{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_15185/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_15185","id":"gutenberg_15185","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15185","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Distributed Proofreaders\n\n\n\n\n\nQuiet Talks on _John's Gospel_\n\nBy\n\nS. D. Gordon\n\n\n\n\n1915\n\n\n\n\nPreface\n\n\n\n_Everything depends on getting Jesus placed._ That lies at the root of\nall--living, serving, preaching, teaching. John had Jesus placed. He had\nHim up in His own place. This settles everything else. Then one gets\nhimself placed, too, up on a level where the air is clear and bracing,\nthe sun warm, and the outlook both steadying and stimulating. Get the\ncentre fixed and things quickly adjust themselves about it to your eyes.\n\nIt will be seen very quickly that this little book makes no pretension\nto being a commentary on, or an exposition of, John's Gospel. That is\nleft to the scholarly folk who eat their meals in the sacred classical\nlanguages of the past. It is simply a homely attempt to let out a little\nof what has been sifting in these years past of this wondrous miniature\nBible from John's pen.\n\nThe proportions of this homely little messenger of paper and type may\nseem a little odd at first. The longest chapter is devoted to only the\nopening eighteen verses of John, the prologue. While the whole of the\nfirst twelve chapters of John, excepting that prologue, is brought into\none smaller chapter. It wasn't planned so, though I felt it coming as\nthe wondrous mood of this book came down over me. I think it mast be\nthe effect of the atmosphere of John's book.\n\nSometimes John packs so much in so little space, and again he goes so\nparticularly into the details of some one incident. The prologue is a\nminiature Bible. The whole Bible story is there in its cream. And on the\nother hand John spends five chapters (xiii.-xvii.), almost a fifth of\nthe whole, on a single evening. He devotes seven chapters (xiii.-xix.),\nalmost a third of all, on the events of twenty-four hours. John is\ncontrolled not by mere proportion of space or quantity, but by the finer\nproportions of thought and quality.\n\nIt has been difficult to hold these homely talks down to the limit of\nspace they take here. So many veins of gold in this mine, showing\nclearly large nuggets of pure ore, lie just at hand untouched in this\nlittle mining venture. But it seemed clearly best to get the one clear\ngrasp of the whole. That helps so much. But there'll be strong\ntemptation to get one's pick and spade and go at this gold mine again.\n\nBut now these things are written that we common folk may understand a\nbit better, and in a warm way, that Jesus was God on a wooing errand to\nthe earth; and that we may join the blest company of the won ones, and\nbecome co-wooers with God of the others.\n\nS. D. G.\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n\nI. John's Story\n\nII. The Wooing Lover\n\n     Who it was that came.\n\nIII. The Lover Wooing\n\n     A group of pictures illustrating how the wooing was done and how\n     the Lover was received.\n\nIV. Closer Wooing\n\n     An evening with opening hearts: the story of a supper and a walk in\n     the moonlight and the shadows.\n\nV. The Greatest Wooing\n\n     A night and a day with hardening hearts: the story of tender\n     passion and of a terrible tragedy.\n\nVI. An Appointed Tryst Unexpectedly Kept\n\n     A day of startling joyous surprises.\n\nVII. Another Tryst\n\n     A story of fishing, of guests at breakfast, and of a walk and talk\n     by the edge of blue Galilee.\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nJohn's Story\n\n\n\n\n    \"I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;\n      I fled Him, down the arches of the years;\n    I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways\n      Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears\n    I hid from Him, and under running laughter.\n          Up vistaed hopes, I sped;\n          And shot, precipitated,\n    Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,\n      From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.\"\n\n    --_Francis Thompson, in \"The Hound of Heaven_.\"\n\n\"These are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son\nof God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.\"--_John xx.\n31_.\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nJohn's Story\n\n\n\nThe Heart-strings of God.\n\n\nThere's a tense tugging at the heart of God. The heart-strings of God\nare tight, as tight as tight can be. For there's a tender heart that's\neasily tugged at one end, and an insistent tugging at the other. The\ntugging never ceases. The strings never slack. They give no signs of\neasing or getting loose.\n\nIt's the tug of man's sore need at the down-end, the man-end, of the\nstrings. And it's the sore tug of grief over the way things are going on\ndown here with men, at the other end, the up-end, the heart-end, of the\nstrings. It's the tense pull-up of a love that grows stronger with the\ngrowth of man's misunderstanding.\n\nBut the heart-strings never snap. The heart itself breaks under the\ntension of love and grief, grieved and grieving love. But the strings\nonly strengthen and tighten under the strain of use.\n\nThose heart-strings are a bit of the heart they're tied to, an inner\nbit, aye the innermost bit, the inner heart of the heart. They are the\nbit pulled, and pulled more, and pulled harder, till the strings grew.\nMan was born in the warm heart of God. Was there ever such a womb! Was\nthere ever such another borning, homing place!\n\nIt was man's going away that stretched the heart out till the strings\ngrew. The tragedy of sin revealed the toughness and tenderness of love.\nFor that heart never let go of the man whom it borned. Man tried to pull\naway, poor thing. In his foolish misunderstanding and heady wilfulness\nhe tried to cut loose. If he had known God better he would never have\ntried that. He'd never have _started_ away; and he'd never have tried to\n_get_ away.\n\nFor love never faileth. A heart--the real thing of a heart, that is,\nGod's heart--never lets go. It breaks; but let go? not once: never yet.\nThe breaking only loosens the red that glues fast with a tighter hold\nthan ever. The fibre of the heart--God's heart--is made of too strong\nstuff to loosen or wear out or snap. Love never faileth. It can't;\nbecause it's love.\n\nNow all this explains Jesus. It was man's pull on these heart-strings\nthat brought Him down. The pull was so strong and steady. It grew tenser\nand more insistent. And straight down He came by the shortest way, the\nway of those same heart-strings. For the heart-strings of God are the\nshortest distance between two given points, the point of God's giving,\ngoing love, and the point of man's sore need, given a sharper-pointed\nend by its very soreness.\n\nIt is a sort of blind pull, this pull of man on the heart of God; a\nconfused, unconscious, half-conscious, dust-blinded, slippery-road sort\nof pulling, but one whose tight grip never slacks. Man needs God, but\ndoes not know it. He knows he needs _some_thing. He feels that keenly.\nBut he does not know that it's God whom he needs, with a very few rare\nexceptions. It doesn't seem to have entered his head that he'll never\nget out of his tight corner till God gets him out.\n\nDown the street of life he goes, eyes blinded by the thick dust, ears\ndeafened by the cries of the crowd, by the noise of the street without,\nand the noise of passions and fevered ambitions within, heart a-wearied\nby the confusion of it all, groping, stumbling, jostled and jostling,\nhitting this way and that, with the fever high in his blood, and his\nfeet aching and bleeding; sometimes the polish of culture on the\nsurface; _some_times rags and dirt; but underneath the same thing.\n\nYet under all there's a vague but very real feeling of that unceasing\npull upward upon His heart-strings. But though blind and vague and\nconfused that tugging is never the less tense, but ever more, and then\nyet more.\n\nJesus was God answering the tug of man's need on His heart-strings. And\nso naturally there was an answering feel in man's heart. Man felt the\nanswer a-coming. There was a great stir in the spirit-currents of earth\nwhen Jesus came. A thrill of expectancy ran through the world, Roman,\nGreek, Barbarian, far and wide, as Jesus drew near. The book-makers of\nthat time all speak of it. It was the vibration of those same\nheart-strings connecting man and God.\n\nThe move at God's end was felt at man's. The coming down along the\nhighway of the strings thrilled and stirred and awed the hearts into\nwhich those strings led, and where they were so tightly knotted. The\nearth-currents spread the news. Man heard; he felt; he knew: vaguely,\nblindly, wearily, yet very really he heard and felt and recognized that\nhelp, a Friend, some One, was nearing.\n\nAnd then when Jesus walked among men how He did pull upon their hearts!\nSo quietly He went about. So sympathetically He looked and listened. So\nwarm was the human touch of His hand. So strong was the lift of His arm\nto ease their load. So potent was the spell of His unfailing power to\ngive relief. How He did pull! And how men did answer to that pull!\nUnresistingly, eagerly, as weary child in mother's arms at close of day,\nthey came crowding to Him.\n\n\n\nThe Fourfold Message.\n\n\nIt is fascinating to find one book in this old Book of God given up\nwholly to telling of this, John's Gospel. Of course the whole of the\nBook is really given up to it, when one gets the whole simple view of it\nat one glance. But so many of us don't get that whole simple glance.\n\nSo to make it easier for us simple common folk, and to make sure of our\ngetting it, there is one little book, hardly big enough to call a book,\njust a few pages devoted wholly to letting us see this one thing. You\ncan see the whole of the sun in a single drop of water. You can see the\nwhole of the Book of God in this one little book that John wrote.\n\nJohn's Gospel is like the small tracing of the artist's pen on the\nlower corner of an etching, the remarque, put there as a signature, the\nartist's personal mark that the picture is genuine, the real thing. The\nwhole consummate skill of the artist is revealed at a glance in the\nsimple outline-tracing on the margin. The whole of the God-story in the\nlarger picture of the whole Book is given in few simple clear lines in\nthis exquisite little thing commonly called John's Gospel.\n\nIt is striking to make the discovery that John's little book has _a\ndistinctive message as a book_. It is full of messages, of course. But I\nmean that there is a distinct story told by the book as a whole, by the\nvery way it is put together. It is told by the very sort of language\nused, the words chosen as the leading words of the book. It is told by\nthe picture that clearly fills John's eye as he writes, and by the very\nspirit that floods the pages as a soft light, and that breaks out of\nthem as the subtle fragrance of locust blossoms in the spring.\n\nThe fragrance of flowers cannot be analyzed: it must be smelled and\nfelt. That's the only way you'll ever know it. The fine scholarly\nanalyses of John are helpful. But there's the subtler something that\ncannot be diagramed or analyzed or synthesized. It eludes the\nrazor-edged knife, and the keenly critical survey. It is recognized only\nby one's spirit, and then only when the spirit is warm, and in tune with\nJohn's.\n\nOf course each of the Gospel stories has a message of its own, quite\napart from the group of facts common to them all. And these four\nmessages together give us the fuller distinctive message of these four\nlittle books. And a very winsome message it is, too, that takes hold of\none's heart, and takes a warm strong hold at that.\n\n_Matthew_ tells us that Jesus is a _King_. For a great purpose He chose\nto live as a peasant, as one of the common folks. But He was of the\nblood royal. He has the long unbroken kingly lineage. He showed kingly\npower in His actions, kingly wisdom in His teachings, and the fine\nkingly spirit in His gracious kindliness of touch. He was gladly\naccepted and served as King by those who understood Him best. He was\nacknowledged as King by the Roman Governor; and He died as a King, and\nas a King was laid in a newly hewn tomb.\n\n_Mark_ adds a fine touch to this picture, a warm touch with colour in\nit,--this King of ours is _a serving King_. This comes not only with a\nwarm feel, but it comes as a distinct surprise. Men's kings are _served_\nkings. There have been kings, and are, who rendered their people a fine\nhigh service, and do. But the overpowering impression given the common\ncrowd watching on the street is that kings are superior beings, to be\nwaited upon, humbly bowed to, and implicitly obeyed. They are to be\nserved.\n\nBat Mark's picture shows us a King whose passion is to serve. The\nservice which He draws out of His followers is drawn out by His warm\nserving spirit towards us. The words on the royal coat-of-arms are, \"Not\nto be ministered unto, but to minister.\" And in the first meaning of the\nwords He Himself used that means \"not to be _served_ but to _serve_.\" In\nMark the air is tense with rapid action. The quick executive movement of\na capable servant is felt in the terse words short sentences and swift\naction of the story.\n\nThere's yet warmer colouring in _Luke's_ picture. This serving King is\n_nearest of kin to us!_ He is not only of the blood royal, but of the\nblood human. He is bone of our bone, blood of our blood, and life of our\ncommon life. He came to us through a rare union of God's power with\nhuman consent and human function, never known before nor repeated since.\nThis is the bit that Luke adds to the composite message of these four\nlittle God-story books.\n\nHere Jesus has a tenderness of human sympathy with us men, for He and we\nare brothers. There's an outlook as broad as the race. No national\nboundaries limit its reach. No sectional prejudices warp or shut Him off\nfrom sympathetic touch with any. He shares our common life. He knows our\nhuman temptations, and knows them with a reality that is painful, and\nwith an intensity that wets His brow and shuts His jaw hard.\n\nThis king who serves is _a man_. He _can_ be a king of men for He is a\n_man_. He has the first qualification. I might use an old-fashioned word\nin the first old-time meaning,--He is _a fellow_, one who shares the\nbed and bread of our common experience. And so He is _kin to us_, both\nin lineage and in experience, in blood and in spirit.\n\nAnd John's share in this partnership message adds a simple bold touch of\ncolouring that makes the picture a masterpiece, _the_ masterpiece. This\nKing who serves, and is nearest of kin to us, is also _nearest of kin to\nGod_. He is not only of the blood royal, and the blood human, but of the\nblood divine. He was with God before calendars came into use. He was the\nGod of that creative Genesis week. He came on an errand down to the\nearth, and when the errand was done, and well done, He went back home,\nbearing on His person the marks of His fidelity to the Father's errand.\nThis is John's bit of rich high colouring.\n\nAnd so _we are nearest of kin to God_ through Jesus. Kinship is always a\nmatter of blood. There is a double kinship, through the blood of\ninheritance, and the blood of sacrifice. Our _inherited_ kinship of\nblood has been lost. But His blood of sacrifice has made a new kinship.\nWe had broken the entail of our inheritance clean beyond mending. We\nwere _outcasts_ by our own act. But He _cast in_. His lot with us, and\nso drew us back and up and in. He made a new entail through His blood.\nAnd that new entail is as unbreakable as the old broken one is\nunmendable. And so we come into the family of a King. And we are\nkingliest in character when we are Christliest in spirit and action. We\nare most like the King when we are helping others.\n\nOur true motto, in our relation to our fellows, is: \"I am among you as\nhe that serveth.\" Towel and basin, bended knee and comforted\npilgrim-feet and refreshed spirit,--this is our family crest. We're kin\nto all the race through Jesus. Black skin and white, yellow and brown;\nround heads and long, slanting eyes and oval, in slum alley and palatial\nhome, below the equator and above it,--all are our kinsmen.\n\nWe are reaching highest when we are stooping lowest to help some one up.\nWe're nearest like God in character when we're getting nearest in touch\nto those needing help. We are kingliest and Godliest and Christliest\nwhen we're controlled by men's needs, but always under the higher\ncontrol of the Holy Spirit.\n\nThis is the composite message of the four Gospels; and this is its\npractical human outworking.\n\n\n\nGod on a Wooing Errand.\n\n\nBut it's the other John message we are especially after just now.\nThere's another message of John's book quite distinct from this, though\nnaturally allied with it. And this other is the crowding message of his\nbook. Its thought crowds in upon you till every other is crowded into\nsecond place. And as it gets hold of you it crowds your mind and heart\nand life till every other is either crowded out, or crowded to a lower\nplace; _out_, if it jars; _lower place_, if it agrees, for every\nagreeing bit yields to the lead of this tremendous message.\n\nBut one must get hold of John before John's message gets hold of him.\nJohn was swayed by a passion. It was a fiery passion flaming through all\nhis life. It burned through him as the fierce forest fire burns through\nthe underbrush. Every base thing was eaten up by its flame. Every less\nworthy thing came under its heat. It melted and mellowed and moulded his\nwhole being.\n\nIt was _the Jesus-passion_. It was kindled that memorable afternoon\nearly in his life down in the Jordan bottoms.[1] John's namesake, the\nHerald, applied the kindling match. From then on the flames never\nflickered nor burned low. They increased steadily, and they increased in\npurity, until his whole life was under their holy heat.\n\nJohn didn't always understand his Master. Sometimes he misunderstood.\nBut he never failed in his trust of Him, nor in his fidelity to Him. Of\nthe chosen inner circle John was the one who remained true through the\nsorest test, that betrayal-night test. Judas betrayed; Peter denied; the\nnine fled in terror down the road to save their cowardly lives; John\nwent in \"_with_ Jesus.\" That fiery nature of his, that early won for him\nthe stormy name \"son of thunder,\" came completely under the sway of this\nholier tenderer stronger flame, and burned itself out in a passion of\nlove for Jesus.\n\nThe Jesus-passion swayed John completely. This explains the man, and his\ncareer. It explains this little book of his ripe old age. And only this\ncan. One must read the book through John's own heart, then he begins to\nunderstand it. This Jesus-passioned man is the key to the book, the\nhuman key.\n\nAnd the distinctive message of the book is simply this: _Jesus was God\non a wooing errand to the earth_. That simple sentence covers fully all\nthat is found in John's twenty-one chapters. Every line in these\nfourteen or fifteen pages can be traced back into that brief statement.\n\nIndeed this becomes an outline of the book. See: in the opening\nparagraphs the wooing Lover is coming down to earth.[2] In the first\ntwelve chapters the Lover is pleading winsomely and earnestly for\nacceptance.[3] Then He is seen in closest touch with the inner group of\nthose who have accepted, opening His heart yet more, wooing still\ncloser.[4] Then comes the last tragic pleading, pleading in intensest\naction, with those who persist in rejecting.[5] And then the last close\nheart-touches with the inner circle.[6]\n\n\n\nThe Water-Mark of John's Gospel.\n\n\nThe very words John so thoughtfully chooses as his leading words bear\nthe distinct impress of this, like the sharply indented stamp of the\nmint on the new coin. Two such words stand out above all others,\n\"believe\" and \"witness.\" The first actually occurs oftenest, sounding\nout like the dominant chord of music running throughout a symphony. The\nsecond is like the chief warp-thread into which the fabric is being\nwoven.\n\nThe two words are really twins, born at the same time, of the same\nmother. They grow up together and work in perfect accord. The witnessing\nis that men may understand and believe. It's the servant leading up to\nthe belief that shall become the mastering thing. The belief is servant,\ntoo, in turn, leading up to the witnessing that becomes the mastering\npassion in those who believe.\n\nThese words are worth digging into for the fine gold that lies hidden\nwithin waiting the miner's pick. The word \"believe\" is a nugget of pure\ngold, whether you take our English word or John's word lying underneath.\nThe underneath word, that John uses in his own mother tongue, runs a\nsliding scale of meaning.\n\nIt's a ladder rising from bottom round to topmost. It means to be\npersuaded that a thing is true; then to place confidence in it, to\ntrust. And _trust_ always contains the idea of _risk_. The heart-meaning\nalways is that you _risk_ something very precious to you, risk it to the\npoint of heart-breaking disaster if your trust proves wrong.\n\nOur English word is of very close kin. It runs the same sort of sliding\nscale, from something valuable and precious in itself, on to something\nthat _satisfies you_ regarding the matter in hand. You are not only\nsatisfied but pleased, content. And so there is the same trusting and\nrisking, the same leaning your whole weight upon the thing. Deep down\nat its root, _believe_ is a close kinsman to _love_. They both spring\nout of the same warm creative womb.\n\nWhen we dig a bit into that word _believe_ in the usage of common life\nit means three distinct things, each leading straight into the\nother,--knowledge, belief, trust. That is, _facts_, facts _accepted_,\nfacts _trusted_ in regard to something that takes hold of your life. You\nhear something. You believe it's true. But there must be the third\nthing, risking something valuable. There's no belief in the\nheart-meaning without this thing of _risking_. The trust that risks is\nthe life blood of faith. The rest is only the bony skeleton with tendons\nand sinews and flesh. There's no life without the blood. There's no\nbelief without trust.\n\nAnd the word _witness_ is the same pure-gold sort of nugget, assaying\nfull weight. John's native word and our own are just the same in\nmeaning. Their meaning is _to tell what you know_. We shall be running\nacross this word again, and digging a bit deeper into it. But this is\nthe thing that stands out in it. You tell something that you yourself\nknow. There's personal knowledge. There's a telling some one else this\nthing you know. And yet more, there's the purpose in the telling, that\nothers may know what you know, and get all the good that comes with\nknowing it.\n\nThe _witnessing_ is that others may _believe_. It is a striking thing in\nJohn that the _thought_ of witness is more common than the _word_. The\nword occurs several times, and always in a leading way. But the thought\nof witnessing is the colouring of every page, and the chief colouring.\n\nI said that these two words were twins, born at the same time, of the\nsame mother. That warm-hearted brooding mother is the word _wooing_.\nOriginally _wooing_ means bending towards, inclining forward or reaching\nout towards another. And the purpose of the reaching out is to get the\nother to reach forward towards you. And that purpose puts the warm feel\ninto the reaching out.\n\nAll words were pictures first. Here in this word _wooing_ is a picture,\nby one of the old masters, waiting to be restored, with all the dusty\naccumulations of the years carefully removed. And here's the picture: a\nman standing, with the light of the morning shining in His eyes, body\nbending forward, hands reaching out, with an eagerness, an expectancy in\nevery line of His body, and tender love glowing out of His face, and\nsounding in the very tones with which the voice is calling.\n\nThis picture is really the water-mark on the paper of John's Gospel.\nHold up the paper of John's Gospel to the light. The best light for the\npurpose is found on Mount Calvary. High altitudes have clearer light.\nYou see more distinctly. Now look. Hold still that you may see all the\noutlines more distinctly. There's the form of a Man standing in pleading\nattitude, with outstretched hands. His face combines all the fineness of\nthe finest woman's face, with all the strength of the strongest man's,\nand more, immensely more, all the purity and tenderness and power of\n_God's_ face. It _is_ God Himself in human form coming a-wooing to\nearth, and we call His name Jesus. This conception is the very\natmosphere of John's Gospel.\n\nJesus is the witness of the Father to men. He knew the Father. He knew\nHim by closest intimacy. He lived with Him. He came down to _tell_ what\nHe knew. He wanted others to know too. He wanted them to know _even as_\nHe knew. _Telling_ is the whole of Jesus; telling men of the Father.\n\nHis mere presence, His character, His warm sympathy, His practical\nhelpfulness, His words, His actions, most of all His dying and His\nrising, all these were a _telling_, a witnessing, a wooing; telling the\nFather's love, telling the damnableness of our sin by giving His very\nlife blood to get it out of us; so telling us how we might really know\nthe mother-heart of the Father.\n\n\n\nJesus the Dividing Line.\n\n\nThere are several contrasts between the first three Gospels and John's.\nIt is very striking to notice one in particular in this connection. One\nreading the first three Gospels for the first time is impressed with the\nfact of Jesus' _rejection_. This stands out peculiarly and dominantly.\nIt was the great fact, told most terribly in the death of Jesus. It was\nthe thing that stood out sharpest in the generation to which Jesus\nbelonged, the generation for whom these three Gospels were written at\nthe first.\n\nBut John wrote his story for an after-generation, a generation that had\nnot known the man Jesus by personal touch and observation. And so it was\nfor all after-generations. And John makes it very clear that Jesus was\nrejected, _and_ accepted.\n\nHe was indeed _rejected_; that fact stands out as painfully here as in\nthe others. He was rejected by the little inner clique that held the\nnational reins, and held them with fevered tenacity, and drove hard. And\nthe reason for it is made to stand out as plainly as the fact. The envy\nand jealousy, the intense bitterness and viciousness and devilish\nobstinacy back of the rejection stand as boldly out to all eyes as to\nPilate's.\n\nBut the other side stands out sharply too. Jesus was _accepted_. He was\naccepted by all classes, by the cultured, and the scholarly, by\nthoughtful studious leaders and officials of the nation. He was accepted\nby the great middle classes and by those in lowest scale socially, and\nby the moral outcasts. Intense Hebrews, Roman officials of high rank,\nhalf-breed Samaritans, and men of outside nations group themselves\ntogether by their full acceptance of Jesus.\n\nHe was listened to, doubted, questioned, discussed, thought over, _and\nthen accepted._ And He was accepted with a faith and with a love that\ncounted not suffering nor sacrifice for the sake of Him whom they\nbelieved and trusted and loved. John makes this clear, rejected _and_\naccepted.\n\nJesus divided the crowds. Down the road He comes, with quiet strength,\nwitnessing to the great simple truth of the Father's pure strong wooing\nlove. And the crowd looks and listens and--_divides_. Some reject;\nclearly they are a minority, but entrenched in a position of power that\nproves quite sufficient for their purpose. Though it took all the power\nat their command to carry out their purpose.\n\nOthers accept. These are the crowds, the majority. Some don't\nunderstand. Their motives are selfish or mixed, like some other folks'\nmotives. Some are played upon by the cunning of the leaders and swung\naway. But there remain the thoughtful ones whose faith goes from\nweakness to strength; it grows from more to yet more. It mellows from a\ntrue simple faith to a deepened, seasoned, sorely-tested,\nsurely-toughened faith that loves, loves clear down to the roots, and\nendures gladly. This is the simple warp-thread into which John's very\nsimple story of Jesus is woven.\n\n\n\nSpelling God.\n\n\n_I_ want to give you _a bunch of keys_, as we start into these homely\ntalks in John's Gospel. They are simple keys. Any one can use them. They\nfit easily and smoothly into every lock, the lock of your life, the lock\nof any circumstance, any sore problem that may come up to baffle all\nyour efforts. They bring treasures within easy reach. They open up the\nway into all you need. There is a key to God, a key to the Book of God,\nand then there are three keys to this little John book.\n\n_The key to God_ is in one little word. It has two spellings, sometimes\nwith four letters, sometimes with five, and both correct spellings. The\nfour-lettered spelling is for all the world. The five-lettered spelling\nis chiefly used in the western half of the earth, and along certain\nlines and in certain spots here and there in the eastern half where the\nword is known.\n\nThat first spelling is l-o-v-e. God is love. Love is of God. _God is\nalways controlled by a purpose_ in all His dealings with the race, and\nwith you and me. There is no chance-happening with Him, no caprice, no\nshadow in His path that tells of His being swerved aside, by anything we\ndo, from a steady purpose.\n\nAnd that controlling purpose is _always a purpose of love._ It's a\npurpose of strong steady pure clinging brooding love. The bother is we\ndon't know what that word _love_ means; none of us. We know words but\nnot the real things they stand for. We don't know the real thing of love\nbecause we don't know the real thing of God. If we knew, oh! if we but\nknew it--Him--how that simple statement would melt us down, and mellow\nus through, and mould us all over anew!\n\nThat's the shorter spelling. It is the universal spelling. That love is\nbeing spelled out to all the race by every twinkling star in the upper\nblue, every shade of green in the lower brown, by every cooling shading\nnight, and every fragrantly dewy morning. Every breath of air and bite\nof food and draught of water is repeating God's spelling lesson. These\nare the pages in God's primer. So we all may learn to spell out God. And\nso we get the right spelling of our own lives.\n\nThen there's the other spelling, the five-lettered, J-e-s-u-s. It's the\nsame thing, only spelled differently; spelled in a yet better way. The\nspelling grows bigger to us when Jesus comes. When we know Him it takes\nmore to spell out and to tell out God's love. God grows larger to our\neyes as He comes walking among us as Jesus. No, He doesn't grow larger.\nWe simply begin to find out how large He is.\n\nThis is the closer, more human spelling. The letters are nearer and seem\nbigger as they come walking down the street where we live, and knock at\nour own door. They're easier spelled out. We can get hold of them\nbetter. Love is a thing, we _think_. Jesus is _a person_. It's so\ndifferent to touch a person. But when we know, we know that both\nspellings tell the same thing. So far, only about a third of us have\nheard anything about this second, this closer spelling. Two out of three\nhaven't heard about it yet. But those who really know this spelling are\neager for the others to get it, too.\n\nGod is always controlled by a great simple purpose in thinking of you\nand me. And it is an unfailing purpose of strong tender love. This is\nthe first key. Any one may take it and use it. It is unfailing. It will\nfit every lock. It unlock every problem. It will open up the riches to\nany life. They're brought within easy reach of any hand by the steady\nuse of this key.\n\nThis is the key to God. It unlocks the doors and lets Him freely into\nour lives. Then we find out how much truer it is than we can understand.\n\nThen there's _the key to the Book of God._ There are many keys here, of\ncourse. Daily time alone with the Book, thoughtful reading, prayer, some\nsimple plan, putting into your life what has been put in its\npages,--these are all good keys. But there's a master-key, _the_\nmaster-key. It is simply this: glad surrender of will to the God of the\nBook. I mean a strong intelligent yielding to His mastery in all of\none's plans and life. The highest act of the strongest will is yielding\nto a higher will when you find it. And you find the higher, the highest,\nwill here.\n\nThis is the master-key. Bending the will affects eyes and ears and mind.\nThe hinges of eye and ear are in the will. As the will bends those\nhinges move of themselves. Eye and ear and mind open. The lower the will\nbends, the more fully and habitually, the more will eyes and ears open,\nthe keener and more alert will be the mental processes, the more\nintelligent the understanding. And there comes to be a continual mutual\nshifting. With better understanding can come stronger more intelligent\nyielding of will, and so again clearer light.\n\nAnd it is striking to discover that there's a practical connection\nbetween the joints of the knees and the joint of the will. The bending\nof knees to a sharp right angle affects the will. It is easier to bend\nit. It bends better and more. And this grows. The habitual bending of\nthe knees helps make habitual and stronger and more intelligent the\nbending of the will.\n\nThis is the master-key to the Book of God. It opens every lock and page.\nIt opens us to the Book, and opens the Book to us. It frees out to us\nthe wondrous Spirit who is in these pages. And so through the opened\nBook there come to be the direct touch with the God of the Book. We\ndon't come to the Book merely; we come _through_ it to Him who comes\nthrough it to us. This is the second key in this bunch.\n\n\n\nThree Keys.\n\n\nNow, I want to give you _the three keys to John's Gospel._ There's a\nback-door key, a side-door key, and a front-door key. These keys hang\noutside the doors, low down, that so any one who wants to can easily\nreach up, and get them. And if used faithfully and simply they will be\nfound to unlock every page and line and difficult question.\n\n_The back-door key_ hangs right at the back door. It is the very last\nverse of chapter twenty. That really was the last chapter at first. The\nthought of the book comes to a close there. The story is complete. Then\nthe Holy Spirit led John to add a little, a second last-chapter, an\nadded touch for good measure. Love is never content. It is always adding\nmore.\n\nHere is the key: \"_these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is\nthe Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life through\nHis name_.\" This was John's whole thought in telling the Jesus-story.\nThe practical gripped him wholly and hard. This is the thing that guides\nhis selection of incidents. This purpose shapes the shape of the book.\nIt explains everything told, and just why it is told in just the way it\nis told.\n\nJohn lets Jesus walk before our eyes fresh from His Father's presence.\nThe mere fact of His presence, the winsomeness of His personality, the\nclearness of His teaching, the power of His actions, the uncompromising\npurity of His character amidst sin-stained crowds and sin-dirtied\nsurroundings, the unflinching rigidity of His ideals, the persuasiveness\nof His very manner and tone of speech, the patience and gentleness, the\nrugged granite strength, the mother tenderness, above all the\nwillingness to suffer so terribly,--all this is a plea, a tremendous\noverpowering plea, all the stronger because presented so simply and\nbriefly. Jesus is a Lover and this is His wooing.\n\nAnd John's one thought in writing is the same as the one thought in the\nLover's heart. John has become simply an echo of Jesus. It is this, that\n_you_, whoever you are, wherever, whatever, that you may _believe_. You\nlook and listen, question, puzzle a bit maybe, but keep on listening and\nlooking, thinking, weighing, till you are clear these things are just so\nas John tells them. Yon accept them as trustworthy. Then you accept\n_Him_, Jesus, as He comes to you, your wooing Lover, your Lover-God,\nyour Saviour and Lord.\n\nYou _believe_: that is you _love_. The grammar of the word works itself\nout inside you thus,--believe, trust, love. The truth comes in through\neyes and ears and feeling, into brain and will; through emotion clear\ndown into your heart. You love. You cannot help yourself. You love\n_Him_, Jesus, the One so lovable.\n\nJohn says that you _may_ believe. It is possible. It is the reasonable\nintelligent thing to do after such a presentation. John makes it easy\nfor us to believe. His telling of the story is so strong and convincing,\nthough so simple and short, that believing is the natural thing. Jesus\nHimself, as He conies to us through John's eyes and speech, is so\nbelievable, so trustworthy, so lovable.\n\nNow we _may_ believe. It's the thing to do after a thoughtful kneeful\nstudy of the case as put by John. We _may believe_ clear into and\nthrough intellect and emotions and will, right down into the depths of\nheart and love, clear out into every action of the life.\n\nAnd John sweeps in the whole crowd of the world in the way he puts it\nhere. Listen: \"that you may believe that Jesus is _the Christ_.\" That\nwas for the Jew peculiarly in the first instance. The Jew had been\ntaught through generations that there was One coming who was God's\nchosen One for the Hebrew nation. He was the _Anointed One_. The Hebrew\nsaid _Messiah_. The Greek said _Christ_. Both mean the same, the One\nchosen of God, anointed by Him as the King and Leader of His chosen\npeople, and through them of all the race.\n\nListen further: \"that Jesus is _the Son of God.\" That_ is for all of us,\nJew and foreigner, insider and outsider. This Jesus is in a distinctive\nsense _the_ Son of God, the only begotten Son. This pure loving pleading\nwooing suffering dying rising-again Jesus, this is the only begotten Son\nof the Father. All there is in a Father comes to, and is in, an only\nbegotten son. This is God Himself coming to us in His Son.\n\nOnce let this sift into thought and heart, then who would _not_ believe,\n_and_ trust, _and_ love, _and_ fall on his face in the utter devotion of\na voluntary slave before such a God!\n\nAnd so believing, trusting, loving, touching, His life flows in and\nfills up and floods out. We have it _now_. That word _eternal_, used so\noften by John with the word _life_, is not a mere _length_ word. It is\nnot a calendar word. It tells the sort of life, the quality of life,\nthat comes in through the opening door of our believing. This is John's\nback-door key, but it lets you clear in through the whole house.\n\nThen there is _the side-door key_. It hangs at the side, a bit towards\nthe back. It is in the Thursday night talk, as we commonly call it, that\nlast heart-talk with the inner group on the betrayal night. It is in\nchapter sixteen, verse twenty-eight: \"_I came out from the Father, and\nam come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the\nFather_.\"\n\nRun through this Gospel with that fresh in your mind, and it is\nperfectly fascinating to find how much like a magnet it is, picking out\nto itself so many bits from the Master's lips that fit exactly into it.\nJesus' constant thought was that He used to be with the Father; He came\ndown on an errand to the earth. By and by when the errand was done He\nwould go back home again.\n\nThis sentence becomes a simple, exact, comprehensive outline of the\nentire Gospel. Notice: \"_I came out from the Father_\": that is chapter\none, verses one to eighteen. There Jesus is seen coming down from His\nFather's own presence. Then chapter one, verse nineteen through to the\nclose of the twelfth chapter is fully described and covered by the next\nclause, \"_and am come into the world_.\" Here He is seen in the world, in\nthe midst of its crowds and contentions and oppositions.\n\n\"_Again, I leave the world_,\"--chapters thirteen to nineteen. In chapters\nthirteen to seventeen He is tenderly leaving the inner circle. In\nchapters eighteen and nineteen He is going out of the world by the\nterrible doorway of the cross it had carpentered for Him. How quietly He\nsays the words, though the terrible going is yet to come, and is now so\nnear that He can already feel the shame and the thorns and the nails.\n\nAnd as quietly He looks beyond and adds, \"_and go unto the Father_.\" In\nchapters twenty and twenty-one He lingers a little for the sake of these\nbeing left behind, but His face is already turned homeward. They would\nhold Him in their midst. He quietly tells them that He is going back\nhome to the Father to get things ready for them, as He had said.\n\n\n\nHe Comes to His Own.\n\n\n_The front-door key_ hangs right at the very front, outside, low down,\nwhere even a child's hand can reach it. It is in chapter one, verses\neleven and twelve: \"_He came unto His own, and they that were His own\nreceived Him not. But as many as received Him to them gave He the right\nto become children of God, even to them who believe on His name_.\" This\nis the great key, the chief key to this whole house. It flings the front\ndoor wide open and you are inside at once, and take in the whole of the\nhouse at a glance, one glance, one wonderful glance.\n\nThe first twelve chapters tell of Jesus coming to His own, His own\nnation, humanly, racially, His own chosen people. He is coming steadily\nand persistently, in spite of rebuffs; coming patiently, tenderly,\nearnestly; coming ever closer in the ever increasing measure of divine\npower seen in His actions.\n\nAnd continually, persistently, He is being rejected and accepted. He is\nrejected silently and contemptuously, then aggressively and bitterly,\nviciously and murderously. \"His own received Him not.\" But many received\nHim, eagerly and warmly and thoughtfully. They received Him with a\ngrowing depth of conviction and deepening tenderness of love. And as\nthey come, He is ever receiving them, giving them that touch of new\nlife that marks only the children of God.\n\nIn chapters thirteen to seventeen He is receiving into closer fellowship\nthose who have received Him, and at the same time wooing them into yet\ncloser touch. The story of the trial and crucifixion in chapters\neighteen and nineteen, puts the most terrific emphasis on the words,\n\"_received Him not_.\" They not only keep Him out of His own possessions,\nbut do their worst in putting Him out of life. And the little book\ncloses in its last two chapters with His receivers being received into\nthe sweetest intimacies of tested triumphant love and into the inner\nsecrets of rarest resurrection power.