could not Christ raise him up again as He had done even lately to their knowledge, and so make His glory shine yet more brightly? (G. Hutcheson.) Putting the witness away 1. The conduct of these men presents the chief difficulty in the way of the hope of some final universal salvation. For hardening themselves against Christ, they reveal the power of the human heart to become utterly blinded to the truth, even while the Life of Love is an increasing light round about it. The difficulty lies not in the nature of God or in the Cross of Christ, or in any temporal bounds put on the omnipresence of the Spirit of God; but the obstacle at which our knowledge must stop lies deep in the will of man and its fearful possibilities of evil. 2. The simple reason why they sought to put Lazarus to death was that “ many of the Jews went away (from them) and believed on Jesus.” But that thought was only an exaggeration of a common tendency of our human nature. For consider how natural it was. They had no special spite against Lazarus, but they did not wish to lose their power. As consistent Sadducees they could not allow his resurrection, but his existence was an unwelcome suggestion of its possibility, and an evidence of it which was misleading the people. Dogmatists must always close their minds against evidences of new truth. 1500 years later the same men would have put Lazarus to the rack until he recanted. 1800 years later they would have broken down his influence by misrepresentation and appeals popular prejudice in the organs of their sect. If we do not want to receive Christ or His truth, the next thing for us is to put away anything that may remind us of it. This is illustrated I. IN THE OF TOWARDS DUTY. In the troubled days before the American civil war there were merchants who did not wish to have their profits stopped. Selfish politicians who for the sake of office and ease were willing to reject the truth of freedom, and ready to put down every Lazarus whose presence was leading the people away after the new faith. II. IN THE OF TOWARD THE GOSPEL. 1. In the book of the lives of martyrs and witnesses we find abundant illustrations in the conduct of the Roman emperors, in that of the papacy, and in that of the opponents of popular movements who refuse to inquire what unheeded truths are beneath them, or what more human gospel may be waiting to enter our cities. 2. An obvious exemplification is the counsel of irreligious men to put the Church or the Bible out of the way. Social Sadducees cannot secure their reign in an anarchic humanity, so long as the people have the Bible in their homes, and so long as the churches stand to bear witness to the gospel. III. Is our OWN TOWARDS THE TRUTH. 1. Christ draws nigh the cities of our souls in a duty, privilege, opportunity, clearer perception of truth. How do we receive His approach? We saw that it would interfere with our plan of life, disturb our ease, spoil our pleasure, leave us poorer, and we become afraid lest we should yield. And there was something near which reminded us of it. At least we could get rid of that. It may have been the sight of a friend; we avoided him: some spectacle of want or suffering; we passed by on the other side: some inward feeling or thought; we repressed it. So we remembered to forget that duty. We put its Lazarus where he would not trouble us. 2. Christ draws near sometimes in a new sense of faith, or hope, or possibility of life richer, truer, happier; and then we turn and other desires of life gather quickly round us, and the vision fades: we belong to the world again. We put that Lazarus also to death. (Newman Smyth.) John 12:12-16 On the next day much people … when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of the palm trees The triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem In the morning Jesus set forth on His journey. Three pathways lead, and probably always led, from Bethany to Jerusalem; one a long circuit over the northern shoulder of Mount Olivet; another a steep foot path over the summit; the third, the natural continuation of the road, by which the mounted travellers always approach the city from Jericho over the southern shoulder. There can be no doubt that this last was Christ’ s road. Two vast streams of people met on that day. The one poured out from the city; and as they came through the gardens, whose clusters of palm trees rose on the southern corner of Olivet, they cut down the long branches, as was their wont at the Feast of Tabernacles, and moved upwards towards Bethany, with loud shouts of welcome. From Bethany streamed forth the crowds who had assembled there on the previous evening, and who came testifying to the great event at the sepulchre of Lazarus. The road soon loses sight of Bethany. It is now a rough, but still broad and well-defined mountain track, winding over rock and loose stones; a steep declivity below on the left; the sloping shoulder of Olivet above on the right; fig trees below and above, here and there growing out of the rocky soil. Along the road the multitudes threw down the boughs severed from the olive trees, through which they were forcing their way, or spread out a rude matting formed of the palm branches which they had already cut as they came out. The larger portion--those, perhaps, who had escorted Him from Bethany--unwrappedtheir loose cloaks from their shoulders, and stretched them along the rough paths to form a momentary carpet as He approached. The two streams met mid-way. Half of the vast mass, turning round, preceded; the other half followed (Mark 11:9). Bethany is hardly left in the rear, before the long procession must have swept up and over the ridge, where first begins “ the descent of the mount towards Jerusalem.” At this point the first view is caught of the southeastern corner of the city. It was here (Luke 19:37)--may it not have been from the sight thus opening upon them?--thatthe hymn of triumph, the first hymn of Christian devotion, burst from the multitude--“ Hosannah,” etc. There was a pause as the shout rang through the long defile; and as the Pharisees who stood by in the crowd Luke 19:39) complained, He pointed to the stones which, strewn beneath their feet, would immediately cry out if these were to hold their peace. Again the procession advanced. The road descends a slight declivity, and the glimpse of the city is again withdrawn behind the intervening ridge of Olivet. A few moments, and the path mounts again; it climbs a rugged ascent, it reaches a ledge of smooth rock, and in an instant the whole city bursts into view. It is hardly possible to doubt that this rise and turn of the road was the exact point where the multitude paused again, and “ He, when He beheld the city, wept over it.” (Dean Stanley.) The entrance into Jerusalem Four heads of thought I. THE . This a vast concourse of people who are accompanying Jesus from Bethany to Jerusalem, and of people coming out of Jerusalem to meet Him. It was composed of Galileans, of Jews from foreign countries, and even of Jerusalem (John 12:11), these latter being led by the miracle of the raising of Lazarus to reconsider the claims of Jesus, and to believe on Him, at least temporarily. The enthusiasm offers a sad contrast to the furious cry. “ Crucify Him,” so soon to be heard; but it seems sincere enough. With palm branches, symbols of triumph Leviticus 23:40), and with loud acclamations, they welcome the King to the royal city. In John 12:13 we have the Divine mission and the national work both recognized. II. JESUS HIMSELF. Hitherto He had resisted the enthusiasm of the people John 6:15); now the time to yield to it has come. He sees the yielding to be in accordance with the Father’ s will. It is not a move calculated upon, but unfolding itself out of, the course of events. He does not say, “ Now I will fulfil the prophecies which concern Me” ; but simply accepts the situation, recognizing (as He always did) Divine guidance. Two things have to be done: 1. He has to assert Himself; He has openly to announce His true relation to the theocracy, and to take the consequences of doing so, which He clearly foresees. 2. He has to assert Himself in such a way as to give no countenance to mistaken Messianic ideas; but rather to symbolize the spiritual character of His royalty. This is accomplished by riding on an ass, and thus, in the most simple and natural way, the ancient prophecy is fulfilled (Zechariah 9:9). III. THE . They had joined with the people in their homage to Jesus; but even they did not understand the significance of their actions. They had submitted to the influences of the moment; and afterwards, looking back, discovered that they had been unconscious instruments of fulfilling the purpose of God concerning His Son (cf. Acts 13:27) . IV. THE OF CHRIST. For the moment they seem paralyzed. “ They had lost what they looked upon as their own. But it was their own after all; and it came back to them. The world at large does not and will not accept Christ. It swings back to its centre. Conclusion: We may learn how to distinguish between emotion and principle” between a momentary enthusiasm and the complete surrender of heart and will to the Saviour. (G. Calthrop, M. A.) Jesus coming I. TO HIS FOES. II. TO CONSOLE HIS FRIENDS. III. TO HIS WORK. The coming of Jesus I. AS A MAN AMONG MEN. II. AS A POWER AMONG SAINTS. III. AS A KING AMONG NATIONS. (S. S. Times.) The King comes to His capital I. THE KING’ S PERSON. Jesus 1. Recently condemned by the Sanhedrim. 2. Who had tacitly claimed to be Zion’ s King. 3. Who had repeatedly proved His right to this dignity, and lately established it by the miracle at Bethany. 4. Who now asserted it in the most open and unambiguous manner by riding in royal state into His capital. II. THE KING’ S 1. Consisted in the fact that He was coming to His metropolis in the name of the Lord. He was no usurper, but One to whom the throne belonged by Divine appointment. The crown pertained to Him in a more real sense than to any of Israel’ s kings. 2. Were displayed in the manner of His coming. He came exactly as predicted. Had He come as kings of the earth are wont to approach their capitals--as Solomon and His successors--on fiery chargers, there would have been required no further demonstration that He was not God’ s Messiah. He came in humility and righteousness--indisputable tokens of His claim. III. THE KING’ S WELCOME. 1. The multitudes--accompanying, meeting. 2. Their homage--waving palms and strewing garments in the way. 3. Their acclaim--Hosannah. IV. THE KING’ S . The disciples. 1. Ignorant at the time of its significance; perhaps imagining the present realization of their earthly hopes. 2. Afterwards alive to its spiritual and eternal meaning. IV. THE KING’ S ENEMIES. The Pharisees. The spectacle seemed for a moment to confound their plots. It filled them with indignation, urged them to recrimination, made them more determined. Caiaphas’ prophecy appeared on the eve of coming true. The nation was slipping from their hands. Lessons: 1. The religious instincts of the multitudes. 2. The credibility of ancient Scripture; 3. The illumination Christ’ s glorification has cast on history. 4. The certainty that the world will ultimately be won by Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Welcoming the Monarch’ s approach Going out to meet an approaching guest, and escorting him to one’ s house with a show of honour, is a common custom throughout the East. A ruler of any sort, or a conquering hero, is welcomed in that way as a matter of course. Thus it was that Abraham was welcomed by the kings of Canaan when he returned from his pursuit of Chedorlaomer; that Jephthah was welcomed by his daughter and her companions; that David was welcomed by singing and dancing women, out of all the cities of Israel, as he came back from the slaughter of the Philistines. Herodotus records that when Xerxes was passing over the bridge of the Hellespont, the way before him was strewed with branches of myrtle, while burning perfumes filled the air. Quintius Curtius tells of the scattering of flowers in the way before Alexander the Great when he entered Babylon. Mentor, in our own day, saw the way of a Persian ruler strewn with roses for three miles; while glass vessels filled with sugar were broken under his horse’ s feet--the sugar being symbolical of prosperity. (S. S. Times.) Two royal progresses The immense host which accompanied Xerxes in his attempted conquest of Greece--a concourse gathered together from the Indies to the Lybian desert; a sea of nations rolling on in serried waves, with turbans and helmets of brass and steel, of silver and gold--were seven days and seven nights without intermission, and under the stimulus of the lash, in crossing the boat bridges of the Hellespont; and as they took up their line of march, they all moved on with exultation, and strewed branches in the pathway of their king. But what a contrast in spirit, in purpose, and in result, between that occasion and this! There, a vast army, held together by the bands of military force, and moving in abject submission; here, a spontaneous multitude, kindling with the impulses of wonder and of love. That, marching to the work of terror and of desolation; this, celebrating the achievements of a healing and restoring goodness. Here, among a rejoicing people, with eyes that had been blind, turned toward Him in beaming gratitude; with tongues that had been dumb, crying hosannas to His name; with hands that once were impotent, strewing branches and garments in His path, comes the King of Israel, the Saviour of mankind, in humble raiment and wayworn sandals, riding upon an ass. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.) Three classes in relation to Christ Two things strike us at the outset. 1. The highest majesty under the garb of meanness. Christ as a mere man was great. But how does this “ Prince of the kings of the earth” enter Jerusalem? In a triumphal chariot? On a prancing steed, accompanied by a magnificent cavalcade? No! On an ass. The more truly kingly a man is, the less he cares for conventional pageantry. Hearts of oak requires neither veneer nor varnish. A great age has never been an age of millinery and gold rings. “ Howe’ er it be, it seems to me,” etc. 2. An eternal idea developed in an apparently incidental appearance. It seemed perfectly casual that Christ should have required a creature to ride upon, and that there should be such a creature at hand; but all this was but the carrying out of an eternal plan, indicated six hundred years before. Caprice and impulse had no part in the control of Christ’ s life. The life of virtue is never that of accident; it is always the unfoldment of an eternal idea. We have here I. THE , a type of the unsophisticated masses unbiassed by doctrinal and ecclesiastical prejudices. These men 1. Saw Divine royalty under the garb of secular meanness. Men in our age and land are so blinded by pride and prejudice that they can discover no moral greatness under the garb of poverty. 2. Because enraptured with the morally great for its own sake. Conscience is bound by the law of its own constitution to exult in the right and morally great. “ I delight in the law of God after the inner man.” 3. Felt the reality of Christ’ s miracle. The sophisticated and prejudiced tried to argue it away, and refused to believe it. But the common people saw it, and had no interest in denying it. Thus the “ people” went with Christ and honoured Him; and this they will always do if Christ is presented to them as He really is, not as metamorphosed by churches and creeds. II. THE . 1. They were partially informed (John 12:16). They knew nothing of what Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9) uttered in relation to Christ. Though they had been with Christ so long, and heard Him expound the Scriptures, they were yet very ignorant. 2. They were enlightened by history. After Christ had ascended, and the Spirit come down, a new light dawned upon them. The facts of His life were brought vividly to their minds, and were compared with their older Scriptures, when they saw the fulfilment, of ancient predictions. History is the best interpreter of prophecy. III. THE (verse19). These men were 1. Bound to acknowledge the failure of their efforts. “ Ye prevail nothing.” All the antagonists of Christianity will have to acknowledge this sooner or later. 2. Bound to acknowledge a most disagreeable fact. “ The world is gone after Him.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 12:16-18 These things understood not His disciples at first 1.Men may be in the midst of great mercies and actings, and may not only be witnesses of the Lord’ s working and the works of others, but even actors themselves in that which for the time they do little or nothing understand; for these things understood not the disciples at the first. Men have much brutish ignorance fed with inadvertency and may be little expecting the things that God is doing in such a time or case (Genesis 16:13; Genesis 28:16), and therefore do not discern them. 2. When the Lord’ s people are ignorant and under a cloud, He useth not to take advantage of them, but can guide them as right as may be, so that a back-look thereunto when they get light will be sweet unto them; for in all this they act as rightly as if they had understood, and afterward they find that what was written of Him they had done unto Him (Psalms 73:22-24). 3. However, the Lord for a time suffer His people to lie under clouds, and ignorant of what He or they are doing, yet in due time He will clear them in so far as is needful; for afterward they remembered (John 13:7). 4. The treasures of knowledge hid up in Christ were not fully opened up till Christ was glorified; for when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they, etc. Hereby is kept a due proportion betwixt the head and his members, that he shall be first exalted before they get their full allowance. And hereby also Christ being exalted giveth evidence that He remembers His people (John 7:39; Acts 2:33; Ephesians 4:8). 5. Confession of infirmity and ignorance is a sweet fruit of the Spirit poured out; and the more one have received they will be the more sensible of, and ready to acknowledge their frailties; for John, the beloved disciple, being now enlightened, is most forward to record that they understood not these things at the first. 6. When the Spirit of God is most amply poured out, He will still lead men to the Scriptures to discern of Christ and compare their own actings by it; for so was it in the disciples’ best days, they remembered that these things were written of Him and that they had done these things to Him. It is an evidence of Christ’ s being exalted at the right hand of the Father for the good of His people when He brings Scriptures to their minds, makes them clear to them, and clears their practice there, for, when Jesus was glorified, this was a comfortable evidence of it, they remembered these things. (G. Hutcheson.) Prophecy I. GOD DOES IN HIS WORD MANY EVENTS BEFORE THEY COME TO PASS. This appears from the text and from the whole history of His conduct from the first prediction of Genesis to the last in Revelation. Witness the fulfilled promises concerning the Jews, heathen nations, Christ, His Church, etc. II. GOD ALWAYS BRINGS TO PASS THE EVENTS WHICH HE . This will appear if we consider 1. That we have no evidence that. He has ever failed to bring to pass any event that He has foretold. Though the disciples did not know at first that Zechariah’ s prophecy had been fulfilled, they knew it afterwards. 2. God never foretold any events but such as (1) He was willing to bring to pass. He never could be under any compulsion to foretell. (2) His own glory requires to be brought to pass. (3) He is able to bring to pass. God can do anything that power can do and that does not involve a contradiction. His opponents He can break in pieces. III. GOD HAS GOOD REASONS FOR EVENTS BEFORE THEY COME TO PASS. 1. To convince men that He is concerned in bringing them about. 2. To demonstrate the truth of His bringing to pass other events not predicted. Predicted events stand inseparably related to unpredicted. The Messianic prophecies are connected with other events which took place in every part of the world. Improvement: It appears from the design of prophecy, that the Bible predictions 1. Are the last He will ever give (Revelation 22:18-19). 2. Will answer their end though not understood till fulfilled. 3. Being disbelieved does not destroy their evidence or importance. 4. Are an infallible evidence of the truth of the Bible. (N. Emmons, D. D.) The continuous fulfilment of Scripture There was much written as in sympathetic ink, invisible for a season, yet ready to flash out in lines and characters of light whenever the appointed hour had arrived. Or to use another figure, Holy Scripture progressively unfolding what it contains may be likened to some magnificent landscape on which the sun is gradually rising, and even as it rises is bringing out one headland into light and prominence, and then another; anon kindling the glory smitten summit of some far mountain, and presently lighting up the recesses of some near valley which had hitherto abided in gloom, and so travelling on till nothing remains in shadow, but the whole prospect stands out in the clearness and splendour of the brightest noon. The Church informed and quickened by the Spirit of God, more and more discovers what in Scripture is given her. She has always possessed what she now possesses, only not always with the same distinctness of consciousness. He has not added to her wealth, but she has become more and more aware of that wealth; her dowry has remained always the same, but that dowry was so rich and rare that only little by little she has counted over and taken stock and inventory of her jewels. She has consolidated her doctrine compelled thereto by the provocation of her enemies, or induced to it by a growing sense of her own needs. She has brought together utterances of Holy Writ, and those which apart were comparatively barren, when thus married, have been fruitful to her. And yet all this she possessed implicitly though not explicitly--even as the shut hand is as perfect a hand as the open, or as our dominion in that huge island of the Pacific is as truly ours, and that region as vast in extent now as it will be when every mountain and valley, rivulet and bay, have been explored, and the flag of England has waved over all. (Archbishop Trench.) The people therefore … bare record The popular testimony to the resurrection of Lazarus 1. It is the part of all such as have been witnesses to Christ’ s working on themselves or others to publish the same to His praise; for the people that was with Him when He called Lazarus, etc., bare record. 2. As it is at all times a sin to smother the praises of Christ. So, in particular, in days of solemnity, it is our sin not to join and bring in what we know to make up the song, for they bring in that particular to make up the triumph. 3. In a day of Christ’ s power, and when He is to get glory to Himself, He can furnish means and make them effectual to bring it to pass, for He makes that miracle an occasion to bring about this triumph. 4. It may encourage men to publish the praise of Christ’ s working as they know of it, that God may make their weak endeavours effectual to work upon very many, for the testimony of some drew out this great confluence to Christ. 5. It is the duty of them who hear anything of Christ’ s commendation to go and seek Him, and do homage to Him, for, for this cause, the people also met Him, for that they had heard that He had done this miracle. (G. Hutcheson.) John 12:19 Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing?Behold the world is gone after Him The failure of infidelity Like the prediction of Caiaphas and the inscription of Pilate, an unconscious prophecy is hidden in these words. What the Pharisee affirmed hyperbolically Christ’ s friends may now affirm almost literally. Note I. THE OF THE GOSPEL. Four important facts concerning this pro-gross are admitted by friends and foes. 1. That during the first four centuries it was rapid and extensive. 2. That its human instruments were few and feeble. 3. That it was in spite of bitter and persistent opposition. 4. That it was not achieved in the dark, but in the most enlightened age of antiquity, and in the most populous and polished of ancient cities. The company of one hundred and twenty soon became three thousand, then five thousand men alone, then multitudes in Jerusalem only. In less than half a century Christian Churches were planted in all the chief cities of the Roman empire; in less than three centuries more, it was the religion of that empire. And from that day it has continued to spread until the most civilized nations are Christian and become Christian. II. THE EFFORTS OF TO STOP THAT . Such was the nature of the opposition to Christianity that if our standpoint had been the first instead of the nineteenth century we should be forced to the conclusion that it would fail. 1. The Jewish world opposed it. The rulers crucified its Author but that effort was unavailing, for Christ rose again. They killed Stephen and James, but the disciples, driven in every direction, spread the gospel. Wherever the apostles went the Jews stirred up the people against them; but being persecuted in one city they fled to another preaching until thousands of Jews, including many priests, became obedient to the faith. 2. The Gentile world opposed it. Polytheism was so firmly enthroned in the hearts of the people, and so completely interwoven with the government, the arts and trade, that Christianity was regarded as treason against religion, the state, common sense and good taste. First, the Christians were slandered and ridiculed, then slaughtered in thousands. But all the efforts of the empire and paganism combined prevailed nothing. 3. The modern world has opposed it. Changing its tactics, infidelity, instead of assaulting men bodily, has assailed their minds and hearts, and marshalled its hosts under the banners of science and literature. But still it prevails nothing. III. WHY HAS FAILED. The Christian answer is because the hand of God is in the progress of Christianity. The answer of infidelity--in human instrumentality--refutes itself. Infidelity has failed because 1. It has dashed itself against the Rock of Ages. There is no successful arguing against such a character as Christ. 2. The evidences of Christianity are too convincing, intelligent people would not continue for nineteen centuries to use a remedy that never cures. 3. Infidelity has no substitute for Christianity. (W. B. Stewart, D. D.) The world is gone after Him It is a confession of defeat, “ There has been a long struggle and it has gone against us.” The triumphal entry had shown the hold which Christ had on the people. I. WHAT WAS IT IN CHRIST WHICH SO DEEPLY STIRRED THE ENMITY OF THE ? 1. We are in some respects hard on the Pharisees. When Christ called them hypocrites, He meant that sort of doubleness which may be but half conscious, or which may be quite unconscious to the man himself. They were moral men, and it is not hard to reconcile this with their conduct towards Christ. Who are they now, who are most sensitive to the appearance of what they regard as irregular teachers of religion? And who can wonder if the last to give their sympathy to the new doctrine are the established exponents of the old? 2. Doubtless it was the sin of the Pharisees to be prejudiced against Christ, but we lose the lesson if we regard them as monsters of the past, which is the danger of prejudice in things of the soul. We ought not to be so wedded to one form or formula as to be incapable of profiting by any new light. II. WHAT WAS IT THAT MADE THE WORLD GO AFTER HIM. 1. Reality. We may trifle with Christ; but He never trifles with us. The Pharisees were triflers, as are their modern representatives, whether of wealth, literature, or the Church. Men then, as now, were weary with childish discussions, and were then, as now, ready to follow a real man who meant and lived what he said. 2. Unworldliness. It is a mistake for a religious teacher to court popularity by compromise with the world, “ All things to all men.” The people see through it all and despise the man who flatters himself that he has won them. The secret of John the Baptist’ s power was his unworldliness, and it was the incomparable unworldliness of Christ that attracted the world after Him. 3. Wonderful love. It was new to publicans and sinners to be treated with love, and still more strange that with the love of Christ there should be blended such an inflexible righteousness. But the people followed Him because of the love which won them from the sin which purity condemned. (Dean Vaughan.) Why Christianity triumphed Our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over the established religions of the earth. To this inquiry an obvious but satisfactory answer may be given, that it was owing to the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and to the ruling providence of the great Author. (Gibbon.) The triumph of Christianity During the decay of the Roman Empire, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the Cross on the ruins of the capitol. Nor was the influence of Christianity confined to the period or to the limits of the Roman Empire. After a revolution of thirteen or fourteen centuries that religion is professed by the nations of Europe, the most distinguished portion of the human kind in arts and learning as well as in arms. By the industry and zeal of the Europeans, it has been widely diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa, and by the means of their colonies has been firmly established from Canada to Chili, in a world unknown to the ancients. (Gibbon.) John 12:20-33 And there came certain Greeks;…the same came therefore to Philip … saying, Sir, we would see Jesus The incident and its significance These Greeks belonged to those numerous Gentiles who, like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:1-40) had embraced Judaism and came to Jerusalem to keep its festivals. They must be carefully distinguished from the Jews (Hellenists) speaking the Greek language, who dwelt in heathen lands. The spacious court of the Gentiles was devoted to these proselytes according to the words of Solomon (1 Kings 8:41-43). If these strangers witnessed the entry of Jesus, and were present at the expulsion of the sellers--an act by which Jesus restored to its proper use the only part of the sanctuary open to them--we can all the better appreciate their desire for nearer acquaintance with such a person. Assuredly they did not, like Zacchaeus, want merely to see Jesus with their bodily eyes; for such a purpose there was no need of Philip’ s intervention, since they might have seen Him as He passed through the court. Besides, the solemnity of our Lord’ s reply obliges us to attribute a more serious intention to this step. What they desired was to have a private conversation on religious subjects. How do we know even whether, having witnessed the opposition He encountered from the rulers of His own nation, they did not desire to invite Him to turn to the Gentiles who would better appreciate such a sage than these bigoted Jews? Eusebius has preserved the memory of an embassy sent to Jesus by Abgarus, king of Edessa, in Syria, to invite Him to take up His abode with Him, and to promise Him such a royal welcome as should compensate Him for the obstinacy with which the Jews rejected Him. This fact is not without resemblance to the one in the text, and in which we behold, in one of the first demonstrations of the heathen world in favour of the Gospel, the first indication of that attraction which its moral beauty was soon to exercise over the whole human race. Jesus was undoubtedly, at the time, in the court of the women, which was entered after crossing that of the Gentiles, and in which He frequently taught. The term “ approached” has a certain tone of gravity and solemnity. The address, “ Sir,” shows the respect they felt for the disciple of such a Master. “ They desired,” expresses an action begun and awaiting its completion, the answer of Philip. Θέλομεν--“ We have decided to … ” ; procure us therefore the means--“ to see.” These strangers used the most modest expression: to see Him more closely. The fact that Philip was of Bethsaida may serve to explain why they applied to him. They came perhaps from Decapolis on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, where were several entirely Greek cities. It is remarkable that Philip and Andrew are alone those whose names were of Greek origin. The Greek name went hand in hand with the Greek culture, Mark the cautious character of Philip. He feels the gravity of the step he is asked to take, and before asking Jesus to deviate from His habitual conduct (Matthew 15:24) brings the matter before Andrew, who in all the catalogues of the apostles is placed next to Philip, and are mentioned together in chapters 1 and 6. It is probable that the latter, the more vigorous and decided character, was the spokesman, and that this is the reason why his name is placed first. Why did this circumstance make so profound an impression on Jesus? First it aroused within Him the feeling of His sovereignty over the Gentile world. Religious wants expressed by Gentiles and to Him! It is, as it were, the first bursting forth of a new world. But this sovereignty could only be realized so far as He should Himself be freed from His Jewish covering and raised to a new form of existence. Hence His thoughts turned to Calvary. Hence, instead of answering yes or no to the question, He was absorbed in the reflections it called forth, The Gentiles were knocking at the door of the kingdom of God: it was the signal that a decisive hour had come (1) For Himself (verses 23-30); (2) For the human race (verses 31-33); (3) Especially for Israel (verses 34-36). (F. Godet, D. D.) Seeing Christ It is one of the many curious things that assure us that the Gospels themselves are substantially fragments out of the real life and times of Jesus Christ, that these men should be Greeks, at that time probably the most inquisitive and newsy race on earth. They had come, I presume, from Corinth or Ephesus; and, when they went back home, the first question would be, “ What’ s the news?” Now, the news was Jesus. He was just then the common subject of discussion; and it would be a great thing for them, when they got home, to say, “ We have seen Jesus, and talked with Him.” And the answer of Christ, though it seems at the first glance to be no answer at all, touches the very heart of all such question and answer, and is, beside that, a beautiful instance of the rich, transcendental nature of this Son of God: “ Except a corn of wheat,” etc. As if He would say, “ These men want to see Me. What can they gain by that? What they will see is not Me. The root is not the flower. This common, footsore man, with this poor brown face, so thin and worn that men think I may be nearly fifty, while I am but thirty--what can I be to men whose ideal is Apollo? My simple words about God and man, and duty and destiny, would be foolishness to them. Let them wait until the world burns with the lustre of what is sprung out of Me. When I have whispered my comfort and confidence to millions of desolate souls; when I have created new homes for purity and peace to dwell in, and brought men and women and children back to the Divine will; when the love and truth and self-sacrifice of which God has made me, though I seem but a poor peasant, shall have done what all the genius of all the ages has failed to do; when I have hushed the fevered heart of the world to rest, and quickened it into a new life--then they can see Me. But I must die to live.” (R. Collyer, D. D.) The two Epiphanies There were two manifestations of our Lord to the Gentiles. One took place at the beginning and the other at the close of His life. The Magi, the wise men of the East, came to the cradle of Jesus; the Greeks, the wise men of the West, came to His cross. The old world of the East, with its exhausted history and completed revelation, came to the cradle of the Child of Promise to receive a fresh impulse, to share in the new creation of God and rejuvenescence of the world. The new world of the West with its mobile life, its ever expanding history, its glowing hopes and aspirations, came to the cross of the Redeemer that it might receive a deeper earnestness and a higher consecration. In these two Epiphanies we see harmoniously united the two great systems of pagan religion which separately were but a mere fragment of the truth, and contained no hope or promise of blessing for man. The Orientals had the humiliation of the Godhead as dimly shadowed forth in the Avatars of Vishnu and Buddha; the Greeks had the exaltation of manhood as shown in the apotheosis of the heroes of the Pantheon. Thus appropriately the representatives of the wisdom of the East and the West came respectively to the birth and death of Him who, though He was the equal of God, yet took on Him the form of a servant, and whom God had highly exalted, giving Him a name which is above every name. Equally significant were the symbols of the two manifestations. In both cases they were borrowed from the field of nature. The one was a star, the other a corn of wheat. The star of the wise men of the East--the watchers of the midnight heavens--was changeless as the life and religion of the East. It rose and set, and moved in its orbit forever the same. The corn of wheat of the Greeks--those restless searchers into the meaning of everything on earth--grew to more and more, and exhibited all the changes and variations of life. The one was a symbol of the night with its dreams and mysteries and spiritual thoughts; the other of the day with its stern facts and active duties and daily bread. “ Sir, we would see Jesus” was but another form of the old question which the wise men asked, “ Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” The wise men of the East were guided to Christ by a star, a dead silent object of nature. But the Greeks were guided to Him by the living voice and hand of man. And how characteristic was this circumstance of the difference between the Orientals and the Greeks! The Orientals shaped their philosophy and religion in the changeless desert, under the passionless starry heavens, from the calm contemplation of the objects of nature which entered so largely into their worship. The Greeks shaped their philosophy and religion amid the ever-changing haunts of man, and in contact with the busy work of everyday life. Not through the sympathy of nature, but through the fellowship of man, did they rise to their conception of man’ s origin and destiny, and their solution of the profound mysteries which surround his present and future. It was fitting therefore that they should be guided to Christ, in whom all their hopes should be fulfilled, and all their mysteries solved, not by a star but by their fellow men. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) East and West coming to Christ This is a companion picture to the visit of the Magi--science and thought seeking Christ. The Magi, on the one side, are the representatives of the world’ s godly scientists, the forerunners of the Galileos, the Keplers, the Newtons, and the Faradays, who never stop at laws but reach to their giver, “ from nature rise to nature’ s God;” who refuse to see the world as a stage only on which man may stand or strut, may display his energy or magnify his pride, but who see it as an “ altar stair that slopes through darkness up to God,” and on which it becomes man to kneel and pray. The Greeks, on the other side, are the representatives of the world’ s godly philosophers, the theistic thinkers; they are the forerunners of the Augustines, the Aquinases, the Anselms, and the Pascals--the men who rescue philosophy from being the painted priestess of pride and purify her to be the sweet handmaid of Christ. “ Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” “ Sir, we would see Jesus.” (G. M. Grant, B. D.) Certain Greeks I. THE GREEKS. Three peoples prepared for Christ’ s coming and three languages waved above His cross. Jewish religion, Roman arms and government, Greek thought. The philosopher connects preacher and politician. 1. In an age far back, when thought had become enslaved in the falsified civilizations of the Nile and Euphrates, an asylum was found in Greece. For five centuries the Greeks marched at the head of humanity. All gathered round the torch of Greek genius. Meanwhile Greek language had been fashioned into the most perfect vehicle of thought ever developed. Neither Hebrew nor Latin had the copiousness or flexibility necessary to deal with a new world of spiritual realities. And this so rich and copious became all but universal. And what a marvellous intellect wielded this weapon. To them was entrusted the brilliant but sad task of demonstrating for all time the necessary failure of culture to regenerate man. The grandeur of the effort is the measure of the greatness of the failure. Their intellectual labours were those of Titans. Of this mission and failure the apostle reminds the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:21, etc.) 2. At the hour when the failure was most evident. When instead of being brought nearer to heaven and God man was halting between a superstition which believed everything and a scepticism which believed nothing these Greeks said, “ We would see Jesus.” 3. They were proselytes, Greek correspondents of the Roman centurion, brothers of thousands in India today who are Christian theists halting at the “ gate” of baptism. We can picture the processes by which they reached their position. Born where decorous belief in mythology was professed; then emancipated into a vague scepticism by the speculations and criticisms of the schools (what Western science and literature are doing in India); then plunged into dead, unproductive negation, the spirit protesting, and the longing after positive truth eventually triumphant. The Jewish scriptures reach them, and there they find at least something of that for which they yearned; a warrant for the vague belief throughout the East of the advent of some great one in Judea. The project would be started and carried out to visit Jerusalem. How disillusioned they become at the sight of its secularities. They are permitted to enter the Temple no further than the Outer Court; and how little to solemnize they see there--tables of money changers, cattle, etc. Then comes Palm Sunday, and the benign form “ riding on an ass’ s colt.” Who is this? Jesus. Then follows the cleansing of the Temple. They talk it over. Something more than curiosity awakes within them--a revival of those hopes which the vitiated moral atmosphere had killed. They make up their minds to seek a personal interview, which brings us to II. THE REQUEST. On two other occasions we hear of a similar desire. Herod, “ that fox “ (Luke 23:8), had his wish gratified to his condemnation--for Jesus answered him nothing; to such as he our Lord’ s lips are closed. Zacchaeus (Luke 19:3) was also gratified and salvation brought to his house. 1. The request is marked by directness and simplicity, yet there is more in it than lies on the surface. In their minds a train of possibilities hung upon that “ seeing.” Jesus might turn out to be a Messiah, or only a kindly enthusiast or a popular idol. 2. But there was much more in it than they knew. They occupied a representative position and spoke for a vast constituency--the devout souls of all time who cry for a Saviour. III. ITS EFFECT. “ The hour is come” must have seemed a strange outburst in such a connection; but we can trace the connection easily. 1. Christ saw in them the first fruits of the full harvest of heathen lands--the advance guard of the multitude which no man can number. All that was needful for Him to do as a teacher was now done; what remained of His regenerative mission could be done only by dying. So He goes on to discourse concerning the life efficacy of His death. 2. Christ does not appeal to the Prophets concerning His death as He does when addressing His disciples, but appeals to the secretly prophesying mystery of nature--the prophecy of a Redeeming Death which they could discern everywhere around them, and on which philosophy had long speculated, the mystery of life through death. Only by dying could His Divine energy be set free and exerted for the life of all. 3. This analogy was appropriate to the Greeks. They had sought their ideal of life, not in self-renunciation, but in beauty, strength, self-satisfaction. Their ideal Was embodied in Apollo, the very opposite of Jesus, who was “ without comeliness” and whose emblem was a cross. The lesson of dying to self was what their race most lacked and therefore most needed. 4. The influence of that interview would never pass away. That grandest prayer, the voice from heaven understood according to spiritual capacity--all that would abide as an instruction and power of life forever. (G. M. Grant, B. D.) The inquiring Greeks I. THE LONGING TO SEE JESUS IS A MATTER OF NOT (John 12:20). These were not Jews, and their visit grew up out of heart want. Man’ s need and God’ s supply must be contemplated together. Religious experience begins in the natural seekings of our constitution, and ends in the gratification of some higher ones which are supernatural. The natural desires demand direct communion with God; but the supernatural are created by the disclosure of a possible purity, and these demand to be led to Christ as a sacrifice. II. INQUIRY AFTER CHRIST IS LITTLE MORE THAN (John 12:21). These men could not have known just what they wanted. The soul has vague but sincere wishes for something it does not possess--“ an aching void.” Partly from need and curiosity the Greeks came to ask. Fire ascending seeks the sun; we can imagine some flames so buffeted by winds as to render it consistent for them to say, “ We would see the Day-God” ; or some compass needles disturbed praying, “ We would see the North Pole!” For these constitutional desires will not long tamely bear to be denied of their proper rest. III. MANY MEN TAKE THE WAY IN COMING TO JESUS (John 12:22). They prefer some intervening Philip, some mediating priesthood. But it is not the Greek name of Philip, nor the experience of Andrew, which is to be relied on for soul rest. Redemption as an individual acquisition is the only reply to the cravings within. IV. THE MOMENT ONE SEES JESUS HE FINDS THAT HE HAS A WORD TO SAY FOR HIMSELF (John 12:23). Hitherto one may have supposed his own soul to be the object of the atonement. Suddenly he perceives that the glory of God is lying behind the Cross, and it puts a new thought in his mind to learn that the work of the Son of Man was done that the Son of God might have supreme glory. But did not Christ suffer to save souls? Yes; but what was the special need that souls should be saved? V. THE TERMS OF THE GOSPEL ARE AS TO AN ENTIRE OF SELF IN ORDER TO SEE JESUS (John 12:24-25). If one wants the grand hope of the gospel in conversion; to attain the full measure of consecration, to know the secret of unfailing success--it is life for life. Jesus means that we are to put our heart into our work, to deny our ease, give our time, money, etc., and sink our selfishness in devotion to Him. VI. WHEN A SOUL HAS FOUND JESUS IT IS TO MAKE ITSELF WITH JESUS (John 12:25). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) What the world owes to the Greeks? It was the Greeks who first welcomed Christianity, and there cannot be a more striking contrast than between the eagerness with which they received the truth of God manifest in the flesh, and the difficulty which even the Jewish Christians had in realizing its full significance. It was in the Greek tongue that it first addressed its Divine message to the world. It was in the cities and homes of the Greeks that it first displayed its wonderful power of assimilating and transforming all the elements of life, and manifested what it should afterwards become in human society. The gods of Hellas were the first to fall down before the ark of the Son of God; and when He died, it is touchingly said a wailing voice was heard through all the hills and forests of Greece crying, “ Great Pan is dead.” It is indeed difficult to conceive what form Christianity might have assumed had not Greek faith first illustrated its saving truths; or how it would have prospered had not the Greeks of earlier days spread their language and philosophy through all lands. What the world owes to the Greeks no tongue can sufficiently tell. From them we have received the sublime poems and splendid treatises on science and philosophy which have educated all the higher minds of the human race. From them we have received the matchless sculptures, paintings, and architectural glories which have filled men’ s souls with visions of ideal beauty. From them we have received the inestimable legacy of our Greek New Testament, which is the light of our feet and the lamp of our path to immortality. It is to them we owe the boon for which we should never cease to be thankful, that the sacred Scriptures passed from the calm lonely lethargic scenes of nature in the East, associated with the infancy and early youth of our race, to the busy stimulating scenes of the West, associated with its manhood; that the lofty, vague Hebrew language, the very language of the loneliness and grandeur of nature, has been translated into the quick, precise, many-mooded Greek, the very language of business and active human life; that the stately oracles of prophets living in deserts, addressing men afar off and from pedestals high above them, have become the familiar epistles, of apostles coming constantly into personal contact with the sins, sorrows, and wants of humanity. From them we have received the noble works of the early Greek fathers of the Church, Justin, Origen, Gregory, Chrysostom, Athenagoras, Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, and John of Damascus, which have proved such invaluable helps in expounding the sacred Scriptures. From them we have received the grand liturgies, the inspiring hymns, the glorious triumph of martyrs, and the devoted lives of saints, which have stimulated the piety and fired the enthusiasm of all Christian churches ever since. The Greeks gathered together, as it were, all that was grandest and most enduring in the world, and, holding it up in their arms for the baptism of Christianity, handed it on thus purified for the blessing of all after ages. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) The movement of Greek thought toward Christ In the courteous but eager desire of these Greeks we hear the longing of their whole heathen world for a Redeemer. The old rites and superstitions had lost their hold on men’ s minds. Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, and Venus, had all faded from the imagination of the upper classes; End the worship of these deities was left to the vulgar and ignorant, or was retained only as a matter of policy. The oracles were dumb; the altars cold and deserted; and some tried in vain to satisfy their wants by changing religion into poetry or philosophy, or sought as a last resource to fill with sensual pleasure the intolerable vacuity of their hearts. Regretful of the past, hopeless of the future, suicide was recommended as the only cure for human misery; the darkness of despair giving place to the deeper darkness of death. But even in the utter blankness of such a night, there were men of nobler instincts who could not do without religion--“ Memnons waiting for the day.” They felt about for the unknown God to whom they might cry for help amid the wreck of every religious system, and the failures and uncertainties of the world around. Some of these “ seekers after God,” men of the stamp of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, had wandered into Jewish synagogues, which by a providential coincidence at that time were placed in all the chief cities of the world; and there they found to their surprise, in what they had been taught to regard as an “ execrable superstition,” ledges of faith and hope by which they climbed out of the profound darkness into the happy sunshine. They were irresistibly drawn to the new religion by its unity of the Godhead, its high ideal of domestic and social purity, and above all by the hope which it held out of a coming Messiah who should redress all the evils of the world, dispel its ignorance, and bring in not a cold morality, but a righteousness which should be the offspring of a burning love. Not a few of these went up as pilgrims to the annual festival at Jerusalem; and among them were the Greeks who wished to see Jesus. They expressed the longing of the whole heathen world for Him who was the light to lighten the Gentiles. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) The desire to see Jesus I. WHAT IS THERE TO SEE IN JESUS? 1. God manifest in the flesh. In any other aspect the Deity is an object of fear not of comfort. 2. God anxious to save the lost. 3. God rejoicing when the lost is found. 4. God receiving before He expects amendment. 5. The way of salvation through Christ’ s Cross and Christ’ s life. 6. God always accessible. II. HOW ARE WE TO RECEIVE JESUS? 1. With deep penitence. 2. With hungry expectancy. 3. With a longing to do His will. (W. Birch.) Wishing to see Jesus These Greeks are I. OF A TRUTH--that those who live up to the light they have will be gradually led on to more. 1. They were proselytes, or at least companions of those who feared God, or they would not have been here. They had given up heathenism, and this step was, according to God’ s moral government, rewarded by another. A desire came into their hearts, awakened, no doubt, by the resurrection of Lazarus, to become acquainted with Christ. 2. There are differences of opinion how people become Christians. Some say there is first a giving up of what is wrong and false, then an intermediate stage in which one feels nothing and is nothing, and then truth taking occasion by the vacuum enters the mind. Others say there is no middle state. But the true theory is, “ the wind bloweth where it listeth.” In the majority of cases, however, truth comes in and expels falsehood, just as there is no parenthesis between light and darkness, but the moment that it ceases to be dark it is light, and the moment that light has begun darkness is over. II. OF A CRAVING. Theirs was the language 1. Of the whole Old Testament dispensation. The cherubim bending over the mercy seat, as if to look into the mysteries of the ark, were emblems of all the Mosaic ages. The expected Messiah, the desire of all nations, was the point to which all faces turned. “ Many prophets and righteous men,” etc. As the appointed time drew on the desire was intensified. Simeon and Anna, the Magi and the Greeks, were representatives of the whole Jewish and Gentile world. And during Christ’ s life, the crowds that thronged His steps bore testimony to the feeling, and Zacchaeus was probably not the only man whose pious curiosity was rewarded. 2. Of the Christian Church in regard to Christ’ s Second Advent. 3. Of penitents under a sense of sin groping their way toward the light. 4. Of Christians who have lost the glimpses they once enjoyed, and are now passing under clouds. 5. Of the dying Christian passing home. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) A sight of Jesus I. A OR BODILY VIEW. No reliable portrait or representation of our Lord has been handed down to us, and we have reason to believe no such portrait was ever taken. It was, no doubt, in the order of God’ s providence that it should be so, or the portrait, and not the Saviour Himself, would probably have been the object of worship. II. view. We all know about the incarnation, etc., of Christ, and the other points of His human history, as recorded. III. view. “ I and My Father are one” human, as well as Divine--hard to some to believe. IV. view. “ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” etc. “ Look unto Him, and be ye saved.” V. view. After believing, let us go on unto perfection, imitating Christ, “ doing good.” VI. view. Christ will sit on His great white throne, etc. VII. view. “ There we shall see His face, and never, never sin,” etc. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.) A sight of Jesus Inspiration has given us no description of the personal appearance of Jesus. God did not intend for us to worship Him through an image. We cannot tell His appearance, but we know His spirit which shone through His earthly body. We can see Him 1. IN THE OF HIS AND LIFE. Infidels deny His divinity, but they admire His character, and present His graces for the emulation of men. His is a unique position in history, the only one in the flesh without defect. II. IN HIS SYSTEM OF MORAL . How superior to all human writings not borrowing from Him! Plato and Mohammed taught much that is good with much that is evil. His teachings are without defect. III. IN THE SCHEME OF . By the Cross He graciously solves the problem which baffled the ages, how God can be just and justify the sinner. Man was doomed, but Jesus came to the rescue. The sublime philosophy lies in its supreme adaptedness to the necessities of the case. IV. IN THE KINGDOM HE IN THE EARTH. The Jews expected a temporal kingdom, but He came not to subdue Caesar but Satan. He despised all carnal means, and used nobler methods. “ The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” V. IN THE EFFECTS OF HIS ON AND THE WORLD. Christianity is a character builder. It alone transforms men. It has blessed whatever it has touched. I lift up before you Jesus Christ and beg you to behold Him. He is God; worship with all adoration. (C. A. Stakeley.) We would see Jesus 1. We would see Jesus, for we have heard of Him from others. One friend has told of His love, another of His wisdom, a third of His power, a fourth of His faithfulness. Does this second-hand knowledge satisfy you? Has it appeased your spiritual hunger, allayed your discontent, removed the burden of your sins? Oh, let the testimony of others lead you to His feet! 2. We would see Jesus, for we have need of Him. (1) To release us from the burden of our sins. (2) To enable us to overcome temptation. (3) To take away the fear of death. 3. We would see Jesus, for He is so accessible. No barriers stand in the sinner’ s path when he seeks the Saviour. His court is an open audience chamber to all. (G. A. Sowter, M. A.) Opportunity to be used These Greeks seem to have seized the only opportunity ever presented to them of coming to Jesus. Shall we, with many opportunities, lose them ally This one may be our last. I have sometimes in passing through a forest seen a tree here and a tree there marked with a line of white paint. What did it mean? Was it a clue to the inexperienced traveller to show him his road? Was it a boundary line between different properties? No; these paint-marked trees were dotted over the whole woods. Then I heard the woodman’ s axe ringing out in the distance, and I knew that the trees were marked for destruction. The owner had decided which should fall and which should stand a while longer. And the woodman, guided by the marks, was thinning the forest with his deadly axe in obedience to his master’ s word. Brethren, God’ s mark may be set upon some of us, we know not upon whom. Oh, trifle not then with your opportunities! Lay hold on them ere they pass away. Take up the language of these Greek visitors to Jerusalem, and cry out of the yearning depths of your inmost hearts, “ We would see Jesus.” The request will be granted. The heavenly life-giving sight of Him will gladden your eyes, and with that vision the old cry of yearning will change to a new glad shout of hope. No longer “ we would see Jesus,” but “ we shall see Jesus,” --“ we shall see Him as He is.” (G. A. Sowter, M. A.) The consequences of seeing Jesus I. REST. There are some objects so calm and restful that the very sight of them is rest. This is the chief of them. II. PEACE. He is our peace; and to see Him is to have peace with God and conscience. III. . He is our life; and the sight of Him as such puts life into us. IV. HEALING. He is “ the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings,” and in looking to Him we have health. V. . He is the Light of the world; and to see Him as such is to have day within us. VI. FREEDOM. He and His truth make free. VII. . All power is in Him; and the sight of Him draws it out to us. VIII. FULNESS. In Him is all fulness; and in looking we are filled. Every void disappears. IX. . We are made partakers of His joy. (H. Bonar, D. D.) The great exhibition Perhaps the sight-seeing instinct was never more fully developed than at present. We live in a sight-seeing age. This instinct has managed to engage the whole world as purveyor to its enjoyments in its periodical exhibitions in this and that great city. But we may profitably turn to another exhibition, not at present more attractive externally, but intrinsically far more interesting. Not works of human art and industry, but of Divine wisdom, justice, and love, are exhibited. Turn aside and see this great sight. Apply it to I. . 1. In geographical study we may see the vastness of the theatre on which Jesus’ s faithfulness performs its promises. His wisdom exerts its guidance, His love pours out its treasures, His grace fulfils its plans. 2. In botanical investigation we may see His wisdom and goodness, for He painted the colours of every flower, shaded its tints, and infused its perfume. 3. In historical research we find that personages are His agents, and events are controlled for His purposes. 4. Morals take their image from His example and their vigour from His Spirit. II. SOCIAL DUTIES. 1. Conversation; and not only in that part which is interspersed with His name. To see Him is to check trifling, levity, garrulity. To see Him is to transform the daily salutation into a benediction; for who can make “ good day” but Jesus? 2. In visiting, business, recreation, etc., He is to have the preeminence. This will make the soul’ s health secure, guard against temptation, encourage righteousness. III. . 1. Searching the Scriptures. Of these Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, and they will be unintelligible unless we see Him. The doctrines centre in Him. In the practical parts His example is the rule, His love the motive, His blood the purifier. The promises are “ Yea, and amen in Him.” His testimony is the spirit of prophecy. The ceremonies and characters are types of Him. Take Jesus out of the Bible, and you have taken the sun from the system, the seal from the body, gravitation from the universe. 2. Baptism. Take Christ away and it is an unmeaning ordinance. To see Him in it is to make it a sacrament of life, promise, and power. “ Go ye therefore … Lo, I am with you,” present, pledging to save. 3. The Lord’ s Supper. “ This is My body,” etc. IV. PLACES. 1. The devotional closet. How cold that is without Christ; how radiant with glory when we see Jesus, having expelled all intercepting objects, thoughts, cares, etc. 2. The domestic tabernacle. If in the human family Christ is a brother, how much mere in the believing family. To see Him is to hush all domestic dissensions; to sanctify all family relations, duties, etc. 3. In the public temple. What is Christ’ s Church without Him? “ Where two or three,” etc. V. . 1. Two characters would gladly see Jesus. (1) The penitent. Are you sorry for sin? then “ Behold the Lamb of God,” etc. (2) The believer who now apprehends Christ by faith waits for His full manifestation in glory, and has “ a desire to be with Christ,” etc. 2. Two classes must be exhorted to see Jesus. (1) The impenitent. Your need is absolute, and your obligation unlimited. (2) The apostate. The Greeks reprove you. They knew not Jesus but would see Him; you know Him but forsake Him. VI. TO STAGES. 1. In discouragement. 2. In temptation. 3. In youth, manhood, and old age. 4. In the hour of death and the day of judgment. (D. Griffiths.) Manifestations of humanity I. ITS MORAL CRAVING (John 12:21). These Greeks wanted Jesus for their soul as 1. One who could solve their moral problems. 2. One on whom to centre their supreme love. 3. One to guide them rightly on the way of life. II. ITS WORK (John 12:22). 1. To bring men to Christ is something more than to bring them (1) To science and art. Such a ministry we disparage not, but highly prize. (2) To a church or sect. Numbers are thus engaged. Their inspiration is sectarianism; and their efforts often immoral and pernicious. 2. To bring them to Christ is to bring them (1) To the only infallible Physician. (2) To the only efficient Educator. (3) To the only qualified Redeemer. 3. To bring to Christ you must be Christlike. You may bring crowds to your church by clap-trap; you can only bring them to Christ by a life of Christly stateliness, inspiration, and influence. III. ITS TYPE (verse 23). 1. Christ speaks with magnanimity in prospect of His death. 2. With triumph at the prospect of His glory--in His resurrection, exaltation, moral victories over all the errors, curses, miseries of the world. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Andrew: Leading others to Christ The notices of this apostle are extremely rare, but nearly all of them exhibit Him introducing others to Christ--his brother Peter, the lad with the barley loaves, the Greeks. And this is the prime duty of all Christians; let each ask how he has discharged it. Note the qualifications I. WE MUST KNOW CHRIST. This is something more than a knowledge of gospel history, of Christian doctrine. We may teach these and bring none nearer to Christ Himself. Nor is it these in union with a moral life. To know Christ is to reverence Him as our Master and to cling to Him as our Saviour. This knowledge alone will help us to make disciples and Christians. II. WE MUST BE QUICK TO KNOW OUR FELLOW MAN. The physician can tell much of the history and condition of his patients from their very looks. Like readiness is there with the Physician of souls. This quickness depends on 1. Sympathy. 2. Self-knowledge. III. WE MUST SPEAK FOR CHRIST. We remember this requirement in preaching. But the effort of Andrew was a type of those private ways of doing good which are open to ordinary men and women. There are difficulties in the way of private personal testimony for Christ--the reticence of etiquette and culture, the sense of the shame of the cross, constitutional sensitiveness, etc. But it is astonishing how difficulties may be smoothed before a willing mind. IV. WE MUST LIVE FOR CHRIST. Words with which the life is inconsistent will lose all attractive power. A life that is wanting somewhat in words may yet bring blessing. The disciple’ s life should be attractive. (T. Gasquoine, B. A.) Every Christian may be useful See that well on the mountain side--a small, rude, rocky cup full of crystal water, and that tiny rill flowing through a breach in its brim. The vessel is so diminutive that it could not contain a supply of water for a single family a single day. But, ever getting through secret channels, and ever giving by an open overflow, day and night, summer and winter, from year to year, it discharges in the aggregate a volume to which its own capacity bears no appreciable proportion. The flow from that diminutive cup might, in a drought or war, become life to all the inhabitants of a city. It is thus that a Christian, if he is full of mercy and good fruits, is a greater blessing to the world than either himself or his neighbours deem. Let no disciple of Christ either think himself excused, or permit himself to be discouraged from doing good, because his talents and opportunities are few. Your capacity is small, it is true, but if you are in Christ it is the capacity of a well. Although it does not contain much at any moment, so as to attract attention to you for your gifts, it will give forth a great deal in a lifetime, and many will be refreshed. (W. Arnot.) A lesson to pastors and teachers An orthodox clergyman found one Sunday on his Bible a slip of paper, placed there by some members of his congregation, on which was written, “ Sir, we would see Jesus.” The pastor felt distressed, but was not offended. He set to examine himself humbly and sincerely. The result was that he made the sad but happy discovery that the people were justified in making the above request. He thereupon “ went into a desert place,” and within a short time he found in his pulpit another slip of paper with the following words, “ Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.” (Pastor Funcke.) One afternoon in the Sabbath school where a lad was asked to repeat what he had learned during the week, he said simply “ Sir, we would see Jesus.” The teacher was strangely conscience smitten. He remembered that he had given excellent lessons on the Creation, the Fall, Israel in Egypt, and similar subjects, but had said little about Christ. He looked at the youth who had spoken these words, and then round on the faces of the others. And then instead of using the lesson he had prepared, he talked to the lads earnestly upon the request made so simply and opportunely. He spoke with such yearning for their souls, that the lads listened as never before; and as he spoke he felt that the Master’ s presence was in their midst. The want which had unconsciously been felt was met that afternoon, and souls were gathered into the eternal harvest. (W. Baxendale.) Congregations want to see Christ On a lovely Sunday morning in August we arrived at Osborne. We were desirous of seeing her Majesty, but did not succeed. We only saw her house, her gardens, and her retainers. Then we went to Whippingham Church, having been told that the queen would attend divine service. But again we were disappointed. We only saw the seat the august lady was wont to occupy. The ladies and gentlemen of the court came to church, and those we saw; we even heard the court chaplain preach, but of the sovereign we saw nothing. Well this was a disappointment we could easily get over. But with me it led to a serious frame of thought. I said to myself: What if the flock committed to your care should come to church to see the King of kings, and yet through some fault of yours not get to see Him! What if you, the great King’ s dependent, detain men with yourself, by your words and affairs and all sorts of important matters which yet are trifles in comparison with Jesus I May it not be that we ministers often thus disappoint our congregations. (Pastor Funcke.) John 12:23-26 The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.The significance of this declaration in connection with the incident Why should this be such an hour of trouble and glory? How should the appearance of a few strangers have led to a discussion respecting the falling of wheat into the ground, and its death--the saving of life and the losing it? You will remember that when our Lord spoke of those “ other sheep” He connected the formation of the one flock with the death of the one shepherd. The assertion is in strict harmony with the prophecy of Caiaphas. If you turn from St. John to St. Paul you will find that the breaking down of the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles is effected “ in the body of Christ’ s flesh through death.” If you reflect on these passages, that which we treat as though it were only an accident--the calling in of the Gentiles--the unfolding of a universal society, will be seen to be that wonderful event to which all God’ s purposes, from the beginning of the world, had been tending--the unveiling of the deepest mystery of all, in the relations of God to man, in the Being of God Himself. Without sacrifice Jews and heathen had been taught there could be no unity among the members of a race. Sacrifice must bind them to God and to each other. Only he who can give up himself--so the heart of mankind testified--is a patriot; only he obeys the laws; only he can save his country when itis falling. There had been, then, a sure conviction that any larger union must involve a mightier sacrifice. As the conscience was awakened by God’ s teaching more and more clearly to perceive that all resistance to God lies in the setting up of self, it began to be understood that the atonement of man with man must have its basis in an atonement of God with man, and that the same sacrifice was needed for both. One thing yet remained to be learned--the most wonderful lesson of all, and yet one of which God had been giving the elements, line upon line, from the beginning: Could sacrifice originate in God and be made, first, not to Him but by Him? All our Lord’ s discourses concerning Himself and His Father--concerning His own acts as the fulfilment of the Father’ s will--concerning the love which the Father had to Him because He laid down His life for the sheep--had been bringing these mysteries to light; had been preparing the meek to confess with wonder and contrition that in every selfish act they had been fighting against an unselfish God--that in every self-sacrificing act they had been merely yielding to Him. And so far as they had any glimpses of the accomplishment of God’ s promises--that He would bring all into one--that the Gentiles should wait for His law--that He would be a Father of all the families of the earth--so far they had the vision of a transcendent and Divine sacrifice. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) The hour of redemption It was given to St. John long after the other evangelists had described the Passion to add some details of the deepest interest. The Transfiguration and Gethsemane St. John omits, but here records the significance of both. The Lord passed through a season of profound agitation--the earnest of the Garden; but out of the darkness light unspeakable arose--the reflection of the Mount. I. THE LORD ENTERS INTO THE OF HIS HOUR AND ITS GLORY. 1. “ The hour” is the sacred term that marks the Passion as the consummation of the Redeemer’ s work. He entered the world in the “ fulness of time” ; He wrought His preparatory work in the “ days of the Son of Man” ; and now, after ages of waiting had passed into days of fulfilment, the days are compressed into an “ hour.” From this moment the shadow of the cross throws its sacred gloom upon every incident and word. The Passion has begun, and from that moment went on in its ever-deepening variety of grief, through the indignities of His enemies, the abandonment of His friends, the sense of the world’ s guilt, to that infinite woe which took from man his curse. It was the first more direct onset since the temptation. It was the beginning of the awful strain on the resources of His lower nature under which He would fain cry “ Save me,” but that He knows “ for this purpose,” etc.; the same pressure which caused Him to ask that the cup might pass, a prayer the next moment recalled in the submission of perfect victory. 2. The darkness is not past, but the true light already shines. His first word on entering the dark valley is--“ The hour … glorified.” His lowest humiliation was His highest dignity. The cross in which His servants gloried He here glories in. In it He beholds the glorification of the Father’ s attributes (verse 28), an exhibition of the glory of Divine justice visiting upon sin its penalty, and the glory of the Divine mercy providing salvation for the sinner. To this the Redeemer’ s final “ Lo! I come,” there is a sublime response from heaven. For the third time the Father proclaims aloud the secret of His constant complacency in the sacrifice of His Son. 3. The record teaches us two errors we must avoid. (1) We must not by our feeble theories mitigate the sorrow that wrought out our redemption and exchange it into a mere demonstration of such charity and self-sacrifice as man might rival and which could never redeem man’ s soul. (2) It tells us, too, that the Redeemer was filled with a sense of His own glory and His Father’ s complacency even while He suffered for our sins. He presented Himself as an oblation for man’ s sin to manifest the love that provided the propitiation, and to declare the glory of the Divine name in the harmony of its perfections. II. FROM THE HOUR OF THE PASSION TO THE LIFTING UP ON THE CROSS THE IS OBVIOUS. Here also we perceive the blending, of opposite emotions. 1. St. John has already made us familiar with this expression, which serves the double purpose of signifying the crucifixion and the exaltation. But in the gospels it is used to express the act of man that lifted Jesus to His cross. In the beginning of His ministry, our Lord spoke to Nicodemus of this lifting up; in the middle He told the Jews that they would do it; and now He refers to it at the close. But the cross is the symbol here of His own reproach, “ Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.” 2. But while His soul is troubled--and only in His deepest anguish does He mention His soul--Jesus still rejoiced in spirit. On either side is a word of triumph. (1) “ The prince of this world is cast out.” He had at an earlier time, and in a higher sphere, “ beheld Satan as lightning,” etc. Now He beholds, as the result of His redeeming death, Satan fall from his power on earth--not, indeed, with the swiftness of lightning, but absolutely and surely. (2) “ I will draw all men unto Me” expresses the tranquil assurance that the virtue of His death would draw in due time--when preached in His word and testified by His spirit--all the children of men to Himself. 3. Here also are two lessons that guard our thoughts. (1) The reality of Satan’ s relation to our sin and the world’ s redemption. A doctrine of atonement finds acceptance, which rejects the personality of the being to whom our Lord alludes. But in so doing they must reconstruct the entire doctrine of the New Testament, wrest the Saviour’ s words to their own peril, and undermine the whole economy of redemption, which assumes that Satan is the representative and ruler of the world’ s wickedness, whose power and law is broken. (2) That through our redemption we are delivered from the reign of sin; that the drawing of Christ is as universal in its influence as the virtue of His atonement; that we may enter into our Master’ s joy and exult over a vanquished enemy. III. WE PASS FROM THE HOUR, THROUGH THE LIFTING UP, TO THE DEATH WHICH GIVES LIFE TO . Here again we have two contending emotions. 1. All His allusions to the coming end connect His own loss with our gain, His death with our life. So it is here, only the emblem is the most affecting He ever employed, expressive of the entireness of His surrender, and the absolute connection between His death and the abundant life of His people. What in the similitude of the corn of wheat expresses the deep anguish of this prelude to Gethsemane the Lord does not say. There was a mystery in the anguish of His soul that nothing in the secret of human dying will account for. 2. But the rejoicing of His spirit keeps not silence. He passes immediately to the much fruit that would grow from His death, the example He would set to His saints, and the supreme honour which He and His imitators in the self-renouncing charity of holiness would partake together throughout eternity. Nor is His rejoicing marred by the prospect that His death will not give life to all mankind. And should we be discontented when our Master sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied? Conclusion: 1. The only word of exhortation that we hear in this solemn hour is, “ If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.” This is the voice of Him who passes through the garden to the cross. There is no loyalty to the Redeemer which does not share His passion. For Him we must sacrifice our sins, and, in imitation of His last example, must live, and, if need be, die for others. 2. “ Where I am,” etc.; for a short season in the gloom of sorrow and conflict, but forever in His glory. 3. “ If any man serve Me,” etc.; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) The hour of Christ’ s suffering and triumph (text and John 12:27-28) I. THE HOUR. It stands out from all other hours amid the reminiscences of the past and anticipation of ages to come. Time’ s stream set in to bear upon it. All prophecy met here. One dispensation after another was introduced and completed in relation to it, and derived all their importance from that relation. It was an hour 1. Of intense suffering. Who can tell the physical agony? His soul was troubled within a body of sensibility as keen as ours; and what anguish racked His spirit when He was executed as a malefactor and forsaken of His Father! 2. Of triumph. An hour in which He glorified God and God Him; in which all the Divine attributes harmonized as they never had before, and never could again. They received glory which covered all obscurations that had appeared, and which can never be tarnished to eternity. II. THE SEEMING OF CHRIST TO MEET THIS HOUR (John 12:27). His spirit is perplexed, for He was as truly man as God. But wherefore these cries and tears? Because of 1. The death of ignominy which He, innocence itself, was about to die. 2. The unbelief and ingratitude of the Jews. “ He came to His own,” etc. 3. The desertion of His disciples, the denial of Peter, the betrayal of Judas. 4. The buffetings of Satan during “ the hour and power of darkness.” 5. The hiding of the Father’ s face (Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 27:45-46). Well might His soul be troubled and say, Father, save Me from this hour--if there is any other way of saving sinners. But God spared not His own Son, and the Son acquiesced. III. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH HE HIS . They respect 1. Himself. He knew that on this hour depended all that He came to do, and this consideration dispelled the cloud human nature raised. He had done too much to allow of His retracting. Why the Babe of Bethlehem if He refused to be the Man of Sorrows? He came to finish the work God gave Him to do. 2. His people. If I would save others I dare not save Myself. If they are to have life I must endure death. 3. His Father. To glorify Him was the design of His coming into the world. “ Lo! I come,” etc. IV. BY WHAT MEANS GOD WAS IN THE WORK OF CHRIST. 1. In the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy. God had in all the introductory announcements of the Redeemer for four thousand years, connected His glory with the completion of redemption by Christ’ s death as a sacrifice for Hebrews 1:1-3; Luke 2:7-14). 2. The incarnation. “ We beheld His glory,” etc. 3. The discourses, miracles, and character of Christ. 4. His death, resurrection, and ascension. 5. The spread of the gospel. 6. The resurrection and judgment. (T. Raffles, LL. D.) The glorification of the Son of Man 1. Christ here displays His broad humanity. Not “ Son of David.” The Jewish side of His mission is no longer prominent. As “ the Son of Man” Jesus is near akin to every man that lives. 2. He speaks of His glory as approaching suggested by the sight of these first fruits among the Gentiles. Christ is glorified in the souls He saves, as a physician wins honour by those he heals. 3. The same visitors led the Saviour to use the metaphor of the buried corn. Wheat was mixed up with Greek mysteries. Christ was undergoing the process which would burst the Jewish husk in which His human life had been enveloped. Aforetime He said He was not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Note I. conveyed in several paradoxes. 1. Glorious as He was, He was yet to be glorified. (1) Jesus was always glorious--as one with God, in the perfection of His moral character, in His great love, in His complete consecration, and also in the wonders of His birth, baptism, and transfiguration. (2) But something was to be added to His honour--death, resurrection, ascension, etc. 2. His glory was to come to Him through shame. It is His highest reputation to be of no reputation. His crown derives new lustre from His cross. If we merge the crucified Saviour in the coming King we rob our Lord of His highest honour. 3. He must be alone, or abide alone. Unless He had trodden the winepress alone, and had cried, “ My God! My God!” etc., He could not have saved us. If He had not died He would, as man, have been alone forever: not without the Father, the Spirit, and the angels; but there had not been another man to keep Him company. Our Lord cannot bear to be alone. Without His people He would have been a shepherd without His sheep, a husband without His spouse. His delights were with the sons of men. In order that He might draw all men unto Him, He was lifted up upon the cross alone. 4. He must die to give life, not teach, etc. If the ethical part of Christianity is the most important, why did Jesus die? But since He did fall into the ground and die, we may expect much as the result of it. The travail of the Son of God shall not bring forth a scanty good. II. . What is true of Christ is in a measure true of Christians. 1. We must die if we would live. 2. We must surrender everything to keep it. We can never have spiritual life except by giving everything up to God. 3. We must lose self in order to find self. The man who lives for himself does not live--he loses the essence and crown of existence: but if you live for others and God, you will find the life of life. “ Seek ye first,” etc. 4. If you wish to be the means of life to others, you must, in your measure, die yourself. The self-sacrificing life and death of saints has always been the life and increase of the Church. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ’ s cross, Christ’ s glory As regards I. THE GREAT ENEMY. In the wilderness Christ did not achieve a complete victory. The devil departed from Him for a season only, and was actually and finally vanquished on the cross. He who hoped to crush Adam was himself crushed in Christ. Satan had brought ruin and misery into a happy world. Christ brought out the world into happiness tenfold as bright and holy as that which Satan ruined. II. MAN. On the cross was transacted the central event of man’ s world. All before had reference to this; all after flow from it. The whole system of types found its end on the cross; the whole state of acceptance in which believers stand before God, the whole dispensation of the Spirit, had its origin here. Wherever there breathes a man, there the cross has a deep and never-failing interest. Here also was the triumph of human nature. You hear of the power and dignity of human nature, its wonderful capacities for knowledge, its high endowments for enterprise; but in none of these did it reach its noblest height, nor bear its fairest fruit. Not in Athens or Rome, in poesy or art, has man been most glorified; but on the cross of Jesus. There manhood bore its fruit of love untouched by a blight, and was honoured with the union of the Godhead, stooping to share its sentence of death and to bring it to glory. III. HIMSELF (Romans 14:9). Christ was born that He might be a King; and here we have His Lordship established and His kingdom inaugurated. Remember what He said to the dying thief. The cross is Christ’ s throne; His atonement His basis of empire (Revelation 5:6); from it proceeds the work of the Spirit, whose office it is to glorify Christ. IV. THE FATHER. By the counsel of the Father’ s will was the plan of redemption directed, and His perfections find their highest example on the cross. 1. Love. “ Herein is love,” etc. 2. Truth. “ For this end He came into the world, to bear witness unto the truth” ; and He bore it here. 3. Righteousness. “ He made Him to be sin for us,” etc. (Dean Alford.) The work and glory of the Saviour In eternity there are no hours; yet there have been two hours in time which are drawn out over the length of eternal ages. One, pregnant of evil, when Eve plucked the forbidden fruit. When time shall be no more that unhappy hour will live in the memory and be felt in the misery of the lost. The other hour, pregnant with greatest good, was when the Son of Man said, “ It is finished,” and the head He bowed in death was crowned with its brightest glory. I. THE VISIBLE GLORY OF THE CROSS. There never was a death like this. 1. Rays of Godhead streamed through the darkest stages of Christ’ s humiliation. Angels attended His humble birth, and a new star rested above the stable. His hands were rough with labour, but at their touch eyes received their sight. His voice cried in infancy and death, but it quelled the storm and burst the fetters of the tomb. His eye was quenched in darkness, but it had read man’ s heart and penetrated futurity. He wore no costly robes, but the hem of His garment cured inveterate disease. He trod on no luxurious carpets, but His step was on the sea. His simple drink was water, but water changed into wine at His bidding. No sumptuous banquets entertained His guests, but the few fishes and barley loaves in His hands satisfied multitudes. 2. But this glory was still more apparent in His dying hours. Men had left undone nothing to heap shame upon Him. To pour contempt on His kingly claims they crowned Him with thorns; in mockery of His omniscience they asked Him to tell who struck Him; in ridicule of His omnipotence they challenged Him to leave the cross. Yet even ix this dark hour He was glorified. “ If these should hold their peace the stones would cry out,” was now verified. Men were silent, dumb nature spoke. The rocks, whose bosoms, less hard than man’ s, were rent, cried out on earth; the sun, veiling his face from a scene on which man looked without emotion, cried out in heaven; the dead, disturbed in their graves by so great a crime, cried out from their open tombs; and’ the temple’ s veil added its solemn testimony to theirs. II. THE MORAL GLORY OF THE CROSS. 1. Christ’ s death afforded the fullest display of His love. Not that it had not been displayed before. It was when Moses smote the rock that its hidden treasures were unsealed. It was when the alabaster box was broken that its value became known. It is when the clusters of the grape are crushed that they yield the wine. And so Christ’ s gracious attributes were not fully disclosed till His dying hour. But for that it had never been known how He loved. He had been despised and rejected of men, but He died to prove His willingness and power to save the chief of sinners. 2. By His death He conquered hell, death, and the grave. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The law of self-sacrifice exemplified in the death of Christ We shrink too much from investigating the mental struggles of Jesus as though it were a profanation. But in this we commit two errors. 1. We lose sight of Christ’ s proper humanity, of the fact that He had a mind governed like our own, a heart and sympathies which throbbed as ours. 2. A false conception of true reverence. It is reverential to be cautious of approaching too closely an earthly sovereign, because near approach would only produce familiarity, and make us feel that he too is but a frail and sinful man. But the Majesty of Jesus requires no such precautions, because the nearer we get to Him the more we realize His Divine Majesty. Note I. THE LAW OF THE . 1. The gloriousness of suffering. There are two ways of looking at every act--at the appearance, and at the reality. Hence what seems mean is often inwardly glorious, and vice versa. Thus there is nothing in the outward circumstances of a soldier’ s death to distinguish them from an ignoble brawl; but over the soldier’ s death is shed the glory of that cause for which his life was offered. So in external circumstances Christ’ s death was mean, but in inward principles it was glorified by God. We say that a throne is glorious and a coronet noble; but nothing can ennoble cowardice or selfishness. We say that a dungeon, scaffold, and the lower arts of life are base; but Christ’ s death has sanctified the cross, and His life shed a glory over carpentry. 2. The death of one for the life of many. This is the great law upon which God has constructed the universe. If there is to be a crop, there must first be the destruction of the seed. The lives of vegetables and animals are given for us. So the doctrine of the atonement is no strange, arbitrary principle. The Father who made the law by which the flesh of living things sustains the life of others is the same Being who made and obeyed the law by which the flesh of Christ is to the world “ meat indeed.” 3. Self-devotion (John 12:25). The previous parallel fails in one thing. We do not thank the grain of wheat for dying, because its death is involuntary; and therefore to constitute a true sacrifice a living will is needed. Christ’ s sacrifice was a voluntary act, else it had been no sacrifice at all. II. THE MENTAL BY WHICH THAT LAW WAS AS THE LAW OF THE ’ S LIFE. It is one thing to understand a law and another to obey it. To admire that which is right is one thing, but to do what is right is another. The Divine life of Christ subordinated innocent human ideas to itself by degrees. Here He was literally distracted between the natural craving for life and the higher desire to embrace the will of God. But the victory was won by prayer, that communion of the mind with God through which our will becomes at last merged into His. And so there was one perfect will, the will of the Father being that of the Son. “ Father, glorify Thy name.” (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) John 12:24-26 Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die A corn of wheat The original word is not sperma, a seed, but kokkos, a berry, a fruit. It shows the extreme, even scientific, accuracy of our Saviour’ s language; for the corn of wheat, and other cereal grains, consist of seeds incorporated with seed vessels, and are in reality fruits, though they appear like seeds. It is not the bare seed that falls into the ground, and, by dying, yields much fruit, but the corn of wheat--the whole fruit with its husk-like coverings. A corn of wheat is beautiful and complete in itself. It is full of latent life; it contains the germ of boundless harvests. But it is hard and narrow and isolated. How then are its dormant capabilities to be quickened? Clearly not by keeping it as it is. In its present state it abideth alone. It can never be anything else but bare corn if kept out of the ground. But if sown in the field, and covered by the earth, and quickened by the sunshine and showers of heaven, it softens and expands. It seems to die. It surrenders itself to the forces of nature which take possession of it, and seem to put it altogether aside. But this apparent death is in reality more abundant life. Its burial place becomes the scene of a wonderful resurrection. The spark of vitality has been kindled by the very elements that seemed to work its destruction. The embryo grows at the expense of the decomposing perisperm. Lengthening downwards by the radicle and upwards by the plumule, the seed becomes a bright, green, beautiful plant which lays all nature under contribution for its sustenance, borrows the materials of growth from earth and sky, and at length becomes a luxuriant stalk of corn laden with its fruitful ear. Seed time in this country is in spring. The sower goes forth to sow when the day is lengthening and brightening, and a warmer feeling is in the air. The dark days and wild storms of winter are over; and before the seed sown there is an almost uninterrupted continuance of genial weather till the harvest. But in nature seed time is at the close of autumn, when “ the melancholy days have come, the saddest of the year.” The important process of scattering the seed over the waste places of the earth is accomplished amid the fading and falling of leaves, and the destruction of nature’ s strength and beauty. The chill air and feeble sunlight put a stop to all further growth; and the dreary rain and boisterous storms which prevail at this season are needed to shake down the ripe fruits from stem or bough, to scatter them over the face of the earth, and to rot them in the ground, so that the imprisoned seeds may escape and find a suitable soil in which to grow. Thus, the dark ungenial weather which so often proves disastrous to our cereal crops when they are about to be gathered into the barn, is a wise provision of nature to facilitate the dispersion of the ripened fruits and seeds of the earth. We step between nature and her purpose, snatch the corn from its appointed destiny as the seed of a future crop, and convert it into human food; and thus diverting a law of nature into a new channel, we cannot always expect that the weather which would be favourable to the natural process should be equally favourable to the artificial. Nature fulfils her designs perfectly; she is faithful to the law of her God. But when she comes into contact with man she does not harmonize with his designs. The primeval curse rests upon the toil of man’ s hands, and the earning of man’ s bread; and nature therefore will not give us her blessings without a stern struggle with hostile elements. How true is all this of the stormy end of our Saviour’ s life; that dreary autumn seed time of which He said, “ Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour; but; for this cause came I unto this hour.” And further, how true of His entombment is the natural fact that the seed thus sown in the decaying autumn, amid the wreck of life and beauty, and to the wailing dirge of the devastating storm, lies passive and inert in the soil all the winter, chilled with the frosts, drenched with the rains, and buried in its grave of darkness beneath a shroud of snow, waiting for its resurrection under the bright skies of spring. (H. Macmillan, LL. D.) The corn of wheat; or growth through death We see the principle of propagation by self-surrender operating in the region of I. LIFE. 1. if a man will be an individual in the strict sense of the term he will be his own destroyer. If the seedling of a babe would grow physically he must (1) give, by stretching forth the tendrils of its undeveloped faculties; and (2) take, by the aliment which such exercise supplies. Thus the first condition of physical life is faith. The same law operates in 2. The acquisition of knowledge. A man must believe before he knows, and faith is the depositing of self in the ground of human testimony, a boy must work with self deposited in the ground of study under disciplinary influences, and convert his time, etc., into materials for developing the seeds of knowledge. 3. The formation of character. When we say that a man has character we mean he has acquired self-control. Self-control is the fruit of submission. Submission during the period of youth grows into those principles of conduct which are the polestar of manhood, through mortifying acts of obedience. II. SOCIAL LIFE. A man is obliged to work for others if he would enlarge and propagate his life and influence. We see this illustrated in 1. Family relationships. The law of marriage enjoins the giving up of self to another, so as to become a larger, happier self. Parents who fulfil God’ s idea, think, work, pray, live for and in their children. If the father does not thus lose himself and die he “ abides alone,” and when he departs this life he has no one to propagate his likeness, and becomes extinct except in name. 2. Legislation. Law, to a certain extent, consists of those things which individuals have agreed to surrender for the maintenance of society and is the fruitage of seeds of individual knowledge put into the soil of public experience. 3. The extension of knowledge. Ideas and schemes in the mind are so many seeds having life in them which have to be cast into the ground of public opinion in order to bear fruit. They must get out of the mind if they are not to “ abide alone.” The thinker communicates his scheme to another, or publishes it in the newspaper, and by and by, under the influence of the opinions and suggestions of others, the thought, once his, bears fruit. This holds true of apparently trivial thoughts. A casual remark made in the hearing of a thoughtful friend may yield a rich harvest of knowledge. 4. Historic influence. The good that men do lives after them. Men in advance of their age are never known till they die. This is true of poets, statesmen, etc., but of none so much as Christ. No one was ever so misunderstood--so little known; but every succeeding century carries a truer picture of His unique life. III. LIFE. 1. Christ who was “ the Life” had to surrender that life in order that He might be for and in the world. Had he “ spared Himself” He would have abode alone, had He never been “ bruised” He would not have been the “ Bread of life.” 2. So in regard to the principle of Christian life. Self is given away in holy efforts for others, in order to produce in them, and so be found again in, the fruits of righteousness. 3. The mainspring which sets all going is love. Love is self-sacrifice, and by that principle we live unto God and are filled. IV. THE . Like the seed corn the body must be put into the ground if it would rise again and bear fruit. Conclusion: The subject teaches 1. The difficulties of selfishness and the terrible daring and force of sin. (1) God has placed us under a system of laws which make it natural and imperative to serve others. To break through this system involves effort and secures self-destruction. (2) Yet sin has the audacity to recommend this course, and is thus the grand antagonist of nature as well as grace. 2. The nature and functions of Christianity--that it is no afterthought suggested by the fall, but what agrees with principles already in operation. 3. The feelings of awe and hope with which we should regard death. (S. C. Gordon, B. D.) The corn of wheat dying 1. A corn of wheat--how insignificant. A little child may hold it in its tiny hand; and yet not all the science of the world could produce it. That depends on the strict preservation of all the laws and influences of the universe; were one interfered with all life would perish. 2. Our Lord’ s disciples were probably excited over the triumphal entry, and expectant that their Master would assume that throne they had imagined for Him. Hence He reminds them of His approaching death and its significance. 3. The great truth here declared is that life comes through death and exaltation through humiliation. Again and again had our Lord taught this, but the disciples failed to apprehend it. Nor can we wonder at that, for it is the great stumbling block of our day. 4. But of what use is a corn of wheat except it die? It would hardly supply a meal for the smallest bird. It is a thing of beauty perfectly shaped and you may put it in a casket worthy of it, but it is worthless while kept “ alone.” But place it in the earth where showers and sunshine may reach it, and who can tell what may become of it? So it was with Him who compared Himself to one. The disciples would have kept that inestimably precious life all to themselves. Had they done so it would have stood “ alone,” and been but an angel’ s visit. It would have supplied man with a pattern, but one which would have filled the race with despair, and made it at best local and temporary. What man wanted was an adequate motive power which death only could supply. 5. Not only so, but “ except it died” how could it multiply itself? Place a corn of wheat among the regalia of the realm, and it will remain “ alone,” but place it in suitable soil and it will spring up thirty, sixty, etc. “ The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many.” The preaching of a crucified Christ won three thousand on the Day of Pentecost; and it is this same truth which has ever since been the lifeblood of the Church. 6. Moreover, it is by the death of the corn of wheat that we have hope and promise of a more glorious body by and by. Turn up the earth in a month or so after the seed has been sown, and what do you find but a black, mouldy mass with death written on every particle of it? But go to the same spot on the reaping day, and can any contrast be greater? “ Sown in corruption,” etc. (D. Howell.) The seed corn I. THE FACTS. 1. The symbolical corn of wheat has a real existence--Christ. (1) Wheat! The Word of God is called by this name. It is not like chaff; it has nourishment in it, and is preeminent among all words, as wheat is among grain. Believers are called wheat. The wicked are chaff, tares, which have no value in them. Christ is the Word of God in a higher sense than scripture, and between Christ and believers there is union. The rank which wheat holds among cereals may remind us that Christ is chief among ten thousand; the delicate purity of it, that He is the Holy One of God; and the great purpose that it serves, that He is the bread of life. (2) A corn of wheat. There is life in that, so there is in a blade or leaf; but these cannot propagate their life, whereas that has life to give away. Their life, too, is dependent and continually derived from the stem and root from which they must not be divided; but that has life that it carries with it wherever it goes. So the life that is in Christ comes not by transmission. He is “ the Life.” (3) Acorn of wheat keeps its life a long time. It has been found in the hand of a mummy after thousands of years. The Son of God became a corn of wheat, for the purpose expressed in our text, before the foundation of the world. 2. The corn of wheat, has fallen into the ground. This is a figurative expression of the fact of the incarnation. When the vital powers of wheat are to he called into action it is necessary to take it from the garner and sow it. One corn of wheat was taken from the Father’ s bosom and put into this sinful world. How great an abasement! The Creator became a creature, and was subjected to a creature’ s duties and obligations. 3. When a corn of wheat falls into the ground it dies. One corn of wheat has died because it was sown. If the Eternal Son had not been sent down His death would not have taken place. He was made under the broken, offended law which slew Him with its curse. 4. When a corn of wheat dies its life-giving power is developed. One corn of wheat has not remained alone. Christ’ s death has great results. It was to Him what the deep sleep was to Adam--it gave Him a spouse. His death is the root, the collective Church is the stem, and individual believers its fruit with which the stem is laden. “ When thou shalt make His soul,” etc. He saw this seed at Pentecost and at many a Pentecost since, and will continue to see it till the Church is complete. And when He sees His seed He recognizes them, and that because of their likeness to Himself. When a corn of wheat produces seed, it is seed of its own nature. So the seed of Christ are like Him. II. THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 1. Its character. (1) Glorious. The shame was outward and transient, the glory essential and imperishable. (2) Fruitful. In this its glory largely consists. The consequences are destined to cover the earth and outlive time. (3) Not a natural death but a death of violence. There are various kinds of violent deaths. (a) Martyrdom. This is glorious, and has fruits. Christ was a martyr. (b) That of a soldier. A peculiar lustre attaches to Wolfe, Nelson, and the heroes at Thermopylae, who conquered while they died, as did Christ. (c) The felon’ s death, which answers useful ends. And Christ suffered the punishment sin deserved. The holy law was trampled underfoot; His death lifted it up and took away its reproach. (d) The death of a substitute, such as David wished for when Absalom was slain, and Paul, in Romans 1. The ram substituted for Isaac and the sacrifices of Judaism were examples of the same thing. Christ’ s death was vicarious. “ The Lord laid on Him,” etc. 2. Its necessity. (1) The simple fact proves this. Christ was not capable of throwing away His life, and God would never have given it had it not been necessary. (2) Its character proves this--as that of a warrior, martyr, etc. (3) But there was a special necessity for it. “ Except a corn of wheat,” etc. Had He not died He had been a head without a body, a shepherd without a flock, a king without a kingdom, etc. (A. Gray.) The seed corn Two travellers, journeying together, tarried to rest by the way at an inn, when suddenly a cry reached their ears that there was a fire in the village. One of the travellers forthwith sprang up, and leaving his staff and his bundle behind him, hastened to afford assistance. But his companion strove to detain him, saying, “ Why should we waste our time here? Are there not hands enough to assist? Wherefore should we concern ourselves about strangers?” The other, however, hearkened not to his words, but ran forth to the fire; when the other leisurely followed, and stood and looked on at a distance. Before the burning house there was a mother transfixed with horror, and screaming, “ My children! my children!” When the stranger heard this, he rushed into the house among the falling timbers, and the flames raged around him. “ He must perish!” exclaimed the spectators. But after they had waited a short time, behold, he came forth with scorched hair, bringing two young children in his arms, and carried them to their mother. She embraced the infants, and fell at the feet of the stranger; but he lifted her up, and spoke words of comfort to her. The house meanwhile fell with a dreadful crash. As they two, the stranger and his companion, were returning to the inn, the latter said, “ But who bade thee risk thy life in such a rash attempt?” “ He,” answered the former, “ who bids me put the seed corn into the ground, that it may decay and bring forth new fruit.” “ But how,” said the other, “ if thou hadst been buried beneath the ruins?” His companion smiled, and said, “ Then should I have been the seed corn myself.” (J. Krummacher.) The corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying I. The corn of wheat ABIDING ALONE. It is Christ’ s humiliation which we are mainly called in these words to ponder. But in order, by contrast, to bring out the wonders of that humiliation, let us, as here suggested, go back to a past Eternity, and contemplate that corn of wheat abiding alone. Immensity a void. The mysterious Trinity in unity, pervading and filling all space: No need of worlds or angels to glorify them. There was the corn of wheat abiding alone: the Eternal Son with the Eternal Father, in the glory which He had with Him before the world was. II. We are next called to consider the corn of wheat FALLING INTO THE GROUND, AND DYING. Impelled by nothing but His own free, sovereign, unmerited grace, Christ resolves not to abide alone. He is to come down to a ruined world in order to effect its ransom and salvation. But, how replace it? How, in other words, is this redemption from sin and death to be effected? There are two words in our text, on which we may for a moment instructively pause. The one suggesting the necessity, the other the voluntariness of the death of Jesus. 1. “ Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground.” “ Unless.” There was no other possible way by which the world could be redeemed. Without the dying of corn seed--no life. 2. We have the voluntariness of Christ’ s death here set forth. “ If it die!” --“ If.” This same monosyllable He Himself repeats with similar emphasis a few verses further on: “ And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” This leads us III. To the corn of wheat FORTH MUCH FRUIT. It was prophesied regarding the Redeemer, that He should “ see His seed” (Isaiah 53:10). “ This,” says He, “ is the Father’ s will who hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (John 6:39). He--the Tree of Life--was to be felled to theground; the axe was already laid to the root. But as many a noble denizen of the forest, coming with a crash on the sward, scatters its seed all around, and in a few years there starts up a vast plantation, so Christ, by dying, scattered far and wide the grain of spiritual and immortal life. The seed and the leaves of this Tree are for the healing of the nations. The Divine corn seed drops into the ground; a golden harvest waves, and heaven is garnered with ransomed souls. Oh wondrous multitude which no man can number! A multitude growing ever since Abel bent, a solitary worshipper, in the heavenly Sanctuary, with his solitary song--the first solitary sheaf in these heavenly granaries. Yes! the song is deepening; the sheaves are multiplying. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) The dying seed fruitful The blood of the martyrs has evermore “ been the seed of the Church.” Thus have the “ corns of wheat” been again and again planted, to die and live again in great harvests. We are reminded of the saying of Cranmer to Ridley, as they were fastened to the stake and the fire was lighted under them: “ Be of good courage, Master Ridley. We will kindle a fire this day that will be a light to all England.” The life of Christ without and withinI. In one point of view Christ’ s life was AN ENTIRE FAILURE. He did not get the things which men think to be most valuable; nor did He derive much gratification in those faculties which men live to gratify; nor, though endowed with a wondrous versatility of powers, did He employ those powers as to make it appear that He gained the object of life. Regarding our Saviour in His general relations 1. He could scarcely have entered life at a worse door than at the portal of Jewish nationality. For in that age it was a misfortune to be born a Jew in the estimation of everybody except a Jew. So far as worldly opportunities were concerned He might better have been born a heathen. 2. He had but few opportunities in youth. Men are dependent for their standing on the fact that they began with the capital of their predecessors. Christ had nothing of the kind, and He never strove to repair these conditions of fortune. 3. He secured no wealth, not even enough to redeem Himself from dependence. 4. Though He had great power of exciting enthusiasm, He never gained or kept a steady influence over the people. Even His disciples failed to enter into His ideas or career. 5. He failed even more, if it were possible, to secure any personal or professional influence on the minds that ruled that age. There were political rulers of great sagacity whom He never seems to have fallen in with, and He never had a place among men of letters, nor was He a power in any philosophical circle. 6. Even more remarkable is it that He did not produce any immediate impression on the religion and feelings of His age. 7. Nor did He found a family, the object of most great men’ s ambition. All this being the case, what could His life produce that should remain? Nothing, apparently. It seemed to be like an arrow shot into the air. His trial and condemnation were more than ordinarily ignominious and fruitless, whereas there are many whose trial, etc., is the most glorious event in their history. He died leaving no trace behind. In His resurrection there was not much alleviation, for He never appeared in public; and His ascension closed His career. Was there ever a life that seemed to be thrown away more than Christ’ s? II. WHAT ARE THE FACTS ON THE OTHER SIDE? Did He not save His life by losing it. 1. Born a Jew, no man now ever thinks of Him as a Jew. There is victory in that what hung about Him as a cloud is utterly dissipated. 2. Born without opportunity in His social relations, there is not a household or community in Christendom that is not proud to call itself Christian. The very kings of the earth bring their glory and baptize it with His name. 3. Having no learning, when has there been a school or university, or philosophical system for a thousand years that has not been conscious of receiving its germ from Christ? 4. He was indifferent to the ordinary sources of wealth, yet from out His life there has issued an influence that is to control money making. 5. He never gained much influence with the masses, yet what name evokes so much enthusiasm among the common people as Christ’ s? 6. He made little impression on political and intellectual rulers, but He has now filled the channels of thought and poetic sentiment, and more and more do you find in treaties of law the principles of Christian justice. His life was thrown away, just as grain is thrown away, into the soil: it died to give growth to life. III. WHAT WAS THE SECRET OF IT ALL? If you had asked at that time, “ What are the secrets of power in the world?” any Jew would have pointed to the temple. If, as he did so, you had seen some Greek smiling and asked him the same question, he would have said, “ Have you been in Athens?” And if, while he yet spoke, a disdaining Roman had passed by, and you had asked him, “ Wherefore that smile?” he would have said, “ Jews and Greeks are full of superstitions and are blinded as to the true source of the world’ s power. That power is centred in Rome.” And how would Jew and Greek and Roman joined in the derision if you had pointed to Jesus crucified as the secret of the world’ s power. And yet Jews, Greeks, and Romans have gone down while this shadow fills the world. It was His death, and the sacrifice involved by that death that was and is the secret of His unique power. But His life was a daily death--a constant self-surrender, and only in so far as we copy Him shall we share His power. (H. W. Beecher.) The death of Jesus I. DEATH THE MOST OF EVENTS HAS OFTEN BEEN MADE A . 1. The death of the believer has been the life of the sinner. After turning their backs on a sermon men have been convinced by a dying bed. 2. The death of a parent has proved the life of the child. The expiring change has never been forgotten. 3. The death of a minister has been the life of the hearer. Little regarded when living, his word has come with power when gone. 4. The death of a martyr has been the life of the beholder. “ The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” 5. But where are we now? The death of Jesus is the life of the world. II. THE DEATH OF JESUS CONFERS THE LARGEST . By His death Christ fills heaven with praise, the Church with blessings, the world with followers. 1. A grain of corn multiplies by yielding other grains like itself. If barley is sown, barley comes up; if wheat, wheat; if Christ, Christians. He was not of the world--they are not of the world; He went about doing good--they serve their generation by the will of God; He was meek and lowly of heart--they are learning of Him. 2. A grain of corn is capable of yielding a large crop--one may stock a country. Christ was asked, “ Are there few that be saved?” He told the questioner to strive himself to enter into the straight gate; a wiser course for us than speculation. But were the question asked properly we might reply, No, He is leading “ many sons to glory” --a multitude which no man can number. III. THAT US AND US TO HIM OWES ITS TO HIS DEATH. 1. The convincing and renewing influences of the Spirit. 2. Deliverance from spiritual enemies. 3. The lively hope by which we draw nigh to God. 4. Holiness. (W. Jay.) The law of fruitfulness The people were full of expectation of the temporal kingdom of the Messiah. Therefore our Lord lays down the principles on which His kingdom shall come. It is spiritual, but conforms to the law which says, No power comes into this world, or attains its end, but on the condition of suffering: only in death can life be achieved. I. OF THIS LAW. When we distinguish between the laws of Christian and the laws of ordinary life, we make a false distinction. The former are but the highest spiritual expression of the conditions which underlie and rule all nature. 1. Our Lord takes us to the lower side of life--that of physical nature. 2. So it is with every beautiful and joyous thing that exists. Not a little child’ s laughter makes home ring with gladness but it has found its life in the trembling agony that has gone before. 3. Take life on its commercial side. The spirit of enterprise does not mean the hugging of your savings, but reinvesting them. A man wins wealth by his readiness and wisdom in fulfilling the law of sacrifice. 4. It is true also in the world of intellect. The power of genius and talent largely consists in the power of self-denial and industry. It is only when a man puts his whole will into the subject he is studying, denying himself pleasure, enduring physical pain and hardship, patiently proving the certainties of his discoveries, that he stands at last amongst his fellows as one who has something to teach. 5. So in all noble and high enterprise. Columbus has his dream, but he must first incur the ridicule and indifference of those who plume themselves on being the wise men of the day. 6. It is true in regard to social life. The same law has its illustration in the case, e.g., of Israel. Their position at first was that of a mere assemblage of tribes with individual preferences, needs, etc., surrounded by the determined hostility of the nations of Canaan. The duty of tribal suffering was the condition of the nation’ s unity. The Song of Deborah teaches this. That was in its youth; but. Solomon taught that the same principle was at work. “ There is that scattereth and yet increaseth,” etc. The real wealth of the nation depends on the people’ s willingness to sacrifice themselves. When the spirit of selfishness came into the land it was easy for the prophets to predict its doom. II. WHAT DO WE OWE TO CHRIST IN WITH THIS ? Christ did for it that which makes it capable of operating throughout the whole length and breadth of human life. 1. Christ unfolded to the intellect and brought into the consciousness of life this law. This is His claim to originality. No man can claim originality in inventing new laws. Sir Isaac Newton only brought into human thought the law of gravity, which bad existed ever since the stars were made. The truest benefactor is not he that brings novelties, but who makes us acquainted with the laws which underlie our national existence. 2. But intellectual perception is not enough. Example is the potent agent of action, and therefore Christ brought the law home to the will. You teach a law by an example because you thus stir up the principles of admiration and emulation. Christ is no mere demonstrator; He stood to the yoke of the very laws He had made. He passes by all temptations to selfishness leading a life of self-consecration from Bethlehem to Calvary. And what is the harvest? His power is the kingdom which is the measure of the world’ s empire today. Where is the power of Egypt and Assyria, the wisdom and genius of Greece? These, founded on mere selfishness, have passed away. But every land has worshippers of Him who died on the cross. 3. The work must be carried yet further. A man may clearly perceive a thing and most earnestly resolve it. You may gain his intellect and will, but you have not won the man until you have got hold of the affections. It is love which illuminates the actions and understanding, and lifts men’ s lives into courses which make the whole life obedient to them. Christ was not only the educator and the embodiment of the law; behind both there was the inspiration of His love. And so “ we love Him because He first loved us.” (Bp. Boyd Carpenter.) Alone There are two conditions of being possible, either of which must constitute our character--rove and self. Love seeks its life outside itself: self seeks its life in itself. Love, in order to possess, sacrifices selfishness; while self, in order to possess, keeps itself and sacrifices love. An unloving soul is I. WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD. God’ s love toward us is certain; but of what avail is that if our hearts are closed against Him. “ He that loveth not knoweth not God.” He may be, as He is, everywhere present; but unless the heart receives His love and returns it, it is the same to us as if God did not exist. The world is without the sun at noon-day to the blind man. II. WITHOUT CHRIST. Jesus is one with the Father in Being and in love to man. He came not merely to atone for sin, but to impart His life of love. He represents Himself accordingly, as knocking, etc., the symbol of fellowship of brotherly love. But how can such fellowship be realized if self bars the door? Jesus may be as near to us as He was to Satan in the wilderness, and yet between us the same moral gulf. Judas was as far from Him when he sat by His side as when he went forth to his own place. So we may be near Christ when He saves others, but abide “ alone.” He cannot dwell in the selfish heart. III. WITHOUT THE SPIRIT. The Spirit sheds abroad the love of God. “ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ,” etc. “ The fruit of the Spirit is love.” But if we quench Him, whatever His love may be, it may be said of us “ not having the Spirit.” IV. WITHOUT WITH SAINTS. There is but one family in heaven and earth, and one Spirit pervades the whole--love. Prisons, loss, and bereavement cannot shut Christians out from this. The unloving soul is not rejected: he is invited, “ Come thou with us and we will do thee good” ; but he responds, “ I desire only myself.” V. What is to become of such a man? He has rejected God, etc. As years advance the conviction steals over him that his companions are falling away. Old age comes, and the world becomes like a cell where he must suffer solitary confinement. The deathbed at last is reached, and he must go forth “ alone” into the unknown. How sad and dreary. He has lived alone and now finds himself WITHOUT HEAVEN. (J. T. Pitcher.) He that loveth his life shall lose it.--Suppose that Jesus, seeking only His personal safety, had now gone to the Greeks to play among them the part of a sage, or to organize the state like another Solon, He might indeed thus have saved His life, but would in reality have lost it. In having given it up to God, He could not have received it from Him glorified (John 12:23). Thus kept by Him, it would have remained doomed to sterility and earthly frailty. It was by renouncing the life of a sage that He became a Christ, and by renouncing the throne of a Solon he obtained that of God. This saying included the judgment of Hellenism; for what was Greek civilization but human life cultivated from the view point of enjoyment, and withdrawn from the law of sacrifice. (F. Godet, D. D.) The bearing of the present on the future life The text I. APPLIES TO THE CHRIST AT THE TIME. The gratification of a selfish desire in Christ at this time meant the world’ s ruin--ruin intensified by the fact that the work of deliverance was so nearlycompleted. Christ was the exemplification of the text (chap. 10:17, 18; Galatians 2:20). II. THE GENERAL TO US. It points to two subjects on which we propose to dwell. 1. Selfishness indulged--the cause of irreparable loss. “ He that loveth His life shall lose it.” See how selfishness operates on and affects the life. (1) It isolates. Man is intended to be a social being. Selfishness shuts out society and turns a man in upon himself. (2) It debases. Man is intended to benefit his race. While getting good he is to do good. Selfishness obstructs the work of charity and usefulness. The life that should find loving room for all is reduced to its own enjoyment and gratification. (3) It destroys. “ Shall lose it.” An irreparable loss, which cannot be fully understood, but of which some conception may be formed when you consider (a) The excellence of its nature--God-bestowed. (b) The duration of its existence--eternal. (c) The price of its redemption--the sacrificial death of Jesus. This leads us to ask, What is meant by loving life? Not the pure enjoyment of life by a healthy vigorous person, but the love bestowed without restraint on the purely animal life, indulging appetite, fulfilling sensual lusts and delights, following fashion, craving for fame, a passion for riches and pleasures--loving these more than Christ. The worldling who gives his soul for the world. 2. Self-denial practised--the security of eternal life. “ He that hateth,” etc. Self-denial is not a gift, but a cultivation developed by exercise and practice. It is the resurrection of our personality buried in the grave of deception. In self-denial we find our true selves. Man’ s choice lies between temporary gain and eternal loss. The false says the present; the true part of our nature says the future. “ Hatred” of life is not misanthropy. It is this life loved less than the life to come; everything here treated as being incompetent to give true joy, preferring God’ s favour to all below. Crucifying the flesh, keeping the body under, enduring persecution for Christ’ s sake--the seed of “ much fruit.” “ Shall keep it,” etc. Selfishness enervates, loosens the grasp, and allows the treasure to slip away. Self-denial tightens the hold and retains possession. “ Life eternal” --deliverance from trial, the enjoyment of rest and reward. (J. E.Hargreaves.) Life loved and lost Richard Denton, a blacksmith, residing (in Cambridgeshire, was a professor of religion, and the means of converting the martyr, William Woolsey. When told by that holy man that he wondered be had not followed him to prison, Denton replied that he could not burn in the cause of Christ. Not long after, his house being on fire, he ran in to save some of his goods, and was burnt to death. If any man serve Me, let him follow MeFollowing Christ I. LET WHOM? II. FOLLOW WHOM? III. FOLLOW WHENCE? IV. FOLLOW WHITHER? V. FOLLOW HOW. (S. S. Times.) I. THE LEADER. II. THE . III. THE JOURNEY. IV. THE . (S. S. Times.) Following Christ When Amurah II died, which was very suddenly, his son and destined successor, Mohammed, was about a day’ s journey distant in Asia Minor. Every day of interregnum in that fierce and turbulent monarchy is attended with peril. The death of the deceased Sultan was therefore concealed, and a secret message despatched to the prince to hasten at once to the capital. On receiving the message he leaped on a powerful Arab charger, and, turning to his attendants, said, “ Let him who loves me follow!” This prince afterwards became one of the most powerful sovereigns of the Ottoman line. Those who approved their courage and loyalty by following him in this critical moment of his fortunes were magnificently rewarded. There is another Prince--the Prince of Peace--who says to those around him, “ Let him who loves Me follow.” Christ’ s servant: his duties and rewards The motto of the Prince of Wales is “Ich dien” --I serve; it should be the motto of every prince of the blood royal of heaven. I. PLAIN FOR A VERY OFFICE. 1. We should all like to minister to Christ. If He were here now there would be nothing which we would not do for Him, so we say. But much of this is mere sentiment. If Christ were to come now as He came at first, probably we should treat Him as He was treated. This sentimentalism has at the bottom of it the idea that we should be honouring ourselves by it. But if you really would serve Christ, you can, by following, i.e., imitating Him. (1) One says, “ I should like to do something to prove that I really would obey my Lord. I would show that I am not a servant in name only.” Imitate Christ, and you then show your obedience. (2) Another says, “ I would joyfully assist Him in His wants.” Imitate Him, then, and go about doing good. Behold His wants in the poor saints. (3) “ I would do something to cheer Him.” The solace of His sorrow is the obedience of His people. When He sees that He sees of the travail of His soul, etc. (4) “ I would honour Him.” Christ is most honoured when His saints are most sanctified. Follow Him thus, and you will honour Him more than by strewing palm branches in His way and shouting “ Hosannah!” 2. Let me mark out Christ’ s way, and then, if you would serve Him, follow Him. The proud flesh wants to follow Christ by striking out new paths, to he an original thinker. It is not for us to be originals, but humble copies of Christ. (1) He went to Jordan to be baptized. If you would serve Him don’ t say this is not essential; it is not a servant’ s business to determine that. (2) The Spirit led Him to be tempted of the devil; don’ t think that temptation is a mark of being out of Christ. (3) Now He comes forth to work. So you must follow Him in labour. If you cannot preach to thousands you can to tens, or to one, as He did by Jacob’ s well. (4) He bears bold witness before His adversaries. Let there not be a foe before whose face you would fear to plead His cause. (5) He comes into the black cloud of reproach; they say He has a devil and is mad. Follow Him there. (6) He comes to die. Be ready to yield thy life if called upon, and if not, devote every moment of it to Him. II. FROM A NOBLE MASTER. “ Where I am,” etc. Whoever heard of such conditions. The master is in the drawing room, the servant in the kitchen; the master presides at the table, the servant waits at the table. Not so here. 1. This was Christ’ s role all His life long. (1) He went to a wedding, to the house of Lazarus, to the Pharisee’ s house, and had He been an ordinary man He would have said, “ I cannot take these poor fishermen with Me;” but they were always with Him: with Him too in His triumphal entry and His last great feast. “ With desire,” etc. (2) But if He thus shared His comforts among His disciples, He expected them to share His discomforts. He was in a ship in a great storm, and they must be with Him though they were sore afraid. He goes to Gethsemane, and they must be with Him there; and though He had to tread the winepress alone, yet they were with Him in death, for they suffered martyrdom. 2. This stands true to us. Where Christ was we must be. He is gone to heaven now, and where He is we shall be also. Fare ill or well we are to have joint stock with Christ. III. A REWARD FOR . “ Him will my Father honour.” 1. In his own soul. He shall have such peace and fellowship that this honour shall be apparent. How greatly God honoured Knox, who never feared the face of man, with unruffled serenity of heart! 2. By success in whatever he may attempt. Why is it that little success rests on some who labour for God? Because they do not serve Christ by imitating Him. Ecclesiastical courts and rubrics confine too many. 3. At the last, before the angels. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Service and its reward I. THE COURSE OF SERVICE. What are men’ s ideas of life? The gratification of animal appetites, the desire for social pleasures, the love of distinction. Is it any wonder that these ideas should prompt the question, “ Is life worth living?” These are ends which life itself will ultimately disdain. Turn, then, to Christ’ s idea--service true and lasting. 1. Christ’ s life was one of full consecration to God. This consecration was (1) Active--“ I come to do Thy will.” (2) Entire--“ My meat is to do the will,” etc. (3) Realized in the largest degree--“ Into Thy hands I commit My Spirit.” (4) Triumphant, “ It is finished.” (5) Was maintained by prayer. 2. Christ’ s life was inspired with one aim--the elevation of mankind. Archimedes said that if he could find a fulcrum he would make a lever that would lift the world. The fulcrum in our redemption was God’ s eternal purpose, and the lever Christ’ s own life--His teaching and example. This is the Church’ s mission today. 3. Jesus never made present success the ground of His life. After 1800 years there is more power in it than when He saved the dying thief. II. THIS SERVICE LEANS WHERE JESUS IS. There is elevation in the very nature of Christian service. Men wearing titles and honours which they have never deserved are looked upon with contempt. To bear Christ’ s name and to wear His livery without serving Him is despicable. But that service is calculated to destroy one of our most debasing passions--selfishness; and the moment that that is dead at the feet of Jesus we begin to rise. We are not Mind to other elevating influences--knowledge, taste, industry, uprightness, but a heart consecrated to Christ is higher than all. It has higher conceptions of life, sweeter sentiments of duty, aims at higher ends. III. THIS LIFE OF SERVICE WILL BE CROWNED WITH DIVINE HONOURS. 1. A place in heaven. 2. Distinguished signs of approbation. 3. Association with Jesus. (Weekly Pulpit.) Self-denial I. THE SELF-DENIAL IN WHICH WE SHOULD FOLLOW JESUS. 1. It was free. Voluntariness is the essence of this virtue. For others to deny us a benefit or to constrain us to hardship we would avoid is not self-denial. Christ “ emptied Himself,” etc. 2. It was wise. It was not placed in trifles. If He restrained innocent desires or endured what was painful it was for noble and generous ends. 3. It was extensive, reaching from the humble stable to the malefactor’ s cross, and all was foreseen. 4. It was disinterested. Many deny to serve themselves; but “ ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. Would we be Christ’ s followers? Our self-denial must be like His--free, wise, etc. II. THIS SELF-DENIAL IS THE PATH TO TRUE HONOUR AND , because 1. It is great and honourable in itself. These qualities arise from character and conduct, and are independent of the judgments of men. They are not derived from noble descent, magnificence, dominion, etc. To rise above self-love requires a vigour in which there will always be found true greatness of mind. 2. It conducts to true greatness. Voluptuousness rusts the best talents, blunts the most undaunted courage, perverts the soundest judgment, and corrupts the purest heart. All these qualities a habit of self-denial improves. That which the world counts greatness can only be achieved by self-denial--learning, statesmanship, war. But Christian self-denial makes man trulygreat. 3. It is honoured by God. This is seen in the case of Christ. For His self-denial God gave Him a name above every name. (J. Erskine, D. D.) Where I am there shall also My servant he. I have heard that a noted Methodist preacher, who commenced his ministry very early in life, suffered not a little at first because of his humble origin and unpromising exterior. Being sent on the circuit plan to a certain house on a Saturday night, to be in readiness for preaching on the Sunday, the good woman, who did not like the look of him, sent him round to the kitchen. The serving man was surprised to see the minister in the kitchen when he came from labour. John, rough as he was, welcomed the despised preacher, and tried to cheer him. The minister shared John’ s meal of porridge, John’ s bed in the cockloft, and John’ s humble breakfast, and walked to the House of God with John in the morning. Now, the preacher had not long opened his mouth before the congregation perceived that there was somewhat in him, and the good hostess, who had so badly entertained him, began to feel a little uneasy. When the sermon was over there were many invitations for the minister to come home, and the hostess, fearful of losing her now honoured guest, begged he would walk home with her, when, to her surprise, he said, “ I supped with John, I slept with John, I breakfasted with John, I walked here with John, and I’ ll walk home with John.” So when dinner came he was, of course, entreated to come into the chief room, for many friends wished to dine with this young minister, but no, he would dine in the kitchen; he had supped with John, he had breakfasted with John, and he would dine with John. They begged him to come into the parlour, and at last he consented on the condition that John should sit at the same table. “ For,” he said, very properly, “ John was with me in my humiliation, and I will not sit down to dine unless he be with me in my exaltation.” So on they went till the Monday morning, for “ John was with me at the beginning, and he shall be with me to the end.” This story may be turned to account thus: our Master came into this world once, and they sent Him into the servants’ place, where the poor and despised ones were. Now the name of Christ is honoured, and kings and cardinals, popes and bishops, say, “ Master, come and dine with us.” Yes, the proud emperor and philosopher would have Him sup with them, but still He says, “ No, I was with the poor and afflicted when I was on earth, and I will be with them to the end, and when the great feast is made in heaven the humble shall sit with Me, and the poor and despised who were not ashamed of Me, of them will I not be ashamed when I come into the glory of My Father, and all My holy angels with Me.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) If any man serve Me, him will My Father honour Christian service and its honours I. THE SERVICE OF CHRIST. 1. It is not a condition of serfdom. It is perfect freedom. 2. It is not a condition of menialism. In a modified sense it gives equality with Christ (John 15:15). The relation between the Saviour and His servants is tender, intimate, mysterious. “ Christ in you the hope of glory.” 3. It involves a complete renunciation of every other service and our entire dedication to Christ. Hand and head and heart, time and influence and wealth must be laid on His altar. 4. It is a voluntary service. The Bible, the history of each saint of God, and our own inward consciousness unite in attesting that we possess the power to discern moral distinctions, to recognize the character, and to appreciate the claims of God; the power to render implicit obedience or proudly to defy our Maker. II. ITS HONOURS. 1. The service of Christ is the only path of real honour; but it is the sure way to certain and glorious distinction. 2. This service elevates the physical, gives majesty to the intellectual, and arrays in robes of richest glory the moral and spiritual. It inspires an unwavering purpose. It raises to all the privileges of an adopted sonship. 3. It is emphatically royal. Those engaged in it are “ a royal priesthood.” Already they have in possession the highest good, and in prospect an “ inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” They are kings, albeit as yet uncrowned, but awaiting patiently their coronation. (J. W. Jones.) The Christian service and honour Few men love service. Man prefers to be his own master, to do as he pleases, But he who spurns the counsel of God commits an act of suicide on his liberty. He is the free man who serves God. But he who refuses is a slave to Satan or self. I. WHAT IS IT TO SERVE JESUS? We may serve Him 1. In the faith we hold. Studying it, mastering it, loving it, practising it. 2. In suffering for His sake. Bearing meekly persecution, calumny, Divine discipline, and poverty. 3. In the outward acts we perform. Some may serve God in ecclesiastical duties, others in the private duties of religion, and those of daily life. If you cannot serve Christ in one way you can in another--the servant in the household, the nurse in the hospital, the merchant in the rectitude of his dealings. It is not necessary to be a clergyman; you may serve Christ behind the counter or at the plough. II. THE HONOUR GOD CONFERS ON CHRIST’ S . 1. In this world. (1) In the midst of the Church. Whatever a man’ s rank may be, the most useful are after all the most honoured. Let a man deserve position, and his fellow Christians will not be backward in giving it. (2) In the world. You may not know it, but the conscience of the wicked respects the righteous, however scornful the tongue. And for whom does the sinner send on his death bed? His boon companions? No; the man of prayer. (3) After he is dead. The servant of Christ has honour at the hands of his family, his business connections, his neighbourhood, after he is gone. 2. In the world to come. (1) At the judgment--from persecutors, the wicked, the devil himself. (2) Throughout eternity. “ Well done,” etc. Christian service and its reward I. THE SERVICE. 1. The master who is served. Jesus--Divine and human--One in whom are associated the might of omnipotence and the tenderness of love, who strengthens the weakness of His servants and uniformly leads them to victory and reward. And what else can it be but a service of honour to follow one so preeminently glorious? The subject may be proud of the sovereign, the scholar of the teacher, etc., but what sovereign, etc., can be compared with Christ. The conclusion is irresistible. There is no one who ought to be so trusted, loved, and obeyed. 2. The men who serve. Not men of any description, but fit men, chosen, justified, sanctified. How animating to be associated with such--men at the head of their species, whatever the world may say. The soldier congratulates himself on belonging to a profession which includes a Wellington; the student that he traverses a path trodden by Plato and Newton; the artist that he follows in the wake of Raphael and Reynolds; but we follow in the footsteps of Paul, Augustine, Luther, etc. “ Wherefore seeing we are encompassed,” etc. 3. The object contemplated--the loftiest at which man can aim--the evangelization of the world. The politician may alleviate the burdens of many, the merchant increase the comfort of thousands, the physician and inventor minister to multitudes, but the Christian carries light to the benighted and life to the dead, deposes Satan and enthrones God. 4. Its motive. The love of Christ. Think of that in the constancy of its exercise, the depth of its intensity, the fulness of its abundance, the felicity of its influence, and the munificence of its bestowment, and you will feel with Paul, “ the love of Christ constraineth,” etc. II. THE REWARD. God honours those who serve His Son 1. By crowning their labours with success. Admiration and advantages are nothing with success, but that compensates all sacrifices and exertions; and Christians always have it, although in a different way and of a different sort to what they expect. 2. By bestowing upon them His friendship and presence. This atones for worldly neglect and contempt. 3. By making them the almoners of His grace. All right-minded men esteem it an honour to dispense blessings, but Christians are channels of the living waters of salvation. 4. By raising them to the blessedness and glory of heaven. (J. Fleming.) The Christian a follower of Christ I. EVERY TRUE IS A SERVANT OF CHRIST. This is a very frequent description of His people, “ My servants.” In one sense all men and all creatures are the servants of Christ: they are subject to the control of His power, the direction of His wisdom, the accomplishment of His purposes, and the manifestation of His glory. But it may be more properly said He serves Himself by them, than that they serve Him. We are not to confine this relationship to those who serve Christ in the ministry of the word, either at home or amidst the moral wilds of pagan superstition. They, indeed, are His servants in an eminent, but not in an exclusive sense. To be a servant might seem to imply no very lofty eminence of distinction, no very rich honour. This, however, depends upon the dignity of the person we serve. When the queen of Sheba saw the glory, and heard the wisdom of Solomon, she poured forth her raptures in congratulations to his servants, who stood continually in his presence, and ministered before his throne. II. IT IS TO THE AND CONDUCT OF A SERVANT OF CHRIST TO FOLLOW HIM. This, in fact, is the service; the follower is the servant, and no other. The servant keeps his eye upon his master, and avoiding all other persons, and all other streets, treads in his footsteps, and presses as closely as possible to him. Just observe for a moment whom a Christian does not follow. He does not follow the teachers of false opinions in religion, in philosophy, or in morals, with whatever specious sophisms, or seductive eloquence, their notions may be advanced and supported. He does not follow the votaries of pleasure or of fashion, in their epicurean revels, with whatever elegance or refinement they may endeavour to recommend their habits. 1. In what views of Christ do His servants follow him? As their Teacher. 2. We are to follow Him as our Saviour. He came not only to instruct us, but to redeem us. 3. We are to follow Christ as a Master. “ Ye call me Master and Lord,” said Jesus to His disciples, “ and ye say well, for so I am” (John 13:13). Here it may be proper to consider the rule of our service to Christ. This is the word of God. If I were asked to describe the character of a servant of Christ, not such as His professing people are too generally found, but such as they ought to be, I should say, they are His willing servants; they choose His service with their whole heart, and would not quit it for any consideration of wealth, rank, station, or fame. They are His servants without terms or conditions as to the kind, quantity, time or place of service. If it be not degrading the subject to apply to it a common phrase in domestic use, I would say they are servants of all work: willing to do the work of God in any place, in any condition, in any circumstances; so that if they can serve Him better by suffering than by active duties, in adversity than in prosperity, they are willing to do it. They are His inquisitive servants, searching the Scriptures as the rule of conduct, to know His will. They are His loving servants; loving their Master and His work too. They are His diligent servants, satisfied with no measure of duty, wrestling against a slothful and indolent disposition, and forgetting the things that are behind, in going on unto perfection. They are His faithful servants, taking account of all the gifts, graces, opportunities of usefulness, and means of doing the will of God and serving their generation. They are His waiting servants, looking for the coming of their Master. 4. We are to follow Him as an example. We are to imitate His holy life. Christ must be followed in humble dependence on Divine grace; and with a fixed resolution and dauntless courage in the face of danger, and at the risk of suffering. III. ALL WHO FOLLOW CHRIST ON EARTH WILL DWELL WITH HIM IN HEAVEN. HE SAITH, “ WHERE I AM THERE SHALL MY SERVANT BE.” (J. A. James.) Christian service Labour is not necessarily service. A good worker may be a poor server. A cook who lets the dinner spoil because she persists in scrubbing the floor when she should be watching the pot, is laborious, but not faithful. Service rather than labour is the measure of usefulness everywhere. God’ s service is not merely in the church meeting, nor in the home closet, but in every legitimate undertaking of life. Whatever distracts us in our proper business distracts from our proper service. The bookkeeper who makes a wrong entry because he is dreaming of the pleasures of last night’ s prayer meeting, is practically forgetting God, because he forgets present duty. The paymaster who makes an overpayment because he is framing his next Sunday school lesson, may think more about God than he thinks of Him. He is a religious worker more than a godly server. And one may serve the Church to the neglect of the Master. He may forget God in thinking about God. (H. C.Trumbull, D. D.) The honour God confers upon those who serve Christ We will suppose that the Prince of Wales is wrecked on a certain voyage, and is cast on shore with only one companion. The Prince falls into the hands of barbarians, and there is an opportunity for his companion to escape; but he says, “ No, my Prince, I will stay with you to the last, and if we die, we will die together.” The Prince is thrown into a dungeon; his companion is in the prison with him, and serves him and waits upon him. He is sick--it is a contagious fever--his companion nurses him--puts the cooling liquid to his mouth--and waits on him with a mother’ s care. He recovers a little: the fond attendant carries the young Prince, as he is getting better, into the open air, and tends him as a mother would her child. They are subject to deep poverty--they share their last crust together; they are hooted at as they go through the streets, and they are hooted at together. At last, by some turn in Providence, it is discovered where the Prince is, and he is brought home. Who is the man that the Queen will delight to honour? I fancy she would look with greater affection upon the poor servant than upon the greatest statesman; and I think that as long as she lived she would remember him above all the rest, “ I will honour him above all the mighty ones in the land.” And now, if we shall be with Christ, the King’ s Son, if we shall suffer with Him, and be reproached with Him, if we shall follow Him anywhere and everywhere, making no choice about the way, whether it shall be rough or smooth--if we can go with Him to prison and to death, then we shall be the men whom heaven’ s King delighteth to honour. “ Make room for Him, ye angels! Stand back ye peers of heaven’ s realm Here comes the man; he was poor, mean, and afflicted; but he was with My Son, and was like My Son. Come hither, man! There, take thy crown, and sit with My Son in His glory, for thou wast with My Son in His shame.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 12:27-29 Now is My soul troubled.This struggle is like one of those fissures in its crust which enables science to fathom the bowels of the earth. It lets us read the very inmost depths of our Lord’ s being. And what do we discover? Just the reverse of that impassive Jesus attributed by criticism to St. John. (F. Godet, D. D.) Lent, a preparation for Good Friday: or the valley of the shadow of death It has been well said that all Lent should be regarded as a preparationfor Good Friday and its observance. Just as when we visit some deep and gloomy gorge amongst the mountains, long before we reach the spot where the cliffs rise highest and the daylight is farthest off, the hills begin to encircle us, the bright sunshine is lost and the black shadows of the stern and solemn precipices encompass our path! Thus, for a considerable time before His crucifixion, our Lord by His prophetic foresight entered into “ the valley of the shadow of death.” And we, in sympathy, should follow His footsteps. When the great prehistoric temple of Stonehenge was perfect, a number of huge stone gateways gave access to the central altar, around which they were ranged. So our Blessed Lord may be pictured as approaching the great Sacrifice on the Altar of the Cross by passing through diverse portals. We may look on Him in different aspects of the preparation for the first Good Friday. I. For instance, we see Him passing through the archway of PAINFUL . He knew what awaited Him--He told His disciples--“ the Son of Man” was about to be betrayed--given into the hands of strangers--“ scourged,” “ mocked,” “ spitefully entreated--insulted--crucified!” All, like a harrowing picture, was clear before His eyes, every detail stood out distinctly, and each day the crisis of His obedience drew closer. “ For though He was a Son, yet learned He obedience by those things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). A middle-aged man said that the most agonizing day he ever spent was the one day before an operation was performed on him; he did not know whether it would be very painful or not, and he was afraid to ask, and every time his thoughts wandered to pleasant matters they came back with a start to the grim recollection that every moment brought nearer and nearer the horrible instant that he could not escape! II. Again, we may regard our Lord pressing on to the Cross through the portal of a brave and . “ He set His face to go up to Jerusalem.” When His disciples objected, “ Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again?” the warning cannot stay His footsteps. When “ the power of darkness” is at hand, He says, with a noble resignation, “ The cup that My Father giveth Me to drink, shall I not drink it?” III. Another aspect in which we may observe our Saviour is, that He was called on to take His pathway under the gloomy arch of AND FAILURE. The disciples who walked by His side He knew were about to forsake Him. Peter, their chief spokesman, was going to deny Him, and Judas to betray Him, and the multitude were soon to exchange their welcome of “ Hosannah” into grim yells of “ Crucify Him!” But none of these things daunted the resolution of our Lord. In one golden sentence He summed up His task. (J. W. Hardman, LL. D.) The Saviour’ s prayer I. THE OUT OF WHICH IT AROSE. “ Troubled” means tortured, racked, torn, as it were, with intense and various emotions. 1. This trouble arose out of the foresight of the Cross. Between Him and His glory lay Calvary. But the anguish was not on account of the physical torture or personal ignominy He would endure, although extreme; He had tasted the bitterness of sin in the intensity and perfection of His redeeming sympathy, and to pass under the shadow of its retribution. 2. This trouble superinduced a great conflict in His mind, “ What shall I say? Father,” etc. Some regard this as a petition; others with more propriety an interrogation implying a natural shrinking which it would have been more human not to feel. Gladly would He have said it but for the stability of His redeeming purpose. Purpose and feeling thus came into distressing collision. 3. The conflict, however, was but momentary. It gave place at once to a calm and heroic resignation. II. THE PURPORT OF THE PRAYER. “ Father, glorify Thy name.” How concise, yet comprehensive: expressive of 1. Resignation. “ Do what Thou wilt so long as Thou be glorified.” 2. Fortitude. “ The task before Me is a heavy one, but for Thy sake, I will go forward to it.” 3. Benevolence. Self is lost sight of, and the Father’ s purpose and the redounding glory is all in all. 4. Faith. “ What Thou hast promised Thou wilt perform.” III. THE ANSWER. 1. How it was given. By a voice from heaven, mistaken as thunder, as the voice of an angel, but truly interpreted by Christ. 2. What it was. A declaration (1) That it had been already fulfilled--in the whole of Christ’ s life. How this assurance would animate Christ, and endear to Him afresh the Father’ s will. (2) That the end for which Jesus prayed would be still further attained. Conclusion: Learn to cherish at all times a true and steady regard for the glory of God. (B. Wilkinson.) A foretaste of Gethsemane I see in the whole event here described a short summary of what took place afterwards more fully at Gethsemane. There is a remarkable parallelism at every step. Does our Lord say here 1. “ My soul is troubled” ? Just so He said in Gethsemane: “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38) 2. “ Father, save Me from this hour” ? Just so He says in Gethsemane: “ O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39). 3. Does our Lord say here, “ For this cause came I unto this hour” ? Just so He says in Gethsemane: “ If this cup may not pass away from Me except I drink it, Thy will be done.” 4. Does our Lord say, finally, “ Father, glorify Thy name” ? Just so our Lord says, lastly, “ The cup which My Father hast given Me, shall I not drink it” (chap. 18:11). The brief prayer which our Lord here offers, we should remember, is the highest, greatest thing that we can ask God to do. The utmost reach of the renewed will of a believer, is to be able to say always, “ Father glorify Thy name in Me. Do with Me what Thou wilt, only glorify Thy name.” The glory of God after all is the end for which all things were created. Paul’ s joyful hope, he told the Philippians, when a prisoner at Rome, was “ that in all things, by life or by death, Christ might be magnified in his body” (Philippians 1:20). (Bp. Ryle.) Gethsemane in prospect This world is a world of grief. The infant begins its career with a cry of distress premonitory of all it must suffer from the cradle to the grave. Some suffer more than others--martyrs, e.g. Hebrews 11:36-38). But one stands out preeminent for suffering (Isaiah 53:1-12; Psalms 69:1-2; Psalms 69:20). It was in the foresight of His amazing sufferings that Christ felt this perturbation of spirit, which arose out of I. AN SENSE OF UNDER THE TRUST HE HAD ASSUMED. Those most worthy of responsibility feel its pressure most. Some rush into office without sensibility or conscience, prepared to take all responsibility merely to pervert it to private ends. But men who deserve the trusts of life shrink even from their honours--e.g., the conscientious physician, advocate, judge, parent. What was Christ’ s trust? It was 1. To represent the sinner (Galatians 5:4-5; 2 Corinthians 5:21). 2. To represent God. His holiness, justice, truth, in all the bitter experiences of His Spirit, and that not in His omnipotent Divine, but in His frail human nature. II. THE VIEW OF DEATH AS THE PENALTY OF THE LAW. The dread of death is natural because it formed no part of our original constitution. Whatever belongs to our nature God makes pleasant--e.g., sleep and food. But death is horrible because it has supervened on our constitution Romans 5:12). But Christ had to die under the Father’ s judicial displeasure as the substitute for sinners whom the law condemns. He was made sin for us who know no sin, which sinlessness added to the agony. Who that is in any degree sanctified can help but feel the pain of the sins with which He is brought in contact? How then must it have been with the Perfect Man who bore all sin, and all sorrows that are born of sin, even to the privation of the Divine presence. III. THE OF WITH THE POWERS OF . It was an old quarrel begun when Satan lifted the standard of rebellion in heaven, continued when Adam fell, and after. We know something of the terribleness of striving with the devil, and as we advance in the Divine life it becomes more terrible. What then must it have been for the spotless Jesus to feel the full brunt of all the forces that hell could muster. Conclusion: 1. All these sufferings are the evidences of Christ’ s love to us. 2. They show us the awful demerit of sin. (B. M. Palmer, D. D.) The internal sufferings of Christ It became Christ to suffer Hebrews 2:10). His sufferings were many varied and severe, and His external sufferings, though of no common kind, were the least part of them, as may be judged by the fact that they never extorted a complaint, whereas His inward anguish wrung from Him “ strong crying and tears.” I. THE SAVIOUR’ S . When the mind is free from uneasiness it is said to be calm like the bosom of the lake when no breath of wind ruffles its glassy surface. When sorrow and terror takes possession of it, it is said to be agitated, like the ocean in a storm. The latter was the case with Christ here, and John 13:21, and Matthew 26:36-46. 1. Its cause (1) not external circumstances. There was no scourge or cross here, or at Gethsemane. On the contrary, there was much to please. The people had just shouted their Hosannahs to His Messiahship; the Greeks had fulfilled the promise of Isa 49:6. (2) Not remorse. In no case could He wish that He had thought, or felt, or acted differently from what He had done. (3) Not fear of impending bodily sufferings (though no doubt they did give rise to uneasy feelings), for He knew that these would be momentary and would be abundantly compensated. (4) There is but one way of accounting for it. The invisible arm of Omnipotence smites Him. On the head of the spotless, perfect man, Jehovah made to meet, as the victim for human transgression, the iniquities of us all, in all their odiousness and malignity. The more He loved those in whose room He stood, the more would His trouble be increased, just as we are affected more by the crimes of a friend than by those of a stranger. And in addition He was exposed to the attack of malignant spiritual beings whose was that hour and power of darkness. 2. Its purpose. (1) To “ make Him perfect,” i.e., fully to accomplish Him as Saviour. It formed one important part of His expiation. Mere bodily sufferings could not expiate “ spiritual wickedness.” (2) To complete His example. This had been incomplete had He not showed His people how to conduct themselves under inward troubles which often form the severest part of their trials. (3) To render Him sympathetic with His people under those trials which most need His sympathy. II. THE OF OUR LORD’ S MIND UNDER THESE . 1. “ What shall I say?” has been regarded as a further expression of suffering--“ My sorrows are too great to be uttered in words. Father, save me from my impending sufferings.” Christ’ s sorrows were indeed unspeakable, but He could hardly have asked to be saved from death when He rebuked His disciples for attempting to dissuade Him, and when He was straitened till the baptism of blood was accomplished. 2. The words express the deliberating of our Lord’ s mind as to what course He should follow--“ to what quarter shall I turn for relief. Men are not disposed to pity Me, and cannot relieve Me. I turn to God: what shall I say to Him? He can sustain and deliver Me. Shall I ask Him to release Me from My covenant engagements? No: for this cause I came to this hour. I will not ask it. I will say, Glorify Thy name; finish Thy work in righteousness. Let the end be gained: I quarrel not with the means.” 3. What a display of (1) Love to God in entire devotedness to His glory! (2) Love to man in becoming obedient to death. 4. What a call for gratitude, love and devotion from us! III. THE FATHER’ S OF THE SAVIOUR’ S OF MIND UNDER THESE . “ I have both glorified it,” etc. The whole universe glorifies God’ s name, the whole history of the past and future. But this refers to the glorification of God’ s name 1. In Christ Jesus. His faithfulness in fulfilling His great promise to His Church; His power in bringing into personal union, the Divine and human natures; His mercy in not withholding His only Son. God’ s glory was seen in Christ’ s life, teaching, miracles. 2. In the awful events of that “ hour.” 3. In the glorious results of Christ’ s death (Psalms 16:10-11; Exodus 1:1-22; Exodus 2:8; Isaiah 53:12; Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 40:5). The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ;the effusion of the Spirit; the salvation of an innumerable company. The subject 1. Tells the impenitent sinner what he must endure if he refuses to avail himself of the “ redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” 2. Bids the Christian rejoice that the cup of wrath he deserved has been drunk by Christ. 3. Urges us often to show forth the Lord’ s death in His own ordinance. (J. Brown, D. D.) The soul trouble of Christ I. THE MYSTERY OF THE SAVIOUR’ S SORROW. It is usual to explain that the human nature of Jesus shrank from death. But this view lowers Him below the level of the martyrs, and is inconsistent with the haste with which He journeyed to Jerusalem to meet His death; and we cannot think of Him as losing courage. II. SOME LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY. We are apt to take too corporeal a view of Christ’ s sacrifice. The bodily pain was an essential part of the suffering, but only a part. It was something all His own in dying, from which He shrank, and the shrinking from which He had to conquer. He saw the sin-wrought woes and horrors of all the generations before and after, to the day of judgment, and there was a sense of their being upon Him, and enveloping Him. And so we may hear Him cry, “ Spare Me not the scourging, the death agony,” etc., but the being made one with the world in its sin. III. THE MEANING OF THE PRAYER. This experience had not been altogether measured beforehand, and now the agony of the incorporation of the sinless with sin is before Him, He prays for deliverance from conscious sin-bearing. IV. THE ANSWER TO THE PRAYER. “ There came a voice.” Modern unbelief scoffs at voices from heaven. Reverence will not pass hasty judgments. One said, “ It thundered;” another, “ an angel spoke to Him.” Christ alone hears the audible words, and interprets them when He is alone with His people. “ I have glorified it and will glorify it.” V. LESSONS. 1. “ My soul is troubled.” Christ is not alone in that experience; but His troubles were not His own; ours are our own. 2. “ Save Me from this hour.” Not that He would not suffer for others; but that this going fearfully into the very heart of sin seemed terrible. We may pray this prayer; but let us take care to remember how different is our trouble; and to add, “ Glorify Thy name,” whatever it may cost us. 3. Can we pray, “ Glorify Thy name?” Whatever I suffer for my own sin or for my brother’ s, only may God be glorified; only may God be seen as He is in His power to save. May this thought take root and grow in us! (Dean Vaughan.) The sorrow and resignation of Christ I. THE HOUR WHICH THE SAVIOUR MET. He names it twice in a very emphatic manner: and there is repeated notice of the fact that “ it had not yet come.” There have been many important hours, but none like this. It was the hour 1. For which time was made. 2. To which all the dispensations referred--Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic. 3. Which all the prophets foretold (1 Peter 1:11). 4. In which the grandest work was accomplished, and the grandest victory achieved. 5. In which all intelligent creation was concerned. (1) Angels were not indifferent spectators, for they were confirmed in their bliss. (2) Devils, for they were deprived of their last expiring hope. (3) Man, for a full atonement for his sin was made. II. THE HE FELT. He hardly knew how to express Himself in the prospect; what then must have been the agony itself? No one had ever such reason to meet death with calmness. He had no guilt, was assured of immortality, and saw the blessed issue. Martyrs--mere men--have suffered with magnanimity and joy. Yet He was troubled. Why? Because He was the surety for sinners and suffered for sin. Learn, then 1. The extreme evil of sin. 2. The greatness of the love of Christ. 3. The indispensable necessity of faith in His atonement. III. THE HE . “ Father, save Me,” etc., is not a petition, but an interrogation. Note that 1. Christ’ s undertaking for sinners was voluntary. He “ came to this hour,” which teaches His inviolable faithfulness, and should encourage our trust. 2. He saw this hour in every period of His existence. It was not unexpected--“ For this cause.” 3. The motives which had influenced Him to suffer were still the same; and as the hour approached they gathered weight. 4. It was but an hour. The conflict was severe but transient. Such considerations contributed to work this resignation. IV. THE PRAYER HE OFFERED. “ Father, glorify Thy name” is more than resignation; it is a consecration of His sufferings to God’ s glory. How is the Father glorified thus? 1. In His perfections. Already His wisdom, power, and mercy were displayed in the Saviour’ s mission and miracles: but now He was to display His holiness and justice. 2. As regards His dispensations. (T. Kidd.) The Redeemer contemplating His hour as come I. THE UNIQUE OF THE . 1. The nature of the hour--the time appointed for the vindication of the Divine government outraged by man, and for the manifestation of Divine love. The world had been spared for this hour. 2. The mysterious agitation with which it was approached. This was natural. Who has not spent anxious days and sleepless nights over an unfinished work, and who does not know the tension as the hour for its completion arrives. 3. The grand consideration which induced Christ to meet this hour--the fact that all the past was summed up in it to the glory of God, and that the glory of God would stream from it. II. ITS TO US. 1. There is an hour in the life of every man, Christian, Church, for which every previous hour is a designed preparation. 2. Seasons of special service and sacrifice have actually occurred in the history of the Church--Israel on the confines of the promised land; the Reformation; the mission of Wesley; the great missionary movement. 3. Such times of effort should be expected, prayed for, ascertained. 4. The due apprehension of our hour would invest us with a consecrating sense of opportunity. 5. On our discharge of impending responsibilities may be suspended consequences of unknown magnitude. 6. Is not the urgency of the hour now greater than ever? (J. Harris, D. D.) The hour of atonement The Redeemer I. AN PERIOD. 1. As involving intense and infinite agony--betrayal, desertion, ignominy, corporeal torture, agony in the endurance of imputed sin. 2. As connected with and founding His exaltation (John 12:23). (1) The glory of His personal dignity in His resurrection, ascension, enthronement, and dominion. (2) The glory of the universal efficacy of His atonement (John 12:24, Isaiah 53:10-12). II. WAS BY A EMOTION. 1. He was perturbed with anxiety arising from the prospect of His sufferings, which incidentally proves that His death was an atonement. How else shall we explain this intense agitation? 2. He was resolute in determination. “ For this cause come I to this hour.” 3. He was fervent in prayer. “ Father, glorify Thy name.” III. A . 1. Its mode--a voice from heaven. 2. Its announcement--an approval of the invocation. Conclusion: 1. Honour the hour of atonement by admitting its unparalleled importance. 2. Seek with supreme earnestness a personal interest in the redemption this period has provided. 3. Promote the glory of the Father and the Son by the zealous diffusion of that gospel which conveys it. (J. Parsons.) John 12:28-30 Father, glorify Thy name The glorified name 1. One important aspect of Christian life is the imitation of Christ. But this is not necessarily doing the same things that Christ did, but involves the discovery of the principles by which His life was ruled, and the imitation of ways of expressing character after we have gained Christ’ s principles. 2. A man’ s ruling principle can best be discovered in his prayers, particularly in those which are forced on by sudden calamity or pressure. Then all the guards and formalities around a man are broken down, and the man reveals himself in his heart cry to God. The circumstances of the text present such an occasion, and that we may know what was our Lord’ s ruling principle, let us study this revealing prayer. I. THE PRAYER THAT THE OF THE NOBLE LIFE. Observe 1. The apprehension of God that is in it. The character of our prayer depends on the name we are able to use for God. Our Lord could only employ the richest and dearest--Father. This apprehension includes some apprehension of the mystery of life and suffering, and a comforting recognition of the Divine purpose. His is a fatherhood of many sons whom He is training for glory. 2. The attitude of soul it indicates. (1) Perfect trust in the goodness of all the Father’ s arrangements and doings. (2) Simple and unquestioning obedience. (3) Intense love making complete self-sacrifice possible. 3. What is involved in the petition--living out to the end such a perfect sonship that men, throughout the ages, thinking of the life of Jesus, should fill the name of Father with highest, tenderest, and holiest meanings. To live for self is ignoble; to live for God in His character of Father, the noble life indeed. II. THE DIVINE TO SUCH A PRAYER. 1. A side of tender comforting--“ I have glorified it; that has been the meaning of all your life’ s toil and pain.” This voice may be heard to cheer all true-hearted sons of God. Their life has not been lived in vain. 2. A sign of assurance for the future--“ I will,” etc. Therefore our Lord may calmly go on to new scenes of toil and suffering. (R. Tuck, B. A.) The glory of God interpreted in Christ The true glory of God must be interpreted in Christ Jesus; and when you understand what it is that God makes to be His glory; when you understand that the glory of God is not self-laudation, nor enriching His own power, nor multiplying His own treasures, but that it is supremely to make others happy; when you understand that the glory of God means loving other people and not oneself, mercy and not selfishness, the distribution of His bounty and not the hoarding it up; when you understand that God sits with all the infinite stores of redemptive love only to shed them abroad upon men forever and forever, then you form a different conception of what it is for God to reign for His own glory. If love is His glory; if generosity is His glory; if giving is His glory; if thinking of the poor is His glory; if strengthening the weak is His glory; if standing as the defender of the wronged is His glory; if loving and watching over every being that He has created forever and forever is His glory, then, blessed be that teaching which represents that God does reign for His own glory. That is a glory which is worthy of the Divine regality. It will bring out blossoms of joy and gladness in heaven and on earth. (H. W. Beecher.) The glory of God in Christ crucified Here shine spotless justice, incomprehensible wisdom, and infinite love, all at once; none of them darkens or eclipses the other; every one of them gives a lustre to the rest; they mingle their beams, and shine with united, eternal, splendour. The just Judge, the merciful Father, the wise Governor--no other object gives such a display of all these perfections; yea, all the objects we know give not such a display as any one of them. Nowhere does justice appear so terribly awful, mercy so sweetly amiable, or wisdom so unfathomably profound. The glories that are found separately in the other works of God, are found united here. The joys of heaven glorify God’ s goodness; the pains of hell glorify His justice; the cross of Christ glorifies both of them in a more remarkable way than heaven or hell glorifies any of them. The justice of God is more awfully displayed in the sufferings of Christ, as the substitute of sinners, than in the torments of devils; and His mercy is far more brightly manifested in these sufferings, than in the joys of angels. (J. McLaurin.) The glory of God the object of grace Whenever God has blessed the Church, He has secured Himself the glory of the blessing, though we have had the profit of it. Sometimes He has been pleased to redeem His people by might; but then He had so used the power that all the glory hath come to Him, and His head alone hath worn the crown. Did He smite Egypt, and lead forth His people with a strong hand and an outstretched arm? the glory was not to the rod of Moses, but to the Almighty power which made the rod so potent. Did He lead His people through the wilderness and defend them from their enemies? Still, did He, by teaching the people their dependence upon Him, preserve to Himself all the glory. So that not Moses or Aaron amongst the priests or prophets could share the honour with Him. And tell me, if ye will, of slaughtered Anak, and the destruction of the tribes of Canaan; tell me of Israel’ s possessing the promised land; tell me of Philistines routed, and laid heaps on heaps; of Midianites made to fall on each other; tell me of kings and princes who fled apace and fell, until the ground was white, like the snow in Salmon. I will say of every one of these triumphs, “ Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously;” and I will say at the end of every victory, “ Crown Him, crown Him, for He hath done it; and let His name be exalted and extolled, world without end.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) Human glory, what it comes to A moment before he uttered his last sigh he called the herald who had carried his banner before him in all his battles, and commanded him to fasten to the top of a lance the shroud in which the dying prince was soon to be buried. “ Go,” said he, “ carry the lance, unfurl this banner; and while you lift up this standard, proclaim, ‘ This, this is all that remains to Saladin the Great (the conqueror and the king of the empire) of all his glory.’” Christians, I perform today the office of this herald. I fasten to the staff of a spear sensual and intellectual pleasures, worldly riches, and human honours. All these I reduce to the piece of crape in which you will shortly be buried. This standard of death I lift up in your sight, and I cry, “ This, this is all that will remain to you of the possessions for which you exchanged your souls.” (J. Saurin.) Voices from the excellent glory (Text and Matthew 3:16-17; Matthew 17:5) I. THE THREE . 1. When the voices were heard (1) In relation to Christ’ s personal ministry. (a) The first at the commencement of His public ministry. (b) The second some little time after its central point. (c) The last just before its close. How cheering at the beginning of a great enterprise to have God’ s testimony that He has sent you; how encouraging when the labour is heavy and the spirit faint to receive another affirming word; but best of all to have it when we are about to depart. (2) In relation to His life and enterprise. (a) The first celestial witness was given after He had lived for thirty years in obscurity. It was meet when He first appeared that there should be some token that He was what He professed to be. It came also before the temptation, for which there could not be a better forearming. So with us: before temptation, spiritual sustenance. (b) The second was when our Lord (according to Luke) was about to send out other seventy disciples. Before extending His agencies of mercy He received a token for good. When the Lord calls us to wider service; let us go up into the mountain to pray, and there too we may expect to enjoy the comforting and strengthening witness of the Spirit. (c) The third came just before His sufferings and death. It was meet that the Sufferer who must tread the winepress alone should receive a word meeting the point about which His soul was most concerned, viz., God’ s glory. (3) In relation to His habits. (a) The first came when He was in the attitude of obedience--“ fulfilling all righteousness.” When you are in the path of filial obedience you may expect the Spirit to bear witness with yours that you are born of God. (b) The second came when He was in devout retirement. He had gone up into the mountain alone, and when you are there you may expect to receive Divine testimonies. (c) The third came when about Isis work, preaching in the Temple. If you are called to any form of service, under no pretext neglect it, or you may lose the inward witness. 2. To whom the attestations were given. (1) To an increasing number of persons. The first to John alone; the second to five; the last to many. God’ s testimony to Christ is an ever growing one. (2) It was given in this wise. (a) The first to the greatest of men, yet the voice revealed a greater than he. (b) The second to the best of men, but the voice bear witness to a better. (c) The third in the holiest place, and there it testified to a holier. Jesus is everywhere magnified beyond all others. 3. To what God bore testimony. (1) The first was to Christ’ s miraculous origin: “ This is My beloved Son.” (2) The second sealed His appointment as the Great Prophet--“ Hear Him.” (3) The third bore witness to the success of His work--“ I have glorified it,” etc. Some have thought that the three voices attested our Lord in His threefold office. (a) John came proclaiming the kingdom, and Jesus was in His baptism proclaimed the chief of the new kingdom. (b) On the second occasion, “ Hear Him,” ordained Him the Prophet of the people. (c) In the third He was owned as Priest. Is this threefold witness received in your hearts the testimony of God, who cannot lie. Behold Christ well pleasing to the Father; let Him be well pleasing to you. Hear Him proclaimed as God’ s beloved; let Him be the beloved of your hearts. Hear the testimony that He has glorified God, and remember that His further glorifying God depends in some measure on you. 4. How were these testimonies given? (1) On the first occasion the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended. What if this proclaims to us that by His obedience our Lord procured the opening of heaven for us that our prayers might go up and our blessings come down! (2) Heaven was not beheld as opened the second time--the overshadowing cloud represented the Mediatorship of Christ veiling the excessive brightness of the Godhead. (3) In the third our mind rests neither upon the opening of heaven nor on the cloud, but on the voice. The opening of heaven and the interposition of a Mediator are but means to the great end of glorifying God. Let this one great object absorb all our souls. 5. What was it that was spoken? (1) The first time the heavenly voice preached the gospel, “ This is My beloved Son,” etc. The gospel is tidings concerning a blessed person, and His acceptableness as the chosen of God, and of the Divine pleasure with those who are “ in” Him. (2) The second time the voice uttered the great command, “ Hear Him.” Salvation does not come by seeing, as Romanists have it. Faith cometh by hearing, and not the doctrines of men, even such as Moses and Elias, but Him. (3) On the third occasion testimony was given to the gospel’ s result. It is through the gospel that God is glorified. II. WITH THESE . 1. On each occasion Jesus was in prayer. Learn that if any would have God speak comfortably to him, he must speak to God in prayer. 2. Each time His sufferings were prominently before Him. John, at the waters of Jordan, said, “ Behold the Lamb,” etc. On Tabor Moses and Elias spoke of His decease. In the Temple His soul was troubled at the prospect of His death. Learn, then, if you desire to see the glory of Christ, as attested of the Father, you must dwell much on His death. 3. Each time He was honouring the Father. In His baptism by obedience, on the mountain by devotion, in the Temple His very words were, “ Glorify Thy name.” If you would see God’ s glory and hear His voice you must honour Him. Conclusion: Receive these testimonies. 1. With assured conviction. 2. With profound reverence. 3. With unconditional obedience. 4. With joyful confidence. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The best prayer ever offered I. ITS OBJECT. 1. It is unselfish. Personal apprehension is swallowed up in the craving for Divine glory. Compare this with Matthew 6:9. Prayer is often too selfish. 2. It seeks the revealing of God’ s glory. God is changeless and cannot grow more glorious in Himself. But His name is glorified when the beauty of His character is revealed. The mountains are not changed when the mists lift; but they are glorified in being unveiled. 3. The particular form is the glory of the Fatherhood of God. His creative glory of wisdom and might had been revealed in nature; His regal glory of justice and government in providence; His highest glory of goodness awaited its full manifestation when His Fatherhood would be seen in personal self-sacrificing love to His children. II. ITS MOTIVES. 1. The name of God as our Father deserves to be glorified. 2. Christ found His own greatest encouragement in the vision of the glory of God. So did Moses (Exodus 33:18-19). We are most strengthened when we forget self in God. 3. Christ’ s work is accomplished when the name of God as our Father is glorified. This name had been dishonoured till Christ raised it to honour among His disciples. The Christian is glorified only as he reflects the glory of God, and this can only be as God is first revealed to him (2 Corinthians 3:18). III. ITS ANSWER. 1. God’ s Fatherhood had been revealed (1) In creation, providence, and Old Testament revelation, but dimly and partially. (2) In the incarnation, life, character, words, and works of Christ, but still not perfectly. 2. It was destined to be revealed more fully. (1) In the passion of Christ, by the love of God shown in sustaining His Son, by His holiness and goodness in the suffering Saviour, and by the great act of redemption then accomplished. (2) In the resurrection, and the proof this gave of God’ s redeeming goodness. (3) In the fruits of the redemption seen in the history of the Church. (4) Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in helping the Church to read aright the mystery of the Cross, which, after Pentecost, became the central theme of the Church’ s praises. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.) The changed prayer A man once complained to his minister that he had prayed for a whole year that he might enjoy the comforts of religion, but found no answer to his prayers. The minister replied, “ Go home now, and pray, ‘ Father, glorify Thy name.’” The truest and deepest view of life I. A MAN TAKING THE TRUEST AND DEEPEST VIEW OF LIFE. A sentence is often a revelation. This is unique, suggestive. If we were to put our deepest desires into words would they be this? The worldly man’ s life is limited to the self sphere; the very point of this is that Christ had no self sphere. The former is the shallow, the latter the ennobling view. Observe our Lord’ s 1. Cherished life thought. This inspiring thought for Christ and us starts the question, Will not a cherished sense of our independence do more for us than the sense of dependence, and so of responsibility? Let Christ’ s life be the answer. The independent view--I am my own--may be fascinating; but it is untrue and deteriorating, and sooner or later is found to be such. What is the condition of the parasite when the tree on which it feeds is dead? or that of the ivy cut below and made independent of its secret rootings? What good is an independent vine branch? 2. Ruling life-force--obedience inspired by affection for His Father. Here we see how all the seeming hardness of dependence is lost in the atmosphere of love. The wife never finds it hard to obey when she loves. Mere obedience is, for man, very hard; but obedience out of love is the highest joy; and this deep joy we find in Christ. 3. Prevailing life-attitude--the activity of submission; for true submission is not mere bearing, but bearing in doing. This is fully illustrated in the life of Christ. II. GOD’ S TO THE MAN WHO TAKES THIS VIEW OF LIFE. 1. That the deepest wish of His heart has been already realized and He may read His past in the light of it. All depends on the light in which we read our past. Read Christ’ s in the light thrown by this response and see how it had been a glorifying of the Father-name of God in (1) His own Sonship. (2) His teachings about the Father. (3) His brotherhood with men. 2. That the deepest wish of his heart shall yet be realized, and he may go calmly on into darkness with the assurance that even his Cross shall glorify the Father. Death shall do even more than life. The “ forsaking” was a final triumph of obedience. The will of God was so beautiful that He could even suffer and die for it. Conclusion: We say, “ God is our Father.” Do we say, “ Father, glorify Thy name.” Is this our inspiring life secret? In life labour, relationships, sufferings, bereavements, death, do I honour myself or my Father? (R. Tuck, B. A.) The people … said that it thundered.--The whole multitude heard a noise; but the meaning of the voice was only perceived by each in proportion to his spiritual intelligence. Thus the wild beast perceives only a sound in the human voice; the trained animal discovers a meaning, a command, e.g., which it immediately obeys; man alone discerns a thought. (F. Godet, D. D.) The voice from heaven I. THE VOICE. 1. Grossly misunderstood by the bystanders (1) As a natural phenomenon, as thunder. (2) As a supernatural utterance, the speech of an angel--a significant proof of man’ s incapacity to understand the words of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). 2. Lovingly by Jesus; as an old and familiar voice, the voice of His Father, which twice previously had addressed Him out of heaven. It needs a child’ s heart to recognize a father’ s voice. 3. Rightly interpreted again by Jesus--perhaps also by John and his co-apostles--to whom it spoke in the language of (1) Approbation, “ I have glorified it.” (2) Consolation, “ Will glorify it again.” II. THE PURPOSE OF THE VOICE. 1. Not for His sake; since He knew His Father always heard Him (chap. 11:42). 2. But for theirs--to assure them that He was the Father’ s Son, the heaven-sent Messiah. Learn 1. The superiority of faith to unbelief in the understanding of Divine revelations. 2. The condescension of Christ in considering man’ s weakness and infirmity. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 12:31-33 Now is the Judgment of this world The world’ s hour of deepest revolution It was the signal I. OF ITS . To judge is to verify the moral condition. The judgment of the world is based upon the Cross, inasmuch as this discloses the moral condition of man in his natural state. Man, by raising this throne for Jesus, judged himself, and manifested the enmity to God which is in his heart. Having erected it, he judges himself still more decidedly by his relation thereto; for either by faith he finds therein his salvation, or by unbelief his condemnation. Of this choice the final judgment will be only the ratification. Thus the judgment of the world dates from Good Friday. Its first external manifestation was the destruction of Jerusalem; its second will be the judgment of the Church; its third the last judgment predicted (Matthew 25:1-46) on the very day on which these words were uttered. II. OF THE OF ITS ANCIENT MASTER. The Cross filled up the measure of tolerance granted to the perversity of the Prince of this world. The Crucifixion was the most odious and unpardonable transgression of Satan; this crime put an end to the long suffering of God concerning him, and, consequently, to his dominion over mankind. The Rabbis habitually designate Satan “ the prince of this world,” but place the Jews outside his kingdom, while Jesus includes them as well as the heathen therein (chap. 8) “ Out” signifies not only out of his office and power, but chiefly out of the world--his ancient realm--as is shown by the connection of these words with the preceding, and the opposition between John 12:31-32. III. THE OF ITS NEW . The overthrow coincides with the accession. Jesus declares Himself appointed to fill this part. But, strange to say, it is not upon this earth, whence Satan is cast out, that He will establish His kingdom. He will not become, as the Jews expected, the successor of His adversary, and, consequently, another prince of this world; He, as well as His rival, will leave the earth; He will be raised from it and above it, and in a higher sphere He will draw to Himself His subjects and realize His kingdom. “ Lifted up” must be understood here in the same amphibiological sense as at John 3:14; John 8:28. His lifting up on the cross, that throne of love, appears to Him as the gloriously ironical emblem of His elevation to the throne of glory. And this comparison is based on a deep truth. For was it not the Cross which created the abyss between Christ and the world (Galatians 6:14), and rendered the purely heavenly form of the kingdom of God for the present necessary? “ From” or “ out of the earth” designates an ignominious expulsion from earthly existence by any capital punishment, and cannot refer to the small distance between the ground and the feet of the crucified. It is “ lifted up,” which refers to the Cross. The Cross and the Ascension united freed Jesus from all earthly ties and national obligations, and placed Him in a position to extend His agency to the whole world (Romans 10:12). Once raised to heaven, Jesus will draw around Him a new people, strangers to earth, and, like Himself, of a heavenly nature. He will be both the Author and End of this Divine attraction. (F. Godet, D. D.) The Cross In the Cross Christ saw a provision for three great objects. By it I. THE WORLD SHOULD BE JUDGED. God judged our sins in the person of Jesus, visited our guilt upon Him condemned in our place. That is the true measure, as it is the most awful punishment of our guilt. If men sin on they may see, as clearly as if it were come already, their eternal doom. How can a sinner be so deluded as to think he will escape when he sees the Son of God hanging there. Let him look and realize who He was, and then feel, “ I am condemned.” Thus Christ knew that the Cross would convince men of sin. What the law could not do, what no mercies or judgments of God could do, this would effect, and His heart exulted in the thought that men at last would see that there was no hope for them save in turning to God through Him. II. THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD . That being whose empire none else could shake, whose dominion over men’ s minds and habits none else could destroy, Jesus saw dethroned. God had predicted this. “ The seed of the woman,” etc. To accomplish this was the end of His coming. “ For this purpose is the Son of God manifested,” etc. This end is gained when Satan is banished from the human heart. The Cross avails for this 1. By having procured the gift of the Spirit who turns men “ from the power of Satan unto God.” 2. By furnishing the most powerful motives to turn from sin, inasmuch as it reveals the guilt and danger of sin, and endears believers to the Saviour who died to reconcile them to God, and therefore weans them from sin. 3. By securing powerful help in such a view of the love of God as inspires faith and hope. III. HUMAN SOULS DRAWN TO CHRIST. 1. The means--wondrous, the last, apparently, calculated to serve this purpose. 2. The method--“ draw,” not compel, by the attraction of love. 3. The object--“ all men.” Gentiles as well as Jews. 4. The result--“ to Me.” (B. W. Noel, M. A.) The death of Christ and its results I. THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 1. The fact of His death predicted. It was a wonderful thing that He should die, for death is the penalty of sin and He was sinless, and can only take effect on humanity, whereas He was Divine. 2. The manner of His death described--crucifixion. The mystery thickens. If He must die, surely it should be naturally and peacefully, or if not, gloriously, as a hero, and amidst the blessings of His race. No, He must die as a felon, a death (1) profoundly humiliating; (2) excruciatingly painful. 3. The nature of His death unfolded. Its manner partly indicates its nature. (1) It was penal. He suffered under Roman and Divine law, but how differently. (2) It was vicarious, since He was innocent. (3) It was expiatory (Isaiah 53:5-6). II. ITS RESULTS. 1. The judgment of the world. (1) What this means. In the Scriptures to judge means to govern. Hence the “ Judges.” As King and Ruler the Messiah is frequently predicted as Judge. This interpretation agrees with the context. The Son of Man is glorified by being made King of the world; how, therefore, is the world to be judged by being ruled by Him? A new order of Divine administration has been commenced, having for its object the subjection of the world to God. (2) How is this judgment the result of Christ’ s death? (a) It was the promised and richly-merited reward of His death Isaiah 53:10-12; Philippians 2:5-11). (b) It is the necessary means of His carrying into accomplishment the great design of His death, the salvation of His chosen people John 17:2). 2. The expulsion of the prince of this world (John 14:30; John 16:8-11; Ephesians 2:2). (1) Who is he? (a) A real personal existence. (b) A potentate. (c) Exercising dominion over this world. (d) But not independently and uncontrolled, but largely as the executioner of Divine justice, and limited in power by the duration of “ this world.” (2) What is his expulsion? His being cast out (a) From the human heart. (b) From the religious and civil institutions he had controlled. (3) How is he cast out? (a) Christ bore the penalty of that for which he held men in bondage, and men paid their debt and suffered their punishment in Christ their substitute. (b) By the power of the Spirit, by which men can resist the devil and make him flee. 3. This drawing of all men to Christ. (1) What this drawing is. (a) All men, without exception, become the subjects of His mediatorial government. (b) All men, without distinction, become the objects of the invitations of His gospel. (c) All whom the Father has given Him, an innumerable company out of every kindred, etc., are put in possession of the blessings of His salvation. (2) How it is connected with His lifting up. Had not atonement been made there could have been no salvation to offer, or give or receive. Christ’ s death removed all obstacles to this, and secured the effectual agency of the Spirit. (J. Brown, D. D.) I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me The uplifted Saviour Nothing is more wonderful about Christ than His unfaltering confidence in the boundlessness and perpetuity of His power, especially when we consider the circumstances in which it was expressed and the grounds on which it was based. The assertion before us is that of a fanatic or of a God. I. THE EXTENT OF THE SAVIOUR’ S DRAWING. “ All men.” 1. The meaning of universal terms in Scripture must be determined (1) By its great acknowledged principles. One of these is the freedom of the will. So the text signifies merely that there is sufficient power in Christ to draw all men; but the melancholy fact is that many “ will not come unto Him that they may have life.” (2) By the context. Spoken as it was in connection with the visit of the Greeks, the text means that the benefits of Christ’ s redemption were not restricted to the Jews, but were thrown open to the world. 2. While, however, some shall reach destruction because they will choose the broad way, there is a vastly preponderating aggregate who shall he brought to Christ. The drawing commenced with the dying thief. Seven weeks afterwards three thousand were drawn. Then the whole of the Acts furnishes illustrations. Then eighteen centuries of Church history, particularly great movements like Methodism and missions. Finally, the Apocalyptic visions shall be realized. II. WHAT IS THERE IN THE SAVIOUR SO TO ATTRACT. In Him is disclosed 1. The ground of full and free pardon for the very chief of sinners. This gives hope to the most despairing, who can get rest nowhere else. 2. Ample provision for the purification of sinful hearts. 3. All those qualities calculated to draw the sympathies and aspirations of the renewed heart. (1) The love of truth is satisfied in Him, who is the Truth. (2) The yearning for fellowship is satisfied in His Brotherhood. (3) The sense of right binds us to Him as our Redeemer Sovereign. (4) The desire for spiritual beauty is gratified in Him, who is the altogether lovely. (5) Impulses to serve our brethren are sanctified and empowered by the constraint of His self-sacrificing love. III. THE AGENCY . 1. The power of Providence or government of the world is committed to the Redeemer for the ingathering and completion of the Church. 2. The Holy Spirit draws hearts to the Saviour. He is Christ’ s Witness and Glorifier. “ No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost.” For this purpose He abides with the Church forever. Hence 3. The Church is Christ’ s visible agency for this great work, which is discharged (1) By private testimony. (2) Public proclamation. (J. Graham.) Christ lifted up Christ crucified I. CHRIST’ S GLORY. Because 1. The manifestation of glorious love. 2. The demonstration of glorious fortitude. 3. The completion of glorious work. 4. The achievement of glorious triumph. II. THE ’ S THEME. Christ lifted up, and not 1. Hell and damnation. 2. Mere doctrine. 3. Inoperative morality. 4. Sacred or secular learning. III. THE HEART’ S . Christ draws 1. Like a trumpet attracting men to hear the proclamation. 2. Like a net drawing men out of the sea of sin. 3. With the bands of love. 4. As a standard in the centre of gathering. 5. As a chariot in which souls are drawn to heaven. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Why Christ was lifted up Expression of text used three times to teach that the Son of Man must be lifted up in order I. TO GIVE A OF HIS DIVINE MANHOOD (chap. 7:28). 1. Christ proved Himself to be true man by dying as every man dies. 2. He proved Himself to be Divine by dying as no other man ever died. (1) His death unique in its supernatural accompaniment. (2) In its voluntariness. II. TO BRING TO BEAR THE MOST DIVINE UPON MAN (John 12:32). 1. The strongest bonds of attraction between man and man are love and sympathy. These two are braided together in a two-fold cord in Christ crucified. 2. He was lifted up to draw men out of and keep them away from the sins that had kept them from Him. III. TO A DIVINE FOR MAN (chap. 3:14). Salvation is absolutely fastened to Christ crucified. 1. Without the shedding of blood is no remission. 2. The Divine imperative “must.” (A. J. Gordon.) The great attraction 1. Christ’ s death must have seemed to His apostles an unmitigated misfortune; but He showed them that it was really the most hopeful of all points in His history. 2. The text must be illustrated by doctrines that are concealed in it, and facts with which it is connected. The prince of darkness enticed poor foolish man to his destruction as fish are taken by the bait, birds lured by decoys, barques wrecked by false lights or sucked into the whirlpool. Christ came to produce a counter attraction. But men stood at a distance from their best Friend; but since man does not come of himself, even when he perceives the gracious errand of Jesus, He condescends to attract him, and that by means of the Cross. I. WHAT IS THE OF JESUS ? It lies in that which some count its weakness and reproach. Certain preachers have missed all in forgetting this. Socinians have fondly dreamed that His holy life will provide the attraction. Such has not proved to be the case. Nor has the millennial glory of Christ proved attractive; but men have been drawn to the Cross 1. By the disinterested love there manifested. “ Scarcely for a righteous man,” etc. 2. By the satisfaction there rendered to justice, through which pardon is provided, and may be accepted honourably. 3. By its exact suitability to man’ s necessities--thirsty, here is living water; naked, here is a robe of righteousness; vile, here it a fountain; lost, here is salvation. 4. By its agonies, the culmination of all previous sorrows. II. IN WHAT DOES THE CROSS ATTRACT. 1. From despair to hope. 2. From fear to faith. 3. From dread to love. 4. From sin to obedience. 5. From self to Jesus. 6. From earth to heaven. III. WHAT ARE THE AND OF THIS POWER. 1. Gentle. 2. Gracious. 3. Wide. 4. Effectual. 5. Present. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Wondrous attraction In the Paris Salon some few years ago there was a bust of the painter Baudry, by Paul Dubois. Mr. E. Gosse was sitting contemplating the bust, when an American gentleman passed, caught sight of it, and, hovering round it for some time, came and sat down by his side and watched it. Presently he turned to Mr. Gosse, inquiring if he could tell him whose it was, and whether it was thought much of, adding, with a charming modesty, “ I don’ t know anything about art; but I found I could not get past that head.” Would we could so set forth Christ that His word might be fulfilled! “ I, if I be lifted up,” etc. (H. O. Mackey.) Invisible attraction A little boy was flying a kite, which had soared so high as to be almost out of sight. Seeing him looking so intensely upward, a gentleman asked him what he had there. “ A kite, sir,” was the boy’ s reply. “ A kite!” said the gentleman; “ how can that be, I don’ t see it?” “ Ah! I feel it pulling, sir,” was the boy’ s unanswerable reply. This should be our evidence that our Saviour is above--we should feel Him pulling. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.) The attractiveness of Christ This subject ought to be attractive. There is the attraction of one dew drop for another, as they hang together on the same blade, and, running together, fall from their momentary glory into a common grave. There is the attraction of the flame for the moth, as it flutters and darts around the fatal glow, until at last it falls, wingless and scorched, upon the floor. There is the attraction of the magnet for the particles of matter through which it is passed, in virtue of which it draws some of them to itself, and has no influence upon others. There is the attraction of the moon for the sea, its pale light shining in tremulous bars on the bosom of the melancholy deep, as it rises and falls, like a dark and guilty conscience heaving and sobbing under the ghostly memories of its past misdeeds. And there is the attraction of the sun for all created things within the circle of the worlds that sweep around him as their centre, finding life and gladness in his beams. The latter is the highest and most glorious form in which the principle of attraction displays itself, and it is that which is exerted by the Sun of Righteousness. Christ is the luminous centre and the effulgent source of all vitality and blessing in the universe of souls. (F. Ferguson, D. D.) The attractiveness of the cross There is a moral power in beauty; it elevates the heart of the man who sees it. It is not enough that a man should display the law of holiness; he must display the beauty of holiness. There are some whose religion has every quality but one--attractiveness. They are animated by the sincerest motives; they are ruled by the tenderest conscience; they are influenced by the purest desires; yet their religion is withal a weapon in the hand, not a magnet in the heart; it drives, but it does not draw. They are impressed above all things with the power” of the Lord, and they would like to display His power; but they do not see that the uppermost garment of the religious life must be the beauty of the Lord. They have not measured the force of the words of the text. The highest power of the Cross is ability to allure--its beauty. The glory of religion lies in the number of things it can attract. (G. Matheson, B. D.) The attractive power of Christ I. THE EVENT THE TEXT . 1. Primarily the Crucifixion (John 3:14-15). 2. Christ’ s exaltation to the mediatorial throne. 3. The preaching of the gospel, which displays both the Cross and the throne. This comprehends (1) The recital of the manner of the Redeemer’ s death. (2) The declaration of the great design of His death. (3) The proclamation of His power to save, with the terms on which He saves. II. THE GRAND PURPOSE THE TEXT REVEALS. 1. The point to which He attracts. “ Me.” The centre of humanity, toward which all should gravitate. 2. The manner in which He attracts. By Himself, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. But the uplifting is adapted to the end. (1) What is more calculated to arrest attention than the spectacle of such a Sufferer dying for the sake of a sinful world. (2) The view of the Divine character presented is eminently attractive. (3) The felt wants of our nature are here supplied. 3. The scale on which He attracts. “ All men.” Some resist. Objects are interposed between the magnet and the substance. But Christ attracts men from every race. (J. Rawlinson.) The attractive power of Christ I. Observe HOW IS THAT LAW BY WHICH MEN ARE DRAWN TO CHRIST. Explain it how we may, Christ is today the central figure in the thoughts of the civilized world, and is becoming more and more so. For the past 1800 years interest in Him has been Steadily growing. How many volumes it would take, e.g., to present a faithful account of “ Christ in Song” since Luke penned the “ Overture of the Angels” down to the time when Keble wrote “ Sun of my Soul” ! Is the world tired of singing about Christ because He has occupied the central field so long? It is a fact of no little interest that Christ is the only Person all nations of the world have ever united to praise in the same forms of speech. Again, it might be shown that Christ occupies the same position through the ages in art and general literature. No one has ever received such tributes from men of genius as Christ, and about no one is the printing-press so busy. II. WHAT IS IT IN MAN THAT IS THUS DRAWN OUT TO CHRIST. With some it is admiration for His character and teachings; with others it is the interest that a reformer awakens; with others a sense of His Divinity. But if we stop here we shall lose sight of the true reason, so well stated by Napoleon. “ Jesus alone founded His empire on love, and to this very day millions would die for Him.” It is the human heart that is drawn out towards Christ. As we test the power of the magnet by the weight we attach to it, so Satan experiments with the heart of man. Take a typical case--that of Paul. He weighted Paul’ s heart with worldly allurements; but Paul cried, “ What things were gain to me,” etc. (Philippians 3:21): then with persecutions; but Paul said, “ I take pleasure in infirmities,” etc. (2 Corinthians 12:10): finally with death; but Paul exulted, “ Who shall separate me” Romans 8:35-39). When a bar of soft iron is brought into contact with a powerful magnet it becomes magnetic, and continues so while in contact; but remove it, and its virtue is gone. So the believer, to be attractive, must live near to Christ (chap. 13:35). III. WHAT IS IT IN CHRIST THAT HAS SUCH POWER TO KINDLE NEW AND SET UP NEW AMONG MEN? Not merely the influence of His life or doctrines, or of the mysterious union of the Divine with the human, but supremely His Cross. And why His Cross we cannot exactly analyze. We cannot explain the mysterious principle that we see operating in the galvanic battery; but there is clearly something, and we call it Magnetism. And the mysterious something in the Cross we call Love 2 Corinthians 5:15; Jeremiah 31:3). Here is a love that has at its command the resources of the Godhead. “ In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead,” and a perfect sympathy with all human weaknesses Hebrews 4:15). What wonder that sinners are drawn to such a Saviour. IV. THE MANNER IN WHICH THAT POWER IS BROUGHT TO BEAR UPON MEN. By drawing (Psalms 110:3; Son 1:4; Psalms 73:28). (J. G.Lowrie, M. A.) The attractive power of the crucified Saviour 1. When a man is leading a great religious movement, the worst thing that could usually happen is that he should die. The death of a pastor is often a hindrance to a good work. But here is one great religious Leader who, through death, draws all men to Himself. 2. But if the death of a religious leader is a disgraceful one, what damage his influence suffers--e.g., Dr. Dodd, who was hung for forgery. But behold a wonder I The death of Jesus on a malefactor’ s cross is the secret of His highest influence. I. THE POWER OF THE SAVIOUR. Himself. 1. Some suppose that Christ was lifted up to draw men unto the priests. 2. To draw men to a church might satisfy a religious bigotry. 3. But Christ alone can satisfy their souls. II. HOW THAT POWER IS TODAY. There are degrees of drawing. Those who have never heard of Christ are drawn in a sense, for the world is pervaded with His influence. 1. Some say that the force that draws man is light; but men are sometimes driven away by light. They rebel against it, and use the truth to their own detriment. 2. Men are won to Christ by the force of love. Even earthly love is powerful. Swayed by love, what have not mothers done. Jesus’ power lay in His irresistible love. 3. By His sufferings. In the old martyr days, what made England Protestant was the death of martyrs. 4. By the instrumentality of other men. Not by ministers only, but by holy life and loving words. III. WHAT IT IMPLIES. 1. That men were far off from Christ. The older philosophers taught that men started like a sheet of white paper, and decried original sin. But the newer philosophers tell us that we have inherited all the desires and vices of our animal ancestors. 2. That men would not come to Christ unless He drew them. 3. That if we feel ourselves drawn, the wisest thing for us to do is to yield. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The attractive power of Christ crucified 1. Standing alone, these words might be understood to refer to the Ascension. St. Peter twice applies the expression to that event. But St. John explains the text according to our Lord’ s own meaning in John 3:14; John 13:28. 2. The Apostle has preserved the text for the purpose of enforcing his main theme--the Divinity of Christ--whereas the stress in the other Gospels is on the manhood, although neither side of our Lord’ s Person is overlooked by either. This general difference culminates in the picture of the Crucifixion. To the Three that is the lowest depth of Christ’ s humiliation, and their task is to train our sympathies with the perfect Man. But to St. John the cross is not a scaffold but a throne; not defeat but victory; not a repulsion but a world-wide attraction. 3. If Christianity had come from man its chief attraction would not have been placed here, but to Christ on the Mount or beyond the stars. The wisdom of the Teacher, the prowess of the Conqueror, the majesty of the King would have been put forward, and a veil drawn over these dark hours. Instead of this, Christianity boasts of that which to human eyes must have appeared a failure. Twenty years after this prediction St. Paul echoes it, “ We preach Christ crucified,” and implies that that is the compendium of all Christian doctrine and morality, “ I determined,” etc. Wherein consists this attraction? In I. THE MORAL BEAUTY AND OF SELF-. This fascinates because 1. It requires a moral effort of the highest kind, and commands admiration exactly proportioned to its intensity. 2. It is rare. The mass of men follow self. The majestic power of keeping well in hand the forces that belong to the life of nature is as rare as it is beautiful. As we admire gems and flowers for their rarity as well as for their beauty, so we are drawn to great examples of self-sacrifice. 3. It is fertilizing. It is not unproductive moral beauty or energy run to waste. All the good done among men is proportioned to the amount of sacrifice employed. To witness sacrifice is to breathe a bracing atmosphere, and to be capable of it is already to be strong. All intense labour, and particularly that which is at the same time unrecognized or discouraged, is sacrifice of a high order. Such has been that of discoverers whose discoveries have been made public after death. Faraday’ s life was one example of disinterestedness and vast results of sacrificial labour. There are also lives in which sacrifice is pure suffering, undergone for a great cause or truth. The old pagans knew how to appreciate, e.g., the deaths of the three hundred at Thermopylae. And who that has ever witnessed the welcome a man receives who saves a fellow creature from a watery grave, or a burning house, can doubt the empire of sacrifice over every class in society. Our Lord said, “ It is more blessed to give than to receive.” That each gift of what is dear to self adds immeasurably to moral capital is a matter of experience. Wealth consists not in the abundance of things external to ourself but in internal possession, in the force and freedom of the will to do good. That is God-like and Christ-like. Christ surrendered long before all that man cares for most, but on the cross He gave His life. Had He come amongst us without this mark, not doctrine, prowess or majesty would have drawn us to Him. II. THE ENDURED. 1. Life is made up largely of pain of body or mind. Some have not begun to feel it, but all do before life closes. What account can be given of this empire of pain. (1) It is a punishment--the advertisement that a deeper evil lies beneath. (2) A purification. (3) A preventative. 2. Still, an abstract doctrine in justification of pain is not sufficient to support us. We need the sympathy of a fellow sufferer. Now, if Christ had come fenced in among all the comforts of life by a superhuman power, and, after teaching the true theory of pain, had died on a soft bed, He might have been honoured as a great teacher, but would not have drawn all men unto Him. As it is, He is the Universal Sympathizer. “ It behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren.” Therefore, after a life of varied suffering, He enforces His teaching by a supreme example of an excruciating death. III. THE HE OFFERED. 1. The prevalence of sacrifice expresses a truth recognized universally by the conscience, viz., that man carries about him that which is offensive to the purity of heaven. The depth of the sense of sin is proportioned to the soul’ s vision of moral truth, which becomes clearer as the law of God is more clearly revealed. The law affords a standard of duty, but gives no means of realizing it. Would, then, Christ have drawn all men unto Him had He only left the Sermon on the Mount? Nay, they who have felt the reproaches of the Decalogue would have felt more keenly the reproaches of the Beatitudes. 2. Christ draws all men because He alone offers relief to this our deepest need. The Bible describes three forms which a sense of sin takes, and how Christ crucified relieves us from each. (1) It tells man that sin is like a tyrant who keeps him fettered, and then points to Christ as paying down a ransom by His death. (2) It tells us that since God is holy, sin makes God and man at enmity; and that Jesus removes this by an atonement. (3) It insists that sin once committed is not like a vapour which melts away into the sky, but that it leaves a positive load of guilt behind it, and then it points to Jesus as taking this load and offering for it as a propitiation His supreme act of obedience. 3. Faith unites us with the all-sacrificing Christ. Conclusion: 1. The Cross is the one real principle of unity to the human family. 2. To this common centre we are drawn one by one. (Canon Liddon.) The attraction of the Cross This is one of God’ s paradoxes. Christendom gathers once a year to commemorate and contemplate a brutal public execution. How is this? The Cross is I. AN OF . 1. Who has not felt his heart burn within him as he reads or sees a life given for another? If a man saves his wife or child from a burning house and perishes we have a natural admiration for the sacrifice. If the sacrifice be one all of duty; if the captain remains with the wreck and dies at his post, or still more, if a man die as a martyr the self-devotion demands higher praise. Yet once more, if the life be thus given not in heat and emotion, but with calm reflection when it might have been avoided, the consideration is heightened. 2. Christ attracts in part with the help of admiration. This is the first feeling a man has who contemplates the Cross. We see there, even before reaching the higher ground of the Divinity and Incarnation, an innocent person, the victim of an old-world formalism, the best of men enduring voluntarily the worst of deaths as a condition of giving life to the world. The observer of the Crucifixion desires to penetrate the heart of the Sufferer, and as he passes in review the prayer for the murderers, the gentle answer to the penitent, the tender consignment of His mother to John, what heart can find no affinity of admiration? For here in its highest form is what men most admire--strength, courage, presence of mind, tenacity of purpose, might of will, and all combined with perfect tenderness, love and sympathy. II. AN OF FAITH, growing, in due course, out of admiration. The object of the lifting up was no mere exhibition of a superhuman excellence, but the bearing away of sin. The moment you rob the Cross of this, you take out of it the magnetic virtue. As a mere display of heroic courage other deaths have rivalled it; other martyrs have yielded their life: we admire the sacrifice, but it would be a misnomer to say that it draws us to them. Though admiration may draw us towards Him, faith alone can draw us to Him. Put thy trust in that death: it has in it the balm of all sorrow, the satisfaction of all want, the healing of all disease, and the quickening of all death. (Dean Vaughan.) The power of the Cross The gospel, with the Cross as its centre, is destined to exert an influence over the whole race. I. IT IS IT CREATES A GENERAL AND EXERTS A . The fact is as startling as the assertion. Millions of sympathetic hearts cluster round the Cross, of all orders of intellect, all nationalities, etc. Even infidels, in spite of their antipathies, are drawn to the Cross to write lives of Christ. How can we account for this great influence? 1. The life and sufferings of Jesus are in the highest degree expressions of the Divine mind and heart. Nature is full of attractions. It is uphill work to scale the mountain, but the tourist is drawn up by an irresistible influence. We are always ready for another country walk. Man soon gets tired of human productions, but never of the works of God. The Divine alone can capture the spirit of man, and the Cross is the sublimest exhibition of the Divine. 2. Christ’ s life and sufferings supply a particular craving in the human breast. What an attraction a fountain has for a crowd of thirsty people, and the Cross attracts because there is that in it which alone can quench the thirst of the spirit. The great questions, “ How shall a man be just with God?” “ How shall conscience be satisfied?” are only answered there. 3. The same life and sufferings have conferred inestimable blessings on mankind. The influence radiating from the Cross has banished superstitions, liberated slaves, promoted peace, good government, etc., and therefore forces the most reluctant to give it a silent tribute of respect. II. THE SPECIAL OF THE CROSS IS THE OF OUR SOULS. Some lives are more effective at a distance; but the nearer we come to Christ the better. Thousands are near enough to the Cross to be touched by its influence, but not its transforming power. There is here 1. A sacrifice for sin. The Cross is the power which draws us to God for reconciliation. 2. Sanctification from sin--“ Whereby the World is crucified unto Me.” 3. Elevation above sin “ Unto Me.” (T. Davies, Ph. D.) The attraction of the Cross (Missionary Sermon):--The text presents us with I. THE GREAT OBJECT OF ZEAL. Such an object associates our cause with 1. The design of the Son of God in redemption, the salvation of the human soul. 2. The ultimate end of all Providential arrangements. Providence is the direction of all human events with reference to the kingdom of Christ. 3. The best interests of the human race. If we succeed in drawing men to Christ we save their souls from death, and provide them with a blissful eternity; besides which religion is a civilizing process, and has the promise of the life that now is. II. THE GRAND OF --the doctrine of the Cross. We see something resembling the splendid fable of Constantine’ s conversion--“ By this conquer.” We preach a true crusade whose object is not the recovery of the holy sepulchre, but the setting forth of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, and whose weapons are not carnal but spiritual. 1. What is included in the doctrine of the Cross. (1) The manner of Christ’ s death--agonizing, ignominious. (2) The design of Christ’ s death, “ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation.” (3) The Divinity of Christ’ s Person as constituting the value of His satisfaction. While the hope of a guilty world can rest nowhere but on an atonement, that in its turn can be supported by nothing short of the Rock of Ages. (4) The gratuitous manner in which its blessings are bestowed: “ by faith that it might be by grace.” (5) Its moral tendency and design as respects the heart and conduct of those by whom it is received. “ I am crucified with Christ.” 2. The various powers of attraction which the doctrine of the Cross exerts. (1) The stupendous fact arrests and fixes the attention. The whole fabric of Christianity, both as to doctrines and duties, is founded on a fact; and that fact, drawn out into details more touching and tender than can be found in any history or romance. Conceive the effect upon pagans, conversant with nothing but the puerilities of a barbarous state, who heard for the first time of the death of the Son of God. (2) As an exhibition of unparalleled love, it melts and captivates the heart. John calls it the manifestation of love, as if nothing more now remained to be known of love in any age or world; St. Paul speaks of it as the commendation of love, as if nothing more could now ever be said upon the subject; and Christ uses the remarkable emphasis, “ God so loved,” etc. There is a mighty power in love, and the heart which wraps itself up in the covering of a stubborn and reckless despair against the attacks of severity, like the flower which closes at the approach of the angry blast, will put forth all the better parts of its nature to the smiles of love, like the tendrils of the sea anemone when it feels the first wave of the returning tide upon its native rock. (3) As a system of mediation, it allays the fears of a guilty conscience, and draws the soul into confidence in God. The idea of retributive justice seems far more easily deducible by the sinner from the light of nature, than that of mercy. What is the meaning of all those bloody sacrifices? But the Cross puts an authorized and perfect satisfaction to justice in the sinner’ s hand. (4) By admitting an individual appropriation of its benefits, it appeals to all the feelings of self-regard and personal interest. It is the glory of the gospel that, while it makes ample provision for the world, it lays its blessings at the feet of every individual. (5) By the suitableness and certainty of its blessings, it awakens hope and establishes faith. Are we guilty, here is pardon; “ rebels, here is reconciliation; unholy, here is sanctification; agitated, here is peace for a wounded spirit; without knowledge of or hope for the future, here is life and immortality. 3. The effects which the doctrine of the Cross has produced. (1) In Judaism, at the metropolis, and in heathen lands. (2) In heathenism at Antioch, Corinth, Athens, and more recently in India, etc. III. THE FIRST OF SUCCESS. 1. Review the present results of missionary zeal. 2. Forecast its future triumph. (J. Angell James.) The attraction of the Cross The Crucifixion furnished a significant type of the influence which the Cross would exert. Witnessing that spectacle were all classes of men. In the Roman centurion behold a representative of the intellectual and sceptical convinced, saying, “ This is the Son of God.” In the multitude remark the careless and thoughtless roused and agitated, “ smiting heavily on their breasts.” In the thief see the power of the Cross to stir and still the guilty clamour within. Whatever the intellect of man there is an argument in the Cross to convince him; whatever his heedlessness there is an energy in the Cross to rouse him; whatever his guilt there is a magnetism to draw, a magic to change, and a mystery to save him. (R. Fuller, D. D.) Christ the Great Magnet When I was a student at Princeton, Professor Henry had so constructed a huge bar of iron, bent into the form of a horseshoe, that it used to hang suspended from another iron bar above it. Not only did it hang there, but it upheld four thousand pounds weight attached to it! That horseshoe magnet was not welded or glued to the metal above it; but through the iron wire coiled round it there ran a subtle current of electricity from a galvanic battery. Stop the flow of the current one instant, and the huge horseshoe dropped. So does all the lifting power of a Christian come from the currents of spiritual influence which flow into his heart from the living Jesus. The strength of the Almighty One enters into the believer. If his connection with Christ is cut off, in an instant he becomes as weak as any other man. (T. L. Cuyler.) The great attraction Our world has two forces: it has one tendency to run off at a tangent from its orbit; but the sun draws it by a centripetal power, and attracts it to itself, and so between the two forces it is kept in a perpetual circle. Oh, Christian! thou wilt never walk aright, and keep in the orbit of truth, if it be not for the influence of Christ perpetually attracting thee to the centre. Thou feelest (and if thou dost not feel always, it is still there)--thou feelest an attraction between thine heart and Christ; and Christ is perpetually drawing thee to Himself, to His likeness, to His character, to His love, to His bosom, and in that way thou art kept from thy natural tendency to fly off, and to be lost in the wide fields of sin. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The moral attraction and separation of the Cross He was lifted up, that He might draw all men unto Him by drawing them out of, and away from, the sins that had put them so far off from Him. The sun, lifted into the meridian heavens, draws through its far-reaching beams from ten thousand lakes, and rivers, and oceans. But there is separation as well as attraction. Here a crystal drop is lifted from a muddy pool, but with no trace of impurity remaining in it; and there another drop is drawn from the Dead Sea waters, but with no taint of the acrid salts left in it. There is attraction and separation in one process. So, the beams of love from Christ’ s Cross fall upon this sinful world, and draw men to Him. Not alone to win you to Himself did Jesus die; but also to win you away forever from the sins that have held you in the bondage of corruption. “ Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.” (A. T. Gordon.) The universality of Christ’ s attraction and resistance to it The image, which most naturally suggests itself to the mind on reading the declaration, is that of the loadstone attracting on all sides the iron to itself. But this is a defective image; the loadstone draws only one kind of substance; Christ declares that He will draw all men, however diverse their character. Some of the ancient philosophers, observing the attractive power of the earth, by which various bodies are made to fall towards its surface, inclined to the opinion that the earth itself was one huge loadstone. Sir Isaac Newton fairly argued that the earth attracts a feather as much as a piece of iron; whereas the loadstone attracts only iron, and he therefore contended there could be nothing analogous between the loadstone and the earth. Now it will follow from this, that Christ must be thought of as having the properties of the earth rather than of the loadstone. Some bodies indeed are so light that they float in the air, but this is not because the earth attracts them not, but simply because the air resists their descent. If there were no air, the tiniest leaf would fall as rapidly as a mass of lead. And here we cannot but observe a beautiful analogy. Only a few are actually drawn to Christ, the great mass of men continue at a distance. But Christ, like the earth, attracts all--though, as with the earth, all come not to Him. Why, then, are not all literally drawn unto Him? Oh! just because there is a carnal atmosphere round them, which neutralizes, as it were, the attractive power; and thousands float in it, who, if it were destroyed, would rush eagerly to Jesus as their centre. So that in these respects the earth, though not the lodestone, is the exact emblem of Christ; there is attractive virtue enough in each case to draw all; but in each case there is also a resisting medium which prevents the lighter bodies from descending. And it is possible, that this is something more than imagery, and ought to be received as interpretation. It is clear that the fact of one substance drawing another does not depend on the two being actually brought into contact. The earth draws the feather as much as it draws the lead; yet the feather falls not, and the lead rushes. Thus with Christ: it is not that He did not die for all; it is not that He does not love all; it is not that He does not invite all; and therefore we cannot be warranted in saying that He does not draw all--just as the earth draws all. But the feather of the unstable and worldly mind descends not, whilst the lead of the weary and heavy-laden spirit approaches Him rapidly. All are drawn; but one is inflated with vanity, and therefore floats; another is burdened with sin, and therefore falls. So that by illustration, at least, if not by argument, we make out that Christ might say of Himself that He would draw all, and yet know that all would not come to Him for life. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The mighty magnet The attraction of gravitation is an invisible force, whose centre is the sun. This natural force illustrates the attractive power of the Cross. The Cross attracts I. BY ITS OF JUSTICE (Romans 3:25). 1. Violated law demands the punishment of the guilty. This principle is inherent in man’ s conscience. There is a distinction between chastisement and punishment. The one originates in love, and its end is the good of the offender; the other originates in justice, and its end is the maintenance of the majesty of law. 2. The Cross of Christ satisfies the demand of conscience for justice. Christ is “ the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). (1) The sufferings of Christ were penal. He bore our sins (Isaiah 53:4-6). He was “ made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “ God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). (2) The sufferings of Christ were vicarious (1 Corinthians 15:3). (3) All the difficulties of this truth find their practical solution in the union of the believer with Christ (Hebrews 10:22). II. BY ITS OF LOVE. 1. It has its origin in love (1 John 3:16). 2. It reconciles the attributes of God. The substitution of Christ for sinners is not a mere arbitrary interference (Psalms 85:10). 3. The sacrifice of the Cross was voluntary, and in accordance with a covenant arrangement between the Father and the Son (John 10:17-18). III. THIS OF LOVE AND JUSTICE IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST IS THE MIGHTY MAGNET OF THE WORLD. 1. The power which draws near to the Cross is the work of the Holy Spirit John 16:8-11). 2. There is no passion, affection, or desire of the human heart which the Holy Spirit cannot subdue by the Cross. 3. The attractive power of the Cross, through the influences of the Holy Spirit, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Homiletic Review.) Christ drawing all Note: I. CHRIST’ S SUBLIME . He knew that the triumphal procession to Jerusalem was but a funeral march. The Church has had many moments of despair since then, but never one like that. There is much to weary and depress in the slow progress of the Church, yet how much brighter is our outlook than His. Yet He never faltered. And He is standing in the midst of His waiting Church today, sure of Himself, and of His truth and His destiny. II. THE OF VICTORY “ lifted up.” Eighteen hundred years were needed to explain this--lifted up out of the passions of men, their prejudices, errors, misconceptions, sins--He was so far above His age that it has taken eighteen centuries of moral growth to enable men to partially understand Him. By and by the world will see the King in His beauty, and then this promise will be fulfilled. III. THE TRUE OF CHRIST’ S POWER--“ draw.” It is the magic attraction of Divine beauty, and not the compulsion of Divine terrors. He would have no slaves, but free men. He disdained to entice men by the bribes of this world or the next. He had faith in human nature, and laid hold of its aspirations with His love. IV. THE VAST KINGDOM OVER WHICH CHRIST WILL REIGN--“ all men.” The text lies parallel to Christ’ s prophecy of one fold and one shepherd, and the apostles’ anticipation of the complete victory Christ will win when He shall put all things under His feet. (J. G. Greenhough, M. A.) Christ drawing, not dragging The words σύρω and ἐλκύω differ. In σύρειν, as in our “ drag,” there lies always the notion of force, e.g., the headlong course of a river; and it will follow, that where persons, and not merely things, are in question, σύρειν, will involve the notion of violence Acts 8:3; Acts 14:19; Acts 17:6). But in ἐλκύειν this notion does not of necessity lie. It may be there (Acts 16:19; Acts 21:30; James 2:6), but not of necessity, any more than in our “ draw,” which we use of a mental and moral attraction, or in the Latin traho. Only by keeping in mind this difference can we vindicate from erroneous interpretation this doctrinally important passage. The word here is ἐλκύσω. But how does a crucified, and thus an exalted, Saviour draw all men unto Him? Not by force, for the will is incapable of force, but by the Divine attraction of His love. Again John 6:44) “ Father which hath sent Me draw him” (ἐλκύσνἀυτόν). Now, as many as feel bound to deny any gratia irresistibilis, which turns man into a mere machine, and by which, willing or unwilling, he is dragged to God, must at once assert that this ἐλκύση can mean no more than the potent allurements, the allective force of love, the attracting of men by the Father to the Son; compare Jeremiah 31:3 (ἕικυσασε), and Son 1:3, 4. Did we find σύρειν on either of these occasions (not that I can conceive this possible), the assertors of a gratia irresistibilis, might then urge the declarations of our Lord as leaving no room for any other meaning but theirs; but not as they now stand. In agreement with all this, in ἐλκύειν, is predominantly the sense of a drawing to a certain point, in σύριεν merely of dragging after one. Thus Lucian likens a man to a fish already hooked and dragged through the water. Not seldom there will lie in συριεν the notion of this dragging being on the ground, inasmuch as that will trail upon the ground (Isaiah 3:16), which is forcibly dragged along with no will of its own: as for example, a dead body. We may compare John 21:6; John 21:11, with John 21:8 of the same chapter, in proof of what has just been asserted. At John 21:6; John 11:1-57 ἐλκύειν is used: for there a drawing of the net to a certain point is intended: by the disciples to themselves in the ship, by Peter to himself upon the shore. But at John 21:8, ἐλκύειν gives place to σύριεν, for nothing is there intended but the dragging of the net, which had been fastened to the ship, after it through the water. (Abp. Trench.) The power of Christ’ s death I. THE OF THE POWER OF CHRIST’ S DEATH. 1. Evidences of this power are to be found in the national and social life of countries wherever His death has been proclaimed. Is it not marvellous that an obscure teacher, who spent but a few years in making known His doctrines to a despised people, and was so despised by them that they put Him to death, should draw to Him the steadfast gaze of all who have heard His name? 2. Within the broad circle of popular homage to Christ, there is the narrower one containing those who are personally attached to Him. He who was despised and crucified is loved by millions with an ardour that death cannot quench. 3. Whatever may now be the power of Christ’ s death, it will be greater still. “ Every knee shall bow” to Him. The fulness of the promise is not yet realized; but because the stream of homage has daily risen higher, the hope is kindled that the whole family of man will be gathered into the household of God. 4. But if this hope be not realized, in yet another sense all men will be drawn to Christ. “ When He cometh with clouds every eye shall see Him.” II. WHENCE COMES THIS POWER? 1. Christ’ s death is significant, because in it He triumphed over the prince of this world (John 12:31). He shook the kingdom of evil to its foundation, and gave to all the power to become the sons of God. So men are drawn to Him as their Deliverer. 2. Christ’ s death exemplifies the highest form of self-sacrifice, and declares with greatest emphasis the love of God. The world knows of no greater forces than love and self-sacrifice. 3. Christ’ s death is the ground of the impartation of spiritual life (John 12:24). (F. Carter.) The centripetal power of Christ overcoming the centrifugal attraction of sin I. MAN THE . The centrifugal influence of sin has been felt not only by devils, but by men. It has so separated man from God that he has neither the disposition nor the ability to return. 1. Cain-like he has gone out from the presence of God. 2. Prodigal-like he has gone into a far country. 3. Pharaoh-like he has asked, “ Who is the Lord that I should serve Him?” 4. Eve-like he has been seduced from his allegiance. II. CHRIST THE . A Divine Person, one representative and a substitute. 1. He has provided for our restoration by the Cross. He was lifted up in the very heart of Satan’ s kingdom. In the midst of fiery flying serpents He heals our diseases and restores us to our place of duty in His kingdom. 2. From earth to heaven. “ Led captivity captive.” “ A highway shall be there.” “ I am the Way.” Thus only is the wandering star brought back to its orbit by the attraction of the Sun of Righteousness. III. THE THUS SECURED. 1. Man is freed from sin; its guilt, pollution, love, power, alienation, and curse. 2. Mammon is no longer His Master. As the greater fire extinguishes the less, so the love of Christ puts out the love of Mammon. 3. He is drawn to Christ. This first; to Church and ordinances after. Union is followed by communion. Being like Him, we shall spend eternity with Him. IV. . Men by nature are drawn by sin to hell; they must by grace be drawn from sin to heaven. Which power controls you, the centrifugal or the centripetal? The one will land you in the zenith of glory; the other sink you in the nadir of despair. (Homiletic Review.) Christ’ s kingdom I. THE OBJECT OF CHRIST WAS TO DRAW ALL MEN UNTO HIM. The opposition in which He sets Himself to the prince of this world (John 12:31) shows us that by drawing He means attracting as a king attracts to his name, claims, standard, person. Note some of the characteristics of this kingdom. 1. It is a kingdom; a community of men under one Head. Those who are attracted to Christ are formed into one solid body or community. Being drawn to Christ, we enter into fellowship with all the good who are labouring in the cause of humanity. Every man out of Christ is an isolated individual. 2. It is a universal kingdom--“ all men.” The idea of universal monarchy has visited the great minds of our race. But an effectual instrument has ever been wanting. Christ turns this grandest dream into a rational hope. He appeals to what is universally present in human nature, and there is that in Him which every man needs. He does not say that His kingdom will be quickly formed. If it has taken a million ages for the rocks to knit and form for us a standing ground and a dwelling place, we must not expect that this kingdom, which is to be the one enduring result of this world’ s history, and which can be built up only of thoroughly convinced men, and of generations slowly weeded of traditional prejudices and customs, can be completed in a few years. 3. Being universal it is necessarily inward. What is common to all men lies deepest in each. Christ knew what was in man, and knew also that He could sway all that was in man. This He would do by the simple moral process of drawing. It is by inward conviction, not outward compulsion, men are to become His subjects. And because Christ’ s rule is inward, it is therefore of universal application. The inmost choice being governed by Christ, all conduct is governed by Christ. The kingdom of Christ claims all human life as its own. If the statesman is a Christian, it will be seen in his policy; if the poet, his song will betray it, etc. Christianity does not mean churches, creeds, Bibles, but the Spirit of Christ. It is the most portable and flexible of all religions, and therefore the most persuasive and dominant in the life of its adherent. II. THE OF HIS IT. Not His remarkable life, but His shameful death. Wherein then consists the superiority of the latter as a constraining force? 1. Because it presents in a dramatic and compact manner the devotedness which is diffused through every part of the life, and was the culmination and seal of the life. 2. Because Christ was the representative of God, and His death the last syllable of the utterance of God’ s great love for man. It draws us because the very heart of God is laid bare to us. It is this which is special to the death of Christ, and separates it from all other deaths. Nothing could be more noble or pathetic than the way in which Roman after Roman met His death. But beyond respectful admiration they win from us no further sentiment; they have no connection with us. But Christ’ s death concerns all men, and the result of our contemplation of it is not that we admire, but are drawn into new relations with Him whom that death reveals. (Marcus Dods, D. D.) A lesson for preachers and churches “ You have,” said the Hon. and Rev. W.B. Cadogan, to a young clergyman, “ but one thing to do; exalt Jesus, and the promise is, ‘ I will draw all men unto Him.’” The Moravians laboured in Greenland for a number of years with no apparent fruit. When they spoke to the savages of the being and attributes of God--of the sin of man--of the necessity of an atonement--of the evil of sin--of the excellence of holiness--of the glories of heaven, or of the horrors of hell--their hearers talked of soul catching, and said they did not understandthese things. But, on one of the missionaries one day describing to them, with unusual minuteness, the sufferings and death of Christ, one of the savages suddenly stepped forward, and said, “ How was that? Tell me it once more. I also would fain be saved.” This amazed and delighted the missionaries, and led them to adopt a new method with their pagan disciples. They preached the Cross. They held up Jesus, lifted up from the earth, and virtue came forth from Him. The poor brutalized Greenlanders were interested; their dark understandings were enlightened; their stubborn hearts melted; in a word, they were drawn to Christ; the Spirit wielded resistlessly His favourite instrument--the Cross. (J. Brown, D. D.) Nothing but the Cross draws for any length of time Take Unitarianism, for instance, Christianity with the Cross left out, the Gospel with the Atonement struck off. What is the result? It does not “ draw.” One of the leaders of English Unitarianism declared publicly in Birmingham the other day that Unitarianism failed to “ draw.” The English public will not attend their chapels. That is just what Christ foresaw. He knew that nought save His Cross would serve to draw men. “ And I, if I be lifted up, will draw.” It is not His character, though spotlessly white, not His teaching, though sublimely pure, not His person, though mysteriously Divine, but His Cross that is the centre of the world’ s attraction. The popularity as well as the efficacy of Christianity is mainly dependent on the Cross. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) John 12:34-36 We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever.Misunderstandings and explanations I. (John 12:34). They considered perhaps that Ps Isaiah 9:7; Daniel 7:13 referred to Christ. Their question would be, therefore, “ If Thou art to die, how canst Thou be the Messiah? We know who the Son of Man in the Old Testament is; but who is this Son of Man?” Men have always misunderstood the Cross. It is foolishness to the Greek, etc. 1. Some now speak of the Cross as a means of appeasing the wrath of the Almighty. 2. Some as a transaction that will purchase souls. 3. Some as the procuring cause of God’ s love. 4. Whereas it is the effect, demonstration, channel of God’ s love for man. II. . Christ does not explain the difficulty by logical disquisition, but by exhorting them to practice holiness (verse 35). It is the pure heart, not the logical understanding, that solves the problems of Christianity. Christ urges the spirit of holiness on three considerations. 1. Their possession a special advantage. They had the light with them. From Christ’ s presence, words, deeds, holiness beamed brightly on them. They were moving in the rays of the highest moral excellence. 2. Their special advantage was only temporary--“ Yet a little while.” A few days more and their moral sun would be set. Man’ s opportunities for spiritual improvement are very transient. 3. The departure of their special advantage would expose them to danger--“ He that walketh in darkness,” etc. To walk on in moral darkness to the great eternity, how dismal and dangerous! 4. The right use of their advantage would fill them with light (verse 36). Trust in Christ will fill the soul with Divine illumination. “ The entrance of Thy Word giveth light.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) Who is this Son of Man? The Son of Man This question of utter bewilderment negatives the supposition that it was equivalent to the Messiah. The two names do not cover the same ground; for our Lord avoided the one and habitually used the other. The name is found on no other lips, and no man applied it to Christ but Stephen. The two apparent instances in which it occurs--in Revelation--probably read a, not the Son of Man. It has been supposed to be taken from Daniel. No doubt there is a connection, but the Prophet speaks of “ one like a Son of Man,” in contradistinction to the bestial forms. What, then, is the force of the name? I. CHRIST THEREBY HIMSELF WITH US. 1. The name declares the fact of the Incarnation and the reality and fulness of His humanity. It is employed where special emphasis is to be placed on our Lord’ s manhood. (1) As, e.g., when He would bring into view the depth of His humiliation--“ Foxes have holes,” etc. “ Not merely am I individually homeless, but Iam so because I am truly a Man, the only creature who builds houses, and the only creature that has not a home. Foxes can rest any where; any bough will do for birds; I, as the representative of humanity, wander a pilgrim.” We are all restless and homeless: the creatures correspond to their environment. We have desires and needs that wander through eternity; our Representative “ hath not where to lay His head.” (2) When He would emphasize the completeness of His participation in our conditions. “ The Son of Man came eating and drinking” --having ordinary dependence on external things: nor unwilling to taste whatever gladnesses may be found in man’ s path through the supply of natural appetites. (3) When He would emphasize this manhood as having truly taken upon itself the whole weight and weariness of man’ s sin. “ The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto,” etc. 2. All these instances suggest to us (1) How truly and blessedly He is “ bone of our bone” etc. All our joys, sorrows, wants were His. The Son of Man is our Brother and Example. (2) Is it not beautiful that this name, which emphasizes humiliation, and weakness, and likeness to ourselves, should be always on His lips. Just as if some teacher who went away into savage life might adopt some barbarous designation and say, “ That is my name now.” II. CHRIST THEREBY HIMSELF FROM US, and plainly claims an unique relationship to the whole world. How absurd it would be for one of us to perpetually insist on the fact that He was a man, and the very frequency and emphasis with which the name comes from our Lord’ s lips lead one to suspect that there is something behind it. The impression is confirmed by the article the. 1. Appropriately, then, the name is used with suggestions of authority and dignity, contrasting with those of humiliation. “ The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath,” “ hath power on earth to forgive sins,” etc. And it is significant that the designation occurs more frequently in the first three Gospels than in the fourth, which is alleged to present higher notions of Jesus. In substance Christ claims, what Paul claimed for Him, to be the Second Adam. “ Aristotle is but the rubbish of an Adam,” and Adam is but the dim outline sketch of a Jesus. The one man as God meant him, the perfect humanity, is He who claimed that for Himself, and as He did so said, “ I am meek and lowly of heart.” “ Who is this Son of Man?” A perfect Son of Man must be more than a Son of man--“ the Christ the Son of the living God.” 2. The name is employed in connections in which He desires to set Himself forth as the solitary medium of all blessing to mankind--“ The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many,” “ the angels of God ascending and descending,” etc.,--the Medium of all communication between earth and heaven. He who is perfect manhood touches all men, and all men touch Him, and the Son of Man whom God hath sealed will give to every one of us bread from heaven. III. THE OF THIS . If not a quotation from it is an allusion to the prophecy of Daniel. Hence we find the name occurring in passages which refer to Christ’ s second coming--“ Hereafter ye shall see,” etc. “ He hath given Him authority,” etc. “ Standing at the right hand of God.” 1. The name carries with it a blessed message of the present activity and perpetual manhood of the risen Lord. Stephen does not see Him sitting, but standing, as if He had sprung to His feet on response to the cry of faith from the first of a long train of sufferers. He is the ever-present Helper. 2. That perfect manhood will be our Judge. It could not end its relationship on the cross or at the Ascension. That He should come again is the only possible completion of His work. That Judge is our Brother. So in the deepest sense we are tried by our Peer. With the omniscience of Divinity will be blended the sympathy of humanity. Conclusion: Let us lay hold by true faith on the mighty work which He has done on the cross, then we shall rejoice to see our Brother on the throne. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Yet a little while is the light with youLight and its little while I. THE LIGHT. Light is that which reveals, as darkness hides. Christ is the Light: He reveals the Father, the Father’ s love and righteousness, and all the riches of His grace; and we, opening our eyes to take in this light, are thereby enlightened. II. THE SIGHT WITH US. The first gleam came in the first promise. After that the rays multiplied. Then the Light came and remained here for thirty-three years. It is still, though impersonally, with us; and it will be yet more gloriously so when Christ comes again. We may withdraw from it, but it never withdraws from us. We may shut our eyes and our windows, but the light still shineth--not starlight or moonlight, but sunlight. “ The darkness comprehendeth it not.” Oh dark world, child of darkness, when wilt thou let in the light. III. THE LITTLE WHILE OF THE LIGHT. Our Lord’ s personal presence. There are other little whiles. Israel had hers; the Churches have had or are having theirs; so with nations, congregations, souls. A little while of Sabbaths, sermons, sacraments, providences, and all is done. Then the light departs, and its little while for thee may be near. Improve it. Jesus is coming, but with darkness to the despisers of the light. IV. THE USING OF THE LIGHT. “ Walking” is equivalent to the whole of a man’ s life. Our Lord’ s meaning is “ Use this light for whatever you do.” 1. Believe in the light, and in no other. The light of reason, literature, science will do nothing for the soul. At best they are but starlight, clear but cold, distinct but distant. God proclaims His testimony concerning this light, and it wants admission. 2. Become children of the light. He into whom it enters becomes a child of light, and a light to others. V. THE REFUSAL TO USE THE LIGHT--by neglect, delay, hatred, rejection. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Too late A man who would enjoy the pleasures of this world said it was too soon for him to think of another world. He journeyed, and was taken ill very suddenly, and in the middle of the night, at an inn. The people there sent for a clergyman. He came; and the dying man, looking him in the face, before he could speak, said to him, “ Sir, it is too late!” The minister said, “ Christ is able to save to the uttermost,” and explained the gospel to him. He replied, “ Sir, it is too late!” The clergyman asked, “ Will you allow me to pray with you?” His only reply was, “ Sir, it is too late!” He died, saying, “ It is too late!” (Arvine.) The similitude of the light I. A . “ While,” or “ as ye have,” etc. 1. Great. A day without light, a world without the sun, expressive but faint emblems of a soul without spiritual illumination, of humanity without Christ. 2. Present. The world was never without it, but only since the Incarnation has it attained to meridian splendour. 3. Temporary. It is not permanent to us any more than it was to the Jews, or than the natural light is to any. II. A SOLEMN DUTY. “ Believe in the light.” 1. Plain. Christ’ s language neither vague nor ambiguous. 2. Easy. It is not work or suffer for, but only believe, trust, walk in the light. 3. Continuous. It is not one act of faith and then all is done. “ Walk” implies continuance and progress. III. A RESULT--“ That ye may become,” etc. 1. Magnificent. The light, for man, can illuminate his understanding, purify his heart, quicken his conscience, vitalize his spirit, direct his conduct, beautify and dignify His whole life. It can put Him in direct contact with and assimilate him to Him who is the Light. 2. Designed. This it does not unexpectedly or accidentally, but purposely and necessarily. 3. Certain. He who walks in the light will as certainly be transfigured by it as the flower is transformed into a spectacle of beauty by the beams of the sun. Lessons 1. Thankfulness to Him who hath furnished the light. 2. Watchfulness lest the light should pass away unimproved. 3. Hopefulness with respect to the future of those who believe on the Saviour. 4. Pitifulness for the fate of those who still walk in darkness. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The gospel of light The gospel is “ light.” This marks its origin from heaven. It is no human device, but comes from God Himself. It is “ light.” This denotes its truth. It is fitting that what is truth, without mixture of error, should be compared to the most simple substance in nature. It is called “ light” because of its penetrating and subtle nature. Kindle it up, and no shade is so gross that it cannot penetrate it; there is no imposture so well devised which it will not expose; there are no works of darkness which it will not drag to light and shame; there is no conscience so callous but this light will search it. It is called “ light,” because of the discoveries which it makes. It is a “ great light.” It makes manifest the invisible God, in His awful and mild glories. It shows Him in His works, His providence, and His grace; it opens to view the path of peace which has been so long lost; it presents the model and the promises of holiness; displays the connection between the present state of probation and eternity; it plays round the darkness of the tomb, and illuminates the mansion of the grave with hope of a resurrection; it makes the future start to sight, and is both “ the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” But it is called “ light” for another reason. It is life and health to the world; it shows us “ the Sun of Righteousness,” rising with “ healing in His wings.” The comparison is made to the parent bird, warming her young to life, and giving health and strength by brooding over them. Such is the sun to nature. It warms to life, purges the atmosphere of its vapours, and renews the health of the world. Such is the light of the gospel. Where it prevails, spiritual life is inspired, and the moral disorders of the soul give place to health and vigour. (R. Watson.) Children of light I. LIGHT is the symbol of 1. God the Father (1 John 1:5). He is the Medium through which all spiritual things are discerned. It is only in God, as light, that we can see God or have any notion of Him. The old pervasiveness of light, too, is an apt emblem of omnipresence. 2. Christ Himself (John 1:4). He is the Light of God to man in a state of darkness. Without Him we cannot know God, ourselves, or the relations between the two. 3. The written Word (Psalms 119:105). The fact of our receiving the light in any of these senses throws upon us a vast amount of responsibility. II. BELIEVE IN THE LIGHT. Not believe it, or about it, or reason about it, but believe so as to participate in it. Of what use is it for man to believe in the fact of the sun, or in some theory about it, or to reason about its effects, especially if he is charged with some mission which requires its light, if he persists in keeping his shutters closed. Yet how many there are who, requiring the Light of the World to illuminate their path to heaven, content themselves with mere orthodox views about Him. Numbers are more ready to argue about the Divinity of Christ than to say with adoring trust, “My Lord and my God.” Numbers more are content with acknowledging God’ s claims and the reasonableness of Bible precepts who never think of fulfilling the one or walking by the other. III. OF THE LIGHT means more than being enlightened. “ Children” implies parentage, propagating power. Light produces light, and by believing in Him who is the Light we become light in the Lord. And if light as applied to God sets forth His perfections, the enjoyment of that light means the perpetration in us of holiness, truthfulness, etc. (G. Fisk, LL. B.) Gospel light I. THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS OF LIGHT WHICH YET FALL SHORT OF THE GOSPEL, and leave a man in fatal obscurity. As 1. The light of nature. 2. There is the light of infidel philosophy. This is full of self-importance and swelling pride. 3. There is the light of enthusiasm. This is a sort of wild-fire, it blazes as straw, bewilders the mind, and produces an obstinacy not easily eradicated. 4. But Christ is the “ Light of Life.” That which is pure, unadulterated, and unchangeable. This blessed light centres in Christ, and emanates from Him. Jesus Christ neglected--disregarded--undervalued, must give the death-wound to a man’ s brightest hopes, and his best felicity (see 1 Corinthians 16:22). II. THE OF THE HEART IS MADE EVIDENT BY SOME CERTAIN . 1. Gross ignorance; a mind perfectly uninformed. The Sadducees did not know the Scriptures nor the power of God. 2. A heart inflated with vanity, and puffed up with its own consequence. Some of the Corinthians were thus puffed up. If they had a little light, they had much darkness. 3. Self-righteousness and self-sufficiency are evidences of positive darkness dwelling within (see Romans 10:3-4; Matthew 23:1-39). Affected royalty in a lunatic provokes a smile, but self-righteousness in a sinner ought to produce astonishment and grief. III. THE WAY TO BE SECURE IS TO TAKE HEED. To look well within and wisely around. We must guard against pride, the operations of which preclude the entrance of truth, as the gay colouring of cathedral windows excludes the common light of day. We must guard against prepossessions and prejudice. These often operate upon the mind greatly to a man’ s disadvantage. Prejudice will turn that which is beautiful into deformity, and then reject it. Beware of two great evils, negligence and unbelief. Negligence (see Hebrews 6:12; Proverbs 19:15). Unbelief (see Hebrews 3:12-19). Do not resist conviction, do not shut out the light. 1. Let the infidel take heed lest his boasted light terminate in a worse than Egyptian darkness. 2. Let the proud, self-righteous Pharisee come down from the pinnacle of his elevation, and seek both light and life in Jesus Christ. 3. Let the profane sinner, venturesome as he now is, look out in time; go to Jesus Christ the Sun of righteousness, in time. IV. MENTAL , THAT OF THE , IS THE WORST KIND OF . It produces enmity to the truth of God, and neglect of His ways. Permit me to give you a word of friendly counsel in reference to this light. 1. Set a just value on it. Buy it at any expense, sell it not on any account. 2. Labour to gain more of it. 3. Communicate it to others, and that to the extent of your abilities. 4. Remove obstacles to its shining whenever you can. 5. Triumph in the happy victories which the light and truth of God may at any time gain, in any one family, at any one place. 6. Look forward to its final and complete triumphs, its unfading and eternal splendour! (The Evangelist.) Believing in the light and its effects In certain parts of Asia there is a curious plant which grows in the forests. These forests are very dense and gloomy, for the trees grow thick together, and twine their branches into one another at the top, till the forest almost seems to have a great roof over it keeping out the sunlight. This plant at first is a very slim and feeble-looking plant--just a straight stalk, with only a thin leaf here and there upon it. But it shoots up and up, and gathers strength as it grows, till it becomes like a tall bamboo rod. And now it reaches up to the first branches of the trees, then up to the middle ones, then up to the topmost boughs, and pierces its way through the thick roof of leaves at the top; then, for the first time, it lifts its head unto the sunshine. And now, it does what it never did and never could have done before. It puts out beautiful blossoms and flowers; and, by and by, out of these it brings fruits and seeds. Once it has become a child of the light it begins to blossom and be fruitful. This explains the text in this way: at first the plant had a little light, and that little made it glad. It loved the light, and believed it was good for it. It believed in the light, and it found that the more it loved the light the more light it got, because it was growing more up to it, and from being a sickly, pale plant it became strong and beautiful. Now Jesus is the Light of the soul. We know a little about Him, that He loved us and died to save us, and wants to make us good. We have a little light, and what we have now to do is to love that light and believe that light, that our souls may be changed by the light from day to day, till we also become children of light. Suppose that plant, when it had only a little light, had said to itself, “ Ah, I don’ t want the light, I don’ t want the light; I am tired of always trying to grow higher into the light. I think it would be much nicer if I could become a creeper and grow on the dark ground!” Well, if the plant said that and did that, it would bend down and down and away from the light, and it would receive less light and less light, and it would never have any flowers or any kind of fruit, just because when it had the light it would not believe in the light, or try to get more of it, or love it. It is the same with you. If you do not want that light, if you do not believe in it, if you prefer to do this thing and that which is sinful, then you will be growing away from the light, and receive less and less light still, and you will forget the light you once had, and your life will be lost. (J. R. Howat.) Light limited in duration Alexander the Great, when he besieged a certain city, kindled a torch, and offered pardon and peace to the besieged citizens if they would surrender themselves so long as the torch continued to burn, but threatened them with destruction and death if they did not surrender during the blazing light of the torch. So will it be with God and ourselves. Let us therefore work while we can enjoy the light that shines from heaven and leads us to heaven, for when this light is quenched, if we have not before surrendered ourselves to God, we must certainly, as He has warned us, meet with eternal death and destruction at His hands. (T. H.Leary, D. C. L.) Delay leads to the winter of the soul How dangerous to defer those momentous reformations which conscience is solemnly preaching to the heart! If they are neglected, the difficulty and indisposition are increasing every month. The mind is receding, degree after degree, from the warm and hopeful zone; till at last it will enter the arctic circle, and become fixed in relentless and eternal ice. (J. Foster.) John 12:37-50 But though He had done so many miracles … yet they believed not on Him Our Lord’ s ministry I. ITS DETAILS. 1. The doctrines He taught (John 12:44-50). These words are an abridged statement of our Lord’ s words uttered at different times. In John 12:36 we have, the formal close of our Lord’ s mission, and this summary appropriately follows. It teaches (1) The Divinity of His mission (John 12:49). There is nothing that our Lord stated more frequently or plainly than this His name for God is often “ He who sent Me.” This claim leaves no alternative between receiving Him as a Divine Messenger or rejecting Him as fanatic or impostor. (2) The Divinity of His doctrine (John 12:44; John 12:49-50). He did not bring it forward as an opinion of the man Jesus, but as the truth He had heard of the Father. (3) The Divinity of His Person. His authority here is clearly co-ordinate with that of the Father. (4) The design of His mission. To be a light to the world; not to judge the world but to save it. The two declarations are synonymous. Men are in a state of darkness, i.e., of ignorance, error, guilt and depravity; at a distance from God who is “ light.” Jesus is the “ light” as He is the author and bestower of that salvation which dispels our moral darkness. (5) The manner of being interested in His salvation. “ He that believeth on Me.” (6) The doom of those who refuse to believe (John 12:48). 2. The manner of His teaching (John 12:44). (1) Public. He did not confine His teaching to a few, and like Mohammed and other impostors conceal His doctrines, till by private exertions He had secured a considerable body of followers. (2) Earnest. Sometimes He quietly “ talked with the people,” but at other times He cried aloud and spared not. The conviction He had of the truth and importance of His message produced a holy excitement. (3) Fearless. He well knew how unpalatable His doctrines were and how great the dangers to which He exposed Himself. But He “ set His face as a flint, and refused to be ashamed.” In all this Christ is a Model to His own ministers. 3. The evidence He produced. (1) He did miracles, i.e., “ signs,” tokens or signals of the truth of His doctrines. These miracles were (2) “ Great,” as the words “ so many” may be rendered--far and obviously exceeding human power. (3) Many. (a) More than those of Old Testament prophets. (b) Many in kind, remarkable for variety. (4) “ Before” His countrymen; not like pretended miracles of later ages for the most part in the presence of those interested in supporting His system. (5) These miracles were also (a) Beneficient. (b) Unostentatious. (c) At a time and in circumstances where imposture could be detected. (d) In conformity with Messianic predictions. II. ITS RESULTS. 1. The body of the Jewish nation did not believe. (1) This disbelief fulfilled prophecy (John 12:38-41). (2) In this prophecy we have the true cause of their rejecting Him. They had blinded eyes and hardened hearts, and therefore they could not perceive and understand. (3) This blindness was first voluntary and self-imposed, then judicial, a punishment of God. 2. A minority who did believe from worldly motives suppressed their convictions (John 12:42-43). (J. Brown, D. D.) The rejected messenger I. THE CLOSED (John 12:36). It had been a ministry of - 1. Manifested glory. Glory one of the keynotes of the Gospel. The Divine Being looked upon by Israel in the first temple had been rejected by Israel in the second. This glory (1) Was of a higher order than that seen by the prophet. That was symbolical, this real. (2) Of more frequent exhibition. He had only one glimpse, they repeated manifestations. 2. Offered grace. The ministry was one persistent effort to secure their personal and social redemption. 3. Attesting power (John 12:37). II. THE PEOPLE. “ Did hide Himself” (John 12:36). 1. The unbelieving majority (John 12:37). The completest evidence had been laid before them. Yet they voluntarily closed their eyes to the light. One would have expected the opposite from John 12:13. But Christ was not deceived by popular applause. 2. The believing minority. (1) Considerable, embracing many of the rulers. (2) Sincere, though defective. (3) Timid, afraid of excommunication. (4) Reprehensible, preferring human approbation to Divine. III. THE (John 12:38). 1. The prediction. (1) That the report of Jehovah’ s suffering Servant would not be believed. (2) That the “ signs” would not be understood. 2. The fulfilment. This came to pass when the nation misinterpreted the signs, disbelieved the message, and rejected the person of Christ. 3. The connection: the fulfilment necessary because of the prediction. (1) Not that compulsion was laid upon the Jews to reject Christ to save the credit of a prophet. But (2) that the foreordained programme of human history should come to pass. That, however, did not exempt the Jews from guilt. IV. THE DESIGN (verse 89). 1. The law of moral hardening. The truth rejected always results in a diminution of the soul’ s susceptibility for receiving it. 2. The Author of this law, God. It being part of the moral order of the universe (Ephesians 4:19), God does not shrink from the responsibility. 3. The working out of this law. They could do no other than reject the Saviour, because they hated the light. Lessons 1. The day of grace may terminate before the day of life. 2. Unbelief seldom springs from lack of evidence. 3. No prediction of God will ever fail. 4. The Divine foreknowledge exempts no man from responsibility. 5. It is perilous to shut one’ s eyes against the light of truth. 6. Unbelief is a disease for which Christ is the only Physician. 7. Christ the healer of souls is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. 8. It is not enough to believe on Christ; we must also confess Him. 9. They who follow Christ must expect persecution. 10. Who love the praise of men more than the glory of God cannot be saved. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Jesus and the Jews I. A GUILTY (John 12:37). Why did they not believe? 1. Not for want of evidence. For many miracles had been wrought amongst them. 2. Not for want of warning (John 12:38). The ministry that was fitted by God to bring them to spiritual knowledge and repentance they turned to opposite results (John 12:40). When a man has not three things (1) Evidence; (2) The capacity for examining evidence, and (3) The opportunity for doing so--his unbelief is not guilty; but this is not the unbelief of England today. II. A FAITH (John 12:42-43) arising from 1. Fear of men. 2. Love of popularity. “ Glory” would be a better word than praise. It is implied (1) That between the glory of men and the glory of God there is an essential difference. Glory in the estimation of men is wealth, fame, titles, etc. In the eyes of God these are worthless. The glory of God is holiness. (2) That a higher appreciation of the glory of man than of God is inimical to a courageous faith. The faith of Peter before the Sanhedrim; “ we cannot but speak,” etc., is the true type. III. (John 12:44). 1. It is faith in Christ’ s identity with the Father. Christ claimed no position independent of the Father. 2. It is faith, the absence of which tends to a terrible doom--“ Darkness,” i.e., ignorance, remorse, despair. (D. Thomas, D. D.) No welcome for Christ Perhaps there is no episode recorded in history more interesting than that of Charles V when he landed at Tunis. Ten thousand men and women who were slaves within the city, when they heard of the approach of their deliverer, rose and broke their chains, and rushed toward the gate as the emperor was entering the town; and this mighty procession knelt down, hailed him as their deliverer, and prayed God to bless him. But when Christ the world’ s deliverer comes to His own His own, alas, receive Him not. That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled The Gospel report I. THE GOSPEL REPORT IS TRUE AND MIGHTY. 1. It is true because it is implied that it ought to be believed. What is genuinely believable must be true. 2. It is mighty because called “ The arm of the Lord.” Redemptive truth is “ the power of God unto salvation.” II. THOUGH TRUE, ITS TRUTH IS OFTEN AND UNFELT. It was so in the days of the prophets, of Christ, of the apostles, and of all subsequent times. “ Therefore they could not believe” --not because of the prediction, or of any Divine decree, but because of the state of their minds. As long as men are in the depths of moral corruption they can neither see nor feel Divine things. A malignant nature cannot see love, nor an avaricious generosity and disinterestedness. III. THESE MORAL STATES OF MIND TO FAITH ARE OFTEN BY TO THE REPORT. “ He hath blinded,” etc. Matthew 13:14; Acts 28:26). It is a fact proved by the nature of things, and patent to the observation of all, that the hearer of the gospel who believes not is made more blind and hard by listening. Then as free agents have the power of counteracting the moral tendencies of things, turning blessings into curses and vice versa. The unbeliever is ever doing the former and the believer the latter. IV. THE AWFUL RESULTS OF THE GOSPEL UPON MEN THESE STATES OF MIND ARE ALL OF GOD. The prophet was told what would be the fate of his “ report.” But God’ s foreknowledge did not render the result necessary, nor interfere with freedom of action, nor lessen guilt. V. GOD THE OF THE GOSPEL ON THE HEARER, HE STILL IT TO BE . The proclamation of Gospel truth is a good in itself, and a good to the universe, though it may enhance the misery of millions. Though God knows that storms will spread fearful devastation, yet He sends them forth. Man is not the only creature to be served. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The Gospel not believed I. THE GOSPEL IS A MESSAGE OR REPORT TO MAN UPON MATTERS OF SUPREME . A system introduced by such agency as that of the Son of God could not be insignificant. The gospel is a message 1. As to the character and claims of God--the Majesty of His nature, the harmony of His attributes, the import of all His relations to the universe as Creator, Governor, Benefactor and Judge. 2. As to the character and condition of mankind; our depravity consequent on the fall, our alienation from God, our exposure to the curse. Beyond the gospel announcements on these subjects we want nothing. Here are the principles of true philosophy and untiring observation. Outside them all is delusion. 3. As to the method of salvation by the intervention of a Mediator--the counsels of eternity respecting it, the Author of it, the nature of His office, the value of His sacrifice, and the effects on earth and in heaven are all clearly and fully set forth. II. THE GOSPEL IS TO MAN FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF BEING . 1. The report of the gospel is worthy of faith on account of the evidence by which it is confirmed. We are not called upon to believe it without evidence. The historic testimony to its authenticity, the fulfilment of prophecy, the performing of miracles, its wonderful adaptation to the circumstances of all men and its wonderful achievements constitute a conclusive claim to the embrace of every enlightened mind. 2. Faith in the report of the gospel is the only medium by which it can be rendered available to our safety and final happiness. Observe the statement of Scripture respecting the connection between (1) Faith and justification. (2) Faith and sanctification. (3) Faith and the salvation which is the glorious consummation of justification and sanctification. 3. Faith in the gospel results from the operation of Divine power on the soul. “ The arm of the Lord” signifies His power, and the manifestation of that arm consists in the implantation of the principle of faith. It is an affecting thought that nothing can overcome the depraved incredulity of the human heart but an agency omnipotent and Divine. This agency is the Holy Spirit secured by the death, resurrection, etc., of Christ. III. IT BECOMES A MATTER OF SOLEMN INQUIRY AS TO THE NUMBER BY WHOM THE GOSPEL HAS BEEN . “Who hath believed?” 1. The implication which this inquiry involves, viz. that the number is comparatively small. It was so in the days of the prophet, in those of our Lord and the apostles, and in subsequent Christian history. And now, while we must not overlook the revived interest in religion and the success of missions, how few are the saved in comparison with the unsaved. 2. The results which from that implication must be produced. (1) Compassion for sinners. (2) Exertion for their salvation. (3) Prayer that our efforts may be blessed. (J. Parsons.) Therefore they could not believe The loss of faith I. THE WHICH RENDERS FAITH . The statement is a strong one and is derived from Isaiah 6:9; ?Isaiah 6:10. This refers to no arbitrary act of Divine sovereignty. The Hebrews never conceived of a mere mechanical law, but regarded all sequence as a mode of God’ s power. And as overlooking intermediate cause they spoke of Him as making day and night, so they spoke of Him as making spiritual day and night. In the stolidity inevitable when the soul refuses the report of God’ s messengers, and closes itself against the light, they beheld law, and beholding law they discerned God. St. John dwells much upon cans and cannots (John 5:19; John 5:30; John 6:44; John 3:3), which refer to impossibilities which have their root in the presence or absence of certain dispositions; and the “ could not” here implies the operation of a spirit incompatible with trust in Christ. The difficulty of verse 34 arose out of a state of mind impervious to Christ’ s manifest Divine life. Intellectual cavillings were allowed to intercept spiritual light, and so they could not believe. For the same reason many do not believe now. There is a type of mind which is often praised as a sign of intellectual smartness--disputatious, so constantly posing as debater or critic that the light which would illumine doubts cannot get into the heart. Such should deeply ponder the text. II. THE WHICH THE LOSS OF FAITH (verses 42, 43). Compare this with John 8:45-52. Only one then protested, now we learn that there was a considerable party in favour of Jesus although prudential considerations prevented them from confessing Him. What was the consequence of their timidity? A few days after the hiding of Jesus, they were all with two exceptions implicated in the plottings which issued in the crucifixion. It is dangerous to delay the expression of conviction in appropriate action. Christ requires confession, and no peculiarity of disposition should hinder it. So-called reserved people run the risk of weakening their own faith and love as well as hiding God’ s righteousness (Psalms 40:10). “ He who is not for Me is against Me” Romans 10:8-10). III. THE ACTION IN WHICH FAITH IS AND (verses 35, 36, 46, cf. Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 5:13). 1. Believe and walk. The error of the people is that they stand still, putting their scruples between them and Christ. His command is, Use what light you have; set yourselves in the path which faith in the light shall indicate Hosea 6:3). 2. Believe that you may be the children of light. Not to believe is to pass into darkness. (J. M. Lang, D. D.) Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also many believed on Him The conduct of the rulers There were rulers, chief rulers, and many of them believed. What a pleasing circumstance. God grant that it may be the same with our rulers up to the sovereign; but may their faith go further; for the Jewish potentates did not confess Christ because they feared men and were anxious to secure their praise. I. THERE ARE WAYS OF IN CHRIST. Faith is made a great matter of in Scripture. Salvation hangs altogether on it, “ He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life.” Are we then to infer that everyone who is convinced that Christ is the Saviour shall be saved? No, for the rulers were thus convinced, and there are many who believe all the truths of the Bible and yet are not believers. We read that the devils believe and tremble, but never that the devils believe and live. The text helps us to discriminate between a true and a false faith. The faith of the rulers was one which could lie in their bosoms and could be smothered by fear of man and love of his praise. But a true faith cannot be stifled. It must speak out Romans 10:9). And not only will the lips speak out, but the life in all the graces of the Christian character. We live in days when it is no disgrace to say that we are Christians, but to show it. II. THERE ALSO TWO GREAT TO FAITH. 1. The fear of man as withering now as then. “ What will the world say?” often casts a damp on godly resolutions. Men cannot bear the thought of ridicule, and so lower the standard of religious conduct and conform to the world. But grace enables the true believer to say, “ I will not be afraid,” and he “ rejoices that he is counted worthy to suffer shame.” 2. The love of man’ s praise in preference to that of God. How many a man’ s faith is nipped by no other cause? To live agreeably to the gospel is not the way to gain man’ s praise. Man does not praise the poor in spirit, the meek, etc., but the proud, etc. He therefore who seeks to please the world puts on such qualities as these. But the true believer acts differently. He is not indeed indifferent to the good opinion of his fellow creatures, yet he values God’ s esteem above this, and to secure that is the great film of his life. (A. Roberts, M. A.) The meanness of not confessing Christ I believe there are many in this congregation who wake every morning to pray, and who never let the evening shadows go without perfuming them with their grateful thanks for the mercies of the day; who study their Bibles more than many professing Christians; and who believe that the life they now live is by faith in the Son of God, but who yet do not wish to have it known, and shrink from joining the Church, and making a public acknowledgment of the debt they owe to Christ. They mean to be Christians, but not to avow themselves such. Thus they will leave the world to suppose that their manifest virtues are self-cultured, and that Christian lives may be led without Christ. If I were a pupil of Titian, and he should design my picture, and sketch it for me, and look over my work every day and make suggestions, and then, when I had exhausted my skill, he should take the brush and give the finishing touches, bringing out a part here and there, and making the whole glow with beauty, and then I should hang it upon the wall and call it mine, what a meanness it would be! (H. W. Beecher.) For they loved the praise of man more than the praise of God The uses of praise I. PRAISE IS ONE OF THE MOST ACTIVE AND OF ALL THE THAT AFFECT HUMAN LIFE. A man without a sense of pleasure in other men’ s approbation is not well fitted to live among men. Its operation tends continually to restrain men from offence. It incites to doing of a thousand things which are agreeable and which we should not have thought of doing if it had not been for the desire to produce pleasure in others, and so reflexively to win their favour. In these directions it cooperates easily with benevolence. When it works upward, and is in alliance with reason, duty, and religion, then it becomes a glorious incitement, a stimulus to industry and to chivalry. If those from whom we desire praise are praiseworthy, then to desire their praise is to set in operation within ourselves the machinery by which we lift ourselves toward their level. Where it includes the approval of great spirits generically, and of God, then the highest form of motive power is reached. II. THE VALUE OF THIS IN LIFE DEPENDS ON ITS AND . Of all the faculties it is the most illusive. When not rightly trained it is deceiving, and when improperly exercised it is weakening. Associated with conscience it should reject all undeserved praise. Men ought to be ashamed to be praised for what they know is not true, and when they lay traps for it how beggarly is the degradation to which they have come. How many array themselves on the side of right to be praised! Who accepts truth which is unpopular, and love that which their conscience tells them is just when it will bring down upon them the discredit of the whole community? How easy is it to bring men on the side that is popular. As long as slavery was an accredited fact and not to be disturbed, it was a very ungracious thing to stand up for human liberty; but no sooner was the public sentiment changed than men sprang up thicker than asparagus and cried, “ Oh, the preciousness of emancipation.” So men think they are following the truth when they are simply lusting for praise. As an auxiliary there can be no objection to it. If a man in the performance of duty afterwards finds himself the subject of praise, all well and good; but it is necessary that it should be the second or the third, and not the primary or dominant motive. Those surrounded by a low-toned public sentiment are apt to have an indiscriminate hankering after praise and to be so demoralized that they even become vain of sinful courses. There are men whose foul tongue is their strength and they glory in it. There are men proud of their rudeness. They think it praiseworthy to be singular in this respect. Men enter into competition with each other as to which can eat or drink the most. Yea, crimes become virtues in the sight of many. III. . 1. As an incitement to artistic work, the love of praise should always wait on and follow achievement, and never precede it. No man who works for praise can ever become a leading artist. 2. This is true also of literary work. No author will live whose paper is a looking glass. No man will write thoughts but he who is utterly unconscious and lost in his subject. 3. In politics everything is made to turn on the popular vote, and our public men grow up questioning not, “ What will be the influence of this or that as to the right or wrong?” but, “ How will it strike my constituents and affect my chances?” And the inspirations of God in the lines of truth are sacrificed to this miserable and mercenary regard for praise which men want and do not deserve. 4. Of all places there is none where self-consciousness and the love of praise are so fatal as in the pulpit. There is a wide range for the selection of themes by the preacher, but how many are chosen that jar on the nerves of the lovers of pleasure, wealth, etc.? In the treatment especially of great public questions, what conservatism and fear of men’ s opinions there is? No man can effectually preach the truths of the Christian life who is not willing to throw himself instantly into anything that is needful and be lost to popularity so that it is with truth and God that he stands. IV. IN THIS SUBJECT WE HAVE MATTER FOR VERY . 1. It is a question for many how much of your religion is other than conformity to public custom, and how much is simple conformity to what is respectable. 2. Is the praise you receive beneficial in its effect upon you? Is it preparing you for higher association in the kingdom above? The day hastens. Soon we shall stand before Him who has declared that if in this evil generation we are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of us. (H. W. Beecher.) The praise of men I. THE FOLLY OF AN OVER- OF THE OPINION OF MEN. The condemnation was not that the rulers loved the praise of men, but they loved it more than the praise of God. This overweening regard to human opinion Isaiah 1. Very common. Not that the esteem of others is sinful, because deference to the opinion of the wise and good is wisely implanted in our nature. The perversion of an instinctive tendency does not convert a good principle into a bad one. The love of praise is not to be condemned if limited to the praise of good men for right sentiments and good actions. It must, however, be an insufficient principle of conduct, because it may be extended to the praise of bad men for bad actions. We must not then say that the love of praise or fear of blame is necessarily sinful. Opinion is the prop and stay of all social intercourse. Reputation for honour, etc., is essential, while man is man. “ No man liveth to himself.” Jacob said of Judah, “ Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise” ; and to stand well in the opinion of good men is a means of blessing to the Church and the world. St. Paul says, “ If there be any praise, think on these things.” Only remember that this love of praise should be followed by a love of praiseworthiness, and a fear of blame of blameworthiness; otherwise it will be only vanity in disguise. The man who is above or below the good opinion of ethers, must be more or less than man. He who sets no value upon the just estimation of society is often careless of the actions which tend to produce it. 2. It may be abused, and become implicit idolatry like that of the heathen who served the creature more than the Creator. It was the same with the young ruler, Pilate and Felix. “ This is the victory that overcometh our faith--even the world.” 3. This sinful preference of man to God is dangerous in its issue. It hazards the less of the soul, and draws down the displeasure of God (see following verses). II. WHICH MAY CORRECT THIS EVIL. 1. The worthlessness of the men for whose commendation we are ready to renounce Christ. Let us know why and for whom we are prepared to make shipwreck of faith and good conscience. For what did Judas betray Christ? The favour of worthless Pharisees and thirty pieces of silver. For what did Esau renounce his birthright? And for what do we give up the hope of acceptance with Christ? For the wretched smile of triflers, for the ribaldry of Paine and the “ don’ t know” of Spencer--a mess of pottage indeed. “ An atheist’ s laugh is a poor exchange for a Deity offended.” 2. The study of the best models. The men of whom this world was not worthy, were not the men who bowed to ruling opinions. Paul conferred not with flesh and blood; Columbus turned a deaf ear to worldly wisdom, or he would never have discovered a new world. Had Milton been swayed by popular opinion he would never have left a name immortal. Defoe was offered wealth and preferment to support government measures by a venal pen, but he sternly refused, and borrowed a guinea to supply his wants for the day. Study the answer of the Three Hebrew Children and the example of Christ. We talk of the public opinion of earth, but forget that there is a public opinion in heaven (Hebrews 12:10). 3. Estimate of the value of the Divine opinion. God is the standard of all excellence. His approbation is the seal of honour. 4. Anticipate the decisions of the great day. (T. H. Day.) The supreme value of that honour which cometh from God I. THERE IS NOTHING IN THE NATURE OF PRAISE THAT IS SINFUL. It is nowhere condemned except in the form of flattery, which is not praise but simply lying. It is needful to bear this in mind, because, through erroneous notions, many receive what is done for them or for God’ s cause with chilling indifference, which has a detrimental effect particularly on the young. To see that praise is not sinful, we have but to study the generous commendations of our Lord and of St. Paul. Then how frequently has it animated the faint and discouraged, as in the case of St. Paul at Appii Forum. II. THE PRAISE OF MEN AND THE PRAISE OF GOD ARE OPPOSED. For man often condemns what God approves, and vice versa. God cannot look upon any form of sin with allowance, but man condones and sometimes applauds the grossest vices. III. BOTH IN AND PRAISE WE SHOULD BE GUIDED BY THE MIND OF GOD. He knows what is praiseworthy, and has revealed His mind on the subject. Never receive or give flattery for what the Bible condemns. IV. TO THIS UNHAPPY FOR THE PRAISE OF MAN BEFORE THAT OF GOD MAY BE TRACED THE MISERY AND RUIN OF MANKIND. (Congregational Remembrancer.) The desire for admiration The human eye of admiration I seek is like the scorching ray that destroys all the delicate colours in the most costly material. Every action that is done only to be seen of others, loses its freshness in the sight of God, like the flower that, passing through many hands, is at last hardly presentable to anyone, much less to a dear friend. (T. H.Leary, D. C. L.) The peril of the love of praise A clergyman once had a dream, in which another popular clergyman appeared to him in his garden and asked the time of the day. “ Twenty-five minutes past four,” said the other. “ It is then exactly an hour since I died, and I am damned;” “ Damned for what?” said the other. “ Not for not preaching the gospel, for I have many seals to my ministry; but I have sought the praise of men more than the praise of God.” The first clergyman on going to the service in the evening (Sunday) was asked “ if he had heard of the loss of such a church whose minister had died.” “ When?” said the clergyman. “ Twenty-five minutes past three this afternoon!” Love of fame rebuked There was one Michael Fenwick that travelled with Wesley as a sort of groom, nurse, and occasional exhorter. The good man was vain enough to complain, one day, that his name was never inserted in Wesley’ s published “ Journals.” In the next number of the “ Journals” he found his name in a connection that probably did not serve to increase his vanity. “ I left Epworth,” wrote Wesley, “ with great satisfaction, and about one, preached at Clayworth. I think none were unmoved but Michael Fenwick, who fell fast asleep under an adjoining hayrick.” (Dr. Haven.) Jesus cried and said. The rejected message A message of I. LOVE FROM THE FATHER (John 12:49). 1. The substance of the message--a revelation of the Father (John 12:45). (1) Of His name, Father. (2) Of His character, love. (3) Of His gift, the Son. (4) Of His purpose, salvation (John 12:47). 2. The medium of its transmission--through Christ, God’ s (1) Son (John 12:50); (2) Representative (John 12:44); (3) Commissioner (John 12:44; John 12:49). 3. The heinousness of its rejection--to reject Christ and His message the same thing as to reject the Father and His message (John 12:44). II. FOR THE WORLD (John 12:46-47). 1. Of Salvation from the darkness of (1) Intellectual error. (2) Moral unholiness. (3) Legal condemnation. (4) Eternal death. 2. Of salvation through faith--through hearing, believing, keeping Christ’ s words. 3. Of salvation forever--through escaping the final judgment and entering at the last day upon eternal life. III. FOR THE (John 12:48). 1. Its time--the last day. 2. Its author--the Word of Christ. 3. Its ground--unbelief and disobedience. IV. ETERNAL LIFE FOR THE (John 12:50). 1. The object of the Father’ s commission. 2. The burden of the Son’ s commission. 3. The issue of the individual’ s faith. Lessons 1. Thankfulness for the gospel message. 2. Watchfulness against the sin of unbelief. 3. Prayerfulness that the news of salvation may be propagated through the earth. 4. Trustfulness that we may escape the judgment of the last day. 5. Earnestness to lay hold of eternal life. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) I am come a Light into the world. Light for the world’ s darkness I. OUR WORLD IS DARK. God did not make it so, but man has darkened it, and Satan and sin have darkened it. It is a darkness of 1. Sleep. The sleeper sees not the light. He may dream that he does so, but that is all. 2. Death. With life, light flees. 3. The tomb. Buried, the darkness is double. 4. Satan. He is the ruler of the darkness of this world. 5. Hell. Our world is an earnest of the blackness of darkness forever. The shadow of hell is over it. II. THERE IS LIGHT FOR IT. Deep as is the darkness, it is not hopeless. There is enough of light in God and heaven yet. Light has not been quenched throughout the universe, though driven from our world. III. THIS LIGHT HAS COME. It is not in heaven merely; it has come down to earth. The gospel is an announcement of the arrival of the light. IV. CHRIST IS THE LIGHT. The brightness of Jehovah’ s glory; the true Light; the Sun of Righteousness; the Day Star; the bright and morning Star. All the light of the Godhead, of heaven, of the universe, is centred in Him. He is the Light of the World because 1. Of what He shows us of the Father. He that hath seen Him hath seen the Father. 2. Of what He does to us--pardons, heals, comforts, blesses, saves. 3. Of what He is yet to do for our world. His reign shall be the reign of light, and the earth shall rejoice in His light. V. THE WAY IN WHICH THE LIGHT ENTERS. Not in working or waiting, but believing. Faith ends the darkness, and lets in the glorious light. VI. THE AND OF THE LIGHT. “ Whosoever.” (H. Bonar, D. D.) Believers shall not abide in darkness Perhaps the worst feature of darkness is, that it is so bewildering. You have to walk, and yet your way is hidden from your eyes. This is hard work. God will help His children, will He not? Ay, that He will, but we cannot see how I We look upward, and see no twinkling star; downward and do not even find a glow worm. Surely we shall see a candle in some window! But no! we are lost in a dark wood. Have we not somewhere about us a match that we could strike? We fumble for it; we find it, it is damp, we have no light. The question that now chills the heart is--How can God deliver me? We do not see how He can make a way of escape. What simpletons we are to fancy that if we do not see a way of deliverance God does not see one either! If you have ever steamed up the Rhine, you have looked before you, and it has looked as if you could go no further; the river seemed to be a lake; great mountains and vast rocks blocked up all further advance. Suddenly there has been a turn in the stream, and at once a broad highway has been before you, inviting you to enter the heart of the country. Perhaps in Providence you are in one of those parts of the river of life where no progress appears possible. You are quite blocked up, and this causes you darkness of mind. Cease from this unbelieving bewilderment. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him, and He shall give thee thy heart’ s desire.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 12:47-48 If any man hear My words I.THE THAT MAN CAN ENJOY. It is a priceless privilege to hear the words of any great sage, poet, moralist. But what are the best human words compared with those of Christ? They are spirit and life; more pure than crystal, more refreshing than the morning breeze, more quickening than the sunbeam, they are recreative forces. What have they accomplished ere now? II. THE NEGLECT OF WHICH A MAN CAN BE GUILTY--“ and believe not,” i.e. keep them not. Such is guilty of 1. The most egregious folly. 2. The most heinous ingratitude. 3. The most hardened impiety. II. THE MOST DOOM WHICH A MAN CAN . “ I judge him not.” I as a Saviour have nothing more to do with him; I leave him to the retributive treatment of My Father. Mercy leaves him, and justice apprehends him. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The words of Christ I. AS LAWS TO BE OBEYED. Christ’ s words are not like poetry for entertainment, or abstract science for speculative thought; they are laws to be kept; not so much a creed as a code. It is only as they are embodied in actual life that their mission is answered, that they are of any real or lasting service to man. II. AS A MEANS OF . Had Christ come to judge the world, His words would have breathed the indignation of insulted justice. But He came to save, and hence His words are full of all that can restore man to holiness and God. The salvation which Christ came to effect is restoration from spiritual ignorance to intelligence, from selfishness to benevolence, from bondage to freedom, from inward conflict to inner harmony, from social perniciousness to social utility. To this His signs and words are adapted. “ Save the world,” not a class. III. AS OF (John 12:48). The man to whom Christ has spoken, and who rejects or nullifies His words, needs no other judge but His words. These words will judge him in his conscience and will condemn him for ingratitude, folly and rebellion. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ is both able and willing to save the world When the Duke of Argyle was taken in rebellion in Scotland, and brought before James II, the king said to him, “ You know that it is in my power to pardon you.” It is reported that the prisoner answered, “ It may be in your power, but it is not in your nature” --a speech which, whether true or not, cost him his life, He died like a stoic, executed at Temple Gate. But Christ has both the power and the disposition to pardon sinners. He that rejecteth me … hath one that judgeth Him. The redemptive becoming retributive I. MAY BE NOW. It is possible to accept Christ’ s creed and to reject His authority. II. THOSE WHO REJECT NOW, MUST BOW TO ITS FORCE . “ The last day” is the retributive period that awaits us all. Then the “ Word” which has been trodden under foot will rise from the dust and take the throne. 1. There is nothing arbitrary in the decision or procedure of the last judgment. The glorious words of mercy which are rejected will spring from their graves, and conscience will invest them with judicial authority. 2. Man should be profoundly cautious as to how to treat the words of Christ now. His words are not sounds but things--terrible things. They must live forever in every soul into which they have fallen. Old sermons will be preached again by memory many ages on. “ How shall we escape.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) The word that I have spoken, the same shall Judge Him. I. THERE IS A LAST DAY. The world shall not always roll on. God shall interpose at length. In one sense there is no last day either to righteous or wicked. But in reference to the existing order there is a winding up, a reckoning. “ Tomorrow” shall then cease, and that word of mystery and procrastination and suspense be known no more. II. THAT DAY SHALL BE ONE OF . The long unsettled cases of earth shall be settled then. Time’ s riddles shall be solved and its wrongs righted. The oppressed shall be vindicated and the evil-doer be put to shame. The judgment shall be just, undoing the evil and establishing the good. III. CHRIST’ S WORD SHALL JUDGE US. Not that the word is to supersede the Judge, but it will form the ground of judgment. We can imagine in connection with that word such questions as these: 1. Did it reach you? 2. Did you listen to it, or spend your lives in listening to someone or thing else? 3. Did you treat it as a true word? Professing to receive it as true, did you treat it as untrue? 4. Did you treat it as Divine? by reverence and submission. 5. Did you accept it as suitable, as meeting your case? or did you reject it? By this word, then, let us judge ourselves now, that so we may not be condemned by it at the great day. (H. Bonar.) John 12:49-50 For I have not spoken of Myself.Christ as a teacher I. HIS . “ I have not spoken of Myself.” As if He had said, I take no credit for the thoughts that I have addressed to men: they are not the flashes of my own genius, or the conclusions of my own reason. I am not their fountain but their channel. A teacher is great and divine just in proportion to his humility. Alas! the vanity of preachers has become proverbial. II. HIS . “ But the Father which sent Me,” etc. No man is a true spiritual teacher who is not conscious that the thoughts he utters are not his own but God’ s. (D. Thomas, D. D.) . John 13:1-19 Now before the feast of the Passover.-- A three-fold marvel I. A LOVE: that of Christ for His own. Marvellous in respect of 1. Its time. (1) Before the feast of the Passover, when His thoughts might have been occupied with its memories. (2) Before His departure, when He might have been absorbed in the contemplation of death or the heaven beyond. (3) Before His exaltation, when the vision of the coming glory might have fixed His Spirit’ s eye. 2. Its intensity--“ unto the end.” (1) To the uttermost, or in the highest degree, with a love passing knowledge (Ephesians 3:19), which many waters (of affliction) could not quench, nor floods (of sorrow) drown (Son 8:9). (2) To the latest moment of His life, with a love which, as it had been without beginning, so also would it be without end (Jeremiah 31:8). (3) At the last, surpassing every previous demonstration and stooping even unto death for its objects (John 15:13; 1 John 3:16; Romans 5:8). 3. Its reason. While He was departing from, they were remaining in the world, exposed to the enmity and evil He was escaping. The thought of their feebleness and defencelessness, and their sufferings and imperfections, added fuel to the fire of His affection (Hebrews 4:15). II. A DEED (John 13:5). An act of 1. Amazing condescension, considering (1) Its nature--the work of a slave (1 Samuel 25:41). (2) His dignity--the Incarnate Son, conscious of His heavenly origin and destiny (John 13:3), on the eve of grasping the sceptre of the universe Matthew 28:18). (3) The objects--frail and erring men and one of them a traitor. Had Christ been only man He would have spurned Judas: being God, He loved him and even washed his feet. 2. Sublime significance. Symbolic (1) Of Christ’ s self-abasement who, in order to effect the spiritual cleansing of His people, laid aside the form of God, assumed the garment of humanity, and poured His purifying blood from the cross (Philippians 2:7-8; 1 John 1:7). (2) Of the working of regeneration through which sin’ s defilement is removed (Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5). (3) Of the daily cleansing which the renewed need (Psalms 51:7; 1 John 1:9). III. A (verses 14, 15). Christ’ s example calls His disciples to 1. Personal humility. If the Lord and Master could stoop and wash the feet of a Judas, it ill became them to be puffed up with thoughts of their own greatness (Romans 12:3; Luke 22:27; Matthew 9:29; 1 Peter 5:5). 2. Loving service. Not that Christ instituted a new religious service. The Pope is Christ’ s ape rather than His imitator. Christ’ s example is to be followed spiritually in ministering to necessity and practising Christian kindness (John 15:17; Matthew 25:34-40; Romans 12:9-10, Galatians 5:13-14; Galatians 5:22; Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 5:2; 1 Timothy 5:10). 3. Brotherly forgiveness. Christ had washed and therefore forgiven them; they were to practise the charity which covers a multitude of sins Matthew 6:12; Mark 11:28; Luke 17:3-4; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13). Learn 1. The supreme Divinity of Christ. 2. The diabolical depravity of the fallen heart. 3. The imperfections of even Christ’ s followers. 4. The absolute necessity of Christ as a Saviour. 5. Christ’ s perfect knowledge of men. 6. The duty of taking Christ as our example. 7. Obedience the royal road to happiness. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Jesus knew that His hour was come Christ’ s knowledge I. Its FULNESS. II. Its SOURCES. III. Its USES. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ’ s hour I. SO LONG . II. SO FULL OF . III. SO FULL OF . (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ’ s death I. HE HAD A DIVINE OF THE EXACT TIME OF HIS DEATH. “ When Jesus knew” etc. All men know that they must die sooner or later. This throws a shade v on the whole path of life, but the exact time is in mercy hidden from us. But Christ knew His hour from the first, and instead of endeavouring to avoid it comes forth to meet it. What mere man would have done this? And with such heroic calmness! II. HE HAD A VIEW OF THE NATURE OF HIS DEATH. 1. It was a departure from this world. With the exception of the beauties and blessings of the earth, everything in the world must have been repugnant to Him. It was a world of rebels against the government of His Father, of enemies against Himself. To Him it must have been what the cell is to the prisoner or the lazaretto to the healthy. To leave such a scene could not have been a matter for regret, but rather of desire. May not every good man look on death thus? What is there in the human world to interest him? 2. It was a going to the Father, where (1) He would get the highest approbation of His work. (2) He would enjoy the sublimest fellowship. So with the Christian. III. HE HAD A SUBLIME MOTIVE FOR MEETING WITH HIS DEATH. Love for His own, i.e., all who in every land and age consecrate themselves to God, whose they are. This love continues 1. To the end of every man’ s existence. 2. To the end of the mediatorial system. Nay, will it ever have an end? Never in essence, but in achievement. (D. Thomas, D. D.) A great and solemn hour 1. It was the hour of His departure. “ Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto His Father.” Such was His death, even though it was the death of the Cross, “ a departure.” 2. It was the hour of His love. If He rejoiced in the thought of departing to be with the Father, there was also a strain upon His heart at the thought of leaving His disciples, whom, “ having loved as His own in the world, He loved to the end,” that is, “ to the uttermost.” 3. It was the hour of His betrayal. What a frightful contrast is here l In this hour, when His Divine heart was swelling nigh unto bursting with the intensity and vehemence of His love, there was one of their number whose heart was filled with a devilish purpose of betrayal. 4. It was the hour of His supreme and sublime self-consciousness--“ Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and was going back to God.” 5. The hour of His lowly service to His disciples. (G. F. Pentecost.) That He should depart out of this world unto the Father.--He came from God, and yet not leaving Him, and He goeth to God not leaving us. (St. Bernard.) Having loved His own which were in the world The Divine love 1. It is not strange that the hour of departure should be the hour of quickened affection. When the child leaves home, father and mother seem more dear than before. And had this been the Saviour’ s home, and those around Him His relations, it would not have been strange that He should have felt more strongly for them than at any previous time. 2. On the other hand, when for purposes of health, business, or pleasure one has long been an exile, and the day comes for return, although he has made pleasant acquaintances, yet the thought of home swallows up every other. Applying this, who can imagine the vision that arose before Jesus at this hour? The infinitude of His power was to be restored, and the companionships He had known from eternity. Yet at this hour it is said that “ having loved,” etc. 3. This is wonderful. For consider what the disciples were. If Christ had dwelt in the accomplishments of the heavenly land, what must they have seemed to Him? Not one had any extraordinary endowment except John, and none save he and Peter and James have left any record except their names. Had Christ selected heroes like Luther, Melanchthon, Hampden, Sidney, Washington, or geniuses like Dante, Shakespeare, or Goethe, we can imagine how, surrounded by the greatest natures, He should have suffered at parting from them. But these were men with not only no royalty of endowment, but selfish, prejudiced, ambitious, and mean. And yet taking them with all their imperfections which the glory to which He was departing threw into bolder relief, having loved them He loved them unto the end. 4. It is plain that Divine love includes other elements than those usually imagined. It is not strange that God loves loveliness. We do that. But who of us loves that which is unlovely? This is what God does. But it does not follow that this love is not more qualified with growing excellency than without it. It is that kind of love which a parent feels toward children who are not in themselves attractive. Parental love, however it may grow, is what we feel by reason of what is in us, not of what is in our children. The newborn babe has neither thought, love, nor power of expression; and yet there is in the mother that which loves it with an intensity which is like life itself. So there is in the Divine nature a power of sympathizing with things at the lowest and poorest. 5. In this simple thought we find the world’ s hope and comfort. You may dismiss from your minds, if you can, all who are not your near relations; but I cannot. It is a burden on my soul what becomes of the vast multitudes of Africa, Asia, and of our great cities who crawl like vermin in and out of dens of vice and poverty. The only light on this problem comes from the fact that there is a God who loves things that are not lovable. 6. This universality of the Divine sympathy interprets the declaration, “ God so loved the world,” etc. His affection for a world lying in brutality and wickedness was such that He gave what was most precious to Him to redeem it. Men think that this obliterates the motives to right. Not so. Is there any feeling in the parent’ s mind stronger than this: that the beloved child shall grow out of nothingness into largeness and beauty? And God aims to purify and exalt and enrich human nature. He loves men without reason in them, but with infinite reason in Himself. His love is not simply good nature. It is intensely earnest and just, and suffering flows from it. There is nothing lovable in us at first, but under the fructifying influence of the Divine soul working on ours, germ after germ begins to develop into something lovable; and the Divine complacency takes hold of us as we rise to higher love and perfection. 7. What a consolation this representation presents to those who are battling with their imperfections. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ’ s love to His own I. THE LOVE OF CHRIST IS A LOVE. 1. This personal love is not to be contrasted with, although it is to be distinguished from, His love of the whole world. Without supposing the universal love that pities misery everywhere, we cannot make our way to a personal love. You cannot be sure of a love that passes by great multitudes. 2. This personal love is just the application of the general love to the person. It is not merely that the individual believes in that general love and appropriates just so much to himself as he needs, but that in that very appropriation he practically increases the love of Christ to himself. His love to Christ makes Christ’ s love to him a love of complacency and friendship. 3. The belief of this is the turning point of life. When a man can say, “ He loved me and gave Himself for me,” he has passed or is passing from darkness into light. His destiny is solved. Not to believe that assurance so solemnly and affectingly given, is to be without the comfort of the blessed gospel, to abide under wrath. 4. It is either wrath or love. There is no explaining it away or shading it off. Come to Christ, believe the gospel, you are in love. Stay away from Him, distrust His gospel, leave it lying there unopened, untouched, as you would some printed circular you don’ t care to be troubled with, and the whole world is full of wrath. It darkens and embitters your whole life. Just say this and believe it, for it is true, “ He loved me,” etc.; and then you are out of wrath into love, you leave the ranks of His enemies, you enter among “ His own.” II. CHRIST LOVES HIS OWN UNTO THE END, i.e., to the end of His own life. In proof of which, here at the very end is a most thoughtful, touching instance of His intense desire to do them a good that would last long after He was away. 1. He was going into great suffering. No agitation, no depression, no entering into the sorrow before the time; but this calm, beautiful action of feet washing which they might recall forever as an overwhelming proof of the endurance of His love to His own. 2. He was going into great glory. Work all done. Suffering nearly finished. Home now to God! What then? A great elation of spirit and a corresponding forgetfulness of these common persons and these inferior things? No; but the washing of the disciples’ feet! A yearning, enfolding love of “ His own” unto the end. No trial of love could be more searching, more complete, than is furnished by those two great things, both so near--the suffering and the glory. Application 1. You who are “ His own,” it concerns you much to believe that He will “ love you unto the end.” Why should He not? (1) Even His own great suffering could not cast a shade between the loving Master and the trembling disciple when He was here. And now there is no suffering to come between you and Him. (2) And as to the glory of His heavenly life, even now when throned and crowned and worshipped by ten thousand times ten thousand, the joy that is dearer to Him than all this is that which He wins yet down here when He seeks and finds the sheep that was lost. We think poorly of Him if we suffer ourselves to think of Him as enjoying heaven yonder while we suffer and die. (3) And as for your unworthiness, you were unworthy when He began to deal with you, and you have been unworthy every day since, and you are now, and He knows all this. Having loved His own with an unbought, uncaused love from the beginning, and thus far along their individual histories, He will love them so, and no otherwise, unto the end. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Christ’ s love for His own I. THE --“ His own.” This relation is formed by Himself. “ To them gave He power to become the sons of God.” It is not, therefore, from a mere profession of religion. “ Ye are clean; but not all.” There were persons endued with miraculous powers who nevertheless were not “ His own,” and to whom Christ will say, “ I never knew you.” II. THE “ in the world.” It is one of 1. Trial. You are exposed to a position of sorrow, and struggling, and conflict. Here is something that will try you. What influence has the world had on your spirit and conduct? If you are called on to suffer, is there the language of Eli: “ It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth good unto Him” ? or obstinacy and rebellion? 2. Danger. You are exposed (1) To innumerable adversaries. “ Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about,” etc. (2) To great temptations. How many run well for a time and afterwards fall short! III. THE --“ having loved.” If your position is to be a test of your affection for Christ, what a proof it will be of His affection for you! What evidence of love will you ask at His hands? What can He do more than He has done? “ Greater love hath no man than this,” etc. IV. THE --“ unto the end.” Can you say this of any human affection? Can the child calculate on the affection of the parent, the most durable of all, to the end? “ Can a woman forget her sucking child?…Yea, she may forget; yet will I not forget.” There is no unchangeable love but His because there is no unchangeable being but God. “ I have loved thee with an everlasting love,” etc. (W. Bengo Collyer, D. D.) Christ’ s love of His own The Saviour has a treasure of immortal spirits who are not in the world. Angels and spirits of the just made perfect are all His own--a multitude which no man can number. This verse, however, shows the relationship of Jesus to His faithful followers who “ are in the world.” The disciples were no monopolists of Christ’ s love. The lapse of time may change the tense, but it does not change the sense of this gracious text. I. THE OF JESUS ARE CALLED BY A NAME--‘‘ His own.” All things are His own. “ All souls are Mine,” even the rebellious and unthankful. Here, however, the words imply a relationship of the dearest and closest kind. A true mother has a sympathy for all children; but there is a singular depth in her words, as she looks into the eyes of the darling of her heart, and says, “ My own!” The gift in the hand of a child is enhanced when it is understood to be his “ very own.” With such intense affection and delight does Christ regard His people. He constantly challenges them as “ My brethren,” “ My sheep,” “ My friends,” and emphatically, “ Mine.” They are His own 1. As the purchase of His blood. They had sold themselves for nought, were sold under sin. Christ was their Redeemer. He gave His life a ransom for them, and they are become His purchased possession. “ He justly claims us for ‘ His own,’” etc. 2. By willing personal surrender. This is an all-essential endorsement of His claim. The price of his freedom may be proffered to the slave, but if he will not accept it he is still in bonds. Christ hath purchased all souls. Yet it needs the assent of their understanding, and the consent of their will, in order to bind them to Him by the special tie and to make them peculiarly His own. 3. They bear the name, seal, and image of the Saviour. 4. As the gift of the Father, the reward of His mediatorial work. In chap. 17, we see how the Saviour gathered strength and comfort from the thought of their prospective possession. “ Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me.” II. THE OF CHRIST’ S OWN! “ In the world.” When a sinner is converted and all is safe for heaven, how desirable it seems that he should be removed out of the world. Let him be taken away from the evil to come that he may never run the hazard of losing so rich a prize. Amid the troubles of life the Christian pilgrim is often tempted to say, “ Oh that I had the wings of a dove,” etc. But the Lord keeps “ His own” in the world 1. For their own sake. Eternal life is the gift of God unmerited and free; yet the Christian’ s future will be largely influenced by the tone and character of his life on earth. According to his spiritual growth, his moral victories, his love and sacrifice and service, will be the fulness of the glory which shall be revealed. 2. For the Saviour’ s sake. The world holds Him in dishonour, and gives His glory to another. Christians are in the world to represent the Saviour! “ The glory which Thou hast given Me! have given them, that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me.” 3. For the world’ s sake. The world cannot spare them. Its only hope lies in the element of godliness which is slowly leavening it more and more. “ Ye are the salt of the earth.” III. THE SAVIOUR’ S LOVE FOR HIS OWN. “ He loved them to the end.” These disciples of His, from the day He called them, had been the objects of tenderest regard. They were full of faults and failings, were sadly slow of heart to receive the truth; yet in and through all He loved them. Now that the time is at hand when the bitter cup shall be lifted to His lips, His anxiety for their well-being is the foremost feeling of His heart. He pours into their ears the richest strains of comfort and consolation. “ Let not your hearts be troubled,” etc. He promises them a Comforter, and bids them “ be of good cheer.” In the garden, His gentle forbearance to the unwatchful three reveals the fixity and depth of His love. When the officers came, He wards His trembling disciples from the threatening crowd. Their desertion was a sharper pang than any made by jailer’ s scourge or soldier’ s spear. And yet it was quenchless love that “ looked” on Peter. When He left the tomb, He gave the angel watchers a kindly message for His flock, and mentioned the penitent denier by name. And when at last they gathered round Him on the hill of Bethany, His latest movement was to lift His hands and bless them; His latest word a promise to be with them even to the end of the world; when a cloud received Him out of their sight, two angels stood before them to tell them that as they had seen Him ascend, so should He again descend, that He might receive them unto Himself! Afterwards, when seated at the right hand of God, Stephen’ s cry for help brought Him to His feet! Do you wonder that when the aged apostle called up each look, tone, deed, and word that marked his Saviour’ s later days, that with a gush of unrestrained devotion he should write, “ Having loved His own,” etc.? Conclusion: 1. Believer, you are in the holy and the privileged succession. (1) Christ loves you with an abiding love. Your memory bears grateful witness. Many an Ebenezer stands out and tells how His love came in the hour of your sorest need. Your backslidings have been many; your imperfections more, but His love hath endured through all. Be of good cheer. He will love you to the end, and draw closer and nearer as the end draws nigh. (2) Seek a closer, more perfect union with your Saviour. Be “ His own” entirely. 2. Sinner! you are not in this saving sense “ His own.” Then whose are you? You are a servant of the devil, whose wages is death! Yet the Saviour loves you! Give Him your heart, then you shall be “ His own.” (J. JacksonWray.) Jesus loving His own that were in the world For the inspired Evangelist not only specifies the precise date--“ Before the feast of the Passover” --but he also mentions a particular fact of a moral nature, of the utmost importance, as giving us an insight into the Saviour’ s mind: “ When Jesus knew” --or Jesus knowing--“ that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,” etc. The idea plainly is, that just because He knew--not merely although, but just because He knew--that His hour was come, that He should leave this world, and that, consequently, His disciples would be left alone in it--as He had always previously loved them, so He now manifested His love in a very peculiar manner, corresponding to their necessities; and this, too, under the most affecting circumstances, and to the utmost extent. I. The OBJECTS of this love are described, in the first instance, more generally as being “ His own.” It is true, indeed, that, in one sense, all things are His own, as being their Creator and Preserver--all things, from the highest archangel to the meanest insect that crawls upon the ground. But His people are His own in a sense peculiar to themselves. But the objects of this love are described not only as His own, but more particularly as His own that were in the world. Jesus had many of “ His own” that were now in glory; and doubtless these were objects of peculiar complacency and delight. Oh! see them in their white robes, as they shine so bright! But still the precious truth for us is, that it was His own that were in the world that He is here said to have loved. And why were they singled out from the rest? Why, but because of the peculiar difficulties and dangers to which they were exposed. Ask that tender-hearted mother, which of her many children recurs oftenest to her memory--those of them who are safe at home under the parental roof, or the one that is far away at sea? Jesus was now to depart out of the world, but they were to be left in it; and therefore His heart turned in love towards them. But without dwelling further on this idea here, is it not a most delightful and encouraging truth, that, though Jesus is now in glory, yet He still regards His own that are in the world with peculiar care suited to their circumstances and necessities? But methinks I hear someone say, “ Alas! I feel that I am in the world, not only because of the sins of others, but because I sin myself; because I have ‘ a body of death’ within me, and often it breaks out in word and action.” Yes, indeed, but Jesus loves His own that are in the world still; He sees and knows all the sin and imperfection, that you have to contend against, and yet He loves His own notwithstanding. “ But, oh!” says someone, “ my case is of a different kind still: I have come hither today, burdened with a heavy heart.” It may be that it is some dear relative that is sick, and apparently near to death. All this proves that you are still in a world of sorrow. But then Jesus loves His own still, and looks down upon them with ever watchful eye. II. But I come now, in the second place, to mention SOME OF THOSE WAYS IN WHICH JESUS HAD ALWAYS HIS LOVE TO THEM. 1. See, for example, how having once chosen them in His love, He ever afterwards proved His love by continual companionship with them. 2. See, too, how tenderly, how graciously He instructed them. His instructions were always very simple, because He loved them so well. His love was stronger than their unbelief and ignorance. 3. See, moreover, how ready He was to sympathize with them, and to render them every kind of assistance. Whenever they were in trouble, He was their willing and able Friend. 4. And, oh, with what patience did He bear with them in all their weakness and infirmities! III. But what I wish you specially to notice now is THE OF THIS LOVE--ITS AND , AS IN LIFE SO ALSO IN DEATH. “ He loved them unto the end” --not only to the end of life, but to the utmost extent, and under the most affecting circumstances. And if He thus loved them, in the view of the agonies of Gethsemane and the death of Calvary, think you does He now forget them--now that He has passed within the veil? Ah! no, it is impossible. But I must also add, if Jesus Christ loved His own unto the end, then surely they ought to persevere in their love to Him. But I have this also to say in closing, what misery must it be to be without such a Saviour! (C. Ross.) Christ’ s love unto the end I. THERE WAS NOT MUCH IN THEM TO LOVE--YET HE LOVED THEM. I have no wish to disparage these early disciples. Everything betokens that most of them were what the narrative tells us--unlearned Galilean fishermen, who had been nurtured in the flee, clear air of Nature, and so they had to the end a sort of frankness about them which was very enjoyable. I think that was something in them which Jesus Christ appreciated. It must not be forgotten that there was also in them an unselfish readiness to endure sacrifice in the cause of Him who had charmed their hearts and excited the questioning wonder of their minds. Yet in spite of all this, what was there particularly in these men that one like Christ should find to love? I think of the sensitiveness of His nature, the gentleness of His disposition, the purity of His thought, the utter unselfishness of His purposes, the grandeur and sweep of His ideas, His conceptions of nature, of man, of God. What was there that Christ could perceive in these rude, uncultured, somewhat coarse men, men most limited in their thoughts, who had little of what we call spirituality in them to attract Him towards them? Yet He gave them His very heart; He loved them with a love that is simply matchless and astounding. Ah! doubtless He saw more in them to love than common eyes could possibly see. For the greatest natures always do discover beauties of character in the humblest which escape the observation of ordinary people. But look at the Divine side. See Him as the Incarnate Son of God, the Holy One, the Perfect, the Divine One, and how the wonder grows that He should have humbled Himself to associate on terms of generous love with the disciples! Why has Christ loved you--your heart, mind, soul? It is a fact; that you know. Why is it? Ah! that you cannot answer, I cannot answer, except we say, It is the nature of God to love, and the more weak, feeble, helpless, unworthy we are, the more compassionately does He bend to pour the fulness of His heart into our sinning lives. II. THERE WAS MUCH IN THEM THAT TESTED HIS LOVE--YET HE LOVED THEM. It is not necessary to speak much of the trial that Christ’ s first disciples were to Him over and over again. Quarrelling, petulance, scepticism, blindness of thought, cowardliness, treachery have no power to destroy that supreme love. How often we have stumbled at the revelations He has made, and, through a doubting spirit which we have encouraged, have asked foolish sceptical questions simply for the sake of asking them! How we have prayed for more light and clearer visions of God, when close at our side, all around us, have been manifestations of the Father! How, when asked to watch with and for Christ, we have pleaded weariness and slept! III. THERE WAS A NEED OF HIS LOVE AND HE LOVED THEM UNTO THE END. Thus His life was a discipline of love to them, His death a sacrifice of love for them. (W. Braden.) The great love of Christ for His own as shown I. IN THE IT HELD AT BAY. 1. The consciousness that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world. And knowing the fact, He also knew all the particulars of the tragic exode. The actual endurance could not be much worse than such a distinct anticipation of it as He had. And yet the tremendous pressure of this foresight did not divert Him from the most tender and considerate attention to those whom He was about to leave. 2. The consciousness that He was about to return to God. There was a joy set before Him for which He endured the cross, despising the shame. Yet such was His affection for His disciples, that not all the glories of heaven in the act of opening to receive Him, could for a moment disturb His warm and compassionate attentions to them. II. IN THE IT . There was much unworthiness and carnal crudeness in these men to repel the Saviour’ s affection. They did not so love Him. A few hours and they all had deserted Him. That same night, one of the most devoted of them denied Him. Another of them was harbouring at the time the Satanic instigation to betray Him. And in the hearts of all of them worked a most unseemly jealousy and contention Luke 22:24). The Saviour had given them lesson after lesson on this point, and yet their miserable pride and selfishness had not been cured. How painful the contemplation I How disheartening and repellant to Him who had so loved them. And yet, the more unworthy they were of His love, the more intensely did it flame forth. III. IS THE IT INDUCED. He into whose hands the Father had given all things, stooped to employ those hands in washing a traitor’ s feet! Nor did He only take the menial’ s attire and work, but, when Peter objected, Jesus set Himself to new efforts to meet new manifestations of disease. And even Judas, with all His known treachery, was not relinquished without the most faithful and tender endeavours to bring him to himself. And when the washing was finished, the Lord preached still another sermon on humility and the true Christian spirit. IV. IN THE IT . Though not given in the text, the other Evangelists have stated it in full (Matthew 26:26-28). Herein is the great love of Christ manifest toward His own, that, on the very eve of His great passion, He appointed and left to them and us this perpetual legacy and memorial of His affection, in which He continually administers to all believing celebrants of this holy sacrament the very manna and bread of heaven, and incorporates His living Self with us as our salvation and our eternal life. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) The Method by which we become Christ’ s own His redemption is not a mere breaking of bonds in which we were enthralled. It is not as when one comes upon a wild animal caught in a snare, and undoes the snare, and lets the panting, struggling thing return to its wild liberty again; it is rather as if one not only delivered it from the snare, but likewise attached it to himself, and tamed it to His will, so that it becomes his own. (J. Culross, D. D.) Christ’ s transcendent love The experiences of love are such sometimes, even in this life as to be an earnest, a blessed interpretation, of something more glorious yet to come. There is one thing which the New Testament is always in labour with, and which is never born, and that is, the conception of the greatness of the love of Christ to our souls. When all language is exhausted, when every one of its variations of figures and illustrations has been employed to set it forth, still it is never finished. Like music that transcends the scale of the instrument, it leaves the strain always unexpressed. The apostle, first in one key and then in another, tries all the melodies and harmonies of this Divine theme; but, after all, the love of Christ has never been told. The apostle declares that it is past understanding, and so it is; but there are elements of experience that teach us something of it; and there are moments in which we put these elements together, and get some sense of it. (H. W. Beecher.) The love of the departing Christ The text should perhaps read “ to the uttermost” --expressing the depth and degree rather than the permanence of our Lord’ s love. It is much to know that the emotions of these last moments did not interrupt Christ’ s love. It is even more to know that in some sense they perfected it. So understood, the words explain for us the foot washing, the marvellous discourses, and the climax of all that High-Priestly prayer. I. Look at that love as A LOVE WHICH, WAS NOT , BUT BY THE OF . 1. “ He knew that His hour was come.” All His life was passed under the consciousness of a Divine necessity laid upon Him, to which He cheerfully yielded Himself. On His lips there are no words more significant, and few more frequent, than “ I must!” And all through His life He declares Himself conscious of the hours which mark the several crises of His mission. No external power can coerce Him to any act till the hour come, or hinder Him from the act when it comes. And thus, at the last and supreme moment, to Him it dawned unquestionable and irrevocable. How did He meet it? “ Father! save Me from this hour Yet for this cause came I unto this hour.” There is a strange, triumphant joy that blends with the shrinking that the decisive hour is at last come. 2. Mark, too, the form which the consciousness took. The agony, the shame, the mysterious burden of a world’ s sins that were to be laid upon Him; all these elements are submerged in the one thought of leaving behind all the limitations, humiliations, and compelled association with evil which, like a burning brand laid upon a tender skin, was an hourly agony to Him, and soaring above them all, unto His own calm home, His habitation from eternity with the Father. 3. This marvellous consciousness is set forth here as the basis and the reason for a special tenderness, as He thought of the impending separation. (1) Does this not help us to realize how truly flesh of our flesh, and bearing a heart thrilling with all innocent human emotions that Divine Saviour was? We, too, have known what it is to feel, because of approaching separation from dear ones, the need for a tenderer tenderness. At such moments the masks of use and wont drop away, and we are eager to find some word, to put our whole souls into some look, our whole strength into one clinging embrace that may express all our love, and may be a joy to two hearts forever after to remember. The Master knew that longing, and felt the pain of separation; and He, too, yielded to the human impulse which makes the thought of parting the key to unlock the hidden chambers of the most jealously-guarded heart, and let the shyest of its emotions come out for once into the daylight. So, “ knowing that His hour was come, He loved them then unto the uttermost.” (2) But amidst all the parting scenes that the world’ s literature has enshrined, there are none that can be set by the side of this supreme and unique instance of self-oblivion. This Man who was susceptible of all human affections, and loved us with a love like our own human affection, had also more than a man’ s heart to give, and gave us more, when, that He might comfort and sustain, He crushed down Himself and went to the Cross with words of tenderness and consolation and encouragement for others upon His lips. (3) And if the prospect only sharpened and perfected His love, the reality has no power to do aught else. In the glory, when He reached it, He poured out the same loving heart; and today He looks down upon us with the same face that bent over that table, and the same love flows to us. “ Knowing that He goes to the Father, He loves to the uttermost,” and being with the A LOVE WHICH IS TO THE OF ITS OWN PAST Father, He still so loves. II. HAVING LOVED, HE LOVES. That is an argument that implies Divinity. About nothing human can we say because it has been therefore it shall be. Alas! we have to say the converse, because it has been, therefore it will cease to be. They tell us that the great sun itself, pouring out its rays exhausts its warmth, and were it not continually replenished must gradually, and even though continually replenished, will one day be a dead, cold mass of ashes. But this heart of Christ, which is the Sun of the World, shall endure after the sun is cold. He pours it out and there is none the less to give. “ Thy mercy endureth forever.” III. A LOVE WHICH HAS SPECIAL TOWARDS ITS OWN. These poor men, who, with all their errors, did cleave to Him; who, in some dim way, understood somewhat of His greatness and His sweetness--and do you and I do more?--were they to have no special place in His heart because in that heart the whole world lay? Surely, because the sun shines down upon dunghills and all impurities, that is no reason why it should not lie with special brightness on the polished mirror that reflects its lustre. Surely, because Christ loves the outcasts and the sinners, that is no reason why He should not bend with special tenderness over those who, loving Him, try to serve Him, and have set their whole hopes upon Him. The rainbow strides across the sky, but there is a rainbow in every little dew drop that hangs glistening on the blades of grass. And there is nothing sectional, narrow in the proclamation of a special tenderness of Christ towards His own, when you accompany with that truth this other, that all men are besought by Him to come into that circle of “ His own,” and that only they themselves shut any men out therefrom. The whole world dwells in His love. But there is an inner chamber in which He discovers all His heart to those who find in that heart their heaven and their all. “ He came to His own,” in the wider sense of the word, and “ His own received Him not;” but also, “ having loved His own He loved them unto the end.” There are textures and lines which can only absorb some of the rays of light in the spectrum; some that are only capable of taking, so to speak, the violet rays of judgment and of wrath, and some who open their hearts for the ruddy brightness at the other end of the line. IV. A LOVE MADE TENDER BY THE AND THE DANGERS OF ITS FRIENDS. “ Which were in the world.” We have, running through the discourses which follow, many allusions to His leaving His followers in circumstances of peculiar peril. “ I come unto Thee, and am no more in the world, but these are in the world. Keep them through Thine own name.” The same contrast between the certain security of the Shepherd and the troubles of the flock seems to be in the text, and suggests a reason for the special tenderness with which He looked upon them. As a dying father on his deathbed may yearn over orphans that he is leaving defenceless, so Christ here is represented as conscious of an accession even to the tender longings of His heart when He thought of the loneliness and the dangers to which His followers were to be exposed. It seems a strange contrast between the emperor, sitting throned there between the purple curtains, and the poor athletes wrestling in the arena below. It seems strange to think that a loving Master has gone up into the mountain, and has left His disciples to toil in rowing on the stormy sea of life; but the contrast is only apparent. For you and I, if we love and trust Him, are with Him in the heavenly places even whilst we toil here, and He is with us, working with us even whilst He sitteth at the right hand of God. We may be sure of this, that that love ever increases its manifestations according to our deepening necessities. The darker the night the more lustrous the stars. The deeper, the narrower, the savager, the Alpine gorge, usually the fuller and the swifter the stream that runs through it. And the mere enemies and fears gather round about us the sweeter will be the accents of our Comforter’ s voice, and the fuller will be the gifts of tenderness and grace with which He draws near to us. Our sorrows, dangers, necessities, are doors through which His love can come nigh. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The constancy of Christ’ s love A short time previous to the death of the Marchioness of Tavistock, and when she was preparing to go to Lisbon for the recovery of her health, a consultation of physicians was held at Bedford House; and one of the gentlemen present requested, while he felt her pulse, that she would open her hand. Her frequent refusals occasioned him to take the liberty of gently forcing the fingers asunder; when he perceived that she had kept her hand closed to conceal the miniature picture of the marquis. “ Oh madam!” observed the physician, “ my prescriptions must be useless, if your ladyship is determined to keep before your eyes an object which, although deservedly dear to you, serves only to confirm the violence of your illness.” The marchioness replied, “ I have kept the picture, either in my bosom or my hand, ever since the death of my lamented lord; and thus I am determined to preserve it till I fortunately drop after him into the grave.” (Percy.) The perfection of Christ’ s love The mother, wan and pale with incessant vigils by the bedside of a sick child; the fireman, maimed for life in bravely rescuing the inmates of a blazing house; the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae; Howard, dying of fever caught in dungeons where he was fulfilling his noble purpose of succouring the oppressed and remembering the forgotten; the Moravian missionaries, who voluntarily incarcerated themselves in an African leper house (from which regress into the healthy world was impossible, and escape only to be effected through the gates of death) in order that they might preach the glad tidings to the lepers,--all these, and many other glorious instances of self-devotion, do but faintly shadow forth the love of Him who laid aside divine glory, and humbled himself to the death of the cross. (W. Baxendale.) Christ’ s an unchanging love A noble rolling river has been flowing on for six thousand years watering the fields and slaking the thirst of a hundred generations, yet shows no signs of waste. The sun has melted the snows of so many winters, renewed the verdure of so many springs, painted the flowers of so many summers, and ripened the golden harvests of so many autumns, yet shines as brilliant as ever, his floods of light none the less full for centuries of boundless profusion. Yet these are but faint images of Christ’ s love. For when the judgment flames have licked up that flowing stream and the light of that glorious sun shall be quenched in darkness, His love shall flow on throughout eternity. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Love in the face of discouragement I know a mother who has an idiot child. For it she gave up all society, almost everything, and devoted her whole life to it. “ And now,” said she, “ for fourteen years I have tended it and loved it and it does not even know me.” Amid all discouragements Christ’ s love is patient and unwearying. (D. L. Moody.) The changeless love of Christ Earthly love is a brief and penurious stream, which only flows in spring, with a long summer drought. The change from a burning desert, treeless, springless, drear, to green fields and blooming orchards in June, is slight in comparison with that from the desert of this world’ s affection to the garden of God, where there is perpetual, tropical luxuriance of blessed love. (H. W. Beecher.) Uncertain friendship Henry the Eighth used to come up the Thames to Chelsea to Sir Thomas More’ s house, drop in to dinner, and walk afterwards in the garden, his arms about More’ s neck. More’ s son-in-law, Roper, records it with delight. But More knew just what all this was worth, and that his head would count with the king for nothing against a French city or citadel, say. It is not so with Christ. “ Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end.” The Divine love does not fail when man fails Mr. Slosh said: “ A father teaching his child about the unchanging piety and love of God, said: ‘ I knew a little boy who received a canary from a friend as a present. The bird seemed to fill that boy’ s heart. He was intensely fond of it, and every morning he was delighted to listen to its singing. One morning no note proceeded from the cage. The bird was standing panting upon its perch, its feathers all ruffled. The little boy sat upon his chair and sobbed as if his heart would break.’ The lesson taught the little child was this--Do you think he loved the bird any less that morning when he could not sing? No, he loved it when it was joyfully singing on its perch, but he loved it that morning when it could not sing. When it sang it filled him with joy and delight, but when it was ill he loved it all the more though its condition caused him pain.” So, too, God loved us at all times. The changeless Friend So long as there is blossom on the trees, and boney in the blossom, the bees will frequent them in crowds, and fill the place with music; but when the blossom is over, and the honey is gone, the bees too will disappear. The same happens in the world with men. In the abode of fortune and pleasure friends will be found in plenty; but when fortune flies, they fly along with it. For this reason, let good men be advised to fly to Christ crucified, who never forsakes, in their distress, those who truly seek Him. (Gotthold.) The faithfulness of Jesus Consider these words I. IN THEIR TO THE . The words “ having loved His own,” are a brief but complete summary of the Saviour’ s conduct. He loved them with a love of pity when He saw their lost estate, and He called them out of it to be His disciples; touched with a feeling of their infirmities He loved them with a tender and prudent affection, and sought to train and educate them, that they might be good soldiers of His cross; He loved them with a love of complacency as He walked and talked with them and found solace in their company. Even when He rebuked them He loved. On Tabor or in Gethsemane He loved His own; alone or in the crowd, in life and in death. Our Saviour’ s faithfulness was 1. Most remarkable. He had selected persons who must have been but poor companions for one of so gigantic a mind and so large a heart. (1) He must have been greatly shocked at their worldliness. He was thinking of the baptism wherewith He was to be baptized, but they were disputing which should be the greatest. When He warned them of an evil leaven, they thought of the loaves. Earthworms are miserable company for angels, moles but unhappy company for eagles, yet love made our great Master endure the society of His ignorant and carnal followers. (2) Worse was the apparent impossibility of lifting them out of that low condition; for though never man spake as He spake, how little did they understand! “ Have I been so long time with you,” etc. No teacher here could have had patience with such heavy intellects, but our Lord’ s love remained, notwithstanding. (3) When we love a person, we expect him to have some little sympathy in the great design and aim of our life; yet our Lord loved disciples who could not be brought to enter at all into the spirit which governed Him. Had they dared, they would rather have thwarted than assisted Him in His self-sacrificing mission. Still, this could not prevent Him from loving them unto the end. (4) On one or two occasions certain of them were even guilty of impertinence. Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him. But after rebuking a temptation which was evidently Satanic, His affection to Peter remained unabated. (3) That was a stern trial, too, when at a later period “ all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” Carrying the text beyond its original position, Christ, who had loved His own, loved them to the end. 2. Christ proved His love (1) By His continual companionship. You would not expect a master to find rest in the society of his scholars; and yet herein was love, that Jesus, passing by angels, and kings, and sages, chose for His companions unlettered men and women. (2) By being always ready to instruct them, and His love is shown as clearly in what He kept back from them as in what He revealed. How loving to dwell so often upon the simpler truths, and the more practical precepts; it was as though a senior wrangler should sit down in the family and teach boys and girls their alphabet day after day. (3) By rendering every kind of assistance. Whensoever they were in trouble, He was their willing and able friend--when the sea roared; when Peter’ s wife’ s mother was sick; when one of His dearest friends was dead and buried. (4) By comforting them when He foresaw that they would be cast down; especially was this true at the period before His passion--when one would have thought He might have sought for comfort, He was busy distributing it. (5) By constantly pleading for them. Ere the poison was injected by the old serpent, the antidote was at hand. “ Satan hath desired,” etc. (6) By washing their feet. II. IN THEIR TO ALL HIS SAINTS. We read that our Lord “ Came unto His own,” etc. the word is neuter--his own things; but in this instance it is masculine--his own persons. A man may part with his own things; sell his own house, cattle, merchandise; but a man cannot part with his own when it relates to persons, his own child, wife, father. Our own relatives are real property, perpetual possession. Jesus has just such a property in His own people--they are forever near of kin to Him. These He “ loved to the end.” The text opens three windows. 1. As to the past. He has loved His own people from of old; eternally. This everlasting love has a speciality about it. Our Lord has a general love of benevolence towards all His creatures; but He has a special place in His heart for His own peculiar ones. (1) Jesus loved His people with a foresight of what they would be. He knew that “ His own” would fall in Adam; that they would be hard to reclaim and difficult to retain; and yet He loved His own over the head of all their sins. On their highest Tabors He loves them, but equally as well in their Gethsemanes; when they wander, and when they come back. (2) This love is more than a passion, it is a settled principle, not subject to changes like terrestrial things. (3) This love has been attested by many deeds. By the fact that He stood surety for us when the covenant was made, and entered into stipulations on our behalf that He would fulfil the broken law, and offer satisfaction to the justice of God. In the fulness of time he took upon Himself our nature, lived a life of blameless service, died a death into which all the weight of Divine vengeance for sin was compressed. Now that He lives exalted in the highest heaven, He is still His people’ s servant, interceding for them, representing them, preparing a place for them, and by His Spirit fetching them out from mankind, and preparing them for the place which He has prepared. 2. The second window looks out upon the present. “ Which were in the world.” It does not seem an extraordinary thing that Jesus should love His own who are in heaven. Well may Jesus love them, for there is much beauty in them. But Jesus loves you working men that have to work with so many bad fellows, you tradesmen who have to go in among many who shock you, you good work girls, who meet with so many tempters. He sees your imperfection, He knows what you have to struggle with, and He loves you notwithstanding all. Again, as the sparks fly upwards, so were we born to trouble. But Jesus loves His own which are in this dolorous world: this is the balm of our griefs. 3. The third window looks out to the future. “ Unto the end.” (1) To the utmost end of their unloveliness. Their sinfulness cannot travel so far but His love will travel beyond it; their unbelief even shall not be extended to so great a length but His faithfulness shall still be wider and broader than their unfaithfulness. (2) To the end of all their needs. They may need more than this world can hold, and all that heaven can give, but Jesus will go to the end of all their necessities, and even beyond them, for He is “ able to save to the uttermost.” (3) To the end of their lives. (4) To the end of His own life. Until the eternal God shall die, His love shall never depart from any one of His beloved. Conclusion: If Jesus Christ thus loves to the end 1. How ought we to persevere in our love to Him. 2. Let us not indulge the wicked thought that He will forsake us. 3. What a misery it must be to be without such a Saviour! (C. H.Spurgeon.) And supper being ended.--The translation should probably be, “ And it now becoming supper time.” As a matter of fact the supper was not ended (John 13:12; John 13:26); but they had already reclined, and were, as we say, ready for supper. (Archdeacon Watkins.) Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands The great gift A gift I. FROM THE OF ALL. II. ALL THINGS. III. TO THE SAVIOUR OF ALL. (S. S. Times.) I. THE GIVER. II. THE GIFT. III. THE . (S. S. Times.) And that He was come from God and went to GodExtremes in Christ’ s life This sublime declaration is but the preface to what follows, and nothing more startling at first sight can be found in all literature. I. CHRIST ALL THINGS, and yet He washed His disciples’ feet. What has the possession of boundless wealth to do with such menial service? We could imagine a Rothschild sweeping His own room, but would it occur to us to connect with that act, as a reason, the fact of his immense riches? The explanation lies in what this feet washing meant--the pardon and sanctification of Christ’ s disciples through His atonement. To this “ all things” were necessary, and the absence of one Divine prerogative would have marred the work. Christ required all wisdom, all justice, all power, all love, and all influence over the widest reach of human souls. II. CHRIST CAME FROM GOD, and yet He washed His disciples’ feet--as wonderful a conjunction as the previous one. We could imagine an ambassador of the highest rank relieving his lacquey of some humble duty and discharging it himself--but we should hardly refer to his office for a reason. But Christ’ s mission was expressly to do what the feet washing meant. His one motive for visiting this world was to cleanse and sanctify His disciples’ souls. III. CHRIST WAS GOING TO GOD, and yet He washed His disciples’ feet--an equally strange conjunction. We can imagine a sovereign, just before his return from some distant province, rendering some humble but kindly service to a peasant, but we should never dream of saying that he did this because he was going to his capital. But Christ went to heaven because He had done that which was symbolized by the feet washing. He came for that purpose; that purpose being accomplished, there was no further reason for Him to stay. And in going He went to His rest and His reward. Lessons: 1. Christ’ s work is an individual work, and shows the value of individual souls. Christ had all things, He came, He went for every man’ s cleansing--for mine. 2. What is true of Christ is in a sense true of every disciple. God has given us all we have, time, talents, money, influence, etc.; we have come from God; we shall go to God--what for? The salvation of men. God has endowed us with ability for it, has sent us to do it, will hold us accountable for it at the great day. 3. The “ knowledge” of all this should beget a due sense of the blessedness, dignity, and responsibility of Christian discipleship. (J. W. Burn.) Christ’ s mission I. ITS ORIGIN--“ from God.” II. ITS --“ all things.” III. ITS DESTINY--“ to God.” (J. W. Burn.) He riseth from supper.--The minuteness with which every action of our Lord is related here is very Striking. No less than seven distinct things are named--rising, laying aside garments, taking a towel, girding Himself, pouring water into a bason, washing and wiping. This very particularity stamps the whole transaction with reality, and is the natural language of an astonished and admiring eyewitness. St. John saw the whole transaction. (Bp. Ryle.) He poureth water into a bason and began to wash the disciples’ feet. Jesus teaching humility Christ taught humility by precept--“ He that humbleth himself shall be exalted;” by metaphor, as in the parable of the Pharisee and Publican; by illustration, as when he set a little child in the midst; and, as here, by his own most blessed example. Note I. IN ITS . Pride is essentially selfish; humility “ seeketh not its own, but another’ s good.” Where shall we find a more beautiful or touching example than that introduced by John 13:1? II. THE DEEPEST IS WITH THE HIGHEST STAGE OF . Many Christians regard full assurance of salvation as having a tendency to spiritual pride. They are afraid to say “ Jesus is mine, and I am His,” lest it should savour of presumption. There is a false assurance which founds itself upon feeling, or imagined revelations, rather than upon the testimony of the word of God, and which by its blatant self-assertion has tended to bring assurance into contempt. But where assurance is the result of a simple faith in the promises, it produces in the soul the fruits of genuine humility. Just when Jesus was at the zenith of spiritual exaltation (John 13:3), He bowed Himself to His lowly task. III. TRUE ITSELF NOT IN WORDS, BUT IN DEEDS. Our Lord uses no words of self-abasement. In majestic silence He proceeds with His lowly but loving task. There is a form of so-called humility which expends itself in words of idle self-depreciation. This never becomes so clamorous as when any humble service is to be rendered or any modest testimony borne. They are not presumptuous enough to make a public confession of Christ, to teach a Sabbath school class, to visit a family in poverty, etc. It is easy to see that this is a thin veil for self-indulgence and pride. True humility expresses itself not in unfavourable comparisons of ourselves with others, but in whole-hearted devotion to the interests of others. This was the humility of Him who, “ though He was in the form of God,” etc. IV. THE SERVICE WHICH TRUE RENDERS IS NOT AND SCENIC, BUT AND HELPFUL. The simple rite of hospitality observed by our Lord became the occasion of many a splendid pageant in later days. But let him who would follow our Lord’ s example not imagine that he can do so by a literal observance of a rite that, through change of customs, has lost its utility and therefore its significance. He now truly “ washes the disciples’ feet” whose own feet are swift to bear to them messages of kindness, and whose hands are ready for any humble service. V. THE SERVICE BY OUR LORD, THOUGH NOT , WAS of inward purification, and distinguishes between the first and radical purification which takes place once for all in regeneration, and that daily purging from the infirmities that cling to us as we pass through the world (John 13:10). As one coming up fresh from the bath needs only to wash off the dust” that clings to his feet and does not affect the purity of his person, so the believer by the bath of his first regeneration is kept pure till he enters his Father’ s house on high, whilst a daily application of the Spirit in sanctification is needed to remove the impurities that come from daily contact with earth and earthly things. (T. D.Witherspoon, D. D.) Jesus teaching humility I. The DIRECT contained in our Saviour’ s washing of the disciples’ feet. That our relation to Christ Isaiah 1. Personal, as is also His relation to us. There is no such fact as a general relationship to Christ. We are either His personal followers, or personally estranged. There is no religion but personal religion. Christ knelt before each of the twelve in turn. 2. Cleansing. Christ came to save the world from sin. But only those cleansed by the blood receive eternal life. 3. Needs to be continually renewed. It is a daily relation. He pointed to his daily cleansing, the washing of the basin, in distinction from the bathing in the fountain. 4. Practical. Our service is to be (1) Personal. We have no general ministry, either of clergy or laity. It is the personal work we do which builds up the kingdom of God. The lost are found one by one. All organization that amounts to anything is association in some form for hand-to-hand work. (2) Lowly. Jesus took the form of a servant. Look upon Him as He kneels at thy feet. So humble thyself to serve. (3) With the basin and towel. We are to aid each other to be clean Christians. II. The . 1. That the first act of discipleship is self-surrender (John 13:8-9). We must do just as the Saviour says, or we can have no part with Him. We must waive all objections. The objection of Peter arose from tenderness of conscience. We may feel unworthy of the grace of God. But some say, “ We need no cleansing; we are satisfied with our way of life.” There is nothing for these but self-surrender. How can you help it, looking upon Jesus, kneeling and waiting before you? 2. The value of one soul in God’ s sight. Jesus felt a personal love for each, even for Judas! What a tender touch He put upon those feet, which no mere washing could cleanse! 3. That bathing precedes washing (John 13:10); the atonement, the baptism of the Spirit; pardon, sanctification. As Peter, having been bathed, needed not save to wash his feet, so Judas, not having been bathed, needed the cleansing of you see that He was quite conscious of His dignity when He did it? He did not forget Himself; and that is put down there that you may know that the deepest act of humility is not inconsistent with dignity. He, knowing that He came from God, and that He was just about to go back to God, would do this, the humblest of all acts. He would show us before He went up to the throne of the universe what He is who is sitting on the throne; because if He had not done this who was with God from all eternity, dwelling with Him in unapproachable light, we should not have been able to think that there was such humility on the throne. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 13:18-30I speak not of you all A last appeal I. A SOLEMN . 1. The reason of it. (1) To indicate Christ’ s knowledge of the human heart, and to show that He had not been mistaken in Judas (John 13:18). Had it not been made it would have appeared as though Christ were not omniscient. (2) To direct the disciples’ minds to an impressive fulfilment of Scripture (John 13:18). (3) To confirm the faith of the disciples in Himself (John 13:19). (4) To arrest, and if yet possible rescue, the soul of Judas. 2. The certainty of it (John 13:21). “ Amen, amen.” Had any other made the announcement it would have been rejected with scorn. 3. The effect of it. (1) It filled the Saviour with horror (John 13:21), just as He had been perturbed at Lazarus’ s grave (John 11:33). (2) It plunged the disciples into consternation and dismay (John 13:22). II. AN ANXIOUS (John 13:25). 1. Moved by Peter, with characteristic impetuosity, who thought perhaps that John was in the secret, but he was equally ignorant. 2. Proposed by John (1) With affection--leaning back till his head rested on Jesus’ s breast. (2) With reverence--“ Lord.” (3) With pity for Christ, who should suffer, and the disciple who should inflict so sad a fate. (4) With humility and self-examination--as if he dreaded it should be himself; and yet surely (5) With conscious innocence--though Judas had the effrontery to ask, “ Is it I?” III. AN ANSWER (verse 26). 1. Clearly given. 2. Defiantly accepted. 3. Strangely misunderstood (verse 28). Lessons 1. Christ in His Church a searcher of hearts. 2. The possibility of sitting at Christ’ s table without being a true disciple, of enjoying religious ordinances without possessing grace, of falling from Christ so far as to lift the heel against Him. 3. Apostasies, though they do not affect Christ’ s position in the Church, are occasions of pain. 4. John-like spirits are most likely to obtain from Christ revelations of His grace and truth. 5. Christ loves those who hate Him; but he who will not be won by that love must eventually fall into the devil’ s grasp. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) A four-fold theme for thought I. A SOLEMN TRUTH (John 13:18)--“ I know whom I have chosen.” Christ knows His disciples--the true and false--their works and their hearts--all they have been, are, and shall be. “ He knew what was in man.” Then 1. He does not require of us what will out measure our faculties. He loves us too much, and is too just for this. 2. The services that are not rendered Him from the heart are of no value in His sight. Formality and insincerity are worse than worthless. 3. Every one that names His name should depart from evil. II. A FACT. “ He that eateth bread,” etc. Judas was guilty of 1. The basest ingratitude. 2. The grossest avarice. 3. The most daring impiety. Such a fact as this shows (1) Possibility that should lead us all to the most rigorous heart scrutiny. Here we see that a man may be in close contact with Christ and yet have no spiritual connection with Him. (2) That Christ coerces no man into His service. He leaves each to act for himself. III. A WARNING (John 13:19). 1. Against a probable danger to the other disciples. Had the conduct of Judas broken suddenly on them, they might have received a moral shock which would have imperilled their faith. 2. For the purpose of fortifying their faith in the Messiah by the very means of the betrayal as foreannounced. IV. A (John 13:20). This shows that His faithful disciples were 1. Identified with Him. The treatment they receive is regarded as being rendered to Him. 2. As He was identified with the Father (1) By official work. (2) By vital sympathy. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The history of Judas in relation to the Divine dealings The history of Judas is but the record of a human life. He was a man like ourselves, subject therefore to temptation and struggle, and one with the freedom and responsibility which belong to us all. This will save us from fatalism, and in the face of many dark problems here is our safe starting point. Learn that I. MEN MAY CHRIST’ S THEM. Christ gave Judas responsible work and a noble calling, and educated him for it all. But the training was worse than useless, the privileges were abused, and the sacred trust betrayed. Yet Christ would have had delight in Judas’ s wellbeing and success. But all was frustrated, and the bitter lament over Jerusalem had its reference to Judas. We all share this terrible power, and could we see how we have used it we should live much nearer to Him for the rest of our lives. II. THE MERCY OR GOD WHICH WOULD SAVE US MAY RUIN US. Judas had gifts: Christ employed them. His very position brought its dangers: Christ trusted him. Not indeed without warning him (John 6:70-71). And as the besetting sin was yielded to, and the downward course became more and more marked, where was Judas so likely to be kept from evil as in Christ’ s company. Accordingly he was retained at his post and was still trusted. Yet the mercy which would have saved ruined him. For, turning from the source of Goodness, he said, “ Evil, be thou my good.” Each of us may apply this principle. III. MAN’ S SIN IS TO DISPLAY THE DIVINE . Thomas doubted: We obtain an additional proof of Christ’ s resurrection. Judas betrayed: Jesus died. It did not require a Judas to save the world, or the hatred of the Sanhedrim to fulfil God’ s promises. Yet the sin of the world runs up into typical acts, and in a profoundly representative sense the sin of Judas was ours. This sin was overruled for God’ s glory and man’ s good. And through it all Judas was free, as is every sinner, as proved from common consent, conscience, and such words as “ can,” “ ought,” etc. Christ too is free and maketh the wrath of man to praise Him. IV. THE BEARING OF ALL THIS ON THE OF JUDAS IN THE CHURCH. Men may know not that they are there: but Christ knows them. Each service in the upper room repeated. John is there, and it may be Judas, so is Christ. If so the love that spares is the love that would save. How must Christ have looked on Judas, yet he went out madly from that saving Presence. “ And I saw there was a way to hell from the gate of heaven.” Two apostles sinned grossly. Judas went out from the presence of Christ to meet the night; Peter, broken-hearted, to meet the dawn. Which will you follow? (G. T. Keeble.) The sin and folly of the crime of Judas Once, I think, there was great joy in a certain house in Kerioth, because there a child had just been born. I think this joy broke out in the name given to the child. Call him “ Praise,” that is, Judah. But the parents were not prophets; and years after this, Jesus said of him, “ It had been good for that man if he had not been born!” This saying darkly intimates that the sin of Judas was unparalleled. “ Esau for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” But Judas sold Christ! For a man to sell his soul for some passing paltry profit is enough to make him infamous. But Judas sold Christ! John Bunyan tells us that long after he loved Christ he was tempted for the space of a year to sell and part with the blessed Christ for the things of this life. The tempter, he says, “ would intermix in such sort with all I did, that I could not eat my food, nor stoop to pick up a pin, nor chop a stick, without hearing this whisper--Sell Christ--sell Him for this--sell Him for that. Sell Him! sell Him!” But Judas actually sold Christ. You may have had some moment of spiritual delirium, when some one sinful gratification seemed to be so irresistible that your heart swore that you would have it, come what might; but God’ s hand snatched you back just in time, and His Spirit showed the truth in its light, and made you resolve not to buy bliss that was only for a moment, at the cost of bliss everlasting. The temptation was fearful; for it was to part with your portion in Christ. But the sin of Judas was that he sold Christ Himself. Sometimes men treat Christ with profanity, partly because they are steeped in ignorance; and all the while they are sinning the Intercessor’ s plea for them is “ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Judas knew what he did. He had heard Christ say, “ Before Abraham was, I am;” “ I and My Father are one.” He had witnessed His grand manifestations as King of the air, of the water, of the dead, of spirits; and yet Judas sold Christ! What did he sell Him for? The old German story reports that the astrologer Faustus sold his soul to the evil one for twenty-four years of earthly happiness. What was the bargain in this case? The auctioneer had tempting lists to show; what was it that tempted Judas? He sold his Lord for thirty somethings. What things? Thirty years of right over all the earth, with all the trees of the forests, all the fowls of the mountains, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? For thirty armies, or thirty fleets? Thirty stars? Thirty centuries of power to reign majestically on hell’ s burning throne? No, for thirty shillings, i.e., £3 10s. (C. Stanford, D. D.) I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled. Why did Christ choose Judas Christ chose him for what he was, and what he might have been, not for what he became. Christ chooses men not for their attainments, but for their possibilities. Do you suppose Christ chooses men for their ability or their character? He chooses them that He may give them character and inspire new capacities within them. He chooses twelve men, and one was a traitor; the average of treachery in human life is usually higher than that. Moreover, the election of Christ does not fetter the free will of a man. In a certain high and almost inscrutable sense it is true that it all happens “ that it may be fulfilled;” for though the bad man may seem an accident he is not, but in some way fits into a Divine order. The wild wind roars through the troubled heaven, but somewhere there is a sail to catch it, so that all its fierceness is yoked to fairest uses, and transformed into a mysterious helpfulness. There are no accidents in the Divine order; the harvest of today is the fruitful child of the storm weather of a century ago; it was all that it might be fulfilled. But whatever may be the ultimate issue of events, the will of man works freely within their circumference. Christ has chosen every living soul, and called him; yet few there are that shall be saved. You are as free to work evil in an apostleship as in a fisherman’ s boat. Nay more, if this man was so cursed and burdened with evil aptitudes, was it not an act of Divinest mercy to call to him an apostleship? There are some men who never would be Christians at all unless they were Christian ministers. They need the constraint of solemn responsibilities; the only chance of saving them is to set them to save others. And, looked at in this light of human experience, how Divine was that discernment which chose Judas, and gave him this unique opportunity of making his calling and election sure beneath the very eyes of Jesus! For the evils which destroyed Judas had not ripened in him when Jesus called him. He came in the untainted freshness of faith, perhaps in the unbroken energy of youth. He had more than ordinary capacity, for at once he became the organiser of the little society, its steward, its financier, the custodian of its means. To paint him therefore in the light of the after event, as most painters have done, disfigured with the leer of low cunning, scowling with the meanness of baffled craft and delayed cupidity, is altogether false. He who paints Judas must put into his face the dying light of what was once noble enthusiasm--the shadowed eagerness of what was once heroic faith. He must paint a face full of the anguish of remembrance, the traces of perished nobility, the tragedy of overthrown ideals. In a word, we must remember Christ called him, and not in vain; Christ loved him, and not without cause; and howsoever dreadful the end may be, there was once a bright, a brilliant, and a beautiful beginning. (W. J.Dawson.) He that eateth bread with Me, is equivalent to “ a professed friend,” “ an intimate acquaintance” --“ a familial friend,” as the psalmist has it in the place referred to. To “ lift up the heel,” according to some is a figure borrowed from the practice of wrestlers in lifting up the foot, for the purpose of overthrowing an antagonist. The more probable account is, that the figure is that of a vicious horse or ox, receiving food from the hand of its owner, and yet lifting up the heel to give him a stroke which may be fatal to him. The meaning of the whole expression seems to be, “ a highly favoured associate is prepared secretly to inflict on me a very severe injury.” (J. Brown, D. D.) Ingratitude In considering this prophecy show I. IN WHOM IT MAY BE SAID TO BE . 1. The Atheist. 2. The infidel. 3. The hypocrite. 4. The apostate. II. WHAT WE MAY LEARN FROM ITS . 1. That Christianity must be true. 2. That the falls of its professors afford no just argument against it. 3. That no man can tell what evil he may perpetrate, if Satan be permitted to assault him. 4. That God’ s conduct towards us is the very reverse of ours towards Him. (C. Simeon, M. A.) The successive steps by which the traitor reached the climax of his guilt The devil had already put it into his heart to betray the Lord (John 13:2).Wounded pride (Matthew 26:14), Satanic influence (Luke 22:3), and the love of money--these were the great evils that lay at the root of his conduct. And yet, who can tell what struggles he must have gone through ere he brought himself to carry his resolution into effect? (C. Ross.) Warnings as to the conduct of the traitor 1. And, first of all, do we not see here what a hateful, detestable thing hypocrisy, treachery is in the sight of God. Oh see, only see, the Lord of Glory troubled in spirit as He approaches the painful subject. And let us remember, that hypocrisy is equally offensive to Him still. 2. Further, do we not see here that sin--that hardness of heart is a gradual, a progressive thing? Judas did not reach the climax of his guilt by a single leap, but step by step. 3. But still further, may we not learn from this narrative, that though the hypocrite and the hardened sinner may for a long time escape detection, yet at last he shall be disclosed. The Lord may indeed, in His long suffering, allow him to pass unknown, just to give him space and opportunity for repentance. 4. Finally, let the Lord’ s true-hearted ones seek John’ s place--leaning on the Master’ s bosom. What a contrast between John and Judas--John leaning on Jesus’ breast, Judas proposing in his heart to betray Him! (C. Ross.) Jesus … was troubled in spirit and testified I. CHRIST IN SADNESS (verse 21). This was the distress 1. Of intense holiness in the presence of sin. The more holiness, the more sensitiveness to sin. Sometimes the optic nerve becomes so sensitive that a sunbeam will produce the greatest pain; and the auricular nerve so tender that the softest sound yields agony. And in some diseases a breath of air will throw the whole writhing frame into anguish. And so Judas sent a quiver through all the nerves of Christ’ s pure soul. 2. Of the highest benevolence in the presence of a lost soul. The more love a being has, the more he feels the sufferings of others. Christ’ s love was immeasurable, and He knew what a lost soul meant. We wonder not then that He was troubled as a lost soul stood before Him. II. THE IN ANXIETY (verse 22). Matthew and Mark tell us that they were exceeding sorrowful, and asked each, “ Is it I?” The question implies two things. 1. Self-suspicion. Had they been certain of their incapability they would not have made such an appeal. None of them was confident of His impeccability. This self-suspicion is well founded in all souls, and is a help to our spiritual progress and safety. “ Let him that thinketh he standeth.” 2. A desire to know the worst. Cowards close their, eyes on the worst, and delude themselves with the idea that all is right. It is to the spiritual interest of every man to know the worst here and now, for here and now it can be rectified. “ Search me, O God! and know my heart,” etc. III. THE TRAITOR . 1. The means of his detection (verse 26). 2. His domination by Satan (verse 27). Before we read that Satan had put the wicked deed into his heart; now he took possession of his soul. 3. His defiance by Christ, “ What thou doest,” etc. “ I defy thee to do thy worst. Do it and have done with it.” 4. His lamentable doom (verse 20). (D. Thomas, D. D.) The Saviour’ s trouble These verses describe the last scene between our Lord and Judas before the betrayal. They never met again, excepting in the garden. Within a short time both the Holy Master and the treacherous servant were dead. They will never meet again till the trumpet sounds. What an awful meeting will that be! Let us mark I. WHAT TROUBLE OUR LORD WENT THROUGH FOR THE SAKE OF OUR SOULS. 1. Our Master’ s troubles are far beyond the conception of most people. The cross was only the completion of His sorrows (Isaiah 53:3). 2. But this trouble was an exceptional one--that of seeing an apostle becoming an apostate. Nothing is so hard to bear as ingratitude.” Sharper than a serpent’ s tooth is a thankless child. Absalom’ s rebellion was David’ s heaviest trouble, and Judas’ s Christ’ s. 3. Passages like these should make us see (1) The amazing love of Christ to sinners. How many cups of sorrow He drained to the dregs in working out our salvation, beside the mighty cup of bearing our sins! (2) How little reason we have for complaining when friends fail us and men disappoint us. (3) The perfect suitableness of Christ to be our Saviour. He can sympathize with us. He has suffered Himself, and can feel for those who are ill-used and forsaken. II. THE POWER AND OF OUR GREAT ENEMY, THE DEVIL. First he suggests: then he commands. First he knocks at the door and asks permission to come in: then, once admitted, he takes complete possession, and rules the whole inward man like a tyrant. Let us take heed that we are not “ ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:11). He is still going to and fro in the earth, seeking whom he may devour. Our only safety lies in resisting him at the first. Strong as he is, he has no power to do us harm, if we cry to the stronger One and use the means which He has appointed James 4:7). Once let a man begin tampering with the devil, and he never knows how far he may fall. III. THE EXTREME WHICH COMES OVER THE HEART OF A OF . One might have thought that the sight of our Lord’ s trouble, and the solemn warning, “ One of you shall betray Me,” would have stirred the conscience of this unhappy man, or the words, “ That thou doest, do quickly.” But like one whose conscience was dead and buried, goes out to do his wicked work, and parts with his Lord forever. The extent to which we may harden ourselves by resisting light and knowledge is one of the most fearful facts in our nature. We may become past feeling, like those whose limbs are mortified before they die. We may lose entirely all sense of fear, or shame, or remorse. (Bp. Ryle.) The sufferings of the soul of Jesus What a spectacle! He who is inseparably united to the source of life and felicity, in sorrow; He who is the unfailing fountain of consolation to His children on earth, and of joy to the redeemed in heaven, in trouble and distress! We in vain look for external causes of this woe. Entering upon His last conflicts, He cries, “ Now is My soul troubled.” These inward sufferings of our Redeemer were no less necessary than His external woes; the anguish of His soul was as requisite as the tortures of His cross. 1. Sin had defiled our souls as well as our bodies: nay, the soul had been the first source of disobedience; in it the throne of sin and Satan was erected, while the body was used only as its instrument. When Jesus, therefore, appeared as surety to expiate for our offences, it was needful that the agonies of His soul should unite with the pains of His body, in order to pay down a full ransom for us. 2. Besides, one great end of His incarnation and death was, that He might set before us a perfect pattern of holy conduct, a complete example of every virtue; so that in every circumstance we might cast our eyes upon Him, and learn our duty. But this great end could never have been accomplished, had our Redeemer experienced no sorrows of the soul, had He been a stranger to inward troubles. 3. And, finally, had only the body of Jesus suffered, we should have been deprived of a large portion of that consolation and support which is now afforded us by remembering the events of His life. Every afflicted Christian has been comforted by recollecting, that “ we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities,” but one who “ was in all points tempted as we are,” and who will therefore sympathize with us in all our sorrows. The inward sorrows of men are, it is true, often criminal. Christ’ s sorrows were ever holy: for in their source they were pure; in their degree, they did not transcend the measure which reason and religion required; and their effect never was to suspend His communion with His Father, to make Him pause in His laborious beneficence, or recoil from those sufferings which He was to undergo for our salvation. Under this trouble of spirit, Jesus has recourse to prayer. And how exalted is this testimony to the sublimity of the Redeemer’ s character, and the benefits of His mediatorial work: “ I have glorified My name.” In the incarnation of Immanuel, the wisdom and the faithfulness, and the love of God, had already been illustriously displayed. Yes, in these and in other modes the honour of the Divine name had been promoted by the Redeemer. But the voice from heaven added, “ I will glorify it again,” more remarkably by Thy death and the great effects of Thy sacrifice. And has not this been fully verified? Had we time to display the Divine glory, as manifested in the Cross, the Resurrection, the Ascension of Jesus; in the gift of the Holy Spirit; in the conversion of the Gentiles; you would instantly acknowledge that this declaration has been accomplished. Look upwards, and see how there especially in the Cross the name of God is glorified. 1. The Divine perfections are there displayed in a degree infinitely greater than they are elsewhere manifested. You admire the goodness which shines in nature and providence; but what is this to that love which induced the Father to give the Son of His bosom to undergo such agonies for your salvation? You shudder at that justice and holiness which are announced in the Scriptures, which are heard in the thunders and glitter in the lightnings on Sinai; but they are more manifested in the tremendous sacrifice of Immanuel. 2. It is there that those perfections, which appeared irreconcilable, beautifully and completely harmonize. Holiness is exalted, while grace triumphs. The rights of the Divine government are unimpaired, while the sinner is saved. 1. Careless and impenitent man, this subject should alarm thee! The woes which Jesus endured were suffered for the guilty. Refuse the gospel method of salvation, and thou sacrilegiously attemptest to rob God of His glory manifested in it. But wilt thou succeed? 2. Believer, in the anguish of Jesus, see the foundation of thy joy! He suffered that thou mightest triumph. 3. Communicants, approach the holy table. Contemplate the glories of God in the crucified Saviour. Retrace the mercy of your Redeemer. (H. Kollock, D. D.) The practical uses of Christ’ s troubles Away with the argument of philosophers who say that a wise man is not liable to be troubled. Let the soul of the Christian be troubled with fear lest others perish, with sorrow when others perish, with desire that others may not perish, with joy when others are saved from perishing, with fear lest we ourselves perish, with sorrow because we are absent from Christ. And let us not despair when we are troubled by the prospect of death, for Christ was troubled by it. Thus He cheers infirm members in His Body--the Church--by the voluntary example of His own infirmity; thus He encourages Christians, if they find themselves troubled by the defection of friends or the prospect of death. (Bp. Wordsworth.) Judas, John, and Peter I. THE OF JUDAS OR FROM CHRIST. We speak of close corporations and sacred fellowships, but there are none so close, so sacred, as to shut out intruders. Curiously assorted guests sit down side by side at the same feast. The Son of Man did not exclude a traitor. 1. This treachery occasioned our Lord poignant sorrow. 2. Our Lord in love and mercy interposed between the traitor and his doom. 3. The interposition being ineffectual the traitor leaves Christ, Satan captures him, and he disappears in darkness. II. THE OF JOHN; OR, KEPT IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST. It cannot be an accident that these accounts of John and Judas are left here side by side. We are to “ look here upon this picture, and on that.” The treachery of Judas going out into the night to serve his master is best understood when set over against the blessedness of John leaning on the breast and hearing the wisdom of his Master. Extremes meet. But John has no monopoly of his Master’ s love. It was offered to Judas and rejected. If the presence of a traitor into the glorious company of the apostles troubled the spirit of Christ, why should not his going forth be a relief? It was like the vanishing of a cloud. It was also prophetic, for at last the spirit of selfishness and evil and darkness shall be utterly and forever cast forth from the Church of God. When Judas is gone John may enter fully into the Divine joy and life. III. THE DENIAL OF PETER: OR, TO OUR LOVE FOR CHRIST. The fall of such a man is inevitable. He has miscalculated his strength, and mistaken the true and only source from which comes the abiding love that makes one willing to leave all things. He thinks love a possession of his own, something that originates with and in himself. This delusion is so fatal, so sure to bring failure and disappointment, that, at all costs it must be dispelled. Peter was really believing in himself, in his own constancy and determination. The worthlessness of such a faith was very soon to be demonstrated. For that faith in himself he was to substitute a faith in One who was able to keep him. (Monday Club.) The apostacy of Judas This was the last of a series of fatal victories which Judas Iscariot won over the different means and checks which God had mercifully provided. From that time it seemed as if God would no more strive with him, either by His Providence of love or by the suggestions of His Spirit within. “ Let him alone.” There was no more check to his iniquity, and he proceeded rapidly in that downward course which was to issue in his irremediable destruction. Consider that series of the means of grace which Judas had resisted before he triumphed over this. I. JUDAS HAD BEEN WITH ALL THE THAT JESUS CHRIST HAD WROUGHT TO THE TRUTH OF HIS MISSION. II. WHAT HAD JUDAS FROM HIS MASTER? III. THIS WAS BY AN EXAMPLE OF . IV. HE WAS WITH TOKENS OF . V. Being brought in connection with Jesus Christ must necessarily have induced him to EMPLOY HIMSELF IN THE VARIOUS THAT WOULD PROMOTE HIS TEMPER AND . VI. HE WAS WITH THE BEST PEOPLE UPON EARTH. VII. HE SAW THE CHANGE BY THE MEANS OF GRACE AND BY GRACE ITSELF--the joy and gratitude of the Syro-Phoenician woman whose strength of faith brought her great blessings, the change in the heart of the publican, the penitence of Mary Magdalene. VIII. HE WAS THE SUBJECT OF THE FEET WASHING. IX. As the context tells us (cf. Luke 22:1-71) , HE WAS CALLED TO THE TABLE OF THE LORD AT THE FIRST OF THE SUPPER. Thus all the most powerful means that imagination could devise failed in repressing the sin of Judas when once it had obtained the mastery. Conclusion: Perhaps when we are noticing the strength of sin in him, which overcame all the most powerful means of grace, there may be some who are ready to suppose that Judas was one selected above all others to manifest the power of depravity. Who is it that is thus prompt to condemn Judas? Who is the person that is not as singular an instance of depravity? Are not you now under the power of a reigning sin, you that thus condemn this wretched man? “ Therefore thou art inexcusable,” etc. Who are you that can say truly that you have never manifested such obduracy? I ask you to determine the question as before God whether you have not resisted and triumphed over means of grace as mighty as he overcame. Consider, then 1. That you are an inexcusable sinner. 2. That you need a Saviour and One has been provided. 3. Do not neglect to avail yourself of this provision by repentance and faith. (Baptist Noel.) Jesus and the traitor Consider these words I. AS THE SIN OF JUDAS, which shows 1. That Christ suffered as no other human being ever suffered. Great as are the sorrows of men, they are generally unforeseen; more than half their weight therefore is removed. We are supported by hope even on the brink of misery: Jesus foresaw all His woes, and He knew them to be unavoidable. 2. That all hearts are open to the Son of God. It was not long since Judas had agreed with the chief priests. He was sure not to have betrayed himself; and the same secrecy was equally needful to his accomplices. Yet how vain all their precautions! The traitor hears his own purpose first exposed by the very Being whom he would betray! How then can you hope to impose on Christ and shun the eye of God? “ Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?” 3. That the most wicked actions of men unintentionally promote God’ s secret purposes of grace. He who foretold this crime could have prevented it. But the act foreseen was permitted and overruled for good. Shall we murmur, then, even at the most mysterious dispensation (Romans 8:28)? II. AS THE OF THAT SIN. 1. It was the sin of treachery--a sin of that kind which is held in abhorrence even by fallen man. Nor is the case at all mended by urging that Judas was moved by self-interest and not by malice. The plea only adds detestable meanness to his character, where passion and revenge might have furnished (what men would call) a prouder excuse. And who is the traitor? Has he no name but Judas? Alas! his “ name is Legion, for he is many.” 2. It was treachery against the best of friends--“ Me!” Is not the same Christ our Friend? Yet multitudes still prefer the silver to Christ. 3. It was the treachery of a highly privileged and confidential servant. “ One of you!” For three years had the Pharisees been seeking for such an accomplice: but the multitude would not, the officers could not. These persecutors never dreamed of asking one of the apostles--who would? when, to their great astonishment, he offers of his own accord! “ Take heed lest there be in any of you such an evil heart of unbelief.” III. AS THE OF A HOLY MIND IN THE OF SIN. Jesus “ was troubled in spirit.” Not because mortified by an unexpected discovery. He had known that these things would take place at least as long ago as when David penned the fifty-fifth Psalm (John 13:12-14). Nor because this treachery made His own fate certain; it could not be more so than His eternal purpose had already made it. No; He was troubled 1. At the present dishonour done to God and the gospel. It was a triumph to Satan, who thus “ bruised His heel” ; to all the ungodly--“ Ah, so would we have it!” It is not passion or jealousy which calls forth from true Christians the reproof of sin. It is trouble of heart because God is dishonoured. Encourage this feeling. 2. At the approaching ruin of a sinner. He saw before him a soul which (before even His own death should be accomplished) would be “ gone to its place.” He still feels the same trouble for thee, O sinner! whosoever thou art. His holy children also feel the same cause for mourning--none but devils and sinners rejoice. (J. Jowett, M. A.) Horror of treachery natural Even in Pagan story the name of Ephialtes enjoyed a bad preeminence, and could not be mentioned without horror, whom no love of his country, no admiration of heroic valour, not the dear pledges of his friends, nor the threatened tyranny of a degrading foe, could withhold from such a deed of shame; but Persian gold, more sacred to that base mind than all of these, bribed him to guide the enemy over the mountain path, and surprise that devoted Spartan band. Sad indeed that in Christian annals it should have its more than parallel. (C. J. Brown, M. A.) One of you shall betray Me I. “ YOU” WHOM I HAVE LOVED SO . II. “ YOU” WHOM I HAVE TAUGHT SO . III. “ YOU” WHOM I HAVE SERVED SO . (S. S. Tinges.) The conspicuousness of apostates In the long line of the portraits of the Doges in the palace at Venice, one space is empty, and the semblance of a black curtain remains as a melancholy record of glory forfeited. Found guilty of treason, Marine Falieri was beheaded, and his image, as far as possible, blotted from remembrance. As we regarded the singular memorial we thought of Judas and Demas, and then, as we heard in spirit the Master’ s warning, “ One of you shall betray Me,” we asked within our soul the solemn question, “ Lord, is it I?” Everyone’ s eye rests longer on the one dark vacancy than upon any one of the fine portraits of the merchant monarchs; and so the apostates of the Church are far more frequently the theme of the world’ s talk than the thousands of good men and true who adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Hence the more need of care on the part of those of us whose portraits are publicly exhibited as saints, lest we should one day be painted out of the Church’ s gallery, and our persons only remembered as having been detestable hypocrites. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom Christ’ s special affection for St. John You naturally ask, was there anything noticeable or distinguishing in the character of this much-favoured disciple? We answer, Christ’ s love is free. It must be so, for it is everlasting--it precedes the existence of its objects; and further, it must be so, for itsobjects are guilty and evil--they have nothing in them to attract, they have everything to repel. Christ’ s love has its cause, or reason, in Himself. Even our love is in some respects free. It cannot be bought; it cannot be forced; we cannot reason ourselves into it. But while love is thus in its nature free, yet, in examining the objects of it, we find that they possess some real or supposed qualities, which are the ground of this peculiar esteem. In our blindness we often fancy qualities which do not really exist; and so, on more intimate acquaintance, we are often disappointed. But the Lord cannot be thus mistaken; and so, when we find one distinguished from his companions as “ the disciple whom Jesus loved,” we infer that, through grace, He must have possessed some qualities which the others had not, or not in the same degree. What was it, then, in John, on whom the Lord’ s complacency rested? It was not any peculiarly high talent, for in this Paul was superior. It was not any peculiar aptitude for business and the conduct of affairs, for in this Peter seems to have excelled. It was for the qualities of the heart, rather than the head, that John was distinguished; and the secret of the Lord’ s peculiar delight in him is perhaps found in this: “ I love them that love Me, and they who seek Me early shall find Me.” John was a man of warmer, fervid temperament, as appears from the Lord calling him and his brother Boanages (sons of thunder); and this ardent heart was given wholly and abidingly to Christ. He came young to Christ, as appears from the long period that he outlived his Master. He came also early; for he was one of the two who, in consequence of John Baptist’ s words, followed Jesus to His dwelling, and became His disciples. His deep, fervent love, unconsciously breaks forth in many ways. His love to Christ, as well as Christ’ s to him, appears in his place at the table--the nearest to Jesus. His love made him follow his Master to the judgment hall; made him linger at the cross when the others were gone; made him foremost in the race to the tomb, and first to believe the story told by the forsaken but orderly grave clothes. It was his love, quick sighted, that made him the first to recognize his Beloved on the shores of Tiberias, in the grey twilight of the dawning day. It was admiring love that made him close his gospel with the glowing words (John 21:25). It was panting, longing love that made him close his Apocalypse with the fervid prayer (Revelation 22:20). John’ s very faults show his love to Christ … But further, John had a deeper, truer insight than the others into the Divine glory of Christ’ s person, and the spiritual nature of His work. The others begin with His earthly lineage and birth, and occupy themselves chiefly with His manhood. John begins with the eternal Godhead. The others dwell on the works of benevolence and power which crowded Christ’ s laborious days. John takes little note of these, but dwells rather on the glory of the grace and truth, and gathers up the words of life and power. John seems to have been among men what Mary was among women--he sat at Christ’ s feet, and heard His words. Hence his gospel is different from the others. While the other evangelists speak chiefly of Christ’ s dealings with the bodies of men, John dwells more on His dealings with men’ s souls. The Lord must have felt that John knew Him better, and appreciated Him more fully, than the others. We can conceive that, when Christ performed any act of higher import, or uttered any word of deeper meaning, His eye would unconsciously turn to John, and would be ever sure to meet John’ s loving, gleaming eye! (John Milne.) Titled believers; the disciple whom Jesus loved This was John’ s most notable title. As a servant of the Queen, having distinguished himself in the service of Her Majesty, becomes the lord of such and such a town, and he takes the name of the place as a name of honour, so John drops his own birth-given name, as it were, and takes this title instead of it--“ that disciple whom Jesus loved.” He wears it as a Knight of the Garter, or of the Golden Fleece, wears the mark of his sovereign’ s esteem. (C. H.Spurgeon.) A title that was better than a name Lord Brooks was so proud of his friendship with Sir Philip Sidney, that he chose for his epitaph, “ Here lies Sir Philip Sidney’ s friend.” Nearness to Jesus I. Let us first, then, inquire HOW ARE WE TO ATTAIN THIS TO JESUS? 1. In the first place, by coming to Him. We are, naturally, at a distance from Him. 2. This nearness implies real sympathy of mind. What a sacred bond is sympathy! what a fountain of delight, of comfort, and of strength! In order that there may be sympathy, there must be three things--mutual knowledge one of another--harmony of moral taste--and aiming at the same end. The refined cannot sympathize with the polluted, the gentle cannot sympathize with the cruel hearted. He that delights in sin, on the other hand, cannot sympathize with him who seeks to advance in holiness, and to bring all around him to enjoy communion with God and Jesus. 3. Nearness to Jesus implies that we persevere in following Him. Nearness to Him does not depend upon one act. 4. The next idea is, that nearness to Jesus implies felt fellowship--real communion. Oh! it is not a dream. We have, I trust, very many of us, experienced it as a distinct and separate thing from the work of imagination. Felt fellowship--he who has experienced that is near to Jesus. 5. Pass on to notice the next thing implied in nearness to Jesus--love to Him. Love is the power that annihilates the distance between us. 6. Then it implies, also, that we have intercourse with His people--communion with His disciples. II. THE OF THIS . 1. In the first place, it is an honour--the highest honour--to come near to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be acquainted with Him, to walk with Him, to have fellowship with Him. That is the highest distinction that can be conferred upon man, for it implies that a man is raised to a kind of equality with the Supreme Being, that has condescended to become brother and saviour. The honour of being introduced to Jesus will last, and fill the mind with rest and tranquility. 2. We say, in the second place, it is a blessed privilege to be near to Jesus, because it assures us of His eternal love to us. The text says, “ there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of the disciples whom Jesus loved.” It was John himself that wrote it, and he knew the fact that Jesus loved him. The way then to be assured of the love of Jesus is to live near to Him. 3. Nearness to Jesus, in the third place, secures glorious shelter and protection from the evils which are in the world. Keep near to thy Saviour, nestle, as it were, in the bosom of His promises; let His feathers cover thee, and His wings be over thee; go to Him in times of danger and trial. 4. Then there is another glorious privilege--the power that is transferred from Jesus to those who are near to Him. When we are near to Jesus, there is a current of sanctified influence passing, until those hearts of yours, once the abode of pollution, become as spotless temples. The soul that was in the thraldom of sin is released, and becomes cleansed and sanctified, and shall stand clean in the presence of the eternal God. This is not done at once, but by a continued influence which assimilates the soul to Jesus in purity, holiness, love, and heavenly mindedness, and makes it a type of Jesus. 5. Then there is another privilege--that there is a constant manifestation of fresh glory made to the mind in the Lord Jesus Christ. What an unworthy idea some people have of Jesus. It is only that of a beautiful image, as it were, drawn on canvas. But, to the believer, Jesus always manifests some new beauty in His face--some new glory in His nature. 6. You have another striking advantage of being near to Jesus--that of growing and increasing in your usefulness in the service of Jesus. There is a moral element of fitness required for the service of Jesus. 7. Then there is another great privilege and blessing--the mind and heart are weaned from earth in proportion as we live near to Jesus. We become conscious of being only strangers on the earth, of belonging to another world, as citizens of a more enduring city. (T. Thomas.) The sacred breast Attention should be called to the different words (different in the original as well as in the English) used in the text to denote that part of our Lord’ s most Sacred Person: “ bosom” in John 13:23, “ breast” in John 13:25. Strictly speaking, the latter word alone denotes part of the person; the “ bosom” is that part of the dress which covers the breast. Ancient dresses consisted of two pieces, a tight-fitting inner garment, and a shawl or outer wrapper thrown over it. And this shawl was so arranged as to fall in a large full fold over the breast, this full fold constituting the bosom or lap of the dress. This bosom or lap was sometimes used as a purse, to contain money or valuables; which explains that expression of our Lord, “ Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom” (Luke 6:38). And when a parent or nurse carried a young child, the child would more or less repose in this fold of the dress, which would be drawn over its head. The subject having been thus opened, we will speak to you first of the Bosom in which our Lord Himself lay from all eternity; secondly, of the moral attitude of His faithful and beloved ones, who “ lean on His Bosom,” or “ lie on His Breast;” and lastly, of the glorified Breast of the risen and ascended Saviour. I. And, first, of THE BOSOM IN WHICH HE HIMSELF LAY FROM ALL , “ before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made.” “ No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” John 1:18). The earthly image chosen to convey the heavenly truth is drawn from the parental relationship upon earth, and from the loving services which human parents do for their children in the earliest and most dependent stage of existence. They fold them in their bosom; they carry them in their arms; according to that word of Moses (Numbers 11:12). This doctrine lights up Christian theology with bright and consolatory lights. First, the God of Christian men, as distinct from the God of the Deist and Unitarian, is not to be thought of as ever having dwelt apart or in solitude. And then, secondly, this doctrine of our Lord’ s eternal generation gives us such an assurance as we could not otherwise have of the tenderness and strength of God’ s love to ourselves. He who gave up for us, and who giveth to us, the Son of His love, to be “ unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30), what may we not expect Him to do for us, to give to us; how can we suppose that He will withhold from us any good thing? O Lord and Heavenly Father, may we open our hearts to this fatherly love of Thine, in faith, in confidence, in filial love reciprocating it! II. THE MORAL OF THOSE AND BELOVED ONES WHO LEAN ON HIS BOSOM OR LIE ON HIS BREAST. It is said especially of St. John the Evangelist, “ the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 20:2; John 21:7; John 21:20). The expression has reference, as is well known, to the arrangement of the guests at an ancient supper. They did not sit round the table in our modern fashion, but reclined on broad couches, leaning on the left elbow, and helping themselves with the right hand. Each couch usually accommodated three guests, and the central place on it was the most distinguished. It was a privileged position, you will say, not granted even to all the Apostles; and therefore, in applying the passage, nothing can be founded upon it as to the spiritual privileges of ordinary Christians. But I find a Messianic prophecy of Isaiah, which surely enlarges the purview of this privilege, showing it to be a privilege designed for all, sad more especially for the weaker members of Christ’ s flock. “ He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11). Yes; “ He shall carry them in His bosom.” He Himself, we have seen, was carried from all eternity in the bosom of the Father. And our attitude and relation towards Him is to be that which He Himself bears to the Father. But now let us develop in particulars the moral attitude which it behoves us to have towards the Saviour, as pictorially represented in those words, “ leaning on Jesus’ bosom,” “ lying on Jesus’ breast.” (1) And first, he who leans on Jesus’ bosom in a spiritual sense has a trustful repose in Him. Activity indeed must characterize the Christian life; and there is a blessedness and a healthfulness in work for God; but it must be a calm activity, without solicitude, without wearing anxiety, an activity which, while it works, knows also how to lean, and lie still, and to say, “ the Lord will provide.” “ Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God,” etc. (Philippians 4:6-7). To taste this peace, at least in a measure, is to lean on Jesus’ bosom, to lie on His breast. (2) Secondly; he who leans on Jesus’ bosom in a spiritual sense has an assurance of the Saviour’ s nearness to him and love for him--a love which will cling to him to the end. Oh for an assurance, independent of the senses--the assurance of faith--that Christ is near to us at all times, more especially in public prayer, where two or three are gathered together in His name, and in the Sacred Supper, in which He makes every faithful recipient a partaker of His body and blood! (3) Thirdly; he who leans on Jesus’ bosom in a spiritual sense cultivates St. John’ s type of character, a quiet contemplativeness, in which he may hear the whispers made by the Divine Master to the soul. The present is an age of activity, of material progress, of rapid movement. Under these circumstances it becomes more than ever necessary, as an antidote to the spirit of the times, that devotional retirement should be insisted upon as a condition of all healthy spiritual life. Let things drop ever and anon, even when the strain of work and worry is most severe, and lean back as it were on the bosom of thy Lord, and look up into His face, and seek from Him the guidance or the help or the comfort which thou needest, and, if thou doest this faithfully, thou shalt not fail to hear the whispers of His voice within. But how can those whispers be heard in the rapid whirl of business, in the tumult of affairs, without an inward silence and a hush in the soul? III. We are to speak, lastly, of THE BREAST OF THE RISEN AND EXALTED SAVIOUR. In that magnificent vision of the glorified Son of Man at the opening of the Revelation. “ Being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts” (so it is in the Revised Version) “ with a golden girdle.” Three points are observable in this part of the grand vision, which throughout is full of deep and edifying significance. (1) He appears “ girded;” and to the angel of the Church of Ephesus He describes Himself as “ walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks” (Revelation 2:1). The girding and the walking are both expressive of the ceaseless activity of the exalted Saviour, an activity which shows itself not only in His intercession, but in His close inspections of the Churches as to their spiritual condition and progress. (2) He appears girded at the breasts, not at the loins; the golden cincture is swathed around Him high up the person, below the armpits. This is explained by what Josephus tells us about the girdle of the high priest, and the part of the person on which it was fastened. This girding at the breast, then, being the sacerdotal way of wearing the girdle, and obviously a more dignified, reposeful, and majestic way than merely tying it tight round the loins, as was done when men addressed themselves to secular and common work, indicates that He who wears the girdle thus is the “ great high priest, that is passed into the heavens,” there “ to appear in the presence of God for us,” and to give effect to His sacrifice by pleading it on our behalf in the heavenly sanctuary. But if by the position of the girdle the high priestly character of the wearer is indicated, why is it not also indicated by the materials, which here are all gold, whereas the curious or (embroidered) girdle of the ephod, though it had gold in it, yet was made also of “ blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen?” This is to indicate the kingly character of Christ united with the priestly, He being not only a priest, but “ a priest upon His throne,” a priest exalted to universal government. (3) But what shall we say of this remarkable feature of the vision, that the Saviour appears in it with the breast of a woman, not of a man? That there is a profound and beautiful significance in this trait, whatever be its significance, I make no manner of question. He was the Seed of the woman, not of the man, and, as being descended only from a mother, might be expected to show all that tender side of human character which woman more especially exemplifies. He has the breast of a woman, that is, the heart of a woman, in susceptibility to the sufferings of His people, and in sympathy with them, when they are called upon to suffer. (E. M.Golburn, D. D.) Leaning on Jesus’ bosom I. THE OF THIS ACT. Even with John the outward posture was only the symbol of the spiritual. It implies 1. Reconciliation to Christ. We are by nature estranged from God and Christ. Hence we stand guilty and condemned. But, impelled by wondrous love, Jesus has taken our place and borne our penalty. Now God can be just and the justifier of all who believe in Him. Those who have been thus reconciled lean on Jesus’ bosom, and those only. Suppose a child to have disobeyed its mother’ s commands and cherished a rebellious spirit. Will that child with conscious guilt and angry feelings nestle on the mother’ s breast? But let temper subside and penitence arise, then it will hasten to the mother’ s knee, let the mother’ s forgiveness kiss away tears, and throw its arms round the mother’ s neck and lean on her bosom. 2. Confidence in Him. He is worthy of this, for He is infinitely wise, strong, good, and ought to be thoroughly trusted. But He is not. But those who lean on His bosom have no fear, and find everything they need. 3. Love for Him. He is worthy of our best affection. Do we not naturally admire beauty? “ He is altogether lovely.” Are we not always affected by loving kindness? He has loved as with a love surpassing every other. Hatred separates, love unites. Those who love Christ are ever near His side. 4. Communion with Him--not merely saying prayers--but heart intercourse with Him everywhere. Silence leads to estrangement, exchange of confidences to love. So when there is little communion with Christ there is little love; but the soul whose fellowship with Him is constant will lay his head where John lay his. II. THE OF THIS . Here Isaiah 1. Perfect safety. We are all exposed to danger as regards both body and soul. Most men are concerned about the safety of their bodies and money--then surely they should be about that of their souls. But where shall (1) The unpardoned sinner, or (2) the backsliding saint find safety save here? “ There is therefore now no condemnation,” etc. “ If God be for us, who can be against us.” 2. Spiritual instruction. We are enfeebled by ignorance. Some of us think we know much about business, science, art, etc.; but we know little about God and Divine things. Where shall we look? The learned of our day only bewilder us, but we shall get all we want from the best Teacher, who is Himself the embodiment of truth; and those who trust Him most will be the best instructed, even as John learnt most of the betrayal. 3. Moral improvement. We are greatly influenced by our associates. Those who dwell in courts acquire a peculiar dignity, and those who live near Christ become Christ-like. 4. Rest and peace. There is a fearful amount of unrest in the world arising from a guilty conscience, loss of friends, wealth, etc.; but “ in Christ Jesus the peace of God will keep our hearts and minds.” (J. Morgan.) Lying on Jesus’ breast I. THE STATE OF MIND AND HEART, ON EITHER SIDE, OF WHICH THIS WAS THE . 1. On the side of the disciple, it told (1) Of a holy, unsuspecting, childlike trust, reliance on the Lord. Doubtless John was tried with many a painful foreboding for the future. Had anyone asked, “ Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy Master from thy head?” methinks he had been ready to answer, “ Yea, I know it; hold thou thy peace.” Too well he knows it. But just the more he will lean his head tonight on that Master’ s bosom and cast his care on this mighty, gracious One. (2) Of intense affection. It is heart drawing to heart in the hour of deep grief! (3) The two feelings, the reliance and the love were inseparably connected. It was a loving reliance; and it was a confiding affection. The “ faith wrought by love;” and the love, “ casting out fear,” emboldened the faith. 2. It told of corresponding feelings on the side of the Master. (1) Confidence, trust, reposed by Christ in the disciple? Jesus suffers him to lean his head upon His bosom. Ah! this is not to be the traitor. “ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” (2) Intense affection. Not that Christ loved John with any higher love of benevolence than He did the other disciples. Plainly it is satisfaction, delight, complacency, in John that is spoken of in the appellation, and which came out divinely in the permission to lean his head upon His bosom. II. OUR TEXT ADMITS OF BEING TURNED TO USE, far beyond the ease of John. One disciple only could lean as did John, but we may now find that this is a privilege, accessible in the essence of it, even to as many as shall truly aspire after it. 1. The soul of this attitude, as on the disciple’ s side lay in trust in Jesus. Then have we the attitude still. “ The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.” Many years ago I was visiting a dying boy. He lay weary on his pillow, near his end. I scarce hoped to make him understand me--he was not six years of age. But thinking I might make an attempt, after short prayer, I said to him, “ Charlie, you are resting your head on the pillow; try and rest on Jesus, as you are resting on the pillow.” Next day his father told me that, on going up to the little crib several hours after my visit, and without making any reference to it, he said to him, “ Are you resting on Jesus, dear?” He immediately answered, “ Soft pillow.” It was his only reply. Ah, that is it, unsuspecting reliance, “ soft pillow” --He lying on Jesus’ breast! (2) And have we not the love also, still. “ My beloved is mine, and I am his” --faith and love hand in hand. “ I will seek Him whom my soul loveth.” 2. The leaning of disciples still is by His welcoming also, just as of old--reciprocating their feelings towards Him in a blessed corresponding confidence, and complacency in them. “ He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them,” etc. Perhaps, in a more special manner at the Lord’ s Supper, may the lying on the breast be known and realized. Yet this is not a privilege confined to any one ordinance or season. Assuredly the bosom, the heart, of Jesus is large enough to receive every weary head that is but truly offered to lean on it. “ I heard the voice of Jesus say,” etc. (G. J. Brown, D. D.) Can we now lean on Jesus’ bosom What is it, at this day, to do this? I. TO BRING OUR HEARTS INTO LIVING FEELING, CONTACT WITH THE HEART OF CHRIST. We speak of the breast of man, as being filled with noble or revengeful feelings; of a generous or an unfeeling bosom, because the heart has its seat in the breast; and as that, in the physical system, is the centre of animal life, the ever-welling up and distributing fountain of the vital currents, so when we would speak of the moral centre, the well spring of moral emotions, we use the term heart, and say, his heart is right or wrong, generous or closed, renewed or unsanctified; hence, to lean upon the breast, the outer casement of the heart, is equivalent to saying, that the person leans upon the love and sympathy of that individual. Christ’ s love emanates from His heart, and hence he who rests upon His love rests upon His breast. The feeling of confidence in human affection is one of the most delicious emotions of which we are capable. In leaning upon the heart of Jesus, the Christian can have this confidence, to a degree impossible among men. His heart is an organ of infinite love. II. TO LEAN UPON THE PLACE WHENCE HIS FLOW. There are daily trials, in which we seek not only succour but sympathy. None ever felt so deeply for the sorrows and sufferings of the world as Jesus, and now that He has ascended into heaven, He is still “ touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” And if we lean on Jesus’ bosom, we shall always have His sympathies. III. TO GET AN OF THE OF CHRIST. “ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” A man may be a learned theologian without leaning upon Jesus’ bosom; but no one can savingly understand Divine truth who does not bring his head in contact with Jesus’ heart. There is a great difference between an intellectual, and an experimental, knowledge of Bible doctrines. The poor widow, the bed-ridden patient, often has a richer knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus; than the learned minister or the boasting professor. All real knowledge of Jesus must come from Christ’ s heart, and through our heart. IV. TO LEAN UPON THE PLACE WHENCE FLOWED HIS BLOOD. It was from the spear-riven heart of Christ, that there gushed out blood and water; and in leaning upon Jesus’ breast, therefore, we get close to the fountain opened for sin and all uncleanness. If we would feel the preciousness of that blood, we must lean upon the heart whence it flowed, and there learn the vastness of the love which gave it, the greatness of the sacrifice it involved, and the unspeakable richness of the grace it purchased. Conclusion: The bosom of Christ is a privileged place in times of 1. Adversity. The world may treat us coldly, friends may withdraw from us, riches may depart, but, if we can lean on Jesus’ bosom, we care not. 2. Sickness. 3. Sorrow. 4. Death. (Bp. Stevens.) One of His disciples whom Jesus loved The beloved disciple I. JOHN’ S . 1. Early piety. 2. The most remarkable trait, love, which was constantly evinced in his attendance on our Lord. He leaned on his Master’ s bosom in their hours of social enjoyment--“ And in death they were not divided.” He remained with Him till he saw Him expire. We must follow him to the cross. II. HOW DID HE ARRIVE AT THIS? He explains this, “ We love Him.” Yes; there he learned the lessons of love on Jesus’ bosom. III. HOW DID HE AFTER HIS MASTER’ S DECEASE? Read his Epistles. He led others to it (chap 1). Zeal for God and love for man; a burning fervour for God’ s cause and man’ s happiness--“ What we have seen and heard we testify unto you.” Love. IV. THE AND FAVOURS ON HIM BY CHRIST. Leans on His breast; Mount of Transfiguration; garden; and He consigns His holy virgin mother to his care; lived long; closed the canon of Scripture; was raised to glory. (T. Summerfield, M. A.) A specially loved disciple is I. NEAR TO JESUS. II. WITH JESUS. III. BY MEN. IV. HELPFUL TO MEN. (S. S. Times.) Why Jesus roved John We learn from the text the rightness of personal preferences--certain minds being more akin to other minds than others--but also that in the highest hearts this affinity will be determined by spiritual resemblances, not mere accidental agreeabilities, accomplishments, politenesses, or pleasant manners. Again, I imagine that the union had nothing to do with mental superiority; that might have been more admirable. John was lovable. Not talent, as in Paul’ s ease, nor eloquence, nor amiability, drew Christ’ s spirit to him, but that large heart, which enabled him to believe because he felt, and hence to reveal that “ God is love.” It is very remarkable, however, that his love was a trained love. Once John was more zealous than affectionate. But he began by loving the human friend, by tending the mother as a son, by attachment to his brother James; and so through particular personal attachments he was trained to take in and comprehend the larger Divine love. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 13:30 He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night Judas and the sop The subject suggests I. THE TWO-FOLD AND EVEN OF THE SAME THING. 1. The giving of the sop meant one thing to John, viz., who was the betrayer? It does not seem to have been fully understood (verse 28), but that was its meaning. To Judas it was meant as a mark of kindness. There was no inconsistency in this. It was done for a good reason. It consisted with Christ’ s affection for John, not to allow the suspicion of betrayal to rest upon him, and with His love for Judas to show him kindness. But why should Christ so act when He knew the result? Because He invariably acted as though results were unknown. He knew that He would raise Lazarus, yet He gave way to grief. He knew who believed not and who should betray Him, but that did not lead Him to slacken efforts on their behalf. 2. And so the same providence now may convey a varied meaning according to our feeling or position. We are more susceptible at one time than another. A song may make glad feelings in one and sad in another, according to the mood. Let each learn what God says aside to him. II. HOW MUCH MEANING MAY BE BY A LITTLE THING. In the very unobtrusiveness of the sop there was an element of power. It was better than if many words had been employed. The little friendly act was sufficient to flash the whole before His mind, and to discover the whole attitude of the Saviour. It was an intimation that it was not too late for repentance. Shortly before Christ put into a little service the great lesson of humility and serviceableness; shortly after He put great meaning into a look; and while sitting there He put meaning to all time into simple bread and wine. It needs only to have susceptible warm hearts to learn great lessons through little things. III. THE EFFECT THAT MAT FOLLOW FROM THE OF AN APPEAL. 1. During all his declension Judas had the close attendance of Jesus, and therefore must have had every help toward a successful issue in his trial. And now a last appeal was about to be made. Would he say yes or no to the love of Christ. That was the turning point in his, as in every man’ s, destiny. And he was so infatuated with evil as to say No. And so Satan, who had only previously put the thought in his heart, now entered him, and the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. But as soon as the act was performed, the enchantment was gone, and he hurried himself into eternity. 2. And so Christ is continually making appeals to us, in some sermon, book, mercy, worldly loss. If we do not yield there will come a last and decisive appeal, and if we reject that, despair. IV. HOW NATURE AND MEETS STATES OF THE HUMAN SOUL. “ It was night” --a congenial time for the deed of darkness. The children of darkness are dark within, and when Judas went out the dark thought of his mind was reflected there. Perhaps it was a relief to be away from the light, perhaps a suggestion of destiny. There is only outer darkness for those who “ go out” from Christ. Let us accept Him now, from whose presence by and by we shall go no more out. (R. Finlayson, B. A.) The sop and a dark deed Notice I. THE GROWTH AND OF EVIL AMID THE HOLIEST . Judas lived within the circle of the Saviour’ s influence for three years. Eli was rebuked by Samuel for permitting his sons to commit sin on the threshold of the Temple, and--strange irony--Samuel’ s sons while doing priestly work walked in the same evil way. We may attend the sanctuary and listen to a mother’ s prayers for fifty years, and afterwards be lost. II. THE SAVIOUR’ S BECOMES THE OF GREAT EVIL. Judas was a worse man at the end of three years; while Christ’ s appreciation of Mary’ s offering, and His appeal to Judas, seemed to strengthen him in his purpose. So the presence of goodness, if not a blessing to us, is a withering curse. III. CHRIST’ S OF THE SINNER. He saw the growth of evil in Judas, but it made no difference in His trust and love. At the last moment, there was one more attempt to touch the traitor’ s heart. “ Friend,” etc. The gift of the sop was a sign of love. What a wealth of persevering love is poured out on the most depraved! IV. THE DARK OF AN EVIL LIFE. Judas went out into the calm of that beautiful Syrian night, but is was a scene of blankness and tempest to him. Then came that deeper night of unavailing penitence and suicide. The path of sin always ends in night. It may be strewn with flowers or steeped in blood, but there is the same termination--the night of separation from God and communion with our own sins. (Noel R. Hamer, M. A.) It was night I. IN . Only the pale shining of the passover moon lit the streets. The sieve was shaken, and the small soul of the money lover dropped through out of honour into shame and gloom. II. In His HEART. For Satan, the prince of darkness, in person was ruling there. Over him swept a wave of the “ outer darkness” like a cloud from the bottomless pit. Suicide was just at hand. III. IN ALL THE VAST FUTURE. He was going “ to his own place.” (Job 10:22). We see at this vanishing moment that the man is lost while he is living, virtually in hell because the prince of hell is in his heart. And so we know that a soul can be damned even before it is dead. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.) Walking in the night I. THE OF JUDAS’ S CRIME. 1. The night has become intolerable to him now. 2. He was not always a traitor. 3. He may even have been brought into Christ’ s company that he might be saved. 4. But over all good his evil heart obtains supremacy. II. THE OF HIS . 1. His conscience works up with the terror of night upon it, but without the accents of hope. 2. His repentance leads only to suicide--a further crime. III. THE OF HIS DOOM. “ It had been better for that man, if he had never been born.” (J. H. Hargreaves.) The harmony of nature with our mental moods We always like to have nature in sympathy with our sorrows and our joys; to have our moods of mind quite in accordance with our moods of seasons. Thus, if you and I are in distress, there is a sort of melancholy pleasure to find the sky gloomy with clouds; and when the shutter which tells our loss, and hides our mourning from the world and casts a shadow upon our home, lets in through the crevice the sunbeam, and we hear the happy crowd enjoying it outside, that intrusion seems quite an injury to our feelings. We take our moods of mind from those of nature, and this is a mystery, of course, which we cannot explain; but we have pleasure in finding that her moods are in accordance with ours, that she is bright when we are bright, that she is in sackcloth when we are sad. And so it is quite a relief to our feelings, just as it must have been to the Evangelists, to find “ it was night.” Such a deed could not have been done before the face of God’ s smiling sun. (C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.) Moral seasons There is a moral night upon the soul of every sinful creature, just as there has been a day spring in the soul of every true believer. (C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.) Now is the Son of Man glorified. The triple glorification I. THE OF THE SON OF MAN IN AND BY HIS . This language is strange here. It would not have been wonderful at Jordan or on the Mount of Transfiguration. Observe that it is as “ the Son of Man” He is glorified, i.e., His glory 1. As the perfect man was displayed in and by His sufferings. Man’ s excellence consists in entire conformity to God’ s will. Of this Christ was all through possessed, but more particularly when at the supreme moment to do God’ s will He died for man. 2. As the representative man, as typified by the vicarious sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, and by the “ Kinsman Redeemer.” How glorious this was. 3. As the God-man, as illustrated by the supernatural portents before and at the Crucifixion, which made the Centurion exclaim, “ Surely this is the Son of God.” 4. As the predicted man. At no period of His history were so many prophecies fulfilled. It is probable that the words suggest that there should be spectators: that there should not only be glory, but glorification. If so, Christ was glorified in His sufferings by the dying thief, God the Father, and the holy angels. Some expositors refer the words to the Lord’ s supper--a glorious display of His authority as the Legislator, and His love as theSaviour of the Church. II. THE OF GOD IN THE SON OF MAN . This is a strange declaration. We can understand how God is glorified in heaven, in the universe, in His government, and in multitudes of saved beings, but how in the sufferings of His Son? Now was “ the hour and power of darkness.” The words “ in Him” explain the mystery. By men and devils God was dishonoured, but by Christ honoured. God was glorified in Christ’ s sufferings 1. Viewed in themselves, they glorify (1) The Divine power which inflicted them and sustained the Sufferer. Never was sorrow like Christ’ s sorrow, but never was God’ s grace so abundant. Christ crucified is “ the power of God.” (2) The Divine wisdom. Christ’ s sufferings (a) Effectually answer an important end--the eternal salvation of man. (b) By means different from any that created wisdom could have suggested. (3) The Divine justice (Romans 3:25-26). (4) The Divine faithfulness in exactly fulfilling so many predictions. (5) The Divine benignity (chap. 3:16). 2. Viewed in their results. (1) In the events themselves. The enemy of God is baffled, evil in the form of sin and suffering prevented, and good in the form of holiness and happiness produced. (2) In those events as the results of Christ’ s suffering--to bring such results out of such means. Satan’ s ruin rises out of his apparent triumph; life is the fruit of death; favour arises out of wrath, etc. III. THE BY GOD OF THE SON OF MAN, ON ACCOUNT OF HIS , IN OF GOD BEING BY HIM IN THEM. 1. God glorified the Son of Man (1) Under His sufferings, which tested His power to bear and His disposition to obey, by sustaining Him amid them. (2) After His sufferings--“ straightway,” “ It is finished,” paradise, the resurrection, ascension, session, and the judgment to come. 2. God glorified the Son of Man in Himself. If God is glorified in Him He shall be glorified in God. 3. God’ s glorification of the Son of Man was the result and reward of God being glorified in and by the Son of Man’ s sufferings. Conclusion: The subject bids us 1. Rest with entire confidence on the finished work of Christ as the ground of our hope. 2. Imitate the Son of Man in glorifying God and in seeking thus to be glorified by God. 3. Cooperate, though at an infinite distance, with God in glorifying the Son of Man. (J. Brown, D. D.) God glorified in His Son showed what glory accrued from the sufferings of Christ. I. TO THE SON HIMSELF. 1. In completing His engagements with the Father. 2. In redeeming from death a ruined world. II. TO THE FATHER THROUGH THE SON. 1. In the display of all His perfections. 2. In the accomplishment of all His purposes. III. TO THE SON BY AND WITH THE FATHER. 1. In the testimonies borne to Him under His sufferings. 2. In the triumphant issue of them. 3. In the benefits conferred in consideration of them. (C. Simeon, M. A.) God glorified in His Son By I. HIS TO GOD’ S LAW. II. HIS OF GOD’ S WILL. III. HIS TO GOD’ S . IV. HIS DEATH FOR GOD’ S . (S. S. Times.) The cross the glory of Christ and God There is something very weird and awful in the brief note of time--“ it was night.” In immediate connection comes this singular burst of triumph--“ Therefore.” Now that that “ spot in their feast of charity” had disappeared, the Master felt at ease; and, like some stream, out of the bed of which a black rock has been taken, His words flow more freely. How intensely real and human the narrative becomes when we see that Christ, too, felt the oppression of an uncongenial presence, and was relieved and glad at its removal! The departure of the traitor evoked these words of triumph in another way. The match was lit that was to be applied to the train. He had gone out on his dark errand, and that brought the Cross within measurable distance of our Lord. What Judas went to do was the beginning of Christ’ s glorifying. I. THE SON OF MAN IN HIS CROSS. 1. There is a double aspect under which our Lord regarded His sufferings. On the one hand we mark the innocent shrinking of His manhood. And yet, side by side with that, there is the reaching out almost with eagerness to bring the Cross nearer. Like the pellucid Rhine and the turbid Moselle, that flow side by side, so the shrinking and the desire were contemporaneous in Christ’ s mind. Here we have the triumphant anticipation rising to the surface, and conquering for a time the shrinking. 2. Why did Christ think of His Cross as a glorifying? The New Testament generally represents it as the lowest point of His degradation; John’ s Gospel always represents it as the highest point of His glory. And both are true; just as the zenith of our sky is the nadir for these on the other side of the world. The same fact which in one aspect sounds humiliating, in another is glorious. The Cross glorified Christ because (1) It was the revelation of His heart. All His life long He had been trying to tell the world how much He loved it; but in His death it comes in a flood, and pours itself upon the world. For Him to be known was to be glorified. So pure and perfect was He, that revelation of His character and glorification of Himself were one and the same thing. We can fancy a mother in the anticipation of shame, and suffering, and death for the sake of some prodigal child, forgetting all, because all are absorbed in the one thought: “ If I bear them, my poor, rebellious child will know at last how much I loved him.” So Christ yearns to impart the knowledge of Himself to us because by that knowledge we may be won to His love and service. (2) It is His throne of saving power. Christ could not have spoken such words as these if He had simply thought of His death as a Plato or a John Howard might have thought of his, as being the close of his activity for the welfare of his fellows. If His death is His glorifying, it must be because in that death something is done which was not completed by the life, however fair; by the words, however wise and tender; by the works of power, however restorative and healing. Here is something more, viz., that His Cross is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. He is glorified therein, not as a Socrates might be glorified by his calm and noble death; but because in that death He wrestled with and overcame our foes, and because, like the Jewish hero, dying, He pulled down the house which our tyrants had built, and overwhelmed them in its ruins. 3. And so there blend, in that last act, the two contradictory ideas of glory and shame; like some sky, all full of dark thunderclouds, and yet between them the brightest blue and the blazing sunshine. In the Cross Death crowns Him the Prince of Life, and His Cross is His throne. “ He endured the Cross, despising the shame;” and lo! the shame flashed up into the very brightness of glory, and the ignominy and the suffering became the jewels of His crown. II. GOD IN THE SON OF MAN. The mystery deepens as we advance. That God shall be glorified in a man is not strange, but it is strange that the act in which He was glorified was the death of an innocent man, and must imply 1. That God was in Christ, in some singular and eminent manner. If His whole human life and nature were the brightest manifestation of God, we can understand that the Cross was the highest point of the revelation of the Divine nature, and so was the glorifying of God in Him. But if we take any lower view of the relation between God and Christ, these words are a world too wide for the facts of the case. 2. That these sufferings bore no relation to the deserts of the person who endured them. If Christ, with His pure and perfect character, suffered so, then, if they have any bearing at all on the character of God, they cast a shadow rather than a light upon the Divine government. But if we can say, “ God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself;” that His death was the death of Him whom God had appointed to live and die for us, and to bear our sins then, though deep mysteries come with the thought, still we can see that, in a very unique manner, God is glorified and exalted in His death. For, if the dying Christ be the son of God dying for us, then the Cross glorifies God, because it teaches us that the glory of the Divine character is the Divine love. If there be nothing Diviner in God than His giving of Himself to His creatures, then the Cross towers above all other revelations. And is it not so? Has it not scattered doubts that lay like mountains of ice upon man’ s heart? Has it not delivered men from the dreams of gods angry, capricious, vengeful, etc.? Has it not taught us that love is God, and God is love? III. THE SON OF MAN IN THE FATHER. The mysteries deepen as we advance. “ If God be glorified in Him,” etc. Do these words sound to you as if they expressed no more than the confidence of a good man, who, when he was dying, believed that he would be accepted of a loving Father, and would be at rest from his sufferings? 1. “ In Himself.” That is the obvious antithesis to the previous clause, a glorifying which consisted in a manifestation to the external universe, whereas this is a glorifying within the depths of the Divine nature. And the best commentary is: “ Father! glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” We get a glimpse into the very centre of the brightness of God; and there, walking in that beneficent furnace, we see “ One like unto the Son of Man.” 2. This reception into the bosom of the Father is given to the Son of Man. The brother of us all, in His manhood, enters into that same glory, which, from the beginning, the Eternal Word had with God. 3. That glorifying is set forth as commencing immediately--“ straightway.” At the instant, then, that He said, “ It is finished,” and all that the Cross could do to glorify God was done, at that instant there began, with God’ s glorifying of the Son in Himself. It began in that Paradise into which we know that upon that day He entered. It was manifested to the world when He raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory. It reached a still higher point when, ascending up on high, a dominion and a throne and a glory were given to Him. It shaft rise to its highest manifestation before an assembled world, when He shall come in His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations. Conclusion: From that elevation He looks down ready to bless each poor creature here. And if we will but take Him as our Saviour, His all-prevalent prayer, presented within the veil for us, will certainly be fulfilled at last--“ Father, I will that they also whom Thou has given Me,” etc. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Three important facts in relation to Christ I. A PAINFUL REMOVED FROM HIS HEART. “ Therefore when he was gone out” 1. An object of moral offence had been removed from His vision. It is never felt to be a pleasant thing to have in your social circle a corrupt man, especially if you know he has plotted against you. The exit of such a man is felt to be a relief. 2. An obstruction to the free utterance of His love had been removed from amongst His hearers. Parents and pastors have often things to say which they will not utter in the presence of a stranger or enemy. When the traitor was gone Christ’ s tongue was free. II. A OF THE GREAT PURPOSE OF HIS LIFE. The expression “ Son of Man” occurs sixty-six times. Not son of a tribe, nation, sect, or He would have had tribal, etc., peculiarities. He realized the Divine ideal of what man ought to be. 1. The true glory of a man is the realization of the Divine purpose in his Ills. The universe is glorious because it realizes the Divine purpose. The gospel is glorified when it transforms men into the image of God. 2. The man who thus realizes the Divine purpose glorifies God also. We see most of God’ s glory in his life who works out the Divine will in a Godlike life. This is what Christ felt now. III. A TENDER FOR THE COMING TRIAL OF HIS (John 13:33). 1. He informs them of that trial. A trial that would crush if it came unexpectedly may fall lightly when anticipated. 2. He informs them in the language of endearment. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 13:33(See Dr. Maclaren’ s sermon on John 7:33-34). Little Children.-- Needing I. CARE. II. . III. . IV. . (S. S. Times.) Whither I go, ye cannot come … now.-- I. A picture of THE ’ S PRESENT . II. A promise of THE ’ S FUTURE . (S. S. Times.) The conditions of being with Christ Just as these friends of Christ, though they loved Him very truly, and understood Him a little, were a long way from being ready to follow Him, and needed the schooling of the Cross, and Olivet, and Pentecost, as well as the discipline of life and toil, before they were fully ripe for the harvest, so we, for the most part, have to pass through analogous training before we are prepared for the place which Christ has prepared for us. Certainly, so soon as a heart has trusted Christ, it is capable of entering where He is, and the real reason why the disciples could not come where He went was that they did not yet clearly know Him as the Divine Sacrifice for theirs and the world’ s sins, and, however much they believed in Him as Messiah, had not yet, nor could have, the knowledge on which they could found their trust in Him as their Saviour. But, while that is true, it is also true that each advance in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour will bring with it capacity to advance further into the heart of the far-off land, and to see more of the King in His beauty. So, as long as His friends were wrapped in such dark clouds of misconception and error, as long as their Christian characters were so imperfect and incomplete as they were at the time of my text being spoken, they could not go thither and follow Him. But it was a diminishing impossibility, and day by day they approximated more and more to His likeness, because they understood Him more, and trusted Him more, and loved Him more, and grew towards Him, and, therefore, day by day became more and more able to enter into that kingdom. (A. Maclaren,, D. D.) John 13:34A new commandment I give unto you The new commandment I. WHY IS THIS CALLED NEW? 1. Negatively. Not as if it was not enjoined before (1 John 2:7; Leviticus 19:18). 2. Positively. (1) Newly freed from the false glosses of the Jews (Matthew 5:43-44). (2) Newly infused into the heart as well as commanded. (3) Christ adds a new authority to it, and a new obligation on us. (4) Because it is so excellent (Psalms 32:3). (5) It is to be performed according to a new pattern, viz., Christ’ s love to us. II. BY WHAT POWER DOES CHRIST LAY HIS UPON US? 1. AS God (John 20:28). 2. As King and head of the Church (Matthew 28:18). III. WHAT LOVE IS IT WE SHOULD HAVE TO ONE ANOTHER? 1. Pray for one another (1 Timothy 2:1). 2. Forgive one another (Matthew 6:14). 3. Help one another. (1) In temporals (Matthew 7:11). (2) In spirituals (Leviticus 19:17). 4. Sympathize with one another. (1) In prosperity (Romans 12:15). (2) In adversity. 5. Relieve one another’ s necessities (1) In obedience to God (1 John 3:17). (2) Proportionably to our estates (1 Corinthians 16:2). (3) Humbly, not thinking to merit thereby (Luke 17:10). IV. HOW IS CHRIST’ S LOVE TO US TO BE A PATTERN FOR OUR LOVE? 1. Negatively. (1) Not that we can suffer so much for others as He has done for us. (2) Nor do so much; for He has obtained the pardon of our sins 1 John 2:2); peace with God (Romans 5:1); heaven John 14:2). 2. Positively. (1) Our love must proceed from the same principles. (a) Obedience. (b) Compassion. (2) In the same manner. (a) Readily (Titus 3:1; Psalms 40:7-8). (b) Sincerely (c) Effectually, in deeds as well as words (1 John 4:18). (d) Humbly, thinking nothing too low for us to do for others Philippians 2:6-8). (e) Constantly (verse 1). (3) To the same objects, His enemies (Romans 8:1-39; Romans 9:1-33; Romans 10:1-21). (4) To the same ends (a) God’ s glory (John 17:4; 1 Corinthians 10:31). (b) Others good (Acts 10:38). V. Use. Consider 1. Unless you love others you have no love for God (1 John 3:17). 2. It is the fulfilling of all the law (Romans 13:9). 3. No duty is accepted without it (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). 4. It is the badge of a Christian (verse 35). 5. It is an everlasting grace (1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 Corinthians 13:13). 6. Christ will judge us according to this command (Matthew 25:45). (Bp. Beveridge.) The new commandment It is new, because I. FOUNDED ON A NEW . 1. Our relation to Christ. We are united to Him by faith, and receive from Him, as the branches from the vine, the life by which we live. 2. This new relation to Christ involves a new relation with each other. We are brethren, members of one family--“ as many as received Him,” etc. 3. On this new relation the new commandment is based. As the relationship of nature gives rise to natural affection, so this spiritual one begets love in accordance with itself. It is more than philanthropy, patriotism, party attachment, friendship, etc. It is love to those who love Christ and are beloved by Him: love to the Elder Brother in His brethren and ours. II. IN A NEW FORM--“ As I have loved you.” It must be the same in kind, although in a lesser degree; just as a drop from the ocean, or a ray from the sun, is the same as the fulness from which it comes. These conversations exhibit several characteristics which we ought to imitate. 1. Tender consideration for each others’ needs. He thought of them more than He thought of Himself. 2. Humble ministration to the welfare of the brethren (John 13:4-5). Christ’ s was not a sentimental, but a practical love. 3. Self-sacrifice for our sakes. “ He gave Himself,” not merely certain blessings, and not merely to teach and minister, but to die. “ Greater love hath no man than this.” “ We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” III. BY A NEW POWER. It is in this respect that the new covenant differs so widely from the old. The law enjoined the duty of loving our neighbour; but it had not sufficient motive power to carry the commandment into effect. Hence it remained a dead letter, and spoke only to condemn. But the new commandment is “ The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” and its word is with power. It is attended by the constraining influence of the Saviour’ s love. “ We have not received the Spirit of fear,” etc. As we contemplate this “ great love,” we become the subjects of a new emotion of admiration and gratitude. Above all, His Spirit writes the new commandment on the fleshy tables of our hearts. IV. FOR A NEW PURPOSE (John 13:35). It is not only a law to be fulfilled; but its fulfilment is a distinction and evidence of our relation to Christ. 1. A peculiar distinction. Of old time, discipleship was known by dress, language, meat, and drinks, creeds, etc.; but our Lord declares that the distinct mark of His disciples shall be, beyond everything else, love like His own. 2. A certain distinction. For what is there more directly opposed to the sinfulness of the human heart? And what is the saving change, but one from selfishness to love? “ We know that we have passed from death unto life, because,” etc. 3. An influential distinction. For wherever it exists, men cannot but recognize us, and Christ in us, and be attracted to His love and service. (B. Dale, M. A.) The new commandment We all know the Ten Commandments, is there another besides? Yes, says--I. THE WORLD. “ Thou shalt not be found out in breaking any of the ten.” It acknowledges their excellence, breaks them, and strives to conceal that it has done so, wishing above all things to escape detection. This is the object which the bad part of the world pursues with all its cleverness and energy. II. THE CHURCH. It is remarkable that in the version of the Ten Commandments by the oldest of existing sects, the Samaritans, this is added, “ Thou shalt build an altar on Mount Gerizim, and there thou shalt worship.” And for commandments such as this, half the energies of Christendom have been spent, and spent in vain. III. CHRIST. “ Love one another.” We can imagine the surprise of the apostles, “ What I are not the ten enough, or the two; may we not rest and be thankful in these?” True in these are the substance of all duty; but there is a craving in the human heart for something beyond mere duty, for a commandment which should be at once old and new--new with all the varying circumstances of time and thought and feeling, and which should give a new, fresh, undying impulse to its ten elder sisters. The ten older commandments were written on blocks of stone, as if to teach us that all great and good works were like that primeval granite of Sinai, more solid and enduring than all the other strata, cutting across all the secondary and artificial distinctions of mankind. As that granite block itself had been fused and wrought together by the central fire, so the Christian law of duty, in order to fully perform its work in the world, must have been warmed and fed at the source of a central fire of its own--love of God and love of man. And that central fire itself is kept alive by the consciousness that there has been in the world a love above all other love--the love of Christ. Learn the importance 1. Of personal kindness. 2. Systematic beneficence. 3. Making the most and the best of everyone. (Dean Stanley.) The new commandment It is new because love I. RENEWS US. II. MAKES US NEW . III. MAKES US HEIRS OF A NEW . IV. ENABLES US TO SING A NEW SONG. (Bp. Christ. Wordsworth.) The new commandment What are Christ’ s parting instructions to His Church? How are His followers to vanquish all the banded opposition of the world? Does He counsel them to amass wealth? to secure high offices? to acquire learning? to equip fleets and armies? to employ craft and intrigue? No, the first disciples were poor, destitute of learning, humble and despised, nor did they ever kill or wound a single human being. The power with which the Redeemer arms His Church is love. I. THE . 1. Love is the only badge by which the Church of Christ is known (John 13:35). Armies have their banners, and families their heraldry. In the days of Christ, Jews and Gentiles had their emblems--different sects and schools being distinguished by symbols and mottoes. At this day, churches called Christian glory in names, titles, orders, and parade. But there is only one badge of the true Church which will be recognized and honoured by “ all men.” “ The banner over us is love.” 2. Love is the only law by which a Church of Christ is to be governed. Church government!--how much pride, prejudice, ambition, selfishness, cruelty, have been sanctified by this phrase. A king dabbling with astronomy once said, Had I been present when God arranged the solar system, I could have made some important suggestions. So vain men have thought as to the Saviour’ s regulation of His Church, and they have sought to improve His system. As in the natural world the Creator secures order without monotony, by forming each particle of matter with its own peculiar properties, and throwing around all substances the law of gravitation; so in the Church, there are many members and diversities of gifts, etc., but the law of love binds all into one harmonious whole. If love reign in a church, it will almost supersede discipline. 3. When from the internal administration of the Church we turn to its outward enterprise, we find a mission entirely of love. It is this which makes the gospel the religion suited to all climes and ages. 4. It is love which is to secure the perpetuity, and final and universal triumph of the Church. Force, stratagem, heredity, prescriptive authority, are the foundations of earthly kingdoms. Christ founded His empire on love. 5. Love is the glory, the happiness, the perfection of the Church of Christ. It is greater than faith and hope, because it comprehends them both; for it “ hopeth all things, believeth all things.” We every day see loving hearts hoping against hope, and trusting in spite of the basest perfidiousness. Love, indeed, is the crowning flower in which all the Christian graces will expand and bloom in eternity. The highest heaven knows nothing more exalted and blessed than love. II. IN WHAT SENSE IS IT NEW. 1. In the new principle to which it appeals. It is not attachment to a human being for his natural excellencies, but complacency in the image of God reflected by him. “ Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.” 2. In its extent--embracing all who are the children of God. All other ties and relations are subordinated to this religion--this new spiritual affinity which rebinds us to Christ and to each other. Separated from God, men are walled off from each other by selfish and hostile distinctions. To repair these unnatural breaches, the “ Son of God” became the “ Son of Man,” that He might attract us all to God, and unite us all to one another by new and heavenly ties. 3. Its spirituality. It is love not only for the bodies, but for the souls of our brethren. How few really and practically recognize the soul. In Christ’ s teachings the soul is everything. He heeded neither the trappings of the prince nor the rags of the beggar. Beneath all, through all, He saw a soul whose dignity and worth transcend finite thought. The only charge which His enemies could ever prove against Him was, “ This man receiveth sinners.” And, catching His spirit, what a new passion inflamed the souls of His disciples. 