\n\nThis is the most heart-breaking of all of John's heart-breaking\nsentences. John had a hard time writing this Gospel of his. He was not\nsimply writing a book; that might have been fairly easy. But he was\ntelling about a friend of his, _the_ friend of his life, his one dearest\nFriend. And when he remembers how they treated Him his eyes fill up, and\nhis heart beats till it thumps, and his quill sticks into the paper in\nsheer reluctance to tell the story.\n\nI think likely in the original manuscript, John's own first copy, the\nwriting was a bit shaky and uneven here. The dew of his wet eyes drops\nand blurs the words a bit as he puts down, \"He came to His own, and . .\nthey who were His own . . _received . . Him . . not_.\"\n\nOne day a young student was crossing the quadrangles of one of the old\nScottish Universities towards his quarters in the dormitory. He was not\nfeeling well. His eyes had troubled him and made his work very\ndifficult. On the advice of a friend he sought the judgment of an expert\nin the treatment of the eyes. The specialist made a very thorough\nexamination and then informed the young student tactfully but plainly\nthat he would lose his eyesight, surely and not slowly.\n\nLose his eyesight? A sudden terrific actual blow between his eyes could\nnot have stunned his body more than this stunned brain and heart. Lose\nhis eyesight! All his plans and coveted ambitions seemed slipping clean\nout from his grasp. With the loss of eyes would go the loss of\nuniversity training, and so of all his dreams. Dazed, blinded, he groped\nhis way rather than walked out of the physician's office.\n\nHis life was to be joined with another's. And now he turned his\ndistracted steps towards her home, hungry doubtless for some word or\ntouch of comfort for his sore heart. And he was thinking, too, that with\nthis utter break-up of the future she must be told. And as he talked he\nsaid in quiet manly words that under these unexpected circumstances, and\nthe radical change in his prospects, she must be free to do as she\nthought best.\n\nAnd she took her freedom! Yet she was a woman. And a woman's mission is\nto teach man love by the real thing of love, by being it herself, and\ndrawing it out into full flower in him. That was the second staggering\nblow. A second time he groped his dazed way out of the house, down the\nstreet, into his lone student quarters.\n\nBut another One was near, brooding over him, and tenderly holding his\nbreaking heart, and speaking words of warm comfort, and breathing in the\nfreshing breath of true love. And as he yielded to this it overcame all\nelse. A new mood came and dominated. And it became the fixed thing\nmastering all his life. Now he sits down, and out of his torn bleeding\nbut newly-touched heart writes the words we have all learned to sing:\n\n    \"O Love that will _not_ let me go,\n      I rest my weary soul in Thee,\n    I give Thee back the life I owe,\n      That in thine ocean depths its flow\n        May richer, fuller be.\n\n    \"O Light that followest all my way,\n      I yield my flickering torch to Thee;\n    My heart restores its borrowed ray\n      That in Thy sunshine's glow its day\n        May brighter, fairer be.\n\n    \"O Joy that seekest me through pain,\n      I cannot close my heart to Thee;\n    I trace the rainbow through the rain,\n      And feel the promise is not vain\n        That morn shall tearless be.\n\n    \"O Cross that liftest up my head,\n      I dare not ask to hide from Thee;\n    I lay in dust life's glory dead,\n      And from the ground there blossoms red\n        Life that shall endless be.\"\n\nAnd with but a single change, the change of a word or two in one line,\nthey stand as at first written. I suppose his biographer omitted the\nincident for the same reason that the first three Gospels may have\nomitted the incident of Lazarus while he was still living. So there was\na sheltering from personal embarrassment.\n\nHe came to his own and his own received him not. _He_--Jesus came to\n_His_ own and they that were His own received Him not. Aye, there's more\nto add: He _comes_ to His own--you and me--to-day. And His own--\n\nYou and I must finish that sentence, each in his own way. And we will;\nand we do. We may copy out in our lives just what these men of old did\nas told by John. Some of us do. We _may_ do some fine revision work on\nthe text of John's version as we translate it now into the experience of\nour own hearts, and into the life of our own lives. That's the only way\nto understand the next sentence about being taken into the family of God\nand sharing the fullness of life that is common there.\n\nAnd this bit that is put down here is only a bit of copy work. _These\nthings_ are talked and written only that we may be given a lift into\ncloser touch of heart and life with the Christ, the Son of God, and the\nBrother and Saviour of men.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nThe Wooing Lover\n\n     _Who it Was that Came_\n\n\n\n\n       \"But with unhurrying chase,\n        And unperturbed pace,\n    Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,\n        They beat--and a Voice beat\n        More instant than the Feet--\n    _'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me'_\"\n\n                    --\"_The Hound of Heaven._\"\n\n\n    \"Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any\n    man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in\n    to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.\"\n\n    --_Rev. iii. 20._\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nThe Wooing Lover\n\n(John i. 1-18.)\n\n\n\nIn His Own Image.\n\n\nLove gives. It gives freely and without stint, yet always thoughtfully.\nIt gives itself out, its very life. This is its life, to give its life.\nIt lives most by giving most. So it comes into fullness of life.\n\nSo it _gets_. A thing of life, in its own image, comes walking eagerly\nwith outstretched arms to its embrace. It gives that it may get. Yet the\ngiving is the greater. It brings most joy.\n\nThis is the very essence of life, this giving creating spirit. It is\neverywhere, in lower life and higher and highest, wherever the touch of\nGod has come. The sun gives itself out in life and light and warmth. And\nout to greet it comes a bit of itself--the fine form and sweet fragrance\nof the rose, the tender blade of grass, the unfolding green of the leaf,\nthe wealth of the soil, the song of the bird and the grateful answer of\nall nature.\n\nThe hen sits long patient days on her nest. And forth comes cheeping\nlife in her own image, answering the call of her mothering spirit. The\nmother-bird in the nest in the crotch of the tree gives her life day by\nday in brooding love. And her wee nestling offspring, in her own image,\nanswers with glad increase of strength and growth.\n\nFather and mother of our human kind give of their very life that new\nlife may come. And under the overshadowing touch of an unseen Presence\ncomes a new life made in their image, and in His who broods unseen over\nall three. And over the life wrecked by sin broods the Spirit of God.\nAnd out through the doorway of an opening will, comes a new creature of\nwinsome life in the very image of that brooding Spirit of God.\n\nThis is the holy commonplace of all life. It is the touch of God. It is\neverywhere about us, and beneath and above. The father-mother Spirit of\nGod broods over all our common life. And when things go wrong, He broods\na bit closer and tenderer. He meets every need of the life He has\ncreated. And He meets it in the same way, by giving Himself.\n\nAnd there's always the response. The fragrance of the rose answers the\nsun. The pipped shell brings the longed-for answer to the gladdened\nmother-bird. The ever wondrous babe-eyes give unspeakable answer to the\nyearning of father and mother heart. The heart of man leaps at the call\nof his God.\n\nThis makes quite clear the wondrous response men gave Jesus when He\nwalked among us. Jesus was God coming a bit closer in His brooding love\nto mend a break and restore a blurred image. And men answered Him. They\ncouldn't help it. How they came! They didn't understand Him, but they\nfelt Him. They couldn't resist the tender, tremendous pull upon their\nhearts of His mere presence.\n\nAnd Jesus drew man into the closest touch of intimate friendship. The\nlong-range way of doing things never suited Him. And it doesn't. He\ndidn't keep man at arm's length. And He doesn't. And then because they\nwere friends, He and they, they were eager to serve, and willing even to\nsuffer, to walk a red-marked roadway for Him they loved.\n\n\n\nThe Gospel According to--You.\n\n\nAmong all those who felt and answered the call of Jesus was one called\nJohn, John the disciple. Jesus drew John close. John came close. John\nlived close. John came early and he stayed late. He stayed to the very\nend, into the evening glow of life. And all his long life he was under\nthe tender holy spell of Jesus' presence. He was swayed by the\nJesus-passion. Always burning, he was yet never consumed; only the alloy\nburned up and burned out, himself refined to the quality of life called\neternal.\n\nThen John came to the end of his long life. And he knew he would be\nslipping the tether of life and going out and up and in to the real\nthing of life. And I think John was a bit troubled. Not because he was\ngoing to die. This never troubles the man who knows Jesus. The\nJesus-touch overcomes the natural twinges of death. But he was troubled\na bit in spirit for a little by the thought that he would not be on\nearth any longer to talk to people about Jesus. And to John this was the\none thing worth while. This was the life-passion.\n\nAnd so I think John prayed about it a bit. For this is what he did. He\nsaid to himself, \"I will write a book. I'll make it a little book, so\nbusy people can quickly read it. I'll pick out the simplest words I know\nso common folks everywhere that don't have dictionaries can easily\nunderstand. And I'll make them into the shortest simplest sentences I\ncan so they can quickly get my story of Jesus.\" And so John wrote his\nlittle book. And we call it the story of Jesus according to John, or, as\nwe commonly say the Gospel--the God-story--according to John.\n\nAnd all this is a simple bit of a parable. It is a parable in action.\nJesus is brooding over us, giving Himself, warmly wooing us. He woos us\ninto personal friendship with Himself. And then He asks that each of us\nshall write a gospel. This is the Gospel according to John; and these\nothers according to Luke and Mark and Matthew. He means that there shall\nbe the gospel according to--_you_. What is your name? put it in there.\nThen you get the Master's plan. There is to be the gospel according to\nCharles and Robert and George, and Mary and Elizabeth and Margaret.\n\nAnd you say, \"Write a gospel? I couldn't do that. You don't mean that.\nThat's just a bit of preaching.\" No, it isn't preaching. It's so. I do\nnot mean to write with a common pen of steel or gold; nor on just common\npaper of rags or wood-pulp. But I do mean--_He_ means--that you shall\nwrite with the pen of your daily life. And that you shall write on the\npaper of the lives of those you're touching and living with every day.\n\nClearly, He meant, and He means, that you and I shall live such simple\nunselfish lovable Jesus-touched lives, in just the daily commonplace\nround of life, that those we live with shall know the whole story of\nJesus' love and life; His love burned out for us till there were no\nashes, and His life poured out for us till not a red drop was left\nunspilled.\n\nAre _you_ writing _your_ gospel? Is your life spelling out this simple\nwondrous God-story? I can find out, though, of course, I shall not. What\nI mean is this,--_the crowd knows._ The folks that touch you every day,\nthey know. This old Bible was never printed so much as to-day, nor\nissued more numerously. And--thoughtfully--it was never read _less_ by\nthe common crowd on the common street of life than to-day.\n\nThat doesn't mean that the crowd doesn't read what it supposes to be\nreligious literature. It does. I wish we church folk read our religious\nliterature as faithfully as this crowd I speak of reads its. It is\nreading _the gospel according to you,_ and reading it daily, and\nclosely, and faithfully, and remembering what it reads, and being shaped\nby it.\n\nThis Bible I have here is bound in--I think it is called sealskin. I\ntried to get the best wearing binding I could. But I've discovered that\nthere's a better binding than this. The best binding for the Gospel is\nshoe-leather. The old Gospel of the Son of God is at its best as it is\nbeing tramped out on the common street of life. Its truths stand out\nclearest as they're walked out. Its love comes warmest, its power is\nmost resistless as it comes to you in the common give-and-take of daily\ntouch in home and shop and street. Are you writing your copy of the\nGospel?\n\nYou know that sometimes scholars have found some precious manuscripts in\nold monasteries. They have gone into some old, grey, stone monkery in\nthe Near East, and they have run across old manuscripts hidden away in\nsome dark cell, covered with dust and with rubbish, perhaps. With much\ntact and diplomacy they have at length managed to get possession of the\ncoveted manuscript. And they have been fairly delighted to find that\nthey have gotten hold of a remnant, a very precious remnant, of one of\nthese Gospels. In just this way much invaluable light has been gotten\nthat made possible these precious revised versions.\n\nI wonder if _your_ gospel--the one you're writing with your life--is\n_just a remnant,_ a ragged remnant. And perhaps there's a good bit of\ndusting necessary, and removing of rubbish, to get even at what there is\nthere. And some of the shy hungry hearts that touch you and me need to\nuse quite a bit of unconscious diplomacy perhaps to get even as much as\nthey do. I wonder. The crowd knows. It could throw a good bit of light\nhere. How much of this old Jesus-story _are_ you really _living!_\n\nOf course, there's a special touch of inspiration in these four Gospels.\nThe Holy Spirit brooded over these men in a special way as they wrote.\nThat is true. These are the standard Gospels. We would never know the\nblessed story but for these four Spirit-breathed little books. But it is\nalso true that that same Holy Spirit will guide you in the writing of\nyour version of the Gospel.\n\nThese four Gospels are different from each other. The colouring of\nLuke's warm personality, and of his physician habit of thought is in his\nGospel very plainly. And so it is with each one of these Gospels. And,\neven so, there will be the colouring of your personality, your habit of\nthought, the distinct tinge of the experience you have been through, in\nthe gospel you write with the pen of your life, and bind up in the\nshoe-leather of your daily round.\n\nBut through all of this there will be the simple, subtle, but very real,\natmosphere of the Holy Spirit, helping you make the story plain and\nfull, and helping people to understand that story as it is _lived_, as\nthey never can simply by hearing it told with tongues or read through\neyes.\n\nAre you writing your gospel? Is your daily life spelling out the life\nand love of Jesus, that life that was poured out till none was left,\nthat love that was burned out till even the ashes were burned up, too?\nThis is the Master's plan. And practically it is the crowd's only\nchance.\n\n\n\nGod in Human Garb.\n\n\nNow I want to have you turn with me to the opening lines of John's\nGospel. There are not many of these opening lines. The whole story is a\nshort one. These lines at the beginning are like an etching, there are\nthe fewest touches of pen on paper, of black ink on white surface. But\nthe few lines are put in so simply and skilfully that they make an\nexquisite picture. It's the picture of _God coming in human garb as a\nwooing Lover._\n\nI think it might be best perhaps if I might simply give you _a sort of\nfree reading_ of these opening lines, with a word of comment or\nillustration to try to make the meaning simpler. It will be a putting of\nJohn's words into the simple every-day colloquial speech that we\nEnglish-speaking people use. John used very simple language in his own\ntelling of the story in his mother-tongue. And it may help if we try to\ndo the same.\n\nYou will quickly see how very simple this free translation will be. Yet,\nlet me say, that though homely and simple it will be strictly accurate\nto what John is thinking and saying in his own native speech. I mean of\ncourse, so far as I can find out just what he is thinking and saying.\n\nLet us turn then to John's Gospel, at its beginning. And it will help\nvery much if we keep our Bibles open as we talk and read together.\n\nListen: _in the beginning there was a wondrous One_. He was the mind of\nGod thinking out to man. He was the heart of God throbbing love out to\nman's heart. He was the face of God looking into man's face. He was the\nvoice of God, soft and low, clear and distinct, speaking into man's\nears. He was the hand of God, strong and tender, reaching down to take\nman by the hand and lead him back to the old trysting-place under the\ntree of life, down by the river of water of life.\n\nHe was the person of God wearing a human coat and human shoes,\nhand-pegged, walking in freely amongst us that we might get our tangled\nup ideas about God and ourselves and about life untangled, straightened\nout. He was God Himself wrapped up in human form coming close that we\nmight get acquainted with Him all over again.\n\nThis is part of the meaning of the little five-lettered word in his own\ntongue that John chooses and uses, at the first here, as a new name for\nHim who was commonly called Jesus. It was because of our ears that he\nused the new word. If he had said \"Jesus\" at once, they would have said\n\"Oh! yes, we know about Him.\" And at once their ears would have gone\nshut to the thing that John is saying.\n\nFor they didn't know. And we don't. We know _words_. The thing, the real\nthing, we know so little. So John uses a new word at the first, and so\nfloods in new light. And then we come to see whom he is talking about.\nIt's a bit of the diplomacy of God so as to get in through dulled ears\nand truth-hardened minds down in to the heart.\n\nNature always seems eager to meet a defect. It seems to hurry eagerly\nforward to overcome defects and difficulties. The blind man has more\nacute hearing and a more delicate sense of feel. The deaf man's eyes\ngrow quicker to watch faces and movements and so learn what his ears\nfail to tell him. The lame man leans more on other muscles, and they\nanswer with greater strength to meet the defect of the weaker muscles.\n\nThe bat has shunned the light so long through so many bat-generations\nthat it has become blind, but it has remarkable ears, and nature has\ngrown for it an abnormal sense of touch, and a peculiar sensitiveness\neven where there is no contact, so that it avoids obstacles in flying\nwith a skill that seems uncanny, incredulous.\n\nI remember in Cincinnati one night, sitting on the platform of a public\nmeeting by the side of a widely known Christian worker and speaker who\nwas blind. As various men spoke he quietly made brief comments to me,--\"\n_He_ doesn't strike fire.\" And then, \"_He_ doesn't touch them.\" And\nthen, \"Ah! _he's_ got them; that's it; now they're burning.\" And it was\nexactly so as he said. I sat fascinated as I watched the crowd and heard\nhis comments. The sense of discerning what was going on in another way\nthan by sight had been grown in him by the very necessity of his\nblindness. Defect in one sense was overcome by nature, by increase in\nanother sense.\n\nWhen Queen Victoria was in residence in Scotland at Balmoral it was her\nkindly custom to present the various clergymen who preached in the\nCastle chapel with a photograph marked with her autograph. When George\nMatheson, the famous blind preacher, came she showed the fine thoughtful\ntact for which she was famous. Clearly an autographed photograph would\nnot mean much in itself to a blind man. So the Queen had a miniature\nbust-statue made and presented to him as her acknowledgment of his\nservice. And so where his eyes failed to let him see, his sense of touch\nwould carry to his mind and heart the fine features of the gracious\nsovereign he was so glad to serve.\n\nJesus was God coming in such a way that we could know Him _by the feel_.\nWe had gone blind to His face. We couldn't read His signature plainly\nautographed by His own hand on the blue above and the brown below. But\nwhen Jesus came _men knew God by the feel_. They didn't understand\nJesus. But the sore hungry crowds reached out groping trembling fingers,\nand they knew Him. They began to get acquainted with their gracious\nSovereign.\n\nAll this gives the simple clue to this word \"_Word_\" which John uses as\na new name for Jesus. Man had grown deaf to the music of God's voice,\nblind to the beauty of His face, slow-hearted to the pleading of His\npresence. His hand was touching us but we didn't feel it. So He came in\na new way, in a very homely close-up way and walked down our street into\nour own doors that we might be caught by the beauty of His face, and\nthrilled by the music of His voice, and thralled by the spell of His\npresence.\n\n\n\nGod at His Best.\n\n\nJohn goes on: _and this wondrous One was with God_. There were two of\nthem. And the two were together. They were companions, they were\nfriends, fellows together. _And this One was God_. Each was the same as\nthe other. _This is the same One who was in the later creative beginning\nwith God. It was through this One that all things were made. And, of all\nthings that have been made, not any thing was made without Him_.\n\nYou remember that John's Gospel and Genesis begin in the same way,--\"in\nthe beginning.\" But John's \"in the beginning,\" the first one, is not the\nsame as the Genesis \"in the beginning.\" John's is the beginning before\nthere was any beginning. It is the beginning before they had begun\nmaking calendars on the earth, because there wasn't any earth yet to\nmake calendars on. Then this second time the phrase is used John comes\nto the later creative beginning with which Genesis opens. This is what\nJohn is saying here.\n\n\"_In Him was life_.\" Out of Him came life. Out of Him comes life. There\nwas no life, there is none, except what was in this One, and what came,\nand comes out from Him all the time. How patient God is! There walks a\nman down the street. He leaves God out of his life. He may remember Him\nso far as to use His name blasphemously to punctuate and emphasize what\nhe is saying. Yonder walks a woman in the shadow of the street at night.\nAnd her whole life is spent walking in the dark shadow of the street of\nlife. And her whole life is a blasphemy against her personality, and\nagainst the God who gave her that precious sacred personality.\n\nTake these two as extreme illustrations. There is life there; life of\nthe body, of the mind, life of the human spirit. Listen softly, all the\nlife there is there, is coming out all the time from this One of whom\nJohn is talking. It is not given once as a thing to be taken and stored.\nIt is _being_ given. It is coming constantly with each breath, from this\nwondrous One. This is what John is saying here.\n\nHow _patient_ God is! Only we don't know what patience is. We know the\nword, the label put on the outside. We don't know the thing, except\nsometimes in very smallest part. For patience is love at its best.\nPatience is God at His strongest and tenderest and best.\n\nI think likely when we get up yonder, we'll stop one another on the\ngolden streets. There'll be a hand put out, gripping the other hard. And\nwe'll look into each other's eyes with our eyes big. And we'll say with\nbreaking voices, \"How _patient_ God was with us down there on the earth,\ndown there in London and New York.\"\n\nIn Him was life. Out of His hand and heart is coming to us all the time\nall we are and all we have. We may leave God practically out. So many of\nus do. But He never leaves us out. The creating, sustaining touch of His\nHand is ever upon each of us, upon all the world.\n\nThough He cannot do all for us He would except as we gladly come and let\nHim. What He is giving us is so _much_. It's our _all_. Yet it is the\nsmaller part. There's the fuller part. This is the whole drive of John's\nstory, this fuller part. Out of Him Jesus, into us will come the newer,\nthe better, the abundant quality of life, if He may have His way.\n\nAnd John adds,--\"_and the life was the light of men.\"_ He was what we\n_have_. He gives Himself; not things, but a person. With God everything\nis _personal_. We men go to the impersonal so much, or we try to. We do\nour best at it. We have a great genius for organization, especially in\nthis western half of the earth.\n\nAs I came back from a four years' absence from my own country, I was\ninstantly conscious of a change. Either my ears were changed or things\nabout me were. I think likely both. But the wheels were going faster\nthan ever. There were more wheels, and their whir seemed never out of\near-shot. Commercial wheels, and educational, philanthropic and\nreligious, political and humanitarian, thicker and faster than ever,\ndriving all day, and with almost no night there.\n\nAnd the whole attempt is to make the machine do the thing with as little\ndependence as possible on the human element, even though the human\nelement was never emphasized more. Contradictory? Yet there it is. We\nmen go to the _im_personal. Yet deep down in our hearts we hunger for\nthe human touch, the warm personal touch. This after all is _the_ thing.\nWe all feel that. Yet the whole crowding of life's action is to crowd it\nout.\n\nBut with God everything is personal. The life is the light of men. What\nHe is in Himself--that is what He gives. And this is all the light and\nlife we ever have. Men make botany. God makes flowers breathing their\nfreshening fragrance noiselessly up into your face. Man makes astronomy.\nGod makes the stars, shaking their firelight out of the blue down into\nyour wondering eyes on a clear moonless night. Man makes theology. And\ntheology has its place, when it's kept in its place. _God gives us\nJesus_.\n\nI don't know much about botany. My knowledge of astronomy is very\nlimited. And the more I read of theology, whether Western or Eastern,\nLatin Church or Greek, the first Seven Councils or the later ones, the\nmore I stand perplexed. It's a thing fearsomely and wonderfully\nmanufactured, this theology. But I frankly confess to a great fondness\nfor flowers, and for stars, and a love for Jesus that deepens ever more\nin reverential awe and in tenderness and grateful devotion. The life was\nthe light of men. He Himself is all that we have. We go to _things_. We\nreckon worth and wealth by things. He gives _Himself_. And He asks, not\n_things_, but one's self.\n\n\n\nPacking Most in Least.\n\n\nAnd John goes quietly on with his great simple story: \"_and the light\nshineth in the darkness_,\" John has a way of packing much in little.\nHere he packs four thousand years into three English letters. For he has\nbeen back in that creative Genesis week. And now with one long stride he\nputs his foot down in the days when Jesus walks among us as a man. Forty\ncenturies, by the common reckoning, packed into three letters e-t-h.\nRather a skilful bit of packing that. Yet it is not unusual. It is\ncharacteristic both of John and of the One that guides John's pen. When\nHe is allowed to have free sway the Holy Spirit packs much in little.\n\nThat rugged old Hebrew prophet of fire and storm, Elijah, standing in\nthe grey dawn, in the mouth of an Arabian cave, had the whole of a new\nGod--a God of tender gentle love--packed into an exquisite sound of\ngentle stillness, that smote so subtly on his ear, and completely melted\nand changed this man of rock and thunder. It's a new man that turns his\nface north again. The new God that had compacted Himself anew inside the\nruggedly faithful old man is revealed in the prophet's successor. This\nis the new spirit, so unlike the old Elijah, that comes as a birth-right\nheritage upon young Elisha. Great packing work that.\n\nThat fine-grained young university fellow on the Damascus road, driving\nhard in pursuit of his earnest purpose, had the whole of a God, a new\nGod to him, packed into a single flash of blinding light out of the\nupper blue. He had the whole of a new plan, an utterly changed plan for\nhis life, packed into a single sentence spoken into his amazed ears as\nhe lies in the dust.\n\nAnd if this Holy Spirit may have His way--a big if? Yes: yet not too big\nto be gotten rid of at once: God puts in the if's, that we may get the\nstrength of choosing. We put them out, _if_ we do. _If_ He may have His\nway He'll pack--listen quietly, with your heart--He'll pack _the whole\nof a Jesus_ inside you and me. Much in little! Most in least! And the\nmore we let Him in, the bigger that \"most\" prints itself to our eyes,\nand the more that \"least\" dwindles down to the disappearing point.\n\nGod gives us His own self in Jesus. Jesus comes to live inside of us. He\ndoesn't give us things, but Himself. We talk about salvation. There's\nsomething better--_a Saviour_. We talk about help in trouble. There's\nsomething immensely more--_a Friend_, alongside, close up. We talk about\nhealing--sometimes, not so much these days; the subject is so much\nconfused. There's something much better--a _Healer_, living within,\nwhose presence means healing and health for body and spirit.\n\nThen John says, \"the light shineth _in the darkness_.\" This is God's way\nof treating darkness. There are two ways of treating darkness, man's and\nGod's. Man's way is to attack the darkness. Suppose this hall where we\nare were quite dark, all shuttered up, and suppose we were new on the\nearth, and not familiar with darkness. We want to hold a meeting. But\nhow shall we get rid of this strange darkness that has come down over\neverything? Let's each of us get a bucket or pail or basin, and take\nsome of the darkness out. So we'll get rid of it, and its inconvenience.\n\nAnd if the suggestion were made seriously there might be talk of putting\nthe suggestor in a certain sort of institution for the safety of the\ncommunity. Yet this is the way we go at the other darkness, the worse\nmoral darkness.\n\n_God's way_ is quite different; indeed just the exact reverse _let the\nlight shine._ The darkness can't stand the light. If the hall _were_\nquite dark, and I scratched only a parlour-match, instantly as the\nlittle flame broke out of the end of the stick some of the darkness\nwould go. It's surprising how much would go, and how quickly. The\ndarkness can't stand the light. It flees like a hunted hare before a\npack of hounds.\n\nThere may be times when action must betaken by a community against\ncertain forms of evil, so damnable, and so strongly entrenched, and so\nthreatening to the purity of home and young and of all. But note keenly\nthat this is _incidental_. It is immensely important at times, but it is\ndistinctly _secondary._ The great simple plan of God is this: _let the\nlight shine_. The darkness flees like a whipped cur, tail tightly curled\ndown and in, before the real thing of light.\n\nLet me ask you a question. Come up a bit closer and listen quietly, for\nthis is tremendously serious. And it's the quietest spoken word that\nreaches the inner cockles of the heart. Listen: is it a bit dark down\nwhere you live? Morally dark? Spiritually? How about that? in commercial\ncircles and social and fraternal, in church and home and city and\nneighbourhood. Is it a bit dark? Or, have I found the Garden of Eden at\nlast before the serpent entered?\n\nBecause if it be a bit dark, softly, please, let me say it very quietly,\nfor it may sound critical, and I would not have that for anything. We\nare talking only to help. Though sometimes the truth itself does have a\nmerciless edge. If it be a bit dark does it not suggest that _the light\nhas not been shining as it was meant to_? For where the light shines the\ndarkness goes.\n\nFor, you see, this is still God's plan for treating darkness. It is\nmeant to be true to-day of each of us,--\"_the light shineth in the\ndarkness_.\" Of course, _we_ are not the light. He is the Light. But we\nare the light-holders. I carry the Light of the world around inside of\nme. And so do you, _if you do_. It is not because of the \"me,\" of\ncourse, but because of the great patience and faithfulness of Him who is\nthe Light. A very rickety cheap lantern may carry a clear light, and the\nman in the ditch find good footing in the road again.\n\nYou and I are meant to be the human lanterns carrying the Light, and\nletting it shine clearly fully out. And you know when some one else is\nproviding the light the chief thing about the lantern is that the glass\nof the lantern be kept dean and clear so the light within can get freely\nout. The great thing is that _we shall live clean transparent lives_ so\nthe Light within may shine clearly out. We may live unselfish clean\nChristly lives, by His great grace. And through that kind of lives, the\nLight itself shines out, and shines out most, and most clearly.\n\nOver at the mouth of the Hudson, where I call it home, there are some\nstrange things seen. Sometimes the glass of this human lantern gets\nsmoky, badly smoked. And sometimes it even gets cobwebby, rather thickly\ncovered up. And even this has been known to happen up there,--it'll seem\nvery strange to you people doubtless--_this_; they write finely phrased\nessays on the delicate shading of grey in the smoke on the glass of the\nhuman lantern.\n\nThey meet together and listen to essays, in rarely polished English, on\nthe exquisite lace-like tracery of the cobwebs on the glass of the human\nlantern. But look! Hold your heart still and look! There's the crowd in\nthe road in the dark, struggling, jostling, stumbling, and falling into\nthe ditch at the side of the road, ditched and badly mired, because the\nlight hasn't gotten to them. The Light's there. It's burning itself out\nin passionate eagerness to help. But the human lanterns are in bad\nshape.\n\n\"Rhetoric!\" do you say? I wish it were. I wish with my heart it were.\nLook at the crowds for yourself. There they go down the street,\npell-mell, bewildered, blinded, some of them by will-o'-the-wisp lights,\nditched and mired many of them. The thing is only too terribly true.\n\nOur Lord's great plan, bearing the stamp of its divinity in its sheer\nhuman simplicity, is this: we who know Jesus are to _live Him_. We're to\nlet _the whole of a Jesus_, crucified, risen, living, shine out of _the\nwhole of our lives_.\n\nIs it a bit dark down where you are? _Let the Light shine_. Let the\nclear sweet steady Jesus-light shine out through your true clean quiet\nJesus-swayed and Jesus-controlled life. Then the darkness must go. It\ncan't stand the Light. It can't withstand the purity and insistence of\nits clear steady shining. And the darkness _will_ go: slowly,\nreluctantly, angrily, doggedly, making hideous growling noises\nsometimes, raising the dust sometimes, but it will go. It must go before\nthe Light. The Light's resistless. This is our Lord's wondrous plan\n_through_ His own, and His irresistible plan _for_ the crowd, and His\nplan against the prince of darkness.\n\n\n\nThe Heart-road to the Head.\n\n\nThen John goes on to say, \"_the darkness apprehended it not_.\" The old\ncommon version says \"comprehended\"; the revisions, both English and\nAmerican, say \"apprehended.\" Both are rather large words, larger in\nEnglish than John would use. John loved to use simple talk. Yet there's\nhelp even in these English words. Comprehend is a mental word. It means\nto take hold of with your mind; to understand. Apprehend is a physical\nword. It means to take hold of with your hand.\n\nYou can't _comprehend_ Jesus. That is just the simple plain fact. You\nmay have a fine mind. It may be well schooled and trained. You may have\ndug into all the books on the subject, English and German and the few\nFrench. You may have spent a lifetime at it. But at the end there is\nimmensely more of Jesus that you don't understand than the part that you\ndo understand. You've touched the smaller part only, just the edges. You\ncannot take Jesus in with your mind simply. The one is too big and the\nother too limited for that particular process.\n\nBut, listen with your heart, you can _apprehend_ Him. You can _take\nhold_ of Him. There isn't one of us here, however poorly equipped\nmentally and in training, and too busy with life's common duties to get\nmuch time for reading, not one of us, who may not reach out your hand,\nthe hand of your heart, the hand of your life, the hand of your simple\nchildlike trust--if you're great enough in simplicity to be childlike,\nto be natural, not one of us, but may reach out the hand and _take in\nall there is of Jesus_.\n\nAnd the striking thing to mark is this, that we don't really begin to\ncomprehend until we apprehend. Only as we take Him into heart and life\n_can_ we really understand. It's as if the heat in the heart made by His\npresence there loosens up the grey juices of your brain, and it begins\nto work freely and clearly.\n\nOf course, this is a commonplace in the educational world. It is well\nunderstood there that no student does his best work, no matter what\nthat work may be, in science or philosophy or in mathematics or in\nlaboratorial research, his mind cannot do its best, or be at its best,\nuntil his heart has been kindled by some noble passion. The key to the\nlife is in the heart, that is the emotions and purposes tied together.\nThe approach to the mind is through the heart. The fire of pure emotion\nand of noble purpose burning together, works out _through_ the mind\n_into_ the life. This is nature's order.\n\nBut what John is saying here, put into as simple language as he would\nuse, is this: \"_the darkness wouldn't let the light in, and couldn't\nshut it out, and couldn't dull the brightness of its shining_.\" It\ntried. It tried first at Bethlehem. The first spilling of blood came\nthere. There was the shedding of blood at both ends of Jesus' career,\nand innocent blood each time. It tried at the Nazareth precipice, and in\nthe spirit-racking wilderness. It tried by stones, then in Gethsemane,\nthen at Calvary.\n\nAnd there it seemed to have succeeded. At last the light was shut in and\ndown; the door was shut and barred and bolted. And I suppose there was\ngreat glee in the headquarters of darkness. But the Third Morning came.\nAnd the bars of darkness were broken, as a woman breaks the\nsewing-cotton at the end of the seam. The Light could not be held down\nby darkness. It broke out more brightly than ever. The darkness couldn't\nshut the light out. And it can't.\n\n_Let the light shine._ Let it shine out through the clear clean glass\nof an unselfish, Jesus-cleansed Jesus-fired life lived for Him in the\ncommonplace round, and the shut-away corner. _And the darkness will go_.\nThe darkness cannot shut out the light, nor keep it down, nor resist the\ngentle resistless power of its soft clear flooding. Let the Light shine\ndown in that corner where you are. And the darkness, darkness that can\nbe felt, and _is_ felt so sorely deep down in your spirit, in its\nuncanny Egyptian blackness, that darkness will break, and more, clear,\nand go, go, go, till it's clear gone.\n\nAnd so ends John's first great paragraph. It is so tremendous in its\nsimplicity that, Greek-like, men stumble over its simple tremendousness.\nAway back in the beginning God revealed Himself in making a home for\nman, and in bringing the man, made in His own image, to his home. And\nthen when the damp unwholesome darkness came stealing in swamping the\nhome and man He came Himself, flooding in the soft clear pure light of\nHis presence, to free man from the darkness and woo him out into the\nlight.\n\n\n\nTarshish or Nineveh?\n\n\nThen John goes on into his second paragraph. \"_There came a man, sent\nfrom God, whose name was John_.\" Why? Because man was in the dark. He\nsent a man to help a man. He used a man to reach a man. He always does.\nRun clear through this old Book of God, and then clear through that\nother Book of God--the book of life, and note that this is God's habit.\nHe, Himself, uses the path He had made for human feet. With greatest\nreverence let it be said that God _must_ use a human pathway for His\nfeet.\n\nEven when He would redeem a world He came, He must needs come, as a Man,\none of ourselves. He touches men through men. The pathway of His helping\nfeet is always a common human pathway. And, will you mark keenly that\n_the highest level any life ever reaches_, or _can_ reach, is this: _to\nbe a pathway for the feet of a wooing winning God_.\n\nAnd this is still true. It is meant to be true to-day that there came a\nman, sent from God, whose name is--_your name_. You put in your own name\nin that sentence, then you get God's plan for you. For as surely as this\nparticular John of the desert and of the plain living, and the burning\nspeech, was sent by God, so surely is every man of us a man sent by God\non some particular errand. And the greatest achievement of life is to\nfind and fit into the plan of God for one's life. This is the only great\nthing one can do. Anything else is merely _labelled_ \"great.\" And that\nlabel washes off. This is the one thing worth while.\n\nThe bother is we don't always get the verbs, the action words, of that\nsentence straight. John was a man _sent_ from God. And he _came_. All\nmen are sent But they don't all come, some _go_; go their own way. There\nwas a man sent from God whose name was Jonah. But he didn't come. He\nwent. He was sent to Nineveh on the extreme east. He went towards\nTarshish on the extreme west; just the opposite direction. Every man is\nheaded either for Nineveh or Tarshish, God's way or his own. Which way\nare you headed?\n\nSome of us go to Tarshish _religiously_. We go our own way, and sing\nhymns and pray, to make it seem right and keep from hearing the inner\nvoice. We hold meetings at the boat-wharf, while waiting for the\nTarshish ship to lift anchor. We have services in the steerage and\nsecond-class and distribute tracts and New Testaments; but all the time\nwe're headed for Tarshish; our way, not God's. It won't do simply to do\ngood. We must do God's will. Find that and fit into it.\n\nThe meetings and tracts are only good but they ought to be on the train\nto Nineveh, and in Nineveh where God's sent you. Are you berthed on the\nboat for Tarshish? or have you a seat engaged on the train for Nineveh?\ngoing your own way? or God's? John was _sent_ and he _came_. You and I\nare sent. Are we coming or going? coming God's way? or, going our own?\n\n\n\nLiving Martyrs.\n\n\nThis true-hearted burning man of the deserts _came for a witness_. Here\nwe strike one of John's great words. You remember the three things that\n_witness_ means? that you know something; that you tell what you know;\nand that you tell it most with your life. And telling it _with your\nlife_ means, not only by the way you live, but, too, even though the\ntelling of it _may cost you your life_. It came to mean all of that with\nthis witness.\n\nIt came to mean that with a new fullness of meaning, a peculiar\nsignificance, to _the great Witness_, of whom John told. This was the\nvery throbbing heart of the wooing errand. This explains the tenderness\nand tenacity of the Lover in His wooing in the midst of intensest\nopposition, and in spite of it.\n\nThe opposition brought about the terrific grouping of circumstances\nwhich the great Lover-witness used as the tremendous climax of both\nwooing and witnessing. No one doubts the reality of Jesus' witness to\nthe Father's love before men. And no one, who has had any touch at all\nwith Him, doubts the tremendous pull upon one's heart of such a wooing\nappeal as that Calvary climax of witnessing made, and makes.\n\nAnd this, mark it keenly, is still the plan. \"The-same-came-for-witness\"\nis meant to be true of each follower of the Christ. This is to be the\ndominant underchording of all our lives. This is to be the never-absent\nmotive gripping us, and our possessions and our plans. The rest is\nincidental in a true life.\n\nIt may be a \"rest\" that takes most of the waking hours with most of us,\nmost of our strength and thought. But there's an undercurrent in every\nlife. And the undercurrent is the controlling current. It makes us what\nwe really are. It may be quite different from the upper current\ncontrolled by the outer necessities of circumstances. And with the true\nJesus-man _this_ is the undercurrent, this thing of witnessing.\n\nDo you know something of Jesus? Do you know the cleansing of His blood?\nDo you know the music of His peace in your heart? Do you know a bit of\nthe subtle fragrance of His presence? Do you know the power of His Name\nwhen temptations come, when the road gets slippery, and your feet go out\nfrom under you--almost. Then His Name, its power, and you hold steady.\nDo you know something about such things?\n\nThen _tell_ it. This is the plan--_telling_. It's a Gospel of _telling_.\nTell it with your lips tactfully, gently, boldly, earnestly. But tell it\nfar more, and most with your life. Let what you are, when you're not\nthinking about this sort of thing, let that tell it. That's the greatest\ntelling, the best.\n\nAnd, softly, now, when you get to the end of telling what you know,\nlisten quietly, don't go to digging into books for something to tell\nyour class or the meeting or the crowd. Don't do that. Books have their\nplace, good books, but it's always a sharply secondary place, or third,\nor lower down yet. Poor crowd that must be fed on retailed books worked\nover! Don't do that. _Know more._ Know Jesus better. Trust Him more\nfully. Risk more on following where He clearly leads. Then you can tell\nmore and better.\n\nSometimes I'm asked, \"How can I have more faith?\" Well, not by thinking\nabout your faith. Not by books or definitions chiefly, however they may\nhelp some. I can tell you how: _Follow where the Master's quiet voice is\nclearly calling._ Go where it is plain to you that that pierced hand is\nleading.\n\n\"Ah! but the way is a bit narrow,\" you think. \"And it's steep. There are\nsharp-edged stones under foot. And those bushes are growing rank on both\nsides narrowing the path. And thorns scratch and hurt and sting. This\nother road where I am now--this is a good Christian road. My Christian\nbrothers are here. I'd rather stay here.\"\n\nAnd so you _stay_. You don't _say_ \"no\" to the calling voice. You simply\n_act_ \"no.\" No wonder you get confused and tangled. It's only in the\npath of following clear leading that there comes sweetest peace, with no\nnagging doubts and mental confusion. There only will you have more\nfaith, know more of Him, touch with whom is the realest faith. And so\nonly will the witness be told out to the crowd on the street of your\nlife, of the power and satisfying peace of this Jesus.\n\nThis is the witnessing we're sent to do. And the crowds crowd to listen,\nwhen it's given. This is the way _the_ Witness did. He followed the\nclear Father-voice, though the road led straight across the regular\nroads through thorn hedges and thick underbrush. Should not the servant\ntread it still?\n\nThe word that John uses here underneath our English word _witness_ is\nthe word from which our English word _martyr_ comes. And martyr has\ncome to mean one who gives his life clear out in a violent way for the\ntruth he believes. But, do you know, that is easy. \"Easy?\" You say,\n\"Surely not, you're certainly wrong there.\" No, you are right. It is not\neasy. To face a storm of lead, or feel the sharp-edged blade, or yield\nto the eating flame,--that is never easy.\n\nBut this is what I mean. There's the heroic in it, and that helps. You\nbrace yourself for it. The terrible crisis comes. You pull together and\npray and resolutely, desperately, face it. A little while, and it's\nover. You've been true in the sharp crisis. You have taken a place with\nthe noble army of martyrs. And we who hear of it have a martyr's halo\nabout your head.\n\nBut there's something immensely harder to do. Without making a whit less\nthan it is the splendid courage of martyrdom, there's something that\ntakes immensely more courage, and a deeper longer-seasoned heroism, and\nthat is to be a _living_ martyr, to bear the simple true witness\ntactfully but clearly, when it takes the very life of your life to do\nit, though it doesn't take your bodily life in a violent way.\n\nYou know they don't martyr people these days for their Christian faith.\nAt least not in the western half of the earth, the Christian hemisphere.\nNo, that's quite behind the calendar. That's rather crude, quite behind\nthe cultured advanced Christian progress of _our_ day. Our Christian\ncivilization has gone long strides beyond that. We have grown much more\nrefined. Now we kill them _socially_. Many a one who would live true to\nthe Jesus-ideals in daily life in a simple sane way finds certain social\ndoors shut and carefully barred.\n\nWe kill them _commercially_ now. The man who will quietly hew to the\nJesus-line in business is quite apt to find his income reduced. The bulk\nof business shrinks. The thermometer is run down below the living point.\nWe kill men by _frost_ now. The blockade system is skilfully used;\nisolation and insulation from certain circles. We are much more refined.\n\nThe great need to-day is of _living_ witnesses to the Christ in home,\nand social circle, in the street, and in the market-place.\n\n    \"So he died for his faith; that is fine,\n      More than the most of us do.\n    But stay, can yon add to that line\n      That he _lived_ for it, too?\n\n    \"It's easy to die. Men have died\n      For a wish or a whim--\n    From bravado or passion or pride.\n      Was it hard for him?\n\n    \"But to live: every day to live out\n      All the truth that he dreamt,\n    While his friends met his conduct with doubt,\n      And the world with contempt.\n\n    \"Was it thus that he plodded ahead,\n      Never turning aside?\n    Then we'll talk of the life that he led\"\n      Even more than the death that he died.\n\n\n\nThe Forgotten Preacher.\n\n\nWith a simplicity in sticking to his main point, John goes quietly on:\n\"_that he might be a witness of the light_.\" That's rather interesting.\nIt was of the _light_ he was to bear witness; not of himself. It was not\nthe technical accuracy of his work, not its scholarliness and skill that\nabsorbed him, but that the _crowd got the light_. Rather striking that,\nwhen you break away from the atmosphere round about, and think into it a\nbit.\n\nHere's a man walking down a country road. It's a hot day. The road's\ndusty. He gets a bit weary and thirsty. He comes across a bit of a\nspring by the side of the road. Clear cool water it is. And some one has\nthoughtfully left a tin-cup on a ledge of rock near by. And the man\ngratefully drinks and goes on his way refreshed. He quite forgets the\ntin-cup.\n\nSometimes the tin-cup seems to require much attention, up in the corner\nof the world where my tent is pitched. It has to be handled very\ncarefully and considerately if one is to get what possible drops of\nwater it may contain. The human tin-cup seems to bulk very big in the\ndrinking process, sometimes, in my corner of the planet. It is\nsilver-plated sometimes; just common tin under the plating. There's some\nfine engraving on the silver-plating, noble sentiment, deftly expressed,\nand done in the engraver's best style. But the water is apt to be\nscanty, the drops rather few, in this sort of tin-cup. It's a bit\ndroughty.\n\nAnd sometimes even this has been known to occur: they have associations\nof these human tin-cups for self-admiration and other cultural purposes.\nAnd they have highly satisfactory meetings. But meanwhile, ah! look!\nhold still your heart, and look here. There's the crowd on the street,\nhot dusty street, exhausted, actually fainting for want of water, just\ngood plain water of life. But there's none to be had; only tin-cups!\nJohn was eager to have men get a good drink. He was content as he\nwatched them drink, and their eyes lighten. He was discontent and\nrestless with anything else or less.\n\nDo you remember the greatest compliment ever paid John, John the Herald?\nJohn was a great preacher. He had great drawing power. To-day we\ncommonly go where people are hoping they'll stay while we talk to them.\nBut John did otherwise. He went down to the Jordan bottoms, where the\nspirit ventilation was better, and called the people to him. And they\ncame. They came from all over the nation, of every class. Literally\nthousands gathered to hear John. He had great drawing power.\n\nAnd then something happened. Here is John to-day talking earnestly to\ngreat crowds down by the river-road. And here he is again to-morrow; but\nwhere are the crowds? John has lost his crowd. Same pulpit out in the\nopen air, same preacher, same simple intense message burning in his\nheart, but--no congregation! The crowd's gone. Poor John! You must feel\npretty bad. It's hard enough to fail, but how much harder after\nsucceeding. Poor John, I'm so sorry for you.\n\nBut if you get close enough to John to see into his eye you quit talking\nlike that. And if you get near enough to hear you find your sympathy is\nnot needed. For John's eye is ablaze with a tender light, and the sound\nof an inner heart music reaches your ear as you get near him. And if you\nfollow, as you instinctively do, the line of the light in his eye you\nquickly look down the road.\n\nOh! There's John's crowd. _They're listening to Jesus._John's crowd has\nleft him for his Master. And the forgotten preacher is the finest\nevidence of the faithfulness of the preacher. The crowd's getting the\nwater, sweet cool refreshing water of life, direct from the fountain.\nThey've clean forgotten the faithful common tin-cup. And John's so glad.\nJohn came that he might bear witness of _the light_. And he did. And the\ncrowd heard. And they flocked to the light.\n\nHere's a man preaching. And the people are listening. The benediction is\npronounced. And they go out. And as they move slowly out they're\ntalking, always talking. We don't seem yet to have demitted our\nprivilege of talking after service. Here are two. Listen to them. \"Isn't\nhe a great preacher? so scholarly, so eloquent, so polished; and all\nthose classical allusions. I didn't understand half he said; he\ncertainly is a great preacher. We're very fortunate in such a man.\"\n\nAnd the preacher, whoever he be, may know this for a bit of the\ncertainty that occasionally _will_ sift in. He may be a scholar. I\nwouldn't question it. And a polished orator. I wouldn't question that.\nBut in the main thing, the one thing he's for, as a _Jesus-witness_, he\nis a splendid scholarly polished failure. Men are talking about _him_.\n\nThey've forgotten his Master, if indeed--ah, yes, if indeed he _have_ a\nMaster! He has a _Saviour_, let us earnestly hope, and willingly\nbelieve. But a _Master_! One that sweeps and sways his mind and culture\nand life like the strong wind sweeps the thin young saplings in the\nstorm--clearly he knows nothing of that. Men are talking of _him_.\n\nAnd here's another talking a bit It may be just a simple homely talk. Or\nhe may likewise be scholarly and eloquent. A man should bring his best.\nThe old classic is beaten oil for the lamps of the sanctuary. But\nthere's the soft burning fire of the real thing in his message. And the\npeople feel it. The air seems a-thrill with its quiet tensity. And the\nlast amen is said. And again they go out.\n\nAnd here are two walking down the road together, and as they come to the\ncross-street, one says to his companion, \"Excuse me, please, I have to\ngo down _this_ way.\" And the \"have-to\" is the have-to of an intense\ndesire to get off alone. And as he goes down the side street he's\ntalking, but--to himself. Listen to him: \"I'm not the man I ought to be,\nI wonder if Jesus is really like he said. I wonder if the thing's really\nso. I believe--yes, I really think I'll risk it. My life isn't like it\nshould be. I'll risk trying this Jesus-way. I'll do it.\"\n\nThe man's clean forgotten the speaker. Oh, yes, he remembers the tone of\nthe voice, and the look of the face, but indistinctly, far away. He's\nface-to-face with Jesus! And the forgotten speaker is the finest\nevidence of the faithfulness of his speaking. He is holding up the\nlight. And men run into the light. They've clean forgot the little tin\ncandlestick, they are so taken up with the light it holds.\n\n\n\nThe One Thing to Aim At.\n\n\nAnd John keeps driving in on the point in his mind: \"_that all might\nbelieve through Him_\"; that they might listen, stop to think, agree as\nto the thing being believable, then trust it; then trust _Him_, the\nLight, risk something, risk, _themselves_ to _Him_, then love, love with\na passionate devotion. This was John's objective. It was the bull's-eye\nof his target never out of his keen Spirit-opened eye. Nothing else\nfigured in.\n\nThis is _the_ thing in all our living and serving and doing and giving,\n_that men may know Jesus_ to the trusting, risking, loving point, the\nglad point. Everything that we can bring of gold and learning and labour\nand skill is precious, it is as purest gold, _if_ it lead men into\nheart-touch with Jesus. And it clean misses the mark if it does less.\n\nWho would be content to give a Belgian or Polish starveling a bare bit\nof bread, and a lonely stick of wood, and a rag of cloth. Bite and stick\nand cloth are good, but it's a _meal_ and a _fire_, and some _clothing_,\nthe man wants. And you have both ready at hand. _Things_ are good,\nprovided by money and skill and research and painstaking efforts. They\n_do_ good. But it's Jesus men need. It's the warm touch that lets _Him_\nfully in with all of His human sympathy and all of His God-power, that's\nwhat they need.\n\nGiven the sun and quickly come warmth and food and shelter, health and\nvigour and increase of life. Given Jesus, and the warm touch with Him,\nin His simple fullness, just as He is, and surely and not slowly, there\ncome flooding in all the rest of an abundant life, physical and mental\nand of the spirit.\n\nJohn \"_was not the light_.\" He was only the candlestick. And he was\ncontent to be that. He was a good candlestick. The light was held up. It\ncould shine out. How grateful the crowd was. The road had been so dark.\nIt is a bad thing when light and candlestick change places. The crowd\nseems to get the two confused sometimes. We get to thinking that the\ncandlestick is the light, and the light is--lost sight of. We gather\nabout the candlestick. It'll surely lead the way out through the dark\nnight into day. It's such a good candlestick, so highly polished. And\nsometimes the human candlestick itself gets things a bit mixed. It\nthinks, then it feels, then it knows, with a peculiar quality of\nself-assertive certainty, that after all _it_ is the light that\nlighteth every one that is so blessed as to come within the radius of\nits shining. And brass does take a high polish, and makes an attractive\nappearance. It does send out a sparkle and radiance _if_ only it is\nsomewhere within range of some real light, patient enough to keep on\nshining in the dark, regardless of non-appreciation or misrepresentation\nor misunderstanding.\n\nIs it any wonder the road is so full of people wandering in the night\ngathered about candlesticks? Is it surprising that the ditches are so\nfull of men and candlesticks mixed up and mired up together? Yet it is\nalways heart-breaking. There may be talent and training of the highest\nand best, and scholarship and culture, eloquence and skill, institutions\nand philanthropies. And there is so much of these. And these are good in\nthemselves, and of priceless practical worth when seen and held in their\nright relation to _the_ thing.\n\nBut it needs to be said often and earnestly: _these are not the light_.\nThey are given to point men better to the Light. They're road-signs,\nindex-fingers. And they are seen at their best when they point to the\nLight so clearly that the crowd quite forgets them in hastening to the\nLight they point out. They serve their true purpose in being so\nforgotten. They are still serving and serving best even while forgotten.\n\n\n\nThe Real Thing of Light.\n\n\nAnd John goes on to intensify yet more what he is thinking and saying:\n_there was the true light_, _the real thing of light_. They were\nbothered, in John's old age when he is writing, with false lights,\nmake-pretend lights, that led people astray. Every generation seems to\nhave been so bothered and confused. And even our own doesn't seem to\nhave entirely escaped the subtle contagion. The ground is a bit swampy\nin places, boggy.\n\nLow-lying land runs to bog and swamp. And the air gets thick with heavy\nvapours. And strange will-of-the-wisp lights form out of the foul damp\ngasses, and they flit about in the gloom this way and that. And people\nare led astray by them deeper into swamp and bog. It's surprising to\nfind how many, that grow up in well-lit neighbourhoods, wander off after\nthe swamp lights, and even follow them so contentedly. That's partly\ndue, without doubt, to the false lights borrowing so much of the mere\nouter incidentals from the true. And they succeed in producing a make-up\nthat easily deceives the unwary and untaught.\n\nThere's a teaching to-day, for instance, that magnifies bodily healing.\nThe name of Christ is freely used. And the old Book of God freely\nquoted. And men are really healed. There can be no question of that.\nThere are sufficient facts at hand to make that incontestably clear.\n\nBut bodily healing does not necessarily argue divine power. There are\nresults secured through the operation of unfamiliar mental powers that\nseem miraculous. And clearly there are devilish miracles as well as\ndivine. Miracles simply reveal a supernatural power, that is, a power\nabove the ordinary workings of nature. Then one must apply a touchstone,\na test, to learn what that power is.\n\nIt is striking that in this teaching I speak of now there is never\nmention of the atoning blood of Christ. And this is the sure touchstone\nby which to detect the real thing of light and the make-believe. The\noutstanding thing in the life of Christ is His death, and the tremendous\nmeaning which His own teaching put into that fact of His death.\n\nThere is none of the red tinge to this make-believe light. It has the\nunwholesome unnatural tingeing of swamp lights. And those who are healed\nthrough this teaching will find themselves in a bondage the more\nterrible because so subtle. And only the power of the blood of Christ\ncan ever break that bondage.\n\nThere was the real thing of light. Here _is_ the real thing of light.\nThere's a distinct tingeing of red in it. It's the only light. It only\nis the light. Every other is a make-pretend light, however subtle its\nimitations and reflections: it will lead only into swamp and bog and\nditch and worse.\n\nAnd then John goes on to add a very simple bit that has not always been\nquite understood in its simplicity. There was the real thing of light\n_that lighteth every man that cometh into the world_. There is a little\ngroup of varied readings into the English here, found in the margin of\nthe various revisions. But the central statement remains the same.\nWhether John is saying that the light, that lighteth every man, was now\ncoming down into the world in a closer way. Or, that every man is\nlighted as _he_ comes into the world, the chief thing being told is the\nsame. Every man in the world is lighted by this Light.\n\nThrough nature, the nightly twinklers in the wondrous blue overhead, the\nunfailing freshness of the green out of the brown under foot; through\nthe never-ceasing wonders of these bodies of ours, so awesomely and\nskilfully made, and kept going; through that clear quiet inner voice\nthat does speak in every human heart amidst all the noises of earth and\nof passion; through these the light _is_ shining, noiselessly, softly,\nendlessly, by day and night.\n\nIt is the same identical light that John is telling us of here that so\nshines in upon every man, and always has. There is no light but His. His\nlater name is Jesus. From the first, and everywhere still, it is the\nlight that shines from Him that lights men. He was with the Father in\nthe beginning. He acted for the Father in that creation week. He gave\nand sustained all life of every sort everywhere, and does, though only a\nthird of us know His later, nearer, newer Name--Jesus.\n\nBut the light was obscured, terribly beclouded and bedimmed, hindered by\nearth-fogs, and swampy clouds rising up, until we are apt to think there\nwas no light, and is none; only darkness. Then He came closer, and yet\ncloser. He came in nearer form so as to get the light closer, and let\nit shine _through_ fog and cloud, for the sake of the befogged,\nbeswamped crowd.\n\nAnd then--ah! hold your heart still--_then_ He let _the_ Light-holder,\nthe great human Lantern, be _broken_, utterly broken, that so the light\nmight flash out through broken lantern in its sweet soft wondrous\nclearness into our blinded blinking eyes, and show us the real way back\nhome. It was in that breaking that it got that wondrous exquisite red\ntingeing that becomes the unfailing hall-mark, the unmistakable evidence\nof the real thing of light.\n\nAnd it's only as men know of this latest coming of the light, this\ntremendous tragic Jesus-coming of the light, that they can come into the\nfull light. That's the reason He came in the way He did. That's the\nreason when He gets possession of us there's the passion to take the\nfull Jesus-light out to every one. And this passion burns in us and\nthrough us, and ours, and sweeps all in the sweep of its tender holy\nflame. In this way every man may be fully lit, and so in following the\nJesus-light he shall not walk in the darkness where he has been, but in\nthe sweet clear light of life.\n\n\n\nLooking for Recognition.\n\n\nThen we come to the first of John's heart-breaking sentences. John had a\nhard time writing his Gospel. He was not simply writing a book. That\nmight have been fairly easy for him with his personal knowledge and all\nthe facts so familiar. But he is telling about his dearest Friend. And\nthe telling makes his heart throb harder, and his eyes fill up, and the\nwriting look dim to him, as he tries to put the words down.\n\nListen: _He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and\nthe world recognized, or rather acknowledged, Him not._ It was His\nworld, His child, His creation. He had made it. But it failed to\nacknowledge Him. He came walking down the street of life. He met the\nworld going the other way. And He gave it a warm good-morning greeting.\nAnd it knew Him full well. It knew who He was. But it turned its face\naside and walked by with no return greeting. This is what John is\nsaying. It recognized, it acknowledged Him not.\n\nYou mothers know the glad hour that comes in a mother's life when her\nlittle babe of the wee weeks knows her _for the first time._ She's busy\nbathing or nursing, or, she's just hovering over the precious morsel of\nhumanity when there's really nothing needing to be done. And the babe's\neyes catch her own and _a smile comes,_ the first smile of recognition.\nAnd the mother-heart gives a glad leap. She murmurs to herself, \"Oh,\nbaby knows me!\"\n\nAnd when the father comes home that night she greets him with, \"Baby\nknew me to-day.\" And there's a soft bell-like tender ring in her voice\nthat vibrates on the strings of his heart. And all the folks within\nrange are advised of the day's event. And the mother clear forgets all\nthe sharp-cutting pain back there just a little before, in this joy,\nthis look of recognition.\n\nI knew of a woman. She was of an old family, of unusual native gift, and\nrare accomplishment. And her babe came. And the time came when\nordinarily there would be that first sweet look of recognition, but--_it\ndidn't come._ There was a defect; something not as it should be. And you\nmothers all know how she felt, yes, and you true fathers, too. She was\nheart-broken. And she turned aside from all the busy round of activity\nin which she had been the natural leader. And for years she devoted all\nher splendid talents, her strength and time, to just one thing, a very\nsimple thing; only this,--_getting a look of glad recognition out of two\nbabe-eyes._\n\n_He_ looked into the face of His child, His world, for the look of\nrecognition. But there was none. And He was heart-broken. And He devoted\nall His strength and time, Himself, for those human years to--what? One\nthing, just one thing, a very simple thing, only this: to getting a look\nof recognition out of the eyes of His child.\n\nAye, there's more yet here. He _looks_ into our faces, eager for that\nsimple direct answering look into His face and out of our eyes, yours\nand mine. And we give Him--things, church-membership, orthodox belief,\nintense activity, aggressive missionary propaganda, money in good\nmeasure, tireless, and then tired-out service--_things!_ And all good\nthings. But _the_ thing, the direct look into His own face answering His\nown hungry searching look, that look in the face that reveals the inner\nheart that He _waits_ for so often, and waits, a bit sore at heart.\n\nFor you know the eye is the face of the face. It's the doorway into the\nsoul, out through which the soul, the man within, looks. I look at you,\nthe man inside here looks out at you through my eye. And I look at the\nreal you down through your eye. The real man is hidden away within, but\nlooks out through the eye and is looked at only through the eye. We\nreally give ourselves to Jesus in the look direct into His face which\ntells Him all, and through which He transforms us.\n\n\n\nA Heart-breaking Verse.\n\n\nThen comes John's second heart-breaking verse; but it is just a bit more\nheart-breaking in what it says. Listen: _He came to His own home, and\nthey that were His own kinsfolk received Him not into the house but kept\nHim standing out in the cold and storm of the wintry night._\n\nOne of you men goes home to-night. It's your own home, shaped on your\nown personality through the years. It's a bit late. You've had a long\nhard day. You're tired. It's stormy. The wind and the rain chill you as\nyou turn the corner. And you pull your coat a bit snugger as you quicken\nyour steps and think of home, warmth and comfort, loved ones, and rest\nfor body and spirit, too.\n\nAs you come to the door you reach for your latch-key, and find, in the\nbusy rush, you seem to have forgotten it, somehow. So you ring the bell\nor knock. And suppose--be patient with me a bit, please. Suppose your\nloved ones know you're there. You even see a hand drawing aside the edge\nof the window shade, and two eyes that you know so well peer out through\nthe crack at you; then the shade goes to again. Yes, they know you're\nthere. But the door, your own door, doesn't open. How would you feel?\n\nAnd some one says to himself, \"That's not a good illustration. That\nthing couldn't happen. It isn't natural.\" No: you're right. It _isn't_\nnatural. It could not happen to _you_. I am sure it could not happen to\n_me_. If it could I'd be heart-broken. _But this is what happened to\nHim!_ This is what John is saying here. He came to His own front door,\nand they whose very image revealed their close kinship to Him, received\nHim not into the home, but kept the door fast in His face.\n\nThen there's a later translation. This old King James version bears the\ndate of 1611, I think. And the English Revision is dated 1881, I\nbelieve. And this American Standard Revision I am using has 1901 on its\ntitle page. But there's a later revision. It bears a yet later date,\n1915, April 27. But it is a shifting date. Each translator fixed his own\ndate.\n\nThis latest translation runs something like this: He _comes_ to His own.\nThat's you and myself. We belong to Him. He gave His breath to us in\nEden. He gave His breath to you and me at our birth. He gave His blood\nfor us on Calvary. We belong to Him. The image of His kinship is stamped\nupon us. We may not acknowledge it, but that can't change the fact.\n\n_He comes to His own, and His own_--and here, as the scholars would say,\nthere are variant readings. Let me give you one or two I have found.\nHere is one: He comes to His own, and His own--puts a chair outside the\ndoor on the top-step. It's a large armchair with a cushion in, perhaps.\nAnd then His own talks about Him through the crack of the door, or\nlikelier, the window. It's reckoned safer to keep the door fast.\n\nListen to what he says: \"He's a wonderful man this Jesus; great teacher,\nthe greatest; the greatest man of the race; His philosophy, His moral\nstandards are the ideals; wonderful life; great example.\" They fairly\nexhaust the language in talking about this Man. But notice. It seems a\nbit queer. The man they're talking _about_ is _outside the door_. His\nown claim is left severely outside.\n\nSome make it read like this: He comes to His own, and they who are His\nown open the door a _crack_, maybe a fairly respectably wide crack. We\nall like the word _Saviour_. Yes, we cling tenaciously to that.\nSelfishly, would you say? We want to be saved from a certain place we\nthink of as _down_, that we've been taught about, and don't want to go\nto--_if it's there;_ the way men talk about it to-day.\n\nAnd we want to be saved into another certain place we think of as _up_,\nand where we surely want to go _after_ we get through down on the\nearth, and _must_ go away somewhere else; with that \"after\" and \"must\"\ncarefully underscored. And we want to be saved from all the\ninconveniences possible along the way, and to secure all the advantages\nand help available: yes, yes, open the door a crack.\n\nBut be careful about the width of the opened crack. Let it be just the\nproper conventionalized width. Let there be no extremeism about the\nwideness of that opening. Things must be proper. For what would the\nother crack-open-door-owners think?\n\nAnd then, too, yet more serious, this Jesus has a way, a most\ninconsiderate way of coming in as far as you let Him, and of taking\nthings into His own hands. Certain people use that word\n\"inconsiderate\"--to themselves, in secret. Jesus changes some things\nwhen He is allowed all the way in. He might change your personal habits,\nyour home arrangements, some of your social customs and your business\nplans.\n\nOf course He changes only what needs changing, as He sees it.\nBut--then--you--well, some things can be carried _too far_--to suit\n_you_. This Jesus has the _all_ habit. He contracted it when He was down\non the earth. Our needs grew the habit. He _gave_ all. And He has a way\nof coming in all the way, and of reaching in His pierced hand and\n_taking_ all.\n\nHe might even put His hand in on that most sacred thing, that holiest of\nall, that you guard most jealously--that box. It has heavy hinges, and\ndouble padlocks, and the keys are held hard under the thumb of your\nwill. Of course there may really not be much in it; and again there may\nbe very much. But much or little, it is securely kept under that thick\nbroad thumb of yours.\n\nOh! you _give_; of _course_; yes, yes, we're all good proper Christian\nfolk here. We give a tenth, and even much more. We support an aggressive\nmissionary propaganda. That's the thing, you know, in our day, for good\nchurch people. We give to all the good things. Ye-es, no doubt. And we\nare very careful, too, that that _inconsiderate_ Hand shall not disturb\nthe greater bulk that remains between hinge and lock. That's _yours_. Of\ncourse you are _His_, redeemed, saved by His blood.\n\nWell, well, how these pronouns, \"His,\" \"ours,\" do get mixed up! How\nlovely some things are to _sing_ about, in church, and special services,\nat Keswick and Northfield. But through it all we hold hard to that key,\nwe don't let go--_even to Him_, though it is He who entrusts all to our\ntemporary keeping. We do guard the width of that opening crack, do we\nnot?\n\nOne day I looked through that crack and caught a glimpse of _His face_\nlooking through full in my own, with those eyes of His. And at first I\nwanted to take the door clear off of its hinges and stand it outside\nagainst the bricks, and leave the whole door-space wide for Him.\n\nBut I've learned better. No man wants to leave the doorway of his life\nunguarded. He must keep the strong hand of his controlling purpose on\nthe knob of the front door of his life. There are others than He, evil\nones, cunningly subtle ones, standing just at the corner watching for\nsuch an opportunity. And they step quickly slyly in under your untaught\nunsuspicious eyes, and get things badly tangled in your life. There's a\nbetter, a stronger way.\n\nHere's the personal translation that I try now, by His help, to work out\ninto living words, the language of life. He comes to His own, and His\nown opens the door wide, and _holds_ it wide open, that He may come in\nall the way, and cleanse, and change, readjust, and then shape over on\nthe shape of His own presence.\n\nBut every one must work out his own translation of that; and every one\ndoes. And the crowd reads--not this printed version. It reads this other\ntranslation, the one nearest, in such big print, the one our lives work\nout daily. That's the translation they prefer. And that's the\ntranslation they're being influenced by, and influenced by tremendously.\n\n\n\nHe Came to His Own.\n\n\nIn certain circles in England, they tell of a certain physician years\nago. He came of a very humble family. His father was a gardener on a\ngentleman's estate. And the father died. And the mother wasn't able to\npay her son's schooling. But a storekeeper in the village liked this\nlittle bright boy and sent him to school. And he went on through the\nhigher schooling, became a physician, and began his practice in London.\nHe became skilled, and then famous, and then wealthy.\n\nHe remembered his dear old mother, of course. He sent her money, and\nfabrics for dresses, and wrote her. But for a long time, in the busy\nabsorption of his life, he had not been to see her. And the dear old\nmother in the little cottage in the country lived in the sweet\nconsciousness that her son was a great physician up in the great London.\nHe was her chief topic of conversation. When the neighbours were in she\nwould always talk of her son, her Laddie, she called him.\n\n\"He's so good to me, my Laddie is. He sends me money. I put it in the\nbank. He sends me cloth for dresses; it's quite too good for a plain\nbody like me. And he writes me letters, such good letters, wonderful\nletters. But he's so busy up there, that he hasn't been to see me for a\nlong time now. You know he's a great doctor now, and he has great skill,\nand there are so many needing him. And he's no time at all, even for\nhimself, I expect. But\"--she would always finish her talk as they sat\nover the tea by saying, half to herself, really more to herself than to\nthe little group, with a half-repressed longing sigh, \"but, I wish, I\njust _wish_ I could _see_ my _Laddie_.\"\n\nThen some changes took place on the estate. And the cottage where she\nhad lived so long must be given up. And the dear old woman had to make\nnew plans. And she cudgeled her old head, and thought, and at last she\nsaid to herself, \"I know what I'll do. I'll go-up to London, and I'll\nlive with Laddie. He'll be so glad to have me.\" And bright-coloured\nvisions flitted through her mind, as she sat over her tea by the open\ngrate. But she wouldn't send him word; no, no, she would surprise him,\nand add to his pleasure.\n\nAnd the dear old soul, in her fine simplicity, did not think into what\nthis would mean, nor of the difference that had grown up with the years,\nin manner of life, between her son and herself. He was a cultured\ngentleman, with his well-appointed city home, and the circle of friends\nthat had grown up about him. And she was a simple uncultured country\nwoman with a broad provincial twist on her tongue. But she was\nblissfully unconscious of this. She would go and live with her Laddie.\nIt would be so delightful for them both.\n\nAnd so she went. It was her first train journey, and quite a time of it\nshe had finding the house. But at last she stands looking up at the\nhouse. \"Ugh! does my Laddie live here! in this great mansion?\" But there\nwas the name on the door-plate. There was no mistaking that. And so she\nrang the bell. \"Is the doctor in?\" She could hardly get the word\n\"doctor\" out. She had never called him that before, just Laddie. But now\nshe must say it. \"Is the doctor in?\" And the word almost stuck in her\nthroat as she thought to herself, \"This poor man opening the door\ndoesn't know that the 'doctor' really belongs to _me_.\"\n\nBut in a hard voice the servant said that it was past the hours. She\ncouldn't see the doctor.\n\n\"Ah! bat,\" she said, quite taken by surprise at being held there, \"I\n_must_ see him.\"\n\n\"But, I tell you, it's quite too late to see him to-day.\"\n\nBut she resolutely put her stout country-boot in the crack of the door,\nand her English jaw set in true English fashion, and she said with that\nquietness that has the subtle touch of danger in it, \"I'll see the\ndoctor.\"\n\nAnd the servant looked puzzled and went to report about this strangely\ninsistent woman. And the doctor was annoyed by the interruption in the\nmidst of something that was absorbing him. He said sharply, \"It's past\nthe hours; I can see no one.\"\n\n\"I told her so, sir,\" replied the man deferentially, \"but she insists in\na strange way, sir.\"\n\n\"What's she like?\"\n\n\"Oh, just a plain country body, sir.\"\n\n\"Well, show her up.\"\n\nAnd I am glad to remember that she had a warm embrace of his strong\narms, as he instantly recognized her in the doorway, while the servant\nstared. Then he said rather nervously as the servant discreetly\nwithdrew, \"How did yon happen to come? Why didn't you send word? Has\nanything happened?\" And then as she sat by the fire sipping a cup of\ntea, she told the story, in her own simple slow way, and ended up with,\n\"And now I'm coming to live with you, Laddie.\" And the old eyes behind\nthe spectacles beamed, and the dear old wrinkled face glowed.\n\nAnd he poked the fire, and tried to think You know, our English friends\ndepend almost wholly on the open grate fire, as we do so largely in the\nSouth. And it's a great thing, is the open grate fire. It's a fire. It\nwarms your body, at least in front in extreme weather. But it's more\nthan a fire. It's a stimulus to thought. It refreshes your spirit, and\nrests your tired nerves, and it is a wonderful thing to help you unravel\nknotty problems. So he poked the fire and thought, while she, quite\nunconscious of his embarrassment, went on sipping her tea and talking.\n\nIt would never do to have her come there, he thought. And his thoughts\nwent to the circle of friends at the dinner table in the evening, and to\nthe critical city servants that ran his bachelor establishment. And just\nthen his ear caught anew the broad provincial twist on her tongue. He\nhad never noticed it so broad, so decided, before. And she was talking\nthe small countryside talk, chickens and an epidemic among them. And\nthat grated strangely. It certainly wouldn't do to have her come there.\n\nThen the tide began to rise gently on the beach of his heart. He\nthought, \"She's my _mother_. And if mother wants to come here, here she\ncomes.\" And he straightened up in his chair, as he gave a gentler touch\nto a blazing lump of coal. Then the tide ebbed. It began running out\nagain. \"No, it would hardly do.\" And he poked and thought. Finally he\nbroke into her run of talk.\n\n\"Mother, you know it is not very healthful here. We have bad fogs in\nLondon. And you're used to the wholesome country air. It wouldn't agree\nwith you here, I'm afraid. I'll get a little cottage on the edge of\ntown, and I'll come and see you very often.\"\n\nAnd the dear old woman _sensed_ at once just what he was thinking. She\nwas not stupid, if she was just a plain homely body. He got his brains\nfrom his simple country mother, as many a man of note has done. But she\nspoke not of what she felt. She simply said, with that quietness which\ngrows out of strong self-control:\n\n\"It's a bit late the night, Laddie, I'm thinking, to be talking about\nnew plans.\"\n\nAnd he said softly, \"Forgive me, mother: it is late, I forgot.\" And he\nshowed her to her sleeping apartment.\n\n\"And where do you sleep, Laddie?\"\n\n\"Right here, mother, this first door on the left. Be sure to call me if\nyou need anything.\"\n\nAnd he bade her a tender \"good-night,\" and went back to his study to do\nsome more thinking and planning. And very late he came up to his\nsleeping-chamber. And he was just cuddling his head into the soft pillow\nfor the night, when the door opened, so softly, and in there came a\nlittle body in simple white night garb, with a quaint old-fashioned\nnightcap on, candle in hand. She came in very softly. And he started up.\n\n\"Mother, are you ill? What's the matter?\"\n\nAnd she came over very quietly, and put down the candle on the table\nbefore she answered. And then softly:\n\n\"No, no, Laddie, I'm not ill. I just came to tuck you in for the night\nas I used to do at home. ... Lie still, my Laddie.\"\n\nAnd she tucked the clothes about his neck, and smoothed his hair, and\npatted his cheek, and kissed his face. And she crooned over him as\nmother with little child. The years were quite forgot. She had her\nlittle son again. And she talked mother's love-talk to a child.\n\"Good-night, Laddie ... good-night ... good-night ... mother's own boy.\"\nAnd a little more tucking and smoothing and patting and kissing, and\nthen she turned so quietly, picked up the candle, and went out, closing\nthe door so softly, her great strength revealed in her gentleness.