4. Its comprehensiveness; for it embraces and renders superfluous all other commands. III. THE EXAMPLE BY WHICH IT IS --“ As I have loved you.” A love 1. How attentive! as considerate and assiduous as the love of a woman. 2. How confiding! “ Having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Often had they been faithless. Yet He trusts them, opens His whole heart to them, and commits His cause to their keeping. 3. How condescending! Stooping to the most menial office of kindness and hospitality (John 13:4-5). 4. How compassionate! He not only pronounces every sin, however aggravated, pardonable, if only against Himself, but He is ingenious in finding apologies for all the weaknesses, even for the baseness and treachery, of those whom He had trusted. 5. How disinterested! He entirely forgets Himself when His friends are in sorrow or danger. (R. Fuller, D. D.) The new commandment These words fall strangely on our ears. A commandment to love! We have placed law and love in contrast, and have imagined affection to be below our reach. Yet Jesus enforces love. We are, therefore, reminded that love is within our own reach. Christ lays it upon us not as an ideal which we may admire, and which may exert some kind of influence on us, nor as a standard which we may attain to in heaven; but as a commandment. In what sense can it be called a new commandment? Surely in the old dispensation God commanded love. The newness of the law may be found in the prominent position which is given to it, and the standard set before us. The first fruit of the Spirit named in the list of graces is love. Christ especially singles out this affection as being illustrative of His own character, and giving most effectual testimony to Him. I. IN WHAT FORM MAY THIS NEW BE ?--“ As I have loved on you.” Study the love of Christ. His love showed itself 1. In a generous appreciation of the characters of those around Him. In that little group there existed the utmost differences. You find a publican like Matthew, a man with very dim perceptions like Philip; a determined and resolute doubter like Thomas; a boastful man like Peter, etc. These are men from whom we should be inclined to shrink, but Christ could appreciate them all. Be quick, like Christ, to see virtues, and slow to see faults. Generous appreciation will encourage public men to hold their position. It will encourage men of worth, who are retiring in disposition, to come to the front and bear their share of public duty. Unkind criticism will keep in the background men who can best serve the Church and commonwealth. This generous appreciation is a wonderful force to elevate society. Suspicion has a tendency to create what it suspects. If you suspect a lad of untruthfulness, you are tempting him to falsehood. If high estimates are formed of us by others, we are encouraged to rise to the estimate. 2. In patient endurance! “ When reviled He reviled not again.” We are to forbear one another and to forgive one another, even as God, for Christ’ s sake, has forgiven us. If we are doing good work we cannot afford to be turned aside by any unkindness. God has overcome our evil with His good, and turned the hostile forces of our nature into helpful influences for His purposes. Thus seek to conquer the evil which you have to endure by good. It is the noblest of all triumphs. 3. In unselfish service. (1) In little deeds of kindness, of which sometimes the recipients shall know nothing, but which shall bring some fresh gladness and hope into their lives. (2) In words. What did God give you the power of speech for? Is it to hide your feelings? Love will die like a smothered fire if you give it no expression. (3) In looks. If your face is dull, sad, cross, to the extent of your influence you are saddening all that come within your circle. II. WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT OF SUCH CHRIST-LIKE LOVE? 1. That you can sympathise with God. On many sides of the Divine nature you cannot sympathise with Him. (1) With His mighty power, for you have not an arm like His. (2) With Divine wisdom. (3) With burning purity. (4) But you can sympathise with His love. You can feel for men as God feels for them. 2. That you will show your union with Christ (verse 35). No Christian grace exercises so much influence on the thoughts of men. They are not able to appreciate Christian holiness, prayerfulness, zeal; but Christlike love they can. 3. Such love will gladden your own life as well as the lives of others. There is perhaps no joy greater than that of loving. The bliss of the blessed God lies chiefly in His loving heart. (C. B. Symes, B. A.) The new commandment It was new because He had only then come to explain it; it was new because it could not have been conceived before His life exhibited its meaning; it was new because the love which He showed was something altogether beyond the power of man to have imagined for himself; and as in science we reckon him to be the discoverer of a new law, who rises above the guesses and glimpses of His predecessors, and establishes upon new ground, and in a manner which can never afterwards be questioned, some great principle which had been perhaps partly conceived before, so I think we may say, that the law of brotherly love, as illustrated by the example of the Lord, which stamps the great principle of selfishness as a vile and execrable principle, might be truly described as a new commandment which Christ gave to His disciples. (Bp. H. Goodwin.) The new commandment and the old Christ is our Lawgiver as well as our Saviour. And He made obedience to His laws the test and the manifestation of love to Him (John 14:15). The Church of Christ is in fact the spiritual Israel. Israel according to the flesh had their laws fitted for their place in God’ s purposes; we have ours adapted to our position also. And we may well be thankful when we compare the two codes together. Theirs, as necessary in a state of imperfection and bondage, was cumbrous and intricate. Of all the commands of the old law, none remain for us, but those which are based on the nature of God, and His attributes. And our new commandment comes to us, not sanctioned by lightnings and thunderings, etc. but from the dying lips of our dearest Friend; it is prefaced by His deed of deep humiliation, is embosomed in His words of consolation and peace--is enforced by His own constraining example. A new commandment. And what is it which we are to hear from the lips of Divine wisdom, after such an announcement? Long had the world disobeyed His law written in the conscience; and then He defined that law, and wrote it on tables of stone, and set apart a people for Himself, among whom it might be observed. But that people had rejected Him, and disobeyed His laws. And now, what new commandment will He promulgate to His rebellious world? What, to the Gentile, sunk in moral degradation--what to the Jew, mocking Him with empty hypocrisy? Shall it not surpass in strictness and in terror all that have gone before? Shall it not be such as to awe the passions into submission to awaken the conscience into energy, to drive the sinner to repentance or to his doom? Nay! Can He, who invited to Him the weary and heavy laden, speak aught but words of gentleness and comfort? Had God’ s new revelation of His will been an increase in severity, would this Messenger have been sent to make it? Anew commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. (Dean Alford.) Christ’ s law of love Look for a moment, by way of recall, at three or four characteristics of that love which Christ showed to His disciples. In the first place, love was the principle of His life. Some men are like Western farmers who have their one hundred and sixty acres, and put one hundred and fifty-nine and a half acres in hay and grain and grass for the cattle, and half an acre around the door is a garden and grass-plot, and a fraction of that the wife cultivates in flowers. So men give the larger part of their life to self or justice or righteousness or fair-dealing, and they cultivate a little plot with flowers which they call love (and generally they are very like the Western farmers in that they leave the wife to raise all the flowers). know, love was not thus a mere incident of Christ’ s life. It was the essence of His life. He lived for love. Love was the inspiration of His life. It was a wise love, not a mere sentiment, not a mere blind enthusiasm. It was well considered. He measured men and adapted His gifts to their capacities. Christ’ s love was not either a mere sentimental love. It was not a love that cannot bear to look upon suffering, or that intervenes to stop all suffering. It was not a love that could not rebuke and reprove. There was flash in the eyes of His love, and there was thunder, sometimes, in the tones of His love. He loved, too, with infinite patience and long-suffering. He loved not only with benevolence--that is, well wishing to all men, and with pity--that is, with love to those that are in suffering, but with mercy--that is, love to those who do not deserve love. He loved when love andconscience seemed to antagonize each other. Impossible I do you say? Well, then, let us say frankly it is impossible to be a Christian. Impossible? Then impossible to follow Christ. Not human nature? No, it is not human nature. It is Divine nature: and that is the very object of Christianity--to confer upon all who will be the disciples of Christ a Divine nature, not a mere human nature; that they may be lifted up out of the plane of the human, and walk in the plane and atmosphere of the Divine ever more. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.) The new commandment of love to one another The commandment of love issued appropriately at the Feast of Love, and not long before the great Act of Love. For the love of Christ was no fine saying; it cost Him His life to say these words. It is difficult to grasp the meaning of this command, arising from the fact that words change their meaning. Love is, by conventional usage, appropriated to one species of human affection, which, in the commoner men, is most selfish. Nor is charity a perfect symbol of His meaning; for that is now identified with almsgiving. Benevolence or philanthropy, in derivation, come nearer to the idea; but yet you feel at once that these words are too tame and cold. We have no sufficient word. “ As I have loved you:” that alone expounds it. Take I. THE NOVELTY of the law 1. As a historical fact. Men before that had travelled, but the spectacle of a Paul crossing oceans not to conquer kingdoms, to hive up knowledge, to accumulate stores for self, but to give and to spend himself--was new in the history of the world. The celestial fire had touched the hearts of men and their hearts flamed; and it caught, and spread, and would not stop. Read the account given by Tertullian of the marvellous rapidity with which the Christians increased, and you are reminded of one of those vast armies of ants which move across a country in irresistible myriads, drowned by thousands in rivers, cut off by fire, consumed by men and beast, and yet fresh hordes succeeding interminably to supply their place. A new voice was heard; man longing to burst the false distinctions which had kept the best hearts from each other so long. And all this from Judaea--the narrowest, most intolerant nation on the face of the earth. 2. In extent. It was in literal words, an old Commandment, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” But the difference lay in extent in which the words were understood. By “ neighbour,” the Jew meant his countrymen; so that the rabbinical gloss was, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy.” And what the Gentile understood by the extent of the law of love, we may learn from their best and wisest, who thanked heaven that he was born a man, and not a brute--a Greek, and not a barbarian. But Christ said, “ Love your enemies.” And as a specimen of a neighbour he specially selected one of that nation whom every Jew had been taught to hate. And just as the application of electricity to the innumerable wants of human life and to new ends is reckoned a new discovery (though the fact has been familiar to the Indian child and applied for ages to his childish sports), so the extension of this grand principle of Love to all the possible cases and persons--even though the principle was applied long before in love to friends, country, and relations--is truly and properly “ a new commandment.” 3. In being made the central principle of a system. Never had obedience before been trusted to a principle, it had always been hedged round by a law. Now it was reserved for One to pierce down into the springs of human action, and to proclaim the simplicity of its machinery. “ Love,” said the apostle after Him--“ Love is the fulfilling of the law.” I may abstain from murder and theft, deterred by law and its penalties. But I may also rise into the Spirit of Charity; then I am free from the law; the law no more binds me, now that I love my neighbour, than the dyke built to keep in the sea at high tide restrains it when that sea has sunk to low watermark. II. THE SPIRIT OR MEASURE of the law--“ As I have loved you.” Broadly, the love of Christ was the spirit of giving all He had to give--“ Greater love hath no man than this,” etc. “ He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” These words, meant as taunt, were really the noblest panegyric. How could He, having saved others? How can any keep what he gives? Love gives itself. The mother spends herself in giving life to her child; the soldier dies for him country; nay, even the artist produces nothing that will live, except so far as he has merged his very being in his work. That spirit of self-giving manifests itself in 1. Considerate kindness. Take three cases. (1) When He fed the people with bread, there was a tenderness which, not absorbed in His own great designs, provided for the satisfaction of the lowest wants. (2) “ Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” He did not grudge from duty the interval of relaxation. (3) “ Woman, behold thy son!” In that hour of death torture, He could think of her desolate state when He was gone, and with delicate, thoughtful attention provide for her well-being. There are people who would do great acts; but because they wait for great opportunities, life passes and the acts of love are not done at all. Observe, this considerateness of Christ was shown in little things. And life is made up of infinitesimals. And these trifles prepared for larger deeds. The one who will be found in trial capable of great acts of love is ever the one who is always doing considerate small ones. 2. It was never foiled by the unworthiness of those on whom it had once been bestowed. There was everything to shake His trust in humanity. As we mix in life there comes disappointment, and the danger is a reaction of desolating and universal mistrust. The only preservation from this withering of the heart is love. The strength of affection is a proof, not of the worthiness of the object, but of the largeness of the soul which loves. The might of a river depends not on the quality of the soil through which it passes, but on the inexhaustibleness and depth of the spring from which it proceeds. The greater minds cleave to the smaller with more force than the other to it. Love trusts on--expects better things. And more, it is this trusting love that makes men what they are trusted to be, so realizing itself. When the crews of the fleet of Britain knew that they were expected to do their duty, they did their duty. And it is on this principle that Christ wins the hearts of His redeemed. He trusted the doubting Thomas; and Thomas arose with a faith worthy “ of his Lord and his God.” He would not suffer even the lie of Peter to shake His conviction that Peter might love him yet; and Peter answered nobly to that sublime forgiveness. Therefore, come what may, hold fast to love. Learn not to love merely, but to love as He loved. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Love one another A little girl, three or four years old, learned the Bible text, “ Love one another.” “ What does love one another mean?” asked her next eldest sister, in honest doubt as to the meaning. “ Why, I must love you and you must love me; and I’ m one and you’ re another” was the answer. Who can improve on that? (J. L. Nye.) The winning power of love Alexander the Great, being asked how he had been able at so early an age and in so short a period to conquer such vast regions, and establish so great a name, replied, “ I used my enemies so well that I compelled them to be my friends; and I treated my friends with such constant regard that they became unalterably attached to me.” The victorious power of love A lady brought a little ragged orphan girl to her house for a playmate for her three daughters. But the little thing would venture no further than the lobby, where she sat crying as if her heart would break. The lady said to her daughters there was one secret of four letters she thought would win the little one. The eldest girl tried her doll, the second her new muff, but still the little stranger kept on weeping. At length the youngest sister ran into the lobby, sat down beside her, began to weep with her, and then put her arms about her neck and kissed her, till at last she easily got her into the room; and then it was found that the secret was love. (Clerical Library.) Love the cure for coldness One of the common complaints in our day, in Christian societies, is this, “ There is no love among us.” Sometimes the complaint is uttered in holy sorrow. But sometimes it only means, “ I am not getting my just share of love from others; the place feels cold around me.” If this is what the complaint means, the remedy is that the complainer should love till he warms up the whole neighbourhood. I am to love when I am not loved. I am to love when I am suspected. I am to love when men are trying to discover what selfish feeling moves me, or what my price is. I am to love those who do not care for my love. I am to love even when I have indignation. I am to love as the sun shines--its beams going forth on all sides without asking for an object, and “ there is nothing hid from the heat thereof;” the love I show being the love of God in me. The eleventh commandment I. ITS . We are to have love like that of Christ. 1. In one sense this is impossible. “ Measure the waters in the hollow of thine hand; mete out heaven with a span,” etc.--these are measurable things, but the love of Christ is measureless. To love like Paul--like John--would be a lofty aim, but who can love like Christ? 2. He asks not that our love should equal, but resemble His; not that it should be of the same strength, but of the same kind. A pearl of dew will not hold the sun, but it may hold a sparkle of its light. A child, by the sea, trying to catch the waves, cannot hold the ocean in a tiny shell, but he may hold a drop of the ocean water. “ There is an ocean of love in My heart,” says Christ, “ let a drop of that ocean be received into yours.” 3. Divine love, therefore, is but another name for that Divine life which animates all the disciples. None need despair of his ability to obey his Lord’ s will, for Christ gives the love which He commands, and you need only ask in order to have (Ephesians 3:14-19). II. THE MODE OF ACTION it prescribes. If we love as Christ loves 1. We shall be ready to love others before they love us. If He had waited until we loved Him, where should we now have been? “ Herein is love, not that we loved Him, but that He loved us.” His love explains His death, but what can explain His love? Sublime as it is, our love must acknowledge no lower law. 2. Our love will be a practical thing. Some are in danger of becoming mere religious sentimentalists. They feel much, but do little. They are ready for sympathy, but not for sacrifice. They are the sensitive plants of the Church, and not fruit-bearing trees of righteousness. This fine sensibility, cherished for its own sake, and having no outforce in deeds for the good of others, both weakens the soul and itself. “ Abiding alone,” it is but soft effeminacy or weak indulgence; luxury, not love. Christ has not said, “ By love feel for one another,” merely; but “ By love serve one another.” Let us interpret His law by His life. His love speaks to us through a glorious deed; then our love, like His, must speak through action. His love found expression through a sacrifice; then ours must express itself through sacrifice. His love was displayed when “ He bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows;” then, “ bear ye one another’ s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Redemption was His own personal act. Then our love is not to have a mere representative utterance. 3. Our love will be humble. All love is lowly. You often see a loving purpose kept in cheek by a haughty will, and the ice of pride seal the river of love. You have seen the father and son proudly stand apart. Each yearns to fling himself into the other’ s embrace, but pride forbids the younger to confess his fault, and the elder his sorrowful tenderness. But where love lives in its strength it will be stronger than death. It will come down, cast aside state and ceremony, submit to a thousand indignities, stoop to save, and “ stand at the door and knock.” If you would know what humility can do, study redeeming love, and though Christ sits enthroned on the riches of the universe His heart is still unchanged. Like the sunshine that falls with magical flicker on pearl and ruby, lance and armour, in the royal hall--yet overflows the shepherd’ s home, and quivers through the grating of the prisoner’ s cell--floods the noblest scenes with day, yet makes a joy for the insect--so does the Saviour’ s love, not deterred by our unworthiness, come down to teach and bless the meanest and the lowliest life in the new creation. 4. Our love must be bountiful. Love can never do enough for its object. When you were lost, “ unsearchable riches” were poured forth as the price of your redemption. When you were found, what was the language of the Heart of Hearts? “ Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him,” etc. When, therefore, your heart is disposed to give a brother disciple but a scanty and penurious affection remember “ Freely ye have received, freely give.” 5. We shall breathe a spirit of gentleness and patience towards the erring or offending members of the Christian brotherhood. The effects flowing from the violation of this principle might fill a library with sad histories. 6. We shall love all the disciples. Christ is not now speaking of His universal love, but of His peculiar and discriminating love to those who have accepted Him, and who are already partakers of His life. He loves them, as you love your child none the less because it is now only learning to read, or just beginning, with many a fall, to totter along alone. He loves all His disciples, and all are His disciples, who, however they differ in other respects, unite in the sentiment, “ for us to live is Christ.” 7. Our love will last forever. Whom He loves He always loves. This is an inference from His nature. III. ITS NOVELTY. It is a new commandment 1. As it enjoins love after a new model. Love had always been commanded, but never before had it been so exemplified. 2. As it is addressed to a peculiar class of God’ s subjects, and is a law for the new creation alone. The old commandments were given to the world this new commandment to the Church. 3. As it arose out of a new necessity, and was intended to be the distinguishing sign of Christ’ s disciples. To prevent confusion, and secure a defined place in society, each office and every class has its peculiar sign. “ As every lord giveth a certain livery to his servants, charity is the very livery of Christ. Our Saviour, which is the Lord above all lords, would have His servants known by their badge, which is love” (Latimer). 4. As it has a new impressiveness--an affecting power all its own. The old commandments had a power to alarm; this, when truly understood, has a power to subdue; they smote the conscience, this captivates the heart. (C. Stanford, D. D.) The eleventh commandment The little town of Anworth was the home and the pride of that sweet soul, Rutherford, the Covenanter. One Saturday evening, so the story runs, his household were gathered together for their usual cotter’ s Saturday night’ s devotions, when an alarm was heard at the outer door. A stranger sought admission. He was welcomed with true hospitality, and took his place in the circle of those who were then answering the varied questions in the Catechism. It so chanced that the question, “ How many commandments are there?” came to this newcomer, as the one to which he was to make reply, and instantly he answered, “ Eleven.” “ What!” said Rutherford; “ a man so experienced in life as you seem to be, and so educated in the law and the Scripture of God, not to know that there are but ten commandments!” The stranger answered, “‘ A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.’” Startled by the answer, Rutherford proceeded with his service. The next morning before the hour of service, he walked from his humble manse along that pathway which is still spoken of as “ Rutherford’ s Walk,” towards the little church. It was early in the day, and he scarcely expected to meet anyone in the path; but over in the wood he heard the voice of someone in supplication. The moment he listened he recognized the stranger’ s tone. He sought him out, and demanded to know who he was. The stranger answered, “ My name is Usher.” He was the Archbishop and Primate of all Ireland. Having heard much of the piety of the Presbyterian Rutherford, he had, in this secret way, sought his society that he might judge for himself. Their hearts flowed together in the common devotion which they both felt toward the Lord Jesus, their Master; and when the hour of service came, together the Covenanter and the prelate walked to the little Anworth church, and Usher of Ireland preached to the Covenanters of Scotland on the new commandment, that “ ye love one another.” His presence there, his welcome there, his spirit and his words, were expositions of the truth of that which the Lord gave as the summing up of His own life. (S. H.Tyng, D. D.) Brotherly love (Sermon to Children):--Brotherly love should show itself I. In to each other. Love will have to get outlet. If I do not see brotherly kindness, I conclude that there is not brotherly love. 1. There will be kind words. In most families there are many unkind, scolding, fault finding, angry, irritating, coarse, uncourteous words. Not to speak of kindness, there is sometimes scarcely common civility. There is a rudeness--demanding things of each other--driving each other out of the way, etc., when, if a request were made politely, it would be so much better. I like to see children in a kindly way bidding each other “ Good night,” and again, greeting each other when they meet in the morning. All this would change the whole face of many a family circle. Though you may say it is but words, it would soon tell on everything else. And do not tell tales. A “ tell-tale” is an ugly character (Leviticus 19:16; Proverbs 26:20; Proverbs 26:22). Did you ever notice an echo? If you fire a gun, or sing, or whistle, or shout, or whisper, you get exactly what you give. And so it has passed into a proverb, “ Kind words awaken kind echoes.” 2. There will be kind looks, You know how much there is in a look--a displeased, angry, sulky, scornful, off-taking look. How they can vex and do a world of mischief! But if looks can do evil, they can also do good. There are kind, encouraging, comforting, winning looks. And just as “ kind words produce kind echoes,” so kind looks call forth a return in kind. You must have noticed what an effect the look you gave has sometimes had on a dog. In the case of an infant, how you can, without difficulty, make him either laugh or cry merely by a look. That tells what a look can do for good or evil. Others will look at you just as you look at them. You have looked into a mirror, and seen reflected there your own face. As you looked pleased or cross, so did it. Just so is it in a family. 3. There will be kind deeds. I have heard of a mother who was in the habit of asking her children, each night before they went to bed, what they had done that day to make others happy. It would be well for the members of each family to ask themselves that. How many little services of love you might render without being asked. Now, if you love each other you will pray for each other. This is one of the greatest of all kindnesses, as it is one of the most tender of all bonds, and will be likely to lead to all the rest. II. In for each other. To “ sympathise” is to feel for, or rather with one. I have heard of a girl who, alter having lost a little brother, went back to school; and I have this account of her from one of her companions: “ All the time she studied her lesson, she hid her face in her book and cried. I felt so sorry that I hid my face on the same book and cried with her. Then she looked up, and put her arms around my neck; but I do not know why she said I had done her so much good.” It was the power of sympathy. When there is any trial, be it light or heavy, pressing on another’ s mind there is nothing you can give to be compared to sympathy. It is wonderful the effect of even inquiring for the sick one. I am sometimes amazed, in asking children about a little brother or sister who has been ill, when they say they “ don’ t know!” Why do they not know? Had they lost their tongue, or had they not rather lost their heart? When your brother has got up in his class; when he has carried off a prize; when he has got some present; when his birthday has come round; when he is raised up from a sick bed--give him your hearty sympathy. III. In SELF-DENIAL. Selfishness is the great cause of unhappiness in many homes. Where children are unselfish they must agree--they cannot fail to be happy. But the reverse meets us on every hand in most painful and humbling ways. I once offered a friend a copy of a little book for his three children. But, no. He said, “ I must have three or none, otherwise there will be no satisfying them.” I am not sure but they had even to be all of the same colour. Two of these books were thus very much thrown away. Now, it should not be so. IV. In and . “ Love suffereth long,” etc. In every family there is much to annoy. But love enables one to bear a great deal, and keeps the wheels running smoothly. Especially is it the part of the elder members of the family to bear with the younger, as it is the duty of the younger to pay deference to the elder. You have got some unkind, rude, impudent thing said or done to you. Your first impulse is to pay the evildoer back in his own coin. Do you ask, “ What should I do?” I say, Bear it. Try to be like God--“ slow to wrath.” Some one gives the advice to “ count ten before you speak,” when you are angry. Even in the worst case, “ a soft answer turneth away wrath.” There is a saying, “ He begins the fight who strikes the second blow.” That is true of the tongue as well as of the hand. V. In . A mother can forgive when none else can because she loves. God can forgive when none else can, because He loves. And if we love like Him we shall forgive like Him. To be unforgiving, whether young or old, is one of the worst characters that could be given to one. (J. H. Wilson, M. A.) The social principles of Christianity (1):--In what sense is this a new commandment? This epithet distinguishes it from 1. The Mosaic code. The law of Moses was mainly an embodiment of justice. It admitted the cultivation of mutual love, and even enjoined it. But this was not its salient characteristic. Whereas the gospel is preeminently and characteristically a law of love. Again, the love which Judaism recognized was inferior in quality. A Jew behoved to love his neighbour as himself. A Christian must love his brother so as to sacrifice himself if need be. 2. From all common worldly affection. There are (1) Instinctive affections, such as the parental, filial, etc. (2) Elective affections, such as those of friendship, patriotism, etc. (3) But none of these afford the highest exhibition, development, and gratification of man’ s social nature. In a manner far to surpass them Christian love is to be cherished. Christ has introduced among men an altogether new principle of social existence. This social aspect of the gospel will be fully displayed in heaven. Meanwhile it is intended to show itself in churches. The singularity of this affection will better appear if we consider a few of its distinctive features. Consider I. ITS BASIS. It is not founded upon any natural relationship or sentiment, but upon a common participation in the benefits of Christ’ s redemption. Observe 1. How this circumstance connects us with the same loving Lord. 2. How it supposes in each of us the same spiritual experience. 3. How it guarantees in each and all the same elements of a pure and estimable character. 4. How it furnishes the prospect of our being united together in perfect blessedness forever and ever. Is there any other love which has such a profound and solemn basis as this? II. ITS PURITY. III. ITS DEVOTED FERROUS. It should lead us, if need be, to die for our brethren, after the example of Christ. IV. ITS . 1. It supposes times of persecution and trial, and then it is serviceable to encourage and comfort us. 2. It relates to the exigencies of our spiritual cultivation, and is intended to supply the means of instruction and guidance. 3. It glances at the work which we are to do for Christ in the world, and it ensures strength, cooperation, and success. Apply specially to Church members. The Church ought to be the happiest circle of our acquaintance. Do we observe the new commandment? The way to promote it is to love Christ more. Thus to act is most important for the sake of our piety, our peace, and our usefulness. (T. G. Horton.) John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples The social principles of Christianity (2):--How seldom is this test of true discipleship to Christ appealed to. We look for orthodoxy of sentiment, moral character, denominational zeal, attention to ordinances, but we are apt to overlook the one great criterion laid down in the text. Quite in harmony with this verse Isaiah 1 John 3:14. Consider I. THE NATURE OF THIS LOVE. It consists mainly of two elements, an admiration of the peculiar spiritual character of God’ s saints, and a deep personal sympathy with them in their struggles and temptations. To these elements may sometimes be added a high sense of gratitude to them if they have been made instrumental in conveying light, grace, and comfort to our minds, and a hearty desire of pure benevolence to do them good and be helpers of their joy. It will be borne in mind that the objects of this love are Christian believers, simply as such. Now II. HOW DOES SUCH AN EVINCE OUR TO CHRIST? 1. Because He commands it; therefore not to cherish it is to disobey Him, and prove that we do not love Him. 2. Because the character of the saints is the very one which we are striving to acquire if we are followers of Christ; and therefore we cannot help but admire it. 3. As Christians we are called to pass through the same tribulations and trials as they have; therefore we are constrained to sympathy with them according to that fundamental law of human nature--“ A fellow feeling makes the whole world kin.” 4. Gratitude for spiritual mercies is only possible to those who have ceased to be carnally-minded: while, again, to receive spiritual mercies through the medium of a fellow believer must attach us specially to him, on the common principle of human gratitude. 5. To love God’ s people so as to be willing to go through great sacrifices for them, must surely be impossible to the worldly mind, because it is at enmity with God and cannot honestly seek the good of those who are born of Him. If, therefore, any man loves us as Christian disciples, the inference must be that he is a disciple and has ceased to stand connected with our enemies. III. THIS AS A PROOF OF OUR . 1. Nothing else, without this, can prove a man to be a child of God. He that is destitute of this love, whatever else he possesses, abideth in death. 2. Where this exists, nothing else need be looked for. Conclusions: 1. As a professed believer test your sincerity by this principle: Do you love the followers of Jesus? 2. Judge of your growth or declension in grace by your waxing or waning love to the brethren. 3. Prepare for greater usefulness by seeking more of this love to the people of God. 4. Appeal to the unconverted and inquiring. We want you amongst us only if you can love us; and we want you to love us only because you and we together have learned to love the Saviour. (T. G. Horton.) The badge of true Christians I. CHRIST WOULD HAVE EVERY KNOWN TO BE A . And this cannot be otherwise. The fire of grace will ever show itself both by smoke and light. But wherein must we show ourselves disciples of Christ? In five things. 1. The disciples were called by Christ’ s voice, and depended on His mouth for instruction and direction. So must we be made disciples by the word of Christ. But if thou carest not for the preaching of the Word, or canst content thyself in thy ignorance, or with some confused knowledge, thou showest thou art no disciple. 2. The disciples being called, denied themselves, left all for Christ, and acknowledged no master but Him alone (Matthew 4:22; Matthew 23:8; Matthew 23:10). If thou likewise be a disciple thou must renounce all other masters and all employments which will not stand with Christianity. 3. The disciples were called to be near attendants of Christ and perform all His commandments (John 8:31; John 15:14-15). 4. The disciples were glad of Christ’ s presence, and when He was absent their hearts were full of sorrow. If thou art a disciple thy soul rejoiceth in the presence of Christ, in His ordinances, in the directions and consolations of His Spirit. 5. The disciples had commission and commandment to make other disciples, accordingly were diligent in their callings, spending themselves in doing good to others. Dost thou gain others to Christ and form thine own course to His? II. CHRIST WOULD HAVE ALL KNOW HIS BY THIS BADGE OF LOVE 1 John 2:10). 1. What is this true Christian love? (1) The act--love; it is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). No natural man is capable of it, nor any but such as are entered into God’ s school (1 Thessalonians 4:9). (2) The object of it is good men, and all good men (Ephesians 1:15), even the poorest and meanest, without accepting of persons; it must not offend one of the little ones. (3) The bond of this love is goodness. Christian love loves not only in the truth, but for the truth (2 John 1:2). (4) The rule of this love is according to Christ (verse 34). Thus (a) He loved us first, before we loved Him. (b) When we were enemies. (c) Not for His benefit, but ours. (d) To make us better. 1. Constantly, even to the end. 2. This is a badge of a true Christian man. And that for these reasons (1) It is a note of God’ s child, or one that is born of God (1 John 4:7-8; 1 John 3:14). (2) It is a note of the Spirit’ s presence, who dwells nowhere but in the heart of a sound Christian. (3) A lively and inseparable fruit of living faith is a badge of a true Christian, but true love of the brethren is such a fruit of living faith Galatians 5:6). (4) A note of a true member of the Church is a badge of a true Christian, but it is a note of a true member of the Church when the lion and lamb feed together, etc. (Isaiah 11:7-8), that is, when a man brought into the kingdom of Christ putteth off his fierce, lionish, and poisonful affection, and is now become tame and tractable as a lamb of Christ’ s fold, or as a child resembles his heavenly Father, who is loving and merciful. (T. Taylor.) The badge of discipleship Love was to be the grand distinctive sign which hence on through all the ages was to denote, distinguish, and define the followers of Jesus from all other guilds, schools, creeds, and combinations under heaven. The Pharisee was known by his broad phylactery, the Sadducee was known by his contempt for ritual and his ostentatious contrast to the rival sect. The priests and scribes were marked out by their peculiar robes; the Roman, by his toga, or the eagle on his helmet according as he was citizen or soldier. Today the Brahmin is known by the mystic character cut upon his breast and brow, and the Mahometan by his headgear. The soldier’ s red, the sailor’ s blue, the cleric’ s black--by this, that, and the other sign, classes, creeds, professions, preferences, races, are distinguished the wide world over. Some time ago there was quite a warm burst of indignation from our Scottish fellow countrymen because the distinctive plaids and colours of the tartan, which denote the difference between the Campbell, the Mackintosh, and Macgregor, were in peril. Well, to those who are Israelites indeed, those who are enlisted under the banner of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, those who are faithful followers of Jesus, and bend a loyal knee to Him of the Crown of Thorns--to these Jesus says, “ I institute a new order. In it neither star, ribbon,medal, stripe, nor outward garb, mark, or colour shall find place; but you shall wear a token by which all men shall take knowledge of you that you belong to Me, ‘ By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.’” (J. Jackson Wray.) The criterion of discipleship Love is I. A SIMPLE TEST. Had it been the adoption of a certain set of beliefs, or conformity to certain rites, it would have been too complicated to be of easy application or practical use; but here how simple--“ He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,” etc. II. AN TEST. Other tests, even the best, are of doubtful accuracy; the application may lead to wrong conclusions. But this is infallible, and will determine the destiny of all men at the last day (Matthew 25:1-46). III. A SOLEMN TEST. If we apply it to the Christians of this age and country, where men hate, cheat, and fight each other, how few will prove genuine disciples l Could all men stand it the world would be a paradise. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The proof of discipleship The marks of a true disciple of any master are I. BELIEF in his master’ s words. II. to his master’ s person. III. to his master’ s precepts. IV. of his master’ s example. Obedience and imitation may be summed up in one word--love. If we love Christ we shall believe, obey, and imitate Him; and we must show that love by loving one another. (J. R. Bailey.) John 13:36-38 Lord, whither goest Thou?Unlawful curiosity It is a common fault among us to be more inquisitive concerning things secret, which belong to God only, than concerning things revealed, which belong to us and to our children--more desirous to have our curiosity gratified, than our conscience directed--to know what is done in heaven, than what we ought to do to getthither. It is easy to observe it in the conversation of Christians, how soon a discourse of what is plain and edifying is dropped, and no more is said of it; the subject is exhausted; while matter of doubtful disputation runs into an endless strife of words. (M. Henry.) Peter’ s curiosity and presumption I. His . The question was occasioned by John 13:33; and as soon as our Saviour paused, Peter suddenly makes the inquiry. 1. Here is something which we know not how entirely to censure. The imperfections of good men betray their excellences. We see Peter’ s love to his Lord, and concern for His presence. When Elijah was going to be taken up, Elisha followed him. When Jonathan and David were about to separate, they fell upon each other’ s neck and wept. When, at Miletus, “ Paul kneeled down and prayed with the brethren, they all wept sore.” But think of Christ! What a Benefactor, what a Master was He! Could Peter then view His removal with indifference? 2. But if our Saviour blames Peter, Peter was blameworthy. He was a little too curious--a fault by no means uncommon. For how many are more anxious to know secret things than to improve the things revealed. We are all fender of speculation than practice. Whereas, we ought to remember, that, in a state where we have so much to do, and so little time to do it in, we should secure ourselves from all superfluous engagements. 3. Our Saviour, therefore, never encouraged this principle. When a man asked Him, “ Lord, are there few that shall be saved?” He did not even notice the trifler: He said unto them, “ Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” So here He shows His judgment of the inquiry by eluding it. But though He does not gratify, He instructs. In two senses, Peter was to follow Him, in due time (1) To glory. It was what our Lord prayed for, and what He promised John 17:24). So we are to be forever with the Lord. He has gone to prepare a place for us. But for every thing there is a season. He could not follow Him now. Though our Saviour’ s hour was come, Peter’ s was not; though the Master had finished the work given Him to do, the servant had scarcely begun his--and “ we are all immortal till our work is done.” Christians are sometimes impatient, but this is wrong. “ The best frame we can be in is to be ready to go, and willing to stay.” The eagerness is not only wrong, but useless. What would it avail the husbandman to fret? Would this bring harvest the sooner? He cannot reap in May, the order of nature forbids it. There is also an order in grace. Why cannot you follow Him now? You have an aged mother to support, or an infant charge to rear, or an institution of charity to found, or to exemplify religion in your practice, or to recommend it by your sufferings. (2) To the cross. But he could not follow Him now, because he had not sufficient faith and resolution to suffer. This shows us that our Lord’ s dealings with His people are founded not only in kindness, but in wisdom and prudence. He adapts the burden to the shoulder, or fits the shoulder to the burden. “ As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof--and what is better, sufficient for it too will be the grace. II. HIS (verses 37, 38). Ah, Peter, this is sooner said than done. Life is not so easily parted with. You trembled upon the water; be not so confident now. Note 1. The crime was heinous. To deny his Master was unfaithfulness: his Friend, perfidy: his Benefactor, ingratitude: his Redeemer, impiety. This, too, was the conduct of one who had been called from a low condition in life to the high honour of apostleship--of one who had seen His miracles, etc. Three aggravations are here mentioned. (1) He was warned--he could not plead ignorance. (2) The sin was immediately committed. Things soon wear off from the mind; but here was no time for forgetfulness. (3) It was repeated, “ thrice.” A man may be surprised and overtaken in a fault; but, the moment after, reflection may return; and he may flee. But Peter, after his first offence, renews it again--and again--and each time waxes worse and worse. 2. The lessons: 1. The foreknowledge of our Saviour. 2. What reason have we to exclaim, with David, “ Lord, what is man!” Survey him under the greatest advantages and obligations. There is nothing too vile for us to fall into, if we are left of Him who alone can keep us from failing. 3. How little we are acquainted with ourselves. Peter spoke according to his feelings. But sincerity is not constancy. There is a goodness, compared to the morning cloud and early dew, that soon passeth away. Peter did not consider the difference between an impulse and a principle; between an hour of ease and a moment of trial. Hazael’ s case is a strong one; but it will apply, in various degrees, to ourselves. God only knows how much of our innocency has been owing to principle, or the absence of temptation; or what we should have been in conditions the reverse of those which have sheltered our weakness. 4. The most confident are the most exposed; and the most humble the most safe. “ When I am weak, then I am most strong.” “ Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” Conclusion: We do not wonder at this sad revolution in Peter. He is proud and self-sufficient. “ Pride goes before destruction,” etc. I never saw a professor of religion full of confidence in himself, and speaking censoriously of others, but who fell into some gross crime, or into some great calamity. (W. Jay.) Not now, but afterwards 1. Children will have everything now: “ afterwards” is a word that plagues them. As life advances we become more intimately acquainted with the word, and come to like it. We know that yesterday has gone beyond recall, and that tomorrow is coming and always available. 2. This is the second time the same thing has been said, on this same occasion, to the same man, and both times in a Master’ s tone, delivered with a brother’ s heart and voice (John 13:7). So this child-man was constantly put back and told to wait till the clock struck, and the hour had come when he should have the keener vision, the more sensitive heart, the more receptive spirit and understanding mind. This was the training that Peter needed. He was a man who wanted everything done instantaneously. The Lord knowing this said the most vexing words, “ Not now.” We want it too, and when we are mad with impatience He says it quietly and sovereignly; but adds “ afterwards” in the same tone, for Christ lived in tomorrow. I. LOOK AT THIS IN THE OF 1. Revelation. We cannot follow any great doctrine in all the range of its thoughts and in all the possibilities of its issues. Who can explain the atonement? We begin in the right spirit when we begin in the spirit of waiting. I need the cross; I accept it, but cannot tell the measure of the oblation or its efficacy. But afterwards there will be a higher school, additional facilities, then I shall know. 2. The mysteries of daily providence. “ Thou canst not follow Me” --not from one locality to another, but in thought, purpose, and sovereign decree. Who can keep pace with the Great Walker? I halt, stagger, fall, half rise again, and am down before I can straighten myself I cannot follow except in the dim far distance now, but afterward. Our strange constitution, individuality, sufferings, are heavy burdens. Explanation would help us to bear them. Why should I wear this chain? be encompassed by this cloud? The answer is “ not now, but afterward.” “ No chastening, for the present seemeth joyous,” etc. II. THERE CANNOT BE AN OF UNLESS THERE IS A NOW OF . 1. The “ now” is not evacuated of all meaning. To obey in the darkness is the great thing. Were I to say, “ I will trust God in the seventh trouble because He has delivered me in six,” it would be historically true and full of solace, but no indication of growth in grace. But he has grown in grace who says, “ Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.” 2. Obedience now is revelation afterward. He that doeth the will shall know of the doctrine. We do not know the joy which is laid up for us in complete obedience to the words, “ Stand still and see the salvation of God.” The next piece of knowledge comes easily. Were the child to be compelled to overleap seven years of the process of education, he would be overcome. What he has to do is to read the next line, and then to turn over the next page. What we as Christian students have to do is to keep to the present truth, do the next duty, and then the revelation will steal upon us without the violence of haste and the unrest of surprise. We cannot tell how the light grows, so in mental illumination and spiritual culture. (J. Parker, D. D.) “ The “ now” and “ then” of following Christ The first words spoken to Peter were “ Follow Me” ; almost the last were “ Thou canst not follow Me now.” After a long attachment to the Saviour it was a hard word. There is, however, always a ” staying hand” in life as well as a “ beckoning.” The pillar of cloud moves and halts. I. THE PRESENT. When had it been that Simon could not go with his Master? He had accompanied Him to Bethany when seeking rest after tumult and turmoil; to the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus was pre-glorified. Now he may not follow Him. Nor was this strange. The high priest only could enter the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, and Peter might not understand, but we do, that the great Day of Atonement had dawned. On to the cross, into the tomb, within the veil, only Jesus must go. Yet by this access to God was given. And now into the crucified life, as dead with Christ to the world; into the risen life, as new creatures in Him, we may follow Jesus; but further than this we may not go now; into the ascension life we are forbidden to enter at present, but we shall be permitted afterwards. II. THE FUTURE. It was in the human life Jesus commanded Peter to follow Him, saying He would make them “ fishers of men.” They were to observe His modes of action and drink of His Spirit. And so with us. But is it not rather into the higher risen life that He bids us follow Him--the life of pardon, peace, sanctity, and spiritual power? And to this He is “ the Way” ; and by following that Way we shall reach the “ afterwards” of His presence and glory (1 John 3:2). (I. Watts.) Why cannot I follow Thee now? 1. Why, indeed? There could be no doubt of his sincerity and attachment to his Master. I cannot believe that our Lord merely referred to the time for Peter’ s departure. Further, Peter did follow Christ so far as he could without dying; for there was still a considerable portion of ground to be traversed by those sacred feet. There lay before Him the way of sorrows, crowned with the cross on Calvary. Up to that point Simon Peter might have followed Christ, although he did not. Our Lord was referring to this first, though His words may have reached on to the glory that was at last to be revealed. The time was already come when His disciples were to be scattered and to leave Him alone. And knowing this, He says, “ Whither I go,” etc. And it is equally true that this same Simon Peter did follow the Lord Jesus Christ afterwards in the same sense in which he was now precluded from following Him. 2. As we ask Peter’ s question, we are led to consider our own experience. Is it not true that there sometimes seems to rise up in the very path of our inclinations and spiritual aspirations a strange, indescribable barrier--an inexorable “ cannot” --that seems to bar the way to further progress? It is wise to ask this question, for if it be honestly put, the Holy Spirit of God will sooner or later show us what gives strength to this cruel and pitiless “ cannot.” Why could not Simon follow Jesus then? Because I. HE THOUGHT HE COULD. “ I will lay down my life for Thy sake.” There is nothing more common amongst Christians than the admission of our frailty and weakness. But what a great difference there is between making orthodox admissions and having a real consciousness of our own helplessness and dependence on a higher power. Sometimes, feeling ourselves to be a little weaker than we should be, we are ashamed of our infirmity. And sometimes, taught by many disasters, we entertain serious apprehensions about ourselves; but it is wonderful how self-confidence rebounds from the most distressing humiliations. We are quite determined to be more careful in the future. But how slow we are to abandon all confidence in the flesh! And it is not until we have learnt our helpless dependence that we can hope to follow Jesus. For flesh and blood can no more participate in the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings than they can inherit the kingdom of God. But Simon Peter was a man of strong determination; and such characters find it very hard to renounce all confidence in their moral vigour. It seemed incredible that he should turn his back upon his Master, and we can scarcely bring ourselves to believe that we could condescend to the sin, which subsequently we commit; and then by and by we learn our weakness amidst bitter tears, as Simon Peter did. II. HE WAS AT THIS TIME WALKING BY SIGHT RATHER THAN BY FAITH. We do not reach the life of real faith till we are fully conscious of our own helplessness. How can we really trust Christ unless we have thoroughly learnt to distrust ourselves? Peter, walking by sight, his firmness was greatly dependent upon outward circumstances. As long as he saw Christ performing prodigies, or greeted by hosannas, it appeared easy to follow Him; but when all His glory seemed departed, his courage forsook him. Ah! how many of us are fair-weather sailors 1 and how few in their daily life by faith possess themselves of God. III. HE WAS WALKING IN THE FLESH RATHER THAN IN THE SPIRIT. This same Peter, only a few weeks afterwards, when baptized with the Holy Ghost, stood before the rulers of his country with unblanched countenance, for that Master whom He denied. And for us also that Spirit is given. This qualification for following Jesus is closely connected with the other. They represent the two sides of a healthy spiritual experience. Faith on our side brings us into contact with the Divine, and puts the soul in the attitude of reception; the gift of the Holy Ghost on God’ s side brings the Divine into contact with us, and fills us according to our capacity. “ Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? But, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit;” and Paul’ s charge against the Galatians is that, having begun in the Spirit, they had gone on to be made perfect in the flesh. Is not this where many of us lose our capacity to follow Christ? The energies of the flesh may be never so strong and well-intentioned, but they cannot take the place of the powers of the Holy Ghost; and there is a point beyond which they cannot go in disposing us to follow Christ. IV. BECAUSE HE WAS OUT OF WITH CHRIST’ S MIND. “ Can two walk together except they be agreed? “ Christ was meditating on the Father’ s will, while Simon Peter” savoured of the things that be of men.” And if we are to follow Jesus we must rise into the inner circle of His fellowship, and see things from His point of view. It is not by saying, “ I will follow Thee” that we succeed in following Him. It is by bringing our hearts into full harmony with His Divine will. And the first step towards accepting the Divine will is taken when we repose our full confidence in it. Jesus Christ was at this moment fulfilling in His own experience the language of the Psalm, “ Lo! I come to do Thy will.” Peter, on the other hand, preferred to trust to his own will. He had daydreams of material aggrandisement, and political power, so that he had no room for the fellowship of the mind of Jesus Christ. And when Jesus began to open up His own purposes to him, he shrank from them with aversion. Now, here is our lesson. You, who seek after popularity, who are wishing to be on good terms with the world, how can you follow Jesus until you are in sympathy with Him and with His aims? “ If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” V. HE WAS ALL THE WHILE TO A SIN--self-assertion, or self-confidence, mingled with not a little worldly pride. We see this evil habit of soul exhibiting itself in his attempt to dissuade his Master from facing the Cross; and in his conduct at the supper table. How many of you are kept back from following Jesus now by some cherished sin? Conclusion: Perhaps some of you are asking, “ Can we not go to heaven without all this?” We are not discussing the minimum qualification for heaven. What it is God only knows. We are talking of following Jesus, and that is far more to the purpose. I have no desire to solve the problem. Here is a consideration which is very profitable: How much spiritual benefit is it possible for a man to get out of his religion? (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.) The withheld completions of life St. Peter felt dimly that the life of Jesus was opening into something so large that all which had gone before would be seen to have been only the vestibule and preparation for what was yet to come. And just then, when his expectation was keenest, and his love most eager, an iron curtain fell across his view. The completion was withheld. And that is what is always happening. It would be intolerable to us if we could not trace tendencies in our life. If everything stood still, or only moved round in a circle, it would be a dreary and a dreadful thing to live. But we rejoice in life because it seems to be carrying us somewhere. We bear with incompleteness, because of the completion which is prophesied and hoped for. But it is the delay or barrier that distresses us. The tendency that is not allowed to reach the fulfilment, which alone gave it value, seems a mockery. You watch your plant growing, and see its wonderful building of the woody fibre, its twining of the strong roots, its busy life blood hurrying along its veins. Some morning the deep-red flower is blazing full blown on the stem, and all is plain. The completion has justified the process. But suppose the plant to have been all the time conscious of the coming flower, and yet to have felt itself held back from blossoming, would it not be a very puzzled and impatient and unhappy little plant? Now, there are certain conditions which are to all good life just what the flower is to the plant. There are certain fine results of feeling which are the true and recognized results of the best ways of living. But when the life, conscious of the character in itself out of which these conditions ought to come, finds that it pauses on the brink of its completion and cannot blossom, then come impatient questionings and doubts. I. LET US TAKE SOME DRAWN FROM DAILY LIFE. Suppose we have someone devoted to the good of others. A poor obscure woman in a sick room giving her days and nights, health and strength, to some poor invalid; or a great brilliant man out in the world neglecting his personal interests in the desire that some of the lagging causes of God may be helped forward. Now such a life has its legitimate completion. The natural flower which should crown that life is men’ s gratitude. Perhaps in ringing cheers, perhaps only in the silent pressure of the hand. The man who does no good expects no thanks. The selfish life feels and shows the unnaturalness if men make a mistake and lavish their gratitude upon it. It is as if men tied the glorious flower on to the top of a wooden post. And now suppose that the gratitude does not come. Is there no disappointment; no sense of a withheld completion? “ What does it mean?” you ask with wonder, even with impatience. And in answer to your question there are two things to he said. 1. That such a suspension of the legitimate result, shows a condition of disorder. The natural result of your self-devotion has not come because the state of things in which you live is unnatural. That must he recognized. If you let your surprise appear, men will misunderstand you, and cry, “ Oh, after all, then, you were not unselfish.” But they are wrong; you did not work for thanks. When the thanks do not come it is not your loss; it is the deranged state of things that troubles you. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, did He not feel its ingratitude? But was it not the disturbed world, where such ingratitude was possible, which lay at the bottom of His grief? When your child is ungrateful to you, is it the neglect of yourself, or the demoralized home, that saddens you? It is the violation of a deep, true instinct. 2. But because any state of things is unnatural, it does not prove that there can come out of it no blessing. So it is here. The service that a man does to his fellow men does not bring down their gratitude. What then? The withholding of the legitimate completion of his service may throw him back upon the nature of the act itself, and compel him to find his satisfaction there. That has been the support of many a despised reformer and misunderstood friend. The essence of any act is more and finer than its consequences are. Because Christ was “ despised and rejected of men,” we are able to see more clearly how truly He was His Father’ s “ well-beloved Son.” II. AS WE COME INTO THE REGIONS OF THIS TRUTH BECOMES MORE , and often much more puzzling. 1. Look, e.g., at the connection of duty and happiness. Happiness is the natural flower of duty. The good man ought to be a thoroughly bright and joyous man. To disbelieve this would be to bow down at the footstool of a devil or a chance, and which of these would be the most terrible master who can say? With this conviction strong in us we come to some good man’ s life, and that life is all gloomy. Duty is done day after day, but done in utter dreariness; good without gladness, shocking and perplexing our deep certainty that to be good and to be glad belong together. To such we want to bring the two before-mentioned considerations. To recognize that it is unnatural, and so to struggle against it, and yet, while it must last, to get what blessing we can out of it, by letting it drive us down deeper, for our joy and comfort, into the very act and fact of doing righteousness. The plant ought to come to flower, but if it fails it is still a plant. The duty should open into joy, but it may still be duty; still hold the duty. Do righteousness and forget happiness, and so it is most likely that happiness will come. This will help a man to be hopeful without impatience, and patient without despair. 2. But take another case. There are promises in the Bible which declare that dedication to God shall bring communion with God. “ Draw near to Me, and I will draw near to you.” And yet sometimes the man does give himself to God, and the promise seems to fail; and the man given to God trembles when he hears other men talk of the joy of Divine communion, because no such ever comes to him. Once more, to such a soul there are the same two messages to bring. Never, no matter how long such exclusion from the presence of God may seem to last, make up your mind to it that it is right; never cease to expect that you will be admitted to all the joy of your Father’ s felt love. And seek even more deeply the satisfaction which is in your consecration itself; and that you may find it, consecrate yourself more and more completely. There are two great anxieties which I do feel for such souls. One is, lest you should give up expecting that privilege of communion which is certainly yours in possibility, and must certainly be yours some day in possession. The other is, lest, since the consecration has not brought you the communion, you should think that the consecration is unreal, and so lose the power to be blessed by it, and the impulse to increase it. Multitudes of saints would tell you how in their hindered lives God kept them true to such experience as they had attained; and so it was that, by and by, either before or after the great enlightenment of death, the hindrance melted away, and they now “ follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth.” 3. Among Christ’ s promises there is none that is dearer to one class of minds than this. “ If any man wills to do My will, he shall know of the doctrine,” etc. Such souls have not found that the thousand curious questions of theology were answered, and all the mystery rolled away out of the sky of truth. Christ did not promise that. But they have found what He did promise: that, coming near to Him in obedience, they have been made sure of the true divinity that was in Him and in the teachings that He gave. Everywhere the flower of obedience is intelligence. Obey a man with cordial loyalty and you will understand him. And now, are there any of us from whom that completion seems to have been withheld? They must be sure, first, that they are right: that they have not really come to an essential faith that the doctrine of Jesus is divine. They must be sure, again, that their will to serve Christ has been indeed true. And what then? Sure of all this, still the darkness and the doubts remain. Then they must come to the two principles; they must say,” This is unnatural. I will not rest until my service of Christ completes itself in the knowledge of Christ; and yet all the time while I am waiting I will find joy in the service of Him, however dimly I may apprehend Him.” (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Readiness for death The most natural explanation of Christ’ s words to one who knew Him as intimately as Peter did was that, while shrinking from no danger Himself, He would not involve His followers in that danger. But Christ’ s meaning was that the time had not come for Peter to die. Had Peter known this he would still have desired thus to follow Christ: but in reality he was not ready. Desiring to die and readiness for death are two different things. I. THERE WAS A WORK YET TO BE DONE IN PETER. 1. His knowledge of Christ and of Divine things needed to be increased. He knew a great deal, being Divinely taught, but he had yet to learn that Christ must suffer and enter into His glory. Our Lord had indeed spoken of this, but nothing short of the event itself could teach the full truth. There was the teaching, too, supplied by the Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost. Compare what Peter knew in later years with what he knew now, and you see the reason for our Lord’ s words. Here, then, is one of the reasons why God keeps us here. We are to learn Christ as He can be learnt nowhere else, by experiencing His wonderful love and almighty grace. What will not men endure to become acquainted with man or nature? Shall we complain then because we are called for a season to endure hardships that we may know Christ. 2. His character needed chastening and strengthening. He was weaker morally than he thought himself. “ I will lay down,” etc. “ Wilt thou?” etc. Life was a furnace by means of which the baser parts of his character were re moved, and the truer and nobler made manifest. Peter went to heaven a better man than he would have done had he followed Christ now. There is no explanation of human life satisfactory but this. Once accepted the axe is laid at the root of all impatience and disgust. II. THERE WAS A WORK YET TO BE DONE BY PETER. 1. Indeed the work done in Peter was with a view to that to be done by him. To regard our knowledge and experience only as a fitting us for heaven is only selfishness. Christ taught that both were for the sake of others. They could only follow Him as they gave themselves for their fellow men, as He did. Doubtless Peter soon understood this, and acquiesced in the “ afterwards.” 2. Our work here is a preparation for the life hereafter. That will be no state of inactivity, and by serving Christ here in our inward and outward life we are to learn how to work for Him in heaven. (H. S. Toms.) Speech and action 1. Peter meant what he said, but he did not measure the meaning of his words. Sometimes our words are bigger than we are, and all exaggeration is weakness. Peter spoke out of his passion, not out of his reason, and the only passion that endures is reason-on-fire. If he had said less, he would have done more. The strongest man has only so much energy, and if that be spent in wild speech, it will not be spent in well-directed actions. Hear a man talk much about the poor, and the probability is he is not going to do much for the poor. How to spend our limited amount of energy to the greatest effect ought to be the inquiry of every earnest man. We want more Bible reading, deeper devotion--the strengthening of our inner life--and then the expenditure will be with ease, and be a great beneficence. 2. Thunder frightens people; the light is welcome to all, and how quietly it comes. “ Let your light so shine,” etc. I quote this passage because there is a danger lest this doctrine of action, as opposed to speech, should be perverted. Persons excuse themselves from saying anything about their religion, and say that they seek the shade. Don’ t believe them. The shade is never difficult to find. To talk about humility is not to practice it. Action and speech must go together. Love the shade, certainly; but remember that God made the light, and that everything does not grow in the shade, and don’ t undervalue the light. Are you sure that you are honest in professing to love the shade? Is it not when someone asks you to do something that you don’ t like that you become so modest? Christ wants speech and action, open conduct, that everybody, if needful, can see and estimate. There are times when the shadow will be right welcome; but let the light make the shade. 3. Peter’ s boast is one of the expressions which outdo themselves by their own bigness. Beware of outdoing yourself by your own words. There are men whose geese are all swans, and their swans eagles. Christ demands that our words be weighed and directed to His Cross and service. He asks no man to lay down his life, in this tragical sense, on a manufactured occasion--that will come by and by as a practical necessity. There are many who are ready to do some tremendous thing for us when we don’ t want anything tremendous done. A dying master told his old slave that he had arranged in his will that he (the slave) was to be buried in the family grave: to which he made reply, “ Ten dollars would suit Cato better.” We cannot live on tragedies--give us bread and water. “ My mother, sir!” says the wild youth, “ I would walk fifty miles on burning metal for her!” But his mother wants no filial piety so tragical as that; but she would like him home a little earlier at night. Don’ t say that you would lay down your life for her--lay down your glass, your pipe, your cards; lay down something as an instalment. “ My pastor! sir, I would die for him!” No, no; he wants nothing so tragic, all he wants is for you to take a sitting, come in time, and pay your subscription occasionally. 4. Peter’ s boast was a broken sentence. Christ only could complete it, and did. “ I have power to take it again.” To serve friends after death, as well as in it, was reserved for Him alone. Therefore economize life. You can serve others better by living than by dying--even Christ. “ I beseech you therefore … present your bodies a living sacrifice.” And if we live for Christ we shall certainly die for Him. (J. Parker, D. D.) We must watch our weak points A great commander was engaged in besieging a strongly fortified city. After a while he concentrated his forces at a point where the fortifications were stronger than at any other, and at two p.m., under a bright sun and a clear sky, ordered an assault. When expostulated with by an under officer, the commander replied: “ At this point such a general is in command. At this hour of the day he is invariably accustomed to retire for a long sleep. When informed of our approach he will deny the fact, and send a messenger for information. Before the messenger returns we shall gain possession of the fortress.” The facts turned out exactly as predicted. “ Yonder weak point,” said the commander, “ is held by General There is no use in attempting to surprise him; he is never for a moment off his guard.” (A. Mahan, D. D.) . John 14:1-4 Let not your heart be troubled.This clause is the true heading to the whole consolatory discourse, for it flows on in one channel of love and ends at last with the words, “ Be of good cheer.” Let not your heart be troubled We may well feel glad that God’ s people of old were men of like passions with ourselves. It is not the will of God that His people should “ be troubled” in heart; hence these blessed words. I. LET US TASTE OF THE BITTER WATERS. 1. Jesus was to die. It had finally dawned on them that they were to be left like sheep without a shepherd, and they were inconsolable. 2. He was to be betrayed by one of their own number. This pierced the hearts of the faithful. Of this bitter water the faithful at this hour are also made to drink. Reputed ministers under the banner of “ advanced thought” make war upon those eternal truths for which confessors contended and martyrs bled, and the saints in past ages have been sustained in their dying hours. 3. Peter’ s denial was to cause another pang to the faithful. II. LET US DRINK OF THE SWEET WATERS, TO REFRESH US. Our Master indicates the true means of comfort under every sort of disquietude. 1. “ Believe” not only My doctrine but in Me--a personal, living, ever-present, omnipotent Saviour. 2. Though He was going from them, He was only going to His Father’ s house. 3. A great many would follow Him to the Father’ s house. 4. “ I go to prepare a place for you,” not only “ many mansions” for our spirits, but an ultimate place of our risen bodies. We are apt to entertain cloudy ideas of the ultimate inheritance of the saints. Christ went away in body--not as a disembodied spirit, but as One who had eaten with His disciples, and whose body had been handled by them. His body needed a place. 5. The promise of His sure return--“ If I go,” etc. 6. And then He will “ receive” us. It will be (1) A courtly reception. (2) A marriage reception. 7. He will place us eternally where He is that we may be with Him. Can we not now, once for all, dismiss every fear in prospect of the endless bliss reserved for us? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Let not your hearts be troubled The disciples had been like lambs carried in the bosom of a loving shepherd. They were now about to be left by Him, and would be among the wolves and the terrors of the snowstorm. Frequently after conversion God, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, gives a period of repose; but for all of us there will come a time of trouble. Albeit that bark so lately launched upon a glassy sea has all her streamers flying, and rejoices in a favourable wind, let her captain remember that the sea is treacherous and that the stoutest vessel may find it more than difficult to outride a hurricane. But without due trial where would be our experience, and without the experience where increase of faith and triumph of love? We have each 1. A share of home trials. 2. Trials arising from the Church of God. In the best-ordered Church it must needs be that offences come. 3. Worst of all are soul troubles. Note that the advice of the text is I. TIMELY AND WISE. There is no need to say, “ Let not your heart be troubled,” when you are not in affliction. When all things go well with you, you will need, “ Let not your heart be exalted.” Now, it is the easiest thing in times of difficulty to let the heart be troubled, to give up and drift with the stream. Our Lord bids us pluck up heart, and here is the wisdom of His advice, namely 1. That a troubled heart will not help us in our difficulties or out of them. In time of drought lamentations have never brought showers. A man whose business was declining never multiplied his customers by unbelief. It is a dark night, but the darkness of your heart will not light a candle for you. 2. A doubting, fretful spirit takes from us the joys we have. You have not all you could wish, but you have still more than you deserve, and far more than some others; health perhaps, God certainly. There are flowers that bloom in winter if we have but grace to see them. 3. A troubled heart makes that which is bad worse. It magnifies, aggravates, caricatures. Unbelief makes out our difficulties to be most gigantic, and then it leads us to suppose that never soul had such difficulties before. But think of Baxter, Calvin, the martyrs, St. Paul, Christ. 4. A troubled heart is most dishonourable to God. It makes the Christian suspect eternal faithfulness and to doubt unchangeable love. Is this a little thing? The mischief of the Christian Church at large is a want of holy confidence in God. When once an army is demoralized by a want of spirit and the soldier assured that he cannot win the day, then the conclusion is that every man had better take care of himself and fly. But as long as we do not lose heart we have not lost the day. II. . “ Let not your heart be troubled.” “ Oh,” says somebody, “ that’ s easy to say but hard to do.” Here’ s a man who has fallen into a deep ditch, and you say to him, “ Don’ t be troubled about it.” “ Ah,” says he, “ that’ s very pretty for you that are standing up there, but how am I to be at ease while up to my neck in mire?” But if Jesus says it our heart need not be troubled. 1. He indicates that our resort must be to faith. If in thy worst times thou wouldst keep thy head above water, the swimming belt must be faith. In the olden times how were men kept from perishing but by faith (Hebrews 11:1-40)? There is nothing which it cannot do, but what can you do if you do not trust your God? and surely it ought not to be difficult for a child to believe his father. 2. The Saviour goes on to say, “ You believe in God” ; exercise that same faith with regard to the case in hand. The case in hand was this--could they rest upon One who was about to be crucified? “ You have believed God about other things, exercise that same faith about this.” You have believed God concerning pardon, believe God about the child, the wife, the money. 3. It ought to be a great deal easier for us to live above heart trouble than it was to the apostles. (1) You have experience. (2) You have received the Holy Spirit. (3) You have the whole of Scripture, which they had not. III. . Remember that the loving advice 1. Came from Jesus. The mother says to the child, “ Do not cry, child; be patient.” That sounds very differently from what it would have done if the schoolmaster or a stranger had spoken. His own face was towards the Cross, He was about to be troubled as never man was troubled. It is as if He wanted to monopolize all tears. 2. It points to Jesus. If you want comfort you must hear Jesus say, “ Believe also in Me.” No place for a child’ s aching head like its mother’ s bosom. No shadow of a great rock in this weary land like our Saviour’ s love consciously overshadowing us. 3. It speaks of Jesus. “ In My Father’ s house,” etc. Jesus is here seen in action. Think of all He said and did, and what He is doing for us now. 4. It hints that we are to be with Jesus forever. “ An hour with my God,” says the hymn, “ will make up for it all.” So it will; but what will an eternity with our God be? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Trouble not The words are I. NOT . They are not spoken by one who wishes to silence sorrow by superficial kindliness. Christ does not say we are to disarm ourselves of prudence and energy; but He does say where all these work torture and misery you are faithless. There is a Providence that goes before you. Your Heavenly Father knoweth what things you have need of. There is more than sorrow in this world. Sin is here, but even over it we triumph by a salvation which makes a redeemed life the most glorious life of all. From the lips of Christ this is a reasonable comfort, because He is able to make all grace abound towards us, and because sorrow goes forth as His angel to make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. II. NOT . This comfort is not exhaustible in time; nor can you exhaust its adaptation to the variety and speciality of personal sorrow. Does not Christ know your sorrow? We could gain no true comfort if Christ were merely a figure in history. If Christ had not risen the words are exhaustible. But Christ Himself has said, “ I am He that liveth,” etc. The value even of an earthly friend is in the inexhaustibility of sympathy. But at the best human friendship is shallow, but it is different with Christ’ s. His passeth knowledge. He who changes not and abideth always says, “ Let not your heart be troubled.” III. NOT . These are words of consolation for all the brothers and sisters of Jesus. 1. No little community has any special privilege of excommunicating, nor has any large one. 2. All through the ranges of experience, as well as through all the ages of time, Christ bids us take these words of comfort. First of all they should be applied to the heaviest sorrows. Here at Christ’ s Cross the most burdened may find release. IV. NOT ALONE . They do not simply relate to this time world or to our human and spiritual experiences here. Christ was comforting men concerning the rest that remaineth. And the spirit of man had never been so comforted before. He knew that hearts like ours would grasp every promise concerning the blessed dead. So these words should be taken up into the highest sphere to comfort us concerning those who sleep in Jesus that we sorrow not as those without hope, remembering that the risen Christ went back whence He came, to prepare a place for us. V. NOT ALONE . Christ does not say, “ Do not trouble about past sins, they are forgiven you.” No. He looks forward and comforts them in relation to their earthly future here and their home hereafter. And yet what did He see in the near perspective for many of them? On the edge of the horizon stand their crosses in the grey light of tomorrow. “ The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” Still He says, “ Do not trouble.” Let us take Christ at His word as they did. (W. M. Statham.) Christ’ s cure for trouble I. THE SORE OF THE WORLD IS TROUBLE AND ITS CURE IN FAITH. The seat of trouble is not in anything outside of us. It is the passions. Work, wakefulness, losses, bereavements, life’ s burdens and battles are not troubles. They are discipline. While the passions are in right and healthful play all these things may befall a man, and yet he may be wholly untroubled. On the other hand, a man may be surrounded by all that can minister to his comfort and dignity, and yet be troubled. In the latter case the man’ s passions are tossed about as the sea is when a tempest is on it; in the other case, they are serene as the lake in the fastnesses of a mountain. 1. The cause of all our trouble is the want of harmony between our wills and God’ s will. Let them accord, and then nothing in heaven or earth or hell can trouble us. But when we beat ourselves against the barriers erected by Omnipotence for our safety and good, then there is trouble. 2. Our trouble arises from our want of faith in the rightfulness and paramount authority of God’ s law. Men would not fight against God’ s law of morals if they could perceive that the law is perfectly good and right. Men have an impression that the law of God is a kind of Procrustes’ bed, cutting long men short and stretching short men long for arbitrary reasons, and not that every regulation is for man’ s sake and that of other creatures. And because men do not believe that the law of God is good they do not believe it is paramount. The origin of the trouble of every heart from the beginning is to be found in this failure of faith in God. It was so with Adam and Eve. There was no trouble while they trusted their Heavenly Father. You cannot seduce a man into wrong-doing until you shake his faith in God. It is this fundamental principle of which Jesus seems to have thought. This seems to me to mean two things (1) That belief in God is necessary to belief in Jesus. Jesus, then, is something more than a mere extraordinary specimen of humanity. (2) Simple belief in God has never cured trouble. It might have kept all trouble from the human heart if originally persevered in. But after sin had come into the world something else was necessary. And for this we can appeal to every man’ s experience. Do you not often feel that you would be freer and happier if God would throw His laws away, or still better, cease to exist? The fact is, that until we came to distinguish between creatures and children, our belief in God can produce no agreeable feelings toward Him. (a) We must hare some distinct evidence of His loving us. Of such love Jesus is the Demonstration. Belief in Jesus is belief in God incarnating Himself; putting Himself thus into most complete sympathy with us, making us feel that if any disasters should happen to us He would be the Person who most should feel it. This breaks down the opposition of our hearts to God. (b) Jesus declares Himself the Governor of the world. Providence is in the hands of my Brother. He manages the universe for the purposes of the atonement. Why should my heart be troubled? Is not the King of eternity my Friend? (3) Christ is my Leader through all places, narrow and dark and frightful, or large and wealthy and seductive. If I believe this and yield my heart to it, how my troubles disappear! Without Jesus, my heart is like the Galilean lake, night-bound and storm-lashed; when He says “ Peace,” there is a great calm. II. THEN FROM HIMSELF AS FROM A CENTRE HE SWEEPS THE OF SPACE AND , AND FOLDS IT ALL DOWN UPON EVERY HEART AS A . 1. “ In My Father’ s house are many mansions.” How this takes the vagueness out of our ideas of God! How our recently constructed scientific instruments enlarge and deepen this saying of Jesus! It is to be noticed that our intellects gravitate toward a common centre. There, in that centre, we seem to feel must be the chief place of God. There is an unhealthy fear of God which is not humble reverence. Men dread to think of Him. In our catechisms we put Him just as far away from our children as we can. Jesus does no such thing. God is a Person. He has a house and a household. He makes homes for His children. Why, then, should I be troubled that I am to die? My removal will be like the progress of a prince from castle to castle of his father’ s dominions. In each I shall find new work and new delights. 2. One of the phases of man’ s unbelief is that he does not seem to have space and time enough to carry forward to completion the grand projects of his intellect. But if you will believe in Jesus, this trouble shall disappear. In the boundless field of the universe, in the perpetual cycles of eternity, you shall find space and time enough to do all that you desire now or may desire hereafter. 3. Another thing Jesus utters to be a heart cure: “ If it were not so, I would have told you.” He will not only correct our thoughts of God, He will not let us have a false hope. Those men loved Him, and in some blind way had believed in Him. He knew that they had aspirations higher than the Temple and wider than the spangled tent that spread all night above the Holy Land. He would not go away and leave them cherishing a fond delusion. He would tell them if the things they hoped were an idle dream. In this there ought to be a happy lesson for every earnest heart. There is a gloomy infidelity in us which says of happiest things that they are “ too good to be true.” If you have any hope for eternity, and Jesus Christ has not contradicted it, you may reasonably indulge it. See what a field that flings open to us. This is comforting, but grandly vague. 4. He goes further and tells us that He departs in order to “ prepare a place for us.” This meets another phase of trouble. Our wills conflict with the will of God because we never feel at home totally suited in our surroundings on earth. Think how much is necessary for perfect comfort. There must be a suitable physique, agreeable in all the particulars of size, beauty, and health. There must be perfectly-fitting clothes; a collar too tight, a boot too small breaks one’ s comfort. Then our house must be in everything complete; nay, it must be an elastic house, expanding or shrinking to our wants at different times. When the residence is complete, there is the absence of the beloved or the presence of an unpleasant neighbourhood. It is not an unamiable discontentedness in human nature which makes us dissatisfied or unsatisfied: it is the inability of this present world, with all its resources, to fill the soul; and this argues the soul’ s greatness. Jesus says, “ I go to prepare a place for you.” He knows what is in us and what we need about us. He is putting all His resources to the work of fitting up for us mansions in the spiritual world. Our place will be complete. How that abates our troubles! There shall be nothing wanting in the place when Jesus pronounces it ready. 5. “ Ready?” Then when it is ready we must go to it. There is to be a removal. But still there is something to try one in any change of residence, but Christ says, “ I will come for you and take you,” and that “ unto Myself.” (C. F. Deems, LL. D.) Trouble and its cordial I. GOD’ S MOST ARE SUBJECT TO OF HEART. 1. What troubles? (1) Inward, arising from (a) Sin (Psalms 51:4-8). (b) Corruption (Romans 7:24). (2) Outward, which are (a) Spiritual: Christ’ s absence. (b) Temporal: outward afflictions (Lamentations 1:4). 2. The reason. (1) Weakness of faith. (2) Imperfection of other graces. II. FAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST IS THE BEST CORDIAL TO A HEART. 1. It is the surest and most infallible (Matthew 11:28). 2. The strongest (Isaiah 59:1). 3. The pleasantest (1 Peter 1:8). 4. The readiest (Psalms 46:1). 5. The most suitable (Isaiah 43:2-3). 6. The most constant (Hebrews 13:5). 7. The most universal. III. APPLY THIS to 1. Temporal troubles. Art thou troubled with (1) Poverty? (a) Faith is the best riches (James 2:5). (b) It will turn thy very poverty into a blessing (Romans 8:28). (2) Disgrace? (a) By faith thou mayest see the emptiness of honour (Psalms 42:11). (b) Faith will procure thee honour (Hebrews 1:14; 1 Samuel 2:30). (3) Sickness and pains.? By faith (a) Thou mayest see God’ s love in them (Hebrews 12:6). (b) Thou mayest get good by them (Psalms 119:71). (c) Thou mayest receive more comfort in them than in health. (4) Losses and crosses? (a) Faith will show thee from whence they came (Job 1:21). (b) Why (Hebrews 12:10). (c) And so turn them to thy gain (2 Corinthians 4:17). (5) Fears of death? Faith will show thee (a) That the sting is out (1 Corinthians 15:55). (b) That death is but the entrance of life. (c) And so turn thy fears into hopes (Philippians 1:23). 2. In spiritual troubles. Art thou troubled (1) For thy sins? (a) God is merciful (Psalms 103:8; Isaiah 43:25). (b) Christ is all-sufficient (1 John 2:1). (2) With thy lusts? (a) God is almighty. (b) Christ will send His Spirit (chap. 16:7). (c) Faith conquers them (1 John 5:4). (3) With desertions? If thou believest (a) God will never forsake thee wholly (John 13:1; Hebrews 13:5). (b) Christ will pray that thy faith fail not (Luke 22:31-32). (Bp. Beveridge.) Christ’ s word to the troubled This is a discourse showing the disciple his refuge from trouble. The refuge I. OF FAITH. “ Believe in God: believe also in Me,” etc. Three grand truths are at the basis of Christianity: God, Christ, Immortality. They are the antidotes to atheism, the helplessness of guilt, and the hopelessness of death. II. OF LOVE. A personal relation to Christ, He is the way of God to man and of man to God; the truth, about all the soul needs to know and which natural theology fails to answer; and the life, eternal and blissful. III. OF HOPE. Here was a personal bereavement. He was about to withdraw, and the loss was the more inconsolable because He was the object of faith and love. But He compensates this loss by the promise of the Holy Ghost, through whom they should do greater works, by whom God is manifest in the believer, etc., and who should abide with them forever. And He promises that He will personally intercede for believers above, while the Spirit intercedes in them below. And so He who goes away actually does not leave them orphans, but comes to them, dwells in them, manifests Himself to them, and is seen by them. And so this part of the discourse ends as it began, with peace. Peace 1. For the mind harassed with doubt, by establishing the certainties of faith. 2. For the heart harassed with unsatisfied cravings, by establishing it upon God. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) Christ’ s remedy for a troubled heart I. THE HEART. Trouble in estate is bad, but heart trouble is worst. The mariner cares not for the howling tempest, but matters are serious when the sea gains entrance. Causes. 1. Unpardoned sin. (1) We cannot ignore it. (2) Dare not excuse it. (3) Are unable to expiate it. 2. Separation from beloved friends. (1) By absence; (2) by death. 3. Persecution. 4. Disappointed hopes. So the disciples have trials. Sometimes from a clear sky the thunder peals; from richest verdure the venomous serpent hisses. II. THE QUIET HEART. 1. We acknowledge the authority of the decalogue; but our Lord’ s command is equally binding. 2. This is the purpose of God. Every apparent discord leads up to the final harmony. 3. The quiet heart is the best learner, worker, warrior. 4. The quiet heart is a mirror of heaven. III. HOW CAN THE HEART BE MADE INTO THE QUIET HEART. 1. The old belief in God. The Jews had fallen into polytheism, but the captivity cured them. Christ points to the old well of comfort--a firm belief in one ever-living God. (1) God will smite all wrong. (2) He will bring forth the righteous as the sun. 2. The new belief in Christ. Inferentially a proof of Christ’ s Divinity. (1) As the great atoning Substitute. There is nothing in the new philosophy to calm the troubled heart. (2) As our sympathizing Brother and High Priest. (3) As alive forever more. (4) As our Representative and Forerunner--“ I go to prepare a place,” etc. We need not shrink from “ Worlds unknown.” He has made them well known; “ brought life and immortality to light,” and will come again and receive us unto Himself. (W. Andersen, LL. D.) Christ comforting There was some good in the disciples’ trouble. 1. There was natural trouble at the departure of such a friend. For we are flesh, not steel; and in that sense, Christ was troubled Himself to show the truth of His manhood. Nay, trouble is the seasoning of all heavenly comforts; there were no comforts if there were no trouble; and therefore this natural trouble was not disallowed by Christ. 2. There was likewise something spiritually good in this trouble. They loved their Master, who they saw was going away. They were right in this principle, that all comfort depends on the presence of Christ. For as all heavenly light, and heat, and influence come from the sun, so all heavenly comforts must come to us from Christ’ s presence. Their error was in tying all comfort to a bodily presence; as if it were necessary for the sun to come down and abide upon the earth, to bestow its heat and influence. I. THE BEST ARE SUBJECT TO BE MORE THAN SHOULD BE. Christ was troubled, but His trouble was like the shaking of clear water in a crystal glass. There was no mud in the bottom. But our trouble is of another kind, and apt to be inordinate (1 Samuel 1:13; Isaiah 38:14; Psalms 77:3; Jonah 2:2). 1. God permits us to be troubled (1) For conformity to our Head. (2) That we may be known to ourselves; that we may discern where our weakness lieth, and so be better instructed to seek Him in whom our strength lieth. (3) For the preventing of spiritual sins. (4) In regard of others, that we maybe pitiful. 2. But how shall we know that our hearts are more troubled than they should be? We may sin in being overmuch troubled at things for which it is a sin not to be troubled. If they had not been at all affected with the absence of Christ, it had been a sin, and no less than stupidity; yet it was their sin to be overmuch troubled. A trouble is sinful when it hinders us in duties; or from duty, when the soul is like an instrument out of tune, or a limb out of joint. Naturally, affections should be helps to duty, they being the winds that carry the soul on, and the spiritual wings of the soul. But then they must be regulated and ordered at the command of a spiritual understanding. Now, besides the hurt that is in such affections themselves, Satan loves to fish in these troubled waters (Ephesians 4:26). That was Saul’ s case (1 Samuel 16:23). 3. We should not yield to excess of trouble. And the reasons are: (1) We wrong our ownselves. We make actions difficult unto us. The wheels of the soul are thereby taken off (Nehemiah 8:10). (2) We do dishonour to God, mistaking His goodness, murmuring at tits providence, wronging His graciousness and nursing a rebellious pride. (3) We dishonour Christ, and the love of God in Christ; for it is as if we had not in Him a sufficient remedy for that great malady. (4) Christ hath forbidden it, “ Let not,” etc. II. THE WAYS WHEREBY WE MUST LABOUR TO COMFORT OUR HEARTS. 1. There must be a due search into the heart of the grounds of our trouble; for often Christians are troubled, they cannot tell wherefore; as children that will complain they know not why. See if there be not some Achan in the camp. 2. And when you have found out your sin give it vent by confession of it to God, and in some cases to others. 3. And when we have done so, consider what promises, and comforts, in that Word of God are fitted to that condition. And therefore we ought to be skilful in the Word of God, that we may store up comforts beforehand. 4. When we have these promises, let us labour to understand them thoroughly, and then to digest them in our affections, and so make them our own, and then to walk in the strength and comfort of them. 5. Labour likewise to have them fresh in memory. It is a great defect of Christians that they forget their consolation (Hebrews 12:5). 6. Labour to keep unspotted consciences. 7. And because there can be no more comfort than there is care of duty, therefore, together with innocency, let us be careful of all duties in all our several relations. 8. But above all let us labour for a spirit of faith. “ You believe in God,” etc. How cloth faith in Christ ease the soul in trouble? (1) It banishes troubles, and brings in comfort, because it is an emptying grace. It empties us of ourselves, and so makes us cleave to another, and thereby becomes a grace of union. It makes us one with the fountain of comfort, and by its repeated acts derives fresh comfort. (2) It establishes the heart. (3) It stirs up such graces as comfort the soul, as hope in all good things promised. “ In My Father’ s house are many mansions.” (R. Sibbes, D. D.) Christ comforting the disciples I. THE HEROIC CHRIST ASSUMES. He had just dismissed Judas, knew what was transpiring outside, and what would follow. And yet He sat amongst His disciples perfectly composed, and was able to counsel deliberate composure in the prospect of affliction. This was not from any insensibility to pain, nor superiority to it (John 11:33; John 12:27; John 13:21). Itwas a wonderful manifestation of spiritual strength, and as an example was more forcible than even His counsel for the production of a like spirit. II. THE HEROIC SPIRIT CHRIST HIS TO . They were in a grievous plight. They had been drawn into fellowship with Christ. He had led them step by step, and they had learned to lean upon Him utterly. And now He was about to be taken from them by a cruel death, and leave them exposed to persecution for His sake. An hour ago there had been a strife among them which of them should be greatest. How vain all these ambitions seemed now! And yet our Lord counsels calmness. Then 1. It is possible to overmaster trouble, however hard the lot in life may be. 2. It is important to overmaster it; a troubled heart is our agitated medium and cannot see things clearly, and our enfeebled agent impotent to do them adequately. III. THE SECRET OF A HEROIC SPIRIT WHICH CHRIST TO THEM. 1. Faith in God. The Old Testament saints found in this a panacea for all their cares. “ Thou wilt keep Him in perfect peace,” etc., There were resources in Omnipotence which they felt to be equal to all human exigency (Isaiah 26:3-4). Something of this the disciples knew. 2. Our Lord argues from the Father to Himself, and particularly recommends them to have such faith in Him as they have in God. 3. The advantage of this two-fold trust. Although the disciples had a certain faith in God, it left them far from satisfied with it. Hence Philip’ s request. God was more or less remote from and incomprehensible to them; but Christ brought them near. “ He that hath seen Me,” etc. This sufficed. (W. Roberts.) Grounds of comfort I. HEAVEN IS SURE (John 14:2-3). II. THERE IS A CERTAIN WAY TO HEAVEN (John 14:4-11). III. CHRIST’ S WORK DOES NOT CEASE WITH CHRIST’ S (John 14:12-14). IV. THE HELP OF THE SPIRIT IS in the absence of Christ (John 14:15-17). V. CHRIST’ S ABSENCE IS ONLY (John 14:18-24). VI. THE SPIRIT WILL TEACH THE , and supply their want of understanding when left alone (John 14:25-26). VII. THE LEGACY OF PEACE to cheer in the Master’ s absence (John 14:27). (Prof. Hengstenberg.) Sources of Christian comfort There is a class of words the meaning of which is known to all, and without consulting a dictionary most people know what the word “ trouble” means. The man who should attempt to construct a theory of life and leave trouble out of the account would be no philosopher. How to deal with it, and not how to ignore it, becomes the great problem. From both ancients and moderns proposals of alleviation and help are forthcoming. But He who boldly cries, “ Let not your heart be troubled” must possess infallible antidotes. What are they? Faith and Hope directed to their proper objects. We propose, then, to examine I. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH CHRIST OUR FAITH. Relief comes by belief. To be able in some overpowering grief to throw the weight of one’ s care upon another and to trust wholly in that other’ s help is an eminently satisfying process; while the trustless soul is without the least gleam of comfort. In these times of daring denial and of timid doubt it is well to be reminded that in the great crises of life--poverty, bereavement, affliction--denial is mockery and doubt is impotence, and that only an honest andhearty belief will secure sufficient solace. Christ solicits our faith on the ground of 1. A prior acknowledgment of the Divine. “ Ye believe in God.” Christ desires nothing contrary to already existing and inborn Godward conceptions of the soul, but merely that we enlarge those conceptions so as to include Him. 2. The defectiveness of our belief apart from Him. “ Ye believe in God;” yes, but that is inadequate, it needs supplementing. The most anxious moments of humanity have been spent in searchings after such a view of God as would enable man to approach Him without dread. Humanity’ s great longing has waited until Christ for its complete satisfaction. He has extracted from the thought of God all that is calculated to give pain and introduced everything calculated to give comfort. “ God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” 3. His personality. Trust must repose on a person to be trust at all. Christian apologists often begin with the proofs of superhuman skill and power, and so lead up to the central object of Christian faith. But Christ asked for immediate trust in Himself, for with that would come a hearty belief in all He said and did. II. THE MOTIVES BY WHICH HE OUR HOPE. By “ two immutable things,” Christ intends us to have “ strong consolation.” Hope is as important a contribution to comfort as faith; the two together, exercised rightly, never fail. Without a future what is the present worth? An English nobleman once asked himself why there should be a future existence, and answered, “ Because, on any other hypothesis, the world would be a piece of magnificent nonsense.” 1. Christ, implying human immortality, reveals heaven. He bids the troubled be comforted by directing their hope to the positive existence of an absolutely untroubled state. Heaven is rendered attractive to us as much by its exemptions as by its possessions (Revelation 21:4). Christ does present also a positive view. Heaven is a home. “ In My Father’ s house!” A house is not necessarily a home, but a father’ s house always is, or ought to be. A happy earthly home is the nearest approach to an adequate conception of the life of heaven. “ My Father’ s house” is a happier home than the happiest of earthly ones. 2. Hope is encouraged by the variety of heavenly enjoyments. “ Many mansions,” many methods of enjoyment, various fields of occupation, unexhausted resources of interest and pleasure. An endless uniformity of type would be fatal to perfect happiness. 3. Hope is further encouraged by Christ’ s guarantee of its realization. “ If it were not so I would have told you,” etc. What security this! He could not countenance a delusion. Conclusion: We read of a Roman army, when eagerly engaged in battle with their country’ s enemies, being unconscious of an earthquake which made the ground beneath their feet to tremble; and so will a high faith in God and Christ, and a holy hope of immortality and heaven, cause the true Christian to be insensible to the tossings to and fro of the life that now is. (W. Brooks.) The Christian not afraid of unseen dangers General Sherman is reported to have said: “ One difference between General Grant and myself is this: I am not afraid of dangers that I can see, but he is not afraid of dangers that he cannot see.” Any good soldier of Jesus Christ has a right to absolute confidence as he goes forward, even in the dark. For the Saviour says to him, Whatever comes, “ Let not your heart be troubled.” Men seem unwilling to be without trouble Men do not avail themselves of the riches of God’ s grace. They love to nurse their cares, and seem as uneasy without some fret as an old friar would be without his hair girdle. They are commanded to cast their cares upon the Lord; but, even when they attempt it, they do not fail to catch them up again, and think it meritorious to walk burdened. They take God’ s ticket to heaven, and then put their baggage on their shoulders, and tramp, tramp, the whole way there afoot. Christ will relieve our troubles I heard of a man who was walking along the high road, with a pack on his back: he was growing weary, and was, therefore, glad when a gentleman came along in a chaise, and asked him to take a seat with him. The gentleman noticed that he kept his pack strapped to his shoulders, and so he said, “ Why do you not put your pack down?” “ Why, sir,” said the traveller, “ I did not venture, to intrude. It was very kind of you to take me up, and I could not expect you to carry my pack as well.” “ Why,” said his friend, “ do you not see that whether your pack is on your back, or off your back, I have to carry it?” My hearer, it is so with your trouble: whether you care, or do not care, it is the Lord who must care for you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The consolation of the gospel unique In this I say the gospel differs sharply from the most cultivated pagan thought of the age in which it appeared in the world. When Seneca is trying to console a lady who is suffering agonies of mind under a severe bereavement, he can only suggest to her that she had better try as soon as possible to forget her trouble. She has, he says, good examples around her in the birds and in the beasts. They too love their relations, but after a momentary spasm when they lose them they take life easily again; and in doing this they show man an example which he would do well to imitate. As if the mental pain which means to man so much more than to the beast, precisely because he is man and not beast, could be conjured out of him by a philosophy which talks incessantly of his dignity and can only make him comfortable, if at all, at the cost of forgetting it! (Canon Liddon.) Religion has many comforts Why should you carry troubles and sorrows unhealed? There is no bodily wound for which some herb doth not grow, and heavenly plants are more medicinal. Bind up your hearts in them, and they shall give you not only healing, but leave with you the perfume of the blessed gardens where they grew. Thus it may be that sorrows shall turn to riches; for heart troubles, in God’ s husbandry, are not wounds, but the putting in of the spade before the planting of seeds. (H. W.Beecher.) Glimpses of our heavenly home I. THE TROUBLE IN THE HEART OF THE . The trouble 1. Of agonized ignorance and blank bewilderment. Long before, Jesus had dropped hints of a mysterious journey that He had to take. As the time went on, He spoke of it more frequently, and in terms more and more darkly suggestive of horror. This had not seemed to trouble their heart at first; they regarded His language as metaphorical Probably they had the impression that first some great battle had to be fought, or some unknown trial to be gone through; that would last three days. So just before, Peter asks, “ Whither goest thou?” 2. Of bereaved love. “ Do I love the Lord, or no?” was not a question in any heart there. Jesus had poured upon them all the very essence of kindness, and had received them into the very sanctuary of His heart. Naturally, it was this mighty love that made bereavement of its object so intolerable. Christ had not yet left them; but love may feel a bereavement before it is bereaved. 3. From the thought of having no share in the last passion of their Lord. “ Why cannot I follow Thee now?” Love said then, as love says now, “ Give me some work to do; some cross to carry; some block to lay nay head upon.” It is impossible to stand idly by while Christ gives and suffers all. II. THE . 1. A peculiar, most tranquillizing revelation of the heaven to which He is going--“ a place.” Along with other elements of comfort, our nature needs this. We have been told that this is a doctrine of Materialism, and that heaven is in character rather than in condition. This is only a half-truth, and we want the whole. “ Heaven is principle,” said Confucius; but a house to live in must be built of something besides principle. Heaven is for the complete man, body and soul; and a body asks for a place, understanding that heaven is at least a place, we are ready to ask a thousand questions about it as such; and one of the first will be, “ Where is it in the map of the universe?” In times not a few has this been made a question of astronomy, and to suggest the possibility of some central heaven amongst the stars. Well, the inquiry must start from our own solar system. This, with its circle of at least 5,000,000,000 miles in diameter, is but a speck in the creation. Its stars burn and roll round the sun, their centre. The sun, carrying all these his satellites with him, is moving round another centre, with its system; that, about another; that, about another; and where is the fixed ultimate centre round which all the other centres are wheeling and moving? The only One who could have settled this question was silent about it. He says nothing of its whereabouts, of its beauty, of its music, except in signs that are manifestly but hieroglyphic. He knew that the most exact precision of statement and the most dazzling magic of description would leave the greatest as well as the least of mortals as much in the dark as ever. Therefore Christ, aiming at our spiritual profit rather than at our scientific enlightenment, leaves for future solution all problems that have only to do with place. 2. That the heavenly place is His home and theirs. He has just addressed them in the language of family affection as His “ little children.” With this word of love still in the air, He proceeds to speak of heaven as “ My Father’ s house.” A little child looks upon his father’ s house as his own, and so would Christ have us look upon heaven. Even on earth, a father’ s house is his child’ s home; and the dearest place to the best man, woman, child, is home. “ Home, sweet home.” Earth is one of My Father’ s battlefields, farms, foundries, factories, roads that He travels on; but heaven is our “ Father’ s house,” and therefore the home of all His family. 3. That in that home are many mansions, i.e., settled abodes; the same word as in John 14:23. Emphasis resting on the idea of permanence. Jesus was speaking to the sad thoughts then stirring in the hearts of His mourners on account of the shortness of the time they had spent with Him, and which seemed, in the review, only like a dream. “ What does this lack to make it perfect?” asked an old Roman of his companion, as they were together looking on some imperial show; and the answer was, “ Permanence.” “ Permanence adds bliss to bliss.” In the word “ many,” He spoke to the thoughts of the company. When one of the disciples, on the notice of His near departure, asked if he might go with Him, the virtual answer was “ No.” This refusal to the “ one” was a blow to “ the many.” If the happiness of going with the Lord is not to be given even to Peter, what is to become of the many? We had all expected that we should go with Him into His kingdom. If these happy dreams of ours are all to melt into misery, why were we not informed of this before? Before now, on some festive day, when a man has asked his friends to his house, he has been forced to ask only a few, because, though his heart was large enough for many, his house was not. Before now, in the straits of some war, some iron captain has spared the lives of only a few prisoners, simply on the ground of lacking room to accommodate the many. God has room in His purpose, in His heart, in His house, for all His captives. By the miracle of His grace He first changes all His captives into children, then welcomes them all home. No limitation is suggested by the indefinite plural, “ many.” “ Many” simply stands for all the children, “ a great multitude which no man can number,” “ and yet there is room!” 4. That He is going “ to prepare a place” for them. While man is asleep in the night, the sun goes before him, that he may prepare the day for him to wake in. Thus he prepares light for him to see by, power for him to work with, and the spirit of gladness. So does Christ prepare heaven for the heirs of heaven. There can be no heaven without the revelation of God, and there can be no revelation of God without Christ. He prepares heaven for them, not only by preparing their right to the place, but by preparing their fitness for it. “ Why cannot I go with Thee now?” asked Peter; and the saying, “ I go to prepare a place for you,” is an answer to this “ Why?” Christ was going to prepare a place for them; first, by His Cross; next, by the Spirit, who would change their hearts and train their natures for the rank they would inherit, as well as for the work they had to do. 5. That He would come again, and receive them unto Himself. Dying may be regarded as a mode in which Christ comes for His people, one by one. Death is not coming; death is not a person, only a door, to which Christ, the sovereign Lord who has at His girdle the keys of death and the unseen state, comes. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Ye believe in God, believe also in Me Belief in Christ I. WHAT IS IT TO BELIEVE? Faith includes two things. 1. The submission of the reason to all Christ has revealed. 2. The trust of the heart in all He has promised. Both of these are difficult duties. To receive as true what we cannot understand, on God’ s testimony is declared to be irrational. But remember that faith is rational, and that the testimony of God is informing. To trust that we shall be pardoned, saved, preserved, is equally difficult for unbelieving hearts. II. THE OBJECT OF FAITH IS CHRIST--i.e., the things to which we are to assent are truths concerning Christ, and these things in which we are to trust are His promises. This is the only form in which we can exercise faith in God. If we believe not God, as seen, how can we believe in Him as not seen. III. WHAT ARE WE TO BELIEVE CHRIST AND WHAT ARE THE WHICH WE ARE TO TRUST? 1. We must believe that He is the Way, i.e., that He brings us to God. We are separated from God (1) By our ignorance. Christ brings us near to God as an object of knowledge. He is the Loges or Revealer. He is God in our nature. (2) By our guilt. Christ brings us near to God by reconciliation through His blood. He atones for our sins. Through Him we are able to draw near to God with hope of acceptance. (3) By our enmity. Christ, by revealing the knowledge of God, and reconciling us to Him, removes our enmity. 2. That He is the Truth, i.e(1) That He is real; the true God; true Prophet, Priest, King. (2) That in Him is all truth and excellence. 3. That He is the Life--the source of universal, intellectual, spiritual and eternal life. It is not we that live, but Christ that lives in us. IV. WHAT ARE WE TO TRUST TO? The promises of the Spirit. 1. That His presence is permanent and internal. 2. That He will reveal Christ. 3. That He will be our Paraclete. (C. Hodge, D. D.) Believe also in Me 1. It might have been urged that the disciples are addressed by our Lord as already believing, not in God only, but in Himself. But the Bible, and He who speaks therein, is truer to nature and experience than many who profess to interpret it. Are there not many in Christian Churches needing still the voice which shall say, Believer, believe; Christian, come to Christ; disciple of three or of thirty years, still, as for the first time, behold Him! 2. There are those, even among Christian people who confide to us, in the tone of sincere and humble regret--“ I cannot see why a Saviour was needed. If I, being evil, know how to forgive, how much more shall a Father in heaven accept the first sigh and bestow the unpurchased grace? Is it not enough if I believe in God my Father? Why must I be encumbered with a revelation of sacrifice which rather repels me than reassures? I believe in God--why must I believe also in Christ?” Let us endeavour to answer this question. I. Now, someone might say, Look at the saints of the Old Testament. What grace, of reverence, of affiance, of holy aspiration, was lacking in the patriarch Abraham, or to the poet-king of the Psalms? Christ was not manifested when those thoughts of eternal fulness glowed and throbbed in the big heart of David. We venture to dispute the very fact taken for granted. Abraham, “ saw Christ’ s day,” and walked in the light of it. David was reared amidst promises which made Christ a household word in Israel, and sacrifices which brought to the very senses the need and hope of propitiation. II. Or you might speak of men who, in this century, have not only led good lives, but have had pious feelings, and done beneficent works, without realizing what we should call the fulness of the Christian faith--avowed Unitarians, e.g. But it is only truth to remember that men thus dispensing with Christ are yet unspeakably indebted to Him. The very idea of God as our Father comes from His revelation. III. Still, you might say, having made this great revelation, may not Christ Himself disappear? Having taught that God is our Father, must He remain in sight to confuse or divide our allegiance? Believing in God by Christ’ s help, why go on further to believe in Christ? Now, it is an obvious answer, and surely a just one. We cannot take Christ by halves. If Christ said one thing from God, He said all things: we must look to see what He said, and not, after catching one isolated word, presume to declare that one word all. IV. Observe, too, how the particular truth received, no less than the accompanying doctrines objected to, runs up into matters which we can neither dispute as facts, nor yet, apart from God, settle. Sin--you see it, you feel it; all religions pre-suppose it. Evidently sin has made a great rent and breach in God’ s work. Listen to this new Teacher, crying in the hearing of the dislocated and disorganized creation, “ When ye pray, say, Our Father.” Yes, we say, something within tells me that I had a Father once--but long, long have I lost Him. Tell me the processes by which it has been recovered--the marvellous mystery of restored sonship and reawakened love. Shall we accept the bare fact, and ask nothing as to the proofs and the instrumentalities? Shall we let Christ say, “ God is your Father,” and never question Him once as to anything further? They who believe the mighty intelligence must hearken what the same Lord bus to say concerning it. May it be, perhaps, that there was that in the Divine holiness which made sin a fatal bar to man’ s acceptance, except on some condition which God only can perform? Shall we dare, we the guilty and helpless ones, to say that, with nothing but poor human tears and cries and paltry efforts, the stain of sin can be wiped out? Shall we dare to repose upon a feeble bureau analogy, and rest the whole weight of eternity upon the impulses and instincts (not always, even here, prevailing) of family love and parental tenderness? What if there lurked in the background of Deity an obstacle which Calvary alone could take away? It was, no doubt, with special reference to His sacrifice and its consequences that Christ spoke of His disciples, in the text, as having (in some sense) still to believe. They knew Him for the Messiah; what they had still to learn, still to believe in, was the death as itself the life. It is, indeed, the crucial test of faith. He who believes in Christ’ s atonement believes Christ; believes that He came from God, and came with a message. V. But, although we thus stand upon the dignity of the Cross as a mystery, we do find, as a matter of experience, that no man dispenses with it without being a definite loser in some feature of the Christian character. 1. There is often a feeble sense of the sinfulness of sin. A man cannot really see Himself a sinner, and not cry out for a Saviour. 2. There is often a want of true tenderness towards sinners. Benevolence there may be; but the discovery of unworthiness in the object of the philanthropy is often the death blow of charity. Or, again, there may be an easiness of good nature ready enough to see excuses: there will not be that unique combination, which was in the cross itself, and which is in the true family of the Crucified--tenderness towards the sinner, with displeasure against the sin. VI. God, in arranging that we should receive this greatest of His gifts--reconciliation through His Son--has given a charm and pathos to the gospel which it could not otherwise have possessed. What possession do you not value tenfold if it is yours through love? That book, that trinket, why is it dear to you? It was the keepsake of a loving friend. And do you not think that God was appealing, perhaps, to some such instinct of your nature, when He would not only send word to you that you were pardoned, but bid you to receive the blessing through the willing self-gift of One who, sharing every emotion of God’ s love for the self-ruined one, came Himself to plead, and at last to die, because thus He could effectually “ roll away the great stone” sin, move the obdurate, and win back the lost? Conclusion: Try the charge, “ Believe also in me.” Lean your whole weight of guilt, of sin, of weakness, of sorrow, upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified. See whether, in proportion as you trust Christ more, you become not, in yourself, happier, holier, stronger, gentler. Thus, in time, you shall have a witness within. You life shall be one echo to the sweet persuasive expostulation,” Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God; believe also in Me.” (Dean Vaughan.) Faith in God one with faith in Christ We get a more true and appropriate meaning if we keep both clauses in the imperative, “ Believe in God, believe also in me.” I. CHRIST HERE POINTS TO HIMSELF AS THE OBJECT OF THE SAME TRUST WHICH IS TO BE GIVEN TO GOD. 1. It is only our familiarity with these words that blinds us to their wonderfulness. Try to hear them for the first time, and to remember the circumstances. Here is a man amongst a handful of friends, within four-and-twenty hours of a shameful death, that to all appearance was the annihilation of all His claims and hopes. And He says, “ Trust in God, and trust in Me!” 2. What is it that Christ offers us? A very low and inadequate interpretation is, “ Believe that God is, that I am.” But it is scarcely less so to suppose that the mere assent of the understanding to His teaching is all that Christ is asking for. Faith grasps not a doctrine, but a heart. The trust which Christ requires is entire committal to Him in all my relations and for all my needs. 3. Further, note that this believing in Him is precisely the same thing which He bids us render to God. The two clauses in the original bring out that idea even more vividly--“ Believe in God, in Me also believe.” And so He here proposes Himself as the worthy and adequate recipient of all that makes up religion in its deepest sense. That tone is the uniform characteristic of our Lord’ s teaching. What did He think of Himself Who stood up before the world, and with arms outstretched, like that great white Christ in Thorwaldsen’ s lovely statue, said to all the troop of languid and burdened ones crowding at His feet:--“ Come unto Me all ye that are weary,” etc. That surely is a Divine prerogative. What did He think of Himself Who said, “ All men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father” ? You cannot eliminate the fact that Christ claimed as His own the emotions of the heart, to which only God has a right and which only God can satisfy. 4. We have to take that into account if we would estimate the character of Jesus Christ as a teacher and as a man. What separates Him from all other teachers is not the clearness or the tenderness with which He reiterated the truths about the Father’ s love, and morality and goodness; but the peculiarity of His call to the world is, Believe in Me. And if He said that, why, then, one of two things. Either He was wrong, and then He was a crazy enthusiast, only acquitted of blasphemy because convicted of insanity; or else He was “ God, manifest in the flesh.” II. FAITH IN CHRIST AND FAITH IN GOD ARE NOT TWO, BUT ONE. These two clauses on the surface present juxtaposition. Looked at more closely they present interpretation and identity. 1. What is the underlying truth that is here? How comes it that these two objects blend into one, like two figures in a stereoscope? (1) This, that Jesus Christ Himself Divine, is the Divine Revealer of God. There is no real knowledge of the real God outside of Jesus. He showing us a Father, has brought a God to our hearts that we can love, and of whom we can be sure. Very significant is it that Christianity alone puts the very heart of religion in the act of trust. Other religions put it in dread worship, service, and the like. (2) On the other hand, the truth that underlies this is that Jesus is Divine. The light shines through a window, but the light and the glass that make it visible have nothing in common with one another. The Godhead shines through Christ, but He is not a mere transparent medium. It is Himself that He is showing us when He is showing us God. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” And because He is Himself Divine and the Divine Revealer, therefore the faith that grasps Him is inseparably one with the faith that grasps God. Men could look upon a Moses, an Isaiah, or a Paul, and in them recognize the irradiation of the Divinity that imparted itself through them, but the medium was forgotten in proportion as that which it revealed was behind. You cannot forget Christ in order to see God more clearly, but to behold Him is to behold God. 2. And if that be true, these two things follow. (1) One is that all imperfect revelation of God is prophetic of and leads up towards the perfect revelation in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3). And in like manner all the imperfect faith that, laying hold of other fragmentary means of knowing God, has tremulously tried to trust Him, finds its climax and consummate flower in the full-blossomed faith that lays hold upon Jesus Christ. (2) That without faith in Christ such faith in God as is possible is feeble, incomplete, and will not long last. Historically a pure theism is all but impotent. There is only one example of it on a large scale in the world, and that is a kind of bastard Christianity--Mohammedanism; and we all know what good that is as a religion. The God that men know outside of Jesus Christ is a poor, nebulous thing; an idea, not a reality. It has little power to restrain. It has less power to inspire and impel. It has still less to comfort; it has least of all to satisfy the heart. III. THIS TRUST IN CHRIST IS THE SECRET OF A QUIET HEART. 1. It is no use saying to men, “ Let not your hearts be troubled,” unless you finish the verse. The state of man is like that of some of those sunny islands in southern seas, around which there often rave the wildest cyclones, and which carry in their bosoms, beneath all their riotous luxuriance of verdant beauty, hidden fires, which ever and anon shake the solid earth and spread destruction. And where is the “ rest” to come from? All other defences are weak and poor. We have heard about “ pills against earthquakes.” That is what the comforts which the world supplies may fairly be likened to. Unless we trust we are, and shall be, “ troubled.” 2. If we trust we may be quiet. To cast a burden off myself on other’ s shoulders is always a rest. But trust in Jesus Christ brings infinitude on my side. Submission is repose. When we cease to kick against the pricks they cease to stick and wound us. Trust opens the heart, like the windows of the Ark, tossing upon the black and fatal flood, for the entrance of the peaceful dove with the olive branch in its mouth. But “ the wicked is like the troubled sea which cannot rest.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Faith in God 1. Why should it have been needful to give such a command as this to any intelligent person? In one sense all men believe in God. We acknowledge and recognize a power which passes all control, measurement, or thought. We recognize an authority to which we are responsible. As the moral nature is cultivated, we recognize a moral order in the universe, a law of righteousness, and therefore a Lawgiver and a Judge. In the time of calamity or death all men call upon God. Why, then, teach men to believe in God, and command it? and especially the disciples who had been trained under the ancient system. 2. Of course the answer is that belief may be real and yet wholly ineffective. You see the vapour issuing from the kettle and disappearing through the air. It is steam power, but not enough to drive the train. You step upon the beach and find the little puddles of water, but there is not enough to float the boat and keep alive the fish. So belief may be real in the mind and yet be entirely insufficient for any useful and inspiring purpose. The master would have us carry our belief in God to a point where it shall involve every spiritual force within us. Believe to the roots of your nature; with all your strength and life: and your heart shall not be troubled. What is it thus to believe in God? It is to affirm I. HIS OF . And yet this it is not easy for us to do. If we search into our thoughts we shall find very often that He is to us rather a force without affection, intelligence, and life. So multitudes of men conceive of God, and scientific investigation often comes in to encourage this tendency of thought. On the other hand, the Scripture everywhere manifests to us God as a person. Our own personal constitution reflects and demonstrates that personality. As impossible as that the clod of the valley should generate a human soul, as that the blossoming branch of the tree should bring forth living intelligence; so impossible is it that personality in you and me should come from impersonal forces and mechanical laws. We see the indications of it in His works, where intelligent contrivances present themselves to us in the adjustment of force to force, in the relations of one object to another; and in Christ, who said, “ I and My Father are one.” And this is to be affirmed, with all energy of conviction, and intensity of feeling, as the absolute and everlasting truth. II. HIS WITH US in every hour and every place. Amazing! Yes, God is amazing in every attribute. The soul is amazing because it has something of God within it. Even natural theology affirms this; for it would imply Divine imperfection if God were not everywhere. The recognition of a moral order in the universe implies that; for otherwise the administration of that order would be necessarily imperfect. The constitution of the universe implies that, since otherwise there would be parts of the universe self-supporting and independent of God. His omnipresence shines throughout the whole Scriptures. There are times in spiritual experience when we feel it. But you say, We do not see Him I Do we see the air, magnetism, the productive force in nature, music, fragrance, the voice of a friend? We see the result. III. HIS OF PERFECT AND PERFECT . Undoubtedly there is much to perplex us in the prevalence of sin, and the long delay of punishment. These facts disturb our impression of the Divine holiness. And yet we do not doubt the sun when for a time obscured by cloud. The holiness of God must be recognized by anyone who would for a moment feel safe in the universe. If God were otherwise than holy, what could restrain any arbitrary exercise of His power? He could not properly be worshipped except He were holy. Worship mere power, and it demoralizes and demonizes. Worship intellect, and it degrades the moral nature. Worship can only be offered to absolute and sovereign purity of character; and that must be God’ s character, or else let every harp on high be silent and every heart on earth be dumb. God’ s holiness shines upon us through His law in our own reason and conscience and in the person of Christ. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 14:4-6 Whither I go ye know The interpellation of Thomas Observe I. THAT A MAN MAY, IN THINGS, KNOW MORE THAN HE IS OF KNOWING. “ Ye know,” “ We know not.” It may be said that our Lord is only attributing a certain knowledge with a view to stirring up His disciples to think so that they may come to know distinctly, just as we say to a child, “ You know if you would only think.” But here the fact stands that Thomas did not know, and yet Christ said he did. So a man may know, and yet not know that he knows. What was it that the apostles actually knew? They knew Christ--very imperfectly, but they did know Him. Thomas’ s “ Lord,” the same word that He used subsequently, in an association that leaves no room to doubt its signification, shows us this. Now Christ was the Way; and therefore in knowing Christ, he knew the Way, although he did not know Him as the Way. And more than this. Thomas and the rest were practically walking in the right way in believing in Christ. But not understanding that Christ was the Way, they did not understand that they were in the right way. Whence it follows that a man may be actually in the right way before he is quite conscious of it. This must be so; for being conscious of a thing means coming to a distinct consciousness of it as an existing fact. Then it must exist as a fact prior to consciousness. The time that may elapse between a man being in a certain condition and becoming conscious of it may vary according to circumstances. II. THAT TO KNOW CHRIST IS TO BE IN THE RIGHT WAY. “ I am the Way.” Christ had just told them of the Father’ s house, and they were naturally anxious to know the way. But notice how He modifies the aspect of future blessedness. He now speaks of the Father Himself. For it is the Father’ s presence that makes home--not a house built by the Father, however much the Father’ s love may have been lavished on it for His children’ s sake. To this Father Christ is the Way, and how His subsequent conversation shows. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 10:19-20). There is no direct access for man to God. Christ is the way to God, and the way to God is the way to Heaven. And he who knows Christ, however imperfectly, is in the right way. III. THOSE WHO REALLY KNOW CHRIST AS THE WAY WILL SOON LEARN THAT HE IS MUCH MORE TO THAN THE WAY ONLY. Christ adds the ample appendix, “ and the Truth and the Life.” These three lead on, the one to the other. Religion begins in practical conformity to a Divine “ way,” and so comes down to the level of the simplest and the feeblest. But when a man has walked some time in the Divine way, he begins to desire a fuller understanding of the reasons of the way. Then Christ comes as the Truth, disclosing the grounds on which religious duty rests, satisfying thus the speculative, as He formerly did the practical, faculty. Finally Christ reveals Himself as the Life. Then it is seen that religion is more than practice and knowledge, it is the communication of vital powers, of the powers of the life of God, of power to become the child of God; and that this new vitality in turn prompts to pious practice, and capacitates for spiritual perception. (W. Roberts.) Christ’ s farewell It serves I. TO FAITH IN CHRIST. 1. In His omniscience. For He knows (1) Whither He goes (John 14:5). (2) When He goes (John 14:5). (3) For what purpose (John 14:7-15): to send the Comforter, etc. 2. In His truthfulness (John 14:7). For (1) Jesus went to His Father. (2) He sent the Comforter. (3) The Comforter has fulfilled His mission. II. FOR WHEN WE FEEL THE PANG OF . For 1. Christ is omniscient. He alone knows (1) Whither we go. (2) When we are to go. (3) Why we go. 2. Christ is truthful. Therefore we are certain that we go (1) To the Father. (2) At the hour appointed by Him. (3) Because it is expedient and necessary for our own faith in God’ s omnipotent love and our sense of dependence on Him. (Pastor Fricke.) The way, unknown and yet well known When you say to a man, “ You know the way,” you mean “ Come.” And in these words there lie a veiled invitation, and the assurance that they, though separated, might still find the road to the Father’ s house, and so be with Him still. Observe I. THE ’ . 1. Christ says: “ Ye know the way and the goal.” Thomas ventures flatly to contradict Him. Was Jesus right? or Thomas? or both? The fact is, they had heard plenty in the past as to where Christ was going. It had made some kind of lodgement in their heads, and, in that sense, they did know. It is this unused and unconscious knowledge of theirs to which Christ appeals. 2. The dialogue is an instance of what is true about us all, that we have in our possession truths given to us by Jesus Christ, the whole sweep and bearing of which we do not dream of yet. Time and circumstances and some sore agony of spirit are needed in order to make us realize the riches that we possess; and the practice of far more patient, honest, profound meditation is needed, in order that we may understand the things that are given to us of God. The life belts lie unnoticed on the cabin shelf as long as the weather keeps fine, but when the ship strikes people take to them. 3. All our knowledge is ignorance. And ignorance that confesses itself to Him is in the way of becoming knowledge. And we are meant to carry all our inadequate and superficial realizations of His truths into His presence, that, from Him, we may gain deeper knowledge, and a more joyous certitude in His inexhaustible truths. II. OUR LORD’ S GREAT SELF- WHICH MEETS THIS . Of these three great words, the Way, the Truth, the Life, we are to regard the second and the third as explanatory of the first. 1. Note, then, as belonging to all three of these clauses that remarkable “ I am.” We show the Way, Christ is it. We speak truth, Christ is it. Parents impart life, which they have received, Christ is life. He separates Himself from all men by that representation which He made when Calvary was within arm’ s length. What did He think about Himself, and what should we think of Him? 2. And note that He here sets forth His unique relation to the truth as being one ground on which He is the Way to God. (1) He is the Truth in reference to the Divine nature. It is not only His speech that teaches us, but Himself that shows us God. There is all the difference between talking about God and showing Him. Men reveal God by their words; Christ reveals Him by Himself and the facts of His life. 2. He is the Truth, inasmuch as, in His life, men find the foundation truths of a moral and spiritual sort. “ Whatsoever things are true,” etc., He is these. 3. He is the Way because He is the Life. Dead men cannot walk a road. It is no use making a path if it starts from a cemetery. And Christ taught that men apart from Him are dead, and that the only life that they can have by which they can be knit to God is the Divine life which was in Himself. He is the Life--and, paradox of mystery and yet fact which is the very heart and centre of His gospel, His only way of giving His life to us is by giving up His physical life for us. 4. And what about people that never heard of Him. Ah! Christ has other ways of working than through His historical manifestation, He is “ that Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” But for us to whom this Book has come, the law of my text rigidly applies. “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” It is either--take Christ for the Way, or wander in the wilderness and forget your Father; take Christ for the Truth, or be given over to the insufficiencies of mere natural, political, and intellectual truths, and the shows and illusions of time and sense; take Christ for your life, or remain in your deadness separate from God. III. THE ’ AND THE NEW VISION WHICH DISPELS IT. “ If ye had known Me ye should have known My Father also,” etc. Our Lord accepts for the moment Thomas’ standpoint. He supplements His former allegation of their knowledge with the admission of the ignorance which went with it as its shadow, and tells them that they did not know what they thought they knew so well, after so many years of companionship--even Himself. The proof that they did not is that they did not know the Father as revealed in Him, nor Him as revealing the Father. If they missed that, they missed everything. 1. The lesson for us is that the true test of the completeness and worth of our knowledge of Christ lies in its being knowledge of God the Father, brought near to us by Him. This saying puts a finger on the radical deficiency of all merely humanitarian views of Christ’ s person. If you know anything about Jesus Christ rightly, this is what you know about Him, that in Him you see God. The knowledge of Christ which stops with the martyr, and the teacher and the brother, is knowledge so partial that even He cannot venture to call it other than ignorance. 2. And then our Lord passes on to another thought, the new vision which at the moment being granted to this unconscious ignorance that was passing into conscious knowledge. “ From henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him.” We must give that “ from henceforth,” a somewhat literal interpretation, and apply it to the whole series of utterances and deeds of which the words of our text are but a portion. It is the dying Christ that reveals the living God. Conclusion: So He is your way to God. See that you seek the Father by Him alone. He is your truth; enrich yourselves by all the communicated treasures that you have already received in Him. He is your Life; cleave to Him, that the quick spirit that was in Him may pass into you and make you victors over all deaths, temporal and eternal. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Knowledge unconsciously possessed A man may have grace and yet not know it; yea, he may think He hath it not, as we seek for the keys that are in our pocket: or think that we have lost a jewel that we have locked up in a chest; yea, as the butcher looketh for the candle that sticketh in his hat. (J. Tramp.) John 14:6 Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life Brief expositions The way of a holy conversation; the truth of a heavenly doctrine; the life of a bliss everlasting (Leo) .The way to beginners, the truth to the progressing (chap. 8:32), the life to the perfect (Ferus) . I am the Way, leading to the truth; I am the Truth, promising life; I am the Life, which I give (St. Augustine) . I am the Way and the Life; the way on earth, the life in heaven: I am He, to whom you go; I am He, by whom you go (St. Augustine) . The way, in which we walk by charity; the truth, to which we cling by faith; the life, to which we aspire by hope. The life in His example, the truth in His promise, the life in His reward (St. Bernard) . Truth lies between way and life, as if the way to life were through truth (Leigh) . The true way to eternal life (Dr. Whichcote) . Without the Way there is no going; without the Truth there is no knowing; without the Life there is no living. I am the Way which thou oughtest to follow; the Truth which thou oughtest to trust; the Life which thou oughtest to hope for. I am the inviolable Way, the infallible Truth, the Godless Life. If thou remain in My way thou shalt know the truth, and the truth shall make thee free and thou shalt lay hold on eternal life. (Thomas a Kempis.) The Way, the Truth, and the Life Mistakes have been made the occasion of profoundest utterances. It was so here I. “ I AM THE WAY.” Man’ s primal communion with God in Eden was broken by his fall. Henceforth humanity became as an islet in mid-ocean, without material for bridge or boat. And the Eternal Word became flesh in order that He himself might become the causeway which should reconnect the island man and the continent God. He not only shows the way, as our Teacher, He is the way itself, the true ladder connecting earth and heaven. He is alike the portal, the line of direction, the true Scala Santa, “ The great world’ s altar stairs that slope through darkness up to God.” His Via Dolorosa is our Via Gloriosa. His valley of Achor is our door of hope. II. “ I AM THE TRUTH.” 1. In distinction from what is symbolic. He is the fulfiller and realizer of all prophetic hints. Thus He is said to be the True Light, the True Bread, the True Tabernacle, etc. 2. In distinction from what is phenomenal. For truths are ever greater than facts. There is no necessary morality in mere facts as such, e.g., in the fact that every particle of matter attracts every other particle in the direct ratio of its mass, and in the inverse ratio of the square of its distance. Truth is moral, and can exist only in connection with person, i.e., a person who shall somehow stand as its end or representation. Such a person is Christ. He not only has truth, He is the Truth--Himself its eternal embodiment; its source, means, and end. He is the meaning of facts. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is creation’ s definition or final cause. III. “ I AM THE LIFE.” 1. Of all animate existence; all things are also subsisting in Him. 2. Particularly is this true of man. (1) Jesus Christ is the life of our bodily nature. Poor Marthas and Marys may weep by the tombs of dead brothers; but Jesus Christ shall say, “ I am the Resurrection and the Life.” (2) Of our spiritual nature, “ God hath given unto us eternal life and this life, is in His Son.” Conclusion: Christ is the only way, “ No man cometh,” etc. Other voices indeed proclaim the contrary; but they are the voices of false prophets. Liberalism says: “ There are many ways to the Father; for instance, nature, aesthetics, charity,” etc. Materialism says: “ It is through the uplifting of environment.” Ecclesiasticism says: “ It is through the Church, the sacraments.” But all who undertake to climb over into the fold by any other way are thieves and robbers. (G. D. Boardman, D. D.) The Way, the Truth, and the Life Science tells us that there are three elements in light--the illuminating, the chemical, and the heat power. So in Him who is “ the Light of the World” there is a threefold perfection. I. THE TRUTHS . 1. Christ the Way. One of the deepest feelings in man’ s nature is that of a want of something which this world is found not to supply. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, nor the ambition with success, nor the lust” with gratification. It arises from the terrible disruptions with the intervening chasms which sin has produced. Despite our downward tendencies, man is led by what he feels within, and sees around, to look up to a Divine Power. That Being we would fondly claim as a Father. But where is that Father? There is a way, but somehow we have lost it, and the difficulty is to find it. Conceive a planet wandering from its sphere. Now it is hindered by bodies attracting it or attracted by it, and forthwith it dashes through space, threatening to strike and break in fragments, or to kindle into a conflagration, all the other planets and suns it meets with. It is a picture of a wandering man loosened from the Central Power that stays him, and from the Central Light that should illuminate him. Neither wanderer will right itself till made to move in its old path. But how can we know the way? The flaming sword, turned every way to keep the sinner from the tree of life, has entered into him who is God’ s fellow, and hath now power against us, and there is a way opened by which the sinner can come into the very presence of God. “ I am the Way.” 2. Christ the Truth. By truth, in this passage, we are not to understand abstract or general doctrine. Systematized truth may serve most important purposes; but it is not to such that our Lord refers. Truth is defined by philosophers as the agreement of our ideas with things. If we know God as He really is, then have we truth in religion. But how can we know God as He really is? Do we not feel as if He were at an infinite distance, as if we could no more rise to Him with our spirits than our frail bodies could mount from earth to heaven? Who will give us wings that we may ascend to Him? Alas! the attraction of earth is too powerful to admit of our rising to Him. The approach must be on His part. Plato was obliged to say: “ The Father of the world is hard to discover, and when discovered cannot be communicated.” But when we go on by Christ as the Way, He introduces us to the Father, and we have the truth. God is no longer at a distance; “ Emmanuel, God with us.” Aristotle has said that the mind as it came from its Maker is organized for truth, as the eye is to perceive light and the ear to hear sounds. He who has found Christ knows that he has found the truth. With the truth there is assurance; the eye has found the light, the ear is listening to the sound. This, this is the reality of things. 3. Christ the Life. It is of vast moment that we know the way, all good that we reach the truth; but we must have more. The well-formed statue is an interesting object, but none of us would exchange our living condition for that of the chiselled marble. Along with the truth we must have life. There are few or no sinners so dead that they do not wish at times to have life. And yet when they would excite and stimulate it, they find that they have only the cold and the clamminess of death. Feeling never will be excited by a mere determination to raise it. There must be a something to call it forth. Nor will it be evoked by an abstract statement or general doctrine. It is called forth by a living person. Christ so lovely and so loving. Apprehended as the truth He becomes the life. II. THE TRUTHS IN THEIR . The full truth is to be found in the union of these various truths. If we would have a true religion, and a proper theology founded upon it, we must give Christ the supreme place. Displace Christ the head from this His proper position and the whole form becomes disproportioned. 1. There are some who would have men first to find the way, and then in the way to find Christ. Who would have, e.g., inquirers first to find the true Church, and then through it to find Christ. But this is to reverse the Scriptural order. 2. Some would have us first seek the truth, and then seek Christ. Seekers of truth deserve all the honour that has been paid to them, but they will never find truth in religion till they find Christ. So Justin Martyr acknowledged, and Augustine, and Luther. Let us not go out with the tapers of earth to seek the sun. Any other light can at best be merely like the star to guide the wise men, serving a good end only so far as it guides us to where Christ as the truth is to be found. 3. Again, some would find life without Christ. Their appeal is to inward feelings, sentiments, and intuitions. But what, I ask, is to evoke such sentiments from our dead and sinful hearts? They tell us by such grand and generous ideas as the infinite and the eternal. But these ideas call forth love only when they are associated with a living being whose love is infinite and eternal. And such is Christ. 4. There are some who would seek for Christ under one of these aspects or in one of these characters, but who do not care for the others. (1) Thus, there are some who are anxious to have Christ as the way, but who stop at the entrance, instead of going on in the path. They are most anxious to have Christ for salvation; but they do not go on to establish themselves in the truth. (2) Some are contented with the truth without the life, with their orthodox creed, their reverence for the Bible, their attendance at religious meetings. Such a formal religion is offensive to man, even as it is displeasing to God. (3) Another class seek the life without the truth, led into this by a reaction against a stiff formalism or a frigid orthodoxy, or by an unwillingness to submit to any restraints. Persons are calling for a life which is to be independent of all the old forms of orthodoxy and of the letter of the Word of God. Of this I am sure, that the life which is not supported by Scriptural truth will be of a very uncertain and wavering and transient character. (J. Mc Cosh, D. D.) The Way, the Truth, and the Life 1. Christ is the Way, for He recovers man from his godless wandering. The metaphor views man in the light of his practical obliquities. He is estranged by wicked works from the filial fellowship in which the life of Jesus Christ was unchangeably centred. A way is that which connects the distant and inaccessible. Traversed as is our land in every possible direction by the highways of commerce and civilization, we perhaps scarcely feel the force of this figure. Poor Livingstone, who waded waist deep through pestilential marshes for weeks, to die at last in a miserable hut by the lake shore; the traveller, who has to cut his way for hundreds of miles through tangled forest and jungle at the rate of half a mile a day; the emigrant, who has to cross the trackless alkali plain, and who may perish midway; the military commander, who had to carry his forces over mountains, some sections of which are almost perpendicular,--know how a well engineered path is the first condition of successful movement. A way is that which makes movement in some specific direction possible. Movement towards God is impossible without the work of Jesus Christ the Mediator. Jesus Christ brings together in His own person the two most distant objects the whole circle of the universe can contain, God dwelling in unapproachable light, and man wallowing in guilt, worldliness, transgression. Christ subverts and destroys the work of sin in human nature, and makes progress towards God possible to us once more. In Him the alienated are brought back into relations of gentleness, endearment, and obedience. 2. Christ is the truth, for He recovers man from his godless error. The metaphor looks upon man from his intellectual side. Men are estranged from God in their thinkings, “ alienated from the life of God by reason of the ignorance that is in them.” Christ answers our intellectual need. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Scientific truth puts us into intelligent relation with the world of established scientific fact. Historic truth puts us into intelligent relation with the facts that have determined the growth of particular types of government and civilization. Sociological truths puts us into intelligent relation with the facts that have moulded the social life of mankind. Jesus Christ puts us into intelligent relation with all the vital facts of God’ s being and nature and government. He is the only possible word by which God can address Himself to a world of sinners. No intellectual activity, no induction of reason, no range of research can fill up this chasm in the mind of man. We can only know God as we give ourselves up to Jesus Christ, and suffer the energy of His spirit and presence to rule us. He is made unto us the wisdom by which we come to the saving knowledge of God. All knowledge that lies outside this sphere of contract with Christ is at the very best but adroit guess work. 3. Christ is the Life, inasmuch as He raises men from their godless insensibility and death. The ideas deepen as they succeed each other. Knowledge passes into life. “ This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” He stands forth in the midst of the universe to counterwork the disintegration and decay that set in when the tie binding all life to its first Centre was ruptured by transgression. Union with Christ, our everlasting Life, will guard against the shock and sting and disability of death. The man who is sailing under trustworthy captainship, and in company with genial friends, cut of one zone into another, is scarcely conscious of the lines of demarcation over which the ship glides. So with the man who lives and dies in fellowship with Christ. Throughout the months of summer, darkness is unknown in the latitudes of the far north. The rising and the setting suns blend their light without the hairbreadth of a shadow between. Tourists are all eager to visit the “ Land of the Midnight Sun.” It seems to me that for the man who is vitally united to Christ, the event of death is very much like that. He sails through the quiet, solemn seas of the midnight sun, and before the light of the earthly life has quite gone the light of a nobler sunrise has come to blend with it. In the solemn crisis of transition, for the man who has become one with Christ his Life no darkness deepens, and the shadow of the grave marks the dayspring. 4. Christ’ s words present a corrective to all distracted faith. He asks from His followers concentrated thought and attachment and expectation. They had sought a way outside Christ, though a way through whose mazes He was to guide them; a truth outside Christ, though a truth the exposition of which was to come from His lips; a life outside Christ, though a life of which His immortal reign was to be the seal and the defence. The purport of these words is, that they must seek their all in Christ. They must let their eye rest upon His person as the one centre from which all saving power, all teaching light, all quickening inspiration must come. Mark how in these words the Master leads on His disciples to faith in a Saviour unseen. The love of the disciples had been very apt to glide into an idolatry of Christ’ s human form. But all this is to be corrected by the fresh events that are at hand. The text suggests a warning against all low and dishonouring views of the Saviour’ s work and person. (T. G. Selby.) The Way, the Truth, and the Life I. I AM THE WAY. To what? To our eternal destiny. There are ends closer at hand than this which man, if left to himself, seeks before all other things--pleasure, fortune, glory, science. That is what the heathens ardentlydemanded of their gods; but never by a single word did Jesus Christ offer to lavish them upon men. 1. I know that when we speak of the higher aim of life, worldlings shrug their shoulders and smile; and a certain school, now in high favour, gravely affirms that we can neither attain it nor even so much as understand it. But I needs must know whither I go, and if I deem foolish the man who would fling himself in a railway train or embark upon a vessel without asking where the steam power or the breath of the wind is taking him, by what appellation shall I characterize those who allow themselves to be borne away in the voyage of life without knowing whether their destination is death or life? 2. “ But,” says the sceptic, “ supposing a higher life is indeed reserved for man, how shall he know it? So many ways are open before us! How find out the right path?” Not much science is required to discover which is the path to be preferred, of pleasure or duty, iniquity or justice, selfishness or sacrifice, pride or devotion, purity or corruption. And heathens themselves have understood this well. But how much more simple, and solemn has the question become since Christ said, “ I am the Way!” To know if He speaks true, I have only to consider whither He means to lead me. What then is the end which He sets before me? It is the one, holy, just and good Being reigning over all beings: it is harmony governing the world, man loving man. Well, if that is the end towards which Christ would lead me, what need have I to argue further? Were I the most ignorant of men, I would instinctively understand that I must indeed tend towards this aim. Were I the most learned, what could I add to this ideal? II. I AM THE TRUTH. 1. That is what greatly astonishes many of those who hear Him. They are willing to accept Christ as the instructor of souls. But if Jesus Christ had been nothing more than this, we instinctively feel that, after having guided men to the true God, He should have retired in the background and re echoed the words of the Forerunner: “ God must increase, and I must decrease.” Others, and among these many of the noblest benefactors of mankind, have been compelled to speak thus. Aristotle, Copernicus, Newton, Bacon, Descartes might be unknown to us without this fact depriving their works of aught of their value. And in the religious order, knew we nothing whatever of Moses, David, or St. Paul, we would none the less be in possession of the genesis of the world, of the most heart-thrilling hymns and of the grand doctrine of grace. These men were the witnesses of the truth. This Jesus Christ has also been; but more than all this, and that is why He utters these words, which in the lips of Moses, David, or St. Paul, had been blasphemy: “ I am the Truth.” 2. What is truth? It is the exact relation between two things. Thus a word is true when it corresponds perfectly with the fact or the idea it expresses; and arithmetical calculation is true when it gives accurately the results of a relation between two different quantities. Every truth, therefore, supposes a relation. Well, truth in religion will be the harmonious, and perfect relation between man and God. Now Jesus Christ has not only taught us what this relation is, but that He has realized it in His person. You ask what is the true religion. We point to Jesus Christ and answer: “ Behold it.” III. I AM THE LIFE. 1. Life, which is the most habitual and common of phenomena, is the most unfathomable of mysteries. Materialism, which triumphs today in so many schools, is stopped by this problem as before a brazen door forever sealed. The Eternal God alone calls forth life; I know the terrible objection, if God alone is the Author of all life, wherefore evil? To this the gospel answers that the world is not in a state of order, that evil has, from the origin, been the consequence of the improper use of liberty. But have you observed how closely the notion of sin and that of death are bound up together; have you remarked that the sublime promise of life is essentially reserved for that alone which is in harmony with the will of God? Consequently, strong is our faith, we are able to say to all the powers of evil: “ You shall not live forever.” The gospel is the doctrine of life; earth has been visited by the perfect Being, and according to His own words: “ As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” Alone the Son of God hath life in Himself. Therefore can He say: “ I am the Life.” 2. As Christ possesses life in Himself, He also brings life. Life alone can bring forth life. Christ came into a world which was literally dried up. What He did in Judea He has done in Rome, in the uncivilized world; what He did in olden time He is doing today; and whilst it remains a fatal law for these nations that civilization alone leads them to destruction, it also remains a certain and striking fact that civilization with Jesus Christ is able to transform and save them. But if Christ brings life to nations, it is by imparting it to souls individually. (E. Bersier.) The movement of the ages May it not be said that the movement of our age is towards life? I sometimes fancy that I can discern three epochs in the Reformed Churches corresponding in the main to those three mighty words, via, veritas, vita. The Reformers themselves no doubt laid the stress chiefly upon this first. It was on this Popery had gone most astray, obscuring the doctrine of justification by faith alone. The epoch following was essentially dogmatic when the doctors drew up systems of the truth. It was now indeed Christ as veritas! but the dogma taken alone led to coldness, dogmatism, sectarianism and formality. Happy will it be for the Church if, not forgetting the other two, she shall now be found moving on to the third development of Christ as the Life, which well regulate the two former aspects, while it consummates and informs them. The life must develop the individual, and on individuals the Church depends; for in God’ s sight it is no abstraction. (J. Mackintosh.) I am the Way The Way The most precious things lie in the smallest compass. Diamonds have much value in little space. Those Scriptural sayings which are fullest of meaning are many of them couched in the fewest words. I. HOW JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY AND HOW HE COMES TO BE SO. A way supposes two points--from which and to which. 1. Christ is the Way (1) From the guilt of sin. The great difficulty was--How is sin to be put away? Some have hoped for pardon from future good conduct, but the payment of a future debt can by no means discharge a past debt. Some hope much from the mercy of God, but the law knows nothing of clearing the sinner of guilt by a sovereign act of mercy. Here is the way for the sinner to approach the Father. His sin is laid upon Christ, who became his substitute. (2) The text is true concerning the wrath of God on account of sin. The way to escape from wrath is to escape from the sin which causes the wrath. Now, when the sin of God’ s people was moved from them to Christ, the wrath of God went where the sin went. (3) There comes upon us, in consequence of sin, a deep and terrible depression of spirit. Christ is the way out of the sense of the wrath of God. (4) But more, Christ is the way to escape from the power of sin. A man may break off some of his sins by his own unaided efforts. Still, sin dwells in fallen creatures. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? But there is power which can deliver from the power of sin and make holy; it is found in Christ Jesus. The saints in glory overcame through the blood of the Lamb, and there is no other way of overcoming. The precious blood of atonement wherever sprinkled kills sin. 2. Christ is the Way (1) To the Father. We hear talk of getting to God the Father by nature, but it is a ladder too short to reach the Infinite. It is only by Christ that we realize the Fatherhood of God. We are God’ s children when we are created anew in Christ Jesus. (2) To conscious acceptance with the Father. “ Made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (3) To communion with the Father. You do talk with God when you draw near in Jesus Christ. “ Truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (4) To resemble the Father. You imitate Christ, and so become like the Father. II. WHAT SORT OF WAY IS CHRIST AND FOR WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE? 1. What sort of way. He is (1) The King’ s highway, the Divinely-appointed way from sin to the Father. (2) An open way. If I am treading the king’ s highway I cannot be a trespasser there. (3) A perfect way. It would not be complete unless it came down where you are. Where are you? Defiled by evil living? There is a road from where you are right up to the immaculate perfection of the blessed at God’ s right hand, and that road is Christ. You think you have some preparations to make, some feelings to pass through, something or other to perform; but all you can do to make yourself fit for Christ is to make yourself unfit; all your preparations are but foul lumber--put them all away. Thou must come as thou art. (4) A free way. There is not a toll bar all along the road. Whosoever wills to have Christ may have Him for the taking. He that will pay for Christ cannot have Him at all. If faith be in one respect a condition, it is in another respect a gift of God, and though we are commanded to repent, yet Jesus is exalted on high to give repentance. (5) A permanent way. Not a way for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, only, but for you; not for the apostles, and martyrs, and early saints, only, but for you. It is a way that never has been broken up, and never will be. (6) A joyful way. (7) The only way. 2. For what sort of people. For all sorts (1) For wanderers. (2) For backsliders. (3) For captives. (4) For the poorest of the poor. III. HOW WE MAKE CHRIST OUR WAY. 1. How do we make Christ our way? As we make any other way our way: by getting into it. 2. In order to keep the way your own, all you do is to continue in it. “ The just shall live by faith,” not by any other means. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Jesus the Way This word “ way” may mean either one of two things--the road along which you must go to reach a certain place; or the thing that must be done in order to secure any particular end. When we think of heaven, Jesus is the way in both these senses. He is the road along which we must walk. He has done all that is necessary, in order that we may get there. The way of salvation through Jesus is I. A PLAIN WAY. A paved street or a turnpike road, is a plain way. But if we are travelling over a sandy desert, or through a rocky country where there is nothing to mark the path, then we are in a way that is not plain. It is hard to find the way, and at every step, we are liable to get off the right track. The way of salvation in Jesus is easy to find and easy to keep, if we only ask God to help us in finding and keeping it. (Isaiah 35:8; Habakkuk 2:2). The father of a little girl was once in great trouble on account of his sins. He lay awake, after going to bed one night, in fear and dread. His little daughter was sleeping in her crib beside his bed. Presently she began to move about uneasily. “ Papa, papa!” she called. “ What is it, my darling?” he asked. “ Oh, papa, it’ s so dark! Take Nellie’ s hand.” He reached out and took her tiny little hand, clasping it firmly in his own. A sigh of relief came from her little heart. At once she was quieted and comforted. That father felt that his little child had taught him a valuable lesson. “ Oh, my Father, my Saviour,” he cried, “ it is dark, very dark in my soul. Take my hand.” So he turned to Jesus and trusted in Him. A minister had a son in the army. Tidings came that his son had been wounded and was not expected to live. On arriving there, the doctor said, “ He may die any moment.” With a sad heart, the father went in. “ Oh, father,” said the wounded man, “ the doctor says I must die, and I am not prepared for it. Tell me how I can be ready. Make it so plain that I can get hold of it.” “ My son,” said the father, “ do you remember one day, years ago, I had occasion to rebuke you for something you had done? You became very angry and abused me.” “ Yes, father.” Do you remember, after your anger had passed off, how you came in and threw your arms round my neck and said: ‘ My dear father, I am so sorry, won’ t you forgive me?’” “ Yes, I remember it very distinctly.” “ Do you remember what I said? Oh, yes. You said: ‘ I forgive you with all my heart,’ and you kissed me.” “ Did you believe me?” “ Certainly.” “ And then did you feel happy again?” “ Yes, perfectly happy, and since that time I have loved you better than ever before.” “ Well, now, my son, this is the way to come to Jesus. Tell Him, ‘ I am so sorry,’ just as you told me: and He will forgive you a thousand times quicker than I did.” “ Father, is this the way. Why, I can get hold of this.” And he did get hold of it and was soon happy. After awhile, the doctor came in. He felt the pulse of the wounded man, and said with surprise: “ Why, Colonel, you look better.” “ I am better, doctor. I’ m going to get well.” He got well; and he is living now, the joy and comfort of that father who made the way of salvation so plain that he could get hold of it. II. A BROAD WAY (Matthew 9:28; Revelation 22:17). There was a poor sailor who had lived a very wicked life. Once, while far off at sea, it pleased God to awaken his conscience. Then he was in great distress. There was no one on board to tell him what to do. One night he lay in his berth, and in the dim light of the feeble lamp, he was reading the Bible. He came to John 3:16. He put his finger on the word “ whosoever,”“ Whosoever,” said he, “ that means anybody; that means everybody! Why, that means me!” Then he turned in faith to Jesus, and He received him. He got into the broad way of salvation through this sweet word. One day a minister was visiting with a friend among some of the poorest of the population. He entered a wretched looking house. A rickety bedstead, a couple of broken chairs, the remains of a table, and a few pieces of earthenware on the shelf, made up all the furniture. In the middle of the room a miserable looking woman lay on the floor drunk. The minister said to his friend: “ Let us pray for her.” They kneeled down and prayed that God would have mercy on this poor woman. She lay there still and stupid, and seemed to take no notice. They went away. Some months after the minister was going again through that part of the city. A well-dressed, respectable-looking woman came up and spoke to him. “ Do you not remember some months since praying over a woman who lay drunk on the floor?” “ I do.” “ Well, sir, I am that woman. I was respectably brought up by Christian parents. I married; but after awhile my husband died, and left me with three children in utter poverty. I saw no way of support but by my own shame. Then I took to drinking to drown my sorrow. I was at the lowest point of sin and misery when you stopped and offered that prayer. It saved me. It made me think of my dear mother, now in heaven. And, by God’ s help, I hope yet to loin her there.” Oh, it is a broad way of salvation that can take in such poor wretched creatures as this! A gentleman was sent for once to visit one of his class, a newsboy, named Billy, who was very ill. As he entered the room, Billy said: “ Oh, captain, I’ m mighty glad to see yer.” “ What can I do for you, my dear fellow?” “ I wanted to ax yer two questions. Did you tell us the other night as how Jesus Christ died for every feller?” “ Yes, ‘ Jesus Christ tasted death for every man.’” “ Good!” said Billy: “ I thought so. Now did you tell us as how Jesus Christ saves every feller that axes Him?” “ Yes,” said his friend; “ Everyone that asketh receiveth.” “ Then I know,” said Billy, with a feeble but happy voice, “ That He saves me because I axes Him.” The teacher paused to wipe away a tear from his eye. Then he stooped down to speak to the boy. But Billy’ s head had dropped back on his pillow of rags, and his happy spirit had gone to Jesus. III. A NARROW WAY. It is a broad way, because the greatest sinners may come into it, and any number. It is a narrow way, because when sinners come into it they must leave all their sins behind (Matthew 7:13). 1. There is a vessel lying at anchor, It can make no progress while the anchor holds it. It may rise and fall, as the tide rises or falls; but it cannot move away. And just what the anchor does to the vessel, one sin, one wrong thought or feeling indulged or allowed, will do for the Soul. It will keep it from going on in the way of salvation. 2. A lady once was led to see that she was a sinner. The thought of her sins made her feel very unhappy. The difficulty was just here. She had been a very charitable woman, and wanted to trust in part to good works. One night, after weeping and praying in great distress, she went to bed. In her sleep she dreamed that she fell over a dreadful precipice. In falling, she caught hold of the branch of a tree. In her terror she cried out: “ Oh, save me, save me!” She heard the voice of Jesus saying: “ Let go that branch, and I will save you.” But she was unwilling to loose her hold. Again she cried: “ Oh, save me!” The same voice said: “ I cannot help you while you cling there.” At last she let go, expecting to be dashed to pieces. But, instead of this, she found herself caught in the strong arms of her Saviour. In the joy of feeling herself safe, she awoke. And so in her dream she had learned the lesson which she had failed to learn in her waking hours. She saw that the way of salvation was too narrow for her to carry any of her good works into it. IV. THE ONLY WAY. Some people think that there are a great many ways to heaven, and that one of these is as good as any of the others. What does God say about it? (Isaiah 43:11; Acts 4:12). No one can ever get to heaven who does not go there through Jesus Christ. Many will go to heaven without knowing how they get there. But they will find it was Jesus alone who brought them there. A little girl was very ill. She asked: “ Papa, does the doctor think I shall die?” With a very sad heart, her father said: “ My darling, the doctor is afraid you cannot live.” Then her pale face grew very sad. She thought about the dark graves, and her eyes filled with tears as she said: “ Papa, the grave is very dark. Won’ t you go down with me into it?” With a bursting heart, her father told her he could not go with her, till the Lord called him. “ Papa, won’ t you let mamma go with me?” It almost broke that father’ s heart to tell her that, much as her mother loved her, she could not go with her either. The poor dear child turned her face to the wall and wept. But she had been taught about Jesus, as the Friend and Saviour of sinners. She poured out her little heart to Him with a child’ s full faith, and found comfort in Him. Soon she turned again to her father, with her face all lighted up with joy, and said: “ Papa, the grave is not dark now. Jesus will go with me.” But Jesus is the only one who can do this Psalms 23:4). Some years ago there was a distinguished lawyer, who had an only daughter, the light and joy of her father’ s life. The mother of this young girl was an earnest Christian woman. She had tried to teach her child that Jesus was the only way of salvation. But her husband was an infidel. He had told his daughter that we could get to heaven without the help of Jesus. This daughter loved and honoured both her parents; but as her father told her of one way and her mother of another way, she could not make up her mind which of these two ways was the right one. At the age of sixteen she was taken very ill. One day, she said to her father with great earnestness: “ Father, I am going to die. What must I do to be saved? My mother has taught me that the only way of salvation is in Jesus Christ. You have taught me that we can be saved without Jesus. Shall I take my mother’ s advice or yours?” The strong man was deeply moved. After a while, he came to the bedside of his daughter. He took her pale, thin hand in his, and said slowly but solemnly: “ My darling daughter, take your mother’ s way.” Here is a ship at sea. She has been overtaken by a dreadful storm. Her masts are broken, her sails are rent. She has sprung a leak, and now the pumps are choked, and can no longer be worked. The water is rising. It is very evident that she cannot be kept afloat much longer. There is only one way left to the poor sailors for saving their lives? What is that? It is to take to the lifeboat. And we, as sinners, are just in the position of such a storm-tossed wreck at sea. Jesus is the lifeboat. (R. Newton, D. D.) Christ the Way We could never rejoice in this His way, if He merely stood in the way as a sign post, or went before us as a Guide. God be praised, our Jesus is not only Counsellor, but mighty as well; and not mighty only, but Mighty God! (Isaiah 9:6). If He is as a sign post, He is one with living arms; for He receives us to Himself, from His Cross He draws us up to Himself, He lifts us upon His shoulders; in short, He is Himself the way, the new living way, which, like a full flowing river, bears along our little hark, and brings it to the ocean of a blissful eternity. Conrad Rieger sets before us Jesus as the way, thus: “ Where is the man who will give himself to another to be his way? If the king could not cross over a dyke, and were to say to one of you, ‘ Lay thyself in this dyke to make a bridge that I may cross over upon thee,’ where is the meanest subject in the land who would consent to do it? But what no man would like to do for another, that Jesus does for us all.” (R. Besser, D. D.) Christ the way to God I. IN WHAT IS CHRIST “ THE WAY?” 1. As a Teacher. He came into a world that was filled with error and falsehood. Everywhere men were groping in the dark, following “ blind leaders.” And the Saviour affirmed, “ I am the Light of the World.” “ I am the Truth.” All spiritual truth is associated with Christ, because it proceeds from Him and terminates in Him. 2. As a Mediator. Many can see that Christ is “ the Way” as a Teacher, but not as a Mediator. But if Christ be a Teacher, and nothing more, then He rather shows “ the Way,” than is “ the Way.” Between man and God there stretches a wide gulf which sin has opened. Amidst the many expedients which man vainly devises, the Saviour interposes and becomes the “ one Mediator between God and man.” 3. As such (1) He intercedes with us, and beseeches us to be reconciled to God. (2) He intercedes with God. For this the Saviour is fitted because of His atoning work. He entered into the holy place, “ neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood.” “ Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter,” etc. (3) He receives and bestows upon us the Holy Spirit. If man is to come to God it must be as a “ new creature” that he comes. II. Some of THE OF THIS “ WAY.” 1. Truth. Immediately our Lord adds, “ I am the Truth.” From the Fall until now the human mind has been in matters of religion avaricious of error. Now, amidst the many ways which men have invented, Christ presents Himself as the true Way--the Way which God provides, and which Scripture reveals. What other way so commends itself to an enlightened reason as this. 2. Purity. False systems of religion must accommodate themselves to man’ s frailties, and enable him to compound for his sins; it is only the gospel that presents a pure and perfect standard. 3. Happiness and security. Emphatically may it be said that it is a way of peace. But can you affirm this of those methods of salvation which man has invented? “ Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven.” Safe as well as happy!--for as this is allying way, all who walk in it participate in that eternal life which it bestows (Isaiah 35:8-10). I think of every imagethat can suggest this security, but they all fail adequately to shadow it forth. I think of Noah sheltered in the ark; of Lot, plucked as a “ brand from the burning;” of the criminal pursued by the officers of justice reaching the Temple; of the man slayer in the city of refuge. “ There is no condemnation,” etc. 4. Simplicity. What can be plainer than this promise, “ He that believeth, shall be saved;” or than this invitation, “ Come unto Me, all ye that labour,” etc.; or than this assurance, “ Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out;” or than this command, “ Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved” ? 5. Exclusiveness. “ There is no other name,” etc. (H. J. Gamble.) Make sure that you are in the right way When I was at Fall River, I was obliged to rise at four o’ clock in the morning to take the train. I took my carpet bag in my hand, and ran, but was in trouble lest I might be running directly from the cars, instead of towards them. There was not a person in sight; but I saw a light in one upper window. A watcher was there. I rang the bell, and asked information as to my way. It was given. I was about right--only needed a little help, and now, knowing that I was in the right way, I did run. A bird might have counted it doing well to keep up with me; for I expected every moment to hear the bell, and the rushing off of the train, and then I should be there, and my people without a sermon on Sunday. Only let me be sure that I was in the right way, and I was willing to run. So says the Christian, “ Only let me be sure that I am on my way to heaven, and there is nothing that I am not willing to do or to bear.” Well, if you are so earnest, know that Christ is the Way; and if you are desirous to cast away all that shall hinder your race, I think that you need not doubt that you are already in it. (H. W. Beecher.) Christ the only way Mrs. Bennet, wife of John Bennet, minister of an Independent Church in Cheshire, the day before she died, raised herself into a very solemn attitude, and with most striking emphasis, delivered, in the following language her dying testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus: “ I here declare it before you that I have looked on the right hand and on the left--I have cast my eyes before and behind--to see if there was any possible way of salvation but by the Son of God; and I am fully satisfied there is not. No! none on earth, nor all the angels in heaven, could have wrought out salvation for such a sinner. None but God Himself, taking our nature upon Him, and doing all that the holy law required, could have procured pardon for me, a sinner. He has wrought out salvation for me, and I know that I shall enjoy it forever.” The way to our wishes Thomas was the spokesman of the disciples for the moment. The Saviour speaks to them and to us as if we were anxious to get a glimpse of a particular person, and to go to a particular place. Are not these longings strong and deep in the heart of humanity? Is not science itself in search of the Father? Is it not trying by every means in its power to get up to the Great First Cause? And does not superstition unite its sighs with those of science? When it makes its idol and falls down before it, is it not trying to bring God within the bounds of visibility? And is not Pantheism in pursuit of the same object? God everything, and everything God. Deeper still is the desire in the heart of the Church. Now Christ says, “ I am the Way.” Would it not be wonderful if it were otherwise, if there were no way? We see on all sides provision made for the wants of our nature, for the gratification of the wishes of our hearts. Are we to believe that the desires which we have for the highest and noblest and holiest of all things are to be made exceptions to the rule? I. CHRIST IS THE WAY BY WHICH THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE, THE FATHER OF ALL, HAS BEEN BROUGHT WITHIN THE RANGE OF HUMAN VISION IN A REAL FORM. His attributes are evident from His works. Holy men of old were permitted to hear His voice sometimes, and to behold symbols of His presence. But the Lord Jesus made the eternal God visible to the eye of man in human form--“ In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” And that was the only way in which He could be manifested personally to the eye of flesh. Mortal man could not go up to God where He is. The only alternative was, that God should come down in the fashion of a man. In no other nature could He convey a complete conception of His character to the mind. II. CHRIST IS THE WAY BY WHICH MAN GETS UP TO GOD, AND DWELLS WITH HIM AT LAST IN HIS HOUSE. When we were bearing our own sins, we dreaded Him; when He is placed before us bearing our sins, we are attracted to Him, and take hold of Him with our whole heart, as His heart took hold of us when we were perishing. When we are drawn to Him we partake of His nature as really as He partook of ours. His Spirit flows into us, and all that is good is quickened and strengthened in us, so that an affinity is established between us and Him, just as an affinity had been previously established between Him and us. “ If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me.” His people “ seek the things which are above,” etc. “ Our citizenship is in heaven.” When the souls of His people are loosed from their bodies at death they go up to Him. And the bodies of believers, as well as their spirits, will be drawn up to Him at last. “ And so we shall be ever with the Lord.” (W. Simpson.) The way to the Father We hear much of the Fatherhood of God, and cannot hear too much if the doctrine be truly stated. It is not a new doctrine. The heathen knew something of it; it is in the Old Testament, while it is the very substance of the New. Only in the latter, what heathenism never knew, and what the Law and the Prophets only taught imperfectly, God is our Father in the Eternal Son. This distinctly Christian doctrine is declared in our text I. . It protests against certain religious teachings which contravene it. Throughout His ministry Christ was in conflict with men who held a false doctrine of the Fatherhood of God. 1. There were those who represented God as though He looked on His human offspring with a complacency which winked at all moral distinctions. The Supreme Father looked upon all with equal indifference. In opposition to this Christ taught that man was estranged from God through sin. He had lost the knowledge of God and was spiritually dark; the favour of God and was guilty; the image of God and was corrupt; the life of God and was dead in trespasses and sins; and that men could only secure the prerogatives of sonship by intervention from without. There are those today who teach the old doctrines of a philosophical Sadduceeism. Christianity challenges them. Appealing to Christ’ s credentials as a Teacher sent from God, it proclaims to the world that God hath given unto us eternal life, and that this life is by a Mediator whom He hath ordained. There is no absurdity in the doctrine. Who but God can determine how we may most fitly come to Him? And as the Mediatorship is actually constituted, what lessons touching Divine love and holiness, and human helplessness and dignity, does it not pour into our ears. 2. But Christ’ s ministry did battle even more keenly with those who held that God was their Father through mediatorship. Angels, Abraham, Moses, saintly pedigree, holy observances, etc., were their mouthpieces with God, and stepping stones to immortality. Christ told them they carried a lie in their right hand; that there was but one Mediator--Himself. Alas! we have the doctrine of the Pharisees too. Men are heard proclaiming that the prayer of a disembodied saint, the magic of a Christian rite, etc., have the stupendous power to join heaven and earth together. The New Testament pronounces all this to be falsehood. Our alms, deeds, lastings, communions, baptisms, etc. these bridge the gulf between us and God I What does a man think of himself, what does he think of God, who takes up with such a hypothesis? II. . Taken with its context, the text is the summary and index of a most large and precious Scripture teaching. How do men come to the Father through Christ? Necessarily the Person, character, and history of the Mediator will have much to do with the nature and method of His mediation. Who the Mediator was let John tell us (chap. 1), and His character and history let him and his brethren tell. With these facts in view men have held that the value of Christ’ s mediation consists in the energy of the truth He taught, and the force of His example. Others explain that by His perfect fulfilment of the will of God as our representative, He became so acceptable to God, that by reason of what He did God is now the loving Father of us all, and in Him all men are already virtually, and will be by and by actually justified and glorified. Now both these theories mistake the entire basis, method and scope of Christ’ s Mediatorship, which is essentially an economy of holy law, in which God and man sustain not simply the relations of Father and Son, but those of moral Governor and rational and responsible creature. According to Scripture 1. Christ’ s blood has made satisfaction in law to Divine justice for the sins of all mankind, by virtue of which sin is expiated, and all men through personal faith may find mercy and acceptance. 2. As the recompense of the Redeemer’ s passion. God gives to the world by Christ’ s hands His Holy Spirit, by whom assurance of pardon is given, and new birth to righteousness. 3. Under the reign of Christ believers are protected from the evil that is in the world; subjected to providential discipline, and furnished with strength to do the will of God and make their way to everlasting life. III. AND . Men can only come to God by Christ; but by Him there is free access for every soul. To come to the Father Isaiah 1. To know God. 2. To be the object of the love of God. 3. To be with God forever. Conclusion: 1. The words illuminate the widest possible area of religious truth. God is and always has been, whether as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, the Father of men through a Mediator. 2. Within a narrower circle, Christ’ s doctrine lays down broad lines of duty and privilege for the Church of God. Let no false charity presume to enlarge what God has straitened. It is at the Church’ s peril that it dares to cripple man’ s evangelical liberty. 3. The text speaks with a gracious but authoritative voice to every hearer of the gospel. (1) Do not hope to find God without Christ. (2) Do not treat Christ as though His Mediatorship was inadequate. (3) Let no man despise or neglect the Mediator, “ How shall we escape,” etc. (J. D. Geden, D. D.) Christ the only way to the Father Not long ago, two little children rambling from home over a wild and dangerous part of Dartmoor, lost their way. Utterly unable to find the right path, they sat down, and cried bitterly. “ And what did you do next?” was the question put to them afterwards. “ I said, ‘ Our Father,’ answered the boy, “ and sister said, ‘ Gentle Jesus.’” Then they made another attempt, and discovered a moorland road which led them safely home. Surely the conduct of those little ones, lost on the moor, has a lesson for us. If any of us have wandered from the right way, and lost sight of our Father’ s House, and fallen among the dangers of a sinful world, what can we do better than shed tears of sorrowful repentance; what can we do better than cry to Our Father and Gentle Jesus? (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.) Christ the only way of approach to the Father I. To come UNTO THE FATHER MUST BE AS THE CHIEF CONCERN OF MAN. 1. The nature of this coming to the Father. It is (1) To obtain an accurate acquaintance of His character and His will. We are said to be distant from an object when we are ignorant of it. In the Sacred Writings, on the one hand, ignorance of God is mentioned as being a crime; and, on the other, to attain an accurate acquaintance with Jehovah is the highest human blessing. It is, therefore, desired for men that they may have the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of God and His Son. (2) The enjoyment of reconciliation with Him. Reconciliation was the grand theme which Christ preached, as well as the grand work which He came to accomplish. 2. The importance of thus coming to the Father. Adopting the most general assumption that God is the Governor, and that man is a subject, and that the sanction by which the government of God is vindicated, over the retribution of eternity, then it must follow that nothing can be of importance at all compared to the attainment of a state by which the infliction of the Divine anger may be avoided, and by which the enjoyment of the Divine favour may be secured. II. THE WORK OF THE LORD JESUS AFFORDS A METHOD BY WHICH MEN MAY COME UNTO THE FATHER. In the whole of the series of verses, with which the text is connected, our Saviour speaks of Himself as being one who had been introduced for the purpose of accomplishing a work, through the agency of which man might be made possessor of all that is desirable in the state we have endeavoured to describe. Let us notice 1. The nature of the work which our Lord Jesus has accomplished. (1) Christ is invested with the office of a teacher. One object of His incarnation was to remove those awful shades of ignorance which had overshadowed the nations of the earth; and to inculcate all those principles of spiritual truth which were necessary for man to know and believe. (2) But we must contemplate the work of our Lord as that which also furnishes a positive atonement for sin. 2. The extent to which this work is intended to be applied. The merit of the work of the Saviour is intrinsically sufficient for the world. The means of access and acceptance with God, under the Levitical dispensation, were restricted to a small nation; but under that dispensation of grace and truth, which came by Jesus Christ, it announced that the party walls were to be broken down, and the distinction of Jew and Gentile known no more; and that whomsoever, of any age, nation, rank, or character, would come unto the Father through the work of the Son, should find in the work of the Son a ready plenitude of Almighty energy and grace. There is no limit to that promise--“ He that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” III. TO COME UNTO THE FATHER, EXCEPT THROUGH THE WORK OF JESUS, IS AND . 1. No other being possesses the characteristics which are possessed by our Lord Jesus, and which are necessary to constitute a sufficient mode of access to the Father. For, what is Christ? He is God, and He is Man. The way to God would be shut if it were not for the humanity of Christ; the way to God would be imperfect if it were not for the Divinity of Christ. Humanity is what gives to the work of the Saviour adaptation; Divinity is what gives to the work of Christ efficacy, plenitude, and power. 2. The Sacred Writings distinctly and solemnly declare that the work of Christ, as the Medium of access to the Father, stands exclusive and alone. “ Neither is there salvation in any other,” etc. “ Other foundation can no man lay,” etc. Conclusion: 1. Have you come to the Father? 2. Will you come unto the Father? (J. Parsons.) Christ the only means of access to the Father The passage implies I. THAT IT IS A PRIMARY DUTY OF ALL BEINGS TO COME TO GOD. God is the Father of all spirits, of all beings, to whom He has given an intelligent nature, on whom He has conferred moral capacities. From that very circumstance it is their first and positive obligation, and will constitute their happiness to come to Him, i.e., to have constant intercourse with Him. There is something solemn and impressive about it. To come into contact with the eternal and infinite mind! We feel strongly when we have a prospect of coming into contact with some eminent person. But everything falls short of the idea of coming into the presence of God. And then to have a proper idea of our responsibility, and our being constantly under His eye--and yet it is our primary duty to delight in this, and to do it. II. THAT THERE IS A VERY ABOUT THE WAY IN WHICH MAN IS TO COME TO GOD. “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” Anything like that was never uttered in heaven. It never was uttered, and never will be, in any world in which the beings continue to be just as they proceeded from the hands of God. They delight in constant intercourse with God. Why is this? Worlds that have never fallen are in a state of natural religion. With respect to us who have fallen, if we come to God we must come in a particular manner. And the singularity of this arises from our guilt. God is to be viewed by us not merely as God, but as a God whom we have offended. And, therefore, there is some process required to mark our circumstances, both upon God’ s part and upon ours. And the peculiarity of the thing as revealed in Scripture is, that we are to come to God, through a Mediator, and to plead the work and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to ask the forgiveness of sin, in the consideration of that reason. Now all just wows of religion rest upon this foundation. The Deist rejects revelation and a mediator altogether, because he looks abroad on the face of the world, and he thinks that nothing more is necessary to come to God but some prayer and some expression of penitence. Then, again, some men reject the idea of the Divinity and sacrifice of Christ, and think it is enough to come to God, as professing to receive the truth of Christ. These views result from very inadequate impressions of the holiness and majesty of God and of the nature of sin, and of that kind of medium which is represented in the New Testament as the way into the presence of the holiest of all. III. THAT IN COMING TO GOD IT BECOMES US TO HAVE RESPECT TO THE , AND TO COME ON THE FOR WHICH HE IS . Only imagine that one of your children, or several of them, had deeply and grievously offended you. Or imagine the case of a monarch, against whom a certain portion of his subjects had rebelled. Imagine, in either of these cases, that some kind and gracious and affectionate declaration of readiness to forgive on certain conditions and in a certain way. And just imagine that either the child, or the subject should dare to come into the presence of the parent or of the sovereign, unconcerned about the matter wherein they had offended. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 14:8-11 Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us Man’ s cry and Christ’ s response I. THE CRY OF MANKIND. Philip represents all men in their deepest spiritual experiences. What is this but the cry of spiritual orphans for a lost Father. “ Oh, that I knew where I might find Him.” The cry implies an underlying belief 1. In the existence of a great Father. In the human heart (1) there is no atheism; that is a phantom of the brain. The idea of God is at the root of all ideas. (2) There is no pantheism. The heart craves a person. (3) There is no molochism. The heart craves a Father, not the representation of God in certain theologies. This belief is instinctive; you cannot reason it away. It is the hope of the sinner on his death bed. The heart turns to it as the flower to the sun. 2. In the sufficiency of the Father’ s manifestation. Until the Father comes the soul will have a gnawing hunger and an aching void. It will satisfy (1) The intellect. Solving the problems insoluble to reason, and whose crushing weight philosophy but augments. (2) The affections. It will unfold, purify, harmonize, and centralize them. The prodigal was flooded with joy in the warm caresses of his father’ s love. As the genial sun of May sets the choristers of the grove into music, the presence of the Father will not only hush all the cries of the child, but fill the heart with filial rapture. II. THE OF CHRIST. In Christ the Father of man appears to man in man’ s nature. 1. This was now amply attested (John 14:10-11). Who but the Father could have wrought those works which He accomplished, inspired the doctrines He proclaimed, produced such a character as He manifested? 2. This was now practically ignored (John 14:9). Note here (1) A criminal neglect of means. “ Have I,” the medium of His power, the organ of His thoughts, the image of His character--“ been so long with you,” etc. (2) The finality of the revelation. “ How sayest thou then,” etc. There is no other revelation of the Father to come. “ No man hath seen God,” etc. If you cannot find the Father in Me, you will never find Him, neither in the universe nor in the speculations of philosophy. Conclusion: Without this, whatever else thou hast, thy destitution is terrible. No amount of worldly wealth, social influence, intellectual culture will be of real and lasting service without this revelation of the Father. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Man’ s deep cry for the paternal in religion I. THAT THE DEEP CRY OF MAN IS FOR THE OF THE IN . Men cry for the paternal rather than 1. The historical in religion. Religion has a history both interesting and significant. It comes down to us from the earliest times. (1) It unfolds the inner life of humanity. (2) It introduces to our attention the most remarkable and beautiful characters that the world has ever known. (3) It is connected with worship and religious thought. And this is made known to us by a Divine inspiration. Such a history must be interesting to man, yet, after he has perused it, his cry is rather, “ Show us the Father.” And men read history in search of the Divine Fatherhood. 2. The philosophical in religion. Religion has not merely a history, but also a philosophy. It is at the basis of all philosophical questions. It has given rise and importance to them all. The philosophy of evil, of mediation, of salvation, of futurity, is inseparably connected with the religion of Jesus Christ. These problems are perplexing. They have taxed the best minds. They are still unsolved. Heaven can only give the solution of them. Man studies the philosophy of religion in order to get at the Great Father of the universe, and of His being. 3. The theological in religion. Religion has not merely a history, a philosophy, but also a theology. This theology has been systematized by councils, and crystallised in creeds. The development of Christian doctrine is interesting. But in the study of the Bible, man seeks more to catch the smile of his Father, than to see the sceptre of his legislator, or to hear the voice of his teacher. This is the present direction of human sentiment. Men are everywhere seeking the paternal; they are doing so to an unwarrantable extent; to the overbalance of theology; to the destruction of the moral government of God, in utter forgetfulness, or neglect of other attributes equally involved in His existence. Let men see the Father, but let them also see the King, and the Judge. II. THAT THE DEEP CRY OF MAN’ S HEART IS FOR A OF THE IN . 1. Some men’ s ideas of religion are thoroughly sensuous. Such was the case with Thomas and Philip. It would seem that the religion of these two men was confined to what they knew and saw. Some men cannot interpret the spiritual meaning of imagery, nor understand symbolism. They remain in its outer court, and appear unable to enter its holy of holies. We want the power to see heavenly meanings in earthly words. There is another vision than that of sight, even that of faith. 2. We should strive to correct the sensuous ideas associated with the religious life of men. “ Have I been so long time with you,” etc. Christ was the manifestation of the Divine Father. Philip, in seeing Him, ought to have risen to a vision of the Father. 3. We should strive to lead men into the bright vision of faith. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Some only see half of the things they look at. They look at mountains, and see nothing but crags; at trees, and see nothing but sticks and leaves; at stars, and see nothing but candles; at Christ, and see nothing but manhood. Whereas, to other men all nature is a revelation of God. They penetrate into the inner meaning of things; they behold the invisible. When such men look at Christ, they also see the Father. III. THAT MAN HOPES TO OBTAIN, FROM A VISION OF THE , DEEP OF HEART. 1. A sensuous vision of the paternal in religion will never satisfy the human heart. Man cannot with bodily eye behold the Father. If he were to see Him, he would doubt the accuracy of his sense immediately the glad vision were gone. This would be but a glimpse of Fatherhood. It would not give satisfaction. 2. A view of the paternal, obtained by faith, will give constant satisfaction to the soul of man. From this vision the Divine Father will never withdraw. The vision shall be co-extensive with the faith. It will produce the satisfaction of peace, of hope, and of joy. The soul will want no other vision. Lessons: 1. To cultivate the inner sense of the soul. 2. To make Christ the interpretation of all our heavenly relationships. 3. To obtain heart rest from a consciousness of the Divine Fatherhood. (J. S. Exell, M. A.) Show us the Father The mystery of “ going away” was deepened when the Master declared that through Him they were to know the Father. The surprise of Thomas, whose faith was dull, but whose love was, nevertheless, genuine--was natural; while the sentiment of Philip was a sort of desperate clutching at something very glorious, but very difficult of obtaining. For an absent Son he asked, as the only compensation, a manifested Father. His words show us I. THE GREAT WANT OF MANKIND. God has not left Himself without witness, and not the least of His evidences is that our nature is ever seeking Him. The question of Philip 1. Asserts the knowledge of the Father as that which suffices. It is an assertion of our grandeur. Ours are not glow worm faculties; ours no owl-like souls. No dim vision, no starlight manifestations can content us. Our capacity takes in the universe, and then cries, “ Show us the Father,” etc. Less than such a desire is a degradation of man. Less is to make his nature a dwarfed and sickly thing. 2. Echoes the cry of the races. Our nature is not always conscious that it is after Him; but it reaches and calls after what is in Him alone. The savage approaches the conception of power by his adoration of strength; the sage the worship of infinite understanding through study of the truth; the artist through his vision of the beautiful; the poet through his dream of the right and good. The world swings round, and men catch single gleams of Godhead, and know not what it is--only something great and noble. 3. Is the instructed soul asking for the Father. It is not scepticism searching for a deity--an insensate principle. It is not half convinced doubt feeling along the links of creation after a first cause. It is not amiable optimism out in immeasurable extension of beneficent actuality asking for a Creator. It is awakened faith seeking its author; a hungry soul searching a satisfying love. II. WANT, OF NEAR SUPPLY. 1. Men go afar for the knowledge at their doors; nay, at their very feet. They search after the mystery of God. They sound for Him in depths; they climb for Him in the heights! Yet His footprints are on every green, His hand touches on each flower and shrub and spire. Gentle and Titanic forces alike declare Him. Could I give the atom a tongue, it would cry, “ Have I been so long time with you, and have I not spoken to you of God?” The river sings as it hastens oceanward, “ Have I been so long time with you, and have you not seen God reflected in my silver beauty?” Oh, blindness, which can fail to discern Him I Has that word lain by you so long with promise, covenant, and command, and yet have you not known the God it discloses? 2. Philip’ s error was, that he had looked elsewhere than to Christ for the vision of the Father. God had been described. He had been promised. For the first time he was manifested. His love came out in Christ’ s Divine human voice, and was in the touch of those human fingers. It was the Father’ s authority in the “ Go in peace and sin no more.” It was the Father’ s majesty in the awakening voice at the grave of Lazarus. Yet it was God incarnate, and Philip knew it not. Conclusion: There is profound significance to us in the lesson of Jesus to Philip. 1. We are to find the Father in the Only-begotten, who dwelt in His bosom, and hath declared Him. You can neither understand Him in His works or word until you study both through the Incarnation. Around that, as we look steadily, both a theology and a theodicy must crystallise. Our knowledge of Jesus is through faith, and through that our knowledge of the Father becomes experimental. 2. It is hence that we know the infinite. Christ’ s mediation stretches a cord between heart-love and God-love, soul-life and God-life, human nature and Divine nature. It answers nothing as to mysteries it oversweeps. It is silent as to riddles of theology and questions of schoolmen. But it touches us here, God there; we touch it with our guilt, He with His compassion. We apprehend the Infinite we can never comprehend. Jesus came to reveal the Father who hears prayer, who governs in providences, who smiles upon His child; who sees the prodigal, foot sore and tattered, yet trying to come home, and runs to meet him. (T. M. Eddy, D. D.) The true vision of the Father Philip knew that Moses had once led the elders up to the mount where “ they saw the God of Israel,” and that to many others had been granted sensible manifestations of the Divine presence. As a disciple he longed for some similar sign to confirm his faith. As a man he was conscious of the deep need which all of us have for something more than an unseeable and unknowable God. The peculiarities of Philip’ s temperament strengthened the desire. To all Nathanael’ s objections he had only the reply, “ Come and see.” And here he says, “ Oh! if we could see the Father it would be enough.” His petition is child-like in its simplicity, beautiful in its trust, noble and true in its estimate of what men need. He meant a palpable manifestation, and so far he was wrong. Give the word its highest and its truest meaning, and Philip’ s error becomes grand truth. I. THE SIGHT OF GOD IN CHRIST AS ENOUGH TO ANSWER MEN’ S . There is a world of sadness and tenderness in the first words of our Lord’ s reply. He seldom names His disciples, When He does there is a deep cadence of affection in the designation. This man was one of the first disciples, and thus had been with Him all the time of His ministry, and the Master wonders that, before eyes that loved Him as much as Philip’ s did, His continual self-revelation had passed to so little purpose. Learn 1. That we all need to have God made visible to us. The history of heathendom shows us that. And the highest cultivation of this nineteenth century has not removed men from the same necessity. A God who is only the product of inferences, the creature of logic or of reflection, is very powerless to sway and influence men. The limitations of our faculties and the boundlessness of our hearts both cry out for a God that is nearer to us than that, and whom we can see and love and be sure of. 2. Christ meets this need. How can you make wisdom visible? How can a man see love or purity? By deeds. And the only way by which God can ever come near enough to men to be a constant power and smile in their lives is by their seeing Him at work in a man. Christ’ s whole life is the making the invisible God visible. 3. That vision is enough. The mind settles down upon the thought of God as the basis of all being, and of all change; and the heart can twine itself round Him, and the seeking soul folds its wings and is at rest; and the troubled spirit is quiet, and the accusing conscience is silent, and the rebellious will is subdued, and the stormy passions are quieted; and in the inner kingdom is a great peace. We are troubled because we see not God, our Father, in the face of Jesus. 4. Our present knowledge and vision are far higher than the mere external symbol of a presence which this man wanted. The elders of Israel saw but some symbolical manifestation of that which in itself is unseen and unattainable. But we who see God in Christ see no symbol but the reality. II. THE DIVINE AND MUTUAL BY WHICH THIS SIGHT IS MADE (John 14:10). There are here 1. Christ’ s claim to the oneness of unbroken communion. “ I am in the Father” indicates the suppression of all independent will, consciousness, thought, action: “ And the Father in Me,” indicates the influx into that perfectly filial manhood of the whole fulness of God. 2. The claim, that because of this there is perfect cooperation. Jesus Christ in all His words and works is the perfect instrument of the Divine will, so that His words are God’ s words, and His works are God’ s works. 3. And from all this follow (1) The absolute absence of any consciousness on Christ’ s part of the smallest deflection or disharmony between Himself and the Father. Two triangles laid on each other are in every line, point, and angle absolutely coincident. That humanity is capable of receiving the whole inflow of God, and that indwelling God is perfectly expressed in the humanity. (2) If this was what Christ said, what did He think of Himself? If Jesus had this consciousness, either He was ludicrously, tragically, blasphemously, utterly mistaken and untrustworthy, or He is what the Church in all ages has confessed Him to be, “ the Everlasting Son of the Father.” III. THE FAITH TO WHICH CHRIST INVITES US ON THE GROUND OF HIS UNION WITH, AND OF, GOD (John 14:11). Observe that the verb at the beginning of this verse passes into a plural form. Our Lord has done with Philip especially. He bids us believe Him. 1. The true bond of union between men and Jesus Christ is faith. We have to trust, and that is better than sight. We have to trust Him. He is the personal Object of our faith. Faith is the outgoing of the whole man--heart, will, intellect and all--to a person whom it grasps. But the Christ that we have to trust is the Christ as He has Himself declared to us. If He be not God manifest in the flesh, I ought not to trust Him. I may admire Him, reverence Him, have a kind of a love to Him. But what in the name of common sense shall I trust Him for? And why should He call upon me to exercise faith in Him unless He stand before me the adequate object of a man’ s trust--namely, the manifest God? 2. Believing in the sense of trusting is seeing and knowing. Philip said, “ Show,” etc. Christ answers, “ Believe! and thou dost see.” If you look back upon the previous verses of this chapter you will find that in the earlier portion of them the keyword is “ know” ; that in the second portion of them the keyword is “ see” ; that in this portion of them the keyword is “ believe.” The world says, “ Ah! seeing is believing.” The gospel says, “ Believing is seeing.” The true way to knowledge, and to a better vision than the uncertain vision of the eye, is faith. 3. Faith, even if based upon lower than the highest grounds, is still faith and acceptable to Him, “ Or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” (1) And so we are taught that if a man has not come to that point of spiritual susceptibility in which the image of Jesus Christ lays hold upon his heart and obliges him to trust Him and to love Him, there are yet the miracles to look at; and the faith that by help of that ladder climbs to Him, though it be second best, is yet real. Imperfect faith may be the highway to perfection. Let us follow the light if it be but a far-off glimmer, sure that it will bring us into perfect day. (2) On the other hand, no faith avails itself of all the treasures laid up for it which does not lay hold upon Christ in the character which he presents Himself. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The vision of God This request of Philip touches the heart of all religion. It is a question as old as humanity. Sometimes, indeed, the soul becomes so debased, that the desire ceases to be eager, or even conscious; a perversion of natural law as disastrous as if the flame were not to seek the sun, the magnet not to turn to the pole, the solid not to fall to the earth. But in a normal state of human feeling, it has no yearning so spontaneous and strong. This last discourse of our Lord--the greatest and profoundest of His teachings--is simply His answer to this inquiry. It would indeed be a fatal invalidation of the religion of Christ, if it had no answer to this fundamental quest of men. Indeed, the exhaustive definition of Christ’ s salvation is the Christian way of seeing God. I. THE CRAVING FOR GOD WHICH IS OF ALL MORAL NATURES. 1. To those who deny God, I am justified in putting the question--Why do I concern myself about religious things? Why do I crave some vision of God? As well ask why my physical body craves food, or my intellectual soul seeks knowledge. By persistent sin, a man may practically disable his soul; just as by drunkenness or licentiousness he may disable his body, or reduce to idiocy his mind. So also he may reason down his religious instincts by material philosophies; just as by fanciful notions concerning his body he may make himself a hypochondriac. But it is part of him still. He may damage, but he cannot kill it. And sometimes--it may be after years of sin,. or scepticism--there shall be a sudden rolling away of the stone, and a coming forth of the entombed soul, and it shall cry out for God, and refuse to be comforted if it cannot find Him. 2. But this, we are told, is only traditional superstition, educational influence, social environment. But how account for the superstition, the social sentiment? Its universality and uniformity point to something inherent and ineradicable. The soul may be befooled, Men take advantage of it when ignorant or morbid, and urge upon it religious sacrifices, services, and ceremonies, sacraments, penances, and prayers. But even those do not suffice. No religious things can satisfy, the living soul cries out for the living God. True, in Philip the desire shaped itself in ignorant forms; but in which of us does it not? Sometimes it is only a feeling of blind unrest, a craving for we know not what. We moan and toss like men in a fever. 3. Who, conscious of a living soul, can be contented with mere laws of nature instead of the living God? If there be no God, our nature, as it is, is the greatest solecism in the universe. All things else have their purpose and harmony. But for man, this spiritual nature is a waste, and a mockery. Robespierre was right. “ If there be no God, then it behoves man to make one.” 4. The strength of this craving is attested by the credulities of scepticism as much as by the confidences of faith. Let men reject the Christian revelation of God, and as surely as they succeed, wild and incredulous imaginations will break forth and in pitiful forms give the lie to all their philosophy. The fantasies of modem spiritualism are as conclusive attestations as the convictions of Paul. Blind to spiritual truth, men are by the very strength of their spiritual nature “ given over to strong delusions, and believe a lie.” II. THE INTO WHICH, IN THEIR QUEST AFTER GOD, EVEN GOOD MEN FALL. 1. The disciples generally had but a very confused and imperfect conception of Christ and His work. Their persistent dream of a restoration of David’ s throne and dominion hung like a yell between them and Christ. We find few things more difficult than to believe in purely spiritual forces and processes. It is a poor spiritual teaching that can be fully comprehended. Our Lord has to speak of the highest spiritual things to men of low spiritual type; and after vain attempts to make them understand, He has to content Himself with a promise of the Holy Spirit, who should “ teach them all things.” 2. Probably Philip thought of some visible manifestation, such as the Shekinah symbol or of Isaiah’ s vision. How rarely men recognise manifestations of God in purely spiritual forms, in true religious ideas, in holy actions, in Godlike character. For three years Christ had been with these men, and they were utterly unconscious that, in all His moral glory, they were looking upon the truest and highest manifestation of God. When we think of Divine manifestation we think of supernatural miracle, of inspired fervours, of signal conversions, of ecstatic services. How difficult we find it to realize that in the sublime faith, the unselfish love of a quiet saintly life, there is a far higher manifestation of God than in all miracles! The great aim of our Lord’ s teaching was to turn men’ s quest after God from signs and wonders to His spiritual workings in religious hearts. Philip asked some theophany--“ the Lord coming suddenly to His temple,” as Malachi had predicted--which he thought would give certainty to his faith and precision to his idea. Christ replies by directing him to a living spiritual Person, “ full of grace and truth.” 3. If, then, this manifestation of purely moral and spiritual glories be the true vision of God--the glory of His goodness which God caused to pass before Moses--may we not, in the light of it, test the various ways of seeking God which men pursue? (1) Men come with their intellectual methods of analysis and reasoning. The astronomer brings his computations; the geologist his hammer; the chemist his crucible; and the philosopher his laws of sequence, order, and causation. They resolve substances into atoms, or ether; they trace back all developments to a common protoplasm; they follow up sequence to its last term, and then they gravely tell you that they cannot find God. How should they, when they have brought only physical tests to the mere material universe of God? His spiritual character they have never attempted to essay. Even on their own physical ground they confess that their atoms are pure imaginations, that when they have traced all organisms to their common protoplasm, the mystery of life is utterly inscrutable; that they can throw no light upon the genesis of mind, or of moral feeling, or of religious idea, or even suggest how vegetable life develops into animal intelligence, or animal intelligence into reason or conscience. Before these primal mysteries, the profoundest philosopher stands as utterly ignorant as the dweller in an African kraal. How should men find God by such processes? As well may the antiquary who unwraps an Egyptian mummy, or the surgeon who conducts a post-mortem examination, demur because he cannot find the heroism of the patriot, the genius of the poet, the affections of the lover, the piety of the saint. All that these processes can lead to is a rational presumption that a universe so wonderful must be the creation of an Infinite Intelligence. The supreme manifestation of God is in the moral sphere of things. Let men ask their moral consciousness whether the scriptural ideas of God are not true and transcendent? whether they do not satisfy the highest thoughts and yearnings and wants of their own spiritual nature? whether they can think anything greater or holier, more congruous and satisfying? While God is supremely and characteristically a moral Being, it must in the necessity of things be that the world by its mere intellectual wisdom cannot know God. (2) The other way in which men seek God is through creeds and churches, priesthoods, sacraments, and rituals. III. THE OF GOD THAT MEN CRAVE IS THAT OF A FATHER. In our Lord’ s day, as in our own, men had been told much about God as the Creator, the Ruler, the Judge of men. But it did not satisfy the soul. They yearned for something else in God--for pity, patience, help, love. Let the thought come that this great and holy God is also the Father. How our hearts leap towards Him! As a Father, He is precisely the God we need; our sins crave the forgiveness, our weakness and imperfections the patience, our sorrows the sympathy of a Father; our yearnings His fatherly love and bosom. We kneel down to pray to Him how gladly we catch up the great word put into our lips, and say, “ Our Father who art in heaven.” Some glimpses of this the old Jew had. But, as with all religious truths, the realization of God as a Father depends not upon intellectual ideas merely, but upon religious experiences. It is the experience of what, as a Father, God does for us, that enables us to understand what He is. IV. GOD AS A FATHER IS TO US ONLY IN CHRIST. 1. Christ claims this as His distinctive revelation of God. Like a refrain it rings through the Sermon on the Mount at the beginning of His ministry; like an atmosphere it suffuses this last great discourse “ on the night that He was betrayed.” It is the one unvarying representation of all His intervening teaching. But, in this great word to Philip much more than a teaching is meant It would be a cold and meagre paraphrase of it to say, “ He that hath received My teaching hath received a true doctrine of the Father.” It is a vision of God, not a theory of God, which He gives. 2. I do not think that the explanation is to be found in the Incarnation. Men saw Him, the veritable incarnate Son, and yet they did not see the Father. Nor does He refer to His miracles, the displays of His supernatural power: these He always put in disparaging contrast with His spiritual glories. Clearly His idea is of a purely spiritual conception of God, a vision of God’ s spiritual character such as God proclaimed to Moses when He made “ all His goodness pass before him.” There is no sense in which, as distinguished from His almighty works, the spiritual God can be seen but in manifestations of His holiness, goodness, and love. And these can be adequately embodied and expressed only in a personal moral life--the life of the only begotten Son. This is the true incarnation--the embodiment in a human life of these Divine moral qualities. As we conceive of the spiritual God, there is nothing else in Him that could be incarnated. 3. May we venture a speculation upon God’ s peculiar Fatherhood in its relation to the Incarnation? Is there not an essential oneness between the spiritual nature of God and the spiritual nature of man, as between fire and the sun, the father and the child? Is there not something in the Divine nature of which the Incarnation is the supreme expression?--something in human nature which makes the Incarnation possible in virtue of affinity? Does He not love us because a father must love his children? And does He not in the Incarnation of Christ show us how closely our nature is allied to His? 4. I need not dwell here upon the inevitable inference from all this, as to who or what this transcendent Personage really is. No creature may claim Divine glories, least of all God’ s spiritual perfections. Deliberately and emphatically this calmest and most ingenuous of men claims to have perfectly embodied them. No other interpretation of the claim is rationally possible than the accepted interpretation of the Christian Church. “ I and my Father are one.” This conception of the Christ is much more than a theological dogma. It is a great religious inspiration full of practical uses. Nothing so assures our hearts, nothing gives us such a feeling of Christ’ s practical sufficiency as a Redeemer. We can trust such a Christ, pray to Him, worship Him, realize His presence and help. V. THE OF THE FATHER IN CHRIST IS A PERFECT TO THE SOUL. Philip was right. He who really can show us the Father does “ suffice us.” Let the claims of Jesus be submitted to this test. He who really shows us God must be of God. No one has revealed God to men as Christ has done. And is not this the true and sufficient test of every religious teacher: How truly and in what degree can He show us the Father? Is it not the sufficient authentication of every teaching--does it bring us face to face with the spiritual God? Is it not in this that so much religious teaching is defective? Men tell us about God, but it is doctrine only, they fail to make us see God. About means of grace, again, they have much to say: upon these they insist as the appointed, the indispensable means of seeing God. But we see only the means, not God Himself. Whatever its theological truth, no teaching is really and spiritually such if it do not reveal God to us. This was the supreme characteristic of the teaching of Christ. The sum of all religion is to see the Father; and by whomsoever and by whatsoever the Father is most fully revealed to us, and we are but made to stand in the pure white light of His spiritual glory, there is the truest teacher and the highest worship. “ It sufficeth us.” VI. HOW THEN MAY WE REALIZE ALL THIS? 1. The Father can be seen only by men of spiritual vision. “ The pure in heart see God.” Christ does not demonstrate God, He simply manifests Him. The process is not a theological, it is a religious one. We can know God as a Father only by religious experience of Him. All life, all great passions of life, are understood only by experience. It demands the poet’ s eye to see poetic beauty; the artist’ s eye to see art beauty. We do not see light through the demonstrations of the astronomer; we know love only by loving; and life only by living. In the essential nature of things God cannot manifest Himself to an impure unspiritual soul, any more than the sun can shine into a blind man’ s eye. We know God only by the indwelling of God. 2. The Father is revealed to us in processes and experiences of common religious life. “ If any man love Me he will keep My words, and My Father will love him,” etc. The obedient in life see God, obedience is practical experience of God. 3. The process is somewhat prosaic: men of great fervours and of ecclesiastical enthusiasm get somewhat impatient with it. But here, as everywhere, the divinest wisdom lies in common place methods. And how transcendent the visions of God which the man attains who thus, by patient processes of purity and obedience, develops all the faculties of his religious life! (H. Allon, D. D.) The revelation of the Fatherhood of God in Christ Modern theology recognizes two Fatherhoods in God--the extrinsic and intrinsic; first arising from His relation to the external world, the second, from the depths of His eternal nature. Now, the first did not require the Incarnation to disclose it. It depended on the doctrine of creation. “ Let us make man,” etc., and as the extrinsic Fatherhood was involved in the creation of man in God’ s image, it was reasonably to be expected that a close and exhaustive analysis of our nature would ultimately discern the likeness, and that an inference should be made therefrom of our sonship and His Fatherhood. As indeed, one of the Greek poets said, “ We also are His offspring.” But not till men saw the Son coming out from the Father did they understand that He was always with the Father. In the “ coming out” they perceived what was always in, and a new truth thus dawned upon the world, to eclipse all others with its grandeur and brightness. A Son has come out from the Father! Then it was understood that Sonship and Fatherhood must have existed from eternity within the inner circle of the incomprehensible Godhead. God is Father in the profoundest abysses of His essential nature. There is no room for this intrinsic Fatherhood in Unitarian theology, because there is no place in it for the Incarnation. The God of Unitarianism, therefore, is not a Father in the profoundest sense; He is not a Father in the deepest essence of His being; He is simply a Father in relation to the world. We are not begotten by Him, of the same substance with Him; He is therefore a Father to us by creation, not by generation. But a Father by creation is only a figurative Father; the Father by generation only is genuine, real Father. According to Unitarianism, before creation God was not a Father; destroy creation and He will again cease to be a Father. His Fatherhood, therefore, is a variable, accidental, extrinsic quality. He can take it up and lay it down when He pleases. With it He is God; without it He is God just the same. But believe in the Incarnation of the Son, and you believe in the truest, deepest Fatherhood of God. Here you have clear, positive, I may say, infinite gain. If the highest, noblest aspect in which we can contemplate God is that of a Father, a real, true Father, then the God of Trinitarianism is immeasurably superior to that of Unitarianism. One is a Father really, truly, intrinsically, forever and ever; He cannot help being a Father: the other is a Father simply in relation to His creatures; let the universe collapse, and His Fatherhood vanishes the same moment. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The sufficiency of Christ’ s revelation of the Father When the pitiless power and fixity of nature seems to oppress our little individual life and we faint under the sense of our vanity and selfishness; or when we groan under the pressure of the burden, and cry madly, Why hast Thou made me thus, and with this passion, this propension to the dust, this enmity to God, this deadness to the true, the beautiful, the Divine? Christ shows to us the Father, and strengthens us to endure. When the heartstrings are tensely strained, and every touch of things external is anguish, when all that makes life beautiful and dear is vanishing in the darkness, and we look round on what seems a cold drear prison house of a world, He shows us the Father and it comforts us. And when at last the shadows fall round us thicker, deeper, when heart faints and flesh fails, when the dews of death gather on the brow, and the chill steals into the inmost pulses of the life, He will show to us the Father, and make us more than conquerors over Death and Hell. And when we stand up at last in the great assembly and Church of the first-born, when we gaze on the splendours of the New Creation, when we see the shining hosts in their radiant circles, sphere beyond sphere, and catch the music of their mighty hymn as it floats on a bright sea of harmony around the eternal throne; when the soul faints before the beatific Vision, trembles at its beauty, and shrinks from its splendour, then Saviour, show to us the Father, and it shall suffice us forever more. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) The heart longs to know God The greatest hunger of the human soul is for a knowledge of its God. The unknowable never takes hold, and never can take hold, of human experience. The orphaned heart yearns for its Divine Father, and will not be content in its orphanage. It looks on the sunset or the flower, and sees the Artist. It looks on the ocean or the forest, and sees the Divine Mechanician. It looks on the manifestations of force and law, and sees the Divine Governor. But it looks in vain in nature for a disclosure of the personal God; of a heart that loves and that can be loved. It is true that the finite soul can never comprehend its God; as the babe can never comprehend its mother. But it longs for a personal presence--for a real interpreter--for a face that shows where the uninterpretable heart is, and a word that speaks the lava that transcends speech. (Christian Union.) A sight of God in Jesus Christ A forlorn woman, discovered by one of our missionaries in the depths of Central Africa, is reported by him to have broken out in the most affecting demonstrations of joy, when Christ was presented to her mind, saying, “ Oh, that is He who has come to me so often in my prayers. I could not find who He was.” Have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known Me The patient Master and the slow scholars The question carries a lesson I. AS TO WHAT OF CHRIST IS. Our Lord charges Philip with not knowing Him because Philip had said, “ Lord! show us the Father.” And that question betrayed Philip’ s ignorance of Christ, because it showed that he had not understood that “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Not knowing that, all his knowledge of Christ--howsoever full of love, and reverence, and blind admiration--is but twilight knowledge, which may well be called ignorance. 1. Not to know Christ as the manifest God is practically to be ignorant of Him altogether. This man asked for some visible manifestation, such as their old books told them of. But if such a revelation had been given--and Christ could have given it if He would--what a poor thing it would have been when put side by side with that mild and lambent light that was ever streaming from Him, making God visible to every sensitive and responsive nature! The revelation of righteousness and love could be entrusted to no flashing brightnesses, and to no thunders and lightnings. Not the power, not the omniscience, are the Divinest glories in God. These are but the outermost parts of the circumference; the living Centre is a Righteous Love, which cannot be revealed by any means but by action; nor shown in action by any means so clearly as by a human life. Therefore, above all other forms of manifestations of God stands the person of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. 2. This is His own claim, not once or twice, not in this Gospel alone, but in a hundred other places. And we have to reckon and make our account with that, and shape our theology accordingly. So we have to look upon all Christ’ s life as showing men the Father. His gentle compassion, His meek wisdom, His patience, His long-suffering yearning over men, His continual efforts to draw them to Himself, all these are the full revelation of God to the world. They all reach their climax on the cross. “ Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us.” There are some of you who admire and reverence this great Teacher, but who stand outside that innermost circle wherein He manifests Himself as the God Incarnate, the Sacrifice, and the Saviour of the world. But not to know Him in this His very deepest and most essential character is little different from being ignorant of Him altogether. 3. Here is a great thinker or teacher, whose fame has filled the world, whose books are upon every student’ s shelf; he lives in a little remote country hamlet; the cottagers beside him know him as a kind neighbour, and a sympathetic friend. They never heard of his books, his thoughts, his worldwide reputation: do you call that knowing him? You do not know a man if you only know the surface, and not the secrets of his being. You may be disciples, in the imperfect sense in which these apostles were disciples before the Ascension, but without their excuse for it. But you will never know Him until you know Him as the Eternal Word, and until you can say, We beheld His glory, etc. All the rest is most precious; but without that central truth, you have but a fragmentary Christ, and nothing less than the whole Christ is enough for you. II. AS GIVING US A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAINED AND LOVING HEART OF OUR LORD. We very seldom hear Him speak about His own feelings or experience, and when He does it is always in some such incidental way as this. So that these glimpses, like little windows opening out upon some great prospect, are the more precious to us. 1. In another place we read: “ He marvelled at their unbelief.” And here there is almost a surprise that He should have been shining so long and so near, and yet the purblind eyes should have seen so little. But there is more than that, there is the pain of vainly endeavouring to teach, to help, to love. And there are few pains like that. The slowness of the pupil is the sorrow of the honest teacher. If ever you have bad a child, or a friend, that you have tried to get by all means to take your love, and who has thrown it all back in your face, you may know in some faint measure what was at least one of the elements which made Christ the “ Man of Sorrows.” 2. But this question reveals also the depth and patience of a clinging love that was not turned away by the pain. How tenderly the name “ Philip” comes in at the end! It bids us think of that patient love of His which will not be soured by any slowness or scantiness of response. Dammed back by our sullen rejection, it still flows on, seeking to conquer by long suffering. Refused, it still lingers round the closed door of the heart, and knocks for entrance. Misunderstood, it still meekly manifests itself. Surely in that we see the manifested God. 3. Remember that the same pained and patient love is in the heart of the throned Christ today. We cannot understand how anything like pain should, however slightly, darken His glory; but if it be true that He in the heavens has yet “ a fellow feeling of our pains,” it is not less true that His love is still wounded by our lovelessness, and His manifestation of Himself made sad by the slowness of our reception of Him. III. AS BEING A TO EACH OF US. 1. It is the great wonder of human history that, after eighteen hundred years, the world knows so little of Jesus Christ. (1) The leaders of opinion, of literature, the men that profess to guide the thoughts of this generation, how little they know, really, about this Master! Some people take a great deal more trouble to understand Buddha than they do to understand Christ. (2) How little, too, the mass of men know about Him! It is enough to break one’ s heart to look round one, and think that He has been so long time with the world, and that this is all which has come of it. The great proof that the world is bad is that Christ has stood before it for nearly nineteen centuries now, and so few have been led to turn to Him with the adoring cry, “ My Lord and my God.” 2. But let us narrow our thoughts to ourselves. (1) Many of you have known about Jesus Christ all your lives, and yet, in a real, deep sense you do not know Him at this moment. Do you know Christ as a man knows his friend, or as you know about Julius Caesar? Do you know Christ because you live with Him and He with you, or do you know about Him in that fashion in which a man in a great city knows about his neighbour across the street, that has lived beside him for five and twenty years, and never spoken to him once all the time? Is that your knowledge of Christ? If so, it is no knowledge at all. People that live close by something, which men come from the ends of the earth to see, have often never seen it. (2) And, to you who know Him a little, this question comes with a very pathetic appeal. If we know Him at all as we ought to do, our knowledge of Him will be growing day by day. But how many of us stand at the same spot that we did when we first said that we were Christians! We are like the Indians who live in rich gold countries, and could only gather the ore that happened to lie upon the surface or could be washed out of the sands of the river. In this great Christ there are depths of gold, great reefs and veins of it, that will enrich us all if we dig, and we shall not get it unless we do. He is the boundless ocean. We have contented ourselves with coasting along the shore, and making timid excursions from one headland to another. Let us strike out into the middle deep, and see all the wonders that are there. This great Christ is like the infinite sky with its unresolved nebulae. We have but looked with our poor, dim eyes. Let us take the telescope that will reveal to us suns blazing where now we only see darkness. (3) This knowledge ought to be growing every day; and why does it not? You know a man because you are much with him. And if you want to know Jesus Christ, there must be a great deal more meditative thoughtfulness, and honest study of His life and work than most of us have put forth. We know people, too, by sympathy, and by love, and by keeping near them. Oh, it is a wonder, and a shame, and a sin for us professing Christians, that, having tasted the sweetness of His love, we should come down so low as to long for the garbage of earth. Who is fool enough to prefer vinegar to wine, bitter herbs to grapes, dross to gold? Who is there that, having consorted with the king, would gladly herd with ragged rebels? And yet that is what we do. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father The Father manifested in the Son Our Lord meant that in His person, as well as by His doctrine, miracles, benevolence, life, death, resurrection, ascension, God is manifested, as far as could be, even to our senses, as well as to our understanding, and that this is the clearest manifestation God has been pleased to make of Himself to man on earth. Hence, to such as wish to know God, we must say, Behold, and consider, not only His works of creation; look not only at the dispensations of Providence, which manifest such attributes as the works of creation were not calculated to discover; nor read and consider only His Word, which shows Him still more; but behold the person of His Son, who is “ the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature” (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3; John 1:18). Would we discover the Father’ s wisdom? let us hearken to Him who was the wisdom and word of God incarnate. Would we know the Father’ s power? let us observe it in the miracles of Christ. Would we know how holy God is, and the nature of His holiness? let us observe the spirit which Jesus breathed and the conduct He maintained. Would we know whether God be a kind and compassionate Being, and what is the nature of His benevolence and love? we must look how these qualities were displayed in the character of Jesus Christ. Would we see His meekness, patience, forbearance, and long suffering? let us observe how these dispositions shone forth in Christ. Would we have a display of His justice? let us see sin condemned and punished in Him who “ gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God.” Do we wish to see the love of God exemplified? observe Christ dying for us, “ dying for the ungodly;” “ when we were enemies, reconciling us to God by His death.” Would we know God as our Creator? observe Christ secretly and insensibly multiplying the loaves and fishes; observe Him giving sight to the blind, and life to the dead. Would we know God as our Preserver? let us contemplate Jesus upholding Peter while walking on the water. As our Governor? let us observe Him controlling the powers of nature, “ rebuking the winds and the sea, and producing a great calm.” As our Redeemer? see Him “ giving His life a ransom for us.” As our Saviour? consider Him coming “ to seek and to save that which was lost.” Would we know God as a Friend? mark the familiarity and tenderness with which Jesus conversed with His disciples. As a Father? observe Jesus “ begetting us again by His Gospel,” and see His parental care for His disciples. In a word, if we wish to know the mind, dispositions, and intentions of God towards man, we must see them delineated and exhibited in the doctrine, example, and works of Christ. In order to this, however, it is necessary we should be enlightened by the Divine Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11); that we be “ taught” and “ learn of the Father” (John 6:45; Matthew 11:27; Matthew 16:17). (J. Benson.) The effect of Christ’ s manifestation of the Father on individuals A sick woman said to Mr. Cecil, “ Sir, I have no notion of God; I can form no notion of Him. You talk to me about Him, but I cannot get a single idea that seems to contain anything.” “ But you know how to conceive of Jesus Christ as a man,” replied Mr. Cecil; “ God comes down to you in Him, full of kindness and condescension.” “ Ah! sir, that gives me something to lay hold on. There I can rest. I understand God in His Son. God was in Christ.” The effect of Christ’ s manifestation of the Father on history The great mass of mankind must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle. The first inhabitants of Greece, there is every reason to believe, worshipped one invisible Deity. But the necessity of having something more definite to adore produced, in a few centuries, the innumerable crowd of gods and goddesses. In like manner the ancient Persians thought it impious to exhibit the Creator under a human form. Yet even these transferred to the sun the worship, which speculatively they considered to be due only to the supreme mind. The history of the Jews is the record of a continual struggle between pure theism, supported by the most terrible sanctions, and the strangely fascinating desire of having some visible and tangible object of adoration. Perhaps none of the secondary causes which Gibbon has assigned for the rapidity with which Christianity spread over the world, while Judaism scarcely ever acquired a proselyte, operated more powerfully than this feeling. God the uncreated, the incomprehensible, the invisible, attracted few worshippers. A philosopher might adore so noble a conception; but the crowd turned away in disgust from words which created no image in their minds. It was before the Deity, embodied in a human form, walking among men, partaking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, weeping over their graves, slumbering in the manger, bleeding on the cross, that the prejudices of the synagogue, and the doubts of the academy, and the pride of the portico, and the forces of the lictors, and the swords of thirty legions were humbled in the dust. (Lord Macaulay.) Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? I. CHRIST IN THE FATHER. In the Father’ s 1. Affections. He loves Christ more than He loves the universe. “ This is My beloved Son.” As a loving child lives in the affections of his parents, so Christ, only in an infinitely higher degree, lives in the heart of God. 2. Thoughts. What an intelligent being loves most he will think most about. (1) Christ is the Loges, the Revealer of the Divine thought. As the word is to the mind before it is sounded, Christ is in God. (2) He is the Executor of the Divine thought. By Him His creative, redemptive, governing, statutory thoughts are carried out. II. THE FATHER IS IN CHRIST as in His special 1. Temple. He whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain has a special dwelling in Christ. In Him He manifests Himself in a fulness and glory seen nowhere else. 2. Organ. As the soul dwells in the body, God dwells in Christ and works by Him. 3. Revealer. “ The brightness of His glory,” etc. the Revealer of His power, wisdom, character, as all that is pure, just, tender, and compassionate. 4. Devotee. God is the object of Christ’ s supreme love. All His thoughts, powers, and aims, were subordinate to Him. (D. Thomas, D. D.) God in Christ But is not the Father in all? In every tree, stream, and star? Yes. There is no life where He is not. But He is in Christ in a higher sense. He is in nature as an animating principle, in holy souls as an inspiring influence, in Christ as a Divine Personality. In Him He is God manifest in the flesh. The Father is in Him as I. An personality. It is difficult, if not impossible, to realize the Divine Personality in nature. He seems so vast and boundless. But in Christ He comes within the range of our 1. Senses. 2. Sympathies. 3. Experiences. II. An personality. 1. Does wonder attract? He is “ the Wonderful.” 2. Does love attract? His is the tenderest, strongest, most self- sacrificing, and unconquerable love. 3. Does beauty attract? He is “ the altogether lovely.” In Christ there is power to draw all men to Him. III. An personality. Our obligation and well being require us to become like God, partakers of the Divine nature--“ holy, even as He is holy.” In Christ He appears preeminently imitable. 1. His love wins our hearts. 2. His principles command our consciences. 3. His moral glories inspire our admiration. Thus we can imitate Him. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 14:11 Believe Me … for the very works’ sake The miracles I. SHOULD WE BELIEVE THE ? 1. Are miracles possible? Hume, Spinosa, and others say, “ No: reason pronounces them impossible.” But whose reason? Theirs? Then that contradicts the all but universal reason, which affirms that with God all things are possible. 2. Are miracles improbable and incredible? Yes, say the same authorities. But did they live when they are alleged to have been performed? One ground of disbelief is, that it is impossible to believe what contradicts experience. But what remains to be proved is, Did miracles contradict the experience of the professed witnesses? The denizens of the equator never saw ice. Their experience contradicts that of the Greenlanders. But which shall we accept? Another ground is that it is unlikely that the Creator would disturb the beneficent order of events. Granted, except for the best and wisest purposes, and in such a way as not to derange the order of the universe. This is what is claimed for Christ; and, indeed, on behalf of the freedom and beneficence of the Creator. The anti-miraculous position is the dethronement of God in favour of natural law. 3. Have we satisfactory ground to believe that Christ performed miracles? There is the same evidence for them as that Caesar entered Gaul and Britain. Upon this evidence the Christian Church is built; the witnesses died to support their testimony. The fabrication of this testimony would be more miraculous than what it records. II. SHOULD WE BE INDUCED BY THEM TO ADMIT CHRIST’ S DIVINE CLAIMS? Yes, for 1. They are the acts of a Creator. We recognize the same Voice saying, “ Let there be light!” that said, “ Lazarus, come forth!” We believe Him “ for the works’ sake.” 2. Christ is the efficient Agent in all miracles. He promised, and gave to, the apostles their supernatural power; and they referred the effects of it back to Him, and exerted it to produce faith in Him. 3. Christ performed miracles by His own power and in His own name, which the apostles never did. Conclusion: 1. The blessedness of belief in Christ. 2. The peril of disbelief. (E. N. Kirk, D. D.) The reasonableness of the evidence of miracles, and its impotence alone It is quite consistent with God’ s wisdom to reveal Himself to the senses,as well as to the soul; and if the gospel were utterly deficient in this latter kind of proof, one great evidence that it is from God would be wanted--an evidence that we are fortified in expecting from the analogies of nature. God has written His glory--e.g., in the heart--at the same time, He has so constructed the visible universe, that “ the heavens declare the glory of God.” And when the eternal Word is manifested into the world, we naturally expect that Divine power shall be shown, as well as Divine beneficence. Miracles, therefore, are exactly what we should expect; and I acknowledge a great corroboration and verification of His claims to Sonship. Besides, they startled and aroused many to His claims who otherwise would never have attended to them. Still the great truth remains untouched, that they, appealing only to the natural man, cannot convey the spiritual certainty of truth which the spiritual man alone apprehends. However, as the natural and spiritual in us are both from God, why should God not have spoken to both, and why should not Christ appeal to natural works, subordinate always to the spiritual self-evidence of Truth itself? (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) John 14:12-14 He that believeth on Me the works that I do shall he do also.The activity of the glorified Christ I. ITS REALITY AND . Verses 13, 14 show that Christ regarded Himself as the worker and His followers only as His agents. II. ITS ORGAN AND . Our Saviour’ s language 1. Does not mean that He will work through no other way than the collective Church, which is His body, and the believer who is a member of it; because in point of fact He does, as the Governor of the universe which He summoned into being. 2. Nor that everything done by the Church or the believer is a manifestation of His activity. To maintain this would be to open a wide door to fanaticism. 3. It does signify, however, that Christ uses His Church collectively and individually to operate on the earth; and that not merely as His representative, but as His body, pervaded by His power and swayed by His will. His own works indicate His unity with the Father (John 14:11): the works of believers their unity with Himself (John 14:12; John 14:20). III. ITS NATURE AND EXTENT. 1. Its nature--“ The same works,” etc. This was fulfilled in the miracles of the disciples after Pentecost. But that they performed no works, except as they were employed by Christ is shown by the fact they wrought no miracle to cure their friends (Philippians 2:26-27; 2 Timothy 4:20). They had no power to work indiscriminately. 2. Its extent. “ Greater works” --not greater miracles, but such works as Peter’ s at Pentecost, and Paul’ s in his missionary journeys. IV. ITS MODE AND . If Christ is the prime worker and the believer the instrument, connection must be established between them. 1. Christ must be able to reach the believer. This He does by the impartation of the Spirit (John 14:16-17). 2. The believer must be able to communicate with Christ. This he does by prayer (John 14:13-14). Nothing could be (1) Simpler--it would be only needful that they should ask Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 11:23-24). (2) Ampler--all things should be done (Matthew 7:7; Matthew 18:19). (3) Surer--Christ would Himself do what they asked. (4) Freer--the only stipulation was that they should ask in Christ’ s name. Lessons 1. The supreme divinity of Christ involved in all He here says about Himself. 2. The essential dignity of the Christian--a fellow worker with Christ. 3. The true doctrine of prayer--asking in the name of Christ. 4. The reason why miracles have ceased--the Holy Ghost does not consider them necessary. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The works of the ascended Christ The keyword of this context is “ Believe!” In three successive verses we find it, each time widening in its application--to the single disciple: “ Philip!” to the whole group: and now, here, to whosoever believeth in Him. Our Lord has pointed to believing as the great antidote to a troubled heart, as the sure way of knowing the Father, as the better substitute for sight; and now here He opens before us still more wonderful prerogatives and effects. We have here I. THE WORK OF THE EXALTED LORD FOR AND THROUGH HIS . These disciples, of course, thought that the departure of Jesus would be the end of His activity. Henceforward whatever distress or need might come, that voice would be silent, and that hand motionless. Some of us know how dreary that makes life, and we can understand how these men shrank from the prospect. Christ’ s words tell them that in them He will work as well as for them, after He has departed. 1. Christ’ s removal from the world is not the end of His activity in the world. We are not to water down such words as these into the continuous influence of His memory. That is true, but over and above that, there is the present influence of His present work. One form of His work was “ finished” on Calvary, but there is another work, which will not be ended until the angel voices shall chant “ It is done, the kingdoms of the world are the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.” And therefore these disciples were not to be cast down as if His work for them were ended. It is clear, of course, that such words as these demand something perfectly unique in the nature of Christ. All other men’ s work is cut in twain by death. “ This man, having served his generation by the will of God, was gathered to his fathers. And he (and his work) saw corruption.” That is the epitaph over the greatest, the tenderest, and most helpful. But Christ is living today, and working all around us. Now, it is of the last importance, that we should give a very prominent place in our creeds, and hearts, to this great truth. What a joyful sense of companionship it brings to the solitary, what calmness of vision, in contemplating the complications and calamites of the world’ s history. 2. But not only for us, but on and in and therefore through us Christ is working. “ I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” and through me, if I keep close to Him, will work mightily in forms that my poor manhood could never have reached. And now, mark that a still more solemn and mysterious aspect of this union of Jesus Christ and the believer. It is no accident that in one clause He says, “ I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. The words that I speak unto you,” etc.; and that in the next He says, “ The works that I do shall He do also;” and so bids us see in that union between the Father and the Son, a pattern after which our union with Him is to be moulded, both as regards the closeness of its intimacy and as regards the resulting manifestations in life. All the doings of a Christian man holding by Christ, are Christ’ s doings, inasmuch as He is the Life and the Power which does them all. So let us curb all self-dependence and self-will that that mighty tide may flow into us; and let us cast from us all timidity, and be strong in the assurance that we have a Christ living in the heavens to work for us, and living within us to work through us. II. THE GREATER WORK OF THE ON AND FOR WHOM THE LORD WORKS. Is, then, the servant greater than his Lord? Not so, for whatsoever the servant does is done because the Lord is with and in him. The contrast is between Christ’ s manifestations in the time of His earthly humiliation and His manifestations in the time of His glory. We need not be afraid that such words trench on the unapproachable character of the earthly work of Christ. This is finished. But the work of Revelation and Redemption required to be applied through the ages. The comparison is drawn, between the limited sphere and the small results of Christ’ s work upon earth, and the worldwide sweep and majestic magnitude of the results of the application of that work by His servants’ witnessing work. And the poorest Christian who can go to a brother soul, and draw that soul to Christ, does a mightier thing than it was possible for the Master to do whilst He was here. For the Redemption had to be completed in act before it could be proclaimed in word, and Christ had no such weapon as we have when we can say, “ We testify unto you that the Son of God hath died for our sins, and is raised again according to the Scriptures.” “ He laid His hands on a few sick folk and healed them,” and at the end of His life there were 120 disciples in Jerusalem and 500 in Galilee. That was all that Jesus Christ had done, while today, the world is being leavened, and the kingdoms of the earth are beginning to recognize His name. III. THE ON WHICH THE EXALTED LORD WORKS FOR AND ON HIS . 1. Faith, the simple act of loving trust in Jesus Christ, opens the door for the entrance of all His solemn Omnipotence, and makes us possessors of it. So if Christian individuals and communities are impotent, there is no difficulty in understanding why. They have cut the connection, they have shut the tap. 2. Prayer. (1) Our power depends upon our prayer, Not God’ s and Christ’ s fulness and willingness to communicate, but our capacity to receive of that fulness, and so the possibility of its communication to us, depend upon our prayer. “ We have not because we ask not.” (2) The power of our prayer depends upon our conscious oneness with the revealed Christ. Christ’ s name is the revelation of Christ’ s character; and to do a thing in the name of another person is to do it as His representative, and as realizing that in some deep and real sense--for the present purpose, at all events--we are one with Him. Prayer in the name of Christ is hard to offer. It needs much discipline and watchfulness; it excludes all self-will and selfishness. And if, as my text tells us, the end of the Son’ s working is the glory of the Father, that same end, and not our own ease or comfort, must be the end and object of all prayer which is offered in His name. When we so pray we get an answer. And the reason why such multitudes of prayers never travel higher than the roof, and bring no blessings to him that prays, is because they are not prayers in Christ’ s name. (3) Prayer in His name will pass into prayer to Him. As He not obscurely teaches us here, if we adopt the reading, “ If ye shall ask Me,” He has an ear to hear such requests, and He wields Divine power to answer. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christian work with an absent Redeemer I. THE WHICH THIS PROMISE OR CONVEYS? 1. Ability to work. Professing Christians of a certain school speak scornfully of this “ to do,” but this is to despise the words and things of God. He who redeems us works in us to will and “ to do.” 2. Power to do good and to serve others. This was and is the great feature of Christ’ s character. 3. Power to work as Jesus Christ wrought. There is an evident limitation here. Miracles cannot be perpetual; but if the working of miracles were at all desirable now, the power would be again given. Atonement for sin is another work which we cannot imitate. Still there is a path of work in which we may follow our Saviour. The blessing promised Isaiah 4. The power to work superior work. “ The greater” here may, perhaps, point to more extensive service, but we think the word rather points to nobler and to higher service. Now, it is greater, to enlighten the mind than to open blind eyes; to create faith than to unstop deaf ears; to awaken praise than to loosen dumb tongues; to purify from sin than to cleanse from leprosy; to quicken the dead soul than it is to raise the corporeally dead. 5. Not an extraordinary blessing, but one that is the common heritage of all who believe. Great injury has been done to the Church, and to many not in the Church, by the fuss which is made about any man or woman who happens to try to be useful, So much is made of the mere human worker, as that He who works in, and by us all, becomes completely concealed. Now there are many persons who seem to think that admiring those who do Christian work a very blessed substitute for doing that work. We require in our churches less said about what is done, in order to begin to do more. It is thus too about giving. Men who give a little expect so much notice taken of that little, that their hands are closed by the mischievous power of that very expectation. II. THE IN WITH WHICH THE OF THIS PROMISE IS SECURED. “ Because I go unto My Father.” The Father is everywhere; but He is not in all places equally manifest. Where the manifestation of the Father is perfect, Jesus Christ now is. There He is seated on the throne of His Father. 1. With the Father, Jesus is absent from this earth, and (1) His disciples are here as His representatives. Now, what would Christ have been doing on this earth were He here? He went about doing good. Perhaps some of you would be extremely surprised to find the eyes from which you have wiped away tears; or the mind to which you have given one religious idea; or the feet that you have turned from the path of iniquity into the path of redemption. (2) He has received gifts for men, and is able from His throne to endow His disciples with all power. (3) The providence of Jesus Christ is over the working of His disciples. I do not say that His providence prevents some wretched hand laying hold of portions of your work, and disturbing it, but I say that it secures a good general result. And you will work with much more courage if you feel this. 2. There is a close connection between believing on Christ and Christ-like work. Believing qualifies for it and impels to it. 3. This Christ-like work is a privilege and a blessing to the man who performs it. 4. Moreover, the Christian disciple has the highest power, and the largest resources, and the noblest motives in the direction of doing good. If a Christian cannot render service in this world of sin and sorrow, who can? Some of you will say, that Christians are not generally wealthy, and not generally in high social positions. Put your finger upon a passage in the New Testament that teaches you that these two things are essential to doing good, or that good is often done where these two things exist. One reason why many of our evangelistic operations are so blasted is to be found in this fact, that those who conduct our societies go hunting for what they call patronage. Patronage for the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ! One’ s very heart is sick sometimes over this human patronage of Divine things. 5. Those who look for Christ’ s coming again speedily, seem to think that that will bring an increase of the working power. We believe that all the power that Christians want now may be obtained now. Our tendency is continually to say that “ the time has not come,” and we must wait for a larger outpouring of the Spirit? Is not the Spirit here? Will the Spirit ever be here more than He is now? 6. Do your work. I say it because some among you are spending your time in idleness. (S. Martin.) The believer doing greater works than Christ I. THE WORKS IN WHICH CHRIST AND THE HAVE IN COMMON. 1. In His greatest work of course Christ stands alone. He came to work out and bring in an everlasting righteousness; to be the embodiment of a perfect obedience. Further, He came to die as an atonement for sin, and to rise and ascend and plead its merits in heaven. In neither of these can the believer have any part. “ I have trodden the wine press alone.” “ Mine own arm hath wrought salvation.” And yet in the ministrations of truth, in the exemplifications of goodness, and in the triumphs of mercy in which that sacrifice shall demonstrate its power, and that righteousness find its embodiment, all believing souls are invited to take their share. 2. The apostles were endowed with the power of working miracles. In this sense the doing of the works of Christ was confined to them. But Christ’ s miracles and theirs while real, and not to be spiritualized away, were physical types of spiritual. As bodily misery pointed out the misery of the soul, so healing symbolized salvation. II. THE WORKS IN WHICH , IN SOME SORT, SHALL EXCEL. To apprehend this, look at 1. The results of our Lord’ s personal ministry. That cannot be regarded as unsuccessful. No doubt much of His teaching ripened after the rain of Pentecost, and those impressed before became converted afterwards. But during those three years how many benighted minds must have received light and foul hearts cleansing! Yet--as far as visible results now--how few even amongst the disciples, and of what a quality! 2. The results of the ministry of the Church. These great works are the burden of the Acts of the Apostles. How soon in the place where they murdered Christ were thousands won to His cause? Then the work spread to Samaria. Then the representative of far off Ethiopia was converted: then Cornelius the representative of Rome, and so on under the Apostles and their successors the tidal waves flowed on, until in the course of three centuries Christianity had overflown the world. Better still the nature of the results produced. The world was then at its very worst. At Thessalonica you have only a representation of what was universal. Men swallowed up in idolatry, but “ the Word came with the demonstration of the Spirit,” etc. In Corinth philosophy was rampant on the one hand and vice on the other, but then people were “ washed, sanctified,” etc. And thus from that time to this the gracious words have been fulfilled. III. THE GROUND OF THIS. “ Because I go,” etc. 1. Christ went from them, but for them. It was not His departure simply, but what followed upon it--the gift of the Comforter, the burden of this discourse. Christ’ s departure was expedient (1) In regard to their character, that they who had been so worldly, ignorant, and timid, might become spiritual, enlightened, and heroic. (2) In relation to their work. 2. Christ went from them yet remained with them. This enigmatical form of speech occurs often. “ I go away.” “ Lo, I am with you alway.” Our Lord would not leave them to the miseries of defeat or to the calamity of self-sufficiency. He therefore resolved to abide with them, and by His Spirit to be in them, their energy, courage, wisdom, sanctifying power. 3. All this is guaranteed to us. IV. THE THIS . “ If ye shall ask anything in My name,” etc. You will prove your faith that you are Mine, and that I am with you, only as you, by grace work out these results. (J. Aldis.) Greater than miracle This is one of the reasons why the disciples, whom Christ was about to leave, were “ not to let their hearts be troubled.” The discipleship to which He had called them was a very arduous one, but so long as He was with them, performing such miracles, they were safe. They would therefore think with dismay of His going away, inasmuch as this marvellous miracle working would cease, and they would be left to the merciless Pharisees. It was, then, fitting to tell them that they should do the miraculous works and greater things. The way in which our Lord speaks about miracles is striking. Had these narratives been a fiction, Christ would have spoken of miracles very differently. So far from magnifying them, He speaks of them as inferior things. Both Christ and His apostles appealed to men in two ways. Such as were unspiritual were appealed to by miracle; but He often told them that it was a higher and more spiritual thing to believe Him for His truth’ s sake than for His works’ sake. So He tells His disciples here they should have power to work miracles, so far as this was needed to convince the unspiritual world; but they should have a greater power, viz., to do spiritual works in the conversion and sanctification of men. This is Christ’ s meaning. (1) Because He connected it with the gift of the Holy Spirit, whose work is to convince men of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. (2) From the very nature of the case: no one can doubt that moral goodness is greater than miraculous works. I. THE HISTORY OF THE FULFILS THIS PROMISE. Depending upon His power, that is, “ believing on Him,” they did the miraculous works. 1. Christ does not mean that these were greater than His own; no miracles may be compared with His. (1) His were always wrought in His own name, and by His own power; those of the apostles always in the name and by the power of their Master. (2) His were always full of great spiritual significance. Nature was moulded by Him into evangelical sermons. 2. But their spiritual achievements were to be greater than Christ’ s miracles. (1) The conversion of the three thousand on the day of Pentecost was a greater miracle than the feeding of five thousand in the wilderness; the conversion of a single soul is greater than the hushing of the storm. In the charge Christ gave to the seventy He makes the same distinction between the miraculous and the moral. He gave them power to heal the sick and to east out devils. The exercise of this power seems greatly to have elated them. He instantly turns their thoughts to spiritual things. (2) It is a common, perhaps a correct impression, that the personal ministry of our Lord did not produce such great spiritual results as that of the apostles. The Holy Ghost was not yet given. We have no records of two and of five thousand converts at a time. The largest intimation of the spiritual results of His ministry is that after His resurrection He was “ seen of above five hundred brethren at once.” And yet what preaching was ever like His preaching, in spiritual character, and depth, and earnestness? “ Never man spake like this Man.” And yet the Jews listened to His preaching and remained unconverted. Was it that Peter had a greater truth to proclaim than even Christ taught? Was it that no preaching can be powerful to save men’ s souls but the preaching of the Cross? Christ predicted His death, and spake of its atoning character, but He did not preach it to the people: the apostles “ preached Jesus and the resurrection” ; and even in their comparatively rude and unskilful hands it proved more powerful in subduing men than Christ’ s Divine words. His own great prediction was fulfilled--“ I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” II. OUR LORD A GREAT AND IN THE SERVICE OF HUMAN LIFE--that grace is greater than gifts; that the ministry of moral truths and influences is greater than the exercise of the most brilliant talents. It is a great work to perform a miracle; but the credentials of a messenger are not so great as his message. It is an honour to be so employed and attested, but this is in order to the accomplishment of the mission. In Christ Himself miracles were the lowest manifestations of His glory. They showed that God was with Him; but His true glory was in His own character, and mission, and words. So it was with the apostles. Paul’ s shaking the viper off his hand is but a small thing compared with his sacrifice of his honours and emoluments for Christ’ s sake. Peter’ s healing of the lame man is but a small thing compared with the conversion of three thousand on the day of Pentecost. The moral sense of all men confesses this. There is constant danger lest we be led away by brilliancy, crowds, outward successes, intellectual miracles. Ministers sometimes so mistake, and others so mistake them. A man is lost as a minister of Christ who thinks about popularity or sets himself to seek it. The humble, obscure man is often greater than the prominent and brilliant one; he has greater aims, secures nobler things, bears a nobler character. 1. Conversion is greater than miracle (1) In its sphere of operation. Miracle operates in the outer and physical world. Regeneration operates in the inner and moral world, amongst the passions and purposes of the soul. (2) In the power that is put forth. In miracle God’ s simple fiat is absolute; He commands the laws of nature--they instantly obey; but in regeneration God’ s will encounters another will--a will that He has made free and powerful, and that He will not coerce. Nature never resisted Christ’ s Word; the men of Jerusalem would not come to Him that they might have life. To convert a human soul, therefore, is infinitely greater than to create a planet: moral forces have to be used; it needs to be made willing, and this demands no less an agency than the Incarnation and the Cross. (3) In its results. Miracles have fed the hungry, etc.; but conversion changes moral character, makes its subject a saint, and when he dies it secures his life with God in heaven. 2. Charity is greater than miracle (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). Moral excellencies have in them the quality of permanence; Christ’ s miraculous acts have ceased. His love moved His power, which was miraculous; our love moves our power, which is not miraculous: the feeling and motive are the same, only the power and the form of the action differ. Christ’ s disciples perpetuate His pitying love--they visit the sick, they relieve the poor, etc. And this is far grander than miracle: the aggregate benevolence of the Church of Christ is a nobler thing than the creation of a new world would be. 3. Patient submission to God’ s will is greater than miracle. What can be nobler than a life wholly consecrated to God and to whatever is holy and benevolent? as life of self-sacrificing service in the Church, the school, or the mission field--a life that surrenders its dearest joys and interests for Christ’ s sake? Perhaps the only nobler thing is, when devoted service is crowned by patient suffering. 4. Victory over death is greater than miracle. (H. Allon, D. D.) The disciple’ s work greater than his Lord’ s It is a common thought and remark with us, that the child and the day labourer now use forces and truths, and do works, without esteeming it unusual, which the earlier ages of science and thought, the ages of Copernicus and Columbus, were dimly and laboriously guessing and imagining and hoping. Those early masters laid down theories and principles, and they were ridiculed if not persecuted, misrepresented if not denied, obstructed if not stopped and interdicted. Their work was immense, greater than the work of their successors. It was the massive foundation. But their successors stand on a vantage ground. Slowly those beneficent theories have won acknowledgment. They had enlarged their sphere and field and power of operation. Their activity has increased till nothing now impedes. The noble originators have mounted into universal recognition. And their children daily develop the power which they made possible; make new applications as new exigencies arise and new fields open. Their successors and disciples do the same works in one sense, for it is the continuation of the same principle in activity: or, in one sense they do a lesser work, for it is less to continue than to originate. But in another sense they do “ greater works,” for their activity is daily widening, daily less impeded, daily more and more encouraged by more auspicious surroundings. And yet they are not greater than the early originator, who cannot show the “ greater works” which come so properly and naturally to them. They follow him. Yet they go beyond him. Nay, stranger still, they go beyond him only because they follow him, and are the disciples of and the believers in his first great underlying work. Apply this illustration to Christ and His disciples. True, His was the great spiritual, all-supporting work. The great problem was finished and enunciated at the Cross. It received its seal at the Easter. And yet the field of the Lord’ s activity during His own earthly life was contracted to the smallest limits. He could not go beyond Judaea. His spiritual work found no spiritual surrounding, found no spiritual response, left no spiritual fruit (John 1:5; John 1:11; Mark 6:5). These were the judgments of His contemporaries upon Him (Matthew 13:55; Mk John 9:29; John 7:47-48). Stop the world after Christ’ s ascension, andask it how it had been the better for Christ’ s living, and it would have nothing to show you. It would know of nothing done, but a few that were blind, now seeing, a few that were deaf, hearing, a few lepers cleansed, a few inanimates restored. And a single generation would have removed even these. Struggling as man in the world of men: bearing sin in the world of sin, Christ laid indeed the massive foundation of a world’ s redemption; but it was a work wholly wrought out in and by Himself. None other knew of it. It hardly left any outward impression upon men and their lives. And what it did leave was vague, and easily lost. But at the Ascension a change begins. He goes to the Father. He is no more a mere single labourer, working out a great work among men; sufficient to do all, and doing all by Himself; but He has mounted to the seat of His power. And the Spirit of His power goes forth to create outward impressions upon men, to carry His work to others. In the first day of Peter’ s preaching three thousand are converted; vastly more than Christ ever influenced; greater works than Christ’ s, because He has gone to the Father. His successors and followers stood on a vantage ground of work. Their great, earlier Master had mounted into universal power. He was no longer compelled simply to suffer and submit as in the garden; but was omnipresent and omnipotent by His Spirit. And daily His Spirit makes new advances possible for them, which were not possible for Him when dwelling in the flesh. (Fred. Brooks.) Greater works than Christ’ s What were the works that Jesus did? What was their very essence? We must look a little beneath the surface. Some minds are apt to confine their attention to the surface results of our Saviour’ s wonderful course. They think of the leaping of the lame, the seeing of the blind, the hearing of the deaf, the speaking of the dumb, the rising of the dead, the conscious strength of the paralytic, and the emancipation of the demoniac. It is befitting to think of these things. Our Saviour wished them to be considered. They were as a voice from the excellent glory and drew attention to the fact that a gracious Divine Person was at work among men. And yet, comparatively speaking, they were but a voice drawing attention to something else. They pointed to something that was really higher and greater than themselves. It is good indeed that the lame should leap; but surely there is something better even for the lame. What if after leaping they hasten away to the haunts of dissipation! Of what very great benefit will their leaping be to them? It is true, too, that it is good for the blind to see, and to see clearly. But what if, after the first transports consequent on the restoration of vision, the eyes neither read the glory of God in the heavens, nor the glory of His grace on the pages of revelation? What if they lower with passion, or look out for opportunities of alluring the unwary to their destruction? There are surely better things still than mere seeing, hearing, speaking. Even life from the dead, if merely physical, is not the highest conceivable blessing. A new lease of life, if it turn, as may too often be the case, to be a lease misspent, is not the greatest possible benefit which can be conferred upon an immortal man. Neither is deliverance from demoniac torture and oppression the most glorious emancipation of which we can conceive. Surely, then, there was scope for the apostles doing even greater works than our Saviour performed when He scattered miracles of power all along the pathway of His terrestrial career. There was scope for those greater works, because the Saviour was resolved to go on, and yet further on, till He went up to His Father. Had He faltered in this resolution, had He shrunk when the crisis became imminent, had He refused to suffer and to die as an atoning Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, then, not only would there have been no provision in Divine moral government for a repetition, or continuance, of such miracles of power, as were also miracles of mercy, but the door would have been actually closed upon hope in reference to deliverance from spiritual lameness, blindness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis, and death, and from all the spiritual demons of discord, and passion, and hate, and intemperance, and licentiousness, that are making demoniacs of myriads, and that would be in danger but for Christianity of making demoniacs of us all. Our Lord did not, however, repent of His high resolve. He did not draw back from the completion of His enterprise when the difficulty was at its climax, and the hosts of darkness had gathered around Him in their serried and most formidable array. Oh, no! He strode on to victory. And it was in view of that victory, and of its mighty moral influence in the Divine government, that He promised that all the blessings which He had conferred on individuals during the brief period of His own personal and preliminary ministry, should be but the precursory drops as compared with the plenteous rain that would by and by descend and refresh, not the laud of Palestine alone, but all the dry and thirsty lands on the face of the earth. The Saviour looked far and wide from His elevated standpoint and saw, as the consequent of His triumphal ascent to His Father, the overthrow of Phariseeism and Sadduceeism. That was a very great work. He looked further and saw the overthrow of Roman and Grecian and Scythian idolatry. What great works were these! He looked further and saw the destruction of slavery through the influence of His gospel of love as preached by His disciples. He saw too the gradual emancipation of the masses from the tyranny of tyrants, and their elevation into political and social privileges. He saw, besides, the erection of hospitals and other institutions of benevolence wherever His Cross should be planted fast and firm. He saw the establishment on the one hand of home missions descending to the hundreds of thousands who have lapsed, and the establishment, on the other, of foreign missions sending the gospel of His grace to the ends of the earth in hundreds of tongues. What wonder that He spoke of “ greater works” than He Himself had performed on a few impotent folk round about the Sea of Galilee, and in a few other insignificant places within the narrow radius of the Holy Land? And then He looked still further forward, and saw His Church everywhere purified after it had passed through fiery trials. He saw, in that future, that just because He was about to go up to His Father, all demonism would be vanquished, all diseases would be healed; men and women everywhere would see right, and hear right, and speak right, and act right. He saw, as the grand conclusion of His enterprise, that men everywhere would be a brotherhood of love, no one acting selfishly, but each ministering benevolently to all around. (James Morison, D. D.) Miracles in nature and grace contrasted I. THE WORK OF CHRIST IN THE KINGDOM OF NATURE, CARRIED ON THROUGH HIS . 1. The use of miraculous powers. Miracles were the credentials of Christ’ s Messiahship. The words of the Saviour ought to have brought the world in homage to His feet. But seeing that men are held in bondage to sense He condescended to this weakness, and substantiated His preternatural knowledge by the exercise of preternatural power. When He added to His words this sign manual of Heaven, then numbers like Nicodemus said, “ No man can do these miracles,” etc. 2. Their present disuse. They were only for the commencement of our religion. The pillar of a cloud and fire was God’ s miraculous ratification of the authority of the Hebrew legislator. But that pillar was not a permanent gift. The Jews were trained to higher spiritual manifestations of the Divine presence, and then the cloud retired into the holy place and was seen no more. So the miracles of Christ and His apostles were the leading strings in which the infant Church was tenderly led until her inherent strength was developed, and she was enabled to walk alone in her spiritual might. The miracles in nature waned as the miracles of grace waxed, and the transforming influence of the gospel on the heart and life of a believer was left to be the world’ s standing sign and proof that it was the power and the wisdom of God. II. THE GREATER WORK OF CHRIST IN THE KINGDOM OF GRACE. The conversion of the soul is a greater work, because 1. It is wrought upon a greater object. Miracles were wrought upon material things; but conversion is wrought upon the soul. Who can calculate the vast superiority of spirit over matter? The soul allies us with Deity, for God is a spirit. It is the breath of the Almighty: matter is the rough clay in His hands. Hence the most degraded human being can say to the sun, “ I am greater than thou!” 2. It demands more and greater attributes to effect it. Miracles were in the main displays of power. But in the conversion of our soul all the attributes of Jehovah are brought into play. Infinite wisdom must solve the problem, how the condemned can be pardoned, the lost saved, and the law honoured. Infinite power must work out the plan which wisdom has devised, and unite the Godhead and humanity in the person of Immanuel. Infinite love must be manifested in the undertaking of such an amazing work. 3. It encounters greater difficulties. It was easier to make a world than remake a fallen soul. In miracles of nature there was nothing to resist the Divine will. But in the restoration of the soul difficulties on all sides were encountered. Divine justice and truth stood in the way. All the powers of darkness were marshalled against it. The soul opposes its own conversion. It required four thousand years to prepare for the coming of Christ, and after His coming His thirty-three years of humiliation, privation, and toil. It still requires the striving of the Spirit on earth, the unwearied intercession of Jesus above, and the process of earthly discipline before one soul can be brought to glory. 4. It secures a greater good. Even the miracles of Jesus secured only a temporal good, though they aimed at awaking desires after spiritual benefits. But conversion is man’ s highest good, securing the richest blessings. 5. It has a greater duration. A change of heart has imperishable results. Where are the few whom Jesus summoned from the grave? To the grave they were summoned again. Where is the crowd from whom disease fled? The forces of human affliction returned, and brought death as their leader. Where are those miraculously fed They hungered again. III. THE FOR THIS WORK. “ He that believeth.” One of the most prominent features in our Lord’ s teaching is the importance attached to faith. With respect to outward miracles, none of His disciples could perform them, none of the multitude could enjoy them without faith. If confidence in Christ was so essential in outward miracles, much more is it essential 1. In the reception of the great miracle of grace. 2. To its instrumental accomplishment. The conversion of the world is entrusted to the Church as the instrument by which the Spirit effects this spiritual change. “ He that believeth,” whosoever he may be, may aspire to this surpassing honour. There are three truths which should be deeply graven on our hearts. (1) Faith in the adaptation of the gospel to meet the wants of men of every class and in every age. (2) Faith in the fact that none are excluded from a participation in its saving blessings except through their own unbelief. (3) Universal reliance or dependence on the Spirit of Christ in every work of faith and labour of love. If we put our faith in the splendour of our sanctuaries, the talent of our ministers, the respectability of our churches, the machinery of our religious societies, the purity of our creed, we are trusting to a broken reed. IV. THE SOURCE OF ALL SUCCESS IN THIS WORK. The outpouring of the Spirit resulting from the exaltation of Jesus. “ For if I go not away, the Comforter,” etc. 1. Our inward state requires this. To suppose a spiritual change without the Spirit is to suppose not only an effect without a cause, but an effect contrary to all causes. 2. Our outward state requires it. How can we conquer a hostile world, except by that Spirit who makes His strength perfect in our weakness? 3. Spiritual agency of a corrupting and deadly character shows our need of it. “ Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” Conclusion: Learn 1. The Divinity of Christ Jesus. Man, however gifted, is never able to impart at his will, his power to another. Napoleon could not bestow as a legacy on his faithful adherents his own genius. Christ says, “ The works that I do shall ye do also.” 2. The honour and dignity of all believers. A greater miracle has been wrought on them than on the body of Lazarus. 3. The ennobling character of Christian work. 4. The lamentable condition of every unbeliever. (R. Best.) The eclipse of miracle I. The text presents us with a . Christ teaches that there shall be a relation of likeness or identity between His own personal works and the works carried on by believing disciples after His departure. “ He that believeth on Me, the works that I do, shall he do also.” The terms in which Christ describes His own supernatural works are remarkable and suggestive. He scarcely ever speaks of them as miracles. He nearly always uses the quiet, unostentatious phrase employed in the text--“ works.” The mere triumph over physical law seems to be forgotten, and there is a godlike unconsciousness of that which is extraordinary to us. The term is suggestive of calm power. These things are not miracles to Him, they were miracles only to the beholder. The word too is one that links His achievements with the achievements of the future Church. It expressed only that which should be common between the two. The miraculous element, in the popular sense of that word, was not the most conspicuous feature in the works. Christ’ s thought would seem to have been fixed upon those elements in the works that embodied living relations. The eye of the child is caught by the glare of colour in the picture, and a little Red Riding Hood from an illustrated paper will fascinate it just as much as a Holy Family by Titian. The eye of the artist is riveted by the form and composition and delicate suggestion and sentiment with which the canvas has been made to speak. The first living relation in Christ’ s works was with the Father. They were a continuous testimony of the Father to the Son before the world. “ The Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” “ The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.” “ The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” The second living relation embodied in Christ’ s works was with the Holy Spirit. Now these are the essential elements in Christ’ s works, and the power of accomplishing such works is given just as much to us as to Jesus Christ. Through all the life of a man who believes in Jesus Christ the Father directly testifies concerning His Son. Whilst the man retains a loyal, believing relation to his great Head, the Holy Ghost is the sovereign guide of all his activity, and his works are as perfectly adapted to the removal of suffering, the destruction of unbelief, and the awakening of faith in those with whom he is associated, as were the most imperial works of the Son of God upon earth. “ The works that I do shall he do also.” If we cannot do works upon which the miracle glory rests, we can do works upon which there rests a glory that in Christ’ s view outshines and eclipses that of miracle, so that even” that which was made glorious had no glory, by reason of the glory that excelleth.” II. The text contains a . There is to be a splendid advance in the character of the believer’ s achievements, an advance that will make them transcend even the Lord’ s own personal works amongst men. “ Greater works than these shall he do.” Christ had always thought more of the moral elements and relations in His works and those of His disciples, than of the merely miraculous. The time Christ spent in teaching men was enormous, compared with the time spent in healing disease. A second sufficed to touch a leper with His restoring hand: it sometimes cost Him days to do the yet greater work of touching a polluted soul with heavenly light. In the Acts of the Apostles we find the space occupied by narrating the work of miracle small, and that occupied by the work of conviction increasingly large, in comparison with the relative spaces they fill in the synoptical gospels. The apostles were beginning to enter into Christ’ s estimate of the relative value of the two types of work. The physical conditions that constituted Christ’ s works miraculous are often realized in connection with spiritual work upon a much more commanding scale. Did some of Christ’ s works, such as turning the water into wine and feeding the multitudes, imply mastery over creative processes? Whilst fruitful seasons and food and gladness are given by the loving Father to good and evil alike, I have no doubt, the cry of the scientists notwithstanding, they are given in conspicuous degrees to the piety and prayers of God’ s people. And not to speak of the supernatural influence of Christianity, how much of the wealth of the world is due to the thrift and righteousness growing up out of its conversions! Take away its presence from the earth, and nations that now overflow with luxury would be represented by groups of scattered savages gnawing roots and uncooked carrion. It is Christianity that is feeding the nations. By its uplifted hands of righteousness and prayer it is multiplying bread for thousands in comparison with whom the crowds Christ fed were but as units. And is not this a greater thing than the miracle on the tableland of Bethsaida or the plain of Gennesaret? Did the largest group of Christ’ s miracles imply command over disease and death? How much has that active sympathy, which is the outcome of faith in Christ, done to limit the ravages of disease and add to the length of human life? The evils turned back by the conversion of those present in thousands of Christian congregations are as ghastly and as terrible and manifold as the evils that shrank before Christ’ s word in the days of His flesh. For Christian faith and love to put healing hands upon human sickness and infirmity, to prevent in incalculable degrees human pain, to add year by year to the length of human life in all quarters of the globe, is it not a greater work than Christ’ s comparatively circumscribed work of healing the sick and raising the dead when upon earth? The spiritual works effected by believers in Jesus Christ bring about that conviction which is the great end of miracle by more effective methods. In miracle the work of the Spirit came before the eye. Miracle left the man more or less the victim of his own prejudice, unbelief, self-will. Miracle was only occasional in its appeal. The demonstration of the Spirit in the heart of man was a power that outlasted the believing prayers and labours to which its first coming was a response. If our faith reach up to the full evangelical altitude, we may do by the instantaneous help of the Spirit what it cost Christ years full of pains and sighs and toils to accomplish. Our work transcends miracle because the spirit, which is the special sphere touched by it, is more delicately sensitive than the body, which is the sphere in which miracle was wrought. The unseen part of a man’ s nature has capabilities of enjoyment or suffering which are indefinitely in advance of the part of his nature represented by the senses; the work of saving and tranquillising it must be indefinitely higher in both process and result. In comparison with the agony of a wounded spirit, physical suffering is a mere pin prick. To impart health by miracle to a diseased frame is a work unspeakably inferior to that of ministering salvation to diseased souls, plucking out rooted sins from the memory in which they rankle, and freeing the conscience from the haunting sense of eternal wrath. The spiritual works it is the believer’ s high privilege to do outshine Christ’ s personal miracles, because spiritual work is the key to the final destruction of all physical evil and disability at the last day. In spiritual miracle, the sentence is pronounced that shall then be carried out, and evil is virtually dead for the man whose nature has been touched by the works we do through our believing fellowship with Christ. The miracle was only respite. “ Lo! disease and death come back to undo the triumph of the vanished wonder worker.” By the power I wield as a believer in Jesus Christ I work irreversible miracles. I dismiss disease and death into a realm from whence they can never return. The inward miracle of regeneration is the mainspring of that climatic miracle which sums up all other acts of healing power, when sickness and sorrow and sighing shall be swept forever away. This is the true virtue radiated from the ascended Saviour, imparted freely to all His disciples, and perpetually reflected from every quickened Church in fellowship with its Lord. It pulsates unseen in our midst lust now, but a few transient breaths must come and go before it can be seen that the flush of immortal health has been restored to the universe. III. The text points out THE SECRET OF THIS between Christ’ s works and those of His favoured followers. The secret has a Divine and a human side. Christ’ s presence at the right hand of the Father is the pledge and sign that sin has been dealt with, man’ s unfitness to receive these high and holy gifts has been taken away, the burden which crushed human nature into impotence removed, and the Father’ s hand opened to His reconciled people in more than its ancient wealth of blessing. This secret of transcendent power has an earthly as well as a heavenly side. “ And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.” Some of the natural forces of the universe can only be manifested through the special elements and agencies that are adapted to transmit them. Electricity must have a pathway of susceptible matter over which to travel, even if that pathway be one of indefinitely minute particles of ether only. So with the spiritual forces of the universe. If the power of the mediatorial presence have no conducting lines of faith along which to travel, it must sleep forever, and the world be left to swing on in its old grooves of evil and death. The manifestation of all the energies of that presence can only come through the believing request of the disciples. Prayer, bound only by the holy instincts of the faith that inspires it, and the rights of the name in which it is presented, is a thing of illimitable power. Let us never forget the dignity and beneficence of all spiritual work. This promise suggests the plenary character of the Pentecostal endowment. (T. G. Selby.) Because I go unto My Father I. MY WORK IN THE FLESH. II. MY PLACE AT THE THRONE. III. MY WORK TO THE CHURCH. IV. MY SAINTS WITH THE SPIRIT. (S. S. Times.) John 14:13-14 Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do Praying in the name of Christ I. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? 1. To obtain anything in the name of another supposes that your own name is an insufficient warrant. In the negotiation by which you secure it, your own personality is lost altogether. Thus an ambassador personifies the country he represents; he has no personal recognition when he sits in the councils of foreign potentates. So in familiar life we invest a subordinate agent with our own reputation and credit. 2. But in neither of these senses do we make mention of the name of Christ in our prayers. We may be said, it is true, to traffic with another’ s credit, and represent the authority of a sovereign in some conditions of intercourse with God; but praying in the name of Jesus implies a closer union than that of service. “ If ye shall ask the Father” (see chap. 20:17). Prayer rises from outside, knocking into the tender confidences of family intercourse. We ask in the name of Christ because we have put on that name as a woman by marriage puts on the name of her husband, and with it his rank and property. When she asks anything in the husband’ s name she brings with her whatever that name merits or can demand. To deny her is to deny him, In the Scriptures our union with Christ is described by marriage. This is foreshadowed by the prophets (Isaiah 54:5; Isaiah 62:5), and God’ s name is used as an argument of deprecation as if somehow that name were bound up with the fate of His people (Jeremiah 14:21; Joshua 7:9; Ezekiel 36:22-23). In Matthew 9:15, Christ accepts all this, and in His marriage parables. And so St. Paul (Ephesians 5:25-32), and St. John (Revelation 19:6-9; Revelation 21:2-9). Let the light of these statements shine on the text. In communion with the Father we have lost our name. He found us nameless, for we had not a name of any honourable distinction to lose or merge. The Saviour describes our condition as lost--without name, home, repute. He allured us back (Isaiah 62:2), and gave us His own name, and our miserable name was hidden and lost in the brightness of Christ. That name is ours, its renown and the vast treasures of grace procurable by its warrant (1 Corinthians 3:23). II. THE POWER OF PRAYER MUST BE TO OUR IN CHRIST. 1. It is the conscious weight of His name that gives its energy to faith. When that name is not predominant, we naturally dwell on our own unworthiness, etc., which produces distrust--the fatal sickness of prayer. Distrust blocks the way up to God, and no prayer can pass to Him James 1:5-7). Not that no prayer can prosper unless faith be perfect, for then how could we pray for faith at all; but the chief condition of our receiving is a belief that Christ will do it (Mark 11:24). It is the name of Christ, and that only, that gives us such a confidence. With His name in our hands, or rather written on the covenant register of our love, we can no more fail with the Father than He can. When we pray in His name it is as if He prayed. 2. This nearness of fellowship with Christ explains the “ anything” of the text. It is not supposed that such a licence will be abused by caprice. The prayer of a depending love to a conferring love will interpret it by the extent of its wants, and the right it is permitted to assume. 3. The endearments of such a state are not sustained by great services. Whatever concerns you concerns Him; if in itself it be a trifle, it is not a trifle to Him if it affects you. (E. E. Jenkins, LL. D.) If ye shall ask anything in My name Prayer in Christ’ s name I. THE FACT WHICH IS THE ROOT OF THIS PROMISE is described in what our Lord says about the vine. The vine and the branches are one, the same name covers them. Whatever the branch asks for--that its blossoms may be abundant, and that its clusters may ripen--the vine asks for. And it was in immediate connection with this that our Lord said, “ If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will,” etc. We are to pray in Christ’ s name because we are so undeniably one with Him that what we ask He asks. The use of His name, then, is not an incantation, nor is it one of a number of conditions of successful prayer. It is the one condition of both prayer and work. This promise is connected with that which precedes it. “ He that believeth on Me, the works that I do,” etc. Why? “ Because I go unto My Father; and those who are one with Me share My glorified powers.” It is the consciousness of this union that enables us to pray too and work for God with a large and happy faith that He will hear us and help us. II. THE OF THE PROMISE. 1. It may be objected that when we pray in the name of Christ the range of our prayers must be narrowed. We must pray about Christ’ s affairs, and not about our own. We may pray, for example, that the gospel may reach the hearts of men; but can we ask in Christ’ s name that we may be successful in business, or that our children may be healthy and happy? When we pray for the strong help of the Spirit of God to enable us to practise all Christian virtues we may pray in Christ’ s name; but if we want to get an appointment which will bring us a larger income, to win a contested election, to escape a bad debt, protection, or better health--these are our own affairs. It is as if a minister of the Crown were to use his official authority for his own personal interests; or as if the representative of a commercial firm, who was authorised to sign cheques for the firm, signed cheques for the payment of his private and personal accounts. But have we any interests that are not Christ’ s? Should we really choose the better appointment and the larger income at the risk of becoming of less use to Christ? Should we care to win the contested election if success did not give us new opportunities for serving Him? Are we not carrying on our business as Christ’ s servants? And when we pray for our children, do we not remember with a leap of the heart that they are much more dear to Him than they are to us? Can we really desire anything for ourselves that Christ does not desire us to have? Can we desire anything for others that Christ does not desire them to have? 2. But these answers, though good as far as they go, are incomplete. The real root of that vague discontent is in that dualism which divides human life into the religious and the secular; in one of which we know that Christ is interested, while the other seems to be of interest only to ourselves. That we should care for righteousness more than for everything besides we acknowledge frankly. To serve Christ well--that is what we desire above everything. If the chance were offered to us between a saintly character and the most splendid earthly position, not for a moment should we hesitate. But our nature is complex. Righteousness is the great good to which every inferior good gives place; but there are many good things besides. The worst of all evils is to sin against God; but it is a bad thing to be cold, hungry, friendless; to see the wealth which has been accumulated by skill, industry, and thrift, wasting away through the dishonesty of those we have trusted. It is the worst of all evils to be lashed day after day by a guilty conscience; but it is also a bad thing to suffer the physical tortures which are the result of some terrible forms of disease. From the worst evils we can ask in Christ’ s name to be delivered, that others should be delivered from them; but how is it with the rest? Have we forgotten that Christ created us body and soul? When a limb is broken, Christ’ s own creation is injured, just as the creation of an artist is injured when the marble which is the triumph of his genius is shattered, or when the canvas on which he has recorded some dream of beauty is rent. Christ’ s miracles were the signs of the depth of His compassion for the miseries of our race; and has He not made it apart of the service which we owe to Himself to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, etc. In His name we are to relieve all forms of human want--in His name, when the want is our own, we may ask that the want may be relieved. If we serve Christ in common things, we shall be able to pray ill His name about common things; and perhaps it is because we alienate a large part of our life from His service that we are conscious of a certain incongruity when we try to pray about it. 3. But we may sometimes doubt whether relief from want, pain, trouble, is really good. It is right to ask, and to ask in Christ’ s name, for relief from it; but Christ may cancel the prayer, and put in its place a petition for a higher blessing. We pray that it may be removed: He loves us too well for the prayer to be answered. But when we pray for the great gifts, whether for ourselves or for others, then we know that our prayers are but the experience of the central thoughts and desires of the very heart of Christ; we know that we should not offer them were it not for our union with Christ; and therefore with perfect confidence we offer them in His name, they are less ours than His. (R. W. Dale, D. D.) Praying in Christ’ s name In the common acceptation, the phrase “ in my name” means the same thing as “ for my sake” or “ on my account.” The common notion seems to be that if we present ourselves before the Infinite Majesty with any request and make use of this formula, our requests will be granted, no matter what they may be. The young soldier dying on the field sends by his wounded comrade a letter to his father at home, saying, “ This is my friend; give him whatever he asks for, for my sake;” and although the requests of the wounded man are unreasonable and injurious, the father grants the petition, simply because of the love that he bears his son. Just so men go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with this text as their warrant. Another conception of the promise is that Christ has accumulated an infinite fund of merit by His death, and has put the Father under infinite obligations to Him. Those, therefore, who come to the Father in the name of the Son have a claim on Him which He is bound to recognize. The transaction, as thus conceived, is partly legal and partly commercial. To ask in Christ’ s name is therefore substantially the same thing as to present an order at a store signed by one of the joint proprietors, or a cheque upon a bank certified by the cashier. The name, as we say, is good for the amount. It matters not to us whether the persons to whom the cheque or the order is presented are friendly or unfriendly to us; nor to them whether the thing is good for us or not; there need be no acquaintance beyond simple identification. What they impart to us is not of grace to us but of debt to the one whose name we present to them. This view needs only to be distinctly stated in order that its credulity may be perceived. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY ASKING IN CHRIST’ S NAME? The name, in the New Testament, generally stands for the person. So always when miracles are wrought by the name of Christ, it is the personality and the power of Christ that are referred to. Believing in the name of Christ is believing not merely in a word but in Christ, with a glance, no doubt, at His trustworthiness. To ask for anything in the name of Christ, then, is to put ourselves in His place as nearly as we can, and to ask for the things that He would ask for, and in the spirit with which He would present His requests. Just in proportion as His mind is in us, and our lives reproduce His life, will our prayers be effectual. The same truth is put in another form in John 15:7; John 15:16. It isonly when the life of the Master quickens and invigorates the disciple, just as the life of the vine does that of the branches, that he can truly pray in Christ’ s name, and find a certain answer to his prayers. II. THIS LIMITS THE PROMISE IN CERTAIN . That is really no objection to the interpretation. 1. Men have brought to God many strange requests for objects unworthy and injurious to themselves, and yet have supposed that by the use of this phrase they made good their demand upon Him. Those to whom, e.g., worldly prosperity would be a curse, who have no power to use wealth wisely, and would surely be corrupted by it, sometimes ask for it, and seem to think that God is not faithful to His promise because He does not give it to them. 2. Sometimes good people have hateful whims that they wish to have gratified. One good woman whom I knew prayed, so she said, in Christ’ s name all night, that her husband may be kept from joining a certain church. Thus she imagined this promise to be a weapon with which she could compel the Deity to gratify her small bigotry, her antipathy to another Christian sect. 3. Neither does the text encourage speculative or experimental praying. A proposition was made that Christians should pray for the patients in a certain ward of a hospital; and if these recovered more rapidly than those in other wards the result would be a demonstration of the power of prayer. But men who pray, just to see whether there is any use in praying or not, are not praying with the mind of Christ, no matter what phrases these may use; and there is no promise of answer to any such prayers. To ask a good man for a good gift, just to see what he would say, would be an insult; and it is not less offensive to approach God in this way. 4. Neither does this interpretation encourage the expectation that God will work miracles to relieve us of work. Some imagine that God will support them in idleness if they only pray in faith for food and raiment and shelter. We know, as well as we can know anything, that it is God’ s will that we should earn our livelihood by labour, and husband our earnings with prudence. 5. The same principle applies to suffering. One who violates a physical law the existence of which he knows or ought to know, and then thinks to escape through prayer from the penalty of that law, really insults God by his prayer. No one can pray really in the name of Christ who is not careful to obey every part of the law of God, natural as well as Biblical. The very first condition of asking in Christ’ s name is an entire and hearty willingness to know and to do the will of the Lord. To pray in the name or character of Christ is to remember that we are ignorant and that God is infinitely wise; and that what He chooses for us, though it may seem evil to us, is by far the best that we can only make known to Him our desires, and then leave ourselves with entire submission in His careful and powerful hands. III. AFTER WE HAVE THIS PROMISE IN ALL THESE WAYS IT IS STILL LARGE ENOUGH--So large that we shall never begin to realize all the good it offers us. 1. It does not forbid us to ask for temporal mercies, for the least of the good things that God provides, nor for the greatest of them. You may pray for health; that is a blessing that Christ gave to many while He was here. But it is a gift that He does not always give to those He loves best! and when you pray for it you must always say, “ Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.” 2. You may pray for success in business and for prosperity if you desire them for spiritual or benevolent rather than for natural and selfish reasons. But here, too, the dominating wish will be that God’ s will may be done. You may, honestly think that you could use wealth in such a way as to derive moral and spiritual benefit from it for yourself, and to confer benefits upon others; but the Omniscient One may know that you are mistaken about this, and, for your own good, as well as for His glory, He may therefore withhold what you crave. 3. There is one class of petitions, however, in which you do not need to make any of these reservations. When you ask for spiritual gifts, then if you are sincere you know that you are asking in Christ’ s name. “ This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” (Washington Gladden D. D.) The reason for delay in the answers to prayer “ Pa said he liked us to ask him for whatever we wanted, and I asked him yesterday to get me a kite, and he has not got it for me!” said a curly-headed grumbler, on a cold foggy day in November. “ Yes, and I asked him to give me a gold watch, and he has never given me one!” said a brother, two or three years older; “ and I don’ t see the good of asking him for things.” Six months passed away, when behold! one fine day in May, the father came in with a beautiful kite, which he gave to his little boy without saying a word. But it was eight or nine years before he called the other boy to him and said, “ I suppose you have forgotten, when you were a boy in pinafores, asking me for a gold watch, haven’ t you?” “ Yes, that I have,” answered the now tall youth. “ But I have not,” said the father. “ Here’ s the watch, my dear boy; you can value it and take care of it now! Ah, Christian, need I add a word? else I might say that prayers do not spoil by keeping, but are only put out at interest. (H. H. Dobney.) If ye love Me, keep My commandments True love for Christ I. ITS TRUE NATURE AND . 1. The text suggests a contrast with something besides which, while purporting to be the love of Christ, is not the very reality. There is a love of Christ which is (1) Affected--that of Judas but it was an illusion. How much of Christianity consists in acknowledgment of Gospel verity, respect for Christian institutions, etc. (3) Morbid, that perhaps of Thomas, which has its eyes turned in upon himself--a type of Christianity induced by persecution, the prevalence of wickedness, a high state of civilization, want of moral earnestness. (4) Partial and unworthy, that of Peter, who made the commonest of mistakes, overestimating His love. It was a genuine feeling; but not equal to all emergencies, and so vanished as soon as it confronted danger. 2. The love of Christ--what is it? (1) Acquaintance with Christ. How can we love what we do not know? How can we love Christ if we are ignorant of His Person, work, character, claims, promises, etc.? Of this knowledge our Lord makes the highest account, and provides for it by the gift of His Spirit. This knowledge is not the measure of love, but is its companion, and one of the spheres of its activity. (2) Affection for Christ. Knowledge may be divorced from any alliance of the heart or will. But the soul who possesses the love of Christ will be filled with a sacred passion for Him shed abroad by the Holy Ghost. (3) Obedience to Christ, which is Christ’ s own definition here. This is to live in (a) Piety towards God. Christ will recognize no love for Him which does not show forth the praises of His Father. (b) Self-control and purity. (c) Truth, love, justice to all men. II. ITS AND DIVINE . To love Christ Isaiah 1. To be loved of the Father and the Son (John 14:21). The Divine Son is so dear to the Father, that love for Him in a human soul makes it dear to God. 2. To receive the manifestation of the love of God is the coming to the soul of the Father and the Son (John 14:23). Human love often remains unmanifested through lack of opportunity, etc. So there was a lack of the manifestation of Divine love before the Incarnation; but Christ promises to the disciples that He and the Father will “ come.” Believers shall know the love which God has for them, the Spirit Himself bearing witness of the fact. 3. To enjoy this manifestation as a permanent condition of soul: “ make our abode.” Conclusion: 1. What bewildering and entrancing views of heaven does this scripture open before us? If God so loved us here, how will He love us in the mansions above! 2. To how great a height does the Christianity of the New Testament tower above that of most of its professors. 3. Let those who name the name of Christ be careful to keep His commandments. (J. D. Geden, D. D.) Love’ s law and life This is a chapter singularly full of certainties, and remarkably studded with “ ifs.” 1. Look at John 14:2. If there had been no place for us in the glory land Jesus would have told us. 2. Notice John 14:3. If the Lord Jesus should go away (and this is a supposition no longer), then He would return again in due time. His home going pledges Him to come, and compels us to look for Him. 3. The next “ if” comes at the beginning of Joh 14:7. If we really know Christ, we know God. In fact, there is no knowing God aright except through His Son. If our scientific men get away from the Christ, the incarnate God, before long they drift away from God altogether. 4. The next variety of “ if” is in John 14:14. Taking it for granted that we ask mercies in the name of Jesus, a glorious certainty is linked thereto--“ I will do it.” 5. Again, you have “ if” in John 14:23. Respect to His wisdom, and obedience to His authority, will grow out of love. 6. The chapter almost closes at John 14:28, by saying, “ If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice,” etc. Where there is an intelligent love to Christ we rejoice in His gains even though we ourselves appear to be losers thereby. I. THE “ IF” IS OUR TEXT IS A VERY SERIOUS ONE. It goes to the very root of the matter. Love belongs to the heart; and every surgeon will tell you that a disease of the heart may not be trifled with. Solomon bids us keep the heart with all diligence, “ for out of it are the issues of life.” If the mainspring fails, all the works of a watch refuse to act. 1. Our Saviour puts this “ if” in such a way as to teach us that love must be prior to obedience. Obedience must have love for its mother, nurse, and food. The essence of obedience lies in the hearty love which prompts the deed rather than in the deed itself. A heart at enmity with God cannot be made acceptable by mere acts of piety. It is not what your hands are doing, nor even what your lips are saying; the main thing is what your heart is meaning and intending. The great flywheel which moves the whole machinery of life is fixed in the heart: hence this is the most important of all suggestions, “ If ye love Me.” When the heathen killed their sacrifices in order to prophesy future events from the entrails, the worst augury they ever got was when the priest could not find a heart; or if that heart was small and shrivelled. It is so in very deed with religion and with each religious person. He that searches us searches principally our hearts. 2. Love to Jesus is put first because it is the best reason for our obedience to Him. Notice: “ If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” Personal affection will produce personal obedience. There are some men for whom you would do anything. The Saviour may much more safely than any other be installed in such a position. This is the spring and source of all holy living--love to the Holy One. 3. It was greatly needful for our Lord thus to address His disciples. We should never have doubted one of them. We now know by the result that one of them was a traitor, but no one suspected him. Ah! if that question, “ If ye love Me,” needed to be raised in the sacred college of the twelve, much more must it be allowed to sift our churches, and to test ourselves. Perhaps you have almost taken it for granted that you love Jesus; but it must not be taken for granted. It is most kind of the Saviour to give you an opportunity of examining yourself and seeing whether you are right at heart. 4. Remember, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ he will be anathema maranatha, cursed at His coming. This applies to every man, even though he be most eminent. An apostle turned out to be a son of perdition--may not you? 5. The question is answerable. It was put to the apostles, and they could answer it. Peter spoke as all the eleven would have done when he said, “ Thou knowest that I love Thee.” It is not a question concerning mysteries. A man may know whether he loves the Lord or not, and he ought to know. Do not be content with merely longing to love Jesus; or with longing to know whether you love Him. Not love Jesus I It were better for me not to live than not to love Him. II. THE TEST WHICH IS IN THE TEXT IS A VERY ONE. “ If ye love Me.” 1. The test indicated does not suggest a lawless liberty. Let us never enter into the counsel of those who do not believe that there are any commandments for believers to keep. Those who do away with duty do away with sin, and consequently with the Saviour. Jesus does not say, so long as you love Me in your hearts, I care nothing about your lives. He that loves Christ is the freest man out of heaven, but he is also the most under bonds. He is free, for Christ has loosed his bonds, but he is put under bonds to Christ by grateful love. 2. The text also contains no fanatical challenge. We do not read, “ If ye love Me, perform some extraordinary act.” Hermits, nuns, and religious mad caps find no example or precept here. Every now and then we find members of our churches who must needs leave their trades and their callings to show their love for Jesus: children may starve and wives may pine, but their mad whims must be carried out for love of Jesus. 3. Why does the Saviour give us this as a test? Because (1) It tests whether you are loving Christ in His true position, or whether your love is to a Christ of your own making, and your own placing. Moses never used an expression such as our Saviour here employs. He might say, “ Keep God’ s commandments” ; but He would never have said, “ Keep My commandments.” By obedience you own Christ’ s sovereignty and Godhead. We do not love Jesus if He is not our Lord and God. Love Him, and belittle Him! It is absurd. (2) It proves the living presence of the object of your love. Love always desires to have its object near, and it has a faculty of bringing its object near. A gentleman has faithful servants; he goes away, and leaves his house in their charge. They are not eye servants, and so they work none the less because he is absent. If he does not see them, yet the eyes of their love always see him, and therefore they work as if he were at home. So Christ has gone away, but He is made present to us by our realizing love; and the proof of our love is that Jesus is so present that He constrains our actions, influences our motives, and is the cause of our obedience. (3) By keeping our Lord’ s commandments we are doing that which is most pleasing to Him, and will most glorify Him. There is the answer to every rapturous inquiry. (4) Moreover, the Saviour knew, when He bade us try this test, that it would prepare us for honouring and glorifying Him in many ways. When a friend is dying, and he asks you to prove your love by such and such a deed, he may ask what he wills; you give him carte blanche. Baptism and the Lord’ s supper will never be slighted by those whose hearts are fully possessed with love to Jesus. They may seem trifles, but if the Lord Jesus commands them they cannot be neglected. III. TRUE LOVE WILL ENDURE THE TEST. “ If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments.” This is the Revised Version, and I hope it will be written out in capitals upon our revised lives! If you love Christ 1. Set to work to find out what His commandments are. 2. Be always true to your convictions about what Christ’ s commandments are. Carry them out at all hazards, and carry them out at once. 3. Take note of every commandment as it concerns you. If there be a commandment which you do not relish, it ought to be a warning to you that there is something wrong in your heart that needs setting right. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Love and obedience The keyword of the preceding context is “ Believe!” and that word passes now into “ Love.” The believing gaze upon Christ kindles love and prompts to obedience. There is another very beautiful and subtle link. Our Lord has just been saying, “ Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do.” The Lord does as the servant asks, and the servant is to do as the Lord commands. On both sides there is love delighting to be set in motion by a message from the other side. I. THE ALL- IDEAL OR GUIDE FOR LIFE. The authoritative tone which Christ assumes is noteworthy. He speaks as Jehovah spoke from Sinai; and quotes the very words of the old law. There are distinctly involved, in this incidental utterance, two startling things--one the assumption of the right to impose His will upon every human being, and the other that His will contains the all-sufficient directory for conduct. 1. What, then, are His commandments? Those which He spoke are plain and simple; and some people crow loud if, scratching amongst rabbinical dust heaps, they find something that looks like anything that He once said. What does that matter? Christ’ s “ commandments” are Christ Himself. There is the originality and uniqueness of Christ as a moral teacher, that He says, “ Copy Me.” 1. Its law is to be found in His life. 2. And then, if that be so, what a change passes on the aspect of law! Everything that was hard, repellent, far-off, cold, vanishes. We have no longer tables of stone, but fleshy tables of a heart; and the Law stands before us, a Being to be loved, to be clung to, to be trusted in, and whom it is blessedness to know and perfection to be like. 3. It is enough for conduct, for character, and in all perplexities of conflicting duties that we listen to and obey the Voice that says, “ Keep My commandments.” II. THE ALL- MOTIVE. The Revised Version reads, “ If ye love Me ye will keep,” etc., making it an assurance and not an injunction. 1. The principle that underlies these words is, that love is the foundation of obedience, and obedience is the sure outcome and result of love. We all know that love which is real delights most chiefly in knowing and conforming to the will of the beloved. And you have only to lift that which is the experience of every true heart into the higher regions, to see that Christ has invoked an omnipotent power. 2. That is exactly what lifts the morality of the Gospel above all other systems. It is not for want of knowledge that men go to the devil, but for want of power to live their knowledge. And what morality fails to do with its clearest utterances of human duty, Christ comes and does. The one is like the useless proclamations posted up in some rebellious district, where there is no army to back them. The other gets itself obeyed. Here is the road plain and straight. What matters that if there is no force to draw the cart along it. Here stand all your looms, polished and in perfect order, but there is no steam in the boilers; and so there is no motion and nothing manufactured. What we want is not law, but power. And what the gospel stands alone in giving us, is not merely the clear revelation of what we ought to be, but it is the power to become it. 3. Love does that, and love alone. The true way to cleanse the Augean stables, was to turn the river into them. It would have been endless to wheel out the filth in wheelbarrows loaded by spades. When the ark comes into the Temple, Dagon lies, a mutilated stump, upon the threshold. Christ, and He alone, entering my heart by the portals of my love, will coerce my evil and stimulate my good. 4. Here is a plain test and a double-barreled one. (1) There is no love worth calling so which does not keep the commandment. All the emotional and the mystic, and the so-called higher parts of Christian experience have to be content to submit to this plain test--do they help us to live as Christ would have us, and that because Hewould have us? Not that in regard of each action there must be the conscious reference to the supreme love. The colouring matter put in at the fountain will dye every drop of the stream; and they whose inmost hearts are tinged and tinctured with the sweet love of Jesus Christ, from their hearts will go forth issues of life all coloured and moulded thereby. (2) There is no obedience worth calling so which is not the child of love; and all the multitude of right things which Christians do, without that motive, are made short work of by the principle. Obedience which is mechanical and matter of course, or which is forced upon us by dread, is nothing. This is a sieve with very small meshes, and there will be a great deal of rubbish left in it after the shaking. III. THE ALL- GAZE. This is not included in the text, but it is necessary to complete the view of the forces to which Christ here entrusts the hallowing of life. Nothing will kindle a man’ s love but the faithful contemplation and grasp of the Redeeming Christ. 1. Here is a man, dead for nineteen centuries, expecting you and me to have towards Him a vivid personal affection which will influence our conduct and our character. What right has He to expect that? There is only one reasonable ground, and that is, that He died for me. And such a love towards such a Christ is the only thing which will wield power sufficient to guide, to coerce, to restrain, to constrain, and to sustain my weak, wayward, rebellious, and sluggish will. 2. Here is a unique fact in the history of the world, that not only did He make this astounding claim, but that it has been responded to, and that today there are millions of men who love Jesus Christ with a love warm, personal, deep, powerful--the spring of all their goodness and the Lord of their lives. Why do they? For one reason only. Because they believe that He died for them, and that He lives an ascended yet ever-present Helper and Lover of their souls. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Love and obedience I. WHAT IS IN KEEPING THE DIVINE ? 1. That we retain them in our memory, so as not to forget them. This is necessary to all other ways of keeping them (Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 17:18). The heart of every Christian should be a sacred ark, containing the two tables of the law, that they may be ready for use, and secured against all hostile attempts to deprive us of them (Psalms 119:61; Psalms 119:93; Hebrews 2 Peter 1:12-13). 2. That they have a place in our affections; we must love them, and delight in them. A thing may be lost to the memory, and yet be kept in the heart; the words of a discourse may be forgotten, and yet the savour of it be retained. But God’ s commands require to be kept in both these respects. The believer loves the Divine law, on account of its Author; and the subject matter of it, on account of its own intrinsic excellence. 3. That we preserve them unadulterated, pure and entire. Nothing is more displeasing to the Lord, than to blend human inventions with His institutions (Deuteronomy 4:2; Revelation 22:18). 4. A decided and persevering obedience to the Divine will, regardless of the consequences (Matthew 7:24-29; Revelation 22:14). 5. That we recommend them to the attention of others. II. HOW OUR KEEPING THE IS AN OF OUR LOVE TO GOD. 1. It is a very rational evidence, for all love is active and influential. Obedience without love is in many instances found to be impracticable; with it, it is almost unavoidable. 2. It is a scriptural evidence, very frequently inculcated (John 14:21; John 14:23; John 14:14). 3. The evidence is simple and easy. This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous. 4. It is an obvious and convincing evidence (Matthew 7:20; 1 John 2:4-5). 5. It is such an evidence that without it no other kind of evidence would be sufficient. Reflections: The subject teaches us 1. That love is the foundation of Christian obedience. 2. To judge of our love by our obedience, and not of our obedience by our love. 3. Love and obedience will bear a proportion to each other. 4. They will at last be consummated together. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Love and obedience Nothing can be love which does not shape itself into obedience. We remember the anecdote of a Roman commander who forbade an engagement with the enemy, and the first transgressor against his prohibition was his own son. He accepted the challenge of the leader of the other host, met, slew, spoiled him, and then, in triumphant feeling, carried the spoils to his father’ s tent. But the Roman father refused to recognize the instinct which prompted this as deserving the name of love. Disobedience contradicted it, and deserved death. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Obedience the true test of love to Christ I. CHRIST MERITED THE HIGHEST ESTEEM OF ALL HIS PEOPLE. 1. In Himself He is the most lovely of objects. 2. From Him the disciples have received the most delightful instruction. 3. He has died to save them from the direst of evils and lives to procure for them the highest blessings. 4. His laws are the conditions upon which our well-being is secured. II. THERE ARE IN CHRIST’ S SUCH THINGS AS RENDER THEIR LOVE TO CHRIST . 1. Sad neglect of public worship. 2. Backwardness in prayer. 3. Reluctance to study the Scriptures. 4. Passion easily agitated. 5. Fear of death. III. THE METHOD OF GETTING RID OF ALL THAT RENDERS OUR LOVE . Obedience: 1. Universal. 2. Constant. 3. Self-denying. (R. Robinson.) Affectionate obedience I. THE OF LOVE TO JESUS CHRIST. Consider this principle 1. As to its nature. Love to Christ implies several things. (1) A knowledge of Christ. (2) Satisfaction with Christ. (3) Esteem for Christ, and delight in Him. 2. In its causes. “ He first loved us.” 3. Consider this love in its characteristics. What should be the features of this love? (1) It should be ardent. A flame burning intensely on the altar of the heart. (2) It should be progressive. Cannot stand still. (3) It should be preeminent. 4. In its importance (see 1 Corinthians 16:22). II. THE OF ITS . Obedience is the essential fruit of a renewed heart. Christ’ s commandments 1. Are revealed. They are left on the pages of Holy Writ. 2. They are sometimes difficult. Hence self-denial and cross-bearing are always so. 3. They are always practicable. “ I can do all things through Christ strengthening me.” 4. They are indispensable. Not to be despised or neglected. Essential to Christ’ s favour, and our own comfort. Application: 1. Right obedience to Christ is humble, universal, and hearty. It does not question, or choose, or obey reluctantly. 2. Christ’ s order seems this: Hear, repent, believe, be baptized, and then do whatsoever else I command you. (Jabez Burns, D. D.) Love the inspiration of courage to obey Several boys were playing marbles. In the midst of their sport, the rain began to fall. Freddie S. stopped, and said, “ Boys, I must go home: mother said I must not go out in the rain.” “ Your mother--fudge! The rain won’ t hurt you any more than it will us,” said two or three voices at once. Freddie turned upon them with a look of pity, and the courage of a hero, and replied, “ I’ ll not disobey my mother for any of you!” Love the motive power of obedience When the Bible prescribes Christian graces, it always implies love as the motive power; as when we speak of rearing harvests it is always implied that there is a soil. Without love there is no soil for any Christian grace. If there be little of it, the fruit of Christian feeling will be poor and scant. If there be much, there will be great fruit, and easily grown. All things are easy to love. It tames all passions, inspires all affections, feeds every generous sentiment, gives both softness and potency, as its needs require, to the will, makes the understanding luminous and by making the whole man like God, makes it easy for him to be godlike to his fellow men. (H. W. Beecher.) Love liberates us for obedience Obedience is freedom, when we have learned to love the lips that command. We are set free that we may serve. (H. W.Beecher.) Love makes obedience delightful Love obeys with delight. It is not a burden to pray, but a pleasure. Hard duties become easy to love and the time seems not long nor tedious; as Jacob for the love of Rachel Genesis 29:20). Seven years to love seems but as one day. One day spent in a holy duty to one who hath love, seems to pass away sooner and with more delight than one day spent in flesh displeasing duties where there is no love to take off the tediousness of it to the flesh. (Percy.) Love makes obedience easy Love is like wings to the bird, like sails to the ship; it carries a Christian full sail to heaven. When love cools, obedience slacks and drives heavily, because it wants the oil on it which that love used to drop. (T. Watson.) Love better than the mere sense of duty Men will do far more from love than we might dare to ask as a matter of duty. Napoleon’ s soldiers frequently achieved exploits under the influence of fervid attachment for him, which no law could have required them to attempt. Had there been cold-blooded orders issued by some domineering officer, who said, “ You shall do this, and you shall do that,” they would have mutinied against such tyranny, and yet when the favourite little corporal seizes the standard, and cries, “ Come on!” they will rush even to the cannon’ s mouth, out of love to the person of their gallant leader. This is the difference between the law and the gospel. The law says, “ You shall, or you shall be punished;” but the gospel says, “ I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have forgiven all your trespasses; now my love shall sweetly constrain you, and the influence of inward principle shall guide you in my ways, my law shall be written, not upon stone, but upon the fleshly tablets of your hearts.” The old covenant in all that it did only provided precepts; but the gospel provides the power to keep the precept. The law drove us, but the gospel draws us. The law came behind us with its dog and stick, as our drovers do from the cattle markets; but the gospel goes before us, as the Eastern shepherd before his sheep, and we cheerfully follow where the gospel leads the way. This is the difference, then, between the old law and its inability to sanctify us, and the gospel and its wonderful power to purify. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Sonship manifested in love Outside, in the streets, a man’ s companions will do him a kindness, and the action performed is friendly; but for filial acts you must look inside the house. There the child does not lend money to its father, or negotiate business, yet in his little acts there is more sonship. Who is it that comes to meet father when the day is over? and what is the action which often indicates childhood’ s love? See the little child comes tottering forward with father’ s slippers, and runs off with his boots as he puts them off. The service is little, but it is loving and filial, and has more of filial affection in it than the servant’ s bringing in the meal, or preparing the bed, or any more essential service. It gives the little one great pleasure, and expresses his love. No one who is not my child, or who does not love me in something like the same way, would ever dream of making such a service his speciality. The littleness of the act fits it to the child’ s capacity, and there is also something in it which makes it a suitable expression of a child’ s affection. So also in little acts for Jesus. Oftentimes men of the world will give their money to the cause of Christ, putting down large sums for charity or for missions, but they will not weep in secret over other men’ s sins, or speak a word of comfort to an afflicted saint. To visit a poor sick woman, teach a little child, reclaim a street Arab, breathe a prayer for enemies, or whisper a promise in the ear of a desponding saint, may show more of sonship than building a row of almshouses or endowing a church. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Divinity of a Christ-loving soul I. AS LIVING A DIVINE LIFE. The life is that of keeping Divine commandments. 1. This is the effect of loving Christ. Here is a law of mind. He who really loves another is naturally desirous of acting in accord with the wishes of the object loved. We see this in families and among friends, and the professing Christian who is not obedient from love, is not obedient at all. 2. This is the evidence of loving Christ (John 14:21). There may be the most glowing songs of praise, etc., but love is only proved by practical obedience. The true Christian is an incarnation of the God of love. Worldly men only embody and work out the current notions of their age. “ I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.” II. AS A DIVINE HELPER (John 14:16). 1. He is the gift of the Father--free, sovereign, priceless 2. He is the messenger of reality--“ the Spirit of Truth.” The world is under the dominion of falsehood and shams. False ideas of God, life, duty, happiness, and greatness prevail. The Paraclete comes to scatter delusions, and to bring souls into contact with the morally real. 3. He is exclusively for the Christ-loving--“ And I will pray the Father … whom the world cannot receive,” etc. Love is the receptive and recognizing faculty (1 Corinthians 2:14). As soon may a man, who has not attained the faculty of reading, see in. “ Paradise Lost” the genius of Milton as the man who has not the love of Christ, see and receive the Spirit of God. 4. He is the spiritual presence of Christ (John 14:18). 5. He instructs in the things of Christ (John 14:26). III. AS DIVINE (John 14:20-21). Love to Christ makes the soul the residence of God. Such a soul He enters, not as a passing visitor, but a permanent guest (1 Corinthians 3:16). IV. AS IN A DIVINE PEACE (John 14:27). Peace with our own conscience, with society and God. Not as the world giveth. 1. As to quality. The world gives inferior gifts, Christ gives the highest. The world gives non-essential gifts. Men can do without the best of the world’ s gifts, but Christ’ s is indispensable. 2. As to manner. (1) The world gives selfishly, looking for something in return. Christ gives from infinite disinterestedness. (2) The world gives limitedly. It has neither heart nor capacity to give much. Christ gives unlimitedly. (3) The world gives occasionally, and according to its moods. Christ gives constantly. (4) The world gives to its friends. It loves its own. Christ gives to His enemies. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 14:16I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter The praying Christ, the giving Father, and the abiding Spirit The “ and” shows us that these words are a consequence of some preceding steps. The ladder that has its summit in heaven has for its rungs, first, “ believe” ; second, “ love” ; third, “ obey.” And thus the context carries us from the very basis of the Christian life up into its highest reward. And there is another very striking link. There are, if I may so say, two telephones across the abyss that separates the ascended Christ and us. One is, “ If ye ask anything in My name I will do it” ; the other, “ If ye keep My commandments I will ask.” Love on this side of the great cleft sets love on the other side of it in motion in a two-fold fashion. If we ask, He does; if we do, He asks. I. THE PRAYING CHRIST AND THE GIVING FATHER. 1. “ I Will ask and He will give” seems a strange drop from the lofty claims in the earlier verses. The voice that spake the perfect revelation of God lowers its tones into petition. Now apparently diverse views lying so close together cannot have seemed contradictory to the utterer, and there is no explanation which does justice to these two sides of Christ’ s consciousness, except that He is God manifest in the flesh, who prays in His Manhood and hears prayer in His Divinity. The bare humanistic view which emphasizes such utterances as these of my text does not know what to do with the other ones. 2. His intercession is the great hope of the Christian heart. The High Priest passes within the veil, bearing in His hand the offering, and by reason of that offering, and of His powerful presence before the mercy seat, all the spiritual gifts which redeem and regenerate and sanctify humanity are forever coming forth. Note (1) Christ’ s quiet assumption that all through the ages He knows, at the moment of their being done, His servants’ deeds. (2) He puts the Father’ s act in pledge to us, and assures us that His prayer brings ever its answer. “ Father! I will that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me.” How far beyond the warrantable language of man! And how impossible for a fisherman of Bethsaida to imagine that strange blending of submission and of authority which speaks in such words. (3) That which puts in motion Christ’ s intercessory activity is the obedience of a Christian man. If you obey He will pray, and the Father will send. So the reward of imperfect obedience is the larger measure given to us of that Divine Spirit by whose indwelling obedience becomes possible, and self-surrender a joy and a power. II. THE ABIDING GIFT. 1. “ Comforter” means not only One who administers sweet whispers of consolation. We have to look not merely for a vague influence, but a Divine Person who will be by our side on condition of our faith, love, and obedience, to be our Strength in all weakness, our Peace in all trouble, our Wisdom, Guide, Comforter and Cherisher, Righteousness, the Victor over our temptations, and the Companion and Sweetener of our solitude? The metaphors with which Scripture represents this great personal Influence are full of instruction and beauty. He comes as “ The Fire,” which melts, warms, cleanses, quickens; as the “ rushing, mighty Wind,” which hears health upon its wings, and sometimes breathes gently as an infant’ s breath, and sometimes sweeps with irresistible power; as the “ Oil,” gently flowing, lubricating, making every joint supple, nourishing; as the “ Water of Life,” refreshing, vitalizing, quickening all growth. He comes fluttering down as the Dove of God, the bird of peace that will brood upon our hearts. He is the Spirit of holiness, truth, wisdom, power, love, a sound mind, sonship, supplication, etc. 2. And this Strengthener and Advocate is to replace Christ and to carry on His work. “ Another Comforter.” All that that handful of men found of sweetness and shelter and assured guidance, and stay for their weakness, and companionship for their solitude, and a breast on which to rest their heads, and love in which to bathe their hearts, all these this Divine Spirit will be to each of us if we will. 3. This strong continuation of Christ’ s presence will be a permanent companion. He was comforting the disciples who were trembling at the thought of His departure. Here is the abiding Guest, that nothing but your own sin will ever cast out from your hearts. 4. And Christ tells us how this great Spirit will do His work. He is the “ Spirit of Truth,” not as if He brought new truth. To suppose that opens the door to all manner of fanaticism, but the truth, the revelation of which is all summed and finished in the person and work of Jesus Christ, is the weapon by which the Divine Spirit works all His conquests, the staff on which He makes us lean and be strong. III. THE BLIND WORLD. There is a tone of deep sadness in Christ’ s words. A savage stares at the sunshine and sees nothing. And worldly men, who are bound by this visible diurnal round, lack the organ that enables them to see that Divine Spirit moving round about them. Whether you have put your eyes out by fleshly lusts, or by intellectual self-sufficiency and conceit, you are stone blind to all the best realities of the universe; and if you look out upon the history of the Church, or upon the present condition of Christendom, and say, “ I see no Divine Spirit working there” ; well, then, the only thing that is to be said to you is, “ Go to an oculist, your sight is bad. Perhaps there is solid land, as some of us see it, where you see only mist.” IV. THE . Observe that the order of clauses is reversed. The world cannot receive, because it does not know. The disciple knows, because He receives. Possession and knowledge reciprocally interchange places, and may be regarded as cause and effect of one another. At bottom they are one and the same thing, Knowledge is possession, and possession is the only knowledge. “ He dwelleth with you now, and He shall be in you” hereafter. There is a better form of possession opening before them, which came at Pentecost, and has lasted ever since. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The gift of the Spirit and the gift of the Son compared (text and John 3:16):--It is a much overlooked, but nevertheless true, fact that the Divine love is as much displayed in the gift of the Spirit as in the gift of the Son. I. THE SPIRIT IS AS GREAT AS THE SON. The same attributes, prerogatives, words belong to both. II. THE SPIRIT IS AS ENGAGED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE WORLD AS THE SON. Did He not strive with the old world? Did He not inspire the prophets, etc.? Has there ever been a soul regenerated without His agency? Has there ever been a conscience that He has not touched? In every solemn thought and expression is He not working? III. THE SPIRIT HAS BEEN AS TREATED BY THE WORLD AS THE SON. The people of Judaea alone personally ill-treated Christ; the population of the whole world “ do always resist the Spirit.” About thirty-three years measured the period of the Saviour’ s personal ill-treatment, but that of the Spirit extends over well-nigh twice that number of centuries. IV. THE SPIRIT IS AS TO MANKIND AS THE SON. Two things are necessary to man’ s salvation: deliverance from the guilt, and from the power of sin. Christ was necessary for the first, the Spirit for the second. It is said that man wants nothing but sufficient evidence and the free use of his faculties to believe. 1. But there are circumstances antagonistic to faith which need to be removed. There is (1) Moral habit. The habits contracted by most, before the gospel comes fairly under attention, are such that the whole tenor of its truths condemn, and when assailed marshal every power of the soul to their defence. (2) Servile fear. The man who feels that he is hastening to insolvency is frequently reluctant to go into his accounts. Nothing but sheer urgency will induce him to open his ledger. Is there not something similar to this in a man’ s soul in relation to the Bible. Often has conscience whispered that a fearful debt has been contracted, and that there is nothing to pay, and the Bible which confirms that is shunned. (3) Social influence. (4) Satanic agency. “ The god of this world blindeth the eyes of men.” 2. All this being true, the Spirit is necessary, in a sense, apart from truth, and apart from His dwelling in the truth. He is a personal power, using the truth and making it effective in the minds and hearts of men. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The parting promise Among the many sources of trouble which disquieted the disciples we can distinguish four. And for each of these our Lord provides an adequate consolation. 1. The pang of separation from a beloved Master. For this His consolation is, that such separation shall not be forever (John 14:2-3). 2. The fear lest, in proclaiming their message, they should not be able to appeal to those “ mighty signs and wonders” with which our Lord Himself had demonstrated the Divine origin of His mission. For this He gives them the assurance that they should even perform greater wonders (John 14:12). 3. That they should not have their Divine Master to fly to when they might require protection and provision. The answer to this was that our Lord would secure to them a perpetual access to God in prayer (John 14:13). 4. The painful consciousness that they should no longer have the wisdom of their Master to guide them in their proclamation of the gospel. For this our Lord provided in the text. Consider this blessing I. IN ITS SOURCE: as it arises from the mediation of Christ Himself. “ I will pray the Father.” This does not mean that the Father is unwilling to bestow, but that in the order of the eternal counsels Christ must “ ascend up on high” to “ receive gifts for men.” Large and blessed as were the results of our Lord’ s personal ministry, yet all the blessings which attend the promulgation of the gospel spring directly from the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, the result of Christ’ s intercession. II. IN ITS : as able to impart a consolation equal to that of Christ Himself. Large and dreary must have been the void created by Christ’ s departure. But He would not go away until He had provided “ another Comforter.” “ I will send One to you, who shall achieve for you mightier, more abundant, more lasting benefits. I will send that blessed Spirit, whose office shall be to seal and to hind upon your souls all those comforting promises which you have heard from Me; who shall recall all My discourses to you, and enable you to pour out your prayers to God by reason of His ‘ groanings which cannot be uttered.’” III. IN HIS OFFICE OF we are to have “ the Spirit of Truth” 1. To instruct us in all points of doctrine. It is the office of the Spirit to take of the things of Christ and to show them to the soul; to reveal the mysteries of redemption. Thus we see that this office of the Spirit must be a great comfort to those destitute of human learning. Having One to “ guide into all truth,” the poor and the wayfaring have the assurance that the whole mind of God shall be made plain to them, as much as to the greatest genius that ever tenanted the soul of man. 2. To direct us in all the practical concerns of life. “ He shall teach you all things.” IV. IN ITS : as applying to all true believers. Christ does not say, “ Whom the Lord will not give” ; but, “ Whom the world cannot receive.” Why cannot the world receive Him? “ Because it seeth Him not.” Why does not the world see the Spirit? Is it from deficiency of evidence? No, but because they will not see. They close the shutter, and complain of darkness. Every worldly man is permitted to witness the daily operations of God’ s Spirit in the world. Let him look abroad and see the transforming power of religion, the revivals in many Christian Churches, the changed habits of many families, and of many souls, brought under the power of God’ s Spirit. Seeth it not!--might he not as well say that he seeth not the wind? He sees the ocean roused into tempest, etc.; will he tell us he cannot see the wind? V. IN ITS . He is not a stranger to visit; He is not a traveller, to sojourn for a season; but He is a friend, to abide and dwell. (D. Moore, M. A.) The Paraclete The etymological meaning of the word is, “ One called to be beside another.” The word is used in classical Greek, and a word of similar etymology, from which our word “ advocate” is derived, is used in classical Latin to denote a person who patronises another in a judicial cause, and who appears in support of him. It was the custom, before the ancient tribunals, for the parties to appear in court, attended by one or more of their most powerful and influential friends, who were called “ paracletes” --the Greek--or “ advocates” --the Latin term. They were not advocates in our sense of the term--feed counsel; they were persons who, prompted by affection, were disposed to stand by their friend; and persons in whose knowledge, wisdom, and truth the individual having the cause had confidence. These paracletes, or advocates, gave their friends--“ prospelates,” or “ clients,” as they were called--the advantages of their character and station in society, and the aid of their counsel. They stood by them in the court, giving them advice, and speaking in their behalf when it was necessary. Jesus had been the Paraclete of His disciples while He was with them. He had made their cause His own. He had taught them how to manage their cause with God. He had taught them to pray; and He had prayed for them. He had taught them how to manage their cause with the wicked one; bidding them watch and pray, lest they should enter into temptation; and He had prayed for them, that their faith should not fail. When the scribes and Pharisees attacked them, He was ever ready to defend them. In the great cause which was at once His and theirs He was their great helper. He instructed them what to say, and how to act. He gave them miraculous powers, and taught them how to use them. Thus He had been their patron--their paraclete. And He was not to cease to be so; He was, in His Father’ s house of many mansions, “ ever living to interpose in their behalf” (1 John 2:1; Hebrews 7:25). But He was to cease to be their Paraclete on earth; and therefore, knowing how much they needed such a patron and adviser, and monitor and helper, He says, “ I will pray to the Father, and He will send you another Paraclete.” “ Instead of losing, you are to gain by My removal.” They had, in becoming His disciples, identified themselves with His cause. They stood pledged to establish the right which their Master’ s principles had to be universally embraced and submitted to. And all the resources of Judaism and Paganism, all the subtlety of philosophy, all the seductions of idolatry, all the power of kingdoms and empires, all the craft, and activity, and energy of hell, were against them. And what were they? poor, unlearned, obscure men? Truly, they needed a powerful patron, a wise adviser. And such a paraclete was He whom the Saviour promises. He cannot want power, through whose plastic influence the world was formed; He cannot want wisdom, who “ searches all things, even the deep things of God” ; and we know how He guided them, and enabled them to bring to a triumphant issue their mighty litigation. He filled their minds with the pure light of Divine truth, and their hearts with the holy fire of Divine love, and He poured grace and power into their lips; and when brought before counsels and synagogues, and governors, and kings, He gave them a force of reason and a power of eloquence that could not be withstood. “ They spake with tongues, as He gave them utterance,” and proclaimed the mysteries of the kingdom, “ not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Ghost.” (J. Brown, D. D.) The Paraclete It means one who calls us to his side, as a father does his child when he has some special thing to say. (H. Bonar, D. D.) The Paraclete I. HOW THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS THE . 1. The Holy Spirit is to be to us all that Jesus was to His disciples. What a valiant leader is to an army, the shepherd to the sheep, Jesus Christ was to His people. As the Orientals say of the palm tree, that every fragment of it is of use, and there is scarcely any domestic arrangement into which the palm tree in some form or other does not enter, even so Jesus Christ is good for everything to His people, and there is nothing that they have to do or feel or know but Jesus Christ enters into it. What would that little company have been without their Lord? Now, all that Jesus was, the Spirit of God is now. If there be any power in the Church, any light in her instruction, life in her ministry, glory gotten to God, good wrought among men, it is entirely because the Holy Spirit is still with her. And we shall do well to treat the Holy Spirit as we would have treated Christ. Our Lord’ s disciples told Him their troubles; we must trust the Comforter with ours. Whenever they felt baffled by the adversary, they fell back upon their Leader’ s power; so must we call in the aid of the Holy Spirit. When they needed guidance, they sought direction from Jesus; we also must seek and abide by the Spirit’ s leadings. When, knowing what to do, they felt themselves weak, they waited upon their Master for strength; and so must we upon the Spirit of all grace. 2. The Holy Spirit comforts by His presence and indwelling (John 14:17). 3. He comforts us by His teaching (John 14:26). We can, so far as the letter goes, learn from the Scriptures the words of Jesus for ourselves; but to understand them is the gift of the Spirit of God. What comfort is there equal to the words of Jesus, “ the consolation of Israel,” when they are really understood? 4. Through the Holy Spirit we obtain peace (John 14:27). He who is taught of God naturally enjoys peace, for if I be taught that my sins were laid on Jesus, and the chastisement of my peace was upon Him, how can I help having peace? 5. The Holy Spirit, according to John 16:13, guides us into all truth, which is more than teaching us all truth. There are caverns full of sparkling stalactites. Now, it is a good thing, when you are travelling, to be taught where each of these caverns is--that is teaching you truth; but it is a better thing when the guide, with his flaming torch, conducts you down into the great subterranean chambers, while ten thousand crystals, like stars, vicing in colour with the rainbow, flash their beams upon you. So the Spirit of God will convince you that such and such a teaching is truth, and that is very much to know; but when he leads you into it, so that you experimentally know it, taste it, and feel it, oh, then you are admitted to the innermost cave of jewels, where “ the diamond lights up the secret mine.” A great many Christians never get into the truth. They sit on the outside of it, but do not enter in. 6. The Spirit (John 16:14) glorifies Christ by “ taking of the things of Christ and showing them to us.” Could infinite wisdom select a sweeter topic for a disconsolate heart than “ the things of Christ” ? You may bring me the things of Moses and of David, of Solomon and of Daniel, but what are they to me compared with the things of Christ? II. THE NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’ S COMFORT. 1. He never dissociates His comfort from character (see verse 15). The Spirit of God never comforts a man in his sin. See what sin it is that makes you sorrow--obey, and ye shall be comforted. 2. He does not aim at working mere comfort by itself and alone. He does not comfort us as a fond mother who does not teach the child anything, nor cleanse its body or purify its heart in order to comfort it, but who neglects these to please the little one; but the Holy Spirit never acts so unwisely. When a man is feeling pain he is very desirous that the surgeon should administer some drug which will stop the unpleasant sensation immediately; yet the surgeon refuses to do anything of the kind, but endeavours to remove the cause of the evil, which lies far lower than the pain. Do not expect to get comfort by merely running to sweet texts or listening to pleasing preachers, but expect to find comfort through the holy, reproving, humbling, strengthening, sanctifying processes which are the operation of the Divine Paraclete. 3. His comfort is not founded upon concealment. Some have obtained consolation by conveniently forgetting troublesome truth. Now, the Holy Spirit lays the whole truth open before us; therefore our consolation is not of fools, but of wise men; peace, which age and experience will not invalidate, but which both these will deepen, causing it to grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength. 4. It is a comfort always in connection with Jesus. 5. It is comfort which is always available. It does not depend upon health, strength, wealth, position, or friendship; the Holy Spirit comforts us through the truth, and the truth does not change; through Jesus, and He is “ yea and amen” ; therefore our comforts may be quite as lively when we are dying as when we are in vigorous health, when the purse is empty, and the cruse of oil low, as when all worldly store and cheer abound to us. III. SOME UPON THE WHOLE SUBJECT. 1. To the believer (1) Honour the Spirit of God as you would honour Jesus Christ if He were present. 2. Never impute the vain imaginings of your fancy to Him. 3. In all your learning ask Him to teach you, in all your suffering ask Him to sustain you, in all your teaching ask Him to give you the right words, in all your witness-bearing ask Him to give you constant wisdom, and in all service depend upon Him for His help. Believingly reckon upon the Holy Spirit. 4. To the unconverted--if thou art ever to be saved, the Holy Spirit is essential to thee. Except thou be born again from above, thou canst never see the kingdom of God, much less enter it. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Another Comforter I. “ THERE IS A .” 1. So our high festival of the Holy Ghost comes round, and meets the wants which the year has been accumulating. Just as Good Friday came and met another year’ s guilt, Whit-Sunday comes to meet another year’ s grief. Some have wept alone, and have had no earthly solace. Some have had comforters; but their well-intentioned comfortings mocked you. Or, the human comforting was very precious and very true, and you know what that word “ comforter” means; but here is that which exceeds it all, as the fountain exceeds one of its own smallest drops--“ a Comforter.” 2. Christ said, “ Another Comforter.” Who is it? The Father? Yes; for He is “ the God of all comfort.” The Son? Yes; “ I will not leave you comfortless.” Then, a Trinity of Comforters. Is that the way we travel to “ God is love” ? Through a Comforter I ask a Comforter to send a Comforter. Or more truly, two Comforters, of themselves, send a Comforter. You are a deep mourner. But see how you are encircled. And can any sorrow outreach that comforting? II. THE MODE OF HIS COMING. 1. It is the comforting of a Spirit. Therefore He mingles with our spirit. He does not need that there should pass any actual words. Every one who has ever passed through very deep sorrow will appreciate this. There are times when all language is poor and rude. How often have we longed that our minds could throw themselves into another’ s mind without speaking. The Holy Ghost does that. 2. And what power there is in that thought, that He is the Holy Ghost! It wants holiness to deal with a wounded mind. Nothing but what is very holy ought ever to come near sorrow. 3. Still, the Spirit uses instruments, and almost always the Word. It is not always a promise. Sometimes it is a doctrine, whose grandeur fills, and raises, and assures the Spirit. Sometimes it is a command, and the comfort is the sense of duty. The Comforter never forgets that He is the Sanctifier, and the Sanctifier never forgets that He is the Comforter. Therefore, if you would be comforted, obey the impulse of the Spirit, and go and be much with your Bible, and be jealous that the first thing you seek is holiness. 4. He does not make you forget, but He draws happiness out of the unhappiness; He makes the subject of your tears the element of your smile; He does not take away the cloud, but He makes a rainbow of the shower; the pain does not go, but gradually the pain has so much of Christ in it that you scarcely wish to part with it. 5. He always displays Christ--makes you find what you want, not in man, but in Christ. If the thought which is presented to your mind does not draw you nearer to Christ--if you are not led to do something for Christ’ s sake--it is not the true Comforter who has been speaking to you. Jesus is thebalm of life, and the comfort of the Spirit is the revealing of Christ. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Another Comforter The Divine Spirit is I. A HOLY . There can be no comfort apart from goodness. “ There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” His name indicates His work. By Him the soul is regenerated. Christians are “ elect through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience.” II. AN . By His inspiration all Holy Scripture was given for our learning. Not by methods opposed to or ignoring our intellectual nature; not by mere excitement of the emotions; but by conveying truth to the mind, and enabling us to understand and feel it, the Holy Spirit acts as “ another Comforter.” By His help we believe, and then, “ being justified by faith, we have peace with God,” and enjoy that “ peace which passeth all understanding.” III. A . By revealing Jesus to the soul the Holy Spirit produces that love which is the strongest motive to holiness, and which is the fulfilling of the law. “ The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” And “ the love of Christ constraineth us to live not to ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again.” The Comforter, as a faithful guide, in places of difficulty takes the traveller by the hand, and in addition to words of counsel, restrains him when he would step into danger, and kindly compels him to proceed when through fear or thoughtlessness he hesitates and may be overtaken by storm or darkness. IV. A . He “ helpeth our infirmities.” He comes to our succour when we are too heavily burdened, and lightens the weight or gives us strength to bear it. We are “ strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.” The result of such strengthening is Christ “ dwelling in our hearts by faith,” the being “ rooted and grounded in love,” “ knowing the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,” and being “ filled with all the fulness of God.” And what consolation can surpass that which must result from such strengthening! Especially are we taught to expect this help in prayer (Romans 8:26). He helps us to obtain comfort by teaching us what to pray for, by enabling us to pray aright, by overcoming the doubts which hinder us in the exercise, by creating within us earnest longings after God, by exciting in us desires which we may be unable to express in words, but which bring down the refreshing showers upon the mown grass, and cause us to say, “ I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplication,” V. AN . What consolation can be greater than to know that Jesus is our Saviour and that we are His friends, and that through Him we can look upward and with confidence say, “My God! my Father!” (Romans 8:14-16). VI. A HOPE- . We “ abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 8:17-19). Practical lessons: 1. Let us regard the Holy Spirit, not with dread, but with loving confidence. 2. Let our actions respond to His methods of help. Does He comfort by teaching? let us be diligent learners; by persuasion? let us yield to His influence; by guiding? let us follow; by promoting our holiness? let us strive against sin; by helping us to know our high vocation? let us “ give diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” 3. Let all be encouraged to seek His help, for “ If ye, being evil,” etc. (Newman Hall, LL. B.) Another Comforter I. THE BEING SPOKEN OF. 1. Spiritual (John 14:17). 2. Personal. Not a mere influence or energy, as according to the Monarchians, Patripassians, Unitarians, but a Person as truly as Christ was. That Christ taught this is apparent from (1) The use of the personal pronoun (John 14:26; chap. 15:26). (2) The names given Him. 3. Divine. Christ could not be represented by or commit the interests of His Church to a creature. 4. Distinct, as against Sabellians and Swedenborgians. “ Another.” II. THE IN WHICH HE STANDS 1. To the Father. (1) Ontologically: one with Him, equal in being, wisdom, power, and glory, and yet proceeding from Him (John 15:26). (2) Historically. He is sent (John 14:26) and given (John 14:16) by the Father. 2. To the Son. (1) Essentially the Son’ s as the Father’ s equal, He is nevertheless (2) Historically exhibited as sent forth by the Father at the Son’ s intercession. 3. To the Truth. Spirit of Truth may signify the Spirit whose essence is the Truth, whose operations concern the Truth, whose office it is to testify of Him who is the Truth (John 15:26), and to guide into all the Truth John 16:13). 4. To the disciples. A presence (1) Inward; not with and by, but in them (1 Corinthians 3:16). (2) Permanent; not temporary, as Christ’ s had been. (3) Helpful (Matthew 10:20). 5. To the world (John 16:17; John 16:8). III. THE OF HIM. 1. Loving obedience to Christ (John 16:15). 2. Believing recognition of the Spirit (John 16:17). The world had closed its eyes and steeled its heart against Him. Learn 1. That all a saint obtains on earth he owes to the Saviour’ s intercession Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25). 2. That the highest gift a human spirit can receive is the Holy Ghost as a Divine Being, an all-sufficient Helper, a heavenly Teacher, an unchanging Friend. 3. That the world’ s unbelief of the Spirit is no proof that He does not exist. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Another Comforter I. THE WORK OF CHRIST AS IMPLIED IN THE TO HIMSELF. Christ is a Comforter. 1. In the needs He came to meet. To have had no mission for the sorrowful would have been to neglect the most evident of the world’ s wants. 2. In the predictions concerning Him--“ He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted,” etc. 3. In the nature of His words and works. To alleviate pain, to console bereavement, to meet doubt, to lighten death, He set Himself with all the absorbing interest of a master passion. II. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT THAT OF CHRIST. The life of Jesus is an index of the work of “ the Comforter.” 1. What we read of Jesus doing as a consoler, we read also of the Holy Spirit doing. 2. What men saw Jesus doing in Judaea, we may see and feel is being done by the Spirit now. As Christ led, inspired, soothed, and elevated human hearts, so the Spirit will ever do. III. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT THE SIMILAR WORK OF CHRIST. 1. In its permanence. Jesus Christ “ went away.” His stay was only for “ a little while.” But the Spirit abides “ forever.” 2. In its universality. Jesus was only known to the comparative few who were around Him. But on every shore, and under every sky, the Spirit dwells with men. 3. In its nearness. Those who came nearest to Christ but kissed His feet or lay in His bosom. This is distant in comparison with the Spirit’ s indwelling. (V. R. Thomas.) The Comforter I. OUR NEED OF A . We live in a world of sorrow and suffering. II. IS THERE A REMEDY? God is love; and it is impossible that He should intend His creatures to sink under such a burden. 1. Shall we seek for it in the influences of nature? 2. Shall we seek for it in our fellow men? Many seem to think so. 3. It may be said, indeed, that there is no need, even if we feel that all these earthly stays and solaces are insufficient, to think of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. We have “ consolation in Christ,” and we need no other. We need a present Comforter to make them efficacious. III. HOW, THEN, DOES THE HOLY GHOST COMFORT US? When we first approach the consideration of the work of the Comforter, we meet with certain views of that work which seem to be the reverse of comforting. How can He who convinces us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, be a Comforter to us who are sinners? The friend who is found to be the truest and most trustworthy comforter is not he who whispers merely pleasant things in our ears; but he who tells us the truth, who, by telling us the truth, prepares us to understand what is wrong with us and to seek for a remedy. And how does He administer to the necessities which He thus makes apparent? 1. By revealing the fulness and sufficiency of Christ for all our spiritual wants. We say the work of comfort must begin here; for it is plain that, unless there be a supply for those deepest wants of our nature, we can have no real comfort or happiness. How, for instance, can a man be happy, or what kind of comfort can he enjoy, while he is laden with the burden of unforgiven sin? 2. By giving grace and strength in temptation. 3. And as it is in our spiritual trials, so also He comforts us in the ordinary troubles of life. (W. R. Clark.) Another Comforter Christ Himself was a Comforter, a true Barnabas, a brother born for adversity. His disciples found Him such. I. The Spirit is an Comforter. “ Dwelleth with … shall be in you.” Most of our comforts are external, outside of us. Our souls are empty, weak, unsatisfied; and we need to look outward for strength and consolation. Even Christ’ s bodily presence was without, and sometimes He and His disciples were separated from each other. But the Holy Ghost is in you; He goes where you go; He dwells with you; He makes your bodies temples of the Holy Ghost; He makes your souls wells of living water; He is the glory in the midst, in the heart, of each of you. II. The Spirit is an ABIDING Comforter (John 14:16). Change is written upon all things here. Health and strength fail, friends die, riches fly away. Even Christ, as to His bodily presence, was only a sojourner on earth. But the Spirit abides; He will never leave the soul of which He has taken saving possession. III. The Spirit is an Comforter (John 14:17). He is spirit, and so the world cannot see Him, cannot handle Him. Even if He could become visible and tangible, the world would neither know Him nor receive Him. The world can have no sympathy with Him, for He does not speak of earthly things; it is not with them that He seeks to comfort sorrowful, longing souls. If He spoke of earthly things, He could not be a Comforter to God’ s poor, humbled, broken, wearied ones. The true believer has left all for Christ, has sold all to get the treasure, and now nothing but Christ can satisfy him. And so the Holy Ghost, when He wishes to comfort, speaks of Christ (chap. 15:26; 16:14). IV. The Spirit is an Teacher (John 14:26). Christ was a Teacher; He was always at work, in public and private. (John Milne.) The Comforter I. THE OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT. This term signifies to call to one’ s self. A person is in distress on account of ignorance, and he calls to him a learned person; a person ignorant in the law, who wants to appear in a court of justice, calls a person learned in the law; a person who is in distress on account of any disease calls a physician.. So the Holy Spirit. In the season of distress He comes to us at our call. The Holy Spirit performs this office 1. By the attestation of pardon. 2. By the production of a new and holy nature. 3. By maturing the Christian character. 4. By the assistance He affords in devotional exercises. 5. By fortifying the mind against the fear of death. II. THE PERIOD OF HIS . His continued residence 1. Constitutes the great distinction and difference between the Church and the world (John 14:17). 2. Gives efficiency and success to the means of grace. 3. Is an assurance of the ultimate triumph of the Church. III. THE MODE OF HIS THIS OFFICE. We are indebted to Jesus Christ for the gift of the Holy Ghost, because 1. It is the reward of His sufferings. 2. The reward of His intercession, Therefore 3. We have a pledge and an assurance that Christ will pray the Father. (T. Lessey.) Comfort by the support of the indwelling Spirit If you thoroughly exhaust a vessel of the air it contains, the pressure of the air outside will break that vessel into perhaps millions of pieces, because there is not a sufficiency of air within to resist and counteract the weight of the atmosphere from without. A person who is exercised by severe affliction, and who does not experience the Divine comforts and supports in his soul, resembles the exhausted receiver above described; and it is no wonder if he yields, and is broken to shivers, under the weight of God’ s providential hand. But affliction to one who is sustained by the inward presence of the Holy Ghost resembles the aerial pressure on the outer surface of an unexhausted vessel. There is that within which supports it and preserves it from being destroyed by the incumbent pressure from without. (T. H.Leary, D. C. L.) The two paracletes Their mutual and distinctive relation to the work of redemption, to the life of believers, and to the service of the Church. I. WHAT DOES THE WORD “ ” MEAN? Nearly all the ancient interpreters render it comforter or consoler. This accords with one use of it and its related words in both the Old Testament and the New. It does not cover the whole ground, since the Holy Ghost not only comforts, but does a great deal more than that. In some cases the word is equivalent to master, teacher, interpreter. In other cases it means a pleader or advocate--one engaged to take up a cause and to carry it through. Hence the word comes to mean--one by whose grace and love the entire case and cause of men are undertaken: who will soothe, comfort, advocate, plead, teach, interpret--yea, who will stand by us and render any needed aid whatever! For thisreason the word “ advocate” is, like the word “ comforter,” too restricted. We want a word of wider significance than either. The word helper is the best that we can find. 1. A helper--a large and beautiful word, which, in the fulness of its meaning as here used, nought but the experience of God’ s love can unfold to us. 2. A Divine Helper. And we have two Divine Helpers, both working together to make the help complete. But who are they who have causes in hand that need such help? Manifold and complex is our need. We want help in every form. As sinners, we want such help as One can give who has a right to say, “ Thy sins are forgiven thee.” As penitents, we want One who can grant us access to the Father. As learners, we want One who can take of the things of God and show them to us. As suppliants, we want One who can receive and answer our requests. As believers, we want One who can lead, sustain, and inspire. As confessors of Christ and ambassadors for Him, we need One who can convict men of sin, and who can speed our words directly to their hearts. Strong, constant, varied help do we want. II. Then let us look at our TWO HELPERS AND SEE HOW THEY EACH OTHER’ S WORK. 1. One Helper is in heaven, is a link joining on heaven to earth; the other Helper is on earth, as a link uniting earth to heaven. Hence one Helper remains for us above; the other remains in us below. 2. The help of the Son is by the appointment of the Father; the help of the Spirit is through the ministration of the Son. 3. By the help of the one Helper we have a great sacrifice for sin; by the work of the other Helper men are convicted of sin. 4. Hence another and not less striking correspondence appears. The Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself to us as the object of faith; the Holy Ghost, working within us, enters into the region of an inward experience, and enables us by the power of a spiritual intuition to verify what we believe. 5. Further: In every detail of Christian truth and life these two Divine Helpers supplement and complete each other’ s work. Christ reveals the Father to us; the Holy Ghost creates the spirit of adoption in us, so that we cry, Abba, Father. Christ gives us, when we believe, the right of being sons of God; the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that such we are. Christ is in Himself the truth; the Holy Ghost gives us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Christ is the object in whom we rejoice, but the joy itself is imparted by the Holy Ghost. 6. One Helper intercedes with the Father; the other Helper intercedes in the children. In one case the scriptural expressions are, “ We have an Advocate with the Father” ; “ He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” In the other case, “ The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” 7. But we must not omit to give distinctness to the thought of the advocacy of our two Helpers. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Advocate, Pleader, and Defender of our cause above; the Holy Ghost is the Advocate, Pleader, and Defender of our cause below. Christ above, that sin may not bar us from the throne; the Spirit below, that the world may not put us to shame. 8. One Helper is graciously preparing a place for us; the other Helper is engaged in preparing us for the place. III. In view of the combined work of these two Divine Helpers, we can see THE OF ’ S PLAN. Had our Redeemer wrought alone, His work had been unappreciated by man; but let another Helper come, creating men anew, convicting, regenerating, enlightening, educating, and training, then we see the Divine completeness of the Redeemer’ s mighty work, and learn how surely the Redeemer will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. On recognizing and laying hold of both these Helpers will depend our completeness as Christians. Our own piety and power in Christ are a prime condition of power for Christ. The degree to which the Spirit of God works by us surely depends on the measure in which He works in us. So also the efficiency of Church life depends on realizing and utilizing this double help. Not merely has soundness in faith to be guarded, but vigour of life has to be carefully watched. On this double help depends the efficiency of private members. It is also, and only, in the full use of this double help that the Christian ambassador is completely equipped. While we hold up Christ as the Light of the world, let us also equally extol the Holy Ghost as the Power of the Church. (C. Clemance, D. D.) Even the Spirit of Truth The Spirit of truth I. THE NEED OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. It was by a lie that evil gained entrance into the world. Satan is both a liar and a murderer … Evil first introduced by means of a lie has been continually promulgated through the same instrumentality. Alas! the dominion of falsehood has been almost universally established!--false notions of God, of ourselves, of happiness; false estimates of good and evil; false dealings in the intercourse of life. Who is not conscious of these and other forms of it. It is amongst the most melancholy proofs of our fallen estate, that often, with children, the earliest exercise of the gift of speech is an endeavour at deceiving their parents. And as we grow up, it cannot be denied, that a rigid and unvarying adherence to truth is the most difficult of our duties. Hence the suspicion and mistrust between man and man. We admit, indeed, that a liar is held in general abhorrence. Men have naturally an admiration of courage in whatever way displayed; and therefore they despise a liar as they do the poltroon. And over and above the cowardice which is manifested by a lie, there is the injury which is done to society. Therefore, it may be little more than a consciousness that its own permanence is identified with adherence to truth, which induces society to be so vehement in its rebuke of a lie. But even if the contempt in which a liar is held might be referred to the very highest principles, whatever indignation at falsehood is excited, it exists in a degree which proves this indignation but little efficacious in destroying its empire. There is not the land where false principles are not wielding an influence which should belong only to true. There is not a family within whose circle there is no admiration for false theories in regard of duty and interest. There is not a heart so thoroughly hallowed into a sanctuary for truth that it is always closed against the intrusion of false opinions and false expectations. The whole creation groaneth for the establishment of truth. II. HOW IN HIS WITH THE CHURCH THE HOLY GHOST HAS EARNED THIS TITLE. 1. It is curious and interesting to observe how truth of every kind has advanced hand in hand with religion. Not, indeed, that it was the office of the Holy Ghost to instruct the world in natural philosophy. He came to unfold redemption, and so to strengthen the human understanding, that it might be able to bear the vast truths of the Mediatorial work. But, nevertheless, it did come to pass--that the understanding, so strengthened, found itself strengthened also to investigate creation. The Christian era has been distinguished by a rapid advance made in every branch of science; by the emancipation of mind from a thousand trammels; by the discovery of truths which seemed to lie beyond the scope of human intelligence. In the dark ages when Christianity was almost buried beneath superstition, ignorance of every kind oppressed the earth; but when better days dawned; science revived and the arts again flourished. And besides this, there is the same strict alliance between all kinds of truth as between all kinds of falsehood. And it ought not therefore to excite surprise that science and Christianity should have marched side by side. The “ rushing mighty wind,” which swept superstition before it, swept also much of the cloud which had rested on natural things. In clearing the moral firmament, that the “ Sun of Righteousness” might be discovered, it took the mist from the material heavens. 2. But, at the same time, the great business on which the Holy Ghost came was the instructing the world in the mysteries of redemption (1) The Holy Ghost was “ the Spirit of truth” to the apostles. We do not know that it is more amazing to hear so soon as the Spirit had descended, the twelve speaking fluently all the languages of the earth, than the preacher expounding to the multitude the blessed gospel of Christ. He made good this character by enabling them to preach the truth: and also by enabling them to write the truth. We know too well the treachery of the memory, and might reasonably say, that where the writing had been so long deferred, the narrative would be imperfect. But this is our security--the fact that it was “ the Spirit of Truth” which guided the evangelists. (2) If the Spirit were thus “ the Spirit of Truth” in regard of apostles, is He not still such in regard of every real Christian? There is naturally gross darkness on the mind, and the most gifted of our race is unable to discern things so long as he is left to his unassisted powers. Mental as well as moral power has been put out of joint through apostacy; the affections strongly biassed towards evil exert a disastrous power over the will, and the will does the same with the understanding. And then the understanding will often reject the clearest evidence and fail to comprehend the simplest truth. It is the office of this Divine person to rectify the disorder of the moral and mental constitution, and thus to communicate that sort of inner light in which alone can be discerned the great truths of religion. And when a man has once submitted himself to the teaching of the Holy Ghost, “ the Spirit of Truth,” guides him into truth, and leads him from one stage to another of knowledge, showing him, successively, the mysteries of redemption, and never allowing him to open the Bible without finding fresh matter for thought and for thankfulness. There remains much, very much, for this Spirit to teach. But observe, our Lord says--“ He shall abide with you forever.” But we are now only in the infancy of being. No marvel then if we master only the rudiments of truth. And if this Spirit is to abide with us “ forever,” why may we not expect the completion of what is thus commenced? He has all Eternity to teach in. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The Spirit of Truth The Holy Ghost is the living, personal, Divine unity of complete revelation, and, as such, the Spirit of Truth. He is the Spirit of Truth inasmuch as He makes objective truth subjective in believers, in order to a knowledge of the truth. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) The function of the Spirit of Truth in relation to revealed truth When a telescope is directed to some distant landscape, it enables us to see what we could not otherwise have seen; but it does not enable us to see anything which has not a real existence in the prospect before us. The natural eye saw nothing but blue land stretching along the distant horizon. By the aid of the glass, there bursts upon it a charming variety of fields, and woods, and spires, and villages. And so of the Spirit. He does not add a single truth or character to the book of Revelation. He enables the spiritual man to see what the natural man cannot see; but the spectacle which he lays open is uniform and immutable. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 14:18-19I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you Not left comfortless The word “ comfortless” means “ bereft. ” We have adopted the Greek word, and have gradually limited it to the severest kind of bereavement--orphanhood. But the promise, starting from one kind of bereavement, enlarges itself, and takes in all who from any cause want comfort. God does not say that you shall never be comfortless, but on the contrary, He implies that you shall be so. Nobody, however saintly, could say he was never comfortless, but he can say, “ I was not left comfortless.” And the length of the comfortless period depends upon the faith we have in Christ’ s coming to us. I. Let us confine our view to one kind of sorrow--, This has in it 1. Change. One you loved, and with whom you were almost hourly in converse, has passed away. Everything is changed; nothing looks to us as it used to look in the sunshine, which seems as if it never would come back again. It is wonderful how one face gone, one voice silent, alters the whole world. 2. Separation. Then a gulf opens, which, however persons may talk about it, is then very wide. The grave is a wall of adamant to you--they may be conscious of no distance, but to you, oh, how very far off! 3. Loneliness. No wonder that the silence is oppressive. No matter how many you may have around you, or how kind, you are thrown hack into your own thoughts which circle about one, and that one is gone, and it is a perfect solitude. 4. Fear: a painful apprehension of what the future is going to be. “ How shall I live on? What shall I do without that love, that counsel?” II. FOR THESE FOUR , CHRIST IS THE ONLY --“ I will come to you.” And mark, it is His presence, not His work, His Cross, His final Advent, but His living presence now. 1. With Him there is no shadow of a turning. It is the same voice which faith hears, and the same face which faith sees now, which you heard and saw in years long gone by. “ I will never leave you.” And the awful change which has passed over everything else only makes it stand out more comfortingly--His impossibility of change. 2. And with that felt, present, unchangeable Christ, both worlds are one. The Church in heaven and the Church on earth are the members, and all meet in that one Head, and in Him they are here. Where then is loneliness? He is a Brother by me, to whom I can tell everything, and He will answer me. I seem speaking to them because they are holding the very same converse within the veil. 3. The solitude of the soul, where He is, becomes peopled with the whole host of heaven. There is no sense of being alone when we realize that we are alone with Jesus. 4. And so the fear flies away. For what Christ is now, He will be always. And that presence is the pledge of a reunion. A little while, and it will be He, and they, and I, and we shall be together forever. Conclusion: 1. Read a particular emphasis on the “ I,” that great word which God is so fond of. Whatever it be to you now, this gay world will leave you utterly “ comfortless.” Those whom today you are most fondly cherishing, and the thought of whose death you dare not admit to your own heart--if you have none but them, and no Christ in them, you will wake up some morning to such a cold vacancy, for that one will have gone, and will have left you “ comfortless.” Friends will come with their emptinesses, and they will go, and you will be as comfortless as when they came. Only He who could say, “ I will come to you” as none other comes, as He came to Martha and Mary at Bethany; only He can say, “ I will not leave you comfortless.” 2. Read another emphasis on that “ you.” “ I,” Jesus seems to say, “ I was left comfortless, but I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 3. Of all the bereaved in the whole world, there is none so bereft as that man of whatever happy circle he may be, who cannot look up to heaven, and say, “ My Father.” That man is an orphan indeed. 4. There is another. He has known what it is to feel God His Father, but it is gone Do you say, “ It is I?” Then I am sure that at this moment Jesus is saying it to you--“ I will not leave you an orphan,” etc. For if there be a thing on the whole earth which Jesus will not have it is an orphaned heart. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Our Comforter I. MAN NEEDS A . I do not now speak of men in the bulk, but in units. Wars, pestilences, strikes, and social evils trouble men, but besides these, each man in himself has trouble which none but God can soothe. Perhaps friendless poverty is the sorest trouble of existence. Returning along the road from Warrington, I heard a groan which made my heart shudder. Stooping to the hedge, I saw a woman and a little child in great distress. She was from Liverpool; her husband had come to Manchester seeking for work and had written saying he had been taken ill, and that as he could send no money, she must trust in God. Without a penny in her pocket, love for her husband gave her strength to walk to Manchester with her child in her arms. She inquired at his lodgings, but found he had been taken to the hospital. She then by asking at every corner arrived at the Manchester workhouse, and found that her husband was dead, and his remains had been placed in the grave the day before. Footsore, hungry, and friendless, she was sent away, and pawned her shawl to keep from dying in the street. Then she dragged herself to the road near Irlam and lay down under a hedge to groan and to die. But in the cottage of a poor farm labourer she found help and sympathy which caused her to live. Did God not hear, and hearing, did He not provide comfort? II. MEN VERY OFTEN SEEK . After the great deluge, men built the tower of Babel, hoping by that means to receive comfort in any similar calamity. And in these days men are building towers which they hope will save them from the deluge of trouble. Many people think that if they build up a tower of riches they will be happy. But the rich man is no happier than the poor one. I was once asked to visit a man who was said to be dying. Standing at his bedside and holding his hand in mine, I said, “ Have you the joy of knowing that your sins are forgiven?” The man looked and replied, “ Joy! joy! joy!” Taking his hand from mine he pushed it under the pillow and bringing out a bottle of brandy he held it with his trembling hand, saying, “ This is my joy.” Poor, miserable, drunkard! Most people before they become drunkards have had some sickness of mind or body preying upon them; but do not fly from your great trouble to drink. III. OUR FATHER HAS A FOR EVERY MAN. If you seek in the history of the past, what man would you select to be your comforter? I ask the philosophers if they would ask for Socrates above all others? I ask the deists if they would ask for Thomas Paine or Voltaire? Or would you ask for John Bunyan, or for Wesley or Whitefield? If you knew none better you might. Take the worst man in the world, or an unbeliever, and ask him, “ If you were to select out of all men one who should be your bosom friend until you die, upon whom would you fix?” If he told his heart’ s truth, he would reply, “ Jesus.” 1. Jesus our Comforter is with us. My mother died in giving me life, and, of course, I have not the slightest remembrance of her. The only relic I had was a little piece of her silk dress, and this I preserved as my dearest treasure. Tossed about, and yearning for a love which was not to be had, I used to sit alone for hours, and long for, and pray to my mother. You may call it an insane fancy, but to me it was real and powerful and comforting. And I owe the success of my boyhood to the consciousness of her beloved presence. In the same way, Jesus communes with us. Jesus in Spirit is with you. 2. He comforts (1) By showing that our Father loves us. Deep down in every human heart there is the instinct that God loves men. In great calamity men always cry to God. (2) By pointing us to the Cross. Look to the Cross of Jesus, and see the remedy which shall in time save all the world. (3) By inspiring us with hope. When a man is cast out of society, and swears in is despair, “ I will now do all the evil I can and spite them,” if a friend tap him on the shoulder, saying, “ Brother, why despair of yourself? Come with me, and I will hold on to you until you are a better man,” why, such language would be an inspiration! Jesus is the friend who does this to the despairing souls of men. (4) When we are heavily burdened. Paul was burdened. He had a “ thorn in the flesh.” But did God take it away? No; but He gave him grace to bear it. So Jesus comforts us when we are burdened by giving us strength to bear it. (5) He comforts us too by showing us God’ s purpose. He teaches us that all things work together for good. (W. Birch.) Soul orphanhood I. IN MORAL FROM GOD. 1. Not local, for God is everywhere, and no spirit can flee from His presence. 2. Not physical; for in God we live and move, etc. 3. But, morally, the unregenerate are ever distant from Him--alienated in sympathy, purpose and pursuit: “ without God.” The ungodly world is a world of orphans, without a father’ s fellowship and guidance. II. IS AN EVIL OF . 1. Orphanism, so far as human parentage is concerned, is a calamity, but this is a crime. The soul has broken away from its Father, not its Father from it. 2. Orphanism in the one case may have its loss supplied, but not in the other. Thank God, society in this age has loving hearts, and good homes for orphans. But nothing on earth can take the place of God in relation to a soul: such a soul is benighted, perishing, lost. III. IS REMOVED BY THE OF CHRIST. He brings the soul into a loving, blessed fellowship with God. The deep cry of humanity is the cry of an orphan for the Father. The response is the advent of Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The absent present Christ I. THE ABSENT CHRIST IS THE PRESENT CHRIST. “ Orphans” is rather an unusual form in which to represent the relation between our Lord and His disciples. And so, possibly, our versions are accurate in giving the general idea of desolation. But, still, it is to be remembered that this whole conservation begins with “ Little children” ; and they would be like fatherless and motherless children in a cold world. And what is to hinder that? One thing only. “ I come to you.” Now, what is this “ coming” ? Our Lord says, not “ I will,” as a future, but “ I come,” or, “ I am coming,” as an immediately impending, or present, thing. There can be no reference to the final coming, because it would follow, that, until that period, all that love Him here are to wander about as orphans; and that can never be. 1. We have here a coming which is but the reverse side of His bodily absence. This is the heart of the consolation that, howsoever the “ foolish senses” may have to speak of an absent Christ, we may rejoice in the certainty that He is with all those that love Him, and all the more because of the withdrawal of the earthly manifestation Which has served its purpose. Note the manifest implication of absolute Divinity. “ I come.” “ I am present with every single heart.” That is equivalent to Omnipresence. I cannot but think that the average Christian life of this day woefully fails in the realization of this great truth, that we are never alone, but have Jesus Christ with each of us more closely, and with more Omnipotence of influence than they had who were nearest Him upon earth. If we really believed this, how all burdens and cares would be lightened, how all perplexities would begin to smooth themselves out, and how sorrows and joys and everything would be changed in their aspect. A present Christ is the Strength, the Righteousness, the Peace, the Joy, the Life of every Christian soul. 2. This coming of our Lord is identified with that of His Divine Spirit. He has been speaking of sending that “ other Comforter,” who is no gift wafted to us as from the other side of a gulf; but by reason of the unity of the Godhead, Christ and the Spirit whom He sends are, though separate, so indissolubly united that where the Spirit is, there is Christ, and where Christ is, there is the Spirit. “ If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” 3. This present Christ is the only Remedy for the orphanhood of the world. We can understand how forlorn and terrified the disciples were, when they looked forward to the things that must come to them, without His presence. Therefore He cheers them with this assurance. (1) And the promise was fulfilled. How did that dispirited group ever pluck up courage to hold together after the Crucifixion at all? Why was it that they did not follow the example of John’ s disciples, and dissolve and disappear, and say, “ The game is up.” If it had not been that He came to them, Christianity would have been one more of the abortive sects forgotten in Judaism. But, as it is, the whole of the New Testament after Pentecost is aflame with the consciousness of a present Christ working amongst His people. (2) The same conviction you and I must have, if the world is not to be a desert and a dreary place for us. If you take away Christ the elder Brother, who alone reveals the Father, we are all orphans, who look up into an empty heaven and see nothing there. And is not life a desolation without Him? Hollow joys, roses whose thorns last long after the petals have dropped, real sorrow, shows and shams, bitternesses and disappointments--are not these our life, in so far as Christ has been driven out of it? II. THE UNSEEN CHRIST IS A SEEN CHRIST. 1. That “ yet a little while” covers the whole space up to His ascension: and if there be any reference to the forty clays, during which, literally, the world “ saw Him no more,” but “ the apostles saw Him,” that reference is only secondary. These transitory appearances are not sufficient to bear the weight of so great a promise as this. The vision, which is the consequence of the coming, is as continuous and permanent as the coming. It is clear, too, that the word “ see” is employed in two different senses. In the former it refers only to bodily, in the latter to spiritual perception. For a few short hours still, the ungodly mass of men were to have that outward vision which they had used so badly, that “ they seeing saw not.” It was to cease, and they who loved Him would not miss it when it did. They, too, had but dimly seen Him while He stood by them; they would gaze on Him with truer insight when He was present though absent. So this is what every Christian life may and should be--the continual sight of a continually present Christ. 2. Faith is the sight of the soul, and it is far better than the sight of the senses. (1) It is more direct. My eye does not touch what I look at. Gulfs of millions of miles lie between me and it. But my faith is not only eye, but hand, and not only beholds but grasps. (2) It is far more clear. Senses may deceive; my faith, built upon His Word, cannot deceive. Its information is far more certain, more valid. So that there is no need for men to say, “ Oh! if we had only seen Him with our eyes!” You would very likely not have known Him if you had. There is no reason for thinking that the Church has retrograded in its privileges because it has to love instead of beholding, and to believe instead of touching. Sense disturbs, faith alone beholds. (3) “ The world seeth Me no more.” Why? Because it is a world. “ Ye see Me.” Why Because, and in the measure, in which you have “ turned away your eyes from seeing vanity.” If you want the eye of the soul to be opened, you must shut the eye of sense. And the more we turn away from looking at the dazzling lies which befool and bewilder us, the more shall we see Him whom to see is to live forever. III. THE PRESENT AND SEEN CHRIST IS LIFE AND LIFE GIVING. Because He comes, His life passes into the hearts of the men to whom He comes, and who gaze upon Him. 1. Mark the majestic “ I live” --the timeless present tense, which expresses unbroken, undying and Divine life. It is all but a quotation of the name “ Jehovah.” The depth and sweep of its meaning are given to us by this Apostle, “ the living One,” who lived whilst He died, and having died “ is alive for evermore.” 2. And this Christ is Lifegiver to all that love Him and trust Him. (1) We live because He lives. In all senses the life of man is derived from the Christ who is the Agent of creation, and is also the one means by whom any of us can ever hope to live the better life that consists in union to God. (2) We shall live as long as He lives, and His being is the guarantee of the immortal being of all who love Him. Anything is possible, rather than that a soul which has drawn a spiritual life from Christ should ever be rent apart from Him by such a miserable and external trifle as the mere dissolution of the bodily frame. As long as Christ lives your life is secure. If the Head has life the members cannot see corruption. The Church chose for one of its ancient emblems of the Saviour the pelican, which fed its young, according to the fable, with the blood from its own breast. So Christ vitalizes us. He in us is our life. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christians not forgotten by Christ A tragic story comes from Senegal. Four natives who had been sent to guard the French flag on a newly acquired barren island in that region were left without provisions, and died of starvation. They had a supply of food to last three months, but the governor had entirely forgotten to send relief to the guardians of the standard on the lonely rock. (Christian World.) Christ in heaven helps His disciples Suppose a king’ s son should get out of a besieged prison and leave his wife and children behind, whom he loves as his own soul; would the prince, when arrived at his father’ s palace, please and delight himself with the splendour of the court, and forget his family in distress; No; but having their cries and groans always in his ears, he should come post to his father, and entreat him, as ever he loved him, that he would send all the forces of his kingdom and raise the siege, and save his dear relations from perishing; nor will Christ, though gone up from the world and ascended into His glory, forget His children for a moment that are left behind Him. (J. Gurnall.) Comfort for the bereaved On every Mohammedan tombstone the inscription begins with the words, He remains. This applies to God, and gives sweet comfort to the bereaved. Friends may die, fortune fly away, but God endures. He remains. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me Seeing the living Christ Came in the flesh--that is the outward, material fact. He is here in the Spirit--that is the inward, spiritual reality. I. CHRIST’ S LITTLE WHILE. 1. His visible appearance on earth was only for a “ little while.” Yet how much has been crowded into it. Example; teaching; miracle; suffering. All this helps us to understand His mission, and especially to realize to ourselves His abiding spiritual presence. He is still with us, the very Christ that He was. 2. When Jesus spoke these words there was but a very “ little while” left. Only the death scene, and the forty days in the Resurrection body. But these also help us to realize the spiritual presence of Christ, as we can know it; especially do we get suggestions from the Resurrection time. II. THE WORLD’ S . What report can the “ world” give of Christ? “ He was a good Man, an original Teacher, But He offended the religion and society leaders of His day, and they secured His crucifixion.” The world testifies that He was dead and buried; but the world resists the bare ideas of His Resurrection or spiritual life. How little the world knows, or can conceive, of the “ coming, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.” So Christ is lost as an actual power in life. III. THE ’ VISION. “ Ye see Me.” That is, “ Ye do constantly see Me.” If they had seen Christ truly while He was here on earth, then they would find they never lost the sight of Him. Because, during His earthly life, His real presence with the disciples had been presence to heart, not to eye. 1. Christ never goes out of disciples’ thought or heart. 2. Christ never ceases to be the disciple’ s Ruler and Referee. 3. The honour of Christ never ceases to be the disciple’ s sole aim. 4. The strength of Christ never ceases to be the soul’ s victory. The joy of Christian life depends on the clearness of our vision of this ever-present Christ. (Weekly Pulpit.) Because I live, ye shall live also The Lord of Life This saying is only to be fully understood in the light of the Resurrection and Ascension. Christ has taken the measure of death; death was to be no real interruption of His ever-continuing life. Already He sees the Resurrection beyond. He treats Death as an already vanquished enemy. Observe: I. WHAT OUR LORD’ S WORDS DO NOT MEAN. They do not mean that the immortality of the soul of man is dependent upon the work or life of Christ. Man is an immortal being, just as he is a thinking and feeling being by the original terms of his nature. Any of us may see who will consider how generally unlike the spirit or soul of man is to any merely material creature. 1. The soul of man knows itself to be capable of continuous development. However vigorous a tree or an animal may be, it soon reaches a point at which it can grow no longer. Its vital force is exhausted; it can do no more. With the soul, whether as a thinking or feeling power, we can never say that it has exhausted itself. When a man of science has made a great discovery, or a man of letters has written a great book, or a statesman has carried a series of great measures we cannot say--“ He has done his all.” Undoubtedly, as the body moves towards decay it inflicts something of its weakness upon its spiritual companion. But the soul constantly resists, asserting its own separate and vigorous existence. The mind knows that each new effort, instead of exhausting its powers, enlarges them, and that if only the physical conditions necessary to continued exertion are not withdrawn, it will go on continuously making larger and nobler acquirements. So too with the heart, the conscience, the sense of duty. One noble act suggests another: one great sacrifice for truth or duty prompts another. “ Be not weary in well-doing” is the language of the Eternal Wisdom to the human will. 2. The spirit is conscious of and values its own existence. This is not the case with any material living forms, however lofty or beautiful. The most magnificent tree only gives enjoyment to other beings; it never understands that itself exists; it is not conscious of losing anything when it is cut down. An animal feels pleasure and pain, but it feels each sensation as it comes; it never puts them together, or takes the measure of its own life, and looks on it as a whole. The animal lives wholly in the present, practically it has no past, nor does it look forward. How different with the conscious, self-measuring spirit of man! Man’ s spirit lives more in the past and in the future than in the present, exactly in the degree in which it makes the most of itself. And the more the spirit makes of its powers and resources, the more earnestly does it desire prolonged existence. Thus, the best of the heathens longed to exist after death, that they might continue to make progress in all such good as they had begun in this life, in high thoughts and in excellent resolves. And with these longings they believed that they would then exist after all when this life was over. The longing was itself a sort of proof that its object was real; for how was its existence to be explained if all enterprise was to be abruptly broken off by the shock of death? 3. Unless a spiritual being is immortal, such a being counts for less in the universe than mere inert matter. For matter has a kind of immortality. Within the range of our experience, no matter ceases to exist; it only takes new shapes, first in one being, and then in another. It is possible that the destruction of the world at the Last Day will be only a re-arrangement of the sum total of matter which now makes up the visible universe. If man’ s spirit naturally perishes, the higher part of his nature therefore is much worse off than the chemical ingredients of his body. For man’ s spirit cannot be resolved like his body, into form and material; the former perishing while the latter survives. Man’ s spirit either exists in its completeness, or it ceases to exist. Each man is himself: he can become no other. His memory, his affections, his way of thinking and feeling, are all his own: they are not transferable. If they perish, they perish altogether. And therefore it is a reasonable and very strong presumption that spirit is not, in fact, placed at such disadvantage, and that, if matter survives the dissolution of organic forms, much more must spirit survive the dissolution of the material forms with which it has been associated. These are the kind of considerations by which thoughtful men, living without the light of revelation, might be led to see the reasonableness, the very high probability of a future life. This teaching of nature is presupposed by Christianity, and it is no true service to our Master to make light of it. At the same time, it is true that, outside the Jewish revelation, immortality was not treated by any large number of men as anything like a certainty. Jesus Christ assumed it as certain in all that He said with reference to the future life. And it is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ--which has in this, as in so many other ways, opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. What has been may be. And thus the Christian faith has brought “ immortality to light.” And what a solemn fact is this immortality of ours! A hundred years hence no one of us will be still in the body: we shall have passed to another sphere of being. But if the imagination can take in these vast tracts of time, ten millions years hence we shall still exist, each one with his memory, will, and conscious contact, separate from all other beings in our eternal resting place. II. WHAT CHRIST’ S WORDS DO MEAN. Clearly something is meant by “ Life” which is higher than mere existence; not merely beyond animal existence, but beyond the mere existence of a spiritual being. We English use “ life” in the sense of an existence which has a purpose and makes the most of itself. And the Greeks had an especial word to describe the true life of man, his highest spiritual energy. This is the word employed by our Lord and by St. Paul. This enrichment and elevation of being is derived from our Lord. He is the Author of our new life, just as our first parent is the source of our first and natural existence. On this account St. Paul calls Him the Second Adam. And, in point of fact, He is the parent of a race of spiritual men who push human life to its highest capacities of excellence. When our Lord was upon earth He communicated His Life to men, by coming in contact with them. Men felt the contagion of a presence, the influence of which they could not measure, a presence from which there radiated a subtle, mysterious energy, which was gradually taking possession of them they knew not exactly how, and making them begin to live a new and higher life. What that result was upon four men of very different types of character we may gather from the reports of the Life of Christ which are given us by the evangelists. But at last He died, and arose and disappeared from sight. And it is of this after time that He says, “ Because I live, ye shall live also.” How does He communicate His life when the creative stimulus of His visible Presence has been withdrawn? 1. By His Spirit. That Divine and Personal force, whereby the mind and nature of the unseen Saviour is poured into the hearts and minds and characters of men, was to be the Lord and Giver of this life to the end of Joh 16:14; Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17). 2. By the Christian sacraments, the guaranteed points of contact with our unseen Saviour; for in them we may certainly meet Him and be invigorated by Him as we toil along the road of our pilgrimage. Conclusion: 1. It is this new life which makes it a blessing to have the prospect before us that we shall individually exist forever. 2. Our immortality is certain. But what sort of immortality is it to be? (Canon Liddon.) Life in Christ I. LIFE. We must not confound this with existence. Before the disciples believed in Jesus they existed, and altogether apart from Him as their spiritual life their existence would have been continued. Life, what is it? We cannot tell in words. We know it, however, to be a mystery of different degrees. There is the life of the vegetable. There is a considerable advance when we come to animal life. Sensation, appetite, instinct, are things to which plants are dead. Then there is mental life, which introduces us into quite another realm. To judge, to foresee, to imagine, to invent, to perform moral acts, are not these functions which the ox hath not? Now, far above this there is another form of life of which the mere carnal man can form no more idea than the plant can of the animal, or the animal of the poet. Education cannot raise man into it, neither can refinement reach it; for at its best, “ that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and to all must the humbling truth be spoken, “ Ye must be born again.” It is to be remarked concerning our life in Christ, that it Isaiah 1. The removal of the penalty which fell upon our race for Adam’ s sin. 2. Spiritual life. Christ works in us through His Holy Spirit, who dwelleth in us evermore. 3. A life in union with God (Romans 8:6-8). Death as to the body consists in its separation from the soul; the death of the soul lies mainly in the soul’ s being separated from its God. 4. This life bears fruit on earth in righteousness and true holiness, and it is made perfect in the presence of God in heaven. II. LIFE . “ Ye shall live also.” Concerning this sentence, note 1. Its fulness. Whatever is meant by living shall be ours. All the degree of life which is secured in the covenant of grace, believers shall have. All your new nature shall thoroughly, eternally live. Not even, in part, shall the new man die. “ I am come,” saith Christ, “ that ye might have life, and have it more abundantly.” 2. Its continuance. During our abode in this body we shall live. And when the natural death comes, which indeed to us is no longer death, our inner life shall suffer no hurt whatever; it will not even be suspended for a moment. And in the awful future, when the judgment comes, the begotten of God shall live. Onward through eternity, whatever may be the changes which yet are to be disclosed, nothing shall affect our God-given life. 3. Its universality. Every child of God shall live. The Lord bestows security upon the least of His people as well as upon the greatest. If it had been said, “ Because your faith is strong, ye shall live,” then weak faith would have perished; but when it is written, “ Because I live,” the argument is as powerful in the one case as in the other. 4. Its breadth. See how it overturns all the hopes of the adversary. You shall not be decoyed by fair temptation, nor be cowed by fierce persecution: mightier is he that is in you than he which is in the world. Satan will attack you, and his weapons are deadly, but you shall foil him at all points. If God should allow you to be sorely tried your spirit shall still maintain its holy life, and you shall prove it so by blessing and magnifying God, notwithstanding all. We little dream what may be reserved for us; we may have to climb steeps of prosperity, slippery and dangerous, but we shall live; we may be called to sink in the dark waters of adversity, but we shall live. If old age shall be our portion, and our crown shall be delayed till we have fought a long and weary battle, yet nevertheless we shall live; or if sudden death should cut short the time of our trail here, yet we shall have lived in the fulness of that word. III. THE REASON FOR THE OF THE LIFE. “ Because I live.” 1. This is the sole reason. When I first come to Christ, I know I must find all in Him, for I feel I have nothing of my own; but all my life long I am to acknowledge the same absolute dependence. Does not the Christian’ s life depend upon his prayerfulness? The Christian’ s spiritual health depends upon his prayerfulness, but that prayerfulness depends on something else. The reason why the hands of the clock move may be found first in a certain wheel which operates upon them, but if you go to the primary cause of all, you reach the mainspring, or the weight, which is the source of all the motion. “ But are not good works essential to the maintenance of the spiritual life?” Certainly, if there be no good works, we have no evidence of spiritual life. To the tree the fruit is not the cause of life, but the result of it, and to the life of the Christian, good works bear the same relationship, they are its outgrowth, not its root. 2. It is a sufficient reason, for (1) Christ’ s life is a proof that His work has accomplished the redemption of His people. (2) He is the representative of those for whom He is the Federal Head. Shall the representative live, and yet those represented die? (3) He is the surety for His people, under bonds and pledges to bring His redeemed safely home. (4) We who have spiritual life are one with Christ Jesus. Jesus is the head of the mystical body, they are the members. What were the head without the body? 3. An abiding reason--which has as much force at one time as another. From causes variable the effects are variable; but remaining causes produce permanent effects. Now Jesus always lives. 4. A most instructive reason. It instructs us to admire (1) The condescension of Christ. (2) To be abundantly grateful. (3) To keep up close communion with Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Fellowship in Christ’ s life These words strikingly resemble the declaration of our Lord to John in Patmos (Revelation 1:17-18). I. THE LIFE OF CHRIST. “ I live.” 1. Our Lord, as a Divine Person, is possessed of independent, infinite, immutable, eternal life; that is, capacity of action and enjoyment. In Him--was, is, and ever will be, “ the fountain of life” (John 1:4; 1Jn Psalms 36:9). 2. It is not, however, to this life that reference is made. That is a life in which none can participate beyond the sacred circle of Deity. The life is the life which belongs to the Son, as God-man, Mediator; and it refers to this life in its state of full development, after His resurrection. 3. He had lived the life of a man in union with God while He was on the earth--of the God-man, commissioned to give life--and many and striking were the demonstrations that He gave of His possession of this life. But, till sin was expiated, this life could not be fully developed nor displayed. That death in the flesh, which was the bearing away of the sins of men, was the procuring cause of that “ quickening in the Spirit” which followed. 4. It is, however, to the new development of life which accompanied and followed the resurrection that our Lord refers. “ I am alive again,” “ I have the keys of hell and of death.” His life is royal life--the life of “ the King of kings and Lord of lords” (Psalms 21:1-7; Isaiah 53:10). II. THE LIFE OF CHRIST’ S PEOPLE. “ Ye shall live also.” 1. Christ rose as “ the first fruits of them that sleep in Him,” the first born of the chosen family, their representative and forerunner. 2. Christians are, by faith, so identified with Jesus Christ as to be partakers with Him of that life on which He entered, when, being raised from the dead, He sat down forever on the right hand of the Majesty on high. They “ reign in life with Him” --in Him (Romans 5:17; Romans 6:8-11; Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 3:1-4; Galatians 2:19-20). This life is (1) One of holy activity and enjoyment. (2) Immortal. (3) Incomplete now, but destined to be complete at the Resurrection. “ We shall be like Him.” III. THE BETWEEN THE TWO. “ Because” 1. His life proves that He has done all that is necessary in order to secure life for them. Had He not succeeded in doing this He Himself would not thus have lived. His resurrection and celestial life are undoubted proofs that the sentence adjudging us to death was repealed, and the influence that was necessary to make us live was sent forth. So were we not to live, the great end for which He died and rose would be frustrated. 2. His life shows that He possesses all that is necessary to bestow life on His people. “ The Father hath given to Him to have life in Himself; so that He quickeneth whom He will.” “ It has pleased the Father, that in Him all fulness should dwell,” that out of His fulness His people may receive, and grace for grace. Conclusion: 1. This truth is calculated to sustain and comfort Christians amid all the sufferings, and anxieties, and sorrows of life and death. He can “ give power to the faint, and to them that have no power He increaseth strength.” He can “ strengthen the things that remain, and are ready to die.” 2. When our nearest and dearest are taken from us, how consoling to think the great God our Saviour lives! He is still their life, still our life. “ Because He died, we live; because He lives, we live; because He lives” --because He is the living One--“ we shall live also!” Happy, surely, are the living disciples of the living Saviour! Happy in prosperity--happy in adversity--happy in life--happy in death--happy forever! 3. But the Saviour’ s unending life is full of terror to His enemies because He ever lives. “ Because I live, you must perish forever.” They would not come to Him that they might have life. 4. He is still proclaiming, “ As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” “ I will that they would turn--I will that they would live.” (J. Brown, D. D.) The Christian’ s life force Christ is the basis of I. LIFE. He is the Creator, and the life of Adam and Eve after the fall depended entirely on the promise of the Redeemer. His advent postulated the continuance of the race. The birth of the first child was a prelude to the gospel. It may be that Eve saw in the birth of Cain the fulfilment of the promise, for she said, “ I have borne the seed, a man, the Lord.” II. THE RENEWED LIFE. The plan of redemption depends upon His incarnation and atonement. There is no spiritual life on earth apart from Him. The fact that there are millions of Christians who live by faith in Him under the dispensation of the Spirit, proves the reality of His life, of its continuance and power. Because He lives, we live, and our life is hid with Christ in God. III. THE RISEN LIFE in glory, to all eternity. Because He continues to live, His disciples shall continue to live also. “ When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Reflections: (1) Apart from Christ, the Christian can do nothing. (2) The fact that Jesus continues to live, is the assurance that all who believe in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (3) How great will appear at last the guilt of those who reject Christ, when they shall learn that even their bodily life has depended upon Him, and that, being destitute of His Spirit, they are none of His. (L. O. Thompson.) The believer’ s life “ Because I live, ye shall live also.” What life is it that Christ speaks of when He here says, “ I live?” It is the life which He now has in heaven, and which began at the Resurrection. It is different from all other life, higher and better than any life with which we are acquainted. It is everlasting life; He has done with death. It is a life of liberty; He has done with servile work, and now reigns on high. It is a life of glory; He has done with shame, and has a name that is above every name. It is a life of favour; He is now very near and very dear to God forever. He never slumbers nor sleeps; He has all power in heaven and on earth; He is Head over all things to the Church. But what is the believer’ s life of which Christ speaks, when He says, “ Ye shall live also.” It is the same as Christ’ s own life, of which we have been speaking. It springs out of His life, and is fed and maintained by it. True, the believer’ s natural life is like that of all other men: one of sin, misery, without God, without hope under wrath, on the way to everlasting woe. It is not worthy of the name of life; it is properly death. But this natural life loses its power and dominion when we believe on Christ. It received its death-blow on the cross. Hence the apostle says, “ Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;” and the believer answers, “ I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.” At present this higher life is only in its infancy. It is hindered by its connection with the old life, by the circumstances in which it is placed by its absence from Christ its Fountain. The life of the believer is the same in nature as Christ’ s; the same in duration. It is the same in the reason for which it is bestowed. Christ got it, because He wrought out the perfect, everlasting righteousness; we get it, because by faith we have received that righteousness. It is the same in its origin. It began in Christ, when God wrought in Him by His mighty power, to raise Him from the dead. It begins in us by the working of the same mighty power. But what assurance have we that this life of Christ will always continue to be imparted to His people? This springs from the relation which He holds to them. He is their Surety, Representative, Covenant Head. (John Milne.) The continued life of Christ the ground of our hope Christ lives I. IN ALL THE AND OF HIS . A heart which bore the agony, shame, desertion of His disciples must be always warm towards those whose salvation He seeks. II. IS HIS ABILITY TO HELP TO THE UTMOST. “ All power is given unto Me” Ephesians 1:20-22). “ He ever liveth to make intercession.” III. IN A SPECIAL MANNER WITH THE . “ I am the Bread of Life;” “ I am the Vine, ye are the branches.” The Church is His bride. How can we famish or die? IV. TO DESTROY ALL POWER THAT IS OPPOSED TO MAN’ S . (Ray Palmer, D. D.) The living Church 1. The life of the Church of Christ is its most distinctive and glorious characteristic. It has changed its forms, varied its circumstances, altered its doctrines, but has maintained in every period of its history its inward life. If justification is the article of a standing or a falling Church, regeneration, or life by the Holy Spirit, is the article of a living or a dead Church. 2. This life is communicated, not by anything that is outward, but entirely by the Holy Spirit of God. The patronage of princes may make a rich or a renowned Church. Eloquence and orthodoxy may make a convinced or an enlightened, but they cannot make a living Church. I. THE OF THIS LIFE. It is easy to ascertain if a man be dead or living physically; and it is not difficult to ascertain if a man be living or dead spiritually. 1. Life is an internal principle originating outward and visible characteristics. We know not what life is. All that we know is, that there is some principle within that looks through the eye, that hears through the ear, that feels through the touch, that enables me to walk, to speak, and to hold converse with society around me. Now it is so with spiritual life. 2. Life has the power of assimilation. H a man eats a piece of bread, that bread is so assimilated that it is turned into the energy of his physical system. And this spiritual life lays hold upon all the elements of nutriment, as these are laid up in Christ, found in the oracles of truth, and at the communion table. 3. Life is sensible of pain. A dead man does not feel. What pain is to the body, sin is to the spiritual life; and just as our nervous system shrinks from the very touch or contact of pain, so the soul that is in unison with God shrinks from sin as its greatest evil, and the immediate source of all misery. 4. Wherever there is life, we find it has within itself the power of adaptation to varied temperature. Man lives at the Pole, as he lives below the Line. And if there be life in man’ s soul, that life will adjust itself; will not be conquered by, but will conquer its circumstances. Place the Christian in the palace with Pharaoh, or in the dungeon with Joseph, and he can breathe the atmosphere of the one just as he can the other. 5. Life is progressive, and Spiritual life grows in likeness to Christ. Its progress is illimitable, because the principle itself is infinite. 6. Life is communicative. The proof that a man is no Christian is, that he is no missionary. Monopoly is a word banished from the religion of heaven. The Christian cannot see pain he does not wish to alleviate; ignorance he does not wish to enlighten; death in trespasses and sins to which he would not communicate a portion of his own spiritual life. II. THERE ARE CERTAIN POINTS TO WHICH THIS LIFE REFERS. A Christian is alive 1. To the presence of God. “ Thou God seest me” is the constant feeling of the Christian. 2. To the favour of God. “ Who will show us any good?” is the question with the worldling; but the Christian says, “ Lift Thou upon us the light of Thy countenance.” 3. To the glory of God. We are prone to think that Christianity is a thing for the Bible, for the Sunday, for the Church merely. But it is meant to be like the great principle of gravitation which controls the planet and the pebble. When you transact business you are bound to do it to the glory of God. In your homes, whether your tables be covered with all the luxuries, or merely with the necessaries of life, “ ye are to do all to the glory of God.” III. THIS LIFE HAS CERTAIN SPECIAL . It Isaiah 1. A holy life. If there be God’ s life in man’ s heart, there must be God’ s holiness in man’ s conduct. 2. A happy life. Joy is one of the fruits it bears. 3. A royal life. “ He has made us kings and priests unto God.” We are “ a royal priesthood.” 4. An immortal life. All systems, hierarchies, and empires shall be dissolved; but the man that has the life of God in his heart has the immortality of God as his prerogative. Conclusion: The history of the Church that has possessed this vital principle has been throughout a very painful but a very triumphant one. That vitality must be a reality since nothing has been ever able to extinguish or destroy it. Systems that chime in with the fallen propensities of man have sunk before rival systems; but Christianity, which rebukes man’ s pride, which bridles man’ s lusts, which rebukes man’ s sins, has outlived all persecution, survived all curse, and seems to commence in the nineteenth century, a career that shall be bounded only by the limits of the population of the globe itself. Is not this evidence of a Divine presence--of a Divine power? Let me make one or two inferences. This life Isaiah 1. The true secret and source of ministerial success. 2. The source of all missionary effort. 3. The true distinction between the Church and the world. 4. The true safety of the Church. 5. The great want of the Church today. (J. Cumming, D. D.) Immortality as taught by the Christ 1. Science may throw no barrier in the way of belief in immortality; nature and the heart of man may suggest clear intimations of a future life; human society may demand another life to complete the suggestions and fill up the lacks of this; but, for some reason, all such proof fails to satisfy us. It holds the mind, but does not minister to the heart. 2. It is noticeable also that the faith of natural evidence awakens no joyful enthusiasm in masses of mankind. Plato and Cicero discourse of immortality with a certain degree of warmth, but their countrymen get little comfort from it. The reason is evident. The mere fact that I shall live tomorrow does not sensibly move me. Something must be joined with existence before it gets power. 3. We will now consider the way in which Christ treated the subject. I. HE ASSUMED THE AND BUILT UPON IT. When He entered on His ministry He found certain imperfect or germinal truths existing in Jewish theology. He found a doctrine of God, partial in conception; He perfected it by revealing the Divine Fatherhood. He found a doctrine of sin and righteousness turning upon external conduct; He transferred it to the heart and spirit. He found a doctrine of immortality, held as mere future existence. His treatment of this doctrine was not so much corrective as accretive. Hence He never uses any word corresponding to immortality (which is a mere negation--unmortal), but always speaks of life. He never makes a straight assertion of it except once, when the Sadducees pressed Him with a quibbling argument against the resurrection. Elsewhere He simply assumes it. But an assumption is often the strongest kind of argument. It implies such conviction in the mind of the speaker that there is no need of proof. II. IN HIS MIND THE INTENSE AND OF GOD CARRIES WITH IT , AS IT DOES THE WHOLE BODY OF HIS TRUTH. Within this universe, at its centre, is world around which all others revolve, the sun of suns, the centre of all systems, whose potency reaches to the uttermost verge, holding them steady to their courses. It is not otherwise in morals. Given the fact of God, and all other truth takes its place without question. Hence, when there is an overpowering, all-possessing sense of God as there was in Christ, truth takes on absolute forms; hence it was that He spoke with authority. It was Christ’ s realization of the living God that rendered His conviction of eternal life so absolute. We can but notice how grandly Christ reposed upon this fact of immortal life. He feels no need of examining the evidences or balancing proofs. He stands steadily upon life, life endless by its own Divine nature. Death was no leap in the dark to Him; it was simply a door leading into another mansion of God’ s great house. It is proper to ask here, “ Is it probable that Christ was mistaken? That His faith in immortality was but an intense form of a prevailing superstition?” If we could find any weakness elsewhere in His teachings, there would be ground for such questions. But as a moral teacher He stands at the head, unimpeachable in the minutest particular. Is it probable that, true in all else, He was in fault in this one respect? That a body of truth all interwoven and suffused with life is based upon an illusion of life? If one tells me ninety-nine truths, I will trust him in the hundredth, especially if it is involved in those before. Build me a column perfect in base and body, and I will know if the capital is true. When the clearest eyes that ever looked on this world and into the heavens, and the keenest judgment that ever weighed human life, and the purest heart that ever throbbed with human sympathy, tells me that man is immortal, I repose on His teaching in perfect trust. It is reason to see with the wise, and to feel with the good. Still another distinction must be made; we do not accept immortality because Jesus, the wise young Jew, wove it into His precepts, but because the Christ, the Son of God and of man--Humanity revealing Deity--makes it a part of that order of human history best named as the reconciliation of the world to God. III. HE DOES NOT THINK OF IT AS A FUTURE, BUT AS A PRESENT FACT. As time in the Divine mind is an eternal now, so it seems to have been with Christ. If the cup of life is full, there is little sense of past or future; the present is enough. When Christ speaks of eternal life, He does not mean future endless existence; but fullness or perfection of life. That it will go on forever is a matter of course, but it is not the important feature of the truth. IV. And thus we are brought to the fundamental fact that HE LIFE OR WITH . Life, as mere continuance of being, is not worth thinking about. Of what value is the mere adding of days to days if they are full of sin? Practically such life is death, and so He names it. There can be no real and abiding faith in immortality until it becomes wedded to the spiritual nature. When life begins to be true, it announces itself as an eternal thing to the mind; as a caged bird when let loose into the sky might say, “ Now I know that my wings are made to beat the air in flight;” and no logic could ever persuade the bird that it was not designed to fly; but when caged, it might have doubted at times, as it beat the bars of its prison with unavailing stroke, if its wings were made for flight. So it is not until a man begins to use his soul aright that he knows for what it is made. When he puts his life into harmony with God’ s laws; when he begins to pray; when he clothes himself with the graces of Christian faith and conduct, when he begins to live unto his spiritual nature, he begins to realize what life is--a reality that death and time cannot touch. But when his life is made up of the world, it is not strange that it should seem to himself as liable to perish with the world. Those who believe have everlasting life. Others may exist, but existence is not life. Others may continue to exist, but continuance is not immortality. To lift men out of existence into life was Christ’ s mission. V. He not only gave us the true law, BUT WAS HIMSELF A PERFECT OF , and even named Himself by it--the Life. It is a great thing for us that this truth has been put into actual fact. Human nature is crowded with hints and omens of it, but prophecy does not convince till it is fulfilled. And from the Divine side also we get assurances of endless life; but in so hard a matter we are like Thomas, who needed the sight and touch to assure him. And in Christ we have both--the human omen and the Divine promise turned into fact. In some of the cathedrals of Europe, on Christmas eve, two small lights, typifying the Divine and human nature, are gradually made to approach one another until they meet and blend, forming a bright flame. Thus, in Christ, we have the light of two worlds thrown upon human destiny. The whole bearing of Christ towards death, and His treatment of it, was as one superior to it, and as having no lot nor part in it. He will indeed bow his head in obedience to the physical laws of the humanity He shares, but already He enters the gates of Paradise, not alone but leading a penitent child of humanity by the hand. And in order that we may know He simply changed worlds, He comes back and shows Himself alive; for He is not here in the world simply to assert truth, but to enact it. And still further to show us how phantasmal death is, He finally departs in all the fullness of life, simply drawing about Himself the thin drapery of a cloud. Conclusion: A true and satisfying sense of immortality cannot be taken second hand. We cannot read it in the pages of a book, whether of nature or inspiration. We cannot even look upon the man Jesus issuing from the tomb, and draw from thence a faith that yields peace. There must be fellowship with the Christ of the Resurrection before we can feel its power; in other words, we must get over upon the Divine side of life before we can be assured of eternal life. “ Join thyself,” says Augustine, “ to the eternal God, and thou wilt be eternal.” (T. T. Munger.) Living because Christ lives When Luther was in his worst troubles a friend came in to see him, and he noticed that he had written upon the wall in big letters the word “ Vivit!” He inquired of Luther what he meant by “ vivit?” Luther answered, “ Jesus lives; and if He did not live I would not care to live an hour.” Yes, our life is bound up with that of Jesus. We are called upon to live of ourselves, that would be death; but we have life and all things in union with Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you Christ’ s legacy I. THE LEGACY ITSELF: Knowledge. “ Ye shall know.” God delivered the Jews to some extent from ignorance by the law, which was their schoolmaster. But in the gospel we are graduates, and know as a matter of history and experience what was only previously known in prophecy and type, in the manifestation of Christ, and the presence of the Spirit. Consider this knowledge as opposed to 1. Ignorance. As there is a profitable ignorance which is a reverent abstinence from searching into God’ s secrets, so there is an unprofitable ignorant knowledge which puffs us up. And one strange effect of this ignorance is that every man murmurs that someone else has more land or money than he, yet every man thinks that he has more knowledge than all the world beside. Wherefore the prophet (Jeremiah 10:14) calls this confident believer in his own wisdom a fool, as the greatest reproach that can be fastened upon him. Now, this foolishness is not narrowness of understanding, nor inability to acquire knowledge, for many good men are unlettered and dull. The fool is he who trusteth in his own heart; and against this Christ has left us this legacy of knowledge. 2. Inconsideration. God takes it worse to be neglected than to be injured. Dares an officer who receives instruction from his prince on nonperformance say, “ I never thought of it?” Dares a subject, a servant, or a son? God shows the inconsiderate man (1) The book of His creatures. Every ant asks him, “ Where had I this providence and industry? Every flower, Where had I this beauty, fragrance, medicinal virtue?” (2) The Scriptures, where every merciful promise cries, “ Why am I here to meet thee and perform God’ s purpose towards thee, if thou never consider me?” So with every judgment. (3) The example of Christ, who reconsidered His prayer, “ Yet not My will, but Thine, be done.” Since, then, our best acts of reading or hearing and praying need consideration, value this legacy. 3. Concealment. It must be published for the benefit of others. Virtue that is never produced into action is not worthy of the name (Philemon 1:6). II. THE TIME WHEN THIS LEGACY ACCRUES TO US. “ At that day.” 1. The word itself affords cheerfulness. When God inflicted the greatest plague on Egypt it was at midnight; and when He would intimate both deaths at once He says, “ Thou fool, this night,” etc. Against all supply of knowledge He calls him fool; against all sense of comfort in the day He threatens night. 2. It was a certain day: “ That” --and soon. For after Christ had made His will at this supper, and given strength to His will by His death, and proved His will by His resurrection, and left the Church possessed of His estate by His ascension, within ten days after that He poured out this legacy of knowledge. 3. On that day the Holy Ghost came as a wind to note a powerful working; filled them, to note the abundance; and gave them utterance, to infer the communication of their knowledge to others. But He was poured forth for the benefit of all. The prophets, high as their calling was, saw nothing without the Spirit; with the Spirit simple man understands the prophets. III. OUR PORTION IN THIS LEGACY--the measure of the knowledge of those mysteries which we are to receive. When Felix the Manichaean would prove to Augustine that Manes was the Holy Spirit who should teach all truth, because Manes taught many things of which men were ignorant concerning the frame and nature of the heavens, Augustine answered, “ The Holy Ghost makes us Christians, not mathematicians.” This knowledge is to know the end and the way--heaven and Christ. Now, in all our journeys, a moderate pace brings a man most surely to his journey’ s end, and so does a sober knowledge in the mysteries of religion. Therefore, the Holy Ghost did not give the apostles all kind of knowledge, but knowledge enough for their present work, and so with us. The points of knowledge necessary for our salvation are three. 1. The mystery of the Trinity. “ I am in My Father.” Origin tells us that the principal use of knowledge is to know the Trinity. For to know that there is one God, natural reason serves our turn. But to know that the Son is in the Father I need the Scriptures, and the light of the Holy Spirit on the Scriptures, for Jews and Arians have the Bible too. But consider that Christ says, “ ye shall know,” not “ ye shall know how.” It is enough for a happy subject to enjoy the sweetness of a peaceable government, though he knows not the ways by which his prince governs, so it is enough for a Christian to enjoy the working of God’ s grace, though he inquire not into God’ s unrevealed decrees. When the Church asked how the body of Christ was in the sacrament we see what an inconvenient answer it fell upon. Make much of that knowledge with which the Spirit hath trusted you, and believe the rest. No man knows how his soul came into him, yet no man doubts that he has a soul. 2. The mystery of the Incarnation--“ Ye in Me.” For since the devil has taken manhood in one lump in Adam, Christ to deliver us as entirely took all mankind upon Him. So that the same pretence that the devil hath against us, “ You are mine, for you sinned in Adam,” we have also for our discharge, we are delivered, for we paid our debt in Christ. 3. The assurance of this grows from the third part of our knowledge the mystery of our redemption, in our sanctification. “ I in you.” This last is the best. To know that Christ is in the Father may serve me to convince another who denies the Trinity; to know we are in Christ may show that we are more honoured than angels. But what worth is this if I know not that Christ is in me. How then is this? Here the question is lawful, for it has been revealed. It is by our obedience to His inspiration, and by our reverent use of His sacrament, when the Spirit visits us with effectual grace, and Christ marries Himself to our souls. (J. Donne, D. D.) The experimental knowledge of the Christian mysteries Our Lord had just been exhorting His disciples to believe that He was in the Father and the Father in Him; and had been gently wondering at the slowness of their faith. Now He tells them that, when He is gone, they shall know the thing which, with Him by their side, they found it so hard to believe. I. The principle that underlies these wonderful words is that IS THE BEST TEACHER OF TRUTH. Observe with what decision our Lord carries that principle into regions where we might suppose at first sight that it was altogether inapplicable. 