\n\nAnd he was just on the point of starting up and saying, \"Mother, you\nmust stay with me, right here\"--no, the morning will do, he thought. But\nwhen the morning came she wasn't down for breakfast. And when he went to\nher room she wasn't there. It turned out afterwards that she had said to\nherself, \"It doesn't suit my Laddie's plans to have me here. I don't\nunderstand why. It isn't his fault at all. It just doesn't suit. And\nI'll never be a trouble to my Laddie.\"\n\nAnd so with that rare characteristic English trait of independence, she\nhad quietly gone off early that morning before the house was astir. And\nhe broken-hearted--I'm always glad to remember that--he searched through\nthe wilderness of London for more than a year, searched diligently, but\ncould find no trace of her. And then he was graciously permitted to\nminister to her last hours in a hospital where a street accident had\nsent her unconscious, and where he was chief of the medical staff.\n\n_She came to her own and her own received her not._ He loved her, but it\ndidn't suit his plans. _He, Jesus_, came to _His_ own, and His own\nreceived Him not; it didn't suit their plans. Ah! listen yet further: He\n_comes_ to His own, you and me, and His own--_you_ finish it. Have we\nsome plans, too, set plans, that we don't propose to change, even\nfor--(softly) even for _Him_? Each of us is finishing that sentence, not\nin words so much if at all, in the words of our action. And the crowd\nreads our translation.\n\n\n\nThe Oldest Family.\n\n\n\"But,\" John goes on. That was a steadying \"but.\" It was hard on John to\nrecall how they treated his Friend and Master. But there is a \"but.\"\nThere's another aide, an offset to what he's been saying, a bright bit\nto offset the black bit. But as many as did receive Him. Some received.\nJesus was rejected, yes, abominably, contemptibly rejected. But He was\nalso accepted, gladly, joyously, wholeheartedly accepted, even though\nit came to mean pain and shame.\n\n_As many as received Him_, John says, _He received into His family_. The\nconception of a family and of a home where the family lives, runs all\nthrough underneath here. They would not receive this Jesus because He\ndidn't belong to the inner circle of the old families which they\nrepresented. They regarded themselves as the custodians of the\nexclusive aristocratic circles of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem was the upper\ncircle of Israel.\n\nAnd every one knew that Israel was the chiefest, the one uppermost\nnation, of the earth, with none near enough to be classed second. They\nwere the favourites of God, all the rest were \"dogs of Gentiles,\"\noutsiders, not to be mentioned in the same breath. To these national\nleaders of Jesus' day, this was the very breath of their life.\n\n\"And _this Jesus_!\" They spat on the ground to relieve the intensity of\ntheir contempt. \"Who was He? A peasant! a Galilean! Nazareth!\" Nazareth\nwas put in as a sort of superlative degree of contempt. Of course, they\ncould easily have found out about the lineage of Jesus. In the best\nmeaning of the word, Jesus was an aristocrat. Apart from its\nphilological derivation that word means one who traces his lineage back\nthrough a worthy line for a long way, and so one who has the noble\ntraits of such lineage. In the best meaning of the word Jesus was an\n_aristocrat_. His line traced back without slip or break to the great\nhouse of David, and that meant clear back to Adam. The records were all\nthere, carefully preserved, indisputable. They could easily have found\nthis out.\n\nI recall talking one day in London with a gentle lady of an old, titled\nScottish family, an earnest Christian, trained in the Latin Church. In\nthe course of the conversation she remarked, \"Of course, Jesus was a\n_peasant_.\" And I replied as gently as I could so as not to seem to be\narguing, \"Of course, He was _not_ a peasant. He chose to _live_ as a\npeasant, for a great strong purpose. But He was an aristocrat in blood.\nHis family line traced directly back through the noblest families clear\nto the beginning. No one living had a longer unbroken lineage. And that\nis the very essence of aristocracy.\"\n\nIn some circles, they count much, or most, on old families. In certain\ncities of our own country, east and south, this is reckoned as the\nhall-mark of highest distinction. When one goes across the water to\nEngland and the Continent, he finds the old families of America are\nrather young affairs. And as he pushes on into the East, some of the old\nfamilies of Europe sometimes seem fairly recent. I remember in the\nOrient running across a family where the father had been a Shinto\npriest, father and son successively, through forty-five generations; and\nanother where the father of the family has been successively a\ncourt-musician for thirty-eight generations. I thought maybe I had run\ninto some really old families at last.\n\nI come of a rather old family myself. It runs clear back without break\nor slip to Adam in Eden. I've not bothered much with tracing it, for\nthere are some pretty plain evidences of ugly stains on the family\nescutcheon, running all through, and repeatedly. And then even more than\nthat I've become intensely interested in another family, an older\nfamily, the oldest family of all. Arrangements have been made whereby I\nhave been taken into this oldest family of all with full rights and\nprivileges. My claims to aristocracy are now of the very highest, with\nall the noble obligations that go with it. That's what John is talking\nof here. _As many as received Him, He received into His family, the\noldest family of all._\n\nThese people refused Jesus because He didn't belong to their set. In\ntheir utterly selfish prejudice and wilful ignorance, these leaders shut\nHim out from the circles they controlled. But with great graciousness He\nreceived into His circle any, of any circle, high or low, who would\nreceive Him into their hearts. To as many as received Him into their\nhearts He opened the door into His own family. He gave them the\ntechnical right of becoming children of His Father.\n\nTheir part of the thing is put very simply in two ways. They _believed_.\nThey were told, they listened and thought, they accepted as true, they\nrisked what they counted most precious, they loved. So they believed.\nAnd so they _received._ The door opened, the inner door, the heart door.\nHe went in. That settled things for them. When He graciously entered\ntheir hearts, the inner citadel of their lives, that settled their place\nin this oldest family of all.\n\n\n\nHow We Don't Get In, and How We Do.\n\n\nIt is of intensest interest in our day to have John go on to tell, in\nhis own simple taking way, just how we get into this God-family. First\nof all, he tells us how we _don't_ get in. Listen: \"_not of blood_,\"\nthat is, not by our natural generation; \"_nor of the will of the\nflesh_,\" that is, not by anything we can do of ourselves, though this\nhas a place, a distinctly secondary place; \"_nor of the will of man_,\"\nthat is, not by what somebody else can do for us, though this too has\nits place.\n\nThese are the three \"_nots_\"; the three ways we are _not_ saved. And it\nbecomes of intensest interest to notice that these are the very three\nways that the crowd is emphasizing to-day, some this, others that, as\nthe way of being saved. The three modern words we commonly use for these\nthree \"nots\" of John are, _family, culture_, and _influence_.\n\nSome of us seem to be fully expecting to walk into the presence of God,\nand to get all there is to be gotten there, because of the family we\nbelong to. This is probably stronger in some of us than we are conscious\nof. It's a matter of blood with us, our blood, our natural generation.\nWe take greatest pride in showing what blood it is that runs in our\nveins. We trace the line far back to those whose names are well known.\nAnd this sort of thing has overpowering influence in our human affairs\ndown here.\n\nHis gracious majesty King George is King of England, because he is the\nchild of Edward and Alexandra. His one and only claim to the English\nthrone is that at the time of accession he was their oldest living son.\nBut that won't figure a farthing's worth when he comes up to the\nhearthfire of God's family. And I think he understands this full well.\nI'm expecting to see him there; not as King of England, but as a\nbrother.\n\nIt is not a matter of blood. It's a blessed thing to be well-born. It\nmakes a tremendous difference to have the blood of an old noble family\nin one's veins, if it is good clean blood. But it'll never save us.\nSalvation is not by lineal descent, not by family line. It is \"not of\nblood.\" John clears that ground.\n\nSome of us put great stress on what we are in ourselves. This looms big\nwith a great crowd scattered throughout the earth. We know so much. We\nhave gotten it by dint of hard work. We can do some things so skilfully.\nWe have worked into positions of great power among men. Our names are\nknown. Sometimes they are spelled in large letters.\n\nThe broad word for this is _culture_, what we have gained and gotten by\nour effort, of that which is reckoned good, and which _is_ good. Culture\nis one of the chief words in our language to-day. Whether spelled the\nEnglish way or the German, it looms big. It is one of our modern\ntidbits. It is chewed on much, and pleases our palate greatly. And\nculture is good, if it is good culture.\n\nBut, have you noticed, that you have to have a thing before you can\nculture it? No amount of the choicest culture will get an apple out of a\nturnip, nor a Bartlett pear out of a potato, nor make a Chinese into an\nEnglishman, nor an American into a Japanese. Culture can improve the\nstock, but _it can't change it_. It takes some other power than culture\nto change the kind. Here we have to be made of the same kind as they are\nup in the old family of God. There must be a change at the core. Then\nculture of that new stock is only good and blessed.\n\nThis is John's second \"not.\" It seems rather radical. It completely\nundercuts so much of our present day notions. If John is right, some of\nus are wrong, radically, dangerously wrong. Yet John had a wonderful\nTeacher whom he lived with for a while. And after He had gone, John had\nanother Teacher, unseen but very real, who guided, especially in the\nwriting of the old Jesus-story. The whole presumption is in favour of\nJohn's way of it being wholly right. And if that makes us wrong, we\nwould better be grateful to find it out _now_, while there's time to\nchange. Being saved is not a matter of what we can do, of our culture,\nthough this has its proper place.\n\nAnd some of us put tremendous stress to-day on _influence_, what we can\ncommand from others, in furtherance of our desires. Influence is spelled\nin biggest type and printed in blackest ink. Whether in political\nmatters at Washington or at London; in financial, whether Lombard Street\nor Wall Street; or in the all-important social matters, or even in the\neducational, the university world, the chief question is, \"Whose\ninfluence can you get?\" \"What name can you quote?\" \"Whose backing have\nyou?\" Influence and culture are the twin gods to-day. The smoke of\ntheir incense goeth up continuously. Their places of worship are\ncrowded, with bent knees and prostrate forms and reverential hush.\n\nHave you noticed that _Jesus_ hadn't enough influence with the officials\nof His day to keep from the cross? No: but He had enough _power_ to\nbreak the official emblem of earth's greatest authority, the Roman seal\non the Joseph tomb. Rather striking that; intensely significant for us\nmoderns. _Peter_ hadn't enough _influence_ with the authorities to keep\nout of jail. Sounds rather disgraceful that, does it not? Aye, but he\nhad enough _power_ with God to open jail-doors and walk quietly out\nagainst the wish of those highest in authority.\n\nInfluence has its proper place. It's good, _if_ it is. But we are not\nsaved by it. We are not saved by what some one else can do for us; \"not\nof the will of man.\" Your mother's prayers and your wife's, and the\ninfluence of their godly lives will have great weight. It's a great\nblessing to have them. They help enormously. But the thing itself that\ntakes a man into the presence of God, saved and redeemed, is something\nimmensely more than this, some action of his own that goes to the roots\nas none of these other things do.\n\nOne time a deputation waited on Lincoln to press a matter of public\nconcern. But his keenly logical mind discerned flaws in their\nimpassioned and carefully worked out arguments. He waited patiently till\ntheir case was complete. And then in that quiet way for which he was\nfamous, he said, \"How many legs would a sheep have if you called its\ntail a leg?\" As he expected, they promptly answered \"Five.\" \"No,\" he\nsaid, \"it wouldn't; it would have only four. _Calling_ a tail a leg does\nnot make it one.\" So a simple bit of his homely sense and accurate logic\nscattered their finely spun argument.\n\nCalling either family or culture or influence the chief thing doesn't\nmake it so. These are John's three tremendous \"nots.\" They rather cut\nstraight across the common current of thought and belief and conduct\nto-day. We may indeed be grateful if a single homely drop of black ink\nfrom John's pen put into the beautifully cloudy-grey solution of modern\nthought clears the liquid and makes a precipitate of sharply defined\ntruth that any eye can plainly see.\n\nThis is how we _won't_ be saved. This is how we _don't_ get into the\nfamily of God. It is \"not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of\nthe will of man\"; not through family connection, nor by what we can do\nof ourselves simply, nor by what we can get some of our fellows to do\nfor us, simply.\n\n\"_But of God_,\" John says. It is by Someone else, outside of us, above\nus, reaching down from a higher level, and putting the germ of a new\nlife within us, and lifting us up to His own level. He puts His hand\n_through_ the open door of our will, what we do in opening up to Him,\n_through_ \"the will of the flesh.\" He walks along the pathway of the\nearnest desire of those who would help us up, \"the will of man.\" But it\nis what _He_ does that does the one thing that all depends upon. His is\nthe decisive action, _through_ our choosing and our friends' helping.\n\nI said it isn't a matter of blood, of lineage. Yet it is. That statement\nmust be modified. Family relationship is of necessity a matter of blood.\nThat's the very blood of it. This _is_ a matter of blood; but not _our_\nblood; _His._ There has to be a new strain of blood. Our blood is\nstained. It is at fault. It is impure. There's been a bad break far back\nthere in the family record, a complete break. We were powerless either\nto purify the stock, or to get over that gap, even if we admitted the\nneed.\n\nThere had to be a bridging of that gap. It had to be from the upper\nside. The other fell short. The gap was still there. There had to be a\nnew strain of blood. This was, this _is_, the only way. We get into that\nold first family only by the Father of the family reaching over the\nbreak and putting in the new strain of blood, the germ of the family\nlife, and so lifting us up to the new level. And Jesus was God doing\njust that.\n\n\n\nOur Tented Neighbour.\n\n\nThen John begins a new paragraph. He goes back to tell just how the\nthing was done. Listen: _the Word, this wondrous One, became a man, one\nof ourselves, and pitched His tent in close amongst our tents._There's\nonly a stretch of canvas between Him and any of us. He wanted to get\nclose, close enough to help, yet never infringing upon the privacy of\nour tents, only coming in as He was invited. But He has remarkable\nears. A whisper reaches Him at once. And He is out of His tent into ours\nto help at the faintest call. That was why He pitched His tent in\namongst ours, to be one of ourselves, and to be at hand in our need.\n\nAnd then a touch of awe creeps into John's spirit as he writes, and the\nlight flashes out of his eye with the intensity of an old picture\nsurging to the front of his imagination again. There was more than a\n_tent_ here, more than a _man_. Out of the man, out through the tent\ndoorway, and tent canvas, flashes a wondrous, soft, clear light, that\ntransfigures canvas and tent and man. John's face glows as he writes,\n\"and we beheld His _glory_.\"\n\nI suppose he is thinking chiefly of that still night on white Hermon.\nThis despised Man had called the inner three away from the crowd, in the\ndark of night, and had gently drawn aside the exquisite drapery of His\nhumanity, and let some of the inner glory shine out before their eyes.\nSo the way was lightened for them as their feet were turned with His\ndown towards the dark valley of the cross. I suppose John is thinking\nchiefly of this.\n\nBut this is not all, I am very sure. There's more, even though this may\nhave been most. Glory is the character of goodness. It is not something\ntacked on the outside. It is some native thing looking out from within.\nSo much of what we think of as glory and splendour in scenes of\nmagnificence is a something in the externals, the outer arrangements.\nSplendid garbing, brilliant colours, dazzling shining of lights, seats\nremoved a distance apart and up, magnificent outer appointments,--these\nseem connected in our thought with an occasion and a scene being\nglorious.\n\nBut John is using the word in its simple true first meaning. Glory is\nsomething within shining out. It is the inner native light that goodness\ngives out. \"We beheld _His glory_.\" I think John must have been thinking\nof Nazareth. Thirty out of thirty-three years were spent in homely\nNazareth. Ten-elevenths of Jesus' life was spent in--_living_, simply\nliving the true pure strong gentle life amid ordinary circumstances,\nhomely surroundings. This was the greatest thing Jesus did short of\ndying. He _lived_. Next to Calvary where the glory shined out\nincomparably, it shined out most in Nazareth. He hallowed the common\nround of life by living an uncommon life there. This was a revealing of\nHis glory. So He revealed the inner spirit of simple full obedience to\nHis Father's plan for His earth-life.\n\nIf we would only rise to His level! The way up is down. We are likest\nHim when we live the true Jesus-life _regardless of where it is lived_,\non the street, in the house, amidst the ideals--or lack of ideals--of\nthose we touch closest. It was a wondrous glory John beheld. And the\ncrowd--no wonder that crowd couldn't resist Jesus. They can't even yet,\nwhen He is _lived_.\n\nThen John goes on quietly to explain about that glory, how it came. He\nsays it was \"_glory as of an only begotten of a father_.\" The common\nversions with which we are familiar, the old King James, the English and\nAmerican revisions, all say \"the,\" \"_the_ only begotten of _the_\nFather.\" I suppose the translators wanted to make it quite clear that\nJesus was in an exceptional way the very Son of God. And so they don't\ntranslate quite as John put it. They try to help him out a little in\nmaking his meaning clear.\n\nBut you will notice that this old Book of God never needs any helping\nout in making the truth quite clear. When you can sift through versions\nand languages down to what is really being said, you find it said in the\nsimplest strongest way possible.\n\nHere John is saying, \"glory as of _an_ only begotten from _a_ father.\"\nIt is a family picture, so common in the East. Here in the West, the\nunit of society is the individual. The farther west you come the more\npronounced this becomes, until here in our own land individualism seems\nat times to run to extremes. Custom in the East is the very reverse of\nthis. There the unit of action is not the individual, but the _family_.\nThe family controls the individual in everything. We Westerners think we\ncan see where it runs to such extremes as to constitute one of the great\nhindrances to progress there.\n\nIn the East, if a young man is to be married, he has actually nothing to\ndo with it, except to be present in proper garb when the time comes. The\nfact that he should now be married, the choice of his bride, the\nbetrothal, the time, all arrangements and adjustments,--all this is done\nby the families. The two that we Westerners think of as the principals\nhave nothing to do, except to acquiesce in the arrangements of their\nelders. It is strictly a family affair.\n\nEven so all that belongs to the family, of wealth, fame, inheritance,\ndistinction, vests distinctly in the head of the family, the father. He\nstands for the whole family. And so, too, all of this descends directly\nfrom the father at his death to his eldest son. In some parts the father\nretires at a certain age, either really or nominally, and all becomes\nvested technically in his eldest son. And if the son be an only begotten\nson, then literally all that is in the father comes into the son. All\nthe fame, the inheritance, the traditions, the obligations, the wealth,\nin short all the glory of the father comes of itself, by common action\nof events, to the son.\n\nNow this is what John is thinking of as he writes, \"we beheld His glory,\nglory as of _an_ only begotten of _a_ father.\" That is to say, all there\nis in the Father is in Jesus. When you see Jesus, you are seeing the\nFather. The whole of God is in this Jesus. This is what John is saying\nhere.\n\n\n\nGrace and Truth Coupled.\n\n\nAnd then John does a bit of exquisite packing of much in little. He\ntells the whole story of the character, the revealed glory, of Jesus in\nsuch a few simple words,--\"_full of grace and truth_.\" Not grace\nwithout truth. That would be a sort of weakly, sickly sentimentalism.\nAnd not truth without grace. That would be a cold stern repellent\ninsistence on certain high standards. But grace and truth coupled,\nintermingling.\n\nOf course real grace and truth always are coupled. They tell the\nexquisite poise that is in everything God does. Truth is the back-bone\nof grace. Grace is the soft cushioning of flesh upon the bony framework\nof truth. It is the soft warm breath of life in truth. Truth is grace\nholding up the one only standard of purity and right and insisting upon\nit. And as we look we know within ourselves we never can reach it. Grace\nis truth reaching a strong warm hand down to where we are and _helping_\nus reach it.\n\nWith God these things are always coupled. _We_ get them separated badly,\nor would I better say, imitations of them. There is a sort of thing we\nhave called truth. It is not so common now as a generation or more ago.\nIt is a sort of stern elevated preaching of righteousness, but with no\nwarm feel of life to it. I can remember hearing preaching in my immature\nboy days that made me feel that the man and the thing must be right, but\nneither had any attraction for me. It was as though a man went fishing\nwith a carefully-made properly-labelled metallic-bait at the end of a\nlong stout cord, and said, as he dangled it in the sinful waters to the\nelusive fish, \"Now, bite; or be damned.\"\n\nIt was never put so baldly, of course, in words. And I was only a child\nwith immature childish imaginations. Yet that was the feeling about the\nthing the child got. But it's scarcely worth while talking of that now\nexcept to point the contrast; things have swung so far to the other\nextreme.\n\nThe current thing to-day is grace without truth, or what is supposed to\nbe grace. It is a sort of man-made substitute. It's something like this.\nHere's a man in the gutter, the moral gutter. It may be the actual\ngutter. Or, there may be the outer trappings of refinement that easy\nwealth provides; or, the real refinement that culture and inheritance\nbring. But morally and in spirit, it's a gutter. The slime of sin and\nlow passion, of selfishness and indulgence and self-ambition, oozes over\neverything in full sight. The man's in the gutter.\n\nAnd along comes the modern philosopher of grace, so-called. He looks\ndown compassionately, and says, \"Poor fellow, I'm so sorry for you. Too\nbad you should have gotten down there. Let me help you a bit, my\nbrother.\" So he puts some flowering plants down in the slime of the\ngutter, and he brushes the man's clothes a bit, and his hair, and\nsprinkles the latest-labelled cologne-water over him, and pats him on\nthe shoulder, and says, \"Now, you feel better, my man, don't you?\" And\nthe man sniffs the perfume, and is quite sure he does. _But he is still\nin the gutter._\n\nThere seems to be an increasing amount of this sort of thing over in my\nneighbourhood. How is it in your corner of the planet? There's an\nintense stress on environment; that means the _outside_ of things.\nBetter sanitation, improved housing, purer milk supply, and segregation\nof vice which seems to mean putting some of the viler smelling slime of\nthe gutter, the slimer slime, all over in one guttered section by\nitself. But there can be no health there. It's a _change of location_\nthat is needed!\n\nThe wondrous Jesus-plan is different. It holds things in poise. Grace\n_and_ truth. Truth is Jesus stretching His hand up high, up to the limit\nof arm's length, and saying, \"Here is the standard, purity,\nrighteousness, utter honesty of heart and rigid purity of motive and\nlife. You _must_ reach this standard. It can't be lowered by the half\nthickness of a paper-thin shaving. You must come to this standard. The\nstandard never comes down to you.\"\n\nAnd the man in the gutter says, \"I'll never reach it.\" And he is right.\n_He_ never will--of himself, alone. Yet that's truth, true truth. \"A\nhopeless case\" you say; \"utter impractical idealizing! Case ruled out of\ncourt.\" Just wait, that's only half the case, and not the warm half\neither.\n\nGrace is Jesus going down into the gutter, the gutterest gutter, and\ntaking the man by his outstretching hand, and _lifting_ him _clean up_\nout of the gutter, up, and up, _till the man reaches the standard_, and\nis never content till he does. That was a tremendous going down, and a\nyet more tremendous lifting up. Jesus broke His heart and lost His life\nin the going down.\n\nBut out from the broken heart came running the blood that proved both\ncleansing and a salve. And out of the grave of that lost life came a new\nlife that proved an incentive, and a tremendous dynamic. The blood\ncleanseth the _inside_ of the man in the gutter, and heals his sores,\nrestores his sight and hearing and sensitiveness of touch. The new life\nput inside the man makes him rise up and _walk determinedly_ out of the\ngutter to a _new location_. He is a new man, with a new inside, in a new\nlocation. That threefold cord is ahead of Solomon's--it _can't_ be\nbroken.\n\nAnd, if you'll mark it keenly, a new _in_side includes a new _out_side.\nThe thing that in religious talk is called conversion is a sociological\nfactor that cannot be ignored by the thoughtful student. The drunkard\ngoes down to the old-fashioned sort of mission where they insist on\nteaching that the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin, and that the\nHoly Spirit will make a new man of you, and burn the sin out.\n\nAnd _something_ happens to the drunkard. He kneels a drunkard, drunk; he\nrises a man, sober. He goes to the hole he calls home. And at once a\nchange begins to work gradually out. He treats his wife and children\ndifferently. He works. They are fed better and clothed warmer. He gets a\nbetter house in a better neighbourhood. The new sociological factor is\nat work. It began inside; it revolutionizes the outside.\n\nSettlement houses, better environment, improved outer conditions of\nevery sort, are blessed, and only blessed, after the inside is fixed or\nin helping to get it fixed. If that isn't done, they are simply as a\nlovely bit of pink-coloured court-plaster skilfully adjusted over an\nugly incurable ulcer. The man is befooled while the ulcer eats into his\nvitals.\n\nIt's only the blood-power of a Jesus, _the Jesus,_ that can fix the\ninside. He cuts out the ulcer and puts in a new strain of blood. Then\nthe inner includes the outer. And the most grateful of all is the man.\nThis is the Jesus-plan, John says, \"_full of grace and truth._\"\n\nGrace is named first. It _comes_ first. That is a bit of the\ngraciousness of it. That's love's exquisite diplomacy. We feel the\ngrateful warmth of the sun in the winter's air, and are drawn by it. We\nsmell the fragrance of the roses and come eagerly nearer. We hear the\nwinsomeness of a gentle wooing voice a-calling, and instinctively answer\nto it. And then we find the sun's power to heal and cleanse and its\ninsistence on burning up what can't stand its heat.\n\nWe find the inspiring, purifying uplift of the flowers, drawing us up\nthe hillside to the top. We find the voice--the Man--gently but with\nunflinching unbending determination that never yields a hairbreadth,\ninsisting on our coming clear up to the topmost level. That's a wondrous\norder of words, and coupling of helps, grace and truth.\n\nAnd this is Jesus. This is John's simple tremendous picture. This Man\ncomes down into our neighbourhood, on our earth. He sticks up His\nstretch of tent-canvas right next ours. He insists on being His own true\nself in the midst of the unlikeliest surroundings. The glow of His\npresence shines out over all the neighbourhood of human tents. There's a\npurity of air that stimulates. Men take deep breaths. There's a\nfragrance breathing subtly out from His tent that draws and delights.\nMen come a-running with childlike eagerness.\n\n\n\nGrace Flooding.\n\n\nAnd now as Jesus comes quietly down the river road where John's crowd is\ngathered, John the witness points his finger tensely out, and eagerly\ncries out: _There He is! This is the man I've been telling you about! He\nthat cometh after me in point of time is become first in relation to me\nin point of preeminence: for He was before me both in time and in\npreeminence._\n\nAnd then John adds a tremendous bit. He had just been talking about\nJesus being _full_ of that great combination of grace and truth. Now his\nthought runs back to that. Listen: \"Of _His fullness_ have we all\nreceived.\"\n\nThere's another translation of this sentence that I have run across\nseveral times. It reads in this way: \"Of His _skimpiness_ have we all\nreceived.\" I never found that in common print; only in the larger print\nof men's lives. But in that printing it seems to have run into a large\nedition, with very wide circulation. Men don't read this old Book of God\nmuch; less than ever. They get their impression of God wholly from those\nwho call themselves His followers.\n\nThey watch the procession go by. Here they come crippled diseased\nmaimed weakened in body, piteously pathetically crutching along, singed\nand burned with the flames of the same low passion that the onlooking\ncrowds know so well, struggling, limping, crutching along bodily and in\nevery other way.\n\nAnd that's a crowd with very keen logic, those onlookers. It judges God\nby those bearing His name, very properly. And it says more or less\n_unconsciously_,--\"What a poor sort of God He must be those people have.\nNo doubt He has a great job of management on His hands. There are so\nmany of them to provide for. And apparently there can't be any\nabundance, certainly no overflow, no surplus. He has to piece it out the\nbest He can to make it go as far as possible.\"\n\n\"I think maybe I needn't be in any hurry to join that crowd, at least\ntill I have to, along towards the end of things here. There would only\nbe one more to carry. He has such a crowd now. And the resources are\npretty badly strained, judging by appearances.\" So the crowd talks. Poor\nGod! How He is misrepresented by some walking translations. \"Of His\n_skimpiness_---!\" Be careful. Don't take too much. Be grateful for the\ncrumbs.\n\nPlease clean your spectacles, and readjust them carefully, and if you\nare afflicted with the small-print Bible that seems in such common use,\nget a reading-glass and look here at the proper translation. That\ncrutching, leather-bound translation is grossly inaccurate, if it _is_\nin such big print, and in such wide circulation. Look here. Can you see\nthe words? This is the only correct reading: \"Of His _fullness_ have all\nwe received.\" Put that into the print of your life, for your own sake\nand for the crowd's sake, yes, and for God's sake, too, that the crowd\nmay know the kind of a God God is.\n\nAnd as if John had a suspicion about possible bad translations, he did a\nbit of underscoring. That word _fullness_ is underscored in John's\noriginal copy. It's a heavy underscoring, in red. The underscoring is in\nthree words he adds: \"Grace for grace.\" That is, grace _in place of_\ngrace. It's a sort of picture. Some grace has been received. And it is\nso wondrous that nothing seems so good. And the man is singing as he\ngoes about his work.\n\nThen comes a sudden soft inrushing of a flood of grace so great that it\nseems to displace all that was there. Oh! the man didn't know there was\nsuch grace as this. It seems as if he had never known grace before. And\nthe work-song is hushed into a great stillness, though the wondrous\nrhythm of peace is greater than before.\n\nAnd then before he quite knows how it happens in comes another soft\nsubtle inrushing flood-tide of grace that seems to displace all again.\nSome temptation comes, some sore need, some tight corner. You look to\nHim; lean on Him; risk all on His response. He _responds_; and in comes\nthe fresh inrush.\n\nAnd then this sort of thing becomes a habit, God's habit of responding\nto your need, need of every sort. It becomes the commonplace, the\nblessed commonplace that can never be common. That's John's underscoring\nof the word \"fullness.\" May the crowds whose elbows we jostle get this\nunderscored translation, bound in shoe-leather, _your_ shoe-leather.\n\nThen in his eagerness to make us understand the thing really, John makes\na contrast. \"The law was _given_ through Moses; grace and truth _came_\nthrough Jesus Christ.\" The law was a thing, _given_, through a man.\nGrace and truth was _a man coming_, the very embodiment in Himself of\nwhat the two words stand for.\n\nThe law, the old Mosaic law, was not a statement of the _full_ message\nof God. That was given much earlier. It was given to all. It came\ndirectly. It was given first in Eden, in its flood; and then\ncontinuously to every man wherever he was. It was given within each\nman's own heart, and through the unfailing flooding light in nature\nabove and below and all around. The tide of its coming has never ceased\nin volume nor in steadiness of flow; and does not cease. That tide came\nto flood in Jesus. And that flood has never known an ebb.\n\nBut men's eyes got badly affected. They didn't let the light in, either\nclearly or fully. The light was there, but it was not getting in.\nSomething had to be done to help out those eyes. So the law was given.\nIt was merely a mirror to let a man see his face, what it was like.\n\nHere's a mother calling to her little son, \"Come here and let me wash\nyour face.\" And he calls out, \"It isn't dirty.\" \"Yes, dear, it is very\ndirty, come at once.\" \"Why, no, mother, it isn't dirty; you washed it\nthis morning.\" And the child's tone blends a hurt surprise and a settled\nconviction that his mother is certainly wrong _this_ time about the\ncondition of his face.\n\nAnd if the mother be of the thoughtful brooding kind, she says nothing,\nbut gets a hand mirror, and holds it before the child's face. That will\nalways get a child's attention. And the boy looks; he sees his dirty\nface reflected. The blank astonishment on his face can't be put into\nwords. It tells the radical upsetting revolution in his thought on that\nsubject. How could it have happened that his face got into that\ncondition! And the washing process is yielded to at least; possibly even\nasked for.\n\nThat's what the law did and does. It showed man his face, his heart, his\nneed. It brings upsetting revolutionary ideas regarding one's self.\nThere it stops. That's its limit. Then the Man who in Himself is grace\nand truth does the rest.\n\n\n\nThe Spokesman of God.\n\n\nThen John quietly, deftly draws the line around to the starting point in\nthat first tremendous statement. He completes a circle perfect in its\nstrength and beauty and simplicity, as every circle is. If we follow the\norder of the words somewhat as John wrote them down, we find the bit of\ntruth coming in a very striking, as well as in a fresh way. \"_God no\none has ever, at any time, seen_.\"\n\nThat seems rather startling, does it not? What do these older pages\nsay? Adam talked and walked and worked with God, and then was led to\nthe gate of the garden. God appeared to Abraham, and gave him a\nnever-to-be-forgotten lesson in star study. Moses spent nearly six weeks\nwith Him, twice over, in the flaming mount, and carried the impress of\nHis presence upon his face clear to Nebo's cloudy top.\n\nThe seventy elders \"saw the God of Israel, and did eat and drink,\" the\nsimple record runs. And young Isaiah that morning in the temple, and\nEzekiel in the colony of exiles on the Chebar, and Daniel by the Tigris\nat the close of his three weeks' fast,--these all come quickly to mind.\nJohn's startling statement seems to contradict these flatly.\n\nBut push on. John has a way of clearing things up as you follow him\nthrough. Listen to him further: The only-begotten God who is in the\nbosom of the Father--_He_ has always been the _spokesman_ of God. Look\ninto that sentence of John's a little. It seems quite clear, clear to\nthe point of satisfying the most critical research, that John wrote down\nthe words, \"the only-begotten _God_.\" The contrast in his mind is not\nbetween \"God,\" and the \"only begotten Son.\" It is a contrast whose\nverbal terms fit with much nicer exactness than that. It is a contrast\nbetween \"God\" and the \"only-begotten God.\"\n\nThere is only one such person whichever way unity. They tell the whole\nstory hanging at the end of John's pen. This little bit commonly called\nthe prologue is a gem of simplicity and compactness.\n\nIt is John's Gospel in miniature, even as John's Gospel is the whole\nBible story in miniature. You can see the whole of the sun reflected in\na single drop of water. You can see the whole of both Father and Son in\nthe action of love in these simple opening lines of John's Gospel.\n\nHave you ever been walking down a country road till, weary and thirsty,\nyou stopped at an old farmhouse and refreshed yourself at the\nold-fashioned well, with its bucket and long sweep? And as you rested a\nbit by the well you wondered how deep it was. It didn't look deep at\nall. The water was near, and it was so clear and sweet and refreshing,\nand so easy to get at for a drink.\n\n_Is_ it deep? So you fish a rather long bit of string out of your\npocket, and tie it to a bit of stone you find lying close by. And you\nlet the stone down, and down, and down, till you are surprised to find\nthat the well is deeper than your string is long.\n\nWell, John's opening bit is just like that. It seems very simple, easily\nunderstood at first flush in the mere statements made. The water is near\nthe top. You easily drink. And you are refreshed. But when you try to\nfind out how deep it is, you are startled to find that it is clear over\nyour head.\n\nBut it is _never over your heart_. It is too deep for you to grasp and\nunderstand. You never touch bottom. _But_ it's never beyond\nheart-understanding. You can sense and feel and love. You can open the\nsluice-gates into your heart, and have the blessed flood-tide lift and\nlift and bear you aloft and along. You can _love._ And that is the whole\nstory.\n\nWas John an artist? Is he making a rare painting for us here? Is he\nstudying perspective, shading and spacing, to an exquisite nicety that\nis revealed in the very way he puts words and sentences and paragraphs\ntogether? I do not know. And if any of you think the thing I am about to\nspeak of is due to a mere mechanical chance of the pen, I'll not quarrel\nwith you. Though I shall still have my own personal thought in the\nmatter.\n\nBut will you notice this? John begins his prologue with a description of\na wonderful personality. He ends it with another description of this\nsame personality. Both descriptions are rare in beauty and boldness, in\nsimplicity and brevity. And right midway between the two, at almost the\nexact middle line of the reading, at what is the artistic center, stands\nthe word \"_came_.\"\n\nThat word \"came\" gathers up into itself and tells out to you the whole\nstory about this twice-described personality. \"He came\" John says.\nThat's the whole thing. First the _He_ fills your eye, and then what He\ndid--_came_. And as you step off a bit for better perspective, and\nchange your personal position this way and that to get the best light,\nyou find the picture standing out before your awed eyes.\n\nIt is a Man coming down the road with face looking into yours. He is\ntruly a man, every line of the picture makes that clear to you. But such\na man as never was seen before, with the rarest blending of the kingly\nand the kindly in His bearing. The purest purity, the utmost\ngraciousness, the highest ideals, the gentlest manner, nobility beyond\nwhat we have known, and kindliness past describing,--all these blend in\nthe pose of His body and most of all in the look of His face. And He is\nin motion. He is walking, walking towards us, with hands outstretched.\n\nThis is John's picture of Jesus. He came to His own. He came because His\nown drew Him. Out from the bosom of His Father, into the womb of a\nvirgin maid, and into the heart of a race He came. Out of the\nglory-blaze above into the gloom of the shadow, and the glare of false\nlights below, He came.\n\nOut of the love of a Father's heart, the Only-begotten came, into\ncontact with the hate that was the only-begotten of sin, that He might\nwoo us men up, and up, and up, into the only-begotten life with the\nFather.\n\nJesus was God on a wooing errand to the earth.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nThe Lover Wooing\n\n     _A Group of Pictures Illustrating How the Wooing Was Done, and How\n     the Lover Was Received_\n\n\n\n\n              \"Still with unhurrying chase,\n               And unperturbed pace,\n    Deliberate speed, majestic instancy\n               Came the following Feet,\n               And a Voice above their beat--\n    _Naught shelters thee, who will not shelter Me_.'\"\n\n    --\"_The Hound of Heaven_.\"\n\n     \"O thou hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble,\n     why shouldst thou be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring\n     man that spreadeth his tent for a night?\"--_Jeremiah xiv. 8_.\n\n     He came unto his own home, and they who were his own kinsfolk\n     received him not into the house, but left him standing outside in\n     the cold and dark of the winter's night. But as many as did receive\n     him he received into his home, and gave each a seat in the inner\n     circle at the hearthfire of God.--_John i. II, 12. Free\n     translation_.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nThe Lover Wooing\n\n(John i. 19-xii. 50)\n\n\n\nThe Mother of all Love-Words.\n\n\nBrooding is love at its tenderest and best It is love giving its best,\nand so bringing out the best possible in the one brooded over.\n\nLook into the nest where the word itself was brooded. It is a warm\nsomething, warm in itself, not a borrowed warmth. The warmth is its\nchief trait. It is a soft tender unfailing cuddling warmth. It cuddles\nand coos, it glows and floods a gentle comforting stimulating warmth.\nAnd the best there is lying asleep within the thing so brooded over\nawakes.\n\nIt answers to that creative mothering warmth. It pushes out, against all\nobstacles, and comes shyly and winsomely, but steadily and strongly, out\nto the brooding warmth, growing as it comes and growing most as it comes\ninto closest touch with the warm brooder.\n\nBrooding is the mother of all love-words,--friendship, wooing, pitying,\nhelping, mothering, fathering, witnessing, believing. It is the\nmother-word, from out whose warm womb all these others come, warm, too,\nand full of gentle strong life. Its mother quality is so strong that we\nare apt to think of it only in connection with actual mothers, mothers\namong animals and birds and of our human kind.\n\nBut this is only one meaning, really a surface meaning, though such a\nfine deep meaning in itself. Its real heart meaning lies much deeper.\n_Brooding is the mother of all love._ It is its warmth that draws out\nthat fine feeling that makes and marks friendship. It is its tender\nwarmth that draws out that finest degree of friendship which knits with\nunbreakable bonds two lives into one.\n\nIt reaches out most subtly to knit up again the ends that have ravelled\nout under the sore stress of life. It bends compassionately over those\nhurt in body, and hurt yet more in their spirit by the greedy rivalry of\nlife, and nurses into newness of life the shivering shredded hurt parts.\nIn the more familiar use of the word it fathers and mothers the newly\nminted morsels of precious humanity, coming into life with big wondering\neyes.\n\nAnd it warms into highest life that highest love that, through the\nprocess of hearing, assenting, trusting, risking, giving the heart's\ndevotion, comes to know God as a tender Father, and Christ as a precious\npersonal Saviour. Whether in close friend, or ardent lover, gracious\nphilanthropist, devoted parent, or earnest witness, it is the same warm\nthing underneath, at its fine task--brooding.\n\nWe think of it most in the mother. For it comes to its highest human\nperfection there. The true thoughtful mother is first and chiefest a\nbrooder. She broods in spirit till her child looks into her eyes,\nbearing the image, in face and mental impress and spirit, which the\nbrooding months have given. She broods over the inarticulate days when\nthe babe cannot tell the felt needs except to a brooding mother's keen\ninsight.\n\nShe broods over the baby-talk days; over the struggling days when the\nchild would tell its awakening thoughts out in words, but doesn't know\nhow yet; over the wilful days which come so early when the first battles\ncome that decide the whole future.\n\nWith a warmth of tenderness and patience, and a strength of gentle wise\ninsistence, more than human, she broods. It takes the very strength of\nher life, far far more than in prenatal days. So there comes, slowly,\nbut as she keeps true to the brooding spirit, surely, the strong gentle\nself-controlled life out of the warm womb of her brooding life. So comes\nthe child's higher birth, so preparing the way for the yet higher.\n\nNow all this is at its native best in God. There only does it reach\nfinest fruitage. Some day we shall recognize the meaning of that modest\nbut tremendous little sentence,--_God is love_. This warm brooding\nsomething that comes, gentle as the dawning light in the grey east,\nfragrant as the dew of the new morning, irresistible in its pervasive\npersuasive presence as the rays of the growing sun, giving to us warmth,\nand life, and drawing out from within us warmth and life and beauty and\nstrength, all in its own image, this is the thing called love. This is\nthe thing that God is. As we know _it_ we are getting acquainted with\n_Him_.\n\nAnd if a break comes, instantly love in its grief sets itself with\nwarmth and renewed strength to the new harder brooding task. It gives\nitself out yet more, regardless of cost, until in place of the broken\nfragments there comes a finer sort of life out of the warm womb of love,\nbrooding, redeeming, bringing-back-again love. This is God. This is\nJesus. John shows us Jesus as a picture of the brooding God.\n\n\n\nFive Pictures of Jesus.\n\n\nThere are five wondrous pictures of Jesus in these newer leaves of the\nold Book. Three of them hang on the walls of Paul's tent-weaving\nstudy-room. There's the Colossian picture, the _Creator-Jesus,_ infinite\nin power, making all things above and below and around, and holding all\nthings together.[7]\n\nClose by it in wondrous contrast is seen the Philippian picture. It is\nthe _Man-Jesus,_ emptied of all the upper-glory native to Him, bowing\ndown low and lower and lowest, till in the form of a slave He hangs on a\ncross.[8]\n\nAnd in contrast yet more striking and startling, close by its side hangs\nthe Ephesian picture. It is the _Enthroned-Jesus,_ back again in the\nsoft, blazing, blinding glory of the Father's presence, seated at His\nright hand, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and\nevery name that is named. And as you stand awed before this picture\nyour eye is caught by the artist's remarque sketch at the bottom. It is\na broken Roman seal, and an open tomb, and a bird with swelling throat\nsinging joyously.[9]\n\nThen there's John's later Patmos picture of the _Present-Jesus_,\nstanding now down on the earth in the midst of His candle-holding\nChurch, but seen only by opened eyes. There He is seen as a Man of Fire,\nablaze with light, intently watching, with tender but omnipotent touch\nwaiting, ever waiting; with a patience unknown except in Him, still\nwaiting.[10]\n\nBut John's earlier Gospel picture is of the _Brooding-Jesus_. The word\n\"brooding\" here takes in its fine deep significance. Jesus is seen here\nas a brooding Lover, by the warmth of His wooing love drawing out the\nwarmth of an answering love. This is peculiarly and distinctively the\npicture of John's Gospel. There is _a Man walking towards you_ in these\npages. Turn where you will there He is, and always facing you, with a\ngentle eagerness in His face and in the bend-forward of His body.\n\nThere is always a warmth, a gentle radiating comforting drawing warmth\nin His presence. This is the thing you feel most, the warmth. But it\nisn't the only thing. There's the purity. There are ideals that seem out\nof reach in their great height. There's the insistence on these ideals,\nrigid stern absolutely unbending insistence. You _see_ these. You can't\nhelp it. You feel them tremendously. They seem to leave you clear out\nof reckoning, they are so high up. But there's the warmth, drawing\narousing wooing, irresistible.\n\nYou come to find that the warmth of that presence is as irresistible as\nthe ideals and the insistence are unbending. And the warmth woos you. It\nwarms you, till there come the intense admiration of the ideals, and\nthen the eager reaching of the whole being up towards them.\n\nThis is John's picture of the brooding wooing Jesus. This is God, in\nhuman garb as He comes to us in John's pages. Jesus is God brooding over\nus to woo out of us the love and purity, the purity and love, that He\nwoos into us by the touch of His own warm presence.\n\nJohn's little book is put together as simply as his sentences. And as\nyou take it up, it falls apart almost of itself, so simple and natural\nare its divisions. We had a look at the opening paragraphs of the\nGospel, those eighteen brief verses that open the doorway into all the\nGospel holds for us. _There_ is given chiefly John's simple vivid\ntremendous picture of _a Person_, coming with swift long stride and\noutreached hands.\n\nNow we turn to the second part of the book. It runs from the nineteenth\nverse of the opening chapter on through to the end of chapter twelve. It\nis devoted to _the great winsome wooing_ of this great human Person.\nHere we see Him on His wooing errand. He woos individual men. He gives\nthe personal touch. He devotes Himself to one person, now here, now\nthere. His skill and tact in personal dealing are matchless. But this\nis not the chief wooing of these pages. It is _the nation_ He is wooing.\nWith rarest strategy and boldness and persistence He lays loving siege\nto the nation through its leaders. This is central and dominant in all\nHis movements here. This is the second picture in the gallery of John's\nGospel.\n\nIt is a good thing to run through these fourteen pages of John's Gospel\n_several times;_ to run through _rapidly_, though not hurriedly; to run\nthrough them as a story until it stands out in your mind as _one simple\nconnected, story_. And then it will help greatly, if you are so blest as\nto have some boy or girl near at hand to whom you can tell it as a story\nin simple child (not childish) talk.\n\nPack the whole into one story of ten minutes, or fifteen: the man of the\nstory;[11] how He tried to win the people's hearts;[12] how towards the\nend He spent a long evening with those who loved Him;[13] how awfully He\nwas treated by those who hated Him;[14] then how wondrously He surprised\nHis friends;[15] and then the little bit at the end where He prepares\nbreakfast and has a walk and talk on the seashore with a little group of\nthose who loved Him most.[16]\n\nTell that to a boy or girl as a short story. Use sensible words, but\n_not one_ that your little listener wouldn't at once understand. Pretty\nsharp discipline for the story-teller, especially if you stop to put in\na simpler word when you've blundered into a big one. The child will be\nheld by it But you will get the most yourself out of the telling.\n\n\n\nWarp-Threads.\n\n\nNow as you read the second part over, it gradually sifts itself into\nseveral incidents about which the story is woven. These incidents form\nthe warp-threads of the narrative. Into this warp are woven, sometimes\nlittle connecting links, sometimes quarrelsome discussion, sometimes\nexquisite bits of Jesus' teaching, and sometimes John's comments. And as\nthe story grows it reaches one climax after another, each increasing in\nintensity, until the intensest is reached.[17] And these incidents fall\nnaturally into groups. There are three _chief groups_ that seem to stand\nout as giving the bolder points of the outline, and then _smaller\ngroups_ or _single incidents_ that lie in between.\n\nIt is very natural that the story begins with the accounts of the\ndeputation that was sent from Jerusalem by the official leaders of the\nnation, down to the Jordan bottoms where John the witness was drawing\nsuch great crowds. John modestly answers their questions about himself,\nand then the next day with dramatic intensity points out the Man for\nwhom the whole nation has been looking for so long.\n\nThe only response from deputation and officials is a most significant\ndisappointing silence, a silence fully understood both by John[18] and\nby Jesus.[19] But five Galileans in the crowd listening to John's reply\nseek out, or are brought into personal questioning touch with, Jesus,\nand then yield Him unquestioning belief and personal devotion. And these\nfive come, in after years, to be leaders known wherever Christ's name is\nknown.[20] So there begins the sharp contrast running throughout these\npages, between the two sides into which Jesus' presence divides the\ncrowds.\n\nThen John traces the simple way in which the faith of these five men ran\nits tiny but tough tenacious tendril-roots down into their very vitals.\nA simple neighbourhood wedding occasion up near the old Nazareth home\ndrew Jesus thither with His kinsfolk and His new-made friends. And then\nHe meets the need of the homely occasion by helping out the shortened\nsupply of wine in such an unusual way as reveals His character. And the\nconviction takes great fresh hold upon these five men that they have\nmade no mistake. This Man is all they had taken Him for, and He is\nimmensely more than they had thought into at first.[21]\n\nThen comes a little connecting link. After the Cana visit, Jesus runs\ninto the near-by town of Capernaum with His kinsfolk and friends for a\nfew days, a sort of continuation of the neighbourhood courtesies.[22]\n\nAnd then at once John goes to the intensest, and the most significant\nincident of this whole section of the book. It is the drastic turning\nout, by Jesus, of the traders in the temple-area at Jerusalem. This\ntouched at once the national leaders' most sensitive nerve, and touched\nit roughly. It never ceased aching. This turning of the temple-area into\na common market-place, which so jarred on the holy atmosphere of the\nplace, and on Jesus' fine spirit, this was by arrangement with these\nleaders, and yielded them large profit. Here was the sore spot.\n\nWith one deft stroke John lays bare the secret of the intense hatred of\nJesus by these national leaders, with which these pages teem, and which\ncame to its bursting head at the cross. Long after, when Jesus had died\nand been raised, these five leading disciples find a new strengthening\nof their faith in recalling words spoken at this time by Jesus.[23]\n\nGrowing naturally out of this Passover visit comes the Nicodemus\nincident. Many of the Passover crowds were caught by the power of Jesus\nshown in the miracles He did, but had not the seasoned thoughtful faith\nof these first disciples. But one man sifts himself out by his spirit of\nearnest inquiry. The sharp contrast that runs throughout these incidents\nstands out here. This man is of the inner upper cultured circle, that\ncontrolled national affairs, that sent that Jordan committee, and that\nhad been so upset by the temple cleansing.\n\nYet not only Nicodemus' earnest search for truth, and the questions\nasked by him, but the fullness and fineness of spirit truth in Jesus'\nwords to him reveal the true faith of this rare inquirer; and this is\nverified by his later actions.[24] Clearly Jesus found here an opened\ndoor. Here is the first of those exquisite bits of Jesus' teaching that\nmark John's Gospel.[25]\n\nThese four incidents make up the first group of, what I think of as, the\nthree chief groups of incidents in this section of John. The group\nbegins at the Jordan, and runs up into Galilee, but in its interest and\nits chief incident, centres in Jerusalem. The action begins with John\nthe witness, and swings naturally to Jesus. The contrast in this group\nof incidents is intense. With the same evidence at hand, first\ncontemptuous silence and loving allegiance, then the beginnings of\nbitterest hate and of tenderest personal love, grow up side by side.\n\nThen there is a sort of swing-away-from-Jerusalem group that includes\nthree incidents. After the rejection of John's witness to Jesus[26] by\nthe nation's leaders, Jesus withdraws from Jerusalem to the country\ndistricts of Judea. There He takes up the sort of work John has been\ndoing, so bearing His witness to John. John had drawn great crowds down\nto the Jordan and in the neighbourhood of its tributary streams.\n\nNow Jesus helps in arousing and instructing these crowds. There are two\nmen preaching instead of one, and Jesus has the greater crowds. This is\nused to make trouble. It stirs up gossipy disputings. It is made to look\nlike a jealous rivalry between the two men. And this supposed rivalry\nand disputing about the various claims of the two men become the\nuppermost thing. It reflects the characteristic spirit of the leaders.\nJohn greatly renews his witness to Jesus with fresh emphasis and\nearnestness.[27]\n\nBut as Jesus sees that His presence is only being made a bone of\ncontention He quietly slips away from Judea, turning north through\nSamaria towards Galilee. Then comes the great story of the visit to\nSychar, with the exquisitely tactful winning of the sinful woman to a\nlife of purity, and then using her as a messenger to her people.\nImbedded in the story is another bit of Jesus' simple great teaching\ntalk.[28]\n\nThen comes a brief connecting link. Finding no acceptance in Judea, His\nown country, Jesus goes to Galilee, where visitors at the Jerusalem\nFeast of Passover had been spreading the news of His words and deeds,\nand so a gracious welcome now awaits Him.[29]\n\nAnd here in Galilee He wins the believing love of a roman officer of\nnoble birth, whose son is desperately ill. The father's faith passes\nthrough three stages, the belief that comes to ask for help, the deeper\nbelief that rests upon Jesus' word to him and starts back home, and the\nyet deeper that gets confirmation of Jesus' word and power in the\nrecovery of his son from the very time Jesus spoke the assuring\nword.[30]\n\nThese are the three incidents in this group away from the Jerusalem\ndistrict. It is striking that this group away from Jerusalem stands in\nsharp contrast with that first group centering in Jerusalem. _There_ is\nrejection by the nation's leaders running from contemptuous silence to\nthe beginning of open opposition. _Here_ with less evidence there is\nacceptance by a Samaritan and a Roman; the one of no social standing;\nthe other of the highest.\n\nThe rejection of Jesus by the leaders stands in contrast thus far with\nacceptance of Him by five Galileans, by a cultured scholarly aristocrat,\na half-breed Samaritan, and a Roman of gentle birth. Acceptance seems to\ngrow with the distance from Jerusalem. Yet everything hinged in\nJerusalem. _There_ had been the flood-light. Jerusalem was meant to be\nthe gateway to the world. The irony of sin! The blinding of greed! The\nself-cheating of being self-centered!\n\n\n\nClimbing towards the Climax.\n\n\nAnd now, true to his controlling thought, John goes straight back to\nJerusalem with his story, ignoring intervening events. There's another\nfeast, not called a Passover, but commonly and probably correctly so\nreckoned, another crowd-gathering Passover. An extreme chronic case of\nbodily infirmity draws out the pity and power of Jesus, and the healed\nman takes his first walk after thirty-eight years.\n\nBut the thing is done on a Sabbath day, and gives rise to bitterest and\nmurderous persecution, first on the score of Sabbath observance, and\nthen because Jesus claimed God as \"His own Father\" in a distinctive\nsense. Friction fire may send out beautiful sparks. And the opposition\nbrings out one of the choicest bits of Jesus' teaching to be found in\nJohn. This incident stands by itself.[31]\n\nAnd now John reaches over a whole year with only a sentence or two for\nconnection, and comes again to a Passover. The Passover was _the pivot_\nof the Jewish year and of Jewish national life. This Passover is made\nnotable by _Jesus' absence from Jerusalem_, the only Passover absence of\nHis ministry. And the reason is the violence of the persecution by the\nnational leaders.\n\nThere is the feeding of the hungry thousands with a handful of loaves\nand fish. Was this the real Passover celebration? The multitudes fed by\nHim who was the Lamb of God and the true Bread of life? while the\ntechnical observance was empty of life! It wouldn't be the only thing of\nthe sort, in ancient times or modern.[32]\n\nJesus withdraws from the crowds who would like a bread-maker for a king,\ngets a bit of quiet alone with His Father on the mountainside, and then\nwalks on the water in the storm to keep His appointment with the\ndisciples. Then follows a long disputation and another fine bit of\nJesus' teaching.[33] These two incidents make another distinct group,\nseparated from the previous one by a year on the far side and six months\non the hither side. And the contrast continues, between the acceptance\nby the Galilean crowds and the intensifying opposition by the chief\ngroup of Jerusalem leaders.\n\nThen comes _the second chief group of incidents_. About six months later\nJesus returns to Jerusalem for the autumn Feast of Tabernacles. He\nboldly teaches in the temple in the midst of much opposition, bitter\ndiscussion, and concerted official effort against Him.[34] The dramatic\nincident of the accused woman and the conscience-stricken leaders[35] is\nfollowed by a yet more bitter discussion and by the first passionate\nattempt at stoning.[36]\n\nThen the incident of the man born blind but now blessedly given his\nsight leads to the bitterest opposition thus far, and the casting of the\nman out from all religious privileges; and is followed by the rare bit\nof sheepfold and shepherd teaching.[37] These four incidents make up the\nsecond great outstanding group of incidents, and mark the sharpest clash\nand crisis thus far.\n\nA few months later at another Jerusalem feast called the Feast of the\nDedication, comes a second hotly impulsive riotous attempt at stoning,\nand then an attempt to arrest, both foiled by the restraint of Jesus'\nmere presence and personal power.[38] And another connecting link traces\nHis going away beyond the Jordan River, where the crowds gather to Him,\nand are won to warm personal belief.[39]\n\nAnother little gap of a few months passed over in silence, brings the\nnarrative to the _third_ and last _chief group of incidents_ in this\npart of the book, and so leads immediately up to the great final events\nof the whole book.\n\nThe illness and death of Lazarus draws Jesus back to a suburb of\nJerusalem, Bethany. Then the stupendous incident of the raising of\nLazarus leads to the official decision to put Jesus to death.[40] And a\nconnecting link of verses tells of Jesus' cautious withdrawal, of the\ninquiring crowds coming to the approaching Passover, and of the public\nnotice given that Jesus was under official condemnation.[41]\n\nIt is at the home feast given in Bethany as a tribute of love to Jesus\nthat Judas, coldly criticizing a warm act of tender love, and gently\nrebuked by Jesus, gets into that bad heat of temper out of which came\nthe foul bargaining and betrayal.[42] Another brief connecting link lets\nus see the crowds more eagerly inquiring for Jesus because of the\nraising of Lazarus, and the determined priests coolly plotting Lazarus'\ndeath, too.[43]\n\nThen comes Jesus' faithful open offer of Himself in kingly fashion to\nthe nation, with the tremendous enthusiasm of the multitudes, and the\nhardening of the official purpose to do the one thing that will offset\nthis wild-fire enthusiasm.[44]\n\nAnd then comes the apparently simple, but in meaning tremendous,\nincident of the inquiring Greeks. The Jew door is slamming shut, but the\noutside door is opening. Here the whole world opens its door, its front\ndoor, in these Greek representatives of the best culture the earth knew.\nBut Jesus' vision never blurs. He understands; He alone. The only route\nto Greece and the whole outer world is the underground route, the way\nthrough Joseph's tomb.\n\nAnd as the intense spirit-struggle passes, Jesus quietly goes on with\nHis searching appealing talk to the crowd, and then slips away into\nhiding till His hour had full come.[45] And with breaking heart John\nsadly recalls Isaiah's wondrous foresight of just these days and\nevents.[46] These are the four incidents in this third chief group.\n\nAnd so the door shuts. The wooing ceases. This bit of John's story is\ndone. The evidence is all in. The case is made up. The nation's door to\nits King shuts. The Lover's wooing of the nation ceases. John turns to a\nnew chapter. No further evidence is brought forward. The case rests with\nthe jury. The door had been shutting for a good while. The inside\ndoor-keepers had been pulling it hard. But the great Man outside had His\nhand on the knob delaying the shutting process, in the earnest hope that\nit yet might be quite stopped. Now His hand reluctantly loosens its\nhold. The knob is free. The inside pull does its work. The door goes to\nwith a vigorous slam.\n\nThe wooing is not _wholly_ done. There is still the indirect, the tacit\nwooing. There's still opportunity. All through that fateful night from\nGethsemane's gate, to the last word at Pilate's seat the Lover is\nwooing. But it is wooing by action, by presence, by yielding. No\npleading word is spoken. The direct wooing is done. Tender, earnest,\ninsistent, patient, tremendous, irresistible in itself save to those who\nwilled to resist anything and everything no matter what or\nwhom,--wondrous wooing it has been. Now it's over. That chapter is done.\n\n\n\nWay-marks in John's Narrative.\n\n\nOut of this simple running account several things sift themselves, and\nstand out to our eyes. The action of the story swings chiefly _about\nJerusalem_. The other parts seem but background to make Jerusalem stand\nout big. In this John's Gospel differs radically from the other three.\nThey are absorbed chiefly with the tireless gracious Galilean ministry\nof Jesus, till the last great events force them to Jerusalem.\n\nAnd the reason is plain. Jerusalem is Israel. It is the nation. Jesus is\nwooing the _nation_ through its leaders. Why? For the nation's sake? for\nIsrael's sake? Yes and no. Because these Jews were favourites of God?\nDistinctly _no_, though so highly favoured they had been in the wondrous\nmission entrusted to them. But because Israel was the gateway to a world\nYes, for Israel's sake. _Through_ this gateway, so carefully prepared\nwhen every other gate was closing, _through_ this out to a world--this\nwas the plan of action. And this will yet be found to be the plan.\nThrough a Jewish gateway the King will one day go out to touch His\nworld. This is the geography of John's story.\n\nThe action of the story swirls largely, too, about the great national\nfeasts, the Passovers, the Tabernacles or harvest-home feast of the\nautumn, and one called \"the Dedication,\" not elsewhere spoken of. To\nthese came great crowds of pilgrim Jews from all quarters of the world,\nspeaking many languages beside their national Hebrew, giving large\nbusiness, especially to money-brokers and traders in the animals and\nbirds used in the sacrifices. That classical Pentecost Chapter of Acts\ngives the wide range of countries and of languages represented by these\npilgrim thousands. These feasts are the central occasions of John's\nstory.\n\n_The time_ begins with John's preaching in the Jordan bottoms and\nreaches up practically to the evening of the betrayal. It is commonly\nreckoned three and a half years. That is, there are some months before\nthat first Passover, and then the events run through and up to the\nfourth Passover, reckoning the unnamed feast of chapter five as a\nPassover. This is the chronology of John's Gospel. John's Gospel gives\nthe only clue to the length of Jesus' ministry.\n\nThere are three groups _of persons_. There are _the Jews_. That is one\nof John's distinctive phrases. By it he means as a rule the official\nleaders of the nation, whom in common with the other writers he also\ndesignates by their party names, Pharisees, Scribes, Chief Priests, and\nso on. Among these the name of Caiaphas stands out, and later Annas.\n\nThen there are _the crowds_, the masses of people that flock together in\nany new stirring movement. There are Galilean crowds, feast-time crowds\nincluding the great numbers of foreign pilgrim Jews, city crowds, and\ncountry crowds. They gather to John's preaching. They gather in great\nnumbers in Jerusalem, and on the Galilean visits. They are easily\nimpressionable, swayed by subtle crowd-contagion, stirred up and played\nupon cunningly by the opposition leaders.\n\nThey appeal greatly to Jesus, like unshepherded sheep. And the sick and\nneedy ones, so numerous, draw out His pity and warm touch and healing\npower. They believe quickly, and almost as quickly are turned away and\ndesert the cause they had so quickly and warmly rallied to. Fickle,\nunthoughtful, easily-swayed, needy crowds, but with the thoughtful ones\nand groups here and there who are really helped and who stick. These\ncrowds are always in evidence.\n\nAnd there are _the disciples_. There is the inner group of chosen ones\nwho companion with Jesus, sharing His bread and bed, and close witnesses\nof His gracious spirit and unfailing power, with impulsive heady Peter\nand faithful steady John always nearest by. What a schooling all this\nwas for them! And there are other disciples, not of this picked circle,\nbut on most intimate personal terms with the Master, some of them, like\nthoughtful cautious Nicodemus, like the Bethany group of three, and Mary\nthe Magdalene. And there is the larger, looser, changing body of\ndisciples, mingling with the crowds, sometimes deserting, but no doubt\nwith many thoughtful devoted ones among them. These are the leading\npersons figuring in John's story, grouped about the person of Jesus.\n\nBut these are simply interesting incidentals giving local colouring to\nJohn's story. We pass by them quickly now to a few things that take\ngreat hold of one's heart, that stand out biggest, and give the real\naction of life to the story.\n\n\n\nTapestry Threads.\n\n\nAs we unravel the fabric of John's Gospel there are three threads that\nstand out by reason of the distinctness of their colours. There's a\nthread of clear decided blue. There's a dark ugly black thread that\ngets blacker as it weaves itself farther in. And then there's a bright\nyellow glory-colour thread that shines with brighter lustre as the black\ngets blacker.\n\nTrace the blue first, the thread of a simple glad acceptance of Jesus,\nand trust in Him. It deepens in its fine shading of blue as you follow\nit, true blue, the colour true hearts wear. From the very first Jesus is\naccepted by some, by many. And this continues steadily through to the\nvery last. Some doors open at once to Him. Then under the influence of\nHis presence and gentle resistless power they open wide, and then wider.\n\nIt is fascinating to trace the simply told story of growing faith, until\none's own faith gets clearer and steadier and has more warm glow to it.\nTo adapt Tennyson's fine lines, as knowledge grows from more to more\nthere dwells in us more of the deep tender reverence of love, until all\nthe powers of mind and spirit chord into one symphony of unending music.\nAnd the wheels of our common life move always to its rhythmic swing.\n\nSee how _the crowds_ crowd to Jesus, and open up to the appeal of His\nwords and acts and presence. Many of the pilgrim crowds of that first\nPassover believe, impressed by Jesus' spirit of helpfulness and His\nunusual power.[47] And the Galileans among them give Him warm welcome as\nHe comes up into their country.[48] It is a great multitude that follows\neagerly up on the east coast of the Galilean sea, hail Him as the\nlong-expected prophet of their nation, talk of plans for making Him\ntheir King, and earnestly cry out, \"Lord, evermore give us this (true)\nbread.\"[49]\n\nEven in the midst of the bickering discussions at the Tabernacles Feast\nmany of the multitude believed on Him, some as the long-talked-of\nprophet, some as the very Christ Himself.[50] And as He talks to His\ncritics of His purpose always to please the Father, still others are\ndrawn in heart to Him and believe.[51] And at this same time, as the\ncriticism gets uglier, many make bold to speak out on His behalf[52]\nthough it was getting to be a dangerous thing to do. As He feels\ncompelled to withdraw from the tense atmosphere of Jerusalem, and goes\naway into the country districts beyond the Jordan the people come\nflocking to Him with open hearts.[53]\n\nThe Lazarus incident made inroads into the upper circles of Jerusalem,\nmany of the influential social class with whom these dear Bethany\nfriends seem on close terms, and who had been out there during those\nstirring days, believe on Jesus, and many of the common people, too, are\nwon by that occurrence.[54] That tremendous raising of Lazarus had much\nto do with the great acclaim of the multitudes as Jesus rode into\nJerusalem on the kingly colt.[55]\n\nIt is without doubt a sincere homage that these multitudes from far and\nnear, and the home crowds, render, with their palm branches and\ngarment-strewn roads, and spontaneous outburst of joyous song.[56] And\nnow as John put his bit of a knotted summary on the end of this part of\nhis story, he points out that even among the members of the Jewish\nSenate there were many real believers.[57]\n\nBut a crowd is a strange complex thing. It doesn't know itself. It's\neasily swept along to do as a crowd what would never be done by each one\noff by himself. And this works in good ways as well as in bad. Jesus\ndrew the crowds and was drawn by them. He couldn't withstand the pull of\nthe crowd. The lure of its intense need was irresistible to Him. Yet He\nknew crowds rarely.\n\nHe was never blinded by their enthusiasm. His keen insight saw under the\nsurface, though it never held Him critically back from helping. He\nquickly notes that the belief of those first Passover crowds has not\nreached the dependable stage.[58] He is never held back from showing the\nred marks in the road to be trodden even though many of His disciples\nbalk at going farther on such a road, and some turn away to an easier\nroad,[59] so revealing an utter lack of the real thing. And even where\nthere's real faith of the sincere sort it is yet sometimes not of the\nseasoned sort that can stand the storms.[60]\n\nThese crowds seem of close kin to more modern crowds. One touch of a\ncrowd rubs out centuries of difference and shows one family blood in us\nall. Yet keep things poised. It was out of these crowds that there came\nthe disciples and close friends to whom we now turn. There's gold in the\ncrowds, finest twenty-four carat gold. It's all a matter of mining.\nSkilful mining gets out the gold. This wondrous Lover used the\nmagnetic-current method of mining, the love-current. The strong warm\ncurrent, the fine personal spirit current, drew out to Him the fine\ngrains of gold in these human crowds.\n\n\n\nGrowing Faith.\n\n\nNow we climb the hill where _the disciples_ are. The crowds are in the\nbottom-lands. Many have started up the hill. Jesus always woos men\nuphill. You can always tell a man by where he is standing, bottom-land,\nhillside, higher-hill-slope, hilltop. We turn now from the crowds that\nbelieved to those whose personal acceptance of Jesus drew them into the\ninner circle.\n\nThe first three incidents trace the beginnings of faith in those first\nclose disciples who came to be numbered among the picked inner\ntwelve.[61] The first story is one of the rarest of John's many rare\nstories. It is characteristic of the real thing of faith that beginning\nwith two they quickly number five. The attachment of the two to John,\nthe Witness, reveals them as of the earnest inquiring sort, after the\nvery best. John never forgot that talk with Jesus in the gathering\ntwilight by the Jordan. It sends Andrew out for Peter, and John likely\nfor James, while the Master gets Philip, and he in turn Nathaniel. That\nreveals the real stuff of faith. It has a mind whose questionings have\nbeen satisfied, a heart that catches fire, and feet that hasten\nout-of-doors for others. That's the real thing.\n\nTheir faith takes deeper root at Cana. A new personal experience of\nJesus' power is a great deepener of faith, the great deepener. This is\nthe only pathway from faith to a deeper realer sturdier faith. A man can\nget a deeper faith only by walking on his own feet where Jesus leads.\n\nTheir faith grows imperceptibly but by leaps and bounds. It grows down\ndeeper and so up stronger and out farther by their _companionship with\nJesus_ through those brief packed years. What a school that was! the\nschool of companionship with Jesus, with lessons daily, but the chiefest\nlesson the Teacher Himself. What a school it _is_! The only one for\nlearning the real thing of faith: still open: pupils received at any\ntime.\n\nIf we would shut our eyes and go with them as they company with Jesus\nthrough those wondrous days and events and experiences we may get some\nhold on how their faith grew. They actually saw the handful of loaves\nand fishes grow in their hands until thousands were fed. Their own eyes\nsaw Jesus walking on the water.\n\nIt was out of their very hearts that they cry out through Peter's lips\nin answer to Jesus' pathetic pleading question and say, \"To whom shall\nwe go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.\"[62] And without doubt\nThomas acts as spokesman for all when Jesus announced His intention of\nreturning to the danger zone, and Thomas sturdily says, \"Let us _also_\ngo, that we may die with Him.\"[63]\n\nBut you are thinking of that terrible break of theirs on the betrayal\nnight, are you? Well, perhaps if we call to mind with what an utter\nshock the events of that terrific twenty four hours came, intensified\nthe more by the unexpectedness and the suddenness of it; and then\nif--perhaps--we may call to mind the more recent behaviour of some\nmodern disciples who have had enormous advantages over them in regard to\nthat terrific experience it may chasten our feelings a bit and soften\nthe edge of our thought about them.\n\nBut dear faithful John never faltered. We must always love him for that.\nHow humiliating for us if not even one had stood that test. And how\ntheir after-contact with John must have affected the others. John pulled\nthe others back and up. And how their faith so sorely chastened and\ntested came to its fine seasoned strength afterwards.\n\nThese very events of the early days now come back with new meaning to\nthem. Jesus' words at the temple cleansing, and the kingly entry into\nJerusalem, shine now in a new light and give new strength to their\nfaith.[64] But John himself brings us back to this again in that long\ntalk of the betrayal night. So we leave it now. But blue is a good\ncolour for the eyes. It reveals great beauty in the bit of\ntapestry-pattern John is weaving for us to trace these true blue\nthreadings.\n\nBut there's more here, much more, that adds greatly to the pattern.\nThere are faithful disciples _and precious intimate friendships_ outside\nthe circle of these future leaders. Take only a moment for these as we\npush on.\n\nThere's that night visitor of the early Jerusalem days. Aristocrat,\nruler, scholar, with all the supercautiousness that these qualities\nalways grain in, Nicodemus actually left the inner circle of\ntemple-rulers who were as sore to the touch as a boil over John's\ndrastic cleansing, and comes for a personal interview. His utter\nsincerity is shown in the temper of his remarks and questions, and shown\nyet more in the openness of Jesus' spirit in talking with him. For this\nis a trait in Jesus' dealings,--openness when He finds an opening door.\nIt _must_ be so, then and now. He can open up only where there is an\nopening up to Him. Openness warms and loosens. The reverse chills and\nlocks up.[65]\n\nIt is in another just such situation but far more acute, that this man\nspeaks out for Jesus in an official meeting of these same rulers.\nTimidly? have you thought, cautiously? Yet he spoke out when no one else\ndid, though others there believed in Jesus. A really rare courage it was\nthat told of a growing faith.[66] And the personal devotion side of his\nfaith, evidence again of the real thing, stands out to our eyes as we\nsee him bring the unusual gift of very costly ointments for the\nprecious body of his personal friend.[67] It's a winsome story, this of\nNicodemus. May there be many a modern duplicate of it.\n\nIn utter social contrast stands the next bit of this sort following so\nhard that the contrast strikes you at once. It's a half-breed Samaritan\nthis time, and a woman, and an openly bad life. The Samaritans were\nhated by Jew and Gentile alike as belonging to neither, ground between\nthe two opposing social national millstones. Womanhood was debased and\nheld down in the way all too familiar always and everywhere. And a moral\noutcast ranks lowest in influence.\n\nBut true love discerns the possible lily in the black slime bulb at the\npond's bottom and woos it into blossoming flower, till its purity and\nbeauty greet our delighted eyes. Under the simple tact of love's true\ntouch, out of such surroundings grows a faith, through the successive\nstages of gossipy curiosity, cynical remark, interest, eagerness, guilty\nself-consciousness that would avoid any such personal conversation, out\nand out comes a faith that means a changed life, and then earnest\nbringing of others till the whole village acclaims Jesus a Saviour,\n_the_ Saviour.\n\nAnd the very title they apply to Jesus reveals as by a flash-light the\nchief personal meaning the interview had for this outcast woman. In one\nway her faith meant more than Nicodemus', for it meant a radical change\nof outer life with her. And many a one stops short of that, though the\nreal thing never does, and can't.[68]\n\nThen the circle widens yet more, geographically. Jew, Samaritan, it is a\n_Roman_ this time, one of the conquering nation under whose iron heel\nthe nation writhes restlessly. He is of gentle birth and high official\nposition. It is his sense of acute personal need that draws him to\nJesus. The child of his love is slipping from his clinging but helpless\ngrasp.\n\nThere's the loose sort of hearsay groping faith that turns to Jesus in\ndesperation. Things can't be worse, and possibly there might be help.\nThere's the very different faith that looks Jesus in the face and hears\nthe simple word of assurance so quietly spoken. He actually heard the\nword spoken about _his_ dying darling, \"_thy son liveth_.\"\n\nThen there is that wondrous new sort of faith whose sharper hooks of\nsteel enter and take hold of your very being as you actually\n_experience_ the power of Jesus in a way wholly new to you. As it came\nto his keenly awakened mind that the favourable turn had come at the\nvery moment Jesus uttered those quiet words, and then as he looked into\nthe changed face of his recovering child, he became a changed man. The\nfaith in Jesus was a part of his being. The two could never be put\nasunder. So the Roman world brought its grateful tribute of acceptance\nto this great wooing brooding Lover. The wooing had won again.\n\nAnd now there's another extreme social turnabout in the circle that\nfeels the power of Jesus' wooing. We turned from Jerusalem aristocrat to\nSamaritan outcast; now it's from gentle Roman official to a beggaring\npauper. It is at the Tabernacles' visit. Jesus, quietly masterfully\npassing out from the thick of the crowd that would stone Him, noticed a\nblind ragged beggar by the roadway. One of those speculative questions\nthat are always pushing in, and that never help any one is asked: \"Who's\nto blame here?