1. “ Ye shall know that I am in My Father.” How can such a thing as the relation between Christ and God ever be a matter of consciousness? Must it not always be a matter that we must take on trust? Not so; remember what has gone before. If I have these things I know that it is Jesus Christ that gives them, and I know that He could not give them if He did not dwell in God and were not Divine. These new influences, this revolution in my being, this healing touch, these new hopes, these reversed desires, all these things bear upon their very front the signature that they are wrought by a Divine hand, and as sure as I am of my own Christian consciousness, so sure am I that all its experiences proclaim their author, and that Christ who does them is in God. On the subject of Christ’ s Divinity, many profound and learned arguments have been urged by theologians, and these are all well and needful in their places, but the true way to be sure of it is to have Him dwelling with us and working on us. 2. In like manner, the other elements of this knowledge flow necessarily from Christian experiences. “ That ye are in Me, and I in you.” If a Christian man carries the consciousness of Christ’ s presence, and has Him as a Sun in his darkness, and as a Life source feeding his deadness with life, then he knows with a consciousness which is irrefragable that Jesus Christ is in him. 3. So, let us learn what the Christian man’ s experience ought to be, and to do for him. It should make all the fundamentals of the gospel vitally and vividly true; and, certified by what had passed within your own spirits, you should be able to say, “ we have the witness in ourselves.” And though there will remain much in Christian doctrine which is not capable of that plain and all-sufficing verification; much about which we must still depend on the teaching of others, the central facts which make the gospel may all become elements of our very consciousness which stand undeniable to us, whosoever denies them. II. SUCH A DIRECT WAY TO IS . 1. It is in plain analogy with the manner by which we attain to the knowledge of everything except the mere external facts. How do you know anything about love? You may read poems and tragedies to the end of time, and you will not understand it until you come under its spell for yourself; and then all the things that men said about it cease to be mere words, because you yourself have experienced the emotion. And the only way to be sure, with a vital certitude, of Christ, is to take Christ for your very own, and then He comes into your very being, and dwells there unchanged, the Sun and the Life. 2. Though such certitude is not available for other people, the fact that so many millions of men allege that they possess this certitude is available for other people. And there is nothing to be said by the unbeliever to this. “ Whether this man be a sinner or no, I know not.” You may jangle as much as you like about the controversial points that surround the Christian revelation. “ One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” And we may push the war into the enemy’ s quarters, and say, “ Why! herein is a marvellous thing, that you that know everything do not know whence this Man is. And yet He has opened mine eyes.” You want facts; there are some. You want verification; we have verified by experiment, and we set to our seals that God is true. 3. But, you say, that is not a fair account of the way in which Christian men and women generally feel about this matter. Well, so much the worse for the so-called Christian men and women. And if they are Christians, and do not know by this inward experience that Christ is Divine and their Saviour, then either their experience is wretchedly superficial and fragmentary; or, having the facts, they have failed to make their own by reflection the certitudes which are their own. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Father, Christ, and His people one 1. The importance of a definite knowledge and firm belief of the more recondite doctrines of Christianity is greatly underrated. By the infidel they are considered as mystical dreams, scholastic abstractions, characterized by self-contradiction and absurdity. The rationalistic Christian for the same reason explains away the passages that teach them. But there are also men--loud in proclaiming their belief of all these doctrines--whose belief ofthem is little more than a belief that the propositions in which they are stated, and who plainly consider them as having little connection with the formation of character and guidance of conduct. But I do not worship the Christian God if I do not worship God in Christ; and as Christian worship is rational worship, I cannot worship God in Christ, without knowing what is meant by God being in Christ, and believing it. All Christian motive and comfort flow from Christian doctrine understood and believed. 2. The phrase, “ that day,” does not seem here to refer to some short fixed period--as the time when our Lord returned to the disciples after His resurrection--or, the time of the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,--or, the time of the second coming; but to the whole period from our Lord’ s coming after the Resurrection, to His coming the second time for complete salvation. The phrase is very often so used in the Old Testament Isaiah 12:1; Zechariah 13:1; Zechariah 14:9). I. THE . 1. Christ is in the Father. The sentiment is more fully expressed in verses 10, 11. Note-- (1) The relation between our Lord and the Father as Divine persons? They are, with the Holy Spirit, possessors of the one Divine essence, are of the same perfections and prerogatives. It is the most intimate relation in the universe. The Father and the Son are one. This is a union with the Father common to the Son and to the Spirit; but there is a union with the Father peculiar to the Son. He is the Son of the Father, the Father is His Father. (2) The relation between our Lord as the man Christ Jesus, and the Father? (a) The man Christ Jesus is in personal unity with the Divinity. He is related to God as no man ever was, ever will be, ever can be. He was “ God manifest in flesh.” (b) The man Christ Jesus was, from the very moment of His beginning to exist as a man, brought entirely under the influence of the Holy Spirit, through whom the one Divinity does all things. In other relations the Son stands alone. Here He stands, at the head of an innumerable multitude of brethren. (3) The relation between our Lord as God-man, Mediator and the Father. It belonged to the Father, as sustaining the majesty of Godhead, to appoint the Mediator. Our Lord took not this honour on Himself. He was in the Father, as the ambassador is in his prince or sovereign; and the Father was in Him, as the prince or sovereign is in his ambassador. His doctrine was the doctrine of God; His works were the works of God. 2. Christ’ s people are in Him. (1) By the Divine constitution, every believer is brought into such an intimacy of relation with Jesus Christ, as that he is treated as if he had done what Christ has done. So that in him he is justified, sanctified, and redeemed (1 Corinthians 1:30), absolutely secured of a complete salvation, from His connection with Him. (2) Besides, Christ’ s people are in Him, as the branch in the vine, as the members in the head. As new creatures, in Him “ they live, and move, and have their being” (John 6:57). 3. Christ is in His people. They are animated by His Spirit. But that Spirit, enabling them to understand and believe His word, makes them think, will, choose along with Him, walk as He also walked; so that they are His animated images, His living epistles. II. THE OF THE . The apostles had heard them again and again, and they had some misty general conception of them; but they had no clear apprehension. But the time was approaching when their views should be enlarged, and their faith confirmed, and experience called in to the aid of faith. 1. The Resurrection, to some extent, cleared their minds. They saw that their Master was in the Father. He was thereby powerfully declared to be the Son of God (John 20:28). 2. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit went still farther in extending their views and confirming their faith (see Peter’ s sermon on the Day of Pentecost). 3. And all the true followers of our Lord, in every age and country, are all made to know these doctrines by the teaching of His Spirit through the word, and the working of the Spirit in their hearts. They lie at the very foundation of all their hopes, and all their holiness. 4. And at the great day of doom, they shall know more clearly still, and as eternity rolls on, new depths of meaning are found in these unfathomable words. (J. Brown, D. D.) The union between Christ and His people It is a union of mutual in-being, not a union of affection only, such as the stones have, when they lie together in a heap; but rather such as is between the wine and the water, when they are put together, saving that they are not mixed together. Christ is not mixed with a Christian, a Christian is not mixed with Christ; Christ is not a Christian, a Christian is not Christ; but there is a union of mutual in-being. Now, you know, when the fire gets into the iron, is united to it, is in it, the properties of the fire are communicated to the iron; the iron forgets his own blackness, and shines with the shining of the fire, and burns with the burning of the fire. And as a coal, though it be never so dark and black a body, when the fire comes, get into it, the properties of the fire are communicated to it, and it burns like the fire itself, and melts like the fire itself, and shines like the fire itself. So, when the Lord Jesus Christ is united to a soul, look what excellencies there are in Christ, what graces in Christ, the same are communicated to it; the soul shines with Christ’ s shining, and warms with His warming: there is grace answerable for His grace. (W. Bridge, M. A.) John 14:21 He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me Love to Christ I. THE REASONS WHICH JUSTIFY ITS . If we love an object, it is because of something amiable in that object. 1. And is there not real excellency in Jesus Christ--“ the brightness of His Father’ s glory,” etc. “ He is altogether lovely!” 2. Is He not nearly related to us (Hebrews 2:11; Matthew 12:48-50)? 3. Is He not our Friend, our kindest and best Benefactor? “ He gave His life a ransom for us.” II. THE BY WHICH IT IS . It must be 1. Sincere (Romans 12:9). 2. Supreme. Love to any object should rise according to its worth. 3. Constant. III. THE TEST BY WHICH IT IS . It is good to have the commandments of Christ, to be born in a land of Bibles; but this is not enough. He that hath them, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Him. And what is this keeping the commandments of Christ? Do they keep them 1. Who are ignorant of them, and who discover little concern to become acquainted with them? 2. Who have no relish for them? 3. Who do not obey them? IV. THE REWARD WITH WHICH IT IS . 1. The favour of the greatest Father. 2. The affection of the kindest Saviour. 3. The presence of the best Friend. From the whole, learn 1. The insufficiency of external privileges. 2. The honour which attends real Christianity. 3. The proper use of religious ordinances, and the spirit in which we should attend them. (T. Kidd.) Love to Christ I. THE WHICH IS THE SIGN AND TEST OF LOVE. The words are here substantially equivalent to John 14:15. Only the former begins with the root and traces it upwards to its fruits, love blossoming into obedience. Our text reverses the process. Note 1. How remarkably our Lord here declares the possession of His commandments to be a sign of love to Him. “ He that hath,” etc. There are two ways of having: in the Bible, and in the heart; before my eye as a law that I ought to obey, or within my will, as a power that shapes it. And the latter is the only kind of “ having” that Christ regards as real and valid. Love possesses the knowledge of the loved one’ s will. Do we not all know how strange is the power of divining desires that goes along with true affection, and how the power, not only of divining, but of treasuring, these desires is the thermometer of our true love. Some of us, perhaps, have laid away in sacred, secret places tattered yellow old bits of paper with the words of a dear one on them that we would not part with. “ He that hath My commandments” laid up in lavender in the recesses of his faithful heart, he it is “ that loveth Me.” 2. Obedience: There are two motives for keeping commandments, one, because they are commanded, and one because we love Him that commands. The one is slavery, the other is liberty. The one is like the Arctic regions, cold and barren, the other is like tropical lands, full of warmth and sunshine, glorious and glad fertility. 3. The form of the sentence suggests how easy it is for people to delude themselves about their love to Jesus Christ. That emphatic “ He,” and the putting first of the character before He states its root, are directed against false pretensions to love. The love that Christ stamps with His hallmark is no mere emotion, however passionate and sweet; no mere sentiment however pure and deep. The tiniest dribble that drives a mill is better than a Niagara that rushes and foams and tumbles idly. And there is ever so much so-called love to Jesus Christ that goes masquerading up and down the world; from which the paint is stripped by the sharp application of the words of my text. II. THE DIVINE LOVE AND WHICH REWARD OUR LOVE AND . Note 1. The extraordinary boldness of that majestic saying: “ If a man loves Me, My Father will love him.” God regards our love to Jesus Christ as containing in it the germ of all that is pleasing in His sight. And so, upon our hearts, if we love Christ, there falls the benediction of the Father’ s love. 2. Of course, our Lord here is not beginning at the very beginning of everything. “ We love Him because He first loved us” digs a story deeper down than the words of my text. That being understood, here is a great lesson. It is not all the same to God whether a man is a scoundrel or a saint. God’ s love is a moral love; and whilst the sunbeams play upon the ice and melt it sometimes, they flash back from, and rest more graciously and fully on, the rippling stream into which the ice has turned. God loves them that love Him not, but the depths of His heart and the secret sacred favours of His grace can only be bestowed upon those who love Christ and obey Him. 3. If, then, we seek to know that dear Lord, the path is plain. Walk on the way of obedience, and Christ will meet us with the unveiling of more and more of His love. To live what we believe is the sure way to increase its amount. To be faithful to the little is the certain way to inherit the much. He gives us His whole self at the first, but we traverse the breadth of the gift by degrees. The flower is but a bud when we get it, and as we hold it, it opens its petals to the light. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Obedience the proof of love I. SOME WHO THINK THEY LOVE JESUS ARE AS TO THE AND OF THEIR LOVE TO HIM. There is an emphasis on “ He it is,” singling Him out as the only real lover. Men may be misled as to the reality of their love. 1. By regarding strong, keen and frequent feelings of sorrow and compassion for Christ as an innocent sufferer, as evidence of true love. Such an emotion is an element in, but is not love. 2. By substituting an intellectual and moral admiration of Christ. But many infidels evince this. 3. By counting sufficient an outward and decorous attention to His laws and institutions. This is sufficient to keep from sins of a gross nature; but at the bottom it may be self-love, a bid for the world’ s good opinion. II. THEY ONLY WHO HAVE AND KEEP CHRIST’ S TRULY LOVE HIM. 1. Having Christ’ s commandments implies (1) A recognition of them as of binding authority being enforced by His love. (2) An intelligent appreciation of their meaning and spirit. (3) Treasuring them in the head and heart. 2. Keeping them. We may have without keeping them. Practice and knowledge must keep step. 3. Here is (1) A test of Christian profession (1 John 2:3-5; 1 John 5:1-3). (2) A ground of comfort to doubting Christians. Their Lord does not insist on warm feelings which are fluctuating, but on obedience. (3) An inducement to obedience. (A. Warrack, M. A.) Obedience the sign of love A king in ancient times made some wise laws for his people, and most of them loved and reverenced him as a father, but not all. Some who professed a great affection for him were very unwilling to obey him; and a few complained that his laws were too strict, and, whenever they could do so without fear of punishment, they broke them. Now the king had a country far off where troubles and tumults bad arisen, and the governor wrote to ask the king to go and visit his discontented people, and try if his own presence would win them to obedience and love. The king promised to go; but before he left, he gave every family a copy of the laws. He was away a long time, and on his return there were loud rejoicings. But when he came to his council chamber, there were some sad stories of rebellion and disobedience, not among the poor alone, but among the nobles, who had been louder than all the rest in their professions of love and songs of welcome. But when the king, having discovered the offenders, asked for a copy of the laws, and one by one read them to the rebels, they were confused and silent. Some, indeed, had lost the paper he had given them; some had wilfully burnt it, and declared that they would not obey; many had broken one or more of the rules. He was a gentle king, but firm and just; and so he gathered his disobedient subjects together, and looking sorrowfully at them, he gravely asked each, “ If he loved his sovereign?” They all answered “ Yes,” but on holding up a copy of his laws, they all hung down their heads. “ He that hath my laws and keepeth them,” he said, “ he, and he only, loves me.” So with Christ’ s laws. (Mrs. Geldart.) Christ known only to the loving I. WE CANNOT KNOW CHRIST THROUGH THE . The intellect has tried for ages to find out God, and after all its investigations it has pronounced Him unknowable, “ The world by wisdom knew not God.” II. WE CANNOT KNOW CHRIST THROUGH THE . Imagination has filled the world with myths, superstitions and idols, but has never, unaided by the heart, found Christ. III. WE CANNOT KNOW CHRIST THROUGH AN EXCITED . Conscience has formulated a god of vengeance. Christ is God and reveals Himself to the loving. (Homiletic Monthly.) Character and privilege of true Christians I. THE OF TRUE . 1. They love Christ. (1) They love Himself (a) As a Divine person, glorious in moral perfection and loveliness. (b) As the incarnate Divinity, the image, of Him whom we should “ love with all the heart, and soul, and strength.” (c) As the God-man Mediator, the Only-begotten of Him whose name and nature is love. (d) As the man, Christ Jesus, possessed of every quality which can command esteem and excite love. (2) This love extends to everything in the Saviour--His holiness, as well as His grace; His laws, as well as His promises; the yoke He lays on them, as well as the crown He is to confer; His house, His word, His day, His people, His cause. (3) This love leads them to seek intercourse with Him; they cannot be happy away from Him. (4) This love is common to all the saints. They have not all the same measure of it--that depends on the measure of their knowledge and faith and capacity of affection; but they have all the same kind of love. (5) And as this love is common to all the saints, so it is peculiar to them. To the unbelieving world “ He has no form nor comeliness,” etc. 2. They have His commandments, words, sayings. These are not to be confined to what was preceptive in our Lord’ s teaching; they include all His communications. (1) To “ have” is something more than to possess the Bible, or even to have a general knowledge of its contents. It is to have it in the mind and the heart. (2) They who receive our Lord’ s words cannot but love Him, for they, in the degree in which they receive them, know and believe Him to be the proper object of supreme affection. 3. They keep His commandments. As it is by having the words of Christ that men come to love Him, so it is by keeping His words that they manifest and prove their love to Him. They must be kept (1) As He gives us them. We must not detract from them, nor add to them, nor modify them (Deuteronomy 4:2). (2) In the mind. There are men who find it disquieting to them, and seek to get rid of it as soon as possible. There are others who, ceasing to give it any attention, suffer it to “ slip out of their mind.” And there are others who permit, who invite, “ the wicked one to come and take away what was sown in their hearts.” But the lover of Christ “ lets the word of Christ dwell” in his heart, and often reviews it as his most precious treasure. (3) By our having no other opinions on the subjects to which they refer than those unfolded in them, and by fashioning the whole system of our sentiments and judgments with a reference to them. (a) The promises are to be kept by firmly believing them in the most trying circumstances. (b) The warnings are to be kept by keeping at a distance from their subjects, and by cherishing a habitual holy fear of sin. (c) His commandments, with regard to tempers and dispositions, are to be kept by “ keeping our hearts with all diligence.” (d) Those with regard to our general conduct are to be kept by our not following “ the course of this world,” but walking according to the will of God. (e) Those with regard to institutions are to be kept by ‘ observing all things whatsoever He has commanded. II. THEIR . 1. They are loved of the Father and the Son. (1) As elected in sovereign love to eternal life. (2) As actually united to Christ by believing. (3) As transformed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 2. This love is discovered in the Son’ s manifesting Himself to them, and in the Father and the Son coming to them, and making their abode with them. III. THE BETWEEN THE TWO. 1. He only who possesses the character can enjoy the privilege. 2. He who possesses the character must enjoy the privilege. 3. The measure in which the character is possessed is the measure in which the privilege is enjoyed. The more a man loves Christ, the more must both God and Christ love him. (J. Brown, D. D.) The secret of self-consecration Here is the secret of self-consecration: in our being “ possessed” by the love of Christ; and feeling--He loves me more than I love Him. Possessed by this love, I yield myself wholly and joyfully to Him. My hand is His, redeemed by Him, sacred to Him, and cannot do unholy work; my foot is His, and cannot go on unholy errands; my ear is His, and cannot listen to unholy words; my eye is His, and cannot look upon unholy deeds; my tongue is His, and cannot utter unholy speeches; my mind is His, and cannot think unholy thoughts; my heart is His, and cannot cherish unholy feelings and desires; my whole being is His, redeemed by Him, sacred to Him, and is surrendered to His will. (J. Culross, D. D.) Practical religion Since a vestment ornamented with gold is a beautiful and conspicuous object, but seems much more so to us when it is worn upon our own persons, thus also the precepts of God are beautiful when but praised, but appear far more lovely when they are rightly observed, and conspicuous in our own life. (T. H. Leary, D. C. L.) John 14:22-24 Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us and not unto the world?How may the Lord disclose or reveal Himself to His disciples, and not to others? Disclosure, or revelation, is at least a double process. It consists in the presentation of an object of knowledge, and a mental reception of what is presented; a clear manifestation, and an object of this who is capable of apprehending it. Again, different objects of knowledge manifest or disclose themselves through diverse channels of apprehension. There is demonstration through the senses, as when we report, upon the authority of the sense of touch, that an object is hard, soft, smooth, or rough. There is also the declaration of the reason, as when we candidly consider the professions of a political party and decide upon their merits. And there is the revelation of the affections, as when we discern the bitterness of ingratitude or the sweetness of fidelity. Each kind of truth has its own channel and method of getting at the mind. Moreover, different truths or objects manifest themselves in various degrees, according to the capacity of the recipient. Not long ago I visited one of my colleagues in his mineralogical cabinet. Opening one of the drawers, I took in my hands two specimens with the remark, “ These are duplicates.” “ Oh, no,” was the reply, “ they are quite different minerals.” “ How do you know that?” I said; “ they look just alike.” “ No,” was the response, “ they look extremely unlike.” To my sight the specimens were identical. To his critical vision, although casting the same rays of light upon his eye as upon mine, and presenting the same surface, they made an incomparably more definite revelation. There are said to be men employed in the wine vaults connected with the London docks who are able by taste not only to distinguish between a sherry, a claret, and a port, but also to tell the district in which a given wine was produced. It is even asserted that in many cases they can name the year of the vintage. To each of us is given the share of revelation which his capacities can apprehend. Men say, “ Let us understand these so-called spiritual truths; let them be explained, demonstrated. Let us be convinced.” The demand is fair; but the explanation, the demonstration, the conviction, must be to a capacity appropriate to this special kind of truth. A truth has not been revealed to us unless we have experienced the emotions which it is fitted to arouse. Any of us may read accounts of what is seen by the astronomers who are using the Lick telescope, but only they who have gazed through that splendid glass, to resolve nebulae into clusters of hitherto undistinguished worlds, have known experimentally, have personally received the revelation of these hitherto unknown worlds. To one who does not possess it already, words cannot convey experimental knowledge. They simply name our ideas. Any new knowledge which they seem to give is simply a rearrangement of ideas previously in the mind. Looking into the kaleidoscope, you see gaudy colours. Turn the kaleidoscope: something new has apparently entered it. In fact the same light is there as before, so are the same bright pieces of glass; but they now have a different arrangement, and therefore reflect and transmit the light in a different way. Words are simply the power to turn the kaleidoscope of our experiences. If we lack the experiences, words cannot give them. All you who are parents had many times heard the words describing parental feelings before you yourself became parents. You thought you knew their meaning; but in fact it was a totally new experience when your first helpless child was placed in your arms. Let us seek to apply all this to the Master’ s words. The Lord’ s manifestation becomes revelation to some and not to others, not because of differences in God, or in His manifestations, but because of differences in men. To expect that the result shall be to all of us a revelation, it is necessary to assure ourselves that we have that spiritual sense to which the Lord alluded in His reply to Judas. There must be not only an exhibition of the Divine self, there must also be the human capability of apprehending this. “ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” The heart is not the sensitive plate upon which the manifestations of the Father can become the visible image, until it is prepared by the chemistry of love. With such preparation, the Divine manifestation meets a human capacity to receive, and revelation is complete. You read in the Bible a passage as familiar to you as the alphabet. Hitherto it has seemed to contain very little meaning, and certainly has been no mediator between you and God. Now, however, it scintillates with new meaning, and seems weighty with unsuspected value. Every high-school scholar is familiar with the experiment by which the agency of the air in the phenomena of sound is proved. A silver bell is suspended upon a spiral spring in a glass globe. The bell is kept in vibration, and its sound is at first clearly heard. But now an air pump is set in motion beneath the globe. The impact of the bell’ s tiny tongue upon its sides goes on as before, yet as the air is exhausted the sound grows fainter and fainter, and at last completely dies away. The ocular manifestations are exactly as before, but the receptive medium of the air, without which sound cannot exist, is gone. In the Master’ s explanation, love is that medium, that condition of the heart, within which alone the manifestations of the Divine presence and of Divine truth can transmute themselves into revelation. The mysticism of this chapter is transcendent realism. There is a touch more delicate than touch, a vision more penetrating than vision, a hearing more acute than hearing. Jesus Christ was not a physical but a spiritual revelation. The physical senses of hundreds of men came into relation with the manifestations of Christ’ s physical existence, but, for lack of that “ eighth sense,” of love, discovered in him no divinity. Jesus Christ presents a body of spiritual facts adapted to human apprehension. He is not spiritual fact made discernible by physical faculty. The whole life of Christ, as written in the Scriptures, is the Holy Spirit’ s canvas. If we go to it sympathetically, the Spirit of God will glorify Himself in us. He will cause us to see and feel and know the facts of spiritual life. It is our right to have just as authentic evidence that the grace of God changes the heart, as stands in the records of the apostles. It is given us to have a spiritual insight for ourselves, and to be able to testify, not that there is an old chronicle which reports that a Pharisee of Tarsus was spiritually blind and somehow gained spiritual eyesight, but to testify that we were blind, yet now see. It is our privilege to know that the Spirit of Christ is the vital power of our spiritual nature, and from immediate knowledge to testify of its operation. (History, Prophecy, and Gospel.) Christ manifesting Himself to His people What a blessed Master Jesus Christ was! How familiar did He allow His disciples to make themselves with Him! He was none of your dignitaries who pride themselves on that dignity; but He talks to His disciples just as a father would to his children--even more kindly than a master might to his pupils. Here is I. A GREAT FACT: that Jesus Christ does reveal Himself to His people, but He does not unto the world. The fact is implied in the question, and there are many who have a Bible of experience--which teaches us that it is true. 1. The favoured people to whom Jesus Christ manifests Himself. “ Us.” It appears that they do not belong to the world. They are men who are not worldly in principle, in action, in conversation, in desires, in object, or in end. 2. Special seasons of manifestation. “ When.” These highly favoured men do not always see Jesus Christ alike. There are special times when God is pleased to reveal Himself to His people. (1) Times of duty. I never found a lazy or indifferent Christian have a manifestation of Jesus Christ; I never heard one who gave himself wholly to business talk much of spiritual manifestations. Those who do but little for Christ, Christ does but little for them in the way of special favours. The men who are the most zealous for their Master discern the most of His loving kindness, and enjoy His richest blessings. (2) In seasons of trial. Do not complain then; for it is in the time of trouble we see most of Jesus. Previous to trial you may generally expect a season of joy. But when the trial comes, then expect to have delight with it. 3. The wondrous display. Jesus manifests Himself. There are many manifestations of God to His children; but this is the most precious of all. He does this in different ways. You have seen Jesus with the eye of faith hanging on the cross. At other times you have had a manifestation of Christ in His gifts. Then, again, you will see Him in His triumph. 4. The effects of this manifestation. (1) Humility. “ God has respect unto the humble, but the proud he knoweth afar off.” (2) Happiness: for he must be happy who lives near to God. (3) Holiness. Some men profess a great deal; but do not believe any man unless you see that his deeds answer to what he says. II. AN INQUIRY. 1. It was suggested by (1) Ignorance. Judas thought: “ If we see Him the world must see Him too. (2) Kindness. He wanted it all to be given to everybody. Ah! we never need be more benevolent than God. (3) Love to his Master. He wished Christ’ s dominion might be universal. (4) Admiration. “ Who are we that we should have it?” 2. The answer. The question was not answered; for it was unanswerable. Is it not enough that He should do so? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Who bring and who repel Christ The real meaning of the question is, “ Lord! What has come to pass to induce you to abandon the course on which we entered when you rode into Jerusalem with the shouting crowd?” His question is no better in intelligence, though it is a great deal better in spirit, than the taunt of Christ’ s brethren, “ If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world.” Judas, too, thought of the simple flashing of His Messianic glory, in some visible vulgar form, before else blind eyes. How sad and chilling such a question must have been to Jesus! Slow scholars we all are; and with what wonderful patience He reiterates His lesson. I. WHAT BRINGS CHRIST AND WHAT CHRIST BRINGS. Note two significant changes in the form of expression. 1. He had formerly said, “ If ye love Me;” now, as against Judas’ s complacent assumption, He says, “ Anybody may have the vision if He observes the conditions.” 2. Christ’ s “ Word” is wider than “ commandment.” It includes all His sayings as in one vital unity and organic whole. We are not to go picking and choosing among them; they are one. And every word of Christ’ s, be it revelation or be it a promise, enshrines within itself a commandment. Note 1. That Christ will show Himself to the loving heart. (1) Every act of obedience to any moral truth is rewarded by additional insight. Every act of submission to His will cleans the lenses of the telescope, and so the stars are brighter and larger, and nearer. As we climb the hill we get a wider view. (2) But in our relation to Him we have to do not with truths only, but with a Person. There is only one way to know people, that is, by loving them. They tell us that “ love is blind.” No! There are not such a clear pair of eyes anywhere as the eyes of love. Sympathy is the parent of insight into persons, as obedience is the parent of insight into duty. (3) Our loving obedience has not only an operation inwards upon us, but has an effect outwards upon Christ. Too commonly is it the case that even good Christian people have a far more realizing faith in the past work of Christ on earth than in the present work of Christ on themselves. They think the one a plain truth, and the other something like a metaphor, whereas the New Testament teaches us plainly that there is an actual supernatural communication of Christ, which leads day by day to a fuller knowledge, a larger possession, of a fuller Christ. And one piece of honest loving obedience is worth all the study and speculation of an unloving heart when the question is, “ How are we to see Christ?” 2. Jesus shows Himself to the obedient heart in indissoluble union with the Father. Look at the majesty and, except upon one hypothesis, the insane presumption of such words as these: “ If a man love Me My father will love him.” As if identifying love to Christ with love to Himself. And look at that wondrous union, the consciousness of which speaks in “ We will come.” Think of a man saying that. Just as in heaven there is but one throne for God and the Lamb, so on earth there is but one coming of the Father in the Son. And this is the only belief that will keep this generation from despair and moral suicide. The world has learned half of that great verse, “ No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him.” If the world is not to go mad, if everything higher and nobler than the knowledge of material phenomena and their sequences is not to perish from the earth, the world must learn the next half, “ The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” Christ shows Himself in indissoluble union with the Father. 3. Christ shows Himself to the obedient love by a true coming. (1) That coming is not to be confounded either with mere Divine Omnipresence, nor of increased perception on our part of Christ’ s fulness. That great central Sun draws nearer and nearer to the planets that move about it, and, having once been in an almost infinitely distant horizon, approaches until planet and Sun unite. (2) That coming is a permanent residence. Very beautiful is it to notice that our Lord here employs that same sweet and significant word, “ In My Father’ s house are many mansions.” Yonder they dwell forever with God; here God in Christ forever dwells with the loving heart. It is a permanent abode so long as the conditions are fulfilled, but only so long. In the last hours of the Holy City a great voice said, “ Let us depart hence;” and tomorrow the shrine was empty, and the day after it was in flames. Brethren, if we could keep the Christ in whom is God, remember it is by the act of loving obedience. II. WHAT KEEPS AWAY CHRIST AND ALL HIS (John 14:24)? 1. “ He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings.” No love, no obedience. That is plainly true, because the heart of all the commandments is love, and where that is not, disobedience to their very spirit is. No power will lead men to Christ’ s yoke except the power of love. It was only the rising sunbeam that could draw music from the stony lips of Memnon, and it is only when Christ’ s love shines on our faces that we open our lips in praise, and move our hands in service. Those great rocking stones down in Cornwall stand unmoved by any tempest, but a child’ s finger, put at the right place, will set them vibrating. And so the heavy, hard, stony bulk of our hearts lies torpid and immovable until He lays His loving finger upon them, and then they rock at His will. That makes short work, does it not, of a great deal that calls itself Christianity? Reluctant, self-interested, constrained obedience is no obedience; outward acts of service, if the heart be wanting, are rubbish. 2. Disobedience to Christ is disobedience to God. Paul has to say, “ So speak I, not the Lord.” And you would not think a man a very sound or safe religious teacher who said to you to begin with, “ Now, mind, everything that I say, God says.” The personality of Jesus Christ is never, through all His utterances, so separated but that God speaks in Him: and, listening to His voice, we hear the absolute utterance of the uncreated and eternal wisdom. 3. Therefore follows the conclusion, which our Lord does not state, but leaves us to supply. What brings Him is the obedience of love; what repels Him is alienation and rebellion. Conclusion: 1. It is possible for men not to see Christ, though He stands there close before them. 2. Christ’ s showing of Himself to men is in no sense arbitrary. It is you that determines what you shall see. The door of your hearts is hinged to open from within, and if you do not open it it stops shut, and Christ stops outside. 3. You do not need to do anything to blind yourselves. Simple negation is fatal. “ If a man love not;” that is all. The absence of love is your ruin. 4. You ask how can I get this love and obedience. There is only one answer. We know that we love Him when we know that He loves us; and we know He loves us when we see Him dying on His cross. So here is the ladder, that starts down in the miry clay of the horrible pit, and fastens its golden hooks on His throne. The first round is, behold the dying Christ and His love to me. The second is, let that love melt my heart into sweet responsive love. The third is, let my love mould my life into obedience. And then Christ, and God in Him, will give me a fuller knowledge and a deeper love, and make His dwelling with me. And then there is only one step left, and that will land us by the throne of God, and in the many mansions of the Father’ s house where we shall make our abodes with Him forever more. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) If a man love Me, he will keep My words Love and obedience I. THE LOVE OF CHRIST WILL PRODUCE TO HIS WORDS. Because 1. It presupposes a sense of the evil of sin and a desire for righteousness. 2. Love desires to please, and ever shrinks from grieving its object. 3. Love is essentially imitative. To love evil is to be debased; to love goodness is to be ennobled. 4. The affections exert a strong influence on the will. The strength of evil lies in the love of it, and so the strength of goodness. II. LOVES AND OBEYS CHRIST WILL SECURE TO HIMSELF THE FATHER’ S LOVE. 1. This is natural. There is no nearer passage to a parent’ s heart than to love his child. 2. God loves Christ in a manner and degree of which we can form no conception; and if you love Him, too, although your love may differ in manner it is the same in kind. So you are partakers of the Divine nature, which is love, and as God loves and delights in Himself, He will love and delight in you. 3. To love Christ is to be like Him, and for the same reason that God loves Christ will He love us. God loves us in our unholiness, and if He so loved us when we were enemies as to give His Son to die for us, how much more will He love us now we are His friends? III. LOVE TO THE SON AND THE LOVE OF THE FATHER WILL RESULT IN THE OF BOTH. Love ever seeks to dwell with its object. The effect of its indwelling Isaiah 1. Peace and satisfaction. God’ s presence constitutes the joy of heaven, and where He comes He brings heaven. 2. Hungerings and thirstings after righteousness and God. So sweet is God’ s love that appetite grows on what it feeds upon. The tasted drop begets a longing for the ocean. 3. Privilege and honour. (F. J. Sharr.) Love the source of obedience 1. There is nothing that a sincere Christian more desires than to keep the commandments of Christ. But human nature is human nature still; and lapses occur daily. The more anxious we are to stand in all the ordinances of the law blameless, the more we are convicted of failure; and failure at last makes us indifferent or despondent. 2. But may it not be that our ill success is due to misunderstanding the philosophy of the subject, and failure to appropriate the forces which would have surely pushed us on toward success? What, then, is this Divine energy, which, were it constantly in our hearts, would, with an authority that we should gladly recognize and yield to, command obedience? It is love to Christ. I. LOVE IS A PASSION. 1. The strongest and most unconquerable forces in human nature are the passions. Like rivers in spring time, when the snows are melting on the mountains, and the clouds, driven by south winds, are emptying their waters upon the earth, they rise and swell, and overflow, submerging the whole nature. 2. God is the Parent of our passions: He begat love, and said, “ It is the fulfilling of the law,” i.e., the force out of which all obedience comes, just as we say, “ That man’ s fortune is in his brains.” Not that it is in dollars and cents actually there; but that within his brain are the forces that shall win his fortune. 3. Now, Christ, the greatest and wisest of all Teachers, knew the use of passion; for it was His own child. He created man with it. He knew, too, its potency; for, when a man was begotten, He supplied it to him in due measure and force. When He began to teach, He did not go to the conscience, and say, “ Convict;” not to the reverential faculty, and say, “ Adore;” nor to the reason, and say, “ Argue, speculate.” No: He went straight and at once to the great central force in nature--to that engine-like power in man, which has power not merely to propel itself, but to start all the long train of faculties that are dependent upon it into motion, and to say, “ Love.” Christ used it everywhere. In the case of the poor wicked woman, whose tears fell at His feet when He was at dinner with the Pharisee, He made it the measure of forgiveness. He made it the source of all obedience, as in our text. The Apostle John made it the test of regeneration. And, as if he would put it so that all eyes must see it, he wrote, “ God is love.” II. LOVE A PERSON TO ELICIT IT. 1. Regarded as a sentiment, love is possible in respect to principles; but, regarded as a passion, it is possible only touching a person. A patriot does not lay down his life for liberty in the front rank of battle with the same feeling which fills a frontiersman when he dies fighting at the door of his log cabin in an heroic attempt to defend his wife and children from the murderous savages. We admire beauty, we reverence virtue, we praise modesty as elements of character; but never until the eyes behold them clothed in physical form do we love them. The qualities we admire, the woman we love. 2. Here, at this point, you see how love educates one in worthy directions. The man loves the woman, the woman the man, and each the qualities that the other represents. Each educates the other into a finer appreciation. They grow to be each more like the other. In this great love of assimilation going on between those who truly love, based on the apprehension of embodied virtues, I find the true source of that gratitude in my heart, that God took flesh and dwelt among us. Before Christ came, God was an abstraction, a collection of powers and principles, august and lovely, known to the reason, the conscience, the reverential faculties, but not to the warm, passionate side of human nature. And may God forgive us, who, having this living, breathing, personal Saviour revealed to us, love Him so little! “ If ye love Me,” said Christ: not the principles I represent, the truth I teach, My virtue, but “ Me.” 3. Is it not just at this point that we are able to see why religion is so cold and unexpressive? Our philosophy is at fault. We have put truth in front of Him who revealed it. We keep the principles, but lose the Person, of Christ. We have lost sight of the sun in our eager chase to capture the sunbeams. 4. Whence comes the charm of love and loving life? Is it not grouped around some person, as fragrance around a flower? Does it not come from the eye, the voice, the face, the form, of one beloved? Let the loved form be stricken, the voice silent and where is the charm of your love gone? It has gone out, with the personal life that expressed it; gone as the fragrance goes when you shake the leaves of the rose from their fastenings; gone back to God who gave it; and “ your house is left unto you desolate.” What is domestic life now? And what is religious life when the face and form of Jesus are gone from the chamber of your heart, but a cold, silent, embarrassed, constrained, and mournful state? 5. You hear people say that the absence of religious emotion in our churches and among the upper classes is due to their culture and refinement. It is not so. The argument proves too much. Love is not subject to such modification. Who would say that a cultivated person cannot love as intensely as a rude one? Must a young man marry an ignorant girl in order to be loved? This sublime passion has but one voice, one touch, the world over. Like some bird, true to its species, that inhabits every clime, its food, its plumage, its mode of birth and growth, its note, are everywhere the same. III. THE POWER OF LOVE. 1. Obedience is the hardest of all things for those naturally inclined not to obey, to do. It is so with a child. And it is therefore necessary to bring the strongest possible motive to bear upon the child, that he may obey. You say, “ My children love me, but they do not mind me. That motive does not make them obedient.” But have you ever shown your child the connection between your heart and his wrong conduct? Have you made the little fellow understand how his behaviour hurts you? Have you sought to restrain him as you would a young dog, by the stamp of your foot and the glance of your eye? or as a parent should, by moral education? Some people appeal more to brute fear in their children than they do to human love. 2. Love is the strongest passion known to mortals. It is stronger than hate, for death checks its cry. Leaving the bloody body on the sand, it returns content to its kennel. But love is not checked, is not weakened by death. There is no power like love. It will carry heavier burdens, endure more buffeting, do more service, face more perils, live on under the sense of deepest shame, beyond any other emotion that the heart of man is able to feel. (W. H. H. Murray.) On obeying Christ I. THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO OBEY CHRIST BECAUSE THEY SEE FOR THAT HIS ARE LOFTY AND GOOD. But this is not the same thing as obeying Christ. 1. If a man over whom you have no authority consults you about a piece of work, and does not take your advice, you may think him a dull or a lazy man, but not a disobedient one. There can be no obedience or disobedience where there is no authority. But if the man is your servant the case is different. He may think that his own way is better than yours, but he has to accept yours. You are his master. So if I recognize the authority of Christ, I shall obey Him before I recognize that His commandments are good and wise. His words are laws to be fulfilled, not ethical treatises the soundness of whose principles I find by study. 2. In the training of children we do not explain everything before we expect obedience. A child of six does not easily understand why he should take offensive medicine, or a child of ten why he should learn the Latin declensions. He has to do it first, and to discover the reasons afterwards. And so if a child be not disciplined to truthfulness, industry, etc., before he can see for himself the obligation of these virtues, he will never see that lying and indolence are vices. Compel him to be industrious and he will discover the obligations of industry. 3. And so if we obey Christ His commandments will shine in their own light. It is not by meditation but by practice that we see the beauty of His words. II. THERE ARE OTHERS WHO ACCEPT CHRIST’ S ON ALL MORAL AGAINST THEIR OWN BECAUSE HE KNOWS SO MUCH MORE ABOUT THAN THEY DO. This is a great advance, but it is not enough. It is only faith in Christ’ s larger moral wisdom, not in His authority. It sometimes happens that a young man finds himself in a position in which it is hard for him to reconcile his personal interests with the claims of others. There are three or four courses open to him; one of them he dismisses as involving quite unnecessary sacrifice; he is perplexed about the rest. He consults an older man in whom he has perfect faith. His friend tells him that he is bound to take the course which he has dismissed from his mind. The young man cannot see why, but trusts his older friend’ s judgment rather than his own. This is a great proof of confidence, but it is not obedience. Christ does not come asking only for our confidence. He comes asserting authority. III. WE MUST OBEY GOD BECAUSE WE OUGHT. 1. There is a light which lighteth every man, and however broken and obscured is a light from heaven. It is the revelation of the eternal law of righteousness, and whatever obedience I owe that law which is revealed to conscience I owe to God. That God is my Creator, is good, can punish, imposes on me many obligations; but if He were not my God, though I should be bound to be grateful to Him, or should fear Him, yet my conscience would determine the measure of my duty towards Him, and I might not find absolute obedience to be due to Him. But in that He is God, He has an authority over me that is unique and unlimited; and you might just as well ask, Why should I obey conscience? as, Why should I obey God? The only answer in each case is, I ought. There is nothing more to be said. 2. And in Christ God comes and claims my obedience. He is the eternal law of righteousness incarnate. He does not counsel; He commands. IV. THIS IS ON THE GROUND THAT EVEN IN CHRIST’ S IS SUPREME. It is true that conscience must determine whether or not the claims of Christ are valid; but when conscience has once discovered that He is the personal revelation of the law of righteousness, it has discovered its Master. “ But am I to obey Christ against the dictates of my own conscience?” Wait and see whether the conflict arises. It may happen that some of Christ’ s precepts impose duties which conscience has not discovered, for conscience is not omniscient, and often discovers duties when too late to discharge them. What would we now give if we had recognized filial objections, which are now so clear, thirty years ago? Christ enables us to anticipate experience. He does not command what conscience condemns; but in the early years of Christian life it is very commonly found that He commands many duties which as yet conscience does not enforce. V. THE CLAIMS OF CHRIST PROVOKE not only speculative criticism, but. 1. It is one thing to submit to an abstract law which conscience discovers, in this there is no humiliation; it is quite another thing to submit to the government of a Person. Nor is the claim resisted, because made by one who has “ been made flesh” There are many who suppose they believe in God, but who refuse Him all authority over conduct. They regard Him as nothing more than an hypothesis to account for the universe. While He is nothing more than this the personal life is free; as soon as He claims authority the freedom seems lost. 2. But those to whom the great discovery of God in Christ has come, know that in His service there is perfect freedom. The rule of law is the real tyranny. The law can only command; but when Christ becomes Lord of conduct, He stands by us in every conflict; gives strength as well as defines duty. Christ becomes our Comrade, but yet He is our Ruler, and we are under the government of a higher Will than our own. 3. We have to obey God in Christ. But when the real secret of the Christian revelation is mastered, the obedience assumes an unique character. The fountains of our life are in Him. He is our higher, truer self. Not until we abide in Christ, and He in us, are we able to keep His commandments. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.) Loved of God An oak tree, as it stands in the open forest, presents one of the most perfect forms of sturdy independence. So fitted is that tree to stand alone, that the architect of the Bell Rock lighthouse copied the work of a greater Architect, and took as the model of a building that was to resist the sweep of waves and winds the trunk of an oak tree. In striking contrast with this, there are plants in nature, and some of them the most beautiful and fragrant, that cannot stand alone. Yet these are not doomed to be trodden under foot. No; types of him who is strong in his weakness, exalted in his humility, these may overtop the loftiest oak, and laugh at the storm that lays its head in the dust. And how? They are made to attach themselves to other objects; and when they have had no other objects to attach themselves to, they entwine their arms within each other--embrace their own body: like a selfish man, whose affections are all fixed upon himself. As these plants are, so are we; what their tendrils, and arms, and instruments of attachment are to them, our affections are to us. Man is not made to be independent. Constituted as I and you are, we can no more fling off our affections than we can fling off any other part of our nature, the object good or bad, be it the earth or be it heaven, man can no more live without loving than he can live without breathing. Obedience to the command “ love not the world” had been an impossibility, unless there had been this other command--“ love the Lord thy God.” I must love something; and if you would put the love of the world out of my heart, you must pour the love of God into it. Note I. THE FATHER LOVES THOSE WHO LOVE HIS SON. How God should have loved those who hated Him--but that God should love us, so soon as through grace we come to love His Son--I as a father, you as parents, can easily understand. I love all that love my children. Do my child a good, and it has a double value than if it were done to myself; do my child an injury, and I know nothing in this world that would so soon lash and goad a father into madness. I have heard of good people who have been greatly distressed to know whether God loved them. The way to know that is just to see and know, “ Am I loving Christ?” Can you appeal to Him who searches all your heart, and taking up the language of a man who, if he belied his Master, afterwards most bravely died for Him. “ Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee?” Then, you can add, I know that God loves me; and if God loves me, happy am I, I can afford to dispense with the love of others. With my back at the throne of God I can defy the world. And even if they hate me who should love me, I am not miserable: with the sun in the sky, I can afford to dispense with the twinkling stars. The love of God is like the life of God, the covenant of grace standeth sure, and, “ whom He loveth He loveth to the end.” II. IF WE LOVE CHRIST, GOD AND CHRIST WILL COME TO US. David was so offended at the cold-blooded murder of Amnon, that although he permitted Absalom to return to Jerusalem, for two years he would not see him. And when the sin of Eden was committed, God was so offended that He withdrew. Intercourse between God and man after the Fall was mainly continued through servants, until at length His Son came, and He came to reconcile them that were at enmity, and has done it. And I take that to be expressed in, “ We will come unto Him.” That implies that the offence has been removed; that the friendly visits are renewed. Having faith in Christ, we have peace with God. You may ask me how God and Christ come to us. I need not tell you, that they come in the Word, by daily grace, by the communications of the Spirit: so much so, that there are no lovers meet so often as Jesus and His bride; and there is no mother goes so often to her nursery, to see her children, as I believe our Father comes to visit His children upon earth. You see your neighbour once a day; you see your friend or brother once or twice a year; but if you are God’ s people, there are none you meet so often as God. He comes at the time of prayer; takes the mercy seat at the family worship; and into that closet where the good man goes, goes along with him. The believer finds every morning a letter from home on his table, in his Bible--a letter from His Father. He may be humble, poor, despised; but there is not a man on earth moves in such high society as the humblest of God’ s poor ones. III. GOD AND CHRIST WILL ABIDE WITH US. What else will? Who else will? Not your parents, pastors, health, prosperity, family. A good man deprived of His all is left God, his Bible, grace, a throne of grace. Conclusion: Cultivate the love of Christ. It is a fire that will go out unless it is fed; it is a plant that will die unless it is cultivated. There are two sayings that should stir us up to this, “ Seeing is believing;” “ Out of sight out of mind.” Why is it that in heaven they ever love? Because they ever see? Now, as you cannot see Christ, there is the more need that you should make up by faith for want of sight. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The Father’ s love felt The sun was shining in the heavens, revealing to the world the infinite beauty of form and colour, for untold ages before its rays were analyzed by the prism. It was bringing forth verdure by its warmth for untold ages before it was found out that oceans of hydrogen served upon his surface, and that heat, like light, is a mode of motion. What you and I want, and what you and I have, is not the bare truth that there is a sun, but the sense of its warmth. What we want, and what we have is not an analysis of what the idea of God means, but the sense that there is a Father who loves us, and has communion with us. (E. Hatch, D. D.) Christ and His words I. THE BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS WORDS. 1. Christ and His words are both very fully made known to us. This is not always the case with the teachers of the race. (1) Sometimes we may have a great personality who has stirred his own and subsequent generations, but we have few or none of his words. His secret has died with him, as in the case of Pythagoras, Noah, Enoch, Abraham. (2) We may have great and noble words from a man, but we may know little of his personality--as in the case of Homer, Shakespeare, Plato, Isaiah, and many of: those prophets. (3) But in Christ both the personality and the words have been brought out into the clearest and fullest illumination. We should have felt unsatisfied unless we had heard the law of love from His own lips, and our wish is met. And with the words God has given us the life, as never a life was given, by those four, each different, yet each the same, a separate mirror to take in the side presented to it, but all disclosing in life-like harmony the one grand person--each so absorbed in his theme that he himself is forgotten. (4) The words of Christ, then, and Christ Himself, are both fully made known to us. The gospel has its expression in His words, but its power and spirit are in His life. He is Himself “ the Word made flesh” --the greatest utterance in the greatest person. 2. There is a perfect harmony between Christ and His words. (1) He and His words are in agreement, else they could not co-exist and coalesce as He says they must do. This is not always the case with a man and His words. (a) Sometimes we can love and esteem a man, and yet his words carry neither conviction to the understanding nor moving power to the soul. (b) Or, we may admire the words, but we cannot love the man. It is with pain that we turn from the words of Bacon to his life, and from the scorn of worldly ambition by the author of the “ Night Thoughts” to his eager pursuit of it in courtly circles. One of the most melancholy contrasts is between the words of the wisest of men and the exemplification which he himself gave of wisdom. How different when we come to Christ! Our deepest moral nature sets the seal of approval on His words. “ Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into Thy lips.” When He inculcates humility, He Himself “ is among the disciples as one that serveth.” When He speaks of purity, “ He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” When He urges the law of kindness, “ He goes about doing good.” (2) While the words and life are in harmony, yet the life is greater than the words. A man should always be more than his expression. We feel that whatever some men may say or do, they are capable of something above it. This is preeminently true of Jesus. This superiority of the person to the words of Christ is not destructive of harmony; it is the highest reach of it. In all things that perfectly agree there must be a great and a greater, in some such way as God agrees with His universe, which is His expression of Himself, while yet He remains an infinity behind it. It is one of the most important steps a man can take in his spiritual history when he passes from listening to the sayings to looking up into the face of Christ, and learns that the words are only rays from the countenance of the “ Eternal Life,” the natural breathings from Him who is “ the Word made flesh.” “ Now we believe, not because of thy saying, but because we ourselves know that this is indeed the Christ.” II. THE BETWEEN LOVING CHRIST AND KEEPING HIS WORDS. Note 1. The central truth of Christian doctrine, viz., that there must be a change of heart before there is a change of life. Christ is the lawgiver of God’ s world, and before we can obey His laws we must be on terms of amity with Himself. God’ s friendship must come before God’ s service. Now, it is frequently taught--that there must be service before there can be friendship, and that peace can only be purchased by obedience. But who can do anything that will bear the look of service in a spiritual sense until the heart is in it? Love to Him, however, can face every duty, dare every danger, endure every sacrifice, when it sees His self-sacrifice to save him from the most terrible of all evils, exclusion from the favour and life of the God. Less than this cannot explain either the Epistles or Gospels, neither can it, in the last extremity, bear the weight of what Christ requires of those who own His allegiance. 2. The Christian philosophy of morality. (1) The superiority of the morality of Christianity, candid men who profess to stand outside generally admit. But what is often overlooked is that this superiority does not consist so much in its details as in its central principle of action. There is no system but Christianity that has gathered all the grand motives to morality round a person, and made the strength and essence of them spring from love to Him. (2) There would be a fatal objection to this if Christ were less than God. For then His claim of implicit obedience would be impious, and if He had done less for man than save him from the lowest depth, He could not require all his nature to be given up to Him. Here, again, the morality of the gospel is seen to be closely connected with its doctrines. The Divinity of Christ forbids the charge of assumption on His part, and His atonement prevents the feeling that there is over-exaction from us. This view makes Christian morality and doctrine cohere; and those men who speak of detaching the gospel morality from the gospel doctrine are as rational as the men who would pluck a blossom from a tree and think to have it come to fruit. Conclusion: There are only three conceivable ways in which morality can be thought of as springing up in man. 1. By instinct. But how feeble, fluctuating, contradictory, this is when left to itself; and if it were perfect, morality by instinct would be morality mechanical. 2. By reason. But reason can never furnish sufficient motive power; it becomes weakest when passion is strongest. Hence reason, in morality, is much more a thing for the philosopher in his closet than for the mass of men in the struggle and strain of life. 3. By love, and love going forth to a person. It is this way that Christianity has chosen. (J. Ker, D. D.) John 14:25-26 These things have I spoken unto you The mission of the Holy Spirit I. ITS FROM THAT OF JESUS CHRIST. Both Christ and the Spirit were sent by the Father, and were sent to teach; but they differed in respect of 1. Character. Christ had been sent in the Father’ s name as the Father’ s representative; the Spirit was come in Christ’ s name as Christ’ s representative. 2. Purpose. Christ had been sent to furnish men with an objective image of God; the Spirit to give an inward apprehension of the same. 3. Duration. Christ came for a season; the Spirit forever. 4. Results. Christ’ s mission was imperfectly realized so far as it related to the enlightenment of men; that of the Spirit would attain complete success both in instructing and sanctifying. II. ITS IS THE CASE OF CHRIST’ S . 1. Scripture illumination. A wonderful light began to shine on the Old Testament, which enabled them to see its references to Christ which had previously been hidden (cf. Psalms 16:8-11 with Acts 2:25-28; Psalms 110:1 with Acts 2:34; Psalms 2:1-2 with Ac Psalms 2:7 with Acts 13:33; Amos 9:11 with Ac Zechariah 9:9 with John 12:16) . 2. Quickened recollection. A lively recollection of forgotten words of Jesus began to show itself. Examples: John 2:22; Luke 24:8; Acts 11:16; Acts 20:35. In particular, Christ’ s utterances concerning His relation with the Father (John 8:28). 3. Further revelation. A gradual disclosure of truths which had been concealed in Christ’ s teaching but not developed as, e.g., the doctrines of (1) His Divinity (Acts 1:36). (2) His atoning death (Acts 3:19). (3) His exclusive Mediatorship (Acts 4:12). (4) Justification by faith (Acts 13:39; Romans 1:16-17; Romans 3:21-26; Romans 5:1). (5) The Catholicity of the New Testament Church (Acts 11:17; Romans 1:6-7; Romans 2:11; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:14-16). In short, out of this flowed the New Testament. III. ITS TO THE GENERAL BODY OF . 1. Negatively. It does not warrant the expectation that new revelations will be imparted to either the Church or individual--a pretension advanced by Rome, which places tradition on a level with the writings of apostles. 2. Positively. Christ’ s language implies that the Church and the individual have today, as the apostles had, a Teacher qualified to lead them into all religious truth (1 John 2:20). Learn: 1. The high esteem in which the Holy Spirit should be held as the Father’ s Commissioner, the Saviour’ s Expositor, the apostles’ Remembrancer, the Church’ s Teacher, the saints’ Comforter. 2. The great confidence which should be placed in the Holy Spirit, possessing as He does the two-fold stamp and seal of the Father and the Son. 3. The sincere gratitude with which the Holy Spirit should be welcomed, since without His assistance the revealed Christ cannot be understood. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Teacher Spirit I. THE TEACHER. 1. “ The Comforter” means literally one who is called to the side of another, primarily for the purpose of being his representative in some legal process; and, more widely, for any purpose of help, encouragement, and strength. 2. This comforting and strengthening office of the Spirit is brought into immediate connection with the conception of Him as a Teacher. That is to say, the best strength that God can give us is by the firm grasp and the growing clearness of understanding of the truths which are wrapped up in Christ. 3. This Divine Teacher is the Holy Ghost. We might have expected, as indeed we find in another context, the “ Spirit of Truth” as appropriate in connection with the office of teaching. But there is the profound lesson for us in this, that, side by side with the thought of illumination, there lies the thought of purity built upon consecration. (1) There is no real knowledge of Christ and His truth without purity of heart. The man who has no ear can never understand music. The man who has no eye for beauty can never be brought to bow his spirit before some gem of art. The scholars in Christ’ s school have to come there with clean hands and clean hearts. (2) On the other hand, the truest motives for purity are found in that great word which is meant much rather to make us good than to make us wise. So, in this designation of the teaching Spirit as holy, there lie lessons for two classes. All fanatical professions of possessing Divine illumination which are not warranted by purity of life are lies or self-delusion. And, on the other hand, cold-blooded intellectualism will never force the locks of the palace of Divine truth, but they that come there must have clean hands and a pure heart. 4. The Holy Ghost is “ sent by God” in Christ’ s name. (1) He acts as Christ’ s Representative; just as Christ comes in the Father’ s name and acts as His Representative. (2) He has, for the basis of His mission, and the sphere in which He acts, the recorded facts of Christ’ s life and death, these and none other. 5. This Messenger is a Person. “ He.” They tell us that the doctrine of the Trinity is not in the New Testament. The word is not, but the thing is. In this verse we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit brought into such close and indissoluble union as is only vindicated from the charge of blasphemy by the belief in the divinity of each. That Divine Spirit is more than an influence. “ He shall teach,” and He can be grieved by evil and sin. II. THE LESSON. 1. Christ is the lesson book. 2. The significance of this lesson book, the history of our Lord, cannot be unfolded all at once. The world and the Church received Christ, as it were, in the dark; and, like some man that has got a precious gift into his hands as the morning was dawning, each fresh moment that passed revealed as the light grew new beauties and new preciousness in the thing possessed. Christ’ s words are inexhaustible, and the Spirit’ s teaching is to unveil more and more the infinite significance that lies in the apparently least significant of them. 3. If this be our Lord’ s meaning here, He plainly anticipated that after His departure there should be a development of Christian doctrine. The earlier disciples had only a very partial grasp of Christ’ s nature. They knew next to nothing of the great doctrine of sacrifice; about His resurrection; that He was going back to heaven; of the spirituality or universality of His kingdom. None of these things were in their mind. They had all been in germ in His words. And after he was gone, there came over them a breath of the teaching Spirit, and the unintelligible flashed up into significance. 4. If Jesus Christ and the deep understanding of Him be the true lesson of the Divine Spirit, then real progress consists, not in getting beyond Christ, but in getting more fully into Him. I hope I believe In the continuous advance of Christian thought as joyfully as any man, but my notion of it--and Christ’ s notion of it--is to get more and more into His heart, and to find within Him, and not away from Him, “ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” All other teachers’ words become feeble by age, as their persons become wrapped in oblivion; but the progress of the Church consists in absorbing more and more of Christ, in understanding Him better, and becoming more and more moulded by His influence. III. THE . 1. The apostles, in all this conversation, stand as the representatives of the Church. For this very Evangelist refers to this promise, when he says, addressing all his Asiatic brethren, “ Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things.” And, again, “ The unction which ye have of Him abideth with you, and ye need not that any man should teach you.” So, then, every believing soul has this Divine Spirit for His Teacher. 2. But let us not forget that the early teaching is the standard. As to the first disciples the office of the Divine Spirit was to bring before them the deep significancs of their Master’ s life and words, so to us the office of the teaching Spirit is to bring to our minds the deep significance of the record of what they learned from Him. “ If a man think himself to be spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.” Conclusion: (1) Let this great promise fill us with shame. What slow scholars we are! How little we have learnt! How we have let passion, prejudice, the babble of men’ s tongue’ s, anybody and everybody take the office of teaching us God’ s truth, instead of waiting before Him and letting His Spirit teach us! “ When for the time we ought to be teachers, have need that one teach us which be the first principles of the oracles of Christ.” (2) Let it fill us with desire, diligence, and calm hope. They tell us that Christianity is effete. Have we got all out of Jesus Christ that is in Him? Is the process that has been going on for all these centuries going to stop now? Ah! depend upon it the new problems of this generation will find their solution where the old problems of past generations have found theirs, and the old commandment of the old Christ will be the new commandment of the new Christ. Foolish men both on the Christian and on the anti-Christian side stand and point to the western sky and say, “ The Sun is setting.” But that which sank in the west rises fresh and bright in the east for a new day. Jesus Christ is the Christ for all the ages and for every soul, and the world will only learn more and more of His inexhaustible fulness. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The teaching of the Holy Ghost I. WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES US. He teaches God’ s people 1. All that they do. (1) There are some things which you and I can do naturally without any teaching. Who ever taught a child to cry? But you and I could not cry of ourselves till we had received “ the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (2) Children have to be taught to speak. We, too, are taught to speak. We have none of us learned, as yet, the whole vocabulary of Canaan. “ No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost?” Those first words which we ever used as Christians--“ God be merciful to me a sinner,” were taught us by the Holy Spirit; and that song which we shall sing before the throne will be His last lesson. (3) God’ s people are taught to walk and act by Him. “ It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” To stray is natural; to keep the path of right is spiritual. (4) So with the higher efforts. The preaching of the gospel, when it be done aright, is only accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. So is it with sacred song. The wings with which I mount towards the skies in sacred harmony and joy are Thy wings, O Holy Dove! The fire with which my spirit flames at times of hallowed consecration is the flame of the Spirit! 2. All they know. We may learn very much from the Word of God morally and mentally, but spiritual things are only to be spiritually discerned. (1) He reproves us of sin. No man knows the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but by the Holy Ghost. (2) Next the Spirit teaches us the total ruin, depravity, and helplessness of self. (3) The character of God. God’ s goodness and omnipotence are clearly manifested in the works of creation; but where do I read of His grace, mercy, or justice? These are only revealed to us in this precious Book, and so that we cannot know them until the Spirit opens our eyes to perceive them. (4) Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Ghost who manifests the Saviour to us in the glory of His person; the love of His heart, the power of His arm, the preciousness of His blood, and the prevalence of His plea. (5) Our adoption. Indeed, all the privileges of the new covenant, beginning from regeneration, unto the abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and especially that last point, for “ eye hath not seen,” etc. II. THE METHODS BY WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT TEACHES. 1. He excites interest in the mind. He shows them that these things have a personal bearing upon their soul’ s present and eternal welfare. 2. He gives to the man a teachable spirit. There be men who will not learn. Teach them by little and little, and they say--“ Do you think I am a child?” Tell them a great deal at once, and they say--“ You have not, the power to make me comprehend!” The Holy Spirit makes a man willing to learn in any shape. 3. He sets truth in a clear light. How hard it is sometimes to state a fact which you perfectly understand yourself, in such a way that another man may see it. It is like the telescope; there are many persons who, when they walk into an observatory and put their eye to the glass, expecting to see the rings of Saturn, have said, “ I can see nothing at all; a piece of glass, and a grain or two of dust is all I can see!” “ But,” says the astronomer, “ I can see Saturn in all his glory.” Why cannot you? Because the focus does not suit the stranger’ s eye. By a little skill the focus can be altered so that the observer may be able to see what he could not see before. Now the Holy Spirit always gives the right focus to every truth. He sheds a light so strong and forcible upon the Word, that the spirit says, “ Now I see it and understand it.” 4. He enlightens the understanding. ‘ Tie marvellous, too, how the Holy Ghost does teach men who seem as if they never could learn. I know some brethren whose opinion I would not take in anything worldly on any account. But those men have a deeper, truer, and more experimental knowledge of the Word of God than many who preach it, because the Holy Spirit never tried to teach them grammar, and never meant to teach them business, but He has taught them the Word of God, and they understand it. But I have perceived, also, that when the Spirit has enlarged the understanding to receive Bible truth, that understanding becomes more capable of receiving other truth. 5. He refreshes the memory. “ He shall bring all things to your remembrance.” 6. He makes us feel its effect. You may try to teach a child the meaning of the term “ sweetness;” but words will not avail, give him some honey and he will never forget it. So the Holy Spirit does not only tell us of Christ’ s love; He sheds it abroad in the heart. III. THE AND NATURE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’ S . The Holy Ghost teaches 1. Sovereignly. He teaches whom He wills, when He wills, as He wills. 2. Effectually. He never failed to make us learn yet. 3. Infallibly. We teach you errors through want of caution, over zeal, and the weakness of our own mind. 4. Continually. Whom once He teaches, He never leaves till He has completed their education. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Teacher of the Church I. OUR NEED OF SUCH A TEACHER. It is not enough to assume the necessity of the teaching of the Holy Ghost. All experience shows that an outward revelation of truth is inadequate. Our knowledge is always in advance of our inward conformity to it or our practical compliance with it. But even when men seem to receive and believe the truth, we must not always assume that they really understand it, or that they need no more light than it brings along with it in order to discern the fulness of its meaning. By nature man does not so easily apprehend spiritual truth. II. THE NATURE OF HIS . 1. As a Teacher, His work is in reality a continuation of the prophetical office of Christ. Jesus is the great Teacher; but the Holy Ghost is His representative on earth during His personal absence from His Church on earth. Thus we are reminded that the substance of His teaching was not a new revelation, distinct from that which had been already afforded, but an extension, completion, and application of that which had been given by Jesus Christ as His own words clearly show. He was not to speak of Himself, because He was not the Saviour in the exact sense of that word. The Holy Ghost was further to bring all things to the remembrance of the disciples of Christ which He had spoken to them. The words of the Son of God contained the germ of all Christian truth. But His work was not to be a mere helping of the memory. 2. And this work of teaching is carried on now in the Church of Christ by the Holy Ghost as truly as it was in the days of the apostles. The Holy Ghost no longer teaches us in the same manner in which He taught those who waited for His advent. No “ cloven tongues as of fire” rest upon us who preach, or upon you who hear. (1) He teaches us now by the Word which He inspired the apostles to write. (2) So also, He teaches by the instrumentality of the Christian ministry Ephesians 4:8; Ephesians 4:11-12). (3) But the Holy Ghost also teaches us by inward illumination. He speaks to our hearts by His own personal influence, and casts the rays of His enlightening grace into the darkest recesses of our spirits. (4) And, ought we not to add, He gives us this teaching, whether with reference to things human or to things Divine, whether for our natural or our spiritual life, in answer to prayer. He is an infallible Teacher; and there is no other but He. He is an ever-present Teacher. III. Finally, let me notice TWO ERRORS LYING IN QUITE , WHICH ARE WITH TO THE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 1. The first is the error of those who profess to seek and receive the teaching of the Holy Ghost while they reject the means. 2. An error no less common, among you to whom I speak perhaps even more common, is the fault of those who forget the agency of the Holy Ghost in the use of the means of grace. (W. R. Clark, M. A.) And bring all things to your remembrance The Holy Ghost a Remembrancer I. THE HOLY GHOST TEACHES US, IN A GREAT MEASURE, NOT AT THE MOMENT, BUT IN AND BY THE MEMORY. None of the faculties of the human soul have been given it in vain. Every endowment has its office; and in working out salvation, man may find his whole intellectual and moral nature brought into play. It is so with fear, with hope, with love; so also with memory. 1. There is a very remarkable instance of this in the case of the apostles. Nothing is clearer than that the twelve disciples, at the time, did not and could not comprehend the nature or the teaching of their Lord. When the Holy Ghost came down, then, as He revived in their minds the memory of all that Christ had done and said, they began to see, more and more, who He was. 2. And thus also is it with ourselves. We interpret God’ s dealings with us, not at the moment, but as we go over them again in memory. Is it not the case that in every man’ s life occur critical periods, upon which the whole after existence turns, and which yet at the time he understands not? The becoming acquainted with a certain individual, the going for a few weeks to a certain place, have often fixed a man’ s whole after destiny. You knew not at the time how important the step was; but when you look back, you are able to discern in it the hand of God. It is in memory, that is, that you can trace God’ s dealings with your soul. 3. In the history of Churches and nations, the same rule will be noticed. How frequently in the progress of a kingdom has the history of centuries turned upon an infant’ s death, upon a bow drawn at a venture. “ If the king had acted otherwise,” says the annalist, “ the history of the country from that hour would have had to be written differently.” Yet to contemporaries it seemed of no consequence which course was taken. What a difference again does the moment of acting make. The same political conduct at one period stops, at another hurries on a revolution; yet the acutest human intellect at the instant discerns not the crisis. By and by a child can often appreciate the error, and trace its results. Nor is it hard to assign a reason why God should thus leave us blind at the moment, and allow us to be enlightened afterwards. It is evident that if, whilst an event was happening, we could see palpably God’ s hand in it, our freedom of will would be interfered with. II. LET US PASS ON TO OTHER . 1. It is a common observation, that argument does no good. All a man’ s good opinion of himself is armed against you when you try to convince him that he is wrong. And perhaps if the truth is really on your side, there is yet another profounder cause why you are not heard. But you may also have noticed how in after years the same reasoning has made itself felt. When the excitement of the moment is over, the words of wisdom which we put from us will often return to the mind, and force conviction of themselves. 2. Take the case of a young man who laughs to scorn the remonstrances of a father, and pursues headlong his career of sin and self-pleasing. He has always an answer satisfactory to himself, if not to others. Life ebbs away, and those remonstrances seem to be wasted breath; yet not so. Again and again has it happened, that in distant lands and remote years, the reproof of a father and the sighs of a mother have echoed in the silent soul, and, like one risen from the dead, spoken with power. And what is this but the Holy Ghost acting upon the memory, to teach and convert the sinner. 3. And we may not pass over here the strange power which the dead possess in memory. Why should a person exercise an influence when departed out of this world which he did not exercise whilst alive? How many a wayward boy weeps bitter tears, as he recollects by a mother’ s grave, her earnest longings for his well-doing, her prayers and warnings against sin, and vows amendment which is often the beginning of a saintly life. The meaning of this is the Holy Ghost using the power of memory to check man’ s sin, and stir him to repentance. 4. And there is a darker hour yet, when the Holy Ghost turns the faculty of memory to a terrible yet blessed account, when He causes the dying man to see with a fearful distinctness all the lapses of his life past. Conclusion: 1. Memory has no power to convert. It only preserves or recalls the past. But God the Holy Ghost lays hold of man’ s memory and turns souls unto righteousness. 2. It is on this peculiar working of God the Holy Ghost as a Remembrancer, that may be founded one main argument for early Christian education. “ Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” 3. There remaineth yet a nobler accomplishment of the promise than any yet seen below. The work of the Holy Ghost as a regenerating sanctifying Spirit, will be past and over; but tits work as a Remembrancer shall never cease. For in the courts of the heavenly city there shall be a perpetual recurrence of the souls of the redeemed to all that Christ said unto them and did for them on earth. If the thunder of their song shall ever roll with a mightier volume at one time than another, it will be, methinks, as the Eternal Spirit brings to the remembrance of each saved soul, the wonders of the way in which the Lord God led it. (Bishop Woodford.) The Divine Remembrancer I. There is A GIFT OF . What would this world be if it were not given us to forget--if the finger of time had no subduing, and mellowing, and obliterating touches. What a mercy is oblivion! There is not a more gracious revelation of Deity than this--“ I will not remember thy sins.” It is among the best offices of the Holy Ghost that He can teach us to forget. There are many to whom the greatest lesson which they have to learn in the school of grace is to forget. You should not remember what God has forgotten. But here is our comfort--that if we will let the Spirit work in our hearts, He will secure at once the right memory and the right forgetfulness. II. A GIFT OF MEMORY. 1. Who has not to lament over his religious forgetfulness? Sermons, conversations, which were so interesting and so useful; hymns once learnt; passages of Scriptures, impressions, thoughts and feelings, which seemed engraven upon the mind as with a pen of iron--how have they effaced themselves? What would it be if everything which once lived in our souls were living there now? And if it be really an attribute of the Holy Ghost to bring all these things back again, and not to allow anything to die which was indeed the voice of Christ, what a possession that Spirit must be! And yet, what else can these words mean? 2. There is no doubt that a strong memory is a natural endowment. And he that has it has a wonderful power. But it is a gift--he could not help it. But that with which we have now to deal is something different. It is the prerogative of the Spirit to help the memory on all sacred subjects. And if upon sacred subjects then on all. For if that faculty of the mind be strengthened and increased in one department, surely it cannot fail to be improved in every other, for all memory is one. (1) Did you never know a verse of the Bible, which had been lying dormant in your mind for a long time, awake and come to you with a power and a vividness which quite surprised you? And it, strangely appropriate, just fits the circumstances in which you find yourself, and the state of your own mind. If it had been made for you it could not have suited you better. What is this but the Holy Ghost fulfilling His own mission. (2) Or there is a passage in the Bible with which you are very familiar--but today it stands out in such a new light, and carries such a power, never felt before, that it strikes upon you like a new creation. And yet you have read it hundreds of times--no verse more common. Then why is it so salient now? It is memory illuminated by the Holy Ghost. (3) Or, it may be no written word at all. Years and years back, Christ spoke to you by an impression. The rough contact of ten thousand things in this rude world has long since trodden it out. You are now as if that good impression had never been. Why is it there again today so distinct and loud? Did you call it up? What has raised it from those sleeping places? I know but one answer--He who quickens all buried things, He who raises dead Christs out of the graves of our dull hearts is bringing back the things of Christ to you. (4) Or, it may not be even as much as this. Who has not felt the mysterious power of association? It may be the smallest possible thing that evokes it--a breath of wind, a colour, the scent of a flower, the accent of a note.But it will make you go through chapters of existence. And what if all these recovered links of being are the waftings of the Spirit’ s wing, verifying the promise of Jesus. (J. Vaughan, M. A.) John 14:27 Peace I leave with you The legacy of legacies The Earl of Dundonald fought with his solitary ship a line of formidable forts in South America, whose fire proved so raking that his men could not be got to stand to their guns. Calling his wife, he asked her to fire one of the guns, and show these men how to do their duty. She did so. Instantly they returned, burning with shame, to their posts, and soon the victory was theirs. The lady, in rehearsing the circumstance, said that the thing that was felt by her to be the most terrible, was not the din of battle, not the raking fire, but the awful calmness that sat fixed on her husband’ s countenance, as it seemed to carry in itself the sure presage of victory. This we can all understand. Every moral nature feels that settled calmness in the face of dangers and deaths is the loftiest example of the sublime. Of this we have one peerless example in the man Christ Jesus, who, on the eve of His agony, utters these words. We have here a word of I. . The Old Testament phrase, “ Peace be with you!” had now come to be a word of salutation, as it still is in the Oriental “ salaam,” the modern form of the Hebrew “ shalom,” or peace. Originally, it was a benedictory prayer. But by this time, in most cases, like our words “ adieu,” “ good-bye,” which mean “ God be with you!” the deeper and devouter meaning had very much exhaled, leaving only a breath of courtesy or compliment behind. But this is good, so far as it goes: for our religion says, “ be courteous,” and no gentleman can compare with the Christian gentleman. Christ here commends these forms of courtesy by His august example. But he does a great deal more. Instead of pharisaically leaving these forms, because they are not always what they ought to be. He tells us to take them up and make them what they ought to be. But, as the context shows, He here means a farewell; and this farewell of peace He repeats at the end of the sixteenth chapter, where He brings these valedictory discoursings to a close. II. BEQUEST. “ Leave.” Even in the case of a human relative, it is much to inherit his peace. We prize more than gold a father’ s, a mother’ s dying benediction. But what are such legacies compared with that which Jesus here bequeaths to the humblest of His disciples. If we have Christ’ s peace, no matter for anyone’ s curse, no matter what wrath may surround our head. Peace is here used twice, and occurs first in its general sense. Peace within, in the calm serenity of a pardoned and reconciled soul; peace without, in every needed temporal blessing; peace in storms and afflictions, in the precious gift of a “ heart established, trusting in the Lord” ; peace in persecution; yea, “ perfect peace,” blessing them that curse us, doing good to them that hate us; peace in death; for “ mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace” ; peace in the grave, for there the body is stretched out in repose, “ where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest” ; and the consummation of all peace in heaven. And as Christ is the Testator, so He is Himself the Executor. “ My peace.” Yes; what the Saviour leaves He gives: what He died to procure, He rose and reigns to bestow. III. GOSPEL. This peace is a peace particularly Christ’ s own; that which He Himself possesses and feels, as having finished His work and wrought out our salvation. Would you see something of it? Go to Calvary. The pallid lips give forth the victory shout, “ It is finished;” and the words, “ Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit” ; and then the triumphant soul of the Redeemer rises in peace and rapture to the bosom of His Father and His God. It is the climax of peace. Now the peace which was then our Saviour’ s own He imparts to the humblest of His disciples. We believe in Him and become pardoned, accepted, and sanctified in the Beloved. IV. GOOD CHEER. “ Not as the world giveth,” etc. “ There is no peace saith my God to the wicked.” But let the wicked only forsake his way, and this peace straightway breathes down upon him like a scented vivifying gale from the delectable land. “ Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” How suggestive the contrast! 1. It is vain to seek peace (1) In the world’ s objects of attraction, such as pride, pleasure, and ambition, which bring with them no end of thorny care. (2) In the world’ s friendships, which at best are but fleeting, and which too often promise only to falsify and forget. (3) In the world’ s wisdoms, which are folly. (4) In the world’ s religions, which are worse. 2. But our Saviour’ s words seem to refer mainly to the manner of the giving. (1) The world gives conventionally, Christ gives sincerely. (2) The world gives superficially, Christ gives substantially. (3) The world gives partially, Christ gives perfectly. (4) The world gives capriciously, Christ gives constantly. (5) The world gives temporarily, Christ gives eternally. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The legacy of Christ That the Son of God might become the “ merciful and faithful High Priest” of His Church, “ it behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren.” Hence we see Him influenced by the same affections that influence ourselves, and manifesting the same dispositions. When His end drew near, He made, as it were, His will, and would not suffer the last interview with His disciples to close before He had reminded them of the precious gifts which He purposed to bestow. I. THE WHICH CHRIST . “ Peace.” If there is any word which can excite pleasing sensations in the human breast, it is this. It is as sweet to the children of men, as the long wished for shore to the mariner who is wearied with the labours of the ocean. It is as reviving as the warm breezes of the spring to the man who has just risen from a bed of sickness. How welcome are the tidings of returning peace to a nation which has been long accustomed to the sound of war! How beautiful the feet of them who publish it! But it is not amongst mankind only that peace is thus highly esteemed. It is declared by the great Jehovah Himself to be among the things which He calls good. To bring down this blessing was the great object of our Saviour’ s appearing. Hence the prophecies spoke of Him as “ the Prince of Peace.” Hence, when He was born, peace on earth was proclaimed by the rejoicing angels. Hence, too, when He was about to leave His beloved disciples, peace was the precious legacy he left, and it was His first blessing after He rose. What, then, is this peace? Is it an exemption from the calamities of life, from sorrow and affliction? No. “ In the world ye shall have tribulation.” Is it peace with the world, an exemption from its hatred and persecution? No. “ The world hateth you.” It Isaiah 1. Peace with God. The man who inherits this precious legacy was once the enemy of the Lord. But now the enmity of his carnal mind has been subdued. He has gone, as a repentant prodigal, to the throne of his heavenly Father, and has received a welcome and a pardon there. “ Being justified by faith, he has peace,” etc. 2. Peace in the soul. This is a blessing which none but Christ can give, and none but His renewed people receive. Others may seek it, may perhaps find something which they mistake for it; but until a man’ s heart has been “ sprinkled from an evil conscience,” he must remain as far off from true peace of mind as he is from God. 3. Christ’ s peace. It is the same peace that He Himself enjoys; that kept His soul tranquil in the midst of all His sorrows, and into which He is now entered in His Father’ s kingdom above. II. THE MANNER IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN GIVEN. 1. By bequest. (1) The property which a man conveys by a will or testament must be his own estate and property; and he must also have a right of transferring it to others. Thus this peace was Christ’ s own, and which He had the power of disposing of by will. He was the only Being in the universe rich enough to purchase reconciliation. (2) This peace could never have been inherited if the great Giver of it had not died. A man may leave to his friends abundant riches, but these gifts will profit them nothing till after he is dead. (3) “ Not as the world giveth.” The blessings which Christ has left are widely different from those things which men leave to their friends. They are (a) More valuable. Men may leave behind them riches, mansions, titles; but they cannot make a man happy, even in the day of prosperity; while the legacy of Christ, even in the darkest night of adversity, can “ satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with goodness.” (b) More permanent. They will remain precious as ever, when every earthly treasure shall be heard of no more. Conclusion: 1. The security and stability of the Divine promises. Peace is not only promised, but bequeathed. The Testator is now dead; the testament is in force. 2. A man may have a precious legacy bequeathed to him, and he may be so infatuated as to refuse to accept it, or so indolent as to neglect the proper means of possessing himself of it; but still the legacy is his. The very same causes, united with “ an evil heart of unbelief,” may keep you strangers to the peace of God. 3. But before we can have a title to this legacy, we must be united to Christ by a living faith. “ There is no peace to the wicked.” (C. Bradley, M. A.) The legacy of Christ Our Lord, being about to die, makes all the accustomed preparations, and discharges all the functions of a dying man. He charges His friends with His last commands, delivers to them His last advices, prays for them a last and touching prayer, institutes for them an expressive and affecting ordinance--the great Christian keepsake to be observed “ in remembrance of Him” --and compensates them as much as possible for their deprivement of Himself, by bequeathing them all that He had to dispose of--this precious and peculiar blessing of peace. I. THE THING ITSELF. The legacy is “ peace.” 1. It fulfils the first great condition of peace, by harmonizing the inward feelings with the outward experience; in other words, it establishes peaceful relations between the soul and its proper objects. (1) Between the soul and its God. These had been violated. The primitive intercourse between man and his Maker was loving and intimate. When he sinned, such intercourse became impossible. “ How can two walk together unless they be agreed?” The holy anger of the offended God is met by the hostile feeling of the offending man. In this condition of enmity Christ becomes “ our peace.” By His Cross He appeases the anger of God. By His Spirit He subdues the enmity in man. He makes pardon possible on God’ s part by bearing our sins; He makes it to be desired on ours by renewing our hearts. (2) Between the soul and its moral duty. Corruption opposes our duty to God, selfishness our duty to man, and their antagonism is destructive of peace. But under the influence of the gospel both are destroyed. (a) Duties to God are discharged with delight. The service is love, the principle is gratitude. (b) Nor are duties to man less cordial. We are taught to “ love as brethren,” and are conformed to a noble example. This peace comes into individual hearts, and, eradicating selfishness and bitterness, produces charity; it comes into our homes, and it adds the brotherhood of grace to the brotherhood of nature. It comes among nations, and it teaches that righteousness is exaltation, affection, and felicity. (3) Between the soul and its providential experiences. When did irreligion acquiesce in providential trials? But the gospel gives us revelations of the purpose of God’ s providence, new recognitions of its real character, and thus harmonizes our feelings with even its deepest adversities. (4) Between the soul and its destiny; peace in anticipation of the future life. The believer has no longer a “ fearful looking for of judgment” ; he “ knows in whom he has believed” ; he is “ begotten again to a lively hope.” This is more than reconciliation--it is assurance; more than peace with God--it is peace in God; more than peace with his lot--it is rejoicing over it. 2. It is competent to produce harmony among the inward feelings themselves--a condition palpably as essential as the former--essential in order to the former. For, while there is internal discord, there cannot be external harmony. Sin destroyed the peace of the inward heart, as effectually as it destroyed the peace of its outward relations. There can be no peace among passions of equal intensity and independence, unless subject to some common and absolute rule. To meet this need, we “ receive the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” Every affection is taught to recognize Him. Every gratification is found in His will. Every passion is thus made to harmonize. Every desire is solicited to a common tendency. Every energy is directed to a common result. II. THIS THE SAVIOUR WITH HIMSELF. 1. “ My peace.” He had secured it to them. It was purchased by His atonement, and wrought by His Spirit. 2. It is peace like His own; the peculiar and surpassing peace which, as a man, He had enjoyed. (1) Peace with God. (2) The peace of perfect and conscious obedience. (3) The peace of perfect affiance. No endurance made Him murmur; no extremity provoked His impatience; no deprivation shook His confidence. (4) The peace of blissful anticipation. He knew that when His work was done He should be “ raised to glory and honour.” In all these elements the peace of the Redeemer and the peace of His followers are identical. III. THE OF THE . “ Not as the world giveth.” 1. The method of the world in giving peace is by a careful adjustment of external things, sweetening such as are bitter, smoothing such as are rugged. It mistakes a peaceful lot for peaceful feelings; totally neglectful of feelings within, it attends solely to circumstances without; it seeks to remove anxiety, not by trusting in Providence, but by heaping up wealth to make us independent of Providence. It seeks to satisfy inordinate craving, not by moderating desire, but by scraping up gratifications until desire be satiated. It builds up around a man its vain fortifications; but let its defences be carried, and the untutored and effeminate soul is a helpless and hopeless prey. Broadly contrasted with this is the peace of Jesus Christ. It is not dependent on things without; it arises from sources within. It requires not that there should be ease and indulgence; it may exist amid the utmost privation and self-sacrifice. It is not the peace of compromise, but of conquest. “ In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace.” 2. Identifying peace with indifference, the world would school the heart into an insensibility. Thus the men of the world seek peace; they would freeze the sea of affection, that no storm may agitate its waves; they would petrify the heart, that no grasp of anguish may mark it. And in like manner would they deal with spiritual things; they would quiet all religious solicitudes by utterly banishing them; peace with God they would have by forgetting Him; peace with their consciences by stifling them; peace with the claims of duty by refusing to listen to them; peace with their future destiny by never thinking about it. “ They make a solitude, and call it peace.” (H. Allen, D. D.) Christ’ s legacy I. THE NATURE OF THE . 1. The enjoyment of actual reconciliation with God. 2. A sweet composure and calmness of mind, arising from the sense of reconciliation impressed by the Spirit of God on our hearts. II. THE WHICH HE STATES THIS TO HAVE WITH HIMSELF. “ My peace.” 1. Reconciliation to God exclusively arises from the merit of His sacrificial sufferings as being our Redeemer. “ It is in consequence of the work of the Saviour that the Spirit has been sent actually to apply the blessing of reconciliation to the heart and to the conscience of man.” III. THE POINTS OF BETWEEN THIS AND THE OF THE WORLD. “ Not as the world giveth.” 1. That which is given to us by the world is empty; that which is given to us by Christ is substantial. 2. What the world gives is pernicious, and that which Christ gives is beneficial. 3. That which is given to us by the world is changeable, and must perish; and that which is given to us by Christ is immutable, and must endure for ever. IV. THE WHICH THE OF THIS OUGHT TO POSSESS ON OUR MINDS. “ Let not your heart be troubled.” (J. Parsons.) Christ’ s legacy When Christ left the world, He made His will. His soul He bequeathed to His Father, and His body to Joseph. His clothes fell to the soldiers, His mother He left to the care of John. But what should He leave to His poor disciples, who had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them what was far better--His peace. (M. Henry.) The legacy of peace I. THE FIRST , IN ORDER TO THIS PEACE, IS HAVING, SEALED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, A OF . One has said, “ If you wish for peace with God, do your duty. Try to be as good as you can.” But I have not been as good as I could. God has not had the first place in my love, and the first obedience in my life. Through Christ’ s intervention, however, the writ once against me is now null, for the sentence for treason is crossed through under sanction of the law itself, and I have in my very soul the certificate of justification, sealed by the Comforter. II. CHRIST’ S PEACE COMES FROM CHRIST’ S LIFE. You mistake if you fancy that this peace is a dull composure. It means more life, not less! The Spirit of Christ, in giving this peace, numbs no nerve, stifles no primitive impulse, mesmerises no faculty. On the contrary, His tendency is to make us spring up, broad awake, feeling alive all over. He makes, through this change in us, a change in everything around us. He makes old Christian truths, that once had become almost insipid by familiarity, break out into meanings and charms, bright as morning and fresh as the spring. To be spiritually-minded is “ life,” the cause; “ peace,” the effect. III. PEACE IS WITH SIN. A person may be in the root of his life a Christian, and yet his Christianity may be little more than a root. He may have “ a name to live,” and may pass as an average professor of faith in Christ, yet might know but little of this Divine peace. There is no peace for the shot limb while the bullet is in it. A person has been drinking some deadly thing, tempted by its inspiriting flavour, but now it maddens him, and there is no peace for the poisoned system while the poison is in it. There is no peace to the fever-stricken sufferer until the fever is out of him. You remember the storm that Jonah caused, and how it had to be quieted. If you would have peace, first find out, and then cast out your Jonah--the Jonah of that sheltered sin, of that crooked policy, of that secret, whatever it may be, that stops a blessing from coming on you who carry it. IV. THE PEACE OF CHRIST HAS ITS SEAT, NOT IN THE , BUT IN THE HEART. “ Let not your heart be troubled.” It is a truism to say that disquiet belongs to this world, for everyone knows this, though he may know little else; and it belongs in a particular degree to this particular age. Disquiet connected with the disputes between labour and capital; from questions connected with the money market; made by the “ battle of books,” by the conflicts of theological thought; seen from the post of political outlook. But having Christ as our own life, we can say, though our surroundings may be like the disquiet of an earthquake, “ Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,” etc. We have peace in our heart, for the Giver of peace is there. Without, there may be excitement; indeed, our own physical life may be excitable, for grace does not turn one body into another; yet there is a Divine calm down under the surface, such as no man can know who knows not the true life. V. CHRIST’ S PEACE IS HERE ASSURED TO US IN TERMS OF . “ Peace I leave.” This is the language of legacy, and implies 1. That He would live after He had died. A legacy implies death Hebrews 9:16). 2. The principle of grace. He gives. “ Grace” is not the name of wages for work, nor of reward for merit; nor of gain by conquest; nor of what we receive on the principle of “ so much for so much.” 3. The deity of the Giver. Reconsider what is meant by the peace of Christ, and then ask yourself if a man could give it. 4. “ Not as the world giveth.” The world can only give what it has to give. The world gives fitfully, and there is no dependence on the world; the world gives in order to get; the world gives to take away again; grudgingly and delusively. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Peace I. THE NATURE OF THE PEACE THAT JESUS GIVES. I. It is peace in the mind. There is a state of the mind answering to the surging sea, or the agitations of the atmosphere; when a man has not clear perception of important truth; when the mind is swayed by apprehension, and driven by scepticism from every resting place for its convictions. The opposite of that is certitude, the repose of enlightened conviction upon ascertained principle. Jesus Christ gives that to His people. 2. Peace of conscience. If a man have not that, all the flattery of nations will not make him happy. The Psalmist says, “ Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken for dislocated] may rejoice.” Man’ s moral nature is the skeleton of his soul. David felt that his conscience was dislocated, and he could not know happiness until God had reset and restored it. Well, Christ gives peace of conscience; He restores it to its functions, and causes the man that has this peace to rejoice. 3. Peace of heart. Man may know, see, say, and sing a great deal, but if his heart is not keyed to spiritual harmony, if there are jarring affections, forbidden passions, corrupt emotions in the soul, he cannot be happy. 4. Peace in all the relationships in which a man stands. There is no solid peace if there is not peace with God, but where there is there will be peace with man, and he who enjoys it will be a peacemaker; he will delight in diffusing that happiness which he enjoys. 5. It is Christ’ s peace (1) As distinguished from (a) The peace of indifference. There are some persons who, on the subject of religion, have really no trouble at all. This is a peace like that of the poor Indian sleeping in his canoe while rolling him onwards to the cataract. (b) The peace of self-deception: the peace of the patient that takes the hectic flush of his cheek as a sign of health, of the sailor who swaggers along the deck while the leak is in the keel. That is not the peace of Christ. (2) Positively it is the peace that arises from a knowledge of man’ s state and the remedy that he needs. I have seen a patient quite relieved by being told the very worst of his case. At the same time he was assured by a physician that there was a specific remedy for that disease which had cured thousands. II. HOW HE GIVES THIS PEACE: “ Not as the world giveth.” 1. The world could not give such a thing at all; the world can only give what it gets, and it neither has nor knows that peace. The world may give a man wealth; the heart may be writhing in agony under the blaze of diamonds. The world may give a man fame, but a celebrated actor died of sorrow whilst the city was ringing his praise. The world may give a man pleasure, but that can only ripple the surface. 2. The world gives what it has (1) With a hope of getting again. (2) As little as it can. 3. Is soon tired of giving on any principle, even of giving to its friends. (J. Graham, D. D.) The blessedness of peace A lady who passed through the terrors of the Vicksburg siege wrote the night after the surrender: “ It is evening. All is still. Silence and night are once more united. H-- is leaning back in his rocking chair. He says, ‘ G-- , it seems to me I can hear the silence and feel it too. It wraps me like a soft garment; how else can I express this peace?’” (H. O.Mackey.) False peace and true peace I. THE WORLD’ S PEACE. 1. It is not sound and sincere, but hollow (Psalms 55:21). It professes friendship, and yet it is ready to sell its friend for a mess of pottage. 2. Selfish. 3. Mercenary. When it gives, always expects an equivalent. 4. Fragile. How soon is the trading man’ s peace, our domestic peace, our civil peace, our peace of mind, broken! How long can you calculate upon keeping your peace? 5. Unserviceable. The world’ s peace never stands by our side in the hour of sorrow, tribulation, or temptation. It will do for the summer, but not for the winter. 6. Temporary. II. THE PEACE OF CHRIST. 1. Its nature. It is peace (1) with God; (2) with ourselves; (3) with our fellow men. 2. Its characteristics. (1) It is sincere; (2) disinterested; (3) gratuitous; (4) indissoluble; (5) serviceable. (J. Ralph, M. A.) False peace Once, as a poet was thinking of Napoleon’ s defeat when he tried to win Moscow, he had a dreadful dream of peace. Under the spell of his dream, he found himself in a dim, still, snowy wilderness; many horsemen, covered with cloaks, their cloaks covered with snow, were sitting motionless; dead fires were seen, with grenadiers, white with snow, stretched motionless around; waggons, crowded with snow-shrouded, motionless figures, seemed to stop the way, the wheels fixed by a riverside, in ruts of water which the frost had struck into steel; cannon were there, heaped over with snow; snow lay on banners unlifted, on trumpets unblown. Was the seer of such a sight moved to cry “ Peace, peace!” Better face the intense white flame that bursts from guns, better face the terrible iron rain, better face the worst of war, than face a scene of peace like that! Yet much that passes for peace in the region of the soul, and in relation to God, is not much better. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Divine peace It may, perhaps, have befallen some of us to stand by the side of one of those brawling mountain streams which descend from our southern and western coasts into the sea. It rushes with its noisy waters down its stony channel; every pebble rattles in the torrent; every ripple makes a murmur of its own. Suddenly the sound ceases: a deep stillness fills the banks from side to side. Why? It is the broad sweep of the advancing tide of the ocean that has checked the stream and occupied the whole space of its narrow channel with its own strong, silent, overwhelming waters. Even so it is with all the little cares, difficulties, and distractions which make up the noise and clatter of the stream of our daily life. They go on increasing and increasing, and engross our whole attention, till they are suddenly met and absorbed by some thoughts or objects greater than themselves advancing from a wider and deeper sphere. So it is in human things: so it is when in private life we are overtaken by some great personal joy or sorrow. The very image which I have just used of the brook and the sea has been beautifully employed by our greatest living poet to express the silencing of all lesser thoughts and aims by the death of a dear friend. So it is often felt in public concerns, when all petty cares and quarrels have been drowned in the tide of public joy or sorrow which has rolled in upon us from the great world without. All the streams of common life under such circumstances, descending from their several heights, deep or shallow, turbid or clear, have been checked at one and the same moment, have been hushed at one and the same point, by the waters broad and vast sweeping in from the ocean, which encompassed us all alike. Every lesser controversy has then stood still; every personal murmur at such moments has been silenced by the grander and deeper interest which belonged alike to us all. What that figure of the brook and of the tide is in the natural world, what great joys and sorrows are in personal life, what great public events are in the life of a nation, that to every human being ought to be the thought of eternity, the peace of God. From a thousand heights the streams of life are ever rushing down. All manner of obstacles meet their course--the rough rock, the broken bough, the smooth pebble, the crooked bank. Each and all are enough to ruffle those shallow waters, and to obstruct those narrow torrents. But there is, or there may be, forever advancing into each of these channels a tide from that wide and trackless ocean to which they are all tending; and deep indeed is the peace which those tides bring with them into the inland hills wherever their force extends. (Dean Stanley.) Jesus leaving peace to His disciples Though all Christ’ s conduct is godlike, nevertheless the last scenes of His life shine with peculiar splendour. In proportion as He draws nearer to its close, His charity appears to burn with a warmer flame, His divinity to shed forth brighter beams through the clouds which enshrouded it. I. JESUS CHRIST GIVES PEACE TO HIS ; or in other words, He has opened for them sources of tranquillity and joy amidst all the calamities and afflictions of life. This will be established if we can prove these two points 1. He has given us the most adequate supports under all the woes to which we are exposed; and, 2. He has bestowed on us positive grounds of tranquillity. That is to say, with the one hand He gives us an antidote against every sorrow, and with the other reaches forth to us the richest benedictions. (1) Look at your life and heart, and you will find two great enemies of peace and tranquillity, sins and afflictions; and in vain will the heart sigh for rest, till in some mode the sting of sin is taken away and the bitterness of affliction removed. While the conscience is burdened by the guilt of sin, and the mind harassed by the apprehension of that punishment to which it exposes us, we in vain hope for peace. No, no! there is no other grief that can be compared with the anguish of the soul, that is enlightened to behold the spotless purity and inflexible justice of God, and the depth of the abyss dug by its own crimes and iniquities. Where, then, shall we seek for relief to these torments which arise from a sense of guilt? In the sacrifice of Immanuel we behold all cause of terror removed, and the most satisfying joys presented to our hopes and expectations. Could you find it in the amusements and gaieties of the world? Alas! in the midst of jocoseness and pleasantry your heart was bleeding. Human philosophy, worldly wisdom! alas, can these wash out the stain of the smallest sin from the conscience? Could you find it in the endearments of friendship and affection? Christ has been no less careful in affording proper supports under those trials, those crosses, and afflictions, of which human life is full, and which we mentioned as the second great enemy to peace. All the schools of antiquity, discordant and clashing in everything else, were united only in presenting unsubstantial comforts, which were too airy to support those under the pressure of real grief, or else in irritating instead of healing the wounds of the soul. But when we turn from these ineffectual consolations of the brightest ornaments of Greece and Rome, to the Divine Instructor who “ spake as never man spake,” what different sentiments are excited! He proposes such grounds of peace and tranquillity as will hush every painful passion, will compose every rising grief, will drive back every starting tear, or convert it into a tear of joy, and render us not patient merely, but triumphant in affliction. He gives us such instructions concerning the author, the intent, and the issue of afflictions, as, if they be properly realized, will cause the sorrows of life to vanish “ like the morning cloud,” and the pains of mortality to dissolve “ like the early dew.” (2) That He has conferred on them positive grounds of tranquillity so powerful, so cheering, as to be sufficient to keep their souls in sacred peace amidst all the storms of sorrow with which they may be assailed. Jesus Christ secures peace and tranquillity for His followers, by giving them an intimate communion with God. But this is only the first of His benedictions. He confers also the Holy Spirit, that bond and ligament connecting God and the soul of the believer. As the enlightening Spirit He presents to our minds those great truths of religion which affect, which interest and delight us. But this Spirit which enlightens is also the renewing Spirit; and how much tranquillity and satisfaction does the exercise of this part of His office give to the soul. To find harmony restored to our irregular affections, to see the passions formerly untamed submitting to the yoke of religion; to behold our native depravity losing its reigning power, and the image of God re-impressed upon us: is not this a desirable, a delightful contemplation? And finally, it is part of the office of this same Spirit, by His consoling influences, to dissipate the cloud of sorrow and cause the sunshine of heaven to break in upon the soul. Finally, Jesus is ready to confer on believers, and will confer on them, if they be not wanting to themselves, the earnests of future glory, the pledges of eternal felicity. II. THAT HE GIVES IT NOT AS THE WORLD DOES. 1. When the world exclaims to us, Peace be unto you l this exclamation is often void of sincerity. How often are proffers of service, and desires for our happiness, uttered by the mouth that has just been employed in stabbing our reputation, and that in a few minutes will load us with slanders, and hold us up to ridicule! 2. When the world exclaims to us, Peace be unto you, it is not always insincere and deceitful; but even when it most strongly desires our felicity, it is weak, and without power to afford us a complete felicity. Man is feeble, indigent, unhappy. Thus, unable to find full happiness from the world, shall we, my brethren, entirely despair of attaining it? No; for Jesus gives peace not as the world does; His wishes can all be accomplished, for His power is irresistible. 3. The peace which the world gives is limited in its duration. Inconstant and variable, men frequently change their sentiments and opinions. (H. Kollock, D. D.) Spiritual peace This blessed legacy our Lord has left might be considered as being peace 1. With all the creatures. God has made a league of peace between His people and the whole universe. “ For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field,” etc. “ All things work together for good to them that love God.” 2. Among the people of God toward one another. 3. With God, for He “ hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ” 4. In the conscience. Peace with God is the treaty; peace in the conscience is the publication of it. I. ITS . It is not built upon imagination, but on facts. 1. Faith in the blood of Christ. 2. A sense of pardon. 3. An intimacy with Christ. 4. The possession of the title deeds of heaven. 5. An assurance of the faithfulness and covenant fidelity of God our Father. II. ITS NOBLE . The peace of other men is ignoble and base. Their peace is born in the purlieus of sin. Self-conceit and ignorance are its parents. Our peace Isaiah 1. God’ s own child and God-like in its character. 2. Divine in its nourishment. The daintiest morsels that ever carnal sense fed upon would be bitter to the mouth of this sweet peace. Ye may bring your much fine corn, your sweet wine, and your flowing oil; your dainties tempt us not, for this peace feeds upon angels’ food, and it cannot relish any food that grows on earth. If you should give a Christian ten times as much riches as he has, you would not cause him ten times as much peace, but probably ten times more distress; you might magnify him in honour, or strengthen him with health, yet neither would his honour or his health contribute to his peace, for that peace flows from a Divine source, and there are no tributary streams from the hills of earth to feed that Divine current. 3. A peace that lives above circumstances. 4. Profound and real. III. ITS EFFECTS. 1. Joy. The words “ joy” and “ peace” are continually put together. 2. Love. He that is at peace with God through the blood of Christ is constrained to love Him that died for him. 3. Holiness. He that is at peace with God does not wish to go into sin; for he is careful lest he should lose that peace. 4. It will help us to bear affliction. “ Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” 5. It gives us boldness at the throne. IV. OF PEACE. All Christians have a right to perfect peace, but they have not all the possession of it. These interruptions may be owing to 1. The ferocious temptations of Satan. 2. Ignorance. 3. Sin. God hides His face behind the clouds of dust which His own flock make as they travel along the road of this world. We sin, and then we sorrow for it. 4. Unbelief. Conclusion: If ye would keep your peace continual and unbroken 1. Look always to the sacrifice of Christ. 2. Walk humbly with your God. 3. Walk in holiness; avoid every appearance of evil. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Christ’ s peace “ Peace be unto you” was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in meeting and parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human heart. Note I. THE , WHICH IS A GIFT. Christ gives His peace because He gives Himself. It comes with Him, like an atmosphere; it is never where He is not. 1. The first requisite for peace is consciousness of harmonious relations between me and God. The deepest secret of Christ’ s peace was His consciousness of unbroken communion with the Father. And the centre and foundation of all the peace-giving power of Jesus Christ is that in His death He has swept away the occasion of antagonism, and so made peace between the Father and the child, rebellious and prodigal. 2. We must be at peace with ourselves. There is no way of healing the inner schism of our anarchic nature except in bringing it all in submission to His merciful rule. Look at that troubled kingdom that each of us carries about within himself, passion dragging this way, conscience that; a hundred desires all arrayed against one another, inclination here, duty there, till we are torn in pieces like a man drawn asunder by wild horses. But when He enters the heart with His silken leash, the old fable comes true, and He binds the lions and the ravenous beasts there with its slender tie and leads them along, tamed, by the cord of love, and all harnessed to pull together in the chariot that He guides. There is one power, and only one, that can draw after it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the weltering ocean, and that is the quiet silver moon in the heavens, which pulls the tidal wave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and rolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down lambent and gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw, in one great surge of harmonized motion, all the else contradictory currents of our stormy souls. 3. Peace with men. The reason why men are in antagonism with one another is the central selfishness of each. And there is only one way by which men’ s relations can be thoroughly sweetened, and that is by the Divine love of Jesus Christ casting out the devil of selfishness, and so blending them all into one harmonious whole. 4. Peace with the outer world. It is not external calamities, but the resistance of the will to these, that makes the disturbances of life. Submission is peace, and when a man with Christ in his heart can say what Christ did, “ Not My will, but Thine, be done,” then some faint beginnings, at least, of tranquillity come to the most agitated and buffeted. II. THE WORLD’ S GIFT, WHICH IS AN . “ The world” may mean either mankind in general or the whole material frame of things. 1. Regarding it in the former sense, the thought is suggested--Christ gives; men can only wish. How little we can do for one another’ s tranquillity! how soon we come to the limits of human love and human help! 2. And then, if we take the other signification, we may say, “ Outward things can give a man no real peace.” The world is for excitement; Christ alone has the secret of tranquillity. III. THE DUTY OF THE OF THAT PEACE OF CHRIST’ S, “ Let not your heart be troubled,” etc. 1. Christ’ s gift of peace does not dispense with the necessity for our own effort after tranquillity. There is very much in the outer world and within ourselves that will surge up and seek to shake our repose; and we have to coerce and keep down the temptations to anxiety, to undue agitation of desire, to tumults of sorrow, to cowardly fears of the unknown future. All these will continue, even though we have Christ’ s peace in our hearts. And it is for us to see to it that we treasure the peace. 2. It is useless to tell a man, “ Do not be troubled and do not be afraid,” unless he first has Christ’ s peace as his. Is that peace yours because Jesus Christ is yours? If so, then there is no reason for your being troubled or dreading any future. If it is not, you are mad not to be troubled, and you are insane if you are not afraid. 3. Your imperfect possession of this peace is all your own fault. Conclusion: I went once to the side of a little Highland loch, on a calm autumn day, when all the winds were still, and every birch tree stood unmoved, and every twig reflected on the stedfast mirror, into the depths of which Heaven’ s own blue seemed to have found its way. That is what our hearts may be, if we let Christ put His guarding hand round them to keep the storms off, and have Him within us for our rest. But the man that does not trust Jesus is like the troubled sea which cannot rest. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ our peace in trouble In India, where there are many venomous serpents, there is an animal--a kind of weasel--which is, as it were, appointed by God to destroy them. Put one of these creatures and the deadliest snake together, and let them begin the battle. Presently the weasel will be bitten by the serpent, and it will dart off into the next bush, will find the antidote to the poison, and will return to the fight. And so, again and again, till at last it seizes the snake and destroys it. That is strange in itself; but a thing yet stranger is this: A very large reward has been offered by the Government for the discovery of this antidote. If an animal can find it out, much more easily, one would think, can a man discover it. But it is not so. This creature has been watched again and again, but no one has ever yet been able to learn the remedy. God has given to it the knowledge, which He has denied to us. And so the true servant of Christ knows where to go for a cure against all the troubles that may befall him; where to seek peace in all the storms that beset him. (J. M. Neale, D. D.) Christ’ s peace in the dying hour A poor soldier was mortally wounded at the battle of Waterloo. His companion conveyed him to some distance and laid him down under a tree. Before he left him, the dying soldier entreated him to open his knapsack and take out his pocket Bible, and read to him a small portion of it before he died. When asked what passage he should read, he desired him to read John 14:27. “ Now,” said he, “ I die happy. I desire to have peace with God, and I possess the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” A little while after one of his officers passed him, and seeing him in such an exhausted state, asked him how he did. He said, “ I die happy, for I enjoy the peace of God which passeth all understanding,” and then expired. The officer left him and went into the battle, where he was soon after mortal]y wounded. When surrounded by his brother officers, full of anguish and dismay, he cried out, “ Oh! I would give ten thousand worlds, if I had them, that I possessed that peace which gladdened the heart of a dying soldier, whom I saw lying under a tree; for he declared that he possessed the peace of God which passeth all understanding. I know nothing of that peace! I die miserable! for I die in despair!” (New Testament Anecdotes.) Christian peace I. The peace of --the peace of the evening. II. Peace in SERVICE--the peace of the morning. III. Peace in SORROW--peace of dark hours. (S. S. Times.) Christian peace “ Peace.” It was no new word. It was and is the common form of salutation and farewell; and the Master used it because it was old and familiar. This peace is threefold. I. Peace with . Every one knows what it is to be at peace with ourselves, and not at peace. 1. We may be perfectly prosperous, and yet there is a secret pang, a bitter thought. 2. On the other hand, we may be in suffering, and yet be in perfect peace because doing our duty. Peace of conscience is the peace of the Holy Spirit of Christ. II. Peace with ONE ANOTHER. In Christ Jew and Gentile, etc., are one. He gathered round Him the most opposite characters. His peace therefore does not mean that we are all to speak, think, act, in the same way. The world of nature derives its beauty and grace from its variety. And so in the world of man. We differ but no difference, but that of sin should become separation. The chief priests of ancient Rome were called Pontiffs--“ bridge makers.” It is the duty of every Christian to throw bridges over the moral rents or fissures which divide us. Sometimes you will find opinions shading off one into the other: these are branches that are entwined over the abyss. Seize hold of them! Sometimes there are points of character the very counterparts of our own: these are stepping stones. Sometimes there are concessions made: to all such give the widest scope. There are, no doubt, occasions when truth and justice must be preferred to peace, and differences which are widened by saying, “ Peace, peace when there is no peace;” but we must be careful not to multiply them. You receive an angry letter; do not answer it. You observe a quarrelsome look; take no notice of it. You see the beginning of a quarrel; throw cold water on it. Churches need not be united in order to be at peace. The peace of the Holy Spirit of Christ is deeper than outward diversities. III. Peace with GOD. Our hearts are torn with scruples and cares even in duty; our sins rise up against us. Where shall we find a haven of peace? In the thought of God. Think of God the Father, perfectly just and merciful. Think on Christ who stilled the tumult of the natural storm, and who came to reconcile us to the Father. Think of the Holy Spirit who broods over chaos, and of it can make eternal order and peace. (Dean Stanley.) Peace undisturbed All the peace and favour of the world cannot calm a troubled heart; but where the peace is that Christ gives, all the trouble add disquiet of the world cannot disturb it. Outward distress to a mind thus at peace is but as the rattling of the hail upon the tiles to him that sits within the house at a sumptuous feast, Perfect peace in Christ There was a martyr once in Switzerland standing barefooted on the fagots, and about to be burnt quick to the death--no pleasant prospect for him. He accosted the magistrate who wassuperintending his execution, and asked him to come near him. He said, “ Will you please to lay your hand upon my heart. I am about to die by fire. Lay your hand on my heart. If it beats any faster than it ordinarily beats, do not believe my religion.” The magistrate, with palpitating heart himself, and all in a tremble, laid his hand upon the martyr’ s bosom, and found that he was just as calm as if he was going to his bed rather than to the flames. Thai is a grand thing! To wear in your button hole that little flower called “ heart’ s ease,” and to have the jewel of contentment in your bosom--this is heaven begun below: godliness is great gain to him that hath it. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Not as the world giveth The world’ s peace They cry “ peace” when there is no peace, and make fair weather when such a storm of God’ s wrath is ready to be burst as shall never be blown over. They compliment and wish peace when war is in their hearts, as when the Pope sent away Henry III, in peace, but it was, saith the historian, not such as Jesus left His people. (J. Trapp.) Unwilling givers The great ocean is in a constant state of evaporation. It gives back what it receives, and sends up its waters in mists to gather into clouds; and so there is rain on the fields, and storm on the mountains, and greenness and beauty everywhere. But there are many men who do not believe in evaporation. They get all they can and keep all they get, and so are not fertilisers, but only stagnant, miasmatic pools. (H. W. Beecher.) The world bestows meagerly It promises much and gives but little. When the richest man, who has died in New York, within my memory was on his dying bed, he asked his attendants to sing for him. They sang the familiar old revival hymn, “ Come, ye sinners, poor and needy.” The dying millionaire said to them, in a plaintive tone, “ Yes, please sing that again for me. I am poor and needy.” Ah! what could fifty millions of railway securities and bank stocks do for him on the verge of eternity? One verse out of the fourteenth chapter of John could bring him more peace than all the mines of California multiplied by all the bonds in the National Treasury. “ Poor and needy” was he? I count that one of the most pathetic sayings that ever fell from dying lips. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid Words of peace The acceptableness and the force of advice depend upon our feelings with respect to the adviser. Now the Counsellor in this case is the Lord Jesus; entirely informed, thoroughly concerned, full of truth as well as full of grace, and so disinterested that He has for us already laid down His life. Look at I. THE WORDS . They imply 1. The possession of a power of control over our own hearts. Now how is the heart to be controlled? You cannot govern it directly; it is to be governed by means of the thoughts. If you would change the emotions, you must change the thoughts. To think only of our grievous and not of our joyous circumstances--only of the cloudy side of our grievous circumstances (and every cloud over us Christians has a silver lining), is to let our heart be troubled and be afraid. But to call off the thoughts from the circumstances which are grievous to those which are joyous, to think of God “ as our refuge, and strength, and present help in the time of trouble,” is to check the sorrow and to quench the fear. 2. Responsibility as to the exercise of such control. This is a power which you may not leave dormant. That which, in this case, we can do, we ought to do, because God requires it, and because the doing of it is essential to our well-being and right conduct. The difficulty does not lessen our obligation. God calls us all to do difficult things. The human being who never attempts a difficult thing is but half a man. 3. They do not require that we should harden our hearts against the due influence of grievous circumstances, or shut our eyes to danger or to threatening sorrow; but they do forbid and condemn (1) The sorrow which confuses and discomposes a man--which hinders the performance of duty and prevents the use of consolation, and mars the enjoyment of present mercies. A man may be sad, and yet do his work. “ He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed.” Weeping is not to hinder working. (2) Fear. A girls’ school in New York took fire, and all the children were thrown into the greatest state of excitement. But there sat upon a form one little girl who remained perfectly still. When the excitement was over the teacher said to her, “ How is that you sat so still?” “ Oh,” said the little one, “ my father is one of the firemen, and he told me that if ever I was in a building when an alarm of fire was given, to sit still.” Your Father is employed in extinguishing the fire that would consume you. And you have been told to be quiet; and this because you can afford to be quiet. 4. Now the whole of this advice proceeds on the assumption that the disciple of Christ has sources of joy counteractive of his sorrows, and that he has no ground for fear. (1) The Saviour has charge of us individually. (2) The Father loves us. (3) A place is prepared for us. (4) A Comforter is sent to abide with us forever. (5) Jesus gives us His peace. II. CASES TO WHICH THEY APPLY. 1. Some may be expecting bereavement. Death hath no sting to that loved one, and the grave can gain no victory. 2. Others are now bearing the anguish of the separation which death creates. Special promises are made to you; and He, who superintends the fulfilment of these promises, says, “ let not your heart be troubled,” etc. 3. Some are anticipating change--change of residence--emigration. Whither can you go from your Saviour’ s Spirit--or from your best Friend’ s presence? 4. A few are stretched and tortured on the rack of suspense. The uncertainty is only in your mind. Above, all things are arranged, and will work together for your good. 5. Many are enduring the pains of disappointment. But still there are hopes founded upon rock, of which no man can ever be ashamed. The hope of salvation, of eternal life, of paradise. 6. Diseases, like worms at the roots of plants, are surely bringing many of us to death and the grave--and their destructive work will one day be fully wrought. But death is only the beginning of new life. 7. Poverty, like an armed man, is beating down others. There is but one shield against this armed man--faith; but one weapon--lawful endeavour; and but one cordial and stimulant--prayer. And if you pray poverty, turning your face Christward, you will hear Christ in His sweetest whispers say, “ Take no thought for tomorrow,” etc. 8. Does persecution rage around some of you as a tempest? “ Fear not them that kill the body.” (S. Martin.) John 14:28-29 If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father The death of the good a reason for joy Note the view which Christ had of His death. “ I go.” 1. Whence? From the world. 2. Whither? To the Father, not to destruction, eternal solitude, nor to fellowship with minor souls. 3. How? Not driven. Other men are sent to the grave; Christ freely went. The general truths of the text are these I. THAT GENUINE LOVE IN THE OF ITS OBJECT. We find illustrations of this in 1. Creation. Love made the universe in order to diffuse happiness. 2. Christ’ s mission. Christ came to make happy the objects of infinite love. 3. Christian labour. Happiness is the end of all church work. II. THAT THE OF MEN DEPENDS UPON WITH THE FATHER. 1. Happiness is in love. 2. The love, to produce happiness, must be directed to the Father. His perfection delights in it; His goodness reciprocates it. 3. Love for the Father yearns for fellowship with Him. Love always craves the presence of its object. III. THAT DEATH THE GOOD INTO A CLOSE WITH THE FATHER. There were obstructions to the fellowship of the Man Christ Jesus with the Father. 1. The body with its infirmities. 2. The sinful world. 3. The influence of principalities and powers of darkness. These interfere with the fellowship of good men and God, and in addition they have what Christ had not. (1) Worldly cares. (2) Inward depravity. (3) Corrupt habits. At death, however, all these are removed, and the soul of the good man goes into the immediate presence of God. We need not, then, sorrow for the departed good. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Joy and faith the fruit of Christ’ s departure I. THE OF THE LORD IS A OF JOY TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM. 1. Christ’ s going is Christ’ s coming. The word “ again” is a supplement, and somewhat destroys the true flow of thought. But if you strike it out and read the sentence as being what it is, a description of one continuous process, you get the true idea. “ I go away, and I come to you.” There is no moment of absolute absence. To the eye of sense, the “ going away” was the reality, and the “ coming” a metaphor. To the eye enlightened to see things as they are, the dropping away of the visible corporeal was but the inauguration of the higher and the more real. 2. Christ’ s going is Christ’ s exaltation. Hitherto we have been contemplating Christ’ s departure simply in its bearing upon us, but here He unveils another aspect of it, and that in order that He may change His disciples’ sadness into joy. (1). What a hint of self-sacrifice lies in this thought, that Christ bids His disciples rejoice with Him because the time is getting nearer its end, and He goes back to the Father! And what shall we say of the nature of Him to whom it was martyrdom to live, and a supreme instance of self-sacrificing humiliation to “ be found in fashion as a man” ? (2) The context requires that for Christ to go to the Father was to share in the Father’ s greatness. Why else should the disciples be bidden to rejoice in it? or why should He say anything about the greatness of the Father? The inferiority, of whatever nature it may be, to which He here alludes, falls away when He passes hence. Now these words are often quoted triumphantly, as if they were dead against the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ. But the creed which confesses that is not to be overthrown by pelting this verse at it; for this verse is part of that creed, which as fully declares the Father is greater than the Son as it declares that the Son is One with the Father. We can dimly see that the very names “ Father” and “ Son” imply some sort of subordination, but as that subordination is in the timeless and inward relations of Divinity, it must be supposed to exist after the Ascension, as it existed before the Incarnation; and, therefore, any such mysterious difference is not that which is referred to here. What is referred to is what dropped away from the Man Jesus Christ when He ascended up on high. As Luther has it, “ Here He was a poor, sad, suffering Christ” ; and that garb of lowliness falls from Him, like the mantle that fell from the prophet as he went up in the chariot of fire, when He passes behind the brightness of the Shekinah cloud that hides Him from their sight. Therefore we, as His followers, have to rejoice in an ascended Christ, beneath whose feet are foes, and far away from whose human personality are all the ills that flesh is heir to. 3. On both these grounds Christ’ s ascension and departure is a source of icy. (1) There can be no presence with us, man by man, through all the ages, and in every land, unless He, whose presence it is, participated in the absolute glory of Divinity. (2) And surely if our dearest one was far away from us, in some lofty position, our hearts and our thoughts would ever be flung thither, and we should live more there than here. And if we love Jesus Christ, there will be no thought more sweet to us than the thought of Him, our Brother and Forerunner, who has ascended up on high; and in the midst of the glory of the throne bears us in His heart, and uses His glory for our blessing. II. HIS AND HIS OF HIS AS THE GROUND AND FOOD OF FAITH (John 14:29). He knew what a crash was coming, and with exquisite tenderness He gave Himself to prepare the disciples for the storm, that, forewarned, they might be forearmed. And when my sorrows come to me, I may say about them what He says about His departure. Aye! He has told us before, that when it comes we may believe. But note 1. How Christ avows that the great aim of His utterances and of His departure is to evoke our faith. And what does He mean by faith? (1) A grasp of the historic facts, His death, resurrection, ascension. (2) The understanding of these as He Himself has explained them. (3) And, therefore, as the essence of faith, a reliance upon Himself as thus revealed, sacrifice by His death, victor by His resurrection, King and interceding Priest by His ascension--a reliance upon Himself as absolute as the facts are sure, as unfaltering as His eternal sameness. 2. These facts, as interpreted by Himself, are the ground and the nourishment of our faith. How differently they looked when seen from the further side and when seen from the hither side. “ We trusted,” said two of them, with such a sad use of the past tense, “ that this had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” But after the facts were all unveiled, there came back the memory of His words, and they said to one another, “ Did He not tell us that it was all to be so? How blind we were not to understand Him!” 3. Faith is the condition of the true presence of our absent Lord. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Love’ s importance 1. Jesus’ love makes Him use the disciples’ love to Himself as a comfort for themselves when they are distressed about His going away. 2. He appeals to the warmest feeling in their hearts in order to raise their spirits. 3. It is well when grace has put within us principles which are springs of consolation. From our text learn I. THAT WE SHOULD TRY TO SEE THINGS IN CHRIST’ S LIGHT. 1. He sees the whole of things. He says not only, “ I go away,” but also, “ I come again unto you.” 2. He sees through things. He does not say, “ I die,” but He looks beyond, and says, “ I go unto the Father.” 3. He sees the true bearing of things. The events which were about to happen were in themselves sad, but they would lead to happy results. “ If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice.” To see facts in His light we must dwell with Him, live in Him, grow like Him, and especially love Him more and more. II. THAT OUR LOVE SHOULD GO FORTH TOWARDS HIS PERSON. “ If ye loved Me.” All about Him is amiable; but He Himself is altogether lovely Son 5:16). He is the source of all the benefits He bestows. Loving Him 1. We have Him, and so His benefits. 2. We prize His benefits the more. 3. We sympathize in all that He does. 4. We love His people for His sake. 5. Our love endures all sorts of rebuffs for His sake. 6. The Father loves us (John 14:23) 7. We are married to Him. Love is the sure and true marriage-bond whereby the soul is united to Christ. Love to a person is the most real of emotions. Love to a person is the most influential of motives. Love to a person is, in this case, the most natural and satisfying of affections. III. THAT OUR SORROW OUGHT NOT TO PUT OUR LOVE IN . Yet, in the case of the disciples, our Lord justly said, “ If ye loved Me.” He might sorrowfully say the same to us 1. When we lament inordinately the loss of creatures. 2. When we repine at His will, because of our severe afflictions. 3. When we mistrust His wisdom, because we are sore hampered and see no way of escape. 4. When we fear to die, and thus display an unwillingness to be with our Lord. Surely, if we loved Him, we should rejoice to be with Him. 5. When we complain concerning those who have been taken from us to be with Him. Ought we not to rejoice that Jesus in them sees of the travail of His soul, and has His prayer (John 17:24) answered. IV. THAT OUR LOVE SHOULD MAKE US REJOICE AT OUR LORD’ S , THOUGH IT BE OUR LOSS. 1. It was apparently the disciples’ loss for their Lord to go to the Father; and we may think certain dispensations to be our loss (1) When we are tried by soul desertion, while Christ is magnified in our esteem. (2) When we are afflicted, and He is glorified, by our sorrows. (3) When we are eclipsed, and in the result the gospel is spread. (4) When we are deprived of privileges for the good of others. (5) When we sink lower and lower in our own esteem, but the kingdom of God comes with power. 2. It was greatly to our Lord’ s gain to go to His Father. Thus He (1) Left the field of suffering forever. (2) Reassumed the glory which He had laid aside. (3) Received the glory awarded by the Father. (4) Became enthroned for His Church and cause. Conclusion: 1. It will be well for us to look more to our love than to our joy, and to expect our joy through our love. 2. It will be well for us to know that smallness of love may dim the understanding, and that growth in it may make us both wiser and happier. 3. In all things our Lord must be first. Yes, even in those most spiritual delights, about which it may seem allowable to bane strong personal desires. (C. H. Spurgeon.) For My Father is greater than I Christ’ s equality with and subordination to God It is contended that our Lord here abandoned any pretension to be a person internal to the essential life of God. But this saying can have no such force if its application be restricted, as the Latin Fathers do restrict it to our Lord’ s manhood. But even if our Lord is here speaking, as the Greeks generally maintain, of His essential Deity, His words express very exactly a truth recognized and required by the Catholic doctrine. The subordination of the everlasting Son to the everlasting Father is strictly compatible with the Son’ s absolute Divinity; it is abundantly implied in our Lord’ s language: and it is an integral element of the ancient doctrine which steadily represents the Father as alone unoriginate, the Fount of Deity, in the eternal life of the ever-blessed Trinity. But surely an admission on the part of One in whom men saw nothing more than a fellow creature, that the everlasting God was greater than Himself, would fail to satisfy a thoughtful listener that no claim to Divinity was advanced by the Speaker. Such an admission presupposes some assertion to which it stands in the relation of a necessary qualification. If any good man of our acquaintance should announce that God was greater than himself, should we not hold him to be guilty of something worse than a stupid truism? And should we not peremptorily remind him that the life of man is related to the life of God, not as the less to the greater, but as the created to the Uncreated, and that it is an impertinent irreverence to admit superiority of rank, when the real truth can only be expressed by an assertion of radical difference of natures? And assuredly a sane and honest man, who had been accused of associating Himself with the Supreme Being, could not content himself with admitting that God was greater than himself. Knowing himself to be only human, would he not insist again and again with passionate fervour upon the incommunicable glory of the great Creator? (Canon Liddon.) John 14:30 Henceforth I will not talk much with you Christ as a conversationalist I. CHRIST’ S WORK WAS DONE BY . 1. In the four Gospels there are but five discourses properly so called--that in the synagogue at Nazareth, that upon the Mount, that on the Bread of Life in the synagogue at Capernaum, that on the seashore, when He practically traced the future of His kingdom, and that at Jerusalem respecting His second coming. All the rest is conversation, sometimes drifting into monologue. It is significant that the two greatest teachers--Christ and Socrates--taught chiefly in this way. 2. Here is an open door for you all! You cannot write books or preach; but there is no better way into a human heart than by conversation. I write my article and send it to the newspaper. I know not who looks upon it. I stand here and talk, and look into your faces. Some of them answer me back. This is better work than that of the pen. But the best of all is conversation when you open your soul to me, and I open mine to you. In this lies the largest part of our influence. What might we not do with it! II. Notice, as a characteristic of every good conversationalist, and preeminently of Christ, His QUICK AND . 1. We open this Gospel and find Him talking on the same plane with a Jewish rabbi. We turn the page and behold Him condescending to the level of the depraved Samaritan. Further on we see Him in conversation with His enemies; and, lastly, here with His disciples--in every case alike in sympathy, in touch--what we call tact. What is tact? The touch of one soul with another. I can talk music a little with the musician, for I am fond of music; less of art with the artist, for I know less; about theology with the theologian if he is not too far removed from me theologically; but if I cannot talk with the car conductor, the day labourer, it is because my sympathies are narrow. 2. Christ’ s sympathies were as quick as they were catholic. His soul was receptive as well as distributive. The musician plays on the keys of the organ. They are inert, and answer to his touch. But when the speaker plays on a human soul, he must be keys as well as fingers--he must respond as well as move. There is no flash of thought, question of perplexity, or sorrow anywhere that Christ does not instantly meet. III. Because He had this quick and catholic sympathy HE DREW MEN OUT. He made them express themselves; oftentimes against their will--evoked their doubts, sins, difficulties. Witness His treatment of Philip, Thomas, and Jude in this conversation. This is rare power: worth more than eloquence or poetry. He knew what was in man; and more than once He saw them doubting among themselves, and phrased His answer to their doubting. IV. HE HAD THE GIFT OF TURNING TO ACCOUNT. He asks for a drink of water, and this suggests the water of life; He fed a multitude with bread, and then talked naturally about the bread of life. A friend of mine, on entering a train, asked the brakeman, “ When shall we get to Albany?” “ I do not know,” surlily replied the man, “ there is nothing certain on a train.” “ Nothing but death,” said my friend. “ Well, that is so.” “ Yes, and therefore we ought to be ready for it.” “ That is a fact,” said the brakeman. If my friend had gone out of his way to preach he would not have got an answer. V. WITH CHRIST WAS ALWAYS THE OF DIVINE . Christ never declined an invitation; but wherever He went, He carried His message of love and goodness, and turned the least incidents into moral lessons, He was always master of the conversation. He was not carried by its drift, wherever it might go, but, like a skilful pilot with his hand on the helm, guided it in what direction He would have it go. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.) We must prize our opportunities Make we the best of our Christian friends while we have them: as we would do of a borrowed book or tool that we knew not how soon may be sent for by the right owner. (J. Trapp.) Interruption Christ thus closed the conversation to intimate to His disciples I. THE VALUE OF WHAT HE HAD SPOON IN THE PAST. 1. As their rule of life. “ If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” 2. As teaching them to draw instruction from every source. 3. As being the means of life. II. THE NEED OF IN AN . a time of peace was followed by a time of trial. Christ was ready for it, and concentrated every faculty for a final struggle with the devil, who was worsted by Him in the wilderness, and left Him then for a season. II. THAT THE OF FREEDOM FROM THE OF SIN GIVES THE POWER TO THE OF SATAN. There was no ledge in Christ on which the devil could stand, nothing at which he could clutch. Our weaknesses Satan knows too well. He has something in us. But we may rejoice in freedom from condemnation. Doubt as to this is what Satan loves to take hold of; and it is frequently a sincere Christian’ s weakest point IV. THAT HE HAS TO PURITY. “ Shall have.” Christ had no doubt about the issue: nor need there be any in those whom Christ upholds. “ Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Against the Church the gates of hell shall not prevail. V. THAT THE MIGHT LEARN MORE FROM SEEING THAN HEARING. It is not what a man says, but what he does, that influences others. Christ has said: “ Whosoever taketh not up his cross,” etc. Did He shrink from taking it up Himself? Christ ceases to talk, and allows His life to speak. VI. CHRIST’ S SORROW THAT HIS WITH HIS HAD TO BE . All are subject to all sorts of interruptions here. We must be prepared for breaks in life, gaps in the family, vacant chairs. Still we may, with Christ, take up the joyful life. Death possesses nothing permanent in us. (Homiletic Magazine.) The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me The coming struggle I. THE ENEMY--the prince of this world. 1. Of large dominions (Matthew 4:8). 2. Of many subjects (Ephesians 2:2). 3. Of great power (Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 6:12). 4. Of subtle craft (Genesis 3:1; Revelation 12:9). 5. Of evil mind (1 John 2:13; 1 John 3:8; 1 John 8:44; Revelation 12:10). II. THE ONSET. The prince of this world cometh. 1. Its proximity. Judas was at hand, and in him Satan was drawing near. 2. Its violence. Quite an army had the devil put in force against the Saviour. 3. Its aim. It was directed against heaven’ s purpose of redemption. It was meant by destroying Christ to confound the counsel of salvation. 4. Its skill. The campaign had on Satan’ s side been planned with ingenuity. Judas, an apostle, had been persuaded to become a traitor. The ecclesiastical authorities had been turned against God’ s Son. The Roman power had been secured to lend assistance in affecting His arrest. All signs augured well for the success of his infernal scheme. III. THE DEFEAT. The prince of this world hath nothing in Me. 1. The seeming victory. Outwardly, Satan was to triumph. Yet it was not to be because of any power which Satan possessed; but to be of Christ’ s free will (John 10:18). 2. The actual overthrow (Hebrews 2:14; Colossians 2:15). Learn 1. That Christ is wiser than Satan. 2. That as He conquered so shall His people. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 14:31 But that the world may know that I love the Father Christ’ s departure 1. It is well that “ we do not know when the last time is the last: unconsciously and without premonition we leave our door, we retire to bed, we grasp the hand of our friend for the last time: and by and by it is said, “ He is not, for God hath taken him.” How much of mercy there is in this veiling of the future, this sparing of farewells, we may understand from the flutter and pain with which foreseen and calculated things are done for the last time. We leave home, friends, church, and, even though it be for improved conditions, there is a laceration in the parting proportioned to the length of association. 2. We are differently constituted. Some can change their homes with as little thought or feeling as they can change their clothes. They have lived in half a dozen houses, worshipped in half a dozen churches. They strike no deep roots, and feel no parting sorrow deeper than good natural regret. Hardly is this the finest type of human feeling. To merely be put down on a surface and strike no roots difficult or painful to pull up, is a grave implication of either the plant or the soil. In this departure I. CHRIST WAS BY HIS SUPREME SENSE OF DUTY. “ As the Father gave Me commandment.” No self-interest, no sentiment, was ever permitted to interfere with this sense of duty. While yet a youth it was the supreme law of life--“ Wist ye not,” etc. As a man it dominated all impulses of filial affection. “ Woman, what have I to do with thee?” 1. In all great lives the sense of duty is dominant. Sometimes God gives reasons for what He requires of us; but if the only reason is that God has demanded it we may not hesitate. As with an army or a child, the commander and father may not be able to give reasons, nevertheless duty is imperative. God has many purposes we cannot understand. 2. In many of us the sense of duty is weak. We consult our convenience, advantage, likings. How rarely we choose unpleasant work because of its importance! 3. No strong or noble character can come out of this. A man who will not for the sake of duty do an arduous thing will never build up his moral strength or glorify God. II. ANOTHER IMPULSE WAS TO PRODUCE THE OF HIS FILIAL . “ That the world may know.” 1. Love is the inspiration of all high duty. Duty is not mere measured service. A son who weighed the literal word of command could hardly be called dutiful. 2. Our Lord attached great importance to the impression which His loving duty made upon men. He would have the world see it so that it might inspire love. What shall I do to show my love to God? Let selfishness or sentiment come in, and how narrowed becomes the sphere of duty, and how poor its motive I There can be no blessing upon it. III. TO DUTY AND LOVE THE MASTER TOOK NO COUNT OF EASE OR SAFETY. “ Arise,” etc. He went forth to His foreseen passion and death. We often hesitate to run a risk for Him. He laid down His life for the sheep. To maintain duty He broke up the tenderest fellowship with His own. (H. Allon, D. D.) Reflections on departure (on removing to another place of worship):--Let us apply these words. I. TO THE SON OF GOD IN THE SOLEMN MOMENT WHEN THEY WERE UTTERED. He was going to the garden, to that great and awful conflict in which the prophecy was to be fulfilled, that He should present His soul an offering for sin, and bear the burden of the world’ s atonement. This was the last night of the Redeemer’ s life. He had been eating the passover with His disciples. He could use these words with ideas and anticipations, of which they knew nothing. The traitor had gone, and made his arrangements; and our Lord saw this: yet there was nothing, either like fainting under the prospect, or rashness, or precipitancy, or passion: but all was calm and tranquil. II. TO SEVERAL OF AS THEY OCCUR TO . 1. To local removals of place and of habitation, when the voice of Providence and of God calls us from scenes and situations where we have been surrounded by kindred and congenial society; from our father’ s house, from a particular habitation which we may have long occupied, where we may have felt and experienced much of the blessing of God; where we may have passed through many afflictions; and we feel we must say to ourselves, “ Let us go hence,” there are many emotions which come upon the heart; and I should never envy that man his feelings, who had never experienced such emotions. 2. To moral circumstances, when we may be called to depart from circumstances of enjoyment, comfort, and tranquillity, and to enter upon scenes of adversity and misfortune, when we are called to experience what is painful and distressing to our mind and heart. 3. To what is spiritual. I cannot help thinking of the resolutions which have often been made, when these words have been carried home to the heart of a man by the Spirit of God; when he has determined to arise and go to his Father. 4. To the matter of death. That word “ departure” conveys a grand truth: it is not extinction, but the going, the passing from one place to another; the continuance of consciousness, of every capacity, faculty, and feeling; and the passing of the intelligent spirit into another place, and another state. III. TO OUR OWN . If we are permitted to see another Sabbath, we hope to be worshipping in another sanctuary, rendered necessary by the Providence of God. We are going from a place interesting to our minds, hallowed to our remembrances 1. By the purposes to which it has been devoted. 2. By events which have transpired within it. Here souls have been born to God. Over this scene angels have rejoiced over sinners that have repented. 3. By relative recollections of interest and importance. Here many of you have the recollection of a pious ancestry; here you have been led by them; here perhaps you were dedicated in baptism; and here your parents have borne you upon their hearts. 4. By personal recollection. You rejoice, and give God thanks, that you were led here to hearken to the voice of the man of God, in exhibiting that truth by which you trust you were saved and sanctified. And many of you have peculiar recollections of seasons, in which the truth hath been peculiarly appropriate to your personal circumstances. 5. Painful recollections. You have to look back upon services neglected, and Sabbaths misimproved; when you have heard with indolence, or a critical and improper feeling; when you have conversed on what you have heard with flippancy, instead of retiring with it to pray. (T. Binney.) The calmness of Christ Christ’ s calmness here in prospect of Gethsemane and the cross is in keeping with the whole tenor of His life, and suggests I. HIS OF THE OF HIS AND . Had He been conscious of any wrong against God or man, His conscience would have disturbed Him. Or had He had any misgiving as to the rectitude of His procedure He might have been disturbed. His calmness was not stoicism or indifference--for Christ was exquisitely sensitive and emotional. II. A SETTLED SENSE OF HIS SUBLIME . Well He knew the ignorance and depravity of those who opposed Him, and He rose above it all. Their stormy insults awoke no ripple upon the deep translucent lake of His great nature. III. AN INWARD OF HIS SUCCESS. He had an end to accomplish, and had laid His plans. He had calculated on all the opposition He had to encounter, and knew that He would “ see of the travail of His soul,” etc. IV. THE HARMONY OF ALL HIS AND POWERS. Because in us there are two elements warring--flesh and spirit--we are constantly being disturbed. Right wars against policy, conscience against impulse, and we get like the troubled sea. Not so with Christ, all the elements of His soul moved as harmoniously as do the planets. He was at one with Himself, as well as with God and the universe. V. HIS CLAIM TO OUR in the crisis of life and in death. (D. Thomas, D. D.) A watchword We cannot be long in one stay. A voice ever sounds in our ear, “ Arise, let us go hence.” Even when we have conversed on the sweetest themes, or have enjoyed the holiest ordinances, we have not yet crone to our eternal abode; still are we on the march, and the trumpet soundeth, “ Arise, let us go hence.” Our Lord was under marching orders, and He knew it: for Him there was no stay upon this earth. Hear how He calls Himself, and all His own, to move on, though bloody sweat and bloody death be in the way. I. OUR MASTER’ S . “ Arise, let us go hence.” By this stirring word 1. He expressed His desire to obey the Father. “ As the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.” (1) He was not hindered by expected suffering. (2) He did not start back, though in that suffering there would be the special element of His Father’ s forsaking Him. (3) He did not hesitate though death was in near prospect. (4) He was eager to do the will of the Father, and make all heaven and earth know how entirely He yielded Himself to the Father. 2. He indicated His readiness to meet the arch-enemy. “ The prince of this word cometh. Arise, let us go hence.” (1) He was prepared for the test. He “ hath nothing in Me.” (2) He was eager to overthrow His dominion. 3. He revealed His practical activity. All through the chapter observe our Lord’ s energy. He is ever on the move. “ I go. I will come again. I will do it. I will pray. Arise, let us go hence.” (1) He prefers action to the most sacred rites, and so leaves the supper table with this word on His lips. (2) He prefers action to the sweetest converse. “ I will not talk much with you. Arise, let us go hence.” 4. He manifested His all-consuming love to us. (1) He was straitened till He had accomplished our redemption. (2) He could not rest in the company of His best-beloved till their ransom was paid. (3) He would not sit at God’ s right hand till He had felt the shame of the Cross, and the bitterness of death (Hebrews 12:2). II. OUR OWN MOTTO. “ Arise, let us go hence.” Ever onward, ever forward, we must go (Exodus 14:15). 1. Out of the world when first called by grace (2 Corinthians 6:17). How clear the call! How prompt should be our obedience! Jesus is without the camp, we go forth unto Him (Hebrews 13:13), We must arouse ourselves to make the separation. “ Arise, let us go hence,” 2. Out of forbidden associations, if, as believers, we find ourselves like Lot in Sodom. “ Escape for thy life” (Genesis 19:17). 3. Out of present attainments when growing in grace (Philippians 3:13-14). 4. Out of all rejoicing in self. There we must never stop for a single instant. Self-satisfaction should startle us. 5. To work, anywhere for Jesus. We should go away from Christian company and home comforts to win souls (Mark 16:15). 6. To defend the faith where it is most assailed. We should be prepared to quit our quiet to contend with the foe (Jude 1:3). 7. To suffer when the Lord lays affliction upon us (2 Corinthians 12:9). 8. To die when the voice from above calls us home (2 Timothy 4:6). Conclusion: 1. Oh sinner, where would you go if suddenly summoned? 2. Oh saint, what better could happen to you than to rise and go hence? (C. H. Spurgeon.) . John 15:1I am the True Vine The origin of the allusion Most of our Lord’ s figurative discourses were obviously suggested by some outward thing. What was the visible object here? It could hardly have originated in a thought about “ the fruit of the vine,” represented by what He had been pouring from the cup; nor is it satisfactory to say that He pointed to a vine in the garden; for the garden was not a vineyard. You will notice that although the words, “ Arise, let us go hence,” occur in John 14:31, the words that fill up chapters 15, 16, and 17, were spoken before we come to the entrance into the garden. Now, for these long utterances to have been spoken in this walk is to me inconceivable. Some think however, that when Christ said, “ Arise, let us go hence,” they rose, and that the words filling the next three chapters were spoken while they were still standing, just as a leader, after he has signified that the meeting is over, may say at the door, “ Stop, a new thought strikes me,” and may then linger to utter unpremeditated things. But it is inconceivable that Christ should leave His longest and most important parting instructions until the audience had, at His own request, all risen to go. My own opinion is that Jesus on His way to the garden went to take a farewell glance at the Temple, and that for the purpose of teaching the disciples lessons founded on its golden vine. Nations have often taken certain plants or flowers for their heraldic devices, such as the rose, the thistle, and the shamrock. If not as a matter of heraldry, as a matter of fact, the vine appeared to be the device on the shield of Israel. Striking passages might be quoted in proof, from the prophets (Isaiah 27:6; JeEze 15:2; 17:8; Psalms 80:8-11). The Master then took the scholars up to the famous national emblem displayed over the porch of the sanctuary, and with that before them, prepared them to understand that now the sacred nation was about to lose its ancient place, and to be superseded and fulfilled by the nation of saved souls; teaching them to withdraw their trust in that vine, and to place their trust in Him alone, henceforth to be one with Him, as are branches with the tree they spring from. (C. Stanford, D. D.) The True Vine I. THE VINE. 1. The method of Christ’ s teaching seems to have depended largely on chances and occasions. Seeds of truth were blown from Him who is the Truth by every breeze of circumstance, like thistledown by the wind. This allegory was suggested, perhaps, by a portion of a trellised vine outside, peeping in through the latticed window, rustling in the evening breeze, or showing through its veined, transparent leaves the golden light of the setting sun; or, more probably still, the wine cup before Him on the supper table. 2. But while the form of Christ’ s teaching was determined by the accident of the moment, it fell in with the general analogy of Scripture teaching. The vine is one of the most familiar images in the Old Testament. No less than five of our Lord’ s parables refer to it. 3. The Land of Promise was a land of vineyards; and Juaea especially, with its temperate climate, and elevated rocky slopes, was admirably adapted for the culture of the vine. A vineyard on a terrace or brow of a hill is the first object that strikes the eye of the traveller when he approaches Judaea from the desert. A vineyard on a hill, fenced and cleared of stones, was the natural emblem of the kingdom of Judah; and this heraldic symbol was engraved on the coins of the Maccabees, on the ornaments of the Temple, and on the tombstones of the Jews. It is not without significance that the vine should be thus peculiar to Judaea. One of the most perfect of plants, it belongs to one of the most perfect of countries as regards its physical structure. Contrast the grapes of Eshcol with the variegated scenery of that valley, and its geological conformation, with the hard dry woody fruits of the parched plains of Australia: a low type of fruit with a low type of country. There is a close typical relation between the character of a country and the character of its productions; and this relation ascends even into the world of man. As the monotonous plains and innutritious fruits of Australia reared the lowest savages; so the picturesque mountain scenery, and the rich nutritious grapes, pomegranates and olives of Palestine developed the noblest of the human races. II. THE FITNESS OF THE VINE FOR OUR LORD’ S PURPOSE. 1. He wished to represent (1) The permanent spiritual union of His disciples with Himself; and therefore a perennial and not an annual plant must be selected, a dicotyledonous tree with branches, and not a monocotyledonous tree without branches. The image of the lily suited Him when His own personal loveliness, purity, and fragrance, and His own short-lived single life on earth were intended to be shadowed forth; and the image of the palm tree, which has no branches, suited the disciples when their own individual excellence was portrayed. (2) The fruitfulness of Christ and of believers in Him; and hence the plant that can do this adequately must be a cultivated one--not a mere herb of the field, like corn, yielding fruit only on the top of a stalk, but a tree yielding fruit on every branch. (3) The subordinate relation to and dependence of Christ upon His Father in the days of His flesh; and this idea manifestly excludes all fruit trees that are capable of standing alone and unsupported, such as the apple--the pomegranate, or the fig tree. (4) Believers exhibit, with general features of resemblance, considerable personal differences; and the plant which is to represent this quality must admit of considerable variability within certain distinct and well-recognized limits. All these qualifications meet in the vine, and in the vine alone. 2. The vine belongs peculiarly to the human period, and was planted in the earth shortly before its occupancy by man. It came into the world along with the beautiful rose, and the fruitful apple, and the fragrant mint, and the honey-laden bee, to make an Eden of nature for man’ s use and enjoyment. The former ages were flowerless; green, monotonous tree ferns and tree mosses, destined to become fuel for man, alone covered the land. Prophesied by all previous vegetable forms, whose structure approached nearer and nearer to its type, the vine appeared in the fulness of the earth’ s time; just as He whom it shadowed forth was announced in type and prophecy from the foundation of the world, and appeared in the fulness of human history when the world was ready for His reception. And thus the symbol and the Person symbolized belong peculiarly to the human world, and were destined specially for human nourishment and satisfaction. 3. A strict correlation exists between the culture of the vine and the intellectual and spiritual development of humanity. Wherever the grape ripens, there flourish all the arts that chiefly tend to make life nobler and more enjoyable. The spread of the Christian religion, as a general rule, has been co-extensive and synchronous with that of the vine, so that wherever the allegory of our Saviour is read, there the natural object may be seen to illustrate it. 4. In the symbol of the vine our Lord recognizes the prefiguration in plants of animal forms and functions. In the stem, branches, and foliage of the vine, we discern the ideal plan on which our own bodies are constructed: the stem being the spinal column; the branches the ribs and members: the leaves the lungs; while the sap vessels, filled with their nourishing fluid, correspond with the veins and their circulating blood. The functions, too, which all these parts and organs in the vine perform are precisely analogous to those which similar parts and organs perform in the economy of man. III. CHRIST THE TRUE VINE. 1. St. John’ s Gospel has several peculiar terms--such as the Word, the Light, the Life, the Truth, the World, Glory, Grace--which, perhaps more than all others, bear upon them the clear stamp of the Divine signet. To these may be added the word “ true,” which occurs no less than twenty-two times in this Gospel, as against five times in all the rest of the New Testament. By us the word is commonly employed to represent, and so confound, two distinct ideas; viz., the true as opposed to the false, and as distinguished from the typical or subordinate realization. Our forefathers recognized this distinction, and expressed the former idea by “ true,” and the latter by “ very.” The man who fulfilled the promise of his lips was a true man; but the man who fulfilled the wider promise of his name was a very man, a man indeed. God is the true God, in the sense that He cannot lie; but He is the true God, inasmuch as He is all that the name of God implies, in contradistinction to false gods. The phrase is still retained in the Nicene creed, “ very God of very God.” In Greek the distinction is clearly indicated by the use of two words, ale?the?s true, and ale?thinos very, which are never used indiscriminately. The word here is ale?thinos, and should be rendered “ very,” for it indicates the contrast, not between the true and the false, but between the imperfect and the perfect--between the shadowy and the substantial, the type and the archetype, the highest ideal and a subordinate realization or partial anticipation. And in this connection it is interesting to notice that the Saxon word “ tree” is etymologically cognate with “ true,” signifying that which is firm, strong, or well-established. 5. Israel was a vine, but not the true vine of God. Though not altogether false and fraudulent, it was an inferior and subordinate realization, a partial and imperfect anticipation of the truth. It did not come up to God’ s ideal of a vine. But Christ was the True Vine of God; He fulfilled to the utmost the purposes of His existence. The vineyard of Israel was to be taken from the wicked husbandmen. But out of this Jewish vineyard was to grow one Vine, which should endure when all the peculiar institutions of Judaism had perished, and become the starting point of a new and higher religious growth. While the Law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 3. Christ is also the “ True Vine,” as distinguished from the false or counterfeit vine. There are many species of vine, but there is only one grapevine; so error is multiform, but truth is one. And just as the wheat is imitated by the tares--the poisonous darnel--which closely resemble it in every respect; so the True Vine is imitated by the vine of Sodom, with its poisonous fruit. 4. But there is another aspect still in which the phrase may be viewed. It is as if Christ had said, “ I am the unconcealed Vine.” (1) Israel was a concealed vine. Its full significance was not known until Christ, the True Vine, revealed it. And (2) The natural vine is a concealed vine. Men could not understand its symbolical meaning, they misinterpreted its lessons; they thought that it had no higher uses than the mere material, utilitarian ones. It was only when Christ appeared that the parable was explained, and the mystery, hid from ages and generations, revealed. Our Lord’ s first miracle at Cana was effected by the direct and immediate agency of the True Vine. It revealed the power which enables the natural vine in the vineyard to change the rains and dews of every summer into wine in its grapes. And what is thus asserted of the vine is equally applicable to bread, to light, to water--to every natural object. They all had a concealed meaning--a reference to Christ--from the beginning. Our Lord does not say, “ I am like the vine.” That would have been to use a mere metaphor, or figure of speech. But He says, “ I am the True Vine;” and this declares that the vine is the actual shadow of His substance. IV. THE IN CHRIST WHICH ARE BY THE VINE? 1. The vine is the most perfect of plants. (1) Some plants possess one part, or one quality, more highly developed; but for the harmonious development of every part and quality--for perfect balance of loveliness and usefulness, there are none to equal the vine. It belongs to the highest order of the vegetable kingdom. Painters tell us that to study the perfection of form, colour, light, and shade, united in one object, we must place before us a bunch of grapes. It is perfectly innocent, being one of the few climbing plants that do not injure the object of their support. It has no thorns--no noxious qualities; all its parts are useful. Its foliage affords a refreshing shade from the scorching sunshine. Its fruit was one of the first oblations to the Divinity, and, along with bread, is one of the primary and essential elements of human food. In common with other plants, it purifies the air--feeding upon what we reject as poison, and returning it to us as wine that maketh glad the heart, and in the process maintaining the atmosphere in a fit condition for our breathing. (2) In all these aspects the vine is the shadow of Him who is altogether lovely--who unites in Himself the extremes of perfection--who is continually doing good--who beautified our fallen world by His presence, changed its wilderness into an Eden, and made the polluted atmosphere of our life purer by breathing it, and is now transforming our evil into good, and our sorrow into a fruitful and strengthening joy. 2. The words distinguish between nature and that which is above it. To Pantheism nature is God. The pronoun “ I” in it leads us up to the Personal Origin of all creation, shows to us that creation is not eternal, but springs from a Person. How, then, can anyone expect to be able to interpret the meaning of the vine, without the personal knowledge of the Living Being who is working and speaking to us through its instrumentality? Without the knowledge of His person we cannot have the knowledge of His work in its fulness. But once united to Him by a living and loving faith, we have the proper view point of the universe. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) The True Vine Christ selected this metaphor because of I. THE OF ITS FRUIT; for which reason it is used by David to express great fertility (Psalms 128:3). Hence this tree is especially appropriate as a type of Christ, through whose life and passion the abundant fruits of holiness are brought forth by believers. II. THE AND THE OF ITS FRUIT, as the fruits produced by the indwelling of Christ are those which are accordant with and pleasing to man’ s highest nature. III. THE AND JOY WHICH WINE within the heart of Jdg 9:13; Psalms 104:15; Proverbs 31:6-7). IV. THE WIDE EXTENT OF THE stretching on all sides, and furnishing a striking figure of the growth and expansion of the Church, which is the body of Christ (Psalms 80:11). V. ITS TYPICAL , wine symbolizing the blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. (W. Denton, M. A.) The True Vine I. THE VINE IN THE VITAL UNITY OF ALL ITS PARTS. We shall best understand this thought if we recur to some of those great vines in royal conservatories, where, for hundreds of yards, the pliant branches stretch along the espaliers, and yet one life pervades the whole, from the root, through the crooked stem, right away to the last leaf at the top of the furthest branch, and reddens and mellows every cluster. This great thought of the unity of life between Jesus Christ and all that believe upon Him is the familiar teaching of Scripture, and is set forth also by the metaphor of the body and its members. Personality remains, but across the awful gulf of the individual consciousness, which parts us from one another, Jesus Christ assumes the Divine prerogative of passing and joining Himself to each of us. A oneness of life, which is the sole cause of fruitfulness and growth, is taught us here. This is a oneness which results 1. In a oneness of relation to God. In this relation He is the Son, and we in Him receive the standing of sons. He has access ever into the Father’ s presence, and we through Him and in Him have access with confidence and are accepted in the Beloved. 2. In relation to men, if He be Light, we touched with His light, are also, in our measure and degree, the lights of the world; and in the proportion in which we receive the power of His Spirit, we, too, become God’ s anointed--“ As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” 3. In regard of character, this union results in a similarity of character, and with His righteousness we are clothed. 4. In regard to the future, we can look forward and be sure that we are so closely joined with Him, that it is impossible but that where He is, there shall also His servants be. And as He sits on the Father’ s throne, His children must needs sit with Him on His throne. 5. Therefore the name of the collective whole is Christ. And, as in the great Old Testament prophecy of the servant of the Lord, the figure fluctuates between that which is the collective Israel and the personal Messiah; so the “ Christ” is not only the individual Redeemer, but the whole of that redeemed Church, of which it is said, “ it is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” II. THE AND THE OF THE VINE. The one tool that a vinedresser needs is a knife, and the one kind of husbandry spoken of here is pruning--not manuring, not digging, but simply the hacking away of all that is rank and dead. 1. Fruitless branches mean all those who have a mere superficial adherence to the true vine. If there be any real union, there will be some life, and therefore some fruit. And so the application is to those nominal adherents to Christianity, who, if you ask them to put down in the census paper what they are, will say that they are Christians, Churchmen, or Dissenters, as the case may be, but who have no real hold upon Jesus Christ, and no real reception of anything from Him; and the “ taking away” is simply that God makes visible, what is a fact, that they do not belong to Him with whom they have this nominal connection. The longer Christianity continues in any country, the more does the Church get weighted and lowered in its temperature by the aggregation round about it of people of that sort. And one sometimes longs and prays for a storm to come, of some sort or other, to blow the dead wood out of the tree, and to get rid of all this oppressive and stifling weight of sham Christians that has come round every one of our churches. 2. The pruning of the fruitful branches. We all, in our Christian life, carry with us the two sources--our own poor, miserable self, and the better life of Jesus Christ within us. The one flourishes at the expense of the other; and it is the Husbandman’ s merciful, though painful work, to cut back unsparingly the rank shoots that come from self, in order that all the force of our lives may be flung into the growing of the cluster which is acceptable to Him. III. THE ABIDING IN THE VINE AND . 1. Union with Christ is the condition of all fruitfulness. There may be plenty of activity and yet barrenness. Works are not fruit. We can bring forth a great deal “ of ourselves,” and because it is of ourselves it is naught. 2. There is the great glory and distinctive blessedness of the gospel. Other teachers come to us and tell us how we ought to live, and give us laws, examples, reasons, motives. The gospel comes and gives us life, and unfolds itself in us into all the virtues that we have to possess. What is the use of giving a man a copy if he cannot copy it? Morality comes and stands over the cripple, and says to him, “ Look here! This is how you ought to walk.” But Christianity comes and bends over Him, and lays hold of his hand, and says, “ In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 3. Our reception of that power depends upon our own efforts. “ Abide in Me and I in you.” Suppress yourselves, and empty your lives of self, that the life of Christ may come in. A lock upon a canal, if it is empty, will have its gates pressed open by the water in the canal and will be filled. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) False vines There are “ strange vines” which bring forth wild grapes in perilous abundance, planted in the soil of our human nature by “ an enemy.” Their nature is deadly, their grapes, however luscious and inviting, are noxious; their very shadow and foliage, like the fabled Upas tree, are redolent of destruction and death. There are grapes of gold, for which the grower sells his soul, and Mammon is the spirit that drives the ruinous bargain. There are the grapes which being pressed into the goblet do sparkle and coruscate, and Pleasure’ s fascinating beauties are reflected in the flowing cup; but a serpent lies coiled below the ruby draught and stingeth like an adder the victim she allures. There are grapes of which the smooth-tongued vine dresser says that “ they are much to be desired to make one wise.” “ Eat,” quoth he, “ and ye shall be as gods. Yes. There are vines, vineyards, vine dressers, and wine vats in this deluded and deluding world. Pleasant is their shadow, graceful and winsome their festoonings, attractive are their supplies either from the cluster or the flagon, and, alas! those who are deluded by them “ know not that the dead are there,” and that the shaded and enticing paths that lead men thither are “ steps that take hold on hell.” “ Their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, etc. It was a “ wild vine” which produced the fruit gathered in mistake by the servant of Elisha, so that there came to be “ death in the pot” into which the deceptive grapes were shed; and so with all the false trusts and hopes of humanity. (J. JacksonWray.) Christ the true Vine in His Divine humanity It is in His manhood that Christ is the true Vine. It was of the essence of His Mediatorial work, of the Daysman, who should lay His hands upon both, that as on the one side He could say, “ I and My Father are one,” so upon the other, “ I and My brethren are one;” but while the vine and the vine branches must thus both be partakers of the same nature (Hebrews 2:11), He will presently challenge for Himself a share in the work of the husbandman. He, too, has power to “ purge” or cleanse through His word (John 15:3). His humanity was a Divine humanity, for so only could it have become a life-giving humanity to the world. (Archbishop Trench.) Union with Christ I. ITS NATURE. 1. An actual joining of each branch to the vine. When Madame Guyon was ten years old, she learned that Madame de Chantal had written the characters of the holy name of Jesus upon her bosom with a red-hot iron. She sought to imitate, so she sewed on her breast a piece of stiff paper containing the name of Christ. Never has there been good in such folly. Union to the Saviour does not consist in tacking on a badge of mere profession of love for Him. You might as well nail a branch to a trellis, and call that grafting. 2. A living joining of each branch to this Vine. We have often seen flowers bound to sticks with a bit of wire, so that they seemed growing on long stems; but there was no life in the merely mechanical contact. 3. The reciprocal joining of every branch to the vine, and of the vine to every branch. II. ITS . That it may produce after its kind for the enrichment of the husbandman the fruits he loves. These fruits are 1. Good views. It never profits anyone to sneer at creeds, and cry out for deeds instead; for no good deed was ever done unless there was a good thought behind it. The shallowness of much of our modern piety is owing to want of real conviction. Our religion has always been “ a faith,” and so has had an intellectual basis. 2. Good deeds. For all genuine ideas force themselves out into conduct. Mere admiration for the character, or mystic affection for the person, of a Saviour like ours would not be enough. A pretty little honeysuckle in the garden might as well twine itself up around a trellis, and try for a whole season to look like a vine; grape time would show the sham. 3. Good feelings. Some people doubt the power of a religious duty to start the enthusiasm of a large soul. And yet many of the finest minds and purest hearts have drawn their inspirations from the spiritual intercourse they kept with the life and the words of Jesus. While Claudius Buchanan was missionary in India, he translated and issued the Syriac Testament. Macaulay says that once in his presence he stopped and suddenly burst into tears. When he recovered himself the great man said, “ Do not be alarmed, I am not ill; but I was completely overcome with the recollections of the delight I have enjoyed in this exercise.” It is thus that good Christians have often gone to the stake for the love they bore for this Redeemer of men. 4. Good graces. Vines feel no shame for being beautiful. Excellencies of character are what the Lord loves (Galatians 5:22-23). III. CHRIST’ S CARE FOR IT. The Husbandman is God the Father. He cleanses the vines. In the East dressers wash the leaves and shoots and tendrils and clusters, each by itself in turn, so as to clear off the dust and mould. They cut away, also, the dead branches, and keep the whole vine under discipline. 1. The branch may be too feeble in its growth. Then, of course, it must be made to draw more strength from the vine which supports it. In the union of Christ to each soul these quickenings are efficaciously wrought by the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. The believer seeks them by prayer, and openly welcomes them with thanksgiving and trust. A female teacher in Persia was seated on a mat in the middle of the earthen floor of the church greatly fatigued, and as she was endeavouring to catch a moment’ s rest, one of the native women seated herself directly behind on the same mat. In a quiet whisper she begged her to lean back. The missionary just suffered her weight to fall against her knee; but the generous Christian drew her nearer and then whispered again, “ If you love me, lean hard.” Never was a truer imitation of Christ. Those who are weal: show more love by leaning harder. 2. The branch may be too perverse in its growth. Sometimes it appears as if it had become wilful. It thrusts its rings and tendrils off as if a petulant rebelliousness against the trellis had awakened its spite, and it had determined to grow out of order. It will lay hold of twigs below it in the grass, and trees above it in the orchard, always endeavouring to defeat the husbandman’ s purpose. For this there is no remedy but one: the knife comes suddenly, and now remains only the fire. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Union with Christ I. THIS UNION. 1. It is compared (1) By Peter (1 Peter 2:5-6) to the connection between the foundation stone and the building, and the relation thus suggested is one of dependence. (2) By the Lord Himself to the union between the branches and the vine, the connection is seen to be one of life. (3) By Paul (Ephesians 4:15-16) to the union between the head and the members, where the connection is one of subjection. (4) By the same Apostle (Ephesians 5:22-23) to the union between husband and wife; and there the idea of affection is the predominating one. Now, putting all these together, we get this result, that believers are one with Christ, as represented by Him, dependent upon Him, living in Him, subject to Him, and loving Him with tenderest affection. But in the figure of our text there is further suggested the idea that believers are supported by Christ. The branches are sustained by the sap, which the vine supplies; and so His people are animated by the Spirit which Christ bestows. 2. How this union is entered into. The analogy of the vine does not help us here. The branches are in the vine, whether they will or no. But men have wills; and so this union is, on their part, a voluntary thing. 3. Then, when we are thus united to Him, His strength and grace flow into us. When the car is coupled to the engine, the motion of the engine is communicated to, and shared with, the car; and when we are one with Christ in love and trust, His Spirit comes into our hearts and makes us more responsive to Himself. II. THE END FOR WHICH THE UNION EXISTS (John 15:2; John 15:8). Fruit, the character of which may be gathered from Ephesians 5:9; Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Peter 1:6-8. Then this fruit Isaiah 1. A personal thing. It is not the effect on others of some effort which we put forth, but the appearance in ourselves of the graces of holiness. 2. Not a single grace, but a whole circle. The spiritual vine, like the natural, brings forth its fruit in a cluster, and only when each of the members of that cluster is fairly and symmetrically developed is there true fruitfulness. (Christian Age.) Union with Christ The fruitful source of all the Christian’ s blessings. Constantly felt and remembered tends to dignify and fructify his life. Leads to (1) Purity. (2) Safety. In Christ. (3) Glory. I. UNION IN ITS NATURE. 1. Mysterious. 2. Mutually agreed. 3. Spiritual. 4. Living. II. OF THE UNION. III. OF THE UNION. “ Bear much fruit.” 1. Expected. It is a vine--a vineyard under care. “ Father is the husbandman.” 2. Only possible in union. Human nature. “ No fruit of itself,” “ for without Me ye can do nothing.” Linked to Christ by faith. “ Much fruit.” 3. To the highest end. Heavenward. “ Glory to God” (John 15:8). Earthward. “ So shall ye be My disciples” (John 15:8). The great want of earth--true disciples. God claims the glory. 4. Sign of life. “ Bringeth forth” --out of--grow--result of the Divine life within. (E. Wickliffe Davies.) The true spiritual life in man is I. DERIVED FROM CHRIST. Religion is not a mere creed or form; it is a life, and the life is a “ branch” of Christ’ s life. It grows out of Him. There is no true spiritual life where Christ’ s spirit is not the inspiration. II. IN . The production of fruit is what is required; it is not to pass off in foliage and blossom. Unless we yield fruit we are worthless and doomed to destruction. What is the fruit? “ Love, joy peace,” etc. III. THE JOINT AGENCY OF GOD AND MAN. 1. Man must seek an abiding connection with Christ. Cut the branch from the tree, it will wither and rot. 2. God must act the part of the Great Husbandman. The mere abiding in Christ will not do of itself. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 15:2 Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit Believers branches in the true vine I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN BEING A BRANCH IN CHRIST AND WHO ARE IN HIM. 1. In order to be such, we must be cut off from the stock, which is wild by nature (Romans 11:24). This stock is our natural and sinful state (1 Peter 1:18). Growing in this stock, we bring forth evil fruit. We begin to be cut off from it when we are convinced of our sin, and brought to repentance. Hence we begin to die to all dependance on our own wisdom, righteousness, and strength; to all love of the world and sin (2 Corinthians 6:17). 2. We must be ingrafted into Christ (Romans 11:24). The usual way of ingrafting is not to insert a wild scion into a good stock, but a good scion into a wild stock. 3. Hence it appears evidently who are branches in Him (1) Negatively; not all who have been baptized, and are reckoned members of the visible Church (Romans 2:25-29), who profess to know God, and to have religion (2 Timothy 2:19; 1 Corinthians 13:2-3). (2) Positively. They are those who have experienced true repentance and faith, and are in Christ new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). II. WHAT IS THE FRUIT WHICH SUCH ARE TO BEAR. This implies the cultivation of truth, justice, mercy, charity (Hebrews 13:16; Titus 3:8; Philippians 1:10-11). Such must also cultivate, and maintain towards themselves, temperance in all its branches, chastity, self-denial, purity, universal holiness (Hebrews 12:14). III. THE OF BEARING, OR NOT BEARING, THIS FRUIT. 1. If we do not bring forth this fruit, our grace, not being exercised, is withdrawn and lost. We are actually cut off from Christ, as an unfruitful branch is lopped off from a vine. We wither in our fruits, our blossoms, and our very leaves; in our works, graces, and gifts. 2. If we do produce fruit,--we are purged, or purified, by the Spirit, through the Word (John 17:17), which is believed, and obeyed Acts 15:9; 1 Peter 1:22); by affliction (Hebrews 12:4-11). IV. HOW WE MAY BE ENABLED TO BEAR THIS FRUIT. 1. By abiding in Christ, and Christ in us (verse 5). We shall not otherwise be fruitful (verse 4), for otherwise we shall want life, inclination, knowledge, and power. 2. We abide in Him by abiding in faith, in God, in His revealed will, in His Gospel and its truths, in Christ, in the promises (John 6:47-58; Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 10:38; and especially Romans 11:16; Romans 11:24). By continuing in love (John 15:9; Galatians 5:6). Hence arise deadness to the world, and power over sin. By continuing to obey John 15:10; John 14:23-24) In order to these, the use of all prescribed means is necessary, as the Word, prayer, watchfulness, self-denial. (J. Benson.) Useless branches! In the natural world branches of the vine which are not good for that to which they were specially ordained, viz., for the bearing of fruit, are good for nothing. There are trees which may be turned to secondary uses, if they fail to fulfil their primary. Not so the vine. As timber it is utterly valueless (Ezekiel 15:3-4). It is with it exactly as with the saltless salt, which, having lost its savour, is fit only to be east out of doors; both of them being meet emblems of the spiritual man who is not spiritual, who is good neither for the work of this world nor of a higher. (Abp. Trench.) Character and doom of unfruitfulness I. THE YOU OCCUPY. The Saviour speaks of those who are in Him. This, in a sense, is true of you; not in the highest sense, indeed; by the supposition, you are not in Him by that vital union which faith produces, and which secures fruitfulness, but you are so in a real, though a subordinate sense. You have some relation to Christ, are not like those to whom His name is unknown; you have heard of Christ, whence He came, what He did, how He suffered, how He is able and willing to “ save to the uttermost” --a fact by which, while your ears are blessed, you are also involved in responsibility. To Him you were dedicated in Christian baptism; by parental piety, in His Church, His name was named upon you, and His blessing invoked. More than this. You have been trained and nurtured amid Christian influences: Inefficacious as these may have proved, they have existed; you can remember them. The possibility of such outward and visible union, as distinct from the inward and spiritual, is variously illustrated. “ Have not I chosen you twelve? and one of you is a devil.” “ Demas hath forsaken us, having loved the present world.” Such, then, is your position. II. YOU ARE . What do we mean by this? Not that you have no capacity for fruitfulness. You might have been so different, as different from your present self as light from darkness, life from death. Not that you have been unfruitful in all senses. Your intellect, perhaps, has been active, become acute and strong; your judgment has become matured; your affections have budded, blossomed, and brought forth fruit; your character, so far as this can be perfected without the motives and principles of Christian life, has become developed and firm. It may be, too, that in the years we are now reviewing and charging with unfruitfulness, you have done much, been a philanthropist, a patriot, a projector of useful schemes. In what, then, are you chargeable with unfruitfulness? By lacking such principles as these. Love to God. Faith in Christ. Obedience. Humility and repentance, too. It might be supposed that sense of deficiency would have produced at least these. Have they? Has your heart been broken for sin? Have you offered the sacrifice which God will not despise, the broken and contrite spirit? Thus you see, there are fruits which you have not borne, the most important fruits, and those without which all others God esteems, if not “ abomination,” yet certainly most subordinate. III. SOME OF THE OF THIS . You have had great advantages. Consider, too, the time you have wasted. How insufficient the causes, too, which have produced your infertility. It were wise for you seriously to inquire what these have been. Decree, fate, providence, necessity--you cannot charge these with the future. Your conscience is too enlightened for that. No! the cause is not from above. Nor from beneath altogether. Satan has no compulsory power over us. Where, then, is the cause to be found? In yourself only; in your yielding to outward influences. It is a further aggravation of your sin, that all the time of your unfruitfulness you have been positively injurious. Think, for example, of the incomparable mischief a father does in his family all the time he is living a worldly and careless life. IV. THE DOOM OF THE BRANCH. It is one proof, among many, of God’ s willingness to save, that he announces punishment before He executes it. None are led blindfold to justice. “ Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away.” This is fulfilled variously. It is sometimes in the loss of capacity. Then there is Death. This is common to man as the penally of sin; but to different men, how different! Whatever heaven is, and its glory is inexpressible, such are taken away from it; whatever hell is, and its dolefulness, as described by Christ, no darkness can paint, they are taken away to it. (J. Viney.) Every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it A sharp knife for the vine branches I. THE TEXT SELF-. It mentions 1. Two characters who are in some respects exceedingly alike; they are both branches, and are in the vine: and yet for all this, the end of the one shall be to be cast away, while the end of the other shall be to bring forth fruit. 2. The distinction between them. The first branch brought forth no fruit; the second branch bore some fruit. We have no right to judge of our neighbours’ motives and thoughts, except so far as they may be clearly discoverable by their actions and words. The interior we must leave with God, but the exterior we may judge. “ By their fruits ye shall know them.” Paul has given us a list of these fruits in Galatians 5:23. Say, professor, hast thou brought forth the fruit “ love?” etc. It is so easy for us to wrap ourselves up in the idea that attention to religious ceremonies is the test, but it is not so, for “ Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,” etc. 3. The solemn difference between them leads to a solemn result. (1) Sometimes God allows the professor to apostatise. (2) Or else he is allowed to fall into open sin. (3) Some have been taken away in a more terrible sense by death. II. CONVEYS . The fruit-bearing branches are not perfect. If they were, they would not need pruning. Whenever the sap within them is strong, there is a tendency for that strength to turn into evil. The gardener desires to see that strength in clusters, but alas! instead it runs into wood. When the sap comes into a Christian to produce confidence in God, through the evil that is in him, it often produces confidence in himself. When the sap would produce zeal, how very frequently it turns into rashness. Suppose the sap flows to produce self-examination, very generally, instead of the man doubting himself, he begins to doubt his Lord. How often have I seen even the joy of the Lord turned into pride. That love which we ought to bear towards our neighbours, how apt is that to run into love of the world! Gentleness often turns to a silly compliance with everybody’ s whim, and meekness, which is a fruit of the Spirit, how often that becomes an excuse for holding your tongue, when you ought boldly to speak! 2. Pruning is the lot of all the fruitful saints. It is generally thought that our trials and troubles purge us: I am not sure of that, they certainly are lost upon some. It is the word (verse 3) that prunes the Christian. Affliction is the handle of the knife, the grindstone that sharpens up the Word; the dresser which removes our soft garments, and lays bare the diseased flesh, so that the surgeon’ s lancet may get at it. Affliction makes us ready to feel the word, but the true pruner is the word in the hand of the Great Husbandman. Sometimes when you lay stretched upon the bed of sickness, you think more upon the word than you did before, that is one great thing. In the next place, you see more the applicability of that word to yourself. In the third place, the Holy Spirit makes you feel more, while you are thus laid aside, the force of the word than you did before. 3. The object in this pruning is never condemnatory. God chastises, but He cannot punish those for whom Jesus Christ has been already punished. You have no right to say, when a man is afflicted, that it is because he has done wrong; on the contrary, just the branch that is good for something gets the pruning knife. It is because the Lord loves His people that He chastens them. 4. The real reason is that more fruit may be produced. (1) In quantity. A good man, who feels the power of the word pruning him of this and that superfluity, sets to work to do more for Jesus. Before he was afflicted he did not know how to be patient. Before he was poor he did not know how to be humble, etc. (2) In variety. One tree can only produce one kind of fruit usually, but the Lord’ s people, the more they are pruned the more they will produce. (3) In quality. The man may not pray more, but he will pray more earnestly. 5. What greater blessing can a man have than to produce much fruit for God? Better to serve God much than to become a prince. III. INVITES . 1. “ If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the wicked appear?” 2. What a mercy it is to the believer that it is pruning with him and not cutting off! 3. Think how gently the pruning has been done with the most of us up till now, compared with our barrenness. 4. How earnestly we ought to seek for more fruit. 5. How concerned should every one of us be to be efficaciously and truly one with Christ! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Hard times, God’ s pruning knife (Thanksgiving Sermon) I. TODAY WE SHOULD BE because 1. Hard as the times are, they might be worse. 2. The times are not so hard as we deserve. 3. They are not so hard as we represent. II. WHAT WE CALL HARD TIMES ARE THE BEST FOR US. 1. Good for man’ s physical nature. The frugality and self-control they induce are precisely what the athlete practices. 2. Good for his intellectual nature. No great genius ever daudled into inspiration. 3. Good for his moral nature. They remove the excrescences of (1) Covetousness. (2) Luxury. (3) Indolence. III. THE RESULT WILL BE BETTER FRUIT. 1. A new style or higher type of manhood. 2. A higher type of politics. Hard times teach befooled people to think, and to rise above party dictations. 3. A higher type of religion. God has ever developed the higher Christian life in times of trial. IV. AFTER ALL, THE PRUNING KNIFE IS ONLY ONE OF THE OF CULTURE. Soft rain and genial sunshine are the larger experience of the vine. And so even in hard times our afflictions are not one to a thousand of our blessings. (C. D. Wadsworth, D. D.) Pruning, a reason for gratitude Brambles certainly have a fine time of it, and grow after their own pleasure. We have seen their long shoots reaching far and wide, and no knife has threatened them as they luxuriated upon the commons and waste lands. The poor vine is cut down so closely that little remains of it but bare stems. Yet, when clearing time comes, and the brambles are heaped for their burning, who would not rather be the vine? (C. D. Wadsworth, D. D.) Means of fruitfulness The word translated “ purgeth” is kathairo, which includes all the means that are necessary to develop the fruitfulness of the plant, and the removal of all hindrances. It means to purify the ground and prepare it for sowing, by removing weeds and rubbish--to winnow the corn, to separate the chaff from the wheat. Its root idea is purity, freedom from all that is foul, false, useless, or noxious. It is interesting to notice the close resemblance that exists between the word kathairo, to purge, and kathaireo, to destroy. The addition of one letter makes the one word to mean a very different thing from the other. And so there is a resemblance between the purging of the fruitful branches and the taking away of the unfruitful ones. In the garden during spring, the process of digging the ground, cutting the roots and branches, seems purely a process of destruction; but in the added beauty of summer and the richer fruitfulness of autumn, it is seen to be a remedial and constructive process. And so the means which God employs to promote the fertility of His own people seem so like those which He employs to punish the wicked, that the righteous are not seldom perplexed. In considering the means of fruitfulness, let us look at I. THE NATURE OF THE SOIL in which believers are planted. 1. Some of the finest grapes are produced on volcanic soil. From the rich red mould into which lava is disintegrated when long exposed to the weather, the vine draws the juices that form the largest and most generous clusters. The passion of the soil, as it were, passes into the produce. Palestine, the native country of the vine, exhibits, for its size, more than any other country, evidences of extraordinary geological convulsions. These features were paralleled by the historical revolutions which were intended to make Israel the true vine of the Lord. And so it is in the experience of every nation that is intended to produce much fruit. Africa, with its uniform geology and its monotonous history, has done little for mankind compared with Europe, whose geology and history are exceedingly varied and complicated. It is as true of individuals as of nations, that because they have no changes, they do not fear God or prosper. But God plants His vines amid fiery trials, where they are exposed to constant temptations, lava floods of the wrath and malice of the Adversary and of wicked men. Since the ground beneath them is insecure, and liable to constant convulsive shocks, they are thereby induced to set their affections more firmly on things above, and to walk as pilgrims and strangers on earth. 2. The influence of external circumstances upon objects so plastic as plants is confessedly very powerful, leading often to great modifications of form, structure, and substance. Hence the endless variety of grapes and wines of different countries. A similar modification in the character of the growth and fruit of the Christian is caused by the circumstances in which God’ s providence places him. One thing, amid all the changes of his circumstances, the Christian can command if he will--and that is the sunlight of God’ s countenance. He does not, however, always avail himself of it. And hence, as the spice trees in our hot houses are destitute of aromatic taste, because we cannot supply them with the brilliant direct sunshine of their native skies, so the Christian, amid all the privileges of the Church, is often destitute of the rich aromatic fragrance of spiritual joy, because he seeks to make up, by the heat of forced spiritual emotion originating in himself, for the full, bright, joyous sunshine that beams from God’ s face. 3. Under this head may be noticed the discipline of life’ s daily work as one of the means of developing Christian fruitfulness. Like the vine, the Christian requires to be trained along the trellis of formal duties and orderly habits. 4. I may also notice the fact, that God’ s tenderest vines are often placed in the most trying circumstances. It seems a strange appointment of nature, that the growing points of all trees should be their weakest and most delicate parts. So it is with God’ s own people. Many of the most delicate and sensitive of them have to bear the full brunt of life’ s storms. Tender women have often to withstand the severest shocks of circumstances. The sorest trials often meet the Christian at the beginning of his course. He puts forth the tenderest growths of his nature often into the biting air of doubt, and fear, and despondency. But it is good thus to bear the yoke in our youth. The elasticity and hopefulness of the young Christian can overcome trials which would crush the more aged and less buoyant. And the very patience and tenderness of those sensitive ones, who have to bear greater hardships and evils, disarm these evils of their bitterness, and turn them to profitable uses. II. PRUNING IS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON METHODS BY WHICH IS . No plant requires more pruning than the vine. So bountiful is its sap, so vigorous its vital force, that we are amazed at the abundance of superfluous growth which it annually produces. In order to adapt it to our conditions of cultivation we must systematically cripple and restrict it in every part. 1. The head, or leading shoots, are carefully broken off; and the long, luxuriant, lateral shoots are cut back to a few joints. 2. But besides the pruning of the suckers on the branch the branch itself is sometimes pruned. In almost every branch, owing to deficiency of light and heat, or overcrowding, many of the buds that are put forth every year become dormant. Some of these torpid buds retain a sufficient amount of vitality to carry them forward through the annually deposited layers of wood and bark; so that they still continue to maintain their position visibly, year after year, on the outside of the bark. In most instances, however, they are too feeble to keep pace with the onward growth of the branch; and, in that case, they fall behind, necessarily sink below the surface, and become buried beneath succeeding annual deposits of wood and bark. The branch, instead of developing them, employs the sap which ought to have gone for that purpose, into growing fresh shoots. But the gardener comes, and with his sharp pruning knife lops off these useless suckers; and the consequence is, that in a little while the sap goes back to the dormant buds and stimulates their slumbering vitality. And so God prunes every branch in the True Vine for two reasons; first, in order to remove rank and useless qualities; and, secondly, to develop latent graces. In no Christian is there an harmonious spiritual growth, a perfect expansion from a perfect germ in childhood. On the contrary, growth in grace in us is always unsymmetrical. Solid and valuable qualities are united with weak, worthless ones; graces that charm by their beauty lie side by side with defects that repel by their deformity. Some graces, also, are dormant in the soul, repressed by unfavourable circumstances of continued prosperity, or starved by the over-development of other graces. Some besetting sins, such as irritability, covetousness, worldliness, pride, impatience, are allowed to grow up and exhaust in their noxious growth the life of the soul. Now, to repress the evil and stimulate the good qualities of His people, God subjects them to the pruning of His providence. But, the pruning of God’ s providence would be very unsatisfactory did it only lop off noxious qualities, mortify easily besetting sins. Such injurious growths may be repressed by affliction, but unless the discipline develops the opposite good qualities, they will spring up anew, and make matters worse than before. Spiritual graces must be developed in their room. In order to get rid of worldly mindedness, spirituality of mind must be cultivated; covetousness will only yield to a larger experience of the Love that for our sakes became poor: anger will only be extirpated by meekness, and pride by humility. 3. But we must be guarded against the idea that affliction of itself can develop the fruitfulness of the Christian life. We find that in the fruit tree the pruning is only of use when there are latent or open buds to develop. And so, unless we have Christian life and Christian capabilities, affliction, so far from doing us good, will only harden and injure us. But, while affliction cannot impart spiritual life, there are instances in which God uses it to quicken the soul dead in trespasses and sins. And here, too, we find an analogy in nature. The buds of plants almost always grow in the axil--the vacant angle between the leaf and the stem, where the hard, resisting bark which everywhere else invests the surface of the plant, is more easily penetrated, and allows the growing tissues to expand more easily. The axil is, so to speak, the joint in the armour of the stem. Now, “ a wound is virtually an axil, for the continuity of the surface is there broken, and consequently, the resistance of the external investiture diminished.” Now, we all invest ourselves with a strong, resisting envelope of pride, worldliness and carelessness. Our property, our friends, our reputation, our comfort, all form a kind of outer crust of selfishness, which prevents our spiritual growth. But God removes our property or our friends, blights our reputation, destroys our carnal ease, and by the wound thus made in our selfish life an axil is formed, from whence springs up the bud of a new and holier growth. 4. There is one process of unusual severity which the gardener has recourse to in cases of obstinate sterility. The barren branch is girdled or ringed--that is, a narrow strip of its bark is removed all round the branch. The juices elaborated by the leaves are arrested in their downward course, and accumulated in the part above the ring, which is thus enabled to produce fruit abundantly; while the shoots that appear below the ring, being fed only by the crude ascending sap, do not bear flowers, but push forth into leafy branches. The prophet Joel says, “ He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree.” Many Christians are ringed to prevent the earthward tendencies of their souls, and enable them to accumulate and concentrate all the heavenly influences which they receive in bringing forth more fruit. Their present life is separated from their past by some terrible crisis of suffering, which has altered everything to their view, which has been in itself a transformation, and has accomplished in a day, in an hour, in a moment, what else is effected only by the gradual process of years. The lot that is thus halved may be more useful than in its full and joyful completeness. Ceasing to draw its nourishment from broken cisterns of earthly love, the lonely branch, separated from its happy past, depends more upon the unfailing clue and sunshine of heavenly love. 5. Sometimes even the roots of the vine require to be dug about and cut short. There is a correspondence between the horizontal extension of the branches in the air and the lateral spreading of the roots in the earth. For this reason the roots require pruning no less than the branches. If they are allowed to develop too luxuriantly, the branches will keep pace with them, only they will be barren. We are prone to root ourselves too firmly in the rich soil of our circumstances, to spread our roots far and wide in search of what shall minister to our love of ease and pleasure. But God digs about us. Our circumstances crumble away about our roots; the things and the persons in which we trusted prove as unstable as a sand heap on a slope. But, from roots bare and exposed, or cut off and circumscribed by uncongenial soil, we should seek to develop a higher beauty and richness of character. 6. The leaves also need sometimes to be taken away, as superabundant foliage would shade the fruit and prevent the sunshine from getting access to it to ripen it. So the fruit of the Christian is sometimes prevented from ripening or filling out properly by the superabundance of the leaves of profession. There may be more profession than practice, more of the rustling foliage than of the silent fruit. The most common fault of believers is letting their profession of the Christian life run ahead of their experience. Not more necessary are the leaves of a natural tree to the production of the fruit, than the profession of a Christian is to the formation of the Christian character. But God, by some appropriate discipline, regulates what leaves of profession should be stripped off and what leaves should remain. 7. Many of the tendrils of the vine require to be nipped off, in order that no sap may be wasted, or diverted from the fruit. If left to itself, the vine would put forth a tendril at every alternate joint; for it would seek to climb to the top of the highest tree. In like manner, it is necessary that the excessive upward tendency of some Christians should he restricted, in order that the common duties, and the homely concerns of ordinary life--which in their own sphere are equally important--may not be neglected. 8. The fruit itself must be thinned. The gardener prunes the cluster of grapes when young and tender, in order that the berries which are allowed to remain may be larger and finer. In the Christian life there must be concentration of effort, conservation of force. Much moral energy is spent without effect on a multiplicity of objects, which, if husbanded and focussed on a few of the most important, would lead to far greater results. 9. It has been observed that the hues of the sunbeam which the growing plant does not reflect at one time are absorbed, like a stream running underground for a while, and reappear in some after part. So is it with God’ s discipline of His people. Much of it may seem to be void and lost--to make no adequate return; but in some part or other of the life the effect of it is seen. If it fails to manifest itself in the leaf, it comes out in the blossom or fruit. 10. It may happen, however, that the purging, whose various forms and relations I have thus considered, may be here, and the fruition in eternity. Christians are placed in an unfavourable climate. Tropical by nature, they have been carried, like a wind-wafted seed, into a temperate zone, and have striven in vain to grow and flower among the hardy plants around them. But it is a comforting thought, that what bears about it here the marks of incompleteness, and to our eyes the appearance of failure, belongs essentially to some vaster whole. III. ANOTHER METHOD OF PURGING THE BRANCH IS FREEING IT FROM ITS ENEMIES. The natural vine, owing to its rich productiveness, is peculiarly exposed to the attacks of numerous foes which prey upon it. 1. A species of vegetable parasite not unfrequently assails it, called the “ dodder.” This strange plant is a mere mass of elastic, pale red, knotted threads, which shoot out in all directions over the vine. It springs originally from the ground, and if it finds no living plant near on which to graft itself, it withers and dies; but if there be a vine or any other useful plant within its reach, it surrounds the stem in a very little time, and henceforth lives on the fostering plant by its suckers only, the original root in the ground becoming dried up. The dodder is exceedingly injurious to the plants it attacks, depriving them of their nourishment, and strangling them in its folds. Can we imagine a more striking natural emblem of the law of sin and death with which the believer has to contend, and from which he longs for deliverance? We can only hope to prevent the dodder growing and spreading by perpetually breaking and dividing its stalks before they have time to fruit; and we can only hope to keep down the remains of corruption within us by incessant effort, watchfulness, and prayer; not allowing them to develop into fruit and seed. How blessed will be the deliverance when this terrible despoiler of our peace and usefulness is finally and completely removed from us, when we are saved forever from the power and presence of that sin from whose guilt the blood of Christ has freed us! 2. Every one has heard of the terrible grape mildew which, on its first appearance, utterly destroyed the vineyards in many parts of the world, and still annually reappears to levy its tax upon the vine grower. In consists of a fungus, whose growth spreads a white, downy mould over the surface of the grape, checking its development, and converting its pulp into a sour and watery mass of decay. But it does no harm unless the conditions of its germination exists--which are cold, wet seasons, with little sunshine--in which case it starts into life, and grows with inconceivable rapidity, spreading ruin on every side. To a species of moral mildew the fruit of the Christian is also exposed. In cold seasons, when clouds of unbelief rise up between the soul and the Sun of Righteousness, intercepting His light, this mildew is peculiarly destructive. It is a very solemn thought, that the spiritual atmosphere is full of the devices of the Prince of the power of the air--that the existence of another world of evil beyond our own world, makes all remissness on our part most dangerous. 3. In this country, the greatest pest of the vinery is the little red spider, whose movements over the leaves and fruit are exceedingly nimble, and which makes up by its vast numbers for its individual weakness. It punctures the fruit, sips its juice, and thus injures its appearance and quality. In the East, the land of the vine, the special foe of the vineyard is the fox. “ Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes” --or small grapes just out of blossom--says the beautiful Song of Solomon. These are fitting symbols of some weakness or infirmity of believers--some sin of temper or tongue--which, although it may not endanger their safety, will, nevertheless, greatly mar their peace. Peevishness, irritability, etc., may seem so small and trifling as to be hardly entitled to be called sins at all. They may be extenuated and explained away, but they are in reality red spiders--little foxes, that spoil the tender grapes of the soul. 4. There is a disease called “ rust,” which makes its appearance on the berries of the vine a few days after they are out. It is supposed to be caused by handling the berries while thinning them. Our vines have indeed tender grapes. The beauty of holiness is easily blurred: self-consciousness rusts it; affectation brushes off the fine edge--the delicate beauty of the various graces. 5. Another disease known to gardeners is “ shanking,” which makes its appearance just as the grapes are changing from the acid to the saccharine state, and arrests the transformation at once; the berry remaining perfectly acid, and at length shrivelling up. It begins in the decay of the little stem or shank of the berry, and is supposed to be caused by the roots of the vine descending into a cold, wet subsoil. How often, alas, is it true of the believer, that his fruit is shanked, remaining sour when it should become sweet and palatable! (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Spiritual pruning What is pruning? Whatever it be, two things are observable. It is effected by the husbandman, and applied to each. It is a pleasant thought that all the discipline is from the hand of our Father. There may indeed by which we are exercised be subordinate instruments, the “ wicked” being God’ s “ sword,” but it is still “ the Lord’ s doing.” A work so important as the spiritual culture of His people He commits wholly to none. “ He pruneth,” nor are any exempt. “ Every branch” is the subject of pruning. As all need, so all have, discipline. In the deepest trial there has nothing happened to you but what is “ common to man.” And why this? For greater fruitfulness. Not “ willingly,” for wantonness, for pleasure, for any benefit the husbandman secures, but for fruit. The subject, then, is, Fruit as the result of affliction. Affliction! What a scene does this word open to view. It is well to bear in mind that it is confined to earth. There are whole races of beings who experimentally know not the meaning of the word, who never felt a pain, never breathed a sigh, never wept a tear; others to whom it is a thing of the past. How truthful in this, as in all other respects, is the Bible. How large a portion of the Scriptures is occupied with scenes and truths bearing on affliction! The terms by which it designates it, how various--“ adversity,” “ correction,” “ chastisement,” “ calamity,” “ distress,” “ grief,” “ judgment,” “ stripes,” “ smiting,” “ trouble,” “ visitation,” are some of the literal expressions; while the figures of “ fire,” “ water,” the “ rod,” the “ yoke,” “ gall,” “ wormwood,” “ rough wind,” “ sackcloth,” “ ashes,” and many others, are significantly employed as its symbols. You know, too, how deeply all the histories of the Bible are tinged by it: Job in the ashes, Jacob mourning his children, Joseph in the pit, Moses in the desert, David in the wilderness, the youths in the furnace, Daniel in the den--what are all these familiar tales of life, but scenes of affliction, showinghow it was experienced and borne? It is not of affliction, however, whether in fact or description, we have now to think, but of its fruit, the “ more fruit,” which it is designed to produce, the “ peaceable fruit” which “ afterward” it yields. 1. Affliction deepens on the mind a sense of the reality of eternal things. It is said that after an earthquake, men tread more warily. The foundations having been shaken, a sense of insecurity is felt, which produces solemn impression. 2. Another valuable result of affliction is increased sense of the value of religion. When Israel passed through the desert they learnt, as they never otherwise could have done, the worth of many things--water, manna, guidance. As the dove beaten by the tempest to the sheltering ark, as the tossed disciples to the mighty One who walked on the billows, we repair to Christ. Certain colours require certain lights to show them. There are views of Christ as a Saviour, a Friend, a High Priest, an Example, which only the shadow of affliction could enable us to discern, but which, when once seen, remain forever upon the vision of the soul. So with God’ s Word. To enjoy plaintive music or a minor key, a certain state of mind is requisite; and who but one in trial can fully enter into the deep bass of sorrow and wailing in the Lamentations or the Psalms. Prayer is another exercise of which affliction teaches the value. “ I will go and return unto My place till they seek My face, in their affliction they will seek Me early.” 3. Another valuable effect of affliction is the cultivation and growth of the passive virtues. The importance and value of these we are apt to overlook. Constitutionally active, we are all prone to honour the more stirring graces rather than the gentler ones. By far the larger proportion are passive virtues. What are these? Patience, submission, acquiescence. To take away wilfulness, waywardness, self-determination, and suchlike natural excrescences, and thus secure the opposite growth, He prunes even the fruitful branch. 4. Another fruit of affliction is increasing fellowship with Christ. There are communications for which affliction is indispensable, and which the Saviour reserves for this season. To see the stars we require darkness. Certain flowers open only at night. The sweetest song is heard in the dusk. The most beautiful effect of colour requires a camera obscura, a darkened chamber. It is even thus with affliction. Would Abraham have heard the angel had it not been for the outstretched knife? And it is worth while to be afflicted to have such fruit as this. Is it necessary to pass through spiritual darkness and desertion in order to know the unchanging love of Christ. 5. Another result of sanctified affliction is increased desire for heaven. Such are some of the fruits of sanctified affliction. Some, not all. Each affliction comes with its special message, as well as its general one. “ Every branch” has its own particular deformities, and these the pruning knife first cuts. It may be, too, that affliction sometimes comes specially with reference to others--is rather relative than personal. Trial may be vicarious. The child suffers for the parent, the sister for the brother, the minister for the people. Learn, then, to estimate affliction aright. Seek earnestly to get the benefit of affliction. Look through affliction to that which is beyond. (J. Viney.) John 15:3 Now are ye clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you Further cleansing necessary Now are ye clean through the Word, and yet needing to be cleansed. We have a hint here of the mystery of that double relation in which every believing man stands to God, of that double relation which is more fully and dogmatically stated in some of the Epistles; but which is yet distinctly anticipated here and at chap. 10:10. The faithful in Christ Jesus are “ clean,” being by faith justified from all things, and having thus a standing ground before God; which yet is in some sort an ideal one--their actual state, although ever approximating to this, yet still failing to correspond to it--they therefore needing by the same faith to appropriate ever more and more of that sanctifying grace, those purifying influences, which continually stream forth from Him on all them that are His; and by aid of which He is bringing them to be all that, which for His sake His Father has been already willing to regard them, however the absolute identity of what they are and what they are counted to be, is reserved for another state of existence. (Archbishop Trench.) The Christian’ s present condition as compared with the past At Munich the custom is said to prevail that every child found begging in the streets is arrested, and carried to a charitable establishment. The moment he enters, and before he is cleaned, and gets the new clothes intended for him, his portrait is painted in his ragged dress, and precisely as he was found begging. When his education is finished, this portrait is given him, and be promises by an oath to keep it all his life, that he may be reminded of the abject condition from which he has been rescued, and of the gratitude he owes the establishment which raised him from misery, and taught him how to avoid it for the future. Let the Christian often compare thus his former condition, as a sinner unsaved, with his state as a renewed believer, that his love and gratitude may be excited, and his affections drawn to Him who has wrought the change. John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you Abiding in Christ I. TO WHOM THE COMMAND IS GIVEN. To those who are already in Him. 1. We are at first in nature, possessed merely of the powers of nature, as understanding, will, affections; but we must be in grace, which raises us above nature, purifies all our faculties, and directs them to a proper end. 2. We are naturally in the flesh influenced and governed by the body, its appetites, and senses (Genesis 6:5; John 3:5-6). We must be in the Spirit under the influence and government of His motions and graces. 3. We are naturally in Belial (Ephesians 2:2; 1 John 5:18); inspired, deceived, deluded, corrupted by him; but we must be in Christ. 4. How? (1) By the knowledge of Him (Philippians 3:8); (2) by faith in Him; (3) love to Him; (4) an interest in Him (Philippians 3:9). II. WHAT THIS COMMAND IMPLIES. 1. It implies that we are to retain this knowledge, faith, love, interest, union with Christ; which may be lost (Colossians 1:23; John 15:9-10; Romans 11:22; Hebrews 10:38). Now, we retain these (1) When we abide in Him in our thoughts; not only thinking highly of Him, but having our thoughts stayed upon Him. (2) When our desires, our designs, our will, both in its choice and resolution, and our affections, are set upon these things. (3) When we dwell upon them in our conversation, and manifest that we love Him, and cleave to Him in our behaviour. 2. To illustrate this: we must abide in Christ, as a branch in a tree, which is supported by it, adheres to it, grows in it, and becomes verdant and fruitful by the virtue derived from it; as a hand in a body, from which it receives its warmth, life, activity, and usefulness; as a man slayer in the city of refuge, for he would be safe only while abiding in the consecrated city; so we are in danger of being overtaken by the curse and wrath of God, unless we have fled to Christ and continue in Him; as a besieged citizen in a garrison, for we are surrounded and attacked by various enemies; as passengers in a ship, for we are on the sea of this world, tossed with the winds and waves, proceeding on our voyage for the port of eternal bliss, and our safety depends on being in the ship. III. THE PROMISE MADE TO THOSE THAT KEEP IT; AND THE . 1. Christ will abide in us (1) By His word, teaching, instructing, directing, strengthening, supporting, encouraging, comforting us (Romans 15:4). (2) By His Spirit, in His witness as a Spirit of adoption, and in His fruits, which are “ love, joy, peace,” etc. (Romans 8:15; Galatians 5:22-23). (3) By the efficacy of His body and blood (John 6:56-57). (4) By His indwelling presence, as our “ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). (5) By permitting us to have followship with Him (Revelation 3:20). 2. Hence we shall have pardon, acceptance, adoption, safety, access. All our prayers shall be heard (John 15:7; Mark 11:24). We shall abound in the fruits of righteousness (John 15:5-6; 2 Corinthians 9:8). IV. HOW WE MAY BE ENABLED TO KEEP THE COMMAND. 1. By abiding in a belief of His word, and holding fast all the doctrines, precepts, promises, and threatenings of the Scripture. By continuing to attend the ordinances, public, domestic, social, and private. 2. By guarding against hypocrisy, formality, and lukewarmness, in the use of all ordinances, and maintaining sincerity, spirituality, and fervour therein. 3. By conscientiously keeping His commandments, carefully shunning sins of commission and omission, and whatever is calculated to grieve His Spirit. 4. By guarding against an evil heart of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12), and “ holding fast our confidence.” By guarding against the love of this present world. (J. Benson.) Christ the True Vine “ I am the True Vine.” I. Christ sets forth the of His union with His disciples. II. In the REALITY AND of His life-giving power Christ infinitely excels all His forerunners and types. III. This relationship is much NEARER than that of the shepherd with the sheep. IV. This union is , embracing many besides those who are usually recognized as believers. “ Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit.” V. Our union with Christ should be . Twelve times in this allegory the word “ abide” is used. They were in danger of unfaithfulness and apostasy. Christ sought to fortify them. He assured them that He would keep them if they would trust Him. VI. This communion is one of LOVE (John 15:9-16). “ As the Father hath loved Me, even so have I loved you.” “ Abide in My love.” The believer lives in the love of Christ. Christ loves all men; but He manifests His love in a peculiar manner to those whose hearts are given to Him. If we love God, we will delight in His character, we will be drawn by those Divine attributes which Jesus reveals. Love of a holy Being implies hatred of sin. The Spirit convicts the loving heart of sin. Is my fruit recognized as Divine fruit, such fruit as Christ bore? 1. One of the fruits of union with Christ according to this lesson is patience under discipline (John 15:1-3). “ My Father is the Husbandman.” “ He purgeth it,” etc. “ Ye are clean through the Word,” etc. The lot of Jesus was one of severe trial.” He was made “ perfect through suffering.” Those who become Christ-like must expect Christ-like trials. The believer can maintain his union with Christ only by uncompromising opposition to every form of evil. 2. Another result of this union is the spirit of dependence on Christ (John 15:4-5). “ Apart from Me ye can do nothing.” This sense of dependence on Christ, instead of paralyzing human energy, becomes the source of its power. It enables the soul to look up and confidently exclaim with the apostle, “ I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth Me.” 3. This suggest another fruit of union with Christ, namely, life (John 15:6-8). “ If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.” Christ came that we might have life. All the vital juices of the branch and its power to bear fruit come from the vine. So, for every good desire we ever formed, or good word we ever spoke, or good deed we ever did, evidencing a renewed life in us, we are indebted to Christ. He “ is our life.” (G. H.Cheney.) Abiding in Christ “ Believe on Christ” is the gospel to the world. “ Abide in Christ” is the gospel to the Church. We cannot think too much of Christ for us, but we may think far too little of Christ in us; yet for perfect salvation we need both. Notice that this is I. A CALL TO VITAL UNION WITH OUR LORD. This implies 1. A realization that of ourselves we can do nothing, that we are mere dead branches apart from Him! We live too much as though we were trees, as though by our own power we were to do God’ s will, and we have striven, and then groaned over the inevitable failure. Now, says Christ, be satisfied to be a branch. 2. An assurance that the fulness of Christ is ours. That is involved in the figure, and is stated in the chapter. He goes on to say (as its consequence) that what He has, they share. They are to share (1) His joy--“ that My joy might abide in you” ; (2) His love--“ that ye love one another as I have loved you” ; (3) His knowledge--“ all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” ; (4) His rights--“ that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you” ; (5) His persecutions--“ if they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” ; (6) His work--“ the Spirit shall bear witness of Me, and ye also shall bear witness” ; (7) His glory--“ the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them.” 3. A surrender of ourselves to Christ for His purposes. For the branch exists for the tree. II. THE FIGURE OF THE VINE HOW THIS CALL MAY BE . The words show that the responsibility is with us. Christ can only bless according to our willingness; and willingness is proved by readiness to seek the blessing. “ Abide in Me, and I in you” is a command; it is ours, therefore, to fulfil it. And we ask How? Remember there are degrees in this union; some are more closely joined to Christ than others, and receive more of His life; and this is due to their growth into Him, they have struck the fibres of their spiritual being deeper and yet deeper into His being, and thus are close knit to Him. 1. We need the cords of meditation and prayer to bind us to Him more firmly. The formal prayer, the ill-studied Bible, the almost deserted closet, are the destruction of the hopes held out in the text. The weather soon loosens the old cords, and through perpetual communion they must be perpetually renewed. 2. We need the putting away of whatever would come between Christ and us. Sin hinders Christ giving, for He will not give to sin. Sin weakens our desire and faith, that is, our power of receiving. So everything in any degree contrary to Christ must be put away. 3. We need the ceaseless drawing by faith on His fulness. III. FROM THIS WOULD COME THAT FRUIT BEARING WHICH IS GOD’ S WILL. There would be 1. The natural growth of personal holiness. It is a common thought that before Christ can enter into us we must put out evil. That is not the order. Let Christ in and He will put out the evil, as light puts out darkness. 2. A heart at rest. The poverty of our resources is our perpetual fear; loneliness and care are with some a perpetual grief. But would not that be altered if we consciously abode in Christ? 3. Christ’ s power working through us. Think of being the channel for the will of Jesus. (C. New.) Mutual abiding I. THE DUTY . 1. Abide in Me. It has been justly said, that the command is not abide with Me--near Me--or under Me; but, in Me. The fruit-bearing branch is not only in the same place with the vine--near it, under its shadow--it is in it, and it abides in it. The ideas suggested are, residence and continuance. It is as if he had said, “ Think as I think; feel as I feel; will as I will; choose as I choose; and let My views of all objects and all events be yours, because they are Mine; let My feelings, My volitions, My choices, all be yours, and let them be yours because they are Mine. Prosecute My ends--use My means--rely on Me, entirely on Me. Let My wisdom be your wisdom--My righteousness your righteousness--My strength your strength. Come out of yourselves. Come out of the creature. Come into Me.” It is faith that thus unites us to the Saviour, and it is continued faith which keeps us thus united to the Saviour. 2. Let Me abide in you. What is meant by Christ’ s abiding in His people? The best answer is at the seventh verse, and 1 John 3:24. Christ abides in His people, by continuously making them, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and the instrumentality of His word, understood and believed under His influence, think along with Him--feel, choose, enjoy along with Him. Christ is so “ formed in them” that it is not so much they who live, as Christ who lives in them. 2. What is the import of the injunction, “ Let Me dwell in you” ? Christ never does come into any man, so as to dwell in him, against the man’ s will Were the thing possible, it would be to degrade man into a mere machine, and involve the incongruity, than which none can be greater, that He who of old inhabited His own eternity, and has heaven for His throne and earth for His footstool, should, as if in want of a house, force an entrance where He was not desired. But His language is, “ Behold, I stand at the door,” etc. 3. The two parts of the injunction are closely connected. Christians will abide in Christ just in the degree in which they let Christ abide in them. II. THE MOTIVES BY WHICH THE IS . 1. Compliance with the injunction is necessary to prevent unfruitfulness and its fearful consequences. A vine branch by itself can bring forth nothing, not even blossoms or leaves. All men are naturally unholy and unprofitable. There is no way in which they can be made fruitful, except by being cut off from their original stock, the first Adam, and being grafted into Him who is the True Vine. When men are awakened to a sense of the dangers of a state of spiritual barrenness, they often endeavour to become “ fruitful of themselves.” They go about to make themselves holy by the works of the law: but the thing is impossible. There is no good fruit but what is the product of Divine influence; and no channel for Divine influence to flow into the human heart, but the mediation of Jesus Christ. It is not, “ Without Me ye can do little” ; it is, “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” It is not, “ Without Me ye will do nothing” --that is true too--but it is, “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” It is not, “ Without Me you can accomplish--finish--nothing” ; it is, “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” 2. Compliance with this injunction alone can, and certainly will, secure fruitfulness, with all its blessed results. No stream without a fountain; no fountain, unless obstructed, without a stream. Three effects are mentioned by our Lord (1) The answer of whatever prayers we present to God; (2) The glorification of God; (3) The clearly proving to ourselves and others that we are really the disciples of Christ. (J. Brown, D. D.) Branches not mechanically in the vine It is, of course, possible to attach a bough or branch either to the stem of a vine or the trunk of any other tree by artificial means, and so to secure a kind of external union therewith. A length of cord or iron wire may accomplish a poor and pitiful result like that; but the stem knows it not and the branch is withered, however painfully and skilfully art may struggle to endorse the lie. In the same way we may be mechanically and externally united to the visible Church of Christ. That is entirely an affair of contrivance, a mere matter of ligature or glue. It is altogether and at most a concern of nomination, register or ceremonial. But let it be remembered that this is in itself stark naught. Never a rotten branch on the floor of a forest, a branch that breaks and crackles beneath the foot of a passer-by, is more dead than we are, if the hasp and staple of Church membership, if the hook and eye of registration, if the glue of mere sectarian adhesion, if the paint of mere external profession are all that holds us on to the Christ of God. (J. J.Wray.) Union with Christ the means of salvation Of the precise origin of the late civil war in America I am not quite sure; but I am told it was a perverse misunderstanding on the subject of slavery. The North was against the slave trade, the South for it; and so both parties appealed to arms. But be that as it may, one thing is clear: not many months passed before the question of slavery was swallowed up in the most important question of the Union--the Union of the States. Who is for or against the slave? There the conflict began. Who is for or against the Union? There it finished. Neither am I quite certain of the first cause of the prolonged controversy between earth and heaven, man and God. A rumour was afloat in my native neighbourhood that it all began in a slight misunderstanding touching a certain apple tree in the garden of Eden. But be that as it may, the question of the apple tree has been long ago swallowed up in the more important question of the union--the union with the Son. Salvation hinges not on such questions as what was the first sin, or who is the greatest sinner? but upon the simple straightforward question--Who is for or against the union with Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the only-begotten Son? (J. C. Jones, D. D.) Union with Christ and fruitfulness The villages in Persia may be derided into two classes: those of the plains, treeless, sterile and poor; and those of the mountains, where the springs and torrents encourage the growth of plane, mulberry, poplar trees, and orchards, and allow channels for the nourishment of plantations. Elevation means fertility here. (H. O.Mackey.) The reciprocities of personal salvation I. CHRIST IN THE . 1. How. 2. When. 3. Why. II. THE IN CHRIST. 1. How. 2. When. 3. Why. (S. S. Times.) Union with Christ 1. A spiritual union (1 Corinthians 6:17; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:13). 2. A vital union (John 14:19; Galatians 2:20). 3. It embraces our entire persons, our bodies through our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19). 4. It is a legal or federal union, so that all of our legal or covenant responsibilities rest upon Christ, and all of His legal or covenant merits accrue to us … 5. This union is between the believer and the person of the God-man in His office as mediator (John 14:23; John 17:21; John 17:23). (A. A. Hodge.) Abide in Christ Be like Milton’ s angel, who lived in the sun. Abide in Christ, and let His words abide in you. Closer, closer, closer, this is the way to spiritual wealth. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The entire dependence of sanctity on Christ 1. “ Without Me,” in John 15:5, should rather be rendered, “ Apart from Me,” “ separate from Me,” “ in state of independence on Me.” “ Without” the assistance of a strong person, a weak one cannot lift a heavy weight; but the dependence of the weak on the strong in order to lift the weight, is not the dependence which the word here employed indicates. “ Apart from” the soul the body is motionless, and cannot stir a finger. This is the sort of dependence indicated here. 2. The subject brought before us is, that the sanctification of the Christian, like his justification, is entirely dependent upon our Lord. As regards our justification, this is clearly seen (at least in the Reformed Churches) and generally admitted. But it is thought that, unlike justification (which is something that passes on the sinner externally to him, a sentence of acquittal in consideration of Our Lord’ s merits), sanctification is an achievement mastered--much as a lesson is mastered--by a variety of exercises, prayers, almsdeeds, sacraments, etc., and when mastered, a sort of permanent acquisition, which goes on increasing as the stock of these spiritual exercises accumulates. It is not regarded in its true light as a momentary receiving out of Christ’ s fulness grace for grace, as the result of His inworking in a heart, which finds the task of self-renewal hopeless, and makes itself over to Him, to be moulded by Him. 3. Let us take two illustrations (1) His own. “ As the branch” , etc. The circulating sap, which is the life of the tree, is indeed in the vine branch, so long as it holds of the stem; but in no sense whatever is it from the vine branch. Cut off the branch from the stem, and it ceases instantaneously to live, for it has no independent life. Even so the fruits of the Spirit, while of course our hearts are the sphere of their manifestation, are in no sense from our hearts; but a righteousness outflowing continually from the fulness of grace which is in Christ. (2) When we walk abroad on a beautiful day, our eye catches a variety of colours lying on the surface of the landscape,--there is the yellow of the golden grain, the green of the pasture land, the dark brown of those thick-planted copses, the silver gleam of the stream which winds through them, the faint blue of distant hills seen in perspective, the more intense blue of the sky, the purple tinge of yonder sheet of water--but none of these colours reside in the landscape. Now, apart from the sunlight no object has any colour; as is shown by the fact that, as soon as light is withdrawn from the landscape, the colours fable from the robe of nature. The difference of colour is produced by some subtle difference of texture or superficies, which makes each object absorb certain rays, and reflect certain others in different proportions. Now Christ is the Sun of righteousness, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the fair colour of every grace and Christian virtue. When Christ is shining upon the heart, then these virtues are manifested there, by our Christian graces of one description, by another of another, according to their different receptivity and natural temperament. The great secret, then, of bringing forth much fruit, or of all advance in holiness, is a constant keeping open the avenues of the soul towards Him. If a vine branch is to sprout, the tube by which it communicates with the stock of the tree must adhere tightly to the stem, and be well open for the passage of the sap. If you desire to see the colours of furniture in this room, whose shutters are closed, throw open the shutters, and admit the full flood of sunlight. And if you desire to see the dead heart, put forth the energies of spiritual life, and the dark heart illumined by the fair colours of spiritual grace, throw wide open the passage of communication between Christ and it, and allow the Life which is in Him, and the Light which is in Him, to circulate freely through it. I. Take heed, first, that YE ABIDE IN ME. This is done by faith. As we first consciously entered into fellowship with Christ by faith, so there is no other way to abide in Him, than by repeated exercises of the same faith. The faith which enables the soul to abide in Christ is nothing else than an assured trust and confidence that, as He has already wrought out for us our acceptance with God, so He will work in us every gracious disposition which is necessary to qualify us for glory. It is not enough to supplicate these graces; we must lean upon Him for them, and fix the eye of expectation upon the promise of His new covenant: “ I will put My laws into their mind,” etc. And as without holiness no man shall (or can) see the Lord, must not Christ be much more earnestly anxious to make us holy, than we can be to be made so? If we do not believe in this earnest anxiety of His, do we believe in His love at all? Ah! what if these struggles to be holy should themselves be in a certain sense a token of unbelief? What if the poor bird imprisoned in the cage should be thinking that, if it is ever to gain its liberty, it must be by its own exertions, and by vigorous and frequent strokes of its wings against the bars? If it did so, it would ere long fall back breathless and exhausted, faint and sore, and despairing. And the soul will have a similar experience, which thinks that Christ has indeed won pardon and acceptance for her, but that sanctification she must win for herself, and under this delusion beats herself sore in vain efforts to correct the propensities of a heart which the Word of God pronounces to be “ desperately” wicked. That heart,--you can make nothing of it yourself;--leave it to Christ, in quiet dependence upon His grace. Suffer Him toopen the prison doors for you, and then you shall fly out and hide yourself in your Lord’ s bosom, and there find rest. II. LET ME ABIDE IN YOU. Christ thus teaches us that ordinances, as well as faith, form part of His religion. In order to fruitfulness the sap must rise from the vine stock, and pass into the branch, this is the abiding of the vine in the branch. Similarly Christ must continually send up into our heart a current of holy inspirations, new loves, good impulses, devout hopes--i.e., communicate Himself to the soul by the continual influx of the Holy Ghost. And this is made specially in the Supper of the Lord. Of course the Divine allegory quite precludes the supposition that without faith in the recipient the Holy Supper will avail anything. The vine stock may push upwards its sap in strong current, at the first outburst of the genial spring; but what will that avail the branch, which does not hold closely to the tree, which is half broken off from the stem, and the fracture filled up with dust, or corroded by insects? Christ may offer Himself to us in the Lord’ s Supper; but, if the soul cleaves not to Him, if the avenues of the heart are not open towards Him, how can He enter? (Dean Goulburn.) John 15:5I am the Vine, ye are the branches The true branches of the True Vine No wise teacher is ever afraid of repeating himself. The average mind requires the reiteration of truth before it can make that truth its own. One coat of paint is not enough, it soon rubs off. I. THE OF UNION. 1. “ I am the Vine” was a general truth, with no clear personal application. “ Ye are the branches” brought each individual listener into connection with it. How many people there are that listen in a fitful sort of languid way, interestedly, to the most glorious and solemn truths and never dream that they have any bearing upon themselves! The one thing most needed is that truth should be sharpened to a point and the conviction driven into you, that you have got something to do with this great message. “ Ye are the branches” is the one side of that sharpening and making definite of the truth in its personal application, and the other side is “ Thou art the man.” All religious teaching is toothless generalities, utterly useless, unless we can force it through the wall of indifference and vague assent. 2. Note next the great promise, “ He that abideth in Me, and I in Him,” etc. Abiding in Christ, and Christ’ s abiding in us means a temper and tone of mind very far remote from the noisy, bustling distractions too common in our present Christianity. We want quiet, patient, waiting within the veil. The best way to secure Christian conduct is to cultivate communion with Christ. Get more of the sap into the branch, and there will be more fruit. We may grow graces artificially and they will be of little worth. First of all be, and then do; receive, and then give forth. That is the Christian way of mending men, not tinkering at this, that, and the other individual excellence, but grasping the secret of total excellence in communion with Him. Our Lord is here not merely laying down a law, but giving a promise, and putting His veracity into pawn for the fulfilment of it. 3. Notice that little word which now appears for the first time: “ much.” We are not to be content with a poor shrivelled bunch of grapes that are more like marbles than grapes, here and there, upon the half-nourished stem. God forbid that I should say that there is no possibility of union with Christ and a little fruit. A little union will have a little fruit; but the only two alternatives here are, “ no fruit,” and “ much fruit.” And I would ask why it is that the average Christian man of this generation bears only a berry or two here and there, like such as are left upon the vines after the vintage, when the promise is that if he will abide in Christ, he will bear much fruit. 4. This verse, setting forth the fruitfulness of union with Jesus, ends with the brief solemn statement of the converse--the barrenness of separation. There is the condemnation of all the busy life of men which is not lived in union with Jesus Christ; it is a long row of figures which, like some other long rows of figures added up, amount just to Zero. “ Without Me, nothing.” II. THE AND OF FROM HIM (John 15:6). 1. Separation is withering. Did you ever see a hawthorn bough that children bring home from the woods, and stick in the grate; how in a day or two the fresh green leaves all shrivel up and the white blossoms become brown and smell foul, and the only thing to be done with it is to fling it into the fire and get rid of it? Separate from Christ, the individual shrivels, and the possibilities of fair buds wither and set into no fruit. And no man is the man he might have been unless he holds by Jesus Christ and lets His life come into Him. And as for individuals, so for communities. The Church or the body of professing Christians that is separate from Jesus Christ dies to all noble life, to all high activity, to all Christlike conduct, and, being dead, rots. 2. Withering means destruction. Look at the mysteriousness of the language. “ They gather them.” “ They cast them into the fire.” Who have that tragic task? The solemn fact that the withering of manhood by separation from Jesus Christ requires, and ends in, the consuming of the withered, is all that we have here. We have to speak of it pityingly, with reticence, with terror, with tenderness, with awe lest it be our fate. Be on your guard against that tendency of this generation, to paste a bit of blank paper over all the threatenings of the Bible. One of two things must befall the branch, either it is in the Vine or it gets into the fire. And if we would avoid the fire let us see to it that we are in the Vine. III. THE UNION WITH CHRIST AS THE OF DESIRES (John 15:7). Our Lord instead of saying, “ I in you,” says “ My words in you.” He is speaking about prayers, consequently the variation is natural. The abiding of His words in us is largely the means of His abiding in us. 1. What do we mean by this? Something a great deal more than the mere intellectual acceptance. Something very different from reading a verse in a morning, and forgetting all about it all the day long; something very different from coming in contact with Christian truth on a Sunday, when somebody else preaches what he has found in the Bible to us, and we take in a little of it. It means the whole of the conscious nature of a man. His desires, understanding, affections, will, all being steeped in those great truths which the Master spoke. Put a little bit of colouring matter into the fountain at its head and you will have the stream dyed down its course forever so far. See that Christ’ s words be lodged in your inmost selves, and all the life will be glorified and flash into richness of colouring and beauty by their presence. 2. The main effect of such abiding of the Lord’ s words with us is, that in such a ease, my desire will be granted. If Christ’ s words are the substratum of your wishes, then your wishes will harmonize with His will, and so “ Ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.” IV. THIS UNION AND LEAD TO THE NOBLE ENDS OF GOD AND (John 15:8). 1. Christ’ s life was all for the glorifying of God. The lives, which are the life of Christ in us, will have the same end and the same issue. We come there to a very sharp test. How many of us are there on whom men, looking, think more loftily of God. And yet we should all be mirrors of the Divine radiance, on which some eyes, that are too dim and sore to bear the light as it streams from the sun, may look, and, beholding the reflection, may learn to love. 2. And if thus we abide in Him and bear fruit we shall “ become His disciples.” The end of our discipleship is never reached on earth; we never so much are, as we are in the process of becoming, His true followers and servants. If we bear fruit because we are knit to Him, the fruit itself will help us to get nearer Him, and so be more His disciples and more fruitful. Character produces conduct, but conduct reacts on character and strengthens the impulses from which it springs. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Growth from within This growing is to be the growth of a branch: not by accretion, by adding to the surface, but by strength and development from within. You may make a molehill into a mountain by bringing a sufficiency of material to it, to swell the rising pile; but trees and branches expand from within: their growth is the putting forth of a vital but unseen force. The life power in the stock, being also in the bough, compels an outward exhibition of results in progressive keeping with the vigour and strength of the supplies. So the believer “ grows up” into Christ into ever-increasing holiness, influence and grace through the Divine afflatus which is at work within his soul, for it is thus that “ God worketh in you” more and more “ to will and to do of His good pleasure.” By this inner power the branches of a tree have a wonderful power of assimilation.. They take hold upon all surrounding forces and turn them to advantage. The dew that falls, the gases of the atmosphere, the descending rain, the chemistry of the sunlight, all are drawn into it; all are made a part of itself, are made to serve its purpose and to nurse its health. The very storms that blow, the alternations of weather that test and try it and ofttimes seem to work it damage, are all made to consolidate its fibres, to quicken the action of its sap, and send new energy through every vein, a stronger life: thrill into every leaf. So grows the righteous soul into higher, stronger, more mature religious life. “ All things are yours,” says the apostle Paul. That is to say, all events, all experiences, all the providences of God, all the circumstances of life, as well as all the riches of promised grace, are made by the goodness and wisdom of God to serve the Christian’ s interests and help his soul to grow. The dew of the Spirit, the sunshine of God, the aids of the sanctuary, the society of the good, the exercise of Christian toil, the business of life, the storms and tempests of sorrow and toil--all things, by reason of the subtle power of the inner life, are made to help the Christian, to deepen his piety, to strengthen his soul, to beautify his character, to mature and ripen his graces, and to give him a stronger grip upon his God. “ All things work together for good to them that love God.” Neither is there any limit to the attainments possible to the godly soul. Under the influence of the Divine life it is placed amid an exhaustless store of nourishment, it is grafted into the Vine whose Root is the Godhead and whose resources are infinite and eternal. (J. J. Wray.) Religion in diverse places I saw a vine growing on the fertile plain of Damascus with “ boughs like the goodly cedars” (Psalms 80:10). One “ bough” of that vine had appropriated a large forest tree; it had climbed the giant trunk, it had wound itself round the great gnarled arms, it had, in fact, covered every branch of the tree with garlands of its foliage, and bent down every twig with the weight of its fruit. And I saw another branch of the same vine spread out along the ground, and cover bushes and brambles with foliage as luxuriant and fruit as plentiful as those on the lordly forest tree. So is it in the Church. Some branches of that heaven-planted vine climb to the very pinnacles of human society. They appropriate and sanctify the sceptre of the monarch, the dignity of the peer, the power of the statesman, the genius of the philosopher, and they shed a lustre upon each and all greater and more enduring than can ever be conferred by gemmed coronet or laurel crown. While other branches of the same vine find a congenial sphere in humbler walks, they penetrate city lanes, they creep up wild mountain glens, they climb the gloomy stair to the garret where the daughter of toil lies on her death bed, and they diffuse wherever they go a peace and a joy and a halo of spiritual glory, such as rank and riches cannot bestow, and such too as poverty and suffering cannot take away. Peer and peasant, philosopher and working man, king and beggar, have equal rights and rewards in the Church. They are united to the same Saviour on earth, and they shall recline on the same bosom in heaven. (J. L. Porter, LL. D.) Variety of Christian growth There may be a hundred branches in a vine; their place in reference to each other may be far apart; they may seem to have but a very distant connection with each other; but having each a living union with the central stem, they are all members of the same Vine, and every one of them therefore is a member one of the other. Some of the branches are barely above the ground; some peer higher than all the rest; some are weighted with fruit, much fruit rich and fine; some bear but little fruit and that only small and inferior; some occupy important and central positions; some are seemingly insignificant, and look as though they might readily be dispensed with; as though, indeed, the tree would be healthier and more graceful without them; some are old and well grown, thoroughly strong and established; others are young, delicate, and need development. But whatever variety there may be among the branches in size, circumstance, or state, they all form a part of one complete, harmonious and like-natured whole. The vine stem is the common centre, and in it all partake of a common life. (J. J. Wray.) The Christian individuality The discoveries of vegetable physiology have shown that every branch is, in fact, a tree perfectly distinct and complete in itself: a tree which, by means of roots struck into the parent tree, derives its life, and sends out its leafage. The common idea is, that every tree in the ground has in itself the same kind of individual existence that a man has, and that, just as in the body limbs and various organs are component parts of a man, so the bole, the boughs, and the leaves are component parts of a tree. But the common idea is wrong; a tree is, in truth, a colony of trees, one growing on another--an aggregate of individuals--a body corporate, losing nothing, however, and merging nothing of its own individuality. It is charming to study a scientifically written biography of a tree, giving an account of its cells and pores and hairs, telling the isle of its evolution and its education; its infinite relations with all the elements, and how it is affected by the chemistries of nature; tracing it from its first faint filament to its full wealth of foliage and its final sweep of extension; thereby revealing through this miracle of the forest the glory of God. But, for the reasons suggested by some of the thoughts just confessed, interesting as is the story of a tree, a Christian will find the life tory of a mere branch scarcely less interesting, for it teaches him how to connect the ideas of total dependence and perfect individuality. I am a branch, yet I am a true tree--a tree growing on another tree--even on the Tree of Life. I see it all now, and also see the harmony between this particular Scripture and other Scriptures, better than formerly. It is scientifically true that I am a branch in the Vine, yet that I am a tree, answering to the description, “ Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (C. Stanford, D. D.) The buds A Sunday school teacher was trying to make his class understand this lesson. “ Jesus is the Vine,” said he, “ we are the branches; we get all our life and happiness from Him.” “ Yes,” said a little fellow in the class, “ Jesus is the Vine, grown up people are the branches, and we young ones are the buds.” In the natural vine the buds do not bear any fruit. But in Jesus, the Spiritual Vine, even the buds can be fruitful; the youngest can make themselves useful. (J. L. Nye.) The condition of fruitfulness I saw a little twig scarcely an inch long, so tender an infant hand could break it; rough and unseemly without comeliness, and when I saw it there was no beauty that I should desire it. It said: “ If I were comely and beautiful, like those spring flowers I see, I could attract, and please, and fulfil a mission.” It said: “ If I were like yonder oak or cedar, I could afford shelter to God’ s weary sheep at noonday, and the fowls of heaven should sing among my branches.” It said: “ If I were even strong, I might bear some burden, or serve a purpose as a peg, a bolt, or a pin, in God’ s great building that is going up. But so unsightly, so weak, so small!” A voice said to it: “ Abide in Me, and I in you, He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” And so it rested. It was not long until a glory of leaves crowned it, and in God’ s time I saw the heavy fruit it bore. Without Me ye can do nothing Without Christ--nothing No saint, prophet, apostle would ever have said this to a company of faithful men. Among the virtues of a perfect man we must certainly reckon modesty. It is impossible to conceive that Jesus of Nazareth, had he not been more than man, could ever have uttered this sentence. We have here I. AN OF HOPE. From such a root what a vintage must come! Being branches in Him, what fruit we must produce! That word “ do” has music in it. Jesus went about doing good, and, being in Him, we shall do good. There is the hope of doing something in the way of glorifying God by bringing forth 1. The fruits of holiness, peace, and love. 2. Fruit in the conversion of others. 3. Fruit of further blessing will ripen for this poor world. Men shall be blessed in us because we are blessed in Christ. II. A SHUDDER OF FEAR. It is possible that I may be without Christ, and so may be utterly incapacitated for all good. 1. What if you should not be so in Christ as to bring forth fruit? If you are without Christ, what is the use of carrying on that Bible lass; for you can do nothing? 2. What if you should be in Christ, and not so in Him as to abide in Him? It appears from our Lord’ s words that some branches in Him are cast forth and are withered. What if you are off and on with Christ! What if you play fast and loose with the Lord! What if you are an outside saint and an inside devil! What will come of such conduct as this? III. A VISION OF TOTAL FAILURE. 1. A ministry without Christ in its doctrine will do nothing. Preachers aspire to be leaders of thought; wilt they not command the multitude and charm the intelligent? “ Add music and architecture, and what is to hinder success, and what has been done?” The sum total is expressed in the text--“ Nothing.” 2. Without acknowledging always the absolute supremacy of Christ we shall do nothing. Jesus is much complimented but He is not submitted to. Certain modern praises of Jesus are written upon the theory that, on the whole, the Saviour has given us a religion that is tolerably suited to the enlightenment of the nineteenth century, and may be allowed to last a little longer. It is fortunate for Jesus that He commends Himself to the “ best thought” and ripest culture of the period; for, if He had not done so, these wise gentlemen would have exposed Him as being behind the times. Of course they have every now and then to rectify certain of His dogmas; He is rectified and squared, and His garment without seam is taken off, and He is dressed out in proper style, as by a West-end clothier; then He is introduced to us as a remarkable teacher, and we are advised to accept Him as far as He goes. Now, what will come of this foolish wisdom? Nothing but delusions, mischief, infidelity, anarchy, and all manner of imaginable and unimaginable ills. 3. You may have sound doctrine, and yet do nothing unless you have Christ in your spirit. In former years many orthodox preachers thought it to be their sole duty to comfort and confirm the godly few who by dint of great perseverance found out the holes and corners in which they prophesied. These brethren spoke of sinners as of people whom God might possibly gather in if He thought fit to do so; but they did not care much whether He did so or not. When a Church falls into this condition it is, as to its spirit, “ without Christ.” What comes of it? The comfortable corporation exists and grows for a little while, but it comes to nothing. 4. But above all things we must have Christ with us in the power of His actual presence. The power lies with the Master, not with the servant; the might is in the hand, not in the weapon. 5. We have, then, before us a vision of total failure if we attempt in any way to do without Christ. He says, “ Without Me ye can do nothing:” it is in the doing that the failure is most conspicuous. You may talk a good deal without Him; you may hold conferences and conventions; but doing is another matter. The most eloquent discourse without Him will be all a bottle of smoke. You shall lay your plans, and arrange your machinery, and start your schemes; but without the Lord you will do nothing. IV. A VOICE OF WISDOM, which speaks out of the text, and says to us who are in Christ 1. Let us acknowledge this. 2. Let us pray. If without Christ we can do nothing, let us cry to Him that we may never be without Him. 3. Let us personally cleave to Jesus. 4. Heartily submit yourselves to the Lord’ s leadership, and ask to do everything in His style and way. He will not be with you unless you accept Him as your Master. 5. Joyfully believe in Him. Though without Him you can do nothing, yet with Him all things are possible. V. A SONG OF CONTENT. “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” Be it so. Do you wish to have it altered, any of you that love His dear name? I am sure you do not: for suppose we could do something without Christ, then He would not have the glory of it. Who wishes that? If the Church could do something without Christ she would try to live without Him. As I listened to the song I began to laugh. I thought of those who are going to destroy the orthodox doctrine from off the face of the earth. They say our old theology is decaying, and that nobody believes it. It is all a lie. If His friends can do nothing without Him, I am sure His foes can do nothing against Him. I laughed, too, because I recollected a story of a New England service, when suddenly a lunatic started up and declared that he would at once pull down the meeting house about their ears. Taking hold of one of the pillars of the gallery, this newly-announced Samson repeated his threatening. Everybody rose; the women were ready to faint. There was about to be a great tumult; no one could see the end of it; when suddenly one cool brother produced a calm by a single sentence. “ Let him try!” Even so today the enemy is about to disprove the gospel and crush out the doctrines of grace. Are you distressed, alarmed, astounded? So far from that, my reply is this only--Let him try! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Nothing without Christ I. AS TO THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. There is much in the Bible which all must understand and admire; but as to its moral spirit and purpose what can be done without Christ? How slow of heart to believe were the disciples till Christ opened their understandings (Luke 24:48). Of the Old Testament Christ said, “ They are they which testify of Me.” The first words of the New are, “ The Book of the Generations of Jesus Christ;” and its last, “ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” etc. He is the Alpha and Omega, and of the whole Bible John 20:31 may be said. II. AS TO WITH GOD. That man needs this is not to be questioned; but how is it to be effected? God cannot change; His laws cannot be set aside. Sin is eternal separation from God. How, then, can man be reconciled? Only through Christ (Romans 3:19-25; Colossians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 5:19 : Romans 5:11). III. AS TO IN THE DIVINE LIFE. From first to last the Christian is dependent on Christ. His life is derived from, developed by, devoted to Christ. IV. AS TO SUCCESS IN WORK. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) None but Christ indispensable In this world no man is necessary. There are many men who, if they were taken away, would be missed. But there is no man but what we may say of him, that useful and valuable as he may be, we might come to do without him. It is a truth this which we do not like to admit. We like to fancy that things would not go on exactly the same without us as with us. But this world has never seen more than one Being who could say that it was absolutely impossible to go on when separated from Him. The little child fancied, when its mother died, that without her it could “ do nothing;” but the grownup, busy man, hardly seems ever to remember at all her whom the heart-broken child missed so sorely. And the mother, when her little one is called to go, may fancy that without that little one she “ can do nothing;” but time brings its wonderful easing, and, though not forgetting, she gets on much as before. And it is the same way in every earthly relation. The husband comes to do without his dead wife; and the wife to do without the departed husband. The congregation that missed their minister for a while, come at length to gather Sunday after Sunday with little thought of the voice it once was pleasant for them to hear. The state comes to do without its lost political chief, and the country without its departed hero: and we learn in a hundred ways, that no human being is absolutely necessary to any other human being. We may indeed fancy so for a while, but at length we shall find that we were mistaken; we may indeed miss our absent friends sadly and long; but we shall come at last to do without them. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) Man’ s greatest need No man lives a true and useful life who lives without Christ. The good man feels his need of Him, and of all of Him always. 1. His eye to guide him. 2. His hand to uphold him. 3. His arm to shield him. 4. His bosom to lean upon. 5. His blood to cleanse him. 6. His Spirit to make him holy and meet for heaven. Christ is the one only Saviour who can make a sinner a saint, and secure to him eternal life. Usefulness is suspended upon holiness, and we are made holy by Christ’ s cleansing blood, and in no other way. (Homiletic Monthly.) The union between Christ and His people Apart from Christ I. THERE IS NO MERIT FOR OUR WITH GOD. “ There is none righteous, no, not one.” “ By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” But in Christ there is all-sufficient merit. Believing in Him, we are justified and accepted. Not through His merit together with what we ourselves can do. Dr. Chalmers’ , when awakened to his condition as a sinner, for a time “ repaired to the atonement to eke out his deficiencies, and as the ground of assurance that God would look upon him with a propitious eye.” But the conviction was at length “ wrought in him that he had been attempting an impossibility … that it must be either on his own merits wholly, or on Christ’ s merits wholly, that he must lean; and that, by introducing his own righteousness into the ground of his meritorious acceptance with God, ‘ he had been inserting a flaw, he had been importing a falsehood into the very principle of his justification.’” II. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO THE POWER OF SIN. The evil propensities within us are not the same in each one; it may be the love of money or the lust of power in one, vanity or pride, malice or guile, in another. Does not the Christian have frequent experience that the corruption of his heart is too strong for him? He made good resolutions, and broke them; after repeated failures he is driven almost to despair, and is ready to ask, “ Can my corruptions ever be conquered, or must I become more and more their slave?” But if we be brought by Divine grace to cleave in faith to the Saviour, we shall have His Spirit to dwell in us, and in His strength we shall prevail. In ancient fable we read that one of the great labours imposed upon Hercules was to cleanse the foul Augean Stable. This mighty task he accomplished by turning the river Alpheus through it, thus performing with ease what before had appeared impossible. That stable is a true picture of the heart defiled by countless sins. The streams of that fountain opened in the house of David, turned by a living faith to flow into it, alone can cleanse it. III. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO BUILD UP A . In a building there is not only a foundation, but also a superstructure. Apart from Christ we cannot build aright. Christian character may be likened unto a tree growing. “ Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue,” etc. Here is a noble, well-developed growth; But these spiritual graces will not appear if we do not abide in constant communion with Christ. IV. WE CAN DO NOTHING TO PROMOTE THE TRUE OF OTHERS. What are all the provisions for the alleviating and removing of the wants and sufferings of men--the hospitals, orphanages, almshouses, and other philanthropic institutions--but the results of Christian effort, the products of the Christian spirit! All noble enduring, legislative acts also, such as that for the emancipation of the slaves, have been brought about by men under the influence of the religion of Christ. Who likewise have filled Wales and other countries with the gospel? Is it not men with the love of Christ as a holy fire burning Within them? (J. R. Owen.) The necessity of supernatural grace in order to a Christian life I. WHAT WE MEAN BY THE GRACE AND OF CHRIST. Whatever natural power we have to do anything is from God, but God, considering the lapsed condition of mankind, sent His Son to recover us out of that condition, but we, being without strength, our Saviour hath in His Gospel offered an extraordinary assistance of His Holy Spirit, to supply the defects of our natural strength. And this supernatural grace of Christ is that alone which can enable us to perform what He requires of us. And this, according to the several uses and occasions of it, is called by several names. As it puts good motions into us, it is called preventing grace; because it prevents any motion or desire on our parts; as it assists and strengthens us in the doing of anything that is good, it is called assisting grace; as it keeps us constant in a good course, it is called persevering grace. II. TO THIS GRACE THE DOTH OUR , , AND IN . III. THERE IS GREAT REASON TO ASSERT THE OF THIS GRACE AND TO THESE . If we consider 1. The corruption and impotency of human nature. When the Scripture speaks of the redemption of Christ, it represents our condition not only as miserable, but helpless (Romans 5:6). 2. The strange power of evil habits and customs. The other is a natural, and this is a contracted impotency. The habits of sin being added to our natural impotency, are like so many diseases superinduced upon a constitution naturally weak, which do all help to increase the man’ s infirmity. Evil habits in Scripture are compared to fetters, which do as effectually hinder a man from motion, as if he were quite lame, hand and foot. By passing from one degree of sin to another, men became hardened in their wickedness, and insensibly bring themselves into that state, out of which they are utterly unable to recover themselves. 3. The inconstancy and fickleness of human resolution. 4. The malice and activity of the devil. IV. THIS GRACE AND DOES NOT EXCLUDE, BUT THE OF OUR . The grace of God strengthens and assists us. Our Saviour implies that by the assistance of grace we may perform all the duties of the Christian life; we may bear fruit, and bring forth much fruit. When the Apostle says, “ I can do all things through Christ strengthening me,” he does not think it a disparagement to the grace of Christ to say, he could do all things by the assistance of it Philippians 2:12-13). V. THIS GRACE IS DERIVED TO US FROM OUR UNION WITH CHRIST. Inferences: 1. If the grace of God be so necessary to all the ends of holiness, obedience, and perseverance, then there is great reason why we should continually depend upon God, and every day earnestly pray to Him for the aids of His grace. 2. We should thankfully acknowledge and ascribe all the good that is in us, and all that we do, to the grace of God. 3. Let us take heed that we resist not the Spirit of God, and receive not the grace of God in vain. 4. The consideration of our own impotency is no excuse to our sloth and negligence, if so be the grace of God be ready to assist us. 5. The consideration of our own impotency is no just ground of discouragement to our endeavours, considering the promise of Divine grace and assistance. (Archbishop Tillotson.) John 15:6 If a man abide not in Me he is cast forth Jesus and the only means of righteousness God is the author of righteousness, and Jesus is the Son of God, because He gives the method and secret by which alone righteousness is possible, And that He does give this, we can verify from experience. It is so I try, and you will find it to be so! Try all the ways to righteousness you can think of, and you will find no way brings you to it except the way of Jesus, but that this way does bring you to it. This is a thing that can prove itself, if it is so; and it will prove itself, because it is so. (Matthew Arnold.) Five steps to judgment Just as abiding in Christ infers grace for grace, fruit for fruit, so not abiding in Christ draws after it the judgment of being rejected, the successive steps to which are presented to us in the words: cast forth, wither, gather, cast into the fire, burn. These are the five steps in the judgment; the complete execution of which is, by God’ s long suffering, delayed. (R. Besser, D. D.) Cast forth One year when I was travelling towards my usual winter resting place I halted at Marseilles, and there was overtaken by great pain. In my room in the hotel I found it cold so I asked for a fire. The porter came in, and he had in his hand a bundle of twigs. I called to him to let me look at it. He was about to push it into the stove as fuel with which to kindle the fire. As I took the bundle into my hand, I found it was made of vine branches--branches that had been cut off now that the pruning time was come. I solemnly thought, will this be my portion? Here I am, away from home, unable to bear fruit, as I love to do. Shall I end with this as my portion? Shall I be gathered for the fire? Those vine shoots were parts of a good vine, no doubt, branches that once looked fair and green; but now they were fuel for the flame. They had been cut off and cast off as useless things, and then men gathered them and tied them in bundles, and they were ignobly thrust into the fire. (C. H. Spurgeon.) And is withered Withered The cast-out branch withers; whatever remains of sap it might have had so long as it hung on ever so slightly to the vine, now quickly dries up; it becomes a hard piece of wood, which can no longer be bent, only broken. A man may refuse to be bent by grace, but he cannot hinder himself from being broken by wrath. Judas is a fearful example of this: he withered in one day. We may indeed place a cast-off branch in water, and by that means keep it for a time from completely withering; but it is of no lasting good: so it is no use for a man inwardly dead and forsaken by the Holy Ghost to force forward for a while the appearance of a pious life from his own strength; it cannot last long, seldom until his end, and then his withered state is manifest. (R. Besser, D. D.) John 15:7 If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you The conditions of prevailing prayer I. WHAT IS OR . 1. What is meant by our abiding in Him? This is called partaking of Him Hebrews 3:14), and implies in it our (1) Being in Him (Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17). (a) By faith (Philippians 3:8-9). (b) Obedience (Galatians 5:24). (c) Being members of His mystical body (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:30). (2) Continuing in Him as a branch in the vine (verses 1-6). Continuing in the profession of His doctrine (John 8:31), and hearty endeavours after perfection (Colossians 1:28). 2. What is meant by His words abiding in us? (1) His words are that doctrine that He came to deliver in His Father’ s John 7:16; John 12:49; John 17:8; Mark 1:22; Luke 4:23). (2) These words abide in us by our (a) Knowing them (chap 10:4, 5). (b) Believing them (John 8:45; John 13:19; John 17:8; Matthew 24:35; Romans 10:10; Hebrews 4:2). (c) Remembering them (verse 20). (d) Persevering in the observance of them (Mark 13:13; Lu Revelation 2:26). (3) The effect of their abiding in us. (a) They purify us (John 15:3; John 17:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17). (b) They bring forth fruit in us (Matthew 13:23; John 15:5). II. WHAT IS (Matthew 7:7). Such as abide in Christ shall be sure not to meet with disappointment, because 1. They will only according to God’ s will (1 Samuel 3:18); herein following the example of their blessed Lord (Matthew 26:39; Matthew 26:42); submitting with those in Acts 21:14; and praying as our Lord directs Matthew 6:10). 2. They ask according to His will, and so are sure to be heard upon this account (1 John 5:14-15). Particularly, they ask (1) Nothing but what is lawful (Matthew 7:11); avoiding the folly mentioned in Psalms 50:21-22. (2) And only to a good end (James 4:3). 3. They take a right method in asking: praying (1) In faith (Matthew 21:22; James 1:5-7). (2) With fervency and devotion (Romans 1:9; 1 Corinthians 6:20). (3) In humility (Luke 18:9, etc.; Psalms 138:6). (4) From a clean heart (Isaiah 1:11; Isaiah 1:16-18; 1 Timothy 2:8). (5) With constancy and perseverance (Luke 18:1; Luke 11:8-10; Ephesians 6:8). (6) In the name and through the merits of Christ (John 14:13-14). (Bp. Beveridge.) I. THE NATURE OF THE LAID DOWN. The secret of prevailing prayer 1. “ If ye abide in Me,” as the branches abide in the vine: union with and reception of the whole Christ by faith, as Saviour, Teacher, Example. If we accept Him in one aspect and not in another, we fail to fulfil the condition. 2. “ If My words abide in you.” (1) Christ’ s words are His whole teaching, not the part of it which we most like. (2) These words are to abide in us--not merely in our memories as words, nor in our understandings as facts, nor in our reasons as truths, nor in our feelings as sentiments; but pervading our whole spiritual being as principles of life and action, just as we assimilate food, which does not profit unless changed into blood, bone, sinew, etc. If we have Christ’ s words thus abiding in us, we shall have Christ Himself, and that being so we shall breathe His Spirit and be transformed into His likeness. II. THE , IN THE OF SUCH , THAT ALL OUR WILL BE GRANTED. If we fulfil such conditions in the very fulfilment all our best desires are already granted. What more can we have than to be in Christ and to have Christ in us? The branch is already most fruitful if it is actually the branch of the most fruitful vine. But note the grounds on which this certainty rests. 1. God honours simplicity of trust. For what is this trust? It is to feel that truth cannot lie, that faithfulness cannot deceive, that wisdom cannot err, that power cannot fail, that holiness cannot blight the hope that perfect love has inspired. On the contrary, unbelief is absurd. Think of casting a shadow of doubt on infinite excellence, omnipotence, and wisdom. Let a man doubt that there is not enough light in the sun to enable him to see, or enough water in the sea to float his vessel. Besides, trust has naturally a drawing power on the heart of love. 2. Only such blessings will be sought for as are within the range of God’ s promise. All the Christian’ s hopes and yearnings are bounded by this. What lies beyond? Unholy honours, pleasures, etc.; but the Christian does not want these, he has done with these trifling or injurious toys. What lies within? Whatever is calculated to make us wiser, holier, happier, and more useful. 3. There is purity of desire in supplicating spiritual blessings. Prayer for other things necessarily arises from mixed motives. 4. We have further in this state of soul complete submissiveness to the Divine will. (J. M. Charlten, M. A.) Ask great things from God Sir Walter Raleigh one day asking a favour from Queen Elizabeth, the latter said to him, “ Raleigh, when will you leave off begging?” To which he answered, “ When your Majesty leaves off giving.” Ask great things of God. Expect great things from God. Let His past goodness make us “ instant in prayer.” (W. Baxendale.) Christ’ s work for us the secret of successful prayer All the promises in the Bible are so many bills of exchange drawn by God the Father in heaven upon His Son Jesus Christ, and payable to every pious bearer,--to everyone that comes to the mercy seat, and offers the promise or bill for acceptance, and pleads in the way of obedient faith and prayer. Jesus, the High Treasurer of heaven, knows every letter of His Father’ s handwriting, and can never be imposed upon by any forged note. He will ever honour His Father’ s bills: He accepts them all. It is for His Father’ s honour that His bills never fail of acceptance and payment. (J. Beaumont, M. D.) The necessity of specific prayer In order to be prevailing our prayers must be pointed and personal. The old woman who interrupted an “ eloquent” supplication, in which the attributes of God were being stated at great length, by saying, “ Ask Him for something,” may teach us a much-needed lesson. (S. Pearson, M. A.) John 15:8 Herein is My Father glorified, that ye hear much fruit God glorified in His people The great majority of Christ’ s illustrations were drawn from the world of nature, which teaches us that there is a profound connection between the natural and spiritual worlds. For Christ did not introduce His teaching into nature, but showed men the lessons concerning God and the spiritual which it had been silently teaching for ages, but which they had been too blind to see. For years had the vines of Palestine been uttering glorious things about the union of man to God: prophets had seen something of the mystery; but it was reserved for the greatest of the prophets to gather all their finest teachings into one beautiful discourse. And because the principle on which Christ taught is ever true, we may learn most solemn lessons from the beauty of God’ s world. The great teaching of the text is this: Man’ s greatest power for glorifying God is a life of Christ-like action, and in order to illustrate its full force we must trace it back to its first principles. I. THE INWARD LIFE IN UNION WITH CHRIST MUST SHOW ITSELF IS CHRIST-LIKE ACTION. 1. All profound emotions must display themselves in action. Whenever a deep love or a strong conviction enters a man’ s heart, it impels him to utter it. If it be unspoken in word, it will change his whole being., and burning itself into speech in his deeds, give its meaning a tongue, and manifest its secret fire; or if it cannot express itself it will perish in its own concealment. So the ruling emotion of love to Christ must utter itself to men in the language of Christ-like words and life, or it will pine and perish in its secrecy. And not only so, but all deep love must transform the soul into the image of the beloved, and thus reveal its energy. 2. The inner Christian life has a power to overcome the hindrances to its manifestation. It has been said that “ circumstances make the man” ; but do circumstances hinder the man who is resolved to be rich? On the contrary, he turns them to his own end. Did circumstances make Napoleon? He made them steps to his throne. Circumstances make weak men, but strong men make circumstances. There we have the answer to the timid assertion that it is impossible in such a world as this to manifest the power of a living Christianity. As the vine, by the inward force of life, draws from the sun and air and soil those elements that give it beauty and vigour, so the Christian life causes all outward states to minister to its growing power. The sight of sin is an opposing circumstance to the real Christian it is transformed into a mighty lesson. The slanders of men are an opposing circumstance--they form the noblest school for Christian patience. The sufferings and sacrifices of life may seem to be hindrances--in reality they make the soul strong in faith and prayer. If the life of love be in a man he will live Christ everywhere, and, like the oak, grow stronger in storms. Hence the conclusion arises unanswerably, that the inner life in union with Christ must reveal itself in Christ-like deeds. II. THE LIFE OF CHRIST-LIKE ACTION IS MAN’ S POWER OF GOD. 1. A Christ-like life is the strongest manifestation of God to the world. The men of this world do not perceive the signs of a present God. They may have an indistinct belief in an awful Power existing somewhere in the universe. They read the Bible as an old book, not as a testimony to a living Lord: they find a beauty in nature, but that beauty is not to them the evidence of its invisible King. But a Christ-like man brings the Divine so directly into the sphere of his own daily life, that they cannot help perceiving it there and then. That man’ s life becomes a Bible, which in the clearest tones proclaims the presence of his Lord. 2. A Christ-like life is the greatest human influence to bring men near God. When Christ said to His disciples, “ Go and bear fruit, go and reproduce My life in your life,” He laid hold of the two great forces that mould all human society--influence and example. For the power of social influence is constant and irresistible, while all direct efforts for God are of necessity limited, and awaken opposition. Men hear the appeals of the preacher, and apply them only to their neighbours. But the ceaseless, silent influence of a Christ-like life enters with its resistless majesty into hearts that are barred and bolted in self-complacency against the preacher’ s voice, and, like the light, makes their darkness visible. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) God requires that His vines be fruitful A vine would never be so stupid as to examine itself thus, but suppose it should, and should call out, “ Roots, do you enjoy being down there in the soil?” “ Yes, we enjoy being here in the soil.” “ Stem, do you like to be out there in summer?” “ Yes, I like to be out here in summer.” “ Leaves, are you fond of waving in the sun and air?” “ Yes, we are fond of the sun and air;” and, satisfied, it says, “ I am an excellent vine.” The gardener, standing near, exclaims, “ The useless thing! I paid ten dollars for the cutting, and I have pruned and cultivated it, and for years looked for the black Hamburg grapes it was to bear, but it has yielded only leaves.” He does not care that the roots love the soil, and the stem the summer. It makes no difference to him though every leaf spread itself broad as Sahara in its barrenness. It is fruit that he wants. (H. W.Beecher.) Much fruit They say that at Mentone the citron harvest lasts from the 1st of January to the 31st of December. Women may be seen almost every morning of the year stepping down the rocky mountain paths with large baskets upon their heads filled with the fruit. Pastors may well wish that their Churches were always in such bearing order, and Sabbath school teachers may sigh for such perpetual fruit. To come nearer home, may not each one of us long for like perpetuity of fertility in our own souls? It would be a grand thing, to be evermore working and at the same time planning new effort, and preparing material for new enterprises. Mentone owes its lemons to its warm sun, and to its sheltered position close under the great rocks. Here is a secret for us all. To dwell in communion with Jesus is to abide in the sunshine, and to rest in His great love and atoning sacrifice is to nestle under the Rock of Ages, and to be shielded from every withering blast. “ Nearer to God” is the way to greater fruitfulness. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Christian fruitfulness I. ITS NATURE. 1. It consists in a visible exhibition of Christian feeling and principle. I say visible; for though your heart was as tender as that of a child, and warm as that of a seraph, you bring forth no fruit unto God unless your internal feelings are manifested in appropriate acts of obedience. Those who in ancient times retired from all connection with the world may have been persons of piety, but they were prevented by the very circumstances of their condition from bringing forth fruit unto God. To be a fruitful Christian it must be seen that you are a living, active Christian. 2. It demands that we discharge with fidelity the appropriate duties of our respective stations. If we neglect these and attempt to perform others that do not belong to us or for which we are not qualified, we dishonour rather than glorify God--just as the planets would if they should quit their proper orbits and rush into spheres in which they were not appointed to move. Christians are all the servants of Jesus Christ, and each one has his proper work assigned him; they are all soldiers of Jesus Christ, and each one has his post allotted him. Some are ordained to serve as ministers, some as magistrates, some as heads of families, some as masters, some as servants. Some are rich, and are appointed to be the Lord’ s stewards, to honour Him with their substance; some in an inferior station are called to serve Him like Dorcas by making coats and garments for the poor. 3. Christian fruitfulness, in order to glorify God, must be abundant. The glory of the husbandman does not arise from his fields or vines bearing fruit but much fruit. A few ears of corn in the one nearly choked with weeds, or here and there a branch or berry on the other, much blighted and shrivelled, rather dishonours than honours him. Thus a little religion often dishonours God more than none. An indecisive halting between God and the world causes His name to be evil spoken of much more than the excesses of the openly wicked. The husbandman is not dishonoured by the unfruitfuiness of a wild tree upon which he has bestowed no culture, but the barrenness of what is planted in his garden or in his enclosed field reflects on himself, and he will therefore cut it down and cast it out as an incumbrance. II. ITS MEANS. Very analogous are the means of Christian fruitfulness to those of common husbandry. 1. A good soil, i.e., a good heart. This is indispensable. You do not expect a harvest from seed sown upon a rock or in sand. And what but such is the heart unsanctified by grace? Never till it is softened and warmed into spiritual life by an influence from above will it yield any fruit that is pleasing to God. Hence vital union to Christ is asserted to be indispensable to Christian fruitfulness. “ Abide in Me, and I in you,” etc. Union with Christ is the animating principle of all holy obedience, infusing spiritual life and vigour into the soul, and quickening all its powers into activity for the glory of God. No culture will make us fruitful till we are brought into vital union with Christ. 2. Good seed, i.e., the truths of God’ s Word lodged in the mind by a just apprehension and cordial faith of them. As well might you expect a harvest of wheat from a field sowed with tares, as the fruits of righteousness from a mind vacant of religious truth or filled with error. Doctrinal, experimental, and practical religion are all necessarily connected; they cannot exist apart or separate from each other. 3. Careful cultivation. Fruitfulness unto God is not a growth of chance. It does not spring from indolence, unwatchfulness, or carelessness, much less from sinful conformity to the world or deadening absorption in its cares and pursuits. No; it is the result of a tender, conscientious keeping of the heart in the love of God; it is the growth of diligence and care in the use of such means as God has appointed for our advancement in the Divine life. Whatever be the state of your heart at any given time, or however excellent the seed sown in it, if you allow the cares, the riches, and pleasures of the world to enter in and choke the Word, no fruit will be brought forth to perfection. 4. Rain and sunshine, i.e., the influences of the Holy Spirit. The most careful labours of the husbandman cannot avail to produce a single ear of corn or blade of grass. So in things spiritual. Means of themselves have no efficacy to produce spiritual life or Christian fruitfulness. “ Paul may plant,” etc. Here comes in the necessity of prayer; and a beautiful arrangement it is which connects our endeavours to grow in Christian fruitfulness with dependence on help from God. III. ITS MOTIVES. By bearing much fruit you 1. Glorify your Heavenly Father. As the works of creation show forth the glory of the Lord, because they illustrate His perfections exerted in their formation; so His rational creatures glorify Him when some resemblance of His moral excellence is discerned upon their hearts and manifested in their lives. In this sense every Christian, however humble his station, or circumscribed his sphere of action, may attain to the high privilege and honour of glorifying God his Maker. Professed disciples of Jesus, if you take a just view of your character and obligations, you will regard yourselves in a most important sense as representatives of the Divine Majesty among your fellow men. Their eyes are upon you, and they will form their opinion of the religion you profess and of the God you adore very much from the conduct you exhibit from day to day. 2. Prove to yourselves and to others the reality of your professed discipleship. The question is often asked, How may I know that I am a Christian? The answer is by bearing fruit to the glory of God. In the absence of such fruitfulness all other evidence is worthless. You see a tree in the season of winter stripped of its leaves and fruit, and you find it difficult to decide what tree it is. But look at it when it is covered with foliage and loaded with fruit, and you are at no loss for a moment on the subject. Just so in judging of your own character. (J. Hawes, D. D.) Union with Christ the sole condition of fruitfulness Our only possibility of bearing any fruit worthy of our natures and of God’ s purpose concerning us is by vital union with Jesus Christ. If we have not that, there may be plenty of activity and mountains of work in our lives, but there will be no fruit. Only that is fruit which pleases God and is conformed to His purpose concerning us, and all the rest of your busy doings is no more the fruit that a man should bear than cankers are roses, or than oak galls are acorns. They are but the work of a creeping grub, and diseased excrescences that suck into themselves the juices that should swell the fruit. Open your hearts to Christ and let His life and His Spirit come into you, and then you will “ have fruit is the purpose for which the vine was planted and the branches grown. No husbandman plants vines for wood or shade or beauty, but for fruit. Christ’ s disciples are of value according to their fruitfulness. II. THE OF THE IN THE OF THE . It is not first or mainly in its usefulness or fruitfulness of service, though this is the sense in which probably the text is most often read and expounded. It is not usefulness, but character, which is the first and great end of the Husbandman. We are called, not to be missionaries first, but to be saints; not to be apostles, but first to be disciples--learners first, and afterwards men sent to teach and preach. It is not by discipling others so much as becoming more and more disciples ourselves that we bear fruit and glorify our Father. We have compared fruitfulness with usefulness as an aim. But we must not forget that the very fruitfulness of the branch is its usefulness. It had never thought of anything but growing, developing what was in it, coming to its perfection and maturity. That was all its aim to throw its life into the fruitage. But so it found its usefulness. So it did its work for God and men. For the fruit contains both food and seed. The starving eats and is refreshed. The invalid with failing appetite tastes and is revived. It graces the tables of the rich and inexpensively supplies the needs of the poor. The owner stands by well pleased, and invites all to feast themselves. It only tried to grow, but growing found its means and opportunity of service. It is so with the Christian. His best usefulness is that which comes out of his simple obedience to the laws of the vineyard, out of his simple purpose to grow into that to which His Lord has called him. He may exhort, but his life speaks louder than his lips. He may set out with intent to serve, and his best service may have been before his setting out. He may be reproaching himself with his unfaithfulness even while his faithfulness is winning men to Christ. To grow is more important than to go. Suppose the branch, just started from the vine, begins to feel the burden of its mission to do good more than the compulsion to bear fruit. In sees yonder a porch which it might shade and so be a blessing to a household, and its stretches away to reach and cover it. It strains away over the intervening space, and twines itself over the vacant trellis. It has succeeded, but, alas! where is the shade? It has grown so fast, the stem has almost run away from the leaves--a foot apart they stretch along the spindling vine; small and but half-grown, they have neither shade nor beauty, and not a bunch of grapes. If it had simply grown and sought to fill the fruit which it had set, a season later and the fragrant clusters would have hung within reach of those resting under its shade and delighting in its beauty. Have you never seen something like that among the disciples? “ Grow in grace” is the first law of the Christian life. All else comes under that law and out of it. The fruit, too, has in it the seed: that by which it is perpetuated; the more fruit, the more seed. The branch might think that if it could, by some process of layering, multiply plants, it would be doing good service. But so it can never accomplish as much as by the natural way: filling its fruit, so making seed. Nothing so tends to the perpetuation of the Christian faith as the fidelity to the Christian standard of those who bear the name of Christ. The Divine order is first, fruitfulness; and, second, usefulness. It is fruitfulness only which ever come to the hundredfold of useful service. III. THE OF THE DEPENDS UPON HIS TO HIS DIVINE TEACHER AND LORD. The branch gets its life through the vine from which it grows. It has no life in itself: cut it off, it dies. Does this Scripture tell us plainly in what this abiding in Christ consists? It does. 1. It is abiding in His words, in His commandments, and having them abide in us. It is in keeping His commandments, not simply obeying them--that, but not only that; it is in guarding them as a sacred treasure, and protecting them from violation not only, but from the slightest disrespect. 2. It is abiding in His love: and that is not living so that He shall continue to love us, but abiding in the love of Him, proving that love by lovingly keeping His commandments; abiding also in a love like His to others, and proving that by a spirit of self-sacrifice whose measure is a willingness to lay down our lives if so we can serve or save them. 3. It is abiding in that fellowship with Him which finds its natural expression in prayer; that is, communion with Him. Thus the channels of communication are kept open between the vine and the branches, and the lifeblood flows freely from the one to and through the other. (George M. Boynton.) Fruitfulness the true proof of the tree’ s excellence and the gardener’ s skill I remember going over the garden of a friend who had taken up with immense enthusiasm some new system of growing dwarf trees. He exhibited his garden to me with great pride as a model of what a garden ought to be. “ I presume,” said I, “ that you get a large quantity of fruit.” “ Fruit?” was the reply--“ fruit? Why, I scarcely think about that;” and I found that my friend had so delighted himself with his new scheme, and with the beauty of the small trees all standing in rows, and the delightfulness of their leaves, so bewildered himself in his enthusiasm for his new method of gardening, that he had deceived his own self and was satisfied with leaves, and forgot that which seemed to me, as a looker-on, to be the only proof of success. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.) Christian fruitfulness The analogies existing between Nature and Grace are striking and beautiful. Nor is it at all surprising that so they should be. He who formed the one kingdom formed also the other. Nature is designed as the type, the symbol of Grace. It was ever thus the Saviour looked at it. To Him, Nature was always illustrative, typical of higher truths, sublimer realities than appeared on its surface. He never rested in anything short of the spiritual. On few subjects is this analogy more frequently indicated than on that of “ fruit” --fruit in Nature betokening fruit in grace. “ First fruits;” “ the fruits of the Spirit;” “ the fruits of righteousness;” “ fruit in its season;” “ His fruit;” “ fruits of the valley,” etc. Note I. THAT FRUIT BEARING IS THE GREAT END OF ALL GOD’ S . Fruit is the great object sought in all agricultural arrangements. It is not otherwise with the Great Husbandman, the “ Lord of the Vineyard.” His arrangements who can conceive! They span eternity, embrace worlds, include the gift of His Son, the Mission of His Spirit, the revolutions of Providence, the breathing of inspiration. His purpose is our fruitfulness. This too was the Saviour’ s object. For this He was born, lived, died; for this He endured sorrow; for this He still lives, pleads, gives His Spirit, conducts His entire moral government. The Holy Spirit too works for this, and uses all the appliances He has created and sustains. Means and opportunities, Bibles and ordinances, sanctuaries and Sabbaths, all exist for this. II. THE ONLY FRUIT WE CAN BEAR, THAT IS TO GOD, COMES FROM A SOURCE TO . Much instruction is conveyed in the figure here employed--“ fruit.” What is it! It is result, sequence, an effect, not a cause. It must be thus with ourselves. What we are in spirit, life, character, must come from a hidden source, an inner nature; from something “ back of itself.” And what is the source of this life? There are beautiful fruits borne by unsanctified humanity. Generosity, amiability, benevolence, honour, kindness. Unregenerate nature cannot produce such fruit as is acceptable to a holy God. It follows, that in order to acceptable fruit, there must be renovation of nature--a new principle of life. Regeneration is spiritual grafting, the introduction of a new life, the modification of the old tree to such an extent that, though it does not alter its physical qualities, its natural capacities, it altogether renovates its moral nature, and makes it a new creation, capable henceforth of bearing acceptable fruit. This Divine and blessed influence, this grace of the Holy Spirit, comes alone from Christ. Had sin not entered our world and tainted our nature, it had come direct from our Father. As it was in paradise, so it would have been since, God’ s nature would have flowed into man’ s with an unimpeded current. Sin checked this, and now the sacred influence, the Holy Spirit’ s energy and grace flows through another, even Christ. The whole spiritual being with all its new capacities and instincts unfolding to Christ. “ Abiding” --not a state expressed by fits and starts, spiritual and worldly by turns; but continuing; in all conditions of sorrow and joy, like the branch in the tree--“ abiding.” Is this all? No. The branch thus abiding cannot be without the reception of influence. It does not give, it receives; and assuredly the great Saviour, the Celestial Vine, will not allow any of His branches thus to abide in Him for nothing. Are you thus abiding? Then you know there comes from Him sap, nurishment, energy, spiritual power, which, flowing into you, makes you at once to adhere more closely, and also to “ bear fruit.” “ He that abideth in Me, and I in him.” The latter is more than the former, though the first is indispensable to the second. It it important to observe here, too, the point of contact. What is this? On our part it is faith crystallizing into prayer. On His the Word, the medium of His Spirit. Such is the philosophy of Christian fruit bearing. As the pomegranate, the peach, the grape, the fig, are the results of elements, drawn from sources external to themselves, so all the fruits borne by the Christian are the result of a true life first given, then sustained by Him who said, I am the Vine, ye are the branches. III. THE RESULTS OF SUCH FRUIT BEARING ARE MOST . How great the value even of material fruits! “ As the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself,” what a mint of wealth does she annually yield to ungrateful and sinful man. Fields of golden corn, orchards of russet apples, mountains of purple grapes, what an immense money value they express; sufficient to tell upon the national exchequer, to regulate the markets of the world. The “ fruits of righteousness” which are by Jesus Christ, how great their value! They glorify God. “ Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.” God is “ glorified” variously. All His works praise Him, His saints bless Him. Their praise is voluntary, conscious, intelligent, therefore higher in its nature, more acceptable, and worthy. They render it according to their fruitfulness. It vindicates and honours Christianity. This is often aspersed, vilified, scorned. While, thus, the gospel has brought forth fruits fully adequate to vindicate its claims as a system, it is only as its friends do this personally that those claims will be adequately recognized. Oh, the value of a fruitful, practical course of Christian life in this respect. It vindicates the gospel. It may be silent, but it is not dumb. A tree laden with fruit, whether a sapling or giant stem, is an object which speaks for itself. More than this, it speaks for the soil in which it grows, the garden in which it is, the husbandman by whom it is trained. These clusters of themselves show what needs to be known, so that “ we need not to speak anything.” Fruit bearing ministers to joy. Christ would have His disciples joyful. It is most experienced when the soul is most fruitful. Consciousness of improvement in anything, most of all in self-culture and moral excellence, ministers to satisfaction. Fruitfulness is of inestimable value for the joy it secures. It gives efficacy to prayer. The Saviour recognizes this intercourse when He says, “ If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Abiding in Me, My Spirit through My Word flowing into you, the branch and the Vine will become one. My grace will be the source of your fruitfulness, My Spirit the inspirer of your prayers. The purport of all that has been said is simple and practical. It says to each and all, be fruitful, and see the way in which you may become so. If hitherto unfruitful, it says to you, You are defeating the great end of your being, of God’ s purpose in reference to you, of Christ’ s coming into this world. Let me entreat you to do this at once, lest you lost the capacity for it. The unfruitful tree becomes less and less likely to improve, till at last it withers and dies. (J. Viney.) Defective fruitfulness How many of the professed disciples of our blessed Lord and Master are there, who, while they possess and manifest certain indubitable excellencies, and clearly exhibit certain Christian graces, do, nevertheless, appear to much and serious disadvantage by reason of the total, or almost total, absence of other essential Christian virtues. Their moral defects cause so many gaps in the cluster, that, like a ragged, illshapen, and sparsely furnished bunch of grapes, they fail effectively to manifest the fruit aright which they actually do produce; and if they do not bring their religious honesty and sincerity into serious doubt, do unquestionably fall far short of what they ought to be, and what they might be, and what they must try to be, if they are to be really well-written epistles, setting forth the true character of the Master, known and read of all men. In these defective fruit bearers there is no proportion, no symmetry, no sign or promise of that ultimate holiness which will make them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Whatever of good there is in them is largely discounted in moral value as the representations of the Christly character, and as influences for good on those who dwell within their circle. They are the subject of sore anxiety and discomfort to their godly comrades, and unfavourably impress “ them that are without the knowledge of God,” and whom it is their sacred duty to win to Christ. One exhibits the fruit of benevolence, but his temper is fitful, uncertain, and at times is altogether unrestrained. Another bears the fruit of fidelity; nobody can question his integrity or the purity of his motives; but he is cold, hard, morose, ungentle. A third is full of energy, courage, action, but these excellent fruits are spoiled by lack of patience, and his longsuffering is conspicuous by its absence. A fourth, again, is genial, gentle, sunny and kindly almost to a fault, but he is altogether deficient in firmness, strength of principle, stability of character, and is easily led away: and so on through all the defective combinations possible to an ill-formed Christian character. It is to be feared that, too often, the absence of certain fruits of the Spirit not only becomes chronic, bat has a very noxious and destructive influence on such as do exist, and imperils the whole religious life. In full consciousness of this the apostolic teachers ever urge the followers of the Perfect Man to strive after moral completeness. They are to “ perfect that which is lacking;” they are to grow into the “ full stature of a man in Christ Jesus;” they are to seek to be “ sanctified wholly;” and to be “ perfect and entire, lacking nothing.” (J. J. Wray.) Fruit bearing the test of discipleship I. HOW IS GOD ? It cannot be that we can add anything to His intrinsic excellence. We can glorify a man by office, by honours, in various ways; but nobody can add anything to God. We can glorify Him only by revealing in some degree what His excellencies are. No man can glorify the sun; but when the day has hung drooping, and by and by the clouds begin to fold and spread, and here and there sun bursts come in, and at last the every-increasing light sweeps out of the whole heaven every cloud, we do not create the sun, and we do not burnish it; but the wind reveals it. And we cannot in any way increase the glory of God; but in our lives and dispositions we can make known to men the quality of Divine attributes. One drop of water is enough to teach us what liquid is, but one drop of water would not be enough to teach us what the Atlantic ocean is if we had not seen it; and so one single development of love reveals the glory of the God of love, although the ocean, the tides, the infinities that belong to the Divine Nature we shall not know until we behold them from a higher point of vision, even if we do then. II. IF WE BEAR MUCH FRUIT WE GLORIFY GOD. What the fruit is we know already. “ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,” etc. These are very precious fruits, and the more we bring forth the more we reveal the nature of God. A diamond is nothing in itself; and yet, having the power of refraction and reflection, it in every facet gives brilliance and colour from light. So it is with those who are really God’ s gems and jewels. The light that flashes from their lives from day to day reflects Him, and makes men easily to know Him. Call back the example of Christ. He was perpetually endeavouring to teach that the development of a beautiful life was the power that He sought to establish. It was not an order of the priesthood or philosophy, new institutions or methods that He was seeking to build up; it was to take man by man, and develop in him the kingdom of God. That is the lever, and the sight of the highest form of manhood is the instrument by which the world is to be converted--has been, is, will be. III. . If this be, then, the substance of Christ’ s teaching--bear much fruit; so shall ye glorify your Father--then I remark 1. That the growth of the Church is not by the numbers that are in it, but by the graces, the beauty, variety and ripeness of Christian character. Whatever tends to make men, looking upon you, revere you, love you, whatever lifts their conception of your spiritual excellence, gives strength to the Church. 2. The courses which glorify God and make the Church rich are within the reach of everybody. There is an impression that the men who have great gifts, great knowledge, are the glory of the Church. No; it is the man who has the most fruit of the Spirit of God; and the qualities that constitute fruit are those that are open--to the child, to the ungifted, to the ignorant. Everybody knows, or may know, how to be gentle. Everybody knows how to use his tongue, not as a sword, but as an instrument of pleasure, profit, and instruction to other men. There be Christians that say, “ I never speak in meeting; I can’ t.” Very well, that is all right. To be dumb when you ought not to speak is a very good Christian grace. “ But I am of very little account. I only wish I could pray as I hear brethren pray. I should be glad to rise in the meetings sometimes; but I know nobody wants to hear me.” You are not fit to exhort; and nobody wants to hear you explain Scripture; but if God has brought you out of sorrow, and you have a word of testimony as to how in some gracious hour the heavens cleared, and your soul was lifted on high, then you will be listened to with interest. No eloquence is like that of a fact of soul experience. The power of the Church lies not in its ordinances, not in its creed, but in the life of its members. It is not a declaration that creeds or organizations are valueless. A fence is a very good thing on a farm for the sake of the crops that grow inside of it; but there are any number of Christian farms that have high fences, and that have not a thing growing in them but weeds. 3. God saves by few rather than by many. One single electric light in a hall is better than five hundred candles. So one glowing and eminent Christian life is better than a whole church full of tolerable Christians; and usually I think it will be found that in the activities of the Church it is the few and not the many that give it quality, influence, power. I do not think there is anything on earth more beautiful than a vine. But some Christian vines have not a solitary grape on them. They are empty vines. But there are some that have two or three clusters, here and there. There are one or two things which they do that are conspicuous and excellent; how many Christians are there whose branches are loaded with the choicest fruit, that fills the air with its aroma, and delights the eye, and much more the tongue, if one be privileged to pluck and eat? “ Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.” 4. Faith in Christ is like faith in any master. If one, conscious of ignorance in music, goes to some celebrated pianist to take lessons, he has faith in him, showing it by the fact that he accepts him as a teacher, and then puts forth all his exertions to do the thing he is taught to do. If a man goes to some great master to study art, he has faith in him. Knowing what his reputation is he betakes himself to his instruction, and attempts to develop form, grouping, colour, sentiment. Now faith in Christ consists in putting yourself into His hands, that you may be what He was--you according to the measure of your nature what He was according to the measure of His nature. “ Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Put on the graces that made Jesus Christ preeminently the Man of all time--the God-man; and whoever accepts Christ, and every one of all the attributes then eventuated in His life, has faith in Him. 5. The tendency to judge of revivals is, I am afraid, becoming more materialized. Men glorify God that a great outpouring of His Spirit has filled the Churches. With what? Some rivers, when they come down in freshets in spring, bring sand, and destroy the meadows over which they spread themselves; while some bring loam, and refresh all the meadows where the detrius settles down, increasing the soil. And a revival is beneficial not by the number of persons supposed to be converted, but by the quality of the conversion they have gone through. The boy preacher, Harrison, informed me that there were twenty-six hundred persons converted in one city where he was. Twenty-six hundred gardens of the Lord! Well, I would like to see those gardens. I would like to see what they bring forth. If they simply say they are in the Church, and have a through ticket paid up to heaven, and go back and live just as they always have lived, I do not very much esteem that; but if there could be twenty-six hundred persons that break out with the blossom and fruit of the Lord’ s garden in their hearts, and they could all be brought into the Church in one company, the millennium would be the next step, right outside the door. Communities could not stand such a cloudburst as that. (H. W. Beecher.) John 15:9-11 As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you Divine love The principle of Divine love constitutes the essence of true religion. Upon the golden link of love hangs not only the gospel, but also the law and the prophets. Meditate I. Upon THE OF CHRIST’ S LOVE TOWARD US. The love of Christ to us may be regarded as resembling the love of God to His Son. 1. As to its strength. The intensity of the love of Christ may be fairly exhibited by human affection; yet the Saviour’ s love is infinitely stronger than all human love combined. 2. In its freeness. 3. In its durability. 4. In its harmony with all the trials and sorrows of earth. II. THE CLAIMS CHRIST’ S LOVE HAS UPON US. “ Continue,” etc. It should be realized and manifested. 1. The fact that Jesus loves us should be realized believingly. 2. It should be realized joyfully. 3. Should prompt us to manifest our love to Him in return. (G. Philips.) The Divine measure of love 1. In John’ s Gospel we have God’ s love to man, and in his Epistles man’ s love to God. 2. Each of the apostles had his mission--Paul to expound the Divine decrees, James to hoist the standard of Christian duty, John to proclaim Divine love. So the first propagators of Christianity represented the various phases of Christ’ s character. 3. In his treatment of love John elevated it. The poet, historian, dramatist, found it the most inspiring subject. But alas! the Divine passion which left the portals of immortality whiter than snow was dragged through the culverts of human debasement; but John took it to the foot of the cross, where its stains were cleansed, and led it back to the gate of heaven whiter than before. I. THE . “ As the Father,” etc. This was 1. Old love. The question of Pharaoh is of frequent occurrence, “ How old art thou?” The historian asks it of the archives of nations, the antiquarian of ancient monuments, the geologist of primaeval formations. Nature is venerable and has a calendar which contains this record, “ In the beginning God created the heavens,” etc.; but the date when He began to love the Son is not there. Of the old things of life, old friendship is the sweetest. You say “ These are very old friends of mine.” After an absence of years with what a hearty shake of hands old friends greet each other! But the oldest began to love; Christ’ s is an everlasting love. 2. Great love. If God so loved the world of imperfect beings how intense His love to His Son must have been; and Christ is fuller of love to us than the sun is of light, or the sea of water. 3. Enduring love (Zechariah 3:17; John 13:1). II. THE ADVICE. “ Continue,” etc. Christ’ s love Isaiah 1. The source of Christian discipleship. The followers of Christ were many, and were actuated by a variety of motives; some because of the loaves and fishes, some out of admiration, some out of sympathy, some because of His irresistible charm. But how quickly these sources of attraction dried up! There are many religious influences at work, but only one abides today. During winter and spring the rills overflow their beds, and the villagers have no need to go far for water; but when summer comes all these cease flowing. The village well, however, is inexhaustible. Religious life has its rills, but the fountain is Jesus. Young converts should take heed to the word “ abide.” 2. The only sphere is which the Christian should turn. “ Love one another, so shall ye be My disciples.” Christians strive hard to love one another and fail. The only secret of success in this direction is to love Christ. 3. The only condition of safety. Behold the helpless babe. Its safety is not in its own strength, but in its mother’ s love. A mother once said about her youngest son, “ I am not afraid of his going astray; he is so fond of home.” Do you want to be safe? Abide in Christ’ s love. A mother begged her daughter to stay at home one day; she refused, and embarked on the ill fated Princess Alice, and was lost. Young Christian, allow the pleasureboats of sin to pass by, and stay at home in Christ’ s love. (T. Davies, Ph. D.) Christ’ s love for His disciples I. IS LIKE THE LOVE THE FATHER HAS FOR HIM. No being in the universe is so dear to the Infinite heart as Christ; yet 1. As really as the Father loved Him He loves us. The reality of the Father’ s love for Him was a grand reality attested by His own consciousnesss. He could not doubt it. It was proved to Him in a thousand ways, in every faculty and fact of His life. But not less really did He love His disciples. His love for them was a mighty, ever operating force within Him. 2. As disinterestedly. The Father’ s love for Christ was absolutely and spontaneously unselfish, so was Christ’ s love for His disciples. There was nothing in them to merit His affection, nothing in them to render Him more glorious or more happy. II. IS BY TO HIS . “ If ye keep My commandments,” etc. How does Christ retain the love of His Father? By working out His will. It would seem as if the Father’ s love, great though it be, would wane and die if the Son ceased to obey. So with Christ’ s love towards His disciples. Its continuance depends upon a practical fulfilment of His will. It seems almost a law of mind that love must work to live. If it remain in the mind merely as a sentiment or emotion, it will perish. The mother’ s love is kept alive by working for her children. When the work ceases the maternal affection wanes. If we would keep the love of Christ strong in the heart we must keep His commandments. No emotion of the soul will strike root, live and grow, except as it is translated into acts. Love only lives in deeds. III. YEARNS TO MAKE ITS OBJECTS HAPPY (John 15:11). It is the essence of love to glow with desires for the happiness of its object. See this in the unwearied services of parents, and in the countless efforts of genuine philanthropy. In Christ’ s love for man this desire is unquenchable and ever operating. To make men happy was the grand object of His advent to earth. “ I am come that ye might have life.” “ He came to heal the brokenhearted,” etc. Christ wishes His disciples not only to be happy, but to be full of happiness. “ That your joy may be full.” All saddening emotions are foreign to Christliness. Christliness is sunshine, music, rapture. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Abiding in love The last of these verses shows that they are to be taken as a kind of conclusion of the parable of the vine. They have three words as their keynotes--love, obedience, joy. I. THE LOVE IN WHICH IT IS OUR SWEET DUTY TO ABIDE. What shall we say about these mysterious and profound words? They carry us into the very depths of Divinity. 1. Christ here claims to be, in a unique fashion, the object of the Father’ s love, and to be able to love like God. As deeply, purely, fully, eternally, and with all the unnameable perfectnesses which must belong to the Divine affection, does Christ declare that He loves us. 2. In this affection He exhorts us to abide. The command to abide in Him suggests much that is blessed, but to have all that mysterious abiding in Him resolved into abiding in His love is infinitely tenderer, and draws us still closer to Himself. What is meant is not our continuance in the attitude of love to Him, but rather our continuance in the atmosphere of His love to us. But then, whosoever thus abides in Christ’ s love to Him will echo it back again in an equally continuous love to Him. 3. This continuance is a thing in our power since it is commanded. What a quiet, blessed home that is for us! The image, I suppose, that underlies dwelling in Christ, in His joy, in His words, in His peace, is the image of some safe house in which we may be secure. II. THE BY WHICH WE IN CHRIST’ S LOVE. The analogy, on which He has already touched, is still continued. “ If ye keep My commandments,” etc. Note 1. That Christ here claims for Himself absolute and unbroken conformity with the Father’ s will, and consequent uninterrupted and complete communion with the Father’ s love. It is the utterance of a nature conscious of no sin, of a humanity that never knew one instant’ s film of separation between Him and the Father. No more tremendous words were ever spoken than these. 2. Christ here, with His consciousness of perfect obedience and communion, intercepts our obedience and diverts it to Himself. He does not say, “ Obey God as I have done and He will love you;” but He says, “ Obey Me as I obey God and I will love you.” Who is this that thus comes between the child’ s heart and the Father’ s? Does He come between? or does He rather lead us up to the Father, and to a share in His own filial obedience? 3. By keeping His commandments, we shall continue in that sweet home and safe stronghold of His love. (1) Of course the keeping of the commandment is something more than mere outward conformity by action. It is the inward harmony of will, and the bowing of the whole nature. (2) He will love us better the more we obey His commandments, for although His tender heart is charged with the love of pity and of desire to help towards all, He cannot but feel a growing thrill of satisfied affection towards us, in the measure in which we become like Himself. (3) The obedience which we render for love’ s sake will make us more capable of receiving, and more blessedly conscious of possessing, the love of Jesus Christ. The lightest cloud before the sun will prevent it from focussing its rays to a burning point on the convex glass. And the small, thin, fleeting, scarcely visible acts of self-will that sometimes pass across our skies will prevent our feeling the warmth of that love upon our shrouded hearts. You cannot rejoice in Jesus Christ unless you do His will. You will have no real comfort and blessedness in your religion unless it works itself out in your daily lives. (4) We shall continue in His love by obedience, inasmuch as every emotion which finds expression in our daily life is strengthened by the fact that it is expressed. The love which works is love which grows, and the tree that bears fruit is the tree that is healthy and increases. 4. So, note how all these deepest things of Christian teaching come at last to a plain piece of practical duty. We talk about the mysticism of John’ s Gospel, about the depth of these last sayings of Jesus Christ. Yes! They are mystical, they are deep, but connected by the shortest possible road with the plainest possible duties. It is no use talking about communion with Jesus Christ, and abiding in Him, the possession of His love, and all those other properly mystical sides of Christian experience, unless you verify them for yourselves by the plain way of practice. III. THE JOY WHICH FOLLOWS ON THIS (verse 11). 1. A strange time to talk of His “ joy.” In half an hour he would be in Gethsemane. Was Christ a joyful Man? He was a man of sorrows. But it is said of Him, “ Thou hast loved righteousness,…therefore God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” Absolute surrender and submission in love to the beloved commands of a loving Father made Him, in spite of the baptism with which He was baptized, the most joyful of men. 2. This joy He offers to us. There is no joy to compare with that deep, solid, continuous sunshine which floods the soul, that is freed from all the clouds and mists of self and the darkness of sin. Self-sacrifice at the bidding of Jesus Christ is the recipe for the most God-like gladnesses. Our joy will remain if His joy is ours. Then our joy will be up to the measure of its capacity, ennobled, and advancing ever towards fuller possession. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Continuing in Christ’ s love I. THE ON WHICH THE PRECEPT IS BASED. “ As the Father hath loved Me,” etc. The particle “ as” of course does not indicate equality, but similitude; and even the similitude indicated is not absolute. From the very nature of the objects--the one, the Son--infinite--the other, Christians--finite--the love borne by the Father to the Son must, both in natureand degree, exceed the love which the Son bears to His people; and there is at least one point in which there is not resemblance, but strong contrast. Like the love of the Father to the Son, the love of the Son to His elect ones Isaiah 1. Unbeginning. There never was a period when the Father began to love His Son. The only begotten Son was, from eternity, in the Father’ s bosom Proverbs 8:22-23; Proverbs 8:30). In this respect the Son loved His chosen people, predestinated, as they were, in Him before the foundation of the world. There was a time when they did not love Him--for they did not exist; at a time when, though they might have loved Him, they did not--they would not; but there never was a time when He did not love them. 2. Infinite. The excellences of the Son, which are the ground of the Father’ s love, are infinite; and so is--so must be--the Father’ s love. The love of the Son to His people cannot be, in this sense, infinite; but we can set no bounds to it. 3. Active. How it manifested itself when there was nothing but Deity in the universe, we cannot tell. The declaration in reference to one of the economies is true of them all. “ The Father loveth the Son, and” --i.e., therefore--“ He hath put all things into His hand.” The love of the Son to His people is also active. It has proved itself stronger than death. Whether we fix our minds on the value of the innumerable blessings it bestows, or on the cost of these blessings to Him, surely we must say, this love has “ a height and a depth, a length and a breadth, that passeth knowledge.” 4. Unchanged and unchangeable. Immutability is equally the attribute of the Father and the Son; and therefore it is impossible that there should be any change in the affection with which the one regards the other. In like manner does the Son love His people. He “ rests in His love” --Jesus is “ the same yesterday, today, and forever.” The invariableness of His love to them wants one of the foundations on which the invariable love of the Father to Him rests. He never changes; but they often do. 5. Unending. While the Father and the Son continue to exist, they must continue to regard each other with infinite love; and, as a token of His everlasting love, the Father has given the Son an everlasting kingdom. The love of the Son to His people is also everlasting, and proves itself in the bestowal of eternal blessings. But there is one point in which the contrast is as striking, as the resemblance. The love of the Father to the Son was richly merited. But as for the objects of the love of the Son, as creatures standing at an infinite distance from Him who is God over all, blessed forever, it would have been wonderful if the Son had loved man, in His best estate, as the Father loved Him (Psalms 8:4). But how much more does the contrast come out when we remember what they are. The Father’ s love to the Son was love to dignity, moral beauty, innocence, excellence, perfection; but the Son’ s love to men, fallen men, is love to the degraded, the deformed, the condemned, the (but for His love) hopelessly Romans 8:8). II. THE DUTY . “ Continue in My love,” or, as Jude has it, “ Keep yourselves in the love of God.” To continue in Christ’ s love is to continue in cherishing those affections, and doing those actions, which are well-pleasing in His sight; and to continue in the enjoyment of an humble assurance, that He continues to regard us with complacential satisfaction. The subject teaches us 1. How we should regard official station or personal standing in the Church of Christ. We should regard it as the being made branches of the True Vine; as a token of the love of Christ. To be a minister or a member of the Church is a far higher honour than to be a member or office bearer in the most distinguished literary or political societies in the world. 2. What is the duty of those who, through the love of Christ, have been placed in such circumstances. It is to continue in His love. The branch is put forth by the vine, or grafted into it, not for its own honour, but that it may grow, and blossom, and bring forth fruit, to the glory of the vine, and the vine dresser. III. THE MANNER IN WHICH WITH THE PRECEPT IS TO BE YIELDED. By keeping our Lord’ s commandments, as He kept His Father’ s commandments. The following may be considered as among the most comprehensive and important of our Lord’ s commandments: Matthew 16:24; Matthew 6:19-20; Matthew 6:33; Matthew 10:8; Luke 12:15; John 13:34. Now, when a disciple, from regard to His Lord’ s authority, and from love to His person, yields a cheerful habitual obedience to these commandments, he cannot but continue in His love. The eye of the Saviour cannot but rest complacently on him. And this is the only way in which a disciple can continue in his Master’ s complacential love. When the Father manifested His love to His Son, by constituting Him His great agent in the restorative economy, He gave Him a commandment (Psalms 40:7-8). He fully conformed Himself to this law; and, in doing so, he continued in His Father’ s love. Our obedience must have the same leading characters as our Lord’ s had. His obedience was the obedience of 1. Love, and so must ours be. 2. In consequence of its being the result of love, it was cheerful. So we must run in the way of His commandments with enlarged hearts. 3. Universal--it extended to every requisition of the law. And in our obedience there must be no reserves, Do allowed omissions or violations. 4. Persevering. He was faithful to death, and it is He who endures to the end, that so continues in the Saviour’ s love as to be saved. IV. MOTIVES TO COMPLY WITH THE . By continuing in Christ’ s love, by keeping His commandments 1. You will be conformed to Him, four Lord and Master. Ought not the “ disciple to be as His teacher,” etc. It is the great design of the Father of the whole family, that the younger members, the fanny brethren, should all be conformed to their elder brother. 2. You will minister to the Lord’ s enjoyment. His joy in us will remain, if, keeping His commandments, we continue in His love (John 13:11). The disciple whom Jesus loved breathed the Spirit of Him on whose bosom he had been accustomed to lean, when he said, “ I have no greater joy,” etc. (3 John 1:4) And Paul (Philippians 2:1-30). Our Lord had joy in His disciples, etc. Matthew 11:25) His joy in them was proportioned to the degree in which they were made holy, useful, and happy, through the influence of His word and Spirit. 3. You will promote your own happiness. While Christ’ s joy in us remains, our joy in Him will be full. (J. Brown, D. D.) Obedient love bringing fulness of joy I. LOVE IN ITS BIRTH. Christ loved us first, and this was after the model of the Father’ s to Him. It was, therefore 1. A free love. 2. An eternal love. 3. A deep and infinite love. To believe in, and to receive Christ’ s love, awakens in our hearts reciprocal love to Him. II. LOVE IN ITS . The law of continuance in love is obedience: obedience to Christ after the model of His obedience to the Father. 1. What are we to obey? The moral law which is Christ’ s, and His special evangelical laws. 2. Why? Out of gratitude to Him, as the condition of His continued love to us. 3. How? As Christ obeyed God: cheerfully, heartily, unreservedly, even unto death. Thus will our love be sustained: not otherwise. III. LOVE IN ITS . 1. This obedience leads to fruitfulness in doing good to others--which pleases God. 2. It occasions joy to the soul that loves and obeys. Conclusions: 1. How to be happy? By loving Christ. 2. How to foster love to Christ? By diligently doing His commandments. (T. G. Horton.) John 15:10 If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love The condition of abiding in Christ’ s love What is implied in that keeping of His commandments, which is essential to abiding in His love? The keeping of all those commandments of His I. WHICH REFER TO THE OF WITH HIMSELF. He kept constantly all such commandments of His Father, and so continued in His Father’ s love. If we would abide in Christ’ s love, we must imitate Him and make an earnest use of the means of grace. There are those who neglect these, and thus plainly do not keep God’ s commandments. There are others who do not quite neglect them, and yet do not use them as Christ’ s commandments require, and therefore not so as to benefit by them. II. WHICH REQUIRE US TO BE LIKE HIMSELF IN SPIRIT. We must seek after the wisdom, truthfulness, delicacy of feeling, purity of heart, disinterestedness, patience, humility, charity, piety, and all those other excellencies which were included in His perfection. What a number of people there are so engrossed in business that they can find no time for moral, or mental, or spiritual culture! Others, again, feel that Christ has claims upon them, and that they should be at work in His service; but they are not thoughtful, and do not realize how much of Christ’ s work is inward, not outward. There is a great deal of so-called “ doing good” which is very worthless and comes to nothing, because it does not flow naturally from real inward goodness. Be good and you will do good, without having to go out of your way to seek to do it. III. WHICH REFER TO THE COMMON DUTIES OF DAILY LIFE--to the relationships in which we are placed by nature and Providence; and if we would continue in Christ’ s love, we must be careful to obey these. The Christian life is to fill and beautify our whole existence. It is not by what a man does on special occasions in public, or to those who seldom come into contact with him, that you can form an accurate estimate of him, but by his daily ordinary life--by knowing what sort of son or brother he has been, or what sort of a husband he is. Love to Christ will show itself much better there than anywhere else. It is especially through these that God seeks to train into order and obedience, into nobleness and freedom, the souls of the children of men. IV. WHICH POINT US TO A LIFE OF ACTIVE ; and if we would continue in His love, we must do good to all men. Christ’ s death for all men pledges us to the love of all men. To abide in the love of Christ, we must seek to lessen pain and suffering, ignorance and crime, wrong and injustice, and to make all to whom our influence can reach better and happier. Thus living in love to our brethren, for whom Christ died, we shall live in the love of Christ, who died for them as well as for us. (R. Flint, D. D.) John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that My Joy might remain in you Christ’ s things to make His disciples happy A revelation of I. HEAVEN (John 14:1-5) as 1. A Father’ s house. 2. Capacious. 3. Prepared. 4. Taken to by Himself. II. THE FATHER. 1. Christ tells them that they have a Father. That was the great want of their souls. 2. He tells them that those who have seen Him have seen the Father. All the love, faithfulness, tenderness, wisdom of the Father was in Him. Therefore they might trust Him. III. The SPIRIT (John 14:12-31). He tells them that He would not leave them comfortless. The Spirit would 1. Give them power to do wonderful works. 2. Qualify them to pray successfully. 3. Abide with them forever. IV. UNION WITH HIMSELF (John 15:1-11). He showed that this union was 1. Vital. 2. Fruitful. 3. Necessary. (R. V. Pryce, LL. B.) Christ’ s joy The greatest of sufferers was the happiest of men. He exulted in the prospect of Gethsemane and the Cross. I. HIS OWN JOY. It was the joy 1. Of uninterrupted communion with the Father (John 4:31-32). 2. Of accomplishing His Father’ s will (Hebrews 10:7; Psalms 40:6; Luke 22:41). 3. Of anticipating the result of His great work (Isaiah 13:11; Hebrews 12:2). II. THE ’ S IN THE JOY. 1. It is the Saviour’ s joy. Is it possible to have this? Yes; we may partake of the joys of fellowship, obedience, hope. Present service is ours, and future victory will be. 2. It is a joy that may be full, or fulfilled. A man has joy as soon as he becomes a believer, but it is not filled up. Jesus wishes it to be, and puts into his hand a cup of joy which overflows. It is a paradox; but the Christian, though sorrowful, is always rejoicing (2 Corinthians 1:3-6; 2 Corinthians 6:9-10; Philippians 2:17; Philippians 4:4). 3. It is a joy which none can take away (John 16:22). It is not in the power of the world to rob a Christian of his joy. (T. Stephenson.) The sources of Christ’ s joy I. THE BEAUTY AND OF HIS OWN . 1. As an innocent child. 2. As a righteous man. II. HIS SENSE OF THE MEANING AND BEAUTY OF NATURE. No artist, or poet, or psalmist so revelled in the glories of creation. He might well do so; for He knew it with the knowledge not of a spectator or student, but of a Maker. III. HIS OF HIS FATHER, HIS NAME AND LOVE. If a Newton cannot tell his discoveries without being overjoyed; if a reformer cannot but be enthusiastic about his mission, what must Christ have felt, whose work was to reveal the Father? IV. HIS LIFE OF SERVICE AND SELF- (Hebrews 12:3). (J. T.Stannard.) Christ’ s inner joy I. ITS SOURCES. 1. The consciousness of the abiding presence of the Father. Harmony of Spirit with heaven. 2. The obedience and attachment of the disciples. Great is the joy of a tutor or parent when the scholar or child manifests proficiency and perseverence. 3. The beneficent effects of His working. It was His joy to take this up, and his meat to finish it. 4. The foresight of the working of His truth in the world, and its ultimate results. “ He shall not fail nor be discouraged.” “ He shall see of the travail of His soul.” II. ITS . 1. It was not like the joy of the world, which is often mere levity, never lasts, and is quenched by death. 2. It was (1) A steady joy. All through His life, from His infancy to His Cross, we see calm joy and obedience. (2) A joy in the prospect of death (Hebrews 12:3). (3) A lasting joy, not variable, like that of many of us--grasping at the clouds one day, and the next in the depths of despair. (4) A shared joy. He lived not for Himself, but for others. Those who seek to bless others are always the most happy. III. ITS . Strength-inspiring, health-giving. Sterne said every smile tends to lengthen out the fragment of our lives. No wonder, with this inspiration, the apostles became what they did. What manner of men ought we to be? (Homiletic Magazine.) The fellowship of Christ’ s joy the source of true blessedness This saying is strange, because our idea of Christ is that of the man of sorrows. Only on one occasion are we told that He rejoiced. But the saying seems stranger still when we look at the circumstances under which it was uttered--in sight of the agony and the Cross. Then remember to whom it wasspoken: to men for whom He had predicted martyrdom. I. WHAT WAS THE OF CHRIST? Note 1. That the blessedness of the infinite God is essentially incomprehensible. The thought of God is necessarily the thought of One infinite and eternal, without limit or change. But we can only conceive of blessedness as a change from the less to the more blessed. We know the light by knowing the darkness, and joy only by its changes. We are obliged, therefore, to think of God as rejoicing in His world, and as rising to a higher gladness when He had peopled His universe with creatures. In these two contradictory thoughts, both of which we must think and yet cannot reconcile, lies the mystery of the ever blessed God. 2. In God revealed in Christ, the mystery is yet deeper. How, if one with the Infinite, could His joy ever fail? Why, if foreseeing the results of His mission, could He sorrow? But observing Christ on His human side, His blessedness as the God-Man must be in some measure comprehensible. He humanity was as perfect as His divinity, and the emotions of the human Christ we can partly understand; and this will lead us to a comprehension in part of His Divine joy. 3. The elements of His joy were two fold. It came, He tells us (1) By keeping the Father’ s commandments. It was the feeling that He did not live for Himself--that He existed as Man to reveal the full glory of eternal love, that every toil and sorrow were helping on the Divine plan for man’ s redemption--that formed His joy. (2) By abiding in the Father’ s love. Men might desert Him--this never did. His human nature might tremble, but His eye pierced beyond the sorrow into the sunshine of the Divine law behind it, and that was a mighty joy. Hence His frequent hours of prayer. (3) Combining these two elements, we may understand how it was that He spoke of it so soon after His Spirit was troubled. For His blessedness and suffering arose from one source: the doing of the Father’ s will. The consciousness of complete self-surrender gave Him gladness; yet the surrender produced the sorrow. II. CAN THAT JOY RE ? We find the answer in the preceding verse. Like their Master, the disciples were to surrender life to be the organ of God’ s will, and then the consciousness of His love would dawn. In a sense, joy and sorrow are incommunicable. “ The heart knoweth its own bitterness,” etc. But they are communicable just as we are one in sympathy and purpose with a friend. I know nothing of the joy of a stranger; but I do know the joy of a man with whom I am bound by the deep sympathies of love. So to enter into Christ’ s joy we must become Christ-like. Amid anxiety and sorrow, a man first gives up his all to God; and amid His suffering there flashes the conviction, “ God loves me,” and there steals over his heart a blessedness which is the joy of the Lord. III. THE OF CHRIST’ S IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF PERFECT JOY. Perfect joy has two conditions. 1. In its source it must be self-surrender to the highest love. All inward discord destroys joy, and that discord only ceases when a man loses the thought of self in devotion to something he regards as greater. The man who toils for wealth is never satisfied, because in the pursuit he is trying to lose the sense of self. The pleasure seeker plunges into every excitement that will drown reflection. The ambitious man loses the thought of self in the intense yearning for future achievement. In fine, man pants for the Infinite--for a boundless something to which he may yield his heart and be conscious of himself no more. This explains the idea of final absorption into the Deity, and the belief in the eternal sleep of death. But fellowship with the eternal joy of Christ furnishes the only anodyne to the unresting sense of self. 2. Real enjoyment must be independent of outward changes. The longing to attain a state of life superior to the accidents of time and change shows this. The wisest men have spoken of following the right, in the face of all consequences, as the source of the highest joy. The fellowship of Christ’ s joy gives this. It gave it to Paul, who was enabled there by to glory in infirmity. Even death, which damps the joy of all other men, consummates the blessedness of those who, through fellowship of life, are partakers of the joy of Christ. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) The abiding joy I. ITS SOURCE. “ These things have I spoken unto you.” He referred them especially to what He had just said. Union with Christ. “ I am the Vine,” etc. 1. To be one with Christ is to enjoy the peace of God. 2. To be one with Christ is to walk in the right path--the path of truth, virtue, and honour. He is the Way. 3. To be one with Christ has its prospects. The crown is beyond the Cross. “ Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you.” II. ITS . “ That My joy may remain in you.” The promise implies a state of heart which is never without sources of joy. Christians are subject to natural and moral grief; but when the clouds obscure the light and make the atmosphere cold, the sun is, nevertheless, in the heavens. Christian joy is perpetual, because (1) Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, without change. The streams never dry while the fountain is full. (2) Intercommunion never fails. He has ordained means which are infallible. This is a bold saying; but as the sun cannot fail to give life, the promise cannot fail to give comfort, prayer cannot fail to bring the blessing, and the communion of saints cannot fail to generate love. III. ITS --“ That your joy might be full.” The growth of the child, or the increased light of the sun until the perfect day, or the journey of the pilgrims Zion-ward, represents the advancing state of grace. (1) Full in respect of its object. We have only touched the hem of His garment as yet. As faith is turned into sight, our joy increases. (2) Full in respect of the subject. It is possible only when all fear of sin and death is removed. “ Rejoice evermore” ; that is, rejoice on to rejoicing, for sources of anxiety are left behind, and you and Christ are one. (Weekly Pulpit.) The Christian’ s joy 1. Jesus spoke these words to those who were about to be His representatives in the world. It was no easy mission on which He was sending them; but it was His will that they should go, not as soldiers on a forlorn hope, with the courage of despair, but in that holy joyous tone of spirit which means the courage of confident victory. And what He means for one set of disciples He means for all. 2. Note three elements of Christ’ s joy. I. HIS FILAL JOY. We are brought into the presence of it in chap. 17. Now it is His will that we should share the joy of sonship. We may do this by faith in His name and the possession of the Spirit of Adoption which He gives. What joy can equal that of even the greatest sufferer who trusts and delights in his Father in heaven? II. THE JOY OF SERVICE. “ I delight to do Thy will.” Even beyond results, beyond the luxury of doing good, there is a joy in the very serving itself. To gather the wanderers, to win the young, to alleviate suffering, drives away a thousand black thoughts, and fills the individual heart and the Church with joy. What a joyful ring there is in “ Neither count I My life dear unto Myself, that I might finish My course with joy.” The self-same joy is open to us. Instead of being self-seekers, let us simply ask, “ What is the will of God for me?” The narrow, dissatisfied, unhappy, will find their cure here. III. THE SAVIOUR JOY. There are many passages in which this comes into view--e.g., when Jesus saw the poor and lowly gathering around Him, He “ rejoiced in spirit” ; and then, when the publican and sinner drew near, He likened Himself to the shepherd, who in rescuing the lost sheep, called his friends together, saying, “ rejoice with me.” This is the joy for which He endured the Cross and despised the shame. Now He will have all Christians share in that very joy, and be glad in the fruits of the travail of His soul. (J. Culross, D. D.) The nature and sources of Christian joy This Divine joy is planted in the soul by the Holy Spirit. It is therefore an inward and spiritual joy; it is deep-rooted in the heart; it is solid and well founded; it is abiding and lasting; it is a satisfying joy, and purifying in its effects. It is a joy that flourishes most in adversity. It is a communicative joy. A man has not tasted what religion is if he does not seek to impart this joy to others. It is the joy of communion with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a humble joy; but it causes a man “ to triumph in Christ.” (R. Cecil, M. A.) Happiness and joy Christ enters the world bringing joy: “ Good tidings of great joy.” So now He leaves it, bestowing His gospel as a gift of joy. This testament of His joy He also renews in His parting prayer: “ These things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” “ Man of sorrows” though we call Him, still He counts Himself the Man of joy. It is an impression that the Christian life is one of hardship and suffering: Christ, you perceive, has no such conception of it, and no such conception is true. I. To clear this truth, it is necessary, first of all, to exhibit THE MISTAKE OF NOT BETWEEN AND JOY. 1. There is a distinction represented in the words themselves. (1) Happiness is that which happens or comes by an outward befalling. It is what money yields, or will buy--settlement in life or rank, political standing, victory, power. All these stir a delight in the soul, which is not of the soul, but from without. Hence they are looked upon as happening to the soul, and, in that sense, create happiness. The Latin word “ fortune” very nearly corresponds with the Saxon. For whatever came to the soul, bringing it pleasure, was considered to be its good chance, and was called fortunate. (2) But joy differs from this, as being of the soul itself. And this appears in the original form of the word, which, instead of suggesting a “ hap,” literally denotes a “ leap” or “ spring.” Here again, also, the Latin bad “ exult” --a “ leaping forth.” The radical idea, then, of joy is that the soul has such springs of life opened in its own blessed virtues, that it pours forth a sovereign joy from within. It is not the bliss of condition, but of character. 2. And we have many symbols of joy about us from which we might take the hint of a felicity higher than the mere pleasures of fortune or condition: the sportive children, too full of life to be able to restrain their activity; the birds pouring out their music, simply because it is in them. Precisely, too, history shows us the saints of God singing out their joy together in caves and dens of the earth, and the souls of martyrs issuing, with a shout, from the fires that crisp their bodies. II. It is necessary, in order to a right conception of Christian joy, as now defined, that we discover HOW TO DISPOSE OF CERTAIN FACTS, WHICH PRODUCE A . 1. Thus, when the Saviour bequeaths His joy to us, He lives a persecuted life, and passes through an agony to His death. Where, then, is the joy of which He speaks? To this I answer that He was a Man of sorrows in the matter of happiness; that is, in the outward condition of His earthly state; still He had ever within a joy, a spring of good, which was perfectly sufficient. Indeed, He reveals the victorious power of joy in the Divine nature itself; for God, in the contradictions of sinners, suffers a degree of abhorence and pain that may properly be called unhappiness; and He would be an unhappy Being were it not that the love He pours into their bosom is to Him a welling up eternally of conscious joy. And exactly so He represents Himself in the incarnate person of Christ. In His parable of the shepherd calling in his neighbours to rejoice with him over the sheep he has found, He opens the joy He feels as being that Shepherd. And then, how much does it signify when, coming to the close of His career, He says, glancing backward in thought over all He has experienced, “ My joy,” bequeathing it to His disciples as His dearest legacy. What, then, does it signify of real privation or loss to become His follower! 2. But it requires, you will say, painful thought to begin such a life--sorrow, repentance, self-renunciation, and to pass through life under a cross. How can the Christian life be called a life of joy? It is not, I answer, in these things, taken simply by themselves. But consider what labours, cares, self-denials, all men have to suffer in the way of what is called success--in scholarships, e.g., and in war. Are these made unhappy because of the losses they are obliged to make? Are they not rather raised in feeling on this very account? But how is this? The solution is easy, viz., that the sacrifice made is a sacrifice of happiness, a sacrifice of comfort of condition; and the gain made is a gain of something more ennobling, a gain that partakes of the nature of joy. The man of industry and enterprise says within himself, These are not gifts of fortune; they are my conquests, tokens of my patience, economy, application, fortitude, integrity. In them his soul is elevated from within. And it will be found that even worldly men despise mere happiness. None but the tamest will sit down to be nursed by fortune. In such a truth you may see how it is possible for the repentances, sacrifices, self-denials, and labours of the Christian life to issue in joy. III. THE REALITY ITSELF. We notice 1. The fact that, in a life of selfishness and sin, there is a wellspring of misery which is now taken away. No matter how fortunate the external condition of an unbelieving, evil mind, there is yet a disturbance, a sorrow within, too strong to be mastered by any outward felicity. The whole internal nature is in a state of discord. And this discord is the misery, the hell of sin. How much, then, does it signify that Christ takes away this? For Christ is the embodied harmony of God, and he that receives Him settles into harmony with Him. Just to exterminate the evil of the mind, and clear the sovereign hell which sin creates in it, would suffice to make a seeming paradise. 2. Besides, there is a fact more positive: the soul is no sooner set in peace with itself than it becomes an instrument in tune, discoursing heavenly music; and now no fires of calamity, no pains of outward torment, can for one moment break the sovereign spell of its joy. 3. But we must ascend to a plane that is higher. Little conception have we of the soul’ s joy, or capacities of joy, till we see it established in God. It dares to call Him Father without any sense of daring. It is strong with His strength. It turns adversity into peace, for it sees a friendly hand ministering only good in what it suffers. In dark times it is never anxious, for God is its trust, and God will suffer no harm to befall it. To a mind thus tempered, fortune can add little, and as little take away. 4. The Christian type of character is a character rooted in the Divine love, and in that view has a sovereign bliss welling up from within. No power is strong enough to forbid love, none therefore strong enough to conquer the joy of love; for whoever is loved must be enjoyed. Besides, it is a peculiarity of love that it takes possession of its neighbour’ s riches and successes, and makes them its own. Loving him, it loves all that he has for his sake. It understands the declaration well, “ For all things are yours.” Having such resources of joy in its own nature, the word that signifies love, in the original of the New Testament, is radically one with that which signifies joy. According to the family registers of that language, they are twins of the same birth. Love is joy, and all true joy is love. And Christ is an exhibition to us of this fact in His own Person, a revelation of God’ s eternal joy, as being a revelation of God’ s eternal love, coming down thus to utter in our ears this glorious call, “ Enter ye into the joy of your Lord.” He finds us hunting after condition. He says, “ Behold My poverty, watch with Me in My agony, follow Me to My Cross. Coming up into love, you clear all dependence of condition, you ascend into the very joy of God; and this is My joy. This I have taught you; this I now bequeath to your race.” IV. SOME OF THE AND THAT CROWD UPON US IN THE SUBJECT . 1. Joy is for all men. It does not depend on circumstance or condition; if it did, it could only be for the few. 2. The reason why men have it not is that they do not seek it where it is--in the receiving of Christ and the spirit of His life. They go after it in things without, not in character within. 3. It is important that we hold some rational and worthy conception of the heavenly felicity. How easy it is for the Christian, who has tasted the true joy of Christ, to let go the idea of joy and slide into the pursuit only of happiness or the good of condition. No getting into heaven as a place will compass it. You must carry it with you, else it is not there. Consider only whether heaven be in you now. For heaven is nothing but the joy of a perfectly harmonized being filled with God and His love. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) The difference between worldly mirth and Christian joy Mirth comes from external things which tickle the senses and please the appetite; but joy comes from the happy spirit within us. If this be so, a poor sickly man may not be full of mirth, but he may be full of joy; while a rich man may be sinful and mirthful, and yet have no joy. Mirth comes from outward things, and it therefore lasts only for a short time; but joy springs from an inward eternal force of blessedness. The other day, in London, a kind friend called at my hotel and left me a bouquet of beautiful flowers. I had them put in water, and I said, “ I will take these flowers home with me” ; but they faded, and the sweet perfume was gone; they were beautiful and fragrant only for a time. So mirth is pleasant while it lasts, but very soon it is gone like a dream; but the joy that comes from trusting God and doing His will has no end; it is an increasing eternal delight. What is more beautiful than a balloon rising in the sky? but what is more unsightly than the beautiful thing emptied and lying, an unshapely mass, upon the ground? Mirth may well be compared to fireworks. How grand they are! why, they put out the light of the stars! but, then, you know, when the fireworks have finished their explosive din, the stars keep on shining forever. Equally enduring shall be the joy of the believer and doer of God’ s will; he shall be like a light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Let me remind you of the martyr, John Bradford. When the morning dawned on which he was to be put to death, he had such peace within him that he swung upon the rail of the bedstead in his dungeon, and while he swung he cried, “ Oh, I am so happy! We shall light a fire today that will never be put out!” Then he went forth, Smiling and joyful, to the stake in Smithfield, glorifying God; and so he died. Can you find anything in sinful pleasure to give a joy like that? Will you find it in the intoxicating cup? In gambling? In any of the sinful indulgencies of life? No, no; they are not solid; they let you down at the critical moment when they ought to sustain you. You find that they give no help, and you are left alone like a boy on the ice when it gives way, and he cries for a friend and deliverer, and there is none. (W. Birch.) John 15:12-17 This is My commandment, that ye love one another The great commandment of Christ I. THE LOVE OF CHRIST. Remember 1. How free it was. We did not merit it, ask for it, nor even desire it. And here is the wonder of it. It is love which found nothing to draw it forth. It was entirely self-moved. Disinterestedness then must be one main ingredient in the love we are to bear our fellow men. It is not to stop and ask, “ Why should I love that man? What has he done for me?” That is a love like Christ’ s, which rises up spontaneously. It does not wait to be bought or won. 2. How costly. “ Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor.” Moved by His grace, He paid for our redemption the price that His law demanded. And what a price! Oh to find a man who will break through any thing but the law of God for his fellow man! That is the man, who embodies this precept of our Lord; a self-denying man, one who even in his love is willing to take up his cross and follow Christ. 3. How compassionate and tender! In looking at its greatness, we often lose sight of this. But the softness of a mother’ s love never equalled our Lord’ s. Read His life. It is not here and there that His compassion comes out, it is everywhere. And this is the point in which the love of many real Christians is most deficient. Our neighbours want our hearts as well as our hands. There is ten-fold more sorrow in men’ s minds, than pain in men’ s bodies, or sickness and poverty in men’ s houses. Would you show it mercy? Then carry a feeling heart through it. This will do more for the world’ s comfort than the richest purse. 4. How bountiful! “ No good thing will He withhold from us.” “ Freely ye have received, freely give.” The measure of what our love is to do for others and give to others, is simply this, the measure of our ability to give and do. That is Christ’ s standard in His love; it must be our standard in ours. 5. How extensive! It is discriminating. It took almost as many forms as love could take. The love of country was strong in Him, and the love of kindred and the love of friends. But then look, at the same time, at its extent. Who was excluded from it? His enemies? No, with His last breath He prayed for the very men who murdered Him. Or the world? There is not a guilty being on the wide earth whom He does not pity, and load daily with benefits. His love is like the sun in the heavens--they who are the nearest to it are warmed, and gladdened by it the most, but they who are the farthest off from it behold its light. And this is the unfailing character of all true Christian love. Worldly love is narrow, and generally becomes more so as we grow older. This is expansive. No one object can absorb it; no one house or family can hold it; no sect or party can confine it. II. THE CHARGE OUR LORD GIVES US TO IMITATE HIM IN HIS LOVE. 1. There is a commandment in the case. It is remarkable that our Lord, who seldom uses this word on other occasions, uses it again and again in reference to this love. Here, you observe, is authority pressing down on us. We are to be without this love at our peril. We little think what we are doing when we keep back the helping hand or the pitying heart from a suffering brother. We are setting up once more for our own masters. 2. It is Christ’ s commandment. He stamps it with His own authority. Viewed in this light, there is an appeal in this charge to our gratitude and affection. When our Lord calls it a commandment, He says, “ Dread to dispise it;” and when He calls it His commandment, He urges us by His mercies towards us to obey it. And there may be a reference here to a custom of the times. Each of the different sects among the Jews had some particular tenet or practice to distinguish it. “ Now I,” says our Lord, “ fix on this as the mark and badge of My followers--mutual love. You shall be as well known by this love, as the priests of the Temple are by their garments, or the Roman soldiers by their standards.” 3. It is His last and great commandment. Herein He shows us (1) The amazing tenderness of His own love. His love for them triumphs over every other feeling and desire. (2) The importance in itself of this mutual love. Our all-wise Lord would not have spoken thus emphatically of a trifle. St. Paul says that this love is “ the fulfilling of the law,” and “ the end of the commandment.” Just so our Lord speaks of it (John 15:17). (C. Bradley, M. A.) Brotherly love I. HAS THE HIGHEST MODEL. “ As I have loved you.” How did Christ love? 1. Disinterestedly. There was not a taint of selfishness in His love. He looked for no compensation, no advantage. 2. Earnestly. It was an all-pervading, all-commanding passion. It was a zeal consuming Him. 3. Practically. It was not a love that slept as an emotion in the heart, that expended itself in words and professions; it was a love that worked all the faculties to the utmost, and led Him to the sacrifice of Himself. This is the kind of love we should have one toward another. This is the brotherly love that (1) Unites Christ’ s disciples together. (2) Honours Christ. (3) Blesses the world with the most beneficient influences. II. FORMS THE HIGHEST . “ Ye are My friends,” etc. 1. It not only establishes a friendship, but a friendship between them and Christ. A true friendship between man and man is the greatest blessing on earth. 2. A friendship between man and Christ is the consummation of man’ s well being. If Christ is my friend what want I more? III. HAS THE HIGHEST SOURCE. “ Ye have not chosen Me,” etc. We did not choose to love Christ first, but He chose to love us. His love to us generates our love to Him. He chose His first disciples from their worldly avocations and called them into His circle; this inspired them with His love. Men will never love one another properly until Christ sheds abroad His love in their hearts. He is to all His disciples what the sun is to the planets; around Him they revolve and from Him derive their life and unity. They are united one to another by the bonds that unite them to Christ. IV. THE HIGHEST GOOD. 1. Spiritual fruitfulness. “ Ordained you,” appointed you, “ that ye bring forth fruit.” The fruit involves two things (1) The highest excellence of character. (2) The highest usefulness of life. Rendering others the highest service. 2. Successful prayer. “ Whatsoever ye shall ask,” etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christians bound to love one another I. THE DUTY. 1. Mutual love. There is a love which all men owe to all men. “ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: but the love which is the subject of our Lord’ s precept, is obviously much more comprehensive in its elements, and much less extensive in its range, than this. It is the love of which none but a disciple can be either the object or the subject. Its component elements are esteem, complacency, benevolence, and its appropriate manifestations,--highly valuing each others’ Christian gifts and graces,--delighting in such association with each other as naturally calls forth into exercise all that is peculiarly Christian in the character,--defending each other’ s Christian reputation when attacked,--sympathising with each other’ s Christian joys and sorrows,--promoting each other’ s personal Christian holiness and comfort. and cordially cooperating with each other in enterprises calculated to promote the common Christian cause, the cause of God’ s glory, and man’ s improve ment and happiness. 2. Love like that of our Lord. “ As I have loved you.” (1) Discriminative. (2) Sincere. (3) Spontaneous. (4) Fervent and copious. (5) Disinterested. (6) Active. (7) Self-sacrificing. (8) Considerate and wise. (9) Generously confiding and kindly forbearing. (10) Constant. (11) Enduring. (12) Holy and spiritual. (13) Universal. II. THE MOTIVES. 1. The commandment of Christ. There is no duty which the apostles, more frequently, or more authoritively, enjoin. To enable us to form some estimate of the force of this motive we have only to propose and answer the question, Who is this who speaketh? This is a commandment which Christ claims as His own, in a peculiar sense; and it is addressed to a class who stand in a peculiar relation to Him. 2. The example of Christ. How did Christ love (1) He was just about to give them the greatest proof of friendship which can be given. “ Greater love hath no man than this,” etc. (2) He had made them the objects of His peculiar complacent regard, as persons who were really desirous of doing whatever He commanded them. “ Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” (3) He had treated them as “ friends,” by unfolding to them, so far as they were capable of apprehending it, the whole truth respecting the wonderful communication He had come from heaven to earth to make, and the wonderful work He had come from heaven to earth to perform--the economy of salvation. “ Henceforth I call you not servants,” etc. (4) He had selected them, and appointed them to a great, important, salutary work, their success in which was assured by all necessary assistance in it being secured in answer to believing prayer. “ Ye have not chosen Me,” etc. (J. Brown, D. D.) The Cross the means of perpetuating Christian love The fire of charity is never extinguished, but will always be rekindled by the wood of the cross. (St. Ignatius.) The oneness of the branches The union between Christ and His disciples has been set forth in the parable of the vine. We now turn to the union between the disciples, which is the consequences of their common union to the Lord. There are four things suggested. I. THE . 1. The two ideas of commandment and love do not go well together. You cannot pump up love to order, and if you try you generally produce sentimental hypocrisy, hollow and unreal. Still we can do a great deal for the cultivation and strengthening of any emotion. We can cast ourselves into the attitude which is favourable or unfavourable to it. We can look at the subjects which will create it or at those which will cheek it. 2. This is an obligation (1) Because He commands it. He puts Himself here in the position. (2) Because such an attitude is the only fitting expression of the mutual relation of Christian men, through their common relation to the vine. However unlike any two Christian people are in character, culture, circumstances, the bond that knits those who have the same relations to Jesus Christ is far deeper, more real, and ought to be far closer, than the bond that knits them to the men or women to whom they are likest in all these other respects, and to whom they are unlike in this one central one. Let all secondary grounds of union and of separation be relegated to their proper subordinate place; and let us recognize this, that the children of one father are brethren. And do not let it be said, that “ brethren” in the Church means a great deal less than brothers in the world. II. THE OF LOVE. 1. Our Lord has been speaking in a former verse about the keeping of His commandments. Now He gathers them all up into one: the all comprehensive simplification of duty--love. 2. If the heart be right all else will be right; and if there be a deficiency of love nothing will be right. You cannot help anybody except on condition of having an honest and benevolent regard towards him. You may pitch him benefits, and you will neither get nor deserve thanks for them; you may try to teach him, and your words will be hopeless and profitless. As we read Corinthians 13--the lyric praise of charity--all kinds of blessing and sweetness and gladness come out of this. 3. And Jesus Christ, leaving the little flock of His followers in the world, gave them no other instruction for their mutual relationship? He did not talk to them about institutions and organizations, about orders of the ministry and sacraments, or Church polity. His one commandment was “ Love one another,” and that will make you wise. Love one another and you will shape yourselves into the right forms. III. THE PATTERN OF LOVE. “ As I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this,” etc. 1. Christ sets Himself forward here, as He does in all aspects of human conduct and character, as being the realized ideal of them all. Reflect upon the strangeness of a man thus calmly saying to the whole world, “ I am the embodiment of all that love ought to be.” The pattern that He proposes is more august than appears at first sight. A verse or two before our Lord had said, “ As the Father hath loved Me so I have loved you.” Now He says, “ Love one another as I have loved you.” 2. But then our Lord here sets forth the very central point of His work, even His death upon the cross for us, as being the pattern to which our poor affection ought to aspire, and after which it must tend to be conformed. That is to say, the heart of the love that He commands is self-sacrifice, reaching to death if death be needful. And no man loves as Christ would have Him love who does not bear in his heart affection which has so conquered selfishness that, if need be, he is ready to die. It is a solemn obligation, which many well make us tremble, that is laid on us in these words, “ As I have loved you.” Calvary was less than twenty-four hours off, and He says to us, “ That is your pattern!” 3. Remember, too, that the restriction which here seems to be cast around the flow of His love is not a restriction in reality, but rather a deepening of it. The “ friends” for whom He dies are the same persons as the Apostle, in his sweet variation upon these words, has called by the opposite name when he says that He died for His “ enemies.” There is an old wild ballad that tells of how a knight found, coiling round a tree in a dismal forest, a loathly dragon breathing out poison; and how, undeterred by its hideousness and foulness, he cast his arms round it and kissed it on the mouth. Three times he did it undisgusted, and at the third the shape changed into a fair lady, and he won his bride. Christ “ kisses with the kisses of His mouth” His enemies, and makes them His friends because He loves them. “ If He had never died for His enemies,” says one of the old fathers, “ He would never have possessed His friends.” And so He teaches us, that the way by which we are to meet even alienation and hostility is by pouring upon it the treasures of an unselfish, self-sacrificing affection which will conquer at the last. IV. THE MOTIVE. “ As I have loved you.” The novelty of Christian morality lies here, that in its law there is a self-fulfilling force. We have not to look to one place for the knowledge of our duty, and somewhere else for the strength to do it, but both are given to us in the one thing, the gift of the dying Christ and His immortal love. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Love the means of unity In the early spring, when the wheat is green and young, and scarcely appears above the ground, it springs in the lines in which it was sown, parted from one another and distinctly showing their separation, and the furrows. But, when the full corn in the ear waves on the autumn plain, all the lines and separations have disappeared, and there is one unbroken tract of sunny fruitfulness. And so when the life in Christ is low and feeble, His servants may be separated and drawn up in rigid lines of denominations, and churches, and sects; but as they grow the lines disappear. If to the churches of England today there came a sudden accession of knowledge of Christ, and of union with Him, the first thing that would go would be the wretched barriers that separate us from one another. For if we have the life of Christ in any mature measure in ourselves, we shall certainly bare grown up above the fences behind which we began to grow, and shall be able to reach out to all that love the Lord Jesus Christ, and feel with thankfulness that we are one in Him. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this.Let us consider the unparalleled greatness of Christ’ s love. I. IN THE OBJECTS OF HIS REGARD. 1. In the vastness of their number. He, indeed, knows their number, but it is beyond all human calculation. We admire local charity and extended philanthropy; but the widest range of human benevolence falls far short of the love of Christ, which flows through all nature, worlds, and generations. We are apt to limit the range of this love; but the love of the Redeemer could not be satisfied with a less number than that which no man could number. 2. In the depth of their degradation. If we could fathom the bottomless pit, we might tell the depth of human depravity and degradation. In such objects there was nothing attractive, but everything repulsive. Their moral pollution was contracted by acts of aggression against this Redeemer. 3. In their utter helplessness. No human power could have subdued their depravity. No human mercy could have removed their guilt. No human arm could have rescued them from their degradation. II. IN THE OF HIS . 1. That which He relinquished. “ Being in the form of God He made Himself of no reputation.” He threw aside His original glory. Human conception is inadequate to the greatness of this sacrifice. 2. What He assumed. He condescended to be made one of us. If a man, having the power, were to assume the nature and form of a beast to deliver the brute creation from the “ groaning” to which they are subject by reason of man’ s sin, that would be an admirable sacrifice; but there would be no parallel between it and the love of Christ in this respect. 3. That which He sustained. Our sorrows, infirmities, sins. III. IN THE OF HIS . He was not idle--He went about doing good. Mark 1. The intensity of His designs. He sought the salvation of strangers, aliens, enemies. 2. In the fervour of His zeal. In a thousand instances the spark of our desire is never fanned into the flame of zeal. It was not so with the Redeemer. 3. In the constancy of His exertions. He shrunk not back in the day of battle. Once, and once only, for a moment, His nature seemed to shrink from the violence of the storm, when He said, “ Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!” But when His time was come, impelled by love, “ He steadfastly set Himself to go to Jerusalem;” nay, He was “ straitened” till His work was accomplished. IV. IN THE DEPTH OF HIS . 1. He stooped to the lowest grade of human society. 2. To be charged with the lowest crimes of human delinquency, thus bearing the reproach of His people. 3. To endure the vilest and most painful death that ever was inflicted on the lowest criminal. But though He died, He lives again: His love was stronger than death. He lives to execise it still; and we see its unparalleled greatness. V. IN THE OF ITS . 1. Upon the guilty unlimited pardon. 2. Upon the necessitous unlimited supplies. 3. Upon the redeemed unlimited glory. VI. IN THE RICHES OF ITS . We anticipate 1. The absolute perfection of our intellectual and moral nature. 2. The uninterrupted enjoyment of the Redeemer’ s presence. 3. The everlasting beatitudes of God himself. Improvement: 1. What a ground of encouragement to the true penitent! 2. What a stimulus to the accepted believer! 3. What an aggravation of guilt is incurred by those who obstinately persist in sin! (J. Hunt.) Love’ s crowning deed I. LOVE’ S DEED. There is a climax to everything, and the climax of love is to die for the beloved one. This is the ultima rule of love; its sails can find no further shore. 1. This is clear if we consider, that when a man dies for his friends, it proves (1) His deep sincerity. Lip love is a thing to be questioned; too often is it a counterfeit. All are not hunters that blow the horn, all are not friends who cry up friendship; all is not gold that glitters, so it is not all love that feigneth affection. But we are sure he loves who dies for love. (2) The intensity of his affection. A man may make us feel that he is intensely in earnest when he speaks with burning words, and he may perform many actions which may all appear to show how intense he is, and yet for all that he may but be a skilful player, but when a man dies for the cause he has espoused, you know that he is no superficial passion. (3) The thorough self-abnegation of the heart. If I profess to love a certain person, and yet in no way deny myself for his sake, such love is contemptible. After all, the value of a thing in the market is what a man will give for it, and you must estimate the value of a man’ s love by that which he is willing to give up for it. Greater love for friends hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for them. “ Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us.” 2. Death for its object is the crowning deed of love because (1) It excels all other deeds. Jesus Christ had proved His love by dwelling among His people as their Brother, by participating in their poverty as their friend, by telling them all He knew of the Father, by the patience with which He bore with their faults, by the miracles He wrought on their behalf, and the honour which He put upon them by using them in His service; but none of these can for a moment endure comparison with His dying for them. These life actions of His love are bright as stars, but yet they are only stars compared with this sun of infinite love. (2) It comprehends all other acts, for when a man lays down his life for his friend he has laid down everything else. Give up life, and you have given up wealth, position, enjoyment. Hence the force of that reasoning, “ He that spared not His own Son,” etc. (3) After a man has died for another, there can be no question raised about his love. Unbelief would be insane if it should venture to intrude itself at the cross foot, though, alas! it has been there, and has there proved its utter unreasonableness. Shame on any of God’ s children that they should ever raise questions on a matter so conclusively proven! II. THE SEVEN CROWNS OF JESUS’ DYING LOW. Men’ s dying for their friends--this is superlative--but Christ’ s dying for us is as much above man’ s superlative as that could be above mere commonplace. 1. Jesus was immortal, hence the special character of His death. Damon is willing to die for Pythias; But suppose Damon dies, he is only antedating what must occur, for they must both die eventually. A substitutionary death for love’ s sake in ordinary cases would be but a slightly premature payment of that debt of nature which must be paid by all. Jesus needed not die at all. Up there in the glory was the Christ of God forever with the Father everlasting. He came to earth and assumed our nature that He might be capable of death, yet His body need not have died; as it was it never saw corruption, because there was not in it the element of sin which necessitated death and decay. “ No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself,” etc. 2. In the cases of persons who have yielded up their lives for others they may have entertained the prospect that the supreme penalty would not have been exacted. Damon stood before Dionysius, willing to be slain instead of Pythias; but the tyrant was so struck with the devotion of the two friends that he did not put either of them to death. A pious miner was in the pit with an ungodly man at work. They were about to blast a piece of rock, and it was necessary that they should both leave the mine before the powder exploded; they both got into the bucket, but the hand above was not strong enough to draw the two together, and the pious miner, leaping from the bucket, said to his friend, “ You are an unconverted man, and if you die your soul will be lost. Get up in the bucket as quickly as you can; as for me, if I die I am saved.” This lover of his neighbour’ s soul was soared, for he was found in perfect safety arched over by the fragments which had been blown from the rock. But, such a thing could not occur in the case of our Redeemer. Die He or His people must, there was no other alternative. 3. He could have had no motive in that death but one of pure, unmingled love. You remember when the Russian nobleman was crossing the steppes in the snow, the wolves followed the sledge. The horses needed not the lash, for they fled for their lives from their howling pursuers. Whatever could stay the eager wolves for a time was thrown to them in vain. A horse was loosed: they pursued it, rent it to pieces, and still followed, like grim death. At last a devoted servant, who had long lived with his master’ s family, said, “ There remains but one hope for you; I will throw myself to the wolves, and then you will have time to escape.” There was great love in this, but doubtless it was mingled with a habit of obedience, a sense of reverence, and emotions of gratitude for many obligations. If I had seen the nobleman surrender himself to the wolves to save his servant, and if that servant had in former days sought his life, I could see some parallel, but as the case stands there is a wide distinction. 4. In our Saviour’ s case it was not precisely, though it was, in a sense, death for His friends. Though He called us “ friends,” the friendship was all on His side at the first. Our hearts called Him enemy, for we were opposed to Him. God commendeth His love to us in that while we were yet sinners in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 5. We had ourselves been the cause of the difficulty which required a death. There were two brothers on board a raft once, upon which they had escaped from a foundering ship. There was not enough of food, and it was proposed to reduce the number, that some at least might be able to live. They cast lots for life and death. One of the brothers was drawn, and was doomed to be thrown into the sea. His brother interposed and said, “ You have a wife and children at home; I am single, and therefore can be better spared, I will die instead of you.” “ Nay,” said the brother, “ not so,” and they struggled in mutual arguments of love, till at last the substitute was thrown into the sea. Now, there was no ground of difference between those two brothers whatever. But in our case there would never have been a need for anyone to die if we had not been the wilful offenders; and the offended one, whose injured honour required the death, was the Christ that died. 6. There have been men who died for others, but they have never borne the sins of others; they were willing to take the punishment, but not the guilt. Those cases which I have already mentioned did not involve character. But here, ere Christ must die, it must be written--“ He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin,” etc. 7. The death of Christ was a proof of love superlative, because in His case He was denied all the helps and alleviations which in other cases make death to be less than death. I marvel not that a saint can die joyously; for he sees his heavenly Father gazing down upon him, and glory waiting him. But ah, to die upon a cross without a pitying eye, surrounded by a scoffing multitude, and to die with this as your requiem, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!” III. MANY ROYAL THINGS OUGHT TO BE TO US BY THIS ROYAL LOVE. How this thought of Christ’ s proving His love by His death 1. Ennobles self-denial. 2. Prompts us to heroism. When you get to the cross you have left the realm of little men: you have reached the nursery of true chivalry. Does Christ die?--then we feel we could die too. But mark how the heroic in this case is sweetly tinctured and flavoured with gentleness. The chivalry of the olden times was cruel. We want that blessed chivalry of love in which a man feels, “ I would suffer any insult from that man if I could do him good for Christ’ s sake.” 3. There seems to come from the cross, a gentle voice that saith, “ Guilty sinner, I did all this for thee, what hast thou done for Me?” and yet another which saith, “ Look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) Self-sacrificing love A little child six years old, went out one autumn afternoon to play with a companion younger than himself, Johnnie Carr, the little hero whose name deserves to be written in gold, rambled about with his smaller playmate till the houses were left behind, and they were in the country. Presently they found that they had lost their way, and the night was coming on, cold and stormy. The younger child, chill and hungry, began to cry, and his brave companion cheered him on, now carrying him for a few steps, now anxiously searching for the way home. At last the night fell dark and cold, the children were lost, and lay down for shelter in a field. But the ground was wet and chilly, and the younger cried for home and his mother. Then Johnnie Carr, who was only six years old, remember, could not bear to see his playmate crying with the cold, and he stripped off his own jacket and made a bed for his companion, and placed the rest of his clothes to cover the child. Then, with only his shirt and socks, the little hero lay down beside him. Their childish prayers were said, and Johnnie Carr knew not that in his sublime act of self-sacrifice he had taken part in the mightier sacrifice of Jesus. When the morning came, the anxious friends, who had been searching through the night, found the children lying. The younger was soon restored to health and strength, but no care could save the life of the child-hero who had given himself for his friend. (H. J. W. Buxton) . The death of Christ our only stay If the thought of sin, death, and judgment be so terrible, as in truth they are to every soul of man, on what shall we stay ourselves when our time is at hand? I. UPON THE LOVE OF GOD, IN GIVING HIS SON TO DIE FOR US (John 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:8). Whatever be doubtful, this is sure. Light does not pour forth from the sun, with a fuller and directer ray than does perfect and eternal love overflow from the bosom of God upon all the works that He has made. The love of God is the sphere in which the world is sustained, every living soul is encompassed by that love, as stars by the firmament of heaven. And from this blessed truth flows all manner of consolation. Not only does God hate sin, but He hates death; not only does He abhor evil, but the peril and perdition of so much as one living soul--of one, even the least of all things He has made. The Lord hath sworn by Himself, saying (Ezekiel 18:32). What do we further need to assure us that He desires our salvation? Does a child bind his father by promises to give him bread, or a mother to foster him in sickness? Surely the character of God is enough. “ God is love.” What more do we ask! What more would we receive? “ He cannot deny Himself.” And therefore when He was “ willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel,” He “ confirmed it by an oath.” But for us God has done still more: He has, beside His promise, found a pledge to give us. He has given us “ His only begotten Son.” He most abhors; and He gave Him to be ours in so full a right, that we might offer Him as our own in sacrifice for our sins. II. THE LOVE OF THE SON IS GIVING HIMSELF FOR US. When we remember who He is that gave Himself, and for whom, and to die what death, we cannot find capacity of heart to receive it. If He had saved us by a new exertion of His creative will, it would have been a miracle of lovingkindness. If He had spoken once more the first words of power, and creating us again in light, it would have been a mystery of sovereign grace. If He had redeemed us by the lowliness of the Incarnation, still revealing Himself in majesty, though as a man, and lightening the earth with His glory, as Saviour, God, and King, it would have seemed to us a perfect exhibition of the Divine compassion to a sinful world. How much more when He came to suffer shame and sorrow, all that flesh and blood can endure, to sink, as it were, into the lowest depths of creation, that He might uplift it from its farthest fall? If He so loved us as to die for us, what will He not grant or do? If He gave His whole self, will He keep back any partial gift? Will He not save us, who Himself died for us? If He loved us when we loved Him not, will He not love us now that we desire to love Him again? III. Christ’ s death upon the cross is not only a revelation of Divine love to us; it is also a DIVINE FOR OUR SIN. How it is so, we may not eagerly search to know. That by death He has destroyed “ Him that had the power of death,” and taken away “ the sin of the world,” is enough. In that death were united the oblation of a Divine person and the sanctity of a sinless man; the perfection of a holy will and the fulfilment of a spotless life; the willing sacrifice of the sinless for the sinful, of the shepherd for the sheep that was lost, of life for the dead. How this wrought atonement for the sin of the world we cannot say further than is revealed. God “ made Him to be sin for us.” “ He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” “ By His stripes we are healed.” “ He hath tasted death for every man.” “ There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” (Archdeacon Manning.) Demonstration of friendship, Divine and human I. CHRIST HIS LOVE TO MAN BY DYING. Here He states 1. The utmost limit of human love. Nothing is felt by man to be more precious than his life. Everything he has he will sacrifice for this. A love that will lead to the sacrifice of this is love in its highest human measure. 2. Christ’ s love transcended this limit, He laid down His life for His enemies. There is nothing in history approaching this. This transcendent love is (1) The love of compassion. There could be neither gratitude nor esteem in it, for the subjects are all wicked. (2) The love of disinterestedness. He had nothing to gain by it; for His glory and happiness admitted of no entrancement. II. MAN HIS LOVE BY OBEYING. Surely all men ought to love Christ, and when they do they will obey. This obedience will be marked by 1. Heartiness. 2. Cheerfulness. When this love is obedience to Christ is the highest gratification of the soul. When the heart is enlarged it runs in the way of Christ’ s commandments. 3. Entireness. Love does not sort duties, or weigh or measure them. Whatever the object wishes shall be done, even unto death. Conclusion: The subject (1) Supplies the test of Christian piety. Christian piety is not ritualism, however becoming; not a theology, however Scriptural; it is obedient love to Christ. 2. Indicates the true method of preaching--to so exhibit Christ’ s love as to awaken the love of human souls. (Swain.) A friend’ s love During the Civil war in America, a farmer was drawn to be a soldier. He was much grieved about it, not because he was a coward, but on account of his motherless family, who would have no breadwinner or caretaker in his absence. The day before he had to march to the town where the conscripts’ names were called over, and their clothing and weapons given them for the campaign, young Mr. Durham, a neighbour, came, saying, “ Farmer Blake, I will go instead of you.” The farmer was astonished so much so as to be unable to reply for some time. He stood leaning one hand on his spade and wiping the sweat from his brow with the other. It seemed too good to be true! At length he took in the deliverance, as if it were an angel of light in a dark dungeon, and he grasped the hand of young Durham and praised God. The young fellow went, feeling that he was doing a noble thing, and all the village came out and bid him “ God speed.” It may be that he had “ glory” before him--the sash of a general, the chair of the President. Whatever his ideas, he nobly took the place of his fellow man; but alas! in the first battle he was shot and killed! When the farmer saw in the newspaper the name of Charles Durham in the list of “ missing,” he at once saddled his old horse and went off to the battlefield, and after searching for some time, found the body of his friend. He brought it to his village, to the little churchyard in which they had so often walked together to the house of God; and from the quarry up on the hill he cut out a plain marble tablet, on which he carved an inscription with his own hand. It was roughly done, but with every blow there fell a tear from his eyes. There, in the little churchyard, he placed the body of his devoted friend and substitute, and covered the grave with grass sods from his garden. Then, while his tears dropped, he put the marble tablet on the grave, and when the villagers stooped to see the little monument they also wept. It did not say much, but it really touched them; it said, “ C.D. He died for me.” (New Testament Anecdotes.) John 15:14-17 Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Christ’ s friends Notice I. WHAT CHRIST’ S FRIENDS DO FOR HIM (John 15:16). In the former verse, “ friends” means chiefly those whom He loved. Here it means mainly those who love Him. 1. He lingers on the idea, as if He would meet the doubts arising from the sense of unworthiness, and from some dim perception of how He towers above them. How wonderful that stooping love of His is! Every form of human love Christ lays His hand upon. “ He that doeth the will of My Father, the same is My brother, and sister, and mother.” That which is even sacreder, the purest and most complete union that humanity is capable of, receives a new sweetness when we think of the Bride, the Lamb’ s wife. And, passing from that Holy of Holies out into this outer court, He lays His hand on that more common and familiar, and yet precious and sacred, thing, the bond of friendship. The Prince makes a friend of the beggar. 2. This friendship lasts today. The pecularity of Christianity is the strong personal tie which binds men to this Man that died nineteen hundred years ago. We look back into the wastes of antiquity: the mighty names rise there that we reverence; there are great teachers from whom we have learned, and to whom we are grateful. But what a gulf there is between us and the best and noblest of them! But here is a dead Man, who today is the object of passionate attachment, and a love deeper than life to millions of people, and will be till the end of time. 3. There are no limitations in that friendship, no misconstructions in that heart, no alienation possible, no change to be feared. There is absolute rest for us there. Why should I be solitary if Jesus Christ is my Friend? Why should I fear if He walks by my side? Why should anything be burdensome if He lays it upon me, and helps me to bear it? What is there in life that cannot be faced and borne--aye, and conquered--if we have Him, as we all may have Him, for the Friend and the Home of our hearts? 4. But notice the condition, “ If ye do what I command you.” Note the singular blending of friendship and command, involving on our parts absolute submission and closest friendship. For this is the relationship between love and obedience, in regard to Jesus Christ, that the love is the parent of the obedience, and the obedience is the guard and the guarantee of the love. II. WHAT CHRIST DOES FOR HIS FRIENDS (John 15:15) The slave may see what his lord does, but he does not know his purpose in his acts. “ Their’ s not to reason why,” If the servant is in his master’ s confidence he is more than a servant. But, says Christ, “ I have called you friends” ; and He calls them so before in act, and and He points to all His past relationship, and especially to the heart outpourings of the upper room, as the proof. 1. Jesus Christ, then, recognizes the obligation of absolute frankness, and He will tell His friends everything that He can. When He tells them what He can the voice of the Father speaks through the Son. 2. Of course, to Christ’ s frankness there are limits. He will not pour out His treasures into vessels that will spill them. And though here he speaks as if His communion was perfect, we are to remember that it was necessarily conditioned by the power of reception on the part of the hearers. 3. That frank speech is continued today. By the light which He sheds on the Word, by many a suggestion through human lips, by many a blessed thought rising quietly within our hearts, and bearing the token that it comes from a sacreder source than our poor, blundering minds, He still speaks to us, His friends. 4. Ought not that thought of the utter frankness of Jesus make us for one thing very patient of the gaps that are left in His communications and in our knowledge? There are so many things that we should like to know. He holds all in His hand. Why does He thus open one finger instead of the whole palm? Because He loves. A friend exercises the right of reticence as well as the prerogative of speech. “ Trust Me! I tell you all that is good for you to receive.” 5. And that frankness may well teach us the obligation of keeping our ears open and our hearts prepared to receive the speech that comes from Him. Many a message from your Lord flits past you like the idle wind through an archway, because you are not listening for His voice. If we silenced passion, ambition, selfishness, worldliness, if we took less of our religion out of books and from other people, and were more accustomed to “ dwell in the secret place of the Most High,” and to say, “ Speak, Friend, for Thy friend heareth,” we should more often understand how real today is the voice of Christ to them that love Him. III. HOW CHRIST’ S FRIENDS COME TO BE SO AND WHY THEY ARE SO (John 15:16) 1. In all the cases of friendship between Christ and men, the origination and initiation come from Him. “ We love Him because He first loved us.” The apostle said,” I was apprehended of Christ.” It is because He lays His seeking and drawing hand upon us, that we ever come to love Him. His choice of us precedes our choice of Him. The Shepherd always comes to seek the sheep that is lost. We come to be His friends: because, when we were enemies, He loved us, and gave Himself for us, and ever since has been sending out the messengers of His love to draw us to His heart. 2. And the purpose is two fold (1) It respects service or fruit. “ That we may go.” There is deep pathos and meaning in that word. He had been telling them that He was going; now He says them, “ You are to go! We part here. My road lies upward; yours runs onward. Go into all the world.” “ That ye may bring forth fruit.” “ Keeping His commandments” does not explain the whole process by which we do the things that are pleasing in His sight. We must also take this other metaphor of the bearing of fruit. There must be the effort; for men do not grow Christlike in character as the vine grows its grapes, but there must be, regulated and disciplined by the effort, the inward life, for no mere outward obedience and tinkering at duties and commandments will produce the fruit that Christ desires and rejoices to have. “ That your fruit should remain.” There is nothing that corrupts faster than fruit. There is only one kind of fruit that is permanent, incorruptible. The only life’ s activity that outlasts life and the world is the activity of the men that obey Christ. (2) It respects the satisfying of our desires, that “ whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name He may give it you.” Make your desires Christ’ s, and Christ’ s yours, and you will be satisfied. IV. THE MUTUAL OF CHRIST’ S FRIENDS (John 15:17) This whole context is enclosed within a golden circlet by that commandment which appears in John 15:12, and reappears here at the close, thus shutting off this portion from the rest of the discourse. Friends of a friend should themselves be friends. We care for the lifeless things that a dear Friend has cared for. And here are living men and women, in all diversities of character and circumstances, but with this stamped upon them all--Christ’ s friends, lovers of and loved by Him. And how can we be indifferent to those to whom Christ is not indifferent? We are knit together by that bond. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The friends of Jesus There is no title surely that excels in dignity that which was worn by Abraham, who was called “ The friend of God.” Lord Brooke was so delighted with the friendship of Sir Philip Sydney that he ordered to be engraved upon his tomb nothing but this, “ Here lies the friend of Sir Philip Sydney.” There is beauty in such a feeling, but yet it is a small matter compared with being able to say, “ Here lives a friend of Christ.” I. Note--WHAT CHRIST FROM THOSE WHO CALL HIS FRIENDS. It must be 1. Active. “ If ye do.” Some think it is quite sufficient if they avoid what He forbids.. Abstinence from evil is a great part of righteousness, but it is not enough for friendship. It would be a poor friendship which only said, “ I am your friend, and to prove it, I don’ t insult you, I don’ t rob you, I don’ t speak evil of you.” Surely there must be more positive evidence to certify friendship. In that memorable twenty-fifth of Matthew nothing is said about negative virtues; but positive actions are cited and dwelt upon in detail. Fine words, again, are mere wind, and go for nothing if not backed up with substantial deeds. Friendship cannot live on windy talk, it needs the bread of matter of fact. 2. Continuous. He does not say, “ If you sometimes do--if you do it on Sundays, in your place of worship” ; no, we are to abide in Him, and keep His statutes even unto the end. 3. Universal. “ Whatsoever.” No sooner is anything discovered to be the subject of a command than the man who is a true friend of Christ says, “ I will do it,” and he does it. He does not pick and choose which precept he will keep and which he will neglect. The smallest command of Christ may often be the most important. Here is the proof of your love. Will you do the smaller thing for Jesus as well as the more weighty matter? The reality of your subjection to your Lord and Master may hinge upon seemingly insignificant points. A servant might place the breakfast on the table, and feel that she had done her duty, but if her mistress told her to place the salt at the corner, and she did not, she would be asked the cause of her neglect. Suppose she replied, “ I placed the breakfast before you, but a little salt was too trifling a matter for me to be troubled about.” Her mistress might answer, “ But I told you to be sure and put out the salt cellar. Mind you do so tomorrow.” 4. To Christ Himself. Put the emphasis on the I. We are told to do these things because Jesus commands them. Does not the royal person of our Lord cast a very strong light upon the necessity of obedience? 5. Out of a friendly spirit. Obedience to Christ as if we were forced to do it under pains and penalties would be of no worth as a proof of friendship. He speaks not of slaves, but of friends. II. THOSE WHO DO NOT OBEY HIM ARE NO FRIENDS OF HIS. A man who does not obey Christ 1. Does not give the Saviour His proper place, and this is an unfriendly deed. If I have a friend I am very careful that, if he has honour anywhere, he shall certainly have due respect from me. 2. Is not of one mind with Christ. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Christ is for holiness, this man is for sin. 3. He may be a very high and loud professor, and for that reason be all the more an enemy of the Cross. Through the inconsistent conduct of our Lord’ s professed friends, His cause is more hindered than by anything else. 4. A disobedient friend would be a great dishonour to Christ. A man is known by the company he keeps. III. THOSE WHO BEST OBEY CHRIST ARE ON THE BEST OF TERMS WITH HIM. 1. You cannot walk in holy converse with Christ unless you keep His commandments. 2. Some Christians will never get into full fellowship with Christ because they neglect to study His word and search out what His will is. Half the Christian people in the world are content to ask, “ What is the rule of our Church?” That is not the question: the point is, “ What is the rule of Christ?” Some plead, “ My father and mother before me did so.” I sympathize in a measure with that feeling; but yet in spiritual things we are to call no man “ father,” but make the Lord Jesus our Master and Exemplar. Take your light directly from the sun. Let holy Scripture be your unquestioned rule of faith and practice. 3. Under all the crosses, and losses, and trials of life, there is no comfort more desirable than the confidence that you have aimed at doing your Lord’ s will. Losses borne in the defence of the right and true are gains. Jesus is never nearer His friends than when they bravely bear shame for His sake. IV. THE MOST ACTION A MAN CAN DO FOR JESUS IS TO OBEY HIM. 1. Rich men have thought to do the most friendly act towards Christ by building a church, or founding almshouses or schools. If they are believers, and have done this thing as an act of obedience to Christ’ s law of stewardship, they have well done, and the more of such munificence the better, but where splendid benefactions are given out of ostentation, or from the idea that some merit will be gained by the consecration of a large amount of wealth, the whole business is unacceptable. Jesus asks not lavish expenditure, but ourselves. “ To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” 2. Others have imagined that they could show their friendliness to Christ by self-mortification. Jesus Christ has not demanded this as the gauge of friendship. He says, “ Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you,” but He does not command you to starve, or to wear sackcloth, or to shut yourselves up in a cell, pride invents these things, but grace teaches obedience. 3. Certain persons have thought it would be the noblest form of holy service to enter into brotherhoods and sisterhoods. But assuredly in the New Testament you shall find no foreshadowing of Franciscans and Dominicans. All godly women were sisters of mercy, and all Christlike men were of the society of Jesus, but of monastic and conventual vows we read nothing. 4. Some think it a very friendly act towards Christ to attend many religious services in a consecrated building. They are at matins, and vespers, and feasts and fasts without number. Ye are Christ’ s friends, if ye do whatsoever He commands ye: that is a better test than early communion or daily mass. 5. It comes to this, that we must steadily, carefully, persistently, cheerfully, do the will of God from the heart in daily life, from the first waking moment till our eyes are closed. Say concerning everything, “ What would Jesus have me do about this? What is the teaching of Christ as to this?” (C. H.Spurgeon.) A Christian--Christ’ s friend If we are friends of Christ I. WE SHALL BE OF HIM. His image will be often in our minds. Almost all remarkable occurrences, at least, will suggest Him, in one way or another, to our hearts. In common life you could scarcely be regarded as being a warm-hearted friend of that man, of whom there had not been a single thought in your mind during the course of the day. And, yet, are there not a few in our churches who, from one Sabbath to another, have their thoughts wandering in every direction but toward Christ. II. WE SHALL SEEK HIS COMPANY, and embrace opportunities of meeting with Him. When, and where do we find Him? 1. In the reading of the Word. 2. In prayer. 3. At the prayer meeting. 4. At His own house, amid the ordinances of the Sabbath. 5. In His sacraments. How easy, then, is the application of the test? III. WE SHALL READ WITH THE LETTERS HE SENDS US AND DELIGHT IN WITH HIM IN RETURN. On being asked, When you heard from an attached friend? were you to reply, “ Some days ago, but! have not yet found leisure to open and read it” --what would be the inference? Well, is not the New Testament literally an epistle which Christ has sent us? And ought not a Sabbath’ s sermon to be waited on expectantly as containing some message from Him? And is not the return of correspondence on our part exemplified specially by prayer? How, then, do our professions of friendship for Him stand this test? IV. WE SHALL HAVE TO HIM FOR AND HELP IN SEASONS OF . Friendship is often manifested and proved better by applying for aid than by bestowing it. If you have two friends of whom you cannot at present tell who is the more endeared to your heart--watch, when some Evil may befall you, and see whose image presents itself first to your mind. In applying these principles for the determination of the question of your friendship for Christ, observe, that there are two classes of evils, for deliverance from which you need friendly help. 1. Your sinfulness, with its two-fold evil of guilt and servitude. To whom, then, do you apply for deliverance? Now Jesus is the Friend of Sinners; and that, too, in the sense of His being “ the only Mediator between God and man;” and in the sense of His taking the penitent by the hand, and leading him up to the throne of grace. Can that, then, be a friend of Christ, who, as He stands, inviting the guilty to come unto Him, passes Him by. 2. There are your temporal wants, difficulties and distresses. How many, who ween of themselves that they are good friends of Christ, have yet much of the lesson to learn of giving Him the dependence of their hearts, without exception or reserve! V. WE SHALL BE THE FRIENDS OF HIS FRIENDS. 1. We will take a friendly interest in them, for His sake. I should feel there was a want of entireness in the friendship of that man who treated with negligence even the dog in which he saw I delighted. 2. For their own sakes, as bearing a resemblance to Him, and possessed of properties which we admire in Himself. VI. WE WILL BE FRIENDS OF HIS CAUSE--interested in the welfare of His Church: will grieve for its losses; rejoice for its gains; plead for it, spend for it, work for it, and, if need be, suffer for it. VII. WE SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED TO CONFESS HIM (Romans 5:5). There is nothing by which friendship, in common life, is better manifested, than by avowing yourself a friend of your friend. But 1. Friendship for Christ does not require that we be always obtruding on our company professions of love for Him, and His claims on their embracement of His cause. 2. When challenged and accused for your declared or suspected faith in Christ, by either the magistrate or the mob, though it might imperil your life to confess Him, it would imperil your salvation more to deny Him. 3. There are manners, customs, and fashions of the world which are inimical to Christ’ s honour and interests, compliance with which His friends will refuse and resist. VIII. WE SHALL BE IN OBEYING HIS . (W. Anderson, LL. D.) The friendship between Christ and the believer I. YOUR IS SOUGHT BY JESUS CHRIST. That He might win it, He declares His own friendship. No matter how meanly you think of yourselves, there is One who seeks your friendship. Think who this One is. In His presence Socrates and Plato pale. The greatness of Alexander, of Hannibal, of Caesar, of Napoleon, of Washington is feeble indeed in comparison with His. II. THE GROUND UPON WHICH THIS CAN BE BUILT UP. 1. By mutual confidence. This is a law of friendship. To strengthen their confidence He reveals the secrets of His heart to His disciples. He makes confidants of them. 2. By gratitude. Christ says, “ All is thine.” We answer back, “ All that we have is Thine.” III. THE FORMS OF THIS . 1. Intercourse. We do not desire to be separated from our friends, but to be near them. 2. Remembrance. The human heart craves to be remembered. Is not this the meaning of tokens, even of the writing on gravestones? Friendship ministers to this want. It is met in the friendship of Christ. We are told that we are in His thoughts, that our very names are written on His hands. Is there anything more touching than Christ’ s desire to be remembered by His disciples after He would be gone? At our communion seasons we comply with this desire of Christ. 3. Desire to please. Hence, if our friends are below us we sink to their level. If Christ is our friend, we rise to Him, and become more and more like Him. Hence, not anything tends to such purity of life as love for Christ. 4. Mutual care. Christ cares for us, for our interests, protects us, and we care for His interests. If, as a scientist, I am set for the defence of the law of gravitation, I arrange my arguments and endeavour to convince the understanding. But when our friend is attacked then it is that the lip quivers and the blood boils. When Christianity is assailed it is more to us than the assailing of a system of principles; the interests of our dearest Friend are involved, and we are ready to make any sacrifice, even to the laying down of our lives, in their defence. IV. THE PROOF OF THIS . Friendship does not spring from obedience, but obedience from friendship. What should we think of an admiral who would say, “ I will take advantage of the fact that the President of the United States is my friend and will disregard his commands” ? That would be unspeakably mean. The Christian does not presume on the friendship of Christ. That friendship holds him but the firmer to what is right. Note some of the characteristics of Christian obedience. It Isaiah 1. Active and positive. The best way to meet the importunities to do wrong is to be fully occupied. “ I have a great work to do. Why should I come down?” 2. Cheerful. The Christian has the friendship of the most powerful and beat Being in the universe; why should he not be cheerful in his obedience to that One? What parent would wish to see his child surly in his obedience? 3. Without reserve: “ whatsoever.” I know no earthly friend to whom I would say, “ I will do whatsoever you command me.” (John Hall, D. D.) Believers Christ’ s friends I. WHAT THIS IS IN THE GENERAL. 1. The friends of Christ, whereas naturally they were in a state of enmity with God, are now in a state of peace with Christ, and God through Christ Ephesians 2:14). 2. Whereas they had divided interests as to heaven, now there is an unity of interests betwixt Christ and them (1 John 1:3). II. HOW THIS IS MADE UP. 1. The first spring and source of it is everlasting free love (Jeremiah 31:3). 2. The plot for compassing it was laid from eternity between the Father and the Son (Titus 1:2). 3. The foundation of it was laid in the blood of Christ, in the fulness of time Galatians 4:4-5). 4. It was moved to them in the gospel (2 Corinthians 5:20). 5. They are won to it by His own Spirit (Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 44:5). 6. By faith they go into the friendship with Him (Ephesians 3:17). 7. The friendship is sealed by the sacraments, particularly that of His body and blood. It was an ancient custom to confirm a covenant of friendship with a feast (Genesis 31:54; John 15:13). III. WHAT A THIS IS! Men nor angels cannot fully express the value of it, for it is of infinite value (1 Corinthians 2:9). 1. It is an honourable friendship. Their Friend is the Prince of the kings of the earth; and through Him God is their friend. 2. It is a beneficial friendship. The friendship of many in the world is no more but an empty name. But Christ’ s friendship, the benefits of it who can tell? 3. It is an intimate friendship. There is no such close and intimate friendship betwixt any relations on earth (1 Corinthians 6:17). 4. It is an universal friendship, of universal influence. There is no friendship in the world but it is limited. But from the greatest to the least of the concerns of His friends, Christ interests Himself. 5. It is a sure and lasting friendship. The friendships in the world are very uncertain (Job 19:14; Psalms 38:11). But Christ’ s friendship never dies John 13:1; Isaiah 49:14-16). IV. . See 1. The wonderful condescension of heaven. We are rebels against God naturally, but may become friends through Christ. 2. They that are Christ’ s are most happy. 3. Jesus Christ is the best and most generous of masters. He makes all His servants friends. 4. Friendless persons, who have none to regard them, may best bestow themselves and get a friend, that will be better to them than all the world. 5. Let sinners seek this friendship. 6. Ye that profess to be the friends of Christ, walk worthy of your privilege. (T. Boston, D. D.) Christ’ s friends, doers of all His commands I. INQUIRE INTO THIS OF THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST. 1. The friends of Christ are doers of His commands. They are all His servants (Luke 6:46). Christ is their Lord and Lawgiver, and they do His commandments (Revelation 22:14). (1) Their lusts are not their domineering lords, to whom they yield themselves to obey (Romans 6:18; Romans 6:14; Galatians 5:24). (2) The course of the world is not their rule (Ephesians 2:2). (3) But as they look for salvation by Him, it is the business of their life, to please, serve, and glorify Him, to walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing (Colossians 1:10). There are two works seriously plied by all Christ’ s friends. (a) salvation work, that they may be saved from sin and wrath, and set beyond hazard of eternal ruin. This is done by faith. (b) Their generation work (Acts 13:36; 1 Peter 2:9). This is done by obedience. In the former they look for their own safety, and in the latter for the honour of their Saviour. 2. The friends of Christ are doers of His commands, because they are His commands (Colossians 3:17). (1) Out of respect to His authority (Psalms 119:4; Hebrews 11:8). (2) Out of love to Him (Hebrews 6:10). (3) As sons redeemed by His blood, not as bondservants working for their own redemption; to please their Benefactor, not to render themselves accepted by their own obedience (Romans 8:15; Colossians 1:10). (4) With heart and good-will (Ephesians 6:7; Isaiah 64:5). 3. The friends of Christ are doers of His commands universally and without exception (Psalms 119:6). They are universal (1) In their desire to do all His commands, saying, as (Psalms 119:5). (2) In respect of their endeavour (Philippians 1:13-14). (3) In respect of their willingness to know all that Christ commands, that they may do it (Psalms 139:23). The reasons why Christ’ s friends are universal in their obedience, are (a) Because the grace of God inclines them to do what Christ commands, because He commands it (Psalms 119:4). The law of Christ is a chain of many links, and he that truly draws one to Him, draws all. (b) Because the whole law is written on their hearts in regeneration, and not scraps of it here and there (Hebrews 8:10). (c) Because Christ hath the chief room in their hearts beyond all competitors (Luke 14:26). (d) Because He is jealous, and the least command of His that is slighted is displeasing to Him (Matthew 5:19). (e) Because their hearts are reconciled to the whole law, and every part of it (Psalms 119:128). II. WHY THIS IS MADE THE TRYING AND OF THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST. 1. Because this hits the point in which the sincere and hypocrites differ. 2. Because the reality of friendship to Christ does without controversy appear here. “ Show your faith by your works. Love not in word only but in deed.” 3. Because where Christ’ s friendship to a person takes effect, it certainly has this effect (Ephesians 5:25-26; Titus 2:14). 4. Because though the free grace of God tends to holiness (Titus 2:11-12), yet there is a disposition in the children of men to turn it to licentiousness (Jude 1:4). Therefore the apostle cautions the Galations Galatians 5:13). III. USES. 1. Of information. This shows us (1) What the life of a Christian is. It is a life of doing whatsoever Christ commands. And so it is (a) An active not an idle life (Philippians 2:12; Revelation 14:13). (b) A well doing life (1 Timothy 1:5). (c) A watchful life (1 Corinthians 16:13). (d) A resolute life (Ephesians 6:15). (2) The doctrine of free grace gives no encouragement to looseness of life: for there is no separating of faith and holiness. If ye be Christ’ s friends by faith, ye will be His faithful and tender servants in obedience. 2. Of exhortation. Show yourselves Christ’ s friends by doing whatsoever He commands you. And do ye what Christ commands you, if you would show yourselves His friends. (1) In a time of general apostasy and blacksliding from the ways of God Genesis 6:9). (2) Even when it must be your temporal loss (Hebrews 11:35). (3) When His hand is lying heavy on you by crosses and afflictions (Job 1:9-10). (4) When sin comes with a seen advantage in its hand, as in the case of Heb 11:24-26). (5) When the sin that most easily besets you comes in competition with your obedience to the commands of Christ (Psalms 18:23). (6) When there is nothing to keep you back from sin, but pure regard to the command of Christ. IV. MOTIVES. 1. Because all His commands are those of an absolute Lord, to whom we owe obedience in all things (Exodus 20:2). 2. All His commands are just, righteous, and reasonable (Psalms 119:128). 3. We are all of us under covenant engagements to do whatsoever He commands us. We have all avouched Him for our Lord (Luke 6:46). 4. Christ has been the best friend ever mankind had (John 15:13; Romans 5:8) 5. It is necessary to evidence your sincerity (Psalms 119:6). 6. The glorious privilege of those who do whatsoever Christ commands them. (T. Boston, D. D.) Implicit obedience At Federal Hill, Baltimore, Colonel Warren gave orders to his guards that only officers in uniform were to be admitted to camp. One bright morning General Dix, who commanded the troops guarding the city, walked over from Fort McHenry in undress. Attempting to pass the line of sentries in company with an aide, the old general was amused at finding a musket barring his passage, while the aide, with his glittering shoulder straps, was permitted to enter. “ Why do you stop me, my man?” inquired the general, quietly. “ My orders are to admit only officers in uniform,” was the reply. “ But don’ t you see that this is General Dix?” exclaimed the aide, angrily. “ Well, between you and me, major,” said the sentry, his eyes twinkling with amusement, “ I see very well who it is; but if General I)ix wants to gets to get into this camp he had better go back and put on his uniform.” “ You are quite right, sentry,” remarked the general. “ I’ ll go back and get my coat.” The incident increased his admiration for the entire command. (H. O. Mackey.) John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants Slave or friend? The word used was the word for slave, though not always used in the most ignominious relation. The word “ friends” is philos, something more than friendship in the ordinary use of the word “ love friends.” These were the disciples that had been ordained to go out and preach. All that time they have been only servants. I. THERE IS, THEN, A THAT IS , HAVING IN IT A GOOD MANY but as soon as possible to be left behind. All over the world, we see in progress this primary state of discipleship--that of servitude and inferiority. 1. The lower province begins, with conscientious morality; that is, so much of rectitude recognized and mildly sought as is embodied in public law and in public sentiment. But the averages of society are always and everywhere very low. 2. Higher than this is a more active recognition of what may technically be called religious life: that is, the recognition of an invisible God, of a moral order, and of a providence which unfolds the thought and the will of God among men. A man has certainly risen very much higher than the ordinary morality which is contained in the Ten Commandments--he has risen a great deal when he begins to be a worshipper. 3. Then we come, a little more interiorly, to the condition of those who are seeking to conform their lives to canons of morality, to rules of Church life, to religion as a personal experience; and we find that fear is usually the very first incitement, as it is the lowest motive. There is a fear that runs with the highest feelings, that purity itself has lest it should be sullied. There is a fear of love--filial fear. But there is also the fear that if a duty be neglected it will bring chastisement; and this fear takes a very low range. It indicates no great love for moral quality, no worship of good because it is good, no spontaneity, but a dark shadow of dread for neglect or violation. There are thousands whose religion rises in its motives no higher than this: “ We must prepare for death; it may come in an untold hour.” There are multitudes who are afraid to be wicked. I am glad of that; but it is a very low motive. Multitudes of persons are afraid not to say their prayers. That is a very low motive. Sometimes it is the misery of an heir to know that a decrepit aunt is going to bequeath her property to him, provided his conduct is in all respects suitable to her wishes. So all his life long he is thinking: “ What does she want?” And what politeness! what keeping out of her prejudices! And so all his life long he has a certain sort of respectable morality; but the whole way through it is carnal and mean, and it is to get the property, not because he loves politeness, not because he loves her at all--he loves her Will. A service of fear never works the higher moral qualities. If a man’ s religion is very largely compounded of the element of fear he may save his soul; but is it worth saving?--poor, scrawny, mean! 4. Then comes, next higher in order, the sense of duty--conscience. In combination with higher qualities conscience gives strength and great power. It is an undertone that should run through life. Duty is not less noble because it is inferior to love, but it is inferior to love. The things that every mother does for her child, are they things that are done from a sense of duty? She ought; but she never touches bottom on ought. She does, because spontaneous love urges it upon her. If that were deficient she would fall down upon another, but inferior, faculty of conscience--“ It is my duty.” A rich man, dying, leaves large properties to be distributed for charitable purposes; and those appointed as trustees and distributors, men of honour and conscientiousness, say: “ This is a good cause; we think we will devote a hundred thousand dollars for that.” It is the fulfilment of a duty that has been laid upon them. But if a man with a great heart, and blessed with large inheritance, looks out on society, and pities the orphans, and builds a home for them, that springs out of his own heart. It is not his duty; it is his desire and wish. So, then, a man may be doing benevolent work as a duty; but it is a very much higher thing to do benevolent work because you are benevolent, and not because it is your duty. 5. In various grades, all these things are acceptable to God and useful; but as in the pictures of a studio there are various grades of excellence, and yet the least may be a good picture, so in the development of the dispositions of Christians there is very low, and there is a little higher, and there is the higher still, and there is the highest level, which men should seek, and on which they should stand. II. On the eve of His departure, Christ said to men who had been living in this lower relation, doing right things, avoiding evil things--doing this from various motives, more or less in bondage, more or less exhorted by duty: “ Henceforth I call you not servants; I CALL YOU FRIENDS. 1. One can see easily how this might take place. In the thrall of poverty and neglect some beneficent heart, meeting with a maiden, sees in her some moral quality that indicates a higher place in life; and it turns out at last that she came of good parents, that they were swept away, that the child went through various hands down to the bottom of society, but that being caught up by this philanthropic missionary, she had responded quickly to moral appeals. Every point in her is susceptible of development; and at every step, coming up, and ministered to little by little, at last there comes a day when the benefactor says: “ Hitherto I have called you my ward; I have been your benefactor; now I love you, and I take you for my own.” How many have found that higher and nobler development of confidence between their souls and their Saviour? 2. We attain to this state of experience, not as the direct result of effort. It is not by prayer. You never can pray it into yourself, although prayer is an excellent thing. It is not by mortification; it is by the power of love, and soul ripening that it is attained. That process differs with different people and in different circumstances. In June the orchard blossoms; but nobody wants to eat blossoms. In early July the germs of the apple and the pear have set, and the blossoms are gone. The work has begun. Now, the first rejoicing that the soul has comes when it just begins the Christian life. Then it has the flush of early love and joy. The growing comes afterward. In early July the apple and the pear have set their germs, they are beginning to grow, and are utterly unfit to eat. In September they have got size that they had not, but are very sour. In October they begin to get colour on their cheeks, but they are hard yet. In November they begin to have sugar in themselves, and they exhale fragrance. Step by step, the fruit from greenness goes on to size, and from size to quality, and from quality to perfect ripeness and harmony. So, largely, is it in Christian life. There is a process constantly going on; and the evidence that there is this tendency toward ripeness is one of the things that should stimulate the hope of our soul. The ripening of men is not a mechanical system, by which we have been awakened, and convicted of sin, and have changed our will and purpose. This ripening does not come because we are joined to God’ s people, and because we are striving, according to the measure of our knowledge in ordinary things, to live about right and fulfil our duties. We have simply ripened so that we have begun to be susceptible; and Christ says: “ Henceforth I call you My love,” and we respond, “ I am my Lord’ s; He is mine.” (H. W. Beecher.) Servants and friends I. AND FRIENDS. All Christ’ s friends are His servants, but all His servants are not therefore His friends. This was perhaps the distinction between Moses and Aaron (Exodus 33:11), You see the difference at once between their characters. In Aaron it was attention to the ministry at the altar, in Moses it was jealousy for the Divine law. In Aaron it was a regard for the defences and pictures of purity and truth, in Moses it was regard for truth and purity themselves. 1. Servants may be quite unconscious of their servitude. The elements are the servants of God. Winds, and vapours, and storms fulfilling His word. Time is His servant, and the ambition of princes; but it is all unconscious servitude. How great the difference between the two Shepherds of God, David and Cyrus! (Isaiah 44:28). Christ made my relationship to Him aconsciousness. 2. Servants have but a passing and transient relationship. The connection is slight and fragile, born in interest. Servants have a divided interest from their masters. How suspicious of him and of their fellows! Friendship would make common cause with the master, and identify both interests in one. Christ spoke in the light of the perpetuity of our relationship. 3. Servants are unable to enter into the meaning of the Master’ s will. “ His ways are not their ways, neither are His thoughts their thoughts.” The soldier is not one of the council of war; but the mind and heart are revealed to the friend. We know words lovelessly pronounced, how cold! words lovingly pronounced, how dear! The same number of letters, but the accent is all. So God speaks to His people with an accent. “ All that My Father hath given Me have I made known to you.” In the thought of this deep intercourse, Christ said, “ I have called you not servants,” etc. 4. Servants may be absolute enemies. How many names are recorded in Scripture of men who were His enemies at last? He used them, while they sought, as Balsam did, to circumvent the Divine purposes. He used them as the builder uses a scaffold or a tool, then to be cast aside as useful no more. In thought of a will made one with His, Christ said, “ Henceforth I call you not servants,” etc. II. LOOK AT THE TO WHICH THE TEXT POINTS. 1. Now it is clear that all along throughout Scripture, its language points to a state of hallowed seclusiveness, in which the soul sees more and feels more, knows more and has more, in highest communion with Christ (1 John 1:3; John 14:22; John 14:28; 1 Corinthians 2:16; 1 John 5:10). There is no fact more stupendously beautiful than this--God loves His friends, and they know it. He crowds all imaginable and all imageable mercies upon their souls, to assure them of His love (Isaiah 63:9). Inthe light of God’ s love to his friends, even nature acquires new majesty. What is more sure and steadfast than the heavens in their daily march, or in their midnight pomp (Jeremiah 33:20-21)? Or, think of the seasons in their annual round (Jeremiah 33:25-26). And hence you see the difference between the two methods of our Lord’ s teaching. He had the parabolical and the real (Luke 10:23; Luke 9:10; Matthew 13:16). For friendship has words which mere acquaintanceship cannot use. And love ever finds new words and new meanings. 2. The doctrine suffers no defect, and does not recoil from the fact of the infinite superiority on one hand, and the infinite inferiority on the other. Such friendships, either in time or eternity, are not impossible. On earth, indeed, real friendship always receives; it is impossible but there must be some benefit on either side. The subject, the friend of the prince, repays the prince in counsel, and in sympathy, more than he receives in honour. And even the heart of the Redeemer owns the Divine light of sympathy with His believing friends. Few joys, to which we can look forward, can equal the hope we have that one day we shall call our boy our friend. I said to a young mother once, congratulating her on her newborn child. “ How proud you will be to take his arm twenty years hence.” Although, alas! the young mother, a few days after, was among the angels. Very beautiful is the friendship between a master and a disciple, when the disciple looks reverently up to the teacher for instruction, and the master looks lovingly down and beholds himself growing anew in his young friend. 3. Servants of God, here is a higher ambition for you. Strive for the peerage, for the dignity of friends! This is the relation that completes the Divine life; this is the highest object of ambition of the friends of God. 4. What hallowed rest is here! Friendship rests. They are not troubled as we are who are only servants. Doubts vanish from the full assurance of love. Talk with them, and they will tell you that all things about them Jesus knows. (Paxton Hood.) Christ our friend Seneca once told a courtier who had lost his son, that he had no cause to mourn, either for that or ought else, because Caesar was his friend. Oh, then, what little cause have the saints to mourn for this or that loss, considering that God is their portion! Would you not laugh to see a man lament bitterly for the loss of his shoestrings when his purse is safe? or for the burning of a pig sty when his dwelling house is safe? and why then should a Christian lament for the loss of this or that, so long as his God is with him? (Thomas Brooks.) The friendship of Jesus When we say of two men that they are friends, we put them down in the same list; but what condescension on the Lord’ s part to be on terms of friendship with a man! Again I say, no nobility is comparable to this. Parmenio was a great general, but all his fame in that direction is forgotten in the fact that he was known as the friend of Alexander. He had a great love for Alexander as a man, whereas others only cared for him as a conqueror and a monarch; and Alexander, perceiving this, placed great reliance upon Parmenio. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The servant and the friend compared and contrasted The whole human race may be divided into two classes, “ Servants” and “ Friends.” All human beings have to do with Christ, and their service must be either that of slaves or of friends. Our Lord here intimates the superiority of the one relationship to the other, and the superiority will be obvious by comparing the relationships together. I. The one is LEGAL, the other is LOVING. The master treats his slave, and the slave treats him, according to legal contract. The servant works by rule, and the master treats him accordingly; the slave lives and works in the letter of the contract. But the service of the friend is irrespective of all prescriptive rules, of all legal arrangements. He does not feel himself to be under the law at all, and although he does more real hard work in the service of his friend than that of the slave in the employ of his master, love is his inspiration, and love is his law. II. The one is WATCHED, the other is TRUSTED. The master keeps his eye upon the slave; he knows that he is not the character to be trusted, here is a mere eye servant. If the contracted work is to be done he is to be kept up to it by force. Not so with the friend; he is thrown upon his love, honour, sense of gratitude and justice. Thus Christ treats His disciples; He does not tell them how much to do, or how to do it. He trusts to their love, knowing that if they love Him they will keep His commandments. This is the true way to treat men--trust them. Thus Dr. Arnold treated his boys at Rugby, and thus all whom Providence has put in authority over men should treat their subordinates, in order to get from them the highest service they can render. III. The one is DISTANT, the other is NEAR. The master keeps his servant at a distance, he stands on his authority, gives out his orders, and insists on their discharge. They live not only in different apartments, but in different mental worlds, Not so with the friend--the friend is near to the heart. An old philosopher defined friendship as the existence of two souls in one body. Thus near are Christ’ s disciples to Him. “ The servant,” He says, “ knoweth not what his Lord doeth … but all things that I do I have made known unto you.” How close and vital the connection!” Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” said God. IV. The one is USED, the other USES. The master uses his slave, uses him as he does a piece of machinery; he has no tender interest in him. All he cares for is what benefits he can extract from his service, the slave is used--used as a beast of burden. But the friend is using. All his services, as atrue friend, answer his own purpose, conduce to his own happiness of soul. He acts from love, and love, like the philosopher’ s stone, turns the commonest things into moral gold, to enrich his own heart. Thus it is with Christ’ s disciples: all their efforts to serve Him serve themselves. “ All things are yours, life, death,” etc. Everything turns to the real use of those who are the friends of Christ. V. The one is COERCED, the other is FREE. The slave is not free in his work; he would not serve his master if he could help it. He is placed under considerations that force him to do his work. But the service of the friend is free, he would not but do what he does, and his desires to render service transcend his abilities. Thus it is with Christ’ s disciples. “ He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” The love of Christ constrains them; they welcome the slightest intimation of duty from their Lord. Conclusion: What is our relationship to Christ--that of servitude or friendship? All must serve Him, either against their will or by their will. The former is the condition of devils, the latter that of holy saints and blessed angels. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Friendship with Jesus When a blind man was asked what he thought the sun to be like, he replied, “ Like friendship.” And truly friendship is a sun, if not the sun, of life. All feel it to be so. Most strange is it that men should wonder that the gospel has not enjoined so good a thing. It needs no injunction. It grows best of itself. It is as unnecessary to command men to cultivate friendship, as to command them to eat and drink. Let us I. LOOK AT THE AND THE GENERAL WHICH THEY EMBODY. 1. Both slavery and friendship represent our relations to our Lord and Saviour. “ For he that is called in the Lord, being a slave, is the Lord’ s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’ s slave.” Freedom and bondage go together, and we are not free till we are bound. Here servitude is the sign of friendship. As inferiors, as creatures, we can be friends of Jesus only “ if we keep His commandments.” 2. When Christ says, “ All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you,” He can mean only all things intended for them, for in the next chapter He remarks, “ I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now.” Their intimacy with Him was progressive. And so now His people pass from one degree of fellowship to another; become less and less slaves, and more and more friends, and the honours and privileges of friendship increase with its spirit. 3. Confidence is the sign of Christ’ s friendship. There are but two essentially different ways of treating men as friends, or as slaves. We must be ruled either by force or by reason; we must be watched or trusted. Selfishness, ignorance, prejudice, fear, tyranny may say, “ Treat him as a slave” ; but reason, love, justice, hope, and all in Christ Jesus, say, “ Treat Him as a friend.” The world is learning this. Severity, though the way to govern men, as Dr. Johnson said, is not the way to mend them, and in the school, the State, the Church, and even the mad house, they are being treated more as friends, and less as slaves. Who knows not that, even among children, not to believe is to excite to falsehood, to be always watching to be sure to prompt to go astray, and want of trust to beget unworthiness? And if it is so with children, it is still more so with men. II. THE BETWEEN SLAVERY AND , AND SHOW THAT CHRIST TREATS US NOT AS SLAVES BUT AS FRIENDS. This is seen 1. In the position which Christ assigns us, and the spirit which He excites within us. Being reconciled, we receive “ not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption.” Thus the state and the temper of slavery are both abolished. We are “ joined unto the Lord” and are “ one spirit” with Him. When John, king of France, lost the battle of Poictiers, though he had been beaten by a force one eighth only of his own, though he himself was taken prisioner, he was overpowered by the courtesy and chivalrous kindness of the Black Prince, his foe, “ the tears burst from his eyes, and mingled with the marks of blood upon his cheeks.” It is thus that God moves the heart. In seeking His high ends, He does not beget a crouching spirit, but treats us generously. And I do not know how the heart of man is to be reached in any other way, how its enmity is to be slain and its love drawn out. 2. In the nature of Christ’ s communications to us. “ The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth,” etc. In like manner God spake of Abraham, His “ friend:” “ Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” (1) It is true of us as of them. Christ has given us information as to what He intends to do, and “ the wise shall understand” ; He has given us notices of His general purposes respecting the world and the Church: not a minute prophetic history, but a grand idea of the destiny of systems and of men. But we have a more glorious revelation than this. In the text Christ means the whole counsel of God’ s will. He had opened to them His mind and heart; and, if they saw but little, the fault was in the eye, not the object. He has entered into frank and friendly communication with us, opened His counsels, explained His objects and His methods, told us His desires and designs, and has thus given us an interest not only in what we do, but in what He does. (2) And if this confidence is seen in what He communicates, it is seen also in what He withholds. A friend is not bound by a clear and particular direction in respect of everything; trust is reposed in him, he has to exercise his own skill and feel his own responsibility. And so, on no subject is the gospel a full rule, except as to principles. If the heart be not right, such a rule would be useless; if it be right, such a rule is unnecessary. When the heart is “ ready to every good work,” a hint will be enough to set all its powers in active and pleasant motion. “ I will guide thee with Mine eye,” says God to His people: that look of God will speak volumes to a friendly heart, and supply its own best motive to obedience. 3. In the manner in which Christ employs us. For the gospel idea of saints is that they are not merely to do His commandments, but to engage in His work, and He attaches the greatest importance to their service. He works out His gracious will on earth by the instrumentality of redeemed men; He puts His Spirit into men, and draws out their powers in grateful, cheerful labour. His object is not only to secure the effects of their service; but as a Father, though needing not His children’ s labour, makes a work to please and honour them. This is seen very striking in the constitution of His Church. Christian Churches are societies of friends. 4. In the extent to which Christ blesses us. No one can look at the gospel and not perceive that it deals with all that believe in the way of the greatest bountifulness. It is not meant to meet a mere necessity, but to gratify our utmost desires and hopes. Are we not treated as friends? III. A FEW OBVIOUS BY WAY OF . If this is Christ’ s friendship 1. Let us realize and rejoice in it. He is more deeply interested in us than we are in ourselves: He wishes our welfare as we have never wished it. Why should we not therefore tell Him our perplexities, trials, gladness? Why should we not pass our life in free and familiar intercourse with Him? Friendship cannot live in an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion. “ He that hath friends must show himself friendly” ; and if Christ confides in us, we must confide in Him. Nothing is more important than our being frank and faithful with Him. As among men, a few honest words may prevent a world of mischief, so with Christ, long seasons of trouble and sin may be prevented by the prompt and ingenious acknowledgment of faults and doubts and difficulties. 2. Let us be worthy of it. There are men not at all remarkable for integrity or gratitude who would feel the force of this claim. The appeal to honour they would respond to, though to all other appeals they would be deaf. Christ makes His appeal to your honour. If He treats you in the way we have indicated, shall it not move you to the utmost zeal to please and glorify Him? Will you abuse His confidence, and answer His grace with gracelessness? Answer His trust with fidelity; His love with obedience. Sin in you is not mere transgression; it is ingratitude, it is sacrilege, it is treachery. 3. Let us imitate Him in our treatment of others. This is the right way, the way most in accordance with human nature. Some, perhaps many, may prove themselves unworthy of it--there was a traitor among Christ’ s friends--but many also will respond to it; or, if they do not, they will not respond to anything. Let it be your method in your treatment of your friends, in the education of children, in the Church. (A. J. Morris.) Christ’ s friendship Friendship is the sweetest wild flower that can be found in the desert soil of a fallen world. There can scarcely be conceived a more forlorn description of a man, than that he is friendless. But man often calls another a friend, and it is but a name; he has sinster ends and selfish motives, which he thus disguises; in the hour of need he proves himself false, and when friends ought most to stand forward, he keeps back. But note I. The REALITY of the friendship of Christ. 1. It is the clearest evidence of friendship, that it will make the greatest sacrifices for a friend. Who can doubt the infinite reality of the friendship of Christ, that traces Him from the throne of heaven to the manger in Bethlehem, from the manger to the cross. “ Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us.” 2. But the reality of friendship is also tested by the confidence and the communion which it extends to the friend. Jesus puts His Spirit into us, and He unites us to Himself. “ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant;” He reveals Himself to them, as He said--“ I will come to you, and I will manifest Myself to you.” 3. But the reality of friendship is further evidenced by the sympathy that it is manifest, in the hour of trial and affliction. That man is not worthy to be my friend, who can be unaffected in my grief, a friend’ s heart should throb with every throb of my heart, and thrill at whatever thrills mine. And where is friendship so real as Christ’ s? “ In all the afflictions of His people, He is afflicted;” “ He is touched with the feeling of their infirmities;” “ Let not your heart be troubled.” 4. It is a further proof of friendship, that the faithful friend will rebuke as well as commend, It is a rare quality, even in Christian friendship; in the friendship of the world, it is hardly known. “ Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” But what friendship gives proof of faithfulness, in comparison with that of Christ? Look at His treatment of Simon Peter. II. ITS . 1. What friend can we find so disinterested as Christ? Without disinterestedness, friendship is a mockery. The man who loves me for some selfish end is not my friend--he is his own. A friend is one who loves my soul, loves me for myself, and would love me forever! He does not love me for what I have, but for what I am. So Jesus loves us. He came to demonstrate His friendship towards us when we were enemies. 2. When shall we find a friend so able as Christ? The love of an earthly friend, however sincere, is often impotent; but there is a Friend sticking closer than a brother,” who knows no perplexity of ours which He cannot resolve--no conflict which He cannot comprehend and sustain under--no tempestuous surges to which He cannot speak the word--“ Peace be still” --no extremity of poverty, or desolation, or bereavement, to which He cannot say, “ Weep not,” and the tear shall be staunched. With Christ as my Friend, if I have the universe for my foes, I smile at them all. 3. There is no friend so faithful as Christ. Faithfulness is the crown of friendship. He whom no slight occasion of offence can alienate, whom no infirmities can revolt, whom no outward circumstances can wean, who loves me in poverty as in wealth, in reproach as in renown, in sickness as in health, in death as in life; He is a friend indeed. There are few such, however, to be found. But where Jesus loves, He loves forever. “ He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Canon Stowell.) Christians the friends of Christ I. A FEW REMARKS THIS . 1. It is really friendship, consisting, not of kindly feelings only, such as we bear towards our ordinary acquaintance, but of a cordial heart-warm love, like that which we have felt towards a few select individals only. 2. It is mutual between our Lord and His people. It is not all on His side, nor all on theirs. To constitute friendship there must be reciprocity. The hearts of Christ and His people are “ knit together in love.” 3. It is His true disciples only who are admitted to His friendship. He has compassion and kindness for all. But still His kindness, great and tender as it is, is not His friendship. He wept over Jerusalem, the city of His enemies--there was His compassion: He has only His dear, faithful disciplesaround Him, when He says here, “ Ye are My friends.” 4. This friendship does not set aside the relation of Master and servant existing between our Lord and His people (John 15:14). Spiritual privileges, however high, never alter our obligations. They never put us out of our proper places, nor remove the exalted Jesus from His. 5. This friendship is in truth a friendship between us and God. It begins with Christ; but it does not terminate with Him. All the love of the Father dwells in Him and embraces us as soon as Christ’ s love embraces us, and soon too we discover this and joyfully embrace the Father in our love. It takes in His Divine nature as well. “ Truly our fellowship is with the Father,” etc. II. THE GROUNDS OF IT. All these may be comprehended in one word--grace; yet we may trace it still to intermediate things, themselves the fruits of this grace. 1. To mutual knowledge. (1) “ I know My sheep, and am known of Mine.” Christ knows their persons, peculiarities, all that can be known of them; all they are to be to Him; and thus, knowing them, He fixes His love on them, draws them to Him, makes them His friends. (2) And there is a knowledge too of Him on their side: “ Whom having not seen ye love.” The Holy Spirit opens the sinner’ s eyes to behold Christ, discovers to Him the glory of His character and the amiableness of it, and enables him to see and feel how worthy Christ is in Himself of His love. “ They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee.” 2. Congeniality. Men may be perfect opposites; but let there be a real friendship between them, and we know that there is much that is common between them. So wherever there is friendship between the soul and Christ, a conformity to Christ has been wrought in that soul. Without it Christ might love the soul with a love of compassion, but not with a love of complacency. And the soul could have without this a little of what we call gratitude, but gratitude is not friendship. The soul must begin to love what Christ loves, to have the same mind that is in Christ and the same heart--then the soul lays hold with its affections on the Saviour and true friendship between them begins. 3. A mutual power of conferring pleasure. I love the man who in any way contributes personally to my happiness, and I love him the most who contributes most to my happiness. Now the Lord Jesus contributes to the happiness of His people. He is precious to their soul, because He is even now their soul’ s satisfaction and rest. On the other hand, “ the Lord taketh pleasure in His people.” His delights are with them.” He rejoices over them, as a father rejoices over a recovered child, or as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride. And this joy, strange as it may seem to us, can be partly explained. What constitutes the Divine happiness? The exercise of the Divine love, and with it the exercise and enjoyment of the other Divine perfections. And where does God so exercise His love, so call into action and display His perfections, as in His people? in their salvation pardon, sanctification, and final blessedness? III. ITS PROOFS. 1. He has made a great sacrifice for His people (John 15:13). 2. He admits His people to His confidence. 3. On our side we should obey His commands (John 15:14). C. Bradley, M. A.) Christ a friend Jonathan Edwards when he came to die, his last words, after bidding his relations good-bye, were--“ Now where is Jesus of Nazareth, my true and never failing Friend?” and so saying he fell asleep. The service of friendship I. CHRIST’ S SERVICE IS A SERVICE OF . 1. The relation between the Lord and His people is that of Master and servants; but the perfect bond of that relation is love to His person. (1) These disciples had hitherto been servants, whose awful sense of their Lord’ s dignity had never yet been quickened into the ardour of personal devotion that He desired. “ Henceforth” --after they had received into their inmost souls the self-sacrifice of Christ in laying down His life for them--they added perfect love to perfect homage. Servants they termed themselves to the end; but from that time one spoke for the rest the common sentiment, “ We love Him, for He first loved us.” (2) In every Christian there is the same “ henceforth.” Until the hour of the manifestation of the personal Saviour comes, we can neither perfectly love nor serve Him. But when the Son of God is revealed in us, then, “ Whether we live we live unto the Lord,” etc. The love of God is “ then” shed abroad in our hearts. 2. Our interest in the Saviour’ s work is when made perfect that of friendship. He shares His counsels with us, not as being His servants only, but as being His friends. (1) Before the “ henceforth” the disciples’ thought of His work was that of servants who know not what their Lord doeth. When He spoke to them of the vast designs He came to accomplish, they were like men that dreamed. When, however, He had died, and the Holy Spirit shed His light upon the Redeemer’ s passion, their minds entered into the infinite Secret and made it their own. (2) This is, in a sense, the dignity and privilege of all believers. They enter into the fellowship, not only of the Saviour’ s death and resurrection, but of His government also. “ Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do” expresses the spirit of our Lord’ s dealings with His friends. His language is not “ Go and do this for Me,” so much as “ Come and let us do it together.” 3. The principle that animates true Christian service is that of the truest love. (1) These disciples before that “ henceforth” had done their Master’ s will from a lower impulse: sometimes from fear, ambition, or reward. “ What shall we have?” But when they went forth to their duty after the baptism of Pentecost, we trace no other constraint but that of love. (2) And so it is with us if our devotion is made perfect. We are indeed servants still; but the commanding energy of duty is always and only love. II. The counterpart of this truth. Their friendship must not degenerate into licence or presumption: it must be the OF SERVICE. He who knew what was in man knew what would be the danger of His friends; and with exquisite tenderness shows what their peril would be and how they should effectually guard against it. 1. There is an everlasting distinction between the Redeemer and His people in their mutual friendship. (1) This word in the language of men implies, generally speaking, a certain equality, and thus it is in some affecting respects between Christ and His friends. But still the eternal distinction remains. “ He chose us.” Though in His union with our humanity, He is one with our race. He never ceases to be God. Though He came down from heaven to make us His friends He is still the Son of Man which is in heaven. Hence the profound reverence which is stamped on their every allusion to His person. He called them not servants: they called themselves by no other name. (2) In this they are examples to us. We must enter into their feelings of reverence, while cherishing the warmest personal love towards Him. “ He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him.” “ Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well:” which reminds us that we say well when we keep our language free from endearing epithets. 2. As on the one hand our interest in Christ’ s work must be that of friends, so on the other we must remember that we are entirely dependent on Him for the best ability in His service. Human friends are mutually serviceable; but in this heavenly relation we have nothing that we did not receive. “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” “ I can do all things through Christ.” 3. The Lord guards our sentiments of love and delight in His service by the solemn intimation that His disciples are under probation for the blessedness of His present and final friendship (John 15:14). Conclusion: The two leading terms of the text point to two prevalent errors in religion. 1. There is a religion which is a service without love, which regards the Lord as only an austere man. 2. There is also a religion which is too full of a baseless confidence in Christ. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) John 15:16 Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you Christian discipleship I. ITS ORIGIN. 1. Negatively. “ Ye have not chosen Me.” This is true, both in regard to election unto salvation and election unto office. Christ no more chooses us because we have first chosen Him, than He loves us because we have first loved Him. He makes His universal offer of mercy; we close with it, and are elected. He says, “ Whom shall I send?” We have to say, “ Here am I; send me.” “ Choose ye this day whom ye will serve” was addressed to the chosen people. 2. Positively. The Divine choice which originates our discipleship (1) Is not arbitrary. Those are chosen for salvation who evince the qualifications for receiving salvation. “ Chosen … through belief of the truth.” In regard to office, the apostles were the choice men of their race, as is seen in their after careers. Christ chose for His work Peter and Paul, rather than Caiaphas or Gamaliel, because they were immeasurably better men. Appearances and circumstances go for nothing, as is seen in God’ s choice of David. So today Christ chooses with reference to fitness. There were more brilliant men at Oxford; but when God wanted a man for Africa He went to a factory and chose Livingstone. 2. May he frustrated. Judas was chosen, and the traitor had elements about him which would have made him a prince amongst the apostles. Election is not indelible in regard either to nations or individuals. Israel was chosen because of unique racial qualities, but was rejected because those qualities were abused. England has been chosen; may she be faithful. As for us, however distinguished the office we hold, let us not be high-minded, but fear. “ Let him that thinketh he standeth,” etc. II. ITS . “ Ordained you.” 1. Designation for the work. This is a Divine prerogative. Sometimes it is voiced by the appointment of the Church. Sometimes, alas! not. No human authority, however august, can validate an appointment that has not been ratified in heaven. Let all Church officers note this. Often the clearest Divine designation is apparent where there has been no human sanction. 2. Qualification. Whom Christ ordains He qualifies. This may be independent of human qualifications, or it may include them. There are posts for which Christ ordains a man where they would be in the way. There are others where they are imperative. In the latter case He works in us the desire to amass learning, eloquence, etc., and sanctifies these and other gifts to the accomplishment of His purposes. III. ITS WORKS. 1. “ That ye should go and bring forth fruit” in two senses. (1) In the graces of personal character; because these are often the means of successful evangelism, and without them a man in the highest office is but a “ sounding brass,” etc. (2) In conversions to God. This is the grand outcome of all spiritual ministries. 2. “ That your fruit should remain.” (1) Of what value are the “ fruits of the Spirit” unless permanent? Of what value is faith if tomorrow we are unbelieving? Of love if it alternates with hatred? Of joy if it is drowned in despondency? etc. (2) Of what value to a Church are converts unless they “ remain” ? The curse of modern times is great ingatherings, followed by great failings away. IV. ITS . Prayer 1. Keeps alive our sense of the Divine choice, and maintains our position as chosen ones. 2. Augments our personal and official qualifications. “ Without Me ye can do nothing.” “ I can do all things through Christ,” etc. 3. Ensures abiding success in our work. (J. W. Burn.) That ye should go and bring forth fruit The fruit 1. Fruitfulness is the great end of God’ s ordinances in the vegetable kingdom. It is the focus into which all the various secondary purposes of nature are concentrated. And is it not so in the kingdom of grace? For the fruitfulness of those who love God the whole material system of the earth is upheld; and the whole spiritual world exists and revolves on its axis, that the harvest of spiritual life may be produced in the Church and in the believer. 2. But while fruitfulness is the great end of vegetable life, there are some plants in which this quality is of more importance than in others. It is necessary that every plant should bring forth fruit in order to propagate itself; but, besides this, some plants confer benefits upon the rest of creation by means of their fruit. Like the cow, which produces more milk than its progeny needs; and the bee, which stores a larger quantity of honey than it requires; the vine produces a fruit whose exceptional excess of nourishness is intended for the use of man. Fruit is not so important to the vine itself as it is to man. We grow some plans in order to produce seed; but we can perpetuate the vine by slips, and, therefore, we grow it solely to supply man’ s wants. 3. Apart from its fruit, the vine is, indeed, a beautiful plant; but this is subordinate to the one great purpose of producing grapes: and did it cease to produce fruit it would be condemned as a failure. It was for the sake of the fruit of salvation--the redemption of a fallen world--that God cultivated His own Son by the sufferings which He endured. And as with the Vine Himself, so with the branches. The Husbandman of souls grafts these branches in the Vine for the special purpose of producing spiritual fruit; and if this result does not follow, no mere natural beauty or grace will compensate. And so Christ speaks as if in the bringing forth of fruit was summed up all duty and privilege. God’ s glory is the chief end of man; but “ Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.” God requires of us to believe in Christ; but faith is the root of fruitfulness. Faith and fruit are not distinct; but, on the contrary, the same thing at different periods of existence; just as the fruit of autumn is the seed of spring, and vice versa. God desires our highest happiness; but our highest happiness is indissolubly linked together with our fruitfulness. No man can have a continual feast of gladness who is barren and unfruitful. And here we come to the great outstanding question I. WHAT IS THE REAL OF FRUIT? 1. The fruit of a plant is simply an arrested and metamorphosed branch. The bud of a plant which, under the ordinary laws of vegetation, would have elongated into a leafy branch, remains, in a special case, shortened, and develops finally, according to some regular law, blossom and fruit instead. Its further growth is thus stayed; it has attained the end of its existence; its life terminates with the ripe fruit that drops off to the ground. In producing blossom and fruit, therefore, a branch sacrifices itself, yields up its own individual vegetative life for the sake of another life that is to spring from it, and to perpetuate the species. Every annual plant dies when it has produced blossom and fruit every individual branch in a tree which corresponds with an annual plant also dies when it has blossomed and fruited. Fruit trees are the most short-lived of all trees; and cultivated fruit trees are less vigorous in growth, and do not last so long as the wild varieties. Producing larger and more abundant fruit than is natural, they necessarily so much the more exhaust their vital energies. Every blossom is a Passion flower. The sign of the cross, which superstitious eyes saw in one mystical flower, the enlightened eye sees in every blossom that opens to the summer sun. The great spiritual principle which every blossom shadows forth is--self-sacrifice. And is it not most instructive to notice that it is in this self-sacrifice of the plant that all its beauty comes out and culminates? 2. And is it not so in the kingdom of grace? Christian fruit is an arrestment and transformation of the branch in the True Vine. Instead of growing for its own ends, it produces the blossoms of holiness and the fruits of righteousness for the glory of God and the good of men. The Christian life begins in self-sacrifice. We can bring forth no fruit that is pleasing to God until, besought by His mercies, we yield ourselves a living sacrifice to Him. And in this self-sacrifice all the beauty of the Christian life comes out and culminates. The life that lives for another, in so doing bursts into flower, and shows its brightest hues, and yields its sweetest fragrance. All given to Christ is received back a hundredfold. Have we not seen the glory of self-sacrifice ennobling even the aspect of the countenance, the expression of the eye, the carriage of the form, making the plainest and homliest face beautiful and heroic? II. IT IS FRUIT AND NOT WORKS THAT THE . 1. Work and fruit are contrasted in a very striking manner at the close of Gal 5:1-26;--“ the works of the flesh” --“ the fruit of the Spirit.” This contrast is very instructive. Works bear upon them the curse of Adam. They are wrought in the sweat of the brow and in the sweat of the soul. All that a natural man does comes under the category of works. And even in the case of believers, some things which they do are works, because they are the result of a legal and servile spirit. Such works are only like those of a manufacturer, which display his skill and power, but do not reveal character. You cannot tell what kind of a man he is who makes your furniture from his productions. You may be able to say that he is a clever workman, but not that he is a wise, a good, or an upright man. But fruit, on the other hand, is the spontaneous natural manifestation of the life within. The soul that has the life and the love of Christ in it cannot help producing fruit. Fruit is the free, unrestrained outpouring of a heart at peace with God, filled with the love of Christ, and stimulated by the presence, and power of the Holy Spirit. The curse is removed from it. It brings back the pure and innocent conditions of Eden. The whole man is displayed in it, as the whole life of the tree is gathered into and manifested in its fruit. By their fruit we know believers as well as trees. 2. It is fruit that Christ wants, not works; because it is the free will offering of a heart of love, not the constrained service of fear or of law, and because He studies the individual character and regulates His discipline according to individual requirements. If works were what He desired, He could order Christians in the mass to do them, caring nothing for any one of them in particular. But, in order to produce fruit, His sap must flow to, His personal influence must reach, the smallest twig, the humblest individual that yields it. 3. How significant in the light of this idea is the reward promised--“ a crown of life.” It is not an arbitrary reward from without, but the fruit of their own efforts--a living crown, the crown of their own life. It is with us as it is with some mountains whose deepest or primary formations appear on the summit, which are not mere masses laid in dead weight upon the surface of the earth, but the protrusion of their own energies. So we are crowned with the deepest and most essential part of our own life. Our highest summit is our deepest foundation. Our crown of life is that which we ourselves have formed, and which passes through our own being. Heaven is the fruit of what we have sown, the living crown of the life that we have lived. III. IT IS FRUIT AND NOT FRUITS, WHICH THE BRANCH IN THE TRUE VINE . The “ fruit” of the Spirit is not so many apples growing on separate twigs and having no organic connection except as produced by the same tree. It is a bunch of grapes, all growing from one stalk and united to each other in the closest manner. Each grace is, as it were, a separate berry, connected with the others by organic ties, and forming a complete cluster. It should be the Christian’ s endeavour, therefore, that the whole cluster should appear--each grape full formed and in due proportion to the rest. IV. IT IS , AND NOT EARTHLY, FRUIT THAT THE DEMANDS. 1. The fruits of Egypt were melons and cucumbers, grown close to the earth; while its vegetables were leeks, onions, and garlic, which are not fruits at all, but roots. It is such low earth-born fruits that the natural man produces, and for which alone he has a relish. All his tendencies and labours are earthward. The cucumber and the melon are climbing plants by nature; they have tendrils to raise them up among the trees, but they are cultivated on the ground, and therefore their tendrils are useless. So every man has tendrils of hopes and aspirations that were meant to raise him above the world, but he perverts them from their proper purpose, and they run among earthly things utterly wasted. In marked contrast with the earth-borne fruits of Egypt were the fruits of the Holy Land. It is a mountainous country, on which everything is lifted above the world. The people went literally, as well as spiritually, up from Egypt to Palestine, up to God’ s house. Its fruits were grown on trees, raised up from the ground and ripening in the pure air and bright sunshine of heaven. Believers are risen with Christ. They are not merely elevated a little, but are raised to being fruits in the sky. V. THE FRUIT OF THE LIFE IS . “ That your fruit should remain.” 1. In spring, when the blossoms have withered and fallen off, a large proportion of these blossoms leave behind young fruits that have actually set. These fruits grow fur a few weeks, acquire shape, become tinted with colour, cheat the eye with the hope of a rich harvest of ripe and full-formed fruit in autumn. But, alas! ere long, they wither and fall. And is it not so with the fruits which unsanctified man produces? They are beautiful in blossom; they minister to his self-glorification and enjoyment; they delude him with fair promises; but they never come to maturity and abide. They are fruits that set, but do not ripen. On every brow we see care planting his wrinkles--bare, wintry branches, whose stem is rooted in the heart, from which have fallen, one after another, the fairest fruits of life, and which, through future springs and summers, will bear no more leaves or fruit. 2. But in contrast with all the passing and perishing fruits of earth, we have the abiding fruits of righteousness. It is the glorious distinction of the fruit which Christ enables us to produce that it endures. How literally were these words fulfilled in the case of the disciples themselves! Of all the works of all the men who were living eighteen hundred years ago, what is remaining now? But twelve poor uneducated peasants went forth, and where is the fruit of their labours? Look around! And what is thus true of the glorious fruit of the disciples, is also true of the humblest fruit of the humblest Christian. What has been done for God cannot be lost or forgotten. As the Tree upon which the Christian is grafted as a branch is the Tree of Life, so the fruit that he brings forth when nourished by its sap is “ fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” VI. IN THE GRAPE THERE ARE TWO PARTS, THAT SERVE TWO --there is a fleshy, or succulent part, and there are the seeds embedded in the core, or interior. 1. The fleshy part is for nourishment; the seeds are intended to perpetuate the plant. And so every fruit of the Spirit contains these two parts--holiness and usefulness. Personal holiness is the succulent nourishing portion, delighting God and man; and embedded in it is the seed of usefulness. An earnest desire to extend the blessings of the gospel is an invariable result of their true enjoyment. What the soul has received it would communicate. 2. There are cases in nature in which the fruit swells and becomes, to all appearance, perfect, while no seeds are produced. Seedless oranges and grapes are often met with. And is there not good cause to fear that too much of what is called Christian fruit contains no seed with the embryo spark of life in it, although it may seem fair and perfectly formed? What should go to develop the seed of righteousness for others is diverted to the production of greater self-righteousness and self-indulgence. Many Christians are satisfied with enjoying themselves spiritual blessings which they ought to communicate to others. They are pampered in the selfish use of privileges and means of grace. Moreover, it is necessary that the fruit should have pulp as well as seed; that the perpetuating principle of righteousness should be imbedded in all that is lovely, and amiable, and of good report. The fruits of some Christians are harsh and hard as the wild hips on the hedges--all seed and no luscious pulp. They are zealous in recommending religion to others, while they do not exhibit the amenities of it themselves. (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Fruit bearing The wonder of fruit growing. What nature does, men and women and children are to do. Lives are to be fruitful lives. This what those of the apostles were. Results of their labours. The fruit remains. Different kinds of moral and spiritual fruit. I. THOSE HARMFUL OR USELESS. 1. Crab apples and sour cherries, emblems of crabbed tempers, sour looks, and general disagreeableness. Cross temper. Sour temper. Sharp temper. Spiteful temper. Surly temper. Fretful temper. 2. Poison berries. Fair seeming, but death within. Selfishness. Hatred. Falsehood. Revenge. Hypocrisy. False friendship. 3. Hips and haws. Disorder. Idleness. Procrastination. II. GOOD FRUITS. Don’ t grow by accident. Faith the root. Cultivated. 1. Loving obedience and goodness at home. 2. Kindness, brightness, cheerfulness. 3. Prayerfulness. 4. Consecration. 5. Attendance on means of grace. 6. Work for others. Such fruits remain in their effects, influence, and blessedness. Those that he planted in the house of the Lord, etc. (Preacher’s Monthly.) Continuance the test of religious profession 1. There are few things which, as we grow older, impress us more deeply than the transitoriness of thoughts and feelings. Places and persons that we once thought we never could forget, as years go on are all but quite forgotten; and so with feelings. And there is no respect in which this is more sadly felt than in the case of pious feelings and holy resolutions. We often think sadly of those whose goodness was like the morning cloud and the early dew. We sometimes fear lest we have been deluding ourselves with the belief that we were better and safer than we ever have been, and mourn for the soul-refreshing views, the earnest purpose, the warm affections, of the days when we first believed in Christ. 2. No doubt, by the make of our being, as we grow older, we grow less capable of emotion. Religion in the soul, after all, is a matter of fixed choice and resolution, of principle rather than of feeling. And yet it remains a great and true principle, that in the matter of Christian faith and feelings, that which lasts longest is best. This, indeed, is true of most things. The worth of anything depends much upon its durability. It is not the gaudy annual we value most, but the stedfast forest tree. The slight triumphal arch, run up in a day, may flout the sober-looking buildings near it; but they remain after it is gone. The fairest profession, the most earnest labours, the most ardent affection for a time, will not suffice. That only is the true fruit of the Spirit, which does not wear out with advancing time. The text hints to us that it is even a harder thing to keep up a consistent Christian profession--year after year, through temptations, through troubles--than to make it, however fairly, at the first. I. IT IS ONLY BY OUR FRUIT THAT WE ARE IN THAT IT IS THE RIGHT FRUIT. The only satisfactory proof, either to ourselves or to others, that our Christian faith, and hope, and charity, are the true fruits of the Spirit is that they last. In religion, the fruit which “ remains” is the only fruit. Anything else is a pretender. Herein is a point of difference between worldly and spiritual things. It would not be just to say that things which wear out have no value. Who shall say that the flower which blooms in the morning and withers before the sunset is not a fair and kind gift of the Creator? Who shall affirm that the summer sunset is not beautiful, though even while we gaze upon it its hues are fading? Who shall deny that there is something precious in the lightsome glee of childhood, even though in a little while that cheerful face is sure to be shadowed by the cares of manhood? Indeed, the beauty and value of many things in this world are increased by the shortness of the time for which they last. But it is not thus with Christian grace. If it be not a grace which will last forever, it is no grace at all. A man may show every appearance of being a true disciple; but if his zeal wanes and expires, if the throne of grace is deserted, the Bible neglected, and the little task of Christian philanthropy abandoned, how much reason there is then to fear lest the man was deceiving himself with a name to live while he was dead--that he was mistaking the transient warmth of mere human emotion for the gracious working of the Holy Spirit of God! II. “ FRUIT WHICH REMAINS” IS THE ONLY KIND OF WHICH WILL TO THOSE WHO ARE NOT . Men judge of religion by the conduct and character of its professors. And just as a humble, consistent believer is a letter of recommendation of Christianity to all who know him, just so is the inconsistent believer’ s life a something to make them doubt whether religion be a real thing, and not a mere matter of profession and pretence. No one but God can tell how much harm is done by the Christian who, in his newborn zeal, disdains the quiet faith of old disciples who have long walked consistently, but whose zeal passes like the morning cloud and the early dew. Oh! far better the modest fruit of the Spirit, which makes little show at first, but which remains year after year. Conclusion: The same power which implanted the better life within must keep it alive day by day; the continual working of the Spirit must foster the fruits of the Spirit; and that Spirit is to be had for the asking in fervent, humble prayer. Let us watch against the first symptoms of declension in religion; remember that spiritual decline begins in the closet; guard against that worldly spirit which is always ready to creep over us; seek to walk by faith, and not by sight; be diligent in the use of all the appointed means of grace, and vigilant in guarding against every approach of temptation; and seek to have our loins girt and our lamps burning, as those who do not know how soon or suddenly the Bridegroom may come. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) Religious permanence Think of the Speaker Himself! He is near unto His end. Will He indeed remain? Listen to the angry roar of the multitude, “ Away with Him!” If an artist of that age had been asked to put on fresco the permanent, would he have chosen “ the Christ” ? He might have selected the emperor, or Jerusalem’ s marble temple; but he would scarcely have selected the Saviour when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. But our Lord Himself? Did He not know the secret of permanence? Full well we know His thoughts. “ I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto Me.” “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” The same spiritual permanence He would see in all His professed disciples. Let them but abide in Him, and then the branch would be as the vine I Fruit is to remain I. IN . Religion is founded on the permanence of the moral nature. It lays hold on the eternally right and true within us. Religion without principle is but a Jonah’ s gourd. There may be beauty in our life, but there must be strength, or the beauty itself will be but the hectic flush of consumption. Think of a divine teacher who had to suit his thesis of virtue to education or country! No! His virtue was Sinai etherealized and glorified, but it was the same virtue. Christ has made morality living and real. His principles will live on in every age. None can displace them until men have denied the conscience within them. His words still are spirit, still are life. Thus, then, if we are Christians, we shall be firm and strong in moral principle. Ours will be no sentimental life. II. IN . We are so to live that others may gather fruit from our lives when we are gone. We say Milton lives, and Baxter, and Pascal. True. The lustre of noble words and beautiful deeds lingers on, yea, even brightens with time. But the humblest life also lives on in the future years. The permanent influence is not that of the mere orator, thinker, or theologian. Brilliant epochs do not make lives. It is easy to fulfil special tasks, to enter upon some memorable struggle with all eyes fixed upon us. It is difficult in daily life, amid the distraction of little things, to be faithful, patient, earnest unto the end. III. IN FEELING. The emotional nature is not to be crushed, or even relegated to an inferior place. No life is beautiful that is a stranger to tenderness or tears. But unless the heart keeps alive affection, all else will suffer; for we were made to love, and our influence will cease if that dies out. Why should emotion be a transient thing, to be apologized for or treated with affected criticism as unmanly? Christ was moved with compassion. Feeling should be permanent. Why not? We need not exhaust it by stimulants, nor mortgage the emotion of tomorrow by drawing upon its exchequer today. Within us all there ought to be a nature which the Divine memories of the gospel always touch with tenderness. IV. IN ACTIVE . As flowers retire into themselves at eventide, so too often do men and women. There is lassitude or languor not born of physical weakness, but of mental ennui, which too often comes in the evening of life. It is a characteristic of a true Christian faith that it vivifies all eras of life. For there can be no preserved sanctities of service where there is no delight in the dear old ways, no true fountains of joy in God. When men lose interest, you cannot quicken their energy. Appeal will not do it, nor arguments, nor firmness of will. A regiment in which there are grey-headed soldiers is likely to have enduring men in it; and a Christian army in which the veterans do not tire is not only a beautiful spectacle, but constitutes a brave contingent for the war. V. . (W. M. Statham.) John 15:17 These things I command you that ye love one another (see John 15:12) Love in the Christian system The work is all love: love in its hidden source the love of the Father; in its first manifestation, the love of Christ; and lastly, in its full outpouring, the love of believers for each other. Love is its root, its stem, its fruit. It forms the essential characteristic of the new kingdom, whose power and conquests are owing solely to the contagion of love. This is why our Lord left no other law but that of love to those who had by faith become members of His body. (F. Godet, D. D.) Brotherly love As the spokes of a carriage wheel approach their centre, they approach each other: so also, when men are brought to Jesus Christ, the centre of life and hope, they are drawn towards each other in brotherly relationship, and stand side by side journeying to their heavenly home. (J. F.Serjeant.) Christian love When a rose bud is formed, if the soil is soft, and the sky is genial, it is not long before it bursts; for the life within is so abundant, that it can no longer contain it all, but in blossomed brightness and swimming fragrance it must needs let forth its joy, and gladden all the air. And if, when thus ripe, it refused to expand, it would quickly rot at heart, and die. And Christian love is just piety with its petals fully spread, developing itself, and making it a happier world. The religion which fancies that it loves God, when it never evinces love to its brother, is not piety, but a poor mildewed theology, a dogma with a worm in the heart. (J. Hamilton, D. D.) John 15:18-25 If the world hate you Kosmos: unregenerate humanity is here presented. I. AS GLOWING WITH HATE. 1. It was a hatred of goodness. To hate the mean, the selfish, the false, the dishonest, and morally dishonourable would be right. But evil was not the object of their hatred. (1) It was good as embodied in the life of Christ. “ It hated Me before it hated you.” How deep, burning, persistent, and cruelly operative was this enmity from Bethlehem to Calvary. (2) It was good as reflected in His disciples. Just so far as they imbibed and reflected the Spirit of Christ were they hated. “ For My name’ s sake.” 2. It was a hatred developed in persecution. It was not a hatred that slumbered in a passion or that went off even in abusive language, it prompted the infliction of the greatest cruelties. The history of true Christians in all ages has been a history of persecution. 3. It was a hatred without a just reason. “ Without a cause.” Of course they had a “ cause.” The doctrines of goodness clashed with their deep rooted prejudices, its policy with their daily procedure, its eternal principles flashed on their consciences and exposed their wickedness. But their “ cause” was the very reason why they ought to have loved Christ. Christ knew and stated the cause of the hatred (John 15:19). 4. It was a hatred forming a strong reason for brotherly love amongst the disciples. Christ begins His forewarning them of it by urging them to love one another (John 15:17). As your enemies outside of you are strong in their passionate hostility towards you, be you compactly welded together in mutual love. Unity is strength. II. AS LOADED WITH (John 15:22). These words must, of course, be taken in their comparative sense. Before He came amongst them the guilt of their nation had been augmenting for centuries, and they had been, filling up the measure of their iniquities. But great as was their sin before He came it was trifling compared to it now since His advent amongst them. 1. Had He not come they would not have known the sin of hating Him. Hatred towards the best of beings, the incarnation of goodness, is sin in its most malignant form, it was the culmination of human depravity. But had they not known Him they could not have hated Him, the heart is dead to all objects outside the region of knowledge. 2. Had He not come they would not have rejected Him. “ He came to His own and His own received Him not.” The rejection of Him involved the most wicked folly, the most heartless ingratitude, the most daring impiety. “ If they which despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two witnesses,” etc. 3. If He had not come they would not have crucified Him. What crime on the long black catalogue of human wickedness is to be compared to this? Conclusion: 1. Good men accept the moral hostility of the unregenerate world. Your great Master taught you to accept it. It is in truth a test of your character and an evidence of your Christliness. 2. Nominal Christians read your doom. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The world The children of this world as distinguished from the children of God. Called the world as indicating number, confederacy, and spirit. Three characteristics. I. BY SENSE. II. LIVING FOR THE PRESENT. III. RULED BY THE AND CUSTOMS OF MEN. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The world The world of John’ s day we know, as to its actual condition, from other sources. Let anyone turn over the pages of Tacitus, Martial, or Persius, and what he learns will put “ colour” into John’ s outlines: nay, one dare not say, “ turn over their pages,” for some of them can scarcely be read without hurt by the saintliest living. The same “ world” --at heart--we still find in the present century, under modern conditions. It has grown in wealth. It has become civilized and refined. Law has become a mightier thing. The glory of science was never half so radiant. But, looking close in, we still find the old facts--a dislike of God and love of sin, pride and self-sufficiency, a godless and selfish use of things men “ hating one another,” selfishness fighting selfishness--an infinite mass of misery. Look beyond the borders of comfort and respectability, and think of what exists today round about us. Think of the unblest poverty that is growing side by side with enormous wealth and luxury, associated in many cases with vice and crime, crushing the spirit in ways that comfortable people cannot understand, and frequently aggravated by the temper in which it is borne, and by added evils which do not properly belong to it. Think of the ignorance that has grown to such proportions under the very shadow of our schools and churches. (J. Culross, D. D.) Sheep among wolves 1. These words strike a discord in the midst of sweet music. The keynote of all that has preceded has been love, and just because it binds the disciples to Christ in a sacred community, it separates them from those who do not share in His life, and hence there result two communities--the Church and the World; and the antagonism between these is perpetual. 2. Our Lord is here speaking with special reference to the apostles, who were “ sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” If we may trust tradition, every one of that little company died a martyr’ s death, with the exception of John. But there is no more reason for restricting the force of these words to the hearer,, than there is for restricting any of the rest of this discourse. I. WHAT MAKES THIS ? Our Lord here prepares His hearers for what is coming by putting it in the gentle form of an hypothesis. The frequency with which “ if” occurs in this section is rely remarkable, but the tense of the original shows us that, whilst the form is hypothetical, the substance of it is prophetic. Jesus points to two things which make this hostility inevitable. 1. If we share Christ’ s life, we must necessarily, in some measure, share His fate (verse 18). He is the typical example of what the world thinks of, and does to, goodness. And all who have the spirit of life which was in Jesus Christ will come under the same influences which carried Him to the cross. In a world like this it is impossible for a man to “ love righteousness and hate iniquity,” and to order his life accordingly, without treading on somebody’ s corns. 2. And then (verse 19), there are two bands, and the fundamental principles that underlie each are in deadly antagonism. We stand in diametrical opposition in thought about God, self, duty, life, death, the future; and that opposition goes right down to the bottom of things, and, however it may be covered over, there is a gulf, as in some of those American cations: the towering banks may be very near--but a yard or two seems to separate them; but they go down for thousands and thousands of feet, and never get any nearer each other, and between them at the bottom a black, sullen river flows. If the world loves you it is because ye are of it. II. HOW THIS IS MASKED AND . 1. There are a great many bonds that unite men together besides religion or its absence. There are the domestic ties, the associations of commerce and neighbourhood, surface identities of opinion. We have all the same affections and needs, do the same sort of things. So there is a film of roofing thrown over the gulf. You can make up a crack in a wall with plaster after a fashion, and it will hide the solution of continuity that lies beneath. But, let bad weather come, and the bricks gape apart as before. And so, as soon as we get down below the surface of things and come to grapple with real, deep-lying, and formative principles of a life, we come to antagonism. 2. Then the world has got a dash of Christianity into it. Thus Christian men and others have, to a large extent, a common code of morality, as long as you keep on the surface; and do a great many things from substantially the same motives. And thus the gulf is partly bridged over; and so the hostility takes another form. We do not wrap Christians up in pitch and stick them up for candles in the emperor’ s garden nowadays, but the same thing can be done in different ways. Newspaper articles, the light laugh of scorn, the whoop of exultation over the failures or faults of any prominent man that has stood out boldly on Christ’ s side; all these indicate what lies below the surface, and sometimes not so very far below. Many a young man in a warehouse, trying to live a godly life, many a workman, commercial traveller, student, has to find out that there is a great gulf between him and the man that sits close to him; and that he cannot be faithful to his Lord and at the same time down to the depths of his being a friend of one who has no friendship to his Master. 3. And again the world has a conscience that responds to goodness, though grumblingly. After all, men do know that it is better and wiser to be like Christ, and that cannot but modify to some extent the manifestations of the hostility. But it is there all the same. Let a man for Christ’ s sake avow unpopular beliefs, let him boldly seek to apply Christian principles to the fashionable and popular sins of his class or of his country, and what a chorus will be yelping at his heels! The law remains still, if any man will be a friend of the world he is at enmity wish God. III. HOW YOU MAY ESCAPE THE . A half-Christianized world and a more than half-secularised Church get on well together. And it is a miserable thing to reflect that about the average Christianity of this generation there is so very little that does deserve the antagonism of the world. Why should the world care to hate a professing Church, large tracts of which are only a bit of the world under another name? If you want to escape the hostility drop your flag, button your coat over the badge that shows that you belong to Christ, and do the thing that the people round about you do, and you will have a perfectly easy and undisturbed life. Of course, a Christianity that winks at commercial immoralities is very welcome on the exchange, a Christianity that lets beer barrels alone may reckon upon having publicans for its adherents, a Christianity that blesses flags and sings Te Deums over victories will get its share of the spoil. If the world can put a hook in the nostrils of leviathan, and make him play with its maidens, it will substitute good nature, half contemptuous, for the hostility which our Master here predicts. Christian men and woman I be you sure that you deserve the hostility which my text predicts. IV. HOW TO MEET THIS . 1. Reckon it as a sign and test of our true union with Jesus Christ. Let us count the reproach of Christ as a treasure to be proud of, and to be guarded. 2. Be sure that it is your goodness, and not your evils or your weakness, that men dislike. The world has a very keen eye, and it is a good thing that it has, for the faults of professing Christians. Many bring down a great deal of deserved hostility upon themselves and of discredit upon Christianity; and then they comfort themselves and say they are bearing the reproach of the Cross. Not a bit of it. Be you careful for this, that it is Christ in you that men turn from, and not you yourself and your weakness and sin. 3. Meet this antagonism by not dropping your standard one inch. If you begin to haul it down where are you going to stop? Nowhere, until you have got it draggling in the mud at your foot. It is no use trying to conciliate by compromise. All that we shall gain by that will be indifference and contempt. 4. Meet hostility with unmoved, patient, Christ-like, and Christ-derived love and sympathy. The patient sunshine pours upon the glaciers and melts the thick-ribbed ice at last into sweet water. The patient sunshine beats upon the mist clouds and breaks up its edges and scatters it at the last. And our Lord here tells us that our experience, if we are faithful to Him, will be like His experience, in that some will hearken to our word though others will persecute, and to some our testimony will come as a message from God that draws them to the Lord Himself. The only conqueror of the world is the love that was in Christ breathed through us. The only way to overcome the world’ s hostility is by turning the world into a church. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) John 15:19 If ye were of the world the world, would love his own The pedigree and position of true men I. THE OF TRUE MEN. 1. They were once in the world. That world is characterized by (1) Practical athiesm. They who make it up are without God, if not avowedly, at least in spirit, conduct and aim. (2) Imperial materialism. They have no practical recognition of a spiritual universe, relationship, obligation. They walk after the flesh, and seek their happiness, wealth, dignity in earthly things. (3) Dominant selfishness. Each one is governed by selfish interests. These are the goal towards which their steps are directed; the idol they worship. 2. They have been brought out of the world by Christ. No one but Christ can bring men out of such a state. Philosophy, civilization, natural religion are powerless. Christ penetrates men with the idea of the true God. He draws the curtain of materialism and reveals the spiritual world. He destroys selfishness and constrains men with His own love. This work is represented by an emancipation, regeneration, resurrection, creation--and none of these words are too strong. II. THE OF TRUE MEN. They are rendered repugnant to the world by Christ. 1. The hatred of the world to true men is of the same kind as that which Christ experienced. The forms of persecution change, but the spirit remains. If it is prevented from mangling the body, it will mangle the reputation. 2. Then hatred is for the same reason. The world hated Christ because (1) His purity condemned their depravity. (2) His benevolence their selfishness. (3) His humility their pride. (4) His truth their prejudices. (5) His spirituality their carnal pleasures. For these reasons now the world hates true men. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The world we have renounced 1. Perhaps there is no word more commonly in our mouth than “ the world;” and yet hardly any to which we attach less clear and certain meaning, Indeed, the sense intended by it varies according to the character of the person that uses it. Some people denounce the world as unmixed evil; some say it is for the most part good, or at least innocent: some profess to see its deceitful workings everywhere; some will see them nowhere: some make their religion to consist in a separation from the world; some think the field of their religious duty is in the world: in a word, there is little or no agreement or certainly but in this, that there is such a power and reality as the world, and that it is of great moment to us to know what it is. 2. In its original sense, the world is altogether good. By the work and will of God it is all sinless and pure. It is only in its second intention that the world has an evil sense; but that sense is its prevailing and true one--“ the weed” is the creation of God as it is possessed by sin and death. So subtle and far spreading is the original sin of man, that no living soul is without a taint. The original sin was not a measured quantity, so to speak, of evil, which, like a hereditary disease, might exhaust itself in the course of two or three descents. Every several generation renewed it afresh; every several man reproduced it, and sustained the tradition of evil by example, habit, and license; it was perpetuated in races, nations, families; by custom, usage, law. And what is this great tradition of human thought and will, action and imagination, with all its illusions, misjudgments, indulgences, and abuses of God’ s creatures, but the world? We mean by it something external to our minds, and yet not identical with the creation of God; something which has thrust itself between it and us; something parasitical, which has fastened upon all God’ s works, and has wound itself into its inmost action, and into its very being. I. It is true to BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD, as between things antagonistic and irreconcilable: for the Son of God, by His incarnation and atonement, and by the calling and mission of His apostles, has founded and built up in the earth a visible kingdom, which has no other Head but Him alone. “ That visible kingdom is so taken out of the world, that a man must either be in it or out of it; and must, therefore, be either in the Church or in the world. In the visible kingdom of Christ are all the graces and promises of life; in the world are the powers and traditions of death. II. But it is no less true to say, that THE WORLD, WHICH IN THE WAS VISIBLY WITHOUT THE CHURCH, IS NOW WITHIN IT. So long as the world was heathen, it warred against the Church in bitter and relentless persecutions. The two great traditions--the one of God, the other of the world, the powers of the regeneration and of the fall--kept their own integrity by contradiction and perpetual conflict. The Church stood alone--a kingdom ordained of God, having her own princes and thrones, her own judges and tribunals, her own laws and equity, her own public customs and private economy of life. It was when the conversion of individuals drew after it, at last, the whole civil state; when the secular powers, with all their courts, pomps, institutions, laws, judicatures, and the entire political order of the world, came into the precincts of the Church; then it was that the great tradition of human thought, passion, belief, prejudice, and custom, mingled itself with the unwritten usages of the Church. In the beginning the Church had a sorer and a more fiery trial: but who can say that the peril of souls is not greater now? In those days it was no hard matter to discern between the world and the Church. But now our very difficulty is, to know what is that world which we have renounced; to detect its snares, and to overcome its allurements … I will say, that the state of public morals, the habits of personal and social life, popular amusements, and the policy of governments, so far as they are not under the direct guidance of religion, are examples of the presence and power of that which is properly and truly called “ the world.” And nobody need fear to add, that the tone and moral effect of all these, except when they are especially guided by religion to a Christian use and purpose, is almost always, in a greater or less degree, at variance with God. This, then, is the world which in our baptism we renounced. It was no remote or imaginary notion, but a present and active reality: that very same principle of original evil which, in all ages, under all shapes, in all places, has issued in lust, pride, covetousness, vainglory. We are not called to separate ourselves from any outward system, but to be inwardly as estranged from the evil that cleaves to the system around us, as if we were not of it. (Archdeacon Manning.) Christians separated from the world It is a remarkable act, that while the baser metals are diffused through the body of the rocks, gold and silver usually lie in veins; collected together in distinct metallic masses. They are in the rocks but not of them And as by some power in nature God has separated them from the base and common earths, even so by the power of His grace will he separate His chosen from a reprobate and rejected world. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) The believer not of the world When courtiers come down into the country, the common home-bred people possibly think their habits strange; but they care not for that. “ It is the fashion at Court.” What need, then, have the godly to be so tender-foreheaded, to be out of countenance because the world looks on holiness as a singularity? It is the only fashion in the highest Court,--yea, of the King of kings Himself.” (H. G. Salter.) Christians not to compromise with the world That idea is very popular. “ Now then, Moses, do not be too strict. Some people are a deal too particular. Those old-fashioned puritanical people are narrow and straitlaced: be liberal and take broader views. Cannot you make a compromise? Tell Pharaoh’ s daughter you are an Israelite, but that, in consequence of her great kindness, you will also be an Egyptian. Thus you can become an Egypto-Israelite--what a fine blend! Or say an Israelito-Egyptian--with the better part in the front. You see, it seems a simple way out of a difficulty, to hold with the hare and run with the hounds. It saves you from unpleasant decisions and separations: Besides, Jack-of-both-sides has great praise from both parties for his large-heartedness. My hearers, come out, I pray you, one way or the other. If God be God, serve Him; if Baal be God, serve him. If it is right to be an Israelite, be an Israelite; if it is right to be an Egyptian, be an Egyptian. None of your trimming. It will go hard with trimmers at the last great day. When Christ comes to divide the sheep from the goats, there will be no middle sort, and meanwhile you border people will be driven down to hell. May God grant us grace to be decided! (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 15:21-25 But all these things will they do unto you The world’ s hatred, as Christ saw it I. THE WORLD’ S (John 15:21). “ The world,” in Christ’ s language, is the aggregate of Godless men. There is no mincing of the matter in the antithesis which Christ here draws; no hesitation, as if there were a great central mass, too bad for a blessing perhaps, but too good for a curse. No I however it may be with the masses beyond the reach of the truth, the men that come into contact with Him, like a heap of metal filings brought into contact with a magnet mass themselves into two bunches, the one, those that yield to the attraction, and the other those that do not. The one is “ My disciples,” and the other is “ the world.” And now, says Jesus Christ, all that mass that stands apart from Him, have, as the underlying motive of their conduct and their feelings, a real ignorance of God. 2. Our Lord assumes that He is so completely the revealer of the Divine nature as that any man that looks upon Him has had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with God, and that any man who turns away from Him has lost that opportunity. Out of Him God is not known, and they that turn away from His beneficent manifestation turn their faces to the black North, from which no light can shine. 3. But there is a deeper meaning than simply the possession of true thoughts concerning the Divine nature. We know God as we know one another; because God is a Person, as we are persons. And the only way to know persons is through familiar acquaintance and sympathy. And so the world which turns away from Christ has no acquaintance with God. This is the surface fact. Our Lord goes on to show what lies below it. II. THE WORLD’ S IN THE FACE OF CHRIST’ S LIGHT IS WORSE THAN : IT IS SIN. 1. Mark how He speaks (verses 22, 24). He puts before us two forms of His manifestation of the Divine nature by His words and His works. And of these two He puts His words foremost, as being a deeper and more precious and brilliant revelation. Miracles are subordinate, they come as a second source of illumination. The miracle to the word is but like the picture in the child’ s book to the text, fit for feeble eyes and infantile judgments, but containing far less of the revelation of God than the sacred words. 2. But notice, too, how decisively, and yet sorrowfully, our Lord here makes a claim which, on the lips of any but Himself, would have been mere madness of presumption. Think of any of us saying that our words made all the difference between innocence, ignorance, and criminality! Think of any of us pointing to our actions and saying, in these God is so manifest that not to see Him augurs wickedness, and is condemnation! And yet Jesus Christ says all this. And what is more wonderful, nobody wonders that He says it, and the world believes that He is saying the truth when He says it. How does that come? There is only one answer. He Himself was Divine. 3. But, notice how our Lord here declares that in comparison with the sin of not listening to His words, and being taught by His manifestation, all other sins dwindle into nothing. “ If I had not spoken, they had not had sin.” That does not mean, of course, that these men would have been clear of all moral delinquency. There were men committing all the ordinary forms of human transgression amongst them. And yet, says Christ, black as these natures are, they are white in comparison with the blackness of the man that, looking into His face, sees nothing there that he should desire. 4. As light grows responsibility grows. The truth that the measure of light is the measure of guilt turns a face of alleviation to the dark place of the earth; but adds weight to the condemnation of you, who are bathed in the light of Christianity. No shadows are so black as those which the intersest sunshine at the tropics casts. III. THE WHICH IS SIN IS THE OF HATRED. 1. Observe our Lord’ s indentification of Himself with the Father, so that the feelings with which men regard Him are, ipso facto, the feelings with which they regard God. 2. You say, “ I do not pretend to be a Christian, but I do not hate God. Take the ordinary run of people round about us in the world; if you say God is not in all their thoughts I agree with you, but if you say that they hate God, I do not believe it.” Well, do you think it would be possible for a man that loved God to go on for a twelvemonth and never think of the object that he loved? And inasmuch as, deep down in our moral being, there is no such thing as indifference in reference to God, it is clear, that although the word must not be pressed as if it meant conscious and active antagonism--where there is no love there is hate. If a man does not love God, he does not care to please Him. And if obedience is the very life breath of love, disobedience or non-obedience are the manifestation of antagonism, and antagonism is the same thing as hate. There is no neutrality in a man’ s relation to God. It is one thing or other. “ Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” “ The friendship of the world is enmity against God.” IV. THIS , WHICH IS SIN AND HATRED, IS UTTERLY . (verse 25). One hears sighing through these words the Master’ s meek wonder that His love should be so met. The most mysterious and irrational thing in men’ s whole history and experience is the way in which they recompense God in Christ for what He has done for them. Think of that Cross! Do we not stand ashamed at the absurdity as well as at the criminality of our requital? Causeless love on the one side, and causeless indifference on the other, are the two powers that meet in this mystery--men’ s rejection of the infinite love of God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Persecution for Christ’ s name’ s sake Among all the malefactors you condemn there is not a Christian to be found chargeable with any crime but His name. So much is the hatred of our name above all the advantages of virtue flowing from it. Setting aside all inquiry into the principle of our religion and its Founder, and all knowledge of them, the mere name is laid hold of; the name is attacked; and a word alone prejudges a sect unknown, and its Author also unknown, because they have a name, not because they are convicted. (Tertullian.) John 15:22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin Human responsibility The peculiar sin of the Jews, the sin which aggravated above everything their former iniquities, was their rejection of Christ. He had been very plainly described in the prophets, and they who waited for Him rejoiced to see Him. But because Jesus had not the outward garnishing of a prince, they shut their eyes against Him, and were not content till they had crucified Him. Now, the sin of the Jews is every day repeated by the Gentiles. As often as ye hear the Word preached and reject it, so often do you in effect once more pierce the hand and the side. I. IN THE OF THE GOSPEL, THERE IS TO MAN’ S THE COMING OF OUR LORD. He that despiseth us despiseth not us, but Him that sent us. As for what I may say, as a man, it is but little that I should say it; but if I speak as the Lord’ s ambassador, take heed that ye slight not the message. Have we not all of us grossly sinned against God, in the neglect that we have often put upon the means of grace? How often have you stayed away from the house of God, when God Himself was speaking there? And when ye have come up, how often ye have heard as though ye heard not. In all this you have despised God, and woe unto you, except ye repent, for ‘ tis a fearful thing to have despised the voice of Him that speaketh from heaven. II. THE OF THE GOSPEL MEN’ S SIN. Now, understand, we do not increase our condemnation by going to the house of God; we are far more likely to increase it by stopping away; for in stopping away there is a double rejection of Christ; you reject Him even with the outward mind, as well as with the inward spirit. Your sin is not aggravated merely by the hearing of the gospel, but by the wilful and wicked rejection of it when it is heard. Because the man who does this 1. Gets a new sin. Bring me a wild savage who has never listened to the Word. That man may have every sin in the catalogue of guilt except one; but that one I am sure he has not. He has not the sin of rejecting the gospel when it is preached to him. But you, when you hear the gospel, if you have rejected it, you have added a fresh iniquity to all others. “ He that believeth not is condemned already,” etc. “ If I had not done among them the works which none other man did,” etc. “ Woe unto thee, Chorazin!” etc. To reject Christ destroys a man hopelessly. The murderer, the thief, the drunkard, may yet enter the kingdom of heaven, if, repenting of his sins, he will lay hold on the cross of Christ; but with these sins, a man is inevitably lost, if he believeth not on Christ. Consider what an awful sin this is. There is murder in this; for if the man on the scaffold rejects a pardon, does he not murder himself? There is pride in this; for you reject Christ, because your proud hearts have turned you aside. There is high treason in this; for you reject a king. 2. He aggravates all the rest. You cannot sin so cheap as other people, you, who have had the gospel. He who sins ignorantly hath some little excuse; but he who sins against light and knowledge sins presumptuously; and under the law there was no atonement for this. III. THE OF THE GOSPEL TAKES AWAY ALL EXCUSE FROM THOSE WHO HEAR IT AND REJECT IT. “ Now have they no cloke for their sin.” A cloak is a very poor covering for sin, when there is an all-seeing eye to look through it. In the great day of the tempest of God’ s wrath a cloak will be a very poor shelter; but still man is always fond of a cloak. And so it is with you; you will gather, if you can, an excuse for your sin, and when conscience pricks you, you seek to heal the wound with an excuse. And even in the day of judgment, although a cloak will be a sorry covering, yet it will be better than nothing at all. “ But now ye have no cloke for your sin.” The traveller is left in the rain without his covering, exposed to the tempest without that garment which once did shelter him. Notice how the preaching of the gospel takes away all cloaks for sin. 1. One man might get up and say, “ I did not know I was doing wrong when I committed such and such an iniquity.” Now, that you cannot say. God has by His law told you solemnly what is wrong. If the Mahommedan commits lust, I doubt not his conscience doth prick him, but his sacred books give him liberty. But you profess to believe your Bibles, and therefore when you sin, you do wilfully violate a well-known law. 2. Again you might say, “ When I sinned, I did not know how great would be the punishment.” Of this also, by the gospel, you are left without excuse; for did not Jesus Christ tell you, that those who will not have Him shall be cast into outer darkness? 3. But some of you may say, “ Ah, I heard the gospel, and I knew that I was doing wrong, but I did not know what I must do to be saved.” Is there one among you who can urge such an excuse as this? “ Believe and live” is preached every day in your hearing. 4. I can hear another say, “ I heard the gospel preached, but I never had a good example set me.” Some of you may say that, and it would be partially true; but there are others of you, concerning whom this would be a lying excuse. Ah! man; you have been very fond of speaking of the inconsistencies of Christians. But there was one Christian whom you knew, and whose character you were compelled to admire. It was your mother. That has always been the one difficulty with you up to this day. You could have rejected the gospel very easily, but your mother’ s example stood before you, and you could not overcome that. 5. But others of you can say that you had no such mother; your first school was the street, and the first example you ever had was that of a swearing father. Recollect, there is one perfect example--Christ. 6. One more excuse is this: “ I had many advantages, but they were never sent home to my conscience so that I felt them.” Now, there are very few of you here who can say that. No, you have not always been unmoved by the gospel; you have grown old now, and it takes a deal to stir you, but it was not always so. IV. I have now as it were to THE OF . For those who live and die rejecting Christ there is a most fearful doom. They shall perish with an utter destruction. There are degrees of punishment; but the highest degree is given to the man who rejects Christ. The liar and the whoremonger, and drunkards shall have their portion--whom do you suppose with?--with unbelievers; as if hell was made first of all for unbelievers. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Cloaks for sin: or excuses removed No excuse for sin? That is a strange statement. Excuses have been one of the specialties of each sinner’ s stock-in-trade from Eden. These “ cloaks for sin” are “ always on hand.” And yet Christ declares of those who wickedly and presumptuously reject the offered pardon and guidance, that they have no good excuse, “ no cloak for their sin.” But you say, I “ I have a valid excuse for not being a Christian I. THE AND WRONG-DOINGS OF CHURCH MEMBERS.” 1. I admit that some rogues are hiding their wolfish hearts under the deceptive wool of churchly professions. As Jacob, by putting hair upon himself and thus professing to be Esau, secured a blessing from blind Isaac, so some bad men have secured credit and confidence by stealing the livery of heaven to serve the devil in. One Sunday morning a dressmaker told her little niece to put on her things and take a bundle of dress goods under her shawl to the house of one of her patrons, remarking, “ Nobody will see it.” The child replied, “ But, Aunty, is it not Sunday under my shawl?” There are some professors to whom church membership is only a shawl to cover up sin. Such an empty profession affords “ no cloak for sin.” 2. You say then, “ I believe in a man living up to what he professes!” I answer, “ I believe in a man’ s daring to profess what he believes.” The outward and inward life should fit both ways. Do not think your strange eagerness to point out stains on Christian garments arises from pure love of truth and righteousness. Look down into your heart and ask, “ Why do I so readily hear and so quickly believe and so promptly circulate, without investigation, reports against professing Christians” (Acts 8:58)? Besides, Christians never profess perfection in conduct, but only in love, with sincere though imperfect efforts toward goodness. II. But another says, “ I have a real excuse--A GOOD MORAL LIFE IS A LIFE. I gave my old overcoat the other day to a poor man, and I give away to the poor more than anybody knows.” Let it be remembered that Dorcas was saved because she was “ a disciple.” She did not hold up the garments she had made for the poor to cover up the sin of disobeying and rejecting Christ--indeed, she did not exhibit her charity at all; but those to whom she gave them praised her and not her own lips. This effort to cloak our sins is only a repetition of Naaman’ s effort to hide and heal his leprosy by giving away changes of raiment instead of obeying God in His command. III. Some of you are wrapping yourself in another cloak, which you think is fireproof asbestos--“ GOD IS TOO TO PUNISH ME. I don’ t believe as you do about future punishment.” But the laws of the world assert that there must be punishment or atonement for sin, as well as the Old and New Testaments. But questions about endless punishment cannot fairly be made excuses for anyone refusing to accept personal salvation, as the only condition of conversion in the matter of belief is, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” “ I don’ t believe” is no cloak for sin when God challenges you to test religion. “ Come and see.” IV. Another wrap is, “ I AM TRYING TO BE A IN A QUIET WAY. I don’ t believe in talking about it.” As well might our soldiers have said in the late war, “ We are trying to be loyal, but we don’ t think that the order to wear blue uniforms and carry the stars and stripes and organize into regiments is essential.” V. Another wraps a cloak of mingled humility and pride over his sin as he says, “ I’ M NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BE A . I’ m very conscientious and I couldn’ t be a Christian without being a perfect one.” Hear that sick man saying, “ I’ m not well enough yet to send for the Great Physician.” VI. Or do you say, “ I TRIED THIS THING ONCE AND FAILED?” As well say, “ I tried to wear an overcoat but I didn’ t have it made carefully and it came to pieces in a little while, and so I’ ll never try to wear another, however cold the winds may blow.” Throw away that shivering cloak of past failures as an excuse for sin and have another robe made more thoroughly than your first--the robe of Christ’ s righteousness. VII. Another cloak is, “ I FEAR I SHOULD FAIL AND NOT LIVE UP TO MY . I have very unfavourable surroundings and a peculiar temperament.” Exchange that miserable cloak for the sword of Divine help and defence and “ the whole armour of God” (Ephesians 6:11). As to unfavourable surroundings, there were” saints in Caesar’ s household,” and also in the households of Ahab, Pharaoh, and other famous foes of God. Abraham reared his altar in the very midst of idolaters. VIII. Or do you frankly say, “ I COULDN’ T BE A AND IN MY , and I can’ t give that up, for a man must live?” Mark you, when every man gives an account of himself to God, church records will never appear in evidence. What is wrong is wrong, whether a man’ s name is on the church book or not, and it is simply ridiculous to suppose you have a cloak for sin that will wash, because you can say, “ My name is not on the church book” (James 5:2). IX. Or do you wave that “ cloak for sin” aloft?--“ I WANT TO HAVE FUN AND FREEDOM A LITTLE LONGER.” “ Only use not liberty as a cloak of maliciousness” (1 Peter 2:16). Joseph, when tempted by the wife of Potiphar, left the outer robs she had seized upon in her hand and fled, saying, “ How can! do this great wickedness and sin against God?” X. Or do you offer the excuse, “ CAN’ T AFFORD TO BE A ?” The church of Elijah and John the Baptist, with their rough camel’ s hair coats, and of the widow who gave the two mites, is surely a place for the poorest. Think less of pews and pennies and appearance and more of the penitence and the inward adorning of the hearts. XI. Or do you say by way of excuse, “ I’ M TOO BUSY TO THINK OF MATTERS? The care of the body is about all I can attend to just now.” That was Dives’ mistake. He was so busy in robing himself and family in purple and fine linen that he left his soul in rags and at last brought himself to hell’ s robe of fire. XII. OTHER EXCUSES 1. “ Too old.” “ He is able to save unto the uttermost.” 2. Too young? As Samuel wore the ephod of a priest at three years of age, so in early life any child may wear the robe of righteousness. 3. Don’ t feel enough? When you have feeling the tempter will suggest the opposite excuse, “ You feel too much excitement.” Between these two halves of his shears he is striving to cut in twain your offered robe of righteousness. Conclusion: 1. What comedies are these excuses! To be frank and honest, most are mere quibbling, dilatory motions, talking against time. Such shallow excuses for absence from a business engagement would not be accepted--not even offered, and instead of providing a cloak for our sin, weave another scarlet robe of mockery for the Crucified (Matthew 27:28). When Joseph was called before Pharaoh, he “ changed his raiment” Genesis 41:14). We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Are you willing to appear there with no change of raiment, wrapped in these ragged excuses? Thank God that a change of raiment, a wedding garment is provided--a real cloak for sin (Isaiah 61:10). With this robe of Christ’ s righteousness offered to us a real cloak to cover sin, shall we not, like the returning prodigal, throw away our ragged excuses and accede to that plan of God’ s infinite love, “ bring forth the best robe and put it on him.” As Peter threw off his outer robe when he plunged into the sea, that he might the quicker swim to Christ who stood upon the shore; as Lazarus was loosed from the grave clothes, so let us, lay aside every weight and the cloaks of excuse for sin that keep us back from God and Heaven, and let us first hasten to Christ, and run with patience the race that is set before us. As Lord Raleigh gallantly threw his beautiful robe upon the muddy ground for Queen Elizabeth to walk upon, so let us throw all our excusing cloaks of at the feet of Jesus and take instead Christ’ s cloaks of zeal (Isaiah 59:17). (W. F. Crafts.) The pleas of gospel impenitents examined and refuted Gospel impenitents who finally reject Christ have no cloak for their sin I. FROM ANY PLEAS OR THEY CAN MAKE TO GOD THEIR MAKER. They cannot plead 1. That they are not invited to believe in Christ for salvation. The gospel invitation runs in indefinite terms, “ Whosoever will, let him come.” 2. That they are not elected. It is not the undiscovered decree, but the revealed precept, that is our rule, according to which we are to conduct ourselves, and by which we shall finally be judged (Deuteronomy 29:29) 3. That God uses any compulsion, or exerts any positive influence, to keep them in unbelief and harden them in sin (James 1:13). 4. That there is any deficiency of suitable means on God’ s part, or that He does not afford them necessary external helps for their believing in Christ Isaiah 5:4). He has given men the Bible, the Church, pastors and teachers, sabbaths, etc. 5. That there is a want of internal assistances, and a defect of necessary influences from God to make the means effectual. The fact is (1) Sinners do not realise what God tells them of the necessity of His grace, and of their own impotency, but are apt vainly to magnify their own abilities, and to think every man of himself more highly than he ought to think. (2) Sinners do not pray to God for His Spirit as they ought, although they confess their own impotency. (3) Sinners under the gospel, whether they pray for the Spirit or not, do actually experience those assistances of common grace, which are a full vindication of God, and leave them without all excuse. The Spirit of God is often at work in their consciences. He convinces them of sin, admonishes them of duty, and stirs up their affections, desires, fears, and hopes. But here is the misery and folly of sinners: they do always resist and vex the Holy Ghost. II. FROM ANY PLEAS THEY CAN MAKE TO SATAN, AND AN EVIL WORLD, THEIR . They suffer no violence from external causes, nor will any impediments they met with in the way of duty, afford them a plea sufficient to justify their not repenting and receiving Christ. What or who should compel the sinner to refuse Christ? They may persuade and entice, but they cannot force. They may indeed use a violence upon the body, and hinder that from external duties; but they cannot reach the soul, to hinder repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (James 4:7). It is the fault and folly of sinners, they do not resist the devil. And then, if Satan has gained a power over any, which seems almost irresistible (2 Timothy 2:26), they have brought this upon themselves (Psalms 81:11-12). III. IT REMAINS, , THAT TAKE ALL THE BLAME OF THEIR SIN AND RUIN TO (James 1:14; John 3:19). Gospel impenitents 1. Neglect to use, or trifle in using, those means which are in their own power, and which they might probably hope God would bless, in order to their salvation (John 6:27; Luke 13:24; Philippians 2:12). 2. Resist the methods of grace, which the blessed God uses with them, and quench the Holy Spirit striving in them (Isaiah 63:10; Acts 7:51). 3. Do actually commit those sins, which, as they have a natural tendency to hinder their conversion, so they provoke God to withhold His special grace from them (Zechariah 7:11-12; Ezekiel 24:13). 4. Do all this in a free and voluntary manner, and upon motives which, at the time, appear to them founded in reason. Conclusion: Have gospel impenitents no cloak for their sin? 1. Hence we may learn the justice of God in the eternal condemnation of such in a future state. 2. Hence the awfulness of our standing under the gospel, and the miserable delusion of such as trust to mere privileges and externals in religion. 3. Hence the folly of delay in the grand affair of conversion. 4. If gospel impenitents are inexusable, who perish in their own iniquity; how much more such sinners as are voluntarily instrumental to the sin and ruin of others! 5. What abundant reason have they to admire the grace of God toward them, who after a course of great sin, under gospel light, have been converted! (T. Foxcroft.) They hated Me without a cause Hatred without cause It is usually understood that the quotation is Psalms 35:19. No being was ever more lovely than the Saviour; it would seem almost impossible not to have affection for Him. And yet, loveable as He was, from His first moment to the cross, save the temporary lull while He was a child, it seemed as if all men sought to destroy Him. In different ways that hatred displayed itself, in overt deeds, in words of slander, or in looks of contempt. At other times that hatred dwelt in their thoughts, and they thought within themselves, “ This man blasphemeth.” All grades of men hated Him. Most men have to meet with some opposition; but then it is frequently a class opposition. The demagogue must expect to be despised by the rich, and he who labours for the aristocracy of course meets with the contempt of the many. But here was a man who walked among the people, who loved them, who spoke to the rich and poor as though they were on one level in His blessed sight; and yet all classes conspired to hate Him. I. LET US JUSTIFY WHAT THE SAVIOUR SAID. 1. In Christ’ s person there was an absence of almost everything which excites hatred between man and man. (1) There was no great rank in Christ to excite envy. Let a man be ever so good, if he be at all lifted above his fellow creatures the many often speak against him. Now, Christ had none of the outward circumstances of rank. Instead of being lifted above men, He did, in some sense, seem to be below them, for foxes had holes, etc. (2) Many persons envy those who exercise rule or government over them. If authorities were changed every month, in some countries there would be revolutions as much under one as under another. But this did not operate in Christ’ s case: He did not assume sway over the multitude. In fact, instead of binding laws upon them which were severe, He loosened the rigidity of their system. (3) Some men make others dislike them because they are proud. Somehow or other the human mind cannot bear pride; we always kick against it. But there was nothing of that in our Saviour. How humble He was! He would wash His disciples’ feet. (4) There are others that you cannot help disliking, because they are so snappish, and waspish, and angry. But you cannot find that Christ spake one angry word, save those words of holy wrath against Pharasaic pride. Such a loving, kind, gentle spirit, one would have thought would have gone through the world as easy as possible. (5) Another set you can scarcely help disliking--selfish people. But whatever Christ did, He did for others. “ He saved others; Himself He did not save.” Self-sacrifice was the life of Christ; but He did it with such an ease that it seemed no sacrifice. (6) Another sort of people there are that I do not like, viz. the hypocritical. But there never was a more unvarnished man than Christ. Among all the slanders men brought against Christ they never disputed His sincerity. 2. Was there anything in Christ’ s errand which could make people hate Him? He came (1) To explain mysteries, to tell them what was meant by the sacrificial lamb. Should they have hated one who made dark things light. (2) To reclaim the wanderer; and is there anything in that that should make men hate Christ? (3) To heal the diseases of the body. Shall I hate the physician who goes about gratuitously healing all manner of diseases? Surely, He might well say, “ For which of the works do ye stone Me.” (4) To die, that sinners might not die? Ought I to hate the substitute who takes my sins and griefs upon Him, and carries my sorrows? 3. Was there anything in Christ’ s doctrine that that should have made us hate Him? (1) Take His preceptive doctrines. Did He not teach us to do to others as we would they should do to us? (2) Was it the ethical part of His doctrines that men bated? He taught that rich and poor must stand on one level; He taught that His gospel was to be gloriously expansive. This, perhaps, was one principal reason of their hating Him; but surely there was no justifiable cause for their indignation in this. II. MAN’ S SIN, THAT HE SHOULD HAVE HATED THE SAVIOUR WITHOUT A CAUSE. 1. I will not tell you of man’ s adulteries, murders, wars, cruelties, and rebellions; if I want to tell you man’ s sin, I must tell you that man is a deicide--that he put to death his God, and slew his Saviour; and when I have told you that I have given you the essence of all sin. In every other case, when man has hated goodness, there have always been some extenuating circumstances. We never do see goodness in this world without alloy. But because the Saviour had no inconsistencies or infirmities, men were stripped of all their excuses for hating Him, and it came out that man naturally hates goodness, because he is so evil that he cannot but detest it. 2. And now let me appeal to every sinner, and ask him whether he ever had any cause for hating Christ. But someone says, “ I do not hate Him; if He were to come to my house I would love Him very much.” But Christ lives next door to you, in the person of poor Betty there. Why don’ t you like Betty? She is one of Christ’ s members, and “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ye have done it unto Me.” Don’ t you know a very holy man you cannot bear because he told you of your faults once? Ah! sir, if you loved Christ you would love His members. I must suppose you to be hostile to Christ, unless you love Him; for I know there are only two opinions of Him. You must either hate Him or love Him. Indifference with regard to Christ is a clear impossibility. A man might as well say, “ I am indifferent towards honesty.” 3. And now, Christian men, I must preach at you. Sure ye have great reason to love Christ now, for ye once hated Him without a cause. Did ye ever treat a friend ill, and did not know it. III. LESSONS: 1. If your Master was hated without a cause, do not you expect to get off very easily in this world. 2. Take care, if the world does hate you, that it hates you without a cause. (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 15:26-27 But when the Comforter is come The Holy Spirit: His work and mission I. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 1. Our text speaks of the Holy Spirit as a Person. “ He shall testify;” “ and ye also” (see also John 16:7-8; John 16:13-15). In the first of these places He is spoken of as a Person acting with other persons, of whose personality there can be no doubt, viz., the apostles. In the last He is represented as acting intermediately between the Father, an undoubted Person, and the apostles. We know that the effects of His operation are sometimes personified. But still our Lord and the sacred writers speak of Him in a way which requires us to understand an intelligent agent, e.g., in the form of baptism (Matthew 28:19). If the Spirit is a figure of speech, so are the Father and the Son. 2. He is a Divine Person. Otherwise an idol is set up on the very threshold of the Christian temple; and we are taught by the form of baptism to worship a creature of our own fancy. If the inspired language is perplexing, if He is not a real Person, it is delusive and dangerous if He be not divine Matthew 12:28; John 14:12; of. Romans 15:19). We turn our thoughts to the offer of forgiveness so free and wide (Isaiah 55:7; Mark 3:28); but amidst all this wealth of mercy we find a solitary exception--blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Mark 3:29). Is a figure of speech the object of the one irremissible sin! 3. The Three Divine Persons, though equal in dignity and power, have been pleased to establish a method of procedure which corresponds in a measure to the mode of the Divine existence. The Father is “ of none,” and is never said to be sent or given. The Son is of the Father, and as the Son of the Father, is sent and given by Him (2 John 1:3; 1 John 4:9; John 3:16), The Holy Spirit is never said to give or send the Son; but to proceed from the Father, to be given, and sent by the Father. In like manner, also, as the Son is called the Son of the Father, the Holy Spirit is called “ the Spirit of His Son,” etc. (Galatians 4:6; 1 Peter 1:11), and is said to be sent and given by Christ (John 16:7; Acts 2:33). II. HIS WORK. 1. “ The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.” All the preannouncements concerning the coming and work of Christ were but the voice of the Spirit (Matthew 1:22; Acts 28:25). This testimony is so manifold as to anticipate the gospel at every point (Acts 26:22). It was by the agency of the Spirit that this prophecy was turned into history. (1) Our Redeemer must be a man like ourselves, and a body was prepared Him by the agency of the Spirit (Luke 1:35). (2) He must be a holy man, and so that conceived by the Holy Ghost was “ that holy thing,” and continued so. (3) In His public capacity He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and power. (4) To the same gracious agency we are taught to ascribe the virtues exhibited in His passion. (5) After death Jesus was “ quickened by the Spirit.” 2. The Holy Spirit’ s testimony as borne by the apostles. (1) All Christ’ s oral teachings was recalled to their minds, and the knowledge, courage, etc., needed to discharge their duties. (2) Their testimony was confirmed by the Spirit in a wonderful manner in “ wonders and signs,” etc. (3) The spoken testimony has perished, but the written testimony remains from generation to generation. (4) In the long succession of faithful men who have been “ able to teach others also,” from that day to this the Spirit has borne a continuous testimony to Christ. 3. In the Church, as in the ministry, the Holy Spirit bears this testimony, and not only in many persons, but in many ways in the same persons. (1) He testifies to men’ s need of Christ, by convincing them of sin. (2) He reveals Christ as a Saviour, and enables the penitent to receive and rest on Him for salvation. (3) The spirit of adoption is a testimony of Christ. When we cry, “ Abba, Father,” it is by the spirit of God’ s Son. (4) The spirit of adoption is also the spirit of holiness, and growth in holiness is inseparably connected with the knowledge of Christ (2Pe Hebrews 6:1). (G. Osborn, D. D.) The Spirit testifying of Christ I. IN GENERAL TERMS OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 1. “ He shall testify” --bear witness. Now, when we have a witness it is most important that we should understand whether or not he is competent to bear witness about the matter in question. This witness is “ the Spirit who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” He is a Divine and therefore a competent witness with regard to Christ Jesus. 2. Again, in a court of justice it is important to know whether a witness is reliable. This witness is none other than “ the Spirit of Truth” Himself. 3. He is one who puts honour on Christ. In John 16:14 we read, “ Heshall glorify Me.” As we preach, the Holy Ghost bears witness to Him--carries home the truth in power to the hearts of those to whom it is addressed, and by His sweet constraint leads them to yield to the Saviour and to put their trust in Him. John 16:8, etc., we read-- (1) “ He will convict of sin because they believe not on Me;” of all sins the most heinous is the rejection of Christ Jesus. (2) “ Of righteousness,” etc., i.e., of righteousness in Christ Jesus. (3) “ Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” This is of triumph over Satan’ s power. II. OF HIS WORK IN CASES. 1. A striking example of that is afforded in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. What a catalogue! “ Such were some of you,” says the apostle, “ but ye are washed, ye are sanctified,” etc. What a wondrous change! How had the change come about? By the Spirit of God. He had spoken to them; He had dealt with them; He had drawn them; He had united them to Christ Jesus, so that they were sanctified and justified in Him. A strolling conjuror was one night in a tramps’ lodging house in Sheffield, and different members of the fraternity were sitting over the fire, and they were overhauling the contents of their bags, and he told me that he saw one bring out a New Testament that he had bought for his little girl. The conjuror was greatly struck, and bought it, and that night, before he lay down upon his bed in that tramps’ lodging house, by the dim light of the candle, he opened his new purchase to see what it contained, and his eye fell upon these words, “ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” He was like a man who had been shot. He tossed backwards and forwards upon his bed that night; there was no rest, no sleep for him. The Holy Ghost had carried the word home to his heart. He gave up his conjuring, and followed some honest trade, and for months he went up and down England with the arrow of conviction sticking fast in his heart; and then, through the kindly counsels of a town missionary, he was brought to put his trust in the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. When last I saw him he was earning an honest living, making and selling braces, and as he offered them for sale he would speak some homely earnest words about the Saviour. 2. If you will turn to the Epistle to Titus 3:3, you will find another list of sins. Now, when we read the list in the Corinthians, we cannot help thinking what loathsome, horrible people they were. When we read the list in Titus, we cannot help thinking what exceedingly disagreeable people they must have been to live with. But the Apostle says, “ But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour,” etc. Those persons had become the heirs of God in the hope of eternal life. And how? By the work of God, because the Holy Spirit had spoken to them and had dealt with them, had wrought in their hearts, had drawn them to the Lord Jesus, and united them in faith to Him. III. THERE ARE SOME OF GREAT , AS LIGHT UPON THIS SUBJECT. 1. Turn to Romans 8:9. “ If any man,” whosoever he may be, however beautiful may be his character, and however excellent may be his natural disposition, “ have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” 2. Another statement occurs in 1 Corinthians 12:3. These words imply that we not only recognize in Christ a Saviour, but a Lord to whom we yield, and to whose service we consecrate all that we are and all that we have. No man can do that but by the Holy Ghost. 3. Another negative statement is found in Jude 1:19, where we read,“ These be they who separate themselves, sensual--not having the Spirit” --those who are beyond the pale; those who are not to be numberedamongst the children of God. They are in their natural or unrenewed state because they have not the Spirit. IV. ONE OR TWO VERY OR WORDS IN ON THIS SAME SUBJECT. 1. “ My Spirit shall not always strive with men.” 2. Turn to Hebrews 3:15; Hebrews 4:7. Why has God seen fit to repeat that sentence three times over? Do you know that when a division on a most important subject is about to take place in the House of Commons the whips on the respective sides of the House send out a letter urging members individually not to fail to be present? And they put what is called “ underlining,” and when you have a three-line whip or a four-line whip” it means that the matter is most urgent, and that the member must by all means give heed to it, Now, when God caused this word to be written three times over, it is as if He had sent out a three-line whip to the children of men. It is the message of one who loves the souls of men as tenderly as does the Father or as does the Son. (W. P. Lockhart.) The Spirit the witness to truth 1. Pilate put the question to our Lord, What is truth? The answer was given in a manner more direct and forcible than words can express: in person and in deed. Jesus was Himself the Truth. But Pilate had neither an eye to see the Truth, nor an ear to hear it. 2. Many men, worthy and noble, before and since have put the question, presuming that truth belongs to the region of thought and human speech. But truth does not lie in the sphere of thought and speculation. Reflections and images of the truth are indeed to be found there; but truth is deeper and more original than human intelligence. Our Lord says of Himself, “ I am the Truth” --absolute Truth. All other truth is such only relatively to Himself. He is the Truth of all other truths. But to know the truth and to receive its light and power, a man must be in positive sympathy with it. “ Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice.” 3. Jesus Christ witnesses of Himself as the Absolute Truth by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth. Other witnesses, indeed, there are and will always be. But such only are witnesses who are the organs of the Spirit. Let us consider the Christian doctrine--that the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of Truth, is the all-sufficient witness to Jesus Christ. I. THAT THE SPIRIT IS THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH IS BY THE FACT THAT THROUGH HIS AGENCY THE TRUTH OF THE GODHEAD HAS BECOME IN MAN. 1. The Creator and the creature, the Absolute Truth in God and the relative truth in man are constituted one life in the person of Jesus Christ. The Word was made flesh by the Holy Ghost. “ The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,” etc. The Divine was made human according to the law of human life; for Jesus was born. And the human was assumed into the Divine after the Divine manner, for Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost. The eternal and absolute Truth was revealed and made manifest in the person and life of a veritable man, who is for us and for all men the living and ultimate Truth, in whom and by whom alone the truth of all truths is accessible to faith, and through faith accessible to intelligence. 2. If we inquire further, How was it that He became the Truth in life and in death? The answer is as by the Spirit Jesus was born the Holy Babe, so by the Spirit did He manifest God by a perfectly holy manhood, and offer a spotless sacrifice for sin upon the cross, and vanquish all the powers of darkness in His resurrection from the dead. II. THIS SPIRIT OF TRUTH, WHEREBY JESUS THE WORK OF , IS BY HIM SENT FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH AS HIS AND WITNESS, THAT HE MAY LIVE IN THOSE WHO RECEIVE HIM AND GUIDE THEM INTO ALL TRUTH. The Spirit makes those true who are by nature perverse. 1. The truth is heavenly and spiritual, not earthly and material. No earthly thing can witness of the essence of the heavenly. No material thing can exhibit the life of the spirtual. Human genius cannot look into the depths of the Divine and announce its unfathomable fulness. If, as He claims, Jesus be the Truth, and if the Truth be spiritual and heavenly, transcendent and Divine, then in this fallen, dark, wicked world, where the He is enthroned and men walk in a vain show, there can be no agencies, no resources, whereby the depraved heart and the darkened understanding and the perverted will may come to a knowledge of the Truth. “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,” etc. The wisdom of this world is utterly inadequate to the task of discovering the truth of God. But God has revealed to us His wisdom by the Spirit. 2. It must needs be, then, that the truth being spiritual and heavenly, the agency, by whom we may know the truth, must likewise be spiritual and heavenly. To this end, the presence and the power of the Spirit is effectual. In those who receive Him, the Spirit dissipates the clouds of natural darkness, removes the aversion of the carnal mind, and sheds the light of heavenly truth into the soul with convincing power. As on the day of Pentecost the Spirit touched the consciences of the multitudes; as the revelation of Christ smote Saul of Tarsus to the ground, as the Spirit opened the heart of Lydia, so has the same Spirit all along the ages been a power working mysteriously in those to whom the Word was preached, convincing them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. The Spirit alone can shed the light of truth into the souls of men now. III. THE SPIRIT AWAKENS IN MEN THE OF THE TRUTH BY MAKING THEM OF THE TRUTH. 1. No right knowledge of Jesus Christ is external or merely intellectual. To appreciate Christ men must be members of Christ. The Spirit, accordingly, is the Divine agency whereby Christ apprehends men and men appropriate Christ. In the Spirit the separation is resolved into unity, the contradiction into the fellowship of faith. The dominion of error and falsehood is broken--broken because He who is the Truth lives in the believer, and thebeliever thus also becomes true. 2. To this end the power of the Spirit is effectual, independently of time or place, independently of rank or station. 3. For this work of the Spirit there can be no substitute. No discoveries in the natural world, no progress in science, no achievement of human genius can put man in possession of the truth, and thus make man personally true. In spite of all these empty glories he will remain the victim of a lie, and all his proud knowledge will confirm his delusion and deepen his spiritual darkness. IV. MAKING MEN OF THE TRUTH, THE SPIRIT IS ALSO THE POWER BY WHICH FULFIL THE TRUTH BY A AND GODLY WALK. 1. When the truth lives in the soul, it becomes the principle of action. The truth fills our ethical nature and gives it freedom. The truth sets the will free from the bondage of self-love and the world spirit. It becomes active in the truth and for the truth. Thus consciously active our ethical life acquires strength, that strength which is of the truth itself, a strength as mighty as the truth is mighty. 2. No such strength can come from the resoluteness and firmness of the natural will; not from any kind of self-imposed moral discipline. The self-denial and self-sacrifice of which the natural man is capable is but the renunciation of one falsehood to lay hold of another. The noble heroism and the stern morality of which, without possessing the truth that is in Christ, some men are capable, falls short just as certainly of freedom. 3. Not that the spiritual man is without spot or blemish. Nevertheless the man who by the Spirit possesses the truth and lives by faith under its power, asserts and develops a new morality. Thus in him the Spirit bears witness of Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the believer in turn is a living perpetual witness to the truth of God in Christ. V. THE HOLY SPIRIT AS THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, HE BECOMES FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR THE THE WITNESS TO CHRIST. 1. He is the immediate witness. The Spirit is the living bond by which Jesus Christ and fallen men become one life. Possessing the believer, Christ authenticates Himself to his heart and mind, in his will and consciousness. In that He shows unto us the things of Christ, the Spirit witnesses directly of Christ to us that He (Jesus Christ) is the Truth. Such witness is like the witness of self-consciousness. No truth can be more certainly known than this: that I am, that I think and will. Even so, in the heart and consciousness of a true believer, does the Holy Ghost testify that Jesus is the Truth of all truths. 2. The Spirit is the all-sufficient witness. Whatever question the natural reason may raise, or philosophy suggest; whatever new problem may arise in the history of the world; whatever doubts may be prompted by revolutions in science or convulsions in social life; whatever strength the human intellect may acquire by culture and discipline; however imposing and fearful may be the hostile array of the enemies of the Cross; however proud and triumphant the boasts and predictions of unbelief and naturalism, the status of the Christian Church remains unchanged. The witness is at hand, adequate to every objection that scepticism, materialism, and wickedness may seek to establish; a witness just as satisfying to every man who is not of the lie but of the truth as an axiom of quantitative truth is satisfying to the intellect of a mathematician. Here is the refuge and the strength of the Church and of the ministry and of the people of God in every land and in every age. No other witness is valid, or can satisfy the spiritual demands of the soul. (E. V. Gerhart, D. D.) The great world-restoring Spirit I. HIS ADVENT . “ When the Comforter is come.” 1. The prediction was given to comfort them in the prospect of the persecution to which Christ had just directed their attention. They are given to understand that however great their approaching trials may be, and though He Himself was about departing from them, One would soon come to them from His Father who would be all sufficient for their help. 2. The prediction was strikingly fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, in connection with the preaching of Peter (Acts 2:1-3). II. HIS . “ The Spirit of truth.” There is a spirit of lying abroad in the world, sowing the seeds of error in human souls, and cultivating them into briars and thorns, into poisonous weeds and upas trees. But here is the Spirit of Truth who is also abroad and at work. 1. He is infallible Truth. Truth without any admixture of error or impunity. His ideas and His affections, so to say, are in perfect accord with eternal fact. 2. He is Redemptive Truth. His truth is to open the eyes of ignorance, to break the chains of bondage, to cleanse the heart from impurities, to deliver the conscience from guilt l In one word, to restore the soul to the knowledge, the image, the friendship, and the enjoyment of the great God. III. HIS WORK . 1. His work is that of an advocate. He goes into the court of human conscience and there He pleads for spirituality, benevolence, righteousness, God, against worldliness, selfishness, wrong, the devil. Sometimes He pleads in whispers, sometimes in thunder. Always is He earnest and persevering. He inspires His ministers to say, “ We beseech you in Christ’ s stead be ye reconciled unto God.” 2. His work is that of a witness. A witness for Christ, for the perfection of His character, the purity of His doctrines, and the beneficence of His influence. He does this through the teaching, the miraculous works, the moral triumphs, and the noble lives of those whom He inspired as the apostles of Christ. Conclusion: Let the assurance that this restoring Spirit is in the world encourage us in our efforts to spread truth, and in our trials to be magnanimous and patient. (D. Thomas D. D.) The defence against a hostile world Our Lord has been speaking of a world hostile to His followers and to Him. He proceeds, in the words which follow, to paint that hostility as aggravated even to the pitch of religious murder. But here He lets a beam of light in upon the darkness. He lets them see that they will not be left alone, but have a great champion, who will put into their hands a weapon, with which they may conquer the world, and turn it into a friend, and with which alone they must meet the world’ s hate. Consider I. THE GREAT PROMISE OF AN ALLY AS AGAINST A HOSTILE WORLD. 1. The wonderful designation of this Champion Friend. (1) The “ Comforter” is no mere gentle consoler. The word which means one who is summoned to the side of another, conveys the idea of a helper. The verses before our text suggest what sort of aid and succour the disciples will need. And that Paraclete is a strong Spirit who will be our champion and our ally, whatever antagonism may storm against us, and however strong and well-armed may be the assaulting legions of the world’ s hate. (2) “ The Spirit of Truth,” which means not so much His characteristic attribute as rather the weapon which He wields, or the material with which He works. That is to say, the Spirit of God is the Strengthener, the Encourager, the Comforter, the Fighter for us and with us, because He wields that great body of truth, the perfect revelation of God, and man, and duty, and salvation, which is embodied in the Incarnation and work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The truth is His weapon, and it is by that that He makes us strong. 2. The two-fold description of the mission of this Divine Champion. (1) “ Sent” by Christ. In a previous part of this discourse, our Lord speaks of Him as being sent by the Father in His name and in answer to His prayer. The representation here is by no means antagonistic to this, for “ whatsoever the Son seeth the Father do that also the Son doeth likewise.” And therefore the Spirit is sent forth by the Father, and also the Son sends the Spirit. (2) But, on the other hand, we are not to regard that Divine Spirit as merely a messenger sent by another. He “ proceeds from the Father.” That word has been the battlefield of theological controversy, but what is meant is the simple historical coming forth into human life of that Divine Spirit. And, possibly, the word is chosen to give the idea of a voluntary and personal action of the Messenger, who not only is sent by the Father, but of Himself proceeds on the mighty work to which He is destined. Mark that wonderful phrase, twice repeated and emphasized by repetition “ from the Father.” The word translated “ from” designates a position at the side of, and suggests much rather the intimate and ineffable union between, Father, Son, and Spirit than the source from which the Spirit comes. 3. Is not all this enough to make the weakest strong, and to make us “ more than conquerors through Him that loved us” ? All nations have legends of the gods fighting at the head of their armies, and through the dust of battle the white horses and the shining armour of the celestial champions have been seen. The chiddish dream is a historical reality. It is not we that fight, it is the Spirit of God that fighteth in us. II. THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT WHICH AGAINST THE WORLD. “ He shall bear witness of Me.” That phrase, “ unto you,” tells us that the witness is something which is done within the circle of the Christian believers, and not in the wide field of the world’ s history or in nature. Of course it is a great truth that long before Jesus Christ, and today far beyond the limits of His name the Spirit of God is working. As of old, He brooded over the chaotic darkness, ever labouring to turn chaos into order, and darkness into light; so today, all over the field of humanity, He is operating. But what is spoken of here is something that is done in and on Christian men, and not even through them on the world, but in them for themselves. “ He shall testify of Me” to you. 1. The first application of these words is to the little group listening to Him. Never were men more desolate and beaten down than these were, in the prospect of Christ’ s departure. Never were men more utterly bewildered and dispirited than these were, in the days between His crucifixion and His resurrection. Think of them during His earthly life, their narrow understandings, their manifold faults, moral as well as intellectual. What was it that made these dwarfs into giants in six weeks; that made them start up all at once as heroes and that so swiftly matured them, as the fruits and flowers are ripened under tropical sunshine? The witness of the Spirit of God working within them, working upon what they knew of the historical facts of Christ’ s life, and interpreting them, was the explanation of their change and growth. And the New Testament is product of that. Christ’ s life was the truth which the Spirit used, and the product of His teaching was these epistles which we have, and which for us step into the place which the historical facts held for them; and become the instrument with which the Spirit of God will deepen our understanding of Christ and enlarge our knowledge of what He is to us. 2. The promise still applies to each of us in a secondary and modified sense. For there is nothing in these great valedictory words which is not the revelation of a permanent truth in regard to the Christian Church. And, therefore, we have the promise of a universal gift to all Christian men and women, an actual Divine Spirit to dwell with each of us, to speak in our hearts. And what will He do there? He will teach us a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. He will help us to understand better what He is. He will show us more and more of the whole sweep of His work, of the whole infinite truth for morals and religion, for politics and society, for time and for eternity, about men and about God, which is wrapped up in that great saying which we first of all, perhaps under the pressure of our own sense of sin, grasp as our deliverance from sin--“ God so loved the world,” etc. And as the days roll on, and new problems rise, and new difficulties present themselves, and new circumstances emerge in our personal life, we find the truth that we first of all dimly grasped as life and salvation, opening out into wisdom and depth and meaning that we never dreamed of in the early hours. 3. Then, note that this inward witness of Christ’ s depth and preciousness is the true weapon and stay against a hostile world. (1) A little candle in a room will make the lightning outside almost invisible; and if I have burning in my heart the inward experience and conviction of what Jesus Christ is, and what He has done and will do for me--oh, then all the storm without may rage and it will not trouble. (2) If you take an empty vessel and bring pressure to bear upon it, in go the sides. Fill it, and they will resist the pressure. So with growing knowledge of Christ and growing personal experience of His sweetness in our souls, we shall be able to throw off, untouched and undinted, the pressure which would otherwise have crushed us. 4. And so here is the true secret of tranquillity, in an age of questioning and doubt. Let me have that Divine voice speaking in my heart, and no matter what questions may be doubtful, this is sure--“ We know whom we have believed” ; and we can say, “ Settle all your controversies any way you like, one thing I know” --“ the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true.” Labour for more of this inward, personal conviction of the preciousness of Jesus Christ to strengthen you against a hostile world. 5. And remember that there are conditions under which this Voice speaks in our souls (1) One is that we attend to the instrument which the Spirit of God uses, and that is “ the truth.” If Christians will not read their Bibles, they need not expect to have the words of these Bibles interpreted and made real to them by any inward experience. (2) And there must be moral discipline too. Laziness, worldliness, the absorption of attention with other things, self-conceit, prejudice, and the taking of our religion at second hand, stand in the way of our hearing the Spirit of God when He speaks. Come away from the babble and go by yourself, and take your Bibles with you and read them and meditate upon them and get near the Master of whom they speak, and the Spirit which uses the truth will use it to fortify you. III. THE WITNESS WITH WHICH THE MAY WIN THE WORLD. “ And ye also shall bear witness of Me,” etc. That also has, of course, direct reference to the apostles, and therefore their qualification was simply the companionship with Him which enabled them to say, “ We saw what we tell you; we were witnesses from the beginning.” But then, again, it belongs to us all, and so here is the task of the Christian Church in all its members. They receive the witness of the Spirit, and they are Christ’ s witnesses in the world. Note 1. What we have to do--to bear witness: not to argue, to adorn, but simply to attest. 2. What we have to attest--the fact, not of the historical life of Jesus Christ, because we are not in a position to be witnesses of that, but the fact of His preciousness and power, and the fact of our own experience of what He has done for us. 3. That is by far the most powerful agency for winning the world. You can never make men angry by saying to them, “ We have found the Messias.” You cannot irritate people, or provoke them into a controversial opposition when you say, “ Brother I let me tell you my experience. I was dark, sad, sinful, weak, solitary, miserable; and I got light, gladness, pardon, strength, companionship, and a joyful hope.” We can all say that. This is the witness that needs no eloquence, no genius, no anything except honesty and experience; and whosoever has tasted and felt and handled of the Word of Life may surely go to a brother and say, “ Brother! I have eaten and am satisfied. Will you not help yourself?” We can all do it, and we ought to do it. Conclusion: The Christian privilege of being witnessed to by the Spirit of God in our hearts brings with it the Christian duty of befog witnesses in our turn to the world. Oh! listen to the Master, who says, “ Him that confesseth Me before men, will I also confess before My Father in heaven.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) John 15:27 And ye also shall bear witness True Christian testimony (text in conjunction with John 16:1-4):--In this we see I. THE SPIRIT OF GODLY . It comes only from the Lord, and serves the Lord only (John 15:26). Do not trust your own talents and power, but implore heaven’ s blessing. Otherwise you will be in the case of Gehazi with the prophet’ s stick. The witnessing must be concerning Him, not concerning us, our zeal, wisdom, or success. II. SINCERE TRUTH. It comes from the heart and goes to the heart (John 15:27). III. COURAGE (John 16:2). Stephen and the martyrs of everyage had this. If an unfriendly world has persecuted the Master, His followers must not expect to escape, although it may only take the form of a smile or a sneer. IV. HOLY LOVE--a love for men that says, “ They do not know the Lord” (John 15:3). He prayed for His enemies because they knew not what they did. It is not all malignity which meets us in the shape of evil at the hands of our fellow creatures--much of it is folly, blindness, and infirmity. (C. Gerok, D. D.) Witness bearing for Christ I. ITS NATURE. To witness is to give testimony: and testimony is a statement of facts within the knowledge of the witness. 1. The facts. Christ risen; alive; living in the witness; saving the witness now. The facts relate to a present experience, and not to what may have been realized years ago. 2. A knowledge of the facts. No court will admit a desire, hope, belief, as evidence. So the Christian witness must know that Christ is able to save. 3. A statement of the facts known. A holy life is necessary not only to salvation, but to give credibility to testimony; but it cannot of itself bear testimony. We must declare Christ as the source of our excellencies and joys, and confirm our statement by a consistent life. II. ITS . The text is imperative. It is not a matter of option whether we bear witness or not. 1. It is demanded by the constitution of things. Science, art, and enterprize, etc., are largely dependent on testimony for success. And so the gospel is spread by the testimony of those who enjoy it as a living power in the soul. 2. It is one of the ordained weapons for the conquest of the world. Our Lord did not burden His soldiers. One coat, a pair of shoes, and two weapons--the Word and the testimony--made up their outfit. They preached Christ from the prophecies and then charged upon the enemy by their testimony. “ They testified and preached.” Paul was made “ a minister and a witness.” The secret of many failures is a want of true and deep experience which enables the preacher to join clear and definite testimony to the Word. 3. Its power to stir and overcome the wicked one. Witness the success of evangelists of very limited ability. (S. Baker.) The witness of the Church to Christ It is in truth one of the most serious things in life to be called upon solemnly to bear witness before our fellow men and with the invocation of the presence and help of God, even to one’ s own observation, experience, conviction. To speak out simply and fully, without regard to consequences, the whole truth and nothing but the truth of those matters on which our testimony may be required, involves a simplicity of mind, a straightforwardness, and a courage which are probably less common than we are apt to suppose. How much more awful the duty of bearing witness for God, of representing to the world His thoughts, His words, His life! And yet this is the duty of all who know Him. It was the work to which He called that ancient people whom He separated from the idolatrous nations of the earth, and recorded His incommunicable Name among them. But even He, the Holy Ghost, is not alone in the work of testifying of Jesus; for He adds, “ And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.” The members of His mystical body are to be fellow workers with God, and organs of the Divine Spirit. And what is the nature of the witness which they were to carry to the world. 1. They were to testify to His Person. “ Bear witness--not merely of My doctrine, not merely of My works but--of Me.” It is the one most marked peculiarity of our blessed Lord’ s teaching. Other teachers and leaders had been contented to have followers who would receive and disseminate their doctrines. And the true witness must also direct men to Him, as the God man, the Redeemer, the Prophet, Priest, and King of humanity. 2. They were to testify to His work. They had been with Him from the beginning, and had heard His words and seen His deeds of truth and love and power. The testimony to His work is the completion of the witness to His Person. What He has done for us must explain what He is to us. 3. But they were also to testify to His life. It was in His life that the nature of His person and the character of His work were most fully disclosed. His Divine greatness, His moral sublimity, His redeeming power all shone out in the unequalled, unapproachable grandeur of His life. It declared itself to be unearthly, superhuman, from God. This, then, is the very core of our witness for Christ--not merely a better life than the life of the world: it will of course be in all respects a better life, but that is not all: it must be another life, drawing its origin from a higher source, animated by a higher principle, directed towards a higher end. It is not difficult to account for the profound impression produced upon men of all ages and lands, and of the most various culture, by the grandeur and sublimity of the character of Jesus Christ. Men could not help being struck with the absolute self-renunciation, the entire spirit of self-sacrifice which pervaded, like an atmosphere, His every thought, and word, and deed. It was a thing, a thought so absolutely new to the world. Obedience more or less ready and willing to the command of a superior they were not unacquainted with. But the complete, voluntary, and a cheerful surrender of a will to God, so complete and entire that there was no hesitancy, no momentary effort at self-assertion, was a phenomenon unexpected and startling, which revealed a kind of spiritual force which they had never seen in operation. Can we wonder that, when men have seen the disciples of Jesus fond of worldly display, greedy of honour, ambitious of place and of power, craving for earthly distinction, they should have found us false witnesses for God, and laughed us to scorn? Can we wonder that some, not caring to mark the startling contrast between the Master and the scholar, should have blasphemed the Holy Name by which we are called? Mark another element in the superhuman life of Christ: His ardent and unquenchable love of souls. They who would be witnesses for our Lord must first be deeply convinced of the unworldliness of the life of Christ, they must have heard and received His testimony to Himself and to them: “ Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” “ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And yet again, we do not learn from the example of our Lord that ours need not be, ought not to be, an unsympathetic unworldliness? The light of Christ was not the clear cold, hard moonlight of a winter’ s night; but the bright, soft, warm sunshine of a summer’ s day. The unworldliness of the Son of God was not that of a stern asceticism which refused to own relationship with those who could not rise to its level. It was on the contrary gentle, tolerant, winning. The life of unworldliness of which we have spoken, as the true witness for” Christ, is beset with great and peculiar difficulties in our own day. (W. R. Clark, M. A.) . John 16:1-6 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended Christ’ s reasons for present speech and former silence I. OUR LORD’ S LOVING REASON FOR HIS SPEECH. 1. The two statements of Joh 16:1; John 4:1-54 are separated by a reiteration of the dark prospect that He has been holding out. The world is the apostate Jewish Church. A formal church is the true world, to-day as then. And such a body will do the cruellest things and believe that it is offering up Christ’ s witnesses as sacrifices to God. And the bottom of it all is that in the blaze of light, and calling themselves God’ s, “ they do not know” either God or Christ. 2. But that is all parenthetical. Look now at the loving reasons which Christ here suggests for His speech. “ That ye should not stumble.” There could be nothing more productive of intellectual bewilderment and doubt than to find oneself at odds with the synagogue about the question of the Messiah. A modest man might naturally say, “ Perhaps I am wrong and they are right.” A coward would be sure to say, “ I will sink my convictions and fall in with the majority.” And, says Christ, “ the only way by which you will ever get over these temptations is to reflect that I told you it would be so, before it came to pass.” 3. Of course all that has a special bearing upon the apostles, &c., a secondary bearing upon Christians, who live in a time of persecution. But it also has a bearing upon us. For, if we are trying to live like our Master, we, too, shall often be surrounded by people that take such an entirely opposite view of duty and of truth, as that we shall be only too much disposed to say, “ Well, perhaps after all it is better for me to hold my tongue.” And then, besides, there are all the cares and griefs which befall each of us. Christ does not try to enlist recruits by highly-coloured pictures. He tells us plainly at the beginning, “ If you take My yoke upon you, you will have to carry a heavy burden.” The roadway is narrow and rough, and the gateway is very strait, but it all goes steadily up. Will you accept the terms and come in and walk upon it? Jesus Christ will have no service on false pretences. Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom. And the way by which all these troubles and cares can best be overcome is precisely by this thought, “ The Master has told us before.” (1) Sorrows anticipated are easier met. It is when the ship is caught with all its sails set that it is almost sure to go down. But when the barometer has been watched, and its fall has given warning, and everything has been made fast, and every spare yard has been sent below, and all tightened up and made ship-shape--then she can ride out the storm. Forewarned is forearmed. (2) Sorrow foretold gives us confidence in our guide. We have the chart, and as we look upon it we see marked “ waterless country,” “ pathless rocks,” “ desert and sand,” “ wells and palm trees.” Well, when we come to the first of these, and find ourselves as the map says; and when, as we go on mile after mile, we find that it is all down there, we say to ourselves, “ The remainder will be accurate too.” And if we are in Marah to-day, we shall be at Elim to-morrow. He has told us this; if there had been anything worse than this He would have told us that. (3) Sorrow that comes punctually in accordance with His word plainly comes in obedience to His will. “ Their hour” --the time allotted to them by Him. He could tell that they would come, because it was as His instruments that they came. It was only an “ hour,” a definite, appointed, and brief period in accordance with His loving purpose. It takes all sorts of weathers to make a year; and after all the sorts of weathers are run out the year’ s results are realized and the calm comes. II. OUR LORD’ S LOVING REASONS FOR PAST SILENCE. 1. “ These things” (John 16:4) include the whole of the previous chapter, in which He sets the sorrow as being the consequence of union with Him. In so systematic and detailed fashion our Lord had not spoken in His earlier ministry. And the reason why He had given but passing hints before was because He was there. What a superb confidence that expresses in His ability to shield His poor followers, “ as a hen gathereth her chickens,” &c. But He is going away, and so it is time to speak, and to speak more plainly. 2. For us, too, difficulties and sorrows, though foretold in general terms, are largely hidden till they are near. It would have been of little use for Christ to have spoken more plainly before. The disciples managed to misunderstand His plain utterances about His own death and resurrection. There needs to be an adaptation between the hearing ear and the spoken word. And there are great tracts of Scripture dealing with the sorrows of life, which lie dark and dead to us, until experience vitalizes them. The old Greeks used to send messages from one army to another by means of a roll of parchment twisted spirally round a baton, and then written upon. And it was perfectly unintelligible when it fell into a man’ s hands that had not a corresponding baton to twist it upon. Many of Christ’ s messages to us are like that. You can only understand the utterances when life gives you the frame round which to wrap them, and then they flash up into meaning, and we say at once, “ He told us it all before, and I scarcely knew that He had told me until this moment when I need it.” (1) It is merciful that there should be a gradual unveiling of what is to come to us, that the road should wind, and that we should see so short a way before us. Did you never say to yourselves, “ If I had known all this before, I do not think I could have lived to face it.” Thank God for the loving reticence, and for the as loving eloquence of His speech. (2) There ought to be in our lives times of close communion with that Master, when His presence makes all thought of trials in the future needlessly disturbing. If these disciples had drunk in His Spirit when they were with Him, then they would not have been so bewildered when He left them. III. THE OF OUR LORD’ S WORDS WHICH LEADS TO SORROW INSTEAD OF JOY (John 16:5-6). The one definite idea that they gathered was that He was going. And they said, “ Going? What, is to become of us?” If there had been a little less selfishness, and if they had put their question, “ Going? What is to become of Him?” then it would not have been sorrow that would have filled their heart, but joy. That gives us a thought that the steadfast contemplation of the ascended Christ is the sovereign antidote against all sense of separation and solitude, the sovereign power by which we may face a hostile world, the sovereign cure for every sorrow. If we could live in the light of that great triumph, then, oh! how small would the babble of a world be. Look up to the Master that has gone, and as the dying martyr outside the city wall “ saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing” --having sprung to His feet to help His poor servant--“ at the right hand of God,” so with that vision in our eyes we shall be masters of grief and care, and sin, and feel that the absent is the present Christ, and the present Christ is the conquering power in us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The Church and the world I. THE OF THE CHURCH TO THE WORLD IS THE SAME AS CHRIST’ S--one of moral contrast as to character, principle, motive, inward life, whether it be the Jewish world, or the Greek, or the Roman. And it is the same now. Conceive the character of Christ, and place by the side of it that of a thoroughly worldly man, you will have the most striking contrast. “ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And marks there are, plain and palpable, between the Church and the world. There are two kinds of changes possible with respect to these. 1. They may be shifted. (1) The Church may push them out so as to take in more and more of the world, bringing in more and more converted spirits. (2) The world may push it in upon the Church, making inroads upon it, persecuting it. Moral ravages, too, may be made, and those who have been in the Church may backslide, and the number of the faithful may be thus diminished. 2. They may be obliterated (1) By practical compromise. The peculiarities of Christian character are by degrees diminished, and the Church becomes more and more like the world, so that one shades itself off, and gradually fades away into the other. (2) By theoretical dogmas. The puritan doctrine was most unmistakeable. But there is in these days a doctrine which is just the opposite, that instead of dwelling upon the distinction between the Church and the world, dwells upon what belongs to Christians and men of the world in common. Now, we must protest against this obliteration of landmarks. Christ has drawn them most distinctly, and it is at our peril that we destroy them. We believe as firmly as any in the fatherhood of God over all His creatures; but in the case of worldly men, they have broken the hands of spiritual relationship, and adopted themselves into another family. We believe also in the universality of the atonement; but still there is to be a distinction made between those who accept that gospel and those who reject it. II. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH IS THE SAME AS THE MISSION OF CHRIST. “ As Thou hast sent Me into the world,” &c. “ I am the Light of the world,” “ Ye are the light of the world.” Christ is represented 1. In the Church’ s testimony of truth. The Church is to hold forth the truth, to make a stand for it, to illustrate and enforce it. 2. In the Church’ s missionary operations. Christ was the great Missionary, and His work is now to be carried on instrumentally by His Church. “ Go ye into all the world.” There are different kinds of missions. There is the lip mission; the pen mission; the hand mission; the foot mission; but chief of all, there is the life mission, and that must be connected with all the rest. Some men have done great things for the cause of Christ by their intellectual power, by pecuniary power, by business power, but I believe there is still more to be done by moral and social power. That connected with the rest makes the rest most effective. III. THE DESTINY OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD, AND THE DESTINY OF CHRIST’ S CHURCH IN THE WORLD IS THE SAME. “ If ye were of the world, the world would love his own,” &c., and so the text. A great change has been wrought in society by the influence of Christianity; so that the world is not what it was when the prediction was first spoken. And persecution does not exist now in the world as it once did. It is one part of the nominal church persecuting another. But the world is still opposed to what is most truly the spirit of Christianity. The world does not like to hear about the mediation of the Lord Jesus or the work of the Holy Spirit. And then, again, the world is not opposed to some aspects of Christian consistency. When a Christian carries out that in the way of generosity the world will praise him, but when he refuses to connive at deceit and falsehood, the spirit of the world will come out and persecute. Nor is the world so much opposed to moral consistency as to spiritual consistency. Those who oppose forms of amusement which are instinct with evil, such men the world hates. The world, too, may admire specimens of Christianity which are remote, but it does not like specimens of Christianity which are near. Bunyan dead is applauded, but Bunyan alive would not be so. Had Havelock come to England and exemplified his principles in connection with some civil callings at home, there are numbers who would have been ready to persecute the very man whom they applauded to the skies when he was far away. In many cases also the world would be found to admire Christians in spite of their Christianity, but not because of their Christianity. They are praised for their kindness, their generosity, their humility; but their fondness for prayer, their religious strictness, and so on, how often all this is regarded as an abatement! (J. Stoughton, D. D.) They shall put you out of the synagogues The best men liable to the worst treatment from mistaken zealots I. THE BEST OF MEN MAY BE FROM THE OF THOSE WHO MAY ASSUME TO BE THE TRUE AND ONLY TRUE CHURCH, and that under the notion of very bad and criminal persons. What the Jews did to the apostles hath been too frequently practised since by some of the professors of Christianity towards one another. Witness the case of Athanasius and others, in the reign and prevalency of Arianism, and the ill treatment that whole churches have met with from that haughty and uncharitable church which makes nothing of thundering out excommunication against persons and churches more Christian than herself. But it is our comfort, that the apostles were thus used by a church that made the same pretences that they do, and upon grounds every whit as plausible. II. THEY WHO ARE THUS MAY BE TRUE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. Men may be put out of the synagogue, and yet received into heaven; for the judgment of God is not according to the uncharitable censures of men, but according to truth and right. III. FROM MEN PROCEED TO CRUEL ACTIONS. This has been the source of the most barbarous cruelties; witness the severity of the heathens persecution, which justified itself by the uncharitable opinion that the Christians were despisers of the gods, and consequently atheists; but they were pertinacious and obstinate in their opinions; i.e., in the modern style, heretics. And the like uncharitable conceit has been thought a sufficient ground (even in the judgment of the infallible chair) for the justification of several bloody massacres; for after men are once sentenced to eternal damnation, it seems a small thing to torment their bodies. IV. MEN MAY DO THE VILEST AND MOST WICKED THINGS OUT OF A REAL THAT THEY DO . The great duties and virtues of religion are easy to be understood; and so are the contrary sins and vices: but then they are only plain to a teachable and honest mind; to those who receive the Word with meekness and love. But if men will give up themselves to be governed by any corrupt interest, to be blinded by prejudice, intoxicated by pride, and transported by passion, no wonder if they mistake the nature, and confound the differences of things, in the plainest and most palpable cases; no wonder if God give up persons of such corrupt minds to strong delusions to believe lies. In these cases men may take the wrong way, and yet believe themselves to be in the right and be verily persuaded that they are serving God, and sacrificing to Him. Of this we have a plain and full instance in the Scribes and Pharisees, and in St. Paul. And if God had not checked him in his course, he would have spent his whole life in persecution, and would (with Pope Paul IV. upon his death-bed) have recommended the Inquisition to the chief priests and rulers of the Jewish Church. V. SUCH ACTIONS ARE WICKED. To make an action good and acceptable to God, we must do it with a good mind, and to a good end, and it must be good and lawful in itself. VI. THE OF THE BEST THINGS IS THE WORST. Religion is certainly the highest perfection of human nature; and zeal for God highly acceptable: and yet nothing is more barbarous, and spurs men on to more horrid impieties, than a blind zeal for God, and false and mistaken principles in the matter of religion (Acts 26:9-11). (Abp. Tillotson.) Whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. The word “ doeth” is the technical word for offering sacrifice (cf. Matthew 5:23; Matthew 8:4) . The word “ service” means the service of worship (Romans 9:4; Romans 12:1; Hebrews 9:1-6). A rabbinic comment on Numbers 25:13 is, “ Whosoever sheddeth the blood of the wicked is as he who offereth sacrifice.” The martyrdom of St. Stephen, or St. Paul’ s account of himself as a persecutor (Acts 26:9; Galatians 1:13-14), shows how these words were fulfilled in the first years of the Church’ s history, and such accounts are not absent from that history’ s latest page. (Archdeacon Watkins.) Abuse of conscience What a rattle and noise hath this word conscience made! How many battles has it fought? how many churches has it robbed, ruined, and reformed to ashes? how many laws has it trampled upon, dispensed with, and addressed against? and in a word, how many governments has it overturned? Such is the mischievous force of a plausible word applied to a detestable thing (Acts 26:9). (R. South, D. D.) Put you out of the synagogue Excommunication was much more than simply to exclude from the place of public worship. It cut a man off from the privileges of his people, from the society of his former associates. It was a sort of moral outlawry, and the physical disabilities followed the sufferer even after death. To be under this ban was almost more than flesh and blood could bear. All men shunned him on whom such a mark was set. He was literally an outcast; in lasting disgrace and perpetual danger. Those familiar with the history of the dark ages, or who are acquainted with the effects of losing caste among the Hindoos, will be able to realize the terrors of such a system. Sometimes this punishment and degradation was a prelude even to death. At all events, the Jews, who since their subjugation by the Romans had lost the legal prerogative of life and death, yet thought it meritorious even by irregular and clandestine measures to compass the destruction of those who were obnoxious. And the men who, in however underhand a manner, carried out the secret sentence of their displeasure were regarded by the rulers with approbation. So that there grew up a desperate and fanatical sect among them, which went by a name which in our adopted term of “ zealot” has a very mitigated meaning. (G. J. Brown, M. A.) Excommunication among the Jews The three degrees of excommunication among the Jews were 1. Niddui, putting out of the synagogue (Luke 6:22). And the effect of this excommunication was to exclude men from the communion of the Church and people of God and from His service, which was a great disgrace, because after this sentence none of the Jews were to converse with them, but to look upon them as heathens and publicans. 2. Cherem, which extended farther, to the confiscation of goods into the sacred treasury, and devoting them to God, after which there was no redemption of them (Ezra 10:7-9). 3. Shammatha when the rebellious and contumacious person was anathematized and devoted, and, as some conceive, according to the law Leviticus 27:29), was to be put to death; though other very knowing men in the Jewish learning think it amounted to no more than a final sentence, whereby they were left to the judgment of God, by some remarkable judgment of His to be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Of the first and last of these degrees of excommunication our Saviour seems here to speak. (Archbishop Tillotson.) Gratitude for massacre One of the most horrid circumstances attending the dreadful massacre of the Protestants under Charles IX. of Prance was that, when the news of this event reached Rome, Pope Gregory XIII. instituted the most solemn rejoicing, giving thanks to Almighty God for this glorious victory over the heretics!! Religious fanaticism In the Huguenot persecution in Belgium and France in 1562, the inhabitants of the town of Orange fell into the hands of the Catholics. They were hacked to pieces, burnt at slow fires, or left, infamously mutilated, to bleed to death. Noble ladies, first sacrificed to the lust of the soldiers, were exposed in the streets to die--either naked, or pasted over in devilish mockery with the torn leaves of their Geneva Bibles. Old men and children, women and sick, all perished under cruelties unexampled even in the infernal annals of religious fanaticism. (J. A.Froude.) Religious intolerance dishonouring to God In one of the Jews’ books it is stated that when Abraham sat at his tent door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age. He received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, and caused him to sit down. But observing that the old man eat and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven. The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham and asked him where the stranger was. He replied, “ I thrust him away because he did not worship Thee.” God answered him, “ I have suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonoured Me; and couldest thou not endure him one night, when he gave thee no trouble?” Upon this, salts the story, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction. “ Go thou, and do likewise,” and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham. (Jeremy Taylor.) The fate of the first disciples Matthew suffered martyrdom by the sword in Ethiopia. Mark died at Alexandria, after being dragged through the city. Luke was hanged on an olive tree in Greece. Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward. James was beheaded at Jerusalem. James the less was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple and beaten to death below. Philip was hanged against a pillar in Phrygia. Bartholomew was flayed alive. Andrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached to his persecutors till he died. Thomas was run through the body at Coromandel, in India. Jude was shot to death with arrows. Matthias was first stoned, and then beheaded. Barnabas was stoned to death by Jews at Salonica. Paul, “ in deaths oft,” was beheaded at Rome by Nero. (J. Angus, D. D.) Because they have not known the Father, nor Me The tribulation explained I. TRACED TO ITS CAUSE--ignorance. It is strange how differently Christ and man may view the same action. The Jews imagined they above all men were acquainted with the Father, and knew better than all the world beside what kind of service to present upon His altar. This was not the judgement of Christ. II. IN ITS . Though Christ ascribed their behaviour to ignorance, He does not say that for this they were not responsible, if they did not know the Father or Him they might have known John 15:22). III. IN ITS ACTORS. One cannot help thinking Christ designed His words to awaken pity in the breasts of His persecuted followers, like that afterwards found in His own, when, hanging on the cross, He prayed for His murderers (Luke 23:34). (T. Whitelaw,D. D.) But now I go My way to Him that sent Me Going to God He says, not that He is going the way of all the earth, because He was not going as all flesh must go, from the necessity of man’ s nature, but of His own will. All things which He suffered on earth were a going to His Father, a fulfilment of His mission, and the way by which He was to return to Him that sent Him. By His cross and passion, by His sufferings and death, was His kingdom to be set up and His throne established. And by reminding His disciples of this truth He seeks to assuage their grief, and to prevent their being offended in Him, since, however greatly He should be humiliated, and however many His sufferings might be, they were all but a going to His Father, all but the means by which His glory was to be made known unto men. This thought was the consolation of the Man Christ Jesus, and with the same thought He consoles us. The oil from the head of our Great High Priest flowed down to all His members, even the oil of gladness to comfort them in all their troubles. The whole of this present life of man is one continual going either to God or from Him. All thoughts and deeds of our daily life are either separating us from our heavenly Father or drawing us towards Him in whose presence we are at all times. It is our vocation to pass through life into the glory of our Father; and our duty to remember that whilst all is shifting around us, the Christian’ s career is in itself a going the way to Him that sent him. (W. Denton, M. A.) None of you asked Me, Whither goest Thou? Misdirected and sanctified curiosity Curiosity is often reprehensible. It is the fault of many to wish to pry into matters which they had much better never know. But there is one direction in which inquiry is never out of place. We can never be too anxious to know about Christ, the reasons of His movements, and the explanations of His doings (1 Peter 1:10-12). Here anxious interest and casting about for light are not only legitimate, but necessary to our proper instruction, comfort, and salvation (James 1:5). But just here it is that the human heart is most sluggish. People spend their lives searching into questions of political and domestic economy, finance, commerce, agriculture, education. They toil and experiment touching the character, relations, and classifications of rocks, metals, soils, plants, insects, reptiles, animals, birds, and flowers. They explore and labour, at every expense and inconvenience, to make and test theories about the world. They rummage the darkest histories of the past, and exhaust their powers speculating upon the phenomena of human life, and perplex themselves about a thousand things in reference to which the best wisdom is as useless as it is scanty. But when it comes to the great and mighty movements of the Lord of all, the incarnation of Jehovah for the redemption of a world labouring under the curse of sin, and those moral and spiritual administrations, without which all the universe must be as nothing to us, they have no inquiries of living interest to propound. And to many an energetic sage and earnest searcher in departments not a thousandth part the account of this, the wronged and burdened Saviour is compelled to say, “ I go My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?” And especially in times of affliction, when the good Lord seems to withdraw Himself, and leave us to ourselves and our weaknesses, does the Saviour find occasion to complain of the deadness of men, paralyzed with their griefs, when they ought to be inquiring of Him about the reasons and objects of them. He has His explanations for all our days of darkness, and an antidote for every pain or privation we suffer, if only we had the faith and interest to ask after it. But the human heart is such an inveterate doubter, and so ready to give way before what is afflictive and dark, that we often miss the very consolations which are at hand, just because we are too dull and despondent to make the requisite inquiry. (J. A. Seiss, M. A.) John 16:7 It is expedient for you that I go away The absenteeism of Christ 1. The words must have been very startling to the apostles. They had doubtless come to consider the personal presence of Christ indispensable. He was the principle of cohesion among them, and His departure would be the signal for the dissolution of the brotherhood. He, moreover, gave them what influence they possessed in the nation; for without Him they were but a band of ignorant fishermen. 2. Now if these words were true in the case of the apostles, they are true for all time. The absenteeism of Christ is a help rather than a hindrance to the religious life. I. It is, of course, true that THE DEATH OF ANY GOOD MAN IS SO FAR A LOSS TO THE WORLD. It is the withdrawal of a beneficent influence. How grand, then, it would have been, to have had Him, the world’ s greatest blessing, making one everlasting pilgrimage round the globe. But 1. Such perpetual residence here would have limited His moral influence. No man is understood till he is dead. Absence is the condition of correct insight. Presence either blinds us to greatness, or produces flattery, or that familiarity which begets indifference. It is to be feared that, had Christ remained for ever on the earth, the blindness of the Jews who saw no beauty in Him to make Him desired, would have been repeated by each succeeding generation. We labour under an incapacity for seeing a hero in the man whose hand we can shake. The fault, no doubt, lies in us who live so much in our senses, and look only on the surface of the life. That the valet cannot see a hero in his master is more likely to be due to the valet’ s blindness than to the master’ s defects. We might have gained in physical happiness from Christ’ s perpetual presence, but that would have been but a poor compensation for the loss of reverence, and the inspiring lift our whole nature has received from the ascended and invisible Christ. Why, the physical boon itself would have been but parochial and temporary. And thereon would have arisen dissatisfactions and jealousies. 2. Christ’ s perpetual residence here would have been against the growth of the religious life. Instead of living for Christ and God in our hearts, we should have lived for them only in our senses. We should never have hungered for the hour of religious meditation, but rather have complained that He had long delayed to appear in our streets. Newspapers would have been searched to learn His whereabouts; shiploads of the stricken would have travelled the deep, and longed impatiently for the port of their destination; and the rest would have lived on in the restless hope that He would pass their way before they died. Who would have thought of submitting with obedient heart to the afflictions of Providence, of seeking out their Divine purpose when one word from Christ would remove them all at once? Would men ever think of spiritual fellowship with Christ when physical fellowship might be had? Is it not far better that, instead of being the monopoly of a favoured few, He should be ever near to all who call upon Him; that, instead of gazing on Him as a man without, we should feel Him in the background of our hearts? 3. Had Christ dwelt for ever on the earth the good and the bad would have had equal experience and perception of Him. His absence from the earth was indispensable to His manifesting Himself to His people in another way than He could unto the world. 4. Christ’ s perpetual residence here would have made impossible the expected distribution of His spirit in the hearts and lives of men, and through all the political, moral, and social organizations of the globe. II. You will see the expediency of Christ’ s departure from the earth, if you consider that HIS HERE WOULD HAVE SECURED US NO , except, indeed, relief from physical ills; and, if you admit that these are productive of moral good, and work in us a recompensing glory, it is questionable if their arbitrary removal would have been an unmixed blessing. All the good Christ could do for the world might be summed up under these points 1. In His sacrificing Himself for sin. And here it will be obvious that the satisfactoriness of His death could in but a small measure depend upon any condition of time. As soon as the hour had struck when He would be accepted as our Substitute, it would have availed nothing to have deferred the hour of His triumphal return to God. 2. In impressing on the world’ s imagination an ideal of saintliness and nobleness of character that would make for righteousness and protest against evil through all generations. Into the doing of this the condition of time, in a greater measure, did enter; but when He had reached the age at which He spoke of the expediency of His departure, this end had been attained. He has left no more precious legacy behind Him than the memory of what He was. (J. Forfar.) The departure of Christ This departure I. HAS SECURED TO THE CHURCH HIS . While dwelling here as our Saviour He was not ubiquitous. This was sometimes an apparent loss. “ Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” How this wail would have extended itself had He remained. Europe would have cried for Him when He was teaching the millions of Asia, &c. No Church now mourns an absent Lord. When faith looks for Him it sees Him. When love yearns for Him it feels Him near. Only when these are feeble do we seem to be forsaken and alone. We have then one friend to whose memory no tablet will ever be erected, and no tear shed; for the strong arm will never cease to hold us securely, and the loving heart will not fail to keep alive our affection with the fire of its abiding love. II. , TO A GREAT EXTENT, THE GROWTH OF A FOR HIM. “ We have known Christ after the flesh.” Many have an affection for His person without regard to His character and work. It is one thing to weep over Christ’ s sufferings, and quite another thing to weep over our sins. Blessed are they who can say, “ Whom having not seen we love.” Their affection is not less strong, while probably it is more spiritual than it would have been had He remained on earth. III. ENABLES US TO HIM BETTER THAN WE COULD HAVE DONE HAD HE . Why are we more ready to garnish the graves of dead saints than to praise the virtues of living ones? Not always because we are envious. Mainly, perhaps, because just as we may get too near a magnificent pile of architecture, and thus lose sight of the exquisite harmony of the whole. No man was more unknown than Christ. Even His attached friends misunderstood His plainest teachings. It was well that He went away. Things dimly seen before, shone with unclouded radiance after His departure. IV. SECURED THE OUT-POURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. It is very probable that this was the chief cause of His departure. Their views of the Holy Spirit were very indistinct. Nevertheless, the language of Christ concerning Him had kindled a strong desire for His presence. Now they learn the price which must be paid for His advent. “ If I go not away,” &c. How essential the Spirit was to them, and to the interests of the kingdom, all their subsequent history shows. And there never has been an age in which the Church could afford to dispense with His presence. If this were the only reason for the departure of Christ, we could not murmur. We have not lost our Lord. “ He takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us.” He strengthens our faith in Him, deepens our love to Him, enlarges our desires after Him, sanctifies our communion with Him. (H. B. Robinson.) Christ’ s departure and Paul’ s abiding (text, and Philippians 1:24):--Jesus thought that His disciples would gain by losing Him, and Paul thought that his friends could not do without him. A singular contrast--reverses what might have been expected. How strange it must have seemed to them that they, poor sheep in the midst of wolves, would be better without the Shepherd! And the strangeness is brought more home to us by that word of Paul’ s in which we recognize the familiar tone of love that cannot face the thought of leaving a life’ s work half done and dear ones unhelped. The contrast rests on the absolute difference between the work of Christ and that of all other teachers, friends, and guides, and so may help us to grasp the unique relation which He and it sustain to the world. It was expedient that Christ should go away, for I. CHRIST’ S DEATH IS HIS WORK. It was needful that Paul should abide, for Paul’ s death was the end of his. Paul’ s words show us how those speak who know that their departure will do nothing to advance the purposes to which they have given themselves. Christ’ s are intelligible only in the light of the great truth that He came to give His life a ransom for the many, and that His death has a substantive value all its own. II. HIS WORK GOES ON AFTER HIS DEATH, WHILE THAT OF OTHERS CEASES. When Paul dies he can no more help his brethren. True, he may leave a holy memory. The great personalities of the world may, in a certain figurative sense, be said to “ rule the nations from their urns.” But that reverberation from the past prolonged into the present is but a poor shadowy thing. Christ’ s work to-day is no mere influence flowing from activities long since terminated. It is real and continuous--a present putting forth of present power. III. CHRIST’ S TO US IS WHOLLY OF HIS BODILY . His departure aided in the apprehension of His true character and nature. Like some star, that, as long as it is low on the horizon and shrouded by mist, may be mistaken for some earthborn light, but is known for what it is as it climbs the sky, He was discerned when unseen far better than when here. When He ascended to the Father, that withdrawal from the touch of sense gave Him to the touch of faith, and these desolate disciples were nearer Him when the cloud received Him out of their sight. The true personal bond that knits men to Christ is actually helped by His absence. “ Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love,” is held in the inmost hearts of millions. That is a phenomenon in the history of human affections altogether unique, and standing in the strongest contrast to the feelings with which the most enthusiastic admirers regard the mightiest among the dead. For love, there must be, or must have been, personal intercourse. With earthly teachers and guides that is only possible whilst they live; so their abiding in the flesh is needful for us. With Jesus Christ, who died--yea, rather, who is risen again--it is possible now for us all; therefore it was our gain that He went away, “ departing for a season, that we might receive Him for ever.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ going away Our Lord here represents the complex whole of His death and ascension as being His own voluntary act. He goes. He is neither taken away by death nor rapt up to heaven in a whirlwind, but He goes into the region of the grave and thence to the throne. Contrast His ascension with that of Elijah. One needed the chariot of fire and the horses of fire to bear him up into the sphere, all foreign to his mortal and earthly manhood; the other needed no outward power to lift Him, nor any vehicle to carry Him, but slowly, serenely, upborne by His own indwelling energy, and rising as to His native home, He ascended up on high, and went where the very manner of His going proclaimed that He had been before. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) We need not lament Christ’ s departure into heaven Men long for Christ on earth. Christ in heaven is not only faint and dim, but they think a heavenly Being cannot have earthly love. There may be more purity, they think, in heavenly love than in earthly, but less heartiness, and heartiness is what they long for. Now, Christ returned to heaven that He might love more, not less. This was a part of the glory which He had laid aside and was to take again. On earth His soul stood but in the bud. He went to a fairer clime that He might blossom, and now the heavens and the earth are full of the fragrance of His love. Incarnation was limitation. Ascension was expansion. There was not room enough for such a heart while in the body. It came as a seed, and grew, but we saw only the sprouting and the leaves. Death ripened it back again to the golden fulness of a heavenly state. (H. W.Beecher.) The departed Christ The Saviour declared to His disciples that He must leave them. On Him their whole souls had rested. He epitomized to them everything that was sacred; they had forsaken occupation, and had suffered contumely for following this man; and now He was about to be taken from them; and everything in their knowledge, affection, understanding, rebelled against it. They could not comprehend it either in its relations to Him or to themselves. And yet He said, “ It is for your own interest that I go away.” That, I think, touches the universal feeling of wonder in men. I. Is there one of you who has not pondered the question, “ WHY DID CHRIST LEAVE THE WORLD? Having once come into it, and brought life and immortality to light, why did He not abide here?” 1. There are multitudes who think that if they could but once have seen Jesus, or laid their hand on His, or heard from Him the history of His life and His instructions, that it would have begotten in them a certainty, an enthusiasm, and a power which would have carried them through a thousand sloughs that otherwise must have engulphed them. 2. Then, again, men think that if once they could pour out their soul’ s allegiance to Christ, in His very presence, they could go on all their lives long worshipping and rejoicing in Him. They think it would lay the foundations of piety so strong, that all doubts would flee from them for evermore. 3. Then there is a large number who feel that if Christ were enthroned in Jerusalem, around that sacred Centre would be formed the Church circle in an unbroken unity, and that all the shattered particles of shining truth would be gathered together. 4. Then, again, there is the feeling of certainty which men seek for. This leads men to feel that if they could have a determiner of controversies, it would be a great and desirable thing. They say, “ True, we have the Bible; but how can the Bible be a determiner of controversies, when there are a dozen different and warring sects that draw their proofs from it?” There is the vicegerent in Rome; and men say, oftentimes: “ We do not believe in a great many things that are claimed in regard to the papacy; but, after all, it is a good thing to have somewhere a centre of faith--one that can determine and put an end to controversies.” I cannot deny that, at the first blush, there is some justification for these fancies; but they will not bear examination. God’ s way is always the best. II. SUPPOSE OUR MASTER HAD UPON EARTH, ABIDING IN 1. How many of the race could have seen Him? The ocean may know ways of circulating its waters; the atmosphere may change and go from place to place without vehicle or expense; but there is no grand current by which the human race may be thus carried hither and thither. So the tribes of the earth would find it difficult to go to a certain place and see the Saviour if He were on earth. Moreover, the mere social and physical disturbances would be enormous. It would break up the household, destroy social intercourse, and subject men to untold perils, and toils, and wastes, and expenses, to say nothing of the destruction of vast multitudes of the human race--witness those fearful pilgrimages in the East, and their fatal results, in famines, slaughters, and the dreaded Asiatic cholera. 2. But let us rise above these considerations of man’ s physical circumstances, and go higher. Do you suppose that you would feel any better satisfied if you had seen Christ? When the disciples were with Christ were they more strong and more powerful than afterwards? You know they were not. The inspiration that lifted them above common humanity came by faith, and not by sight. There are realms of knowledge which cannot be reached by vision, and which must be reached by the Spirit. Therefore the Saviour says, “ It is expedient,” &c. 3. But, again, would there be any more certainty of unity if Christ could yet be referred to? There are men who say: “ If we only had some one in Jerusalem who should be supreme over the Church throughout the world saying: ‘ This is the exact way--walk ye in it,’ how much better it would be!” Would it be any better? Why, we do not want mere likeness, sameness, absence of conflict. We have that--in the graveyard; and the race would be but little better than dead men if such unity were to exist, and men did not need to think, to exert themselves, or to make mistakes, which are always incident to investigation and endeavour. Some people are all the time trying to set aside the Divine providence by doing for a man what it was designed that he should do for himself. A Church formed on such principles would be like Babbage’ s calculating machine. All that would be necessary would be to turn a crank, the wheels being of just such a diameter, and with just such cogs, but having no volition, no life, individuality, Divinity! I cannot conceive how anybody who has an idea of how the providence of God is unfolding, and has unfolded the world, should stumble on that as the way in which he ought to unfold it. But it is thought that, at any rate, it would determine controversies to have one who could speak authoritatively. Did the disciples believe just what Christ told them? Did the most learned and educated men in the time of the Saviour believe what He taught them? Did not the mind act the same then as it does now? and was it not necessary for men to get at the truth by unfolding themselves, and by educating their inward nature to the thing taught them? And if Christ had lived two thousand years, He would down to this day have taught only those who were competent to understand, by reason of their growth. The earth would have always followed the same law that He pointed out to them then, and we should, have had to learn by stages, and rise accordingly. But we should not even then have come to unity. Even in the consideration of physical truths there is but very little absolute unity. And when you take social and moral truths, still more when you take spiritual truths, they are of such a nature that they report themselves to each individual according to his conformation. III. CHRIST SAID that it was expedient that He should go away, and THAT IF HE DID NOT GO THE WOULD NOT COME. Blessed word! because if there is anything that we need in this world, it is comforting. There are gods of love, of wine, of war, of government and law, but the world needs a God to comfort it. The Holy Spirit; the One who stands over against those subtle elements in the human soul--which we call the spiritual instinct or sentiment--comes to take the place of Christ, and open the doors of the understanding through the highest intuitions, and give light and direction to our interior nature, and enable us to triumph over death, and crown us sons in the kingdom of God. And this is infinitely better than that Christ should have continued on the earth in His physical form. Now, how blessed it is to feel that the heaven is filled by one who is interpreted to our spirit by historical sympathies as he never could have been interpreted to us in Jerusalem, where He would have had to walk the streets, to eat and drink and sleep as men do. In the spiritland there is not a long day’ s journey between us and Him. The distance is not even so great as that which must be gone over to send a letter from the post-office in New York to the post-office in Brooklyn. No thought emerges from your soul that does not go instantly to Him. There are no distances in spirituality. (H. W. Beecher.) Jesus invisible I. LET US SUPPOSE THAT THE SON OF MAN HAD TO REMAIN UPON THE EARTH. He could not thus remain except to die daily, or to be for ever triumphant. On which of these two alternatives must we fix? You know too well. 1. Jesus Christ always equally entitled to be loved, will always be equally hated; so that were Jesus Christ to appear successively in different countries, each of them would in its turn be moistened with His blood. If it accords with piety to believe that the Son of God died once, the just for the unjust, it is impious to believe that the blessed seed of the woman was more than once to allow His heel to be bruised by the angel of darkness. 2. Let us hasten then to reject this alternative, and conceive that He has to enjoy an everlasting triumph. He has conquered; He has put infidelity completely to flight. Jesus reigns King of all the earth. He has no more enemies or rivals. Still this kingdom, glorious as it appears, is but a place of exile. The subjects of this King have an advantage over Him. The servant is more than his Master. For Jesus Christ having suffered once, what can those around Him have to suffer? A single look from Him crowns them with glory. There is no longer either difficulty to be surmounted or struggle to be maintained. It is no longer by fire that men are saved, nor by much tribulation that they enter into glory. Religion is no longer a sacrifice; the blessing of the narrow way, and the kingdom of heaven taken by violence, are henceforth only empty sounds. It only remains to ask why earth is not already transformed into heaven? II. LET US NOW LISTEN TO JESUS CHRIST. Let us see in what this expediency consists. 1. “ If I go not away, the Comforter will not come,” &c. Remain with us, Lord, and we will be comforted. Such would perhaps have been our answer. Who can console better than Jesus? Jesus absent is only one misery more. Jesus might have answered, Are you consoled? does My presence suffice you? No; and yet I am in the midst of you. Thus it appears you still require the Comforter. Two consolations compose the whole new man. (1) Faith. To believe is to repose entirely on the infallibility and faithfulness of God. It is, consequently, to go forward with unflinching eye, and meet coming events as we would meet God Himself; to live in the Spirit; to renounce the domination of the senses; to prefer the invisible, which is eternal, In regard to what specially concerns Jesus Christ, it is to bless God that the Word was made flesh, but not to regard Jesus Christ, although perfect man, as an ordinary individual, whose presence is indissolubly attached to the body. Now, such was the disposition of the disciples, and such is human nature, that had Jesus Christ remained upon the earth, faith would have remained for ever in an infant state. Its case would have been that of a young bird whose parent will not permit it to try its wings. Men would have reposed on the corporeal presence of Christ; not upon His spiritual, which is His real presence. The magnificent developments of the Christian Church would thus be strangled in the birth; or, to speak more properly, there would be no Christian Church; if by the Church we mean the assembly of those who walk by faith, and live in the Spirit. (2) Love in the Spirit. To love spiritually is to love as God loves and wishes to be loved. All in love that is only nature, instinct, taste, self-complacency, disappears or is subordinate. Love, purified and made Divine, rises and attaches itself to what is invisible and immortal. Now almost all the world loves Jesus. How is it possible not to love Him! But no man of the world could have more love for Him than the son of Jonas; and do we not know that Jesus deserved to be loved otherwise? The affection of Peter was not spiritual; that of the world for Jesus is, if possible, still less so. It is a human attachment which Jesus does not count sufficient. But this attachment remained human so long as Jesus Himself remained in a human condition. The visible, corporeal, limited person, behoved to disappear, in order to make room for the idea which it represented, and at the same time concealed. 2. If faith and spiritual affection are the life of the Church, it was for the advantage of the Church that Jesus should go away. This has been well proved by fact. Where was the Church before the departure of Jesus? Nowhere; not even in the bosom of that college of apostles who we have reason to believe knew Jesus far less, and loved Him less completely than a poor Christian peasant now knows and loves Him. Why had His lessons less affect on the apostles than those of the apostles themselves afterwards had on others? The facts cannot be disputed. Before the departure of Jesus there was no Church, but there is one immediately after. 3. Could we venture to maintain that it was good for the disciples that Christ should go away, and yet bad for us? The situation, and wants, are still the same, and we cannot dispense with the painful privation. No Christian, however, consents to it willingly. The resolution to do so depends on the measure of his spirituality. But nothing is more universal or more natural than regret for not having seen Jesus Christ. Many imagine that they could do all with Jesus Christ were He to become visible, that there would then be neither doubt nor fear, that they would thenceforth be all ardour for the service of their great Master. But after reflection how can they continue to use this language? (1) What is the human body? A living statue. An image of the presence of a moral being, to which through the body are addressed all the feelings which this being can inspire. This organization, however, does not constitute the man. This we all admit when we refuse to estimate a man’ s worth by his body, and make it wholly depend on his intellect and will. Moreover, in our attachments we rise superior to the impressions which body can produce upon body. An affection on which neither the external decay of the object loved, nor its absence, nor death, would have any power, would justly be entitled to the highest honour. If any being should be loved purely, it is undoubtedly the Son of God. If the Son of God appeared in the flesh, it was not to make us adore His corporeal presence, but to be man like us, and submit to death. He has given this as a support to our love; but our love should attach itself to that in Him which thinks, invites, and loves. (2) But let us reply to those who exclaim, “ Oh how strong we would be if we could only see Jesus Christ!” Alas! how many saw Him at full leisure, and remained weak! So would it be with you were Jesus Christ to communicate the Holy Spirit, which was given to the first disciples only under the condition of His own absence. The mere aspect of a great personage, the mere report of his presence, has sometimes, on grave emergencies, exercised a decisive influence. But however great the results might be, they were human. But spiritual effects demand a spiritual cause, and the fact of Christ’ s corporeal presence, considered in itself, is not so. There is nothing spiritual in it. This absence of a visible Christ is regarded as a privation, a loss. But it is the flesh itself, it is the charm of the present life that makes us deem it so. Jesus Christ, though absent, is not absent. In giving us His Spirit He gives Himself. 4. “ Enough of this,” you say, “ None of us have the idea of making Christ dwell a second time in the sad darkness of this life.” But if you presume not to claim the visibility of Jesus Christ’ s personal presence, you wish visible signs of His invisible presence. If the signs for which you call are only those fruits of the Spirit, which constitute and manifest Christianity, assuredly you are right; and it is these signs of the presence of Jesus Christ you ought in the first instance to ask from yourselves. But there is another desire less pure, “ Make us gods to walk before us.” Anything which will give a tangible shape to the spiritual kingdom which Jesus Christ came to establish on the earth. (1) In the first rank are the institutions and customs which time has consecrated in the bosom of the Christian Church. These circumstances, which are wholly external and are not the Church itself, we so overvalue that we mistake them for the Church; if certain barriers, words, sounds, happen to fail, we think it is the Church herself that fails, and our heart melts within us, and we can scarcely help exclaiming, “ They have taken away my Lord,” &c. (2) Sometimes we consider Jesus Christ to be represented by men who are devoted to His service. Every Christian, in a certain sense, represents Jesus Christ. The error lies in making a mere man the object of feelings which are due only to our Lord, and in regarding any instrument of whatever nature as necessary. And when the righteous hand of God throws down this idol and breaks it to pieces, when this man, supposed necessary, has disappeared, all has disappeared with him. (3) The successes of Christianity are also a kind of visible Christ to us. We are willing not to believe Him absent so long as we see His religion honoured and multitudes thronging His churches. Our faith takes courage at the sight; but how readily it is shaken, when, in consequence of any great change in the condition of society, enmity grows bold. It seems as if this host of enemies had carried Jesus Christ away. 5. But Jesus Christ, who cannot permit us either to serve Him as an idol, or to put idols in His place, or to seek indubitable evidence of His presence anywhere but in ourselves, as of old, “ withdraws to a mountain.” By this new retreat He extinguishes the bright light which He had kindled; He obliges us to seek Him on the mountain, in other words, in our faith, and constrains us to look at Him with other eyes than those of flesh. Let us with all the strength which God has given resist the dangerous temptations of that “ lust of the eye,” which, from our carnal nature, we carry even into the purest of religions. (A. Vinet, D. D.) Christ’ s going away our gain I. BY HIS HIS LOCAL WAS CHANGED INTO AN . As God, He dwells with us through the Holy Ghost, by His essence, presence, and power. As Man He is always with us in all the truth of His Incarnation. His character--His pity, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, love, tenderness, compassion--is shed abroad throughout all His Church. The kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of the Man Christ Jesus; and the reign of His will, human as well as Divine, is His kingdom. And there are even deeper things than these. The mystery of the Incarnation is not a mere isolated fact, terminating in the personality of the Word made flesh, but the beginning and productive cause of a new creation of mankind. By the same omnipotence which wrought the union of the Godhead and the manhood in the womb of the blessed Virgin, the humanity of the Second Adam is the immediate and substantial instrument of our regeneration and renewal. The Church is Christ mystical--the presence of Christ, by the creative power of His Incarnation, produced and prolonged on earth. II. HIS CHANGED THEIR INTO THE FULL OF FAITH. While He was with them, and taught them by word of mouth, their hearts were slow of understanding. Their minds were earthly, and interpreted all things by the rules of earth and sense. But when the Comforter came all things were brought back to their remembrance. Old truths and perplexing memories received their true solution. Words they had mused upon in doubt were interpreted; sayings they had thought already clear were seen to have profounder meanings; a fountain of light sprung up within them, an illumination cast from an unseen teacher unfolded to their consciousness the deep things of God and of His Christ. Their very faculties were enlarged; they were no longer pent up by narrow senses and by the succession of time, but were lifted into a light where all things are boundless and eternal. A new power of insight was implanted in their spiritual being, and a new world rose up before it; for the Spirit of truth dwelt in them, and the world unseen was revealed. III. HIS CHANGED THE PARTIAL OF GRACE INTO THE FULNESS OF THE . Our nature, which He had made sinless, deathless, and divine, from the time of His ascension into heaven was glorified. The Second Adam began to give of His own spiritual nature, to multiply the lineage of His elect, and to gather His mystical family into one universal body. The agent In this Divine work is the Holy Ghost dwelling in us. The Incarnation raised man to a higher life, and laid a higher law upon us: the coming of the Holy Ghost endowed man with power to walk in that higher and more perfect path. (Archdeacon Manning.) Christ’ s ascension the Church’ s gain I. THERE IS A NATURAL SENSE IN WHICH LOSSES OFTEN PROVE TO BE GAIN IN THE END. We gain wisdom and knowledge and experience by losses; and we unquestionably gain a very much clearer mental and spiritual vision. And so, perhaps, in this natural and human sense it would be in one way expedient for the disciples to lose their Lord--inasmuch as the loss of Him would tend to open their eyes to a juster and truer estimate of His Person and character. On this very night Philip gave sad evidence of how little he and the others even yet understood of Him. “ Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?” was the Saviour’ s reply to Philip’ s request that He would show to them the Father. To the very end of His life it was still true of the disciples that “ they understood not what things they were that He sake unto them,” and what He did they knew not either as yet--but should only know hereafter. Was this, then, what our Saviour meant in the text when He said “ It is expedient for you that I go away:” --“ You will be able, after I am gone, to balance and weigh the things that I have said and done better than you can at present, and so, by the exercise of your calmer judgment, arrive at a juster estimate of Me?” This would certainly be a consequence of His departure--but it was not this He meant by the words He used. II. IF FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY ARE THE THREE GRACES WHICH MAKE UP THE SUM OF A , HOW VERY MUCH THAT MUST BE BY THE GREATER OF THESE SEVERAL GRACES. When the Lord they loved was taken away from them, then their faith would be called into action as it had never been before, for faith begins where sight ends; when they ceased to see the Lord with the natural eye then the spiritual vision--which is only another name for faith--would have to be entirely depended upon. And so, too, with their hope. No longer would they be looking for a temporal and earthly fulfilment of God’ s promises. The hope they had been hitherto entertaining of earthly honour for their Lord, and the restoration of an earthly kingdom to His chosen people, would henceforth give place to a wider and better and further-reaching hope. Their treasure henceforth would be in heaven, and they would surely experience in their own case the truth that they had long since heard and learnt by rote--that where a man’ s treasure is there will his heart be also. III. IF I GO NOT AWAY THE WILL NOT COME UNTO YOU--but if I depart I will send Him unto you. Do we understand this? Is it that the Holy Spirit is kinder, more loving, more powerful than He who sends Him? Ah no, we know that the Three Persons are at the same time One God--One in power, and in holiness, and in love. The meaning has already been partly stated. It is better for the Church--it is better for each one of us its members--to walk by faith than to walk by sight. It is better, and it is the work of God the Holy Ghost to lead us on to this higher life. So long as Jesus was present upon earth there could not fail to be something earthly and carnal in the attachment of His disciples to Him; but when He was departed the Holy Ghost would teach men a more spiritual attachment. (John Crofts.) Expediency I. THINGS ARE NOT OF AS THEY APPEAR AT FIRST SIGHT. We are very short-sighted, and we judge just by what is within range of our vision. How should human sight perceive that it ever could be expedient for the well-loved Jesus to depart? Surely nothing could compensate for that; and yet He says it is for their advantage. Let this be a lesson to us, not to be too hasty in taking things” at first sight. Let us not say, when, perhaps, we are on the very road to blessing, “ all these things are against me.” It is necessary that we keep our minds in a state of readiness to admit possibilities. II. THE VALUE OF AND IS OFTEN FAR GREATER THAN THAT, OF WHAT WE HAVE LOST, OR ARE ABOUT TO LOSE. The full ear of corn is of much more value than the single grain from which it sprang, from whose death it took its life; but who would have believed as a theory, that it was only under this condition it could come. “ What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” God is continually sowing for us seed which we would never sow for ourselves, because we could not bear to see it die. III. THINK OF GOD’ S ACTION ON THE WHOLE MATTER. We can never deal with the whole of a matter. All human affairs are like spheres, they can be illumined only on one portion of their surface at a time. Some of them revolve so slowly, that it requires more than a lifetime for a man to see their whole surface. Events are happening to us now, which are the legitimate consequences of certain actions of our youth; or even of our parents; or of their parents; and God is engaged in the whole matter. Is it not an immense relief that we can leave God to deal with things as a whole--that we need not strain ourselves, in endeavouring to compass things beyond our grasp. IV. CONNECT GOD WITH . Expediency implies suitability of action to circumstances, of means to accomplish an end--that end being what “ seemed meet unto Him.” Man recognizes the meaning of the word, and thinks he acts upon it; but being evil, he often forgets moral principles; moreover, he is so ignorant, he often chooses wrong means; he thinks it is not expedient to do such and such a thing, whereas it is the very thing he should have done; and he does the very thing, which, as it turns out, he should not have done. But with God there are no mistakes; and so, there is no miscarrying; there is absolute righteousness in Him; and so, in His dealings towards us, and others, there can be no wrong. He does the right thing, with the right motive, in the right way, at the right time. There are two considerations, which will help us very much to fall in with God’ s arrangements with faith and comfort. 1. The persuasion, that when He deems such and such a mode of action expedient, He sees the end from the beginning. We do not know in what a beginning will end, He does. 2. The belief that He sees the real suitability of operative causes--how certain things are calculated to bring about certain ends. We often think we see this. But all life is full of the history of sad mistakes in this respect. Unforeseen and disturbing influences have come in. The means we put in motion did not go far enough, or they went too far, or, perhaps, were beside the mark altogether. But when God is in action, all this is put far away; and if the causes which He sets in motion are in anyway trying to us, we maybe certain that they will produce the end He desires. And so, though we cannot see it at the time, our heaviest trials are for the best. They are only means to an end. They are expedient. (P. B. Power, M. A.) Christ more useful within the veil The high priest was more useful to them within the veil than outside of it; He was doing for them out of sight what He could not accomplish in their view. I delight to think that my Lord is with the Father. Sometimes I cannot get to God, my access seems blocked by my infirmity; but He is always with God to plead for me. Let us joy and rejoice that our covenant Head is now in the bosom of the Father, at the fountain-head of love and grace, and that He is there on our behalf. Expedient absence It is better for us that Christ should be in heaven than with us upon earth. A woman had rather have her husband live with her than go to the Indies; but she yieldeth to his absence when she considereth the profit of his traffic. (T. Manton.) The expediency of Christ’ s absence All departures are painful and trying, e.g., the boy to business; the girl to marriage; the friend to sea; the relation over the river of death. Glad that this is true of Christ; that He felt the going away, and needed comforting. But, in His case, that was true which is so often true still--the one who went was the Comforter. His was no ordinary going. He was more to the disciples than they realised. I. IT WOULD PROVE TO BE A PRESENT POWER. Our Lord comforted by giving a two-fold assurance: 1. He would really be always with them. 2. He would give His Spirit to be always with them. But this is confusing, until our hearts learn to hold both these forms of truth in harmony. Our Lord, while here, was always trying to glorify His spiritual relations; and so preparing for the time when His relations should be all spiritual. Is it not infinitely comforting to be assured that temporal relations shall, by and by, give place to those which are spiritual? The comparative value of the temporal and the spiritual we learn in the progress of life. The child-Christian wants a Christ of the flesh. The matured Christian wants a Christ of the spirit. And just that Christ “ gone away” has become. He was outside us; He is in us now. We hear of the scene on Olivet, and we say, “ He is gone.” We hear of the scene at Pentecost, and we say, “ He has come again to abide with us for ever.” II. IT OUR OF HEAVEN. The human Christ went to a place, and prepares a place. “ This is enough, Jesus is there; and Jesus knows.” III. IT GIVES US GROUND FOR A HIGH HOPE. Resting upon the promise He has left. Our sorrow is the seeming separation; our everlasting joy shall yet be conscious union, under conditions that involve no separation. One day we “ shall be ever with the Lord.” We may reverently fit the influence of Christ’ s departed saints into Christ’ s own words (as in text). Few of us but have dear friends, “ not lost, but gone before.” And they seem to whisper in our souls, and say, “ It is expedient for you that I go away.” We cannot see it. We are like the women at the sepulchre. And yet those who are “ gone away” --1. Do become a present spiritual power to us. By “ going” their characters get glorified, so as to be to us (1) Holy example; (2) call; and (3) impulse. They live ever in our souls. Among the very highest of the spiritual forces moving us in the godly life, we put the influence of the white-robed host, the sainted dead. 2. They localize heaven for us. 3. They keep alive in our souls a great hope. “ I shall go to Him, but He shall not return to me.” The hope of reunion, where they “ go no more out for ever.” (Weekly Pulpit.) Expediency of the Ascension The Ascension was expedient because I. IT SECURED AN SENSE OF THE TRUE PLACE AND DIGNITY OF MAN AMONG THE OF GOD. There are great studies, which, as they are sometimes handled, tend to create a degraded idea of man. 1. Look, says the astronomer, at the North Star, the light which falls on your eye left that star some thirty years or more ago; and yet this light travels at a rate of 200,000 miles a second. Or, look at the Milky Way, a collection of worlds more numerous than the sands on the sea-shore, separated often from each other by distances which our figures cannot express, and among these are stars whose light must have taken even thousands of centuries in order to reach us on this earth. Or, look at that Dog Star, Sirius. When it was first known that our own sun was moving round some other centre, just as our earth moves round him, it was a shock to the thought; but this giant sun, Sirius, compared with which our own sun is but a pigmy, is himself in motion around some other central orb, the size and place and distance of which exhaust the capacities of imagination. And then our friend turns our thoughts upon this little home of ours. Astronomy has told man many things, and among others, his insignificance. 2. Comparative physiology takes us into its museums, and we see ranged before us the skeletons of apes. Look at the lower types (so it is said) of the human family; at the Aztecs and the Papuans; and then say how you can trace a sharp line of demarcation between this animal and that animal. 3. Or again, we picture to ourselves a scene which takes place inevitably after a great battle; and as our thought lingers over the ghastly ruin, chemistry passes by, and it suggests that after all all is well, and that these buried and disfigured forms will presently be resolved into their constituent elements; and that the value of man may be appreciated when we have discovered what remains after a human body has been submitted to the verdict of a chemical student. Certainly most of us do not readily acquiesce in these theories of human life. Our reason tells the astronomer that there is a moral as well as a material world, and that bulk and distance are not the main tests of greatness; and it tells the comparative anatomist that no similarity of his skeletons can possibly obliterate the vast interval which parts a being with self-reflecting consciousness, and free will from a being which is governed only by instinct; and as for the chemist, whether he is in the cemetery or in the laboratory, reason protests to him that his analysis begs the tremendous question, whether the most important and vital part of man has ever been before him to be analysed at all. But the Christian falls back upon a distinct fact, which enables him to listen with interest and with sympathy to all that the astronomer, &c., may have to tell him, and withal to preserve the robust faith in the dignity of man. He believes in the ascension of our Lord into heaven. Somewhere in space he knows there is at this moment, associated with the glories of the self-existing Diety, a human body and a human soul. Ay, it is on the throne of the universe. No other creature of God shares that incomparable dignity. II. IT MAKES ROOM FOR FAITH IS CHRIST. It is, of course, conceivable that our Lord might have willed to prolong His life upon the earth through the centuries of Christian history. Had He done so, there would have been no questions as to the seal and centre of authority in the Christian Church, or as to the true area and contents of the Christian creed; there would have been ever before the eyes of men a living example of what the Christian character was meant to be; and perhaps the conversion of the world would have been completed long ere this. But one thing is certain, that if Christ had continued to be visibly present, there would have been no room for true faith in Him. Trust in Christ there might have been; we trust our friends, our elders; but faith “ is the evidence of things not seen. ” Think what this would have meant for Christendom. Why is it that so great a place is assigned to faith in the New Testament? Because faith is the apprehension of an object with ever-increasing clearness on the part of the whole soul, of its thought, of its heart, of its determination. And such an apprehension of a perfect object means vast moral leverage. We become, more or less, like that on which we continually fix our attention. If we look persistently downwards then we become earthly; if we look upwards then the light of heaven is reflected in o’ er souls. For this there would have been no room if our Lord had not ascended; the world would only have “ known Christ after the flesh,” would have concerned itself with His outward and human form, rather than with His true and essential divinity, and it therefore was expedient that He should go away, as promoting the moral effect and power of faith. III. IN THE OF WORSHIP. What is the idea of God which we gain from nature Courage, energy, and intelligence--nature certainly suggests these; but benevolence is in the back-ground of its suggestion respecting its author and its master. It is cold, thin, superficial; like the clear sunlight on a frosty day in January, there is no warmth, no colour, no character about it; it may provoke intellectual interest, admiration, wonder, but not passion of any kind, not devotion, not worship. But we Christians approach God not only through external, non-human nature, but through man. Man, unlike nature, has moral character. When the Old Testament would teach us the awful attributes of the self-existent, it draws upon the ordinary language of human passion and human experience, it describes a being with human feelings of anger, of pity, of jealousy, of love. The revelation through man is a higher revelation; it is one of moral character. “ The Lord is long-suffering,” &c. But here, of course, human nature, as we know it, if taken on the average as a guide to the true character of God, may easily mislead us. It is expedient that perfect humanity should thus be associated on the throne of heaven with the infinite and the eternal. And thus, in the worship of the Church, inspired on the one hand, by an awful sense of the inaccessible majesty of God, and, on the other, by a trustful, tender passion, which has its roots in the consciousness of a human fellowship, with its awful object, we find that which we find nowhere else on earth, and we understand the words, “ It is expedient for you that I go away.” And a last reason for the expediency IV. IN WITH HIS WORK OF . A question which Christians ought to ask themselves more often than they do is this--“ What is our Lord doing now?” At His ascension “ He sat down at the right hand of God.” It is the posture not merely of the enthroned Monarch of Heaven; it is the posture of the omnipotent Priest. He does not stand to plead; still less does He prostrate Himself, side by side with those highest beings who are ranged around the throne. He sits in His wounded but glorified humanity as the one permanent sacrifice which will for ever avail before the eyes of the All Holy. “ Therefore, if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,” &c. This uninterrupted action of our glorified Redeemer should surely be more in our minds. What was He doing when we were born? Interceding. What will He be doing at the moment when we shall be leaving it? Interceding. How was He engaged during the long hours of last night, or when we arose from sleep this morning? What will He be doing when we again lie down to rest? What is He doing now, while I am speaking for Him, and while you are listening? The answer is ever the same. Now, this intercession is the very strength of our Christian life. We claim its power in every prayer when we say, “ Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We associate our poor feeble prayers with His majestic pleading. It is the knowledge that this great work proceeds uninterruptedly, that makes hope and perseverance possible when hearts are failing, when temptation is strong, when the sky is dark and lurid. Surely it is expedient for you and me that He should go away. (Canon Liddon.) Our Lord’ s ascension the Church’ s gain 1. Selfishness is never less attractive than when it would leave its imprint on theology. Yet we are not unfrequently confronted by systems in which the satisfaction of the believer is made the centre of a theological panorama, while the revealed nature or economies of God are banished to its circumference. In this way the self-sustaining, infinite, Supreme Being comes to be regarded as chiefly interesting on account of the satisfaction which He yields to the subjective yearnings of a finite and created soul But the manifested glory, the vindicated honour of Jesus Christ must take rank before all other considerations in regard to the Ascension: at length that life of humiliation is over, and the Bridegroom of the Church “ girds His sword upon His thigh, as becomes the Most Mighty, and according to His worship and renown.” 2. This, then, is our first tribute of love and duty to the mystery of to-day, and we may now turn to that other and very different point of view which is sanctioned by our Lord in the text. No words that ever fell from the lips of Christ can have at first seemed to those faithful souls who heard them to verge more closely than these on the confines of paradox. Could it be expedient for men who are still pilgrims upon earth that their Guide should be taken from them? For pupils who are still ignorant that their great Teacher should desert them? For spiritual children, still so deficient in the Christian character, that they should be deprived of Him who taught by example even more persuasively than He taught by precept? He might have said “ expedient for the spirits of the just made perfect, to whom, after overcoming the sharpness of death, He was about to open the kingdom of heaven; for the angels who had for thirty-three years been” ascending and descending upon the Son of Man,” and who had now higher ministries in store for them: for Myself, who, after finishing the work that was given Me to do, am to be glorified by the Father with that glory which I had with Him before the world was. But He does say, “ for you.” My brokenhearted, despairing disciples, it is “ expedient for yon,” that I, your Teacher, Friend, Guide, Strength, should leave you. Wherein then, it may be asked, did this expediency lie? I. THERE WAS A KIND OF NATURAL IN THE , grounded on that law of the human mind which makes the appreciation of present blessings so very difficult. Most men look back with affection on the years of their childhood; and nations have always surrounded their early annals with an atmosphere of poetry. So limited are our powers, that generally speaking, observation must have ceased before reflection can begin to do its work. Had Christ continued to live visibly upon earth, the spiritual force of the Church might have been expended in an indefinitely prolonged observation. The strength even of saintly souls might have been fatally overtaxed. If Jesus is to be seen by His creatures in His relative and awful greatness, He must be withdrawn. Even on the night before the Passion, St. Philip asks a question, which proves that he does not yet know who Jesus really is. “ What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter,” was an announcement of the self-same principle. He was to be comprehended when He was gone. The life of Christ on earth had first to be brought to a close, ere it could be dropped as a seed that would spring up and bear fruit into the heart of redeemed humanity. And each teacher that has unfolded and enforced the meaning of that life, has, in adding to the illuminated thought of Christendom, attested the truth of our Master’ s words--“ It is expedient,” &c. II. THE LIFE OF THE SOULS OF THE JUST HAVE BEEN BY THE OF THEIR LORD. Faith, hope, and charity are the threefold cord that links the living spirit with its God. These graces were dwarfed in the apostles. Their belief did not materially differ from the creed of the devout Jew. Their hopes were centred on an earthly throne. Their charity was discoloured by the presence of a subtle element of sense, which dimmed its spiritual lustre. Christ left them, and behold, they find springing up within themselves a new and vigorous life. By leaving them our Lord has made room for the full play and power of faith. (1 Peter 1:8). Hope, too, rivals in its growth the growth of faith. It reaches forth into an eternal future. And when Christ was seated at the right hand of God, love, as a matter of course, would seek simply and constantly those things that are above, and not the things upon the earth. III. But if the apostles had been altogether left to their own resources, could they have formed so true an estimate of His life, as by their writings to rule the thought and kindle the enthusiasm of all ages? Were faith, hope, love, thrown out, as plants of native growth, from the rich soil of their natural hearts? Are the Epistles of St. Paul, or is the character of St. John to be explained by their natural gifts, educational antecedents, contact with the Redeemer, the circumstances and directions of their lives? Surely not. Even though the Pentecostal miracle had not been recorded, some supernatural interference must have been assumed, in order to account for the apostolic character, and the apostolic writings. Of itself the departure of our risen Lord would neither have permanently illuminated the reflections of the Church, nor yet have quickened the graces of its separate members. WE MUST WAIT UNTIL IF WE WOULD ENTER INTO THE FULL OF THE . Pass the eye over that last great discourse, and mark how it bears with repeated effort and significance upon the statement of the text (chap. 14:3, 12, 16, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7, 10, 13). While Christ tarried here, His apostles who saw and conversed with Him were further, immeasurably further, from Him than we may be, if we will. To them He was still an external example--voice, force. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Our ascended Lord has sent down upon us that promised and gracious Friend, whose office it is to unite us to Himself. Therefore, united to Christ, man is no longer an isolated unit; he is a member of that spiritual organization which is Christ’ s Body. If we feel the expediency of the Ascension, we are men of prayer. “ In heart and mind” we “ ascend thither” where prayer is not an effort but an atmosphere. It is the instinctive breathing of an informing spirit, the voice of children, who, without doubt or questioning, throw themselves into their Father’ s arms. Can we realize, each one for himself, what is involved in this expediency of our Lord’ s ascension? Not if we forget the sharp distinction which exists, and which will exist for ever, between the very highest, noblest, purest, truest efforts of nature, and the heavenly action of the Spirit of grace. We shall never understand the expediency of the Ascension, if we forget that we are the subjects of a spiritual dispensation, in which forces more extraordinary are at work, and results more wonderful are produced than any which fall under the cognizance of sense (1 Corinthians 2:7-9). The Ascension reminds us of a life which is higher than this world. So much higher, so much more blessed and glorious is the life of grace, that One who loved us men with the truest and purest affection, yet withdrew Himself, as on this day, from our sight in order to enable us, if we will, to live it. (Cannon Liddon.) Gain in the Saviour’ s loss 1. The parting of friends is always a sad thing; for many things may come to prevent a meeting again. But partings sometimes are among the very saddest things: parting of those who are very dear: of the playmates of childhood: of those who hitherto have kept close together in the race and the warfare of life, but who are now to be severed by long years. And why is it then, that emigrants, e.g., are yet content to part? Because they feel it is better so; that they are leaving a country which will not yield bread, for another where there is work and bread for all. And the friends who remained behind knew all that too. 2. The thing to which people most naturally have recourse to blunt the pang of parting is some such thought as is suggested in the text. The dying wife tries to persuade the husband that it is far better as it is. The reckless and graceless young man, reclaimed by a kindness and a wisdom that were half angelic, as he feels life ebbing away, says: “ Perhaps it is as well I should go home pretty soon.” And just with that simple and natural thought did the blessed Redeemer seek to console His disciples. 3. Now we often say and hear such words as these, when they express rather what is wished than what is felt and believed; when we could give no sufficient reason, save that one sheet-anchor of the weary and disappointed heart, the wise and kind decree of God. But it is not merely in this general view, and merely by way of saying a kind word that might cheer up somewhat in a trying hour, that Jesus said this. His departure was the condition of another’ s coming, who would more than make up for His loss. Precious indeed, then, must that other be! 4. Now we must all feel that although it is our privilege to love each of the three Persons in the Trinity; still the Saviour we cannot choose but single out for special love. And we should hardly be able to persuade ourselves that even the coming of the Comforter could make up for His absence. But all that He declared was, that for believers so situated as the disciples He was addressing, it was advantageous that the Comforter should be present with them, even at the price of His own departure. 5. But the thought naturally suggests itself, Why might the Church not have had both? Now, we must just take Christ’ s word for it, that this cannot be. For some good reason we cannot have both together. Note two or three considerations I. THE CHOICE LAY BETWEEN CHRIST AS HE THEN WAS, A PERSON IN A HUMAN BODY, AND A DIVINE SPIRIT CAPABLE OF BEING PRESENT AT THE SAME TIME. Christ, dwelling in flesh, could be only in one place at a time; while the Comforter, unbound by fleshly trammels, could be in a thousand places, working on a million hearts all at once. And for the grand end of carrying on the government of a Church that is to overspread the world, it was better to have one Divine Being, equally present, working with equal energy everywhere, than even to have Christ Himself dwelling in visible form in some favoured spot, and by the very fact of His being visible there, making those disciples in distant countries who saw Him not, feel as though they were so far overlooked. It is the fancy of Popery, but it is not the purpose of the Redeemer, to have one fixed, localized, visible centre of the Christian Church. If sacred places can even yet warm the Christian’ s heart, it is not that Christ is nearer us there than here. And when we call it to mind, how the cares and duties of life tie most of us to one little spot of this world; when we think how vainly most of us might wish to make a pilgrimage of thousands of miles, even though that pilgrimage should bring us into the visible presence of our God, shall we Rot be thankful for the presence here of a Sanctifier and Comforter, who can make our very soul His home. II. Each Person in the Trinity has His own share in the great task of preparing man for heaven; and A CERTAIN WORK HAS BEEN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. Now, when we think of the things which it is the Spirit’ s occupation to do, we see that this world is the place where they must be done. The Spirit’ s work lies mainly with a suffering, struggling, sinful, tempted, imperfect Church. Placed and tried as we are, it is just the Holy Spirit we need; and so it is just the Holy Spirit that we get. We shall need Him less, with reverence be it said, when we shall have entered upon the immediate presence of our God. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 16:8-11 And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment The mission of the Comforter This is the only passage in which the Saviour has expressed the process of the Spirit’ s action in regenerating the world. It forms Christ’ s own history of the silent progress of the spiritual life. The first step in the Divine life is the sense of sin. That sense is excited by the conviction of the heart’ s unbelief in the Christ who died. Then the sense of sin must pass into the belief in righteousness. The Spirit reveals righteousness in the Christ who rose. And from this twofold revelation must spring the belief that evil is conquered and that sin shall finally pass away; for the Spirit reveals its overthrow in the Christ who lives and reigns. Mark the mission of the Comforter in I. THE SENSE OF SIN. 1. The ground on which the charge of sin is founded--“ because they believe not on Me.” This may seem strange at first sight. But on examination we shall see that no charge but this can awaken a real deep sense of sin. Take the other grounds on which men have attempted to bring home the conviction. (1) The innate depravity of man. Of its awful truth, indeed, there can be no question. But in what does the enforcing of this issue? Do not the questions rise--Who made me thus? Why was I born in sin? Am I responsible? (2) The evil of a man’ s actions may be felt by him, and yet he may say, “ It is not I that do those things. There are two powers in me, ‘ For that which I do I allow not,’” &c. (3) Or you may awaken simply a confession of self-reproach: “ I have erred, and played the fool exceedingly,” but you have not made the man feel that he--the personal self--has deliberately endorsed the action as his own. (4) Still further, you may preach the doctrine of everlasting condemnation, and you produce either a cowardly confusion of suffering with sin, defiant unbelief, or abject despair. 2. Take now unbelief in Christ, and see what the rejection of Him implies. Whatever excuses a man may make for committing sin, he knows that it creates an alienation from God, that its effects on the soul are devastating. Now the Cross stands as the sign of reconciliation with God, and therefore of healing and blessedness. But by unbelief, refusing Christ’ s deliverance, I affirm my antagonism to the Divine. There is the revelation of sin. Man defying the supremest love. II. THE OF IN THE SAVIOUR. The first deep glance into life’ s evil overcomes a man with hopeless sorrow. It is vain to tell him “ to let the dead past bury its dead.” Forgetfulness would not destroy, but only cover with a thin veil the evil He has found--a veil that death would rend in twain. It is useless to say, “ Obey conscience, and become righteous.” Conscience has no power to raise; it can only point out the right and condemn the wrong. It is a flaming terror until a man finds Christ. Thus awakened, the great cry of the heart is this, Can I ever be cleansed? Can those memories be banished into eternal forgetfulness by the forgiveness of God? Unless these cries are answered, it were a cruel punishment to convince man of his evil. But the Comforter does answer them. “ There is righteousness because Christ is gone to the Father, and ye see Him no more.” It is not, therefore, Christ crucified only, but Christ risen and ascended, who reveals a righteousness for man, Why is this so? and how does the Comforter inspire this conviction? There are three requisites which must be fulfilled before man, as a sinner, can feel the possibility of His righteousness. And these are all met by the truth that Christ has gone to the Father. 1. The assurance of forgiveness for the past. Explain it how we may, there is no conviction more profound and universal than that sin is death, and that its pardon necessitates the death of a pure and unstained life. The world’ s altars, laden often with human victims, bear witness to this. There is in conscience an inner witness to the rectitude of the law that condemns, and it gives man no peace till he feels that a Holy Being, who was yet one with Him, has “ become obedient unto death,” and thus manifested the sanctity of the commandment. But suppose Christ had vanished in death, who would have known that He had finished the work He had undertaken? But He rises and ascends to “ His Father and our Father,” and becomes the eternal Priest, dispensing forgiveness to the world. This is the truth revealed by the Comforter. Touched by the Spirit’ s power, we accept Christ’ s sacrifice as our sacrifice, and find pardon. 2. The removal of the terrors of the future. It is the double curse of sin that, while it narrows our range of vision, it clothes immortality with terror. We feel sin is barring our entrance into those bright abodes. We need a Deliverer who shall open for us those barred and everlasting doors. Christ ascended to heaven to be our Brother and Intercessor there. The grand assertion, “ In My Father’ s house are many mansions,” &c., falls like music from the sky that received Him. This, then, is the truth revealed by the Comforter, which, by removing the terrors of the future, deepens the conviction of righteousness. 3. The creation of a new manhood in the present. When the past is forgiven and the future brightened, we want to become righteous men. And here we approach the doctrine of imputed righteous-ness--a righteousness not our’ s, but Christ’ s. But the idea of a transference of spiritual states is only a figurative expression of a great truth. We become righteous only when we feel that we are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing, and trusting solely on Christ, yield ourselves to Him. Then the old forces of sin die. The love of Christ possessing us recreates us, and God, seeing in that life of faith the first beginnings of a purity which shall become perfect and everlasting, regards us as righteous in Christ Jesus. III. The belief which completes and renders perfect the new nature--THE BELIEF IN THROUGH THE OF THE “ PRINCE OF THIS WORLD.” This passage is frequently interpreted as though it referred to the final judgment. But this destroys the connection between the three convictions, and the words have a present meaning--“ is judged.” The judgment, therefore (see John 12:31), is that conquest which Christ should gain on His cross. Taking it in that sense, we perceive at once why the belief in judgement must follow the belief in righteousness. For when we have been freed from sin, and made righteous in Christ, we find that we have entered on a life-long struggle with evil; and as the one thing to keep us true, we need the assurance of final victory. These words present two thoughts: 1. Christ’ s conquest over the kingdom of evil. (1) The kingdom of evil as opposed to the Saviour. The “ prince of this world” suggests the majesty of the power that He overcame for man. “ This world” expresses the collective forces that are opposed to God; “ Prince” manifestly implies that evil forces are not separated, but combined, and form a great living power, a kingdom of wrong. But the phrase points to a personal evil spirit as lord of that evil kingdom. This was the kingdom that opposed itself to the Son of man. Evil spirits confronted Him constantly. It seemed as if the dark spiritual world were stirred through all its depths by the appearance of the Perfect Man. The whole world was groaning in the throes of spiritual death. The light of Divine revelation was dying out. All the evil influences that touch the human soul gathered themselves against the Perfect Soul to turn Him aside and tear Him from His self-chosen path of dedication for the world. (2) The Saviour’ s conquest. For this two things were requisite (a) Christ must overcome the essence of evil by a means common to humanity. Now, the essence of evil is self-will. Its first expression was the “ I will” of man opposing itself to the “ Thou shalt not” of God. Christ must conquer sin through the might of a Divine obedience, and yet occupy a battle-ground common to humanity. And where was this so perfectly accomplished as in His life and death? (b) Christ must show by His conquest that the facts which seem to prove the perpetuity of evil are really signs of its overthrow. The darkest lie of the evil one is this--that evil is an eternal power. Before the advent of the gospel, the world was beginning to believe in the omnipotence of wrong, and men were losing faith in anything which could conquer evil. Just note the two great facts which, as the results of sin, lay at the root of this state. First, Suffering. It seemed to belie the goodness of God and prove sin to be irresistible. Now suffering, in all its deepest dreadfulness, Christ endured. “ He was perfected through sufferings,” and thus revealed it to man as the education of a Father. Secondly, Death--the sign-manual of sin’ s dominion. Christ became subject to its power. It seemed to conquer Him. But, rising from the grave, He ascended to the heavens, thus consecrating death for all men as a pathway to the Father’ s home. Such was Christ’ s conquest. It was the crisis of earth’ s history--the judgment and overthrow of the “ prince of this world.” 2. Christ’ s conquest as a pledge of victory for man. There are three ways in which this is revealed by the Comforter. (1) The fact itself is a power. We are strengthened by the belief that some one has known our difficulties and subdued them. On this deep principle of human nature Christ’ s conquest lays hold. Like us He fought. By a strength which we may share He conquered. Look at the early Church, when the meaning of this fact was revealed by the descending Comforter. Men awoke with new power. The old tyranny of evil was broken; and hoary apostolic men, kindling with the energies of youth, went forth to do battle with it in the world which had so long groaned under its sway. (2) Christ is God’ s promise. Through His life God’ s voice speaks to us now. If we conflict like Him, like Him we shall conquer. We must copy His instant resistance to temptation, and His prayerful submission in suffering, if we would share the glory of His victory. (3) Christ a present friend. We do not always realize His presence, but sometimes amid the pauses of the battle, we feel Him near in that “ peace which passeth understanding,” and hear Him saying, “ Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” (E. L. Hull, B. A.) The object of the mission of the Comforter “ To reprove the word of sin” is one thing; but (as the original expression implies) “ to convince” is quite another. The reproof of sin has been the practice of philosophers, the object of poets, the office of moralists, the aim of satirists, in every age. Parents reprove their children; silent virtue reproves obtrusive vice. But sin may be reproved, and yet not be eradicated; be silenced by exposure, and yet not subdued. Hence the reproofs of the world have fallen upon the sins of the world too often, as the winds fall upon the bleak hill, or the waves of the sea beat upon the solid rock--leaving no impression behind. Now to “ convince,” or to “ convict” means to bring home sin to one’ s judgment, and to render all denial impossible; to one’ s conscience, and to render all evasion impracticable; to unveil sin in its own hiding-place; to detect it when it lurks in the core of the most exquisite bud, or when it nestles in the bosom of the most fragrant and beautiful flower; to fix upon it the sinner’ s eye so intently, that he shall see it lying where he never suspected it to be before, nestling amidst the affections he thought holy, clinging to the habits he thought beautiful, and staining all his nature so entirely by its venom, that he shall feel that none but the Omnipotent Spirit of God can enable him to get rid of it. It is easy to convince a man of outward offences, none but the Eternal Spirit can convince the honourable, the great, the moral, that all their excellencies are like flowers and leaves torn from the root, and doomed soon to fade, and that the only excellencies that will survive the storm, and bid defiance to the grave, are those which spring from the living principle imparted by the Holy Spirit of God. Many have tried to “ convince of sin,” besides the Holy Spirit. 1. Conscience. But it fails to do so with any sensible results. No man sins without hearing the remonstrances of that solemn monitor; but you have defied it, mastered it, bribed it, and now it has become more or less stupefied. Or if not it has recourse to the only other expedient to those atoning efficacies said to be in all the relics and prescriptions of an absurd superstition. 2. Public opinion. But while this reproves some sins, it connives at others. 3. The law of Sinai. This commands, in the accents of thunder, the duties which it reveals by the lighting’ s flash; but that law only speaks of outward acts; it lops off branches, it cuts off a main stem--but as soon as it has done so, a thousand shoots start from the root. The only being, then, that can convince of sin savingly, really, deeply, is the Holy Spirit. He shall convince the world I. OF SIN: of one special sin; not intemperance, avarice, or selfishness. These are of flagrant enormity, but there is one which outweighs them all in its guilt--a sin that lies too at every man’ s door--at the door of philanthropist and of the felon, a sin that ties to us all sins, and prevents their forgiveness; unbelief in Christ. This is just the sin of which we have no conception, except by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Conscience does not accuse you of it; society will not denounce you for it. 1. How this can be so heinous a sin? Because it is rejecting the great remedy for all sin; it is suspecting the love, doubting the mercy, disputing the sufficiency of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a sin merely against God as a judge, but against God as a Saviour. And those persons approach more or less to the guilt of this sin, who have doubts whether Christ will have mercy on them that appeal to Him; lest His blood be not adequate to cleanse them; that He would thrust them away if they were to make the experiment. If there be a single obstruction between the greatest sinner and the bosom of God, it is not in God--it is in your hearts alone. 2. “ What is it to believe in Christ?” It is to feel that if God were to sink you to the very depths of hopeless ruin, He would not inflict a punishment greater than your sins have deserved; but, on the other hand, it is to feel that if, in the name and through the righteousness of Christ, He were to raise you to a glory too brilliant for mortal eye to look on, God would not bestow upon you a greater boon than Christ’ s merits entitle you to. II. OF . He opens our ears, that we may hear the curse, but He opens our ears, that we may hear the music of the blessing also. “ Sin shall not have dominion over you:” “ Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” “ And when the Spirit convinces of righteousness, it is not that Christ is simply a righteous man” ; that would be no comfort to me, but He was righteous for us. Hence our justifying righteousness is not a faint imitation of what Christ is, but an acceptance of what Christ has bequeathed. Imitate what Christ is, and there is your model; but to be justified you must believe on and embrace by faith what Christ has done, and that alone, as your title and your righteousness in the sight of God. Just as Christ was condemned for my sin, so I am justified because of Christ’ s righteousness. III. OF . The first promise was, “ The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’ s head” ; the Spirit of God convinces His people that this process of bruising goes on--that the earth now, while under grace, is also partly under judgment, and that those things which the world cannot explain by what is called the law of nature, are the judgments of God. For instance, disease, decay, and death, the world calls the laws of nature: the Christian calls them the judgments of God. Death does not belong to nature; it is a disruption of nature. It is sin that is the cause of all the headaches and the heart-aches which our mortality is heir to. And therefore the Spirit of God and He only will convince that they are the judgments and decrees of God. Wherever you see a Christian happy amid oppression, there you have an evidence that “ the prince of this world is judged.” And is it not still becoming more and more true that humility is dignity, and that holiness is strength? And the time is coming more and more, I trust, when “ the prince of this world,” being “ judged,” shall be cast forth from the cabinets of queens and from the councils of statesmen, from the press and from the pulpit, from all men’ s hearts and from all men’ s homes--and the joy and holiness and happiness of God shall, overflow the world, like a mighty and deepening river, Oh! that the Spirit of God may then convince us of this! (J. Cumming, D. D.) The hardened sinner Angelo Marie, a Jesuit librarian at the Vatican, made the discovery, many years ago, that some of the ancient MSS. had more than one layer of writing upon them. By certain chemical experiments, he succeeded in making legible the ancient writing. Archbishop Whately has suggested the theory, now generally admitted, that this was done on account of the expensiveness or scarcity of parchment in the middle ages. De Quincy, in his “ Confessions,” has given us a chapter on the subject, applying it to signify different layers of thought and emotion that have at different times passed upon the heart, and become apparently covered over completely with some other. So it is with the hardened sinner. How many a layer of conviction after conviction and partial reformations has he known, yet still how thick a case covers his hardened heart! The spirit of fire Suppose a blacksmith were sent for to mend a number of old broken iron vessels, and told that he must do it without fire, what would he say to the proposal? Yet sinners’ hearts are as hard and cold! and just as foolish are they who think that all that is needed is to begin and go on hammering at them, and that will convert them. No! heat the iron, and it may be mended and remoulded. Melt the soul with the Spirit of burning, or we are without hope of seeing any saving change. The awful evil of sin Oh sirs, if I had a dear brother who had been murdered, what would you think of me if I valued the knife which had been crimsoned with his blood?--if I made a friend of the murderer, and daily consorted with the assassin, who drove the dagger into my brother’ s heart? Surely I, too, must be an accomplice in the crime! Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it? Oh, that there was an abyss as deep as Christ’ s misery, that I might at once hurl this dagger of sin into its depths, whence it might never be brought to light again! Begone, O sin! (C. H. Spurgeon.) The threefold conviction I. OF SIN--“ in that they believe not on Me.” 1. The world’ s conduct towards Christ is the decisive proof of its sinfulness. His Cross manifests, as nothing else, what “ the bad element in human nature” is capable of. So it must needs be. When the Holy One comes into a world of sinners they must either renounce their sins or contradict Him. And if He endures their contradiction they must hate Him; and if He still braves their hatred it is but another step to slay Him. “ If I had not come they had not had sin,” &c. In conflict with the light darkness is known for darkness indeed. 2. Therefore, the gist of the Spirit’ s charge lies simply in this: that the world does not believe in Christ. All the rest, the insolence and outrage, &c., was nothing more than the logical outcome of unbelief. Here is the root of the matter. For the rest Christ could say, “ Father, forgive them,” &c. 3. On this point the Paraclete has to convince the world. The rejection of Jesus was virtually the act of the race. Herod, &c., were not fiends but men. We can understand them because we are so much like them. All the vices that culminated in the Crucifixion are those of every generation, nay, of ourselves. 4. The present world thinks that it would have acted differently. Let it not be too sure: “ Your fathers killed the prophets,” &c., and so the ungodly world may be garnishing the sepulchre of Him whom it treats as a dead Christ, in so far as it does not believe in Him. 5. Just as all good works are at the bottom acts of faith, so every kind of evil doing runs up into unbelief. The first sin began here, “ Hath God said?” And so the ripened form of human sin reproduces naturally the seed from which it sprang. And this is the condemnation of the whole world: “ They have not believed Me.” 6. One day this conviction of sin will have penetrated to the world’ s very heart. It will “ look on Him whom it has pierced and mourn,” as it confesses that it has not yet believed on Him. II. OF . In the thought of sin, man is the central subject, as himself sinful; in the thought of righteousness, Christ as alone righteous. 1. The personal righteousness of Christ was at stake in the controversy between Himself and the world, and everything depended on clearing that first of all. Only as it appreciated that could the world understand righteousness. Of this the world is now convinced. But Christ could not have waited for this vindication, which without other proof would never have been brought about. And besides, the Father was concerned to vindicate Himself and the Son of His good pleasure by some immediate and unanswerable demonstration. This was seen in His going to the Father. So He says, “ If ye loved Me ye would rejoice,” &c. because He would be glorified and the world put to shame, convinced of His righteousness, convicted of its sin. 2. By the death of Christ the case as between Him and the world was transferred to the final court of appeal, “ After death, judgment.” His accusers had said, “ This Man is a sinner,” and by crucifying Him they invited the Divine judgment. And thither with His dying breath He made His own appeal, “ Into Thy hands I commit My spirit.” Those appeals were answered, and in three days Jesus lived again, and in due time went where He was before; and all the angels worshipped Him, and the Father set Him at His own right hand where every word He said is justified, every claim He made established, and where heaven and earth combine to adore Him as “ Jesus Christ the Righteous.” 3. And if righteous, then Divine. It is no discrepancy that the Evangelist should report the officer as saying, “ This Man was righteous,” and “ He was Son of God.” Every one knew that this was the capital charge against Him; and, indeed, if He was a righteous man He was Son of God; if He was not Son of God, He was not even a righteous Man. Therefore He was “ declared Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead,” and His righteousness is not simply that of the righteous man, but a manifestation of that of the “ righteous Father” whom the world had not known, but of which it had to be convinced. 4. And if tie is righteous, then the great ideal has been realized, the hunger after righteousness may be assuaged; for righteousness has appeared in concrete human form. There is hope of righteousness for the sinful world. “ He died the just for the unjust,” &c. “ He goes to the Father, and so we have an Advocate with the Father,” &c. Well may we then, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. III. OF . “ Because the prince,” &c. The death of Christ caused a judgment to be passed on Satan, which he and his kingdom felt to be a virtual overthrow. Christ saw again and again behind all human forces another antagonist guiltier and mightier. He who knew what was in man recognized lurking behind Judas, Peter, the Pharisees, &c., him whom He thrice called the prince of this world. It was his “ works” that He came to destroy, and His “ death-fearing” subjects He meant to deliver. And the “ strong man armed” knows who it is that has entered his domain. Calvary is to be the decisive battle-field. He was allowed to reach the height of his apostasy in his lying temptation, and failing that, in his murder of the Incarnate Son, and from this height he fell instantly, utterly, as lightning from heaven. He is judged, has failed, is doomed. Henceforth he waits with fearful expectation till the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God, &c. Slowly, yet surely, this sentence is taking effect. After dispossession comes punishment. What else meant the terror of demons at the voice of Christ, and the dreadful words (Matthew 25:41) re-echoed in the Apocalypse (John 20:10)? He is judged already, butthe day shall declare that judgment. But, alas! he is not the only subject. The judgment that fell upon him cannot but strike those who choose “ their part” with him (Revelation 21:8). (Geo. G. Findlay, B. A.) The Holy Spirit’ s threefold conviction of men Observe what the Holy Spirit did as an Advocate. The passage cannot be fully understood except we give it three renderings. A promise is here made to the servants of Christ, that when they go forth to preach the gospel the Holy Ghost will be with them I. TO REPROVE MEN. By this is meant, not so much to save them as to silence them. Another advocate appears in court, whose pleadings would make it hard for men to resist the truth. Observe how this reproof was given with regard to 1. Sin. On the day of Pentecost when Peter stood up to preach to the assembled multitude, the signs and wonders wrought by the Spirit in the name of Jesus were a witness which they could not refute. The evidence was brought home to them that they had with wicked hands crucified the Lord of glory: and so they stood reproved. All the subsequent miracles went to prove the same thing. 2. Righteousness. Jesus was gone, and His Divine example no longer reproved their darkness, but the Holy Spirit attested that righteousness, and compelled them to feel it. A fresh standard of morals was set up, and it has never been taken down; it stands in its place to rebuke, if not to improve. 3. Judgment. (1) They were made to feel that somehow the life and the death of Jesus of Nazareth had made a crisis in the world’ s history, and condemned the way and manner of the ungodly. All historians must confess that the turningpoint of the race is the cross of Christ. It would be impossible to fix any other hinge of history. From that moment the power of evil received its mortal wound. It dies hard, but from that hour it was doomed. Systems of false worship, so firmly rooted in prejudice and custom, that it seemed impossible that they should ever be overthrown, were torn up by their roots by the breath of the Lord. (2) Moreover, the thought flashed upon humanity more clearly than ever it had done before--that there would be a day of judgment. The dim forms of Rhadamanthus on a cloudy judgment seat, and of the assembly before his throne, and of the crowds divided according to their lives, now began to assume another and far more definite shape. The Holy Spirit attested the teaching of the apostles. Henceforth man is accused and rebuked by the great Advocate. He who rejects human testimony when it is true is foolish; but he who despises the witness of the Holy Ghost is profane. Let him beware lest he so sin against the Holy Ghost as to never have forgiveness. II. TO MEN 1. Of sin. (1) He comes on purpose to convince men that they are so guilty that they are lost and ruined; to remind them of their enmity to the God of love. He does not come to make sinners comfortable in their sins, but to cause them to grieve over them. He comes to wound so that no human balm can heal; to kill so that no earthly power can make us live. (2) This work is most necessary, because without it there is no leading men to receive the gospel. We cannot make headway with certain people who profess faith very readily, but are convinced of nothing. But get near a real sinner, the man who mourns in his inmost soul that he is so, and you find one who will welcome the Saviour. To him the news of pardon will be as cold water to a thirsty soul. (3) The Spirit comes to convince men of sin, because they never will be convinced of sin apart from His Divine advocacy. A natural conscience may show a man his faults, make him uneasy, and may bring about reformation; but it is only the Spirit of God that to the full extent convinces a man of sin so as to bring forth repentance, self-despair, and faith in Jesus. (4) The Holy Spirit dwells upon one point in particular, “ They believe not on Me.” None see the sin of unbelief except by His light. For a man thinks, “ Well, if I have not believed in Christ, that is a pity, perhaps; but still, I was never a thief, or a liar, &c. Unbelief is a matter of little consequence; I can met that square at any time.” But the Holy Spirit makes a man see that not to believe in Christ is a crowning sin, since it makes God a liar. He who believes not on Christ has rejected God’ s mercy, and has done despite to the grandest display of God’ s love. In this he has dishonoured God on a very tender point: His only begotten Son. 2. Of righteousness--that is to show them that they have no righteousness of their own, and no means of working it, and are condemned. Thus He leads them to value the righteousness of God which is upon all them that believe. (1) Among men, if a person is convicted of wrong-doing, the next step is judgment. A young man has embezzled money: he is convicted by process of law, and found guilty. Then judgment is pronounced, and he must suffer. But observe how God interpolates another process. Truly, His ways are not our ways! “ He shall convince of sin ” The next step would be judgment; but no, the Lord inserts a hitherto unknown middle term, and convinces “ of righteousness.” Be amazed at this. The Lord takes a man, even when he is conscious of sin, and makes him righteous on the spot, by putting away his sin and justifying him by a righteousness which comes to him by the worthiness of another. This seems to be a thing so impossible that it needs the Spirit of God to convince men of it. (2) Note well the great point of the Spirit’ s argument, “ Because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.” Our Lord was sent into the world to work out a righteousness, but He would not go till He had fulfilled His covenant engagements. Behold, then, Christ has finished a righteousness which is freely given to all them theft believe, and all those who trust in Christ are for His sake regarded as righteous before God, and are in fact righteous, so that, “ Who is He that condemneth?” It is Christ that died, &c. 3. Of judgment. “ The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” The true penitent feels that the great enemy of his soul must be dethroned, or else forgiveness itself will afford him no rest. He must be rescued from the power as well as from the guilt of sin, or else he abides in bondage. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil; and on the cross our Redeemer judged Satan, and cast him down. He is now a condemned criminal, a vanquished rebel. His reigning power over all believers is broken. Though it will cost you many a conflict, the Lord shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly, for He has already bruised him under His own feet on your behalf. III. TO CONVICT MAN. 1. The world stands a prisoner at the bar, and the charge is that it is and has been full of sin. In courts of law you are often surprised with what comes out. The prisoner seems to be a respectable person, and you say, “ I should not think he is guilty.” But, as the evidence proceeds, you say to yourself, “ That is a villain.” Now hear the Spirit of God. The Spirit came into the world to make all men know that Jesus is the Christ, and He attested that fact by miracles, and by the conversion of myriads. But this wicked world nailed Christ to a cross. By this the world is convicted, its guilt is proven beyond question. The wrath of God abideth on it. 2. What follows? The trial is viewed from another point. The world has declared that the gospel is not righteous, that the system which our Lord has come to establish is not true. But, by sanctifying men through the gospel so that they lead gracious lives, the Holy Spirit proves that the gospel is righteous. This process grows more and more complete as time rolls on. Were not the world unrighteous it would long ago have yielded to the holy message and its holy Messenger. But it will be forced to own the truth one day. 3. When the world shall see Jesus enthroned at last on the clouds of heaven, what conviction will seize on every mind! Not a sceptic will be found in that day! Christ seen at the Father’ s right hand will end all unbelief. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Spirit’ s threefold conviction I. THE SPIRIT’ S OF SIN. And first, the Spirit’ s conviction of sin--“ Of sin, because they believe not on Me.” 1. This is not society’ s definition of sin: according to society, sin means crime, vice, immorality. Neither is it the philosopher’ s definition of sin: according to the philosopher, sin means misdirection, abuse, disease. Neither is it the theologian’ s definition of sin: according to the theologian, sin means transgression of God’ s law, coming short of God’ s glory, hereditary guilt. But it is Christ’ s definition of sin: according to Christ, sin means unbelief on Himself, unbelief in Jesus as the Christ and Son and Image and Revealer of the Father. To disbelieve on Jesus, then, is to disbelieve on Deity Himself. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father (1 John 2:23). Christlessness in a Christian land is atheism. Sin, therefore, became a new thing when Jesus came into the world John 15:22). 2. Observe now that of this sin of sins the Spirit is the sole convicter. When He is come, He will convict the world in respect of sin, because they believe not on Jesus. And no other power can. The preacher cannot do it; conscience cannot do it; even holy scripture cannot do it. Remember the difference between sins and sin. A jury may convict me of crimes: conscience may convict me of sins. But no power less than the Holy Spirit can convict me of sin. No barb but His can pierce to the root of my nature; no flash but His can show me to myself as a ruined sinner. And the argument he wields in convicting me of sin is this very fact that I do not believe on Jesus. Calvary, not Sinai, is the Spirit’ s mightiest artillery. But what avails it to be convicted of sin, unless at the same time we are also convicted that there is somewhere righteousness, and that this righteousness can be made available to ourselves? II. THE SPIRIT’ S OF . 1. “ Of righteousness.” What is this righteousness of which our Lord here speaks? Whose righteousness is it? (1) Certainly not the world’ s. For the world is quite swift enough to detect its own merits. No Holy Spirit does it need to convince it of its own virtues. A very Narcissus it is, seeing everywhere the reflection of its own beauties and worshipping itself. But let us look at this matter a little more deeply, noting what the world’ s conception of righteousness really is. True, we admire and value righteousness. But why do we admire it? Because it is righteousness? Or because, in a civilized, well-ordered community, righteousness is one of the conditions of success? Do we not, practically speaking, secretly feel that Thomas Carlyle has hit the truth when, in his “ Heroes and Hero-worship,” he virtually tells us, Success is virtue; might makes right? Let righteousness but stand in the way of success, and let the choice lie between the two; and then see which the world will choose. Yes, the world crucified, and, were He to return, would virtually crucify again, the only absolutely righteous One the world has ever seen. (2) Whose then is the righteousness the conviction of which the Spirit is to bring to the world? Evidently Christ’ s righteousness, But what part or element of Christ’ s righteousness is the righteousness of Which He here speaks? Evidently, righteousness in the general, complete sense of the word; the sum total of all that God requires; the righteousness of a perfect character. In other words, the righteousness of which the Lord here speaks is the righteousness which was incarnated in His own blessed person and career and character and work. And of this righteousness Christ’ s departure and present invisibility are both the illustration and the proof: “ Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no more.” 2. “ Because I go to the Father.” This going to the Father involves several profound things. First, it involves Christ’ s own death. And why did Jesus Christ die, and so go home? Just because He was righteous, and lived in a world which did not believe on Him. His very righteousness crucified Him. Again: This going to the Father involves Christ’ s resurrection. And why was Jesus Christ raised from the dead? Just because He was righteous: He was declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4). Once more: This going to the Father involves Christ’ s ascension and heavenly enthronement. And why was Jesus Christ exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high? Just because He was righteous; His exaltation being the reward of His incarnate obedience. His going to the father was both a revelation and a demonstration of Christ’ s righteousness. 3. “ And ye no longer behold Me.” Why did not the risen Lord remain on earth? Why is He not here now, to be a terror to His foes, a comfort to His friends? We behold Him no more in order that we may the better understand what righteousness truly is. For righteousness is not a bulk--so many inches cubic; not a weight--so many pounds avoirdupois. Righteousness is a quality, a character. 4. And of this righteousness the Holy Spirit is the sole concictor: “ When He is come, He will convict the world in respect of righteousness.” It may also be admitted that the world does in a certain sense admire Christ’ s character. Few eulogies are more eloquent, so far as language goes, than the eulogies which eminent unbelievers have pronounced on the Nazarene. But admiration is one thing: loyalty is another thing. There is a tremendous difference between aesthetic admiration and practical devotion; between assent to Christ’ s teaching and consent with Christ’ s character. And what the world needs is to have such a profound conviction of Christ’ s personal, conspicuous, distinctive righteousness as to yearn for it, crying, O Jehovah, be Thou my righteousness (Jeremiah 22:6). And this conviction no power but the Paraclete can effect. III. THE SPIRIT’ S OF . But what avails it to be convicted of righteousness, unless at the same time we are convicted that righteousness will be victorious? 1. “ The prince of this world.” If you ask me why Satan was allowed to enter this world and usurp its throne, my only answer is this: I do not know. Here is one of those secret things which belong to Jehovah our God Deuteronomy 29:29). Of one thing, however, I am only too sure. Satan is the prince of this world. A usurped principality though it is, the principality is nevertheless his. See how he lords it over man’ s moral nature, as disclosed in the various religions of the world. Look, for example, at the world’ s idolatries: at its Apis, its Baal, its Dagon, its Mithras, its Siva. Look at the Greek and Roman mythologies. Or, to keep within our own land, look at the idolatry of second causes, the worship of antecedent and consequent, the adoration of the powers of nature. What is materialism but a sort of sublimated fetichism? Again: See how Satan lords it over man’ s psychical nature--over the capacities and affections and desires of men, instigating to all passions of pride and selfishness and ambition and hate and lust. Once more: See how Satan lords it over man’ s bodily nature, driving his thorns in the flesh to buffet us; bringing disease and pain and death and grave. In fine, look at this world as it actually is; its crimes, frauds, robberies, hates, falsehoods, perfidies, oppressions, cruelties, sensualities, blasphemies; its griefs and woes and deaths: look at all these and similar instigations and works of the devil, and tell me, Is not Satan the prince of this world? 2. But is this to be so always? God be praised, no! for the prince of this world hath been judged. To us indeed Christ’ s judgment of Satan seems to be a process still going on. But this is only because we are finite: for this idea of process, or succession in time, is one of the tokens of human weakness. But to the eye of the Son of God the overthrow of Satan was a single act, and an act already accomplished (Luke 10:17). But how was this judgment on Satan affected? (1) To answer, first, in a general way: it was effected by the Incarnation. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). The Incarnation itself was a judgment (2) But to give a more particular answer: Satan was judged by Christ’ s own death. Accordingly, a few days before, Jesus exclaimed: “ The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out: and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself. This He said, signifying by what manner of death He should die” (John 12:28-33). 3. And this judgment on Satan is a judgment of which the world needs to be convicted: and this, not merely in way of intellectual apprehension, but, especially and emphatically, in way of moral conviction. (1) Thus each Christian needs this conviction for himself. For he is exposed to a thousand discouragements: for example, the sense of infirmity, the enigma of delays and disappointments and adversities, the prevalence of iniquity, the enmity of Satan himself. Verily he does not yet see all things subjected to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:8). Hence he needs the saving power of hope (Romans 8:24). He needs the conviction that Christ’ s grace within him is omnipotent; that the life in Jesus will not be a failure; that the Christian’ s victory, if he holds steadfast, is a matter of certainty. What he needs is to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of God’ s own possession, unto the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:14). (2) And as each Christian needs this conviction for himself in order to his own salvation and victory, so does the Church of the Lamb need it in order to her own going forth and battling under inspiration of assured triumph. What she needs is the certain conviction that the Church’ s triumph is a foregone conclusion in the Divine mind; that in virtue of her joint-heirship with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:17), the appointed heir of all things Hebrews 1:3): she will share His sovereignty, even already owning this world by a sort of reversionary right. 4. But how shall this conviction be wrought? By no power less than the Holy Spirit. When He is come, He will convict the world concerning judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged. Conscience cannot work this conviction: all that conscience can do is to make us aware that we are under Satan’ s power. Neither can philosophy work this conviction: all that philosophy does is to try to make us believe that there is not, and never has been, any Satan at all; that hell is only the obverse side of heaven, or “ heaven seen in a side-light.” The philosopher does, indeed, talk of a golden age. But what kind of a golden age is it? An age when all that is now anomalous and discordant and monstrous shall give way to universal law and order and beauty; in brief, when the world shall develop into a godless paradise, from which Satan and Jesus shall be alike aliens. (G. D.Boardman, D. D.) Conviction The idea is complex. It involves the conceptions of authoritative examination, of unquestionable proof, of decisive judgment, of punitive power. Whatever the final issue may be, he who “ convicts” another places the truth of the case in dispute in a close light before him, so that it must be seen and acknowledged as truth. He who then rejects the conclusion which this exposition involves, rejects it with his eyes open and at his peril. Truth seen as truth carries with it condemnation to all who refuse to welcome it. The different aspects of this “ conviction” are brought out in the usage of the word in the New Testament. 1. There is the thorough testing of the real nature of the facts (John Ephesians 5:13). 2. The application of the truth thus ascertained to the particular person affected (James 2:9; Judges 15:22; 1 Corinthians 14:24; 2 Timothy 4:2; cf. Matthew 18:15; John 8:9). 3. And that in chastisement (1 Timothy 5:20; Titus 1:9; Titus 2:15; cf. Ephesians 5:11); or with a distinct view to the restoration of him who is in the wrong (Revelation 3:19; Hebrews 12:5; Titus 1:13). The Gospel of St. John itself is a monument of the Spirit’ s conviction of the world concerning I. SIN (John 3:19-21; John 5:28, &c.; John 5:38-47; John 8:21, &c.; John 8:34-47; John 9:41; John 14:27; John 15:18-24). II. (John 5:30; John 7:18; John 7:24; John 8:28; John 8:46; John 8:50; John 8:54; John 12:32; John 14:31; John 18:37). III. (John 12:31; John 14:30; John 18:15). (Bp. Westcott.) The facts which convince the world Our Lord has just been telling His disciples how He will equip them, as His champions, for their conflict with the world. He now advances to tell them that the three-fold conviction which they, as counsel for the prosecution, will establish as against the world at the bar, will be based upon three facts: a truth of experience, of history, of revelation, all three facts having reference to Christ and His relation to men. Now these three facts are--the world’ s unbelief; Christ’ s ascension and session at the right hand of God; and “ the judgment of the prince of this world.” These three facts are the staple and the strength of the Christian ministry. These are misapprehended, and have failed unless they have driven home to our consciences and understandings the triple conviction of my text. I. THE OF CHRIST AS THE CLIMAX OF THE WORLD’ S SIN. 1. This is the most striking instance of the gigantic self-assertion of our Lord’ s. The world is full of all manner of evils, but Christ passes them all by and points to a mere negative thing, and says, “ There is the worst of all sins.” 2. And some of us do not think it is sin at all; that man is no more responsible for his belief than he is for the colour of his hair. Well, what is it that a man turns away from when he turns away from Christ? And what does such an attitude indicate as to the rejecter? He stands in the presence of the loveliest revelation of the Divine nature, and he sees no light in it. Why but because he is incapable of seeing God manifest in the flesh he loves the darkness rather than the light. He turns away from the revelation of the most self-sacrificing love. Why but because he bears a heart cased with selfishness? He turns away from the offered hands heaped with the blessing that he needs. Why but because he does not care for the gifts that are offered? Forgiveness, cleansing, purity, a heaven which consists in the perfecting of all these has no attractions for him. The man who is blind to the first, who has no stirrings of responsive gratitude for the second and who does not care for the third, in turning away, manifests and commits a true sin. 3. Then our Lord here presents this fact of man’ s unbelief as a “ typical sin.” In all other acts of sin you get the poison manipulated into various forms, associated with other elements, disguised more or less. However unlike they may be to one another--the lust of the sensualist, the craft of the cheat, &c.--all of them have this one common root: a diseased and bloated regard to self. The definition of sin is, living to myself and making myself my own centre. The definition of faith is, making Christ my centre and living for Him. And so, if you want to know what is the sinfulness of sin, there it is; it is all packed away in its purest form in the act of rejecting Christ. When you have summoned up the ugliest forms of man’ s sins, this one overtops them all, because it presents in the simplest form the mother-tincture of all sin, which, variously coloured and perfumed and combined, makes the poison of them all. A heap of rotting, poisonous matter is offensive to many senses, but the colourless, scentless, tasteless drop has the poison in its most virulent form, and is not a bit less virulent though it has been learnedly distilled and christened with a scientific name, and put into a dainty jewelled flask. II. THE OF CHRIST AS THE PLEDGE AND THE CHANNEL OF THE WORLD’ S . Christ speaks as if the process of departure were already commenced. It had three stages--death, resurrection, ascension; but these three are all parts of the one departure. 1. The fact of an ascended Christ is the guarantee of His own complete fulfilment of the ideal of a righteous man. Suppose Jesus Christ never rose from the grave, would it be possible to believe that, however beautiful these records of His life, and however lovely the character they reveal, there was really in Him no sin at all? A dead Christ means a Christ who, like the rest of us, had His limitations and His faults. But if it be true that He sprang from the grave because “ it was not possible that He should be holden of it,” and because in His nature there was no proclivity to death, since there had been no indulgence in sin; and if it be true that He ascended up on high because that was His native sphere, as naturally as the water in the valley will rise to the height of the hill from which it has descended, then we can see that God has set His seal upon that life by that resurrection and ascension. 2. And further, with this supernatural fact, stands or falls the possibility of His communicating any of His righteousness to sinful men. If there be no such possibility, what does Jesus Christ’ s beauty of character matter to me? I shall have to stumble on as best I can, sometimes ashamed and rebuked, sometimes stimulated and sometimes reduced to despair, by looking at the record of His life. But there can come nothing other in kind, though, perhaps a little more in degree than comes from any other beautiful soul that has lived. But if He hath ascended up on high, then His righteousness is not a solitary, uncommunicative perfectness for Himself, but like a sun in the heavens, which streams out vivifying and enlightening rays to all that seek His face. If Christ be risen, His righteousness may be the world’ s; if Christ be not risen, His righteousness is useless to any but to Himself. III. THE OF THE WORLD’ S PRINCE AS THE OF THE OF THE WORLD. 1. The world has a prince. That chaotic agglomeration of diverse forms of evil has yet a kind of anarchic order in it, and, like the fabled serpent’ s locks on the Gorgon head, they intertwine and sting one another, and yet they are a unity. We hear very little about the prince of the world in Scripture. Mercifully the existence of such a being is not plainly revealed until the fact of Christ’ s victory over him is revealed. 2. That prince is judged. The Cross did that, as Jesus Christ over and over again indicates. Since that Cross, the power of evil in the world has been broken in its centre; God has been disclosed, and new forces have been lodged in the heart of humanity, which only need to be developed in order to overcome the evil. Since that auspicious day when “ He spoiled the principalities and powers,” &c., the history of the world has been the judgment of the world. Hoary iniquities have toppled into the ceaseless washing sea of Divine love which has struck against their bases. Ancient evils have vanished, and more are on the point of vanishing. A loftier morality, a deeper conception of sin, new hopes for the world and for men, have all dawned upon mankind; and the prince of the world is led bound, as it were, at the victorious chariot wheels. The central fortress has been captured and the rest is an affair of outposts. 3. A final judgment is coming and that it is, is manifested by the fact that Christ, when He came in the form of a servant and died upon the Cross, judged the prince. When He comes in the form of a King on the great white throne He will judge the world which He has delivered from the prince. (1) That thought ought to be a hope to us all. Are you glad when you realize the fact that the righteousness which is in the heavens is going to conquer and coerce and clap under the hatches the sin that is riding rampant through the world? Men who did not know half as much of the Divine love and righteousness as we do, called upon the rocks and the hills, &c., to rejoice before the Lord, “ for He cometh to judge the world.” (2) It ought to be a hope; it is a fear. And there are some of us that do not like to have the conviction driven home to us. (3) But hope or fear, it is a fact, as certain in the future as the Cross is sure in the past, or the Throne in the present. Have you learned your sin; have you opened your heart to Christ’ s righteousness? Then, if you have, when men’ s hearts are failing them for fear, and they call on the rocks and the hills to cover them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, we shall lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh. “ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness before Him in the day of judgment.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The fixing of impressions When Daguerre was working at his sun-pictures his great difficulty was to fix them. The light came and imprinted the image; but when the tablet was drawn from the camera the image had vanished. Our lamentations is like his--our want the same; a fixing solution that shall arrest and detain the fugitive impressions. He discovered the chemical power which turned the evanescent into the durable. There is a Divine agency at hand that can fix the truth upon the heart of man--God’ s Holy Spirit. (J. Stoughton, D. D.) John 16:9 Of sin, because they believe not on Me Ineffectual reproof and effectual conviction of sin We did not need that the Holy Spirit should come down from heaven to reprove the world of sin. The words and thoughts of men would have been sufficient to do this. Every preacher of righteousness from the days of Noah has gone about reproving the world of sin. Everybody who in any age has led a just, and holy life has reproved the world of sin, even though he may not have lifted up his voice against it. Nay, the unholy may do so, and the greatest sinners may be the loudest in reproof. Poetry had reproved the world of sin; indeed this is the special business of two of its branches--comedy and satire. Philosophy had reproved the world of sin; and at the time when the Spirit of God had begun His great work, the reproofs of philosophy had become severer and more clamorous than ever. But what is the world the better for all this laborious reproving? How much does the world heed it, or care for it? No more than the crater of Etna cares for the roaring and lashing of the waves at its feet. The smoke of sin will rise up and stain the face of heaven, the flames will still burst forth and spread desolation far and wide, although the waves of reproof should roll around it unceasingly century after century. In fact, the whole history of man has shown that reproof, when there is no gentler and more penetrative power working along with it, instead of producing conviction, rather provokes the heart to resist it. The office of the Spirit, then, was not to reprove but to convince, to teach mankind what sin is, to lay it bare under all its masks, to trace it through all the mazes of its web, and to light on it sitting in the midst thereof, to show it to man, not merely as it flashes forth in the overt actions of his neighbours, but as it lies smouldering inextinguishably within his own bosom, to give him a torch whereby he may explore the dark chambers of his own heart, to lead him into them, and to open his eyes so that he shall behold some of sin’ s countless brood crouching or gambolling in every corner. And to convince a man of sin in this way, by proving to him that it lies at the bottom of all his feelings, and blends with all his thoughts, that the bright coloured stones with which he is so fond of decking himself out, and which he takes such delight in gazing at, are only so many bits of brittle, worthless glass, and that what he deems to be stars are earthborn meteors, which merely glimmer for the moment they are falling; to convince the world of sin, by showing it how sin has tainted its heart, and flows through its veins, and is mixed up with its life-blood--this is a work which no earthly power can accomplish, and therefore was our Saviour mercifully pleased to send the Comforter to produce this conviction in mankind. (Archdeacon Hare.) Sin and its reproof I. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT IN OF SIN IN THE , 1. Sin is wholly a matter of motives. It is true that sin is the transgression of the law, and we might suppose it to be a matter of action; but we mistake the law. The law of God is to love God supremely and our neighbour equally. Sin is transgression of this law. 2. Now, whatever form of action may tend to good and to blessedness is right. God has a right to good and blessedness; and if we minister to His good and blessedness we respect His right. Man, too, has a right to good and blessedness, and when we confer upon him good and increase his blessedness, we give him that which is his due. 3. But since we do not understand in what way our life may be related to the good and blessedness of God, we must receive instructions from Him as to the manner of expressing our love to Him. And this He has done in His Word, progressively, most fully by His Son, in whom we have not only an instructor, but also a pattern; and it is ours to receive the instruction and apply it. And when we have received it and applied it, we shall furnish ourselves with rules of conduct. Conformity to these is righteousness; nonconformity to these is unrighteousness. 4. That, then, for which the Spirit is come into the world is chiefly to convince the intelligence and convict the moral judgment of a want of perfect love to God and man. You will easily see that it does not need the Spirit to teach a man concerning immorality, or even unrighteousness. For there is in man a natural conscience, and it teaches him that selfishness is wrong, and that generosity, at least, if not love, is right. And at the time the Saviour spoke there had been a revelation. The law of love had been expressed in the life of Jesus, and it had been wrought out into many precepts which He had uttered during His ministry, and which would be repeated by His disciples. But it is in the power of the mind to turn itself away from the inspection of motives, and to set itself so outwardly from itself, as that it will merely try its conduct by the external rule, without searching its recesses and referring its activities to their real sources in the affections. And so men need not only help in order to sound judgment, but a disposition in order to faithfulness with themselves. And if any help shall be given, it must be of a personal sort. It must come from one who can look into the heart, discern the thoughts and feelings, discover the motives, test them, and perfectly judge them. No mere influence proceeding from God could do anything with man in the court of conscience when he determined to stop inquiry and prevent judgment. II. IN WHAT DOES THE SIN OF THE WORLD CONSIST? Who is this young peasant who gathers about Him a few disciples, and, when He is about to be sacrificed for His enthusiasm, talks about His importance to this degree that the Spirit of the living God is to come into the world to convince all men of their sin--consisting in failure to trust Him? I should not want any other hinge than that upon which to swing the whole doctrine of the divinity of Christ; for here is either infinite assumption, or a consciousness of infiniteness--one or the other. The ages have decided it. I do not think two million two hundred and fifty thousand copies of the history of His life would have been seized by the English-speaking people in forty-eight hours if such talk as this were regarded in the judgment of the nineteenth century as infinite assumption. Now note that, we cannot love a being unless, when we know him, we know him to be such that we can trust him; and we cannot trust a being without loving him. 1. Where, then, is God revealed that we may know Him? Partly in nature, partly in our own constitution, but chiefly in the person of Jesus Christ. God sent Him into the world--Immanuel, “ God with us” ; God sent Him to manifest His moral excellence in His character and by His life. “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” If we shall know God, it will be by knowing Christ. He said, “ I am the Truth.” 2. We could not otherwise come into relationship with God except as He is known, and as He has manifested Himself, in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we love God as we love Him in the Son, and not otherwise; for we can only love where and as we know and trust. 3. Out of this grows the filial spirit, and we at length are able to reach the Father, to come into perfect relations to Him, and by the Spirit of adoption to say, “ Abba, Father.” And then, of course, when we are so related to God as that we love Him, and our life is in Him, it is our very nature to love His children. 4. We can now see in what respect it is the work of the Spirit to convince us of sin, namely: that in our hearts we do not purely and perfectly love God and God’ s children; and we fail here because we do not know Him and trust Him; and we do not know Him and trust Him because we do not see and approach Him in Jesus Christ. Therefore, as the Lord said, “ He will convince the world of sin, because they believe not on Me.” III. . 1. That is the most miserable and powerless religion that has emptied Christ of His divinity. It is of no service to man, and history is proving it, as experience is. 2. That it is not left to a man’ s option whether he shall trust Jesus Christ or not. No man with a natural conscience but knows that if He lives, moves, and has his being, and depends for his destiny upon, and must have his good and joy from, the loving and continual agency of God, he ought to render to God what is His due; and if He is the highest object of knowledge, He ought to be known; if He is worthy of perfect trust, He ought to be trusted; and if He is infinitely lovely and loving, He ought to be loved; and our natural conscience would teach us that we ought to know and love and trust God. Very well; there is no other way to do it, except to take God as God comes to us, and He never comes to any man except in the Son, and He never will. (J. T. Duryea, D. D.) The Holy Spirit convincing of sin I. WHAT IS OF SIN? It is opposed to the insensibility of the thoughtless; to the vain self-flatteries of those who delude themselves with the hope that it will be well with them, though they are strangers to regenerating grace and unwashed in the blood of atonement; and to the perilous delays of those who defer the concerns of their souls to an uncertain future. Unlike all these, he who is under conviction of sin has awaked to an awful sense of the importance of eternity, of the danger of his state, and of the necessity of instant attention to his dearest, his everlasting interests. His carnal security is terminated. Seeing himself pursued by the curses of the law, and exposed to everlasting agonies, the world diminishes in his esteem; much change is made in his affections, and much reformation in his outward conduct. Such is conviction of sin; that conviction that was felt by Peter’ s hearers on the day of Pentecost; by Saul of Tarsus when, “ trembling and astonished, he cried, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” by the Philippian jailer. II. WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS OF SIN? To Him we are indebted not only for grace, but also for all that is preparatOry to the infusion of it in the soul: of this the slightest observation must convince us. Let me add, that the great end and design of the gospel rendered it requisite that conviction should be wrought by the Holy Spirit. The gospel is intended to display the riches of Divine grace, and to remove all cause of glorying in ourselves: and if we could convince ourselves, make ourselves sensible of sin, the glory of the commencement and preparation of the work would belong to ourselves. III. DO ALL IN TRUE ? To this question the declarations of the Scripture, as well as our own observation, answer “ No.” We are taught that we can “ grieve,” can “ resist,” can “ quench the Spirit” of God. And suppose not that it is improper to attribute these fading convictions to the Spirit of God. “ Wherever they fail,” I here use the words of the excellent Dr. Owen, “ wherever they fail, and come short of that real conversion to which they have a tendency, it is not from any weakness and imperfection in themselves, but from the sins of those in whom they are wrought. Common illumination and conviction of sin have a tendency unto sincere conversion. They have so, in the same kind as the law hath to bring us to Christ. Where this end is not attained, it is always from the interposition of an act of stubbornness and wilfulness in those enlightened and convicted. By a free act of their own will they refuse the grace which is further tendered to them in the gospel.” IV. WHAT ARE THE CHIEF POINTS OF BETWEEN THOSE LEGAL WHICH HAVE BEEN BY MANY WHO ARE LOST, AND THOSE THAT ARE TO THE OF GOD? A legal conviction arises from a sense of God’ s justice, and power, and omniscience. All this is felt by him who is under evangelical conviction; but his chief sorrow arises from the consideration of other attributes of God: the Divine goodness, holiness, and disaffection to sin. He exclaims, “ I have abused the tenderness of a Father, and outraged infinite goodness; I have offended purity, which would have sanctified me.” The one traces the malignity of sin principally by its tendency to produce the death of the soul, and in the agonies of the lost; the other chiefly studies it in the sufferings and death of the Son of God. The one is burdened with the fear of punishment, the other with the sense of his desert of it. 1. This subject teaches us the deep guilt of those who strive to stifle those convictions of sin that are produced in the hearts of their acquaintance and friends. Such persons “ do despite to the Spirit of grace,” and unite with the prince of darkness in opposition to God and the souls of men. 2. This subject tenderly and solemnly admonishes those who have stifled the convictions which they once felt. Unhappy men I you once appeared “ not far from the kingdom of heaven.” 3. This subject consoles and admonishes those who are under convictions of sin. Fear not the pangs of godly sorrow; it is the Spirit of grace who convinces you, that He may be your Comforter. Though you are pained, it is by Him who is love and tenderness. (H. Kollock, D. D.) Conviction of sin I. WHAT IS SIN? Any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. This law is the eternal rule of rectitude. It is not merely a revelation of what is right and reasonable, but what we are bound to be conformed to. Of course our views of sin will be determined by our views of the law. If the law is only the law of reason, sin is simply unreasonable. If the law is limited so is sin. If the law is perfect, then all want of perfection is sin. II. OF SIN IS A OF WANT OF TO THE LAW. This includes 1. Want of conformity (1) Of the heart. (2) Of conscious states of the mind. (3) Of particular acts. Under the gospel it is specially of unbelief, as a sin against Christ. 2. The consciousness of this as guilt, i.e., as justly exposing us to the condemnation of the law. 3. The sense of inability to make atonement. 4. The sense of defilement: that which renders us objects of abhorrence. This stands opposed to self-complacency and self-approbation. III. THE OF THIS ARISES OUT OF THE FACT THAT THE GOSPEL IS A PLAN FOR THE OF SINNERS. It is designed for sinners. If we are not sinners, we do not need the gospel; and if we do not as sinners feel our need of the gospel we shall not embrace it. If we do not feel ourselves guilty and polluted we shall not look to Christ for pardon and cleansing. IV. WHAT KIND OR DEGREE OF IS ? What are the evidences of genuine conviction? 1. Every man is convinced of sin in a certain sense and measure. But only in such a measure as is consistent with indifference or carelessness. 2. Others are so convinced as to create great anxiety and to lead to long and painful efforts to save themselves. 3. Others are so convinced as to be thoroughly persuaded that they can neither atone for their guilt, nor deliver themselves from defilement, or make themselves holy. This is the result to be desired. V. THIS CAN ONLY BE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. (C. Hodge, D. D.) Conviction of sin As John Wesley on a summer evening in 1742 was preaching on his father’ s tombstone, he observed a gentleman in his audience, who, he knew, made no profession of religion. “ I was informed,” said Mr. Wesley, “ that he had not been at public worship of any kind for upwards of thirty years. Seeing him stand as motionless as a statue, I asked him abruptly ‘ Sir, are you a sinner?’ He replied with a deep and broken voice, ‘ Sinner enough,’ and continued looking upward till his wife and a servant or two, who were all in tears, put him into his chaise and carried him home. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) The convictive work of the Holy Ghost I. TO THE WORLD OF SIN IS MUCH MORE THAN TO THE WORLD OF CRIME. There may be sin where there is no crime, but wherever there is crime there is sin to account for it. Society is organized to defend itself against crime, yet every member of it is guilty of sin. Thus 1. Society condemns murder; so in His reasoning with us the Holy Ghost begins with this admission, and proceeds to say--You condemn murder, but this is merely a gross and vulgar morality, little better, indeed, than selfishness stimulated by fear; you must find out how murder begins--it begins in unholy anger; that anger may never have spoken one word or shown one sign, yet by so much as you have given way to it in the secrecy of your inmost heart you are guilty of murder in the sight of God! It required a Ghost to teach us that. We could only get so far as to make some difference between murder and manslaughter, or between murder with extenuating circumstances and murder without them. There society paused, being unable to go further; and precisely there the Spirit began His work. 2. Society has made murder penal, but it has not been able to set falsehood amongst punishable crimes, although it is treated more spiritually than murder. We own, for example, that a man may act a lie as well as tell one: that he may use words with two meanings: that he may guard himself and mislead others by mental reservations. What more can the Holy Ghost Himself do? The Holy Ghost says that a form of words may be true, and yet it may express a lie! A conversation may be reported verbatim, yet, by a mere change of tone, by the omission of a facial expression, by a skilful variation of pause or emphasis, the report may be a falsehood from beginning to end. Farther and deeper still, a man may be false to himself. He may actually have treated himself so dishonestly as to have suspended or destroyed the very power by which he knows right from wrong. His conscience is “ seared as with a hot iron,” and he “ given over to believe a lie.” Under such circumstances the man is something more than a liar, he himself is actually a lie! Who then but the Spirit of God can convince of sin here? 3. But the process becomes still more spiritual. Murder and falsehood are at all events nominally condemned; but what of virtues which are praised as the very security and crown of human society? Take an act of almsgiving, and let it be outwardly the choicest specimen of its class: the gift is large, timely, cordial, and deservedly bestowed. Beyond this point society does not carry its judgment. But where man ends, the all-searching Spirit begins: He holds the candle of the Lord over the secret places of the heart: He tries the motives by the fires of the supreme judgment; and having done so, He says in effect to the applauded man--“ Your love went not with your gift; it was an oblation to your own vanity; it was a bribe by which you bought reputation; it was not given to the poor, it was given to yourself.” This conviction may be made so clear to a man, as to cause him pain amidst the general applause. 4. We are now upon the line every point of which adds to our knowledge of spiritual realities as distinguished from formal facts. May our religion be the chief of our immoralities? You prayed in the house of your friend, and made your prayer the medium of personal compliment to his supposed excellencies and deserts; not daring to hint at his sins; would you have so prayed for him if he had not been listening to you? Would you have prayed at all if you could decorously have escaped the duty? Not only does the Holy Ghost ask these questions, He compels you to answer them to your shame. 5. More: even if we are unassailable at any of the great points now indicated, yet there is another kingdom. Every man has two lives--the life of motive, and the life of behaviour, into the first of which none can enter but the Spirit of spirits. “ He knoweth our thought afar off;” before it is a complete thought. Through your heart there shot a desire which scorched you, though no human eye will ever see the blister which it left, and the very memory of that desire will make you dumb whilst others sing. Into your mind there came what was only the hint of a thought, yet it struck you like a thunderbolt, so evil did it seem to be even in its incompleteness! These are the visitations which show a man that there is something worse than crime, and make him impatient with the deceitful comforters who would “ heal his hurt slightly.” II. “ The Spirit of truth will convince the world of sin, BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE NOT ON ME.” The Holy Ghost will so vividly and thoroughly show the nature of sin, that those who thought themselves the best examples of human society will be afflicted with the keenest compunction because of what they know themselves to be in the presence of God. It will no longer be a question of comparison as between one class of man and another; the judgment will lie wholly between man and God. This personal consciousness is to be so vivid and intense as to become painful; a man will see himself as he never saw himself before, and feel the burden of life with a new and intolerable oppression. Can he in that moment of despair turn to others for help? No; because they are in the agonies of the same experience. What then? When the conviction is so keen and relentless, the heart will begin to know that in turning away from Christ, it turned from the Son of God, the only mediator of the covenant of peace. This is the conviction of sin which the Spirit of God is to work in hearts which have not believed in the Saviour of the world. Christ cannot be understood until sin is understood. So long as sin is regarded from a merely social point of view, the Cross of Christ must appear to be an exaggeration. Why do with blood a work which could be done as well with water? Why sacrifice a man when the blood of a beast would answer every purpose? But the moment that sin is seen under the illumination of infinite holiness, the Cross of Christ alone is equal to the tragic awe and appalling horror of the situation. The first clear view which any man gets of the sinfulness of sin marks the crisis of his life. From that time he elects his destiny. III. In the light of this exposition we may see the way clear to some . 1. All attempts to establish a satisfactory life on the basis of what is commonly known as morality, must be given up. Morality has become one of the fine arts. It is a fine balancing of calculations, a tacit understanding with evil powers, at best but an armed neutrality. But what if morality be only an art--the most cunning and profitable of tricks? What if the partitions which we call our “ rights” be saved from destruction merely because it pays better to repress the fire of passion than to give it free course? The Holy Ghost teaches us that we cannot be right with one another until we are right with God. He says: “ You must be born again--you must die unto yourself, that you may live unto God.” This is clearly a magnificent basis of life, supplying as it does eternal guarantees of purity and nobleness. 2. All hopes founded upon what are thought to be different degrees of sin must be abandoned. There are, of course, different degrees of crime, but the question does not turn upon crime at all. For all the purposes of criminal law it may be sufficient to classify men according to the mere accidents of their mischievous behaviour, so that punishment may be assigned with some degree of proportion to the shock which public feeling has sustained; but another standard must be set up when the offence is between man and God. “ Would you send a murderer and a speculative sceptic to the same hell?” it may be asked. But stop! The question is one of the heart, not of the hand. According to the teaching of the Holy Ghost it may be that the heart through which has passed an unholy desire may be in a worse condition than the heart whose momentary passion has vented itself in murderous vengeance. The thing to be understood is that sin is spiritual, and that it is to be judged spiritually, without reference to the vulgarity or noise which may make it socially noticeable. 3. Under such realization of sin the work of Christ is seen in its true light. Here it is emphatically true that “ they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” But let the boastful man awake to the fact that in his own body there is a slowly developing disease, painless in its early stages, but surely advancing upon his very life; let him come to the conviction that at any moment his pulse may cease, and instantly his attitude towards the medical profession may be totally changed. A new conviction has given him a new feeling and compelled him towards a new policy. Jesus Christ makes use of this very experience to throw light upon His own ministry: “ I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Everything, therefore, is made to depend upon conviction. Where there is no conviction there will be no pressure of necessity. Where there is no thirst, who cares for the fountain? but in the desert, under an intolerable sun, who can calculate the value of a cup of cold water? Christ awaits the demands of spiritual necessity. He knows that the Holy Ghost will so torment the heart with a sense of sin as to compel the sufferer to pray for mercy, and at that point of anguish he will show himself to the Saviour of the world. (J. Parker, D. D.) The work of the Holy Spirit in the conviction of sin I. WHAT IS OF SIN? The word means 1. To reprove, censure, or upbraid. 2. To convict, prove to be guilty. 3. To render manifest. Here it is used in the last two senses. (1) The people of the world are to be convicted at the bar of their own conscience of being sinners. This act is to be manifest to their own consciousness; and as sin includes two elements--guilt and pollution--the one expressing the relation of sin to justice, and the other its relation to holiness, conviction of sin includes (a) The conviction of just exposure to the wrath of God on account of our own character and conduct. And this includes the conviction that we deserve punishment and that we certainly shall be punished unless in some way our guilt is removed. (b) The conviction of moral defilement, i.e., that we are in fact and in our own eyes offensive, degraded, and the proper objects of loathing. (2) The effects of conviction flow from these two sources, and are (a) Dread of the wrath of God. (b) Self-condemnation. (c) Remorse, including the sense of ill-desert, sorrow for the offence, and craving after satisfaction. It is stilled by punishment or adequate atonement. II. THE SIN OF WHICH MEN ARE TO BE THUS IS THAT OF NOT ON CHRIST. 1. What is it to believe on Christ? This includes (1) The belief that He is what He claimed to be--the Son of God, or God manifest in the flesh; the Messiah; the Prophet, Priest and King, and therefore the Redeemer of men. This involves the recognition of the truth of all His doctrines. This faith to be genuine must not rest merely on external evidence, but on the revelation of the Holy Spirit. (2) Reliance on Christ, on His propitiation, His saving, sanctifying and protecting power. (3) Adoring love for His person, zeal for His glory, devotion to His service, submission to His will. It includes this not exactly in its nature as faith, but as its necessary effects: just as we cannot separate apprehension of beauty from delight in it. 2. The worst of all sins is unbelief. And men are convinced of sin when convinced that want of faith in Christ deserves God’ s wrath and degrades and pollutes the soul. III. WHY IS THIS SO GREAT A SIN? That it is the greatest of sins is directly asserted in John 3:18. It is so because 1. It is the manifestation of the greatest depravity. The disbelief of speculative truth is not sinful, except where some moral obligation is violated in rejecting the evidence by which it is supported. But the rejection of moral truth is in its nature sinful, because it implies moral blindness and perversion of moral feeling. This latter unbelief differs in the degree of its sinfulness according to the importance of the truth and the kind of evidence with which it is attended. That the heathen are sinful and without excuse because they do not believe God, as revealed in nature, is asserted by St. Paul. But this sin is slight compared with those who rejected God as revealed in the Old Testament, and their guilt is small compared to that of those who reject Christ. He is God in the clearest and most attractive revelation ever made of the Divine Being. The rejection of Him implies the greatest blindness and depravity. 2. It involves the greatest conceivable ingratitude. It is not only the rejection of God, but the rejection of God humbling Himself to the death of the Cross out of love for us and for our salvation. 3. It involves a preference and deliberate choice of evil instead of good, and the kingdom of darkness instead of the kingdom of God. “ He who does not bow to Christ has bowed to Me.” 4. It is the rejection of eternal life for ourselves, and doing what we can to render certain the perdition of others. IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT ALONE CAN MEN OF THIS SIN. 1. It is certain that human reason or our own nature will not do it. 2. That flesh and blood cannot do it. 3. The Holy Spirit alone can do it, because He alone can open our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 4. It is His office to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. V. . 1. It is our first and greatest duty to repent of sin and to believe on Christ. 2. Our next great duty is to labour to convince the world of this sin, and to lead them to faith in Christ. (C. Hodge, D. D.) The work of the Spirit in the conviction of sin I. THE SPIRIT’ S OF SIN. Notice that unbelief in Christ Isaiah 1. The radical and essential sin. Christ did not begin to be when He became man, nor did His relation with men begin with the Incarnation. He was in the beginning with God, and was God, and was the light that enlightened every man that came into the world. And so now, every good tendency comes from God through Him. Whoever therefore opposes such tendency resists the influence of Christ, and sin is the result of that resistance. 2. The ultimate form of sin. We need go no further than this to convict a man of being a sinner. Why is it that men are saved or lost? Not by keeping the law of Moses, for “ by the deeds of the law shall no man be justified,” &c.; “ we are not under law, but grace.” The terms of salvation or damnation are now belief or unbelief. As there is now no other saving righteousness but that of faith in Christ, so there is no other fatal sin but that of unbelief. “ This is the condemnation,” &c. 3. The all-inclusive sin. It may be said truly that there are other sins--theft, murder, &c. But note that the law is summed up in two precepts--“ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” &c. Now when that love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost we love God and our brother also, and so keep the commandments. When we have not that love we break the whole law; but it cannot come save by faith in Him who is the revelation of Divine love. II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE OF THIS SIN IS WROUGHT BY THE HOLY GHOST. 1. It is one thing to convince of a sin and to convince of sin. A man may acknowledge the existence of and remove a fruit or a branch while ignorant of the root. 2. The conviction too in the two cases is distinct. In the one case the impression may be very superficial; in the other it is a deep and awful sense of wretchedness and want. 3. This form of conviction is not easily effected. It comes not from the words or wisdom of men. Though the speaking of the truth by a human messenger may be the occasion, yet the Holy Ghost must be the agent. 4. In this conviction the Spirit (1) Gives evidence of sin to the conscience--tells man of his fault. (2) Remonstrates and rebukes; and the effect of this is to convince of error, and to convict of criminality in following that error. 5. It is as the Comforter that the Spirit convinces. He is at once the comforting Convincer and the convincing Comforter. What true comfort can there be for a man, who knows he is a sinner, till the whole matter of his sin has been probed; and what greater comfort is there in any hour of weakness and infirmity than that of knowing that the whole matter has been sifted to the bottom? And then the operation of the Spirit mingles a revelation of the remedy with the revelation of the sin. The Spirit convinces us of the righteousness of that Christ in whom we should believe. (W. Roberts.) The necessity of the Spirit’ s conviction because of the incompetency of the law The law could not convince the world of sin as sin, a thing to be abhorred on account of its own hatefulness, but merely as a thing to be dreaded on account of the punishments attached to it. So that there was need of another witness who should search the heart and turn it inside out, and bring forward all the abominations contained in it; a witness, too, who should appeal not to its selfish fears, but to every germ of good left in it, to its love, its gratitude, its pity, its hope, its more generous desires and aspirations--a Witness that should pick up every little fragment of God’ s image still remaining in it, and should piece them all together, and make a new whole of them. Such was the Witness that God in His mercy sent to convince the world of sin. (Archdeacon Hare.) The necessity of the Spirit’ s conviction because of the incompetency of conscience We have the voice of conscience sighing through every fresh crack that we make in God’ s image in our hearts, and conspiring, with reason and imagination and every other faculty, to admonish us that we are betraying our duty, outraging our better feelings, marring our true, aboriginal nature, polluting our souls, and withering and rotting our hearts. But is this enough to convince a man of sin? Alas! conscience is so wasted by year-long neglect, and crushed by reiterated violation, that it scarcely ever utters its warnings and reproofs, except against overt acts of sin. It seldom takes notice of our habitual sins: still less does it rouse us to contend against that sinfulness which is inwrought in the natural heart. No! when conscience is uttering her most righteous words, she often is only casting pearls before swine. The passions of the carnal mind are fretted and irritated by the sight of what is so unlike themselves, and trample them impatiently in the mire. (Archdeacon Hare.) Unbelief, the greatest sin 1. The Spirit convinceth of all sins, but chiefly of a state of sin--of unbelief; (1) As the fountain of all sin. It was the first sin of Adam. It was the cause also of all the sin that grew up to such maturity in the old world. The faith of Abel is applauded (Hebrews 11:4); consequently the unbelief of Cain is marked. If Abel’ s sacrifice was more excellent in regard of his faith, Cain’ s was more vile in regard of his unbelief. (2) As the ligament and band of all sin (John 8:24). 2. Unbelief is the greatest sin, because (1) God employs the highest means to bring men to a sense of it. The odiousness of sin to God appears by His sending Christ to expiate it; the odiousness of unbelief by His sending the Spirit to reprove it. (2) It is a sin against the gospel, which is so holy a declaration of God’ s will that there cannot be an holier; so good in itself, that nothing can be better; the sin therefore against it is so bad, that nothing can be worse. (3) It is a sin against the highest testimony (John 8:17-18). (4) As faith is the choicest grace, so that which is opposite to it must be the greatest sin. Note I. WHAT IS TO BE BY . 1. Negatively. (1) Not a want of assurance. Drooping spirits may be believers. There is a manifest distinction made between faith in Christ and the comfort of that faith; between believing to eternal life, and knowing we have eternal life 1 John 5:13; Isaiah 50:10). (2) Not every interruption of the act of faith. Faith may lie asleep in the habit, when it doth not walk about in the act. Fogs and mists darken the sun, but put not out that eye of the world. (3) Not doubts. Such there are in the beginnings of faith, when the state of the soul is like that of the twilight, a mixture of light and darkness Psalms 126:6-7). This is rather infirmity than unbelief ( Matthew 14:31; Psalms 56:3). (4) Not temptations to unbelief and unbelieving thoughts injected. If these be not entertained, formally they are not acts of our unbelief (Mt Psalms 73:21). (5) Not unbelief of some truths through ignorance, provided they be not fundamental (Mark 16:11-14). Errors in the head do no more destroy the truth of faith than miscarriages in the life through infirmity nullify the being of grace, or every spot upon the face impair the beauty and features of it. (6) Not a negative unbelief which is in the heathens, who never had the means of faith. 2. Positively it is (1) A denial of the truth of the gospel; when men assent not to the doctrine of the gospel by an act of the understanding. (2) A doubting of the truth of the doctrine of the gospel as many do who will not openly deny it. Since all men are in the rank of believers or unbelievers, a suspension of our belief of the doctrine of the gospel cannot be ranked under the banner of faith; it is at best, for the present, a more modest refusal, rather than a downright rejection. (3) Refusal to accept heartily of Christ upon the terms of the gospel, which is opposite to justifying faith, when there is not a fiducial motion to Christ as the centre. II. WHEREIN THE OF DOTH CONSIST. 1. It is against God. (1) It is the greatest reproach and undervaluing of God (Isaiah 7:11-13). As faith “ gives glory to God” (Romans 4:20), so unbelief casts reproach and scorn upon Him. (2) It robs God of the honour of all His attributes. (a) It blemishes the truth and veracity of God. He that believes “ sets to his seal that God is true” (John 3:33). It makes God guilty of perjuryHeb 6:17, 18; Ezekiel 33:11). (b) It casts a black aspersion upon the wisdom of God. Unbelief charges God with folly in regard of the unnecessariness of it. If men think they have ability to save themselves, what a needless work was this in God, to make His Son a sacrifice for man’ s salvation! Or, if men do account the coming of Christ necessary, and so free God from the charge of folly, they at least charge His wisdom with a mistake in the means of salvation, as if it were undertaken without precedent consideration. And further, by this sin the unbeliever doth, as much as in him lies, frustrate the design of God’ s glorious wisdom, in not consenting to that which the wisdom of God hath contrived. (c) It slights the goodness of God. No greater act of love could spring from boundless eternity, than the parting with His only delight in heaven out of His bosom for the redemption of man (Isaiah 5:4). (d) It disparages the power and sufficiency of God. First, In not coming to Him. Secondly, In trusting to something else. What then we trust unto, besides God and above God, we render in our thoughts more powerful than God. (e) It strikes at the sovereignty and authority of God. It is a debt we owe, as subjects, to God as our sovereign, to give credit to what He cloth reveal, and to obey what He cloth command (1 John 3:23). It is a contradiction to the resolute and fixed will of God. All unbelief is a dislike of God’ s terms (Romans 10:3). And it renders God, as much as in it lies, unworthy of any sovereignty. (f) It affronts the holiness and righteousness of God. If the setting forth Christ to he a propitiation for sin was to declare His righteousness Romans 3:25), what doth unbelief signify hut that this act was unrighteous in God? (g) It is a stripping God, as much as lies in man, of all His delight. The service Christ did, which was delightful to God, is contemptible to an unbeliever. First, It is a refusal of Christ, the “ man that is God’ s fellow,” His “ daily delight.” Secondly, It is a privation of faith, a grace so pleasing to God (Hebrews 10:38). Thirdly, It is a refusal of His mercy in Christ Micah 7:18). 2. It is a sin peculiarly against Christ. It is a piercing Him again Zechariah 12:10). (1) It is a nullifying the work of His meditation and death. (a) It renders the design of His coming a vanity, when it receives not the fruits of it (2 Corinthians 6:1). (b) It is a vilifying the price of redemption (Hebrews 9:28). (2) It is a denying of the love of Christ. (3) It denies the wisdom of Christ. It chargeth Him with folly and inconsiderateness, in undertaking a task that was not worth His pains. (4) It wrongs the authority of Christ. It receives an aggravation from the greatness of the person that published the doctrine of faith (John 5:43). (5) It denies the excellency of Christ (Philippians 3:8). (6) It denies the sufficiency of Christ: the greatness of His priesthood, the fulness of His satisfaction, His prevailing intercession. Where no trust is reposed in Him, it implies that no benefit can be expected from Him. (7) It denies Christ His right and reward (Isaiah 53:11). (8) It puts Christ to the greatest grief. His soul was never more deeply impressed with grief before the hour of His passion than when He saw men would not come to Him that they might have life. 3. It is also a wrong to the Spirit of God (Acts 3:51 : Hebrews 3:10; Hebrews 3:17). (S. Charnock, B. D.) The sin of unbelief There are three general forms of unbelief. I. . 1. This consists in either doubting or rejecting the truths of religion and morals in general, or the Divine origin and authority of the Bible in particular. 2. This arises from (1) Pride of intellect; assuming to know what is beyond our reach and refusing to believe what we cannot understand; setting ourselves up as capable of discerning and proving all truth. (2) The neglect of our moral nature, and giving ourselves up to the guidance of the speculative reason. (3) The enmity of the heart to the things of God; or opposition in our tastes, feelings, desires and purposes, to the truths and requirements of religion. (4) Frivolous vanity, or the desire to be thought independent or upon a par with the infinite. 3. The sinfulness of this form of unbelief is manifest (1) As pride. Self-exaltation is sinful and offensive in such a feeble, insignificant creature as man. (2) As the habitude of the moral nature which makes it possible to believe a lie is the evidence of moral degradation. (3) As opposition to the truth is opposition to the God of truth. It is alienation from Him, in which all sin consists. Hence unbelief is the generic form of sin. It is the general expression of alienation, the opposition of our nature to His. It is, therefore, the source of all other sins. II. , or want of confidence in the doctrines, promises, and providence of God. This may exist even in the hearts of believers. It is a matter of degree. 1. It arises either from (1) The entire absence, or low state, of the religious life. (2) Or the habit of looking at ourselves and on difficulties about us rather than at God. (3) Or refusing to believe what we do not see. If God does not manifest His care and fulfil His promise, then our faith fails. 2. The sinfulness of this state is apparent, because (1) It is the evidence and effect of spiritual weakness and disease. (2) It dishonours God, refusing to Him the confidence due to an earthly friend and parent; which is a very heinous offence, considering His greatness and goodness, and the evidences He has given of His fidelity and trustworthiness. (3) It is the manifestation of the same Spirit which dominates in the open infidel. II. IN TO CHRIST. 1. This is a refusing to recognize and receive Him as being what He professes to be. (1) God manifest in the flesh. (2) The Teacher sent from God. (3) Our atoning Sacrifice and Priest. (4) As having rightfully absolute proprietorship in us and authority over us. 2. This is the greatest of sins. It is the condemning sin. Its heinousness consists (1) In its opposition to the clearest light. He who cannot see the sun must be stone blind. He who cannot see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ must be blinded by Satan. This blindness is moral, religious, and spiritual deadness. (2) It is the rejection of the clearest external evidence, which evinces opposition of the heart. (3) It is the rejection of infinite love, and the disregard of the greatest obligation. (4) It is the deliberate preference of the kingdom of Satan before that of Christ, of Belial to Christ. (C. Hodge, D. D.) The Convincer of sin I. THE MEANING OF THE WORDS OF THE TEXT. “ When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin.” What does this mean? 1. The word reprove is the first that requires explanation. The word so translated has various shades of meaning. It is clear, from the context, that it does not mean merely to accuse or convict, although it has this signification. It must also mean here to teach and demonstrate the matter of the accusation, or the subject under deliberation. We say this is clear from the context, because, although we may speak of convicting a person of sin, we could hardly speak of convicting him of righteousness. Hence we may say, with reference to the part of His work now before us, the Holy Ghost has come to convince of sin, or to convict of sin, according to the result produced in the mind of him to whom the demonstration is afforded. 2. Then, who or what is it, that is to be convinced of sin? It is the world, that is to say, the great power which ever has been and ever is arrayed against Christ and His Church. You will see the comfort which the assurance of our text must have conveyed to the disciples of Christ at the time it was first spoken. They had been prepared for the antagonism of the world, and they might fear for their own weakness in the struggle with the great adversary. One who is all-powerful is on their side. 3. He is to convince the world of sin. This is the first part of His work, for it is a part which is clearly fundamental in a world like ours and among men like ourselves. Other convictions, indeed, must go side by side with this, in order that it may be complete; but this must come first. Sin existed, and yet its existence was denied. Sin was carrying men away like a flood, and it could not be stemmed until its reality and its nature were clearly perceived. II. THE FOR THE OF SIN BY THE HOLY GHOST. We have seen that this conviction must come first; but what need was there for the Holy Ghost to produce it? 1. Conscience could not do it. We all know by experience as well as observation that the truthfulness of the voice of conscience is affected by the life which we live. Conscience needs education before it can be a guide to us. Even after it has been instructed, it may be darkened and silenced. 2. The law of God will not do it. The law has an important part in the work of conviction; but is not sufficient to effect it by itself. The law, in accordance with its essential character, forbade only the act, and not the thought and the motive. 3. Even the teaching of Christ Himself was insufficient to produce this conviction. It was a mighty advance on anything that had preceded it. Let me not be mistaken. I do not mean that any new Teacher could be sent from God who would undo all that had gone before Him. The light which came from heaven was a true light, even if it was not wholly adequate to man’ s requirements. And when Jesus Christ promised to send His Church another Comforter, an inward Teacher, it was not one who should be independent of the instruction which God had given to men before He came. On the contrary, He was to use all that had been revealed in the law and the prophets, all that had been taught by Jesus Himself. III. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE OF SIN IS BY THE HOLY GHOST. “ He shall reprove the world of sin--because they believe not on Me.” This was going to the very root of the matter, and striking at the principle from which all sin proceeded. The Holy Spirit had not so much for His work to produce conviction with respect to any special sinful act. That is undoubtedly a part of His work, and a very important part, inasmuch as there can be no reality in a conviction of sin in general which does not include the sense of special and particular sins. That, however, was not the work which He was peculiarly appointed to accomplish. It is clear that a conviction of this kind could be produced only by One who could go deeper into man’ s nature than any previous agent had been able to penetrate. When we examine the testimony of conscience and of the law of God, we shall see how inadequate they were to this task. Conscience, apart from Divine revelation, says nothing at all about faith. The same must be said of the law. We do not forget that it was to the law that St. Paul attributed his own knowledge of sin; and it cannot be too often repeated that the natural conscience or even the influence of the Holy Spirit of God could have affected but little in the moral education of mankind, without that rule of duty which was revealed by Almighty God to the Jewish Lawgiver. Yet St. Paul himself, who so powerfully sets forth the virtue of the law as a revealer of sin, in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, acknowledges in the Epistle to the Galatians that “ the law is not of faith; but, the man that doeth them shall live in them” (Galatians 3:12). Yet, although neither the natural conscience of mankind nor the revealed law of God set forth the principle of faith as the very element of all virtue and goodness, it will be clear to any one who places the history of the human family in the light of that revelation which we now possess, that unbelief has been the root and fountain of man’ s sin from the very beginning. The law to which Adam was subject in Paradise was in reality a demand which was made upon his faith. Certain privileges were granted to him: one thing only was denied to him. He was required in that one case to exercise his faith in the goodness and wisdom of his Maker. It was through unbelief that he fell. Unbelief was the radical sin of mankind at all times. Every page of the history of the Jews tells us that this was the origin of all their apostacies and idolatries. Either they doubted the promises of the most High, or they “ limited the Holy One of Israel.” But this sin of unbelief, which was everywhere and always the root of evil in man, found its climax in the rejection of Jesus Christ. It is indeed clear that the enormity of sin must always be judged by the opportunities possessed of becoming acquainted with our duty. Hence it is, that every fresh disclosure of truth to men has been a disclosure of sin in man. The Jews of the time of our Lord were guilty of many sins, as He Himself plainly showed them; but compared with the sin of rejecting Him, their other sins were but slight. In the rejection of Jesus all the enmity against God which their hearts had harboured was concentrated in a single act. It was a sin against the clearest moral and spiritual light, which had ever shone upon human darkness. “ God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ,” said the Apostle. It was unbelief that crucified the Lord of Glory. Jesus put forth claims which if they were not true were blasphemous. To reject His claims was to pronounce Him worthy of death. But we mum not forget that the conviction of sin is produced in the very same manner among ourselves now. Unbelief is the principle of sin, and we are never thoroughly convinced of sin until we have been made to know the guilt of our want of faith in Jesus Christ. Throughout the whole life of those who are now unfaithful and unworthy members of the Christian Church, their defects are traceable to this radical one. The growth of unbelief is the growth of sin; and the climax of evil in the heart and life of man or woman is the deliberate rejection of Jesus Christ as the Son of God crucified for the sins of the world. “ He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (1 John 5:10); and the beginning of a new life of holiness must be laid in the conviction of the guilt of such unbelief. And this conviction, the same substantially in us which was wrought in the hearers of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, is produced by the same great Agent. IV. There is a question still remaining to be answered, which is suggested by the words of our text: IN WHAT SENSE CAN IT BE SAID THAT THE HOLY GHOST THE WORLD? It is true the Holy Ghost is said to convince the world of sin, and not only those who are saved. And this will actually take place. Sooner or later, all men will be convinced or convicted; will be convinced of sin, that they may flee from it and be delivered from it; or convicted of sin, that they may be punished for it. The object of the work of the Holy Spirit is the deliverance of man from sin and destruction, by showing him the evil of sin, and thus compelling him to flee from the wrath to come, a work worthy of One who is called the Comforter. But if that aim is disappointed, He will at least produce conviction; and the great result of His work, whether in saving or condemning, will be moral decision. (W. R. Clark, M. A.) Faith in Christ I believe on a physician when I put my case into that physician’ s hands, and trust him to cure me. I believe on a lawyer when I leave my case in his hands, and trust him to plead for me. I believe on a banker when I put money into his hand, and allow him to keep it on my behalf. I believe on my Saviour when I take Him to be my Saviour, when I put my helpless case into His hands, and trust Him to do what I cannot do for myself--save me from my sin. Have you done so? You believe there is such a Person as Jesus, and that He is the sinner’ s Saviour. You do well; but that is only a partial and incomplete faith. To believe that a certain doctor exists and has a large practice is not personally to believe in that doctor. True faith contains a moral as well as an intellectual element, and when the former is wanting the latter can avail but little. Do you repose your moral confidence in Him, as being to you the Saviour that you need, as one whose character and office are congruous to the wants of your nature? You are a sinner, He represents Himself as Saviour. You are a lost one, He has died to find you? You are dead, He presents Himself as the Resurrection and the Life. The point is, Do you take Him by faith to be what He reveals Himself to be? That is believing on Him. If you can say in your heart, “ Yes, I believe in Him,” then the Holy Spirit of God can no longer convict you of sin. All your sins were laid on the Lamb of God, who bore the sin of the world. There is no longer a case against you; the summons is dismissed. There is no condemnation; you are pronounced acquitted, and accepted in the Beloved. (W. H. H. Aitken, M. A.) John 16:10 Of righteousness, because I go to My Father The world’ s false theories of righteousness The world is examined, convicted, convinced, as to its false theories of righteousness. In Christ was the one absolute type of righteousness; from Him a sinful man must obtain righteousness. Just as sin is revealed by the Spirit to be something far different from the breaking of certain specific injunctions, so righteousness is revealed to be something far different from the outward fulfilment of ceremonial or moral observances (cf. Matthew 5:20; Matthew 7:33; Romans 3:21, &c.; Romans 10:3) . (Bp. Westcott.) The conviction of righteousness It is a fit time for the Holy Ghost to convince God’ s people of righteousness when they are convinced of sin before. Then they can relish Christ. I. THE HOLY GHOST OF IN THIS ORDER 1. There must be a righteousness; for we have to deal with a God who is righteousness itself; and no unclean thing shall come into heaven Revelation 21:7). 2. There is no such righteousness in any creature. Perhaps we may have a righteousness to satisfy the world, because we live civilly. But that will not satisfy conscience. And then there must be a satisfaction to the law, which condemns our thoughts, desires; but God is the most perfect of all. 3. This righteousness is to be had in Christ. The righteousness of Christ is that righteousness that is founded upon His obedience: active, fulfilling the law; and passive, discharging all our debts, satisfying God’ s justice. The meritoriousness of both of them is founded upon the personal union of God and man; in reference to which union we may without blasphemy aver that God performed the law, God died for us. 4. This righteousness is our righteousness. The Spirit convinces that this belongs to all believers, and it is better than Adam had. His righteousness was the righteousness of a man, this righteousness is the righteousness of a mediator; and it is such a righteousness, that when we are clothed with it, we may go to the justice of God. II. HOW DOTH THE HOLY GHOST “ ” THE OF CHRIST? He presents to the soul the knowledge of this excellent righteousness, and then creates a hand of faith to embrace it. The Spirit doth not tell in general only that Christ is an excellent Saviour, but relates to a Christian soul, God gave Christ for thee. This sways the heart to rest upon Christ. And then as it is in marriage, the persons, by virtue of that relation, have interest in each other’ s substance and estate; so when this mystical marriage is made up between Christ and us, we have a right unto Christ by all rights, by titles of purchase and redemption. All that Christ hath is ours; our sins His, and His righteousness ours. III. WHY IS THE SENDING OF THE SPIRIT FOR THIS? Because 1. It is above the conception of man that there should be such a righteousness of God-man. A devil incarnate may know all things, and yet want to see. Only the Holy Ghost gives inward sight, and works faith to see Christ as mine. 2. He alone must make the conscience quiet, who is greater than the conscience. Conscience will clamour, “ Thou art a sinner;” the Holy Ghost convinces, “ In Christ thou art righteous.” 3. Flesh and blood are full of pride, and would fain have some righteousness of their own. The Jews were of this temper; and it hath been the greatest question from the beginning of the world till this day, what is that righteousness whereby we must stand before God? IV. HOW SHALL WE KNOW WHETHER WE BE OF THIS OR NO? 1. By the method Christ uses in convincing. First, He convinces of sin, and then of righteousness. For a man to catch at righteousness before he be convinced of sin is but an usurpation. 2. By our hatred of sin, and the alteration of our bent, and by so making Christ sweet to us. 3. By the witness of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit hath a light of its own; as I know I believe, when I believe. Upon this apprehension that Christ is mine, the soul is constrained to love; whereupon ensues an enlargement of heart, and a prevalency of comfort above all discomfort, for love casteth out fear. 4. By inward peace and great joy suitable to the righteousness. As the righteousness is an excellent righteousness of God-man, so, that peace and joy that comes from it is unspeakable peace and joy (Romans 5:1-3). 5. It answers all objections. The doubting heart will object this and that, but the Spirit of God shows an all-sufficiency in Christ’ s obedience; and that sets the soul down quietly in all crosses, and calms it in all storms in some degree (Romans 8:33). V. THE REASON WHY THE OF . “ Because I go to the Father.” Wherefore did He go to the Father? 1. To make application of what He had wrought. If Christ should not have gone to the Father, He could not have sent the Holy Ghost to us. 2. To clothe us with a sweet relation, to make the Father our Father (chap. 20:17). (R. Sibbes, D. D.) The Convincer of righteousness It has been made a question by men, whether the words “ right” and “ wrong” have any real meaning. Is there such a thing as right? If there is no right, there is no wrong; the one implies the other. Are they both delusions? Two opposite answers are given to these questions, the answer of the world and that of God. The world knows of expediency and inexpediency, of advantage and disadvantage, as connected with certain actions and courses of conduct; but of nothing beyond, of nothing deeper and more binding than the rules of expediency. God, on the contrary, tells us of good and evil, of right and wrong, apart from the dictates of prudence and expediency. One great object of all God’ s dealings with men has been to convince them of the difference between right and wrong. The first part of the work of the Holy Ghost described in these verses is, as we have seen, the conviction of sin. But how can such a conviction be brought about? It is impossible, unless the conviction of righteousness is also produced. Sin is a negation; it is a departure from truth and righteousness; and therefore there can be no real conviction of sin, unless there is a conviction of that which sin denies and contradicts. I. OF WHAT THE HOLY GHOST IS HERE SAID TO THE WORLD. “ Of righteousness.” The expression is obviously incomplete. What must be supplied, in order to complete it? Shall we say, “ of my righteousness,” or “ of their righteousness” ? Of both? 1. Of the personal righteousness of Christ. This must clearly be the first conviction produced by the operation of the Holy Spirit; because it lies at the foundation of the whole work of redemption. No more awful proof could be given of the blindness and depravity of mankind than the possibility of the righteousness of Christ being doubted. The teaching of our blessed Lord was opposed to the conventional morality of the times in which He lived. The popular notions of superior sanctity identified self-righteousness with righteousness, and reckoned a man good according to the outward display which he made. It was needful therefore to convince men of the righteousness of Jesus; needful, because they could bring themselves to doubt it; needful for man’ s own sake, because unless there is a righteousness to be discovered in the life of Christ, it is nowhere to be found. The righteousness of Christ is the proof that righteousness is not impossible to man. But it is also the foundation of the Christian religion. How shall He be the Lamb without spot, unless He is personally “ holy, harmless, undefiled?” The conviction of righteousness includes next 2. The justifying righteousness of Christ. We come now, from the righteousness which is the personal character of the God-Man, to that righteousness of His which in a sense belongs to the world. And this is clearly implied in the text. The conviction of sin is wrought in the conscience of men, not that they may be driven to despair, but in order that they may be led to amendment; and it is then only that justifying righteousness will be appreciated, when the conviction of sin is produced. We have no righteousness of our own. Such is the testimony of conscience as well as of revelation. In vain it is that men go about seeking to establish their own righteousness. But that which man cannot procure for himself, God has provided for him. The Holy Ghost convinces men of sin, that He may show them how helpless and lost they are, and He convinces them of righteousness, that they may appropriate to themselves, by faith in Christ and by the grace of the Holy Ghost, the righteousness provided for them in the Redeemer. The Holy Ghost convinces men not only of the personal righteousness of Christ and of His justifying righteousness, but also of 3. The righteousness to be wrought in believers. The process of human salvation would be incomplete, unless this formed a part of it. The Holy Spirit convinces men that there is a righteousness from which they have departed, and thus He convinces them of sin; He tells them of a justifying righteousness in which they are accepted, to which they may flee and obtain the full pardon of all their sins; and He further convinces them of the need of righteousness in themselves, and of the provision which God has made for bestowing it. We are next to consider II. BY WHAT MEANS THE OF IS . “ Because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more.” The work of the Comforter still points to the person and work of Christ. 1. Let us remark at the outset that the descent of the Holy Ghost, in itself, was a proof that Jesus had gone to the Father. The promised Gift was bestowed, the promised Spirit was given; and now they had not only their own testimony but His to the resurrection and ascension of their Lord. “ We,” they could henceforth say, “ are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him” Acts 5:32). 2. But what our text reminds us of is not so much, that the Holy Ghost, by His descent, proves the ascension of our Lord to heaven, but that His return to the Father is a vindication of His righteousness, both as a personal attribute, and as the justification and sanctification of His people. (1) The Holy Spirit makes use of the ascension of Christ to prove His personal righteousness. Unless the apostles believed, unless they could in some manner demonstrate the righteousness of Him whom they preached, their whole mission must prove ineffectual. And how could they do it? They might remind their hearers of the words of truth, and beauty, and power, which He had spoken. But, alas, multitudes had listened to His words, and had failed to receive conviction from them, and how much less must be the effect of those words when repeated by others! They might ask whether the mighty works which He had wrought could have been accomplished by any but a perfectly righteous man; but they could not forget that in the performance of one of the chief of them He had been called a sinner. There was one other fact to be brought forward, to be testified to by the Third Person in the Holy Trinity Himself, the fact that He had gone to the Father, and while hidden from the world was placed at the right hand of the most High. At His transfiguration the same testimony had been borne. Then His righteousness was declared by a Voice; now it is proclaimed by a stupendous act. Then it was spoken in words which died away upon the ear; now it is uttered by the voice of His glory--a glory which is abiding and eternal at the right hand of His Father. (2) But, further, the resurrection and ascension of our blessed Lord were not merely a proof of His personal righteousness, nor a mere evidence of the truth of His mission and the Divine origin of the gospel; they were the witnesses of His justifying righteousness. Jesus Christ was not a mere Teacher, nor a mere Worker, nor a mere Sufferer; nor all of these combined. He was the Second Adam, who represented the whole fallen family of the first Adam before God; and every act of His was not the act of a mere Individual, it was the act of a Substitute, a Representative, a Saviour. We do not forget the atonement which our Lord made by His death, when we say that His resurrection, or that whole process of exaltation which comprehended His resurrection and ascension, His rising from the grave into the presence of the Father, was the justification of mankind. It was His death that paid the penalty due for man’ s transgression; but it was His resurrection that declared the penalty to be paid. He “ was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.” It was the evidence that His atoning work was complete; for death could no longer hold Him. It is the abiding proof that His offering on our behalf was accepted by God. (3) But, once more, it is by this means that the Holy Ghost convinces us of the righteousness that is to be wrought in believers. From His throne in heaven our risen and glorified Redeemer dispenses the blessings of His kingdom, the pardon of sin, acceptance with God, and access into the holiest of all; and that which is the seal of all present blessings, the earnest and pledge of those which are to come, the Holy Ghost Himself, who applies all the blessings which God bestows. Let us ask, in conclusion, what practical bearing these truths have upon ourselves. And first let us ask 1. Has the Holy Ghost convinced us of sin by showing us the righteousness of Christ? We are sinners. That is not only undeniable: as a general rule, it is not denied. But is it admitted in its full meaning? The patriarch Job felt that there was a moment in his experience in which he came to know God as he had never known Him before. “ I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). So it is with us. 2. But this is not all. Supposing that such a conviction of sin has been produced, let us ask again, has the Convincer of sin driven us to lay hold of the justifying righteousness of Christ? It is not enough to have a guilty conscience, and to know the deep and dark enormity of our past and our present. Judas was, in some sense, convinced of sin, but he went and hanged himself. 3. Instead of answering that question, let us for a moment consider another, which implies the answer to the former. Are we through Christ new creatures in heart and life? This is the grand proof of our being in a state of grace, of our having the good hope of being saved. (W. R. Clark, M. A.) John 16:11 Of Judgment, because the prince of this world is Judged The prince of this world judged Through His whole life did Christ judge the prince of this world. When He, who was born King of the Jews, was born in the stable of Bethlehem, and when the shepherds were called to be the first witnesses of His birth, then was the prince of this world judged; and this judgment was made manifest in that he who sat on the throne of Judaea was so troubled with the tidings, and tried to frustrate the purpose of God by the massacre of the children. Hereby the prince of this world laid bare the hell that boiled in his breast; and though he sent forth the fiercest of his servants he was foiled. When He who came to fulfil all righteousness submitted to be baptized by John, the greater by the less, the sinless by the sinful, God by man, then was the prince of this world judged. Then was man taught not to seek his own glory and righteousness, but the glory and righteousness of God--not to seek to be first, but to be last; and therefore were the heavens opened and the voice from heaven heard, “ This is My beloved Son,” &c. Again in the whole course of our Lord’ s temptation was the prince of this world judged; he was judged in that all his most powerful lures were scattered at once by being brought to the light of God’ s Word. Throughout the whole Sermon on the Mount the prince of this world is judged. His most vaunted blessings are declared to be woes, and his woes declared to be blessed. Every time that Christ forgave sins the prince of this world was judged. It was proclaimed in the sight of heaven, God Himself bearing witness that a Man was walking on the earth mightier than the prince of this world, and who could arrest his captives even out of his nethermost prison; and men were taught how they might obtain this deliverance--by faith. By every miracle that Christ wrought, the prince of this world was judged. In that He cast out devils by the Spirit of God it was proved that the kingdom of God had come on mankind, and that among the sons of men there was One who had bound the strong man, and was spoiling his goods; and when the devils took refuge in the herd of swine, and ran down the precipice into the lake, then was it shown what is sin’ s only congenial abode, its only rightful doom. Moreover, by every grace in our Lord’ s character the prince of this world was judged--by His meekness, His patience, His forbearance, His infinite lovingkindness, His perseverance in well-doing, His spotless purity, His zeal. The judgment of the prince of this world was consummated on the cross, and then when he had thus been finally overthrown, death, the last enemy, was also subdued. In all these manifold ways do they who are convinced of judgment by the Comforter perceive that the prince of this world has been judged. And what ensues? Will they follow him into his judgment, share his condemnation, be confounded with him in his confusion? Surely this cannot be. They who have been truly convinced of judgment will no longer cleave to that which they know their Saviour has condemned. Feelings of justice, honour, compassion, may sometimes urge a man to uphold the cause of the vanquished. But here all honour and right and mercy are on the side of the victor, and the victory consists in this, that the shame of sill has been unveiled, that its hatefulness has been disclosed, and men’ s eyes have been opened to discern its malice and its cruelty, its falsehood and its woe. Those whose eyes have been thus opened must needs loathe and turn away from sin. As Christ condemned sin so will all His faithful servants condemn it. They will condemn it in the world, but still more in their own hearts, for until they have condemned it in themselves, in vain will they try to condemn it in the world. (Archdeacon Hare.) The Convincer of judgment The judgment of the world is the natural sequel to its being convinced of sin; and the statement in the text assures us that one day a distinction will be made between the good and the evil, the servants of God and the servants of the devil, and that the result of that distinction and separation will be the condemnation and destruction of the wicked. I. THE OF THE OF . If men are to be so convinced of sin as to feel that the service of sin is a hopeless one, they must also be convinced of judgment. It is not enough to set forth the beauty of righteousness, and the deformity of sin. All law, whether human or divine, whether it points out a duty, or forbids a transgression, must have its sanctions. It must have something connected with it, in the shape of rewards, or of punishments, which shall make it to be respected. So it is with regard to righteousness and sin in general. Men must be convinced of more than the mere abstract wrongness of sin, of more than the mere deformity of vice, of more than the rightness, and beauty, of virtue and holiness. It is true that the beauty of holiness was illustrated in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that sin was rebuked by the purity and glory of His character; by means of the righteousness of Christ the conviction of righteousness is worked in the hearts of men. Yet in vain would the Holy Ghost set before many men at least that glorious ideal, or show that sin was a departure from it; unless He could also show that righteousness must triumph, and that sin must be put down and overthrown. II. THIS GOD HAS BEEN MEETING IN THE PAST HISTORY OF THE WORLD. 1. The first chapters of the sacred history contain this lesson in the probation, fall, and expulsion from paradise of our first parents. Here righteousness and sin confronted each other in their simplest forms of obedience and disobedience. Adam and Eve were put upon trial to see whether they would obey or disobey the Divine command. There was discrimination, an examination of the moral character of their conduct; there was condemnation, and there was rejection, and consequently punishment. All this is involved in the idea of judgment. It was the first lesson given by God to man, the first of a long series by which He has sought to convince His creatures of judgment. 2. We find the same repeated in the Deluge. The sins of mankind waxed grosser and more heinous, and the long-suffering of God waited and warned His rebellious creatures, until, it may be, men ceased to believe in judgment, and thought that to-morrow should be as to-day, and the wicked even as the righteous. But their dream was broken in upon and their delusion dispelled. The Flood came and took them all away. 3. We might point next to the history of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we pass on to the illustration of the subject in the history of God’ s dealings with the Israelites. In that remarkable history we have not only law, we have not only guidance and direction, we have judgment also. If God revealed Himself to the Israelites as their Teacher and Ruler, He also manifested Himself as the Judge of them and of the whole earth. The Judge of all the earth does right, even when the evil has been committed and the penalty merited by the seed of Abraham. It would not be judgment, it would not be a help towards convincing men of judgment, unless it were the result of discrimination and the just consequence of the act which had been performed. The whole history of the Israelites illustrates these remarks. It abounds in what we should call especial Divine interpositions; and those interpositions are frequently acts of retribution consequent upon the disobedience of the Divine commands, or a refusal to comply with His requirements. When Israel came out of Egypt, the exodus was accomplished by means of a Divine judgment. 4. We dwell upon these illustrations of God’ s dealings with mankind, because we possess His own interpretation of them, and are not liable to the charge of presumption which is sometimes brought against us when we seek to trace the hand of God in secular history. But we must not therefore suppose that the same lesson is not taught, and clearly too, in the whole history of nations. The conviction of judgment, in a measure at least, is impressed upon the religious belief of the whole human race, and is reflected in all their mythologies. Its very distortion is often no mean proof of its reality. The foot-prints of the Avenger are never far separated from those of the evil doer. III. HOW THEN IS THE OF WROUGHT BY THE ? Let us endeavour to understand what our Lord means when He tells us that the Comforter shall convince the world of judgment, “ because the prince of this world is judged.” The two principles of good and evil have been contending from the beginning of the world; but since the Incarnation it may be said that the great leaders and representatives of these opposing powers have encountered each other face to face. “ The Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” 1 John 3:8). And His whole history tells us, that whenever they met in spiritual warfare, the prince of this world was judged. 1. It was so in the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness. The prince of this world was judged. In that contest from which he departed beaten, he had a pledge of the power and authority of Him who was to be his Conqueror. 2. The prince of this world was also judged in our blessed Lord’ s works of Divine power, and especially in His casting out devils. When the disciples of Christ returned with joy to their Master, saying: “ Even the devils are subject unto us through Thy name,” His answer was, “ I beheld Satan as lightning fail from heaven” (Luke 10:17-18). His empire was overthrown: the prince of this world was judged. 3. The same victory was won, the same act of judgment was performed upon the cross. It is clear that our blessed Lord looked forward to the death of the cross as the consummation of His victory. “ Now,” He said in prospect of that hour (John 12:27-31), “ Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: But for this cause came I unto this hour.” And the cause He mentions distinctly directly afterwards, “ Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of the world be cast out.” Blot out the propitiation from the work of Christ, and the judgment of the god of this world is incomplete. That was the great means whereby Satan was cast down; for when the blood of atonement was sprinkled upon the mercy-seat, he had no more claims upon sinful man, and no more hold upon the conscience. 4. And the victory was completed by our Lord’ s resurrection and ascension. If the Cross was the victory, this was the triumph. If Satan was defeated by the Conqueror on the cross, the resurrection declared His defeat. Nay more, it declared by the entrance of the Redeemer into the holy of holies that the curse was done away, that man could now enter into the presence of the Most High. This is what is meant by the accuser of the brethren being cast down, when the Man-child was caught up into heaven Revelation 12:5; Revelation 12:9-10). Satan falls as lightning from heaven. The prince of this world is judged. We have seen what is meant by the fact of which the Holy Ghost makes use in working the conviction of judgment, we have seen in what sense the prince of this world was judged: let us now ask what use the Comforter makes of this act in producing the conviction of judgment. Evidently the very descent of the Holy Ghost is a witness of the triumph of our Lord. He is the promise of the Father, the gift of the Son. But this not all. He produces this conviction by carrying on the work, by giving effect to the triumph of Christ. In the progress of the Church of Christ, a progress which has been the work of the Holy Ghost, in the triumph of the individual, or of the body over sin and over the opposition of the world, we have seen the conviction of judgment. But the judgment of the prince of this world, which is now being manifested in the overthrow of evil, is the pledge of a future and final judgment. I need not say that the pledge is adequate. The fact of the descent of the Holy Ghost, the mighty works which accompanied, and which since then have followed His descent, the power which He has put forth in human society, all these things are our pledge for the future. And the pledge will be redeemed. We know not when or how; but the time will come when there will be a separation of good and evil, of light and darkness. (W. R. Clark, M. A.) John 16:12-15I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.--The original implies that such teaching as that of the Cross would have been a crushing burden (cf. John 19:17; Luke 11:46; Luke 14:27; Galatians 6:2; Galatians 6:5; Acts 15:10) . The Resurrection brought the strength which enabled believers to support it. (Bp. Westcott.) The wisdom of delayed revelation “ I remember,” says Dr. Pierre, “ on my return to France, after a long voyage to India, as soon as the sailors had discerned the shores of their native country, they became in a great measure incapable of attending to the duties of the ship; some looked at it wistfully, others dressed themselves in their best clothes; some talked, others wept. As we approached their joy became greater; and still more intense was it when we came into port, and saw on the quay their parents and children; so that we had to get, according to the custom of the port, another set of sailors to bring us into the harbour. Thus would it be with God’ s children if they saw the full and unclouded glory of eternity before they reach the eternal heaven. ‘ I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now’” (John 16:12): The Guide into all truth This is our Lord’ s last expansion of the great promise of the Comforter. First, He was spoken of simply as dwelling in Christ’ s servants. Then, His aid was promised, to remind the apostles of the facts of Christ’ s life, especially of His words; and so the inspiration and authority of the four Gospels were certified for us. Then He was further promised as the witness in the disciples to Jesus Christ. In the preceding context we have His office of convicting the world. And now we come to that gracious work which He is to do for all those who trust themselves to His guidance. We have here I. THE AVOWED OF CHRIST’ S OWN (John 16:12). 1. Earlier we have our Lord asserting that all things whatsoever He had heard of the Father He had made known unto His servants. Is it possible to make these two representations agree? Yes! There is a difference between the germ and the flower; between principles and complete development. All Euclid is in the axioms and definitions, yet when you have learned them there are many things yet to be said, of which you have not grown to the apprehension. And so our Lord, as far as confidence and fundamental and seminal principles were concerned, had declared all that He had heard. But yet, in so far as the unfolding of these was concerned, the tracing of their consequences, the exhibition of their harmonies, the weaving of them into an ordered whole in which a man’ s understanding could lodge, there were many things which they were not able to bear. And so our Lord declares that His spoken words on earth are not the completed revelation. 2. We cannot but contrast the desultory, brief, obscure references which came from the Master’ s lips with the more systematized and full teaching which came from the servants, especially in reference to the atoning character of His sufferings. 3. What then? My text gives us the reason. “ You cannot bear them now,” not in the sense of endure, tolerate, or suffer, but in the sense of carry. And the metaphor is that of some weight--it may be gold, but still it is a weight--laid upon a man whose muscles are not strong enough to sustain it. It crushes rather than gladdens. So our Lord was lovingly reticent. There is a great principle involved here. A wise physician does not flood that diseased eye with full sunshine, but puts on bandages, and closes the shutters, and lets a stray beam, ever growing as the cure is perfected, fall upon it. (1) So from the beginning until the end of the process of revelation there was a correspondence between man’ s capacity to receive the light, and the light that was granted; and the faithful use of the less made them capable of receiving the greater. “ To him that hath shall be given.” (2) Now that same principle is true about us. How many things there are which we sometimes feel we should like to know, but compassed with these veils of flesh and weakness we have not yet eyes able to behold the ineffable glory. Let us wait with patience until we are ready for the illumination. 4. People tell us, “ Your modern theology is not in the Gospels. We stick by Jesus, not Paul.” What then? Why this, it is exactly what we were to expect; and people who reject the apostolic form of Christian teaching because it is not found in the Gospels are going clean contrary to Christ’ s own words. II. THE OF THE TRUTH INTO WHICH THE SPIRIT GUIDES (John 16:13). 1. Note the personality, designation, and office of this new Teacher. “ He,” not it, He, is the Spirit of Truth. “ He will guide you” --suggesting a loving hand put out to lead--“ into all truth.” That is no promise of omniscience, but the assurance of gradual and growing acquaintance with the truth which is revealed, such as may be fitly paralleled by men passing into some broad land of which, there is much still to be possessed and explored. “ He shall not speak of Himself, &c. Mark the parallel between the relation of the Spirit-teacher to Jesus and the relation of Jesus to the Father. “ All things whatsoever I have heard of the Father I have declared unto you.” The mark of Satan is “ He speaketh of his own;” the mark of the Divine Teacher is, “ He speaketh not of Himself, but whatsoever things,” in all their variety, in their continuity, in their completeness, He shall hear. Where? Yonder in the depths of the Godhead--whatsoever things He shall hear--“ there, He shall show to you.” And especially, “ He will show you the things that are to come.” Step by step there would be spread out before them the vision of the future and all the wonder that should be, the world that was to come, the new constitution which Christ was to establish. 2. Now, if that be the interpretation, then (1) This promise of a complete guidance into truth applies in a peculiar and unique fashion to the original hearers of it. One of the other promises of the Spirit was the certificate to us of the inspiration and reliableness of these four Gospels. In these words there lie involved the inspiration and authority of the apostles as teachers of religious truth. And so for us the task is to receive the truth into which they were guided. The Acts of the Apostles is the best commentary on these words. There you see how these men rose at once into a new region; how the things about their Master which had been bewildering puzzles to them flashed into light. In the book of the Apocalypse we have part of the fulfilment of “ He will show you things to come;” when the seer was “ in the Spirit” on the Lord’ s day, and so the heavens were opened, and the history of the Church was spread before him as a scroll. (2) This great principle has an application to us. That Divine Spirit is given to each of us if we will use it. Only we do not stand on the same level as these men. They, taught by that Divine Guide and by experience, were led into the deeper apprehension of the words and the deeds of Jesus. We, taught by that same Spirit, are led into a deeper apprehension of the words which they spake. And so we come sharp up to this. “ If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual,” &c. That is how an apostle put his relation to the other possessors of the Divine Spirit. And you and I have to take this as the criterion of all true possession of the Spirit of God that it bows in humble submission to the authoritative teaching of this book. III. THE UNITY OF THESE TWO. 1. “ He shall glorify Me.” Think of a man saying that! So fair is He, so good, so radiant, that to make Him known is to glorify Him. The glorifying of Christ is the ultimate and adequate purpose of everything that God the Father, Son, and Spirit has done, because the glorifying of Christ is the glorifying of God, and the blessing of the eyes that behold His glory. 2. “ For He shall take of Mine, and show it unto you.” All that that Divine Spirit brings is Christ’ s. So, then, there is no new revelation, only the interpretation of the revelation. Christ said, “ I am the Truth.” Therefore, when He promises, “ He shall guide you into all the truth,” we may fairly conclude that the “ truth” into which the Spirit guides is the personal Christ. We are like the first settlers upon some great island-continent. There is a little fringe of population round the coast, but away in the interior are leagues of virgin forests and fertile plains stretching to the horizon, and snow-capped summits piercing the clouds, on which no foot has ever trod. 3. “ All things that the Father hath are Mine, therefore said I,” &c. (verse 15). What awful words! Is that what you think about Jesus Christ? He puts out here an unpresumptuous hand, and grasps all the constellated glories of the Divine nature, and says, “ They are Mine;” and the Father looks down from heaven and says, “ Son, Thou art ever with Me, and all that I have is Thine.” Do you answer, “ Amen! I believe it?” Conclusion: 1. Believe a great deal more definitely in, and seek a great deal more earnestly, and use a great deal more diligently that Divine Spirit that is given to us all. I fear that over very large tracts of professing Christendom men only stand up with very faltering lips and confess, “ I believe in the Holy Ghost.” Hence comes much of the weakness of our modern Christianity, the worldliness of professing Christians. 2. Use the book that He uses--else you will not grow, and He will have no means of contact with you. 3. Try the spirits. If anything calling itself Christian teaching comes to you and does not glorify Christ, it is self-condemned. And if the great teaching Spirit is to come who is to “ guide us into all truth,” and therein is to glorify Christ, and to show us the things that are His, then it is also true, “ hereby know we the Spirit of God,” &c. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) “ Yet many things to say” There is always a pathos in last words. Those of great men become the inspiration of future generations; those of the humblest become sacred as gospels to those who loved them. Of dying teachers we expect last views of truth; of dying captains last advices for the campaign; of dying leaders some inspiring programme. But it can scarcely be said that Christ’ s programme is an inspiring one. He prophesies tribulation, and dies with the fulness of His teaching unexplained, Note I. CHRIST THE OF HIS OWN . It must be remembered that the ministry of Christ was not a harvesting. He had only time to cast in the good seed of the kingdom. But then there is a sense in which the man who looks upon the seed virtually is looking on the harvest too. So Christ saw in His teachings the prophecy of their fulfilment. He said that His words were Spirit and life. There are many issues, many harvests of the word of Christ, which He dare not even intimate to us yet. Yet the time will come, for this Galilean peasant dares to stand forth in the light of all the ages, and to say, “ Heaven and earth shall pass away; My teachings shall never pass away.” Note, for instance 1. What Christ has to say about war. There is one of the sorest problems of the world, and Christ lived under the domination of the greatest military empire which the world has ever seen. In one sense He says nothing about it, except to prophecy of it when He is gone. What, then, was Christ’ s attitude towards it? “ Love thy neighbour as thyself.” That is the seed. Ages have trampled with heavy feet above it; and tens of thousands of men, women, and children have been crushed beneath this frightful Juggernaut. But the seed is not dead: now, after eighteen centuries, a tiny spear of green life begins to pierce through the red soil of the battle-field. Men gather round, and, behold, it is the plant of peace at last. Whatever be the wickedness of rulers, or the folly of statesmen, the entire sentiment of Europe towards war has changed; and governments talk of arbitration, and war is dreaded, shunned, hated by every civilized power. 2. What Christ has to say on slavery. Christ was familiar with it, and knew what it meant and would mean. What, then, did Christ say? Well, He did not go up and down Palestine preaching the abolition of slavery or the rights of man. Yet Jesus Christ overturned slavery, and that by recognizing the divinity of human nature--that the lost are worth saving; that the harlot and the publican were created in the image of God; and Christ said: “ If any man will be great among you, let him be servant of all.” That is to say, He recognized the dignity and grandeur of service. That was the seed. Ages pass, till at last Macaulay, Wilberforce, &c., are praying, and the heavens seem to open and the authentic voice of Christ reaches them, and in the strength of that vision they begin their great crusade, till, at last, exactly eighteen hundred years after Christ bowed His head on Calvary, England pays down her twenty millions to free her last slave. And thirty years later, at the price of one of the greatest wars in history, America knocks the last shackle off her last slave. 3. He has many things to say to us on such questions as communism, socialism, liberty, sacrifice; for His life was the seed. He was the Divine Socialist, who, being rich, for our sakes became poor. He was the Heavenly Communist, who shared His heart’ s blood with us. He was the Great Liberator who made us free with a glorious liberty. He was the Sacrifice who gave Himself “ the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God.” Very dimly and feebly have the wisest apprehended the truths that lie in those words. But the time will come when God will send His new teacher; and then that Christianity which began in a commune will end with a brotherhood, which says not, “ thine is mine,” but, “ mine is thine.” 4. Christ has much to say, too, of the duties that the Church owes to the world; and if we would know how long it takes for men to learn the issues of the words of Christ, just think how long it took England to learn what Christ meant by “ Go and preach the gospel unto every creature.” Eleven centuries of Christianity pass in this land, during which the people perish in their darkness; until at last a clergyman against whom the Church doors are closed goes out into the highways and hedges to find his congregation, and says, with magnificent prevision, “ The world is my parish.” II. THIS OF GRADUAL IS CHRIST’ S IN ALL THINGS. 1. For illustration you need go no farther than this very supper chamber. How fast Simon’ s heart is beating! He has just said, “ I will go with Thee to prison and to judgment.” Hush! Thy Master is about to speak. Where shall He begin? He sees the vision of thee, old and grey, girded by those whom thou knowest not, &c. He knows all the paths of pain thy martyr feet will tread. Shall He tell thee all that? No. It would not make a Judas of thee, but it might make a Demas, who would love the wicked world more than Christ. It would break thy heart. Wait thou. Thou must stand in the blackness and hear that last cry that thrills from that cross of shame, and then, when thou hast wept thine heart out in an agony of penitence, at last the morning will break beside the grey sea when Christ will meet thee, and then He will tell thee everything; but thou couldst not bear it now. 2. There are successive revelations for every age and for every man. They never come too soon; they never come too late. The Church is like a man who sits in a darkened room. He has been blind; he begins to see. Day by day a little more light is let into the chamber. At last the hour will come when the blinds will be rolled right up, and the windows flung wide open. We shall look out. There will be “ a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Music has much to say to the little child. He begins snatches of his mother’ s lullaby, cradle songs, nursery rhymes. Then, as the years pass by, higher strains engross him. The deep chords of wailing and distress wake the poet in his brain. He bathes himself in the angel joy of Handel. He himself, perhaps, becomes a young Mozart or a Haydn. Music had much to say, but it waited till the heart was deep enough and the brain strong enough to receive the message. So the Church learnt her cradle song at Bethlehem, her hymn of pain on Calvary, her victorious marching music at Pentecost. In the dungeon and the fire her voice has been trained to its noblest use, until at last, without a single jarring discord, she shall sing in that new song which is never old--the praise and glory of the Lamb. 3. Some one says, “ I thought that all Christ’ s words were in the Gospels. I know all that Christ has said, for I have read them.” I congratulate you, for I do not. I find that Christ’ s words are like the sea, which deepens evermore as we go farther into it. I find that Christ has always something new to say. Oh, think of it! For all these centuries men have been preaching out of these fragmentary sketches of biography--these broken words of Christ, and yet they are newer and deeper and Diviner to-day than ever they were before. Therefore, if Christ says nothing to me, I know that it is not because Christ is not speaking, but it is because I am deaf and am not listening. He tells me His truth as I am able to bear it. 4. Or, perhaps, some one says again, “ Oh, if Christ had this great foresight, that He would tell me something about my own future.” Let me paint you a little picture. See, out of church there come those two who have plighted their troth each to each until death them shall part; and with what happy pride they step forth into the unknown years. Now, suppose I know their future, and I tell that fair young bride how she will know poverty and trial, and watch by sick children, and weep over little graves; and how he will grow old and grey before his time, vexed with many cares and hurt with many sorrows. Yes, and one of those two must close the other’ s eyes in the coffin! Ah! which? Shall I tell them which? Would there be any more joy in marriage mornings, any more music in wedding bells? I will not tell them. And neither will Christ tell me. He has many things to say, but He wants the quietness of the house of sickness to say some, and the more solemn silence of the house of death to say others. “ Ye could not bear them now.” Conclusion: So I learn that for much of Christ’ s speech you and I must wait for another world. There are so many things that you and I would like to ask Christ about. Why did that great ambition cheat me so? Why did that bright joy crumble into ashes? Why did that fair angel child flit so early into heaven? I cannot tell; but I shall see Christ some day, and He will tell me everything. (W. J. Dawson.) The reserve of Christ I. THE SAYINGS OF JESUS. 1. They are the expression of the deepest and purest earnestness. There is no aim at any outward demonstration; yet in reading and reflecting upon them, they sink into your deeper life, they gain upon your reason, sentiment, and conscience, until at last they leaven you with their spiritual life, and you become His disciples through their life-power. This earnestness made Him despise all artifice and cunning concealment, and led Him to present His thoughts and sentiments natural and openly, without varnish and pomp. 2. They are the expression of the highest wisdom. Solomon uttered many wise proverbs; but Christ’ s sayings contain the wisdom of life, of salvation, which Solomon and other wise men never pretended. He is the wisdom of God. 3. They are of perpetual and universal power and authority. The sayings of wise men like coins lose their weight and value in their use, because they are not essential for life and happiness, for all times and places; but the sayings of Jesus remain in their weight and authority, because we ever need them to guide and comfort us. Before anything which belongs to men can be of perpetual authority and fitness, it must (1) Be comprehensive of all nature, and have provision to meet it in all its phases and relations, which is one reason why the sayings of Jesus remain the same. (2) Harmonize with all essential laws outside itself, which is another reason why the sayings of Jesus perpetuate their power and authority. Essential laws change not. In vain all artificial powers try to prop a thing contrary to the laws of the universe and the constitution of our mind. The unnatural will perish by the hand of nature. (3) Be capable of new development and application, which is another element constituting the permanent authority of Christ’ s sayings. They are ever deeper than our plummet, and loftier than our highest reach. Like rich grapes, the more they are squeezed the richer and sweeter is their sap. The sayings of Jesus are like seed buried for a while, but which, by suitable agencies, will be restored to new life and fresh application. 4. They are expressions of His love. Love may be shown by tears, by gifts, and by sacrifices, as Jesus showed His; but the most common expressions of rational minds are words; these remain when tears are dried, and gifts and sacrifices are forgotten. Christ spoke as never man spoke, for He spoke from a true heart to the heart of humanity, according to the law of truth and love, which will abide for ever, and so He still speaks. II. THE RESERVE OF JESUS. It was a reserve 1. In the surplus which was beyond and above the immediate need of His disciples. They had every way more than actually they needed to meet their present necessity. He had already told them more than they understood; He had given them work more than as yet they performed; He had declared already of privileges and blessings greater than they enjoyed; and their difficulties and persecutions were as numerous and heavy as they could well bear without speaking of more. It does not appear requisite on any ground to tell them more at present. They must master their present lessons before they are fit for more. 2. Was dictated by wisdom, to educate their Christian graces and character. He was a wise Master; He did not cram all into one lesson. There may be things which belong to this hour only that demand to be told as complete as they are, and that because we are fit to comprehend and use them now, and shall be unfit at any other time. But a system of spiritual education demands to be revealed little by little. If all the evil of the future were told us, it would discourage and distract all our life; or if all the good, it would partly destroy its enjoyment. The reticence of Christ was intended to keep alive their expectation for future blessings, and thus preserve them from flagging and weariness in their toil and trial, and to preserve their freshness of faith and experience. 3. Was inevitable because of the inexhaustibleness of His resources. Every true teacher has always something more to say. He never says all in any lesson or sermon. How could such riches of knowledge and love be bestowed all at one time, and that to feeble minds and contracted sympathies? The light was greater than their eyes, the cloud was larger than the field, the shower richer than the blades, and the ocean immeasurably greater than their cups. 4. Was a reticence of anticipation. What was unsaid should be declared another day with a comment. III. THE PRESENT OF THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD TO BEAR THE SAYINGS OF JESUS. It is the general misfortune of every great teacher to be misunderstood. The unfitness of the present age consists in 1. A want of greater sympathy with His teaching, and more insight into its meaning. As it is in any branch of knowledge, so is it with truth and character; without some sympathy to begin with in the object of our search, or faith, we shall not acquire an insight into it. Sympathy with the things of the Saviour is quite a different thing from certain attachments to certain appellations and certain acquired opinions. What we need is that deep attachment of our spirits with something that is common to all, and unchangeable in all times, in the person, life, and sayings of Jesus. 2. Overweening and preconceived attachment to other and contrary things to His sayings. This may be opinion, pleasure, worldly aggrandisement, self-indulgence, or any other wrong and sinful way. Or it may be some contracted habits, which have sunk into the very root of our nature, so that we have lost the power to renounce them. It may be associates who are loved more than Him; or it may be careless and blind indifference of all truth and goodness. Even what is right, if used in the wrong way, and the truth if misapplied or not used rightly, may unfit for His teaching and truth. Whatever absorbs the attention of the soul, so that it cannot listen fully and impartially to Him, unfits to bear His truth and spirit. 3. The many discordant voices that are heard. There is such a contradictory crying, “ Here is Christ, and there is Christ.” Not that these voices are altogether false, for there is some Christ doubtless in all. But their great wrong is in the pretension that He is all with them, and none with others. These things perplex many, and keep them away from listening to the sayings of the Saviour; and until men will love Christianity more than sects, and the spirit of the Saviour more than habits and opinion, they will continue. 4. The materialistic spirit of the age. This world is the kingdom of most; they neither have taste nor time to think and trouble themselves about any other; and the love of the world is enmity against God. 5. An unwillingness to see our own wrong, and be corrected and directed rightly. The teaching of the Saviour is too spiritual, high, and searching, to suit our sensuous desire and self-indulgent view and feeling. This is the condemnation, &c. 6. The breadth and catholicity of His teaching. He is a teacher of truth, and not of party; He claims mankind as His suitable audience, and not a small portion of it. Such teaching is too lofty for men of narrow conceptions and small hearts. 7. The weakness of our powers and the imperfect character of the present state. “ For now we see through a glass darkly,” &c. (T. Hughes.) Christ’ s reticence in teaching truth I. SOME OF THIS FEATURE OF CHRIST’ S . 1. Take some of the truths to which we may suppose our Lord made immediate reference. (1) The long separation which was about to take place between Him and His disciples. This would have been a terrible prospect, to them, with the sense they then had of entire dependence on His outward presence. There was but one thing that could enable them to bear this prospect--the descent of the Comforter. Till then it is not made clear to them. (2) The fall of the Mosaic dispensation, accompanied with the destruction of the Jewish State, and the scattering of the nation. The whole foundation of their faith would have been convulsed by the thought of this. It was only the unfolding of Christianity in its spiritual power, and the transference of their affections to a higher fatherland, that could enable them to bear it. (3) The admission of men of all nations upon equal terms to the privileges of the children of God. It was only the perception of Christ’ s relationship to man as man that could lead them to cast wide the gospel-door to every sinner. (4) The gradual way in which lie made the true view of His own person dawn on them. Had they known, as they came afterwards to know, the full truth of His Divinity, they could not have borne it. It needed that they should have the tenderness and condescension of His character, as well as its purity and grandeur, brought out by the Spirit, before they could realize that God incarnate had entered our world. 2. Consider the manner of His revelation of truth to the world in general. (1) The parable was Christ’ s favourite method in speech, and the miracle m action. In both of these a man sees little or much, according to the spirit he brings, and what he sees is always growing into something deeper and higher, as he ponders it. It is this manner of Christ’ s teaching which makes it suited to all the years of human life, as it is suited to every age of the world. The youngest child can understand something of it, and the most mature Christian feels that he has not reached the end of it. (2) The Old Testament teaching was conducted in the same way. The symbols and the sacrifices were Divine parables, where the learners were made their own instructors. There is nothing more beautiful than to trace how their views of guilt, pardon, and holiness kept equal pace, growing in clearness till Christ came and satisfied all their longings when they were prepared for Him. (3) When we come down to the ages that have followed His appearance upon earth, there is the same gradual unfolding of the principles of His kingdom. The great Reformers of the Christian Church were led on to their final views by slow degrees. If Luther had seen the whole course that lay before him when he opened the epistle to the Romans, he might have shrunk back in fear. But darkness was made light before him as he advanced, till a new dawn rose upon the Christian world. When churches and nations are brought out of Egypt, they do not see the long wanderings that are before them. Marsh and Meribah would terrify them; and yet these have all their lessons of faith and fortitude, which qualify God’ s people for conquering the land of their birthright. 3. In the individual life. (1) Take, e.g., the way in which the view of human life alters as men advance in years. Were the young to discover how unsatisfactory the present world is at the core, they could not bear it. The young need the bright view of the world to develop their energies--to nurse their affections and imagination--that when the veterans droop they may come in, like a fresh reinforcement, into the failing battle of life. (2) There is a similar experience in the Christian life. Those who enter on it have the confident feeling which would gain triumphs without thinking of trials. They have the “ love of their youth, the zeal of their espousals,” and they cannot conceive that it should ever be otherwise. But then comes “ the check and change,” chillness of feeling, temptation, the bitter cross, and long prospects of march and battle before the close. Ere this, however, they have learned to add to their faith virtue and temperance and patience--to put on the whole armour of God, and having done all to stand. (3) The afflictive events of God’ s providence are measured in the same way. The days of darkness come, and they are many, but our eye takes in only the first. One wave hides another, and the effort to encounter the foremost withdraws our thought from evils which are pressing on. (4) The great doctrines of the gospel are presented to the mind in a like manner. There are many who cannot bear at first the full view of the sovereignty of God. But grace and unconditioned freeness go forward, and with joined hands embrace at last the lofty doctrine of God’ s sovereignty, while they say, “ Not unto us,” &c. II. SOME OF THE TAUGHT US CHRIST AND HUMAN NATURE. 1. In regard to Christ, we have reason to admire (1) His control alike over Himself and His message. He is so absorbed by it that He can say, “ The zeal of Throe house hath devoured me,” and yet He is not possessed by it like a frenzied instrument. There is calmness with all His depth--because of His depth. A little knowledge makes men eager to tell all they have. We read of God that it is “ His glory to conceal a thing.” And Christ has this same token of Divinity. He is neither the slave nor organ, but the Owner and Lord of truth. It was the saying of a philosopher, “ If I had all the truth in my hand, I would let forth only a ray at a time, lest I should blind the world.” (2) His tenderness. The rays of the Sun of Righteousness do not injure the most delicate tissue of the eye on which they fall. It needs the most loving heart to have such pity on ignorance as to feel that premature knowledge may hurt it, and to refrain from acting the tyrant in the possession of superior intellect--“ to have a giant’ s strength, but not to use it like a giant.” (3) His wisdom. Wisdom is displayed not so much in doing the right thing, as in doing it at the right time. No crisis has ever yet appeared when Christ’ s word was not ready to take the van of human movement. The truths in their particular application may have lain unmarked--or revealed themselves only to a few sentinels watching for the dawn--till some great turn in the life of humanity comes, and then the principles of freedom and right and universal charity shine out so clear and undoubted, that men wonder at their past blindness. When so it is, we need not fear any want of harmony between the Word of Christ and the progress of science. It was never Christ’ s intention to reveal scientific truth in His Word; but the indentations of the two revolving wheels will be found to fit, whenever they really come into contact; and the only thing broken will be the premature human harmonizings which are thrust in between them. (4) His patience. He is not in restless commotion to have His work done on the instant; nor does He abandon it in discontent when men prove inapt and slow. He has often to say in sorrow, more than in anger, “ How is it that ye do not understand?” but He patiently begins His labour again, and is long-suffering to our ignorance, as to our sins. Short-lived men must speak out all their mind before they die, but the centuries belong to Christ, and He can calmly wait. 2. Concerning our common human nature. (1) We should take large and tolerant views of it. When we see how slowly the best of men have apprehended the clearest of all truths, we must not be provoked at what we call the stupidity and prejudice of our contemporaries. If the great Teacher had to wait, we may be content to do so. There are errors which give way only when God takes them into His own hand by the events of His Providence. It is marvellous how a turn in the road opens whole landscapes of truth to men, and lets them see what no logic could convince them of. (2) We may cherish very hopeful views of it. There must be noble things in store for that race with which the Son of God is contented to have such patience. If the great Husbandman waits so long for the feeble, springing blade, how precious must the full harvest be! There are ages for the world to learn in, and an eternity for the individual; and when the soul is able to bear full light, how many things will the great Teacher have to disclose! It is a token of the immortality of the soul, that God has implanted in man a boundless desire of knowledge, and given him so limited a time to satisfy it--and it is ground for expecting all the treasures of wisdom andknowledge from Jesus Christ, that He came into this world, possessed of them, and yet kept silence on so much we long to know. Conclusion: 1. In regard to things which Christ does not tell us, let us be thankful to Him for His silence. The cloud that veils full knowledge “ is a cloud of love.” 2. Let us be chiefly concerned about knowing the one great thing which Christ has to say to us. There is a message which stands out in His Word distinct from the beginning to the close--“ This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” There are times in the future for learning other truths, but for this our time is always ready. (J. Ker, D. D.) Divine teaching gradual I. OUR LORD’ S OWN ORAL DID NOT EMBRACE ALL . 1. This is a point of great importance. It is not unusual to hear people say: “ I accept only the very words of Christ. St. Paul taught some doctrines which Christ Himself did not teach: I do not wish to be bound by these. The Church has in her creeds and elsewhere used language which I do not find in the words of Christ: I may reject that language. The Sermon on the Mount and Christ’ s other discourses are enough for me. The rest is superfluous.” This language recommends itself because it sounds at first so loyal to our Lord, just as politeness towards a single individual is more remarkable when the person who shows it is habitually uncivil to the rest of the world. By a confession of faith such as this, men flatter themselves that they can cut down the Christian creed to very narrow dimensions, and at the same time be all the better Christians. And yet here we find Christ saying that He did not undertake to teach in Person all that it was necessary for Christians to know. What the apostles taught would be still His teaching, even although it should go beyond the measure of truth which He had taught Himself (Luke 10:16; Matthew 10:40). John 15:15 would seem at first sight to be at variance with the text.But there is no contradiction. So far as confidence went our Lord trusted His disciples unreservedly. But there was a want of spiritual comprehension on their side. Many a man has a wife or a sister with whom he has literally no secrets whatever, although she is not on that account able to share all his intellectual interests; he does not trust the less because he does not communicate unintelligible secrets; the time will come, perhaps, when whatever is now unintelligible will be understood. 3. Our Lord’ s teaching, then, was completed by that of the Holy Spirit. To see how this was done we need not go beyond the limits of the New Testament. (1) Our Lord had spoken, for instance, of the necessity that the Messiah should die; of His blood as the blood of the New Testament which was shed for His disciples. In the apostolic writings this is expanded into the doctrine of the Atonement. (2) Our Lord had hinted at a new ground of acceptance with God in His parable of the labourers in the vineyard, in His eulogy upon the publican, and in His precept (Luke 17:10). But in St. Paul’ s writings we find a fully elaborated doctrine of salvation through the grace of Christ as contrasted with that of obedience to the Jewish law. In the visit of the Eastern sages to the manger of Bethlehem, in the acceptance of the Syro-Phoenician woman, in the interview with the Greeks at the passover, in the statement that the Good Shepherd had other sheep who were not of the fold of Israel, we have hints that the Pagan nations were in some way to have their part in the Divine Saviour. In St. Paul we find the express assertion that a special revelation had been made to him to the effect Ephesians 3:6). 4. Our Lord spoke about Himself, His sinlessness, His claims upon human thought and human affection, His power of enlightening and saving human beings, His future coming to judge all human beings, in a way which we should now-a-days think very extraordinary in any good man, and indeed fatal to his claim to goodness because inconsistent with sober fact. The Holy Spirit took of the words of Christ and showed the truth unto the apostles that the Speaker was Divine (1 Corinthians 12:3). The disciples could not have borne the full splendour of these truths before (chap. 12:16). II. WHY WAS OUR LORD’ S OWN THUS ? 1. The answer is, that the same motive which led Him to teach men at all led Him to impose these limits. He taught men in their ignorance because He loved men too well to leave them in darkness. He taught men gradually, and as they were able to bear the strong light of His doctrine, because He loved men too well to shock or blind them by a sudden blaze of truth, for which they were as yet unprepared. He knew what was in man. He knew what the prejudices of education, the power of mental habits, the associations of youth, the traditions of a great history, could do to destroy the receptive powers, the moral flexibility of the soul. He was too wise and considerate to expect too much. The full understanding of who He was, and what He came to do, was preceded by a twilight; itself His own work, which brightened more and more towards the day. 2. In this He was true to God’ s providential action in human history. All along God has taught men gradually. The heathen nations have been taught what little truth, amid their errors, they know by a succession of minds. The old Jewish Scriptures are a long series of revelations: the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, the prophetical. Each is an advance upon its predecessors, and all lead up to the final and complete revelation of God in Christ. III. TWO LESSONS. 1. The true principle of (1) A religious education. To be solid it should be gradual; it should be given only as the learner’ s mind becomes acclimatized to the atmosphere of religious truth. We find in the Epistles the distinction between “ babes in Christ” and “ strong” men or adults. To the first was given that elementary instruction which, from its easiness of reception, the apostle terms “ milk.” To the second a much more comprehensive instruction in the mysteries of the Christian creed and in the range of Christian duty was imparted, and this the Apostle terms “ strong meat.” This double order of teaching passed into the primitive Church. The catechumens, who were in the earlier stage of instruction, were treated quite differently from the faithful. (2) The principle holds good of secular education, and is too much lost sight of in some modern methods. The old and deeper idea of education as a means of training the faculties of the mind to deal with any subject has been abandoned only too largely for the idea of an education which overloads the mind with huge packages of unmastered and unmanageable knowledge, and not seldom leads to frightful cases of intellectual indigestion. Boys are expected to know something about everything; they too often know nothing about anything thoroughly. The consequence is, that while they can talk with striking but unnatural facility on a great many more subjects than boys did forty or fifty years ago, their mental faculties are really less braced and sharpened, and their actual capacity for meeting the requirements of life is less considerable than that of their predecessors. (3) And in teaching religious truth parents are sometimes apt to fall into the same mistake. They want to teach everything at once, and they end by really teaching nothing. They forget that most necessary duty of every teacher of placing himself, by an effort of sympathy and imagination, as nearly as possible in the mental position of his pupil or child. They think chiefly or only of what interests themselves in religion; not of what might be interesting or intelligible to minds just opening upon life, and catching with difficulty the horizons of truth and duty which meet the gaze. What is the consequence? Either the children are alienated from all religion in later life, or they learn that most fatal of all lessons in religion, to talk about it easily without thinking of what they say. 2. Remember that until our last day God is teaching us, through the action of other minds, through the events of life. Each stage of life up to the very last leaves some truth untaught. We are daily adding to our expectance. We never complete it. What can the soul do but breathe the prayer--“ Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, lead Thou me on,” &c.? (Canon Liddon.) Christ’ s gradual teaching in the Church This does not mean that during all the coming centuries He would go on adding from time to time new truths to the Christian creed by a process of continuous revelation. The faith was, St. Jude says, once for all delivered to the saints. Later ages might explain what the apostles had taught. This, for instance, is what was done by the great council which authoratively adopted the Nicene Creed in order to defend the truth of our Lord’ s Divinity. But when in that creed we confess that Jesus Christ our Lord is of one substance with the Father, we do not say more than St. John says in the introduction to his Gospel, or St. Paul in the Colossians (Colossians 1:16-17). In the same way the word “ Trinity” is not itself found in Scripture. But the baptismal formula, and many passages in the apostolic writings, especially in the Epistle to the Ephesians, obviously imply it. If therefore doctrines, having no ground in the teaching of the apostles, have been added to the faith, in whatever quarter of Christendom, these do not rest on the same basis as explanations or restatements of truths which the apostles had already taught. They are newly imported and foreign matter, and as such would have been rejected by the early Christian Church. We cannot, therefore, include additional doctrines proposed after the apostolic age under the head of the “ many things” which our Lord had to say to His Church. It is not likely, to say the least, that the holiest and wisest of later divines should know more of His will than did St. John or St. Paul. (Canon Liddon.) Christ’ s gradual teaching by His providence Consider the history of our own country. What lessons has God been teaching it during its fifteen centuries! Lessons of order to the England of the Heptarchy; lessons of patience and hope to the England of the Norman kings; lessons of the value of freedom to the England of the Tudors and the Stuarts; lessons of the need of seriousness in life and conviction to the England of the Georges. And surely in our time He is saying many things, stern and tender, to those who have ears to hear, in the events amidst which day by day we are living now. He is teaching us that morality should never be divorced from politics; that the duties of property rank higher than its undoubted rights; that races which trifle with the laws of purity are on the road to ruin; that “ righteousness exalteth a nation” much more truly than any financial, or diplomatic, or military success. And much that God teaches us of to-day would have been unintelligible to our ancestors. As we look out on the surface of our national life, on its hopes and fears, on its unsolved, to us apparently insoluble, problems, on its incessant movement, whether of unrest or aspiration, we hear from behind the clouds the more or less distinct announcement of a future which will be at any rate as unlike our present as our past. “ I have many things to say unto thee, but thou canst not bear them now.” (Canon Liddon.) Teaching should be adapted to the condition of the mind A careful mother or teacher will treat a child’ s mind with great tenderness and reverence; she will be careful to excite interest before gratifying it, to gratify it in such degree as its capacity will admit. She will not think of the mind of her child as of a large bag into which all the odds and ends of knowledge that are swept up from the table of common life can be thrown at random; she will think of it as a delicate and beautiful mechanism to be handled with tenderness and respect and one mistake in dealing with which may well be fatal. How well a lady writer has told us how she was taught by her mother. “ I asked mother one day who God was, and I was told to come again the next day and at the same hour, and I came and repeated the question, and she told me to wait another day and then I should be answered, and then, when my curiosity was raised to the highest pitch and when my sense of the importance of the subject was immensely enhanced by its repeated postponement of an answer, I came once more and my mother explained in words which I shall never forget how great and awful and beautiful a Being God is and what He has told us. And all this she did in simple words and as a child’ s mind could bear it.” Such a lesson as that she was not likely to forget, and it was never forgotten. (Canon Liddon.) Human capacity the measure of Divine communication I. TO CHRIST’ S MIND NO CAN BE . When He says “ ask,” He accommodates Himself to human phraseology. Christ’ s is the infinite mind--to its perceptions there is no end! This Isaiah 1. Consolatory to the good: they can never pass the region of Christ’ s knowledge, whether in fiery furnace or lions’ den. 2. Terrifying to the ungodly: they cannot commit sin except under the eye of the Being to whom it is infinitely hateful: there is no secret spot on which they can outrage the laws of purity. Not a leaf stirs, not a pulse beats, without attracting the notice of the Divine eye. II. CHRIST’ S MIND IS THE HIGHEST SOURCE OF MENTAL . 1. “ Many things” are in Christ’ s possession. The phrase is simple, but who can measure its comprehensiveness? What imagination can conceive the number of the “ many things” ? All that we know of truth, holiness, destiny, we know directly or indirectly from Christ. 2. It follows, therefore, that companionship with Christ must ensure the highest mental attainment. “ Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life;” walking with Him we must reach the highest altitudes of knowledge. 3. The mission of the Spirit is to take of the things of Christ and show them to the Church (John 16:13). III. CHRIST’ S MIND REVEALS ITSELF TO OUR MENTAL . Mark here the true majesty of Christ. “ Ye cannot bear them,” I can; your intellect is not strong enough--Mine is. For a time these many things must dwell in My own mind. As ye grow in capacity ye shall grow in knowledge. God does not pour His glory on the world in one dazzling blaze, He precedes the splendour of noontide by the ray of dawn. The passage has a bearing 1. On our individual experience. There are many things in the future which we could not bear in our present state. Suppose that God should certify every man of the exact time and precise circumstance of his death, society would be paralyzed. Be thankful for Christ’ s forbearance. 2. On the inscrutable mysteries of faith. God has not taken man into His secret counsels. 3. On the perplexities of moral government. I cannot explain why Dives should be in the mansion and Lazarus at the gate. “ What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter.” By and by we shall know enough. Let us calmly wait until it shall please Him to explain. We shall then say, “ It is well.” (J. Parker, D. D.) The new theology Many persons are alarmed at the idea of a “ new theology.” Because God is eternally the same, the science which treats of His Person and of His dealings with men is regarded as stationary. Theology, however, represents man’ s thoughts about God, and these may change as knowledge grows from more to more and as the power to understand spiritual things is increased. The elementary substances of nature are the same to-day as when the earth was a mass of fiery vapour; but to-day there is a “ new chemistry,” which professors who died a score of years ago would find it difficult to read. So there is a “ new astronomy” and a “ new geology,” though worlds and the crust of our earth are the same. I. CHRIST’ S WORDS A OF HIMSELF AND HIS ABOUT GOD. Just as men lived for ages on this earth without a suspicion of its being globular, and walked in the light of the sun and yet had no notion that the solid earth was rolling round it in space; as they tilled their fields, without dreaming that the soil was composed of decayed animal and vegetable life; so the disciples were warmed by the love of Christ and guided by His wisdom without understanding the mystery of His Person or the wealth of His wisdom? What, then, does He promise? He does not say the Spirit shall give you a new revelation, but He shall lead you into new views of Me and My words. The theology of the apostles, therefore, was to be progressive; it was to be a journey into truth as a boundless realm whose borders they had crossed, but which still stretched away far out of sight beyond the utmost horizon of their thoughts. II. HISTORY READ IN THE LIGHT OF THIS ITS TRUTH by showing that there have been successive stages of advance in human knowledge and opinion, while the substance of the Christian revelation has remained unchanged. 1. Two disciples set out one evening to walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. That walk gave them most emphatically a new theology. It revolutionized their whole conception of the Divine character and ways with men. 2. Long after the day of Pentecost the apostles thought that faith in Christ must be combined with obedience to the ritual law of their fathers. But when Peter had seen his vision on the housetop, his eyes were opened to see Christ in a totally unexpected light. From that hour the Church began to form a new theology. God was the same; Christ was the same; the discourse by the well at Sychar was the same; the gospel was the same; but the Church was led into previously untraversed regions of truth. 3. Time would fail to mention the various theologies which have had their day since the apostles. There was a Greek theology which prevailed up to the time of Augustine. Then came a Latin theology fathered by him. Later on there arose several scholastic theologies. Then, again, at the Reformation there arose the Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Zwin-glian theologies, all revolting against Rome and yet all of them framed by men influenced by Latin divinity. The confessions of faith drawn up at Wurtemberg, Geneva, Zurich, and Westminster were all new theologies, and all sought to arrange and systematize the doctrines of the Scriptures as observers deal with the facts of nature in the construction of a new science. What, then, shall we conclude? Shall we say that they attained to a final knowledge of the truth and of Christ? It is at least permissible to suppose that the researches, experience, and Divine illumination of later students may have prevailed to eliminate some of their errors, to supply some of their defects, to combine some of their divided excellencies, and so to make some further progress towards that richer knowledge and clearer understanding of the mystery of God in Christ, which, when attained, will bring us all into the unity of the faith. III. THE GROUND ON WHICH REAL HAVE BEEN MADE. As it was in the days of the apostles and reformers, so it has been since; new visions of truth have come in connection with new outbursts of spiritual life and new acceptances of service. In the latter part of the last century there was a strange movement of compassion for the souls of men. Looking out on heathendom abroad, and spiritual desolation at home, men said: “ We must cease our controversial strife, and give these peoples the good news of a Father’ s love and a Saviour’ s readiness to save. Stirred by these voices, the Church shook herself from sleep, and rose up to do her neglected duty with a vigour unexampled since the days of the apostles. In the course of these ministries she has formed a new feeling of human brotherhood, and this has opened her eyes to see more clearly the Divine Fatherhood. In the service of man, for Christ’ s sake, she has learned to read anew Paul’ s grand unfolding of the meaning of Christ’ s life and death as a ministry of Divine sacrifice. In her own prayers and yearnings over down fallen men she has entered into unison with the pity of the Lord, and the travail of Christ’ s soul, to seek and save the lost. This sympathy has touched her thoughts and modified her creed. She can no longer hold with Calvin that babes are deserving of eternal damnation because guilty before God of Adam’ s sin. The displacement of that one terrible idea has taken a big stone--a veritable key-stone, out of the arch of Calvinistic theology. IV. OUR DUTIES AND DANGERS IN THIS AGE OF . 1. To keep our spirits right. Whether we view the movements of our time with fear or hope, let us be patient with all men, charitable, tolerant. 2. To see to it that we neither part with nor refuse any true thing because it happens to be mixed up with something manifestly false. In all times of controversy some men fling away gold because embedded in dross, and other men grasp a needless quantity of dross because they see glittering grains of gold. 3. Beware of allowing religious earnestness to be evaporated by a too exclusive attention to the intellectual elements of religion. The life is more than creed, and the spirit than dogma. 1 meet men who reiterate the stale maxims about conduct being three-fourths of life, and the unimportance of dogma, yet are doing nothing for the good of their fellows but protest in this lordly fashion against the bigotry of men who, however mistaken in their creed, are assuredly spending time, and strength, and means in the practical imitation of Christ. It is possible to be a creed-bound creature, though your only creed be that all creeds are vain. (T. V. Tymms.) John 16:13 When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come The Spirit of Truth What is meant by “ all truth? ” It is better to take for granted that the Bible always means what it says--all the truth of nature as well as of the gospel, of science as well as of religion. Aholiab was, doubtless, a skilled mechanic before the effusion of the Spirit; but after he became the best carpenter of the nation. So with Bezaleel. I am glad to acknowledge that the great thinkers of the world have not been wholly unguided by the Holy Ghost. Great discoverers are almost invariably devout: Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato--Kepler, Newton, and Faraday. Even nature confides her secrets to none except to men of deep piety. Tyndall and Huxley are very brilliant; but they have not yet established their right to be classed with the great. The truth which makes for our salvation is here mainly intended. Note, the Spirit guides into all truth I. IN RESPECT OF . This means that the Spirit will 1. Speak nothing but the truth, “ for He shall not speak from Himself,” &c. This is the Saviour’ s infallible proof of the trustworthiness of His own teaching, and urges the same in support of the infallibility of the Spirit’ s illumination. If you hear any one speaking from himself, boasting much in his originality, you may rest assured that his discovery will turn out to be shallow and worthless. For truth is not a thing that comes from, but to, man. He never strikes it--it always strikes him. Accordingly, great discoverers never claim much credit. “ I am but a child,” said Newton, “ gathering pebbles on the shore of the great sea of truth.” He felt that all the credit due to him was that of seeing the pebbles--the credit of making them belonged to another. You cannot originate truth--only discover it; you cannot make it--only see it. If you make it, it is no longer truth, but a lie. Wherefore it is averred of the evil spirit that he “ speaketh of his own,” and therefore of necessity “ speaketh a lie.” But “ whatsoever the Spirit heareth” in the exalted fellowship of the Trinity in Unity, “ that speaketh He.” 2. Inspire the truth already extant in the world, and only waiting the breath of inspiration to quicken it. True “ holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” but “ every Scripture is God-inspired.” Not only the writers, but their writings, are all alive with the breath of God. “ God breathed into it the breath of life, and the Bible became a living book.” The inspired men are dead, but the inspired truths are living. They are warm now with the breath of the Eternal. One of the rare excellencies of the Bible is its warmth. Its temperature is many degrees higher than that of any other book. Whereas the same truths in other religions and philosophies sink down to freezing-point, in Christianity they invariably rise to blood-heat. Here are two bars of steel. They are precisely of the same make, shape, weight, size. But put them on the ground near a heap of rubbish, and the difference will be manifest. Whilst one lies inert, the other exerts a potent influence on the whole mass, disturbing the needles and nails and iron filings. What is the matter? One has been magnetized. And here are two truths, one in heathen philosophy, the other in the gospel. They are as similar as two truths can be. But the truth as contained in Greek or Chinese philosophy lies barren and inoperative; but the same truth as uttered by Jesus Christ enters as a living quickening force into human life. In Christianity it has been magnetized, inspired. 3. Revealed new truths. “ Eye hath not seen,” &c. The truths of nature are only His surface thoughts, and therefore within the range of created intellects. But the truths of the gospel are His “ deep things,” too deep for human reason ever to fathom, but which, nevertheless, “ God has shown to us by His Spirit.” In the context the “ things of God” are called the things of Jesus Christ. As Columbus took possession of the continent of America in the name of Christ, so Christ took possession of the continent of truth in His own name--He has stamped on every truth His own private mark. This is the final test whether any doctrine be of the inspiration of the Spirit. Does it glorify Christ? Many teachers went out in the apostolic age claiming to be Divinely commissioned; but this was the test whereby the spirits were tried. Many novel doctrines are promulgated to-day, labelled with the names of able and scholarly men. “ Do they glorify Christ?” If not, beware of them. “ What do you think of ‘ Ecce Homo?’” asked a lady once of Professor Duncan. “ What does ‘ Ecce Homo’ think of Christ?” asked the old Rabbi back. “ I cannot tell; that it is which puzzles me,” answered the lady. “ Well,” deliberately answered the sick professor, “ if any book, after a careful perusal of it, leaves you in doubt what it thinks and what you ought to think about Christ, there is something radically wrong in it. Every sound book, doctrine, sermon, glorifies Christ.” II. IN RESPECT OF . 1. The nature of the Spirit’ s influence. (1) “ Guide” ; not only to show the road, but travel along it. To direct strangers in a strange country is much; to accompany them till they reach their destination is more. Thus the Holy Spirit takes us by the hand, as it were, and leads us to a reasonable apprehension of the great doctrines of salvation. This partly indicates the difference between the influence of the Spirit under the Old Testament and under the New. Then He “ moved.” The prophets were borne along before the breath of the Spirit, like ships before the wind, a force outside them and behind them driving them irresistibly along. The Spirit sometimes fell suddenly upon them, and sometimes left them quite as suddenly; but in either case they were thrown half dead on the ground. But “ guide” denotes steady, constant, uniform influence. (2) And He will guide you, not to, but into. You cannot properly judge truth except from within. Go and examine a coloured window. From without it looks a mixed, unmeaning, vulgar blotch of paint. But enter the cathedral, look upon it between you and the light, and it is gloriously transfigured. Similarly the fundamental truths of the gospel, such as the atonement and justification, are “ unto the Jews a stumbling-block,” &c. But study them from within, look at them between you and the light of God and the eternal judgment, and they become “ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 2. The subjects of His guidance. “ You,” not the apostles only. The Spirit influences the mental movements of the weakest saint. The Spirit mysteriously invigorates the mind. The “ unction from the Holy One” oils the wheels marvellously. Look at Saul, the son of Kish, and Peter. This, however, does not mean the total extinction of all differences between believers in their scholastic attainments; but it does mean the abolition of all difference in their spiritual apprehension of the saving truths of the gospel. Long sight has no advantage over short sight in examining the heavens. Both can see the sun, neither can see behind and beyond. The dullest, obtusest believer sees as far as the Sun of Righteousness, and your most learned occupants of professorial chairs cannot see an inch behind and beyond. 3. The scope of the Spirit’ s influence. “ All,” not into some, but into all. Not at once, for guidance is a gradual process. (1) The history of doctrine is none other than the history of the Divine guidance of the Church into the truth. He guided the Church fathers into the truth concerning the Person of Christ; the Reformers into the truth of justification; the Puritans and Methodists into the doctrine of regeneration. Well, has the Bible been exhausted? Oh no; other truths remain to reward the patient and prayerful study of generations to come. The Spirit guides as fast as the body of the Church can follow, and will not desist till every chapter of the Bible has been emptied of its contents. “ God has much light to break out of the Bible yet.” There are more acorns in Bashan than oaks, and there are more seeds of truth in the words of Christ than have yet developed into doctrines. If that be the case, you ask, What shall we do with the creeds, the confessions, and standards of faith? We shall respect the old, and, if need arise, make new ones. Creeds are not intended to shut out new truths, but to shut in old. Creeds do not set limits to faith, only to unbelief. Creeds are not hindrances to progress, but to retrogression, and so lose the ground it has gained through much agony of thought and prayer. They do not tie down the mind and impede its flight upwards; they tie up the mind and stop its flight downward. What minds have soared higher than those who think it no degradation and no bondage to subscribe to the hoary creeds of Christendom? Creeds are the garners where the Church lays by its ripe truths for the support and comfort of its children in years to come. But because we store the ripe fruit, does that make us negligent of the orchard? Let the history of the Church answer. (2) You are welcome to go out on voyages of discovery to find out new islands or continents of truth. Only remember the condition--under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. “ No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation” ; and a good reason why, “ Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.” The Spirit, who inspired the Bible, He only can adequately interpret it. But what about the right of private judgment? I have profound respect for that when it is a holy judgment, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. But I have not confidence in it when it is a depraved judgment, under the dominion of the evil spirit. The other evening I visited the Houses of Parliament, and observed that a soft, pure light was shed down on the floor from above the ceiling. I could see the light, but not the flame. Methought the Scriptures were illuminated in the same manner, from above the ceiling; the source of the light is in God, not in man. Let us, then, seek that illumination. We study human commentaries, but let us not forget the commentary of the Holy Ghost. When the Council of Trent sat, when an embarrassing question arose, the ecclesiastics submitted the points in dispute to the final arbitrament of the pope and cardinals. In due time the answer returned, prefaced with “ It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us.” This happened so frequently that it passed into a proverb that the Holy Ghost was being sent in the pope’ s portmanteau. But we need not send to Rome to learn the mind of the Spirit, “ for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (3) This is the Protestant counterpart to the Romish doctrine of the infallibility of the pope. He will guide you infallibly; but it is another question if you will follow infallibly. But wait awhile. The Bible is an infallible book; the Spirit is an infallible interpreter; and between them both men will grow infallible by and by. III. IN RESPECT OF . This suggests that the Spirit 1. Whets the truth, puts edge on the ministry of the Word. “ My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words,” &c. “ Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts,” &c. Not tickled, amused, entertained, but pierced through. The sermons men like are refined, polished, full of flowers. But read Peter’ s sermon on the day of Pentecost; it bristles like a hawthorn bush. The great need of the modern pulpit is sermons with fewer flowers and sharper pricks. 2. Imparts warmth to the ministry. “ He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Warmth is an essential element in the Scriptures; it is an essential element in the ministry. The chief difference between genius and talent seems to me to consist, not in the amount of light, but in the amount of heat; not in the knowledge, but in the fire. The erudition of Ben Jonson was profounder than that of Shakespeare; the knowledge of Whewell was more extensive than that of Carlyle; the information of many a Scott was more capacious than that of Robert Burns. Where, then, was the genius? Not in the knowledge, but in the fire. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The Spirit of Truth The Holy Spirit, who was given for the reproof and conviction of the world, was given also for the enlightenment and edification of the Church. I. THE OF THE HOLY GHOST. The Father is the absolute Truth, the one eternal source of all truth. The Divine Son reveals, embodies, and bears witness to the truth. But the Spirit, coming into contact with souls, brings the truth home to them with power. II. HIS COMING. Whilst believing in the eternal existence and activity of the Third Person in the Trinity, Christians apprehend what has been called “ the temporal mission of the Comforter.” As there was a time for the advent of the Son, so was there a time for the full gift of the Spirit, viz., when the full truth had been revealed in Christ. The Spirit “ came” conspicuously on the Day of Pentecost to remain for ever. III. HIS OFFICE. 1. Generally--to lead Christians, not into every kind of truth, but the truth as in Jesus. As a master leads a pupil through a picture gallery, as a tutor leads a scholar through a science or a language, so does the Spirit lead us through the realm of spiritual truth. 2. Specially--to reveal what is Christ’ s to His people: “ He shall take of Mine.” Not only did He inspire apostles to record the facts of Christ’ s ministry, and to expound the doctrines growing out of those facts, but He enables every Christian to realize and appropriate the blessings Christ brings to man. 3. Prophetically to unfold things to come. Thus to Peter was unfolded the mystery of the inclusion of the Gentiles in the fold; to Paul the doctrine of the resurrection; to John the glories of the eternal future. IV. HIS END AND AIM. The glory of Christ, as secured by the achievement of the purposes of our Saviour’ s ministry, and as manifested by the praise and fame accruing to Him both on earth and in heaven. (Family Churchman.) Divine guidance I. OUR AS NEEDING A GUIDE. 1. Our entire ignorance of our journey. There is not a man in the world that knows anything of the way to happiness or heaven without this Spirit. 2. Our frowardness. We are rash and heady and obstinate. We rush on heedless of consequences. We hit on some one path or other, and it is sure to be a wrong one; but onward we go. Many tell us that it leads to death, and many times we are told so, but on we go. We therefore need a guide. 3. Our pride. We are by nature full of self-consequence. We think we know the way. If any tell us of it, we soon reply, “ We know these things as well as you. We have not lived so long in the world for nothing. We do not want your teaching,” &c. Such never ask for wisdom, lest they should by that request confess their ignorance. We therefore need a guide. II. THE OF THE GUIDE HERE US. 1. He has perfect knowledge of the way. A blind guide will be no guide. We should discard such, should they offer to conduct. This Guide knows the way, every step of the way; knows all truth, and where truth leads. 2. He is faithful. This is essential in a guide. If we trust to a guide we give up ourselves to his care. 3. He is condescending and familiar. This in a guide will make him a pleasant companion. A guide that will describe the surrounding scenery, and lead us into a knowledge of objects as we pass, will endear him and make our journeying easy. This Spirit is a Guide that stoops to converse with us by the way. Sometimes He tells us some sweet truths, as the Father’ s everlasting love, the Saviour’ s finished work. Sometimes He shows some instructive objects. “ Look yonder, do you see that pillar? That is Lot’ s wife: she left Sodom, and left all her furniture behind, and, against the command of God, she turned her head to look as if she hankered after that she left behind, and the Lord turned her into a pillar of salt. Look, there is Demas, who, having loved this present evil world, has left Paul and the gospel that he might embrace it. See, yonder is the place of skulls; that is Golgotha, where Christ fought with principalities and powers, and overcame, having destroyed Death.” III. THE OF HIS WORK. “ He shall guide you into all truth” ; wherein we have three particulars to open. 1. The way in which the Spirit leads. That way is the way of truth. Respecting this way of truth there are these particulars which commend it. Gospel truth is a pleasant way to walk in (Proverbs 3:17). There is nothing in this way to grieve or distress: its prospects are all good; it holds up to view a God reconciled in Christ. There is no pleasure equal to that which is found in walking in this way. True it is that Christians are not always happy, but that is not from any gloominess in the path of gospel grace. They step aside or walk carelessly, and so lose their comfort. Gospel truth is also a peaceful way to walk in: “ her paths are peace.” Gospel truth, again, is a straight and even way to walk in. Gospel truth is a free way to walk in. Whosoever will may walk there. Gospel truth, in which the Spirit leads, is also a near way to walk in. We often choose the nearest way. It is but a step from misery to mercy, from nature to grace, from a fallen, ruined condition to a state of acceptance with God. Gospel truth, in fine, is a permanent way to walk in. There will never be another. 2. But where does the way of truth lead? We often ask where this or that pathway leads; in what direction or to what place. This leads to three places. To the Christ of God, “ the truth as it is in Jesus” ; truth centres in Him. This way leads to His person, fulness, work, love, and salvation. To the throne of grace. Truth tends that way. He that follows the word will call upon God. To the heavenly glory. Truth reveals heaven with all its glory, and shows itself the way. 3. How this Spirit, as a guide, leads in the way of truth. By putting us into the way. By nature we are all out of the way. By keeping us in the way when in. We are prone to wander. Did this Guide leave us we should soon leave the way. By upholding in the way. We are in danger of falling. By bringing us to our journey’ s end. “ He shall abide with you for ever.” And for what but for this very purpose, “ to perfect that which concerneth us?” Give up the soul to this Guide. (The Evangelist.) The Spirit of Truth This appellation teaches that He is the soul of truth, the life inside the truth, the sap within the gospel doctrines, keeping them fresh and green. But for the Spirit as a circulating, vitalizing sap within them, they would all shrivel up; the tree of life would wither and die, and its leaves would all drop to the ground. Examine the truths contained in other religions--how withered and dry they look. Examine the same truths in the religion of Christ--they throb with life and are clothed with verdure. (J. C. Jones, D. D.) The Holy Spirit our Guide People making the journey from earth to heaven need a guide. This they have in the Holy Spirit. I. THIS PROMISE WAS MADE TO THE TO QUALIFY THEM FOR THEIR OFFICE. It included 1. The coming of the Spirit at a set time. 2. To guide them into all truth. 3. To show them things to come. II. THIS PROMISE WAS 1. In the Pentecostal baptism. 2. In their preaching the risen Saviour. 3. In their founding the Christian Church. 4. In their writing the New Testament. III. THIS PROMISE EXTENDS TO US. 1. In our reading the Bible. 2. In our understanding its truths. 3. In our living a life in conformity therewith. IV. . 1. We have the power to accept or to reject the Holy Spirit as our Guide. 2. If we reject Him He will reprove us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. 3. If we accept Him He will dwell in us that we may know the things that are freely given us of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). (L. O.Thompson.) The Spirit guiding into all truth Truth may be compared to some cave or grotto, with wondrous stalactites hanging from the roof, and others starting from the floor; a cavern glittering with spar and abounding in marvels. Before entering the cavern you inquire for a guide, who comes with his lighted flambeau. He conducts you down to a considerable depth, and you find yourself in the midst of the cave. He leads you through different chambers. Here he points you to a little stream rushing from amid the rocks, and indicates its rise and progress; there he points to some peculiar rock and tells you its name, then takes you into a large natural hall, tells you how many persons once feasted in it, and so on. Truth is a grand series of caverns, it is our glory to have so great and wise a Conductor as the Holy Spirit. Imagine that we are coming to the darkness of it. He is a light shining in the midst of us to guide us. And by the light He shows us wondrous things. He teaches us by suggestion, direction, and illumination. (C. H.Spurgeon.) The progressive revelation of truth by the Spirit In theology, as in every other department of human knowledge, there is a law of progress. Truths which in one age are almost latent, or recognized simply and insulatedly by faith, on the authority of a positive declaration, are brought out more distinctly by subsequent ages, and ranged in their mutual connection--in their position as parts of the system of truth. Not, however, that this progress is always an advance along the line of truth in theology any more than in other sciences. Man’ s path bends aside, winds, twists, seems almost to return up on itself. His orbit has its aphelia as well as its perihelia. When he has made a lodgment in a new field of knowledge, he will set about building a tower, the top of which, he fancies, shall reach to heaven; and generations, it may be, will spend their lives in working at such a tower (e.g., the schoolmen) , until the Spirit of division and confusion comes down among the workmen. Thus, one system after another has passed away, each, however, leaving behind some contribution greater or less, to the general stock of theological truth. Meanwhile, God’ s word stands fast, even as the heavens and the earth. To the words of Scripture we cannot add; nor may we take away from them. But truth is set before us livingly, by examples, by principles, in the germ, not by the enunciation of a formal dogmatic system, according to which the thoughts of men were to be classed and rubricated for ever after; nor can any human scheme or system make out a title to the possession of such an absolute conclusive ultimatum. The right theory of development by no means implies that each later age must necessarily have a fuller and deeper knowledge of Divine things than its predecessors, the very reverse having notoriously been often the case. For the world is ever wrestling to draw man away from the truth, and will often prevail, as Jacob did over the angel; and when faith is at a low ebb, when the visible and material predominate in men’ s hearts and minds over the invisible, the ideal, the spiritual theology, must needs dwindle and decay. But when there is a revival of faith, if this revival coincides with, or is succeeded by a period of energetic thought, a deeper or clearer insight will be gained into certain portions of truth, especially appropriate to the circumstances and exigencies of the age, and which have not yet been set forth in their fulness--the true doctrine of the Trinity, e.g., in the fourth century, and that of justification in the sixteenth. (Archdeacon Hare.) The Holy Ghost the Great Teacher Here is I. AN --knowledge of all truth. 1. Nature itself gives us a strong desire to know all truth. What we call curiosity is something given us of God impelling us to search into the knowledge of natural things; that curiosity, sanctified by the Spirit, is also brought to bear in matters of heavenly science. A true Christian is always searching the Scripture that he may be able to certify himself as to its main and cardinal truths. 2. A knowledge of all truth is very essential for our comfort. Many persons have been distressed half their lives from the fact that they had not clear views of truth. Many souls--e.g., under conviction--abide in sorrow because they have no one to instruct them about justification. Give me the congregation whose faces are bright with joy at the sound of the gospel, then will I believe that it is God’ s own words they are receiving. 3. This knowledge will keep us out of danger. No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who call it a licentious doctrine know nothing about it. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by and by having an erroneous life. Keep the head right, and especially keep the heart right with regard to truth, and your feet will not go far astray. 4. This knowledge will make us useful. There will be no character, however perplexing may be its peculiar phase, but we shall be able to speak to it and comfort it. Almost every man whom God has blessed to the building up of the Church in prosperity, has been a man who has held firmly free grace through the finished salvation of Christ. The sturdy truth of God touches every chord in every man’ s heart. II. A . We require a guide. Truth is not so easy to discover. Why this? Because of 1. The intricacy of truth itself. Those who fancy they know everything of course see no difficulties; but the most earnest student of Scripture will find things which puzzle him. Truth is a path so narrow that two can scarce walk together in it; we usually tread the narrow way in single file. If you step an inch aside you are in a dangerous error. On the one hand there is a huge precipice, and on the other a deep morass; and unless you keep to the true line, to the breadth of a hair, you will go astray. Truth is like the veins of metal in a mine, it is often of excessive thinness, and runs not in one continued layer. Lose it once, and you may dig for miles and not discover it again; the eye must watch perpetually the direction of the lode. Grains of truth are like the grains of gold in the rivers of Australia, they must be shaken by the hands of patience, and washed in the stream of honesty, or the fine gold will be mingled with sand. 2. The insidiousness of error. It easily steals upon us, and we are often like men in a fog. We think, surely this is the right path; and the voice of the evil one whispers, “ That is the way, walk ye in it.” You do so, and you find that you have been walking in the paths of unrighteousness and error. The way of life is a labyrinth; the grassiest paths and the most bewitching are the farthest away from right. There is not a counterfeit coin in the world so much like a genuine one, as some errors are like the truth. 3. We are so prone to go astray. If grace did not guide a man, he would go astray, though there were hand-posts all the way to heaven. III. A PERSON . 1. Infallible. If I pin my sleeve to another man’ s coat, he may lead me part of the way rightly, but by and by he will go wrong himself, and I shall be led astray with him. But if I give myself to the Holy Ghost and ask His guidance, there is no fear of my wandering. 2. Ever present. When we have no commentator or minister, we have still the Holy Spirit. Whenever you cannot understand a text, pray over it, and if it does not open itself, try again. If prayer does not explain it, it is one of the things God did not intend you to know, and you may be content to be ignorant of it. There is no college for holy education like that of the blessed Spirit, for He is an ever-present tutor. 3. Guides “ into” the truth. Now, man can guide us to a truth, but it is only the Holy Spirit who can “ guide us into a truth.” There are many of my hearers who are brought to the truth of their depravity; but they are not brought into it, and made to feel it. Some of you are brought to know the truth that God keeps us from day to day; but you rarely get into it, so as to live in continual dependence upon God the Holy Ghost, and draw fresh supplies from Him. The thing is, to get inside it. A Christian should do with truth as a snail does with his shell, live inside it, as well as carry it on his back. IV. A METHOD . He guides us into all truth 1. By suggesting it. There are thoughts that dwell in our minds that were not born there, but which were exotics brought from heaven and put there by the Spirit. Have you not at times had unaccountably--in the middle of your business--a thought concerning God and heavenly things, and could not tell whence it came? 2. By direction, not so much putting a boat on the stream as steering it when it is there. Time after time have you commenced a meditation on a certain doctrine and, unaccountably, you were gradually led away into another, and you saw how one doctrine leaned on another, as the stones in the arch all hanging on the keystone of Jesus Christ crucified. 3. By illumination. There is nothing like reading an illuminated Bible. You may read to all eternity, and never learn anything by it, unless it is illuminated by the Spirit; and then the words shine forth like stars. V. AN . You may know the Spirit’ s influence by 1. Its unity. The Spirit never says one thing at one time and another thing at another. It has been always held as a first principle that truth is one thing. But some persons say, “ I find one thing in one part of the Bible, and another thing in another, and though it contradicts itself I must believe it.” All quite right, if it did contradict itself; but the fault is not in the wood but in the carpenter. Many carpenters do not understand dove-tailing; so there are many preachers who do not understand dove-tailing. 2. Its universality. The true child of God will not be led into some truth but into all truth. When first he starts he will not know half the truth, he will believe it but not understand it. Certain doctrines take years to develop themselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Heavenly Teacher I. THE NAME HE BEARS “ The Spirit of truth” descriptive of 1. His nature--Spirit. In this different from Christ who was God in human form. 2. His character--true. Implied in His designation--Spirit of truth. 3. His intelligence--involved in the fact that He is the possessor of truth. 4. His Divinity--if the possessor of truth He must be Divine. II. THE HE . The disciples of Christ. 1. The apostles. 2. Pastors (2 Corinthians 3:6; 2 Timothy 1:6; 2 Timothy 1:14). 3. The universal company of believers--the Spirit dwelling in them (1 Corinthians 3:16), helping their infirmities (Romans 8:26), and leading them into all the truth. III. THE LESSONS HE IMPARTS. All the truth, not ordinary, scientific or philosophic truth, but truth 1. Heard from the Father, therefore Divine. 2. Relating to Christ, hence specifically Christian. IV. THE AIM HE PURSUES. The glory of Christ. For this end He exhibits Christ 1. As the possessor of the truth (John 16:14). 2. As the substance of the truth (John 14:6). 3. As the end of the truth--persuading men and enabling them to rest on Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The necessity of the Spirit’ s teaching to the right understanding of the Scriptures I. THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF --of faith, of repentance. Simon Magus believed and remained in the gall of bitterness. Paul believed and became a Christian. In both cases there was a persuasion of the truth. Simon believed when he saw miracles; Paul when Christ was revealed in him. Judas repented when he saw the evil consequences of his treachery; Peter when he saw his conduct in its true character. So there is a simple intellectual knowledge of the truth, and there is a spiritual knowledge and discernment. II. HOW ARE THESE RELATED? How do they agree and differ? The things known and the act of knowing are the same. But the spiritual excellence of the object is not apprehended in the one case, while it is in the other. This may be illustrated by the case of the discernment of beauty. Now, with regard to the knowledge of the Scriptures, there is no reason why the unrenewed man, without any special aid of the Spirit, should not acquire that knowledge, as well as the knowledge of any similar volume under the same conditions. 1. Assiduous study. 2. In the right method and in the use of the right means. 3. Impartiality and honesty. Now, although this is possible, it is in reference to the Scriptures difficult and rare, because of the opposition of the heart to Bible doctrines, and because the judgments of men are so largely determined by their feelings. Therefore, for the attainment of this intellectual knowledge there is great need of the Spirit’ s guidance to produce docility, and to prevent opposition to the truth blinding the mind. III. FOR THE CASE IS PLAIN. The Scriptures teach 1. The absolute necessity of Divine teaching. “ The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,” &c. The Bible abounds in prayers for Divine teaching, and Paul declares all external teaching vain without it. 2. The cause of this ignorance, blindness, and inability to know the things of God arises from two sources. (1) Our depravity. We are natural, carnal--the opposite of the Spiritual--which we cannot, therefore, discern. (2) The god of this world blinds the eyes. He persuades men to reject the truth, raises objections, and excites the enmity of the heart. 3. It is a solemn fact, therefore, that those only who are led by the Spirit come to a knowledge of the truth. This is His great office, must be recognized and accepted. Correct speculative knowledge and spiritual knowledge experience teaches do not admit of protracted separation. Orthodoxy will not last long without piety. An unconverted ministry forsakes the truth. (C. Hodge, D. D.) John 16:14 He shall glorify Me Christ glorified by the Spirit This is the crowning and has been the constant work of the Spirit. He glorified Christ in the prophecies, sacrifices and promises of the ancient economy, in the sinless humanity with which He clothed Him; in the public ministry to which He set Him apart; in the holy life He caused Him to live; in the sufferings He enabled Him to endure; in His glorious resurrection, ascension and triumphs in the day of Pentecost. But the text points beyond these. Our Lord referred to the spiritual illumination which would make men acquainted with Him, so that whereas He had before been treated ignominiously would in future be honoured for ever. The Spirit would lead men to glorify Christ I. BY THE VIEWS WHICH HE WOULD THEM TO OF HIM. This implies that there is in Christ that which no eye can discover until opened by the Spirit of God. This our Lord intimated to Peter--“ flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,” &c. The illumination of the Spirit leads to a saving discovery of the glory of 1. Christ’ s Person, into the mystery of Godliness. 2. His work of redemption. 3. His offices, as Prophet, Priest and King. II. BY THE WHICH HE CAUSES HIS PEOPLE TO CHERISH TOWARDS HIM, which are highly honourable to Him. 1. Faith. What an honour to receive the trust of a redeemed world. 2. Gratitude. 3. Love. 4. Hope. 5. Joy. Men are honoured by these affections; but we can only exercise them in part because of the defectiveness oft he worthiest objects. It is Christ’ s glory to be worthy of them and to receive them completely. III. BY THE WHICH HE CLAIMS AND SECURES FOR HIM AMONG ALL THE OF GOD. Christ is now supreme 1. Over every heart that is given to Him. 2. Over His own Church. 3. Over the world. 4. Over other worlds. This supremacy will, under the guidance of the Spirit, be eventually acknowledged. IV. BY THE LIFE WHICH HE INDUCES HIS PEOPLE TO LIVE FOR HIS SAKE. “ Let your light so shine,” &c; “ Ye are not your own,” &c. In this life the believer joyfully acquiesces. How honourable to Christ the lives of saintly men! V. BY THE PRAISES WHICH SHALL COMPASS HIM ABOUT FOR EVER. 1. Of angels. 2. His redeemed. 3. Every creature. Conclusion: If we would glorify Christ we must 1. Be taught by the Spirit. 2. Be quickened by the Spirit. 3. Be sanctified by the Spirit. 4. Submit to a supremacy which the Spirit claims for Christ. 5. Be “ made meet for the inheritance of the saints to light.” (J. Morgan, D. D.) The glory of Christ in the mission of the Holy Ghost I. THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT 1. He awakens the attention of the thoughtless and slumbering world to the truth of God. 2. He convinces of sin. 3. He regenerates the soul. 4. He is the Comforter. II. THE GREAT AND DIVINE AGENT IS THE OF CHRIST. III. HIS MISSION THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 1. Furnishing additional proof of the great facts which form the substance of Christianity. 2. Giving efficacy to the work already accomplished by Christ’ s death and resurrection. 3. Enabling us to form some estimate of the blessings Christ bestows. 4. Giving hope to the world, (G. Spring, D. D.) The Holy Spirit glorifying Christ We shall use our text I. AS A TEST. There are a thousand things that claim to be of the Holy Ghost; how can we know whether they are or not? Here is a simple mode. Apply this test 1. To ministries. Now, there are some ministries which clearly are not of the Holy Ghost, because they (1) Glorify ceremonies. (2) Extol doctrine. Against a sound creed we have not a word to say; but still we must exalt Christ rather than Calvinism, or any other system of theology. (3) Magnify a certain experience--If you have felt thus, and thus, no words of praise can be too strong for you; but if you have been led in another way, you never knew vital godliness at all. I say not a word against experimental preaching, but it must be experience about Christ. (4) Exalt morality. If we will do this, and that, and the other we shall be saved. But if any man put the works of flesh before the finished work of Christ, his ministry is not of the Holy Ghost. (5) And what might I say of many who produce their pretty little essays, and high-sounding periods, but that they are as “ sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal,” inasmuch as they forget Christ. How bitterly shall we lament much of our ministry because it hath not glorified Christ on our dying beds. What joy it shall be to remember that, however feebly, we did extol Him. 2. To doctrine. Any teaching, whatever authority it may claim, which does not glorify Christ, is most assuredly false. Socinianism must be utterly abhorred of us, for it strikes at once at the Deity of our blessed Lord and Master. If, on the other hand, a doctrine layeth man in the dust and lifteth up Christ as a Saviour, the Alpha and Omega of salvation, you may safely say that is the Holy Ghost’ s doctrine, for He shall glorify Christ. 3. To the conviction through which a sinner passes. In the first dawn of our spiritual life, a mighty tempest of spiritual influence sweeps over the heart. The Holy Ghost is active, and the Prince of the Power of the air is active too. How, in this confusion, can a man know what part of his conviction is of God, and what part of the devil? You have a thought in your head that you are too great a sinner to be saved. That is not of the Holy Ghost, clearly, because it detracts from the power of Christ as a Saviour. “ I am not fit to come to Christ.” Surely this is not of the Holy Ghost. What, are you to make yourself fit to come to Christ? Why that is making you a Christ “ But I heard Mr. So-and-So say, that when he was converted, he seemed to be dragged by the hair of his head to the very depths of hell, lost beyond the reach of mercy.” No doubt that was his experience; but do you want to experience every piece of devilry that a good man has known? Much of what your friend felt was not of God, but of his own corrupt heart. If the Lord brings thee to put thy soul just as it is into the hands of the Redeemer, honouring him by a childlike trust, thou hast an experience infinitely more precious than the ravings of thy proud heart could ever yield thee. 4. To what is called experience. Much of the experience of a Christian is not Christian experience. If any person should mount the platform and inform us that he had been five times tried at the Old Bailey, you would say, “ Well, you may have experienced that disgrace, but it is not fair to call it human experience.” So, a Christian man may fall into great darkness, and sin. But if he shall set up his darkness and sin as being Christian experience, we say, “ No; you may be a Christian and know all this, but we cannot allow you to decide our spiritual state according to your peculiar method of feeling.” When we get to that which cometh from beneath we ought to say “ Oh! wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord.” That only which glorifies Christ is true Christian experience. 5. To ourselves. Art thou saved or not? If saved, the tenor of thy life is to glorify Christ. What sayest thou in looking back? And what about the present and the future? II. A . How are we to glorify Christ? We must have the Holy Spirit. Let our text, then 1. Be sanctified to our humiliation. Here are we saved, and yet such weak things that we cannot glorify Christ without the Holy Ghost. Thou hast ten talents, but those ten talents shall make thee ten times a worse defaulter to thy Master unless the Holy Ghost help thee. 2. Be an excitement to earnest prayer. 3. Teach us entire dependence upon the Holy Spirit. All the farmers in England cannot make it leave off raining, but when it does leave off, and the sun shines, they can get their wheat in as quick as they can. All the sailors on the ocean cannot make a capful of wind; but when the wind does blow they can crowd on every yard of canvas. So all the Christians in the world cannot make the Holy Spirit work. “ The wind bloweth where it listeth,” &c., but when we have the Holy Spirit, we can use Him; when He is with us we can work. III. A . Does the Holy Ghost glorify Christ? Then 1. How should we aim to do it! You have been in a large way of business. Could you say that your object was to honour Christ in it? You have come down in the world; but suppose you can glorify God more. Then you are in a better position than you used to be. 2. While we make this our aim, let us take every opportunity of glorifying Christ. We throw thousands of opportunities away. Whether ye work at a lapstone, or drive a plough, or lay the stones in a building, or are diligent with the pen, or buy and sell, do all, even to your eating or your drinking, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and so, like the Holy Spirit, let it be said of you, “ He shall glorify Me.