\"\n\nWith His characteristic intense practicality Jesus quietly pushes the\nspeculative question aside with a broken sentence, a sentence broken by\nHis action as He begins helping the man. In effect He says, \"Neither\nthis man nor his parents are immediately to blame; the thing goes\nfarther back. But\"--and He reaches down and begins to make the soft clay\nwith His spittle--\"_the_ thing is to see the power of God at work to\nhelp.\" And the touch is given and the testing command to wash, and then\neyes that see for the first time.\n\nBut the one thing that concerns us now in this great ninth chapter is\nthe faith that was so warmly wooed up out of nothing to a thing of\ncourageous action and personal devotion to Jesus. It is fairly\nfascinating to watch the man move from birth-blind hopelessness through\nclay-anointed surprise and wonder and Siloam-walking expectancy on to\nwater-washing eyesight.\n\nIt is yet more fascinating to see his spirit move up in the language he\nuses, from \"the _man_ called Jesus,\" and the cautious but blunt \"I don't\nknow about His being a sinner, but I know I can _see_,\" on to the\nbolder \"clearly not a sinner but a man in reverent touch with God\nHimself.\"\n\nThen the yet bolder, \"a man _from God_,\" brings the break with the\ndreaded authorities which branded him before all as an outcast and as a\ndamned soul. And then the earnest reverent cry \"Who is He, Lord, that I\nmay believe?\" reveals the yearning purpose of his own heart. And then\nthe great climax comes in the heart cry, \"Lord, I believe, I believe\nThee to be the very Son of God.\"\n\nAnd the outcast of the rulers casts in his lot with Jesus and begins at\nonce living the eternal quality of life which goes on endlessly. What a\nday for him from hopeless blindness of body and heart to eyesight that\ncan see Jesus' face and know Him as his Saviour and Lord! Growth of\nfaith clearly is not limited to the counting of hours. It waits only on\none's walking out fully into all the light that comes, no matter where\nit may lead your steps.\n\n\n\nThe Bethany Height of Faith.\n\n\nThe Bethany story is one of the tenderest of all. It touches the\nheights. It's a hilltop story, both in its setting amidst the Bethany\nblue hills where it grew up, and in the height of faith it records. It\nhas personal friendship and love of Jesus and implicit trust in Him as\nits starting point. And from this it reaches up to levels unknown\nbefore. Faith touches high water here. It rises to flood, a flood that\nsweeps mightily through the valleys of doubt and questionings all around\nabout.\n\nAt the beginning there is faith in Jesus of the tender, personal sort.\nAt the close there's faith that He will actually meet the need of your\nlife and circumstance _without limit_. The highest faith is this:\nconnecting Jesus' power and love with the actual need of your life.\nAbraham believed God with full sincerity that covenant-making night\nunder the dark sky. But he didn't connect his faith in God with his need\nand danger among the Philistines.[69] Peter believed in Jesus fully but\nhis faith and his action failed to connect when the sore test came that\nGethsemane night.\n\nThe Bethany pitch of faith makes connections. It ties our God and our\nneed and our action into one knot. This is the pith of this whole story.\nJesus' one effort in His tactful patient wooing is to get Martha up to\nthe point of ordering that stone aside. He got her faith into touch with\nthe gravestone of her sore need. Her faith and her action connected.\nThat told her expectancy. Creeds are best understood when they're acted.\nMoving the stone was her confession of faith. _Not_ that Jesus was the\nSon of God. That was settled long before.\n\nNo: it meant this--that the Son of God was now actually going to _act as\nSon of God_ to meet her need. Under His touch her dead brother was going\nto live. The deadness that broke her heart would give way under Jesus'\ntouch. The Bethany faith doesn't believe that God _can_ do what you\nneed, merely. It believes that He _will_ do it And so the stone's taken\naway that He _may_ do it. God has our active consent. Are we up on the\nBethany level? Has God our active consent to do all He would? Is our\nfaith being lived, acted out?\n\nAnd the feast of grateful tribute that followed has an exquisite added\ntouch. The faith that lets God into one's life to meet its needs gets\nclearer eyesight. Acted faith affects the spirit vision. There is a\nspirit sensitiveness that recognizes God and discerns how things will\nturn out.\n\nNotice Jesus' words about Mary's act of anointing. There is a singularly\nsignificant phrase in it. \"Let her _keep it_ against (or in view of) the\nday of My burying.\" \"Keep it\" is the striking phrase. What does that\nmean? We speak of _keeping_ a day, as Christmas, meaning to hallow the\nmemories for which it stands. \"Keep it\" here seems to mean that. Let her\nkeep a memorial. Yet it would be a memorial _in advance_ of the event\nremembered and hallowed.\n\nIt seems to suggest that Mary thus discerned the outcome for Jesus of\nthe coming crisis, and more, its great significance. The disciples\nexpected Jesus' power to overcome all opposition. She alone sensed what\nwas coming, His death and its tremendous spirit-meaning. And it is\npossible that the raising of her brother helped her to sense ahead\nanother raising. For there is no mention of her at the tomb, as would\notherwise have been most natural.\n\nHer simple love-lit faith could _see_, and could see _beyond_ to the\nfinal outcome. This is the story of the Bethany faith, faith at flood.\nThis highest simplest truest faith, that had come in answer to Jesus'\npatient persistent wooing for it, opens the way for the greatest use of\nHis power on record.\n\nThere's one story more in this true-blue faith list. It is the story of\nthe Greeks. At first it seems not to belong in here. There is no mention\nmade of the faith of these men nor of their acceptance of Jesus. But the\nmore you think into it the more it seems that here is its true place,\nand that this is why John brings it in, not simply to show how the\noutside world was reaching for Jesus, but to show the inner spirit of\nthese men towards Jesus.\n\nWhether the term _Greeks_ is used in the looser sense for the\nGreek-speaking Jews,[70] or for non-Jewish foreigners, or, as I think\nmost likely, in the meaning of men of Grecian blood, residents of\nGreece, the significance is practically the same, it was the outer world\ncoming to Jesus. These had come a long journey to do homage to the true\nGod at Jerusalem. Their presence reveals their spirit.\n\nThey were eye and ear-witnesses of the stirring events of those last\ndays in Jerusalem. The stupendous story of the raising of the man out in\nthe Bethany suburb was the talk of the city. And then there was that\nintense scene of the kingly entry into the city amid the acclaiming\nmultitudes. They knew of the official opposition, and the public\nproclamation against Jesus. They breathed the Jerusalem air. That put\nthem in touch with the whole situation.\n\nNow notice keenly they seek a personal interview with Jesus. This is the\npractical outcome of the situation _to them_. It reminds one of that\nother man, under similar conditions though less intense, at an earlier\nstage, cautiously seeking a night interview. Their desire tells not\ncuriosity but earnestness, and the very earnestness reveals both purpose\nand attitude towards Jesus.\n\nAnd this is made the plainer by the very words they use as they seek out\nthe likeliest man of the Master's inner circle to secure the coveted\ninterview. They say, \"Sir, _we would see Jesus_.\" The whole story of\nconviction, of earnestness, of decision, is in that tremendous little\nword \"would.\" It was their will, their deliberate choice, to come into\npersonal relations with this Man of whom they were hearing so much.\n\nAnd it seems like a direct allusion to that tremendous word, and an\nanswer to it, when Jesus, in effect, in meaning, says, \"if any man\n_would_ follow Me.\" Both the coming under such circumstances, and the\nform of the request, seem to tell the attitude of these men towards\nJesus and their personal purpose regarding Him. It would be altogether\nlikely that they accompany Philip as he seeks out Andrew. It would be\nthe natural thing. And so they are with Philip and Andrew as they come\nto tell Jesus.\n\nThen this would be the setting of these memorable intense words that\nJesus now utters.[71] He senses at once the request and the earnest\npurpose of these men seeking Him out. It is for them especially that\nthese words are spoken. And if, as some thoughtful scholars think, Jesus\nspake here, not in His native Aramaic, but in the Greek tongue, it gives\ncolouring to the supposition. The intense earnestness of His words, and\nthe revealing of the intense struggle within His spirit as He breathes\nout the simple prayer,--all this is a tacit recognition of the spirit of\nthese Greeks.\n\nThe parallel is striking with the Nicodemus interview where no direct\nmention is made of the faith that later events showed was unquestionably\nthere. It seems like another of those silences of John that are so full\nof meaning.[72] And the silence seems, as with Nicodemus, to mean the\nacquiescence of the inquirers in the message they hear.\n\nThis then would seem to be the reply to the request. They have indeed\nseen Jesus. And they accept it and Him, as most likely they linger\nthrough the Passover-days at hand and then turn their faces homeward.\nAnd so the warm wooing has drawn out this warm response from the\ncultured Greek world.\n\nSo we trace the blue thread in John's tapestry picture, the true faith\nthat is drawn out from nothing to little and more and much and most,\nunder the warmth of the brooded wooing of this great Lover.\n\n\n\nThe Ugly Thread in the Weaving.\n\n\nNow for that ugly dark thread, the opposition to, the rejection of, the\nLover's wooing. But we'll not linger here. We've been seeing so much of\nthis thread as we traced the other and studied the whole. Ugly things\nstand out by reason of their very ugliness. This stands out in gloomy\ndisturbing contrast with all the rest. A brief quick tracing will fully\nanswer our present purpose. And then we can hasten on to the dominating\nfigure in the pattern.\n\nThe opposition begins with silent rejection, moves by steady stages,\ngrowing ever intenser clear up to the murderous end. The sending of the\ncommittee to the Jordan to examine John and report on him was an\nofficial recognition of his power. The questions asked raise the\npossibility clearly being discussed of John being the promised prophet,\nor Elijah, or even the Christ Himself, and this is an expression of the\nnational expectancy. The utter silence with which John's witness to\nJesus is met is most striking.[73] Its significance is spoken of by both\nJesus and John.[74]\n\nThe intensity of the resentment over the cleansing of the temple-area\ncan be almost felt rising up out of the very page, in the critical\nquestions and cynical comment of the Jews. One can easily see all the\nbitterness of their hate tracking its slimy footprints out of that\ncleansed courtyard.[75]\n\nThe cunning discussion among the great Jordan crowds about the purifying\nrite of baptism, stirred up so successfully by \"_a Jew_,\" that is,\nprobably by one of the Jerusalem leaders, would seem to be a studied\nattempt to discredit the two preachers, Jesus and John, and swing the\ncrowds away. It was shrewdly done and might have dissipated the fine\nspiritual atmosphere by bitter strife and discussion had not Jesus\nquietly slipped away.[76]\n\nThis attitude of theirs is clearly recognized and felt by Jesus. He\nplainly points out that vulgarizing hurt of sin whereby God's own\nmessenger is not recognized when He comes in the garb of a\nneighbour.[77]\n\nThen things get more acute. The blessed healing of a\nthirty-eight-year-old infirmity leads to outspoken persecution, to a\ndesire and purpose actually to kill Jesus. It grew intenser as Jesus'\nclaim grew clearer. The issue was sharply drawn. He \"called God _His own\nFather_, making Himself _equal with God_.\" They begin plotting His\ndeath.[78]\n\nHis prudent absence from Jerusalem at the time of the next Passover\nreveals graphically how tense the opposition had gotten. But even up by\nGalilee's shores they have messengers at work amongst the crowds\nexciting discussion and discontent and worse. In the discussion it is\neasy to pick out the two elements, the nagging critics and the earnest\nseekers. And the saddening result is seen in many disciples leaving\nJesus and going back again to their old way.[79]\n\nThen things got so intense that Jesus' habit of life was broken or\nchanged. He could no longer frequent Judea as He had done, but kept\npretty much to the northern province of Galilee. The settled plan to\nkill made His absence a matter of common prudence. This makes most\nstriking His great courage in going up to Jerusalem at the autumn Feast\nof Tabernacles. He quietly arrived in the midst of much rumour and hot\ndiscussion about Himself, and begins teaching the crowds openly, to the\ngreat amazement of many.\n\nAt once begin the wordy critical attacks, egged on probably by the\nwarmth with which many receive Jesus' teachings. There are three\nattempts to take Him by force, including an official attempt at arrest.\nBut, strangely enough, the very officers sent to arrest are so impressed\nby Jesus' teaching that they return with their mission not done, to the\nintensest disgust and rage of their superiors.[80]\n\nEarly on the morning following there's a cunning coarse attempt to\nentrap Him into saying something that can be used against Him. A woman\nis brought accused of wrong-doing of the gravest sort, and His opinion\nis asked as to the proper punishment for so serious an offense. There's\nnothing more dramatic in Scripture than the withdrawal of these\naccusers, one by one, actually conscience-stricken in the presence of\nthe few simple words of this wondrous Man.[81]\n\nThis is followed by the intensest give-and-take of discussion thus far,\nin which they give vent to their bitterest degree of vile language in\ncalling Him \"a Samaritan,\" and accusing Him of being possessed with \"a\ndemon.\" And then the terrible climax is reached in the enraged\npassionate attempt of stoning. It is the worst yet to which their\nfanatical rage has gone.[82]\n\nNow they reach out to intimidate the multitude, by threatening to cut\noff from religious and civic privileges all who would confess belief in\nJesus as Christ. And their spleen vents its rage on the man born blind\nbut now so wondrously given sight of two sorts.[83]\n\nThe winter Feast of the Dedication a few months later finds Jesus back\nagain in Jerusalem teaching. And again their enraged attempt at stoning,\nthe second one, is restrained by a something in Him they can neither\nunderstand nor withstand.[84]\n\nThe Lazarus incident arouses their opposition to the highest pitch.[85]\nThis is recognized as a crisis. Such power had never been seen or known.\nThe inroads of belief are everywhere, in the upper social circles, among\nthe old families, even in the Jewish Senate itself, notwithstanding the\nthreatened excommunication. On every hand men are believing. Things are\ngetting desperate for these leaders. They determine to use all the\nauthority at hand arbitrarily and with a high hand. What strange\nblindness of stubborn self-will to such open evidence of power!\n\nA special meeting of the Jewish Senate is held, not unlikely hastily\nsummoned of those not infected with belief. And there it is officially\ndetermined to put Jesus to death, and serve public notice that any one\nknowing of His whereabouts must report their information to the\nauthorities.\n\nAnd as the incoming crowds thicken for the Passover, and the talk about\nLazarus is on every tongue, it is determined to put Lazarus to death,\ntoo. This is the pitch things have risen to as John brings this part of\nhis story to a close.\n\n\n\nThe Glory-Coloured Thread.\n\n\nIt is a relief to turn now to the chief figure in this tapestried\npicture of John's weaving. Here are glory-coloured threads of bright\nyellow. They easily stand out, thrown in relief both by the pleasing\nblues and the disturbing blacks. It is the figure of the Man on the\nerrand, intent on His wooing, absorbed in His great task. Thia Man, His\ntremendous wooing, wins glad grateful ever-growing acceptance. And with\nrarest boldness and courage He persists in His wooing in spite of the\nterrific intensifying opposition.\n\nThe gentle softening dew persists in distilling even on the hardest\nstoniest soil. The _gentle winsomeness of the wooing_ stands out\nappealingly as one goes through those fragments of teaching talks\nrunning throughout. The rare faithfulness of it to the nation and its\nleaders is thrown into bold relief by the very opposition that reveals\ntheir dire spiritual plight and their sore need.\n\nThe _power of it_ is simply stupendous. As gentle in action as the\nfalling dew it grows in intensity until neither the gates of death nor\neven the stubborn resistance of a human will can prevail against it. It\nis power sufficient to satisfy the most critical search, and to make\nacceptance not only possible with one's reasoning power in fullest\nexercise but the rational thing.\n\nLook a bit at the power at work here. For in looking at the power we are\ngetting a better look at the Man, and at the purpose that grips Him. Of\nthe nineteen incidents in these twelve chapters fifteen give exhibitions\nof power. It is of two sorts, power over the human will, and miraculous\npower.\n\nEight incidents reveal _power working upon the human will_. In three of\nthese--Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the accused sinful woman--the\nwill becomes pliant and is radically changed, so morally affecting the\nwhole life. In five--the temple cleansing, at the Tabernacles Feast, the\nfirst and second attempt at stoning, and the kingly entry into the\ncity--the human will is stubbornly aggressively antagonistic to Jesus,\nbut is absolutely restrained from what it is fully set upon doing.\n\nIn the other seven incidents the power is _miraculous_ or supernatural.\nIn three--turning the water into wine, multiplying food supplies,\nwalking on the water--it is power in _the realm of nature_. In\nfour--healing the Roman nobleman's son, the thirty-eight-year\ninfirmity, giving sight to the man born blind, and the raising of\nLazarus--it is power in _the realm of the body_, radically changing its\nconditions.\n\nIt will help to remember what those words _miraculous_ and\n_supernatural_ mean. Miraculous means something wonderful, that is,\nsomething filling us with wonder because it is so unusual. Supernatural\nmeans something above the usual natural order. The two words are\ncommonly taken as having one meaning. Neither word means something\ncontrary to nature, of course, but simply on a higher level than the\nordinary workings of nature with which we are familiar. The action is in\naccord with some higher law in God's world which is brought into play\nand is seen to be superior to the familiar laws.\n\nBut the power, or the man that can call this higher law into action, is\nof a higher order. There is revealed an intimacy of acquaintance with\nthese higher laws, and even more a power that can command and call them\ninto action down in the sphere of our common ordinary life, until we\nstare in wonder. This is really the remarkable thing. Not supernatural\naction itself simply, tremendous as that is, but the man in such touch\nwith higher power as to be able to call out the action, and to command\nit at will.\n\nThis is one of the things that marks Jesus off so strikingly from other\nholy men. There are miracles in the Old Testament and in the Book of\nActs. But there's an abundance and a degree of power in Jesus' miracles\noutclassing all others. It is fascinating and awesome to watch the\ngrowth of power in these movements of Jesus. It is as though He woos\nmore persistently in the very degree and variety of power that He uses\nso freely, and with such apparent ease.\n\nWhich calls out greater power, creating or healing? making water into\nwine or healing bodily ailment? Which is the greater, power in the realm\nof nature or the body? _or_ in the realm of the human will? multiplying\nfood _or_ changing a human will? Which is greater, to induce a man\nvoluntarily to change his course of action, _or_ to restrain him (by\nmoral power only, not by force) from doing something he is dead-set on\ndoing?\n\nThis is the range through which Jesus' action runs in these fifteen\nincidents. Is there a growth in the power revealed? Is there an intenser\nplea to these men as the story goes on? Is there a steady piling up of\nevidence in the wooing of their hearts?\n\nWell, creating is bringing into material being what didn't so exist\nbefore. Healing does something more. It creates new tissue, makes new or\ndifferent adjustments and conditions, _and_ it overcomes the opposite,\nthe broken tissue, the diseased conditions, the weakness, the tendency\ntowards decay and death. Clearly there's a greater task in healing, and\na greater power at work, or more power, or power revealed more.\n\nThen, too, of course, the human is above the physical. Man is higher\nthan nature. He is the lord of creation. It is immensely more to affect\na human will than to affect conditions in nature. The whole thing moves\nup to a measureless higher level. And clearly enough it is a less\ndifficult task to enlighten and persuade one who seeks the light, and to\nwoo up one who is simply carelessly indifferent, than it is to overcome\nand restrain a will that is dead-set against you and is bitterly set on\nan opposite course.\n\nOf course, all of this is not commonly so recognized. It seems immensely\nmore to heal the body than to change a man's course of action, or, at\nleast, it appeals immensely more to the imagination. The man who can\nheal is magnified in our eyes above the other. The miraculous always\nseems the greater. It is more unusual. Stronger wills are influencing\nothers daily. That's a commonplace. Bodily healing is rare. And all the\nworld is ill. Things are ripe to have such power seize upon the\nimagination then and always.\n\nAnd then, too, there are interlacings here of things we see and things\nwe don't see. There is the element of the use of the human will in all\nmiraculous action, whether in nature or among men. Behind both nature's\nforces and human forces are unseen spirit personalities, both evil and\ngood. The real battle of our human life lies there in the spirit realm.\nVictory there means full victory in the realm of nature and of human\nlives. There is a devil with hosts of spirit attendants. The wilderness\nwas a spirit-conflict of terrific intensity, ending in Jesus'\nunqualified victory.\n\nJesus' power was more than simply creative, or healing, or over human\nwills. It was the power of a pure, strong, surrendered will having the\nmastery over a giant, unsurrendered, God-defiant will. This underlies\nall else. But we've run off a bit. Come back to the simple story, and\nsee how the power of Jesus is revealed more and more before their eyes.\nAnd in seeing the faithfulness and winsomeness of His power, see His\nwooing.\n\n\n\nIntenser Wooing.\n\n\nA look at the _miraculous_ power first. The turning of the water into\nwine was simple creative power at work, creating in the liquid the added\nconstituents that made it wine. The healing of the nobleman's son rises\nto a higher level. The power overcomes diseased weakened conditions and\ncreates new life in the parts affected.\n\nThe healing of a thirty-eight year old infirmity rises yet higher in the\nscale of power seen at work. The Roman's child was an acute case; this\nan extreme chronic case of long standing. The acute case of illness may\nbe most difficult and ticklish, demanding a quick masterful use of all\nthe physician's knowledge and skill. The chronic case is yet more\ndifficult eluding his best studied and prolonged and repeated effort.\nClearly the power at work is accomplishing more; and so it is pleading\nmore eloquently.\n\nThe feeding of the five thousand is creative power simply, like the\nwater-wine case, but it moves up higher in the greater abundance of\npower shown, the increase of quantity created, and the far greater and\nintenser human need met and relieved.\n\nThe walking on the water was an overcoming one of nature's laws, a\nrising up superior to it. The universal law of gravitation would\nnaturally have drawn His feet through the surface of the water and His\nwhole body down. He overcomes this law, retaining His footing on the\nwater as on land.\n\nIt was done in the night, but an Oriental community, like any country\ncommunity, anywhere, is a bulletin-board for all that happens. No detail\nis omitted, and no one misses the news. And this like all these other\nincidents become the common property of the nation.\n\nIt is interesting to note in the language John uses[86] that the motive\nunderneath the action was not to reveal power but simply to keep an\nappointment. But then Jesus never used His power to show that He had\npower, but only to meet the need of the hour. Yet each exhibition of\npower revealed indirectly, incidentally _who He was_.\n\nThere is an instance similar to this in the borrowed axe-head that swam\nin obedience to Elisha's touch of power to meet the need of the\ndistressed theological student.[87] In each instance it is the same\nhabit of nature that yields homage to a higher power at work.\n\nBut though there is here no increase of power shown yet the action\nitself was of the sort to appeal much more to the crowd. It has in it\nthe dramatic. It would appear to the crowd a yet more wonderful thing\nthan they had yet witnessed.\n\nThe giving of sight to the man born blind is distinctly a long step\nahead of any healing power thus far related in John's story. There is\nhere not only the chronic element, but the thing is distinctly in a\nclass by itself, quite outclassing in the difficulty presented any case\nof mere chronic infirmity.\n\nIt was not a matter of restoring what disease had destroyed but of\nsupplying what nature had failed to give in its usual course. It was a\nmeeting of nature's lack through some slip in the adjustment of her\naction in connection with human action. There is not only the appealing\ndramatic element, as in the walking on the water, but the appealing\nsympathetic element in that this poor man's lifelong burden is removed.\n\nAnd then the seventh and last of these, the actual raising of Lazarus up\nfrom the dead, is a climax of power in action nothing short of\nstupendous. Of the six recorded cases of the dead being raised this is\neasily the greatest in the power seen at work. In the other five, in the\nElijah record,[88] the Elisha,[89] the Moabite's body at Elisha's\ngrave,[90] Jairus' daughter,[91] and the widow's son at Nain,[92] there\nwas no lapse of time involved.\n\nHere four days of death had intervened, until it was quite certain\nbeyond question that in that climate decomposition would be well\nadvanced. Utter human impotence and impossibility was in its last\ndegree. Man stands utterly powerless, utterly helpless in the presence\nof death. It is not the last degree of improbability. There _is_ no\nimprobability. It's an _impossibility_. The thing is in a class by\nitself, the hopeless class. And the four days give death its fullest\nopportunity. And death never fails in grim faithfulness to opportunity.\n\nIt is no wonder that all Jerusalem was so stirred. The common crowds of\nhome people and pilgrims, the aristocratic families, the inner official\ncircles, among _all_ classes, this tremendous event won recognition of\nJesus' power and claim, and with recognition personal faith. Nothing\nlike this had ever happened. This is the superlative degree of\nmiraculous power revealed in this matchless wooing of a faithless\nnation.\n\n\n\nLove Wooing Yet More.\n\n\nNow a look at the power at work _in the realm of the human will_, really\na higher power, or power at work in a higher realm, though not commonly\nso recognized by the crowd. There are eight incidents here. And again we\nshall find the steady rise of the power seen at work. Three of these\ntell of the human will changed, and four of its being restrained\nagainst its will from doing that which it was dead-set on doing.\n\nThe ruler who withdrew from the midst of the disturbed temple managers\nfor a night-call upon Jesus was radically changed in his convictions and\nhis life-purpose. He had an open mind. The work was begun at that first\nJerusalem Passover. Under the holy spell of John's presence he is drawn\naway from his enraged brother-rulers to seek the night talk. The\nfrankness and fullness of Jesus' talk shows plainly how open he was and\nhow much more he opened and yielded that evening. And the after protest\nin the official meeting of the rulers, and the loving care for the body\nof Jesus reveal how radical was the transformation wrought upon his will\nand heart by Jesus.[93]\n\nThe Samaritan woman is changed from utter indifference to a change of\nwill and purpose that makes her an eager messenger to her people until\nthey hail Jesus as the Saviour of the world. The change involved a\nradical face-about in habit and life amongst the very people who knew\nher past sinful life best. It meant more than change of conviction, that\nchange actually put into practice across the grain of the habits of\nyears, and of the lower passions, so hard to change. It is a distinct\nstep up from the change in Nicodemus simply because there was so much\nmore to change. The same power had more to do. And it did it.[94]\n\nThe story of the woman accused of the gravest offense is a double one in\nthe power seen at work. She would naturally be hardened, and stony\nhard, shameless to the point of hopeless indifference in moral sense,\nand all this increased by their coarse publicity of her. And so little\nis said, but so much suggested of a change in her.\n\nThe purity of Jesus' face and presence would be a tremendous power of\nconviction. The gentleness of His quiet question would couple softening\nof heart with conviction of her sin. The word of counsel as she is\ndismissed would seem a mirror reflecting the inner longing of her heart\nand the new purpose stirring within, as memory recalls early days of\nvirgin purity, and a wild hope within struggles towards life that there\nmay yet be a change even for her.\n\nThe change in her accusers is, at least, as remarkable though wholly\ndifferent. Morally hardened, as shameless and coarse as the woman as\nregards a fine moral sensibility; by their own tacit confession no\nbetter in practice than she in the point of morals raised; in their\nmalignant cunning only concerned with the woman's sin as a means of\nventing their spleen upon the man they hated and feared,--what a hideous\nspirit-photograph!\n\nUnder the strange compelling power of Jesus' word and will, utterly\nconscience-stricken at being as guilty as she in the particular item\nunder discussion, they turn, one by one, and slink softly out, until the\nlast one is gone. As an instance of one will controlling and changing\nanother will wholly against its will to the point of forcing out\nconfession of personal guilt, it is most remarkable. One wonders if,\nunder that tremendous conviction of personal sin, some of these were\nlater included in those of the Sanhedrin who openly accepted Jesus. It\nis quite possible. It is not improbable.[95]\n\nThe fact is noted that the very language used here under the English\nindicates a different authorship of the incident than John's. Possibly a\nthoughtful delicacy of regard for the woman restrains John's pen if she\nwere still living as he writes. And then later the Holy Spirit, who so\ntactfully restrains John's pen, guides another to fit the remarkable\nstory in its place in the record.\n\nThe drastic turning of bargaining cattle-dealers and bickering\nmoney-brokers, out of the temple-area, and restoring it from a barn-yard\nto a place of holy worship, is a most remarkable illustration of\n_restraint upon antagonistic wills_ at the point of their greatest\nconcern. These leaders would gladly have turned _Him_ out.\n\nAnd who was He, this man with flashing eye and quiet stern word? A\nstranger, unknown, from the despised country district of Galilee. And\nthey have authority, law-officers, everything of the sort on their side.\nYet the restraint of His presence and will over them is as absolute as\nthough they were in chains. They weakly ask for a sign and evidence of\npower. They themselves experienced the most tremendous exhibition of\npower the old temple-area had known for generations.[96]\n\nThe power of restraint at the Feast of Tabernacles is yet greater. Or\nit might be more accurate to say that it is a greater antagonism that is\nrestrained by the same power. They are fully prepared now. The cleansing\nincident took them unawares. It made them gasp to think that any one\nwould dare oppose them like that.\n\nNow they are on guard. Then, too, their antagonism has intensified and\nembittered to the point of plotting His death. And they have grown more\nopenly aggressive. There are three attempts at His arrest. Yet that\nstrange noiseless power of restraint is upon them. They do not do as\nthey would. Clearly they cannot. They are restrained. The man whose\npresence so aroused, also held them in check, apparently without\nthinking about it. His _presence_ is a restraint.[97]\n\nThen a second clash of wills comes a day or so later. Their opposition\nis yet intenser. There has been no cooling-off interval. His continued\nopen teaching in face of their attempts at arrest puts fresh kindling on\nthe fire. \"No man took Him,\" but clearly they wanted to. Their open\nrelations become more strained. He uses yet plainer speech in exposing\ntheir hypocrisies. This stirs them still more. Their hooked fingers\nreach passionately for the stones that would make a finish at once, and\nthe green light flashes out of their enraged eyes. It's the sharpest\nclash yet. They are at a high fever point.\n\nIt seems to take a greater use of power to restrain. \"He hid Himself\" is\nthe simple sentence used. This is one of four times that we are told of\nHis overcoming the hostile attack of a crowd by simply passing through\ntheir midst and going on His way.[98] Perhaps something in the glance of\nthat eye of His, or in the set of His face,[99] _something_ in Him\nrestrained them as He quietly passes through the uproarious crowd and\ngoes on His way undisturbed. They are held back against their wills from\ndoing the thing they are so intent on doing.[100]\n\nA few months later He is back in Jerusalem. But the interval seems not\nto have cooled their passion, only to have heated and hardened their\nenmity. They at once begin an aggressive wordy attack. Then losing\nself-control in their rage they again reach down for the stones to kill\nHim at once. And again they are restrained from their passionate\npurpose, as Jesus quietly goes on talking with them. Again they attempt\nto seize His person. And the simple striking sentence used, \"He went\nforth out of their hand,\" points to the extent of their purpose and to a\nyet greater use of His power of restraint over their unwilling\nwills.[101]\n\nThe last incident of this sort is the kingly entry into the city amid\nthe enthusiasm of the pilgrim and city crowds. It says not a word about\nany attempt on their part nor of His restraint over them. But the very\nboldness of this wholly unexpected move on His part constituted a\ntremendous restraint. Their hate had gone through several stages of\nrefined hardening during the few months preceding. The formal decision\nto kill, the edict of excommunication, the public notice that any\ninformation of His whereabouts must be made known, and the decision to\nkill Lazarus also,--all indicate the hotter burning of the flames of\ntheir rage.\n\nYet into just such a situation He quietly turns the head of His untamed\nunridden young colt of an ass and rides through the city surrounded by\nthe crowds under the very eyes of these leaders and their hireling legal\nminions. The tenseness of the whole scene, the power of restraint so put\nforth, the volcano smouldering underfoot waiting the slightest extra jar\nto loose out its explosion, all are revealed in the little sentence so\npregnant in its concealed dynamic meaning, Jesus \"_hid Himself from,\nthem_.\" There's an exquisite blending of restraint over them and\nboldness with cautious prudence. He was walking very close to the edge\nthat time.[102]\n\nSo His power, shown so quietly but irresistibly before the eyes of all\nduring those brief years, rises to a double climax nothing short of\nstupendous. Miraculous power in the realm of nature and of the human\nbody had reached its climax in the raising of Lazarus, attested beyond\nquestion. Power over the human will both in affecting a voluntary\nchange, and in actually restraining its action against its own set\npurpose, had risen to its climax in the bold open entry in broadest\ndaylight into the capital where His death was officially and publicly\ndecreed. The two climaxes touch. And it is tremendously significant that\nwhereas they sometimes question His miraculous power, they could not\ndeny His restraining power over themselves. How gladly they would if\nonly they could.\n\nAnd all this, mark you keenly, is a bit of His wooing. The wooing is\never the dominant thought in His heart. So He was revealing to them who\nHe was. He claims to be the Son of God, their kingly Messiah. And _He\nlived His claim_. Power is the one universally recognized touchstone by\nwhich we judge God and man. His power told _who He was_ even more than\nHis tremendous words did. He was acting naturally. His presence among\nthem thus natural, true to the power native in Him,--this was the\nwooing.\n\nBut there was more than power. There was _love_. There was a perfect\nblend of the two. With the power went the love. Nay, rather, with the\nlove went the power. Love was the dominating thing. Jesus was love in\nshoes, God in action. Always there was the tenderness, the gentleness,\nthe patience, the purity, the unflinching ideals, yes, the courage, the\nutter fearlessness tempered with a wise prudence. All _these are the\nfuller spelling of love_.\n\nAlways these went in closest touch with the resisted but resistless\npower. These are the two traits of God, two traits that are one. Men\nalways think most of the power. God Himself always emphasizes most the\nlove. But true power is simply love in action. The power is the outcome\nof love, and under the control of love.\n\nThis is the second of John's great impelling pictures. The first shows\nus _the Person,_ the Man Jesus, God with us, God making a world, and\nthen, in homely human garb walking amongst its people, one of\nthemselves.\n\nThis second shows us _the wooing_. This Man, so tender in touch, so\ngentle in speech, so thoughtful in action, so pure in life, so unbending\nin ideals, so fearless in the thick of opposition, so faithful to the\nchosen faithless nation,--this Man Himself is the wooing. His words, His\nactions, His power, His persistence, His patience, this also is the\nwooing of this great God-Man-Lover. This is God spelling Himself out\ninto human speech, wooing men out and up and in to Himself.\n\n\n\nJesus Recognised by all the Race.\n\n\nAnd it is most striking to sit still and think into how this Lover was\n_recognized_ by men of all nations, and how His wooing was _understood_\nand yielded to by men of all sorts. The intense Jew, the half-breed\nSamaritan, the aggressive Roman, the cultured refined Greek,--that was\n_all the world_. And all these recognized Him as some one kin to\nthemselves, bound by closest spirit-ties, to whom they were drawn by the\nstrong cords of His common kinship with themselves. The waves of His\npersonal influence were, geographically, like His last commandment to\nHis disciples. The movement was from Jerusalem to Judea, through\nSamaria, and out into the uttermost part of the earth and the innermost\nheart of the race.\n\nAnd all sorts of men understood. Jesus wiped out social differences and\ndistinctions in the crowds that gently jostled each other in His\npresence. The aristocrat and the cultured, the student and the gentle\nfolk, mingled freely with simple country folk, the unlettered, the\nhumblest and lowliest, all drawn alike to Him, and all unconscious of\ndifferences when under the holy spell of His presence. The wealthy like\nJoseph of Arimathea, and the beggar like the man born blind, the pure in\nheart like Mary of Bethany and the openly bad in life like the accused\nwoman of Jerusalem,--all felt alike that this Jesus belonged to them,\nand they to Him.\n\nThe underneath tie of real kinship of heart rubbed out all outer\ndistinctions. The old families of Jerusalem were glad to unlock their\njealously guarded doors to Him. And the simple Capernaum fisherfolk were\ngrateful when He shared bread and roof with them. All men recognized\nJesus as belonging to themselves.\n\nAnd the calendar has not changed this, neither Gregorian nor Old Style.\nTime finds the race the same always. Centuries climb slowly by, but the\nhuman heart is the same, and--so is Jesus. I was greatly struck with\nthis in my errand among the nations. The East balks at the ways of the\nWest sometimes. Many books say there is no point of contact between the\ntwo. The East balks at our Western organization, our rule of the clock,\nand our rush and hurry. Our Westernized church systems and our closely\nmortised logical theologies are sometimes a bit bewildering, not exactly\ncomprehensible to their Orientalized mode of thought.\n\nBut they never balk at Jesus. When they are told of Him, and get some\nglimpse of Him, their eyes light, their faces glow, their hearts leap in\nresponse. You book people say there is no point of contact between\nOrient and Occident? But there is. Jesus is the point of contact. One\nreal touch of Jesus makes all the world akin. No; that can be put\nbetter. One touch of Jesus reveals the kinship that is there between Him\nand men, _and_ between all men.\n\nIn Japan it was the Portuguese that first took the Gospel a few hundred\nyears ago. And you still find Japanese churches founded by the\nPortuguese. Fifty odd years ago it was the English tongue that again\nbrought that message of life to them. But as I mingled among Japanese\nChristians of different communions and heard them pray, they were not\npraying in Portuguese nor in English. They had no thought that He was a\nPortuguese Saviour they prayed to, nor yet an English. _They prayed in\nJapanese_. They felt that Jesus spoke their tongue. He belonged to them.\nHe and they understood each other.\n\nAs I listened to Manchu and Chinese, to Korean and Hawaiian pour out\ntheir hearts in prayer, I could feel the close personal burning touch of\ntheir spirits with Jesus. They and He were kin to each other. Their\nvery voices told the certainty in their hearts on this point.