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Holy Spirit the Revealer of Christ We are living in the dispensation of the Spirit. What does that mean? It means that we are living on a higher plane than ever has been occupied before. We gather this 1. From a comparison of this dispensation with others that have preceded it. True religion is more widely disseminated in this than it has been in any preceding dispensation. 2. We know that this Dispensation is an advance, because God Himself is advance--progress. He never goes backward. 3. The same fact is clear from the structure of Scripture. 4. The whole historic development of man, looked at in the line of the plan of redemption, is clearly enough in this upward direction. The work of God is from matter toward spirit. The child leaves his playthings behind, and comes to despise them. The college student turns his back on the pleasures and games of his boyhood. The professional man has forgotten the rivalries of college life--as narrow as its walls; and the mellowed and matured philosopher “ lives already amid the peace and the power of invisible scenes,” and draws from above and beyond him the springs of incentive and action. The same principle holds throughout nature. Time and again our attention is drawn to the fact that there is an invisible world, and that that invisible world bears down upon and overpowers the visible. That thought and feeling and volition are stronger than substance and quality and force, and that from within what is unseen and supersensible and supernatural flow the “ upper springs” of all inferior energy and action. 5. But we are not left to gather up an inference from observation, nor speculation, nor from logic. “ Our Saviour Himself now assures us, that if we believe in Him we shall do greater works than even those which He performed on earth, and that we shall do them precisely because He goes to the Father.” I. THE ONE TO IS THE OF CHRIST. How essential this is may be gathered from reason, from conscience, and from the light of the Scriptures. 1. From reason. Nowhere, outside the radius of Christianity, is there either holiness or peace. Look at Africa. Look at China. He who knows anything of the history of moral light knows that it has followed, as its centre, the planting of the cross of Christ--that just as races have receded from the light of God in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, so they have sunken to a brutish level, and have died in the distractions of an utter unrest. 2. Conscience affirms the same truth. Conscience, in every man, says: “ You are guilty! You are a sinner! God is holy. He cannot acquit!” Conscience, whatever modern thought may say, cries--“ Eternal Justice is Eternal Fact, and God is just; and How can justice clear the guilty?” and to this cry of conscience is no answer but in Christ and in the sacrifice” of Christ. 3. And these deductions of our reason and our conscience are confirmed by Scripture. Now the Bible affirms. It comes straight out and says: “ Apart from the knowledge of Christ there is no salvation.” II. THE HOLY GHOST IS THE ONLY OF CHRIST. He alone makes Christ glorious. The Holy Ghost has given us all the knowledge that we have of Jesus Christ. Where do we get that knowledge? How do we know that there is such a thing as a Saviour? From the Bible. Outside the covers of this Book there is not a hint of a Christ. And whence came the Bible? It was inspired. Who inspired it? God, the Holy Ghost. Not only so, but, with the Bible in our hands, how can we know anything of Christ, save as the Spirit reveals Him? Miracle never changed any man. Appearances--like that of the angels to Abraham. Abraham saw Christ’ s day. How did he see it? By illumination--by the Holy Ghost. Moses recognized God at Horeb. How? By the fire? No, but by God speaking out of the midst of the bush. Ezekiel was transformed at Chebar. How? By the wheels? No, but “ the Spirit,” he says, “ entered in me.” Israel was to be revived under Elijah. How? By the wind? By the earthquake? By the fire? By any sensible or ocular demonstration? No; but by the still small voice. That was the lesson taught to the prophet. The same fact comes out in the New Testament. How many saw Christ--touched Christ--said they believed on Christ in the flesh, who never went beyond impressions of their outward senses. What makes a Christian is the spiritual apprehension of Christ, and the Holy Ghost alone can reveal Him. Take the Levitical sacrifices how without these could we explain the Atonement? Yet only a few who read them under the Old Dispensation saw Christ in these Scriptures, and why? Because they needed more than the most perfect description. They needed light on the light. They needed, like David, to have their eyes opened to see wondrous things out of God’ s law. The same thing is true of the New Testament. The Holy Ghost reveals Christ. He glorifies Christ. Notice: He does not create Christ; He shows Him. When we were sailing in the Grecian Archipelago we came, at dawn of day, to the Island of Rhodes. At first we saw only a grey indistinctness--the shapeless outline of vast rocks rising out of the water. Then as the sun came up, how glorious! There lay the harbour once bestridden by the famous Colossus, the sapphire ripplings of the water touched with rose and gold--the ships, the flappings of their sails stirred lightly by the morning breeze. There stretched away the green fields and the mountains round which poetry had thrown her charm; midway in the perspective rose the ancient castellated ramparts of the fortress of the Knights of St. John, all flashing, glowing, burning, touched and “ transfigured by the ministry of light.” “ That which doth make manifest is light.” The Holy Ghost is the only revealer of Jesus. And the Holy Ghost glorifies Christ or reveals Him in His true glory now, as He could not possibly do were Christ present. The apostles loved Christ too much, as the carnal loves the carnal. That is the error of Rome, with her crucifixes, her Mass, and her sensuous ecstasies. Read the memoirs of Santa Teresa and of St. John of the Cross, and you will find the love they express for the Saviour is sensuous--carnal There is something lurid about it. You are afraid of it. It was necessary that that sort of thing should be broken--that there should come an experience, which, permit me to say it, should emancipate Christ--should burst the tomb and the grave-clothes, and set Him Infinite, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Heavenly--working above, as ever in, and through His Church--an experience like that of St. Paul when he says: “ Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.” We only know Him as the Spirit reveals Him. You have known a man by his clothes--by his face--now you come to know him by his character. Something reveals him in his abilities, in his integrity, in his truth, as your friend. The Holy Ghost reveals Christ. But let us come closer; the ulterior and special object of the Spirit’ s revelation is God’ s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. III. “ He shall glorify” “ MAKE ME .” St. Paul expands our Saviour’ s statement in these words: “ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The world without Christ, or Christ in twilight--beneath the dawn-line of the Old Testament--beneath the histories, and types, and prophecies--beneath the horizon of an Arctic winter, and then, and all at once, and for ever, the Sun of Righteousness is visible perfection of His glory--the Mystery of Godliness--the Day-spring from on high! The statement of this point involves, of course, three. That there is such a thing as the knowledge of the glory of God--that this knowledge is unfolded in the face of Jesus Christ, and that it comes by a Divine in-shining. 1. The knowledge of the glory of God. If God be God, He is glorious, for glory is manifested excellence, and God is most excellent, and cannot be hid. The glory of God is not only His greatness, but the equipoise of His character. Satan is great, i.e., in faculties, but he is in no wise glorious, but infamous, because of the defect of his character. God’ s glory is the equipoise of His attributes. With Him nowhere is there too much--nowhere a deficit. It is important to put emphasis upon the fact before us, because the effort of to-day is to destroy the balance of the attributes of God--to posit in that justice, for example--and in measurement and in adjustment everything comes back to the straight line--that justice in God is a merely optional attribute. “ How can God,” says one of our modem neologians, “ how can God be free if He be the slave of His own justice?” As well ask, “ How can I be free if I cannot rid myself of my backbone? I am the slave, then, of my backbone. But how can I be a man and have no backbone?” For God to be free from His justice would be for Him to be free from Himself as moral, and therefore immoral; for justice is simply looking on things as they are, and treating them accordingly, and to deny this is to deny rectitude, and to deny rectitude is to deny God and make Him immoral. Justice optional! What should we think of a man to whom it were optional to be just, or to be unjust? The moral grandeur of God is His balance, His poise, that He rights Himself. “ Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 2. The glory of God then, as it stands revealed in vast concentric haloes, circles upon circles of immeasurable excellence, is at its brightest spot--its centre--and when focalized and gathered to one burning-point, nothing more, nothing less than conciliation of justice and grace. “ How can God be just and justify the guilty?” lies at the root of the gospel. The answer to that question is the gospel, and Christ on the cross is its sum. Christ on the cross, not Christ in pre-existence, transcending thought as is the mystery of everlasting generation. Not Christ again in all the grand kaleidoscopic aspects of His ministry, as miracles spring up beneath His footsteps like fresh flowers. Not Christ in any, nor in all, these revelations, glorious as they are, but still subordinate, but Christ upon the tree. It was there seen that God could not swerve--that sin must be punished. What is the upshot of this? The upshot is that from the instant you and I look away to Christ as our Substitute, we are eternally saved. Is not that glorious? Bursts there not a glory from that torn flesh which hangs and writhes upon those ragged nails, which challenges all suns to rival it in splendour? Is not here God’ s glory focalized, as it swings low and kisses even your and my horizon? When we were at the North Cape, at midnight, a French gentleman took out a sun-glass and burned a hole in his hat with it. Low as the sun was, he was still clothed with all his burning power. So it was with our Saviour on the cross. “ For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth.” 3. This glory hath in-shined--that is the third point. It hath shined not historically--not in the face of a physical Christ, although these, of course, are included; but through the veil of the heart. Christ’ s glory to mere worldly men is a veiled glory; “ the veil” says the Apostle, “ is upon their heart.” That veil has been rent--not from our side--from God’ s side. God hath “ shined in” --not into the world only, that is not enough--could not be, for “ the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” Into believing hearts God hath shined. It is not simply knowledge, but it is the light of the knowledge. It is not Church instruction, but heart-work--interior regeneration. “ When it pleased God,” says Paul, “ to reveal His Son within me, immediately I took no conference flesh and blood.” How then do we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? 1. One way, by faith. Faith is the great opened eye of the soul. 2. Another way the light shines in us is by the witness of the Spirit. What is that witness if not a supernatural spiritual emphasis put on the assurances and promises of God, which makes them true to us without a question? 3. A third way light shines in is by consciousness. Consciousness of breathing goes with breathing. Consciousness of walking goes with walking. Consciousness of life and vigour goes with power. A man full of the Holy Ghost knows what he is full of, and that he is not empty. He knows that his light is not darkness--that his joy is not despair, and that his power is something other and more than physical elation or physical energy. “ Can He not, through some interior eye which we know not, and for which we have no name, pour into us the radiance of His own infinite glory, though He be the King invisible, whom no man has seen, nor can see?” Can He not manifest Himself to the eye of interior consciousness with a distinctness of spiritual presence as satisfying as that which His bodily form gave to the external vision of His disciples? This revelation of Christ--fresh revelation I mean, satisfying our souls, filling, flooding--enlarging us with the light, and the love, and the joy, and the strength of the Lord is what we need. (G. S. Bishop, D. D.) The promise of the Spirit--the fulness of Christ “ He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine,” &c., might be liable to misconstruction, and indicate that Christ would have Himself to be glorified, apart from the Father, and His own fulness drawn upon independently. As if to obviate this, Christ hastens to account for His having said it. “ It is of the Father’ s after all that He takes, when He takes of Mine. It is the Father whom He glorifies when He glorifies Me.” But the Lord had undoubtedly another reason. It is for their sakes, rather than His own, that He announces this truth, “ I would not have said that were it not that all things which the Father hath are Mine; for otherwise it would have been poor consolation to you.” We are therefore naturally led, first, to consider what Christ has before examining the promise concerning what the Holy Ghost is to do. The Lord might say, “ All things that the Father hath are Mine,” in respect of I. HIS GODHEAD; and but for this He could not, without blasphemy, have said it. This the Jews well understood, when, for similar language, “ they took up stones to stone Him,” and when they cried out at His trial, “ He hath spoken blasphemy.” For it is impossible to explain away this claim of a right of property in all that is the Father’ s, or to justify it if made by a creature. Often, during the days of His flesh, do we find Him dwelling with a holy and blessed complacency on thoughts connected with His being “ in the bosom of the Father.” II. HIS MANHOOD. It is this consideration, indeed, which makes the statement practically important in its application to us, viz., as being in our nature. Such is the glory of His person, as combining the Divine nature with the human; and such the value of His work that whatsoever is comprehended in the fulness of the Godhead is centred in “ the Man Christ Jesus,” considered as obedient to the Father, “ even unto death.” And as the recompense of that work, He receives, in His human nature, an interest in all that the Father hath. Hence the blessedness of His assurance, that “ as the Son of Man He has power on earth to forgive sins.” Hence also the value of that deed of grant, by which, “ as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, that the Son also may quicken whom He will.” And hence the importance of the Father’ s surrender, as it were, of the right of rule or judgment into the hands of the Son, for this very reason, that “ He is the Son of Man.” These are among the things which the Father has, and these He has given to the Son. Now, in respect of His original Godhead, these things cannot be said to be given to Him. They belong to Him by necessity of nature. But as the Son of Man He receives this threefold prerogative as the gift of the Father. III. HIS OF THE CHURCH. In one sense, it is true, even as regards the wicked, that all things which the Father hath, He hath given unto the Son. The impenitent and unbelieving are consigned to His disposal; and on Him it devolves to award and inflict eternal judgment. But it is His own people that Christ has chiefly in His eye here. 1. They themselves belong to the Father. “ Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me.” “ All that the Father giveth Me, shall come unto thee.” All that the Father has are dear to Him as belonging to the Father, and as the gift of the Father, pledged to Him in the everlasting covenant, and bestowed in recompense of His making His soul an offering for sin. 2. And taking this people as His own, uniting Himself to them, identifying Himself with them, He says “ All things that the Father hath are Mine,” for them, as “ His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” For them, “ when He ascended up on high, He received gifts.” He has righteousness for them so that in Him the righteous God is well pleased. He has life with the Father, so that “ they may live also.” He has the everlasting love of the Father. So that “ the love wherewith the Father hath loved Him may be in them.” He has glory that they may “ behold the glory which He had with the Father before the world was.” Conclusion: The Father entrusts His all to Christ, and so surely we might venture to entrust our all to Him. The Father’ s glory is safe in His keeping; the Father’ s riches of wisdom and grace and love are well and wisely expended by Him. Is it to such a Saviour that you, oh sinner, will hesitate about committing your soul? If He can take charge of all that is the Father’ s as His own, may He not take charge of all that is yours? (J. S. Candlish, D. D.) The promise of the Spirit--taking and showing what is Christ’ s In the words, “ He shall receive of Mine,” &c., the Spirit stands in a twofold relation and discharges a twofold function--towards Christ on the one hand, and toward His believing people on the other. I. HE SHALL TAKE OR RECEIVE OF MINE. 1. He is well entitled to take of what is Christ’ s, because He is Himself a Divine person. The manner in which the Holy Ghost is here associated with the Father and the Son clearly shows that tie is such. In truth, for any other than a Divine Person to take part in this transaction were a liberty not to be tolerated. But the Holy Ghost, being Himself God, is a party to the whole arrangement by which all things that the Father hath become Christ’ s: nay, more, He is a party to the carrying of that arrangement into effect. For consider how large a share the Holy Ghost had in the whole of that mediatorial work of Christ, which is the main ground of His saying, “ All things that the Father hath are Mine.” His very coming into the world was by the Holy Ghost, by whom a body was prepared for Him. He was “ anointed by the Holy Ghost without measure,” for the doing of His Father’ s will. “ Through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself, without spot, to God;” and He was “ declared to be the Son of God with power, by His resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness.” In all the critical circumstances of His arduous undertaking, in His birth, His baptism, &c., the Holy Ghost stood by Him sustaining His human soul, and conveying to it the Father’ s love. 2. Nor is He less qualified and able, than He is entitled, to receive of what is Christ’ s. For, having been with the Father and the Son in the ordering of the plan from all eternity, and having been with Christ all along in the accomplishment of it, “ He searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God:” and in dealing with what is Christ’ s, He is in His element, so to speak, and at home (John 16:13). He can make us know “ the things which are freely given to us of God;” past, present, and future; “ opening our eyes to behold wondrous things out of God’ s law.” 3. He is One whom Christ is, altogether willing to have taking of His. It is not a stranger who disposes of another’ s property, or builds on another’ s foundation. It is no rash or rude hand, indifferent to His interest or honour, that rifles His treasury and steals from His unsearchable riches. “ He shall glorify Me,” says Christ Himself. He is of My council, and His sole aim is to carry out My work and to exalt My name. II. WHAT THE SPIRIT THUS TAKES OR OF CHRIST’ S, HE SHOWS TO HIS PEOPLE. 1. What kind of showing is it that we need? How is it that what the Spirit takes of Christ’ s must be revealed? Will it suffice to set before our eyes what is to be shown? Alas! the experience of the Lord’ s actual sojourn here below gives but a sad reply. Nor is the case altered now. In the written Word, in the preaching of the gospel, in all the means and ordinances by which Christ and His salvation are brought before the minds of men and pressed upon their regard, the Holy Ghost is “ taking of what is Christ’ s and showing it,” and every time you open the Bible, or wait on the preaching of Christ crucified, if you continue unaffected and unmoved, you are resisting the Spirit. But there must be a showing of another kind; a work of discovery within, an opening of the eye of the carnal mind; a dispelling of the darkness of the evil heart, that “ the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” may shine. Now for this kind of showing, the Holy Ghost is the fitting agent. For being pure Spirit, He has access immediately to your spirits: and being almighty, He turns them whithersoever He will. 2. Mark the progress of the Spirit’ s work, in showing you what He takes of Christ’ s. (1) Call to mind the first awakening of your soul to the apprehension of things divine. Think on the time, when, after a sudden and decided call perhaps, or a slower and more doubtful process of conviction, you have felt as if, all at once, the clouds broke and the sky cleared. What of Christ’ s was it that the Spirit was then showing you? Did He not show you the Son obedient, and the Father well pleased: the righteous and holy love of God, which is Christ’ s as the reward of His obedience unto death, in all its fulness and freeness? (2) Or again, if you go back to any season of peculiar spiritual prosperity, what was it that quickened your holy graces, filled you with hatred of sin, and made duties a delight? What did the Spirit show to you of Christ’ s then? What of holy beauty, or meek endurance, or tender sympathy in Christ? What of venerable authority and benignant complacency in God His Father? (3) Learn to note in some such way as this the agency of the Holy Spirit in you, by observing what it is that He shows you of Christ’ s and of the Father’ s, in the critical periods of your Christian pilgrimage. See how He has used the “ unsearchable riches of Christ” for the satisfying of your wants; how in your ignorance He has opened to you “ the riches of His wisdom and knowledge;” in your waywardness and backsliding; “ the riches of His forbearance” in your grief and despondency “ the riches of His grace;” and amid the terrors of death “ the riches of His glory.” Thus you will be able to stir up the gift that is in you, and to improve the Spirit’ s gracious dealings with you to the uttermost. 3. Observe as an encouragement how this whole work of the Spirit is carried on, not against, but by means of our natural faculties of understanding and conscience. If He shows you must look. It is in the Word that Christ is set forth. Let the Word of Christ then dwell in you richly. Then will the Spirit be ever showing you out of the word by His inward teaching, more and more of what is Christ’ s and opening your eyes more and more to “ behold wondrous things out of His law.” And this the rather because 4. The work is according to the mind of Christ. He is the Spirit of Christ--the Spirit that dwelt in Him. And if the very Spirit that dwelt in Christ, and was intimately cognisant of all that passed through His soul in all His life of sorrows, and His death of shame, and His resurrection to glory, dwell in you; have you not here a connecting link which will give you a quick understanding and discernment of all that is Christ’ s, and cause you to realize it as your own? Conclusion: 1. The doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity is brought out in this, as it generally is in other passages of the Word, not abstractly and in the way of a naked statement of the truth, but practically, and with reference to what they severally do in the economy of grace. 2. The manner of intercourse between heaven and earth is here presented. The chain is formed--fixed on the throne of God at one end, twined round your heart at the other--waiting but the touch of the heavenly fire, the swift and secret influence of the Heavenly Spirit, to make it all instinct with life and meaning, so that signs and tokens may pass between. The ladder is set--reaching from the sanctuary above to the sanctuary of every church, home, and closet. And not angels only are ascending and descending on this ladder, which is none other than the mediation of the Son of Man--but the Lord Himself--the Spirit-As moving to and fro, communicating the fulness of the Father, through the Son. (J. S.Candlish, D. D.) The Holy Spirit revealing the things of Christ As the page may bear upon its surface writings traced in viewless ink, which are there, and yet are aa if they were not, until the nearness of the fire shall call them out into a new distinctness, so may all truth be written on the mind of man, and yet be dead and meaningless, until called into power and being by the falling on it of these rays of the heavenly fire; and then every word of Scripture, every voice of God in His Church, every sacrament, comes forth into shape and completeness, as Christ is seen by the soul to be there. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) John 16:15 All things that the Father hath are Mine The fulness that is in Christ I. CHRIST HAS A LEGAL RIGHT TO THE OF THE FATHER. Because He has 1. A natural right to it, as He is God. 2. A federal right as Mediator, i.e., God the Father and God the Son are represented in Scripture as having agreed together in a covenant respecting the salvation of the human race. It was in this agreement that God the Father made over all the blessings that He had unto Jesus Christ. 3. A donative right as Saviour (John 3:35). 4. An acquisitive right as Conqueror. Suppose two individuals are combating for some property or privilege, and this is to belong to the individual who comes off victorious; you say of him afterwards, “ he has acquired that.” Just so Christ came into the world to contend with sin and Satan for us, and He came off victorious. 5. A hereditary right as God’ s Son and Heir (Hebrews 1:2.) II. SOME OF THOSE “ ALL THINGS” WHICH JESUS CHRIST IS SAID TO HAVE. 1. All the perfections of God. If, as is said, in 1 Corinthians 1:24, He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, then all the rest must be His. 2. The glory of the Father (Hebrews 1:3). 3. All the fulness of the Father (Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:19). III. IN WHAT SENSE ARE ALL THINGS CHRIST’ S? 1. Substantially, not figuratively or nominally, but really. 2. Communicatively. Some persons may possess great and inestimable treasures, but they may not have the power of communicating them. But Christ possesses “ all things” for the express purpose of communicating John 1:16). He has pardon for our sins, and we have received it;He has justification for our souls, and He has imputed it, &c. 3. Sufficiently (Psalms 107:9). 4. Efficiently. It shall be really applied to the heart, and go to the extent which necessity requires. There may be many things that may be said to be sufficient and yet not efficient. Some of us may have enough for ourselves and others, but it is not efficient unless they partake of it. 5. Unchangeably. 6. Eternally. “ He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” IV. FOR WHAT REASON IT IS SO THAT THE FATHER’ S IS CHRIST’ S. 1. The right and the property of no party is lost. The Father has the same property as the Son, and the Son has the same property as the Spirit. 2. Herein is seen the pleasure of the Father, the pleasure of the Son, and the pleasure of the Holy Spirit. 3. Here is God’ s honour in choosing His people; Christ’ s honour in redeeming them, and the Spirit’ s honour in regenerating them. (T. B. Baker, M. A.) The joint proprietorship of the Father and the children I once heard a father tell, that when he removed his family to a new residence, where the accommodation was much more ample, and the substance much more rich and varied, his youngest son, yet a lisping infant, ran round every room, and scanned every article with ecstasy, calling out, in childish wonder at every new sight, “ Is this ours, father? and is this ours?” The child did not say “ yours,” and I observed that the father while he told the story was not offended with the freedom. You could read in his glistening eye that the infant’ s confidence in appropriating as his own all that his father had, was an important element in his satisfaction. Such, I suppose, will be the surprise, and joy, and appropriating confidence, with which the child of our Father’ s family will count all his own, when he is removed from the comparatively mean condition of things present, and enters the infinite of things to come. When the glories of heaven burst upon his view, he does not stand at a distance, like a stranger, saying, “ O God, these are Thine.” He bounds forward to touch and taste every provision which those blessed mansions contain, exclaiming, as he looks in the Father’ s face, “ Father, this and this is ours.” The dear child is glad of all the Father’ s riches, and the Father is gladder of His dear child. (W. Arnot.) The revealing work of the Spirit The Holy Spirit is given for the purpose of restoring to spiritual truth its natural and reasonable efficiency. It is as though we had our eyes fixed on a book in the deep gloom of twilight. We believe that the page reveals truth, we know the language in which it is written; but the light is so imperfect, that, though here and there we can distinguish a capital letter, and now and then decipher a word, yet we are unable to make out distinctly a single sentence. But let light now fall upon the page, and every word and every letter is instantly revealed, the thought of the writer beams upon our understanding, and the channel of communication between His mind and ours is, for the time, fully established. Very similar to this is the case before us. We read and we hear about God, the Judge of all, and Christ, the Redeemer of men, about sin and repentance, heaven and hell, the wages of guilt and the reward of holiness, and we care so little about them that the words hardly awaken a thought, or leave a trace upon our recollection. But let now the Holy Spirit show these things of Christ unto us, and they are at once invested with the terrors or the joys of a most solemn reality. (F. Wayland, D. D.) John 16:16-22A little while and ye shall not see Me Christ visible to loving hearts This was a strange saying, and a stranger reason. How should His going away be the pledge of their seeing Him again? There have already been three manifestations of our Lord, and there shall be yet a fourth--the three first ascending to the last, which shall be full, perfect, eternal. First, He has been seen by the eye, when He came in our manhood (1 Timothy 3:16; John 1:14). But this is not the manifestation promised here. That was but local, partial, transitory; this is something larger and more abiding. Again, He has also manifested Him-self to the ear. Who has not heard of Him, young and old, high and low, wise and simple? But neither is this the promised manifestation; for this, too, is an exterior revelation, made to all alike, to the good and to the evil, to those that love Him and to those that love Him not. What He here promises is something special and interior, deeper and more intimate, the peculiar gift of those who “ keep His commandments.” It is a manifestation, not to the eye or to the ear, but to a sense above both hearing and sight; a spiritual sense, comprehending all powers of perception, to which all other senses are but avenues (John 14:21). And this, “ because I go to the Father.” When I am ascended I will return with a presence, not local, but in and above all place; not transient, but abiding; not visible to the eye, but to the heart, by a power of spiritual intuition. Let us take an example. What does the sight of any one, as, for instance, of a friend, bestow upon us? What are its effects? 1. The first effect it produces in us is a sense of his presence. We know what his coming and going awakens. It may be we were waiting for his arrival, full of other thoughts, busy or weary, or musing, or all but forgeful. When he came we were wakened up in every pulse. Our hearts go forth to meet him. 2. Another effect wrought by the sight of a friend is a perception of his character. When Christ shows Himself by the illumination of the heart, then all we have read turns into reality. The holy Gospels rise up into a living person; they live and breath before us. Then we understand and perceive, by a spiritual appreciation, His sanctity and pureness, His lowliness and patience, His meekness and tenderness, His love and sympathy. We “ taste that the Lord is gracious.” Now this is a spiritual perception which only spiritual communion can bestow. And by this communion, in a way transcending the senses of our earthly nature, He manifests His character to those who love Him. This spiritual perception of His character by love is the beginning of His likeness in us. Love likens us to each other, and above all to Him. 3. Take one more effect of sight--a consciousness of the love of a friend for us. There is something in his eye, look, and bearing, which is expressive above all words, and emphatic above all speech. When God was made Man, He put on human affections and human sympathies. He loved according to the love of kinsman and of friends. Particular affections, we know, are consistent with perfect love. The very name of “ the beloved disciple” is witness enough. Out of His followers He even loves with especial love the children of the beatitudes. He loves, with a distinguishing love of friendship, those who are most like Himself. “ I will love Him.” There is a love with which, as God, He loved all mankind eternally; and another deeper love, with which He loved all whom He foreknew would love Him again. But there is a deeper mystery still. The Word was made flesh, and, as Man, comes down in this world of time; He sees, one by one, those whom He foreknew made perfect in actual obedience. As, one by one, they love Him, He loves them, and shows Himself to them. (Archdeacon Manning.) Our Lord’ s two little whiles I. THE LITTLE WHILES. 1. The little while of vision. Negatively described; rather as an anticipation of non-vision. The words of one conscious of impending death, and the quick completion of aims; but also confident of final triumph. (1) It is a note of attention. “ Let every faculty be on the alert. Do not misinterpret the signs, or be disconcerted. Your great work just now is ‘ witnessing.’” (2) A placing of His earthly manifestation in its proper light. His teaching and miracles were not to go on indefinitely, as if they were ends in themselves. They were but a small portion of avast scheme, most of which had to be carried out in the unseen world. There was to be a measure, an economy in His earthly manifestation. 2. This little while of darkness. (1) The epithet is here applied in gracious consideration and sympathy. It is only a “ little” while. Graciously curtailed, graciously interpreted. Let them not sink into despair. They are ceaselessly and diligently to “ look for His appearing.” (2) His next manifestation must needs be consummative. He will tell them then of a finished work and triumph over sin and death. Its glory will compensate for their gloom and trials. Therefore (3) They are to look forward, not backward. This is the hopeful, watchful attitude of all true disciples. Our service will have to be completed, as it will have to be accounted for, when He appears. The Lord’ s Supper is only “ until I come.” II. WHAT THEY FOR. They are evidently related and seem to divide the entire future of Christianity in this world. They led up therefore 1. To a grander conception of Christ and His work. To many He might be lost to view; but to them He was to be as a fixed star, nay, the Sun of a new and eternal day. 2. To a spiritual vision. As they were to look through His words and works His whole manifestation,whilst He was with them, in order to perceive its inner Divine meaning; so, when He disappeared from view, they were still to contemplate Him by faith (John 15:18-19). Have we seen the spiritual Christ? It is He alone that is risen, that liveth evermore, and worketh mightily in them that believe. (St. John A. Frere, M. A.) Heaven almost in sight One should go to sleep at night as homesick passengers do, saying, “ Perhaps in the morning we shall see the shore.” To us who are Christians, it is not a solemn, but a delightful thought, that perhaps nothing but the opaque, bodily eye prevents us from beholding the gate which is open just before us, and nothing but the dull ear prevents us from hearing the ringing of those bells of joy which welcome us to the heavenly land. That we are so near death is too good to be believed. (H. W.Beecher.) What is this that He saith Christ’ s going and coming I. THE DEEP OF OUR LORD ABOUT THE TIMES OF AND OF SIGHT. The words are plain enough; the difficulty lies in the determination of the periods. It is quite clear that the first of the “ little whiles” is the few hours that intervened between His speaking and the Cross, and that His death and burial began the period during which they were not to see Him. But where does the second period begin, during which they are to see Him? Is it at His resurrection or at His ascension, when the process of going “ to the Father” was complete; or at Pentecost, when the Spirit, by whom He was to be made visible, was poured out. The answer is, perhaps, not to be restricted to any one of these periods; but I think if we consider that all disciples have a portion in all these great discourses, and the absence of any hint that the promised seeing of Christ was ever to terminate, and the diversity of words under which the two manners of vision are described, and, above all, the close connection of these words with those which precede, we shall come to the conclusion that the full realization of this great promise did not begin until that time when the Spirit opened the eyes of His servants, and they saw His glory. But, however we settle the minor question of chronology, the thing that we want to fasten upon for ourselves is this. 1. We all, if we will, may have a vision of Christ as close, as real, as if He stood there, visible to our senses. That is personal Christianity. Oh! how that conviction would (1) Lift us up above temptation! “ He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” What should terrify or charm us if we saw Him? Competing glories and attractions would fade before His presence, as a dim candle dies at noon. (2) Make all life full of a blessed companionship. Who could feel that life was dreary if that Friend was by his side? 2. And how are we to get it? Remember the connection. It is because there is a Divine Spirit to show men the things that are Christ’ s, that therefore, unseen, He is visible to the eye of faith. But besides this there are conditions of discipline which must be fulfilled. If you want to see Jesus Christ (1) Think about Him. If men in the city walk with their eyes fixed upon the gutters, what does it matter though all the glories of a sunset are dyeing the western sky? And if Christ stood beside you, if your eyes were fixed upon the trivialities of this poor present, you would see not Him. (2) Shut out competing objects, and the dazzling cross-lights that come in and hide Him from us. There must be a “ looking off unto Jesus.” If we would see, and have our hearts filled with, the calm sublimity of the solemn white wedge that lifts itself into the far off blue, we must not let our gaze stop on the busy life of the valleys or the green slopes of the lower Alps, but must lift it and keep it fixed aloft. (3) Do His will. One act of obedience has more power to clear a man’ s eyes than hours of idle contemplation; and one act of disobedience has more power to dim his eyes than anything besides. Rebellious tears blind our eyes, as Mary’ s did, so that she did not know the Master, and took Him for the gardener. Submissive tears purge the eyes and wash them clean to see His face. II. THE . We find in the early portion of these discourses that twice they ventured to interrupt our Lord with more or less relevant questions, but as the wonderful words flowed on, they seem to have been awed into silence; and our Lord Himself almost conplains of them that “ None of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou.” The inexhaustible truths that He had spoken seem to have gone clear over their heads, but the verbal repetition of the “ little whiles” and the recurring ring of the sentence seems to have struck upon their ears. The Revised Version is probably correct in omitting the clause in our Lord’ s words, “ Because I go to the Father.” The disciples seem to have quoted from the clause, “ Because I go to My Father and ye see Me no more.” The contradiction seems to strike them. These disciples in their bewilderment represent some very common faults which we all commit in our dealing with the Lord’ s words. Note 1. How they pass by the greatest truths in order to fasten upon a smaller outstanding difficulty. They have no questions to ask about the gifts of the Spirit, the unity of Christ and His disciples, the love that lays down its life for its friends. But when He comes into the region of chronology, they are all agog to know the “ when” about which He is so enigmatically speaking. Now is not that exactly like us, and does not the Christianity of this day want the hint to pay most attention to the greatest truths, and let the little difficulties fall into their subordinate place? The truth that Christ is the Son of God, who has died for our salvation--that is the heart of the gospel. And why should we make our faith in that, and our living by it contingent on the clearing up of certain external and secondary questions? And why should men be so occupied in jangling about the latter as that the towering supremacy of the former should be lost sight of. What would you think of a man in a fire who, when they brought the fire-escape to him, said, “ I decline to trust myself to it until you first of all explain to me the principles of its construction; and, secondly, tell me all about who made it; ands thirdly, inform me where all the materials of which it is made came from.” 2. How they fling up the attempt to apprehend the obscurity in a very swift despair. “ We cannot tell what He saith.” And we are not going to try any more. It is all cloudland and chaos altogether. Intellectual indolence, spiritual carelessness, deal so with outstanding difficulties. Although there are no gratuitous obscurities in Christ’ s teaching, He said a great many things which could not possibly be understood at the time, in order that the disciples might stretch up towards what was above them, and, by stretching up, might grow. I do not think it is a good thing to break the children’ s bread too small. A wise teacher will now and then blend with the utmost simplicity something that is just a little in advance of the capacity of the listener, and so encourage a little hand to stretch itself out, and the arm to grow because it is stretched. Truth is sometimes hidden in a well in order that we may have the blessing of the search, and that the truth found after the search may be more precious. The tropics with their easy luxuriant growth grow languid men, and our less smiling latitude grows strenuous ones. 3. How they have no patience to wait for time and growth to solve the difficulty. They want to know all about it now, or not at all. If they had waited for six weeks Pentecost would, as it did, explain it all. We, too, are often in a hurry. There is nothing that the ordinary mind, and often the educated mind, detests so much as uncertainty and being baffled. And in order to escape that uneasiness men are dogmatical when they should be doubtful, and positive when it would be a great deal more for the health of their souls and their listeners to say, “ Well, really I do not know, and I am content to wait.” For our own difficulties, and for the difficulties of the world, there is nothing like time and patience. The mysteries that used to plague us when we were boys melted away when we grew up. And many questions which trouble me to-day, if I lay them aside, and go about my ordinary duties, and back to them to-morrow with a fresh eye and an unwearied brain, will have straightened themselves out and become clear. So for our own sorrows, questions, pains, griefs, and for all the riddle of this painful world. III. THE PATIENT TEACHER (John 16:19). 1. He knows all our perplexities. He had not a word of rebuke for the slowness of their apprehension. He never rebukes us either for our stupidity or for our carelessness, but has long patience with us. Yet He does give them a kind of a rebuke. “ Do ye inquire among yourselves?” Inquiry “ among yourselves” is folly; to ask Him is wisdom. We can do much for one another, but the deepest riddles and mysteries can only be wisely dealt with in one way. Tell Him about them. 2. Christ does not explain to the disciples the precise point that troubled them. Olivet and Pentecost were to do that; but He gives them what will tide them over the time. And so with us there is a great deal that must remain mysterious. But if we will speak plainly to Him, He will send us triumphant hope and large confidence of a coming joy that will float us over the bar and make us feel that the burden is no longer painful to carry. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) The relation of Christ to the intellectual perplexities of His disciples I. HE THEM. He did so here, and He did so elsewhere, by His symbolical and enigmatical language. We see good reasons for this. It would serve 1. To impress them with their ignorance the first step to knowledge. 2. To stimulate their thoughts. It would break the monotony of their minds, and urge them to inquiry. Difficulties are essential to educational work. A school-book mastered becomes obsolete. II. HE IS ALWAYS WITH THEM (John 16:19). No other teacher had such a thorough acquaintance with the unspoken thoughts which coursed through the minds of His hearers. This fact 1. Should encourage us to search the Scriptures. Our difficulties in understanding ancient authors are not known to them, nor have they the power to help us. But Christ is ready, if we ask Him to yield a satisfactory solution when we study the problems of His Word, 2. Urge us to cultivate sincerity in our thoughts. For us to profess to know things of which we am ignorant, to believe in things of which we are sceptical, is to insult His omniscience. Our prayer should be: “ Teach me, O God, and know my heart,” &c. III. HE WILL FURNISH A OF THEM IF DESIRED. Because desirous, He gives the disciples the explanation of Joh 16:20-24; viz 1. That His departure would involve them in great sorrow, whilst the world would be rejoicing. 2. That His return will change their sorrow into high joy. That joy (1) Will be intensified by their previous distress (John 16:21). (2) It will be beyond the power of man to take away. A man may take away your property, health, life, but your joy never. (3) It will be associated with the power of obtaining all spiritual blessings from the Father. (D. Thomas D. D.) John 16:19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him Christ’ s knowledge of our thoughts I. CHRIST KNOWS OUR . He knew, and knows, “ what is in man.” 1. All the evil thoughts of His adversaries. When He forgave the man sick of the palsy He heard the whisper “ within themselves, this man blasphemeth.” Beneath every specious pretext and subtle question He detected the hatred that was aiming at His destruction. Was He not the express image of the Father who is kind to the unthankful and the evil. Well may Paul ask, “ Despisest thou the riches of His goodness,” &c. 2. He knew all the sorrowful thoughts of sinners about themselves. No one but Jesus knew that the paralytic was more troubled about sin than about sickness. So when the sinful woman fell at His feet, His eye scanned her past history. Hence we may encourage those who have much more consciousness of guilt than they can express, to believe that He knows the worst of them. 3. He knew the half-formed purposes of His disciples. He foresaw that Judas would betray Him, that Peter would deny Him, before either supposed that He would do so. He knew the secret strivings of the brethren as to which should be greatest. But He bore with their imperfections, talked with them as familiarly, and trusted them as completely, as if they could never be disloyal. If we knew all the secret thoughts of our professed friends, and foresaw how they would fail us, how far our feeling would be from Christ’ s. II. THAT CHRIST WITH OUR . The disciples were entertaining a question they hesitated to ask; but He expressed it for them, and met it not with rebuke, but with teaching. They might have known that He would do this, for when they asked Him, “ Why could we not cast him out?” or “ Lord, declare unto us this parable,” He had always met their difficulties. Nor was it otherwise during His resurrection life. He “ reasoned” with the two going to Emmaus, and gave evidence to Thomas. His own knowledge was absolute, but He recognized that finite minds could only “ know in part,” and was satisfied if they were humble and loyal. How unjustifiable, then, for us, with our fallibility, to judge those who do not exactly see with us. This has had disastrous effects on thoughtful inquirers. There are still Thomas’ s as well as John’ s in the world--and how many of the former may be brought to say “ My Lord and my God” by Christly treatment? III. THAT CHRIST WISELY ORDAINS THE OF OUR PRESENT . He did not answer the question of the disciples so completely as to clear up all their difficulties. They were left to the twilight till the dawn of the resurrection morning. On all sides now we hear cries for certainty which positivism has harmonized into a song. But these demands are the outcome of the impatience which will not wait, of the self-confidence which would make us gods. “ We have but faith, we cannot know. For knowledge is of things we see,” &c. It is well for us this is so. We have a more heroic temper when we have “ fought our doubts and gathered strength:” Scripture becomes dearer as we search it to discover the mysteries it alone reveals; and in the growing consciousness that spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned, we are brought to Jesus’ feet to listen to Him and leave much to Him, concerning which He says, “ I have many things,” &c. When He refuses to reveal, He only acts as any wise father would do. If your child asks you a question which you cannot answer for his good, you say, “ I will tell you some day--trust me to tell you at the right time.” (A. Rowland, LL. B.) John 16:20-22 Verily, verily! say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament Sorrow and joy I. THE SORROW, arising, i.e1. From their own sense of loss and bereavement. In the death of Jesus these men lost for a season their dearest, most honoured, and trusted Friend. 2. From their sympathy with their Lord’ s sufferings. His betrayal, humiliation, agony, crucifixion, went to their hearts. 3. From the disappointment of their hopes. Looking forward to the establishment of a Messianic kingdom, they were overwhelmed with dismay at what they saw. II. THE JOY. This, when it came, was, perhaps, all the livelier and brighter by contrast with the gloom from which these sensitive and sympathizing natures emerged. It was the joy of 1. Renewed friendship. “ Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” 2. Hope revived. The cloud was dispersed, the sun shone again. Once more they trusted that He would redeem Israel. 3. Victory. Their Lord was Conqueror, and in triumph there is ever gladness and rejoicing. 4. New humanity. In the resurrection of Christ was born the regenerated race. By the first throes of anguish came into being the Church of the Redeemer, the inheriter of earth and heaven. 5. Eternal, which none could take from them. (Family Churchman.) Sorrow at the cross turned into joy It is most instructive that the apostles do not speak of the death of our Lord with any kind of regret. The Gospels mention their distress during their actual occurrence, but after the Resurrection, and Pentecost, we hear of no such grief; on the contrary, there are many expressions which treat of the Crucifixion in the spirit of exalting joy. “ God forbid that I should glory,” &c. The “ three hours’ agony,” the darkened church, the altar in mourning, the tolling of a bell, and all the other mock funereal rites of superstition, have not the least encouragement from the spirit and language of the apostles. I. THE DEATH OF OUR LORD WAS AND IS A THEME FOR SORROW. 1. It was so, because to the disciples (1) It was the loss of His personal presence. They felt that they would be sheep without a shepherd: orphans bereft of their best friend and helper. What would you think if your best earthly friend was hurried away from you by a shameful death? (2) The world would be rejoicing because their Lord was gone. You know when you are in sorrow, how bitter is the coarse laugh of an adversary who exults over your misery and extracts mirth from your tears. This made the disciples smart at their Lord’ s death. (3) His death was for a time the disappointment of all their hopes. They at first had fondly looked for a temporal kingdom. How can they be happy who have seen an end of their fairest life-dream? (4) Added to this was the sight which many of them had of their beloved Master in His agonies. 2. Now, even at the recollection of what our Lord endured, every Christian feels sympathy with Him. You cannot read the story without feeling that the minor key befits your voice at such a time, if you at all attempt to sing. One of the sharpest points about our sorrow is this--that we were the cause of it. We virtually crucified the Lord, seeing it was because we were sinners that He must needs be made a sacrifice. II. THIS SORROW IS CHANGED INTO JOY. Not exchanged for joy, but actually transmuted, so that the grief becomes joy. 1. That Jesus died for our sins is a sharp sorrow: and yet this is the greatest joy of all. If each one of us can say, “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me,” we are truly happy. Because God hath condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ, therefore He will no more condemn us. 2. Jesus has now suffered all that was required of Him. That He should suffer was cause for grief, but that He has now suffered all is equal cause for joy. When a champion returns from the wars bearing the scars of conflict by which he gained his honours, does any one lament over his campaigns? Let us not mourn, then; for Christ’ s agony is all over now, and He is none the worse for having endured it. 3. Our Lord has survived His pains. He died a real death, but now He lives a real life. The Lord is risen indeed. He has lost no dominion, He claims superior rights and rules over a new empire. He is a gainer by His losses, He has risen by His descent. 4. The grand end which His death was meant to accomplish is all attained, viz (1) The putting away of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (2) The salvation of His chosen. (3) The glory of God. 5. The greatest possible blessings accrue to us, because He was made a curse for us. Through His death came pardon, reconciliation, access, acceptance, heaven. 6. Because He died there is a kingdom set up in the world, which never can be moved. 7. This joy is (1) Right hearty joy. Ours is no superficial mirth. (2) Abiding joy. “ Your joy no man taketh from you.” III. THE GENERAL IN THIS ONE , viz., that in connection with Christ you must expect to have sorrow, But whatever sorrow you feel there is this consolation--the pangs are all birth-pangs, they are all the necessary preliminaries of an ever-increasing joy. 1. Since you have come to know Christ you have felt a smarter grief on account of sin. Let it continue with you, for it is working holiness in you, and holiness is happiness. 2. You have felt a keener sensibility on account of the sins of those around you, do not wish to be deprived of it, it will be the means of your loving them more, and seeking more their good. 3. Perhaps you have had to bear a little persecution, hard words, and the cold shoulder. Do not fret, for all this is needful to make you have fellowship with Christ’ s sufferings that you may know more of Him, and may become more like Him. 4. You sometimes see the cause of Christ as it were dead, and you are grieved about it, as well you may be. It is well, but in that very feeling there should be the full persuasion that the truth of Christ cannot long be buried, but waits to rise again with power. 5. By and by will come your last sorrow. Look forward to it without the slightest alarm. Death is the gate of endless joy, and shall we dread to enter there? Conclusion: The world shall rejoice: “ Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” Now, what is implied there to complete the sentence? Why, that the world’ s joy shall be turned into sorrow. There is not a pleasure which the ungodly man enjoys but what will curdle into grief and be his sorrow for ever. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Joy and sorrow mingled Joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow springs from the same root as the gladness. The two do not clash against each other or reduce the emotion to a neutral indifference, but they blend into one another; just as in arctic regions, deep down beneath the cold snow, with its white desolation and its barren death, you shall find the budding of the early spring flowers and the fresh green grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below the water; just as in the midst of the barren and undrinkable sea here may be welling up some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a deeper depth than the great ocean around it, and pours its sweet streams along the surface of the saltwaste. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Sorrow turned into joy I. THE PROMISE OF A JOY WHICH IS A SORROW, “ Your sorrow shall be turned into joy,” not merely that the one emotion is substituted for the other, but, as it were, becomes the other. This can only mean that that which was the cause of the one reverses its action. Of course the historical and immediate fulfilment of these words lies in the double result of Christ’ s Cross upon His servants. That Cross, which for some few hours was pain, and all but ruin, has ever since been the centre of the deepest gladness and confidence of a thousand generations. 1. Estimate the value as an evidence of the historical veracity of the Gospel story, of this sudden and complete revolution in that handful of believers. A dead Christ was the Church’ s despair; a dead and risen Christ the Church’ s triumph. 2. This principle covers the whole ground of devout men’ s sorrows. Every thunder-cloud has a rainbow lying in its depths when the sun smites upon it. And our purest and noblest joys are transformed sorrows. The sorrow of contrite hearts becomes the gladness of pardoned children; the sorrow of bereaved empty hearts may become the gladness of hearts filled with God. Every stroke of the ploughshare, and every dark winter’ s day are represented in the broad acres waving with the golden grain. II. THIS IS A JOY FOUNDED UPON THE THAT CHRIST’ S EYE IS UPON US. 1. “ I will see you again,” &c. Elsewhere the form of the promise is the converse--“ Yet a little while and ye shall see Me.” “ Ye shall see Me” fixes attention upon us and our perception of Him. “ I will see you” fixes attention upon Him and His beholding of us. “ Ye shall see Me” speaks of our going out after Him and being satisfied in Him. “ I will see you” speaks of His perfect knowledge, loving care, tender, ever-watchful eye. 2. And so it requires a loving heart to find joy in such a promise. He sees all men, but unless our hearts cleave to Him, then “ I will see you again” is a threat. “ I know thy works” brought no joy to the lukewarm professors at Laodicea, nor to the church at Ephesus. But to the faithful souls in Philadelphia and Sardis it was blessedness and life. 3. Is there any joy to us in the thought that the Lord Christ sees us? Oh, if our hearts are really His, then all that we need will be given to us, in the belief that His eye is fixed upon us. “ There be many that say, who will show us any good,” &c. One look towards Christ will more than repay and abolish earth’ s sorrow. One look from Christ will fill our hearts with sunshine. All tears are dried on eyes that meet His. If one could take a bit of the Arctic world and float it down into the tropics, the ice would all melt, and the grey dreariness would disappear, and a new splendour of colour and light would clothe the fields, and an unwonted vegetation would spring up where barrenness had been. And if you and I will only float our lives southward beneath the direct vertical rays of that great Sun of Righteousness, then all the dreary winter and ice of our sorrows will melt, and joy will spring. III. NOTE HOW OUR LORD SETS FORTH HIS ’ JOY AS ONE BEYOND THE REACH OF AND OF . “ No man taketh it from you.” 1. Much of our joy, of course, depends upon our fellows, and disappears when they fade. And much of our joy depends upon the goodwill and help of our fellows, and they can snatch away all that so depends. But no man but myself can put a roof over my head to shut me out from God and Christ. And as long as I have a clear sky over head, it matters very little how high may be the walls, and how close, that foes pile around me. 2. And much of our joy necessarily depends upon and fluctuates with external circumstances of a hundred different kinds. But we do not need to have all our joy fed from these surface springs. We may dig deeper down. If we are Christians, we have, like some beleaguered garrison in a fortress, a well in the courtyard that nobody can get at. 3. But remember, though externals have no power to rob us of our joy, they can interfere with that faith which is the essential condition of our joy. They cannot force us away from Christ, but they may tempt us away. The sunshine did for the traveller in the old fable what the storm could not do; and the world may cause you to think so much about it that you forget your Master. Its joys may compel Him to hide His face, and may so fill your eyes that you do not care to look at His face. IV. THIS LIFE OF JOY IS MADE CERTAIN BY THE PROMISE OF A CHRIST. “ Verily! verily! I say unto you.” 1. He was accustomed to use that impressive and solemn formula when He was about to speak words beyond the reach of human wisdom or of prime importance. He tells these men, who had nothing but His bare word, that the astonishing thing which He is going to promise them will certainly come to pass. He puts His own character, so to speak, in pawn. His words are precisely equivalent in meaning to the solemn Old Testament words which are represented as being the oath of God--“ As I live, saith the Lord.” So Christ puts His whole truthfulness at stake, as it were; and if any man that has ever loved Jesus Christ and trusted Him aright has not found this “ joy unspeakable and full of glory,” then Jesus Christ has said the thing that is not. 2. Then why is it that so many professing Christians have such joyless lives? Simply because they do not keep the conditions. If you know but little of this joy it is your fault, and not His. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Your Joy no man taketh from you Christian joy I. THAT OUR IS LARGELY IN THE POWER OF OTHER PEOPLE. is a conviction which we reach very early. 1. The child, the merchant, the thinker, the public man, are all illustrations of this. No man can shut his gates and say, “ I will find my happiness only in myself, and what I find no man shall take away.” It seems as if all our social arrangements and relationships were not more fitted to make us furnishers of joy to one another than they are to give to every man the chance to pluck away our happiness. Husband and wife, father and child, teacher and scholar, master and servant--how they all hold each other’ s pleasures at their will I This view of life, which is perpetually presenting itself, stands up face to face with the thought, which all self-reliant and strong men try to keep hold of, viz., self-suffciency. To have the sources of all happiness in our own lives is a thought which no man can wholly cast away. It never finds its realisation; it always meets the interference of our brethren. Practically, almost all men’ s lives vacillate between the two. II. IN THE MIDST OF A LIKE THIS CHRIST COMES IS WITH THESE WORDS. There is a limit to our power over one another; there is a chamber of our inner selves where we may turn the key and no one can come in. The very fact that there is such a limit interests us. 1. We can see how good it is that, while there should be great regions of happiness which are involved with what others are and do, there should be also others which no one but ourselves can touch. The completest house is one whose outer rooms are hospitably open, but which has inner chambers where only the master of the house and his household have a right to enter. The best stock of ideas which any man can keep is that which, while it is subject to the influence of others, yet has at its heart convictions, which are the man’ s own, and which no other can invade. It is the same with regard to happiness. There would be something terrible if each of us held his power of happiness untouchable. Think how much of the finest of our intercourse, how much of the purest motive for self-sacrifice would be lost if we had no power of interfering with each other’ s joy. It would be almost a world of chartered selfishness. The necessary condition of your filling your child’ s life with sunshine is the power of darkening it with a heavy cloud. What would you care for any man’ s sympathy or approbation if all the while you knew that that same man’ s sneer or coldness would not give you even a twinge of pain? 2. And yet we can see just as clearly how dreadful it would be if this power reached in to our deepest happinesses. All of us practically insist that there shall be some enjoyments with which no man shall interfere, and which no human malice can poison. 3. Now hear what Jesus says to His disciples. (1) Nature was not to be changed in their case nor even their relations with their fellow-men to be robbed of the power of painfulness. Still, if you stabbed them they would bleed, if you burnt them they would smart. But behind all this His words revealed to them a something which no fellowman could touch. As I think about their after lives, I can see them letting other joys go and not hating the hands which robbed them of them in the consciousness of this inmost joy, which no intrusion could invade. (2) Jesus tells His disciples that the power of this secret joy is to be His presence with them--“ I will see you again,” &c. It is not that they are to develop some interior strength, or to drift into calm indifference where the influences of their fellow-men shall not touch them any longer. It is that they are to come to a new life with Him. (3) How natural this is! Only the association of some higher and stronger person can save one from the contamination of lower persons who are swamping and ruining his life. Suppose you have a boy who is being overwhelmed and lost by and through his faculties of companionship. Have you not learned that it is through these same faculties of companionship that he must be saved? It will not be simply by forbidding him to have connection with his base companions, nor by shutting him in upon himself, that you will save him. A stronger person must be his saviour. Now this is just what Jesus did. Some men make the influence of Jesus a mere sentimental thing. They dwell upon the love which He poured out upon His friends. Other men talk about the mastery of Christ. He gave His servants things to do. He shaped their lives into new habits. It was not either of these alone. Until we grasp them both into one thought we have not understood His power. He brings love, awakening love, and authority demanding obedience. Let us try to bear this in mind as we pass on now to speak of III. SOME OF THE WITH THE OF LIFE WHICH COME FROM OUR FELLOW-MEN, AND OF THE WAY IN WHICH THE SOUL’ S LIFE WITH CHRIST PUTS THOSE SAME OUT OF THE REACH OF ANY FELLOW-MAN’ S . 1. The pleasure of energetic action, which makes life bright to the best men. Oh, the poor creatures whom their father’ s money or their own sluggish wills have robbed of the great human delight of action! But opposition, criticism, and ingratitude are the ways in which other men meet an active man, and make his work a drudgery. Here is a man in public life. The happiness of dealing with the state’ s affairs is what his soul is full of; he has dreamed of it while he was a boy, and now all his manhood triumphs in it. But other men have stepped across his path, and hindered him from doing what he meant to do; or have told the world and him how far what he has done is from what it ought to be; or those for whom he laboured have gone away, giving him curses instead of thanks. Now he may still work on from habit or duty, but the joy is departed. Is there any help for that? If not it is a dreadful world to live and work in. But now suppose that Christ had been with that man; that behind every other motive there had been the love of Christ. Would that have made no difference? Like an electric atmosphere poured around the shrine in which a jewel rests, so that no hand can be thrust through to steal it; so round the work, full of its joy, is poured the love of Christ, out of which no man can snatch it. (1) Suppose that some opponent hinders him in doing what he wants to do--he knows that no man can thwart his Master’ s will. (2) Suppose that men taunt him with his action’ s incompleteness. The incompleteness of his action is absorbed in the larger completeness of his Master. (3) Suppose that men turn from Him with ingratitude. Christ says, “ Well done,” and that is the only praise he really values. To every consecrated labourer who works for Christ there is a joy in working which no man can take away from him. 2. See how all this is true of Christian thought and the struggle after truth. These are the best joys of the best men. To make some few steps forward on the journey which stretches out into eternity; to add some new stone to the structure whose lines already prophesy an infinite height for the far topstone,--he has not lived who has not felt this pleasure. But yet every thinking man discovers that the joy of thought is one that lies peculiarly within the power of our fellow-men. And why? It is not that our fellowmen may contradict and abuse our opinions. If we do really hold it perfectly as true, that is a little thing. But the trouble is that the more one thinks and studies, the more he becomes aware how infinite is truth. The truth which he has learned on any subject, he becomes aware, is not the whole. Every time, then, that any reasoner impugns our truth it starts up this consciousness. We see how far we are, even upon the subject which we know best, from having reached the end of things and laid our faith securely. This is the reason why so many people, when their faith is once attained, keep it not merely as a very precious but as a very frail and brittle thing. They will not talk with any one about it. They will not read anything upon the other side. We know this is not good; and yet we very often do not see how it is to be escaped. The real escape, I think, lies here. The Christian faith is primarily a belief in Christ. All truth which we believe, we believe in and because of Him. We know that though we have taken Him for our Master, He is very far yet from having told us all that He has to tell. That knowledge does not decrease our satisfaction in believing Him; it increases it; for it binds us to Him not merely by what He has already taught us, but by the far greater truth which He is keeping for us, which it is a pleasure to wait for now, as it will be a pleasure to take it when the time shall come. Now, let a believer have this consciousness; and then let the unbeliever come up to him, to pluck away his joy. Always it is the surrounding of the doctrinal faith by the personal faith that keeps the joy of the doctrinal faith safe from attack or theft. 3. Follow our subject into the region of character. Can a man have such joy in his own character that no other man can take his joy away from him? Just as soon as we ask that, how our imperfections and sins start up before us! What idlest chatterer cannot pluck away our self-satisfaction, and steal the last trace of joy in our own characters? And yet, with all this true, it is not all the truth. There are two different conceptions of character, one of which looks at it in itself; the other looks at it as it is involved with the powers which are at work upon it to make it what it is capable of being. A block lying alone upon a hill-top may be uninteresting. The same block brought into a sculptor’ s workshop, though his hands may not have touched it, or may have only rudely blocked out his design, may be a thing to reverence. And can we not think that as it lies upon the hil-top it may be ready to accept everybody’ s disesteem; but when it comes into the sculptor’ s hands, it may gain such new sense of its capacity under that wise and loving power that no man’ s sneer can cloud the pleasure that it feels in the new revelation and hope of its true self which, under those hands, have come to it? Row read the parable. I am a poor, weak, wicked man; I know it; I do not need that you should tell me of it. Any small joy in myself which I have been able to conceive, your well-deserved scorn can steal from me in an instant. But now suppose that Christ takes me into His hands. I am a poor dull block still, but I am His, and His great hands have just begun to shape His purpose in me. Is not the whole thing changed? Now there is a joy in character which is not present consciousness, but certain prophecy. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) When Christ is present believers should rejoice I have been so long away from England that I do not know where our Queen is residing just now; but if I had the wings of a dove, and could mount into the upper air, I would soon find out. I should look for the royal standard. I should see it floating over Windsor or Osborne, and by this token I should espy the royal abode. Fling out the banner to the breeze when the King is within. Is the King at home with you, dear brother? Do not forget to display the standard of holy joy. Hoist it, and keep it flying. Ring the joy-bells! (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 16:23-27 And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing The characteristics of the Christian age I. 1. The subject: the Father; His nature: God; His character: love; His purpose: salvation. 2. The medium: Christ; the Father’ s Son, Ambassador, Revealer. II. . 1. Clear. No longer in proverbs, parables, or veiled forms is the truth presented by the Spirit, but in plain and easy-to-be-understood propositions (John 16:25). 2. Sufficient. Enjoying the Spirit’ s teaching, the Christian needs not to ask of any external authority (John 16:23; cf. Hebrews 8:11). III. PERFECT . 1. On the part of the Christian. (1) Liberty in prayer. He may ask of the Father anything (verses 2326). (2) Success in prayer--guaranteed by the Christian’ s plea, Christ’ s name (John 16:24; John 16:26); the Saviour’ s intercession (John 16:26); the Father’ s love (John 16:27). 2. On the part of the Father. (1) Loving Christ’ s people (John 16:27). (2) Granting their requests (John 16:23). IV. . 1. The nature of it. The joy of the Christian is always (1) Inward. (2) Spiritual. (3) Progressive. (4) Permanent. 2. The cause of it. (1) The Spirit’ s indwelling. (2) The soul’ s beholding of Christ (John 16:22). (3) The Father’ s giving (John 16:23). Lessons: 1. The superiority of the Christian age to all that have preceded. 2. The increased responsibility of all who live in it. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) What that day wilt bring forth There are here three jewels which Christ sets in a cluster, the juxtaposition making each brighter, and gives to us for a parting keepsake. Our English word “ ask” means two things, either to question in order to get information or to beseech, in order to get gifts. In the former sense the word is employed in the first clause with distinct reference to the disciples’ desire to ask Him a very foolish question a moment or two before; and in the second it is employed in the central portion of my text. I. NO MORE . 1. Do not you think that the disciples would be tempted to say, “ Then what are we to do?” To them the thought was despair rather than advance; but in Christ’ s eyes it was progress. It is better for a boy to puzzle out the meaning of a Latin book by his own brains and a lexicon than lazily to use an interlinear translation. Many eager Christian souls, hungering after certainty and rest, have east themselves into the arms of an infallible pope. I doubt whether any such questioning mind has found what it sought; and I am sure that it has taken a step downwards. We gain by losing the visible Christ. 2. For what have we instead? (1) A completed revelation. Unspeakably precious as were and are the words of Christ, His deeds are far more. The death of Christ has told us things that Christ before His death could not tell. His resurrection has east light upon all the darkest places of man’ s destiny which before He could not by any words so illuminate. The ascension of Christ has opened doors for thought, for faith, for hope which were fast closed, until He had burst them asunder and passed to His throne. We have a completed revelation, and therefore we need ask Him nothing. (2) A Divine Spirit to teach us by blessing the exercise of our own faculties, and guiding us, not, indeed, into all the intellectual aspects of Christian truth, but into the loving possession, as a power in our lives, of all the truth that we need to raise us to the likeness of Christ. 3. Only remember that such a method of teaching needs that we use that revelation and submit ourselves to the teaching of that Spirit, and make everything that we know a factor in shaping what we do and are. And if we do this we shall not need to envy those that could go to Him with their questions, for He will come to us with His all-satisfying answers. 4. Ah! but you say, look at a divided Christendom and at my own difficulties. Well, as for a divided Christendom, saintly souls are all of one Church. And however they may formulate the intellectual aspects of their creed, when they come to pray they say the same things, and we all sing their songs. So the divisions are like the surface cracks on a dry field, and a few inches down there is continuity. And as for the difficulty of knowing what I am to believe about controverted questions, no doubt there will remain many gaps in the circle of our knowledge and much left obscure; but if we will keep ourselves near the Master, and use the helps that He gives us we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have light enough to be the Light of Life. II. DESIRES. 1. This second great promise substantially appeared in a former part of these discourses with a very significant difference. “ Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do.” “ If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it.” There Christ presented Himself as the Answerer, because His purpose was to set forth His going to the Father as His elevation to a yet loftier position. Here He sets forth the Father as the Answerer, because His purpose is to point away from undue dependence on His own corporeal presence. But consider how much is involved in that fact, that, as a matter of course, our Lord alternates the two forms, and sometimes says, “ I will do it,” and sometimes says, “ The Father will do it.” Does it not point to that great and blessed truth, “ Whatsoever thing the Father doeth that also doeth the Son likewise.” 2. But passing from that, note the limitation to the broad universality of the declaration. “ If ye shall ask anything in My name.” There is the definition of Christian prayer. And what does it mean? (1) Is a prayer which is reeking with self-will hallowed because the man says, as a kind of charm at the end of it, “ For Christ’ s sake. Amen?” Surely not! The name of Christ is His whole revealed character. So these disciples could not pray in His name “ hitherto,” because His character was not all revealed. Therefore, to pray in His name is to pray recognizing what He is, as revealed in His life and death and resurrection and ascension, and to base all our dependence for acceptance of our prayers upon that revealed character. (2) Are any kind of wishes which are presented in dependence upon Christ certain to be fulfilled? Certainly not! “ My name” means exactly what the same phrase means when it is applied to us. If I do something in your name I do it on your behalf, as your representative. And if we pray in Christ’ s name, that implies the harmony of our wills with His. Heathen prayer is the violent effort to make God will what I wish. Christian prayer is the submissive effort to make my wish what God wills. 3. Notice how certain such prayer is of being answered. If it is in harmony with the will of God, it is sure not to be offered in vain. Our Revised Version reads, “ He will give it you in My name.” God’ s gifts come down through the same channel through which our prayer goes up. But, whether that be the true collocation or no, mark the plain principle, that only desires which are in harmony with the Divine will are sure of being satisfied. What is a bad thing for a child cannot be a good thing for a man. If you want to spoil your child you say, “ What do you want, my dear? tell me and you shall have it.” God knows a great deal better what is good for us; and so He says: “ Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give thee the desires of thine heart.” He who prays in Christ’ s name must pray Christ’ s prayer, “ Not My will but Thine be done.” To him who can thus pray, every door in God’ s treasure-house flies open, and he may take as much of the treasure as he desires. And the Master bends lovingly over such a soul, and says: “ What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” III. THE PERFECT JOY WHICH FOLLOWS UPON THESE TWO. Is it possible, then, that amidst all changes and the sorrows we may have a deep and stable joy? “ That your joy may be full,” says my text, or “ fulfilled,” like some jewelled, golden cup charged to the very brim with rich and quickening wine, so that there is no room for a drop more. Was anybody ever so blessed that he could not be more so? Jesus Christ says it may be so, and He tells us how. Bring your desires into harmony with God’ s, and you will have nothing unsatisfied amongst them; and so you will be blessed to the full. And though sorrow comes, still we may be blessed. There are some flowers which only bloom in the night; and white blossoms are visible with startling plainness in the twilight, when all the flaunting purples and reds are hid. Conclusion: There are only two courses before us. Either a life with superficial, transitory, incomplete gladnesses, and an aching centre of vacuity and pain, or one which in its outward aspects has much about it that is sad and trying, but down in the heart of it is calm and joyful. “ Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful,” &c. But the “ ransomed of the Lord shall return,” &c. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) All questions answered Many were the questions which the disciples had put to their Lord in the pride and ignorance of their as yet imperfectly spiritualized hearts (see Matthew 18:1; Luke 9:54; Acts 1:6). But our Lord says that in that day, when He shall have given them the Comforter, they shall ask Him no more such questions, for that He should guide them into all truth. I. THIS PROMISE HAS COME DOWN TO EVERY OF CHRIST. What question is there that we need to put to our Lord? The grand question of all--“ What shall I do to be saved?” has long ago been distinctly answered. But, for the sake of illustration, let us put this question under some of its particulars. Shall a man ask of Christ 1. “ Are my sins forgiven me? answer me by showing me some token of it.” He has been answered already. Instead of asking Christ he has to ask his own heart and conscience before Christ. Have they been truly turned unto Him? Is the heart in communion with the Holy Spirit? Is the conscience directed by Christ’ s Word? Are thus sins forsaken? Then there is at once a plain answer. 2. “ Wilt Thou be my Helper and Defender?” He has been answered already. Does he make Christ his Help and Defence, his Rock and his Fortress? Does he use the means which He has furnished? If so, then he has received a clear answer, and needs no other. 3. “ Shall I inherit eternal life?” He has been answered already. Is he really seeking eternal life, striving with all his strength to enter in? Are his affections set on the things which are above? If his heart and conscience tell him this, he has had an answer sufficient. Will he tempt Christ by asking twice over? 4. And in the last hour shall a man ask of Christ, “ Whither am I going?” He has been answered already most distinctly. Let him ask his own heart and conscience upon which road he has been travelling; where has the Lord found him when the fear of approaching death surprised him. Was he on the narrow road of holiness, or on the broad road of sin? If he will ask this of his heart and conscience they will tell him at once, and may warn him to such repentance as may yet be possible. But if he decline this search, then assuredly instead of having an answer from Christ, who is the Truth, he will have it from the father of lies. II. SEE, , THE OF THE . 1. He has no doubts; the words of his Master are yea and amen, and he has heard them. That is surely but an indifferent servant who requires his orders to be repeated from his master’ s mouth. 2. He has no perplexities. The direction of the Lord, and the truth and comfort of the Holy Spirit, drive away all darkness and uncertainty. 3. He has no fears, he is a soldier that can both endure hardness and stand in the fight. He is content to await in patience the sign of the Son of Man, and meanwhile gathers clearer and clearer answers from a heart and conscience well questioned, daily examined. III. THUS WE SHALL PROCEED IN A WAY OF FOR THE LAST , when we shall have to give answers to our Lord and Judge concerning all that He hath given and taught us. All questioning will then be openly on His side, and all answering openly also on ours. Even the prayer of our petitions will then cease, for there will be nothing left to ask for in that day. Only the prayer of praise, adoration, and thanksgiving shall remain, and that shall remain for all eternity. (R. W.Evans, B. D.) No want in the presence of Jesus Why does Christ’ s personal presence in heaven, now that He is glorified, take away the necessity for prayer in the case of the glorified? Because--I. GOD IS IN CHRIST, AND GOD IS AN OPEN OF GOOD TO EVERY BEING IN WITH HIM. Who asks for water when he is standing by a fountain? Who asks for light when the summer sun at the meridian is shining upon him? And who asks to be blessed when God fully blesses him? II. CHRIST’ S LOVE FOR HIS IS SUCH THAT HE CANNOT BE WITH THEM WITHOUT FILLING THEM WITH GOOD. When “ a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” He could never be with His disciples without blessing them. How much more now in His state of glorification! Because the crown of Christ is as much yours as His Cross. He died for you, and it is an equally glorious truth that He lives for you. So it is utterly impossible that you can lack, when with Christ, any good thing. III. THE OF THE SAVIOUR, WHEN OUR HEARTS ARE RIGHT, AS THEY WILL BE VERY SOON, CANNOT FAIL TO SATISFY US. At present even God, the Father of all, does not please you. You have made a sort of calculation of what God should give you in the shape of temporal good. If that be given, you are pleased and thankful, but if that be withheld, you murmur. Why? Because you do not trust the Giver. In the degree of your love and trust, you see that “ all things work together for good.” IV. PRAYER CAN ONLY BE MADE IN WANT. Prayer is asking God to supply our need. Now, when all our need is supplied, the necessity for prayer is, of course, taken away. Prayer is not consistent with a perfect state of being. It is the cry of infancy. You will in heaven be men. Prayer is the call of helplessness and the wail of sorrow. But “ in that day Christ will open Himself to you as a fountain of good, and then ye shall ask nothing.” Meetness for that place consists in the spirit of praise, and not in the spirit of prayer. Conclusion: 1. Persevere in prayer even when prayer is hard work, for the labour and agony connected with prayer are only temporal. Great burthens are easily carried if we be only told that we have to carry them over a short distance. Shortly, you will have everything you can desire. 2. Anticipate joyously the future. You will have, most likely, a night of tribulation to go through, but born of that night will be the brightest of days. (S. Martin.) Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name He will give it you Praying in the name of Jesus Christ I. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. Negatively, it is not a bare mentioning His name in prayer, and concluding our prayers therewith (Matthew 7:21). We must begin, carry on, and conclude our prayers in the name of Christ (Colossians 3:17). The saints use the words, “ through Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:57); but the virtue is not in the words, but in the faith wherewith they are used. But, alas these are often produced as an empty scabbard, while the sword is away. Positively: we may take it up in these four things. 1. We must go to God at Christ’ s command, and by order from Him Matthew 18:20). If a poor body can get a recommendation from a friend to one that is able to help him, he comes with confidence and tells such a one has sent me to you. Christ is such a friend (verse 24). This implies (1) The soul’ s being come to Christ in the first place (chap. 15:7). (2) That, however, believers in Christ are relieved of the burden of total indigence (John 4:14), yet while they are in the world they are still compassed with wants. In heaven they shall be set down at the fountain; but now the law of the house is, “ Ask, and ye shall receive” (Matthew 7:7). (3) That Christ sends His people to God by prayer for the supply of their wants. This He does by His word, commanding them to go, and by His Spirit inclining them to go (Ephesians 2:18). (4) That acceptable prayer is performed under the sense of the command of a God in Christ (Isaiah 33:22), where majesty and mercy are mixed in it; and that is son-like service. (5) That the acceptable petitioner’ s encouragement to pray is from Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16). 2. We must pray for Christ’ s sake, as our motive to the duty (Mark 9:41). This implies (1) A high esteem of Christ (1 Peter 2:7), for God is honoured in His John 5:23). (2) Complying with the duty out of love to Christ (Hebrews 6:10). (3) Complying with the duty out of respect to His honour and glory. (4) Doing it with heart and good-will (Isaiah 64:5). 3. We must in prayer act in the strength of Christ. (1) What this pre-supposes. (a) That praying acceptably is a work quite beyond any power in us 2 Corinthians 3:5). (b) That there is a stock of grace and strength in Jesus Christ for our help as to other duties, so for this duty of prayer (2 Corinthians 12:9; Colossians 1:19). (c) Sinners are welcome to partake of this stock of grace and strength in Christ (2 Timothy 2:1). (d) We must be united to Christ as members to the head and branches to the vine, if we would act in prayer or any other duty in the strength of Christ (John 15:5). We cannot partake of the stock of grace and strength for duty in Christ without partaking of Himself (Romans 8:32). As the soul in a separate state cloth not quicken the body, so the soul not united to Christ cannot be fitted for duty by strength derived from Him. The graft must knit with the stock ere it can partake of the sap. (2) Wherein acting in prayer in the strength of Christ lies. (a) The soul’ s going out of itself for strength to the duty; that is, renouncing all confidence in itself for the right management of it 2 Corinthians 3:5). (b) The soul’ s going to Christ for strength to duty by trusting on Him for it (Isaiah 26:4; Psalms 71:16). 4. We must pray for Christ’ s sake, as the only procuring cause of the success of our prayers. (1) What is pre-supposed in this. (a) That sinners in themselves are quite unacceptable in heaven, even in their religious duties (Proverbs 15:8; Isaiah 64:6). (b) Christ is most acceptable there (Matthew 3:1-17.; Ephesians 5:2). (c) Sinners are warranted to come to the throne of grace in His Hebrews 4:15-16; 1 John 2:1). The petitions put into His hand cannot miscarry. (2) Wherein this praying to God for Christ’ s sake consists. (a) In general, in our relying on the Lord Jesus only for the success of our prayers in heaven. Consider that we are in this matter to rely on Him only for access to God in our prayers (Ephesians 3:12; John 14:6). For acceptance of our prayers (Ephesians 1:6). For the gracious answer of prayer, and consider how we are to eye Christ as the object of this reliance--viz., as our great High Priest Hebrews 4:15-16). And here we find the infinite merit of His sacrifice (Romans 3:25), and His never-failing intercession to rely on (Hebrews 7:25). (b) More particularly, praying in the name of Christ, and for His sake consists in renouncing all merit and worth in ourselves, in point of access, acceptance, and gracious answer (Genesis 32:10); believing that however great the mercies are, and however unworthy we are, yet we may obtain them from God through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:15-16). In seeking in prayer the mercies we need of God for Christ’ s sake accordingly (John 16:24). In pleading His merit and intercession (Psalms 84:9); in trusting that we shall obtain a gracious answer for His sake (Mark 11:24). III. WHY PRAYER MUST BE IN THE NAME OF CHRIST. Because 1. Sinners can have no access to God without a Mediator, and there is no other Mediator but He (Isaiah 59:2; 1 Timothy 2:5). 2. The promises of the covenant were all made to Jesus Christ, as the party who fulfilled the condition of the covenant (Galatians 3:16). 3. Our praying in the name of Christ is a part of the reward of Christ’ s voluntary humiliation for God’ s glory and the salvation of sinners Philippians 2:9-10). 4. It is not consistent with the honour of God to give Sinners a favourable hearing otherwise (John 9:31, with 2 Corinthians 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21). They dishonour God, His Son, and His mercies, that ask anything but in the name of Christ. 5. Nothing can savour with God that comes from a sinner, but what is perfumed with the merit and intercession of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15; Ephesians 1:6). 6. The stated way of all gracious communication between heaven and earth is through Jesus Christ, who opened a communication between them by His blood, when it was blocked up by the breach of the first covenant John 14:6). IV. . 1. From this doctrine we learn (1) What a holy God we have to do with in prayer (Leviticus 10:3). His very throne of grace, from which He breathes love and good-will to sinners, is founded on justice and judgment (Psalms 89:14). (2) Let us prize the love of Christ in making an entrance for us into the holy place, through the veil of His flesh (Hebrews 10:20). The flaming sword of justice, which guarded the way to the tree of life, was bathed in His blood, to procure us access to God. (3) There can be no acceptable praying to God but by believers united to Christ having on the garment of His righteousness (John 9:31). (4) Even believers cannot pray in the name of Christ, and so not acceptably, without faith in exercise (Galatians 2:20). (5) We have great need not to be rash in our approaches to God in prayer, but that we prepare our hearts and compose them aforehand for such a solemn duty (Ecclesiastes 5:1). 2. Let those stand reproved who (1) Make approach unto God in prayer, as an absolute God, without consideration of the Mediator (John 5:23; Ephesians 2:18). (2) Put other things in the room of the Mediator, or join other things with Him. (a) Their own worth in respect of their qualifications and good things done by them (Luke 18:11-12). (b) The mercy of God considered without a view to the satisfaction of His justice by the Mediator. (c) The manner of their performing the duty itself (Isaiah 58:3). (d) Their own necessity (Hosea 7:14). 3. Wherefore rely on Christ, and on Him only, for access to God in, and acceptance of, your prayers; that is, pray in the name of Christ. (1) In this way of praying ye may obtain anything ye really need. (2) There is no access to God, nor acceptance of prayer another way (chap. 14:6). (T. Boston, D. D.) Prayer in Christ’ s name I. THE WHICH ALL PRAYER . 1. One cause of these is to be found in the variations of our inner life, Our faith in the spiritual is at some moments so full of power that thoughts too large for words ascend to the Eternal in unclothed aspirations. And at other times it is so weak and dead that we doubt whether it has not altogether vanished to return no more. Thus there are times when to pray is the hardest of all tasks; when God appears to be far off. Chilled thus by the world of sense, the fire of devotion frequently appears to have almost died out, having left only cold ashes on the altar of the heart. 2. But apart from these changes of the inner life, there are two great difficulties surrounding every act of prayer. (1) Look at prayer for material blessings. If we believe that such prayer will be answered we are constantly met by the awful thought that God has ordered eternally all the circumstances of life for the best and wisest ends. Under the pressure of that fact, look at the cries of prayer--the utterances of the child of yesterday, whose life is but a span, who knows not what he really is, nor what he really wants! Can we believe that they will be answered?--that they will bring the blessings they crave? (2) Again, we know that God’ s love cannot be deepened. Is not God always giving? Does He need the utterance of our wants when He detects the secret desire in the heart trembling into words? II. THE NATURE OF PRAYER. We shall perceive how both the difficulties we have noticed vanish before the true meaning of Christ’ s promise. The word “ whatsoever” must be taken simply and literally. The words “ in My name” must be taken as simply and literally; for they explain the “ whatsoever.” 1. The words “ in My name” refer to the new meaning which Christ had given to prayer. (1) Men in old time had cried earnestly to God under the pressure of the struggles and doubts of life, but they could not pray in the Christian sense. To them there often seemed to be two great powers in the universe--the divine and the evil, and in their darkness they cried to Him whom they felt was true, though they understood not how. Christ came into the world to reveal what God was and to explain His plan. He showed that God was willing all good to His creatures, and overcoming all evil--that the eternal love was shining behind all the clouds of suffering and sorrow. Here, then, was a new revelation of the meaning of prayer. Men were not to pray because they hoped to change God’ s plan, but because God’ s plan was the wisest and most loving. They were not to pray with the idea of inducing God to become kind, but because He was kind. (2) Again, men in the old time were often tempted to fancy that God was far off, and cared little for their necessities; Christ revealed God as everywhere--working in every life, searching every soul. Because God knew their wants, men were to ask. Because He was love, they were to pray. To pray not with the notion of changing God’ s plan, but because that plan is the best. Hence we see at once that many prayers are not Christian. For instance, men ask for success: do they mean they cannot forego their desires--that they cannot confront failure? If so, can they thus pray in His name who renounced Himself, and whose career, judged by man’ s standard, was a mighty failure? Or do they, because they believe God is all-wise, ask to be able to bear success if it be His will it should come, and if not, to be enabled to stand failure?--that is to pray in Christ’ s name. Men ask for happiness: do they mean that they are afraid of sorrow--they cannot bear the Cross? If so, can they pray that prayer in the name of Him who gave up all happiness for man, who endured the Cross and the shame, who, because it was the Father’ s will, bore all sorrow and made it holy? Or do they mean, “ enable Me to bear happiness or sorrow?” --“ If it be possible let sorrow pass from Me--nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” That is to pray in Christ’ s name. 2. Prayer in Christ’ s name clears away the two great difficulties to which I have referred. (1) It brings us into harmony with God’ s eternal plan. I do not believe that God changes. The sceptic asks, “ Does God ever stop the working of His laws to save the man who prays?” No; but a Divine influence may prepare him to receive whatever comes. (2) It prepares us to receive God’ s noblest gifts of love. It does not make Him more loving, but it fits us to obtain what He is willing to bestow. In the highest sense a man can only receive what he feels he needs. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) Prayer in the name of Christ A wealthy heir presents thee with a cheque, signed with his name, for a sum of money, which thou art to fetch from his father. Without the cheque thou wouldest receive nothing, for the father of the heir knows nothing of thy name; but because he sees written there the name of his son he presents thee with the whole amount which his son has commissioned thee to receive. In like manner has the Lord Jesus given to His people a cheque of prayer upon the love of His Father, which they must present to Him--a blank page (charta blanca) as Spener says. At the bottom His holy name stands written; the upper part we ourselves must fill up with our prayers; the Father will honour the draft to the whole amount for the sake of His dear Son; because whatever we are minded to ask in the name of Jesus, the Father will give us. (R. Besser, D. D.) Prayer answered Some years ago, a poor woman accompanied by two of her neighbours, came to my vestry in deep distress. Her husband had fled the country; in her sorrow she went to the house of God, and something I said in the sermon made her think I was personally familiar with her case. Of course I had known nothing about her. It was a general illustration that fitted a particular case. She told me her story, and a sad one it was. I said, “ There is nothing that we can do but to kneel down and cry to the Lord for the immediate conversion of your husband.” We knelt down, and I prayed that the Lord would touch the heart of the deserter, and convert his soul, and bring him back home. When we rose, I said to the poor woman, “ Do not fret about the matter. I feel sure your husband will come home, and that he will yet become connected with our church.” She went away, and I forgot all about it. Some months after, she re-appeared with her neighbours, and a man whom she introduced to me as her husband. He had, indeed, come back, and a converted man. On making inquiry and comparing notes, we found that, on the very day on which we had prayed for his conversion, he, being at that time on board a ship far away on the sea, stumbled most unexpectedly upon a stray copy of one of my sermons. He read it, the truth went to his heart. He repented and sought the Lord, and as soon as possible, returned to his wife and his daily calling. He was admitted a member, and his wife, who up to that time had not been a member, was also received among us. That woman does not doubt the power of prayer. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Learning to pray We must be taught how to pray just as we must be taught how to walk. Sometimes when a Child comes home from school, after a long and expensive education, the parent finds that he has learnt nothing aright. He has been taught arithmetic, yet he cannot work a single rule properly. He has been taught music, yet he plays without feeling, and incorrectly. He has been taught to draw, yet an artist detects at once that he does not know the very A B C of art. In religion the same thing often occurs. There are people who have “ said their prayers” all through life, and, perhaps, never really prayed once. They have got into a habit of using certain words, without thinking of their meaning, and so have become mere machines, like those musical boxes which reel off their fixed number of tunes, and then are silent. There are thousands of letters posted every year which end in the dead letter office, either because they are wrongly directed, or not directed at all, and there are thousands of dead prayers which never reach God for the same reason. Then there are prayers which ask for wrong things, or they ask in a wrong way, and so they are wasted. You know that every man in a high office receives a vast number of letters, many of them very foolish, and even wicked. But he is far too wise to answer them. Think how many improper, foolish, and even downright wicked prayers are addressed to the All-wise God! Can we wonder that He does not answer them? I. HOW TO PRAY. What is meant by asking in Christ’ s name? Well, it means this. If a warrant, or other legal document is to take effect, it must be endorsed by the name of some one in authority, otherwise it is so much waste paper. So our prayers must be endorsed, so to speak, with the name of Jesus. He must consider them fit to be offered in His name., or they are useless. Have not some of you prayed, looking upon God’ s mercy and grace as a sort of lottery, where you may draw a prize, but where you rather expect a blank? Such faithless prayers cannot have the name of Jesus attached to them, they cannot be accepted. Our Lord never worked a miracle unless the person asking for help showed faith. Then there are prayers, so full of self that there is no room for Jesus in them. He has given us a pattern prayer--“ Not as I will but as Thou wilt.” With us too often it is just the other way: “ My will bedone.” We must lighten our prayers by casting out self if they are to rise to the throne of God. Again, there are prayers which seem unanswered because we have asked amiss. If we ask our Heavenly Father for bread, He will not give us a stone. But often, like foolish children, we ask him for a stone, or a scorpion. Instead of allowing our conscience to lead us, we follow conscience as a man follows a wheelbarrow, driving it on before him. Above all, prayer must have love in it. There was a little boy once whose mother lay ill in the hospital. The child fancied his mother would not have left him if she had loved him, and determined to send her a letter, and find out. He was quite unable to write, but he scrawled all over the paper, as little children will, and begged his friends to carry it to his mother, “ then,” said he. “ I shall see if she loves me.” The messenger laughed at the strange letter, and declared that no one could make it out, “ Mother will understand,” said the child. And when Eddie’ s scrawl was given to her, she recognized at once the work of her child’ s fingers, and understood his meaning. My brothers, our prayers are often as badly put together as Eddie’ s scrawl, but the good God knows His children’ s meaning. II. WHEN TO PRAY 1. Always. Do not wait to go to church, or till bedtime, or rising-time; these are special occasions, the general time for prayer is all day long. A Christian man who believes in prayer, ought to be able to speak to God anywhere. We should not hear so much about bad servants, and dishonest traders, if men would only pray over their work. The man who could really pray in his place of business would not be able to tell a lie over the counter. A man with a prayer in his mouth would have no room for an oath, or a bad story. Let the people who lose their temper so easily, and say words which they bitterly repent, pray more frequently, and the bitter words would be turned into blessing. 2. Then there are special occasions when we need to pray for a special object (1) In all cases of danger and difficulty. When Jehoshaphat was besieged by his enemies, he prayed solemnly to God for guidance. The Romans of old never undertook a war, or any serious matter, without consulting an oracle. Our oracle is the living God, and whenever we are in doubt, or difficulty, or danger, let us ask God about it. (2) On every occasion when we have to make an important choice, let us pray about it, even as Jesus prayed before He chose His disciples, and the apostles before the election of Matthias. There would not be so many unhappy marriages, discontented workers, and wrong men in wrong places, if we would pray before making a solemn choice. (3) Whenever we take a journey, let us pray about it, as St. Paul did at Miletus, before he set out on his perilous voyage to Rome. For my own part, I never enter a railway carriage without a prayer, and I advise you to do the like, then, come what will, we have put the matter in God’ s hands. (H. J. W. Buxton.) John 16:25-28 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs Christ in heaven, the Church on earth I. CHRIST IN HEAVEN. 1. As the Revealer of the Father. He came to be this here, and did reveal the Father, but chiefly in parables, figures, dark sayings. There was a sort of veil over what He said regarding the Father. But when He departed, all that dimness went. From Pentecost there was the plain and full revelation of the Father. This the Epistles contain. There may be in them things hard to be understood: but they are the plainest and fullest revelation that man has had. This unfolding is what the world needed and needs still. Acquaintance with God removes the world’ s darkness, and heals its wounds. 2. As the medium of communication between us and the Father. He is in heaven as Advocate and High Priest. As such He carries on the intercourse between us and God, and through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father. “ I do not say that I will pray (or make inquiries for you like the high priest with Urim and Thummim) the Father” ; i.e., “ I need not say that I will act thus as your High Priest, and yet this is not because the Father requires to be persuaded to love you; for He loves you already.” II. THE CHURCH ON EARTH. 1. Receiving revelations of the Father. He speaks and she listens. As a willing listener to what Jesus speaks of to the Father, she goes on her way here and does the Father’ s work. She learns each day more fully the meaning of the marvellous words, “ God is love, and he that dwelleth in love,” &c. It is this revelation that she preaches us glad tidings of great joy. 2. Praying in Christ’ s name. In a sense, that name had been known from the beginning. The seed of the woman with the bruised heel was known as He through whom all communications were made between the sinner and God. On the credit of His name, prayer got its answer all along. But still that name was but dimly known, and not known as that of Jesus of Nazareth. Hence-forth in that name all prayer was to be presented, and success thus assured. Christ gives us this name to make use of in all our dealings with God, and we need nothing else. Never, then, let us go to God without it, but going with it, let us be confident. Let us not dishonour that name by distrust. 3. Enjoying the Father’ s love. This is no doubtful thing, but as sure as it is blessed. This love is the sunshine of life. But it is love through Christ. God loves us as lovers of, and believers in, His Son, 4. Loving the Son. In an unloving world, the Church loves Him whom the Father loveth. This marks her out from all around. To her He is the “ altogether lovely.” “ My Beloved” is the name she gives Him. The question He asks is, “ Lovest thou Me?” 5. Believing that He came out from God. This is the first thing though it comes last. This brings us into the circle of discipleship and sonship. What think ye, then, of Chirst? (H. Bonar, D. D.) The day of the Spirit “ That day” Isaiah 1. A long day. It began at Pentecost, and will last till the “ restitution of all things.” 2. It is the best day that has dawned on humanity since the Fall--better than the prophetic day, or the day of Christ’ s earthly ministry. 3. It is a day that will grow brighter and brighter until it floods all souls with the sunshine of infinite love. 4. It is “ the notable day of the Lord,” a day in which moral wonders multiply every hour. 5. It runs into the endless day of retribution. The text suggests two thoughts concerning it. It is a day I. IN WHICH BECOMES MORE AND MORE OF WORDS. “ Proverbs,” words, language, are not truth; at best they are mere vehicles. They are no more truth than water pipes are water. The pipes may be broken, but the water still flows, and will find other channels. Christ used words to convey truth. Sometimes they conveyed truth to His disciples’ spirits, sometimes not. When He says, therefore, “ I will no more speak unto you in proverbs,” He points to a more direct, thorough, and effective way, the way in which the Paraclete would bring all things to their remembrance. The men who are under the influence of this Paraelete are seldom able to trace their most sacred impressions, aspirations, resolves, experiences to any words. No words, e.g., can “ plainly show” the Father. He can only be seen by the loving and pure heart. II. WHEN WITH THE FATHER BECOMES MORE AND MORE OF THE , Christ seems to say, in illustration of this 1. That His disciples in this day will pray in His name, and therefore will not require Him to pray for them (verse 26). He had just said, “ Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My name.” Why? At that time they had not received the Paraelete; but when He came, they would pray in His name, i.e., the Holy Spirit would so inspire them with the sentiments and purposes of Christ, that they would always pray in the spirit of Christ, and therefore their prayer would be real and effective. 2. That His disciples will have a special sense of the Father’ s love (verse 27). Observe (1) That God loves men individually. He loves all, but does not overlook the individual in the millions. His love embraces each, as if each were the whole. (2) That God loves the individuals especially who love His Son. He loves all, but He has a special love for those who love His Son. No man can love the Father who does not love His image and Revealer. And no man who does not love the Father can be conscious of the Father’ s love for him. The mutual love provides direct communication. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 16:26-27I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you No need of an intercessor Our Lord would teach that the Father is ready to receive our petitions directly, because He loveth us. We have here I. A NEW OF GOD. 1. New to the Jew with his elaborate sacrificial and mediatorial scheme. 2. New to us who, conscious of sin and of God’ s anger against it, could never have hoped that He would view us in any other light but that of aliens. II. THE ANXIETY OF OUR FATHER TO AND CLOSE WITH HIS . The mediation of Christ is a means to the end of bringing us to God (1 Peter 3:18). III. THE ERROR OF THE BETWEEN THE SOUL AND GOD. Remove God afar off, confine Him to the heavens, then priests mediating for men, and saints mediating for priests, is rational; but how does it comport with this saying and the whole teaching of Scripture, which reveals a God dwelling in the heart, and jealous of everything that comes between Him and the soul He has redeemed. IV. THE BELIEF THAT CHRIST MAKES FOR US. Christ does not decline to pray for us. He only makes known God’ s willingness to hear us directly. But all the while we know He ever liveth to make intercession for US. (H. M. Jackson.) The intercession of Christ 1. In three passages from the Epistles, we find a notable consensus of statement on the present work of Christ as our Intercessor. St. John lays stress on the basis of this advocacy; it is His own personal righteousness and His propitiatory atonement. St. Paul makes intercession the climax of that splendid series of facts on which reposes the safety of a believer: Christ not only died and rose, He even ascended to the Father’ s side, and there, says he, He “ also maketh intercession.” In the Epistle to the Hebrews, emphasis lies on the ceaselessness of that intercession, which is offered not by a mortal priest, but by One who ever liveth, and whose priesthood is unchangeable. 2. How admirably all this fits into the wants of our nature! Even had there been no sin to be dealt with, humanity might have found its way to the Father best through a mediator. As it is, not without some reconciling Go-between to act for him and to speak for him, does the criminal venture to approach his Judge. Even after we know that satisfaction has been made, there still remain the hesitation and the awe of conscious unworthiness. Now, the appropriate and very tender response which God has given to this reserve on our part is the Divine Man. The awful fact of incarnation creates at once a Spokesman, into whose ear we need have less fear to whisper our confessions or our needs, and whose lips are clean enough to speak for us to the Father. 3. But while Christ’ s advocacy for us is a valuable part of His mediation and a comfort to timid petitioners, it is exposed to misconception. Jesus is our priestly Suppliant, who entreats mercy on the ground of His sacrifice; our Advocate, who represents our case to the Judge; our powerful Patron, who moves the Father to do at His instance what He would not do for our deserving. The first of these modes of representing the intercession is biblical and harmless. The others suggests false associations. In Asiatic states, and even under Roman law, patronage was nearly everything. To get some one in high position or close friendship with the judge to speak for you, was, as it still is in the East, the only line of safety. It is plain that where men’ s minds were steeped in associations of this description, it would be natural to transfer similar ideas to the Divine Advocate in heaven. What a miserably false conception this suggests of the Divine character! How it reduces the righteous and impartial God to the weakness of a corruptible earthly sovereign! How it makes the Saviour’ s plea a plea not of equity addressed to righteous love, but of affection addressed to the indulgence of partiality! It splits the Divine character in two, and apportions its features between the First and Second of the blessed Persons, and gathers into the remoter Father, at whose judgment-seat Jesus pleads, all the sterner attributes of anger, rigorous justice, and hardness to be won: while Jesus Christ become the placable and gentle Friend, on whose good offices, with His Father, we have to build our hope. 4. Any one who is familiar with the popular working of Catholicism in modern times will know how, in the Church of Rome, this process has gone even a step further. Having thrust back the Son into the Father’ s supposed place, the Church has consistently thrust Mary in the Son’ s. For all practical purposes of religious worship, or pious hope, Christ’ s mother is now the benignant patroness, to whose maternal persuasions the soul may trust for final mercy. Nay, this generation of Catholics has begun to carry the process one step further still. Since Mary was declared to be immaculate, the Catholic heart seeks now an intercessor with the Virgin. Joseph must plead now with the awful mother, that she may plead with her more awful Son. Horrible as all this sounds in a Protestant ear, yet it is possible to say, “ Jesus, pray for us!” and mean what is quite as dishonouring to the infinite charity of the Godhead, as though we said, “ Mary, pray for us!” or “ Joseph, pray for us!” If the intercession which we solicit means in either case the extorting of boons from an unwilling hand, then the one conception is just as heathenish and unscriptural as the other. 5. None of the apostolic writers has been led to say one word to guard against an abuse so monstrous, but their far-sighted Master had before protested against it by anticipation, in the text which was spoken only a few minutes before He lifted up His voice in that wonderful intercession, and that lest the apostles should suppose the Father’ s love to be in the least inferior to His own, or to need any prompting from Him. It was the special work of Jesus to discover to us, not Himself, but His Father; or Himself only as the Incarnate image of His Father. As this was His business, so, being a true Son, it was also His delight. What vexed Him was that the disciples would not, or could not, look through and past Himself to the Greater One, whose Image and Messenger He was. Hence there grew up in Him a consuming anxiety that men would honour the Father, and an alarm lest they should be led to think less of the Father’ s love than of His own. This alarm it is which finds vent in the text. 6. How, then, are we to represent to ourselves the intercession of Christ while guarding the spontaneous love of the Father? Take the case of a guilty penitent who approaches the Divine seat for pardon. He is certain that the heart of God is as the heart of a father. He knows, therefore, that the Father Himself loves him, and of His own accord will bend a favourable ear to his request. But he is no less certain that pardon is a judicial act on the part of God, an act which He can only do in consideration of previous satisfaction for sin. The guilty petitioner, therefore, approaches with his mind full of the Atonement, recognizing in it the supreme generosity of God clearing away every obstacle to his forgiveness, and he begs for the Father’ s mercy in the name of Jesus. Let him now be told that Jesus Himself is to be thought of as a priestly Advocate by the Father’ s side, to sustain each earthly cry for mercy with the plea of His own finished atonement. What does the petitioner learn from that? That the Father cares less about forgiving him than the Son? That forgiveness is not only to be wrung through personal interest? No, but this--that the judicial basis on which the righteous Father can grant the pardon which He longs to grant is now for ever present to the Father’ s mind, and for ever avails to sustain the sinner’ s plea for mercy. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.) The Father Himself loveth you because ye have loved Me The Father’ s love I. ITS NATURE. It Isaiah 1. A redeeming love. “ God so loved the world,” &c. 2. A calling love. “ No man cometh unto Me except the Father draw him.” 3. An adopting love. “ Behold what manner of love,” &c. 4. A protecting love. Babes, children, want guardian care, “ Can a mother forget,” &c. 5. A sanctifying love. As we all desire to see our children grow, so our Father desires to see us grow in grace. “ Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.” 6. An everlasting love (John 16:31.). II. ITS CLAIMS. “ My Son, give Me Thy heart.” God claims our 1. Supreme love--a love of Him above every creature whatsoever. 2. Practical love (John 14:21; 1 John 3:18). 3. Expansive love. It must embrace all God’ s family for His sake. Apply this in the way of (1) Remonstrance. (2) Encouragement. (Bp. Montagu Villiers.) Mutual love We have here I. AN AMIABLE . The saint’ s love is the love of 1. Of a debtor to his surety. 2. One friend to another. 3. A brother. 4. A wife to her husband. 5. A scholar to his teacher. 6. A servant to his master. 7. A loyal subject to his king. II. A . 1. God’ s love to us is prior to our love to Christ. 2. Our love to Christ is not the cause but the effect of God’ s love to us. 3. God’ s love to us is infinitely superior to our love to Christ. 4. Though God’ s love is the same to all the saints, yet the manifestations of it are not so. Conclusion: 1. Serious self-examination, “ Lovest thou Me.” 2. Subjects for astonishment, gratitude and praise. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Going to God through Christ Did you ever observe the difference there sometimes is between father and mother, in regard to gaining the confidence and affection of their children? Here are two equally good parents, but they are very diverse in their dispositions, and the children make an election of one of them in preference to the other. The father is great-hearted and noble, but rugged, firm, stern, and inflexible; and the children do not like to climb up the steep sides of his disposition. If they are in trouble, they say, “ Do not let us go to father first: let us go to mother first, and she will tell it to father.” It is a level, grassy, flowery slope to her heart, and the children go to her first because she receives them so kindly. If they want to go to the father, they go to him through her. Now I think it is exactly so in respect to going to God the Father, through Christ, regarded as a Being characterised by love and tenderness and pity and sympathy; but all the gentle elements of disposition which we see displayed in men--only in Him they exist in a state of glorious perfection, while in us they are but imperfectly developed. He invites us to come to Him with our troubles and sorrows, and we feel drawn to Him because He is so placable and, we may say, so persuadable--though no man ever did persuade Christ. No tears or implorations ever persuaded Him. He never was persuaded by anything. There never was a time when His mercy was not ahead of our requests. When a heart comes to Him asking for a blessing, quicker than a flash of lightning the thought of God leaps to the conclusion of mercy. When we plead for the smallest favour, which in His wisdom He sees that we need, before we have half done our prayer, He has granted it. He is always ahead of us in this way. Do you not see such things among men? (H. W. Beecher.) The love of God “ Mary,” said a missionary to a pious woman, a negro--“ Mary, is notthe love of God wonderful?” “ Massa, me no tink it so wonderful,” she replied; “ it’ s just like Him.” The love of God A mother, whose daughter had behaved very badly, and at length had run away from home, thought of a singular plan in order to find the wanderer and draw her back to her home. After having exhausted the ordinary means, she had her own portrait fixed on a large handbill, and pasted on the walls of the town where she supposed her daughter to be concealed. The portrait, without name, had these words--“ I love thee always.” Crowds stopped before the strange handbill, trying to guess its meaning, Days elapsed, when a young girl at last passed by, and in her turn, lifted her eyes to the singular placard. “ Can it be? Yes, truly it is the picture of my mother. Those eyes full of tenderness, I know them from childhood. Why is it here?” She approaches nearer and reads, “ I love thee always.” She understood; this was a message for her. Her mother loved her--pardoned her. Those words transformed her. Never had she felt her sin or ingratitude me deeply. She was unworthy of such love. “ She loves me always,” she cried. If she had ever doubted that love, if in moments of distress she had feared to return home, those doubts were all gone now. She set out for the house of her mother; at last she crosses the threshold, is in her mother’ s arms. “ My child!” cried the mother, as she presses her repentant daughter to her heart; “ I have never ceased to love thee.” (La bonne Nouvelle.) John 16:28I came forth from the Father From the Father and to the Father These majestic and strange words are the proper close of our Lord’ s discourse, what follows being rather a reply to the disciples’ exclamation. I. THE WITH THE FATHER. The most probable reading is more forcible. “ I came forth out of the Father” implies a far deeper and closer relation than even that of juxtaposition, companionship, or outward presence. In these words there is involved that, during His earthly life, our Lord bore about with Him the remembrance and consciousness of an individual existence prior to His life on earth. “ Before Abraham was, I am.” But beyond that, they are the assertion of a previous, deep, mysterious, ineffable union with the Father. If this fourth Gospel be a genuine record of the teaching of Jesus Christ (and, if it is not, what genius was he who wrote it?), then nothing is more plain than that. Over and over again He reiterated this tremendous claim to have dwelt in the bosom of the Father long before He lay on the breast of Mary. Note that the meekest, most sane and wise of religious teachers made this claim, which is either true, and lifts Him into the region of the Deity, or else is fatal to His pretensions to be a teacher that it is worth our while to listen to. II. THE COMING INTO THE WORLD. We all talk in a loose way about men coming into the world when they are born; but the weight of the words and the solemnity of the occasion, and the purpose, forbid us to see such a mere platitude as that in the words here. “ I am come rote the world There has been a Man who chose to be born. Now this voluntary entrance of Jesus Christ into our human life 1. Underlies the whole value of that life. It underlies, e.g., the personal sinlessness of Jesus, and hence His power to bring a new beginning of pure and perfect life into the midst of humanity. All the rest of mankind, knit together by, that mysterious bond of natural descent which only now for the first time is beginning to receive its due attention on the part of men of science, by heredity have the taint upon them. And unless Christ came in another fashion from all the rest of us, He came with the same sin as all the rest of us, and is no deliverer. The stream is fouled from its source, and flows on, every successive drop participant of the primeval pollution. But down from the white snows of the eternal hills of God there comes into it an affluent which has no stain on its pure waters, and so can purge that into which it enters. Jesus Christ willed to be born, and to plant a new beginning of holy life in the very heart of humanity which henceforth should work as leaven. 2. Unless we preserve this clear in our minds and hearts, the power to sway our affections is struck away from Christ. Unless He voluntarily took upon Himself the nature which He meant to redeem, why should I be thankful to Him for what He did? We talk about kings leaving their palaces and putting on the rags of the beggar, and learning “ love in huts where poor man lie,” and making experience of the conditions of their lowliest subjects. But here is a fact infinitely beyond all these legends. And we may learn there what it is that gives Him His supreme right to our devotion and our surrender--viz., that, being in the form of God, He thought not equality with God a thing to be covetously retained, “ but made Himself of no reputation,” &c. III. THE LEAVING THE WORLD. 1. The stages of that departure are not distinguished. They are threefold in fact. (1) There was a voluntary death. We have our Lord’ s own words about His having power to lay down His life. We have in the story of the Passion hints that His relation to death was altogether different from that of ours. “ Into Thy hands I commit My Spirit” ; and He gave up the Spirit. We have hints of a similar nature in the very swiftness of His death and unexpected brevity of His suffering, to be accounted for by no natural result of the physical process of crucifixion. The fact is, that Jesus Christ is the Lord of death, and was so even when He seemed to be its servant, and that He never showed Himself more completely the Prince of Life and the Conqueror of Death than when He gave up His life and died, not because He must, but because He would. (2) There was a voluntary resurrection, for although Scripture represents His rising sometimes as being the Father’ s attestation of the Son’ s finished work, it also represents it as being in accordance with His own claim of “ power to lay down My life, and to take it again;” the Son’ s triumphant egress from the prison into which, for the moment, He willed to pass. (3) And there was a voluntary ascension. There was no need for Elijah’ s chariot, nor any external agency. The cords of duty which bound Him to earth being cut, He rose to His own native sphere; and the natural forces of His supernatural life bore Him, by inverted gravitation, upward to the place which was His own. 2. And thus, by a voluntary death, He became the Sacrifice for our sins; by the might of His self-effected resurrection proclaimed Himself the Lord of death, and the Resurrection for all that trust Him; and by that ascending up on high draws our heart’ s desires after Him, so that we, too, as we see Him lost from our sight, behind the bright Shekinah cloud, may return to our lowly work with great joy, and set our affections on things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. IV. THE AGAIN WITH THE FATHER. But that final dwelling with God is not wholly identical with the initial one. The earthly life was no mere parenthesis. He carried with Him the manhood which He had assumed into the glory in which the Word had dwelt from the beginning. And this is the true consolation which Christ offered to these His servants, and which He still offers to us His waiting children. And if that be so, it is no mere abstract dogma of theology, but it touches our daily life at all points, and is essential to the fulness of our satisfaction and our rest in Christ. 1. Our brother is elevated to the throne, and He makes the fortunes of the family, and none of them will be poor as long as He is so rich. He sends us from the far-off land where He is gone precious gifts of its produce, and He will send for us to share His throne one day. 2. This elevation fills heaven for our faith, our imagination, and our hearts. Without an ascended Christ we recoil from the cold splendours of an unknown heaven, as a savage might from the unintelligible magnificence of a palace. But if we believe that He is at the right hand of God, then the far off becomes near, and the vague becomes definite, and the unsubstantial becomes solid, and what was a fear becomes a joy, and we can trust ourselves and the dear dead in His hands, knowing that where He is they are, and that in Him they and we have all we need. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) From the Father to the Father I. CHRIST HAS BEEN HERE AND GONE. 1. This is one of the best attested facts in the world’ s history. It is attested by contemporaries and by the accumulating moral and social influences of eighteen centuries. 2. It is the most glorious fact in the world’ s history. Nothing has so blessed the world. It was the creation of a sun in man’ s moral heaven, the opening of a fountain in man’ s moral desert. All that is wholesome in the governments, pure in the morals, benevolent in the institutions, holy in the spirit and manners of the world owes its existence to this fact. Insignificant as this planet is compared with other orbs, the fact that Christ has trod its soil has given it a lustre that pales the brightness of them all. II. CHRIST HAS BEEN HERE AND GONE BY HIS OWN CHOICE. Who else could have said this! All others have been sent, Christ came. He fixed His own time, birthplace, country, parentage, circumstances. In the same way He departed--“ I leave” --when I please; now or in the future; how I please; by a natural or violent death--“ I have power to lay down My life,” &c. We are sent away, often by means most revolting, and at a time most dreaded. III. CHRIST IN THIS EARTH AND FROM IT WAS THE OF THE FATHER. The language suggests 1. The life of true souls. Coming from the Father with our motives, inspirations, and directions from His service, and returning with the results of our labours. As rivers have their existence by rolling from ocean to ocean, so the true life of souls is unconsciously moving from God to God--the cause and end of all activities. 2. The interference of the world with this life. Christ speaks as if, when in the world, He was away from the Father. At times the Father’ s face seemed eclipsed, “ Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” So with us the power of the senses, physical suffering, secular enjoyments, and social trials often interrupt Divine communion. But when we leave the world we shall be for ever with Him. Conclusion: 1. With what holy gratitude should we celebrate Christ’ s advent and departure! 2. Alas! how many who come into this world depart not to the Father, but to the devil. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 16:29-32 Now speakest Then plainly The disciples’ confession and the Master’ s warning The first words of these discourses were, “ Let not your heart be troubled. ” The aim of all was to bring peace and confidence to the disciples. And this joyful burst shows that the aim has been reached. The last sublime utterance had gathered all the scattered rays into a beam so bright that the blindest could not but see, and the coldest could not but be warmed But yet the calm, clear eye of Christ sees something not wholly satisfactory in this out-pouring of the disciples’ confidence. I. THE ’ JOYFUL . Their words are permeated with allusions to previous sayings of our Lord, and show how shallow was their understanding of what they thought was plain. He had said to them that in that coming day He would speak to them no more in proverbs; and they answer that the promised day has come. If they had understood what He meant could they have spoken thug, or bare left Him so soon? 1. They begin with what they believed to be a fact, His clear utterance. Then follows a conviction. He had said, “ In that day ye shall ask Me nothing.” And from the fact that He had interpreted their unspoken words they rightly draw the conclusion of His Divine Omniscience. And they think that therein is the fulfilment of that great promise. Was that all that He meant, No! He meant, “ Ye shall ask Me nothing because you will have an illuminating Spirit.” And so, again, a shallow interpretation empties the words which they accept of their deepest and most precious meaning. 2. They take a further step. They begin with a fact; then they infer a conviction; and now, upon the basis of the inferred conviction, they rear a faith. “ We believe that Thou camest forth from God.” But what they meant by “ coming forth from God” fell far short of what He meant. And so their confession is a strangely mingled warp and woof of insight and of ignorance. 3. Note the lessons. We learn (1) What it is that gives life to a creed--experience. These men had, over and over again, heard the declaration, “ I came forth from God” ; and in a sort of fashion they believed it, But, as so many of our convictions do, it lay dormant and half dead in their souls. But now experience had brought them into contact with a manifest proof of His Divine Omniscience; and the torpid conviction flashes all up at once into vitality. That is the only thing that teaches us the articles of our creed in a way worth learning them. We do not know the use of the sword until we are in the battle. Until the shipwreck comes no man puts on the lifebelt. Of all our teachers who turn beliefs assented to into beliefs really believed none is so mighty as sorrow. For that makes a man lay a firm hold on the deep things of God’ s word. (2) The bold avowal that always accompanies certitude. These men’ s stammering tongues are loosed. They have a fact to base themselves upon. They have a faith built upon the certitude of what they know. Having this, out it all comes in a gush. No man that believes with all his heart can help speaking. You silent Christians are so because you do not more than half grasp the truth that you say you hold. (3) Take care of indolently supposing that you understand the depths of God’ s truth. These apostles fancied that they had grasped the whole meaning of the Master’ s words, and were glad in them. And there are only too many of us who are disposed to grasp at the most superficial interpretation of Christian truth, and lazily to rest ourselves in that. Better that we should feel that the smallest word that comes from God is like some little leaf of a water plant on the surface of a pond; if you lift that you draw a whole trail after it; and nobody knows how far off and how deep down are the roots. II. THE SAD AND OF THE MASTER. He does not reject their imperfect homage, though He discerns its imperfection and transiency; but sadly warns them to beware of the fleeting nature of their present emotion; and would seek to prepare them, by the knowledge, for the terrible storm that is going to break upon them. Note, then, that 1. The dear Lord accepts imperfect surrender. If He did not, what would become of us all? He was willing to put up with what you and I will not put up with; and to accept what we reject; and be pleased that they gave Him even that. 2. The need for Christian men to make sure that their inward life corresponds with their words and professions. Our words and acts of Christian profession and service are like bank notes. And what will be the end if there is a whole ream of such going up and down the world, and no balance of bullion in the cellars to meet them? Nothing but bankruptcy. Do you see to it that your reserve of gold, deep down in your hearts, always leaves a margin beyond the notes in circulation issued by you. And in the midst of your professions hear the Master saying, “ Do ye now believe?” 3. Trust no emotions, no religious experiences, but only Him to whom they turn. These men were perfectly sincere, and there was a glow of gladness in their hearts, and a real though imperfect faith when they spoke. In an hour’ s time where were they? “ We trusted.” Ah! what a world of sorrow there is in those two final letters of that word. “ We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.” But they do not trust it any more, and so why should they put themselves in peril for One on whom their faith can no longer build? Would you and I have been any better if we had been there? Suppose you had stood afar off and seen Jesus die on the cross, would your faith have lived? Let us all, recognizing our own weakness, trust to nothing, but only to Him, and cry, “ Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” III. THE LONELY CHRIST AND HIS . 1. Jesus was the loneliest man that ever lived. All other forms of human solitude were concentrated in His. He knew the pain of unappreciated aims, unaccepted love, unbelieved teachings, a heart thrown back upon itself. Solitude was no small part of the pain of His passion. Remember the pitiful appeals in Gethsemane. Now, some of us no doubt have to live outwardly solitary lives. Physicists tell us that in the most solid bodies the atoms do not touch. Hearts come closer than atoms, but yet after all, we die alone, and in the depths of our souls we all live alone. So let us be thankful that the Master knows the bitterness of solitude, and has Himself trod that path. 2. Then we have the calm consciousness of unbroken communion. Jesus Christ’ s sense of union with the Father was deep, close, constant, in manner and measure altogether transcending any experience of ours. But still He sets before us a pattern of what we should aim at in these great words. They show the path of comfort for every lonely heart. If the world with its millions seems to have none in it for us, let us turn to Him who never leaves us. If dear ones are torn from our grasp, let us clasp God. It is not all loss if the trees which with their leafy beauty shut out the sky from us, are felled and so we see the blue. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Faith in the chamber and faith in the world I. THE TO BELIEVE, BUT THEY DID NOT KNOW WHY. 1. Here was a great, though natural mistake. (1) It was a vast conclusion to draw from Christ’ s knowing what was passing in their minds now, that He came from the Father, and know all things. Any man present that evening might have known that. They had worn their hearts on their sleeves! (2) They made another mistake. They thought that Christ spoke plainly now and therefore believed, when in fact He had (John 14:2; John 14:12; John 14:28; John 15:26; John 16:20) said the same thing before. We all know how easy ‘ tis to reflect ourselves upon the speaker, and, if we think we comprehend his meaning better than we did, to attribute it to his improved lucidity of exposition. But in thinking that they understood him, they were mistaken also. It would be impossible to discover the precise ideas they affixed to Christ’ s language. But it is clear that they did not think of His dying or rising at all. Christ’ s words on these subjects are clear enough to us, for we look at them through plain history; but they were anything but clear to those who looked at them through beliefs entirely incompatible with their occurrence. 2. And yet they did believe. They believed more than they thought, and better. They knew the Teacher, if not the lesson. While they were basing their faith on knowledge of His meaning, they had a faith already built on a surer foundation than that; and while they were rejoicing in a confidence which had no support but a mistake, they felt a deeper, stronger confidence which rested on no mistake at all. We too feel more than we understand. It were a poor thing if our confidence in Christ and Christianity were based on learning and logic, or even distinct opinions. A man may believe in Christ, and cleave to Him, and follow Him, and yet be miserably at a loss if asked for a scientific or a satisfactory exposition of his faith. II. THEY , BUT THEY DID NOT KNOW HOW. Christ did not mean to question the reality of their faith but its intensity. They always had believed, and, under the influence of this affecting scene, and thinking that they understood His meaning, believed more than ever. But they little knew how frail and feeble was their faith in comparison with the burden it would have to bear. They felt strong, like a convalescent invalid, but as soon as strain and pressure were on them, their strength was that of a little child. Apply this thought 1. To the faith of contemplation and the faith of action; to man looking on truth as an object, and obeying it as a claim. While the disciples had Christ before them, and had only to listen to and behold Him, they believed; but when they had to follow Him, to show their practical regard, “ they all forsook Him and fled.” And still there is a difference between the quiet thought of truth, and its embodiment in act. “ Faith worketh by love.” No other faith can save a man. How “ can faith save,” if it does nothing? How can it save from sins, if it does not destroy sin? Truth is given us, not to be a pleasant object but a living power. The Word of God is “ a lamp to the feet,” not only to the eye. It is very possible to have faith in Christ when beholding the graces of His character, the credentials of His mission, and the glory of His work, and to be sadly wanting in loving and daily obedience to His will; possible to have faith in propositions, with practical unbelief in duties; and yet the faith which is “ more precious than gold,” must bear the test of gold. 2. To the faith which receives Christ in peace and prosperity, and that which receives Him when His claims conflict with our fond beliefs and wishes. We can think calmly and speak eloquently of the goodness and equity of Providence when “ the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places,” but how mysterious it becomes when He “ destroyeth the hope of man.” What was a pleasant study becomes s perplexing, perhaps insoluble problem. We can recommend so persuasively the cheerful drinking of the cup of sorrow when in the hand of others, but what wry faces we make when put into our own! It is as it was in that upper room: Jesus in peace and safety, speaking of a dear Father, His joyful home, His love to His disciples, and great comforts in store for them, is one Christ; but Jesus betrayed and seized is quite another. 3. To faith in enjoyment of strong and stimulating privileges and faith deprived of them. There was everything in that upper room to excite and gratify every religious and Christian feeling. As men, the disciples were with brethren; as Jews, they had observed one of the most solemn and delightful festivals of their nation; as friends of Jesus, they had seen Him open His heart as He had never done before. But when this scene had passed as a dissolving view, and wintry barrenness had taken the place of summer loveliness--when the spell had been broken, and nature was left to its ordinary action--faith failed. We know what times of unwonted spiritual impression and excitement are, when the spiritual world seems opened to our view; when “ alone” with Jesus, “ He expounds all things to His disciples;” and when they “ know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” But these times do not last. And how soon the fair vision vanishes! A return to the worldly lot and the society of man dissipates it all; and it requires all our effort and care not to “ leave,” in heart, the Jesus we had felt to be our “ Life,” and “ Peace,” and “ Hope.” Conclusion: The subject teaches us how to try ourselves and others. Not by clearness of views or sensibility of feelings, but life. (A. J. Morris.) John 16:31 Do ye now believe?Love’ s farewell I. A KIND INQUIRY (John 16:31). A question. 1. Authoritative. Put by Him who alone has a right to do so. 2. Necessary. The existence of faith (John 9:35; Mark 4:40) the one thing needful (Luke 18:8; Hebrews 11:6). 3. Urgent. Then the time was short--Christ was on the eve of departure. Now the time is short (1 Corinthians 7:29)--The Lord is at hand Philippians 4:5; James 5:8). 4. Personal. The question was addressed to the disciples individually. So must each soul consider and reply for himself. II. A GENTLE (verse 32). A warning. 1. Startling. Otherwise it would have been worthless. 2. Painful; intimating the fact of their impending desertion: hence suggesting the propriety of examining whether their faith was capable of enduring the coming strain. 3. Softened. Their dispersion would leave Him alone in the hands of His enemies; yet as if to mitigate the blow of this allusion to their apostasy He adds that the Father would be with Him. III. A (verse 33). 1. The blessing. Christ desired that they might have peace. It was His dying legacy (John 14:27) and His purpose in all His conversation and labours. 2. The sphere. It could only be secured by vital union with Himself Romans 8:6; Romans 14:17; Ephesians 2:14; Philippians 4:7). IV. A . Christ had overcome the world 1. For Himself. Hence they need not doubt that He was the Father’ s Son and the Saviour of men, or question His ability to support and succour them. 2. For them. If they continued one with Him, in and through Him they would be victorious over all tribulation (Romans 8:37; Revelation 7:14). Lessons: 1. The gentleness of Christ. 2. The weakness of men. 3. The blessedness of faith. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Rebuke and warning I. THE REBUKE. The words, “ Do ye now believe?” seem to charge the faith, that the disciples had now professed, with a threefold defect 1. That it was late. Why did ye not believe sooner? Have you not had sufficient means of conviction till now? 2. That it was cheap. What does it cost you to believe? What temptation have you to the contrary? Your faith now only lays hold of My promises, and is not at all discouraged by any of your own fears. 3. That it was mistaken. Are you sure that you do believe? Do you not think too indulgently of yourselves? Have you examined your own hearts, and secured the ground of your confidence? A true faith will never be a deserter; but you will by and by desert Me. Perhaps all these three defects were to be found in the present faith of the disciples, at least in some measure: I am sure they are actually and ordinarily found in the faith of common professors. II. THE WARNING. In the remainder of the text, “ Behold, the hour cometh,” &c., we observe, that, as the disciples’ crime was the leaving of their Master, so the occasion of that crime was their scattering; and the reason of their scattering was the concern that each of them had for “ his own.” From these two propositions I shall infer 1. That when Christians divide, they leave their Master; and 2. That it is our own things, and not the things of Christ, that make us divide (Romans 16:17-18; Philippians 2:20-21). (Dean Young.) John 16:32 Ye shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me Solitude 1. There are two kinds of solitude--visible and inward. When we are not seen, we say that we are alone; however, it is not always a true isolation. The fisherman does not feel himself alone when he passes his nights on the immense ocean; he thinks of his family quietly sheltered; it is for them he is working, their love fills his heart. The watching soldier, in the lonely picket, does not feel himself alone; for he feels that on him rests the honour of the flag and the safety of his fellow-soldiers. The workwoman, in her garret, is not alone, for the work which she will finish before dawn will procure for those she loves the next day’ s bread. 2. One can, on the contrary, be surrounded by the busiest crowd, and feel more isolated than in a desert. There are persons whose contact causes no sympathetic cord to vibrate in the soul. There have been days in which, coming back from the cemetery where you have buried a part of your heart and your life, the noise, the movement of the world seemed empty, cold and derisive. 3. Of these two solitudes I need not say which is the hardest to bear. To feel oneself lost in this vast universe, knowing that there is no one to whom we are dear, is there a more miserable condition? Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged there is a class of men who would willingly take their part in it. To have nothing in common with others, to climb a summit inaccessible, to sit there in pride, is a destiny which attracts them. Such is the greatness of selfishness, of Satan! But the gospel offers us in Christ a greatness of another nature. It does not tread sympathy under foot; it lays claim to it, it needs it. Look at Gethsemane; the Son of Man going three times to His disciples and asking them to watch with Him. How small the solitary pride of the egoist is beside that greatness! I. WHAT THE CAUSES OF CHRIST’ S ARE. 1. When a man wishes to serve truth or righteousness, he must expect sooner or later to be lonely. Every truth has begun by being misunderstood; it has been a subject of reproach to those who have been its first apostles. This is above all realized in religious truth, which, by its very holiness, humiliates and bruises our pride, and consequently all human passions are leagued against it. The witnesses of eternal righteousness here below have all been at times lonely, misconstrued, slighted. Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, John the Baptist, and St. Paul. Imagine, then, the holy and the just One and you may well divine that He will be lonely amongst men. He is alone when seeking the glory of God amid people who are forgetting Him; when preaching His spiritual law in the midst of a nation attached to forms; when denouncing iniquity and hypocrisy amid a crowd whom the Pharisees dominate; amongst His disciples who do not understand His sublime mission; and in the last hour. Now, what happens to the Leader must happen to all His disciples. 2. Now, this inevitable solitude brings with it (1) Temptations from doubt: to be alone in believing a truth, and in proclaiming it, is a formidable trial. When we feel ourselves lost in the midst of that crowd whose thronging waves environ us, there are moments when a secret voice says to us: “ Art thou certain of having the truth thyself?” (2) To that temptation add a temptation of barrenness for the heart. The heart lives by sympathy. But to be alone in loving an absent God, to appeal to a sympathy which is wanting, what a subject for sadness! There is a risk then of the heart being thrown back on itself, and of being consumed in melancholy. (3) How should not this double trial of the intellect and of the heart, exercise a baleful influence on life! We must be understood in order to act. The idea of having spectators or witnesses doubles our natural energy. The most impossible works have been accomplished by united men. (4) What will it be then if to this general trial are added still more special trials, if sickness and death come and make a void around us and render that solitude more complete. II. HIS . “ I am not alone,” &c. There is what made the strength of Jesus. What are all the desertions of earth in presence of communion with God? He might well feel that precious communion, for He only wanted, loved, accomplished the Father’ s will; but can we forget that there was a mysterious, dreadful day when the Father Himself failed Him? But if Jesus has known that terrible forsaking, it was that we should never know it. When faith united us to Him we obtained the right to come to God, and to call Him our Father; then in our turn we could repeat those words. That is what constitutes the Christian’ s strength and consolation. 1. You are alone, and perhaps are doubting. Who are you to oppose your thought to the thoughts of the crowd, to believe what others deny? In that sorrowful anxiety, I know of only one refuge; it is this thought: “ The Father is with me.” If it was your thought only the waves of doubt would soon carry you away; but when you have God for you nothing should stop you. It was that which made all God’ s prophets strong, when they had to protest against some dominant iniquity? Neither Moses, nor Elijah, nor St. Paul have drawn from their own character that superhuman energy which made them giants in the moral order; they themselves tell us that it is God who calls them and sends them. So Luther. To divine the secret of his strength, he should be seen on his knees before going to the Diet of Worms, saying: “ My God, Thou dost know well that I do not wish to resist such great lords, but it is Thy cause not mine.” And behold, he, the son of a peasant, overthrew in his weakness the secular yoke of Rome which philosophy had not been able to move! 2. There is that barrenness which isolation produces. Ah! if the affection of men fail us, do you not believe that the love of God is infinite enough to fill our heart? Is not God the very source of love? Do you believe that God would leave empty, arid, and barren, a heart which the world forsakes? 3. As opposed to discouragement nothing is more powerful than the thought that the Father is with us. “ My right is with the Lord, and my work is with my God;” yes, his work, small, hidden, obscure as it may be, if that work is only a prayer, a sigh, a tear, which seems lost. What immense encouragement such a thought is! If I am alone, that work will not perish with me, I have brought my stone to an eternal building which is continued along the centuries; for it is God’ s work. (E. Bersier, D. D.) Loneliness Many a one is cast down and weary because he feels alone; nought so dispirits as loneliness; add yet one may be more alone in a crowd than anywhere when all unknown and uncured for. All must feel it in some shape: the old who sit and gaze in the fire, and see many a cherished scheme lying in the dull white ash; old friends, loved ones, gone, one by one; new faces and new ways, belonging to a new generation, cluster round, and loneliness pours in upon the soul--a loneliness too deep for human words to describe. When you have a sorrow, you feel that he that hath known a little sorrow will give the warmest sympathy. The memory of the trial, illumined by the after-knowledge of its blessing, will give a loving, tender power to the counsel of the friend. Whose sorrow like that sorrow! Whose loneliness as that of Jesus, when His bitter cry startled the assembled throng! He knows it all. Bring, then, thy care here, and gather comfort. Not very long ago one of our English officers, when riding full speed across the sand after the enemy, saw one of his men laid on the ground with his side torn open by a shell, and fast sinking. Reining up his horse he said, “ My lad, you must not think me unkind if I leave you alone in your agony; but you know I must ride on, Duty commands me!” I shall never forget, said that officer, the answer I got. “ Sir,” said he, “ I am not alone. I have with me the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother!” That brave English soldier knew the glorious truth of the ever-present Jesus, who, by the memory of that bitter cry, would never leave a child of His to be alone in the hour of need. Oh, Jesus, let me glean and keep that precious thought. I am not left as an orphan alone to fight and struggle in the great battle of life. The fierceness of the pain full often makes men long for something to lull the pain; the heart gives way before the long future that seems to stretch on and on without a ray of hope. “ Face it,” says the doctor, “ the pain may be for a time the fiercer, but the operation will relieve.” Or if it be a soul-agony, and sin to crucify, nails to be driven through our tenderest places. “ Face it,” cries the Great Physician, “ suffer, but win!” Deluded souls fly to the giddy throng, and try by pleasures to drown thought, or by the fatal wine cup to forget in a momentary false excitement, the hard facts of every-day life. Let us at least meet our trials awake. Meet them in the power of the Crucified and His example. A great Italian bishop was noted for his calm resignation, and when asked how it was, replied, “ I look around and think how many are worse off than I am; I look down and think how soon it will all be over; I look up and think how happy it will be there!” (W. H. Jones.) Charms of solitude Charles the Fifth, after a life spent in military exploits and the active and energetic prosecution of ambitious projects, resigned, as is well known, his crown, sated with its enjoyment. He left these words, as a testimony behind him: “ I have tasted more satisfaction in my solitude in one day than in all the triumphs of my former reign. The sincere study, profession, and practice of the Christian religion have in them such joy as is seldom found in courts and grandeur.” The loneliness of Christ 1. There are two kinds of solitude: that of insulation in space, and that of isolation of spirit. (1) The first is simply separation by distance. This is not real solitude: for sympathy can people that with a crowd. The traveller is not alone when the faces which will greet him on his arrival seem to beam upon him as he trudges on--the solitary student is not alone when he feels that human hearts will respond to the truths which he is preparing to address to them. (2) The other is loneliness of soul. There are times when hands touch ours, but only send an icy chill of unsympathizing indifference to the heart: when words pass from our lips, but only come back as an echo without reply: when the multitude throng and press us, and we cannot say, as Christ said, “ Somebody hath touched Me.” 2. And there are two kinds of men who feel this last solitude. (1) The men of self-reliance: who can go sternly through duty, and scarcely shrink let what will be crushed in them such men are invaluable in all those professions in which sensitive feeling would be a superfluity; they make iron commanders and surgeons, and statesmen who do not flinch for the dread of unpopularity. But mere self-dependence is weakness: and the conflict is terrible when a human sense of weakness is felt by such men. Jacob was alone when he slept in his way to Padan Aram, and Elijah in the wilderness. But the loneliness of the tender Jacob was very different from that of the stern Elijah. To Jacob the sympathy he yearned for was realized. A ladder raised from earth to heaven figured the possibility of communion between the spirit of man and the Spirit of God. In Elijah’ s case, the storm, the earthquake, and the fire did their convulsing work in the soul, before a still, small voice told him that he was not alone. (2) The men who live in sympathy. These tremble at the thought of being alone, not from want of courage but from the intensity of their affections. They want not aid, nor even countenance: but only sympathy. And the trial comes to them when they are called upon to perform a duty on which the world looks coldly. It is to this latter class that we must look if we would understand the spirit of the text. The deep humanity of the soul of Christ was gifted with those finer sensibilities of affectionate nature which stand in need of sympathy. He who selected the gentle John to be His friend--who found solace in female society--who in the trial hour could not bear even to pray without the human presence, had nothing in Him of the hard, merely self-dependent character. Note, then I. THE OF CHRIST. 1. This loneliness was caused by the Divine elevation of His character. (1) There is a second-rate greatness which the world can comprehend. Contrast the Son of Man and John the Baptist. John’ s life had a rude, rugged goodness, on which was written, in characters which required no magnifying-glass to read, spiritual excellence. The world on the whole accepted him, and if he had not crossed the path of a weak prince and a revengeful woman, John might have finished his course with joy, recognized as irreproachable. Why did the world accept John and reject Christ? In physical nature, the naturalist finds no difficulty in comprehending the simple structure of the lowest organizations of animal life. But when he comes to study the complex anatomy of man, he has the labour of a lifetime before him. It is not difficult to master the constitution of a single country; but when you try to understand the universe, you find infinite appearances of contradiction. That which the structure of man is to the structure of the limpet: that which the universe is to a single country, the complex and boundless soul of Christ was to the souls of other men. Therefore, to the superficial observer, His life was a mass of inconsistencies and contradictions. And hence that acceptance which had marked the earlier stage of His career melted away. First the Pharisees took the alarm: then the Sadducees: then the Herodians: then the people. That was the most terrible of all: for the enmity of the upper classes is impotent; but when that cry of brute force is stirred from the deeps of society, the heart of mere earthly oak quails before it. The apostles, at all events, did quail. One denied: another betrayed: all deserted. They “ were scattered each to his own” : and the Truth Himself was left alone in Pilate’ s judgment-hall. (2):Now learn from this a very important distinction. To feel solitary is no uncommon thing. In every place victims of diseased sensibility are to be found, and they might find a weakening satisfaction in observing a parallel between their own feelings and those of Jesus. But before that, be sure that it is the elevation of your character which severs you from your species. The world has small sympathy for Divine goodness: but it also has little for a great many other qualities which are disagreeable to it. You find yourself unpopular. Well? Is that because you are above the world offending it by your purity and unworldliness? Or is it that you are wrapped up in self--cold, disobliging, sentimental? (3) The first time Christ felt this loneliness was when He was but twelve years old, amongst the doctors and asking them questions. High thoughts were in the Child’ s soul: larger views of duty and destiny. There is a moment in every true life--to some it comes very early--when the old routine of duty is not large enough--when the parental roof seems too low, because the Infinite above is arching over the soul--when the old formulas seem to be narrow, and they must either be thrown aside or else transformed into living and breathing realities--when the earthly father’ s authority is being superseded by the claims of a Father in heaven. 2. That solitude was felt by Christ in trial. In the desert, in Pilate’ s judgment-hall, in the garden, He was alone--and alone must every son of man meet his trial-hour. The individuality of the soul necessitates that. Each man’ s temptations are made up of a host of peculiarities which no other mind can measure. You are tried alone--alone you pass into the desert--alone you must bear and conquer in the agony--alone you must be sifted by the world. And there are trials more terrible. A temptation, in which the lower nature struggles for mastery, can be met by the whole united force of the spirit. But it is when obedience to a heavenly Father can be only paid by disobedience to an earthly one: or fidelity to duty can be only kept by infidelity to some entangling engagement: or the straight path must be taken over the misery of others: or the counsel of the affectionate friend must be met with a “ Get thee behind Me, Satan.” It is then, when human advice is unavailable, that the soul feels what it is to be alone. 3. The Redeemer’ s soul was alone in dying. The hour had come--they were all gone, and He was, as He predicted, left alone. All that is human drops from us in that hour. “ I shall die alone” --yes, and alone you live. No atom in creation touches another--they only approach within a certain distance; then the attraction ceases, and an invisible something repels--they only seem to touch. No soul touches another soul except at one or two points; and those chiefly external. Death only realizes that which has been the fact all along. In the central deeps of our being we are alone. II. THE SPIRIT OR TEMPER OF THAT . 1. Observe its grandeur. I am alone, yet not alone. There is a feeble and sentimental way in which we speak of the Man of sorrows. We turn to the cross and the loneliness to arouse compassion. You degrade that loneliness. Compassion for Him! Adore if you will; but no pity: let it draw out the firmer and manlier graces of the soul. Even in human things, the strength that is in a man can be only learnt when he is thrown upon his own resources and left alone. It is one thing to defend the truth when you know that your audience are already prepossessed, and another to hold it when met by unsympathizing suspicion, It is one thing to rush on to danger with the shouts of numbers, and another when the lonely captain of the sinking ship sees the last boatful disengage itself, and folds his arms to go down into the majesty of darkness, crushed, but not subdued. Such and greater far was the strength and majesty of the Saviour’ s solitariness. It was not the trial of the lonely hermit. There is a certain pleasing melancholy in his life. But there are the forms of nature to speak to him, and he has not the positive opposition of mankind if he has the absence of actual sympathy. But the solitude of Christ was the solitude of a crowd. In that single human bosom dwelt the thought which was to be the germ of the world’ s life: a thought unshared, misunderstood, or rejected. 2. Learn from these words self-reliance. Alone the Son of Man was content to be. He threw Himself on His own solitary thought: did not go down to meet the world; but waited, though it might be for ages, till the world should come round to Him. This is self-reliance--to believe that what is truest in you is true for all: to abide by that, and not be over-anxious to be understood, or sympathized with, certain that at last all must acknowledge the same, and that while you stand firm, the world will come round to you. There is a cowardice in this age which is not Christian. We shrink from the consequences of truth. We ask what men will think--what others will say. He who is calculating that will accomplish nothing. The Father--the Father who is with us and in us--what does He think? 3. Remark the humility of this loneliness. Had the Son of Man simply said, I can be alone, He would have said no more than any proud man can say. But when he added, “ because the Father is with Me,” that independence assumed another character, and self-reliance became only another form of reliance upon God. Distinguish between genuine and spurious humility. There is a false humility which says, “ It is my own poor thought, and I must not trust it. Is not trust in self the great fault of our fallen nature?” Very well. Now remember something else. There is a Spirit which beareth witness with our spirits--there is a “ Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” The thought of your mind perchance is the thought of God. To refuse to follow that may be to disown God. To take the judgment and conscience of other men to live by--where is the humility of that? From whence did their conscience and judgment come? Was the fountain from which they drew exhausted for you? (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Cure of loneliness A poor woman living alone in a small cottage in the forest was asked if she did not feel the loneliness of the place. “ Oh no,” was her reply, “ for Faith closes the door at night, and Mercy opens it in the morning.” (Sunday at Home.) Alone, yet not alone I. WE HAVE NO REASON TO SAY THAT IT IS WRONG TO RECOIL FROM BEING ALONE. 1. Adam was unfallen when God saw that it was “ not good for him to be alone.” Sin has always a tendency to isolate--grace to draw out the social affections. Whoever thinks of solitude in heaven? 2. Therefore, it is nothing strange that Christ should place solitude among His sorrows. The desire which brought Him down here was a longing to have a people with Him. He could not be that “ grain of wheat which abideth alone.” No wonder, then, that the first act of His public life was to secure companionship. And there is not a more touching trait of His whole life than that yearning after human sympathy, in the agony of Gethsemane. And, plainly, it was not for His disciples’ sake that He loved to take them about with Him everywhere. Even the transfiguration would have been incomplete without the three. And after the resurrection, the only thought on which we know that He dwelt with pleasure is, “ I will meet you in Galilee.” And do you think that it was only for us He said it, “ I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also?” We can quite understand, therefore, that in the enumeration of His sorrows, such stress was laid upon the fact that “ He trod the wine-press alone;” --and how that desertion of His friends struck so cold and so painfully, that He at once looked out for a refuge, “ Ye shall leave Me alone, and yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.” And then, you remember, presently came that passage which was the most tremendous of all solitude “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” I say, then, that we have the highest warrant to affirm that solitude is to be deprecated, and that one great end of our religion is to provide the exemption. II. THE PART OF HIS LIFE EVERY MAN IS ALONE. 1. Count up the hours of life, and most of them are passed alone. Besides, there is a moral solitude far greater than physical. Who has not felt the deep solitude of a crowd? 2. The most dangerous, because the most subtle, temptations come to us when we are alone. An unoccupied state is sure to foster what is bad in us, and our lonely hours are generally our most unoccupied ones. It was in a solitude that even our Lord had His fiercest attacks. See how it is. (1) You are by yourself--you look into yourself, and you get morbid. Things unreal take possession of your mind. you become dreamy, unpractical--an easy prey to cankerous thought, delusion, doubt, and all unhealthy things (2) Or, the mind, alone, having no present, goes back into the past--you re-live it--old sorrows, which were healed, open again--old sins, which were forgiven, rise up--you doubt whether you have ever been pardoned--and you are most unprofitably and injuriously wretched. (3) Or, some future, which, when it really comes, will come minute by minute, now swells before you all in one black mass, casting its big, dark shadow upon the path, and you feel quite overwhelmed by it, simply because you are merely passive. As soon as you only become active the passive pain will be almost gone. III. IT IS OF IMMENSE TO HAVE A REMEDY FOR . If Jesus Himself, in His perfect innocence, felt it--how much we? What shall we do? 1. Occupy solitude. Never allow sheer solitude for solitude’ s sake. Let there, for instance, be a distinct subject of thought. Solitude should always be preparatory to something which is to follow it--never an end, always a means. Jesus’ solitudes appear to have been always preparatory to work. 2. People your solitudes with realized presences; bring in the communion of saints. It is not necessary that they be actually there. And that will make solitude more than safe--holy, helpful. 3. Far more than both, feel the close presence of a living Saviour. Christians do not attach sufficient weight to the actual presence of Christ as a brother. Most minds are occupied with the death of Christ, but it is the few who think as they ought of the actual, living, present Christ. Then, where is solitude? What the Father was to Jesus, that, Jesus, or rather the Father in Jesus, is to you. IV. LIFE WILL BE A VERY THING TO YOU FROM THE TIME THAT YOU HAVE LEARNT THIS OF . 1. Your own room will then be another place to you. To go up there will not be to go up to be “ alone.” Rather, no other place upon this whole earth so sweetly full--no company so good, no fellowship so rich. It will not be dull, it will not be unwholesome, it will not be perilous, to be there. And it will be a very poor thing, in comparison, to go down from angels, and from saints, and from Jesus, to the common-places, the presences of life. 2. And yet, even in these common-places, the presences will be there. 3. And in things more testing still. If there be a desolating moment, it is when you are first called to do alone something which you have been wont to do with one with whom you can never do that thing again. The pleasant part is gone, for that dear one is gone. But those spirits are not gone--Jesus is not gone. It is a true word--you are “ alone;” but it is truer still, “ not alone.” 4. And presently you will have to die. And it is a very solitary thing to die. Those who love you may go with you to the brink, but they cannot cross with you. I shudder to think of the solitariness of the feeling of the death of the man of the world. But you will not be “ alone” --never so tended, never so encompassed with the loving, the lovely, and the true--“ Alone, yet not alone, for the Father is with you.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Alone, yet not alone I. THE OF JESUS. 1. In the mystery of His person. 2. In the elevation of His Spirit. 3. In the intensity of His suffering. 4. In the character of His work. 5. In the extent of His influence. II. THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. The Father was with Christ 1. In personal union with His Godhead. 2. In active co-operation with His Divine manhood. 3. In the exercise of spiritual communion. 4. In the manifestation of paternal sympathy. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 16:33 These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.These things, or Christ’ s secrets I. The secret of (John 14:25). II. The secret of JOY (John 15:11). III. The secret of (John 16:1). IV. The secret of PRAYER (John 16:25). V. The secret of PEACE AND VICTORY (text). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The peace which Jesus promises I. THE PEACE HERE . 1. It is spiritual peace. This is plain from the fact that it was to be enjoyed during tribulation, and it is the peace which Jesus promises in these words: “ Peace I leave with you, not as the world giveth.” From the connection in which it is evident that it is a fruit of the Spirit. It flows from a well-grounded persuasion of our reconciliation to God. We can enjoy no true happiness of which God is not both the Author and Finisher. There is an inseparable connection between holiness and happiness. 2. This peace is peculiar to the friends of Jesus. In Me ye shall have peace. He addresses His friends only. They are all united to Christ by the Spirit who dwells in Him and them, and are all furnished with that faith by which they obtain peace. All the wicked are entire strangers to it, because they are separated from the Prince of Peace. “ There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” 3. The enjoyment of this peace is not at all inconsistent with the endurance of tribulation. It is seated in the mind. In his body the Christian may feel sickness and pain; in his estate he may suffer damage and loss; and, in his character and friends, he may suffer injury and loss; and yet the peace of his mind, on the whole, may remain unruffled and undiminished. In the history of the apostles, after the Ascension, we have an ample proof of this delightful truth. Rude and frequent as the tempests were by which they were assailed, they could not even check the growth of that fair plant of heavenly origin, peace of mind, which their Saviour had planted in their souls. 4. The tribulations of the world have a tendency to interrupt, and often do interrupt this peace. This is plainly implied in these words, “ Be of good cheer,” &c. The Christian has his days of sweet sunshine, but also his nights of gloomy darkness. 5. This peace shall never be totally or finally taken away from the Christian. “ Your joy no man taketh from you.” II. THE WORDS OF CHRIST ARE FITTED TO THE PEACE OF HIS PEOPLE AMIDST ALL THE OF LIFE. 1. They tell Christians beforehand what they have to expect in the world, viz., tribulation; and, therefore, teach them to make preparation for it. A principal part of the misery of mankind arises from want of attention to such information. Men suffer the many keen pangs of disappointment, because they will indulge those wishes and hopes which general experience, the dictates of sober reason, and the word of God, pronounce to be groundless and extravagant. 2. In the season of tribulation, the words of Christ direct the mind to effectual sources of consolation. They teach us, that all our afflictions come from God; that God has a gracious design in afflicting us; that the same God, who is our God in the time of health and prosperity, is also our God in the time of trouble and adversity; that all things shall work together for our good. 3. They teach us that the time of our warfare and suffering is but short, and that all our tribulations shall come to a perpetual end, and immortal joy succeed. Conclusion: From this subject learn 1. To rejoice in all your tribulations. This is, indeed, a very difficult lesson: none but Christ can teach it, and none but a true Christian can learn it. But to learn it is possible; for we hear Paul saying, “ Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities,” &c. 2. To make yourselves familiarly acquainted with the words of Christ. How can they afford us rich and lasting consolation if we are ignorant of them. 3. Never to forget that you have to contend only with vanquished enemies. (J. Clapperton.) The believer’ s peace It is often surprising to see how much pain there may be in the sensibility, and yet peace in the depths of the mind. In crossing the Atlantic some years ago we were overtaken by a gale of wind. Upon the deck the roar and confusion was terrific. The spray from the crests of the waves blew upon the face with almost force enough to blister it. The noise of the waves howling and roaring and foaming was almost deafening. But when I stepped into the engine-room everything was quiet. The mighty engine was moving with a quietness and stillness in striking contrast with the roar without. It reminded me of the peace that can reign in the soul while storms and tempests are howling without. (C. G. Finney.) The Christian above disquietude A ship’ s compass is so adjusted as to keep its level amidst all the hearings of the sea. Though forming part of a structure that feels every motion of the restless waves, it has an arrangement of its own that keeps it always in place, and in working order. Look at it when you will, it is pointing--trembling, perhaps, but truly--to the pole. So each soul in this life needs an adjustment of its own, that amid the fluctuations of the “ earthen vessel” it may be kept ever in a position to feel the power of its great attraction in the skies.” (Christian Treasury.) Victory over tribulation When Samuel Rutherford was sentenced to imprisonment in the city of Aberdeen “ for righteousness sake,” he wrote to a friend: “ The Lord is with me; I care not what man can do. I burden no man, and I want nothing. No being is better provided for than I am. My chains are over-gilded with gold. No pen, no words, no engine can express to you the loveliness of my only, only Lord Jesus.” Peace in Christ 1. There is clearly a negative rolled up in this sentence, viz., that there is no “ peace” out of Christ. Every promise involves a negative. There will be no negatives in heaven. And this is the more to be observed, because almost all that we know of heaven itself, as yet, is negative. But where there is nothing but Christ, there can be nothing but “ peace.” 2. These words were the last Christ said before His teaching turned, as by a necessary transition, into prayer. Jesus says that the whole of His teaching never swerved from that one end. The duty of the fourteenth, the union of the fifteenth, the coming of the Spirit in the sixteenth chapters all pointed to “ peace.” And, beyond those three peerless chapters, it was the property of Christ’ s whole doctrine upon earth. No one ever said severer things than Christ; but it was a severity only to “ peace.” He saddened to gladden, He stirred the deepest waters of the soul that He might make the greater calm. What a lesson to ministers! And you--see what your religion is!--peace-not fear, not condemnation, not excitement, not controversy. I. LET US WHAT THIS PEACE IS. 1. It is the feeling of being forgiven--a quiet conscience--a stilling sense of the love of God. 2. Then, growing out of that, it is a certain contemplative habit of mind, which lives up high enough not to be anxious much about the matters of this world. For it is the repose of faith, a trust in promises, a sense of a Father’ s love, the hush of s little child on the bosom. II. IT IS OF IMMENSE TO HAVE THAT PEACE, because 1. It is the only satisfying of all possessions. Pleasure is man’ s delight, but “ peace” is man’ s necessity. No man knows the capabilities of his own existence, or what enjoyment is, till he is at “ peace.” 2. Peace is the root of all holiness. To believe that you are pardoned, to carry a conscience at ease, to take the unruffled reflection of Christ, even as Christ did of the Father, that is the atmosphere of a daily religious life, and that is the secret of every good thing. 3. Peace is the fulfilment of the work of Christ. Then, He “ sees of the travail of His soul” in you, “ and is satisfied.” III. WHAT ARE THE CAUSES WHY YOU ARE NOT AT “ PEACE.” 1. A want of seriousness and earnestness about your salvation. 2. Or, it may be that you do not see the perfect freeness of this precious gift of “ peace.” You are trying to work up to it, when you ought to be trying to work from it. 3. Or, you are grieving the Holy Spirit by some continual sin. 4. Or, you are pre-occupied--your mind is cumbered with care, and a crowd of worldly thoughts oppress you, and “ peace” will not, cannot come to dwell with what is so turbid, or breathes so thick an air. IV. RULES FOR PEACE. Be more decided. Decision is the parent of “ peace.” 1. Take some step at once heavenward, and it may be that one step will land you in “ peace.” 2. Confess Christ. If you honour Him He will honour you. And “ peace” is the seal of an honoured and an honouring Saviour. 3. Go up and down more in Christ--His work, His work, His person, His beauty, His grace. See all your evidences in Him, realize your union with Him, listen for His “ still small voice.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Peace and victory I. THE INWARD PEACE. 1. Peace is not lethargy; and it is very remarkable that, in immediate connection, there are words of tribulation and battle. The Christian life moves in two realms--“ in Me” and “ in the world.” And the predicates and characteristics of these are opposite. The tree will stand, with its deep roots and its firm bole, unmoved, though wildest winds may toss its branches and scatter its leaves. In the fortress, beleagured by the sternest foes, there may be, right in the very centre of the citadal, a quiet oratory, through whose thick walls the noise of battle and the shout of victory or defeat can never penetrate. So we may live in a centre of rest, however wild may be the uproar in the circumference. 2. But, then, note that this peace depends upon certain conditions. (1) It is peace in Him. We are in Him as in an atmosphere; as a tree in the soil; as a branch in the vine; as the members in a body; as the residents in a house. We are in Him by the trust that rests all upon Him, by the love that finds all in Him, by the obedience that does all for Him. And it is only when we are in Christ that we realize peace. All else brings distraction. Even delights trouble. Let nothing tempt us down from the heights, and out from the citadel where alone we are at rest. Keep on the lee side of the breakwater and your little cock-boat will ride out the gale. (2) Christ speaks these great words that they may bring to us peace. Think of how He has spoken of our Brother’ s Ascension to prepare a place for us, &c. If we believed all these things, and lived in the faith of them, how should anything be able to disturb us? We find peace nowhere else but where Mary found her repose, and could shake off care and trouble about many things, sitting at the feet of Jesus, wrapt in His love, and listening to His word. II. THE OUTWARD WHICH IS THE CERTAIN FATE OF HIS . 1. Of course there is very sad and true sense in which the warning, “ In the world ye shall have tribulation,” applies to all men. Pain and sickness, loss and death, and all the other ills that flesh is heir to afflict us all. But our Lord is not speaking here about the troubles that befall men as men, nor about the chastisement that befalls them as sinners, but of the yet more mysterious sorrows which fall upon them because they are good. 2. I have already said that the Christian life moves in two spheres, and hence there must necessarily be conflict. Whoever realizes the inward life in Christ will more or less find himself coming into hostile collision with lives which only move on the surface and belong to the world. 3. No doubt the form of the antagonism varies. No doubt the more the world is penetrated by Christian principles the less vehement and painful will the collision be. No doubt some portion of the battlements of organized Christianity has tumbled into the ditch and made it a little less deep. Christian men and women have dropped their standard far too much, and so the antagonism is not so plain as it ought to be. But there it is, and if you are going to live out and out like a Christian man, you will get the old sneers flung at you. We have all, in our several ways, to bear the Cross. Do not let us be ashamed of it, and, above all, for the sake of easing our shoulders, do not let us be unfaithful to our Master. III. THE WHICH COMES FROM THE LORD’ S VICTORY. “ Be of good cheer.” 1. It is the old commandment that rung out to Joshua on the departure of Moses, “ Be strong and of a good courage,” &c. So says the Captain of salvation. Like some leader who has climbed the ramparts, or hewed his way through the broken ranks of the enemies, and rings out the voice of encouragement and call to his followers, our Captain sets before us His own example. 2. Notice, then, how our Lord’ s life was a true battle. The world tried to draw him away from God by appealing to things desirable to sense, as in the wilderness; or to things dreadful to sense, as on the cross; and both the one and the other form of temptation He faced and conquered. It was no shadow fight which evoked this pecan of victory. 3. Our Lord’ s life is the type of all victorious life. The world conquers me when it draws me away from God, when it makes me its slave, when it coaxes me to trust it, and to despair if I lose it. And I conquer the world when I put my foot upon its temptations, when I crush it down, when I shake off its bonds, and when nothing that time and sense, with their delights or their dreadfulnesses, can bring, prevents me from cleaving to my Father with all my heart. Whoso thus coerces Time and Sense to be the servants of his filial love has conquered them both. And whoso lets them draw him away from God is beaten, however successful he may dream himself to be, and men may call him. 4. Our share in the Master’ s victory--“ l have overcome the world. Be ye of good cheer.” That seems an irrelevant way of arguing. What does it matter to me though He has overcome? So much the better for Him; but what good is it to me? It may aid us somewhat to more strenuous fighting if we know that a Brother has fought and conquered. But the victory of Christ is of extremely little practical use to me, if all the use is to show me how to fight. You must go deeper than that. “ I have overcome the world,” and “ I will come and put My overcoming Spirit into your weakness, and be in you the conquering and omnipotent power.” 5. The condition of that victory’ s being ours is the simple act of reliance upon Him and upon it. The man that goes into the battle as that little army of the Hebrews did against the wide-stretching hosts of the enemy, saying, “ O Lord! we know not what to do, but our eyes are up unto Thee,” will come out more than conqueror through Him that loved him. And “ this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Peace and victory I. IN THE WORLD. 1. Christians may expect to experience the ordinary trials characteristic of the human lot. 2. To these are added those temptations which beset such as earnestly desire to do the will of God, and follow in the steps of Christ. 3. And in the case of some persecutions are encountered for the sake of righteousness. II. PEACE IN CHRIST. 1. Christ was the author and bringer of peace, which was announced as the result of His Advent, and bequeathed by Him as His legacy. 2. Peace is enjoyed through spiritual union with Christ--“ In Me.” 3. Peace with God is followed by peace with men, and produces peace even within the troubled soul. 4. Such inward peace renders its possessor largely independent of adverse external circumstances. III. VICTORY WITH CHRIST. 1. As a matter of fact Christ did overcome the world. In His life, on the cross, in His resurrection. 2. Through participation with Him Christians share His victory. Conflict is to be maintained, and victory won over the world, self, sin. The victory shall be perfected and manifested when the triumphant soldier of the Cross shall sit down with Christ on the throne. IV. FROM CHRIST. “ Be of good cheer!” We hear His voice in the storm, “ It is I, be not afraid.” We hear His voice amid the flames, “ Fear not for I am with you.” We hear His voice upon the battlefield, “ Be thou faithful unto death,” &c. (Family Churchman.) Worldly and Christian tribulation In the Pitti Palace, at Florence, there are two pictures which hang side by side. One represents a stormy sea with its wild waves, and black clouds and fierce lightnings flashing across the sky. In the waters a human face is seen, wearing an expression of the utmost agony and despair. The other picture also represents a sea, tossed by as fierce a storm, with as dark clouds; but out of the midst of the waves a rock rises, against which the waters dash in vain. In a cleft of the rock are some tufts of grass and green herbage, with sweet flowers, and amid these a dove is seen sitting on her nest, quiet and undisturbed by the wild fury of the storm. The first picture fitly represents the sorrow of the world when all is helpless and despairing; and the other, the sorrow of the Christian, no less severe, but in which he is kept in perfect peace, because he nestles in the bosom of God’ s unchanging love. (S. S. Times.) The necessity for tribulation If because you are Christians you promise yourselves a long lease of temporal happiness, free from troubles and afflictions, it is as if a soldier going to the wars should promise himself peace and continual truce with the enemy; or as if a mariner committing himself to the sea for a long voyage should promise himself nothing but fair and calm weather, without waves and storms;--so irrational it is for a Christian to promise himself rest here upon earth. (T. Manton, D. D.) Need for tribulation Cloudless skies drop no rain. We may bathe ourselves in the unclouded sunshine for days and for weeks, thinking that, if the blue of the heavens were nevermore veiled by the blackness of the storm, we at least would be perfectly satisfied. But as the unclouded days pass on, the parched earth begins to gape to heaven for water, the flowers fade, the grass is burned up, and men and beasts droop in the merciless heat, which now seems no longer the messenger of life, but the angel of death. For need like that there is no help in cloudless skies; the sign of deliverance rather comes in the livid thunder-cloud, the flashing lightning, and the pouring rain. There is a like need of the rain-cloud in the inner life. There is a parching and deadening influence even here in too much sunshine; and the storm-cloud of pain or of sorrow, which drenches our heart-soil with the rain of tears, alone makes possible the continued growth of that which is best in our heart-culture. We do right to thank God for cloudless days; but we do wrong if we do not thank Him also for days not cloudless. If the one gives the sunshine, the other gives the rain; and without either there would be no increase. (S. S. Times.) Christ’ s conquest of the world I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE WORLD. In St. John’ s writings the word occurs more than one hundred times, and mostly from our Lord’ s lips. It is used sometimes as equivalent to 1. The universe. “ The world was made by Him.” 2. The race of men. “ God so loved the world.” 3. But here it cannot mean either of these, because the world in one sense is the revelation of God, and in the other the object of Christian love as the purchase of Christ’ s blood. 4. What is it then? It refuses to be described. It eludes our mental grasp. It is not a person, nor a multitude, nor anything on which we can fix responsibility. It is not civilization, though it hangs on its outskirts. It is not sin, though it produces and is produced by it. It is not the wicked, though they are its victims. It is not Satan, though he is its prince. It is an atmosphere, a temper, a spirit, a power most real and energetic, but dead and invisible--a miasma which has arisen from the putrefying corpses if all the sins which have been committed since the Fall. It has hung for ages like a dark, murky cloud over the heart of humanity. It poisons the very air we breathe. 5. But what is it in its essence? It is that warp in the aim and affections of the soul which makes of each of the objects of the visible creation and of the circumstances of life a distinct hindrance to getting to heaven. It is, says St. John, “ The lust of the flesh, the lust of the age and the pride of life.” It is putting the creature in the place of the Creator. Friends, business, books, &c., may become incorporate with the world. Solomon has told us how his palace, gardens, slaves, singers, &c., were to him the world. Though Haman had an establishment which rivalled that of Ahashuerus, yet this one object--the humiliation of Mordecai formed for him his world. Dives found a world in his purple and fine linen; the young ruler in his great possessions; Felix in the favour of Caesar. 6. We are all familiar with the phrase, “ the spirit of the age,” and know how one line of thought rules in one age, and another in another. Well, then, the world is a mighty tradition of all the thought and feeling that the human race has accumulated round itself since the Fall, and that is hostile to the rights of God. It is like a great river which rolls its dark volume across the ages, while a thousand civilizations and races and nations have poured their successive contributions, like so many rivulets, the tyrant as well as the handiwork of the human soul. It is like the November fog which hangs over our vast metropolis, the product of its countless homes and the proof of its vast industries; and yet the veil which shuts out from it the light of heaven destroys the colour on its works of art; the unwholesome vapour which clogs vitality and undermines health, and from which the Londoner escapes that he may see the sun, and the face of nature, and feels what it is to live. Even thus the world hangs over the soul, flapping its wings like the evil bird in the fable, or penetrating it like a subtle poison to sap its vigour and its life. II. NOTE THE OF ITS . 1. It works secretly and without being suspected. (1) When we speak of it, it is as something outside us. We are in private life, perhaps, in narrow circumstances, and we regard royal pageants, &c., as the pomps of the world. Or we have been brought up in comfort, in a Christian family shielded from temptation, and as we read the newspaper reports of crime and sin we shrug our shoulders and say “ What things do go on in the world!” Or we have just been married, and we look from our happiness upon the worn faces around us, on which gain, pleasure, &c., have traced lines of care and say, “ The world knows nothing of real joy.” Or in deep affliction we reproach the hard, heartless world. (2) The world in fact disguises itself. It can be prudent, like the old prophet; wise like Ahitophel; courageous like Saul; zealous like Jehu; industrious and public-spirited like Herod; honest like Gallio; very pious like the false apostles at Corinth. 2. Which leads to another characteristic, viz., its marvellous versatility, and power of adaptation to all ages, races, classes. We speak of the Roman, Greek, French, and English world: the truth is, that the great world comprises many worlds or schools, the literary, commercial, political, clerical--each has its special work, but each contributes its quota to the whole. And thus the labourer, needlewoman, crossing-sweeper has as real a world as the monarch or statesman. 3. It is contagious. It may be conveyed by a hint, attitude, fashion, dress. Ancient monarchs lived in fear of the poison which might lurk in every dish, and we may well suspect each object around us of harbouring poisonous attractions. III. THE RESULT OF ITS ON THIS AGE. 1. Its view of sin is that of something which interferes with the comfort and well-being of society. Hence it is at times unjustly lax and unjustly severe. 2. It neutralizes the truth that, living or dying, each soul lives in awful solitude beneath the eye of God, by suggesting that we are merely members of a family, town or nation. 3. God is retained just as we might keep a piece of antiquity, or the apex of a theory, or a mere abstraction. From God it turns away to created life and proclaims its supreme importance. What St. John calls sensuality, the world terms enjoying life. What He calls covetousness, the world terms doing the best you can for yourself. What He calls pride, the world calls taking your proper place. Look how it treats the political adventurer, the literary character, the capitalist who have made their way through villainy. It “ goes wondering after the beast;” and proclaims the libertine not so very bad after all. IV. THE OF CHRIST TOWARDS IT. 1. Between Him and the world of His day there was a profound and necessary hostility. He began with the world of a little provincial town--Nazareth--and passed to what resembled the world of our manufacturing districts, Capernaum, Bethsaida, &c. Then He passed to the London world of Palestine to Jesusalem. Here you see Him receiving deputations from the various sections of the world: from the popular religious teachers, the Pharisees; the sceptical intellectualists, the Sadducees; the political adventurers, the Herodians. He passes to the world of the lower classes, and mixes with publicans, Samaritans, Greeks. He entered into society; for He was at the marriage at Cana, and dined with the Pharisee, &c.; and the world condemned and rejected Him, and He measured the world and condemned it. There was no mistake on either side. It crucified Him, but the Resurrection was a triumph over the power that killed Him. He had conquered the world by His doctrine, His moral beauty, His death; but, in view of His Easter victory, He said, “ I have overcome the world.” 2. Only as the ages pass is that victory slowly developing its vast results. You see some of them in the world-wide establishment of His Church, in the ruin of the heathen empire, in the conquest of human thought, power, hearts, new races, and lands. And He is certain of the future. The theatre of the struggle indeed is shifted. It is now the Christian soul. Twice, especially does the world make an effort to dethrone Him--at conversion, and at the period when the soul is moved to dedicate itself to Him perfectly. Meet the world’ s enchantment by a greater--that of Christ, His conquest, and the heaven He won for you. (Canon Liddon.) The world’ s conquerors I. WHAT WORLD DOES HE MEAN? 1. Not this physical world, so well ordered and beautiful. No, that world was made by Him, and every Christian should find in it tokens of His presence. He was “ in the world,” and where He was it is an honour to go. 2. The world is that which did not know Him or the Father, which was in antagonism to the authority of Divine law, and the munificence of Divine love. He might have been here not of the world, and the world would, as far as it knew of Him, have admired Him. But He came to the front and manifested His unworldliness; hence the world hated Him. II. IN WHAT MANNER DID OUR LORD THE WORLD. 1. He overcame the world’ s falsehood by the power of His truth. Others were sent to denounce the falsehood, but the world smiled or frowned on them, and silenced them by its seductions or threats, and many of them learned to repeat the wicked shibboleths. The faithful were murdered, one after another, and finally Christ came, born to this end to bear witness to the truth, and sealed His testimony with His blood, and by so doing won a victory such as the Church does not need to win again. 2. He overcame the world’ s wickedness by His holiness. Till He came, the idea of absolute holiness was never presented to the mind of man. But He presented to the end an image of perfect purity. 3. He overcame the world’ s malice by His infinite love. Only love can be victorious. The measure of malignity is the measure of defeat. Animosity is only roused by those who have in some sense gained an advantage over us. Here, then, is the peculiarity of the Lord’ s triumph. He was at war with the world openly and persistently, but the world never had a better friend; and He turned its murderous rage into an occasion for manifesting His most benignant gifts. III. THE USE WHICH CHRIST TEACHES US TO MAKE OF HIS VICTORY. “ Be of good cheer,” --a word of large meaning and frequently on our Lord’ s lips. 1. The original thought is courage, which expresses itself in confidence. The Old Testament rendering is “ Be of good courage.” 2. The next effect is sure to bring refreshment, when fear is quelled, and agitation has ceased: then the word is “ Be of good comfort.” 3. But this passes into the higher domain of gladness, for courage wins the victory, and he who triumphs is clothed with smiles and sings the song: hence the word repeatedly is “ Be of good cheer.” Conclusion: The promise is to conquerors. Some of you are fighting on the wrong and losing side. Christ invites you to the winning side of truth, holiness, and love. (J. Aldis.) The world-conquest 1. In addressing His disciples, Christ never concealed from them the difficulties which awaited them. He purchased no discipleship by politic extenuation or concealment. We have therefore placed before us, in unmistakeable terms, the fact that, “ through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom.” The modern notion that it is possible without much difficulty to be religious, cannot plead, the sanction of the highest teaching. 2. But Christ never stated a difficulty, without at the same time inspiring with courage to meet it. He has given the true disciple in every age glimpses of the difficulties with which he will have to wrestle, only that He may be induced to turn his inward eye towards a never-failing source of strength. I. THE ’ S . 1. Taking the term “ tribulation” in its widest sense, it is obviously an inevitable condition of human life. “ Man is born to trouble as the spark flieth upwards.” What a fearful amount of suffering there is in the world, into which character does not enter as an element! 2. But admit character, and the conflict waxes infinitely more dire. As long as conscience speaks, and any God-ward sentiment impels, there will remain enough to engage the forces of the soul in fiercest conflict. 3. Extending our view to what is called practical life, as long as any considerable portion of mankind remained alien from God, the world must be expected to be, to the earnest disciple of Christ, a scene of conflict. (1) The conflict varies with the age. Christianity, in its first stages, and whenever a period somewhat analogous has been repeated, had to encounter all the forces of a steady, malignant opposition. At such times, the battle ground is more clear, the ranks better defined. But the conflict of this period, when a considerable assimilation of society has taken place, assumes generally another form; an enemy less bold and courageous, but more subtle and more difficult to resist, enters the field. Where there was once opposition, there is now allurement. Of the first period the cardinal virtue is courage; of the second, watchfulness. (2) The conflict varies with the individual. Ordinary Christian virtue is a far easier attainment to some than it is to others, for the obvious reason that it has so much less to contend with. The cost of some is comparatively a rapid pace along an easy, open path; that of others is an ever thwarted step through a tangled forest; with the former it is a triumphant pursuit of a retreating enemy, with the latter every inch of ground must be fiercely fought through blood and fire. II. THE MASTER’ S VICTORY. 1. That over which the conquest was obtained. The imagination stands appalled and paralysed at its vastness. “ The world!” It must consist of all that is alien from God in human nature itself, and as its propensities are embodied in habit, custom, institution, and society. (1) Opposing Himself to “ the world,” as we have just characterized it, so entirely that He was the incarnate good in incessant conflict with all surrounding evil, He still preserved Himself “ holy and undefiled.” This constituted a part of His victory. To be able thus to work out in His own career, thwarted by prejudice, stratagem, and open enmity, and tempted by all that could alarm, bribe, or allure, for the human race, an ideal towards which all after ages could only aspire, is surely to conquer for Himself the world. (2) But Christ not only maintained His personal superiority over sin, but has arrested, in a way peculiar to Himself, its course in the world. There has been in His life and death that which has ever since modified the course of human history, in favour of the good and against the evil. Evil has since then, though surrounded with most auspicious circumstances, reared a form less erect and shown a brow more abashed, as it has had to encounter in combat less equal, as the centuries roll away, “ one stronger than itself.” Since then a new element, the main, and the most influential one, has been thrown into the loftiest struggles of advancing nations, and which has been always working, however silently and invisibly, for the “ first good and the first fair.” All the best features of modern times obviously bear His impress. 2. “ Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world!” (1) With what strange meaning must these words have been inspired! The circumstances in which the speaker then stood, must have presented, to the outward eye, a startling contrast to His singular and lofty assurance. (2) His conquests are ours. From our vital alliance with Him, faith derives its unconquerable power, hope borrows its brightest radiance, and charity is supplied with its perennial motive. Yes, the conqueror of the world is leading us onwards! His victory includes as its prize more than a world redeemed! (D. M. Evans.) Christ, the overcomer of the world The Lord Jesus must be more than man from the tone which He assumed. There is a great deal of presumption, pride, egotism, in this man if He be nothing more than a man. We can imagine Napoleon speaking thus when he had crushed the nations beneath his feet, and shaped the map of Europe to his will. We can imagine Alexander speaking thus when he had rifled the palaces of Persia, and led her monarchs captive. But who is this that speaketh in this wise? It is a Galilean, who wears a peasant’ s garment. He is about to be betrayed by His own base follower. He is casting an eye to His Cross with all its shame. And yet He saith, “ I have overcome the world.” I. WHAT IS THIS WORLD WHICH HE IS TO? The world here meant is that which “ lieth in the wicked one.” The invisible embodiment of that spirit of evil, and which now worketh in the children of disobedience; the human form of the same evil force with which our Lord contended when He overcame the devil. The devil is the god of this world, and its prince. It is the opposite of the Church, “ Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Hence it is called “ this present evil world,” while the kingdom of grace is spoken of as “ the world to come.” “ The world” includes 1. The ungodly themselves. 2. Certain customs, fashions, maxims, forces, principles, desires, governments. Jesus says, “ My kingdom is not of this world;” and Paul says, “ Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed.” 3. The present constitution and arrangement of all things in this fallen state, for everything has come under vanity by reason of sin. 4. It is a thing out of which tribulation will be sure to come to us. It may come in the form of temporal trial, of temptation, or persecution. We are sojourners in an enemy’ s country. II. HOW HAS CHRIST THE WORLD? 1. In His life. Those thirty years of which we know so little were a wonderful preparation for His conflict. In the patience which made Him bide His time we see the dawn of the victory. When He appears upon the scene of public action, He overcomes the world (1) By remaining always faithful to His testimony. He never modified it. He was no guarder of truth. He allowed truth to fight her own battles in her own way. His speech was confident, for He knew that truth would conquer in the long run. (2) By His calmness. (a) When the world smiled. Our Lord was popular to a very high degree at certain times, but He never lost His self-possession. He leaves acclamations to refresh Himself by prayer. He communed with God, and so lived above the praises of men. (b) When the world frowned. If calumnies were heaped upon Him, He went on as calmly as if they had not abused Him. Point me to an impatient word--there is not even a tradition Of an angry look at any offence rendered to Himself. (3) By the unselfishness of His aims. With whatever evil the most spiteful infidels have ever charged our Lord, they have never accused Him of avarice. (4) By never stooping to use its power. He might have gathered a troop about Him, and His heroic example, together with His miraculous power, must soon have swept away the Roman empire, and converted the Jew. (5) By His fearlessness of the world’ s elite, for many a man who have braved the frowns of the multitude cannot bear the criticism of the few. But Christ meets the Pharisee, and pays no honour to His phylactery; He confronts the Sadducee and yields not to his cold philosophy; and He braves also the Herodian, who is the worldly politican, and He gives him an unanswerable reply. (6) By the constancy of His love. He loved the most unlovely men. 2. Christ by His death overcame the world, because (1) By a wondrous act of self-sacrifice, He smote to the heart the principles of selfishness, which is the very soul and life-blood of the world. (2) By redeeming man He lifted him up from the power which the world exercises over him. (3) By reconciling men unto God through His great atonement; also He has removed them from the despair which else had kept them down in sin, and made them the willing slaves of the world. 3. But chiefly has He overcome by His rising and His reigning, for when He rose He bruised the serpent’ s head, and that serpent is the prince of this world, and hath dominion over it. 4. He has overcome the world by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has set up a rival kingdom now: a kingdom of love and righteousness; already the world feels its power by the Spirit. Every year the name of Jesus brings more light to this poor world. III. WHAT CHEER IS THERE HERE FOR US? Why 1. That if Christ has overcome the world at its worst, we who are in Him shall overcome the world too through the same power which dwelt in Him. He has put His life into His people, He has given His Spirit to dwell in them, and they shall be more than conquerors. 2. Besides, He overcame the world when nobody else had overcome it. Now if our great Samson did tear this young lion, and fling it down as a vanquished thing, now it is an old lion, we, having the Lord’ s life and power in us, will overcome it too. 3. Remember He overcame the world as our Head and representative, and it may truly be said that if the members do not overcome, then the Head has not perfectly gained the victory. (C. H. Spurgeon.) . Whole chapter The prayer of Christ It was with a shout of triumph that Jesus concluded His conversations with His disciples; but his triumph was an anticipation of faith. To transform the present reality into victory, nothing less than Omnipotence was needed, and to this Jesus appeals. The prayer is generally divided into supplication I. FOR HIMSELF (John 17:1-5). II. FOR HIS (John 17:6-19). III. FOR THE CHURCH (John 17:20-26). But when Jesus prayed for Himself, He had in view not His own person, but the work of God (John 17:1-2). When He prayed for the apostles, it was as the instruments and continuers of this same work; and when He commended to God all believers it was as the objects of that work, and because their souls were to be the theatre on which the Father’ s glory was to be displayed. Thus the leading thought is the Father’ s work, or, which comes to the same thing, the glory of God. This prayer is throughout inspired by Christ’ s mission and filial affection. He thanks God for what has already been given Him to do for His cause, and asks for the more effectual means which are henceforth indispensable for the completion of the work now begun. The prayer is more than a mere meditation. Jesus had acted (chap. 13.) and spoken (chap. 14-16.); He now used that language which is at the same time action--He prayed. And He not only prayed, but prayed aloud; which proves that while speaking to God, He was also speaking for those around Him. He desired to initiate them into that close communion which He maintained with the Father, and, if possible, to lead them to pray with Him. It is an anticipatory realization of Joh 17:14. He raises them to that Divine sphere in which He Himself dwells: (F. Godet, D. D.) Christ’ s prayer for His disciples I. THE ELEMENT IN THIS PRAYER IS VERY . It is offered in behalf of His disciples, but it is also His own. His position is most pathetic. II. This prayer is A MINE OF TRUTH. 1. The Divinity of our Lord everywhere flashes forth. He is conscious of a pre-existence. To this He twice definitely refers (John 17:5; John 17:24). 2. The mission of the Son, in one aspect, is to reveal to men the Father. With “ Father” He begins His prayer. God is our heavenly Father. There is heart in God. To Christ He is “ Holy Father,” “ Righteous Father.” 3. The definition of eternal life is one of the gems of this prayer (John 17:3). 4. This prayer instructs us as to the nature of Christ’ s intercession. III. WHAT IS IT, THEN, FOR WHICH OUR LORD PRAYS IN BEHALF OF HIS ? 1. “ Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me” (John 17:11). He is about to leave them in a hostile world. 2. “ Sanctify them” is His second petition. “ I sanctify Myself,” He also says. In both these cases “ sanctify” means evidently to set apart for God’ s service. In the case of the disciples it means also “ make holy,” as a preparation for God’ s use. 3. “ That they may be one” is Christ’ s cherished desire, repeated again and again. “ I in them” (John 17:26)--the echo of the prayer--is the secret of this unity. 4. Our Lord’ s last petition is very touching. In childlike simplicity, and yet with the confidence of the “ well beloved Son,” He says, “ Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am,” and then, with the delight of a loving bridegroom who brings to his home for the first time his faithful bride, He adds, “ that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me.” 5. It is profitable to note what Christ omits in this most earnest prayer for those He loved so much. He knows that they are likely to be poor, but He prays not that they may have gold or lands or houses or even homes. He knows that they will be reproached, but He prays not that they may receive applause or position. (Boston Homilies.) Christ’ s prayer for His disciples I. THE PRAYER FOR HIMSELF It was the prayer for the perfect closing of His life-work. The season of His deepest agony was at hand. This was not a petition for mere honour or safety. The glory He sought was the revelation of the Divine love through all the approaching sufferings. II. THE PRAYER FOR HIS . This prayer is pathos itself. A brief analysis of a few thoughts in the prayer that contains volumes will reveal its spirit. 1. Their sacred calling. Their hearts must have throbbed in surprise when He confessed: “ Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me.” He called them “ the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.” 2. The keeping power of Christ. “ While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name: those that Thou gavest Me I have kept.’ The meaning of such words was covered in the varied experiences of the past three years. The powers of darkness required a stronger than arm of flesh to ward them back. Man needs God. 3. The place of the disciples in the world. It is not the Divine way to shun the obstacles which lie in the path of duty. 4. The basis of the disciples’ power. Apart from His own presence, Christ placed the hope of His disciples in the Word of God: “ I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me I have given them Thy word. Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” 5. The disciples’ service. In the oneness of the disciple with the Master, and in Christ’ s analogy as to the likeness of His service and our own, we observe the transcendent importance of the Christian’ s calling. In a reverent sense, the great utilitarian of the universe is God. His plans are all directed with a purpose. (David O. Mears.) Analysis of the intercessory prayer of our Lord Carefully studied, it reveals a clear order of thought. Four petitions in behalf of believers comprehend everything desirable for them, and the order cannot be changed. I. . The same grace that saves from sin saves from falling. God must keep us. We have no greater foe than the world; its antidote is the power of the world to come. Security is to be found in separation. This is demanded by the law of the new nature--for Christianity is essentially unworldly: by God’ s design, choosing us out of the world (John 15:19), by the testimony we are to bear (John 7:7), and by theconditions of growth (Matthew 13:22). II. . The word is the main instrument. 1. It determines our conceptions of truth and duty. 2. Stores the memory. 3. Corrects and enlightens conscience. 4. Moulds practical life. III. UNITY. Here is a hint. 1. As to its character: such as exists between the Father and Son, a unity of sympathy, love, nature. 2. Its dependence on sanctity. Disciples get nearer each other as they get nearer to Christ. 3. Power as a witness to the world. 4. Perfection of fellowship in heaven. IV. GLORY consists 1. In being with Jesus, where He is. 2. Beholding and reflecting His glory. 3. Knowing God as revealed in Christ. 4. Sharing His glory and reign. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.) The best sermon followed by the best prayer The best sermon ever preached was followed by the best prayer ever offered. (J. Traill.) The characteristics of the intercessory prayer This was a prayer after sermon, a prayer after sacrament, a family prayer, a parting prayer, a prayer before a sacrifice, a prayer which was a specimen of Christ’ s intercession. (M. Henry.) The intercessory prayer used in the hour of death It was read sixty times to Bossuet on his deathbed. When John Knox come to die he asked for it to be read to him; and Spener, though he had never been willing to preach from it, because it seemed to transcend his powers, had it read to him three times when dying. John 17:1-5 These words spake Jesus Christ’ s prayer for Himself I. THE . 1. The place--probably the west bank of the Kidron; but to a devout soul any spot serves as an oratory (John 4:21; 1 Timothy 2:8). 2. The time--the last night of His life. Not surprising that sinful men should pray then: and comforting to know that the Sinless One then found solace in prayer. 3. The audience--not in solitude as oftentimes before (John 6:15; Matthew 14:23; Luke 9:28), or in the company of strangers John 11:41; Matthew 11:25), but in the hearing of His disciples. Note the distinction between private and public prayer--the former for individual profit, the latter the advantage of others as well. II. THE SPIRIT. 1. Reverential--lifted up His eyes. It becomes those who approach the throne of grace to remember whose throne it is (Psalms 11:4; Psalms 45:6), to cherish exalted views of His majesty (Psalms 31:8; Psalms 89:7), and to show them by corresponding outward postures (Exodus 3:5; Hebrews 12:28). 2. Filial--“ Father.” In the Spirit of a Son He maintained communion with the Father, which is also the true Spirit for us (Romans 8:15). 3. Believing. Shown by the appeal Christ makes to the arrival of His hour as a reason why His prayer should be heard. The hour being prearranged by the Father, He intercedes for the fulfilment of the promise which was bound up with it. True prayer ever springs from faith in the Father’ s promise (Psalms 119:49; Hebrews 11:6). 4. Urgent. Revealed by the action above described, and by the twofold recurrence of the main petition (verses 1-5). Fervent importunity a characteristic of right prayer. III. THE . “ Father, glorify,” &c. 1. What it implied. (1) That the praying Son had been in existence before the world was (verse 5). (2) That though the Son He was not in that glory. (3) That He had laid aside that glory in order to become the Father s servant (Philippians 2:6-7). 2. What it desired. (1) Not posthumous fame through the influence of the gospel (Psalms 72:17); this He could not have had before the world was. (2) That having finished the Father’ s work, He might resume His preexistent glory in an incarnate form. IV. THE PLEAS. 1. The honour of the Father. He saw that the cause the Father had at heart could be more successfully carried forward by the Son on the throne of the universe. 2. The salvation of the Church. The work of bestowing eternal life on dead souls would proceed more efficaciously were He in heaven. 3. The recompense of Himself (verse 4). Yet Christ employs this argument only in the third place. Learn 1. The Fatherhood of God is the best refuge for dying men. 2. The chief end of man is to glorify God. 3. Eternal life is impossible apart from the grace of God and the revelation of Christ. 4. The best preparation for heaven is the faithful execution of God’ s will on earth. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The prayer of Christ Between this and the one offered in Gethsemane there is a difference we cannot help observing. Both were offered on the same night, yet in the one Christ is filled with calmness and triumph, and in the other with agony and dejection. This has been seized by sceptics as proof of the untrustworthiness of Scripture. But note 1. That whilst Christ was Divine He was also human. In proportion as human nature is refined and sensitive it is liable to varying moods arising out of the different influences which play upon it. Christ’ s humanity was peculiarly so. 2. That Christ was wont, at times, to dwell upon separate aspects of His destiny. Some were bright, others dark. What more natural in pondering the former as He does here, He should rise into ecstasy. 3. That whatever the Saviour’ s mood, He was always true to His redeeming purpose. Proceeding to the prayer, note I. THAT JESUS SPEAKS TO GOD ON THE GROUND OF GOD’ S . He does not go as servant or subject, but as child, and says “ Father” six times in the prayer. Mark 1. How unrestrictedly the name is used. Not “ My” Father. He had already taught His disciples to say “ Our Father;” so now He makes no selfish appropriation of the name: teaching us Christ’ s perfect oneness with ourselves, and our privilege to trust in the love of God. 2. How reverently the name is spoken! The tone we cannot hear; but the gesture suggests it, and the epithets of verses 11 and 25. When you go to the Father never lose sight of the Sovereign, lest you dishonour Him and disgrace yourselves. II. THAT JESUS TO GOD HIS OF THE NEAR OF HIS MISSION, “ The hour is come.” No hour of His life was unimportant, but one hour overshadowed all others--the hour of His sacrificial death. Take that away and what is there left? To Him it was the hour of agony, but of triumph also. To us it is the hour of life and joy, shaded by the thought that to be such to us it was necessary that it should be terrible to Him. III. THAT JESUS TO GOD A THE ISSUE OF THE CRISIS TO WHICH HE HAD COME. Although perfect He had to fortify Himself for the trial by prayer. 1. “ Father, glorify Thy Son.” (1) By inspiring Him with strength and courage. (2) By maintaining His integrity. (3) By giving Him victory. (4) By making the bruising of His heel to be the breaking of the serpent’ s head. (5) By raising Him from the dead and setting Him at Thy right hand. 2. “ That Thy Son also may glorify Thee” --beautiful unselfishness! (1) By showing to men that Thou art the Father, enabling Him to suffer and triumph on their behalf. (2) By vindicating to men the grandeur of Thy attributes, and the rightness of Thy claims. (3) By revealing to men the purposes of Thy love and the promises of Thy grace. (4) By bringing men, through the power of His sacrifice, into loving worship at Thy feet and into the enjoyment of everlasting life in Thy presence. (B. Wilkinson, F. G. S.) A petition urged by a threefold argument I. THE . A vindication of Christ’ s character. “ Glorify Thy Son.” Answered by 1. The signs at His death. 2. His resurrection. 3. His ascension. II. THE Isaiah 1. Christ’ s relation to the Father. Influence increases in proportion to the nearness of relationship (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15). 2. Christ’ s relation to time and to a special period. There is a special hour in every conflict which determines the value of all that has gone before, and gives defeat to one side and victory to the other So this hour in Christ’ s conflict with the powers of evil. 3. Christ’ s relation to the glory of the Father. That which would bring honour to Christ would bring honour to God, inasmuch as He claimed to be the revealer of the Father. Lessons from this answered prayer: 1. It is not only for our comfort, but God’ s glory that prayer in accordance with His will should be answered. 2. It is right to ask for a vindication of our character when under a cloud, not only for our own sake but for that of others. (W. Harris.) God has no son without prayer “ What strange condescension, that He who hath the key of David should knock at the Father’ s gate, and receive His own heaven by gift and entreaty!” These are Manton’ s words of surprise at the first sentences of our Lord’ s prayer in John 17:1-26.: “ Father, glorify Thy Son.” Even to Jesus it is said, “ Ask of Me.” God had one Son without sin, but never a son who did not pray. The cry of “ Abba, Father!” is the mark of sonship. True prayer is the sign of a true-born child of God: “ Behold, he prayeth” is the token by which each heir of glory is known. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Supreme things in man’ s spiritual history I. The supreme PURPOSE OF --to glorify the Father. What is this? Not laudation however enthusiastic; not contributing to His blessedness and grandeur, this is impossible--but the revelation of Him in our character and life. Whatever creature works out the nature that God has given him in harmony with His will glorifies Him. It is here indicated that we can only glorify God as He glorifies us. There is more of God seen in a Divinely-inspired and righteously-regulated soul than in all the splendour of the heavens. II. The supreme MISSION OF CHRIST. In John 17:2 it is suggested 1. That Christ is Master of the race. “ Power over all flesh.” His authority is absolute and independent, yet never interfering with the freedom of any of His subjects, and estimating their services not by their amount but their motive. 2. That Christ is Master by Divine appointment. The Divine rights of kings is an impious fiction, but Christ reigns by right divine, and therefore we should obey Him and rejoice in His government. 3. That Christ is thus Divinely appointed in order to make us happy. Eternal life or goodness is the supreme necessity of man. Goodness is eternal because God is eternal. Sin is death. III. The supreme SCIENCE OF MAN (John 17:3). Physical science is promoted and extolled amongst us. But compared with this knowledge all else is a meteor flash. I only really know the man with whose character I have an intense sympathy. Only so can I know God, and thus knowing God I have eternal life (D. Thomas, D. D.) The hour is come The supreme hour When regarded aright, no hour of any human life can be considered unimportant. It is a portion, and a necessary portion, of one great whole. It may seem to be trivial. We may treat it as though it were of little worth, casting it from us as something we can afford to waste; but that is to act with ignorance, if not with criminality. Examine any building from the foundation to the top-stone, and the architect, who sees the meaning of every stone and the reason of its position, will tell you that all the stones are needed for strength, for symmetry, or for beauty. Remove one, misplace one, and its importance will be evident, for to that degree the structure is imperfect. It is so with our life--the hours of which it is composed are of untold value in their relation to each other and the great whole of which they are parts, so that we dare not be indifferent concerning any one. This is further manifest if we remember that any hour may be to us the most momentous hour of all. Yesterday is the parent of to-day, and by an inexorable law, to-day’ s history makes the facts of tomorrow. So that it may be said that in the present hour, as the germ in the seed, lies our coming destiny. How, then, can we call any period unimportant, if it leads on to the most important of all? It becomes great by what it helps to bring. And to every life some great and solemn period comes--a period that may be called the greatest--a period that is decisive--a period that seems to condense in itself all others--for which all others have prepared--just as it is said the hundred years of patient culture have prepared the aloe-tree for the single year in which it blossoms into flower--a period when we are tested--when it is seen what our real characters are--a period which we each may describe as “ My hour.” Then we may win everything or lose everything that is worth having. These hours may come in youth or middle age. They do come to us in our temporal affairs and in our spiritual history. Now, the two facts of which I have been speaking are in an infinitely higher degree true of Jesus Christ. There was no season or event in His career that was in any sense unimportant. Knowing who He was--the Divine Man, the world’ s Saviour--it is impossible to think of even His simplest action as without significance. Yet we notice that even in His life, in which every moment was supremely great, there was a period which stood forth to His own mind, and which appears in the history as overshadowing all other periods, and, indeed, giving new importance to them all. We have here a remarkable illustration of I. A DESTINY . It has been maintained by some that there is a certain fixed plan or destiny for every life. The mere statement of such a theory is sufficient to suggest immediately the immense difficulties with which it is surrounded. For you begin to think upon the multitude of gross, wicked, worthless, and suffering lives that are passed in the world, and to wonder whether they are all according to the appointment and will of God. Yet it is impossible not to be convinced that if there be a God, wise, powerful, good, He must have some plan and purpose for all human lives. This, in few words, is our conception of Divine Providence--it is care for the whole, and care for each part. God is the God of order, and if He had not a purpose and a plan, and consequently what we may term a destiny, for each human soul, He would be working without order, and chance and accident would be the governors of the world, and not God. This we can never believe. That it is possible to get out of this order, and to follow our own blind and foolish wills, choosing our own path rather than God’ s, seems to me also undeniable. Just as a father, looking upon his son, shall say, “ I will educate and prepare my boy for such a business or profession; he shall go to this school for so many years, and then at such an age he shall be placed yonder, and I shall have great comfort when I am an old man in seeing him fulfil all those purposes which I have cherished as the best ambition of my life.” All fathers, I suppose, have some such ideas as these. But how few are realised? The son begins to exercise his own freedom of choice, and sometimes bounds off in a directly opposite road--and all the plans seem confused and broken and worthless. Is not the whole Bible a record of the fact that men constantly choose a way that is not His way, and seem to frustrate the destiny for which they were appointed? All sin is a disturbing element in God’ s plans. Yet with this in view we are compelled to believe in the existence of a sovereignty that is able to see all possible contingencies, to estimate and provide for every catastrophe, to compel all things to work out His designs. If I did not hold fast to that, the world would appear to me a chaotic confusion, a terrible place of disorder--no lordship, no mastery--and, therefore, an unaccountable mistake.We come into life for a purpose What that is seems hidden from us. We learn by experience; all is concealed, and it is only afterwards we see God’ s purposes, just as Joseph, when in Egypt, saw them. He could not understand his destiny when taunted and sold by envious brothers. It was all mystery when, through a false charge, he was thrust into prison. Some men, however, have seemed to be inspired by an almost supernatural belief that they were sent into the world to accomplish an object very clear to their own minds. The great moral and spiritual reformers of every age have expressed themselves as Divinely inspired and delegated to fulfil the great mission to which they have given their energies--until it was accomplished their hour had not come. Now when we speak of Jesus Christ in such a connection as this we do not forget what and who He was, and that His mission was one of grander importance than that of any other being who has entered our world. He acts and speaks as though He knew and could see that His life and His death are all the result of a prearranged plan. There was to be nothing accidental--nothing that could be attributed to the wild uncertainties of chance. He came not so much to live as to die. That was the supreme hour of His life. For then He became the Lamb of God bearing the Sins of the world. Then He accomplished the purpose of Divine mercy; revealed as it was never before revealed the infinite love of God’ s heart to a race that regarded Him with fear and suspicion and hatred. That was Christ’ s hour--an hour of untold sorrow, but an hour of wondrous triumph and glory. Do you not see that distinct plan--luminous, certain, inevitable in our Lord’ s life? Is it not the thing in His life? Take that away, and what is left? The meaning has gone. The beauty is marred. Like music without the leading part, the air, there may be harmony, but the chief significance is altogether wanting--you can make nothing of it. II. A DESTINY OVER ALL . We have said that this object lay before Christ all through His life, that all pointed to that supreme hour. But have you ever thought what wonderful preservations there were which prevented any failure? To most of us the thought of Christ’ s failure is overwhelmingly terrible, for it means to us the quenching of all hope, a night of bitter despair. A world such as this without a Saviour is the most frightful of all conceptions. What more fearful spectacle can we imagine than that of a company of wretched shipwrecked men fixing all their hopes upon a lifeboat that has started to save them, and yet doomed to see it and their would-be saviours overwhelmed and drowned by the angry sea? But, thank God! that was impossible. Yet He was tried. The devil tried Him in those fierce wilderness-temptations. He would have had Him show His power then, and so gain triumph. When He was in the midst of a multitude teaching them the great truths of the kingdom, His very relatives came and attempted to seize Him, declaring that He was mad. The Pharisees and scribes, with some of His own friends, urged Him to work miracles, and by some grand display of power win a victory over all hearts. Nor, on the other hand, could evil pervert or hinder Him. Persecution ever dogged His steps seeking occasion to destroy Him, but it could not prevail against Him. But His hour was not yet come, and He calmly passed through the midst of them and went His way. Twice the same reason is assigned for His preservation. What was it made them so helpless, then, in comparison with the time shortly after, when they could take and maltreat and crucify Him according to their own wicked will? What was it? Surely the might of God. These facts are rich with comfort to all the faithful servants of Christ in times of anxiety and trouble about their own lives and their work. If we have yielded our hearts to Divine guidance, and are striving in all we do to subordinate our wills to God’ s will, to work out His plans in our life, then we have a right to believe that He is ever presiding over our course, arranging and controlling events and circumstances by a wise, unerring, merciful Providence, and that in all He is working out His gracious purposes. So that no room is left for fear. So, on the other side, if any should fear lest the final hour will come and cut them off from achieving the work on which their heart is set--illness, sudden feebleness, even early death-let such be comforted. There is a grand truth in the familiar phrase, “ Man is immortal till his work is done.” (W. Braden.) The momentous hour 1. In every man’ s history there are hours of peculiar importance. When a young man leaves home for the first time, and when he becomes his own master; when the man of enterprise wins his first battle and establishes his claim to the public confidence; when the scientific or literary man publishes his first or his greatest work; when the mother gives birth to her first child; when we die. 2. Note the deep interest our Lord attaches to this hour. It was always present to His imagination: In the brighest hours of His life, as at Cana and the Transfiguration and when the Greeks came to Him, and at the darkest, in Gethsemane. I. JUSTIFY THE WHICH ALL DEVOUT MINDS ATTACH TO THIS HOUR, not only in earth, but in heaven (Revelation 5:11-12). 1. The estimate which God forms of it. As there are some seasons on which man fixes with peculiar interest, so with God--the day of creation, the day of the deluge, the day of the Lord, but beyond all is the day of the Son of Man--his birth hour and death hour. 2. The long train of dispensations which preceded it and pointed it out. This is the key of them all. When God at sundry times and in divers manners spake to the fathers, it was but to point to the hour when He should more fully speak unto us by His Son. If He manifests Himself to patriarchs, it is to point out to them His day; if He chooses a peculiar people it is to make them depositaries of the promises of His coming; if He appoints sacrifices and ceremonies, it is but to typify His death. 3. The great work that was accomplished in that hour. (1) Man’ s redemption. (2) Satan’ s overthrow. (3) The harmony of the Divine perfections. (4) The opening of the gates of heaven. II. WITH WHAT FEELING SHOULD WE REVERT TO THE OF THIS HOUR? 1. With the deepest humiliation that such a sacrifice was needed on our part. 2. With a humble determination to apply its benefits. (Homiletic Magazine.) The supreme hour “ Father, the hour is come.” The hour; the hour of all hours the most important. What hour like that in interest, what hour so big with momentous issues on all the past, and on all the future! That was the central hour of all time’ s hours. The confluence of the two eternities was at that time-point. That hour was the keystone of time’ s huge arch, that arch which rests on the one side, and the other on eternity. Many hours in the world’ s history are marked and memorable. The hour of the birth or death, the crisis-hour of one of the world’ s great ones, a thinker, worker, statesman, or warrior; the hour which gave birth to and introduced some mighty revolution, which proved to be the birth or death hour of a nation, altering the destiny of millions of our race for weal or for woe, is important and to be marked; but what hour like this! an hour which had its bearing on the whole universe, and whose transactions were to effect eternally God and man, angels and devils. It was for this hour that the great clock of Time was set in motion at first. It was for this hour that the world was created and upheld; for this hour Heaven’ s justice waited; in it sin was made an end of, and transgression was finished; in it the law of God was magnified, and made honourable; holiness was vindicated; the devil and his work virtually destroyed; death slain, and God’ s chosen people saved with an everlasting salvation. The hour is come. The time was numbered to an hour. The betrayer had gone forth on his fell errand; the machinery of death was prepared, and the Victim was ready to bleed and die on the altar. And He it is who reminds the Father that the hour is come. It is Isaac that tells Abraham that it is time he should be laid on the wood and the knife be upraised. The Lamb of God says, It is time He should die, to take away the sin of the world. The hour is come: how solemn and how applicable are the words! This hour was long in coming, but it has come at last. The eye of many a priest and prophet, king and peasant, of the olden time, had been strained in looking earnestly across the intervening ages towards that hour; but, one by one, the eye of these men grew dim with age and closed in death, and still it came not. (T. Alexander, M. A.) The final hour of the Son of God This hour was marked by the union of wide extremes, by strange contrasts, and wondrous results. This will appear if we consider it I. AS THE HOUR OF THE DEEPEST AND YET OF GLORY. 1. The Son of God was humbled by taking our nature upon Him, and by the poverty and reproaches which He endured; but all these were nothing compared with the humiliations of this hour. 2. Yet it was the hour of His glory. Sense saw nothing but the darkest clouds of shame; faith beholds those clouds gilded with heavenly splendour. (1) The highest virtues were displayed in that hour--fortitude, meekness, submission, forgiveness, filial tenderness, above all, love. (2) He was glorified by God. As there were miracles at His birth, at His baptism, in His ministry, so in His death. As on Mount Tabor He received glory and honour, so on Mount Calvary. II. AS MARKED BY THE OF HUMAN CRIMES AND THE MOST OF THE DIVINE MERCY. 1. Jesus made His appearance in a wicked age; among other reasons for this, to show that the worst may find mercy. In this hour every evil appears under its greatest aggravations. Hatred of goodness, resistance to the authority of heaven, opposition to the evidence of truth, ingratitude. 2. The hour was not less distinguished by the mercy of God. The murderers were spared to be the subjects of grace. The Sufferer whom they hurried to Calvary was then bearing the punishment of their sins. He whom they stretched upon the cross was the atoning Lamb then laid upon that rude altar. The blood which they drew was then flowing to wash away the guilt even of their sins, and to sprinkle the mercy-seat to give their prayers acceptance. III. AS WICKED MEN AND THE EVER-BLESSED GOD AND . The intention of the Jews was obvious. 1. It was to destroy Christ and His religion together, and they seemed fully to have accomplished their purpose. Ah, the blindness of man! Christ was put to death by wicked men; but in this they only accomplished “ the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Their success was their failure. They conceived that they had disproved His claims to the Messiahship by killing Him; but of the truth of these claims His death was one of the strongest evidences. It accomplished the prophecies and fulfilled the types. 2. They expected, too, to maintain the honour of their law against Him who, as they conceived, proposed to destroy it; but by the very means of His death that law was abrogated. When Christ said, “ It is finished,” the shadowy dispensation passed away. IV. AS BEING THE HOUR OF THE TRIUMPH AND OF HELL. 1. The tyrant Death triumphed over Him who declared Himself to be “ the Resurrection and the Life.” Satan triumphed over the Church. The disciples were dispersed, and hope was gone. 2. But this very hour of triumph was hell’ s overthrow. Approaching it Christ rejoiced in spirit, and said, “ Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” The arm extended on the cross was extended that it might shake down the kingdom of Satan. The head was bowed that it might wear crowns won from the destroyer. He suffered the stroke of death only to rob the monster of his sting; and He sunk into the grave only to seize the key of its power, to open the gloomy realms, and call forth the prisoners to everlasting life. And the triumph over the Church was but temporary. The disciples were scattered only to be gathered again; discouraged only to be emboldened. V. AS FROM EVERY OTHER as a point of time standing between the eternity of the past and the future, and related to each in a manner which marks no other. 1. From eternity it was regarded by God. His plans of creation, providence, and grace were all arranged with respect to it. The law was given and types were set up all with reference to it. To it the patriarchs looked with intense feeling. The prophets inquired diligently into the import of their own predictions. 2. Through time and the eternity which follows there will be a constant looking back upon this hour. The Saviour looks back upon His sorrows. He remembers what it cost Him to redeem; and He will not therefore hastily destroy. Penitents look back to that hour, and hope for pardon, holiness, and eternal life. Saints look back upon it; and it fires their love and kindles their joys. The glorified spirits of believers will for ever look back upon it, and exclaim, “ Worthy is the Lamb,” &c. Conclusion: This eventful hour suggests 1. The infinite evil of sin. 2. Motives of (1)The strongest hope. “ He that spared not His own Son,” &c. (2) Love and obedience. How can we sufficiently love Him who has shown all this love for us? (3) Holy fear. “ Where much is given, much is also required.” (R. Watson.) Glorify Thy Son The Divine glorification I. THE FACT. “ Father, the hour is come.” He does not say “ Our Father” as He had taught His disciples to say, for that would have seemed to place Him on a level with them; nor “ My Father,” as this might seem to suggest separation; but He says simply “ Father!” that great name which He alone had fully unfolded as summing up all the grace of His nature and all the mystery of redemption. The “ hour” was the hour of 1. Mysterious suffering. 2. Mortal conflict (John 14:30). Satan’ s hosts were to be overthrown and the world emancipated from their grasp. 3. Glorious exploit. It was the crisis of the world’ s history and hope. II. THE . Jesus here speaks in the third person--“ Thy Son,” not “ Glorify Me” ; as if to indicate still more impressively the relationship between Him and the Father. But this was not all that was meant. The voice from the celestial presence had again and again declared, “ This is My beloved Son,” &c. The Saviour here, as it were, reminds the Father of this. The words “ glory” and “ glorify” vary in signification according to circumstances. Glory to a man engaged in earnest conflict would be victory; to a man struggling with poverty affluence; to a man in sickness, health. So Christ has in view the hour of agony, and the completion of His work and His glorification has, therefore, a special relation to that. The petition comprehended 1. Divine recognition. “ Own Me as Thy Son.” And this glorification was given Him. Nature sympathized with the mysterious Sufferer, and the Roman centurion was constrained to say, “ Truly this was the Son of God.” Especially by the Resurrection was He “ declared to be the Son of God with power.” 2. All-sufficient support, that He might bear up under all and go through all as became Him who had undertaken the work of human salvation. 3. Perfect success. He had come to do a glorious work, and its accomplishment was essential to His glory. III. THE OBJECT. “ That Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” Do not these words bear decisive testimony to the Godhead of our Saviour? What mere creature could presume to ask this? The Divine glory would be secured by Christ’ s suffering, for it was 1. The vindication of the Divine authority which had been defied. Sin could not pass unpunished in the universe of a holy God. Therefore the incarnate Son gave Himself to the cross as heaven’ s protest against hellish falsehood and man’ s iniquity, and to make an end of sin. 2. A new revelation of the Divine character. Evil had darkened the human mind so that the knowledge of God among men became lost. The Creator was looked upon with dislike and distrust. Jesus came to reveal the Father. Men would see in the Cross more gloriously than anywhere besides the perfections of the loving, righteous, and merciful God. 3. The triumph of the Divine grace. Jehovah’ s highest honour amongst men is in the pardon of sin and the salvation of the lost, and in the bringing of many sons unto glory. (J. Spence, D. D.) The mediatorial glory of Christ The Lord Jesus is here praying in His mediatorial character. He is praying not as God alone, nor as man alone, but as God-man. And praying thus as God-man, He seeks that the Father may glorify Him. In the fifth verse we are told distinctly what the glory was which He sought. It was the very same glory which He had with the Father, when He dwelt in His bosom before the forthgoings of all time. As God He needed not to seek this glory. As God it was His of eternal and natural right. But as God-man, as the Covenant-head and Surety of His people, it was the promised reward of His work, sufferings and death. It was not all the reward, but it was part of it. He shall see His seed. He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. These were parts of it, but this glory was part of it also. As the one only Covenant head of His people--as the one Daysman between God and man--as uniting in his own person the Divine nature and the human, and in that person doing a work, He was to be exalted, and that above every name, thing and power. He was to be uplifted, as the representative of His Church, to the supreme seat of the universe, as God-man in glorified humanity, He was to be surrounded with the full blaze of the glory of eternity, to be made the centre of every holy eye, the joy of every holy heart, the love of every ransomed soul. He, the Sun of Righteousness, was to ray forth every beam of the Father’ s love, power, excellence, and perfection. As the Head of His Church--the representative of His people--all honour and all glory were to be His, the full glory of the Godhead was to be His; the glory of the triune Jehovah, as it existed before the birth of time, in the remotest silence of the past and unpeopled eternity, was to be His, and for an inheritance for ever. As the Eternal Son, and so as God, He had a right of nature to the undivided glory of the triune Jehovah, but as God-man, and as the Substitute of His people, He stood on other ground. Ere He could possess this glory, as Mediator, He had a work to perform. He had the law to obey, its curse to endure, and God to glorify on the earth; and, in consideration of this work and as a reward for it, as God-man, this, the accumulated glory of eternity, was to be conferred upon Him by the Father. (T. Alexander, M. A.) As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh The royal prerogative I. THE TO CHRIST. It is of mediatorial supremacy. The word rendered “ power” is “ authority” --the right of dominion. 1. The source of this authority was God (John 5:22-26). 2. Its nature is power to legislate and rule. 3. Its extent is universal--not the race of mankind only. His dominion as the Christ extends to all life that has been damaged by the Fall and cursed by sin. 4. This supremacy is not a matter of mere doctrinal importance, it is of momentous interest and highest encouragement. He who rules over us is one of ourselves, with human feelings and human sympathies, and yet altogether free from human imperfections. II. THE WHICH CHRIST IS SO 1. Its object is to give eternal life to man. (1) It presupposes that men are doomed to die or are dead. (2) But there is life, and Christ Jesus is invested with mediatorial power to give it (1 John 5:12). 2. Its extent. “ To as many,” &c. The interests and affections of the Father and the Son must be identical; still there is the truth that the Father’ s gift to the Son measures the Son’ s gift of life to men. But vast is the gift which the Father has given to the Son (Psalms 2:8; Hebrews 2:10; Revelation 7:9). 3. Christ exercises this prerogative personally and directly. Human governments influence their subjects indirectly; but life comes straight from Christ to every one of His disciples through the quickening grace of His Holy Spirit. He has entrusted to no Church, system, set of men, this power. Hence every one of His disciples may say as truly as St. Paul, “ He loved me and gave Himself for me” ; and exclaim with St. Thomas, in adoration and worship, “ My Lord and my God.” (T. Alexander, M. A.) Christ’ s authority 1. As the text stands it is sometimes interpreted to mean that God gave Christ power over all flesh in order that He should impart eternal life to a certain number selected by the Father and given over to Him. In the stricter rendering, the meaning appears rather to be that God has given Christ authority over all flesh, that to all given to Him He might give eternal life; thus suggesting that it is God’ s plan to give Him authority over all in order that He may give eternal life to all. Then if that be the ease, if any do not receive that life it is because they resist the authority. It is their own fault. In the contrary view not only does it appear unnecessary to have given Him a universal power for a partial work; but those who do not receive the life are not to be blamed, as they never had the opportunity of receiving it. If I were to gather fifty people and say, “ I have received authority from a person whom you ought to obey to offer you a gift, which I hold in my hand for those who wish to have it” ; supposing some turned away, the blame would be their own if they did not receive it. But if I brought the same persons together, and said, “ I have authority to offer some of you, privately selected, a gift which I have here” ; you could not find great fault if some sat still and said, “ We do not see why you have summoned any except those chosen favourites, and we will wait to see if we are among them.” In the one we see what looks like a flaw in the perfect justice of God, which we do not see in the other. 2. But some people will say we have no right to sit, so to speak, in judgment on the perfect justice of God. Do you remember John Knox’ s answer when Queen Mary asked him who was he that presumed to school the nobles and the sovereign of her realm? “ A subject, madam,” said he, “ born within the same.” Birth has its rights; and one of the birthrights of God’ s children is to form their own judgment of their Father’ s dealings with them. Does God’ s character come fairly out of a transaction such as has been described? Why authorize Christ to say, “ Come unto Me all ye that labour,” &c.; when the real meaning is--“ You may all come, but there is rest for the souls of only a certain number.” Now, the meaning which we find in the most literal rendering of this text is most in agreement with the righteous character of God. Let us see what the statement teaches us. I. GOD HAS GIVEN CHRIST OVER ALL FLESH. 1. Authority is a higher thing than power, for it appeals to that which is within a man, while power appeals to the outward man. Though I had no rightful authority over a man, I might have such a power over him as to force him to do my will; but my power could not coerce his reason or conscience. It is to these authority appeals. It may rule these though it has no outward strength, and may be powerless and yet be none the less authority. Christ’ s authority over all men was the same when He hung upon the cross as when He raised the dead. For it was not an official authority such as that of viceroy, which ceases when he is recalled; such as that of the priest who claims to absolve the sinner and direct the conscience, because he has been ordained by a bishop. It was not an authority which He had won for Himself by His displays of power, and which was lost when these were made no longer. It was the authority of the Divine character of the perfect Man swaying, because of His Divine perfectness, the hearts and minds of men. 2. We are helped to understand this when we compare with this chap. 5:27. Christ receives authority to judge men because Himself a Man, and yet the embodiment and example of the sinlessness of which they fall short. The authority which Christ has over us is the authority of love. And there is no authority like this, because you see Him to be the worthiest of your love and in whose love for you have full confidence. II. OUR IN REGARD TO THIS . 1. Had He an absolute power over us, then of course there would be no resisting. We should be forced to yield to Him. But this authority we can resist, or we can yield to it. What it expects from us is spiritual submission. In thus yielding to Him we are carrying out the desire and design of God. We are working together with Him, so are working out our own salvation; for the end for which God has planted this Divine authority in Christ is that we should have “ eternal life.” 2. This is eternal life--to enter into the light and freedom and blessedness of a true knowledge of God as He is revealed in Christ. It is the life of the spirit, the life which is akin to God’ s and can never taste of death. We enter on this through yielding to the authority of Christ. The essence of the eternal life is not endless existence. That might be a curse rather than a blessing. Let us understand 1. That God has given His Son authority to win us by love, not to sway us by force. 2. That God does not work in order to bless any one section of mankind, but to bless the race at large. The authority of Christ is co-extensive with that dominion of God which is over all His works. 3. To trust this all-embracing love and goodwill, and do what we can to meet it, and to show in our own lives its sanctifying power. 4. To feel our responsibility. (R. H. Story.) John 17:3 This is life eternal The everlasting life I. THE OF WHICH OUR LORD SPEAKS. Life is a great boon. “ My kingdom,” a dying monarch is reported to have said, “ for an inch of time.” Yet after all what is this present life in itself (James 4:14)? And when it is most eagerly prized and most hilariously spent, its possessor may in the saddest sense be dead (Romans 8:6). Eternal life is the highest possible life for man. Two causes may end our life on earth. It may be terminated by external force or by inward disease. Eternal life 1. Has nothing to terminate it from without. Force from God alone can end life; and the Divine power is entirely on the side of this life. 2. Is without anything to end it from within. Disease destroys physical life. But eternal life is the progress and consummation of a life begun on earth by a new birth from God, and has in it no element of evil. II. HOW CAN THIS LIFE BE ? It is not that this knowledge leads or points out the way to attain it. Life itself consists in this knowledge 1. God and Christ are its objects. The Father is called “ the true God” in opposition to false deities. The juxtaposition of Christ with the Father, and the knowledge of both being defined to be eternal life, is the strongest inferential evidence of the Godhead of the Son. But why does Jesus, as Mediator, thus make the knowledge of Himself essential to life? (1) Because the Father can be known only through the Son; and (2) known as gracious towards mankind only in Him. 2. But we must not suppose that this is bare intellectual knowledge. It is the conscious possession of God. Certain truths about God may be seen in many ways and everywhere; but the spiritual perception of God Himself can only be reached in Christ. 3. This knowledge involves spiritual submission to God, or the personal reception of Him. Only to the soul that receives Him will He reveal His Revelation 3:20; John 14:23). To all who receive Him, He manifests Himself as He does not unto the world. With respect to our fellow-men, we frequently use such language as this: “ I scarcely know him,” or “ I knew him well,” and the phraseology varies according to our acquaintance with the man’ s character or his moral and social qualities. We may believe from report in a man’ s generosity; but how different is our estimate or appreciation of his character when we can say from experience that we know it. Abraham believed God and obeyed; but when the Divine promise was fulfilled, and the Divine faithfulness proved, the patriarch knew God in a way that he did not know Him before. III. HOW COMES IT THAT THIS TRUE OF GOD IS LIFE? We know what connection there is between knowledge and the energy and enjoyment of our every-day life. “ Knowledge is power.” It has the power of salvation, transformation, progress. It is knowledge which lifts up the life of the savage. The highest knowledge for man must be the highest life. 1. The true knowledge of our heavenly Father involves the communication of influence, and influence flowing forth from God is quickening. Real knowledge cannot be received without a healthful influence on the soul. A penitent child cannot know that his father has forgiven him without feeling emotions of tenderness and joy. What, then, must be the influence of the knowledge of the true God, our God and Father! 2. This knowledge promotes fellowship and communion with God, which is life. To man, as a social being, fellowship with others is life. The contact of thought with thought, and the communion of affection with affection, are elements of men’ s true life on earth. What, then, must be the fellowship of the soul with God, but life of the highest order? 3. This knowledge promotes likeness to God; and this assimilation to God is the very highest life (1 Col 3:10). (J. Spence, D. D.) The knowledge of God is eternal life I. WHAT IS IN THE OF GOD? 1. In answering this question, we need hardly remark that it implies a knowledge of God’ s existence. The remark is self-evident. The knowledge that He is the beginning of all knowledge of God. But whilst this is comprised in a knowledge of God, it does not constitute the knowledge. A man may know that there is a God; he may not only know it from the statements of others, but he may have actually examined it, and may be well conversant with the evidence of God’ s existence with which nature abounds, and be able to give to every man that asketh him a reason for his belief, and yet he may be destitute of that knowledge which is “ eternal life.” How exquisitely the Scripture speaks upon this point! “ Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe and tremble.” You need to know something more--something that devils do not, and cannot, know--in order to the enjoyment of eternal life. 2. Again, it comprises a knowledge of God’ s attributes, such as His eternity. His omnipresence--that, as He existed throughout all time, so He fills all space and pervades all worlds. His omniscience--that, existing throughout all time, and pervading all space, He knows all things. Such are some of the attributes which are essential to Divinity; and I need not say that the knowledge of these is comprised in a knowledge of God. But, then, all that, along with the knowledge of God’ s existence, does not constitute the knowledge of which our text speaks. There is reason to believe that devils know God’ s nature as well as existence; and yet they tremble. Ah, my brother, this knowledge might well drive thee to despair: but it cannot give thee peace. It may convince thee of sin, and fill thee with alarm, but it cannot give thee peace. The knowledge of something more than this is necessary to eternal life. 3. In proceeding to show what it is which constitutes this knowledge, I beg you to notice that it is what is described in the text as the knowledge of Jesus Christ, whom God has sent. It is so described because it is through Christ that the knowledge is communicated. (1) And, first of all, you have in Christ a manifestation of God’ s hatred of sin. In proof of this I might refer you to the distance at which He kept Himself from all that was sinful, though inhabiting a world in which sin was fashionable, and where temptations to sin were abounding, Not at a distance as regards locality, but distance as regards character. I might refer you, too, to the manner in which He denounced the wickedness of those over whose sin He mourned and wept. If God did not wink at sin in the person of His own Son, how, think you, will He wink at sin in you? If it could not be allowed to pass unpunished when it was beheld in Christ, though He prayed, “ Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me,” will it be allowed to pass unpunished if found in you? You think God is merciful, so He is; but He is just, and He is holy--a God of spotless purity. This truth, at first sight, may excite your fears; yet it is needful for you to know it, because it supplies a powerful motive which is necessary to keep you back from sin; to lead you to mortify sin, and thus to produce in you meetness for heaven--the truth that it is not enough to know that God hates sin. This will never give you a title to heaven, nor will it produce in you a meetness for the enjoyment of eternal life. (2) You need to have something more than this, in order to your enjoying eternal life; and this leads me to observe, secondly, that in Christ you have a manifestation of the love of God. But even this is not enough. It is not enough to know that God loves us; that though He is just, He must punish sin. You need have something more in order to your enjoying life eternal. Oh, then, ponder the statements of God’ s Word in which that truth is found; and until it falls on your understanding, until it is impressed on your hearts, never to be erased--and, thank God, you need not wait long--for oh, it is plain and easy, and even now you may open your hearts to the perception of it, and even now you may enter into faith; even now you may look up to your God as your Father and your Friend; for both by word and by deed does God say, “ I have accepted My Son’ s work for thee, O sinner; I was well pleased with what He has done for thee; His death is a perfect atonement for all thy sins; I am satisfied with it; be thou satisfied with it, be at peace, be thou reconciled to God.” I do not mean to say that what I have set before you contains anything like full knowledge of God. No man can find out the Almighty to perfection. It does not amount to even an index of what might be known; it is only of the knowledge which is necessary to life. II. And now let me proceed, in the second place, to show, as briefly as I can, HOW THE OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE, or in what sense it is. 1. And, first of all, it is so, if you consider eternal life as consisting in the enjoyment of God’ s favour. We read in this book, “ And in His favour is life.” Now, the knowledge of God is essential to the enjoyment of His favour. It is true that His favour rests on men, whether they know Him or not; for how else could they account for the varied blessings which they are daily receiving? But, then, though it rests on them, they do not enjoy it whilst they do not know Him. Their own feelings are just as unpleasant; their relation to God is as painful; they are as much alienated from God as if He were really their enemy. 2. And, then, again, the knowledge of God is eternal life, if you regard eternal life as signifying the privileges and enjoyments of the heavenly cities. The knowledge of God imparts that character, or produces in man that character, which increases the enjoyment of heaven. The character on which heaven is conferred is “ conformed into God’ s image” --sympathy with his feelings and his desires; or, in other words, it is living in a oneness with God. Now, the knowledge of God necessarily and invariably produces this character in man. The Cross of Christ contains a motive power which the human heart, depraved as it is, cannot both contemplate and resist. No man can truly and intelligibly say that Christ died for me, and gave Himself for me; God’ s wrath was suspended over me, the Saviour stepped between me and that wrath, that it might fall on Him, and that I might be saved--no man can say that without loving God in return. 3. And then, again, the knowledge of God is eternal life, if you understand the knowledge of God as heavenly happiness. Whence, let me ask, do the redeemed in heaven derive their happiness? Is it from the splendour of the place which they occupy? from the beauty and sublimity of scenes upon which they gaze? is it from the music with which their ears are charmed, or from the delicious fruits with which they regale themselves, or from their exalted companionship? No. They know that God is love, and that is their happiness. God is set forth to their contemplation as a God of love, and they find their employment, and their enjoyment too, in meditating on the proofs of His love with which the universe abounds--every new discovery giving a new impulse to their zeal and a new zest to their praise. And, hence, you find John speaking as if this were the consummation of the saint’ s desire: “ We know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (W. Landels.) Eternal life in the knowledge of God and Christ 1. When Jesus said these words, the transitoriness of life was pressing upon Him and His disciples. When life seemed frailest and most unreliable, they heard Him praying, “ This is life eternal.” The assertion of something in life, which lasted and did not go to pieces, must have come in very solidly and nobly. So often when we are most conscious of mortality, when disease is triumphing over that which disease can touch, the least reminder of that which is immortal restores us, puts courage into our frightened hearts. 2. What is it, then, whose eternity Jesus proclaims so confidently? When everything else decays, what is it that is imperishable? Jesus says it is the knowledge of God and of Himself. Now, remember that the knowledge of God and Christ must mean, and in the Bible always does mean, s personal relationship with God and Christ. It is not mere absolute knowledge. It is what He is to us, not what He is to Himself, that we may know of God. So that to know Christ and God is to have to do with Christ and God in the way of love and service. And Jesus says that the permanent part of our life is the part which has to do with God. 3. Here is a very clear and simple test of all our life. Our houses must decay. What is there in them that will last? That which had to do with God. Not their bricks and mortar, but the tempers and the hearts that were cultivated in them. Our institutions will perish--even our churches. But that which really knew God in them no tooth of time can touch. Our friendships and relationships have a promise of permanence only as they are real spiritual intimacies knit in with one common union to God. 4. When we fasten our thoughts on this, how it changes the whole aspect of the lives and deaths of men! Here is a poor, holy man dying. How little difference death makes to him! He is to keep all that has to do with God, and to lose all the rest. What is there for him to lose? How much there is that he will keep! But another man, so much richer, lies dying. What an enormous change death is to him! All his life has been worldly. What is there that he can keep? How almost everything he must lose! 5. Thus the eternal part of us is not that which God shall choose at some future day to endow with everlasting life. Eternity is a true quality in the thing itself. This really brings me to what I wanted to preach about--the regulative and shaping power of a Christian faith in this life. What are the great deficiencies of daily moral life? I. THE BALANCE OF . Men know what duty is, but the even, steady pressure of duty upon the whole surface of a man’ s life is something which thoughtful men are always missing. On one day the sense of responsibility is overwhelming. The next day it is all gone. The consequence is doubly bad. Some tasks are wholly neglected, and others are done under a burden and a strain which exhaust us. Our life grows all spasmodic. Oh, for some power which, with broad, even weight, should press every duty into its place, coming down from such a height that it should be independent of their whims and moods, and weigh upon tomorrow and to-day alike, calm, serene, eternal. Now hear our text. There is the answer to our longing! To love God out of gratitude, and to want to serve Him out of love--there is the rescue! The doing of all duty, not only for itself, but for His sake who wants it done--this is what puts force and pliability at once into duty, making it strong enough for the largest, and supple enough for the smallest tasks, giving it that power which the great steam engine has, with equal fidelity to strike down a mountain and to pick up a pebble, adapting its movements to such different work. Is not that the redemption of responsibility? II. THE SENSE OF . The decay of the power of feeling this is one of the sad things of all advancing life. It is not so hard for children. The young man has not settled yet into the fixed tastes and occupations which decide for him with whom he should have to do. And so he easily strikes hands with everybody, and has a certain superficial brotherhood with every one he meets. But as the man grows older his life draws in. He cannot reach out and take in a larger circle. Even patriotism is harder than it used to be. And to let his affection go sweeping out to the ends of the earth and down into the gutter where the outcasts lie--this seems preposterous. How can one keep and grow humane? “ This is life eternal,” &c. If I have lost sight of my brethren, I must go back to my Father to find them. It is the Father’ s house that we must meet. I am not merely a merchant among the merchants, a lawyer among the lawyers, a minister among the minister. I am a son of God, doing His will out of love; a son of God among the sons of God. III. THE BEARING OF TROUBLE. Trouble comes to everybody, and what men ordinarily call bearing it, is apt to be one of the dreariest and forlornest things conceivable. How you hate and dread to go into that house of suffering. What you do find is apt to be either a man all crushed and broken into fragments, or else a man proud, cold, stern, hard, whom you pity all the more for the wretchedness of his proud, hard misery. But now neither of these men is really bearing his sorrow. Neither of them has really taken his trouble on his shoulders, to carry it whither he pleases. Each of them, in different ways, is borne by his sorrow. And now, what is the matter with both these men? Simply that they laid out a plan of life which was not broad enough or deep enough to have any place for trouble. When they designed their lives, they left sorrow out. So many lives are like ships sailing for Europe in the brilliant morning of a summer’ s day, and, by and by, when they are out in mid-ocean, and the night comes, and the sky and water both grow black, finding that they have brought no lights of any kind. And then, if I turn aside and find a man who really does bear his sorrow, what is it that is different in him? It must be this: that he has some notion of life which is large enough to take in trouble. The Christian enters into the profoundness of consolation because he loves his Governor and his Educator. “ This is life eternal,” &c. IV. THE LACK OF . There come occasional moments in every man’ s long life when he feels that he is living nobly. Something makes him forget himself, with ardent enthusiasm fire up for a principle, with easy scorn push back temptation, with deep delight glory in some friend’ s greatness, greater than his own. The man is pitiable who has known no such moments. But one or two such in a man’ s life only show out by contrast the general low level at which our lives are lived. There is a littleness that wearies us. There is a drag to everything, that makes us ask: “ Is it worth while?” Now all those qualities which make up nobleness must become permanent and constant in any man who really knows and loves God and Jesus Christ? Be a Christian constantly, and you must be noble constantly. Know Christ’ s redemption, and, seeing all things redeemed in Him, their possibilities, their ideas must shine out to you. Unite your life to God’ s, and it must glow with the enthusiasm of His certain hopes. Give yourself up to your Redeemer, and you must be rescued from selfishness. Love God, and you must hate His enemies, treading sin under foot with all His contempt and indignation. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) On knowing God I. THE OF GOD. 1. The existence of God lies at the foundation of all religion: and, therefore, the knowledge of God is the touch-stone of its principles. Error and falsehood are not going to yield to any science but that of Deity. 2. It is the lack of this knowledge which sustains impiety. The stupidity of sinners would be gone if they saw clearly what God is. That one thing they shun. They do not like to retain God in their knowledge. 3. If Christians knew God better, their piety would be increased. Those ancient saints, whose happy attainments held them superior to the world, always nurtured their piety by much study and fellowship with God. 4. This subject of knowledge can never be exhausted. A finite mind, perhaps, may reach some point in eternity when it shall have compassed all other subjects, and be able to look down upon and over all other fields of knowledge without darkness and without a doubt. But God still lies above it--beyond it! 5. By a true knowledge of God, we shall have a clear and experimental discernment of the beauty and grandeur of His character. Hence, we shall feel the desirableness of being like Him. 6. Our relations to God are such that we ought greatly to desire to know Him well. He is our Maker; He wilt be our Judge. II. SOME FOR THIS STUDY. This knowledge of God tends 1. To humble us. When we know Him best we know ourselves best. It is this that dissipates our delusions. “ Woe is me! I am undone.” Why? “ Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” 2. To crucify us to the world. To have a spiritual understanding of the exceeding excellencies of God makes the world seem but a very little thing. It shows us its emptiness. The heart uses that new arithmetic, to count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 3. To purify the heart. No sight is so transforming as that of God. When we can have our minds and hearts brought so as to see with open face the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. 4. To confirm and establish the believer’ s heart. Speculation cannot do this. Self-examination, submission to creeds and forms, and all study of doctrines, cannot do it. To have full views of God; to know Him by direct fellowship; to live in His presence, and lie down and feel that the everlasting arms are around him, shows to the believer the fulness and the faithfulness of God, and confirms his heart in something like the full assurance of hope. Now he can call God his Father. 5. Hence such a knowledge of God is most satisfying and safe. (I. S. Spencer, D. D.) The knowledge of God The Holy Scriptures often use the phrase, “ knowledge of God,” or “ the knowledge of the Lord,” as a character of true religion. This phrase is particularly applied to that premised period in which the power of religion shall universally prevail. “ They shall all know Me, from the least unto the greatest.” “ The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth,” &c. In the ancient Scriptures the knowledge of God was usually propounded simply; here it is propounded in a manner corresponding to the clearer light of the Christian dispensation in its inseparable connection with the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And note that our Saviour connects the knowledge of God with the universal prevalence of Divine truth (John 17:2). I. THE NATURE AND OF THIS OF GOD. It comprehends 1. A just conception of His existence, attributes, and administration--i.e., of Him as “ the only true God.” Consider (1) His matchless Deity. (2) His inimitable truth. “ The true God,” says our Lord (a) In opposition to all the false deities. (b) In His enactments, promises, threatenings; so that He will in no sense deny Himself. (c) As the sole and inexhaustible source of truth. (3) His exclusive claim--“ the only true God.” 2. Experimental acquaintance with Him as our God and Father and our portion. This is knowledge of the heart. By the other the eyes of the understanding are enlightened; by this the desires and affections of our hearts are filled and sanctified. It is this knowledge of God which is of the utmost importance. It is not speculation which may teach you to inquire, but faith, which constrains you to trust, which gives you the right knowledge of God. 3. A practical acknowledgment of His authority and government. This last particular shows that the true knowledge of God embraces all religion, as it elevates the mind, sanctifies the heart, and regulates the conduct. “ The children of Eli knew not the Lord” ; that is, they gave practical evidence that they were utterly estranged from an obedient acknowledgment of Him. “ And thou Solomon, my son,” says David, “ know thou the God of thy father.” He amplifies and explains that direction in what follows:--“ And serve him with a perfect heart,” &c. II. THE METHOD IN WHICH THIS IS BY US. By approaching Him through the believing knowledge of Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent as our Saviour. 1. Man, until visited by the “ Day Spring from on high,” is destitute of the knowledge of God. Is not his mind covered with darkness? Is not his heart alienated by guilt and depravity? Is not his life one continued scene of rebellion against the Most High? 2. This knowledge of God cannot be obtained by man alone. Man has had opportunities to try to do so on the largest scale. Go, then, through all the resources of human wisdom, the splendid scenes with which His universal temple is hung around; listen to all the voices which are incessantly sounding in our ears and proclaiming our Creator and Preserver; traverse the spacious Temple, mark its stately proportions, and gaze on its sublime beauty; and when you have done all, inquire, “ What must I do to be saved?” There is nothing in all this that teaches me, a guilty and fallen creature, the way to God. 3. This is the way--the way which is opened by Jesus Christ. You cannot come to God as your Father, especially to God as your reconciled and gracious Father, but by Jesus Christ. III. THE WITH WHICH THIS IS . “ This is life eternal.” Consider the knowledge of God in Christ 1. In its commencement. Go to that simple and happy Christian believer who has just found this knowledge. He will give you, perhaps, not a doctrinal statement, but a living pattern, which in many respects is better. While he speaks of the knowledge of God in Christ, he associates it with inward experience. He will testify that he who believeth in the Son of God hath everlasting life; that he has the life of pardon and peace. He was “ dead in trespasses and sins,” but he is “ quickened together with Christ.” 2. In its more mature progress. Go to the experienced Christian. He may be an unlettered man, perhaps, and be perplexed if you asked him a definition, or to expound a difficult passage of the Holy Scripture; but, under the assistance of the Spirit of God, he has embraced the system of truth itself. In all his course, the knowledge of God in Christ has been inseparable from advancement in the Divine life. 3. In its consummation. Then we shall “ see as we are seen, and know also as we are known.” Conclusion: 1. Have we acquired this knowledge? If we have not, may I not say, “ Some of you have not the knowledge of Christ; I speak this to your shame.” Have you spent twenty, thirty, forty, or more years, yet dark, dead, rebels against God? 2. Let me earnestly exhort you who are in quest of this knowledge of your God, that you seek it in the right way. “ Yea, doubtless,” says the Apostle, “ and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” To know Him is to know the way that leads to the Father. 3. Let me exhort you to do all you possibly can to promote this knowledge of God in Christ. We ought to do that on a large scale; we ought to unite in those truly sublime societies which are aiming to extend the knowledge of God in Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth. But if it be valuable for the ends of the earth, it is valuable for your own homes. If pagan families and vicinities ought to have it, yours ought to have it. (J. Hannah, D. D.) Knowledge--power in religion (Text, and Hosea 4:1-19; Hosea 5:1-15; Hosea 6:1-11):--The adage. “ knowledge is power, is of universal application. That many act contrary to the truth in their possession is no proof that this is not so. That the wicked remain wicked, the drunkards remain drunkards, the selfish selfish, only proves there is another power within them which decides their course rather than the dictates of knowledge. I. THE OF IN THE , 1. Moses commanded the Israelites to teach their children Deuteronomy 6:9). 2. The prophets were teachers. 3. The Levitical tribe was not only a tribe of priests, but also of teachers. 4. Christ Himself is a Prophet. 5. The apostles were instruments of salvation by proclaiming its principles. 6. The work of the Church in all ages is to bear witness to the truth--to make it known. II. HOW IS POWER IN ? 1. Necessary to begin a new life. (1) We are to know God, His law, duty, and our failure to obey, in order to repent. (2) We are to know Christ, His power, His acceptableness to God, His willingness to save, in order to believe in Him. “ How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?” 2. Knowledge necessary to the growth of the new life. Life must be fed--vegetable, animal, intellectual, and spiritual life. 3. Knowledge necessary to be useful. I do not underrate silent influence of the faithful. But still the Church needs (1) Fathers and mothers. (2) Sabbath-school teachers. (3) Superintendents. (4) Helpers in prayer meetings. (5) Church officers, and (6) Christians in the walks of private life, with copious religious knowledge. III. HOW IS TO BE SECURED? 1. In the early Church it was chiefly oral instruction by preaching and catechizing. 2. In palmy days of European Protestantism it was (1) Family catechizing. (2) Extensive religious instruction in common schools, religious text-books. (3) Catechizing by the Church authorities before confirmation. 3. With us the Sabbath School largely takes the place of these. 4. What are we to do? (1) Seek to appreciate the fact stated in the text. “ Destruction for lack of knowledge,” and “ Life eternal by knowledge.” (2) Return to perform the parental duties of instructing the young. (3) Literature inculcating fact rather than fiction, e.g., sacred history, Church history, history of the Reformation, doctrine. (W. Veenschoten) Saving knowledge I. IN THE OF LIFE. It is clear from the previous verse that the two are synonymous, and it is easy to see from the frequent connection of the two by Christ and the apostles how accurate it is to call salvation eternal life. Men as sinners are spiritually dead Ephesians 2:1). The power of evil has so worked upon their souls as to make them deaf to the voice, insensible to the goodness, and indifferent to the claims of God. So far, then, as the life of love, trust, and obedience, and joy are concerned, sinners are dead. What they need, then, is a salvation which shall put them in possession of life, which shall consist in the quickening of their dormant powers, in the righting of their perverted affections, in the bringing back of their souls into likeness to, and fellowship with, the living God. This was just the salvation Christ was sent to impart, and for which He had power over all flesh. Consequently, this is “ life eternal,” not as being a life that belongs to eternity, but a life that is distinct from and opposed to temporal, earthly and carnal--eternal in its quality. From the moment that we accept Christ as our Saviour it is ours John 10:27-28; 1 John 5:13). II. THE LIFE IN WHICH HAS ITS ROOT AND GROUND IN . The words must be taken as they stand. This knowledge is not the means of, but is eternal life--a representation to which attention needs to be called now-a-days. Many attach to knowledge a subsidiary importance in relation to the spiritual life. There is no statement more common in certain quarters than that religion is not a creed, but a life. This divorces religion from the intellect and makes it a purely emotional thing. Christ here declares that eternal life is founded on knowledge, thus teaching that before Christianity can be a life it must be a creed. Learn here 1. The sacredness of knowledge. 2. Its importance. 3. Its perpetuity. III. THIS IS THAT OF GOD AND CHRIST. 1. Of God. (1) There is a sense in which God cannot be known. He is so different from ourselves in the constitution of His Being, and so superior to us in His attributes, that there is a great gulf which no thought or imagination can overpass (Job 11:7-8). Indeed, if we could know God as we know one another, He would not be God. He would not be infinite, for the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. (2) But there is a sense in which we can know Him; in so far as He has revealed Himself in the gospel, and sufficient for intelligent and trustful love. This knowledge then (a) Is not simply the knowledge that we can glean from God’ s works. Here we can know God’ s power, skill, thought, care; but not Himself: just as from a book we may get occasional glimpses of the working of the author’ s mind and the features of his character, but fail in any real measure to know the man. (b) Is not merely the knowledge we can gain from His Word. We may be familiar with the contents of Scripture and yet know no more of God Himself than we do of a man from what others have written about him. (c) Is the knowledge which comes also from fellowship between our souls and God. This is the true ground of our knowledge of others. Souls must reveal themselves to souls through friendship. 1. We must study God’ s works and read His Word, but besides this we must get into cordial fellowship. In this we must ask for the help of His Spirit, and lay ourselves open to what His Spirit shall teach. 2. Of Christ also. The line of thought just pursued must be followed here. The persons are two, but the knowledge is the same. And for this reason the mission of Christ was the manifestation of the Father. Exactly in the degree in which we know Christ the Revealer shall we know God the Revealed. This knowledge must come (1) Through the Scriptures that teach us concerning Him. (2) Through the fellowship which unites us to Him. (3) Through the Spirit who takes of the things of Him and shows them unto us. When in these ways the mind has come to accept Christ, and in the acceptance of Christ has accepted God in Him, eternal life is ours. (B. Wilkinson, F. G. S.) Death of Fisher When Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, came out of the Tower of London and saw the scaffold on which he was to be beheaded, he took out of his pocket a Greek Testament, and, looking up to heaven, he exclaimed, “ Now, oh Lord, direct to some passage which may support me through this awful scene.” He opened the book and his eye glanced at this text. He instantly closed it and said, “ Praised be the Lord! this is sufficient for me and for eternity.” (W. Baxendale.) John 17:4-5I have glorified Thee on the earth The glorification of God The words may be considered I. IN A SENSE; so they are proper to Christ; 1. “ I have glorified Thee.” Christ glorified God (1) By His person (Hebrews 1:3). (2) By His life and perfect obedience (John 8:46; John 8:49). (3) By discovering God’ s mercy (John 1:14). (4) By His miracles (Matthew 9:8; Mark 15:31). (5) By His passion. (6) In His doctrine. God was much glorified in the Creation (Psalms 19:1), in His providences; but mostly in Christ, redemption being the most noble work with which He was ever acquainted. In creation, the wisdom, goodness, and power of God appeared; in providence, the justice, mercy, and truth of God; but these in Christ in a more raised degree. 2. “ I have finished the work,” &c., implies (1) The submission, faithfulness, and diligence of Christ Philippians 2:7; John 13:1). (2) The completeness of our redemption (Hebrews 10:14; Romans 8:1). (3) The Divine appointment of His work (Psalms 40:7-8). II. IN A MORAL SENSE in which they apply to us. 1. What it is to glorify God upon earth, &c. (1) What? God is glorified passively. So all things shall at length glorify Psalms 76:10; Romans 3:5; Romans 3:7). This is no thanks to them, but to God’ s wise and powerful government. We glorify God actively when we set ourselves to this work, and make it our end and scope. Thus actively to glorify God is (a) To acknowledge His excellency upon all occasions (Psalms 50:23; Psalms 145:10). (b) To resign our wills to His. Verbal praises merely are but an empty prattle (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12). God is most glorified in the creatures’ obedience. First, to His laws, when we study to please Him in all things (Colossians 1:10). Second, to His providence. It is an honour to Him when we are contented to be what God will have us to be, and can prefer His glory before our own ease, His honour before our plenty Philippians 1:20). (c) To entertain the impressions of His glory upon us, i.e., when we grow most like Him, and show forth His virtues (1 Peter 2:9; Ephesians 1:12). A Christian’ s life is a hymn to God; his circumspect walking proclaims God’ s wisdom; His awfulness and watchfulness against sin, His Majesty; His cheerful and ready obedience, His goodness; His purity, God’ s holiness. (d) To do those things which tend to the honour of God’ s name, and to bring Him into request in the world (1 Peter 2:12; Matthew 5:16; chap. 15:8). (e) To promote His interests in the world. This is the method of the Lord’ s prayer, “ Hallowed be Thy name;” and then, “ Thy kingdom come.” (f) To do the work which He hath given us to do. First, the duty of our particular relations. If poor, I glorify God by my diligence, patience, innocence, contentedness; if rich, I glorify God by a humble mind; if well, I glorify God by my health; if sick, by meekness under His hand; if a magistrate, by my zeal (Nehemiah 1:11); if a minister, by my watchfulness; if a tradesman, by my righteousness. From the king to the scullion, all are to work for God. Second, the duty of our vocation and calling. Every Christian hath his way and place, some work which God gave him. (g) To make God the great scope and end of our lives and actions. In our ordinary actions (1 Corinthians 10:31). So in acts of grace. (2) Where? On earth. (a) Where so few mind God’ s glory, but seek their own things Philippians 3:20). (b) Which is the place of our trial? Many expect to glorify God in heaven, but take no care to glorify God on earth. But here where the danger is there is the duty and trial (Matthew 10:32). (3) How? “ I have finished,” &c. (a) It is work that glorifieth God; not empty praises, but a holy conversation (Matthew 5:16; Psalms 50:23; John 15:8). (b) Every man has his work. Life was given to us for somewhat; not merely that we might fill up the number of things in the world, as stones and rubbish: not to grow in stature, like the plants; nor merely to taste pleasures, like the beasts. God gave man faculties of reason and conscience to manage some work and business for the glory of God and his own eternal happiness. The world was never made to be a hive for drones and idle ones. (c) This work is given us by God. By His word. There is no course of service good but what is agreeable to the word of God (Psalms 119:105; Titus 2:12). By His providence, which ruleth in everything that falleth out. But how should a man glorify God in his place and station wherein God hath set him? Be content with it; God is the Master of the scenes, and appoints which part to act. With patience digest the inconveniences of your calling. (d) This work must be finished and perfected (Revelation 2:10; 2 Timothy 4:7-8). 2. Why this should be our great care? (1) This is the end why all creatures were made (Romans 11:36; Proverbs 16:4). (2) God has a right and interest in us (Romans 14:7-8; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). (3) We shall be called to an account (Luke 19:23). (4) Great benefit will come to us by it. God noteth it (chap. 17:10), and rewards it (Matthew 19:28). (5) This ennobles a man. (6) God will have His glory upon you, if not from you, for He is resolved not to be a loser (Proverbs 16:4; Leviticus 10:3). (7) When we come to die this will be our comfort, Christ hath left us a pattern here; and Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:3), and Paul (2 Timothy 4:7-8). (T. Manton, D. D.) The heavenly glorification 1. Our Lord presents as a plea that He might be glorified--the fidelity and completeness with which He had discharged His trust. This petition rises beyond that in the first. In the first He prayed for glorification on earth, that He might be borne triumphantly, as the Divine testimony to His success. Here He prays for glorification in heaven, that He might be raised to that position of honour which by Divine right belonged to Him from eternity. 2. It is wonderful and encouraging that the Son of God should not only pray, but should use arguments for His requests. Thus, as in all things, He was made like unto His brethren. Notice I. CHRIST’ S HIS COURSE ON EARTH--“ I have glorified Thee,” &c. 1. His mission was a work; not a course of influence, or teaching only, but of glorious action, viz., the redemption of mankind from the power and consequences of sin. 2. This work was the result of Divine arrangement. Long before His advent He had declared, “ Lo, I come,” &c. (Psalms 40:7-8; cf. Hebrews 10:7). So that Father, Son, and Spirit, were alike interested in the accomplishment of redemption. Yet the work was specially personal to Christ. Great undertakings require great qualifications. Hence this work was laid on the “ strong Son of God,” who alone could accomplish it. 3. This world was the scene or sphere of the Saviour’ s work. In heaven God is ever glorified. How fitting, then, and necessary, that God should be glorified where He had been dishonoured. And mark what emphasis is laid on the personal element. Adam fell from his original innocence, and thus failed in glorifying God, and all his posterity have followed in his downward course. Jesus, the second Adam alone, could say, “ I have finished the work of God, I have glorified the Father.” 4. It is not difficult to see that the bearing of the Saviour’ s course on earth was for the glorification of the Father, although at the same time it had its relation and design in regard to man. His course was a constant acknowledgment of God. The thought of the Father was always first. He connected all that He said and all that He did with the Father. Men’ s minds were always directed by Him up to God. For the first time in history the Divine law, in all its extent and spirituality, found complete illustration and fulfilment. In Him we behold the personal revelation of God. In Him the brightness of the Father’ s glory, and the express image of His person. Men beheld the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 5. Christ, however, speaks of the completion of His course before it was actually closed--“ I have finished.” But it was virtually ended. Having asked to be glorified, He had no doubt of the issue. His active life of ceaseless beneficence and spotless innocence had run its course, and His work was accomplished. His words combine the profoundest humility with the loftiest dignity. II. THE SAVIOUR’ S REQUEST FOR HIS CROWN IN HEAVEN (John 17:5). These words assume that Christ had an existence before His appearance on earth; and that in His pre-existence He had Divine glory; and that His true and eternal glory, when He became incarnate, was necessarily veiled. Now He prays that, having accomplished His enterprise, He may resume His majesty, and rise again to His glory in heaven. This glorification involved 1. The enthronement of His person, with the new element of humanity added to His Divine nature. As relating to our nature, this was a marvellous request, and what a stimulus it is for us! With what a dignity does it invest our nature! Christ’ s love to humanity was so strong that He would not return to heaven without our nature. 2. The exhibition of His perfection. It was necessary that all the principalities and powers of heaven subject unto Him should see that His assumption of humanity brought no flaw to His infinite perfection; that His personal glory suffered no abatement from its new association. Hence, in the visions of the Apocalypse, we find angels and saints uniting in the new song of adoration to the Redeemer (Revelation 5:13). 3. The establishment and triumph of His kingdom. If the end for which He took our nature were not realized, how could He be glorified? The complete success of His mission was essential to His glory with the Father. Hence, as this kingdom advances, and this principle triumphs, He is glorified on His throne. (J. Spence, D.D.) Christ’ s retrospect of life Jesus brought honour to God I. BECAUSE HE SO LIVED AS TO MAKE OTHER MEN THINK MORE ABOUT GOD. “ Out of sight, out of mind” is the old adage; and because God is always invisible, therefore He is often forgotten. Whatever makes men think about God with reverence and gratitude thereby promotes His glory. In this sense, “ the heavens declare His glory.” They suggest to men’ s minds thoughts of His wisdom, power, and greatness. For service of this kind was there ever anything in the world like the words and deeds of Jesus? Jesus might not have mentioned the name of God, but do you think that you could have been in His presence one hour and not have bad your thoughts elevated Godward? Men saw Him heal the sick, raise the dead, &c.; was it possible for them to see and hear these things, and not recognize the power and love of God? The morality of Jesus’ teaching must have been a great power to startle men who had buried themselves in unmindfulness of the Most High. There was something in Jesus Himself that made men think of God. It is not possible for us to imitate the miracles of Christ; but it is possible for a man to manifest such a temper, that wherever he goes he will suggest thoughts of God. II. BY HELPING MEN TO THINK OF GOD MORE . We ofttimes make mistakes about each others’ character, and sometimes to their advantage. We give men credit for what they are not and have not. Bat no thought of ours ever goes beyond the truth about God. His character is nobler and greater than my best conception can be; therefore whatever helps me to see Him more perfectly, and corrects my mistakes about Him, promotes His glory. Was there ever anything in the world that had such power to clear the darkness that hid the glory of God, as the life and labour, the words and works of Jesus? Could men see and hear these things and help thinking better of God? Could they go on and not think of Him whose care is over all creation? III. BY A OF HIS AND HELP. How careful He was to make men understand that He was not in the world to pursue His own plans, or to follow His own purpose! He called His miracles the works of the Father. The habit of thanking God for all things became a conspicuous feature in His character, as we learn from this fact--that by means of it two of His disciples recognized Him after He camefrom the dead. When men see in us this constant recognition of Divine authority, help, and mercy, then in our way we can say with Jesus, “ I have glorified Thee on the earth.” Then, again, by His obedience to the Divine laws, His cheerful contentment with God’ s dispensations, His unfaltering trust in God, Jesus glorified God. Conclusion: 1. It is easy to think of glorifying God in heaven, where every heart is pure; but Jesus said, “ I have glorified Thee on the earth” --in life’ s difficulties, trials, temptations--where sin abounds. 2. It is a simple contradiction for a man to call himself a Christian and not to have an increasing anxiety to regard God’ s authority, submit to His will, give Him thanks for His kindness, and live to His praise and glory. (C. Vince.) Christ’ s a great work on earth The Son glorified the Father on the earth by finishing the work which He had given Him to do. It was a great work. None but the Eternal Son could have finished it. The dignity of the eternal law, which man had broken, had to be vindicated and upheld; the full weight of an infinite curse had to be endured. Each of the sins of all His people, which cleaved to them as a leprosy, had to be borne and carried away. The prince of this world had to be met and conquered on his own ground, the battle-field of this world. All this work had to be done in the face of the full strength and opposition of hell and all the powers thereof; in face, and in spite of the apathy and indifference, the ignorance and folly of His own, and the rage and antagonism of the powers of this world. The work had to be done, moreover, in man’ s nature. The nature that sinned behoved also to be the nature that suffered. (T. Alexander, M. A.) The Messianic purpose I. IT WAS CHRIST’ S END IN HIS OFFICE TO GLORIFY GOD. 1. What is it to glorify God? (Psalms 86:11; Revelation 4:11). (1) Not to add glory to Him (Psalms 8:1; Psalms 106:2). (2) But to declare the glory that is in Him (Matthew 5:16; Matthew 15:31; John 12:28; John 16:14). 2. This was Christ’ s end (John 7:18). (1) Not His own glory (John 8:50; Hebrews 12:2). (2) Not ultimately man’ s happiness (Philippians 1:11; Philippians 2:11), for (a) God does all things for His own glory (Psalms 46:10; Proverbs 16:14). (b) All creatures are bound to glorify Him (Leviticus 10:3; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11). (c) His glory is the best end (Romans 11:36). 3. How did Christ glorify His Father? (John 14:13) (1) By declaring His holiness (verse 11). (2) By showing forth His praise (Matthew 11:25). (3) By the works He did in His name (John 10:25; John 11:40). (4) By the occasions He gave others to bless and praise God (Luke 17:18; Luke 18:43; Philippians 1:11). (5) By teaching His disciples to ascribe all glory to Him (Matthew 6:13). (6) By the holiness of His life (Matthew 5:16). (7) By the manner of His death (John 21:19; Philippians 2:8; Philippians 2:11). (8) By the conquest thereby obtained over the devil (Hebrews 2:14). (9) By His glorious resurrection and ascension (Romans 1:4; Luke 24:51-53). 4. Uses (1) Comfort to believers, that their salvation is for God’ s glory (1 Timothy 2:4). (2) Exhortation to follow Christ in glorifying God (1 Corinthians 10:31). (a) In your thoughts (Proverbs 12:5; Isaiah 55:7). (b) In your affections (Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:2-3). (c) In your words (James 3:6-9). (d) In your actions (1 Peter 2:12). II. CHRIST HAS THE WORK WHICH GOD GAVE HIM TO DO John 4:34). 1. What was this work? The recovery of fallen man (1 Timothy 2:6). (1) To this end the Father accepted Him as our ransom (John 3:16;2 Corinthians 5:19-21). (2) He, to capacitate Himself for this great work, assumed our nature and became man (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 1:15). (3) Being thus made man, the Father exacted of Him (Isaiah 61:1-3; 1 Timothy 2:6) (a) An entire obedience to His laws (Hebrews 7:26). (b) To undergo suffering for sin (Isaiah 53:6; 2Co Hebrews 2:9). (4) By complying with such terms Christ ejected our redemption Hebrews 4:15; Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:30-31). 2. How did Christ finish it? (1) As to all sorts and kinds, He died and suffered (Philippians 2:8). (2) As to all parts, everything required. (3) As to all degrees, His obedience was perfect (1 Peter 2:22); and His sufferings were infinitely meritorious (1 John 2:2; Acts 20:28). (4) As to all the times of obedience, He continued in all things Galatians 3:10). 3. What benefits accrue to us hereby? (1) We are redeemed from all evil (Isaiah 33:22; 1 Peter 3:13). (a) From the wrath of God (Romans 5:9). (b) From the power of Satan (John 16:11; 1 John 3:8). (c) From the prevalency of sin (Acts 3:26). (d) From the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13). (e) From eternal torments (Romans 8:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:10). (2) Instatement in all good (Romans 8:32; 1 Corinthians 3:22). (a) In the love of God (Romans 5:1). (b) In a justified estate (Romans 3:24). (c) In the power of holiness (1 Peter 1:18). (d) In a title to eternal happiness (John 14:2). III. WE, IN OF CHRIST, OUGHT TO FINISH THE WORK WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN US TO DO (1 Peter 2:21; 1 Corinthians 11:1). 1. To glorify God. (1) By acknowledging our dependence on Him, and honouring Him accordingly (Psalms 86:9). (2) By discovering His glory and perfections one to another (Psalms 9:11). (3) By blessing and praising Him (Psalms 86:12; Luke 5:25; 2 Corinthians 9:13). (4) By confession of sins (1 John 1:9; Jeremiah 13:16). (5) By a dedication of the whole man to Him (1 Corinthians 6:20). (6) By being fruitful in holiness (John 15:8). 2. Why should we finish this work? This is the end (1) Of our coming into the world (Psalms 149:2; Proverbs 16:4; Revelation 4:11). (2) Of our being endowed with rational souls capable of this work (Job 35:10-11; Acts 17:26-27). (3) Of our preservation, and all the blessings we receive from Him Acts 17:28; Hebrews 1:3; Psalms 107:8). (4) Of all other works He enables us to do (Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31). (5) Of the gracious manifestations of His will to us (1 Peter 2:9). (6) Of the glorious hope set before us (Colossians 1:27-28; Hebrews 7:19). 3. How may we finish this work? We must celebrate (1) His omnipresence and omniscience by acknowledgement (Psalms 139:7-8), by suitable behaviour (Psalms 16:8), by sincerity in all our ways (Job 11:11; 2 Corinthians 1:12). (2) His omnipotence, by praying to Him (Ephesians 6:18), by depending on Him (Romans 4:20-21), by fearing Him (John 4:24; Isaiah 8:13), and humbling ourselves before Him (Isaiah 2:10-12). (3) His wisdom, by admiring it (Romans 11:33). (4) His sovereignty by submitting to it (1 Samuel 3:18). (5) His goodness, by loving Him (Deuteronomy 6:5), longing for Him Psalms 42:1-2), rejoicing in Him (Philippians 4:4). (6) His veracity, by believing Him (1 John 5:10), and so with His other perfections, mercy, justice, spirituality, &c. Conclusion: Glorify God because 1. He made you. 2. What you have He gave you. 3. He gave it for His glory. 4. The angels glorify Him. 5. He is highly offended in those who will not give Him glory Malachi 2:2; Acts 12:23). 6. Glorify Him, and He will glorify you (1 Samuel 2:30). (Bp. Beveridge.) I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. Work 1. It is work that glorifies God. 2. Each one has his proper work assigned Him of God. 3. This work must be finished on earth. 4. To have finished this work is the most consolatory death-bed reflection. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) Christ’ s finished work I. A WORK GIVEN TO CHRIST, AND BY HIM-salvation work. It was a prescribed work, a definite work, a complete work. We have a summary of it in Daniel 9:24. 1. He was “ to finish the transgression.” He did that by fulfilling the law, which demanded two things--obedience, and, failing obedience, satisfaction. Christ met the law in both ways. 2. He was “ to make an end of sin.” To seal it up (Revelation 20:3). 3. He was “ to make reconciliation for iniquity;” by giving up Himself, “ the just for the unjust.” 4. He was “ to bring in an everlasting righteousness” Himself, the righteousness of God (Romans 3:21; 2 Corinthians 5:21). 5. He was to “ seal up the vision and prophecy;” that is, “ to consummate, ratify, and fulfil them;” to secure all their precious promises, and to preserve them for His people--because a seal protects and preserves. II. THIS WORK CHRIST . Redemption is finished, the types and the shadows finished, forgiveness sealed and finished, the separation which sin had made between the sinner and God, and between the members in the body of Christ, finished, the distance annihilated, those who were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. III. THIS WAS NO LIGHT WORK. All the angels in heaven could not have accomplished it (Isaiah 59:16). 1. It was no insufficient work; the Lord Jesus left nothing for any to do. 2. It was no disappointing work; it did not disappoint the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Ghost, and it will not disappoint you (Romans 10:11). 3. It was no uncertain work; some people seem to think as if its completion depended upon whether they consented or not. 4. It is no unsatisfying work; try it! 5. It was no unnecessary work; without it no sinner could be saved; you cannot get to heaven by any other way, you cannot approach God in any other name; do not talk about your works, prayers, intentions, charity: “ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” &c. (M. Rainsford.) Life’ s work should be completed If any of you should die to-day, could you say to God, “ Lord, here is my life work. Thou didst send me into life with a handful of seeds, and here is my heart, like a garden, full of flowers” ? (H. W. Beecher.) Christ’ s reward His finished work I. CHRIST’ S WORK. 1. It is true of all men in a sense that they must finish the work given them to do. It may be well done or ill done, but we must each of us weave into the web of human story that bit of the pattern, be it dark or bright, which has been allotted to us. But though we have to finish our task, it may be anything but a finished piece of work for all that. The true soul looking back on its past cannot think but its life has been a poor thing after all. It is a thing of patches and broken ends, of wasted powers, opportunities lost, and the result is a lame and blemished offering that I am ashamed of, as I well might be. 2. But consider how entirely different the attitude of Christ is here. Though like us, having the same burden, and the same life of faith by which to direct His steps, and coming so near to us, yet what a gulf lies between Him and us in virtue of this one fact, that He was wholly without sin. Hence, when He comes to the brink of life, He can look back without one regret, and say, “ I have finished the work,” &c., so finished it that it needs no supplement, that it will tolerate no amendment. It had been given Him to reveal the Father, and He had discovered to us the brightness of His glory, &c. It had been given to Him to show us the path of life, and through the world’ s thorns and briers. He had walked on straight and undefiled in the way everlasting. It had been given to Him to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows, and with every human sympathy He had reached out and laid hold on all the ills of men, and made them all His own. It had been given Him to make His soul an offering for sin, and He was waiting, ready to be offered up. There was nothing which He undertook which He had not fulfilled, no opportunity given Him which He had failed to use. It looks, indeed, a broken life, when we think how brief it was, yet it was the only whole life ever lived on earth. 3. What encouragement lies for us in this, and how it helps to assure our heart before God. The glory which He claimed as His due is to be paid to Him in His people; it was for them that He finished His work, it is for them that He asks His reward. And as He had no misgivings about His right, no more should we when we are pleading in His name. II. THE PRAYER (John 17:5). It must have been a strange thing, even to those who had accompanied Him so long, to listen to those words. No saying of Christ contains a suggestion of stronger and grander importance than this. 1. Jesus in the solemn simplicity of prayer takes it on Him to speak to the Eternal Father about a time when as yet there was neither heaven nor earth, and as it were reminds His Father that even then He was not companionless, neither did Divine love shrivel into mere self-love. And the strange thing is to think of Him who called Himself the Son of Man calmly recalling these mysterious communings as part of His personal experience. 2. And now, as to the nature of that glory whose restoration He prays for. (1) We are apt, in a somewhat carnal way, to picture for the risen Lord that kind of regal magnificence which has always been the ideal of Eastern monarchs. Their notion of glory is to absorb to themselves all power and praise, and then to withdraw into privacies of undisturbed delight where toil and trouble may not enter, nor the cry of the afflicted or the groan of the oppressed. Christ never wore, nor wished to wear, such a crown, and was more glorious even in His crown of thorns than He would be with such honours. It was a true song the angels sang at Bethlehem, “ glory to God in the highest” when God was lying there in the stable; and to exchange the grandeur of that humility for any kind of state and magnificence would be to fall away from the reality of greatness and to get mere empty show and display. (2) What, then, was that glory? We read of the “ Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” and the “ Lamb foreordained from the foundation of the world.” Words like these remind us that, far back in a past eternity, the spirit of the Son was the same as now. His was an eternal spirit of obedience, sacrifice, and love. Because of this the Father loved Him and delighted in Him; this was His honour, to be the symbol and the revelation of Divine love. 3. That is the one side of the medal, and the other presents exactly the same picture. The heavens have now received Him, but heaven is partly opened to show us what He now is; “ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” is exalted still as a slain Lamb. There is change of place and circumstances, but no change of spirit. There are songs of praise sung to Him, there are crowns put upon His head, there are crowns east at His feet, but He is still the slain Lamb to whom honours and dignities are nothing except as giving Him power to work out the purpose of His life. His new power is only the means of new services, and His glory is to give us repentance and remission of our sins. It is as if the Cross were planted between the two eternities, whether we look backward or forward, it is the same glorious vision we behold. III. GLORY CHRIST ASKS IS FOR HIS PEOPLE’ S SAKE (John 17:10). He desires to realize it in them. The holy angels, and all the saints who have washed their robes, &c., cannot help singing, “ Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,” &c. But He turns from them all to His Church, and the thought of His heart is, “ Father, let Me be glorified in them.” The reward He sought and still seeks is that we should obtain His spirit; that we should be able to finish our work as He finished His, that He may be able to say of us one day, “ Well done good and faithful servant.” In a measure, it depends upon us whether the longing of Christ’ s soul is to be satisfied or not; He would be glorified in us, but if we are full of envy and malice and hatred, He is not glorified, He is dishonoured in us; He would be glorified in us, but if we are carnally-minded and selfish, caring only for the treasures that corrupt and perish, we do not glorify, we bring reproach upon Jesus. He would be glorified in us, but if we are slack in His work, counting His service a burden, He is not glorified in us, and He may well be ashamed to call Himself our God. But we are His glory, and crown, and rejoicing when in meekness, love, patience, righteousness, &c., we are doing in this world as He did; dead to it and laying up for ourselves the treasures which are unseen and eternal. See to it that you are going to be a crown of rejoicing to Him, and not a fresh crown of thorns. (W. C. Smith, D. D.) The complete work These are words which no other man who has ever left this world has dared to say, or could say. Even the best men say, when they realise their approaching death, “ I would that I might have lived to complete this work.” Or, more often, “ I feel as if my whole work were just beginning!” Or, oftener yet, “ I have done nothing!” The only perfect work is Christ’ s. Has anything in nature fulfilled all its purpose? Is any rose without a blemish? Is any pleasure--is any affection--all it could be? Does He not “ charge His angels with folly?” and are not “ the heavens unclean in His sight?” The ancient artists, in a true sense of the incompleteness of all which a human hand could ever do, were wont to inscribe on their highest works not “ he painted it;” or “ he sculptured it;” but “ he was painting it.” To Christ only, of all that ever trod this earth, it belongs to say, “ I have finished.” What then was this “ work?” I. TO BE A MODEL MAN. Therefore, as His great type and forerunner, David, went through almost all the vicissitudes of human life that he might write the Psalms, that keystone to every heart--so Christ passed through so many chapters of life, and filled so many relations, that He might be a Pattern to every one. II. TO BE A TEACHER. Therefore He is called “ The Word,” for as a word conveys mind to mind, so Christ conveys the mind of God to the mind of man. With this end in view, He was always changing the letter of law into its spirit; making the obedience at once far more strict, and infinitely more free. III. TO BE A FOR SIN. This vast “ work” Christ “ finished” on the cross, so “ finished” that it does not require or admit one iota of addition on your part. The worst thing you can do in the world is to treat that as unfinished! The unbelief in the finished work--giving God the lie, disparaging the work of Christ, and “ limiting the Holy One of Israel” --is a greater sin than all the guilt for which you may be now wishing and doubting whether you are forgiven. IV. TO BE THE HEAD OF A BODY. As such He died, rose, ascended. And every believer is a member in that mystical body. Therefore, believer, your death is past, and your resurrection and ascension are sure. V. TO GLORIFY GOD. The two in His mind stand as one. And nothing has ever reached its resting-place till it rests there. This only is final--and the final is the test of everything--“ Does it glorify God.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Life’ s work well done 1. We naturally link with these words Christ’ s last words (John 19:30). When men come to die, the mind naturally reviews the past and forecasts the future. As Paul lay awaiting death, he looked over the past and his mind rested with satisfaction on the fact that he had fought a good fight, &c. Then he looked forward, and the outlook was bright. “ There is laid up for me a crown.” As Jesus was brought face to face with death He looked back to see what He had done, and forward to see the final outcome of His life-work, He cried, “ It is finished.” 2. Those granite columns in our cemeteries are parables of human life. Over some graves the pillar rises furl and high, signifying a completed life. Over other graves the column is broken off abruptly, half way or near the top. Many a man’ s career in this world is like those broken columns. Men are naturally anxious to bring their undertakings to a successful, completion before they die. But how many fail! The field is left halt ploughed The author is called away when his book is only partially written. The mother dies before the children are grown. Die when man may, he generally leaves something unfinished. But it was not so with our Lord. He had been sent of God to do a certain work, and He early apprehended it. “ I must be about My Father’ s business.” In this work He never faltered. I. EVERY MAN HAS A WORK TO DO FOR GOD IN THIS WORLD, and should find it out and do it. “ The latest gospel,” says Carlyle, “ is, know thy work and do it.” Fill the place God has ordained you to fill. Alas! many never consider the meaning and purpose of their life. Suppose you should see an angel flying through space and you should haft him, “ Whither bound?” and he should answer back, “ Nowhere.” Suppose you should signal a ship on the sea and say, “ Whither bound?” and the answer came back, “ Nowhere.” How many in life are like that. II. THE SECRET OF EVERY GREAT AND TRUE LIFE LIES IN THIS TRUTH--e.g., Moses and Paul. William, Prince of Orange, laboured in the conviction that God had called him to his special work, and that he must finish it before be died. Oliver Cromwell realized the same truth. To those who were convened to judge the king he said, “ If any one had voluntarily proposed to me to judge and punish the king I should have looked upon him as a prodigy of treason, but since Providence and necessity have imposed this upon me, I pray heaven to bless your deliberations.” On his death-bed he prayed, saying, “ Lord, Thou art my witness, that if I still desire to live, it is to glorify Thy name and to complete Thy work.” Columbus was inspired to heroic endurance by the same conviction. “ Man,” he said, “ is an instrument that must work until it breaks in the hand of Providence, who uses it for His own purposes.” General Gordon’ s magnificent life was inspired by the same conviction. Nothing was created in vain. Every created object in the wide universe, from the mote that floats in the sunbeam to the archangel that serves next the throne, has a place and a work in the plan of the Creator. It is man’ s highest privilege and first duty to discover what God’ s plan or purpose of life for him is. To find that out and do it is to live to some purpose. “ He always wins who sides with God.” Some say, “ This is all true of the great ones of the earth, but my life is so insignificant that I cannot believe that God has any special work for me to do.” No life is insignificant or worthless. The smallest cog in the smallest wheel of the great manufactory has its place to fill and work to do. III. DO NOT UNDER- YOUR LIFE’ S WORTH AND WORK. “ Your life is worth something to God. Multitudes of men and women fail in duty because they under-estimate their worth. What is one star among the myriads above? What is one leaf or blade of grass to the million forms of vegetable life that mantle the earth with beauty? But let us not be oppressed with the thought of our littleness. A human soul is the highest of all created things. Man has a mind that, in some measure, can comprehend the vastness of creation. To man God has given dominion over all works. So that there is nothing great in the world but man, and nothing great in man but mind or soul. Do not think little of your place and work in God’ s vast universe. It makes little difference what work is assigned us of God so long as we do that work faithfully and well. IV. A MAN’ S BEST WORK IS OFTEN THAT WHICH GROWS OUT OF WHAT HE BEGAN. Look at the engine that George Stephenson used in 1825. What a poor affair it is alongside of those magnificent engines of modern make. And yet that old crippled engine was the mother of them all. What you do may be insignificant in itself, but out of that may grow a work that will bless a world. The seed you plant may grow a mighty tree, whose wide branches may shelter the weary and whose rich fruit may feed the hungry long after you have passed away. Here is a merchant prince. He is forward in every good work. You inquire into his life, and this is the story: “ In early days I was brought up among the poor and profane of a great city. I was induced to enter a mission school. My teacher was a gentle Christian woman. What she was and did and said touched my heart and waked up my better nature. I would give thousands to-day to know where she is, that I might thank her.” The mission teacher went home many a night with a sore discouraged heart. What surprise of joy there will be in heaven when the faithful workers meet there, for the first time, the results of their work on earth. V. THERE IS A OF LABOUR. This is of God’ s ordaining. To one man God has given the talent of invention, to another he has given the skill of the artizan, to others musical faculties, eloquence, aptness for commercial life, or medicine. Each should cultivate and develop his special faculty, feeling that his work is God-given. If God should send His angels to this world and commission the one to rule a kingdom and the other to plough a field or sweep a room, and if each did the work assigned them, they would each be equally rewarded and commended by Him who sent them. Robert Browning teaches this truth in that little poem, “ The Boy and the Angel.” This view dignifies labour of every kind. Here is a blacksmith welding together links of a great chain. He does his work faithfully and well. His work is a part of his religion. Years go by. The old blacksmith is dead and forgotten. A ship is on the sea and a wild storm is raging. The anchor is dropped. The safety of the whole ships crew and passengers depend on the chain that holds the anchor. All through the dark night and the wild storm the ship is held fast and sure. At last, when the storm is ended all gather on deck and with glad and reverent heart join in hymns of thanksgiving to God for deliverance. Yes, praise God for safety and praise God because that old God-fearing blacksmith put his conscience in the chain he made for the cable. Heaven will disclose heroes and heroines whom this world never dreamed of. Multitudes of them will come from humble homes and obscure corners. VI. LET US SEE TO IT THAT WE FULFIL THE PURPOSE OF OUR . They tell us that it is a serious thing to die; it is a more serious thing to live. Sad beyond expression will it be, to pass from this earth, so crammed with opportunity of usefulness, to the judgment-seat of Christ with our God-given work unfinished, and at last compelled to face the terrible fact that life is done and life’ s great work undone. It were better never to have had an existence than having it, fail in fulfilling the Divine purpose of our being. (J. B.Silcox.) John 17:6-8I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me.Christ’ s work upon earth I. ITS NATURE. The manifestation of the name of God. (John 17:6). In Himself invisible and incomprehensible (John 1:18; John 6:46; Job 11:7; Job 37:23; 1 Timothy 6:16), who and what He was must have remained a secret. Genesis 32:29; Judges 13:18), had not God been pleased to make some disclosure thereof. This He did in creation (Psalms 8:1; Psalms 19:1-3; Romans 1:20), and still does in Providence (Daniel 4:34-35; Romans 11:36; Ephesians 1:11). A further revelation He furnished to the Jews; but never till Christ came, who was the Image of the invisible Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:2); and who could say, “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9), was God completely manifested. Besides publishing to men the fact of the Divine existence, Christ unfolded 1. The nearness of God to man, and conversely man’ s nearness to God, a thought so little understood that even the Jews with Psalms 139:1-24, to guide them had no proper conception of God as a heavenly Friend. 2. The holiness of God--which, though dimly apprehended and vaguely believed in before the Advent, was never adequately comprehended until embodied in Christ (Hebrews 7:26). 3. The graciousness of God, which though referred to (Psalms 103:13; Malachi 2:10) was imperfectly realized until Christ taught men to say “ Our Father.” 4. The helpfulness of God. No one who looked on Christ healing the sick, pardoning the guilty, &c., could doubt that, if He was God’ s image, God could also relieve the needy. 5. The blessedness of God or, more correctly, the eternal life which is in 1 John 1:1). II. ITS . 1. The world. Although throughout this prayer a distinction is drawn between the world and the Church (John 17:6), and the Saviour’ s intercession is for the latter rather than for the former (John 17:9), yet Christ’ s manifestation of the Father’ s name has an outlook to the race no less than to believers. Of this perhaps a hint is furnished by the word “ men” (John 17:6). 2. The Church. Christ describes those in whom His work took effect as persons who had been (1) Separated from the race (John 17:6), i.e., in their characters as believers, while the world remained in unbelief (John 17:25, John 7:7; 1 John 5:19), separated by grace, which alone made them to differ (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 15:10), and separated unto the purposes of the gospel (Romans 1:1; Galatians 1:15). (2) Owned by the Father--“ Thine they were” --as His creatures Ezekiel 18:4), as being born of God (John 1:13), and so inwardly disposed to hear and obey God’ s voice (John 8:47; John 18:37). 3. Given to Christ--“ Thou gavest them Me,” (Ephesians 1:4-5; John 6:45). III. ITS RESULTS. 1. The reception of Christ’ s words (John 17:8). This world had rejected Christ’ s words (John 12:48): the disciples had believed them (John 16:27). A gracious soul desirous of learning the Father’ s name does not begin by criticising Christ’ s teaching, but with docility receives it into his understanding and heart (1 Samuel 3:9; Psalms 85:8; 1 Peter 2:2; James 1:22). 2. The recognition of Christ’ s words as the Father’ s (John 17:7; cf John 7:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13). 3. The preservation of the Father’ s words (John 17:6). To keep God’ s word means more than to remember it--viz., to enshrine it in the spirit, to give it a chief place in the affections, to subject to it the entire being, intellect, heart, conscience, will. Lessons: 1. Who would know God must study Him as revealed in Christ. 2. Who would be wise unto salvation must learn at Christ’ s feet. 3. Who would reach eternal glory must keep the Father’ s words. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Divine instruction We now come to the second part of this prayer, the intercessory portion of it. But before offering any special petition Christ states several preliminary pleas. These pleas are contained in the text. We have here I. THE . The Lord’ s words regarding them express a threefold relationship. 1. To the world. “ The men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world.” Originally these disciples, as they came into the world, belonged to it, with tastes, desires, and modes of thinking, &c, like the men around them. But they had been given “ out of the world” to Christ, so that their position in it and their relationship to it were alike changed. So it is with all the people of God; they are given to Christ “ out of the world,” to be taught and trained for service here and glory hereafter. But, alas I what a commentary does the conduct of myriads supply on these words, when the world seems to bound their ambition and contain their all. 2. To God “ Thine they were.” They were His by the law of their original creation, by the ties of providential preservation and blessing, and by all the bonds of moral obligation. 3. To Christ. “ Thou gavest them Me.” By giving them to the Son, the Father did not part with His property or His pleasure in them, for they were given to Christ in pursuance of a gracious purpose, and by the arrangements of an all-wise providence. This was the first small instalment of the promise that Jesus as mediatorial King should have the heathen given Him as His inheritance, &c. II. THE GIVEN. This, generally, was the manifestation of the Divine name. The name of God is often put for God Himself (Pr Exodus 34:5; Exodus 34:7). How often in aspects of attraction and grace is the name of God put before men in His Word. There he presents Himself as Jehovah-jireh, ever ready to provide for the wants of His people; as Jehovah-nissi, ever willing to defend them and lead them to victory; as Jehovah-tsidkenu, working out and bringing near to them an all-sufficient righteousness for their salvation; as Jehovah-shammah, blessing with His presence every spot to which His providence may bring them. But it was Jesus who manifested the Divine name in all its fulness of glory How did He do it? 1. By what He was. He came to be the representative amongst men of the infinite God. He was “ the brightness of His glory,” &c. Every element of the Divine glory had its perfect and practical embodiment in Him, so that in His personal history we have a living map of the boundless expanse of the Divine perfections reduced to the scale which our humanity can contemplate and study. 2. By what He said. (John 17:8). Every considerable human teacher has some theme or some aspect of a subject with which he is more especially familiar to which his own taste inclines him, and on which he loves chiefly to dilate Christ Jesus was master of all truth, but especially did He dwell on the glory and excellence of the Father’ s character. 3. By that which He did. He went about doing good. As His words were not His own, but His Father’ s, so also were His works (John 10:37; John 5:17). III. THE MADE BY THEM. 1. They accepted Christ’ s words. “ They have received them.” If His words commanded the attention and admiration of His foes, much more might be expected of His disciples; they devoutly received His words. Attention was not enough, nor admiration, nor mere assent: the words of Jesus dropped into the souls of these disciples as Divine seeds of thought, germs of higher life and hope. 2. They had some apprehension of the Divine glory of Christ--“ They have known,” &c. They recognised (1) The Divinity of His doctrine. They felt that His words were the truth of God; for they had in them the glow and glory of Divinity. (2) The Divinity of His person: “ That I came out from Thee.” He that could teach such truth about God, and do such works, and produce such impressions, must have come out from the Father (John 6:69). (3) The Divinity of His mission--“ That Thou didst send Me.” They mistook, indeed, for a long time its true nature and glorious design; but they recognized its Divinity. This apprehension of the glory of Christ is the highest attainment for men on earth, even as the contemplation of it will be the blessedness of heaven. To discover Christ and trust in Him is the triumph and turning-point of any human life here. 3. They clung to Christ; they maintained adherence to His truth. “ They have kept Thy Word.” Continuance was essential as it is still. To keep God’ s word was to obey it, walk in it, and abide by it. They were neither stony-ground hearers nor wayside hearers. Christ will not acknowledge any as His disciples who do not keep His word and endure unto the end. Hebrews 3:14) (J. Spence, D. D.) The Lord Jesus manifested the Father’ s name 1. By what He was. He was the representative of God upon the earth. 2. The Lord Jesus manifested the Father’ s “ name” by what He spake. In His teaching He set forth the Father in His nature and character. 3. By what He did, the Lord Jesus manifested His Father’ s “ name.” As His words were not His own but His Father’ s, so His works were the Father’ s also. (T. Alexander, M. A.) The apostolic community Christ here states two facts concerning the school He had established for the diffusion of His doctrines and Spirit--one infinitely superior to those established by any philosopher of ancient or modern times. I. THEY ARE GIVEN TO HIM BY THE FATHER. What does this mean? 1. Negatively (1) Not that a certain number were given Him in “ the councils of Eternity,” on the ground that He would become their substitute, and the rest passed by. This covenant is not found in the Bible, and seems derogatory to the Father, who is Love. (2) Not that men are so given to Christ as to interfere with their freedom as responsible beings. This would reduce men to mere animated machines. (3) Not that men are so given to Christ as to lessen God’ s claim upon them; nor (4) So as to render their salvation absolutely certain. If that were the case why does Christ pray for them? And why was Judas, who also was given Him, lost? 2. Positively. This means that Christ, as the Model of Piety, ascribes everything He has to His Father. The power of Pilate to condemn He regarded as the gift of God. The cup of suffering in Gethsemane was also the Father’ s gift. So with all things--“ All power is given unto Me.” So pastors are God’ s gift to a Church, &c. II. THEY ARE IN THE FATHER THROUGH HIM. They believed the Father so as 1. To obey His will. “ They have kept Thy word.” 2. To accept Christ as His Messenger. They were led to regard Christ as (1) The Administrator of the Father’ s blessings. (2) The Revealer of the Father’ s character. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Disciples, God’ s gift to Christ Thou gavest them Me 1. As sheep to the shepherd to be kept. 2. As patients to the physician to be cured. 3. As children to a tutor to be educated. (M. Henry.) The Father’ s gift to the Son I. ALL ARE GIVEN TO CHRIST. As 1. His purchase and His charge. 2. His subjects. 3. The members of His body. II. NONE ARE GIVEN TO CHRIST BUT THOSE WHO WERE FIRST THE FATHER’ S. III. ALL THOSE WHO ARE GIVEN TO CHRIST KEEP HIS WORD. (W. Burkitt.) Believers, the Father’ s gift to Christ The Son loved them as the Father’ s choice, He loved them as the Father’ s gift to Him. These are some of the bonds of the everlasting covenant which binds His people around the heart of His Son. They were beloved of His Father with an everlasting love. His Father chose them and set His heart upon them. He gave them to the Son as a gift of His love. Therefore the Son loved them. There are other, and strong, cords that bind Christ and His people together, but these are good and strong. How we love, how highly we prize a Father’ s gift! (T. Alexander, M. A.) Christian privilege and duty Note I. THAT BELONG TO GOD. “ Thine they were.” 1. By creative right--as a man has a right to the products of his skill and industry. 2. By sovereign right--as a monarch has a right to the loyalty of his subjects. 3. By Fatherly right--as a parent has a right to the affection and obedience of his children If, then, we belong to God (1) We belong to One who is wise to guide us, strong to defend us, authoritative to govern us, kind and wealthy to supply all our need. (2) How safe we are! (3) How happy and grateful we should be! II. THAT THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN BY GOD TO CHRIST. 1. In answer to prayer. “ Ask of Me and I shall give thee,” &c., and as we are given to, so are we kept by Christ in response to prayer (John 17:11). 2. As the purchase of redemption. “ We were not redeemed with corruptible things,” &c. 3. As the reward of conflict. Slaves of Satan are rescued and transformed into sons of God and joint heirs with Christ by the Saviour’ s conquering might. Learn, then (1) How precious we are to Christ. What so precious as a father’ s gift, a costly purchase, a trophy of fierce conflict? (2) How honoured we are by God! No higher dignity could be conferred upon us than to be given to Christ. (3) How imperative are God’ s claims! These are not relinquished, but emphasized. “ All Mine are Thine.” III. THAT CHRIST HAS TO THEM GOD’ S NAME. 1. Literally. The “ Father’ s” name was little more than a sublime guess and a devout hope before Christ came. But He taught His disciples to say “ Our Father.” 2. Exemplarily. “ My name is in Him.” “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” All the perfections of the Divine character were embodied in Christ. The Father’ s wisdom in His teaching; the Father’ s power in His miracles; the Father’ s love and justice in His death. 3. Experimentally. “ To as many as received Him,” &c. (Romans 8:15 - Galatians 4:4-31. This being so (1) Study the revelation of the Father in Christ’ s word and life. (2) Live up to your privilege as children of God. IV. THAT THEY KEEP GOD’ S WORD. This is their distinguishing characteristic and their imperative duty. It covers everything in Christian practice. He keeps this word 1. In their minds by understanding and remembering it. 2. In their hearts by loving it. 3. In their lives by practising it. (J. W. Burn.) I have given them the words which Thou gavest Me The fountain of Christian theology On the truth of this saying stands the whole fabric of creeds and doctrines. It is the ground of authority to the preacher, of assurance to the believer, of existence to the Church. It is the source from which the perpetual stream of Christian teaching flows. All our testimonies, instructions, exhortations derive their first origin and continuous power from the fact that the Father has given to the Son, the Son has given to His servants, the words of truth and life. (Canon T. D. Bernard.) John 17:9-16I pray for them The keeping of the saints I. THE PERSONS. “ Those whom Thou hast given Me.” The disciples in contrast 1. With the world (John 17:9). Christ meant, not that men, as men, were excluded from His intercessions, but that they were not then the object of His pleadings; He was then acting as the Church’ s High Priest, preparing to sanctify Himself as a sacrifice for His believing people. Hence the unbelieving world had no direct interest in the blessings He was asking. 2. With the son of perdition. Judas had by this time been excluded from the apostolic circle (John 13:30). II. THE --preservation in 1. Unity (John 17:11), such as expresses itself in one faith, one love, one body, one life (Ephesians 4:3-6). This is not only the subject of Christ’ s intercession with the Father, but the object of the Father’ s keeping of the saints. He keeps them, not by forcible compulsion, but by spiritual persuasion, helping them to understand the oneness of love, life, power subsisting between the Father and the Son, in such fashion that they earnestly desire and labour after such oneness among themselves; in this showing that they follow God as dear children. 2. In safety (John 17:15). One can imagine reasons why Christ should have prayed that the disciples should be taken from the world with Himself, e.g., He would rather be accompanied by those who had loved Him; and that it would be better for them than to be left exposed to the world Philippians 1:23). But He discerns grounds why it was better that they should be left (1) For themselves, inasmuch as they were as yet imperfectly sanctified. (2) For Christ, for the vindication of His honour, for the propagation of His truth. (3) For the world. They were to remain as salt to preserve it, as light to illuminate it, as leaven to work in it. Hence Christ prayed that they might be shielded from evil, from hurtful things (Mark 16:18; Luke 10:19; Acts 18:10); from wicked men (2 Thessalonians 3:2); from the evil one (1 John 5:8). 3. In felicity (verse 13). III. THE . 1. They belonged to Him, the Father (verse 9). Believers are God’ s (1) By nature, as His creatures. (2) By grace, as His children. (3) By community of interest with Christ (verse 10). 2. Christ’ s glory was involved in their preservation (verse 10). In them the world would behold His glorification, and the character of His religion. By them His glorification would be proclaimed, and the glory of His kingdom advanced (Acts 2:33; Acts 3:13). 3. They were about to be deprived of His presence (verse 11). Up to then Christ had shielded them; accordingly, like a dying parent, He commends them to His Heavenly Father’ s care. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Divine Suppliant The truths in this part of the prayer are I. THAT THE SUPREME GOOD OF MAN IS AND NOT . Christ prays that they may be “ kept from the evil,” “ sanctified,” and “ be one” with themselves, Him, and the Father. He does not pray that they may be healthy in body, prosperous in circumstances, or long-lived. He does not undervalue these things, but temporal prosperity to Him was insignificant compared with spiritual. There are good reasons for this. Temporal prosperity Isaiah 1. Insufficient to satisfy the cravings of the human soul. “ A man’ s life [happiness] consisteth not in the abundance of things,” &c. “ What shall it profit a man,” &c. 2. Often leads to spiritual adversity and ruin. How often it happens that the higher a man rises in worldly things, the lower he sinks in moral destitution. “ Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” II. THAT THERE IS A UNITY OF BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE FATHER. “ All Mine are Thine,” &c. This Isaiah 1. True absolutely. God is the universal Proprietor. We are only trustees, not owners. 2. True subjectively. “ Thine are Mine.” III. THAT SINCE THE OF CHRIST THE OF A GOOD MAN IN HIS DEPENDS ON THE AGENCY OF THE GREAT FATHER (verse 11). THE MEANING IS, “ I have taken care of them until now; now I commend them to Thee.” Note 1. The way of keeping them. “ Through Thine own Name,” i.e., His moral character. This is enough to convert them to, and to keep them in goodness. 2. The reason for keeping them, “ that they may be one as we are,” i.e., in supreme purpose, inspiring spirit, moral character. What attraction is in the material world, love is in the moral. IV. THAT AMONGST THOSE WHO ARE GIVEN BY GOD TO THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST THERE ARE BAD MEN AS WELL AS GOOD (John 17:12). There has ever been a Judas in Christian communities: tares as well as wheat; goats as well as sheep. Bad men as well as good are 1. The property of God. He can give them. 2. Under the direction of God. Judas did not go into Christ’ s school by accident, but that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. 3. Employed in the service of God. Judas did a useful work. 4. Must meet with a terrible end. The “ son of perdition” went to his own place. It is better for a man to fall from the level sands than from a lofty cliff; to fall into ruin from a corrupt world than from the height of Christian privilege. V. THAT THE GRAND DESIRE OF CHRIST IS THAT ALL HIS SHOULD IN HIS JOY (John 17:13). 1. Although in one sense “ a Man of Sorrows,” no man had so much joy as Christ. The joy of (1) An innocent conscience. (2) Disinterested love. (3) Close communion with the Father. 2. Now His desire is that His disciples should participate in this joy, and 3. At last “ enter into the joy of the Lord.” VI. THAT THE OUT OF CHRIST’ S DESIRE WILL EXCITE THE WORLD’ S HATRED (John 17:14). The world is ever in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ. The man, therefore, who will act out the one and live the other will ever come in antagonism with the world’ s passions and prejudices. The conduct of the godly acts on the sensibilities of the corrupt as the sun on diseased eyes, and music on diseased auricular nerves. VII. THAT IT IS SO TO LIVE IN THE WORLD AS NOT TO BELONG TO IT (John 17:16). (D. Thomas, D. D.) Why Christ prayed for the disciples Before proceeding to the more special petitions Jesus reproduces the two principal claims of the disciples to the Divine interest. I. THOU HAST GIVEN THEM TO ME--watch over Thine own gift; and the more since, in becoming Mine, they have not ceased to belong to Thee, but have even become more than ever Thine. For what I receive from Thee; I receive only to restore to Thee, and to ensure to Thee its possession. The present “are Thine” is purposely substituted for the imperfect “ we’ re Thine” (John 17:6), to express the idea that the gift of them to the Son has only confirmed their being God’ s. II. THEY HAVE BECOME OF THE SON’ S GLORY. Notwithstanding His form as a Servant, Jesus had appeared to their hearts in all His beauty as the Son of God. Even before restoration to His glory, He had regained it in them by the fact that they had recognized Him for what He truly was (John 17:7-8). (F. Godet, D. D.) Why Christ did not pray for the world Jesus has not the same reasons to bring forward in favour of the world, not the same request to make for it. Luther justly says, “ What must be asked for the world is that it may be converted, not that it may be sanctified or kept.” Assuredly the statement of Jesus is no absolute one. He said on the cross, “ Father, forgive them.” Was not this to pray for the world? Only He did not then, as He does now, bring forward as a reason “ they have known” (John 17:8), but, on the contrary, “ they know not what they do” ; and instead of appealing, as here, to the care of God for beings precious and belonging to Himself, He invokes His compassion for beings guilty and perishing. The saying in John 17:21, “ that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me,” contains an implicit prayer for the world (cf. John 2:16) . The statement of Jesus, that He prays not for the world, only becomes absolute in proportion as its moral characteristic of opposition to God is fixed, and as it becomes the association of those who are not only enemies of God, but who desire to remain such. (F. Godet, D. D.) The mediatorial plea I. A “ I pray for them.” 1. The words which follow seem at first startling. Does He mean that the world had no place in His desires and formed no object of His supplications? No, for He had said, “ God so loved the world,” &c., and was so soon to pray on the cross for His murderers. It is simply as if He had said, “ I am not now at this moment praying for the world at large,” or else, “ I pray not in this way for the world.” For the world He does pray (John 17:20-21), but He prays in another manner, viz., that it may cease to be what it is, attain to knowledge which it does not possess, and realize a life which it does not know, while in praying for His disciples He asks that they may be perfected in what they have received, confirmed in their faith and so prederved from forgetting or losing that which they know. 2. “ I pray for them.” The word pray here is a word which Christ Jesus alone uses in relation to His prayers. The Saviour never uses the word ordinarily used to express prayers by man, but one which has the sense of authority in it, and which therefore it is not proper for us to use. How much, then, is involved in this announcement! Frequently in the course of social intercourse we say to a friend in difficulty or affliction, when we feel that our poor thoughts, counsels, or help can be of little or no avail, “ I will pray for you.” Does that not include the highest thought, and the most effective aid that we can reach? What magnitude and depth of meaning, then, must there be in our Saviour’ s words, “ I pray for you” ! The Lord who prayed for these disciples intercedes for His people now. There is not a single day of our life, how full soever of duty, difficulty, or darkness, in which we may not derive encouragement and comfort from this gracious word of Christ. II. AN . The disciples 1. Belong to God “ They are Thine,” (1) He had created them, selected them out of the many thousands of Israel, to be trained by His Son. The preparation they received under the minister of Jesus was altogether of God; and the variety of their dispositions, qualifying them for varied service and duty, was due to His wisdom and power. It is one thing to be God’ s creatures, made originally in His image; it is much higher and grander to be God’ s men, created anew in Christ Jesus. (2) This interest was reciprocal: “ All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.” In the Father’ s interest the Son had an interest, and in the Father’ s property the Son has an equal right (chap. V. 19). No language could more impressively show the Godhead and glory of Jesus than this claim of kindred interests. 2. Christ, as Mediator and Saviour, had an interest in these disciples peculiar to Himself: “ I am glorified in them.” (1) It may well excite our wonder and adoration that He, “ withoutwhom was not anything made that was made,” should have glory in feeble, ignorant, and imperfect men, and only in the little band was He glorified. The life and attractiveness of the vine are in its branches, foliage, and fruit; and as Jesus said, “ I am the Vine, ye are the branches,” His honour was essentially connected with them, as the first-fruits of a multitude of followers. (2) How was Jesus glorified? To draw men to Himself, to secure their devotedness for God, that they might be redeemed from sin, and be made partakers of the Divine nature, was the very purpose for which He came into the world; and in these disciples, who were lovingly drawn around Him as the first-fruits of His advent, was He glorified. There is a depth and breadth of meaning in these words which we cannot fully comprehend. When the hero of many battles receives the thanks of a grateful country, and says in reply “ that he could have nothing but for the bravery and devotion of the troops under his command,” we can appreciate his modesty and admire his candour. But when the strong Son of God says, “ I am glorified in them” these My disciples, few and weak we cannot refuse our admiration and our love. (J. Spence, D. D.) John 17:10 All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine I.THE SAME NAMES AND TITLES: Jehovah (Hebrews 1:10); God Romans 9:11; 1 Timothy 3:16). II. THE SAME NATURE AND ESSENCE: “ I and My Father are one.” III. THE SAME : Eternity (John 1:1); omnipotence, as seen in Christ’ s miracles; omniscience: “ He knew what was in man” ; omnipresence: “ Lo, I am with you alway.” IV. THE SAME WORKS (John 5:17; John 5:19). V. THE SAME WILL AND PURPOSE (Matthew 26:39). VI. THE SAME IN ALL THE GODLY (John 8:16; John 20:17). VII. THE SAME POWER FOR THE OF (John 10:28-30). (D. Burgess.) I am glorified in them.--Christ glorified in His disciples I. BY THEIR FROM AND THEIR WITH GOD THROUGH HIS MERIT. II. BY THE CHANGE WHICH HE HAS IN THEIR . III. BY THEIR WHICH HE HAS GAINED. IV. BY THEIR AND TO HIS WILL. V. BY THEIR TO HIS LAWS AND THEIR GRADUAL IN PIETY. VI. BY THEIR PUBLIC OF HIS GOSPEL AND THEIR ZEAL IN IT. (Congregational Remembrancer.) Christ glorified in His people I. BY THE OF ALL THEIR FROM HIM. II. IN THEIR HOLY WALK. III. BY THE OF THEIR LIVES. IV. BY THEIR TO SUFFER FOR HIS SAKE. V. IN THEIR OF HIS NAME. VI. BY THEIR TO PROMOTE HIS CAUSE. (W. Jay.) Christ glorified in His saints I. AS THE OF HIS BLOOD. As the fruit of His soul-travail they indicate the success of His redeeming work. II. AS THE OF HIS POWER. Having been rescued from the thraldom of sin and brought into His kingdom, they attest the all-conquering might of His love. III. AS THE OF HIS GRACE. Being renewed in the spirit of their minds and recreated after His image, they reveal in their moral likeness to Him the beauty of holiness that is in Him. IV. AS THE OF HIS EMPIRE. In their willing subjection to His throne they proclaim the gentle character of His rule. V. AS THE OF HIS GOSPEL. In the testimonies they afford by their lips and lives that Christ is exalted they show forth His glory before men. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ glorified in His disciples I. We glorify Christ BY FAITH. Now, faith hath a double office, which 1. Accepts Christ. When men slight the offers of Christ which God makes to them, they dishonour Him exceedingly (Acts 4:11; Matthew 1 Peter 2:7). 2. Presents Christ. In all our endeavours to God we must build our acceptance on the merits of Christ (John 14:1). II. BY . Every Christian should walk so as remembering that Christ’ s honour lieth at stake. 1. For the manner; your practice should be elevated according to the height of your privileges in Christ. A Christian should do more than a man (1 Corinthians 3:3). We expect that he should go faster that rides on horseback than he that goes on foot. There should be a singularity of holy life. 2. For the principle; Christ must be honoured. You must make Him the principle of your obedience to God (Philippians 4:13; Galatians 2:20.) 3. For the end; you must make His interest the great end of your lives Philippians 1:21; Romans 14:7-8). 4. For the motive; gratitude to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14). III. IN OUR . When we think of our title to anything, think, This I have by gift, be it justification, sanctification, glorification, comfort of the creatures. Whatever privilege we look upon as ours, we must see Christ in it (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). IV. BY DOING AND FOR THE OF HIS AND KINGDOM (2 Corinthians 5:13). Let glory to Christ be written, though it be with our blood; only with these cautions: 1. We must think ourselves to be honoured by this service, how grievous, disgraceful, and troublesome soever it be (2 Corinthians 5:9). 2. There must be a sense of your unworthiness (Luke 17:10). 3. You must ascribe all to Christ’ s glory; as Joab, when he had conquered Rabbah, sent for David to take the honour: so must we do for Christ (1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Chronicles 29:1.4): V. BY BEING ZEALOUS FOR HIS ; then you honour Christ, by giving the wisdom and power of a lawgiver to Him (Matthew 15:6). VI. BY TAKING SOME SOLEMN TIME TO ON AND ADMIRE THE OF HIS PERSON AND THE FULNESS OF HIS . In heaven this will be our great work (Revelation 4:10-11). (T. Manton, D. D.) Christ glorified in the disciples It is not difficult to see how the Son was glorified in them. They had been His faithful and devoted followers in all His wanderings; they had forsaken all that they might be His disciples; they had seen His miracles, heard and received His words, and believed that He came forth from the Father. They had suffered the loss of all earthly things for His name’ s sake; they were the depositaries of His truth; they had stood forth alone with Him against nearly all the world; after His ascension they were to manifest forth His glory to all the world, and under Him to go forth to subjugate that world which He, in His death, had actually conquered. And what they did and how they glorified Him after His departure we know well from the inspired record of their labours. (T. Alexander, M. A.) The apologetic Christ 1. “ He was glorified in them” ; made known by them, by their words and lives, as Jesus the Saviour, as the anointed King, and in the beauty of His character and in the grandeur of His Person. 2. Wonderful praise coming from such a source. Yet it was not uncommon for Christ to speak words of commendation. He praised the centurion, the woman of Canaan, the woman who anointed Him in Bethany. And here He praises all His apostles. 3. But who were the men of whom Christ said this? Men of influence, of wealth, of learning? If not these, surely they were great saints. On the contrary, Christ rebuked them again and again for their little faith, for their ambition, for their mistakes and wrong purposes. Wonderful words of praise to say of men who in a few hours would forsake Christ, and deny Him. 4. Yet the Christ who praised these men was Truth itself, and could not flatter nor be deceived. It is manifest, therefore (1) That Christ sees in His people more than others see in them. The most unpopular man in Jericho was Zaccheus, but Christ associated with him, and declared, “ Salvation has come to this house,” and that he was a “ son of Abraham.” The Christ, so pitiful and kind, sees more in His people than do others. They see their faults; Christ sees their virtues. (2) And He sees far more in them than they see in themselves. Abraham, standing before God, said of Himself, “ I am but dust and ashes.” But God said, He is My friend. “ I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof,” said the centurion; but Christ said of him, “ I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” These apostles had their faults. One of them, so oppressed with feelings of unworthiness, bade Christ “ Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” ; but Christ said to him, “ Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas.” Christ is not only the pitiful and tender and loving Christ; He makes every allowance for His people; He remembers they are dust, and speaks to them and of them apologetically. (D. F. Sprigg, D. D.) John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world Christ and His disciples I. CHRIST IS NO MORE IN THE WORLD. All the purposes for which He came are accomplished. There is no further employment, therefore, for Him here. 1. His humiliation is past and His glory begun. 2. His work is finished, and now His reward is received. 3. His warfare is accomplished and now He enjoys the spoils of victory. 4. His sacrifice is offered and He departs to plead its merits before the throne. II. ARE IS THE WORLD. Like their Lord’ s, their’ s Isaiah 1. A state of humiliation. 2. A life of work. 3. A course of conflict. III. THE BETWEEN THE TWO. The glorified Christ 1. Waits to receive them into His glory. 2. Imparts to them the benefits of His atonement and intercession. 3. Is their Master and co-worker. 4. Is their Leader to victory. Christians in the world 1. Full of imperfections and infirmities. 2. Surrounded by temptations and snares. 3. Burdened with cares and afflictions. 4. Witnesses of Christ’ s glory. 5. Labourers for its moral regeneration. (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Holy Father, keep through Thine own name The character of the Father What formula could more thoroughly express the intensity and purity of Divine love. There is more spiritual philosophy and force in the two words, “ Holy Father,” than in the cream of all literature. Jesus alone knew how holy that love is that comes down to save man. In this name there is I. A GLIMPSE OF A GREAT . We ask, “ What’ s in a name?” The man on ’ Change answers, “ Five per cent.;” the expectant might say there is a passport in it; another that there is in it a prophecy of failure, of doom. A name is something, but in what name is there so much that is transcendently glorious as in “ Holy Father.” The disturbed condition of humanity has made us so familiar with unholy paternity, that it is an immense elevation of spirit to have the idea of an absolutely Holy Father. Parentage in man ought thus to be a holy thing. II. FULNESS OF HELPING POWER. We know what it is for sons to be respected and befriended for their father’ s sake. The social position open to many a young man, the manner in which he is treated on the public platform, the safe, yet prosperous circles to which he is admitted is owing to his father’ s name. But all this is increased in an infinite degree when we think of the name of the Holy Father. His name is good for any amount of helping power our souls require. III. A GROUND OF --that the affairs of the vast family, the interests of the vast home, will have that management which will secure the highest interests of every child. How often are families divided by paternal partialities, fortunes squandered by paternal weaknesses and sins; and children beggared through lack of that in the father that could bind the home in one. But the strong band that binds the childlike hearts together is this father-name. IV. A GREAT FOR CONDUCT. Blessed is the child who, when he looks at a human father, feels that he knows no more upright man than he. Such a father has a right to expect that his child should be good. Well, the “ Holy Father,” who is conscious of doing everything before His children that is fitted to command their love, has a right to expect that like Himself they shall be holy. We know what it is for the young man going to business, college, public life, to resolve on good behaviour and success if it were only for his father’ s sake. Such is the aspiration which the Holy Father expects of His children. (R. Mitchell.) The Holy Father The appellation “ Holy Father” is in relation with the petition presented. With man holiness is the consecration of his whole being to the task assigned him by the Divine will. In God holiness is the free, deliberate, calm, and immutable affirmation of Himself, who is goodness, or of goodness, which is Himself. The holiness of God, then, so soon as we are associated therewith, draws a deep line of demarcation between us and those who live under the dominion of their natural instincts, and whom Scripture calls the world. The term “ Holy Father” here characterizes God as Him who has traced this line of separation between the disciples and the world. “ Keep them” has in view the maintenance of this separation. “ In Thy name” makes the revelation of the Divine character the enclosing wall in which the disciples are to be kept. (F. Godet, D. D.) The preciousness of the Divine name I. THE OF THE , the peculiar ground of their need. “ I am no more in the world,” &c. The fact of His going to the Father could not but be to Him a satisfaction and joy. But He could not forget His friends. His thoughts went forth to their condition without His bodily presence, on which they had been so much accustomed to lean. His words suggest the thought of 1. Their bereavement (Matthew 9:15). It is impossible for us to form an adequate conception of their loss. 2. Their exposure: “ These are in the ungodly, careless, unbelieving world.” Jesus knew well what it was to be in the world; hence His concern John 16:33). Christ Jesus, in His bodily and visible presence, is absent from the world still, but His disciples are in it. It is well to know that His prayer and intercession for them are better than His human presence. II. THE FOR THEM--“ Keep through Thine own name,” &c. Here, for the only time recorded, Jesus addresses God as Holy Father. He appealed to the holiness of God; and surely no appeal could be more appropriate and beautiful, when preservation from the world and from evil was asked for. Holiness is the halo of unutterable splendour which surrounds the nature and character of the Almighty. This very designation suggests at once the power and the disposition of the Father to keep these disciples. It was the pledge of the preservation, and the guarantee of the safe keeping of all God’ s children now (Psalms 30:4; Psalms 97:12). Two remarks are here necessary. The Authorised Version says “ through,” but the preposition in the original is “ in.” According to the most ancient manuscripts, the petition reads, “ Keep them in Thy name, that name which Thou hast given Me.” Jesus alone had fully manifested the name of God. And the point is that His disciples might be kept in the name of God, not in a vague indefinite sense, but in that name as personally embodied in Christ. The Saviour prays for His disciples, that they might be kept 1. In the knowledge of this name. Many temptations would assail them from Jewish prejudice and Gentile philosophy, from various forms of worldly wisdom and human speculation. They could only be kept right in their views of God, as they were kept by Him. It is human to err; and on no theme have men, when left to themselves, wandered more widely and disastrously than in their views of God. 2. In the experience of that name. This knowledge was not a barren truth, but mighty, formative, and fertilizing (John 1:12). As Jews, they had a knowledge of God as the God of Israel before; but the Divine name never had such power over them as when they came to realize its glory in Christ. It arrested, subdued, melted, purified them; it was in them a power for spiritual renewal and moral transformation. These disciples left in the world would be exposed to manifold malign influences; and only so long as they were kept in the consciousness of the power of God’ s name, could they continue true to their mission. 3. In the consolation of that name. “ The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” --safe from the accusations of conscience and the thunder of law, the perils of life and the fears of death. Just as a child in darkness, trembling for fear, is cheered by the sound of his mother’ s voice or the certainty of his father’ s presence, even though unseen, so does the name of God, as revealed in Christ, sustain and encourage the souls of His people in the dreary and often trying pilgrimage to heaven. III. THE OBJECT DESIRED. “ That they may be one, as we are.” How much depended on their union, strength, safety, and success. Discord and disunion could not fail to bring disaster and failure at the very beginning of the Christian history. 1. The model of this union: “ as we are one.” Jesus does not ask that He may be one with the Father, but asserts this oneness as a fact. There was a oneness with the Father existing from eternity. But He here prays as the “ Man Christ Jesus,” whose purposes and plans, desires and hopes, were the same as the Father’ s. 2. What then would be the manifestation of this oneness? Unity of mind, will, and affection in relation to their Master and His work, a unity resulting from participation in His life and devotion to His glory? Only suppose that these disciples were to go forth with differing views and discordant purposes in their commission. Or, suppose that they were to go forth with clashing opinions about the claims of Christ Himself; one holding His supreme Godhead, another viewing Him as the highest of created beings, and a third regarding Him merely as a man, and so on; the issue in such a case could only be spiritual disaster and failure. There might be, and there were, differences between them in many things, but touching the character and claims of the Christ of God they were as one. And this oneness of view and feeling binding them to the Saviour, and pervading all their work for Him, was to be maintained by their being kept in the Father’ s name as revealed in Jesus. (J. Spence, D. D.) Saints Divinely kept Our text is all about keeping. Three or four times over we have some tense of the word “ keep.” Greatly do we need keeping. You have been redeemed and regenerated; you are pure in heart and hands; you have aspirations after the holiest things; you are near the gates of glory; hut you must be kept. Here is I. A CHOICE . “ I kept them.” This care 1. Was continuous. He made this the chief employment of His life. In this chapter you have “ the ruling passion strong in death.” He has kept them in life, and now He says, “ I am no more in the world,” &c.; and the one thought of His heart is, “ What is to become of them?” He closes His life by commending them to the keeping of His heavenly Father. 2. Is ever needed. Sheep never outgrow this necessity. If the disciples always required keeping, you and I do. 3. Was ever personal. The Good Shepherd kept the sheep, not by proxy, but by His own hands. What must have been the effect of the personality of Christ upon those eleven? There are some men whose influence upon others has, for want of a better word, been called “ magical.” History tells us of warriors who have inspired their soldiers with boundless loyalty, grappling them to themselves with hooks of steel. The influence of the Christ upon those who actually lived with Him must have been superlative. 4. Was most successful. Of the eleven not one was lost. They were very fickle at first, extremely ignorant, and strongly tempted. Influences which made some go back would naturally have had the same power over them if Jesus had not kept them: yet of those whom the Father gave Him not one of them was lost. 5. Was attended with an awful sorrow. “ None of them is lost, but the son of perdition.” He knew that often people would say, “ Can this Christianity be true which has such false-hearted traitors in its midst?” He allowed that objection to come up at the very first. But the Watcher over the sons of men could not lose even Judas without deep regrets. II. A . The eleven were not to have Christ with them always. They were to fall back on another mode of living common to all saints. 1. Now, why was Christ with them at all? It was because they were very weak. They wanted fostering and nurturing. You had great joys in your early days. You have not had them lately, it may be; for you have travelled to heaven at a steadier pace. Certain spiritual joys are the privilege and the necessity of our religions babyhood, and we outgrow them. The Lord went away that the disciples might grow to spiritual manhood. 2. Choice as the privilege was of having Jesus Himself to be their Pastor, apart from the grace of God, this special boon had no power in it. The Lord Jesus Christ might preach, but He could not touch the heart of the son of perdition. No ministry of itself can turn a heart of stone into flesh. “ You must be born from above.” Let this be a warning to such as are not profited under the Word when faithfully preached. Beware lest ye perish under the gospel. III. A BLESSED PRAYER. “ Holy Father, keep,” &c. 1. “ Father.” It is the Father who keeps us! The Lord Jesus was tender to us when He selected that title, and did not say “ Jehovah” or “ Elohim.” 2. “ Holy Father.” The keeping means keep us holy; and who can make us and keep us holy but He who is Himself holy? 3. “ Keep them.” We need keeping (1) From discord. “ Keep them that they may be one.” (2) From error. (3) From sin. 4. Through God’ s own name. It requires the very name of God to keep a Christian. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Kept of God I. WE REQUIRE KEEPING. 1. You have seen a beautiful garden planted and filled with rarest flowers, and all in such beautiful order. The explanation is to be found in the keeper, who moves among the flowers, pulling up a stray weed here, clipping off a branch there, training up a fallen vine, tying up a drooping plant, digging about the roots of that rosebush that seems a little weak, and bestowing a little extra care upon it with such tenderness as though he loved it. And from admiring the flowers, you turn to admire and love the faithful keeper, and ascribe the praise to him. 2. On the other hand, you have seen other gardens just as large, filled with the same precious variety of flowers. But how sad to look at the paths that are filled with grass! The vines have fallen down, and many beautiful plants have succumbed to the rude crowding of the rank weeds and are both dying and dead. How is this sad condition of things to be accounted for? The gardener was called in to plant it, but the owner of the garden dismissed him, thinking he could do it himself. For a while he did very well; but the pressure of business, &c., &c., and a general ignorance of flower culture, all interfered, and so the garden was allowed to run to waste. Occasionally he would rally and go vigorously to work, and things would look better for a while; but, alas I all too soon the same neglect would fall upon it. 3. These two gardens are two lives, one of which is kept and the other unkept. And I am sure there are more than a few Christians who see in the latter garden a picture of their own spiritual life. What is the matter? You need a keeper and to place in his hands your life. II. WHO IS TO KEEP US? Our Holy Father. 1. The holiness of God, instead of being opposed to the salvation of the sinful, is the very ground of that salvation, and is put forth as the reason above all others why sinners should hope in God. (1) In general, we find it stated that God saves for His holy name’ s sake Deuteronomy 6:8; Psalms 106:1-6). Holiness and love are one. This may be inferred also from God’ s coming in holiness to Moses to send him on the mission of mercy and salvation. “ The ground whereon thou standeth is holy” (see also Luke 1:47-55). Who was it that remembered mercy? The Holy One (verse 49), who has been the author of salvation in all ages, and the object of His people’ s trust (Psalms 22:3-4). (2) The holy name stands for forgiveness (Psalms 103:1-3; Psalms 130:7-8; Psalms 99:8-9). (3) For pity--restoration (Ezekiel 36:20-22). (4) Compassion and wrath-restraining love (Isaiah 57:14-15;Hebrews 11:8-9). (5) Sustaining and delivering (Isaiah 41:10-14). 2. We find this holiness of God active against sin, hating and consuming it, and often afflicting His people for it. But that side of His holiness is only another side of His love (Psalms 99:8). He hates sin because it is the destroyer of the people whom He loves. III. WHAT IS IN BEING KEPT? 1. He will keep us unto the end--unto the salvation ready to be revealed at the last day. Many are deterred from confessing Christ lest they should not hold out. But against all these fears God has left exceeding great and precious promises (1 Peter 1:3-5; 2 Timothy 1:12; 2Ti Jude 1:24). 2. With others it is not so much the fear of being finally lost as the dread of being left alone on the way, of “ falling into sin and trouble,” &c. Listen to the promises (Genesis 28:15; Isaiah 43:2). 3. It is not that I am afraid of being deserted in affliction, but that in the ordinary course of life I shall wander from the right way. God said to those of old, “ Behold I send an angel before thee,” &c. (Exodus 23:20). “ When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will lead,” &c. So in this God makes ample promise. 4. So God is pledged to provide for all our wants, and keep us in the world. “ The Lord God is a sword and a shield,” &c. “ The Lord is my Shepherd.” “ My God shall supply all your need.” 5. But the temporal keeping is not what I want so much as to have my own life kept--to be delivered and kept from doubt, and fears, and anxiety, and vexation, and care (read Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3). 6. But will He keep from sin? I know He will pardon sin, but will He keep me from it? Yes. (1) There is a promise to keep from evil, which is a generic term, and covers all sin and harm. The Lord’ s prayer--the prayer in this connection. (2) To keep from presumptuous sin (Psalms 19:13) and secret faults Psalms 19:12). (3) From temptation. I will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world. The Lord’ s prayer. (4) From sins of speech (Psalms 141:3). IV. THIS KEEPING MANY TRIALS, AND, IT MAY BE, MUCH . To be freed from sin is a painful process. It is crucifixion, it is purging, it is refining. It is having your wills subdued, but it means holiness and godliness, with peace as our portion for ever. V. HOW ARE WE KEPT? In the holy name of God. 1. As in a tower (Proverbs 18:20; Psalms 18:2). 2. As in a bank (2 Timothy 1:12). 3. As in a sheep fold (Psalms 23:1; Psalms 80:1). 4. As behind a shield (Psalms 84:11). VI. TO BE KEPT WE MUST PUT IN GOD’ S HANDS, nor must we draw back. He is a Tower, we must keep ourselves in it. A Shepherd, we must be near Him. A Bank, we must commit ourselves to it as a treasure deposited therein. A Shield, we must keep ourselves behind it. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.) That they may be one, as we are The pathway to unity The final state of the Church of God is to be a state of perfect unity; and that being so, their present state should be one of growing unity. Alas! how lamentably far from this are we, who profess the name of Christ at this time and in this country! In the text you have four points respecting it. I. THE AUTHOR AND OF UNITY. “ Holy Father, keep.” 1. Unity, wherever it exists, flows from God. If you have union in your families, with your relatives and friends, this is from Him. How much more, then, must the unity of His Church derive itself from Him, as its only head and centre (1 Corinthians 11:3). God the Father is the source whence the sacred oil of unity, shed in copious showers on the head of our Aaron, diffuses itself in fragrant streams over His whole body mystical--the Church--and goes down to the skirts of His garments (Psalms 133:2-3). 2. He is also the exclusive maintainer of unity. He not only giveth His people the blessing of peace, but also keeps their hearts and minds in peace through Christ Jesus (Psalms 29:11; Philippians 4:7). Did He for one instant abandon His children, or cease to fold them to His bosom, every soul of them would become an Ishmael; strife and contention would split the holy camp into a thousand factions, and deliver them an easy prey into the hand of the powers of darkness. And it is to His guardianship of the world that we owe the shadows of Divine unity which we find in it. Peace and unity in families, among nations, between contending parties, whether in the State or in the Church. II. THE METHOD BY WHICH GOD THIS UNITY. 1. What is meant by the name of God? In olden times the names of persons were very different from what they are now. Most of our modern names have no meaning at all; but, anciently, the name of a person almost always expressed some property or character attaching to the person who bore it. Thus the name of Jacob signifies “ supplanter,” and has reference to his having supplanted his brother. Israel means “ Prince of God,” because as a prince he had power with God in wrestling, and prevailed. So then “ Name of God” stands for the nature, property, and character of the Most High. 2. What is this name and character? From Exodus 33:19-20, cf Exodus 34:58, we gather that the moral attributes of God are of two kinds--mercy and justice. Let us illustrate. Light (as seen in a rainbow, resolved into two different classes of colours, four of a bright and three of a grave tint) affords some faint idea of these two classes of perfections. Mercy, love, goodness, forbearance, and so forth, on the one hand--holiness, justice, truth, on the other. The latter are as essential as the former to the surpassing beauty and loveliness of the Divine character. God would be no God if He were not perfectly just and holy, as well as perfectly loving--even as the sunlight would not be that beautiful and delicate thing it is if it were not chastened and subdued by its three graver tints, On the one hand, sin will be visited by Him; on the other, He yearns over all His creatures with the tenderest mercy. And He will be known to each individual soul, and acknowledged by each individual heart, in both these characters. For He has signally glorified both His justice and His love in Jesus Christ, so as to keep the believer wakefully alive to both of them. For what shall keep him more wakefully alive both to the love and justice of God than the reflection that His justice could not consent to our acquittal before it had fastened upon a Divine victim, and that this boundless sacrifice which justice demanded, love was not slow to make? In the Cross of Jesus, behold the name of Jehovah--the goodness and severity of God--portrayed at once. And it is this unfeigned acknowledgment of Divine love on one hand, and Divine justice on the other, in which our Saviour here prays that God would keep His chosen. The effect is obvious. The little bickerings and animosities and party feelings--unclean creatures that hovered about in the darkness--will vanish as we sun ourselves in the light. Truly acknowledging the true God, we shall truly acknowledge our brethren also. III. THE PERSONS BETWEEN WHOM THIS UNITY MAY BE TO SUBSIST. It is not represented as subsisting in the visible Church, but in the invisible, among God’ s elect--“ those whom Thou hast given Me.” How can unity, being a spirit and not a form, subsist in the visible Church, within whose pale there are (and must be) many hypocrites? If, indeed, it were a form, it might then be imposed from without upon a visible body. But it is a living spirit, which might indeed develop itself in a certain similarity of outward worship, if all the persons animated by it were gathered together, as one day they shall be, and not separated from one another by time and space, as now they are. Let us not look for it, then, or expect it where it is not and where it cannot be. Union, real vital union, cannot exist among or with those who are ignorant of God. It is idle for men who walk on still in darkness to talk of, to meddle with, unity. Their ceaseless petition must be, “ Lord, that I may receive my sight!” For those who do thus know Him, they, by growing in that knowledge, will grow in unity. They will have fellowship with one another in exact proportion as they walk more strictly in His fear, more lovingly and enjoyably in His comfort. IV. HOW CLOSE WILL BE THE BOND OF THAT ! “ That they may be one, as we are.” The whole body will be fitly joined together and compacted in an unity, like that subsisting between the Father and the Son. And what mortal shall comprehend the exceeding closeness of that unity--perfect unity of counsels, of will, of ends, of nature. And even such a bond shall clasp the elect together, nay, is now clasping them, and being gradually drawn more closely around them. To this state they will verge continually while they walk more and more in the light, as God is in the light. (Dean Goulburn.) Kept for Jesus Christ (Jude 1:1.):-- I. WHO? The saints; those given by the Father to Christ. II. WHAT? Keep them. As it were, Christ, having obtained them from the Father for safe keeping for Him, replaces them in the Father’ s hands for safe keeping for Himself. III. HOW? In Thy name, i.e., by graciously revealing in them Thy name, which I have outwardly manifested to them. IV. WHY? Because Christ was returning to the Father (1 Peter 1:5). V. ? That they might be one. Unless the Father keeps the saints they never will be one. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The preservation of Christians There is an aged Christian in Dublin with whom I have often spoken who passed through the following eventful experience:--“ Some years since,” he said, “ I was travelling on horseback in one of the country districts, when the sudden report of a pistol-shot reached me. I was satisfied that I had been aimed at, but nevertheless thankfully conscious that I had escaped. Hastening onwards, I reached my home in safety, and went into the house. It had been my custom for years to carry a small Bible in the breast pocket of my coat. Taking it out on this occasion, judge my surprise at finding a leaden bullet imbedded in the leaves. It had penetrated as far as the Gospel of John. Removing the bullet, and opening the book at the spot where it rested, my eye fell upon the words, ‘ Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me.’” (Henry Varley.) Christian union I wish all names among the saints of God were swallowed up in that one of Christian. I long for professors to leave off placing religion in saying, “ I am a Churchman,” “ I am a Dissenter.” My language to such is, “ Are you of Christ? If so, I love you with all my heart.” (G. Whitefield.) Union and Christian life Christians are like the several flowers in a garden, that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, while, being shaken with the wind, they let fall their dews at each other’ s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished and become nourishers of each other. (John Bunyan.) Christian union attainable only in Christ The union of Christians to Christ their common head, and, by means of the influence which they derive from Him, one to another, may be illustrated by the loadstone: it not only attracts the particles of iron to itself by the magnetic virtue, but, by this virtue, it unites them one among another. (R. Cecil, M. A.) Work aids Christian unity When I was in the army before Port Hudson I remember that night after night, when our campfires were built, we boys used to sit around them and discuss various matters; and sometimes our discussions became very heated, and sometimes we lost our tempers, and sometimes we said angry words. But one night, right in the midst of a discussion, there broke upon us that awful, startling sound which, once heard, is never forgotten. Away off, on the right of the line, it began; but it rolled in a thundering, awful echo, until it chilled our hearts. It was the long roll, and every man was on his feet, and every man shook hands with his comrade and said, “ Forgive me. When we were idle we could afford to discuss; but now there is work to do, it finds us brothers.” (G. Hepworth.) Union in the face of foes On the day before the battle of Trafalgar, Nelson took Collingwood and Rotherham, who were at variance, to a spot where they could see the fleet opposed to them. “ Yonder,” said the Admiral, “ are your enemies; shake hands and be good friends, like good Englishmen.” Influence of union Separate the atoms which make the hammer, and each would fall on the stone as a snowflake; but welded into one, and wielded by the firm arm of the quarryman, it will break the massive rocks asunder. Divide the waters of Niagara into distinct and individual drops, and they would be no more than the falling rain; but, in their united body, they would quench the fires of Vesuvius and have some to spare for other volcanoes. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Power of union Union is power. The most attenuated thread, when sufficiently multiplied, will form the strongest cable. A single drop of water is a weak and powerless thing; but an infinite number of drops united by the force of attraction will form a stream, and many streams combined will form a river; till rivers pour their water into the mighty oceans, whose proud waves, defying the power of man, none can stay but He who formed them. And thus forces, which, acting singly, are utterly impotent, are, when acting in combination, resistless in their energies, mighty in power. (H. G.Salter.) Union is strength When it was once demanded of Agesilaus why Lacedaemon had no walls, he replied, “ The concord of the citizens is its strength.” (J. Harris.) While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name Christ’ s care for His disciples Our Saviour had just passed through the agony when Judas came upon Him “ with a band of men and officers” John 18:1-9). Whatever might be the reason for mustering so large an array, in order to seize one who seemed so little likely to offer resistance, our Lord quickly showed how unavailing would have been the assault, had He not chosen to surrender Himself to the will of His enemies. By merely acknowledging Himself to be the party of whom they were in quest, Christ prostrated the whole host. But, as our Lord had no intention of delivering Himself from His adversaries, why did He give this signal evidence of having them completely in His power? For the sake of His disciples. “ Let these go their way.” The Evangelist still further limits the design of the miracle, that the very saying of the text might be fulfilled. These words must have had respect to more than a mere temporal deliverance. Christ had been praying, “ Holy Father, keep through Thine own name,” &c., and “ the son of perdition,” was not lost in any mere temporal respect. But what was the amount of the keeping which our Lord secured for His disciples on the occasion? Simply that they should not be made prisoners with Himself, and perhaps be condemned with Himself to an ignominious death. Here then is a promise which would contemplate nothing short of everlasting salvation, declared to be fulfilled by a deliverance from present danger and calamity. Had His followers been required at that moment to suffer with Him, we can hardly doubt, knowing what their conduct was on a far less amount of trial, that they would have apostatized in such a way as to have jeopardized their final salvation. Sooner or later these disciples were to die. Christ would not, then, have lost them by their dying at that moment, “ except” St. Augustine says, “ because they had not then the faith in Himself which was needful to secure them from everlasting death.” So that we may believe that our Lord interfered miraculously on behalf of His disciples, because He foresaw that if He now required them to bear the Cross with Him, the trial would be too great for their strength. Let us see what special truths are suggested by this fact. I. WHAT A THING IT IS TO KNOW THAT CHRIST WOULD SOONER WORK A MIRACLE TO THE ENEMIES OF HIS , THAN LEAVE THOSE TO AN TOO GREAT FOR THEIR There is often a fear, on the part of the disciple, that such or such a trial would be more than he could bear. And the fear may be altogether just, so far as it arises from comparing the strength then possessed with the danger then supposed. But the fear is altogether unjust, so far as it assumes the possibility of God’ s exposing His people to a trial, for which He does not communicate adequate grace. We might not be able always to die for Christ; but we are not always called to die for Christ. If we were called to die for Him, then we may be confident that we should be strengthened to die, even as martyrs died, with a smile upon the cheek, with a song upon the lip. We may not always feel as if we could in a moment resign without a murmur this or that object of devoted affection; but wait till we are actually called upon to resign it, and then, if we be truly of those who acknowledge God in all their ways, we shall find ourselves enabled to exclaim, “ The Lord gave,” &c. Trials are not accidents; they may be often unexpected by us, they are never unprovided for by God. God holds the balances in His hand. In one scale He puts the trials, in the other the strength; but the trial does not come to our share till outweighed by the strength which He sees fit to communicate. And, if anything can, this should encourage us to “ patient continuance in well doing.” So then, whilst there is everything to encourage the meek, there is nothing to warrant the presumptuous. God keeps His people by enabling them to keep themselves. When you read in Jeremiah, “ I will not turn away from them, to do them good,” it might seem to you as though good were secured, be your conduct what it may; but when you-read on, “ I will put My fear in their hearts, that they should not depart from Me,” you should learn that God’ s not turning from us is through the withholding us from turning from Him, and that, therefore, he who strives not against sin has no promise of salvation. And when we have thus warned you against expecting to be kept, though you are not diligent to keep yourselves--for whilst it is most true “ Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain,” think ye not that it is also true, that the Lord will not keep the city where the watchman sleeps?--having done this, we may yet by the miracle wrought on behalf of the disciples, encourage you to the building confidently on that most blessed truth, “ God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” II. BUT in place of procuring for His followers an opportunity for escape, MIGHT NOT CHRIST HAVE AN ABILITY TO ENDURE? The saying would thus have been only the more evidently fulfilled. Of course, He might had it accorded with His dealings and purposes. But He could not consistently with the laws which prescribe His dealings with accountable creatures. It would have taken more grace than could be bestowed without destroying all freedom of will. Remember that grace is that in which you are bidden to grow; and in spiritual stature no more than in bodily is the infant made the giant with no stage between. You must pass from point to point, improving what you have as the condition of your receiving more. Ye are to present yourselves “ a living sacrifice,” otherwise it will be a compulsory, and not a “ reasonable service.” Thus also with apostles. They have not yet grown into fitness for the honours of martyrdom; they might have been presented in sacrifice--they would not, in the true sense, have presented themselves. They had yet a long discipline to pass through, of “ taking up the cross daily.” So that, though there are some dangers which at one time God turns away from His people, because too great for such a measure of grace as would consist with present spiritual stature, He would have them faced at another time, because the spiritual stature is such as accords with the requisite strength. And the great practical truth to be derived from this is, that you are not to expect to become Christians by any sudden leap, but step by step. The spiritual temple rises stone by stone, as beneath the hands of a builder; it does not soar at once--wall, dome, pinnacle, complete--as beneath the wand of an enchanter. III. IN TO KEEP US TO ETERNAL LIFE, CHRIST HATH ALSO THAT WE MAY BE KEPT FROM ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY. And it is delightful to think of the one covenant as including the other; so that we have the same reason for believing that nothing really hurtful shall be suffered to happen to us of a temporal kind, as that nothing shall finally separate the believer from the “ love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” IV. The saving of the disciples from bodily danger might be taken as AN THAT CHRIST WOULD NOT FAIL TO CONDUCT THEM SAFELY TO HEAVEN; and therefore was it a sort of primary accomplishment of the gracious purpose that none of them should be lost. And what a brightness would it shed over present deliverances, what a sweetness would it give to present mercies, were all in the habit of regarding them as so many earnests of a rich inheritance above! Then might every day of life be to us a sort of herald of eternity. We should not receive blessings as merely to he enjoyed and then forgotten; for they would serve to us for even more than the Ebenezer of old, a stone on which to inscribe, “ Hitherto the Lord bath helped us,” but on which also to engrave afresh the most comforting declaration, “ Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost.” Truly a most comforting declaration, forasmuch as it shows that our safety is in better keeping than our own. The Christian will be disquieted and harassed, a prey to frequent doubts and fears, till he come to regard the Redeemer as having taken upon Himself the work of his salvation, and bound up His own glory with the carrying him through. “ I know whom I have believed,” &c. (H. Melvill, B. D.) The nature of the Divine keeping “ Have guarded,” not the same word as that rendered “ kept” in the first clause. This is an intensified expression of His vigilant care. “ Kept as with a military guard.” The first “ kept” points to their preservation in the truth revealed to them; the second to the watchfulness by means of which the result was obtained. The former may be compared to the feeding of a flock, the latter to the care which protects from the wild beasts around. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The Divine guardianship I. THE SAVOUR’ S CARE FOR HIS . While He was with them, He had done all that was needful to keep them in the name of God. The second word, translated “ kept,” is not the same as the first, and expresses more fully the idea of guardianship, the result of which was successful preservation. Thus we have suggested to us that the disciples were in danger even while their Master was with them, from their weakness, Jewish prejudices, and spiritual pride. 1. He kept them by (l) His teaching. The whole bearing of His instructions was that they might discern the perfection of the Father’ s character, and apprehend the saving power of His love. (2) His example. They saw Him ever true to the name and character of God. They often beheld Him wearied and faint, yet ever finding His meat and drink in doing His Father’ s will. (3) His influence. The influence of a parent over a child, of a teacher over a pupil, of a friend over his fellow, is often powerful. How great and sacred must the influence of Jesus have been over His disciples! (4) He graciously kept them. Their dulness, waywardness, and forgetfulness were often provoking; but He was ever patient and gentle with them. (5) He tenderly kept them, with a heart ever overflowing with kindness and love. (6) His keeping of them, moreover, involved some anxiety. In the relation which they sustained to Him, and in the work which was before them as the heralds of His truth and the champions of His cause, His thoughts were much with them. (7) Earnestly did He care for them, that they might be faithful to their position, and fitted for His service. 2. But was there not a painful, an awful exception to the success of His guardianship? We must regard the giving here as applicable to Judas as well as to the others. They were all given to Jesus as disciples, and He taught and guarded them all; but Judas did not respond to His teaching and care. But Jesus did not lose him; he lost or rather destroyed himself, and in his perdition the Scripture was fulfilled. The quotation cannot imply that he perished for the sake of fulfilling the word of God, but to show that all things are foreknown to the omniscient God. 3. Does Christ not with equal zeal and care preserve His followers now? Are not His instruction, example, and influence available for us? True, we do not hear His voice, nor see His face, but His advocacy, with the promised presence of the Comforter, is mightier and better for our preservation than if we could actually gaze upon Him. II. A PROOF OF THE SAVIOUR’ S LOVING FOR HIS (John 17:13). 1. The object which He sought was that “ His joy might be fulfilled in themselves;” not that His joy in them, as His disciples, might be fulfilled; but that they might realize something of His own personal and perfect joy. How great and blessed and pure must have been His joy, as the incarnate Son of God! It was the joy (1) Of the complete consciousness in Him of God. (2) Of perfect duty. (3) Of the assurance of victory. (4) Of the consciousness of pure benevolence. This joy, then, Christ wishes His disciples to realize in themselves, that it might be their strength and protection. The world gives sorrow, anxiety, disappointment, bitterness, and trouble; but to share in Christ’ s own joy must ever be sunshine in the soul: for the human heart it is a joy unspeakable and full of glory. Participation in this joy, then, comes down to us, and we must rejoice in the Lord, not only as a privilege, but as a duty. 2. The means adopted to produce this joy. “ These things I speak in the world.” Jesus might have presented His petitions for them silently. How was this audible prayer calculated to minister to their joy? We feel how important it is in daily life to have feeling made known. Sometimes you may have gone in doubt, in heaviness of spirit and sadness of heart, when a word spoken in love would have relieved your gloom, lifted your load, and cheered your path. The Saviour was more lovingly thoughtful for His disciples. It would have made no real difference to their safety if His prayer had been unheard by them; but it would have made a great difference to the cheerfulness of their hearts. Christian thoughtfulness therefore should ever prompt us to let those whom we love hear or know of our interest in them and our affection for them. This audible prayer would minister to their joy (1) By strengthening their faith. Although He was about to leave them, they would see that He cared for them as much as ever. (2) By promoting their love. They could not but love a Master who in such manifold ways proved His deep affection for them. (3) By inspiring their hope. Christ had told them that in the world they would have tribulation, but when they heard their gracious Master thus praying they knew that, whatsoever might await them, they would be safe. (J. Spence, D. D.) The Divine keeping Concerning all saints it is implied I. THAT THEY ARE WEAK AND CANNOT KEEP . II. THAT THEY ARE IN GOD’ S SIGHT AND WORTH KEEPING. III. THAT THEIR IS , for it is that to which they are 1 Peter 1:5). IV. THAT THEY ARE IN THE CHARGE OF THE LORD JESUS. V. THAT THEY ARE KEPT IN HARMONY WITH THEM MORAL FREEDOM, “ kept by the power of God through faith.” (M. Henry.) None of them is lost but the son of perdition. A son of perdition implies the quality expressed by perdition--“ None of them perished but him whose nature it was to perish.” The term is a well-known Hebrew idiom by which the lack of qualitative adjectives is supplied by abstract substantives which express that quality. Thus a disobedient child is “ a son of disobedience,” and so “ children of light” and “ of darkness.” Judas lost himself. Even after the betrayal he might have been saved had he fled to the cross. There is no “ keeping in God’ s name” independently of “ keeping God’ s word.” This Judas did not do. (W. H. Fan Doren, D. D.) John 17:13 These things I speak in the world, that they might have My Joy fulfilled in themselves Christ’ s prayer for His disciples’ joy I. CHRIST IS THE AUTHOR AND OF THE JOY OF HIS PEOPLE. 1. As He is their Prophet to instruct them. The state of ignorance is a state of darkness. And that is an uncomfortable state, full of fear, and sorrow. But when Christ comes with light He gives joy (Psalms 97:11). 2. As He is their King to rule them (Psalms 149:2). (1) As He subdues their enemies, and gives them peace (Luke 1:75). (2) As He gives them His Spirit. The Spirit is the Comforter (Acts Galatians 5:22). (3) As He dispenses rewards (Luke 6:23; Matthew 25:21). 3. As He is their Priest. (1) To sacrifice. For by this means He satisfies the justice of His Father for them, He frees them from the guilt of all their sins and reconcileth them to Luke 2:10). (2) To intercede. Therefore in the text, He gives them as it were a taste of His future intercession, that thereby they might guess what He would do when He was come to heaven. 4. Uses. Is Christ the Author and the Fountain of the joy of His people (1) Then they that are out of Christ can have no true and solid joy, because they are divided from the fountain of it (James 5:1). There is no peace, and consequently no joy to wicked men. (2) Then fetch your joy and comfort thence. Drink you out of the Fountain, and not out of broken cisterns. II. CHRIST WOULD HAVE HIS PEOPLE TO BE FULL OF HOLY JOY. 1. This He has made sufficiently to appear (1) By publishing the gospel, which as it is a gospel of salvation, so of consolation (Luke 2:10; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:17). (2) By giving precious promises, and sealing them with His own blood Hebrews 9:16; Hebrews 6:18). (3) By giving glorious ordinances. For ordinances are not for our profit only, but are for our comfort too (Psalms 27:4; Isaiah 56:7;Jeremiah 15:16; Isaiah 12:3). (4) By giving clear discoveries of Himself (Acts 2:28). (5) By sending the Comforter. (6) By giving deliverance (Isaiah 66:5). (7) By purchasing heaven. 2. But wherefore will He have it to be so? (1) Out of self-respect, because by reason of the nearness of His union His joy is theirs, and theirs His (2 Thessalonians 1:12; Zephaniah 3:17). (2) To recompense them for sorrow (Matthew 5:4; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Psalms 6:1-10; John 16:1-33; John 17:1-26; John 18:1-40; John 19:1-42; John 20:1-31; Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 35:1-10.). (3) That they may be large in duty. Sorrow is a kinder straightening the 2 Corinthians 2:4). But holy joy dilates the heart, and consequently doth not only make it fit for duty, but it makes it to exceed in every service that is suitable to joy. 3. Use. Is it so that Jesus Christ would have His people full of holy joy? (1) Then it serves to censure those who seek to hinder the joy of Christ’ s people, and to embitter all their comfort with spiteful molestations. (2) Then it taxes those who waste away themselves in heaviness and discontent. Consider what the will of Christ is, and let Him have His will in this business; use all means possible to have your hearts brimfull of holy joy. (a). Be studious in the Word of Christ (Psalms 19:8; Romans 15:4). (b) Employ your serious thoughts upon that delicious place where there is fulness of all joy and pleasures for evermore (Romans 4:4). (3) Take heed that neither sin nor Satan steal away this jewel from you, which is the legacy that Christ bequeathed you when He was even about to leave this world. But first be sure the joy you have be Christ’ s joy, the joy which He works by His Spirit (Galatians 5:22); so there is another kind that is a fruit and effect of the flesh (James 4:16). III. THEIR OF HIS FOR THEM IS ONE MEANS TO FILL THEM FULL OF THIS JOY. It is a means to comfort them exceedingly. In reference 1. To all the oppositions of their enemies, whether without them or within them. 2. To all the accusations that are laid against us at the bar of God’ s justice 1 John 2:2). 3. To the many weaknesses and imperfections of our own prayers. 4. To the defects of all our graces. 5. It assures us of His dear love to us, and His tender care of us. (G. Newton.) Christ’ s desire for His disciples’ joy I. WHAT THIS JOY IS THAT CHRIST WOULD . 1. For the kind of it--“ My joy;” not a worldly joy, but heavenly; not corporal, but spiritual. It ill beseemeth Christians to set their hearts on earthly things, or suffer the world to intercept their joy (Philippians 4:4). 2. In what manner He would have it received--“ fulfilled in them.” The joy is full because the object is infinite; we can desire nothing beyond Him Acts 13:52). 3. It is inward for the quality of it; it is wrought in the midst of afflictions; like the wood that was thrown in at Marah, it maketh bitter water sweet Exodus 15:25; 1 Peter 1:6). II. REASONS WHY CHRIST WAS SO ABOUT THIS MATTER. 1. Because of the great use of it in the spiritual life, to make us to do and to suffer (Nehemiah 8:10). This is as ell to the wheels. Sorrow maketh us serious, joy active. This is sweet, when a man, out of the refreshings of the Spirit, can go about the business which God hath given him to do with delight (Acts 20:24; Acts 8:39). Not like slow asses that go by compulsion, but like generous horses, that delight in their strength and swiftness. 2. To mar the taste of carnal pleasures. The soul cannot remain without some oblectation; it delighteth either in earthly or in heavenly things. Now God will give us a taste of pleasantness in wisdom’ s paths, that we might disdain carnal pleasures. It is not a wonder for a clown, that hath not been acquainted with dainties, to love garlic and onions; but for a prince, that hath been acquainted with better diet, to leave the dainties of his father’ s table for those things, that were strange. 3. It is for His honour. Nothing bringeth reproach upon the ways of God so much as the sadness of those that profess them. You darken the ways of God by your melancholy conversation. Religion should be cheerful, though not wanton and dissolute. We are to invite others (Psalms 34:2). Otherwise thou art as one of the spies that discouraged the children of Israel, by bringing up an evil report upon the land of Canaan. 4. Because He delighteth to see us cheerful (chap. 15:11). III. SOME JOY. 1. God’ s providence to all the creatures doth aim at their joy and welfare. 2. Spiritual joy ariseth more from hope than possession (Romans 12:12; Hebrews 3:6; Romans 5:2). Some birds sing in winter. Though we have not an actual possession of glory, yet there is a certainty of possession. 3. This joy is more felt in adversity than prosperity (1 Peter 1:6; Romans 5:3). (1) Partly from God Himself; He proportioneth His comforts to our sorrows, and then sheddeth abroad His love most plentifully (2 Corinthians 1:5). (2) Partly from the saints; they rejoice most in afflictions, because they taste in them what evil they are freed from in Christ. (3) Partly because of sweet experiences. 4. Those have the highest feeling of joy that have tasted the bitterness of sorrow (Isaiah 57:18; Jeremiah 31:18; Jeremiah 31:20). Unutterable groans make way for ineffable joys. 5. The feelings of this joy are up and down, yet when the joy is gone, the right remaineth, and this joy will be fulfilled (chap. 16:22). IV. USES. 1. To show us the goodness of God, who hath made our wages a great part of our work, and our reward our service. 2. To take off the slander brought on the ways of God, as if they were dark and uncomfortable, as if we should abandon and renounce all delight. Oh! that wicked men would but make experience! 3. Let us despise the dreggy delights of the world. We are empty by nature, and worldly joy filleth not but with wind. 4. Reproof of two sorts (1) To those that are always sad. Christians do not live up to that care and provision which Christ hath made for them (1 Thessalonians 5:16). They live as if God had said, Weep evermore. It is verily a fault, however disguised; in some it deserveth pity; in others chiding and rebuke. (2) The other loft are those that would rejoice, but do not provide matter of joy. “ My joy.” 5. To raise your minds to the exercise of this joy, I shall show (1) What reason a Christian hath to rejoice. (a) The remembrance of his past estate (1 Peter 2:9). No man looketh on the sea with more comfort than he that hath escaped the dangers of a shipwreck. (b) His present interest, sense, and feeling (Romans 8:37). (c) His future hopes (Hebrews 3:6). We are heirs-apparent to the crown of heaven. (2) By what means it is maintained. God hath appointed for this end. (a) Graces; faith, hope, and obedience. (b) Ordinances: The Word, prayer, sacraments, meditation. (T. Manton, D. D.) The joy of Christ I. THE STRANGE THING NAMED “ MY JOY.” It is about the most unlikely thing in connection with the career and testimony of the Saviour. It would excite no one’ s surprise to hear Him say, “ If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross;” “ In the world ye shall have tribulation.” But when He speaks of His joy, is it not strange? What, then, is His joy? 1. It is the ripening harvest of suffering--suffering grown into joy, fully realized by Him in the completeness of His work. How true the prophetic description of Him A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief!” Wherever He turned His face men saw the sign. One ceaseless grief He bad--loneliness of soul. Spotless purity in the midst of foul pollution,transparent truth in the midst of elaborate falsehood, earnest spirituality in the midst of consummate hypocrisy, self-sacrificing goodness in the midst of grasping selfishness. Go into His own family: they are hostile and scornful. Mix with His disciples: they are dull, grovelling, strifeful-By the grave of a friend He groans and weeps. But the soul of the Redeemer’ s sufferings was the sufferings of His soul. In Gethsemane--what is this? On Calvary--oh, what is this? His heart breaks, and on this account, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” “ He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” The harvest of ripened suffering--suffering turned into joy. Only He knew that in all its fulness. 2. It sprang from ministering to the sad and comfortless. He spent His life with the sufferers. His loving care lavished all its resources upon them. He was the Christ, anointed to comfort all that mourn. And such gathered to Him without hesitation. “ He bare their griefs and carried their sorrows.” He alone could; the rest would sink under the burden. He alone would; all the rest would have gone away in despair. But He did, and in a weeping world He had a word of mighty power. That word was “ Weep not.” So He speaks to the widow, to Jairus, and to the woman that was a sinner. And so He found solace in making the unhappy happy--a grand position, divinely high. 3. It consisted in sympathy with the heavenly Father’ s will, and sprang from doing that will. 4. It was the joy of doing the highest possible good--saving men’ s souls. II. OUR LORD’ S DESIRE IS TO THIS. 1. That His joy in His disciples might be perfect in kind; that is, that it should spring from the same sources and have the same attributes in the seme proportion, as in His life and heart. 2. That it might be abundant in degree. I invite you all who have faith in Jesus, and a good hope in Him through grace, to cherish the fulness of the Saviour’ s joy. (1) There is good ground for it. The Saviour and the saved will rejoice together. The saved man was guilty, but he is forgiven, and against him there is no condemnation. (2) There is no danger in it. It will awaken no bad passion, it will create neither envy nor strife. The more the heart is filled with it the more the affections will be sanctified. (3) There is no alloy in it. Not like the joy of the world, it will never be dashed with bitterness, or overshadowed by dread, or startled by horror, or stung by remorse. (4) It will not die and disappoint you. It will live on and grow, not like the lamp of the wicked that goes out, but like the path of the just, shining more and more to the perfect day. (5) It will bless your whole nature. The understanding will say, “ It is wise.” The conscience will say, “ It is right.” The heart will say, “ It is good.” Long as you live your confidence will grow; and when death looks you in the face your confidence will not be shaken, but it will be dearer when everything else is dying, and brighter when everything else is darker. (J. Aldis.) Christ’ s own joy our joy I. THE NATURE OF CHRIST’ S JOY. The joy of Jesus was not that then that every eye could see. It certainly was not the mirthfulness that plays over the countenance. To have looked into His face would not have been to see joy mirrored. It was more marred than that of the sons of men, and deep were the furrows care had ploughed. If it was a joy not strongly expressed in the countenance, it was also a joy not easily detected by His conversation. In His recorded discourses we have no sparkling coruscations of mirthfulness, investing them with brilliancy, but rather a spirit of calm sadness. Observe also that the joy of Jesus was not one extracted from surrounding circumstances. With too many of us our joy is distilled from our circumstances, and consequently if those circumstances be adverse we are destitute of happiness. Our joy, like honey, is gathered “ from every opening flower.” Many of you know what poverty means--can you coin joy out of it? You may know what reproach is--do you find it a fount of sweetness or bitterness? You have been betrayed--do you like it? With us death is in a great measure an unknown thing, and the time of it is uncertain, but remember that with Jesus every pain was foreknown, and all the agony and shame forefelt, and yet He had so deep a joy that He prayed that His joy might fill His disciples. Assuredly then, it was not the joy gleaned from surroundings. What was it? It was a joy that had its fount deep within the soul. It was not a joy that flowed into the soul through the channel of the senses. The tide flowed the other way. It flowed out from the soul. Here is one of the great differences between the joy of the Christian and the joy of the worldling. The latter drinks in nearly all his joy through the senses. The child, lovely and beloved, sends joy into the heart through the channel of the sight. Music comes stealing through the corridors of the ear--joy comes with it. The scent of the rose awakens pleasure, and taste and touch alike become the instruments of happiness. The Christian, like his Master, has all these, but the joy of his heart is the joy that rises there independently of all outside things; the joy which like himself is born from above. This joy is not confined to any one place. Being an inward joy it may be had under any and every circumstance, yea, it is a joy that will thrive where any other joy would perish. It is the chamois of the Alps, that leaps like the hind of the morning where others cannot walk, and finds its food where most would starve. The only difficulty would be to say where it cannot and where it has not grown. It has sprung up between the stone slabs of the dungeon floor, and made the prison a conservatory. It has flourished in poverty until the inhabitant of the palace has envied. It has lived in the flames of martyrdom, and made the tongue sing when almost all beside was charred and blackened. It is a joy that lives in the fountains of the great deep of the soul. So much for the joy of Christ being an inward one. Let us now go more into particulars, and see what was the nature of this inward joy, or the different channels in which it flowed. 1. I observe that it was the joy of communion. Our Saviour ever had an abiding sense of His Father’ s nearness, and deep beyond all description, must have been the fellowship between them. 2. Christ’ s joy was also the joy of realized and returned love, Communion is more a positive act, this an experience. Christ felt His Father’ s love. This He declares--“ The Father loveth the Son.” Christ loved the Father. This also He declared--“ I love the Father.” Now a realized and returned love can only result in joy. I was standing on a tongue of land, or rather rocks, with a river on either side of me. Both rivers could be traced for some way back. They came from almost opposite directions. Both of them came leaping and roaring along channels filled with great boulder stones. Both of them were beautiful to a degree. For many a mile they had each run their lovely course, gradually nearing, until at last their streams met at the foot of the rock on which I stood. The place was called “ the meeting of the waters,” and marvellous was the “ water’ s music.” The two streams embraced, and seemed for a moment or two to dance for very glee, and then blending, ran off no longer separate but one. So I thought I have in this division of my subject the meeting of the waters. The one stream is called “ the Father loveth He.” The other stream is called “ I love the Father.” Both are exquisitely lovely. Both are born from above. One flows from the mountain of the Father’ s house on high; the other from the Rock of Ages. They meet in our subject, and the music of the meeting of the waters is joy. A heart beloved and a heart loving must be a heart of joy. This joy was Christ’ s This joy may be, should be, must be ours. The same stream of love that flowed from the Father to the Son, flows from the Father to us. 3. It was also the joy of complete surrender. What would have been a source of sorrow to most, casts a bright gleam of sunshine into the heart of the Man of Sorrows. How is it so? By what process does He extract matter for joy from seeming want of success--a bitter cup to the lips of most? The answer you have in His own words, “ Even so Father.” Yes, this was enough for the soul perfectly surrendered. It was the Father’ s will that so it should be, and therefore it being so, was the Son’ s joy. Would to God we knew more of this joy of perfect and complete surrender. It is our will clashing with our Father’ s will that gives disquiet. Were our will but one with His, it would be utterly impossible for us ever to be anything else than serene, calm, and happy. 4. It was the joy of one who could look back upon a life work finished. In the fourth verse of this chapter our Saviour says, “ I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” Yet once more. 5. It was the joy of approaching glory. How clearly does this shine out in the first few words of our text, “ and now come I to Thee.” “ I to Thee!” Ah, here is joy indeed. Christ’ s own joy is indeed ours in this respect. His heaven is our heaven--His home our home. II. THE MEASURE IN WHICH CHRIST DESIRES HIS SAINTS TO POSSESS THIS JOY. “ Fulfilled.” What an expressive word have we here! Full to the overflow--filled to the utmost capacity. This is the measure of joy Christ wishes for His disciples. They already possessed it in some degree, but He wished them to have it in a far larger; like a sacred flood until it overflows all banks, and eddies into every nook and cranny of the soul. How are we to obtain this inward bliss? Our text tells us. “ These things I speak that they might have My joy.” It is the word of Jesus that gives this joy. No looking into our own hearts or inspection of our own feelings will avail. That will but empty us. And oh how necessary it is that we should be filled. A very simple illustration will show the necessity. Take a bottle but half full of water, and placing your hand over its mouth, shake it. See how the water rushes from end to end as you move it. There is a turmoil within at the slightest motion. Why? Because it is only half full. Now fill it until you cannot add another drop. Shake it--all is still within. Turn it upside down--all is quiet. Why is this? Because it isquite full, and therefore no outside motion affects it. (A. G. Brown.) John 17:14I hath given them Thy Word, and the world hath hated them.The believer’ s position in the world It was one distinguished by I. . “ I hath given them Thy Word.” 1. These terms are comprehensive of the revelation of Divine grace and truth as a whole, which Christ Jesus taught as they were able to bear it. Who at this time, in the whole world, knew the Word of God as did these Galilean fishermen? 2. To receive the Word of God (1) As a personal possession; (2) as a sacred deposit in trust for the whole world; and (3) from Him who was the Revealer of God and the Redeemer of men was the highest privilege. 3. And since with every privilege responsibility is involved, these disciples were invested with a trust which required them to be kept with Divine power. All disciples now, in a sense, share in this privilege and responsibility. II. MORAL . 1. They were not of the world (1) In their character, for the world is ever presented as having a character opposed to God. Self, not God, is its foundation; it seeks the present rather than the future, walks by sight rather than by faith, glories in the human rather than in the Divine, holds by the carnal rather than the spiritual. In this respect the disciples were no longer of the world. (2) In their condition. The world, as such, was lying in wickedness and under condemnation. The children of disobedience are declared to be the children of wrath, and the friendship of the world is enmity with God. 2. This separation exposed them to social persecution--“ The world hath hated them,” &c. The only world of which they knew anything by experience as yet was their own country, and it hated them. And if this was their experience up to now how signally in a wider sphere did it come to be so afterwards (1 Corinthians 4:13). The Saviour’ s spotless purity rebuked the looseness of the age, His benevolence its selfishness, His piety its worldliness. Therefore it hated Him, and the disciples shared in the hostility which was heaped upon the Master. 3. Christ was the model of this separation. “ Even as I am not of the world.” Jesus had not come out of the world as His disciples had done, for He was never of it, as they were. He was not of the world, although He came to the world, lived in the world, mixed with the men of the world, and in the scenes of the world, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and His disciples accepted His principles, and gradually became assimilated to His character. To be like Christ, and to be “ unspotted from the world “ is the only true and abiding glory of human character. What does the world care for saints? It has not a good opinion of them, nor a good word for them; its spirit is entirely opposed to them, and it is not slow to call them fools. (J. Spence, D. D.) Christians not of the world Let us I. EXPLAIN AND THE TRUTH OF THE . Christians are not of the world 1. Because they are not attached to its party. (1) In many cases it is lawful to associate with the people of the world. Such are cases of necessity--when we are compelled by our situations to live among them; cases of business, charity, and piety, civility, and affinity. (2) But further than this a Christian will not go. He cannot choose and affinity. (2) But further than this a Christian will not go. He cannot choose the people of the world as his companions and friends. (a) The authority of God forbids it. “ Come out from among them and ye separate,” &c. (b) The peace of his fellow Christians. Such bold intimacies with the world would grieve the strong, and throw a stumbling-block in the way of the weak. (c) The welfare of his own soul. “ Can a man take fire in his bosom and not be burned?” My young friends, beware of wicked company! Cultivate no friendships that will end in everlasting ruin. 2. They are not actuated by the spirit of the world. Everything else is vain without this. Your forsaking the world in profession, your leaving it in appearance, by your apparel, your discourse, your manner of life, is nothing unless it be animated by internal principle. And when the heart is detached from the world, these two advantages flow from it: (1) Even in the midst of all your secular concerns you will maintain your distinction. Though in the world, you will not be of it, because the heart is elsewhere, and God looketh to the heart. (2) When the heart is withdrawn from the world, everything else will follow of course. (a) Then you will not be governed by the maxims and opinions of the world. You will not ask what are the sentiments of the multitude, but what says the Scripture? (b) You will not be attached to its amusements and dissipations. The sun arising conceals the stars--not by spreading gloom, but by diffusing lustre. It is a poor thing to be dragged out of the dissipations of the world, against inclination, while we still look back with Lot’ s wife. But it is a glorious thing to leave these diversions from the discovery and possession of superior entertainment and sublimer joys. (c) You will not be led by the conversation of the world; for speech is governed by affection; “ and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” 3. They are not natives of the world. Our Lord said to the Jews, “ Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world.” Now the believer may adopt the same language. He is here only as “ a stranger, and a foreigner,” not a native; he derives his being from heaven. And as he is born from above, no wonder that he “ seeks those things which are above.” 4. They do not choose their portion here. Hence the Christian learns in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content. This never can be the case with the man who makes the world his portion. A Christian feels worldly trials, but he is not miserable. He is thankful for temporal indulgencies, but he is not exalted above measure. II. WHAT DOES THIS TRUTH TEACH US? 1. It enables us easily to account for the world’ s persecution of real Christians. They are not willing indeed to acknowledge what our Lord alleges as the cause of their hatred. “ It is not for your holiness we condemn you, but for your pride, your censoriousness, your hypocrisy.” But how is it that the most holy and zealous Christians have been the most obnoxious to the men of the world? And a much stronger case: how was it that the Lord was more abhorred than His followers? Was He proud, censorious, false? And what our Saviour said to the Jews will apply to many Christians--falsely so called now--“ The world cannot hate you” --you are somuch like it--“ but Me” --Me “ it hateth because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.” Bear the same decisive testimony by your words and actions, and be assured a portion of the same rancour will follow. The case is plain. Resemblance is a ground of affection; but unsuitableness, of dislike. “ Hence,” say the Apostle, “ all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” of one kind or another. It began early. Cain slew his brother Abel; “ and wherefore slew he him” ? It prevailed also in the family of Abraham; “ and as it was then, so it is now; he that was born after the flesh persecuted Him that was born after the Spirit.” “ Marvel not therefore,” says our Saviour, “ if the world hate you.” Do not murmur; you suffer in the noblest company, and your enemies can neither hinder your present peace, nor destroy your future happiness. 2. If the distinguishing badge of a Christian is this--that he is “ not of the world” --then are there few real Christians to be found. Judge yourselves by this test. Ask yourselves wherein you differ from the men of the world. 3. See how little we should be affected with the charge of preciseness and singularity. You would not be afraid of being peculiarly wise, or beautiful, or wealthy. Why then wish to escape the praise of being singular in religion? What wisdom, what beauty, what riches can be compared to this? 4. If Christians are not of the world, no wonder they are more than reconciled to a withdrawment from it. No wonder they love solitude and enter their closets. There they exchange the world for God. No wonder they prize the Sabbath--it is a day of retreat, it is an emblem of heavenly rest. No wonder if death be no longer formidable--it is leaving a vain, vexing, defiling world. (W. Jay.) John 17:15I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil The parting prayer I. THE MOTIVES WHICH THIS PRAYER. 1. To evince the tenderness of His heart toward His people. Usually, when any master-grief takes possession of the mind, we seldom have much disposition or power, to sympathise with the sorrows of others. Had our Lord been the subject of this infirmity, this was not the time for Him to have been concerned about the future trials of His people. Yet at this moment, when we might suppose His every thought and feeling to have been absorbed in the sword that was about to pierce His soul, we find Jesus turning to consider the comparatively little griefs of His dear disciples, His prayer seems to be--“ Holy Father, think not of My coming sufferings, but think of these whom I am about to leave full of sorrows, and keep them.” 2. That He might instruct His disciples to the end of time in that mighty interest with which He is always engaged for their spiritual preservation. As you go through the successive clauses of this chapter, you will find in almost every verse something to show that God has a direct interest in the consummation of that scheme which Jesus came both to reveal and to accomplish; that “ His own great name” was to be furthered thereby, and that it formed part of the covenant which He made with Jesus, that these His people should be saved through His blood. II. THE TRUTHS THAT ARE TO BE LEARNED FROM THIS PRAYER. 1 That the world is full of dangers. The world is, and must ever be the Christian’ s adversary. It is a sinful place. The prince of evil is its god; the fascinations of evil are its snares; the works of evil are its employments; and the triumphs of evil are its boast and its pride. 2. That there are ends to be accomplished by our remaining in the world which make it expedient that we should for a time be kept in it. And this expediency consisted in this: these His disciples had a work to do. They had His honour to promote and His gospel to spread. This is true of us. We have all our stated duties to fulfil; we have all a nook in His providence to fill up; we have all our own little wheel to turn in that vast machine, which governs and controls the universe. It is not therefore the language of true obedience to say “ My soul is weary of life; would that God would take me to Himself!” It is nothing more than the suicide’ s thought, clothed in Gospel language. It is impatience of the yoke Christ has laid on the shoulder. It is not the saint’ s desire to “ rest from his labour;” it is the worldling’ s desire to rest without labour. It is the wish to use that part of our Lord’ s prayer, “ Father, glorify Thy Son,” without remembering that other part of it, “ I have finished the work Thou gavest Me to do.” 3. That the power of this evil of the world is so great, that we can only be delivered from it by the almighty power of God. (1) Who can contemplate the legion of spiritual foes which encompass the believer’ s path, and remember at the same time the powerful ally and abettor of Satan that we carry in our own hearts; and not feel, that unless the power of the grace of God interfered on our behalf, none of us would be saved? (2) And then, how mercifully mysterious and varied are the methods of the Divine protection? Before the temptation comes; while the encounter lasts: yea, and even afterwards, when mourning in humiliating bitterness of soul over some recent defeat, how often have we found the restoring power of God’ s grace overruling for the benefit of His people’ s souls every incident of their lives! (3) Observe the means by which we are thus kept (verse11). “ The name of the Lord is a strong tower,” &c. Here is the argument with which we are permitted to come to the mercy-seat--that God’ s name is engaged and pledged to keep us from evil. 3. That the only lawful measure of solicitude we are to entertain about the things of this world is, that we may be “ kept from the evil” which belongs to it. Life is full of disappointed projects and griefs. Then how important is it, that we should be able to ascertain what solicitude we are permitted to entertain. The passage tells us that our only solicitude is to be guided by this; not by the evils themselves, but their spiritual results. I am not to pray against poverty; but I am to pray against its evils. I am not to pray against riches; but I am to pray against their temptations. I am not to pray against the disappointments, and vexations, and crosses, and cares of life; but I am to pray, that however multiplied and grievous are the forms of trial that await me, I may never have a murmuring, unsubmissive, discontented spirit. (D. Moore, M. A.) Every-day holiness The saintly painter Fra Angelico flung out his thoughts upon the cells of San Marco, and those who visit Florence are arrested and subdued by the purity of his dreams. My friends, that other powerful artist who adorned the ceiling of the Sistine, has traced our figures copied more directly from the study of the human form, but warmed into life by the fire of Divine genius; and of such men we cannot but say that they penetrated the hidden chambers of another world before they could leave before the eyes of five astonished centuries such visions, more lovely or more appalling than the mysteries and marvels of our dreams. But I tell you that in the streets of London, in the streets of Manchester, it is possible for us in our ordinary life to see pictures more pure than the dreams of Angelico, more powerful than the masterpieces of Angelo. Here we are face to face with living men, seine in youth, in the early days of passion and struggle, some in age, when the fire is failing and the eye growing dim, who, in the midst of a world that forgets God, or defies Him, are enabled to do mighty things though hidden to sustain an inner life of loyalty to supernatural principle amidst the fretting care of daily toil. (Knox Little.) Christ’ s prayer for His disciples I. WHAT OUR LORD ASKS FOR US. His petition has two sides--a negative and a positive. To be kept from evil in the world means 1. To be engaged in the world’ s business, and have it rightly directed. Some have thought that we would be more Christian if we were to withdraw into solitude. But this is impossible for the mass of men, and it is in direct opposition to the example of Christ, and to the spirit of His gospel. Paul did not think his office suffered when he wrought as a tentmaker, and was not labour consecrated by the Son of God Himself? Whatever is open to men, that is just and right in business, is open to Christians, and whatever their hands find to do, they are to do it with their might. The gospel asks of its friends that all their business should be (1) Directed to a true end. Other men may turn their work to the ends that are merely personal. The Christian’ s toil should not have self for its end, but God and Christ, and in them, the good of humanity. Men may call this ideal and impracticable, but it is the only thing that can redeem human business from being dreary, degrading toil, and man himself from feeling that he is a mere beast of burden, (2) Done in a right manner. The law of truth and justice should regulate every part of it. Some think they can separate their religion from their business; but it is the vain old endeavour to serve God and Mammon. Christianity must touch everything in life if it touches it at all. If the gospel is not to make Christians truthful and upright, I do not see any great purpose it can serve on this side time or beyond it. If the world and its business are ever to be put right, and cleared of the robberies that threaten society, where is the stand to be made if not by those who have lifted up their hands to God and said, “ We are His witnesses” ? 2. To suffer under its trials, and to be preserved from impatience. If a man would escape trial, he must needs go out of the world, and when Christ prayed that His disciples should be kept in it, He knew that they were to suffer affliction. Moral distinctions are not observed in the providential allotment of calamity. This stumbles many. But if God were to exempt His friends from trial, He would take away from Christians one of the most effective means of their training, and one of the most striking ways in which they can prove their likeness to Christ. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, but it is not seen in his being saved from suffering; it is in the way in which he meets it. Few things do more to raise the tone of our own Christian life, and to prove to men that there is a hidden property in religion which can turn the bitterest thing in this world into sweetness. 3. To be exposed to its temptations, and preserved from falling into sin. God has not seen fit to deprive sinful things of their attractiveness, nor to disarm the great enemy of his fiery darts, nor to quench at once and altogether the inflammable material in our heart. This would be fighting the battle and gaining the victory without us, and there could then be no perfected purity, no established character, no conqueror’ s crown. This should mark a Christian in the world, that he should have a deeper view of what is to be aimed at in character--of what is meant by being kept from evil. It is not to be preserved from misfortune, or sickness, or reproach, or bereavement, but from sin. II. WHY HE ASKS IT. 1. For the benefit of the world. If Christ were to remove men so soon as they become His followers, He would be taking away from the world its greatest blessings. True Christians are the salt of the earth and its light. 2. For the honour of His own name. There is glory that accrues to the name of Christ when a sinner drops the weapons of rebellion, and when His redeemed are brought home. But it is for His honour also that there should be an interval between--a pathway of struggle, where the power of His grace may be seen preserving His friends in every extremity. It was a glorious thing for the Head Himself to enter the lists of battle, and to depart a victor, triumphing through endurance to the death. But it multiplies His triumph, or brings out all that was hidden in it, when we see it repeated in the victory of the weakest of His followers. It is like the sun reflecting His image from every dewdrop, folding out His treasures in the green leaves and colours of all the flowers, and flashing His light along the beaded moisture of gossamer threads--for we believe that not a blessing or a comfort, not a grace or virtue rises out of the night of our sin and suffering--not the slightest filament of feeling sparkles into hope--but it will be found that it owes its source to the fountain of light and life which God has opened for His world in Jesus Christ. 3. For the good of Christians themselves. “ Master, it is good for us to be here,” Peter said on the Holy Mount, “ Let us build here three tabernacles. Why go down again into the dark world of opposition and trial, when we can enjoy at once the heavenly vision” ? But “ he wist not what he said,” and he was compelled to descend and travel many a weary footstep, before he reached that higher mount where he now stands with his Lord in glory. We, too, may sometimes feel that it would be better for us to be carried past these temptations and struggles, and to enter at once into rest. But He who undertakes for us knows what is best, and as it was expedient for us that He should depart, so must it also be that we should for a season remain behind, Not that this is indisipensable for our sanctification, for the Saviour who could carry the dying thief at once to paradise, could do the same for all of us. The reason seems rather to be that there are lessons which we have to learn on this earth which can be taught us in no other part of our history. (1) The evil of sin. And, therefore, we are detained in a world where its effects are so terrible, where we have to struggle with it. (2) That we should enjoy more fully the blessedness of heaven. Our bitter bereavements will intensify the joy of its meetings; its rest will be sweeter for the hard toil; and its perfect light and purity fill the soul with a far more exceeding glory for the doubts and temptations which oppress us here. Conclusion: Let this petition point out 1. Our duty. What He asked for us we must aim at. Let us fear nothing so much as sin; and feel that our life can aim at a true and noble end, only when it breathes the air of this prayer of Christ. 2. Our security. The life of a Christian man is in no common keeping. It is suspended on the intercession of Christ (John 17:24). (J. Ker, D. D.) Christ’ s prayer for the disciples I. THAT FOR WHICH CHRIST DID NOT PRAY. The reasons for this negative prayer are twofold. 1. Those which were personal to the disciples. (1) Christ’ s knowledge of the moral uses and value of temptation. It is not the physical frame of the sluggard that attains the highest muscular development. So there is a necessity of spiritual assault from without, and spiritual resistance from within, in order to the perfection of our spiritual nature. (2) Christ’ s knowledge of the moral uses of suffering. These also are directly instrumental in soul development by the invigoration of its energies. 2. That which related to the world. It was for the world’ s sake that our Lord would not have His disciples removed. They were to be its “ light.” II. THAT FOR WHICH CHRIST DID PRAY. The man who has turned to Christ is not freed from the possibility of falling. There is not given him such a measure of grace as to render his relapse impossible, nor does Satan give up hope of recovery. What an encouragement to endurance and effort that Christ prayed then and prays still! Learn 1. The necessity of constant watchfulness and endeavour. Christ prays for us, but we by our own acts must render the prayer effectual. 2. A lesson of confidence. By ourselves we must fall, but we are not by ourselves. (W. Rudder, D. D.) The Christian in the world Christ is “ come into the world,” and therefore thou needest not “ go out of the world” to meet Him. He doth not call thee from thy calling, but in thy calling. The dove went up and down from the ark and to the ark, and yet was not disappointed of her olive-leaf. Thou mayest come to the house of God at due times, and thou mayest do the business of the world in other places too; and still keep thy olive, thy peace of conscience (Genesis 24:27; 1 Corinthians 5:10). (J. Donne, D. D.) The disciples in the world I. THE WORLD. The world is a globe some eight thousand miles through and three times eight thousand miles round. It is one of the lesser members of a family of worlds. The whole universe, within the telescopic horizon, is composed of gigantic continents of suns, the dim lines of which shimmer in the ethereal depths. Yet our planet, relatively so small, is a vast world. What moral interests centre in it I It was not the first theatre of intelligence and responsibility. When the progenitors of our race received their being, there were mighty tides of good and evil, bliss and misery, sweeping from an unknown past into the unfathomable gulfs of the endless future. When but one pair of human beings was alone amidst the otherwise unpeopled solitude, they were caught and borne along by the evil current. Murder broke out in the first family; and sin has been in every household since. What a world is ours at the present moment! Call before you its heathenisms and its inadequate reception of the gospel in what are called Christian lands. Portray to your imagination its wars, vices, diseases, sufferings. Barbarism conceals none of its iniquities; civilization is often as guilty behind its decorous exterior. Poverty brings temptation, and riches are full of snares. Ignorance surrounds our path with danger; and learning is commonly only a variation of peril. Deformity makes life sordid; and beauty as frequently ministers to luxury. Idleness breeds mischief, and occupation tends to nurture ambition and greed. Disappointment chills and sours not a few; and success destroys many more. The seeming goodness of one droops in hours of ease; another falls in the time of conflict. And oh l of what delusions and perils the best men are conscious! The godly feel their evil and see their dangers as no others can. II. OUR SAVIOUR’ S DESIRE THAT HIS MIGHT REMAIN IN THE WORLD. 1. How differently our Lord regarded human life from many whose history inspired men have handed down to us! Jesus never desired for Himself or His followers an unhonoured escape from the tests of this mortal career. When the patient Job was overwhelmed with affliction, he longed for the hour of death. So did the Psalmist (Psalms 55:5); Elijah (1 Kings 19:4); Jeremiah (Jeremiah 9:2); and Jonah (Jonah 4:3). Oh! how transcendently unlike all this is the bearing of Jesus! “ Thy will be done” is His lifelong prayer. 2. Jesus surpassed all others in His lofty estimate of the possibilities of a human life in this world of mystery, sin, and death. (1) He would not have become incarnate in this world of temptation and suffering, if it had been utterly unfit for the trial and development of a Godlike life. His assumption of our humanity not only illustrates the greatness of our nature and destination; but it also guarantees the wisdom and endorses the goodness of the Providence which rules the earth. (2) He knew all the worst of Satanic and human evil. He saw it as we never can. No man ever beheld the actual sinfulness of his own spirit. If you could have before you the evil of every soul in a large city, your reason would reel. Jesus looked on the unveiled reality, but yet said, “ I pray not,” &c. (3) Christ loves His disciples, yet His affection did not prompt, but forbade, the supplication, “ Father, take them out of the world.” (4) Jesus knew human life by experience. He trod the depths of its temptations, and drank the cup of its sorrows to the dregs. His hands were hard with labour, His frame was wearied by fatigue. Yet, while He passed through all, and more than all, our trials and griefs, though without sin, He said, “ I pray not,” &c. (5) Our Saviour was now penetrating the deepest shadows of His incarnate life. To-morrow all the harrowing scenes are enacted that end in the cross. Yet, when the Lord’ s experience of a human probation was awful beyond conception, and while He was aware that His disciples were to share His Cross in many lands, He did not pray, “ Father, take them away from a world so terrible, where their faith will be tried by flame and their foes will shed their blood.” (6) Christ could have taken His disciples out of the world in an instant if it had been the best for them. He could have commanded ministering spirits to bear His followers along the starry pathway to the mansions of the blest Matthew 26:53). But He did not even pray that they might be taken out of the world. (7) Jesus must have set a high value on a soul tempered in the fires of trial and suffering in this fallen planet. A soul that bears the test of life, and comes out of the process confirmed in loyalty and love to God and righteousness, must be destined for some sublime vocation in coming worlds. “ Kings and priests unto God” are not empty titles. Contemplating the unfading crown to which His faithful disciples were advancing, Jesus said, “ I pray not,” &c. (8) Jesus wished His disciples to be like Himself. He desired them to yearn over this sinning and suffering world with a compassion like His own. To share His joy, they must be equally willing to live, and toil, and suffer. To ask that believers might be taken out of the world, without nobly living and working in it, would be to beseech that His kingdom might fail. III. OUR SAVIOUR’ S PRAYER THAT HIS MIGHT BE KEPT FROM THE EVIL OF THE WORLD. 1. Our Lord knew that the end of a life like ours cannot be attained except through a probation like ours. He did not cry, therefore, “ Father, stay the direful ordeal, and rearrange the lot of man.” But He prayed, “ Father, keep these from evil.” 2. He knew that the life of God in the soul was endowed with all the properties necessary to its triumph. The one thing that represses, hinders, and overthrows, is sin. Keep this deadly influence away, and there will be progress and victory. Hence Jesus stretched the bright shield of His intercession over the heads of His disciples, saying, “ I pray,” &c. Conclusion: 1. A Christian has every reason to cultivate a temper contented, jubilant, as he surveys this mysterious scene. The adamant of a Saviour’ s intercession is stretched over every soul that confides in His redeeming grace. 2. The great end of life is not ease and comfort. The great concern is, to be preserved from evil. The terrible tests of life are not to be lowered. We are to bear them (James 1:12). 3. How sad is the contrast of multitudes, to whom the gospel is preached, and who seek no deliverance and preservation from evil! (H. Batchelor.) Better to stay than go We have here I. A PRAYER. II. THE OF THIS PRAYER. 1. That they should not, by retirement and solitude, be kept entirely separate from the world. Hermits and others have fancied that if we were to shut ourselves from the world we should then be more devoted to God and serve Him better. But monasticism has demonstrated its fallacy. It was found that some sinned more grossly than men who were in the world. There are not many who can depart from the customs of social life and maintain their spirit unsullied. Common sense tells us that living alone is not the way to serve God. It may be the way to serve self. If it be possible by this means to fulfil one part of the great law of God, we cannot possibly carry out the other portion--to love our neighbour as ourselves. I have heard of a man who thought he could live without sin if he were to dwell alone, so he took a pitcher of water and store of bread, and provided some wood, and locked himself up in a solitary cell, saving. “ Now I shall live in peace” But in a moment or two he chanced to kick the pitcher over, and he thereupon used an angry expression. Then he said, “ I see it is possible to lose one’ s temper even when alone,” and at once returned to live among men. 2. That they should not be taken out of the world by death. That is a blessed mode of taking us out of the world, which will happen to us all by and by. How frequently does the wearied pilgrim put up the prayer,” Oh that I had wings like a dove!” &c. But Christ does not pray like that; He leaves it to His Father, until, like shocks of corn fully ripe, we shall be gathered into our Master’ s garner. III. THE REASONS. 1. It would not be for our own good. We conceive that the greatest blessing we shall ever receive of God is to die; but it is better for us to tarry, because (1) A little stay on earth will make heaven all the sweeter. Nothing makes rest so sweet as toil; nothing can render security so pleasant as a long exposure to alarms. The more trials the more bliss, the more sufferings the more ecstasies, the more depression the higher the exaltation. Why! we should not know how to converse in heaven if we had not trials to tell of. An old sailor likes to have passed through shipwrecks and storms, for if he anchors in Greenwich Hospital he will there tell, with great pleasure, to his companions of his hair-breadth escapes. (2) We should not have fellowship with Christ if we did not stop here. Fellowship with Christ is so honourable a thing that it is worth while to suffer, that we may thereby enjoy it. Moreover, we might be taken for cowards if we had no scars to prove the sufferings we had passed through and the wounds we had received for His name. I should never have known the Saviour’ s love half so much if I had not been in the storms of affliction. 2. It is for the good of other people. Why may not saints die as soon as they are converted? Because God meant that they should be the means of the salvation of their brethren. You would not, surely, wish to go out of the world if there were a soul to be saved by you. Mayhap, poor widow, thou art spared in this world because there is a wayward son of thine not yet saved, and God hath designed to make thee the favoured instrument of bringing him to glory. 3. It is for God’ s glory. A tried saint brings more glory to God than an untried one. Nothing reflects so much honour on a workman as a trial of his work and its endurance of it. So with God. IV. THE . 1. Death is God taking His people out of the world; and when we die we are removed by God. 2. Dying is not of one-half so much importance as living to Christ. It may be an important question, How does a man die? but the most important one is, How does a man live? Do not put any confidence in death-beds as evidences of Christianity. The great evidence is not how a man dies, but how he lives. V. THE LESSONS. 1. That we never have any encouragement to ask God to let us die. 2. Do not be afraid to go out into the world to do good. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The world’ s need of Christians A young lawyer, going to the West to settle for life, made it his boast that he “ would locate in some place where there were no churches, Sunday schools, or Bibles.” He found a place which substantially met his conditions. But before the year was out he wrote to a former classmate, a young minister, begging him to come out and bring plenty of Bibles, and begin preaching, and start a Sunday school; for, he said, he had “ become convinced that a place without Christians, and Sabbaths, and churches, and Bibles was too much like hell for any living man to stay in.” Unworldliness in the world Though Sir Thomas More lived so much in the world and at Court, yet his heart was kept unworldly by the singular virtue of his private life. If he entertained his equals freely, he also frequently invited the poor to dine and sup with him; the more he was in the king’ s palace, the more he resorted to the cottages of the poor; when he added to his house a library, he provided also a house near his own for the comfort of his aged neighbours; and when most involved in worldly business he built himself a chapel. He never entered on any fresh public employment without an act of devotion and a participation in the Lord’ s Supper--trusting, as he said, more to the grace of God thus derived than to his own wit; and so long as his father lived he never sat on the judgment-seat--that seat was the Lord Chancellor’ s--without asking his blessing on his knees. (F. Myers, M. A.) Mutual necessity; or, why saints are left to sojourn in a sinful world I. BECAUSE THE WORLD NEEDS THEM. It needs 1. Their example. They are the lights of the world. In their character, duties, and sufferings they show the blessed influence of religion. A good example has a wonderful attraction. Godly men are living epistles. 2. Their testimony. They are God’ s witnesses. They go into the world and bring the truth in contact with men’ s minds. The world needs them as it needed the glorious mission of their Lord and Master. Think of the results of their labours. Be faithful, and testify fearlessly for God and truth. 3. Their prayers. The prayers of the Church are like Moses’ rod. Israel needed Elijah’ s prayers. Jerusalem sinners needed the prayers which preceded the pentecostal visitation. May the Lord increase the number of praying ministers, teachers, and parents! 4. Their sympathies. See the glorious institutions of our Lord, the ministrations to the sick and dying, &c., &c. What is the source of such benevolence? The life of religion in the souls of men. II. BECAUSE THEY NEED THE WORLD. 1. For the trial of their faith (Hebrews 11:1-40.). The Christian’ s trials are necessary as a heavenly discipline. They come forth as gold. Reliance on Jesus is faith’ s first exercise; confidence in God as a Father is established as we pass through this world of care and temptation. 2. To prove the sincerity of their love. We are in a state of probation. Our profession of love must be tested. Thus it was with Peter: “ Lovest thou Me?” --then go and give tangible proof thereof. Saints are sent into the gospel vineyard, and in the next world the Great Proprietor will say to the faithful, “ Well done,” &c. 3. For their progressive sanctification. High situations are attained by degrees; health promoted by exercise. Strength and skill are obtained by conflict. Storms clear the atmosphere. Thus with the book of “ truth” as our guide and help, we struggle onward and upward, gathering strength as we go, and rejoicing in anticipation of that world where sin has never found an abode. Let the saint and the sinner, respectively, inquire, Am I improving the period of my earthly existence? (Congregational Pulpit.) Kept from the evil I. FROM WHAT SHALL BE KEPT. 1. Negatively; not (1) An absolute freedom from all afflictions, which are either the consequences of sin or corrections of God (Psalms 89:28; Hebrews 12:6-10; 1 Corinthians 11:32). (2) All suffering for righteousness sake (John 15:19; John 16:33). (3) A full discharge from Satan’ s temptation (Ephesians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 12:7). 2. Positively. They shall be kept (1) From all damning error and delusion (Psalms 16:11; Psalms 17:4; 1 John 2:20; John 16:13). (2) From the tyranny of Satan (John 8:36). (3) From all temptations superior to their strength, or have more strength given them, answerable to their trials (1 Corinthians 10:13). (4) From sinking under the burden of affliction (Isaiah 43:1-2). (5) From the power and reign of sin (Daniel 7:12). (6) From the curse and condemnation of the law (Romans 8:1). (7) From the slavish fear of death (1 Corinthians 15:55, &c.). II. WHAT THERE IS THAT SHALL THUS BE KEPT FROM THE EVIL, THOUGH NOT TAKEN OUT OF THE WORLD. Note the following considerations 1. That of the Person praying; the beloved, in whom the Father is always well pleased, and who He always hears. 2. That of what He asks for, and on what ground. His request is for the preservation of His people, in order to their eternal happiness, which is most agreeable to the will of God, and the end for which He was sent by Him into the world (John 6:39). 3. That of Him to whom His request is directed, viz., the God who “ spared not His own Son,” &c. 4. That of the persons for whom He intercedes--His children and chosen, such as He has a special interest in and bears a peculiar love unto. Application: 1. Hence learn the greatness and constancy of Christ’ s love to His people, and of His desire of their eternal blessedness with Him. 2. What a powerful argument should it be with all to come to Him unfeignedly. Who would live a day in the world without an interest in this prayer of His, of being kept from the evil? 3. It may greatly strengthen the faith of true Christians in their daily prayers for deliverance from evil. 4. How much is the world mistaken as to Christ’ s servants, as if they were the most miserable persons in it, when their Lord hath provided so fully for their safety and happiness. 5. How inexcusable must it be to forsake Christ and His service for fear of suffering. He that would save his life by running from the Lord of life takes the direct way to lose it. 6. Let this encourage us cheerfully to follow the Captain of our salvation whilst we live, and to commit our souls unto Him when we die. (D. Wilcox.) The Christian in society (Text in connection with Romans 12:2) I. THERE IS NOTHING IN THE , RIGHTLY , WHICH ITS TO ABJURE SOCIETY. 1. This might be inferred from the consideration of human nature. Man is a social being. He was never intended to spend his life in solitude. The heaviest punishment is that of prolonged solitary confinement. Our villages and cities all proclaim that man was intended for society. 2. Almost the first appearance of the Saviour in His public ministry was at a social entertainment, and oftener than once He accepted an invitation to a feast, and availed Himself of the opportunity which it afforded to illustrate and enforce the great things of His kingdom. The grand distinction between Him and the Baptist was that the latter sought the wilderness, but Jesus mingled with the people. Thereby He taught that His design was not to turn men into anchorites. 3. In perfect harmony with this view of the case is the petition in the prayer. It would not be good for the Christian to withdraw from social intercourse, for though solitude is occasionally beneficial, yet it would be extremely injurious to a man to have for a series of months no other companion than himself. The supreme happiness of life is in going out of self for the benefit of others. It is, therefore, quite a false idea, that there is more of holiness and happiness in seclusion than in society. I do not say that no true spiritually-minded ones have preserved their holiness in such a place: the story of Port Royal proves the opposite. But I do affirm that those are most truly walking in the footsteps of our Divine Master who are seeking in daily life to serve their God. There is a manliness and an energy about the piety of such men which we look for in vain even among the most saintly of secluded ones. The hothouse may be indispensable for tropical shrubs, but it would render delicate the Alpine tree. Even so the Christian religion was designed by its Founder to stand the winter of the world; and to nurse it within the artificial protection of the monastery will weaken its vitality. 4. But neither would it be good for the world if the Christian should abjure his intercourse with society, for how then would the prophecy of its conversion be fulfilled? Jesus said to His disciples, “ Ye are the light of the world,” but how shall they dissipate its darkness unless they penetrate its atmosphere? He said, “ Ye are the salt of the earth,” but if the salt come not into contact with that which is to be preserved, how shall its antiseptic qualities begin to work upon it? II. THOUGH MOVING AMONG OTHER MEN, THE SHOULD BE FROM THEM. Here we come to the second text. 1. The root of the Christian’ s nonconformity is his regeneration. The peculiarity about him is that he works from an inward principle that is different from that of other men. By the renewing of his mind he has come to see things in a new light, and so when he acts differently from other men, it is not because he is under the iron law of a superior, but because he chooses so to act, and finds his happiness in taking such a course. 2. What, then, is this inward principle? It is a regard to the will of God. Thus Peter and John said, “ Whether it be right in the sight of God,” &c.; and Paul, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” So every genuine child of God takes the will of his Father to be the rule of his life. Other men ask, “ Will it pay?” Others consult their ease or custom; but the Christian regulates himself by the Word of God. 3. In what way will this inward principle develop itself in the outward conduct? (1) It will keep him from everything that is positively sinful. No man can be a Christian and deliberately do what God has declared to be wrong. “ He that is begotten of God sinneth not.” So far all is plain; but I may see the form of evil where others may see none, and others where I see none; hence, differing in our application of the principle to individual cases, we shall differ from each other in our conduct regarding them. Thus one asks, should a Christian play cards? another, should he go to the theatre? another, should he go to public balls? Now, if these were personal questions, and I were asked what I ought to do regarding them, I should say at once that considering the evil repute in which these things are held, the evil surroundings from which they have been inseparable, and the pain that would be given to tender consciences, the course for me is clear. But then I am not the director of another man’ s conscience. The great difference between the New Testament and the Old lies just there. The Old gave minute directions for all possible contingencies; the New gives principles, and lets each man follow these for himself. (2) Furthermore, in settling such questions we should have regard, not to the fashion of our circle or the gratification of our own curiosity, but to the glory of God: “ Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink,” &c. Raise the question above all temporary considerations. Look at it in the light of God. III. ON ALL PURELY MATTERS, AND WHERE HIS WILL NOT BE , BUT WILL TO THE BENEFIT OF OTHER MEN, THE SHOULD BE AS THEY ARE: “ I am made all things to all men,” &c. Paul did not become like other men in their sinful pursuits, but he cultivated that spirit by which he was enabled to suit himself to the people among whom he moved. He did not needlessly offend prejudice. 1. In order to benefit men, the believer should be courteous, gentlemanly, polite, in his intercourse with men. Some think that their Christianity gives them a right to set all social distinctions at defiance, and by way of asserting their equality to all they treat all with contempt. Under pretence of being faithful, and of asserting their brotherhood, they are only impertinent; while, again, there are those in the wealthier circles who cannot endure the poorer, and treat them with disdain. Now, all that conduct is utterly inconsistent with Christian principle. 2. But in taking thought of the courtesy, do not forget the great end which as Christians you ought to have in view. You are in society to benefit it. But even in seeking that, you must be upon your guard against repelling where you desire to attract. Do not drag religion into your talk so as to make it distasteful. Cultivate the art of incidental allusion, and if you make a transition in the conversation, make it naturally, so that your companions may not be jolted into silence. Find out what your friends are interested in, and, descending to their level, you will be able to lift them. A friend went one evening into the room where his son was taking lessons in singing, and found his tutor urging him to sound a certain note. Each time the lad made the attempt, however, he fell short, and the teacher kept on saying, “ Higher! Higher!” But it was all to no purpose, until, descending to the tone which the boy was sounding, the musician accompanied him with his own voice, and led him gradually up to that which he wanted him to sing, and then he sounded it with ease. So let us do in conversation with those whom we meet in society, and we may become very skilful in winning souls to Christ. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Christians one with the world and yet distinct from it Nature never builds fences. The mountain slopes down to meet the valley, the day fades and darkens into night, the shore shelves off into the sea, but the exact point at which the one merges in the other is undetermined. Is there, then, no distinction between them? Is the daytime as the night because no eye can fix the instant when the gates unclose to let the morning through? Is the separation between land and sea unreal because between them lies a narrow strip over which they alternately hold sway? The Christian life must slope downward to meet the world and mingle with it. In business partnerships, in political interests, in social matters, in hundreds of affairs, the Christian and unchristian man must meet on neutral ground. Is the distinction between them therefore lost; even for an instant? Because they have great interests in common, because in many things they act alike, is the one in all essentials like the other? No more than the day is as the night. Narrow is the border-land on which the two men meet. As regards all the great realities the one is in the shadowy valley and the other on the sunlit heights; both touch the twilight’ s border-land, but one never passes over it into the day, nor the other beyond it into the night. John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world The unworldliness of Christ This does not mean 1. That He cared nothing for the world. There are men so utterly selfish, and absorbed with their own concerns that in a sense they may be said to be “ not of the world.” They care nothing for it. But Christ was intensely interested in the men about Him. “ He went about doing good.” 2. That He did not appreciate the natural blessings of the world. There are austere souls who are “ not of the world” in this sense: its innocent amusements they regard with a pietistic horror; they have a superstitious fear of eating and drinking lest they should give their body an advantage over their soul. But Christ came “ eating and drinking.” What is the world? It is I. . It is “ without God.” Not theoretically, for the laws of the mind render Atheism as a conviction an impossibility. But practically men have been “ without God” ever since the Fall, His presence is not acknowledged, nor His will consulted, practically, and were it assured to-day that no God existed, its life would remain unaltered. Christ was intensely theistic. The Father filled His own horizon, and was never out of His mind. The moment the soul feels God to be in the world, the world assumes a new form. II. . Men ever since the Fall “ judge,” “ walk,” “ live” after the flesh. Christ was intensely spiritual. Men are carnally minded. 1. Their pleasures are material. “ What shall we eat, what shall we drink?” Christ’ s pleasures were spiritual,” I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” 2. Their honours are material. The highest honour is an earthly crown; the highest victories those of the sword. Christ’ s kingdom was not of this world. He did not war after the flesh; His empire was Spirit; His weapons truth; His legions saints and angels. III. SELFISH. Every man seeks His own. There are as many interests in the world as men; hence the collisions, domestic, social, ecclesiastical, natural. Christ was love, and pleased not Himself. Conclusion: The subject furnishes 1. A test of genuine Christianity. A true Christian is like Christ. 2. A guide to man’ s grand interest--which is to get out of the moral spirit of the world, which is the Babylon of the soul. “ Arise ye, and depart,” &c. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The unwordliness of a Christian life This text teaches us I. THAT CHRIST IS NOT OF THE WORLD. 1. Christ came down from a higher world into this. He was not the product of the age in which He lived. Some say that He was. (1) Now it is no doubt true that every age has men who are very much like their contemporaries, but endowed with a larger nature and a better gift of utterance, so that they can express better than anybody what everybody thinks and feels. When they speak, you say “ How clever! That’ s just what I’ ve thought all my life long, but never could express it.” The representative men of an age are always popular. People are charmed to hear that which chimes in so well with their own sentiments. Representative men make a great noise in their own time, but the echoes wax feebler and feebler, and at length die out. (2) Was Christ simply the representative man of His age? What was that age? A period of decay. In Judaea there was no political and very little religious life. The Jews paid tribute to the Romans. The Pharisees had long since degenerated. The Sadducees had sunk into practical scepticism. In place of the “ open vision” of prophecy there were tradition and the authority of doctors. The Messianic ideas were not what we might have expected from such a generation. What the nation really needed was the transfusion of new blood, the breathing of fresh life, what it looked for was a Messiah-king, who would transform it into a great and victorious nation. Was Christ the representative man of that age? There is no theory further from the truth. (a) Christ was full of fresh life, whilst the age was dead. (b) Christ was spiritual, whilst the age was formal. (c) In a time in which “ the oracles were dumb,” Christ spoke forth that which men felt to be the word of God. (d) In an age of artificiality, He was real. If Christ had been the creation of His age, He would have perished with it. Christ was crucified by the Jews, because He did not answer their expectation of a political Messiah. 2. If all this is true, we might naturally expect that Christ would be unworldly. Anything which puts a man before his time tends to make him so, because it withdraws him from the influences which are at work around him into a higher sphere. I understand by a worldly man, one who does not seek to raise the standard of his generation, but who conforms to it. The worldly standard differs in different ages. In the last century it was favourable to duelling and drinking. In the present day, it is against all outward breaches of decorum, but it is strongly in favour of the worship of wealth and outward success. The worldly spirit is the utter antipodes of the spirit of Christ. All Christ’ s teaching was unworldly. He praised the very virtues which worldly men do not praise. He did not look upon either things, or men, or women, or cities as the worldly man looks upon them. He did not regard the distinctions of society, but looked below them all. II. THAT CHRIST’ S ARE NOT OF THE WORLD. 1. It has not been always expected that disciples should have the same disposition or lead the same life as their Teacher. It has been enough if they received His system. But no adherence to a system will make us disciples of Christ. “ If we have not the spirit of Christ, we are none of His.” Not that a disciple is perfectly like Christ: he may be very imperfect, as were the first disciples. A disciple is a learner, and you do not expect a learner to be perfect. But in the very act of entering Christ’ s school His disciples turn their backs upon the world and deny themselves its vanities. Hence Christ said, “ If any man will be My disciple, let him take up his cross and follow Me.” 2. If you will be Christ’ s disciples (1) You must have a high standard; you must not be content with that of people around you. (2) You will love not the artificialities of the world, but that which is simple and natural. (3) You will not be carried away by the bustle of business or the flutter of gaiety, you will have your thoughts raised to the city of God. (4) You will not be mere cyphers in the world’ s great sum; you will feel always the worth of your own individual soul. 3. The history of the struggle between the Christian life and the spirit of the world may be divided into two periods. (1) During the first three centuries Christianity had to struggle with the brute force of the world, as embodied in the Roman Empire. Imperialism was not merely a political thing, it was also a religion. The Emperor was worshipped. The Christians never objected to fulfil any duty binding on them as citizens; but they would not worship brute force. And he who admires force more than goodness, who sticks to legal right in preference to moral right, is no true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. (2) The main struggle since then has been with the corruptions of the world. The history of those corruptions may be divided into three periods. (a) The world corrupted the Church with heathenism. All the true Christian life in the Middle Ages had to struggle up towards the light shining through any loop-holes which there might be in that dense system of superstition. (b) The world corrupted the Church with her vices. Superstition, in the long run, leads to vice. All the institutions of the Church gradually degenerated till indulgences became a regular source of income to the Pope. It was these indulgences which roused the spirit of Luther, and led to his crusade against the Papacy. (c) The world has in our day corrupted the Church with her indifference. There never was an age in which there was more organization for doing good, but the life to animate it is wanting. III. THAT THOUGH THE IS TO BE , HE IS NOT TO HIMSELF (verse 16). We are not to desire to be taken out of 1. The world of nature. It is a beautiful world. It is full of emblems of that which is spiritual and Divine. Talk about it being a “ waste howling wilderness,” it is our souls which are wildernesses. 2. The world of humanity. Our Lord did not estrange Himself from this world. He ate and drank with publicans and sinners. Is He not our example? While saying this, I do not forget that there is such a virtue as Christian prudence. Some are spiritually strong, others weak. But the Church cannot influence humanity, if she estranges herself from it. We ought not to frown on any pure human joys. We need not pull long faces, or wear a peculiar garb. The true Christian, like his Lord, loves to see the fully developed man in his prime of manhood; the woman with her womanly beauty; the child with its fresh grace and innocent ways. 3. The little world in which we are cast in the order of God’ s Providence. It is better for us not to desire to go out of that but rather to shape it after “ the patterns in the heavens.” IV. THAT WE ARE TO PRAY GOD TO KEEP US FROM THE EVIL IN THE WORLD (verses 16). I have been speaking about the bright side of things, but these words remind us that there is a dark side. There is a dark side both to nature and humanity. There are volcanoes, earthquakes, inundations. There has been perpetual struggle and competition. There are disease and death. Sin has been the great curse of the world--the curse of all our lives. But there is One who came down from a higher world, in order to redeem us from captivity to evil. Through His grace many millions have walked through this world’ s miry ways, and have kept their souls unstained. There were great differences of race, age, temperament, belief among them; but there was one thing in which they were all alike--they all had unwordly, simple, childlike hearts. (R. Abercrombie, M. A.) Worldliness described Worldliness is the spirit of childhood carried into manhood. The child lives in the present hour: to-day to him is everything. The holiday promised at a distant interval is no holiday at all: it must be either now or never. Natural in the child, and therefore pardonable, this spirit, when carried on into manhood, of course is worldliness. The most distinct illustration given us of this is the case of Esau. Esau came from the hunting-field worn and hungry: the only means of procuring the tempting mess of his brother’ s pottage was the sacrifice of his father’ s blessing, which, in those ages, carried with it a substantial advantage. But that birthright could be enjoyed only after years; the pottage was present, near and certain: therefore he sacrificed a future and higher blessing for a present and lower pleasure. For this reason, Esau is the Bible type of worldliness: he is called in Scripture a profane, that is, not distinctly a vicious, but a secular or worldly person--an overgrown child, impetuous, inconsistent; not without gleams of generosity and kindliness, but over-accustomed to immediate gratification. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Attractions of worldliness Nearly all can recall that favourite fiction of their childhood, the voyage of Sindbad the sailor into the Indian Sea. They will remember that magnetic rock that rose from the surface of the placid waters. Silently Sindbad’ s vessel was attracted towards it; silently the bolts were drawn out of the ship’ s side, one by one, through the subtle attraction of that magnetic rock. And when the fated vessel drew so near that every bolt and clamp was unloosed, the whole structure of bulwark, mast, and spars tumbled into ruin on the sea, and the sleeping sailors awoke to their drowning agonies. So stands the magnetic rock of worldliness athwart the Christian’ s path. Its attraction is subtle, silent, slow, but fearfully powerful on every soul that floats within its range. Under its enchanting spell bolt after bolt of good resolution, clamp after clamp of Christian obligation, are stealthily drawn out. What matters it how long or how fair has been the man’ s profession of religion, or how flauntingly the flag of his orthodoxy floats from the masthead? Let sudden temptation smite the unbolted professor, and in an hour he is a wreck. He cannot hold together in a tempest of trial, he cannot go out on any cruise of Christian service, because he is no longer held together by a Divine principle within. It has been drawn out of him by that mighty loadstone of attraction, a sinful, godless, self-pampering, Christ-rejecting world. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) The danger of worldliness In this verse Christ repeats the argument used in John 17:14. This repetition is not idle. The reason may be conceived either with respect to the disciples, for whom He prayed, and so it is to inculcate their duty; or with respect to God, the Person to whom He prayed, and so He urgeth their danger. I. OF THE SAME POINT ARE Philippians 3:1). 1. They may be tedious to nature (1) Out of an itch of novelty. Most men love truth while it is new and fresh; there is a satiety that groweth by acquaintedness; the Israelites grew weary of manna, though angels’ food. (2) Out of the impatience of guilt; frequency of reproof and admonition is like the rubbing of a sore, grievous to a galled conscience (John 21:17). 2. But it is profitable to grace. (1) To cure weakness. (a) Our knowledge is little. Narrow-mouthed vessels take in liquor by drops, so do we Divine truths, and therefore you have need to hear the same things often, that your understandings may grow familiar with them Isaiah 28:10). (b) Our attention is small. We do consider it when we understand it. Study findeth out a truth, meditation improveth it. (c) Our memories are weak. A man needeth no remembrancer to put him in mind of worldly gain, and to revenge injuries; but as to good things, our memories are as a bag with holes, or as a grate that retaineth the mud, and lets the running water go (Hebrews 2:1). (d) Our wills are slow and averse (2 Peter 1:12-13; 1 John 2:21). (2) To help duties. (a) Meditation. The mind works freely upon such objects to which it is accustomed; in things rare and seldom heard of there is more need of study than meditation, to search them out. (b) Application. We hear to do and practise, not only to know. We do not hear to store the head with notions, but that the life and heart might be bettered. II. THE REASONS OF THIS . 1. As regards their constitution and temper of mind. Christ repeats it again; and so learn that we need to be cautioned often and often against the world. (1) Because of our proneness to it. The love of the world is natural to us. (a) It is a part of original sin. It is hard for any to say they are not tempted to covetousness; it is their nature. (b) We are daily conversant about the things of the world; our affections receive taint from the objects with which we usually converse. (c) It is of a present enjoyment; we have the world in hand and heaven in hope, and think heaven a fancy and the world substance. (d) It is a sin applauded by men (Psalms 10:3). (e) It is a cloaked sin. It is hard to discover it and find it out, there are so many evasions of necessity and provision. It is a great part of religion to “ keep ourselves unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). (2) Because of the heinousness and danger of it. It is called (a) Adultery (James 4:4). (b) Idolatry (Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5). (c) Enmity with God (James 4:4). (3) Because of the unsuitableness of it to the Divine nature. (a) To the new nature (1 John 5:4). (b) To our hopes. God has provided heaven to draw us off from the world. (c) To the aim of Christ (Hebrews 11:16). (4) Let us then beware the more of worldliness. (a) Consider our condition--“ strangers and pilgrims.” (b) We are called to better things (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12). It is not for princes to embrace the dunghill. (c) Take the Apostle’ s argument (1 Timothy 6:7). A man’ s wealth does not follow him, but his works do. In our birth we are contented with a little cradle, at death with a little grave. (d) Consider how hard it is to have Christ and heaven and the world Matthew 16:26). (e) Thou art as thy love is. If thou lovest this world thou art worldly; if thou lovest God thou art godly. Take a glass, put it to,yards heaven, there you shall see the figure of heaven; put it towards the earth, and you see the figure of the earth, trees, meadows, fruits: thou receivest a figure from the objects to which thou appliest thy heart, earthly things or heavenly. (5) But you will say, Is it a fault to enjoy the world? No; but to have a worldly spirit. Be not of a worldly spirit (a) When thou wantest the world. Be not over-careful; use the means God hath ordained, trust God with the issue and event of all (Luke 12:22). (b) When thou hast the world. A godly man may be a rich man; but do not trust in riches, &c., for they are vain; nor delight in them, for they are snares; nor be proud of them, they do not make us better; we do not value a horse by the trappings, but by his spirit and courage. (c) Be not over-sorrowful when thou losest them. 2. As regards the outward condition of the disciples: “ They are not of the world, i.e., not respected by it, left out of the world’ s tale and count. (1) It is a hard thing to digest the world’ s neglect and disrespect. We had need be urged again and again; because every one would be somebody in the world. (a) Let them alone; look after better things (Psalms 17:14). (b) Remember by whose providence it falleth out. Many times God raises bad men to high places, not because they deserve it, but because the age deserves no better. (c) If you are favoured by God, why should you trouble yourselves about the world’ s respects? Thou hast the testimony of God’ s Spirit, and many now in hell have had much of the world’ s respects. Their disrespect cannot hurt thee; It may profit thee. (2) An excellent means to digest the world’ s neglect is to consider the example of Christ. (a) It is our duty. In His example we have a taste of His Spirit: “ I am not of the world,” saith Christ; and we should “ imitate Christ as dear children” Ephesians 5:1). 3. It will be your comfort. It is a sweet comfort in all conditions to remember the similitude of condition between Christ and us (Colossians 1:24). 4. It will be for our profit. First suffer, then enter into glory; winter is before the spring (Romans 8:17). (T. Manton, D. D.) Danger of absorption in worldly things I once saw a picture of an artist sitting on a rock in the ocean, which had been left bare by the retreating tide. There he sat, sketching on his canvas the beautiful scenery around him, sky and wave and sea, all unconscious that the tide had turned, had cut him off from the shore, and was rapidly covering the rock on which he sat. The tempest, the waves, the rising sea were forgotten, so absorbed was he in his picture; nor did he hear his friends calling to him from the shore. (W. Baxendale.) Distinguishing character of Christians I. . The text does not imply 1. That they have no connection with the men of the world. Grace does not dissolve the union between man and man. (1) The righteous and the wicked may be nearly allied, as Abel and Cain, and the young Abijah to the wicked Jeroboam. (2) Much business may also be lawfully and even necessarily transacted between men of widely different characters (1 Corinthians 5:10). 2. That they are to be wholly disengaged from the things of the world. They have their farms and their merchandise as well as others, and it is not requisite that under a pretence of religion they should sequester themselves from all secular concerns. They may be as much in their duty while in their worldly callings as in the closet. An idle Christian is no good character: for if we do not find ourselves some employment, Satan will. “ Not slothful in business” (1 Corinthians 7:24; Acts 20:34). 3. That even the best of men are entirely divested of a worldly spirit, though they are not of the world. Those whose affections are set on things above, and whose conversation is in heaven, have frequent occasion to say, “ My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken Thou me accordingly to Thy word.” After the fullest conviction of the emptiness and vanity of creatures, we shall still find our hearts strongly attracted by them. II. . 1. They are in a considerable degree mortified to the things of this life, so as not to have “ the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.” They are in the world, but not of it: it is their residence, but not their portion. Real Christians are neither terrified by the frowns nor allured by the smiles of the world. The possession of the good things of this life does not excite immoderate joy, nor the want of them occasion inordinate grief. The world, notwithstanding all his endeavours to drive it out, may occupy some corner of the Christian’ s heart, but the uppermost room and principal seat are reserved for his Lord and Master. His motto is, “ In one Jesus I have all.” 2. They possess different tempers and dispositions from the men of the world. “ Old things are passed away, and all things become new.” The bias of the soul receives another direction: it has a new taste, new appetites, and new enjoyments. Their treasure being in heaven, their hearts are there also. They “ walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The spirit of the world is hateful, sensual, discontented, overwhelming men with ignorance, guilt and misery; but the spirit which is of God is humble, teachable, contrite, benevolent and submissive, active in doing good, and patient in suffering. 3. They speak a different language from the rest of the world. It may be said to the Christian as it was said to Peter, “ Thy speech betrayeth thee.” And so it may be said of the opposite character: “ He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth.” The world is placed in their heart, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. But God’ s promise to His people is, that He will turn to them a pure language, so that they shall speak the truth without hypocrisy, address Him without formality, and talk of Divine things with holy freedom. Flattery will be as much avoided by them as detraction, and equivocation as a known lie. Their common discourse will be seasoned with salt, ministering grace unto the hearers; and they will be ready to give to every one a reason of the hope that is in them, with meekness and fear. The talk of a carnal man will be about the world through which he is passing; that of a good man about the world to which he is going. 4. They are neither influenced by the maxims of the world, nor do they imitate its customs. The real Christian is the world’ s nonconformist; not in an affected singularity of speech or dress, in the shape of his coat or form of his hat, but in the whole tenor of his life and conversation. 5. They do not take up their rest in this world. They are born from heaven, and are bound to heaven. Their language is, “ Arise, let us depart hence: this is not our rest, because it is polluted.” III. TO THIS , CHRIST HAS GIVEN US HIS OWN 1 John 4:17). Conclusion: From this view of the subject we may learn 1. What judgment we are to form of those about us. 2. What is duty with respect to ourselves. (B. Beddome, M. A.) The character of Christ’ s people We shall take our text and look at it. I. . It is not so much that they are not of the world, as that they are “ not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world.” This is an important distinction, for there are people who are not of the world, and yet they are not Christians. Amongst these I would mention sentimentalists. Their spirits are so refined, that they cannot attend to ordinary business. They live in the air of romance; would like continually to live in a cottage near a wood, or to inhabit some quiet cave, where they could read “ Zimmerman on Solitude” for ever. I heard of one young lady, who thought herself so spiritually-minded that she could not work. A wise minister said to her, “ That is quite amusing! very well, you are so spiritually-minded that you shall not eat unless you do.” These people are “ not of the world,” truly; but the world does not want them, and the world would not miss them much, if they were gone. There are others, too, so like monks, who are not of the world. They are so awfully good, that they cannot live with us sinful creatures; or if they condescend to do so, they must be distinguished from us in many ways. They could not be expected to wear worldly coats and waistcoats. They must wear nondescript dresses, that none may confound them with ordinary men. We have also in our Protestant Churches certain men who think themselves so eminently sanctified that it would be wrong to indulge in anything like sensible pronunciation. Such persons are, however, reminded, that it is not being “ not of the world,” so much as being “ not of the world, even as Christ was not of the world.” 1. Christ was not of the world in nature. (1) In one point of view His nature was Divine; and as Divine, it was perfect and spotless, and therefore He could not descend to things of earthliness. In another sense He was human; and His human nature was begotten of the Holy Ghost, and therefore was so pure that in it rested nothing that was worldly. We are are all born with worldliness in our hearts. But Christ was not so. His nature was essentially different from that of every one else, although He sat down and talked with men. He stood side by side with a Pharisee; but every one could see He was not of his world. He sat by a Samaritan woman, but who fails to see that He was not of her world? He ate with Publicans and sinners; but you could see that He was not of their world. Nay, not even John, though he partook very much of his Lord’ s spirit, was exactly of Christ’ s world: for even he said, “ Let us call down fire from heaven,” &c. (2) In some sense, the Christian is not of the world in nature. Many persons think that the difference between a Christian and a worldling is, that one goes to chapel another does not; one of them takes the sacrament, the other does not, &c. But, that does not make a Christian. The distinction is internal. A Christian is a twice-born man; in his veins runs the blood of the royal family of the universe. 2. In office (1) Christ’ s office had nothing to do with worldly things. To Him it might be said, “ Art Thou a king, then?” Yes, but My kingdom is not of this world. “ Art Thou a priest?” Yes; but My priesthood is not one which shall be discontinued, as that of others has been. “ Art Thou a teacher?” Yes; but My doctrine cometh down from heaven. He had no aim which was in the least carnal. He did not seek applause, His own fame, His own honour. (2) Believer! what is thy office? Thou art a king and priest unto God, &c. Whether yours be the office of minister, or deacon, or church member, ye are not of this world. 3. In character. Look at Jesus’ character; how different from every other man’ s--pure, perfect, spotless, even such should be the life of the believer. II. . Every Christian will feel that he is not of the world. 1. When he gets into very deep trouble. You have had at times deep sorrows. Did you break under them? If you did, methinks you are no Christian; but if there was a rising up, it was a testing moment, and it proved that you were “ not of the world,” because you could master affliction. 2. When he is prosperous. Some of God’ s people have been more tried by prosperity than by adversity. Do you feel that these comforts are nothing but the leaves of the tree, and not the fruit, and that you can not live upon mere leaves? Or do you say, “ Now, soul, take thine ease,” &c. 3. When he is in solitude and in company. III. . 1. Thou who art of the world, whose maxims, habits, feelings, are worldly, listen to this. It is God’ s solemn truth. Thou art none of His. With all your profession thou art “ in the gall of bitterness.” 2. You who are children of God. Have we not often been too much like the world? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Unworldliness In the 14 th verse this separation of the disciples from the world is assigned as the reason of the world’ s hatred to them; and here it is made the reason for special intercession on their behalf. There can be no difficulty in understanding what is meant by “ the world,” though the phrase is used with considerable latitude of signification in the Scriptures. But here the meaning is unquestionably moral and spiritual, and the expression marks off all other than godly people. Now, it is of considerable importance that we should know how we are to understand this statement what precisely is its significance. I. . 1. Well-meaning, though certainly not over-wise, people there are, who seem to think their godliness calls for harsh views and depreciating language concerning the earth on which God has placed us. It is the proper thing with them, and evidences their other-worldliness, to regard this world as a place which by its wretchedness serves chiefly as a foil to the better land above. It is a sort of dark background, bringing the other world into relief. It is to them a “ desert,” a “ vale of tears,” a “ waste, howling wilderness.” Such a state of mind, where it is not the result of ignorance, tells at once of unhealthiness and perversion. Such people appear to forget that it is God’ s world of which they thus speak, made by Him to be the fitting abode of men. 2. Nor must we look for this unworldliness in a lack of interest in the world’ s affairs--in its government, for instance. If politics have reproach attached to them, no little Of the blame lies at the door of those who could have done better, but have culpably stood aloof and allowed so vast a power and so solemn a trust to fall into unscrupulous hands. No man can deal thus with divlnely-entrusted responsibilities and be blameless. The proper government of our country, the just settlement of national and international questions, profoundly concerns us all, and each has a responsibility here of which he cannot divest himself. 3. Neither, again, must we look for this unworldliness along the line of abstention from all the social pleasures and amenities of life. For that means a strained and unnatural kind of piety, and there was nothing forced about the life of Jesus, who is our Exemplar here as elsewhere. He was no ascetic. We must seek elsewhere than in such particulars for the lines of demarcation. Where are those lines, then? II. . 1. Christians form, and were by our Lord intended to form, a community distinct and separate from the world. All through the Scriptures this idea of separatedness runs. The Jews were in the most literal and extreme sense a people set apart. By geographical limits, by mode of government, by peculiarity of laws and customs, as well as by religion, they were marked off from all other nations. Christians are in the truest and highest sense a separated people. Jesus set up His Church in the world with the intention that all who avowed themselves His disciples should form part of an organized community. This is the body of which He is the Head; the household of which He is the Master. 2. But especially are we to look for this unworldliness of Christians in their spirit and in their principles of action. This is the great dividing line. The spirit of the world is distinctly and essentially irreligious; there is no right apprehension or estimate of spiritual things; godless maxims, and fashions, and laws rule--that is the nature of a worldly spirit. The Spirit of Christ is just the opposite. And it is along the line of spirituality of character and conduct that our unworldliness as disciples of Jesus is to be manifested. But now, lest the practical significance of this should be overlooked, note a few details in which this spirit will show itself. (1) In our associations and friendships. Like is drawn to like. The voluntary companionship follows the personal preference. “ This people shall be My people” follows upon “ their God shall be my God.” Let young disciples beware how they affect worldly society, and ever seek their friendships among those who love God. This for two reasons: (a) For their own safety; (b) as a visible declaration of the side on which they are. (2) Our recreations. There are amusements which, by association, by inevitable tendency, and by common consent, are worldly. They lie, by general admission, within territory forbidden to Christians; and in such cases, all the special pleading in the world about their being innocent in themselves can have no weight with those who would act worthily and wisely. Remember, we cannot afford, as disciples of Jesus, to see how near the line we can go without overstepping it. 3. Our Home and Business-Life. In the former, in such matters as (1) the education of our children; the character of the schools and teachers we select for them; (2) the choice of their calling in life; (3) their marriage; many parents have sown the wind here and reaped the whirlwind. In the business-life our unworldliness will be seen in the high principles that govern us. Gain will not be our only or chief consideration. We shall show that we can afford to be poor, but cannot afford to have a stained conscience. . 1. If such be our character, let us not be surprised if we are misunderstood by the world. It was so with Jesus. 2. Expect to be hindered by the world in your religious life. It has no sympathy with your views, and oft deems your piety fanaticism, and your religious scruples a nuisance. 3. Do not be afraid of a needful singularity. Avoid needless difference, but have the courage of your convictions. 4. Guard against the subtle encroachments of a worldly spirit. The friendship of the world is enmity with God. “ If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 5. Walk prudently to them that are without. Take ears less by a worldly conduct you give the lie to an unworlldy profession. 6. Do not forget we have a mission to the world. “ As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world.” 7. Keep your final home in view. Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour. (R. M. Spoor.) John 17:17 Sanctify them through Thy truth.The sanctification of the saint’ s I. AN OBJECT DEAR TO CHRIST. 1. He prayed for this on earth. Prayer is always the sign of earnest desire for another’ s good: how earnest, then, must have been that desire which could bid back the onrush of sorrow from Gethsemane, &c. 2. He died for this upon the cross (John 17:19). Christ died for something more than the erasure of the penalty due to man from heaven’ s statute book. Christ had His eye on men’ s recovery to purity and truth, and their entire consecration to God (Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 2:14). 3. He pleads for it in heaven (Hebrews 7:25). II. A GIFT SOUGHT FROM THE FATHER. 1. The reason of this (1) Every good and perfect gift is from Him (James 1:17). (2) The work of making holy belongs essentially to the realm of the supernatural (Exodus 31:13; Leviticus 21:23; Ezekiel 37:28; Zechariah 4:6; Acts 20:32; Jude 1:1). (3) The grace of purity God distinctly desires to see reproduced in man 1 Thessalonians 4:3). (4) The gift of holiness He has expressly included in the promise (IsaJe 31:33; Hosea 14:5; Zechariah 10:12). 2. The comfort of this. If God be the Author and Giver of sanctification, then it must be (1) Freely given (James 1:5). (2) Faithfully pursued (1 Thessalonians 5:24). (3) Successfully accomplished (Philippians 1:6). III. A WORK IN THE TRUTH. 1. The knowledge of it. Hence growth in grace keeps pace with growth in the knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18), and that knowledge identified with eternal life (verse 2). 2. The belief of it. Sanctification and belief of the truth are at least coordinate if the former does not spring from the latter (2 Thessalonians 2:13), since the word of God effectually works in them who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13). 3. The love of it. Before truth can exercise its rightful sway over the life, it must be enshrined in the affections. Hence love of truth is essential to salvation (Psalms 119:47), and the absence of it the cause of judgment in them that perish (2 Thessalonians if. 10). 4. The obedience of it (1 Peter 1:22; Romans 6:17). The new life of grace ever moves in the sphere of truth. IV. A FOR WORK (verses 18, 19). As Christ had a mission, so have His saints. 1. Resting on a similar authority, as the Father sent Christ, so Christ sent His apostles (John 20:21; Matthew 10:16), and His followers now Matthew 5:16; Matthew 28:18; Philippians 2:15). 2. Possessing a similar object. As Christ’ s mission aimed at the world’ s salvation, so does theirs. As Christ revealed the Father’ s name, so under Him they are to bear Christ’ s name (and in that the Father’ s) unto the Acts 9:15; 2 Corinthians 3:3). 3. Demanding a similar consecration. As Christ was sanctified by the Father and sent into the world (Psalms 40:6-8; Hebrews 10:5-7), so can Christ’ s servants only discharge their mission in proportion as they are consecrated to the will of their Leader. Lessons: 1. Is sanctification a matter of interest to us? 2. Are we asking God to begin, carry on, and complete it? 3. Are we bringing our souls into close and frequent contact with the truth? 4. Are we remembering the mission for which we are sanctified? (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The sanctification of the disciples I. THE FORCE OF THIS PRAYER. Sanctification in its simplest meaning is the setting apart of a person or a thing from a common to a holy use. In relation to men it is the weaning from self, sense, and sin, and the devotion of head, heart, and hands to the service and glory of God. The blessing asked for involved 1. Moral transformation. There were elements of evil in their nature to be rooted up, principles of pride to be overthrown, prejudices to be subdued, and selfishness to be destroyed. The economy in which they had been trained dealt with sanctification in an outward sense; but Christ turned their thoughts from such symbolic consecration to the sanctification of their thoughts, desires, and affections. This work was already begun in them--the expressions used by our Lord regarding them inform us of this fact--but they were not completely sanctified. 2. Official consecration. They were to be chosen vessels, meet for She Master’ s use. The official consecration rests upon the moral, and this is secured through the truth of God. Mere ecclesiastical ordination is valueless, where it is not based on personal holiness, and where it is not preceded and accompanied by a spiritual consecration to the service of Christ in the gospel. II. THE MEANS OF THIS . “ Through Thy truth.” We are not to understand that God’ s dealings in providence have not a sanctifying influence (Hebrews 12:6). David, and many after him, could say, “ It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” Yet it is only as the strokes of affliction make the truth more impressive, that they exercise a sanctifying power. Mere trouble has no natural tendency to purify. It simply puts men into a position suitable for thought and reflection, so that the living word of God is brought more fully to bear on the soul. The truth of God sanctifies 1. By the discoveries which it makes. Light is ever pure and purifying. Where there is ignorance of God and Divine things, there can be no true purity of heart. God’ s Word. It reveals God’ s grace (2 Corinthians 4:6), our fallen and ruined condition, and brings life and immortality to light. Converse with these truths must tend to weaken the power of sin, and withdraw the heart from the dominion of the world. 2. By the motives which it conveys. There is not a motive which can touch the human heart, whether of love, gratitude, or holy desire, that is not conveyed in the truth of God, and brought to bear on men through the doctrine of the Cross. 3. By the authority it exercises. To the Christian all duty may be summed up in the one grand duty of imitating Christ and walking in Him. The gospel comes to us with the tender gentleness and majestic persuasiveness of infinite love, and says, “ Be ye followers of God as dear children.” 4. By the prospects it unfolds (1 John 3:3). (J. Spence, D. D.) Our Lords prayer for His people’ s sanctification I. WHAT HE ASKED. “ Sanctify them.” By this He means 1. Dedicate them to Thy service. Such must be the meaning of the word when we read, “ For their sakes I sanctify Myself.” In the Lord’ s ease it cannot mean purification from sin, but consecration to the fulfilment of the Divine purpose. “ Lo, I come to do Thy will.” Under Jewish law the tribe of Levi was ordained to the service of the Lord, instead of the firstborn Numbers 8:17). Out of the tribe of Levi one family, Aaron and his sons, were sanctified to the priesthood (Leviticus 8:30). A certain tent was sanctified to the service of God, and hence it became a sanctuary; and the vessels that were therein, the fire, bread, oil, animals, were all sanctified Numbers 7:1). None of these things could be used for any other purpose than the service of Jehovah. We are not the world’ s, else might we be ambitious; we are not Satan’ s, else might we be covetous; we are not our own, else might we be selfish. We are bought with a price, and hence we are His by whom the price is paid. 2. Those who belonged to God were separated from others. There was a special service for the setting-apart of priests, dedicated places and vessels. The Sabbath-day, which the Lord hath sanctified, is set apart from the rest of time. The Lord would have those who are dedicated to Him to be separated from the rest of mankind. For this purpose He brought Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, and Israel out of Egypt. The Lord saith of His chosen, “ This people have I formed for Myself.” Before long this secret purpose is followed by the open call, “ Come out from among them, and be ye separate,” &c. The Church of Christ is to be a chaste virgin, wholly set apart for the Lord Christ: His own words concerning His people are these, “ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Those who are sanctified in this sense have ceased to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; they have ceased to run with the multitude to do evil; they are not conformed to this present evil world. There are some, in these apostate days, who think that the Church cannot do better than to come down to the world to acquire her “ culture,” and conquer the world by conformity to it. This is contrary to Scripture. The more distinct the line between him that feareth God and him that feareth Him not, the better all round. It will be a black day when the sun itself is turned into darkness. When the salt has lost its savour the world will rot with a vengeance. 3. This word means also the making of the people of God holy. Holiness is more than purity. It is not sufficient to be negatively clean; we need to be adorned with all the virtues. If ye be merely moral, how does your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? We ought to reach unto a life and a kingdom of which the mass of mankind know nothing, and care less. This prayer of our Lord is most necessary, for “ Without holiness” (1) No man shall see the Lord. (2) We shall be unfit for service. (3) We cannot enjoy the innermost sweets of our holy faith. II. FOR WHOM HE ASKS IT. Not for the world outside. This would not be a suitable prayer for those who are dead in sin. Our Lord referred to the company who were already saved. 1. These chosen ones were sanctified, but only to a degree. Justification is perfect the moment it is received; but sanctification is a matter of growth. 2. They were to be the preachers and teachers of their own and succeeding generations. How shall a holy God send out unholy messengers? An unsanctified minister is an unsent minister. Only in proportion as you are sanctified can you hope for the power of the Holy Spirit to work with you, so as to bring others to the Saviour’ s feet. A whole host may be defeated because of one Achan in the camp; and this is our constant fear. 3. Furthermore, our Lord was about to pray “ that they all might be one;” and for this holiness is needed. Why are we not one? Sin is the great dividing element. 4. Moreover, our Lord finished His prayer by a petition that we might all be with Him, that we may behold His glory. Full sanctification is essential to this. Shall the unsanctified dwell with Christ in heaven? Shall unholy eyes behold His glory? III. OF WHOM HE ASKS IT. 1. Our Saviour calls God “ Holy Father,” and it is the part of the holy God to create holiness; while a holy Father can only be the Father of holy children, for like begets like. This santification is a work of God from its earliest stage. 2. The truth alone will not sanctify a man. We may maintain an orthodox creed, and it is highly important that we should, but if it does not touch our heart and influence our character, what is the value of our orthodoxy? 3. Every work of the Spirit of God upon the new nature aims at our sanctification. Yea, all the events of Providence around us work towards that one end; for this our joys and our sorrows are sacred medicines by which we are cured of the disease of nature, and prepared for the enjoyment of perfect spiritual health. All that befalls us on our road to heaven is meant to fit us for our journey’ s end. IV. HOW IS TO BE WROUGHT IN . Observe how God has joined holiness and truth together. There has been a tendency of late to divide truth of doctrine from truth of precept. Men say that Christianity is a life and not a creed: this is only a part truth. Christianity is a life which grows out of truth. No holy life will be produced in us by the belief of falsehood. Good works are the fruit of true faith, and true faith is a sincere belief of the truth. But what is the truth? Is the truth that which I imagine to be revealed to me by some private communication--by voices, dreams, and impressions? No; God’ s word to us is in Holy Scripture. All the truth that sanctifies men is in God’ s Word. This being so, the truth which it is needful for us to receive is evidently fixed. You cannot change Holy Scripture. Learn, then 1. How earnestly you ought to search the Scriptures. 2. The one point of failure to be most deeply regretted would be a failure in the holiness of our Church members. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christian sanctification I. ITS NATURE 1. The original meaning of the word is to set apart to God; and this is its ordinary meaning in the Old Testament. We mean by it to make holy, its frequent meaning in the New. So, then, sanctification may describe either the purpose or the process of the Christian life. 2. It is easy to see how the first meaning passes naturally and necessarily into the other. Perfect consecration would be absolute holiness. (1) There is no native holiness in man or angel apart from conformity to God and obedience to His will. God alone is holy in and of Himself; the source of our sanctity, like the spring of our life, is in Him. (2) On the other hand, consecration is the sinner’ s way to holiness. God claims our devotion, and our transgressions do not relax our obligation to be His. Nor must a sense of our unworthiness hinder our response. His purpose is by acceptance of the unworthy to make them worthy. Thus under the Old Testament things having no moral character become holy when given up to Him. The purpose of a man’ s life determines the character of that life. The temple sanctifieth the gold, and the altar the gift. God’ s service hallows the man who gives himself up to it. 3. It was to impress on His disciples the connection between consecration and sanctification that Christ spoke of sanctifying Himself. (1) In an important sense our sanctification can only be contrasted with His. At no part of His life was He holier than at another. He grew in wisdom, &c., but not in holiness. The child Jesus was as pure in spirit as the man; and His devotion as perfect in the Temple as on Calvary. (2) But in an equally important sense Christ’ s sanctification is the example and motive of ours. We may not be able to do as He did the Father’ s work, but in the measure in which we are devoted to God we may have His joy fulfilled in us. We may not be able to consecrate ourselves to God with an intelligence as clear and a purpose as single as was His; but we can be His with a loyalty and love like that with which the disciples followed Christ. And in the measure in which we do this will the energy and sanctity of Christ’ s life be reproduced in us. II. ITS MEANS. The truth of God. 1. The perfect devotion of Christ to the truth is our warrant for expecting sanctification by it. It was His inspiration and joy, His safeguard against temptation, and His support in the agony of the Cross. What results may we not expect from that which called out such a passion and loyalty in the Saviour? If we could feel the truth as He felt it our lives would be like His. The sanctifying power of the truth explains His satisfaction that He has brought His disciples into some acquaintance with it. 2. It is far too narrow an interpretation to say that by “ truth” He meant to contrast inward spiritual sanctification with the formal ceremonial sanctifications of the Jewish law. Ceremonialism is not the only unreality of which Christians are in danger. We need to be guarded against identifying sanctity with an exalted state of feeling, or supposing that its energy lies in our own resolves. There was no lack of elevated devotion and firm resolve in those who here were “ ready to go with Him to prison and death,” and we know the result. But the truth which Christ had imparted to them abode, the seed of a higher life, and the power of their recovery. Not self-contemplation nor self-culture is the way to holiness, but the contemplation of the living word of the gospel. 3. Holiness is conformity to the will of God, and that will is sure to become supreme over the character of Him who accepts it. Think of the educating power of truth. The man who studies historic truth becomes a historian, his mind being moulded into the historic type. The student of science becomes quick to apprehend natural causes and to trace the operation of natural law; so he who surrenders himself to the gospel will become a Christian man, his life being stamped with a Christian character, and owning the inspiration of God. It is not we who hold the truth, but the truth that holds us. 4. Consider, too, the confirmation of faith which every true believer is continually receiving in the practical experience of life. The scientist verifies his theories by experiment; if his theory is right, the experiment turns out as he expected. So with the statesman. We, too, who make the great venture of faith, find that Christ’ s promises are fulfilled. He tells us that by believing in Him we shall have remission; we believe and are saved. He says, “ In the world ye shall have tribulation,” &c. We believe, and the maxims of the world loose their hold upon us, its satisfactions lose their charm, and its fear dies away. The experience of the whole Church has endeared and confirmed the doctrine of Christian sanctification. III. ITS SPHERE--the world (John 17:18). 1. As antagonistic (John 17:11-14). 2. As the object of a mission. We are not here by sad mischance or inevitable accident. “ As Thou hast sent Me,” &c. The lessons of Christ’ s consecration have to be repeated in ours. The Church is His body, the direct channel through which the saving power of the gospel is to flow in upon the world. This mission helps to explain the largeness of Christ’ s promises and of the Church’ s privileges. We can never apprehend the meaning of the Christian calling when we contemplate simply the perfection of individual believers; we must ponder also the Divine influence we are to diffuse as “ salt,” “ light,” “ cities on a hill.” 3. As thus helpful in developing Christian character. (1) Antagonism is needed to build up a manly piety. Truths easily acquiesce in lose all the power of truth. We do not feel the energy of our faith save as we have to defend it. Where would be the room for the exercise of meekness, patience, self-sacrifice in a society when all was favourable to us? (2) Large acquaintance with the activities of life provide us with the means of spiritual advancement. Christian experience is but human experience interpreted and controlled by Christian faith. We must look the world in the face, as Christ did, aware of the struggle before us, but with an open heart of sympathy ready to catch the spirit and learn the lessons of the times. It is only as we do His work in the world that we shall be kept from the evil. Christian usefulness goes hand in hand with spiritual advancement. Growth in sanctification, like all growth, is not alone the development of force from within, but the appropriation of element from with-out. To this end “ all things are ours.” (A. Mackennal, D. D.) Consecration (Text and John 17:19)I. THE SAVIOUR’ S PURPOSE OF . “ For their sakes,” &c. 1. Here you have the motive of Calvary and of all that Christ does--the production of spiritual character. Other motives there are and other results. In the Cross Christ shares and so ends the curse; destroys estrangement, and brings us nigh; gives the consolation of life and death; reveals God. But the main thing is here. We are not delivered from sin till we are enfranchised from its power. Forgiveness sets us at liberty for salvation. It is not where we are in this world or the next, but what we are, that is the main thing. 2. The style of character that Christ aims at reaching--consecration. Now hardly any one thinks of it. (1) The whole object of many is to become faultless, and they may pursue this end as selfishly as any other, in order to reach complacency. But you gain but little if you merely destroy your faults. Many who plume themselves upon reaching the sinless state have but little to boast of, for their virtues are simply vices, tied like Samson’ s foxes, by the tail. (2) Not mere self-culture, to Which others direct their energies, the development of the easier and pleasanter virtues, but self-surrender is what Christ wants, every faculty laid on the altar, the heart alert to serve its God. And what is this but the service of man? What you do to the least of mankind you do to the greatest God. Live for another and your life expands.” The greatest of all achievements is when we give ourselves to God, not saying that anything we have is our own. 3. That they may be consecrate as He is consecrate. The word never had its full meaning till Christ used it here. It means all the stooping to Bethlehem; the spirit that accepted Calvary is what Christ calls consecration. There is no believer in man like Jesus. He expects us to have the same mind that was in Him. God’ s life is self-sacrifice; and in the degree in which we are lifted up into that life, that character marks our lives, and Christ’ s aim is fulfilled. But in the degree in which we are void of that, we are void of the essential element of the Christian life. II. THE THROUGH WHICH CHRIST EXPECTS THIS TO BE --the truth. 1. None of you find fault with the word being put here, but you would not have put it here. We would have put “ grace” or “ Holy Spirit,” some word indicating a dynamic energy changing the soul. But truth seems to so work through the mere intellect that it hardly occurs to us to look at it as the secret of consecration. The fact is we are indifferent to truth. Our more orthodox brethren think that we have got enough of it, and need not go on investigating; are rather afraid what the truth of science may bring out, and Biblical criticism constrain us to believe; shrink from its investigation lest something may turn out to be true that would not be helpful. And our broader brethren are equally satisfied with the mist on the face of things, not pursuing to definite conclusions the light with which God visits them. 2. Now Christ believes in truth very wonderfully. He utters the paradox that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, because He guides into all truth. None but Christ would have said that. We think the Comforter is He who gives sweet illusions and hides naked realities. Nay, naked reality is consolation of the deepest kind. Here Christ is on the same line. Truth is the great sanctifier. There is no ray of truth that ever came from the Father of lights that does not hallow the heart on which it falls. It is not make believe that will give you sanctity. (1) The truth about God. Every attribute you behold engages your love, quickens your trust, makes you wish to serve Him. (2) The truth about Christ, His work, love, humanity, Godhead, intercession, &c., is all quickening. (3) The truth about man. Oh, if we could have it, and see man in God’ s light--something lovable in the worst, something saveable in the lowest--how it would take away our despair, engage our service, quicken ourlove. Every error of life springs from an error of thought. A lie is the root of all evil. III. THE POWER THAT IMPARTS THE IS GOD. Has not this been lost sight of? What we want is God in us. It might have been thought that Christ should have said, “ That they may consecrate themselves.” No, we can only get the hallowing truth from God. Who else can teach it? Not Biblical dictionaries or revival hymns. He who inspired the truth must Himself interpret it. (R. Glover.) Sanctification through the truth I. THE BETWEEN AND TRUTH. 1. In the Old Testament sanctification is usually, although not always, external; in the New it is pre-eminently internal. The supreme self-consecration of the will of Jesus on the cross fixes the idea of Christian sanctity. Of this sanctification the instrument is truth. By “ truth” Christ means a body of facts having reference to God and the highest interests of men. The truth differs from opinion in that it does not admit of contradiction, and it also differs from large districts of knowledge in that it refers to a particular subject matter. In one sense all fact is God’ s truth. Facts of physiology, history, mathematics, are parts of that body of facts which are in harmony with and issue from the Master of this universe; and the conquest of any one truth on any matter has a moral value. But no man is sanctified by the study of the differential calculus, or the spots on the surface of the sun as such; and unless he brings to those studies a disposition to study the Author of the universe through the works of His hands the result will be purely intellectual. But this disposition will make all research sanctifying. 2. It is important to insist on this connection between truth and high moral improvement in view of the idea that morality is independent of religious doctrine, and that, consequently, what a man believes is of little importance. But can morality be in the long run obeyed, unless some doctrine be revealed as to the origin and authority of the law? No doubt the truth of the moral teaching of the decalogue is attested by the necessities of social life; but this is because the author of revelation is the author of society. But if morality had to make its own way, would it hold its own by virtue of those necessities? Here and there you might, no doubt, have real excellence divorced, if not from any creed, at least from the true creed--as in a Seneca, an Antoninus, an Epictetus, but how would it fare with the people? Is it not, taking the average, the rule that a man’ s morality tallies with his creed? For what is moral excellence but good living, the proper government of the conduct, affections, and will? What is at the bottom of this? The sense of obligation? But obligation to what and to whom? This question cannot be answered in the same way by a man who does, and by a man who does not, accept the faith of Christ. A man who believes in a philosophy which makes man his own centre will have a different idea of morality from the man whose centre is God. The two, e.g., will conceive quite differently of such a virtue as humility. In short, human beings are so constituted that their moral improvement is bound up with the convictions they entertain respecting God and their origin and destiny. II. HOW THE TRUTH . 1. By putting before us an ideal of sanctity. The man of action, like the artist, needs an ideal. Outside of revelation there have been such ideals, but they have been vague and varying, and have failed to supply the demands of even the natural conscience. But in Christ we possess a perfect ideal of sanctity; and by giving the record of one life spotless and consecrated the truth affects thousands for good in degrees which fall short of sanctification; and it sanctifies those who, with their eyes fixed on this typical form of excellence, ask earnestly for the Holy Spirit, whose work it is to take of the things of Jesus, and to show or give them to His own. 2. By stimulating hope. It gives every man a future. Where there is no such hope sanctity is impossible. A certain amount of high moral culture is possible, from a perception of the importance of certain virtues. But sanctity implies concentration of purpose, and this is impossible without a distinct goal and a reasonable prospect of attaining it. It may be argued that it is a nobler thing to cultivate virtue for its own sake; but the reward of goodness is not something distinct from goodness. In obeying moral truth in the form of duty we are obeying moral truth; in the personal form we name God. “ I will be thy exceeding great reward.” Spiritual work is its own pay, and the eternal reward is but the anticipation of the satisfaction which arises in doing it. But granting all this, He who made us knows that in our weaker moments we need that leverage of hope which His revelation supplies. The horizon of time is too narrow to supply any adequate object. “ If in this life only we have Christ,” &c. But let a man be “ begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus,” and he has with him a motive power which will make him at least desire to be holy. “ Every man that has this hope in him,” &c. 3. As being a revelation of the love of God. Love has a power of making men holy. Hence the power loving men and women have over the depraved. Now revelation is the unfolding of Divine love, and the measure of that love is the death of Christ. A revelation of justice may produce despair, but a revelation of love which respects justice takes the heart captive. “ Sanctify” is the response which the heart makes to unmerited mercy. Conclusion: 1. This connection between the truth and sanctification is not a theory, but the experience of every Christian in some degree. 2. If we know anything of the sanctifying power of truth we should desire that others may know it too. (Canon Liddon.) Sanctification through the truth Here is I. A OF THE WORD OF GOD. If we could suppose a man saying, “ It is not God’ s word! It is not the truth!” we have an answer in the words of Christ: He declares it to be the truth of God; and we may safely suppose that “ if it were not so, He would have told us.” But the Scriptures areal. Professedly the truth. We might here direct our attention to the whole of the Scriptures; and remark on the unity of design kept up by so many men writing in different ages, and without the possibility of concerting their plans. We might appeal to the predictions, and their fulfilment--to the promises, and their accomplishment--to the various miracles wrought, by which nature was called in to attest its truth. People may say that there are difficulties in the way of the Christian faith; but there are a thousand times more difficulties in the way of not believing. From all this we might say, without looking at its internal evidence, its moral effects, “ Thy Word is truth.” 2. Perfectly the truth. (1) Its doctrines are perfectly adapted to man, and to the whole of man--to all his circumstances, to all his obligations. They enlighten his understanding, form his judgment, and enrich his heart. Here is pardon for his guilt--righteousness for his unworthiness--purity for his depravity--strength for his weakness. (2) It has in it a perfect adaptation to the whole state of man: it attends him through life; it visits him in death; it accompanies him to the grave; it furnishes him with glorious anticipations; it goes with him to the bar of God, and into the eternal world. 3. The most important truth. Other things are true; a person who reads of the heavenly bodies or studies natural philosophy and what is made known may be all true. But all these are truths of an inferior description. The Scriptures place us in immediate contact with God and all that relates to time and to eternity. 4. Independent, majestic, all commanding truth: that is, truth connected with a kingdom which is “ not of this world,” which reduces men to a level with each other, with which man has no interference. It comes from God; it contains not the sentiments of Moses, of the prophets, &c. it is the Word of God. 5. The only truth. Men may question its truth and excellency, but none have ever attempted to bring the Koran or the Shasters and place by its side! No; it is like Aaron’ s rod, and will swallow up all their enchantments. No; they who would deprive us of this truth would leave us without any communication from God! II. THE WHICH THE TEXT . An agency is implied here--without which the means would be vain. This agency is spoken of in the preceding chapter as “ the Spirit of truth.” He is so 1. On account of His inspiration of the truth. “ Prophecy came not in old time,” &c. 2. As He carries on His general operations by revelation. We have been acquainted with man in all the various stages of civilization, but we have never seen anything like sanctification where there is no revelation. Some persons, when they speak of missions, are very apt to say, “ Oh, when the Lord’ s time to evangelize the nations is come, He can do it!” Yes; and He will do it by His own means--by His Word of truth. 3. On account of the Holy Scriptures being the standard by which He works. He does not lead into fancies and conjectures; but brings us to this standard, that we may judge whether what we have received is the truth or not. Many suppose that to depend on the Spirit’ s influence leads to wild and enthusiastic imaginations; but it is to the truth that He leads. III. THE END TO BE BY THE OF THIS DIVINE WORD. Three ideas are conveyed. 1: Separation. It calls a man from his former purposes and pursuits. Man, by nature, is a violator of God’ s law; this is taught him with the greatest effect by the Word of God. “ The Word of God is quick and powerful,” &c. It leads him to exclaim, “ What shall I do? Where shall I flee?” And then the Word says, “ Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” He comes out, asks for a place of safety, seeks provision for his soul, and through the Word finds repentance and remission of his sins. 2. Purity. Infidels in general have bowed respectfully to the purity of the Bible. It would be easy to prove that every part of this book--its doctrines, its promises, its precepts, have “ Holiness to the Lord” written upon them. But I would rather show how the Word of God sanctifies. (1) By its realization. Whoever believes the Word of God, and participates of the truth as it is in Jesus, is brought into a new state. (2) By its associations. It brings the mind into contact with its God, and this cannot but purify. (3) By its teaching about sin and salvation. (4) By the end it sets before us--God’ s glory in this life, and heaven in the life to come. “ He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.” 3. Designation. Christians are set apart (1) To dignified and important characters. When God says to sinners, “ Come out from among them, and be ye separate;” He says also, “ I will be a Father to you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters.” (2) To most interesting services. To support the cause of truth; to live for the truth. (3) To particular trials. (4) To special and wonderful deliverances. (5) To immortality and eternal life. (Isaiah Birt.) Sanctification through the truth I. THE OF --inasmuch as 1. It forms part of salvation which is not merely deliverance from sin and its punishment, but deliverance from its power and dominion, to a resemblance of the Divine nature. 2. It is corresponding to the Divine character. There is no view of God more evident than that He is a God of holiness; that sin is that abominable thing which He bates. 3. God commands it. This is to be found in every part of the Divine record. 4. It evidences our faith and union to Christ. Faith without purity is vain. 5. It is for the advancement of God’ s glory and the interests of Christ’ s kingdom. It is not to be expected that anything but a holy Christian can be beneficial. 6. It is necessary for the peace of our minds. Without purity there can be no peace. 7. It qualifies us for the heavenly kingdom, We must be like God if we would enjoy a hereafter. II. TO BE REAL MUST BE 1. Universal. It must extend to the whole man, to the thoughts, words, and actions, to the affections and desires of the heart, and to the outward conduct. It is not for us to say, I am partly sanctified. The work of the Spirit of God is not confined to this part or that, but the whole man is brought into subjection to Christ. 2. Progressive. It proceeds from small beginnings to a great increase. It is just like a grain of mustard seed, scarcely perceptible at first, but it goes on till it becomes a great tree. It is thus that it operates on the heart and mind; upon the whole outward, as well as upon the whole inward man. III. IS GOD’ S WORK. We cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean. It is His work, not merely at the commencement: the Great Artificer must be at the laying of the foundation stone; and not only so, but superintending and assisting to the close, from the first to the last, through all the intermediate steps, till we arrive at the fulness of the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus--till we be translated into the world of purity, where no sin is to be found. This is shown by God’ s Word, and the experience of the people of God. They know that their own efforts are fruitless and unavailing unless God be with them. IV. GOD BY THE TRUTH. The truth has a tendency to sanctify 1. By the discoveries it makes to us. Where there is ignorance of Divine things there cannot be much purity. It reveals (1) God’ s character in a way fitted to solemnize the mind. (2) The whole truth of our fallen and lost condition, and responsibility, and weakness, and guilt, and condemnation. (3) The all-sufficiency of Christ, and His finished salvation. (4) The Spirit--His sanctifying influences, and of the means of our being brought under their power. (5) That the pure in heart alone shall see God, and that without holiness no man shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Now no thinking being can ponder all this without feeling something of the influence that these truths are fitted to produce. 2. By the motives it presents to us. It appeals (1) To our sense of right. (2) To our ambition for dignity. (3) To our fears. (4) To our hopes. (5) To our gratitude. (6) To our love. 3. By the examples it exhibits to us. It was customary with the ancient philosophers to have the walls of their schools adorned with the images of the illustrious in former times, that in contemplating them their disciples might be led to admire their originals, and be stimulated by their exertions and attainments, and led to transcribe the graces by which they were adorned into their own characters. And we have recorded in the pages of inspiration the lives of several of God’ s people for the same reason. Conclusion: 1. Are we using this word for the purpose of sanctification? 2. What degree of sanctification do you possess? (T. Brown, D. D.) Sanctification by means of the truth I. THE FOR WHICH CHRIST --sanctification. This work Isaiah 1. Divine. The Holy Spirit implants the first principle of holiness in the soul, and by His continued influences it is maintained and strengthened. “ Not by works of righteousness,” &c. 2. Internal. The chief seat of man’ s moral disease is the heart. It is necessary that these springs of action should be purified before true holiness can be exhibited in the life. 3. Practical. The heart being changed, corresponding effects will be seen in the conduct. Holy principles will lead to holy practices. 4. Progressive. It is compared to the progress of light. “ The path of the just,” &c. At one period the Christian may resemble the tender blade; at another, the ear; till, under Divine influence, he appears as the full corn in the ear, ripened for glory. But though the work of sanctification is progressive it is not always uniform. There are seasons when the path of the Christian is like the sun in a dark and cloudy day, and others when it appears bright and cheerful. Sometimes he may resemble the corn checked by the frost of winter, and at others the same corn revived by the gentle showers and warmer influences of the returning spring. 5. Will eventually be complete in the happy abode of “ the spirits of just men made perfect.” II. THE MEANS BY WHICH IS . 1. It is by the Word of truth that the work of sanctification is commenced. By this the mind is first enlightened and the heart renewed. The entrance of it giveth light, and while it enlightens it animates and purifies. 2. The Word of God is the perfect standard of holiness. It presents a right rule of action, adapted to every period and circumstance in human life. (1) All its doctrines are calculated to promote holiness. Are the people of God “ from the beginning chosen to salvation” ? It is “ through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” Are they “ called” ? It is “ with a holy calling.” Are they “ reconciled to God by the death of His Son” ? It is “ that they may be presented holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight.” Will they eventually be glorified? They will “ receive an inheritance among them that are sanctified.” (2) The precepts of the Word of God are in harmony with its doctrines. “ As He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy.” (3) To encourage us in the pursuit of holiness the promises of God’ s Word are given. “ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,” &c. “ Having therefore these promises,” &c. 3. The Word of truth presents most powerful motives to the pursuit of holiness. It appeals to the best feelings of the renewed heart. The love of Christ shed abroad in the heart renders sacrifice easy and duty delightful. Conclusion: We may learn from the subject 1. The absolute necessity of holiness. 2. The importance of acquiring correct and enlarged views of Divine truth, and of earnestly seeking the influences of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the mind and to sanctify the heart. The Word of truth and the Spirit of truth are inseparably connected. 3. The importance of self-examination, and the awful condition of the unsanctified professor. (Congregational Remembrancer.) Thy Word is truth.--By truth is meant that which sustains, answers expectation, and never disappoints; which is ever found to be consistent with reality. Falsehood or error, on the other hand, is that which is empty, vain. It does not sustain; it disappoints, and does not correspond with the real. 1. The truth concerning the external world, its phenomena and laws, is that which represents what really is, what may be relied upon. 2. So with the truth concerning the internal world of mind. 3. The truth concerning God. 4. The truth concerning our relation to God. By the word of God is meant I. ANY OF GOD. A word is a revelation, an outward manifestation of thought. In this sense creation is a word of God. And all that it makes known of Him--His ways, character, will--is truth. It accords exactly with what God is, and what it teaches may therefore be relied on. The world is not a phantasm, but what it reveals itself to be, and never disappoints those who rely upon its teachings. The foundation of this reality is that it is God’ s word, and must be studied as such. II. THE OF GOD IN THE . In that sense the text means that the Scriptures are true. All they teach concerning God, man, the Person and work of Christ, the future life, &c., is true. Everything conforms to what is real, and may be relied on. Those who assume the Scriptures to be true, and act upon them, will attain the end they promise. Those who assume that what they teach is false, and act accordingly, will find out their mistake. Conclusion: It is an unspeakable blessing 1. To know what is truth and where it may be found. 2. To have the truth made accessible to us. (C. Hodge, D. D.) God’ s Word Truth 1. This is one of Christ’ s many testimonies to the integrity of the Scriptures. What is the value of that testimony. (1) Does He speak as man? If so He was in a better position for knowing the truth of the Old Testament than “ modern critics” ; and if He knew, as they profess to know, that the ancient record is partly fictitious, then this wholesale authentication is an impeachment of His own integrity. If He did not know, and accepted the truth of the Scriptures on trust, then He was credulous and forfeits our confidence in Him as the supreme Teacher and Guide. But His fearless championship of truth, by lip and life and death, forbids us to suppose that He said, “ Thy Word is truth” without good grounds, and what He believed we may safely hold. (2) But He spoke as Divine; and if the Word of God were not truth, as of so many other matters, He “ would have told” us. How believers in Christ’ s divinity can reject this testimony is marvellous. 2. The Bible is not simply true, but the truth, and embraces under the promise of the Spirit of Truth, New and Old Testament alike. “ Holy men of God spake as they were moved” by Him; He guided the apostles “ into all truth.” God’ s Word-- I. HAS ITS ORIGIN IN TRUTH. God is its author. He knows everything, has no interests to serve in perverting the truth, and by the laws of His own Being “ cannot lie.” What He reveals, therefore, must be as it really is, and what He has revealed is in the Bible. And as a pure fountain will send forth a pure stream so the Bible, being God’ s Word, must be true. A good man will tell the truth as far as he knows it; and shall we doubt the same power in God? II. ITS IS TRUTH It contains 1. True doctrine. As far as nature goes it coincides with the teachings of nature, contradicting them nowhere: which is a presumption that when it goes beyond nature it is still on the same line of truth. 2. True morals. The ten commandments command man’ s universal assent, and the Sermon on the Mount forms the only true basis of society, and true society will be one day constructed on that basis. 3. True history, and corroborative evidence is being discovered year after year. 4. True poetry. No better interpretation of nature and man’ s higher moods is to be found than in the Psalms. 5. True promises. How many millions have verifed them. 6. True threatenings--the Flood, Sodom, the Jews, &c. III. IT REVEALS HIM WHO IS THE TRUTH. 1. All the Old Testament points to Christ. (1) He is the Truth of its symbols. (2) “ The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” 2. The Gospels are the story of His life, and show how He was the Truth in (1) His character; (2) His influence; (3) His teaching; (4) His death. “ To this end was I born,” &c. 3. The Epistles expound various aspects of His truth, making Him the centre and inspiration. IV. ITS OBJECT IS TO MAKE TRUE MEN. 1. Men true to God, to self, to man; in the home, business, society, state, Church. 2. Lovers of the truth. 3. Disseminators of the truth. (J. W. Burn.) John 17:18-19 As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world Christian missions and missionaries: their ideals It is our privilege to enter at once, by the open door of this utterance, into the interior of our Lord’ s ideas. He speaks of missions and missionaries. Addressing His Father, He says, “ Thou didst send into the world.” It was a Divine mission, with reference to a most necessitous field of missionary operation. He says, “ Thou didst send Me into the world.” Other missionaries were and are required to carry on the great transformation movement inaugurated by the ideal Missionary. They were required to “ fill up that which was behind” of His “ labours of love,” and His afflictions for the gospel’ s sake. Hence the institution of a new mission by the ideal Missionary, a mission modelled after that of His Father: “ As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.” The Saviour speaks as if He had already moved in person out of the present time into the future, and were looking back to the past. But these apostolic missionaries were not to be the last who would spread themselves out on the field of the world. The work that required to be done would not be finished when their labours were drawing to a close. The generation to which they belonged, having replaced a generation that went before, would itself pass on, and another would come in its room. On the heroes of that generation it would devolve to “ fill up that which was behind” of the apostles’ labours and sorrows. Hence the Lord Jesus said to His Father, “ But not for these alone do I ask, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word.” His mind was looking forward to the living results of the labours of the apostles, and, in these living results, to the first of many successive relays of missionary workers. He prayed, giving earnest expression to an agony of desire, that nothing might impede the progressive subjugation to Himself of the whole world. “ I ask, that they all may be one,” &c. Our Lord saw from afar the danger of rivalry and dissension among His disciples. He saw that such dissensions would involve disunion in missionary operations at home and abroad; that such disunion meant reduced efficiency all along the straggling lines of the sacramental host; and that such reduced efficiency meant the reduction of the numbers of those who would believe in His mission, and come under the purifying influence of His own and His Father’ s love. It is but another aspect of this intense longing of our Lord, that, He says, “ And for their sakes I sanctify Myself,” or, “ I consecrate Myself,” i.e., “ I am, all along the line of My mediatorial career, consecutively consecrating Myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.” It is a grand system of mutual co-operation that is needed; and when all Christian missionaries, in all mission-fields, at home and abroad, become thus co-operative, and hence consecrated after the model of our Lord’ s consecration, then the bells of heaven may at once be set ringing, in jubilant peals, over the triumph of Christianity. I. THE AIM WITH WHICH THE MODEL MISSION WAS FORMED AND . It originated in the mind, or, to go further into the interior of things, in the heart of the Divine Father. God felt compassion for men. Hence, His determination to send a Missionary into our human world. It was a determination of pure benevolence. Therein was its goodness, grandeur, glory. Dwelling in His own immensity, as the infinitely happy God, afar from the children of men, and yet near, He beheld them in their misery. The world was full of woes, in consequence of the wickedness of men. Unless the Lord Himself should interpose, what can be expected from roots of bitterness found everywhere--what but the fruits of pessimism and despair? But God has interposed, finding His opportunity in man’ s extremity. “ Thou,” says Jesus, “ hast sent into the world,” that is, Thou hast instituted a mission in reference to this world, and it has resulted in the purest “ labour of love.” It is nothing less than to bring God’ s own holy happiness within the reach of His human creatures. II. THE WAYS AND MEANS BY THE GREAT IDEAL TO CARRY OUT THE AIMS OF HIS FATHER 1. He entered intimately and entirely into the spirit of these aims (Psalms 40:7-8). 2. By and by the grand ideal Missionary “ came.” His presence on the scene was indispensable. He came without loss of time--“ in the fulness of the time.” He “ emptied Himself of all but love,” and came. 3. After He came into our world, He did not take up His abode in some waste howling wilderness, and spend His days as a hermit, remote from the haunts of men. Nor did He take up His position on some conspicuous pillar like that of Simon Stylites, or on some “ coign of ’ vantage” in the architecture of society, and wave off the crowds that were surging around and jostling one another downwards. Far other was His plan. He mingled freely with the objects of His Father’ s solicitude. He was found ever radiating pure spiritual effluence, and radiant with pure spiritual influence, wherever men “ did congregate.” 4. It is noteworthy, besides, that while He did not avoid the society of the opulent and the cultured, yet He made His appearance among the humblest of those who were within the diocese of His missionary enterprise. In His sympathy with the poor, we have a pledge that the time is on the wing, though it may yet be remote, when all honest labour shall be equitably and generously rewarded, and when, in consequence, all the difficulties that beset the perplexing problem of right and righteous remuneration for work, shall, by the logic of love, be satisfactorily solved. 5. He ever went about “ doing good,” now preaching on the frequented shore, now praying on the solitary mountain slope, now teaching, or reasoning, or comforting, or feeding the hungry, or healing the sick, or enlightening the ignorant, or delivering those who, in their spirits or their bodies, were the unhappy victims of influences inhuman and malign. 6. Then He was “ full,” not merely of “ grace,” but of “ truth” ; and of “ truth” not merely as the ethical excellency of absolutely veracious witnessing, not merely, in addition, as the sum of true ideas concerning both God and man, but likewise as the actual antitypical impersonation of the most significant shadows of former ages. He was the true Prophet; the true King; the only One whose authority may be unreservedly trusted even when absolute; the true Priest; the true Sacrifice for sins; the true Propitiator and Propitiation; the true Light that lighteneth the way upward for every man that entereth into the world; likewise the true illuminated Way to the house that is the Father’ s home. 7. He was, from the commencement of His missionary enterprise to its consummation, engaged in coming under the sins of all mankind without distinction or exception, so as to suffer by them and for them. Our sins became His sorrows and His sufferings, till His heart broke, and His self-sacrifice was complete. III. For the very reason that the model mission culminated in the glorious propitiatory death of the ideal Missionary, its function as a mission became fulfilled, and room was made for the second great enterprise, with its peculiar complement of apostolic missionaries. They had, as far as was practicable, to take the Master’ s place on the mission-field, and to carry on the work He had inaugurated. We are thus launched into the third part of our missionary theme--the part that concerns THE OF THE AND ALL AND RELAYS OF TO THE DIVINE IDEALS. 1. As it was our Lord Jesus who Himself was the Founder of the second great missionary enterprise, the aims inspiring that enterprise must have been in ecactest accord with the aims inspiring the original project of His Father--to save sinners from their sins, their inhumanities, their woes. 2. It has been within the reach of every Christian mission that has ever flourished, and it is within the reach of every Christian mission that now exists, to cultivate and cherish an exact accord with the aim which animated and informed the mission of our Lord. It was in the bosom of our humanity as well as of His own divinity that He framed and modelled His grand disinterested aim, so that we can get near Him in the ethical peculiarity of His project. 3. The “ ways and means” of the great ideal Missionary may in part be imitated by all Christian missionaries. Like Him, they may be (1) sympathetic; (2) ministrant; (3) meek and lowly; (4) habitually going about doing good; (5) abounding in prayer. 4. Even when it is utterly impossible to do as Jesus did, as when in “ solemn loneliness” He bore the sin of the world and made propitiation for it, still it is permitted to all Christian missionaries, from age to age, to take their stand by the side of the cross, and pointing aloft to the crucified One, to exclaim, “ Look! the sight is glorious! Lo, the Lamb of God bearing, and bearing out of the way, the sin of the world! Look! and live.” 5. It is a grand privilege to be linked on, as workers, to some disinterested missionary enterprise! (James Morison, D. D.) The Model Missionary These words speak of a two-fold mission; Christ’ s mission from heaven to earth, and the Church’ s mission from Christ to the world. The former is at once the origin, model, and motive of the latter. The text suggests a correspondence between these two missions. They correspond I. IN THEIR . Both are of Divine authority. God sent Christ into the world, and Christ sends the Church. Christians have a right to go into every part of the world to unfurl their banner on every shore, and fight the battles of the Lord. We want no licence from potentates to authorize us to preach the gospel, &c. II. IN THEIR . What induced Christ to come into the world and inspired Him in working out His mission? All-embracing, disinterested, unconquerable love. The same must influence the Church, and no other feeling. III. IN THEIR OBJECT. Why did He come? “ To seek and to save the lost.” “ This is a faithful saying,” &c. This is our work. We have to save from ignorance, carnality, worldliness, sin, the devil. IV. IN THEIR MODE. Both are 1. Spontaneous. 2. Self-denying. 3. Persevering. 4. Diligent. 5. Devout. V. IN THEIR . Christ had 1. The Divine presence; so has the Church. 2. The highest sympathy. 3. The assurance of success. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The Christian mission identical with that of Christ Here are two impressive facts. One is that Jesus is holding converse with the Father about the conversion of the world, and the Christians whom He was to leave in it. The other is that Christ regards the mission of those Christians in the world as practically identical with His own. The two missions are identical. I. IN THEIR PURPOSE AND MOTIVE-POWER. Christ’ s mission originated in the bosom of God, in view of an infinite calamity which had fallen on man. The race was hastening to a wrecked immortality. There was but one power that could arrest its fatal progress--Love. God was Love. Christ came to establish an empire of love, and to change the moral drift of the perishing race, The apostles caught this sublime thought. “ If God so loved us, we ought to love one another.” The scope of the Divine mission was universal, and hence, “ All the world” became the watchword of the Christian ages. Hence, when Christ gathered a little band of followers, He pushed them out into the great world of want and woe and hate, along the line of His own career--“ As Thou hast sent Me, so have I sent them.” II. IN THEIR METHODS. 1. He ignored “ superior races” and civilizations, and pushed His truth out to the weakest and the lowest. With a “ sublime radicalism” He goes after the most needy. 2. He recognized the essential slowness of the cause, and hence, taught and wrought with Divine patience, believing in the immortality of truth, and looking down through a long vista of years for results. 3. He ignored the principle of demand and supply, as utterly defective for the lifting of humanity. That principle aims to merely meet existing desires. Christ ignored desires and acted in view of needs. His method was to come where there was no demand for Him, but where there was an immeasurable need; and for love’ s sake, man’ s sake, God’ s sake, to thrust Himself upon the attention of men, when they wanted something else; thus creating a demand for spiritual life where none existed. Our mission is to proceed on the same principle. The apostles so acted. They went where there was no demand for them. The Macedonian cry which came to Paul was not the cry of the men of Macedonia, but the cry of the Spirit of God for Macedonia. These three principles should characterize our Christian methods. III. IN THEIR OF THE SAME . The most impressive aspect of Christ’ s mission is its divine heroism--the total abandonment of Himself to the cause of the lost. This, too, must be true of the Christian disciple. To the man who really enters upon the Christian mission, every land is his fatherland, because man identified with Christ is greater than the world on which he works, and his final home is above. IV. IN THEIR SOURCES OF HOPE, THEIR OF SUCCESS. We are not to carry to the sin-sick world a doubtful remedy. We go to lost men as messengers of hope. The Christian’ s message is not simply a new law--that men have now; not a new philosophy--that has failed already; not merely a sense of guilt--there is no hope in that. What the world needs is a gospel of Hope. The story of the cross is such a gospel. The supreme theory of the Christian, then, is to grasp the Divine conception of his mission--to get Christ’ s view of the ideal man. The Greek ideal man was an elegant thinker; the Roman, a great ruler; the modern, a king of commerce. Christ’ s ideal man is he who, identified with God, heroically commits his consecrated powers to the service of God’ s suffering poor. (J. Brand.) The union between Christ and His Church Christ expects that His Church will be in the world as He was in these senses I. THAT THE MIND THAT WAS IN HIM SHALL BE IN HER. He has not overlooked the force of evil, so He expects 1. Penitence to have its perfect work not ceasing until it grows in humility, and cleanses the spirit from viler tastes and sordid vices. 2. Faith that will perpetually fill the nature and lay claim to the gift of the Holy Spirit, using it in the development of grandest virtue. 3. That love will thrive in the heart, turning the tyranny of passion into a glow of piety. 4. That His Cross will charm the eye, and protect from destructive allurements. 5. That however lofty her effort she will not fail in it. 6. That she will look on men with the eye of pity, and spare not herself in the work of their redemption. II. THAT THE CHURCH WILL ENGAGE IN THE SAME WORK AS HIM. This naturally follows. There cannot be identity of spirit without identity of purpose and employment. It is not that the Church sets before herself some outward action as exactly reproducing that of Christ, but, looking with eyes like His through the agate windows of charity upon the needs of men, she sees wants which others overlook, and feels within herself some power to meet them; and using the power she has it grows until it flows out into the variety of usefulness which is the image of Him who went about doing good. 1. Are there children about her? She will feed the lambs and carry them in her bosom. 2. Do others neglect the old? She ministers to the solitude and decay of age. 3. Does the false world tread down the fallen? She lifts them to self-respect by the love and energy with which she reclaims them. 4. She checks Pharisaism by the glow of her real charity. 5. She cries to the multitudes, “ Behold your God.” 6. She engages in the absorbing effort to save the one sinner at the well. Her path may be obscure, but consecrating what she has she makes many rich. I do not ask has the Church realized all this; but is she aiming at it? Had she done so long ago, nations now lying in darkness would have been basking in the light of love. III. THAT THE CHURCH WILL ENDURE THE SAME AS HE . Of course there is one part of the sacrifice which we cannot aspire to. But it is evident that no one can have the mind of Christ or do His work without being involved in sacrifices identical to the spirit in which they are accepted and the pain they involve with His. St. Paul speaks of the conflicts of Christ in his body, of being crucified with Christ, of being conformed to His death, &c. Sanctity will never be without its sorrows. You will be misunderstood and misrepresented. IV. THAT THE CHURCH WILL BE IN ALL SHE HAS TO DO AND BEAR. “ My grace is sufficient for thee.” Let that grow and it will conquer. (R. Glover.) Christ’ s consecration for His people I. THE MISSION OF THE . “ As Thou hast sent Me,” &c. They were sent forth 1. By the same authority as their Master. This language could not be used by any mere man, and is in harmony with “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” When a man knows what he can do, and has to do, he is in the fittest condition for doing it. Jesus knew that He was sent into the world, and for what; and He was equal to it. Whatever authority belonged to the Father in sending the Son into the world, belonged to the Son in sending forth His disciples. 2. For a kindred purpose. Christ was the Light of the world, but His radiance was to shine through them, so that they too were lights of the world. The mission of the Son of God was personal and peculiar, and could neither have extension nor repetition (Hebrews 9:26). To proclaim the power and purpose of His death was the mission of the disciples (connect John 18:37 with 2 Corinthians 4:2). The mission of the Master and that of the disciples coincide in that both were for the glory of God and the salvation of men. 3. To a similar experience. As the world treated the Master, so it treated the servants (John 15:22; Matthew 16:24). And as in the case of the Master, so in the case of His disciples now, “ No cross, no crown.” II. THE OF THE MASTER--“ For their sakes,” &c. 1. By Christ’ s sanctifying Himself we are to understand His devotement to the will of the Father, the surrender of Himself as a sacrifice for sin, the climax of which was at hand in the Cross “ I sanctify Myself” is the language of One who had perfect control over His own course anal action; who was under no obligation to place Himself in the position of having to utter them. “ He came not to be ministered unto,” &c. Accordingly, His consecration was sacrificial (2 Corinthians 5:21). In the profoundest sense He consecrated Himself for man; our cause He undertook, our interests He had in view. 2. But how could this consecration be for the sanctification of His disciples? It had what may be called a legal power, making their consecration possible. The sacrifice which the Son of God presented was the ransom price of redemption. If Christ had not become a curse for us, the curse could not have passed from us, and man could not have been sanctified for God. What mere authority could not do, God effected through His only begotten Son. Truth in all its purifying and transforming power reached them through the consecration of their Lord; for thus they saw the things of God as they had never been unfolded before. Truth is (1) The element of sanctification, the sphere in which it is realized and enjoyed. It is only when we are in the truth, when we know it, and are in Him that is true, that we can be sanctified. (2) The instrument. Through its influence within, wielded by the Divine Spirit, the soul becomes weaned from the world, separated from sin, and conformed to the image of God. It is not an outward service, an imposing ritual, an exciting ceremony, which can sanctify, but the truth of God, received into the heart, and applied by the Holy Spirit. “ Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The entrance of the Divine Word gives light, and light is always for holiness. (3) The end, so that holiness shall become triumphant in the heart and the history. What is sanctification in every case but the reign of “ truth in the inward parts” ? To be true men, true to God, true to ourselves, and true to our fellow-creatures--so true in thought and feeling, in word and action, as to clearly reflect the image of our Father, is the highest ambition which as moral creatures we can cherish. (J. Spence, D. D.) Spiritual work Here are remarkable parallels, comparisons, connections:--“ As--so,” “ Thou--Me,” “ I--them.” “ I sanctify Myself that they might be sanctified.” The main thought of the text will come out under three words I. --“ As Thou hast sent Me,” &c. This is a style of speech which we find often in the lips of Christ; it indicates His unique personality. He says, for instance, in John 5:1-47., “ As the Father raiseth up the dead,” &c. He assumes and asserts prerogatives which belong to God. He does so here. This is the grandest act of God. All that we know of God seems to be consecrated in this act: “ God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” God, the Holy, saw with intense repugnance the pollution of men; God, the Creator, saw with grief the obliteration of His image in man. But the God of salvation had the thought of salvation. “ God sent not His Son into the world to condemn,” &c. What a wonderful parallel--“ Thou didst send Me, and I send Thee!” 1. Take all the missionaries, preachers, teachers, devoted servants of God, all together, they do not equal the one Jesus. No; the parallel cannot be traced strictly in regard to the person sent, nor in regard to the special purpose of the sending. The specific purpose for which Christ came was to redeem men by His own precious blood. He trod the wine-press alone. Our blood, the blood of our martyrs, does not mingle with His atoning blood. But when we have said that we may say that there is a very close parallel between the Father’ s sending of Christ and of Christ sending of His apostles; for just as the great Father sees the world Christ sees it. And He has the Father’ s love; for does not He give Himself? Furthermore, He is with men, just as the great Father was always with His Son. And so Christ says: “ I am with you always. Go, teach all nations.” 2. Then, although we have a distinction between the persons, they are living men whom Christ sends, not books, messages, letters. We may print the gospel in all the languages of the world, and send them to all the world; but it will not save the world. Christ said: “ I will send you.” You must go out, living men and women, sinners saved, hearts through whom the great love has passed--you must be able to say: “ This is a faithful saying,” &c. 3. The sphere is the same. It is very interesting that though Christ confines His movements to a very small spot, yet He says, “ I am come into the world.” If the Prince of Wales had landed in Ireland, just visited Dublin, and then come home again, he might truly have been said to visit Ireland; and Christ comes to Palestine and says, “ I have come into the world.” He annexed the world by that act--linked it on to Himself. But it is needful that in a more literal sense the great Christ should visit the world; and so He chooses these men and says: “ I send you into the world. Go into all the world,” &c. 4. And He sends them with the same purpose, “ Go to save.” This is a very ennobling parallel. It is not a mere political or military mission, or a scientific undertaking; it is like that great act of God in sending down His Son--it is, indeed, an expansion of that act. II. . 1. Whenever an honest man accepts an office his next thought will be, “ How can I best prepare for it?” The high priest must be born of the tribe of Levi--he must be without blemish personally; and after that there must be special ceremonies; and then he is consecrated, and may go within the veil. But is there anything so sublime as this the Son of God saying: “ I sanctify Myself” ? And do you notice He used the present tense--“ I am sanctifying Myself” ? Although the life of our Lord on earth was brief, He retained His connection with the human race. So we regard that thirty years, especially the last three, as a period of consecration on the part of the great Saviour. He was sanctified by His daily obedience, prayerfulness, self-denial; by His fierce, but always resisted, temptations; by His Gethsemane agony; by the Cross. 2. It is a solemn thought that we are to consecrate ourselves after the manner of Christ. We do not know much about it. We sing hymns of consecration, and there are some few consecrated people among us; but the average Christian is not a consecrated person. No; his religion is rather a matter of convenience--it is not allowed to interfere with his ordinary human life; but we are to make it, by the grace of God, like Christ’ s--a consecrated life. Now, that means we must set apart a life that gathers about one idea; it means, not the waters which are spread vaguely over a level surface, but the waters that are confined within deep banks and flow straight on; it means, not lines that are drawn in all directions, but radical lines that converge towards a centre. It means, therefore, that just as Christ fixed His thought upon the saving of the world, we should have our thoughts fixed on the saving of the world. As He regarded Himself as being here for no other purpose, we should regard ourselves as being here for no other purpose. III. . 1. Christ consecrated Himself; He could do that. Can you or I have that strength to take this heavy, dull, carnalized humanity of ours and consecrate it? No; it mocks our endeavour, and we seem to lie a heavy carnal mass still. But see what Christ says: “ I do this for their sakes.” So we share in His own consecration. Thus He was a typical man, in whom, in a certain sense, humanity is contained; and His consecration is potentially the consecration of men. 2. His consecration is our complete atonement, the removal of all our guilt. Oh, what a blessed step that is towards consecration to know that your sins are forgiven! 3. And this consecration of Christ brings all heavenly blessing down; it wins the Spirit for us, and is the substance of Divine truth; so that through the truth, getting these thoughts of God’ s into our minds, and these great facts, and these holy influences, we become sanctified through the truth. (S. Hebditch.) For their sakes I sanctify Myself The sanctification of Christ I. CHRIST’ S OF HIMSELF. 1. He devoted Himself by inward resolve. God His Father had devoted Him before. It only remained that this devotion should be completed by His own will. In that consisted His sanctification of Himself. This self-sanctification applies to the whole tone and history of His mind. He was for ever devoting Himself to work: but it applies peculiarly to certain special moments when some crisis came which called for an act of will. (1) The first of these moments came when He was twelve years of age, “ Wist ye not,” &c. The Boy was sanctifying Himself for life and manhood’ s work. (2) The next was in that preparation of the wilderness, the true meaning of which lies in this, that the Saviour was steeling His soul against the threefold form in which temptation presented itself to Him in after life, to mar or neutralise His ministry. (a) To convert the hard life of Duty into the comfort of this life: to use Divine powers only to procure bread of earth. (b) To distrust God, and try impatiently some wild, sudden plan, instead of His meek and slow-appointed ways--to east Himself from the Temple, as we dash ourselves against our destiny. (c) To do homage to the majesty of wrong: to worship evil for the sake of success: to make the world His own by force or by crooked policy, instead of by suffering. These were the temptations of His life, as they are of ours. Life thenceforward was only the meeting of that in fact which had been in resolve met already--a vanquished foe. (3) He had sanctified Himself against every trial except the last--death: He had yet to nerve Himself to that. And hence the lofty sadness which characterizes His later ministry. The words as of a soul struggling to pierce through thick glooms of mystery, and doubt, and death, come more often from His lips: for instance, “ Now is My soul troubled,” &c.; “ My soul is exceeding sorrowful” ; and here in the text. 2. The sanctification of Christ was self-devotion to the truth. “ Also” implies that what His consecration was, their’ s was. His death was not merely the world’ s atonement; it, with His life, was martyrdom to truth. He fell in fidelity to a cause--love to the human race. Let us see how His death was a martyrdom of witness to truth. (1) He proclaimed the identity between religion and goodness. He distinguished religion from correct views, accurate religious observances, and even from devout feelings. He said that to be religious is to be good. “ Blessed are the pure in heart, the merciful, the meek.” Justice, mercy, truth--these He proclaimed as the real righteousness of God. (2) He taught spiritual religion. God’ s temple was man’ s soul. (3) He struck a deathblow at Jewish exclusiveness. For God loved the world, not a private few. Because of all this the Jewish nation were offended. By degrees--priests, Pharisees, rulers, rich and poor--He had roused them all against Him: and the Divine Martyr of the truth stood alone at last beside the cross, when the world’ s life was to be won, without a friend. 3. The self-sanctification of Christ was for the sake of others “ For their sakes.” He sanctified Himself that He might become a living, inspiring example, firing men’ s hearts by love to imitation. In Christ there is not given to as a faultless essay on the loveliness of self-consecration, to convince our reason how beautiful it is; but there is given to us a self-consecrated One--a life that was beautiful, a death that was divine--and all this in order that the spirit of that consecrated life and death, through love, and wonder and deep enthusiasm, may pass into us, and sanctify us also to the truth in life and death. II. CHRIST’ S OF HIS PEOPLE. Those whom Christ sanctifies are separated from two things. 1. From the world’ s evil (John 17:15). The only evil--sin: revolt from God, disloyalty to conscience, tyranny of the passions, strife of our self-will in conflict with the loving will of God. This is our foe--our only foe that we have a right to hate with perfect hatred, meet it where we will, and under whatever form, in church or state, in false social maxims, or in our own hearts. By the blood of His anguish--by the strength of His unconquerable resolve--we are sworn against it--bound to be, in a world of evil, consecrated spirits, or else greatly sinning. 2. From the world’ s spirit. He is sanctified by the self-devotion of His Master from the world, who has a life in himself independent of the maxims and customs which sweep along with them other men. His true life is hid with Christ in God. His citizenship is in heaven. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) The nature of sanctification It is religion shining; the candle lighted, not hid under a bushel, but illuminating the house. It is the religious principle put into motion. It is the love of God sent forth into circulation, on the feet and with the hands of love to man. It is faith gone to work. It is charity coined into actions, and devotion breathing benedictions on human suffering, while it goes up in intercessions to the Father of all piety. (Bp. Huntington.) Progressive sanctification This devotion to God is in a sense imperfect, At the end of every day we acknowledge that we have failed to work out fully into all the details of the day the one purpose which has, by the grace of God, been the mainspring of our action; and that we have often chosen unsuitable means. But each day we learn better what will, and what will not, advance the purposes of God; and each day our one great purpose permeates more fully our entire thoughts, and more fully directs our entire activity. Moreover, each day brings to us fresh proofs of the faithfulness, power, and love of God, and thus increases the strength of the faith with which we lay hold of all the benefits promised in His Word. This daily submission to the guidance of the Spirit brings us more completely under His holy influence, and, since our entire Christian life takes the form of devotion to God; all spiritual progress may be spoken of as growth in holiness. (Prof. Beet.) Sanctification a process As the external man perishes, so the inward is renewed day by day. As in the process of petrification, for every particle of wood washed away by the dropping well, another particle of stone is deposited in its place; so our sanctification goes on by a minute molecular change of the heart from stone to flesh, a process of depetrification. Little by little the flesh gives way to the Spirit, and more and more the spirit becomes accustomed to claim and enforce obedience. (J. B. Heard, M. A.) Process of sanctification It is wonderful to see how the little events of our daily life tend to our sanctification, though we know it not at the time. Every week seems so like the other! But you know when the sculptor begins his work, he strikes great pieces off the block. Every stroke tells visibly. But, when the statue is nearly finished, he takes the fine chisel, and strikes off but a little dust at a time. You scarcely see the effects of the blow; yet then it is directed with most art and skill,--then the work is nearly done. (Doing and Suffering.) The difficulty of ascertaining our advance in sanctification To gauge our process we must employ a measure of sufficient capacity. If we confine our attention to a few days or weeks, it is likely we shall be disappointed, being unable to perceive any advance. You must rather take in months and years. You shall stand by the seashore and be unable first to discover whether the tide ebbs or flows. It is only after diligent watching for an appreciable period that you decide that the sea is slowly but certainly advancing. The evidence of sanctification Look upon a holy man in his calling, and you shall find him holy: look upon him in the use of the creatures, and you shall find him holy: look upon him in his recreations and you shall find him holy. The habitual frame and bent of his heart is to be holy in every earthly thing that he puts his hand unto. (T. Brooks.) Sanctification seen in little things A holy life is made up of a number of small things. Little words, not eloquent speeches or sermons; little deeds, not miracles, nor battles, nor one great heroic act or mighty martyrdom made up the true Christian life. The little constant sunbeam, not the lightning, the waters of Siloam “ that go softly” in the meek mission of refreshment, not the “ waters of the river, great and many,” rushing down in torrents, noise and force, are the true symbols of a holy life. The avoidance of little evils, little sins, inconsistencies, weaknesses, follies, indiscretions, imprudences, foibles, indulgencies of self and of the flesh; the avoidance of such little things as these goes far to make up, at least, the negative beauty of a holy life. (H. Bonar, D. D.) John 17:20-21 Neither pray I for these alone, but for those also which shall believe on Me through their word Saving faith through the Word I. THE OF CHRIST’ S ARE LIMITED TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE ON HIM. 1. In the very passage of this prayer, in which He designs expressly to set forth the wide exercise of His mediation, He yet, in most positive terms, confines it within this limitation. Nor was this the first or the only occasion in which He stated and maintained the same truth. To Nicodemus, to Martha, to the Jews, and in the commission which He gave to His apostles He strongly asserted this fundamental principle. In fact this is the universal language of Scripture on this subject. 2. And the same language, which is thus used in respect to salvation in general, is equally used in respect to every blessing of the gospel. Is it pardon? “ Through His name whosoever believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins.” Is it justification? “ By Him, all that believe are justified from all things.” Is it adoption? “ As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” Is it sanctification? Saints are “ sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Is it spiritual support and strength? “ He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded.” Is it spiritual light and knowledge? “ I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me, should not abide in darkness.” Is it spiritual peace and joy? “ Now the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in believing.” II. THE ARE THE MEDIUM THROUGH WHICH THIS BELIEF IS (Romans 10:17; John 20:31). 1. They are the foundation on which it is built. “ Faith the substance of things hoped for,” &c. But it is evident that such a belief supposes a certain degree of previous information. To believe then in Jesus Christ, and in the efficacy of His mediation, implies that we have a certain degree of previous knowledge on these subjects. And where is this knowledge to be obtained but from the Scriptures? Here only are we taught the way of salvation. 2. They are the instrument by which it is wrought in the heart. Faith is itself the gift and operation of God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. But the great instrument by which He works and operates is the written Word, which is, therefore, emphatically styled “ the Sword of the Spirit.” Conclusion: 1. Has Christ limited the benefits of His mediation to those who believe on Him? How strikingly does this truth show the importance of faith! How clearly does it point out the wide distinction between believers and unbelievers! 2. Do those who believe on Jesus Christ believe through the Word? Then how invaluable are the Scriptures! (1) Are they the foundation of faith? Then how thankful should we be to God for this inestimable gift, how diligent should we be in the perusal of it, how widely should we disseminate it! (2) Are they the instrument by which it is wrought? How powerfully should this consideration operate on our minds and conduct! Let us remember, when we read or hear the Word of God, that though we thus attain to a knowledge of the truths to be believed, yet the actual believing of them must be the effect of a Divine operation on our hearts. (E. Cooper.) Christ in relation to His disciples in all future times Observe I. HIS OF THEIR ACTUAL . The only disciples then living were the eleven, but He prays for them who should hereafter believe, &c. And how many have believed through their word, and will yet--a great multitude which no man can number. And yet all these seem present to Christ. His great soul realized each in His distinctive personality, and for them He prays. To a soul in vital fellowship with God, and inspired with the spirit of omniscience, time and space are of little account. The prophets threw their glance into the distant centuries, but none of them saw the future as the Incarnate Word. A Being who thus knows the future can never be disappointed. II. HIS METHOD OF CALLING THEM INTO HIS SCHOOL. 1. They must believe on Him, not on what men say about Him and not on priesthoods, but on Him. This is the only way of becoming a disciple. 2. They must believe on Him “ through their word,” i.e., their testimony of Him. It is a witnessing word. “ How can they believe on Him of whom they have not heard, &c. That is the method. Do not expect, any other. III. HIS SUPREME DESIRE FOR THEM. 1. That they should be united on earth. Observe (1) The nature of this unity. (a) It is very vital. One living in another. “ I in them,” &c. There is nothing uncommon in this idea. The object we love most lives in us as a living force. Friend lives in friend; the parent in the loving child. Love brings the distant object near, and enshrines it in the heart. Thus those who love Christ have Christ in them; and those whom Christ loves are in Him; and as Christ and His disciples both love the infinite Father, He is in them, and He loves them that are in Him. (b) It is a unity of the Infinite with the finite, of the Creator and the creature. An attraction links the smallest atom to the highest orb of immensity, love links the humblest disciples to the great heart of the Infinite, and He to them. (2) A reason for this unity--“ That the world,” &c. No argument could be formulated so mighty as the thorough soul union of Christ’ s disciples. 2. That they should dwell with Him in heaven (John 17:24). (1) With Him in person as well as in sympathy. (2) We behold His glory. (D. Thomas, D. D.) That they all may be one Unity in Christ I. THE UNITY DESIRE. These words of the Saviour have been mischievously perverted. Ecclesiastics have dreamed of a great confederation, presided over by a number of ministers, these again governed by superior officers, and these again by others, and these topped at last by a supreme visible head, who must be either a person or a council: and what is worse, they turned the dream into a reality, and the time was when, from the centre at the Vatican, one united body covered all Europe. And what was the result? Did the world believe that God had sent Christ? The world believed the very opposite, that God had nothing to do with that great crushing, superstitious thing; and thinking men became infidels. Yet people dream that dream still. 1. What were the elements of this unity which Christ so anxiously desired? The unity was to be composed of the people who are here called “ they.” Who are they? (1) Persons specially given to Jesus by the Father (John 17:2). Not then of all men who happen to dwell in any particular district, or city, but a unity of persons who have received, not common life, as all have, but life eternal. (2) Persons to whom God’ s name has been manifested (John 17:6)--chosen men, not the mass, not kingdoms. (3) Persons who have been schooled, and have learned unusual lessons (John 17:7), and they have learned their lesson well. “ They have kept Thy word.” (4) Persons prayed for by Christ, in a sense in which He never prays for the world (John 17:9). (5) People in whom God is glorified (John 17:10). The one Church of God, is it composed of the Church of England, the Congregational Union, the Wesleyan Conference, and the Baptist body? No. Is not then the Church of England a part of the Church of Christ, and the Baptist denomination a part? No; but there are believers in all denominations of Christians, aye! and many in no visible Church at all, who are in Christ Jesus, and consequently in the great unity. 2. What is the bond which keeps these united ones together? (1) They have the same origin. Every person who is a partaker of the life of God, has sprung from the same Divine Father. (2) They are supported by f he same strength. The life which makes vital the prayer of a believer to-day is the same life which quickened the cry of a believer two thousand years ago. (3) They have the same aim and object. The inward spirit is forcing its way to the same perfection of holiness, and is meanwhile seeking to glorify God. (4) Above all, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in every believer, is the true fount of oneness. I meet an Englishman anywhere the wide world over, and I recognize in him some likeness to myself; and so I meet a Christian five hundred years back in the midst of Romanism and darkness, but his speech bewrayeth him; if my soul shall traverse space in one hundred years to come, although Christianity may have assumed another outward garb and fashion, I shall still recognize the Christian. This is a very different bond from that which men try to impose upon each other. They put straps round the outside, they tie us together with many knots, and we feel uneasy; but God puts a Divine life inside of us, and then we wear the sacred bonds of love with ease. 3. There are tokens which evidence this union, and prove that the people of God are one. We hear much moaning over our divisions. There may be some that are to be deplored among ecclesiastical confederacies, but in the spiritual church I am at a loss to discover the divisions which are so loudly proclaimed. There is a union (1) In judgment upon all vital matters. I converse with a spiritual man, and no matter what he calls himself, when we talk of sin, pardon, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and such like themes, we are agreed. (2) In experimental points. (3) In heart. Where the Spirit of God is there must be love. How is it that I cannot help loving George Herbert and George Fox, who are in some things complete opposites? Because they both loved the Master. (4) In prayer. Well-taught believers address the throne of Greece in the same style, whatever may be the particular form which their Church organization may have assumed. (5) In praise. Our music goes up with sweet accord to the throne of grace. (6) In action. True Christians anywhere are all doing the same work. 4. You say, “ But I cannot see this unity.” Why? Perhaps (1) Because of your want of information. I saw a large building the other day being erected, and puzzled myself to make out how that would make a complete structure; it seemed to me that the gables would come in so very awkwardly. But I dare say if I had seen a plan there might have been some central tower or some combination by which the wings, one of which appeared to be longer than the other, might have been brought into harmony, for the architect doubtless had a unity in his mind which I had not in mine. So you and I have not the necessary information as to what the Church is to be. The plan is not worked out yet. Shall the Master show you His plan? Not so; wait a while and you will find that all these diversities among spiritually-minded men, when the master-plan comes to be wrought out, are different parts of the grand whole. I go into a great factory: there is a wheel spinning away in that way perfectly careless of every ether wheel; there is another going in an opposite direction, and I say, “ What an extraordinary muddle this all seems!” I do not understand the machinery. So when I go into the great visible Church of God, if I look with the eyes of my spirit I can see the inner harmony, but if with these eyes I look upon the great outward Church I cannot see it. (2) Because of the present roughness of the material? See yonder a number of stones--here, a number of trees; I cannot see the unity. Of course not. When these trees are all cut into planks, when these stones are all squared, then you may begin to see them as a whole. (3) Because you cannot see anything. Do not suppose that the unity of the Church is a thing that is to be seen by these eyes of ours. Never! Everything spiritual is spiritually discerned. You must get spiritual eyes before you can see it. II. THE WORK THAT IS TO BE DONE BEFORE THIS UNITY CAN BE . There are many chosen ones who have not yet believed in Christ, and the Church cannot be one till these are saved. These chosen ones are to believe--that is a work of grace, but they are to believe through our word. If youwould promote the unity of Christ’ s Church, look after His lost sheep. If you ask what is to be your word, the answer is in the text--it is to be concerning Christ. They are to believe in Him. Every soul that believes in Christ is built into the great gospel unity in its measure. (C. H. Spurgeon.) True and false unity There be two false peaces or unities: the one when the peace is grounded but upon an implicit ignorance; for all colours will agree in the dark; the other when it is pieced up upon a direct admission of contraries in fundamental points. For truth and falsehood in such things are like the iron and clay in the toes of Nebu chadnezzar’ s image: they may cleave, but they will not incorporate. (Lord Bacon.) Church unity I. WHAT IS THE ONENESS? There is a widespread tendency to confound it with uniformity. But there may be unity without uniformity, and there may be uniformity without unity. In the planks of a timber yard, sawn of equal length, breadth, and thickness, there is uniformity, but it is the uniformity of death without unity. In the trees of the wood or forest there is unity of life and general structure, with great diversity of form, fibre, and foliage. The very absence of uniformity adds to the impressiveness of the unity which responds in every trunk and branch and leaf to the quickening influences of the spring and the calm decay of autumn. The uniformity of a Church or society may be like the uniformity of a graveyard in which all the tombs, monuments, and headstones are of one pattern: but unity can be found only amongst the living. The oneness which the Saviour sought was Divine 1. In its model: “ As Thou, leather,” &c. These words remind us of “ Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” This is a unity (1) Of life (John 5:26). Believers are begotten through the same wordof truth, born by the grace of the same Spirit, pervaded by the same principle of spiritual life, partakers of the same Divine nature, and adopted into the same family. How diversified soever they may be in age, or station, or attainment, they possess a life in common. (2) Of character. Jesus is “ the image of the invisible God.” The oneness of all Christian disciples is after this model. In so far as they are after the pattern of Christ, they see alike, feel alike, act alike on all moral questions. They must all have the Spirit of Christ, hate sin, live by faith. (3) Of enjoyment. The joy of the Father was the delight of the incarnate Son; in blessedness they are one. So with the happiness of all His disciples. All drink of the water of that river which makes glad the city of God, and their purest joy is centred in things heavenly and Divine. 2. In its sphere--“ in us.” It is obvious that Christ Jesus here claims for Himself equality with God. No mere man, without blasphemy, could use such language as this. The only sphere in which Christian unity can be realized, is in the reconciling Father and the redeeming Son. Very different are the thoughts of men on this great matter. (1) The world says, “ Let nations be one in the reciprocities of commerce; let free trade bind human tribes together with the bonds of its golden girdle; let brotherhood be realized in the mysteries of freemasonry; let unity become a fact for mankind through the sceptre and shield of a universal monarchy.” But the disruption and discord made by sin defy all such efforts at unification. (2) Even the Church has said, “ Let us make oneness by the bonds of the same ecclesiastical polity and by the use of the same liturgical service; let us compel men to oneness of creed and worship by the force of law, or allure them at least to the appearance of it by the power of state patronage and worldly pomp.” Christ says to the Father, “ Let them be one in us.” Nowhere else, and in no other way, can this oneness become a spiritual fact. II. THE GRAND PURPOSE IN THE OF THIS ONENESS: That the world may believe,” &c. One of the greatest obstacles to the triumphs of the gospel is in the contentions and separations which have prevailed in the Church of Christ. But when the world sees the Church, in all its sections, drawn and knit together, not to profess the same polity, and in spite of intellectual differences to show its oneness in Christ the living Head, then will the world believe that Jesus Christ has come as the sent of God for the cure of its ills and the relief of all its woes. It is not difficult to see how this spirit would operate in convincing the world. Would it not be a triumph of Christian love? “ God is love,” but where is the evidence of this amidst the jealousy, sectarianism, and contentions of the disciples of Christ? In the first age of the Church the evidence was often impressive, and the heathen around them were led to exclaim, “ See how these Christians love each other.” So it should be still. (J. Spence, D. D.) The unity of the Church I. THE TO BE FOUND IN THE WORDS OF OUR LORD. Observe 1. That there is a oneness between believers in Christ. The very essence of unity is that it proceeds from within, and is not impressed from without, that there is a common living spirit pervading and inter-penetrating all that mass, which but for it would be a multitude of separate parts. To fulfil, then, the words of our Lord’ s prayer, His people must be all dwelt in by one and the same living Spirit, which so pervades every one of them that it gathers them up into a living body, communicating to them hereby a hidden principle of common life, which makes them one together, how many soever they be, and which, by the deep real separation of a distinct life, separates them from all others, how near soever such may seem to draw to them in outward things. 2. That this one life of the saints is the consequence of their union with 1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 3:3; Romans 8:9). 3. That this unity is a thing hidden, as are all the principles of life, but yet outwardly developed, as are all the forms of derived life in a visible body Romans 12:5; Ephesians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Corinthians 12:20; Colossians 1:18). From this it follows that the growth and development of this body, its form and shape, its acting and character, are all the putting forth of the powers of this indwelling Spirit of life. (1) For this is the very first principle of organization as connected with life, even down to the lowest acting. That this will act according to its own laws; shaping to itself its own external development, casting itself forth now in massive branches, or in robust limbs, and then weaving for itself the most delicate tracery of the finest leaf or fibre; or gushing out, as in animal life, into the infinite subdivision of hair and plumage, even to the fine down upon the wing of the insect. And yet being truly in all of these the life from within, in its outward acting, and not any impress from without. So that unity may exist where the eye of man cannot trace even connection. For not apparent outward coherence but community of inner spirit is the formal and constituting essence of unity; and where this exists not, the impress of outward things cannot produce unity. For it is another part of the very law of life that external impressions can but interfere with, and mar the perfectness which it shapes for itself. That external impressions produce what we term monstrous or imperfect shapes. And still further, the interference of these external impressions may cause that life to withdraw itself from the immediate outward part, which is subjected to them, so that it dies and falls off, as some decaying branch or diseased limb, thereby cutting off at the same time its principle of unity, so that in a little while it is evidently severed from the body of which it once, but now no longer, forms a part. And further, we see that such separations from its frame cannot be effected without some injury to the very body itself; the health and soundness of which, even in its centre of being and action, depend in a marvellous way upon the just and equal development of these its remotest extremities. (2) All which laws apply also to this body, of which Christ is the head. (a) It is weaving forth for itself its own external increase (Ephesians 2:22; Ephesians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 12:6). And this it is doing in ten thousand ways; in the great limbs of Church polity and succession; in the hands wherewith at any moment the Church is ready to do her Master’ s work; in the societies she puts forth; the new combinations she forms; the new phases under which she shows herself; and so also in the details of every Christian man’ s character and conduct, for there is nothing so great that this life does not take it up into itself, and as it were reproduce it, nothing so small into which it cannot transfuse its own living energy, until it can fill and glorify all the minutest details of daily conduct, social intercourse, and natural affection. (b) Then again, while outward things cannot perfect the working of this life, they may interfere with it, mar, and even extinguish it. The branch in this vine may wither, the inner life may draw itself back, until that outward part in which it once acted may be “ cut off” from the life and unity of the stock. The spirit may be quenched. The individual Christian may be broken off from the living body of which he was a part. A whole branch of the Church may be withered and die. Nor can this be without grievous injury to all the body; for if “ one member suffer, all the members suffer with it;” so that a time of much disunion cannot be a healthful and flourishing time of the Church any more than in a tree loaded with dead boughs there can be a healthful, vigorous vegetation. II. THE DUTIES WHICH THIS GREAT TRUTH UPON US. 1. We must strive really to believe it. (1) Because it is of such importance; for without a real faith in this (a) We strip the Church of Christ of all its glory. It is in this mystery of the hidden life that the very blessedness of our redeemed state consists. It is this which binds in one the broken links of humanity. In refusing to believe it, we rob of all its lustre the marvellous dispensation in which God’ s mercy has placed us. We bring it down again to a mere Jewish level. (b) And the evil follows us into the furthest details of our own spiritual life. There are blessed secrets of strength which come out daily for Him who, with a purged eye, sees ever round Him this communion of the saints, which must be lost by him who lowers it into an empty form of speech. (2) Because it is one which we do not readily receive or keep. It is a great mystery; it needs a strong faith to hold it firmly. (a) To hold that the declaration of the oneness of Christians with each other is but a strong way of saying that we ought to be kind to each other when we can, is far easier than to believe that, from Christ our Head, there has gone forth a true life, holding in its wonderful unity all of His together, which we are to cherish and guard in ten thousand secret instances of self-denial, and faith, and purity, and hard service, borne for each other cheerfully, because we are in very deed members one of another. (b) Nor is this all. It is difficult to read this mysterious unity under the coarse features of common life; to believe in it, in spite of the world’ s mockery, and the unfaithfulness of the better sort, and the multitude of divisions, and the weakness of our own hearts. (c) But it is not impossible; and therefore we must strive after its attainment. And God does graciously give many aids to those who do so strive. Is it not, for instance, an assistance to us, if we will use it, whenever God withdraws behind the veil those whom in the Lord we have fondly loved here, do we not then feel that there is an inner life binding us to them, which common death cannot part? 2. But specially may our faith in this mystery be increased by diligence in performing the second duty, i.e., beginning to act upon it. God has gifted action with a wonderful power over us; and if we will begin to act sincerely in little things, as if this were true, He will work in us a power of trusting to its truth. And here is, indeed, a wide field before us. We may begin by striving with our own selfish and indolent tempers in our intercourse with those around us. (Bp. S. Wilberforce.) The unity of the Church I. FOR WHOM IT IS DESIRED. 1, Not for men as men, citizens, subjects, persons allied in trade, politics, &c. 2. But for men as believers (John 17:20). Christ takes in the grand total, a temple in which each of these shall find a place and bear a part. Cf. Paul’ s vision of a unified Church (Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 2:21), and Peter’ s picture of a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:4-5). II. IN WHAT IT . Generally in a oneness resembling that between the Father and the Son (John 17:21-22), and particularly in a oneness 1. Of life or community of nature (John 5:26; John 10:30; cf. 1 Corinthians Ephesians 4:4-6). 2. Of love, or community of affection (John 3:35; John 5:20; John 14:31; cf. John 13:34; John 15:12; John 15:17). 3. Of faith or community of sentiment. As the words of the Son were the Father’ s, so the union of the saints should reveal itself in steadfast adherence to the Father’ s word given by Christ. 4. Of action or community of labour. As the Son can do nothing but what He seeth the Father do (John 5:19), and the Father in Him doeth the John 14:10), so should Christians harmoniously co-operate Philippians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 1:24; 3 John 1:8; Hebrews 10:24). III. BY WHAT MEANS IT MAY BE ? By believers doing three things. 1. Remaining in union with the Father and the Son (verse 21). 2. Participating in the glory Christ has received from the Father (verse 22). 3. Pressing forward towards moral perfection (verse 23). IV. TO WHAT RESULT IT SHOULD LEAD. It should awaken in the world 1. Faith in the Divine mission of Jesus (verse 21), 2. Knowledge that the Divine mission of Jesus was a fact (verse 23). Lessons: (1) The mission assigned to the Church--that of gathering a people out of the world and unto Christ by the preaching of the Word. (2) The aim Christ has in thus collecting a people from the world, that they all may be perfected in one body in Him. (3) The certainty that this aim will be realized, since Christ has both empowered His Church to do the work, and prayed for its successful execution. (4) The obstruction offered to the realization of this aim by the disunited condition and imperfect character of the Church. (5) The means of hastening the world’ s conversion to Christ, the Church striving to attain the complete sanctification and unity. (6) The destiny awaiting the world when the Church shall have reached its proper manhood, that of being brought to a saving knowledge of the truth. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The unity of the Church The Church is one, not in the monarchial sense, as Romanists believe; not in the sense of historical descent of an external organization as Prelatists teach, but in the sense of a mystical body united to Christ, their common head. The consequences of the union with Christ are I. OUR . We become partakers of Christ’ s righteousness, because it was wrought out in the name and on the behalf of His people. II. OUR . We become partakers of the Divine life, and this life is sustained and developed. 1. By the nourishment derived from the Word and ordinances. 2. By fellowship with Christ. 3. By the inter-communion of the saints. As one member of the body is sustained and grows in virtue of the ministration of all the other members, so it is with the mystical body of Christ. 4. This supposes organic unity and diversity of gifts; some apostles, some teachers; some have one gift, some another. With regard to these Paul teaches (1) That unity is essential. (2) That the position of each member is assigned by God, and not by himself or by the body. Hence we infer (a) That each should be content. (b) That all should sympathize, the one with the others. (c) That all should cordially co-operate. It is thus that the work of sanctification is carried on, not in the isolated individual, but in the soul as partaker of a common life and a member of an organic whole. So in regard to the State: What would individual gifts and attainment be to a man isolated in an uninhabited land. III. OUR . No man can pluck them out of the hand of Christ. The gates of hell shall not prevail. IV. OUR . Conclusion: Duties flowing from this union--love, assistance, joy in success, abstaining from envy. (C. Hodge, D. D.) The unity of the Church I. WHAT IT IS NOT. Our Lord did not mean 1. A system of perfect equality with no official distinctions--anything like universal identity of endowment and function. This cannot be drawn from “ As Thou, Father,” &c., inasmuch as God the Father and God the Son in the economy of redemption sustain distinct offices. Absolute equality is absurd and impossible and inconsistent with Romans 12:1-21.; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31., and Ephesians 4:1-32., which show that the unity of the Church may consist with the greatest diversity of gifts and offices. 2. The opposite of this--a vast and visible society, its base diffused throughout all nations, its officers innumerable, distinguished by all gradations of authority, and terminating in an infallible head. That our Lord did not mean a unity like this we gather from the fact that His apostles never attempted to realize it. Wherever they went they formed separate churches, not parts of one connected community. They did not join the Church of one country with that of another; they did not make their churches churches of nations and provinces, but of villages and towns. There might be more than one in each place. Each Church--however in faith and feeling connected with others--was a distinct society. 3. Uniformity in constitution and ceremonies. This is obvious from the facts (1) That so little is enjoined on these subjects. Here is the distinction between Moses and Christ. With the first, everything is minutely particularized and strictly commanded; with the second, everything is general, and to be learned from facts rather than precepts: for the one dispensation was intended to separate a nation from the rest of the world; the other was meant to unite all nations in a common faith and family, and therefore avoided multiplied ordinances. (2) That although in every apostolic Church there was a recognition of great common principles, yet there were local peculiarities. There were diffused the two great bodies of the circumcision and the uncircumcision, and a Church consisting exclusively of converted Jews and another of Gentiles would be sure to differ in particulars. St. James advised Paul in Jerusalem to condescend to the ceremonial predilections of the brethren there; but he advised very differently in the case of the Gentile Church at Antioch. 4. Perfect coincidence of opinion. This is evident from what has been said, as a Church may differ from others without forfeiting its character, so a Christian. To aver the reverse would contradict the constitution of nature and the arrangements of providence. In Romans 14:1-23. Paul distinctly refers to two classes there who held opposite opinions, but instead of interposing his own opinion, he approves the conscientiousness with which the two parties were actuated, and only denounces their want of charity. Philippians 3:1-21., too, is demonstrative of the prevalence of diversity of sentiment. II. WHAT IT IS. 1. Its foundation must be laid in an agreement in fundamental truth. We cannot do better than take our stand where Paul stood. For the sake of usefulness and peace he could become all things unto all men. He could shave his head, circumcise Timothy, &c., and yet write against “ beggarly elements.” Paul, who in fellowship and affection was the yielding universalist when prejudice was in question, was firm as a rock when principle was assailed. If ever he referred to what was fundamental he did Galatians 1:9. Whatever that gospel was, it is obvious that no man or Church that rejects it can properly be a Christian; and the whole tenor of the Epistle shows it to be the doctrine of justification on the exclusive ground of faith in the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God. If a society denies this doctrine, whatever it may have or have not, it has abandoned the faith for another gospel. This grand fundamental involves Christ’ s Divinity, and the necessity of renewal and sanctification by the Spirit; but it does not involve either Calvinism or Arminianism, or Church polity, and may be held in connection with great variety of opinion on subordinate points. 2. It ought to be manifested by the recognition of each other, by Christians and Churches thus harmonizing. Every individual who “ holds the Head” ought to be cheerfully recognized as a Christian by every other who does the same, and ought to share in that family affection which is peculiar to the spirit of the gospel. This feeling will produce a readiness to co-operate in all benevolent confederacies. But the text is to be realized not merely by the recognition of Christian by Christian, but of Church by Church. Every Church ought to possess the power of accepting the services of the ministers of every other. Differences of disciples ought not to be a barrier. All who expect to unite in the services of heaven, ought to endeavour to unite in the services of earth. Nothing should be a term of union but a term of salvation. 3. If this union were practised little would be wanting to the fulfilment of the prayer or the accomplishment of the result connected. Separate denominations would soon lose their hold of whatever partakes of the nature of sectarian attachments, would imbibe an enlarged and accommodating, spirit; would mutually cease to contend for trifles, and would come perhaps in the end, fused and melted by the fire of love, to take some new form, as one great consolidated community. In relation to the world, the annihilation of party distinctions, the drying up of the wells of jealousy, &c., and the taking into the garden of the Lord of every enclosure would be such a palpable demonstration of the presence and power of truth and love that the world would gaze, admire, and believe. III. . 1. This prayer is fulfilled to a greater extent than would at first sight be supposed. The existence of separate churches, and the want of uniformity between them, do not militate against actual agreement in fundamentals, or fraternal feeling. The great saving truths are urged with equal zeal by ministers of various denominations, and members of different churches work side by side in philanthropic enterprises. 2. The prayer will never be fully accomplished but by the removal of all that interferes with the communion of churches. If Christians wait until every Church is modelled according to any supposed apostolic pattern, till some community has drawn and absorbed all others into itself, they will have to wait far longer than any of them calculate. This consummation is much more likely to follow the practice of universal communion than to precede it; but whether it ever come or not, the obligation remains the some. The one is an unquestionable duty, the other a dream. 3. We learn how to possess our souls in peace amid the alarm and agitation of the present times, It becomes us to keep our eye and heart steadily on the prayer of Christ; to engage in every religious movement which the present position of the Church may demand to promote its accomplishment. This will at once sanctify uncongenial duties, and sustain under the injustice of calumny and insult. (T. Binney.) Church unity I. THE LORD IS TO BE AS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. His name is the only true bond of union. II. THE COMMON OF ALL IN CHRIST. III. THE HONEST OF ONE ANOTHER AS IN CHRIST, whether within or without the various churches. IV. THE TO BE one toward another, and to maintain the body of Christ, provided the faith be maintained by the members in heart and life. (H. Varley.) The fact and the means of Church unity According to the present scientific theory, all of the planets came out of the sun. That central orb sent off ring after ring, and these consolidated into planets, and then, moving within the influence of their common origin, they swing without collision round the grand common centre of the sun itself. So should not the denominational planets also swing without collision around their common origin and centre, Jesus Christ? Plutarch tells us of a golden tripod that was fished from the bottom of the sea. There was a great contention about the possession of it; and, when the conflict waxed quite ferocious, it was settled that neither of the contending parties should have it, but that it should be given to the wisest man. They sent it first of all to Thales. He said, “ I am not the wisest man; take it to Bias.” Bias, on being approached, said, “ Don’ t bring it here. I am not the wisest man in Greece. I won’ t have it.” And so they sent it from one to another through a circle of the seven wisest men, with a like reception, until at last it was settled that the fair tripod should be given to Apollo. Now, they all had the modesty of true wisdom; and if all the denominations had only that modesty or real wisdom displayed by these sages never to make any claim of exclusiveness or superiority, there would be unbroken peace among them all. (H. M.Scudder.) The essential unity of the Church During a visit of the King of Italy to Naples, the nine Protestant ministers of that city begged the favour of an interview. The young monarch granted their request, and received them with marked courtesy. He was surprised, however, when one was presented to him as a Methodist, and another as a Baptist, the third as a Presbyterian, the fourth as a Waldensian, &c. “ I do not understand,” said the king, “ how you can all be ministers of the same gospel, and yet have so many distinctions. Perhaps one of you will be good enough to explain this to me.” The Waldensian minister promptly replied, “ In your majesty’ s army there are many regiments wearing different uniforms and called by different names; nevertheless they are under one commanderin-chief, and follow one flag. In like manner we Protestants are divided into various denominations, but we know only one Chief--Jesus Christ; and we follow but one banner, viz., that of the gospel of our crucified and risen Lord.” The king listened attentively, and then said, “ I thank you for this clear explanation. You wish me to understand that while there are differences among you on minor matters, there is unity in essentials.” (W. Baxendale.) Christian unity I was walking, some weeks since, in a beautiful grove. The trees were some distance apart, and the trunks were straight and rugged. But as they ascended higher the branches came closer together, and still higher the twigs and branches interlaced and formed a beautiful canopy. I said to myself, our Churches resemble these trees. The trunks near the earth stand stiffly and widely apart. The more nearly towards heaven they ascend, the closer and closer they come together, until they form one beautiful canopy, under which the sons of men enjoy both shelter and happiness. Then I thought of that beautiful prayer of the Saviour, “ That they all may be one,” &c. (Bp. M. Simpson.) Christian unity I was once permitted to unite in celebrating the Lord’ s Supper in an upper room in Jerusalem. There were fourteen present, the most of whom, I had good reason to believe, knew and loved the Lord Jesus Christ. Several were godly Episcopalians; two were converted Jews--one a Christian from Nazareth, converted under American missionaries. The bread and wine were dispensed in the Episcopal manner, and most were kneeling as they received them. We felt it to be sweet fellowship with Christ, and with the brethren; and, as we left the upper room and looked out upon the Mount of Olives, we remembered with calm joy the prayer from our Lord that ascended from one of the shady ravines after the first Lord’ s Supper--“ That they all may be one.” (R. M. M’ Cheyne.) Friends mistaken for foes I recollect, on one occasion, conversing with a marine, who gave me a good deal of his history. He told me that the most terrible engagement he had ever been in was one between the ship to which he belonged and another English vessel, when, on meeting in the night they mistook each other for enemies. Several persons were wounded, and both vessels were much damaged by the firing. When the day broke, great and painful was the surprise to find the English flag hoisted from both ships. They saluted each other, and wept bitterly together over their mistake. Christians, sometimes, commit the same error. One denomination mistakes another for an enemy; it is night, and they do not recognize one another. What will be their surprise when they see each other in heaven’ s light I How will they salute each other when better known and understood! (W. Williams.) John 17:22-23 The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them The Church’ s unity and its influence I. THE GIFT WHICH CHRIST BESTOWS ON HIS disciples. 1. What was the glory which Christ received? A glory belonged to the Son of God in His own Divine right (John 17:5). But the glory GIVEN to Him must refer to His mission in becoming incarnate. It was the glory of being (1) The Divine Messenger. He was a Teacher sent from God to unfold all the truth which we required to know for our spiritual renewal’ and everlasting welfare, so that He proclaimed Himself as the “ Light of the World.” (2) The Divine Agent. He came to act for God, as well as to declare His truth. How much of true glory was there in such godlike action and enterprise as this! (3) The Divine Representative. He came to show us the Father, to manifest the Divine name and character (Hebrews 1:3). 2. The glory communicated by Christ. Clearly it has no reference to any perishable wealth or worldly honour; for “ the Son of man had not where to lay His head.” It is the glory of being (1) The messengers of God (John 20:21). Christ came as the Light of the world, so in and through Him they are the light of the world. (2) The agents of God. As the glory of Christ consisted in doing the Father’ s will, and in being about His business, so in the same should the glory of all Christians be found. (3) The representatives of God. In Jesus there shone forth the glory of the only begotten of the Father, and His true disciples receive of His glory, even grace for grace. Men seek glory for themselves in the material resources, social attractions, and artistic splendours of the world. But all such glory can be no lasting portion for the soul. The glory which Christ bestows will be remembered, and made to shine forth at the manifestation of the sons of God at the end of all things. II. THE DESIGN OF THIS GIFT. “ That they may be one,” &c. Wherever the glory makes itself appear, you see the truest evidence of Christian discipleship, and the highest proof of Christian unity. This unity Isaiah 1. Glorious in its source: “ I in them, and Thou in Me.” In this way only are Christians truly and vitally one. In the absence of the living Saviour from individual souls, no forced process of uniformity, no subscription merely of the same creed, can effect their union in one body. Christ is in all His true disciples; in their understandings, as the object of the highest knowledge; in their hearts, as the King of Love; in their consciences, as the Prince of Peace; in their whole inner being, as the Lord of Life, the Captain of Salvation, and the Hope of Glory. Thus He becomes the true principle and bond of all unity. 2. Gradual in its realization: “ That they may be perfected into one.” Many things hinder the complete enthronement of Christ in the soul, and so many hindrances prevent the perfecting of the Church’ s oneness. Christians, instead of showing their essential unity, have appeared to be the fiercest and most uncompromising foes. But all hindrances will yet be overcome. 3. This triumph of unity is the very highest design which can be realised in relation to the Church. Sin is the element of discord, and the principle of dissocialism and separation in the world; and God’ s great purpose for the destruction of this discord, and the restoration of true harmony, is the establishment of a holy brotherhood in Christ, the living Centre and personal Head of men. By Him God is to reconcile all things unto Himself. III. THE END TO BE . “ That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me,” &c. 1. In John 17:21, Jesus said, “ that the world may believe;” here He says that the world may know. Knowledge is belief, or faith in its highest attainment. The growing oneness of the disciples would be to the world an evidence of Christian truth, and the triumph of Christian love, mighty and irresistible. But Christ gives an additional thought--“ that Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” Through-this conviction alone, of God’ s infinite love, do the children of the world become the children of God. What an exhibition of the exceeding riches of Divine grace in the gift of God’ s only begotten Son would this oneness supply! 2. This oneness, moreover, would show the exceeding blessedness of consecration to God. (J. Spence, D. D.) The glory, unity, and triumph of the Church I. THE GREAT MEANS OF THE UNITY which Christ proposes here. “ The glory which Thou gavest Me,” &c. The glory which the Father gave the Son was 1. That He endowed Him with the Holy Spirit (John 3:34-35). The Holy Ghost descended upon our Lord in His baptism and abode upon Him. In Him was fulfilled Isaiah 11:1-3. In this Spirit there is glory, for the prophet further says, “ His rest shall be glorious.” Now upon each true disciple this glory of God rests according to his measure. Owing to this endowment, there rested upon Jesus Christ a wondrous glory in many respects. (1) As man He knew the name and character of God. “ The pure in heart shall see God,” and those pure eyes of His had seen God to the full. Has He not given us that same vision of the Father? Yes, for He tells us, “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Our eyes have been opened by the blessed Spirit of God to see the invisible. (2) In His receiving, keeping, and giving forth the Word of God. The depository of the Divine word was Christ, and this was greatly to His glory. Is not THE WORD, one of the brightest of His titles? But now He hath given unto us the Word, and henceforth we are to hold forth the Word of Life. 2. In the sanctification of His blessed person. “ For their sakes I sanctify Myself.” How consecrated to God He was from His childhood till He said, “ It is finished!” This is the glory which He gives to us. His prayer is, “ Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth.” His disciples live unto holiness, and are known as a people zealous of good works. 3. In His mission. “ As thou hast sent Me into the world, even so,” &c. 4. In His model humanity. You, too, are not to be common men, but model men. Jesus especially was a model in (1) His perfect self-abnegation. For God’ s glory, and Christ’ s purpose in the convincement of the world, we are to live, and if we do so the Spirit of glory will be resting upon us. (2) His oneness with God. His life ran parallel with the path of the Most High. 5. Wherever this glory is seen true unity is developed. Suppose I were to find a man, living in the likeness of Christ, with this spiritual glory conspicuous upon him. Suppose he is a coalheaver, the glory of his character will be none the less conspicuous amid the dust; or suppose that he is an earl, the glory will be none the more dim because of the good man’ s honours. The holy consecration in each case is the same, and the degrees of rank do not affect the essential beauty of either. If you bring a company of common Christians together and they begin discussing, I daresay they will jangle; but if you could select a number upon whom this glory rests, within a short time they will be all on their knees together, or singing together, or engaged in some form of loving fellowship. Spiritual men are so essentially one that like two drops which lie close together they have an increasing tendency to unite. II. THE UNITY ITSELF. It is not uniformity. This our Lord says nothing of. Though we are one body in Him, yet all the members have not the same office. 1. “ I in them.” Christ lives in His people, and we are so to act, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that onlookers shall say, “ Surely Christ lives again in that man, for he acts out the precepts of Jesus.” 2. “ Thou in Me.” That is, God is in Christ. This is manifestly true, for you cannot read the life of Christ without seeing God in Him. 3. This brings about the union of believers with the Father: being one with Christ, and Christ being one with the Father, the point is reached for which our Lord prayed, “ that they also may be one in us.” 4. Couple this with believers being one with each other, and you get the being “ made perfect in one.” Moved by the same love of holiness, inspired by the same spirit of love, the eternal Father’ s will is the will of the Son, and the Spirit worketh in us also to will and to do according to the good pleasure of the Lord. III. THE EFFECT WHICH THIS . 1. It will convince the world of the truth of Christ’ s mission. When they see men who are no longer selfish, hard, ungenerous; men no longer governed by their passions; men who desire that which is holy, just, and good; men living to God--then the world will say, “ Their Master must have been sent of God.” And then, not only will their characters convince, but their unity, because the ungodly world will say, “ We see the glory of Christianity in the poor man, and we see the same in the rich man.” 2. But the world is also to be convinced of the Father’ s love to us. When the world sees bodies of truly consecrated men and women living together in holy love, then they will also see much joy, peace, mutual consolation, and they will perceive that the providence of God makes all things work together for their good, and that the Lord has a special care over them as a shepherd hath over his flock. Then will they say, “ These are the people that God has blessed.” See how He loves them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) True glory I. IS THE SAME IN ALL MORAL . This prayer speaks of several grand unities. 1. One life. The life of God and Christ are here spoken of as one. 2. One truth; “ Thy truth.” Truth has many sides, but it is one essential whole. Truths are but phases of His. 3. One Church. The Christly in all sects and countries are but one family of which Christ is the Head. 4. One love. Benevolence has many modifications, but in essence it is the same in all. 5. One glory. The glory that Christ had was the glory of God, and this He imparts to us--the glory of moral goodness. In the eye of conscience, in the light of the Bible, and in the estimate of God, the good only are glorious. II. IS FROM ONE BEING TO ANOTHER. Three things are necessary to its communication 1. The manifestation of it. Were the Eternal to conceal His glory, no creature intelligence could participate in its rays. A good being to make others good must show his goodness. 2. The contemplation of it. What boots it, if no eye observes the manifested glory. The man who at noonday shuts his eyes is as much in the dark as though it were midnight. 3. The imitation of it. There must be an effort on the part of the observer to imbibe, cherish, and develop the Divine goodness. III. COMES TO MAN THROUGH CHRIST. Christ is the only perfect Revealer, “ We beheld His glory,” &c. It is by studying and imitating Him that men become glorious. “ For we with open face,” &c. IV. IS WITH . As seen in the case of these disciples 1. How glorious their endurance! 2. How glorious their achievements! To their victories we owe our liberty, Bibles, schools, asylums, Christendom. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Saints glorified on earth I. THE OF THIS CHRIST-GIVEN GLORY. 1. Negatively. (1) Not in appearance. Painters have delighted to pourtray Christ with a shining halo on His brow. But this is imaginary. “ His visage was marred more than any man’ s,” &c. (2) Not in regal state and trappings. These He despised. He refused to be made a king, and had not where to lay His head. (3) Not in immediate triumph over existing conditions in any department of thought or action. Judged by all accepted standards of glory hardly was ever teacher less glorious. 2. Positively. His glory lay in the purpose and aim of His life, as appointed by the Father and accepted by Himself. It was early made known that God’ s glory was His goodness. At the Incarnation the angel song showed this, and so did Christ at the first manifestation of His glory at Cana. And now with the Cross in prospect He prays (John 17:1-2). 3. It is clear then that Christ gives glory to His people in calling them to carry forward His work and in granting them necessary equipment (John 17:8; John 17:18). Christians are given to know the glory of being fellow-labourers with their Master. Perhaps to some the Lord’ s call to service has been unattractive and irksome. It is the glory He hath given us. Is not the soldier honoured when appointed a part in the thick of the fight? II. THE DESIGN OF CHRIST IS GIVING GLORY TO HIS PEOPLE. 1. To glorify God by making Him known (John 17:1; John 17:6). The fruitful cause of the world’ s woe is ignorance of God. 2. To lead to blessed union with God and one another, “ that they may be one” &c. 3. Here is discovered the responsibility of all disciples. By unfaithfulness we may turn our glory into shame. III. THIS CHRIST-GIVEN GLORY THROWS LIGHT ON THE FUTURE GLORY OF THE SAINTS, which will consist of 1. A call to higher service. “ Inasmuch as thou hast been faithful over a few things,” &c. 2. The realization of perfect and harmonious relationship with God and one another. 3. The possession of true rest and joy--the joy of accomplished and prospective service. (J. Stevens.) The mutual glory of Christ and His people I. THE NATURE OF CHRIST’ S GLORY. There Isaiah 1. The essential glory of Christ. 2. His mediatorial glory. 3. His remunerative glory. II. SOME IS WHICH THIS GLORY IS TO THE SAINTS. 1. They have glorious titles. 2. Glorious privileges. 3. They are brought into glorious relations. 4. Glorious acts and exploits are ascribed to them. 5. Glorious prespects are before them. III. . 1. The vanity of earthly things. 2. The dignity of real Christians. 3. Press forward to possession. 4. Let Him who put this glory on us receive all glory from us. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Christ’ s glory given to His people I. CHRIST’ S GLORY. 1. Sonship. 2. Union with God. 3. Perfection of attributes. II. HIS PEOPLE’ S GLORY. 1. They are sons of God. 2. They are one with Christ. 3. They reflect His nature. 4. They are kings and priests. (W. W. Wythe.) The glory Christ gives to His disciples As the essence of the glory of Jesus consists in His dignity as the Son, and the well-beloved Son, so the glory He has bestowed on believers is the filial dignity, the state of adoption (John 1:12). Whereby they have become what He eternally is--children of God and objects of His perfect love. This glory Jesusbestowed on His own, by bringing matters to such a state that God could justly reflect upon them all the love which He has for Jesus Himself (verses John 15:9-10). Thus the proposition which follows, “ that they may be one,” &c., is easily understood. Once objects of the same Father’ s love, and bearing in common the image of their Elder Brother, they form among themselves a closely united family (cf. Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:10) . (F. Godet, D. D.) John 17:23I in them and Thou in Me The three unions There are three most admirable unions proposed to our faith in the Christian religion. The Unity of Essence, in the Trinity; the Unity of Person, in Jesus Christ; and the union between Christ and His Church. The first of these is an ensample and prefiguration, as it were to the second; and the second to the third. For we cannot better represent the union with His Church, than by the hypostatic Union, or by the union of the Word with human nature (1 John 4:8). (W. Norris.) Unity in nature and grace There is one remarkable difference between nature and grace; for nature of one makes many; for we are all but one in Adam, but grace of many makes one; for the Holy Ghost, who as a fire melts all the faithful into one mass, and makes of many one body, in the unity of God. (W. Dell.) The union of believers with Christ The Scriptures have borrowed from nature four metaphors, to describe this mystical union; but neither of these singly, or all of them jointly, can give us a full account of this mystery. 1. Not that of two pieces united by glue (1 Corinthians 6:17), for though this union be intimate, yet it is not vital. 2. Nor that of the graft and stock (Romans 6:5), for though this union be vital, yet the graft is of a more excellent kind and nature than the stock, and the tree receives its denomination from it; but Christ, into whom believers are ingrafted, is infinitely more excellent than they, and they are denominated from Him. 3. Nor conjugal union, for though this be exceeding dear and intimate, and they two become one flesh; yet it is not indissolvable, but must be broken by death; but this betwixt Christ and the soul abides to eternity. 4. Nor that of the Head and members united by one spirit, and so making one physical body (Ephesians 4:15-16), for though one soul actuates every member, yet it doth not knit every member alike near to the head, but here every member is alike nearly united with Christ the Head, the weak are as near to Him as the strong. Note I. THE REALITY OF THIS UNION, which appears 1. From the communion which is betwixt Christ and believers (1 John 1:3). It signifies such fellowship or co-partnership, as persons have by a joint interest in one and the same enjoyment (Hebrews 3:14; Psalms 45:7). Now this communion is entirely dependent upon Union (1 Corinthians 3:22-23). 2. From the imputation of Christ’ s righteousness for justification Romans 3:24; Romans 4:23-24; 1 Corinthians 1:30). 3. From the sympathy that is betwixt Christ and believers; Christ and the saints smile and sigh together (Colossians 1:24; Acts 9:5). 4. From the way in which the saints shall be raised at the last day Romans 8:11). II. THE QUALITY AND NATURE OF THIS UNION. More generally, it is an intimate conjunction of believers to Christ, by the imparting of His Spirit to them, whereby they are enabled to believe and live in Him. All Divine spiritual life is originally in the Father, and cometh not to us, but by and through the Son (John 5:26; Romans 8:2). The Spirit must therefore first take hold of us, before we can live in Christ, and when He doth so, then we are enabled to exert that vital act of faith whereby we receive Christ (John 6:57). So that the Spirit’ s work in uniting a soul into Christ is like the cutting off the graft from its native stock (which He doth by His illuminations and convictions) and closing it with the Living Vine, and so enabling it (by the infusion of faith) to draw the vital sap, and thus it becomes one with Him. Or as the many members in the natural body, being all quickened and animated by the same vital spirit, become one body with the Head (Ephesians 4:4). 1. Negatively it is (1) Not a mere mental union (John 14:20). This doctrine is notfantastical, but scientifical. (2) Not a physical union, such as is betwixt the members of a natural body and the head; this is only mystical. (3) Not an essential union, or union with the Divine nature, so as our beings are thereby swallowed up and lost in the divine Being. (4) Not a federal union, or an union by covenant only; such an union indeed, there is betwixt Christ and believers, but that is consequential to, and wholly dependent upon this. (5) Not a mere moral union by love and affection; thus we say, one soul is in two bodies, a friend is another self; the lover is in the person beloved; such an union there is also betwixt Christ and the saints, but this is of another nature; that only knits our affections, but this our persons to Christ. 2. Positively. (1) Though this union neither makes us one person or essence with Christ, yet it knits our parsons most intimately and nearly to the person of Christ Colossians 1:24). (2) It is wholly supernatural, wrought by the alone power of God (1 Corinthians 1:30). We can no more unite ourselves to Christ than a branch can incorporate itself into another stock (Ephesians 1:19-20). (3) It is an immediate union; not as excluding instruments, but as excluding degrees of nearness (1 Corinthians 1:2). (4) It is a fundamental union. (a) By way of sustentation: all our fruits of obedience depend upon John 15:4). (b) To all our privileges and comfortable claims (1 Corinthians 3:1-23. ult.). (c) To all our hopes and expectations of glory (Colossians 1:27). So then destroy this union, and with it you destroy all our fruits, privileges, and eternal hopes, at one stroke. (5) It is a most efficacious union, for through this union the Divine power flows into our souls, both to quicken us with the life of Christ, and to conserve and secure that life in us, after it is so infused (Eph John 14:19). (6) It is an indissoluble union; there is an everlasting tie betwixt Christ and the believer (Romans 8:35; Romans 8:38-39). (7) It is an honourable union. The greatest honour that was ever done to our common nature was by its assumption into union with the Second Person hypostatically, and the highest honour that was ever done to our single persons was their union with Christ mystically. To be a servant of Christ is a dignity transcendent to the highest advancement among men; but to be a member of Christ, how matchless is the glory thereof 1 (8) It is a most comfortable union (Ephesians 1:22-23). (9) It is a fruitful union (Romans 7:4; John 15:8). (10) It is an enriching union (1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Corinthians 3:22). All that Christ hath becomes ours: His Father (John 20:17); His promises (2 Corinthians 1:20); His providences (Romans 8:28); His glory (John 17:24). III. . If there be such an union betwixt Christ 1. Then what transcendent dignity hath God put on believers! Well might Constantine prefer the honour of being a member of the Church before that of being a head of the empire. Some imperious grandees would frown should some of these persons but presume to approach their presence; but God sets them before His face with delight, and angels delight to serve them. 2. Then the graces of believers can never totally fail (Colossians 3:3). 3. How great and powerful a motive then is this, to make us liberal in relieving the necessities and wants of every gracious person! For in relieving them we relieve Christ Himself (Matthew 25:35; Matthew 25:40). 4. How unnatural then are all those acts of unkindness whereby believers wound and grieve Jesus Christi This is as if the hand should wound his own head, from which it receives life, sense, motion, and strength. 5. Then surely they can never want what is good for their souls or bodies. Every one naturally cares and provides for his own, especially for his own body. (J. Flavel.) Christ in man You may sometimes have seen a wife, wedded in true love and heart, surrender to a man who is good and strong. At first his goodness and strength are merely the object of her reverence, but gradually they seem to pass into her. New elements of character are developed in her, a firmness, a decisiveness, a breadth of view, a depth of sympathy which were wanting before. You would not say that her individuality had been lost; on the contrary, it seems informed, inspired, filled out and completed. You would not say that she was a reflection of him; no, you would rather say that she lives in him, or from another point of view, that he lives in her. Her relation to him is not imitative but receptive. He passes into her. If he is removed by death, it is observed not so much that she has lost something, as that part of her, the best and greater part, has gone; she is no longer what she was; she reminds you of a home that once had a tenant, but now though furniture and decorations remain the same, the tenant is there no more. In such an illustration we may get some idea of this august doctrine. It is something more than that hopeless task of copying the human life of Jesus, it is the actual communication of His Divine life, as the Lord Himself puts it “ I in them.” He--shall we say? the beautiful and perfect spouse enters the soul, not ideally, but really; and entering in He moulds the ugly and repulsive outlines of our being into conformity with His own. (R. F. Horton, M. A.) The indwelling of Christ On a bright but chilly day in early spring you see your friend walking on the shady side of the street, as some foolish people will do. You call over to him: “ Come and walk in the sun with me.” The sun is many millions of miles away, yet you speak of being in it, and walking in it, when you are bathed in the light and warmth continually proceeding from it. In the same way are we in Christ when we are surrounded by the gracious loving presence of His Holy Spirit. So, “ Ye in Me.” But not only must the light be around us, but in us, before we can be said to live in it and walk in it. A blind man is surrounded by the sunlight as any one else is, but he does not live in it; he does not walk in it; he cannot enjoy it. Why not? Simply because it is not in him. We must have eyes; and these eyes must be opened to receive the light into the body, so that we may live in it, and walk in it, and enjoy it. And in the same way must the eye of faith be opened to receive the heavenly light into the soul before we can even be aware of its presence; and it must be kept open in order that we may “ walk in the light as He is in the light.” Christ must be in us by His Holy Spirit in order that we may live in Him. (J. L. Nye.) Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved Me The Father’ s love to the believer I. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH WE MAY THIS TO BE . 1. God cannot love but with all the love He has. He can never be less than God--that is, perfect. He can do nothing which even He could improve upon. Then, when He loves, it is in the fullest measure in which even God can love. “ Now Jesus loved Martha,” &c., that sounds as if He loved them more than others, so does “ the disciple whom Jesus loved,” but not necessarily so, because they were more responsive to that love. The difference is not in God, but in us--in our reception of His love. 2. Those who believe in Christ, are loved in Him. In connection with the rest of the prayer it is not so hard to believe the text. If there be this oneness between Him and them, how can it be otherwise. 3. The sacrifice of Christ manifests such a love. For how must the Father feel to those for whom He gave His Son? II. THE OF THE DIVINE LOVE WHICH THIS IMPLIES. 1. It is love checked by no barrier. Once it was checked, it could not utter itself because of sin. You have seen a swollen stream heave, impatient of restraint, against the flood-gates which keep it back. It was so once with God’ s love to men. But the barrier is removed, “ Christ hath put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself,” and now that love leaps forth free to all. But it finds another check, hearts are closed to its reception, it surges round them seeking to enter, but for the most part in vain; it cannot have its way with men because they will not let it. But not so all. Some have “ known and believed the love that God has to them,” they have opened their hearts to it and it can do for them what it would; these are they who believe on Christ, see their sin put away in Him, and in Him their acceptance by the Father; to them that love goes forth as to Him. 2. It is a love of closest intimacy. There is a love which is little more than kindly feeling, there is that which is mainly a delight in what perhaps we cannot approach, there is the love of friendship with its exchange of confidence and mutual happiness, but there is also the love of some one who comes so near to us that he is our second self. That most nearly represents the Father’ s love to the Son, “ the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.” We are apt to be content with much less, cherishing but a reverence to God which keeps us at a distance, and not blending with it a confidence as great which compels us to “ draw near.” God forbid that we lose the reverence, but that we lose the confidence God forbid too! Yet that is our portion, since Christ says the Father has loved us as He loved Him. 3. It is an everlasting love. For the Father’ s love to the Son will never cease, and through earth’ s sins and sorrows and conflicts, through all the changes we dread, through the mystery of death, in the glory of heaven and throughout its endless future, unweariedly the Father will love us still. III. THE EFFECT OF THIS LOVE OF GOD ON HIS PEOPLE, or rather, the effect of knowing it. 1. It satisfies when every other love fails. And that is always. 2. It is the quickening power of holiness. For the way into holiness is to be loved into it by God. (C. New.) John 17:24 Father I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me.Christ’ s last will Jesus no longer says, “ I pray” but “ I will.” This expression, found nowhere else, in the mouth of Jesus, is generally explained by saying that the Son thus expressed Himself, because He felt Himself on this point so fully in accordance with the Father. But this He felt in every prayer, and this unique expression must be taken in its relation to the unique character of the situation. It is the saying of a dying man: “ Father, My last will is … ” It is truly His testament which Christ thus deposits in His Father’ s hands. (F. Godet, D. D.) Christ’ s wish for man The truth that men are judged by their desires finds its highest illustration in Jesus. The perfection of His nature is shown in the perfectness of His wishes. When His desires shall be all fulfilled, then there will be nothing more in the universe to be desired. The wish of the text is a prayer; but a prayer is merely a wish turned Godward. It was the instinct of Christ’ s nature that He looked for the fulfilment of His wishes, not to Himself, and not to the things about Him, but to His Father. He was desiring in His heart I. THAT HIS PEOPLE SHOULD BE WITH HIM. 1. The obvious meaning of this is the Saviour’ s affection for His disciples. When friend is going away from friend, how naturally the wish springs up into words: “ Oh, if I could only take you with me!” Now, the sublimity and the charm of the earthly life of Jesus consist in large part in the broad and healthy action of the simplest human powers which it exhibits. The simplest natures are the grandest natures always. And so it is a part of the greatness of Jesus that He so simply feels and utters this cordial human affection, and says, “ I shall miss you. I wish you could go with Me.” We want not merely to admire this in Jesus; not merely to feel its charm. We want to catch it from Him. Elaborate civilization is always making elaborate, artificial standards. 2. But these primary emotions are deeper and richer in Him than in ordinary men, in proportion to the depth and richness of His nature. (1) The same emotion exists in different men, but it becomes more full and perfect as the man becomes greater. Nowhere is all this more true than about companionship. For two beings to be with one another always means the same simple thing, and yet its meaning runs up through all the ascending scale of human character. A herd of brutes are satisfied if they can feed in the same field; and there is an animal companionship even amongst men, which makes them like to be with one another, to sit in the same room, to walk in crowded streets. Next higher than that, companionship means identity of work and occupation. This is the companionship of business men. Next higher still is the companionship of opinion. Beyond all these lies the highest companionship of character. We have a fine illustration of the desire for this last and highest sort of companionship in the famous words which St. Paul said to Agrippa, “ I would, that thou and all who hear me,” &c. Those words seem to be the echo of his Master’ s. Paul wanted Agrippa. From the dignity of his prisoner’ s stand, he yearned over that poor dissolute who was seated upon the throne. And this must always be the first joy of any really good life--the desire that others should enter into it. Indeed, here is the test of a man’ s life. Can you say, “ I wish you were like me? “ If you are trying to serve Christ, however imperfect be your service, still you can say this to your child, your friend. But I am afraid that there are people whose lives could not begin to stand that test. With awkward hands you bring out virtues which you will not practice yourself, and put them before your children and say, “ These are good. I advise you to practice these.” What a condemnation of a man’ s life is that! It is not good for a man to be living any life which he would not desire to see made perfect and universal through the world. The dying Christian tells those beside him of the blessedness of serving Christ. The dying murderer with his last breath warns men from the scaffold not to be what he has been. Test your lives thus! (2) Thus, then, we understand Christ’ s longing for the companionship of His disciples. He wanted them to be with Him. I do not think that we can tell how much it signifies, this wish of Jesus, in its lower meaning of physical companionship. I am sure it does mean something. The “ seeing His face,” the “ walking with Him in white,” in heaven, are not wholly figures. But yet God’ s guidance has drawn the minds of Christians to think of heaven less as a place than as a character. Never, never are we with Christ till we are like Him. Not till He is formed in us do we enter truly into Him. II. THAT THEY MIGHT BEHOLD HIS GLORY. Perhaps this sounds to us a little strange at first. The schoolboy wants his schoolfellow to come home with him that he may see the state in which his father lives. The American says to the foreigner, “ Come, see our land, its vastness, its resources, its progress.” The Christian says, “ Come to my church. You shall hear our music,” &c. Before the words can be cut entirely free from low associations, we must remember what Christ’ s glory is. The heart and soul of it must be His goodness. What outward splendour may clothe Christ eternally we cannot know, but this we are sure of, that in at its very centre the glory of God must issue from and consist in the goodness of God, not in His power. Think for a moment of what prospects that wish of our Lord opens. Nowadays men are telling one another how tired they are of seeing sin on every side. We cheat ourselves if we think that it is peculiar to our times, for it has always been so. We cheat ourselves if we think that it is universal, for there is bright and glorious goodness around us, mixed with the sin on every side. But how imperfectly we see it! How much goodness there must be in Him which we do not see! For here this truth comes in, that only the like can see its like; only the good can really discern, appreciate, and understand goodness. Men live alongside of the best saints, and never know that they are good. The higher we climb, the more the peaks open around us. Now apply all this to the Saviour’ s prayer. Only by growth in goodness can His goodness open itself to us. What is He praying for, then? Is it not that which we traced before, that we might be like Him? So only can we see Him. It is His glory that He wants us to see, but, back of that, He wants us to be such men and women that we can see His glory. I think of Jesus as He walked through Jerusalem. Men passed Him by; others just looked at Him, and sneered, and went their way. Do you think that did not give Him pain? Surely it did. They could not see His glory. But was not His pain that He saw them incapable of apprehending Him? Was not this what He was really mourning for when He sat on the Mount of Olives? Not, “ Woe is me!” but “ O Jerusalem?” Sometimes, in very far-off way, it is given to a man to echo this experience of Jesus. Sometimes a man is living for the good of other people, and other people will not see it, and he is left to sit upon the mountain and look down in sorrow upon the city which he longs to save. At such a time a man wants, and often enough he fails to get, the spirit of Christ’ s prayer. He wants men to “ see His glory,” and they will not. Is it for himself or for them that he is disappointed? The man whom you helped yesterday and who ungratefully slanders you to-day, are you indignant about yourself or pitiful over him? It is hard to keep out pride and jealousy, but let us remember how He wanted men to see Him because it was so wretched for them, not for Him, that they should be blind to Him. I think, then, that we have reached the meaning of this prayer of Jesus; and we are struck immediately by seeing how it really is identical with all His prayers for men. It is always that men might be saved from sin, that His goodness might come to us and we might be good. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.) Christ’ s prayer for His people I. THE TONE OF THE PRAYER. 1. Wonderful majesty. “ Father, I will!” How awful this sounds! Such a petition was never heard before. Compare it with the prayers of the most eminent of God’ s people--Abraham, David, and Solomon. 2. Authority as well. Here is no condition, qualification, or contingency expressed or implied. It is the language of Him whose will is absolute law through all the universe. And this is the foundation on which the ultimate salvation of the redeemed is made to rest. II. THE SCOPE OF THE PRAYER 1. The persons prayed for are--“ those whom Thou hast given Me” --believers of every age. It takes in all the redeemed. 2. What is asked is “ that they be with Me where I am.” This is a comprehensive petition. It embraces all that Christ could ask for His people, all that they can desire, or that God can give. There has been much curious discussion of the question whether heaven is a state or a place. It is clear from the teachings of the chapter, that heaven is a stale (John 17:21; John 17:23). The unity prayed for in the former and the perfection in the latter of these verses prove this conclusively. No locality can be heaven to us, unless we attain unto the state there described. At the same time this verse proves that heaven is a distinct locality (John 14:2). If He were speaking here as the Creator alone, the language used would not necessarily imply locality. But He is speaking as “ the Man Christ Jesus.” “ True, ‘ where I am’ is a wide, wide phrase. Where He is, heaven is; where He is not, there is hell. A throne without Him is but the devil’ s dungeon of darkness, wherever it be placed; a dungeon with Christ in it, a fiery furnace with Christ in the midst, is a palace of glory. If we be where He is, what is there that can be worth seeing, or knowing, or having besides? ‘ Whom have I in heaven but Thee?’” III. THE DESIGN OF THE PRAYER. “ That they may behold My glory,” &c. This refers to the glory which pertains to Him by virtue of His mediatorial office. It is the glory of revealing God’ s will; of bringing to an end the great rebellion which sin had introduced into God’ s dominions; of lifting off the curse from this groaning creation; of making all things new; of gathering His elect out of all nations, of raising them from the dead, and carrying them with approval through the solemn scenes of the last judgment, and assigning them the place of dignity they will occupy in His everlasting kingdom; and of conducting the affairs of that kingdom through all eternity. IV. THE ON WHICH THE PRAYER RESTS. “ For Thou lovedst Me,” &c. There is something very striking and sublime in this argument. It is not our love for one another or of God, nor Christ’ s or the Father’ s love for us, but God’ s love of His own blessed Son. In conclusion, this subject suggests 1. How unspeakable is the glory on which the redeemed will gaze! 2. The true philosophy of salvation, or the secret of the Christian’ s security. (R. Newton, D. D.) The Lord’ s last prayer for His people We mark I. HIS LAST AND DEEPEST DESIRE US. 1. There is something unspeakably affecting in the designation “ those whom Thou hast given Me.” Many titles He had already given His people--disciples, friends, brethren, &c.; names advancing in depth of tendernessas the end drew nigh; but here at the last He recalls one that He had used among the first. He does not point to the larger gift of the human race (Psalms 2:1-12.); nor does He indicate any fragment predestined to be His; the sentiment is that all whom the Father teaches He draws by His Spirit, that He may consign them to His Son for salvation. The fact that they are the Father’ s gift makes them unspeakably precious to Jesus, who therefore wishes the eternal society of His own. 2. But it is for our sake that He makes the request. His people are not with Him in the fall meaning of the word. When departing He said He would be with them, not that they should be with Him. Save in a few swift glimpses His Church has never seen Him since, save by the eye of faith. (1) The disembodied are with Him where He is; and that is all we know or need to know about Him. (2) When every one of the Father’ s gifts has been gathered to Him, the whole great gift shall be restored to perfection: His people in body and soul shall be with Him eternally. 3. Whilst we might be musing as to the glory of the place, our Lord attracts back our thoughts to Himself “ that they may behold My glory.” This is twofold (1) The glory of His holiness, by beholding which “ we are now changed into the same image.” (2) It is however in the great hereafter that the Lord’ s glory will be seen--the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. “ They shall see God” was His promise to the pure; and now He makes that the vision of Himself. For ever He will say, “ He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” “ We shall see Him as He is,” and share and reflect the glory that we contemplate. II. THE OF THE , “ I WILL” 1. Whence has He that strong confidence on our account, sinners as we are? (1) From the eternal love that existed between the Father and the Son. (2) But the entire tenor of the prayer also implies that the Son makes His demands on the ground of a sealed and ratified covenant. The Son appeals to His righteous Father as Head of the redeeming scheme, speaks as having sanctified Himself, and demands all the blessings for which He shed His blood. Hence the intercession of the Son for His own is almighty. 2. What is the object of His intercession? (1) The prayer demands that the infinite attributes of the all-holy Name should be pledged for His disciples’ defence. “ Keep through Thine own name.” (2) “ Sanctify them through Thy truth” stipulates that all needful grace shall be imparted in order to the consecration of His saints for Himself. 3. The prayer is granted. Whatsoever is necessary for our perfect deliverance from sin is here pledged, and hereafter there will be a most glorious answer when the saints, body and soul, are presented faultless by the Son to the Father. III. THIS DEEP DESIRE AND STRONG IS UTTERED IN OUR HEARING for our instruction and encouragement. 1. We are taught, by the connection of our text with the fact that Christ prays not for the world, how important it is to our peace that we should know that we are given of the Father to the Son. There is a terrible distinction. Our Lord says nothing further about those that are not His. They will not be with Him where He is. With whom then, and where? 2. With what transcendent honour are we here invested. To be the elect of God, the peculiar heritage of Christ--“ Where I am there shall My servant be,” &c. With what ardour should we be inflamed to make ourselves worthy of this honour. 3. The prayer is our strong assurance while we watch and labour and pray. 4. Oar Lord permitted us to hear this prayer for our strong consolation in surrendering our friends to Him in death. (W. B. Pope, D. D.) Christ’ s unveiled glory I. OF WHAT STATE OF MIND THIS IS THE ON THE PART OF CHRIST. 1. It expresses the depth and intensity of His love to the Church He has redeemed. Montaigne says, “ We hate those we injure” --certainly we love those whom we have blessed. Christ having redeemed us in this life is intent on blessing us in the next. 2. It turns on the principle that sympathy is most precious to the noblest natures. Christ could not think of the splendours of His throne without connecting them with His people. 3. It contains the idea of personal interest in them as precious property by special donation from the Father. What more valued than a father’ s gift, especially when given as an expression of love and for a sublime purpose. II. WHAT VIEWS IT OF THE FUTURE LIFE. 1. The happiness of heaven will be realized in the immediate presence and unveiled glory of Christ. The king makes the court, not the court the king. 2. Whatever displays are made in that life of the majesty of the Godhead, will be made in the Person of Christ. To all eternity He will be “ Emanuel--God with us.” How transporting itwill be to find His glory that of “ the Lamb that was slain!” III. WHAT THE SUBJECT SHOULD AWAKEN. 1. Earnest desire to be one with Christ. 2. Adoring gratitude that He has invested us with this hope which cannot die. 3. A deep concern for the religious welfare of others. (S. T. Day.) The glorification of the Church I. ITS . 1. Co-existence with Christ. Now He co-exists with the Church Matthew 18:20; Matthew 28:20); then the Church will co-exist with Him Matthew 12:26; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). Now He comes down, then He will take us up. Now the place where they are together is the scene of the Church’ s trials, conflicts, labours, discipline: then the place will be the house of many mansions, the scene of Christ’ s exaltation and glory. 2. Communion with Christ. Christ and His Church have that here (1 John 1:3). Here we see Him, but not with open vision (1 Corinthians 13:12). There the vision will be unveiled and full (1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 3:2; Revelation 22:4). They shall behold His glory, not only its outward symbol--the throne, sceptre, angels, trumpets, &c. but the eternal, perfect love of the Father to Him, and the glory which, moved by that love, the Father put upon Him when He constituted Him the Crown of redeemed humanity (Ephesians 1:22; Philippians 2:9-10; 1 Peter 3:22). 3. Conformity to Christ. This is realized here in part (2 Corinthians 4:18), there it will be complete (Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2). 4. Co-partnership with Christ. Christ is here co-partner of the Church s sufferings (Hebrews 4:15); by and by we shall participate in His glory (verse 22; Revelation 3:21; 2 Timothy 2:12). II. ITS . 1. By the “ I will” of the Divine Servant. Having accomplished the work (verse 4) Christ was entitled to claim the stipulated reward--not merely to “ ask” or “ wish,” though that would have been enough. And as failure is impossible with reference either to God’ s promise (Hebrews 5:13), or Christ’ s reward (Isaiah 53:2), so certainly Christ’ s believing people will eventually be glorified with Him in heaven. 2. By the “ I will” of the Divine Son. As such Christ had power to bestow eternal life (verse 2), and so the ultimate glorification of the Church is seen. III. ITS JUSTICE (verse 25, 26). 1. If the world is not glorified it is because it cannot be. Eternal righteousness forbids the glorification of such as know not the Father. 2. If the Church is glorified, it is because glory is the necessary outcome of grace. Lessons: 1. The blessedness of heaven. 2. The certainty of salvation. 3. The necessity of growing in knowledge. 4. The righteousness of the unbelieving world’ s doom. 5. Grace the song of the glorified. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Why they leave us 1. The prayer of the Saviour rises as it proceeds. He asked for His people that they might be preserved from the world, then that they might be sanctified, and then that they might be made manifestly one; and now He reaches His crowning point--that they may be with Him where He is, and behold His glory. That prayer is most after the Divine pattern which, like a ladder, rises round by round, until it loses itself in heaven. 2. This last step of our Lord’ s prayer is not only above all the rest, but it is a longer step than any of the others. He here ascends, not from one blessing which may be enjoyed on earth, to higher, but mounts right away from all that is to that which is reserved for the eternal future. 3. Not only does it rise as to its subject, but it even ascends as to the place which the Intercessor appears to occupy. Has it not been so with yourselves in prayer, that you might have cried with Paul, “ Whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.” 4. Still the prayer rises, not only as to its matter and place, but in a higher style. Before, our Lord had asked and pleaded; but now He says, “ Father, I will.” It is well not only to groan out of the dust as suppliant sinners, but to seek unto our Father in the spirit of adoption with the confidence of children, and then, with the promise of God in our hand, lay hold upon the covenant angel, and cry, “ I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Importunity is a humble approach to this Divine “ I will.” I. Let us begin as our text begins with THE HOME-WORD--“ Father.” Is it not the centre of living unity? If there is to be a family gathering and reunion, where should it be but in the father’ s house? 1. What can be more right than that children should go home to their Father? From Him they came, to Him they owe their life, and should not this be the goal of their being, that they should at last dwell in His presence? 2. “ Father!” why, it is a bell that rings us home. He who hath the Spirit of adoption feels that the Father draws him home, and he would fain run after Him. How intensely did Jesus turn to the Father! 3. This is the consummation which the First-born looks for, and to which all of us who are like Him are aspiring also, namely, that God may be all in all. Our Brother is gone; but we ask, “ Where is He gone?” and when the answer comes, “ He is gone to the Father,” all notion of complaint is over. To whom else should He go? A child may be happy at school, but he longs for the holidays. Is it merely to escape his lessons? Ask him, and he will tell you, “ I want to go home to see my father.” II. THE HOME IMPETUS. How shall the chosen get home to the Father. “ I will,” said Jesus, “ that they be with Me” ; and with Him they must be. Examine the energy of this “ I will,” and you will see that it hath the force of 1. An intercessory prayer. I cannot imagine our Lord’ s interceding in vain. If He asks that we may be with Him where He is, He must assuredly have His request. You cannot hold your dying babe, &c.; for Jesus asks for it to be with Him. Will you come into competition with your Lord? 2. A testamentary bequest and appointment. No man who makes his will likes to have it frustrated. Our Saviour’ s testament will assuredly be carried out in every jot and tittle. 3. Desire, resolve, and purpose. If Jesus saith, “ I will,” then it is yours to say, “ Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” III. THE HOME . “ They also, whom Thou hast given Me.” The Greek is somewhat difficult to translate. There is here a something in the singular as well as persons in the plural. “ Father, I will concerning that which thou hast given Me, that they may be with Me where I am.” 1. Our Lord looked upon those whom the Father gave Him as one--one body, one Church, one bride: He willed that as a whole the Church should be with Him where He is. 2. Then He looked again and saw each of the many individuals of whom the one Church is composed, and He prayed that each, that all of these, might be with Him and behold His glory. Jesus never so prays for the whole Church as to forget a single member; neither does He so pray for the members individually as to overlook the corporate capacity of the whole. 3. I feel glad that there is no sort of personal character mentioned here, but only--“ Those whom Thou hast given Me.” It seems as if the Lord in His last moments was not so much looking at the fruit of grace as at grace itself; He did not so much note either the perfections or the imperfections of His people, but only the fact that they were His by the eternal gift of the Father. The Father gave them as a love-token and a means of His Son’ s glorification. If I possess a love-token that some dear one has given me I may rightly desire to have it with me. Nobody can have such a right to your wedding-ring, good sister, as you have yourself, and are not Christ’ s saints, as it were, a signet upon His finger, a token which His Father gave Him of His good pleasure in Him? Should they not be with Jesus where He is, since they are His crown jewels and His glory? IV. THE HOME . 1. The nearness of the saints to Christ in glory--“ that they may be with Me.” In heaven the saints will be nearer to Christ than the apostles were when they sat at the table with Him, or heard Him pray. “ For ever with the Lord” --this is heaven. 2. They must occupy a place: that place will be where Jesus is. We are to be, not metaphorically and fancifully, but really, truly, literally with Jesus. 3. Notice the occupation of those who are with Jesus: “ That they may behold My glory.” Love always pines for a partner in its joys. When I have been specially charmed with glorious scenery, I have felt myself saying, “ How I wish that my dear wife could be here!” How unselfish it is on our Lord’ s part to think Himself not fully glorified till we behold His glory! How unselfish He will make us also, since it will be our glory to see His glory! Who would keep a brother out of it an hour? 4. Observe the fellowship which exists in the glory land. “ That they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me.” So when the Lord brings His people home, we shall be one with Him, and He one with the Father, and we also in Him one with the Father, so that we shall then find boundless glory in beholding the glory of our Lord and God. V. THE HOME . Love: “ Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.” Can you follow me in a great flight? There was a day before all days, when there was no day but the Ancient of Days. Oh the intensity of the Divine love of the Father to the Son! There was no universe, but God alone; and the whole of God’ s omnipotence flowed forth in a stream of love to the Son, while the Son’ s whole being remained eternally one with the Father by a mysterious essential union. Love is both the source and the channel, and the end of the Divine acting. Because the Father loved the Son He gave us to Him, and ordained that we should be with Him. Let our saintly ones go home if that is the design of their going. Since all comes of Divine love, and all sets forth Divine love, let them go to Him who loves them. Hold your friends lovingly, but be ready to yield them to Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Eternal glory I. THE OBJECTS OF THIS PRAYED. “ That which Thou hast given to Me” and “ they also.” But in what respects were this people given by the Father to the Son? 1. In the first instance, He gave them to Him in the everlasting covenant. 2. But, in the second instance, the Father gives them to His Son in the day of their espousals--in the day of their effectual calling. “ All that the Father giveth Me,” saith Jesus, “ shall come to Me” (John 6:37),--not all that the Father gave Me,--as if He were speaking merely of some transaction in the past,--but all that the Father giveth Me--referring to the day of their espousals to Christ. “ Wherefore, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). It is for souls, that are effectually called and justified, that Jesus prays that they may be with Him in glory. II. THE MANNER AND SPIRIT OF THIS PRAYER. Jesus no longer says, “ I pray” (John 17:9; John 17:15; John 17:20), but “ I will.” Oh, what a wonderful prayer is this! We never read of any prayer like this, offered up by any saint on earth. Some of them, indeed, attained to great nearness to the Lord--such as Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses and David--and yet they never did, or ought to, use such language to God. And what shall we make of this prayer? 1. I think we may say, in the first instance, there is in it a beaming forth of His Divine glory, as the Eternal Son of God. 2. And surely this expression sets forth the reality and intensity of the Saviour’ s love. It was in the exercise of infinite love that He laid down His life for them. 3. Further, we may well believe, that this is an expression of will, founded on acknowledged right. Jesus had the price of our redemption now in His hand, ready to lay it down. 4. And, as has often been remarked, this I will on the part of Christ is in perfect accord with the known will of His Father. “ Father, I will,” says Christ; “ and I will too,” re-echoes the voice of the Father. Oh, blessed harmony this between the will of Christ and the will of His Father! 5. But I apprehend, that this unique expression is to be explained by the unique character of the situation. Jesus is just about to lay down His life for them, and He now expresses His last will and testimony: “ Father, My last will is.” It is truly His testimony which Jesus deposits in His Father’ s hands. III. WHAT THE REALLY ARE, which Jesus thus asks for those that the Father gave Him: “ That where I am, there they also may be with Me, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me,” &c. 1. He asks that where He is, there they also may be with Him. Ah! yes, such is His love to them, that as He came from heaven to earth to save them, so He will never be at rest until He has them with Him where He is. And is not this heaven--its chiefest, choicest ingredient--to be where Christ is? (Philippians 1:23). 2. But why does He pray that they may be with Him where He is? How are they to be employed? “ That they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me.” 3. Notice here the object to be beheld--“ My glory which Thou hast given to Me” --“ My glory peculiarly and emphatically,--and yet My glory which Thou hast given to Me,” --not His essential glory as the Son of God viewed abstractly, and by itself; but the glory given to Him as Immanuel, God-man, Mediator. Oh, who can tell what glory now encircles Him, as the Son of Man exalted to the right hand of God? But did they not behold this glory already? Assuredly they did by faith. And it is indeed a solemn truth, that none shall behold His glory by sight in heaven that do not first behold it by faith on earth. Some beheld this glory before He came in the flesh (John 8:56; John 12:40). Some beheld it by faith while He tabernacled upon earth (John 1:14). And some behold it now, though He is in heaven, and they upon the earth (2 Corinthians 3:18). But the beholding mentioned in the text is something higher, nearer than all this. This is the beatific vision, to which they shall attain when He has gathered them home to be for ever with Himself. It is impossible to behold this glory and to remain a mere spectator of it. To behold it is to partake of it--to become a sharer with Him in His glory. Then shall be fulfilled the words: “ And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them.” This is the height to which Jesus elevates His Church. 4. And one of the most interesting and delightful things connected with this glory, which they are to behold, will be to trace the source of it in the Father’ s everlasting love: “ The glory which Thou hast given Me, in that Thou lovedst Me.” The Father loved the Son with an everlasting love as His Son--His Only-Begotten Son. But He also loved Him with an everlasting love as Mediator. “ Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight” (Proverbs 8:30). Oh, surely it will be an eternal feast to the hearts of the redeemed in heaven to see the glorious unfoldings of the Father’ s love towards their Covenant Head. Such, then, the two great blessings which Jesus here asks for the collective body of believers, viz., spiritual unity and eternal glory. (C. Ross, M. A.) Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.--The Unitarian conception of the Divine Unity being arithmetical, not dynamical, its advocates deny plurality of persons or hypostases in the Godhead. And yet they loudly proclaim the truth that God is love, a truth which most strongly urges on our acceptance the doctrine of plurality. Love always demands two at least--a subject and an object, one to love and another to be loved. If God is love, as we most emphatically believe, then He must have had some one from eternity to love. Who then is that one Himself? But self-love is no love, it is the denial of love. Who then? The Church answers--His Son, the brightness of His glory, and the express image of HisPerson. Plurality of persons must not, however, be confounded with plurality of Gods. When men are invited to Christ they are not enticed away from God, for Christ is with God; when they are called to worship Christ, they are not bidden to serve an idol, for Christ is God. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) John 17:25-26O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee The “ amen” to the sublimest of all prayers I. GOD AND THE WORLD. 1. God. (1) His relationship--“ Father.” No relationship is more intelligible, attractive, morally assimilating. It means causation, affection, resemblance. Christ’ s God was not a cold King upon the throne, but a loving Father whose heart yearns for His prodigal children. (2) His character--“ righteous.” (a) His existence is the foundation of all right. (b) His will is the standard of all right. (c) His works and Word the revelation of all right. (3) His character is not opposed to His relationship. Righteousness is love resisting all that will injure the moral universe: love uprooting weeds out of the paradise of virtue. 2. The world--unregenerate humanity. This ignorance is (1) Most universal. (a) The barbarian world hath not known Thee. It is sunk in idolatry, superstition, and sensuality. (b) The civilized world. When this was said, Egypt, Greece and Rome had done their best; but even in Athens God was “ unknown.” (c) The conventionally Christian world. Its science denies; its literature, politics and commerce ignore; its creeds and Churches misrepresent God. (2) Most inexcusable. Men may have just excuses for not being scholars, &c., but no excuse for this. Nature is made to reveal God and the soul. The blindness of the man who shuts his eyes to the sun is not more inexcusable than this. (3) Most ruinous. The man ignorant of God is in moral midnight--the blackness of darkness. II. CHRIST AND HIS SCHOOL, 1. Christ, “ I have known Thee.” From any lips but His how presumptuous would this sound! Who among the world’ s geniuses or sages could say it? (1) No one had the opportunity of knowing God that Christ had. He was in the “ bosom of the Father.” He knew the motive that prompted the creative act, and the plan on which the whole was organized. (2) None the capacity. What is the greatest intellect to His. (3) None the heart--the true organ of knowledge. Christ and His Father are one in heart, spirit and purpose. 2. Christ’ s School “ they have known” (1) By the mighty works which Christ wrought. (2) By the sublime doctrines He propounded. (3) By the matchless purity of His character. III. THE AND HIS MISSION (John 17:26). What Christ did is the genuine work of every true preacher. What was it? 1. A persistent declaration of the Divine character. To declare self, or theories and speculations about God is what some do: but to declare His “ Name,” His moral character, the essence of which is love, is Christ’ s work. 2. A persistent declaration of the Divine character in order to transfuse Divine love into human souls. (D. Thomas, D. D.) God’ s Fatherhood Our Lord first addresses God as “ Father,” then as “ Holy Father,” and lastly as “ Righteous Father.” Note that holiness and righteousness flow from the Fatherhood of God. Note also that the manifestation of the Divine fatherhood is consummated in the manifestation of the Divine righteousness. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The righteous Father known and loved The text speaks of I. A OF VALUE AND ITS TEACHER. 1. What is that knowledge? (1) “ Thy name.” God has made man, and naturally man ought to know his Maker: the subject should know the name of his king; but men say, “ we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” Yet it is evident that a man can never be in a proper state till he knows his God. He cannot be happy, holy, or safe. Christ therefore, in coming to save us, makes it a part of His office to reveal the Father to us. (2) A testing name is given to God, “ O righteous Father.” If you know Him aright you know what is comprehended under those two words, so remarkable in combination. How can the Judge and the Father be found in one? There is but one answer, and that is found in the sacrifice of Jesus, which has joined the two in one. (3) This knowledge is (a) Peculiar--“ The world hath not known Thee.” The heathen world knew nothing of a righteous Father. Their gods were generally monsters of iniquity. The Christian world does not know God as a “ righteous Father.” Sceptics labelled as “ thinkers” reject the evangelical idea of God, and the atonement which that idea involves. It knows an effeminate, indiscriminate fatherhood, but not “ the righteous Father.” It will not bow before the majesty of His justice. (2) Distinctive, for it reveals the condition of the mind which receives it. When we see in a man an unconditional submission to the justice of God, and yet a trustful hopefulness in His boundless love, we may be sure that he is a renewed man. (3) Consolatory. For a man to know that God is his Father is delightful beyond measure, to feel that God forgives him as the father forgave the prodigal; but when we further learn that all this is done without the violation of justice, then are we full of wondering love. (4) Causes its possessor to enjoy much fellowship with Jesus. “ I have known Thee.” This grand character of God as “ righteous Father” was so dear to our Lord, that He died to maintain it. Herein we have fellowship with Christ, for we know the “ righteous Father” too in Christ, and love and bless Him, and wonder at Him every day more and more. 2. This knowledge comes to us by a Teacher. Christ declared the “ righteous Father” (1) In His life, for in His life He incarnated truth and grace. (2) In His death, however, most gloriously illustrated this beyond everything else. (3) By the work of His Holy Spirit. II. THE OBJECT OF THE IS THE OF A LOVE IN VALUE. 1. This discovery of love is inward, “ may be in them,” i.e., that they may know it, be persuaded of it, believe it and enjoy it; that they, through knowing the righteous name, may come to perceive the love of God towards them. When the Divine Father gives up His best Beloved for guilty man we may well say, “ Behold how He loved Him!” 2. This love was of a most extraordinary kind. He loves you as He loves His best Beloved. It must be altogether boundless and unspeakable. Now, if you fully know the righteous fatherhood of God, as Christ would have you know it, you will learn that God loved you as He loved His Son. If He had not loved you as He loved the Son, He would have spared His Son. 3. It was a love of complacency and delight. Remember those words at Christ’ s baptism and at two other occasions. Always draw a distinction between the love of benevolence with which God loves all His creatures and the love of complacency, which is reserved for His own. The Eternal Father views us in Christ, and in Him He takes delight in us as a father does in his children. 4. God the Father loves His Son infinitely. How could He do less? Without beginning has He loved Him, and without an end will He love Him, and also without change, without limit, and without degree: in the same way doth He love His people, whose hope is fixed in Him as the “ righteous Father.” 5. This love wherever it reigns in the heart creates a return love to God. 6. This love comes through an indweller, “ and I in them.” (1) Through His Spirit. (2) By faith. (3) In a real, vital sense. (4) Producing likeness to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 17:26 And I have declared unto them Thy name The Divine name The name of God is His moral character. This is the stability and glory of the universe. These words present it I. AS THE HIGHEST OBJECT FOR . “ I have declared.” Paul said at Athens, “ Him declare I unto you.” Not only is this the highest function of 1. The material universe. 2. Angels. 3. But of Christ the greatest Being. II. AS THE GRAND ORGAN OF . “ That the love,” &c. God’ s character is the reformatory force. 1. Moral reformation consists in the transfusion of Divine love into souls. 2. This transfusion of love can only be accomplished through a manifestation of the Divine character. God’ s character alone generates love. (D. Thomas, D. D.) “ Love and I” --a mystery I. THE FOOD OF LOVE TO GOD. 1. Knowledge. “ I have made known.” We cannot love a God whom we do not know. Only when the eyes are opened to behold the loveliness of God will the heart go out towards God, who is so desirable an object for the affections. 2. A knowledge given by Christ. It is not knowledge that we pick up as a matter of book learning that will ever bring out our love to the Father. Not knowledge communicated by the preacher alone. “ No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” He that knows not Christ knows not the Father. 3. Knowledge coming gradually. “ And will declare it.” As if, though they knew the Father, there was far more to know. 4. Knowledge distinguishing us from the world. It is the mark by which the elect are made manifest (John 17:6). 5. Knowledge of the name of God. (1) Righteous, and yet a Father. Our joy begins when we see the two united. (2) The word “ name” is used as a sort of summary of all the attributes of God. All these attributes are well adapted to win the love of all regenerate spirits. God is (a) Holy. To a holy mind there is nothing in the world, there is nothing in heaven more beautiful than holiness. (b) Good; (c) Merciful; “ Who is a God like unto Thee.” (d) Love, and there is a something about love which always wins love. II. THE LOVE ITSELF. 1. What it is not. The prayer is not that the Father’ s love may be set upon them, or move towards them, but be “ in” them. Christ did not die to make His Father loving, but because His Father is loving. 2. This love is of a very peculiar sort. “ The love wherewith Thou hast loved Me.” (1) Our Lord desires us to have a distinct recognition of the Father’ s love to Him. God never loved anything as He loves Christ, except His people, and they have had to be lifted up to that position by the love which the Father has to His Son. (2) You are to have in your heart a sense of the Father’ s love to you, and to recollect that it is precisely the same love wherewith He loves His Son. When there was a choice between Christ and His people which should die of the two, the Father freely delivered up His own Son that we might live through Him. (3) We are to give back a reflection of this love, and to love Jesus as the Father loves Him. The Father is the Sun and we are the moon, but the moonlight is the same light as the sunlight. The moon has not a ray of light but what came from the sun, and we have not a live coal of love to Christ but what came from the Father. We are as the moon, shining by reflected light, but Jesus loves the moonlight of our love and rejoices in it. (4) This love of the Father in us is to go beaming forth from us to all around. 3. This indwelling of the Father’ s love in us has the most blessed results. (1) Has an expulsive result. As soon as ever it gets into the heart it says to all love of sin, “ Get thee hence: there remains no room for thee here.” (2) A repulsive power by which it repels the assaults of sin. (3) An impulsive power. It is as when an engine receives fire and steam, and so obtains the force which drives it. Then have you motive power, then are you urged on to this and that heroic deed which, apart from this sublime love, you never would have thought of. (4) How elevating it is. How it lifts a man up above self and sin; how it makes him seek the things that are above! (5) How purifying it is! (6) How happy it makes the subject of its influence! If you are unhappy you want mole of the love of God. III. THE OF LOVE. “ I in them.” Catch those two words. Here is “ love” and. “ I” --love and Christ come together. Oh, blessed guests! 1. We are sure that He is where love is; for, where there is love there is (1) Life, and where there is life there is Christ, for He Himself says, I am the Life. (2) The Holy Spirit; but wherever the Holy Spirit is, there is Christ, for the Holy Spirit is Christ’ s representative. (3) Faith, for faith worketh by love, and there never was true love to Christ apart from faith. (4) God, for God is love. 2. You need not go abroad to find the Lord Jesus Christ. He lives within you. (1) What a blessed sense of power this gives to us. “ I in them.” Then it is no more “ I” in weakness, but, “ I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.” (2) Hence we gather the security of the believer. (3) We should give Christ good entertainment. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Spiritual illumination and Divine love I. THE GREAT SOURCE OF . “ I have declared to them Thy name.” The name was the Jewish formulary for God; His perfections, glory, grace. 1. That the saving knowledge of God comes to us by direct communication from Christ. Not by wisdom, virtue, strength of our own; “ for the world by wisdom knew not God,” but from the discovery which Christ makes by His word and Spirit: “ I have declared.” See it in the woman of Samaria--in His patience with the disciples. It is Christ’ s prerogative to convey the saving knowledge of God to the mind; it is our privilege to seek that knowledge from Him. 2. That we need spiritual illumination from above, not only at our first conversion, but through the whole progress of our spiritual life. “ I have declared--and will declare it.” Paul prays for the Ephesians that God would give them the spirit of wisdom in the knowledge of Him--and yet they knew Him already. Paul, who was taught not of men, but of Christ Himself, and was even caught up to the third heaven, puts himself among the number of them who know only in part; and this will be true of the most learned and holy men to the last hour of life. 3. It becomes us to acknowledge our ignorance, and to implore Divine teaching. This is a promise to be pleaded in prayer. We are like babes, unskilful in the word of righteousness. The best persons and the best churches still need more light. It is not enough that Christ has declared to them, but He must still declare--not indeed new truths, new essentials of salvation, but He conveys new impressions of truth to the mind; new aptitudes to receive, to appropriate, to exemplify and apply truth. II. THE GREAT LOVE WHICH GOD BEARS TO HIS It is here compared to the love which God bears to Christ. This love is said to be in them, just as Christ is said to be in them. By God’ s love to Christ, learn His love to you. 1. This love is ancient in its date. “ Thou hast loved Me from the foundation of the world” (Proverbs 8:22; Proverbs 8:31). 2. Unlimited in its degree. As you can place no limit to God’ s love to the Mediator, so you can place no limit to His love to the people He has redeemed. Many would discourage the hopes of God’ s children. Satan himself would rob them of consolation. False systems of religion do this. 3. Enlightened in its exercise. God’ s love to Christ was enlightened, and His conduct towards Him was regulated with a view to the office He was to sustain, and He allowed Him to pass through scenes of pain, poverty, temptation. So He does us: much tribulation. 4. Constant in its duration. It is an everlasting love. (The Evangelist.) . John 18:1 Then Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged Him.-- Pilate’ s second attempt to rescue Christ I. A on Jesus. Scourging and mockery (John 19:1-3). 1. The character of it. (1) Severe. (2) Insulting. (3) Illegal--because Christ had been pronounced innocent. 2. The object of it (1) As preliminary to execution. (2) As a method of examination. Pilate may have hoped that this would elicit from Christ something which would either secure His release or justify His crucifixion. (3) As a means of appeasing the Jews. II. AN EARNEST APPEAL (John 19:4-5) to the Jews. Setting Christ before them, clothed in purple, crowned with thorns, a mocking king of woe, he appeals to 1. Their sense of justice. 2. Their feelings of compassion--“ Behold the Man!--have you no pity?” 3. Their perception of truth. Was it reasonable that that meek Prisoner should be a rival to Caesar? III. A HOPEFUL by Pilate (John 19:6). 1. The fierce demand “ Crucify Him!” A week ago they cried Hosannah. 2. The firm reply “ Take ye Him.” Pilate again refuses to incarnadine his hands. Only, Pilate, having put thy foot down, pray heaven for strength to keep it fast. 3. The forceful reason “ I find no crime in Him.” If those blood-thirsty ruffians will have Him crucified they must do it themselves. Learn 1. The certainty that Christ’ s words will be fulfilled. Six months before He had predicted this (Matthew 20:19). 2. The depth of humiliation to which Christ stooped for men. 3. The difficulty felt by even wicked men in doing crimes. Conscience “ makes a man a coward … fills one full of obstacles … beggars any [wicked] man that keeps it” (“ Richard III.” Acts 1:1-26. scene 4). 4. The moral insensibility which men professing religion may at times exhibit. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) A wonderful picture Like every great historical picture, this one contains special points for special attention. It contains three lifelike portraits. I. THAT OF OUR LORD HIMSELF. We see the Saviour scourged, crowned with thorns, &c. Yet this was He whom angels delighted to honour, and who spent His time in going about doing good. Surely the sun never shone on a more wondrous sight. 1. Let us admire that love of Christ which “ passeth knowledge.” There is no earthly love with which it can be compared, and no standard by which to measure it. 2. Never let us forget, when we ponder this tale of suffering, that Jesus suffered for our sins, and that with His stripes we are healed. 3. Let us diligently follow the example of His patience in all the trials and afflictions of life, and especially in those which may be brought upon us by religion. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. II. THAT OF THE JEWS. We see them for three or four long hours obstinately rejecting Pilate’ s offer to release our Lord--fiercely demanding His crucifixion--declaring that they had no king but Caesar--and finally accumulating on their own heads the greater part of the guilt of His murder. Yet these were the children of Israel and the seed of Abraham, to whom pertained the promises, &c. These were men who professed to look for a “ Prophet like unto Moses,” and a “ Son of David,” who was to set up a kingdom as Messiah. Never, surely, was there such an exhibition of the depth of human wickedness. Let us mark the danger of long-continued rejection of light and knowledge. There is such a thing as judicial blindness; and it is the last and sorest judgment which God can send upon men. He who, like Pharaoh and Ahab, is often reproved but refuses to receive reproof, will finally have a heart harder than the nether millstone, and a conscience past feeling, and seared as with a hot iron (Proverbs 1:24-26; 2 Thessalonians 2:11). III. THAT OF PONTIUS PILATE. We see the Roman governor--a man of rank and high position--halting between two opinions in a case as clear as the sun at noon-day, sanctioning from sheer cowardice an enormous crime--and finally countenancing, from love of man’ s good opinion, the murder of an innocent person. Never perhaps did human nature make such a contemptible exhibition. Never was there a name so justly handed down to a world’ s scorn as the name which is embalmed in all our creeds. 1. Let us learn what miserable creatures great men are, when they have no high principles within them, and no faith in the reality of a God above them. The meanest labourer who fears God is a nobler being than the king, ruler, or statesman, whose first aim is to please the people. 2. Let us pray that our own country may never be without men in high places who have grace to think right, and courage to act up to their knowledge, without truckling to the opinion of men. (Bp. Ryle.) A threefold type of sinners I. THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST . To this class Pilate belonged. To do this Isaiah 1. Hard work. How difficult did Pilate find it! 2. Fiendish work. Satan and his legions do it. II. THOSE WHO SIN FROM . Such were the chief priests and officers, &c. Innumerable heathen, heretics, persecutors believe they are doing right whilst they are perpetrating the greatest enormities. There are no crimes blacker than those enacted from religious convictions. III. THOSE WHO SIN WITHOUT --the soldiers and the thoughtless rabble. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Pilate taking Jesus 1. The surrender of innocence. 2. The triumph of malice. 3. The abuse of authority. (S. S. Times.) Took Jesus 1. From whose custody? 2. For what purpose? 3. On what grounds? 4. With what results? (S. S. Times.) Jesus delivered to be crucified Shows I. THE AND SHAME LIKELY TO BE BY ONE WHO ACTS FROM SELFISH INSTEAD OF HIS OF RIGHT. Poor mockery of a ruler! Set by the Eternal to do right upon earth, and afraid to do it; told so by his own bosom; strong enough in his legions and in the truth itself to have saved the Innocent One and kept his own soul, he could only think of the apparently expedient! Type of the politician in all ages, who forgets that only the right is the strong or the wise. II. THE POWER OF POPULAR CLAMOUR, AND THE AT TIMES OF IT. Very impressive is the voice of a multitude. Its applause is intoxicating, its condemnation dreadful, its strenuous demand most difficult to deny. When this voice represents the ripe moral sentiment of an intelligent people, or when it is the swift, honest judgment of that people in regard to wrong, then Vox populi est vox Dei. But the clamour by which Pilate was swayed was a different thing. It was the voice of a mob inflamed by passion, worked upon by wicked and crafty leaders--the voice of Satan. Whenever a crowd is foolish or mad, has a cumulative force, and reaches a colossal magnitude. Hence the horrors of the French revolution, and the toleration and support given now and then by the people of a nation to great wrongs. In such cases public opinion is not to be heeded. “ Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.” It is well then to stand up like Luther at Worms and say, “ To act against conscience is unsafe and unholy. Here stand I, God help me. Amen.” This was the spirit of the apostles, martyrs, and reformers. III. THAT CHRIST’ S CLAIM TO , WHICH EXCITED SUCH , WAS A TRUE AND VALID CLAIM. Some of the most precious doctrines were first uttered in derision. The grace of Christ to sinners was the subject of a sneer--“ He receiveth sinners,” &c. The necessity which constrained Him to die for the salvation of man was set forth in the jeer, “ He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” Here before Pilate His claim of Kingship was made the occasion of brutal merriment. But Jesus was indeed a King! As such He came attended by a retinue of angels, and inquired for by the wise men. Through all the centuries since His kingly dignity has been owned. When the Crusaders proposed to crown Geoffrey of Bouillon king of Jerusalem, Geoffrey said, “ I will not wear a crown of gold in the city where my Saviour had a crown of thorns!” He Isaiah 1. A beneficent King. He rules in the interests of His subjects. “ Woe to the conquered” was the old cry. But Christ’ s conquests bring good to the conquered. The more perfect their submission, the more perfect their felicity. 2. A perpetual King. His throne is established for ever. “ Conceive of Caesar,” said Napoleon, “ the eternal emperor watching over the destinies of Rome. Such is the power of Christ.” 3. His kingdom is constantly advancing. Because the tide ebbs, no intelligent man, viewing the naked sand, would say, “ The sea is losing its dominion.” He would answer, “ Wait awhile,” confident that it would reoccupy its lost ground. So with Christianity. In Damascus there is a mosque which was once a Church. Over its portal the Christian inscription still stands--“ Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth through all generations.” For twelve centuries that writing has been contradicted, seemingly, and probably the Moslem has suffered it to remain to convict Christianity of a vain boast. But that inscription may be regarded as a solemn prophecy that the Moslem sway is but temporary, and that the faith which has been driven from its sanctuary will return. Even now the signs of its return appear. IV. THE OF CHRIST’ S KINGDOM. He explicitly said to Pilate, “ My kingdom is not of this world,” &c. But He did not leave His cause impotent and defenceless. There are other forces besides armed battalions. The Word of God, the Spirit of truth, the religious faculties on which they act, faith, hope, love, duty, sacrifice, and prayer; by means of these Christ sent forth His apostles to conquer the world. Christ’ s patience, self-restraint, and forgiving Spirit were potent even at His trial and crucifixion. They invested Him with that majesty which could not be obscured by indignities, which awed the scoffing Pilate into respect, and moved him to an unwonted desire to do justly; which brought the thief on the cross to repentance, and led the centurion to exclaim, “ Truly, this was the Son of God.” And in proportion as the followers of Christ have trusted these forces, they have been successful. Alliance with secular power, or reliance on physical force, has proved disastrous. (Sermons by the Monday Club.) John 19:2 The soldiers platted a crown of thorns The unwilling tribute According to prophecy the Messiah was to fill the three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. Carnal expectation ignored the two former, and built its hopes on the latter. They were unwilling to be taught by the Prophet, they could not support the Priest, as His demand of sacrifices and offerings was beyond the extent of their love for religion; but they were willing that a King might reign over them. The kingly idea attached to the person of Christ agitated them the most. The Roman soldiers crowned and worshipped Him in derision; these were the rugged steps leading up to His throne. I. THE CROWN OF THORNS WAS AN EMBLEM OF THE OF JESUS THROUGH TO THE OF THE WORLD. “ Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?” &c. The course was not understood by His persecutors, “ But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels,” &c. He gave to all the subjects of His future kingdom an example of 1. Willing service. Even with the crown on His head, His last strength was spent in the service of truth and justice. 2. Entire submission to the will of God. “ He was oppressed,” &c. Such an example of service and submission claims for Him the crown which the thorns symbolized. II. THE PURPLE ROBE WAS OF THE POWER WHICH HE WOULD OVER MANKIND. The other evangelists call it scarlet, but a robe with the colour of red in it was generally called purple. The one used was, no doubt, an old left-off robe of the proconsul. It was an emblem of power, worn by governors and generals. A reed was also put in His hand to represent the seeptre. Jesus is King 1. By Divine appointment. “ Yet have I set My King upon My holy Hill of Zion.” The government was to be on His shoulder. All judgments are committed to His care. 2. By virtue of His influence. Men’ s thoughts are captive to the obedience of Christ. The hearts of the sons of men are in His hand. The kingdoms of this world are bowing to His authority. The angels of God worship Him. III. THE MOCK HOMAGE WHICH WAS PAID IS AN EMBLEM OF THE WHICH HE WILL RECEIVE (John 19:3). They saluted Him in terms of loyalty which they did not feel; but myriads have since said, “ Crown Him Lord of all.” The vision reveals the four and twenty elders casting their crowns before the throne. And in another vision, “ On His head were many crowns.” (Weekly Pulpit.) The mock crown God intended that the evil of sin should be fully manifest by the death of Christ. Those who had a hand in it show by their malignant spirit what a hell the world would become if there were no check upon it. But submitting as He did, Christ checked that spirit, and seemed to say, “ Do your worst on Me, and let it suffice for ever.” I. TO WEAR THIS CROWN CHRIST HAD LAID ASIDE THAT OF DIVINE MAJESTY. What a contrast is here. They mocked Him in all His characters. As a Prophet they said, “ Prophesy unto us” ; as a Priest, “ He saved others,” &c. In bitter scorn of His Kingly claims, they crowned him with thorns. We can pity the great who are degraded, or impoverished, because, being human, we can measure the depth of their descent; but we have no power to gauge the height from which Christ “ humbled Himself.” He left a world of glory for one of meanness, one of purity for one of crime, &c. He who had created all things was sold for thirty pieces of silver. He who was the source of bliss suffered anguish. He who had worn the royal robes of heaven was clad in a cast-off robe of office. He who had borne the crown of the universe was tormented with the spiky circlet of mockery. None could have placed it on His brow but by His consent; and the power by which He laid aside the one led Him to receive the other. II. BY WEARING THIS CROWN OF MOCKERY CHRIST ADDED A GLORY TO THAT WHICH HE WEARS . It is not the weight of gold in a crown, or its jewels, that are the measure of its value, but the character of its wearer. Judged thus, what glory attaches to the crown of Christ! It was wondrous love to man that led Him to wear the thorn-crown, and never was there such a crown as that which He now wears. We have read of crowns given for distinguished services, of crowns won by splendid victories, of crowns worn by hereditary right, royal crowns, imperial crowns, &c., but where is one like that which Jesus now wears? He conquered suffering and death for us, and now every spike of that mock crown is a jewel inwrought with that of His Divine majesty. III. BY WEARING THE MOCK CROWS CHRIST GAINED A FURTHER RIGHT TO BESTOW A CROWN OF LIFE ON ALL THE one without thorns. “ Be thou faithful unto death,” &c. “ To Him that overcometh,” &c. That which Christ died to obtain at such a cost must be worth having. Eternal bliss alone could balance such Divine sufferings. We may say, like Paul, “ With a great sum obtained I this freedom.” “ Ye were not redeemed,” &c. As Jonathan stripped Himself (1 Samuel 18:4) of his royal robes and put them, as signs of honour and love, on David, so Jesus was stripped that we might have the covering of His righteousness. He hungered, thirsted, sorrowed, was made a curse, &c., that we might not hunger, &c. IV. THE POWER CHRIST GAINED OVER HUMAN SOULS BY WEARING THAT MOCK CROWN. 1. Men are led to mourn the guilt that brought Him such pain. “ Weep not for Me” He said, knowing that the sin which could so treat Him was far more terrible than all suffering. Thorns are pressed on Him such as these (1) Indifference to His sufferings. (2) Unbelief in His great work. (3) Unreality of professed belief. (4) Inconsistency of life. (5) Greed of worldly gain and pleasure. (6) Neglect of others for whom He died. Surely He has had thorns enough thrust in already. Will you add more? 2. He gains such intense affection as He could have obtained in no other way. We could never have loved majesty or power; but Jesus we can love as God manifest in the flesh. Nothing arouses love like a sight of the crucified Saviour. Hence the cross has been His stepping-stone to dominion over souls. (Homiletic Magazine.) The crown of thorns Of other plants growing in the vale of Jericho, we noticed the Nebk, the most abundant thorn in the Holy Land. Hasselquist says, “ In all probability this is the tree which afforded the crown of thorns put on the Head of Christ: it grows very common in the East.” This plant was very fit for the purpose, for it has many small and sharp spines, which are well adapted to give pain. The crown might be easily made of these soft, round, and pliant branches: and what in my opinion seems to be the greatest proof, is, that the leaves much resemble those of ivy, as they are of a very deep green. Perhaps the enemies of Christ would have a plant somewhat resembling that with which emperors and generals were used to be crowned, that there might be calumny even in the punishment. (Wilson’ s “ Lands of the Bible.”) The thorn bushes, which during the summer and autumn had been so dark and bare, were clothed with delicate green sprays of finely-serrated leaves, which almost hid the sharp, cruel-looking thorns. They were sprinkled with little round buds; when they opened, they threw out silky tufts of crimson, crowned with golden-coloured powder. The seed vessel is round, and divided into four quarters: at first it is almost white, but gradually becomes pink: and at the apex there is a little green tuft, in the shape of a Greek cross. When the seed is quite ripe, it is about half-an-inch in diameter, and of a very shining red colour. I have never seen a plant of which so beautiful, and at the same time so cruel, a crown could be composed. This thorn is the Proterium spinosum. About Easter it is seen in all its beauty, the leaves glossy and full-grown, the fruit or seed-vessels brilliantly red, like drops of blood, and the thorns sharper and stronger than at any other time. No plant or bush is so common on the hills of Judaea, Galilee, and Carmel as this. (Roger’ s “ Domestic Life in Palestine.”) The martyr’ s crown When John Huss, the martyr, was brought forth to be burned, they put a paper over his head, on which were pictured three devils, and the title, “ heresiarch.” When he saw it, he said, “ My Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, did wear a crown of thorns: why should not I, therefore, for His sake, wear this ignominious crown?” (Bp. Ryle.) A pillow without thorns How well did that converted Tahitian, Barn his name was, understand the comfort to be derived from these thorn.wounds of Jesus; when on his deathbed, he said: “ The blood of Jesus is my sure foundation. He is the best of all kings. He gives me a pillow for my head without thorns.” (R. Besser, D. D.) They put on Him a purple robe.--This again was done as a mark of contempt and derision, in order to show how ridiculous and contemptible was the idea of His kingdom. The colour, “ purple,” was doubtless meant to be a derisive imitation of the well-known imperial purple, the colour worn by emperors. Some have thought that this robe was only an old soldier’ s cape, such as a guard-house would easily furnish. Some, with more show of probability, have thought that this “ robe” must be the “ gorgeous robe” which Herod put on our Lord, mentioned by St. Luke, when he sent Him back to Pilate (Luke 23:11), a circumstance which John has not recorded. In any case we need not doubt that the “ robe” was some shabby, cast-off garment. It is worth remembering that this brilliant colour, scarlet or purple, would make our blessed Lord a most conspicuous object to every eye, when He was led through the streets from Herod, or brought forth from Pilate’ s house to the assembled multitude of Jews. We should call to mind the symbolical nature of this transaction also. Our Lord was clothed with a robe of shame and contempt, that we might be clothed with a spotless garment of righteousness, and stand in white robes before the throne of God. (Bp. Ryle.) John 19:3 Hall, King of the Jews! The mock homage These words were spoken in contemptuous imitation of the words addressed to a Roman Emperor, on his assuming imperial power: “ Hail, Emperor!” It was as much as saying, “ Thou a King indeed! Thou and Thy kingdom are alike contemptible. ” (Bp. Ryle.) It was the kingdom of the Jews itself that the soldiers laughed at. They regarded Jesus as the representative of the Messianic hope of the Jews. They would turn to ridicule these royal hopes, which were known widely in the heathen world, more especially as they aspired to the dominion of the whole earth. (Hengstenburg.) John 19:4I find no fault in Him Pilate’ s confession Alas! it was discoursing to wolves about the innocence of the lamb. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) It is very noteworthy that this expression is used three times by Pilate in the same Greek words in St. John’ s account of the passion (chap. 18:38; 19:4-6). It was meet and right that he who had the chief hand in slaying the Lamb of God, the Sacrifice for our sins, should three times publicly declare that he found no spot or blemish in Him. He was proclaimed a Lamb without spot or fault, after a searching examination, by him that slew Him. (Bp. Ryle.) John 19:5 Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man Ecce Homo “ Behold the Man” I. FROM PILATE’ S . 1. He was a Roman, and apart from the interests of the empire, cared little for the creed or worship of the Hebrews. It was no part of his duty to interfere with the religion of the people he was ruling. Provided it did not lead to sedition he was content to let it contemptuously alone. “ What is truth?” he asks, “ What is it worth? What has it done? Is it worth any one’ s while risking anything for it? It is power, and not truth we need. Let us have something practical, tangible, and not vain and idle discussions about abstract questions.” 2. Pilate is a type of a vast multitude. Like the compilers of an encyclopaedia, they cannot avoid becoming acquainted with the titles of religious subjects, parties, men. Yet if pressed would deliver themselves very much after Pilate’ s fashion. To offer Christ to men of this character is to “ cast pearls before swine.” What is the “ truth in Christ” to them? He may be “ chief among ten thousand,” and able to give pardon, and righteousness, and grace, and glory. But He is not money, business. He cannot give social rank, political success; and so they spurn the offer. This man is a sample of Satan’ s workmanship--the devil’ s masterpiece. But “ what shall it profit a man,” &c. II. FROM THE OF THE JEWS. 1. The guilt of Pilate was great, but it is not for a moment to be compared with that of the high priest. “ He that delivereth Me unto thee hath the greater sin.” They saw the light and hated it. They knew the truth and rejected it. They could not resist the evidence that Jesus was the Christ; but He was a Christ so different from Him whom they desired that they cried, “ Crucify Him!” 2. Here is another and far more perilous standpoint: to look upon Christ and His religion as something to be hated and banished. Let me speak faithfully of the danger of this class. The sin that will banish the perpetrators from the presence of the Lord at His coming is not the sin of Adam. That has been atoned for by the second Adam. It will not be the sin of ignorance. “ Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” It will not be any word or deed too heinous to be forgiven; for there is no exception to the gracious offer: “ If we confess our sins,” &c. But it will be that of rejecting--calmly, wilfully, and persistently--the greatest offer which God has made to us: His Son as our personal Saviour. “ He that believeth not,” &c. III. FROM ’ S . During the “ Reign of Terror” an old French gentleman walked up to the gate of the prison in hope of getting a brief interview with his son, then lying under sentence of death. His name was Loiserolles. As he stood there, the dreaded cart arrived at the prison door. “ Loiserolles” was one of the names shouted; and “ Here I am, Loiserolles!” was answered suddenly from the crowd. The voice was not that of the young prisoner--asleep at that moment in his cell--it was older, feebler, and a trifle more eager than a prisoner’ s might be supposed to be. But there was no time or care to make investigation. The father was taken for the son, bound, hurried off, and executed. He died for his boy who was asleep. Not till long afterwards did the younger Loiserolles know at what a sacrifice his life had been purchased. And if we may be allowed to compare small things with great, I would say that the day of our trial and judgment was passed; the morning of our execution had arrived. We, as prisoners of sin, were summoned to receive the death penalty; the sons of men were called. But “ I am the Son of Man” was the answer given to the challenge. “ If, therefore, ye seek Me, let these go their way.” The central truth of our Christianity is the Saviour that died for us and rose again. Can you look upon Jesus in this light? Do you see Him to be your Substitute, Intercessor, Prince, and Saviour? Then you have beheld the Man. (R. Balgarnie D. D.) Ecce Homo See I. HIS attested. His flesh was lacerated, His body bruised. II. HIS confirmed. Scourging had elicited no secret crime. III. HIS MAJESTY revealed. He endured without complaint. IV. HIS LOVE proclaimed. He suffered stripes that sinners might be healed. V. HIS suggested. Only a Son of God could have borne Himself so. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Eece Homo, or perfect humanity When you point to any object or event you never know what the witness really sees. Hold a picture before a score of people, and they all see and value it differently. In a wild district I saw a rude stone wall. To the simple builder and passers by it was just so many stones held together by mortar. But an instructed eye saw in succession blocks of quartz, trap, schist, sandstone, conglomerate, and other suggestive monuments of the world’ s history. Point out the stars to a multitude. All see the same objects, and yet not the same. I. WHAT THE ACTORS IN THAT TRAGEDY BEHELD. All the world was in that crowd. 1. Pilate; or what worldliness beheld. A mysterious man--no ordinary criminal. Superstition is never far from worldliness. There was fear in the mind of Pilate at something supernatural at the back of demeanour so strange, placid, and holy. 2. The priests; or what bigotry beheld. Jesus has not respected their traditions and echoed their dogmas; therefore, He is an imposter and blasphemer. There is no hate like priestly hate. Bigotry in the midst of revealed religion is farther from God than heathen worldliness. There was some lingering susceptibility in the breast of Pilate; in the Hebrew priest, none. Pilate saw something which excited both awe and pity. The priests nothing but the hideous creation of their own malignant passions. 3. The mass; or what ignorant resentment beheld. The Christ of their desire was only a more vulgar rendering of the political Messiah of the infuriated priests. Scarcely a week ago, they greeted Him as their King. But there is Jesus, weak, bound, silent, and trampled upon. They saw one who raised their expectations to the highest, and disappointed them. A mob is never so savage as when it conceives itself to be imposed upon by one whom it has made its idol. They therefore join ix the cry, “ Crucify Him!” 4. The soldiers; or what heathen brutality beheld. A hardened Roman in the ranks could feel nothing but contempt for a Jewish criminal. Such men could admire and adore a Caesar who could lead them through fields of slaughter to the fame of a Roman victory. They understood that He was a sham king from a district in fanatical and turbulent Galilee. 5. Nicodemus; or what unavowed discipleship beheld. Lack of courage and decision brought no consolation in this dread hour. Little has he risked to avert this tragedy, and he is beginning to feel it. 6. The centurion; or what heathen piety beheld. “ The Son of God.” 7. Peter; or what the unfaithful apostle beheld. Jesus cast one look on him, but the apostle could encounter that eye no more. 8. Judas; or what the traitor and apostate beheld. From that eye, so downcast, he has often seen look forth the love of God. The memory of that sight is fire unquenchable, the writhing of the worm that never dies. 9. John; or what the disciple whom Jesus loved beheld. He could not look for his tears; but yet he saw what few eyes there witnessed, but what we need to see to-day--our Incarnate and Redeeming God. 10. Mary; or what the mother and the believing woman beheld. How her motherly love and her religious reverence are wounded by the suffering and shame heaped on her Son and Saviour! There are other holy women here. Shame on the men among His followers! Where are they? II. WHAT WE BEHOLD IN THE MAN OF SORROWS. 1. A man. (1) He was born of a woman. He passed through the life of a little child. (2) In the home of Joseph, at Nazareth, there were many boys and girls. It was no unimportant contribution to the development of our Saviour’ s wide and sympathetic manhood, that brothers and sisters were the companions of His first years. The temptation in the wilderness was not our Saviour’ s first nor last trial. His young life had its tests. (3) Our Lord, too, was born in circumstances favourable to the culture of a true manhood. Among the humble poor, and inured to a lowly calling. Men who begin their career at the summit of society do not uncommonly acquire much real fellow-feeling with classes which lie farther down. Men from the ranks, who have lived through the grades in their ascent, develop human sympathies deeper and broader. Every great worker for God and humanity has to be brought by some means or other into personal contact with the multitude. Galilee was a more important school than the halls of the Rabbis at Jerusalem. (4) Jesus had His personal friendships. He is beneath a man or above him, who is without human friendship. 2. A tempted man (Hebrews 4:15). One with the form and the faculties of a man, is yet not a man if without temptation. 3. A suffering man. That pain is allotted to sinful creatures is not surprising. But here is one who never transgressed a precept. He suffered with the race and for the race which He came to save. But the ministry of suffering must come to every man. We bring into the world only raw materials. The discipline of life must weave the precious fabric. The suffering Jesus garnered in His sinless humanity the precious fruits of trial and sorrow (Hebrews 2:10). When your soul is bowed down, to which friend would you go in your sorrow? You could not repair to inexperienced amiability and to goodness unruffled by trial. A bosom so smooth has not treasured the balm of fellow-feeling for which the smitten heart aches to its very core. 4. THE MAN. Jesus is the only one who can be so styled. He is the perfection of humanity. Human beings at the best are a mixture of good and evil. Jesus Christ was “ separate from sinners.” He belonged to a totally different classification. He has more than every man’ s excellence, and exhibits no man’ s defect. Qualities seemingly opposite and irreconcilable were habitually blended in Him. The extreme of ease and dignity, loftiness and condescension, gentleness and severity, manly firmness and womanly sympathy, &c. 5. Is He man only? Nay, verily. Standing alone as a creature, no one can be complete as a man. One only perfect Man has been in our world, and He was the Incarnation of God. (H. Batchelor.) Behold the Man I. THE FALSE AND IMPIOUS THE LORD, WHICH THE JEWS, IN WITH HIS TO THEM, . They regarded Him 1. As mean, when He was eminently dignified. 2. As guilty, when He was absolutely innocent and holy. 3. As being hostile to their interests, when He was infinitely kind and benevolent. II. THE TRIBUTE WHICH THE OF HIM IN HIS TRUE MUST ALWAYS SECURE. “ Behold the Man!” and there ought to be 1. Homage. 2. Penitence. 3. Trust. 4. Love. (J. Parsons.) Behold the Man I. WHOM THE WORLD DESIRED. This is He of whom the prophet spake--“ the desire of all nations shall come.” At the Fall, preparations were begun for the advent of the Deliverer, and continued without intermission. 1. We all know in general what forms these preparations assumed: how the early promise of Eden was brightened and enlarged; how sacrifice was instituted at the very gates of Paradise; how a great system of type and shadow succeeded pointing to Him; how the law became a schoolmaster leading unto Him; how prophets foretold His sufferings and glory. 2. While thus instructing them so carefully in spiritual things, He was also conducting them providentially, and was making the lessons of their outward life--the mercies and the judgments, the wars and the captivities, the declensions and revivals of their national history--to co-operate with the things more expressly gracious, in preparing a way for “ the Messenger of the covenant,” and in preparing the mind and heart of the Church, to give Him a loving and loyal welcome. Accordingly, we see a grand procession of joyful worshippers at the opening of the New Testament history--angels, shepherds. Simeon and Anna, and the wise men. 3. In the outer world, also, God was working by Him providence and Spirit to prepare the nations for the coming of His Son. We behold a succession of rising and falling monarchies, of dreadful battles, the building and the burning of cities, the terrors of superstition, constant strange movement, but never to any “ dawning of the day,” and man, as man, felt more deeply as time rolled on the moral hopelessness of his condition without celestial help. There was thus a yearning for deliverance, a longing in the hearts of men for relief, and liberty, and higher life--for recovery of long-lost fellowships, and for returning presence of God. Then, in the fulness of time, He comes to answer the world’ s questionings, to relieve its sorrows, to meet its deepest wants, “ Behold the Man” whom all other men in their best moments were yearning for and inly pining to see! How strange then that we have to say II. WHOM THE WORLD . 1. If ever there was an act in which this whole world was united, the crucifixion of the Son of God was that act. It was the fair outcome and expression of its moral dispositions, and its spiritual state before God. It was not without a struggle that it was done; there were many relentings and misgivings, just as there are now to men when they sin. In following the steps of His pilgrimage and ministry, we sometimes think that the world is going to open its heart and receive Him at once. But how fallacious such appearances! The world, thus put on its solemn trial, failed to prove itself truer and brought out before other worlds the most conclusive proof of its depravity and guilt. “ The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” One who “ did no sin,” who missed no opportunity of doing good and glorifying God--was not suffered to live. There was much to attract in His life and character, but, as the event proved, there was more to repel; and humanity, which had fallen before in the first Adam, fell again just before it rose in the second. Christ was “ the desire of all nations” before He came, and that proved that man had not fallen into an irretrievable degradation--that seeds and elements of good were working in him still, and that the great Father was not forgetful of His prodigal children. Christ was the rejected of all nations when He came, and this proved that our fall was not a temporary and a trifling circumstance, but that it had rent the most sacred bonds, and filled human nature with guilt and sin. 2. But oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! The world crucified His Son, and He made that very crucifixion the means of the world’ s life. The same event which proved the sinfulness of our nature as nothing had ever proved it before, turned full upon the world in sudden revelation the love and mercy of God; and what to our natural judgment would have seemed the most impregnable of barriers in the way of our return to God, was made the means of our repentance, and the gate of everlasting life. He vindicated Divine righteousness while proclaiming Divine mercy; He honoured the law by making the gospel. III. WHOM THE WORLD WILL CROWN. Heaven has crowned Him already. 1. But earth must crown Him too. And she will. He must be honoured in the very scene of His humiliation. He must gather joys where He sowed tears and sufferings. He must claim a kingdom where He shed His blood. And not a murmur of dissent will be heard from shore to shore as proclamation is made through every land that “ the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.” 2. We neither know exactly how nor when this great result is to be brought about; the times and the seasons are reserved in the Father’ s power. But what of that? If I cannot tell the length of the prophetic days, am I to hope or labour any the less earnestly for that blessed day of millenial peace and joy which, when they have elapsed, will come? It I cannot interpret aright the sound of one angel’ s trumpet, am I not to speed “ another angel who flies in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Behold the Man! I. WHOM? The Man--perfect humanity. 1. Physically, Christ was perfect (1) In form. It is not without significance that He is the principal figure in art, and that the world’ s great painters have depicted Him as “ the altogether lovely.” We have no portrait of Him extant, but it is difficult to believe that the genius of eighteen centuries has nothing corresponding to its ideal. (2) In health. He bare our sicknesses, but was never ill Himself. No disease could prey upon a sinless body. What vigorous health must Jesus have had to have maintained such unruffled calmness and nerve, through these protracted proceedings, after the agony of Gethsemane; and then after such sufferings to have survived to die on the Cross. 2. Intellectually. (1) He was without doubt. He had perfect intuitions of God and Divine things. Hence the perfect confidence with which He moved towards each of the phases of His great career. (2) He was without error. He had perfect knowledge of all things that pertained to His mission. Hence He never made a mistake, or failed to deliver a necessary truth. (3) He was “ the Truth” personally. Compare Him with others. 3. Morally. (1) He was without sin, as confessed by Himself, Pilate, Judas. Peter tells us He “ did no sin.” John, that He “ had no sin.” (2) He was entirely holy. Not only was there no law broken by Him: He fulfilled all righteousness. (3) He was utterly self-abnegating and benificent. “ He went about doing good.” “ Greater love hath no man than this,” &c. II. IN WHAT . 1. As a Saviour. Had He not been a man He could not have qualified Himself for this office by death. Had He not been the Man, the Man appointed, perfect, Divine, His death had been of no avail. But being “ without blemish,” He was the accepted “ Lamb of God that taketh away,” &c. 2. As an example. Students require the best models in art, music, literature. Perfect imitation may be beyond reach; but the study of imperfect models infallibly ensures imperfection. So with man. But there is only one perfect Model--Him who left us an example that we should follow His steps. 3. As a Friend. Who possesses such qualifications for friendship as Christ? 4. As Lord. III. WHERE. 1. Under conviction of sin--“ To whom shall we go?” 2. In trouble. 3. In difficulty. 4. In the hour of death. 5. In the day of judgment. (J. W. Burn.) The mind directed to Christ The hour of the Saviour’ s sufferings was come--Judas had betrayed Him--His disciples forsaken Him--His enemies apprehended Him--but Pilate seeks to release Him; hence the scene before us. Let us inquire I. WHAT WE SHALL BEHOLD IN THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. 1. The perfection of purity, meekness, and benevolence. 2. An amazing work for the redemption of mankind. 3. The boundlessness of the Father’ s grace. II. THE FOR WHICH WE ARE TO BEHOLD THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. 1. That our hearts may be melted into contrition. 2. That wavering faith may be established. 3. That Christian principle may conquer carnal policy. 4. That love may be cherished towards all His followers. 5. That believers may be comforted in suffering and in death. (Congregational Pulpit.) The appeal of Pilate Weakness is sometimes not much better than wickedness. It places a man at the disposal of other weaknesses--Ahab, Pilate. We have here I. AN APPEAL FOR PITY FOR CHRIST. It was this; not a mocking. Pilate was anxious to get Christ off. It was not to aggravate Christ’ s misery, but to excite the compassion of His foes. Pity 1. For a prisoner. 2. For a prisoner unjustly accused. 3. For a prisoner whose sufferings and shame men enhanced by cruel mocking. Dressed up as a king. And yet He was one. Men can only caricature the reality of Christ and Christianity. II. AN APPEAL FROM PILATE TO THE JEWS. 1. From Pilate. (1) An old soldier. (2) A heathen. (3) One who despaired of truth. 2. To the Jews (1) To whom He came. (2) Who had opportunity to test His claims. (3) Who were convinced of them, but rejected Him, because He was not the rebel they wanted. III. AN APPEAL FROM ONE WHO PUT CHRIST TO DEATH. Pilate did his utmost to save Jesus, with one exception, his own interest. He tried by expression of his own conviction, by delay, by solemn acts, by appeal to justice and to pity. He would not endanger self. So now men may feel for Christ--do much for Him--reprove others, and yet stop short at sacrifice 1. Of worldly interests. 2. Of sinful lusts. (A. J. Morris.) John 19:6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw Him Pilate at bay I. THE CLAMOUR. “ Crucify Him!” 1. Its occasion: the presentation of Christ “ therefore.” One would have expected, as Pilate doubtless did, that revenge would be satiated by the bleeding form of One who had offended them by His teaching, and by the humiliation of One whom they had charged with kingly ambition. Here surely was an end of His prestige--the people would never listen to Him again, or shout hosannahs any more. Instead of this, these human tigers having tasted bleed, only thirsted for more. 2. Its nature. (1) Cowardly, inasmuch as its object was an innocent defenceless prisoner. (2) Ferocious, for it called for a death, of all deaths the most humiliating and cruel. To have cried “ Drown!” “ Behead!” “ Pelson!” would have argued some relic of pity; for these would have been comparatively painless means of putting their victim out of His misery. 3. Its accordance with the Divine plans. This was the form of death deliberately chosen and predicted by Jesus. Hence the clamour was an unconscious means of helping to fulfil His prophecies of being “ lifted up.” “ He causeth the wrath of man to praise Him.” II. PILATE’ S TO THE CLAMOUR. “ Take ye Him,” &c. A response 1. Contemptuous: showing the governor’ s repugnance to being the dirty tool of an unscrupulous and fanatical mob. All the Roman’ s sense of right and pride of race come out here. 2. With a merciful design. It meant “ I have nothing to crucify Him for; crucify ye Him if ye dare!” It was something like the reply of a British officer in India to a Brahmin who consulted him with reference to a Sutee. It was represented that the burning of a certain widow was in conformity with the laws of their religion. “ Very good,” said the officer, “ you carry out your laws and I will execute mine. According to mine, to burn a widow is murder, and I will hang every man connected with the murder.” Pilate doubtless thought that this would be an end to the matter. He little knew, apparently, those with whom he had to deal. III. THE GROUND FOR PILATE’ S , “ I find no fault in Him.” This is the third time that Pilate made this confession. It should go for something, for it came from an experienced Roman judge--after a personal examination; after a trial, when all the odds were against the prisoner; after excruciating torture; and was made to a people whom Pilate had every reason to desire to propitiate. The only inference that can be drawn is that there was no fault in Jesus. And if Pilate found no fault in Him can we? (J. W. Burn.) I find no fault in Him. The faultlessness of Jesus I. OF WHOM THIS IS SAID. 1. The Man Christ Jesus. Behold the Man! Can you find any fault (1) With His character, which was “ holy, harmless,” &c. “ Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” (2) With His words, which were untainted by falsehood, malice, wrath (except for hypocrisy and evil doing), but were full of grace, love, and truth. (3) With His actions, which were all straightforward, righteous, beneficent. 2. The Teacher. Will you find fault with (1) The matter of His teaching. Produce its like from pagan sages or even inspired prophets! (2) The manner: so tender, illustrative, interesting, forceful. “ Never man spake as this Man.” 3. The Saviour. Can you find fault with (1) His power to save. “ He is able to save to the uttermost.” (2) His willingness. “ Come unto Me.” “ This Man receiveth sinners” --now. 4. The King. No fault can be found with One the principle of whose government is to cause all things to work together for His subjects’ good. II. BY WHOM THIS IS SAID. 1. Pilate, the Roman judge, after the most careful examination. What would Pilate not have given had it been possible to find fault, and so extricate himself. 2. Judas His betrayer. I have shed innocent blood.” What would not that guilty conscience have given to have found one flaw on that spotless innocence. 3. The saved sinner who has trusted in Him and found mercy. 4. The afflicted believer who finds His grace sufficient. 5. The dying saint. “ Yea, though I walk through the valley,” &c. 6. Angels and glorified spirits. “ Worthy is the Lamb.” What then is the conclusion to be drawn from all this? 1. All other men--the most wise and the most saintly--are faulty somewhere. But this Man had no fault. 2. Upon no other man has this verdict been passed. Friends or enemies, or himself, have found some fault. But neither friend nor foe could find fault with Jesus. Nor did He find fault with Himself. Was He not then the Holy One of God? (J. W. Burn.) John 19:7 The Jews answered him, We have a law Literalism and party spirit I. WHAT WAS THE MOTIVE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND IN THE DEATH OF CHRIST? It was the one fixed idea of devotion to the law of Moses. It was the stubborn toughness of character which made the Jewish people the backbone of the world. It was the hereditary mark of the house of Levi, which in their zeal for their race knew no other ties. When they took up stones they could not bear to think that Christ was greater than Abraham. When the council met at the raising of Lazarus, Caiaphas declared that one man must die for the people, that was the concentrated essence of the general feeling that the national existence was at stake. And when on that second meeting, convened in the dead of the night in the high priest’ s palace, it was no want of solemnity which called forth the adjuration, no false assumption of horror when he rent his robes and demanded the sentence of death. And when they saw their designs accomplished it was doubtless with a proud satisfaction that they were fifty celebrating their festival. “ We have a law.” Yes, a Divine law, the type and centre of all law. “ And by that law He ought to die” (see Leviticus 24:16). Often has Jesus declared Himself the Son of God. True, there is in Him an authority which teaches not as Scribes teach; a wisdom which forces us to acknowledge that never man spake as this Man; a power before which storms are hushed and sick healed; a goodness which rises above all legal institutions. All this might seem to be a far higher fulfilment of the law than could be attained by His death. But still the letter of the law, immemorial usage, say that He must die, So they argued, and with such arguments must have acted as they did. They little thought how that nation and those institutions which they had endeavoured to preserve at so dreadful a cost, were doomed by the very act by which they sought to save them. II. WHAT ARE THE LESSONS? The fact that this crime was not the result of rashness, but was the result of fixed adherence to usage, and resistance to change, might teach us 1. That there are times when such a frame of mind is not the sign of a religious spirit, but a mark of audacious and reckless presumption. 2. That the most enormous evils may flow from carrying to excess any one idea however good. In the story of the Crucifixion we may see reflected the evil of narrowness of purpose, exclusiveness of admiration, idolatry of a single principle, the bowing down to “ the idols of the cave,” the idols of the party, shop, or sect that happens to be ours. Common sense is the one salt which alone can save such exaggerations from their own corruption. Had Caiaphas been open to the new influences, he would have seen in the very law and prophets he was upholding the best witness to Him he was condemning for blasphemy. 3. The value of those feelings of common humanity which justly resist all efforts of hard logic or dry reason to set them aside. Nothing could be more complete than the arguments by which the conduct of the priests was sustained; but within and above all they might have seen a pathos of suffering to which they were nevertheless wholly insensible, by which the whole world has since been moved to sympathy. Witness the revulsion of feeling with reference to other historical events--the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, the outrage on Cromwell’ s remains, &c. (Dean Stanley.) John 19:8-12 When Pilate therefore heard that Pilate’ s second interview with Christ I. THE INQUIRY--on the part of Pilate (John 19:9). 1. Its occasion (1) Not the outcry of the Jews for Christ’ s death. Pilate had already twice resisted that. (2) Not the reminder that he, a governor, ought to respect their laws. (3) But the intimation that Christ had called Himself “ The Son of God” (John 19:7). 2. Its motive (1) Not idle curiosity or angry impatience. The situation was too solemn for the former, too critical for the latter. (2) Not horror at the supposed blasphemy. Pilate had not so high a religious consciousness. (3) Not alarm lest he should be accused to Tiberius. It had not come to that yet. (4) But semi-superstitious fear, lest Jesus, whose prefer-human greatness had impressed him, should after all be the offspring of some divinity--in which case it would be far from comfortable to him to fight against the gods. 3. Its import (1) Not to what country dost thou belong? Pilate knew this. (2) But of what race art Thou? human or divine? Next to “ Is there a God?” the greatest question of the day. II. SILENCE--On the part of Christ (John 19:9). 1. Predicted (Isaiah 53:7). 2. Becoming. The question was (1) Irrelevant. The problem before Pilate was that of Christ’ s guilt or innocence, not of His origin. (2) Unnecessary. Pilate had evidence enough, and had already decided that Jesus was without crime. (3) Insincere Pilate was not prepared to accept the answer Christ might give. He had not done so on a former occasion (John 18:38). (4) Too late. Pilate was not likely now to be able to extricate himself from the net in which he had been taken. 3. Eloquent--more significant than speech it proclaimed His Divine origin. 4. Perplexing. Pilate could not understand Him. III. ANGRY --On the part of Pilate (John 19:10). 1. Offended dignity. Pilate had marvelled greatly at his prisoner’ s taciturnity when the mob first gnashed their teeth at Him (Matthew 27:14); but was not he the embodiment of imperial authority, “ To me dost Thou not speak?” putting ruffled pride and mortified vanity into his tones. Men whose causes and arguments are weak generally take shelter behind their self importance. Men commonly stand on their dignity when they have nothing else to stand on. 2. Mean intimidation. The vicegerent of Rome could not resist telling his prisoner that His life and death were in his hands! It was the speech of a small dignitary who was a great coward. 3. Mistaken assumption. Unjust judges and persecutors have often since supposed that they held the life of Christ’ s followers and Christ’ s cause: but they have erred as Pilate did. IV. --on the part of Christ (John 19:11). 1. Pride rebuked. Pilate conceived of himself as a sort of deus minor invested with at least a delegated omnipotence: Christ tells Him that both he and Caesar were simply instruments by which God worked, and in particular that he had no power over Him except as the temporary holder of the magisterial office; and that it was owing to that circumstance entirely that he had anything to do with the case. 2. Error corrected. Whatever part Pilate had to play in this momentous drama and whatever authority he had to wield, he held it not from Caesar, who himself was a vassal of the King of kings, but from above Romans 13:1; Proverbs 8:15). Hence the exercise of that power was determined not by such an accident as the answer that might be extracted from Christ. A great and illuminating thought for Pilate. 3. Sin qualified. Pilate and his prisoner have changed places. Pilates sin was great--against evidence, conscience, heaven’ s warning, and Christ could say nothing to underestimate these. Only He closes not the door of hope. In the transaction there had been a greater sinner--Caiaphas. In comparison with Pilate’ s guilt that of the High Priest was as a mountain to a feather, an ocean to a stream. Lessons: 1. The judicial blindness into which an unbelieving soul may fall (2 Corinthians 3:4)--exemplified in the Jewish nation and the priests. 2. The paralysing fear of a guilty conscience (Job 18:11)--illustrated in Pilate. 3. The real reason why the Jews rejected Christ--He was not the sort of Messiah they wanted (1 Corinthians 1:23). 4. The dignified reticence with which heaven treats men’ s demands for more evidence--enough having been provided to enable all in earnest to decide the attitude they shall assume towards Christ (Luke 16:29; Luke 16:31). 5. The insufferable vanity which official dignity not unfrequently inspires in small souls. 6. The necessity of remembering that the source of all power and authority is God--to whom therefore all must eventually render account Romans 14:12). 7. The different degrees of culpability attaching to different sins Matthew 11:22; Matthew 11:24; Luke 12:47). 8. The duty of keeping silence (James 1:19). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) He was the more afraid.Pilate’ s fear I. OF THE PEOPLE. II. OF THE EMPEROR. III. OF THE . (S. S. Times.) The cowardice of guilt Men who have lost their innocence cannot preserve their courage. (Lord Clarendon.) John 19:9 Whence art Thou?But Jesus gave him no answer The silences of Christ I. CHRIST SILENCE IS THE OF FALSE AND (Matthew 27:12-14). But why? Not simply because He was sublimely conscious of innocence, for there may come times when it is the duty of the innocent to defend their reputation by every lawful means. But there was no necessity for answer. Neither the men who made the statements nor the people who heard them put any faith in them--nay, they knew them to be manufactured lies. The echo of their own voices, not His voice, should condemn them--the most powerful condemnation of all. The memory of that Prisoner’ s calmness and quiet dignity would haunt the false accusers night and day like a perpetual shadow until death stilled the throbbing of their tortured brains and hearts. Does not something of the same kind mark the history of the past and Christ’ s dealings with men? Since the days of His earthly life false charges have been made against Him and His gospel without number. His character has been maligned, His words perverted, His claims despised. Men who hate the grandeur and purity of His teachings, who fear lest their own pretensions should be despised, have sought, by every false and selfish means, to slander Christ and Christianity. Eager, impatient Christians have even prayed for some mighty display of power to put an end to the wicked accusations, though it might involve swift judgment on the enemies of the faith. But the heavens have been dumb, Christ has been silent, and His disciples have wondered why it should be so. But such silence has been best for the Church and for the foes of the faith, while it is most in harmony with the dignity and majesty of the Divine nature. Christ cannot answer every false accuser. There is the truth; let that be His vindication. And this silence has justified itself; for where to-day are the many charges that have been urged against our Lord? Have they not disappeared, or confuted one another? We have only to set one class of opponents of Christianity over against another, and their statements become mutually destructive. II. CHRIST SILENCE IN THE OF . The scene which illustrates this point is recorded for us by Luke alone (Luke 23:9). Let any man treat religion as a thing to be speculated about, as a matter for purely intellectual pleasure, as a question for exciting controversy, as only one of many strange phenomena abounding in the world, and therefore to be accounted for, and there will be no response from the heavens. Christ will be silent to that man; he will never discover the truth. Religion belongs to our moral and spiritual nature; it has to do with our hearts sad their profoundest needs. Cur desire to ascertain its truth and its meaning must be accompanied by a resolve that if we discover it to be true we will apply it to our individual necessities, a resolve to reverence it with our whole natures, to obey its every command, to cling to it with an enthusiasm and love strong as life itself. Then Christ will speak, and testify to mind and heart concerning Himself. To other motives Christ will not deign a reply. His deathlike silence will be our greatest reproach. III. CHRIST SILENCE IN THE OF . Perhaps history does not present a more saddening picture than that of Pilate, the governor, in his judicial dealings with Jesus Christ. “ Whence art Thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.” The man’ s nature evidently quivers with anxiety--yet his question is met with absolute silence. Why is this? Here is a truly anxious inquirer. At first sight the conduct of Christ seems strange. But we must remember two things. 1. The man’ s previous conduct. He had been convinced of Christ’ s innocence, and yet had given way to the clamours of a mob. When men have despised the voices that have appealed to them, what right have they to expect further revelations? 2. Jesus Christ knew the man, knew his weakness, knew he would ask but with no desire to do, and the King of Truth was not to be trifled with. There are men who have trifled with truth and conscience, with all the interests of their souls, with every influence given to draw them heavenward, and yet they wonder they are not saved, that Christ does not answer their first prayer. Why, so far as right is concerned, they have forfeited it all by their contemptuous treatment of Divine influences. More than that, they have thus rendered themselves, in a measure, incapable of receiving further revelations from heaven. (W. Braden.) The silences of Jesus I. BEFORE AND FALSE (Matthew 26:63; Mark 14:61). The Faithful and True Witness before liars and hypocrites. II. BEFORE HEROD (Luke 23:9). The Holy One of God before the idle curiosity of a flagitious prince. III. BEFORE THE OF THE CHIEF PRIESTS AT PILATE’ S BAR Matthew 27:14). The Sinless One before charges the speakers knew were lies. IV. BEFORE PILATE (John 19:9). The King of Truth before an insincereinquirer. V. BEFORE THE SYRO- WOMAN (Matthew 15:23). Incarnate love before a humble and earnest petitioner. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Christ’ s silence He was acting according to His own precept Matthew 7:6). Christ’ s silence This is very strange. Hitherto He had spoken freely and replied to questions; now He refused to speak any more. I. THE REASON MUST BE SOUGHT IN THE STATE OF PILATE’ S SOUL. He deserved no answer, and therefore got none. He had forfeited his title to any further revelation about his prisoner. He had been told plainly the nature of our Lord’ s kingdom, and the purpose of His coming, and been obliged to confess publicly His innocence. And yet he had treated Him with flagrant injustice. He had, in short, sinned away his opportunities, forsaken his own mercies, and turned a deaf ear to the cries of his own conscience. Hence our Lord would have nothing more to do with him. II. Here, as in many other cases, WE LEARN THAT GOD WILL NOT FORCE ON MEN, and will not compel obstinate unbelievers to believe, and will not always strive with men’ s consciences. Most men, like Pilate, have a day of grace, and an open door put before them. If they refuse to enter in, and choose their own sinful way, the door is often shut, and never opened again. There is such a thing as a “ day of visitation,” when Christ speaks to men. If they will not hear His voice they are often left to reap the fruit of their own sins. It was so with Pharaoh, Saul, and Ahab, and Pilate’ s case was like theirs. III. We must not forget that PILATE’ S WICKED REFUSAL TO LISTEN to his own conscience, AND OUR LORD’ S consequent REFUSAL TO SPEAK TO HIM ANY MORE, WERE ALL BY THE ETERNAL OF GOD to the carrying out of His purpose of redemption. If our Lord had revealed who He was, and forced Pilate to see it, the crucifixion might perhaps never have taken place, and the great sacrifice for a world’ s sins might never have been offered. Our Lord’ s silence was just and well merited. But it was also part of God’ s counsels about man’ s salvation. IV. Note that THERE IS “ A TIME TO BE SILENT,” as well as “ a time to speak.” This is a matter in the social intercourse of daily life, about which we all need to pray for wisdom. To be always saying to everybody everything we know, is not the line of a wise follower of Christ. V. Note that IF WE DO NOT MAKE A GOOD USE OF LIGHT AND ,--and if we resist Christ speaking to our conscience,--A TIME MAY COME WHEN, LIKE PILATE, WE MAY SPEAK TO CHRIST, and ask things of Him, AND HE MAY GIVE US NO ANSWER (Proverbs 1:24-32). (Bp. Ryle.) The tribute of Christ’ s silence to His Deity This silence was the most emphatic answer to all who had ears to hear it, was a reference to what He had said before (chap. 18:37), and so a witness to His Divine origin. Would any mere man, of true and upright character, have refused an answer to a question so put? Let the modern rationalist consider this. (Dean Alford.) The situation I. SILENT DIGNITY. II. . III. TYRANNY. (S. S. Times.) John 19:10-11 Then said Pilate unto Him, Speakest Thou not unto me?Pilate’ s response I. RAGING IN THE OF POWER. II. IN THE OF COURAGE. III. SIN IN THE OF . IV. MAN IN THE OF GOD. (S. S. Times.) Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee?… Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above All power from God Men are inclined to think that they have power for good or power for evil because of their wealth, station, or influence. They fail to consider that all their power is a simple trust from God; and that not only are they responsible for the use they make of it, but the power itself is liable to be taken away from them, or held in check at the command of God at any instant. Men are free agents in the use of all their faculties and all their possessions; but their free agency is a gift of God; and God has not surrendered His watch or His control of every free agent in His service or among His opponents. No man has power for good or for evil except as God consents to that man’ s temporary exercise of power. There is a warning in this thought to those who may have fancied that they could either serve or resist God of their own strength. There is comfort and cheer in this thought to those who are threatened, or who are imperiled, by the hostility of others. A man can, in a sense, help God’ s cause by generous giving, or by earnest doing--if God permits man to give help in that way. A man can, in a sense, harm God’ s cause by opposing the right, or by withholding the aid that he ought to render--if God permits the man to do harm in that way. But, in the truest sense, no man can render a service to the devil, or harm a hair of a believer’ s head, unless God consents to this exercise of the man’ s power. But in either case the man is responsible for what he would like to do. By God’ s permission he is a free agent there. (H. C.Trumbull, D. D.) Therefore he that delivered Me unto thee hath the greater sin. The greater sin These words are a declaration of the great guilt of the Jewish nation and its rulers in asking Pilate to exercise his God-given authority against the Son of God. Pilate did what he did ignorantly and in unbelief; they knew he knew not. The greater sin was committed by the men who with the Scriptures in their hand called on him who had not those Scriptures to condemn their own Messiah. I. PILATE’ S POWER WAS FROM ABOVE. 1. As governor. “ There is no power but of God,” &c. The recognition of this lies at the root of all true politics. Earthly crowns are thus linked with the heavenly. Kings and magistrates are by reason of their office responsible to God. Not personally, as other men, merely. It is just because of their office that they are bound to consecrate everything that their office gives them power over to the service of Him from whom they have received their power. 2. As a Gentile governor. The Jews, for their sins, had been given over to Gentile dominion. So that in a double sense Pilate’ s power was not his own, nor from Rome, nor from the people, but from God, and was therefore to be specially used for God. He might not know all this; but Israel knew it, for their prophets, Daniel especially, had taught them it; and therefore they had the “ greater sin.” II. EVEN A BAD MAN’ S POWER IS FROM GOD. Our Lord affirms this of Pilate when using that power for the perpetration of the greatest crime ever committed. Let no man therefore point to the sins of potentates and say, Can the power of these men be given them from above? Listen to our Lord’ s words here, or St. Paul’ s when in the days of Nero he said (referring to the words of Christ), “ Let every soul be subject to the higher powers,” i.e., authorities holding from above; and when he proclaims civil government to be “ the ordinance of God” ; nay, when he calls the civil ruler “ the minister of God.” III. THE USE OF GOD-GIVEN POWER FOR A BAD PURPOSE IS ALLOWED OF GOD. Pilate is free to act; but he is responsible to God for his actions. God overrules his wickedness and employs him as an instrument for carrying out His purposes. He ought to use his power for a good purpose; not for condemning the Son of God, but for honouring Him; and when he abuses his authority he is doubly guilty, though that guilt is made use of by God. What a reckoning is at hand with the kings of the earth for the abuse of their power (Psalms 82:1-8.)! Like Pharaoh working out Israel’ s deliverance, Pilate here works out the deliverance of the Church, according to the purpose of God. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Greater and lesser sins The delivering of Christ to suffer and to die is sometimes spoken of as a good deed (Romans 8:32). And it was no sinful act in God; but was an act of (1) Love (John 3:16). (2) Infinite justice. When He had taken our debt upon Him, it was just that He should suffer for it. But in Judas it was a wicked act. God delivered Him to Judas, Judas to the priests, the priests to Pilate, and Pilate to death. There was sin in all those, but there was no sin in God. I. THERE ARE SOME THINGS IN WHICH ALL SINS ARE ALIKE. 1. In the same definition. They are all a breach of the law. 2. In the desert of them (Galatians 3:10 : Romans 6:23). Every transgression of the law deserves death. 3. In that the same price is paid to satisfy for them; no little sin is satisfied with less than the blood of Christ. 4. In respect of the possibility of the pardon of them; it was ill-said of Cain, “ Mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven” (mar. Genesis 4:13). II. IN WHAT RESPECT IS ONE SIN SAID TO BE GREATER THAN ANOTHER? When one sin is said to be little, it is not meant absolutely as if any sin were little, but comparatively. There are three Scripture comparisons. 1. Some sins are called gnats, others camels (Matthew 23:24). 2. Some motes, and others as beams. 3. Some pence, and others talents. Note that some sins (1) Are more displeasing to God than others. (2) Grieve the conscience more than others. (3) Procure more plagues and punishments in this world than others. (4) Sink people lower in belt than others. (5) Spread more of their infection upon others. (a) By the example. He that begins m a sin, that sin is greater in him than in others; therefore, Adam’ s sin was great, because we all sinned in him. (b) In respect of the penal consequence: the sin of David in numbering the people was great; and it appeared, because God did visit it on His people, and slew thousands of them; therefore, all sins are not alike. III. WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES ONE SIN GREATER THAN ANOTHER. Judas’ s sin was the greater for four reasons. 1. It was a leading sin (Acts 1:16). He is called the guide to them that took Jesus. Take heed how you are, any of you, guides to others to sin. 2. That which moved Pilate was fear of Caesar; but it was not fear that made Judas betray Christ, but love of money (cf. Matthew 26:14-15 Luke 22:3-5) . Satan entered into Judas. So, where the love of money is, it is a sign that the devil is entered. There is no sin so great but the love of money will make a man commit it; so it was with Ananias and Sapphira; Satan had filled their hearts. 3. The greatest aggravation of Judas’ s sin was the price--thirty pieces of silver; the price of a common servant (Exodus 21:32). 4. The dissimulation that was in it. (1) Pilate was a heathen, a stranger to Christ. (2) Pilate did it openly; but Judas did it in the night, when honest people were a-bed. (3) What Judas did, he did with a kiss, but Pilate did not do so (Matthew 26:1-75.). 5. The deliberation and contrivance that was in it (Luke 22:21). Pilate’ s hand was not there. Every premeditated sin is a great sin (Micah 2:1). It is one thing to be overtaken with a fault, and another thing to overtake it. Conclusion: What happened to Judas for this sin? 1. He died by his own hand despairing. 2. It brought him to his own place. 3. His name stinks to this day. (Philip Henry.) John 19:12-16 From thenceforth Pilate sought to release Him Pilate’ s last attempt to rescue Christ I. BY A FEEBLE SOUL (John 19:12). 1. The earnestness of this attempt. Already he had endcavoured to rescue Christ (1) By refusing to proceed without an accusation (John 18:29). (2) By offering a choice between Barabbas and Jesus (John 18:39;Matthew 27:17). (3) By scourging Christ and thus appealing to their sympathy (John 19:5). These stratagems were defeated, perhaps largely because Pilate had not been in earnest. Now he bends himself with energy and determination to the task. 2. The reason of this attempt. (1) The inward conviction of fear that Christ was a supernatural being. (2) The deepening impression made by Christ’ s person and character. (3) The secret apprehension that it would not be safe to proceed farther against Christ. (4) The gentleness Christ had displayed in palliating his offence. II. BY A CRAFTY FOE. “ But the Jews cried out,” &c. The last arrow that the Jews had in their quiver, was 1. Sharply pointed. It was a return to the original indictment of sedition which Pilate an hour before had waved aside as absurd. Now they show the governor how adroitly it may be turned against himself. Tiberius would hardly regard as a loyal act the liberation of one who had professed to be a king. 2. Correctly aimed. The shaft found the open joint in Pilate’ s harness and went straight to his heart. There was nothing that Pilate had more reason to dread than deletion to the emperor. 3. Powerfully driven home. Like men bent on having their way, they cried out with one simultaneous yell. And they had it! The procurator reeled as one shot. III. BY AN UNJUST JUDGE (John 19:13). The capitulation was 1. Cowardly. These accused hierarchs had proved better players than himself for Jesus’ life. With truth, justice, conscience, heaven, Christ and God on his side he had lost the game because he was a coward. The one thing he could not contemplate without a shudder was being reported to the emperor. 2. Complete. The struggle so long and at one time so gallantly and to appearance so hopefully, maintained was ended. There was no mistaking the import of Pilate’ s next actions, the fetching out of Jesus, the sitting down upon the judge’ s chair, and perhaps the handwashing. 3. Contemptuous. “ Behold your King!” as if intimating with fierce disdain and stinging mockery of the people that had conquered him, that the thorn-crowned prisoner was indeed their King. 4. Conclusive. The deed was irrevocable (John 19:16). If for a moment there was hesitation while for the last time he asked, “ Shall I crucify your King?” it was only for a moment, it was swept away before the awful shout, “ We have no king but Caesar.” Lessons: 1. The difficulty of doing right when self-interest stands in the way, “ If self the wavering balance shake, its rarely right adjusted” (Robert Burns). 2. The feebleness of every soul that hesitates to follow conscience. Had Pilate listened only to the still small voice within he had been invincible. 3. The guilt incurred by openly defying conscience. Christ palliated Pilate’ s sin before the preceding interview: it is not clear that He would have done so after that interview closed. 4. The degeneracy into which a soul may fall by turning away from Christ. Priests and people elected Caesar for their king rather than have God’ s Son for their Messiah! (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Pilate; or, worldly policy We have here an illustration of I. WORLDLY POLICY. The main motive that led to Pilate’ s final decision was a regard to his safety and his ease. He felt that to take a determined stand on the innocence of our Lord would involve peril to his position; and he was not prepared to incur that danger. It is by such considerations that men are moved and confronted in doing wrong. We live in a time of expediency, in the sense of not doing right lest it should be unprofitable. A high civilization and a large development of the commercial spirit is always in danger of fostering this. In public affairs, the favourite point of view is the economic; the popular inquiries are, what will it cost? Dishonesty is practised in business because it is lucrative, and conscientious conviction is suppressed lest it should lead to social disrepute. Oh! beware of Pilate’ s sin; learn the grand lesson that we have nothing to do with consequences when truth and right are involved. It will often happen that sincerity and righteousness will entail loss and suffering; and he who would keep a good conscience must lay his account with these. If we be not prepared for them, if we will only cleave to godliness when it is “ gain,” and to honesty when it is the best policy, there is nothing for us but to go in Pilate’ s steps, and abandon Christ, though convinced that there is no fault in Him at all. II. WORLDLY POLICY AND THE OF DUTY. Pilate wished and tried to deliver Christ, without sacrificing himself, for that purpose. He did not choose to do wrong; he did much to avoid doing it. And this may be the case with us: it often is. We do not fall at once. We set ourselves manfully against the besetting suggestions of interest, pleasure and good opinion. We enter the contest with a sincere desire to be right. It is long, perhaps, before we are prepared to give up; we strive to subordinate circumstances to our convictions; we go on, now under one pretence and now under another, until all pretences are exhausted: but at last an election must be made, Christ must be sacrificed or sin must be resigned, and, like the young man we feel the pressure of his demands to be too strong for us, and depart from him though “ sorrowful.” And there are times when the case assumes an especially solemn form; that, e.g., of deep spiritual conviction, and that of decision as to the general way and course of life. Then is Christ before us, arraigned and accused by the Sanhedrim of passion, interest, and sophistry, before the Pilate of reason, conscience, and true affection; the conflict may be long and painful; ingenious devices may be used to terminate or to postpone it: but escape and delay are both impossible; a decision must be made; and the soul reluctantly, and with a tearful eye, resigns the Saviour, and gives itself up to sin, and to a lie. And often this decision is final; it cannot be reversed. “ If we sin wilfully,” &c. III. WORLDLY POLICY A MAN INTO BONDAGE TO THOSE HE SHOULD GOVERN. Pilate was afraid of being accused by the Jews of unfaithfulness to the Roman emperor. He was the governor, and was deterred from doing right by the malice of the people over whom he presided. He was subject to those who were subject to him. Worldly policy often makes us abdicate our proper functions, and serve when we should reign. We are in the world, and in the Church, to do good, and to maintain righteousness. Whatever our superiority over others, and our means of affecting them, it is a faculty intended to resist their evil and advance their welfare; but if we give heed to the suggestions of selfishness; we not only do wrong, but do wrong to those whom we allow thus to influence us. Pilate, the governor, is the instrument of the Jews. IV. WORLDLY POLICY FROM. A MAN’ S OWN . Pilate’ s rule in Judaea was very far from what it should have been. He could not therefore afford to provoke the nation. He must do wrong again, because he had done wrong already. And how often do we see sin working in this way! We have put ourselves in the power of the world by our transgressions and inconsistencies. Could we bring an unsullied character, human esteem and honour, with us to the task, we might hope to make some impression, but now there will be the mocking surprise, the bitter retort, the hot wrath; and the will to do good, as in Pilate’ s case, is chained by the memory of past evil. And if past sins may make us subject to men, they are still more likely to make us slaves to ourselves, “ When we would do good, evil is present with us.” How many are there who, like Pilate, would let Christ go, aye and welcome Him as the Son of God, but for the oppressions of former iniquities! could they but blot them out, what would they not do! but the tyranny of lust and worldliness is strong upon them; and he is sacrificed, and they are sacrificed, to “ old sins.” (A. J. Morris.) Pilate’ s weakness Was Pilate exceptionally weak in this thing? He wanted to be of service to Jesus, but he was not quite ready to be ruined for Him. There are corresponding tests of fidelity to the right in every man’ s experience all the way along in life. A public official or representative has to decide whether he will yield to some unjust popular clamour in behalf of a special interest, or against an obnoxious class, or lose all his hopes of promotion and even all fair prospect of well doing in the public service. A business man must meet the question whether he will conform to some established method of wrong-doing in the line of his business, or abandon his prospects of “ success” in life. An employe finds himself face to face with the problem, how he can do the work that is required of him, at the times when it is called for, consistently with his conscience and the law of God; and whether he is willing to accept the consequences of standing out against the necessities of his employment as it is. The position of Pilate was, after all, no more trying than is the position of almost every man who faces Christ and Christ’ s cause to-day; and now, as always, only he who is ready to lose his life, and to lose a great deal more than life, for the sake of Christ, can fairly be called a true and faithful servant of Christ. Pilate was weak under such a pressure as this. Would to God he had been the last weak one in such an emergency! (H. C.Trumbull, D. D.) If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar’ s friend Caesar or Christ I. CAESAR’ S FRIEND. 1. An enemy of Christ. 2. A lover of self. 3. A slave of man. Such Pilate was! II. CHRIST’ S FRIEND. 1. A lover of the truth. 2. A doer of the right. 3. A champion of the wronged. 4. A sympathizer with the suffering. 5. A servant of conscience. 6. A denier of self. Such Pilate might have been. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) John 19:13 When Pilate therefore heard that The down grade Pilate’ s time for playing with the situation is gone; now the situation plays with him. First he said, not asked, “ What is truth?” Now his frightened heart, to which the emperor’ s favour is the supreme law of life, says, “ What is justice?” (J. P. Lange, D. D.) A place that is called the pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gahbatha.--Both these words occur here only, and are instances of the writer’ s minute knowledge of the localities in Jerusalem. It may have been better to have preserved the Greek name (Lithost-roton), as well as that by which the place was known in the Hebrew (Syro-Chaldaic), of the time. The word literally means stonepaved, and was the Greek name for the tesselated “ pavement” of marble and coloured stones with which, from the time of Sylla, the Romans delighted to adorn the Praetorium. The Chaldic word means “ an elevated place,” so that the one name was given to it from its form, and the other from the material of which it was made. Suetonius tells us that Julius Caesar carried about with him such pieces of marble and stone, but the mention of the “ place” bears the impression that it was a fixture in front of the Praetorium at Jerusalem, in which the Bema was placed; or it may have been a portion of the northern court of the sanctuary to which Pilate came out, if we identify the Praetorium with the tower Antonia (cf. Matthew 27:27) . Josephus mentions that the whole of the Temple mountain was paved with this kind of mosaic work. (Archdeacon Watkins.) John 19:14 It was the preparation of the passover.--The name Paraskeue? was given to the day of the week, our Friday, the day before the Sabbath, and had absolutely nothing to do with any preparation for the passover. The Gospels show this beyond a doubt (Mark 15:42; Mt Luke 23:54). If any confirmation were wanted it may be found in the fact that the name is applied in a Greece-Roman decree quoted by Josephus (“ Ant.” 16.6, sec. 2) to the week day which answers to our Friday. Even the phrase which seems most to suggest a different view, “ the preparation of the passover,” here in John, does not mean more than “ Passover Friday” ; the Friday in Passover week, and coming, therefore, before a Sabbath more solemn than others (verse 31). It may be noted further that the term Paraskeue? was adopted by the Church, Western as well as Eastern, as a synonym for the Dies Veneris, or Friday. (Archdeacon Watkins.) And about the sixth hour.--It is difficult to harmonize this statement with Matthew’ s narrative, according to which, at mid-day, Jesus had been for some time on the cross, and still more with Mark 15:25, where it is said that it was the third hour, i.e., nine o’ clock, when Jesus was crucified. But let it be remembered 1. That the day as a whole was divided, like the night, into four parts of three hours each. This explains why mention is scarcely ever made in the New Testament of any hours except the third, sixth and ninth (cf. Matthew 20:1-5) , and why also the expressions “ almost” or “ about” are so frequent (Matthew 27:46; Luke 23:44; John 4:6; Acts 10:3-9). The ù̔ò, about, is expressly added here. It is therefore certainly allowable to take the mean here, both in Mark and John, especially if it be remembered that the apostles had not watch in hand. As Mark’ s third hour may extend from eight to ten o’ clock, John’ s sixth certainly includes from eleven to twelve. 2. But above all account must be taken of an important circumstance that Matthew and Mark have given to the scourging of Jesus, the meaning which it ordinarily had, and have regarded it as the beginning of the whole punishment. They have consequently identified the two judicial acts which are strictly distinguished by John, that whereby Pilate condemned Jesus to scourging, and that whereby He delivered Him over to the last penalty of death. It is easily conceivable that Mark, having lost sight of the entire interval between the two condemnations, has dated the pronouncing of the sentence of death at the time which was properly that of the sentence of scourging. (F. Godet, D. D.) He saith unto the Jews, Behold your King The two kingdoms The words are words of scorn, at once angry and bitter. Pilate is exasperated by the obstinate determination of the Jews to have the blood of Jesus. He has an infidel’ s contempt for the bigotry and fanaticism of these fierce zealots. He has the contempt of a Roman soldier for conquered provincials, writhing in vain under the heel of the conquerer. And yet, for the moment, these fierce fanatics are too strong for him. They know their own mind, and he does not know his. Thus, in this supreme moment, which (humanly speaking) sealed the fate of Jesus, there come into clear view two distinct kingdoms--two absolutely antagonistic forms of royal power: one, represented by the crown of thorns the other, by the imperial sceptre of Rome; one, impersonated, then and ever since, in Jesus the crucified--the other, for the moment, in a Tiberius. And the question--not then only, but at all times and for all men--is: To which of these two diverse and antagonistic kingdoms shall we yield the homage of our hearts--the indivisible loyalty of soul and will? There is a power which addresses itself to the eye--which dazzles, and by dazzling attracts. And, again, there is a power which addresses itself, not to the eye of sense, but to the spirit within; and which attracts, not by any external dazzling, but by an interior subjugation, to which conscience and heart yield themselves freely and joyfully. The empire of Borne was of the former kind; the empire of Jesus Christ was, and is, of the latter. Power of the former kind is essentially local and fleeting and transient; power of the latter kind may be universal and eternal. The kingdom of Christ has upon it the marks, which indicate, to say the very least, the possibility of such universal and everlasting empire. The ruins and debris of the Roman empire are all that survives to show where and what it once was. Christ’ s kingdom grows stronger and stronger, larger and larger, with every passing century. Even now it is only in its infancy. What will it be? Now this kingdom is founded upon service and sacrifice. He stoops to conquer. He stoops to the likeness of men, in order to conquer humanity for God. The cross is His passport to the throne of our hearts. In our best moments we all acknowledge His right to reign over us. But ever and again, side by side with that kingdom of His, which is not of this world, there comes into view a kingdom which is of this world; the allurements of wealth, or pleasure, or interest, or power--the life lived to self, and not to God. This is our “ Caesar,” brethren. It is of this, that we find ourselves, again and again, tempted to cry,” “ We have no king but Caesar.” More than this. According as we yield ourselves to the sway of the one kingdom or of the other--the kingdom which is of this world, or the kingdom which is not of this world--accordingly do we exercise, in nut own small place and day, the powersof that kingdom. They transmit themselves through us as their agents, and we become workers for the one kingdom or the other, as the case may be. Will we offer ourselves to Christ, our rightful king, in a truly loyal allegiance? Forthwith, behold, we become, as it were, a medium of communication between Him and the world around us. He works through us. He seats us, if we may say so, on the lowest step of His own throne. We share His present power, even now; as we shall share His future, final triumph, hereafter. If, on the other hand, we yield ourselves to the Caesar of this world, and allow him practically, in any one or more of his many forms, to rule over us; we do so, not for ourselves only and to the peril of our own souls, but for others also and to the peril of theirs. “ No man liveth to himself.” No man can so isolate himself from his fellows, that no influence, either for evil or for good, shall pass through him to them. No man can either ruin or save his own soul, without doing something, it may be much, to ruin or to save the souls of others. The picture may seem to some overdrawn. True: it is an ideal picture. In actual experience, no life is wholly surrendered to the sway, either of the kingdom of Christ, or of the kingdom of this world. Motives, actions, characters--all, in real life, are, more or less, mixed. The worst have traits of goodness. The best bear at least the scars of conquered evil. Yet still, the weight of every human soul--the momentum of every human life--is flung distinctly andunmistakably, in its net result, either on Christ’ s side or on Caesar’ s. Brethren, which of these two alternatives do we embrace? (D. J.Vaughan, M. A.) Ecce Rex 1. Pilate spake far more than he understood, and therefore we shall not confine ourselves to his meaning. 2. Everything concerning our Lord was more than ever full of meaning just then; the saying of Caiaphas, the fleeing of the disciples, the dividing of His garments, the soldier piercing His side, &c. 3. It was to the Jews that Jesus was brought forth, and by them He was rejected; yet was He distinctly declared to be their King. 4. The same is repeated at this day among those favoured with special privileges; but whether they accept Him or not, He is assuredly in some sense or other their King. 5. To the summons of the text the answer was mockery. 6. We would with deepest reverence draw near and behold our King. Behold Him I. HIS THRONE. 1. He lays the foundation of it in His suffering nature. 2. He makes it a throne of grace by His atoning griefs. 3. He prepares access to it through His ability to have compassion on those who come to Him, by partaking in all their sorrows. 4. He canopies and glorifies it by the shame to which He willingly and unreservedly yields Himself. Believe in the perpetuity of a throne thus founded. II. OUR HOMAGE. By the right of 1. Supreme love. 2. Complete purchase. 3. Grateful consecration, which we heartily accord to Him under a sense of loving gratitude. Glory in rendering homage thus made due. III. HIS . 1. Jews and Gentiles are won to obedience by beholding His sufferings for them. 2. This brings in His own elect everywhere. 3. This restores backsliders. They look to Him whom they have pierced, and return to their allegiance. 4. This holds all His true servants captive; they glory in yielding their all to Him who was thus put to shame for them. 5. This subdues all things unto Him. By His Cross and Passion He reigns in heaven, earth, and hell. Bow low before the sceptre of His Cross. IV. SETTING FORTH THE PATTERN OF HIS KINGDOM. He stands there the Prophet and the Type of His own dominion. 1. It is no earthly kingdom: the difference is palpable to all. 2. It is associated with shame and suffering, both on the part of the King and of His loyal subjects. 3. It is based on His love and self-sacrifice: this is His right of sovereignty, this His force of arms, this the source of His revenue. 4. It is made resplendent by His woes: these are the insignia and ornaments of His court; His glory even in heaven. Glory only in the Cross. V. PROVING THE OF HIS KINGDOM 1. Is He King there in His shame? Then, assuredly, He is King now that He has risen from the dead, and gone into the glory. 2. Is He King amid shame and pain? Then He is able to help us if we are in like case. 3. Is He King while paying the price of our redemption? Then, certainly, He is King now that it is paid, and He has become the Author of eternal salvation. 4. Is He King at Pilate’ s bar? Then truly He will be so when Pilate stands at His bar to be judged. Conclusion: 1. Come hither, saints, and pay your accustomed worship! 2. Come hither, sinners, and adore for the first time! (C. H.Spureon.) John 19:15 But they cried out … Crucify Him.--As the “ Crucify Him!” falls upon our ears, it is simply the cry of an excited mob, instigated by the chief priests and elders. It falls painfully upon our Christian, and even upon our civilized, ears. We do not like to see human nature wrought up to such a pitch of frenzy. And if He whose cruel execution is thus demanded is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, then this cry pierces our very souls. But let us, while we gather around the cross, close our outward ear and hear with the ear of faith. Then other voices will reach us, and, though they utter the very same sentence, it will sound very differently and produce a far different impression. We hear a voice I. FROM THE DIVINE SIDE. 1. From the throne of God. “ Let Him be crucified” is the decree of the Almighty, the “ determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” This shedding of the precious blood of Christ, as of “ a lamb without blemish and without spot,” was “ fore-ordained before the foundation of the world.” We cannot discern the point at which God’ s sovereignty and man’ s free agency meet: we know that they were without excuse who nailed the Redeemer to the tree; but underlying all, overruling all, accomplishing all, is the Divine purpose. Through that guilty act of man there was wrought a mysterious bat most real purpose of Divine love. “ God so loved the world,” &c. We shall never know at what a cost nor understand the terrible strain upon the heart of the infinite Father. But though there entered into His ear that deepest wail of sorrow, “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He only answered by His silence--“ Let Him be crucified.” It was a terrible price to pay, but only thus can sin be taken away and man be saved from everlasting death. 2. From the cross itself. Christ had prayed a little before that if it were possible for human salvation to be secured in any other way He might be spared. But not otherwise. It was for this purpose He had taken human nature upon Him. “ Lo, I come,” &c. And now, He asks not for deliverance; nay, though He is able to come down from the cross, yet will He not do it. “ Let Me be crucified” is the utterance of the willing sufferer. “ I have power to lay down My life, and I will lay it down for My sheep.” “ For the joy that is set before Me I will endure the Cross and despise the shame.” “ Father, forgive them,” &c. 3. The Holy Spirit joins His voice. In all that He had caused to be written He had foreshadowed the death of the Son of God. The sacrifice in Eden; the sacrifice of Abel; the paschal lamb and the scapegoat; the sacrifices offered every day upon the Jewish altar; all pointed to this Lamb of God now laid upon the altar of the cross. How then, saith the Spirit, shall “ all be fulfilled” unless He be crucified? II. FROM THE HUMAN SIDE. Is there no petition for this atoning death from the lips of the sinners themselves whom God has so loved? I will suppose that we are gathered about the cross of Christ, and that the consciousness of our sin and misery has dawned upon our minds and is burdening our souls. Shall we enter our protest? Shall we say, “ Let Him not be crucified.” Oh, then, if He should heed our cry, what would become of us? We cannot by any means save ourselves. “ The soul that sinneth, it shall die” ; and we cannot make ourselves alive. We are sold unto Satan; we are powerless to deliver ourselves; only One can do that, and He in one way only, viz., by being crucified. If He dies the death, at that instant the doors of our prison-house will fly open and Satan will be powerless to hold us. But not otherwise. And so we cry, “ O Son of God, die for us.” Are we selfish? Would we have Him perish that we may live? Ah, if the condition of our salvation were His everlasting destruction, God forbid that we should demand the awful sacrifice! For what would heaven be with such a memory as that? But when we know that, “ having died for our sins, He will rise again for our justification” ; that He would far rather die for us thus than to have us lost; and that our salvation will be a source of joy to Him for ever, we can say, while we mourn that our sins have pierced Him and made it necessary for Him to die, “ Let Him be crucified.” Conclusion: 1. Let nothing draw you who are Christians away from Christ crucified even for one careless moment. 2. What shall be said to those who seem so indifferent about this great event? Shall heaven and hell be moved by this scene, and any of us men, for whose salvation it occurred, pass by it? (G. D. Baker, D. D.) The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar No king but Caesar 1. There is nothing which shows more completely what sin is, than the scenes which centre about the death of our Lord. We see wicked men now, but they act generally under restraint; but here sin seemed to be without restraint; and it carried the Jews on to a wickedness unparalleled in history. For Christ did nothing in the whole course of His life to anger men. What aroused evil passions was simply the righteousness that was in Him. Therefore, if we desire to understand what sin itself is, we must look at it in those wicked men, who would have nothing but the blood of the sinless Saviour. 2. In the text we see the degradation of sin. These Jews renounced every thing of national honour and greatness, every hope concerning the Messiah; every principle of patriotism; and they confessed themselves the abject slaves of their Roman conquerors. Heretofore, their highest glory was that God was their King; and in the strength of this position they had endured, with a certain air of grandeur, their oppression. But the language, “ We have no king but Caesar,” was a complete abandonment of all their claims. What was it all for? Simply that hatred might satiate itself in the blood of One who had conferred upon them the highest benefits. It was sin in the heart, acting without restraint, showing its true self. In order to carry out purposes of wrong, it is not unusual to find men falsifying their whole past record, and placing an indelible stain upon their characters. See what avariciousness and covetousness will make a man stoop to, the many mean, tricky, and dishonest actions. See what ambition will bring men to. See how the inordinate appetite for strong drink will bring men from respectability to the gutter. See how impurity, unchastity, and all the vices of fleshly sensuality, destroy manhood. He abandons every thing, to serve the Caesar of his own sinful lusts and passions. 3. In the end these Jews got more than they wanted from Caesar. When they were made to feel the iron heel of the despot in the destruction of their city, how their minds must have reverted to the day when they cried out to Pilate, “ We have no king but Caesar” ! So is it with sin when it has finished its work. Its imperious will must be submitted to. When at last the man has reached that awful end in eternity, when there is no thought, desire, affection, will, but to do iniquity; when he is entirely under the control of sin, and is enduring the suffering consequent upon sin--then will be realized the bitter degradation and curse to which sin legitimately tends. (C. S. Abbott.) Christ, a great King Latimer, while preaching one day before Henry VIII., stood up in the pulpit, and seeing the king, addressed himself in a kind of soliloquy, thus: “ Latimer, Latimer, Latimer, take care of what you say, for the great King Henry VIII. is here.” Then he paused, and proceeded: “ Latimer, Latimer, Latimer, take care what you say, for the great King of kings is here.” (W. Baxendale.) The universal sovereignty of Christ When Alexander the Great set forward upon his great exploits before leaving Macedonia, he divided amongst his captains and nobles all his property. On being rebuked by a friend for having, as he thought, acted so foolishly in parting with all his possessions, reserving nothing for himself, Alexander replied, “ I have reserved for myself much more than I have given away: I have reserved for myself the hope of universal monarchy; and when, by the valour and help of these my captains and nobles, I shall be monarch of the world, the gifts I have parted with will come back to me with an increase of a thousandfold.” (W. Baxendale.) John 19:16 Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified When? I. NOT WHEN THE AGAINST JESUS WAS . Charges had been made, but nothing had been proved. Neither in their testimony, nor in the utterances of Jesus Himself, did Pilate find any ground for passing the death-sentence. II. NOT WHEN HEROD SENT HIM BACK TO PILATE. Had that ruler sent word that Christ was worthy of death, Pilate might have yielded, and “ then” have passed sentence on the prisoner. But Pilate says: “ No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto Him.” III. NOT WHEN HIS WIFE URGED HIM TO PLEASE THE JEWS. Herod had, indeed, beheaded John the Baptist through his wife’ s influence. But, singularly enough, Pilate’ s wife defended the righteous Prisoner. IV. NOT WHEN HE THOUGHT THAT THE MOTIVES OF HIS WERE JUST AND HOLY. Pilate was not by any means deceived by them. V. NOT WHEN HE HAD NO POWER TO DELIVER CHRIST FROM THEIR RAGE. “ Knowest Thou not that I have power,” &c. The power lay absolutely in his hands. The Jews knew this, and Pilate knew it. He never could have pleaded that he was powerless. VI. NOT WHEN HIS FAILED TO ACT IN THIS MATTER. If ever Pilate’ s conscience was active, it was just at this time. To the very last it strove with him, even to the extent of making him wash his hands. His testy answer to the Jews, later on, when they wanted the superscription over the cross changed, shows that he was irritated at having been dragged into the position in which he found himself. VII. WHEN HE SAW THAT BY REFUSAL HE WOULD FORFEIT THE FAVOUR OF THE JEWS. He did not want to do wrong, if he could help it. But, at the same time, he did not want to lose the favour of the Jewish leaders. Two desires strove within him for the mastery. The conflict was long and bitter. All arguments but one were in favour of the release of Jesus. But all just arguments had to go to the wall before the one selfish motive of popularity. Conclusion: And are there no modern Pilates? The youngest child has had experience enough to enable him to sympathize keenly with this man. 1. For no one lives long in this world without finding that, sooner or later, duty and desire conflict with each other. Not for lack of light, but for lack of will, do men go astray. 2. Like Pilate, men seek to evade the responsibility for their actions. How often “ circumstances” are blamed, or companions are made the bearers of the responsibility. “ Inability” to resist is pleaded. Any flimsy excuse is laid hold of and magnified, in order to shift the guilt of the act from the sinning soul. Pilate’ s hand-washing seems to us frivolous and childish. Is it any more childish than half of the foolish excuses offered for the evil deeds of many? 3. It is very possible that a previous misdeed of Pilate’ s may have occurred to him as a reason for this iniquitous act (Luke 13:1). Is it too fanciful to suppose that at this time Pilate saw an opportunity to regain the popularity which then he had lost? One lie calls for another, and one dishonest deed begets a second. The only way out of past wrong is to confess it, and break from the bondage of old-time sins. Otherwise, the last state of a man simply becomes worse than his first. (A. F. Schauffler.) The morally wrong ever inexpedient I. A REMOVED TO APPEAR IN MORE FORMS “ Then delivered he,” &c. In this no doubt Pilate felt that he had got rid of a difficulty. How to meet the claims of his imperial master, maintain his popularity with the Jews, and save his conscience, constituted a difficulty that had distracted him beyond measure. Now handing Christ over to the Jews he would breathe more freely. Alas! the difficulty is merely temporarily shifted and pushed for a moment out of sight, but otherwise becoming, more huge and revolting. No difficulty can be removed by outraging or ignoring rectitude. 1. One man has a financial difficulty: accumulated debts drag him down, and he knows not how to deliver himself. He makes himself bankrupt, or forges a bill and fancies the difficulty removed. Not so. 2. Another has a social difficulty. By amorous impulses and reckless vows, he has committed himself to some one whom he comes to loathe as an intolerable infliction. In an evil moment he uses a razor or administers a poison, foolishly supposing that the difficulty is got rid of. But the old tormentor, though buried in the earth, is alive in memory to haunt it for ever. 3. Another has a moral difficulty; his conscience is oppressed with a sense of guilt, and he seeks to remove the difficulty by resorting to drink and revelry. But the sleeping conscience soon awakes. II. A WHICH MUST THE VICTORS IN RUIN. “ And they took Jesus and led Him away.” The Jews were now triumphant: but of what worth was their victory? Even in this life they felt the rebound. A few years on, and the king they chose ravaged their country, destroyed their Temple, extinguished their national life, and scattered them throughout the earth. Truly the “ triumphing of the wicked is short.” History abounds in instances of conquests reversed and victors vanquished. “ Whoso taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.” The slaveholders martyred John Brown, and thought they had killed the antislavery movement; hut in the course of a few years the cause of slavery was ruined. The principle is this--what is wrongfully achieved must lead to ruin. A man struggles for a fortune. He achieves it, but how? He struggles for senatorial honours, but how? The how is the question. All the produce of human labour, however valuable, if unrighteously obtained, the justice of the universe turns into stone that will grind the possessors to powder. (D. Thomas, D. D.) And they took Jesus, and led Him away The procession of sorrow I. CHRIST AS LED FORTH. Pilate scourged our Saviour according to the custom of Roman courts, and gave him over to the Praetorian guards to insult him. We do not read that they removed the crown of thorns, and therefore it is probable that our Saviour wore it along the Via Dolorosa. They put on Him His own clothes that the multitude might discern Him to be the very man who had professed to be the Messiah. We all know that a different dress will often raise a doubt about the identity of an individual; but lo! the people saw Him in the street wearing His garment without seam. How they led Him forth we do not know; perhaps with a rope about His neck, since it was not unusual for the Romans thus to conduct criminals to the gallows. We care, however, far more for the fact that He went forth carrying His cross. This was intended at once to proclaim His guilt and intimate His doom. 1. We learn here as we see Christ led forth that which was set forth in shadow by the scapegoat. Did not the high-priest bring the scapegoat, and put both his hands upon its head, confessing the sins of the people, that thus those sins might be laid upon the goat? Then the goat was led away by a fit man into the wilderness, and it carried away the sins of the people. Now we see Jesus brought before the priests and rulers, who pronounce Him guilty; God Himself imputes our sins to Him; He was made sin for us; and, as the great Scapegoat, led away by the appointed officers of justice. 2. Jesus was conducted to the common place of death. Our great Hero, the destroyer of Death, bearded the lion in his den, and slew the monster in his own castle. 3. He was led thither to aggravate His shame. Calvary was like our Old Bailey. Christ must die a felon’ s death in the place where horrid crimes had met their due reward. In this, too, He draws the nearer to us, “ He was numbered with the transgressors,” &c. 4. But the great lesson is, “ let us go forth, therefore, without the camp, bearing His reproach.” (1) The multitude are leading Him forth from the Temple. He is not allowed to worship with them. (2) He is exiled from their friendship. No man dare whisper a word of comfort to Him. (3) He is banished from their society, as if He were a leper. See, here is a picture of what we may expect from men if we are faithful to our Master. It is not likely that we shall be able to worship with them, have their friendship, or be received into their society. Go ye, then, like the Master, expecting to earn reproach, without the camp. II. CHRIST HIS CROSS. I have shown you, believer, your position; let me now show you your service. Christ comes forth from Pilate’ s hall with the cumbrous wood, all to heavy for His exhausted frame; so they place it upon Simon, a Cyrenian. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus, two persons well known in the early Church; let us hope that salvation came to his house when he was compelled to bear the Saviour’ s cross. Let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon’ s 1. It is not our cross, but Christ’ s which we carry. When your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you, then remember, it is Christ’ s cross; and how delightful is it to carry that. 2. You carry the cross after Him. Your path is marked with footprints of your Lord. 3. You bear this cross in partnership. It is the opinion of some that Simon only carried one end of it. That is possible; Christ may have carried the heavier end. Certainly it is so with you. Rutherford says, “ Whenever Christ gives us a cross, He cries, ‘ Halves, My love.’” Others think that Simon carried the whole of the cross. If he carried all the cross, yet he only carried the wood of it; he did not bear the sin which made it such a load. If you think that you suffer all that a Christian can suffer, yet, remember, there is not one drop of wrath in all your sea of sorrow. Jesus took that. 4. Although Simon carried Christ’ s cross, he did not volunteer to do it, but they compelled him. I fear that the most of us carry it by compulsion; at least when it first comes on to our shoulders we do not like it; but the world compels us to bear Christ’ s cross. I do not think we should seek after needless persecution. That man deserves no pity who purposely excites the disgust of other people. We must not make a cross of our own. Let there be nothing but your religion to object to, and then if that offends them, it is a cross which you must carry joyfully. 5. Though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honour. The cross we have to carry is only for a little while at most. “ I reckon that these light afflictions,” &c. III. CHRIST AND HIS . When the voice of sympathy prevailed over the voice of Scorn, Jesus paused, and said, “ Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me,” &c. This was a very proper sorrow; Jesus did not by any means forbid it, He only recommended another sorrow as being better. 1. Weep not because the Saviour bled, but because your sins made Him bleed. The Lord thinks far more of the tears of repentance than of the mere drops of human sympathy. 2. Weep over those who have brought that blood upon their heads. We ought not to forget the Jews. 3. Sorrow deeply for the souls of all unregenerate men and women. What Christ suffered for us, these must suffer for themselves, except they put their trust in Christ. IV. CHRIST’ S FELLOW-. There were two other cross-bearers, malefactors. Their crosses were just as heavy as the Lord’ s, and one of them had no sympathy with him, and his bearing the cross only led to his death, and not to his salvation. I have met with persons who have suffered much, and therefore suppose that because of that they shall escape punishment. Yonder malefactor carried his cross and died on it; and you will carry your sorrows, and be damned with them, except you repent. No sufferings of ours have anything to do with the atonement of sin. V. THE SAVIOUR’ S WARNING . “ If they do these things in the green tree, what will they do in the dry?” “ If I, the innocent substitute for sinners, suffer thus, what will be done when the sinner himself shall fall into the hands of an angry God?” Remember that when God saw Christ in the sinner’ s place He did not spare Him, and when He finds you without Christ, He will not spare you. (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 19:17-25 And He bearing His cross went forth The lonely Cross-bearer I. BEARING THE CROSS FOR HIMSELF (Isaiah 63:3). 1. An aggravation of His misery. 2. An intensifying of their sin. 3. A heightening of His love. 4. An enlargement of their hope. II. BEARING THE CROSS FOR US. 1. As an expiation of our guilt (Colossians 1:20; Colossians 2:14). 2. As a pattern for our life (1 Peter 2:21). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The great Cross-bearer and His followers (Text, and Mark 15:20-21) 1. When our Lord had been condemned, the execution of His sentence was hurried. Every moment of delay was wearisome to the Jews. It was the day of the passover, and they wished to have this matter finished before they went with hypocritical piety to celebrate the festival. We do not wonder at their eagerness; but at Pilate we do wonder. In all civilized countries there is usually an interval between the sentence and the death. As the capital sentence is irreversible, it is well to have a little space in which possible evidence may be forthcoming, which may prevent the fatal stroke. With the Romans it was usual to allow the reasonable respite of ten days. Now Pilate might have pleaded this; and he was culpable, as he was all along, in thus yielding to the clamour for an immediate execution. When once we begin to make the wishes of other men our law we know not to what extremity of criminality we may be led. 2. Being given over to death, our Saviour was led away outside the city. (1) Because by the Jews He was treated as a flagrant offender who must be executed at the Tyburn of the day. Alas! Jerusalem, thou didst cast out thy last hope. (2) Because He was to be consumed as a sin-offering. The sweet-savour offerings were presented upon the altar, and were accepted of God, but sin-offerings were burnt without the camp or gate, because God can have no fellowship with sin. (3) Because He died, not for Jerusalem, nor Israel alone, but for the race. Out in the open He must die, to show that He reconciled both Jews and Gentiles unto God. (4) That we might go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. “ Come ye out from among them,” &c. 3. Let us draw near our Lord for awhile, and carefully observe each instructive detail. I. HIS DRESS. 1. The crown of thorns. Jesus died a crowned monarch. The Man by whom we are redeemed is crowned with that product of the earth which came of the curse. 2. He was bound. By Roman custom criminals were bound with cords to the cross which they were doomed to carry. “ Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.” 3. Jesus wore His own clothes (1) For identification, that all who looked on might know that it was the same person who had preached in their streets and had healed their sick. (2) That there might be a fulfilment of prophecy. “ They parted My garments among them,” &c. Other raiment could readily have been rent and divided. (3) To indicate that our Lord’ s passion was a true and natural part of His life; He died as He lived. His death was not a new departure, but the completion of a life of self-sacrifice, and so He goes to die in His ordinary everyday garments. Does not it almost seem as if people put on their Sunday clothes because they regard religion as something quite distinct from their common life? Can we not wear our own clothes, habits, characteristics, and peculiarities and serve the Lord? Is there not some suspicion of unnaturalness in services which require men to put on a strange, outlandish dress? It is ill for a man when he cannot lead his fellows in prayer till he has gone to the wardrobe. II. HIS COMPANY. 1. The rough Roman soldiers, strong, muscular, unfeeling men, ready to shed blood at any moment. I do but bid you look at them to remind you that from beneath their eagle our Saviour won a trophy; for their centurion confessed, “ Certainly this was the Son of God.” 2. Two malefactors. He must not be separated from the basest of men. I mention them because our Lord won a trophy by the conversion of one of them. 3. The scribes and Pharisees and high priests. Their hate was insatiable, but it was accompanied with fear, and that night it was seen that Christ had conquered them, for they begged a guard to prevent their victim from leaving the tomb. 4. A great rabble. The same, who a week ago shouted, “ Hosanna!” The Lord endured the popular scorn as He had once received the popular acclamation. He lived above it all. 5. Kindly women. 6. We must now leave the company, but not till we have asked, Where are His disciples? Where is Peter? Did he not say, “ I will go with Thee to prison and to death” ? Where is John? Holy women are gathering, but where are the men? Though the women act like men, the men act as women. III. HIS BURDEN. Our Lord carried His own cross at the commencement of the sorrowful pilgrimage. This 1. Increased His shame. It was a custom of the Romans to make felons bear their own gibbet. Furcifer, “ gallows bearer,” was hissed at men in contempt, just as “ gallows-bird” is now. 2. Note next its weight. 3. There was a typical evidence about this. If Simon had carried Christ’ s cross all the way, we should have missed the type of Isaac, who carried the wood for his own sacrifice. 4. The spiritual meaning of it was that Christ in perfect obedience was then carrying the load of our disobedience. 5. It also has a prophetic meaning; that cross which He carried through Jerusalem shall go through Jerusalem again. It is His great weapon with which He conquers and wins the world. “ The government shall be upon His shoulder;” that which He bore on His shoulder shall win obedience, and they that take His yoke upon them shall find rest unto their souls. IV. HIS CROSS-BEARER. 1. He was pressed into this duty. The word used signifies that the person is impressed into the royal service, How often has a burden of sorrow been the means of bringing men to the faith of Jesus! 2. His name was Simon; and where was that other Simon? What a silent but strong rebuke this would be to him, “ Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Simon Peter lost a crown here, and another head wore it. 3. Simon was a Cyrenian--an African--I wonder if he was a black man. In Acts 13:1-52., we find mention of a Simeon that was called Niger, or black. Surely the African has had his full share of cross-bearing for many an age. Blessed be he, whether African or Englishman, that has the honour of bearing the cross after Christ. 4. He was coming in from the country. How often the Lord takes into His service the unsophisticated country people, who as yet are untainted by the cunning and the vice of the city. 5. He was the Father of Alexander and Rufus. Which is the greater honour to a man, to have a good father, or to be the father of good sons? Under the Old Testament rule we usually read of a man that he is the son of such a one, but here we come to another style. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ bearing His cross Our Lord, when a workman in the carpenter’ s shop at Nazareth, had willingly carried pieces of timber in the service of His foster-father. Here, with no less cheerfulness, He bears to Golgotha the timber of the cross, in order to raise the altar on which He is to be sacrificed, and to do the will of His Father in heaven. (R. Besser, D. D.) The crucifixion of Christ I. THE CROSS IS THE POWER OF GOD FOR SIN AND FOR THE SINFUL HEART. What will sin do? Show us this and you give us the best exposition of sin. This gospel story tells us that sin crucified the Son of God. But the Cross, as we have said, is God’ s power for subduing the sinful heart. The subduing power of the fact that we crucified Christ, our best Friend, may be illustrated by an incident which Bronson Alcott relates as having taken place in his school. He made it a law that all offences should be punished in order that the authority of the school might be kept inviolate. The punishment of offences he decreed should be borne by himself He intended to put every offending scholar under the power of this thought, “ I made my friend and teacher suffer.” So much for the law of the school; let us see how it worked. Mr. Alcott gives us this instance: “ One day I called before me a pupil, eight or ten years of age, who had violated an important regulation of the school. All the pupils were looking on, and they knew what the rule of the school was. I put the ruler into the hand of the offending pupil and extended my hand. I bade him strike. The instant the boy saw my extended hand and heard my command, I saw a struggle begin in his face. A light sprang up in his countenance. A new set of shuttles seemed to be weaving a new nature within him. I kept my hand extended. The school was in tears. The boy struck once, and he himself burst into tears. I constantly watched his face, and he seemed in a bath of fire which was giving him a new nature. He had a different mood toward the school and toward the violated law. The boy seemed transformed by the idea that I should take chastisement in the place of his punishment.” II. THE CROSS GIVES US A OF THE WAY IN WHICH SOME MEN TREAT CHRIST. I wish to speak especially of the soldiers at the cross, who are an ancient type of a modern class. They gamble for tim seamless robe of Christ. To them the garments of Christ were everything, but Christ Himself was nothing. They prize the garments but despise Christ. When Christ was within the robe, it had healing virtue; but when Christ was crucified it had no healing, life-giving power whatever. There are multitudes to-day who are like these soldiers. For example, there are crowds of citizens in this republic who glory in the civil rights which our national fathers bequeathed, but they hate and crucify the Christ of our fathers. It was under the inspiration of Christ that our fathers sacrificed and fought for the rights which they bequeathed. If there had been no Christ, there would have been no Plymouth Rock Pilgrims in Massachusetts. There is no fact more patent in history than this: American freedom owes its origin to Christ. Yet there are Americans by the thousand who would take the freedom and crucify the Christ. But what is freedom disassociated from Christ? What is it worth in comparison with the freedom which throbs with the life of Christ? Freedom, when it is a robe with the living Christ in it, will cure and keep in life the nations which touch its hem; but freedom, when it is a robe torn from Christ, will let the nations die even while they handle it, own it, and boast about it. We needed Christ to procure our liberty and we need Christ to secure our liberty. III. THE CROSS WITH ITS FOR SIN OPENS UP TO US THE ONLY WAY OF . (David Gregg.) Bearing the cross The Rev. C. Simeon, in conversation with a friend, once said, “ Many years ago, when I was an object of much derision in this university, I strolled forth one day afflicted, with my little testament in my hand. I prayed earnestly to my God that He would comfort me with some cordial from His Word, and that on opening the book I might find some text which should sustain me. The first text which caught my eye was this, ‘ They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name,’ &c. You know Simon is the same as Simeon. What a world of instruction was here! What a blessed hint for my encouragement! To have the cross laid upon me that I might bear it after Jesus. What a privilege! It was enough. Now I could leap and sing for joy as one whom Jesus was honouring with a participation in His sufferings.” (W. Baxendale.) Cross-bearing for Christ At a large Sunday-school anniversary it was found that the speakers expected had failed, and none were ready to take their places. After some singing the meeting became dull, and the interest seemed to be dying out. The superintendent, who had set his heart on success, was anxious, and at a loss to know what to do, but finally gave a general invitation to the scholars to repeat any texts or hymns they had learned. He was pleasantly answered, but only for a short time. Eventually a boy of Jewish caste, with piercing eyes, in the midst of deep silence rose and repeated: “ Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow Thee,” &c., in a voice so thrilling as to move the whole audience. Many eyes were moist, for the story of the young Jew was known. His father had told him he must either leave the Sunday-school or quit home for ever; and the hymn showed what he had given up to follow Christ. The meeting was inspired with new life. Friends gathered round him at the close, and business men united in securing him a situation by which he could earn his own living. (Christian at Work.) The cross of Christ I. UNDER THE CROSS (John 19:17). 1. The weary pilgrim--Jesus. (1) Exhausted by the agony and the subsequent excitement. (2) Suffering through the scourging. (3) Burdened with the weight of the cross, the upright lying along His back, the transverse fastened to His fettered hands. (4) Degraded by the white tablet borne before Him, or suspended from His neck, proclaiming His alleged crime. 2. The varied attendance--robbers, soldiers, &c. 3. The sorrowful way. II. UPON THE CROSS. Jesus in the midst, numbered with transgressors (John 19:18), arrived at Golgotha. The cross was 1. Furnished with its victim. As it lay upon the sward, with nails driven through His hands and feet (Psalms 22:16; Luke 24:40), He prayed Luke 23:34). 2. Upraised to its position. Suspended by His hands and feet, His body resting on an upright peg, our Lord was exhibited a spectacle of woe--the priests and people mocking His misery. 3. Set in the midst. On either side a crucified robber proclaimed Him the worst of the three. III. ABOVE THE CROSS. The title (verse 19). 1. Its conspicuous position--seen by all. 2. Its threefold language--to be read by all. 3. Its providential use--to attest (1) Christ’ s true humanity, “ Jesus of Nazareth.” (2) His Messianic dignity: “ King of the Jews.” (3) Israel’ s sin: they had crucified their Sovereign. (4) The world’ s hope: Israel’ s rejected Messiah was the Saviour of men. IV. BENEATH THE CROSS. Gambling for the Saviour’ s clothes, the soldiers fulfilled prophecy (verses 23, 24). 1. Heartless cruelty. 2. Moral insensibility. 3. Appalling criminality. 4. Unconscious instrumentality. V. NEAR THE CROSS. The Galilean women: the post of love (verse 25). 1. Their names. (1) Mary, the mother of Jesus. True to her motherhood she was there to be pierced (Luke 2:35). (2) Mary’ s sister, Salome, the wife of Zebedee, and mother of the Evangelist, who was thus Christ’ s cousin, which may account for the mental and spiritual affinity between them. (3) Mary, the wife of Clopas, or Alphaeus, the mother of James the less and Joses. (4) Mary Magdalene. 1. Their position by the cross, marking (1) Their courage--not afraid of crowd or soldiers. (2) Their fidelity in contrast to the male disciples. (3) Their affection. (4) Their sympathy--intending to console Him, as they doubtless did. (5) Their privilege--a gracious opportunity of hearing His last words. Lessons: 1. The completeness of Christ’ s obedience (Philippians 2:8). 2. The depth of His humiliation (Isaiah 53:12). 3. The reality of His atoning work (2 Corinthians 5:21). 4. The certainty of His Messiahship, proved by the title. 5. The moral insensibility to which depraved natures may sink Ephesians 4:19). 6. The heroism of women when inspired by faith and love Daniel 11:32). 7. The startling contrasts of life--the soldiers and the women. 8. The power which still lies in the Cross to reveal human hearts. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) A place called the place of a skull, which is in Hebrew Golgotha. Two explanations of the term are given. 1. That it was the spot where executions ordinarily took place, and therefore abounded in skulls; but according to the Jewish law, these must have been buried, and therefore were no more likely to confer a name on the spot than any other part of the skeleton. In this case, too, the language would have to be plural instead of singular. 2. That the form of the spot was bold, round, and skull-like, and therefore a mound or hillock in accordance with the common phrase, for which there is no direct authority, “ Mount Calvary.” Whichever of these is the correct explanation, Golgotha seems to have been a known spot--outside the Hebrews 13:12), but close to the city (verse 20); apparently near a thoroughfare on which there were passers by. This road or path led out of the “ country,” and was probably the ordinary spot for executions. Why should it have been otherwise? To those who carried the sentence into effect Christ was but an ordinary criminal, and there is not a word to indicate that the soldiers in “ leading Him away” went to any other than the usual place for what must have been a common operation. A tradition at one time prevailed that Adam was buried in Golgotha, and that from his skull it derived its name, and that at the crucifixion the drops of Christ’ s blood fell on the skull and raised Adam to life. The skull commonly introduced in early pictures of the Crucifixion refers to this. (Sir G. Grove.) The traditional site of Golgotha is consecrated by three chapels of different sects. An opening, faced with silver, shows the spot where the cross is said to have been sunk in the rock, and less than five feet from it is a long brass open-work slide over a cleft in the rock which is about six inches deep, but is supposed by the pilgrims to reach to the centre of the earth. This is said to mark the rending of the rocks at the Crucifixion. But there is an air of unreality over the whole scene, with its gorgeous decorations of lamps, mosaics, pictures, and gilding; nor could I feel more than the gratification of my curiosity in the midst of such a monstrous aggregation of wonders. Faith evaporates when it finds so many demands made upon it. When it is assured that within a few yards of each other are the scene of Abraham’ s sacrifice of Isaac; that of the appearance of Christ to Mary; the stone of anointing; the place where the angels stood at the Resurrection; the tombs of our Lord, Joseph, and Nicodemus; the column to which our Lord was bound; His prison; the burial place of Adam; the tree in which the goat offered instead of Isaac was caught, and much else. (Cunningham Geikie, D. D.) The probable site of Golgotha There is little in the New Testament to fix its exact position, though Hebrews 13:12 is enough to prove that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not on the true site. The name Golgotha may well have referred to the shape of the ground, and, if this be so, a spot reminding one of a skull must be sought outside the city. It must, besides, be near one of the great roads (Mark 15:29). That Joseph carried the body to his own tomb, hewn out in the rock, and standing in the midst of the garden, requires further that Calvary should be found near the great Jewish cemetery of the time. This lay on the north side of Jerusalem. Now, just here, outside the Damascus gate is a knoll or swell which fulfils all these conditions. Rising gently towards the north its slowly rounded top might easily have obtained, from its shape, the name of “ a skull.” This spot has been associated from the earliest times with the martyrdom of Stephen, who could only have been stoned at the usual place of public execution. And this is fixed by local tradition as “ the Place of Stoning” where offenders were not only put to death, but hung up by the hands till sunset after execution. As if to make the identification still more complete, the busy road, which has led to the north in all ages, passes close by the knoll, branching off, a little further on, to Gibeon, Damascus, and Rameh. It was the custom of the Romans to crucify transgressors at the sides of the busiest public roads. Here then, apparently, on this bare rounded knoll, rising shoat thirty feet above the ground, the low yellow cliff of Jeremiah looking out from its southern end, the Saviour of the world was crucified. (Cunningham Geilkie, D. D.) Where they crucified Him Crucifixion The common mode of inflicting it, in all probability, was to strip the criminal--to lay him on the cross on his back--to nail his hands to the two extremities of the cross-piece, or fork of the cross--to nail his feet to the upright piece, or principal stem of the cross-then to raise the cross on end, and drop it into a hole prepared for it--and then to leave the sufferer to a lingering and painful death. It was a death which combined the maximum of pain with the least immediate destruction of life. The agony of having nails driven through parts so full of nerves and sinews as the hands and feet must have been intense. Yet wounds of the hands and feet are not mortal, and do not injure any great leading blood-vessel. Hence a crucified person, even in an eastern climate, exposed to the sun, might live two or three days, enduring extreme pain, without being relieved by death, if he was naturally a very strong man and in vigorous health. To a sensitive, delicate-minded person, it is hard to imagine any punishment more distressing. Whether the person crucified was bound to the cross with ropes, to prevent the possibility of his breaking off from the nails in convulsive struggling--whether he was stripped completely naked, or had a cloth round his loins--whether each foot had a separate nail, or one nail was driven through both feet--are disputed points which we have no means of settling. Of one thing, however, we may be sure. The feet of a crucified person were much nearer the ground than is commonly supposed, and very likely not more than a foot or two from the earth. In this, as in other points, most pictures of the Crucifixion are grossly incorrect, and the cross is made out to be a piece of timber so long and so thick that no one mortal man could ever have carried it. Concerning the precise amount of physical suffering, and the precise effect on the human body in a crucifixion, the following medical account by a German physician, named Richter, says 1. The unnatural position and violent tension of the body caused a painful sensation from the least motion. 2. The nails driven through parts of the hands and feet, which are full of nerves and tendons, and yet at a distance from the heart, created the most exquisite anguish. 3. The exposure of so many wounds and lacerations brought on inflammation, which tended to become gangrene, and every moment increased the poignancy of suffering. 4. In the distended parts of the body more blood flowed through the arteries than could be carried back into the veins: and hence too much blood found its way from the aorta into the head and stomach, and the blood vessels of the head became pressed and swollen. The general obstruction of circulation caused an internal excitement, exertion, and anxiety, more intolerable than death itself. 5. There was the inexpressible misery of gradually increasing and lingering anguish. 6. To all this we may add burning and raging thirst.” When we remember, beside all this, that our Lord’ s head was crowned with thorns, His back torn with savage scourging, and His whole system weighed down by the mental and bodily agony of the sleepless night following the Lord’ s Supper, we may have some faint idea of the intensity of His sufferings. (Bp. Ryle.) Nature’ s testimony to the Crucifixion A person who travelled through Palestine told me that an ingenious person, his fellow-traveller, who was a Deist, used to make merry with all the stories that the Romish priest entertained them with as to the sacred places and relics they went to see, and particularly when they first showed him the clefts of Mount Calvary, which is now included within the great dome that was built over it by Constantine the Great. But when he began to examine the clefts more narrowly and critically, he told his fellow-travellers that now he began to be a Christian; “ for,” said he, “ I have long been a student of nature and the mathematics, and I am sure these clefts and rents in this rock were never made by a natural or ordinary earthquake, for by such a concussion the rock must have been split according to the veins, and where it was weakest in the adhesion of the parts; for thus,” said he, “ I have observed it to have been done in other rocks, when separated or broken after an earthquake, and reason tells me it must always be so. But it is quite otherwise here, for the rock is split athwart and across the veins in a most strange and supernatural manner. This, therefore, I can easily and plainly see to be effect of a real miracle, which neither nature nor art could have effected; and therefore I thank God that I came hither to see this standing monument of a miraculous power by which God gives evidence, to this day, of the divinity of Christ.” (J. Fleming.) The crucifixion realized A little girl in a mission-school sat on the front seat; and, when the superintendent was telling about how they hanged Jesus on the cross, the tears came to her eyes, and she had to get up and go out. In the afternoon she came back smiling; and the superintendent asked her, “ Mary, where did you go this morning?” And she said, “ Oh, teacher! I could not stand it when you Spoke to us about Jesus being nailed on the cross; for I felt just as if I helped to pound the nails in; and I went off a little piece from the school, and got down on my knees, and told Jesus that my sins helped to hang Him on the cross; and I asked Him to please forgive me for helping to kill Him; that I was so sorry! but now I feel so happy!” Impression of the Crucifixion Colossians Gardiner was won from a life of worldly pleasure by a dream in which he saw the Saviour hanging on the cross, and saying, “ I have suffered this for thee, and is this thy return?” The deep conviction of his ingratitude led him to repentance and a life of piety. Christ’ s cross Krummacher describes the mysterious cross as a rock, against which the very waves of the curse break; as a lightning-conductor, by which the destroying fluid descends, which would have otherwise crushed the world. Jesus, who mercifully engaged to direct the thunderbolt against Himself, does so while hanging yonder in profound darkness upon the cross. There He is, as the connecting link between heaven and earth; His bleeding arms extended wide, stretched out to every sinner; hands pointed to the east and west, indicating the gathering-in of the world of man to His fold. The cross is directed to the sky, as the place of the final triumph of His work in redemption; and its foot fixed in the earth like a tree, from whose wondrous branches we gather the fruit of an eternal reconciliation to God the Father. (J. Caughey.) Prizing the cross Tacitus reports that though the amber-ring among the Romans was of no value, yet, after the emperor began to wear it, it began to be in great esteem: it was the only fashion amongst them. So our Saviour has borne His cross, and was borne upon it. We should esteem it more highly than many of us do, and bear it daily in remembrance of Him. (W. Baxendale.) Love in the cross Do not be afraid to bow before Jesus. That cross is the enfranchisement of theology. It stands up against heaven to say, “ God, with His infinite power, is not cruel. God is the sufferer, and not one that makes suffering.” The Divine nature is not one that oppresses races, as the cluster is pressed, that the wine may flow out into the vintner’ s cup. The testimony of Christ’ s life, and the mission of Christ’ s death, and that everlasting love that streams from the cross of Christ is, “ God so loved the world.” Loved it? No mother ever loved her child half so much. And yet, what mother is there that did not, in her small, feeble way, symbolize the whole atonement of Christ? What mother is there that did not bring forth her child with pangs, and strong crying and tears? What mother is there that did not take the utter helplessness of the little babe for weeks and months, and give her life for it? How she gives up her sleep; how she gives up her heart’ s desires; how she foregoes pleasure; how she withdraws herself from society; how she gives the whole royalty of her rich nature to that little child that can neither speak nor think, nor know what helps it! And then, through what sickness does she watch! And with what labour and pain does she develop the child! And how does she bring it finally to intelligence and virtue and manhood, all the way through a living sacrifice of love for the child! (H. W. Beecher.) The cross our safety There is an affecting passage in Roman history which records the death of Manlius. At night, and on the Capitol, fighting hand to hand, he had repelled the Gauls and saved the city when all seemed lost. Afterwards he was accused, but the Capitol towered in sight of the Forum where he was tried, and as he was about to be condemned he stretched out his hands and pointed, weeping, to that arena of his triumph. At this the people burst into tears, and the judges could not pronounce sentence. Again the trial proceeded, but was again defeated; nor could he be convicted till they had removed him to a low spot, from which the Capitol was invisible. What the Capitol was to Manlius the cross of Christ is to the Christian. (Preacher’ s Lantern.) The cross the soul’ s haven While your bark is tossed about at sea, it is very likely that she wants a new copper bottom, or the deck requires holystoning, or the rigging is out of repair, or the sails want overhauling, or fifty other things may be necessary; but if the wind is blowing great guns, and the vessel is drifting towards those white-crested breakers, the first business of the mariner is to make for the haven at once, to avoid the hurricane. When he is all snug in port, he can attend to hull and rigging, and all the odds and ends besides. So with you, child of God, one thing you must do, and I beseech you do it. Do not be looking to this, or to that, or to the other out of a thousand things that may be amiss, but steer straight for the cross of Christ, which is the haven for distressed spirits; fly at once to the wounds of Jesus, as the dove flies to her nest in the cleft of the rock. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Plea from the cross A clergyman in Germany, who had exercised the ministerial office for twelve years, while destitute of faith in and love to the Redeemer, one day, after baptizing the child of a wealthy citizen, one of the members of his congregation was invited, with some other guests, to a collation at this person’ s house. Directly opposite to him, on the wall, hung a picture of Christ on the cross, with two lines written under it:--“ I did this for thee; what hast thou done for Me?” The picture caught his attention; as he read the lines they seemed to pierce him, and he was involuntarily seized with a feeling he never experienced before. Tears rushed into his eyes; he said little to the company, and took his leave as soon as he could. On the way home these lines constantly sounded in his ears--Divine grace prevented all philosophical doubts and explanations from entering his soul--he could do nothing but give himself up entirely to the overpowering feeling; even during the night, in his dreams, the question stood always before his mind, “ What hast thou done for Me?” He died in about three months after this remarkable and happy change in his temper and views, triumphing in the Saviour, and expressing his admiration of His redeeming love. (J. Whitecross.) The three crosses I. THAT OF JESUS; dying for sin--redemption. II. THAT OF THE ROBBER; dying in sin--perdition. III. THAT OF THE ROBBER; dying out of sin--salvation. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) There were three hanging there. The first was the Saviour; the second to be saved; the third to be damned. The pain of all three was one; but the cause diverse. (Augustine.) Jesus in the midst On the cross, between earth and heaven; in the grave, between the living and the dead; on the throne, as separating between the saved and the lost. Everywhere, in all time, in whatever aspect or relation, men shall contemplate the Saviour, the same central object shall meet them--“ Jesus in the midst.” We cannot look upon Christ as lifted up without seeing I. THE POINT BETWEEN THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. The sacrifice of the Cross constitutes that crisis in all dispensational history, at which shadows were to become substances, outlines perfect forms, and the pale lamps, which had shed light on the ancient sanctuary, to give place to the Bright and Morning Star. The veil of the Temple was rent, and it told of a covenant waxed old; of the superseding of the blood of bulls and goats by the blood of Him who, “ through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God.” Christ was “ the end of the law for righteousness;” the end of the prophecies for fulfilment; the end of devout anticipation as of a surety the Lord’ s anointed; the end of all expected revelation, as God speaking to us by His Son. And He was especially in the midst of the two systems, as He hung upon the cross. For He felt all the terrors of the law, while His lips were dispensing all the tender charities of the gospel. And He saw, in marked contrast, the effect of the two systems the chief priests and rulers hurling the mockery on the one side, and the great company of people lamenting Him on the other. And yet all are looking to Him; all are drawn towards Him. Whether to revile or to pity, to blaspheme or to pray, none could turn their eyes to any other object. He who in heaven has a throne which is above every throne, seemed to have a cross which was above every cross. II. CHRIST SOME ISTHMUS BETWEEN AND --a place where the two seas meet--that of infinite justice, unable to clear the guilty; and that of the infinite mercy, cleansing from all spot of sin. Here mercy triumphs, for wrath is done away; and yet justice is honoured, for the victim dies. Both these attributes put in their claims. Neither of them, without dishonour to the Divine character, could endure to have them set aside. But the meeting here was not hostile. These attributes met to embrace, to unite, to shed, each on the other, new glory; to vindicate, each for the other, its prescriptive and everlasting claims. It seemed as if in the whole universe there was but one spot, where, in a posture of reconciliation, God and man could meet. Thither the Eternal Father would repair to make sublime demonstration of His holiness; thither the penitent child was to go to lay down the burden of his sin. And over that cross they were to be made one. III. A OF CHRIST AS HE IS IN THE WORLD NOW. 1. The cross is set up in the midst of condemned men. Men dying, with the means of life before them--lost, while a look would save them. One, like Pilate, sees no fault in Christianity, but will not yield to it; another, like Herod, is curious to see what Christianity is, and mocks it; and a third, like Judas, sells it. 2. The circumstance shows how very near two people may be to the same outward Christ, ordinances, truth, influences for good--and yet the one to be subdued to penitence, and the other hardened. 3. Especially is the scene emblematical of the different effect produced on two persons by affliction and Divine chastisement. Jesus is in the midst--having emptied a cup more bitter far than any of which they have tasted--and that too in order that any bitterness in their cup might be mitigated or pass away. And both these afflicted ones will look to Him. But how? One is chafed, and stubborn, and rebellious. The other is subdued, and tender, and heart-stricken. And therefore his looking to Jesus is one of humble, loving faith. IV. AN EMBLEM OF THE SOLEMN OF THE LAST DAY. “ That cross,” says Augustine, “ was the tribunal of Christ, for the judge was placed in the middle; and whilst one thief who believed was set free, the other who reviled was condemned.” They who on earth were divided by the cross, are they who in heaven will be divided by the throne. The impenitent here will be the lost there; the railing here will be the accursed there--on the left hand both, whether at the cross or before the throne. But the humble and the trusting shall be on the right hand. And their life in heaven will be a continuation of their life on earth--a looking to “ Jesus in the midst” --in the midst of His saints, to be glorified; in the midst of His angels, to be worshipped; in the midst of the upper paradise, a tree of life; and in the midst of the throne of God, “ a Lamb as it had been slain.” (D. Moore, M. A.) Jesus in the midst It is to this position that our Lord owes His glorious title of Mediator. He is the Days-man who stands between the perfection of a holy Creator and the imperfections of His creatures. And it is in virtue of this office that He is entitled to His position as the central object in the economies of grace and of judgment. Very interesting and instructive it is to notice how frequently this position--“ in the midst” --is assigned to our Lord. He is represented as I. “ In the midst” OF HEAVEN (Revelation 5:6; Revelation 7:17). Twice the expression is employed of the mystical tree of life--the type of Christ Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:2). His maintenance in this position is the secret of heaven’ s harmony. Just as in the solar system the planets observe a fixed relation to each other because they all have a common relation to the sun, just as their motions are the very embodiment of order and harmony because of this common relationship, so the countless intelligences of heaven all fall into their own proper relationships to each other because of their common relation to the central object. II. “ In the midst” OF THE CHURCH He was “ in the midst” of that embryo Church, the simple peasants whom He gathered around His person Luke 22:27). “ Where two or three,” &c. Here we have a description of the first component elements of the Christian Church. In keeping with this, we notice that He takes His rightful place at the moment when He greets His Church after His resurrection. “ Jesus Himself stood in the midst.” Once again we are permitted to gaze upon the risen Lord, now no longer visibly present, yet still “ in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,” i.e., of the Church as she exercises her office of light-bearer. She shines by reflecting the light shed upon her by the Master, just as the moon reflects the light of the sun. Or, once again, He is represented as in the midst of the Church in her worship, “ inhabiting the praises of Israel” Hebrews 2:12). But, alas! the great sin of the outward Church has ever been to put Christ on one side. How often has the Church placed a hierarchy, a system, a party, a creed, a superstition, &c., in the place that belongs to Him. Hence our unhappy and disastrous divisions. If Christians are to draw nearer to each other, it must be by a determined attempt to restore the Lord Jesus to His proper position. Then we shall find it possible to make some progress towards the enjoyment of that harmony in our relations with each other which ought to characterize the sons of God on earth, and which must bind all together in heaven. III. As with the Christian Church at large, so with THE HEART. “ Know ye not that Christ is within you?” &c., not as a distinct part of our being, but as a power pervading and supreme over all. This is what St. Paul meant when he exclaimed, “ I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Let us not think of assigning Him a corner in the palace. Christ will not accept such a subordinate position. IV. When Christ is in the heart, He will also be “ in the midst” of OUR HOME. Of how many of us may it be said, as it was said of Martha, that she “ received Him into her house” ? How many of us can fill in our name where the word Martha stands? If we would really have Him abiding with us, it must not be so much as a mere guest, “ a wayfaring man turning aside to tarry for a night,” but as the true though invisible Head of the house, just as He is the true though invisible Head of the Church. “ As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” In our domestic arrangements, it is His will that must be consulted. We cannot keep Him in our closet, and deny Him the right of access to our scenes of social intercourse and pleasure. We cannot place Him at the head of our family on Sunday, and bid Him go into retirement for the remainder of the week. V. “ In the midst” of our WORLDLY . Ah, this fatal distinction between sacred and secular! how much it has done to drive religion out of our lives! Surely everything becomes sacred that is done with Jesus in the midst. Our offices are consecrated as actually as our churches; holiness to the Lord is written upon the very “ bells of the horses;” upon our ledgers and cash-books. VI. “ In the midst” OF ALL . “ They went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them,” &c. How possible it is to work for Christ, and yet in our very work to deny Christ His proper place in relation to the work; to be guilty of self-seeking even while we seem to be endeavouring to further His cause (Jeremiah 45:5). It is when we see Jesus in the midst that self loses its tyrant power, and worldly motives cease to influence us. Conclusion: How are we to ensure the presence of Jesus in the midst of our hearts, and therefore in the midst of our lives? By accepting Him as the Mediator between God and man. (W. Hay-Aitken, M. A.) The centre of the universe--Jesus in the midst 1. All men have looked up to the heavenly bodies. This fact invests them with additional interest. We have not seen the men of past ages; we cannot see those of distant continents; but we can look at the same objects as they all have looked at. 2. In a higher degree, when we look into the pages of the Word of God, and consider how many eyes have looked at the same words--wondering, weeping, inquiring, praying, and scoffing; and how many hearts have beat over the same book, do we feel that this great light of time has been uniting the generations. 3. In a still higher degree do we feel the uniting power of one great central object--“ Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” As we look, our gaze is drawn to Calvary and its three crosses--resting at last upon the middle cross. On one cross the physical suffering is doubly darkened by the gloom of despair; on another it is lighted up by hope and faith; on the middle cross it is crowned and glorified by the infinite and unutterable love of God. Many executions took place on Golgotha. Why then should these three have remained, burning like beacons in the night of time? It is because “ Jesus is in the midst.” And, as around that central cross there were all kinds of lookers at the time, so has it been in every time. There fell on that cross the look of hate, and of love, of indifference, and of interest. I. JESUS IN THE MIDST OF THE VISIBLE WORLD. 1. Jerusalem was in the middle of Palestine, and Palestine in the middle of the civilized world. The cross, then, was literally in the midst of the visible world: and its position there is symbolical of Christ’ s position, for His life was lived between the two great continents of history--the ancient and the modern. A new civilization dates from His birth--the old civilization died in His death. And thus, in relation to human history, as developed in place and time, it is a simple geographical and chronological fact that “ Jesus is in the midst.” 2. Nature is a part of the visible world, and Christ is the centre of nature, for He is its Creator. “ All thing were made by Him,” &c., and “ by Him all things consist” --the whole material universe is held together by Him. 3. The Hebrew Theocracy was a part of the visible world, and Christ Jesus was in the midst of it. (1) The Tribes went up to Jerusalem as their centre. The centre of Jerusalem was the Temple. The centre of the Temple was the Holy of Holies, and the centre of the Holy of Holies was the mercy-seat, sprinkled with blood, containing the Law, of which the shed blood was the satisfaction; all of which represented our Saviour’ s mediatorial work. (2) This was His position in relation to the whole life and history of the Jews. In so far as they were children of God, they were moulded after the image of the Son of God. His Spirit inspired the prophets. In the dark house of bondage, and at the bitterest hour of their history, Jesus is found in the midst, making a fourth in the furnace of Babylon. 4. Heathendom is a part of the visible world, and Jesus is in the midst of it. For what mean those victims slain in sacrifice all over the world? Jesus is “ the desire of all nations,” and is in their midst--if only in this negative sense, that the void at the heart of humanity can be filled only by Him. 5. Coming to Christendom, Christ is the visible centre of it. Europe embraces the highest life in the world, and the centre of that highest life is Christ. The great Church in the middle of every capital city is called a Christian Church. Jesus is acknowledged to be the source of all our moral and spiritual activities. And if we enter the world of thought, most emphatically is Jesus in the midst here. His Person includes the inmost and ultimate question in every sphere. Do we try to form a science of theology? The foundation must be our doctrine of the Person of Christ. The view we take of that will determine our view of God, man, sin, atonement. Jesus very soon became the central figure in the schools. At twelve years of age He was found in the Temple. If we take any ultimate question, we find Jesus the living and practical solution of it, Do we take the question, How can finite man ever know the infinite God? Jesus is the Man who knows God fully. Hence the variety of forms in which the account of His life is ever appearing in modern times. 6. The political world is a part of the visible world; and the rightful place of Christ is in the midst of it, too. If any one rules a nation in the name of any one but Christ, he is a usurper. Christ’ s cross has been the centre of the past; His crown will be the centre of the future. “ All kings shall fall down before Him,” &c. II. JESUS IN THE MIDST OF THE WORLD. 1. The true Church on earth is a part of the invisible world; and Jesus is in the midst of it. In the midst of (1) The individual life. He is the most intimate Counsellor, Friend, and Companion of every Christian soul. (2) The Christian family. His presence is the bond of its perfectness. (3) The little prayer-meeting. “ Where two or three,” &c. (4) The Christian Church on earth viewed as a whole. “ Lo! I am with you alway,” &c. “ In the midst of the candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man.” All true lights are fed by the hand of Christ. 2. Lifting our eyes to the Church in heaven, it is still the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne. The throne itself is in the midst; the first position of dignity and power in the universe, and Christ sits upon it. He must, therefore, be God--King of kings, and Lord of lords. Further, it is as the Lamb that He is on the throne--showing that the centre of His work is His sacrifice of Himself. His highest value to the world is not that He is a pattern of virtue merely, or a moral Reformer. The Apostle conducts us from company to company until we come to Him who is in the midst. “ Ye are come unto Mount Sion,” &c. 3. But, higher still, Jesus is in the midst of the Godhead. In the threefold name, Jesus is in the midst; and in the manifestation of the three-one God, He occupies the same position. In the First Dispensation there was the revelation of the Unity or first Person of the Godhead. Our dispensation is that of the Holy Spirit, for in it we have a revelation of the work of the third Person. But in the midst of the two, there is the manifestation of the second Person. 4. Jesus is in the midst: of all the Divine attributes. They have their harmonious meeting-place in Him. He is love, and love is the bond of the Divine perfectness as well as of human. In Him the problem has been solved, how God can be just and yet the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus. III. JESUS IN THE MIDST BETWEEN THE TWO WORLDS. 1. He descended into the visible that He might translate us into the invisible. He is the only Door between the two worlds. Through that, ministering angels, and all Divine and saving influences, come forth to enlighten and enliven this lower world; and through it there pours in return the multitude of sinners saved by grace. He is the spiritual reality symbolized in Jacob’ s ladder. He has this position became He is in the midst--between God and man. In the translation of sinners from the: kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, Jesus is in the midst. He was lifted up on the cross between the two worlds that He might draw all men unto Him. 2. At the moment of death Jesus stands on “ the dark frontier,” to receive the soul of the believer. There are weeping friends on the one side, and rejoicing angels on the other; and the Saviour is between the two. 3. And, last of all, who is this sitting on the great white throne--the holy angels with Him? The Son of man; “ Jesus is in the midst!” In conclusion: Is all this true of Jesus of Nazareth? Then 1. He is indeed “ the Wonderful, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.” 2. What sort of a universe would this be without Christ? It would not be a universe--a cosmos, or a well-ordered system of thing; but a chaos. Yea, if there were no Christ, evil would triumph. 3. Consider what the life and heart of the individual man is without Christ. It has no centre. All its pursuits, however refined, are worse than useless. All its pleasures are short-lived and false. Apart from Christ, there can be no aim in a human life adequate to the worth of that life. (F. Ferguson, D. D.) Salvation no failure Now, away among the mountains, I know a place, where once three shepherds, brothers, were to leap, as they had often done, from rock to rock, across the narrow chasm through which the swollen waters rushed onward to their fall. Bold mountaineers, and looking with careless eye on a sight which had turned others dizzy, one bounded over like a red deer; another followed--but, alas, his foot slipping on the smoothly treacherous ledge, he staggered, reeled, and falling back, rolled over with a sullen plunge into the jaws of the abyss. Quick as lightning, his brother sprang forward--down to a point where the waters issue into a more open space, just above the crag over which they throw themselves into the black, rock-girdled, boiling cavern. There, standing on the verge of death, he eyes the body coming; he bends--his arm is out--thank God, he has him in his powerful grasp. Bravely, brotherly done! Alas! it is done in vain. The third brother, sad spectator of the scene, saw him swept from his slippery footing: and, in their death not divided, as of old they had lain in their childhood, locked in each other’ s arms they went over, horribly whelmed in the depths of the swirling pool. Not so perished our elder Brother, and the thief He stretched out His hand to save. He plucked him from the brink of hell; He saved him on the dizzy edge of the dreadful pit. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) John 19:19-22 And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross The superscription on the cross I. A FACT TO THE WORLD--the royalty of Jesus. This is one of the greatest truths of the Bible, although Pilate only meant it in scorn. How often the worst of men utter the highest truths I Some event strikes on the soul, and the truth flashes out like fire from flint. Hence the utterances of ungodly men may repay attention. II. A PASSION ITSELF BY FRAUD. The Jews compelled Pilate to violate his conscience. Now it is over, his passion finds vent in a falsehood such as would torment the instigators of his crime. He did not believe Jesus to be a king at all. No passion is more ravenous than revenge; and fraud in the form of slander is, in these days, its most potent weapon. III. A WICKED , ITS OWN . The accusation was that Christ had made Himself a King, and now the Jews find over the cross a statement that the Crucified was their King. How intolerable to these descendents of illustrious patriarchs and monarchs! How bitterly they must have felt the haughty reply, “ What I have written,” &c. “ I have been pliable in working out your designs, now I am inexorable. I scorn you.” Thus a small instalment of their retribution came at once. “ Be sure your sin will find you out.” IV. A MORAL WHICH WHAT IS TRULY A . Had the Jews seen things in a right light they would have gloried in this superscription. That Malefactor was “ the glory of His people Israel.” As Sage, Saint, Hero, King, there never had been or would be one like Him. Depraved men are ever acting thus. Sinners see degradation when there is nobility. If men saw things as they are, they would often see ignominy on thrones, and royalty in the beggar’ s hut. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The superscription on the cross I. WHAT IT --Of Jesus of Nazareth. 1. His Majesty. 2. His victory. 3. The foundation of His kingdom. 4. His jurisdiction and government. II. IT WAS 1. Read of all. 2. Vexatious to many. 3. Obstinately defended by one. III. LEARN 1. Wilt thou pass it unheeded? 2. Wouldst thou alter it? 3. Wilt thou not accept it? (J. P. Lange, D. D.) The inscription on the cross This was what Pilate wrote on the cross of Christ. Instead of mourning over your cross, write on it I. JESUS, i.e., Saviour. If He has delivered you from sin and its consequences you need not be greatly concerned about the mere scratches of life. II. . If you are poor, unknown, despised, remember that Christ your Redeemer came from Nazareth. Despite your present condition, you may yet do something in the world. III. KING. Never forget that your Saviour is supreme. You, therefore, are safe. IV. JEWS. We owe much to the Jews. By a Jew we are saved. Conclusion: Put this inscription on your cross and it will lighten it. On the cross of 1. Persecution. You are not alone; your Master bore this before you. 2. Public profession. Remember Christ, and you will find nothing to be ashamed of. 3. Temptation. 4. Poverty and pain. Jesus bore them all and will surely keep you. (C. Spurgeon, jun.) The inscription on the cross illustrates I. THE OF BAD MEN TO THE TRUTH. Pilate the vacillating, the superstitious, the cowardly, the civil, causes a statement to be written about Christ, than which no apostle’ s argument, no angel’ s song could be more truthful. The Kingship of the carpenter’ s Son, the royalty of the peasant teacher of Nazareth. Similarly Balaam and Caiaphas, and they who cavilled at Christ because He received sinners, were all unconsciously testifying to great truths, e.g., Balaam to the moral fascination of a godly nation, Caiaphas to the necessity of vicarious sacrifice the cavillers to the mercy of the great philanthropist. II. THE FAILURE OF MERE CULTURE TO EFFECT THE HIGHEST ENDS. These three languages the unlettered could not understand; but he who could read all used his knowledge in the service of the deadliest murder. Culture without religion is but civilized barbarism and disguised animalism. “ Not by might nor by power,” &c. III. THE OF GOD’ S . The fact that these languages were employed reminds us of the historic marvel that this was just the epoch when most naturally Hebrew faith, Greek eloquence, and Latin empire, could combine to serve the propagation of the new evangel. Christ came “ in the fulness of time.” IV. THE OF CALVARY. The fact float most concerns the peoples of all centuries and climes is not transcendental, but an event which all can understand--a death--1. The death of a Man. Its availableness is illustrated in its relation to the population of the city then. For it happened not at the distance of a long pilgrimage, but “ near the city.” And it was explained in three languages, one or other of which the motley group that passed by could understand. So it is with the spiritual meaning of that fact--“ Say not in thy heart who shall ascend … the Word is nigh thee.” V. THE WORLD-WIDE OF THE CROSS. Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, have known, or is gradually knowing, the triumph of Christ. And His wondrous biography, infallible teaching, and redeeming power, is now proclaimed not in three, but in hundreds of languages, and “ every tongue shall confess that Christ is Lord.” (U. R. Thomas.) Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews Jesus of Nazareth (Preached at Nazareth on Good Friday):--What are the lessons of Good Friday? I. THE LOVE OF GOD TO HIS . 1. That is why it is so truly called Good Friday. It has its good news as much as Christmas or Easter Day. It was by His death, more even than by His life, that He showed how His sympathy extended far beyond His own nation, friends, family. “ I, if I be lifted up,” &c. 2. This is a truth which comes home to us with a peculiar force in Palestine. What is it that has made this small country so famous; that has carried the names of Jerusalem and Nazareth to the uttermost parts of the earth? The death of Christ. Had He not died as He did, His religion, name, country, would never have broken through all the bonds of time and place as they have. 3. This universal love of God in Christ’ s death is specially impressed upon us in Nazareth. What Christ was in His death, He was in His life. And if we wish to know the spirit which pervades both, we cannot do so better than consult His first sermon at Nazareth (Luke 4:18). “ The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him” (1) “ To preach the gospel to the poor,” the glad tidings of God’ s love to the humble, neglected, dangerous classes, the friendless, the oppressed, the unthought for, the uncared for. (2) “ To heal the broken-hearted,” as a good physician heals, not with one medicine, but with all the various medicines and remedies which Infinite Wisdom possesses, all the fractures, and diseases, and infirmities of our poor human hearts. There is not a weakness, a sorrow, a grievance, for which the love of God, as seen in the life and death of Christ, does not offer some remedy. (3) “ To preach deliverance to the captive.” Whatever be the evil habit, inveterate prejudice, master passion, or the long indulgence, which weighs upon us like a bondage, He feels for us, and will set us free. (4) To “ give sight to the blind.” How few of us there are who know our own failings, who see into our own hearts, who know what is really good for us! That is the knowledge which the thought of Christ’ s death is likely to give us. For every one of these conditions, He died. Not for those only who are professedly religious, but for those who are the least so. Christianity is the only religion of which the Teacher addressed Himself, not to the religious, the ecclesiastical, the learned world, but to the careless, the thoughtless, the rough publican, the wild prodigal, the heretical Samaritan, the heathen soldier, the thankless peasants of Nazareth, the swarming populations of Galilee. II. GOOD IS TO BE DONE, IN THE WORLD, even though it is God Himself who does it, CANNOT BE DONE WITHOUT A . 1. So it was especially in the death of Christ. So it was in His whole life, from the time when He grew up, “ as a tender plant,” in the seclusion of this valley, to the hour when He died at Jerusalem, was one long struggle against misunderstanding, opposition, scorn, hatred, hardship, pain. He had doubtless His happier and gentler hours--we must not forget them: His friends at Bethany, His apostles, His mother. But here, amongst His own people, He met with angry opposition and jealousy. He had to bear the hardships of toil and labour, like any other Nazarene artisan. He had here, by a silent preparation of thirty years, to make Himself ready for the work which lay before Him. He had to endure the heat and the cold, the burning sun, and the stormy rain, of these hills and valleys. “ The foxes” of the plain of Esdraelon “ have holes,” “ the birds” of the Galilean forests “ have their nests,” but “ He had,” often, “ not where to lay His head.” And in Jerusalem, though there were momentary bursts of enthusiasm in His behalf, yet He came so directly across the interests, the fears, the pleasures, and the prejudices of those who there ruled and taught, that at last it cost Him His life. By no less a sacrifice could the world be redeemed and His work be finished. 2. In that work, in one sense, none but He can take part. “ He trod the winepress alone.” But in another sense, often urged upon us in the Bible, we must all take part in it, if we would wish to do good to ourselves or to others. We cannot improve ourselves, we cannot assist others, except by exertion. We must, each of us, bear our cross with Him. When we bear it, it is lightened by thinking of Him. When we bear it, each day makes it easier to us. Once the name of “ Christian,” of “ Nazarene,” was an offence in the eyes of the world; now it is a glory. But we cannot have the glory without the labour which it involves. (Dean Stanley.) Pilate preaching the gospel Pilate knew that “ Jesus” was thought to be a most despicable name; and that “ Nazareth” with the Jews was a proverb of condensed contempt. But “ God held his hand while he did write.” All unconscious, he was used as an instrument for publishing words of deep and mystic potency. First things are significant things, especially in the history of a dispensation. The first voice we hear speaking of Christ after His crucifixion is the voice of an angel, and the first title given to Him is Jesus of Nazareth. The first time that the Saviour was preached by man was under this title. Peter fell its infamy when “ one of the maids of the high priest” said to him, “ Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.” But soon as the Spirit was poured out, Peter rang out the name “ Jesus of Nazareth.” The first time that Jesus Himself, after His enthronement, spoke, He made Himself known under these words (Acts 22:8). Taking these things into consideration, we find that what was done by man only in contempt, has been turned by God into the most effectual means of exalting the Saviour and preaching the gospel. I. “ THE CROSS,” on which the writing was placed, first arrests our attention. 1. Was it like the thing sometimes looked at before the glass, put on admiringly, then taken off, then dropped among the tinkling trinkets? Like the thing that sparkles in the crown, or blows in the banner, or flames on the spire? We need have no superstitious fancy about this artistic device; only let us be careful not to allow the sight of it to deaden the sense of what Christ’ s cross really was. It was a shame! And when it was lifted up, I should have thought that any man would look another way. Any dying man is a sacred being, any dying scene a sacred place; but Jesus was nailed upright in a crowd to die. And then it was that Pilate hammered over the dying head the mocking proclamation. 2. I would not make the physical cross a theme for merely descriptive or declamatory wards; nor do I make a venture into the sea of God’ s deep thoughts about the atonement; but I know that Jesus on that cross, dying for sinners, did in some way suffer what is instead of His people dying. We may enter this scene, but not as artists, sculptors, poets, musicians, talkers with a hard, ready rattle of syllables, but as priests, with stilled hearts and reverential steps; we may pause, but with prayer; we may look, but through tears. Pilate was the instrument of the fulfilment of Christ’ s words--“ I, if I be lifted up from the earth,” &c. II. THE NAME “ JESUS.” “ Joshua,” to which “ Jesus” corresponds, means “ the Lord’ s salvation,” or, “ the Lord of salvation.” 1. By the time of our Lord’ s advent, the Jews had got to place the lowest possible construction on the predictions of a Saviour. They thought only of a political salvation; and every leader of an insurrection was tempted to call himself the Jesus of prophecy. There is some ground for the opinion that Barabbas played the part of a false Christ, taking the name of Jesus. The Roman governor of Judaea would know that the Jews looked upon the name Jesus as belonging to “ the coming man,” who should save them from the Romans. This to his mind would make it a name of scorn. At this hour the Jews were also ashamed of it. 2. Never was greater mistake about a name than this. Its true interpretation had been given by the angel, “ For He shall save His people from their sins;” and if the same angel was the one who announced His resurrection, it is no wonder that the first word of announcement was “ Jesus.” He would triumph in that name. We share in this triumph. Some persons mainly think of Christ as a Saviour from penalty. We know indeed that by the cross the Saviour removes legal impediments in the way of pardon; but is that all? Is He simply like one who clears off old scores for us; wipes out the past as a child wipes off a false sum from his slate; who says, “ Let bygones be bygones;” who holds the paper with the dreadful writing on it in the flame until it burns right away and says, “ There, I have nothing against you!” Is that all? Not so. He will says me by setting me right, and not merely by setting right my relation to His law. “ The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” III. THE “ OF .” The Jews had objected to part of Pilate’ s superscription, but not to this, for it expressed exactly what they were determined to affirm. According to His own account, He was “ Jesus of heaven” (John 8:23; John 8:42). Just see what this implies. 1. A contradiction of Christ’ s claims to be the Heavenly Witness. Yet it was overruled so as to be the means of their glorious vindication. Keep in mind the distinction between a teacher and a witness. A teacher is one who imparts knowledge; a witness is one who gives evidence. We expect him to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth from what has passed in his own personal presence. This is what Christ claimed to be. When Nicodemus said, “ We know that Thou art a Teacher sent from God,” His answer meant, “ More than that, I am a Witness.” “ We speak that we do,” &c. So at last with Pilate, He claimed to be the Heavenly Witness. “ To this end was I born,” &c. Of course no mere mortal could give evidence about anything that happened before He was born. God might say to any one of us (Job 38:4-7); but Christ, being the Witnessgiving the gospel revelation, had from the nature of the case to give evidence as to facts that belong to a place far above this world, and to a period far before it. Of course this claim includes the claim to be the Son of God. If a real Witness, it is plain that His birth was not the point of emergence from the blank of non-entity; but the arrival of a Traveller who said, “ I am crone forth from the Father, and am come into the world.” Of course it is a mystery--the doctrine that Eternity should clothe itself in the garment of Time. But Mystery is the sign of the Infinite; and that which is not mysterious is not Divine. The animus of the inscription on the cross is endorsed by the Jews. “ He is only Jesus of Nazareth.” But this most public contempt of Christ’ s claims only led to their most public and irresistible vindication. The cross, which called attention to the one, calls attention to the other. The death on the cross led to the stupendous miracle of the Resurrection, by which He has been “ declared to be the Son of God with power.” 2. To insinuate the charge of sin; but it has been overruled to call attention to His spotless holiness. Nazareth was looked upon as the very sink of Galilee. There have been such Nazareths in old England. London had one in a place called Alsatia; many a nest of wreckers by the seaside was a social Nazareth. There are Nazareths now, to be in which implies loss of character; places that are like hells on earth; but Jesus lived thirty years in Nazareth of Palestine. Even the candid Nathanael said, “ Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? “ But the critics of Christ can find no spot in Christ even there. Christ’ s pure life in polluted Nazareth was a great fact in the great gospel apparatus. It provided for the most searching chemistry of character; and after living so long under the action of such a test, He was found perfect. Such a human diamond found in filth, yet drinking in and flashing out again the pure light of God, could owe nothing to the filth in which it was discovered. Such holiness in Nazareth must be that before which all angels cry aloud, Holy, Holy, Holy! 3. This appellative pleased those who scorned Christ as the “ son of a carpenter,” for as such He was well known at Nazareth; but it reminds us of the honour due to Him as the Friend of poor and working people. It was as much as to say, “ a carpenter is not a king;” but, besides that, it was meant to suggest, “ Who would belong to a religion that has for its sacred central personage a carpenter?” The same spell would work in the same way now, and thousands who now profess Christianity would not do so, if doing so would make them look so low, socially, as did the first followers of the Carpenter. Let us call to mind the significance of the fact that the man Christ Jesus was a carpenter, and trace afresh the reasons why we should glory in it. It helps to make Him very real and homely; to make us feel that our religion is not a thing that belongs to some mysterious world of its own; but a thing for use, for the work-day world, for the majority. It helps to make us feel that He belongs to us all. Human princes take territorial names for their own distinction; Jesus takes a territorial name. And what is it? “ Jesus of Paradise?” “ Jesus of Glory?” “ Jesus of Jerusalem the Golden?” No! but “ Jesus of Nazareth,” the place where He was only known as “ the Carpenter.” He was insulted by that name in His last hour on earth, but, now, it is one of the names by which He is known in the heraldry of heaven. IV. THE TITLE, “ The King of the Jews.” In writing this, Pilate intended to express the most extreme contempt. Not contempt for the religion of Jesus. In matters of religion he had no bias one way or the other; in his opinion, one religion was as good as another. He was not conscious of any active contempt for the person of Jesus; but he thought to use Him as an instrument to mortify the Jews. It was as much as to say, “ There, you vile Jews! Your King is that! then what are you? Your own grand monarch is now nailed on His throne. Know yourselves!” They would have made no objection if Pilate had written, “ He said, I am King of the Jews!” At the time when Jesus was born, men were eagerly asking, “ Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” No one, however, thought for a moment of looking for Him at Nazareth. As was shrewdly said in a London yard by one of its native evangelists, “ If the Prince of Wales had lived thirty years in Raymond’ s Yard, folks would not have believed that he was the Prince of Wales. I expect that Nazareth was a poor sort of place, like this; yet there He was. If you find a sovereign in the mud, you think it only a farthing till you come to change it; and so, because they found Jesus at Nazareth, they never thought that He could be a King!” Even so. At the same time, it was not altogether the thought of Nazareth that made the Jews refuse to bend the knee. There was a time when that was no insuperable difficulty. The cause was in their own worldly nature, which He, by disappointing, had infuriated. They were mad because they thought He could break the Roman yoke for them, but would not. The priests thought they had got their revenge on Jesus for refusing to trample down the Romans. But when the cross was lifted, to their amazement, the truths they had tried to kill stood written over it, and the Crucified One was proclaimed their King! The wretched Pilate little knew that he had thus written one of the grandest truths. Appearances did seem to be against such a fact; yet, for God to be manifest in one place is no greater stoop of condescension than to be manifest in the other; and only our vulgar ideas of the majestic make us feel it to be a greater mystery there than anywhere else. The mystery was that He should appear as man anywhere. V. THE NOTICE placed over the head of Jesus “ was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.” In the East, in the old time, when a government issued a notice intended to be read by the different nations of a large empire, it was the custom to write it on a tablet in the different languages of that empire, so that if men speaking these different languages would be able to read the inscription. Like the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, showing one inscription in three dialects; like the inscribed rocks at Behistan, recording the fame of Darius Hystaspes in three forms of arrow-headed writing, so as to be understood by Assyrian, Median, and Persian readers--the inscription on the cross was written in three languages, and these were the three keys to unlock all the languages living in the world. So, without knowing what he was doing, Pilate thus began the publication of Christ to all the world; and all that evangelists at home and abroad have to do is to do by the Holy Ghost, and do thoroughly, what he began to do. Let the real meaning of what he wrote in these everlasting letters be brought out; and let all people in all languages read it or hear it, and Christ’ s missionary law will be fulfilled. (C. Stanford, D. D.) In Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin I. THESE IN THEIR THREE UNLIKE TYPES OF . 1. The Hebrew has grandeur, but no grace. 2. The Greek is spoken beauty, yet fit more for nymphs than angels. 3. The Latin is the language of command, resolute purpose and decisive action, whose very study is a tonic. These three tongues were all familiar to the Jewish ear in the time of Christ; the Hebrew as still the language of worship, the Greek as the language of educated men, the Latin as the official language of the Roman Government. II. THESE TO THE FORMS OF CULTURE which were grouped together in every land; for the Hebrews had long been a migratory people; the Greeks were the preceptors of the world; while Roman soldiers and officials swarmed in all parts of the empire. 1. The Hebrews were pre-eminently a religious people. Even their idolatry was in sad earnest, and from the time of the Captivity their zeal for God and the law has no parallel. Their first temple, long anterior to Greek art, was the most magnificent edifice in the world, and their apparatus of worship the most organized and majestic that the world has known. Nor was Judaism in its earlier days a mere ritual--witness the psalms and prophets. But in the time of Christ it had lapsed into a punctilious formalism. 2. The Greek culture was distinguished by the sovereignty of beauty. It gave transcendent grace and charm to daily life. But it lacked the religious element; and the reverence of the worshipper who gave credence to the myths embodied in its art could only minister to his degradation. This culture eventually lapsed into a feeble sensualism, and Greek adventurers carried into every land with their art and philosophy, luxury, effeminacy, and the vices that follow in their train. 3. The Roman culture was that of unbending law, rigid discipline, and hardy self-control; in their better days their religion was sincere, and their standard of purity high. But their advancing knowledge soon outgrew their faith, and their religion became a nonentity to the enlightened, and a mere police force to the populace. Rude and averse to refining influences, they at first resisted the influence of Greeks, but eventually succumbed. At the Christian era moral corruption had replaced the robust virtues of the early Romans. 4. These were the effete forms of culture, whose signature was written over the cross. Each was ready to perish for lack of the others. (1) Religion may exist alone in the individual soul; but as an element of social and national life it needs all the humanities, and can only live as a working force. (2) Art needs religion for its purity, grandeur and influence as an educational agency, and requires the element of law to blend vigour with grace. (3) Law demands a higher sanction than its own, and requires that its sternness be relieved by the humanizing influence of art. III. JESUS IN HIS PERSON THESE THREE FORMS OF CULTURE. 1. He is emphatically King of the Jews; for the intensity of the religious life is betrayed in His every utterance. 2. He is more than Grecian in the grace, amenity, and sweetness of His Spirit. 3. He is more than Roman in the perfectness with which He is the incarnate law of God, and alone finishes the work God gave Him to do. IV. THESE ARE BLENDED IN THE WORTHY OF THE NAME. 1. It has the fervent religiousness of the Hebrew psalmists and Jews, only with less of the Sinai than of the Zion type. 2. However destitute of the wonted means of culture, it takers in a culture of its own, so that the grace of God assumes forms which man can recognize as graceful. 3. It is also a law-abiding Spirit, submitting not as to a hard yoke, but as to a loving service. V. WE HAVE IN THE CAPTION OF THE CROSS OUR OWN OF DUTY. 1. Religion, the inmost consecration of the soul to God, is the main element. 2. But religion is a power which should diffuse itself; and this it can only do by alliance with whatever adorns, sweetens and elevates the life of man. There has been a religiousness destitute of grace, and even repulsive; but if those who seek to be Christians would only prize and cultivate the beauty of holiness, they would be much more efficiently missionaries for the faith. 3. We need equally the Roman element of law to make us Christians indeed. A thoroughly obedient life, pervaded by the spirit of service, is the result of nurture in the school of Christ. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.) John 19:22 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written The ineffaceable record Men often speak wiser than they know. During Christ’ s trial Pilate had made for himself a record of ineffaceable infamy. We, too, are making up a record irreversible, ineffaceable. I. WE ARE WRITING UPON THE TABLETS OF OUR OWN SOULS. The fossiliferous rocks bear traces of rain-drops and foot-prints of birds made long ago, and destined to last to the end of time. More sensitive and susceptible is the human soul, upon which every thought, feeling, volition, action makes an impression, and the sum of these impressions makes character. The solemn thing about these impressions is that they are ineradicable. What we have written once we have written for ever. The impressions may have faded out in the long lapse of years, and yet little things--a name, a face, a strain of song--will bring up the buried past and make us live it over again. We never quite forget, and the severest torture of the damned will be that which comes from memory. II. WE ARE WRITING, TOO, UPON THE TABLETS OF OTHER HUMAN SOULS. It may be on the tender susceptibility of a little child, every unkind act or reproach makes a wound which will leave an ugly scar that will be carried to the grave. The like is true of the tender tracery of love. An old preacher long ago had among his hearers a fair-haired boy whom he tenderly loved, and for whose salvation he longed. The preacher went to heaven; the boy found a home far away in this Western world. One day, with his hands on the plough, that boy, now a man of sixty years, paused in the furrow, and as he paused there came to him the echo of the voice of that preacher to whom he had listened in early youth. And so let the patient mother whose love seems lost upon her wayward boy, take heart and hope. III. AND SO WE ARE WRITING ON THE TABLETS OF AS WELL. Every man is an author, and the book he is writing is his autobiography. Authors commonly have a chance to revise what they write; but of this life record there shall be no revision. And this is the book that shall be opened, and out of this the dead shall be judged. We come to-day (last day in the year) to the close of another chapter of this book. We cannot revise it, but we may review it. In the review it would possibly appear that it resembles many a copy-book whose opening lines give evidences of painstaking, but whose later writing is sadly blurred. Let us humbly hope that some deeds of love have been recorded and some words of cheer for struggling souls set opposite our names. Yet how little the record shows, we fear, of holy endeavour and heroic sacrifice. But not a sentence can we efface, for what we have written we have written. And yet there is a ray of hope and a voice of comfort for those who mourn over their miserable record. A poor wretch, burdened with a sense-of sin, dreamed that the demon of darkness held up before him all the long, black catalogue of his crimes, The devil thought to drive him to despair, but while he looked and trembled, lo! One appeared who was like unto the Son of Man, and he looked and saw that His hands were pierced, and from those precious hands some drops of blood were trickling. The hands were laid upon the dreadful page, and with His blood He wiped it out. This is our consolation and our hope. And, again, there is another hope. It is the Book of Life, and in it are recorded all the names of God’ s saints. Let us humbly rejoice that our names are written there. (P. S. Henson, D. D.) Life an inscription on a cross I. MAN’ S LIFE IS AN ON A CROSS. 1. It is evident that to Pilate the hour had come when he must reveal the spirit of his life by one great act of decision, and that decision was before the Cross. In that tremendous moment when Christ stood at his bar, the influences of two great worlds appealed to his soul--the everlasting world of Truth--Right--God; and the world of self-interest and wrong. He might crucify self or Christ; but whichever course he might adopt, he must announce his life-purpose for the world to read. By deciding for the worldly, he wrote the inscription, “ I crucify Christ--truth--conscience; and enthrone self and the world in my soul,” 2. When a man chooses anything before Christ, he virtually crucifies Christ. To choose anything in preference to Christ’ s truth is to crucify that truth. Christ asks for the absolute surrender of man’ s heart in the name of eternal love; to refuse this surrender is to trample on that love, and to scorn its appeals. There is no middle ground. “ He that is not with Me, is against Me.” Therefore, whenever Christ is felt claiming man, and the claim is passed by, the man stands in the position of Pilate of old. (1) The man of the world has his hour when, at the door of his heart, stands the Christ summoning him once more to yield. At the same moment comes the hissing voice of the tempter, “ Take thine ease a little longer; hear Christ to-morrow;” and the soul, like Pilate, leaves the judgment-throne, and yields to the lying voice. Now, go within that man’ s heart: Do you not see a cross standing there in the gloom, while a pale hand is writing over it, in letters of the spirit-world, this title, “ This is Jesus--I crucify the King” ? (2) There comes a day in the history of the young soul when he feels that he has left childhood behind, and is girding himself for the battle of life, then often the Man of Nazareth approaches that soul, saying, “ For thee I died; I will give thee glory if thou wilt take up thy cross and follow Me:” and at the same moment come the three mocking spirits of the world--pleasure, wealth, fame--saying, “ Follow me.” The choice is made, the struggle ended! Enter that soul, and gaze on the newly-erected cross, and read the letters of fire, “ I crucify Christ, the King of men; I will not crucify myself:” and the inscription of life has begun. II. THAT IS WRITTEN : “ What I have written I have written.” Pilate felt that the deed was done--Jesus crucified; his own struggle miserably ended, the past was beyond his recall. The inscription of man’ s life is written on two tablets. 1. The tablet of the eternal past. (1) Every deed done is done for ever. When a man has written his life-title on the cross, he may weep oceans of tears, but no human tears can wash it away. (2) The past, moreover, is a living power in the present, and it gradually forms the unchangeable character. Pilate found out that. It would have been immeasurably harder for him to change afterwards. You say the past has perished, but you forget that the present is filled with its living and active results. You see the snow covering the mountains; and you may feel that you are looking on the records of a dead past. There it lies cold--motionless. But the spring sun shines; and, in the form of a desolating avalanche, that dead past starts into a living power in the present. So in life, the sins of the past are not dead and gone; they have helped to make us what we are; and let the opportunity arise, let temptation come, and by our acts in the living present, they will terribly assert their power. Crucify self, and the cross becomes easier every day. Crucify truth, and every day you will find it harder to take the cross down. 2. The tablet of the immortal memory. We can forget nothing. Memory may sleep, but it cannot perish. Within the soul is the everlasting picture of all our life; and it only needs the light of conscience to waken it into awful brilliancy. III. THAT IS READ BY GOD. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) John 19:23-24 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments One event with many revelations I. The OF DEATH. Christ is crucified. Death has completed its work. What had it done? 1. It had not destroyed His existence. He had gone in His full personality, and in the plenitude of His powers to His God and ours. 2. It had not destroyed His character. Death cannot rob us of this. It is the only property we can carry out of this world. What then does it take from us? (1) Our material frames. Here was Christ’ s body torn from Him--the body through which He looked out at the universe, through which He received His sensations, by which He delivered His sublime doctrines and wrought His marvellous deeds. A precious thing is the body, and yet death takes it from every man, however much he may appreciate it. (2) Our material property. The garments of Christ were His only earthly property, but of them He was stripped. No doubt He valued them, not merely on account of their utility, but on account of those hands of love that had woven and presented them. Such is the spoliation of death. “ We brought nothing into the world,” &c.; “ Naked came we,” &c. All of the earth which men struggle for and gain they must lose. II. THE OF AVARICE--gambling over the garments of the Son of God. If aught of this earth were sacred, these were; yet avarice seizes them, gambles over them, and turns them to its sordid ends. Avarice has ever traded in the sacred, and now more than ever. It not only trades in corn, manufactures, &c., but in philanthropic and religious institutions. Preaching has become a trade; temples, houses of merchandise; charitable societies, organs of worldly greed. III. THE OF . Where can you see 1. Baser ingratitude than in putting to death One who “ went about doing good” ? 2. More outrageous injustice than in torturing One who was exquisitely tender and overflowing with mercy? Truly the Crucifixion is the culmination of sin! And yet it is marvellous that the most consummate production of human wickedness should be made by God the instrument by which to banish it from the world. Thus sin frustrates its own purpose. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Now the coat was without seam. More exactly the tunic, or undergarment. It reached from the neck to the feet, while the outer “ garment” was a square rug thrown round the body. Ordinarily the tunic consisted of two pieces connected at the shoulder by clasps; but that worn by Jesus was made in one piece. This seems to have been the rule with the priestly tunic. (Archdn. Watkins.) Legend of the Holy Coat This relic is alleged to have been discovered in the fourth century by Helena, the mother of Constantine, and by her deposited at Treves, at that time the capital of Belgie Gaul and residence of the later Roman emperors. Concealed in a crypt from the Normans in the ninth century, it was rediscovered in 1196, and then exhibited, and, not exhibited again till 1512, when Leo X. appointed it to be shown once every seven years. The Reformation and wars prevented the observance for some time, but the celebration was attended in 1810 by a concourse of 227,000 persons, and by a larger number in 1844, when Archbishop Arnoldi announced a centenary. Net only were miraculous cures asserted to have been wrought by this relic, but this celebration is memorable for the reaction which it produced, leading to the secession of Johann Rouge and the German Catholics from the Church of Rome. The dimensions given on an engraving, published at Treves in 1844, are, from the extremity of each sleeve, 5 feet 5 inches; length from collar to lowermost edge, 5 feet 2 inches. In parts it is tender or threadbare; and some stains upon it are reported to be those of the Redeemer’ s blood. It is a loose garment of coarse material, dark brown in colour, probably the result of age, and entirely without seam or decoration. (Biblical Museum.) Let us not rend it.--Bengel observes that we never read of our Lord “ rending” His own garments in desperate sorrow, like Job, Jacob, Joshua, Caleb, Jepthah, Hezekiah, Mordecai, Ezra, Paul, and Barnabas (see Genesis 37:29; Numbers 14:6; Judges 11:35; 2 Kings 19:1; Esther 4:1; Job 1:20; Acts 14:14). (Bp. Ryle.) John 19:25-27 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother Manifold revelation of love We have here a revelation in love of I. MORAL HEROISM--the presence of the woman and John. Scarcely could they have placed themselves in a more perilous position. Love is the soul of courage. There is no power for magnanimous endurance and fearless achievements equal to womanly affection. Such love you can trust. It clings to its object as ivy to the castle: holds on to it midst the scorchings of summer and the blastings of winter; survives even the ruin of its object, and spreads a beauty over its grave. II. . 1. What must have been the feelings of Mary. Now was fulfilled the prophecy, “ a sword shall pierce thy soul also.” There are no trials more poignant than those of a mother in the death throes of her child. Rachels, the world over, weep for their children and refuse to be comforted. 2. But there are circumstances which sometimes mitigate the distress when death occurs in unconscious infancy, or when a child is one of a large number, or when death occurs in maturity among friends Mary’ s Son was in the prime of life, and died among malignant foes, and at their hands: and moreover was perhaps her only Son, and she probably a widow. III. FILIAL . “ Woman, behold thy Son” --a gleam of unearthly sunshine. 1. No sufferings, however great, can quench love. Christ’ s sufferings surpassed all conception, yet they did not drown the memory of His mother. He seemed to forget His agonies m her tears. Children learn a lesson from this l Plead no personal inconvenience as a reason for neglecting your parents. 2. No engagements, however vast, can justify the neglect of domestic duties. How vast were Christ’ s engagements! Here was a crisis in the history of the universe--yet Christ attended to the needs of His aged mother. Let none plead--statesmen, ministers, or reformers--their engagements as a justification for neglecting home duties. 3. No legacy, however precious, is equal to the Legacy of Love. Christ could have made His mother the mistress of an empire; but He bequeathed her what was better--the affection of a noble soul. What is equal to this? 4. No argument, however plausible, can justify us in regarding Mary as an object of worship. The mothers of great men are to be held in high veneration. Albeit, ought we to regard this poor desolate woman whom Jesus commended to the care of John as Queen of Heaven I IV. . “ From that hour,” &c. Tradition says that John never forsook his trust, and remained in Palestine till the mother of his Lord was dead. His obedience was prompt and full. There are only three admissible reasons supposable for not attending at once and fully to Christ’ s commands. 1. If the command is inconsistent with the eternal principles of right. 2. If the difficulties are such that only time can remove them. 3. If there is ground to suppose that help not now obtainable will be granted in the future. Such reasons, though admissible, do not exist, and therefore, like John, we should at once obey. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The cross of Jesus I purpose to consider the text with reference to I. THE spoken of in it. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all take particular notice of the women who ministered unto Jesus, and followed Him to Calvary, but St. John is the only one who mentions three of them by name. He does so, perhaps, as writing subsequently to the others, and as having himself stood with the Marys by the cross and observed them there. They were, moreover, persons peculiarly characterized, and therefore also worthy to be specifically mentioned. Mary, the mother of Jesus, would naturally feel a deep and solemn interest in all that befell her Divine Son. It is not determined in the original whether the second Mary was the wife, the mother, or the daughter of Cleophas: but it is generally believed she was his wife, and that he was also called Alpheus, and therefore the mother of James, and Joses, and Simon, and Matthew 12:46; Mark 6:3). Be this, however, as it may, she was ardently and devoutly attached to her Lord. The other Mary, Magdalene, was a woman of Magdala, a large and populous town, near the lake Tiberias, in Galilee, and out of her Jesus cast seven devils. “ There,” might Mary the mother of Jesus say, “ dies my Son.” “ There,” might the wife of Cleophas say, “ dies my Friend.” “ There,” might the Magdalene say, “ dies my Saviour.” II. . And first observe, that the cross, which the Marys beheld with their bodily eyes, we must behold by faith. Others’ personal witness does not supersede the necessity of our belief. 1. Would we have our sins forgiven? Let us stand by the cross of Jesus. Though by “ wicked hands He was crucified and slain,” yet in His death was the meritorious means of our forgiveness. 2. Would we have our iniquities subdued? Let us stand by the cross of Jesus. There is with Him “ a power whereby He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” Our will, our affections, our memory, and imagination, He can bring into sweet and entire subserviency to the law of the Spirit of Life. 3. Would we be softened? Let us stand by the cross of Jesus. How were the pious sensibilities of the Marys moved as they stood and mourned for Him! When we can most feelingly enter into the condescending kindness, and the dying love of Christ, then shall we ourselves be most truly kind and conciliating. 4. Would we preserve serenity and peacefulness of spirit? Let us stand by the cross of Jesus. Nothing will so effectually quell mental strife as meditation on the death of Christ. Wild may be the tumult of conflicting opinions, and contrariety may pervade all human schemes and devisings; but, “ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,” &c. 5. Would we be crucified unto the world? Let us stand by the cross of Jesus. What was the world, either in its prosperous or adverse circumstances, to the Marys. When any feel it to be hard to give up some carnal pleasure or worldly advantage, let them inquire whether they recollect their Saviour’ s cross? 6. And as Jesus our Lord “ endured the cross, despising the shame,” would we take up our daily cross with cheerfulness? Let us stand by the cross of Jesus. Let us quell every complaining of our heart with the question, “ Did not Jesus suffer?” “ Therefore let us both labour and suffer reproach;” and “ esteem,” like Moses, “ the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt,” or all the wealth of worlds. 7. Would we truly love the Lord and Saviour of our souls? Let us stand by His cross. Boundless is the love we owe Him. 8. Would we descend ourselves into the grave resignedly? Let us stand by the cross of Jesus. If we go down into Hades from Calvary, we need entertain no distressing fear: “ Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (W. Mudge, B. A.) Nearness to the cross I. THE OF THE MOTHER. I admire in her the efficacy of Divine grace. She is able to stand near the cross; she does not faint away. Here are no outrageous exclamations, no bitter complaints flung at heaven. She feels as a mother, but endures as a Christian. The people of God know not what they can bear till they are tried: When the “ time of need” comes, then comes sufficient “ grace to help.” I shall never despair of the support of a Christian, in any situation, after beholding Mary here. Ye bereaved mothers, remember, religion allows you to feel, but forbids you to faint. Think of Mary, for who can adequately imagine her anguish! To see her Son enduring such a death! And such a Son! And to crown all she was now a widow. II. THE ADDRESS OF THE SAVIOUR. He speaks in a manner suited to her trying circumstances. Though I die, there is one who will discharge the filial office. Then saith He to the disciple--“ Behold thy mother! Receive her--not as a pauper. Note 1. The indigence of our Lord. Many talk of poverty, but He was poor. When He came to die, all He had to bequeath was His wearing-apparel; and even this never came to His mother. What becomes then of riches? “ Foxes have holes,” &c. yet He was “ the brightness of the Father’ s glory.” But, alas! all this will not keep numbers from thinking money the essence of all excellency. 2. An instance of the Divine goodness, which ought to encourage the poor and needy. When one comfort is withdrawn, another is furnished. When Jesus is removed, John is raised up. Let those who are dying, and have nothing to leave, hear God saying, “ Leave thy fatherless children,” &c. 3. We should endeavour to be useful, not only living, but dying. Christ dies as He had lived--“ doing good!” Dr. Rivet said, in his last illness, “ Let all who come to inquire after my welfare be allowed to see me: I ought to be an example in death as well as in life.” 4. A lesson of filial piety. Children are under an obligation to succour their parents, not out of charity, but in common justice. David, when wandering from place to place, seemed regardless of himself, if he could provide for his father and mother; and David’ s Son and Lord, even in the agony of crucifixion, commends His poor mother to the beloved disciple. Why did He this? Could not He, who could feed a whole multitude, have furnished means for His destitute mother? The answer is that He does not needlessly work miracles. He generally fulfils His kind designs in the established course of things: The poor are as much consigned by Providence to the care of the affluent as Mary was charged upon John. III. THE OF THE . John does not stand weighing things; “ Can I afford the expense, trouble, reproach and suspicion?” True obedience is prompt, and will lead us to “ do all things without murmuring and disputing.” This is peculiarly the ease with regard to charity. While we stop to investigate, and take great pains not to be deceived, the opportunity is gone. Therefore, says Solomon, “ Withhold not good from them to whom it is due,” &c. (W. Jay.) Silences at the cross Is it not a striking fact that our Lord was allowed to die under such conditions of cruelty and wrong-doing without a single protest, so far as we can find from the record, from the lips of aa apostle, disciple, or well-wisher? This is a fact which we ought honestly to consider. Catching a new inspiration, the apostles became eloquent in the proclamation of that Cross whose mystery, while it was uplifted, had silenced them. Let us consider I. The silence of some IN THE OF A STRANGE AND PAINFUL , In order to understand this better, let us recall some of our Lord’ s preceding utterances to His disciples: See how repeatedly He discourages the possible suggestion of resistance. He had also said, “ No man taketh it [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” He further intimated, when danger seemed to threaten Him prematurely, that there were twelve hours in the day, and that His hour had not yet come. Throughout it was not resistance, but passive endurance, that Christ taught. II. The silence of the majority of the disciples arose also from FEAR OF THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL, AND THE OF WICKED MEN. Their fears weakened their grasp of Christ, and when that was done there was nothing left for them but flight. Not an apostle’ s voice was heard at the cross. They alone of all men were those who had nothing to say! In the face of that silence the question comes to us, “ How could these men ever speak again in the name of that Christ?” And with what a high sense of privilege the commission came to those who had so recently been silent when they might have spoken--“ Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” ! It came to them as the restoration of a forfeited right ever to speak again for Jesus, since that gift had been neglected in the supreme moment of need. III. The silence of IN THE OF FORCE--a silence that would largely pertain to the women. IV. The silence of LOVE IN THE OF MYSTERY. This would above all apply to Mary. The cries of blasphemy which now rent the air, and pierced her ears, but ill accorded with the harmonies of the angels’ song which still lingered in her memory. There are times when our only safety is to be quiet, to bear passively the burden of mystery, and to look conflicting providences in the face and answer them nothing. V. The silence of INTENSE GRIEF THAT COULD ONLY SPEAK--if it spoke at all--in tears, since words were too weak. VI. The silence of FAITH THAT COULD WAIT FOR THE . I believe that Mary and John and the woman at the cross had that faith in a great measure. There might have been other obscure disciples in the crowd who had it. I wonder sometimes that some of the deaf and dumb to whom Christ had given speech and hearing did not use their new-born speech on this occasion; but it may be that in that throng, as well as in the smaller group near the cross, there was at least one here and there who could look the mystery in the face and say, “ I cannot solve it, but I will wait. He that believeth shall not make haste.” Even at the cross of Christ, and among that tumultuous throng, there was a faith to be found in solitary hearts that could leave all with the Crucified One. “ I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it up again?” To some at least who had heard those words, the suggestion would come, “ What if this be after all but the expression of His power? What if the Cross be but the Gospel in paradox?” Conclusion: While, therefore, there is much in the silences at the cross of Christ that fills us with humiliation and shame, we will not indiscriminately condemn all the reticence of that hour. There are times in every true life when silence is the expression of the mightest faith. One man speaks and ejaculates, yet only reveals hysterical weakness; the other man waits, is calm, and utters not a word, because he is strong enough to be quiet. The Cross of Jesus Christ is too sacred, too sublime a thing for us to talk of until we know something about it. “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” If you do not know that, the best thing you can do is to be quiet, and look at that Cross in silence. Do not talk flippantly, much less scornfully, about that in which you have no share. In the presence of His Cross the world is now silent for very shame, but we who have trusted in Him are in its presence filled with a joy which shall sustain us in all sorrow, and find its consummation in the rapture of that eternal world, where, Christ shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied, and where we shall face to face behold Him who has washed us from our sins in His own blood. (David Davies.) Nearness to the cross 1. Many and dissimilar were the groups gathered round the cross. Some were drawn by hatred, some by curiosity, some by the duties of their office, these Marys by love. 2. Their position suggests the topic of spiritual nearness. All true piety begins in the soul’ s coming to the Cross.: Bunyan was right in keeping the burden on the back of the Pilgrim till he had a sight of the Crucified. But when the soul has gained that position, then begins the conflict of opposing forces. On the one side the Cross with its mighty magnetism; on the other the world with all its witcheries. But the importance of nearness to the Cross is seen if we regard it as the place in which to see I. . No one has seen himself till he has looked at himself in the light of the Cross. In that light sin is seen in its true colours--as God estimates it. II. THE WORLD. The man of science has his position and outlook, and the statesman his. But only here is the true view. Here we see that it is a world for which Christ died and to every soul of which redemption is offered. It was this outlook that moved the great heart of Paul to heroic sacrifice and endeavour. The world had but one aspect to Him. Christ had died for it. This was the outlook of Judson and other devoted missionaries. Talk of philanthropy--there is none save that which is kindled at the foot of the cross! III. THE OF GOD. The heavens declare His glory. God has never been without His witnesses if man would listen. But to fallen man another revelation was necessary, and that revelation just suited to man’ s deepest need was made by the Cross. It is there we learn how God loved a sin-blasted world. (W. Lamson, D. D.) The disciple standing by whom He loved The beloved disciple Though the rest of the disciples forsook Christ and fled, yet John followed Him into the high priest’ s palace, and was an afflicted spectator of His sufferings upon the cross. This may be ascribed in part to the greatness of his courage, and in part to the strength of his affection. John himself is the narrator of this event; and such was his humility that he does not mention his own name. This resembles the conduct of Paul (2 Corinthians 12:1-21). In this way do the sacred writers love to conceal themselves when speaking of their own attainments or enjoyments. I. THE OF JOHN. 1. He is called a disciple. (1) This implies that he was teachable. As Christ is qualified to give instruction, so His disciples are prepared to receive it. God has opened their ears, that they are capable of spiritual instruction; and their understandings, that they are capable of spiritual discernment. They “ receive with meekness the ingrafted Word” (Psalms 25:9). (2) He was not only apt to learn, but was actually taught, like the noble Bereans, who “ received the Word with all readiness of mind.” If they are asked, “ Will ye also go away?” their answer will be, “ Lord, to whom should we go?” They have learnt the evil nature of sin; of their own weakness; the world, and its insufficiency; the necessity of a Saviour, and the suitableness of Christ; and “ the grace of God teaches them, that denying ungodliness,” &c. Such a disciple was the beloved John. 2. He was “ the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Jesus loved all the disciples, and considered in His supreme character, He loved them all alike; all the members are alike necessary to the body, and as such are equally beloved. But in the peculiar affection which Christ bare to John, we may remark (1) That this respects His human nature. Christ as a man had all the sinless affections of that nature which He assumed. Now this disciple being possessed of amiable qualities, it is probable, in a more eminent degree than the rest, Jesus loved him as a friend, as well as a disciple. (2) That it respects love, not as inherent, but as manifested. If Christ made a difference between one disciple and another in His treatment of them, it is no more than what He continues to do. One is kept, as it were, at a distance, while another is laid in the bosom. All are alike justified by His righteousness, but not equally comforted by His Spirit. (3) The words of our text being those of the beloved disciple, may denote the high sense he had of the favour of our Lord towards him. It seems natural for a gracious person to think that the love of Christ has been more freely and eminently bestowed on him than on any other, as feeling himself more unworthy of it. Thus Paul says, “ And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant,” &c., as if it had exceeded every former example of mercy. John had been distinguished, and was amazed that it should be so. The lower opinion he had of himself, the more exalted thoughts he had of Christ’ s goodness towards him. II. THE OF JOHN. He “ stood by the cross.” 