\n\nI recall a little old bent-over woman of seventy-odd years up in\nnorthern Sweden, a Laplander. She had come a long three days' journey on\nher snow-shoes to the meetings. Night after night as I talked through\ninterpretation her deep-set black eyes glowed and glowed. But when one\nnight an hour or more was spent in voluntary prayer she needed no\ninterpreter. And as I listened I needed none. I _felt_ that she _knew_\nthat _Jesus spoke Lappish_. The two were face to-face in closest touch\nof spirit.\n\nAnd so it is everywhere. The flaxen-haired Holland maid kneeling by her\nsingle cot _knows_ that Jesus talks Dutch, and her homely hearthfire\nDutch, too, at that. And the earnest Polish peasant in his Carpathian\ncabin bowed before the symbol his eyes have known from infancy is\ntalking into an ear that knows both Polish accent and Polish heart. So\nwith the German of the Saxon highlands, and of the simpler speech of the\nTeutonic lowlands. So with the olive-skinned Latin and the darker-hued\nAfrican kneeling on opposite sides, north and south, of the great\nCentral-earth Sea. Wherever knowledge of Jesus has been carried, He is\n_recognized_ and claimed _as their own_ regardless of national or social\nlines.\n\nI knew a minister of our Southland, but whose public service took him to\nall parts of our country. He had been reared in the South and knew the\ncoloured people by heart, and loved them. And when he returned to his\nSouthern home town he would frequently preach for the coloured people.\nHe was preaching to them one Sabbath with the simplicity and fervour for\nwhich he was noted.\n\nAt the close among others, one big black man grasped his hand hard as he\nthanked him for the preaching. And then with his great child-eyes big\nand aglow, he said, \"Youse got a white skin, but youse got a black\nheart.\" And you know what he meant,--you have a black man's heart, you\nhave a heart like mine. Your heart makes my heart burn.\n\nNow _Jesus had a Hack heart_. He had a white heart. He had a yellow, a\nbrown heart. He had a Jew heart, a Roman, a Greek, a Samaritan heart.\nAye, He had a _world_ heart, He had _a human heart_. And He _has_.\nThere's a _Man_ on the throne yonder, bone of our bone, heart of our\nheart, pain of our pain.\n\nThere's more of God since Jesus went back. Human experience has been\ntaken up into the heart of God. Jesus belonged to us. And now belongs to\nus more than ever, and we to Him. The human heart has felt His\ntremendous wooing. It has recognized its Kinsman wherever He has been\nable to get to them, and it has gladly yielded to the plea of His love.\n\nJerusalem might carpenter a cross for Him, but the world would weave its\nheartfelt devotion into a crown of love for Him, bestudded with the dewy\ntears of its gratitude, sparkling like diamonds in the light of His\nface.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nCloser Wooing\n\n     _An Evening with Opening Hearts: the Story of a Supper and a Walk\n     in the Moonlight and the Shadows_\n\n\n\n\n    Nigh and nigh draws the chase,\n    With unperturbed pace,\n    Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,\n    And past those noised Feet\n    A Voice comes yet more fleet--\n    \"_Lo, naught contents thee, who content'st not Me._\"\n\n    --\"_The Hound of Heaven._\"\n\n     \"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I\n     leave the world, and go unto the Father.\"--_John xvi. 28_.\n\n    \"I thought His love would weaken\n    As more and more He knew me;\n    But it burneth like a beacon,\n    And its light and heat go through me;\n    And I ever hear Him say,\n    As He goes along His way,\n    Wand'ring souls, O _do_ come near Me;\n    My sheep should never fear Me.\n    I am the Shepherd true.\"\n\n    --_Frederick William Faber._\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nCloser Wooing\n\n(Chapters xiii.-xvii.)\n\n\n\nKnots.\n\n\nThe knot tied on the end of the thread holds the seam. The clinching of\nthe nail on the underside holds all that has been done. Love ties knots\nto hold what has been gotten. The bit of prayer knots up the kindly act.\nThe warm hand-grasp knots the timely word. The added word and act tie up\nall that's gone before. Hate imitates love the best it can. But its\nintense fires are never so hot.\n\nThe rest of John's book is simple. It is tying knots on the ends of\nthreads. Five knots are tied on the ends of these same three threads we\nhave been tracing.\n\nThere's a triple knot on the end of the blue thread of acceptance; an\nugly tangled knotty knot on the end of that black thread of opposition\nand rejection; and a knot of wondrous beauty on the end of that yellow\nthread of winsome wooing. Chapters eighteen and nineteen tie two of\nthese, the black and the glory-coloured.\n\nChapters thirteen through seventeen, is the first knot on the faith\nthread, the betrayal-night knot. Chapter twenty is the second, the\nResurrection knot; chapter twenty-one the extra knot, the love-service\nknot. We take a look now at the patient skilful tying of the first knot\non the end of that true-blue faith thread.\n\nIt's taken a good bit of careful work to _get_ that thread, tearing\nloose, cleansing, spinning, twisting, careful handling, till at last a\ngood thread is gotten, and is being woven into the warp. Now a knot is\ntied on its end to hold what has been gotten, and keep it from ravelling\nout, for there's a desperately hard place coming in the weaving.\n\nThere's a clean finish at the end of the twelfth chapter of John.\nThere's a sharp break, an abrupt turn off to something quite different.\nThe direct-wooing case is made up. There is no more added to it, except\nthe indirect, the incidental. The evidence is all in. Wondrous wooing it\nhas been, in its winsomeness, its faithfulness, its rare power. Now it\nis over. It's done, and well done. That door is shut, the national door.\n\nNow another door opens. The inner door into Jesus' heart is being opened\nby Him. And the inner door into the disciples' heart is being knocked at\nthat it, too, may open. It is the betrayal night. Jesus is alone with\nthe inner circle. They have received Him. Now He will receive them into\ncloser intimacy than yet before. They have opened their hearts to His\nlove. Now He opens His heart to let out more the love that is there.\nLove accepted is free to reveal itself. And love revealing its warmth\nand tenderness and depth yet more calls out quickly a deeper, a tenderer\nlove.\n\nIt's the Passover evening. They have met, the twelve and their Master,\nby appointment, in the home of one of Jesus' faithful unnamed friends.\nIn a large upper room they are shut in, gathered about the supper board.\nAs they eat Jesus is quietly but intently thinking. Four trains of\nthought pass through His mind side by side.[103] The Father had trusted\nall into His hands. He had come down from the Father on an errand and\nwould return when the errand was done.\n\nAnd now the hour was come. The turn in the road was reached, the sharp\nturn down leading to the sharp turn up and then back. It had seemed slow\nin coming, that hour.[104] Dreaded things seem to linger even while they\nhasten, dreaded longed-for things, dreaded in the experience of pain to\nbe borne, eagerly longed for in the blessed result; as with an expectant\nmother. Now the hour's here.[105]\n\nAnd yonder across the board sits the man so faithfully wooed, yet\ndead-set in his inner heart on a dark purpose, more evil in its outcome\nthan he realizes. There must be more and tenderer wooing. He shall have\nyet another full opportunity. And under all is the heart-throb of love\nfor these who are His own, being birthed into a new life by the giving\nof His very own life these months past. He loves His own, and will to\nthe uttermost, the utterest, the mostest, limit of love and of time left\nHim before _the_ great event. These are the thoughts passing quietly,\nclearly, intensely, through Jesus' mind as they sit at supper.\n\n\n\nTeaching Three Things in One Action.\n\n\nNow He acts.[106] Quietly He rises from the table, picks up a towel and\nfastens its end in His waistband for convenience in use, after the\nservant's usual fashion. Then He pours water into a basin and turning\nstoops over the feet of the disciple nearest Him. And before they can\nrecover from their wide-eyed astonishment He begins bathing his feet and\nthen carefully wiping them with the convenient towel. And so around the\ncircle. Peter, of course, protests, and so calls out a little of the\nexplanation. And then with tender passionateness he asks for the washing\nto take in all his extremities, head and hands as well as feet. How\ntheir hearts must have felt the touch upon their feet!\n\nThen follows a bit of explanation.[107] But the chief thing had already\nbeen done. The acting was more than the speech. Three things the Master\nwas doing. The teaching about humility lies on the surface, within easy\nreach. It was acted, then spoken; done, then said. It was sorely needed,\nand is. In it was the key to Jesus' great victory within the twenty-four\nhours following,[108] and would have been for them had they used it.\nHumility is the foundation of all strength and victory. Only the strong\ncan stoop. It takes the strongest to stoop lowest. He who so stoops is\nrevealing strength.\n\nHumility is not thinking meanly of yourself; it is merely getting into\ncorrect personal relation with God, and so with men. It is our true\nnormal attitude, as dependent creatures, as those who have sinned, as\nthose who have been bought with blood. Everything we have is from\nAnother, originally and continuously; we are utterly dependent. All\nrights have been forfeited by our wilful conduct; we retain nothing in\nour own right. And all we have now has been secured for us at the cost\nof blood; we are being carried at enormous expense. Not much room there\nfor self-satisfaction, is there?\n\nHumility is simply _recognizing_ our _utter dependence upon Another_,\nand _living_ it. And this controls our touch with our fellows. In this\nlies the secret of all strength,--mental keenness and vigour,\nsympathetic touch with others, and power of action in life and in\nservice. All this touches the _weakest_ spot in these men, and in--us.\n\nBut there's more here. The humility teaching is out on the surface.\nThere's a bit _under_ the surface, that they would soon be needing and\nneeding badly. It's this: the thing in you that's wrong _must_ be made\nright; and it _can_ be. Every sin done by the man who is trusting Christ\nas his Saviour, every such sin _must_ be cleansed away. And it _can_ be.\nThe feet-washing told this bit of tremendous truth.\n\nThese men trusted Christ. But their moral feet would get badly messed\nthat night, mired and slimed by passionate betrayal and blasphemous\ndenial and cowardly flight. The man going to the bath-house was clean on\nreturning home except where his sandalled feet had gathered some soil\nfrom the road. These men were cleansed in heart through Christ. But the\nfoot-soilings must be cleansed. These two things ring out. Sin _must_ be\nreckoned with and cleansed out. _And_, blessed truth! it _can_ be. This\nis the second bit. It would be brought to their remembrance that same\nnight when the road they took dirtied them up so badly, and afterwards.\n\nBut there's a deeper, a tenderer bit yet here. There is _the love\ntouch_. Jesus was giving them the tenderest touch yet of His love, to\n_hold_ them. The personal touch is the tenderest. Man yearns for the\npersonal touch, of presence, of lips, of hands. Something seems to go\n_through_ the personal touch from heart to heart. The spirit-currents\nfind their connection so. Jesus gave the tender personal touch that\nevening, the closest yet. His hands touched their feet, but He was not\nthinking most about their feet. He was reaching higher up. His hands\nreached past their feet for their hearts.\n\nAnd they felt it so. Their hearts understood, if their heads didn't yet.\nJudas felt those hands reaching to touch his heart. And he had to set\nhimself afresh to resist that touch. John felt it, and _remained\nsteady_. Peter felt it and came back with flooded eyes. The fleeing nine\nfelt that touch and yielded to it as they penitently returned. Love\nwon. That personal touch did it.\n\nBut Jesus feels Judas' heart hardening as He touches his feet, and the\ngentle word already spoken availed not.[109] Now His great heart is\nsorely troubled for Judas.[110] He tries once again to reach his heart\nand stay his wayward feet. He reaches for his feet through his heart\nthis time. They're all together about the table again. Quietly, but with\ntactful indirectness, Jesus lets Judas know that _He_ knows. He says,\n\"One of you is planning to betray Me.\"\n\nThe men stare one at another in questioning astonishment. Peter touches\nJohn's arm and with eye and word quietly asks him to find out. John\nreclining next to Jesus asks the question in undertone. And as quietly\nJesus makes reply. Then the last appeal is made to Judas in the last\ndelicate touch of special personal attention. Judas' unchanged spirit\nmakes wordless answer. The hardening of the purpose is a further opening\nof a downward door and that door is quickly used by the evil one.\n\nAnd Judas rises abruptly with jaw set and eye tense, and goes out into\nthe blackest night the clouds ever shut in. So the first tremendous part\nof the evening's drama is now done. The wooing of Judas has been intense\nand tender clean up to the last moment, _and_ resisted. Now that chapter\nis done. Another corner is passed. The extremes have--parted. One man\nhas gone out. Eleven stay in, and in staying come closer.\n\n\n\nBelieve--Love--Obey.\n\n\nThe atmosphere clears now. That black cloud shifts. The pressure is\nrelieved. The air changes. Breathing is easier. Jesus did His best to\nkeep Judas in by trying to have him turn something--some one--out. But\nthe something that held the some one is kept within, so the man goes\nout. That inside air was getting a bit thick for Judas. Love's tender\npleading unyielded to makes breathing difficult.\n\nAgain Jesus begins talking in the cleared air. The hour had full come.\nThe character of the Son of Man would now be revealed,[111] and in being\nrevealed God's character would also be understood, and God Himself would\nshow what _He_ thought of Jesus by His personal recognition and\nacknowledgment of Him, and He would do it at once. The clock is striking\nthe hour. Now He was going away. They would not understand.[112]\n\nThen Jesus strikes the great key-note of their future conduct as He\ngoes on. _The_ thing is this: _love one another_. This is the badge He\ngives them to wear. It will always identify them as His very own. Peter\npicks up the one bit he understands, and is told that he cannot yet\nfollow in the tremendous experience lying just ahead for Jesus, but some\nday he can, and will. And then to Peter's blundering self-confidence\ncomes a plain tender reminder of his weakness.[113] So that wondrous\nfourteenth chapter that Christendom loves begins back in the thirteenth.\n\nAnd Jesus goes quietly on as they still linger about the table.[114] He\nhad been sorely troubled,[115] but He would have them not troubled by\ntheir doubtings regarding Himself. It is true that they were outcasts\nwith Him, from their national home, but He would provide them a home,\nand a better one. They did believe in God. They should believe Him just\nas implicitly. This is the warp into which is woven the whole fabric of\nthat evening's talk. The whole talk is a plea for their trusting loving\nacceptance of Himself as fully as of God. This word \"_believe_\" changes\nits outer shape three times during that evening, making four words in\nall, but it's always the same thing underneath.\n\nSo now the teaching goes on in freest exchange of question and answer.\nWhat a picture of how we may talk everything out with our Lord and get\nfully answered. Thomas' question helps Jesus to turn them away from\nthinking of a roadway of clay and sand to a Man. Philip's helps Him to\ninsist on the presence of the Father in a distinctive sense within this\nMan so familiarly talking with them. And then four times over He rings\nout that word _believe_.\n\nThen by a subtle turn He changes the word, though not the thing, to help\nthem understand better: \"If ye _love_ Me.\"[116] That puts the thing at\nonce up on the _heart_ level. Believing is a thing of the heart. Their\nheads were bothered. He said in effect,--all your head questions will be\nanswered in good time, but this thing is higher up than that. It's a\nmatter of your heart. And so that word _believe_ becomes _love_, its\nsecond shape. And with that is quickly coupled _obey_, the third outer\nshape He gives the word believe that night.\n\nIt is all the same thing underneath. _Love_ is the heart side of\n_believe_, the inner side. _Obey_ is the life-side of believe, the\nouter, the action side. The love looks out the window of the life and\nthen _comes_ out and _walks_ down the street on an errand. Love doesn't\nsimply love: it loves _some one_. Love that simply loves isn't love.\nLove comes to life only in the personal touch.\n\nAnd love keeps in perfect rhythm of action with the one loved. That is\nthe other way of saying _obey_. Obedience is the music of two wills\nacting together. _Believe_ me, _love_ me, _obey_ me,--this is the\nthree-noted music of the upper room; three notes but one music; a fourth\nnote to be added later. This is the wondrous closer wooing.\n\n\"I go to the Father. We, the Father and I, will send the Holy Spirit to\nyou. He will come in through this opened door of obedience. He will\nabide in you, come in to stay. He will be everything and do everything\nthat you need in every sort of circumstance. Keep in closest touch with\nHim: this is to be your one rule. Your part is simple. _Believe_; that\nmeans _love_; that means _obey_.\"\n\nSo they talk around the table. Then there's thoughtful silence, which\nthe Master breaks by saying, \"Arise, let us go.\"\n\n\n\nThe Great Vine Picture.\n\n\nNow they're walking down the street, silently, the Master in the lead,\nwith John and Peter close by.[117] The moon is at the full. Now they see\nthe temple, the moonlight falling full upon it. And the great brass\ngrape-vine with which it had been beautified by Herod at his building of\nit shines with wondrous beauty in the enchantment of moonlight.\n\nAnd now the Master is speaking again. Very quietly the words come as\nthey still gaze at the beauty of the brass vine. Listen to Him, \"I am\nthe _true_ vine, and My Father the vine-gardener.\" Here is the\nillustration that exactly pictures what He had been saying in the upper\nroom. It supplies the fourth word, the fourth outer shape that word\n_believe_ takes on, _believe_, that is--_love_, that is--_obey_, that\nis--_abide_.\n\nLook at the vine, then you have the whole story pictured, simple,\nclear, full. Each of these four words grows out of the other as fruit\nout of blossom, and blossom out of the new branch and that out of the\nold stock of the vine: believe, love, obey, abide; vine, new branches,\ntiny blossom, fruit. The fruit grows out of the vine; yet it is the very\nlife of the vine. _Abide_ grows out of _believe_, yet it is the very\nheart and inner life of believe.\n\nSo He goes on ringing the changes back and forth, now here, now there.\n_Pruning_--that insures fruit, and more and better. _Praying_--that _is_\nthe fruit, some of it; that naturally grows out of the abiding. \"_My\nwords_\"--that is part of the abiding, the life-juice of the vine coming\ninto branch and blossom and fruit. \"Joy\"--that is the rich red juice of\nthe grape in your mouth. \"_Friends_\"--that is the other word for abide.\nThat's what abiding makes and reveals. _Abiding_--that is what friends\ndo: that's what friendship is, the real thing. _Obey_--that is the swing\nof step with our great Friend as we go along the road together. So these\nclusters of rich ripe fruit hang thick on the vine of this simple\nteaching-talk as they walk along in the moonlight.\n\nAnd now they're passing through some of the narrower streets as they\nmake their way east towards the city gate.[118] And these narrow streets\nare shadowed. And you feel the shadows creeping into His talk. The world\nwill _hate_ them. Of course. This is a natural result of the abiding.\nThe outer crowd can no more put up with the Jesus-swayed man than with\nJesus Himself. And the hate would be aggressive.\n\nBut if they would clearly understand ahead what to expect it would help\nthem keep their feet when the worst storm came. And by staying steady\nand true through the worst that came, they would be of the greatest\nservice. The Holy Spirit in them would reach out and talk to that outer\ncrowd. He would make clear to them their awful sin in killing Jesus, the\nspotless purity and rightness of the absent Jesus, and the terrific fact\nthat the prince of the world whom they rally to so faithfully is\nactually judged, doomed and damned. Then He adds, \"now in a little bit\nI'll be gone from you. Then a little later, I'll be with you again.\"\n\nSo He goes on ringing the changes back and forth on this in simple\nconversational style. And now they are silent. The narrow street is\nquite shadowed. He lets them think a bit over His words. And the\npersonal part takes hold most. And they talk softly together of what\nthis means,--a little while and He is gone; again a little while, and He\nis back. They're plainly puzzled, yet restrained from breaking in upon\nHis deep mood.\n\nBut with characteristic gentleness He speaks of what they would\nask.[119] Clearly there is some terrible experience for Him and for them\njust at hand. But He reaches past to the joy beyond, as the mother\nforgets sharp pains in the joy of her new-born babe. And as He talks\nthey think they understand now, but again He gently reminds of the storm\nabout to break. And then He leaves them three wondrous words,--_peace,\ngood-cheer, overcome_. In the midst of the worst storm there may be\npeace. In the thickest of tribulation the song of cheer may ring out. He\n_has_ overcome. The outcome is settled. No doubts need nag. Sing! Sing\nlouder! _Christ is Victor_!\n\nThis is the second bit of the evening's closer wooing, this long quiet\ntalk about the supper table and along the road. It is wooing them up to\nmore intelligence in their believing and loving. It's wooing them to\ntrust _Him_, hold hard to _Him_, during the coming storm, when they\nwouldn't understand. Even when they can't understand, but stand in\nhopeless helpless bewilderment, they still can trust _Him_.\n\n\n\nTaken into the Innermost Life.\n\n\nThey're outside the city-gate now, going down the path towards the\nKidron Brook. Now comes the third bit of that evening's closer\nwooing.[120] And this is the tenderest, the most personal, the least\nresistible bit, the closest wooing of all. He takes them into His\ninnermost heart-life for a brief moment. It must have reminded John\nafterwards of that mountain-top experience when Jesus drew aside the\ndrapery of His humanity and let a little of the inner glory shine out.\nHere He takes them with Him into the holy of holies of His own inner\nlife with His Father.\n\nLet not any one think that Jesus was simply letting them hear Him pray,\nso they might learn. Not that; not that. He was taking them into the\nsacred privacy of His own innermost life. That was a bit of the wooing,\nunder the desperate happenings just ahead. But now as He takes them in\nHe quite forgets them, though He knows they are there. _He is absorbed\nwith the Father_. He isn't thinking now of the effect of all this on\nthem. That's past. He is alone in spirit with the Father, talking out\nfreely even as though actually quite alone.\n\nWe are in the innermost holy of holies here. The heart of the world's\nlife is its literature. The heart of all literature is this sacred Book\nof God. The heart of this Book is the Gospels. The heart of these four\nGospels is John's. The heart of John's is this exquisite bit, chapters\nthirteen to seventeen. And there's yet an inner heart here. It is this\nbit, the seventeenth chapter, where the inner side of Jesus' prayer-life\nlies open to us. And we shall find an innermost heart yet again here.\n\nThe simplicity of speech here catches the ear. The holy intimacy of\ncontact with God hushes the spirit. The certainty of the Father's\npresence awes the heart greatly. The unquestioning confidence in the\noutcome is to one's faith like a glass of kingdom wine fresh from the\nKing's own hand. The tenseness and yet exquisite quietness holds one's\nbeing still with a great stillness. Both shoes and hat go off\ninstinctively and we stand with head bowed low and heart hushed for this\nis holiest ground.\n\nOf course, no paraphrase of this prayer can possibly approach its own\nbeauty and simplicity. But it may perhaps send one back to the prayer\nitself to see better what is there.\n\nThey're out in the open, down near the Kidron. Jesus stops and looks up\ntowards the blue, the Father's open door, and quietly talks out of His\nheart into His Father's heart, \"Father: the hour is come\"; talked of\nlong before this errand was started upon, brooded over these human\nyears, felt in His inner being as it ticked itself nearer in the\ntremendous passing events. Now it is come. The clock is striking the\nhour, striking on earth and echoed distinctly in the Father's ear.\n\n\"Father: reveal now the true character of the Son; yet only that the Son\nmay reveal Thy true character.[121] Thou hast already done so in the\ncontrol Thou hast given Him over all men, that so He may give to them\nthe eternal life. And this is the real life to come into intimate touch\nof heart and life with Thee and with Thine anointed One, Jesus.\"\n\n\"I have already revealed Thy character in doing fully the errand Thou\ndidst send Me on. (And it _was_ fully done in all the active part,\nthough the greatest thing yet remained to be done in the tremendous\nyielding, the strong passive yielding to Hate's worst that so Love's\ntruest and best might be clearly seen by men.) And now I am coming back\nto be recognized and acknowledged and received by Thine own self even as\nit was before I came away on this errand.\"\n\nThus far He has been alone with the Father face-to-face; just the two\ntogether in closest communion. Now the prayer moves on from communion\nand petition to intercession. He is thinking of others, of these men who\nare grouped near by. He has prayed for them before. He is simply picking\nup the thread of the accustomed prayer He had prayed, and would still\npray when He had gone from them up through the doorway of the blue.\n\nHe has revealed the Father to them, and they have understood and\nbelieved and have followed. Now He _prays for them_, that they may be\n_kept_; not taken out of the world; kept in it, giving their witness to\nit, yet never of its spirit, always controlled by another Spirit. They\nwere being sent into the world for witness even as He had been.\n\nAnd a great word breaks out like the bursting of a flood of sunlight out\nof dark clouds,--_joy_. He had used it that evening before in the upper\nroom, and again along the road. Now it flashes out again. This reveals\nthe meaning of that _good-cheer_ and _overcome_ with which the roadway\ntalk closed. With the clouds of hate at their blackest, and the storm\njust about to break in uncontrolled wild fury, He speaks of \"My _joy_.\"\nHe is _singing_. In the thick of hatred and plotting here's the bit of\nmusic, in the major key, rippling out. Such a spirit cannot be defeated.\nJoy is faith singing in the storm because it sees already the clearing\nlight beyond.\n\nAnd so He prays on, touching the same keys of the musical instrument of\nHis heart, back and forth, yet ever advancing in the theme. Now He\nbroadens out, in clear vision, beyond the gathering storm, to those,\nthrough all the earth, and down the centuries, who would believe through\nthese men who are listening. What a sweep of faith. That singing cleared\nHis vision.\n\nAnd then He sees them all, of many races and languages and radical\ndifferences, all blended into one body of earnest loving believers drawn\nby the one vision of Himself back in the glory of the Father's presence,\nwhere they will all gather. And then love ties the knot on the end. A\npersonal love ties together Father and Son and--us, who humbly give the\nglad homage of our hearts.\n\nRight in the very midst of the prayer lies that innermost heart of which\nI spoke a moment ago. It is in verse ten. Jesus says, \"_All things that\nare Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine_.\" There lies the very inner\nheart of all carried to the last degree. _There_ is glad giving and full\ntaking; surrender and appropriation. He who gives all may reach in and\ntake all. Here is, humanly, the secret of Jesus' stupendous character\nand career.\n\nAnd it is the same for the humblest of us. The road is no different. We\n_may_ say, by His great grace, in the insistence of our sovereign wills,\n\"All that is mine is Thine: I give it Thee. I give it back to Thee: I\nuse all the strength of my will in yielding all to Thee, and in doing\nit habitually.\"\n\nThen we _can_ say, with greatest reverence and humility and yet bold\nconfidence, \"All that is Thine _is mine._\" Yet being mine it is Thine.\nStill being Thine it is mine. So comes the perfection of the rhythmic\naction of love. Our love gives our all to _Him_. And then _takes_ the\ngreater all of His--no, not _from_ Him, _for_ Him, held in trust, used\n_for_ Him, while we keep knees and face close to the ground, lest we\nstumble and slip and worse.\n\nSo the prayer closes. And if we might go back over it, alone in secret,\nprayerfully, quietly thinking thoughtfully into it, until this great\nsimple prayer gets its hold upon our hearts. And then gradually it would\ncome to us that _so_ He is now praying for us, _you and me_.\n\nWhat must it have meant to these men to stand there quietly, awed as\nthey listen to Him praying that prayer. How it reveals the deep\nconsciousness of the intimacy of relation between Father and Son. How it\nmust have touched and stirred them to the very depths to hear Jesus\ntelling the Father so simply about _their_ faith in Himself, and _their_\nobedience, their break with their national allegiance to follow Himself.\nAnd that word _joy_--did they wonder about it? And wonder more later\nthat night, and the days after? But the key-note of the music _caught_,\nand soon they were singing the same tune, and in the same pitch.\n\nWhat wooing! This was the closest wooing. The fine wooing of this\nmatchless Lover came to its superlative degree that night. Positive\ndegree, that touch upon their feet; comparative, that talk about the\nboard and along the road; superlative, this taking them in for a brief\nmoment into the secrecy of His inner communion with the Father.\n\n\n\nSimplified Spelling.\n\n\nAnd this closer wooing is not over. It hasn't quit yet. That vine is\nstill hanging out in fine view, all softly ablaze with the clear\nbeautifying light, not of a fine Passover moon; no, the light of His\n_face_, His _life_, His _words_. That vine becomes for all time to every\nheart the pictured meaning of _abide_. And that word _abide_ gives the\nwhole of the true life.\n\nWe say _Christian_ life, and rightly. I like to say also, the true, the\nnatural, life. Any other is abnormal, unnatural, untrue. I might say,\n\"of the higher Christian life,\" following the common usage of these\nlatter days. I still prefer to say _true_ life. Higher means that there\nis a lower life. And that this lower is reckoned Christian, too. That is\nthe bother, the cheapening of things; we _call_ a thing Christian which\nis less than the thing it is called.\n\nSome of us need to go to school, and to sit down in the lower classes\nwhere spelling is taught. We can spell _believe_ in the common way with\nseven letters. We must learn to spell it with four letters--l-o-v-e. We\nneed to learn to spell _love_ with a _b_ and a _y_--o-b-e-y. We need to\nlearn to spell obey with five letters a-b-i-d-e. We need to find that\n_abide_ is spelled best with four letters o-b-e-y.\n\nWe need to learn this simplified spelling a bit, then _all_ will become\nsimplified, living, loving, witnessing, praying, winning, singing with\njoy over the results of our new spelling in the syllables of daily life.\nBlessed Master, we would come to school to Thee to-day. Please let us\nstart down in the spelling class. And teach us, Thou Thyself teach us.\n\nBut the vine--let us make that the central picture on the wall, with the\nMaster in the picture pointing to the vine. And under the picture the\none word _abide_. Then the whole story is in easy shape to help,\npictured before our eyes. Abide--that is _Jesus walking around in your\nshoes_, looking out through your eyes, touching in your hand, speaking\nthrough your lips and your presence. He is _free_ to; that's _your_ side\nof it. He's unhindered. He _does_ it; that's _His_ side of it.\n\nLook up at the picture on the wall. The whole vine is in the fruit, is\nit not? The whole of the fruit is in the vine, is it not? That's\nabiding. The whole of Jesus will be in you as you go about your daily\ncommon task, singing. The whole of you is in Jesus as everything simple\nand great, is done _to please Him_, singing as you do it.\n\nAnd just as between vine and fruit there are branch and blossom, pruning\nand careful handling, sun and shade, dew and rain, so there are\n_betweens_ here before full ripening of fruit comes. There's purifying,\ncleansing by blood, cleansing by a soft fire burning within, and\npruning by the Gardener and by His human assistant, you, sharp,\nincisive, hurting pruning.\n\nThere's _feeding_,--the juice of the vine _flows_ in, and is _taken_ in;\nthe divine word of the divine Master is meditated, the cud of it is\nchewed daily. There's _obedience_,--perfect rhythm of action between\nvine and branches. There's _prayer_, the intercourse of our spirits, His\nand ours, together, the drawing from Him all we need, and the letting\nHim use us in His interceding for His world. These are some of the\n_betweens_. Through these comes the ripening fruit.\n\nAnd the outer crowd comes eagerly for the fruit hanging over the fence\nwithin easy reach. There's a warm sympathy with one's fellows; only the\nthing's more than the words sound. The Jesus-spirit within will be felt\nby those outside, something warm and gentle and helpful. There will be\nthings done, many things, earnestly thoughtfully done. The proper word\nis service. But the thing's so much more than the word ever seems to\nmean.\n\nAnd there'll be yet more, a more of a surprising sort. The classical fox\ncalled the grapes sour because he _couldn't_ reach them. There'll be\nsome outside sour talk because some of the crowd _won't_ reach the\nfruit. It wouldn't agree with them the way they insist on living. The\nJesus-life abiding within and flowing freely out is a protest against\nthe opposite. The mere presence of a _Christ-abiding_ man convicts\npeople of the sin of their lives and their treatment of Jesus. It\nconvinces them that the absent Jesus is right, and so they are wrong.\nSo there's trouble out in the crowd just because of the ripe good fruit\nhanging in plain sight and easy reach over the vineyard fence. And that\ndouble result goes on getting more so, some coming to the vine drawn by\nthe fruit, some talking against fruit and vine. But the man abiding is\nof good cheer. He sings. For the outcome is assured.\n\nSo every grape-vine, in garden, by roadway, or on hillside, with its\nvine-stock, branches, blossom, and fruit, tells of the Father's ideal\nfor men, a unity of life with Himself, and with each other. And every\nbunch of grapes hanging on one stem, with its many in one, tells of that\nsame ideal, the concord of love with the Father and with each other.\n\nAnd that unity of love dominating all is irresistible to the outer\ncrowd, in the winsomeness of its wooing.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nThe Greatest Wooing\n\n     _A Night and a Day With Hardening Hearts: the Story of Tender\n     Passion and of a Terrible Tragedy_\n\n\n\n\n    \"Now of that long pursuit\n    Comes on at hand the bruit;\n    That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:\n    'And is thy earth so marred,\n    Shattered in shard on shard?\n    _Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me_!\n    Strange, piteous, futile, thing!\n\n    Wherefore should any set thee love apart?\n    Seeing none but I makes much of naught' (He said)\n    'And human love needs human meriting:\n    How hast thou merited--\n    Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?\n    Alack, thou knowest not\n    How little worthy of any love thou art!\n    Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,\n    Save Me, save only Me?\n    All which I took from thee I did but take,\n    Not for thy harms,\n    But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.\n    All which thy child's mistake\n    Fancied as lost, I have stored for thee at home:\n    Rise, clasp My hand, and Come.'\"\n\n    --\"_The Hound of Heaven_\n\n     \"I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto\n     me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving kindness, and in\n     mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness.\"--_Hosea\n     ii. 19, 20._\n\n    \"Jesus, Lover of my soul,\n    Let me to Thy bosom fly,\n    While the nearer waters roll.\n    While the tempest still is high.\n    Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,\n    'Til the storm of life is past;\n    Safe into the haven guide,\n    O receive my soul at last.\"\n\n    --_Charles Wesley_.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nThe Greatest Wooing\n\n(John xviii.-xix.)\n\n\n\nWider Wooing.\n\n\nAt the top of the mountain is the peak. The peak is the range at its\nhighest reach. The peak grows out of the range and rests upon it and\nupon the earth under all. The whole of the long mountain range and of\nthe earth lies under the peak. The peak tells the story of the whole\nrange. At the last the highest and utmost. All the rest is for this\ncapstone.\n\nThe great thing in Jesus' life is His death. The death crowns the life.\nThe whole of the life lies under and comes to its full in the death. The\nhighest point is touched when death is allowed to lay Him lowest. It was\nthe life that died that gives the distinctive meaning to the death. Let\nus take off hat and shoes as we come to this peak event.\n\nThere's a change in John's story here. The evening has gone, the quiet\nevening of communion. The night has set in, the dark night of hate. The\nintimacies of love give place to the intrigues of hate. The joy of\ncommunion is quickly followed by the jostling of the crowd. Out of the\nsecret place of prayer into the hurly-burly of passion. And the\nMaster's rarely sensitive spirit feels the change. Yet with quiet\nresolution He steps out to face it. This is part of _the hour_, part of\nHis great task, the greatest part.\n\nFor the holy task of wooing is not changed. It still is wooing, but\nthere's a difference now. There's a shifting. The wooing goes from\ncloser to wider, from the disciples to the outer crowd, from the direct\nwooing of the national leaders by personal plea to the indirect by\naction, tremendously personal action.\n\nIt moves out into a yet wider sweep. It goes from the wooing of a nation\nto the wooing of a race, from Jew distinctively to Roman\nrepresentatively, from Annas standing in God's flood light rejected to\nPilate in nature's lesser light obscured, from God's truant messenger\nnation to the world's mighty ruling nation.\n\nIn the epochal event just at hand Jesus begins His great wooing of a\nrace. And that wooing has gone on ever since, wherever He has been able\nto get through the human channels to the crowd. He was lifted up and at\nonce men began coming a-running broken in heart by the sight. He is\nbeing lifted up, and men of all the race are coming as fast as the slow\nnews gets to them.\n\nBut back now to John's story. They pick their way over the stones of the\nlittle Kidron into the garden of the olives. There, quite alone in the\ndeep shadows of the inner trees, Jesus has His great spirit-conflict,\nand great victory. The touch with sin so close, so real, now upon Him\nwithin a few hours, the sin of others upon His sinless soul,--this\nshakes Him terrifically beyond our understanding, who don't know purity\nas He did. But the tremendous strength of yielding brings victory, as\never. And the battle of the morrow is fought in spirit, and won.\n\nNow the trailers of hate come seeking with torch and lantern, soldiers\nand officers, chief priests and rulers, the ever present rabble, and in\nthe lead the shameless traitor. They are pushing their quest now,\nseeking Jesus in the hiding whence He had gone days before[122] led by\nthe man who knew His accustomed haunts.\n\nBut there's no need for seeking now. Jesus is full ready. He decides the\naction that follows. He is masterful even in His purposeful yielding.\nQuietly He walks out from the cover of the trees to meet them. And as\ntheir torches turn full upon His advancing figure again that marvellous\npower not only of restraint but decidedly more is felt by them. And the\nwhole company, traitor, soldiers, rulers, rabble, overpowered in spirit,\nfall back and then drop to the ground utterly overawed and cowed by the\nlone man they are seeking.\n\nDoes Judas expect this? Will this power they are unable to resist not\nopen the eyes of these rulers! But there's no stupidity equal to that\nwhich goes with stubbornness. In a moment Jesus reveals His purpose in\nthis, to shield His disciples. Now the power of restraint is withdrawn\nand He yields to their desires. They shall have fullest sway in using\ntheir freedom of action as they will. And Peter's foolish attempts are\nquietly overruled.\n\nThey keep up the forms by taking Jesus to Annas the real Jewish ruler of\nthe nation. But it is simply an opportunity for the coarseness of their\nhate to vent itself upon His person. They pretend an examination here in\nthe night's darkness suited to their deeds. He quietly reminds them of\nthe frank openness of all His teachings.\n\nMeanwhile John's friendly act has gotten Peter entrance. The attitude of\nthe two men is in sharpest contrast. John is avowedly Jesus' friend,\nregardless of personal danger. Peter just the reverse. And the hate of\nthe leaders has soaked into all their surroundings even down to the\nhousemaids. And John notes how exactly Jesus foreknew all, even to a\nthrice-spoken denial before the second crowing of a cock.\n\nNow comes the great Pilate phase. It was the intense malignity of their\nhate that made them bother with Pilate. They could easily have killed\nJesus and Pilate would never have concerned himself about it. But they\ncouldn't have put Him to such exquisite suffering and such shameful\nindignity before the crowds as by the Roman form of death by\ncrucifixion.