1. That he might attentively observe the important transactions of that solemn season upon which so much depended. He might well think that so extraordinary a Person would finish His course in an extraordinary way; and he was not mistaken. 2. That he might show his attachment to Christ, and his faith and confidence in Him. He had been told, that if any one would be Christ’ s disciple, he must hate father and mother, &c.: from these terms in this trying season he did not draw back. As the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, so was his soul knit to his indulgent and now suffering Saviour. 3. That he might perform any friendly office, and afford all the assistance in his power. Though he could not prevent the sufferings of his Lord, yet his standing by the cross would tend a little to mitigate them. When Paul made his appearance before Nero, he complained that “ no man stood by him” 2 Timothy 4:16). David also seemed to take it hard that Mephibosheth went not with him when he left Jerusalem on account of the rebellion of Absalom. No blame, however, lay upon John in this respect. He did more than the rest; and though he could not drink of his bitter cup, yet he would sympathise with Christ. 4. That he might receive of Him His last instructions, or at least, learn of Him how to die. As there had been such an endearing friendship between them, be might think that the dying Saviour would have something to say to him in particular, and in this he was not disappointed. (B. Beddome, M. A.) Woman, behold thy son The sympathy of Christ Among the friends who were gathered round the cross there is one whose presence does not surprise us--the beloved disciple. But who beside? Not Peter “ the rock,” or Thomas once ready to die with Him. A few trembling women who had ministered to Him in life and would not forsake Him in death. Amongst these was His mother who, thirty-three years before, had pressed Him to her bosom a helpless babe, and who heard about that sword which now pierced her soul. Note here I. THE SELF- OF CHRIST’ S LOVE. 1. Try to think of what He was suffering--the anguish and shame of the most lingering and bitter of deaths. But bodily torture was His least agony. The world’ s sin in its most awful form was there to trouble His last moments--the bitter taunts, &c. But who shall venture to imagine His thoughts as He hung a sacrifice for sin? Is it not wonderful that men should here pretend to explain and analyse. You might as well hope to fathom the sea or compass it. It is better to bow our heads in faith and confess that the Atonement far exceeds our poor logic, and to gratefully accept it. Surely if sorrow be a sacred thing, that of the Divine Sufferer must be far above our sympathy, as above our comprehension. 2. In that awful hour He was alone, but its loneliness did not render His suffering selfish. All His thoughts were for others. Ere He reached the cross He said, “ Daughters of Jerusalem,” &c.: when nailed to it His first words are, “ Father, forgive them,” and His next those of kingly grace to the robber. And now His words are the tender utterance of human love. Jesus forgot the greatest grief that ever fell on human heart that He might minister to the grief of others. 3. Have we learnt this lesson? It is a hard and costly one. In our sorrows we expect sympathy, but have we ever sought their sweetest, holiest alleviation in ministering to others. Learn at the foot of the cross, that whether in sorrow or joy, no Christian man liveth unto himself. II. HIS FILIAL . 1. All through His life He had seemed to stand apart from the ties of relationship. He was never only the Son, the Brother, He was always more. His first recorded act was submission to His parents, but even then with a consciousness of a higher relationship. But no sooner does He enter on His public ministry than He refuses to recognize the tie, “ What have I to do with thee?” “ Yea, rather blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.” Behold my mother and my brethren.” Such conduct is evidence enough to refute the Roman view, and is studiously so framed as if by anticipation to condemn it. He would have us see, too, that He thought far more of spiritual than natural relationship, and so He bids us to hate father, mother, &c. 2. Yet now, upon the cross, He consecrates anew the love of parents and children, and ratifies with His blood the commandment, “ Honour thy father,” &c. What a depth of tenderness does this reveal! He gave His mother His last solemn blessing, and bequeathed to her His best earthly legacy. She could be no more His mother, but He gave her another son, who of all His disciples was most like Himself. Jesus could thus discharge the debt of human love in the hour of His deepest passion. He did not say “ It is finished” till He had said, “ Woman, behold thy Son.” 3. How is it with us, who so often suffer our work for God to be a pretence for the neglect of home duties? He who gave the first table of the law gave the second. Whatever other duty God has given us, it can never excuse the parent in neglecting the child, or vice versa. III. THE WISE OF OUR SAVIOUR’ S LOVE. 1. He calls her not mother: He never had. He does not acknowledge the parental right, even while He discharges the filial duty. But He does more. He teaches His mother the same lesson as when He said, “ I will not leave you orphans.” He will not leave her childless. He can no more be to her a Son, but she shall have another son. If on earth He refused to call her mother, in heaven the relationship must be at an end for ever. In the selection of John we see wise thoughtfulness. He in a worldly sense could best bear the burden, being in easy circumstances. But it was not only for her earthly wants that Jesus provided. There He might have left her to her natural guardians. But He gave her a heart that could best understand her own. It is not always our relations who understand us best. A friend may be more to you than brother or sister, or father or mother. James, with his common-sense, practical view of religion, would probably be unable to sympathize with the deeper thoughts of her who loved to keep and ponder the mysteries of heaven. For her children after the flesh, she had now a son after the Spirit, St. John, the man of virgin soul, as the early Church loved to call him, for her of virgin mind the best friend. And the friendship was as abiding as it was holy. The friendships of the world are too often hollow, brittle, delusive. Friendships made beneath the Cross of Jesus are the truest and best. Death cannot destroy them. 2. Have we learned this? There is something better and truer than politeness, or even kindness. Politeness is a thing of the day, and changes with the changing customs of society. Kindness may be a matter of mere feeling, is often an evidence of weakness, and only touches the surface of other men’ s characters. And both may be only forms of selfishness. But wise, thoughtful love can only be learned at the foot of Christ’ s Cross. (Bp. Perrowne.) The bequest of Jesus Here we see 1. The fulfilment of the promise: “ Them that honour Me, I will honour.” John honoured Christ most emphatically. Consequently, Jesus applied to him the very name He had, “ Son,” and made him the guardian of the Virgin in His place. 2. The disinterestedness of Christ. Pain and weakness often make people peevish and irritable. Jesus was anxious about others, in spite of agony indescribable. To the very last it was true that He “ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” 3. In one sense, the words, “ Behold thy mother,” show how intensely human Jesus was. Of whom should a dying son think but of his mother? 4. What shall be said of Mary as she stands at the cross? Surely, if she were as great and as powerful as Popery teaches, Christ would not have committed her to the care of John. He would rather have commended John to her. Stabat Mater--the mother stands by the cross. What an impressive spectacle! She and three other women are there; John is the only man. Four women to one man--quite prophetic of Christianity’ s future. Behold Mary’ s fortitude! Despite all the horrors, we see her stand, not faint. Mary avowed herself Christ’ s disciple when disciples were few and enemies were many. May we do the same. The text delivers three messages. I. ATTEND TO SECULAR DUTIES. Jesus was expiring as a martyr. But was that all? Nay. He was now offering Himself as a sacrifice for us. Yet, mark! in the midst of all He thinks of His mother, and commends her to the care of His friend. This is very significant. Preaching, singing, &c., are a small part of religion. They are chiefly means to an end--holy conduct in ordinary life. The earth has two motions: she turns onher axis, and she travels round the sun. Can the one be made a substitute for the other? We are to revolve round the Sun of Righteousness, and also on the axis of common, daily duty. Jesus Christ did not say much about theology. He taught that holiness finds itself at home anywhere. Why did He talk about fish, loaves, candles, salt, silver, &c.? To show that, save sin, “ nothing is common nor unclean.” Dr. Arnold said, respecting literature, that what we want is not more books on religion, but more books written in a religious spirit. A distinguished ecclesiastic, whose overwrought brain urgently needed relaxation, was once engaged in a game of chess. His companion suddenly asked, “ If Christ were to come here now, what would you do?” He replied, “ I would finish the game; I began it to the glory of God.” A humble Christian was visited once by his pastor when he was occupied with his ordinary craft at the tan works. Offering an apology to the minister, the latter cut it short by saying, “ My friend, God grant that I may so be found when the Lord shall come--found doing my duty as you are.” The New Testament abounds in exhortations and encouragements to the most commonplace obligations. Husbands love your wives, &c. The world cares little for many of our theological debates. But one thing it never fails to understand and to value, namely, goodness! Let the poor and the suffering find in us ready sympathy and succour; then will men exclaim, “ No man can do these works that thou dost, except God be with him.” II. TRUST THE OF . Why did Jesus say to John, “ Behold thy mother” ? It seems strange that He passed over her own sons. Yes, and only seems. First, Mary’ s sons rejected Jesus. “ Neither did His brethren believe on Him.” They were out of sympathy, spiritually, both with Christ and Mary, whereas John was, heart and mind, devoted to Him. Secondly, John was in a better social position than the other apostles, and than the Lord’ s mother. We see, then, that what looks strange was really very wise and kind. All God’ s dealings are the same. If He was good at the cross, He must be good here and now. We sorely need this faith. There is much in our experience which is painfully mysterious. Why is might so often allowed to conquer right? Why do the innocent suffer for the guilty, &c.? We fully sympathize with the ancient writer who said: “ When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me.” Is there rest anywhere? There is. “ At the feet of Jesus.” Sit there. He will not remove all our perplexities. Nevertheless, be assured of this: Christ tells enough to console us, to take off the edge of our difficulties, and to render us trustful. He reveals a God so good that, if we take Christ at His word, we may be perfectly satisfied that somehow all shall yet be well. “ Have faith in God,” and thus “ return unto thy rest, O, my soul.” III. GIVE HEED TO THE OF THE DYING. John did so. The advice of the expiring is almost invariably right and good. “ Fools men may live, but fools they cannot die.” The dying tell us 1. That earthly possessions cannot satisfy us in death. Philip II. of Spain cried, “ O, would God I had never reigned! O that I had lived alone with God! What doth all my glory profit, but that I have so much the more torment in death?” Albert the Good said, “ I am surrounded with wealth and rank, but if I trusted only to them, I should be a miserable man.” Salmasius declared, “ I have lost a world of time. Oh, sirs! mind the world less and God more.” Bunsen exclaimed, “ My riches and experience is having known Jesus Christ. All the rest is nothing.” 2. That Christ, not themselves, is the ground of their hope. Archbishop Whately, a distinguished scholar, thinker, philanthropist, replied to a friend who said to him, “ You are dying as you lived, great to the last.” “ I am dying, as I lived, in the faith of Jesus.” Another remarked, “ What a blessing that your glorious intellect is unimpaired.” “ Do not call intellect glorious,” answered Whately; “ there is nothing glorious out of Christ.” A third observed, “ The great fortitude of your character now supports you.” “ He said, “ No, it is not my fortitude that supports me, but my faith in Christ.” May such simple but sufficient trust be ours! (T. R. Stevenson.) The legacy Notice I. THE STATION OF MANY. This suggests thought of 1. Her great love. A bird cleaves the storm to reach its nest; a mother walks through levelled lances to clasp her child. 2. Her great anguish. Once she had felt the most exquisite happiness that a mother could know. 3. Her strength. “ She stood.” Here are no violences, no hysterics. Such strength to stand was not from nature. Her nature was timid and retiring. Once, at one word from Jesus that sounded like a check, she vanished for a long time out of the story (John 2:4). We see the efficacy of Divine grace. Look around, and you may find many illustrations of this. There is a woman who stands dumb beside her young husband’ s grave; there is another who stands in tender agony over an empty cradle; there is another who night after night stands listening for the tipsy stumble of a thing that was once a man. Poor heart! she must make what she can of life. It is a real cross, and strength to stand by it must be of the kind that Mary had. Such strength is never given for fancy crosses. 4. Her public profession of faith. It was grand to see Luther take his station in the face of a frowning world; it was grander to see Mary take her station at the cross. It would have been much for man to do; it was more for the shrinking, tremulous delicacy of woman. It is easy to stand by Jesus when others stand. II. THE SAYING OF JESUS. Note 1. His tender considerateness. Suffering is proverbially selfish. While Jesus is Himself one flame of pain, His first cry is for the crucifiers; His second to sinful humanity; His third of love to His own. 2. Jesus providing for His own, and thus setting us an example. In treating John as if he were of nearer kin to Mary than her natural relatives were, He reminds us of the life which binds together all who axe one in Him. He leaves His people one to another. 3. The Saviour’ s poverty. He made no will but this in relation to what He had in this life, and only the name of John was in it. Looking at the things of this world, the “ I am,” not the “ I have,” is the standard of His valuation. His own choice was the poor man’ s lot (2 Corinthians 8:9). Silver and gold are not named among the things that come to us through the death of Christ. But if we are not down in His will for earthly property, we shall, through His Cross, have “ the true riches.” 4. The sentiments due to the Virgin Mary. Although they are not given in the form of law, they have the force of law. The offer of worship to Mary, on the ground that she is the mother of Jesus, is forbidden by this text. (1) Attention is called to the text because it is one of the seven memorable sayings on the cross; on account of its publicity, for nothing ever can be so public as the cross; as the last of three recorded sayings spoken to Mary by our Lord in the course of His ministry. Look at this one in the light of the preceding two. In the first (Luke 2:41-50) we trace no regret or excuse; and the plain point of His language being that into the affairs of His Father in heaven, He repudiates her intrusion. In the second (John 2:3-4), with an air the most imperative, He gives an indication that in His own high province she, as His mother, has no authority. Here, again, soften the word as you may from seeming hardness, it is remarkable that, in these three instances, He calls her, not “ Mother,” but “ Woman.” (2) You have heard His final words to her: what were His final words to John? “ Behold the mother of God? the queen of heaven? the mediatrix?” Was John to make a shrine for her? No, but to make a home for her. The grandest honour a woman could have was that of being the medium through whom the Saviour came into the world. Yet I cannot forget that once, when a woman used words to that effect, He said, “ Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.” Surely it must have put great constraint upon His loving heart to accost her in words so studied, so cautious. I can only account for them on the principle that in His foreknowledge He saw what a handle would be made of even the most ordinary epithet of honour and affection applied by Him to her, and was resolved to leave no datum, no vestige, no shadow of a shadow of excuse for Mariolatry. After all this, millions who wear the Christian name still worship Mary as a goddess. Poor woman! If a sword could pierce the heart of Mary in heaven, it would be this. III. THE OF THE . What Christ told him to do he did at once. What He tells you to do do it at once. Take your orders from Mary herself; she refers you to Him, and says, “ Whatsoever He saith to you, do it.” He is our Lawgiver. Why wait? (C. Stanford.) Regard for a parent A young man who was anxious to devote himself to the work of the ministry among the heathen, and had been recommended to the London Missionary Society, on undergoing the usual examination, stated that he had one difficulty: he had an aged mother entirely dependent upon an elder brother and himself for support; and in case of his brother’ s death, he should wish to be at liberty to return home, if his mother were still living, to soothe her pathway to the grave. Scarcely had he made this frank statement, when the harsh voice of a cast-iron committee-man exclaimed, “ If you love your mother more than the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not do for us!” Abashed and confounded, the young man was silent. Some murmurs escaped the committee, and he was requested to withdraw for a while, that his proposal might be duly considered. On his being again sent for, Dr. Waugh, the venerable chairman, told him, with unaffected kindness, that the committee did not feel authorized to accept of his services for a period which might be so short and uncertain, but immediately added: “ We think none the worse of you, my good lad, for your dutiful regard for your aged parent. You are acting in conformity to the example of Him whose gospel you wished to proclaim among the heathen, who, as He hung upon the cross, in dying agonies, beholding His mother and the beloved disciple standing by, said to the one, ‘ Woman, behold thy son!’ and to St. John, ‘ Behold thy mother!’” (J. N.Norton, D. D.) John 19:28-29 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst A word from the cross 1. Our Lord’ s seven words from the cross, have in all ages been very dear to the Church. There is nothing strange in this. Had it been but some earthly monarch, great, wise and good, would not his latest words, or words uttered at some notable crisis, be accounted a precious legacy? But what king, what moment like this? 2. That the words should be thus exactly seven, the sacred and mystical number is not without its significance. No evangelist records them all; every evangelist some. St. John alone records the briefest of them all; only one word in the original. It is the only utterance which contains any allusion to Christ’ s bodily anguish. He has from His cross a word of intercession on behalf of His enemies; a word of grace for an enemy turned into a friend; a word of tender and thoughtful love for His mother; a word of triumph as He contemplates the near consummation of His work; a word of affiance on His Father and God; yes, too, and His soul’ s agony has claimed one mysterious utterance for itself. 3. And even this word was not wrung out from Him by any overpowering necessity. He would not have spoken it, if He had not known that this was one of the things which were foretold concerning Him. The Scriptures referred to are no doubt Psalms 22:1-31. and Psalms 69:4. Physicians assure us that all the worst which we could imagine would be but a feeble and remote approach to His sufferings from thirst. Consider all which during the last few hours He had gone through. There is no suffering comparable to that of an unassuaged thirst, such as everything here was caculated to arouse. Those who have wandered over a fresh battlefield inform us that the one cry of the sufferers there is for water; all other agony being forgotten in this. The cry for water swallows up every other cry. I. WHAT A LESSON OF COMFORT DOES THIS CONTAIN! We want a Saviour, at least in our times of trial and suffering, not Himself untouched with the same, who can have a fellow-feeling with those who suffer, in that Ha Himself has suffered first. And such a Saviour we are assured that we have. He was God; yet He did not take refuge in His divinity when the stress of the trial grew sharp and strong. There was no make believe in the matter. As He had known slighter accesses of this human infirmity, when, for instance, at Jacob’ s well, so now He endured the fiercest access of it. He who avoided not this, we may be sure, avoided none of the weaknesses and woes of our fallen humanity. II. WHAT A BESETS EVERY ONE OF US IN THE AND OF THE DAILY WASTE OF THE BODY. How easily we come to attach too much importance to what we shall eat and what we shall drink; and, though guilty, it may be, of no excess in the eyes of others, yet to burden and clog the spirit through over-much allowing and indulging the flesh! How easily in this way our table may become a snare to us. It is not for nothing that our warning examples of those who sinned, seduced by temptations of appetite, are scattered through all the Scripture. The first sin of all was a sin of this character. It is for a mess of pottage that Esau sells his birthright. No sins of the children of Israel in the wilderness are so frequent as these. Surely, if we would overcome these, the power to do this must be found, where all other power is to be found, in the Cross of Christ. And we need this help. The whole mechanism of social life is at this day, for the higher classes of society, so finished and elaborate, that they are very little trained or disciplined to meet small annoyances, disappointments, and defeats of appetite. Great danger, therefore, there is that those, who would perhaps have borne some great trial bravely, should be immoderately disturbed by these small ones. But how will the Cross of Christ put to silence these petty discontents. III. WHO IT WAS WHO SPAKE THOSE WORDS. We have seen in them the evidence that He was Man, but He was also God. Surely when we would stir up these cold hearts of ours to love Him better and to serve Him more, it is well that we should bring this before our mind, that He had been in the form of God from eternity, who had now made Himself so poor for us that He was content to ask and to receive a boon from one of the unworthiest of His creatures. He who exclaimed now, “ I thirst,” was the same who had made the sea and the dry land, who held the ocean in the hollow of His hand. All streams and fountains, all wells and waterbrooks, and the rivers that run among the hills, were His, who now thirsted as probably no other child of man ever had. IV. AND DOES HE THIRST? That our portion may not be with Him who, tormented in that flame, craved in vain a drop of water for His burning tongue; that we may receive of Him that gift of the water of life which shall cause us never to thirst any more; that He may lead us at last to that pure river of the water of life, etc.; that He might see us thirsting after God. When He sees this in us, then He beholds the fruit of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. (Abp. Trench.) The shortest of the seven cries We shall look upon these words as I. THE ENSIGN OF CHRIST’ S TRUE . Angels cannot thirst. A phantom, as some have called him, could not suffer in this fashion. Thirst is a common-place misery, such as may happen to peasants or beggars; it is no royal grief; Jesus is brother to the poorest. Our Lord, however, endured thirst to an extreme degree, for it was the thirst of death, and more the thirst of one whose death was “ for every man.” Believing this 1. Let us tenderly feel how very near akin to us our Lord has become. You have been parched with fever as He was, and gasped out, “ I thirst.” Your path runs hard by that of your Master. Next time your fevered lips thus murmur, you may say, “ Those are sacred words, for my Lord spake in that fashion.” While we admire His condescension let our thoughts turn with delight to His sure sympathy. 2. Let us cultivate the spirit of resignation, for we may well rejoice to carry a cross which His shoulders have borne before us. If our Master said, “ I thirst,” do we expect every day to drink of streams from Lebanon? Shall the servant be above his Master? &c. 3. Let us resolve to shun no denials, but rather court them that we may be conformed to His image. May we not be half ashamed of our pleasures when He says, “ I thirst?” II. THE TOKEN OF HIS . 1. “ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” points to the anguish of His soul; “ I thirst” expresses the torture of His body; and they were both needful. The pangs that are due to law are of both kinds, touching both heart and flesh. 2. The present effect of sin is thirst, dissatisfaction. Now Christ standing in the stead of the ungodly suffers thirst as a type of His enduring the result of sin. More solemn still is the reflection that thirst will also be the eternal result of sin. “ Father Abraham, send Lazarus,” &c. 3. He had no sooner said “ I thirst,” and sipped the vinegar, than He shouted, “ It is finished;” and all was over; and our great Deliverer’ s thirst was the sign of His having smitten the last foe. III. A TYPE OF MAN’ S OF HIS LORD. 1. It was a confirmation of the Scripture testimony with regard to man’ s natural enmity to God. According to modern thought man is a very fine and noble creature, struggling to become better. But such is not the Scripture estimate. At the first there was no room for Him at the inn, and at the last there was no water for Him to drink; but when He thirsted they gave Him vinegar. Manhood, left to itself, rejects, crucifies, and mocks the Christ of God. 2. Have we not often given Him vinegar to drink? Did we not do so years ago before we knew Him? We gave Him our tears and then grieved Him with our sins. Nor does the grief end here, for our best works, feelings, prayers, have been tart and sour with sin. IV. THE OF THE DESIRE OF HIS HEART. 1. His heart was thirsting to save men. This thirst had been on Him early. “ Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’ s business?” “ I have a baptism to be baptized with,” &c., and when on the cross the work was almost done His thirst could not be assuaged till He could say, “ It is finished.” 2. He thirsts after the love of His people. Call to mind His complaint in Isaiah 5:1-30, “ It brought forth wild grapes” --vinegar. According to the sacred canticle of love (Solomon’ s Son 5:1-16.), we learn that when He drank in those olden times it was in the garden of His Church that He was refreshed. 3. He thirsts for communion with His people, not because you can do Him good, but because He can do you good. He thirsts to bless you and to receive your grateful love in return. V. THE PATTERN OF OUR DEATH WITH HIM. Know ye not that ye are crucified together with Christ? Well, then, what means this cry, “ I thirst,” but this, that we should thirst too 1. After Christ. Certain philosophers have said that they love the pursuit of truth even better than the knowledge of truth. I differ from them, but, next to the actual enjoyment of my Lord’ s presence, I love to hunger and to thirst after Him. 2. For the souls of our fellow-men. Thirst to have your children, your workpeople, your class, saved. 3. As for yourselves, thirst after perfection. Hunger and thirst after righteousness, for you shall be filled. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The fifth word from the cross Wrung from Christ by the most agonizing of pains. Teaches us that Christ was no stoic. Psalms 22:15, fulfilled. Not bodily thirst only. The soul sympathized with the body, and through it betrayed its deepest wants. These words I. Betray AN LONGING FOR HUMAN . Learn this Psalms 69:20. The sympathy of Peter rejected because mistimed; that of the daughters of Jerusalem because misdirected. Here, and in Gethsemane, Christ, as a true Man, felt the want of it. II. Reveal THE DEPTH OF THAT TO WHICH CHRIST IN HUMAN . All the resources of the universe were at His disposal. Had He not miraculously fed the multitude, &c., and proclaimed, “ If any man thirst,” &c. That the Son of the Highest should stoop to ask aid from His executioners proves the voluntariness and greatness of His humiliation. III. Form THE CLIMAX TO THE CRY OF . “ My God, My God,” &c. Not the Father’ s approval, but the consciousness of it, obscured for a moment. Christ longed to hear the familiar words of approval, “ This is My beloved Son.” Two dense clouds intervened. 1. Combined hosts of darkness. 2. Accumulated load of human guilt (Psalms 69:1-3). IV. Express THE SAVIOUR’ S FOR HUMAN AND LOVE. He looked upon the multitude, but found no sign of relenting. When He sat on the well He said, “ Give Me to drink,” and meant, “ Give Me thy heart” --so here. (W. Forsyth, M. A.) The thirst of Christ Considered in its I. ASPECT. 1. Its producing cause--bodily pain and exhaustion. 2. Its significance--that Christ was very Man. II. ASPECT. 1. Its objects. Christ thirsted for (1) The love of men. (2) The salvation of men. (3) Reunion with His Father. III. ASPECT. 1. Its expression and import--“ that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” 2. Its significance--that Christ was very God. IV. ASPECT. It teaches us 1. To bear suffering with patience and submission. 2. That patience in suffering is quite distinct from stoical endurance. 3. To abstain from fleshly lusts. 4. The blackness of human ingratitude. 5. The unselfishness of Divine love. 6. For what man should thirst. (1) For reconciliation to God through Christ, by quenching the thirst of His dear Son in accepting His offered salvation, and turning to Him with love, sorrow, and repentance. (2) For the communion of Christ’ s body and blood in the perpetual memorial of His precious death. (Thirty Thousand Thoughts.) Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar.--This vessel of the ordinary sour wine drunk by the Roman soldiers was placed near in order to be given to those who were crucified. Thirst was always an accompaniment of death by crucifixion, and that the vessel of wine was prepared for this purpose is probable by the mention of the sponge and the hyssop. This latter detail is peculiar to John. Bochart thinks that the hyssop was marjoram, or some plant like it, and he is borne out by ancient tradition. The stalks from a foot to a foot and a half high would be sufficient to reach to the cross (Archdeacon Watkins.) John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar Christ drinking the vinegar He wished to die sober, so He refused the wine, intended to deaden pain; but the vinegar was an insult. He took it, nevertheless. In some lives the saccharine seems to predominate. Life is sunshine on a bank of flowers. But in others there are not so many sugars as acids. A man who is always well cannot sympathize with the sick. But the fact that Christ took the vinegar makes Him able to sympathize with those whose cup is filled with the sharp acids of this life. There is the sourness of I. . Christ was hurt by the treachery of Judas. There was one friend on whom you put especial stress. After he turned upon you. You were stung, and the wound will never be healed. I commend you to the sympathy of a betrayed Christ, whose friend sold Him for less than twenty dollars. II. PAIN. Some have not had a well day for years, but you never had worse pains than Christ. All the pains of all the ages were compressed into His sour cup; He can therefore feel for you. III. POVERTY. Well, you are in glorious company. Christ owned not the house in which He stopped, the colt on which He rode, the boat in which He sailed. He had to perform a miracle to pay a tax. IV. . Jesus knows all about that. He had only a few friends, and when He lost one it brought tears to His eyes. V. THE DEATH HOUR. Christ knows what it is to leave this beautiful world. He died physicianless and in agony. Application: 1. To all those to whom life has been an acerbity, I preach the omnipotent sympathy of Christ. Do not carry your ills alone. When you have any trouble, take it to Jesus, knowing that for our sakes He took the vinegar. 2. My utterance is almost choked at the thought that people refuse this Divine sympathy, and drink their own vinegar. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.) He said, It is finished The sixth cry from the cross I. THE SAVIOUR’ S COURSE ON EARTH WAS . His life 1. As the Incarnate Son of God. 2. Of poverty and toil. 3. Of weariness, hunger, and temptation. 4. Of holy obedience and usefulness. 5. Of grief and pain. II. ALL THAT GOD IN HIS GRACE HAD MADE KNOWN BEFORE WAS . 1. The promises beginning with that at the Fall. 2. The covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Israel. 3. The prophecies. 4. The types. III. THE WORK OF MAN’ S WAS . 1. Every obstacle was removed, symbolized by the rending of the veil. 2. The way of mercy was opened. IV. THIS CRY THE FUTURE, AS WELL AS THE PAST. As the oak is contained in the acorn, as the fruit is wrapped up in the blossom, so the fruits of Christ’ s redeeming work were contained in the death of the cross. (W. T. Bull, B. A.) The sixth excellent saying of Christ upon the cross 1. It is but one word in the original; but in that one word is contained the sum of all joy, the very spirit of all Divine consolation. The ancient Greeks reckoned it their excellency to speak much in a little, to give a sea of matter in a drop of language. What they only sought is here found. 2. According to the principal scope of the place we observe that Jesus Christ hath perfected and completely finished the great work of redemption, committed to Him by God the Father. To this great truth the Apostle gives a full testimony (Hebrews 10:14). And to the same purpose Christ speaks (John 17:4). I. WHAT WAS THE WORK WHICH CHRIST BY HIS DEATH? The fulfilling the whole law of God in our room and for our redemption, as a Surety for us. The law is a glorious thing; the holiness of God is engraven upon every part of it. It cursed every one that continued not in all things contained therein (Galatians 3:10). Two things, therefore, were required in him that should perfectly fulfil it, and both found only in our Surety. 1. A subjective perfection. Perfect working always follows a perfect being. That He might therefore finish this great work, lo! in what shining and perfect holiness was He produced! (Luke 1:35. Hebrews 7:26). So that the law could have no exception against His person. 2. An effective perfection, or a perfection of working and obeying. This Christ had (Matthew 3:15). He did all that was required to be done, and suffered all that was requisite to be suffered. And this work, finished by our Lord Jesus Christ, was (1) A necessary work. (a) On the Father’ s account. I do not mean that God was under any necessity, from His nature, of redeeming us this, or any other, way. But when God had once decreed to redeem sinners by Jesus Christ, then it became necessary that the counsel of God should be fulfilled (Acts 4:28). (b) With respect to Christ upon the account of that previous compact that was betwixt the Father and Him about it (Luke 22:22; John 9:3). (c) Upon our account; for, had not Christ finished this work, sin had quickly finished all our lives, comforts, and hopes (John 3:14-15). (2) Exceeding difficult. It cost many a cry and tear before Christ could say, “ It is finished.” All the angels in heaven were not able, by their united strength, to lift that burden which Christ bore upon His shoulders--yea, and bore away. But how heavy this was may in part appear by the agony in the garden and the bitter cries upon the cross. (3) Most precious. Justification, sanctification, adoption, &c., in this life flow from it, besides the happiness and glory of the life to come. II. HOW AND IN WHAT MANNER JESUS CHRIST THIS WORK. 1. Obediently (Philippians 2:8; Isaiah 50:5). 2. Freely (John 10:17-18; Psalms 40:1-17.). 3. Diligently (Acts 10:38; John 4:30-31). 4. Fully. Whatever the law demanded is perfectly paid; whatever a sinner needs is perfectly obtained. III. WHAT WE HAVE THAT CHRIST HATH SO -WORK. 1. The infinite efficacy of the blood and obedience of Christ. 2. The discharge God the Father gave Him when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand. If Christ, the sinner’ s Surety, be, as such, discharged by God the Creditor, then the debt is fully paid Hebrews 10:12-14). 3. The blessed effects of it upon all that believe in Him. Their consciences are now rationally pacified, and their souls at death actually received into glory. IV. . Hath Christ perfected all His work for us? Then 1. How sweet a relief is this to us that believe in Him, against all the defects and imperfections of all the works of God that are wrought by us. 2. How dangerous and dishonourable a thing is it to join anything of our own to the righteousness of Christ in point of justification before God. 3. There can be no doubt but He will also finish His work in us Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 12:2). 4. How excellent and comfortable beyond all compare is the method and way of faith! 5. How necessary is a laborious life to all that call themselves Christians Philippians 2:12)! Imitate thy Pattern. (1) Christ began early to work for God. (2) As Christ began betime, so He followed His work close John 4:31-32; Mark 3:21). (3) Christ often thought upon the shortness of His time, and wrought hard because He knew His working-time would be but little (John 9:4). (J. Flavel.) Christ’ s work completed on the cross These words, whether we consider their import or the moment of their utterance, are memorable. No fiat of Godhead had ever equalled this. It comprised in it all others, whether past or future. The expression--I. MARKS THE OF . “ Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished.” The general series of prophecies to which the Evangelist refers, supply a body of evidence perfectly irresistible in favour of His Messiahship. Can it be doubtful whether the very expressions contained in Psalms 69:1-36. relate to the phenomena of the Crucifixion? The particulars cannot apply to any other kind of death besides. But the impression is yet more full when we regard the whole complexion of prophetic testimony, marking their perfect agreement with the character and temper of the Sufferer. How truly does the drawing set forth the great living Original! What, then, is the inference, but that heaven’ s hand guided the pencil, and mixed and applied the colours? Mere nature could not furnish such a combination; nor could the same class of circumstances ever again exactly meet. Nor does the bee, by the force of instinct, working out heaven’ s art, or the bird building its nest, or any natural agent performing works beyond the power of reason and the art of man, show the all-presiding intellect and will of Providence more truly than did the agents, whether human or satanic, show the presence of the all-controlling mind in this instance. They did the will of God when doing their own. II. RELATES TO THE ENTIRE COURSE OF HIS SERVICE. 1. Admitting that our Lord came to fulfil these Scriptures, why do such Scriptures exist? Certain fore-announcements were not put into the record for their own sake, or merely in anticipation of certain events to meet in the history of one illustrious person. They might authenticate a character, but not let us into the reason and end of that character. When our Lord therefore cried, “ It is finished,” He must have looked back on the entire career of His mediatorial service, comparing it with that programme which He brought with Him to earth. 2. What was the true character of our Lord’ s obedience? His human and Divine natures make up but one Person, in all the acts of obedience He performed, beginning with His descent from heaven, and ending with His death upon the cross. The assumption of a lower nature might, and did, give a specific character to His obedience; but it was the presence of the higher nature that gave it majesty, merit, glory. Hence He came Divinely furnished for His great work. And what a career was that on which our Saviour upon the cross looked back, surveying the whole as with one glance; and, marking its faultless perfection as He had done the work of His hands on the sixth day of creation, could say, “ It is finished!” No actions of creatures, no agencies even of God, as God alone, ever partook of the same characters as His. 3. There was sovereignty as well as submission. It was a voice as supremely royal, though uttered from the head crowned with thorns, and surmounted by a mocking title, as that heard in the Apocalypse from the throne of the Lamb, saying, “ It is done.” III. APPLIES TO THE OF THE GREAT DESIGNS OF THIS DIVINE , IN THE OF THE WORLD. It has especial respect to His preceding endeavours, whether in body or mind, whether in anticipation or in actual suffering. The great body of Scripture testimony gives marked pre-eminency to the sufferings of Christ. The first intimations of deliverance gave promise of a terrific, though decisive, struggle between the father of evil and his superhuman antagonist. The typical system, from that hour to the moment in which our Lord yielded up the ghost, prolonged the same strain of doctrine, exhibited the same sign. The whole history, from Moses to Christ, is one prolonged testimony, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. One mind is thus seen presiding over the religion of the world from the beginning. One grand principle is brought out and upheld, like its Author, without variableness or shadow of turning. The doctrine of sacrifice was the substance of faith, and the great channel of grace to the world. It was a type of the act of God, by which the covenant was finally to be ratified by the offering of Christ. Hence the atoning nature of the Messiah’ s sufferings was set forth by the prophets, especially by Isaiah and Daniel, provisionally at least, though not actually, agreeably to John’ s exclamation, “ Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” The hour, therefore, that had arrived, showing the Lord upon the cross, was consummatory of the mighty, all-restoring plan. In that most momentous hour, every perfection of the Divine nature was glorified in Him who ordained and in Him who offered the satisfaction of the cross for the sins of the world. No further act was needed, no repetition possible; the offer could never be supplemented. IV. DENOTED THE OF THE OF HIS . It was expressive of the termination of His descending course, the sepulchre being only an adjunct of His Cross Everything antecedent to this was preparatory only; this was consummating. From this hour all our Lord’ s after glory sprang, as the harvest from the seed, to which He so beautifully likens it. 1. The first glory in order--the Resurrection--was a testimony to the truth of the text. Else how could He have destroyed death in His own Person, had not His work upon the cross been complete, had He not in that hour finished the transgression, the visible standing penalty of which was death? But the Resurrection was the proof of this fact, and that Satan had been dethroned, and the curse no longer dominant over the race. 2. His return to His own glory followed. He took possession of the throne of the universe, to display His victory, and to evince how every scheme of creature malice and opposition had not merely been frustrated, but made to advance His glory to its fulness. Then was man in Him crowned with glory and honour, and in Him advanced to personal fellowship and oneness with God. 3. But His supreme prerogative, as Mediator, was to send forth the Spirit. This was a glory far greater than the government of all things made; and as truly as the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, so did the Son send the Spirit to illumine and sanctify the world; and hence, as Christ came not to do His own will, nor to glorify Himself, so neither did the Spirit come to do His own will, or to bear testimony to Himself. V. IMPLIED THE OF HIS ATONING REIGN. He is emphatically “ the Lamb in the midst of the throne.” All the doctrines, institutions, and powers of His religion flow from the sovereignty of His Cross. The only satisfying reasons for the abolition of Judaism arise hence--a fact which the rending of the veil at the moment of His death testified.The full reign of evangelical grace took date from the advent of the Spirit. Then was His truth perfectly revealed, the gifts received for man richly poured from heaven upon man, that the Lord God might dwell among them. His servants were empowered to give testimony for Him in all nations, to form the Church on His own model, to offer mercy to all men. It is as impossible there should be a fresh and more perfect administration, as that there should be a more perfect sacrifice for sin than the one He has offered. His salvation is immutably treasured up in His truth, and dispensed to faith in His Cross, which is “ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” VI. THIS ONE EVENT AND EVERY OTHER. It was our whole redemption, from which every event, whether past or future, stood in the relation of an effect to its cause. It sealed redemption to all who had previously lived and died in the faith of this great event. It placed in our Lord’ s hands the keys of the unseen world. That hour, in its fullest sense, was entirely His own; thenceforth were all ministries His; adverse principalities and powers were spoiled; judgment was passed in heaven against the usurper; and our Lord was enthroned to carry out that judgment to its ultimate issue--expulsion and final punishment. (G. Steward.) The end of Christ’ s coming What was finished? What are we to suppose that our blessed Lord meant when He spake that word? To finish, you know, is to bring to an end; and there are two ways in which things may be brought to an end or finished. A work is said to be finished when it is completed or brought to perfection. Thus in the Book of Exodus we read that “ all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation was finished” ; and again, in the First Book of Kings, that “ Solomon built the house of the Lord, and finished it” ; and again, in the Book of Ezra, that the elders of the Jews rebuilt the house of the Lord, “ and finished it.” In these passages, you will easily see, “ finishing” means completing; and in like manner the account of the Creation in the Book of Genesis is wound up with these words: “ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” On the other hand, a thing may come to an end by being destroyed; and then also it is sometimes said to be finished. When Daniel is interpreting the writing on the wall to King Belshazzar, he says that the interpretation of the first word, “ Mene,” is “ God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.” So, too, Gabriel tells Daniel that “ seventy weeks are determined upon the Jews, and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins. Again the word is often used to signify merely that something is brought to an end, without regard to the nature of that end. As we read in St. Matthew: “ When Jesus had finished all these sayings” ; “ When Jesus had finished all these parables.” Thus St. Paul, in his Letter to Timothy, says, “ The time of my departure is at hand; I have finished my course.” Now, in which of these senses are we to conceive that our Lord on the cross said, “ It is finished” ? What was finished at that moment? what was brought to an end, and to what manner of end? When we look at these words along with those which come immediately after them, the first sense in which we are led to understand the word “ finished” is much like that which it bears in the passage just quoted from St. Paul. So, and more completely, was our Lord’ s earthly course then finished-so entirely finished, that but a moment afterward “ He bowed His head and gave up the ghost.” The end of life--of every life, whatever notion we may be wont to form of that which is to come after--is an awful moment. It is an awful moment even in the eyes of ignorant savages. The eye no longer sees; the limbs no longer move; the heart ceases to beat; all speech, thought, feeling, are extinguished at once; and from that moment the body, the only part of the man that we see or know any more of, begins to moulder and crumble into dust. Moreover, while we are torn away from everything that we have been accustomed to love and prize and seek, we go we know not whither. Faith alone, enlightened by revelation, enables us to feel an assurance that death is not annihilation, but a change from one state of being to another. What this new state of being, however, may be, with what facilities we may be gifted in it, what we may have to do in it, whom we shall find in it, we can frame no conception or imagination. Therefore a man must be very thoughtless and heartless who could hear any one say that his life was finished without being moved thereby to something of compassion for him who is departing, and with something of awe at witnessing this evidence and proof of the destiny which awaits himself and all mankind. But when we call to mind all that had gone before--when we think ourselves of all that Jesus had to endure, of the cruel indignities that were heaped upon His innocent head, we may understand the exclamation, “ It is finished,” in a further sense, as declaring that now at length His sufferings were come to an end, that His soul was about to flee away and be at rest, and that He should no longer feel wounds from the smiting, or the still more painful scoffing of His persecutors. When we look at them in this light, the words “ It is finished” acquire something of a consolatory character. Even after a long and grievous illness, we at times see persons looking forward almost wishfully to the moment that is to put an end to their pangs and release their souls from the house of torment. In a still higher degree was it a joyful moment to the martyrs, when they felt that their spirits were on the point of taking flight from their earthly tabernacles; and stories are told of those who, from the midst of the flames, cried to the bystanders to pile up more fire around them, and thus to hasten the moment when their torments would be finished. Such, or akin to these, would be the feelings with which we should hear the words “ It is finished” from the lips of a common man in a like situation; and such would be the meaning we should attach to them. But, as uttered by our Saviour on the cross, those words have a far wider and deeper meaning. For as His life was totally unlike that of all other men, so was His death. He did not live for Himself, or to Himself, nor as one of many; nor did He die so. Therefore that which He declared to be finished, when He was about to give up the ghost, must have been the great work, to work which He came into the world, and which was wrought by Him and in Him for all mankind. It must have been the work which, when sacrifices and burnt-offerings, and all things else, were found unavailing to reconcile man to God, He said that He came to do, and that He was content to do it with His whole heart. Already, in our Lord’ s divine prayer, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of our Gospel, He had said, when He besought His Father to glorify Him, “ I have glorified Thee on earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” He had then finished everything that He came to do. He had finished the doctrine which He came to teach, so far as for the present He purposed to make it known. He had finished and completed the example, which He came to set before men, of a life entirely at one with God, of a life spent throughout in doing the will of God, of a life in which no motion of any other will than the will of God was ever allowed to arise in the soul, of a life which had never been sullied or disturbed by a single sinful or selfish act or word or thought. All that He came to do by action had already been finished. But His greatest trial was still awaiting Him. His work was still incomplete. The hour of the power of darkness, as He Himself calls it (Luke 22:53), was still to come. His great work was to be completed and made perfect, as every truly great work must be, by suffering. All this, then--the whole work of the redemption of mankind, the whole work which from the beginning He had taken upon Himself--does our Lord in the text declare to be finished. Even as we read that, on the seventh day, when the heavens and the earth, and all their hosts, were finished, God rested from all the work that He had made, in like manner our Saviour on the cross, having brought down heaven in all its perfection to earth, and manifested the fulness of the Godhead in the form of a Man--having thus finished this His great work--was about to enter into His rest. As God’ s work was the work ofcreating the world, and His rest was the rest of governing and guarding and upholding the world which He had created, so our Saviour’ s work was that of renewing man’ s nature, and of laying the foundations of His Church--of laying down Himself, His own Incarnate Diety and Divine Humanity, to be its chief Cornerstone; and His rest was that of watching over and directing and strengthening and sanctifying His Church and all its members. The work which was then declared to be finished was the greatest work ever wrought upon earth--a work which none but God could work, which the wisdom of God came down from heaven and dwelt upon earth in the form of a man to work, a work in which all the generations of mankind are more or less interested, and through the power of which alone can any man escape death, can any inherit everlasting life. You may feel a trustful assurance that, as Christ at that hour finished His work for you, at the cost of such bitter suffering and humiliation, so He will assuredly be ready to finish His work in you, and to enable you to finish the work which He has set you to do. For although the great work which Christ came to work was finished once for all on this day, it was not finished as when we finish a work, and leave it to itself, and turn to something else. It was wrought, even as the work of the Creation was, in order that it might be the teeming parent of countless works of the same kind, the first in an endless chain that should girdle the earth and stretch through all ages. While in one sense it was an end, in another it was a beginning--an end of the warfare and struggle which had been desolating the earth hopelessly ever since the Fall, and a beginning of the peace in which the victory won on that day was to receive its everlasting consummation. He conquered sin and Satan for us, in order that He might conquer them in us, and that we might conquer them for Him, through His love constraining, and His strength enabling us. Yes, my brethren, every one who sets himself to fight against his enemies in the way in which Jesus fought against them--by patience, by meekness, by silent endurance, by humility, by faith, by holiness, by love--shall assuredly conquer them; and every one who seeks this armour earnestly and diligently from Him, from His example, from His word, from His Spirit, shall obtain it. We know that the work has been finished, and by whom. We know who is for us; who, then, can be against us? When thus considered, our Saviour’ s word is a source of the greatest comfort and encouragement to the believer, who desires to die the death and to live the life of Christ, and to have Christ formed in his heart. But to him who chooses to abide in sin, and who refuses to accept the mercy and grace of Christ’ s atoning sacrifice, this same word, if he would but attend to it, would bring a most awful warning. For it declares that everything which could be done for his redemption has been finished, that God has done His utmost, that His mercy is exhausted, that there is no second Saviour, no new way of salvation for him; and that, if he persists in slighting the proffered mercy, nothing can remain for him but to lie weltering and rotting in his sins, dashed to and fro by the restless waves of remorse and despair. “ It is finished.” Was it the last expiring cry of Hope and of Peace, of Righteousness and of Truth? Did it declare that the strife of God with man; that His efforts to save man, to teach him, to guide him, to restore him, were come to an end; that He was now forsaking the world, and giving it over to the powers of Evil? Thoughts of this kind, we may suppose, must have rushed upon those who loved the Lord, who had lived under the shelter of His wings, and who had set all their hopes upon Him for themselves, for the restoration of Israel, and for the establishment of righteousness and truth, when they heard the awful word “ It is finished” ; more especially if they meditated on it in connection with that terrible exclamation just before--His cry to the God who had forsaken Him. Looking at the immediate aspect of things, they could see nothing else than despair, the destruction of good, the triumph of evil. Yet how wide were these thoughts from the truth! how totally opposite to it! If they could have cast their eyes forward through forty hours, they would have seen that the hour of the power of darkness was also the hour when darkness was to be conquered for ever. Even in the darkest hour, the light is preparing to burst forth; nor, when it comes, can the darkness stand against it. The mourners shall be comforted. The hungry shall be filled. The meek shall inherit the earth. The dominion of the earth shall be with the kingdom of heaven, not with the kingdom of hell. On the other hand, the enemies, the murderers of Jesus, when they heard that same word, “ It is finished,” would interpret it according to the lusts of their hearts. They would exult in the thought that their work was now accomplished, that they had gained a decisive victory over Him before whose word their unrighteous power had seemed to totter, and that they might hold their revels over His downfall. Their master, too--the prince of this world--did he not deem that his empire over the earth was now established for ever? Yet this also was a vain delusion, which in forty hours was scattered to the winds. For the Second Adam had not been overcome. On the contrary, He had overcome sin, wherefore death had no power over Him. It was sin that had been overcome--sin in all its forms, with all its snares and weapons; and before Him who overcomes sin, death brightens into eternal life. Such was the real state of things then; and such it will ever be. Evil may seem to be mighty for the moment; but it shall perish; for God is against it. In like manner we are led to conclude, from the prophetic accounts of the last times, that Evil will then abound and prevail and hold its revels over the earth, while Faith will be weak and rare. Evil will again think that the earth is its own, and that it has driven out Faith for ever. Yet again the hour shall come, when the whole race of man and all the creatures upon the earth will cry out with one universal, wailing cry, “ It is finished.” That end, however, will only be the beginning. The power and the glory and the victory will again be with the Lord of Hosts; and that which shall arise out of the wreck of the world will not he the kingdom of hell, but the kingdom of heaven. (Archdn. Hare.) Blessedness of completed work 1. There have been other great works to which the words of the text might be applied. A great man undertakes some cause. He begins with the world against him, and ends with the world on his side--he has lived to see the principle to which his soul was devoted safe and beyond dispute. The writing of a history; the discovery of a new scientific method; the reformation of a religion; the consolidation of an empire; the completion of a beneficent scheme of policy; the creation of a new school of philosophy--these things have been perfected by the almost superhuman power of asingle man. What singular thoughts must arise in the minds of such men at the close of life! and we should like to think of them as offering up their work to God, saying, “ I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” 2. But these examples are above the level of ordinary humanity, Most of us would like to have done something before we grow old and die, but the thought may arise in our minds of the shortness and uncertainty of life. I would rather consider this subject from the point of view of the comparative certainty of human life. The probable duration of our lives may be easily calculated, and is the basis of various dealings between man and man. We have not so long to live at thirty as we have at twenty, or at sixty as we have at fifty. Time becomes more and more valuable to us, and we fear that the night may overtake us sooner than we supposed. And as a man gets on in life, the feeling that his time is short should quicken him in the service of God. Every one has felt the satisfaction of having done something. To have carried through some business which we were disposed to put off; to have paid a, debt; to have written a book; even to have answered a letter, will be a considerable pleasure to us. There is a peace of mind to a man when he is dying in knowing that he has set his life in order, and left none of the common duties of life unfulfilled. We like to have done something, not to be always about to do something. In order to a completed life I. THE PLAN MUST BE ADAPTED TO OUR AND . 1. There is a sense in which people cannot go against their own natures; they must supplement rather than extirpate their original qualities. This is what we mean by a man feeling his own deficiencies. Until he knows himself as he is in his own weakness and in his strength, he will be always making mistakes. And, therefore, in fixing on a plan of life a man must consider his own character, and limit himself by that. There are some things which he can do easily, some which he can do with an effort, others which he flatters himself he can do, but which he cannot do at all. For example, he may fancy that he will be a great speaker when he has nothing to say, or a great poet when he has no sense either of language or of metre. The art is to start from what he is that he may become something more, to be equal to the present while attempting things beyond. 2. And he must not dissipate himself by trying to do too many things. One work, or one kind of work, is enough for the life of most men; he is not good for much who is good for every-thing--for everything but his own occupation. One man has no definite idea of what he is going to learn, or of what he knows. Another has at once presented to his mind an outline of what he means to learn; he divides the whole into parts; he makes every part throw light on every other; he examines himself to see whether he has his facts really under control; he has a hold of his subject, and is able to say of it that he knows and can use his knowledge. 3. Then, again, there are mistakes that men make in a life of study as in other things. They go on reading and never writing, until their acquisitions have become altogether out of proportion to their power of using them, or their taste may be so fastidious, their love of minutiae so great that no considerable work could ever be executed on the scale or with the perfection which they proposed. 4. But few of us are students, and there are works of the most different kind which have to be performed often in silence by women as well as men, by the old as well as by the young. There is the care of the household or of the business. Besides the engagements of society and the blessings of family life, let us make some other interest, if we can, which may bind our days together with a golden thread, and survive the changes which the lapse of years is making. To such works we should give not only the chance thoughts, or moments, or feelings--we should look forward a little and scheme for the good of others, and not merely for own narrower selfish purposes. Then again there may be works of the most private sort--of duty and affection. It brings a man great peace at the last to have fulfilled all these trusts, not to have the words “ Too late” ringing in his ears. There are many lifelong works of this kind among the poor. Many of us must have known of servants who have devoted themselves to the bringing up of a family. They, too, have finished the work which was given to them, and have gone home and taken their wages. II. WE MUST THINK OF THIS WORK AS THE WORK OF GOD UPON EARTH, in which we are allowed to bear a part. It wonderfully clears a man’ s head and simplifies his life when he has learned to rest, not on himself, but on God. He is not divided between this world and another, or trying to make the best of both; he has one single question which he puts to himself, one aim which he is seeking to fulfil--the will of God. He does not care about the compliments of friends or the applause of the world. This is the ideal which the Apostle holds before us when he speaks of offering up his work to God, of presenting the body “ a living sacrifice,” &c. Like Christ we have a work to do which we cannot transfer to Him, but in which the thought of Him, the great Example of mankind, may be always present with us. Conclusion: There must be some broken as well as perfect lives, which, owing to accident, or illness, or early death, could never be framed into any perfect whole. There have been men of genius cut off before their time--statesmen having the promise of a great future; and there is hardly any family in which the touching question is not sometimes asked, What would he or she have been if living now? Yes; we acknowledge that there are pieces of lives which have been begun in this world to be completed in another state of being. And some of them have been like fragments of ancient art, which we prize, not for their completeness, but for their quality, and because they serve to give us a type of something which we could hardly see anywhere upon earth. Such lives we must judge, not by what the persons said, or wrote, or did, but by what they were. God does not measure men’ s lives wholly by the amount of work which they are able to accomplish in them; He who gave the power of work may also withhold the power; and some of these broken lives may have a value in His sight which no bustle or activity or ordinary goodness can attain. There have been persons confined to a bed of sickness who yet may be said to have lived an almost perfect life. Such persons afford examples to us of a work which at any moment is acceptable to God. (Prof. Jowett.) The one success in life How seldom can one coming to die say of anything but life itself, that “ It is finished?” Our projects overlap our days, and are either never accomplished, or left to others to complete. Most will then say with Job, “ My days are past,” &c. But Jesus was accustomed to measure life’ s meaning only by its results. “ My meat is to do the will of Him,” &c. When, therefore, He cried, “ It is finished,” it must have referred to the accomplishment of that for which His life was given Him. What was the deathless purpose which absorbed the life of Jesus? I. TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF , AND TO REMOVE ITS . it. He seemed to gather into His own sensitive heart all the pangs which He witnessed in others. “ Surely He hath borne our griefs,” &c. 2. As a practical experience of those who accept the ministry of Christ and His cross, the evil of suffering is gone; it is transformed into an agency of blessing. “ In all these things we are more than conquerors.” II. TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF DEATH, AND TO REMOVE ITS . 1. He wept over Lazarus. Why, when He knew that in a moment Lazarus was to be restored to life? Because Lazarus represented all the dead for whom resurrection was not a possibility until after His own death should allow him to enter and vanquish the power of death in its own realm. 2. Since then, believers in Jesus triumph over the grave, being able to say, “ This is life eternal.” III. TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM AND TO BREAK THE POWER OF SIN. 1. The occasion of both suffering and death. Jesus always associated sin with sorrow and death. When He healed, it was in connection with some revelation of Himself as the sin-bearer. “ Thy sins be forgiven thee” was in His mind equivalent to “ Take up thy bed and walk.” When He cried, “ It is finished,” He esteemed sin as a “ broken hold” upon mankind. “ When he shall make his soul an offering,” &c. 2. Since then, believers can experience what they confess, “ Being justified by faith we have peace with God,” &c. The life of Jesus only was a complete one, except as our lives are “ hid in His.” (Homiletic Monthly.) It is finished What was finished? On the heaven side, no man can answer; on the earth side, we can perhaps reach some particulars. I. THE OF JESUS. He was now dying. We cannot pretend to define the anguish of Christ, we must be content with noting three degrees in the apparent growth of His experience. 1. Jesus had a measure of inexplicable dread as He neared His death. He kept talking about an “ hour,” and seemed filled with solicitude concerning it. This feeling reached its supreme height in Gethsemane. 2. Soon, however, He righted up into a fine sense of tranquility, and we hear Him saying that He was quite willing to drink the cup which His Father was giving Him; and from that time forward we hear no more of His shrinking away as if from pain. 3. And here, in this explosive utterance, He has touched the supreme degree of His satisfaction; and this cry is an outburst of self-congratulation that His terrible cup has been entirely drained. And so He sends out before an anxious universe this “ loud voice” like a bulletin from a field of battle. He is all through the charge, right, safe, at rest. II. THE EARTHLY ERRAND OF JESUS CHRIST. 1. He had met man’ s desperate need as a transgressor. 2. He had satisfied the law’ s demand in God’ s government. 3. He had answered every scriptural type with an antitype. 4. He had fulfilled every ancient prophecy concerning Himself. 5. Thus, in one word, Christ exhaustively discharged that entire former dispensation in a new one. III. HIS WITH SATAN. For this purpose He had been manifested (1 John 3:8). 1. He was the “ last Adam” in order that He might take up the defeat in the Garden of Eden and reverse it into a victory (Romans 5:14). 2. This was the reason why He was made to endure the open attacks of the same adversary. He “ was led up … into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.” Jesus must submit Himself to a like condition of exposure, yet He must conquer in the fight (Hebrews 2:18). 8. He had been anticipating this renewed trial for a long time. Hence He kept giving those mysterious hints of a “ prince of this world.” 4. At last, when He uttered this cry, He knew He had conquered His foe Colossians 2:15). When a shout of victory like this came forth from the cross, who shall attempt to picture the unutterable dismay it must have sent into the shadows of Hades? IV. THE GOSPEL MESSAGE. One more word to His Father--just a decorous salutation at coming; then there remained only a human body on the tree. 1. For believers, then, here is ground for confidence unwavering Hebrews 10:12-14). 2. Per backsliders there is also a lesson here (Hebrews 11:4-6). 3. For all others, here is invitation free and full. Is anything more needed? “ All things are now ready.” Why does any one wait? “ It is finished” --what can be wished for more? (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) It is finished I. THE OF THE JEWISH RACE HAD GONE. The offer to them was completed. Their response to it was now final. There they were gathered, the two typical groups: those who had received Him for life, and those who had received Him for death. His blood was upon both; but upon the one to the cleansing of sin; upon the other to the making indelible its stain. “ His blood be on us and on our children.” II. PILATE’ S WAS OVER. When he had written that title and had had it placed upon the cross, saying, “ What I have written, I have written,” his position was finally taken. III. THE MERELY HUMAN OF JESUS WERE FINALLY (John 19:26-27). And the final adjustment of His relations with us, and so of our social relations with each other, is at the cross. To Mary He says, “ Another shall fill My place. Fill thou to the one I choose, as far as possible, the relation thou hast occupied to Me.” To John He says, “ Be such a son as I have been.” Should we not see a consecration of all these ties of earth if we could come often beneath the cross and listen to the Saviour’ s last bequest? He has entrusted us to each other as with His dying breath, as with the seal of His blood. IV. ALL THE TO THE CROSS WERE NOW . The scrupulousness with which prophecies concerning our Saviour were accomplished is most notable in the two periods of His infancy and His sacrifice. Two references only to prophecy occur in the other three gospels. In Mark (15:28) the language of Isaiah (53:12) is recalled. In Matthew (27:35) is a reference to the Psalm (22:18). John makes four definite citations (chap. 19:24, 28, 36, 37). V. THE OF CHRIST WAS . He had come to mediate between God and men. For this He was both God and Man. What was between them He must take away. He must bring them together, or they were to remain separated forever. This He did perfectly, and what He did has only to be received in penitence and trust, and salvation is assured. Conclusion: Perhaps the noblest building in the world is the Cathedral of Cologne. It was designed on the most magnificent scale, so costly and vast that after the lapse of five centuries it was still unfinished. At last it was resolved to make a great effort to complete it. It was resumed as a national work. The most competent architects were obtained, the most skilled workmen in great numbers were employed, and, at last, the crowning stone was laid in the presence of a vast assemblage gathered from all Europe, and from America, with the most august ceremonies. A shout broke from that vast concourse, as the surmounting cross was secured in its lofty place, whose burden was, It is finished. I stood before that pile, that crowning triumph of architecture, with emotions of awe and wonder. I thought of the centuries of the building, in which generations of builders had toiled and passed and left it incomplete. I saw the cross everywhere wrought into the walls and ornaments, and lying outspread in the majestic outline of stone, upon that ancient square, where once had stood a heathen temple. How grand a response, I thought, to the cross of my Redeemer. It seemed some worthy rejoinder to the cry of Calvary. But there is a response grander far than the cathedral builders have given Him, the response of the lowliest sinner, coming to the Cross for pardon, opening his heart for the finished work to be wrought within him. It requires no costly offering for this, no pile of masonry, no generations of builders, and centuries, to make it complete. Now, without the delay of a minute, it may be made complete in you, because Jesus finished the great provision. It is complete. He who receives it at once is completely saved. (Monday Club Sermons.) It is finished I. IT, not this and that: all that lays the foundation of a new, eternal world of God. II. It Is, not is being (Hebrews 10:14). III. . 1. As a spiritual act. 2. As a mortal suffering. 3. As a triumph of Christ. 4. As the salvation of God. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) It is finished Let us consider I. THE PERSON OF THE DYING . 1. He was God. 2. He was Man. 3. He was a Person in whom the Divine and human natures were united. 4. He was the Surety of sinners. II. THE MEANING OF HIS LAST WORD. 1. The predictions of ancient prophets concerning the work and sufferings of the Messiah were now accomplished. 2. The purposes and designs of the ceremonial law were answered. 3. The righteousness of the law was fulfilled. 4. The great end of legal sacrifices was completed. 5. The whole of the work which the Father had given Him to do was finished. III. THE MANNER IN WHICH THESE WORDS WERE UTTERED. Matthew and Mark inform us, that “ He cried with a loud voice;” and the same is recorded by Luke, who also adds that He said, “ Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit;” but John mentions a word unnoticed by the other evangelists “ It is finished!” The manner of the Saviour uttering this exclamation did not so much consist in the sound of the voice or the strength of the expression, as in the important signification it conveyed. 1. It was a declaration of an important truth. 2. It was the signal of victory. 3. It was not the cry of the languishing or the wounded, or the dying man, but the triumphant shout of an Almighty Conqueror, “ He spoiled principalities and powers” on the cross. (W. Thorpe.) It is finished I. Let us hear the text and IT. The Saviour meant 1. That all the types, promises, and prophecies were now fully accomplished in Him. The whole Book, from the first to the last, was finished in Him. There is not a single jewel of promise, from the first emerald which fell on the threshold of Eden, to that last sapphire-stone of Malachi, which was not set in the breast-plate of the true High Priest. Nay, there is not a type, from the red heifer down to the turtle-dove, from the hyssop up to Solomon’ s temple, which was not fulfilled in Him; not a prophecy, whether spoken on Chebar’ s banks or on the shores of Jordan; not a dream of wise men, whether they had received it in Babylon, or in Judaea, which was not now fully wrought out in Christ. And what a wonderful thing it is, that a mass of promises, apparently so heterogenous, should all be accomplished in one person! Take away Christ from it and the Old Testament becomes an insoluble problem. 2. All the typical sacrifices of the old Jewish law, were now abolished as well as explained. Imagine for a minute the saints in heaven looking down on what was done on earth. From the times of Noah, they see altars smoking, recognitions of the fact that man is guilty, and the spirits before the throne say, “ Lord, when will sacrifices finish?--when will blood no more be shed?” The offerings soon increase. Aaron and the Levites every morning and evening offer a lamb, while great sacrifices are offered on special occasions. And all the while the saints are crying, “ O Lord, how long?--when shall the sacrifice cease?” David offers hecatombs, and Solomon and Hezekiah and the spirits of the just say, “ Will it never be complete?” But lo, He comes who is to close the line of priests! Not now with linen ephod, &c., but His cross His altar, His body and His soul the victim, and cries, “ It is finished!” --that for which ye looted so long is fully achieved and perfected for ever. 3. His perfect obedience was finished. It was necessary, in order that man might be saved, that the law of God should be kept, for no man can see God’ s face except he be perfect in righteousness. Christ undertook to keep God’ s law for His people; to obey its every mandate, and preserve its every statute intact. It needed nothing to complete the perfect virtue of life but the entire obedience of death. Our perfect Substitute put the last stroke upon His work by dying. Christ the Creator, who finished creation, has perfected redemption. God can ask no more. The law has received all it claims. 4. The satisfaction which He rendered to the justice of God was finished. The debt was now, to the last farthing, all discharged. The atonement and propitiation were made once for all, and for ever, by the one offering made in Jesu’ s body on the tree. 5. Victory over the powers of darkness. (1) Sin nailed Him to the cross; but in that deed Christ nailed sin also to the tree. (2) Next came Satan. Not long was the struggle; He who is the Son of God as well as the Son of Mary, having despoiled him of his armour, having quenched his fiery darts, and broken his head, He cried, “ It is finished.” (3) Death had come against Him, as Christmas Evans puts it, with his fiery dart, which he struck right through the Saviour, till the point fixed in the cross, and when he tried to pull it out again, he, left the sting behind. What could he do more? II. Let us hear and WONDER. Let us perceive what mighty things were secured by these words. 1. Thus He ratified the covenant. That covenant was signed and sealed before, but when the blood of Christ sprinkled it it could never be reversed, nor could one of its stipulations fail. 2. His Father was honoured, and Divine justice fully was displayed. He would, as a God of love, and now He could as a God of justice, bless poor sinners. 3. He Himself was glorified. He had honour as God, but as man He was despised and rejected; now as God and Man Christ was made to sit down for ever on His Father’ s throne, crowned with honour and majesty. 4. The words had effect on heaven. Before, the saints had been saved, as it were, on credit. But Christ said, “ It is finished,” and oath, and covenant, and blood set fast the dwelling-place of the redeemed, made their mansions safely and eternally their own, and bade their feet stand immoveably upon the rock. 5. The words took effect on hell. Lost souls mourned that day, for if Christ Himself, the Substitute, could not be permitted to go free till He had finished all His punishment, then they can never be free. III. Let us hear and PUBLISH IT. 1. TO those who are torturing themselves, thinking through mortification to offer satisfaction. Yonder Hindoo is about to throw himself down upon the spikes. Stay, poor man I wherefore wouldst thou bleed, for “ It is finished” ! 2. To the benighted votaries of Rome, when ye see the priests, offering every day the pretended sacrifice of the mass. “ Cease, false priest, false worshipper, for ‘ It is finished!’” 3. To the foolish who call themselves Protestants, but who think by their gifts, prayers, vows, church-goings, &c., to make themselves fit for God; and say to them, “ Stop!” Why improve on what is finished? 4. To all poor despairing souls. Ye find them on their knees, crying, “ O God, what can I do to make recompense for my offences?” Tell them, “ It is finished;” the recompense is made already. 5. To professed Christians in doubts and fears. We have thousands that really are converted, who do not know that “ It is finished.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) It is finished 1. As the evangel of Christ. 2. As the confession of the Church. 3. As the jubilation of the believing heart. 4. As an excitation to every work of faith. 5. As a prophecy of the last day. (J. P. Lange, D. D.) It is finished The words of dying men, says the great dramatist, “ enforce attention.” How much more the words of the dying God-Man. Note I. THE LIGHT CAST BY THIS ON CHRIST’ S WORK ITSELF. It exhibits to us 1. A great work. It is not of any ordinary or trifling act that we use this stately phrase; it belongs to what we regard as an achievement to get off our hands. And never was it more worthily applied than to the work of redemption. What is great, if that is not? The Hebrew equivalent of this expression, and which concludes Psalms 22:1-31. (from which probably our Lord took it), is the same as we have in Genesis 2:3. That voice from the cross marked the termination of a work far greater in its nature and issues than the work of Creation. It made known the manifold wisdom of God in a way which no creative acts could do. It unfolded the very heart of God, and revealed Him to be Love as well as Light. 2. A difficult work. A work may be great and yet not difficult--the Creation, e.g. “ He spake and it was done.” But who can imagine the feeling of infinite relief represented by “ It is finished.” Christ’ s human nature quailed before it. “ Father, if it be possible,” &c. But now that the last drop has passed His lips; now that the justice of God is satisfied, He gives vent to the relief felt in these words. 3. A definite work. He knew when it was done. It had a beginning, certain well-marked stages, and an unmistakeable termination. He often spoke of it as something prescribed. “ The work Thou gavest Me to do.” The same is implied in His Messiahship. Ambassadors have always definite instructions. This view is needed in these days of theological vagueness when Divine mercy is panegyrized, but no positive statements forthcoming as to how a sinner is to be accepted of God. We are twitted with our theology being hard and dry, but when solid footing is wanted these qualities are preferable to quicksands and quagmires. The Saviour’ s work was definite in its nature, objects, and results. 4. A perfect work. A definite goal was reached, and all up to that point was perfect, and could never again be reopened or improved. And the Scripture leaves us in no ignorance of what was perfected--the Atonement Hebrews 10:10; Hebrews 10:14). II. THE IN WHICH CHRIST’ S WORK WAS THEN . 1. That it was finished in every view of it was manifestly not the case; for it is still in progress, and will not be absolutely finished till “ the days of the voice of the seventh angel” (Revelation 10:7). 2. As a whole it was finished as a battle is finished. After the conflict at Gravelotte had raged for twelve hours, Moltke rode up to the King of Prussia and quietly said, “ The battle is finished.” He meant that the key of the position was wrested from the enemy, and that it was only a matter of time for his dispositions to close the struggle. So here the contest was raging fiercer than ever, and still rages: but Christ won the key of the position, and virtually secured everything. 3. In certain details it was absolutely finished. The typical system was abolished, animal sacrifices had accomplished their mission, and prophecy was fulfilled. III. SOME OF THE EFFECTS WHICH THE OF CHRIST’ S WORK SHOULD HAVE UPON US. 1. It ought to annihilate all disposition to self-righteousness. The natural man has no pleasure in contemplating Christ’ s work as finished. He must first be made to feel himself a helpless, worthless, perishing sinner, and then a work requiring no contributions of his will exactly suit his case. 2. We should see in it a ground of immediate peace and joy--as it was to the early disciples (Acts 2:46-47; Acts 8:39; Acts 16:34). Jesus has done all that you need for your acceptance: nothing remains for you but to accept it, and take the comfort of it. 3. We see the pledge that Christ’ s work will be complete in all His people. Conclusion: This pillar of light has a frowning aspect for unbelievers. Christ’ s enemies were terribly frightened when He said, “ It is finished.” The earth quaked, &c., and the onlookers Smote upon their breasts and fled, fancying that all was finished. They were mistaken, of course, but a day is coming when it will be no mistake. It will then be finished for the ungodly; finished with prayer, mercy, pleasures of sin, everything except the wrath of God, and that will be for ever. (James Moir, M. A.) It is finished I. IN WHAT SENSE. 1. Prophecy was fulfilled. 2. The substance of the types was accomplished. 3. All was finished that was necessary to make Him a fit pattern for us. 4. All was done which God required as an expiation of sin. II. THE . 1. The dignity of the Person finishing. 2. The greatness of the work. 3. God’ s approbation of Him and it. III. THE COMFORT. 1. It answers the grand scruple which is at the bottom of all our Micah 6:6-7). 2. God can now require no satisfaction from us (Isaiah 53:5). 3. It affords the strongest motive to duty and gives to duty its sweetest pleasure. 4. It encourages us to look for great things from God in this life and the next. (T. Manton, D. D.) It is finished I. A WORD--all Scripture fulfilled. II. A HIGH WORD--the expiatory sacrifice completed. III. A KINGLY WORD--the kingdom of heaven founded. (J. P.Lange, D. D.) It is finished The significance of these words as regards I. CHRIST . They indicated 1. That His passion was accomplished. 2. That the Father’ s will had been perfected in the Son. II. THE POWERS OF . They indicated that Christ’ s absolute sovereignty was established over Satan, death, and hell. III. MANKIND. They indicated that the debt of sin was cancelled and man’ s atonement made. Conclusion: The saying teaches us 1. To realize in the apparent failure of His mission the true dignity of Christ. 2. The necessity of individual co-operation with Divine grace. 3. To offer ourselves to God in living consecration. 4. To be faithful unto death. (Thirty Thousand Thoughts.) It is finished It is interesting to see the first outlines and drawings, the rough sketches which some of the great painters have left of their great pictures; but what are these compared with the completed masterpieces when the shade and colour have been put in and the final touch has been added! It is interesting to see the block of rough marble that has received the first strokes of the chisel, but how is this surpassed when the statue is finished and appears to breathe with life! And the pleasure of the beholder is eclipsed by that of the artist. When Palissy, after years of toil and experiment, amidst privation and reproach, at last mastered the secret, and found that his jars came out of the fire covered with the beautiful white enamel, what an intense relief he must have felt when he discovered the long-lost art! When one has undergone a painful operation and it proves successful, with what intense relief does the sufferer whisper, “ Thank God! it is over now.” So in this word on the cross there seems to breathe an intense relief and joy that the work which the Father had given Him was finished. (W. T. Bull, M. A.) Finished means more than “ ended.” Five times in the course of the evangelic record Christ is said to have used the word now in question. In four instances out of the five our translators have rendered it “ accomplished.” We must certainly take it as conveying the idea, not simply of ending, but of ending to perfection. Some interpreters understand Christ to speak only of His life. It would, however, be little for any one of us to say in the last hour, “ Life is ended” --the question will be, Is it finished? When a certain graceful queen of fashion was dying, she said, “ Oh, my God, it is over! I have come to the end of it--the end--the end! To have only one life--and to have done with it--and to lie here! To have lived and loved, and triumphed, and to know that it is over! One may defy everything else, but not this!” While the listener to these words sat, not once moving her eyes from the face of her who was speaking, “ in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” that face changed into a mere mask of stone on the pillow, gazing at her with fixed stare. Oh the difference between one who could only say, “ I have ended my course,” and one who could say, “ I have finished it” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). When a poet, long the pride of Germany, was writing his last work, death stopped him in the midst of it, and the unfinished manuscript was placed upon the coffin as it was carried to the grave; touching type of what might be done at every funeral! Our lives on earth are broken fragments of existence, crowded with the beginnings of things. Unfinished pictures in the studio, unfinished plans on the anvil of thought, unfinished papers on the desk, unfinished houses in the street, unfinished settlements of affairs; and the beginners of these taken away, all remind us of the difference between us and our Master. His purposes are never “ broken off.” In creation, though various checks, blights, and frosts are permitted, as far as His creative processes are concerned, you find that even in the smallest thing nothing is left unfinished; you meet with no unfinished insect, no unfinished flower, no unfinished “ medallions of creation.” “ All His work is perfect;” and everything, from the shell on the shore to the star in the sky, is what He meant it to be. No one can say of Jesus Christ, in any department of His operations, that He only half does, or only almost does. What He does, He finishes. No one shall point to the cross and say of “ the Man, Christ Jesus,” “ This Man began to build, and was not able to finish.” What He did then, He did thoroughly; and it was with truth most exact and absolute that He said, “ It is finished!” (C. Stanford, D. D.) Christ proclaiming His finished work Looking at it I. IN WITH HIMSELF, we may notice 1. The wonderful composure it indicates. Dying men have often spoken composedly, but this has generally been when they have had no intense bodily suffering to distract them, and all quiet within their souls. But Jesus is dying in a storm. His bodily frame is sinking with agony, and as for His soul, none but Himself can form an idea of the waves and the billows that are going over it. Yet where are His thoughts? He is described in the verses preceding as calmly reviewing the predictions concerning Him, and finding one of them yet unfulfilled, providing for the fulfilment of it. What an honour is here put on Holy Scripture! And this mental composure appears yet more wonderful, when we contrast it with the agitation He manifested only a few hours before in the apprehension of His sufferings in Gethsemane. One of the most wonderful things attending His sufferings, is the amazing power of suffering He discovered under them. And where did this power come from? From His Father. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 19:31-37 The Jews therefore because it was the preparation Profanity of fanaticism They must make ready for keeping holy the Sabbath while their hands are red with the murder of the Son of God. A stroke of that Jewish hypocrisy which strains at gnats and swallows camels similar to John 18:28. These men considered themselves strictly bound to observe every jot and tittle of an outward ordinance, but never scrupled to violate the most weighty precepts of the moral law. They made no conscience of murdering an innocent Person, and yet could not think of letting His dead body hang upon the cross upon the Sabbath day. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) The dead Christ I. THE SIGHTS JOHN BEHELD (John 19:32-35). 1. The breaking of the robbers’ legs. How and why this came to pass the Evangelist explains; also how and why the operation was omitted in the case of Christ. 2. The piercing of the Saviour’ s side. Not a slight scratch, but a strong thrust of a soldier’ s lance, given to render assurance of Christ’ s death doubly sure. 3. The streaming of blood and water from the wound--unusual, if not directly miraculous. As Christ’ s body saw no corruption the change upon it which should culminate in a resurrection had begun. The water and the blood were an indication of the presence of that new life which was to issue in the transformation of what was earthly and corporeal into that which is heavenly and spiritual. II. THE JOHN MADE (John 19:36-37; 1 John 5:6). 1. That Christ was the true Paschal Lamb. He arrived at this conclusion by observing the coincidence between the not breaking of Christ’ s legs and the ancient paschal ordinance (Exodus 12:46). At the time perhaps it escaped his notice, but reflecting on it afterwards he saw in that seemingly accidental, but really providential, circumstance, “ the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” 2. That Israel would one day be converted to Christ. John remembered Zechariah 12:10. Since the first part of the prophecy was undeniably fulfilled, he knew the other would be, and he had not long to wait. Within two months many of Christ’ s murderers were crying, “ What shall we do?” Acts 2:37). And the day will come when all shall cry it (Romans 11:25-26; 2 Corinthians 3:16). 3. That Christ crucified was an all-sufficient Saviour for men. This was suggested; if not then, afterwards, by streaming forth of blood and water, to cleanse and regenerate (1 John 5:6). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) A fragment of a wonderful history I. THE OF . The Jews here were in a conventional and ceremonial sense great saints, and felt themselves such; albeit they were destitute of genuine morality, and in heart disregarded every precept of the decalogue. It has ever been so. There is a pietism which eats out the heart of humanity, and turns men into bigots and persecutors. II. THE OF STATE . The soldiers who crucified and pierced Christ had sold themselves to the state, and surrendered their whole individuality to their employers. The spirit of manhood was extinct; they had become machines to murder and kill. This is the curse of nations. In proportion to the servile spirit of a people is the strength of tyranny. Sycophancy paralyses patriotism. This is not unknown even in England. III. THE OF THE FACT. 1. The greatest fact in history is the death of Christ. To it all past events pointed, and from it all future have their rise and take their date. It created moral influences which deepen every day. 2. The most competent witness of the fact was John. No one was (1) More intellectually competent. No one was so much with Christ, and so intimately acquainted with Him. (2) More morally competent. He was incorruptibly honest and incontrovertibly disinterested. IV. THE OF . (verse 37). He who looks with the eye of faith on the cross as the demonstration of human wickedness and the expression of God’ s compassion for sinners, is in a way to have his heart broken with contrition for sin. (D. Thomas, D. D.) John 19:32-33 Then came the soldiers and broke the legs--By no mode of judicial death has “ man’ s inhumanity to man” been more shown than by crucifixion.It was a slow death by exhaustion and starvation. These processes were so slow, that when the crucified person was in ordinary health and vigour, invariably he survived the first twenty-four hours, lived generally over the second, occasionally even into the fifth or sixth day. “ I was told,” says Captain Clapperton, speaking of the punishments in the Soudan, “ that wretches on the cross generally linger three days before death puts an end to their sufferings.” In old times, at nightfall, when the crowd had gone home, and each head had found its soft pillow, the soldiers lighted their lanterns and waited. Through the frost of the night, through the fire of the day, then through another night and day, the man on the cross would be dying slowly, until the savage watchers, out of patience, would sometimes, not indeed for his sake, but for their own, by blow of mace or mallet, break his limbs; and the shock of this would shake out the last quivering spark of life. In this instance, besides the impatience of the soldiers, there was that of the people. Next day would be the Sabbath of the Passover, regarded as the great Sabbath of the year. According to their standard, it would have been desecration of this day if they had allowed a man to die on it by hanging on a tree. A deputation, therefore, waited on the governor, with an entreaty that the men who were on the crosses might be despatched at once, and their bodies taken away. He acceded to this; the order was forwarded to the soldiers; in carrying out this order they broke the legs, first of the malefactor on the one side, next of him on the other side of the central cross; but when they came to that they found that Jesus was dead already. (C. Stanford, D. D.) John 19:34 One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side The piercing of Christ’ s side I. IT WAS AN ACT OF INSULT AND TO HIS PERSON. To this, indeed, He was no stranger. In the hall of Pilate, and on the cross He encountered indignities of the cruellest kind. But, beyond the moment of death, the malice of His enemies pursued Him. We cannot behold the body, which the Holy Spirit had prepared, thus mangled, without the deepest sorrow and humiliation. We could not see the body of a convicted malefactor thus insulted without the deepest pity. “ He was wounded for our transgressions.” Let us look to Him whom we pierced, and mourn because of Him. And let the believing contemplation of the wounds of Jesus teach us submission under the varied ills and sorrows of our own earthly lot. II. IT , AND PLACES BEYOND , THE REALITY OF HIS DEATH. On this some of the most important truths depend. 1. If He had not actually expired, there would have been no sacrifice at all. The true nature of a sacrifice is the actual dying of the victim. If, therefore, the death of Jesus were not put beyond all question, His doctrine might enlighten, and His example direct us, but we should have no assurance that an actual and efficient atonement had been made for sin. 2. The reality of our Lord’ s death is essential to the confirmation of the hopes which are founded on His resurrection. If we could not show that death had actually taken place, “ our preaching would be vain, your faith would be vain, and you would be yet in your sins.” The piercing of His side put His death beyond question. Believing that He “ both died, and rose, and revived,” we look up to Him with sacred satisfaction and joy, and adore Him as “ Lord both of the dead and of the living.” III. IT WAS THE OF ANCIENT . 1. With respect to the first of these, it is obvious, that it is the prescription in reference to the Paschal Lamb that is pointed to. The executioner breaks the legs first of the one malefactor, and then of the other; but why does he stop short? Nobody interferes to arrest the fatal blow. But had it fallen the pretensions of Jesus to be the antitype of the Paschal Lamb, and consequently the Messiah of Israel, would have been for ever annulled. While, therefore, the executioner proceeds to do his work, an invisible Power interposed to restrain him. The honour of God’ s Son was at stake--the comfort of the Church was in peril--the mission of Jesus must beestablished by the fulfilment of prophecy. 2. Nor is the piercing of His side a less remarkable fulfilment. In the accomplishing of the one, the soldier abstains from doing to Jesus what he had done to the others, and what he had been told to do to all; while, in accomplishing the other prophecy, another soldier does to him what he did not do to the others, and what he was not told to do. And by this opposite conduct of two Roman soldiers were two memorable predictions of God’ s Word accomplished. IV. IT WAS AN EMBLEM OF THE AND VIRTUE OF HIS . The piercing of his Master’ s side, and the issuing of blood and water from the wound, made a deep and abiding impression on the mind of John, and we find him recurring to it in his first Epistle (verse 6). “ This is He who came by water and blood.” In all languages water has been employed as an emblem of moral cleansing, while the universal prevalence of sacrifice has made blood the proper symbol of expiation. (J. Johnston.) The piercing of Christ’ s side I. THE . The scrupulosity of the Jews, which teaches us 1. That superstition is fuller of ceremony than of mercy. 2. That the worst of men are usually very solicitous about external worship. 3. That malefactors are not to be taken out of the hands of justice, and left to the malice of the executioner or the fury of the multitude. They had to ask leave of Pilate for the additional punishment. 4. That when a man once gives himself up to please men there is no end to his compliance. Pilate who began by consenting to scourge Christ ends by signing an order for the breaking of His legs. 5. That Christ was willing to die for us, hence He died before the usual time. Had His legs been broken His death would have seemed the effect of violence rather than His own resignation (John 10:18). II. THE . 1. AS an act of Christ’ s love and condescension, that He would expose His body to the malice and violence of wicked men. He might have dried up the soldier’ s arm as He did Jeroboams; but by this stroke Christ would have His heart opened to show how full of love He is to sinners. As at the beginning Adam’ s side was opened and Eve was taken out of it; so is the Church out of Christ’ s side. In this circumstance there is (1) Hope for all wounded sinners. It is said of those converts (Acts 2:37) that “ they were pricked to their hearts.” Christ’ s heart is wounded that they might be healed. This is the cleft of the rock in which guilty men may find refuge when wrath makes inquisition for sinners. (2) Matter of thankfulness. Soldiers to endear themselves to their country are wont to show their scars received in public service: so Christ (John 20:27). In the sacrament these things are presented to faith. 2. As a certain pledge of Christ’ s death. The flowing of blood and water shows that the pericardium was pierced. So His enemies could not say that He was half dead, and that His resurrection was but a reviving out of a swoon. Upon this is based the Resurrection and all its benefits, and the fulness of the expiation which Christ offered to justice. 3. As a Divine necessity. Christ was to die (1) As a Surety. We deserved death, but our Surety was to pay our debt. This Christ did (1 Peter 3:18; 1 Timothy 2:6). (2) As a Testator or Maker of the New Testament. We could never have had the benefit of the Covenant if Christ had not died (Hebrews 9:16). (T. Manton, D. D.) Forthwith came there out blood and water Blood and water In the water and the blood are represented the most essential elements of salvation. The water has a remote reference to baptism, but it chiefly symbolizes the moral purifying power of the word of Christ. The blood points out the ransom paid for our guilt, as well as the atoning sacrifice. The blood flowed separately from the water; justification must not be mingled with, much less substituted for, personal amendment. (F. Krummacher.) The physical cause of the death of Christ Since Dr. Stroud published his work on “ The Physical Causes of Christ’ s Death,” we have met with no doubt expressed as to the death of Christ having immediately resulted from rupture of the heart. “ Joy, or grief, or anger, suddenly or intensely excited, have often been known to produce this effect. The heart, which the universal language of mankind has spoken of as peculiarly affected by the play of the passions, has been found in such cases to have been rent or torn by the violence of its own action. The blood issuing from the fissure thus created has filled the pericardium, or sac, by which the heart is enclosed, and by its pressure has stopped the action of the heart” (Dr. Hanna). Common sorrow can, in its sudden extremity, break hearts; why may not that sorrow, deep beyond all other sorrows, have broken His? We believe it did. Now, when blood escapes from its vessels, within a short time it coagulates, its watery part separating from the rest; and there would be, so science tells us, within an hour or two after death such a flow of blood and water from a piercing as that which John saw. The late Sir James Simpson has said on this matter: “ It has always appeared, to my medical mind at least, that this mode by which death was produced in the human body of Christ intensifies all our thoughts and ideas regarding the immensity of the astounding sacrifice which He made for our sinful race on the cross. Nothing can possibly be more striking and startling than the appalling and terrific passiveness with which God as man submitted, for our sakes, His incarnate body to all the horrors and tortures of the Crucifixion. But our wonderment at the stupendous sacrifice only increases when we reflect that, whilst enduring for our sins the most cruel and agonizing form of corporeal death, He was ultimately slain, not by the effects of the anguish of His corporeal frame, but by the effects of the mightier anguish of His mind; the fleshly walls of His heart, like the veil, as it were, in the Temple of His human body, becoming rent and riven, as for us He poured out His soul unto death. ‘ The travail of His soul’ in that awful hour thus standing out as unspeakably bitterer and more dreadful than the travail of His body.” (C. Stanford,D.D.) John 19:35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true The Gospel witness I. THE SIGHT--the whole crucifixion, but especially what constituted its essence as an evangelical fact, viz., the issue of blood and water, an emphatic testimony to the Redeemer’ s death. This is one of the most important texts of the Bible. If no one saw Christ die, how can we be sure that He did die; and unless we are sure of His death we are left in uncertainty as to His atonement and resurrection, and consequently as to our salvation and futurity. John saw a sight 1. Most wonderful. Great is the mystery of godliness all through--nowhere more than here. That God should become incarnate is inexplicable, no less so that being incarnate He should die. Learn here (1) The limits of human reason. (2) The very manhood of Christ. 2. Most painful--to all whose feelings are not utterly brutalized. The death-bed of an ordinary friend, or even a stranger, under the best circumstances, is sufficiently painful; but what must such a man as John have felt as he saw such a Friend nailed to the cruel tree? Learn here (1) The inhumanity of man. (2) The feelings with which we should contemplate Christ crucified. 3. Most beneficent. Such a mysterious scene enacted, and such dreadful sufferings endured voluntarily, must have been for some adequate purpose. Martyrdom for truth falls far short of it. The only adequate motive is John 3:16; 1 John 2:2. God incarnate was crucified to save a world. II. THE TRUE RECORD. 1. Such an event actually took place. (1) John could not have been mistaken; if the senses were deceptive here, when all was so striking, then they are trustworthy nowhere. (2) John was not a madman--his Gospel and Epistles are a sufficient proof of that. (3) John was not a deceiver; he suffered the loss of all things, and imperilled his life for the sheer sake of recording what he saw. 2. What took place John was bound to record. (1) Not simply as an important historical fact, although he had responsibilities here. (2) But as a display of Divine mercy, and the sole means of human salvation. “ Woe is me,” he might have said, “ if I write not the gospel.” 3. This record he knew to be true. Because (1) He saw what he recorded. (2) He knew that he was a truthful man. (3) Reading what he had written he was sure that it was in accordance with the whole of the facts. Nothing essential was omitted; nothing false or superfluous was included. III. THE PURPOSE. 1. Not personal display. John was a deep thinker and a graphic writer; but it was the furthest from his intention to pose as a philosopher, or to excite admiration as a rhetorician. 2. Not to excite emotion. How different the narrative from the scenic and heart-harrowing descriptions in books of devotion and pulpit declamations. 3. But to create belief. Hence the record is clear, earnest, tender, and full of subtle spiritual influence. Learn the qualifications of a true Gospel witness. 1. He must have actually seen what he endeavours to describe. Theory and hearsay are worthless here. There must be clear, positive experience of Christ crucified. 2. Fidelity. He must confine himself to what he has seen--not his fancies or speculations, but what he knows of Christ’ s love and salvation. 3. A sense of responsibility. He has a medicine that has cured him, and can cure every one. He is wicked therefore to keep it to himself. 4. A sincere and self-abnegating motive--not to court admirers but to win believers. (J. W. Burn.) The evidences of truth The truth we receive from another may either derive its authority from the teacher, or reflect on him the authority it contains. As the receiver of money may argue, either that money is good because it is an honest man who pays it, or that the man is honest because he pays good money, so in the communication of truth, it may be a valid inference, either that the doctrine is true because it is a trustworthy man who teaches it, or that the man who teaches it is a veracious and trustworthy because his doctrine is true. (J. Caird, D. D.) Testimony dependent on the character of the witness Dr. Weyland was once lecturing on the weight of evidence furnished by human testimony, and was illustrating its sufficiency for establishing the truth of miracles. “ But,” said one of his students, “ what would you say, doctor, if I stated that as I was coming up College Street, I saw the lamp-post at the corner dance?” “ I should ask you where you had been, my son,” was the quiet reply. John 19:36A bone of Him shall not be broken The inviolate body of Christ Why not? 1. His enemies might tear His flesh, &c., take away His life, heap upon Him every dishonour, but they could not break a bone of the body of Jesus. An attempt was made. Pilate commanded the soldiers to break the legs of the crucified. This was done to the two malefactors, but when they came to Jesus they could not break His legs. Roman soldiers were not accustomed to break the commands of their governors; but there stood what was mightier than the governor, mightier than Caesar: a text of Scripture. 2. From the manner in which the Evangelist speaks, it is evident that there is some important lesson to learn (John 19:35). The evangelists generally are content with a simple statement, and leave it to produce upon the reader its own impression; but here, as if there were important things that must be believed, he stays, contrary to his usual manner, to asseverate. Now, what are the lessons? I. THAT CHRIST, OUR , IS FOR US. Notice 1. A peculiarity of John. He appears as if he had gone back to the days of his youth, and the events were all passing before him. Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote as historians, but John as a witness. He saw and felt it all again. He says: “ Then came the soldiers,” --and what did they do? They brake the legs of the two malefactors? That would have been Matthew’ s way of putting it. But John says, “ and brake the legs of the first.” That is done; “ and of the other that was crucified with him.” That is done. “ But when they came to Jesus,” --he watches them coming--“ and saw” --He observed their looks--“ that He was dead already;” there was the certain expression of death on the countenance of the blessed Saviour that could not be mistaken; and the soldiers were sure He was dead; and John was sure too. And so “ they brake not His legs.” It does not seem as an afterthought, nor as though he was hunting for an argument, but just then, while he was looking on, the law of the Passover was suggested to his mind, and he felt something like this: “ There is the fulfilment of Scripture there; not a bone of Him is broken. There is the Passover slain for us.” 2. There was everything to remind John of the Passover. He had eaten the Passover with Christ the night before. Friends of his from Galilee had come up to keep the Passover; before them all, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed; it was the great paschal day. 3. And what is the lesson for us? Christ was the Paschal Lamb of the Christian Church. Through the shedding of His blood we plead for mercy; the avenging angel passes by; the wrath of God is averted; there is no demand for death; peace and joy may remain in our houses. (1) Do not reply; you are not one of the elect, and have no right to plead it. “ As Moses lifted up the serpent … that whosoever” --is not that enough? As certainly as the Hebrew in Egypt was safe under the sign of the blood of the paschal lamb, so certainly may you repose in perfect security by pleading the precious blood of Christ your Passover, sacrificed for you. (2) But you tell me that the Egyptians could have no benefit from the paschal lamb. So far I agree; but I will venture to say, that if some Egyptian, hearing and believing the proclamation of Moses, had slain a lamb and sprinkled his door-posts with its blood, the angel of death would have respected that sign. So I say, be you who you may, only come in upon the proclamation of mercy, and lay hold on everlasting life, and you will not be disappointed. II. THAT NO WAS TO BE DONE TO THE BODY OF JESUS AFTER HIS spirit had departed. 1. His life was gone, and He was no longer a consenting party. The dishonour as well as the agony He suffered was meritorious, and by it He was perfected in obedience, and was working out our salvation; but there can be nothing meritorious in any sufferings of a dead body; and therefore the body was, after death, under the guardian care of His heavenly Father; and so it was honoured in every possible way. Observe this in the narrative. What a contrast was there between the morning and the evening of that Friday! In the morning He is hung on a malefactor’ s cross; in the evening He is lying in the rich man’ s tomb. Great purposes were accomplished by the dishonour. “ Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again,” &c. He endured the cross, and despised the shame, and showed the meekness and gentleness of His forgiving spirit when others were insulting Him. After death there could be no such object to accomplish. 2. The contrast is very remarkable; but observe how it is brought about. What was to become of the body of Jesus? It was not uncommon to leave the bodies hanging, the prey of carrion birds and ravenous beasts. But it was the great feast-time of the Jews, and it would have been a pollution to have allowed the bodies to remain there. What was to become of Jesus? There was a friend of His, a member of the Sanhedrim, who had the right to go to Pilate and ask a favour; “ a disciple, but secretly, for fear of the Jews.” A man afraid to avow himself a disciple before the Jews, would he avow himself a disciple before Pilate? Well, he did so. God is never at a loss for an instrument, and sometimes He employs the most unlikely. Nicodemus also was emboldened now, and so the two, and the servants, could thus reverently take down the body of Jesus, and convey it to the tomb with every possible honour. It was as if God had marked His approval of the great work which Jesus had finished. He has not long to lie in the tomb, but every honour shall be done Him while He is there. His body saw no corruption. (R. Halley, D. D.) John 19:37 They shall look on Him whom they have pierced Looking at the pierced One The text in relation I. TO THE JEWS. 1. In relation to the past. It was the fulfilment of prophecy. Zechariah Zechariah 12:10) had predicted what they would do. Christ honours Scripture even in His death, and makes even His enemies contribute to its fulfilment. 2. In relation to the present. (1) Some looked regretfully. They had trusted that He would have redeemed Israel. (2) Some looked remorsefully. One cannot but believe that there were misgivings in the breasts of other actors in this grim tragedy, than in those of the Centurion and Judas. (3) But the evidence goes to show that most looked maliciously and murderously, and had no compunctions for their awful crime. 3. In relation to the future. (1) In the immediate future some looked on Jesus as set forth by Peter evidently crucified, and cried, “ What shall we do?” and were saved (Acts 2:1-47.); and many more through the instrumentality of Paul. (2) In the remote future. “ All Israel shall be saved,” if not as a race, as penitent believers, “ looking unto Jesus.” II. TO SINNERS . Inasmuch as sin was the moving cause of the Crucifixion, and the Jews were literal actors, not simply as Jews, but as wicked men, so the guilt of that crime rests upon the sinful race of men. Men look on Him whom they have pierced. 1. Now. Where Christ is known at all He is the central, all-commanding figure. All men must look, whether they like it or not. (1) Some look, and then look away--indifferent to His agonies and to the salvation they procured. Self-righteousness is sufficient, or salvation procured in that way a superfluity. “ Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by?” (2) Some look and scoff. The Cross is still a stumbling-block or foolishness to infidels, or profane, or hypercritical persons. The offence of the Cross has not ceased. (3) Some look, and are softened into penitence, encouraged to believe and live. 2. Hereafter. All shall some day look again (Revelation 1:7); but the Pierced One will occupy not a Cross but a Throne, and will be seen either as a Judge, saying, “ Depart ye cursed,” or as an everlasting Saviour saying, “ Come ye blessed.” Which will He be to you? You may learn from your present attitude. (J. W. Burn.) Looking and learning I. THEY AWAKEN SORROW. Sorrow for sin is the germ of repentance. True repentance flows from the Cross. II. THEY KINDLE HOPE. Christ was pierced, not only by man, but for man, and by His stripes we are healed. III. THEY NERVE US TO . How patiently Christ submitted. IV. THEY EXCITE US TO ZEAL. He laid down His life in His Father’ s work. Should we not give up our gratifications for Him? V. THEY US TO DEATH. It is not likely we shall die so painful a death as Christ did. But by death He conquered. Through Him we shall through death obtain a crown. (The Homilist.) John 19:38-42 And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews A threefold power I. THE POWER OF . Both of these men had opportunities of being convinced of Christ’ s Messiah-ship, and both were in sympathy with Him, yet neither made a public avowal of discipleship. There were perhaps, three elements of worldliness that influenced them in the matter. 1. The love of wealth. Confession of Christ meant excommunication and the spoiling of goods. Hence Christ reminded His hearers of the sacrifices they would have to make, but neither Joseph nor Nicodemus had the moral courage to make them. 2. The desire for popularity. They occupied high positions and had the honour of the populace. Had they followed Christ they would have lost both, and loving the praise of men more than of God, had not the moral strength to make the sacrifice. There are three classes of men: (1) Those who have no moral convictions--the largest class. (2) Those who have moral convictions, but not enough courage to avow them. There are many such in parliament and the pulpit. (3) Those who have moral convictions and carry them out regardless of the frowns of men. These are the heroes, reformers and saviours of the world; and also the smallest class. 3. The power of caste. They were members of the highest class of Jewish society--a class which, as a whole, was malignantly hostile to Christ. Because “ none of the rulers believed on Him,” these men were too weak to pronounce for Him. These three elements are as strong here as there, now as then. II. THE POWER OF THE CROSS. There was something about Christ’ s death which roused these men to manly exertion, and two wonders connected with the Crucifixion were calculated to produce this effect. 1. The material. The rending of the veil, the earthquake, &c., must have produced some impression on the most sceptical, much more on those in whom lurked a secret love. 2. The moral. His moral Majesty, His prayer, His last words--in all these there was a “ still small,” soul-penetrating voice, which must have affected these men. As they now handled the mangled frame, self-reproachful tears would fall. Thus the power of the Cross overcame, and is the only power to overcome the power of the world. III. THE POWER OF . Now Christ is dead their consciences are stirred to their centre. Is it not always so with those who have neglected a true friend when he is gone? 1. It forced them to a compensatory effort, Nothing too good for Him now. Conscience will sooner or later drive a man to his duty. 2. The compensatory effort came too late. Of what use was the costly embalmment now! How often this is the case now! (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ’ s funeral There are six remarkable particulars about this funeral. 1. The preparations that were made for it. (1) His body could not be buried till, by begging, his friends had obtained it as a favour from Pilate. (2) And when they had gotten it, they wind it in fine linen with spices. But what need of spices? His own love was perfume enough to keep it sweet in remembrance of His people to all generations. However, by this they will manifest the dear affection they have for Him. 2. The bearers--Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. None could imagine that ever they would have gone boldly to manifest their love to Christ, when dead, who were afraid to come to Him (except by night) when He was living, when those that made open confessions of Him are gone. 3. The attendants who followed the hearse--the women that followed Him out of Galilee. 4. The sepulchre. (1) It was another’ s. As He lived in other men’ s houses, so He lay in another man’ s tomb. (2) It was a new tomb; for had any other been laid there before Him, it might have been averred that it was some former body, and not the Lord’ s, that rose. 5. The disposition of the body. There is no mention made of the tears, yet we may well presume they were not wanting in plentiful expressions of their sorrow (Luke 23:48). I. WHY HAD CHRIST ANY FUNERAL AT ALL, since He was to rise again? 1. To ascertain His death, else it might have been looked upon as a cheat. Now, since our eternal life is wrapt up in Christ’ s death, it can never be too firmly established. 2. To fulfil the types and prophecies that went before (Matthew 12:40; Isaiah 53:9). 3. To complete His humiliation. Lower He could not be laid. 4. That He might conquer death in its own dominion; which victory furnisheth the saints with that triumphant song (1 Corinthians 15:55). II. WHAT MANNER OF FUNERAL CHRIST HAD. 1. It was very obscure and private. Here was no external pomp. Christ affected it not in His life, and it was no way suitable to the ends and manner of His death. (1) The dead body of the Lord was not brought from His own house as other men’ s commonly are, but from the tree. Had they not obtained this favour from Pilate, it must have been tumbled into a pit under the cross. (2) It was attended with a very poor train; a few sorrowful women. Other men are accompanied to their graves by their relations and friends. The disciples were afraid to own Him dying, and dead. (3) It was done in great haste. Time was short; they take the next sepulchre they can get, and hurry Him away that evening into it. Thus was the Prince of the kings of earth, who hath the keys of death and hell, laid into His grave. 2. Yet though men could bestow little honour upon it, the heavens bestowed several marks of honour upon it. (1) A miraculous eclipse put the heavens and earth into mourning. (2) The rending in twain of the veil showed that all ceremonies were now accomplished and abolished. (3) The opening of the graves showed the design and end of Christ’ s going into it. III. . 1. Was Christ buried in this manner? Then a decent and mournful funeral (where it can be had) is very laudable among Christians. 2. Did Joseph and Nicodemus so boldly appear, at a time of so much danger, to beg the body and give it a funeral? Let it be for ever a caution to strong Christians not to despise or glory over the weak. 3. Hence we may be assisted in discerning the depths of Christ’ s humiliation for us, and see from what to what this love brought Him. 4. From this funeral of Christ results the purest and strongest consolation and encouragement to believers against the fears of death and the grave. (1) The grave received, but could not destroy, Jesus Christ; and as it fared with Christ’ s body personal, so it shall with Christ’ s body mystical (1 Corinthians 15:20). (2) As the union betwixt the body of Christ and the Divine nature was not dissolved, so the union between Christ and believers cannot be when their bodies shall be laid in their graves. (3) As Christ’ s body did there rest in hope, so it shall fare with the dead bodies of the saints (Psalms 16:9-11). (4) Christ’ s lying in the grave hath changed the nature of the grave, so that it is not what it was. It was once a part of the curse, but now it is no prison but a bed of rest; yea, and a perfumed bed (Isaiah 57:2; Psalms 23:4). 5. Since Christ was laid in His grave, and His people reap such privileges by it, as ever you expect rest or comfort in your graves, see that you get union with Christ now. (1) The covenant of God holds firmly with our very dust (Matthew 22:31-32; Romans 14:7-9). That dust is still the Lord’ s. (2) As God’ s covenant with our very bodies is indissolvable, so God’ s love to our very dust is inseparable (Romans 8:33). (3) As God’ s love will be with you in the grave, so God’ s providence shall take order when it shall be digged for you; not till you are fit to be put into Job 5:26; Acts 13:36). (4) When ever you come to your graves, you shall find the enmity of the grave slain by Christ (1 Corinthians 3:21-22). (5) Christ keeps the keys of all the chambers of death, and as He unlocks the door of death, when He lets you in so He will open it again for you when you awake, to let you out; He Himself wakes and watches by you while you sleep there (Revelation 1:18). (J. Flavel.) The burial of Christ Of all the scenes of common life, there is none so affecting and instructive as the funeral of a friend. When heroes or a beloved monarch go to their last home, thousands gather round the tomb. Shall the great Saviour and King of men have no one among us to lament His death? I. THE HIS BURIAL. 1. The persons who are bearing the blessed Jesus to His tomb. And who are they? The disciples? These “ all forsook Him and fled;” and now He is dead, they leave His body to be mourned over and buried by others. But though, in the hour of need, they desert us who ought to be the first to minister to our necessities, yet “ the Lord will provide.” 2. The time in which Jesus was interred. “ The Jews’ preparation day,” and the people were now attending the service of the Temple; but Joseph and Nicodemus were not among them. They offered to God a more acceptable service than prayers and sacrifice; but having buried the Saviour, all their love for Him could not bring them to His tomb till the Sabbath was ended. Thus did they manifest the ardour of their affection, and at the same time admonish us to suppress the noblest feelings of our nature, rather than violate the command of God. 3. The place where the Lord was interred. (1) A garden on the very hill on which He was crucified. It was right that the place where He suffered the greatest ignominy should be the first scene of His glory. (2) His sepulchre was “ hewn out in a rock.” A body could not hastily be removed from such a sepulchre by a subterraneous passage, nor could the disciples enter unperceived. II. WHY WAS HE THUS BURIED? 1. That the prophecies concerning the Messiah should be fulfilled. 2. To prove the reality of His death. 3. To comfort His people in the prospect of death. III. THE EFFECTS WHICH A OF THE SAVIOUR’ S TOMB SHOULD PRODUCE ON US. 1. A penitential sorrow for all the injuries we have done Him, and all the pain we have given Him. 2. Joy that His sufferings are past and His happiness begun. 3. An earnest desire to be where He is and to behold His glory. 4. The deepest anxiety to be prepared for our own latter end. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The burial of Jesus I. THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS (John 19:38): 1. By whom effected. Joseph, assisted by Nicodemus, John, and the women. (1) A native of Ramathaim in Ephraim, the birthplace of Samuel. (2) A rich man, which rendered his service a signal display of courage, a true token of inherent nobility, a striking companion-picture to the Magi at Christ’ s birth, and a beginning of fulfilment for Isaiah’ s oracle concerning His death (Isaiah 53:9). (3) A member of the Sanhedrim, though probably not present when Christ was pronounced guilty of death (cf. Luke 23:50, with Mt Mark 14:64) . (4) A good man; one of the few who kept God’ s commandments, and waited for the consolation of Israel (Luke 1:6; Luke 1:24). (5) A secret disciple--like others of the rulers (John 12:42); e.g., Nicodemus, whose faith waxed stronger as Christ’ s cause grew darker. 2. When attempted. After Christ’ s death, which happened about 3 p.m. Obtaining leave from Pilate, he would then concert with Nicodemus about purchasing the linen cloth, &c. It would then be approaching even. 3. How carried out. The Evangelist is silent; but from the performers, we may conclude, with reverence, tenderness, and tears. II. THE (verse 39, 40). Nicodemus now steps into the foreground. 1. His person identified. The same mentioned in chap. 3. 2. His courage emphasized--in contrast with that interview. 3. His love proclaimed. With no straitened hand he carries out his heart’ s design. 4. His reverence recorded. Along with the others he proceeds to embalm the corpse. First they lay the body on the white winding-sheet. Next the women, it may be supposed, take the smaller cloths from Nicodemus, and, filling them with aromatic powder, wrap them around its members. After this Joseph folds around it his great white sheet, and the work is complete. III. THE (verses 41, 42). 1. The place of sepulture. (1) A garden grave. In a garden death achieved its first victory. It was fitting that in a garden that victory should be reversed. (2) A strange grave. In another grave He is laid, who died for another’ s guilt. (3) An honourable grave. He who died on a cross between malefactors is laid in a just man’ s tomb. (4) A new grave. It was congruous that He who was a new Man (sinless), born in a new way (of a virgin), who had died a new death (for sin not His own), and who was to rise unto a new life (of glory and immortality) should rest in a new tomb. (5) A near grave. Close to Jerusalem as ours is to the heavenly city. 2. The funeral procession. Contrast it with that of the great, even the wicked great. Lessons: 1. The overruling providence of God in the fulfilment of Scripture. 2. The guarantee that the sinner’ s debt has been paid. 3. The transformation of the grave. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus at the burial of Jesus At first, it may disturb your sense of proportion to see the names of two mere men in such a connection; thinking that no name but His own should be mentioned. You care to know nothing about them, and have eyes, ears, heart for nothing but one solemnity. We shall, however, not be out of order, nor break any canon of Christian good taste by taking emphatic notice of them. I. BEFORE THE DEATH OF JESUS THESE TWO RULERS had been His secret disciples. 1. Foremost in the transaction we see Joseph. When we are told that fear kept him from avowing his discipleship, we are tempted at once to pass sentence upon him. But it may have been a fear natural to a mental sensitive plant, shrinking from every rough wind and every random touch--a fear fostered by an atmosphere of reverence, and heightened by anexquisite, pain at the thought of difference between himself and other men. The companion of Joseph was Nicodemus, a man like himself in station, in wealth, and in being “ a disciple of Jesus, but secretly.” 2. These men were no worse than multitudes are now who pass as irreproachable. Many an undergraduate, many a man fighting his way through the earlier stages of a profession, having in his heart “ some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel,” holds it secretly, out of the fear inspired by his social surroundings. Many a Christian, now loud in profession, great in repute, had he lived in the days of the Incarnation would have received no nobler notice than this--“ a disciple of Jesus, but secretly.” How would it have been with you? How is it with you now? “ Let him who is without fault among you cast the first stone.” II. THE DEATH OF JESUS ROUSED THE TWO SECRET TO DECLARE . 1. It is remarkable that the first fact recorded in Christian history after the death of Christ is one that warns us against being merely secret disciples. Grace is not a treasure to be “ hid in the earth in the midst of the tent.” Faith will not stay shut up in the heart any more than a seed will stay shut up in the soil. Sometimes, indeed, a seed may be dropped in some deep furrow where the clods harden over it, until a tearing storm fetches it out into light. Sometimes a Christian may be like that seed, and a storm of trouble may be needed to reveal him. At the Crucifixion such a storm burst upon these two disciples. 2. Look at Joseph. No one had suspected a stain on this white flower of the Hebrew aristocracy; no one had dreamt of anything on this soul of honour that could fear the world or shun the daylight; and perhaps, owing to the heart’ s deceitfulness, he had hardly thought of it himself; but when at length the Saviour in whom he had secretly trusted was put to death, the shock woke him up. Then, with pangs of burning shame, he would say, “ What a terrible coward I have been!” Besides his sorrow on this account, he must have been sorry on his own--how much he had lost! The instructions, comforts, helps that open disciples had enjoyed. Never once had he said, “ Jesus, I love Thee” ; never once had he heard Jesus say, “ Go in peace!” 3. The heroism of faith is almost always kindled by desperate circumstances. The heroism of Joseph began in Christ’ s hour of darkness. When the only voice lifted up for Him all that day had been the voice of a dying thief--then it was that he openly declared himself. He had “ waited for the kingdom;” and perhaps this poor man’ s prayer made him resolve to identify himself with the King. “ Boldly” is the fit word for describing his errand to Pilate. Such a request, in later days, has cost men their lives. But the brave deed was successful. At the same time it helped to kindle similar courage in the heart of Nicodemus. They had often met in the high places of life, each knowing the other had faith in Christ that he was afraid to profess; they now met at the cross as at the altar of decision. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Joseph of Arimathea In this and parallel passages we have all that is recorded about the burial of Christ. Two things of importance were secured by Joseph’ s interposition here. (1) Through him we obtain an official attestation of Christ’ s death, which was hardly to be expected at so early a stage. (2) Through him the body of our Lord was saved from further indignity. We have here the illustration of I. THE SLOW PROCESS BY WHICH SOME ARE BROUGHT TO A OF THE TRUTH. 1. Joseph was one of that class to which belonged Simeon and Nathanael. After Christ’ s ministry began, he became a secret disciple, convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. Did not confess, but kept from complicity in the conspiracy of the rulers. Deterred by dread of singularity and love of caste. The last stage, that of open sympathy with Christ, was reached and revealed by this act. 2. There are some Christians who cannot recall the time when they did not love and follow Christ. Others, once avowed enemies, have reached almost at a bound the position of open confessors; while others have attained only after long hesitation, and through many difficulties. II. HOW THE VERY OF A CAUSE BRINGS FRESH FROM . Who would have thought that members of the Sanhedrim would be the first to identify themselves? Neither the enthusiasm of the people nor the malice of the rulers sufficed to bring matters to a crisis with Joseph. But now, when Christ is dead, and, seemingly, his cause too, hesitation is changed to decision. 1. Something similar has often happened in struggles for national liberty. When things have come almost to a hopeless extremity dormant patriotism has been roused. 2. So in persecution for Christ’ s sake; as martyrs have laid down their lives others have taken their places. 3. So in the spiritual; so long as men only admire in Jesus the perfect character, &c., they may not be prepared to sacrifice much; but let them apprehend Him dying for sin, and they will be ready to brave all obloquy for His sake. III. HOW THE TRUE OF A MAN MAY BE IN A SINGLE ACT. Joseph’ s intercourse with the counsellers did not reveal all that he was; only at the cross were disclosed his nobility, courage, faith. How many pass a quiet life among their fellows, who little know what spirit they are of. Revealing epochs occur in most lives. Sometimes brought about by sudden affliction, or change in circumstances, or temptation. (M. Hutchison.) Joseph of Arimathea is not mentioned in Scripture except in connection with the part which he acted in the burial of Christ; and his conduct in that transaction was so worthy of a disciple that his praise will always remain in the Churches of God. Indeed, as if Scripture had not said enough of him, legend has supplied the defect. It is fabled that he came over to England and founded the first English abbey--that of Glastonbury; and some remains of an ancient building still bear the name of the Chapel of Saint Joseph. Tradition further reports that Joseph, when resting on his journey at this place, struck his staff into the ground, which took root and became the famous Glastonbury thorn, which blossomed every Christmas, and being the frequent resort of pilgrims, brought much gain to the crafty inventors of the story. Such vanities a sounder faith has taught us to reject; and refusing the additions of men to hold fast the acknowledged truth of God. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man, an honourable counsellor, a member of the Sanhedrim, but one who consented not to the deed of his colleagues. He was a good man and a just. He had been timorous when the rest were bold; and now he becomes bold when they yield to fear. (J. Fawcett, M. A.) One Joseph is appointed to take charge of Jesus in His infancy, and another is raised up to provide for His burial. (W. H. Van Doren.) Secret discipleship I. WHY MANY PREFER SECRET TO OPEN . Possibly it Isaiah 1. The stringency of His requirements. 2. Shame at association with one of so lowly an origin, or so radical a reformer. Joseph would feel the force of these difficulties. 3. Fear of (1) Being accounted presumptuous for attempting to lead instead of to follow. (2) Being accounted righteous overmuch. (3) Not being able to maintain consistency. They cannot trust God’ s grace to keep them from bringing disgrace on the Church. 4. Because of wrong ideas about Christianity. 5. Because of the inconsistency of professors. 6. Because they do not see the need of open discipleship. 7. Because there is no fervency of love to Christ. II. HOW FAR CHRIST SECRET . Let us see if we find any hint in the affirmative. 1. In the subsequent history of Joseph. We know little about him except that he gave to Christ, “ who had had the death of a malefactor, the burial of a king;” but in this he seems to have had no hope in the Resurrection. No mention is made of Christ’ s appearance to Joseph. If the tradition that he founded Glastonbury Abbey be credited, it only shows that he had shaken off his secret discipleship. Had his secret discipleship been intentional to help Christ as Hushai helped David, or Blonde de Nesle Coeur de Lion, there might possibly be some hope of recognition. But it is an absurd idea that Christ wishes us to appear worldly, and hide our religion, to advance his course. 2. There is no suggestion of the recognition of secret discipleship in any of Christ’ s utterances. He claims open attachment--“ Follow Me,” “ Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me,” &c. 3. In the nature of things it is improbable that Christ should recognize it. Suppose Christianity is weak we ought to side with it because it is right. Sympathy with, and appreciation of, Christ demand it. (F. Hastings.) A secret disciple A native gentleman, a writer in the Missionary News relates, was taken seriously ill, and requested one of the Orissa missionaries to visit him. In the course of conversation the missionary offered to lend him any book in his library that would be likely to interest and profit him. “ I have a large number of books with which to instruct and exercise the intellect, but,” added he, with emphasis, “ When I want food for my soul I go to the Bible; there only,” pointing to a copy of the English Bible which lay on the table, “ I get something to warm my heart.” When pressing on him the importance and necessity of making a public profession of his attachment to Christ, he said with tears, “ God, who searcheth the heart, knoweth that I am a heathen but in name; that my trust, my heart, are fixed on Him to whom I offer my daily prayer, and in whose mercy alone I trust. And it is my hope and intention, by the help of God, one day to make a public avowal of this my faith.” (J. L. Nye.) John 19:39 There came also Nicodemus (Text and John 3:1; John 7:50-51).The courage-inspiring power of the cross Each of these passages contains a vivid picture, and together they unfold the progressive spiritual experience of the man portrayed. In the first the night silence is broken by the footsteps of one who steals along, afraid, to the great Teacher. In the second, in the council-chamber of the supreme assembly of the nation, He interposes a trembling word of expostulation at a gross illegality, a word which brings down on its utterer a storm of indignation, but cannot be recalled; it shows that, though amongst His enemies, Nicodemus is at heart a friend of Jesus. In the third, at Calvary. Two men in the garb of rulers appear, and, braving the shame and scorn, advance, and with reverent gentleness take the Body down, and bear it away to the sepulchre. And of those--the two most courageous hearts in all Judaea at that moment--Nicodemus was one. I. THE RULER’ S SECRET TO CHRIST. 1. There was at heart a secret longing for what only Christ could give. No one would have supposed that Nicodemus was unsatisfied; he seems to have had almost every temporal good. But He had hours of anxious wondering, seasons when His thirsty soul turned away from earth as from broken cisterns which could hold no water, and a conviction that somehow what he so much wanted this Teacher sent from God could give. How little we know what is going on in those around us I No one could have thought this of Nicodemus. 2. But the gratification of that longing was opposed by great difficulties. No soul can try to make its way to Christ without finding an enemy there to prevent it; but in the case of some--those whose circle is more or less antagonistic to Christ; whose training has led them to believe that morality is enough--who have taken a position in a contrary direction from which it is hard to recede; the difficulties are almost overwhelming. They are illustrated here. This man was “ a Pharisee;” as such he had set ideas on the subject of religion, was one of the council of the LXX. and a doctor of the law. Hardly anything can be more difficult than for a man, perhaps an old man, who has prided himself on his beliefs, to come to say, “ Perhaps after all I am wrong, at least I am not satisfied, teach me and let me learn,” but when one knows that he must have Christ or perish, he makes short work with these barriers. 3. When these difficulties were broken through, Christ received and taught the applicant. He might have said, “ Come to Me by day, I am tired and would rest,” or, “ Why should I forego repose to listen to a Pharisee?” He might have upbraided him with his fear, or questioned his sincerity. Christ did none of these, “ He will not break the bruised reed,” &c. How full of help are the words, “ The same came to Jesus by night” ! Many come by day, and we see them. There are others whom we do not see, and wonder they do not come; perhaps they come to Jesus by night. All who come as he did, are welcomed as he was. II. THE RULER’ S OF TO CHRIST. What was the immediate result of the interview we are left to imagine; but that is not difficult. Christ gave him instruction because He recognized in him a sincere seeker, and we cannot doubt that from that time Nicodemus was at heart a disciple of Jesus. But he makes no stand; months pass; he is in the council-chamber, the hatred of his colleagues to Christ breaks out in a storm, and then in spite of himself he lets fall a word which reveals that secretly he is on the Lord’ s side. But why secretly? Many here may know what it would cost to stand fearlessly forward as the humble champion of righteousness in the social circle or in public, and they find the answer there. But let me remind you that such a position 1. Is one of great injustice to Christ. If we were to judge by those whom we see come forward, we should be obliged to say that comparatively few are brought to Christ when early life is passed. I have rarely seen a man of years, and position, and learning take it for the first time; and when then, we ask, Are such men past hope? we think of Nicodemus and believe there are many whose surrender to Christ is the secret of their own soul. Such do not reflect how unjust that secrecy is. We cannot estimate what would have been the consequence if Nicodemus had come boldly out at first; many of the rulers secretly believed, and only wanted a fearless leader. He who has deigned to receive us has a right to expect that we let men know what He has done for us. 2. Involves considerable pain to the man himself. Those months in which this Jewish councillor kept his allegiance to Christ a secret must have been months of great discomfort. He could not listen to debates from which he revolted, nor walk the streets and be regarded as one of those who were against Christ, without a guilty conscience. Let one live below what he knows God requires, and from that moment his happiness is doomed. 3. Is a position of great peril to spiritual hope. “ Whoso shall confess Me,” &c. Confession of Christ is indispensable to salvation because it is the necessary result of that union with Christ in which salvation consists. III. THE RULER’ S OPEN AVOWAL OF TO CHRIST. There is a point where the real disciple must emerge from secrecy. Where is it? Where he has a vision of Jesus crucified. We lose our courage because we do not look at the cross. There are mainly three hindrances to confession of Christ, and the cross conquers them all. 1. The cross is a declaration of redemption. That meets the difficulty in uncertainty as to our position. Many a one feels that he cannot acknowledge that he is redeemed because he is not sure of it. But can he look on the Son of God in the agony of an accursed death, and then doubt whether an atonement of such worth has not satisfied the law? If such a price was paid for my redemption it is enough, I am redeemed. 2. The cross is a revelation of Divine love. That meets the difficulty to confessing Christ in coldness of heart. It is because our hearts are cold that we are “ disciples secretly.” What we want is hearts aglow with love to the Redeemer, and for that we may go to Calvary. 3. The cross is a manifestation of the Divine will. That destroys the difficulty to Christian confession in ignorance of what He would have us do. Lord, what is Thy will about me whom Thou hast redeemed? “ Follow Me,” He says; and as we look we see Jesus in the crucified One. The cross becomes the symbol of Christian life which, as His people, we dare not and cannot refuse, for “ he that taketh not up his cross and cometh after Me cannot be My disciple.” (U. New.) The significance of the final honours I. BY THIS SERVICE THE SACRED FORM OF THE WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE POWER OF HIS ENEMIES. The Romans had no respect for the sanctity of death. The common expression was, “ The crows to the cross.” The Jews acted on the old words, “ Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,” and carted the bodies of the executed away to the valley of Hinnom, the great abomination into which were flung things unmentionable, and past imagination, a place thought of as the symbol of hell, and as one of its three doors. When, to satisfy the Jews, orders came that the bodies of the crucified should be instantly made away with, the weeping women were in the distraction, not only of grief, but of helplessness. Just then, when their thoughts were in hopeless entanglement, and the sorrows of a lifetime condensed into one desolating burst, two strangers approached the cross, had the shaft sawn through by workmen, then laid level on the ground, took charge of the body, and set about the observance of the last solemnities. As the watchers looked on the dead weight on their hearts was lifted, the nameless terror was gone. II. BY THIS UNITED ACTION THE ROYALTY OF THE SAVIOUR WAS . In the acute moment when the two newly-revealed disciples bent over the face that was still shadowed by the crown of thorns, only the eyes of their faith could see the marks of royalty there. The text may seem to indicate that nothing more than ordinary was done at the funeral of Jesus, “ as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” The reference, however, is to the nature, not to the scale of the preparations. It certainly was not the manner of the Jews to use spices at a funeral on such a scale as this. Great quantities were used when it was intended to show high respect. At the funeral of Gamaliel the elder, eighty pounds of spices were burnt; and there were five hundred spice-bearers at that Of King Herod; but such a large use of aromatics in honour of the dead was limited to cases of distinction like these. At the Crucifixion His kingly claims had been treated with mockery. There was mockery of His crown, of His sceptre, of His robe, of a court of ceremonial in the offer of vinegar and gall, of a herald’ s announcement, in the title written on His cross; and His cross was the mockery of a throne; but now, with a love which broke through all bounds of calculation, these men tried to show some sign of their loyalty, now so penitent because it was so late, and were resolved to treat their crucified Master only as a dead king is treated. III. THE BURIAL OF JESUS IN THE TOMB WAS TO WORK OUT CERTAIN VITALLY . The tomb was not a structure of masonry, like most others, but a chamber cut out of the living rock. Few could enjoy such a luxury. There are not probably five hundred in or about Jerusalem, and as that city must, in the days of its prosperity, have possessed a population of from thirty thousand to forty thousand souls, and as there must have been a population on this spot for more than three thousand years the inference will be irresistible that the possession of such a tomb must have been one of the things that marked a man of distinction. 1. This act helped to make the actual death of Christ an unquestionable fact. It was no obscure grave, affording an excuse for doubt; no tomb in Jerusalem could have been more conspicuous; no fact more public than Christ’ s burial in it. 2. It prepared for, and made possible, complete and unanswerable evidence of His resurrection, which was further illustrated by the grave being in a garden. 3. Crowning all the other services to the Church; there were undesignedly instrumental in fulfilling this ancient prophecy, “ He made His grave with the wicked,” &c., or, according to the most careful reading, “ His grave was appointed with the wicked, but He was with a rich man,” i.e., His grave was appointed by men with the wicked--under usual circumstances, only such a grave was thought of for one who died on a cross; but He was with a rich man in His tomb after all. And why? “ Because He had done no violence,” &c. IV. THE ACT OF THESE MEN THE OF WEALTH IN THE SERVICE OF CHRIST, and this is another practical outcome of their profession. The gospel is full of words to comfort and dignify the holy poor; but the gospel creates no class distinctions. “ The Church is the poor man’ s church;” yes, and it is also the rich man’ s church; for there “ the rich and the poor meet together, and the Lord is the Maker of them all.” (C. Stanford, D. D.) A mixture of myrrh and aloes. The mixture here mentioned was probably in the shape of powder. The two ingredients were strongly aromatic and antiseptic. The large quantity brought shows the wealth and the liberal mind of Nicodemus. It also shows his wise forethought. A dead body so torn and lacerated as that of our blessed Lord, would need an unusually large quantity of antiseptics or preservatives, to check the tendency to corruption which such a climate would cause, even at Easter. Considering also that everything must have been done with some haste, the large quantity of spices used was probably meant to compensate for the want of time to do the work slowly and carefully. “ Then took they the body,” &c. Here we are told the precise manner of the preparation of our Lord’ s body for burial. As always in that time and country, He was not put into a coffin. He was simply wrapped up in linen cloths, on which the preparation of myrrh and aloes had been laid. Thus the powder would be next to our Lord’ s body, and interpose between the linen and His skin. How the linen clothes were provided, we are told by St. Mark (John 15:46). Joseph, being a rich man, had no difficulty in supplying funds for this purpose. (Bp. Ryle.) Extremes in Christ’ s history Twice was Jesus rich in the days of His poverty. Once immediately after His birth, when the wise men offered Him gold, &c., and now after His ignominious death, when a rich man buries Him, and a distinguished man provides spices to anoint Him. Yea! a rich Joseph has taken the place of that poor Joseph who stood by the manger. (R. Besser, D. D.) John 19:41-42 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden The sepulchre in the garden I. THE PLACE WHERE HE WAS . He has conferred honour upon every place where He has been. The place where He was born. There belonged no distinction to Bethlehem Ephratah before, she was little among the thousands of Judah; too little to be represented in the Sanhedrim. But the fact that He was born there has conferred upon Bethlehem undying fame. 1. It was in this place that was manifested the greatest love towards God, on one side, and the greatest love towards men, the enemies of God, on the other side. We do not say that it was here that He loved God and men most; but it was here that He manifested His love most. His love towards the Father was always like the sun, but it was here that it reached the meridian. His love towards mankind was like the sea, but it was here that it attained its spring-tide. The wave will never lift itself higher than it did at Calvary. 2. It was in this place that Jesus suffered most from those to whom He manifested His love most. 3. It was in this place that the holiness of Christ shone brightest of all places, and yet it was in this place that He was treated most like a sinner. I do not say that it was here that He was most holy. The “ Holy and Righteous” was He in all places. “ That holy thing” He was when coming into the world. But it was here that His holiness shone brightest. 4. It was in this place, of all others, that He was most completely given over to the hands of His enemies, and yet it was in this place that He realized the completest victory over them. There was some intervening shelter throughout the journey that prevented His enemies attacking Him. 5. It was in this place that He was treated as the most unworthy--and yet it was here that He won the highest title to worthiness that He possesses. II. IN THE PLACE WHERE HE WAS THERE WAS A GARDEN. We invite you to visit the garden with us. 1. It belonged to an honourable councillor. Jerusalem was surrounded by gardens as well as by hills. The night before, we have Jesus in a garden in another direction from this. 2. It was a garden in sight of Calvary. The last thing that was impressed on the retina of His eyes was a garden. He saw many sad sights while He was here, but He closes His eyes upon our earth in view of a garden. Almost would we say, “ Blessed art thou, O garden amongst gardens; thou hast been privileged to shed thy fragrance so as to counteract the offensive odours of the place of skulls, and to fan with thy sweet perfumes the Saviour of the world in the agonies of His death.” Was it not something like a picture of what He would ultimately make the moral world to be? Since I have come to this place a garden there must be now; I will convert the world into a garden. The thorns and briars must yield to the fir and the myrtle 3. A garden with a grave in it! We scarcely expect to find a grave in a garden. But a grave is appropriate in every place in our world. There are some of you who are permitted to pursue their life journey amidst roses; I count no path too smooth for you; tread upon flowers, let perfumes be diffused with every step you take; but will you be pleased to remember one thing? There is a grave at the end of the walk. But when we consider it, a garden and a grave seem, after all, to be quite in harmony with each other. What is the garden in the time of winter but a burial-place. Where is there more life buried than there is in the garden? But yet she does not refuse to be comforted, because they are not. That great Sun will come like an archangel, with his trumpet, and with a loud call will say, “ Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in the dust,” and then there will be a resurrection in power and in glory. In consequence of the garden and the grave in the text, every grave has been in a garden ever since. Before that, it was in some waste howling wilderness that the grave was, with no verdure around it, nor anything betokening life near to it. The burial of the dead is henceforward a sowing. The cemetery is a garden, and beyond the grave there awaits for us the “ everlasting spring.” The Great Sun of Righteousness will come to shed His beams above the burial-places of the earth so that they shall be turned into gardens. III. THE NEW GRAVE IN THE GARDEN. It is worth our while to look at this grave. There was never one like it. There have been angels in this grave. Yes, here, the life lay sleeping on the knees of Death. 1. There was great regard paid to this grave: the eye of the Eternal Purpose was upon it. The honourable owner intended it for himself. Neither he nor the workmen who prepared it had any intention but to have it ready as speedily as it was possible. But every detail was under the control of the Eternal Purpose, It was necessary to have it ready against the Passover. The substance of the Passover was to spend the Passover in it. 2. It was a borrowed grave that Jesus had. This is the only One who was in our world who had no grave. Sin has conferred on us a charter to a grave. In going to the grave He can only say, “ With a great sum obtained I this freedom;” while the sinner can say, “ But I was free born.” We sinners are “ free among the dead.” Through our sin we have received the freedom of the city in the Necropolis. 3. He gave the grave back, and paid for the use of it. It was Jesus’ habit to return everything that He had borrowed better than He had found it. I believe that the upper room which He borrowed to eat the Passover in with His disciples was a better room after that supper, and that the boat which He borrowed for a pulpit was a better boat after that service. And, indeed, He gave back his grave to Joseph a better grave, though second-hand, than when it was new. 4. Oh, wonderful grave! It was in this grave that the bottom of the grave was knocked out. This grave became a womb to give birth to the Heir of the resurrection of the dead. It is off this grave that we gather the flowers with which to adorn our mourning garment after our dead. This is a grave which reconciles us to our own graves. (1) There is another grave in sight of Calvary--a grave in which to bury sin. Neither Justice nor Law would have consented to its being buried anywhere else. Oh that we had this burial now! (2) That grave is “ in the place.” I know not what distance there is from here to the graves in which these bodies of ours shall rest; perhaps there is a much shorter distance than many think. But however near these graves are, the grave for burying sin is nearer; it is “ in the place.” May our sins be buried so as never to be seen any more! (David Roberts.) The garden by the cross I. THE DARKEST ACT IN THE TRAGEDY OF LIFE. 1. The Crucifixion does not stand alone. It is but the culmination of all that good has suffered at the hands of evil. Christ was the Man of Sorrows, but He was also the Head of the great brotherhood of sorrow. There has never been an age in which the men whom God sent into the world to serve and save it, have not been pierced with its shafts and crowned with thorns. 2. It is a dark tragedy which is played out here, and the bud of it is inevitably a death. Sin has entered into the world and death by sin. There could be in such a world as this no other fate for the Son of Man but a crucifixion. 3. But there is something deeper than mere human suffering in our Lord’ s passion. It was emphatically the hour of the prince of darkness--his last. His victory broke his power for ever. 4. The nature of sin was never fully known till then when it slew the Lord. Then the Father gave full expression of His mind about transgression, and gave to all intelligent beings the measure to His abhorrence of it. II. BUT IN THE PLACE WHERE HE WAS THERE WAS A GARDEN. It is a startling contrast. 1. Very dear to Him during His lonely life-course were the flowers that bloomed round His feet. None of the beauty of the world He had made was hidden from Him as He passed along its pathways. 2. It is a question of deep and curious interest how far the modern intense delight in the beauty of nature was shared by the ancients, and how far it is the gift of the advent of the Lord of nature to His world. I believe that that advent has placed the whole sphere of nature in a new and closer relation to man. Here and there are exquisite passages in the classics, which reveal a delicate and cultured observation. And yet it is hardly for its own sake that nature is delighted in. The Hindoos probably come nearest to the moderns, but always there is a strong tinge of melancholy dashing the delight of the heathen heart. The Christian observation of nature is set in a new and higher key. Through Christ, Christian peoples have a delight in their world, which before Christ was hardly known to the elect spirits of our race. The Jews had much of the Christian enjoyment of natural beauty, and for the same reason: they knew the mind and heart of their King. David’ s psalms complete the chord struck in Deuteronomy 8:7-9; 11:12. 3. Men will come to see one day that it is the Father’ s counsel which they are searching out when they fathom the depths of creation; it is the benignity of a Father’ s smile that they are taking in when they bask in the sunlight, when they watch the shadows play in the upper air upon the snow peaks, or catch at even the last rosy kiss of the daylight, as it falls down the mountain slopes on a weary world. It was right that the flowers should bloom their bravest around Calvary. 4. But still the contrast stands out sharply, and we will gather some of its suggestions. (1) Consider the impassive serenity of nature through all the struggle and anguish of life. There are times when this serenity becomes dreadful. It seems terrible that flowers should bloom when the Lord who made and rules the universe was dying the death of a slave; yet the flowers never lifted their heads more gaily in the sun than on that day. And it is ever thus. A mother who has watched night long the death struggles of her darling who in the morning has gone home, looks bitter reproach at the sun rising so calmly on her agony. The east flushes into rosy splendour, the birds carol their gayest strains, the air is musical with the hum of life, while her heart is breaking, and the night has settled over her inner world. We may blow thousands of earth’ s best and bravest into fragments in the storm of battle; Nature buries them calmly, and next year she reaps her richest harvests from their graves. (2) Let us thank God that it is so. The garden blooms on, the cross has vanished, while the tradition of it has become the most sacred and blessed possession of mankind. Pain and storm, strife and anguish, birth and death are for time: order, beauty, life are for eternity. The sun shines gaily on the morrow of our anguish, and we writhe under it; but the sun shines on, and we come to delight in it and to bless the constancy which brings it forth morning by morning to prophesy to us of the world where sunlight is eternal. And nature is right. She will not bewail our calamities as though they were irreparable. There is infinite solace in Christ for the most burdened sufferers. “ Our light affliction,” &c. Why should nature weep and moan, and stay her benign and beautiful process when she knows that the stroke which we think is crushing us is a benediction. (3) Consider of how much that garden around the cross was symbolic in relation to man and to the Lord. “ He was delivered into the hands of men.” Alas! that this should mean to wounds and death. The first crime was one with the last--fratricide. His brethren they were who were raging around Him; but around and above, all was calm, nay, triumphant. The harps of heaven were swept to a more exulting strain. The great ones of the past put on their glorious forms, and pressed through the veil to meet Him. The very dead beneath the cross stirred as His footsteps pressed them, and bursting from their tombs prepared to join the train which He would lead up on high. There was joy, an awful joy, throughout the universe when that Cross was uplifted--“ I, if I be lifted up,” &c. Should the flowers then droop? No. “ In the place … there was a garden;” and it spread forth all its brightness as the Lord made it His pathway to His throne. And it blooms still, and will bloom on till the death day of creation and paradise is restored. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) And in the garden a new sepulchre The sepulchre in the garden “ The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” Every event of our life, however minute and trivial, contains a purpose of God’ s. Then we may surely assume that every fact in the life of the Perfect Man has its significance. The circumstances of our birth exert an immense influence over us: they are ordered of God; they were yet more manifestly ordered for His beloved Son. All the circumstances of our death, which is our second birth, have their influence on us, and speak eloquently to those who come after us; and these are ordered for us, and yet more manifestly for the Son. Think you it was a matter of indifference where Christ’ s body was laid? We have a right then to look here for Divine thoughts, and there is one in particular. The first Adam fell from the garden into the wilderness; the Second Adam rose from the wilderness to the garden. Christ began where Adam ended, and ended where Adam began. Adam armed death with his sting; Christ has taken away the sting of death. Adam hewed the sepulchre, Christ consecrated it. Note I. DEATH LURKS BENEATH THE . In other words, every garden has its sepulchre. 1. The garden is the most express type of beauty. Children love flowers, as do all who retain the childlike heart. Flowers are the traditions of Paradise, and speak to us of a more perfect world and a higher blessedness. Man’ s career commenced and is to close in a garden. It is natural, then, for man to love the garden. 2. But in every garden there is a sepulchre. “ The brightest flower soonest fades.” (1) The whole world seems a huge tomb adorned outwardly with manifold forms of beauty. The rocks die slowly, crumbling through the ages to give life to herb and tree. Tree and herb feed animals, and animals man, and man is the prey of corruption. (2) Death, moreover, has a refined taste. Loveliness has a fatal attraction. What is more lovely than light? And yet when it is fairest and fullest, it slays men with a stroke. What is more glorious in beauty than the sea? Yet its bed is lined with bleached bones. The beautiful birds are infested with murderous parasites. And have we not known one in every circle whose very loveliness of body and mind, like the gorgeous colouring of the fallen leaf, was the symbol of swift decay? II. EVERY-THING, EVEN DEATH ITSELF, HAS BEEN MADE BY CHRIST. Every sepulchre is in a garden--not in an untended desert. The grave still stands; but it stands in the open sunlight, and is adorned with flowers. The sting, the ugliness, the terror of death is sin; and this Christ has taken away. Christ has invested it with beauty in that He has taught us that it means 1. Sacrifice. “ The dying of the Lord Jesus” has brought to light the vacarious element of death. The power and beauty of His death sprang from the fact that it was His submission to His Father’ s will. So, in a lesser degree, with death everywhere. We see mountains tending to decay, herbs and grasses consumed by beasts, &c., and till we know the meaning of Christ’ s death, the sight brings grief and fear. But looking from the cross we can trace this vicarious law through every province of creation and see beauty. The rocks decay, but it is that herbs may live; herbs are consumed--a sacrifice to the higher life of sheep and oxen. These also die that manmay live. Earthly homes are broken up that the mansions of the Father’ s houses may be occupied. Civilization has its myriad victims that subsequentages may rise to purer life. The kingdoms of the world decay that the kingdom of Christ may come. All things tend to a better time. No suffering is superfluous. Eternal wisdom marshals the progress; infinite love appoints to each its place. 2. Glorification. Christ died to live. He could not be “ holden” by the power of the grave. He rose into a higher region. Apply this to the general phenomena of death, and mark the beauty with which it invests them. The rocks crumble away into soil; but that is taken up into the higher vegetable kingdom, &c. In every case the soul of these several kingdoms passes through death into higher spheres. Mark, then, the perfect sympathy between the creation and the Christ whose it is and whom it serves. As His spirit returned to glorify His earthly frame, in the end the whole framework of creation will be restored and glorified; and those who are in Christ partake of the power of His death and Resurrection. Conclusion: We need not mourn that death is everywhere. We need not weep by the sepulchre as those who have no hope; it stands in a garden. To die is no more to venture on a lonely path; Christ has trod it before us, and will tread it with us. If the sepulchre still speaks of corruption, the garden speaks of the resurrection. Nor when those whom we love are summoned to depart should we indulge in hopeless sorrow. They have gone into the garden. Their flesh rests in hope; their spirits are in Paradise. (S. Cox, D. D.) The sepulchre in the garden I. SIN ITSELF INTO THE FAIREST SCENES. You see around a cross a multitude come together to perform the foulest act ever perpetrated. The object of their hatred has never wronged them; but, on the contrary, has even blessed them. His character presented an assemblage of graces such as the world had never witnessed. And now He hangs on a cross in a garden I What a place for the perpetration of such a crime! A garden! where nature seems best fitted to exert a soothing influence on the angry passions! Surely nature cannot have her sanctuary violated by such an outrage. Thus the text contains a most emphatic refutation of the fancy that by giving them access to natural beauty you may restrain the wickedness, if not transform the character, of men. True, there is nothing in what is beautiful, whether in nature or art, unfavourable to religion--but very much by which religions feeling may be induced and fostered. And, certainly, they are not the worst Christians who have the most extensive and loving acquaintance with nature’ s works. But nevertheless the influence which these things exert depends entirely on the state of mind with which they are surveyed. They may foster and strengthen feelings which already exist; they have no power to produce feelings which are not there. They have no power to change the heart, so as to make bad men good. One of the loveliest scenes in the world is the site of Pompeii, but it would seem that God has preserved her ruins that she might testify to the nineteenth century that she resembled Sodom in the depth of her wickedness before she resembled her in the terribleness of her overthrow. Man fell in Eden--angels sinned in heaven. “ In the place where He was crucified there was a garden.” II. SORROW MINGLES WITH ALL EARTHLY . “ In the garden a sepulchre.” How emblematical of human life--in which every joy is marred by some sorrow, and the presence or the memory or the prospect of death casts its shadow over all. There is some fitness in the choice. A garden is the scene of beautiful life, where everything is fitted to minister pleasure. And to erect in such a scene the receptacle of death, might, without destroying the pleasure which the place afforded, serve as a useful monitor to remind men of the sorrows which lie so near and mingle with our joys, and of the termination which death brings to all earthly pursuits. It is a good thing, as moderating our present expectations and leading us to seek after a better inheritance, to be reminded that there is no such thing here as pleasure without drawback or alloy. Most people have a sepulchre in their garden; for have not they suffered loss here and disappointment there? But others whom they see--what sepulchre have they? Their life is all garden. It has neither desert bounding it nor sepulchre within its walls. But depend upon it you see not all. “ The heart knoweth its own bitterness.” Could you look beneath the surface, you would see even in that lot which seems so enviable, not a little which might excite your pity or surprise. Of Naaman the Syrian, it is said, that “ he was captain of the host,” &c.; but he was a leper. Of Haman we read how he told his wife and friends of his good fortune, and then add yet--“ yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai,” &c. And so there is some “ but” or “ yet” to the most favoured condition, no rose without its thorn, in every garden a sepulchre. III. THE OF CHRIST DEATH INTO LIFE, AND SORROW INTO JOY. It was meet that the sepulchre should be placed in a garden 1. Seeing it was to contain the body of our Lord. His presence there gave to the grave a significance which it had never possessed before. And it is meet also in the case of all who are His. I like the change from the crowded unattractive churchyard to the garden-like cemetery. I like, too, to see flowers growing around, or strewn upon the grave of the loved ones. The tomb in which Christ lies, in the person of His members, is a seed-plot of immortality, from which radiant and glorious forms shall spring; “ for that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.” 2. Because of the change which the Saviour’ s death is to produce in the aspect of the world. Reduced by sin to a desert, physically and morally, it shall yet be covered with garden-like beauty and fertility because Christ has died. It is a sufficient pledge of its renovation that it has contained His sepulchre. Men are said to take possession of a country when they have buried their dead in it. So the Saviour will never regard with indifference the world which contains His tomb. He will return living and glorious to the place where once He lay dead and dishonoured, and the same scene which witnessed the commencement shall witness the completion of His triumph over sin and hell--over death and the grave. 3. As symbolical of how the presence of Jesus tends to change our sorrow into joy. Christ in the sepulchre transforms the receptacle of death into the source of higher life. And therefore have no sepulchre without a Saviour in it--no trouble in which you do not seek to have the presence of your Lord. A life all pleasure would neither be so desirable nor so profitable as a life whose sorrows are sanctified by fellowship with Christ. Nor should you seek, as is sometimes done, to have the sepulchre of your own fashioning, saying, “ If I had only such-and-such trials, I could bear them well: I should not complain if I were only like so-and-so.” No man ever yet had to choose his own trials. He who gives the garden gives the sepulchre with it; and determines at once its position and its form. All that you need is to have Christ in it. (W. Landells, D. D.) Christ in a borrowed grave I take it not to dishonour Christ, but to show that, as His sins were borrowed sins, so His burial was in a borrowed grave. Christ had no transgressions of His own; He took ours upon His head. He never committed a wrong, but He took all my sins, and all yours, if ye are believers. Concerning all His people, it is true He bore their griefs and carried their sorrows in His own body on the tree; therefore, as they were other’ s sins, so He rested in another’ s grave; as they were sins imputed, so that grave was only imputedly His. It was not His sepulchre; it was the tomb of Joseph. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The sepulchre in the garden I. EACH MAN HAS A GARDEN. It may not be that where the outward sense is regaled with fruits and flowers and odorous airs, but a sacred enclosure of the heart. As on bleak hill-sides of splintered rock, green things and flowers here and there spring up, so there is something still bright where poverty and care exist. Very beautiful are some of these gardens, with dear friendships, the engaging interests of home, noble plans for self-culture and benevolence, generous trusts, and holy endearments, and the music and sunshine of dreams. All have their garden; BUT, guard and prize it as they may, it shall be the scene of tragedy; IT A . 1. The generous and aspiring youth seems to stand on the border of a land that will never lose its morning freshness; but this radiant landscape contains a tomb; the grave of glorious hopes that withered in the hot glare of an unsympathizing world. 2. In practical life there is no garden without a grave, and not merely in the case of the man who has fallen from prosperity to penury. There are tombs in the gardens of the rich, the gifted, and the great. Baffled purposes, alienated friendships, exhausted energy, the corpse of many a brave endeavour, the lost inspiration of eager manhood when the path to victorious light seemed garlanded with light--all this, and more, speaks of death. 3. But sadder still is the tomb in the garden of the affections. If anything on earth is sacred, it is home; yet the sepulchre is here; and it will not be empty long. There is a vacant place by the hearthstone. That home may be pleasant still, and the casual visitor may not think that it contains a place of burial. Yet, though the spot is sealed, it is not forgotten. The great world goes on as before. But bereaved hearts know it is there. In the garden is the sepulchre. 4. And it is well that it should be so; well that we learn our frailty, our ignorance, our sin, and be disciplined for our eternal home. For with man’ s sinful nature and tendencies, how fearful might be his career in transgression, and how reckless his presumption upon the forbearance of God, did he never suffer from the evil within and without him! II. THE GRAVE IN THE GARDEN IS NOT A PLACE OF AND DECAY. The stone shall be rolled away. If you have died unto sin, anti are buried with Christ in His death, you shall rejoice in the final resurrection of all that can contribute to the bliss of the soul in the eternal kingdom. There shall be no death there. There none shall bear the cross of secret trial. But how dark is your prospect if you do not believe upon His name, nor love His appearing! The sepulchre in the garden of your life is then the symbol of the death which awakens to no celestial fruition. (H. N. Powers.) A sepulchre in every garden You climb an eminence, and look on the underlying scene. The river flows gently through yellowing fields and woods that teem with life. The birds fill the air with song and gladness. The fish sport and leap in the waters. Cattle roam or recline in the meadows. Man goeth forth to labour with a cheerful heart. “ Unawares,” you bless the earth and the great Giver of its goodliness. The eye fills with happy tears as you pronounce it “ a garden which the Lord hath blessed.” And then the cold shadow comes creeping on; reflection stills the song of the heart; the trace of the spoiler, for a moment forgotten, stands once more revealed. You see or remember that the insects sporting in the air are the prey of birds; the birds flutter and scream beneath the pursuing hawk; the splash in the river tells of some eager little life swallowed up quick; the flowers close and wither as you gather them; the woodcutter’ s axe fills the air with its resounding strokes; the sheep and oxen are led away to the slaughter; the funeral train winds along the white road, flecking it with blackness, while the passing bell reminds you that another of your flesh has seen corruption. The Skeleton Shadow broods over the entire scene, obscuring its brightness. The air grows stifling; and you feel as if suddenly immerged in the gloom of some monstrous grave. And yet you have but discovered the open secret--that death is the shadow of beauty: you have but passed through the garden into the sepulchre. So, too, with the varied human world. You think of the kindnesses and charities of home--the nobilities and patriotisms of national unity; the discoveries, utilities, refinements of civilization, and you bless God that you are a man of this clime and age. Again you are wakened from your pleasant dream. The veil is lifted from the home; you find mean anxieties, wearing toils, heartburnings, jealousies, despotisms; or where love abides, you find as its attendants sorrow and solicitude; Death has driven its chariot, armed with scythes, through the family array, leaving cruel gaps and innumerable wounds. The veil is lifted from the age, and beneath its high civilization you discern want, misery, vice, disease, war, with their kin--a terrible brotherhood, the offspring of death, doing the works of their father--preying on the foundations on which the social fabric is upreared. (S. Cox, D. D.) The cemetery a garden--Christ the Gardener (Text, and John 20:15): I. THE SEED. 1. All seed does not germinate, and seeds, in themselves, are worthless unless they are fecundated. Cut open a seed-bearing flower, and in its axis you will find a seed-pod, from which grows an elongated stem called the pistil. On the end of this pistil is a little tongue, or stigma. This, of all the parts of the flower or plant, alone has no skin. About the pistil are the stamens, on the top of which are the anthers, or pollen-bearing organs of the flower. This pollen must fall upon the stigma which thus receives the fecundating principle, and transmits it to the seeds; and so they are quickened into life. In many trees this pollen is produced not on themselves, but on other trees belonging to the same species, and it is carried to the stigma of the blossoms to be fecundated by the wind or the bees. 2. The same principle, the Gardener tells us, prevails among His plants; there must be an extra-human quality imparted to every one of His seeds before they are planted or they cannot bloom immortally. That quality was produced by that which was planted in the dust of the earth in Joseph’ s garden and became “ the first fruits from the dead.” The reason why he Son of God was incarnated, died, was buried and rose again was that He might produce this Divine--pollen (may I term it?), so that His seeds might receive that fecundating principle which quickens to an immortal life. It is scattered like the natural pollen--broadcast on the breezes, so that all who will may receive it and live again; or it is carried about by the busyness of Christian workers. 3. But you cannot be planted, with a hope of the glorious resurrection, unless you have received this fecundating principle from Christ; otherwise you must there remain, sterile and dried, unable to rise in a new life. This is one of the fixed laws of nature. Why should we not expect the same in grace? “ He that believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live.” But believing is only receiving this Divine quality from Christ, as the stigma of the seed-pod receives the pollen, to quicken and give it life. II. THE SOWING. For in the Lord’ s garden what we call burying is only planting; for the Apostle says, “ If we be planted in the likeness of His death,” &c. III. THE . 1. Are we to be different? Hear the Apostle, “ It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption; it is,” &c. Our God doeth great things which we cannot comprehend. Who can understand the change wrought under ground which gives us a plant for our seed. (1) Here we are, dried and shriveled. Sin has stripped us, yet is there great latent power for beauty, &c. (2) Here there is no sweetness about us. Such is the wonderful alchemy of nature that the seed that rots sends up a flower rich in fragrance. More wonderful is the alchemy of grace, &c. (3) Here there is no beauty about us, we are frost-marked. The Lord will not do half-work. He will not repair, but recreate, &c. “ It doth not yet appear what we shall be,” &c. Who can guess by looking at the shriveled seed what the flower will be? 2. Shall we, then, fear to be planted in His garden, if we shall so soon rise to such life and beauty and sweetness? Conclusion: Let us walk with the Gardener while He points out to us some of His rarer plants. He points to this bed and says, “ There rests a precious seed, oh, how lovely will its blooming be! On earth it was called Bleeding Heart. It grew in great tribulation.” “ And what lies here in this bed, Gardener?” “ You would call that, in earth’ s botany, a Heliotrope--the flower that ever turns toward the sun. And there lies the Lily of the Valley, &c. And there the Calla, whose roots had to be submerged in water,” &c. “ But,” we ask, “ Gardener, canst Thou care for all these? Will there be no confusion or neglect? Thy flowerbeds are so many, is there no possibility that some will be overlooked?” “ Oh, no,” He answers; “ their names are all graven on the palms of My hands, and are written also in the Book of Life.” Oh blessed truth! What flowers shall spring up from these grassy mounds! (P. E.Kipp.) The decorated grave Mark well this tomb. I. It is THE MOST TOMB IN ALL THE AGES. Catacombs of Egypt, tomb of Napoleon, Mahal Taj of India, nothing compared with it. At the door of that mausoleum a fight took place which decides the question for all graveyards and cemeteries. Sword of lightning against sword of steel. Angel against military. That day the grave received such a shattering it can never be rebuilt. The King of Terrors retiring before the King of Grace. The Lord is risen. II. See here POST-MORTEM HONOURS IN WITH ANTE-MORTEM . If they could have afforded Christ such a costly sepulchre, why could not they have given Him an earthly residence? He asked bread; they gave Him a stone. Christ, like most of the world’ s benefactors, was appreciated better after He was dead. Poet’ s Corner, in Westminster Abbey, attempts to pay for the sufferings of Grub Street. Go through that corner. There is Handel Think of the discords with which his fellow-musicians tried to destroy him. There John Dryden, who, at seventy, wrote a thousand verses at sixpence a line. There is Samuel Butler, who died in a garret. There the old blind schoolmaster, John Milton, whom Waller said, “ has just issued a tedious poem on the fall of man. If the length of it be no virtue, it has none.” There is poor Sheridan. If he could have only discounted that monument for a mutton-chop! Oh! do justice to the living. All the justice you do them, you must do this side of the necropolis. Gentleman’ s mausoleum in the suburbs of Jerusalem cannot pay for Bethlehem manger, and Calvarian cross. III. FLORAL ARE FOR THE PLACE OF THE DEAD. Put them on the brow--it will suggest coronation; in their hand, it will mean victory. Christ was buried in a garden. Flowers mean resurrection. Death is sad enough anyhow. Let conservatory and arboretum contribute to its alleviation. The harebell will ring the victory. The passion-flower will express the sympathy. The daffodil will kindle its lamp and illume the darkness. The cluster of asters will be the constellation. Your little child loved flowers when she was living. Put them in her hand now that she can go forth no more to pluck them for herself. On sunshiny days take a fresh garland and put it over the still heart. Brooklyn has no grander glory than its Greenwood; but what shall we say of those country graveyards, with the vines broken down and the slabs aslant, and the mound caved in, and the grass the pasture-ground for the sexton’ s cattle? Were your father and mother of so little worth that you cannot afford to take care of their ashes? Some day you will want to lie down to your last slumber. You cannot expect any respect for your bones if you have no deference for the bones of your ancestry. IV. THE DIGNITY OF PRIVATE AND . Joseph was mourner, sexton, liveryman; had entire charge of every thing. Only four people at the burial of the King of the universe. Oh! let this be consolatory to those who through lack of means, or large acquaintance, have but little demonstration of grief at the graves of their loved ones. Not recognizing this idea, how many small properties are scattered, and widowhood and orphanage go forth into cold charity. That went for crape which ought to have gone for bread. V. YOU CANNOT KEEP THE DEAD DOWN. Seal of Sanhedrim, regiment of soldiers, door of rock, cannot keep Christ in the crypts. Come out and come up He must. First-fruit of them that slept. Though all the granite of the mountains were piled on us we will rise. (T. de Witt Talmage, D. D.) . John 20:1-10 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene … unto the sepulchre The sepulchre There were more common and more noble sepulchres. The common were in public burying places without the city. And through that place no current of water was to be made, cattle were not to feed there, nor wood to be gathered from thence. The more noble sepulchres were hewn out in some rock, in their own ground, with no little charge and art. You have the form of them described in these words: “ He that selleth his neighbour a place of burial, and he that takes of his neighbour a place of burial, let him make the inner parts of the cave four cubits, and six cubits: and let him open within it eight sepulchres.” They were not wont, say the Glosses, to bury men of the same family here and there, scatteringly, and by themselves, but altogether in one cave: where if any one sells his neighbour a place of burial, he sells him room for two caves, or hollows on both sides, and a floor in the middle. The tradition goes on. “ Three sepulchres are on this side, and three on that, and two near them. And those sepulchres are four cubits long, seven high, and six broad.” To those that entered into the sepulchral cave, and carried the bier, there was first a floor where they stood and set down the bier, in order to their letting it down into the sepulchre: on this and the other side there was a cave or a hollowed place, deeper than the floor by four cubits, into which they let down the corpse, divers coffins being there prepared for divers corpses. From these things may more plainly understand many matters, which are related of the sepulchre of our Saviour. The women entering into the sepulchre saw a young man sitting on the right “ side” : in the very floor immediately after the entrance into the sepulchre (Mark 16:5). “ Going in they found not His body,” &c. (Luke 24:3). “ While they bowed down their faces to the earth” (John 20:12), “ Peter ran to the sepulchre, and when he had stooped down, he saw the linen clothes.” That is, the women and Peter after them, standing in the floor bow down their faces, and look downward into the place, where the sepulchres themselves were, which, as we said before, was four cubits deeper than the floor. “ The disciple whom Jesus loved, came first to the sepulchre; and when he had stooped down [standing on the floor, that he might look into the burying place] saw the linen clothes lie: yet went he not in. But Peter went in,” &c. (John 20:5); that is, from the floor he went down into the cave itself, where the rows of the graves were (in which nevertheless no corpses had been as yet laid, besides the body of Jesus:) thither also after Peter, John goes down. “ But Mary weeping stood at the sepulchre without: and while she wept she stooped down to the sepulchre, and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and another at the feet, where the body of Christ had lain” (verse 2). She stood at the sepulchre without: that is, within the cave on the floor, but without that deeper cave, where the very graves were, or the very places for the bodies: bowing herself to look down thither, she saw two angels at the head and foot of that coffin, wherein the body of Christ had been laid. (J. Lightfoot, D. D.) Mary at the sepulchre I. Let us note for a little the life of this woman as a TYPE OF . Devotion is an old and much used word. It carries the suggestion of an altar and a gift, where with spoken vow and a solemn covenant, a thing of sacrifice, a life of service, is devoted to God’ s use. The thought had been familiar for centuries in the smoking altars of Israel, but Jesus takes it and makes it the supreme fact of power in the world’ s life by personalizing it on Golgotha, until, under the outstretched arms of the cross, devotion means sacrifice. This woman, delivered from the bondage of a sinful life, is henceforth devoted by the grace and property-right of redemption to Him who saved her, vowed to God in body, soul, and spirit as an offering, and therefore not her own. Her devotion makes her II. , BECAUSE SELF-. It was a brave thing to acknowledge fealty to this crucified Man and adherence to this hatred cause, to stand before soldier and Pharisee and hostile Jerusalem as a follower of Jesus. Nicodemus was not equal to it, Peter could not face the examination of a maid-servant in the palace yard; she never strikes her colours or forgets her Master, but by the spices she brings, the tears she sheds, the watch she keeps, and the appeals she makes, she publishes her fidelity and her creed. Such courage is possibly only in sacrifice or in service to self-abandoned souls. The soul of this woman was flooded, as Paul’ s was, with the love of Christ, and therefore she forgot, as he did, the danger and the risk. III. . The others came and looked and went away, but she is held to the spot by a love that knows no release in vow or vigil. We can imagine John as urging her to go with them as they leave the emptied sepulchre. The same power that makes the courage also makes the perseverance of the saints. So Robert Morrison waited in China, so Neesima laboured in Japan, both under the power of a great love. Here we have marshalled in the character of Mary Magdalene the three factors of power, all set like the giant boughs of an oak in one common trunk: a great devotion, a great courage, and a great patience, born each and all of a great deliverance and a great love; the triple need of the Church of God in this century, and in all centuries. IV. It remains to note THE REWARDS OF SUCH . To Mary it was the historic and physical revelation of the risen Saviour and the spiritual establishment of all her hopes here and hereafter. With reverent surmise we may believe that Jesus, as He tarried unseen in the garden, was gladdened in soul as He witnessed the sorrowful fidelity of this humble follower; aye, that her devotion wrought a kind of compulsion upon Him to speak the familiar name and reveal His triumph over death. Such was the reward of her devotion, and although the forms of revelation may have changed, still the law of such manifestations is for ever the same. They wait upon devoted souls. Devotion compels revelation as love compels love. As to Mary then, so to us now, revelations are possible; aye, and resurrection of spiritual hopes and loves, as we watch and pray beside the cross. Revelations of His character, of our opportunity and of human needs; also, revelations of unused and unsuspected powers, are waiting upon single eyes and surrendered souls, and the tears are shed beside open graves, and the sorrows which burden our hearts shall all be forgotten in the joy of His presence and the sound of His voice. (William H. Davis.) The company at the sepulchre: We are here taught I. THAT THOSE WHO LOVE CHRIST MOST ARE THOSE WHO HAVE MOST BENEFIT FROM HIM. 1. The first to come is Mary Magdalene. Her history is obscure. Needless obloquy has been heaped upon her memory, as if she was once an habitual sinner against the seventh commandment. Yet there is no evidence of this. But she was one out of whom the Lord had cast “ seven devils” (Mark Luke 8:2), and her gratitude knew no bounds. None seem to have loved Him so much as Mary. None felt that they owed so much. 2. How is it that many do so little for the Saviour? Because of a low sense of obligation. Where sin is not felt at all, nothing is done; and where sin is little felt, little is done. The man who is deeply conscious of his own guilt, and convinced that without Christ he would sink into hell, is the man who will spend and be spent for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). II. THAT THERE ARE WIDELY IN . 1. Both Peter and John ran to the sepulchre; but John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, outran Peter; but being more reserved, retiring, deep-feeling, stooped down and looked in, but went no further. Peter, more impulsive, fervent, and forward, cannot be content without going in. Both were deeply attached to our Lord, yet each behaves in his own characteristic fashion. 2. Let us learn, then, to make allowances for wide varieties in believers. Let us not judge harshly, because they do not see or feel things exactly as we do. The flowers in the Lord’ s garden are not all of one colour and one scent, though they are all planted by one Spirit. The Church has a place for all, and a work for all. III. THAT THERE MAY BE MUCH EVEN IN TRUE . 1. Even John and Peter “ as yet knew not the Scripture,” &c. How wonderful this seems! For three long years Christ had staked the truth of His Messiahship on His rising from the dead, and yet they had never taken in His meaning. We little realize the power over the mind which is exercised by wrong teaching in childhood, and by early prejudices. Surely the minister has little right to complain of ignorance among his hearers, when he marks that of Peter and John, under the teaching of Christ Himself. 2. We must remember that true grace, and not head knowledge, is the one thing needful. Some things indeed we must know--our sinfulness, Christ as a Saviour, the necessity of repentance and faith, &c. But he that knows these things may in other respects be a very ignorant man. Let us always seek knowledge; but let us not despair because our knowledge is imperfect, and, above all, let us make sure that, like Peter and John, we have grace and right hearts. (Bp. Ryle.) The disciples at the sepulchre I. THE WE ARE OFTEN REMOVED THE MOMENT WE THEM IN A SPIRIT OF FAITH (John 20:1). Mark gives the names of others, and tells us that these women came with the purpose of paying Jesus the last honours they could bring. But on the way they had wondered with some degree of apprehension how they were going to roll away the stone. And now, laden in body and worried in mind, the first thing they saw was that some one had taken away the obstacle. It is not a mere figure of speech which has made this the common form of expression for the intervention of God’ s care in the exigencies of His children. No matter what is our fear, Divine wisdom always goes before us as we are trying to walk in the path of difficult duty. The whole world has learned to talk, as Paul, about “ a door opened.” And he is the best Christian who lives in the expectation that Omnipotence will honour faith. II. HOW EASY IT IS FOR TO WHICH GIVE US (verse 2). Mary was full of the tenderest, but the lowest, sort of zeal for Jesus. She wanted to have His presence again. How apt we are, when our dear ones are dead, to dwell upon the fact of our loneliness. We lose much that is comforting when we suffer ourselves to think, not about our dead friend, but about ourselves so wounded and sore at his death. III. INQUIRY INTO THE REAL FACTS IN THE CASE IS ALWAYS THE SWIFT OF OUR FOOLISH , WHEN WE GROW OVER OUR TRIALS (verse 8). We often magnify our afflictions, and so fall to reproaching God for His harsh dealing. It would be better to count up our mercies, and prayerfully seek to be just in our estimate of pain, and of the teaching the pain brings. IV. THE SADNESS OF A MERE MEMORY OF SIN (verse 4). For surely we do not imagine that this was a physical trial of fleetness between those two alert and active men. The hours which Peter had spent since the denial must have been frightfully borne down the usually exuberant spirits of this man. The remembrance of his ill-desert may have imperceptibly weighed upon him, and rendered his steps reluctant. Perhaps he even felt some fear. It is just this which is the most serious result of every wicked act. It hurts your after strength for good. V. THERE IS A PROPER LIMIT IN ALL WHEN MEN DIVINE (verse 5). It is not likely that any artist has ever dared to attempt the delineation of this scene. Only a chastened imagination can seem to see it; no pencil could transfer a spectacle like this to canvas. If there had been more of this restraint, it would have enabled Christian hearts to rest in a deeper peace of believing. It has always been the reckless speculations of a reinless intellect which have confused devout minds that meant to be humble. I think the picture of John impresses us as one of the best incidents of his life. VI. OF PIETY AND (verses 6, 7). These two disciples, running for the quickest sight of the sepulchre, seems almost like a footrace of mere spiritual attributes. It is faith and love trying to distance each other in attaining a nearness to Jesus. Faith may be more moderate, and love more agile; but love proves sometimes a hesitating grace, and often faith is over-bold. Love may be more delightful in its exercises, more enthusiastic, and more fervid; but faith has more penetrating power, and more courageous confidence and force. The contrast in the case is instructive as showing how believers can differ and still agree. VII. THE POWER OF AN AND EVEN (verse 8). Peter leads John along in all this history. All the world over Simons are rushing ahead, and Johns are following; and neither seems to detect the force which moves the one after the other. Minute circumstances, trivial swayings and swervings of personal history, fix a whole career. And character is moulded, souls are lost or saved, hearts are broken or changed, nobody knows just how. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Jesus risen: Note I. THE ORIGIN AND OF THE SABBATH. The first day of Creation week was marked by the command, “ Let there be light” --the first day of the Resurrection week, by the lifting up out of the darkness of death of the true Light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. It is indeed Sun-day! What reasons justify the change from the Jewish Sabbath? 1. The first day marks the central fact upon which all our hopes hinge. For if Christ rose not, then is our faith vain. 2. On the first day the risen Lord appeared on five distinct occasions. On the next first day, there being no appearance in the interval, as though to give special prominence to the time, Jesus appeared to the eleven. 3. On the first day occurred the Pentecostal effusion, the inauguration of the Christian dispensation. Acts 20:7, the first day was the day for preaching and theobservance of the Lord’ s Supper. 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, Paul directs the collections for the Saints tobe raised upon the first day of the week, that evidently being the day of public assembling for worship. 6. So also the language of John (Revelation 1:10), in the Spirit on the Lord’ s Day, indicates both the fact of that day being generally recognized throughout the Church, and that it was one for special spiritual devotions and exercises upon the apostles’ part. 7. The universal and unanimous consent and practice of the primitive Church and of the Church catholic show that the hallowed observance of the first day was an undisputed duty. II. THE DIVINE DIGNITY, REPOSE, ORDER, THAT MARK THE . 1. The fact that the grave-clothes were removed from the body of Christ must have seemed exceedingly strange. Would thieves have paused to do such a thing? And why should they have done so? If these were the first reflections of the disciples, they soon had occasion to reason differently. (1) “ Order is nature’ s first law,” and the God of nature in this act of triumph over the mightiest force in nature showed His regard for that law. The facts show the God-like repose of the Divine Victor. (2) This perfect order of life gathers around the souls who by faith enter into Christ. The peacefulness of the vacant sepulchre echoes the living voice of Jesus, “ Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” Men of science tell us that the progress of a hurricane is in circles or spirals. The great storm that swings over its terrible circumference of destruction moves around a centre of perfect calm; the sailor caught in the fury of the tornado might reach a place where the air hangs still and the sea lies placid by pushing the prow of his ship straight toward the very centre of the storm. So in the tempests of life there is a centre of calm--the heart of Christ! The same truth came to the apostles on the Sea of Tiberias. 2. But it is the Saviour in the midst of the grave that we see, a Divine repose upon Himself, and by His own touch composing the disorder of death. (1) To the mere natural eye the grave is the apothosis of confusion and disorganization. The living human frame is the most perfect of organisms; but death is its grim disorganizer. At his touch the mysterious principle that gives vitality and harmony to the structure vanishes, and the delicate machinery falls into incoherent particles. (2) But the eye of faith penetrates the surface. There is One who “ giveth beauty for ashes;” and Him we see standing within the open tomb fulfilling His word. The dead are in the realm of Him who has wrought order out of confusion, life and loveliness out of chaos. We have observed the deep interest that children take--and older people, too--in the ending of any work or story. How will it turn out? The interest deepens toward the close, which solves all that. It should be so, with this brief life, so like a tale that is told. The interest may not drop off as it nears its end. To the believing soul rather it deepens. What shall the ending be? Not that--the covered-up coffin, the green mound, the white marble. Not night, confusion, and eternal sleep. Beyond all that is the land of endless day, of order, law, life, beauty, and love. The door of the sepulchre has been opened, the stone rolled away, and we are given to see what glory and beauty lie beyond. 3. Moreover, the lesson touches the very outer wrapping of our immortal part--the body. It may indeed be that the very dust shall not be gathered together again. But in some wise a body of our identity shall rise again. The grip of dissolution cannot hold for ever the dust that God has redeemed for Himself. III. THE BEACHES OF DIVINE CARE. 1. The folded cerements tell us of the minuteness with which the Lord of providence looks after the spiritual wants of His children. The very hairs of the head are all numbered. The life of the world uncovered by the microscope shows the same regard by the Creator for the minutest details. 2. But as the context shows, the Master considered how He might convince the disciples; and He so disposed those cast-off cerements as to bear witness to them of the Resurrection. And this John “ believed.” But it was not of that one disciple alone that Jesus then thought. We too, we all, were in His Divine mind. We shared with Him the dying shame “ crucified together with Christ.” We share with Him the rising glory--“ ye are risen with Christ.” 3. Those linen bands had been gently wrapped around the sacred body by tender hands. Were not that love and office of love recognized and honoured by the decent, almost reverent, treatment of the instruments with which love had wrought her duty? Those cerements were holy things--not simply because they had touched the body of Jesus, but because they were the symbols of a love that was faithful to Him in death. (H. C.McCook, D. D.) Christ risen I. THE EARLY VISIT. During the seventh day Love obeyed the sabbath law. The graves of loved ones are stumbling-blocks if they call from worship of the living God at the appointed time. But at last love was free to act. Early on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene, probably with other women, hastened to the sepulchre. Her surprise that the stone was rolled away was preliminary to a dreadful fear. “ They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid Him.” She had no thought of His resurrection. And does not the feverish anxiety of this age lest some hostile hand should sweep Christianity from the world reveal Mary’ s dim conception of the power and majesty of Jesus? II. THE AND OF THE TOMB. Brushing the dew from the garden shrubs and anticipating the early sunbeams, these intensely earnest men approach the sepulchre. Contrary to what we should expect, the contemplative John outruns the fiery Peter. But as John arrives before the door of the silent chamber; he does not enter. With all his physical energy, reason rules his feet. His zeal, his youthful strength, are crowned with reverence for what is Divine. Reverence too seldom accompanies activity. The opposite is seen in Peter, who is bold, ardent, impatient of delay. He makes no pause, but immediately enters the holy place. His lack of awe in entering is pardonable, because of the service he did while there for all mankind. Careful inspection could not be more emphatically indicated. They mentally photographed the interior. John marked the linen cloths lying, with no body enwrapped. The order is, first, data; second, a theory which shall include all the given facts. III. THE NEW FAITH. The men saw that the body had not been removed by stealth or in haste,--that, in fact, it had not been removed at all. For why should a lifeless body be stripped of its grave-clothes if either foe or friend were removing it? It was a critical moment. The Holy Spirit was showing them the things of Christ. John says he saw and believed, speaking only of himself, because belief is a personal matter. Peter may have believed as strongly as he, but to say “ I believe” as John practically does, is more convincing than to tell what others believe. “ I saw and believed,” is the goal to which John’ s entire Gospel is intended to lead. In it he tells how men saw Jesus and believed in Him. In this conclusion Peter was probably behind John, though he entered the sepulchre first, and was most active in inspecting its interior. Cautious, reflecting minds like John’ s are the spiritual leaders of the Church. Activity and push are not all that Christ’ s cause needs. As Peter unconsciously influenced John to enter the tomb, so when there Peter needed John’ s penetration as an aid to faith. At this point John adds: “ For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.” This confutes for ever the theory that Peter and John saw what their minds, full of vagaries and fancies, were prepared to see. They would await His own procedure; and so they “ went away again unto their own home.” How fortunate that the first place to which the news was carried was “ home” ! Where does the Resurrection mean so much as there? Where else do so many flowers of hope and trust blossom about the thought of the Resurrection? Only the doctrine of the Resurrection will satisfy the yearnings of husband and wife, of father, mother, children, for light concerning the dead. IV. THE OF THE ANGELS. Yet, looking into the sepulchre, Mary saw in her dire need what Peter and John did not see--two angels, at appointed places, where Jesus had lain. The dispensation of Divine light is different to different minds. The two apostles did not need the angelic appearance; they gained their comfort by an act of direct faith. Mary received hers piecemeal, through a more striking and mysterious but less direct ministry. The Lord adapts Himself to the strength of one and to the weakness of another, yet leaves heavenly influences behind Him everywhere. Hark, the angels speak! “ Why weepest thou?” Angels are sympathetic, but sympathy alone is not sufficient for such an hour. How little angelic sympathy seemed to do now! Men need not wonder if their words do not avail for comfort in bereavement. “ Why weepest thou?” this time spoken by the Lord Himself. Oh fellow-man, gazing at the sepulchre of buried friends, with no spiritual hunger and with no insight into the facts which Jesus’ tomb presents, you cannot but weep! But if faith leads you to look within Christ’ s sepulchre and to view the subject of death according to God’ s thought of it, “ Why weepest thou?” V. THE OF JESUS TO MARY. Deep feeling of bereavement excludes from Mary’ s mind for the time every other thought and perception. Her nature, so large and deep that once seven demons could use it, which just now felt a sevenfold sorrow, overflows with joy sevenfold great. In her ignorance and stony grief she had turned her back upon the Lord; now, in the light of His glorious life, she throws herself at His feet. VI. THE NEW . In refusing this, Jesus assumes a new relation. “ Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” As if He had said: Do not rest your new faith upon My corporeal life, but upon that life which will soon be consummated with My Father. There I shall receive your love and we will resume our fellowship. Here is a lesson for all. When faith has won victory on its own high ground, why should we crave the lower testimony of the senses and a smaller promise? Mary had already made a good beginning in faith, and therefore Christ would not allow her to touch Him physically. He says by His prohibition: Having taken a few steps by faith, walk no more by sight. One touch through the Holy Ghost is worth far more than any bodily presence. Christ’ s new way of meeting His disciples only makes them nearer and dearer to Him than before. He calls them “ My brethren” --a term of higher honour than He had used hitherto. It promises the same sonship to God as His, and the same fatherhood in God that He enjoyed. Henceforth they are brethren of Death’ s Conqueror and sons of Christ’ s Father and Christ’ s God. Life and revelation can rise no higher. A new command secures the publication of this message: Go to My brethren and tell them I am risen, An empty mind will doubt; aimless feet will wander. What the Lord has spoken to us is reassurance that we have seen Him. (History, Prophecy, and Gospel.) He is not here: He is risen I. THE FIRST WITNESS--Mary of Magdala (verse 1-3). 1. Her qualifications. A Galilean woman who had (1) Enjoyed a rich experience of Christ’ s healing power (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:2). (2) Spent many months in His society (Matthew 27:55). (3) Witnessed His crucifixion, taken part in His burial, and passed some part of the night sitting over against the sepulchre (Matthew 27:56-61; Mark 15:40-47). (4) And thus was not likely to be mistaken. 2. Her deposition. (1) That she went to the sepulchre on the morning of the first day of the week--not alone (John 20:2), but accompanied by Mary, &c. (Mark 16:1 : Luke 24:10). On the way they talked about the difficulty of removing the stone; their intention being to complete the work of embalming. (2) That on approaching the tomb she observed the stone rolled away, but did not proceed further, so she saw neither the angel without (Matthew 38:2), nor the young man within (Mark 16:5), the two in shining garments (Luke 24:4) whom her companions beheld. (3) That the instant she saw the stone rolled away she believed the tomb to be empty, thinking probably that the body had been removed by friends or foes; it is not evident that she believed as yet that Christ was risen. (4) That having arrived at this conclusion she fled to Simon and John. II. THE SECOND WITNESS Simon Peter. 1. His recommendations. (1) A man, and therefore less likely than Mary to be the sport of feelings or imagination. (2) Of mature judgment--the mercurial temperament of youth being sobered in the man of forty. (3) A disciple who had enjoyed Christ’ s friendship for at least two years. 2. His declaration. (1) That on learning Mary’ s news, he started with John for the sepulchre; that John arrived first, but, too timid to enter, he found Him standing by the door; but that he without fear or hesitation stepped in and surveyed the situation. (2) That he perceived the grave clothes had been carefully disposed. As Peter had not seen “ a vision of angels” there is no reason to suppose that his faculties were too disturbed to note things exactly. (3) That he reached the conclusion that whatever had become of the body it had been removed in an orderly manner. It is doubtful whether he got beyond this. III. THE THIRD WITNESS--“ The other disciple” (verse 8). 1. His excellencies. (1) If younger than Peter, less forward, and much calmer in judgment. (2) Of finer sensibilities, therefore better fitted to discern what related to Christ. (3) A disciple who had specially enjoyed Christ’ s love, and therefore one who had the highest interest in ascertaining the truth. (4) A spectator of the Crucifixion, and so one who could testify to the reality of Christ’ s death. 2. His testimony. (1) That before Peter’ s arrival he had stooped down, and looking in saw the linen cloths lying about. (2) That, emboldened by Peter, he had entered in and examined the cave. (3) That in this examination he perceived what refer had, the carefully-folded napkin in a place by itself. (4) That in consequence of what he saw he believed Christ was risen. Lessons: 1. The devotion of woman to Christ exemplified in Mary. 2. The mourning of a saintly heart over a dead Christ--again exhibited in the Magdalene. 3. The unconscious influence of one soul upon another--illustrated in Peter’ s over John. 4. The different degrees of evidence that in different souls are required to produce faith--witnessed in John and Peter. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Resurrection of Christ I. ITS . 1. It affords the most decisive testimony to the Divine character of His person and mission. Our Saviour had wrought many miracles. Did these convince the Jews? Some few of them. But they had no effect on the majority. They ascribed it all to magic. The only means of convincing them was by raising the dead. The Jews thought that beyond the power of sorcery. Accordingly when Christ raised Lazarus, “ many of the Jews believed on Him.” If then the raising of Lazarus sufficed to convince them, how much more convincing the resurrection of Christ. 2. It is a pledge and assurance that our sins are forgiven. Death was the penalty of our sin; the debt we owed to God; Christ engaged to discharge that debt for us; till He discharged it in full, He was to remain in the prison of the grave. His liberation from that prison was to be the token to us that the anger of God was appeased, that our whole debt was paid to the uttermost farthing. What then? “ If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” 3. Without it you could neither be justified nor sanctified. Unless then the Saviour had risen, we should have been without the Sanctifier. So likewise without the Resurrection you could not be justified. It was not sufficient for the priest to slay the victim; he must enter the Holy of Holies with its blood. We are too apt to confine our view to a dying Christ. 4. It is the pattern and earnest of our own. II. TO WHAT USES WE MAY APPLY IT? 1. As an incentive to heavenly-mindedness (Colossians 3:1-2). 2. For encouragement. 3. For consolation to the bereaved. (H. L. Nicholson, M. A.) Mary Magdalene’ s alarm 1. WHO WAS MARY ? On the western bank of the Lake of Galilee, there stood the village of Magdala; so-called from a “ Migdol,” or fortified place, round which it clustered, and it means the same as “ Castleton.” Thence Mary was named the “ Magdal-ene.” She has often been most unaccountably regarded as the woman which was a sinner Luke 7:36-50). This mistake has been repeated in countless legends, hymns, homilies, ancient and modern; and by countless preachers, from Ambrose down to John Bunyan; her life has often degraded into a subject for pictorial sentimentalisms; asylums for once dissolute, but now penitent women, are distinguished by her name. All this matters little to her now but it matters more than a little to us, if by adopting this error, we stand convicted of levity or laxity in our treatment of God’ s Word. 2. Out of whom went seven devils. Whatever may be the psychological import of the terms, it is clear that they set forth the desperateness of Mary’ s sorrowful plight before she know Christ. It was not a great sin, but a great sorrow. At last, she wandered into the path of Jesus; and then the spirits met their Sovereign Master. Out the loathly horrors had to go like burglars who had broken into a house of life belonging to Christ. 3. After that wonder, this new event is reported: “ Jesus went through every city and village, preaching and … Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils … and many others, ministered unto Him of their substance.” I can trace the sequence and understand the motive of the action thus chronicled. Ruth said to Naomi, “ Intreat me not to leave thee,” &c. The inner language of Mary to Jesus would be the same, but with a meaning heightened unspeakably. Of course, this implies that she had substance to minister with; and as she is mentioned in companionship with the wife of Herod’ s steward, the fair inference is that she probably belonged to an equal social station. But now she counted all things but loss for Christ’ s sake. 4. At length we see Mary standing at the cross. How did she reach this fearful station? What had she in Jerusalem? The men were bound by law to appear at each great feast; but not the women. In her noiseless, unobtrusive way, she was with Him that she might minister to Him of her substance. It was true that her ministering could do little for Him now; but this she can do, at least she can show her love. When all was over, still she stood there; when the two senators carried away the body into the tomb, she was one of those who could say, “ We marked the spot, arid shall know it again.” She ministered of her substance in helping to prepare the final honours; and on the morning of the first day she was the first to arrive at the sepulchre. 5. It is remarkable that John says nothing of the other women. Perhaps Mary’ s spiritual presence was always so imperial, that any person meeting her in company at any exalted moment would have seen, heard, and have been conscious of Mary alone. Mary is always the royal personage. Her life was a glorious romance of love to Christ. On earth she was the type of this love; in heaven she is a leader of those who swell the sanctus, “ Unto Him that loved us,” &c. II. WHAT WAS HER ALARM? “ They have taken away my Lord,” &c. From dull feeling, firm nerve, or superb physical vitality, some of our friends are not easily frightened; but after what Mary had gone through, we can very well understand that her nature was quick to take alarm. When Jesus expelled the deaf and dumb spirit, Thomas Fuller remarks, “ He went out like an outgoing tenant, that cares not what mischief he does.” It is reasonable to conjecture that when Mary’ s seven tormentors were mastered, and their reign of terrible tyranny was over, the traces of it were left in a life of nervous vibration and excitability, and just now her strained life had been strained afresh, and when she was setting out for the sepulchre she had reached the point of the intolerable. When your dead is out of sight, your heart feels fit to break; but if you had the sudden fear that foul violators of the grave had snatched away what to you is most fearfully sacred, such a fear would come with a blow on the brain enough to make the reason totter. So thought Mary as to the buried form of her soul’ s Holy One. III. HOW HER ALARM ENDED--In a great discovery (verse 11, &c.). (C. Stanford, D. D.) Two pictures of love I. MARY GOING TO THE . The picture exhibits. 1. Fidelity of love. Last at the cross, first at the tomb., (1) She clings to Christ while others have left Him. (2) She holds to Him although He was in the lowest stage of His humiliation. She was not with the crowd who shouted Hosannah. Fine weather Christians are more numerous than Magdalenes. (3) She avails herself of the first opportunity to seek Him. Love is an early riser 2. The courage of love. “ When it was yet dark.” Darkness creates fear; but perfect love casteth out fear. 3. The liberality of love. She brought spices to anoint Christ’ s body. (1) She gives her quota although others had given before. True love never asks, “ To what purpose is this waste?” (2) She gives to Jesus because Jesus had given to her before. “ We love Him because He first loved us.” II. MARY AT THE . This picture exhibits 1. The mistake of love (John 20:11)--“ Weeping” The sepulchre was empty, for Jesus had conquered, and heaven was full of joy. 2. The reward of love (1) She finds Jesus--“ They that seek Me early shall find Me.” (2) She finds Him better than she expected; instead of a dead Christ a living Saviour. 3. The appreciation of love (John 20:16) (1) She thinks highly of Him--“ Rabboni.” (2) She wants to embrace Him more lovingly than ever. 4. The propagandism of love (John 20:18). Christian missions--love eager to let the world know its Saviour. (T. Morgan.) Early, when it was yet dark I. OF COMFORT. II. BY HOLY LOVE. III. TO HIGHEST HONOUR. (S. S. Times.) I. EARLY SEEKING. II. JOYFUL FINDING. (S. S. Times.) Seeth the stone taken away. While the Lord could have rolled back the stone by His own power, He chose to have it done by an angel to signify that He did not break prison, but had a fair and legal discharge from heaven. (M. Henry.) Hindrances removed: Many are the hindrances which keep us from Christ, and from approaching His body. We fen r at one time the guard, the men of this world, and at another time are restrained by the stone, by natural hindrances which shut out from our eyes the sight of our Redeemer. But if we are deaf to the prudence of the world, and will go like Mary to Him, we shall find that all hindrances melt away, and that angels have already descended and have taken away the stone from the sepulchre, so that we may know assuredly that He has risen from the dead. (Ferus.) They have taken away the Lord I. THROUGH ERROR. II. ERRING THROUGH . III. THROUGH . (S. S. Times.) Harmony of the narratives: The order of Christ’ s eleven appearances between His resurrection and ascension, I believe to be as follows: 1. To Mary Magdalene alone (Mark 16:9; John 20:14); 2. To certain women returning from the sepulchre (Matthew 28:9-10); 3. To Simon Peter alone (Luke 24:34); 4. To two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24:13); 5. To ten apostles at Jerusalem, and some other disciples, Thomas being absent (John 20:19); 6. To eleven apostles at Jerusalem, Thomas being present (John 20:26-29); 7. To seven disciples fishing at the sea of Tiberias (John 21:1); 8. To eleven apostles on a mountain in Galilee, and perhaps some others with them (Matthew 28:16); 9. To above five hundred brethren at once (1 Corinthians 15:6); 10. To James only (1 Corinthians 15:7): 11. To all the apostles, and probably some others, on Mount Olivet, at His ascension. Most of these eleven appearances require little or no explanation. The only appearances about which there is any difficulty are the two first. The knot to be untied is this. St. Mark says that our Lord appeared first to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9). St. John also describes this appearance; and it is quite plain from his account that Mary Magdalene was alone (John 20:11-13). Yet St. Matthew says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the sepulchre together,--saw an angel, and heard that our Lord had risen,--ran to bring the tidings to the disciples, and were met on the way by Jesus, and both saw Him at the same time. -Now how can the account of these three witnesses be made to harmonize? 1. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary did not go alone to the sepulchre. By comparing Mark 16:1, and Luke 23:55; Luke 24:1, with Matthew 28:1, it is quite evident that several “ other women” accompanied them. 2. On drawing nigh the sepulchre, the company of women saw the stone rolled away from its mouth. At once, on seeing this, it flashed on the mind of Mary Magdalene that the body of Jesus had been removed, and, without waiting a moment, she ran off to Peter and John, and told them, as recorded in John 20:1-2. 3. While Mary Magdalene ran off to tell Peter and John, the other women went up to the sepulchre, found the body gone, saw a vision of angels, were told that Jesus had risen, and were commanded to go and tell the disciples. They departed to tell the news. Some went in one direction and some in another; Mary and Salome with one party; Joanna with another. 4. While this was going on, Mary Magdalene returned with Peter and John to the sepulchre shortly after the other women went away. Whether Mary got there so soon as Peter and John, perhaps admits of doubt. 5. Peter and John saw the empty sepulchre, and went away, leaving Mary Magdalene weeping there. 6. As soon as Peter and John went away, Mary Magdalene saw the two angels, and immediately after saw our Lord Himself, and was told to carry a message to His brethren (John 20:17). 7. In the meantime the other women had gone in two or three directions, to tell the other disciples who lived in a different part of Jerusalem from that where Peter and John lived. Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Salome, were yet on their way when Jesus met them, very shortly after He had appeared to Mary Magdalene. 8. One party of the women, with Joanna at their head, saw nothing of our Lord, but went to the disciples and told them the message of the angels. 9. Shortly after this, our Lord appeared to Peter, who very likely had gone again to the grave on hearing Mary Magdalene’ s report. 10. In the course of the same day our Lord appeared to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, who had left Jerusalem after Joanna and the women reported the vision of angels, but before our Lord had appeared to Peter. 11. In the evening of the same day our Lord appeared to the apostles, and others with them, Thomas being absent. Luke means by “ the eleven apostles” the apostles generally, as a body. This was our Lord’ s fifth appearance OH the day that He rose. (Bp. Ryle.) The Resurrection I. THE FOLLY OF ALL HUMAN EFFORTS TO PREVENT THE OF GOD’ S . The stone had been placed at the mouth of the sepulchre to prevent the fulfilment (Matthew 28:62-66). The Jewish rulers tried to veil their purpose; but it is plain that they looked to the dawning of the third day with anxiety, and that they were determined that, so far as lay in their power, that day should pass away without the event they feared. But their precautions were as vain as all efforts have been to prevent God from carrying out His purpose and fulfilling His promises. II. THE OF THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. He seemed to have led His friends astray (Luke 24:21), yet, instead of joining with His adversaries in condemning Him as a deceiver, they continued to love Him. Had there not been in His character a rare charm, those whom He seemed to have misled so terribly could not have continued to love Him as they did. If after our death we would have all our apparent mistakes forgotten, and our memory cherished, let us live as Christ lived. III. THE OF THE HUMAN MIND TO RECEIVE GREAT TRUTHS. Of this fact the difficulty which the apostles had in attaching any meaning to our Lord’ s promises that He would rise on the third day, and in believing in the fact of His resurrection even when it had occurred, is an impressive illustration. This fact should make us patient with those who hold false and foolish views. IV. FULLER LIGHT IS THE REWARD OF FAITH AND LOVE. To the absolutely unbelieving Jews no manifestation of the risen Christ was vouchsafed: and He appeared earliest to those who loved Him most--to Mary and the other women earlier than to any of the apostles. Thus He fulfilled His own Luke 8:18). (Christian Age.) So they both ran together I. SEEKING A COMMON END. II. BY A COMMON ZEAL. III. CHEERED BY A COMMON . IV. AT A COMMON GOAL. (S. S. Times.) I. A PROPER END. II. A PACE. III. A HELPFUL . (S. S. Times.) Running disciples (Children’ s Sermon):--There is always something the matter when grown-up people run. Boys and- girls hardly ever walk; men and women very seldom run. All young creatures love to run-kittens, puppies, calves, lambs. As we get older we grow more sedate, and the sign hat a boy has become a man is that he walks. But if there is an accident, or a fire, or if he has to catch a train then he runs. The text tells us of a race between two disciples who should get first to the Lord’ s sepulchre. John outran Peter on this occasion, but on that other in the next chapter, although John saw Christ first, Peter was the first ashore. So John did not always outrun Peter. I. THERE ARE SOME WHO HAVE COME TO A . When people take a voyage they never think about the machinery until it stops; then everybody is on deck to know what is the matter. Sometimes the long shaft which turns the propeller has to be screwed or “ keyed” up, and the machinery has to be stopped. It is the same when a train stops and no station in sight. The windows go up, and people’ s heads go out. And when the machinery of the body is affected we begin to wonder what is the matter with us. We never know that we have a head till it aches, nor heart, nor lungs till they want keying up. There are a great many stoppages in life. Some stop being respectable--boys who loaf about street corners and taverns. Some stop being honest; they don’ t pay their bills, and need keying up in their morals. Many were once running disciples who walk in Christ’ s ways no longer. And then just as with the steamer, &c., there is something wrong with their souls. It’ s a dreadful thing to be a disciple who doesn’ t go at all like a stopped clock. You can’ t tell the Christian time of day by looking at their faces. Something is the matter inside. This was the case with the disciples when Jesus died; but when the Spirit came at Pentecost they became going Christians once more. It was like fresh steam to an engine, or the keying up of its shaft, or the winding up of a clock. And so when we have come to a standstill by loss of faith, love, zeal, let us pray for that Spirit to come to us with fresh impulses and desires to enable us to go on in His service again. Standing disciples will never reach heaven. II. THESE ARE WALKING . The Bible says a good deal about “ walk and conversation.” You can tell a man’ s character by his walk. When a man rolls and swings his shoulders from side to side we know him to be a good humoured soul. A drunken man’ s walk reveals his character. When people go to a funeral they go in slow and solemn procession; but when we see one whom we love, and whom we have not seen for a long time, we hasten our steps. The two disciples walked from Jerusalem to Emmans, but I expect they ran from Emmaus to Jerusalem. It makes a great difference in our walks what motives we are led by. I knew a boy who was so slow that he was always late to everything but dinner, and we called him Sergeant Slowboots. And to this day there he goes sauntering along as if there were twenty-seven days to the week instead of seven. H we are going to the dentists we generally take our time about it; but if we are going out for a holiday we don’ t waste a moment. If we are trying to walk in the way of God’ s commandments we ought to pray, “ Quicken me in Thy way.” Just as we ought not to loiter when sent on errands or when father calls, so we must not be slow in God’ s work and when He calls. III. THESE ARE RUNNING . Some get on faster than others; as John than Peter. He saw things before Peter did. He had a quicker eye and a quicker step. Some people when they enter a room see everything in it at once, while others seem to notice nothing. Some are lithe and active, and can run for a chair or book, while the rest are wondering what to do. It is this quick eye and step which make business men successful. When he was a young lieutenant the Duke of Wellington was asked how soon he could leave for India, “ In fifteen minutes, sir.” And sure enough in a quarter of an hour he was ready to go--which showed that he was a wide-awake running disciple of his country. God’ s angels are running disciples. They fly to do His will. When a person runs he must have some object in view which quickens his footsteps. In the boat or horse race those who do the driving are urged on by the desire of winning. “ So run that ye may obtain.” (Wilberforce Newton.) Different characteristics: St. John represents the contemplative, Peter the active. The contemplative person is more nimble in his wit; the active quick at his work. St. John ran faster; but St. Peter went surer. (Theophylact.) All do not reach Christ at one speed: Among the children of God all of them have not a like speed. Some of them get a sight of Christ before others. But whoever they be that have the life of God in them, and so are walking on towards Him, they shall, either first or last, meet with Him without doubt. (Samuel Rutherford.) And he stooping down and looking in Stooping and looking in The variety of Oriental tombs is so great that it is impossible to be certain of the shape of this tomb; but these words, when compared with Matthew’ s account, do not allow us to suppose that it was like a simple grave cut in the rock, as many of them are. The ancient tombs now accessible, of the kind which allow one to stoop down at the door and see the place of the body, are those provided with steps inside, from the door down to a room of moderate size, about, and in the sides of which are cut the loculi, or niches, for the body. The loculi, in such cases, are cut along the side, instead of piercing horizontally like our modern catacomb, and are a mere shelf, with a roof arched lengthwise. This arrangement of an ancient tomb, especially from about the time of Christ indefinitely earlier, is quite common in the East. It not only permits one to stoop down at the door, and look in and see the entire place of the body, but would allow one to sit at the head and another at the foot, as the two angels did. For the lower tier of niches (such tombs seem usually to have one row only, as a general thing, though sometimes they have two), one sitting on a seat no higher than an ordinary chair would have his head higher than the body. Sometimes these niches are so long and so high that there would be room for the body, and for a mourner to sit in Oriental fashion in the niche, one at the head, and the other at the feet. But, since most of the known examples of this kind of tomb were heathen, the larger space was probably for offerings, for provisions for the dead, or for other objects such as the French call “ the furniture of the tomb.” It is also true, however, that ancient tombs exist consisting of a mere room, on the floor of which the dead were laid, with he “ furniture” that usually accompanied them. (H. G. Trumbull, D. D.) Stooping and looking: None but humble and meek men can see these mysteries. He that will not stoop at Christ’ s grave shall never be partakers of His death and resurrection. (Marlorate.) Saw the linen clothes lying.., and the napkin … wrapped together in a place by itself.--It is remarkable, that whenever these holy coverings of our Lord’ s body are mentioned, they are never called (John 11:44) “ grave clothes,” as in the case of Lazarus; but they are spoken of as the linen clothes (2 Corinthians 13:4). (I. Williams.) The cerements of Christ and of Lazarus: When our Lord raised up Lazarus, he came forth of the grave “ bound hand and foot with grave clothes.” Though he was for the present rescued from death by the power of Christ, yet he must still be a subject to it; he is revived, but yet riseth with the bonds of death about him; he must die again; but when our Lord riseth, He shakes off His grave clothes; the linen, that wrapped His body, in one place, and the linen, that bound His head, in another. Our Lord, being risen, “ dieth no more; death hath no dominion over Him” (Acts 13:34 - Romans 6:9; Hebrews 7:23-25). (Sir M. Hale.) Comfort from Christ’ s cerements: Finding one of his children had been greatly shocked and overcome by the first sight of death, Dr. Arnold tenderly endeavoured to remove the feeling, and opening a Bible pointed to these words, saying, “ Nothing, to my mind, affords such comfort, when shrinking from the outward accompaniments of death, the grave clothes, the lonelineess, as the thought that all these had been round our Lord Himself, who died and is now alive for ever more.” (Dean Stanley.) Lessons taught by the disposition of Christ’ s cerements: You may wonder what interest or significance there could be in these objects, and how they could possibly affect John so. You see such common-place trifles every day. But I. Looked at in its connection, we have in this descriptive note some of those “ ,” and delicate, obscure hints of information, which marvellously enhance the interest and confirm the truth of the Gospel story. Forgers would never have thought of such a circumstance. Jesus not being in the grave, there could be only one of two explanations of this. 1. The sight of the sepulchral draperies, and the face cloth--the first, carefully folded; the second, put carefully away by itself--effectually set at rest the suspicion that evil hands had “ taken away the Lord.” Robbers do not set things right before they leave; but scatter confusion, out they go. 2. It being certain that no robber had done this work, it was equally certain that Jesus Himself must have done it, and this was all the more confirmed by the calmness, love of order, methodical attention to little things, displayed, which were all in the style of Jesus, and tokens which the witness recognized as surely as we recognize the handwriting of a friend. II. Notice the connection between THE , ORDERLY HABITS OF JESUS, and the conviction wrought in the mind of one who knew those habits well. Such habits, besides being necessary to Him as a perfect Man, belonged to the Jewish characteristics of His human nature. 1. What were they? The race endowment of the Greeks was an instinctive consciousness of beauty and symmetry in thought and form; the national quality of the Romans, methodical force; the Jewish national peculiarity was statical order. (1) The remarkable tribal, ritual, marching order that shows itself in the story of the Exodus, in the settlement in Canaan, in the Temple, in the return from captivity, &c., could only have been possible in a people with whom order was the native instinct and habitude. (2) This habitude made the people such divinely fitted custodians of the Scriptures; and while the text of the Septuagint is so unsettled that it is impossible to place in it more than a general confidence, the Hebrew Scriptures are so correct that they present only a comparatively small variety of lections. (3) This faculty was always the mark of a great leader; we see it in Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel. 2. Mark how it was exemplified in Jesus. You see it in His instructions to the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples; in the plan of His journeys; in the development of His doctrine; in the arrangements for the feeding of four or five thousand men, besides women and children. A plan was wanted all at once for marshalling the people in companies; for making them all sit in line, with clear passages. All was done with infinite ease; and then came a methodical care in the distribution of the food; a methodical plan to prevent waste--and all this by way of methodical attention to little things; the fragments were carefully gathered up, and twelve baskets were filled. Even on the cross the love of order was seen. He could arrange for the comfort of Mary; could remember the last one prophecy about Himself that had to be fulfilled before He died, and know the point when He could utter the triumphant cry, It is finished! III. Now we come with awe to mark THIS OF JEWISH TO FITNESS AND ORDER. Jesus, in the act of conquering death, and in the last moment of the transaction that saves millions of everlasting lives, stops to smooth the shroud, and to put the napkin carefully away into its right place, before He leaves the house of death. A striking instance this of particularity in order, and of attention to “ the littles” ! Before John noticed how the linen clothes lay, the sight seems to have had no effect upon him; but when, as the result of close observation, he saw how they had been placed, he knew that Jesus had done this; and that, just like Himself, minutely observant, grandly deliberative, divinely serene, He had risen from the grave. IV. IT WAS, AND IS, FULL OF AS A OF THE SAVIOUR HIMSELF. A symbol, through which He now teaches how carefully He counts, watches, manipulates and rectifies all things with which He has to do as the risen Saviour. He has the care of the Church, and is my own personal Saviour. This act reminds me that such a Saviour exactly meets my wants. Events are often in a tangle, and I cannot set them in order; my life is not made up of sublimities, but of little things. As the result of many things, each small and mean, I find myself bereft of spiritual sensitiveness and vivacity, and I am only half awake to the grandest of all realities; so, through a confusion of trifles I am brought into a mood that lays me open to some great temptation; and the smallest detail in my affairs will not be too small for Him to think of if I forget, nor to put in its right place, if this should be more than I can do. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Order (Children’ s Sermon):--You do not see anything strange at first here. You can fold a napkin neatly yourself! Yes; but this one was found in a grave. The disciples had heard that Christ was risen, and went to see if it was true; and found only some graveclothes and a napkin neatly folded. The soldiers who had been set to watch the grave were very frightened when they found the Lord had risen, and so said that the disciples had come and stolen the Lord away! But the napkin told a different tale. Do you think that anybody would have taken the time or the trouble to fold up the graveclothes? Learn from this I. THE LORD DOES NOT LOVE . 1. He has a place for everything, and puts everything in its place. If we find out where He has put a star, we know quite well where to find that star again; it never gets mislaid. Were it otherwise we would never be able to get on at all! If the sun rose one morning in the west and went down in the east we would not be sure of what he might do next day, for he might come from the south and go down in the north; or worse still might not shine at all! 2. Or, if the Lord did not always do the same things in the same way, so that we could depend upon Him, we would soon be starved; for when the farmer had sown his seeds in the spring-time, winter might suddenly come and then all at once hot summer might set in, and so nothing could be grown in the fields. 3. Isn’ t there a lesson here? You do not always fold up the napkin: i.e., do things as neatly as you might, and put things in their proper places. How you left that seam you had been sewing How your school-books were scattered about and made you late for school. Slovenly men and women come from careless boys and slatternly girls. Learn now to do as God does. II. THAT IS THE WAY TO FIND TIME. By the time you have found the things you have mislaid, you might have got through a great many pages of that book you are so fond of. In a chemist’ s shop, there are hundreds of bottles, and many of them all the same size, yet every one contains something different !Now suppose they were all laid down anywhere, and mixed together anyhow, and somebody came and asked for a particular medicine. The chemist might be an hour in finding it, and might even then, in the confusion, give the wrong one and kilt somebody. But he has a place for every one, and puts every one in its place. And so dispenses safely and saves time. III. IT IS THE WAY TO BE HAPPY. You can’ t be careless about things without injuring them, and you can’ t mislay things without becoming fretful; and then you say unpleasant things, and other people say unpleasant things to you, and so wherever there is confusion there comes every evil work. Learn then to do things neatly and at the right time, and put them in their proper places. Order is heaven’ s first rule, and God says He is not the Author of confusion. If you would wish to be God’ s children, you must try to be like Him in this also. (J. R. Howat.) John 20:8 Then went in also that other disciple I.ZEALOUS PURSUIT. II. III. FAITH. (S. S. Times.) Unconscious influence: In this slight turn of history we see that men are ever touching unconsciously the springs of motion in each other. Little does Peter think, as he goes straight in, that he is drawing in his brother; and as little does John think that he is following his brother. We overrun the boundaries of our personality--we flow together. There are two sorts of influence, active or voluntary, and that which is unconscious. The importance and obligation of our efforts to do good, that is, of our voluntary influence, are often insisted on; but there needs a more thorough appreciation of the influence which is insensibly exerted. I. EXPEL THE COMMON THAT THERE CAN BE NOTHING OF IN , BECAUSE THEY MAKE NO REPORT, AND FALL ON THE WORLD . 1. Histories and biographies tell how men have led armies, established empires, enacted laws, &c., i.e., what they do with a purpose. But what they do without a purpose they seldom even mention. So also the public laws make men responsible only for what they do with a purpose, and take no account of the mischiefs or benefits that are communicated by their example. The same is true in the discipline of families, churches, and schools; because no human government can trace such influences with sufficient certainty to make their authors responsible. 2. But you must not conclude that they are therefore insignificant. (1) How is it in the natural world? Nature always conceals her hand. Who ever saw or heard the exertions of that tremendous force which holds the universe together? The lightning is a mere fire-fly spark in comparison; but because it glares and thunders and blasts many think that it is a vastly more potent agent than gravity. (2) The Bible calls the good man’ s life a light, and it is the nature of light to fill the world unconsciously with its beams. So the Christian shines, not so much because he will as because he is a luminous object. And yet there are many who think that light is a very tame and feeble instrument, because it is noiseless. An earthquake is to them a much more vigorous and effective agency. Little do they think that the light of every morning is an agent many times more powerful. But let the light of the morning cease; the outcries of a horror-stricken world make, as it were, the darkness audible. The globe and all the fellow planets that have lost their sun become mere balls of ice, swinging silent in death and darkness. The light would not wake an infant in his cradle. And yet it perpetually new creates the world, rescuing it each morning as a prey from night and chaos. So the Christian is “ the light of the world;” and the insensible influences of good men are as much more potent than their active, as the great silent powers of nature are of greater consequence than her little disturbances and tumults. The outward endeavours made by good men or bad to sway others, they call their influence; whereas it is, in fact, but a very small fraction of the good or evil that flows out of their lives. Nay, how many persons do you meet, the insensible influence of whose manners and character is so decided as often to thwart their voluntary influence? And it will generally be found that where men undertake by argument or persuasion to exert a power in the face of qualities that make them odious, their insensible influence will be too strong for them. II. THE TWOFOLD POWERS OF EFFECT AND BY WHICH MAN WITH HIS FELLOW-MAN. 1. If we distinguish man as a creature of language, there are in him two sets or kinds of language--voluntary and involuntary; that of speech in the literal sense, and that expression of the eye, the face, the look, the gait, the tone. Speech, or voluntary language, is a door to the soul, that we may open or shut at will; the other is a door that stands open evermore. 2. Then if we go over to the subjects of influence, we find every man endowed with two inlets of impression; the ear and the understanding for the reception of speech, and the sympathetic powers for tinder to those sparks of emotion revealed by looks, tones, manners, &c. And these sympathetic powers are inlets, open on all sides to the understanding and character. Many have gone so far as to maintain that the look or expression, and even the very features of children are often changed by exclusive intercourse with nurses and attendants; but we shall find it scarcely possible to doubt that simply to look on bad and malignant faces, to become familiarized to them, is enough permanently to affect the character of persons of mature age. How dangerous, e.g., for a man to become accustomed to sights of cruelty! No more is it a thing of indifference to become accustomed to look on the manners, and receive the bad expression of any kind of sin. The door of involuntary communication is always open. But how very seldom, in comparison, do we undertake by means of speech to influence others! 3. It is by one of these modes of communication that we are constituted members of voluntary society, and by the other, parts of a general mass, or members of involuntary society. You are all, in a certain view, individuals; you are also, in another view, parts of a common body--be it the family, the Church, the state. And observe how far this involuntary communication and sympathy results in what we call the national or family spirit. Sometimes this spirit takes a religious or an irreligious character. What was the national spirit of France--e.g., at a certain time, but a spirit of infidelity? What is the religious spirit of Spain but a spirit of bigotry? What is the family spirit in many a house but the spirit of gain or pleasure? Far down in the secret foundations of life and society, there lie concealed great laws and channels of influence, which often escape our notice altogether, but which are as gravity to the general system of God’ s works. 4. But these are general considerations. I now proceed to add some proofs of a more particular nature. (1) The instinct of imitation in children. We begin our experience by simple imitation, and under the guidance el this we lay our foundations. The child’ s soul is purely receptive, and for a considerable period without choice or selection. A little further on, he begins voluntarily to copy everything he sees. And thus we have a whole generation of future men receiving from us their very beginnings, and the deepest impulses of their life and immortality; and when we are meaning them no good or evil, they are drawing from us moulds of habit, which, if wrong, no heavenly discipline can wholly remove; or, if right, no bad associations utterly dissipate. It may be doubted whether, in all the active influence of our lives we do as much to shape the destiny of our fellow-men, as we do in this single article of unconscious influence over children. (2) Further on, respect for others takes the place of imitation. We naturally desire the approbation or good opinion of others. You see the strength of this feeling in the article of fashion. How few persons have the nerve to resist a fashion; even in literature, worship, moral and religious doctrine. How many will violate the best rules of society because it is the practice of their circle! How many reject Christ because of acquaintances who have no suspicion of their influence, and will not have till the last day shows them what they have done! (3) Again, how the most active feelings and impulses of mankind are contagious. How quick enthusiasm is to kindle, till a nation blazes in the flame! In the case of the Crusades you have an example. So with fear and superstition, the spirit of war or of party. How any slight operation in the market may spread till trade runs wild in a general infatuation t Now, in all these examples the effect is produced, net by active endeavour, but mostly by that insensible propagation which follows a flame. (4) It is also true that the religious spirit tends to propagate itself in the same way. Spiritual influences are never separated from the laws of thought in the individual and the laws of feeling and influence in society. If every disciple is to be an “ epistle known and read of all men,” what shall we expect, but that all men will be somehow affected by the reading? Or if he is to be a light in the world, what shall we look for but that others, seeing his good works, shall glorify God on his account? How often one, or a few good men become the leaven of a general reformation! Such men give a more vivid proof of the reality of religious faith than any words or arguments could yield. III. THE ACTIVE OF MEN IS DUE, IN A DEGREE, TO THAT by which their arguments, reproofs, and persuasions are secretly invigorated. 1. It is not mere words which turn men; it is the heart mounting uncalled into the expression of the features; the look beaming with goodness; the tone, the moral character of the man that speaks is likely to be well represented in his manner. If without heart or interest you attempt to move another, the involuntary man tells what you are doing in a hundred ways at once. A hypocrite, endeavouring to exert a good influence, only tries to convey by words what the lying look, and the faithless affectation, or dry exaggeration of his manner perpetually resist. 2. Men dislike to be swayed by direct, voluntary influence, and are, therefore, best approached by conduct and feeling, and the authority of simple worth, which seem to make no purposed onset. Now, it is on this side of human nature that Christ visits us, preparing lust that kind of influence which the Spirit of truth may wield with the most persuasive and subduing effect. It is the grandeur of His character which constitutes the chief power of His ministry, not His miracles or teachings apart from His character. The Scripture writers have much to say in this connection of the image of God; and an image, you know, is that which simply represents, not that which acts, or reasons, or persuades. And here is the power of Christ--it is what of God’ s beauty, love, truth, and justice shines through Him. IV. . 1. That it is impossible to live in this world and escape responsibility. You cannot live without exerting influence. If you had the seeds of a pestilence in your body, you would not have a more active contagion than you have in your tempers, tastes, and principles. You say that you mean well; that you mean to injure no one. Is your example harmless? Is it ever on the side of God and duty? You cannot doubt that others are continually receiving impressions from your character. As little can you doubt that you must answer for these impressions. By a mere look or glance, you are conveying the influence that shall turn the scale of some one’ s immortality. 2. The true philosophy or method of doing good. It is, first of all and principally, to be good--to have a character that will of itself communicate good. It is a mistake, sad or ridiculous, to make mere stir synonymous with doing good. The Christian is called a light, not lightning. 3. Our doctrine shows how the preaching of Christ is often so unfruitful, and especially in times of spiritual coldness. It is not because truth ceases to be truth, nor of necessity, because it is preached in a less vivid manner, but because there are so many influences preaching against the preacher. He is one--the people are many; his attempt to convince and persuade is a voluntary influence. Their lives are so many unconscious influences. He preaches the truth, and they are preaching the truth down; and how can he prevail against so many, and by a kind of influence so unequal? When the people of God are glowing with spiritual devotion to Him and love to men the case is different. Then they are all preaching with the preacher, and making an atmosphere of warmth for his words to fall in. Great is the company of them that publish the truth, and proportionally great its power. (H. Bushnell, D. D.) Unconscious influence: A young man, away from home, slept in the same room with another young man, a stranger. Before retiring for the night, he knelt down, as was his wont, and silently prayed. His companion had long resisted the grace of God; but this noble example aroused him, and was the means of his awakening. In old age he testified, after a life of rare usefulnesss--“ Nearly half a century has rolled away, with all its multitudinous events, since then; but that little chamber, that humble couch, that silent, praying youth, are still present to my imagination, and will never be forgotten amid the splendours of heaven and through the ages of eternity.” (Pulpit Treasury.) Incidental results: It is told of Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, that when he returned to his native land with those rare works of art which have made his name immortal, the servants, who unpacked the statuary, scattered upon the ground the straw which was wrapped around the marble works. There were unseen seeds in that straw, and soon there were flowers from the gardens of Rome blooming in the gardens of Copenhagen. The artist, while pursuing his glorious purpose and leaving magnificent results in marble, was unconsciously scattering sweet flowers, whose beauty and perfume were to refresh and gladden his native city years after his hand was as cold as the chisel it once so magically moved. (Pulpit Treasury.) John 20:11-18 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping Lessons 1. Christians are often sorrowful, when, if they had clearer knowledge and stronger faith, they would rejoice. 2. Angels sympathize with Christians in their sorrow. If they shed no tears they are not indifferent to ours. 3. The thought of losing Jesus is enough to make His friends weep. When He is absent from the Church, and outward shows divert the eye from the Lord; when, instead of a living Christ, there is only a sepulchre, no whitening of which can compensate for the absence of the Prince of Life; and when He is absent from the pulpit, and where criticism, or philosophy, or Jewish ethics, or Christian polemics are discussed, and the living, loving Christ is absent; and when by worldliness we have no longer that fellowship with Him we once enjoyed--if we are indeed His friends we shall weep, saying of our follies and our sins (John 20:13). 4. Jesus is often very close to His disciples when they do not perceive Him (John 20:14). We are so absorbed in sorrow that we do not see Him who comes to soothe it. We often think He is farthest when He is nearest. Is He not “ a very present help in trouble?” Like Mary, also, we sometimes mistake Him for the gardener. We think only of the servant when we should acknowledge the Master. We rest in the means of grace when we should rise to the Giver of grace. 5. Christ’ s first resurrection-word was one of consoling sympathy--not of power, victory, or vengeance. He is tender, loving still. He spake to Mary, and to womanhood through her. He knew how often woman weeps unseen, what a martyrdom of grief she often undergoes by sensibilities wounded, yearnings unsatisfied, love unrequited, closest ties torn asunder, anxieties and toils which only love like hers could enable her to endure, and wounds hidden from all eyes, which only love like hers could bear and yet conceal; and so Christ’ s first word after His resurrection was one of sympathy with woman’ s grief. Seeking Jesus is the best antidote to weeping. 6. True love may be combined with deficient knowledge. “ Sir, if Thou have borne Him hence,” &c. No name had been mentioned, but Mary speaks as if because He was uppermost in her feelings all the world besides must think of “ Him” too. So let the thought of Jesus be in our hearts. Will He be pleased? What would He have me do? In this enterprise, in that company, shall I have His presence and enjoy His blessing? 7. Christ knows His disciples individually. He addresses her by the old familiar name (John 20:16). The friend of former days was still individually dear. Are we in sorrow, inconsolable, forgetting Him who sends it for our good? He reminds us of His presence, saying, “Mary!” Are we fearing some danger as though we had no Almighty Friend to protect us? He places Himself between us and it, and says, “Mary!” Are we becoming worldly, restraining prayer, toying with temptation, looking at some forbidden fruit till it becomes pleasant in our eyes? Jesus, in a tone of faithful remonstrance, says, “Mary!” 8. Every true disciple recognizes the Saviour’ s voice (John 20:16). Do we thus confess Him to be “ Master,” saying, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” In sorrow, do we submit with patience, and say, “ Rabboni” ? In danger, do we trust with holy confidence and repeat, “ Rabboni” ? When tempted, do we turn at His reproof and penitently, resolutely exclaim, “ Rabboni” ? At death, Jesus will say, “Mary!” It will be the voice not of an enemy, but of our best, our heavenly Friend. It will be Jesus coming to take us to Himself. Shall we be ready at once to welcome Him as Rabboni? When He sits on the throne of judgment He will invite to His kingdom every one of His faithful followers, with an individual recognition, calling each by name--Mary! Shall we be among them and joyfully respond, “ Rabboni” ? (Newman Hall, LL. B.) Mary Magdalene at the selpulchre I. MARY’ S SORROW. 1. She sought for a lost Christ, and looked for Him where He was not to be found. So (1) Some lose Christ when any great calamity comes upon them, and their faith is shaken in the Divine goodness. (2) Others fall into temptations, become prosperous, and worldly, lose sight of all spiritual aims, become content with this world, and their faith and hope in Christ are gone. (3) Others get entangled in intellectual difficulties about the Gospels, or inspiration, or miracles, and because they cannot see their way out. Christ meanwhile is almost, if not entirely, lost to their vision. We can lose Christ in a thousand ways, and look for Him in a thousand places where He is not to be found. We try to find Him in books of controversy, in going from one Church to another, in praying for faith in Him, in reiterating the creeds, forgetting that the restoration of all belief must begin on the high road of duty, and that spiritual work is the road to spiritual knowledge, and the recovery of our hold of Christ. 2. Mary failed to recognize Him though so near to her. So we often fail to recognize Christ though He manifests Himself to us in all the manifold forms of our life. We, too, often think that we can meet and recognize Him only in Church; but there is no charm in a Church for disclosing Christ; the charm must be in ourselves, perceiving and answering to the charm that there is in Christ. Then we can see Him everywhere. (1) The wickedest persons ought to reveal Christ, for you may be sure that He is there yearning to recover them. (2) Wherever an afflicted man or woman lies in sorrow, there you hear His voice, saying, “ Come unto Me,” &c. (3) Whenever you see a man reviled or misrepresented, there you have an image of that Christ who was crucified for His goodness. (4) Christ looks at us through the eyes of every innocent child; for there is in them the light of the kingdom of heaven. (5) Every just and noble deed is a revelation of Christ; for He came not to be ministered unto, &c. 3. She mistook the Divine work for man’ s. “ They have taken away my Lord;” not knowing that He had reclaimed His own life by the power of the eternal Spirit. There is a human and a Divine side to every event, and things become significant in proportion as we can see their Divine aspect. There are men who can see in Christ nothing but what is simply human. There are men who have no eye for the Divine. They are mostly cold, self-contented natures; having no moral enthusiasm, nor intellectual grasp, but play upon the surface of a great many things with cold moonlight gleams. Let us guard as beyond all price the faculty which can see God in all things. II. THE OF MARY’ S LOVE (John 20:15). Her overflowing love in the midst of her grief does not wait to measure her strength. She was equal to anything that her love prompted her to undertake. Love is the real worker of miracles in this world. And I am speaking now of human love; the Divine love, which is the parent of ours, is to ours as the ocean is to the rivulet, and as the sun is to the glow-worm. Human love still undertakes tasks that are beyond its strength, and dies in hopeless endeavours. How many lives are there who have not been able, through years of ill-treatment, to uproot the love of their youth, and who still wait and pray for a change in the husband who has long ago forfeited all title even to respect. And I think there are some men of the same nature. There is a love that descends upon those lower than itself, as when the mother loves the unworthy son or daughter, and there is the love that bends, entranced before a goodness and a beauty far surpassing itself. This was the love that kindled in the soul of Mary, and the highest proof that we have it is that we do not waste our time in visions and rapture, but imitate the love of Christ in doing His work. “ Inasmuch as ye did it,” &c. III. THE OF MARY’ S FAITH. She desired and dwelt too much on the outward Christ. Therefore she must not touch Him. The most difficult thing is to pass away from the outward things of religion into the region where faith grasps its objects, and sees its truths, and feels their reality. Does eternity open to you when you sing, or pray, or meditate? When you gather round the Lord’ s table, does it proclaim the unseen fact of Christ’ s sacrificial love? IV. OUR LORD’ S MESSAGE SENT BY MARY (John 20:17). 1. This was a message of forgiveness. There are two things difficult about forgiveness--the power to forgive and the manner in which it is done. There are some natures that cannot forgive, even when they profess to do it, but when we can turn our resentment into pity and mercy we have learned the lesson which Christ taught us from the cross. 2. The message was one of continued, unbroken affection. Go and tell My brethren--not My poor weak followers and disciples, not even My friends. He was not ashamed of them, notwithstanding all their spiritual poverty and their want of sympathy with Him. What a lesson it reads to us! (C. Short, M. A.) Mary at the empty tomb: How does the risen Saviour reveal Himself? I. TO WHAT LONGING? 1. Even then the seeing the risen One was not a thing of physical sight. It was dependent On the condition of the inner life. Not to the world, who did not want to be convinced, but to those who were longing to be fully convinced that He was the Saviour. 2. Mary, foremost among these, could not tear herself away from the grave. She had passed through the scene at Calvary in mute amazement; now she realized that her heart had lost its last stay, and the whole world seemed like an empty tomb. What would become of her now His Divine life was no longer there for her poor life to cling to, as ivy to oak, and train itself heavenwards. 3. Is not this a page in our history? The Saviour once took you by the hand and your life began to twine itself around His. Then this childlike confidence was lost, but the longing remains. This is the deepest sorrow--to know what can help and to have lost it--to seek the Lord among the evidences of His life, and have only an empty grave to go to. When we have to stand before our own life as before an empty tomb, which reminds us only of what we have lost, and in which we cannot find our childhood’ s Saviour there is no comfort for us. A risen and living Saviour is what we want. It would not have helped Mary had she found the buried One. If our longing souls rest in the fact that He has lived, what can He be to us? He is not here; He is risen, is the Divine message to us. II. IN WHAT ? While Mary is still hopeless He is beside her. Though invisible and unknown He is near all who seek Him. Why not disclose Himself then? “ Woman, Mine hour is not yet come.” The experience God gives depends for its value on our susceptibility, and this comes to maturity only by persistent seeking. She turns again to seek Him when Jesus says, “ Mary!” It was through her name that the Lord revealed Himself. A name may awaken emotion, as when you hear the voice of one long absent. She knew her Lord in that He knew her. Her name is written in His heart for ever. It is the heart that recognizes the living Saviour. III. WITH WHAT The complaint of the heart is not of the reality of precious moments, but that they are only moments. Mary had no advantage in this over us. The moment she recognized Him He says, Touch Me not. Stern but needful words. Mary needed to be taught that the fellowship of the future would be very different from that of the past. Few had enjoyed His intimacy, henceforth all might and in a higher form. Their dependence on Him as a man must be changed into a holier relation--“ brethren.” All this Mary had to learn amid her joy, that her joy might not be taken from her when the Lord should ascend. And as this joy would naturally seek to retain the beloved object she is bid serve Christ by going to His brethren and bearing witness to others. Moments such as this are short and fleeting; must be; should be. It is not good to live on mountain peaks. Mary now knew that what is needed for the service of Christ is power from on high. (Dr. Beyschlag.) The interview between Jesus and Mary: We see I. THAT THOSE WHO LOVE CHRIST MOST AND ARE THOSE WHO RECEIVE MOST FROM CHRIST’ S HAND. 1. Mary would not leave the sepulchre when Peter and John went away to their own home. Love to her Master made her honour the last place where His precious body had been seen by mortal eyes. And she reaped a rich reward. She saw the angels whom Peter and John had never observed; had soothing words addressed to her; and was the first to see our Lord, and to hear His voice. 2. As it was in the morning of the first Easter Day, so will it be as long as the Church stands. All believers have not the same degree of faith, or hope, or knowledge, or courage, or wisdom; and it is vain to expect it. But it is certain that those who love Christ most will always enjoy most communion with Him. To know Christ is good; but to “ know that we know Him” is far better (1 John 2:3). II. THAT THE FEARS AND SORROWS OF ARE OFTEN QUITE . 1. “ Mary stood at the sepulchre weeping.” She wept when the angels spoke to her, and when our Lord spoke to her. And the burden of her complaint was always the same--“ They have taken away my Lord.” Yet all this time her risen Master was close to her. Like Hagar in the wilderness, she had a well of water by her side, but she had not eyes to see it. 2. How often we are anxious when there is no just cause for anxiety! How often we mourn over the absence of things which in reality are within our grasp! Let us pray for more faith and patience, and allow more time for the full development of God’ s purposes. Jacob said “ All these things are against me” ; yet he lived to thank God for all that had happened. If Mary had found the seal of the tomb unbroken she might well have wept. The very absence of the body which made her weep was a cause of joy for herself and all mankind. III. WHAT LOW AND EARTHLY OF CHRIST MAY CREEP INTO THE MIND OF A TRUE . 1. The first surprise, and the reaction from great sorrow to great joy, was more than the mind of Mary could bear. It is highly probable that she threw herself at our Lord’ s feet, and made greater demonstrations of feeling than were seemly or becoming; too much like one who thought all must be right if she had her Lord’ s bodily presence, and all must be wrong in His bodily absence; like one who forgot that her Master was God as well as Man. And hence she called forth our Lord’ s gentle rebuke, “ I am not yet ascending to My Father for forty days: your present duty is not to linger at My feet, but to go and tell My brethren that I have risen. Think of the feelings of others as well as of your own.” 2. The fault of this holy woman was one into which Christians have always been too ready to fall. In every age there has been a tendency to make too much of Christ’ s bodily presence, and to forget that He is “ God over all, blessed for ever” as well as Man (Romans 9:5). The pertinacity with which Romanists cling to the doctrine of Christ’ s real corporal presence is only another exhibition of Mary’ s feeling. Let us be content to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, and when two or three are met in His name. What we really need is not His literal flesh, but His Spirit (John 6:63; 2 Corinthians 5:16). IV. HOW KINDLY AND OUR LORD SPEAKS OF HIS . 1. He bids Mary Magdalene carry a message to them, as “ His brethren.” All was forgiven and forgotten (Psalms 103:13-14). 2. As He dealt with His erring disciples, so will He deal with all who believe and love Him, until He comes again. When we wander out of the way He will bring us back (chap. 6:37; Psalms 103:10). (Bp. Ryle.) Mary at the sepulchre 1. We little realize how much light goes out of the world with some lives. “ There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,” write Matthew and Mark in their record of the Crucifixion. This symbolized a great fact. We know how the vanishing of one life may be to us like the setting of the sun: many of us have passed through such an experience. After the Evangelists have recorded the burial, they pause and halt in the narrative. The record only moves again when the light begins to return. “ As it began to dawn towards the first day” are the words with which Mark starts anew; so, too, in different phrase, the other Evangelists emphasize this new starting-point. 2. Again, observe the revealing power of a great trial. It takes great or trying events to reveal all the strength and beauty which otherwise lie dormant in some characters. The breeze of summer brings music out of the AEolian harp, but only the storms of winter can awake the mighty deep into harmonious symphony and make the trees of the wood clap their hands in grand accompaniment. So it required great tests to reveal the devotion of these grand heroic women toward their Lord. 3. This expression of devotion was very human, and supremely womanly. How significant--how full of strange amotion--the first visit to the grave where our dearest lie! 4. This was a very beautiful and expressive protest against mortality. Beneath all this anointing was the conviction that man was too noble to pass away into decay. In the proposed anointing of the Christ by the women, we find the mightiest protest against the corruption of the grave; but God would yet accomplish the same end in His own way. John, however, centres his narrative in one person: Mary’ s love was the most intense and the most persistent. “ But Mary stood” --stationed herself--words expressive of resoluteness. Up to this point there was a measure of companionship in sorrowful watching among the mourners,--now we reach the point of isolation. Others had accepted the theory that Jesus had been taken away, and had left with sorrow, but Mary was more persistent, since to her more had been forgiven. The sorrow of this little community now became Mary’ s, as if it were exclusively her own. “ As she wept.” According to the three Synoptic Gospels, the other women were afraid, or “ affrighted.” Mary wept. There is nothing new in weeping at the grave. It is the old place of weeping. More tears have been shed there than anywhere else. But the circumstances are exceptional in this case. Others have wept because the grave is tenanted; Mary wept because it was empty, and because the ministry of love in anointing the dead body seemed no longer possible. At length, by steady gazing, she found that the grave was not so empty as it had appeared. There was no dead body in it, but there were two of God’ s angels. Mary saw them. Peter and John did not. They were in two great a hurry. Men do not see angels in such a mood--they only see “ linen clothes,” and the like. “ They say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?” Tears are a profound mystery to angels. But it was a misuse of the mysterious capacity to weep that perplexed them now. Weeping in this case they knew was out of place. “ Why weepest thou?” are words of challenge. “ Because they have taken away my Lord,” was Mary’ s reply. These words reveal, among other things, the soul’ s power of appropriation--“My Lord.” This is the greatest paradox of being, that finite man or woman can claim the Infinite God as his or her possession. “ Thou art my God,” said the Psalmist. But here, too, we have weeping inadequately explained. Mary’ s data are wrong. “ They have taken away my Lord.” How much more the angels knew about it than Mary! How inadequate our explanation of our grief when we are challenge! There is an impatience in the answer. She has silenced the angels with a false theory, and hastily withdraws, or “ turns round,” and waits not for the reply. It is a terrible thing when sorrow becomes reflective, and turns in upon itself. But as Mary turns there is another Presence near. Now it is asked by One who has Himself wept by the grave side. There is a tear in this tone of inquiry. Remember in passing, as a significant fact, that these are the first recorded words of Christ after the Resurrection--“ Woman, why weepest thou?” &c. What a reflection for sorrowing ones! There is hero also the additional question which completes the first. “ Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” Sorrow is stupefying. There was a danger for Mary to forget her search in the steady gaze, becoming more vacant as it was continued. The question of the angels threw her in upon her sorrow; the further question of Christ awakened within her the recollection of her quest. It aroused the spirit of search and of expectation anew in Mary. It is a sad thing when, in our sorrow, we forget the aim of life, and lose the inspiration of hope. This takes all the buoyancy out of life. Our Lord would ever save us against this. Observe Mary’ s answer as contrasted with her answer to the angels. To the angels she replied, “ Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” This is sorrow in its reflective, despairing form. On the contrary, her answer to Jesus is--“ Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.” This is sorrow in its resolute and hopeful aspect. “ I will take Him away.” She could not have carried Him; yet she saw no difficulty. There is a frenzy of love which is well-nigh omnipotent. There is yet hope of Mary. It is a grand thing when sorrow has not taken all the courage out of us. The Christ can hide Himself no longer from her. He reveals Himself now through speech. Of all things about us, the voice is that which, amid the processes of change, retains its identity most. “ Mary.” How much Jesus compresses of tenderness and revelation into that one word! Her reply is equally brief--“ Rabboni.” Here we have a dialogue in two words. When feeling is intense, utterance becomes laconic. “ Rabboni” is the word in which Mary’ s soul expresses alike its love and its wonder. We find here a passionate concentration of feeling. The spirit of loving discipleship is crystallized and perpetuated in that one word. There are times when the whole soul flashes forth and reveals its personality in an exclamation. The first impulse of the soul in the presence of the risen Christ is to worship. It is a moment of infinite surprise. It is the reaction from blank despair to boundless ecstasy. The gospel of the open grave is the story of the Resurrection and the prediction of the Ascension combined. “ I ascend!” She had stooped and looked into the grave for the Christ; henceforth she will look up and wait for her Lord from heaven. Thus is the story grandly progressive, and the past and present are made predictive of the yet more glorious future. (David Davies.) Love in tears; or, Mary at the sepulchre I. MARY’ S , or love’ s grief expressed (John 20:11). 1. Standing beside the vacant tomb--a hopeful circumstance. How much worse for her had it been tenanted! 2. Lamenting in mistaken sorrow. Most sorrow perhaps of this sort. Christians grieve when they ought to rejoice, e.g., at the graves of those who are for ever with the Lord. Continuing dejected without. Had Mary gone in she would have found it a habitation of angels. “ No more a charnel house to fence, the relics of lost innocence,” &c. (Keble). II. MARY’ S VISION, or love’ s attention arrested (John 20:12-14). 1. The advanced guards of the King. (1) Their nature--angels. (2) Their number--two, to correspond with the two robbers. (3) Their appearance--in white, or shining garments (Daniel 10:6; Revelation 10:1). (4) Their situation--at the head and feet, guarding the place from profanation. (5) Their question--to arrest attention and convey sympathy. 2. The person of the Risen Lord. (1) Near her, as always to His people (Matthew 18:20), especially in times of sadness (Luke 24:15). (2) Speaking to her. Christ still notes the tears of His people (Lu Hebrews 4:15). (3) Yet unrecognized by her, as He often is by His sorrowing disciples Luke 24:16). III. MARY’ S MISTAKE, or love’ s blindness discovered (verse 15). 1. Great. Already she had committed several blunders--seeking the living among the dead, sorrowing when she ought to have rejoiced, &c., but none so great as mistaking Christ for Joseph’ s gardener. 2. Natural. The likeliest person at that hour was the gardener, and as to other disciples He may have had “ another form.” 3. Persistent. 4. Beautiful--love knows no impossibilities; and no passion is so omnipotent as that of a renewed heart for Christ. “ At this hour millions would die for him” (Napoleon). IV. MARY’ S , or love’ s darkness dispelled (verse 16). 1. The familiar voice. What a wealth of pitying love would be infused into the “ Mary” (cf. John 21:15; Luke 22:48; Acts 9:4; Acts 9:10) . 2. The spell broken. No voice but One could say “ Mary” like that. 3. The heart relieved--“ Rabboni.” V. MARY’ S , or love’ s ardour restrained (verse 17). 1. The restriction--“ Touch Me not.” 2. The reason--“ I am not yet ascended.” 3. The consolation. The restriction would only be temporary. VI. MARY’ S , or love’ s service claimed (verse 17). 1. To whom sent-Christ’ s brethren. (1) The condescension in it--God’ s Son calls them brethren. (2) The honour in it. (3) The love in it--they had deserted Him. 2. With what charged--a message concerning (1) Himself. (2) His ascension. (3) The Father. VII. MARY’ S , or loves willingness expressed (verse 18). 1. With cheerful resignation. 2. With prompt execution. 3. With faithful repetition. Learn 1. “ Blessed are they that mourn,” &c. 2. The eyes of Christ’ s people are sometimes holden (Luke 24:16). 3. “ My sheep hear My voice,” &c. 4. Truly our fellowship is with the Father, &c. 5. The ascended Christ is not ashamed to call His people brethren Hebrews 2:11). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Three aspects of piety I. Piety in SADNESS. Notice here 1. The intensity of her affection. 2. The greatness of her courage. Few of the bravest men care to walk through a churchyard after dark; and rough soldiers were guarding Joseph’ s tomb. 3. The imperfection of her faith (John 20:15). We often only see a gardener in the sublimest messenger of God. II. PIETY IN RAPTURE (John 20:16). Note 1. The rapidity of our mental changes. Mary passed as in a moment from anguish to ecstasy. 2. The power of Christ’ s voice. Neither Gethsemane, the Cross, or the grave had changed it. Thus by a word Christ can lift the soul into the highest bliss. III. PIETY IN ACTION. Note 1. Christ’ s merciful identification with His disciples. “ My Father and your Father.” 2. The heavenward direction which their sympathies should take. Look upward--“ I ascend,” “ Seek those things which are above.” 3. The right direction of religious feeling. Action at once expresses and realizes emotion. Go and work. (D, Thomas, D. D.) John 20:12-13 Two angels … say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?The weeping one to weeping womanhood 1. Christians are often sorrowful when, if they had clearer knowledge and stronger faith, they would rejoice. “ Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping.” She wept because she thought He was dead. But the absence of the body--an additional grief--was a proof that there was no cause for grief. That which then caused weeping, afterwards caused rejoicing. And thus we often weep at that which would give us joy did we rightly know or fully trust. 2. Angels sympathise with Christians in their sorrow. 3. The thought of losing Jesus is enough to make His friends weep. “ She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.” It is grief to Christians when, in any sense, their Lord is taken away. 4. Jesus is often very close to His disciples when they do not perceive Him. “ She turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.” We think only of the servant when we should acknowledge the Master. We rest in the means of grace when we should rise to the Giver of grace. We deem Him absent when, in the blessing He gives, through the humblest of instruments, we should adore Himself. 5. Christ’ s first resurrection word was one of consoling sympathy: not of power, victory, or vengeance. He is tender, loving still: “ the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” His first word was not to an official but a private person; not to the strong but to the weak; not to an apostle but to Mary. He spake to womanhood through her. He knew how often woman weeps unseen--what a martyrdom of grief she often undergoes by sensibilities wounded, yearnings unsatisfied, love unrequited, closest ties torn asunder. 6. True love may be combined with deficient knowledge. “ Sir, if Thou have borne Him hence, tell me where Thou hast laid Him and I will take Him away.” Because He was uppermost in her feelings all the world besides must think of “ Him” too. So let the thought of Jesus be in our hearts. Will He be pleased? What would He have me to do? In this enterprise, affection sees no difficulties. Love laughs at the impossible. Jesus accepts true love in spite of its errors. There may be theology, correct and complete in every detail, but without love; and there may be love, true and deep, allied with much ignorance. Should not we also be lenient with intellectual mistakes when associated with reverent love? Jesus will excuse mistaken modes of worship and of thought; but no orthodoxy or churchmanship, however sound, will win recognition from Him without love. 7. Christ knows His disciples individually. “ Jesus saith unto her, Mary.” 8. Every true disciple recognizes the Saviour’ s voice. “ She saith unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master.” Do we thus confess Him to be “ Master?” saying, “ Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Newman Hall, LL. B.) Eyes too full of tears: No one cries when children, long absent from their parents, go home. Vacation morning is a jubilee. But death is the Christian’ s vacation morning. School is out. It is time to go home. It is surprising that one should wish life here, who may have life in heaven. And when friends have gone out from us joyously, I think we should go with them to the grave, not singing mournful psalms, but scattering flowers. Christians are wont to walk in black, and sprinkle the ground with tears, at the very time when they should walk in white, and illumine the way by smiles and radiant hope. The disciples found angels at the grave of Him they loved; and we should always find them too, but that our eyes are too full of tears for seeing. (H. W. Beecher.) Mary: Needless trouble: This weeping woman is a typical rather than a unique character, specially of those who are always missing the point in Christian narrative and doctrine. They are faithful, kind, intelligent, but they miss the point. They go long journeys in order to get wisdom, but they always leave the principal thing behind them; they put away the key so carefully that they never know where to find it again. Mary rushed into the details of a controversy instead of standing a little way from it and catching its outlines and its general bearings. There is very much practical atheism in this devoted woman’ s talk. Though she is talking to angels, yet she has left God out of her sobbing and tearful speech. She speaks as if the whole question lay between certain other people and herself; thus, “ They have taken” and “ I know not.” She is lost where millions of other people have been lost in the region of second causes--bringing themselves to disappointment and tears. Many of us ought to take our stand beside Mary. Those, e.gI. WHO ARE UNABLE TO SEE THE DIVINE HAND FAR ABOVE ALL HUMAN AND STRIFE. To many of us human history is but a disorderly and haphazard movement. Where is the religious eye that sees God above it all? Mary said that somebody had done mischief; the idea never occurring to her that her Lord might have taken Himself away. And so we are victimised by our senses; our eyes and ears deceive us; and our hearts have lost the power of completely trusting God; and so life has become an enigma without an answer, and a fight in which the strong man wins all, and that all is less than nothing and vanity. II. WHO IN ALL AGES HAVE GIVEN THEM-SELVES UP TO GRIEF. “ Why weepest thou?” Mary had her answer ready, but it was an answer founded upon a mistake. So our explanation of our grief may be but a fool’ s answer or a blind man’ s guess. Are not God’ s angels often asking this? They see the things that are hidden from us. We see the underside of the pattern which God is weaving, they see the upper side in all the charm of its celestial colour and all the beauty of its infinite perfection. No doubt God’ s providence is full of mystery, a road of deep declivities and sharp curves, with many a jungle and many a wild beasts’ den; yet there is a foot-track through it all onward to the summer landscape and the harvest plain. Why weepest thou? Surely not over the child who has gone to the care of the angels and the sweet rest of the pure skies. Surely not over the disappointment whose sharpness has taught thee thy best prayers and mellowed thy voice to the tenderest music. Why weepest thou? If for sin, weep on; if for God, your tears are not vain only, but unnatural and impious. When Mary knew but part of the case, she wept over it; when she knew it all, her joy became almost a pain by its very keenness. So shall it be with ourselves in the revelations which are to come. III. WHO CAN ONLY CHRIST UNDER CERTAIN FORMS AND IN CERTAIN PLACES. If Mary had seen the dead Christ in the grave, probably she would have felt a sad satisfaction. But the idea of death having been turned to life never occurred to her. Christ was infinitely larger in spiritual influence than Mary had imagined, and He is infinitely larger and grander than any Church has conceived Him to be. There are people who would rather have a dead Christ in their own sect and ritual than a living Saviour outside of their own approved boundaries. There are others who care more for their own idealized pictures of Christ than for the living Man Himself. I find Christ in all Churches where the Christly spirit is. What man has seen all the truth of God? Into what sectarian hut has God crowded all the riches of heaven? You may find Christ everywhere if you seek Him with a true heart. IV. WHO ARE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT CHRIST AS IF HE WERE ABSENT: it is a historical Christ they refer to--a Christ that once was, but no longer is. Now, at the very moment of Mary’ s complaint, the Lord was looking at her! She thought He was the gardener! How clearly this shows that though we may think we know Christ, yet we know Him only in one aspect, and if we happen to see Him in any other, we actually know nothing about Him! We only know Christ in one place, in one ritual, in one theology, in one Church. Take Him out of these, and He becomes a common man, unknown, and suspected of stealing Christ, stealing Himself! Some persons do not know Christ except from the lips of their favourite preachers. Others do not think they have kept Sunday properly unless they have attended a particular place of worship. I would see Him and hear Him everywhere--in all history, in all communions, in commerce, in art, in all the endeavours and enterprises of civilization. (J. Parker, D. D.) Weeping at the wrong time: Our Lord would tell us by this question that ofttimes we weep when we have cause to rejoice. She should have said, “‘ This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’ This is a day when a decree is passed in heaven in your favour, that the lost seed of Adam is redeemed; and thou also art in the decree of redemption among the rest; therefore thou shouldst not weep.” (Samuel Rutherford.) Heavenly attire: These witnesses were clad in white. The angels, they have not our common country clothes, but they are like heaven in their apparel, to teach all those who are heirs of heaven to be clad like their country. If we think to be heirs of God in Christ, let us not be like the rest of the corrupt world. (Samuel Rutherford.) The sorrow of development: May we not take this as a parable of I. THE WAY IN WHICH WE THE ACTUAL FACTS OF OUR . 1. God comes to us, but not in the form that we expect, and therefore we do not recognize Him. It is a misfortune that befals us, not a providence; a cruel mocker who has taken away the body, not a Divine hand. Mary thought only of the adversaries of God, frustrating His purposes. Peter afterwards said they did “ whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done.” 2. How often it is the Christ, when we think it is only the gardener I A preacher uttering vague thoughts in a blundering way may be Christ speaking to human souls. The chancest meeting in the street may be Christ diverting the entire course of our lives. Should we not learn to see Christ in every form? And is not half the sorrow of our life because we do not see Him where He really is--in providences, in rough forms of character, in homely forms of work, in diversified forms of theological thought, Church life, goodness? In a thousand things it is only the gardener, because our eyes are blinded by prejudice or sorrow. II. THE WAY IN WHICH WE THE THAT GOD IS WITH US. We weep in bitterness over a lost blessing when it is simply its transformation into a higher one. “ That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.” “ It is expedient for you that I go away,” &c. How we weep over the grave of buried things--lost beliefs, habits, forms of service, as if truth, or usefulness, or goodness, or even the Christ, were slain, when they are simply being transformed. It is as if the husbandman were to weep over his decomposing seed corn, the child over his outgrown clothes, the lad over his disused school-books. God is teaching us that “ We rise on stepping-stones of our dead selves to nobler things.” When the plant becomes pot-bound the gardener breaks the pot as the first essential condition of its development. Before Christ can be to the disciples the Christ of resurrection life and glory, He must be crucified and entombed. And the ignorant affection of His disciples weeps. We cling even to the dead forms of things because they have been precious, but God’ s laws of development demand that we should let the dead bury their dead, and follow Him. 1. Our theological beliefs advance to more perfect truth by the falling away of old forms and the development of new ones. From the Day of Pentecost we have ever been advancing. In educating your children you begin with a picture alphabet and end in abstract reasoning. Or you begin with simple commands, and then appeal to intelligence. But when the youth becomes the man, the law of obedience is superseded. It has so educated his mind and heart that he has become a law unto himself. And you do not think that moral safeguards are relaxed when the youth obeys from reason and the man becomes a law to himself. So God educates us. The evidences which attested Him to the older Church were miracles; then came the prophets, when miracles ceased, and the intelligent reason was appealed to; then the spiritual economy of Christ, when men believed in Christ, not because of His miracles or intellectual arguments, but because He spake directly to their souls “ told them all that ever they did,” met their sense of spiritual need. (1) Proofs of the being of a God are changing. Those from causation, design, miracle, special providence, are, of course, as absolutely true as ever; but a keen dialectic discovers flaws in the reasoning, incompleteness in the demonstration. We have come to feel that the most conclusive of all proofs is that we are spiritual men. Our spirits answer to His spiritual nature as the wards of a lock to its key. We do not prove God by argument so much as we see and feel Him. And is not this proof far more conclusive? And yet how many think material proof more satisfactory! Let one of them fail, and they feel--“ They have taken away my God, and I know not where they have put Him.” But may not this very discomfiture be the means of driving our belief in God to the higher ground? Now we believe, not because of the proof of science, but because we have seen Him ourselves. The most ignorant peasant whose soul is filled with the life and light of God has a much surer ground than all the evidences of Paley. (2) Our conceptions of the character and feelings of God change and develop with our spiritual education. It is so in the Bible. In the earlier books the predominant conception is that of sternness. He is holy, majestic, distant. How this is softened in the time of David and the prophets! When we come to the New Testament--to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--the revolution of feeling is almost startling. And the development has never been arrested. Every generation has attained to a higher conception of God than its predecessor. To us God is more of a gracious, tender Father than He was fifty years ago. Old men see this with apprehension; they cling to their old Calvinism, and tell you that the sense of righteousness has relaxed with the sternness of law. Nay, God’ s hold upon our affections is stronger than upon our fears. The Divine Father is more than the Divine Magistrate? (3) Are not our conceptions of Christ Himself ever rising in truth and spirituality? Less and less we “ know Him after the flesh,” more and more we know Him after the Spirit. Take for example (a) His Incarnation. Less and less it is an arbitrary conjunction of two different natures; more and more it is a coming together of profound and wonderful affinities. Man bears God’ s image, therefore God takes upon Him man’ s nature. When we are asked about the Incarnation we do not so eagerly have recourse to proof texts. As with the being of a God, so with the Incarnation of the Christ, the proof may be argued on purely intellectual grounds, but we have come to think that the supreme proof is the religious and spiritual demonstration. The Incarnation exactly and fully meets all the necessities of my spiritual nature. So I believe in gravitation and electricity, not because I can demonstrate them, but because, assuming them by hypothesis, they perfectly account for all the phenomena. (b) So we give more emphasis than our fathers did to the human element of our Lord’ s nature. Where they debated about His Divinity and devoutly worshipped Him as God, we think of His humanity and rapturously love Him as man. It is not that we believe in the Divinity the less, but we see how He embodies His Divinity in humanity, so that He can live, and suffer, and sympathize, and die. He is Divine because He is so grandly, helpfully human. (c) Much more marked have been the changes through which the doctrine of atonement has passed. There was the strange idea held by the early Church, that the death of Christ was a ransom price paid to the devil; then there was the theory that it was the necessity of a struggle between justice and mercy; then there was the forensic theory; then there was the commercial theory; then there was the predestinarian theory. We have attained larger, freer, more spiritual conceptions of it, as a grand moral process, embodying great principles, and satisfying eternal righteousness and love. And every generation has felt, in the giving way of its special theory of the Atonement, as if the atonement itself must be surrendered. It was only the chrysalis that was falling away, that the Atonement itself might be the more grandly conceived. 2. Men’ s theories about the Bible undergo development. We get nobler conceptions of its inspiration and more spiritual conceptions of its meaning. It is the very lowest theory that every letter of it is Divinely dictated. It is surely higher to conceive of the entire moral nature of the sacred writer as engaged in receiving and recording the Divine revelation. And yet when you assail the mechanical theory, which the facts utterly discredit, in order to assert the spiritual theory, men cry out that you are bereaving them of the very ark of God. They cling to the letter, which killeth, and are afraid of the Spirit, which really makes both the writer and the book a living power. 3. Similar things may be said concerning conceptions of the Church. Every development of Church life and liberty and spirituality has been ennobled by the throwing off of some old restrictive ecclesiasticism. And the emancipating process has caused alarm. How the Temple Jews would despise the worship of the Upper Room; and yet there the promise of the Father was realized. In manifold forms the Christian Church has been, and is, as intolerant as Old Judaism itself. And when men began to ask whether organized Church societies, however legitimate and expedient in themselves, were really identical with the Saviour’ s conception of His Church, and claimed that the New Testament Church included all men everywhere who truly loved Him,the timid got alarmed, and thought that the Church itself was being denied. At every step the cry of alarm, and sacrilege, and infidelity is raised, and that which is really emancipation, and advance to higher spirituality and greater moral power, is regarded as the destruction of sacred and precious things. So when barriers round the table of the Lord are broken down; so when the ecclesiastical conditions of Church membership are made easier. 4. So, again, good men are terrified when the personal religious life of a man is emancipated from mere precept and tradition, and thrown upon living principle and intuitive love, when bonds of asceticism are broken, and the Divine use and good of all things is freely enjoyed. How many pious people of the past generation deemed religion itself imperilled when Methodist bonnets and Quaker coats were laid aside! How much faith has rested in the cowl of the monk or the hood of the nun, and how weak the faith that so rests! 5. The same principle would apply to the course and process of God’ s providential dealing with our life. He smites away the lower good in which we have rested that He may put us in possession of the higher good which otherwise we should not seek. Friends, health, property--these were the husks and props of our strength. They fall away, and we cry out in helpless desolateness; the good of our life has failed, its pleasant things are laid waste. “ What good shall my life do me?” Nay, but these simply hindered and concealed our real life; they are but as the fleshly Christ; they perish, and we are thrown upon more spiritual things; we develop into a nobler life. 6. The crowning illustration is the life that comes through death. How we weep over our dead, “ Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother would not have died” ! True, but neither would he have been raised from the dead. Our dead friends are more to us than when they lived; not more to the sense, but more to the soul. (H. Allon, D. D.) The empty tomb 1. On Easter Day the tears of Mary Magdalene are at first sight inappropriate. They seem to check the flow of joy which is the privilege of the festival. They recall the sadness of the Passion, of the Burial. And yet they do not appear here without good reason. It is impossible to surrender ourselves unreservedly to one mood of feeling. No earthly sorrow is unrelieved by some ray of brightness, no joy is without the shadow of some grief. It might seem that we require the foil if we are to do justice to the feeling of the moment; just as a landscape which is relieved by the alternate play of light and shadow is more welcome than that which lies under the uniformly splendid but oppressive glare of a southern sun. 2. Tears, they say, are wont to be unreasonable, but Mary Magdalene knew the reason of hers. They evidence I. MARY’ S LOW. 1. She arrived at the sepulchre alone and first of all. As we learn from the other Gospels, she was one of a company of women; but just as later on “ John did outrun Peter,” so there is reason to think it had been with Mary Magdalene. Her more ardent love was impatient of the measured pace of others. Mary, then, must not be merged in the company. Her relation to the Resurrection is all her own. “ She loved much.” And in this there is reason. For what is rightly-regulated love but moral power of the highest order? As St. Paul puts it, “ The love of Christ constraineth us.” Love is the very muscle and fibre of moral force. 2. All this may seem commonplace; but it requires to be reasserted. The moral power of love for goodness, for humankind, for right as against wrong, for truth as against error, is sometimes discredited by being labelled with a new name. “ Beware,” men say, “ of being led by emotion. Emotion is for women, the unthinking, the young; it deserves no recognition in the life of a man, since he should be swayed only by reason.” Here observe, first of all, an unwarrantable assumption, namely, that emotion is another name for love. Emotion may be vulgar passion and violent hate; ay, though they pose in the garb of the most unimpassioned philosophy. And emotion is by no means always power. It may be as unfruitful as any speculation. But love, the concentration of purified desire upon an infinitely noble object, moves and constrains all the resources and faculties of man. And, therefore, love, so far from being the monopoly of women or children, is the very grace of manliness; it kindles reason itself into activity; it gives nerve and impulse to will. Woe to the man who is without love; woe to him, above all, if he glories in his moral poverty 1 He will never achieve anything solid or great. It is love--now as in the days of Mary Magdalene--which conquers difficulty and outlives disappointment. II. MARY’ S . 1. Mere curiosity would have been tranquil where Mary is in agony. There is no reason for thinking that she believed more than the apostles. At that time they expected to find Jesus in His grave; and so did she. The past was tragic, irretrievable failure; so she thought. But in His dear body there was a centre.point for love. Nothing else was left. This she would honour. She did not care to look forward. For the moment this was enough; it was her all And then she came, early in the morning, and found Him gone. It was dreadful. She could bear the Crucifixion better than this. For the moment it was the ruin of the little that was left to love. 2. If you say that all this is unreasonable, you know little of true affection. Certainly love seeks its object; but if its object be out of reach, then it seeks anything which suggests that object. A picture, handwriting, a bit of old furniture--almost anything--is enough for love. The objects upon which it fixes are, to other states of feeling, matters of indifference; but to love they are everything. So it was with Mary. We can imagine what comment her tears would have provoked from some well-to-do Scribe or Pharisee. Why should a Jewish girl thus care to haunt the precincts of the dead in the early morning? Why should she trouble herself if the grave had been rifled? Surely there were objects nearer home with greater claims upon her sympathies! Let her rid herself of this sentimentalism! But what would it have mattered, did she know it, to Mary Magdalene? Love is supremely indifferent to criticism. It has eyes and ears for one object only. Mary was at that very time gazing on an angelic form, but this was as nothing Do not try to measure the movements of a soul on fire by the stilted rules of your artificial society, which can create and understand anything better than an unselfish love. Let her cry on bitterly, as she stands there; for she heeds you not. Have the grace to let her cry awhile, and then consider if her tears and her love have not that in them from which you may learn something. III. MARY’ S . She does not mean to sit down and wring her hands, and cease to inquire and to hope. No; He must be somewhere; perhaps she has a dim hope that He has not been taken away by human hands after all. Anyhow she will cross-question any one that she meets, whether it be an angel or a gardener, till she knows the truth. The disappointment does not overmaster her love. It was said of English soldiers by a foreign commander, when recalling his own experience, that they did not know when they were beaten. And so Christian hope refuses to believe that it is ever beaten. It is to tempers of this kind that Jesus ever reveals Himself: it is the hopeful who in fact succeed. In Mary Magdalene that old promise was made good: “ They that seek Me early shall find Me.” He whom she had sought in the tomb was alive before her eyes; and her joy was fulfilled. Conclusion: Mary, weeping before the empty tomb, reappears in each generation of Christians. She is the type of those who have a genuine love of religion, but who, from whatever cause and in various ways, are for a time, at any rate, disappointed. Take the case of a person who has for some years paid scant attention to religious matters. He may not have broken God’ s law in any very flagrant way; but he has lost sight of God. Still he remembers something of what he learned from his mother; something of his early prayers; something of his Bible. And as he knows that the years are passing quickly, and that he must die, he trusts himself to the guidance of those memories of the past. He sets out--it is a painful and a creditable effort--to visit the sepulchre of his early life as a Christian. There he trusts to find again the reality of religious faith; there he seeks the body of the Lord Jesus; but, like Mary, perchance, he finds the body of Jesus gone. He remembers how he used to think about sacred subjects; but somehow his old thoughts will not recur to him. He cannot recognize the accustomed haunts of his spirit; the old phrases of thirty years ago are no longer to him what they were. He opens his Bible; but, alas! it is interesting to him only as literature. He tries to pray; and prayer is to him only like poetry, an exercise which warms the soul; he approaches the Holy Communion, but here again he finds only a symbolical ceremony which recalls the dead past. Everywhere he sees traces of the old presence which haunt his memory--the napkin and the linen clothes; and he murmurs sadly that something has taken away the Lord. Is it not possible that he is repeating the very intelligible mistake of Mary Magdalene? Is he not forgetting the meaning of the lapse of time? She knew not that there are hours, in the life of souls, which may count for centuries, and that she had been living through such hours as these. She did not bethink herself that her Saviour might be preserved to her, not in the tomb where they laid Him, but under new conditions. Had Mary remained at the sepulchre, from the burial onwards, she must have witnessed the Resurrection. As it was, she had been absent. She has lost the thread of continuity. In time she found that her Lord was there, as before, but in the garden, not in the grave. Nor need it be otherwise with such a case as I am considering. Believe it, the old truth is what it was. But a generation has passed since you were a boy; and a generation counts for much in a busy age like this. What wonder if some of those associations of a boyish mind have been disturbed; if some misapprehensions have been corrected; if the relations between different fields of thought have been made clearer--during the interval? What wonder if some of this activity has resulted in what looks like dislocation or destruction, and caused perplexity? Depend on it, the body of Jesus is not lost. Do not despair because you find it no longer amid the old conditions, the grave-clothes, &c., of a bygone time. Distinguish between the Unchanging, Indestructible Object of the religious life of the soul of man, and the ever-shifting moods of human thought and feeling that circle round Him, as the ages pass. Be as patient and hopeful as Mary, and your share in Mary’ s tears will surely be followed by Mary’ s joy. You will recover for your Bible, prayers, communions, much more than their old meaning. You will have exchanged Jesus in the tomb for Jesus in the garden; the religious thoughts and resolves of a boy for the religious horizons and aspirations of a ripened manhood. (Canon Liddon.) A lost Christ: Mary’ s grief indicated I. LOSS. 1. We see this in her early visit, her lingering, and the words in which she expressed her sorrow. She had been tied to Christ by gratitude for a great service, and had been always ready to minister to His needs. All this had awakened a feeling of special possession. 2. We whom Christ has delivered from the thraldom of sin should, like her, cherish towards Him heartfelt devotion. The best company, even that of angels, would not compensate for the loss of Christ. II. . She could hardly have missed hearing Him refer to His resurrection. But memory failed her, as it did the apostles. Our grief often originates from or is intensified by our forgetfulness of Christ’ s promises. There is not a condition for which we cannot find some consolation in God’ s Word. III. . Whom did she mean by “ They” ? Foes? Joseph? the disciples? Perhaps she had no definite ideas. Somebody had removed the body; but she never thought Christ Himself. So, too, our impulsiveness often lands us in wrong conclusions. (F. J. Austin.) The lost Christ: There was a famous preacher in the last century whose sermons, though full of ingenious reasoning and brilliant rhetoric, were empty of Christ. One morning after service a poor old mother was seen to stand alone, outside, weeping still tears. On being asked her trouble, she said, “ They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.’ Without Christ in the service of the sanctuary, music, eloquence, the most imposing ritual, is empty; a full church is an empty church; the most magnificent temple is only an empty tomb. (C. Stanford, D. D.) John 20:14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back.Why? Simply because she had now no care about glimpses of a mere heaven--felt no interest in the discourse of mere angels, but only longed to have her grief out uninterruptedly? Perhaps. But some of the earliest teachers of the Church thought that it was because at this point of the dialogue she saw a new expression rise on the faces of the two shining ones, as if suddenly looking at some august appearance dawning behind her. This explanation is more fascinating, and not less likely to be true; but we cannot know: we only know that she turned--perhaps turned mechanically, turned without interest or expectation. (C. Stanford, D. D.) John 20:15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? The risen Christ and the Magdalene I. HOW JESUS WAS HIDDEN FROM MARY. There are times when friends are unrecognized because of mental absorption or because of our belief that they are elsewhere, or because of a supposed moral impossibility that they should be there. 1. Mary was under the influence of unfavourable associations. (1) She had passed the interval doubtless with the disciples occupied with preparations for the completion of the embalmment. Her thoughts, therefore, were about the tomb in which the joy of her life seemed buried, and her companions would not exert any counteracting influence. The best answer to the calumny that they invented or dreamed the Resurrection is that they were all so unprepared for it. While the Lord was with them, disease and death fleeing at His presence, they could not believe that He would die. Now that He had died they forgot all His assurances that He would live again. It is not surprising, then, if Mary, drawn into the current of their unbelief and despair, should have her vision now dimmed. (2) In our own daily life, are we not continually drawn away into modes of thinking and feeling which operate to hide Christ from us? Modern teaching and example tend to weaken the realizing power of faith. Numbers tell us that our own wisdom and strength are sufficient to find the blessed life; that sin needs no cleansing in Christ’ s blood, and the heart no quickening by His love. Then there is the spirit of unconfessed doubt, more deadly than antagonism to trust in Christ, and indifference, which is more deadly still. All this helps to blind the spiritual vision. 2. Closely connected was Mary’ s false notion of Jesus. He was, despite His own promise, a dead Jesus to her. And so false thoughts of Him are largely the cause of unbelief and hatred on the one hand, and of doubt and hesitation on the other. Men are thinking of another Christ than He who came that we might have life--of the Christ as churches have often made Him--the Christ of creeds and systems, of the dead letter rather than of the living Spirit, of sect or school. And men’ s minds are so full of these representations that they do not know Him who is love. 3. Tears blinded Mary’ s eyes. So may sorrow, joy, excitement, dim ours. Our mistake may differ from hers. We may mistake the gardener for Christ. All do so who put priest, church, system, &c., in the place of Christ. II. JESUS AND SUBDUED MARY. He had but to turn His eye upon her, and address His gracious words to her; and then when her eyes were opened and her ears caught the sound of His voice there was no doubt or hesitation longer. 1. Here we see the marvellous personal attraction of Jesus. Again and again do we find friends and foes impressed by His aspect. In the synagogue at Nazareth; in the Temple before the accusers of the woman taken in adultery; in the garden when the soldiers fell to the ground. Is the power of His personal influence lost because He is no longer here as man with men? No; His dealings with Mary are a type of His dealings with us. 2. He manifests Himself everywhere to seeking souls. Why was Mary honoured to be the first! We might have thought His mother would have been selected, or John, or Peter. Christ blesses men not because of birth, or talent, or office, but according to the humility and earnestness with which they seek Him. 3. He revealed Himself in a personal call, and only as Mary heard and answered that call was her joy complete. And there are innumerable voices that come from Him to-day--voices of mercy or affliction; voices that waken to gratitude or melt to penitence; voices that startle in the ease of carnal security or that comfort in the hour of trouble; voices to break the stubborn heart or to revive the heart of the contrite one--and not one of them is without signification. (J. Guinness Rogers, B. A.) The Lord’ s question to Mary I. SOME OF THOSE TO WHOM THIS MAY BE STILL . 1. Those who have not yet found rest for their souls in God. If God be in the heart there are many ways m which men may enjoy Him; and, if God be absent, there are as many by which they may seek to fill up the vacant place--power, fame, pleasure, knowledge, and affection. For a while they aredeceived by the ardour of pursuit, or the first glow of possession. But there comes the death of their hope, their grief before its grave. And so, if their nature be of the common superficial kind, they begin the chase after new shadows. Or, if the nature be deeper, they turn in upon themselves to lament the vanity of human endeavour. And yet the Christ is near the place where they are groping among the ashes of buried hopes, which come to them to make them feel after and find Him. 2. Those who have had a deep sense of the soul’ s value, and of Christ as a Friend who could meet its need. But they seem to have lost Him. It may come in different ways; through a shaking of our faith in the Divine and eternal as real, or through a loss of our own personal hold of them, or, as often happens, through an intermingling of both. But, however it comes, those who feel it are of all men most miserable. The cause of the gospel was never so despaired of as in the hour of its birth, and this question is for the encouragement of those who are seeking Him whom they seem to have lost. 3. Some of those who know that they have not only a dead but a risen Lord. A little view of His greatness made one of His disciples say, “ Depart from me; for I am a sinful man,” and the sight of it, with the spiritual eye, filled the apostle with an eager longing--“ If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” II. THE ANSWER, WHICH IS IN THE FORM OF THE . It is composed of two parts; the first directs us inward to our own heart, with its want and sorrow, the other, outward to what is to meet and relieve it. Let us look at them, 1. It may be that speculative unbelief is troubling your soul. Observe, then, how in creation and man, there is an agreement between the need and cry, and the provision, e.g., seed and climate, eye and light, hunger and bread, thirst and water, the breathing frame and the vital air, and the manifold necessities and supplies which are like prayers and answers in every place and through all time. If it be so in the lower wants, shall it fail to approve itself in the higher? Shall God have regard to the animal necessities and turn a deaf ear to the cries of the soul? The ear which hears the young raven’ s cry cannot be deaf to the sobs and prayers of human hearts. And let us thank God that He has made the soul so that when it is truly wakened by Himself, none but Himself can satisfy its need. If there are such breathings of desire in human spirits there must be an object and end for them. The word is nigh thee, even in thy heart, and then the living Word Himself is near who answers it: “ Why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?” 2. But it may be that your trouble is that you feel unable to lay hold of Him. Then the question still comes with its own answer. Ask yourself of your pain, and see if there be not in Him the remedy you seek. Are you oppressed with the burden of guilt? Here is forgiveness from His hand in a way which should meet your heart’ s desire. Is life a battle to you, with daily cares, troubles, and temptations, others leaning on you, and you without strength? There is one who comes to help the fallen that they who wait upon Him may renew their strength. Is it that you feel the loneliness of life when lover and friend have been put far from you, and the world outside is bleak and bare? There Christ stands at the door and knocks--“ If any man open, I will come in.” 3. It is by putting such questions as these that we learn the fitness of God’ s answer to our heart’ s cry, and find it all in Jesus Christ. It is the way God Himself has taken in the Bible; for what is the Old Testament, with its utterances of want and longing desire, but a pressing of the question, Why weepest thou? and what is the New Testament but the unveiling of Him who answers the question, Whom seekest thou? And when He comes in person what is His earthly life but a touching of the deep chords of man’ s nature, that He may awaken him to a consciousness of his misery and sin, and then assure him of His power to save and satisfy? And what is this life but a questioning us of our heart-sores and losses, with strength and comfort interspersed like pledges which make us say, Lord, to whom but to Thee? in order that He may prepare us for the answer when the weeping of the night gives place to the joy of the morning? “ I will come and take you to Myself.” III. SOME THINGS WORTHY OF NOTICE IN THE WHICH . 1. That Christ reveals Himself to the heart before He discloses Himself to the eye. He stood at first beside Mary as a stranger, led her to review her past, and seek and find Him in her sorrow; and then He removed the cloud which had come between, and appeared as the risen Saviour. It is this method which explains to us the gloomy hours and long questionings of some who are seeking Him: “ Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!” We wonder that God does not show Himself and speak out. But He means to deepen the sense of need, and to make the revelation of Himself more blessed, “ Whom having not seen we love.” 2. That Christ makes Himself known in the way of duty. Some make comfort the guide of their spiritual life. But this recognition of Christ came to one who had no comfort, and who was scarcely seeking it. She came to Christ’ s grave because she could not stay away. Grief, loyalty, love, drew her there, and she had her reward. 3. Christ’ s way of revealing Himself. A human historian would have constructed a long speech, but Christ used a single word--so simple, so natural. It is like Him who has distilled His mercy into short Bible words--Immanuel, Jesus, Saviour, God is Love,--making it small that it may enter feeble hearts, as He makes the drops of water small to visit the blades of grass. The single word was a name. It spoke of personal knowledge and interest. We read that “ God counts the stars and calls them by their names;” but it is something greater in Him that He calls by name the children of men: “ Jacob whom I have chosen; the seed of Abraham my friend.” “ He called His own sheep by name.” It was at the name that she turned and knew Him. 4. In this way of recognition, we have a hint of how Christian fellowship shall be restored in the world beyond death? This great Friend, who carries all other true friendships in His heart, named Mary from beyond His grave, to bid us hope and trust that He will meet and name His friends on the heavenly threshold Christ surely first as well befits Him, but afterward they that are Christ’ s, and ours. (J. Ker, D. D.) A handkerchief 1. Woman has had many reasons for weeping since the fall. 2. Jesus went to His death amid weeping women, and on His rising He met a little company of them. 3. The first words of a risen Saviour are to a weeping woman. 4. He who was born of woman has come to dry up woman’ s tears. 5. Observe the wise method followed by the Divine Consoler. (1) Magdalene is to state the reason of her weeping. Often sorrow vanishes when it is defined. It is wise to chase away mystery and understand the real cause of grief. (2) He helps her also by coming nearer to her grief in the second question. She was seeking Him. He was Himself the answer to His own inquiries. 6. In all cases Jesus is the most suitable Comforter and comfort. Let us put this question in two ways. I. IS IT NATURAL SORROW? 1. Art thou bereaved? The risen Saviour comforts thee, for He (1) Assures thee of the resurrection of the departed. (2) Is with thee, thy living Helper. (3) Sympathizes with thee, for He once lost His friend Lazarus; yea, He Himself has died. 2. Are thy beloved ones sick? Sorrow not impatiently, for He (1) Lives to hear prayer for healing. (2) Waits to bless them if they are dying. 3. Art thou thyself sick? Be not impatient, for Jesus lives (1) To moderate thy pains. (2) To sustain thy heart under suffering. (3) To give life to thy body, as He has done to thy soul. 4. Art thou poor? Do not murmur, for He (1) Lives, and is rich. (2) Would have thee find thine all in Himself. (3) Will never leave thee nor forsake thee. 5. Art thou of a sorrowful spirit? Do not despond, but see (1) Where His sorrows have brought Him. (2) How He came to the sorrow, and how He cometh still. What He does in His consoling ministry, and imitate Him by cheering others. Thus thou shalt thyself be comforted. II. IS IT , SORROW? 1. Distinguish. See whether it be good or ill. Is it (1) Selfish? Be ashamed of it. (2) Rebellious? Repent of it. (3) Ignorant? Learn of Jesus, and so escape it. (4) Hopeless? Believe in God and hope ever. (5) Gracious? Then thank Him for it. 2. Declare. Tell Jesus all about it. (1) Is it sorrow for others? He weeps with thee. (a) Are loved ones abiding in sin? (b) Is the Church cold and dead? (2) Is it the sorrow of a seeking saint? He meets thee. (a) Dost thou miss His presence? (b) Hast thou grieved His Holy Spirit? (c) Canst thou not attain to holiness? (d) Canst thou not serve Him as much as thou desirest? (e) Do thy prayers appear to fail? (f) Does thine old nature rebel? (3) Is it the sorrow of one in doubt? He will strengthen thee. Come to Jesus as a sinner. (4) Is it the sorrow of a seeking sinner? He will receive thee. (a) Dost thou weep because of past sin? (b) Dost thou fear because of thine evil nature? (c) Art thou unable to understand the gospel? (d) Dost thou weep lest thou grow hardened again? (e) Dost thou mourn because thou canst not mourn? Conclusion: 1. He is before thee: believe in Him, and weeping will end. 2. He accepts thee: in Him thou hast all thou art seeking for. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Women and the Bible: A Hindoo woman said to a missionary, “ Surely your Bible was written by a woman.” “ Why?” “ Because it says so many kind things for women. Our pundits never refer to us but in reproach.” (C. H.Spurgeon.) Mission of sorrow: It is said that gardeners sometimes, when they would bring a rose to richer flowering, deprive it for a season of light and moisture. Silent and dark it stands, dropping one fading leaf after another, and seeming to go down patiently to death. But when every leaf is dropped, and the plant stands stripped to the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the buds, from which shall spring a tender foliage and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often, in celestial gardening, every leaf of earthly joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the soul. (Mrs. H. B. Stowe.) The living God the source of comfort: A prudent and pious lady observing her husband dejected by some misfortune which had befallen him, to such a degree that he could not sleep, pretended in the morning to be disconsolate herself, and gave way to lamentation and to tears. As she had spoken cheeringly to him the evening before, he was astonished and asked the cause of this sudden grief. Hesitating a little, she replied that she had been dreaming, and that it seemed to her that a messenger had come from heaven, and had brought the news that God was dead, and that all the angels were weeping. “ Foolish woman,” said the husband, “ you know right well that God cannot die!” “ Indeed,” said the wife; “ and if that be so certain, how comes it that you are now indulging your sorrow as immoderately, as if He really did no longer exist, or, at least, as if He were unable to set bounds to our affliction, or mitigate its severity, or convert it into a blessing? My dear husband, learn to trust Him and to sorrow like a Christian. Think of the old proverb, ‘ What need to grieve if God doth live?’” (J. L. Nye.) She, supposing Him to be the gardener Christ the gardener 1. It is not an unnatural supposition; Mary was mistaken here; but if we are under His Spirit’ s teaching we shall not make a mistake, for if we may truly sing, “ We are a garden walled around,” &c., that enclosure needs a gardener. 2. Neither is the figure unscriptural; for in one of His own parables our Lord makes Himself to be the Dresser of the vineyard. 3. If we would be supported by a type, our Lord takes the name of “ the Second Adam,” and the first Adam was a gardener. Thus also Solomon thought of Him when He described Him as going out with His beloved for the preservation of the garden, saying, “ Take us the foxes,” &c. “ Supposing Him to be the gardener,” we have here I. THE KEY TO MANY WONDERS in the garden of His Church. 1. That there should be a Church at all in the world; a garden blooming in the midst of this sterile waste. “ Ye are of God, little children, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one.” We understand its existence, “ supposing Him to be the gardener,” but nothing else can account for it. He can cause the fir tree to flourish instead of the thorn, and the myrtle instead of the briar. 2. That the Church should flourish in such a clime. This present evil world is very uncongenial to the growth of grace, and within are elements which tend to its own disorder and destruction if left alone; even as the garden has in its soil all the germs of a thicket of weeds. The continuance and prosperity of the Church can only be accounted for by “ supposing Him to be the gardener” Almighty strength and wisdom are put to the otherwise impossible work of sustaining a holy people among men. “ I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” 3. That ever we should have been placed among the plants of the Lord. How is it that we have been kept there, and borne with in our barrenness, when He might long ago have said, “ Cut it down: why cumbereth it the ground?” Who could have manifested such infinite patience? I know not, except upon this ground, “ supposing Him to be the gardener.” II. A SPUR TO MANY DUTIES. 1. Joy. Surely it must help every little plant to drink in the sunlight when it is whispered among the flowers that Jesus is the gardener. “ Supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will make the best of you. You cannot be in better hands. 2. Valuing the Lord’ s presence, and praying for it. We ought whenever the Sabbath morning dawns to pray our Well-beloved to come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits. It is our necessity that we have Christ with us, “ supposing Him to be the gardener” ; and it is our bliss that we have Christ walking between our beds and borders, watching every plant, training, maturing all. 3. Yield ourselves up entirely to Him. A plant does not know how it ought to be treated. Happiness lives next door to the spirit of complete acquiescence in the will of God, and it will be easy to exercise that when we suppose the Lord Jesus to be the gardener. 4. Bring forth fruit to Him. If Jesus is to bear the blame or the honour of what we produce, then let us use up every drop of sap and strain every fibre, that we may produce a fair reward for our Lord’ s travail. III. A RELIEF FROM . “ Supposing Him to be the gardener,” the Church enjoys a better oversight than mine; all must go well in the long run. He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep. A certain man of God in troublous times became quite unable to do his duty because he laid to heart so much the ills of the age. Then one said to him, “ Mr. Whitelock, are you the manager of the world?” No, he was not quite that. “ Did not God get on pretty well with it before you were born, and don’ t you think He will do very well with it when you are dead?” That reflection helped to relieve the good man’ s mind, and he went back to do his duty. While this relieves us of anxiety it makes labour for Christ very sweet. “ Supposing Him to be the gardener,” I am quite willing to work on a barren rock, or tie up an old withered bough, or dig a worthless sod; for, if it only pleases Jesus, the work is profitable to the last degree. 1. In dealing with the souls of men, we meet with cases which are extremely difficult. Some persons are so fearful that you do not know how to comfort them; others are so presumptuous that you hardly know how to help them; others so fickle that you cannot hold them. Some flowers puzzle the ordinary gardener: we meet with plants which are covered with prickles, and wound the hand that would help them. These strange growths would make a great muddle for you if you were the gardener; but “ supposing Him to be the gardener,” you can go to Him and say, “ Lord, I do not understand this singular creature. Oh, that Thou wouldest manage it, or tell me how.” 2. And then, again, plants will die down, and others must be put into their places, or the garden will grow bare; but we know not where to find them. We say, “ When yonder good man dies, who will succeed him?” Let us wait till he is gone and needs following. “ Supposing Him to be the gardener,” the Lord has other plants in reserve which you have not yet seen: the Lord will keep up the true apostolical succession till the day of His second advent. IV. A FROM MANY GLOOMY FEARS. I walked down a garden where all the path was strewn with leaves and broken branches and stones, and I saw the earth upon the flower-beds tossed about: all was in disorder. Had a dog been amusing himself? or had a mischievous child been at work? No; the gardener had been doing it for the good of the garden. It may be it has happened to some of you that you have been a good deal clipped lately. Well, if the Lord has done it our gloomy fears are idle. Supposing Him to be the gardener, then 1. The serpent will have a bad time of it. Supposing Adam to be the gardener, then the serpent gets in and mischief comes of it. So, if we are afraid that the devil should get in among us, let us be always in prayer, because Jesus can keep out the adversary. Other creatures intrude; caterpillars and all sorts of destroying creatures, How can we keep them out? There is no protection except one, “ supposing Him to be the gardener.” 2. What if roots of bitterness should spring up among us to trouble us? Who is to prevent this? Only the Lord Jesus by His Spirit. 3. Suppose the living waters of God’ s Spirit should not come to water the garden, what then? We cannot make them flow. All, but the Spirit of God will be in our garden, “ supposing our Lord to be the gardener.” The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. V. A WARNING FOR THE . 1. There are many to the Church what weeds are to a garden. Take heed; for one of these days, “ supposing Him to be the gardener,” “ every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” 2. Others are like the branches of the vine which bear no fruit. “ Supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will fulfil that sentence: “ Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away.” VI. A QUIETUS TO THOSE WHO 1. Certain of us have been made to suffer much physical pain; others have suffered heavy losses. Take the supposition of the text. The Lord has been pruning you sharply. Be quiet until you are able to say, “ The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,” &c. 2. Especially I speak to those who have suffered bereavement. The best rose in the garden is gone. The gardener came this way and gathered it. Dry your grief by “ supposing Him to be the gardener.” VII. AN OUTLOOK FOR THE HOPEFUL. “ Supposing Him to be the gardener,” then 1. Expect where He works the best possible prosperity. It is our unbelief that straitens God. 2. Expect Divine intercourse of unspeakable preciousness. When Adam was the gardener the Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day; and “ supposing Him to be the gardener,” then we shall have the Lord God dwelling among us. 3. Expect He will remove the whole of the garden upward with Himself to fairer skies; for He rose, and His people must rise with Him. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Christ the Gardener: If Creation itself was a mediatorial act; that “ God created all things by Jesus Christ” ; then Jesus is the true Gardener. 1. Every flower that blows was once a thought in the mind of my Saviour; and every wave of loveliness that charms me began in Him, passed on, at last reached my heart as its strand, and broke there. All the blooms of all the gardens owe their life to Him; and all the lights of science are hid in His “ treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He plants God’ s gardens, He waters them, He gives the increase. Flowers, like sweet wonders, blossoming in our hedge-rows; shy flowers that look out from the green darkness of a Devonshire lane; flowers that waver like a rich mist of beauty all round the shafts of the forest; flowers in every strip of moss that softens the wayside stone; flowers under every leaf you lift in some rustic tangle; flowers that tesselate every inch of the upland moor; small flowers such as those which only a magnifying glass can show; and great flowers crowning stalks thirty feet high; flowers that blaze mile after mile in the rolling prairie; flowers about which strange birds dart like live jewels in the tropical day; land-flowers that seem delicate as coloured light, and fine as woven air; sea-flowers, in gardens that lie like worlds of enchantment under the great southern oceans, on floors where no mortal can ever stand, but of the existence of which science is sure; “ Crimson weeds that spreading, flow, Or lie like pictures in the sand below,” in the pools left between sea-side boulders. All these are witnesses to Christ. Oh, yes, He is the Gardener--Gardener of the wild landscape, Gardener of the trees as well as of the flowers. Trees of the orchard, of the wood, of the stately forest, of the shadowed avenue, of every zone, are all of His plantation. And as I muse in the solitudes of nature on these aspects of His perfection, think of the infinite delight He must feel in creating flowers, and the tender kindness He shows in giving them; think of Him “ walking amidst the trees of the garden,” and think of Him for ever calling into life the million marvels of the green wilderness, I have larger and more exalted thoughts of the Saviour who “ wore the platted thorn” for me, and feel that these revelations of His glory enlighten and animate my faith. 2. But He cultivates other gardens than these. “ Devout Magdalene,” meditates Bishop Hall, “ thou art not much mistaken. As it was the trade of the first Adam to dress the garden, so it is the trade of the Second Adam to dress the garden of the Church. He digs up the soil by seasonable afflictions, He sows in it the seeds of His grace, He plants it with gracious motions, He waters it by His own Spirit, He weeds it by wholesome censures. Oh! blessed Saviour, what is it that Thou neglectest to do for this selected enclosure of Thy Church? As in some respect Thou art the True Vine, and Thy Father the Husbandman, so also in some other we are the vine, and Thou art the Gardener. Oh! be Thou such to me as Thou appearedst to Magdalene! Break up the fallows of my nature, implant me ever with Thy fresh grace, prune me with meet corrections, bedew me with the former and the latter rain; do what Thou wilt to make me fruitful.” (C. Stanford, D. D.) John 20:16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary Christ’ s salutation to the Christian No one ever used human language so eloquently as Jesus. Men have spoken with such arguments, rhetoric and passion, as to convince and move multitudes. But no one save Jesus could by simply saying, “ Follow Me,” draw any one from his trade, his home, and bind him in life-long devotion. What power in the look He, a helpless prisoner, cast upon His renegade disciple! But I suppose that this word “ Mary” surpassed all others 1. In what it revealed of Himself. Those lips were endowed with a new power, as there had passed upon them the change which had glorified His resurrection body. These bodies, as organs through which our souls express themselves, are like poor untuned instruments upon which one would play. It is only by study of the art and long practice that the most skilful can make them reproduce what is in the depths of the heart. But Christ’ s resurrection body was perfectly adapted to express all the emotions of His spirit. All the sentiment of His soul was doubtless put into the manner and tone with which He spake that word “ Mary.” There must have been a world of revelation and love in it; the infinite thought filling and flowing out from the human word more than the electric light radiates from the bulb of glass which encloses the spark. 2. Because of His choice of an auditor. The import of the occasion was so great, the moment when life and immorality were brought to light, that the earth might well have been assembled while the heavens bowed down to hear the first word of the risen Son of God. But Jesus chooses one auditor. And who is it? A king? A high priest? A prophet with intellect inspired to comprehend the grandeur of His tidings? No; but a simple woman. And why? Because she loved the Saviour most. Very deep the lesson we are to learn from this, that not to the most serviceable even, nor to the most spiritually learned, not to those who were appointed to the highest dignities in the Church by His own designation, the holy apostles, but to her who loved Him most, gave He the most resplendent honour of all. The blessing of Christ will most enwrap us as we come closest to Him. You will learn most of His truth as you give yourself up to feel His affection. I. WHAT IS THAT WORD WHICH OUR LORD CHOOSES THROUGH WHICH TO REVEAL HIMSELF? There was one word so immense in its meaning, so sacred, that the few would not venture even to pronounce it. How appropriate if those lips which are henceforth to pronounce from the throne of heaven the mandates of the universe had uttered that word in tones of thunder, “ I am God!” It would have been in keeping with the guard of angels and the magnitude of the event. But Jesus saith unto her, Mary. He called her name. His sense of His divinity and dominion is no greater than His love and sympathy for one sorrowing human being. “ I have called thee by name,” said God to the Old Testament people. Our Saviour emphasizes very beautifully the same truth. “ He called His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.” We cannot lose ourselves in the multitude of the world so as to escape His eye, nor in the multitude of His saints so as to have only a part of His gracious care. II. MARY , NOT ONLY HER OWN NAME, BUT THE VOICE THAT UTTERED IT. At first she did not see that it was Jesus. But the voice penetrated both Jesus’ disguise and her own blindness. That expressed more than the mere presence did. The call which He makes to the heart is beyond all the external evidence for His divinity and presence. A man may through ignorance be unable to answer infidel objections, and yet be unshaken because of the impression Christ has wrought upon his inner experience. What argument could have robbed the dying Wesley of the confidence he uttered, “ God is with me” ? How that word “ Mary” stirred the recollection of the disciple! He said it doubtless just as He used to say it. The word recalled His casting out the seven devils. Such the fulness with which our Saviour’ s call to us to-day is laden. It is a reminder of what He has always been to us. His watch over you began long ago. For you He died as truly as for Mary. And His providence and Spirit have hovered over you like the two wings of a mighty angel shadowing you as you have moved down the path of life. Do you remember what He was to you in the hour of your conversion? in the hour of sorrow? Try to think what you would be now had not His goodness kept or guided you. You were never such a friend to yourself as this unseen, mysterious companion has been to you. And as He calls each of us by name--the name mother’ s voice so fondly called in our childhood--the name by which dear ones will try in vain to call us back for one moment’ s recognition as our souls disappear through the death shades--He condenses into it all the love and good of past years. Our life-long, tried, infinite Friend calls us again. III. But it was not merely an old-time greeting Mary received. IT WAS A NEW AND . That salutation made real to her all she had ever dared to hope. With the other disciples she did once fondly dream that He who gave life to others would Himself always live. But how terrible the disappointment? But now her wildest dream is surpassed by the reality. Oh! if we could only realize what Christ means by His salutation today! Mass all the longings of your heart; they are nothing to be compared with the reality. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.) The power of the human voice and ear: The voice is an instrument more delicate than the finest organ or harp, and capable of expressing emotions more manifold and spiritual than these. The soul within is a player of marvellous subtlety that can so handle this Divine instrument as to translate into articulate sounds (of talk or music), and sometimes into a word, the thousand and one emotions of which the spirit is susceptible. Only one other phenomenon rivals these in strangeness, viz., the capacity which belongs to the intelligence that sits behind the ears of interpreting, with a speed surpassing thought and an accuracy excluding mistake, the thoughts and feelings that another has impressed upon these waves of sound. When Mary, wrapped in sorrow, heard the old voice speak, caught the undefinable “ something” that made that voice stand out from all others as pre-eminently dear to her heart, she comprehended the situation without further remark. No voice but one could say “ Mary” like that. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) She turned herself. We know from John 20:14 that Mary had already turned once from the grave when Jesus appeared behind her. Here again she “ turned herself.” Not recognizing the person who spoke to her, and thinking He had been the gardener, she partially turned away, as a woman naturally would from a strange man, and hardly looked at Him, while she spoke of taking the body away. But the moment the voice of Jesus sounded in her ears, she turned again directly to Him, and made some movement towards Him. Chrysostom says, “ It seems to me that after having said, ‘ Where hast thou laid Him?’ she turned to the angels to ask why they were astonished; and that then Christ, by calling her by name, turned her back to Himself from them, and revealed Himself by His voice.” (Bp. Ryle.) And saith unto Him, Rabboni.--This title existed in Jewish schools under a threefold form: Rab, master, the lowest degree of honour; Rabbi, my master, of higher dignity; Rabboni, my great master, the most honourable of all, publicly given to only seven persons, all of the school of Hillel, and of great eminence. (C. S. Robinson.) John 20:17-18 Jesus saith unto her, Touch Me not Touch not What a strange thing that both the old world and the new should have began with the same prohibition. (Dean Burgon.) Noli Me tangere: The lesson is to a soul brought into the conscious presence of the Lord. Oh, to be in that condition! Mary Magdalene had wept because of her Lord’ s absence, and longed to find Him; and now she has her desire: He stands before her. Oh, that we knew where, we might find Him (Job 23:3)! Her conduct in holding Him by the feet was natural, and yet it was forbidden by a higher wisdom than that of mortal men. I. THE CAUTION. “ Touch Me not.” 1. We may blunder even in our closest friendship, and need a prohibition. We have never need of greater caution than in our nearest approaches to God. Courtiers must be most careful in the throne-room. 2. We may carnalize the spiritual. This has ever been a tendency with even the best of the saints; and it has misled many in whom affection has been stronger than intellect. 3. We may seek most passionately what is by no means essential. The assurance of sense, by touch or otherwise: when the assurance of faith is far better, and quite sufficient. The detaining of one who has no intention of going. 4. We may crave what were better further on. When we are raised to eternal glory we shall be able to enjoy what now we must not ask. 5. We may be selfish in our enjoyments. Staying to contemplate alone by ourselves, when we ought rather to bless others by publishing the blessed 2 Kings 7:9). II. THE MISSION. “ Go to My brethren.” She would have preferred to stay, but Jesus bids her go. 1. This was better for her. Contemplation alone may degenerate into the sentimental, the sensuous, the impracticable. 2. This was better for them. They heard the best of news from the most trustworthy of informants. 3. This was unquestionably done by this holy woman. What she had seen she declared. What she had heard she told. Women are said to be communicative; and so there was wisdom in the choice. Women are affectionate, and so persuasive; and therefore fit to bear such a tender message as we have now to consider. III. THE TITLE. “ My brethren.” Our Lord, of design, chose this title to comfort His sorrowing ones. They had so acted as almost to cease to be His followers, disciples, or friends; but brotherhood is an abiding relationship. They were 1. His brethren, though He was about to ascend to His throne. He was still a man, though no more to suffer and die. He still represented them as their risen Head. He was still one with them in all His objects and prospects. 2. His brethren, though they had forsaken Him in His shame. Relationship abiding, for brotherhood cannot be broken. Relationship owned more than ever; since their sense of guilt made them afraid. He was a true Joseph to Genesis 45:4). Relationship dwelt upon, that they might be reassured. Never let us omit the tender sweetness of the gospel, its courtesies, benedictions, and love-words, such as the “ My brethren” of the text before us. If we leave out these precious words we shall mar the Master’ s message of grace. IV. THE TIDINGS. “ I ascend unto My Father, and your Father.” This message was meant to arouse and comfort them. 1. By the news of His departure they are to be aroused. 2. By the news of His ascension they are to be confirmed. 3. By His ascension to the common Father they are to be comforted with the prospect of coming there themselves. He is not going into an unknown country, but to His home and theirs (John 14:2). 4. By His ascent to God they are to be struck with solemn awe, and brought the more reverently to look for His presence among them. See how practical our Lord is, and how much He values the usefulness of His servants. Have we not somewhat to tell? Whether man or woman, tell the Lord’ s brethren what the Lord hath told to thee. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Noli Me tangere: Mary Magdalene, because she loved much, had this morning divers favours vouchsafed her. Now comes an unkind word and mars all. A cold salutation for an Easterday morning. A little before He asked why she wept? This is enough to set her on weeping afresh. For if she wept that others had taken away her Lord, much more now when her Lord takes away Himself. Christ came unknown, and then known; but, unknown, Christ proves better to her, for then He asked her kindly why she wept? but known, He grows strange to forbid her to touch. I. THE . 1. The thing forbidden. It is nothing to touch; and yet to touch Christ is not nothing. Many strove to touch Him, and there went virtue from Him even while He was mortal: but now He is immortal much more. That was not her case to draw ought from Him: it was for pure love. To love it is not enough to hear, or see; but to touch and take hold. The nearest union is per contactum. 2. The party. Not Christ. Why not Him? Christ was not wont to be so dainty. He suffered the rude multitude to throng and to thrust Him. Noli Me tangere would have done well on Good Friday. Why suffered He them then? why suffered He not her now? For all she had done and suffered one poor touch had been but an easy recompense. Of all other, this prohibition lay not against her: of all times, not at this. II. If we look at THE REASON shall we shall find it yet more strange--“ I am not yet ascended.” But when He was ascended, one would think, she should be further off still. Let us consult upon this prohibition. Noli Me tangere can rise but one of these ways. 1. On His part that was touched. “ Touch Me not,” you will hurt Me, or, I shall hurt you; I am fire, I shall scorch you: an edge tool, I shall wound you: pitch, I shall defile you: some contagious thing, I shall infect you. But Christ was not now in state to receive or do any hurt. 2. We resolve, then, it was notch Christ’ s part. He might be touched, and was by Thomas; but on hers she might not touch Him. (1) Chrysostom thinks it was to correct her want of due reverence. After her wonted fashion, she made toward Him; nor with that regard which His new glorified estate demanded. The touchstone of our touching Christ is with all regard and reverence that may be. Two causes of this. One, a defect in her judgment; the other, an excess in her affection. Christ’ s reason imports as much. You touch Me, not as if I were upon ascending, but as if to stay here still. Hence we learn, that when He sees we forget ourselves, Christ will take a little state upon Him; will not be saluted with Rabboni, but with some more seemly term. Thomas said, “ My Lord and my God.” It is no excuse to say all was out of love. Love, if it be right, doth nothing uncomely. And such love Christ loves. A strange kind of love, when, for very love to Christ, we care not how we carry ourselves towards Him. This may be said, she was not before so carried away with sorrow, but she was now as far gone in the other of joy: and so like enough to forget herself, as Peter on the Mount. He knew not what he said, nor she what she did. Out of which our lesson is, that in the sudden surprise of any passion no touching Christ then. Say she were unfit, yet all is not clear. For why then did others touch? Thomas with his faith in his fingers’ ends? They touched because they believed not; she touched not because she misbelieved. They touched that they might know He was risen: she touched not that she might know He was not so risen, as in former times she had known Him. If the text be against rudeness, to restrain it; then is it for reverence to enjoin it. (2) Gregory thinks it was to hasten the message, and that all was but to save time. As if He should have said, “ There is a matter in hand, would be done out of hand; and therefore for this time hands off.” And the reason will follow well so. “ You need not be so hasty, I am not yet ascended. You may do this at some other time.” To the disciples and to Christ no haste was too much; all delay too long. Yet a touch and away would not have taken up so much time. True, but He easily foresaw if He suffered her to touch that she would have taken hold too, not have let Him go. (3) Augustine thinks it was to wean her from all fleshly touching, and teach her a new and true touch. As if, till He were ascended, He would not be touched; and then He would. And there is reason for this sense. For the touch of His body, which she so much desired; that could last but forty days. Christ Himself touched upon this point in John 6:62. It was her error to be all for the corporeal presence; for the touch with the fingers. So were His disciples. From which they were now to be weaned. That if they had before known Christ, or touched Him after the flesh, yet now from henceforth they were to do so no more. Christ resolves the point. The flesh, the touching, the eating, profits nothing. The words He spake were spirit. So the touching, the eating, to be spiritual And Thomas, and Mary, or whosoever touched Him on earth, if they had not been more happy to touch Him with their faith, than with their fingers’ end, they had had no good by it at all. It was found better with it, to touch the hem of His garment, than without it, to touch any part of His body. Now, if faith be to touch, that will touch Him no less in heaven than here. (Bp. Andrewes.) Mary Magdalene and Thomas with the risen Christ I. WAS MARY DENIED AND THOMAS GRANTED, THE SAME FAVOUR? Then we should see in the case of Thomas a greater condescension to the doubts and fears of the human heart. Mary did not need proof; Thomas did. The clearing away of Thomas’ doubts strengthened the evidence of our Lord’ s resurrection. II. THERE WAS NO DENIAL OF FAVOUR TO MARY. In her case the arrested act was one of affection, and Jesus may be understood as reminding her that the hour for adoration has not yet come--“ For I am not yet ascended.” Nothing of that enters into the act of Thomas. His is not an act of worship, but of scrutiny. Mary is checked in worship; Thomas is permitted to touch, to obtain proof that it is indeed the Master. III. BUT WHY IS MARY’ S CHECKED? Because the Master has work for her to do. Our Lord really forbids not, but checks her reverential act; and His purpose is to transfer her attention to her mission. Even if Mary’ s act were merely one of personal affection, there would be only the more reason why duty should interrupt her demonstrations of regard. IV. MARY THOUGHT HE WAS COME BACK TO STAY. So He virtually says: Not so; “ I ascend.” Think of Me no more in the flesh; think of Me on the throne. For, while in one breath the Lord says, “ I am not yet ascended,” in the next He commands her to tell His brethren, “ I ascend unto My Father.” (The Study.) Christ and Mary I. IT WAS A REAL BODY THAT TO MARY. “ Touch Me not;” then it was possible to touch Him. Wisdom never tells us not to do what cannot be done. The voice she heard was not a dead voice; the form she saw was not a form that trembled in the twilight far within the tomb, but one that stood boldly forth in the clear, cheerful day outside. II. HERE WAS A GENTLE REPROOF, TO THE LACK OF IN MARY’ S FAITH. To her the supreme object of faith could be touched with fingers. She assumes that He has come back to the old scenes to be what He was before. She is content with this and with His unfinished work. The words of Jesus were to discipline and raise her faith, and to break to her the truth that He is no longer to be revealed under the forms of time, and in the world of sensation, but to the soul. That we may be helped to watch against this and avoid the tendency to make a fetish of Him who has now inaugurated the reign of the Spirit; and truly obey the ancient call of devotion, “ Lift up your hearts,” let us feel that Christ is still speaking to us, in His words to Mary. III. MARY HAD THIS CHECK, ALL THE MAY TOUCH HIM, NOW HE IS IN HEAVEN. The word “ yet” conveys this inference; and the next words, “ You are not to touch Me until I am gone; then you may.” “ When My earthly manifestation ends, your privilege of touching Me begins.” We actually have open to us a better and happier privilege than that which Mary thought the ultimatum of dignity and bliss. This true touch is essential to the true life. All knowledge, all sympathy is from touch; there is no food, no drink, no healing without touch. Sin is cured by the Saviour’ s touch; and this perpetual contact is the medium through which He sends into us the Divine electricity of power and holiness. Only a few could come in contact with a simple human presence at one time; but all, at one time, can touch that which is ascended for the very purpose that it may “ fill all things.” You may touch Him in the city, in the field, when going out, when coming in, when no eye can see, in the garret, in the cellar, in the deep mine, in mountain heights, in the turmoil of care, in atmospheres in which, without a miracle, no grace can live; and wherever He is thus touched, the manifold miracle of grace is wrought. IV. THIS MAY HAVE AN TO MARY NOT TO DELAY HER ERRAND TO THE . “ Do not linger. I am going, and will soon be gone. Go to My brethren. There is no time now for tender intimacies and protracted intercourse; I have this more important employment for you: you must make haste if you would give them fair notice.” So now, Christ is always calling us away from the passive to the active; from personal enjoyment to practical service. 1. “ Go.” In the history of the new life, Christ’ s first word is always, “ Come” ; His next, in some form or other, is always, “ Go.” 2. “ To My brethren.” (1) Why was this message not sent first to His mother? Through age after age the nations have called her “ Our Lady,” yet all through the forty days she is passed by in the narrative like one forgotten. This is an inexplicable blank, unless we understand that, foreknowing the idolatry of Mary, it was thus divinely arranged. (2) Why were not the rejecters of Christ first informed of His resurrection? “ Why not go first to the Scribes and Pharisees, &c., and those who complain that they want evidence?” Because of this principle: “ Whosoever hath, to him shall be given,” &c.; because, “ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,” &c. 3. “ My brethren.” He had never so called them before, yet they never seemed to be so unworthy. He might have said, “ Go, tell swearing Peter, dull Philip, doubting Thomas, cautious Nathanael,” &c. Had they heard of the Resurrection thus, the news might have almost killed them; and they might have said, “ He is risen to smite us.” But, as if to prevent this, the despatch is addressed to His “ brethren.” Grand instance this of the truth that He “ is not ashamed to call us brethren.” Take fresh heart at the thought of it, and learn that it is not in the power of infirmity to unbrother us. (C. Stanford, D. D.) But go tell My brethren Christ’ s work in heaven and ours on earth 1. Christ’ s words were addressed to Mary’ s thoughts, which was, “ Now all is fulfilled. He has returned from the Father; He is going to take us to His kingdom, and we shall be for ever with Him.” “ Not so,” replies our Lord, “ I have more work to do, and so have you.” 2. There is a remarkable difference between Mary’ s case and that of Thomas. She believed too much; he too little. Her eager faith is corrected by the “ Touch Me not, but go” ; his unbelief is removed by “ Come, reach hither thy hand.” Man would have said to faith, “ Touch me” ; to unbelief, “ Touch me not.” I. CHRIST’ S WORK. He has gone--1. To get the Spirit for us. Now He has received the promise of the Father--“ Gifts for men.” 2. To intercede for us. 3. To prepare a place for us. 4. To give repentance and forgiveness. Thus He cautions us--“ Be calm and patient; I have gone to do My work. It must be done, and then no more delay.” II. OUR WORK. Mary had something else to do than touch and enjoy; so have we--work. 1. For ourselves. “ Follow Me,” “ Take up your cross,” “ Let your light shine,” “ Grow in grace.” 2. For the Church. We are members one of another to “ bear one another’ s burdens,” &c. 3. For the world--to pray for it, preach to it, save it. How long Christ’ s work will last we know not, but ours will soon be done. Therefore, “ Whatsoever thy hand,” &c. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Christ teaching us how to think about Himself: We are taught to think of I. THE AND OF HIS LOW. “ My brethren” was applied 1. To those who had recently acted in a cowardly and cruel manner. 2. To those whose state of mind was most dishonouring to Himself Mark 16:10-15; Luke 24:11-21). 3. In the most momentous crisis in His history. 4. Without the slightest hint of their unworthy conduct. II. THE OF HIS EARTHLY WORK--“ I ascend.” As the farmer leaves the field when it has been cultivated, awaiting the results of his toil in the harvest; as the mariner leaps on shore when the voyage is over; as the warrior returns home when the victory is won; so our Lord turned His attention to heaven immediately on the conclusion of His work on earth, where He had been an exile. 1. In His life He had presented a perfect example of what men should be. 2. In His person and works He had supplied the most advanced revelation of God. 3. In His death He had atoned for the sins of the world, and laid the basis for a universal offer of pardon and eternal life. 4. In His resurrection He had given a pledge that His people should rise and that the last enemy should be destroyed. And now He turns His thoughts homeward. III. THE POWER AND ON WHICH HE HAS ENTERED. 1. His personal rest and honour. “ Ascend.” What a contrast to His descent John 17:15). 2. The fulfilment of His promise respecting the Spirit (John 14:25-26; John 15:26-27). 3. His prevalent intercession (Hebrews 2:9-11; Hebrews 7:24-28). 4. His unlimited authority and power to promote our interests. “ Lo, I am with you alway” ; “ The Lord stood by me.” 5. The certainty of His final recompense in the conquest of the world. “ He must reign.” 6. His return to receive us unto Himself. IV. THE ONENESS BETWEEN HIMSELF AND HIS PEOPLE. “ My Father,” &c. Suggestive of mutual 1. Relationship. 2. Resemblance. 3. Interests. 4. Possessions. 5. Prospects. (J. Bowery.) Christ’ s message to His brethren I. THE PARTIES. “ My brethren.” Here is nothing that savours of any displeasure of remembering any old grudge, or of pride. The term “ brethren” implies 1. Identity of nature. Then if He rose as man, man also may rise; if the nature be risen, the persons in it may. In the first Adam our nature died, in the Second our nature is risen. 2. Risen with the same love and affection He had before, or if changed changed for the better. Before He said, “ My friends.” Here, “ My brethren.” II. THE . The fathers say that by this word she was by Christ made an apostle. Nay, an apostle to the apostles. 1. An apostle: for what lacks she? (1) Sent immediately from Christ. (2) Sent to declare. (3) Sent to make known Christ’ s ascending, the very Gospel of the gospel. 2. This day, with Christ’ s rising, begins the gospel; not before. Crucified, dead and buried, no good news in themselves. Them the Jews believe as well as we. At her hands the apostles themselves received these glad tidings first, and from them we all. 3. Which, as it was a special honour, so was it not without some kind of reproach to them for sitting at home. Christ is fain to seek Him a new apostle. 4. And by this the amends is made her for Noli Me tangere. For to be thus the messenger of so blessed tidings is a more special favour than if she had touched Christ. Christ would never have enjoined her to leave the better to take the worse. So that hence we infer that to go and carry comfort to them that need it, to tell them of Christ’ s rising that do not know it, is better then to do nothing but touch Christ. Touching Christ gives place to teaching Christ. How well this agrees with her offer in John 20:15 : “ You that would take and carry Me, being dead, go take and carry Me now alive.” It shall be a carrying in a better sense. Stand not here then touching Me; go and touch them, and with the very touch of this report you shall work in them a resurrection from a doleful and dead to a cheerful and lively estate. III. THE MOTION. 1. “ Tell them that I ascend.” Why not rather “ I am risen” (more proper for this day)? Because He needs not tell her that. She could tell that of herself. And besides, I ascend implies as much. Till He be risen, ascend He cannot. But as she saw by His rising that He had the keys of hell and death, had unlocked those doors and come out from thence, so by ascend He tells her that He hath the keys of heaven’ s gates also, which He would now unlock, and so set open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 2. To show us what was the end of His rising. Christ did not rise, to rise; no more must we. Christ rose to ascend; so are we to do. To rise from the bottom of the grave to the brink of it, and stand on the grave-stone, is but half a rising. To rise up as high as heaven, that is to rise indeed; that is Christ’ s rising, and that to be ours. As there was no gospel till the Resurrection, so the Resurrection is no gospel unless “ ascend” follow it. Resurrexit, tell that to all the world--all that die in Adam shall rise in Christ: miscreants, Jews, Turks, and all. No gospel that, properly. Tell the Christian of ascendo, too, the resurrection to life and not to condemnation. Better lie still in our graves, than rise, and rising not to ascend. 3. He saw upon these tidings they would say, “ He risen, then shall we have His company again as heretofore.” But by sending them word of His ascending He gives them warning that He rose not to make any abode with them. This He knew would be a hard lesson. They were still and ever addicted to His bodily being with them. They would have built Him a tabernacle here. To rid them of this error He shows them thus, that for Him to be here below on earth that is not it; but for them to be with Him there above in heaven that is it. Thither would He raise them and us with this His ascendo. 4. So then seeing Christ stayed not here, we are not to set up our stay here; not to make earth our heaven. IV. TO MY FATHER. Every motion hath a whence and a whither. To ascend is, to Christ, His natural motion; heaven is His natural place. His work being done. And “ to My Father” no less (chap. 14:28). But to go from them is no good news. It was like “ touch Me not” to Mary. What then is their comfort or ours? In this, “ To your Father” as well as Mine. And He doth express here the whither by the party to whom, rather than by the place to which, because the party will soon bring us to the place, and to somewhat besides. So we have good right to make His Father ours, and His Father’ s house ours, that there we may dwell together fratres in unum. There be of the Father’ s that make these words as so many steps of Jacob’ s ladder, which we are to ascend by, or so many wheels as it were of Elias’ s chariot, in which he was carried up to heaven. There lie before us four pairs or combinations by which ascendo is drawn in the text. 1. Father and God, instead of “ the Lord God” of the law. Father is a name of much good will, but many a good father wants good means to his good will. God is added that He may not be defective that way. 2. His, ours; and ours His, interchangeably. A blessed change: His great Meum for our little vestrum, little ours for great His. As there is no comfort in heaven without God, nor in God, without a Father, so is there not any either in Father, heaven, or God without ours to give us a property in them. 3. “ My Father” will do us no good. That which must do us the good is “ your Father,” and we need no more (John 14:8). But how should Hisbe ours? 4. This leads us to the last combination, “ My God and yours.” For that His Father may be our Father, no remedy but our God must first be His. (1) His Father, as God; His God, as Man. As the Son of God, a God He hath not; a Father He hath: as the Son of Man, a Father He hath not; a God He hath. (2) But now, how shall we get His Father to have Him to be our Father? First, His Father He was from all eternity; He only can say properly, patrem meum. But He is content to quit that and to take us in; and He being our Brother before to make us His now. For upon His ascending He adopts us, and by adopting makes us, and by making pronounces us His brethren, and so children to His Father. But, till then, a God we had, but not a Father; at least, not such a Father of Him as since we have. So we see the necessity of both these combinations. But we are not so to look to our own comfort, but that we preserve His honour. There is order taken for that by severing each pair--mine and yours; yet otherwise His and otherwise ours; both as Father and as God. As Father: His by nature, ours by grace. As God: our God by nature. His no otherwise, then as He took upon Him our nature. (Bp. Andrewes.) The brother-hood of Christ I. TO WHOM IS CHRIST A BROTHER. 1. To the apostles and their associates. 2. To all who do God’ s will (Matthew 12:46-50). 3. To all who are undergoing sanctification (Hebrews 2:11). II. HOW DOES HE FEEL TOWARDS HIS ? 1. He is not ashamed to own the relationship (Hebrews 2:11). 2. He sympathizes with them and loves them (Hebrews 2:17). 3. He identifies Himself with them (Matthew 25:40). III. WHAT DO HIS DERIVE FROM HIS ? 1. Teaching (Hebrews 2:12). 2. Providential care (Matthew 25:40). 3. Consciousness of His sympathy, IV. LET US LEARN. 1. To establish this relationship by faith, love, obedience, growth. 2. To appreciate it with the honour, and help it brings. 3. To extend it to others by leading them to salvation. 4. If we are faithful we shall live with our Eider Brother for ever. (J. T.Whiteley.) I ascend unto My Father The ascension of our Saviour I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THE MESSAGE IS . 1. Why not the Scribes and Pharisees, &c., and render His resurrection undeniable? Because--“ Whosoever hath to him shall be given,” &c. He never refused explanation to any humble inquirer--but He will not force information upon those that “ hated knowledge.” To what purpose is it to adduce evidence to those that shut their eyes? They knew the report of the guards. But His own followers only laboured under infirmities. They wished to be established in the truth. These He calls--“ My brethren.” This is more than He could have said of angels. He is only their Lord. “ It behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren,” &c. Many an elder brother has stood between the affections of the father and the rest of the children, and by engrossing the whole of the inheritance has reduced the younger branches to dependence, if not to want; but Jesus pitied those who were less happy than Himself, and determined to make them partakers of all His honours and riches. Thus they are “ heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” By using this name He would 1. Show that His elevation had not made Him forgetful of those He was to leave behind. 2. Comfort them. They had acted a very unworthy part, and their consciences made them uneasy. By this He seems to call after them, and say, “ Return, ye backsliding children.” Thus He dispels their anxiety, and fills them with hope. And thus He realizes His illustrious type. 3. Intimate their duty? “ Since I do not disown you, notwithstanding your imperfections--follow My example; love as brethren.” II. THE OF THE . This ascension was real and local. Let us consider it in reference to 1. Himself. (1) He returned to the place whence He came, and assumed the glory which He obscured. (2) To enjoy the reward of His humiliation and sufferings. 2. His enemies. (1) Thus He is a Conqueror. He had foes, but He vanquished them; “ and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly.” Sin, the devil, the world, death--these are the enemies He has overcome. And to-day He enjoys His triumph. “ Lift up your heads, O ye gates,” &c. (2) But as He triumphs, He also bestows upon us various and inestimable blessings--“ gave gifts unto men.” 3. His people. (1) He ascended as the High Priest of their profession. (2) As their Head and Representative. (3) As their Protector and Governor. Conclusion: And now what remains but that we translate this article of our creed into our lives. 1. Follow Him where He now is. “ If ye then be risen with Christ,” &c., why then are you so attached to earth? Why seek ye the living among the dead? 2. “ Seeing that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.” 3. What encouragement can you want to rejoice in Him? You have a Brother at court. 4. “ But where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (W. Jay.) Christ’ s interview with Mary at the sepulchre: Nothing is more grand, more precious, than the news to be announced to them. “ I ascend to My Father,” He who is so by nature; “ and to their Father,” by adoption and grace; “ to My God,” in covenant with Me as their Head, and “ to their God,” in covenant with them through Me and under Me. Words which at once show the triumph of Jesus Christ and the triumph of the Christian. Let us illustrate these two ideas. I. IT WAS THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS CHRIST, AND THE SCANDAL OF THE CROSS. “ If thou be the Son of God,” said the blinded Jews when insulting Him, “ come down from the cross.” Jesus did more--He came alive from the tomb; and this miracle of Divine power is only the first step of that elevation into which He is entering. “ Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and unto My God and your God.” This is, then, the triumph of Christ. II. IT IS A SOURCE OF THE RICHEST AND TRUST TO ALL . “ I would wish this text,” says the excellent Baxter, “ written on my dying bed; I would wish to view it with my closing eyes, that I might exult in the agonies of dissolution.” All! Christians, never forget it! And let it also be your rule in all your conduct; your consolation in your trials; your trust in the most disastrous situations. 1. If the Father of Jesus Christ is your Father and your God, always listen with docility to a voice at once so august and tender; follow the glorious example of the “ first-born among many brethren.” 2. If the Father of Jesus Christ is your Father and your God, submit with an entire resignation to all the dispensations of Providence, as Jesus submitted to them. 3. If the Father of Jesus Christ is your God and Father, then let this tender assurance augment your faith, your love, your detachment from the world. (H. Kollock, D. D.) John 20:19-23 Then the same day at evening The first Lord’ s Day evening I. THE ANXIOUS COMPANY. The twelve, with the exception of Judas and Thomas, were gathered and kept together by a community of interest in Christ. They betook themselves to retirement from lack of sympathy from without, and from fear of the Jews. There was excitement among them by reports of the Resurrection. II. THE DIVINE VISITOR. His appearance was 1. Miraculous. 2. Unexpected. 3. Welcome. His greeting touched the chords of memory. 4. Indubitable. “ He showed them His hands!” III. THE SUDDEN JOY (John 20:20). 1. Their suspense was at an end 2. Their fears dispelled. 3. Their dim hopes realized. 4. Their belief in His predictions established. 5. Their pleasure in His society renewed. 6. Their confidence in His Divine mission revived. IV. THE SACRED . Christ 1. More fully repeated His former language. 2. Instructed them to devote their life to the declaration of God’ s mind, and the publication of a gospel of pardon for guilty men. 3. Added dignity to their duty in comparing it to His own mission. 4. Imparted the necessary qualifications. Conclusion: It is Christ’ s presence that hallows every Lord’ s Day evening. 1. Giving Spiritual power to the preacher. 2. Imparting grace and blessing to the faithful hearer. (Prof. J. R. Thomson.) Jesus meeting His disciples after the Resurrection: Note here 1. The reality of Christ’ s sufferings, death, and resurrection. 2. The proof and attestation of His love. 3. The assurance that He is not ashamed of His humiliation and sufferings on our behalf. 4. The pledge of our resurrection. 5. The affecting circumstances of the history. I. THE EVENT ITSELF was memorable. Never was such known in the history of man. Jesus came back in fulfilment of His own prophecy, as an evidence of the acceptance of His atonement, as the conqueror of sin and death. II. THE TIME was memorable. The first day of the week, and the sun must not go down on that day before the Sun of Righteousness shines on the spirits of His dejected people. Thus our Lord puts peculiar honour on the day, and authorized the observance of it by His own example which has all the force of law. But the evening is specified. Why not the morning? Because they did not seek Him. The approach of Christ is often at our evening time--when the sun of hope and happiness is low and our comforters are few; when we least expect the aids of His providence, and are ready to say, “ Is His mercy clean gone for ever?” So in the time of His disciples’ despair He appeared. III. THE PLACE was memorable. Probably the scene of the Last Supper; to them like Bethel to Jacob, or the fig-tree to Nathanael. We are all affected by localities in which great blessings or deliverances have been experienced. IV. THEIR were memorable. 1. Personal revelation of Christ. 2. Peace. 3. Spiritual power. (T. H. Day.) The appearance to the second company I. THE MEMBERS of the second company. It has been almost invariably assumed from 1 Corinthians 15:5 that they were apostles only. But “ the twelve” is only a collective term. Just as the Roman magistrates, called the decemviri, were so called even though there might be vacancies in the body, so this term was applied to the apostles, though Judas was not counted, and Thomas was an absentee. And there is evidence to prove that the apostles did not alone consitute the assembly. Luke speaks of “ the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them” ; and it is also inevitable from the circumstances. If the brave women had come, expecting a calm retreat and a cordial welcome, would it be said to them from within, “ There is danger in the air; we have shut the door for fear of the Jews; besides, no one can join this company but apostles?” If James and Joses, Simon and Judas, the brothers of our Lord, had knocked at the door, would it have been said to them, “ No admission for any but apostles?” If Mark or Luke had whispered the password at the gate, would the answer have been, “ This is a meeting of apostles only?” Depend upon it, this company was not a row of ecclesiastical dignitaries, each with a nimbus round his head, and the embroidered symbols of his office on his shoulders; it was only a family, met at the time of a great sorrow, and in the common family room. There was no division between clerical and lay; no upper and lower apartments--one for apostles, one for ordinary disciples. II. THE FAST-CLOSED DOORS. Most likely this was at the house of John, the beloved disciple--that to which he had conveyed Mary. And we may assume that it was built in a style common to dwellings occupied by persons in fair circumstances. There would be a court open to the sky; and in the four sides of this court there would be rooms opening on to it. In this court the company would be assembled; and as its door was fastened by a great wooden key or iron bar, what did they fear? The bursting in of constables to arrest them on the lying charge of stealing a body out of its grave? They knew that such a charge had been lodged against them only that very day Did they fear the mob? It was the way of the Jews thus to storm the house of one who was unpopular (Acts 17:5); and they could now set no limit to the possibilities of their wicked madness. Perhaps they had no distinct plan of defence, and no particular thought of saving their lives; but mainly out of half-instinctive impulse, they barred the court gates. III. THE OF THE MASTER. His greeting to the first company had been, “ Rejoice!” To the second, “ Peace!” As Chrysostom says, “ To the women He proclaims joy; because they were plunged in grief. With a suitable interchange, therefore, He gives peace to the men, on account of their strife. The first was a small detachment of the general society, and consisted of women only. The second was the general society itself, including all the men.” The women had been true, and were only conscious of grief; the men had not been true, and, besides their grief, were conscious of deep agitation and burning shame. This message was meant for our one, whole family, not for apostles alone. When we are in trouble, none of us hesitate to take the comfort that breathes in the fourteenth and following chapters of this Gospel. While you read Christ’ s language after His resurrection, and compare it with those discourses, you say what He says now is but the continuation of what He said then. He said, “ My peace I leave with you” ; and now, having “ made peace by the blood of the Cross,” He comes in His own person to pay the legacy! When we see any one wearing the badge of the Cross, yet seeming not to know the secret of the peace that cost Christ the cross to obtain, how can this be accounted for, unless these Christians think that the peace is only figurative; or that they must be better Christians before they can presume to take it? We might say to such, “ You are indeed no better Christians than the men who once cowered behind the shut gates of a certain courtyard in old Jerusalem. Let each crying, “ God be merciful to me a sinner,” go and take this peace from the hand of the dear Christ. IV. THE BODY OF OUR LORD. 1. It was not an ordinary body, liable to ordinary laws; still, it was a body, perhaps, like that in which the Saviour had walked with Adam in Paradise, wrestled with Jacob, or reclined under the oak at Mamre. No stone wall could shut it in: no iron bar could keep it out; no law of gravitation could detain it; but it was a body. 2. It was flesh--“ All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, &c … for one star differeth from another star in glory.” This glory was the glory of the celestial; visible to mortals only by the light of miracle, and by an act of Divine prerogative. As Moses, with face of celestial flame, “ put a veil over his face,” that the children of Israel might converse with him, so did the King of Moses veil His glories so that the disciples might speak to Him and live. To show them that it was a true body, He even condescended to take food (Luke 24:43). 3. The very body that had been crucified. “ He showed them His hands and His feet.” Thus did He establish that fact of His resurrection on which the entire supernaturalism of our religion is decided, and on which all the work of the Atonement depends; while doing this He most emphatically and pathetically called their attention to the Atonement itself. V. THE GIVEN TO THE (verses 21-23). 1. The symbol. Both in Hebrew and Greek the word for breath is the word for spirit. The act of breathing here was an “ outward and visible sign” of the Holy Spirit, now to be given for the first time; not indeed as a Divine energy in the human heart, but as an energy working through the finished facts of the Gospel, and as the gift of Christ crucified: not to be given for the first time either, in the sense of being given then and there; but to be given for the first time in the dispensation which Christ was about formally to inaugurate. For the Son of God to promise a boon is potentially the same thing as for Him to give it. When we hear Him say that He will do a thing, our souls exclaim, “ It is done!” 2. The formula: “ Whosoever sins ye remit,” &c. What is the import of this? (1) Not the same as that of the great utterance first addressed to Peter, afterwards to the whole body of His colleagues (Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18). We are summoned to think, not of the power that can forbid or permit matters that have to do with the government of the Church, but of the question, When may sin be remitted? when retained? (2) Dr. John Owen says, “ Christ here speaks of remitting or retaining sins by declaring the doctrine of the gospel;” and this appears to be the true sense of this mysterious clause. God, by the voice of Christ, had already told the world whose sins He would remit, and whose retain. He who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is saved--that is, his sins are remitted; he who refuses to believe is condemned already--that is, his sins are retained. This arrangement of remedial grace is fixed and irrevocable, and no sentence pronounced by man, whatever his office in the Church may be, can in the slightest degree alter it, nullify it, or add to it. (3) This declarative mission is the mission of all disciples. It was given to all Christians as such--to ministers and people alike, while as yet they were undistinguished. Surely as Christ was sent by the Father to do what He still continues to do for you, so surely are you sent by Him to do this. Have we received the Holy Ghost? It is only as sharers in the life of our risen Lord that we are sent on His embassies. We must all take in, then give out, that life; tell only what we personally and vitally know; and speak, each according to the measure of His gift. The first thing wanted in the Church is more life; after that, and as the result of it, more work. There may be work without life. (C. Stanford, D. D.) Christ’ s appearance to His disciples (Text, and Luke 24:36-48) I. HE HIS BEING WEARY IN ORDER TO THEIR HEARTS. His benediction expressed 1. The great want of human nature, “ Peace.” The tumult of the disciples is typical of that of those who are at war with (1) Themselves. (2) Society. (3) The universe. 2. The great design of Christ’ s mission. He came to reconcile man to his Maker, to Himself, and to the Creation--to reproduce in humanity that supreme sympathy with God which is the essential and unfailing security of spiritual tranquility. II. HE TO THEIR REASON IN ORDER TO ALLAY THEIR FEAR. 1. Their fear implied their belief (1) In disembodied spirits. (2) In the possibility of disembodied spirits appearing to them. (3) In disembodied spirits being unfriendly to them. 2. In Christ’ s appeal (1) He assures them that spirits may exist apart from matter, and in this state appear to living men. (2) He demonstrates the materiality of His resurrection body. (3) He throws upon them an inquiry into the cause of their superstitious fear. Inquiry into our mental phenomena will soon expel superstition. III. HE GAVE THEM IN ORDER TO THEIR FAITH. “ While they believed not for joy” ; just as we say, “ the news is too good to be true.” Observe, in relation to the evidence He presents of His resurrection 1. Its nature. (1) A palpable exhibition of the reality of His body--He eats with them. (2) A clear showing that His resurrection answered the predictions of Scripture. “ All things must be fulfilled,” &c. 2. Its effect. “ Then opened He their understandings,” &c. IV. HE HIS SYSTEM IN ORDER TO THEIR DUTY. 1. The great doctrine of His system. “ Repentance and remission of sins.” 2. Its world-wide aspect--“ All nations” --not a sect or class. 3. The order of propagation, “ Beginning at Jerusalem.” V. HE ENDOWED THEM WITH POWER IN ORDER TO FIT THEM FOR THEIR WORK. 1. He performs a symbolical act. 2. He endows them with extraordinary authority. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The risen Jesus appearing to His disciples I. THE TIME WHEN HE . “ The same day at evening.” 1. Not till He had appeared before to others. Mary Magdalene had seen Him, and Peter and the Emmaus two. It is painful to be thus passed over; to know that He is lifting up the light of His countenance upon others, while we have no glimpse of it. We do not like an earthly friend to pass us by; much less the heavenly. 2. When they did not expect Him, surely they would have left the doors open. And often does He surprise His people. The heart is closed in despair against Him. But “ at evening time, it is light” ; when light is the last thing expected. Does not this call upon us to cultivate a waiting, expecting spirit. We must not think ourselves forgotten, our turn will come. 3. When they were talking together of Him. St. Luke tells us that “ Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them as they spoke; not prayed. What an honour was here put on Christian conversation and communion! And our own experience corresponds. When have our hearts been warmed in social converse, and left refreshed, and longing to see one another again? Has it not been when, forgetting a vexing world, we have spoken together of our blessed Master?” Where two or three are gathered together in My name,” &c. II. THE . We may regard it as 1. An indication of the peace that reigned within His own soul. We are most ready to speak of what our hearts are full. With distracted minds we are not likely to speak of peace, unless it be to deplore our want of it. 2. An assurance of His forgiveness. 3. An intimation of our Lord’ s power to communicate the peace it speaks of. Observe the action, “ He showed unto them His hands and His side.” suggesting that He had made peace for them through the blood of His cross. “ See here that the chastisement of your peace has been really on Me. I shall show this hand and this side to My Father on His throne, and claim peace for you.” III. THE EFFECT OF THIS AND --more than peace, it was gladness. Here is a striking fulfilment of that promise--“ Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” Their joy was connected with the sight of their Master. Nothing but this could comfort Mary. She goes from the garden to the disciples, and finds them absorbed in sorrow. She bears her testimony, but of what use is it? St. Mark says, “ They believed her not.” Not one word do we read of their joy till Jesus Himself came. “ Then were the disciples glad.” Now there is such a thing still as a sight of this risen Saviour. S Paul tells the Galatians who could never have beheld His face in the flesh, that “ before their eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified among them.” To see Christ, then, is to understand this gospel, to receive it of Christ and heartily believe it. Have you ever thus seen the Lord? Till you have thus seen Him, you will never be happy men. (C. Bradley, M. A.) The risen Lord’ s greetings and gifts (also Matthew 28:9) I. THEIR STRANGE AND . Think of what tremendous experiences He had passed through since they saw Him last, and of what a rush of rapture and disturbance of joy shook the minds of the disciples, and then estimate the calm and calming power of that matter-of-fact and simple greeting. They bear upon their very front the mark of truth. Would anybody have imagined the scene so? Neither the delicate pencil of the great dramatic genius nor the coarser brush of legend can have drawn such a trait in character as this, and it seems to me that the only reasonable explanation of it is that these greetings are what He really did say. He has come from that tremendous conflict, and He reappears, not flushed with triumph, nor bearing any trace of effort, but surrounded as by a nimbus with that strange tranquility which evermore enwrapped Him. So small does the awful scene which He has passed through seem to this Divine-human Man, and so utterly are the old ties and bonds unaffected by it, that when He meets them, all He has to say to them as His first greeting is, “ Peace be unto you!” --the well-worn salutation that was bandied to and fro in every market place and scene where men were wont to meet. Thus He vindicates the Divine tranquility of His nature; thus He minimizes the fact of death; thus He reduces it to its true insignificance as a parenthesis across which may pass unaffected all sweet familiarities and loving friendships. II. THE OF THE OF THE RISEN LORD. Whatsoever any community or individual has conceived as its highest ideal of blessedness and of good, that the risen Christ hath in His hands to bestow. He takes men’ s ideals of blessedness, and deepens and purifies and refines them. The Greek notion of joy, as the thing to be most wished for those dear to us, is but a shallow one. They had to learn, and their philosophy, and their poetry, and their art came to corruption because they would not learn that the corn of wheat must be cast into the ground and die before it could bring forth fruit. They knew little of the blessing and meaning of sorrow, and therefore the false glitter passed away, and the pursuit of the ideal became gross and foul and sensuous. And, on the other hand, the Jew, with his longing for peace, had an equally shallow and unworthy conception of what that meant, and what was needed to produce it. If he had only external concord with men, and a competency of outward good within his reach without too much trouble, he thought that because he “ had much goods laid up for many years” he might “ take his ease, and eat, and drink, and be merry.” But Jesus Christ comes to satisfy both aspirations by contradicting both, and to reveal to each how much deeper and diviner his desire was than he dreamed it to be; and therefore how impossible it was to find the joy that would last in the dancing fireflies of external satisfactions or the delights of art and beauty; and how impossible it was to find the repose that ennobled and was wedded to action in anything short of union with God. The Lord Christ comes out of the grave in which He lay for every man, and brings to each man’ s door, in a dialect intelligible to the man himself, the satisfaction of the single soul’ s aspirations and ideals, as well as of the national desires. III. THE OF THE LORD’ S . Look at these people to whom He spoke. Remember what they were between the Friday and the Sunday morning; utterly cowed and beaten. They were on the point of parting. The Keystone withdrawn, the stones were ready to fall apart. From that time, when, by all reasonable logic and common sense applied to men’ s motives, the Crucifixion should have crushed their dreams and dissolved their society, a precisely opposite effect ensues, and not only did the Church continue, but the men changed their characters, and became, somehow or other, full of these very two things which Christ wishes them, namely, joy and peace. Now I want to know--what bridges that gulf? How do you get the Peter of the Acts of the Apostles out of the Peter of the Gospels? Is there any way of explaining that revolution of character, whilst yet its broad outlines remain identical, which befell Him and all of them, except the old-fashioned one that the something which came in between was the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the consequent gift of joy and peace in Him, a joy that no troubles or persecutions could shake, a peace that no conflicts could for a moment disturb? In His right hand He carried peace, and in His left joy. He gave these to them, and therefore “ out of weakness they were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,” and when the time came, “ were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.” There is omnipotent efficacy in Christ’ s greetings! The one instance opens up the general law, that His wishes are gifts, that all His words are acts, that He speaks and it is done. Christ’ s wishes are omnipotent, ours are powerless. IV. OUR SHARE IN THIS TWOFOLD . When the women clung to His feet on that Easter morning they had no thought of anything but “ we clasp Thee again, O Soul of our souls.” But then, as time went on, the meaning and blessedness and far-reaching issues of the Resurrection became more plain to them. And I think we can see traces of the process in the development of Christian teaching as presented in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles. Now, in all three aspects--as proof of Messiahship, as the pattern and prophesy of immortality, and as the symbol of the better life which is accessible for us, here and now--the resurrection of Jesus Christ stands for us even more truly than for the rapturous women who caught His feet, or for the thankful men who looked upon Him in the upper chamber as the source of peace and of joy. For therein is set forth for us the Christ whose work is thereby declared to be finished and acceptable to God, and all sorrow of sin, all guilt, all disturbance of heart and mind by reason of evil passions and burning memories of former iniquity, and all disturbance of our concord with God, are at once and for ever swept away. Again, the resurrection of Jesus Christ sets Him forth before us as the pattern and the prophecy of immortal life. This Samson has taken the gates of the prison-house on His broad shoulders and carried them away, and now no man is kept imprisoned evermore in that darkness. Therefore the sorrows of death, for myself and for my dear ones, the agitation which it causes, and all the darkness into which we shrink from passing, are swept away when He comes forth from the grave, serene, radiant, and victorious, to die no more, but to dispense amongst us His peace and His joy. And, again, the risen Christ is the source of a new life drawn from Him and received into my heart by faith in His sacrifice and resurrection and glory. And if I have, deep-seated in my soul, though it may be in imperfect maturity, that life that is hid with Christ in God, an inward fountain of gladness, far beyond the effervescent, and therefore soon fiat, waters of Greek or earthly joy, is mine; and in my inmost being dwells a depth of calm peace which no outward disturbance can touch any more than the winds that rave along the surface of the ocean affect its unmoved and unsounded abysses. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Jesus stood in the midst Jesus in our midst I. THERE IS A MANNER IN OUR LORD’ S COMING TO HIS . 1. He came gladly: for He came so soon and so often: at least four times in one day. His delights were ever with the sons of men. He is glad to come and sup with us that we may sup with Him. 2. He came to those who were quite unworthy of so great a privilege. 3. He came to the full assembly, after He had been seen by the few. 4. He came when they were met together quietly, secluded from the world and its cares. It is a good thing for the saints to be shut in, and the world shut out. You must not expect Jesus to show Himself to you if your heart is at home, or at the workshop, or seeking after vanity. 5. He came when they were all thinking and talking about Him. 6. Some one will say, He will not come here, for there are many barriers, and we are not in a condition to receive Him. But were there no difficulties then? The doors were shut, and the disciples were in fear. Whatever doors there may be between my Lord and my soul, He could pass through them or open them to get at my heart when it longs after Him. You have a fear upon you which you cannot shake off. So had the disciples, or they would not have closed the doors. But Jesus comes though sins encompass us, and doubts and fears and cares hang thick about our path. He comes as the dew which waiteth not for man. II. OUR SAVIOUR HAD A MANNER WHEN HE WAS COME. 1. He stood, He did not flash across the room like a meteor, but remained in one position as though He meant to tarry. He stood in the midst. There are many preachers, but not one of them is in the midst of the family circle. The Lord alone is there, the centre of all hearts. Others are present, and they shine with differing lights, but He is the sun, the centre and ruler of the system of His Church. 2. He speaks, and His word is, “ Peace be unto you.” 3. He showed to His disciples, not a new thought, a philosophic discovery, a deep doctrine, a profound mystery, or indeed anything but Himself. The most conspicuous thing Be showed in Himself was His wounds, and it He be present here, the chief object of faith’ s vision will be Himself; and the most conspicuous point in Himself will be the ensigns of His passion. 4. In so doing our Lord opens up the Scriptures. Christ’ s presence is always known by His people by the value which they are led to attach to the Scripture. 5. They then forget all their fears. As He had given them peace with God, so now He puts aside the fear of man. III. THE OF CHRIST WITH HIS EXCITED VARIOUS . 1. The disciples (1) Were terrified, for they thought Him a Spirit. It is a sign of man’ s depravity that a spirit should alarm him. If we were more spiritual we should be glad to commune with them. (2) When this had a little ceased Jesus said to them, “ Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” I suppose they began to think of their ill conduct to their Master, and conscience made them tremble. (3) We are told by Mark that He also upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart. (4) Meanwhile they doubted whether it could be He, and when they were convinced they greatly rejoiced, and almost at the same time the very vividness of their joy blinded them into another doubt. Like a pendulum, they swung from joy to unbelief. 2. But come to ourselves. Suppose that our Lord were here. We should be filled with--(1)The profoundest awe. Should we not, like John in Patmos, fall at His feet as dead? At any rate, we would devoutly bow the knee before Him, and reverently adore. (2) Overflowing love I How would our hearts melt while He spake! Brethren, He is here! Let us give that loving adoration to Him even now. (3) Serene joy. (4) Deep contribution. IV. HE LEFT CERTAIN GIFTS, which also can be realized by His spiritual presence. 1. The realization of His person. 2. A commission. 3. The Holy Ghost which He breathed upon them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Christ among His people: From this we learn 1. That the primitive disciples were in the habit of meeting for mutual comfort and edification, which says to us, “ Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together,” &c. 2. That the time of their religious gatherings was the first day of the week, which supplies authority for our observance of the Lord’ s-day as the Christian Sabbath. 3. That when so assembled they were always visited by Christ; which shows that He keeps His promise--“ Where two or three,” &c. 4. That where Christ presents Himself, He invariably does four things. I. HE BRINGS A . One of the last things He promised is the first which He bestows--“ peace.” Observe this Isaiah 1. The great blessing of the covenant, including every kind of peace the human heart can want--peace with God, conscience, man. 2. A much-needed blessing, as urgently needed now as then; because of guilt and danger. 3. A purchased blessing; secured by the shedding of Christ’ s blood. 4. An efficacious blessing. It was no mere wish, pleasant to hear, not vague or idle in significance, but an actual communication of the thing desired. II. HE GIVES A . “ He showed them,” &c. This revelation was 1. Divine. (1) In its origin “ He,” and it is still Christ Himself who bestows upon His people the “ spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” (2) In its character. What He showed was Himself, than which He has nothing higher to impart. Christ crucified and risen is the highest revelation that can be given on the subject of God, man, truth, duty, salvation, eternal life. 2. Sufficient. (1) Then. The assembled apostles required no more, nor Thomas on the following Lord’ s-day. (2) Now. It contains all that a sinful man wants to justify his reason in reposing faith in Christ. 3. Cheering. “ Then were the disciples glad.” And so joy and peace to-day are the invariable results of a believing apprehension of the Saviour Romans 15:13; 1 Peter 1:8). III. HE ASSIGNS A . “ As My Father,” &c. This Isaiah 1. Authoritative in its source. It emanates from Him to whom all power in heaven and earth has been given by the Father, and to whom by our saintship we owe allegiance. From Him, therefore, who has a right to command, and who cannot be disobeyed without incurring heinous guilt. 2. Imitative in its character, fashioned after the pattern of Christ’ s, by the same authority, in the same manner, and for a similar end. 3. Alternative in its issues, being fraught with either blessing or cursing. “ Whosoever sins,” &c. IV. HE A . “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” A qualification 1. Much needed. “ Not by might nor by power.” 2. Perfectly sufficient. Not that Christ’ s people are to neglect subsidiary helps, such as learning, &c.; only that with the Spirit they will not be left destitute of anything requisite for their work. 3. Very real. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Peace be unto you Salutations How curiously full of meaning are the different forms of salutation which have been in vogue in different countries and ages! The joyous Greek used to say, ÷á͂ñéå!--i.e., rejoice, take a cheerful view of what is before you. The sturdy Roman used to say, Ave! Salve! Vale! Be alive, healthy, strong to surmount all enemies and difficulties; override and trample them down. The serious German, Saxon race used to say, Farewell!--fare on, travel on as best you can along this uncertain mysterious road, walk well, discreetly, and then, whatever betide, it shall be well with you. The Christian of modern times, of whatever race, says, Good-day! Good evening! God bless you! Adieu! Good-bye! &c. God and God’ s goodness be with you. We commend you to a better guidance than ours. Go on towards God, and may God and all good go on with you. But there is still another form, still universal in the East, Peace be with you!--i.e., peace to the traveller amidst the ceaseless wars and feuds of the desert. Peace from robbers by night, from the enemies’ snares, from quarrels which embitter life if they do not destroy it, from the alarms which destroy comfort if they do not destroy life. It was this in which our Lord chose to express His best wishes for His disciples. (Dean Stanley.) Christ’ s salutation 1. The day mentioned is the day in commemoration of which every Sabbath now is kept. There is no difference between the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath, except the difference there is in the landscape when the sun is on it and when the sun is off it. 2. We progress in the actings of faith very slowly. Were faith in lively exercise you would see in the midst of this house a glory brighter than ten thousand thousand “ mountains of light,” with the beams of the meridian sun falling on them. You would see in the midst Jesus; for “ where two or three,” &c. I. THE --“ Peace!” Of all the words that fall on man’ s ear, none is more delectable. 1. At the sound, perhaps (1) We think of our infancy, ere the passions of the heart uncoiled themselves, or the cares and turmoil of life were encountered. (2) Or of some happy individual hose mind is graced with all scholarship, charmed with all sensibility, cultivated and wrought up to the mastery of the passions, and the education of the faculties, whose mind seems like a piece of music in tune. (3) Or of some happy family, in which there is such a consentaneousness of thinking and harmoniousness of feeling, such a rippling of kindliness, such a flowing of tenderness that though there are several individuals in the family, it really seems as though they were but one heart beating in the house. (4) Or of some happy land over which the waves of anarchy never rolled, in which the plaints of discord were never heard; where peace and contentment universally prevail; where “ every man sits under his own vine and his own fig-tree, having none to make him afraid.” (5) Or of a scene inclusive of and transcending all this, even of the garden of Eden itself. 2. But Christ used it in a more sacred sense than any of these. It signifies peace after a war, calm after a storm, tranquility after confusion. In nature, before the storm comes there is generally a very emphatic calm. When the sea is going to be searched through and through, there comes on the deep hush. And now big come the rain drops, now loud comes the wind, now fierce drives the tempest, and before it everything that is rotten gives way directly. Such a time will overtake us all. The peace of the worldling drifts away at once. If the worldling admit that he had any, it is generally found to consist in some reflection to this effect, that on the whole the world has gone tolerably smoothly with him, and he hopes it will continue to do so. But that is not a peace that will live in the storm. Bat the peace which Christ gives is profound and abiding. When the storm comes down on the water, we, perhaps, suppose that the storm has ploughed the ocean up to its depths. Not so! Down a few yards at most is the body of water lying in a state of perfect repose, as when God first gathered the waters into the sea. Such is the peace which Christ gives. The storm does not destroy it. It is deep, abiding peace. 3. Not indeed that “ peace” can be found in outward things. Take away from the believer in Christ that to which worldly men may look for satisfaction, wealth, station, power, friends, health, and you have not come down to where his peace lies. Certainly, if these outward things could ever have yielded peace, they would have yielded it to Solomon. With astonishing energy and perseverance he worked the problem through; and when he had exhausted his experiments, he summed up the result--“ Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!” And yet very few men are willing to take that lesson from Solomon. II. THE ACT WITH WHICH THE SAVIOUR HIS . He did something. Actions are more powerful than words. 1. He showed them His hands as much as to say, If these hands had never have been pierced, these lips would not have pronounced, “ Peace be unto you.” The chastisement of your peace has been laid on Me; “ by My stripes ye are healed.” He showed His side, so that we might say, “ Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee!” 2. The showing of the hands and the side of Christ is the only symbolical movement that now remains. All types which intimated beforehand the glories of our redemption by the death of Christ are gone but this. So now, the whole of your behaviour in relation to Christ just resolves itself into this--touching the hands and side of Christ. Believing in Christ and touching Him are the same thing. 3. Then observe the point of difference there is between the actions of men and this action of our Lord in showing His hands and His side. You can never depend on the action of man--he is mutable. But Christ “ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” He is always showing His hands and His feet in heaven to signify that He is always doing so on earth to faith. Cannot you touch His hands and His side? “ Oh!” you say, “ it takes such a great effort.” Cannot you make a great effort? I know I can. Let your temporal affairs all get into some great extremity, and I know what you are capable of. Suppose you were drowning--some one throws a rope to you--what kind of movement do you make? All I want from you in relation toChrist is a similar effort on the part of the mind which the body takes towards the rope. Conclusion: To those who have this peace, I must speak to them in the language 1. Of congratulation. 2. Of exhortation; for Christ hath said, “ As my Father hath sent Me, so send I you.” You are chartered for usefulness. Is there ignorance in the world--remove it. Is there delusion--dissolve it. Is there infidelity--go and supply the elements of faith. Is there immorality--go and check it. Is there misery--wipe its tears, terminate its sighs. (J. Beaumont, M.D.) The Tears of Christ I. THIS WAS AMONG EASTERN NATIONS. 1. It was, with slight variations, of high antiquity, and we meet with it all through the Bible. 2. In our Lord’ s-day it had become as much part of the social habits of the people as “ Good-morning” is among ourselves. In earlier days, no doubt, men had invoked peace from heaven with the utmost seriousness; but by this time it had become a mere conventional phrase; and yet our Lord did not scruple to use it. But it would be a great mistake to infer that He used it conventionally. A conscientious man will mean what he says, even when he uses words prescribed by custom or etiquette. And among great teachers the majority have been less forward to employ new language than to breathe a new meaning into old words. In Christ this latter method is especially observable. He picks up, as it were from the roadside, the common words which fall from men as they saunter unthinkingly through life; and He restores to them their original power and sanctity. His work was to bring reality in all its shapes into human life. Once before, in the supper-room, He rescued the blessing of peace from unmeaning formalism. “ Not as the world giveth give I unto you.” 3. The word “ peace” does not, in the original, mean only or chiefly rest. The Hebrew root-word means whole, entire; a thing as it should be according to its origin or capacity. Of this state of well-being, freedom from disturbance is either a condition or a result. Yet here, as so often else, the incidental meaning has displaced the original. But our Lord had His eye no doubt, at least partially, on its original sense. He meant not merely tranquility but that which leads to it--wellbeing in its largest sense as affecting the highest interests of a being like man. II. WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SENSE BY THE TO THOSE WHO HEARD IT. 1. Not peace with the Jews without! That could not be (Luke 12:51). His followers indeed were so much as lieth in them to live peaceably with all men. But this region of possible intercourse could only extend where the truths of faith were not imperilled. Peace with the Jews at that time, like peace with the non-Christian world in later ages, was only to be had by a surrender of the honour and cause of Christ. 2. Nor peace among yourselves! Doubtless this is of priceless value, as involving the best spiritual blessings, and as an evidence to the world of the truth of our Lord’ s religion (John 13:35). But this peace was not thenespecially needed. The instinct of self-preservation drew and kept them together. The sad day of divisions among Christians was yet to come. 3. But peace in their individual souls--a sense of protection which conquers or ignores fear. There they were for fear of the Jews. They knew what measure had been dealt to their Master. What could they--His disciples--expect? Then He came and said, “ Peace.” And from His lips the blessing of peace meant safety from every adversary. This is a primary effect of Christ’ s blessing. It distracts attention from things without. It does not destroy them. Sickness, death, the loss of friends, opposition, the bad tempers, prejudices, follies of those around us, &c., remain as before. But they no longer absorb attention. The eye of the soul is fixed on the Divine and the eternal. III. FREEDOM FROM ANXIETY IS NOT THE ONLY OR THE CHIEF PART OF PEACE. Its root is deeper. The soul must be resting on its true object; or the tumult within will continue in thought, affection, will, conscience. 1. The Crucifixion had thrown the disciples into the greatest mental perplexity. They had trusted that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel. Upon this state of mind the Crucifixion burst like a thunderbolt. True, prophecy and He Himself had foretold it. But the human mind has a strange power of closing its ear to the unwelcome when it is half-comprehended. Christ’ s words then describe the intellectual effect of His mere appearance. The sight of Jesus risen restored order to the thoughts of the disciples. The Crucifixion was no longer the ruin of their faith if it was followed by the Resurrection. The prophecies were consistent after all. This is still the work of Jesus in the world; when He is recognized by souls He blesses them with intellectual peace. Without Him the belief in a Holy God is embarrassed by the gravest perplexities. All the great haunting questions about life and destiny are unanswered, to any real purpose, until Jesus appears. It is indeed sometimes mistakenly supposed that a Christian knows only the peace of mental stagnation; and that in order to be what is oddly called a thinker, a man must needs be a sceptic. It is of course true that a Christian is not for ever re-opening questions which he believes to have been settled on the authority of God Himself. But to believe is not to condemn thought to inertness and stagnation; a man does not do less work at mathematics because he starts with holding the axioms to be beyond discussion. On the contrary, a fixed creed, like that of the Christian, imparts to life and nature such varied interest, that, as experience shows, it fertilizes thought. The human intelligence has, on the whole, been cultivated most largely among the Christian nations. 2. The disciples had, for the moment, by the death of Jesus, lost the object of their affections. How much they already loved our Lord they did not know until He was removed. Now they felt the weary, restless void of an aching heart. When, then, Jesus appeared He brought peace to their hearts Son 3:4). Mental satisfaction does not alone bring peace, if the heart remains unsatisfied. And that which satisfies the heart is beauty; that uncreated and eternal beauty of which all earthly beauty is but the shadow. Sooner or later trouble and death make havoc of temporal peace. Only one Being satisfies the affections in such sort, that the soul’ s peace is insured beyond risk of forfeiture (Isaiah 26:3). 3. Our Lord’ s crucifixion had disturbed all the plans for action and life which had been formed by the apostles. They had been looking forward to the establishment of a new kingdom, and to their own places in and work for it. These visions now seemed to have vanished. The apostles were like men who had just failed in business--all is despair. And the will, the energetic and sovereign faculty of the soul, suddenly set free from the tension of continuous effort, falls back upon itself, and becomes within the soul a principle of disturbance. No men know less of inward peace than the unoccupied. A leading secret of peace is work. Our Lord then restored that sort of peace which comes with occupation pursued under a sense of duty. Many a working man, who does not know how to get into the day what he has to do, supposes that the condition of idle people is to be envied. No mistake can well be greater. Work guarantees the peace of the soul; because the soul must be active in some way, and work secures healthy action. 4. But the peace which man needs most especially, and which our Lord gives most abundantly, is that of the conscience. Did the apostles as yet understand in detail how their Master would reconcile them to God? It is difficult to say. They knew that this reconciliation was, in some way, to result from His mission and life. But if the violence of His enemies had indeed prevailed, this was a mere matter of phrase and conjecture; His life was essential to the completion of His work. They knew not whether they were saved after all. They had lost that peace which comes from a sense of union with God. When, then, our Lord appeared He restored peace, because He restored the sense, however indefinite as yet, of pardon for past sin, and of reconciliation with God. Without this there can be no true peace for the soul of man. Perhaps no Christian, since the days of the apostles, has illustrated the peace which Jesus gives so fully as Augustine. Read that pathetic story of his early life in his Confessions. What a restless life was his before his conversion I The intellect tossed about on the waves of speculation, without solid hold on any one reassuring truth. The heart distracted between the ideals presented by false philosophies, and the ideals suggested by sensuality. The will unable to fasten on any serious duty; the victim of a feverish unsettlement, or of a capricious languor. The conscience profoundly stirred by the terrible conviction that the Son of Peace was not there, and alternating between the phase of insensibility and the phase of agony. Then came his conversion, and with it what a change! Peace in his understanding, which now surveys with a majestic tranquility, the vast realms of revealed truth; more penetratingly, more comprehensively than any Christian since St. Paul. Peace in his heart, which now turns its undistracted and enraptured gaze upon the Eternal Beauty, who, as he says, is always ancient yet always young. Peace in his will, for which the problem of duty has been simplified; he knows what he has to do, and he does it with all his might. Peace in his conscience. There is no longer any sense of an inward feud with the law of absolute holiness. All has been pardoned through the blood of Jesus; all is possible through His grace. (Canon Liddon.) Christ’ s peace the antidote for the world’ s distractions: You may have stood by the side of one of those brawling mountain streams which descend from our southern and western coasts into the sea. Such a stream rushes with its noisy waters down its narrow channel, every pebble rattles in the torrent, every ripple makes a murmur of its own. Suddenly the sound ceases, a deep stillness fills the banks from side to side. Why? It is the broad sweep of the advancing tide of the ocean that has checked the stream and occupied the whole space of its narrow channel with its own strong, silent, overwhelming waters. Even so it is with all the little cares, and difficulties, and distractions that make up the noise and clatter of the stream of our daily life. They go on increasing and increasing; they engross our whole attention till they are suddenly met and absorbed by some thought or object greater than themselves, advancing from a wider, deeper, stronger sphere. From a thousand heights the streams of human life are for ever rushing down; but there is another stream advancing into each of those channels, a tide from that wider and trackless ocean, to which they are all tending; and deep indeed is the peace which those tides may bring with them wherever their force extends. The very measure of the greatness of the idea of God and of the things of God is the depth of the peace which that idea is able to impart. (Dean Stanley.) John 20:20 When He had so said, He shewed them His hands and His side The wounds of the risen Christ I want to point out the significance of Christ’ s action in showing to these men His hands and His feet; and what we learn from it is this. I. CHRIST’ S DESIRE THAT HIS ’ BELIEF IN HIS SHOULD BE . His first purpose was to reduce the agitation of their minds so that they might be able to receive evidence of certain great and essential truths of which they were to be the future preachers. They were to go forth into the world and establish His kingdom amongst men, but the foundations of that kingdom were to be distinct historical facts; the chief among them being these two--that He had died and that He had risen again. Christ purposed to gain rule over human hearts, but no dead man can do that. When, therefore, He stands among them on this memorable evening He invites them carefully to examine Him. He possesses a physical body, and is not a phantom. Their senses are to testify to that. The more closely you consider it, from whatever side you look upon it, you will see how supremely important this fact of the resurrection is, and how essentially necessary it was that the evidence for it should be rational and unquestionable. II. CHRIST’ S DESIRE THAT HIS SHOULD BELIEVE THAT THOUGH HE WAS RISEN HE WAS . Perhaps you will mark that I use the words “ essentially unchanged.” Essentially--and I do so because there seem to be indications throughout all the incidents of the forty days that though our Lord possessed the same body as He had before the Resurrection, yet there were differences in it. Whatever may have been the effects of the Resurrection upon the outward structure, Christ could say, “ It is I, Myself.” For the real personality of a man is not his body. That may change; it has changed many times from childhood up to the years of mature manhood; it is perpetually changing. It is so that we think of death and the resurrection. They will not affect our personal identity, though we may be introduced into a new sphere, and possess God’ s gift of a glorified body. The man, the woman, the child in essential characteristics will remain, however sublime and marvellous may be the changes in the form of their manifestation. Christ states this fact, and appeals to it--appeals to it as a reason why these alarmed men should be calmed. “ It is I, Myself.” Fear may be banished, because Christ is unchanged. This fact is to be the source of perpetual comfort and strength to those who call Christ Lord. “ He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” He fearlessly asserts this fact, and bases on it an appeal for the most perfect confidence. Do you not see how that appeal to His personality rests on their former experience of His character? Ah! we can think of some passed away, whose reappearance with such words on their lips would be a signal for alarm and terror to those who were familiar with them in the earthly life. They were cruel, mean, selfish, tyrannical; their career was marked by all the vices and follies which can stain human character. What an awful thing it would be for us to meet them as they step out of the invisible into our midst and hear them say, “ It is I, myself, unchanged by the experience of death.” III. CHRIST’ S DESIRE THAT HIS SHOULD HIM AS THE ONE. “ He showed them His hands and His feet,” says Luke; “ He showed them His hands and His side,” says John; not contradicting, but supplementing, one another’ s accounts, for evidently He showed them all three--hands, feet, and side. The disciples knew Him by the marks of His suffering. It is thus He would be recognized by all men everywhere--as the once crucified, though now risen and ascended, Prince and Lord. Not because He received cruel wounds and endured a fulness of agony, but because by that pain and sorrow redemption for mankind has been wrought out. We are at first brought into relationship with Him by this fact. We may know Him afterwards as the Mediator, Intercessor, King, Friend; but all possibility of intercourse with Him must begin at the Cross; must begin through those tokens of His suffering love by which He has ever been known. Offer me a Christ who has no wounds received on behalf of sinners, and I do not know Him; I dare not recognize Him. Tell me that He lived a noble life, that He taught grand truths to men, that He did many a work of mercy and compassion amongst the poor and sorrowing, that He was bitterly and shamefully persecuted by His unresting enemies, that He expired at last with fortitude and heroism, a martyr to His principles--and I say: “ Yes, all that is well; but answer me--answer the impassioned yearning of my heart--did He die the just for the unjust? did He bear our sins in His own body on the tree?” (W. Braden.) The hands of Christ Those hands are I. THE HANDS OF A WORKMAN. He has no sympathy with the idler, but honours toil. II. HEALING HANDS. There was no limit to the beneficence of Christ’ s touch. Deafness, dumbness, fever, blindness, leprosy fled from it. III. PLACED IN ON THE HEADS OF LITTLE . None are too young to enjoy the Shepherd’ s care, none too old to need it. IV. SAVING HANDS. They grasped the sinking Peter. They will hold us to the end. V. AN OF HIS HAVING FOR US. In six days they made the world, now they are pierced for the sins of the world. VI. A PROOF OF THE . The wounds are healed, but the sears remain. VII. USED IN PRAYER FOR US. A Roman soldier returned from the wars found his brother on trial for his life. He held up the stumps of his arms, and turned the tide in the court, and saved his brother’ s life. Here was sacrifice turned into intercessory prayer. VIII. THE LINE OF THE DAY OF . On which hand wilt thou stand? Conclusion: Let the hands of Jesus lead and support you. (T. L.Cuyler.) The risen Saviour 1. By these tokens Christ made Himself known. He might have taken other steps to bring about a recognition-recalled incidents known to Himself and to them only; or wrought some mighty miracle. 2. It may appear strange that Christ should have risen in this condition. (1) It would seem to impair the completeness of His triumph. When the three Hebrews came forth from the furnace, no trace remained upon them of the fire. And when Christ emerged from fiercer flames, we might expect Him equally unaffected. (2) Allowing that such evidences existed, their concealment would seem most natural. His sufferings and death had been attended with the utmost ignominy and disgrace. (3) It would seem to give an unpleasing character to the future life. He bears in Himself, on the other side of the grave, the signs and the results of His shame and agony here. Viewing Him as the Pattern, we are led to ask: Will it be so with ourselves? If men had been left to themselves to form their own conception of the risen Christ, they would never have thus represented Him. Note I. THE PERFECT OF THE SAVIOUR’ S PERSON. 1. He is the same Jesus as they had parted from a few days before. A change had taken place, but not such as to affect His identity. 2. This identity exists to-day. “ Jesus Christ the same yesterday,” &c., must be the watchword of our faith. How the person of Christ has been altered by men! What “ developments” has He undergone! As we look around us to-day, we see men setting up Christs after their own fancies, utterly unlike the Christ of the Gospels. Let us cling to His abiding identity. II. THE OF HIS WORK. His sufferings still continue, not as to their actual agony, but as to their results. They remain for ever, graven upon the form of the Redeemer. The cross itself stood but for a few hours; the actual sufferings lasted but for a little while. But their influence can never cease. Had He risen with no memorials of His passion upon Him, men might have doubted, and the doubt would have grown stronger with the ages. But as we look upon Jesus, and see His hands and His side, we learn that He still retains His sacrificial character, and that our faith may rest upon Him as surely as though the Cross and resurrection were events of today. III. THE SAVIOUR’ S OF HIS . 1. Men looked upon them as shameful, but to Himself they were glorious. Nothing can minister such joy to His heart as these marks received in that fierce conflict, now crowned with victory, into which He threw Himself for man’ s deliverance. 2. There shall be something like this with ourselves. Life is a battle from which we do not escape without wounds. Yet the things that are most terrible now may yield hereafter our greatest joy. The darkest things here may be the brightest there. IV. THE TRUE METHOD OF CHRIST TO MEN. Show them “ His hands and His side.” Insist upon His sacrificial character, upon His death as an atonement for sin. 1. There are those who present Christ to men, but do not show them “ His hands and His side.” They point to the mystery of His incarnation, His moral perfection, &c. But all this, necessary and good as it is, fails to meet man’ s case as a sinner. Tell them all this, but tell them especially that, being all this, He died for sinners as an atonement for their sins. 2. This method of presenting Christ is the mightiest for overcoming unbelief. You may reason with men on the evidences of Christianity, and they may remain in their unbelief. “ Show them His hands and His side;” put Christ before them in His sufferings and self-sacrifice, and minds that had only become stronger in their opposition through argument and embittered by controversy, have yielded. 3. This method is the mightiest for conquering the pride and selfishness of the human heart. Nothing can equal the force of His appeal when He thus presents Himself to man. A legend has come down to us to the effect that Satan once appeared to one of the mediaeval saints in the form of the risen Saviour, but that the saint discovered and repelled him by asking for the print of the wounds. V. THE METHOD OF HIS . Amidst the countless multitudes of heaven’ s inhabitants, we may recognize the Man of Calvary by these signs. (W. Perkins.) Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord Gladness in seeing the Lord The disciples were glad because I. THEIR WAS AT AN END. It had been prolonged for two days, and must have been peculiarly distressing. Now light broke in upon their darkness. II. THEIR FEARS WERE . They doubted and were sad, for they had an awful dread lest all their convictions concerning Jesus were groundless. This was now dissipated. III. THEIR HOPES WERE . Fear and hope had alternately taken possession of them. They hoped against hope; in the hearts of some hope had vanished. But now it dawned again brightly on their sight. IV. THEIR RELIEF AND WERE NOW . Now they recollected what they had all but forgotten, that all happened as He had foretold. He would now be to them all that they had ventured to anticipate. V. THEIR IN HIS SOCIETY WAS RENEWED. He was very dear to them, and had called them “ friends.” The sight of Him who was to them “ the altogether lovely” brought gladness to their hearts. As they had grieved because they saw Him not, so now when they saw Him, their sorrow was turned into joy. VI. THEIR EYES WERE OPENED TO THE MEANING OF THEIR EARTHLY LIFE, AND TO THE OF WITH THEIR DIVINE LORD. Soon they saw that it was to be their vocation to be witnesses of His resurrection, and ambassadors and heralds of His gospel. So honourable an office might well be contemplated with gratification. And they must have felt if His death were no barrier to this Divine fellowship, so theirs could never sever them from Jesus, but must bring them into a nearer and eternal communion. (Family Churchman.) A sight of Christ: That holy man, Mr. Walsh, when the Lord revealed Himself to him, was obliged to cry, “ Hold, Lord I remember I am but an earthen vessel; and if I have more of this delight I must die.” One said he would like to die of that disease, and I am very much of his mind. They say, “ See Naples and die” ; but to improve on it, another said, “ See Naples and live” : and truly this is the better sight of the two. I would fain see my Lord so as to live to His praise. Oh, for such a vision as should shape my life, my thought, my whole being, till I became like my Lord! Oh, to see Him so as to be changed into His image from glory unto glory! (C. H.Spurgeon.) The joy of Christians in the presence of their Lord I. ITS NATURE. 1. It differs from physical delights, intellectual or social, in depth, purity, and permanency. 2. It is the repose of a soul on an infinite, personal Being. 3. Our Redeemer, Advocate, and Friend. 4. Whose presence assures all needed grace, here and hereafter. II. METHOD OF IT. 1. Self-renunciation, cordial reliance on Christ. 2. Prayerful meditation on what He is and has done. 3. Doing the duties of the Christian life. III. RESULTS. 1. Fortifies against sin and inspires in life’ s work. 2. Makes religion attractive. 3. Takes away the fear of death. Conclusion: 1. We see why some do not have this joy; inadequate views of their privilege, absorbed in the world, or indulging in sin. 2. It is practicable and so a duty. 3. Appearance of Christ a joy to the believer and a cause of alarm to the sinner, so a test of character. (Homiletic Monthly.) Reasons for the joy of the disciples on the Resurrection: They were glad when they saw the Lord, as I. IT GAVE PROOF THAT HE HAD ESCAPED THE FURY OF HIS FOES. They had lately looked on Him as lost. Now they saw Him completely exempt from danger; and their joy was proportioned to their intense love. Could He have given them salvation at the expense of His own destruction, it would have yielded them no satisfaction. In proportion as we love our Saviour, we shall rejoice that He is now at the right hand of God. II. IT AN OF HIS , AND A OF HIS MISSION AND . God has shown His complacency in virtue by crowning it with glory in the exaltation of His Son. The signature of the Divine hand was thus put upon it: and they were enabled to go abroad and establish Christianity on the basis of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Had He not risen, they must have been utterly ashamed and confounded. Who could pretend that the Divine Being would by this stupendous miracle give sanction to imposture. How thankful to God should we be for having placed our religion on such a basis of evidence! III. IT PROVED THE OF HIS and the completion of His obedience in behalf of His believing followers. Without this His death is like that of an ordinary man; but this proves the merit and power of His death. “ Who is he that condemneth? when it is Christ that died; yea rather, that is risen.” Hence there remains no bar to the salvation of every penitent sinner. This is the source of a joy as extensive as the Church of God. IV. IT WAS A PROOF OF THEIR IN THE WHICH HE HAS BEYOND THE PRESENT STATE; a pledge of their entrance into heaven. He rose as the Head of His body the Church; He entered into the holiest as the Forerunner of His people: it was His prayer “ that they all may be with Me, and behold My glory.” His desire will be fulfilled that their joy may be full. V. THEY HAD THUS A PLEDGE OF HIS OF HIS CHURCH FROM ITS ENEMIES, AND OF ITS FINAL TRIUMPH OVER ALL. They were now assured that greater is He that is in the Church than he that is in the world. (Robert Hall.) John 20:21-23 Then saith Jesus unto them … as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you The correspondence between the two missions Christ is the Arch-Missionary and the Arch-Apostle (Hebrews 3:1), at once both the Author and the first Bearer of the office; and the apostles are His successors. Christ came in His Father’ s name (John 5:43), and they came in Christ’ s name. Christ was sent that He might speak, not of Himself, but what fie had heard of the Father (John 8:27; John 14:10; John 15:15); and His servants are sent, not to preach dreams of human wisdom, but the Word of God (Jeremiah 23:16; 1 Peter 4:11). Christ was sent not to destroy but to save souls (Luke 9:56; John 3:17); and His ministers are sent with power to build up, and not to destroy (2 Corinthians 13:10). The Father worked with Christ, and left not the Son John 5:17; John 5:19; John 16:32); and Christ works with us so that our labour is not in vain. Finally, as Christ was sent, that through suffering He might enter into His glory; so also has He bequeathed His shame Matthew 10:22), and His cross (John 21:18), but after that His glory also (Luke 22:29; comp. 1 Peter 5:1). Now, if we should all “ honour the Son even as we honour the Father,” so to the servants of Christ also the honour is due, that in them we honour the Lord who has sent them; as He Himself says, “ He that heareth you heareth Me,” &c. (R. Besser, D. D.) Christ’ s mission one with ours: His mission and their mission were one. The purpose that fired His heart as He came from the glory to the Cross, and was returning from the grave to the throne, was to be their purpose. There was to be the same aim and the same grand consummation in view. The subaltern, the common soldier, the drummer in the campaign, may feel that they are taking part in the same cause that is keeping the anxious general awake at night, and taxing all his ingenuity and energy. And so the humblest servant in His house who can do nothing more than talk to a few children, or carry a cup of cold water to a fainting one, or place a few flowers on the table in the sick room, or read a few verses from a psalm or sing a few stanzas of a hymn to an aged Christian, may rejoice in the consciousness that his little work is finding a place in the grand plan that has its sweep through the centuries; that the little ripple of his love is helping the flow of the tide that is to cover the world with glory; that his feeble heart-beats are in unison with the pulses of the eternal God. “ As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” It is the voice of authority; it is the voice “ that rolls the stars along” ; but it speaks to a human will, a human heart; and He has confidence that His word will be obeyed. (James Owen.) The true Spirit of missions I. THE RISEN LORD HIMSELF TO THE CHURCH. 1. He did not manifest Himself first of all to the collective disciples, but to Mary Magdalene, &c. This is God’ s way. His blessings are not for the Church apart from its individual members. No Church will have collective manifestations whose members do not find Him in the garden, in the closet, in the way, sitting at meat, &c. 2. He manifested Himself while they were talking about Him. Mary declaring that she had seen Him, others that He had opened the scriptures, others were doubting; then someone said, “ There He is in the midst of us.” 3. He bestowed His benediction. With a reminiscence of “ Let not your hearts be troubled,” i.e., agitated, He said, “ Peace,” &c. 4. He demonstrated the reality of His resurrection, and made the disciples glad. What makes the heart of God’ s people glad is the revelation of Christ, not as here, but as on the way to Damascus to Paul, “ God revealed His Son in me, that I might preach Him.” He to whom Christ has never manifested Himself is in no condition to preach Him. 5. Now, how did He come? There were there, as there are here, persons wondering how Christ could manifest Himself. Are there not closed doors, impenetrable walls, and one difficulty after another in this nineteenth century to prevent this? No, the only barrier which can keep Christ out is unbelief. “ Oh,” you say, “ there is unworthiness.” No! look at the people in that room! We know little, even in natural things, of what is likely and unlikely, except by experience. For instance, if we knew that there was outside these walls trying to get in some sunlight, sound or electricity, and we were asked how it was to get in, and we knew nothing about iron, and glass, and stone, and air, we should say that sound, e.g., would get in much easier through air than through iron--and yet we know it will go much faster through iron. And when God makes a thing to pass through, it will pass through, and when He is in the question, no barriers can keep Him out. “ Where two or three are gathered in My name,” &c. II. HIS SPIRIT TO THE CHURCH. This is more than the manifestation of Himself. We are particular to think of our seeking Christ and the Spirit; bat here are both waiting to communicate themselves. Here is Christ not waiting for them to breathe out a prayer for the Spirit, but breathing the Spirit upon them. There is one word with reference to the Spirit which is very expressive--influence. This means nothing more than a flowing in just as water will flow in upon a meadow until the meadow is completely under it. And we talk of being under the influence if any man with that idea in our mind. But the Bible never represents the Spirit as inert water coming in by gravitation, but as being “ poured” in with a will and hand that has power to send it. And so when we come to the word “ inspiration,” it is not a mere gliding in of a gale of air, but the “ breathing” in from a living being warm with feeling and earnest with will. So here. And thus Christ calls to mind some Old Testament records. The disciples would feel that the world in a moral sense was “ without form and void,” &c., and that the Spirit was coming forth to make the chaos and the darkness feel His power, and each of them might have said, “ We are all dead men” ; but there was the Second Adam, the quickening Spirit, to breathe into their nostrils the breath of life to make His dead disciples living souls. They would think, too, of the valley of dry bones, and the command, “ Breathe upon them.” He had told them that it was expedient for them that He should go away so that He might send the Spirit; and now, on the very first day of His reappearing, the first thing He does is to show them He that is just as near as the breath that is breathing upon them. “ Go,” He says in effect; “ but before you go, take the breath to travel with. Go; but before you spread the sails of your ship, the Lord of the winds shall make the winds blow for you. Go to convert the world; but before you try to raise the dead, let it be seen that the Lord has raised you.” Christ is breathing now, and saying, “ Receive ye,” &c. III. LAYING HER TO WORK UPON THE CHURCH. 1. “ As the Father,” &c. This has been interpreted to mean, “ With the authority which the Father sent Me, I send you.” Now, the authority with which Christ came was to restore all things to make atonement, &c. So it cannot mean that. No; the disciples were under, not in, authority. He sent them forth to preach, love, labour, pray, as He preached, &c. Never a man of them could play the king as He did. They were to go representing Him; they were to go in love and self-sacrifice as He had gone. 2. Then He says, “ Whosoever sins ye remit,” &c. Who are the “ ye” ? Those present--not Peter or John, or the ten collectively. We are expressly told that other disciples were there--Mary, &c. and not the slightest difference was made. What the Lord meant He meant for all. There are two ways of interpreting what He did mean--the one the way in which the Church of Rome interprets it, and the other the way in which the Church of St. Peter interprets it,. Rome tells a man He must go and confess to and get absolution from a priest. But take the first case in which a man cries out in the presence of Peter for remission (Acts 2:1-47.). Does Peter ever say, “ come aside and confess?” or John, or Paul? Is there a hint of any such transaction? No, you will find that every one demands repentance and faith in Christ, and promises forgiveness upon that. That was the use which Peter understood was to be made of this. And the remission was not a transaction somewhere above the clouds, but actually carried into the man’ s soul so as to transform him. The remission was conscious, real and immediate. Now in the Church of Rome there are five ways of remission. (1) By baptism. (2) By confirmation. (3) By penance. (4) By indulgence. (5) By extreme unction. Of course, after all that they ought to be remitted. But supposing a man has received all these remissions from the pope himself; why, you will find masses offered for his sins in purgatory! Such is not the remission of Christ. When Christ remits all sin is at once cast away, gone for ever into the depths of God’ s forgiving love. And the Church’ s mission is to testify to every man that there is remission without price, priest, sacrifice. Show His hands and His side and there is the proclamation of remission of sins. (W. Arthur, M. A.) Receive ye the Holy Ghost The gift of the Spirit The Christian dispensation is remarkable for two unspeakable gifts--God’ s gift of His Son and God’ s gift of His Spirit. And it were hard to say which gift is of the greater practical value; for without the gift of the Spirit we perish under the very shadow of the cross, while with it we possess all that the Cross promises. Consider I. IN WHAT THIS GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST . 1. Not in an empty sound, but in a veritable and substantial gift. When God says “ I will pour out My Spirit upon you,” He does not mock us with a sound of words; for the gift is larger than the word that speaks it. 2. Not in the gift of a number of good things figuratively represented as a gift of the Holy Ghost. If there is a literal expression anywhere in God’ s Word, then the gift of the Holy Ghost is the gift of the Holy Ghost; and to suppose it to be anything else is to reduce the Scriptures to a shadowy phantasm of figures with no fixed meaning. 3. Not in the gift of the Spirit on our behalf, merely to prepare the economy of saving grace. The Spirit was given not only to inspire the Word, to anoint Christ, to qualify the apostles, and to fill all the organisation of Christianity with light and life; but is also given as a direct and immediate gift to the believer, blot only as a gift of germinating and fructifying efficiency to the soil and atmosphere in which the seed-corn is placed, but also as a gift of life and growth-power to the seed-corn itself. “ The Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” 4. It consists in the grant of His abiding presence. There is a necessary presence of the Spirit, by reason of His nature--“ Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?” But this is a presence in which He is caringly, lovingly, helpingly, savingly with us. God was always in the world; but when He came m Christ, He was “ God with us” in a very special manner. So with His Spirit in this gift. 5. It consists in a gracious affluence and influence of the Spirit upon our spirits. A patriot orator addresses his countrymen. Like a subtle, invisible fire, the fervour of his spirit flows out in his words, gestures, and looks, and flows in upon the spirits of the crowd, till all are moved and roused to action. And shall not the spirit of God--by the words of God, the wounds of Christ--move us to grief or joy, to hope or zeal? Believe in the life and energy of the Spirit. 6. It consists in the production of “ fruits of the Spirit.” The Spirit’ s movings would be a small gift without their effects; as the warmth and refreshing of sun and rain would be without the following harvest, or as the sound of David’ s harp on Saul’ s troubled spirit without the ejection of the evil spirit. And we are liable to be deceived by false, or human and merely natural emotions. Trust no emotion that does not hallow the heart; but do not distrust the Spirit’ s influence because “ many false spirits are gone out.” II. THIS GIFT IS A GIFT FOR ALL IN COMMON. For the ordinary work of a common salvation. Not only to enable men to speak with tongues, but to enable men of blasphemous tongues to speak the praises of God; not for “ gifts of healing” only, but to heal the sin-sick souls of penitents to all time; not for “ prophecies” merely, but to enable glad-hearted believers to foretell and foretaste the joys of heaven. Is a man to be born again--to belong to Christ, to be assured of adoption, to be sanctified? For all these, and all the gracious round of gospel purposes the Spirit worketh. And the promise is to “ as many as the Lord our God shall call.” III. THE FOR THIS GIFT. “ No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” Men can read the Bible, but cannot make it as a hammer, or as a fire; can build sanctuaries, but cannot make them temples of God; can organize churches, but cannot make them “ habitations of God” except “ through the Spirit;” can make sermons, but cannot convert souls; can arrange and marshall attacks upon vice and sin, but cannot make them “ mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.” Even the Lord Jesus Himself was “ anointed with the Holy Ghost, to go about doing good;” while not a captain was ever sent against the Philistines, or an Aholiah or a Bezaleel employed upon the tabernacle without a measure of God’ s Spirit. “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” IV. HOW IS THE GIFT TO BE ? 1. Believe in the Holy Ghost. All baptized into His name; part of the Christian benediction from above is His communion. Believe in His power and gift. 2. Confess your dependence on this gift. This blessed shower will slide away from the mountain side of self-sufficiency, to rest richly in the valleys beneath. The Spirit is promised when “ the city shall be low in a low place.” 3. Be ready to receive the gift. The Spirit comes to work a holy work. If you reject His work you reject Him. Submit to all His working, and He will come. 4. Ask the gift of the Father in Christ’ s name. While Christ prayed the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended upon Him. While the apostles prayed the place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. 5. Rely upon the gift, and venture on God’ s work in expectation of it. Stretch forth the withered hand. Like the priest who bore the ark, put your foot into the waters of your swelling Jordan; sound your trumpet against your frowning Jericho, and expect the help you need. (Lay Preacher.) Receiving the Holy Ghost I. THIS WAS MORE THAN A ACT, THE PROMISE; it was more than an assurance--“ Ye shall receive.” It was an actual, though partial, impartation of the Holy Spirit. 