\n\nClearly there is a hate at work _behind_ theirs. Their hate is\ndistinctly _inhuman_. Is _all_ hate? There's an unseen personal power in\naction here set on spilling out the utmost that malignant hate can upon\nthe person of Jesus. But these men are cheerful tools. Hate is tying its\nhardest knot with ugliest black thread on the end of its opportunity.\n\nThis is Pilate's opportunity and he seems to sense it. And a struggle\nbegins between conscience and cowardice, between right action with an\nugly fight for it, and yielding to wrong with an easy time of it.\nClearly he feels the purity and the personal power of this unusual\nprisoner. The motive of envy and hate under their action is as plain to\nhis trained eyes.\n\nTwice the two men, Pilate and Jesus, are alone together. Did ever man\nhave such an opportunity, personally, and historically? With rare touch\nand winsomeness Jesus woos. And Pilate feels it to the marrow under all\nhis rough speech. His repeated attempts with the leaders make that\nclear. But cowardice gripped him hard. It's a way cowardice has.\n\nThe name of Caesar conjures up fears,--loss of position, of wealth, of\nreputation, maybe of life itself. He surrenders. Conscience is slain on\nthe judgment seat. Cowardice laughs and wins. A sharp fling brings a cry\nof allegiance to Caesar from their reluctant throats, as their hatred\nwins the day. He strikes them back an ugly blow as He surrenders. That\nreluctant Caesar cry told out the intensity of their hate. They hated\nCaesar much, but they hated Jesus immeasurably more. They gulp down\nCaesar to be able to vent their spleen upon Jesus.\n\nAnd so they crucified Him. At last they succeed. They have gotten what\nthey were bent on. The hate burning within, these months and years,\nfinds its full vent. Its hateful worst is done, and horribly well done.\nAnd they stand about the cross with unconcealed gloating in pose and\nface and speech and eyes. Their part of the story is done.\n\n\n\nMasterful Dying.\n\n\nBut Jesus' part--ah! that was just begun. John lays emphasis on the\nmastery of Jesus here. It is marked, and reveals to John's faithful\nlove-opened eyes the dominating purpose of Jesus in yielding to death.\nStrong, thoughtful, self-controlled, anticipating every move, He was\nusing all the strength of His great strong will in yielding. He was\ndoing it masterfully, intelligently.\n\nThis is marked throughout. At the arrest He walks frankly out to meet\nthose seeking Him, and restrains them in that strangely powerful way\ntill He was quite ready. He makes the personal plea to Pilate for\n_Pilate's_ sake, impressing him so greatly, but interposing nothing to\nchange the purpose of His accusers. When Pilate's final decision is\ngiven John notes that Jesus \"went out _bearing the cross for Himself,_\"\nthough provision had been made for this.[123] His influence upon Pilate\nis seen in the accuracy of the kingly inscription that hangs over the\ncross. In the midst of the excruciating bodily pain He thinks of His\nmother, and with marvellous self-control speaks the quiet word to her\nand to John that insures her future under his filial care.\n\nAnd then John significantly adds, \"_Jesus, knowing that all things are\nnow finished._\"[124] With masterly forethought, and self-control and\ndeliberation He had done the thing He had set Himself to do. Never was\nyielding so masterful. Never was a great plan carried out so fully\nthrough the set purpose of one's enemies. His every action bears out the\nword He had spoken, \"No man taketh My life away from Me, I lay it down\nof Myself.\"[125]\n\nSo now His great work is done, and thoroughly done. His lips speak the\ntremendous word, \"It is finished.\" And He bowed His head and _gave up_\nHis spirit. It was His own act. The self-restraint was strong upon Him\ntill all was done that was needed for the great purpose in hand. Then\nHis head is bowed, His great heart broke under the terrific strain on\nHis spirit as He allowed His life to go out.\n\nFrom that moment no indignity touches His body. The Jews with their\nwearisome insistence on empty technicalities would have added further\nindignity to crucifixion. But that body is sacredly guarded from their\nprofane hand by unseen restraint. John with solemn simplicity points to\nthe unmistakable physical evidence, in the separation of blood and\nwater, that Jesus had actually died; no swooning, but death. And\nreverently he finds the confirmation of Scripture.\n\nOnly tender love touches that body now. Two gentlemen of highest\nofficial and social standing and of large wealth, brothers in their\nfaith in Jesus, and also in their timidity, now take steps at once to\nhave the precious body of their dear friend tenderly cared for without\nregard to expense. So He is laid away in a new tomb in a garden among\nthe flowers of the spring time. The last touch is one of tender love. So\nHis greatest wooing was done, and begun; the great act done, its\ntremendous wooing influence only just begun.\n\nJesus died deliberately. This is quite clear. It was done of love\naforethought. It was His own act fitted into the circumstances\nsurrounding Him. This makes His death mean just what He meant it to\nmean. Run back through His teachings rather carefully and that meaning\nstands clearly out.\n\nHe was the Father's messenger; simply this; but all of this. The ideals\nof right so insistently and incessantly held up and pressed were the\nFather's ideals. His mere presence told the Father's great love for men.\nThey two were so knit that when the one suffered the other suffered,\ntoo.\n\nIt was the love for men in His own heart that drew Him down here and\ndrove Him along even to the Calvary Hill. He died _for_ men, in their\nplace, on their behalf. This was His one thought. Through this their\nbondage to sin and to Satan would be broken and they would be set\nfree.[126] And they would be drawn, their hearts would be utterly melted\nand broken by His love for them.[127] The influence would reach out\nuntil all the race would feel its power and respond; and it would reach\ninto each one's life who came till the life he lived was of the\nabundant, eternal sort.\n\nThe devil was a real personality to Jesus. This whole terrific struggle\nending at the cross was a direct spirit-battle with that great spirit\nprince. So Jesus understood it. All the bitter enmity to Himself traces\nstraight back to that source. That enmity found its worst expression in\nJesus' death. The pitched spirit-battle was there. But that prince was\njudged, condemned, utterly defeated and cast out in that battle, and his\nhold upon men broken.[128]\n\nAnd so this was the greatest wooing of all. It was greatest in its\nintensity of meaning _to the Father_ looking eagerly down. It revealed\nHis unbending, unflinching ideals of right, and the great strength and\ntenderness of His love for men. He would even give His Son. It was\ngreatest in its intensity of meaning _to the Son_. It meant the utmost\nof suffering ever endured, the utmost of love underneath ever revealed;\nand it would mean the race-wide sweep of His gracious power.\n\nIt was greatest in its intensity of meaning _to Satan_, the hater of God\nand man. It told his utter defeat, and loss of power over man. So it\nbroke our bonds and made us free to yield to the wooing. And it was\ngreatest in its intensity of meaning _to us men_. For it showed to our\nconfused eyes the one ideal of right standing out clear and full. It\nset us free from the fetters of our bondage, gave us the tremendous\nincentive of love to reach up to the ideal of right, and more, immensely\nmore, gave us _power to reach it_.\n\nIt was the greatest wooing _in the out-reach_ of its influence, for all\nmen of all the earth would be touched.[129] And it was greatest _in the\nin-reach_ to all the life of each one who came under its blessed\ninfluence. The whole ministry taught this. It would mean newness of life\nin body, in mind, in social nature, in spirit, and in the eternal\nquality of life lived here, and to be lived without any ending.\n\nAnd all the world has responded to this greatest wooing as they have\ncome to know of it. That three-languaged inscription on the cross was a\nworld appeal and a world prophecy. In Hebrew the religious language of\nthe world whose literature told of the one true God, in Latin the\nlanguage of the masters of the world, in Greek the language of the\nculture of the world, that message went out to all the world. This Jesus\nis our Kinsman-King, our Brother-Ruler, our Love-Autocrat. He revealed\nHis love for us in His death for us.\n\nAnd men answer to Jesus' great plea. With flooded eyes and broken\nhearts, and bending wills, and changed lives, men of all the race bow\ngratefully at the feet of Jesus, our Saviour and Lord and coming King.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nAn Appointed Tryst Unexpectedly Kept\n\n     _A Day of Startling Joyous Surprises_\n\n\n\n\n    \"Halts by me that footfall:\n    Is my gloom, after all,\n    Shade of His hand outstretched caressingly?\n    'Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,\n    I am He whom thou seekest!\n    _Thou drawest love from thee, who drawest Me._'\"\n\n    --\"_The Hound of Heaven._\n\n     \"After I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee.\"--_Mark\n     xiv. 28._\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nAn Appointed Tryst Unexpectedly Kept\n\n(John xx.)\n\n\n\nThe Appointment.\n\n\nJesus had made an appointment. It was with these dear friends who had\nresponded so lovingly to His wooing. It was a significant appointment,\nmost significant. He had appointed to meet them three days after His\ndeath. He had made a further appointment to meet them in Galilee. What a\nstupendous appointment to make!\n\nIt was a sacred appointment, sacred as the love that made it, sacred to\nJesus as the friendship of these men with whom it was made, sacred as\nHis word that never was broken. Our Scottish friends use a most\nsignificant word for appointment, the word _tryst_. They used to use it\nsome for ordinary appointments, but chiefly it is used for friendship\nand for love-appointments. The appointment is a tryst.\n\nTryst is the same word as _trust_. In the old Gothic language it was one\nof the words used for a covenant or treaty. In medieval Latin it was a\npledge given that an agreement would be kept. It is a fine turn of a\nword that uses the very spirit of confidence in one's heart in another\nas the name for the appointment made with him. The trust in the heart\ngives the name to the appointment. It's an appointment with one who\n_can_ be trusted to keep his word, and who _is_ trusted.\n\nSo an appointed tryst becomes more than a mere appointment. It is a\npledge of faith. Now this is the real force of the word here. Jesus had\nappointed a tryst with these men, and in making it He was plighting His\ntroth, pledging His word to them. He had asked them to risk all for Him.\nIn this tryst He is pledging all to them.\n\nHe never forgot that sacred appointment. He had thought much before He\nmade it. He knew it would involve much to keep it. The power of God was\nat stake in the making and the keeping of it. He knew that. He thought\nof it. He made the appointment and He kept it. Jesus keeps His\nappointments. His word never fails. Not even the gates of death, nor the\npower of the evil one, can prevail against it.\n\nThis was a staggering appointment. It took so much for granted. It\nreckons God's power is as big as it is. But then that's a way Jesus had,\nand has. And it is a way he will come to have who companions much with\nJesus.\n\nJesus had spoken of this indirectly but distinctly when first He told\nHis disciples of His suffering and death, six months before. And each\ntime afterwards when He told them of His death the words were always\nadded, \"and the third day rise again.\"[130] I The two things are nearly\nalways linked. But they hadn't seemed to sense what He meant. The thing\nseems quite beyond them.\n\nHe spoke of it again on that never-to-be-forgotten night of the\nbetrayal, the night of the feet-washing, and that last long talk, and\nthat wondrous Kidron-prayer. He spoke of it more than once that night.\n\nIt was a very emphatic word He spoke as they were walking along the\ndarkly shadowed Jerusalem streets out towards the east gate. He said, \"a\nlittle while and ye shall behold Me no more; and again a little while\nand ye shall see Me.\"[131] And the disciples pick this up and puzzle\nover it.\n\nAnd the Master explains rather carefully and at some length. There was a\ntime of sore trouble coming for Him and for them. And while they were\nsorrowing the outer crowd would be making merry. But it would be just as\nwith the expectant mother, He said. All the while even when the pains\ncut she is thinking of the great delight that is to be hers. Her\nafter-joy clean wipes out of her thought the sharp cutting of the pain.\n\nSo it would be. \"_I will see you again_,\" He said in plainest speech.\nAnd again that same night He said, \"after I am raised up, _I will go\nbefore you into Galilee_.\" Could any appointment be more explicit as to\ntime and place?\n\nBut they forget. Aye, there's the bother, this thing of forgetting. The\nmemory is ever the index of the heart and the will and the\nunderstanding. You can tell the one by the other. Some things are never\nforgot. A bit embarrassing and odd this thing of forgetting what Jesus\nsays.\n\nHis _enemies_ remembered, and took special pains to head off any\nbreaking of their careful plans.[132] And even when the angels remind\nthe women of the promised appointment, and they with great joy repeat\nthe reminder to the disciples, it seems like \"_idle talk_\" and is not\naccepted. The thing couldn't be, they think.[133] Finally the evidence\nbecomes so convincing that they start off for the trysting place, \"into\nGalilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.\"[134]\n\n\n\nHow the Appointment Was Kept.\n\n\nLet us look a bit at the wonderful keeping, so unexpected, of this\nsacred tryst. It's the third day now since Jesus' death. It is in the\ndark dusk of the early morning. A little knot of women make their way\nslowly along the road leading out of the city gate. Mary Magdalene is in\nthe lead, so far ahead of the others as to be alone. They are carrying\npackages of perfumed ointments. They are thinking only of a dear dead\nbody and of clinging fragrant memories.\n\nThey are troubling themselves about how to get the big stone at the tomb\npushed aside. It was too much for their strength. As she drew near the\ntomb Mary Magdalene's love-quickened eyes notice something quite\nunexpected. The stone is moved aside! She naturally thinks some one has\ntaken the body secretly away in the night.\n\nQuickly she turns and runs back towards the city to tell Peter and John.\nAnd as quickly as they hear the startling news they are off on a smart\nrun towards the tomb. Meanwhile the other women go on into the tomb.\nThey are further startled to see a glorious looking person who assures\nthem that Jesus is living, having risen up out of death. All a-quiver\nwith fear intermingled with the first glimmering light of a great hope\nthat they hardly dare hope, they flee hastily back to town to tell the\nothers.\n\nNow Peter and John, who have been eagerly running, arrive breathless,\nwith John in the lead. Gazing reverently, intently, in through the\nopening John sees, not a body, but on the spot where the body had been\nlaid, the linen wrappings lying, held up in the shape of a body by\nNicodemus' abundant and heavy ointments just as when they held the body\nof Jesus. But clearly there is nothing in them now.\n\nNow Peter comes up, and, just like him, goes straight in, and is at once\nstruck by the arrangement of these cloths, just as John had been. Then\nthey comment on the fact that the head cloths are lying where they\nnaturally would be, a little apart from the others, the distance of the\nhead from the body.\n\nThe evidence convinces them that Jesus' spirit had indeed returned to\nHis body, and that He had risen up _through the cloths_, and gone. And\nthey start back to town in a great maze of wonder and delight.\n\nAnd now Mary Magdalene, knowing nothing of all this, comes slowly back\nabsorbed with her thoughts that the body has been secretly removed. She\nstands at the open tomb weeping. Then for the first time she stoops down\nand looks in. She is startled to see two angels left there to explain\nmatters.\n\nThey gently say \"Why weepest thou?\" Still sobbing, she says, \"They have\ntaken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.\" And\nturning aside as she speaks she sees some One standing near her. Her\ntear-misted eyes think Him the attendant in charge of the garden. Again\nthe question by this man, \"Why weepest thou?\" How strangely they talk,\nthese angels and this gardener! She makes a plea for the body.\n\nThen the one word, her name, spoken in that voice she knew so\nwell--\"_Mary_.\" Ah! there's no question about _that voice_. She needs no\nexplanation nor evidence more than this, as she cries out, \"Oh, my\nbeloved Master.\" Then He acts so like Himself; He gives her an errand to\ndo for Him. And off she goes. She has had the wondrous privilege of the\nfirst sight of Him, and the first errand for Him. The tryst has been\nkept with Mary Magdalene.\n\nAnd now the other women who had gone running down the road after\nhearing the angels' startling message are amazed to meet Jesus standing\nin the roadway in front of them. And the same quiet rich voice so gently\nand simply gives them the usual \"good-morning\" salutation. At once they\nare on their knees at His feet. And He softly says, \"Don't be afraid. Go\ntell My brethren to meet Me at the old place appointed, up by the blue\nwaters of Galilee.\" And again the tryst is kept.\n\nBut before all this, the soldiers on guard, terror-stricken by the\nearthquake that had taken place, and dazed at the sight of the \"angel of\nthe Lord\" had fled at top speed to the chief priests with their\nstartling story. Here was a wholly unexpected bothersome finish to the\nthing. But quick consultation follows. And then free use of money makes\nthe soldiers willing to tell what they know to be a lie. And so the two\nutterly different stories, the truth and the lie, get into circulation\nat once. The soldiers and the chief priests' circle have learned that\nthe appointment was kept.\n\nMeanwhile Peter has gone down the road back to town in a maze of\nconflicting emotions. John, lighter of foot, had hurried ahead, very\nlikely to tell the great news to Jesus' mother, now his own. Peter plods\nslowly along, thinking hard. It was still early morning, the air so\nstill and fragrant with the dew. Maybe down by some big trees he is\nwalking, absorbed, when all at once, _some One is by his side_. It's the\nMaster. The appointment has been kept with Peter. But we must leave\nthem alone together. Peter has some things to straighten out. That's a\nsacred interview meant only for him.\n\nThat afternoon two disciples walking out to a little village a few miles\naway are joined by a Stranger whose talk makes their hearts burn like\nthe Master's used to. And as they gather about the evening meal with\nHim, and He gives thanks and breaks the loaf, all at once their eyes\n_see_. It is _Jesus Himself_ who has been with them all the time. Again\nthe appointment is kept.\n\nAt once they hasten back to town, and are just telling the news in\njoyously broken speech to the disciples gathered in an upper room with\nlocked doors when again, all at once, Jesus appears in their midst, and\neats some bread and fish, and tells them to know by the feel that it is\nreally Himself with them. He has kept His sacred appointment with the\nTwelve. Then a week later He comes in like manner among them again for\nthe sake of one man, Thomas. So He keeps the appointment with Thomas,\nalso.\n\n\n\nOur Guarantee of His Promises.\n\n\nTwo things stand out sharply. The resurrection was not expected. It was\nthe most tremendous surprise. The news was received at first by those\nmost interested with utter stubborn unbelief. Then the evidence was so\nclear and repeated, and incontestable that these same men staked their\nlives on it. They suffered to the extreme for their witness that Jesus\nhad indeed risen.\n\nJesus rose from the dead. His body was re-inhabited by His spirit. The\nspirit didn't die. Spirits neither sleep nor die. The body died. Then\nlife came into it again. It was a real body that could eat and be\ntouched. It was recognized as the same one they had known. But it was\nchanged. The old limitations were gone. New powers had come.\n\nJesus keeps His appointments. His pledged word never fails. Not a word\nHe has spoken can ever be broken. Some day He is coming back. It is an\nappointment.[135] Then we, too, who have slipped the tether of life and\nleft our bodies temporarily in the dust, shall rise up again to meet\nHim. It is a sacred appointment He has made with us.\n\nAnd some of us who live in that day shall be changed instead of dying,\nand shall be caught up to meet Him and our own loved ones in the air.\nThat's His true tryst with us up in the blue, some day. And He will keep\nit.\n\nAnd meanwhile everything He has promised us in the Book is sure, as\nbeing His plighted word. His resurrection is our bond, our guarantee. As\nsurely as He rose on that third morning He will keep His word regarding\nevery matter to you and me.\n\nHis appointments never fail, whether of guidance, of bodily health and\nstrength, of supplies for every sort of need, of peace, of power, of\nvictory. The power that raised Jesus up from out the dead is pledged to\nus for every promise of this Book for to-day's life. He will do an act\nof creation before He will let His Word fail. He will leave no power\nunused to keep the appointment of His Word with us.\n\nLet us trust His Word to us fully. And let us _live_ our trust.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nAnother Tryst\n\n     _A Story of Fishing, of Guests at Breakfast, and of a Walk and Talk\n     by the Edge of Blue Galilee_\n\n\n\n\n     \"I come unto you.\"--_John xiv. 18._\n\n     \"Lo, I am with you all the days.\"--_Matthew xxviii. 20_.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nAnother Tryst\n\n(John xxi.)\n\n\n\nJesus Unrecognised.\n\n\nJohn's story is done. And it is well done. With the skill of a tried\njurist he has drawn up a clear full line of evidence and presented it in\na vigorous straightforward way. And he plainly states his case. His\nwhole purpose is that those who read his little book shall come into\nwarm personal touch of life with the Lord Jesus. That ties the knot on\ntight at the end of chapter twenty. John's case has gone to the jury of\nhis readers.\n\nBut now John reaches for his pen again. The guiding Spirit has put\nanother bit into his heart to write down. This time it is a special bit,\nnot for all to whom the book is sent, but for a selected class of his\nreaders, namely, for those of them who have given John a favourable\nverdict on the evidence presented. It grows out of chapter xx. 31 as\nrose out of bud, and fruit out of blossom. It is for those who \"believe\nthat Jesus is the Christ the Son of God,\" and so \"have life in His\nName.\"\n\nAnd a very tender precious bit it is, more wondrous in its sheer\nsimplicity than any of us seem to suspect. It is simply this: _this\nJesus is with us all the time_. This same Jesus who was so swayed by the\nneed of the crowd, who burned His life out day by day warmly responding\nto their sore need--_He is here._\n\nThis Jesus who fed the hungry, healed the sick of every sort, and freed\nmen from devilish power, who convicted men so tremendously of their\nwrong, restrained their evil power to hurt, wooed the hearts of all so\nirresistibly, and led them into changed lives; this Jesus who died and\nthen did the stupendously mighty thing of rising up out of death,--_this\nJesus is with us now_ by your side and mine.\n\nAnd He is just the same Jesus in His warm love and resistless power. The\n_words_ are rather familiar. The _fact_--no one of us seems to have\ngotten hold of it yet. This is the thing that makes John eagerly reach\nfor his pen again before his little book-messenger goes out on its\nerrand.\n\nThe thing isn't new in _information_, but in actual living _experience_\nit seems to be so new as to be an unknown thing to some of us. The\nMaster had spoken of this that betrayal-night around the supper board.\nIt was really a continuation of that trysting appointment He had made\nwith them that evening, a wonderful continuation.\n\nClearly they didn't understand Him that night. But during those\nafter-Pentecost days they were given a continuous graphic unforgetable\nillustration of its meaning. We to-day seem able to explain the part\nthey didn't understand, the teaching that betrayal-night. We don't seem\nto get hold of the part they did understand and experience, the real\npresence of the risen Jesus in the midst actively at work.\n\nThat night Jesus said: \"I will make request of the Father, and He will\nsend you another unfailing powerful Friend to be always at your side.\"\nThen He added: \"He abides _with_ you now (in My presence) and shall be\n_in_ you (after I send Him).\" Then He said, \"_I_ come unto you. Yet a\nlittle while and the world _seeth_ Me no more but ye _see_ Me.\"\n\nAnd again, \"He that hath My commandments and keepeth them he it is that\n(in that sheweth that he) loveth Me and ... I will _manifest_ or _shew_\nMyself unto him.\" Here is the simple teaching: He would send the Holy\nSpirit; in the Holy Spirit's coming Jesus Himself, the new risen exalted\nempowered enthroned Jesus, He came; _and_ He would let them see Himself\nwith them.\n\nNow this added chapter of John's is _the illustration in advance_ to\nthese men of what these words mean. _The great standing illustration_ is\nthat Book of Acts which, will you notice, doesn't end. It only breaks\noff, abruptly, without even a punctuation point. It wasn't meant to end.\nWe are supposed to be living in it yet. But these men haven't come to\nthe experience of the Pentecostal Acts yet. This is an illustration in\nadvance to them. And it remains an illustration to us of what we seem a\nbit slow in taking in.\n\nBut let us get at the simple bit of story itself. There's a little\ngroup of the inner circle, seven including the leaders. These men\nhaven't found their feet yet. The stupendous events of those days,\ncoming in such startling succession, have left them dazed. The\ncrucifixion left them stupidly dazed; the resurrection left them joyous,\nbut still dazed. They don't know just where they are, nor what to do.\n\nSo Peter proposes fishing; an ideal proposition, when you want to get\noff and think things through and out. Any fisherman knows that. And the\nothers readily join in. They see the good sense of it. But the fish\ndon't catch. And the morning finds them tired in body and more tired in\nthe spiritless uncertainty that hangs over them like a clinging damp\nfog.\n\nYonder is some One standing on the beach. But that's nothing unusual.\nThey barely notice Him. And now this Stranger calls out to them a cheery\ncommon question, \"Caught anything?\" And now He gives a--no, it can\nhardly be called a _command_, so quietly is it said. Yet they are subtly\nconscious of a something in the word that makes them obey, though it's\nthe last sort of thing to do.\n\nAnd now at once the net-ropes pull _so hard;_ astonishing this! Then\nJohn's keen spirit detects _Who_ it is. Is he thinking of the other big\nunexpected haul in those same waters![136] And Peter's over the side of\nthe boat shoreward. Fishing has lost all attraction for him.\n\nAnd when they all got ashore with their haul, tired, wet, chilled to\nthe marrow, hungry, what's this? A blazing fire of coals burning\ncheerfully on the sands. And some fish dexterously poised, doing to a\nbrown turn, and some bread. And the Stranger, no, _Jesus_, He's no\nlonger a stranger, Jesus says quietly, \"Boys, better bring the haul up\non the beach.\"\n\nAnd the old fishing habit still strong on them counts the fish. It's\nsuch an unusual haul, they must know how many. John must be thinking\nagain about that earlier haul. The net couldn't stand the strain then.\nBut now it's different. Ah! _every_thing's blessedly different now. \"The\nnet was not rent.\"\n\nThen the gracious call to breakfast by their Host. Was ever fish done to\nsuch a fine turn? Did ever any fish have such an exquisite flavour? or\ntaste so good? Did ever men eat so gladly and yet quietly with a\ndistinct touch of awe in their spirits? For they _know_ it is the\nMaster, though no word of that has been spoken. Words were needless.\n\nNow they're walking along the beach, Jesus and Peter in the lead but the\nothers quite near. And there's the bit of talk between the two. Very\ngently Jesus says, \"Do you love Me, Peter?\" And Peter feels he hardly\ndare use the sacred word for \"love\" that the Master has used. He had\nmade such an awful break at just that point. And with breaking voice he\nsays, \"Yea, Lord, Thou knowest I have the highest regard for Thee.\"\n\nAnd again the question, and the answer, with Peter still humbly\nclinging to his more modest word. And now Jesus says, \"Do you really\nlove Me even as you yourself say?\" And Peter with his heart in his face\nsays passionately, \"Lord, Thou knowest better than I can tell Thee.\"\n\nAnd because he loves, Peter is given the full privilege of shepherding\nthe whole flock, from feeding little lambkins on to feeding all, and\nguiding, through the hard places, even the wayward ones. And more yet\nand higher, because Peter loves, he will be privileged to suffer, even\nas his Master had suffered. The fellowship would extend even to that.\n\nAnd Peter's eye falls on John. And apparently he is thinking of the\ncontrast between John's faithfulness and his own break that\nbetrayal-night. If poor faulty Peter may be so privileged how John would\nbe rewarded. But Jesus quietly turns Peter, and all Peter's numerous\nkinsfolk of this sort, away from human comparisons. And instead He seeks\nto turn their hearts to this: He is coming back in person some day for\nan advance step in the kingdom program. And there they are, walking and\ntalking, along the beach by the blue Galilean waters.\n\n\n\nThe Same Jesus Here Now.\n\n\nAn unrecognized Stranger who turns out to be Jesus; an unusual haul of\nfish gotten in a very unusual way; a warm fire and tasty breakfast for\ncold hungry men; a tender talk about love and service and sacrifice,\nand about Jesus' return;--all this is a moving-picture illustration of\nthe meaning of a word, one word.\n\nIt is a word Jesus used in that last long quiet talk. It's the key-word\nto this added chapter, occurring three times. In the old version it is\nthe word \"_shew_\"; in the revision \"manifest.\" \"After these things Jesus\n_manifested_ Himself again ... and He _manifested_ Himself on this\nwise.\" \"This is now the third time that Jesus was _manifested_ to the\ndisciples after that He was risen from the dead.\"[137]\n\nThe word used underneath literally means \"to make manifest or _visible_\nor know, what has been hidden or unknown.\"[138] Then each time it is\nused it gets its local colouring from its connection. The simple\ntremendous meaning here clearly is this: Jesus let Himself _be seen_ and\nknown. _He did not come_. He was there.\n\nBut their eyes couldn't see Him. In effect He was hidden, not seeable.\nNow the change that comes is this: _He is seen_. And He is seen in His\ntrue native character; so certain results follow. He had said, \"I will\n_manifest_ Myself.\"[139] And this was now the third time that He did it,\nto the disciples, after that He was risen.\n\nThis is _the advance illustration of the Book of Acts_. This is the\ntremendous thing He is burning into their hearts through eyes and\nears:--_He is always present_. He, whose power they had felt so\nstupendously, and whose warm sympathy so tenderly, _He is always with\nthem_. The coming of the Holy Spirit meant just this. The Spirit would\nbe as Jesus' other self, as Jesus Himself. The one thing the Spirit\nwould do would be to manifest, to _shew openly_, the power of Jesus.\n\nThen four pictures pass before their eyes to illustrate the meaning, a\nfishing picture and a breakfast picture _in action_; then _in words_, a\nlove-service-suffering picture, and a picture of Jesus returning in\nperson seen by all to take an advance-step.\n\nThe fishing picture clearly meant this: great numbers of people,\nsurprisingly great numbers, coming, drawn not by any human skill, but by\nthe supernatural power of Jesus manifesting Himself in that way. The\nbreakfast picture meant this: that this wondrous Jesus would take tender\npersonal care of those in this blessed gathering ministry, even to their\nbodily needs and strength.\n\nAnd the love-service-suffering word-picture said so plainly this: true\nservice grows out of love. The chief thing is the loyal tender\nattachment to the person of Jesus. Then out of this will naturally come\nservice, and willingness to suffer. The touchstone won't be service but\npersonal love. The service will simply be an expression of the love.\n\nAnd the Jesus-return word-picture fills their vision with this same\nJesus coming in open glory before all eyes to carry out the kingdom\nplan. As these men learned to live always in the presence of a Jesus\nwhom their outer eyes saw not, these pictures would become living\npictures seen in open daily life.\n\nSo this is a further bit of the tryst appointment. This is the fuller\ntryst, the greater, the yet more wondrous tryst. Not only would He rise\nup out of death, and appear to them in person seen by the outer eyes,\nbut He would be with them continually manifesting Himself in rarest\npower of action, in tenderest personal care, in talking and walking with\nthem.\n\nThey would see the power plainly at work; then they would say with a\nsoft hush, \"_He_ is here.\" They would find new bodily strength, new\nguidance in perplexity, new peace in the midst of confusion, and they\nwould say to each other in awed tones, \"_He is here: it's the Master's\ntouch_.\"\n\nAnd so it would come to be a habit to _anticipate_ His presence. They\nwould figure Him in, and figure Him in big, as big as He is, in all\nsorts of circumstances and planning and meeting of difficulties.\n\nIt is most striking that John closes his Gospel so differently from the\nothers. They close with the Master rising up and disappearing on a cloud\ninto the upper blue. John closes with Jesus walking along the beach,\ntalking with the little group of trusted ones. Jesus did ascend up into\nthe blue whence He shall some day descend. But the Holy Spirit sends\nJohn back to his pen to give us this as the last picture, impressed on\nthe sensitive plate of the eyes of our heart. _This_: Jesus present with\nus all the while walking along the shore of our common round of life,\nclothed with matchless power, and devoting Himself to us as we to Him.\n\nAlong about the middle of the eighteenth century there came to England a\nyoung French-Swiss, named De la Flechere, hungry hearted for the truth.\nHe was so helped by John Wesley that he cast in his lot with the new\nMethodist movement and John Williams Fletcher became one of Wesley's\nmost faithful co-labourers. Late in life he married a woman of unusual\nmental and spiritual attainment.\n\nI ran across a simple story over there of this Mrs. John Fletcher which\ninterested and helped me much. This saintly gifted woman told of a dream\nwhich came to her with such vividness as to seem to her mature mind more\nthan a common passing vagary of sleep. In her dream she was engaged in\nan intense struggle with an evil spirit. She was having a most difficult\nfight.\n\nShe noticed some one standing a little bit to one side watching the\nfight but taking no active part in it. The fighting became so intense\nand her strength so sorely strained that she was on the point of giving\nup. Then this one came over near and touched her gently and said, \"Be\nstrong.\" Instantly a wondrous strength came to her and she held on.\n\nAgain the evil one attacked her viciously. She wondered why this helping\nfriend did not come to her assistance in the fight. Then she was moved\nto say to her enemy, \"Depart, _in Jesus' Name_.\" And instantly he fled.\nAnd she was free and victorious. That was her dream. As she awoke there\ncame to her the most real sense of the presence of her Lord.\n\nThis is only one simple illustration from life. I have run across many\nof the same, wholly different each from the other, but each emphasizing\nthe one simple tremendous fact of _the constant presence with us of this\nsame mighty Jesus_.\n\nIt is of keenest help to mark that humanly the _initiative of action_ is\nin _our_ hands. The fight is _ours_. We decide our stand. We choose, and\nwe bear the brunt or result of our choice. We step out as the need\ncomes. Prayer and a spirit of humblest dependence on Another guides our\ndecision and action. But _we_ take the action. The initiative is ours.\n\nAnd _always alongside is One standing close up_, putting all His\nlimitless power _at our disposal_, in our action. All He did in living\nand dying and rising up out of death was done _on our behalf_. And now\nall the tremendous result of His victory is at our command. All the\npower native in Him is for our use.\n\nThis is the other tryst our Lover-Lord makes with us. \"_Lo! I_ am _with\nyou_ all the days, sunny days and shadowy, bright days and dark, all the\ndays clear to the end.\" This is the sacred tryst He has made with us.\n\nAnd He _keeps_ the tryst. We may count on Him, And as we do we shall\ncast nets into hopeless waters and get a great haul. We shall find His\npresence anticipating all our personal needs. We shall rejoice to serve\nand--if so it prove to be--to suffer for the One we love with tenderest\ndevotion.\n\nAnd we shall look eagerly forward to seeing Him who is always in touch\nwith us, here and now, to seeing Him with these outer eyes of ours,\n_coming in glory_ with His resistless power, _to make some blessed\nchanges_.\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes\n\n\n\n[1] John i. 35-42.\n\n[2] i. 1-18.\n\n[3] i. 19-xii. 50.\n\n[4] Chapters xiii.-xvii.\n\n[5] Chapters xviii.-xix.\n\n[6] Chapters xx.-xxi.\n\n[7] Colossians i. 15-17.\n\n[8] Philippians ii. 6-8.\n\n[9] Ephesians i.19-23.\n\n[10] Revelation i. 13-18.\n\n[11] i. 1-18.\n\n[12] i. 19-xii. 50.\n\n[13] Chapters xiii.-xvii.\n\n[14] Chapters xviii.-xix.\n\n[15] Chapter xx.\n\n[16] Chapter xxi.\n\n[17] There are nineteen of these incidents:\n\n 1. The official deputation, i. 19-51.\n 2. Marriage in Cana, ii. 1-11.\n 3. Cleansing the Temple, ii. 13-22.\n 4. Nicodemus, iii. 1-21.\n 5. Dispute about purifying, iii. 22-36.\n 6. Samaritan woman, iv. 1-42.\n 7. Nobleman's son, iv. 46-54.\n 8. Thirty-eight years infirmity, v.\n 9. Feeding five thousand, vi. 1-15.\n10. Walking on water and discussion, vi. 16-71.\n11. At Feast of Tabernacles, vii.\n12. Accused woman, viii. 1--11.\n13. First attempt to stone, viii. 12-59.\n14. Man born blind, ix. 1-x. 21.\n15. Second stoning, x. 22-42.\n16. Lazarus, xi.\n17. Bethany Feast, xii. 1-11.\n18. Triumphal Entry, xii. 12-19.\n19. The Greeks, xii. 20-50.\n\n\n[18] iii. 32.\n\n[19] iii. 11.\n\n[20] i. 19-51.\n\n[21] ii.1-11.\n\n[22] ii. 12.\n\n[23] ii. 13-22.\n\n[24] vii. 50, 51; xix. 39.\n\n[25] ii. 23-iii. 21.\n\n[26] iii. 11, 19, 32.\n\n[27] iii. 22-36.\n\n[28] iv 1-42.\n\n[29] iv. 43-45.\n\n[30] iv. 46-54.\n\n[31] v. 1-47.\n\n[32] vi. 1-14.\n\n[33] vi. 15-71.\n\n[34] vii. 1-52.\n\n[35] viii. 1-11.\n\n[36] viii 12-59.\n\n[37] ix. l-x. 21.\n\n[38] x. 22-39.\n\n[39] x. 40-42.\n\n[40] xi. 1-53.\n\n[41] xi. 54-57.\n\n[42] xii. 1-8.\n\n[43] xii. 9-11.\n\n[44] xii. 12-19.\n\n[45] xii. 20-36.\n\n[46] xii. 37-50.\n\n[47] ii. 23.\n\n[48] iv. 45.\n\n[49] vi. 1-2, 14, 15, 34.\n\n[50] vii. 31, 40, 41.\n\n[51] viii. 30.\n\n[52] x. 20, 21.\n\n[53] x. 40-42.\n\n[54] xi. 45; xii. 9-12.\n\n[55] xii 17-18.\n\n[56] xii. 12-14.\n\n[57] xii. 42.\n\n[58] ii. 23-25\n\n[59] vi. 60-66.\n\n[60] xii. 42-43.\n\n[61] i. 35-51; ii. 1-11; iii. 13-28.\n\n[62] vi. 66-69.\n\n[63] xi. 16.\n\n[64] ii. 22; xii. 16.\n\n[65] iii. 1-21.\n\n[66] vii. 50-51 with xii. 42, 43.\n\n[67] xix. 39.\n\n[68] iv. 5-42.\n\n[69] Genesis XV. 6 with xx. 11.\n\n[70] vii. 35.\n\n[71] xii. 24-36.\n\n[72] Note the official deputation incident (chapter i.), and the\nNicodemus incident (chapter iii.).\n\n[73] i. 19-34.\n\n[74] iii. 11, 32.\n\n[75] ii. 13-20.\n\n[76] iii. 22-iv. 3.\n\n[77] iv. 44.\n\n[78] v. 16-18.\n\n[79] vi. 30-36, 41-42, 52, 60-66.\n\n[80] vii. throughout.\n\n[81] viii. 1-11.\n\n[82] viii. 12-59.\n\n[83] ix. 1-x. 21.\n\n[84] x. 22-39.\n\n[85] xi. 47-57.\n\n[86] \"Jesus had _not yet_ come,\" intimating that they were expecting Him\nin accordance with an understanding between Him and them. vi. 17.\n\n[87] Kings vi. 1-7.\n\n[88] Kings xvii. 17-24.\n\n[89] Kings xiii. 20-21.\n\n[90] Kings iv. 32-37.\n\n[91] Luke viii. 40-42, 49-56.\n\n[92] Luke vii. 11-17.\n\n[93] iii. 1-21.\n\n[94] iv. 7-42.\n\n[95] viii. 1-11.\n\n[96] ii. 13-21.\n\n[97] vii. throughout.\n\n[98] Luke iv. 30; John viii. 59; x. 39; xii. 36.\n\n[99] Mark x. 32; Luke ix. 53.\n\n[100] viii. 12-59.\n\n[101] x. 22-39.\n\n[102] xii. 12-19, 36.\n\n[103] xiii. 1-3.\n\n[104] ii. 4; vii. 6, 8, 30; viii. 20.\n\n[105] xii 23, 27; xiii. 1, 31-32; xvii. 1.\n\n[106] xiii. 4-11.\n\n[107] xiii. 12-20.\n\n[108] Philippians ii. 6-11.\n\n[109] xiii. 18.\n\n[110] xiii. 21-30.\n\n[111] The word \"glory\" with its companion \"glorify,\" is frequent in\nJohn. We shall understand better if we remember that originally the word\nhe uses means the opinion that one has of another, especially a good\nopinion. But as the word is used commonly here the underlying thought\nis, not what one thinks of another, nor yet something that one may give\nto another, but _the actual character in the one so thought of._ Glory\nis the character of goodness. So _to see one's glory_ is to see his real\ninner character, and to see that character openly recognized and\nacknowledged. So to _glorify_ means to recognize and acknowledge openly\nthe true character of one. Twice in John the word is used in the cheaper\nmeaning of outer honour among men. vii. 18; viii. 50.\n\n[112] xiii. 31-33.\n\n[113] xiii. 34-38.\n\n[114] xiv. 1-14.\n\n[115] xi. 33; xii. 27; xiii. 21.\n\n[116] xiv. 15-31.\n\n[117] xv. 1-17.\n\n[118] 18-xvi. 18.\n\n[119] xvi. 19-33.\n\n[120] xvii. throughout.\n\n[121] See footnote on \"glory.\"\n\n[122] xii. 36.\n\n[123] Matthew xxvii. 32 and parallels.\n\n[124] xix. 28.\n\n[125] x. 17-18.\n\n[126] viii. 31-32, 34-36.\n\n[127] xii. 32.\n\n[128] Some references for this whole paragraph,--viii. 44; xii. 31;\nxiii. 2, 27; xiv. 30; xvi. 11.\n\n[129] x. 16; xii. 32; xvii. 20.\n\n[130] Matthew xvi. 21; xvii. 9, 23; xx. 19; Mark viii. 31; ix. 31; x.\n34; Luke ix. 22; xviii. 33.\n\n[131] xvi. 16.\n\n[132] Matthew xxvii. 63.\n\n[133] Mark xvi. 6-7; Luke xxiv. 6-11.\n\n[134] Matthew xxviii. 16.\n\n[135] John xiv. 3, and others.\n\n[136] Luke v. 1-11.\n\n[137] xxi. 1, 14.\n\n[138] So Thayer.\n\n[139] xiv. 21, 1. c.","title":"Quiet Talks on John's Gospel","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":61117}