1. In this connection, in Luke, we read that “ their understandings were opened, that they might understand the Scriptures.” They receive now from Him a pledge and an earnest of the greater fulness that would come on the Day of Pentecost. This was a breath, heralding the “ rushing mighty wind;” a little cloud, the size of a man’ s hand, the precursor of the clouds that would soon pour out a flood upon the parched ground. God often gives earnests of His blessings. A John the Baptist comes to prepare the way for Christ. The morning star heralds the sun. 2. This was the pledge of the Pentecost, when they were filled with the Spirit. And after that we read that in a prayer meeting they were again filled with the Spirit. There was a greater fulness, because there was greater room, because their natures were enlarged. Sometimes a father has to say to his spendthrift son: “ My boy, when I have given you this, I shall have no more that I can throw away.” God will never say that to as; every gift is a seed from which a larger gift will grow. All natures are not the same, and there comes a larger measure of spiritual influence to some than others. The large tree, with its spreading branches and broad leaves, is drinking in from the air and sun and rain that which would suffice for three or four smaller trees. II. THE NATURE OF THIS POWER AS BY CHRIST. 1. The words “ breath” and “ life” and “ spirit” are used synonymously. “ The Lord God breathed into man’ s nostrils the breath of lives.” “ Come from the four winds, O breath!” and the breath came into the dry bones and they lived. But the physical is a symbol of a higher life, and the Spirit of God is the life of this higher nature. The question asked by scientific men is, How came life at first? From God. In regard to spiritual life, it is the testimony of all, from those early disciples downwards, “ Not I, O Lord, but Thy Spirit in me.” 2. This is a real thing. Just as the breath of Jesus, falling warm on the disciples’ faces, and the word of hope or courage whispered to a brother in darkness, and lifting him up to the light, and the battle-cry of freedom, arousing a nation from dogged despair, are real things; so this breath from heaven is real, a new, vital force coming into the man. He is a new man. “ The old things are passed away; behold they are become new.” 3. The question of inspiration has been much discussed of late. The word is literally “ inbreathing.” And I believe that the writers of this book were divinely inspired, that the prophets and apostles, with their varied powers and attainments, were harps along which the breath of God swept, and discoursed sweet and immortal strains to the world. But I believe that every Christian is divinely inspired for the work God means him to do, that the Spirit which came upon Bezaleel, the builder of the tabernacle, comes to the Christian in his humblest service to guide and teach him. He is not required to write a Bible, to be an apostle to the Africans or Chinese, to lead a crusade against slavery, or to usher in a great reformation; and, therefore, he has no inspiration for all this. But for the service required of him there is adequate power, and the five barley loaves in a lad’ s basket may be multiplied into a feast for five thousand men. III. THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS THE ’ FOR THEIR GREAT MISSION--a mission that has to do with sin. “ Whose soever sins,” &c. There were many evils afflicting the world at that time, as there are to-day; they were the sores on the surface, but Christ went to the root of the disease. It is possible to change the circumstances and yet not change the man. Laws may be improved, social and national customs may be reformed, wrongs may be redressed, abuses may be corrected; but, after all, this is only like giving a new coat to the leper or putting a new tombstone on the grave. But Christ came to deal with the evil thing itself, to work at the centre, and from that to the circumference, to put the leaven in the midst of the meal, to take away sin, and destroy the work of the devil. “ But do these words appear,” you may say, “ to delegate the power which the priests assume?” In reply, consider that these words were not addressed to all the apostles. Thomas was absent. And the words were not addressed to the ten apostles alone. 1. “ Whose soever sins ye remit,” or forgive. What does this mean? That a man is to take the place of the Saviour, and undertake to forgive sins? No; but he bears a gospel from Christ which is a message of forgiveness; and when that gospel is received, forgiveness is received, and we are warranted in saying, “ You are forgiven;” and what we say on earth, the angels, in their songs over the returning prodigal, say in heaven. Sin begets despondency, and a man says, “ I shall never get rid of it; the load is tied on too fast; like the Nessus shirt, it clings to me--it will be with me for ever.” You, as a Christian, have to reply: “ No; the load may be removed, the devil driven out, the sins washed away.” It is a great thing to help a man to realize this. Think of how Paul dealt with a man who had fallen in Corinth. Did he ask the man to confess to him and receive absolution? No; but he requested the Church to forgive him, and by their forgiveness to help him to believe in the forgiveness which abounds beyond the abounding sin. 2. “ And whose soever sins ye retain,” &c. That is, the message of forgiveness may be rejected. If not only the load of guilt remains, but, by reason of that rejection, is made heavier. The preaching of Christ cannot leave men as it finds them. The gospel of life may become a savour of death unto death. Where there is a rejection of Christ, we are authorized to say, “ Your sins remain. There is no other way.” And as the decisions of our colonies, are generally confirmed by the government at home; so the decisions of a divinely-directed society, whether in Church discipline or teaching, are ratified in heaven. Conclusion: For good service to the Church and the world, what do you need? Mental powers? knowledge? training? books? Yes. But, above all, you need the Spirit of God. Sunday-school teachers, if you would do your work well, you must have the Spirit. Witnesses for Christ in daily life, if you have the Spirit, there will be a right emphasis, a consistency, and courage in your testimony. (James Owen.) Whose soever sins ye remit The remission of sins I believe that nothing more than the authority to declare can be got out of these words, and I entirely reject the strange notion that our Lord meant to depute to the apostles the power of absolutely absolving or not absolving any one’ s soul. My reasons for maintaining this view of the text are as follows: 1. The power of forgiving sins, in Scripture, is always spoken of as the special prerogative of God. The Jews themselves admitted this (Mark Luke 5:21). It is monstrous to suppose that our Lord meant to overthrow this great principle. 2. The language of the old Testament Scripture shows conclusively that the prophets were said to “ do” things, when they “ declared them about to be done.” Thus Jeremiah’ s commission (Jeremiah 1:10) can only mean to declare the rooting out and pulling down, &c. So also Ezekiel says, “ I came to destroy the city” (Ezekiel 43:3); where the marginal reading is, “ I came to prophecy the city should be destroyed.” The apostles were doubtless well acquainted with prophetical language, and I believe they interpreted our Lord’ s words in this place accordingly. 3. There is not a single instance in the Acts or Epistles of an apostle taking on himself to absolve any one. The preachers of the New Testament declare in the plainest language whose sin is pardoned, but they never take on themselves to pardon. When Peter said to Cornelius and his friends, “ Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43); when Paul said at Antioch, in Pisidia, “ We declare unto you glad tidings;” “ Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” Acts 13:32; Acts 13:38); and when Paul said to the Philippian jailor, “ Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 15:31); in each case they fulfilled the commission of the text before us. They “ declared whose sins were remitted, and whose were retained.” 4. There is not a single word in the three pastoral Epistles to show that the Apostle regarded absolution as part of the ministerial office. If it was he would surely have mentioned it, and urged the practice of it on young ministers, for the relief of burdened souls. 5. The weakness of human nature is so great, that it is grossly improbable that such a tremendous power would ever be committed to any mortal man. It would be highly injurious to any man, and a continued temptation to him to usurp the office of a Mediator between God and man. 6. The experience of the Romish Church affords the strongest indirect evidence that our Lord’ s words can only have been meant to bear a “ declarative” sense. Anything worse or more mischievous, both to minister and people, than the results of the Romish system of penance and absolution it is impossible to conceive. It is a system which has practically degraded the laity, damaged the clergy, and turned people away from Christ. (Bp. Ryle.) The gospel of absolution (Text, and Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18):--Let us inquire I. WHAT IS ? “ And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” If we refer to another occasion upon which Christ used this metaphor of the keys, we shall find that Christ was accustomed to associate with the expression knowledge and the specific power that comes from knowledge (Luke 11:52). The reference here can only be to the knowledge that unlocks the gates leading into the kingdom of heaven. That was Christ’ s future gift to Peter. Putting this side by side with the fact that Christ had just been speaking of a knowledge of His own Person and character that had been given to Peter, what can the knowledge that Christ would by and by give be but the knowledge of the Father, of which He was the only one spring and channel amongst men? It was through that knowledge that Peter was to open the way for men into the kingdom of heaven. “ To bind” and “ to loose” was to teach and to rule in the kingdom of heaven, in harmony with the knowledge received from the Father. You will observe that the promise deals more immediately with things, not persons, with truths and duties, and not with human souls. And then we turn over two chapters in Matthew’ s Gospel that are separated from each other by a few months of time, and we find practically the same language, with the metaphor of the keys dropped from it, addressed to a much wider circle of disciples. In the later version of the same words, you will find that the binding and loosing refers to that which is impersonal. “ What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.” No unconditional infallibility is ascribed in the passage either to the Church or its ministers. It declares its infallibility with special safeguards. Go into an observatory, and watch some astronomer as he is following the transit of a star. His telescope is so adjusted, that an ingenious arrangement of clockwork is made to shift it with the transit of the star. His instrument is moving in obedience to the movement of the star in the heavens. But the clock-work does not move the star. The astronomer has made his faultless calculations; the mechanic has adjusted his cranks and pendulums and wheels and springs with unerring nicety, and every movement in the telescope answers to the movement of the star in the far-off heavens. The correspondence rests on knowledge. And so when the things that are bound on earth are bound in heaven. Every legislative counsel and decree and movement in a truly apostolic and inspired Church answers to some counsel and decree and movement in the heavens. But then the power of discerning and forecasting the movements of the Divine will and government rests upon the power of interpreting the Divine character and applying its principles of action, as that character is communicated to us by Jesus Christ. You are giving a boy his first lesson in astronomy. You show him an orrery. You tell him that the central disc represents the sun, and the third from the centre the earth, and so on. And then you ask him to turn the handle which puts all these metallic balls representing things in the heavens in motion. You say that every movement here is a counterpart of every movement in the skies. But unless the boy is very dull indeed he does not suppose he is actually turning the planetary system with this little handle. And yet if the machine be faultless in construction, whatever is done on earth is done in heaven. Whatever is bound here is bound yonder likewise. The words addressed to the apostles by Jesus Christ on the evening of His resurrection from the dead approach more nearly to what has been understood by the term “ absolution” than the earlier utterances. Here the apostles are spoken of as dealing with the souls of men in direct judgment. In the preceding instances they have been viewed as dealing with souls through the instrumentality of the truth. Here the instrumentality falls more or less into the background, and the witnesses to Jesus Christ are viewed as justifying or condemning, saving or destroying men by the power of their word. “ Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” And yet, after all, this is but a more solemn and impressive form of the earlier statement. As the doctor takes the key of his drug-store and selects from the specifics that are arranged around him, he kills or makes alive. His key means a power of absolution. When it is first put into his hand he is entrusted with as solemn a responsibility as the judge who pronounces death-sentences or the Home Secretary who presents a death-warrant to the sovereign for signature or recommends a reprieve. When he selects this drug, or looks upon that as hopeless to apply under the conditions into which the patient has fallen, he is dealing with questions of life and death. And so Christ in His closing admonitions to the disciples teaches that they are not dealing with speculative truth only. They are commissioned to deal with grave, spiritual destinies. “ Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained.” The words imply that the truth the apostles shall preach to men in the crowd, as well as present to the individual in the course of their more private ministrations, is the truth by which men shall be judged in the day of Jesus Christ, and that the impression produced here and now under their preaching shall be confirmed then. The sphere of the apostles’ ministry and the sphere of the final judgment shall be penetrated by the same moral laws and principles. We sometimes find that things that apply under the conditions of one age do not apply under the conditions of another. Acts done in one country may have no worth or validity if the doer of them goes to another. The principles to be set forth by the apostles in their relation to the collective or individual souls of men alike are universal, not local, of Divine and not human authority only, eternal and not temporary and terminable in their sanctions. “ Whose soever sins ye shall remit shall be remitted unto them.” It will help us in our endeavour to reach just conclusions on this question, if we remember that the power possessed by the first messengers of the gospel was greater than the power possessed by its messengers now, and approximated more closely to the exclusive type of prerogative claimed by the modern sacerdotalist. The first possessors of a truth wield a more terrible power than their successors can expect to wield, when that truth has become widely known. The curative properties of certain drugs now used in medicine were once known only in certain families. The knowledge was kept a secret within these families for generations. The knowledge was a monopoly. Through that monopoly they had in many cases power of life and death. That knowledge diffuses itself through a hundred text-books over half the globe, and becomes accessible to any one who can read. The special power accruing to the first possessors of the secret through their monopoly has passed away. And so with the knowledge by which entrance into the kingdom of heaven was to be gained. That knowledge at first was the monopoly of the few who followed Christ. But that condition of things exists no longer. If Peter himself could come into our midst, he would find his distinctive prerogative gone. That special knowledge which made him an absolver of souls gifted with a prerogative of life and death, he would find the possession of little children in Sunday schools. It is said that when the Earl of Essex was in high favour with Queen Elizabeth, she one day gave him a ring, accompanied by the request that if he should ever find himself in circumstances of trouble in which her help could avail, he would at once send that ring as the sign of his appeal to her good offices. She would then do everything in her power to aid him. Some time after he was arrested for rebellion, and condemned to die. Elizabeth signed his death-warrant, but waited with tears and solicitude for the return of the ring, that was to be the sign of his appeal to her clemency. The ring had been entrusted by the condemned earl to the Countess of Nottingham for delivery into the hands of the queen. The Countess kept back the ring, and suffered the sentence to be carried into effect. The ring gave her the power of remitting or retaining sin. To make the illustration serve the purpose for which we want to use it just now, we must suppose the Countess was the go between for the transmission of the ring not from the condemned man to the queen, but from the queen to the condemned man, and for the ring we must substitute a password. The power of absolution in the evangelical sense is very much like that. The ring, or the password, is the truth through which the forgiveness of God must be carried home to anxious, sin-burdened multitudes. And this leads us to ask the question, Upon what conditions does this power of opening and closing the kingdom of heaven, and of retaining and remitting the sin of men, rest? You will observe, in the first case, nothing whatever was promised to Peter, except so far as he was already the subject of a teaching inspiration, and was to become so in a yet richer degree in future days. He held the keys, and could bind and loose in so far as the Son was revealed to him by the Father and the Father by the Son, and not one iota beyond. He could not open the gates of the kingdom by any private authority and apart from the possession of these truths. And then we come to the promise of this same power to the whole congregation of the disciples. There is no power of binding and loosing, you will observe, apart from Christ’ s indwelling presence within the Church. And then we come to the last case. Christ connected the power of absolution with a symbolic act, in which He made the disciples recipients of His own life, and partakers and instruments of the Holy Ghost by that fellowship. But it will be observed that there is no valid retention or remission of sin that can be pronounced to men, except by the lips of which the Holy Ghost is the unceasing breath. Given that condition in the case of either priest or layman, and I am free to extend the province of absolution just as far as the most extreme sacerdotalist has ever sought to extend it. The ideal Church and the ideal minister may have all the power the sacerdotalists claim, but to assume that the Church and minister of to-day and every day is ideal in actual life and attainment is to make a very strong demand upon our credulity indeed. I go and look for the minister who is so filled with the Holy Ghost that he becomes infallible in moral judgment, and always speaks the exact thought of God in acquitting or condemning men And I scarcely know where to find the man who has been lifted by the inspiration of the Spirit above error. I come therefore to the conclusion that these are delineations of ideal Christianity; not ideal in the sense that they are beyond the line of practical possibility, but ideal in the sense that they are realized only by an uncommon exaltation of soul. II. The question arises, WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO AN OF THIS SORT? The sacerdotalist replies, The man who has received an ordination that is unbroken in the line of its succession from the apostles, with Peter at their head. But the power committed to Peter is entrusted some few months later, not only to the apostles, but to each and every disciple who might chance to be offended by the wrong or transgression of another and who would be loyal to certain specified directions, as well as to the whole congregation of believers in their corporate capacity. The thorough-paced sacerdotallst demands confession as a preliminary basis for the absolution he utters. That demand is a tacit admission of the frivolity of his claim. It is just as though some thought-reader should boast that he would read the number of a bank-note placed in a sealed safe, and ask first to be allowed to look at the cash-book of the firm through whose hands the note last passed, and in which a record was made of the number. If the priest cannot read the heart of the penitent without the help of his confession, he is still less able to read that Divine heart, from whose secret judgment the absolution of the individual must spring. A genuine absolution must rest as much upon a correct interpretation of the mind of God to the individual, as upon the interpretation of the state of the individual mind itself. Indeed, no confession can supply an accurate basis for the utterance of an edict of absolution. The same acts may represent very diverse religious conditions in people of diverse knowledge, training, and experience. The God, who is a God of knowledge, and by whom actions are weighed, and He only, can read unerringly all the delicate factors in our spiritual state and condition, and pronounce the absolution that is unimpeachably and eternally judicial. So far, however, as absolution deals with the proclamation of God’ s good will to the penitent, whoever is filled with the mind and spirit of Christ is free to proclaim it. The proclamation, resting as it ultimately does, upon Christ’ s authority and that of His disciples, is just as good from one man’ s lips as another’ s, if he be spiritually qualified to reflect the mind of God. It is not the man who clothes the truth with the authority of his office. It is the truth that clothes the man with his authority as he utters it. News may not always come from the Government gazette, or be proclaimed by the town crier who fills an office that may have existed from the first incorporation of the town; and yet it may be good and trustworthy news notwithstanding. It has been calculated that the amount of heat received from the sun in the course of a year is so great that if the earth were covered, from pole to pole, with an ice cap a hundred feet thick, the heat would suffice to melt away every atom of that ice heap. And the amount of heat our earth receives is but a trifle in comparison with the total volume given off by the sun. It is scarcely so much as a drop in the rainfall of a year. Our earth receives only one twenty-five-thousand-millionth of the heat the sun gives off year by year. God’ s forgiveness is as bountiful as that. From the burning depths of His great, unfathomed heart He is ever pouring boundless grace and incomprehensible compassion. His love is sufficient, not only to melt the sin from every human heart, but to melt the sin from as many worlds, if they needed it, as there are human souls in this ant-heap world of ours. Do not suppose that the warmth of God’ s forgiveness, before it can melt or transform our natures, must needs be gathered up into the burning-glass of some petty priest’ s insignificant absolution. God’ s warm love is pouring down upon you Sunday and weekday alike, without stint or condition other than that you will meekly and penitently receive it. You are not dependent upon the absolution of either the confessional or the inquiry room. (T. G. Selby.) John 20:24-29 But Thomas, called Didymus … was not with them when Jesus came St. Thomas Mark I. HOW MUCH MAY LOSE BY NOT THE OF GOD’ S PEOPLE. 1. Thomas was absent when Jesus appeared, and consequently missed a blessing. He was kept in suspense and unbelief a whole week, while all around him were rejoicing in the thought of a risen Lord. 2. We shall all do well to remember the charge (Hebrews 10:25). Never to be absent from God’ s house on Sundays, without good reason; never to let our place be empty when means of grace are going on--this is one way to be a prosperous Christian. The very sermon that we needlessly miss may contain a precious word in season for our souls. The assembly for prayer and praise from which we stay away may be the very gathering that would have cheered and stablished our hearts. We little know how dependent our spiritual health is on little, regular, habitual helps, and how much we suffer if we miss our medicine. The wretched argument that many attend means of grace and are no better for them should be no argument to a Christian. Such an one should remember the words of Solomon Proverbs 8:34), and the Master’ s promise (Matthew 18:20). II. HOW KIND AND CHRIST IS TO DULL AND SLOW . 1. It is hard to imagine anything more provoking than the conduct of Thomas, when even the testimony of ten faithful brethren had no effect on him. But it is impossible to imagine anything more patient and compassionate than our Lord’ s treatment of him. He comes again at the end of a week, and apparently for the special benefit of Thomas, and deals with him according to his weakness, like a gentle nurse dealing with a froward child. If nothing but material evidence could satisfy him, even that evidence was supplied. 2. This, doubtless, was written for the comfort of believers. The Holy Ghost knew well that the dull, slow, stupid, and doubting are by far the commonest type of disciples in this evil world, and He has taken care to supply abundant evidence that Jesus bears with the infirmities of all His people. Let us take care that we copy our Lord’ s example. III. HOW CHRIST WAS BY A AS “ GOD,” WITHOUT OR REBUKE ON HIS PART. When Cornelius fell down at the feet of Peter and would have worshipped him, the Apostle refused such honour at once (Acts 10:26). So did Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:14). The Divinity of Christ is one of the foundation truths of Christianity. Unless our Lord is very God of very God, there is an end of His mediation, His atonement, His advocacy, His priesthood, His whole work of redemption. These doctrines are useless blasphemies, unless Christ is Divine. Let us bless God that the divinity of our Lord stands on evidence that can never be overthrown. Above all, let us daily repose our sinful souls on Christ, with undoubting confidence, as one who is perfect God as well as perfect man. (Bp. Ryle.) The man who missed the meeting: After a great fire, or a flood like that which desolated Johnstown, a time always comes for a deliberate calculation of the loss. But it is seldom that we sit down and figure out how much we have lost by neglect of opportunity, or the waste of time. It is said that a great American lawyer once put down in black and white the loss of money and reputation which resulted from his stopping on the way to the trial of an important case, to have two minutes’ gossip with a friend. Such calculations are rare, because we no more like to think of what is irrecoverably gone than a soldier likes to visit a battlefield where he was ignominously beaten. 1. The personal presence of his Master was one element of the loss. 2. But Thomas also lost the help which he might have had in the Christian sympathy of his brethren. They were in a common trouble. That trouble ought to have bound them the more strongly to each other. In the Paris exposition Of 1889 was a wonderful picture, which told its own story. A peasant’ s hut furnished the scene. The scanty household belongings told of poverty. The fire had gone out on the hearth. The rough table was destitute of food. In the corner, covered with a white sheet, lay something which spoke of death. But, huddled close together, as if fearing to be parted, the children are represented as clinging to each other. The whole picture seemed to say, “ When the mother is dead, what can the children do but keep together?” That was the spirit in which Christ’ s personal followers met on the first Sunday night after the Crucifixion. Their only comfort, when their Master was dead, was in keeping near to each other. What a help it would have been to Thomas, if, in the loneliness of his supposed orphanage, he could have had the strength which comes from personal contact with others in the same experience of sorrow! On our Illinois prairies, the farmers, in the harvest-time, never set a single sheaf of grain standing by itself. They put them so that half a dozen lean the one against the Other, and thus give mutual support. The old story tells us that Alexander the Great mourned over the loss of a day. But Thomas must have deplored the loss of a week. On an ocean steamship, there are no hours of greater discomfort than those in which the fog-whistle sounds its dismal note. The incertitude where the right way lies, and the consciousness of peril without the power to see how to avoid it, make every such hour an hour of misery. But such a fog is as nothing to that which envelops him who finds a distrust of his nearest friend creeping over his soul. It would all have been spared him, if he had been “ there when Jesus came.” The evidence which Christ granted him a week later might have been given him when the other disciples “ knew it was the Lord.” One of the first effects of doubt of the gospel in the heart of a Church-member is to keep him away from the meetings of his brethren. The very place in which Christ would meet him, and remove his puzzling difficulties, is the place he neglects. (Bp. Cheney.) Thomas “ not there” : a lost opportunity The disciples had met; but there were three vacant places. Jesus Himself was absent: would He ever be present again? Judas, too, was no longer one of their number, and never would be. There was yet another vacant seat: “ Thomas, one of the twelve … was not there.” Why this absence? The weather had probably nothing to do with this absence; nor could it be attributed to some casual hindrance. Thomas had no heart to go. This would make his absence painfully significant to the other apostles. Most ministers know how the absence of friends from services depresses those present, even when it cannot be traced to such a reason as this. There is a chilling influence felt whenever the minister’ s eye rests upon timber instead of worshippers, and every empty pew opens its mouth wide in discouraging eloquence, which makes it necessary for the preacher to open his wider than usual, or the vacant seat will have it all its own way. Thomas, like Philip, Matthew, and Nathanael or Bartholomew, belonged to the meditative and doubting section of the apostles. Philip’ s doubts came through his love of mathematics. To him everything had to be reduced, to a sum in proportion, or to be arranged in its proper form and sequence like a problem in Euclid. “ Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little,” and “ Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us,” are the two utterances which reveal the nature of Philip’ s doubts. Thomas’ s doubts, on the contrary, came through his despondency. One man’ s doubts arise from his brain, another man’ s from his liver. Depend upon it, God does not ignore the physical, any more than He does the mental, infirmities which sometimes becloud our faith. In harmony with this prominent characteristic of Thomas, as given in both instances by John, it would appear that his absence on this occasion was due to the depressing influence of sorrow and unbelief. Notice that here, and side by side, we find two operations of sorrow. First we find the combining power of mutual grief in bringing the disciples together; while, in the case Of Thomas, we find the isolating power of sorrow in keeping a man apart from his fellows. Unbelieving sorrow makes a man close the door upon himself. He does not want to be brought into contact with old companionships or associations, but becomes isolated from all, and in loneliness broods over his grief. Now, what was the result of all this in the experience of Thomas? 1. He, by his absence, missed a great opportunity, and in one sense missed it irreparably. He “ was not there when Jesus came.” We know what it is to be unburdened, or at least to have our burdens lightened, by being brought into contact with others who are bearing similar burdens to our own. It is a spiritual fact, which has no counterpart in physics, that two men who bear their own burdens, when brought shoulder to shoulder, find that by that touch the burden of each is lessened. Thus Thomas would have missed much from forfeiting the communion of other sorrowful ones, even if Christ Himself had not come. But the loss seems to be multiplied n thousandfold when we read that Jesus came when “ Thomas was not there.” Now, Thomas was the last man who could afford this loss. No one of the eleven--for Peter had already seen the Master--needed the consolation, which came with the Master’ s presence, as much as Thomas did, and yet he was the only one who was absent. I have often noticed that since then those who can least afford such a loss are those who are oftenest absent when Jesus comes to cheer and bless His own. 2. Thomas by his absence missed the sight, for the time being, of his risen Lord. Thus he was the last of the apostles to whom that was granted. 3. Thomas, too, by this absence missed the first discourse of the risen Christ. Turn to Luke 24:44-49. There we have a brief outline of the Master’ s sermon at that service from which Thomas was absent. What a loss was that! He forfeited his Lord’ s exposition of the Old Testament in relation to Himself. 4. Again, Thomas by this absence missed all that is contained in the words preceding our text--“ Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” &c. (verses 21-23). This was the gift of the Risen Lord, as the gift of the Day of Pentecost was that of the Ascended Lord. This Thomas missed. Are there not lessons here for us? Observe, first of all, that it was easier for the inspired writer to record the names of those absent from, than those present at, this service. Would it were so in our day when meetings are held for prayer! Again, how much sooner some of us would solve our problems if we took them to the sanctuary, and not, like Thomas, nursed them in solitude! (David Davies.) Our Lord’ s interview with Thomas I. AMONGST CHRIST’ S ARE MEN OF MANY . Cautious Thomas, impetuous Peter, loving John. Let no man condemn his brethren because unlike himself. Christ knows how to sanctify all. II. EVERY MAN SHOULD BE ON HIS GUARD AGAINST HIS : the cautious and hesitant against despondency and scepticism. III. SINCERE DOUBT CALLS FORTH NOT THE , BUT THE PITY AND HELP OF CHRIST. Let us not by harshness drive the earnest doubter into disbelief. He may become the immovable, because intelligent, believer. IV. BE IT OURS TO SEEK THE HIGHER OF THOSE WHO THOUGH NOT SEEING BELIEVE. We shall not seek in vain. He will manifest Himself to us as He does not unto the world. V. LET NOTHING DETER US FROM MAKING THOMAS’ S OUR OWN. (Preacher’ s Monthly.) Thomas called Didymus I. HIS HISTORY. 1. Parentage. Unknown, though from the circumstance that he is always conjoined with Matthew (Matthew 10:1-42.; Mark 3:1-35.; Luke 5:1-39.), who was a son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14), and the two are always followed by James, also the son of Alpheus, it has been supposed that he was Matthew’ s twin brother. 2. Apostleship. Belonging originally to the circle of John’ s disciples, he appears, like Andrew, Simon, James, and John, to have gone early over to Christ. In the second year of Christ’ s ministry he was called to serve as an apostle. 3. Appearances. (1) In Peraea (John 11:16). (2) At the supper table (John 14:5). (3) After the Resurrection (text). 4. Disappearance. After this he is only mentioned once (Acts 1:13). According to the Fathers, he preached in Parthia, and was buried in Edessa. A later tradition says he carried the gospel into India, where afterwards an old colony of Syrian Christians on the coast of Malabar, calling themselves “ Thomas Christians,” claimed him as their founder. II. HIS . Of 1. A melancholy disposition. Constitutionally and habitually looking on the dark side of things, Thomas preferred to walk on the shady side of the street (John 11:16). 2. A slow judgment. Thomas never travelled faster than his understanding or reason would permit, and these were never hasty in forming decisions John 14:5). 3. A critical mind. Thomas liked to search things to the bottom, to see before he believed (John 14:25). 4. A courageous spirit. He was not afraid to encounter danger and death with and for His Master (John 11:16), although taken with a panic, like the rest, he forsook Christ and fled. 5. A true heart. His judgment once convinced, his heart never hesitated, as here. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Two passages from the life of Thomas the Apostle I. THE FIRST PASSAGE is in John 20:24-25. 1. His distinction. “ One of the twelve.” Twelve rare stones once burned in the breast-plate of the High Priest; a glorious mass, the richest symbol of value, honour, and glory. The twelve apostles were like these gems. There was no duplicate stone, no duplicate apostle, and one could never be mistaken for another. Thomas was a man of pronounced individuality. His very unbelief was all his own. But with all their diversities these twelve live stones were all wrought into one symmetrical whole, the Priest carried them all on his heart. 2. The disapproving mark set against his name. “ Thomas … was not with them.” In this we recognize the spirit of rebuke. We are obliged to read it in connection with his title. He was not one of “ the seventy,” but “ one of the twelve.” What, after all, was the great wrong? That is a merely negative charge. Men generally think that simply not to do a thing is, at any rate, to be harmless. But in the sight of God few things are negative. Not to do right is to do wrong. Christ cries, “ He that is not for Me is against Me.” The law reserves its loudest thunders for negations. “ Curse ye Meroz.” Why? “ Because they came not up to the help of the Lord.” And Christ’ s most fearful formula of condemnation is, “ Inasmuch as ye did it not.” Thomas might have said, “ I hinder no other man; if I do no good, I do no harm, for I simply do nothing.” Nothing! (1) The disciples were drawn together by love. If not orphans in fact, they were in feeling, and their hearts would say, “ We must be all in all to each other now; let us cling closer and closer.” Did they cling? All were together that night but one. (2) They would be drawn together in worship. Allow that their faith was weak, it was not yet quite a thing of the past. A child does not cease to be a child because it is suffering from fever; the instinct which makes it natural for life to seek its source, and for God’ s child to fly to God in trouble, was working in them still. “ But Thomas was not with them.” (3) They met from the habit of meeting as Christ’ s appointed witnesses. But Thomas “ was not with them.” 3. There is no explanation of his absence. (1) It seems fair, however, to ascribe it to his constitutional unbelief. To him doubtless it looked like stark lunacy to think that Christ could be alive again. “ I will not be taken in again; I will not love any more,” said poor Southey when his child died; so in spirit said Thomas now. (2) Connected with, and consequent on, his unbelief, there might be the most dismal apathy. He wanted no companion but his own forlorn thoughts, and therefore he would not go. It is like saying, “ Because I am hungry, I will take no food; because I am caught in a storm, I will seek no shelter,” &c. Where was the melancholy man? Did he lie flung upon the floor all night; or had sorrow put on the mask of levity, and did he laugh? Did he try to walk off the agony of his grief, striking away to the hills of Bethlehem, or to the groves of Olivet, or to the ghostly wilderness, where once the scapegoat wandered, or to the haunted solitudes of the Dead Sea shore? Wherever he stumbled along, he would say, “ I did once think that He was the Redeemer of Israel! It is all over now!” 4. Hear what he says after the meeting. “ Old Father Morris,” says his American biographer, “ had noticed a falling off in his little village meeting for prayer. The first time he collected a tolerable audience, he took occasion to tell them something ‘ concerning the conference meeting of the disciples’ after the Resurrection. ‘ But Thomas was not with them.’ ‘ Thomas not with them!’ said the old man in a sorrowful voice; ‘ why, what could keep Thomas away? Perhaps.’ said he, glancing at some of his auditors, ‘ Thomas had got cold hearted, and was afraid that they would ask him to make the first prayer; or, perhaps,’ he continued, looking at some of the farmers, ‘ he was afraid the roads were bad; or, perhaps,’ he added, after a pause, ‘ he thought a shower was coming on.’ He went on significantly summing up common excuses, and then with great simplicity and emotion he added, ‘ But only think what Thomas lost, for in the middle of the meeting the Lord Jesus came and stood among them!’” After the meeting, “ the other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.” While they told their tale with burning words and eager gestures, he stood unmoved. Mary Magdalene said that she had seen the Saviour. “ Ah, no doubt you are an excellent woman, but you have been deceived, you are so imaginative.” Then Peter said, “ I have seen the Lord.” “ I am sure you think so, but you must be in error.” Then John said, “ But indeed I have seen the Lord.” “ That is good evidence for yourself, but it does not convince me.” Then Bartholomew and others would say, “ We have seen the Lord, and five or six others have told you so. Do you think we have conspired to tell a falsehood?” “ No, my brethren, far from it; yet I have known such things in the world as for five or six persons to be mistaken. I feel that your witness deals with such improbabilities that I cannot receive it.” At last he declared downright, “ Except I shall see,” &c. II. THE SECOND PASSAGE is in verses 26-29. 1. The meeting renewed. Like the first, it was on the first day of the week, a fact not easy to account for except on the theory of a special law of Christ. He gave the first and second Sunday the sanction of His presence, leaving the interval to pass in silence, looking as if He meant to make the day stand out with sharp relief, as the day which was to have Sabbatic benediction. 2. The absentee returned. Thomas, as a true man, could not remain an absentee. It is hard for like not to fly to like. Everything in grace, like everything in nature, will sooner or later “ go to its own company,” and so did Thomas. 3. How the unbelief was dealt with: as the affliction of a true disciple. Unbelief has many varieties. There is the unbelief of (1) The indifferent--that says, “ What is truth?” That is, Who knows? Who cares? What does it matter? (2) The vain--that which delights to air itself in public; which is thought to be the mark of the thoughtful, or of the original, or of the heroic. (3) Of one who has indolently allowed unbelievers to think for him; who has caught it as a cold is caught, simply by standing about in draughts. (4) Of temperament. Some persons must sift evidence before they commit themselves. The term “ sceptic” is from a root that means “ cover,” or “ shade,” and would in old time have been applied to a man who shaded his eyes with his hand in order to look into a thing narrowly and intently, determined not to be mistaken about it. It may therefore be fitly applied to a man of doubting temperament; but while it points to this, it also includes the idea of a shadow over the mind, and a tendency to take dark, uncertain, unhappy views of things. (5) The unbelief of Thomas was from the last-named cause. Christ called His disciples “ children.” Here was the serious and critical illness of a child. Is a child less loved when ill than when well? He knew that the sceptical nature of this man went along with simple, noble, self-renouncing love. 4. Jesus, in dealing with it, revealed His forgiving love. Infirmity given way to and persisted in deepens into sin. It was a sin not to believe after he had heard the Master say, “ Let not your heart be troubled,” &c., and after hearing His repeated foreshowings of His resurrection. It was sin to set up his own single decision against the evidence of his ten tried companions, and not to be satisfied with mental conviction and to demand in such a case as this the report of his fingers. With patient pity, Christ sought the poor wanderer, and with unspeakable tenderness brought him back. 5. The confession made. What was the immediate occasion of this cry? The offer was indeed made to the doubter, of the very tests he asked for. But Thomas did not accept this challenge; his had been a perilous venture to dare, and now he drew back from the edge of the precipice up to which he had come. The stubborn spirit melted in the flash of a moment, and the bold unbeliever became a little child. Touch was not thought of now. Christ was fully revealed. Love has sharp sight and quick responsiveness; in the new light, yet mingled with a sense of mystery, he recognized the Lord of his heart; with wonder, with tender and exquisite ecstasy, and with adoring prostration of soul, he cried, “ My Lord and my God.” (C. Stanford, D. D.) St. Thomas’ s doubt: Of all the apostles, St. Thomas affords the most striking parallel to the prevailing tendencies of our age. These words of his might have been spoken by a disciple of the modern school of sensational philosophy. The impatience of dictated belief and the dependence upon the evidence of the senses, which are the common habits of our day, are here both plainly expressed. I. ST. THOMAS’ S DOUBT VIEWED IN TO HIS OWN . 1. It Is a decided doubt. We look upon doubt as something that wavers, falters, hesitates. But St. Thomas shows the opposite spirit. He is very positive. The dogmatism of unbelief is often observed; but here we may see the dogmatism of doubt. Though the expression appears paradoxical, it is verified by common observation. If a man lays down certain conditions on which he will believe, and regards these conditions as absolute and final, he is as dogmatic in his decision not to decide the question before him till those conditions are fulfilled as if he were determining the question itself. Now, is there not a certain pride and assumption in the position thus taken up? Can we be so sure that our criteria are perfectly sound? Is it not possible that our doubt may arise from no deficiency of grounds for reasonable belief, but from artificial requirements which we have set up without any warrant for them? 2. This doubt must be distinguished from distrust. The apostle does not waver in his allegiance to Christ; he merely questions the astounding rumour of the resurrection. The really important matter for all of us is an active loyal trust in Christ. It is far better to have this, and yet to hesitate in regard to facts in the history of Christ, than to accept all those facts in a bare intellectual conviction, but to have no living faith in Him. There are men like the doubting disciple who cling to their trust in their Lord though they are sadly tried with questions about the facts and doctrines of the gospel. Of course the haze that obscures these truths must make the act of earnest, practical faith more difficult than it would be with a clear assurance in regard to them. 3. St. Thomas’ s doubt resulted in part from his despondent and gloomy disposition. It is not charitable for persons of a cheerful disposition to be harsh in rebuking the painful doubts of gloomy minds. II. ST. THOMAS’ S DOUBT AS OF A COMMON PHASE OF THOUGHT. There was a method in his doubt. He had a very clear idea of what he required to satisfy his mind. 1. The first requisite was personal experience. St. Thomas had not been with the disciples when Christ appeared. He must see for Himself. A similar disposition is apparent in the claims for individual conviction advocated so strenuously in the present day. This is the great Protestant principle of private judgment run wild. People refuse to accept a doctrine because the Church authorizes it. It must be proved to them on its own merits. Wholesome and sensible as this demand is when kept within reasonable limits, it lands us in absurdity when it is pushed to extremes. We cannot obtain direct evidence of every truth. Life is too short for the task, and our faculties are too limited. We accept facts of history on testimony. Is it not reasonable that we should accept the historical foundation of religion in the same way? No one mind can survey the whole realm of science. The most strict disciple of the school of inductive philosophy is compelled to rely largely on the researches of other men. Why should not the same principle apply to the acquisition of spiritual truth? No doubt personal experience of spiritual truth is the strongest ground for believing in it as well as the surest way of understanding it. Still, our creed will be very thin and meagre if it never transcends our life. The great use of the Bible is to bring us into contact with truths which are vastly above and beyond our present experience, that thereby our experience may be enlarged and elevated. He who confines himself to the light of experience cripples the growth of experience, and thus prevents that very light from becoming brighter. 2. The other requisite was the evidence of the senses. St. Thomas must see the very wounds of Christ with his own eyes, and touch the wound-prints with his fingers, before he will believe. Spiritual contact with the risen Lord is not enough. This evidence of the senses is set in the first place among our modern grounds of conviction. Yet the senses are being proved to be liable to great illusions, and at least they can show only objects of sense. The spiritual world is wholly dark to them. But no evidence of the senses will reveal these great truths. He who confines himself to that one avenue of knowledge shuts the door against the light of the highest revelation. His position is unreasonable. We have souls as well as bodies, and there are ideas which can never reach our souls through touch and sight. (W. F.Adeney, M. A.) The scepticism of Thomas: It is interesting and instructive to note I. THE VARIETY OF IN THE . St. Peter, e.g., is impulsive and demonstrative, and at times self-reliant (Matthew 14:27-31; Matthew 26:33; Matthew 26:35; Matthew 26:70; Matthew 26:75). St. John is calm and undemonstrative, quietly leaning on Jesus’ bosom. St. Andrew would seem to have been self-retiring and contemplative; while Paul is all for action. 1. One of the advantages of keeping the Saints’ Days is that we thus have opportunity to study these different characters, their individual virtues and failings. 2. All the apostles may be called typical men: they find their counterpart in all ages. St. Thomas may be taken as the type of the sceptical mind. 3. There is a difference between scepticism and unbelief, although often confounded together. The sceptic doubts, and looks into the matter; the unbeliever rejects altogether, too often without inquiring (Acts 17:32), and frequently on moral grounds (chap. 3:19). But scepticism may end in unbelief; therefore a dangerous spirit to indulge: useful as a safeguard against error and imposition, but needs to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. II. THE SUBJECT ON WHICH ST. THOMAS WAS , viz., the resurrection of Christ. 1. The idea of a resurrection at all scarcely found a place in the disciples’ minds. They were not expecting such an unheard-of event (chap. 20:9; Luke 24:18-25). This enables us to realize the position of Thomas the better. 2. With St. Thomas’ s scepticism contrast the unbelief of the Athenians Acts 17:32). They rejected the doctrine of the resurrection in intellectual scorn, or with a quasi-polite show of deference; while Thomas asked for further proof. The men of Athens put the light from them; Thomas asked for more. 3. The scepticism of St. Thomas accordingly contributes towards establishing the fact of the Redeemer’ s resurrection, as we are reminded in the collect for the day. On the importance of this fact, see 1 Corinthians 15:1-20; Romans 1:3-4. III. OUR LORD’ S OF THOMAS’ S . 1. Thomas had nothing but hearsay evidence to trust in (chap. 20:24). Evidently a man who did not believe everything he heard, but at the same time ready to receive the truth on sufficient grounds (Acts 17:11). The Saviour dealt with him accordingly, and as He had done with the Baptist Matthew 11:2-6). 2. This was in accordance with our Lord’ s usual method. To intellectual unbelief He vouchsafed the gracious answer and adduced an argument Matthew 22:29-33). Where faith was weak and wavering, He came to the rescue (Mark 9:23; Matthew 14:30-31). Only against the error of the heart He launched His fiercest invectives (Matthew 23:13-15, &c.). “ In this world God cleanses our hearts, in the next He will cleanse our brains also.” Application: I. Our Lord’ s sympathy with honest doubt. He knows what is in man, and has compassion accordingly (Isaiah 42:3). If we are honestly seekingafter God’ s truth, His Spirit will guide us into it (John 16:13). Let us take all our spiritual difficulties to “ the Son of man.” He knows them all, and has grace in store to meet them (Hebrews 4:14-16). 2. Observe the special blessing which the Redeemer pronounces upon a simple unquestioning faith (Matthew 9:22; Mark 10:52; Matthew 15:28). (1) We are in the position of those who “ have not seen,” and for our comfort these words (John 20:29) were spoken. (2) While Thomas asked for more proof, let us ask for more faith Luke 17:5), that so the blessing of “ not seeing, and yet believing,” may be ours. (F. J. Calthrop, M. A.) The honest sceptic and how to treat him: We have here I. AN SCEPTIC. There are certain features in this scepticism of Thomas that mark it off from common scepticism. 1. It was negative, not positive. He did not echo the everlasting “ no” of the infidel world; all he said was, I cannot believe it without more evidence. He did not manifest any affinity of feeling with that presumptuous herd who arrogantly proclaim gospel facts impossibilities, gospel doctrines absurdities, and gospel believers brainless fanatics or cunning knaves. 2. It was intellectual, not moral. The wish is often the father to the thought--the creed the offspring of the heart; but it was not so here. 3. It was frank, not underhanded. To whom did Thomas avow his unbelief? To the sordid worldlings who felt no interest in those things--to the sneering infidel who would readily nurse his doubts into atheism? Or to Scribes and Pharisees who would be only too delighted at the indications of his apostacy? No, like an honest man he expressed his disbelief in the face of the believers. Let modern sceptics imitate his example in this. Let them, instead of appealing to the thoughtless crowd, and seeking to work |heir infidel notions by jokes and tales into the minds of the unreflecting multitude, go at once to the Church, and say openly and respectfully, as did Thomas, We cannot believe in the doctrines you offer unless you give us more evidence. This might serve the common cause of truth and the common interest of our race. 4. It was convincible, not obstinate. There are some men so inveterate in their prejudices that no amount of evidence will modify their opinions. Such was not Thomas. After he first avowed his unbelief, did he seek every possible means to establish himself in his infidel view and avoid opportunities for obtaining evidence? The reverse of this is the fact. “ Eight days” after he declared his scepticism, we find him with the disciples, no doubt in search of sufficient proof to convince him. Honest doubt is active, because it is a law of mind to seek certitude. II. AN GUIDE. We have here detailed the method in which Jesus dealt with this poor sceptic. Does He denounce him as a heretic, expel Him from the circle of His disciples, or treat him even with cold indifference, which to sensitive natures would be worse than severity? No. How then? Let the ministers who fulminate against all who cannot subscribe to their tenets, the sectarians who consign to perdition all beyond the pale of their little Church, mark well the conduct of Christ. 1. The direct speciality of His merciful treatment. He did not address some general remarks bearing on the subject of doubt to the whole company, leaving Thomas to apply them if he would. He deals directly with Him. He saw that the man was on the margin of the cold, dark infidelity, and that he required prompt and special attention. 2. Its exquisite considerateness. The request of Thomas was objectionable on many grounds, yet Christ condescends to grant it. He might have reproved him, but He at once says, “ Reach hither,” &c. 3. Its moral influence. Thomas said, “ My Lord and My God, I am more than convinced, I am won by the majesty of Thy love.” Mark well, then, Christ’ s method of treating scepticism, and take heed to the fact that in this respect He has left us an example. III. A SUPER-EMINENT FAITH (verse 29). These words imply two facts. 1. That it is possible for those who have never seen Christ to believe in Him. Wherever His gospel goes, there goes evidence sufficient to produce faith without any visible manifestation. There is (1) The testimony of competent witnesses. Had not the apostles every opportunity of thoroughly knowing those facts of Christ’ s history which they propounded? Had they any motive to deceive? (2) The testimony of our consciousness. There is such a congruity between the doctrines of the gospel and the intuitive beliefs of mankind, and between its provisions and our deep-felt wants, that it comes with a self-evidencing power. (3) In ordinary matters we believe without seeing every day. “ Faith is the evidence of things not seen,” as is shown in Hebrews 11:1-40. Ever since the departure of Christ the language of the Church has been, “ Whom having not seen we love,” &c. 2. That those who believe in Him without seeing are peculiarly blessed. We are apt to think that the contemporaries of Christ were privileged above us. This is a delusion. Faith without sight (1) Is more praiseworthy than faith by sight. There are two kinds of belief--the one voluntary, the other involuntary. The one comes by a properinquiry into evidence, and the other springs up irresistibly whenever a fact is visible to the senses, or a proposition truthful to the mind. The latter is without moral merit, and for it man is not responsible. But voluntary faith depends upon a man’ s agency. There is a universe of facts that lies beyond the realm of my senses and that transcends all my a priori ideas. Belief in those facts requires evidence, and the evidence requires honest investigation. This voluntary faith has a moral character. Why do men not believe in Christ? It cannot be said for the want of evidence, but because that evidence is either entirely neglected or examined improperly. Now the faith of Thomas sprang from the sense, and had in itself but little merit. (2) Is frequently more accurate. The senses are deceptive. “ Things are not what they seem.” Reason has evidences on which to build a faith of unquestionable truthfulness. (3) More ennobling. It involves a higher exercise of mind. Whatever tends to stimulate and work the mental faculties is good. Faith founded on rational evidence implies and demands this mental action. Sensuous faith does not. The history of the apostles illustrates this. How morally weak, because mentally inactive, were they during their personal connection with Christi But after His ascension, when they are thrown upon rational evidence, how strong they become in a few days. Conclusion: The subject suggests 1. An incidental argument in favour of Christianity. The fact that there was such a man as Thomas amongst the disciples shows that there was no collusion between them; and that they were not a body of superstitious and credulous men. 2. The superiority of our advantages over those of the contemporaries of Christ. 3. The duty of the Church in relation to doubters. 4. The relation to Christ which it is the supreme interest of humanity to seek--that which Thomas expressed, “ My Lord and my God.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) The folly of doubting: Ask thy soul these questions: First, Whether there be any gain by doubting? Faith purities the heart; but doth doubting purify the heart? Secondly, Whether there is anything more pleasing to God than to trust him in and by Jesus Christ, when all comforts are out of view, and when you see nothing but what is contrary to the thing promised? Thirdly, Whether you must not venture upon Christ at the last? and if you must venture upon Christ at the last, why not now? When a man hath to go over a river, though he ride once and again into the water, and come out, saying, I fear it is too deep for me; yet considering that there is no other way for him, he resolves to venture, for, saith he, the longer I stay, the higher the water will rise, and there is no other way for me--I must go through at the last, why not at the first? and so he ventures through. Thus it is with you. You say, “ Oh, but my heart is not humbled; oh, but I am a great sinner; and how can I venture upon Jesus Christ?” Will thy heart be more humbled by keeping from Jesus Christ, and wilt thou be less a sinner by keeping from Him? No, certainly; for the longer you stay from Christ, the harder it will be to venture on Him at the last. Wherefore, if there be ever a poor, drooping, doubting, fearing, trembling heart reading these words, know that I do here, in the name of the Lord, call out to you and say, Oh soul, man or woman, venture, venture, venture upon Christ now; for you must come to trusting in time at last; and if at last, why not now? (William Bridge.) Thomas doubting: Let us consider I. THE OF . 1. It is an evil habit to always think of doubt as sinful. It may be, because it may be the sign of a captious and insincere mind; but what can and ought a man do but doubt, if the evidence is not sufficient? Christian faith, it is true, is more than an act of the reason, but it never contradicts, and is itself, so far, an exercise of reason. 2. Are we to believe because our ancestors believed, and so gave us the Christian faith as an inheritance? Partly so; but never chiefly. If we are right-minded, right-hearted, we cannot help some preferences in favour of what comes to us from our forefathers. But this never can justify us in accepting the Christian faith. We must put on it the stamp of our own intelligence, and hold it in the grip of our own conviction. 3. It were better for us to be satisfied with evidence when it is enough than to be so critical and exacting as to demand that it shall be irresistible; better to be satisfied with the testimony of two senses than to require the concurring testimony of a third. Still, there are always those who are not so easily satisfied as their brethren. And when Thomas asks for more evidence, there is nothing to be done but to furnish it. 4. We have the highest of all examples for this procedure--Jesus Himself, who made this distinct appearance to satisfy His doubting disciple, and all besides him who are of his temper and school. II. DOUBT, IF IT IS TO TO BE AND , MUST BE ALWAYS ACTING AS A FORCE, URGING MATTERS ON TO A AND . 1. A merely speculative scepticism that entertains questions politely for a few hours simply for intellectual interest; that puts the Christian religion among the things, waiting a far-off day of settlement; is a most injurious habit. All deep earnestness is against it; and all high living; and all Holy Scripture; and the whole mind and heart of Christ. 2. That Christ did exist no sane man will deny. It will be granted, too, that some respect ought to be paid to His own wish and will in considering the matter of His claims. Here, then, is One who has filled the world with His name and influence; who never published a line, and yet has set all the world publishing books about Him; who never led an army, and yet has overrun the four quarters of the world; who never entered a palace, and yet exercises a sovereignty that kings might well envy. Now, has not He a right to say something as to the way His claims shall be treated? This is what he says, “ Reach hither thy finger,” &c. Some one says, “ I acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the chief of the sons of men.” That will not do. “ Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hand.” The hand that laboured, that healed, that blessed the little children, that rolled back the gates of Death. Another says, “ I see that Jesus Christ wields a vast influence over many hearts and over all the world, and with that influence I have no intention of interfering.” That will not do. “ Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side!” into the love-wound; the fountain of this world’ s purity; the only place where salvation can be found. Another says, “ I shall remain neutral for a while; there can be no harm in that.” That will not do. “ Be not” or literally “ Become not unbelieving, but believing.” Every man is becoming something more and more each day. The matter will not remain in balance. Consciously or unconsciously, it will ever grow to firmer faith or deeper unbelief. Therefore press the matter to settlement. III. HOW IS THIS TO BE REACHED? 1. It was easy for Thomas to do it. Or, rather, it was easy for him to reach satisfaction without doing it. Apparently, he never did reach thither his finger. He was surprised, most of all, to hear his own expressions of doubt reproduced, when no one could have told the Master of them. All doubting is over now, and all desire is gratified: “ My Lord and my God!” 2. The same principle operates still. A man lays down certain conditions as indispensable; but as he goes on he finds he can believe without them. Doubts are solved by the heart as well as by the intellect. There must, of courser be apprehended truth, else faith is only a superstition. But where there is an earnest mind the way of life will be plain and open. Now let us think again how Thomas was satisfied, and what the kind of proof was that brought him into this happy condition. Not by touching, for he never touched Him; not by seeing., although he did see Him; not by hearing, although he did hear, and knew the voice. The proof taking rank above all proofs was that God was near, and that he felt the awful glorious presence. 3. But where is the analogy between Thomas and any living person now? Here it is common now for those who reject Christianity to say, “ Faith is not at our bidding. Show us the truth, and give us sure proof of it, and there will be no question left.” And if we ask, “ What kind of proof,” &c., the answer is, “ I can construct an argument in logic, so that no sane man will be able to resist the conclusion; or, I can demonstrate a mathematical problem, so that there can be no demur; or I can make a scientific experiment, so that a particular result shall lie before the eyes of every observer.” Do you the same by religion, and then you may blot the word “ unbeliever” out of your vocabulary. Now what is all this but to say with Thomas, in his honest but lower mood, “ Except I shall see,” &c. And yet he did believe with less than this, and so does many a one now who thinks for a while that he never can. 4. Let it be plainly told we have no certainty of a mathematical, logical, scientific kind. We use the means for rational conviction. In a sense we try the Lord and His great claims, as He says we may, by rational and outward tests. If we had not these to begin with, we could make no beginning. But as we begin to reach forth the finger of examination and the hand of verification, and thus approach the great central person Himself, we feel how true it is that spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and that “ no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost.” (A. Raleigh, D. D.) The doubt of Thomas 1. There are some men whose affections are stronger than their understandings: they feel more than they think. They are perhaps the happiest class of minds: for it is happy to be without misgivings about the love of God and our own eternal rest in Him. “ Blessed are they that have believed.” 2. There is another class whose reflective powers are stronger than their susceptive: they think out truth--they do not feel it out. Such a man was Thomas. Happy such men cannot be. An anxious and inquiring mind dooms its possessor to unrest. But manly and affectionate they may be: Thomas was. “ Let us go up too, that we may die with Him.” And men of mighty faith they may become: Thomas did. Now this question of a resurrection which made Thomas restless is the most anxious that can agitate the mind of man. So awful in its importance, and out of Christ so desperately dark in its uncertainty, who shall blame an earnest man severely if he crave the most indisputable proofs? Very clearly Christ did not. Thomas asked of Christ a sign. His Master gave him that sign, with a gentle and delicate reproof it is true--but He did give it. Note I. THE OF THE DOUBTS OF THOMAS, which partly excuses them. 1. Nature is silent respecting a future life. There is enough to show us that there may be a life to come; there is nothing to make it certain. You strain at something in the twilight, and just when you are beginning to make it out the light fails you. So when we strain into nature’ s mysteries, to discern the secrets of the Great Hereafter. There are probabilities, nothing more. 2. Let us examine some of them. (1) The wish for immortality is a kind of argument: it is not likely that God would have given man such a feeling, if He had not meant to gratify it. If we thirst, God has created liquids. If we are susceptible of attachments, there are beings to gratify love. If we thirst for life and love eternal, it is likely that there are an eternal life and love. But more we cannot say. (2) The traditions of universal belief. How came it to be held by all, if only a delusion? And yet when you come to estimate this it is only a presumption. The universal voice of mankind is not infallible. (3) We are met by many resemblances to a resurrection--that of the moth from the grave of the chrysalis. For many ages the sculptured butterfly was the type and emblem of immortality. Again, there is a kind of resurrection when the spring brings vigour and motion back to the frozen pulse of the winter world. And yet all this, valuable as it is in the way of suggestiveness, is worth nothing in the way of proof. They only look like resurrections. The chrysalis only seemed dead: the tree in winter only seemed to have lost its vitality. Six thousand years of human existence have passed away; countless armies of the dead have set sail from the shores of time. No traveller has returned from the still land beyond. Now look at all this without Christ, and tell us whether it be possible to escape such misgivings as these which rise out of such an aspect of things. I do not wonder that Thomas, with that honest, accurate mind of his, wishing that the news were true, yet dreading lest it should be false, and determined to guard against every possible illusion, said so strongly, “ Except I shall see,” &c. II. THE PROOFS OF A . This text tells us of two kinds of proof: 1. The evidence of the senses--“ Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed.” This external evidence of Christ’ s resurrection is twofold. The witness of Thomas, who was satisfied with the proofs, and of John, who records the circumstance. (1) Try the witness by ordinary rules. John does not say that he had heard the story from Thomas, and that years afterwards he had penned it down when his memory might be failing. He was present the whole time. All the apostles were there: they all watched the result with eager interest. Now, a scene like that is one of those solemn ones in a man’ s life which cannot be forgotten. Estimate next the worth of the witness of Thomas. Evidence is worth little if it is the evidence of credulity. But here was a man who dreaded the possibility of delusion, however credulous the others might be. He resolved beforehand that only one proof should be decisive. The evidence of testimony which he did reject was very strong, but he held out against it. He would trust a thing so infinitely important to nothing but his own scrutinizing hand. (2) Try the evidence next by character. Blemished character damages evidence. Now, the only charge that was ever heard against John was that he loved a world which hated him. The character of Thomas is that he was a man cautious in receiving evidence, and most rigorous in exacting proof, but ready to act upon his convictions when once made, even to the death. Who impeaches that testimony? (3) Once more--any possibility of interested motives will discredit evidence. Ask we the motive of John or Thomas for this strange tale? John’ s reward--a long and solitary banishment to the mines of Patmos. The gain and the bribe which tempted Thomas--a lonely pilgrimage to the far East, and death at the last in India; (a) The evidence to which Thomas yielded was the evidence of the senses. Now, the feeling which arose from this Christ pronounced to be faith--“ Thou hast seen, thou hast believed.” Observe then, it matters not how faith comes--whether through the intellect, as with Thomas--or through the heart, as with John; but faith is a state of soul in which the things of God become glorious certainties. It was not faith which assured Thomas that Christ stood before him: that was sight. But it was faith which from the visible enabled him to pierce up to the truth invisible: “ My Lord and my God” ; and which enabled him ever after to venture everything on that conviction, and live for One who had died for him. (b) The faith of Thomas was not merely satisfaction about a fact: it was trust in a Person. The admission of a fact, however sublime, is not faith: we may believe that Christ is risen, yet not be nearer heaven. Thomas passed on from the fact of the resurrection to the Person of the risen--“ My Lord and my God.” Trust in the risen Saviour--that was the belief which saved his soul. And that is our salvation too. 2. The evidence of the Spirit--“ Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” There are thousands of Christians who have never examined the evidences of the Resurrection: they are incapable of estimating it if they did examine; they have never seen--they know nothing of proofs and miracles--yet they believe and are blessed. How is this? I reply, there is an inward state of heart which makes truth credible the moment it is stated. Love is credible to a loving heart; purity to a pure mind. Of course that inward state could not reveal a fact like the Resurrection; but it can receive the fact the moment it is revealed without requiring evidence. The love of St. John himself never could discover a resurrection; but it made a resurrection easily believed, when the man of intellect, St. Thomas, found difficulties. Therefore “ with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” and therefore “ he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” Now it is of such a state that Jesus speaks. There are men in whom the resurrection begun makes the resurrection credible. In them the Spirit of the risen Saviour works already. They have risen out of the darkness of doubt, above the narrowness of life, above fear, above self; being “ risen with Christ:” and the man in whom all that is working has got something more blessed than external evidence to rest upon. The Resurrection in all its heavenliness has begun within his soul, and he knows as clearly as if he had demonstration, that it must be developed in an eternal life. Now this is the higher and nobler kind of faith. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Thomas: the honest sceptic: Renan, in the fiction which he calls “ The life of Jesus,” when he treats of the resurrection of our Lord, breaks out into a rhapsody utterly unworthy of the critic and historian, “ Oh, Divine power of level sacred moments when the passion of a deluded woman gives to the world a God raised from the dead.” The Church is prepared to prove that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the best authenticated facts in the world’ s history. The witnesses of the resurrection include every variety of temperament and intellect. I. THE DOUBT OF THOMAS. 1. His was not the doubt of vanity. The superficial frivolous nature, proud of doubts as if they were signs of intellectual superiority, is too frequently to be met with. 2. His was not the doubt of hostility. Many who doubt dislike the truths which they doubt. But Thomas was heart-broken over the loss of Jesus. Some have nothing but sweeping denunciation for every kind of doubt or even of inquiry concerning truth. Christianity courts inquiry, commands it. The moral earnestness developed by Christianity necessitates it. Elements that cannot be praised were, however, present in the doubt of Thomas. 1. It was self-willed. As if mentally dwelling upon revelations said to have been granted to others he lays down rigid requirements, and declares nothing else shall satisfy him. 2. It was irrational. What was the nature of the testimony he refused to accept? And yet whilst the testimony of ten tried apostles and several godly women goes for nothing, his own ten fingers are to be all-decisive. Was there no other way in which assurance of a risen Christ could take possession of his heart, no higher way of spiritual illumination? Are our senses our only medium of certainty? God’ s highest revelations are by His Spirit to man’ s spirit. II. THE LORD’ S OF THE DOUBTER. 1. Jesus let him for a while taste the bitterness of his doubts. Men are often permitted to drink deeply of the bitter cup which they have wilfully made their own. Thus God tests them. Nothing more perfectly reveals the moral character of a doubter than the instinctive tendencies of his mind during his mental conflicts. Christian and Pliable both fell into the Slough of Despond. Pliable struggled to the side nearest the City of Destruction, but Christian with infinite toil reached the side nearest the Celestial City. Though differing in opinion from his brother disciples, all his sympathies were with their sincerity and goodness. 2. Jesus was full of forbearance towards him. 3. Jesus deeply humbled him--“ Then said He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger,” &c. Surely no severer rebuke can be given than amidst the joys of full conviction to be recalled to the lowborn doubts of His less noble self. 4. Jesus warned him of his danger--“ Become not faithless, but believing.” There is danger to all who doubt that the finer sensibilities of their nature be injured, that their spirit grow harsh and cold, and out of harmony with moral truth. 5. Jesus declares that there is another, a higher way to certainty than that by which Thomas has reached it. III. THE RESULT OF THE LORD’ S . See in Thomas the submission of a sincere soul. 1. Thomas instantly yielded. The moment of conviction became the moment of submission. 2. Thomas publicly yielded. Before all the disciples he had spoken his doubts; before all he retracted. 3. Thomas fully yielded. The honest inquirer convinced becomes the earnest and intelligent believer. As the corn that lies in the earth all through the winter months yields the most bountiful harvest, so the faith of Thomas slowly germinating amidst long, sorrowful musings becomes perfectly developed. The tardy believer becomes the foremost confessor. (W. J.Cooke.) The unbelief of Thomas: The resurrection of Christ is a fact of the utmost importance. If He had not risen, there would have been an end to His mission. Now, in reference to this fundamental article, we have everything that could be desired in the way of proof. There were five hundred such witnesses. It certainly was not to their interest to assert such a fact, but the reverse. But what adds still more weight to their testimony is the fact that, according to their own showing, they were all obstinately incredulous at first. They would not be satisfied until they were overwhelmed with proofs. At the time when this event took place, they were not at all in a state of mind to be deceived: they were not expecting any such occurrence, and, indeed, would not be convinced without repeated evidences. Now, for instance, we have in the text the case of a man who was determined not to believe. I. Let us inquire into THE CAUSES OF HIS . We may find a first cause in the character of the man; a second, in the state of his mind at that period; a third, in the superstitious opinion which was set up in opposition to the testimony. 1. With respect to the character of the man, a few slight notices appear to our minds very significant. They betray that he was a man of strong feeling and of ardent zeal, not altogether unmingled with presumption. In the context, nothing will do but that he must personally see Christ, nay, must touch His body; or else, because it is barely possible that they might be deceived by an apparition, he will not believe. Now, this turn of mind, though praised by men, is certainly a disadvantage in religion, and is treated with little favour in the Inspired Volume. What room is there for faith with persons who insist upon being able to explain everything; who must see, handle, and demonstrate, or else they will not believe? Where is that spirit of child-like simplicity, which is so proper to the disciples of Christ? It is a great evil to believe without evidence, and by the mere force of prejudice; but it is a greater evil still to set our own wisdom above the wisdom that cometh from above, and to lose ourselves in the perplexities of reason, whose highest glory it is to subject itself to God, the Infinite Reason of the universe. 2. A second cause is found in his state of mind at that period. What that state of mind was can be sufficiently made out by circumstances. Why he was absent, it would be useless to inquire; the question is, Ought he not to have been there? It is quite certain that he paid dearly for his absence; and it is scarcely possible to resist the conclusion, that it arose from his determined rejection of the idea of a resurrection. He had seen his Master die in the hands of His enemies, and had made up his mind that all was over; the object of their association was gone, and there was nothing more to hope for, or to hold them together. Had he been in the path of duty is it likely that he would have been abandoned to his disquietudes? To estimate that state of mind, we must yet further remark the ignorance and carnal prejudice which possessed him in common with the rest of the disciples. They none of them knew the spirituality of the Redeemer’ s kingdom. A sullen withdrawment from the means of grace is the very best nurse that unbelief and desperation can have. It shuts itself out from all good tidings, and resolutely clings to the worst presentiments of evil. 3. A third cause may be found in the superstitious opinion which was then universally prevalent among the Jews. They believed that the souls of the departed could appear to surviving friends, clothed in a spiritual body, exactly resembling them when they were alive. You will remember that our Saviour found His disciples under the influence of that opinion when He came to them in the boat, walking on the sea in the fourth watch of the night, and would have passed by them. They were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. Now, all these marks are necessary, that we may not extenuate the sin of Thomas on the one hand, nor unduly magnify it on the other. It has its aggravations, and it has also its alleviations; it may not be improper just to look at each. 1. The unreasonableness of his unbelief appears from considering the evidence which he rejected. He would allow no weight to that kind of evidence, on which chiefly, to the present hour, the fact of the Resurrection rests. All his brethren testified, not that they had heard that Christ was risen, but that they had seen Him, had conversed with Him, that He had invited them to touch Him, and had eaten and drunk before them. Now, Thomas ought to have admitted the truth of their testimony. 2. Again, the kind of evidence that he demanded aggravated his sin. He not only refused the ground of faith which God had provided for His Church in all ages, he set up an impious claim of his own--“ Except I put my finger in the print of the nails, I will not believe.” He is determined to walk by sight, not by faith. He is not satisfied with mental conviction, his senses must be judges; nay, more, his senses must be satisfied in the most objectionable manner possible. But it is admitted that this Apostle was better than his word, and did not avail himself of the last proof. 3. His sin was aggravated by the obstinacy and openness that distinguish his unbelief. All that week he had ample opportunities of hearing from his brethren and from the women the same statements of what they had seen and heard related, with every circumstance of credibility, and with all the earnestness of conviction Here, then, is not only a sin, but a sin wilfully and pertinaciously indulged, at great hazard to himself, and to the scandal of all his brethren. But, on the other hand, we ought not to look at these exaggerations only; we must remember that the unbelief of Thomas was of a kind very different from that which arises out of a disaffection of heart to the truth; and that, therefore, it is not to be confounded with that of ungodly men. They wish the things themselves not to be true, and so do not believe them. The doctrine of the gospel is opposed to their lusts, and so they are determined not to admit it. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 20:25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord A sight of the Lord--what it produces I. AN EVER SENSE OF SIN. See Isaiah (Isaiah 6:5); Job Job 42:5-6); Peter (Luke 5:8). II. AN EVER MEASURE OF JOY. See David (Psalms 4:6-7; Psalms 16:11; Psalms 21:6), the disciples (verse 20), the eunuch (Acts 8:39), the jailer Acts 16:34). III. AN EVER DEGREE OF (2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2-3). IV. AN EVER TO ENDURE. Like Moses Hebrews 11:27); Paul (2 Timothy 3:11); Christ (Hebrews 7:2-3). V. AN EVER GROWING TO SPEAK FOR CHRIST (Acts 4:20). VI. AN EVER DESIRE TO BE WITH CHRIST (Philippians 1:23). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) But he said unto them, except I shall see Advice to doubters Do not exercise your doubts. Exercise your faith. Doubt is weakness, faith is power; doubt is disease, faith is health. Let the sick part rest. Exercise the well part, and it will encroach more and more until it drives out the sickness. Take care of your faith, however small, as the famine-stricken guard the scanty seed grain, as the snowbound, lost woodsman nurses his last match. Little faith may grow to great faith and become a power. “ What a great matter a little fire kindleth.” Do not think about your doubts. Intellectualize your faith, exercise it, use your ingenuity upon it, see what can be done with it, live up to it, what there is of it. Yonder at Niagara you see the graceful steel bridge span the chasm where the untamed whirlpool thunders below. How leapt that span from cliff to cliff? They say a tiny kite flew over the chasm and fell upon the other side. The chasm was spanned. You say by a thread. Yes, by a thread. But the thread was used to pull over a cord, and the cord to pull over a rope, and the rope a chain, and the chain a cable, and on the cable was built the bridge, upon whose strong and steadfast span the massive trains crash across. Thus may it be with the most attenuated thread of faith. What possibilities, what destinies, hang upon it! Ah! it may be lightly snapped asunder. But that thread may grow to a cord, and the cord to a rope, and the rope to a cable, and the cable to a bridge, spanning the chasm between heaven and earth. And our prayers shall ascend, and God’ s blessings shall descend, like the angels ascending and descending on the ladder which Jacob saw. (R. S. Barrett.) Doubts not to be lived in: “ Is it always foggy here?” inquired a lady passenger of a Cunard steamer’ s captain, when they were groping their way across the Banks of Newfoundland. “ How should I know?” replied the captain, gruffly; “ I do not live here.” But there are some of Christ’ s professed followers who do manage to live in the chilling regions of spiritual fog for a great part of their unhappy lives. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Folly of doubt: I once heard of a poor coloured woman who earned a precarious living by dally labour, but who was a joyous, triumphant Christian. “ Ah, Nancy,” said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, who almost disapproved of her constant cheerfulness, and yet envied it--“ Ah, Nancy, it is all well enough to be happy now; but I should think the thoughts of your future would sober you. Only suppose, for instance, you should have a spell of sickness, and be unable to work; or suppose your present employers should move away, and no one else should give you anything to do; or suppose” “ Stop!” cried Nancy, “ I never supposes. De Lord is my Shepherd, and I know I shall not want. And, honey,” she added to her gloomy friend, “ it’ s all dem supposes as is makin’ you so mis’ able. You’ d better give dem all up, and just trust de Lord.” (W. Baxendale.) Cure for doubt: A theological student once called on Dr. Archibald Alexander in great distress of mind, doubting whether he had been converted. The doctor said, “ My young brother, you know what repentance is, what faith in Christ is. You think you once repented, and once believed. Now, don’ t fight your doubts; go all over it again; repent now, believe in Christ now: that’ s the way to have a consciousness of acceptance with God. I have to do both very often. Go to your room, and give yourself to Christ this very moment, and let doubts go. If you have not been His disciple, be one now. Don’ t fight the devil on his own ground. Choose the ground of Christ’ s righteousness and atonement, and then fight him.” (W. Baxendale.) Doubting cured: A theological student once went to Dr. Hedge with his difficulties about the divinity of our Lord and Saviour. The doctor listened patiently, and then said, “ My dear young friend, your difficulties are of the head. If I should answer them, new ones would suggest themselves. The best way to remove them, and guard yourself from future and similar troubles, is to have Christ within you. Learn His life; learn to trust in Him more, to love Him more; become identified with Him; and your doubts as to His divinity will disappear.” The young student followed his advice; his doubts fled; and, on a subsequent death-bed, he bore his testimony to the divinity of our blessed Lord. (W. Baxendale.) Modern scepticism: I put you on your guard against the scepticism of our time. And do you think that I am about to enlarge upon the scepticism of Rosseau, of Diderot, of Voltaire, of Bolingbroke, of Hobbes, and of Hume?--that was swept away with their ashes, and is buried. The great scepticism of our time is market-scepticism, political scepticism, and religious scepticism. Men who feel that it would be wicked to sacrifice great pecuniary interest for the sake of principle; men who think it would be a tempting of Providence to refuse profitable business speculations, to leave profitable situations, or to refuse dividends of evil; men whose consciences will not permit them, as the members of a corporation, to expose its wickedness; men who stand in the market, and feel that they have a right to do anything that wins, these men are infidels. You need not tell me that they believe in the Bible: they believe in an empty Bible--a Bible of the letter, and not a Bible of the Spirit which says to a man, “ Sacrifice your right hand before you do your integrity.” (H. W. Beecher.) End of a sceptic: A reliable informant, Voltaire s own physician, writes to a friend as follows: “ When I compare the death of a righteous man, which is like the close of a beautiful day, with that of a Voltaire, I see the difference between bright, serene weather and a black thunderstorm. It was my lot that this man should die under my hands. Often did I tell him the truth, but, unhappily for him, I was the only person who did so. ‘ Yes, my friend,’ he would often say to me, ‘ you are the only one who has given me good advice. Had I but followed it, I should not have been in the horrible condition in which I now am. I have swallowed nothing but smoke; I have intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head. You can do nothing more for me. Send me a mad doctor! Have compassion on me, I am mad! I cannot think of it without shuddering.’ As soon as he saw that all the means which he had employed to increase his strength had just the opposite effect death was constantly before his eyes. From this moment madness took possession of his soul. Think of the ravings of Orestes. He expired under the torment of the furies.” (Professor Christlieb.) Unbelief does not bring comfort: David Hume, after witnessing, in the family of the venerable La Roche, those consolations which the gospel only can impart, confessed, with a sigh, that “ there were moments when, amidst all the pleasures of philosophical discovery and the pride of literary fame, he wished that he had never doubted.” (New Handbook of Illustration.) Folly of unbelief: Once a sceptic in Dr. Bonar’ s church said, “ Sir, I do not believe there is a God.” It was 10 p.m., and no time for argument. I cast the burden on the Lord in prayer, and looked so happy that he said, “ Are you laughing at me?” “ No; but I was thinking if all the grasshoppers on earth were to say there is no sun, it would not alter the matter. The Bible says, ‘ The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.’” “ Well, that is so,” he said. I then showed him that God calls every man that does not believe in Him a liar. The man went home seeming much impressed; and when I met him some months afterwards he said, “ I found out that I was a fool and a liar, and have come to Christ.” Thus the sword of the Spirit had pierced his heart. (H. O. Mackey.) Unbelief a non-conductor: See these electric wires that are shooting their mysterious threads throughout our land, communicating between city and city, between man and man, however distant; dead, yet instinct with life; silent, yet vocal with hidden sound; carrying, as with a lightning-burst, the tidings of good or evil from shore to shore. Separate their terminating points by one hair’ s breadth from the index, or interpose some nonconducting substance, and in a moment intercourse is broken. But refasten the several points, or link them to the index with some conducting material, and instantaneously the intercourse is renewed. Joy and sorrow flow again along the line. Men’ s thought’ s, men’ s feelings, men’ s deeds, rumours of war or assurance of peace, news of victory or defeat, the sounds of falling thrones, the shouts of frantic nations, all hurrying on after each other to convey to ten thousand throbbing hearts the evil or good which they contain. The non-conductor is unbelief. It interposes between the soul and all Divine intercourse. It may seem a thing too slight to effect so great a result, yet it does so inevitably. It shuts off the communication with the source of all glad tidings. It isolates the man, and forbids the approach of blessing. That conductor is faith. In itself it is nothing, but in its connection everything. It restores in a moment the broken communication; and this is not from any virtue in itself, but simply as the conducting link between the soul and the fountain of all blessings above. (H. Bonar, D. D.) John 20:26 Then after eight days again His disciples were within The Christian Sabbath Jesus rose the first day of the week, and appeared to His disciples. Then He appeared not again till the eighth day after, nor do we read of the disciples meeting meanwhile. The day is thus mentioned for some special end, which could be no other but to show the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first. Hence, therefore 1. It appears that Christ preferred the first day before the seventh. 2. The disciples had their public and solemn meetings on that day (Acts 1 Corinthians 16:2). 3. It is called the Lord’ s day (Revelation 1:10), as the Eucharist is called the Lord’ s supper (1 Corinthians 11:20). John supposing thereby the day to be well known. So Ignatius and Tertullion. Justin Martyr calls it Sunday. So then the Jewish Sabbath was buried with Christ, and the Christian rose with Him. I. WHY WAS THE DAY THUS CHANGED? 1. The Jewish Sabbath, as kept on the seventh day, was but a ceremony peculiar to the Jews; a sign that God was their God, and they His people Exodus 31:13-14; Exodus 31:17; Ezekiel 20:12; Ezekiel 20:30). But now they have ceased to be God’ s peculiar people, and therefore the sign must needs cease. 2. The Jewish Sabbath was kept in commemoration not only of creation but of redemption from Egypt (Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:13-15). But this redemption was but a type of Christ’ s, and must needs give place to it. Hence the Sabbath was among the shadows of those things to Colossians 2:16-17). 3. The Jewish Sabbath began but in Moses; for we read not of their keeping it till it rained manna (Exodus 16:1-36); and if we reckon back from this we find that Pharaoh was destroyed on the Sabbath. But on our Sabbath our spiritual Pharaoh was destroyed; for Jesus rose from the dead. Moreover, all the Mosaical law ended in Christ, and therefore this: and the Jews still adhering to it were destroyed on it; for it was their Sabbath when Jerusalem was taken. II. WHETHER WE ARE BOUND TO OBSERVE THE LORD’ S DAY AS THE JEWS THEIR SABBATH? 1. Though the appointment of one day in seven for the religious rest be of positive institution, yet the rest or duty to be observed on that day is certainly moral and perpetual. Now (1) This was ordained before Moses (Genesis 2:2-3). Questionless, the patriarchs observed it; be sure they had weeks (Genesis 29:27-28). (2) It is part of the ten commandments (Matthew 5:18). (3) The reasons assigned for keeping it are moral and perpetual; as (a) It is a Sabbath or rest of the Lord. (b) On that day He rested from the work of creation. (c) He blessed and sanctified it. (4) The law of nature teaches that we ought to set apart some time for God’ s service, and there seems to have been some remains of this day among the heathen. 2. The reason of observing one day in seven is the same to Christians as to Jews and patriarchs, i.e., on account of the Creation, which we are obliged to bless and serve God for, as they; and as to the designation of the Lord’ s day in particular, that certainly is much more binding on Christians, as our deliverance was greater, and of infinitely more consequence. III. HOW MUST THIS DAY BE SPENT? It must be sanctified, i.e., set apart unto the Lord. 1. You must lay aside all worldly employment (Exodus 20:8; Leviticus 23:2; Amos 8:5; Nehemiah 13:19). 2. And all carnal pleasures, which impede God’ s service (Isaiah 58:13). 3. And set apart the day (1) For private devotions, to rest in God (Isaiah 58:13). (2) For public duties (Luke 4:16); as the apostles. For this end (a) Set your worldly business in order over night. (b) So soon as you are awake remember it is the Sabbath. (c) Endeavour by prayer and meditation to get above the world. (d) Absent not yourself from the public worship of God. (e) Fill up the intervals as much as possible with prayer, reading, meditation, conferring. Conclusion: Consider 1. God has given you six days, and set apart this for Himself; do not rob Him of it (Ezekiel 23:38). 2. Consider the judgments upon profaneness of it (Numbers 15:33-34). 3. There is a blessing promised to them that sanctify it (Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 56:6-7). 4. This is the way to live as if in heaven upon earth. 5. This is the way to spend an eternal Sabbath in heaven when we are parted from the earth. (Bp. Beveridge) . Peace be unto you. Peace from the risen Christ I. THE . Peace; that which is needed by 1. The mind perplexed with doubt. 2. The conscience oppressed with guilt. 3. The heart agitated with sorrow. II. WHO IT? He 1. Who had Himself felt the need of it. 2. Whose death purchased it. 3. Whose life secures it. III. WHEN? 1. When the resurrection had ratified it. 2. When the disciples were seeking it. (Newman Hall, LL. B.) John 20:27 Then said He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger.Signs and evidences 1. How struck must Thomas have been when his Lord addressed to him the very words which he had himself used (John 20:25)! Jesus knows how to send the word home to us. 2. In the church of to-day we have many a Thomas,--slow, suspicious, critical, full of doubts, yet true-hearted. 3. Thomas set his Lord a test, and thus tried His patience. 4. The Lord accepted the test, and so proved His condescension. 5. The proof sufficed for Thomas, and thus showed the Lord’ s wisdom. 6. Peradventure, certain among us would desire tests of some such sort. To those we would earnestly say I. CRAVE NO SIGNS. After the full proofs Which Christ gave to His apostles, we need no more, and to look for further signs and evidences would be wrong. Yet some are demanding miracles, faith-healings, visions, voices, impressions, transports, depressions, &c. 1. It is dishonouring to your Lord. 2. It is unreasonable, when the truth bears its own evidence. 3. It is presumptuous. How dare we stipulate for proof more than sufficient, or demand evidence of a sort which pleases our prejudices! 4. It is damaging to ourselves. Faith must be weak while we demand for it such proofs; and in this weakness lies incalculable mischief. 5. It is dangerous. We may readily be driven either into infidelity or superstition, if we give way to this craving for signs. Picture what Thomas could and would have become under the influence of his unbelief, had not his Lord interposed. II. YET TURN TO CHRIST’ S WOUNDS. Let these stand to you instead of signs and wonders. Behold in these wounds 1. The seals of His death. He did actually and truly die. How could He outlive that wound in His side? 2. The identification of His person as actually risen. 3. The tokens of His love. He has graven us upon the palms of His hands. 4. The ensigns of His conflict, of which He is not ashamed, for He displays them. 5. The memorials of His passion, by which He is manifested in glory as the Lamb that was slain (Revelation 5:6). This should more than suffice you; but should doubt still linger III. USE SUCH AS YOU POSSESS. 1. The sacred narrative of our Lord’ s life and death, if carefully studied, exhibits a singular self-evidencing power. 2. The regenerating and purifying result of faith in the great Lord is a further piece of evidence. “ By their fruits ye shall know them” Matthew 7:20). 3. The solace which faith yields in sorrow is good proof. 4. The strength it gives in the hour of temptation is further help. 5. The ardour of mind and elevation of aim, which faith in Jesus creates, are other experimental arguments. 6. The visitations of the Holy Spirit, in quickening the heart, reviving the spirit, and guiding the mind, are additional proofs. Thus the Holy Ghost bears witness to our Lord. 7. The actual enjoyment of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Himself is the master-key of the whole controversy. “ We have known and believed” 1 John 4:17). Conclusion: 1. Does this seem an idle tale to you? 2. Should you not see cause for fear, if it be so? 3. Seek now to view those wounds believingly, that you may live. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Christ known by the nail prints: In an old legend it is said that Satan once appeared to an old saint and said, “ I am Christ,” when the saint confounded him, and exposed his pretensions, as he said, “ Then where are the nail-prints?” (H. O. Mackey.) Be not faithless but believing: A gentleman who assisted the Countess of Huntingdon in the management of Spa-fields Chapel, called upon her one day, to expostulate with her on the impropriety of entering into engagements without having the means of honourably fulfilling them. Before he left the house her letters arrived. As she opened one her countenance brightened, and her tears began to flow; the letter was to this effect, “ An individual, who has heard of Lady Huntingdon’ s exertions to spread the gospel, requests her acceptance of the enclosed draft to assist her in the laudable undertaking.” The draft was for five hundred pounds--the exact sum for which she stood engaged. “ Here,” said she, “ take it, and pay for the chapel, and be no longer faithless, but believing.” John 20:28 And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God My Lord and my God Let us consider I. THE OF THOMAS. It is as much as a man could say if he wished to assert dogmatically that Jesus is God and Lord (Psalms 35:23). To escape from the force of this confession some have charged Thomas with breaking the third commandment, just as thoughtless persons take the Lord’ s name in vain and say, “ Good God!” or “ O Lord!” This could not have been the case. For, in the first place, it was not the habit of a Jew to use any such exclamation when surprised. The Jews in our Lord’ s time were particular beyond everything about using the name of God. In the next place, it was not rebuked by our Lord, and we may be sure He would not have suffered such an unhallowed cry to have gone without a reprimand. Observe, too, that it was addressed to the Lord Jesus. 1. It was not a mere outburst, accepted by our Lord as an evidence of faith, but a devout expression of holy wonder at the discovery that Jesus was his Lord and God, and probably also at the fact that he has not seen it long before. Had he not been present when Jesus trod the sea? &c. Now on a sudden he does know his Lord, and such knowledge is too wonderful for him. How I wish you would all follow Thomas! I will stop that you may do so. Let us wonder and admire! 2. An expression of immeasurable delight. He seems to take hold of the Lord Jesus with both hands, by those two blessed “ my’ s.” There is here a music akin to “ my beloved is mine, and I am His.” I pray you follow Thomas in this. Before you Jesus now stands, visible to your faith. Delight yourselves in him. 3. An indication of a complete change of mind, a most hearty repentance. Instead of putting his finger into the print of the nails, he cried, “ My Lord and my God.” 4. A brief confession of faith. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he be able to unite with Thomas heartily in this creed. 5. An enthusiastic profession of his allegiance to Christ. “ Henceforth, thou art my Lord, and I will serve Thee; Thou art my God, and I will worship Thee.” 6. A distinct and direct act of adoration. II. HOW DID HE COME TO THAT ? 1. He had his thoughts revealed. The Saviour had read them at a distance. Notice that the Saviour did not say, “ Put thy finger into the nail-prints in My feet.” Why not? Why, because Thomas had not said anything about His feet. We, in looking at it, can see the exactness; bat Thomas must have felt it much more. 2. All the past must have risen before his mind, the many occasions in which the Lord Jesus had exercised the attributes of Deity. 3. The very manner of the Saviour, so full of majesty, convinced the trembling disciple. 4. But the most convincing were our Lord’ s wounds. III. HOW WE MAY COME TO IT. If ever any one of us shall cry in spirit and in truth, “ My Lord and my God!” the Holy Spirit must teach us. We shall so cry 1. At conversion. 2. In deliverance from temptation. 3. In time of trouble, when we are comforted and upheld. There have been other occasions less trying. 4. While studying the story of our Lord. 5. In the breaking of bread. 6. In times when He has blessed our labours, and laid His arm bare in the salvation of men. 7. In the hour of death. 8. In heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.) My Lord and my God I. THIS IS NOT AN 1. Because such exclamations were abhorrent to the Jews. 2. It would be without warrant in Scripture. 3. It is by its form necessarily an address--“ Thomas said to Him.” II. THE MEANING OF THE WORDS. 1. Lord, κύριος, means owner, and as ownership includes control, it expressed (1) The idea of ownership founded on possession, as Lord of the Vineyard, Lord of Slaves, Lord of the whole earth. (2) The Lordship without reference to its ground; hence kings are also called lords. So also heads of families, husbands, &c. (3) Hence a mere title of courtesy as dominus, mister, &c. (4) As applied to God it retains its relative meaning--the relation of God to His creatures as their Owner and absolute Ruler. It is substituted in the LXX. for Jehovah, Shaddai, Elohim, and not only for Aden or Adonai. Hence in the New Testament it is used for Christ. He is our Lord in the sense in which Jehovah was the Lord of the Hebrews. Christ owns us both as Creator and Redeemer. 2. God. What this means passes all understanding and imagination. It is easy to say, “ God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal,” &c. But who can comprehend the Infinite? We know that one infinite in His Being and perfections must be (1) The object of adoration, supreme love, absolute submission. (2) The ground of confidence. (3) One in whose favour is eternal life. All that God is, Christ is. All that is due to God is due to Christ. 3. My means not only that Christ is the Person whom we acknowledge and confess to be our Lord and God, to the exclusion of all other persons out of the Godhead; but that He stands in the relation of Lord and God to us, and that we stand in a corresponding relation to Him; that we recognize His ownership and authority; depend on His protection, adore, love, trust, and serve Him as our Lord and God. This it is to be a Christian. (C. Hodge, D. D.) The confession of Thomas: The words imply I. SELF-. 1. When Thomas says this he is confessing that his past life has been a mistake. The arrogance of his former speech contrasts strikingly with the lowliness of this. A new revelation had been given him, making known the one great need of his souls Lord to control his will, and form his judgment, and give law to his inmost spirit. Our great want is a ruler; submission is one of the deepest of human needs. (1) Let self-will be ever so successful, the heart is still unsatisfied. Ambition is soon sated; and the “ head that wears a crown” is “ uneasy,” not more because of the cares of government than because the monarch is tired of himself. Even the partial stimulus which self-seekers have, while yet they are striving for their object, witnesses to the same truth; a man may choose his aim, but when he has chosen it, it controls him. No man ever found rest till his aim in life was decided on. Seeking an object, men for a time are tranquil, for they are freed from self; but when their object is secured, they fall again into the restlessness of bondage to a self that is insufficient for them. (2) Look now at another class of men of nobler character. The truth-seeker is freed from self, for he feels truth to be absolute, independent of him, and he yields allegiance to it. The lover of right is under an eternal law of rectitude; righteousness is not something that he invents. Right is, and is his lord. Duty is what we owe, not what we choose to give. But what is truth? Its seekers are all in disagreement. What is right? The standard of rectitude in our England is very different from that of ancient Rome. Has duty any higher standard than statute law, or regard for the greatest happiness of the greatest number? These very words set us again upon a drifting sea of self-will. Truth, duty, rectitude--these are cold words. To stir passion and control affection they must be seen embodied in personal form. Love, reverence--these are the heart’ s deep wants. Cold abstractions can never deliver us from self 2. Thomas had found all he needed in Christ. Christ was “ the Truth;” His will absolute righteousness; duty was what he owed to Him. There was no coldness nor vagueness in these names when summed up in the person of His Lord. Love rises to worship in his confession; his heart is at rest when he says, “ my Lord.” (1) This is the secret of Christ’ s power over men. He comes among them as their Lord; He claims authority and submission. Christ does not allure men by pleasures, flattering their self-will. He simply bids them “ Follow Me,” and they leave all and follow Him. He speaks to those to whom self-will is barrenness, and there is fruitfulness. He speaks to those whose selfishness is weakness and disease, and in obedience to Him come health and energy. And herein do we see the meaning of “ Come unto Me all ye that labour Take My yoke upon you,” &c. For in meekness and obedience our spirits find their end and purpose, and herein is rest. (2) In Christ, too, we see how blessed to yield our wills to the will of God. He who came to tell us that we are ruined, because we seek our own wills and not the will of God, must Himself be submissive. He who came revealing absolute truth and righteousness, claiming our homage for them, must Himself yield them homage. Christ can rule because He knows how to obey. II. OF THE MEANING OF LIFE. 1. It was Christ’ s perfect knowledge of Thomas which brought from him the confession. (1) Christ had heard the sceptical words; He had been with Thomas, though Thomas had not been with Him. But Thomas could not stop here; as none can rest in one separate instance of His knowledge and grace. He who knew this must know all. All his past life would flash upon him, and he would recognize it all as Christ’ s plan to educate and bring him to Himself. (2) Christ had done infinitely more than to simply give Thomas his own test for the resurrection; He had brought Thomas to a better mind, and made that test appear absurd. The touch would only have convinced that the risen Jesus was here; Thomas, without touching Him, calls Him “ My Lord and my God.” Underlying Thomas’ s wish for sensible proof there had been the unquenchable longing for personal intercourse. That John and the others had seen Christ was nothing to him. Nothing can reveal a personal Lord to us but that Lord’ s communion with ourselves. Thomas’ s heart was satisfied now, and to Christ’ s guidance he could absolutely submit. 2. It is such a guide we want; one who can read our heart and supply every need. It is such a guide we preach in Jesus; not one who lived a few years in Palestine; but One who was “ before all things,” and who is ever with His people. He knows you, for He formed you for Himself; your life, with all its difficulties and perplexities, is His plan for educating you for Himself and God. Each doubt He is waiting to clear away; even your wilfulness does not drive Him from your side. III. OF GOD. 1. Thomas recognized the character of God rather than the dignity of Christ, and herein lay the true value of his confession. The mere confession that Christ is a Divine Person is barren; the knowledge that God is come into actual fellowship with us in Christ is new life to the spirit. The looking for God in awful grandeur obscures the perception of God in the perfection of moral excellence, the influence by which goodness sways the heart. It was to deliver men from this very error that Christ came. The disciples were ever expecting that Christ would communicate some stupendous truth concerning God. Gradually their conceptions of Him became exalted; Christ’ s own words were fulfiled, “ I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Here at length from Thomas breaks the full confession that this is God. 2. Thomas could not say, “ My Lord,” without saying also “ My God;” for it is shocking to yield the whole heart to any other than God. In the fact that he could not but adore Jesus, that Jesus claimed and had won his homage, it was revealed that Jesus was Divine. If He be not God, then are we idolaters; for idolatry is the love and service of the creature as though it were supreme; and higher love and service than Christ has won from Christian hearts is impossible. If He be not God, then have we two Gods: the one a name, a cold abstraction; the other the Jesus who sways our spirits and to whom we render the consecration of our lives. 3. We may now see why so much importance is attached in the New Testament to the Divinity of Christ. The confession of Christ is not an act of the speculative intellect, it is the movement of the heart and the submission of the life to Him. There are Christian Unitarians who call Christ “ Lord,” though they hold back from calling Him “ God.” There are un-Christian Trinitarians who call Christ “ God,” and yet He manifestly is not their “ Lord.” It is sad that the words “ My Lord and my God” should ever be separated. But he is a Christian, whatever the articles of his creed, who finds Christ sufficient for the soul’ s need, and whose life reveals that it is under His rule. (A. Mackennel, D. D.) Thomas’ s confession of faith: These words imply I. JOYFUL . Partings are painful; but the bereavement of the ten was over. And now the restored fellowship of Christ brought Thomas peace. So every new revelation of Christ brings joy to His disciples now. But recognitions are not always joyful (1 Kings 21:20; Mt Mark 1:24; Revelation 1:5; Revelation 6:15-16). How different the meeting of loved ones (Acts 12:14-16; Acts 28:15; Genesis 45:26; Genesis 46:30). So Thomas and all disciples rejoice in Christ who, though He was dead, is alive again, and crowned with glory and honour. II. DIVINE HOMAGE. Friends rise in our estimation as we know them better. Love tested by trial. Suffering and death reveal the soul. Perhaps we never see so clearly the greatness of our friend as when he is taken from us. So it seems to have been with the disciples. It was only after the Resurrection that they beheld the fulness of His glory. What a testimony to the Divine greatness of Jesus in this confession How horrified was Paul Acts 14:15-16); Peter (Acts 10:25); the angel (Revelation 22:9) at the thought of being worshipped; but Jesus receives it as His right. III. FAITH, “ My,” a little word, but of deep significance. Faith is a personal thing. Mark the difference between Thomas’ s faith and 1. The faith of devils (James 2:19; 1 John 5:10-12). 2. The faith of mere believers in historical Christianity. It is one thing to say, “ The Lord He is God,” and another to say, “ My Lord and my God.” Luther says that the marrow of the gospel is in the possessive pronouns. IV. SELF- LOVE. Paul says, “ Yield yourselves to God.” This is the difficulty; but never till it is done are we truly converted. But once done it is done for ever. The sight of Jesus wins the heart. Conclusion: Happy are those who can say, “ My Lord and my God.” Here Isaiah 1. The true bond of union (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 10:1). 2. The noblest inspiration of life (2 Corinthians 5:14). 3. Strength for work. 4. Comfort in trouble. 5. Hope in death (2 Corinthians 4:6-8). (W. Forsyth, M. A.) Christ satisfying the instinct of reverence I. THE . 1. Reverence is a word by itself, and has no synomym. It is not respect, regard, fear, honour, nor even awe. It would be inaccurate to apply it to wealth, rank or power. If we reverence their possessor it must be for something over and above them. Even if we give it to age, royalty, or genius, it is only because there is in these a touch of sacredness. For reverence is the sense of something essentially and not accidently above us. Old age is above in the incommunicable sanctity of an ampler experience, and a nearer heaven; royalty is the theory of a Divine commission and a theocratic representation; genius is the possession of an original intuition which is to be a voice for mankind. 2. This reverence is an instinct; but there is much to support the theory of an instinct of irreverence. The insolence of lusty youth, clever shallowness which denies admiration, and can see in religion only a sentiment, or a thing for ridicule, such a spirit may be common in literature and society, but it is no instinct; it is a degeneracy. Man worthy of the name has always something above him; and even where self presides at the worship, it is rather as priest than idol 3. It is easy to misdirect this instinct. Man feels himself very little, an atom in a mighty system. There must be something above him. What? The celestial bodies? This instinct enforces a worship. What object so worthy as they? There are those now who reverence nature, and law to them is but a name for deity, and they worship this unknown god. Others a beautiful friend, till they find some day the idol broken in pieces or vanished. Nor do these misdirections cease when at last God becomes the object, inasmuch as reverence for church architecture, decoration, and music may be giving His glory to another. II. CHRIST THIS . 1. The instinct is abroad seeking its object. It finds it not in an abstraction. Nature cannot satisfy it. It may be a grand thought that I am part of a system which is the universe and whose breath is deity. Yet I, insignificant I, find no rest in this vastness. I go forth among my fellows, and cannot help loving and reverencing: yet the bright illusion vanishes. 2. Shall it always be thus? I see an end of all perfection, and yet there is in me an idea of perfection, might I but attain unto it. Is there none such? Yes, there is God--the Infinite, Eternal, Self-existent. Yet I feel myself in the land of things too high for me and too vast. Cannot I get nearer, until I touch? To answer this Christ comes forth, takes our nature, obeys, loves, suffers, dies, and bids us follow Him with a love as devoted as it is unidolatrous, being very man and very God. 3. Can this one heart contain all the devotions of all men? Can I be assured of attention in the adored of the nations? Yes. “ If any man thirst,” &c. (Dean Vaughan) . John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen yet have believed Who is blessed? Thomas’ s conduct was strange but honest. How much better to be doubting Thomas than the believing priests! They believed the resurrection, or they would never have given to the soldiers the price of a lie. They believed, but they would not believe. Thomas doubted, but would gladly have believed. In the matter of faith and unbelief men may be divided into four classes. I. THOSE WHO WILL NOT BELIEVE EVEN WHAT THEY SEE. Such were the men who apprehended our Lord. Not one of them in his past life had fallen, or seen another fall, at a word. But now they all fall. Yet they apprehend the mysterious Man, just as if nothing special had occurred. Such was Pharaoh. What evidence will ever convince him that he had better let Israel go? But nothing less than ruin will convince him. Such was Ahaziah (2 Kings 1:1-18). More sad and shocking still, perhaps, is the case of Stephen’ s judges. Whether the accused be like an angel or a fiend, matters little or nothing to the Sanhedrim. Yes; there is a class of men like Solomon’ s fools, whose folly will not leave them, though they be brayed in a mortar; men who can hear nothing softer than thunder, who can feel nothing lighter than vengeance. II. THOSE WHO BELIEVE ONLY WHEN THEY SEE. To this class Thomas for a time belongs, and Abraham and the apostles Our Lord, in the plainest words, and more than once, had said that He should rise OH the third day. Who believed it? To this class, of course, belong the men of the world. One can hardly draw a line between saint and worldling so strong and so clear as this. The worldling trusts in himself, or his friends, or his wealth, or his stars; the saint trusts in God. III. THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE . Without this faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith a man may be a logician, a mathematician, a general, a man of business; but by what possibility can he be a child of God? Take faith from the earth; let everything be done by sight; let the consequence of every action be immediate and irresistibly evident; and what is left but calculation and business, time-tables and statistics? Life has become a counting-house, in which all we want is a sharp eye and a strong hand. With faith has gone every high and holy feeling--all patience, courage, largeness of heart. The believer is every way blessed. 1. He has the best moral education which even the All-wise can give him. What better exercise than to rise from the seen to the unseen? Who can be more noble than he who, in the very sunshine of prosperity, refuses to trust flattering appearances, or even flattering facts? And of all brave men is not he the bravest who, in the darkest and saddest hours, maintains an unflinching trust in the God who hides Himself? 2. He wins an infinite prize. Eternal life is the goal of faith. Do we want an example of steady faith? See it in Noah, who for one hundred and twenty years built the ark. How the faith shines through the long, slow years! IV. THOSE WHO BELIEVE NOT ONLY WITHOUT BUT AGAINST --as Abraham when commanded to offer Isaac, and Job when he said,“ Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him,” and the three Hebrew children. (W. J. Frankland.) The blessedness of faith I. NOW UNDER THE COMMON GRACE OF THE GOSPEL IS GREATER THAN THAT BY THOSE WHO WITH CHRIST IN THE FLESH. This is the case as regards 1. The evidences of Christ’ s Godhead and Divine Apostlate. At first sight it would seem impossible that any evidences should transcend that accorded to Christ’ s contemporaries. Yet against this was the constant presence of the Lord’ s manhood, which must have been fruitful in misgivings. But this wellspring of incredulity is now sealed. We know not Christ after the flesh. When we connect this with the moral effects of Christianity, the testimony of millions to Christ’ s power to bless and save, it is clear that a return to the Apostle’ s position would be a loss. 2. The substance of Christian truth. The multitudes to whom Christ spake in parables had no pre-eminence over ourselves; for they were left in ignorance of much that Christ taught His disciples. But these disciples were left in ignorance of many things they were net able to hear until the descent of the Spirit, and all the fruits of their subsequent inspiration we enjoy. 3. The prime grace of the gospel, the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins. Here, perhaps, more than anywhere, we are apt to draw unfavourable contrasts. Could we but bring our spiritual pollution to where the leper knelt! The music of that word “ forgiven,” uttered by Christ’ s own lips--did that but fall upon our ears! But are we sure that if Christ were upon earth we should be inclined to seek Him? That the same hindrances of shame, worldliness, &c., would not still operate? And then why should the utterance of Christ’ s own lips be more satisfactory than the inward witness of the Holy Spirit? But in two respects one privilege is immeasurably higher. (1) We understand better than they did the way of salvation by Christ. (2) Christ is accessible to us, as He was not to the bulk of mankind then. 4. The comparative means for obtaining a perfect preparation for eternal life. (1) The aids incentive to holiness with which Christ’ s attendants were privileged were transcendently great. Think of His teaching on the character of God, the evil of sin, the excellence of religion; His miracles; the moral force of His example. (2) Yet we may easily over-estimate this privilege. It was not of itself, and as a matter of course, an instrument Of salvation, as the case of Judas makes only too clear. (3) Besides, the disciples had no such opportunity of securing holiness as we have, for the Holy Spirit was not given till Jesus was glorified. II. IN WITH THE GENERAL UPON WHICH GOD GOVERNS HIS , IT IS BETTER THAT WE ARE CALLED TO LIVE FOR A WHILE BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT. 1. Inward satisfaction in the service of God is in proportion to the difficulties of the service. Were it not for the renunciation of the world, the crucifixion of self, the wrestling with evil, which go hand in hand with the return of a sinful spirit to God, there would be little of that joy which come so often with the first revelation of Christ. If evangelical truth in its sublimer mysteries were accessible to every vagrant aspiration, how poor a harvest of Divine delight would they furnish compared with that now yielded to the toilsome husbandry of thought and devotion! And when we pray, and labour, find peace, thereby we owe it to the spiritual hindrances which block our approach to God and to outward pressure and trial. 2. A life of faith is fitted to produce a symmetry and perfection of Christian character such as could scarcely come by a less trying process. Those Christians are the wisest, and meekest, and most spiritual to whom the largest share of providential trouble has fallen, and the perfecting of the Church for the duties of time and for the felicity and services of heaven is only to be secured under the operation of faith in the unseen Saviour. Were the presence which faith imposes lifted off the Church, pride would take the place of humility, and self-worship consecration to Christ, and hardness charity. 3. The ultimate rewards of creatures like ourselves are determined by the severity of the ordeal which constitutes moral probation. If there be creatures whose final estate is determined apart from probation, we can hardly imagine them possessors of a blessedness comparable to those who have suffered and so are perfected. There is not a good, even of this world, the fruits of pains and trouble, which is not the sweeter from the price we pay for it. III. THE TEXT HAS OTHER ASPECTS. 1. Towards Christian belief. It shows a strong shadow on millinarianism. Whatever advantage such a state of things might be supposed to confer on the Church, on the principle of the text it would be a diminution, not a heightening, of its present privilege. 2. Towards Christian sentiment and observance. It distinctly frowns upon all interposition of the material and human between God in Christ and our souls. The entire genius of Christianity is hostile to religious symbolism, and the history of the Church utters a strong caution against the use of sense as a helpmate to faith. Faith needs it not. It is impious to set up Moses’ candlestick again now that the Sun has risen. 3. Towards Christian character and life. (1) It rebukes the spirit of religious discontent and envy. (2) It suggests the greatness of our religious obligation as Christians. (3) It opens a glorious prospect of blessing from God as the recompense of faith. (J. D. Geden, D. D.) A simple faith: A peasant of singular piety, being on a particular occasion admitted to the presence of the King of Sweden, was asked by him what he considered to be the nature of true faith. The peasant entered fully into the subject much to the King’ s comfort and satisfaction. When the king was on his death-bed he had a return of Ms fears as to the safety of his soul, and still the same question was perpetually put to those around him, “ What is real faith?” The Archbishop of Upsal, who had been sent for, commenced in a learned and logical manner a scholastic definition of faith, which lasted an hour. When he had finished, the king said, with much energy, “ All this is ingenious, but it is not comfortable; it is not what I want. Nothing but the farmer’ s faith will do for me.” (J. Everett.) Faith and sight I. SIGHT WITHOUT FAITH--sin. 1. Ancient--the sin of the Jewish people. 2. Common--the sin of many now. 3. Great--since that which in Christ is presented to the eye of faith and reason ought to lead to heart acceptance of Christ. II. FAITH AFTER SIGHT--salvation. Exemplified 1. In the disciples (except perhaps John) (John 20:8), who believed in Christ risen after they had seen Him. 2. In those who to-day believe in Christ only after their intellectual difficulties as to Christ have been solved. III. FAITH WITHOUT SIGHT--blessedness. 1. It implies a larger measure of Divine grace. 2. It exhibits a higher degree of Christian virtue. 3. It secures a richer experience of inward felicity. 4. It wins a readier commendation from the lips of Christ. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The Bible a help to the sight of faith: You may have stood on the sea coast while a friend has been looking out to sea through a telescope, perhaps it was when you were at Douglas waiting the arrival of a steamer from Liverpool, on which you were expecting a beloved relative. While you are standing on the rock, your friend is looking through the glass, and saying, “ Yes; I see him!” You reply, “ Let me have the glass! I cannot believe it, unless I see too.” You lift the glass, and in a little while, you say, “ Ah, I see him; now, he sees us, and is waving his handkerchief to us!” Here is a telescope which God has provided for every man. We can see, through it, that the record of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, are facts, as plainly as if we had seen Him with our eyes and touched Him with our hands. We also see that He is our Saviour, who died in our room and stead; and that we are saved from the penalty of eternal death, because our iniquities were laid on Him instead of on us. We see through this Divine telescope, that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, He died, not for His own sins, but for ours! Through this glass we see the water of life, and notice to our joy that any thirsty soul may drink thereof, without money and without price. Through this blessed glass, we see the hand of the Lord directing our paths, and holding us up in slippery ways. It is the most wonderful telescope in the world. It shows us our departed friends and children in a beautiful land, where they wear white robes and have neither any sorrow nor sin; and it shows that we have a mansion in paradise on which our names are written; but, best of all, it reveals that we--we!--shall actually enjoy the blessedness of heaven! (W. Birch.) Meditation a help to the sight of faith: Meditation and contemplation are often like windows of agate, and gates of carbuncle, through which we see the Redeemer. Meditation puts the telescope to the eye, and enables us to see Jesus after a better sort than we could have seen Him if we had lived in the days of His flesh; for now we see not only Jesus in the flesh, but the spiritual Jesus; we see the spirit of Jesus, the core and essence of Jesus, the very soul of the Saviour. O happy you, that spend much time in contemplations! I wish that we had less to do, that we might do more of this heavenly work. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Sight and faith: Walking by sight is just this--“ I believe in myself;” whereas walking by faith is--“ I believe in God.” If I walk by sight I walk by myself; if I walk by faith, then there are two of us, and the second one--ah! how great, how glorious, how mighty is He--the Great All-in-all--God-all-sufficient! Sight goes a warfare at its own charges, andbecomes a bankrupt, and is defeated. Faith goes a warfare at the charges of the King’ s Exchequer, and there is no fear that Faith’ s bank shall ever be broken. Sight builds the house from its own quarry, and on its own foundation but it begins to build and is never able to finish, and what it does build rests on the sand and falls. But faith builds on the foundation laid in eternity, in the fair colours of the Saviour’ s blood, in the covenant of grace. It goes to God for every stone to be used in the building, and brings forth the top-stone with shoutings of “ Grace, grace unto it!” (C. H.Spurgeon.) Sight of faith: Sight is the noblest sense; it is quick; we can look from earth to heaven in a moment: it is large; we can see the hemisphere of the heavens at one view: it is sure and certain; in hearing we may be deceived; and, lastly, it is the most affecting sense. Even so, faith is the quickest, the largest, the most certain, the most affecting grace: like an eagle in the clouds, at one view, it sees Christ in heaven, and looks down upon the world; it looks backwards and forwards; it sees things past, present, and to come. (R. Sibbes, D. D.) Faith, not sight: By constant sight, the effect of objects seen grows less; by constant faith, the effect of objects believed in grows greater. The probable reason of this is, that personal observation does not admit of the influence of the imagination in impressing the fact; while unseen objects, realized by faith, have the auxiliary aid of the imagination, not to exaggerate them, but to clothe them with living colours, and impress them upon the heart. Whether this be the reason or not, the fact is true, that, the more frequently we see, the less we feel, the power of an object; while, the more frequently we dwell upon an object by faith, the more we feel its power. (J. B. Walker, M. D.) Faith without sight 1. Those who saw and believed not were far from being blessed. 2. Those who saw him, and believed, were undoubtedly blessed. 3. Those who have not seen, and yet have believed, are emphatically blessed. 4. There remains the superlative degree of blessedness in seeing Jesus face to face without need of believing in the same sense as now. 5. But for the present this is our blessedness, this is our place in the gospel history--we have not seen, and yet have believed. What a comfort that so high a degree of blessedness is open to us! I. DO NOT LET US THIS 1. By wishing to see. (1) By pining for some imaginary voice, or vision, or revelation. (2) By craving marvellous providences, and singular dispensations. (3) By hungering for despairs or transports. (4) By perpetually demanding arguments and logical demonstrations. (5) By clamouring for conspicuous success in connection with the preaching of the Word, and the missionary operations of the Church. (6) By being anxious to believe with the majority. Truth has usually been with the minority. 2. By failing to believe. Believe (1) Practically, so as to act upon our faith. (2) Intensely, so as to laugh at contradictions. (3) Livingly, so as to be simple as a child. (4) Continually, so as to be evenly confident. (5) Personally, so as to be assured alone, even if all others give the lie to the doctrines of the Lord. (6) Thoroughly, so as to find the rest of faith. II. DO NOT LET US THINK THIS . 1. This blessedness is linked for ever with the faith which our Lord accepts: in fact, it is the appointed reward of it. 2. God deserves such faith of us. He is so true that His unsupported word is quite enough for faith to build upon. Can we only believe Him as far as we can see Him? 3. Thousands of saints have rendered, and are rendering, such faith, and are enjoying such blessedness at this moment, We are bound to have fellowship with them in like precious faith. 4. Hitherto our own experience has warranted such faith. Has it not? 5. Those of us who are now enjoying the blessed peace of faith can speak with great confidence upon the matter. Why, then, are so many cast down? Why will they not believe? III. DO NOT LET ANY OF US MISS IT. The faith which our Lord described is exceedingly precious, and we ought to seek after it, for 1. It is the only true and saving faith. Faith which demands sight is not faith at all, and cannot save the soul. 2. It is in itself most acceptable with God. Nothing is acceptable without it Hebrews 11:6). It is the evidence of the acceptance of the man and his works. 3. It is a proof of grace within: of a spiritual mind, a renewed nature, a reconciled heart, a new-born spirit. 4. It is the root-principle of a glorious character. 5. It is exceedingly useful to others: in comforting the despondent, in impressing unbelievers, in cheering seekers, &c. 6. It enriches its possessor to the utmost, giving power in prayer, strength of mind, decision of character, firmness under temptation, boldness in enterprise, joy of soul, realization of heaven, &c. Conclusion: 1. Know you this faith? 2. Blessedness lies that way. Seek it! (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith with and without sight I. WHAT WERE SOME OF THE ENJOYED BY THOSE WHO LIVED AND SERVED GOD IN THE TIMES OF MIRACLE? 1. To a considerable extent the pious Jews and the first Christians believed because they saw. Not that they walked wholly by sight. Noah was “ warned of God of things not seen as yet.” Abraham went out of his old home, “ not knowing whither he went.” And those worthies mentioned in Hebrews 11:1-40. acted without assistance from the objects of time and sense, in the instances that are specified. But taking into the account the whole course of their lives, they were much more aided by sight than we are. (1) For it was a dispensation of supernaturalism. Who could be an atheist as he stood under Mount Sinai. Who could query the possibility of miracles, when he saw the waters of the Red Sea rising up; when he saw the shadow go back upon the sun-dial: when he heard Christ call up Lazarus from the tomb. (2) Now there was something in this, unquestionably, that rendered faith in God’ s power comparatively easy. Jacob, e.g., must have found it no difficult thing to trust in a Being who was directing him, watching over him, and delivering him. 2. How differently the modern believer is situated! Generation after generation has come and gone, but no celestial sign has been given. Christians have believed that God is, but they have never seen His shape nor heard His voice. They have had faith in immortality, but no soul has ever returned to make their assurance doubly sure. In some instances, this reticence has produced an almost painful uncertainty, and wakened the craving for some palpable evidence of unseen realities. And all the attempts of Spiritualism are another testimony to the craving natural to man for miraculous signs. Sceptics contend that the miracle is irrational. But, certainly, nothing is irrational for which there is a steady and constant demand upon the part of human nature. II. SOME OF THE WHICH THE CHURCH OF GOD IN THESE LATTER DAYS, WHEN THERE IS NO MIRACLE TO ASSIST FAITH. Believing without seeing 1. Is a stronger faith; and the stronger the faith, the greater the blessedness. (1) If Thomas had put credit in the affirmation of the other disciples, it is evident that his faith in Christ would have been greater. For Christ had foretold that He was to be crucified and to rise. Thomas had witnessed the crucifixion, and knew that this part of his Lord’ s prophecy was fulfilled. If, now, he had believed the remainder, he would have believed the disciples’ report. But his demand evinced that his faith needed to be helped out by sight. (2) If we examine the Scriptures, we shall find that that faith is of the best quality which leans least upon the creature and most upon the Creator. Take the case of Abraham. He was the subject of miraculous impressions; but there were some critical points in which His experience resembled more that of the modern believers, and it is with references to them that he is styled the “ father of the faithful.” Consider the trial of his faith when commanded to sacrifice Isaac. (3) It is to this high degree of faith that the modern believer is invited. We have never seen a miracle. We have only read the record of what God did, in this way, thousands of years ago. Our faith must therefore rest more upon the simple authority of God, and be more spiritual. The inward powers of the soul are nobler than the five senses; and their acts have more worth and dignity than the operations of the senses. There is no very great merit in following the notices of the five senses. An animal does this continually. But when I believe that God is great and good, when phenomena seemingly teach the contrary; when my faith runs back to the nature and attributes of God Himself, and is not staggered by anything that I see, then I give God great honour. All that this kind of faith requires is, to be certain that the Divine promise has been given; and then it leaves all to Him. 2. Honours God more. We cannot show greater respect for any one than to take his bare word. There are comparatively few men of this first class and standing. And just as far as we withhold our confidence in God until we can see the wisdom of His ways, we dishonour Him. Suppose a sudden and inexplicable sorrow--a missionary is cut down in the midst of great usefulness; a wise and kind father is taken away from a family that leans entirely upon him: if in these instances no doubts are felt, what an honour do they render to God by such absolute confidence. For the faith in such cases terminates upon the very personality and nature of God. It passes by all secondary causes and reposes upon the First Cause. Oftentimes our faith is of such a mixed character, that it honours the creature as much as the Creator. For example, if we expect that the whole world will be Christianized, partly because of the Divine promises and partly because the wealth and civilization and military power of the earth are in the possession of Christian nations, we honour the creature in conjunction with the Creator; and this is to dishonour Him, for He says, “ My glory will I not give to another.” The faith of the Church is of the purest, highest kind only when she trusts solely and simply in God, and looks upon all favouring circumstances as results, not as supports, of His promise. Take away the promises and agency of God, and where would be the wealth, &c., of Protestant Europe and America? “ Sufficient is Thine arm alone, and our defence is sure.” The early Church, with the civilization of the Greek and Roman world arrayed against them, could not lean upon it in conjunction with God, if they would. They were shut up to the mere power and promise of the Most High. And what honour did they give Him in this: and how did He honour them in return? Conclusion: From this subject it is evident 1. That God is the sole object of faith. There is a difference between belief and faith. We may believe a man; but we may believe in and on God alone. Faith is the resting of the mind; and the mind can find no rest in a creature. 2. If God is the sole object of faith, then we must beware of a mixed or partial faith. We must not trust partly in God, and partly in His creatures. He will receive no divided honours. As in our justification we cannot trust partly in the blood of Christ, and partly in our own good works, so in our more general relation to God, our confidence must not rest upon any combination or union between Him and the works of His hands. 3. We know these things, happy are we if we do them. (Prof. Shedd.) Faith of Thomas: Faith, resting upon the word of promise, upon a Divine testimony, is more noble, spiritual, and ingenuous; displays more candour and humility, and brings more glory to God, than that which is the result of sensible manifestation. In illustrating these words, let us I. EXAMINE THE NATURE OF THAT FAITH WHICH IS HERE BY OUR SAVIOUR. Faith, in its most general sense, is the strong persuasion of any truth, the firm assent of the mind to it. This persuasion may be founded on the evidence of our senses: thus Thomas believed that Jesus was risen, because he saw, felt, and heard Him; thus I believe there is a sun, because I behold it, and am warmed by its beams. Sometimes this persuasion is founded on the deductions of reason: thus, because I discover in the universe so many effects, to produce which there must have been an intelligent First Cause, I believe there is a God (John 10:37.) Butthough the word faith is thus used, both in common language and in the Scriptures, to signify that persuasion which is founded on the evidence of the senses or the deductions of reason, yet, in its more strict and proper reason, it denotes that assent of the mind which is founded on testimony. It is in this manner we believe, although we do not see. Thus I am told that there is such a city as Rome, such a river as the Nile; and though I have never seen them, I am persuaded of their existence, because it is confirmed to me by witnesses who had opportunities of knowing, and who had no interest in deceiving me. Their testimony fully supplies the place of the evidence of the senses or the deductions of reason. If the testimony be that of man, there results from it human faith; if the testimony be that of God, there results from it Divine faith; if it be of God through Jesus Christ and His apostles, there results Christian faith. But that we may more fully understand the nature of this faith, let us consider a few of its properties 1. It is enlightened. To believe without seeing is very different from believing without evidence or proof. The believer is not a weak being, receiving every thing without examination; nor any enthusiast, assenting without motive or light. 2. This faith is humble. A thousand objects connected with the being, attributes, and purposes of God, with the schemes of providence, or the plan of redemption, necessarily present to him abysses which no finite mind can fathom; but, filled with veneration and wonder before the Infinite, the incomprehensible, he submits his understanding; he strives not to break through those barriers which the Eternal has placed around His throne 3. This faith is firm. The foundation of his belief is more stable than the heavens and the earth. It is not a mere probability, a wavering hope, an uncertain guess; but the declaration of God, on which he rests his assured belief and his everlasting interests. 4. This faith is universal in its object: receiving as true the whole of the sacred volume, its histories, its predictions, its doctrines, its precepts, its threatenings, its promises. 5. Finally, this faith is active, efficacious, purifying. It is not confined to a barren admiration of the truths and facts that are revealed; it descends into the heart, and sanctifies all its powers; it receives the precepts and commands of God as well as His promises; it requires the sacrifice of corrupt passions as well as the submission of our reason. Let us not deceive ourselves; the conviction of the understanding must pass to the heart, and then be manifested in all the actions of a holy life. II. Inquire WHY THOSE WHO THUS BELIEVE, THEY DO NOT SEE, ARE BLESSED. 1. They are so because they display true wisdom, both in the choice of objects to occupy their mind, and in the rules they follow in giving their assent to them. They select for their belief, and contemplation, the most important truths. Place by their side the most sublime human sciences; and in comparison these sciences, to Him who judges without prejudice, and with a reference to the eternal duration of man, will appear only a vain and pompous ignorance. How trifling in reality are the pursuits of the greatest earthly philosopher, if he is ignorant of the science of salvation! More happy and more wise are they who are contented to behold with the eyes of God what they cannot behold with their own; who submit to be directed by the infallible Father of lights; who, “ though they see not, yet believe.” 2. Happy also because they act not only in the wisest, but also in the most advantageous manner, since they thus avoid misery and secure felicity. Without this faith, what overwhelming doubts, what cruel uncertainties, what multiplied fears surround us! Without it, what hope has the penitent? Can God forgive the rebel, in consistence with His holiness? In what mode can the remission of our sins be secured? These and a thousand other questions are unanswerable. Without it, what adequate consolation is there to the persecuted and oppressed? What relief to the bereaved? What comfort to the dying? (H. Kollock, D. D.) Faith in an unseen Christ: Here is another “ beatitude” in addition to what Matthew gives. Christ was Himself the “ Blessed One” ; and well knew who were “ blessed,” and what made them so. But how and why are believers so specially “ blessed?” I. THEY THROW UPON THE BARE WORD OF GOD. So that their faith rests on no divided evidence; and the foundation they build on is not partly strong and partly weak, partly iron and partly clay, partly rock and partly sand, but wholly rock, iron, strong. Sight may change; to-day bright, tomorrow dim; but God’ s testimony changes not. II. THEY COME INTO CONTACT WITH GOD HIMSELF. No medium comes between them and God. The soul touches Him who is a Spirit, needing no interpreter nor introducer. III. THEY GET MORE INTO THE HEART AND REALITY OF THE THINGS OF GOD. Sight often crusts over spiritual things, or builds a wall. Simple faith goes in at once to the heart and core of things. Instead of cruising along the rocky sea-board, it strikes inland, and pitches its tent amid the gardens and by the streams of a richer and more glorious country. It is in itself simpler, purer, and more direct; and hence it finds its way into regions into which faith of a grosser kind could never penetrate: it rises up, with a buoyancy all its own, into a higher atmosphere, disentangled from the things of earth. Like a being without a body to clog it, it moves more at will, and rejoices in a liberty to which faith of a more material kind is a stranger. IV. THEY TAKE FEWER FALSE STEPS, AND MAKE FEWER . Simple faith sees, as it were, everything with God’ s eyes, and hears everything with God’ s ears; and thus comes to no false conclusions, and is kept from the continual mistakes into which sense is falling. It not only sets the right estimate on the evidence of sense and feeling, but it puts the true interpretation upon all the facts and phenomena coming under the eye or sense. Exercising simple faith on the bare word of Him who has given me the record respecting His crucified, dead, buried, risen Son, I see myself crucified, dead, buried, risen with Him. Though seeing in myself the chief of sinners, I know and believe that there iS no condemnation for me. Thus I believe not only without, but against seeing; and put the right construction upon things seen and temporal, looking at everything with the eyes of God. V. THEY ARE THUS TO OF THE REST AND MOST KIND. This life of believing keeps the body under, while it lifts up the soul; it loosens us from the earthly, and fastens us to the heavenly. It calms us, too, in a stormy world. It awakes us and keeps us awake, amid scenes fitted to lull us asleep. It makes us more truly “ children too of the light and of the day,” by transporting us beyond this world of night and darkness, into the kingdom of the unsetting sun. (H. Bonar, D. D.) Dr. Arnold’ s death: When Dr. Arnold was suddenly stricken with his mortal agony, he was seen, we are told, lying still, with his hands clasped, his lips moving, and his eyes raised upwards as if in prayer; when all at once he repeated, firmly and earnestly: “ And Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen,” &c. (Bp. Westcott.) John 20:30-31 And many other signs truly did Jesus The Evangelic record I. ITS (John 20:30). 1. Christ was a worker. He had a wonderful mission to discharge within a brief time. Every day was crowded with deeds. 2. These deeds were signs (1) Of His preternatural might. (2) Of His matchless philanthropy. (3) Of His immeasurable possibilities. 3. The recorded signs were only a small portion of what He accomplished; but (1) They are sufficient for our purpose. (2) They suggest a wonderful history for future study. II. ITS PURPOSE (John 20:31). The facts of Christ’ s life are written in order 1. To reveal Him. (1) His power. (2) His love. (3) His transcendent excellence. 2. That men may believe in Him. How could they believe in Him of whom they have not heard. Faith in Him is at once (1) The most essential, and (2) The most practicable of all faiths. It is easier to believe in a person than in a proposition, and to believe in a transcendently good person than in any other. 3. That through faith men may have the highest life. What is this: Supreme sympathy with the supremely good. Man lost this at the Fall, and the loss is his guilt and ruin. The mission of Christ is to resuscitate it, and to fill souls with the love of God. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The miracles of Christ 1. “ Signs” are miracles--a branch of evidence to which our religion appeals. The sufficiency of this evidence appears from universal acknowledgment. That the authors of all false religions have pretended miracles to establish their authority does not weaken the argument; for there could be no counterfeit coin were there no genuine mintage. 2. But what is a miracle? Not every extraordinary event, although popularly so denominated. There may be extraordinary floods, droughts, earthquakes, meteors, &c., and yet all may be resolved into natural laws operating under peculiar circumstances, without any special interposition of Deity. Hence, not every portent which an ignorant people call miraculous, is to be clothed with that character; nor every occasional remarkable effect which cannot be resolved into some known natural law, as the force of imagination in curing certain kinds of diseases and infirmities. But a miracle is the effect of the immediate interposition of God, contrary to or above the ordinary laws of nature, and that for the confirmation of some doctrine or message as from Himself. 3. The miracles of Jesus are presented to our consideration. I. AS BEARING THE OF REAL , AND THE MISSION AND CLAMS OF CHRIST. Consider 1. Their number. A solitary instance might be accounted for by mistake, deception, exaggeration, or coincidence. But the number “ of the signs which Jesus did” shuts out this objection. Many instances are recorded with names, places, times, &c.; whilst we have instances in which our Lord healed “ multitudes.” 2. Their publicity. They were wrought in the sight of multitudes in broad day, and under the eye of a whole nation for nearly four years. 3. The character of the witnesses. Even the disciples were not over credulous; for Christ was the opposite of Him whom their imaginations had depicted as the true Messiah. In the multitude there was no eagerness to proclaim a lowly peasant, the Son of David, the King of Israel. And even the Pharisees and Sadducees, whose eye was sharpened by the mixed passions of hatred, envy, and fear, never denied the facts, and had to account for them by Satanic agency. 4. The nature of the works themselves. No class of events could bear stronger evidence of a supernatural character. They are not of a nature to be referred to the effects of imagination, occult laws of nature, never till then developed, nor to fortunate coincidences. “ Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.” 5. In the very age and places where these “ signs” were wrought, multitudes believed on Christ who had motives for unbelief but none for credulity; and their conversion can only be accounted for from the overwhelming evidences of the real occurrence of the miracles upon which Christ placed the proof of His Divine mission. II. AS WITH , AND AS POINTS OF . In the works of Christ there are 1. Miracles which declare His Divinity. (1) He wrought them, not in the name of another, but in His own. “ I say unto thee, Arise,” &c. This distinguishes Him from prophets and apostles. (2) He associates a miracle of healing with His authority as God to forgive sins. (3) When He drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, He claimed as His own that Temple in which He often appeared as a common worshipper. (4) And when He cast out devils, they are sometimes constrained to confess Him as the Son of God. 2. Miracles of impressive majesty. He was to appear among men in the utmost lowliness of condition, yet He was to gather a people who were to receive Him as, “ the Son of God.” Such a task had been too difficult for the strongest faith, had there not been “ signs” which should manifest His “ glory.” The cloud which enveloped Him was dark; but it was the cloud of the Shechinah. Under His benediction bread multiplies, and thousands are fed; He walks upon the sea, and the yielding element sinks not beneath His footsteps; amidst the uproar of a storm He utters His simple command, “ Peace, be still!” and the winds hear, and die away. At the mouth of the sepulchre He cries, “ Lazarus, come forth!” And when finally He, the Conqueror of death in His own dominion, appears, Thomas naturally exclaims, “ My Lord and my God!” 3. Miracles of tenderness. The works of our Lord were uniformly benevolent; but some of them were characterized by circumstances of peculiar compassion, e.g., the feeding of the multitudes; the healing of the nobleman, and the raising of the widow’ s son, &c. 4. Miracles designed to impress upon our minds some important doctrine. When our Lord provided for the tribute-money, He intended to teach subjection to fiscal laws. When He drove the traders from the Temple, He taught that the places and the acts of worship are to be kept free from the intrusions of secular things. The miraculous draught of fishes was designed to indicate the success of the apostles in their work of evangelizing all nations, &c. 5. Miracles involving the duty and necessity of faith; that is, a personal trust in His power and mercy, as in the case of the leper, the centurion’ s servant, the child tormented with an evil spirit (Mark 9:1-50.), and the Syro-Phoenician woman. 6. Typical miracles, which symbolize something higher than themselves, great and illustrious as they were. (1) Our Lord’ s absolute power over nature indicated that the government of the natural world was placed in His hands as Mediator. (2) Devils were subject to Him, which showed that He came to establish a dominion which should finally subvert the empire of Satan. (3) When He was transfigured, He exhibited a type of that glory into which He was Himself about to enter, and into which He purposed to introduce His disciples. (4) When the band came to apprehend Him, and He by putting forth a supernatural power arrested the arresters, He showed with what ease He can confound His adversaries. (5) When, whilst in the act of dying, He rent the earth, and opened the graves, so that many of the saints came forth, He gathered the first-fruits of His people from the grave. And the miracle of His own resurrection was the type and pattern of our triumph over death. Conclusion: Learn 1. The practical character of the holy Scriptures. “ These are written that ye might believe” ; but many other works were done “ which are not written in this book.” Enough, however, is recorded for practical uses; the rest are reserved to the revelations of a future state. Let us remember that we are rather to improve what is recorded, than repine that not more has been written to gratify our curiosity. 2. The end for which they are written, “ that ye might believe” , &c. These are the chief foundations of the Christian faith. “ The Son of God” is the Divine designation; “ the Christ” is the official name of the Redeemer of the world. 3. The consequence of a true faith in Christ is life. A mere doctrinal faith, however correct, cannot of itself lead to this result; but the personal trust which is exercised by a penitent heart obtains the life which is promised in Christ. The sentence of condemnation is reversed; and spiritual life, the result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, becomes the subject of present, daily, and growing experience. By this let us try our faith. (R. Watson.) The silence of Scripture: It is a very good old canon that “ in every work” we are to “ regard the writer’ s end,” and if that simple principle had been applied to this Gospel, a great many of the features in it which have led to some difficulty would have been naturally explained. But this text may be applied very much more widely than to John’ s Gospel. I. We have here THE OF . 1. Take this Gospel first. It is not meant to be a biography; it is avowedly a selection, under the influence of a distinct dogmatic purpose. There is nothing in it about Christ’ s birth, baptism, and selection of apostles, ministry in Galilee, parables, ethical teaching, and the Lord’ s supper. Nearly half of it is taken up with the incidents of one week at the end of His life, and of and after the Resurrection. Of the remainder--by far the larger portion consists of conversations which axe hung upon miracles that seem to be related principally for the sake of these. 2. And when we turn to the other three, the same is true. Why was it that after the completion of the Scriptural canon there sprang up apocryphal gospels, full of childish stories of events which people felt had been passed over with strange silence? Is it not strange that the greatest event in the world’ s history should be told in such brief outline? Put the Gospels down by the side of the biography of any man that has a name at all, and you will feel their incompleteness as biographies. And yet, although they be so tiny that you might sit down and read them all in an evening over the fire, is it not strange that they have stamped on the mind of the world an image so deep and so sharp, of such a character as the world never saw elsewhere? 3. And then, if you turn to the whole Book, the same thing is true. The silence of Scripture is quite as eloquent as its speech. (1) Think, e.g., how many things are taken for granted which one would not expect to be taken for granted in a book of religious instruction: the Being of a God; our relations to Him; our moral nature, and the future life. Look at how the Bible passes by, without one word of explanation, the difficulties which gather round some of its teaching: the Divine nature of our Lord, e.g., the three Persons in the Godhead; the mystery of prayer; or of the difficulty of reconciling the Omnipotent will of God with our own free will, or of the fact of Christ’ s death as the atonement for the sins of the whole world. Observe, too, how scanty the information on points on which the heart craves for more light: e.g., the future life! (2) Nor is the incompleteness of Scripture as a historical book less marked. Nations and men appear on its pages abruptly, rending the curtain of oblivion, and then they disappear. It has no care to tell the stories of any of its heroes, except for so long as they were the organs of that Divine breath. It is full of gaps about matters that any sciolist or philosopher or theologian would have filled up for it. II. THE MORE PURPOSE WHICH ALL THESE . 1. To produce in men’ s hearts faith in Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God. (1) The Evangelist avows that His work is a selection determined by the doctrinal purpose to represent Jesus as the Christ, the Fulfiller of all the expectations and promises of the old Covenant, and as the Son of God. And so it is ridiculous in the face of this statement for “ critics” to say: “ The author of the fourth Gospel has not told us this, that, and the other incident therefore, He did not know it, consequently this Gospel is not to be trusted” ; and others might draw the conclusion that the other three Evangelists are not to be trusted because they do give it us; a blunder which would have been avoided if people had listened when he said: “ I knew a great many things about Jesus Christ, but I did not put them down here because I was not writing a biography, but preaching a gospel.” (2) But that is just as true about the whole New Testament. The four Gospels are written to tell us these two facts about Christ, and the rest of the New Testament is nothing more than the working out of their theoretical and practical consequence. (3) As for the Old Testament whatever may be the conclusion as to dates and authorship, and whatever a man may believe about verbal prophecies, there is stamped unmistakably upon the whole system an attitude towards “ good things to come,” and of a Person who will bring them. “ They that went before, and they that followed after, cried, Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” That Christ towers up above the history of the world and the process of revelation, like Mount Everest among the Himalayas. To that great peak all the country on the one side runs upwards, and from it all the valleys on the other descend; and the springs are born there which carry verdure and life over the world. 2. Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of Scripture; and the Book is a unity, because there is driven right through it, like a core of gold, either in the way of prophecy and onward-looking anticipation, or in the way of history and grateful retrospect, the reference to Christ, the Son of God. (1) And all its fragmentariness, its carelessness about persons, are intended, as are the slight parts in a skilful artist’ s handiwork, to emphasize the beauty and the sovereignty of that one Central Figure on which all lights are concentrated, and on which the painter has lavished all the resources of his art. (2) But it is not merely in order to represent Jesus as the Christ of God that these things are written, but that representation may become the object of our faith. Had the former been its sole intention, a theological treatise, e.g., would have been enough. But, if the object be that men should rest their sinful souls upon Him as the Son of God and the Christ, then there is no other way to accomplish that but by the history of His life and the manifestation of His heart. And so let us learn the wretched insufficiency of a mere orthodox creed, and on the other hand, the equal insufficiency of a mere creedless emotion. III. THE PURPOSE OF THE WHOLE. Scripture is not given to us merely to make us know something about God in Christ, nor only in order that we may have faith in the Christ thus revealed to us, but that we may “ have life in His name.” 1. “ Life” is deep, mystical, inexplicable by any other words than itself. It includes pardon, holiness, well-being, immortality, Heaven; but it is more than they all. 2. This life comes in our dead hearts and quickens them by union with God. That which is joined to God lives. You can separate your wills and your spiritual nature from Him, and thus separated you are “ dead in tresspasses and in sins.” And the message which comes there is life “ in His name” ; i.e., in that revealed character of His by which He is made known to us as the Christ and the Son of God. 3. Union with Him in His Sonship will bring life into dead hearts. He is the true Prometheus who has come from Heaven with the fire of the Divine life in the reed of His humanity, and He imparts it to us all if we will. He lays Himself upon us, as the prophet laid himself on the little child in the upper chamber; and lip to lip, and beating heart to dead heart, He touches our death, and it is quickened into life. 4. The condition on which that great Name will bring to us life is simply our faith. Do trust yourself to Him, as He who came to fulfil all that prophet, priest, and king, sacrifice, altar, and temple of old times prophesied and looked for? Do you trust in Him as the Son of God who comes down to earth that we in Him might find the immortal life which He is ready to give? If you do, then the end that God has in view in all His revelation, has been accomplished for you. If you do not it has not. You may admire Him, be ready to call Him by many appreciative names, but unless you have learned to see in Him the Divine Saviour of your souls, you have not seen what God means you to see. But if you have, then all other questions about this Book, important as they are in their places, may settle themselves as they will; you have got the kernel, the thing that it was meant to bring you. Many an erudite scholar, who has studied the Bible all his life, has missed the purpose for which it was given; and many a poor old woman in her garret has found it. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Things not written and things written Among thoughtful readers biography is the most popular branch of literature. It is popular in the best sense. It does not captivate the intellect of sensuousness at the expense of the reflective mind. Nor does it stimulate a fugitive moment to be followed by a lapse into deadness of sensibility. But it is popular by virtue of a genuine human quality that delights in a knowledge of others, and passes from their fellowship into a truer and wiser communion with its own private heart. Books are the best interpreters of the race, and biographies are the best of books. No wonder, then, that the basis of Christianity, as a revelation of infinite wisdom, is laid in the biography of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice I. The statement THAT THAT RECORD OF OUR LORD’ S LIFE IS , AND, AS TO ITS DETAILS, . The narrative, though four minds wrought on it most sympathetically and skillfully, is not exhaustive. Obviously, the limitation was a part of the plan, for it is uniform, no one of the evangelists transcending a boundary tacitly acknowledged. Nor is this restraint arbitrary as to its mode of action. Observe, then, that this restraint is not isolated as to one class of facts or to any special phase of Christ’ s varied ministrations. It covers all. If we instance the miracles, only thirty-two are given, while we have many allusions to miraculous acts in such words as “ He healed many” and “ healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” We have the Sermon on the Mount, the discourses reported by St. John, and numerous parables, but His preaching is frequently spoken of in a general way, as “ He preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee.” Of His private instructions, few examples are mentioned, while His domestic life during the three years of His ministry is dimly outlined. The eyes of those who “ beheld His glory” saw more than they reported; and the hand of vigorous description, held in check by a higher Power, was allowed only such freedom of sweep as was consistent with the basic principle of New Testament literature. And what was that principle? Stated in a general way, it was the principle of biography as distinct from history. Biography proposes to interest us in a character. Everything is subordinate to that ruling idea. On this ground, then, we see the philosophy involved in the constructive art of the evangelists. They have but one end in view, and that is to describe a character. By reason of this end, their art must be exclusive no less than inclusive. Exclusive it must be, so as to shut off every divergence in the direction of history. Inclusive it will be, in order to do justice to the character portrayed. But this view may be expanded to a much wider reach. Not only had the evangelists to represent a very unique character in its human relations and aspects, but also the Divine nature underlying this character and imparting a peculiar significance to each and all its manifestations. If the Lord Jesus was the perfected type of humanity, He was also the image of God, the “ express image” of the Father and “ the brightness of His glory.” We are so constituted as to need images. Without them, the mind is inert. The sense-organs are inlets to certain images. Taken into the imagination, they are elaborated into endless shapes of beauty and splendour. Not a faculty, not even the conscience, is independent of them, and the most subtle of all mental operations--a process of abstraction--is an ultimate refinement of some concrete and pictorial idea. To this law of mind, Christ conformed when He appeared amongst men as the image of the Father. This being assumed, the evangelists come before us in a new attitude as biographers. Must the ordinary and accepted art-conditions of biography be fulfilled? Yes; for Christ is amen among men. But He is also a perfect man, an ideal of the human race. If so, the skill of biographical portraiture must be enhanced to meet the exceptional requirement. Is that all? Nay: He is not only an ideal man, but the Divine Man. St. John states the generic idea of them all when He says: “ Not written” and “ these are written.” Inspiration in them reveals itself in two ways: first, they carry the human heart of composition to its highest attainable point, and, secondly, they advance beyond the line of supreme human excellence. “ Not written” applies to whatever would over excite the senses and the intellect acting through the senses. “ Not written” refers to all that would address curiosity, the love of Novelty, and the strong proclivity to sensational gratification. “ Not written” includes every activity of the imagination that terminates in self-luxury and expends itself in emotions that vanish when the thrill of treacherous nerves has subsided. “ Not written” embraces that plethora of argument and logic by means of which no choice is left to the self-determining power of the soul, and its beliefs are created for it and not by its own freedom. “ Not written” asserts the truth, that the inner eye may be dazzled, confused, irritated, and, at last, blinded, till it is “ dark with excessive light.” And, hence, the art of the evangelist fell back into the previous method of the Lord Jesus, who uniformly acted on the law involved in “ not written.” Therefore it was that He who spake as never man spoke adhered so rigidly to the wisdom of moderation. But, on the other hand, St. John says that certain things “ are written,” and, hence, we inquire why are “ these” written? The answer is II. THAT THE LORD JESUS IS BY MEANS OF “ THESE” THINGS AS THE OBJECT OF SAVING FAITH. St. John is clear and full: “ That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” The object of the evangelists was not to give the history of Christ, but the personality of Christ as seen in His Divine character. A fixed principle of selection governs the evangelists in the incidents they narrate. The type of facts so chosen.is invariable. There is not a solitary exception. All these facts are typical of Him as the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Divine Redeemer of our race; and they ever converge to one point--faith in Him as the Saviour of sinners. So then in the things “ not written” and in those “ written;” in the spirit and mode of the narration; there is one end to which every fact is relative and necessary; viz., faith in Christ. Study Christ’ s life in order to see how wisely and beneficiently He uses the acts of others to commend faith in Himself. This is one of the highest charms of His biography for this feature makes it our biography as well as His. Does He heal the centurion’ s servant? Jesus stands aside, as it were, and puts the centurion’ s faith in the foreground of the scene. “ I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (Matthew 8:10). So in the case of the Syro-Phoenician woman: “ O woman, great is thy faith” (Matthew 15:28). One of the most striking chapters in the Bible is the eleventh of Hebrews, which exhibits in a historic collocation the wonders of faith. Its illustrations, taken from successive ages of the Church, follow in stirring rapidity, and the summons, “ By faith,” allow no break or lapse in attention. See, then, His complete adaptedness to man as the object of saving faith. If we believe in God surely we may and can believe in Him. Nor can we wonder that He reserved (see chap. 14.) this special mode of address to consummate the teaching of faith in Himself. The basis of faith had been laid, the superstructure built up, and now the final touch of strength and beauty is added: “ Ye believe in God; believe also in Me.” Say you, that man is wrecked and ruined? So He is; utterly and hopelessly crushed by sin. But the grandeur of His place in the universe survives, the idea of humanity attests its imperishability in the midst of overthrow, and man walks forth from the gates of Eden a sublimer possibility than when he entered on its magnificence. Ages before the atonement was a fact it was a truth; and one of its glorious characteristics--the most indicative indeed of its Divineness, next to the Godhead of the atoning sufferer, was the power of the doctrine in anticipation of the accomplished reality. How shall we explain this phenomenon? It is to be accounted for by the position that faith occupies in the scheme of redemption. On this ground we see why the Abraham of a rude and idolatrous age could become the father of the faithful, and why Moses should transcend all statesmen and legislators. Through the senses to the soul was the law of Adamic life. Exactly in accord with this economy, “ the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” forbidden to their taste, was “ good for food,” “ pleasant to the eyes” and “ to be desired to make one wise.” The temptation was on the level of Adam’ s dignity and it addressed itself directly to the foremost peculiarities of his constitution. So thus the law in Christ is through the spirit to the soul and its companion senses. Necessarily, therefore, faith is the instrumental means of salvation, since faith is the only possible organ through which the higher nature in man can act, and by which it can be developed. And hence the declaration of John 1 John 5:4.): “ This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” It overcomes the senses, wherein dwells in a fastness as old as Eden and as mighty as “ the god of this world,” the tyranny of evil. It overcomes their lusts and appetites. If we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, we “ have life through His name.” To believe in Him is to believe in His Sonship as divinely, eternally, exclusively His Sonship, and in His humanity as “ holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” The two natures met and united in Him; they formed one Person; and that Person, after a life of humiliation exceptional in the records of humanity, and a life of service and ministration in all the offices of intelligence, philanthropy, and goodness, still more remarkable in the annals of the race, died as differently from all other deaths as His life had been unlike all other lives. To believe in Him is to believe that His death was vicarious, propitiatory, and satisfying as to all the needs of fallen man, and all the requirements of infinite truth, justice, and holiness. To believe in Him is to believe in the unabated sovereignty of law. Love is never supreme above law, but supreme through law. To believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is to believe, not in mere truths and sentiments, nor simply in doctrines and duties, but in Him whose gracious and ever-blessed personality is the fount whence flows the force of all truth; the charm of all beauty; the wisdom of all knowledge; the tenderness of all benevolence; the sweetness of all sympathy; the largeness of all magnanimity, and the loftiness of all heroism, in the currents of this world’ s arteries, and in each and every one of the channels of this new-made universe. To believe in Him is to render repentance efficient to its end, so that they who mourn find a beatitude in their tears. (A. A. Lipscombe, D. D.) The main matter I. THE DESIGN OF ALL IS TO PRODUCE FAITH. There is no text in the whole book which was intended to create doubt. Doubt is a seed self-sown, or sown by the devil, and it usually springs up with more than sufficient abundance without our care. Holy Scripture is the creator of a holy confidence by revealing a sure line of fact and truth. Observe, no part of Holy Scripture was written 1. To magnify the writer of it. Many human hooks are evidently intended to let you see how profound are the thoughts of their authors or how striking is their style. The inspired authors lose themselves in their theme, and hide themselves behind their Master. A most striking instance of this is found in St. John’ s gospel. John was a man above all others fitted to write the life of Christ; and yet he has left out many interesting facts which the others have recorded, who did not actually see the facts as he did. He is silent because his speech would not serve the end it aimed at. And the most striking point is this--he omits, as if of set purpose, those places of the history in which he would have shone--the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, the Transfiguration, &c. What a lesson is all this to us who write or speak for God! 2. To present a complete biography of Christ. Observe the difference between John and an ordinary biographer. I can point you to biographies stuffed full of letters and small talk, which might as well have been forgotten. How different here! The signs and wonders which Christ did are not written to make a book; they are not even written that you may be informed of all that Jesus did; these are written with the end--“ that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” Matthew leaves out everything that does not bring out Christ in connection with the kingdom. Luke brings forth Jesus as the man; but when John brings forth Jesus as the Son of God he omits numbers of details that show our Lord in other aspects. 3. For the gratification of the most godly and pious curiosity. I would like to have acted to our Lord as Boswell did to Johnson. But the Holy Ghost did not send his servants to gather up interesting details and curious facts. You shall be told that which shall lead you to believe Christ to be the Son of God, but no more. 4. With the view of setting before us a complete example. It is true that the gospel sets before us a perfect character, and we are bound to imitate it; but that was not the first or chief design of the writers. Good works are best promoted, not as the first, but as the second thing. They come as the result of faith. See how John all through keeps to his design. His book contains a series of testimonies borne by persons led to faith in Jesus as the Christ. It begins with Andrew’ s confession--“ We have found the Messias,” and ends with Thomas’ s--“ My Lord and my God.” II. THE GREAT OBJECT OF TRUE FAITH IS JESUS CHRIST. The text does not say, “ These are written that ye might believe the Nicene or the Athanasian creed.” First, I am to believe in Jesus that He is the Christ, promised Messiah, anointed of God to deliver the human race. Next that He is the Son of God--not in the sense in which men are sons of God, but as the only begotten Son of God. Put the two together, that He, the Divine One, became man and was sent into the world to redeem us, and we have the right idea of Immanuel--God with us. 1. Believe this to be a matter of fact. 2. Accept it for yourself. 3. Yield yourself up to the grand truth which you have received. 4. Receive Jesus as being the Christ and the Son of God on the ground of the written Word. “ These are written,” &c. “ Oh,” says one, “ I could believe, but I do not feel as I ought.” What have your feelings to do with the truth of the statement that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God? Experience cannot make a thing true; and frames and feelings cannot make a thing to be a lie which is in itself true. III. THE TRUE LIFE OF A SOUL LIES IN CHRIST JESUS AND COMES TO THAT SOUL THROUGH FAITH IN HIM. 1. When a man has been found guilty of death, if by any means that sentence is removed, he obtains life, life in its judicial form. That is the first form of life that every man has who believes. 2. This judicial life is attended with an imparted life. God the Holy Spirit is with believers, breathing into them a new, holy, heavenly life. 3. This life grows. It continues to gather strength, and as it increases it s life “ more abundantly.” 4. This life never dies; it is a living and incorruptible seed which abideth for ever. The life of saints on earth is the same as that of saints in heaven. 5. This life comes with believing. (1) One person complains, “ I cannot tell exactly when I was converted, and this causes me great anxiety.” Dear friend, this is a needless fear. Turn your inquiries in another direction--Are you alive unto God by faith? The date is a small matter. (2) “ Well,” says another, “ but I hardly know how I was converted.” That again is minor matter. Our text does not state that the Bible was written that you and I might trace our faith in Christ to John, or to any one else. If you believe sincerely the mode in which you gained your faith need not be inquired into. (3) “ But I have such conflicts within,” cries one. Ah, there are no conflicts in dead men. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The quickening works: Every man may be compared to a book, and every day adds a fresh page to it. Notice I. THE RECORD. “ These are written.” 1. The subjects of the publication are the wonderful works and sayings of our Lord. His deeds were such as no human power could accomplish. The miracles were performed (1) As proofs of His Divinity. (2) As acts of humanity. (3) As illustrations of the works of salvation. Their publicity is particularly mentioned in the text. They were done in the presence of the disciples. Imposture seeks concealment. The miracles said to every doubter, “ Come and see.” Their number is also noted. “ Many other signs.” And not only are the miracles recorded, but the savings. With what dignity, authority, power, does He speak! 2. The way by which the Divine will has been revealed has been by inspiring certain men to record it in writing. Many advantages are derived from this method--the advantages of (1) Universality. A man’ s writings reach further than his voice. (2) Appeal. “ To the law and the testimony” we appeal. This is the judge that ends strife. (3) Security and permanence. The uttered word perishes; the letter written remains. What do we know of ancient history but through books? Let us be thankful, then, for two great blessings--the Book written in our own tongue, and for ability to read it. II. THE REASON. “ These things are written that ye might believe” 1. In the real existence of Jesus. Some have been so sceptical as to doubt whether such a person ever lived. They never doubt the existence of Caesar or Mahommed. But have we not much stronger proof of the existence of Christ? 2. In the true character of Jesus. (1) As the Christ. (2) As the Son of God. III. THE RESULT. Some write books for pecuniary ends. John wrote that we might have life--not animal or intellectual, but spiritual and eternal. There are five signs of life--sensibility, activity, appetency, appropriateness, superiority to gravitation. Have we these signs spiritually? (D. Thomas, D. D.) Christ, the source of life: I remember once conversing with a celebrated sculptor, who had been hewing out a block of marble to represent one of our great patriots--Lord Chatham. “ There,” said he, “ is not that a fine form?” “ Now, sir,” said I, “ can you put life into it? Else, with all its beauty, it is still but a block of marble.” Christ, by His Spirit, puts life into a beauteous image, and enables the man He forms to live to His praise and glory. (Rowland Hill.) The development of spiritual life: I plant many seeds in my garden from which I do not look for blossoms the year that I plant them. Yet I nourish them and transplant them; and when the days of November commence to cut them down, I take them up, roots and all, and hide them in a dark frost-proof dwelling for the winter. There they rest till the spring comes, when I go and take those buried roots and stems and bring them forth out of their grave, and put them into a better soil. And before September comes round in the second year of their growth, they will do what they had not time to do in the first. It takes two summers to get a blossom on many plants. It takes I know not how long a series of summers to develop the highest blossoms and the truest fruit that we can bear. God takes us from this life and hides us in the grave; and then, in His good time, transplants us in another soil. The work is not done in this life. It is not done when you are converted, or even when you have gone on for forty years. Such is the pattern of that work which God is carrying forward, such is the majesty of that manhood which He means shall yet flame in glory in us, that He cannot accomplish His purpose in the narrow compass of our present life; so He buries us over the winter of death, and then puts us in a better soil and a better summer to take our next growth. And what there is beyond these, “ eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive” ; but doubtless there are to be serial developments, infinite and endless. (H. W. Beecher.) Trusting in Christ a sign of life: Suppose there is a person here who does not exactly know his age, and he wants to find the register of his birth, and he has tried and cannot find it. Now, what is the inference that he draws from his not being able to tell the day of his birth? Well, I do not know what the inference may be, but I will tell you one inference he does not draw. He does not say, therefore, “ I am not alive.” If he did, he would be an idiot, for if the man is alive he is alive, whether he knows his birthday or not. And if the man really trusts in Jesus, and is alive from the dead, he is a saved soul, whether he knows exactly when and where he was saved or not. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Faith, the sign of life: See you yonder battle-field strewn with the men who have fallen in the terrible conflict! Many have been slain, many more are wounded, and there they lie in ghastly confusion, the dead all stark and stiff, covered with their own crimson, and the wounded faint and bleeding, unable to leave the spot whereon they had fallen. Surgeons have gone over the field rapidly, ascertaining which are corpses beyond the reach of mercy’ s healing hand, and which are men faint with loss of blood. Each living man has a paper fastened conspicuously on his breast, and when the soldiers are sent out with the ambulances to gather up the wounded, they do not themselves need to stay and judge which may be living and which may be dead; they see a mark upon the living, and lifting them up right tenderly they bear them to the hospital, where their wounds may be dressed. Now, faith in the Son is God’ s infallible mark, which He has set upon every poor wounded sinner, whose bleeding heart has received the Lord Jesus; though he faints and feels as lifeless as though he were mortally wounded, yet he most surely lives if he believes, for the possession of Jesus is the token which cannot deceive. Faith is God’ s mark, witnessing in unspeakable language, “ This soul liveth.” Tenderly, ye who care for the broken-hearted, lift up this wounded one. Whatever else we cannot see, if a simple trust in Jesus is discernible in a convert, we need fear no suspicions, but receive him at once as a brother beloved. (C. H.Spurgeon.) Faith in Christ Look at that locomotive as it snorts like a giant warhorse to its place in the station at the head of the train. You have in that engine power of amplest capacity to drag at swiftest pace the far-stretching carriages. Boiler, tubes, pistons, fire, steam--all are in perfect order; and that broad-brewed man gives assurance of tried ability to guide the charge committed to him. You look I carriage after carriage is filled, the hour has struck, the bell rung; and yet there is no departure, no movement, nor would be till “ crack of doom,” if one thing remained as it now is. Aha! the lack is discovered; the uniting hooks that bind engine and train together were wanting. They have been supplied. Like two great hands they have clasped; and a screw has so riveted engine and carriage that they form, as it were, one thing, one whole; and away through the dark sweeps the heavy-laden train with its freight of immortals. Mark! no one ever supposes that it is the uniting hook, or link, or coupling, that draws the train. A child knows that it is the engine that draws it. Nevertheless, without that hook, or link, or coupling, all the power of the engine were of no avail; the train would stand still for ever. Exactly so is it in the relation of faith to Christ. It is not our faith that saves us, but Christ that saves us. (A. B.Grosart, D. D.) Saving faith: It is not the quantity of thy faith that shall save thee. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean; so a little faith is as true faith as the greatest. A child eight days old is as really a man as one of sixty years; a spark of fire is as true fire as a great flame; a sickly man is as truly living as a well man. So it is not the measure of thy faith that saves thee, it is the blood that it grips to that saves thee; as the weak hand of a child that leads the spoon to the mouth, will feed as well as the strong arm of a man; for it is not the hand that feeds thee, but the meat. So if thou canst grip Christ ever so weakly, He will not let thee perish. (T. Adams.) Application of faith: As it is no advantage for a wounded man to have the best medicine lying by his side unless it is applied to his wound, so little do the mercies of God profit us unless we have faith to apply them to our sinful hearts. (Cawdray.) The gospel must be applied by faith The other day a poor woman had a little help sent to her by a friend in a letter. She was in great distress, and she went to that very friend begging for a few shillings. “ Why,” said the other, “ I sent you money yesterday, by an order in a letter!” “ Dear, dear!” said the poor woman, “ that must be the letter which I put behind the looking-glass!” Just so; and there are lots of people who put God’ s letters behind the looking-glass, and fail to make use of the promise which is meant for them. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The Son of God: God has many sons. The children of Israel were called His sons, the judges of the theocracy and angelic existences; but Christ is called the Son of God in a unique sense. He was unique I. IN HIS AGE. He was “ from everlasting,” “ in the beginning with God,” “ the First-born.” II. IN HIS He was God in a human personality--God-Man. God is in all intelligences, in all creatures; but He was in Christ in a sense in which He is in no other, giving omnipotence to His arm, omniscience to His intellect, ubiquity to His presence. III. IN HIS MISSION. He is the Mediator between God and man; the only Saviour. “ There is none other name,” &c. (D. Thomas, D. D.) . John 21:1-14 After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias The Sea of Tiberias twelve full miles in length by nearly seven in breadth, formed by the widening of the river, and lying almost seven hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean; is a beautiful expanse of clear, shining water, transparent to considerable depths. Viewed from different points and at different times, it is now a deep blue mirror among the mountains, now lustrous and glittering in the sunbeams like molten silver, now a sea of glass, as it were mingled with fire, now varying under every changeful gleam like an opal set in emeralds. In shape it is rather harp like--hence called “ Chinnereth” --from the Hebrew word for “ lyre” or “ harp” --than oval. The beach is in parts pebbly--flint, jasper, chalcedony, and agate; in parts sandy, and of pearly whiteness, owing to the presence of innumerable flue shells; elsewhere it is covered with big, rough stones. The silent shore behind, stretching out here and there into small, irregular plains, is belted with a jungle of oleanders and other shrubs and bushes, and contains some rich corn-lands. On the eastern side the treeless hills, scarred with ravines, have a desolate and mournful look. Those on the west swell up pleasantly from the shore; and if they are not bold and romantic, neither are they tame. The snowy top of the Hermon range rises majestically in the distance like a mighty guardian of the northern frontier. Orange, citron, myrtle, and date-trees, are still to be found; and the wandering foot crushes fragrance from many a lonely herb. Birds of bright plumage frequent the shores, and over the waters of the lake many sea-fowl dip the wing. Visitors tell how, as night gives place to morning, the sudden note of a lark will ring out, silvery and joyous, as if from the very midst of the stars, waking a concert all along the shore and back to the hills. The sunrise and sunset tints, opal and purple, are wonderful; and so are the contrasts of light and deep shadow. “ God,” said the Babbins, “ loved that sea beyond all other seas.” All around there now broods (to use Gibbon’ s phrase) “ a mournful and solitary silence.” But in New Testament days the stir of busy life was everywhere. Villages nestled in the green valleys, were perched upon the heights, lay scattered along the shores; everywhere “ great multitudes of people” might readily be gathered together. (J. Culross, D.D.) Tiberias west of the lake, nearly facing Gerasa, and about four miles south of Magdala. Antipas Herod was building a new city to outshine Julias, built by his brother Philip: which city he proposed to call Tiberias, and make the usual residence of his court. His plan was laid at the base of a steep hill, around the waters of a hot spring, among the ruins of a nameless town and the graves of a forgotten race. A great builder, like all the princes of his line, Antipas could now indulge his taste for temples, palaces, and public baths, conceived in a Roman spirit and executed on a Roman scale, while flattering that capricious master who might any day send him to die as his brother was dying in a distant land. The new city grew apace. A castle crowned the hill. High walls ran down from the heights into the sea. Streets and temples covered the low ground which lay between these walls. A gorgeous palace rose high above the rest of these public works: a palace for the prince and court, having a roof of gold, from which circumstance it came to be known as the golden house. A port was formed: a pier thrown out: a water-gate built: and a fleet of warships and pleasure boats placed on the sparkling wave. Towers protected, and gates adorned a city which Antipas dedicated to his master, inscribed on his coins, and made the capital of his province, the residence of his court. This city was waxing great and famous. When the first stones were being laid near the sea, St. John was a little child playing on the beach at Capernaum with his father’ s nets; yet so swift was its growth, so wide its fame, that before he composed his Gospel, Tiberias had given its name to the waters on which it stood, like Geneva to Lake Leman, and Lucerne to that of the four cantons. When St. Matthew wrote his Gospel, the city was still young, and a Jew of Galilee might speak of Gennesareth: forty or fifty years later, a man who was born on its shores and had fished in its waters, spoke of the lake most familiarly by its Roman name. (Dixon’ s “ Holy Land.”) The second miraculous draught of fishes The differences between the two miracles are mainly three. I. THAT NOW IN THE OF THE , THE OF CHRIST WITH HIS PEOPLE IS TO BE KNOWN NOT BY THE SIGHT OF HIS VISIBLE , BUT BY FROM THE EFFECTS BY HIS AMONG THEM. As He stood on the shore, they knew not that it was He, but when John felt the weight of the net with the fishes, he said, “ It is the Lord.” So we find that in the book of the Acts the author represents the things wrought by the apostles as a continuance of those which before His death Jesus began both to do and to teach (Acts 1:1). The apostles recognized that their miracles were wrought not by their own power or holiness (Acts 3:13), but by Him whom the Jews had crucified, but whom God had raised up. “ Tried by the ordinary process of reasoning, the conclusion was precarious. But there is a logic of the soul which deals with questions of the higher life, and John trusted that he recognized the insight, the power, the love which belonged to one only. And when the truth found utterance, the others acknowledged it.” In the same way we are now to recognize the presence of the Lord Jesus with us. When our hearts burn within us as we study the sacred Scriptures; when our spirits are soothed, refreshed, inspired, and strengthened as we turn in prayer to God; when the words which we speak in His name are followed by results as astonishing to ourselves as they are to those who behold them,--then we too may say with John, “ It is the Lord,” and rejoice in the assurance that He is in the midst of us indeed. II. THAT THE CHRIST SENDS US ON NO ERRAND WHEN HE BIDS US GO AND PREACH HIS GOSPEL TO ALL NATIONS. Bear witness Judson among the Karens, Moffat among the Hottentots, Lindley among the Zulus, Scudder among the men of Arcot, and Morrison and Burns, and many more, among the Chinese. No faithful worker who is obedient unto Christ and faithful to his calling, will go without his netful at the last. This word, “ Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find,” stands for all time, and will surely be made good. The success of the missionary enterprise is no mere peradventure. It is as sure as promise and prophecy can make it. The power of the Saviour is not now a thing to be put to the test of experiment; it is a matter of experience. III. THE REWARD OF THOSE WHO ARE TO CHRIST, IN FOR THE OF MEN. Not only are they successful in that labour, which itself is a great joy, but Christ prepares for them a feast when their work is done. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) The second miraculous draught of fishes As St. John alone records the “ beginning of miracles” in Cana, it is fitting his Gospel should close with this idyllic scene of more than human beauty. The open-air picture, the morning freshness, the naturalness of the incidents and characters, the simplicity of the narrative, stamp it with an incomparable grace. I. THE MANNER OF HIS COMING. How like themselves are both these disciples. John is the first to perceive Jesus. The eagle-glance of faith is quick to see the Divine. With instinct of the loving heart, the bosom-friend is first to detect his Divine Friend’ s presence. He imparts the calm, quiet recognition to his brother apostle. How precious this faculty to note and point out the Divine in life, though it may be others that act. John is the seer, the lover, the teacher; but Peter is the doer. It is Peter that plunges into the waves and gets first to Jesus’ feet. So it always had been between these two. John was the first to reach the sepulchre, Peter the first to enter it; John the first to believe that Christ is risen, Peter the first to greet the risen Christ. Thus ever have we these two classes--the men of faith, the men of action; the men of thoughtful wisdom, and the men of loving zeal. The Church’ s eyes and the Church’ s hands,--all helpful to one another and needful for the body. John says to Peter, “ It is the Lord,” which Peter would not have perceived. Peter casts himself into the sea, which John could not have done. Well! the others get to the beach too in time, in such slow way as men in general do get in this world to its true shore, much impeded by that wonderful dragging the net with fishes. “ None durst ask Him, Who art Thou? knowing that it was the Lord.” But why wish to ask Him? Where was the need? Plainly because the mere bodily sense cannot identify Him. His comings and goings, His interviews with them all through the forty days, are not according to the ordinary laws of body. Consequently it is upon the evidence, not so much of the senses, as of the mind and heart, that they know Him to be their risen Saviour. His words, His actions, and the love that shines through all, tell them it is Jesus, and no one is so faithless and blind as to say, Who art Thou that appearest thus in the guise of a stranger? And this is all significant. He is preparing them to live by faith in a world where Jesus shall no more be with them in the flesh. II. THE MEANING OF THE MIRACLE. It is easy to see that the purpose is different from that, for example, which appeared in the raising of Lazarus. After His own resurrection there was no need of any mere act of power to convince the disciples of His Godhead. That would have been taking the less to prove the greater. 1. It proved in a very striking way that their own Jesus it was who rose from the dead. He addressed their memory and their faith: You may be sure I am your own Lord, when I do again exactly as I did before, on this very lake, the works none other man could do. To repeat the miracle of the Draught of Fishes was to prove His identity in the most convincing way. Some great tone-poet comes to you, and performs one of his masterpieces, and goes his way. The composition, let us suppose, has never been written out; no one could repeat it but the composer himself. Vainly would any pretender appear and say, “ I am he,” for he would not produce the proof you would be sure to seek. You wait years, perhaps. A stranger comes. He says, I am your former friend; do you not recognize me? Time and travel have changed his countenance, the senses refuse to identify him in the usual way. “ I will prove it,” he says, seats himself at the instrument, calls out the marvellous and well-remembered strains. No other could so thrill you but himself. Yes, you say, it is beyond a doubt. I know him by his work. This must be Jesus; no phantom in His likeness, no delusive appearance, but the same Christ of God, at whose command are all the treasures of nature and providence, and under whose feet are also the fish of the sea, for He is head over all things, to His body the Church. 2. It was not only a seal of their Lord’ s resurrection, it was also a symbol of their future work. Henceforth He would stand upon the heavenly shore. Many a night, dark and dreary, they would have to toil profitless; but as oft as He should command, the net would be filled. At last they would draw it to land, the success of His kingdom would be complete and glorious beyond all expression. His faithful servants would share His triumphs, and inherit the fruit of their labours, enter into their rest followed by their works, and on the resurrection morning they would sit down to meat with Him in His everlasting kingdom. One is tempted to dwell on this attractive allegory a little longer, there are so many things suggested by the details of the charming story. (1) Here are seven fishermen, well equipped, well acquainted with the waters they fish in, toiling all night, and nothing caught. The servants of the kingdom may be well furnished, well placed, well acquainted with their work outwardly, yet not thereby is their real success secured. It is the Lord’ s presence and the Lord’ s command that makes it sure. An activity based upon mere human impulse and sympathy--“ I go a fishing, We also go with thee” --was fruitless. That which drew its inspiration from the word of Christ had immediate success. (2) A conversation about non-success opens the way for better things; so the Lord oft begins the blessing with His Church and servants when He makes them feel and be concerned about the want of blessing. (3) The blessing and the success come by casting the old net in a new way, in a new direction. It is the unchanging gospel that we are to preach; but in each age and time it needs new castings, fresh forms, and it is the ever living Spirit that will keep us right with His progressive indications. The meal on the shore, too, is suggestive of many things besides the final feast of heaven. It is, indeed, more strictly suggestive of “ times of refreshing” upon earth, for it is early in the day, fitting for more labour. Where Jesus got the fish and bread and fire of coals we are not told, but there it was ready; and how like the gracious surprises He prepares for His faithful servants! Surprising success followed by surprising satisfaction and soul comfort. (J. Laidlaw, D. D.) The second miraculous draught of fishes I. THE AT THE LAKE. (John 21:1-3). 1. The scene of operation: the Galilean Sea. (1) Endeared by early associations. Many a time had the disciples plied their craft upon its waters (Matthew 4:18-22). (2) Hollowed by sacred memories. Across that lake they had often sailed with their Master (chap. 6:16; Matthew 7:18-23). Here they had thrice witnessed the display of Christ’ s power (Luke 5:1-11; Matthew 8:26: 14:22, 23), and had heard Him preach to crowds on the shoreLuke 5:3; Matthew 13:2). Around it they had travelled with Him in His wanderings. (3) Recommended by past experience. A water famed for multitude, variety, and excellence of its fish. 2. The company of fishermen. (1) Their number. Seven: the perfect number, the symbol of completeness, and thus representative of the infant Church. (2) Their names. Simon Peter, the man of rock, the symbol of energy and zeal. Thomas, the man of doubt, typical of prudence, Caution, timidity, reason. Nathanael, the guileless, emblematic of transparent sincerity, and sweet simplicity. The two sons of Zebedee, once sons of thunder, now men of love and self-sacrifice. Two other representatives of the great army of unknown, undistinguished, to be found in every age and country in the train of Christ. Together they shadow forth varieties of character and endowment in the Church. 3. The proposed expedition. (1) Its proposer--Peter. The Church, no less than the world, needs men of action to lead the way, pioneers to open up new paths, persons of imagination and enthusiasm to devise and impress others with the practicability of what they suggest. (2) Its accepters. Started by Peter, the notion was taken up by his companions. The mass of mankind in religion, as in politics, not only require to be led but are ready to follow. The capable man never wants instruments. He who can rule will find subjects. (3) Its commencement. It began well. Everything augured hopefully. The reputation of the lake was high; the time the best possible for fishing; the company ardent and experienced. They lost no time, spared no pains, and were not soon disheartened. Whatever Christ’ s people do they should act so to deserve if they cannot command success. (4) Its result. (a) Nothing at least as to appearance. They caught no fish. (b) Something, yea, everything in one. They met with Christ, found what they expected not, returned with what they had not gone to seek. So Christ defeats His people’ s schemes that He may the better carry out His own, disappoints their hopes that He may give them immediate fruition, and leave them to themselves that they the more readily welcome and enjoy Himself when He comes. II. THE DRAUGHT (verses 4-8). 1. The Stranger on the beach. (1) The time of His appearing--morning; cf. the Angel of Jehovah (Genesis 33:26); Christ in the days of His flesh (Matthew 14:25), and after His resurrection. So Christ still appears to His people in the morning, because it is morning in every soul when He appears. (2) The circumstance of His non-recognition. They “ knew not,” as Mary and the Emmaus travellers, and perhaps for similar reasons. Christ may now be beside His people when they are not aware. (3) The unexpected question, cheerily put and with friendly solicitude, “ Lads, have ye aught to eat?” i.e., Has your cast been successful? Put also not for information, but to arrest attention and excite expectation. (4) The disappointed reply. They had failed, as three of them had once done before (Luke 5:5); they had spent their strength for nought Isaiah 49:4); as gospel fishers often seem to do (Galatians 4:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:5). (5) The proferred counsel. The right side always the side Christ appoints. He who does not what Christ bids fishes on the wrong side. (6) The prompt obedience. It is never wise to be above taking advice; much less when advice comes from Christ (Colossians 2:3). (7) The marvellous success. The royal road to success in religion is obedience to Christ’ s commands (Ephesians 3:20). 2. The recognition from the boat. (1) By whom made. By the disciple in whose heart glowed a pure flame of love for Jesus. The heart rather than the intellect the organ of spiritual apprehension. John had been the first to perceive that Christ was risen (chap. 20:8). Now he is the first to recognize His Person. (2) How expressed--“ It is the Lord!” Concentrating in the exclamation love, joy, adoration, desire, a world of thought, an ocean of holy feeling, a heaven of spiritual aspiration. (3) With what followed. Instantaneous recognition by Peter, and startling activity (cf. Matthew 14:28) . 3. The landing of the net. (1) The labour of it. (2) The success of it. (3) The wonder of it. Neither will the gospel net fail till it has landed all Christ’ s people. III. THE BANQUET (verse 12-14). 1. The heavenly provision (verse 9). Emblematic of the reward Christ’ s servants will enjoy at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9). 2. The earthly contribution (verse 10). A large part of the future reward of Christ’ s servants will consist in beholding the fruit of their labours (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). 3. The royal invitation (verse 12). So will they be welcomed when they reach the heavenly land (Matthew 25:34). 4. The solemn distribution (verse 13). A picture of the higher entertainment Matthew 26:29), of which Christ gives the foretaste in the Lord’ s Supper. Lessons: 1. The fruitlessness of labour even in the Church, apart from the presence and power of the glorified Redeemer (John 15:5). 2. The certain and abundant success of those who work in the way and along the lines suggested by Christ. 3. The blessed recompense awaiting faithful labourers in Christ’ s service. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The appearance of Christ at the Sea of Tiberias Note I. THE POVERTY OF THE FIRST . 1. We find them working to supply their temporal wants at one of the humblest of callings. Silver and gold they had none, and therefore they were not ashamed to return to business. 2. This poverty goes far to prove the Divine origin of Christianity. These very men who found it necessary to work hard in order that they might eat, were the first founders of the Church, which has now overspread one-third of the globe. These were the unlearned and ignorant men who boldly confronted the subtle systems of ancient philosophy, and silenced it by the preaching of the cross. These were the men who, at Ephesus, and Athens, and Rome, emptied the heathen temples of their worshippers and turned them to a better faith. II. THE OF OF CHRIST. 1. Once more we see Peter and John side by side and behaving in different ways. John was the first to perceive Christ, but Peter was the first to struggle to get to Him. John’ s love was quickest to discern, but Peter’ s impulse was quickest to stir. 2. Let us, then, not condemn others because they do not see or feel exactly as we do (1 Corinthians 12:4). God’ s gifts are not bestowed precisely in the same measure. Some have more of one, and some more of another. Some have gifts which shine more in public, and others those which shine in private. Martha and Mary (Luke 10:39-40; John 11:20-28), were both loved by our Lord. The Church of Christ needs servants of all kinds, and instruments of every sort; penknives as well as swords, axes as well as hammers, chisels as well as saws. Let our ruling maxim be Ephesians 6:24. III. THE WHICH OF OUR LORD’ S . Here, as in other places, we find an unanswerable proof that our Lord rose again with a real material body. That Peter was convinced and satisfied we know (Acts 10:41). (Bp. Ryle.) The seven who saw the risen Lord I. THEY WERE . How did they come to hold together, instead of seeking safety by flight, which would have been the natural thing after the death of their Leader? And yet here we find them where everybody knew them to be disciples of Jesus, holding together as if they had still a living and uniting bond. There is only one explanation, viz., that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. You cannot build a church on a dead Christ; and of all the proofs of the Resurrection there is none harder for an unbeliever to account for than the simple fact that Christ’ s disciples held together after He was dead. II. THE OF THIS GROUP. 1. Of the five men who made the Primitive Church (chap. 1.), there are three who reappear here, viz., Peter, John, and Nathanael, and two unnamed men, who, I think, are “ Philip and Andrew, Simon Peter’ s brother,” both of them connected with Bethsaida, the place where probably this appearance of the risen Lord took place. So then the fair inference is that we have here the original nucleus again--the first five--with a couple more, “ Thomas, who is called Didymus,” and the brother of John, one of the first pair. 2. There, along the beach, is the place where four of them were called from their nets three short years ago. On the other side is the green grass where the thousands were fed. Behind it is the steep slope down which the devil-possessed herd rushed. There, over the shoulder of the hill, is the road that leads up to Cana from which little village one of the group came. 3. Look at the list, having regard to the individual members that make it up. (1) Foremost stand the two greatest sinners of the whole--Peter and Thomas--singularly contrasted, and yet alike in the fact that the Crucifixion had been too much for their faith. The one was impetuous, the other slow. The one was always ready to say more than he meant, the other always ready to do more than he said. The one was naturally despondent, the other never looking an inch beyond his nose, and always yielding himself up to the impulse of the moment. And yet both of them were united in this, that the one, from a sudden wave of cowardice, and the other, from giving way to his constitutional tendency, had both of them failed in their faith, the one turning out a denier and the other turning out a doubter. And yet here they are, foremost upon the list of those who saw the risen Christ. There are two lessons there. Let us learn (a) With what open hearts and hands we should welcome a penitent when he comes back. (b) Who they are to whom Christ deigns to manifest Himself--not immaculate monsters, but men that, having fallen, have learned humility and caution, and by penitence have risen to a securer standing, and have turned even their transgressions into steps in the ladder that lifts them to Christ. And the little group welcomed them, as it becomes us to welcome brethren who have fallen and who repent. (2) Nathanael, a guileless “ Israelite indeed,” so swift to believe that the only thing that Christ is recorded as having said to him is, “ Because I said … thou believest? Thou shalt see greater things than these.” A promise of growing clearness of vision and fulness of manifestation was made to this man, who never appears anywhere else but in these two scenes, and so may stand to us as the type of that quiet, continuous growth, which is marked by faithful use of the present illumination, and is rewarded by a continual increase of the same. If the keynote to the two former lives is that sin confessed helps a man to climb, the keynote to this man’ s is that they are still more blessed who, with no interruptions or denials by patient continuousness in well-doing, widen the horizon of their Christian vision and purge their eyesight for daily larger knowledge. There is no necessity that any man’ s career should be broken by denials or doubts; we may “ grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.” (3) The two sons of Zebedee--sons of thunder--who were eager, energetic, somewhat bigoted, not unwilling to invoke destructive vengeance, all for the love of Him; touched with ambition which led them to desire a place at His fight hand and His left. But by dwelling with Him one of them, at least, had become of all the group the likest his Master. And the old painters taught a deep truth when they made John’ s almost a copy of the Master’ s face. To him there was granted a place amongst this blessed company, and it is surely a trace of his own hand that his place should be so humble. Any other but himself would certainly have put James and John in their natural place beside Peter. (4) “ Two other of His disciples” not worth naming. Probably the missing two out of the five of the first chapter; but possibly only disciples in the wider sense. What does it matter? The lesson is that there is a place for commonplace, undistinguished people, whose names are not worth repeating in Christ’ s Church, and we, too have a share in the manifestation of His love. We do not need to be brilliant, clever, influential, energetic, anything but quiet, waiting souls in order to have Christ showing Himself to us as we toil wearily through the darkness of the night. III. THE PURPOSE OF THIS GROUP IS . What did they thus get together for? “ Simon Peter saith, I go a fishing. They say, We also go with thee.” So they are back again at their old trade, which they had not left for ever, as they once thought they had. 1. What sent them back? Not doubt or despair; because they had seen Jesus Christ up in Jerusalem, and had come down to Galilee at His command on purpose to meet Him. It is very like Peter that he should have been the one to suggest filling an hour of the waiting time with manual labour. John could have “ sat still in the house,” like Mary, the heart all the busier because the hands lay quietly. But that was not Peter’ s way, and John was ready to keep him company. Peter thought that the best thing they could do till Jesus chose to come, was to get back to their work, and he was sensible and right. The best attitude to be found in by Christ is doing our daily work, however secular and small it may be. A dirty, wet fishing-boat, all slimy with scales, was a strange place, but it was the right place, righter than if they had been wandering about amongst the fancied sanctities of the synagogues. 2. They went out to do their work; and to them was fulfilled the old saying, “ I being in the way, the Lord met me.” Jesus Christ will come to you and me in the street if we carry the waiting heart there, and in the shop, and the kitchen. For all things are sacred when done with a hallowed heart, and He chooses to make Himself known to us amidst the dusty commonplaces of daily life. He said to them just before the Crucifixion, “ When I sent you forth without purse or scrip, lacked ye anything?” And they said, “ Nothing.” And then He said as changing the conditions, “ But now he that hath a purse or scrip, let him take it.” As long as He was with them they were absolved from these common tasks. Now that He had left them the obligation recurred. Keep at your work, and if it last all night, stick to it; and if there are no fish in the net, never mind; out with it again. And be sure that sooner or later you will see Him standing on the beach and hear His voice, and be blessed by His smile. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) A night and a morning by the lake of Galilee I. “ SIMON PETER SAITH UNTO THEM, I GO A-FISHING” (John 21:3). 1. We are inclined to wonder at the smallness of this memorandum. The very same thing might have been said yesterday by many a simple trawler at Teignmouth, or any other fishing station, yet this has been made an organic part of the Book of books. The writer leaves out the momentous events that were stirring millions at that moment, and puts into it this! Some critics have thought the thing too trivial, but we believe that so small a thing could not have been set down unless it held some great significance. 2. Notice a remarkable slowness of spiritual apprehension. “ I go,” says Peter. Well, whither? to “ the mountain in Galilee” whither Christ commanded His disciples? “ No, to the sea, of course.” Call to mind that when Jesus instituted the Supper, when every word should have been taken to heart with double distinctness, He said, “ After I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.” The angel at the sepulchre said, “ Go quickly, and tell His disciples … that He goeth before you into Galilee, as He said.” Then He followed up the angelic message with one to the women on the road; still they were slow to move, but still He had compassion on their infirmity, and appeared to them in Jerusalem on the two first days; then his manifestations ceased for a while. At length they came to Galilee, but only to their old station, and, as it appears, with no thought of seeing Jesus, otherwise all would have been on the spot at the earliest possible moment. But we only see seven, and Peter says, “ I go!” not to the mountain, but to the sea. 3. The announcement seems to have been made in a fit of despondency. Christ had told Peter and his companions to give up fishing when they became His disciples, and they instantly left all and followed Him. Peter made emphatic reference to this when he said, “ Lord, we have left all and followed Thee!” And Christ’ s reply taken with the words of the disciple, seem to speak of the forsaken fishing-boat as the sign of a final and consummated act. We never hear of them working at their old craft for a living again. We picture the apostles as waiting at Jerusalem for another Divine visit, but this had not been granted. Then, solemnly and sadly, they came back to the familiar place, and there they waited. Every night Peter’ s heart would say, “ He will come to-morrow;” but to-morrow, and tomorrow came, and no Jesus. Then that heart cried out, in a burst of passionate sadness, “ I give up, for He will not come any more.” II. “ THEY SAY UNTO HIM, WE ALSO GO WITH THEE.” Certain men seem to be naturally and unaccountably influential. When your spirits touch theirs, you feel a fascination that holds or moves you like a hand. Peter had this kind of electricity. We can imagine the exchange of such words as: “ I go to the mountain.” “ We go with thee.” “ I give up.” “ We give up.” “ I go a fishing.” “ We also go with thee.” Great leaders have a “ going” power peculiar to themselves; but more or less, for good or evil, every man must be influential, and what he does others will do. We can imagine such interchange of language between a parent and his children: “ I am going into the ways of the world.” “ We also go with thee.” “ I believe, and am going to cast in my lot with those who believe.” “ We also go with thee.” III. “ THEY WENT FORTH, AND ENTERED INTO A SHIP ; AND THAT NIGHT THEY CAUGHT NOTHING.” 1. Here is one instance, out of many, of Christ not allowing His disciples to prosper while in a wrong course. It is an evil omen when Christians prosper while in a course of practical unbelief. This omen is not seen in lives that are to reach a high standard. In such cases love blights prosperity and tangles schemes. 2. On the other hand, sensitive consciences will need to be reminded that want of success is not in every instance from something wrong. A ship may be manned by good Christians, yet founder; a concern in which none are embarked but disciples may toil all night, and catch nothing. And so, faithful heart, losses will be gain to you. In the darkest hour of outward affliction there may be the dawn of a morning of rich discovery. “ The Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.” IV. “ BUT WHEN THE MORNING WAS NOW COME, JESUS STOOD ON THE SHORE,” &c. Weary and dispirited they saw a shape that was dim in the mist; they “ knew not that it was Jesus.” His voice pealed out, but it woke within them no answering echo of memory. It was like Him to come after them when they would not go after Him, and to call them His children after all! “ Have ye any food?” He asked. Where-ever disciples toil the Lord looks on; if they suffer failure, let them know that the watchful eye sees, that the great heart feels. He has taught His children the prayer, “ Give us this day our daily bread,” and therefore is not likely to let them starve. In answer to this inquiry they only said “ No;” the short word of cross, aching, disappointed men. Then said He, “ Cast the net on the right side,” &c. It was the advice of One who was slow to take offence, and whose precept usually implies a promise; of One whose infinite grandeur does not keep Him from interest in our commonest callings. V. “ THEY CAST, , AND NOW THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO DRAW IT FOR THE OF FISHES.” 1. This startling wonder was to remind them that they had been consecrated “ fishers of men.” The Divine Symbolist delighted to clothe the spiritual work of His servants in language borrowed from their worldly employments. Obviously, it suggests (1) Downright hard work. The word “ minister,” like the word “ fisherman,” is not simply the name of an office or dignity, but of a toiler. (2) “ Diversity of operations.” It is a mediaeval notion that the only way of taking the fish is by the net, which is understood to be the one true Church; but when Christ appointed His followers to be fishers of men, He specified for their use no particular mode. A fisherman has to go through great varieties of experience; he may be out on a stormy sea, or he may have to creep, or hide, or watch in the leafy covert or reedy river. Some kinds of fish are to be taken by spear, some by line, some by net--hand-net, or draw-net, or basket-net. He must never angle for a whale, or harpoon a trout. “ You must,” says Izaak Walton, “ be the scholar of the fish before you can be his master.” (3) And the work of the spiritual fisher is rather one of skill than of violence--he must draw, not drive. (4) That our spiritual work must be done by ourselves, and not by proxy. When, for instance, a man is called to be a preacher, let him preach his own sermons--“ Fish with your own hooks.” 2. The act may also have been in tended to cheer them, and all desponding workers, by foreshowing the final success of all work done for Christ. Regarding the two miracles as signs, the scene of fulfilment in the one case is earth, in the other, heaven. In the first miracle the “ nets broke” ; the fishers did not therefore take all the fish, and there was no attempt to count the number taken. In the second case no nets were broken, and when the toilers reached the land they brought their richly-laden nets with them. Soon shall we strike upon the eternal shore; then all who have laboured in the great cause shall rejoice in the sea-harvest of souls; then, for the first time in all history, will the statistics of the Church be complete and trustworthy--“ one hundred and fifty and three.” VI. “ THAT WHOM JESUS LOVED SAITH UNTO PETER, IT IS THE LORD. It was owing to a mysteriousness of look, perhaps, that Jesus was not at once identified. The Greek verb used in the account of His first miracle is used also in this. In the first, it is said that He “ manifested forth His glory” ; in the second, “ Jesus manifested Himself,” &c. Two things are taught by the use of this word 1. That the discovery was the act of Jesus, not that of His disciples; they did not of their own will see Him, hut He, by a distinct act of His will, showed Himself to them. 2. It was a spiritual manifestation, and He was seen not so much by the eyes of the body as by the eyes of the soul. John was the first seer. Even in human friendship, and not less in the Divine, love has the quickest ear, the sharpest eye, and the surest faculty of interpretation. Then there was a plunge. “ Steady, Peter,” we cry, if no name had been given, we should have known that it could be no other. IV. “ JESUS SAITH UNTO THEE, BRING OF THE FISH WHICH YE HAVE NOW CAUGHT.” Soon as they had touched land there was a new wonder. “ The beach had been bare a moment before, but now they saw a fire burning with a little fish on it, and bread at hand. They seem to pause, unable to obey; and so “ Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes.” When these were counted, Jesus said, “ Come and break your fast.” All knew Him now; but not a word could they speak, Formerly they would have asked many questions. Taking first the bread, and then the fish, He divided them just as He had done while He was yet with them. He who marshals in their sweep the grand army of the stars, and who holds in His hand this globe, stood there in human form waiting on these tired boatmen. (O ,Stanford, D. D.) The risen Christ and His disciples I. THE SELF- OF JESUS AFTER HIS . We now come to a new term in the narrative: “ He showed Himself,” or “ He manifested Himself,” or “ He was manifested to His disciples.” This shows that He was not seen except by an act of His own will, overcoming His natural invisibility. He can only manifest Himself to our hearts when we are ready for Him, and just so He could only appear to those who were ready for the sight. We must always remember that there were moral reasons for the manifestation of Jesus after His resurrection beyond the necessity of proving the fact of His victory over death. He rescued the apostles from despair and unbelief and recalled them to their tasks and to a holier intimacy with Him than was possible before He was crucified. II. THE OF JESUS BY HIS . There are disciples in all ages of the Church who see the presence of Jesus by the intuition of love. And such was John. He saw without beholding. He knew, not so much by faith, as by the love that believeth all things and never faileth. And yet this John was not of a sluggish, indolent nature. We have known souls who were,, the first to detect, the presence of Jesus in the Church and to say “ It is the Lord!” They feel, while others are asking for evidence. There are others, like Peter, marked by their obedience to faith. John said: “ It is the Lord!” When Peter heard that it was the Lord, he hastened to find Him. It does not appear that Peter saw Him any more than John did. He believed the word of John, and moved forward at once to verify it. John could wait; not so Peter. No doubt it will be found that both these temperaments are essential to the progress of the kingdom of heaven and to the bringing of the people of God to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, who united perfectly the active and the contemplative elements of character. (Edward N. Packard.) The risen Christ and His disciples The last chapter of the Gospel of John is an appendix, and not a supplement. The story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection closed somewhat hurriedly with the preceding chapter. But now what about the future? What about the disciples’ work for the world? This chapter answers. The relation between the Gospel of John and this appendix is the same as that between Luke’ s Gospel and his book of the Acts. The latter is the sequel of the former. Hence this twenty-first chapter is concerned about work, and about the disciples’ future until Jesus comes again. I. JESUS GUIDES THE IN THEIR WORK. The work was commonplace--fishing; the story is simple, but the feelings of the actors must have been profound. The feast at Jerusalem is over. The disciples have made the journey of a long week’ s travel back to Galilee. It is not the Galilee of a few former months. There is no assembling of crowds for instruction, no miracles of mercy, no loved leader to keep the disciples in one body. Four are lacking on this fishing excursion. He has been seen alive after His passion, but not here in Galilee; it was away in Jerusalem. Galilee doubtless thinks that Jesus is no more. The atmosphere surrounding the eleven is oppressive; they are lonesome, idle, restless. The active spirit of Peter must find something to do. He proposes to go a-fishing, and six more of them accompany him. There is a minute particularity about the story. We are told who and how many composed the company, and how they came to “ go a fishing.” They noted that Jesus “ stood” on the shore. The distance of the ship from the land is given, &c. These details, whatever other value they may have, certainly show how the hearts of the seven fishermen were wrought upon. Impressions, feelings, move men. Thought is born of them, and the whole course of life may be changed by them. Whence came that fire of coals, and the fish laid thereon, and the bread? This very wonder must have intensified the whole scene for them. Intensity was necessary. From the feelings of this hour they were to find not only the course of their own life, but also the wisdom to direct the world’ s. In the Transfiguration they saw His divinity; in the foot-washing they perceived His humility; and now, in this hour of fishing, they had set before them the lesson of their coming leadership of the world. Left to themselves, their labours were abortive, but under His direction many fish were taken. In a word, His guidance was necessary to future success. The work in hand was a parable of the glorious work which they were to do. These who were winning fish were to win men--an office as much greater as a man is better than a fish. II. JESUS IS TO THE IN THEIR WORK. That net full of fishes was such a revelation of the Christ to them as they had not reached in the more wonderful miracles of feeding the multitude, casting out demons, or raising the dead; for in these He did His own work, but in the draught of fishes He helped the disciples in theirs. Though the power was still all His own, He became a fellow-helper with them. Henceforth He will work mightily through them and with them. This revelation was to serve the disciples in two ways. It was necessary to convince the world of the fact 1. That the “ Christ should suffer and rise from the dead.” The Resurrection is the key-stone of the Christian religion. But what a stupendous tax on men’ s minds, to lay it upon them to believe that One who died was now alive again, and alive for evermore! Yet to establish this fact in the world there must be indisputable testimony. The witnesses must be so qualified that they could go forth with “ many infallible proofs,” so that they could say, “ We did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.” 2. Of His activity in the affairs of men. For Jesus’ death and resurrection do not take Him from His friends, but give Him to them. They needed this revelation of Him in work; for men are most of all sceptical on the point of the Lord’ s active participation in their efforts and needs. One says, “ If thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean;” another cries, “ If Thou canst do anything;” but the true heart alone says, Thou wilt, Thou canst, Thou dost--so that the apostles afterward reported not what they had done, butwhat “ God had done with them;” and Mark sums up their history with similar words, “ The Lord working with them.” Christian faith is more than to believe historic Biblical facts. It believes God in Christ to be the one present, working Agent in the world to-day. III. JESUS EATS WITH THE AFTER THEIR WORK. This breakfast is every way beautiful. It seems to be Jesus’ aim in this whole morning’ s scene--its climax; for as soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire glowing on the beach, and food in preparation. With this the disciples had had nothing to do. Still they have a share in providing the meal, for He says, “ Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.” He graciously ascribes the capture to them. When all is ready He asks them to “ come and dine.” The end of the Incarnation, the Cross, and the Resurrection is to bring God and man into family relationship. It was one who sat at this breakfast this morning who afterward wrote, “ And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.” The breakfast was also a prophecy of the time when the saint and the Saviour shall meet together to rejoice in the fellowship of a completed work. Paul wrote to those whom he had won to the Lord, “ What is our hope or joy or crown, of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ?” (History, Prophecy, and Gospel.) The relation of Christ to the secular rife of His disciples This narrative is purely secular, but is none the less religious. I. CHRIST DOES NOT RELIEVE HIS FROM THE OF SECULAR LABOUR. He does not exempt His disciples from the law “ He that doth not work shall not eat.” Were He to do so it would be an injury rather than a blessing to physical health. Intellectual vigour and moral development depend upon it. Inaction when there is power of action is a crime, and since the Infinite Lawgiver is infinitely benevolent, what is contrary to His will must be injurious. 1. The individual himself is injured. Muscular inactivity enfeebles the body; mental inactivity the intellect; moral inactivity the soul. Look at those who “ stand all the day idle.” They are your feeble mothers, delicate sisters, nervous fathers, lackadasical sons, simpering women and moody men. 2. The idle man injures others: he is a social thief, and should be punished like every other kind of thief. II. CHRIST ALLOWS THE OF FAILURE IN THEIR SECULAR . They “ caught nothing.” A different result might have been expected: but the settled laws of nature pay no particular deference to piety, and exemption from failure would not always be a blessing. It would tend to nourish worldliness, self-sufficiency, and religious neglectfulness. Liability to failure is a spur to industry, and a motive for prayerful dependence on heaven. Let not therefore any unfortunate Christian tradesman conclude that Christ has deserted him; and let not society conclude that he is ungodly because he has failed. The disciples toiled all night and caught nothing. III. CHRIST IS DEEPLY IN THEIR SECULAR . 1. His eyes are ever on them in their work, though they may be unconscious of Him (John 21:4). He knoweth the way you take. 2. He sometimes so signally interposes for their help or demonstrates His presence among them (John 21:6). IV. CHRIST OFTEN MAKES THEIR SECULAR TRIALS THE MEANS OF A CLOSER WITH HIMSELF (John 21:12). Here we have a display of 1. His merciful condescension. (1) He prepared the food. (2) He ate with them, and thus identified Himself with their physical necessities. 2. His remedial wisdom. His eating enlisted their social sympathies and heart-confidences. He who would follow Him in His saving mission must go and do likewise. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The reward of faith John’ s Gospel, which seems to come to a close with the end of the preceding chapter, is here re-opened. You can see John laying down his pen and rolling up his scroll, when he has put in the last sentence of the preceding chapter. But that Holy Spirit brought these things to his remembrance, and he eagerly unrolled his scroll and added them. It is thus not inaptly described as “ a postscript to the Gospel.” And it is not over curious in us to ask why John should have put in this chapter. 1. It might be sufficient to say that these things were added because of their interest. That is the reason underlying our own postscripts. Indeed, with certain correspondents, it has become a bye-word that the P.S. is really the letter. 2. It might be said that John added these things to tell a good story of Peter. John loved Peter, and Peter’ s character has never been any the worse for this chapter. You know some one like Peter. He is under a dark shadow to-day, and he deserves it. But you know something to his credit, and when all people are running him down, shame to you that you are not telling it. 3. But I rather think that John added these things because of their bearing upon his purpose in writing a Gospel, viz., to show the Divinity of that Man from Nazareth. Now, this stands or falls by His resurrection, which this chapter proves in its very first line. “ After these things Jesus showed Himself again,” and again, and again. Here is proof upon proof of what can never be over-proved, that Jesus rose from the dead. Let us look at I. THE OF THE . 1. Certainly they were strange circumstances. About two or three years ago they had been called into fellowship with Christ, and with each other, and that had meant for them a time of perpetual excitement. The fellowship of Christ to-day may be a humdrum affair, but it was not so then. And I would say if you want an exciting life, don’ t kick over the traces and go off as did the prodigal son--that is the flattest kind of life ever tried; but if you want a racy, bracing life, come and be a whole-hearted disciple of Jesus. For the last two or three weeks this excitement has been of the intensest kind. They had seen their Master betrayed, crucified, buried. But He had risen from the dead, and had said: “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost. As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” Yet here they were away up in Galilee, as idle as a harrow in the frost. 2. This waiting for Jesus to come to them was doing them good, and Peter’ s speech is the proof of it. We see them grouped together, and talking with one another about what they knew of Jesus and what they expected from Him. “ Ah! He will be sure to come, and come soon.” Thus at times would they utter the wish of their hearts; but at others, with minds burdened with a great fear, they would ask: “ But what if He should not come?” Under these circumstances I can imagine Peter suddenly assuming a brave and determined look, and saying, “ Well, come He soon or late, or not at all, our families are here, and there is plain, honest, homely work to do.” Now that, I think, is a token that Simon Peter was improving, and that this time of waiting was a training, intended to strengthen faith. He is not now the blustering coward of the judgment-hall, whipping out his sword, and striking the wrong man in the wrong place. Peter could have done far better with an oar than a sword. But now Peter is sobered; our Lord’ s prayer and hopes for him are to be realized after all. “ Satan hath desired to have thee. Thou wouldst make a splendid devil’ s servant. Thou wast born to lead men either from God or to God. I need men like you.” His faith has not failed. He strengthens his brethren, and they say unto him, “ The thing is good. We also go with thee.” May God send back to His Church to-day a good score of Peters. 3. Now our Lord makes no mistake when He calls a man like this to Himself and to His service. God deliver the Church from the paralysing power of men “ Who never say a foolish thing, and never do a wise one.” The Church to-day has far too many men ready to put breaks on her progress--cautious men--but far too few men of steam power, men to tell us what to do, and who go and do it. II. THE MIRACLE IN TO THE . The miracle has a lesson, one face of which looks towards our work-a-day life, while the other looks towards one’ s spiritual work for Christ. 1. Let us deal with the worldly aspect. These men were taught very sharply that success in catching either fish or men must come from Christ. Christ told them: “ You cannot get fish without Me, and you cannot go back to your secular life--you are spoiled for that.” Ah, dear backslider, you need to hear this! A man who is a fisher or a fishmonger may become an apostle, but an apostle can never return to his old worldly calling. You will either be exceedingly miserable until Christ forgives and restores you, or the name and doom of castaway shall be thine. But the night’ s failure and the morning’ s miracle surely taught them that Christ is Master in all departments of life, and must be looked to with a single eye for all success that is worth having. Remember that these men were born and bred to fishing. Have you ever tried to advise a fisherman? You had better not, for if you do you will very likely get an answer a great deal plainer than polite. Somehow Peter had grace and sense enough to check the word that was rising to his lips, and to do as he was told. And it was well that he did so, for soon the pull upon the back rope made John draw his breath and dart the look and the word into Peter. “ This is the Lord.” So still does the Lord visit His people at their work. But we draw a hard and fast line, on one side of which we are Christian workers, and we are all for faith and prayer; but then, on the other side, we are tradesmen or their wives, and the world, the flesh, and the devil take it out of us right round the week. The Lord wrought this miracle in order to obliterate that dividing line, and to teach that all success worth having will come from Him. Then what a grand religion ours must be for working people! In these days, when the word “ unemployed” is continually in our ears, and the dismal thing perpetually in front of us, what a splendid religion is that of Christ! What a difference it makes between the unemployed man who believes in Christ, and the unemployed man who has no such belief! The feet of both are in the gutter, but the head of one is in heaven. Both alike must go round seeking for work; but he who loves the Lord, before he starts on his weary journey, goes down upon his knees before Him at whose girdle hang the keys of shops and yards and offices, and prays: “ Lord, Thou hast done the great thing for me; wilt Thou see me lack a covering and a crust?” and such a man cannot be unemployed--he is glorifying God, and verily he shall be fed. 2. The other face of this miracle looks toward that spiritual work in which, from the very fact of our being disciples of Christ, we must engage. Do not raise the plea that now I am speaking of ministers and those who are actually under some kind of ordination. Nay, if your fishing is not capable of being spiritualized from mere bread-winning and fish-catching into soul-saving, then it is the worst for you. If you cannot take Christ into your business, anal so serve Him there, that you should spread abroad such an influence of Christ’ s grace and presence as shall serve as a bait to entangle in the meshes of a net those who come in contact with you, then wash your hands of it, and have done with it for ever. Only remember that in this fishing for men we must look to Christ for our orders, and serve Him implicitly. How many boats are plying on the dark waters of London, and yet how few fish are caught, how few souls saved! What is the reason? It cannot be that there are no fish; the waters are seething with what we profess to be seeking. Then why should the net come empty to the boat so often? Is not this the reason--that we believe in Christ in a sort of dumb way, but we are not looking at Him and we are not getting His orders? If any of us lack wisdom, let us ask of God, and it shall be given us. He that winneth souls is wise, but it is with a wisdom that cometh straight from above. (J. McNeil.) John 21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing I go a fishing 1. A sudden inspiration. 2. A prompt resolution. 3. A hopeful expedition. 4. A laborious occupation. 5. A fruitless speculation. 6. A happy termination. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Leaders and followers I. LEADERS. In Church and State these, like Peter, should be men of 1. Prompt resolution. 2. Self-reliant action. 3. Cheery expectation. 4. Contagious inspiration. II. . Like Peter’ s companions, these should be 1. Unbroken in their ranks--“ We.” 2. Hearty in their co-operation “ also.” 3. Simultaneous in their movement--“ Go.” 4. Unenvious in their dispositions--“ With thee.” (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Night and nothing-morning and Jesus I. A --“ I go.” The Church and the world need such men. Men with will and energy, who dare to strike out a course of action for themselves and face opposition. Where would the Church be today but for such men as Luther, and Knox, and Wesley? And where the world? We especially need such men now. We have got into the lazy, slovenly habit of waiting for one another. We see things that need to be done, but we wait until some one should take the lead. And so our Church life has little vitality and force. II. THE FORCE OF EXAMPLE. “ We also go with thee.” These men were not prepared for anything, they had no plans, but were just waiting for some one to “ break the ice.” You have no idea how much good you would do if you would speak decidedly for Jesus; many would be prepared to listen, and to follow. Men are always influenced by truth, spoken with calmness and determination. III. ACTION. “ They went forth,” &c. They did not talk about going, and stand still after all. This again is a want. We meet with men who have plenty of directions to give, but they never act. “ Ah!” says one, “ there ought to be more teachers in that school.” Quite right; but do you teach? “ What a pity there are not more tract distributors.” So it is; but are you one? Let us learn to act as well as speak. IV. THE ’ S FAILURE. We determine; we sometimes act upon the determination; and the result is simply--failure. “ Night and nothing.” I have said, “ I will preach from such a text; I will give my soul to it,” and then, what a failure it has been, and I have gone home and vowed I would never preach again. Has it not been so with you, teacher? Christian worker? V. THE ’ S SUCCESS. Throughout the darkness do we toil until the morning comes--and we see Jesus. Then success attends all we do, and our souls are filled with joy. 1. Jesus is often near to us when we little think it. We have only to stretch out our hand through the darkness, and we shall find Him. 2. We often see Him, but yet we do not know Him. Love only can recognize and realize the Lord. VI. WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES ALL THIS BETWEEN FAILURE AND SUCCESS? 1. The presence of Jesus. 2. Listening to the voice of Jesus (John 21:5). 3. Obeying the command of Jesus (John 21:6). (A. F. Barfield.) Catching nothing I. A combos . Not the first time this had happened in the history of three out of the seven (Luke 5:5). Nor were these the first or the last who have spent their strength for nought (Isaiah 49:4). II. A SORE . Considering 1. The high expectations with which men usually start on their enterprises; and-- 2. The great labour they often expend on them. III. AN 1. Teaching personal humility. 2. Suggesting the need of heavenly assistance. 3. Preparing for ultimate success. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) Fishing an She Sea of Galilee Nowadays there is very little navigation on the lake of Galilee,--we might almost say, scarcely a boat; but in the days of the Gospel narrative, and for many years later, there were craft of all sorts there, and many of considerable size. The fishing-boat of to-day, as seen on the Mediterranean, is a long, broad, and deep affair, usually pointed at each end, and large enough to carry a crew of from four to a dozen men, with their nets, and the fish they may capture. Usually these larger boats fish in the night, in companies of two or three, but sometimes a larger boat goes alone with a small boat; and sometimes a small boat accompanies two or more larger ones. The smaller ones are like a skiff, while the larger ones might pass for freight boats. As here, it is nothing uncommon for the fleet (if the two or three boats can be called so) to toil all night and take nothing. In the Mediterranean, on the Syrian and Palestinian coasts, there are few places Where there is a “ beach” upon which the net can be drawn. The net encloses the fish, and then they are drawn in as if in a bag, or picked out of the net without hauling the latter into the boat. Rarely one sees a gill-net, such as our fishermen use in deep water. Accordingly, the small boat is not so much of a necessity there as it would be where the seine was drawn to land. (S. S. Times.) Fish in the lake The Sea of Galilee now, as in the days of our Saviour, is well stocked with various species of fish, some of excellent flavour. One species often appears in dense masses which blacken the surface of the water, the individual fish being packed so closely together that on one occasion a single shot from a revolver killed three. These shoals were most frequently seen near the shores of Gennesareth: perhaps not far from the place where the disciples let down their net into the sea, and enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. (Recovery of Jerusalem.) The place soon asserted its right to the name Bethsaida by the exceeding abundance of the fish we saw tumbling into the water. The hot springs flowing in here over these rocks, and a little farther on in larger volume over a clean brown sand, warm all the ambient shallows for a hundred feet from shore, and, as much vegetable matter is brought down by the springs, and probably also insects which have fallen in, all these dainties are half cooked when they enter the lake. Evidently the fish agree to dine on these hot joints, and therefore in a large semicircle they crowd the water by myraids round the warm river mouth. Their backs are above the surface, as they bask or tumble and jostle crowded in the water. They gambol and splash, and the calm sea, fringed by a reeking crowd of vapour, has beyond this belt of living fish, a long row of cormorants feeding on the half-boiled fish as the fish have fed on insects underdone. White gulls poise in flocks behind the grebes or cormorants, and beyond these again ducks bustle on the water or whirl in the air. The whole is a most curious scene, and probably it has been thus from day to day for many thousand years. I paddled along the curved line of fishes’ backs and flashing tails. Some leaped into the air, others struck my boat or paddle. Dense shoals moved in brigades as if by concert or command. (MacGregor’ s Jordan.) John 21:4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore The risen Saviour on the shore Note I. THE OF THE RISEN SAVIOUR TO HIS PEOPLE. And we see at once that 1. That is the same as before. Jesus miraculously supplying their food, calling them to eat with Him--that is what He had been doing ever since they had known Him. Death had not altered what was essentially Himself. Our friends on the other side of death are the same as before! What a revelation to those who now think they are uncared for! Let them read what He was to His servants before He died, and remember that “ tie is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” 2. It is continued with greater power. Jesus was “ on the shore;” not in the boat, as in the former miracle. For Him the tossings of life were over, “ I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee.” Wonderful power was His before; by miraculous energy, and wisdom, He cared for and protected them, but whatever He had then, He had more when “ all power was given unto Him in heaven and on earth.” It was indeed much to have Him with them in the dripping, heaving boat, but it is more, whilst we are in the boat, to have Jesus for us on the shore. 3. In fulfilling this relationship the risen Saviour may be recognized by His people. It is possible to go through life ever seeing Jesus on the shore or knowing that He is invisibly there. But the opposite is possible. “ The disciples knew not that it was Jesus.” Even when the meshes strained with the fishes enclosed at His bidding, only one of them was quick to detect the stranger. The state is to be watched against; it is great impoverishment. No doubt He adopts disguises still, coming to help us through human speech and effort, but to a heart trained to sympathy with Christ, the living Saviour is seen within the disguise. We cannot estimate the joy and strength which would fill our life, if in our cares and toils we had the assurance that He is near. II. THE OF THE RISEN SAVIOUR ON THE WORK OF HIS PEOPLE. We mostly think of other aspects of our Lord’ s resurrection life. Its bearing, for instance, on the Atonement as proof of the Father’ s acceptance of it, and of the consequent acquittal of those whom He represents; or its bearing on His mediatorial work, admitting Him to that state in which “ He ever liveth to make intercession for us,” securing the permanency of the salvation He bestows. But there is another aspect. Life is much like that Sea of Galilee, sometimes dark and turbulent, sometimes bright with the quiet reflection of heaven; now rewarding us with success, and now mocking us with disappointment; the seven disciples were but symbols of each of us, we are all toilers on the sea, but in our case, as in theirs, Jesus is watching, guiding, helping the toilers. It remains to recognize this to be blessed. 1. His interest in our work is its sanctification. What does Christ upon the throne mean but that what transpires in our lives is His appointment? It may be arduous, common, unrecognized, but it comes within the rule that the Master gives to every man his work. So Christ, then, takes the deepest interest in the home cares of the mother, the lessons of the child, the toll of the bread-winner, the duties of the servant, the burdens of the sufferer. Whether our net be full or empty is nothing to the world, but it is much to Him. 2. His guidance of our work is essential to success. What is Christ King for but to guide us, so that there is nothing we ought to do but we may say, “ Lord, show us how to do it!” But we do not unreservedly follow His guidance, nor believe that He understands our business better than we do, and that only He knows the road to success. What knows He about the right side of the ship? He is no fisherman, is He aware that we were born by this lake, and have fished its waters for twenty years, what can He teach us? But they cast, and “ now they were not able to draw,” &c. Only that work will prosper which is guided by the risen Saviour from the shore. 3. His blessing on our work makes it a constant means of grace. That blessing is most manifest where anxiety comes in. If those disciples had filled their boat that night, they would not have known the Divine power of the Stranger on the beach, and might have passed Him by. We have tried to succeed, we say, but can only look for failure; then sudden success has come, and we could only exclaim, “ It is the Lord!” We have much to do and bear, we say that we shall sink beneath it; but a secret power has upheld us , we have borne and done it all; then we could only say in wonder, “ This must be one of Christ’ s miracles; it is the Lord!” It is a great blessing when thus the tasks of life are an opportunity of discovering the nearness, the faithfulness, the tenderness of Christ. III. THE OF THE RISEN SAVIOUR IN THE OF HIS PEOPLE. For He was not there merely to watch and help, but also to give them rest. “ Come and dine.” Our weariness may be removed by the supply which He provides. Busy people, after a day when things have gone wrong and their spirit is vexed, feel like those disciples. But on the beach yonder--the beach of the quiet seclusion of their closet--Jesus is standing then,and He has a hidden fire and fish laid thereon and bread. (C. New.) John 21:5 Jesus said unto them, Have ye any meat?The tender love of the risen Christ The question pertained to the wants of the body. Christ’ s resurrection body was still in sympathy with theirs. The higher He rose the deeper and more perfect were His sympathies. He could hunger no more, be weary no more: yet this made Him more keenly alive to the privations of His brethren. He did not need to put the question: yet He wishes to speak to them as a human friend interested in their welfare. He awakens their confidence as a stranger, but soon drops the stranger’ s dress. Blessed surprise! Such as that of Mary and the Emmaus travellers; as if He delighted in the surprises of love. I. THE OF THE RISEN CHRIST. He marks each sheep and lamb of His flock with more than a shepherd’ s eye. The glory with which He is surrounded does not make Him unwatchful. Amidst His plenty He remembers the penury of His own. You never lacked a meal but Jesus asked this question to supply it. You never lacked a spiritual meal but He puts the same question for the same purpose. He watches the hunger of every congregation, and asks, “ Children, have ye any meat?” II. THE PITY OF THE RISEN CHRIST. “ I have compassion on the multitudes,” He once said. Such was His pity after His resurrection; and we are sure that the throne has not lessened that pity. He pities His Church’ s and each saint’ s hunger and leanness. Let us learn this and imitate it. III. THE BOUNTY OF THE RISEN CHRIST. His is no empty pity. He does not say merely, “ Be ye warmed and filled” : He opens His treasure-house and supplies us. His stores are boundless. He delights to dispense them; nay, to provide channels for them, as in the case of the disciples when He filled their nets, kindled the fire, and prepared the meal. He fills the cruse and barrel of His widowed Church, and feeds us with the finest of the wheat. (H. Bonar, D. D.) John 21:6 Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find Old instrumentalities, but new method, an emblem of Christ’ s redemptive method Christ commanded the disciples to cast the old net in a new way. Thus He ever does in redeeming souls. I. HE EMPLOYS OLD . There are many of them, but they are all old. 1. The same old natural facts. He employs the phenomena of nature to quicken, educate and elevate souls. We have nothing more of nature than the men of remotest generations. 2. The same old gospel principles. Biblical truths are His redemptive forces, but the youngest of them is eighteen hundred years old. 3. The same old mental faculties. In regenerating men Christ does not create a new intellect, memory, imagination. He brings out the new moral creature with the old mental idiosyncrasies. II. HE EMPLOYS OLD IN A NEW WAY. He directs men 1. To a new method of studying natural facts. Thoughtfully, inductively, devoutly--regarding them all as mirrors of the Divine. 2. To a new method of dealing with gospel truths. Not desultorily, speculatively, controversially, but inductively, systematically and practically. 3. To a new method of employing mental faculties. Turning the mental powers away from time to eternity, from the creature to the Creator. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Ministerial encouragements It was quite natural that this miracle should carry their thoughts back to that draught when their nets brake--the type of those poor tentative trial missions which alone these men had been capable of when they knew Christ only after the flesh. This erie was a type of the works greater than His own which Christ promised. Note I. THE THAT THERE IS A VOICE AND A GUIDING HAND. The disciples did not yet know the voice, and we do not always discern it; for Christ speaks in many tones--by circumstance, character, influence. What a relief and comfort this is! II. It is no play on the words to say that there is A RIGHT AND A WRONG SIDE OF THE SHIP FOR THE CASTING OF THE NET. When Christ says the right side we must not choose the left. There is an awkward, clumsy, inappropriate way of offering truth and love to men as well as a way that is suitable, winning--to use the figure here, adroit, dexterous, and therefore Christ’ s way. III. WHAT IS CAST MUST BE THE NET, THE GOSPEL NET. 1. A prophet speaks of those who sacrifice to their own net. We may have a net of our own, and take great pains with it in making and mending, and think highly of it as an instrument for catching, and even fancy that it has caught, because there is a thronging and pressing to hear, and because men praise the thing heard--and lo! there is what God calls nothing in the net. 2. The great elements of gospel revelation must find place in all teaching--sin, the Divine Saviour, the Holy indwelling Spirit, sanctification, &c. these things, not rawly or roughly flung out, but tenderly and sweetly impressed, must never be thrown behind in comparison with topics of the day. IV. YE SHALL FIND. He does not say, “ All at once,” nor “ all you would,” nor “ so as to see it now;” but He puts no limit to our hope and prayer. Not one earnest sermon falls to the ground. Some conscience is quickened, some sorrow comforted, or some life guided. (Dean Vaughan.) Fishing for souls Many men there are who make fishing rods who never use them. To make fishing rods is one thing, and to catch fish is another. Many men can make good lines who never think of going out to fish. There are plenty of mechanics that stand by the stithy and make all sorts of hooks who never catch fish. Many of the men who make reels and baskets do not catch fish. The man who, having these things at his command, knows where the trout lie, and how to throw his line, and how to draw back when the fish rises to the hook, he after all is the fisherman. Now there are hundreds of men who, when they go into the pulpit, make rods and lines (very long lines), and hooks, and reels, and baskets. They take this or that doctrine and pound it out into a hook, bending it and kinking it just so, and stick it up on a paper, and label it, and that is the end of it. And this is called preaching! To know how to make rods and lines, &c., is called sound, regular, and approved preaching; but Christ says that is preaching which catches men. And, so far from teaching you that you have no right to introduce into the pulpit anything but the substance of doctrines, I affirm that the man who does not do it will never catch men. God’ s sovereignty may, out of the literal foolishness of his preaching, catch some men; but the commission of Christ to every man that undertakes to preach is, “ Follow Me, and I will make you a fisher of men.” The business of a preacher is to catch men--proud, wicked, worldly men: and to catch them out of temptations, out of snares, out of wealth, out of poverty: for men are in more pools, ten thousand times than fishes are And that man who knows all kinds, and what sort of bait each loves, and how to coax him, and how to catch him, knows how to preach; but the man who does not know these things though he knows everything else--lacks a knowledge of the very thing he was sent to do. (H. W. Beecher.) The two draughts of fishes (Text, and Luke 5:4):--The whole life of Christ was a sermon. The miracles attest His mission; but a higher reason for them is to be found in the instruction which they convey. Some ministers have often preached from the same text, but never the same discourse. The like may be said of Christ. The two miracles seem to the casual observer to be alike; but though the text is the same in both, the discourse is full of variations. Note--I. THE POINTS OF . They are both intended to set forth the way in which Christ’ s kingdom shall increase; viz., that 1. The means must be used. In the first case, the fish did not leap into Simon’ s boat, nor in the second, did they lay themselves down upon the coals. No, the fishermen must go out in their boat, cast the net, and then either drag it ashore, or fill the boats with its contents. It is a miracle, but human agency is not ignored. In saving souls God works by means. So long as the economy of grace shall stand, God will by the foolishness of preaching save them that believe. God works by means of men whom He specially calls to His work, and not as a rule without them. The outcry against the “ one man ministry” comes not of God, but of proud self-conceit. The new ways of catching fish without nets, and saving souls without ministers, will never answer. I know not a church that has despised instrumentality but it has come to an end within a few years either by schism or decay. 2. Means of themselves are utterly unavailing. In both cases there was failure--why? They were no raw hands; they had toiled, and toiled all night. There was no deficiency of fish, for as soon as the Master comes there they are by shoals. What, then, is the reason? Because there is no power in the means apart from the presence of Christ. Without Christ we can do nothing. “ Not by might,” &c. Put no dependence upon societies, committees, ministries, &c. Let us work as if all depended upon us; but let us depend upon God, knowing that it rests with Him alone. 3. It is Christ’ s presence that confers success. It was His will that drew the fish to the net as He sat in Peter’ s boat. It was His presence on the dry land that drew the fish to the right side of the ship. Christ’ s presence in the midst of the Church is the Church’ s power. 4. The success developed human weakness. In the first instance the net breaks and the ship began to sink, and Peter says, “ Depart,” &c. The very abundance of God’ s mercy made him feel his own nothingness. In the last case, they were scarcely able to draw the net because of the multitude of fishes. If the Lord gives us success in winning souls we shall soon find out what nothings we are. Little increases such as have been common in our churches for years, are quite consistent with great self-congratulation, and so is utter barrenness; mark the pompous carriage of many a fruitless preacher. The man humbles himself in the dust when hundreds are ingathered, for this cannot be the minister; this is the finger of God. II. THE . The first picture represents the Church of God as we see it; the second as it really is. Luke tells us what the crowd see; John, what Christ showed to His disciples alone. 1. There is a difference in the orders given. In the first, it is, “ Launch out into the deep,” &c. In the second, “ Cast the net on the right side of the ship.” The first is Christ’ s order to every minister; the second is the secret work of His spirit in the Word. The first shows us that the ministry is to fish everywhere. The preacher is not to single out any particular character. Those who preach only to the elect should remember this. What if we be in town, or city, or village? what if we be among the rich or poor, learned or illiterate? we have nothing to do with that--our duty is to “ launch out into the deep, and let down the net.” Christ will find the fish. The secret truth is, that when we are doing this, the Lord knows how to guide us, so that we cast the net on the right side of the ship. That is the invisible work of the Spirit, whereby He so adapts our ministry that He makes it particular and special. 2. In the first instance there is a distinct plurality. The fishermen have nets and boats, and each man comes out distinctly. In the next, they are all in one boat, and unitedly drag one net. This is the visible and the invisible. (1) To us the means are various. We are in one boat but there is another over yonder, and whenever our boat gets too full, we should beckon to our partners in the other ship to come and help us. We ought not to look upon those brethren who differ from us, as though they were emptying the sea and rivalling us. The plurality of agency involved in denominations is a great blessing. We stir one another up, and do far more good then if there were only one nominal church. There will always be a Paul and a Barnabas, who cannot get on together. (2) But let us look to the inward. In John they are all on one boat fishing together, dragging one net. This is what is really the fact. We do not see it, but all God’ s ministers are dragging one net, and all God’ s Church is in one ship. It is no use striving after outward uniformity. Neither the texture of the human mind nor the will of God require it, It is the unity of the Spirit in Christ Jesus, in love that God would have us regard. 3. In the first case a great multitude of fish were caught. In the second “ a hundred and fifty and three.” It were impossible to reckon how many have been taken in the outward net of the visible Church. But it is possible for it to be known of God how many shall be brought at last, and how many now are in the invisible Church. They shall be in heaven a number that no man can number, for God’ s elect are not few; but “ the Lord knoweth them that are His.” 4. The fish that were taken the first time appear to have been of all sorts. The net was broken, and therefore doubtless some of them got out again; there were some So little that they were not worth eating, and doubtless were thrown away: “ They shall gather the good into vessels and throw the bad away.” In the second ease the net was full of great fishes; they were all great fishes, all good and worth the keeping. The first gives us the outward and visible effect of the ministry. We gather into Christ’ s Church a great number, and there will always be some that are not good, and not really called of God. Sometimes we have Church-meetings in which we have to throw the bad away. Let no man be surprised if the tares grow up with the wheat--if there be wolves in sheep’ s clothing--it always will be so. There was a Judas among the twelve. Not so in the invisible Church. In that there is none to throw away. No; the Lord who brought them into the net brought the right sort in. 5. In the first case, in the visible Church the net breaks. No doubt it is a bad thing for nets to break; but you need not wonder at it. It is the necessary consequence of our being what we are. Instead of having some one denomination, we have twenty or thirty? I do not grieve over it. For until you get a set of perfect men, you never will have anything but these divisions. But the net does not break in reality, for the invisible Church is one. Take care of the fish and leave the net alone, but still maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of perfectness. 6. In the first case, you see human weakness; there is the boat ready to sink, the net broken, the men all out of heart, begging the Master to go away. In the other ease, they are made strong, dragging the fish to shore. So in the visible Church you will often have to mourn over human weakness: but in the invisible Church God will make His servants just strong enough to drag their fish to shore. 7. In the first case, in the visible Church they launched out into the deep. In the second case, they were not far from the shore. So today our preaching seems to us to be going out into the great stormy deep after fish. We appear to have a long way to reach before we shall bring these precious souls to land. But in the sight of God we are not far from shore; and when a soul is saved, it is not far from heaven. To us there are years of temptation, and trial, and conflict; but to God, it is finished. 8. In the first case, the disciples had to forsake all and follow Christ. In the second, they sat down to feast with Him at the banquet which He had spread. So in the visible Church we have to bear trial and self-denial for Christ, but the eye of faith perceives that we shall soon sit down and feast in the kingdom of God. III. THE LESSON WHICH THE TWO IN COMMON SEEM TO TEACH. In the first case, Christ was in the ship. Christ is in His Church, though she launch out into the deep. In the second case, Christ was on the shore. Christ is in heaven. But whether He be in the Church, or in heaven, all our night’ s toiling shall, by His presence, have a rich reward. This is the lesson. Mother, will you learn it? You have been toiling long for your children. It has been night with you as yet. Your night’ s toiling shall have an end; you shall at last cast the net on the right side of the ship. Sunday-school teacher, minister, church, the night is far spent, and the Master shall soon appear; and His advent shall bring success. (C. H. Spurgeon.) John 21:7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter, It is the Lord Variety in unity I. LOVE JESUS. John was distinguished for his clear and far-reaching vision. Peter was the embodiment of zeal, John of love. 1. Love can recognize where mere earnestness fails. You did not hear anything as you sat in your friend’ s house, and you were rather surprised when she broke off her sentence with “ Excuse me” and hurriedly left the room--the fact was the mother had heard the cry of her child. You would have been earnest enough in doing good to the little one; but only the mother’ s ear could hear its voice. And so in the case before us: let Peter but get half an idea that Jesus is standing on the shore, and nothing will keep him in the boat; but Peter, with all his earnestness, would perhaps have never said, “ It is the Lord.” 2. Love communicates good. John could not keep the good tidings to himself. Whether in temporal or spiritual blessings, love invites others to share. II. AND ZEAL TO HOLD WITH JESUS. 1. Consistency of character. The same Peter who once before walked upon the sea--who said, “ Though all men forsake Thee yet will not I” --who ran into the sepulchre, and compelled John to follow, casts himself into the sea to go to Jesus. 2. Naturalness. Had any one else but Peter attempted this, it would have appeared awkward and ungraceful; had he refrained from rushing off to Jesus we should have felt that it was not like Peter. We believe in individuality. It would be better for the Church and the world if men would be themselves. III. THE WISDOM OF . The other disciples took care of the fishes and came to land by the boat, and they were right; for 1. They were preserving what Jesus had given them. 2. They were showing that they appreciated His blessings. IV. VARIETY IN UNITY. That little ship contained the infant Church, yet in that Church you find various types of character. There is the loving John, the go-ahead Peter, and the quiet, careful people who take care of the necessaries of life. And so in the Church. We need men who can stand upon the watch tower and point to Christ; we need others full of fire; and the plodding men who never do anything out of the way, but nevertheless do a great deal of necessary work. Thus 1. God distributes His gifts in various ways and infinite variety. 2. We should beware of jealousy. 3. We ought not to judge each other. As Matthew Henry says, “ Some are useful as the Church’ s eyes, some as the Church’ s hands, and others as the Church’ s feet; but all are for the good of the body.” (A. F. Barfield.) It is the Lord It seems very strange that these disciples had not, at an earlier period, discovered Christ, inasmuch as it was so manifestly a repetition of that former event by which they had become “ fishers of men.” We are apt to suppose that when once again they embarked on the lake it must have been with many a thought of Him. Yonder--perhaps we fancy them thinking--is where we saw Him coming out of the mountains, when He walked on the water; yonder is where He made them all sit down whilst we bore the bread to them: there is the very spot where we were mending our nets when He came up to us and called us to Himself--and now it is all over. “ We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.” But there does not seem to have been any such sentimental remembrance. John takes pains to show them as plain, rough men, busy about their night’ s work, and thinking a great deal more of their want of success, than about old associations. Then through the darkness He comes, and speaks as once before, and repeats the old miracle, and their eyes are all holden excepting the eyes of him who loved, and he first says, “ It is the Lord.” I. THEY ONLY SEE ARIGHT WHO SEE CHRIST IN . 1. No man will understand the world aright, who cannot say about all creation, “ It is the Lord.” (1) If we would pierce to the deepest foundations of all Being, we cannot stop until we get down to the living power of Christ, by whom all things were made, and whose will is the sustaining principle which keeps it from decay. (2) What did Christ work His miracles for? Not solely as proof of His Messiahship, but that for once He would unveil to us the true Author of all things, and the true Foundation of all being. Christ’ s miracles interrupted the order of the world in so far as they struck out the intervening means by which the creative and sustaining word of God acts in nature. We are then to take all these signs and wonders as a revelation of the real state of things, and to see in them tokens that into every corner of the universe His loving hand reaches, and His sustaining power goes forth. Into what province of nature did He not go? He claimed to be the Lord of life by the side of the boy’ s bier at the gate of Nain, &c. He asserted for Himself authority over all the powers and functions of our bodily life, when He gave eyes to the blind, &c. He showed that He was Lord over the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, &c. And He asserted His dominion over inanimate nature when the fig-tree withered, and the winds and waves sunk into silence. He let us get a glimpse into the dark regions of His rule over the unseen, when “ with authority He commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out.” (3) All these things He did, in order that we, walking in this fair world, should be delivered from the temptation of thinking that it is separated from or independent of Him. Let “ It is the Lord” be on our lips, and nature will then be indeed to us the open secret which “ The Lord will show to them that fear Him.” 2. The same conviction is the only one to explain or make tolerable the circumstances of our earthly condition. Either our life is the subject of a mere chaotic chance; or else it is put into the mill of an iron destiny, which goes grinding on, regardless of what it grinds up; or else, there is the will which is love, and the love which is Christ! I understand not how a man can front the future knowing all his vulnerable points and all the ways by which disaster may come down upon him, and retain his sanity, except he believes that all is ruled, not merely by a God who may be as unsympathizing as He is omnipotent, but by His elder Brother, the Son of God. But the riddle of Providence is solved, and the discipline of Providence is being accomplished, when we have grasped this conviction--All events do serve me, for all circumstances come from His will andpleasure, which is love; and everywhere where I go--be it in the darkness of disaster or in the sunshine of prosperity--I shall see standing before me that familiar and beloved shape, and shall be able to say, “ It is the Lord.” That is the faith to live by, and to die by; and without it life is a mockery and a misery. 3. This same conviction should guide us in all our thoughts about the history and destinies of mankind and of Christ’ s Church. The Incarnation and the Crucifixion are the pivot round which all the events of the ages revolve. “ They that went before and they that came after,” when He entered into the holy city were a symbol of history. All the generations that went before Him, though they knew it not, were preparing His way; and all the generations that come after, though they know it not, are swelling His triumph. The tangled web of human history is only then intelligible when that is taken as its clue, “ From Him are all things, and to Him are all things,” and when all is finished, it will be found that all things have tended to His glory who is King of kings and Lord of lords. 4. Such a conviction living and working in our hearts would change for us the whole aspect of life. See Christ in everything, and be blessed; or miss Him, and be miserable. It is a waste, weary world, unless it be filled with signs of His presence. If you want your days to be true, happy, manly, and Godlike, it will only be when they all have flowing through them this conviction, “ It is the Lord.” II. ONLY THEY WHO LOVE SEE CHRIST. John, the apostle of love knew Him first. 1. In religious matters, love is the foundation of knowledge. There is no way of knowing a person except love. A man cannot argue his way into knowing Christ. Man’ s natural capacity within its own limits is strong and good; but in the region of acquaintance with God and Christ, the wisdom of this world is foolishness. “ He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.” 2. Love will trace Him everywhere, as dear friends detect each other in little marks which are meaningless to others. Love’ s quick eye pierces through disguises impenetrable to a colder scrutiny. Love has in it a longing for His presence which makes us eager and quick to mark the slightest sign that He is near, as the footstep of some dear one is heard by the sharp ear of affection long before any sound breaks the silence to those around. Love leads to likeness to the Lord, and that likeness makes the clearer vision of the Lord possible. “ It is the Lord” is written large and plain on all things, but like the great letters on a map, they are so obvious and fill so wide a space, that they are not seen. They who love Him know Him, and they who know Him love Him. 3. And is it not a blessed thing that this glorious prerogative does not depend on what belongs to few men only, but on what may belong to all? 4. But we cannot love by commandment. The only way is to see the lovely. The disciple who loved Jesus was “ the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Generalize that, and it teaches us that III. THEY LOVE WHO KNOW THAT CHRIST LOVES THEM. Our love can never be anything else than the echo to His voice of tenderness, than the reflected light upon our hearts of the full glory of His affection. “ We love Him, because He first loved us.” The fountain that rises in my heart can only spring up heavenward, because the water of it flowed down into my heart from the higher level. Oh, then, look to Christ, that you may love Him! Think of that Saviour who has died for us, and lives for us! Do not ask yourselves, to begin with, the question, Do I love Him or do I not? If a man is cold, let him go to the fire and warm himself. If he is dark let him stand in the sunshine, and he will be light. If his heart is all clogged with sin and selfishness, let him get under the influence of the love of Christ, and look away from himself and his own feelings, towards that Saviour whose love shed abroad is the sole means of kindling ours. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Now when Simon Peter heard that … he girt his fisher’ s coat unto him Peter’ s reverence for the Lord is indicated by the careful observation, even in such a moment of excited feeling, of the petty proprieties of clothing. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.) And did cast himself into the sea I. OF COMFORT. II. HUMAN . III. GAIN. IV. EAGERLY SEEKING JESUS. (S. S. Times.) John 21:9-11 As soon as they were come to land they saw a fire of coals there.The two fires--a contrast (Text, and John 18:18) I. THE FIRE IN THE PALACE COURT. 1. A scene of sorrow--the Saviour’ s trial. 2. A place of temptation--in the company of Christ’ s enemies. 3. A witness of sin--the denials of Peter. II. THE FIRE UPON THE SEA-SHORE. 1. A scene of glory--the presence of the risen Lord. 2. A place of safety--the society of Jesus and His friends. 3. A witness of grace--Peter’ s restoration. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The fire on the shore 1. You cannot fail to be impressed with the sense as of something strange and unearthly. You feel that, like Moses in Horeb, you must put off the shoes from your feet, ere you approach this mysterious fire. (1) One explanation of the fire and repast, of course, is that they were provided to supply the bodily wants of the disciples. (2) Another makes the whole transaction refer especially to St. Peter. The thrice-repeated question reminded him of his three-fold denial; the miraculous draught called to mind his office from which he fell; and the fire of coals would recall that other fire by which he denied his Master. 2. But these explanations do not meet the whole of the facts. We have, then, to seek one which shall satisfy all parts of the narrative: and this is to be found in the progress of the Gospel, and the connection between the Old and New Dispensations. I. THE FISH. In one parable the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a net, which “ gathered of every kind;” so that we have Christ’ s authority for considering that the miraculous draught represented the bringing of multitudes into the Church through the instrumentality of the preachers of the gospel. It is observable also that Simon Peter is said to have drawn the net to land: there may have been a reference here to the fact that Peter was entrusted with the opening the Church to the Gentiles. For there can be no doubt that there was a special reference to the combining of all nations in the visible Church. The number of fishes is to be carefully noted. It appears that one hundred and fifty and three was exactly the number of varieties of fish then known, so that we may most justly conclude that the number was an indication that persons of all nations and conditions should enter into the Church. And then the remark as to the net not being broken must be considered as prophetic of the capacity of the Christian Church; unlike the Jewish, which was not constructed for enlargement and extension. II. THE FIRE OF COALS AND THE REPAST. 1. You are to observe that the Jewish and the Christian Dispensations are not so truly distinct economies, as component parts of one great plan. There have never been two ways in which sinners might be saved. In the New Testament, indeed, we have the clearer exposition of the great scheme of mercy; but there is no difference whatsoever in the doctrine propounded. This great truth is figuratively taught here. There was already a fire kindled, and on the fire there were fish already laid; and when the newly-caught fish were placed on the same fire, was it not shown that the Church, before and after the coming of Christ, was virtually but one and the same? that its members had to be brought to the same altar, and to be purified by the same flame? I know not why we should not think that that strange fire, mysteriously kindled on the lonely shore, was typical of the propitiatory work of the Redeemer, through whom alone the men of any age can be presented as a sacrifice acceptable unto God. There is no altar but the one Mediator, and no fire but that of His oblation, which will answer for those who seek to consecrate themselves, a whole burnt offering to God. And what could be a more lively parable of this fact than that, when standing on the margin of the sea, the separating line between time and eternity, Christ caused an altar to rise, mysterious as Himself, and crowned it with burning coals, which had not been kindled by any earthly flame; and then placed on it representatives of the one visible Church as it had subsisted before His incarnation, and as it was to subsist till He should come to judgment? It seems to have been a lesson peculiarly needed by the apostles, that they were not to consider themselves as going forth on a new mission, of which no notices had been previously issued. Accordingly Christ had forcibly reminded them that “ One soweth, and another reapeth.” And now He repeats something of the same lesson. 2. But, further, the Evangelist is careful in noting that our Lord took bread as well as fish and gave to His disciples. Now, Christ had fed a great multitude with a few loaves and fishes, typifying how the truth of His religion should suffice for the spiritual sustenance of the world. The disciples would naturally be reminded of this miracle here, and that the food which Christ delivered to them as spiritual pastors would be an abundant provision for all men. In conclusion, we would show you into how beautiful an allegory some of the facts may be wrought, when a broader view is taken, one which shall more distinctly comprehend ourselves. 1. It is an appropriate simile which likens life to a voyage which has variety of terminations--sometimes in calm, sometimes in storm; the vessel, in one case, casting anchor in placid waters, so that the Spirit has but to step gently ashore; in another, suffering shipwreck, so that there is fearful strife and peril in escaping from the waves, Of all it will have to be said, as of those with St. Paul, some by swimming, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship--“ it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land.” 2. Let it satisfy us that whatever the mode in which the soul of the righteous is dismissed--whether that mode be imagined in Peter’ s casting himself into the sea and struggling to the land, or whether it be represented in the quieter approachings of the boat with the other disciples--the soul will find preparation for its reception: Christ stands upon the shore, expecting His faithful servants; and of all of them it will have to be said, “ As soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.” This may well shadow out that, to the faithful in Christ, the moment of being detached from the body is the moment of being admitted into happiness. “ As soon as they were come to land” --no delay, no interval--all that was needed was found ready; the fire kindled, and the banquet spread. 3. Yet who doubts that the righteous will not only find the material of happiness prepared, but that they will carry with them additions to that material, and make heaven all the richer? It is “ the communion of saints;” and whilst each saint shall draw cause of rapture from those who have gone before, they also shall draw cause of rapture from Him. Ah, then, how beautifully apposite the direction, “ Bring of the fish which ye have now caught!” The marriage-supper of the Lamb shall be furnished from the contributions of every generation. “ Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,”’ &c. They “ rest from their labours,” in that, as soon as they come to land, they see a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread: “ their works do follow them,” in that they are then bidden to bring of the fish which they have caught. (H. Melvill, B. D.) Materials for the banquet Mineral coal is still a thing of uncommon use or knowledge in the East, except on the steamers. But charcoal is the “ coal” ; it is made and used everywhere, and is sold by weight. Upon the coals the “ bread” or “ loaf” is baked, either on a pan or piece of metal; or directly on (or under) the coals themselves, protected by a layer of ashes. The variety of modes of baking, and of bread, which one sees at an Oriental camp-fire, are many. The picture here is doubtless that of both bread and fish cooking at the fire; not of baked bread waiting for the fish to be done. The “ loaf” was, or is, a flat cake. (S. S. Times.) Bring of the fish which ye have now caught Christ requires human co-operation Jesus had no need of the disciples’ help in providing fish for His breakfast or for theirs; but He asked their help just as if He did need it. If they had refused to bring the fish, He would have been no loser; but the loss would have been theirs. So it is always in every sphere of Christian activity. Jesus never needs help; but Jesus constantly calls for help. The gain through responding to that call, or the loss through refusing, is to the disciple, not to the Master. Jesus can get on without your money or your services in the Sunday-school, in the church, in the community about you, or in the missionary field; but you cannot get on as you might if you refuse your help in any one of these fields. Jesus asks for a share of all the fish you catch, of all the crops you gather, of all the money you get, of all the time and strength you have. If you refuse to render it to Him, the loss is yours. How great that loss may be only eternity can disclose. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.) Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land Pulling in the net If you are always mending and setting the net, you won’ t catch many fish. Whoever heard of a man going out to fish, and setting his net, and then letting it stop there, and never pulling it in. Why, everybody would laugh at the man’ s folly. There was a minister in Manchester who came to me one day and said, “ I wish you would tell me why we ministers don t succeed better than we do. So I took up the idea of pulling in the net, and I said, “ You ought to pull in your nets. There are a great many in Manchester who can preach much better than I can, but then I pull in the net. A great many people have objections to inquiry-meetings;” and when I had pointed out the importance of them, the minister said, “ I never did pull in the net, but I will try next Sunday morning.” He did so, and eight persons, anxious inquirers, went into his study. The next Sunday he came down to see me, and said he had never had such a Sunday in his life. The next time he drew the net there were forty, and when he came to see me at the Opera House, the other day, he said, “ Moody, I have had eight hundred conversions this last year. It is a great mistake I did not begin earlier to pull in the net.” So, my friends, if you want to catch men, just pull in the net. If you only catch one it will be something. It may be a little child, but I have known a little child convert a whole family. Why, you don’ t know what’ s in that little dull-headed boy in the inquiry-room, he may become a Martin Luther--a reformer that shall make the world tremble. (D. L. Moody.) John 21:12-13 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine Loving invitation (cf. John 1:39):--Here is I. familiar and domestic. While we are sinners faith brings us into a justified state by simply looking to Christ; but after believing faith then assists us to enjoy Christ. Some expect to enjoy Christ first and believe Him afterwards; but you must take God’ s mercies in their order. You will not find “ Come and dine” in the first chapter of John--there it is, “ Come and see.” Believe Jesus first, and you shall feed on Him afterwards. “ Come and see” gives peace, but “ Come and dine” gives heaven, for it gives Christ. II. UNION WITH JESUS, because the only meat that we can eat when we dine with Christ is Himself. We do not provide the supper. Christ found the fish, the fire, and the bread, and then said, “ Come and dine.” The fire that warms our heart when we have fellowship with Him comes from Himself, and the fish that we eat is His own, and the wine that we drink flows from His own heart. Oh, what union is this! III. WITH THE SAINTS. You are not to eat your morsel alone, but in company. We sit down in heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and no small part of the hereafter bliss is connected with the fellowship of the saints. So here we enjoy the company as well as the feast. The Supper of the Lord is the table of communion, not only with the Master, but also with all who love Him. Hungry men are sure to be quarrelsome, but if you would have sweetest fellowship with each other, live on Christ. We do not expect to see all Christians agreeing, but we are sure that one of the most likely plans for cultivating a brotherly spirit is to listen to Christ’ s words, “ Come and dine.” IV. THE SOURCE OF FOR EVERY . To look at Christ is to live, but for strength to serve Him you must come and dine. We need as much food for the soul as for the body, and unless we eat we shall be fainting by the way. If you want to be as Mr. Feeblemind, take only a small modicum of spiritual food in your closets; neglect family prayer; never attend a prayer-meeting; on no account speak about religious matters during the week; go late to the house of God, and fall asleep when you get there; as soon as you leave the place of worship talk about the weather. All your strength depends upon union with Christ. Away from Him you must wither as a branch severed from the vine. Feeding on Him you will be like the branch which is drinking up the sap from the parent stem; you will be strong enough to bring forth fruit. V. GROWTH AND IN THINGS. To see Christ is to begin the Christian’ s life, but to grow in grace we must “ come and dine.” The early history of the first disciples is by no means satisfactory. They were evidently only babes in spiritual things. They had seen Jesus, and loved Him, and followed Him, but they were far from possessing the Spirit of Christ. Now after they had reached this stage of living on Christ they became new men. It is no longer mere sight, but an inward appropriation, and the consequences are manifest. Many Christians remain stunted and dwarfed. They exist but do not grow. The reason is evident, they are not taking of Christ, and they neglect to appropriate to themselves the blessing which He is waiting to bestow. VI. FOR SERVICE. Before the feast is concluded, Christ says to Peter, “ Feed My lambs;” “ Feed My sheep;” “ Follow Me.” All the strength supplied by Christ is for service. Some Christians are for living on Christ, but are not so anxious to live for Christ. Heaven is the place where saints feast most and work most. Now, earth should be a preparation for heaven; come and dine, and then go and labour. Freely ye receive, freely give; gather up all the fragments of your feast, and carry the loaves and fishes to others, as did the disciples. We are not to hold the precious grains of truth like a mummy does the wheat, for ages, without giving it a chance of growing. No, feed yourself, and then go forth and bid others come and eat and drink. Why does the Lord send down the rain upon the thirsty earth, and give the sunshine and the genial refreshing breeze? (C. H.Spurgeon.) The dinner on the Galilean shore an emblem of redemption I. THE TIME WAS . The disciples had tried all their resources for means of a livelihood that night and had failed. They were no doubt tired, hungry, and dejected. The dinner came just at the right time. It is just so with the redemptive system. After the world had tried everything for its salvation--poetry, philosophy, religion, civilization--and grew worse, Christ came “ in the fulness of time.” II. THE WERE . The fish they caught they had been toiling all night to obtain. They were craving for such food. The provisions of the gospel are both suited to man’ s needs and urgently required. They are 1. Renovating. 2. Cleansing. 3. Developing. 4. Harmonizing. 5. Perfecting. Isaiah 25:6 we have a description of the great Spiritual banquet.How rich, varied, abundant the viands! III. THE HOST WAS . What a sight!--the Son of God preparing a feast for poor fishermen, and dining with them. Thus He has done in redemption. He descended into the “ lowest parts of the earth,” unto the lowest grades; “ made Himself of no reputation.” (D. Thomas, D. D.) A feast with Jesus 1. Our Lord is careful of bodily wants. Twice in the days of His flesh He fed the people with bread and fish, and now He has risen He still thinks of the hungering bodies of the disciples. This may be a warrant to the churches to feed, not to try and proselytize. 2. If any of you are needy catch at this. He who said to the seven, “ Come and break your fast,” will not forget you. I cannot tell how the fire was lighted, &c., but some way or other you will be fed. 3. If Jesus is thus careful of bodily wants, much more will He be careful of your souls. After He had supplied the one He proceeds to Supply the other. I. THE OF A FEAST WITH JESUS. It was important to these men 1. For they were wet and cold; so a fire was provided where they could dry their jerseys and warm their hands. They were hungry too, and here is the old food, light and easy of digestion. Christ does not like to see us wet, and cold, and hungry, because it is not good for us. If, therefore, you feel uncomfortable and unhappy Jesus does not want you to be so. Many a battle has been lost because the soldiers were not in good condition. 2. They were weary with the night’ s fruitless toil; and when Christ’ s modern workers feel discouraged He invites them to come and break their fast with Him. 3. They were likely to forget their bodily wants in their sudden success. It is hungry work now to live on catching and counting. Successful workers are prone to forget their own spiritual wants. 4. Christ was about to overhaul them. It is needful that Christ should feed us before He searches us. 5. They were about to receive a commission. Christ does not send people to feed His sheep and lambs without feeding them first. 6. They were about to enter on a perilous path. Wonder not that you are called to endure fiery trials, but see that you are first fed on heavenly bread. II. JESUS ACTING AS HOST. IS not this wonderful? Jesus communing with Thomas, who doubted Him, and Peter, who denied Him. Notice Jesus our Host 1. Preparing the feast. It was an act of creative power. Your soul can ever feed on what Christ creates, but on nothing else. 2. Waiting on the feasters. Sometimes a host will say, “ Help yourselves,” but we cannot help ourselves; so “ Jesus cometh and taketh bread and giveth them.” There is good spiritual food in the Word, but sometimes we cannot get at it; so Jesus puts it into our hearts. 3. Showing Himself. Giving them food was the most effective manner of doing this. When the Word nourishes most, then is the time of the clearest vision of Christ; and that vision is the most satisfying thing on earth or in heaven. III. THE . 1. What He had mysteriously prepared. Feed now on the mysteries of (1) Everlasting love. (2) The covenant of grace. (3) The brotherhood of Christ. (4) Atoning efficacy. 2. What He had graciously given. God’ s mercies are like the hundred and fifty and three--an odd number, but very exact. Has not your net, too, been full of answers to prayer? IV. HOW THE GUESTS BEHAVED . 1. They only spoke one word--“ No;” which betrayed the emptiness and hunger of their souls. You may say to your Lord, “ I am a negative, nobody and nowhere without Thee.” The devotion which shows itself by bawling may be genuine, but it is very superficial. Deep waters are still. It takes a wise man to hold his tongue. 2. They asked Christ no questions. People who have no religion are fond of religious questions. But when you get near Christ there is no questioning. We believe in the Bible because we know the Author, and are therefore not troubled with sceptical doubts. They were lost in wonder at His amazing condescension, and His majestic presence. What could they do but hold their tongues? (C. H. Spurgeon.) Communion with Christ This chapter has a sacramental character, and the words, “ Come and dine,” are a summons to communion. Note I. THE . 1. There is already fish prepared when Jesus says, “ Bring of the fish now caught.” Host and guest must each contribute. “ If any man will hear My voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me,” i.e., I with him as his Guest, and he with Me as Mine. It is so here. Communion implies reciprocity. When Christ meets His people at the holy feast He is there as the Host who furnishes the fire and the fish, the bread and the wine, the supplies of grace and of the Spirit. But He is also the Guest. We partake of Him, but He looks to partake of us, though we know that He can find nothing that can give Him pleasure till He puts it there. This fish which we must bring He guided into the net. Christ having first given the grace comes to receive of it. He is spiritually present to receive as well as communicate that highest joy which is the interchange of conscious feeling and trusted love, to partake of us as we of Him. 2. If this be the case can we come thoughtlessly, with defiled hands, or with self-righteousness to offer ourselves for Christ’ s participation? Nay, but let us come with what He craves, the love on receiving which here or anywhere He sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. II. THE FEELING. “ None durst ask Him.” Why should they if they knew? The saying expresses that almost new converse with which the disciples after the Resurrection regarded their Lord. One there had previously presumed to question, “ Be it far from Thee, Lord.” It was not so now. Think with what instinctive awe we should regard a similar manifestation of Christ now. Questioning would have been impertinent. They must wait for Him to speak now. It would also have been mistrusting. Well enough did they know it was the Lord, notwithstanding the changes which the three days had wrought. There is a familiarity in words, hymns, meditations, in these times which befits not our intercourse with the Risen. Let the feeling which reigns around the Lord’ s table be one of reverence. This is not dread, distance, bondage, but adoring love. III. THE . Some have found it difficult to maintain a spirit of prolonged communion at the Lord’ s table; but let them learn from this to commune about 1. Their sins. Who can doubt that Peter’ s three denials were uppermost in his heart? Yet you will note that there was no remorse for an irrevocable past, and no excuses for inexcusable guilt. Be guided by this in your communion, and this one topic will provide enough for an hour’ s profitable discourse. 2. Their work. This communion brought reinstatement for Peter in his apostolate, and a particular designation to his future employment. Converse, then, about thy work, its past deficiencies, and thy need of present and future strength to do it. 3. Their future. Peter’ s was here revealed, and if thine is not in such particularity, yet the words, “ Follow Me,” will hearten thee to meet it, whatever it may be. 4. Their friends, “ What shall this man do?” (Dean Vaughan.) John 21:15-17 So when they had dined, Jesus saith … Simon son of Judas, lovest thou Me more than these?Peter’ s restoration I. THE LORD’ S . 1. The question itself. (1) The feeling inquired about. Other feelings there are which often move the soul; but love surpasses them all. Every one knows what is meant by love. (2) The object of the love to which the question relates. The question is not, dost thou love at all? Perhaps there never was a heart so hard as to be entirely a stranger to it. The question is, among the various objects thy love embraces, is that object to be found whose claim is paramount? We say not that unrenewed persons do not love at all; but they love other objects in place of Christ. But the new birth carries up the dear emotion to the object that best deserves it. (3) The degree of this love to Christ. The question may mean, either, “ Lovest thou Me more than these men? or more than these things,” and calls upon us to say, not that we love the Lord, but how much we love Him. Does it prevail over the love we feel for inferior objects? 2. The circumstance that Christ puts the question. It is often put by Christ’ s friends and ministers; but it comes with deeper meaning and greater power from Christ. It implies (1) That Christ considers He has a claim to the love of His people. What are the grounds of this claim? We ought to love Him (a) For what He is. What saith the law? “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart,” &c., “ and thy neighbour as thyself.” God and man, as Christ is, in one Person, both tables of the law command Him to be loved (b) For what He has done: long ago as God the Son in the council of peace, and in human history as the Man Christ Jesus. (2) That He sets a value on His people s love. When another asks you, “ Lovest thou Christ?” you cannot gather from it that Christ Himself cares whether you love Him or not. But Christ’ s own inquiry shows that the matter is not indifferent to Him. Despise His people’ s level He reckons it a portion of His reward. And, when He sees its fruits, He sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. (3) That He is concerned for the prosperity of His people’ s souls. The love of Christ is inseparably connected with the love of God. (4) Let us advert to some of the occasions when Christ puts the question. (a) The occasion of showing His own love. Such was the present. He was fresh from Calvary. “ Lovest thou Me? See how I have loved thee!” Such is the occasion when a sinner is converted. Then, for the first time, a sense of Christ’ s love breaks in. (b) When He gives His people special work to do. (c) In the day of temptation, and suffering for His sake. Trials bring our love to the proof. 3. The circumstance that Christ repeats it. The gospel ministry puts it from week to week. Why? Because (1) Love to Christ is of vital importance. (2) There is a spurious love to Christ, a feeling of sentimentalism, which is called, by some, love to Christ. There are some, too, who love a Christ of their own, who, they fancy, takes away the sting from sin. As if that were possible, or that God’ s holy Son would do it if He could! II. THE ’ S ANSWER. We cannot say that believers are always able to reply as Peter did. There are times when they think that they do not love the Lord. And there are times when the utmost length they can go is, “ Lord, I can scarcely tell if I love Thee or not.” Yet there are times when they can use Peter’ s language. Secret seasons of enlargement, when the Lord unveils His face to them, and they see the King in His beauty. Words are good, but not essential; and there is an answer in the heart which the Lord can interpret right well. 1. Who does not know that true love can proclaim its existence through the eyes when the tongue says nothing? The soul has eyes as well as the body. And, when God’ s people are meditating on Christ, what are they doing but feasting the eyes of their souls, and involuntarily declaring their love to Him? 2. There are acts of memory also, which are the consequences of love. In the long absence of loved ones how fondly do we call to mind what they said to us, and cherish the particulars of the interviews we had together! And how natural is it to prize the messages they send us! Thus works the love of believers towards Christ. They take pleasure in remembering past fellowship. 3. The way, too, in which Christ’ s approaches are received is a declaration of love. It makes their heart leap when tidings that He is near is brought to them, and when the sound of His footsteps is heard. III. THE LORD’ S COMMAND. 1. Its nature. Christ has a flock, of which He is the owner; for it was given to Him of the Father, and He bought it with His blood. He is its Shepherd; for it was committed to His care, and He accepted the charge of it. This flock He commends to the good offices of all that love Him. Private disciple though you be, you may help to feed Christ’ s flock. Though you cannot dispense the bread of life by public ministrations, you may dispense it by private intercourse, prayers, and contributions. 2. Some important principles which it involves. (1) That love needs an exercise as well as am object. The first thing is to fix it on Christ. That being done, “ Now,” says the Lord, “ thy love must not be idle. If thou lovest Me, go work for Me. Only thus can thy love continue and increase.” (2) That love prepares us for the service of Christ. It is a motive inciting to that which is well-pleasing to Him, the doing of His will. (3) That love must extend to His people. “ Feed My lambs--feed My sheep.” (4) That love ought to show itself to the world. The feeding of Christ’ s lambs and sheep implies publicity. It is, therefore, a confession of Christ before men. Thereby we tell the world that we love Him, and prove that we are not ashamed of His cause. (A. Gray.) The grand inquiry The question is I. . Because we ought to love Him, and the affection is just. Contemplate 1. His Person. He is altogether lovely: comprising in Himself all the graces of time and of eternity; all the attractions of humanity and of Deity. Bring forward all the excellences the world ever saw; add as many more as the imagination can supply: all this aggregate is no more to Him than a ray of light to the sun, or a drop of water to the ocean. 2. His doings. (1) Look backward, and consider what He has done. (2) Look upward, and consider what He is doing. (3) Look forward, and consider what He will do. 3. His sufferings. To enable Him to be our best friend, He submitted to a scene of humiliation and anguish, such as no tongue can express, or imagination conceive. Never was there sorrow--and, therefore, never was there love--like thine! But we must observe, not only what He suffers for us, but what He suffers from us, and suffers in us. “ For we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” He that toucheth us toucheth the apple of His eye. “ O, for this love, let rocks and hills,” &c II. , because we must love Him: and the affection is not only just but necessary 1. To our sanctification. Love is a transforming principle. By constant residence in the mind, the image stamps and leaves its own resemblance. 2. To give us delight in all our religious services. It is the nature of love to render difficult things easy, and bitter ones sweet. What was it that turned the seven years of hard bondage that Jacob served for Rachel into so many pleasant days? What is it that more than reconciles that mother to numberless nameless anxieties and privations in rearing her baby charge? But there is no love like that which a redeemed sinner bears to his Redeemer; and, therefore, no pleasure can equal that which he enjoys in pleasing Him. 3. To render our duties acceptable. The Lord looketh to the heart; and when this is given up to Him, He values the motive, though we err in the circumstances. 4. To ascertain our interest in the Saviour’ s regards. His followers are not described by their knowledge, their gifts, their creed, their profession; but by their cordial adherence to Him., His love produces ours; but our love evinces His--“ I love them that love Me.” III. DOUBT. Is there nothing in you to render this love suspicious 1. To the world? You are not only to be Christians, but to appear such. Have you risen up for Him against the evildoers, and never denied His name, nor concealed His truth? 2. To the Church? There are many of whom, as the apostle says, “ We stand in doubt.” But your ministers and fellow-members are entitled to satisfaction concerning, if not the degree, the reality of your religion. 3. To yourselves. “ Tis a point I long to know,” &c. If I loved Him--could I ever read without pleasure the Book that unveils His glories--could I ever fear to die--could I feel so impatient under those afflictions that make me a partaker of the fellowship of His sufferings? 4. To the Saviour. There is a sense in which this is impossible. We are all transparency before Him. But we are to distinguish the question of right from the question of fact. With regard to right, He may, and He often does, complain in His Word, as if He was disappointed and surprised at the conduct of His professing people. Estimating our proficiency by our advantages, ought He not to have found in us what He has yet sought for in vain. IV. ADMITS OF It is not only possible, but comparatively easy, to know whether we love another. And here it will be in vain for you to allege that the ease before us is a peculiar one, because the object is invisible. For many of us never saw Howard, but who does not feel veneration at the mention of his name? How, then, will this love show itself? 1. By our thoughts. These naturally follow the object of our regard, and it is with difficulty we can draw them off. David could say, “ I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.” And what was the consequence? “ How precious are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!” 2. By our speech. “ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” 3. By desire after intimacy. Separation is a grief. Distance is a torture. “ As the hart panteth after the water brooks,” &c. 4. By devotedness to the service and glory of its Master. Nothing can authenticate the existence of this principle in our hearts, detached from this regard to His will. “ He that hath My commandments,” &c. (W. Jay.) The supreme question A lad named Hoopoo, a South Sea Islander, was sent to America to be trained, that he might be useful in the Mission. One day he was in a large company, and was asked many questions about his birthplace. The lad spoke wisely, but some of his sayings made a gentleman laugh. “ I am a poor heathen boy,” said Hoopoo; “ it is not strange that my blunders in English should amuse you, but soon there will be a larger meeting than this, and if we should then be asked, ‘ Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?’ I think I shall be able to say, ‘ Yes.’ What will you say, sir?” The gentleman felt the force of the words, and found no rest till he also could say, “ Yes” (J. L. Nye.) Lovest thou Me? St. Peter’ s first answer was easy and light-hearted; it came only from the surface of his mind; it was little better than “ Of course I love Thee.” But Christ’ s close and penetrating way of putting the question a second time overawed the disciple, and brought an answer from much deeper down. The third time, Jesus sent the question like a sword down to the bottom of the soul, where it drew blood, and the answer was a groan of pain out of the depths. He puts the question to us thrice, because there are three storeys in our nature; the uppermost is feeling, the middle one is intellect, and the basement is will; Jesus opens the door of each, and asks, “ Lowest thou Me?” I. FEELING. This is the most superficial of the three; and here He first puts the question. Our feelings have had many objects. We cannot remember when we began to love some of those whom we hold dear. Other passions we remember distinctly the genesis of. Now, among the objects we have loved is Christ one? the principal one? Has our love to Him formed one of the colours which can be distinctly traced in the pattern of the past? Has it a history, and is it a distinct part of our history? II. . A man who has been wise and fortunate in marriage will say, “ I loved you at first, because my fancy was taken with you, and there was a blaze of feeling. But now, besides that, my calm judgment approves my choice; the experience of many years has made me only the more satisfied with it.” Happy the man who can say this and the woman who hears it! Do we love Christ with such love? Perhaps our religious life began with excitement and ecstasy. This is past: but every day we are more and more convinced that in choosing Christ we choose wisely; we have a hundred times more reason for loving Him than we had then. III. WILL. The will is the part of our nature out of which resolutions and actions come, and on this specially wishes to have a hold. Love’ s real trial comes when it is called upon to endure and to sacrifice. No man knows how strong his own love to any one is till it has gone past the stage at which it is a delightful feeling, and the stage at which it is sensible of deriving advantages from its object, and has arrived at the stage when it has to give everything, bearing burdens, practising self-denials for the sake of the person it loves. Cowper’ s lines to Mary Unwin are a perfect example of such love. Have we a love to Christ which makes us slay besetting sins because He wills it, devise liberal things for His cause, confess Him fearlessly before men, and rejoice to suffer for His sake? (J. Stalker, M. A.) Lovest thou Me? 1. The inquiry is not concerning his love to the kingdom or the people of God, but to the Son of God. It deals with a personal attachment to a personal Christ. 2. Our Saviour questioned Peter in plain set terms. There was no beating about the bush. As the physician feels his patient’ s pulse to judge his heart, so Jesus tested at once the pulse of Peter’ s soul. 3. This question was asked three times, as if to show that it is of the first, of the second, and of the third importance; as if it comprised all else. This nail was meant to be well fastened, for it is smitten on the head with blow after blow. 4. Jesus Himself asked the question, and He asked it until He grieved Peter. Had he not made his Master’ s heart bleed, and was it not fit that he should feel heart-wounds himself? I. LOVE TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST MAY BE ABSENT FROM OUR BOSOMS. This inquiry is not rendered needless by 1. Outward religiousness. Do we enter very heartily into all the public exercises of God’ s house? Yes, but there are hundreds of thousands who do that, and yet they do not love Christ! It will be vain to reverence the Sabbath if you forget the Lord of the Sabbath, vain to love the sanctuary and not the Great High Priest, vain to love the wedding-feast but not the Bridegroom. 2. Highest office. Peter was an apostle, and in some respects a foundation stone of the Church, and yet it was needful to say to him, “ Lovest thou Me?” The name of Judas should sound the death knell of all presumptuous confidence in our official standing. 3. Enjoyment of the greatest Christian privileges. Peter was one of the most favoured apostles, who beheld Christ on the mount of transfiguration and in the garden of Gethsemane. 4. The greatest warmth of zeal. Peter was a redhot disciple. You are earnest in the Sunday school, or preach in the streets, or visit the poor, and are full of warmth in all things which concern the Redeemer’ s cause; but for all that the question must be put. For there is a zeal which is fed by regard to the opinions of others, and sustained by a wish to be thought earnest and useful; which is rather the warmth of nature than the holy fire of grace, and which makes a man a mere tinkling cymbal, because he does not love Jesus Christ. 5. The greatest self-denial. Peter could say, “ Lord, we have left all and followed Thee.” 6. The highest mental attainments. Peter went to college three years, with Christ for a tutor, and he learned a great deal; but after he had been through his course, his Master, before He sent him to his life-work, felt it needful to inquire, “ Lovest thou Me?” It is, therefore, a healthy thing for the Lord to come into the study and close the book, and say to the student, “ Sit still a while, and let Me ask thee, ‘ Lovest thou Me?’” II. WE MUST LOVE THE PERSON OF CHRIST, OR ALL OUR PAST HAVE BEEN A LIE. It is not possible for that man to be a Christian who does not love Christ. Take the heart away, and life is impossible. 1. Your first true hope of heaven came to you, if it ever did come at all, by Jesus Christ. You heard the Gospel, but the Gospel apart from Christ was never good news to you; you read the Bible, but the Bible apart from a personal Christ was never anything more than a dead letter to you. The first gleam of comfort that ever entered my heart flashed from the wounds of the Redeemer. 2. Nor do we merely begin with Him, for every covenant blessing we have received has been connected with His Person--pardon, righteousness, adoption, &c. 3. Every ordinance of the Christian Church has either been a mockery, or else we have loved Christ in it. Baptism--what is it but the mere washing away of the filth of the flesh unless we were buried with Christ in baptism unto death? The Lord’ s Supper, what is it but a common meal unless Christ be there? And so it has been with every approach we have made towards God. Did you pray? You could not have done it except through Jesus the Mediator. 4. If you have made a profession of religion, how can it be a true and honest one unless your heart bums with attachment to the great Author of salvation. 5. You have great hopes, but what are you hoping for? Is not all your hope wrapped up in Him? 6. Since, then, everything that you have obtained comes to you direct from His pierced hand, it cannot be that you have received it unless you love Him. Now, when I put the question, recollect that upon your answer to it hangs this alternative--a hypocrite or a true man--“ Lovest thou Me?” III. WE MUST HAVE LOVE TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST, OR NOTHING IS RIGHT FOR THE FUTURE. 1. For a true pastor the first qualification is love to Christ. Jesus does not inquire about Peter’ s knowledge or gifts of utterance, but about his love. And what is true of a pastor is true of every useful worker for Christ. 2. If your heart is not true to Christ, you will not be able patiently to endure for His Name’ s sake. Before long, the time came for Peter to glorify God by death. Love makes the hero. When the Spirit of God inflames love He inspires courage. 3. If we have no love for Christ’ s Person our piety lacks the adhesive element, it fails in that which will help us to stick to the good old way to the end. Men often leave what they like, but never what they love. 4. Love is the great inspiriting force. In serving Christ you come across a difficulty far too great for judgment, for prudence, and unbelief weighs and calculates, but love laughs at the impossibility and accomplishes it for Jesus Christ. 5. Without love you are without the transforming force. Love to Christ is that which makes us like Him. 6. Without love to Christ we lack the perfecting element. We are to be with Him soon; but if we have not love to Jesus we shall not be where He is. IV. IF WE DO LOVE HIM, WHAT THEN? Let us do something for Him directly, for He said, “ Feed My sheep.” He knew from His own heart that wherever there is love there is a desire for activity. What are you doing? Attending the means of grace and getting a good feed. Well, that is doing something for yourself. Many people in the world are very busy at feeding, but I do not know that eating a man’ s bread is any proof of love to him. A great many professing Christians give no proof of love to Christ, except that they enjoy sermons. But now, if you love Him as you say you do, prove it by doing good to others. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Lovest thou Me? I. THE FELLING OF A TRUE TOWARDS CHRIST--he loves Him. 1. A true Christian is not a mere baptized man or woman, a person who only goes, as a matter of form, to a church on Sundays; he is one whose religion is in his heart and life, and its great peculiarity is love. Hear what St. Paul says (1 Corinthians 16:22; Ephesians 6:24). Hear what Christ says (John 8:42). Would you know the secret of this peculiar feeling (1 John 4:19)? 2. A true Christian loves Christ (1) For all He has done for him. (2) For all that He is still doing. 3. This love to Christ is (1) The inseparable companion of saving faith. A faith of devils, a mere intellectual faith, a man may have without love, but not that faith which saves. (2) The mainspring of work for Christ. There is little done for His cause from sense of duty. The heart must be interested before the hands will move. The nurse in a hospital may do her duty, but there is a vast difference between that nurse and a wife. (3) The point which we ought specially to dwell upon in teaching religion to children. Election, imputed righteousness, &c., are matters which only puzzle; but love to Jesus is within reach of their understanding Matthew 21:16). (4) The common meeting point of believers of every branch of Christ’ s Church (Ephesians 6:24). (5) The distinguishing mark of all saved souls in heaven. Old differences will be merged in one common feeling (Revelation 1:5-6). II. THE MARKS BY WHICH LOVE TO CHRIST MAKES ITSELF KNOWN. If we love a person, we like 1. To think about him. We do not need to be reminded of him. It is just so between the true Christian and Christ! Christ “ dwells in his heart,” and is thought of more or less every day (Ephesians 3:17). 2. To hear about him. We find a pleasure in listening to those who speak of him. So the true Christian likes those sermons best which are full of Christ. 3. To read about him. What intense pleasure a letter from an absent husband gives to a wife, or a letter from an absent son to his mother. So the true Christian delights to read the Scriptures, because they tell him about his beloved Saviour. 4. To please him. We are glad to consult his tastes and opinions. In like manner the true Christian studies to please Christ by being holy both in body and spirit. 5. His friends. We are favourably inclined to them, even before we know them. And the true Christian regards all Christ’ s friends as his. He is more at home with them in a few minutes, than he is with many worldly people after an acquaintance of several years. 6. To maintain his interests and his reputation. We regard the person who treats him ill as if he had ill-treated us. And the true Christian regards with a godly jealousy all efforts to disparage his Master’ s Word, or name, or Church, or day. 7. To talk to him. We find no difficulty in discovering subjects of conversation, nor does the true Christian find any difficulty in speaking to his Saviour. Every day he has something to tell Him, and he is not happy unless he tells it. 8. To be always with him; and the heart of a true Christian longs for that blessed day when he will see his Master face to face and go out no more. Conclusion: 1. Look the question in the face and try to answer it for yourself. It is no answer to say (1) That you believe the truth of Christianity. The devils believe and tremble (James 2:19). (2) That you disapprove of a religion of feelings. There can be no true religion without some feeling towards Christ. If you do not love Christ, your soul is in great danger. 2. If you do not love Christ, let me tell you what is the reason. You have no sense of debt to Him. There is but one remedy for this state of things--self knowledge and the teaching of the Holy Ghost. (1) Perhaps you have never read your Bible at all, or only carelessly. Begin to read it, then, in earnest. (2) Perhaps you have never known anything of real, hearty, business-like prayer. Begin the habit, then, at once. (Bp. Ryle.) Lovest thou Me? I A SOLEMN , not for His own information, but for Peter’ s examination, it is well, especially after a foul sin, that the Christian should well probe the wound. Note what this question was. 1. It was concerning Peter’ s love. He did not say, “ Fearest thou Me?” “ Dost thou admire or adore Me?” Nor was it even a question concerning his faith. That is because love is the best evidence of piety. He that lacks love must lack every other grace in proportion. If love be little, fear and courage will be little. 2. He did not ask Peter anything about his doings. He did not say, “ How much hast thou wept? How often hast thou on thy knees sought mercy?” Though works follow love, yet love excelleth the works, and works without love are not evidences worth having. 3. We have very much cause for asking ourselves this question. If our Saviour were no more than a man like ourselves, He might often doubt whether we love Him at all. Let me lust remind you of sundry things which give us very great cause to ask this question. (1) Hast thou not sinned? “ Is this thy kindness to thy Friend?” (2) Does not thy worldliness make thee doubt? Thou hast been occupied with the shop, the exchange, the farmyard; and thou hast had little time to commune with Him! (3) How cold thou hast been at the mercy-seat! II. A ANSWER. Jesus asked him, in the first place, whether he loved Him better than others. Simon would not say that: he had once been proud and thought he was better than the other disciples. There is no loving heart that will think it loves better than the least of God’ s children. But Peter answered not as to the quantity but as to the quality of his love. Some of us would have answered foolishly. We should have said, “ Lord, I have preached for Thee so many times; I have distributed to the poor; Thou hast given me grace to walk humbly, faithfully, and honestly, and therefore, Lord, I think I can say, I love Thee.” We should have brought forward our good works as being the evidences of our love. That would have been a very good answer if we had been questioned by our fellowman, but it would be foolish for us to tell the Master that. The Master might have said to Peter, had he appealed to his works, “ I did not ask thee what are the evidences of thy love, I asked the fact of it.” Very likely some would have said, “ Love Thee, Lord? Why, my heart is all on fire towards Thee; I feel as if I could go to prison and to death for Thee!” But that would have been very foolish, because although we may often rejoice in our own feelings, it would not do to plead them with our Lord. In such manner Peter had spoken before; but a sorry mess he made of it. But no, Peter was wise; he did not bring forward his feelings nor his evidences. But, as though he shall say, “ Lord, I appeal to Thine Omniscience: Thou knowest that I love Thee.” Now, could we give such an answer? There is a test. If thou art a hypocrite, thou mightest say, “ Lord, my minister, the deacons, the members, my friends think I love Thee, for they often hear me talk about Thee.” But thou couldst not say, “ Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee” ; thine own heart is witness that thy secret works belie thy confession, for thou art without prayer in secret; thou art niggardly in giving to the cause of Christ; thou art an angry, petulant creature, &c. But thou, O sincere Christian, thou canst answer with holy fear and gracious confidence. Such a question was never lint to Judas. The response is recorded for thee, “ Lord, Thou knowest,” &c. III. A . “ Lovest thou Me?” Then one of the best evidences Isaiah 1. To feed My lambs. Have I two or three little children that love and fear My name? If thou wantest to do a deed, which shalt show that thou art a true lover, and not a proud pretender; go and feed them. In the ancient Churches there was what was called the catechism class--I believe there ought to be such a class now. The Sabbath school, I believe, is in the Scripture; and I think there ought to be on a Sabbath afternoon a class of the young people of this Church, who are members already, to be taught by some of the elder members. 2. But we cannot all do that; the lambs cannot feed the lambs; the sheep cannot feed the sheep exactly. Therefore allow me to say to some of you, that there are different kinds of proof you must give. “ Lovest thou Me?” Then preserve that prayer-meeting; see to thy servants that they go to the house of God. Do something to prove thy love. (C. H. Spurgeon.) The risen Jesus questioning Peter’ s love I. We gather from OUR LORD’ S INQUIRY 1. That He takes pleasure in the love of His people towards Him and in their avowal of it. And herein He discovers His human nature. We are all conscious that whenever we have real affection towards any object, we desire the same affection towards ourselves, and are gratified by any manifestation of it. Jonathan shared in this feeling. Now our Lord’ s heart is, in all sinless things, like ours. He found gratification there, not only in Peter’ s love, but in these reiterated assurances. 2. That Christ has now a special claim on our love. Previously to His final sufferings and death, He does not appear to have ever put this question. But when for their sakes He had gone to Calvary He felt and acted like one who had now earned a claim on a sinner’ s affection, and such a claim as even a sinner’ s heart could not resist. Place the cross in whatever light we may, there is no exaggerating its importance or its power. As the basis of love nothing even in heaven is like it. 3. That real love for Christ is of the very utmost importance to us. Love is nothing more than a feeling. Its importance arises from the place it holds in the mind, and the influence it exercises over every other feeling, thought, and movement. No wonder, therefore, that when Christ brings a sinner to His feet, the first thing He asks him for is his heart; one of the first things He takes is his love. Love for Him is not an ornament; it is religion itself, its foundation, its spring, its strength, its perfection, its glory. 4. That our love for Christ is sometimes questionable and ought to be questioned. II. THE ANSWER WHICH PETER GAVE TO THE INQUIRY. From this we infer at once that it is a question which maybe answered. Thrice said Christ to Peter, “ Lovest thou Me?” and thrice Peter answered with promptitude and firmness that he did love Him. How then, under similar circumstances, may we come to a similar answer? We love Christ 1. When we mourn bitterly for our sins against Him. Nothing pains a feeling heart more than to offend causelessly a heart it loves. Forgiveness cannot wear our pain away, kindness cannot dissipate it; they sometimes rather aggravate than remove it. 2. When we are especially on our guard against a repetition of those sins wherewith we have dishonoured Him. 3. When no sin, no sorrow on account of sin, no state of mind whatsoever can keep us from His feet. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Jesus questioning Peter’ s love Christ never unnecessarily injured the feelings of any one; yet when necessary He did not hesitate to inflict pain. Jesus did not flatter and call Peter a rock now--“ Simon, son of Jonas.” I. THE FROM CHRIST’ S . 1. That Jesus, after the Resurrection, was desirous to be loved by man. Do not make the mistake that you must win His love; see that you love Him. 2. That Jesus wants an avowal of love. How the lover, although he has the love of his loved one, rejoices in the avowals of that love. Jonathan made David sware twice that he loved him. Christ did not ask this before the Crucifixion. But now He had given His life He had a right to expect the heart’ s deepest love. 3. That love is the important thing. Christ did not catechise Peter as to his faith. II. THE FROM PETER’ S ANSWER. Peter was conscious of his love. What are the proofs that we love Christ? 1. We have a deep feeling of bitterness when we have come short of love. 2. True love will not allow us to commit the same sin twice over. 3. True love brings the sinner back to Christ. III. . 1. There is no religion without the love of Christ, and no heaven. Intellect, wealth, positions, friends cannot make up for the lack of it. Paul holds a man accursed without it. 2. By loving Christ we place ourselves where He can do us the most good. (C. J. Deems, D. D.) Peter’ s confession of love to Christ There are times which reveal to us the mysterious identity of our ever-changing lives; when we read old letters, visit well-remembered scenes, grasp the hand of old friends, or indulge in the silent luxury of their presence. You know the subtle influence of such seasons; with what reality they recall the past. The coincidences of life are designed by God to reveal us to ourselves and to show what is God’ s guidance of our life. These verses record such a period in the life of Peter. The past was with him; what were its memories for Peter? Of eager haste and painful failure; of love for Christ so true and yet so powerless; of self-confidence and of unfaithfulness. With chastened, bumble spirit he must have sat and pondered; feeling that not in his devotedness to Christ, but in Christ’ s love to him, lay his hope that he might be faithful to his apostleship, if he should be reinstated in it. And to these, his thoughts, Christ at length gives expression: “ Simon, son of Jonas,” the name by which Christ had first called him, and which He had so often used in tender solemnity, “ lovest thou Me more than these?” I. PETER’ S LOVE TO CHRIST. 1. There is a beautiful order in Christ’ s questions. There is a difference between the two Greek verbs translated “ lovest.” It is not a difference in the warmth, but in the character of affection. The one signifies the love based upon appreciation of another; the other simple personal attachment. The one might be represented if we said, “ I am thy friend;” the other if we said, “ Thou art my friend.” (1) It is the former of these words which Christ here uses: “ Simon, son of Jonas, esteemest thou Me more, art thou more My friend than thy fellow disciples?” This was just what Peter had professed, “ Though all should be offended,” &c. “ I am ready to go with Thee, both in prison and to death; Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee.” (2) You can now understand Peter’ s reply. Once he would have said, “ I know that I am Thy friend;” he was sure he was to be trusted. But he has lost his self-confidence. He will not profess esteem for Jesus. He chooses the humbler, trustful word: “ Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” (3) Again Christ asks him, “ If not more than these, yet art Thou My friend at all?” And still the same humble, clinging answer comes from Peter. (4) Now Christ takes Peter’ s own word; let it be as Peter would have it, the trusting affection of the disciple. “ Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me?” Surely Jesus cannot doubt that. Christ must know that He is all in all to Peter. “ Thou knowest that under all my boasting, all my mistakes, there was love for Thee, and that it remains.” And this confession Christ accepts, and ever will accept. 2. Distinguish between the profession of love to Christ and the confession of it. In profession the person most prominent in our thoughts is “ I who make it;” in confession, “ He whose name I am confessing.” It is not in what we are to Christ, but in what Christ is to us, that our rest and security lie. 3. Observe, too, the period of Peter’ s life when this confession is made. It is not his earliest confession; he has been brought to it through painful self-knowledge; it is the utterance of a tried maturity. To set young converts on an estimate of their feeling towards the Saviour, instead of encouraging them to trust in Him, is full of peril. Christian discipleship sometimes begins with love to Christ; and singularly blessed are they with whom it does. But in other ways souls are drawn to Christ; the weary go to Him for rest, the guilty for pardon, the helpless for succour. Such will say, “ I trust in Christ,” “ I have found Christ,” “ I am following Christ;” but the words, perhaps, halt on their lips, “ I love Christ.” It is not for us to insist on their utterance. They are not for our ears, but for His. And He knows how, from the trusting, the obedient, and the earnest, to draw at length the full confession, “ Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” II. THE PROOF AND OF LOVE TO CHRIST. 1. In giving Peter the charge, “ Feed My lambs; feed My sheep,” Christ was guarding him against a danger to which he was at this moment liable; the danger of sinking down into an indulgence of sentiment. We feel in a self-assertive world, from the strife for mastery, the restlessness of ambition, how blessed to retire to self-abasement before the Lord; how sweetly then from lowly lips falls the confession, “ Thou knowest that I love Thee.” To cherish this life alone is very dangerous. Hence comes the pride that apes humility. Christ sends Peter from confessing, as He sent Mary from adoring Him, to do His work. It was in separating himself from the other disciples, in supposing himself better than they, that Peter displayed the self-confidence which he now so bitterly repented. He was not free from the temptation even in his penitence. It is possible to separate ourselves from others in our very consciousness of self-distrust. One of the saddest sights is that of men whose humblest words are a vaunting of themselves, whose very lowliness is sentimental and insincere. 2. A higher work is now committed to Peter than when Christ said, “ Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The pastoral office is higher than that of preaching the gospel of the kingdom; to watch over the flock is higher than to add to its numbers. 3. Here, too, would Peter have an opportunity for the constant exercise of lowliness. He would grow meek and gentle as he fed the lambs and shepherded the sheep; he would be humbled by every lesson he learnt of men’ s impatience and folly and self-deception. Sympathy is the way to self-knowledge; our own penitence deepens as we know a brother’ s sins. 4. They would serve, too, to deepen his love of Jesus; every brother’ s fall would remind him of his own restoration. There is nothing which so deepens our lore to Christ as the larger knowledge of His grace which we gain as we see souls saved by Him. 5. In this work which Christ assigns to Peter, Peter may see the meaning of the struggle of contrition through which he is made to pass. He will be better able to bear with the flock because he knows himself. The heart broken with penitence will scarcely harden itself against a sinful brother. III. THE CROWN AND OF LOVE TO CHRIST IS THAT FULL BY WHICH WE SHALL GLORIFY GOD (John 21:18). 1. When he was young he girded himself and walked whither he would. How often he wandered, how far astray his hasty will led him! But when he could no longer go whither he would, when another girded him and carried him whither he would not, he accepted the appointment and the surrender of himself was complete. In one way or other, this privilege that we glorify God is given to every one who loves Jesus. Not all need the struggle and the martyrdom. There are meek souls whose whole life is sacrifice, whose will is ever submissive. Others require a sharp discipline. Whatever is needed will be given. And death seems appointed as the completion of all; the chequered, troubled life is vindicated as a Christian life by the death that glorifies God. 2. “ And when He had spoken this He saith unto him, Follow Me.” It was the first call again repeated. When Peter had first heard it he thought that to obey it would lead him near a throne; now he knows it will conduct him to a cross. Yet he draws not back; for meanwhile he has been with Jesus, and love of Him now fills his soul. What dreams possess us of the honour, and triumphs of the Christian life when first we rank ourselves as disciples of Christ! Rarely indeed are these hopes fulfilled; we grow wiser with sad self-sacrifice as we become holier men. The boundless prospect narrows before us; we are well content “ to fill a little sphere, so He be glorified.” (A. Mackennal, D D.) Christ loved from gratitude You remember the tale of Androcles and the lion. The man was condemned to be torn to pieces by beasts; but a lion, to which he was cast, instead of devouring him, licked his feet, because at some former time Androcles had extracted a thorn from the grateful creature’ s foot. We have heard of an eagle that so loved a boy with whom he had played that, when the child was sick, the eagle sickened to; and when the child slept, this wild, strange bird of the air would sleep, but only then; and when the child awoke, the eagle awoke. When the child died, the bird died too. You remember that there is a picture in which Napoleon is represented as riding over the battle-field, and he stops his horse, as he sees a slain man with his favourite dog lying upon his bosom doing what he can to defend his poor dead master. Even the great man-slayer paused at such a sight. There is gratitude among the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air. And, surely, if we receive favours from God, and do not feel love to Him in return, we are worse than brute beasts. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Love a good augury When the heathen killed their sacrifices in order to prophesy future events from the entrails, the worst augury they ever got was when the priest, after searching into the victim, could not find a heart; or if that heart was small and shrivelled. The soothsayers always declared that this omen was the sure sign of calamity. All the signs were evil if the heart of the offering was absent or deficient. It is so in very deed with religion and with each religious person. He that searches us searches principally our hearts. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Love before its judge I. THE HISTORY OF THE . 1. The writer, in continuing his account of what was said and done, goes on to say: “ Now, when they had broken their fast, Jesus saith,” &c. Here we have a most interesting note of time. It was delicately characteristic of Jesus to see that all were strengthened and quieted before the questioning. No one who had not been present would have shown the sense of mingled homeliness and solemnity which this verse shows. When we read, “ When Jesus sat thus on the well,” we say these two lines are by the same writer. 2. This question is a question to a believer. Faith goes before love. It is impossible to love one whom you do not even trust. Perhaps Christians have put you wrong by their unscientific way of telling you that all you have to do is “ to give your hearts to Christ” ; but you have no heart to give to Him, until by faith you receive the heart He gives to you. Believing is receiving; and when the love of Christ is received, the recipient loves Him back again. 3. This question reminds us that the great test of faith is love. “ Faith worketh by love.” Sometimes faith and love are practically so much alike that we can hardly distinguish them. Talk to that true teacher of theology, a Christian child, and, while perhaps she will not say a word about faith, she will be sure to tell you that she “ loves Jesus.” “ Wrong!” says a hard old doctrinist, “ we are justified by faith.” “ Right!” say we; “ for in the consciousness of that little heart love and faith are one.” A man may be true to Christ, yet if Christ were to say, “ Understandest thou Me?” or “ Followest thou Me?” or, “ Confessest thou Me?” he could not always establish the fact of his discipleship. There is, however, no Christian heart but quivers to the question, “ Lovest thou Me?” We set our seal to Wesley’ s words, “ We may die content without the knowledge of many truths, but if we die without love, would the knowledge of many truths avail us? Just as much as it would the devil. I will not quarrel with you about your opinions … only see that you love the Lord Jesus Christ.” 4. This question was asked in the spirit of reproof. There was reproof (1) In the very appellative, “ Simon, son of Jonas,” and the sound of it must have struck upon him like a bolt of ice, making his burning soul suddenly freeze. On the day of his introduction to Christ, it was predicted that he should be called “ Peter” --that is, a stone. This prophecy was fulfilled on the day of his memorable confession. It is written of a certain caliph, that he used to give each of his principal officers an honourable surname suited to his qualities; and that, when he wished to show dissatisfaction, he used to drop it, calling him by his original name, which caused great alarm. This helps us to enter into the meaning of the Simon, son of Jonas, here. The startled disciple might have thought that this was as much as to say, “ Thou hast nothing in thee answering to the name ‘ Rock’ ; a rock does not run away, and does not ebb and flow; thou art not worthy of thy new name; until thou art cleared in this court, give it up.” (2) In the reference to the other disciples--“ More than these.” But how did they prove their love? By language? No; for they were dumb. By obedience? No; for when the Master said, “ Bring of the fish that ye have caught,” they stood stock still, gazing. By work? No; they could not even haul the net up the strand; Simon did it. While a thought of satisfaction in the comparison of himself with them might have shot across his mind, the question sternly broke in upon it, “ Lovest thou Me more than these?” (3) In the plain allusion to his boastful speech, “ If all shall be offended,” &c. “ Now, Simon, what do you say?” 5. In reference to his most recent action. On the night before the Crucifixion, Jesus had said, “ Simon, Satan asked to have you … when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren.” Had he done so? Not if we have correctly interpreted the words, “ I go a fishing; we also go with thee.” He did wrong, and by his super-abundant vitality and eager life drew the others along with him; and this was not to establish his brethren. It was “ a threefold hammer-stroke,” and had reference to his threefold sin of denial. 6. Think of the question in connection with the greatness of the questioner. Love to God is set forth in the “ first and greatest commandment.” Christ claims the very same, “ He that loveth father and mother more than Me,” &c. What John thought of Christ’ s greatness appears from the words at the opening of his Gospel, which pulse all through the succeeding narrative; the writer does not once forget this, nor must the reader, any more than the singer must forget his key-note, or the builder that which he builds upon. 7. Think of the question in connection with Christ’ s love to the disciple to whom He puts it. His love is great, because He Himself is great. As the ocean holds more water than the tiny lakelet, has more force, carries more weight, and can be wrought up into a grander storm, so does the heart of God hold more than the heart of man. 8. Notice the personality of the question. He deals with us one by one lovingly, each soul with a distinct love; asking each soul for a distinct response; to each speaks personally as when He said, “ Adam, where art thou?” “ Abraham, Abraham!” “ Samuel, Samuel!” “ Martha, Martha!” “ Saul, Saul!” “ Simon, son of Jonas.” English names are on His lips as well as Jewish names; answer to your name--it is spoken now--silently to the ear, audibly to the soul--“ Lovest thou Me?” II. THE HISTORY OF THE ANSWER. 1. It was an answer given after deep searchings of heart. (1) The Searcher of hearts had so ordered the process of questioning as to compel this. The first sentence of it slashed right through the conscience just where it had been last wounded, and where it was still on fire. “ Lovest thou Me more than these?” What does he answer? does he simply say, “ Yes I do” ? No! for the word for love which Christ employs is beyond him. Does he say no? No! Does he take up the challenge of comparison? No! never again. He is now done for ever with heroics, comparisons, consequential airs. Does he say out from black despondency, “ I have been a self-deceiver, and what I thought was love was not love” ? No! Was he silent? No! speak he must. He therefore looks up, and, with tumultuous throbs, whispers, “ Yea, Lord, Thou knowest Thou art dear to me.” (2) The searching eye is still upon him; still using the same word for love which Simon had humbly put aside for a weaker word, and giving this word greater emphasis, the Judge repeats the question. Six months before, Simon would have been ready to say, “ Lord, dost Thou doubt me? Love Thee? Only try me! See if I will not gladly die for Thee!” But now, not daring to own such a lofty love as Christ’ s word indicates, he still says, “ Thou art dear to me.” (3) Then the King of Grace comes down to him, accepts the humble word that Simon had chosen, and asks, “ Am I dear to thee?” In the lightning of that instant, he looked round for something to which he should make his appeal in proof of the sincerity with which he could say this; and to what could he make it? Poor man! he thought just then, that if he looked to himself for a proof of his love, he could find little better than lies, and oaths, and treachery. With tears in his heart, in his tones, if not in his eyes, he burst out, “ Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that Thou art dear to me!” Could any of us settle this question by an appeal to ourselves? Have we been satisfactory disciples? For all that, many a man, who is forced to answer “ No,” may add, “ Jesus, I am sure that I love Thee. Oh, see Thyself if I do not!” How does your child prove his love to you? Does he not sometimes give you trouble? Does his face never redden with sullen temper or with passionate flash? And are not these signals contradictory of love? They may seem so, yet when the proud little heart seems to be full of rebellion, the young rebel wishes you could but see into it. He is quite unable to prove it from facts, but he knows that he loves you, and you know it. Sometimes we have no proofs to give in verification of our love to God. The love is in our heart, but it is possible to be known, not by its doings, but by itself; and the love itself only God can see. 2. The question had to be answered, not verbally alone, but practically. Where there is love, there will be the ministry of love. This ministry is work for souls before conversion and after it. The first is described under a metaphor taken from the vocation of a fisherman, the other from that of a shepherd. When souls are drawn out from the sea of spiritual death, and “ captured for their life,” the metaphor of “ fishing” breaks down: and the metaphor of “ shepherding” is substituted. 3. Such an answer as that of Peter may include in its consequences much that will go against natural inclination (verse 18). This oracle darkly told of coming events that would strike at all his natural loves and likings. He liked the free, impetuous joy of living. He was to be “ bound.” He liked to take the lead. He was to “ be carried,” he liked to have his own will; he was to be carried “ whither he would not.” He liked the glory of heroism: he was to die on a cross. He liked rapidity of movement: he was to plod on to old age without the promise of a brilliant career. Before a man’ s life can fully answer the question, “ Lovest thou Me?” he must be ready to give up his own choice as to the way of showing it, and passively accept or actively obey the will of God alone. 4. A disciple is to make the answer to this question the one great business of his life (verses 20, 21). A Christian may prosecute endless questions into the mysteries around him; and while he does so in season, with due regard to proportion and perspective, taking care to subordinate each to its own place in relation to the one great question. Christ will not say of any such thing, “ What is that to thee?” There was, however, a reason why His rejoinder to this question should have in it something of the nature of a reprimand. Some sin, or dangerous infirmity, must have been waking up. Jesus, therefore, instead of answering him, said, “ What is that to thee?” and repeated His charge, “ Follow thou Me.” placing emphasis on the word thou. “ Mind your own business; put all your soul into it; this is as much as you can do.” As it was with Peter then, so it may be with you now. You may be at a crisis and in a condition making it perilous to have your attention divided by, the most fascinating subject that lies outside the soul’ s great business; and Christ may be saying, with reference to what is most exciting your speculative interest, “ What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” (C. Stanford, D. D.) Love to Christ At first sight this appears a singular question to Peter. You would expect expostulation and reproof. But Jesus had no need to ask Peter whether he had repented. He had “ turned and looked upon Peter;” and Peter’ s heart broke. He had seen the former affection of Peter to his Master return with a full tide. He who knew all things knew that Peter loved Him; and gave Peter an opportunity of thrice declaring it in the presence of his fellow-disciples. When our Lord asks a disciple three times whether he loves Him, he teaches us that to love Christ is essential to our discipleship. It is “ the first and great commandment,” without it we are but as “ sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” I. THE REASONS ON WHICH OUR TO LOVE CHRIST RESTS. 1. The supreme excellency of the object. We are under a kind of natural obligation to love that which is excellent. We are certainly under a moral one. In Christ all good meets; it exists in absolute perfection, and can have no addition. (1) Do the condescensions of superior wisdom attract us? In him we see the wisdom of God, speaking to man, in words clear as the light of the intelligence from which they proceeded. (2) Are we affected by disinterested benevolence? Behold His life of labour, given freely without an exacted return. (3) Does humility, connected with great virtues and great actions, command the homage of the heart? It was said of Him, “ He shall not strive nor cry,” &c. He often said, “ See thou tell no man.” (4) Is there a charm in the noble passion of patriotism? For His country our Lord lived. His heart clings to the “ lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (5) Does friendship move us? Think of the family of Bethany; the disciple whom Jesus loved; and his kind regards for the whole body of his disciples. (6) All moral virtues were in Him. He was “ holy, harmless, undefiled.” And all the stronger virtues of religion; such as meekness, patience, resignation, devotion. 2. The generous interposition of our Lord in the great work of our redemption (Romans 5:7-8; 1 John 4:10). 3. The benefits which we are constantly receiving from His hands. Do we think of life? We owe it to His intercession. Of ordinary mercies? They are the fruits of His redemption; for we deserve nothing. Of the ordinances? They are visitations of His grace. Do we regard the future as well as the present? We expect His kingdom. Do we anticipate death? We have the victory by Him. Judgment? We have justification through His blood. Do we think of heaven? We view Him as the grand source of light, love, and joy. Should constant benefits excite love? Then surely our love ought to be constant. Should benefits of the highest kind excite the highest love? Then our love ought to be supreme. And are they never to cease? Then ought our love to be eternal. II. THE GREAT OFFICE OF THIS GRACE IN AND . 1. It is this which gives the true character to evangelical obedience. None hut this is acceptable and rewardable. Man is in three states--unawakened, penitent, believing. In the first he can have no love to Christ, because he loves the world. In the second he has no love, because he has the “ fear which hath torment.” In the third, only, he loves, because this “ love is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him.” From this principle obedience derives its character. In unawakened man some acts of obedience may be apparent; but these may spring from natural temperament, from a respect to man’ s opinion, or even from Pharisaism. In the penitent there is the obedience of the slave: in the believer obedience is filial; his love is the “ fulfilling of the law; and God graciously accepts what is done for His name’ s sake. 2. It is the great instrument of high and holy attainments. It produces trust, as that reciprocally produces love; it produces prayer, and so receives blessings from God; it produces the love of every thing that is like Christ. Holiness is the element of love; and it bears the soul into it. 3. It is the grand antagonist-principle of the love of the world (1 John 2:15). They cannot co-exist. 4. It is the root and nutriment of charity to man (1 Corinthians 13:1-13.). 5. It removes terrors from futurity. Futurity discloses the world where Jesus is. That is the heaven of heavens to a Christian. (R. Watson.) Love to Christ Love to Christ is the commanding and crowning grace of a Christian. As all life, movement, force in man depend on the action of the central organ, the heart, so all graces, each one having its own function and power, have their spring and strength from the grace of love. Express it another way: All life, and growth, and power, and bloom in nature depend on the vital air. A plant grows indeed from its root; it lives by the air; it breathes and blossoms into beauty by the air. The plant of faith grows, the flower of faith blooms, the fruit of faith ripens in the genial atmosphere of love. Yes, love is the heavenly air in which all the graces of the Christian character “ live and move and have their being.” Why love Christ? For what He is, and for what He has done, including under this last point the continuation of His work of love, its triumph in His atoning death being carried forward into the present, and to be consummated in the future. How should we love Christ? “ Lovest thou Me?” 1. Evidently our love to Christ is personal. 2. Love to Christ should be positive. Simon Peter answered, “ Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” 3. For it will be practical. The Christian life springs at the heart, but it works, it must work, outwards. This, a necessity of its nature. If the blood be not pulsing even to the fingertips, I am dead or dying. We see the practical effect of such loves, as the love of gold, of fame, of pleasure. The Christian’ s love to Christ will prove itself. (D. S. Brunton.) The Christian’ s love for Christ And why should Christ ask that question? Did not He know whether Simon loved Him or not? Certainly He did, for He knew all things. Then what could be His object in thus catechising Peter? Evidently, He wished to teach him a lesson of some kind or other. He wished to remind him of his former denial, and admonish him never to do the like again. Mark the reply. Peter has learned his weakness by that ignominious fall which he had, and dares not say he loves Jesus more than others; he is not willing to repeat his former assertion, “ I will lay down my life for Thy sake;” he can only say, “ Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee.” The question being put the second time seems to have this import--“ Are you sure, Simon, son of Jonas, that you love Me; for, you remember, you once professed that attachment, and then belied your words.” What bitter recollections of his former treachery must have rushed at that moment over Peter’ s mind! No wonder Peter was grieved and humbled. I. Concerning THE NATURE OF THE ’ S LOVE TO CHRIST. 1. In the first place, it is of Divine origin. It is a truth which the Christian ought never to forget, that he is indebted to God for everything good that he possesses: for every emotion of penitence, for every ray of hope, for every exercise of faith, for every heavenly aspiration, for every throb of love. Man made man a sinner, but man never made man a saint. That belongs to God. I know there are some who maintain that natural man is not so bad after all. Some say that regeneration is not a new creation, but only the development of an old, inward germ, which was left after the fall. That may be the teaching of pride and reason, but it is not that of Scripture or of human experience. If we had no other argument to prove that regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, that is sufficient--that man, in his natural state, hates Christ, and yet is brought sometimes to love Him. The power that can produce such a change must be Divine. 2. But, again, the believer’ s love to Christ is unquenchable; the same power which creates it, sustains it in existence, just as those same forces in nature, warmth, and sunlight, and gentle showers, which cause the seed to burst, also nourish it, and carry it forward from bursting to budding, from budding to blossoming, and from that to the yielding of the golden fruit. I do not say the believer’ s love is never feeble; in some instances, alas! it is never anything more. I do not say it is always in healthful exercise. Even Peter may deny his Lord. I do not say that it never grows dim, for, just as the ancient crown of Scotland once lay so long under ground that it lost its lustre, so all religious graces, by too much contact with sin and worldliness, lose their brightness. Are you mourning, because your love is faint? It is right for you to mourn, but not to despond, for, if the plant be genuine, it will not die, however much it may droop. 3. The Christian’ s love for Christ, once more, is superlative. He loves Jesus more than anything else; he loves Him more than he loves all things else. What, then, shall we say of that man who manifestly loves the things of the world more than Christ? Do you call such a man a Christian? Why, he lacks the grandest element of Christianity, which is that love for Jesus which absorbs and controls every other love. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/bi/ John 21:18-23 When thou wast young thou girdest thyself Light on Peter’ s way I. PETER’ S FUTURE DESTINY (John 21:18-19). 1. The manner of the disclosure. (1) Solemnly--“ Verily, verily.” (2) Authoritatively. “ I,” who know all things, “ say unto you.” (3) Feelingly. There can be small question but that Christ was deeply moved. 2. Its form. Not in literal but in veiled speech. 3. Its import. (1) Indirectly a promise that Peter would attain a ripe old age, fulfilled in his death in A.D. 64. (2) Directly a prediction that his career would terminate in martyrdom. 4. The reason for it. Perhaps (1) To indicate the necessity of maintaining the love he had just professed. (2) To furnish him with an opportunity of wiping out his disgrace by doing as he declared he was willing to do (John 13:37). (3) To set before him the highest honour he could win--fellowship with Christ, not only in publishing, but also in dying for the truth (Matthew 5:10-12; Luke 6:22; Acts 5:41; Romans 8:17; Philippians 1:29; 2 Timothy 2:12; Hebrews 13:13; 1 Peter 3:14). II. PETER’ S PRESENT DUTY (John 21:19). 1. The symbolical action. On saying, “ Follow Me,” Christ probably suited the action to the word, by turning and making as if to depart. 2. The spiritual significance. If this suggestion be correct, it is still true that Christ intended more than to invite Peter aside from the company. His summons was a call to follow Him (1) In official service. (2) By personal imitation. (3) As far as to death. (4) Through the agonies of martyrdom. (5) Into the world of glory beyond. III. PETER’ S (John 21:20-23). 1. Peter’ s question, “ Lord, and this man! What of him?” (1) The occasion of it. Seeing John following, attracted, no doubt, by Christ’ s love for him , and impelled by his love for Christ (“ who also leaned,” &c.). (2) The motive of it. Not jealousy, perhaps natural curiosity, most likely friendly interest in John. (3) The wrong of it. Not irreverent towards Christ , or unkind towards John, or sinful in itself (John 14:13); it was irrelevant, having no bearing on the subject in hand, which was Peter’ s duty, not John’ s destiny; and inquisitive, manifesting a concern in the affairs of others not required by brotherly love, if not bordering on the presumptuous, as seeking to be informed of secret things which belong to God. 2. Jesus’ reply (verse 22). (1) What it meant to Peter--rebuke. It did not belong to him to arrange, nor ought it to concern him to know (Acts 1:7). All this might be left with Christ. His duty was to follow Christ. (2) What it signified for John. Not that he should not die; merely that it might be Christ’ s will that he should tarry long upon the field of labour till Christ came again, not that it was; and that if it was it was a matter exclusively for John. Learn 1. To Christ alone pertains the prerogative of appointing to His servants their respective spheres and experiences. 2. The future destinies of Christ’ s servants, as well as their present duties, are arranged by and known to Christ. 3. For the happiness of Christ’ s servants it is enough to apprehend present duty. 4. “ Secret things belong to God,” &c. 5. While Christ’ s servants may be bold in making known their requests, there are limits to their asking. 6. The strongest propelling power is love to Christ. 7. Christ’ s people are not exempt from misinterpreting His words. 8. When Christ’ s words are partly dark it is wise to keep to that in them which is plain, and to wait for further light. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) When thou art old another shall gird thee, and carry thee.--We are none of us to choose how we will serve Christ. We may seem to have the choice, but sooner or later we shall find we cannot go on doing just the work that suits us best. Something will be asked of us we did not expect, something that tries our strength and constancy just where we are weakest. There are many active, earnest, true-hearted men who are moved with a very real desire to do something to advance their Master’ s kingdom on earth. They would like perhaps, to preach and teach at home, or to go out as missionaries to foreign lands; and home duties, their way of life, the circumstances in which God’ s providence has placed them, puts it out of their power to serve God in the way of their own choice. And they feel as if they could do nothing high or noble, as if Jesus was holding them back, and letting them have no opportunity of serving Him. But if in no other way they may serve Him as Peter had in the end to do, by patient suffering and self-denial for His sake. Then there are many who, from old age or from sickness and infirmity, are cut off from the life of active usefulness they loved. Instead of girding themselves to wait on others, to lead and guide and help them, they must have others to gird them, wait on them, attend to them. To such people it is the most painful thought possible that they are of no use. When they are told that they must never expect again to go forth to labour, when, perhaps from some bodily affliction, they are so helpless as not to be able even to wait on themselves, they feel that it would be better, easier, to die at once. They do not wish to rest till they reach the rest prepared for the people of God, and they have been accustomed to regard all work for the Lord as active stirring work. Let such remember that for His dear servant and friend the Lord appointed a rest-time, a prison rest-time, before the last rest of all, and that he so ready to do had to learn also quietly to suffer. I remember a good old clergyman, who for more than fifty-six years, first as a curate, and afterwards as a vicar, ministered in the Church of God. In all those years, except for a short rest in summer, his life had been one of constant activity. When a young man he had thrown himself earnestly into the effort then being made to extend to the children of the poor the blessings of Christian training. Busy in his own parish, he had still found time to help forward many a good work in other parts of the country, by his counsel and presence. He had written books that have brought comfort to many a weary heart. When near eighty he was still working in his own parish as of old, visiting the sick, comforting the sorrowing, leading back gently those who had gone out of the way, preaching the gospel to the poor. As he began to feel his strength grow less, his one desire was that he might be able to go on being useful in his day and generation till the Master’ s call should come. One day he met with an accident--serious at his time of life--and which would have proved fatal to one of less temperate habit and brave heart. But though he to a certain extent recovered, and lived for nearly a year after, he was never able again to minister in the church, or visit in his parish. At first when he realized that his active life was ended, his bright and cheerful spirit seemed as if it would fail him. He could not bear the thought of being a burden to others, though even in his then feeble state few men of his age required or would receive less attention and waiting on. But soon he recovered his wonted cheerfulness; He found much that he could still do for Him he had served already with the best years of his life. No sermon he ever preached, no book he ever wrote, so clearly bore witness for his Lord as did that last year of patient waiting for the call. Oh, my friends, blessed is that servant whom his Lord when He comes shall find girding himself to work; but no less blessed is he who, patiently enduring sickness, weakness, forced inactivity, shall be found by his Lord--waiting. (S. Hobson, M. A.) The leading of Peter The other, who was to lead Peter against his own will, is God with His powerful hand. This leading we trace in the Acts of the Apostles. Peter is forced to give up his ardent desire to gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel into the fold of Christ; Israel becomes not Israel; Peter is obliged to leave the holy city, which has only imprisonment and the sword to give to the servants of their King; to Samaria his sovereign Leader leads him, and into the house of the Gentile Cornelius, and at length to Rome, the new Babylon, from whence he strengthened the elect strangers of the dispersion whom Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, had brought into the fold of Israel, strengthened them in the enduring of persecution, and against the seductions of false prophets. From Jerusalem to Babylon--it went against nature. And this offering up of his own life, this becoming free from all will of his own, was to be crowned and to have its perfecting in the martyr’ s death, by which he should glorify God: then would he stretch out those hands which had been so active in his youth, to be bound to the cross; instead of the girdle of his youth, an executioner’ s rope would tuck up his garments (cf. Acts 21:11) ; instead of walking whither he would from one Pentecostal harvest to another, he should be lead whither he would not, to the painful and ignominious death of the cross. (R. Besser, D. D.) The true service of Christianity to man There is no question so generally discussed as this, and three classes give a wrong answer. 1. Those who maintain that Christianity has injured, rather than benefited, the race. They tell us that it has warped man’ s judgments, nurtured morbid sentimentality, sectionized society, and served the ends of superstition, priestcraft, and tyranny. 2. Those who maintain that it is one of the many elevating forces at work in society. They tell us that it is generally of service to man in a low stage of civilization; that, like the theories and superstitions of old times, it has its mission, which it will fulfil and then become obsolete, to be left behind as the race advances in intelligence and manly virtue. 3. Those who maintain that it does everything for man. They say that there is nothing good in the world but Christianity--none in nature, science, and the feelings of man without it; and that if a man has it, he needs nothing more. These conflicting sentiments raise the question, “ Of what real use is it?” Let us look at this I. ON THE SIDE. This incident suggests 1. That Christianity does not counteract the natural changes to which man’ s physical life is subject. “ When thou wert young,” &c. Peter was a genuine disciple; but, nevertheless, Christ tells him, in effect, that Christianity in his soul would not prevent time wearing out his body, and that age incapacitates a man from executing his volitions. “ When thou wert young thou couldst ply the oar, roam the fields, scale the hills; there was energy and flexibility in thy frame, by which thou couldst readily execute thy desires. But when thou shelf be old, although thy will shall be vigorous, thy executive power will be gone.” Christianity will not prevent the bloom fading from the cheek, the brightness passing from the eye, the strength dying out of the limb. Christianity neither offers resistance to the regular course of nature, nor any atonement for her violations. This fact shows (1) That physical sufferings are no criterion for individual moral states. Some of the best men are the greatest sufferers, and some of the most useful die in the zenith of life. (2) That Christianity respects the ordinances of nature. However you drink in the spirit of religion, and however consecrated you may be to its service, if you rebel against nature you must suffer. (3) That if the disciples of Christ would be physically happy, they must attend, like other men, to physical laws. If you are in want of physical comforts, it is of no use for you to sing, “ The Lord will provide,” and sit down in sloth. 2. That Christianity does not guard a man from the social oppressions of life. It is here foretold that Peter should die of crucifixion. His religion rather exposed him to the malice of men. Christianity teaches that if we will live godly, we must suffer persecution. This fact shows (1) That Christianity can do without the favour of the world. It does not authorize the compromise of its principles to gain worldly patronage; but requires us to carry them out in their fulness and force, even against a world in arms. (2) That Christianity can do without the lives of its most devoted followers, rather than without their fidelity. 3. That Christianity does not solve the speculative problems of life. “ Why am I thus to be dealt with? What is to become of John? Is he to be crucified also? or will he live the natural term of life?” To this Jesus replies, “ What is that to thee?” There are many pressing questions to which Christianity offers no response but this, and for good reasons. (1) The encouragement of the sequestions would strengthen the speculative tendency rather than improve the heart. One answer would lead to another question, and so on interminably. (2) An answer would create emotions which would paralyze moral action. Supposing we knew what would happen to us and ours! (3) An answer would multiply the forces that divert us from practical godliness. 4. That Christianity does not invest us with an infallible judgment in this life (verse 23). The disciples fell into a wrong interpretation of the Saviour’ s meaning. Christianity does clear and strengthen and guide the judgment, but does not render it infallible. If these “ brethren” could make this mistake, much more their successors. II. THE SIDE. 1. The incident suggests that it enlists Christ’ s interest in the history of His disciples. How do the Gospels display this? and it is now displayed in the prophecy of Peter’ s future, and his preparation to meet it. Is it nothing to enlist the interest of the Governor of the universe? Nothing that you have the interest of One (1) Who knows the whole of the past, present, and future of your inner and outer life? (2) Who has ample power so to control the events of the outward life, and supply the aspirations of the inward as to crown your existence with perfect blessedness. What thought can be more soul inspiring and uplifting than this? 2. The incident suggests that it brings glory to God in the death of His disciples. It illustrates (1) The mercy of God. Visit the death-bed of the genuine disciple; mark the calmness, resignation, and sometimes the triumphant rapture amidst physical anguish. It is mercy that sustains the spirit amidst the mysterious sufferings of dissolution. (2) The fidelity of God, who has promised to be with His people in the last hour. Is this nothing? To glorify God, to illustrate His perfections, is the end of creation, the duty and supreme aim of the holy in all worlds. Is it nothing for Christianity to enable poor, depraved men to do in death that which is the highest aim of the highest seraph. 3. The incident suggests that it gives a definite unity and attraction to all the duties of His disciples. What theories of human duty ethical sages have propounded. How voluminous legal codes! But Christianity reduces all duties to “ Follow thou Me.” Christianity presents duty, not in dry propositions, but in a fascinating life. In Christ we see it in the most perfect, attractive, and practicable forms. Is this nothing? (D. Thomas, D. D.) The prophecy and its main lesson In His old age the Apostle was to be crucified--made to stretch forth his hands upon the transverse beams of the cross, and girded (or lashed round the waist) to the instrument of torture by a cord. Tradition says that he was crucified, at his own request, with his head downwards; in that case, the girding, or tying tightly, to the cross would probably be necessary, by way of keeping the body of the sufferer in its right position. This is in all probability the reference of the words, “ another shall gird thee,” though perhaps some will prefer to see in them nothing more than an allusion to the binding of the Apostle previously to his being led away to execution. But putting aside their original and literal meaning, the words lend themselves very well to a secondary application. They may be regarded as a striking parable of human life in its two great periods of youth and old age. Youth is full of enterprize, energy, hope, vigour, prompt in forming schemes, and active in carrying them into execution; when emancipated from the restraints of boyhood, it exults in its independence, and feels that it is the master of its own destiny. “ When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest.” But old age is the season of helplessness and dependence; “ another is called in to perform the most necessary offices, and to supply our lack of service towards our own failing frames; the very old have to be led, fed, apparalled by others, and the end is, that they are carried whither (according to the flesh) men cannot but shrink from going.” (Dean Goulburn.) These words spake He, signifying by what death he should glorify God God glorified in the Christian’ s death I. DEATH IS CERTAIN. All men must submit to its destroying stroke; for “ it is appointed unto all men once to die.” Christians themselves are not exempted from it. Peter and Paul and John died. Death is certain. 1. In consequence of the original sentence which has been pronounced upon our apostate race. 2. The constant reiteration of this fact demonstrates the certainty of man’ s mortality. 3. Constituted as human nature now is, it is impossible that we should enter upon the spiritual employments and blessedness of the heavenly world. The mind in its disembodied state is capable of entering upon the enjoyments and employment of heaven; but the body made up of decaying and material particles, requiring the constant refreshment of sleep and food, and occasionally of medicine, would not be a meet companion for the mind in future bliss, unless it should undergo a previous process of dissolution and resurrection, so that it may become fitted to take its part in the worship, and felicities of a spiritual heaven. “ Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Either then there is the necessity of dying, or there is the necessity of undergoing a change, which is fully tantamount to dying. 4. The certainty of death will appear, if you consider the conformity which must be preserved between Christ the Head, and all the members of His mystical body. Jesus has died, and there is something of especial propriety that where the head has laid, there the members should lay. II. THE FORM AND MANNER OF OUR DEATH IS WISELY AND BY GOD. 1. There is a great variety of forms and modes in which the life of man is terminated. Some quit the world naturally, and others violently; some suddenly, and others by lingering steps. This depends very much on the particular conformation of the frame, on the habits of life,and a variety of incidental circumstances. Some are called to depart by diseases of the lungs, other by affections of the heart. Amidst all this vast variety of liabilities, it is wonderful that our frame exists as we find it, and that we are so long kept from the grasp of death. 2. This is not left to the choice of the subjects of this great change, nor to the volition of others, nor to mere chance and accident. God knows and God predetermines, not only the event of your death and the time, but the exact form and character. “ My times are in thy hand.” He could signify it to you but it is wisely concealed. “ We know not at what hour the Son of Man cometh.” Man may talk of certain constitutional predisposing causes, of primary organization, habits of life, accidents of infancy, &c., as all having a bearing and relation to the manner of our removal out of the world. But these are only so many of the minuter links in the great chain of cause and effect; and the first link of that chain is fastened to the throne of Deity. III. HOW IT IS THAT THE DOES GLORIFY GOD IN HIS DEATH, IN FORM IT MAY OCCUR. 1. He meets the first intimation of approaching dissolution with tranquility and resignation. There is an hour coming when he will observe no equivocal indications of the decay of the outward man; then does he not glorify God when he can say, I have no will of my own; here I am; let the Lord do with me as seemeth good in His sight. 2. By the avowal of a penitent mind. The sentiment of the publican becomes us in our last hour as well as in our initial moments--“ God be merciful to me a sinner.” 3. When he is enabled to exemplify a firm and unshaken confidence in the Redeemer as the object of his sole and undivided reliance. “ I know whom I have believed,” &c. 4. By their manifest detachment and disengagement of heart from the objects and interests of the present world. “ Whom have I in heaven but thee?” &c. 4. When they are enabled to exemplify unwearied patience and submission amidst the pains and the sorrows of declining years. 5. By the devout spirit which he breathes while he lies upon the bed of death, waiting for his great change: for he who has lived much in the air of devotion while active, will carry the same spirit to the bed of death. 6. By the spirit of sweet and fervent charity which he is enabled to exemplify in his departing hours. In conclusion, permit me to ask you, Are you thus prepared to glorify God? In order to answer this let me propound another--Are you concerned to glorify God while you live?--for this is the best pledge and presage that you will glorify him when you come to die. (G. Clayton.) Glorifying God in death When dying of consumption the saintly Samuel Pearce of Birmingham remarked to his friends--“ It was never till to-day that I got any personal instruction from our Lord’ s telling Peter by what death he should glorify God. Oh l what a satisfying thought it is that God appoints those means of dissolution by which He gets most glory to Himself. It was the very thing I needed; for of all the ways of dying, that which I most dreaded was by a consumption. But oh l my dear Lord, if by this death I can most glorify Thee, I prefer it to all others, and thank Thee that by this means Thou art hastening my fuller enjoyment of Thee in a purer world.” (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.) Follow Me. Following Christ These were Christ’ s first words to Peter Matthew 4:19), and His last. They form the beginning and the end of Christian instruction, and on them hang all the law and the prophets. Moreover, the lesson was so continually enforced that when Peter came to write to his brethren he said, “ Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps.” Consider I. SOME OF THE to compliance with this precept. 1. The will must be subjected to the will of Jesus. Many do not follow Christ, and the secret is they do not wish: they want to have their own way. A little relative of mine was being taught the Lord’ s prayer, and when he came to “ Thy will be done,” he said, “ Why cannot I say ‘ my will instead,’” and so do many older children. We have a remarkable illustration of this in the case of Saul of Tarsus. Before the Damascus incident it was ever “ My will.” But the key-note of his whole after-life was struck when he said, “ What wilt Thou?” &c. 2. The eyes must be opened. Blind Bartimaeus could not follow Jesus till He said, “ Thy faith hath saved thee,” &c. But “ immediately” after he did so. So there are multitudes spiritually blind, who cannot tread in Christ’ s footsteps. Christ must open their eyes to see Him and whither He would lead them. 3. The affections must be aroused. “ Lovest thou Me?” “ Thou knowest that I love Thee.” II. THE FORCE OF THESE WORDS, especially as connected with the case of Peter. They were words of 1. Solemn admonition. (1) Peter was a restored backslider; and part of the meaning to him would be, “ All thy mistakes arose from not following Me.” So the words have a retrospective use. Who can fail to trace his declensions to the same cause? But Christ would admonish us with regard to the future, “ As all thy mistakes arose through not following Me, henceforth, therefore, follow in My steps.” You know how often we have stood at the cross-road of life. Shall we go to the right or to the left? And what have we done? Trusted to our own judgment? Leant on the council of friends? Or thrown the reins on the neck of the steed of circumstances and let him guide us whithersoever he will? Or have we sought counsel of the Lord? (2) “ But,” you say, “ how is a man to know the Lord’ s will?” Listen: “ The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” Those who fear Him are those who fear to grieve Him by the slightest deviation from the path He has marked out for them. God does not tell His secrets to everybody, nor do you. But there is such a thing as walking with the Lord so that He may direct our steps. “ Shall I hide from Abraham, My friend,” &c. Still how? In Isaiah 11:2 it is promised that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon us and make us of a quick understanding--scent or smell, as it is in the margin, just like that hound who can follow the game past this difficulty and that. So with the believer dwelling in close communion with his Lord. You know how the North American Indian can trace the trail of one who has passed through the forest, To us it would be nothing. There is the print of the mocassin upon the tender herb, or a slight displacement of the brushwood, and to the trained eye there is the path that has been trodden. So there is such a thing as having what Paul calls “ our senses exercised to discern” --quick of sight to see the way, quick of ear to hear “ this is the way, walk ye in it.” 2. Gracious encouragement. They were spoken to a man who had been probed and tested. How many misgivings he must have had till this invitation was given! It was like the father encouraging his child to take the leap having first jumped himself, and then on the hither bank saying, “ Follow me.” Thus Jesus speaks through our doubts and fears. So in regard to work. Never mind what the Mrs. Grundy’ s say, “ Follow Christ.” 3. Faithful warning. One of the most striking evidences of Christianity is its honesty. When the recruiting officer goes into the villages he talks of the glories of a soldier’ s life, of the prospect of promotion, but never of the work in the trenches, the marches under a burning sun, and the agonies of the battlefield. But here comes a new religion seeking to win men and promising them persecution, trial, conflict--nothing concealed. So the Lord says to Peter, “ Follow Me, but remember that you will die a martyr’ s death.” The application to us is--Christ does promise us things inestimably dear, but He bids us count the cost. No cross, no crown. “ If any man will come after Me,” &c. (W. P. Lockhart.) Love the motive f or following Christ Francis I. of France had not reached his twentieth year when he was present at the celebrated battle of Marignan, which lasted two days. The Marshal de Trivulce, who had been in eighteen pitched battles, said that those were the play of infants; but that this of Marignan was the combat of giants. Francis performed on this occasion prodigies of valour: he fought less as a king than as a soldier. Having perceived his standard-bearer surrounded by the enemy, he precipitated himself to his assistance in the midst of lances and halberts. He was presently surrounded; his horse pierced with several wounds; and his casque despoiled of its plumes. He must have been inevitably overwhelmed, if a body of troops detached from the allies had not hastened to his succour. Francis hazarded this battle against the advice of his general; and cut short all remonstrance by the celebrated expression, which became afterwards proverbial, “ Let him that loves me follow me.” (Percy Anecdotes.) John 21:20 The disciple whom Jesus loved The beloved disciple Our Lord loved all His disciples: “ I have called you friends. ” And yet within that circle of love there was an innermost place in which the beloved John was favoured to dwell. Those who display an extraordinary love to one are all the more capable of great affection to many; and therefore, because Jesus loved John most, I have an enhanced estimate of His love to the other disciples. John was raised, and they were not lowered, but raised with him. Be thankful to be among the brotherhood who can each say, “ He loved me, and gave Himself for me,” but strive to rise to the highest point of love. Why should you not ere long be styled like Daniel, a “ man greatly beloved” ? or like John, “ that disciple whom Jesus loved” ? Consider I. THE NAME ITSELF. 1. It is a name which John alone gives to himself. He repeats it five times, and all the early writers recognize him under that title. Do not suspect him, however, of egotism. With a sweet naiveté which makes him quite forget himself, John took the name which he knew most accurately described him. Often there is more pride in not witnessing to what God has done for us than in speaking of it. Everything depends upon the spirit which moves us. 2. It is a name in which John hides himself. He would travel through his own gospel “ incognito.” We find him out, however; he wears His Master’ s love as a veil, though it turns out to be a veil of light. 3. It is a name in which John felt himself most at home. No other title would so well describe him. Jesus doubtless treasured him, His Jonathan, His John, His “ God-gift” ; but John does not so much think of his being of any service to his Lord, as of that which his Lord had been to him. 4. This name was very precious to him, because it evoked the sunniest memories of his life. Those years in which he had been with Jesus must have been looked upon by him in his old age as the crown and glory of his earthly existence. 5. That name was a powerful spring of action to him as long as he lived. How could he be false to Him who had loved him so? 6. It was a name which was never disputed. You do not find any one complaining of John for thus describing himself. The apostles tacitly acknowledged that their Lord was perfectly right in His choice. The truly loved one of God generally receives the love of his brethren, ay, and when a man’ s ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. II. THE WHICH LAY BELOW IT. Let us look at 1. His personality as an individual. (1) His was a large and warm heart. Perhaps his main force lies in the intensity of his nature. His whole soul was engaged in His Lord’ s cause, for he was a deep thinker, a silent student, and then a forceful actor. (2) He was exceedingly vivid in his beliefs. Read his epistle and see how many times he says “ we know.” There are no “ ifs” about him. (3) Putting all together that we know about his personality, we look upon him as a man who was the reverse of your cold, calculating, slow-moving son of diffidence. He was quite the reverse of those dried, juiceless brethren who have no human nature in them--men who do no wrong for they do nothing at all. 2. His relation to his Lord. Jesus loved him as a “ disciple.” (1) If we teach we love teachable people: such was John. He was a man quick to learn; not like Thomas, slow, argumentative, cautious. (2) He was a disciple of very keen eye, seeing into the soul of his Instructor’ s teaching. His emblem in the early Church was the eagle which soars and sees from afar. John saw the spiritual meaning of types and emblems. His first master was the Baptist, and John was so good a follower of the Forerunner that he immediately followed the Lord Himself, to whom the Forerunner introduced him. (3) He was full of faith to accept what he was taught. He believed it thoroughly. He did not believe as some people do, with the finger-ends of theft” understanding, but gripped the truth with both hands. His faith wrought in him a strong and enduring love, for faith worketh by love. (4) John had great receptiveness. He drank in what he was taught. He was not a great talker. His only recorded utterance, if we except his mother’ s request, and the “ Lord, who is it?” which Peter put into his mouth, is “ It is the Lord.” (5) John had intense love for his Teacher; he not only received the truth, but he received the Master Himself. A true heart may as well be seen in its weakness as in its excellence. John’ s intolerance with those who cast out devils but followed not Christ, and with the Samaritans only showed his burning love for Jesus. If he gives way to ambition it is an ambition to reign with the despised Galilean. He does not want a throne unless it be at his Leader’ s side. Moreover, what faith there was in that request of his mother’ s. It reminds one of the courage of the Roman who when Rome was in the hands of the enemy purchased a house within the walls: John heroically asks for a throne at the side of One who was about to die on the cross, for he feels sure that He will triumph. 3. As an instructed person (1) He grew to know more and more, and doubtless our Lord loved Him because of the tenderness which was produced by grace out of his natural warmth. How tender he was to Peter after that apostle’ s grievous fall, for early in the morning John goes with him to the sepulchre. (2) He was a man who under the tutorship of Christ grew to be very spiritual and deep. The words he uses in his Epistles are mostly monosyllables, but what mighty meanings they contain! The other evangelists give us Christ’ s miracles, and certain of His sermons, but His profound discourses, and His matchless prayer, are reserved for that disciple whom Jesus loved. (3) Of all the disciples John was most Christlike. Jesus loved John for what He saw of Himself in him, created by His grace. III. THE LIFE WHICH GREW OUT OF THIS LOVE OF CHRIST. It was a life of 1. Intimate communion. John was wherever Christ was. When all the disciples sit at the table, even Peter is not nearest the Lord, but John leans his head upon His bosom. If you are a man greatly beloved, your fellowship will be with Christ from day to day. 2. Special instruction. He was taught things which no others knew, for they could not bear them. They shall see most who love most. 3. Amazing depth. If he did not say much he was taking it all in for future use. He was a son of thunder, because, as a thunder-cloud is charged with electricity, so had he gathered up the mysterious force of his Lord’ s life, love, and truth. When he did break out there was a voice like the voice of God. What a flash of lightning is the Apocalypse! What awful thunders sleep within the vials and the trumpets! 4. Special usefulness. He was entrusted with choice commissions involving high honour--the care of Christ’ s mother, e.g. When you love Jesus much He will trust His mother to you; I mean His Church and the poorest people in it, such as widows and orphans, and poor ministers. 5. Extraordinary heavenliness. They call him John the Divine, and he was so. His eagle wings bore him aloft into the heavenly places. The Lord’ s Day found him in the Spirit, waiting for Him that cometh with clouds--so waiting that He who is the Alpha and Omega hastened to reveal Himself to him. He had lovingly followed the “ Lamb of God,” and therefore he was made meet to see Him as the Lamb in the midst of the throne. IV. LESSONS: 1. You who are young begin soon. John was converted when quite a young man. Youthful piety has the most profitable opportunity of becoming eminent piety. 2. Let us give our heart’ s best thoughts to spiritual things. The Lord takes no delight in broad phylacteries and superstitious observances. The Father seeketh those to worship Him who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Be spiritual, and you are among those who are likely to be men greatly beloved. 3. Cherish a holy warmth. Do not repress your emotions and freeze your souls. Some brethren are gifted with refrigerating power. When you shake hands with them, you would think that you had hold of a fish. These chilly mortals have never traversed the sunny regions of heavenly love. Pray for earnest, eager, intense affection. 4. Let your nature be tender and kind. The man who is habitually cross and frequently angry cannot walk with God. A pitiful, compassionate, unselfish, generous heart is that which our Lord approves. 5. Rise to heavenliness. Do not be miserable money-grubbers, or sordid earth-worms; do not be pleasure hunters and novelty seekers. (C. H.Spurgeon.) John 21:21-23 Peter seeing John saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do?The individuality of Christian life Christ had just foretold to Peter that he should in his old age die a martyr, and with that before him, the apostle left the thought of his own suffering and inquired respecting the destiny of John. 1. It is not easy to determine the spirit of the question. Some suppose that Peter argued from Christ’ s silence that John’ s course would be free from fierce trouble, and inquired with a kind of envious dissatisfaction. Not so. Peter’ s generous nature would prompt him to forget his own troubles in devotion to his friend, and remembering the recent incident it is hard to infer discontent here. Most probably the question sprang from earnest anxiety. Having learned the glory of his Saviour’ s cross, he was concerned lest John should lose the honour. It is easier for such impetuous souls to trust their own lot to God than their brother’ s. 2. It is not easy to explain the reply. Some have emptied the words of all their meaning by referring them to the moment of death. But Christ would “ come” as truly to Peter as to John. Rather are the words to be referred to the coming of Christ at the fall of Jerusalem, when His kingdom began its world-wide supremacy. And that day in Patmos John saw visions of Christ’ s future dominion. Learn that I. GOD A COURSE OF LIFE FOR EACH . No words could mark the difference which was now to mark the paths of those two men who had as yet followed Christ side by side. 1. Taking their characters we find the Divine meaning of their separate courses. Peter, the man of impulse and energy--first everywhere--his training was to be labour crowned with suffering. Unless he worked, he would fall into depression. John, calm, loving, profound--his discipline yeas patient waiting--a course not less hard, but how different. 2. Look at their work. Each was wanted in Christ’ s kingdom. Peter is the apostle to the doubter, the sufferer; the earnest preacher of fidelity and supporter of the distressed. Would not the prospect of his own suffering deepen his sympathy and kindle his zeal? John’ s mission was to declare Christ the Eternal King, the foundation of the new earth and the new heaven. Therefore he waited till the Temple was destroyed and the Jews scattered; then amid the ruins of the old he saw the unchanging One. 3. So each of us has our appointed course, and both experience of life and faith in providence teach it. Our sorrows, temptations, work, are peculiarly our own. We are each of us souls to be trained--the practical like Peter, the contemplative like John. To one God sends action and often crowns it with suffering; to another God says, “ Wait and watch!” Let not the one despise the other. II. BY WHAT LAW IS THAT COURSE ? The answer is, “ Follow thou Me.” Like Him, obey whenever God’ s will is clear and be patient when it is dark. There are circumstances to which no other law applies, under which no experiences of other men can help us. Do the duty that is nearest you, and challenge results: “ Although another shall gird thee, &c., follow thou Me.” III. THE THAT WILL HELD US TO FULFIL OUR COURSE. “ If I will.” It is the will of Christ which gives us power, for it implies knowledge and sympathy. Our deepest nature is only won by individual sympathy. There are depths of power in every soul which are unknown until it is made to feel that someone understands its joys and cares for its sorrows. Hence one great purpose of the Incarnation. Christ’ s life abounds with proofs that His love was personal. He has chosen our path and that fact alone is a mighty impulse to obedience. Conclusion: Herein lies the grandeur of Our Christian life. We are in a world of mystery. We dare not choose for ourselves. The merest trifles affect our destiny. But the thought that Christ has bidden us follow Him, and that by His grace we can do so clothes us with power sublime. (E. L. Hull, B. A.) Individual responsibility Each one must answer for himself. The account is kept between God and each individual. There must be no impertinent curiosity as to God’ s dealings with others--the heathen, children--those possessing few privileges. In a sense we are not our brother’ s keeper. God communicates direct, seldom by the way of other souls. He did not convey His message to John through Peter. Christ wished to hold Peter’ s mind to his own sin and responsibility. See that you follow Me, whatever John or others do. Yet this he was to do in a way that did not prevent his seeking the welfare of others. The thrice-repeated command of Christ was still ringing in his ears--“ Feed My sheep;” “ Feed My lambs.” Observe 1. What this individual responsibility is. 2. The sin of neglecting it. 3. Our only escape if we have neglected it in the past, immediate repentance and acceptance of the proffered pardon. (Homiletic Monthly.) Personal responsibility It is good to know the principles of Christianity, it is better to practise them. One of these is that the conduct of ethers towards Christ ought not to govern our own. Peter felt a great interest in John, and was anxious to know what department he was to occupy in the new kingdom. Peter meant no wrong: but Christ said, What is that to thee? Thy work is to echo My doctrine, to tread in My steps. By “ If I will” Christ intimates that we are not to be or do what we like, but what Christ wills. The doctrine is, that it is important to think more about Christ Himself than about any fellow-agents in spreading His religion. Because I. CHRIST HAS A AND PRE-. 1. He is what others are not and cannot be. If we want to come in contact with the most agreeable truths, let us rise above the agitation of the Church in its present state of imperfection, and fix our minds on the Redeemer Himself. 2. He is the Revealer of God to man, and I look at Him to see all I need. 3. He has a peculiar relation to me--Brother, Teacher, Priest, King. My all depends on Him. My fellow-man may be very valuable, but I can and must do without him; but I cannot live without Christ. II. OUR TO CHRIST ARE OF OUR . Anything they may or may not do cannot affect our individual obligation to Him. We perceive this if we consider that every one has his own work. The Church has its work, and it cannot be done by schools of philosophy; and each member has his, and if he neglects it he will be rebuked in the presence of the universe. But, you say, my ability is small and my sphere contracted. Never mind; God has called you to that; be faithful in the least, and He will make you ruler over many things. Does the scholar or business man say, Because such a man is indolent I may be? I can love many of my fellow agents, but I would not stand before the love of God in the place of any one. “ Each must give an account to God,” and “ bear his own burden.” III. BY OF JESUS WE CAN AN EMINENT OF MORAL ACTION. There is a tendency in individuals and churches to imitate one another, but since none is perfect this may be injurious. It is right and safe, however, to imitate the perfect Redeemer. Then imitate 1. His cordiality in religion. Whatever Christ did He did with all His heart. 2. His wonderful triumphs over obstacles. It would be useful to be acquainted with Christ’ s methods with His enemies as well as His friends. 3. His devotion. (Caleb Morris.) Misplaced anxiety Our Master encouraged His followers to come to Him with all their difficulties. But He exercised a Divine discretion in the answers which He gave. Sometimes, as in the case of the blind man, He gave a direct reply, which removed error. Sometime, as after the parables, He entered into the fullest explanation. But when their questions sprang out of curiosity, He turned them aside either with quiet reproof or practical admonition, as when they asked Him, “ Are there few that be saved?” and “ Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Beneath all this class of answers is the principle that we should not allow the difficulty of questions, for the solution of which we are not responsible, to keep us from doing the plain duty that is at our hands. In my student days I had a friend who was pro-eminently successful in gaining prizes by written competition. In general work he did not appear to be any better than his neighbours. I asked him to explain this, and he said, “ You take the questions in the paper as they come; hence, if the first question is a very hard one, you spend, perhaps, the whole time upon that; but I pick out those that I can answer at once, and then having disposed of them, I go on to the harder ones.” There was great wisdom in the plan, and in the college of life more of us would come out prizemen if we were to let speculation alone until we have performed plain duties. Much more does this hold of those things which are insoluble by mere human reason. Take I. THE THAT LIE OUTSIDE OF . Many of those things in revelation which perplex men have already emerged in another form in nature and providence. There Isaiah 1. That great enigma, the existence of evil under the government of a wise, holy, and loving God. Revelation did not make that; it found it; and while it shows us a way of escape from evil, it does not attempt to solve the mystery of its existence. Neither can we solve it. But then we are not asked to do so, and we are not responsible for it. How it came is not our affair; but how we may rid ourselves of its defilement, that is for us the question of questions. Just there, however, the Lord Jesus comes with His salvation. What madness, then, to turn away from the remedy to find out the origin of the disease! When you have extinguished the fire, inquire the cause; but while it is blazing, “ All hands to the fire-engines!” When we have rescued the drowning man, we may examine how he came to be in the water; but our present duty is to throw him a rope. 2. Akin to that great difficulty is the perplexity occasioned by the anomalies presented by God’ s providence--the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the good. That old debate which waxed so hot between Job and his friends has emerged in every successive generation. Yet virtually they left it where they found it. Jehovah appeared to them at the close, asking them to leave the matter in His hands. And what farther can we get than that? We are not responsible for the government of the world. God will take care of His own honour. Meanwhile for us there is the lowlier province of working out our own salvation, under the assurance that “ it is God who worketh in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure.” To us the Saviour has said, “ Follow Me,” and for the answer we give to that we shall be responsible. We cannot unravel the perplexities of providence, but we can see the way of life. Let us work in the light we have, and as we follow it we shall be led to the fountain of light. 3. Very dark many occurrences around us seem to be. The vessel goes to pieces, and hundreds are hurried to a watery grave; the little child is battered to death by a brutal ruffian; the devout worshippers in a crowded church are burned or trampled to death. “ These things happen,” we say, “ under a God of mercy and love and justice! Why do they occur?” And then there comes the answer, “ What is that to thee?” In the long run God will be “ His own interpreter, and He will make it plain” ; meanwhile follow Christ. II. THE WHICH SPRING OUT OF . 1. To the superficial thinker it seems anomalous that in a communication from God there shall be any difficulties. But when we go deeper it will appear that mystery is inseparable from a revelation given by a higher to a lower intelligence. Your child asks you for an explanation of something, and you give him an answer suited to his comprehension; but your reply, perfectly intelligible from your stand-point, starts in his mind a whole crop of new perplexities. Now something like that occurs in our reception of the revelation which God has given us. The cry of our humanity was, “ How shall man be just with God?” and in reply God has pointed us to Him whom He “ hath set forth to be a propitiation,” &c. This is a precious declaration; but how many new difficulties it has started! It brings us face to face with the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the innocent suffering for the guilty, and so working out their redemption, &c.; and many caught in the meshes of the perplexities which they have occasioned are to-day where they were years ago. They have not “ followed Christ,” they have not joined His Church, they have not begun to grow in nobility and holiness of character, because they have not been able to thread their way through the labyrinth in which such questionings have involved them. 2. Now, how shall we deal with such? In the spirit of the principle before us. These questionings are not in our department. They have reference to matters which belong to God. We are not responsible for them. It may be that it is just as impossible for God to make them plain to us, as it is for us to render something which is incomprehensible to our child intelligible to him. It is not required of us to understand the infinite. Only God can comprehend God. What we are commanded to do is to follow Christ. That is within our power. There is but one way out of a labyrinth, when we have become hopelessly involved, and that is to put our hand in that of a guide, and follow his leading. And there is only one way out of these spiritual perplexities, viz., taking all that Christ says in childlike faith. III. THE OF THE FUTURE. We are all prone to pry into the years to come. Sometimes we are solicitous about ourselves. We cannot see what is to become of us; and if we have no cause for apprehension, we torment ourselves about our children, or our friends, or the Church, or the nation. Now to all our misgivings we have but one answer. The future is not ours. The present is. We are responsible for the present and not for the future, except only as it shall be affected by the present. Nay, we shall best serve the future, and secure it from those evils which we fear, by doing with our might the work of the present, and leaving the issue with God. “ Follow Christ.” In your business “ follow Christ,” by conducting it on His maxims, and leave the result with Him. In your household “ follow Christ,” by setting before them an example of faith and charity. In the Church let your endeavour be to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour, and do not distress yourselves about things that have not yet occurred. The Philistines will not carry off God’ s ark, or if they do, they will soon be made as eager to send it back as they were to take it away. So with national affairs. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) Our own duty and our brethren’ s welfare 1. This is the last recorded dialogue between Peter and Christ, and it has therefore a touching interest. How many and how varied these dialogues had been! Had we no other fragments of Christ’ s life, we would still have a tolerably full indication both of Christian doctrine and duty. And now the interviews were to cease. Could there be a more fitting and consistent close to the whole? “ Follow Me,” Christ said three years before by the lakeside, and now at the self-same spot He reminds him that the omega of his life is the same as its alpha, even the duty of personal discipleship, the word “ Follow me.” 2. Peter’ s question about John is a common one, and the answer Christ gave is fitting and final. There is nothing in it to discourage feeling for a brother’ s welfare. Yet mark, it may be one thing to say, “ What shall I do for this man?” and another to ask, “ What shall this man do?” Take the question as that of I. LOVING BUT OVER-ANXIOUS . 1. Perhaps, as in this case, the relation is that of friendship. You stand with a neighbour at the outset of life. Your own track is laid down, be it attractive or difficult. And no sooner have you faced the disclosure than your thoughts revert to your friend, and the question starts up, “ How shall life shape itself for him?” You may fear for that future, or you may envy it. But if your forecast of your friend be such as to affect your own present, deranging its plans or obscuring its claims, it is plain that you ask amiss. It is met with the rebuke, “ What is that unto thee? Follow thou Me.” 2. Or the tie may be the closer one of family. What shall that future yield for them? Some may be sick; shall it bring them health and long life? Some may be thoughtless and easily led; shall it give them wisdom and stability? Once more comes the message, “ Leave their future in My hands; and for your own part, follow Me!” 3. Or, again, this question is asked by those who are burdened with the state and the prospects of the Church. And no doubt an interest in the Church is the token of a thriving Christian life. But there is a morbid apprehensiveness which is totally different, unbefitting belief in the Church’ s destiny and loyalty to its head. Most certainly these forebodings are amiss, if they are permitted to interfere with attention to the Church’ s claims, and lead to the toleration of a present evil on the score that a worse evil may follow its removal. Christ answers, Leave the future of the Church with Another, and do thou follow Me. And surely, if each took the lesson home, the problem of the Church’ s future would soon solve itself. For the Church will be just what its members are. 4. The question involves indirectly a care for oneself. It really meant much to Peter what was to become of his partner. If John was about to depart, his heart would be emptier, his life weaker, his path lonelier. And just so still. John’ s track in due time did diverge. But Peter found a better and a stronger by his side than his own loved John--even the Shepherd and the Bishop of his soul. The future hides many paths to-day, but whatever the paths, the guidance and example are the same. II. VAIN , which may sometimes be stirred by affection to a person, but often is curiosity towards facts. There are those whose present state and future prospects, religiously speaking, are matters of curious and perplexing interest. They have so much of the practical religious spirit, while, in point of saving religious doctrine, they diverge. May there not be fruitless and unwarranted guessing here. One dare not lay down the amount of light needed to make them Christians, and one cannot decide what light they possess. “ What is that,” says the Saviour, “ unto thee? You who have attained to a clearer perception, are you acting up to it? You who have listened to a richer gospel, are you communicating and adorning it?” Pray for those of whose destiny you are doubtful; enlighten them as God gives you opportunity; above all, make it plain that the more tenacious your hold is on doctrine, the richer is your outcome in practice. III. SELFISH . Your own post in life seems a hard one; and, as you brood on its burdens, you compare yourselves with others with whom God has dealt otherwise. “ Lord,” is the question, “ what shall this man do? Is he always to succeed while I must fail? If so, ‘ verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency, for how cloth God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?’” The only answer is, “ If I will that it be so, what is that unto thee? Trust the God of the earth to do right. Follow thou Me!” IV. . What many are keenest to settle is the mode of their neighbour’ s service, the extent of his sacrifices, not the question, “ What do my own opportunities make possible, my own indebtedness impose, my Master require?” But if the question, “ What shall this man do?” is to intrude on the sphere of our Christian principles, then farewell to the spirit of true consecration. For He who presides in the Church, by whose will your responsibilities are imposed, at whose bar your account must be rendered, is saying, “ What is that unto thee?” and what really is it? Art thou scanning thy neighbour’ s conduct, waiting thy neighbour’ s lead? Nay, judge apart m these matters, as apart thou shalt yet be judged. Be true to the light of thine individual conscience and thine individual commands. Follow thou Christ. Conclusion: 1. In matters of religious life--all the duties that pertain to discipleship--one’ s own things come first. And to give them anything else than the first place is to become practical idolaters by the preference of a neighbour’ s claim to God’ s. 2. This order is the best one for the interests of your neighbour himself. It is just this care for your personal salvation and duty that will further his prosperity, affording him the stimulus and allowing him the freedom he may happen to require. For the building of the city of God is like the building of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’ s time. They who wrought wrought each at the portion of the wall that was opposite himself, and the issue was the steady growth of the whole. And had any slackened his efforts to ask what his neighbour was doing, he might have been answered in the spirit of the text: “ What is that unto thee? See that thine own task is done!” Or the Church is like a battalion of soldiers, as they swarm a height, while the voice of their captain is calling them and his figure is leading the way. One may ascend by one path, another may ascend by another. Only let all hear the same ringing summons, and push steadily toward the same goal. And as all do the best for themselves, they will do the best for the troop, the success of its enterprise, the glory of its leader. Say not, therefore, “ Lord, what shall this man do?” From the far heights above floats the answer of our Forerunner and King, “ What is that unto thee? Follow thou Me.” (W. A. Gray.) Not to suffer a busybody It is noteworthy that the apostle so reproved here should afterwards write for the instruction of the Church that excellent sentence, “ Let none of you suffer … as a busybody in other men’ s matters.” (G. J. Brown, M. A.) The proper attitude towards Divine mysteries “ Well,” says one, “ it is very important to know about predestination and free will, you know.” Yes, yes, and if you do not do anything good till you perfectly understand that, you have plenty of time to wait. “ Yes, but how do those two things meet? Or is one true and not the other?” Well, I really do not know, and cannot tell you for the life of me whether I am predestinated to go to bed to-night or not; but I will tell you to-morrow morning. I am of the mind of poor Malachi down in Cornwall. A Wesleyan brother owed him some rent, and he said, “ Malachi, I owe you five pounds, but I shall not pay you till you tell me if I am predestinated to pay it.” “ Oh,” said Malachi, “ put the money down there.” With that Malachi put it in his pocket, and replied, “ Yes, you are.” I believe that the way to answer these questions is just to bring them to some practical test or other. But if any brother dwell upon that which angels cannot fathom, I say to him--in the words of my text I say to him--“ What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) Curiosity and neglect of knowledge There are two great varieties in men with reference to knowledge. The one is a neglect to know what it is our duty to know. The other is a curiosity to know what it doth not belong to us to know. (W. Burkitt.) An Old Testament parallel I cannot help seeing a latent resemblance between this place and the well-known passage at the end of Daniel’ s prophecy. “ Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And He said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” “ Go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” (Daniel 12:8-9; Daniel 12:13). (Bp. Ryle.) Following Christ 1. Our children sometimes sing that they wish that they had seen Jesus and heard His gentle voice; and perhaps you and I have said “ Amen!” But it appears that the words of Jesus were not very impressive upon Peter. He had said to him, “ Follow Me,” and one would have thought Peter would have done nothing else; for there was a day in which his Master had to say to him, “ Thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shalt do so hereafter.” But now we find Peter forgetting the following, and turning round to indulge his curiosity. Do not wonder that our people forget what we say, for even when Christ is the sower all the seed does not fall on good soil, and all good soil does not receive the seed. 2. How easily people are diverted from the best of things. Peter at once began to follow Christ; but he turned his head and caught a sight of John, and he began to ask questions. Our people do not attend when we preach as they should. We are telling them a story which ought to hold them spellbound, and yet some one faints in the gallery, and everybody looks round, and it takes a long time to get them back again. Now, we must not be vexed, for it was so even with the Saviour. 3. Since people are taken off from serious thought by little things, do not you be the cause of little things. Among the rest, never come in late and make people turn round to see who is coming up the aisle. 4. Whatever distractions there may be in worship, nothing must be allowed to draw us off from duty. John was a great friend of Peter’ s, and it was most natural that Peter should want to know what was to become of his friend. But no love of friends may ever come in the way to prevent our doing what Christ bids us. I. THE MAIN OF OUR LIFE IS TO FOLLOW JESUS. We must follow Christ 1. By seeking from Him salvation. If you depart from Christ that is destruction. I hear it said that to tell men to be earnest about their own salvation is practically to make them selfish; but if I had to save a man from drowning, I should be selfish enough to learn to swim. If I had to be a soldier, I should be selfish enough to wish to be strong, that I might fight the battle well. I was present once at a street accident, and I fetched the doctor, and I noticed how very quietly and coolly he came. I was running and out of breath, I wanted to quicken his pace, but he said to me, “ Why, if I put myself in a bluster, as you have done, I could not do any good at all.” Was that selfishness? 2. That done, the next thing is the fashioning of the character according to the mode of Christ. There is no following Christ except by endeavouring to be like Him. Christ, though absolutely perfect, is an imitable character. You could not tell me what special phase of character Christ has. He is so good all round. It is all there, and nothing too much and nothing too little. Lives of Christ--they are in the market everywhere. Write one yourselves in your own life. The Church ought to be like those rooms where the whole of the walls are lined with looking-glass. Stand in the centre, and you see yourself there, there, there, there. Christ is the centre, and all the saints so many looking-glasses, showing Him from different points of view. Each will be different, yet all will be the same, and Christ will be glorified. I saw a little motto hung up in our infant school-room, “ What would Jesus do?” Now, in every case, whatever Jesus would do in that case is what you and I should do. 3. Then the man saved and endeavouring to be conformed to Christ, must follow in His life service. We are committed to the Lord. You do not belong to yourselves, not a hair of your head. There is not one minute of your time that you have a right to call your own. A person of New York when baptised turned all the money he had into a certain form of scrip and had it all in his pocket, for he wanted to dedicate the whole of his substance, as well as himself. I never receive a member without asking him, “ What are you going to do for the Saviour?” If he says he cannot do anything, I say, “ Here is one who belongs to Christ, and Christ cannot make anything of him. He is dead stock.” So the man begins to think, and, as a result, he finds there is something or other that he ought to do. Wherever Cook, the circumnavigator, landed he was seen to take little packets out of his pockets, throwing them out of his hand and circulating them. He belted the whole world with English flowers. That is how we ought to do--get some of the precious seed into your own soul, and carry it with you wherever you go. Have it with you on the trip to the seaside, for in this you will be following Christ, who “ went about doing good.” 4. We are to follow Christ by exhibiting an intense love to Him. This is the way to show that love--attentively listening to everything He has to say. 5. We must do all this (1) Unreservedly. But some people have got one little reserve--some favourite sin, or thing. (2) Constantly--not sometimes. The enlistment in the army of Christ is not for a time long or short. You are called to eternal life. Not to the kind of life which, having lived six months or years, you then go on furlough to serve yourself. I heard of one who said that he did such and such a thing when he was off duty. Aye, a policeman may be off duty; but never a Christian. (3) Heartily. I hate the miserable way in which some people serve Jesus. I illustrate it sometimes by the mumbler at the prayer-meeting. I called at his shop and heard him say, in loud tones, “ John, bring up that half hundred.” I thought, “ This is the man I cannot hear when he prays.” I stepped into a shop the other day, and I noticed the ledger. Oh my! what a ledger! I thought of my own little pocket Bible. Dear me, when the ledger gets on the top of that, what a crush it is. 6. We must follow Christ in the vocation to which He has called us. Some think that if they follow Christ they must give up the shop. No--follow Him there. Another says, “ I shall go to a nunnery, and I shall follow Christ there.” You are better at hems with your children. Another thinks that to follow Christ he must give up his employment and become a city missionary. It is a great pity to spoil a good carpenter to make a bad preacher. When Christ rode the ass through Jerusalem, the ass did its best to carry Him, and it succeeded. It did not take to flying. No, it was not such an ass as that. II. TO EFFECT THIS WE MUST AVOID ALL , AND IF WE ARE GOING TO FOLLOW CHRIST, WE MUST GO IN FOR IT. A child was asked by a Sunday-school teacher, “ Is your father a Christian?” The girl said, “ Yes, but he has not worked much at it lately.” Often the reason is because they have turned aside to do something else. Then 1. Do not let distractions come in the form of reflections upon others. Peter wants to know about John. (1) He might have said, “ Perhaps John is going to have a much easier post than I am.” In working for Christ have you ever said, “ Ah, ah, it is fine to be him. I wish I had his place; I could do something there.” “ What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” Art thou the poorer because he is the richer? Leave the Lord as He pleases to deal with John, and let John escape the edge of the sword, even if thou go to the cross. (2) But some will say, as Peter might have said, though he did not, “ Now look at that John. He is all contemplation,” “ I cannot bear those mystics. They are no use.” Martha says of Mary, “ Bid her come and help me.” Oh, these Marys, what is to become of them, always sitting there at Jesus’ feet? Now, Martha, what is that to thee--follow thou Me. What if one brother serve God one way and one in another? You follow Christ, and let him follow Him in his own way. (3) I heard say of a certain good sister, who does a good deal of work for Christ, by one who never did anything to my knowledge, “ She is such a crotchetty woman.” Yes, and I never met with anybody who did nothing that was not crotchetty. And if some of the crochets iv God’ s people were taken away it would take away from them their power. God has fashioned them for His use. Now, the next time you see a friend who is not made quite so perfect as yourself, do you hear the Master say, “ What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” (4) “ Well,” says one, “ but I know a man that I am sure is very much overvalued.” So do I, but what is that to thee? If the Lord is pleased to use him, pray God to use thee too. (5) “ Still,” says one, “ we must correct the mistakes of some Christians.” By all means; and whenever you see a crooked stick in the Lord’ s bundle, tell it it is crooked by being perfectly straight yourself. Get close alongside in loving fellowship, and the thing is done directly. I pray that you and I may not be so occupied with washing everybody else’ s doorstep that we may allow filth to accumulate in front of our own house. 2. Do not let us occupy our own minds about deep theological problems. (1) Some friends cannot save souls, because they do not know the origin of evil. When a thief comes into your house at night, do not ring the bell for the policeman--let him do exactly what he likes till you find out where he came in. And if you are a drowning man, and the life-buoy is thrown to you, do not touch it till you know who made it, and what it is made of. (2) “ Well,” says one, “ it is very important to know about predestination and free will.” Yes, and if you do not do anything good till you understand that, you have plenty of time to wait. Let your servant-maid refuse tomorrow to get up to prepare your meals, and say, “ My dear sir, I cannot do it, for I cannot make out the doctrine of election.” You would say, “ Mary, I never engaged you for that.” (3) And do not let prophecy lead you astray. There are some who make the coming of Christ an excuse for spending their time in speculation rather than in holy active service for Christ. I dropped in upon a member of my church some time ago, and I saw her upon the steps scrubbing the doorstep. She blushed all manner of colours, and said, “ Sir, if I had known you were coming you would not have found me like this.” I said, “ But if my Lord was coming to-morrow that is just how I should like Him to find me, at my work.” Follow thou me, whatever you have to do tomorrow. (4) There are certain terrible facts which I pray you never unduly to consider so as to be taken off from the service of Christ--e.g., the condition of lost spirits, of the world and of the Church--and what is to become of it. Now look, if you are in a storm, and are set to pull a rope, if you begin to take the whole state and condition of the ship into consideration, all about the crew, the cargo, the compass, the currents, the winds, and do not pull your rope, I tell you, you would do better to know nothing about these things, and to go to your work. And I believe some of God’ s servants need to be talked to about this. You get fretting about the times being so bad. Well, you get and make them better. You were never meant to do everything, and God never constructed you to clean the world up. It went on pretty well before you were born, and it is just possible that it may after you are dead. (5) And sometimes the way of the Christian is so narrow, so dark, that his only safety lies in the clutching the hand of his great leader, as with trembling he says, “ Master, the abyss, the darkness, the horror of the way!” He says, “ What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” (6) Oh God, says a poor soul, my own child, I am afraid he will be lost.” The Saviour says in reply, “ Follow thou Me.” Try to win him, bus look not at the dire possibilities, so as to have thy mouth shut and thy tongue silent within thee. (7) “ We ought all to weep for Jerusalem,” say you. Yes, but even Christ that did it did not do it every day. 3. Do not let us distract ourselves from our work with anything out of the line of practical religion. You remember Carey’ s words about Eustace, his son. “ Poor Eustace has drivelled into an ambassador.” When everybody else thought it high promotion, he thought it degradation for him to turn aside from the one work of the ministry. Now, you who love the Lord, are all called to some form of ministry, Stick to it. Better be poor and serve Christ than to grow rich and give it up. III. THE REASONS FOR THIS OF OUR LIFE. We are to do one thing and not twenty things. 1. We have not any too much power, and if we do not use what we have for the one thing we shall waste strength. When the miller has got only a certain stream let him pour that all over one wheel and he will grind. But let him not divert his water into many meandering streams, or else he will certainly waste his power. 2. It is only by taking one object that you can ever become eminent in it. 3. We have not much time in which to do the little we are going to do; let us pack it tight, get all into it that we can. Dr. Chalmers one night spent a very happy evening with some friends. Among the rest a Gallic chieftain was present, who was much amused with Chalmers’ anecdotes and stories. They went to bed, and in the middle of the night the chieftain was suddenly taken ill and died; and Chalmers, writing of it afterwards, says, “ How differently they would have talked if they had been aware of what was about to happpen.” Let us live as though we knew that we might this evening finish our life. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Then went this saying abroad among the brethren that that disciple should not die. The tradition of St. John’ s immortality The earliest recorded tradition respecting St. John had apparently sprung up, not like most of them after the Apostle’ s death, but during his lifetime, and professed to be founded on an express prediction of our Lord that “ St. John should never die.” In this case it was possible to confront the traditionary statement with the historical, and this chapter was added to the Gospel, apparently, to state the true fact that “ Jesus said not unto him,” &c. Whether a misunderstanding of our Lord’ s words was the sole origin of the tradition may be questioned; it is, perhaps, most likely to have been in the first instance occasioned partly by the Apostle’ s great age, and partly by the general expectation that our Lord’ s coming was near. Nor was the opinion without some ground of truth if we consider that the language in which our Lord’ s coming is identified, or at least blended with the images which equally describe the fall of Jerusalem. This last feeling, however, had evidently passed away before the time when the tradition assumed the particular shape specified in the text, and it now therefore took its ground on the supposed saying there referred to. The “ coming of the Lord” was now to them, what it is to us, another expression for the end of all things; the next and natural process consequently was to limit the words to the new view. Yet neither the express caution of the Evangelist, nor the contradiction of the story by his death was sufficient entirely to eradicate it. The story of his being not dead but asleep in his grave at Ephesus was related to Augustine by persons who professed to have witnessed the motion of the dust by the supposed breath of the sleeper, and the notion that he was still living not only became a fixed article of popular belief in the Middle Ages, but has been revived from time to time by later enthusiasts, and is still partially commemorated in the Greek Church in the Feast of the Translation of the Body of St. John. Compare, amongst other instances the well-known story of the apparition of St. John to Edward the Confessor and the Ludlow pilgrims, and again to James IV., at Linlithgow, before the Battle of Flodden, the belief in Prester John in Central Asia, and the ancient legendary representations of the search for the body in the empty tomb. (Dean Stanley.) John 21:24-25 This is the disciple which testifieth of these things The Gospel of St. John I. ITS THEME. “ The things which Jesus did.” 1. Their number--“ many.” 2. Their variety--“ other.” 3. Their importance. So deep had been the impression made by them that they were even then remembered and could have been written down. 4. Their significance. “ The world would not contain,” &c. II. ITS UNAMED AUTHOR--the disciple whom Jesus loved. That this was John 1. The Gospel indirectly attests. 2. Ecclesiastical tradition confirms. III. ITS . 1. The testimony of the author’ s consciousness, if verse 24 be authentic. 2. The testimony of his contemporaries, probably the Ephesian Elders, if verse 24 be non-Johannine. Lesson: Gratitude 1. To God for His Son, Jesus Christ. 2. To Jesus Christ for the things which He did. 3. To the Holy Spirit for this sublime Gospel (T. Whitelaw, D. D.) The revealed and the unrevealed in Christ’ s biography I. VERY MUCH HAS BEEN . His four biographers have said very much about Christ, and each has presented Him in some fresh aspect. II. MUCH MORE MIGHT HAVE BEEN (John 21:25). What volumes it would have taken to record the deeds and words of Him who never spent an idle hour, but “ went about doing good!” Conclusion: 1. We should fully appreciate the amount revealed. It teems with truths, and pulsates with inspiration. A larger amount, perchance, would have been obtrusive rather than helpful. 2. We may anticipate wonderful studies. All the unrevealed will be brought under our observation. (D. Thomas, D. D.) The authentic and apocryphal Gospels There are very many things written concerning Christ which are believed by others, but which I do not believe. The evidence from without I care little for, regarding only the evidence from within. Therefore it is that the reading of the uncanonical Gospels is useful in showing what a fine instinct, what a spirit of good taste, what a divinely inspired knowledge of what Christ was, the men who wrote our Four Gospels had. Between the two there is that singular difference which strikes a man of fine taste between the consummate work of a true artist and the work of a dauber, between a work of art wrought in love and one wrought only for bread. For the spirit of an artist creeps into every stroke of his brush; and in the writing of the Gospels, in settling which are canonical, every stroke is a betrayal. The apocryphal Gospels are not only a curious picture of the floating traditions of the Church; they are earthen vessels full of earthly dregs. They gather about Christ the stains of human stupidity and ignorance. Just as a man of fine taste has no difficulty in judging in a moment between a Raphael and what a coarse picture dealer declares to be one; just as one accustomed to the fine aromas of the wine of Hamburg can distinguish it from the spurious rubbish that is brought to imitate it; just as those who know the ring of true gold are proof against being deceived by the counterfeit, so there need be no difficulty in judging of these writings, as compared with the four Gospels now in use. (George Dawson, M. A.) There are also many other things The magnitude of Christ’ s life Such words as these are called “ strong language” and “ exaggeration.” But strong language is always true to the poet, natural to the passionate, truthful to the large-minded; and only obnoxious to the small, feeble, chill-blooded, to those who find human language big enough to live in. Human language is often felt to be like that bed of old, which was so short that a man could not stretch himself on it; and in trying to cover himself with the coverlid, found it to be too narrow. So as the next thing to having an adequate spoken language, men do what they can by extravagance to make it up. A great poet like Shakespeare presses the universe into his passion. He tells the woman he adores that her eyes outvie the brightness of the rising morning. One great ancient wished he was a star that he might look down always on her he loved. So these souls, feeling deeply, in order to say what they wish to say, since words won’ t do it, call upon all things to help them--the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley--all things are called in, that the beloved may be set forth in glory. Strong language is objectionable, is it? Yes, when it is but the emphasis of emptiness; when little people make a great noise, using language stronger than the occasion requires, the sin and shame of it is that they have no feeling adequate to it. But when the heart is all aglow, and the thing to be said infinite, then the most extravagant language is poverty stricken. To hear some commentations over the phrase is charming--“ This passage must not be taken literally; of course the Apostle meant--“ Oh, thank you for nothing! I want not your dry bread of sand.’” What John meant was that there were so many things that might be told about Christ, that the world could not contain it all. Beautiful expression! And how adequate! Now, what does it teach? If any man’ s biography were to be daily written down it would make a big book. One of the most charming books was written by a man on a tour round his chamber. Put some people in a room and they behold no more than a blind horse would. But not so with the instructed man. He would pause at every part of the room, and tell tales about the woodwork, tales of the trees from which the wood came, and or the climate in which they grew--tales that would run back to Adam. Franklin tells us that he “ rose at six and washed.” But if he had stopped to tell us all about “ rose,” what a volume would be wanted, and so on with “ washed” and “ dressed.” And so one might come to think with the great poet, that the best portion of a man’ s life lies in the little nameless, unrecorded acts of kindness. It is the unwritten things of life that uphold the great things. So, when we think of Christ’ s life, and of the little that is said about Him, we know there must have been much that might have been written. (George Dawson, M. A.) The many things which Jesus did Does St. John end his Gospel with an exaggeration? What shaft we say? I. THERE ARE SEVERAL . 1. That the passage has been interpolated. But this view has no foundation. The verse is only wanting in one MS. 2. That it is only St. John’ s way of expressing his sense of the immense diligence of Christ’ s life, and the unparalleled number of His good works; and that, to convey that idea, he uses language which is, indeed, after the Eastern language, hyperbolical; but which could not mislead. 3. That St. John is speaking of all which Christ had done, and is doing, and will do to all eternity--in which acceptation the words would be strictly true--for then we should be dealing with the Everlasting and the Infinite--which, of course, exceeds the compass of the universe. But thecomment is strained and far-fetched. 4. That the word “ contain” is ambiguous, and that it might be translated, “ the world,” i.e., the ungodly world, “ would not receive the whole of what Jesus did.” 5. That St. John is speaking not of the mere outward actions, but of what they represented and involved. And this is none other than a literal truth that “ if all these” were “ written,” seriatim, “ the world itself could not contain the account which should be written.” II. The last seems to be the only true understanding of St. John’ s words: THE FULNESS THAT THERE IS IN THE PORTION OF CHRIST’ S . 1. Remember (1) It is the life of the Son of God who came to this earth for about thirty-three years, of which we have the history of only three, and in those three only a few leading, salient features. (2) That the object of this short visit was the salvation of the whole world. (3) That infinite love, wisdom, and power met in His every word and act. (4) That the record, which has been given us, has been left for His Church to read, and live upon for ever. There is enough to satisfy the whole intellect and affection of the race. And if the gospel be such as this--what a weight, what an infinity, there must be in every iota. If we waste a crumb, it must be at our peril, and with great damage! Here is our duty, and here is the great work of the Holy Ghost, to find the latent senses of each fraction of that portentous narrative. “ The secret of the Lord,” --covered thoughts, intentions sealed except to the initiated--“ the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” 2. You must consider also (l) Every action of Christ was first a great beautiful fact, standing out to be admired. (2) It was an illustration of His character, in which we are to read out His sympathy, wisdom, power, faithfulness, &c. (3) We are to read, through Him, God--the only real delineation we have of the Invisible Father. (4) It is the illustration and the pledge of what Christ is and does now He is in glory. (5) It is our pattern and example that we may copy. (6) It is an allegory--a parable of spiritual things which always lie underneath it. 3. Now, take any one event in our Lord’ s ministry, and divide it into all these parts: see it in all its lights; and what a volume will be there! Regard, in this way, His baptism, or His temptation, or His transfiguration, or His death, &c., or any one of His miracles; or a prayer, a touch, a look; and into what masses and mountains of thought it all swells! What piles upon piles might be said and written! 4. Think of all that, for nearly nineteen centuries, has been said and written by the Church on those four Gospels; and yet it is not exhausted. New thoughts, new beauties, new comforts are coming up every day. And were the world to last nineteen thousand centuries more, it would be just the same! And will not these things be the themes of faculties infinitely higher, than now, throughout eternity? Do not “ the angels” still “ desire to look” on them? 5. Then, we must add to the account that there were “ many things which Jesus did” which St. John knew but did not record; many more, which none knew, or could know. But all would bear the same development. 6. Then, when, for a moment, we try to draw these together and conceive the total of such an aggregate, is the language one whir too strong? III. LET ME GATHER SOME . 1. When we have to do with the life of Christ, we are dealing with the most solemn immensities. The more we study it, the more we shall feel with St. John--that we are standing on the shore of a boundless ocean; that what we see is nothing compared to what lies beyond the horizon. That all human intellect put together, and all the largest hearts of men of love, if that love could go on for ever, could not contain the half of what Christ did, and what Christ was. Is that too much to say? You will not think so if you love Him and know Him. 2. Therefore you must come to the contemplation of every part of Christ’ s life very modestly. There is much more than you have any idea of. If you think you know any verse of the Bible, you have yet a great deal to learn. You will never empty it. And, seeing it so exceeds all our proportions, you must pray for the enlargement of your own soul, that you may be able to contain it. 3. For a heart enlarged by the Holy Ghost has a greater capacity than the universe. The universe could not contain it; but, by the working of the Holy Ghost, it is promised you shall be “ able to comprehend with all saints, what is the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and know that love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.) The unwritten sayings of Jesus When I see how much has been written of those who have lived; how the Greeks preserved every saying of Plato’ s; how Boswell followed Johnson, gathering up every leaf that fell from that rugged old oak, and pasting it away, I almost regret that one of the disciples had not been a recording angel, to preserve the odour and richness of every word of Christ. When John says, “ And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written,” it affects me more profoundly than when I think of the destruction of the Alexandrian Library, or the perishing of Grecian art in Athens or Byzantium. The creations of Phidias were cold stone, overlaid by warm thought; but Christ described His own creations when He said, “ The words that I speak unto you, they are life.” The leaving out of these things from the New Testament, though divinely wise, seems, to my yearning, not so much the unaccomplishment of noble things, as the destruction of great treasures, which had already had oral life, but failed of incarnation in literature. (H. W. Beecher.) The sufficiency of the Gospels Supposing a complete biography of Christ to have been written, let us consider I. ITS . In every life there are many transactions which would add nothing to the completeness of a biography. There are many things in the experience of us all which are like blades of grass. To distinguish them in a picture would be to impair it and give us not the field but the grass. But things were otherwise with Christ. Every miracle, prayer, look, &c., was worthy of a picture by itself. And suppose instead of our present summary we had all the details what a library there would be. And then there are many things which it takes a longer time to describe than to do. II. ITS . 1. What life would be long enough to produce it. 2. What means could be adequate to disperse it. 3. What man could read, let alone remember it. Conclusion: Let us see the impossibility of making any improvement in God’ s Word. There is wisdom as well in its limits as in its matter and form. (Mathematicus.) St. John’ s Gospel a collection of specimens The materials which he has actually made use of are few in number compared with the store from which he might have drawn; he omitted many things, the record of which might have over-filled the world with books; with only a few selections from his rich treasury, he shows us the glory of the Incarnate Word--as if a painter should take a bit of grey rock, a tuft of maidenhair fern growing in a crevice, some patches of grass and heather, a tree or two, a human figure, a dim-seen mountain range, the infinite blue sky, and putting these into a picture should show us the glory of God in nature. (J. Culross, D. D.) Christ an inexhaustable treasure Treasures many are contained in the Bible, but not all. There are more treasures in Christ than even in the Bible. He could not transfer all the treasures of His person into a book, “ for if they should be written,” &c. Blessed be God for the treasures contained in this precious volume before me, but the day will arrive when they shall be all exhausted. But after exhausting the treasures of the Book, the treasures of the Person will still remain. Blessed be His name for the treasures which have come through Christ, thrice blessed for the treasures that are in Christ. Dwelling in Him are treasures enough to make a dozen new Bibles, the Bibles of eternity. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.) .